Author's Note: OK so some new characters that are NOT MINE are going to show up in this chapter. They come from Karen Traviss's Republic Commando Series. I don't think it's necessary to read those stories to understand this one. I'll do my best to explain who the characters are. You'll get to meet them along with Rex. There's also a Rex tie-in story on my Author page about how he got the Jaig Eyes if you're interested, it's called A Given Soul.

I'm starting to think the amount of pain and hardship I put a character through is directly proportional to how much I like that character. If that's the case than Rex is my favorite!

Hope you enjoy and leave me a review or a cookie or some moldy leftovers… whatever's lying around I guess. –Ember

Chapter 2: A New Home

.

Within a week Rex had a squad of six troopers under his command including Coric. Two of the new arrivals were former Commandos, troopers specially trained in small four man cells by mercenaries Jango Fett brought to Kamino before the Clone Wars. There were always rumors about the Cuy'val Dar, the motley assortment of mercenary sergeants almost entirely made up of Mandalorians, who trained the Commandos. Most of the Mandalorian traditions the clones knew came from the Cuy'val Dar filtering down through the ranks. Rex had learned from Alpha 17, who was taught by Jango himself. These clones were taught by another hard-ass Mando and the differences showed. The Commando's talked differently. They held themselves differently. They complained about the newer, thinner armor near constantly and jumped at every sound as if they were still on covert-ops in enemy territory. They didn't mix with the other troopers well, sneering and talking in Mando'a between themselves. Rex let them believe for all of a day that he didn't understand every word. A quick biting retort in their own language sobered them up a little. Still they were a terrifying pair of hair-trigger psychos if Rex had ever seen one. The quiet, sedate assignment didn't suit them.

"Sergeant Vau didn't sweat teaching us manners," Kaden had said when Rex called him out on his rude, restless behavior.

"He was too busy teaching us how to keep our limbs attached to our bodies," Sur'atiin finished his brother's thought without missing a beat. Apparently training in small, insulated groups meant even less chance for individuality. The two commandos seemed to be telepathically linked, their minds running the same thoughts. Rex generally gave up on trying to control their bad attitude and settled for keeping them in-line on the job. They were vigilant guards, he had to give them that.

One trooper in Rex's squad was transferred from the 41st Elite Corps, a laconic vod called Walli. At first he seemed almost as problematic as the commandos. He didn't say more than three words in his first week; "Yes, sir" or "No, sir." Rex commed his old friend Gree who gave the quiet trooper a good recommendation.

"He's not quiet. He's listening, and he's thinking. That man thinks more than is good for anyone, but in a tough spot he'll find the way out no one else will. Damn good slicer too," Gree said. "Take care of him, Rex."

"Will do, ner vod." Rex replied and glanced over at Walli who was wearing his bucket, lying in bed. "He's damn weird though."

"You get used to it. I got used to you," Gree replied. "K'oyacyi. It's good to have you back."

"Yeah, you too." Rex replied and ended the com. He was getting up to find Coric and beg a painkiller off him when Walli cut into Rex's helmet com.

"We're all dead men," the trooper said softly.

"Yeah, we have been since the moment we were decanted, Wal-ika. Get used to it."

"I mean us, the six of us and you. No one leaves this unit."

"Why do you think that?" Rex asked.

"They won't risk the secret getting out."

"What secret?" Rex asked suspicious now.

"The one you know but won't tell Coric, something about the child."

Rex turned silently to look at the trooper on the bed who hadn't moved. He would have to be more careful around Walli from now on. The man was smart and he did listen. Rex wouldn't put it past him to have eavesdropped on his call with Gree. Rex was more careful what he said in range of his bucket after that.

The last two clones were Shock Troopers, Lieutenant Ven and Lieutenant-former Commander- Fox. Ven seemed like a capable trooper who had a good sense of humor and a friendly disposition. Between the insular commandos, Corics new found solemnity, Walli's deliberate silence and Rex's own lingering ghosts a light hearted voice was welcome. Ven had seen his share of the war unlike most Shock Troopers who'd never been off Coruscant. Ven knew Rex's reputation and trusted his new Captain easily. Fox was a different story.

