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Title: Reunion - Rex Focus
Author: Jade_Max
Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex
Genre: Friendship
Era: Rebels, Season 02; Post Episode 04
Summary: Missing Moment - Rex and Ahsoka get to have a chat
Reunion - Rex Focus
Rex did his best to pay attention to Commander Sato despite the fact he was hyper aware of the Togruta who was practically boring holes in the side of his head. Fifteen years ago, he might have ignored it completely - practice with it whenever she decided getting his attention was more important than debrief - but now... It had been over fifteen years since the last time and damn if it wasn't distracting.
In a good way.
That she was staring at him with such thinly veiled impatience indicated to him that she couldn't wait for this to be over and talk to him; it was nice they were still on the same page after a decade and a half.
Of course, a decade and a half had taken its toll on himself and his brothers; he hadn't expected the toll it had taken on her. Even as he gave his report to Commander Sato's about the imperial attack on Seelos and he, Wolfe and Gregor, he considered what he'd seen in the hallway when he'd stepped in front of Kanan and his team.
The vision had been one in his dreams since he'd last seen her fifteen years ago and the changes time had made upon her were not exactly as he'd envisioned.
She was taller, almost as tall as he was - he hadn't expected that - but she was also carrying lightsabers again. Her montrals and lekku were much longer than he remembered or even imagined they would be. Her clothing, on the other hands, was very familiar for all it wasn't identical to her old kit. It certainly echoed it and he found he appreciated the look it gave her; it was very... flattering. Reassuring, he corrected himself automatically and then paused. He was allowed to compliment her, wasn't he?
Drawing his full attention back to Commander Sato, he turned to motion to Kanan and his team. "That's when the Jedi came back for us, sir, and we were able to disable both walkers. With our home destroyed there was really nothing left for us on Seelos."
"I see." Sato considered him for a moment and then nodded. "Whatever the reason you're here, we appreciate the help." The Commander turned to Ahsoka with a respectful inclination of his head and Rex instantly approved; Ahsoka deserved that and more. "Was there anything else, Ahsoka?"
His gaze slid to Ahsoka, taking in the differences he had only noted at a glance before she'd all but tackled him in the hallway - not that he was complaining. Uncertain of the reception, more so after discovering that she'd been trying to contact him for years without a reply, he hadn't been willing to make the first move. It was just one reason he'd taken an at rest posture when he'd come to stand before her; it had forced him to keep his hands from doing something that might have been unwise.
"Nothing on my end." Their eyes met as hers flicked back his way and he was certain she could read the amusement in his. "Are we done here?"
"I believe that's it, unless the Captain has anything else to report?"
"Not at present, sir." His reply was almost automatic, but his gaze never left Ahsoka's. It was almost as if she were the one receiving the acknowledgement and it made his lips twitch. Old habits, possibly?
"If you think of anything else-"
"He'll report it," Ahsoka pushed from the wall where she was leaning, walking straight towards him with an impatience he recognized. Recognized hell, he felt it too. "Can I steal him now?"
Please do. The thought was unbidden but true for all he forced himself to stay where he was; he wanted to talk to her alone too. Still, there was enough of the old soldier in him to know one simply didn't abandon a briefing before you were dismissed.
"Ahsoka?"
Rex watched as she ignored Kanan's concerned inquiry, a half-smile on her lips, as their eyes met and held again. Had she heard his silent agreement with her statement; his silent desire to be stolen?
Her lips tilted, almost as if to say she had, before her gaze went back to Sato's. "Fifteen years is a long time and I'd like to catch up with my friend." Seto waved her away and she turned back to Rex with a tilt of her head that made her look fifteen again - or would have if she hadn't grown six inches. "How about it, Rex?"
"Lead on, Commander."
Thankfully, he head her laugh at his address as she led him outside the briefing room and beyond prying eyes. She didn't answer until the door slid shut behind them. "We need to break that habit. It's just Ahsoka now."
Rex couldn't resist. He reached out and flicked one of the hilts on her belt, unable to keep his amusement from his tone. "Sure it is."
