Rex could've cried with relief when he wakes up leaning on the cold metal bars of a cell.
Usually, waking up on a stone floor with the smell of bodily fluids in the air is a good reason to panic- as it means that disease and hypothermia will kill him faster than the people holding him as their prisoner. In this case, however, Rex just enjoys being surrounded by four enclosed walls and having cuffs enclosed tightly around his wrists.
It's familiar, he tells himself. He can tolerate prisons and cufflinks.
"I guess our captors got bored," Blinder mumbles, testing the cuffs on his wrists with a grunt.
"I'd rather a cell over not knowing if I'm going to wake up in a desert or a jungle," Jesse adds, trying to stretch as best he can in the tight space. It's snug for the thirteen clones, plus their Jedi-
"Where's the Commander?" Rex bolts upright, not caring as he scrapes his arm against the abrasive wall. Their armour has been taken away- another sign that their captors have finally decided to do what everyone else does and lock them in one place.
"I'm here," she announces before the other catch his panic. She's huddled in the corner of the cell, trying to not wriggle as Coric uses the sleeve of his blacks to scrape some horrible, smelly, green gunk out of the wound in her montral. She winces, "They didn't clean it again."
"And it's infected," the senior medic adds tartly, "If it isn't cleaned soon, she'll get a fever and become hysteric. Then, her central nervous system will start to shut down, and her echolocation will become so severely damaged that she won't be able to walk in a straight line."
"The joys of montrals," Ahsoka rolls her eyes, "And I thought you had a better bedside manner than Kix, Coric."
The younger medic makes a show of looking away and pushing out his lower lip. Rubbing his eyes, Rex observes Ahsoka, noticing that her ribs are starting to stick out and her eyes look sunken in their sockets. How long has it been since they were properly fed? Although they weren't too hungry in the beginning, it takes a lot to nutritionally satisfy a clone, and Rex recognises his own sluggishness as malnutrition starting to set in.
Echo sniffs the air, "This place smells weird."
Chopper nods, "Like the slug baby from Teth."
"The who?" Sixteen asks, pausing from digging out the sand from underneath his nails.
"Jabba the Hutt's son who we rescued on Teth," Ridge explains for him. He's got an arm wrapped around Ox's shoulders- the shiny being unusually quiet. Rex has to remind himself that the sight of the cell might be familiar to him, but a lot of the new clones have probably never been imprisoned before.
He remembers being that young.
"You're right," Ahsoka brushes away Coric's hands, "This place does smell like Stinky."
"Excuse me!" Fives leans towards the door of the cell even though there's nobody outside- not even one droid or guard. "Could someone please open a window? A gundark's shebs smell better than this lousy prison does!"
Rex has to massage his temples when his brothers erupt in laughter. Even Chopper manages to grin beneath his hard-as-stone expression. Hardcase is inspired by Fives' display and joins him by the bars, "Yeah, and whilst you're at it, put on Corrie Radio! I don't want to miss the Bolo-ball scores!"
Shaking her head, Ahsoka pushes herself to her feet to get a better look around. It can't be too difficult to break out of this facility but getting off whichever planet they're being held captive on will be more challenging. They've got no ship, and their commlinks have been taken with their armour. She's the only one without cufflinks, which is a respectively bad move of their captors.
Nobody knows how many guards they'll have to face to get out of here anyways.
She doesn't feel brave enough to admit to the boys that her kyber crystals are gone too. It's useless without the rest of her lightsaber components, but it's one of the only things that Ahsoka is connected to directly with the living-Force.
Not having it on her person feels like she's lost a limb.
"Are you alright, sir?" Solo asks quietly, his arms wrapped around his knees in an effort to either keep warm or provide some comfort for himself. She has to remember that he's only young.
Does she bother lying to him and saying she's fine?
"My head hurts a little," she admits- because it does. She didn't want to panic her men by agreeing with Coric, but infections in montrals are serious for Togrutas.
