Blood. It's such a simple thing. When seen by the average eye, it appears in its small crimson-red form. A single drop causes no concern. But when one becomes three, three becomes five. And soon, you find yourself basking in the once-simple idealization.
Jacie Eldar was a born-fighter. It was in her blood. Mandalorians are known to be resilient, brave, and aggressive, some might even go as far as bloodthirsty. It was one of the reasons the Order hesitated to bring Jace back to the temple. They had cautioned that she was a risk and could be unpredictable. Yet it was her Master’s sympathy that got her to Coruscant, to the temple, to her family, and to where she is now.
Which is on an active battlefield.
At thirteen, Jace became the Commander of the 104th battalion of the GAR. At the same time, she became Master Kenobi’s Padawan. War has always come naturally to Jace. She had a strategic mind and firey spirit usually found in a common soldier.
Only….Jace wasn’t supposed to be a soldier.
She didn’t want to be. But ultimately, she had no choice in the matter. Jace had come to terms with her duty as a Jedi and Commander in this war. Though she may not understand it completely, she will do what needs to be done.
She always does.
And right now, she needed to do what needed to be done for her Captain. Wolffe was currently placed behind a fallen AT-TE and was bleeding uncontrollably. This was not the best situation to be in right now. Bleeding out wasn’t the only problem, but another was being without their team medic on the field to fix it. Jace had no choice but to swallow her panic and assess the wound. As blaster shots went, they were deep and they were painful. But not unfixable.
Wolffe’s wound was not terrible, she had seen much worse, and he would be able to go for a few hours without being treated. Even so, it was a blaster shot that went right through his torso, and a wound like that would cause a lot of bleeding.
As a compromise, Jace removed the armor around Wolffe’s torso, leaving his open wound to bake in the haze of Felucia’s sun. She then tore a part of her robe and wrapped the grey fabric around as best she could, telling Wolffe to put pressure on it. It most certainly wouldn’t stop the bleeding, but it was their best option. Their only option.
After ordering Wolffe to stay down until her troops pushed the attacking Droid battalion back, she was drawn to the sound of the beeping comm on her left wrist.
“Jace! Come in, do you read me?” It was her Master, Obi Wan Kenobi, his voice was muffled from bad reception, and the blaster bolts zooming by, barely missing her head.
“I read you, Master,” Jace responded while blocking the blasts with her lightsaber.
“We’re coming up behind the Droid battalion now. Sinker and I shall take it from here, the gunships should be on their way,” Obi Wan spoke loudly.
Jace let herself relax, knowing that this Campaign would be over soon. The Droids, only now realizing their downfall, were destroyed, one by one, until what was left was smoke and ash.
And blood.
Jace never liked the scene of a retired battlefield. She hated knowing that the battle was costly and that she wasn’t going to see some of her men again. She hated the taste of metal and smoke, seemingly stuck to the roof of her mouth, refusing to leave no matter how much water she drank.
In the end, what matters is that they won.
They survived.
Most of them anyway.
.
.
.
Back on the Nova, Jace sprinted to the Med-Bay. Not because she was injured, but because she needed to know how bad Wolffe had been.
Finding the cot that her Captain was lying on, a weight fell off of her shoulders before she walked the short distance towards him.
Wolffe noticed her presence and looked up at her, smiling.
Why was he smiling? He almost died…because of me.
With a shaky breath, Jace spoke, “Wolffe, I…I’m so sorry,”.
Wolffe gave her a confused expression. “For what Commander? You saved my life,”.
Jace looked down, guilt-ridden. “But it was a close call Wolffe. It shouldn’t have been…if I-”
“With all due respect Commander, you couldn’t have done anything to stop it. Even if you are a Jedi,” Wolffe said with a smirk, winking at her to brighten up the mood.
Jace was unconvinced but was too tired to fight it. She looked up finally, forcing a smile, and nodded at him. “You’re right Wolffe. Get some rest,”. With that, Jace left the Med-Bay and trudged to her quarters.
.
.
.
Jace had only noticed the blaster shot that skimmed her right calf after she entered her quarters, her limp becoming more obvious with each step she took to her cot. Sitting down, Jace quietly looked herself over. Nothing too serious, compared to many others. She looked at her robes, they were dirtied and torn. Dust, mud, and ash stained them as well as covered her body. Her Mandalorian shoulder plates that she had earned before leaving to become a Jedi had scorch marks skimmed across them. The next thing she realized was the red splotches painting her cream-colored pants a sickly shade of maroon. Jace looked down at her hands.
They were stained the same color.
It made Jace feel disgusting. And when her stomach twisted, she didn’t resist the vomit that followed.
Jace didn’t sleep on the way back to Coruscant.
.
.
.
Master Kenobi encouraged Jace to go visit the Healers back at the temple. He argued that she “shouldn’t be reckless and stubborn”. Jace didn’t go anyway. It was late at night and she hadn’t slept for the past week. If she had gone, she’s pretty sure she would’ve passed out in the first few minutes. If Jace slept, she’d feel better, well rested, and maybe even forget about the Campaign altogether.
She soon found herself at the front entrance of Riyo Chuchi’s apartment.