It was hard not to think about Fives whenever Rex saw the former Commander. He'd never warmed up to Fox to begin with. Now, for the first time in his artificially short life, he wanted to abuse his rank over the arrogant Shock Trooper.

"What did you frak up to get demoted here?" Rex asked when Fox reported for duty the day after Coric arrived.

"Respectfully, sir, you can shove it! Read my file if you have the clearance otherwise mind your own karkin business." Fox replied evenly.

"Fine, vod," Rex forced himself to say the words kindly and dropped the issue. Curiosity had never won him any rewards in the past.

The seven of them lived in the small guard quarters off the side of the apartment. Rex had an office to himself that he rarely used. Two men were on guard at all times watching over Luke and the nurse on staff. The nurses lived in their own rooms off the main bedroom and like the guards worked in rotating shifts. They cared for the child with professional detachment and apathy.

The staff also turned over quickly. After Luke suffered from a normal cold the entire nursing staff was replaced. The replacements were more jumpy and paranoid about the child's well being, with a motivation that worried Rex. They had a kind of mortal fear in their eyes and a reverent attention when they dealt with Luke. The silent child squirmed in their arms and really cried for the first time in their care.

When Nia arrived Luke was six months old, the child had barely learned to sit up on his own. A squad of Shock Troopers brought her right to the doorway. She walked in between the four armored bodies, looking small among their bulk. Her stringy brown hair was pulled back severely to the nape of her neck and her green eyes were wide and watery, looking around with half terrified bemusement.

"This is Nia Kahn," the trooper in charge told Rex. "She's the boy's mother."

"Then she's my responsibility now as well?" Rex asked as he accepted the data pad with his new orders.

"No. Your priority is the child and only the child." Rex was corrected, and without another word the Shock Troopers departed, leaving the thin woman standing vacantly on the landing. Rex looked over the false mother. She was young, only 25 at the most, but her body was curved like a mothers. He wouldn't have been surprised if she did have a child, but that child wasn't Luke.

"May I see him?" she asked Rex in a whispery voice.

"He's asleep now, Ma'am."

"Yes, alright." She replied and almost dreamily descended the stairs. She stood at the window for the hour after arriving without moving. Walli walked past her on one of his daily scans for bugs and cameras. Nia turned when he passed. Shining tear streaks caught the light on her face.

"Are you alright?" Walli asked her.

"Yes, why do you ask, trooper?" She said, cocking her head to the side.

"You're crying."

"Oh," she reached up to feel her cheek. "So I am." Nia turned back to the window, unaffected and resumed her strange silent vigil. Rex repressed a shudder. It felt like the quiet was eating at his mind, slowly driving him crazy. Maybe he'd get as bad as Fives and start spouting off conspiracies. If it came to that he'd damn well shoot himself. He wasn't about to give Fox the satisfaction.

But that would leave Luke all alone.

All of the hate that Rex felt for the Jedi didn't cross over to Luke. Maybe Rex would shoot his old General given the chance, but Anakin had still pulled his shebs out of more tight spots and certain death situations than he could count. Anakin had been the only thing between Rex and some Kaminoan's needle. That had to mean something.

And Padme. Rex could still remember the genuine remorse and grief in her voice as she mourned his brothers in the contaminated Naboo Laboratory. No one had ever mourned his family with him. It was something only vode did. Jedi didn't mourn even if they cared about the clones that served them and died for them. Padme Amidala genuinely cared. She deserved every protection he could give, and if he couldn't protect her he would protect her son.

So Rex kept his back straight and guarded the door to his own personal piece of hell on Coruscant.

.

It wasn't much to look at when they arrived.