"You're retired," she countered, "technically you're not in my chain of command."
The chuckle that slipped out was one of agreement and relief to find that she was very much the same as she'd been fifteen years ago; that they were very much the same as they'd been when they'd last seen one another. Unable to restrain himself, his hands no longer folded together behind his back, reaching for her was almost as natural as breathing.
Ahsoka put up no resistance as he enfolded her in his arms again, his laughter dying as he inhaled her familiar scent and tucked his face to the side of her montrals. She was much curvier than she had been. Hugging her, he absently noted, had been easier when she'd been shorter but this was nice too. Despite the difference in the way she felt in his arms, this was Ahsoka after so many, too many, years apart and he wasn't about to pass up the chance.
Apparently neither was she because her arms came about him, holding him with a strength he well remembered... and one that had nothing to do with the physical strength in her arms. He felt her, embracing him completely, as if wrapping him in the cocoon of her presence.
It was a homecoming he'd wanted but never allowed himself to believe was possible after they'd lost touch. After he'd feared her dead. Exhaling on a sigh, the words slipped out unbidden but heartfelt. "I've missed you, Ahsoka."
There was a heartbeat of silence before her breath whispered across her ear and his cheek, her words slightly choked.
"Me too, Rex."
Their hug lasted for several long moments, much longer than the one earlier when they'd had an audience, and it changed slightly as Ahsoka buried her face in his neck. Rex adjusted his grip on her as her arms slipped around his waist to accommodate the new position, and wrapped his firmly about her shoulders and under her lek. Her breath was ragged where she breathed against him and he realized she was doing the same to him that he'd done to her; breathing him in, taking comfort and anchoring herself in the moment by touch.
"I was starting to think you didn't want to see me."
Tilting his head against hers, he opened his eyes as she spoke, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest. Not want to see her? After having seen the log of messages Wolfe had hidden from him, he could understand why. If he'd been sending her messaged that had gone unopened for a decade and a half, he wasn't sure he'd have continued trying. He wasn't exactly built for optimism the way she was.
With his lips not quite touching the side of her montral, his words rumbled through his chest. "Hardly." With reluctance he eased his hold on her, letting her ease back, even as his hands slid off her shoulders and down her arms, parting from her form reluctantly. Part of him knew that he couldn't keep touching her even if he wanted to. That she seemed reluctant to let him go was an unexpected balm. "Wolfe hid your transmissions. He's been paranoid since the fall of the Republic. Believed all Jedi, even one who'd left the order, wanted us dead."
"Wolfe's still alive?"
"Yeah," Rex smiled as she expressed her cautious delight with the news, amused that she'd been too distracted during his debrief of Commander Sato to note it. "He and Gregor and I have been quite the team. Enjoying our retirement and hunting Joopa on Seelos."
"Joopa?" He grinned again at the skeptically amused tone in her voice. "That some kind of slang?"
"Big game, actually. Difficult to catch but makes one hell of a meal."
To his surprise, she took his hand, her smile sincere but guarded. "And I want to hear all about it - just not outside the command center. Come on."
Their fingers folded together naturally and Rex made no move to reclaim his hand as she led him through the her to know where the best place to let them speak without interruption was on the blockade runner, he took the opportunity to evaluate some of the other differences in her.
Like the fact she no longer wore her headdress; or rather, that it was different. And the fact she was as supply muscled now as she had been as a teenager. Not that she was a teenager anymore. At thirty one, she was anything but a teenager and looked it. Even if she was currently acting like one as she threw an impish grin over her shoulder at him.
Despite his rapid aging, he felt almost like a youth when she looked at him like that.
Following her faithfully, he burned the details of her into his mind just in case this was the only opportunity they had to talk together before they were separated again. He'd already made memories in the few minutes they'd had, but he was greedy for more.
Mentally noting they were headed for the aft section, Rex caught his bearings as she was opening a door that looked the same as the rest and pulled him inside. He stopped short, looking at the field of view beyond the viewport and found himself catapulted back to the Resolute and the many times they'd viewed the stars together. Back when the galaxy had seemed to make sense and their reason for fighting had been clear - before the Empire had risen from the ashes of their beloved Republic.
