Chapter Text
When he wakes there's only one thing he comprehends. Danger. Every instinct in his body that had become so intune with Ahsoka had recognized that she was in danger. So without thinking, without letting it register that those are vode, he raises his pistols and fires. There's only one thing that's important right now, and that was making sure vod'ika was alright.
And it sinks a moment later, like a rock, a weight in the sea. He killed his vode. Rex had almost killed Ahsoka. It's something that he can't help but drown in, can't help but let it finally register the horror that had happened, the loss of control he experienced. His mind had been stolen from him, forcing him to attack. Frozen, he tries not to let the panic get to him, he tries not to break down right then and there. Dimly, he registers that he's in shock. Now is not the time. Now they need to get out of there.
She's watching him carefully, apprehension in her eyes as she steps forward, "Rex, are you okay?"
It snaps him out of the statue zone he had entered, finally pulling his pistols back. He doesn't want to be holding them, not the weapons that had hurt Ahsoka. Not the weapons that had killed vode. But everything feels wrong and ruined. He feels ruined. Whatever had happened had corrupted him to his very soul and he cannot handle it. The very being of who he was had been snatched from him. From all the vode. If only General Skywalker had listened to Fives.
"Yeah," he mutters, letting out a sharp breath as he keeps looking at her, needing to know she's alive. "Yeah, kid. I'm okay."
Rex knows that she knows its a lie. But now isn't the time.
"I'm sorry for what happened earlier."
He clutches at his head, knowing how lame it sounded. She deserved so much more for what he had done. She deserves him groveling begging for forgiveness.
Rex's head spikes in pain, pulsing steady, left over from the chip. "I- I tried to kill you."
Force, he doesn't understand why he's alive. He doesn't deserve it.
How can she stand to be near him? How can she stand to look at him? Worry over him?
"How widespread is this?"
Does she not know? Was she not told? Then it clicks. She had left the order before Fives. Before Tup. "Ahsoka, it's all of us. The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights."
The door hisses. They've run out of time.