Crumbs of Hope:
Outer Rim side of the Wormhole...
While Obi-Wan started organizing the survivors of the destroyed Reckless, Anakin stalked the main hangar of one of the other Venators in their fleet that Obi-Wan had landed their escape pod in, looking for another ship to take back into the wormhole.
The way Ahsoka had reacted to the likely loss of Rex still had him feeling sick to his stomach, and a hopeless, roiling anger at the cruelty of fate was burning in his guts, adding to the general feeling of nausea he was doing his best to ignore. He'd had a basic idea of how attached Togrutans got to their mates, but the absolute devastation she had poured down their bond had had Anakin crying too (much to his dismay) and Obi-Wan doing his best to send calming thoughts to them both while he'd taken over flying their escape pod because Anakin literally couldn't see past the ocean of despair Ahsoka had shared with him whether she meant to or not.
He couldn't just close down their bond either, because his little sister had needed him more in that moment than she ever had and he would never disappoint her if he could help it.
At least he'd been able to connect to Padmè as well to help keep him sane until Ahsoka had finally passed out; he didn't handle grief well, as they all knew.
And because he couldn't bear to see his Padawan (former or not) in any sort of pain, Anakin was going to do his best to find Rex whether he was still alive or... something else. He was practically praying to the stars for the first option to be true with Rex just tossed to the far side of the space anomaly, thus out of range for Ahsoka to sense.
Anakin passed by a whole row of LAAT/is, dismissing them as too slow even though they were sturdily built and armed, which was also on his list of requirements in a ship that had a chance of making at least two trips through the wormhole. Then he passed a couple of Nu-class transports and frowned at them as well. Also too slow. Don't we have anything with some actual speed?
Fighters. Speed but no space. No good.
Walkers. Completely useless.
A T-6? Now that's a possibility. But no guns. I might need those to shoot debris out of my way or something.
Anakin made it all the way to the end of the line of hangar bays before he finally found something he liked. And in this case, he actually stood there gawking at it for a few seconds before he sent to Obi-Wan, "Hey! I didn't know we had a Theta-class shuttle hiding back here!"
Obi-Wan took a moment to respond from wherever he was elsewhere in the hangar, but when he did, Anakin could practically hear the wince in his tone. "That's because you weren't supposed to know about it. That thing's expensive and Admiral Yularen said you weren't to get anywhere near it because you'd just crash it and he didn't want to have to deal with the higher-ups when they demanded to know why the dignitary's shuttle was used in combat."
Anakin made a noise somewhere between a growl and a snort as he made for his new prize. "Yularen's just going to have to suck it up if this get's wrecked. Rex is more important than credits and this shuttle actually has a chance of helping me find him. It even has ray shields!"
"I agree. Take it. I want you as safe as possible anyway. I'll deal with the fallout later if it comes back less than pristine. ...But Anakin?"
"Yes?" he thought back as he started up the state-of-the-art shuttle, reaching with the Force for the buttons that the second pilot was supposed to push to get things rolling.
"Do try and bring yourself and the ship back in one piece for once, would you?"
He smiled slightly at the show of worry disguised as sarcasm from his Master. "I'll do my best. With any luck I'll back with Rex before Padmè gets here with Ahsoka."
"That would certainly be best," Obi-Wan agreed as Anakin started manoeuvring the three-winged craft through the shield and out into space, lowering the two side wings into flight position as he did so. "And Anakin?"
"What?"
"Keep an eye out for Cody too, please. He hasn't checked in with any of the roll calls yet."
The churning in Anakin's innards increased at the even more poorly disguised worry in Obi-Wan's tone. "I will, Master." And Artoo, he added privately to himself as Anakin pointed the shuttle at the giant cloud of unsettled space.
Earth...
Never been children is an understatement, Rex thought with a mental snort.
The Ice Queen, Elsa, looked like she was about to start all-out bawling on their behalf, but Cody managed to stem the flow of tears by touching her cheek lightly and shaking his head as he used his gloved thumb to wipe off a tear that had fallen. "Please don't be sad for us. We were trained to think of ourselves as mature, intelligent soldiers right from the start and we have accepted that to the point where it's a matter of pride to us to be so. I should not have told you my actual age, but I didn't want to lie to you either. I just... I just don't want you to think of me as a child, because I am not."
