The Edge of the Universe

X

Anakin's POV

"Get down!" I shouted.

More gunships and gas bombs rained down on the clearing and the clones scrambled away, the gunships landed and droids came out shooting red lasers.

"Run into the forest," I commanded Rex and the other clones around me.

They did as I said and I held my breath as I stumbled blindly through the thick dark green gas trying to find any more clones. I found a few and told them the same instructions but the gas was starting to get to me and I couldn't find any more clones, I did one final sweep before running into the forest after the clones. The bushes and plants on the ground tried to trip me up just I jumped over them, the muddy ground slipped from underneath me a little bit I managed to keep my balance. The rain was getting heavier and the mud was turning into water but I splashed my way after the clone without looking back. I caught up to the clones and then I finally looked back to see we weren't being followed, I let out a sigh of relief and slowed down to a walk. I didn't have many clones with me which was a problem but for now, we just had to get as far away from the clearing as possible.

Night had fallen and the rain had stopped but the ground was still slippery.

"General, where are we going exactly?" Rex asked.

"I don't know exactly but we need to find Obi-wan and the others," I replied.

"Uh, some of the men are injured. Don't you think we should regroup and come up with a plan and rest for the night?" Rex suggested.

I stopped and sighed before nodding.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Sorry, let's just rest here," I said.

Rex nodded and told the others, I heard sighs of relief and a small pile of guilt welled up in me for not thinking of that first. I distracted myself by starting a small fire with one of the clones torches that were in their helmets before sitting against a tree. 

"You can all take your helmets off if you want," I said.

They all did and some of the clones were already in conversation. I counted everyone and sighed, there were only 18 clones here and only 4 of them were from the 212th and that included Cody. 

"Who's injured?" I asked the group.

Heavy, Fives and Echo pointed to Cutup who glared at them all. Coric and I went over to Cutup and Rex told us that he has something wrong with his knee, Coric took his armour off and rolled up the pant leg to inspect it.

"It's dislocated, I'll have to reset it right now," Coric explained.

He looked at Cutup with worry in his eyes.

"It's going to hurt a lot right now and afterwards," he said.

"Just do it," Cutup grimaced.

"You can squeeze my hand as tight as you want," I said.

Cutup grabbed my hand in both of his and prepared himself as Coric had two hands on his knees, Heavy placed a hand over Cutup's mouth in case someone else heard the scream. Cutup nodded once and Coric jolted his knee back into place, Cutup crushed my hand but his scream came out muffled behind Heavy's hand. I regretted not using my bionic hand but I didn't let any pain show on my face because I knew that Cutup's pain was nothing compared to mine. 

"I need a t-shirt or anything to wrap around his knee to keep it in place," Coric said.

Cutup finally let go of my hand and I pulled off my cloak and gave it to Coric who wrapped it around Cutup's knee, he grabbed my hand again squeezing it tightly, his face was scrunched up in pain but Coric had finished and Cutup slowly relaxed.