Chapter Text
“Execute Order 66”
“Yes, Lord Sidious.” Everything clicked into place, every moment finally making sense. Fives…The chips, no…. Ahsoka!!
The doors slid open behind Rex, the young ‘ambassador’ came in, and Rex couldn’t think…things asserting themselves, rewiring what would’ve been regular thought processes and overwriting what Rex’s initial response would’ve been to the young former Jedi. Someone he’d known as his Commander for years during this conflict.
“Rex! It’s Anakin! I feel like something terrible has happened...”
Oh Commander, you don’t know! Yes!! It’s terrible it’s… good soldiers... No!!
Rex’s helmet clattered to the floor and he distantly registered the clang it made as it collided with the floor, bouncing across it. Rex’s hands shook and went for his pistols where they sat in his holsters.
“Rex?” The troopers behind Ahsoka Tano went into position, lining up their sights on the former Jedi.
“No! I’ll do it.” He couldn’t believe he was doing this! He... doesn't have a choice.
“Rex! What’s happening?” Ahsoka went as if to move closer and Rex’s arms, without being bidden, rose and the pistols joined the weapons already aimed at the young togruta.
“Stay back!” Rex fought the chips control violently, wrestling it back for just enough. Just enough to shout. We have to keep her safe! “Find him. Find him! Fives!”
Good Soldiers “Find him! Fives!” Follow Orders.
Rex fired, the bolts flying from the pistol. The rest of the troopers let loose, causing Ahsoka to leap into action, ducking beneath the lasers and tackling Rex. Everything went fuzzy for a second and Rex forced his body to move through the pain and throbbing. Distantly he heard Ahsoka’s lightsabers deflecting the blaster fire that rained down on her.
“Rex!” The doors behind Ahsoka slid open and Rex could see Jesse moving in with a squad. Always quick on his response time. He slowly drew himself up as they layered down the lasers and Ahsoka did an impossibly beautiful flip to face her new attackers. She perched like a bird on the holotable, lightsabers blurs of motion. The smoke from the stray bolts thickened until the flashes of blue lasers obscured any sight of the orange skinned Togruta.
“She’s down! She’s down.” “Hold your fire! We got her!” They moved in closer, only to find the holotable, sparking as it was, completely empty. No body... nothing. Deep inside his mind, the Captain Rex who’d known Ahsoka Tano for years cried out in relief. It was that same Rex who looked up at the ceiling and wished he hadn’t. The lasers had been deflected into the ceiling, giving Ahsoka an out. The opening in the ceiling showed a cavity that none of the clones would fit in, but that the young togruta could easily have slid through.
“Sir, are you alright?” One of the troopers from Jesse’s squad asked, voice flat and without the usual character it held.
“Fine, just...tired is all.” Commander Rex, the one controlled by the chips, accepted his helmet and turned back to the men surrounding the table.
“I want you to go to the detention level. Execute Maul.” With a crisp ‘Yes sir!’ and ‘alright men!’ The Coruscant Guard member left and Rex’s body moved on its own.
“Alright. We know Ahsoka Tano is onboard. She’s been marked for termination by order 66. Under those directives, any and all Jedi leadership must be executed for treason against the Republic. Any soldier that does not comply with the order will be also executed for treason. Understood?” He hated the words coming out of his mouth and deep down Rex hoped the others regretted responding with a sharp, resounding “Yes sir!”
Rex continued with his briefing. Hating that he knew Ahsoka so well. Could point out what she would do. Now, instead of a leg up in a conflict, it was a liability and was going to get her killed. “There are only so many places to hide onboard this ship. Gather up search parties. We’ll fan out and move section by section! Come on! Let’s get moving!” Rex ground out. This was way worse than he had anticipated, and the thought only distantly registered in the back of his mind.
This couldn’t be happening. His body was moving on its own as Rex drew his pistols and aimed them at Ahsoka. No!! This isn’t right!! I would never harm her!! Good soldiers follow orders .
Ahsoka’s eyes widened as she realized what Rex knew. One of them was going to die, and there was no avoiding it. Rex wrestled with his mind for a grip. Fighting for control
“Ahsoka...you have to!!”
“No! Rex!! I won’t!!”