The woman looked back at Cody with wide, searching eyes, her hand coming up to rest on the back of his. "I... I see that. Your eyes have a world of weariness and fortitude in them that a child could – or at least should - never have. You are a grown man, aren't you?"
Rex felt like that was also an understatement... and like he was probably intruding on a special moment that Cody might not ever get again, but he couldn't exactly make himself disappear on the open rock face of this snowy island. All he could do was stay silent and still and hope that they forgot about him for another minute or two.
Cody, borrowing a page from General Kenobi's smooth ways, grasped her fingers like they were made of spun glass and kissed the luminescent skin on the back of her hand, inspiring a tiny gasp from her. "I'm very much grown, My Lady. Trust me on that."
Despite his determination to stay absolutely still, Rex couldn't help the raised eyebrow that Cody's huskier than normal voice inspired. Whoa. That's the same voice I use that usually inspires Ahsoka into jumping my bones like a tooka in heat. Cody must be entirely gone on her if he's using it already.
Apparently the husky voice worked on icy Force user's too, because her eyes visibly dilated and her cheeks darkened to a colour that nearly matched her parted lips. "By the Spirits," she breathed, blinking rapidly, and then pulling her hand from Cody's and backing up a step. Or three. She swallowed hard, sucked in a breath, and pasted on a smile. "Yes. You've definitely made your point, Commander Cody."
Oops. I think he scared her. Maybe she's not used to being treated like a real woman. I imagine as a Force using queen, she's been treated more like a god than a person.
Cody realized this too as she spun around and marched on towards the glacier, muttering, "Shab," under his breath.
Rex patted him on the pauldron consolingly and whispered, "Don't worry, vod. Just take it slow and careful and I think that woman will be all over you all on her own sooner than later."
"You sure?" Cody asked, looking both terrified and hopeful.
"I'm sure." Rex smiled reassuringly, recognizing the signs of a very interested female easily thanks to his experiences with his darling Togruta girl and some random glimpses into Anakin's and Padmè's interactions.
"Okay," Cody whispered softly as they kicked into a fast walk to catch up to the Queen who appeared to be leading them nowhere in particular. "Thank you, even if we won't be here long enough for anything to happen."
Rex had to admit that was a distinct possibility, considering he was determined to get back to Ahsoka as soon as possible. But he had to stand by his brother as well, so he said, "I think this is one of those times when your General would say, "Trust in the Force, my dear Cody, and all will be as it should be."
Cody shot him a look of amusement-laced hope. "If only."
Elsa had come to a stop by what looked like a waterfall of ice shaping the cliff face of the glacier. She was standing at the top of a set of steps carved from the glowing blue ice and glancing over her shoulder to make sure they had followed. Affirming that, she waved a hand and a doorway appeared in the ice as it shimmered and melted away. Glancing back again, she smiled at them as they hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. "Come. You are both welcome in my home."
"You live in a glacier?" Rex couldn't help asking as they climbed the stairs.
She laughed softly. "It's not as cold as it sounds, trust me."
"I would live in a literal ice cube if it came with the same enchanting scenery," Cody said very seriously as he looked straight at the woman who had captured his guarded heart in only minutes.
Elsa blinked at Cody again, her cheeks heated again, and she looked like she couldn't think of a single thing to say as she backed up slowly down the cave that she had uncovered; a cave that appeared to be lit by the glow of the blue tinted walls. Amazing.
Rex saved her by asking another question as they entered the cave as well. "If this is a glacier, aren't you worried about the flow of the shifting ice collapsing these caves?"
Elsa tore her eyes off of Cody and focused on Rex with a grateful look. "Magic holds the upper portion still. These caves and caverns have been here for years longer than myself and will hopefully remain for years afterward. The glacier flows around my home like a well behaved river."
She looked at the door pointedly, prompting them to do so as well, and sealed it again with a thin sheet of ice that still let moonlight through and rose from the water that had trembled obediently on the ground and off to the sides until she summoned it back into place with a flick of her hand.
"Impressive," Cody said with a wide smile that showed that he wasn't awe-struck to the point of stupidity, but fully appreciated her 'magic'.
"Thank you," she replied demurely, but the hint of colour in her cheeks showed that she liked Cody's praise. "Want to keep the heat in, after all."
