"Hey, kid?"
Rex had been calling her for a few minutes now, but she hadn't replied. She didn't know what to say.
"Kid?"
"Yes?"
"About Anakin, what were you going to tell me?"
"What do you mean?"
"You said you thought something terrible had happened. What happened to General Skywalker?"
Her mind went back to the Venator, right before order 66 had been enacted. She had completely forgotten about what she had said to Rex before he and the other clones started shooting her. Ahsoka was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the clones had betrayed the Jedi. She knew it wasn't their fault, but that didn't change anything.
"Protocol order 66. It brands the Jedi as traitors, and they are to be hunted down and killed."
She almost couldn't speak for a moment. Like her throat had suddenly tightened up, allowing nothing, not even air to flow through, and it wasn't until she forced herself to swallow that the invisible wall that stood in between her throat and her lungs was broken, swallowed, and heading down her esophagus to be dissolved by her stomach acid, and air was allowed to pass through again. To Rex, it must have seemed like she was choking out of nowhere. "And the chips forced you to attack me?" she said, through the midst of coughing.
"Yes. I had no control."
She still wished she hadn't asked him to explain it to her. The thought of the clones having no will and just following orders was too much for her to bear.
"Kid?"
"Does it matter?" she replied.
Rex peered out the window, looking back onto the wreckage of the destroyed Venator as they left the planet's surface. "I guess not." They exited the atmosphere, entering space. Rex powered on the NaviComputer by pressing a series of buttons. "Alright, kid, Where to?"
"I don't know."
The ship hummed as they floated through the vacuum of space, "Ahsoka," he said with a low and tired voice. "We need a destination."
"I DON'T KNOW!" She froze and covered her mouth. Rex looked back slightly, then went back to steering the Y-Wing. "I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay." A rattle came from the Y-Wing's engine, breaking the momentary silence.
Seconds later, tears began to run down her face like a rushing waterfall, "Rex," she cried. "What happened? WHAT is happening? I'm so scared." It felt like she was drowning as she gulped for more air, not realizing her chest and throat were tightening from her hyperventilating. Invisible walls closed around her, and no matter how hard she tried to keep them away, they edged towards her like a predator stalking its prey.
Rex unbuckled his belt, turned around in his chair, and placed his hand on the glass that protected them from certain death. He wanted so badly to lift the glass separating them, but he couldn't. All he could do was stare helplessly. "Why?" she cried louder. "Why?! Why?! Why?!"
A sharp pain went down her hand and up her shoulders. Ashoka opened her eyes. Her hand, she had been hitting the protective glass, and now she couldn't move her right hand anymore. "It hurts."
Rex squinted, eying her hand up and down. "Try to move it," he said. "Slowly."
When she did, she felt another sharp pain, like a knife stabbing her, go from her hand and up her shoulders. "Barely."
"It might be broken. Don't move it too much. Once we get to a planet, we'll get it patched up."
She closely examined her hand, noticing that her orange skin was covered in dirt and muck from her fight with the clones. Wires protruded in and out of every hole on the metal panel below her and, her eyes wandered. "I hurt everyone around me, including myself. You're not safe if you're near me. You should drop me off some desolate planet and let me die."
Rex gave a half-smile and a nervous chuckle, "I'm not going to do that."
She sniffed, stopping for a moment to look out the protective glass, then saying, "You do realize we can't see each other again, right?"
"Yes."
"It's not fair."
"It isn't."
"What are we going to do, Rex?" She stared at him, her eyes wide and watery; at any moment, tears could come rushing out from the already broken dam. She was scared. The only other time she had felt this scared was when Plo Koon brought her to the Jedi Temple all those years ago. That didn't matter now. He was probably dead.
Rex leaned towards her and put his hand on the glass once more. He looked her in the eyes and said, "We're going to survive." He kept his hand there and didn't let go. "We will." She put her hand on the glass. They stared at each other for a long moment before Rex let go and sat back in his seat and buckled his belt.
"So, where to kid?"
Ahsoka peered out onto the blackness of space, tears beginning to run down her face once again as she looked back at her friend and said—