Solo glances cautiously at his vode rattling the cell bars and screaming for strippers and alcohol- acting like hormonal teenagers who have been grounded for the first time. He looks back at Ahsoka, "Do you want me to tell them to shut up?"
She's a bit surprised at his bold words, but smiles kindly nonetheless, "They're alright; they need to blow off some steam." As if Fives can be ordered around by a shiny anyways.
The young clone gives her a sharp nod as he stands up. He clears his throat, "If you're going to be looking for a way out, Commander, I've got an eye for potential escapes."
"Oh, yeah?" Ahsoka beckons for him to join her- away for the temper tantrum her other men are throwing at having their weapons taken away. "A second set of eyes won't hurt."
Solo scans the area around their cell for any hidden doorways or glimpses of daylight in the cracked wall. Ahsoka mirrors his position, but she lifts her eyes to the high ceiling- trying to spot a hatch of some sort that could lead to a ventilation system. This facility is obviously old, but there's got to be somewhere for the cold air to blow through.
A frown falls on her face when she sees tattered banners hanging from the ceiling- coloured red and orange. It almost looks like there's been a party here- many, many years ago.
"Huh," Solo has followed her gaze and squints at the strung banners, "Must be an abandoned B'omarr monastery."
Ahsoka whips her head around to look at him, "What did you say?"
Solo looks startled by her quick question, and straightens his shoulders to reply, "Those banners are a sign of the B'omarr Monks, sir."
Her head spins, and it's not from the headache. Ahsoka heard of those monks before- during her studies at the Temple. She remembers telling Anakin- on Teth- that the monastery looked similar to the ones she had learnt about.
She sniffs the air, nearly gagging at how much it smells like Jabba the Hutt's son.
"Sir?" Solo frowns when she says nothing- worried he's done or said something wrong, as many shinies do when a Jedi wears their 'deep thinking' face. "Are you okay?"
Ahsoka doesn't know how it's possible. Master Obi-Wan's report stated that the monastery was nearly all but destroyed in the firefight after the straggling survivors of the 501st were evacuated all those months ago.
"I'm going to take a look around," Ahsoka runs her hands up and down the bars of the cell, feeling for a weak spot. She can't tell her men- Rex, especially- that this is the same place where most of their Legion were slaughtered near the start of the war. "I'm going to, uh, try and find a communication port."
"I'll come with you."
Ahsoka curses under her breath, turning around slowly to face Rex. One glance at Solo and the shiny moves away- dismissing himself from the conversation between Commander and Captain.
"I'll go alone." She states, masking confidence by straightening her back, "We don't know what's out there."
Rex furrows his eyebrows- suddenly looking a lot like Anakin, "Which is why I'll go too. You can't face an army on your own, Ahsoka."
She almost wants to give into his pleading tone- the words of an experienced soldier wanting to have his best friend's back- but she knows she has to go alone. She's the Commander, after all, and Anakin would never let her follow him if he were in this situation.
"I'll have to pull rank here," She tries to stay light and upbeat, but the look that flickers across Rex's face- one that she wears whenever Anakin puts her in her place- makes her heart ache. "Someone needs to represent the men if a guard shows up."
Reaching out, she puts a hand on Rex's shoulder, "I won't be long."
He glances at her hand, sighs heavily and then nods, "Longer than five minutes and we'll all break out of here to find you." She has to roll her eyes- glad he's not overly annoyed at being told to remain in the cell. "I'm serious, Bluebird. The General will have my head if something happens to you."
"I know," she squeezes his shoulder- gives him an encouraging smile- and then faces the bars once more. Closing her eyes, she reaches out with the Force- imagining invisible chains securing themselves around the steel bars.
Her eye markings scrunch together as she pulls- separating the bars to make a gap large enough for her to fit through but not big enough for a clone. Rex respects her and her orders, but she doesn't completely trust him to not sneak out after her.