The Alderan farmhouse was falling down. The first floor was in decent condition, water damaged on the west side where the upper story was collapsing. The kitchen at least was in tact even if every appliance was broken and required new parts. The old style masonry was of poor quality and needed patching in so many places it would almost have been faster to rebuild the whole place, almost.

The trapdoor into the basement had rotted out as had the stairs that led down into the natural caves underneath the house, carved out a hundred years or more before when water had run through them and out into the 20 foot ravine just two meters shy of the house's west side. There was a wide opening to the caves there, big enough for a ship once it was cleaned of debris, but it would take long hard hours of work to do.

The gardens were over run, their boarders hardly distinguishable. The two terraced fields, irrigated by the natural spring up hill from the house were in decent shape, even if they were useless at the moment, it was mid season and they were still bare.

There was a little shed that had collapsed and become a breeding ground for mushrooms. An old droid was imitating a planter full of weeds at the back door. Pipes had burst. Electrics had to be re run. One of the trees in the back yard had fallen in a recent storm.

Anakin was still unsteady on his prosthetic leg, Satine led the reigns of their single Grazer who pulled the hover cart carrying Padme, Leia and their few gathered possessions. Ahsoka walked behind them, eyes scanning the trees warily, twitching and impatient.

Anakin was frowning when his wife walked up beside him. She slipped her hand into his and surveyed their new home.

"I like it," She said with her usual infectious optimism. "It reminds me of Varykino."

He looked at her incredulously.

"It needs some work but…there's potential here. It is a little smaller though."

"A little?" He asked.

"Yes," she said smiling, "that's what we'll call it. Varykino Minor."

Anakin looked half ready to argue but just shook his head instead.

"Alright, Angel. It's your house. You can call it what you want."

She smiled up at him warmly. "It's our house," she corrected.

.

In the first week at Varikino Minor Ahsoka threw herself into the hard labor that was needed. The work was endless, from hauling supplies to reconfiguring wiring. It was all exhausting. Anakin was insistent on doing everything he could, hobbling around with increasing proficiency every day and hiding his grimaces of pain. Ahsoka didn't dare say anything about it. She knew he needed the distraction of physical work as much as she did. It was harder for their thoughts to stray to what they had lost and what they still didn't know when their hands were busy. So Ahsoka and Anakin worked tirelessly. At night Anakin curled up beside his wife in the tents that they were living in until the house was habitable again. Padme always tried to talk to him but the effort was wasted. Ahsoka would sleep in the tent beside theirs and listen to Padme's smothered sobs in the early evening and Anakin's nightmares through the early hours of morning.

Satine was quiet in the first week. She cooked, cleaned what she could, and began clearing the gardens. Outwardly she was composed but Ahsoka would catch her frozen in mid motion at times, just staring into space, her thoughts light-years away. The former Jedi wanted to say something in those moments like "He'll be ok" or "Don't worry" but those would have been lies so she remained silent. Obi-Wan's absence hung almost as heavily over the farm as Luke's.

Even Leia could not escape the despair that tainted their new pastoral life. She was restless and cried often, reaching out for anyone who was in view. She seemed to need the physical comfort of others around her. Or perhaps it was the other way around and the adults needed the comfort of the child in their arms.

They waited a week for news. It finally came in the late afternoon of the eighth day.

Anakin jumped when his com link went off. He dropped the hammer in his hands and quickly answered. Ahsoka ran lithely across the roof they were repairing to join him, almost trembling with anxiety. The holographic figure of Senator Bail Organa rose up from the little device in Anakin's hand.

"Senator," Anakin answered.

"Skywalker. You're looking well."

"I'm recovering. Do you have news?"

"Yes." Organa said and bowed his head with a heavy sigh. "It's not good."

"Obi-Wan is alive," Anakin said forcefully, "I can sense it."

"Yes he is. I've managed to locate him but… you'll never make it to him."

"Where?" Ahsoka demanded, ignoring the last comment.

