This came about as the result of an interesting dream I had. I think it turned out rather well, all thigs considered. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It takes place sometime after "The Gungan General" in season one.
I do not own Star Wars.
"Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free."
― Rumi
Once again, pirates had something that the Republic needed. At least it wasn't Hando and his band of ilk this time Anakin mused. No, these where different pirates all together, and they weren't holding Count Dooku, only a Republic Intel agent that had been feeding classified data to the Separatists. Not as important, but the Republic needed to know what intelligence had been leaked so they'd know where they were vulnerable.
The pirate base was located on Valenkar, a cold, mountainous world on the Outer Rim, well beyond Republic oversight. Probably as a result, it was a favorite stopover for smugglers and curriers making the run between Hutt space and the outer Mid Rim worlds.
It had been decided early in the mission that they needed a man on the inside, someone close by from the beginning to help ensure that things went smoothly. No one wanted to be caught out the way they had been with Hando and his gang. It made sense to send a clone. Very few people knew what they looked like under their helmets, and clones were trained to handle working behind enemy lines. They had valuable experience and knowledge that even Jedi lacked. It made sense.
That didn't mean that Anakin was happy that Master Windu had decided to send Rex.
The clone captain had been inserted two weeks before their scheduled meeting. Not as a bounty hunter, or a smuggler, or another pirate. Oh, no, that would have been too simple. Rex had gone undercover as a dancer.
"It's the easiest way to make sure he has access to their leader," Master Windu had said sternly in response to Anakin's vehement protests. "Genine Buishka, the self-styled Pirate Queen, has a well-developed taste for…exotic things. She'll let a well-trained dancer closer than she would her own second-in-command."
Anakin had to bight his lip to hold back the retort that that was exactly what he was worried about. But his protests had gone unheeded. The Republic needed this rouge Intel agent, they needed someone on the inside, and Master Windu was certain that that someone needed to be Rex.
Now Anakin, Master Windu, and Ahsoka had arrived for the scheduled meeting with Pirate Queen Genine to discuss an exchange for the prisoner. Anakin took several deep, steadying breaths, forcing himself to be calm as he followed the senior Jedi into the pirate's stronghold.
Large metal doors swung open on ancient mechanisms, creaking their protest. The Jedi stepped forward from the wan daylight of the outside world into the comparative gloom of the hall. It took Anakin's eyes several minutes to adjust. They were lead through what appeared to be a maze of tunneled hallways, long empty galleries, and twisting stone stairs by a suspicious cream furred Bothan carrying and old-fashioned glow lamp. Anakin finally began to realize that the main pirate base was not situated at the base of the mountain, as it appeared from the air, but inside the mountain itself.
The pirates' main feasting hall was at the mountain's heart, a huge cavern that was almost half a kilometer wide and twice as tall at its highest point. Tables were arranged haphazardly around a central hearth, a low sunken pit in which blazed a large fire. The light from the flames reflected in the bunches crystals scattered around the cavern's walls and ceiling and cast eerie ripples of light that shifted from red to green, blue, purple, and back again, giving the impression so standing inside an aurora. The edges of the cave were lined with riches obviously left on display, the warm glow of Imirri gold, goblets made of the finest Alderaanian crystal, gems of all colors and sizes stolen from ships mining the Malenstorr system's asteroid belts. It was like seeing holoimages out of his favorite childhood stories. Anakin had always had a thing for pirates, having grown up surrounded by lawlessness on Tatooine.
The young Jedi took a deep breath, letting the smells in the cavern fill his nostrils. The scent of spices and grilled meats mixed with a pleasantly musky order suffused the room. On top of that heady mixture was sharp, strong perfume that left an agreeably tangy taste at the back of Anakin's throat.
But as mesmerizing as the sights and smells of this place were, they were nothing compared to the music. A deep, booming base filled the cavern, so strong it forced a being's heart to beat in time with it. Thrumming cords layered on top, adding a robust, vibrant melody that filled the blood and set it burning. Ethereal Twi'lek voices added their enticing wail. Together they created something powerful, a primal, driving force that set Anakin's heart and mind racing in a way he rarely felt outside of combat. The music thundered in his chest. He could feel it behind his breast bone like a second heart, beating out a wild, sensual rhythm that shouted with the simple joy of perfect beauty found in movement.