Technically, it was their apartment but to keep their relationship under wraps, Jace opted to “Riyo Chuchi’s apartment”. Though she had to admit, “their apartment” sounded much better.
Entering quietly she searched the apartment to see if Riyo was awake. She usually wasn’t up this late at night, but sometimes she would get up to make some tea if she had a rough day in the Senate and couldn’t sleep well. The lights were off, leave for the few lamps turned to dim, and she could sense Riyo’s presence in their room a few feet away.
The wound in Jace’s calf had progressively gotten worse, and she took a mental note to get it looked at in the morning. Jace took a deep breath as she sat down on the sofa in the living room. Usually, she loved the smell of Riyo- their apartment. It always smelled so fresh and sweet, and it reminded her of home. But now, as she sat in the darkness of the room, with the Coruscanti traffic being the only sound audible, Jace realized that it didn’t smell the way it should. Instead of sweetness, she smelled smoke. And in place of the usual fresh scent that came after, was the smell of sweat. And blood.
Jace was now fully aware that she hadn’t exactly freshened up since the battle, and she was still covered head to toe in that post-battle staleness. She stepped quickly to the refresher and turned on the lights. There, she had a full view of the mess she forgot to clean up. The first thing she wanted off of her was the blood.
It was her brother’s blood, it might’ve even been hers too but the more she looked at the sheen red covering her hands and even parts of her face, the more it started to burn.
Jace turned the water on rapidly and started to scrub.
As she scrubbed she thought of her comrades, her brothers, the men that she led into battle dying on the floor of that crop dust planet.
Scrub.
She thought of Wolffe, the look on his face as she removed his helmet allowing him more air to breathe.
Scrub.
His face was pained and his breath was ragged. Jace had sensed that he had no hope of making it out alive.
Scrub.
She thought of the sound of her robe when she desperately tore it to shreds, getting as much fabric as she could to stop the bleeding.
Scrub.
Stop the bleeding.
Scrub.
Stop the bleeding!
Jace’s motions were abruptly stopped by a pair of blue pantoran hands.
She didn’t look up. She couldn’t look up.
“Love?” Spoke the angelic voice that Jace loved so much.
“It won’t come off..” Jace tried to communicate.
A hand reached up to cup Jace’s cheek and guided her eyes to look at Riyo. As soon as Jace made eye contact, she immediately felt safe and warm. Riyo looked at her with so much love and affection that it made Jace want to break down right there. She almost did.
With one hand on Jace’s cheek and the other placed on her arm, she spoke again, gently, as if not to scare her, “Jace, you’re shaking,”. She started brushing her hand soothingly, up and down her arm. “What won’t come off?”
Jace drew in a shaky breath, “The blood..”. She looked at her hands once more, red and irritated from the amount of times she tried to scrub them clean. Then, without warning, the sobs that Jace had struggled to drown out escaped her lips. And in seconds, her body dropped to the floor and trembled. Riyo followed suit and held her tight.
“H-He almost d-died Ri..” Jace strained, tears flowing just as the blood did.
Riyo only held her closer, stroking her hair and slowly rubbing circles on her back as it heaved. “Shh, I know Love, It’s alright,” She whispered reassuringly. Jace tucked her head even further into Riyo’s neck. “It’s over,”.
Riyo kissed the top of Jace’s head as her sobs came to an end. Jace leaned on Riyo’s shoulder as she asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
As expected, Jace shook her head ‘no’ weakly.
Riyo hummed, “That’s okay, you don’t have to,”. She kept her arm around Jace’s shoulder as she cried, still holding her close.
It wasn’t like these episodes were rare. They happened quite frequently. Riyo was used to them by now and had learned that what helped Jace the most to get through them was physical touch. Jace was affectionate, despite the Jedi Code, and she liked to feel the presence of someone else when she went through things such as this. Whenever Jace had an episode, Riyo would always be right beside her, holding her until the tears subsided and she was fast asleep.
Deciding that sleep was the best thing for Jace right now, she shifted slowly to look at her. She was already drifting off, which meant that it would be a struggle to get her to bed. Although she looked adorable like this, leaning her head on Riyo’s shoulder as Jace’s chest rose and fell, she wanted her to be comfortable. And sitting on the floor of their refresher wasn’t exactly what Riyo had in mind.
She tilted her head to look at Jace. Riyo brushed some stray strands of hair behind her ear and gently kissed her forehead. “Jace?” she whispered, shaking the girl's delicate body slightly. “C’mon Love, let’s get you to bed,” she said as Jace stirred and after a minute, complied.
Jace struggled to stand up from the floor, the blaster wound making itself known to Riyo as she limped over to their room. Once there, Jace put forth no effort in taking off her boots or even the front base of her newly ruined robes. She plopped down right on the bed and was immediately drowsy with sleep once more.
Riyo, witnessing this from the doorway giggled to herself, and went to work removing Jace’s boots and covering them both with the silky covers of their bed. Once comfortable, Jace turned around to face Riyo and snuggled in close underneath her chin.
“I love you Ri,” Jace said with a yawn.
Riyo wrapped her arms around the Jedi and planted a light kiss on her cheek before whispering, “I love you too Jace,”.
The two fell asleep in minutes.