"Here, in Imperial City. They are holding him in a maximum security prison a kilometer under ground."

"What? In the lower city?"

"Under the lower city."

"Nothing goes that low."

"Exactly. It's a pit trap and Obi-Wan is the bait. Palpatine isn't even trying to disguise that. You may get to him but nothing that goes down there is ever coming back up." Organa shook his head in disgust.

"We have to try though!" Anakin insisted.

"That's exactly what he knows you'll say," Ahsoka argued. "He knows you, remember. No mater how crazy a plan you come up with he'll still be expecting you, Mas- Anakin."

"Then what, we leave him there?" He snapped back. "You know what they'll do to him, what they are doing to him."

Ahsoka flinched and shut her eyes against the images of her own nightmares. They were more than just her imagination; she could feel it. Obi-Wan was in pain, wherever he was.

"We don't even know for sure if Obi-Wan is there," Ahsoka stalled. "This might just be one of Palpatine's tricks."

"We have to try!"

"Look at the state you're in."

"I'm a lot better than I was and I'm still the most powerful Jedi the council has ever—had ever seen!"

"Yeah but you're nowhere near recovered. Think about this, Anakin. Think about Padme and Leia." Ahsoka sighed and pulled out the last card she had to play. Over the last week she'd wracked her brain for anything that would keep her handicapped, stubborn-as-nails Master at Varikino when the inevitable call came. "Think about Luke," she whispered, putting a hand on his arm. "If you die or worse, if you're captured saving Obi-Wan who will save Luke? He's still out there and he will need his father."

Anakin gritted his teeth and looked away, down at the crooked shingles they were laying on the roof. His shoulder trembled under the weight of Ahsoka's arguments but it was Luke that broke him down.

"Ok, you're right. But it feels wrong to do nothing."

"I'll go."

"Snipps!" Anakin opened his mouth to protest, his old protectiveness faring up wildly. During the war he'd worried for her and told himself the worry was unfounded. After losing so many Jedi those worries seemed much more valid now. Ahsoka cut him off before he could start though.

"I'll just confirm he's there. I won't make any moves without some kind of support. If I think we have a chance to rescue him I'll call you."

"Coruscant is no place for a Jedi," Organa argued.

"Exactly. So no one is looking for Jedi sneaking in." Ahsoka put her hands on her hips with fabricated confidence. In the years of the war Anakin had learned to tell the difference from her genuine self-assurance. He wondered if Organa could.

"Maybe, but how do you plan on getting out?" the Senator asked, "I would take you if you could get to my diplomatic shuttle but the senators are all under heavy surveillance. I can't help you here."

"I'm resourceful and I still have a few friends around," Ahsoka said. Anakin watched her face closely for the telltale signs of her bluff, an extra blink or her smile just a little too wide. He wasn't quite sure if what he felt from her in the Force was just determination and excitement or something else, something darker.

"If anyone can do it, you can, Snips," Anakin said with defeat. "I did train you after all." He seemed to be trying to reassure himself more than her.

"Thanks, Skyguy."

"Just remember you don't have an army backing you up this time."

"I know," she replied darkly.

"Be careful, Ahsoka," Organa warned her, "and good luck."

"Thank you, Senator, for everything."

"We owe you more than we can repay," Anakin added.

"After everything the Jedi have done, it was the least I could do. I'll keep my eye out for information on your son and contact you if I hear anything."

"Thank you."

Organa's transparent blue figure nodded, then wavered once and disappeared. Ahsoka turned away and nimbly picked a path across the half finished roof toward the ladder. Anakin felt the familiar sinking feeling in his stomach he always got when he sent her on a mission alone. Then at least he'd been tasking a couple dozen armed and battled hardened men to protect her. But those same men were the ones who had betrayed her, turned her in to the empire and shot her. There was still an angry red burn on her shoulder where Rex's blaster bolt had hit.

