Dar'solus [Captain Rex x reader]

Chapter 24 - Love's curse of separation

Me, Cody and the other half of the group trekked along towards the location where the village hostages were. We didn't expect to meet any resistance since the strat-droid probably had calculated that we would bring the fight to them since they had taken hostages. We weren't far off now and so far we hadn't even seen a probe droid that could alert them that we were on our way. Both me and Cody had already agreed on how quiet it was the closer we got. He had been leading the group from in front of me when he slowed his pace and fell back to my left side. He was now positioned in between a broken house on his left and me on his right. I could hear faint, controlled breathing from his modulator as he whispered,

"We're almost at our mark, just have to round that corner and-"

"SNIPER!"

I had seen the sniper glint aimed at Cody's chest at the last minute and threw myself at him as the blast went off. We landed on the ground in a harsh thud before scurrying off inside the broken building to our left for cover. I felt a pain in my right side but ignored it as I had probably hit Cody's rock-solid armour when I threw us down on the ground. Glancing over at Cody I asked over the sound of blaster fire,

"Are you okay?!"

he aimed his helmet-covered head at me and gave me a court nod,

"Yeah, you?!"

I nodded in confirmation as well just as the sound of repeating blasters stopped. We peaked out from the cover of a broken wall to see the boys behind various covers with blasters aimed at where the sniper had been. Cody brought his arm up and asked through the comm,

"Status report!"

"All clear, sir! There was only a single sniper from what we could see."

"Affirmative. I'm at the snipers position and there is no one else around."

it was two different troopers that answered the comm. I glanced over at Cody and asked with a smirk,

"Are we even now after our disagreement?"

he let out a short laugh and nodded,

"Yeah, yeah we are."

both of us carefully peaked around the cover to make sure there was nothing else before stepping out and regrouping with the others. We continued on our path and after rounding the last corner like we should have done earlier if it wasn't for the surprise sniper, we were at our position. I found a good vantage point on the mountain wall to my left and gave the others a 'good luck' before jogging off to climb up it. As a nice welcome, the climb wasn't difficult and I was crawling on my stomach and elbows to the edge faster than I thought I would. Steadying myself and the sniper rifle on the cliff as I laid down on my stomach I could see the Separatists camp perfectly ahead of me. Everything looked almost exactly as it did when I was surveying the area earlier today. A few droids had switched places, but other than that it was like they had paused and awaited our arrival. I scanned over the area quickly before activating my comm and speaking quietly,

"This is (Y/N), I'm in position."

there was a silent beat before there came a reply from Cody and then Obi-Wan following up,

"Commander Cody, in position and ready."

"Good. (Y/N), you may start the music."

smiling like a predator about to attack I scoped in on the first spider droid's eye,

"Sir, yes, sir."

not even a second after my reply I pulled the trigger and blasted the droid's eye. As expected, it was knocked over from the impact and the balancing malfunctioned, revealing its underbelly. Working effectively I sniped the two other ones eyes as havoc erupted down below amongst the other droids. After downing all three of the spider droids I reached to my back for the explosive charges to attach to the sniper when a sharp pain erupted on my right side. Pausing for a few seconds to take a painful breath I scolded my own body. This is so not the time to start developing a bruise! Reaching to my back again and ignoring the pain I got the charges and attached them to my sniper rifle. Making quick work of it, I fired the explosives at the spider droids and hit them in the underbelly perfectly. As expected from the best. Smiling to myself at my own cockiness I switched back to normal blaster fire and decided to help the boys on the ground out with finishing off some more droids that got dangerously close to hostages or to the troopers. I saw through my scope how Obi-Wan was ushering the hostages down to the tunnels for cover and kept a close eye on their surroundings so no droids got too close. As I kept my eye in the scope I had to blink more often than usual so my vision wouldn't blur. For some reason I was starting to struggle to keep my focus. After a minute, everyone was in the tunnels and away from the fight. Just as I went to start aiming away at some other droids I caught a flash movement. It looked like a shadow flashing by. A shadow called Numa. Where is she going?! She was running away from the safety of the tunnels and towards the heart of the fight. I followed her with the sniper and blasted two droids that were heading towards her after she ran past them. Then I saw the reason why she insisted on running to the fight. Waxer was slowly getting backed inside a corner by a few droids. Clever girl. Numa was still a bit away from them as I decided to lessen the risk of the droids hurting her when she got to them. I blasted three of them that were backing Waxer into a corner. But when Waxer saw the gap I made in the droids advancing towards him, he ducked out from the corner and started backing away in the opposite way from them. He hadn't seen Numa running to help him. So after blasting what he thought was the last droid, he turned and ran to help Boil much further away, leaving Numa all alone. But there was still a droid left, and it had caught Numa in its sights. As I went to pull the trigger on it, Numa ran away towards the street me and Cody had come from, out of my sight. The droid was quick to follow and both disappeared from my point of view. I slammed my fist on the ground and bounced up from my position to run back down to help her. But as I had gotten up I stumbled a few steps and had to stop so I wouldn't fall over my own feet. The pain in my side had grown and flared up like a bright fire when I stood up. My head spun like a star ship out of control before I steadied it with my hand against the side of it. I don't think it's just a bruise anymore. Not caring enough for my own well-being at the moment I inhaled carefully before setting off down the mountain to kill that blasted droid that was after Numa. I stumbled a few times and my body was screaming at me to stop, but I couldn't. Not when someone was in danger. Especially a little girl that trusted me. I couldn't let her die. I wouldn't let her die. Pushing on, I made it to the street where we had come from before all of Mustafar's volcanoes erupted into the ongoing fight. Searching around frantically after Numa I heard the familiar metallic clank of the droid marching on the solid rock ground. I hurried towards the sound and tried to focus my senses on where exactly they were. I heard a scream from a house that was mostly intact still, a bit further down. NO! My heartbeat quickened and tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I rushed to the house and kicked down the door that flew off with ease. Inside I saw Numa cowering against a wall and the droid pushing down the trigger. Another scream pierced through the air along with the sound of a blaster. A metallic thud followed as the droid collapsed on the floor with smoke wafting peacefully into the air from the blaster hole in its back. The droid had fired its blaster a millisecond after me, but because my blaster bolt hit it as it fired, it had narrowly missed Numas' shaking figure on the floor and hit the wall next to her. I heaved air into my lungs as I closed my eyes for a second to calm down from the fear of being too slow to save her. As I drew a heavy breath though, the pain shot through my side again more forcefully. I had to use all my power to refrain from crumbling to the floor from it. Snapping my eyes open to Numa, I carefully approached her whilst speaking in Ryl to sooth her. I hadn't even made it all the way over to her before she jumped up from the floor and rushed over to me. I bent down and caught her in my arms as she clung hers around my neck. As I went to stand up with her in my arms I bit my tongue to not let out a groan of pain from the effort. I swayed from the dizziness the pain caused and settled Numa on my left hip to not strain the pain even further. I rubbed her back and whispered words to her to let her know that she was safe with me. Stepping out of the house I immediately noticed that there were no sounds of blaster fire anymore. They must be done with the remaining droids then. My comlink beeped and Cody's voice came through when I answered it,

