She almost missed it, over the sound of the clones screaming and explosion after explosion on the battlefield. Ahsoka ducked, dodging droid shrapnel, and wincing as she watched it decapitate a nearby trooper. She almost missed it, the warning, the cry in the force, that something was wrong.
She watched as ahead of her, Anakin turned around, a look of determination on his face- having put together what was going to happen a second before she had, and yelled in shock as he pushed them all back. She landed roughly on her side and rolled a few more meters before coming to a stop. Ahsoka sat up in a daze, when she felt another hand press her back down to the cold, wet ground of the planet they were on.
"Stay down, kid!" Rex shouted as explosions rang overhead. She squirmed and struggled against his grip, her mind only on one thing.
Anakin.
"Rex! Rex, we have to go, we have to go get- "Ahsoka yelled, struggling against his grip."
"I know kid, I know!" He yelled back over the explosions. "But it's not safe if we go back, we'll get blown to bits!"
"No!" Ahsoka screamed over blaster fire, rolling out of his grip. "We have to save him, we have to do something, anything!" Panic began to seep into her voice, and into her heart as she surveyed the scene in front of her. Before, where she stood with her master in front of her was nothing more than a scorch mark on the ground they stood on. Bodies were strewn about, some missing heads or other limbs. Ahsoka could hear the screams, feel the suffering of the troops.
But there was nothing she could do.
She had to find her master.
She ran forward, ducking as pieces of metal and blaster fire continued to fly past her, making it to the last location where she saw Anakin before the explosion went off.
"Master Skywalker!" She called out, desperate for a response. "Master!" She yelled again. She heard a muffled yell from a large pile of rocks and rubble and ran over.
"Master!" She yelled again.
"I'm here, Snips!" She heard Anakin's voice reply.
"General!" Rex called out after catching up to Ahsoka. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, but I think I'm stuck." Anakin said after a moment of silence. Ahsoka bit her lip- if he was admitting that something was wrong… then he certainly was not fine.
"Rex, we have to get him out of there, now." Ahsoka said, looking up at him.
"I know kid, I know." He raised his arm up and ordered the rest of the Torrent Company over.
"Alright men, we won't have that much time. Nightfall is coming, and this planet is known to drop to subzero temperatures when that happens."
"Not like it was warm and pleasant to begin with." A trooper muttered. Rex ignored him and continued.
"We have to get General Skywalker out of the debris as soon as we can, before hypothermia sets in." Kix remarked. "Not to mention treating any other injuries that he may have."
"Right." Ahsoka said. She faltered for a moment. "But what about the rest of the ground assault?"
"We… we should inform Master Kenobi about what's happened and let the 212th take over from here." Ahsoka said after pausing for a moment. "And we should focus on getting Master Skywalker out of there." She leaned back over to the pile of rubble.
"You hear that, Master? We're coming to get you right now!" She called out to him. She heard a response, but it wasn't as clear as it was before- definitely not a good sign.
"Right well… how are we gonna get him out of there?" Rex questioned.
"I can lift some of the rocks, and the rest of you all can go in and see what you can move with grappling hooks." Ahsoka suggested. Rex nodded.
"Sir, General Kenobi said that he is on his way." Echo said.
"Wait, I thought General Kenobi was with the 212th?" Rex asked.
"He is- or he was. I'm sure the news about Skywalker is what's caused him to come over here and help us out." Ahsoka bit her lip- if Master Kenobi was leaving his own men behind to make sure that her Master was alright well then… things did not look good.
She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself in the force, reaching out, and feeling her master's presence. Locking on to it. Trying to find a path that would lead her to him. Around them, several rocks rose into the air, as she began to clear a path for her men to follow. But the rocks were heavy, and it grew harder and harder to concentrate, to focus on one thing over the roar, the screams, of the battlefield.
The rocks fell back to the ground, and Ahsoka opened her eyes, blinking back tears as she tried not to give in to her anger at her failure.
"It would appear that you need some help with that, young one." Obi-Wan said as he approached her from a gunship that had landed in the distance.
"Master Kenobi!" Ahsoka said, relieved to see him. He nodded in return, his face tense, but she could tell that he was trying to hide it from the men.
"Anakin?" He called out to the pile of rubble. A muffled response was what they got again, but this time his voice was even weaker than the last.
"We have to hurry, the sun will set within the next 30 minutes, and then the temperature will drop to the point where it will become dangerous." Obi-Wan said. He raised his arms up, just like how Ahsoka had earlier, and closed his eyes.
"Focus on his presence, Ahsoka. Through your bond, reach out to Anakin and lock down his location." She raised her arms again and tried, searching for her master. Trying to not let her worry get the better of her when she realized that his presence was growing fainter and fainter.