Looking back to her after a cursory glance out the viewport, he cocked his head to it. "Nice view."
"Better than the one you left behind?"
He opened his mouth to answer when she lifted her hand and waved it at the door; Rex could hear the lock engage and chuckled, amused by her actions.
"What?"
"A man might think you want him alone... kid."
To his delight, she burst out laughing at his tease and met his gaze with a brilliant smile. "Nothing gets past you, huh?"
"One might say it's in my blood." His lips stretched into the easy smile he'd come to appreciate upon gaining his freedom. "Not that I'm objecting. I wasn't expecting to get you all to myself so soon."
"Surprised?"
"Pleasantly so." he nodded to her, motioning to her waist. "When'd you build the new ones?"
"After the..." she hesitated.
The silence that fell was tense and heavy as she sought the right words and Rex knew there weren't any. Just the truth and the heavy hit it carried; the hit they'd both taken in their own way. Even as he thought it, Rex knew Ahsoka's wounds were deeper than his own.
When the existence of the control chip had spread among the GAR, options to remove them were secretly explored. Fewer brothers than he'd hoped had taken the opportunity to ensure their own choices. Many of them, but not as many as the Jedi, had been killed in the first minutes of the Purge when they'd attempted to defend their Jedi.
"Order 66." Rex's words were soft and solemn. "I'm sorry, Ahsoka."
"You didn't-"
"No." Rex cut her off, understanding she had to ask the question for her own peace of mind; there was no accusation in her eyes, simply a plea. A plea to prove her right and Rex was wiling to oblige. "Wolfe, Gregor and I removed our control chips. Thanks to Fives, we knew about them. We had a choice."
They shared a moment of silence for their fallen friend and Rex's closest brother; it was an absence he'd come to terms with, mostly with her help. Losing Fives, especially the way he had, and having him die in his arms, had been one of the hardest deaths of his brothers to take.
"Most of your brothers weren't so lucky."
"No." Rex shook his head. "And after that, you fell off the map."
"I hid," she admitted, looking away. "I was afraid they'd punish you for having contact with an ex-Jedi."
"And you what," he interjected a note of skepticism into his voice, turning the conversation back to the track it had originally be on, "spent your spare time making new lightsabers?"
Her chuckle was soft. "Part of it. I got in touch with Bail Organa and we started all this," waving one hand to the viewport, she indicated the fleet he could see in formation around them. "It started small, with just the two of us, but we knew where to look and where to go to find allies initially. Until the Empire's forces started rounding up sympathizers. Then everyone went to ground."
"It's impressive," and he was telling the truth as he said it, impressed by the nerve and gall it took to defy Palpatine's Empire. "Never one to be satisfied with half measures, were you?"
"We're still small," the counter was accompanied with a sigh and Rex wondered what she was thinking about as she answered. "Small is good, at least in cells we have a chance to make a difference."
Rex let out a bark of laughter. "This," he waved to their small fleet, "isn't a cell."
"No, it's all of the cells who could respond to the call to rescue Kanan," she agreed. "The Ghost and its crew are just one cell among many."
"And you want me to help them."
"Can I be selfish and I say I want you to help me?" she stepped close again and placed her hand on his forearm, the sincerity in the depths of her eyes holding him still more than her touch. "You have knowledge and skills we could really use, Rex. If you're willing, that is."
"I would do anything for you." Like there was any doubt? As her Captain he'd have given his life for her; despite the years between then and now, that hadn't changed. His hand covered hers. "All you have to do is ask, Ahsoka."
The moment was charged as they stared at one another and Rex couldn't help but marvel at just how... beautiful she was. Her strength of spirit as different, but shone just as brightly as it ever had, making it hard for him to look away.
"Anything?"
"Within reason." He flashed her a half smile, attempting to lighten the mood again as he squeezed her fingers . "I'm a free man, you know. Choices and all."
The tension between them disappeared as she burst out laughing. "What'd you have in mind," she teased. "Being at my beck and call?"