Rex of all the clones, was the hardest betrayal to swallow. The clones had demonstrated they could kill their Jedi officers. Krell and Tiplee proved that. But labels like "clone" and "Jedi" aside, Rex would never harm Ahsoka. Anakin knew that as surely as he knew that he could never hurt Padme. He had watched the relationship between his Captain and Padewan from the beginning, and seen duty transform into care and care into something bordering on devotion. Even Rex had recognized that he had feeling for Ahsoka that he shouldn't. So, where had that feeling gone? Anakin shook off unanswered questions.

"Ahsoka," he called out.

"You can't stop me," she replied without pausing on her way across the roof, "don't even try."

"I wasn't going to. I gave up on that when you made that insane jump into the lower city."

Ahsoka stopped and glanced back for a second at her old Master.

"I know I'm not your Master anymore Ahsoka and I'm not your father. I just…"

"You've lost enough," she finished the sentence for him, not in the way he would have but with a ringing truth to her words.

"We all have."

"I need to do this, Anakin. I need to figure out for myself what's happened to the galaxy and… what I'm supposed to do now."

For a moment Anakin caught the cracks in her façade and he could feel in the Force her turbulent state of mind. She was confused and lost. Everything in the galaxy had become strange and unknown overnight. Everything she had previously relied on was gone. The Order was scattered and destroyed. The Republic was irreversibly changed. The man she thought she could trust tried to kill her and the place she had come to call home was now unsafe for her. Ahsoka had lost more than just a job when Order 66 was declared. She lost her people, again. For the second time in her life she had to leave with nothing but the clothes on her back and the weapons on her belt. She was well and truly lost.

But more than all of that, she was angry. She was angry at the Replublic, at Palpatine and the Sith, at the Jedi Council, at the Clones, at Organa and Jaina and the other Senators, at the Separatists, and at Rex. The bitter feeling of her anger was all the more biting to Anakin because it was familiar. He had felt that anger himself. He felt a stab of fear for his padewan. Even if she wasn't a Jedi and never would be, that kind of anger was destructive. It was blinding and would open her up to be manipulated… just as he was. Only with distance could he see that now. But it didn't give him any insight on how to turn her away from that self-destructive path.

Is this how you felt Master? Anakin thought. Did you see your own faults in me? Is that why you were so hard on me about my anger?

"Just don't do anything reckless," Anakin said as Ahsoka made her way down the ladder. She glanced up over the edge of the roof.

"What? Like you would?" She asked with an echo of her old cocky grin.

"Exactly like I would. May the Force be with you." He bowed to her as if he still had the long Jedi robes and a lightsaber.

"And you, Mas—Anakin." In two steps the tips of her montrals had disappeared under the roofline and she was gone. Anakin sighed. He sat heavily on the shingles and rubbed at the sore band of flesh where his new prosthetic leg met the burned stump. He just hoped that Ahsoka would find her answers and purpose before she was as badly scarred as he was.

.

Rex ate his food slowly while he watched the troopers go about their normal military lives. He didn't envy them. He was only back among them for the night. He'd been given a temporary bunk in the new 501st barracks until 0400 when he would catch a transport back to his sector of the planet city. He had already delivered his report to the Emperor personally and was slowly coming down from the adrenaline high of the unpleasant experience. The Sith was terrifying in a way the Jedi had never been. But that didn't mean the Jedi had any less capacity to commit horrors and treason. They just wore different robes and carried different colored sabers. They were all Force wielding dictators in the end, right?

"Gar gana ori'gett'se meh jori meg aliik."

Rex paused in his meal at the rough voice spitting mando'a at him from behind. He glanced sideways at his helmet on the metal top of the mess tables. In the bright lights the gray stylized upturned "V" shapes were clearly distinguishable. They were the only things that outwardly differentiated his helmet from any other stormtrooper bucket. It irked him that anyone would question his right to wear that honor. He didn't recognize the voice either, which only made the offense worse.

