Chapter 35

Whatever Happened to Captain Rex?

The two troopers assigned to opening the door to the cockpit had given up on springing the latch manually.

"The door was frame was bent during the crash, Captain," explained the first trooper, who identified himself as Shadow, a member of 5th Fleet Security. As with Hok and the others, Rex could see no obvious signs of injury on Shadow. And unlike his new scouts, Shadow's voice wasn't any louder than normal.

"We've give up on springing the latch manually, Captain. We're just going to have to force the door," explained the second clone, who'd identified himself as Drax. Drax's armor had dramatic rust red stripes from shoulder to gauntlet, identifying him as member of the 55th Mechanized Brigade.

"Yes, well, Shadow, Drax, good work, carry on, then," Rex said. He made notes in the crew roster in his HUD, adding these two team members in as well. There certainly were a large variety of clones onboard. It seemed like there were clones from every brigade in the Army.

Drax was missing a hand, just as Mako was, but it didn't seem to deter him from his efforts to break down the cockpit door. He'd found a variety of tools, and improvised hammers, around the ship and was attacking the door with gusto.

The noise level from the hammering was tremendous. Rex switched his helmet settings to filter out the background noise, and used his helmet comm to radio the two pilots, "Chance, Odds, how are you guys doing up there?"

"Oh, hello, Captain, sir!" said Odds, "nice of you to check in on us."

"We haven't been able to get a wink of sleep up here," added in Chance.

"Bang, bang, bang! It's all you hear! Keeping me and the missus awake!" said Odds.

"We clones need our beauty sleep," said Chance, deadpan.

"We were thinking of registering a complaint with the Chancellor," added in Odds.

"Because we all know how concerned he is about us clones," finished Chance.

There was a dramatic pause, and then Rex, Chance, Odds and Mako all enjoyed a good laugh at that one.

We've got a regular bunch of comedians aboard, thought Rex. These guys are even worse than the 501st. Thoughts of the 501st once again brought a twisting stab of pain to Rex's gut. Don't think about the 501st. Don't think about the 501st….

Rex tried to block out thoughts of the 501st, but he couldn't. Before he could stop them, he was assaulted with images.

Suddenly, he had a clear vision of men from the 501st, his men, on the hanger deck of the Resolute, hanging out after a mission, telling bad jokes and working off tension. The vision seemed so real that Rex felt like he was seeing something that was actually happening, rather than a memory.

For the moment, it seemed more real than the hammering on the cockpit door that was happening directly in front of him. His men were all there. No, not quite all of them. Some were missing since he'd left for ArmyMed. A good majority of them were there, though.

Rex saw each of their faces, and recognized all of their distinctive armor markings. The sight of them caused Rex's gut to hitch so painfully it was hard to breath. And, then that little hitch turned into a full-on double-punch when the doors swished open and… in walked Skywalker, Appo and Ahsoka.

Rex was shocked at Ahsoka's appearance. Gone was the bouncing, over-enthusiastic, difficult-to-contain padawan that he'd been watching out for since her first cocky appearance on Christophsis. She had changed, and not for the better.

Ahsoka was no longer dressed in the inappropriate attire that had always irked Rex. She was now dressed in traditional floor-length, Jedi robes. The clothes hung limply on her thin frame. She was the thinnest, and frailest, Rex had ever seen her. Drowning in the oversized robes, she looked so small and vulnerable. Rex never thought he'd want to see her back in the inappropriate attire that had vexed him so much, but she looked awful now.

As Rex watched Ahsoka slowly trail into the room, almost like a spectre, he was slammed with several emotions all at once. He was struck with this overwhelming urge to want to protect Ahsoka. The Ahsoka he used to know would have rebelled at the idea of even needing to be protected. But, the Ahsoka he saw now looked desperately in need of help. Rex desperately wanted to hold her against him, offering physical comfort, like he'd done both on TriLuna, and on their last night together aboard the Resolute. But now, Rex could do none of these things. He could only watch the scene unfold in his mind's eye, knowing all the while he could not physically touch Ahsoka.

Ahsoka continued to walk slowly, several steps behind Skywalker. His men stopped their conversations, and joking when they caught sight of their commanding officers. They immediately formed up into two perfectly straight lines for debriefing.

Ahsoka stood deathly quiet, and completely passive, one step behind Skywalker for the entire meeting. Unlike her usual behavior in a debriefing, where it was impossible for her to remain quiet, and not contribute her ideas and opinions, now, she said nothing. She contributed none of her ideas. If she had a thought or opinion on anything Skywalker was saying, she didn't voice it, or let her emotions show on her face. She put her hands behind her back, and gazed impassively out at the men. She was the perfect vision of a quiet and humble padawan. Perfect, that is, if one didn't know that such behavior ran entirely contrary to essence that was Ahsoka. It broke Rex's heart to see it.

When the briefing was over, Appo and Skywalker walked away, continuing on with their earlier conversation. They were discussing tactics for an upcoming mission. Rex didn't recognize the name of the planet they were talking about, or even this new enemy they were talking about confronting. Ahsoka followed, trailing once again, several steps behind them, like a ghost. It was as if she was there, but also not there at the same time.