“I’ll kill you. They all will. Please!!” Rex’s hands trembled as the programming reasserted itself. Ahsoka ignited her lightsabers a fraction of a second in time to block his shots. The other troopers broke out of their daze and fired on her too. She whirled around and threw them into the walls, dazing and knocking them out. Her mastery of the force was something else to behold. That same force ripped Rex’s pistols out of his hands and out of reach. The hand to hand combat Cody had drilled into Rex kicked in and he lashed out. Ahsoka caught his fist right on her jaw and it sent her sprawling.
No!!! Don’t. Please body...stop!!
Rex had no say in his actions. He was in the audience as his body launched itself onto the prone Togruta and kept trying to complete The Mission.
Kill the Jedi. Good Soldiers follow Orders. Ahsoka Tano has been marked for termination by Order 66. KILL!
Rex’s hands were around her throat. Tears streamed down her face. Tears streamed down Rex’s as well. She brought her main lightsaber up and Rex knocked it away with his elbow and applied more pressure. The lightsaber clattered away. She used the edges of her palms to shove Rex’s helmet off, exposing the captain, now commander. Both of them went rolling across the floor, but Rex ended up on top of Ahsoka again.
“Rex!!” She wheezed out in an attempt to get through to the captain. He was forced to watch as the physical prowess of a clone trooper started to get the better of the beleaguered former Jedi. She could see his tears now and realized Rex had absolutely no control.
Blazing white pain expanded from Rex’s chest outwards and his body stopped. It finally stopped! He went limp from relief and pain. Ahsoka pushed Rex to the side, taking in rattling gasps of air. The other troopers were still out or dead and besides the gasps of air next to Rex, all he had to focus on was the pain. It drowned out the harsh inner cries of ‘good soldiers follow orders’ and he was grateful for the respite.
“Rex!” Ahsoka’s face came into view as she shifted Rex’s head into her lap. He couldn’t help it, crying out in pain as every nerve in his body reacted. Now he knew how he’d gotten hurt. Ahsoka’s shoto sat on the ground next to him and the shock had started to wear off. Rex could smell burned flesh, his burned flesh. Ahsoka’s tears streamed down into Rex’s face and he barely managed to croak something out.
“Ahsoka...you’re okay…” Rex smiled softly, annoyed in a faint sort of way that even smiling hurt.
“I…I hurt you really bad, Rex...I don’t think you’re going to make it…” Ahsoka’s bright blue eyes weaved in and out of view.
Rex coughed weakly, chest throbbing. “It’s okay, ‘Soka. It’s worth it if it means you’ll survive.” Rex groaned again as the pain sparked, only faintly feeling Ahsoka cupping his face with her hands, giving Rex something to focus on.
She started to speak again but Rex stopped her. “Ahsoka, you have to leave now...I’ll reroute them. Take a starfighter...go find General Kenobi. Go!!”
She recognized the wisdom in his words and inhaled sharply as she stood. She leaned down and carefully picked up the pistols.
“Take them, Ahsoka. They'll serve you better.” She nodded and leapt nimbly down the hallway. Rex painstakingly lifted his wrist-mounted comlink up to his mouth. “Ahsoka Tano has been spotted heading towards the reactor room. Route her off.”
The acknowledgements filtered through and Rex faded in and out of consciousness until suddenly, a hand was on his shoulders. It was Jesse. His helmet was off and anger smoldered in his eyes, ARC armor covered in carbon scored dust.
His anger wasn't directed at Ahsoka, that much Rex could tell and the relief he felt for that small point was immense. His body was numb, he could barely hear what Jesse was saying. Probably issuing out orders. All he caught was “ships...out of hyperspace!!” “Tano’s escaped!” “Engaged Maul near reactors…”
“Rex? Rex!!! Medic!!” Thought and time stopped. Rex drifted away. And he knew nothing more.
Rex was fading away, feeling the life leave his body…only, he was...drooling? Rex blinked to clear his vision, distantly noting that the searing pain in his chest was gone, the floatiness and the numbness that had taken over was replaced by the heavier feeling of the older, phase one armor and an odd tingling sensation.
The datapad Rex had apparently been reading was freaking out because of the drool on it, triggering the touch functions. Rex was slumped over his desk aboard The Resolute . Or that’s what he assumed. Rex slowly sat up and almost immediately wished he hadn’t. The world spun, nausea swelling up inside of Rex. “Whoa...okay…” he whispered in the buzzing silence of the office.
