Chapter Two

Ahsoka arrived at the clone barracks and was mostly thankful that it seemed to be empty from the outside; she assumed it must be dinner and most of the clones were in the mess hall. She easily made her way there she knew these barracks well. Ahsoka mostly mused on the last several hours, the next few months even the next few years. She missed her tribe, her family, but this was her tribe too, what was the word they used? She tried to remember it; the clones often threw in words on Mando'a here and there in their conversation, a way to keep with their original and their roots she supposed. Aliit! That was the word meant clan, Ahsoka mused yes this was her Aliit, as much as her Togrutan tribe on Shili is. She stepped through the doors of the mess hall and for once was thankful for the lack of helmets, she could see their faces, see them talking, eating, bantering, she scanned the crowd looking for buzzed blonde hair. Bingo, she spotted him sitting with Jesse, Kix, and… her smile faltered. Echo… that was Echo, but hadn't he… she shook her head that was a conversation for another time. She'd heard about Fives and Commander Fox… she heard about Umbara but she could feel the effect all of that had on these men, her men, they were her men her Aliit… she reminded herself of that as she started walking. There was a clear difference in them, something dark had happened and no one had fully recovered. She couldn't blame them, she'd known Master Krell and she didn't like him, he taught youngling lessons during her time at the temple, he was rude, relatively sexist and she generally hated the man.

She continued on her path and couldn't help but notice the volume diminish until it was next to nothing, hushed whispers 'is that' 'yeah' 'holy shit it's Ahsoka' 'why is she here?' 'do you think she's staying for good' and a few 'shut up don't you remember her hearing is better than humans' they had that right and she smirked. Rex turned when he noticed the drop in chatter and met her eyes with his own, warm brown meeting bright blue; he smiled at her and stood up going to attention.

"General Tano, it's good to see you." He greeted and Ahsoka laughed

"At ease Captain, it's good to see all of you…" she greeted them; it was most of the 501st in here almost dead silent. It was intimidating to say the least.

"Are you staying?" someone asked she wasn't sure who and Rex ushered her over to stand on the table.

"I'm staying, I'm not a Jedi, but I am a General. I'm staying I'm fighting with you, by your side and I hope you'll fight by mine." She started her tone even not commanding, Rex couldn't help but marvel at the way she so easily commanded the attention of everyone in the room. "I know I left, I know it probably hurt a lot of you and for that I'm sorry. I had to make a choice I had to figure things out… and one of the things I figured out is that a Tribe or a Clan…" she paused "Doesn't have to be your same species… I consider you all, the ones I've known since the beginning and the new faces I'm seeing here, my tribe, my clan… and if you allow me to say so my Aliit…" she smiled "I missed you all…" she ended and there was a movement, it started with Jesse and Echo, they stood up and saluted her, Rex was quick to follow, Kix was next and soon around the room she watched everyone stand, salute her, silent, a praise, a welcome back. She couldn't help it, her eyes welled with tears and soon overflowed, one of her biggest fears was gone, they were her men, she was their commander- no she was their general… and they still believed in her.

"Thank you…" her voice cracked as she got off the table she couldn't help it she hugged Rex and soon more joined, she knew this was something she did, she would hug her clones, her brothers even, and now they were hugging her all of them and she started laughing, and crying and happy, pressed up against Rex's chest piece peering up at him as the pressure of everyone seemed to mount but no one cared.

"Alright, alright!" Rex yelled "That's enough you're gonna suffocate her!" He yelled and soon there was laughter and people slowly started going back to their seats. She sat at the table with Rex and he could tell Echo being there brought up a million questions but she didn't dare ask any, he'd fill her in. She sat there and chatted with them for a while and often some of the boys would come up and welcome her back before leaving the mess hall. It got until their table was the last of them and they were still chatting Jesse telling her about missions she missed out on Rex sat there mostly silent and worked on uploaded a data pad with everything Ahsoka had missed, all the missions, the new legion roster, as much as he could think of to fill her in. He noticed a slight dull in her blue and saw her eyes not as bright and wide as they had been before, he made a mental note that meant she was tired.

"Alright Jesse, that's enough for tonight, she's gonna be on missions with us for a long while you can catch up more then, it's been a long day for you little 'un let's get you back to Senator Amidala's." he said standing and watched as she bid goodnight to the others. They walked out of the mess and she let out a yawn and a stretch, he watched her stretch out as they walked back to her speeder.

"Are you sure you're okay to fly back?" he asked and she rolled her eyes and nodded

"Of course I'm fine, it's just the sitting for so long." They got back to her speeder and he gave her the data pad.

"Here, this will help you catch up, fills you in on Echo too…" he noted and she took it putting it on the seat.

"Thanks Rex, I owe you one." She smiled at him leaning against the side and he shook his head

"Too early for that it's only your first day." He paused "You said new faces… in your speech…"

"Yeah so?"

"We all have the same face." He told her and she scoffed

"Not to me, sure a lot is similar but a lot is different too." Her hand reached up and cupped his cheek "For example… Your face has more angles than Kix's, Jesse's is rounder." She mused and her hand slowly dropped her eyes looked away slightly. "You're all different, you all look different… you're not the same to me. You're each an individual." She looked back and Rex could swear she was blushing. "I mean it Rex," her voice was soft and he smiled

"Thank you General."

"You can call me my name if we're alone…" again he noticed her blue seemed to deepen.

"Fine, thank you, Ahsoka." He said it and he liked the way it sounded, liked the way it felt, sure he'd said her name before but never to her, he liked the smile it brought to her features.

"I should get going back… night Rex…" she said getting into the speeder

"Good night, Ahsoka." She smiled and he watched her until she left stood there and smiled, took in a deep breath and went back to the barracks before anyone really noticed.