Chapter 4
"Feels good to have it back on." Rex says as he picks up his helmet, looking at himself in a mirror.
"Got to say, it does look impressive." James adds.
Ahsoka grabs one last piece of bacon before heading for the door, ready to go. James and Rex follow her out, starting the car.
The gravel crunches under the car's weight, the tires coming to a stop as they pull onto pavement. The plane's engines whine at idle, waiting for its passengers.
Major parker greets them outside the plane, "Good to see you again, Ahsoka, Rex, James."
James walks up to the Major, "Sir, what's going on? Why was the plane early?"
"I don't fully know; all I've been told is that the schedule was moved up for the pilots." Parker answers.
James nods and walks to the back of the car, grabbing his rifle. "I assume you'll be flying with us, Major?" James asks from the car.
"Unfortunately, no. I have some matters to attend to here, I will be flying out in the morning." He replies.
Ahsoka pauses, feeling the wind across her montrals and lekku. Something feels off, but nothing appears out of the ordinary. The three of them load onto the plane, Ahsoka still somewhat apprehensive.
The plane turns onto the runway and takes off, Ahsoka gently closing her eyes for several seconds, simply feeling the acceleration, hearing the wind race past them, the roar of the engines. Then silence.
Suddenly, an unknown, yet familiar voice. "Ahsoka." Ahsoka's eyes snap open, looking for an extra person.
"Everything okay?" James asks, sitting across from her.
"Yeah, it's nothing." Ahsoka responds.
Rex raises an eyebrow, recalling the times a Jedi would say it was nothing, then they would end up in a life-threatening situation.
"If you don't mind, I'll meditate for a while." Ahsoka says, closing her eyes again, her face becoming stoic, her hands on her knees. Slowly, all of the sounds around her fade, leaving nothing but silence.
"Does this happen often?" James asks Rex, motioning to the multiple floating objects.
"The meditation thing isn't so often, but when they do meditate, yeah this is it. I've never really understood it. Normally her and General Skywalker don't meditate. Not unless something's wrong." Rex answers.
"Do you think something's wrong?" James asks, touching a floating pen.
"If there was a threat, she would've told us." Rex replies.
After over an hour of silence, Ahsoka is about to give up.
"Ahsoka." She hears the voice again, with more clarity this time. Clearly a feminine voice, but she still can't place its origin.
"Yes?" Ahsoka asks into the void.
Nothing. No response, just silence. She waits patiently, for something, anything. Finally, she opens her eyes in frustration, the various objects dropping. Rex and James are both looking at her.
"What?" Ahsoka asks.
"Nothing. You've just been sitting there for a while. We were starting to wonder if you'd ever wake up." James says, chuckling.
The tires screech as they contact the pavement, the reverse thrusters opening. Ahsoka stares out the window, watching the raindrops on the window. Ahsoka still can't shake the feeling that something is off.
"Ahsoka, if you don't mind." James says, handing her a cloak to cover her montrals.
She simply nods, accepting it. They exit the plane straight into a waiting black sedan.
They pull into the White House, stepping out. Several men in suits greet them, one of them stepping forward.
"Ma'am, sir, we have to ask you to hand over your weapons." He orders, both Ahsoka and Rex handing him their weapons.
"This way." He states.
They come up to a set of doors, one of the agents knocking. A few seconds later the door swings open, a smiling man in a suit on the other side.
"Hello there! How are you?" The man asks, gesturing the three of them in.
"We're doing fine, sir." Rex answers.
"Good, good. Welcome to Earth. James, it's good to see you again, under better circumstances this time." The President states, shaking each of their hands.
"Sit down, please, we have a lot to discuss." The President tells them, the four of them taking a seat.
"As I'm sure you're aware, unless someone from your galaxy comes for you, you are stuck here. From what I've heard, you two are both high-ranking military members. That gives us two options, we can integrate you into our society, much of a challenge as it would be, or you could join our military, act as your own unit. Rex, is it? To transition you into our society won't be near as much of a challenge. You're human. People won't notice you as an alien to our world." The President states. Ahsoka and Rex share a glance between each other, waiting for him to continue.
"Ahsoka here, however, much as I hate to say it, will be treated differently because she looks different. It's just the way some of our people are. Over time, most will grow to accept you. We've prepared a press release for tomorrow morning, should you choose to live as civilians." The President continues.
James leans in, "If it helps any, the military will be far more accepting of you, provided you do your job."
Ahsoka nods, "Can we have some time to think about it?"
"Of course, we would prefer to have a decision by 10:00 PM tonight so we can make some phone calls either way. Just let James here know and he can forward the information."
"Hey James?" Ahsoka asks, standing by his door again.
"Yeah?" He replies, seeing Rex standing behind Ahsoka.
"How do we know what side we're on? If we were to go the military route." Ahsoka asks.
"We figured this would come up. I have some pictures and videos of the enemy you'd be fighting. We've been fighting them for years, started with an unprovoked attack on two of our buildings north of here. 3,000 innocent civilians were killed, thousands more injured. So, we took the fight to them." James explains, Rex and Ahsoka sitting across from him. He opens a laptop and slides it over to them.
"Oh my God." Ahsoka says, tears in her eyes at seeing the brutality of the terrorists, women and children murdered, brutalized, decapitated. Rex forms a growing frown, his hands forming fists as the pictures and videos continue.
"They're in the mountains. Mountains they know well. They know the land, they know the caves, they know the villages. Sometimes it's impossible to tell if you're looking at a civilian or a terrorist. Even our most elite units have a hard time traversing the terrain." James says.
"I'm in, if Rex is with me." Ahsoka states, her eyes hard and determined.
"I can't let my commander go in without me. Somebody needs to be the voice of reason for her." Rex says, cracking a smile. Ahsoka gives him a playful shove, cracking a smile herself.
"I'll let the President know, we can go over some of the details in the morning." James states, closing the laptop.
Author's Note:
This is moving right along, probably close to a major time skip, after this point the story will be more adult-themed, it will not turn sexual nor will there be major amount of cursing, a curse word every once in a blue moon because it's the military. But some of the situations will be violent and frankly, brutal. When one deals with terrorists, brutality must be faced with brutality. Different brutality, but brutal nonetheless.
-MTCII
Q&A:
Wait a Minute: I can see the regions of the different readers; I assume only the ones logged in? Fanfiction allows one to see, under traffic stats, what country readers are from and how many from that country. I think Fictionpress is the same way. There may be an option under your device settings to block it if you wish.
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