Chapter Text
Set immediately after their crash in Victory and Death.
Rex attached the shovel to the Y-Wing with arms that burned from exhaustion. The stim pack he had taken hours earlier was starting to wear off. He turned to look at the small hooded gray figure several meters ahead of him. Her cloak moved gently in the wind.
It had been her idea to give the clones a proper burial. It had taken days. Most of those days were spent wordlessly with them occasionally pausing to rest and check the holonet for news about what was being called The Purge. She and Rex had watched footage of the lightsabers of dead Jedi being tossed into the furnace in silent horror. The Jedi had been labeled traitors of the Republic and were summarily rounded up and executed for treason. Most of them had been killed by clone troopers just like the ones in the 332nd whose bodies now lay to rest on a nameless moon, metal pipes holding up their helmets as grave markers, all of it looking like a macabre orchard. A garden of death.
Rex noticed her drop something on the ground before she turned around to walk towards him. “She can’t,” he thought, his heart sinking.. Those contraptions were the mark of the great Jedi, the near god-like warriors he had come to serve and care deeply for over these past several years.
“Your lightsaber…” he said as she approached him.
“Don’t worry. I’m keeping this one,” she pointed to the metal cylinder on her belt. “But this way, if they ever come looking, they’ll assume you fulfilled your mission.”
He flinched. His mission . Rex had fought the order initially. He’d only had seconds to try and get ahead of what was coming. What Fives had warned him about. Good soldiers follow orders. But this hadn’t been an order. His mind and the minds of his brothers had been hijacked, brainwashed. None of them would have voluntarily put their Commanders to the slaughter. Had it not been for Ahsoka’s compassion and genius, had she not removed that cursed inhibitor chip…he shuddered.
“Let’s get back to the shelter,” she said calmly. The light was starting to fade and soon it would be too cold to survive without the warmth of their Republic issued tent. Rex nodded and gave one final salute to his fallen brothers. They had been good soldiers. They had followed orders.
Three days after the burial, Rex started to feel a restlessness unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life. There had rarely been a time he could remember when he wasn’t deployed on a mission, when he didn’t have a clear, set purpose. His path had always been certain.
With everything in shambles, he and Ahsoka had chosen to wait before making any direct moves that might expose them to a now hostile galaxy. Strategy was essential. Trying to locate the Jedi was currently too big of a risk. Ahsoka didn’t want to risk exposing anyone she tried to contact or give away her and Rex’s location. They had debated the practicality of trying to locate other clone troopers that hadn’t followed through with Order 66. Surely there had to be some out there. If they could find enough men, Rex thought, they could get to work on forming a small resistance. He kept hope alive that once organized, they could start to make a difference and fight back against the tyranny that had been unleashed on the galaxy. Maybe he could deliver justice to his slain brothers in the 332nd. Justice for the Jedi.
They currently had enough supplies for about a month, but the days were passing quickly. Scavenging the Venator hadn’t proven terribly fruitful and they were relying almost entirely on the survival kits installed in the Y-Wing. They needed a plan. He needed the input of his trusted friend but in her current state…
Rex was keenly aware that Ahsoka had slept very little since the crash. He had woken up in the middle of the night in their shared tent to see her glued to the Holonet looking for leads on Jedi that had not yet been hunted down. Occasionally he would see her tinkering with R7, trying to fix him up with what little supplies they had. Getting the droid up and running would certainly accelerate their timeline of leaving this barren place, but Rex was growing concerned.
A Jedi was trained in the ways of the Force so that a few days of missed sleep didn’t have nearly the impact it would on other sentient beings. But over a week had passed and he could see the toll it was starting to take on her. She had dark circles under her eyes and was losing weight on her already slim frame. He had caught her stumbling a few times as they trekked through the charred remains of the Venator. Once or twice, she even struggled to lift objects through her connection to the Force. This was the same person who had nearly managed to stop a passenger shuttle that was going full throttle from launching into space by just reaching her hands out to it. The same person that had fought a Sith Lord and won .
One morning, Rex woke up to find Ahsoka once more working on R7. The astromech had been badly damaged during their struggle on the Venator, but not so badly that, with the right parts and patience (neither of which they seemed to have the right amount of) he couldn’t be salvaged. There was a loud pop, a clang and then Ahsoka’s voice yelling out a slew of curse words. He ran over to see what had happened and saw her holding her wrist and grimacing like she was in pain.
“What happened?” he asked, noticing a small plume of gray smoke coming from the top of R7’s head.
“It’s nothing, I’m fine. I just can’t get this kriffing bolt loose and I miscalculated how much pressure I was applying to the wrench.”
“Is it broken?” he asked reaching for her arm.
“I don’t think so,” she said, letting him examine her wrist. He looked her in her eyes but she seemed far away from him. It was time to have a chat.
“Ahsoka, I care as much as you do about finding survivors. But you’re no good to anyone like this. You have to rest. Even Jedi need sleep.” He reached into his utility belt and pulled out a tranq tube. "I’ve only got a couple of these but I think you could stand to use one."
She initially started to protest but he placed a firm hand on her shoulders. “Technically, if you’ll remember, I currently outrank you.” She raised an eyebrow at him and with a sardonic smile, conceded and took the tranq out of the med kit that Rex offered her.
"You're right. I haven't been myself lately. Thank you, Rex, for looking out for me." She smiled with eyes that held a week's worth of fatigue.
"Just doing my duty, Commander," he said, smiling back at her. He wished Kix were here. He wasn’t sure it was just sleep Ahsoka needed.