"(Y/N), status report."

"I'm down by the mark where we split, I've got Numa with me."

"Copy that. Make your way here to regroup, we're done here."

I cut the comm as I didn't bother to answer it. Numa had calmed down a bit, but she kept her arms around my neck and head against my chest to hide from the outside world. I started making my way over to where the others were at a slow pace. Every step I took caused a bolt of pain to shoot from my right side to the rest of my upper body. My knees were growing weaker and wanted so badly to give out so I could collapse to the ground and rest. Eyes agreeing with the need for rest as they weighed heavy. Must. Keep. Going. For Numa. After fighting the Separatist droids, I was now left to fight my own body from collapsing in like the abandoned houses in the village around me. Slugging on to the location of the fight I started to drag my feet with each step. The effort from carrying myself was alone enough to make me want to drop down on the ground. But with the added weight of Numa on my hip it was even more difficult. I kept going, supported only by my mental mantra; For Numa. Keep going. For Numa. Keep going. I made it to the entry of the location where the big fight had been. There were fallen battle droids everywhere and unfortunately a handful of clone troopers as well. I took half a breath as the pain in my side tore me apart with its claws and straightened my back as I made my way over to Obi-Wan, Cody, Luroon, Boil and Waxer. I gently tapped Numas shoulder with my finger so she would look up. Her tired eyes met mine as I gathered my quickly depleting energy into a warm smile for her. We were now with the others as I nodded my head towards Waxer. She looked over and her face lit up in joy as she exclaimed,

"Nerra!"

Obi-Wan smiled at her nickname for Waxer as I set her down on the ground. As she raced over to hug him I stood back up with a grunt. My, now free right hand, flew to my right side where the pain was still growing. Carefully placing it against the black fabric of my shirt I felt something sticky immediately coat my palm and fingers. Definitely not a bruise. I heard someone call my name and as I looked around at who it was I noticed them all eyeing me suspiciously. I met the eyes of Cody who had his brows drawn together,

"(Y/N)? You look pale, is everything alright?"

I gave him a weak smile and inhaled to answer when the pain in my side exploded. I winced and ducked my head. Cody stepped up to me as Obi-Wan asked again with strong worry coating his voice,

"(Y/N)! What's wrong?"

I looked down at my hand and saw it was painted with fresh dark blood that belonged to me. Raising my eyes to meet his I weakly showed them my hand by my side and could only mumble a few weak words as my head spun like a tornado,

"I-I'm sorry..."

the last thing I saw as I started falling to the ground was Obi-Wan running the few steps to catch me as someone called out my name one last time before everything fell into total, numbing darkness.

~*~

Oh my god... I actually did it. I graduated from school. This is insane and very, very scary. I have no clue on what to do or where to start. I've even had a few sleepless nights were I couldn't stop worrying about the future. One thing I know for certain is that I want to keep writig this story, even if it takes a while for me to update it. I love writing it and then reading your comments that you leave on it! It's the best to see those notifications!

I hope that you all are doing well and staying safe. There is a lot happening out in the world right now and it can be scary sometimes (or a lot of the time). Heck, I don't read the news or listen to the radio anymore because it's so depressing. So I want you to remember that it is okay to stop listening to the radio or not actively read the news. Because if it affects your mental health (making you stressed, anxious or even depressed) then it is not something you should keep putting yourself through. A healthy person will not drink from a cup of poison. Therefore, you shouldn't do something that makes you feel bad or affects your mental health. Please remember that. 

I love all of you and I'll see you in the next update! (whenever that is lol)

Love, the Author <3