It took a moment for the room to stop spinning and the nausea to fade, only then did Rex realize that he was indeed aboard The Resolute .
“This can’t be right.” Rex muttered aloud. He looked back down at his desk, over all the datapads piled high in a chaotic disarray, his helmet sitting precariously on the edge and pistols laying down next to the chair. The gray durasteel toned even the bright lights down and the glow from the dozen datapads made the room seem like a briefing. Rex glanced at the hastily scribbled date at the top of the report on the first datapad.
“Oh karking hells...it can’t be…” Rex reeled back, leaning over and held his head, hands shaking faintly as he tried to process everything. The last thing he could remember was the Siege of Mandalore… and dying. Not something he really wanted to remember, seeing the smoke streaked against Ahsoka’s skin and the way Jesse’s anger had smoldered in the face of injustice.
From a quick estimate with the date and time from his datapad, it seemed to be a little after the Battle of Christophsis and the Hutt fiasco. Rex’s comlink started signaling that someone was trying to contact him. With hands still shaking faintly, Rex reached over and pressed the button that put the call through.
“Captain! Are those reports finalized?” Anakin Skywalker, the young Jedi General that Rex had served faithfully for three years, asked with a slight urgency to his tone. It set Rex on edge and he wracked his mind to remember what he’d been needing to do. Back…back then, but what was also now? Everything had been so real.
“Uh, yes sir. They’re in order.” Rex’s voice shook and he cursed mentally, steadying his nerves and his quivering muscles.
“Rex? Are you okay?” The brisk and urgent tone that had opened the conversation vanished and General Skywalker seemed genuinely worried.
“I know it’s soon Rex, but you shouldn’t bottle it up. Talk to someone… Th-they didn’t give their lives for nothing.”
Rex was confused for a moment, trying to figure out what it would be that he’d forgotten, and then it hit him. The most recent losses would’ve been…Torrent Company. Teth. Ventress.
“Oh.” The silence grew tangible and the low buzz of the comlink grated on the low level headache Rex was nursing. No doubt a side effect of whatever Force-karkery this fresh hell was.
“Rex…” Rex took a sharp breath and stopped General Skywalker before the man could continue any further.
“I know. I’m sorry, sir. I’m just...tired. We all are.” It seemed as if General Skywalker nodded before he realized that the current conversation was over the comlinks without visuals.
“I agree...are you still fit for the briefing?” Of course there was a briefing just after he’d been thrown through time back to one of the many moments he might’ve genuinely regretted in his life. Rex grimaced, swallowing slightly. Even with only three years of the war, living through them made a moment like this blurry and hazy and he was having trouble remembering specifically what was going on for General Skywalker to be calling for a briefing.
“I’ll be there, Sir. Which war room?”
“Three. Be there at fourteen hundred hours.”
“Yes Sir.”
The comlink clicked off and Rex was left in the dingy gray office, the datapad fritzing slightly from the liquid on its surface.
Rex closed his eyes for only a second and everything flashed through his mind. Memories, moments, feelings, all up to the moment of being impaled on a lightsaber. The sharp pain was fresh and vivid in his mind as much as on his chest. The smell of ozone and dust filled Rex’s lungs and his vision dotted over with red and black. Rex inhaled sharply and grasped at his chest, trying to see..needing to be sure that the chest plate was whole. The vision faded away, all but the dull throb in the center of his chest disappeared.
Rex hastily undid the many straps and buckles of the armor, pulling it off and letting it drop to the floor. Rex slid the underlayer shirt over his head, staring down at his chest. There, on his chest was a scar…lower than the close call with the commando droids, except those hadn’t happened yet and his skin was unmarred from that particular wound just yet. This…this scar was puckered up slightly and the pain throbbed when Rex prodded at it gingerly. He let his fingers explore it and stared at the ugly thing. Another throb had him instinctively grasping at it and to his combined amazement and horror it shrank and faded before his eyes, no reason for it to do such a thing. He wasn’t a Jedi, and he most certainly didn’t have the Force, just as he hadn’t had this scar before.