"I'm not?" he lobbied the tease back at her, delighted she had taken it and run with it. It was just one part of their friendship he'd missed. "Guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time."
"Sounds familiar."
"Like Jedi advice?"
"I'm not exactly a Jedi."
"And yet, you're not exactly not a Jedi." Releasing her hand from his forearm, he flicked one of her lightsabers again, drawing her attention to them. He also couldn't help asking him a question that had been on the tip of his tongue since their initial reunion; one he couldn't make sense of after she'd walked away from everything only to find her - here and now - with the weapons of the very order she departed on her hips. "Why'd you make yourself a target?"
"With the Jedi order all but gone, someone had to keep the traditions."
Which wasn't true, Rex knew. Ahsoka had walked away because of those traditions and what she'd seen them becoming. Shrewdly, he lifted an eyebrow. "Or at least the ones you agree with."
Ahsoka chuckled again, acknowledging his insight. "Something like that. Jedi training is all I knew; all I've ever known. When the order fell, it gave me something to hold on to. Something to fight for. I might have walked away, but I could have always gone back."
"Once a Jedi?"
"Not exactly," Rex could see her struggling to find the words and held his tongue. "There were things wrong with the order when I left, Rex. Important things. Jedi had lost their ability to use or feel compassion and emotion, turning instead to blind logic. That wasn't the kind of Jedi I wanted to be; it wasn't the kind of Jedi I was trained to be. Ana-"
She stopped.
Anakin.
The name fell heavily between them, a reminder of a friend long-lost. Rex knew his General hadn't fallen in the wake of Order 66 but he had been retired before discovering his General's whereabouts and never learned his true fate.
For Ahsoka it had to be worse; a thousand times worse as they'd both imagined the worst. Placing one hand on her shoulder in silent support, he squeezed. He'd watched the fall of the Jedi, for all he'd not taken part in it, and knew just the kind of emotions that she had to be feeling.
Ahsoka blinked looking at him, opening her mouth a couple of times as if to continue only to have no words escape, and Rex knew she needed more than just a token show of support. Without hesitation, he pulled her close again.
Fifteen years without her, and he'd had he in his arms today almost as many times as he'd held her through the war. This embrace was different, though. It wasn't one of thanks or relief. This embrace was one of shared loss; of acknowledgement and support. This was a shared acknowledgement of everything and everyone they'd lost and all they'd been through to reach this point.
Rex couldn't help but feel, despite Wolfe and Gregor having been with him all this time, that here, for the first time since their retirement, he was finally where he was supposed to be again.
He didn't move his arms, made no move to sooth her beyond the firmness of his embrace, but he knew without a doubt that Ahsoka appreciated it.
"I believe I can rebuild something of the order," her voice slightly husky, her cheek on his shoulder as her breath feathered across his cheek. "Not into what it was, but what it should have been. Into what I thought it was."
"If anyone can do it," he agreed softly, squeezing her a fraction more tightly, "it's you, Ahsoka."
"Will you help me, Rex?" Lifting her head, she met his gaze, solemn in her request as she searched his gaze; Rex could feel her hand touch the base of his neck where his armor started. "Not as my Captain or a Clone who feels he owes a debt to an old Commander, but as my friend? As a man who knew what the Jedi once were and could be again? As the man I trust more than anyone in this crazy Galaxy?"
He didn't even have to think about his answer and it rolled off his tongue practically on the heels of her question. "Of course."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." This was where he wanted to be; where he needed to be - how could she even think he'd say no? He released her, taking a half step away to put some distance between them again. If they were going to be working together, he couldn't keep grabbing her at every opportunity to reassure himself that she was real. "Where do we start?"
Taking a deep breath, she turned and took a seat on the edge of the steps leading down to the viewing deck, patting the ground beside her as she glanced up at him. "How about we start with the stories of what we've really been doing for the past fifteen years," she offered with a smile Rex could tell was almost shy.
Rex sat beside her without hesitation. "And then?"
"Then we can figure out what to do next - together."
fin
