Hunters of the Past

Author's Note: Well, I'm terrible at using the clones, so I wonder why I even bothered trying to write this in the first place. :D

~ Tirana Sorki

Rex arrives at Ahsoka Tano's quarters to prepare for the mission earlier than he expected. And from the sound of it, it's earlier than she was expecting to. He hesitates in the room outside of where his former commander is, when he hears the sound of talking filtering through the open doorway. Is someone here to see her? He'll... wait until she's ready, he supposes.

Whatever she's doing, she's obviously pretty absorbed with it, since she doesn't seem to notice that he's there. Whatever it is, it's likely important, so he'll keep waiting for now. They still have some time until they have to leave anyway. Still, as Rex continues standing out there in the main room waiting, he can't help but make out some of the words that Ahsoka is saying.

"... I know you'd never forgive me for running and hiding when the galaxy is in a state like this. There's times I want to so much, but I can't," Ahsoka is saying, speaking quietly, almost as though to herself but at the same time she's obviously talking to someone. Rex suddenly feels like he's intruding on something extremely private that isn't meant for him to be hearing. He and Ahsoka might be close, but she obviously thinks that she's alone – or that she and whoever she's talking to are alone. But what can he do at this point? Other than try not to listen. Still, he can't help but keep overhearing when Ahsoka starts talking again. "I won't let you down again, Master, I promise."

The world seems to stop for a moment. Master. Ahsoka is talking to someone who she's calling Master. And there's only one person in the galaxy Ahsoka ever calls Master. But – that doesn't make sense because he's gone. Rex knows that. He doesn't even need a confirmation.

In spite of himself, he takes a few steps closer to the room Ahsoka is in, stopping in the doorway. The Togruta is sitting at in front of a table, a small, paused hologram in front of her. Rex was almost expecting it but – the sight of... him for the first time in so many years freezes him in place.

The same brown-blonde hair – it's short so this hologram is obviously before Ahsoka left the Order – the same blue eyes sparkling with life that he remembers so well even after all this time, and the same trademark smirk on his General's face when he was up to something. Generally some ridiculous plan that General Kenobi wouldn't stop complaining about.

Rex is hit with a sudden stabbing pang of grief so hard it nearly floors him. Ever since that day now over fifteen years ago, and even after all this time they'd been together, he and Ahsoka never really discussed General Skywalker or what likely happened to him.

They couldn't. They both knew; there wasn't anything to say. He was likely shot down by Rex's own brothers, his own men, like almost all the other Jedi were that day. Who fired that killing shot? He wondered for a fleeting moment. Was it Appo? Or one of the others? No, he doesn't want to know, in the end. Some things are better left unknown forever.

It's something that hurts far beyond words. How his brothers' free will was totally overridden, and they were forced to fire on their own General, who had spent the last three years devoting every moment he could to defend them. Were any of them able to resist it as long as Rex was? To give General Skywalker a warning like the one Rex was able to give Ahsoka? For that matter, would any of the others have even known to give him a warning?

Any time he or Ahsoka has ever mentioned Anakin, it was only a passing comment. A comment by him on what the General would have probably done or said in such a situation, or a similar remark from Ahsoka. Either way every time Anakin is mentioned, it always would leave both of them in a subdued silence for a long time afterwards. In time it became easier to never talk about it, even if Rex thinks about him every single day, even now after so many years without him.

"Rex, it's Anakin. I feel like something terrible has happened." Those were the last words Ahsoka said to Rex right before Order 66, and he never did ask later, what she was about to say. Did she sense it, whatever happened to General Skywalker? He still doesn't think he'd be able to bring himself to ask, even now. More like, especially now.

"See you after the mission is over, Master. May the Force be with you," Ahsoka speaks again, voice shaking ever so slightly. Rex takes another step closer to the room to get a better look a hologram before she can turn it off, and this time she unsurprisingly hears him, her head snapping towards the doorway.

Through the slight surprise flickering across her face, he can still see the pained look in her eyes as she stands up, giving him a small smile that doesn't really reach her eyes. "I wasn't expecting you to get here so early."

He nods in response, gaze flicking past her to the hologram again. If only – if only things were different. Rex lost so much in the Clone Wars and afterwards, but somehow, he always thought the one person he wouldn't lose was General Skywalker. He was always there, no matter what, even as Rex's other brothers fell all around him. Of all things in the world, he never expected his general would go down like this. And not even as something to be remembered for, but as another 'Jedi criminal and traitor'.

Ahsoka seems to practically read his thoughts, a look of understanding flickering through her eyes as she looks between him and the hologram still on the table. "You can talk to him if you want," she offers, slightly awkwardly. "I know it's not really real, he's not really here... and that it's not and never will be the same, but..." she sighs, looking away, "It's something, I guess. And maybe in a way he can hear us. He still out there, even if not physically."

Rex can't seem to find any words to even reply at the moment, but the Togruta seems to understand. She eyes him for a long moment before turning and heading out of the room, leaving the hologram on. "I need to pick up a few things for the mission before we go," she says as she disappears around the corner, leaving him alone.

Rex turns his gaze back to the table, and finds his feet carrying him over there, almost as a will of their own. He stares down at the image, suddenly so choked by emotions that even if he knew what to say, he wouldn't be able to talk. Rex hardly ever cries – he lost so many brothers all the time that he had to learn to keep moving, even if it always hurt for each and every one. And the other times – like when the whole cruiser had crashed, and everything he had ever known was destroyed with Order 66 – the pain was generally far beyond tears.

But now he finds everything blurring in front of his eyes, and it takes a few moments before he's able to blink the tears away. "General," his voice is still shaking when he says it. He's hardly even sure what he's about to say... just something.

"It's been a long time." He almost wants to let himself pretend for a moment that he's actually talking to Anakin. "I'm still out here, fighting with the Commander for the Republic. It's what we were made to do." And this time, it's actually a fight that Rex is choosing to participate in willingly. That... means a lot when they were literally created for a war they wouldn't have a real say in.

"I tried to leave once." A faint, though humorless, s smile curves his lips. "I ended up back in anyway. After everything... I'll still keep fighting, if for nothing else, then in memory of you and all my other brothers who have fallen." He can faintly hear Ahsoka moving around in the next room, and he's pretty sure she's giving him as much time and space as possible to let him finish.

"I've fought under many generals and commanding officers since the Clone Wars," Rex continues after a moment, gaze never leaving the face in the hologram, "And even with other Jedi. But none of them have ever been anything like you. I always knew you would have our backs, that you'd always have a plan. The others... they try, but it's not the same."

Rex hesitates before adding quietly, "I wish you were still here to fight alongside us."

Finally, he falls silent, an irrational part of him wishing so much for some sort of response. But he knows that will never happen. His General is gone. He's accepted that years ago, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt any time he thinks about it.

He's not really sure if this made it better or worse. It reminded him of everything in the past, of how things used to be. And some moments like right now he really wishes things could be like that again. But at the same time, this gave him a sort of closure.

All Rex can do now is continue his fight against the Empire, silently grateful that at least Ahsoka is still here at his side, the last of the people he used to know from before everything fell apart.

**w**

A few months later, Ahsoka leaves with Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger to go to a planet called 'Malachor'. They're trying to find something that will help them stop Vader and the Inquisitors, she told him.

She never comes back.

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