"Oy, hut'uun. Jorhaa'i gar." The voice called him a coward and demanded his attention. A hard firm hand grabbed his shoulder. That was a mistake. Rex allowed himself a small smirk.

The Captain grabbed the gloved hand on his shoulder and twisted it as he stood, knocking over his chair. He spun out a kick and caught the man behind him on the knee. The other man went down and Rex viciously twisted the hand in his grip, locking the man's elbow and pushing him down by his shoulder.

Rex caught the sold ca-thunk of an extending vibro-blade. He saw the man's legs curling, building power for the jump that would wrench his arm out of Rex's grip. If Rex wasn't quick enough he'd get a vibro-blade in his side right after that jump. Best counter-defense was a harsh offense thought and Rex was fast.

"Check!" A second unknown voice snapped and the man under Rex's grip froze in mid-motion like a paused hollo-vid. Rex slowly lowered the barrel of his DC until it touched the back of the man's bare head, a head just like his.

"You're making a scene, Dar," the second voice went on. Rex glanced sidelong at the newcomer. Like the man crouching on the floor under the blaster, he was a clone, just like Rex, but he spoke differently, held himself differently and his armor was bulkier. Commandos, Rex concluded. They were similar to the ones in his squad.

"Let me go, shabuir," the one called Dar growled. The vibro-blade made a his-shunk sound as it retracted but the words seethed with anger. The kind of unbridled anger that Rex had seen tear soldiers apart from the inside. He felt a stab of pity.

"That's Captain," he spat back with a little less than his usual biting authoritative tone.

"I don't give osik what you're rank is, aruetii." Dar called him a traitor, a foreigner and soulless in the eyes of Mandalorians.

"Oyacyi de Resol'nare," Rex snapped back that he lived by the Mandalorian way. Part of him felt the words were a lie though. In Resol'nare family was sacred. At one time she had been family and he'd betrayed her so could he still call himself Mandalorian, mando'ad, if he'd failed to protect her… much less been the cause of her suffering.

Rex released Dar's hand and stepped back, holstering his blaster as a sign of good faith. The Commando leapt up like a tightly wound spring and his fist snapped out. Rex ducked it easily and stepped into the man's reach, slamming his shoulder into Dar's chest and sending the Commando crashing into the next table. It felt like slamming into a durasteel wall and sent stabs of pain through his back from the old injury.

"Darman!" the second Commando, dropped the tray of food he was holding and grabbed his mate, holding the other man back. "Udesii, Dar! Let it go!"

Darman shook off his buddy, but the second Commando had put himself strategically between Rex and Darman.

"Walk it off, Dar. Get something to eat. I'll come find you later."

Darman opened his mouth to argue but the other commando had a look on his face that said it wasn't a suggestion. Darman huffed and growled. He shot a long glare at Rex and stalked back the way he'd come.

"Sorry about him," the remaining commando said. "He's had it rough the past few weeks."

"Lots of things are changing," Rex nodded, "it's harder on some than others."

"I'm Niner," the commando held out his hand. Rex reached out and was happy to find the commando reached for his forearm, clasping it in the Mandalorian handshake.

"Rex."

"Good to meet you, ner vod. Mind if I join you?"

Rex just shrugged and righted his chair. Niner sat down beside him, leaning back casually and letting his eyes sweep the crowded mess.

"You know a lot of mando'a for an infantry trooper."

"I learned from and Alpha ARC, A-17."

"Then he gave you that," Niner motioned toward the Jaig Eyes on Rex's helmet.

"No. It was one of the Mandalorians."

"The Cuy'val Dar."

"A doctor," Rex said nodding.

"Gilamar?"

"You know him?" Rex asked.

"Yeah, he was close with our sergeant, mine and Dar's," Niner explained. "He's a good man."

"And our enemy now."

"You noticed his name on the wanted list then?" Niner asked.

