Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, I just like to play with it.
Please note all italics are memories of the CC-7567 Captain Rex.
The sky, he thought, had never been so blue and only now as he lay helpless on his back did he appreciate the true color it and wondered why he had never taken the time to notice it before now. Captain Rex felt the sun shining on his face, his helmet lay on the ground next to him. General Skywalker, or Anakin as he had demanded that Rex start to call him, knelt on the hard ground next to where he lay, lightsaber still ignited and a look of worry crossing his face. Rex could tell his lips were moving, but from the concussive force of the grenade that had gone off nearby, his ears were still ringing and he felt as though his limbs were made of heavy lead.
And what was that smell?
Rex's eyes grew wide as he finally recognized the smell and he tried to turn his head to see where it was coming from. It was the smell of parched and seared plastoid armor and, and..... blood.
Reaching up to touch the knee which Anakin had up as he knelt, Rex couldn't feel the contact between them as his gloved hand gripped at the hem of the tunic the jedi wore. His fingers could barely make the movement to retract enough to hold the fabric between them and he still couldn't figure out what the general was saying to him.
His mind slipped back.
Rex was standing face to face with Commander Cody across a black expanse of hanger bay decking. The look on Cody's face was solemn, as he was sure his was too. Spread before them on the deck were rows of helmets. Buckets that no longer had owners.
This was one of many ceremonies that he and Cody would perform for the men that they lost in battle. Although they preferred to bury their men, it was impossible with the massive number of casualties and the schedule that the fleet was keeping. This was the next best thing that they could come up with to honor their dead. It would have to do.
He saluted Cody across the helmets that separated them. It was chilling. He dare not remove his helmet for fear that the tears he was shedding inside would be seen by all those who came to this ceremony. Generals Skywalker and Kenobi were present, as they had promised him they would be. It was for the men, he had reminded them. They needed to know that their generals cared. Rex didn't doubt that they did, but they were very busy in their search for Grievous and it was becoming an all consuming quest.
He watched as Cody walked among the helmets, finding his own men and picking up their ID tags, taking time to look at each helmet. Not all of them were easy to distinguish from the others and Cody sometimes had to peer at the tags in his hand as he paid tribute silently to the men he had lost. When he finally crossed the field of helmets, Rex stepped into the neatly aligned rows and began the same process.
Coming to a group of three helmets in a row, Rex remembered the men who had worn them and knelt down among them. Taking one of the helmets in his hand, he held it face to face with his and bent over. He sobbed, the only thing keeping the sound from escaping was the helmet he was sealed inside. This was too hard. He wasn't sure he was meant to be captain if it meant that the men he loved so much were going to be gone. How would he ever deal with the pain?
Replacing the helmet, with care, on the decking, Rex moved through the rest of the helmets, making sure to take just as much time with each one and taking their ID tags. These would go into the box at the end of his bed. Truly the only things he would ever feel he possessed. Though it was a sad reminder of the things he had to do as a clone.
Once Cody and he had saluted each other again, everyone was ushered from the hanger bay and the portal was opened. The helmets were sucked into the void of space to remain until their orbit decayed around the planet where they perished and they reentered the atmosphere as a fiery blast. One final blaze for men who were gone all too quickly.
"Are........Can..........Where?" the sound of Anakin's voice brought him back to where he was laying. It was still hard to hear through the ringing in his ears. He shook his head, trying to clear his ears of the awful high pitched whine which followed any kind of close explosion. It was not the first time he experienced the sound.
Rex could make no sense of the words he was hearing and he couldn't move enough to express a shrug or anything which would indicate to General Skywalker that he couldn't hear. The pain in his chest was rising. It felt as though the armor he was wearing was tightening to an unbearable size. Trying to suck in his breath to speak, Rex could not get enough air and he started to feel as though he was drowning. Laying his had back onto the ground to relax, he closed his eyes and then felt someone trying to shake him awake.
"What is it?" he asked peering into the darkness ahead of him. "What do you feel?"
"Something," General Skywalker's voice came clear and confidently from beside him. "It's pretty far off though right now."
Rex shook his head in confirmation and then remembered they were in the dark. He could've illuminated the way with the personal lights, but they were opting for stealth and Anakin didn't need light to get across the area they were covering. Creepy that a person could have their own built in HUD and it sometimes gave Rex the shivers to think about it. He would be fine sticking with his equipment, that, he knew, he could always count on.