"Focus, Ahsoka." Obi-Wan said through gritted teeth. She bit her lip and focused, as hard as she could on Anakin. Again, the rocks began to wiggle and move, clearing a path for the troopers to make their way down with their climbing gear.
Her arms shook with the strain of holding the rocks so high for so long, but she pushed her body as hard as she could- the rescue operation would be useless if she ended up dropping them and trapping even more people beneath the now frozen rubble.
"We've got him!" She heard Rex call out. She heard the other men cheer and rush over to help them out of the rubble, and finally, she opened her eyes.
The rocks dropped to the ground, and there in front of her was her master. His face was pale, and there was blood running down his face, on his tunic, and spreading out through the fabric.
"Master!" Ahsoka called out as she rushed forward, helping the troopers lay him down. Obi-Wan was at her side as well, seconds later, as they hovered over Anakin, whose gaze was dazed and confused.
"Anakin, can you hear us?" Obi-Wan asked. He blinked slowly and then his eyes locked onto his former master.
"What… are you doing over here?" He asked, his voice strained.
"That doesn't matter right now." Obi-Wan said quickly. He looked over at Kix, who was bringing over a medical kit.
"Sir, we are going to have to perform a field operation. General Skywalker isn't stable enough to move right now, not with all of the blood that he's lost." He began. "We also don't know if there could be any internal bleeding or not as well." Kix added on.
Obi-Wan stroked his beard. "Do what you must." He replied. They watched as Kix got to work and tried his best to talk Anakin through what he was going to be doing. Obi-Wan removed his cloak and wrapped it around Anakin, the movements causing him to cry out in pain. But it didn't seem to help with the shivering, which was now so intense that they could hear his teeth chattering over the sounds of the wind and the war in the distance.
"Okay Sir, this is going to hurt, so just bear with us." Kix said, and a moment later, Anakin screamed so loudly that Obi-Wan covered his mouth with his hand, not wanting to give their position away in the night. Ahsoka gulped and tried not to think about how that was the first time she had ever heard him cry out like that- or how he couldn't seem to stop shaking, or how he kept losing blood. She tried to focus on the positives. Anakin was there with them now, and they were going to get him back to the ship and they were all going to be alright, like how they always were.
At this point of whatever Kix was doing, Anakin had become pretty much unresponsive, despite many attempts from Rex and Obi-Wan to get him to respond to simple questions. His eyes were fluttering, and he was fading in and out of consciousness, but Ahsoka wasn't sure if it was due to the cold or due to the pain.
Kix stood back up and closed the medical kit. "That's all I can do for now. We're going to have to carry him somewhere were the gunships can reach us."
"The closest gunship is the one I came on, and it's not that far over. I will carry Anakin." Obi-Wan said as he gently leaned over and hoisted Anakin up in his arms. His head lolled back, and his arm drooped towards the ground.
"Sir, are you sure you can manage on your own?" Rex asked. Obi-Wan nodded.
"The ship is not far, and Anakin is not as heavy as he looks." Obi-Wan muttered as he began to walk towards the ship. Ahsoka followed behind him, watching as her breath formed into a little cloud with each exhale. She looked up and watched as the sky began to light up with stars that were so bright that they didn't need to use a light to see their way. She recalled learning at some point that stars were easier to see during cold weather, but she never really paid attention to that now. By looking though, she could tell that they were somewhere close to the core, and she watched as the galactic core rose of the horizon of the planet, it's starlight so bright that it casted shadows. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, feeling the cold air enter her body, and center her in a strange way. Bringing her back to the present, and away from the horizon.
Ahead, she could see the gunship, and its shadow from the starlight. The group had a new sense of energy and purpose, once they saw it, and picked up their pace. Their boots crunched against the frozen ground, the ice reflecting the light from the galaxy back up at the sky.
"We need to get to the Resolute, now." Obi-Wan said as they entered the ship. Ahsoka looked down at her master, who now was completely still, instead of shivering like how he had been earlier.
And she was pretty sure that was not a good sign.
"Well, Anakin, you've done it again." Obi-Wan said as he walked into the medical bay. Ahsoka turned around as he entered and watched as Master Kenobi sat down next to her.
"Did what?" Anakin whispered; the words slurred together as the effects of being in a bacta tank for 48 hours wore off.
"Managed to survive the impossible." Obi-Wan said with a huff. "With the amount of blood you lost combined with the prolonged exposure to the cold, most people would have died, or at least had lasting side effects."
Anakin shrugged. "It was luck." He grinned, and Ahsoka felt herself smile as well.
"There is no such thing as luck." Obi-Wan retorted. Anakin rolled his eyes and looked at Ahsoka.
"It was luck." He said to her.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said, exasperated.