Rex felt the familiar sensation of a knife twisting in his stomach and the faint smell of burning flesh seemed to linger in his nose, turning his appetite. Of course he noticed the kind old Sergeant's name on the wanted list, he checked it every morning to see if Ahsoka was still there. She was and her picture, silka bead padewan braid and bright blue eyes, looked foreign no mater how long he stared at it.

"Does it bother you that we're now hunting the people who used to be our allies?" Niner went on at Rex's silence, his voice dropping lower, nearly getting lost in the general din of the mess.

"Orders are orders," Rex said mechanically.

"I didn't ask if you would do it," Niner replied, "I asked if it bothered you."

"I've done things that bothered me before."

"Just a question, ner vod."

"Does it bother you?" Rex glanced sidelong at Niner. The Commando was frowning and watching Dar walking back through the line with his tray.

"I knew some of the Jedi quite well. I know at least one that didn't deserve to die. She wouldn't have been a part of any coup. All she wanted was to protect her men, see them through the war and then live peacefully." Niner sounded wishful.

"You were 'close' to her?" Rex asked. A tight feeling took over his chest, making every heartbeat painful.

"I wasn't but Dar was… really close to her. Val solus tome bal dar." Niner said they had been one, together or separate: the words of the Mandalorian wedding vow. Rex swallowed and looked over at Darman again across the room. He had lost even more than Rex.

"Was Darman the one who…?" Rex trailed off.

"No!" Niner hissed. "He wouldn't—couldn't. It was a Jedi. A Jedi killed her by accident because she was protecting a clone, a shinny nobody."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I. It doesn't bring her back though."

"No. It doesn't."

"He's been like this every since. Half the time he's normal, like it never happened. Then sometimes he's just angry and he doesn't seemed to remember who she was or… what they had. But he doesn't grieve."

Rex felt like his heart was sore and struggling to pump, aching in his chest with every action. It felt trapped.

"Yeah," he muttered, looking down at his helmet on the table. "I think I know what that's like."

"What is?" Niner pressed.

"Waiting to grieve and being angry because you can't," Rex said softly.

"I thought you might understand him better than I do." Niner said. Rex sat up in surprise. "You're Rex of the 501st. Word gets around," Niner explained. "I heard you were the reason that we captured Kenobi and you led the hunt for Skywalker's Padewan on Shili. They were your COs before the Purge."

"I didn't lead the search."

"You were involved though."

"Yeah." Rex admitted sullenly.

"Then it does bother you," Niner concluded. Rex groaned and ran a hand over his buzz cut. He sighed heavily and stared down at the two eyes painted above the visor on his helmet.

"Niner," Darman was back, he'd walked up behind them. "We've got a briefing in 10."

"Right." Niner stood up. "See you around, Vod." He slapped Rex on the back. Rex hesitated long enough for the commandos to take steps before he stopped them.

"Niner," he said sharply, looking up. He met his brother's identical brown eyes. "It doesn't. Not as much as I think it should."

"I know what you mean," Niner replied and something tight in Rex's chest relaxed. He watched the two commando's leave the mess and even after they were gone he was staring at the door.

He was still confused about his emotions toward the Jedi, toward Obi-Wan and Anakin, and her, but he felt a little reassured. Maybe he wasn't crazy. Or at least, he was no crazier than any of his brothers. That was all he needed anyway: brothers. That's all he'd ever had in the beginning. That was all he had now, wasn't it? Maybe, Rex said to himself, thinking of Luke, I have something more; an even greater duty.

Author's Note: So Walli, Kaden (KAH-den), Su'ratiin (soo-RAH-teen), and Ven are all my characters. They have their uses, each of them. Kaden and Sur'atiin are some of Walon Vau's trainee's and their names mean "anger" and "vigilance" respectively. Walli is a borderline aberrant clone and Ven is your average clone trooper who makes the best of his rotten luck in life. Like them, hate them, leave me a review and let me know. Questions are welcome. I love it when people question my decisions. They make me think harder and come up with better plot. –Ember