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“Gregor, have you seen my datapad?” Rex asked, frantically searching the hold of the AT-TE they had made their home. He knew it had to be somewhere around here, he was certain he hadn’t used it anywhere else.
And Ahsoka was about to call in.
“No idea, mate” Gregor said, not looking up from his own. “Have you looked behind the couch?”
With a sigh, Rex put on his helmet and clicked on the lights to shine some light into the narrow crevice between the couch they’d installed and the hull. It took him a few tries, but eventually he managed to point the light straight at the ground. There was a faint reflection there.
“Yep, there it is!” he said, relieved, putting his helmet aside again to reach for it.
Gregor chuckled. “Don’t get your kamas in a bunch, mate. You still have time before she calls.”
Rex shot him a glare in return. “Just help me move this thing.”
“Sir, yes sir” Gregor replied, giving him a mock salute and getting up to push the couch away.
Relief went through Rex as he retrieved the datapad. He never missed his meetings with Ahsoka, irregular as they were. It had been a while since they had last seen each other in person, but at least this way they could keep in contact.
Shortly after the end of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire, they had decided that they couldn’t stick together, not all the time. Rex wanted to save his brothers, who were all still programmed to execute any Jedi they came across, and Ahsoka had been tired of fighting, tired of war, tired of losing everyone she cared about. While neither of them had wanted to, a split seemed the best option they’d had.
They had stayed in contact, of course, meeting up whenever they could and calling if they couldn’t. They were still each other’s best friend, and no war could change that.
Somewhere over the cause of the last ten years, they had switched parts. After the Defence Recruitment Bill was brought into being and the clones decommissioned, Rex’s fight had slowed down until eventually he had no brothers left to save anymore, instead settling down with Gregor and Wolffe on Seelos. Meanwhile, Ahsoka had gotten involved with Senator Organa’s Rebellion.
He should have known that she would never be able to stay out of the fight for long. Just like him and his brothers, Ahsoka had been moulded by war, a soldier since she had been a child and a Jedi through and through, even if she had renounced the title. She couldn’t turn her back on people who needed her for long. It was one of the things he loved about her.
Of course, being a secret operative in an organisation attempting to overthrow the largest and best organised regime Rex had ever seen, getting a safe transmission out or even getting time off had become progressively more difficult for her, and the time between their meetings had stretched longer and longer, even the holocalls few and far between. Rex had been longingly anticipating this specific call for weeks.
He went to his quarters, carefully shut the door behind him, and turned on the datapad.
Nothing happened.
Frowning, Rex clicked the little button again. But the thing stayed off.
“No!” he shouted, his mind flooding with anxiety. The thing couldn’t malfunction, not now he was so close to seeing Ahsoka again!
The door whooshed open behind him, revealing Wolffe. “Everything okay, Captain?”
“My datapad” Rex said, willing his voice to stay calm. “I think it’s broken.”
Wolffe shrugged. “You can borrow mine, if you’d like.”
Rex shook his head, his hands shaking slightly. “Ahs- … Commander Tano only has mine’s transmission codes” he explained, panic rising in his gut. “It’s a heavy encryption, it won’t work on anything else.”
Wolffe eyed him thoughtfully for a second. “Hand it over.”
Without a word, Rex gave him the datapad.
Wolffe started working on it, breaking the case open to check on the wiring. “Here,” he said, “try this.”
Rex clicked the button again, and to his immense relief, the screen lit up. And then turned into a distorted mess of colour before zapping out again.
“Wolffe?” he said quietly.
Wolffe plucked the sideburns he had grown in their time together. “Well, that’s not good. Sorry, brother, guess we’ll have to get you a new ‘pad.”
“What about Ahsoka?!?” Rex said, forgetting about his eternal attempt to convince the other two that she was nothing more than his former Commander to him.
Wolffe fixed with him with the type of serious stare only he could muster. “Captain Rex. The Jedi are enemies of the Empire, and we are on their watchlist. Commander Tano is actively attempting to fight against them. It would be wiser not to recklessly chase after her again, for all our sakes.”
“But –” Rex started.
“Don’t endanger her, Rex” Wolffe said sternly. “Or me, or Gregor. We don’t have to fight anymore. The war is over.”
“The war is over” Rex repeated softly, and Wolffe turned to leave him alone.
He simply stared at his broken datapad for a long time. The Clone War was over, but he had a lingering feeling that Ahsoka was about to be dragged into a new one. And he wouldn’t be at her side this time.