The buzz of the speeders rattled Rex's brain, making his entire head hurt. But he pushed through the pain and tightened his grip on the steering handle. It felt like they had been on these speeders forever, and all Rex could make out was sand. Everything looked the same. If they were going around in circles Rex would have no idea. The morning sun was peeking over a nearby sand dune, shining more light on the crew.

When Rex actually took the time to look around he noticed how exhausted everyone was. The pirates were scrubbing at their eyes and stifling yawns. Rex himself felt his eyes start to get droopy. But he had to keep going. He checked the timer, a half hour remained. Suddenly a sharp click sounded in his helmet followed by the sickening voice of the pirate leader.

"Tik tok Rex" Hondo purred, "If you're not here soon you might not get to see your Jedi friend ever again"

Rex gritted his teeth and pushed the speeder faster, spewing sand out behind it. There was a crackling sound, then a picture of Ahsoka appeared in Rex's helmet. Her body was bruised and beaten, small cuts covered her face and her lekku was torn in some places. Her eyes were barely open and she was curled up into a little ball in the corner of her cell. Rex squeezed his eyes shut, begging this to only be a bad dream. But when he opened his eyes her broken, mangled, body was still in front of him.

A pirate strolled over to her cage and dug a knife deeply into her thigh. She screamed in horror, thrashing around and only making the cut worse. The pirate slowly pulled the sizzling dagger out of her thigh, the blood oozing out of the gash. Ahsoka clenched her teeth and clutched her bloody thigh, frantically trying to help her case. Then as soon as it appeared, the picture was gone.

Rex focused back on following the speeder in front of him, then out of nowhere slammed his fist of the handle. The Twi'lek man sent him a sympathetic look before Rex just roared, enraged by the whole situation.

Gersaka, who was on the speeder close beside him, noticed his anger.

"Are you alright?" he asked, practically shouting over the wind.

Rex nodded, "I'm fine"

"Well you clearly aren't" Gersaka said, making a smart remark.

"You really wanna know why I saved you guys?" Rex snarled, glaring daggers behind his helmet at Gersaka.

Gersaka shrugged.

"Your leader, Hondo, captured me and my friend by surprise while we were resting. He took us here as prisoners and forced me to rescue you guys, threatening to kill my friend if I didn't succeed" Rex growled, "And now that I'm cutting it close he's hurting her, torturing her"

Gersaka suddenly became very quiet, all the pirates did, even the Twi'lek man.

"I-I'm so sorry" Gersaka muttered, "I had no idea"

"Yeah so now you know" Rex snapped.

"So you're close to this friend?" Gersaka pressed, clearly too curious for his own good.

"Yeah we've been friends since we were both young" Rex explained.

"She must be pretty great for you to go through all of this for her" Gersaka pointed out.

"Yeah" Rex started, "She is"

The tents and speeder bikes came into view and the pirates let out triumphant whoops and cheers. Rex checked the timer, five minutes. They were gonna make it. As they got closer Rex could see Hondo standing with a crowd, waiting for his arrival. When he saw the other pirates, a nasty smile formed on his face. Rex parked the speeder next to where all the other speeders were and hopped off quickly. The other pirates and Twi'lek followed close behind him.

"I did it" Rex snarled, taking off his helmet, "Now let her go"

Hondo chuckled, "May I remind you that you still have two more tasks to complete"

Rex balled his fist.

"But for now..." Hondo said, then snapped.

Two Weequays came forward carrying a limp Ahsoka in their arms.

"Ahsoka!" Rex cried running to her.

They dropped her and she was so weak she couldn't stand, so she crashed to the ground with a long groan. Rex rushed to help her and picked her up, holding the togruta tightly in his arms, bridal style. His brow was furrowed as he examined her wounds and hoped she would be alright. Her eyes fluttered open then she smiled weakly as she saw who was holding her.

"Rex" she breathed.

"Shh save your strength, I'm here" he comforted her, just happy she was alive.

Suddenly there was a ruckus and Sorgon pushed through the crowd shouting his brother's name.

"Gersaka!" he cried.

"Sorgon?" Gersaka gasped in disbelief.

They both ran to each other and embraced in one tight hug. Sorgon didn't let anyone see, but he was crying. He hugged his brother so tight Gersaka thought he might burst. But he didn't care, all he wanted to do was just stay with his brother forever. When they parted, Sorgon walked up to Rex, Gersaka following next to him.

"Thank you" he said, with a genuine smile.

Rex nodded, "You're welcome"

"Now go get some sleep!" Hondo demanded, "You'll need it for tomorrow"

Pirates surrounded Rex on either side and once again led him to his cell. They quickly shut the door and Rex laid Ahsoka down, tossing his helmet to the ground. He ran a hand over his short, blonde, hair before scooting closer to her.

He got right to work, pulling out a needle and string and starting to stitch up the gash on Ahsoka's thigh. She flinched and cried out in agony, making Rex feel terrible.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked, head hung low.

Ahsoka shook her head, "No it's fine"

"Are you sure?" he asked, still concerned for her.

She hummed in reply.

Rex went back to work, carefully trying his best to do it in the least painful way possible. Ahsoka's thigh burned, the pain so horrible she felt as if she was going to pass out. She bit her lip so hard she eventually tasted blood, but it still helped the pain. Even though it was immensely painful, this was going to help her. She knew it.

Rex finally finished her thigh and put some bacta spray on it. He carried that stuff wherever he went. He started to spray Ahsoka's smaller cuts and bruises, the cool mist calming her. She stopped squirming and just tensed up when she felt the spray come in contact with her skin.

Rex wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and admired his handiwork. Ahsoka's eyes were closed now and looked just exhausted as Rex was. He carefully wrapped his arms around her, minding her wounds. He pulled her close to him and closed his eyes himself.

"You did it" Ahsoka rasped, "How?"

Rex shifted, "Long story. I would never let them take you away from me"

Ahsoka let a small creep onto her face and a warm feeling numbed some of the ache.

"I love you Rexter" she whispered.

"I love you too Soka" he whispered back, gently rubbing her shoulder in a soothing motion.

Then just like that they fell asleep. Oblivious to the horrors of tomorrow. The next challenge would test them even more, and they didn't even know it.