Anakin glanced at the other Jedi to see if they felt similarly affected. Mace Windu looked unfazed, as though nothing in this room held any power to touch him with its wonder. Ahsoka, though, was staring in awe at everything, obviously overwhelmed by the shear amount of sensation that this place offered. Her body swayed unconsciously to the driving beat of the music.
Anakin scanned the room, suddenly feeling an unexplained urgency to find Rex amongst all this overwhelming alienness. The tables were filled with many species, though Bothans, Twi'leks, and Weequay were the most numerous. They shouted and laughed, drinking some odd frothy blue liquid and eating from the many platters of food scattered in abundance across the tables. Dancers of many different species twirled and gyrated on table tops for the diners' entertainment. On the side of the hearth opposite the Jedi sat a large stone table on a raised dais. At its head, in a chair piled high with cushions, sat Genine Buishka, the Pirate Queen herself. Her green lekku twitched to the music's beat, and her cold gray eyes never left the Jedi standing just inside the doorway.
Worry started churning Anakin's stomach. Where was Rex? He should have been here.
I never should have let Master Windu send him in alone!
Then familiar movement caught Anakin's eye, and his head snapped toward it. On the table closest to the dais was Rex. But this wasn't a Rex that Anakin had ever seen before, even in the painfully rare and deeply treasured time they managed to steal for themselves.
This Rex moved with a grace and fluidity that the trained soldier never professed to have. His bare chest glistened with a light sheen of sweat brought on from the energy of his movements. Rex had grown his hair out for this op, and now sweat damped strands stuck to his forehead and reflected the cavern's strangely beautiful light in their black depths. His eyes were half-lidded, long lashes turning the familiar warm brown irises a haunting smoky black. He seemed completely unaware of the eyes of the beings that followed his movements, lingering on the flowing shimmer-silk pants that clung to his hips and billowed around his legs, on the half-cape made of sheer material attached to the gold bracelets on his wrists and biceps, on the single golden hoop in his left ear. He was completely oblivious to the approving glances he was drawing from the Pirate Queen on her cushioned throne. He didn't even notice Anakin's burning gaze through the thin haze of smoke that filled the hall. For Rex, in this moment, there was no past and no future. There was only the present. And the music.
Anakin was yanked out of his hypnotize state by a low whistle of appreciation from his Padawan. "I never would have guessed that Rexter could move like that." There was obvious admiration and not a little bit of wistfulness in her young voice.
He threw her a sharply quelling look. "Keep your mind on the mission, Ahsoka. Such thoughts are unbecoming for a Jedi."
Her montrals flushed and she ducked her head, changing suddenly from a battle hardened veteran to an embarrassed teenager. "Sorry, Master."
Anakin acknowledged her apology with a nod and a perfunctory, "Forgiven, Padawan." His internal voices, however, would not be so easily quieted. The voice that sounded like Obi-Wan rebuked him for being a hypocrite. Hadn't he been staring not moments earlier? But the warm, forgiving voice, Palpatine's voice, insisted that it was a different matter entirely. Rex was his captain, his lover, and he had a right to worry for his safety.
Besides, murmured a voice that bore an alarming resemblance to Dooku's, he's mine to stare at, not hers, no theirs, mine!
He kept Rex in his peripheral vision the entire time, barely conscious of Master Windu's exchange with Genine Buishka. He was very aware, however, of the occasional glance that the green Twi'lek threw in Rex's direction even during the price settlement for the Intel agent, as if unable to help herself or even aware that she was doing it. He saw every being that reached out to touch the young clone, some simply from a desire to see if anything that moved that naturally could actually be real and others out of more carnal longings. He felt every grazing brush of skin like a barely dodged blaster shot, while the reaching hands that did make contact were scorching wounds directly to his stomach.
Anakin burned with a fierce, unrestrained desire that he hadn't felt since he was a boy of nine on Tatooine, passions as yet unchecked by a Jedi's severe self-discipline. The music awoke the feelings in him like a slumbering beast roused by a familiar noise. He wanted to destroy every person who dared touch his lover, his Rex. He wanted, no, needed, to completely erase whatever marks had been left on Rex by another, physically and in the Force, needed to burn them away and replace them with his touch, his memory alone so that Rex was infused only with him.
It was a struggle to keep such strong emotions hidden from the other two Jedi, but somehow he managed. The energy of this place drowned out a single being's thoughts, hiding from the Jedi what was so obviously right in front of them. Anakin supposed the same could be said for this war.