The pain eased up, leaving the barest bump of a scar. Another slight pain and the bump of a scar was a thin circle of slightly discolored skin. This terrifyingly odd cycle continued until Rex’s muscle lined chest was just as it was in the days following Teth.
“Oh sithspit…” It was real. The plot, the Force. Fives, Echo, Cody, Ahsoka...
“No...no way in all the galaxy am I repeating history…who even has the power to do that?” Panic filled Rex as he spoke to himself, partially convinced that he was going insane. Breath, actual living breath, coming in short, ragged gasps.
“That’s it. I’m crazy.” Rex breathed out, willing himself out of the anxiety spiral that threatened to swallow him whole and spit him out a second later. He couldn’t afford to let himself wallow in it. Not when he didn’t know why he was back here and now . If…if everything he’d remembered wasn’t some sort of awful fever dream, he had a chance. A chance to change things?
If there was even the slimmest chance that he could change the fates of thousands of Jedi, save his brothers and keep his aliit safe, he was going to take it. He had almost all the puzzle pieces. Only a few things didn’t add up. And he was going to put them together. Whatever it took.
Rex had been zoning out, mentally mapping out just how far into the war things were when his chrono-timer went off like an unhappy astromech. He blinked slightly as he glanced over and sighed when he saw the pre-written message that he’d saved for himself.
-Briefing Room Three. Reports of a Separatist Super Weapon.-
Oh…kark. This was the sequence of events and the timeline of the ion weapon that had caused Rex and his company quite a bit of grief, especially having learned about what happened with General Plo and the Wolfpack after General Skywalker and Commander Tano had gone straight into danger. Not the best experience for a company who slowly and more progressively got anxious about losing their first Jedi Commander and their somehow still alive despite his chaotic tendencies, Jedi General Skywalker.
Rex spent another good minute or two debating. He couldn’t very well just start the briefing off with anything akin to ‘it’s an ion cannon and this is its next target!’ and he’d get reconditioned or even decommissioned faster than he could say Tatooine’s Twin Suns if he marched into a briefing and started spouting “nonsense” about clones having chips in their brains that could make them kill Jedi. No, he was going to need proof. And solid evidence on how to change the course of events without…causing further harm.
He scrambled upright and cursed quietly. He’d gotten lost in thought a bit there, and that wouldn’t be helpful to make sure General Skywalker wasn’t suspicious. He scooped up his helmet, rapidly latching pieces of armor back on and left the office, letting the harsh light of the hallway wash over him. This…was so oddly home to him, yet it had been such a lifetime since he’d been here.
It didn’t take Rex too long to realize something that made his heart ache. When he passed Denal in the hall and the trooper saluted him, or when Ridge gave him a big grin when he jostled Koho’s shoulder. All of these men were dead in the time that Rex had come from. And…and now they weren’t. They were alive and well and Rex had to resist the urge to pull any one of them into a hug or a keldabe. He realized as he walked that he had a unique opportunity, and for their sakes, he needed to go through with it.
Rex’s internal musings were interrupted as he arrived at Briefing Room Three, entering with all the crisp military professionalism he possessed and noted the young togruta padawan, Ahsoka Tano, the commander who Rex had come to respect and look up to was sitting, looking mightily bored, on a bench. He smiled faintly and took stock of the room. Admiral Yularen was preparing a few different holos, General Skywalker was talking with Appo, and it looked like there was only a bit missing.
“Hey Rexster.” Ahsoka greeted, looking a bit perkier before she deflated again.
“Commander.” Rex responded somewhat neutrally, though his insides were doing flip flops and the anxiety and excitement blended together almost nauseatingly. Skywalker finished up what he’d been doing and turned his attention onto Rex, who saluted crisply.
“At ease, Captain.” General Skywalker instructed, cueing up the holo-projector, which brought up the image of the Jedi Council. Ah…yes, it would be around this time that the Jedi Council was more involved in mission approval.
Everything began to pass in a rush. Things were exactly as he remembered, so long as he didn’t change anything about the day, it would remain the same. The longer he listened, the less he liked it. A Jedi mission and…he couldn’t do anything. Not really, and that left an itch under his skin. There was no way he would just sit back and watch the same things happen all over again. He couldn’t live that kind of hell again. Rex had to do something.
The question was what. What could Rex do to change the fate of an entire galaxy, doomed to fall into darkness.