"I'm going to check out the facilities," she tells the rest of the men as they notice her slip through the bars, "Once I scout it out, I'll come back, and we'll go from there."
"Stay safe, Commander," Ridge nods, accepting her decision much better than Rex.
"Yeah, don't do anything stupid." Hardcase adds, which earns him a clip on the ear from Coric.
"Don't worry; I don't plan on starting anything I can't finish," Ahsoka turns down the dark corridor ahead- her heart in her throat from the nerves. She has no idea what she's about to walk into.
Anakin taps his foot on the marble floor, resisting the urge to pace the length of the library as Master Jocasta Nu slowly taps the keys beneath the glowing terminal. He's been sick with anxiety ever since he returned to the Temple- between getting lectured for leaving without permission and finding out that the scumbag who sold Ahsoka's ship is from a Mandalorian clan.
As if the tension between Mandalore and the Jedi Order wasn't bad enough already.
Fox is leaning over the chair to the side of Jocasta Nu, chewing the skin off his thumb as his eyes dance across the terminal screen. Anakin doesn't need to ask why he's not acting his usual, confident self. He heard from Obi-Wan that the woman who Commander Thire was heading to see the night he got attacked was found dead in a gutter only a few hours after Fox spoke to her.
That kind of guilt weighing on his shoulders... Anakin doesn't want to imagine how he feels right now.
"Here we are," Master Jocasta says softly, sitting upright, "Saasak Kehl- there's no current picture, which is understandable." She turns to the Knight and clone Commander who both brush their anxieties aside to pay attention to the old woman, "According to the Jedi Archives, Saasak Kehl was killed nearly thirty years ago during a purge of her Clan by the Mandalorian government."
"So, she's supposed to be dead?" Fox asks, stroking his chin. "Well, that doesn't make any sense if she was the one who sold Commander Tano's ship to Lyre on Fondor."
"What did the Mandalorian government try to wipe out their own people?" Anakin asks.
"You two have so many questions," Jocusta says to herself before looking back at the terminal, "Here, it says the Clan was purged because they refused to participate in the manufacture of weapons that the Mandalorians intended to use against civil planets. The Jedi Council supported their justification."
"The Council?" Anakin feels his eyebrows raise, and the little voice in the back of his head- that he always tries to suppress- whispers that he shouldn't be surprised.
"This was thirty years ago, young Skywalker," Jocusta smiles over her shoulder, "Times change, and so does the Order."
"The Mandalorians wouldn't leave any survivors." Fox comments, and Anakin can almost hear Jango Fett's voice within the clone's. "How could someone who's supposed to have been dead for thirty years have sold a ship only a couple of weeks ago?"
"That's not a question I know how to answer."
A chirp on his wrist allows Anakin to dismiss himself from the conversation to tap his commlink, "Skywalker here."
"This is Senator Amidala. Do you have a minute?"
He inwardly sighs at hearing her heavenly voice, "As many as you need, Padmé."
The use of her name is a silent sign that they don't need to fake anything. He's far enough away from Jocusta and Fox to address his wife without needing to force formality.
"Do you remember the N-1 starfighter we found on Bundil? I sent its identification number to Naboo, and you'll never guess what I found out." Padmé's voice is bursting with enthusiasm- even Anakin struggles to keep up. "It was bought from the same person who sold Ahsoka's ship to Lyre: Saasak Kehl."
"Okay," Anakin exhales slowly. It's almost satisfying, all the evidence pointing towards this Mandalorian woman being behind Ahsoka's disappearance, but it's no good if they don't know where she is.
"That's not all," Padmé continues, "I looked into it some more, and the same N-1 has been logged into spaceports on Coruscant several times over the last year- most recently, near the sight of the barracks fire on the same night."
His eyes widen, "So, you're saying this Kehl-person could be directly linked to the Knights of Freedom?"
He can almost hear the smile in her voice, "It's a high possibility."