An agreement was reached quickly and the exchange made, six metric tons of spice for the treacherous Intel agent. And then they were leaving with a suddenness that startled Anakin. He craned his head back towards Rex's table, only to see that it was empty. He fretted all the way back to the ship.
Just as the boarding ram was lowered, a figure moved out of the shadow of a nearby overhang. Rex gave an awkward smile, shifting self-consciously in his dancer's costume.
"I don't suppose I could catch a ride with you people?"
Ahsoka laughed at the captain's sudden appearance. Mace Windu gave Rex a grave nod with just a hint of approval in his dark eyes. But Anakin couldn't find his voice. He could only stare at his captain. Rex met his smoldering gaze for an instant, held it, then turned away to sit beside Ahsoka in the shuttle's passenger seat. The young Padawan teased her friend mercilessly on the flight back to the Resolute, ribbing him for his costume and scolding with mock severity for never telling her that he could dance like that.
Rex's sage reply was, "Well, sir, we learn something new about ourselves every day."
The shuttle docked in the Resolute's hanger bay. The passengers disembarked in silence, each bound for his or her own destination. Master Windu accompanied the clones that were taking the Intel agent to the detention center. Ahsoka headed for the gym to practice her katas and lightsaber drills. Rex was most likely going to his cabin to change out of his disguise before too many of his brothers saw him in it. Anakin stood for a moment at the base of the shuttle's ramp, feeling lost. Then, with sudden decisiveness, he strode from the hanger bay.
Anakin caught up with Rex just inside the clone captain's cabin. The door slid closed soundlessly behind the Jedi, shutting out the rest of the galaxy. Shutting them in.
Even here, hundreds of kilometers above the planet's surface, he could feel that haunting music. It was like a poison he had unwittingly ingested. It was in his bones now, in his blood, and it would not leave him be.
His hand extended, oddly clammy fingers hovering just above Rex's back, right between his shoulder blades. At this close range he could feel the heat of his lover's body radiating outward to warm his own chilled skin. Anakin reached, covering the small distance that separated them, both physically and in the Force, letting Rex's Force presence sooth his agitated heart. But the itching thrum of the music persisted.
"Wait."
His voice sounded hoarse, and his throat was oddly dry. Rex paused with his hands poised to begin removing the bracelets at his wrists. He didn't turn to look at Anakin, simply stood with his back to him, waiting.
Anakin moved forward until his robe covered chest was a mere breath's distance from Rex's bare back. The clone's body heat intensified at this range, only adding to the boiling that already existed in Anakin's blood. He leaned his head in close, inhaling deeply. Rex smelled of foreign spices, alien musk, and that oddly tangy perfume. He allowed his breath to ghost across his captain's pierced ear as he spoke a single request.
"Dance for me."
Now Rex did glance back, showing just the barest flash of his bright eyes. They were the familiar warm brown, the color of honey and wheat and summer sandstorms on Tatooine. Anakin's stomached tightened with excitement. Then the young clone's head lowered and his body began to sway gently, finding its rhythm. A sudden burst of movement shook him and his head tipped backwards, eyes half-closed, lips parted, as the music once again took hold.
Anakin moved with Rex, matching his twists and gyrations with growing ease. The cabin was silent, but the music was still inside him, vibrating and pounding and intensely alive. Soon he couldn't bear even the slightest distance between their bodies, and he pressed close, chest to back. Rex's heartbeat was strong and vibrant, shuddering through Anakin's body with the intensity of a thunder storm. His hands came up, splaying wide across his lover's bare chest, feeling the shift of muscle under gloriously smooth skin. They trailed downward, dragging over scars and hard stomach muscles to rest on shimmer-silk clad hips. Anakin clutched at Rex's hips hard enough to leave bruises, not trying to direct or control the clone's movements, but for the sheer pleasure of being able to hold on tightly and feel every agile sway and twist.
One hand trailed back up the way it had come, splayed for an instant on the young captain's glistening throat, before tucking under his chin and urging his head to the side. Anakin's mouth sought Rex's blindly. He missed, found a cheek, and trailed down to meet his lover's waiting mouth in a kiss that drowned out even the pounding base of the music.
For Anakin and Rex, in this moment, there was no past and no future. There was only the present. And each other.
It was all they needed.
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mad'ika