Now that she mentioned it, Rex noticed that it was almost comfortable in the cave as opposed to outside, which had the bite of winter cold in the air. "How does that work?" He was infinitely curious and always soaked in new knowledge; he'd been bred that way on purpose, since it made for better soldiers if they were smart and adaptable to new situations.
"Yeah, and how do the walls glow?" Cody added as Elsa started leading them down the cave.
She gave them a smile over her shoulder, her brilliant blue eyes the same jewel toned colour as the glacier and were warm and twinkling against the backdrop of her pale blonde hair that sat like a mass of soft silk on her head and fell in a loose braid over the same shoulder. If Rex wasn't already head over heels for his Ahso'ika, he'd undoubtedly be falling for this woman almost as hard as Cody was.
"The heat is from a diverted hot spring that now runs under my home at just the right depth to not melt the ice but provide warmth through the small holes I made in the walls and floors. And the blue glow is from a luminescent algae that lives in the ice. Something about my presence makes them glow even brighter than they do when I'm not around."
"I can totally understand that," Cody said in that husky tone again. (Rex didn't blame him one little bit for it.)
Elsa's step paused and she looked back at Cody with a fleeting glance that barely let them see her eyes all wide again. "Ummm. Thank you," she whispered.
And then she swept into a huge cavern that was surrounded by intricately sculpted ice pillars around the edges and had an actual fountain in the center of the room that danced with water playing down multiple levels of snowflake-shaped ice. It rivalled the courtyard of any palace Rex had ever seen and was twice as impressive simply because of its location inside a glacier.
"Wow," Rex and Cody breathed in awe at the same time and in the same way, their eyes equally huge with wonder.
Elsa smiled indulgently at them, silent laughter in her eyes. "Come, this is just the courtyard. Wait till you see my actual home. I've had quite a lot of time to design and redesign it and I think you'll find it much more worthy of your current expressions."
"If you say so," Cody said for them both as they followed the shimmering silk of her long dress into another cave at the back of the courtyard.
"I do."
Rex resisted the urge to stick his hand in the water of the fountain just to see if it was real on the way by, because if this was a dream, he didn't want it to end just so he could find out if Cody got the girl or not.
In the belly of the beast...
As Anakin flew back and forth through the wormhole like he was in the most important and dangerous pod race of his life, he passed by innumerable pieces of his destroyed flagship and the smaller craft it had carried, and more lifeless bodies than he had the heart to count. Too many of them had blue or orange marks on their armour, but none of them had a kama belted to their hips or Cody's distinctive helmet. He also looked at the men in just their ice-covered black bodysuits who'd gotten sucked out into space with no protection, dreading the moment he'd see Rex's familiar face topped by the light blond buzz cut he prided himself on and that no one in either the 501st or the 212th dared to copy, and breathed a guilty sigh of relief when he didn't find Rex in just his blacks either.
There were also quite a few droids floating around, which they could retrieve later and fix if they were damaged, but he didn't see Artoo. Or any pieces of debris that looked like his yellow interceptor in the floodlight at the front of the shuttle. Which left Anakin with the strong hope that Artoo had gotten Rex and Cody to safety in the small starfighter (and it would be a squeeze for the two soldiers, no question) but had ended up on the wrong side of the wormhole.
So Anakin flew all the way through and popped out the other side with a sigh of relief at surviving the first trip through in one piece, thanks to the ray shields despite a few inevitable debris encounters in the constantly swirling mass of the equivalent of a space tornado.
Once out of the wormhole, Anakin was greeted by the sight of a blue and green planet with a single moon orbiting it. (On this side of the planet, at least.) Sensors picked up other planets in the solar system, but logic said that this one that reminded him of a bluer Alderaan and was closest to the wormhole would be Rex's destination if they had to land the interceptor for some reason rather than flying right back through the wormhole once they realized they'd gone the wrong way.
Thinking that it couldn't hurt to look, anyway, Anakin flew to just above the planet's atmosphere and then he let the shuttle drift in orbit while he closed his eyes and sent his senses scanning for the familiar Force presence of Rex and Cody. (Or any clone for that matter.)
About thirty seconds later, his eyes popped open and a relieved grin crossed his face as he sent the shuttle blasting down into the clouds at an angle. Found you, Rexter. Ahsoka is going to hug me for a year after this, I swear.
After she yells Rex's ears off for making her think he was dead, that is.
Oh, and mine too for risking my ass flying back into the wormhole twice.
Ennh. It's worth it.