"Three steps ahead and to the left," Skywalker said in a hushed tone. "It's a commando droid."
Rex flipped through the images in his helmet and zoomed in with his night vision. Standing there with it's back facing them was the commando droid and Rex felt his mouth open in surprise. Machines weren't living things and he thought that jedi would have more trouble detecting them in the dark. Evidently, he was wrong and he would never cease to be amazed at what Anakin could predict or find.
"You do amaze me at times," Rex said crouching down and preparing his sniper rifle for firing. He felt the cool ground under his belly as he lined up the sites of the gun and aimed at the droid. Sucking in his breath, he squeezed the trigger, feeling the blaster buck against his shoulder. He was rewarded with the sound of metal hitting dirt.
"Stick around buddy," he heard and opened his eyes. It was good to know his ears were finally working and he could hear General Skywalker.
Coughing, Rex attempted to say something, but he found that no words could come from his mouth and it was getting as dry as cotton. Motioning to General Skywalker, he tried to convey that he wanted to know what was wrong with him. It was impossible to get the idea across through crude hand motions, which really didn't make any sense.
"Let me concentrate here, okay?" Anakin said pushing Rex back to make him relax. "This isn't easy to keep you from bleeding too much."
Rex's eyes widened again. Had he hear Anakin right, was he going to die, here on this gods forsaken planet where he had just come to do a quick clean up mission? This wasn't right and he felt the panic in his body rising making his limbs jerk as they tried to get his body up from the ground.
He had to get his voice back. Rex needed to speak to Anakin, but no sound would come and he found that in fighting to get up, Anakin was somehow holding him down. Another jedi trick that he was sure he had never seen.
"I'm not scared," she had said in the bravest voice, that he imagined, she could muster. Rex was sure she was a little frightened at the prospect of battle. It was her first time and all.
"Look little one," he said kneeling down to be more level with her. "It's okay to be scared, but when all the shooting starts, well that's when you need to forget about being scared and concentrate on what you are supposed to be doing. Got it? Just do your job and we'll do ours."
Padawan Tano nodded at him gravely as she took in the words. She had a lot to learn, but most of the jedi did when it came to battle. Keeping the peace and fighting were two completely different things. If keeping the peace was all the Republic had needed, they wouldn't have needed the clones.
"We won't let anything happen to you," he said standing and replacing his helmet. "Just remember that you can tell who I am on the battlefield by the armor."
He pointed to the armor and the markings, which were all his doing and he was very proud of it, to signify who she was supposed to look for. "If you can't find General Skywalker, then you find me," he said and patted her on the head. "It'll all be fine."
He felt a hand intertwine with his and looked to his right seeing the young Togruta kneeling next to him now. He noted that the sounds of battle were further off. Rex tried to speak, but she put a finger to his lips.
"You don't need to talk," Ahsoka said and smiled. "I'm just here to make sure you make it back to the ship and get all fixed up."
"The evac is here," Rex heard another clone, with his voice, say to Ahsoka and Anakin.
"Ahsoka," Anakin said in a calm voice. "Why don't you stay here with Master Obi-wan and I will take him to the evac?"
Rex knew something was wrong because Anakin was not one to leave a battle unless things were dire. Now he knew that he was in dire need of assistance and Anakin would be heading back to the medical frigate with him, if he made it.
"See you soon Rexie," Ahsoka said a twinge in her voice as she stood obediently and headed off out of his line of sight.
"When your time comes," Ahsoka asked him truthfully. "Who will cry for you?"
Rex lifted his head from the manual he was reading. He had been reading up on the newest weapons which were being fabricated to bring into the war. It was something to do during the down time that he had, which was few and far between.
"I don't know padawan," he said. "I would hope the men in my unit. I would hope there would be someone who would remember my name and tell others about what I had done. Why do you ask?"
Ahsoka shrugged her shoulders. "I just wonder who would cry for me, like you do when you hold those helmets of the men you have lost," she said in a small voice. "I would want someone to miss me and mourn for me the way that you mourn for all of your men."
"Believe me," Rex said patting her on the shoulder. "There are people who will miss you."
***
Ahsoka knelt next to the helmet which had been that of CC-7567 and wept.