Author's Note
Okay here is that short one I promised.
Connected
Chapter Four: His Real Nightmares Begin
Main View: Rex
Secondary View: Anakin
Rex bolted upright for the second time that night. Only this time instead of seeing Ashoka walking away and disappearing into darkness he saw something much worse. He saw Ashoka being kidnapped and beaten. The worst part though was when she had been rapped. These couldn't be dreams. They were far to real and frightening, which was saying something because he was hardly ever scared..at least for himself. But what else could they be? Maybe Ashoka had connected with him threw the Force but why would she contact him and not General Skywalker or General Kenobi?
It had to be a dream, nothing else explained it. Rex tried to shrug it off and go back to sleep but that dream seemed so real. For what was probably the hundredth time in the last twelve hours he wondered if Ashoka was okay. The dream mad him worry even more about her than before.
What if that dream was some kind of memory transference? He had heard of jedi doing so to share memories and information more clearly. If that was a memory transference then that meant...that meant that a man named Brutus had rapped Ashoka. Rex felt an anger that he hadn't even known he'd had explode inside of him. If that guy had really done those things to her then Rex was going to kill him.
Rex tried to calm down, there was no guarantee that those had been Ashoka's memories, but did not succeed. He stared at the bunk above him and felt his own memories flow back to him. All the nights Ashoka had come in to just talk to him. It was really sweet. She seemed to be honestly concerned with his life and his future. Rex remembered all the times they had talked into the late night and Ashoka wound up sleeping on the top bunk. Rex missed her to the point where his chest ached at the mere memory of her.
He had to get her back. For Ashoka's sake as much as his own. Rex gripped her jedi cloak even tighter to his chest. He buried his face in the, surprisingly, soft brown material. He breathed in her scent. It was the only thing he had of hers.
Rex tried again to go back to sleep. It took some time but he finally drifted back off to sleep. Rex only dreamt of Ashoka that night.
The next morning Rex got up early to meet the Generals. They were in the war room talking. Anakin seemed irritated and worried. General Obi-Wan also seemed worried but he was better at concealing his feelings than his former padawan.
"Ah Rex there you are." The bearded jedi said when he noticed Rex walking over. Rex nodded curtly to them.
"Wow, Rex you look worse than me." Anakin said, trying to be funny and, at least in Rex's opinion, failing. He felt too tired to say something sarcastic or funny back.
"That bad huh?" He replied sleepily. He pinched the bridge of his nose to help with the head ache his lack of sleep had caused. If Ashoka were there she would probably notice and offer to help somehow by using the force. She did that for all of the men who served with her. The other jedi didn't exactly know about how she had been using her powers though so it was kept from their superiors, a rear thing in the GAR. Force he missed her.
"Didn't you sleep at all?" The general asked. He looked older, Rex noticed. He could just make out gray hairs starting to grow into the jedi's sandy mop of hair. The worry lines were starting to make their presents known too. Rex figured that he must have looked twice as bad because of the rapid aging.
"Not really, nightmares kept me up all night." Rex mumbled the last part to himself but the general had apparently heard him.
"Nightmares?" Anakin asked.
"It's not important General. What is important is finding Ashoka." He said sternly.
"Well, we're in luck because I managed to find a lead. The only woman to ever escape the Arapido. Her name is Mnene Metaxas. She is currently living on Corasant. I found her address, so when we get to Corasant we can go visit her." Obi-Wan said.
Rex couldn't decide weather he was glad or...worried. On the plus side they had found someone who had escaped the Arapido. On the down side she was the only one to have ever escaped. To top of that Rex couldn't get his nightmares about Ashoka out of his head.
"Rex why don't you try to rest some more? We need you awake and aware if you're going with us. Anakin advised. He wasn't use to seeing Rex look so, so what would be the right word for it? Exhausted? No, it was more than that. Maybe it was a combination of being worried and missing Ashoka. Well, what ever it was Anakin sure wasn't use to seeing Rex look the way he did.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer." Rex said as he turned and left. After Anakin was sure Caption Rex was gone he turned back to his old master.
"I think he misses her more then I do." He said worriedly.
"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Rex and Ashoka have always been close. I think he misses her, that's all." Anakin shrugged. He realized what he had said before shouldn't have left his lips. He tried to make his emotions less readable.
"They do seem found of each other." Obi-Wan replied thoughtfully. The two jedi stood in each other's presents for a long time.
"You don't think that..." Obi-Wan began.
"That they like, like each other? I don't know, but they are very close." Anakin said thinking it over, "We'll worry about their relationship when Ashoka is back."
Obi-Wan nodded his head in agreement. Anakin breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the Force that Obi-Wan had agreed and let the moment pass. They continued working on leads while Rex continued to have nightmares about Ashoka and the people who had taken her.
Next time on Connected:
"Someone was taken then?"
She couldn't be the one connecting with him, unless she wasn't connecting to Rex through the Force.
"But bringing me to Corasant, that was a mistake."
He had never felt this way.
"You sense her don't you?"
Chapter Five: The Jedi's Wife
Author's Note
Like I said, short.
Until Next Time
Faith, Hope, and Love