"Then pack a bag," he says, walking out of the library without a care in the universe that he's left Fox with Jocusta, "We're going to Mandalore."
Ahsoka shudders, trying to resist the urge to wrap her arms around her body as she walks through the deserted corridors of the monastery.
The Force alone is telling her that something isn't right here. There are no guards to be seen- no cameras or ray shielded doors, either. She's even tried reaching out in the Force- seeing as her echolocation isn't quite as strong as usual- only to find no other sentients nearby.
She's starting to get a bad feeling that this isn't a prison- at least not the ones they're used to. Separatists and pirates alike never tend to be shy about introducing themselves to their guests.
The fact that she is able to walk- undisturbed- from the cell on the detention level to the main entrance is a big red flag that something isn't lining up.
The control panel for the large door that the clones took refuge behind during the Battle of Teth appears to be destroyed and running her hands over the metal doesn't reveal any weak points. Even if she gets it open, she'll have no chance at escaping any army that could be behind it.
So focused on expecting the unexpected, Ahsoka has to bite back a wince when her toe hits something made of metal on the ground, and two yellow eyes flicker at her through the darkness.
The figure is slumped against a pillar, but Ahsoka doesn't take any chances and pins it down. The worn-down droid moans with a metallic ring, "Don't hurt me!"
She knows that voice.
"Where is the Hutt?"
"The battle bots kept their prisoners on the detention level. I must warn you it is very dangerous down there, my friend. Not a place for a servant girl."
"You're-" the breath is quite literally taken from her lungs, and Ahsoka feels something worse than fear creep up her spine, "Who are you?"
"I am merely the humble caretaker," the droid replies, completely calm after its initial panic.
Ahsoka frowns, reaching out until she feels the cool, metal head of the droid who was Ventress' bait all that time ago. How he's here- slumped against a pillar whilst the 501st sit in the cell where Rotta was held captive- Ahsoka can't even begin to try to understand.
"I am merely the humble caretaker," it repeats, and Ahsoka huffs a dry laugh.
"Yeah, you already said-"
She's cut off by the loud groaning of metal chains as the door starts to rise- exposing the desolate entranceway to warm light. Ahsoka has to turn away from the wave of humidity that tears through the monastery, ducking behind the droid to stay out of sight-
Only for nobody to enter. Not a soul.
"Oh, my," the droid gasps, reaching its hand out towards something that Ahsoka can't quite see, "Poor souls."
She makes for the outside world, bracing a hand over her eyes to see clearly through the hazy light. The heat in the air makes her skin tingle- sweat already rolling down her spine. She nearly stumbles over a rock but catches herself.
Looking down, Ahsoka swallows hard.
It isn't a rock.
She stumbles backwards- landing on her bottom which sends dust flying everywhere. Her chest starts to heave, the memories of the pain and suffering of her men returning with full force as she looks over a sea of clone bodies.
Their armour is blue- Torrent Company.
Ahsoka reaches out a shaking hand. It feels like it's too hot to breathe out here, even though she was shivering inside the cell. Blood rushes through her head as she stretches out with the Force- desperately begging for answers.
"They're dead, Ahsoka!"
The young girl quivers against the wall, watching the erratic Captain with wide eyes. Rex's helmet rolls on the ground, a dent in the door marking his anger.
"Rex, I-"
"No, No! There's nothing you can do, Commander!" He sinks down into his chair, palming the sides of his head, "They're all kriffing gone!"
Ahsoka has to force herself to breathe- imagine the motion of inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. She claws the dirt beneath his hands, staring into the visor of the clone lying closest to her.
She ought to investigate- take off their helmets to see if they're real or not. That's what a proper Commander should do, and yet, Ahsoka doesn't even want to touch their armour. She needs to get Coric or Kix to look at this.
When she runs back through the monastery to their cell, Ahsoka is too panic-stricken to notice that the caretaker droid is gone, and a cloaked figure is watching her from the shadows.