Rex could make no sense of what he was seeing. He'd never seen Ahsoka behave in such a fashion. This was not the Ahsoka he knew.

"Little'un, what's happened to you?" Rex said, anguished, in the privacy of his helmet.

Ahsoka's head snapped up, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Rex?" she said, her eyes wide open with hope, fear and anguish.

Rex felt his heart slam inside his chest.

"Ahsoka!" Rex said, feeling suddenly as if he could-

"Are you still out there, sir?" asked Chance. His voice cut into Rex's mind, snapping him back to the scene outside the cockpit door, with the loud hammering.

"AH!"

Rex stumbled backwards against the side of the ship, disoriented. Off-balance, he began to fall. Shadow immediately dropped his tools, and made a grab for Rex. Rex had to give him points for reflexes. Mako, on Rex's other side, reached out with his one hand, and caught a hold of Rex as well. Between the two of them, they caught Rex before he hit the floor, and hauled him back upright.

"Easy, sir," said Shadow, "you know, you got bashed around quite severely when we crashed. Maybe you shouldn't be up and about."

Drax pulled down a nearby jumpseat, "Here you are, sir. Perhaps you should sit for a spell?" He patted the seat. "Nice and comfy. The Republic's finest foam."

Rex sank down into the seat, letting his crutches fall down to the floor with a clatter. He sank rested his head back for a moment, taking a deep breath. Mako was right by his side.

"Captain, I'll get the medic. Something is wrong, right? The medic-"

Rex gripped Mako's one arm before he could go any further, "I'm fine, Mako, really. Just lost my balance is all. Nothing's wrong. Could you get me a bottle of water from the galley?"

Mako looked at Rex critically, unconvinced.

"Really, I'm fine," Rex said, trying to sound convincing, but more than anything, just wanting a few moments to himself to absorb what had just happened.

"Yeah, yeah, OK," Mako said, getting up and walking toward the galley. He cast another concerned look back toward Rex, "one more episode like that, and I am hog-tying you and dragging your arse to the medic."

Rex smiled at his back, and then closed his eyes for a moment.

What the hell was that? he wondered. Did I really just see Ahsoka? Did she just -

"Captain Rex?" said Chance, his voice cutting in on Rex's helmet comm.

Rex realized he'd never responded to Chance. He closed his eyes for a moment, cursed in the privacy of his helmet, and then switched his comm back on:

"Sorry for the delay, Chance, Rex here."

"Good to hear your voice, Captain. Started to worry something had happened to you….We're very lucky to have you with us, sir…It would be a big loss to lose you," Chance said, all joking and levity gone from his voice.

Rex looked up and noticed Shadow and Drax hadn't resumed their hammering. They were just watching him, as if worried he was going to keel over at any moment. Rex changed the audio on his helmet, so Drax and Shadow could listen in on the conversation as well. They were all in this together. No reason why they couldn't hear this conversation, and it would also show them that there Captain was mentally fit, and not about to keel over and die.

"There's something I think you should know," Chance continued, "Right before we went down, Odds and I caught a glimpse of that pirate cruiser. They definitely took some damage, but curse the bastards, it didn't look as bad as what happened to our hull. They were headed toward one of Ando's moons."

Rex absorbed this information for a moment, "Must be their base of operations. Would make sense with the timing of when and how they ambushed us."

"Yeah, that's what we figured as well," Chance said, "and they are probably none too pleased about the way we completely took out their landing party. Other than the fact all their guys are missing, I'm sure they've found a body or two floating about in space by now. And, if they know we crashed here on Ando..." his voice trailed off.

"-then we might be expecting some company," Rex finished for him, "Thanks for the heads-up. We'll make sure we're prepared, just in case they do decide to drop by for another visit."

Mako had already returned from the galley. Rex twisted off the cap, and downed the entire bottle of water. He had been very thirsty. He hadn't even realized it. "Thanks, Mako," he said, handing the empty bottle back to him. "See that gets into the reclaimed waste, would you?" Ando was such a beautiful planet, Rex didn't want to trash any part of it.

"Hey, Mako," Rex said, trying to infuse some enthusiasm back into his voice, despite the shock he'd just received from seeing Ahsoka, "guess what? We might be receiving our first visitors in our new vacation home. Time to do a little party planning."

"A party, sir?" Mako said, picking up Rex's crutches and handing them to him, "I love a good party!"

"Yes, well, I'm sure you'll love this one. Explosions. Ambushes. Ammo. All the things we clones love so well."

"Will there be food, sir? Explosions are lovely, but what really makes for a good party is some cake. I've never actually had any, but I've heard it's quite the stuff."

"Me neither. But, the clone who kills the most pirates gets a bonus ration bar."

Mako sighed, "It's not cake. But, I suppose it will do. Before I die, though, I'd like to try some cake."

Rex reached over and gave Mako a brotherly pat on the back, rather than a smack on the chest plates. He hoped, too, that Mako got a chance to eat cake one day, before he died, too.

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