Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

54

Anakin opened the door before Rex even knocked. His face was pale and haggard, his eyes blackened and sunk deep behind tired eyelids. Rex was instantly on guard. 

"Sir?" Anakin din't say a word, instead opting to grab him the the arm and drag him into the room. Anakin slammed the door shut and slid down it with a sigh. 

"Caedus is getting to me again." The jedi said after a long moment. Rex inhaled sharply. 

"And Mundi hasn't noticed? It's only been a couple weeks; is it getting worse?" He said anxiously. Anakin shook his head, running his hands through his mane of hair until it hung in a tangled mess in front of his eyes. 

"Mundi can't see beyond the edge of his nose. On the other hand, we've just received word that master Windu will be joining us on anaxes. He'll notice that I'm not myself in an instant." Anakin sighed. "I just... keep watch, please." He pleaded. Rex nodded. 

"Give me a second, sir." He left the room for a couple seconds to dash to one of the mess tents near by to snag a water bottle and ration bar before racing back to the general's rooms. Anakin was sitting in the middle of the room now, legs crossed in a vain attempt to meditate until Rex got back. 

Rex put the food and water on the small desk in the room before sitting in front of the door. Anakin looked at him quizzically, but Rex just shook his head. 

"You'll thank me later, General." He said earnestly. Anakin nodded before closing his eyes. Rex shivered in the wake of the current of pure power that was tearing through the room. Curious, he also stretched out gingerly. The force was alternating between burning hot and icy cold, moving so fast that Rex experienced motion sickness for the first time as lunch tried to make a reappearance. He let go of the force, sternly reminding himself to keep watch. 

Anakin's eyelids were fluttering and he was trembling faintly. He mumbled some odd words under his breath, like he was arguing with himself. In a way, he was. The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees as Anakin flinched away from something, then jerking as if he had been struck across the face. 

His eyes snapped open for a few seconds, revealing bleeding yellow irises before he blinked and they were back to a fearful blue. 

They were barely ten minutes in, and this was already seeming so much worse than the last one. Small objects across the room rattled against whatever surface they had been resting on before coming to hover several inches in the air. Anakin's trembling was quickly looking more like full on seizure by the minute.

 Fear and hatred radiated off of him in waves. Rex reached out carefully with the force and tightened the threads around the room. It was something he'd only done a handful of times, and he didn't think it would work at first as he created a bubble in an attempt to shield anybody who might be able to sense what was going on in this room.

The objects that had been floating were now being joined by larger objects and moving in a circular motion around Anakin in a mini cyclone of objects. Anakin's hands spasmed by his sides as the amount of power in the room seemed to double. Rex's head began to pound with the proximity of the currents and not tapping into them. He gritted his teeth and focused on keeping the bubble around them intact. 

Just as it seemed to reach a boiling point everything stopped, falling to the ground. Anakin's eyes snapped open, brilliant yellow, and the air around Rex's neck seemed to tighten. He gasped at the sudden lack of air and dropped the shielding in surprise to pry at the invisible fingers around his neck. 

Rex was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall behind him. His head hit the wall with a sharp sound that made his vision fuzz at the edges. He wheezed and fumbled at his belt, remembering his orders to stun his friend if he lost control of the monster he had opened his mind to. 

Instead, he grabbed his lightsaber. Instead of igniting it, he used it's natural connection to the force as a conduit to draw power from as his vision started to go black. He felt for the cold power at his throat and grabbed at it, tearing and shaking at it like a dog until it came loose. He dropped to the floor and gasped, rubbing at his neck as he pulled at the cold around him, pulling it away from Anakin. 

Things seemed to happen in slow motion. The sickly yellow of the darkside left Anakin's eyes as said eyes rolled up into the back of his head. He slumped to the floor, collapsing. The door burst open behind Rex and Echo stumbled in, an IV rack trailing behind him and his backside exposed to air in the flimsy hospital gown he still wore. 

Rex was getting to his knees as Kix ran in behind Echo, yelling at him. Rex stood and looked at Echo, who had a wild look in his eyes. 

"Rex, Rex the general he... it was so, so cold and there was pain and screaming..." Echo panted, the words tumbling out nonsensically as he leaned against the door, paler than seemed possible and shaking like a leaf.

"Echo, you're not fully recovered! You need to get back to the medbay, now, before you break something or cut something open on the inside." Kix chastised his face ashen as he lifted Echo's arm to feel along a thin bacta patch and the area around it. The medic glanced at the general, who was now coming too. "Rex, whatever happened here is no business of Echo's. Please help me get him back so I can look at the general."

Rex looked at Echo, who was still trembling from what he had felt somehow. He put a hand on Echo's shoulder. "Echo, listen to Kix." He said softly, flicking his wrist behind him to carefully levitate the canteen of water that he had grabbed ahead of time to his general behind his back. "I'll be there in a minute to explain, but we can't have you hurting yourself."

He sighed and whirled around to face Anakin, who was making a half hearted attempt to sit up. His frustrated words died on his lips. He knelt and slipped an arm around his general to help him to the cott against the wall. Kix was leading Echo away, still scolding him for giving him a heart attack by 'coming back from the sleep of the drugged to streak across half the complex with his shebs hanging out for target practice without warning.' 

Rex shut the door and turned to glare at the jedi. Anakin met his gaze wearily as Rex stopped the timer on his wrist comm with a glance. "Forty five minutes." He said softly, surveying the mess of the room. He sighed and shook his head while taking the water canteen from his general and setting it up by his head. He gently pushed Anakin down so he was sprawled on the bed. "Respectfully, sir, we're getting you help as soon as possible."

"Rex-"

"Nuh-uh. Don't 'Rex' me." Rex growled menacingly. "We have a small break between Yerbana and where ever they send us after that. You are going back to the temple and getting help." Rex declared stoically. Anakin closed his eyes. 

"You're stubborn. Has everybody ever told you that?" He whined. Rex just shook his head and tossed a blanket over his general before picking his way to the door through the debris that littered the ground. 

"Most of the people I meet."