Author's Note: So I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get posted. It's been a bit hectic in my real life. Anyway. The next two chapters are written so they should be up sooner.

I came up with my own way of telling dates (since I can't very well use the ABY system. You can't tell dates based on an event that hasn't happened yet). I'm creating a new system starting from the year of Order 66 that will be marked in A.I. for After Imperium for years after the Empire was founded or B.I. for before.

Chapter 3: Soldiers' Duty

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The small freighter lowered to the landing platform and gave a shuddering thud when it hit the artificial ground. Ahsoka took a deep breath and re-adjusted the new unfamiliar headdress. The paint on her skin covering her distinctive markings was uncomfortably itchy but she tried to bear it. She took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart and turned toward the opening cargo bay doors.

"Here goes," she muttered to herself.

"You'll be fine," the ship's captain, a tall red-brown togruta said softly to her. "They never see more than markings on aliens anyway."

"I hope you're right," Ahsoka said as she followed him onto the platform.

"Authorizations and manifest!" A clone voice, so similar to those Ahsoka had known, snapped at them as soon as they disembarked. She was glad she didn't have to respond because the stab of irrational pain in her chest took away any breath she had. The voice that used to bring her instant comfort and assurance now sent her heart racing with anxiety and her palms sweat.

"Here, I think you'll find everything in order," the capain said icily. He looked the picture of the annoyed freighter as he passed over his pad, disdainful of clones and humans in general. The soldier would see a legitimate transport of fine clothing and accessories from the Togrutan colony of Kiros. Despite it's distance from the Core, the artisan good from Kiros had a reputation and a hefty price tag to accompany. It wasn't the kind of freighter that would harbor a fugitive and even the clone knew that.

"Crew?" The clone demanded while he gave the pad a cursory glance.

"Just myself and my cousin, Glah-Tor," the captain replied. Ahsoka played her part and looked around in apparent awe at the expansive artificial landscape of towering high rises and dappled ever-moving patterns of sky-lanes. In reality she was looking for cameras, surveillance, or any sign of an ambush or trap. There was nothing. Only a few more cameras in sight than she expected.

"First time in the city?" The clone asked her.

"Hahl gha-ke," she replied in Togruti.

"She says it's quite breathtaking."

"You get used to it," the trooper replied. Ahsoka didn't think she'd ever get used to the feeling of being penned in by her enemies on all sides.

"Everything looks good," the Clone told them, "You can unload here, then park your vessel in lot 54-Delta. Don't use it as transport around the city, get a speeder-cab."

"Of course," the captain replied and nodded to the clone. The soldier walked off, headed toward the next ship to do the same thing. Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief.

"You were right," she said. "Thank you. I know this was a big risk for you."

"Nonsense," the captain leveled her with his bright orange eyes, "the people of Kiros remember what you did for us Ahsoka Tano. We won't ever forget it."

"I just did my duty."

"You saved me and my family, my entire community, from slavery. You will always have a place among us, no mater what government claims our sovereignty."

"Thank you," Ahsoka said, her voice tight with emotion. Impulsively she hugged the captain. It was one of the great luxuries of no longer being forbidden to form attachments; she could show physical affection. It was still new and unfamiliar, but the warm feeling in her chest demanded she do something and the Jedi's traditional bow seemed too impersonal.

"Good luck, child."

"You as well." Ahsoka replied and turned away.

"I almost forgot," she said, turning back, reaching up to her forehead. "The real Glah-Tor will want this back." She fumbled with the clasp of the headdress.

"No, please. She wants you to keep it. This way you will always have a piece of Kiros with you and a reminder of our thanks."

"Tell her I will wear it proudly," Ahsoka said, running her fingers over the smooth silver and soft tanned leather adornment. The war might forever be a dark scar in her memory but some good had come of it. The people of Kiros were better for her involvement. Ahsoka turned and headed for the city walkways with her head held high.

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Ahsoka watched the non-descript entrance from across the chasm between high-rise buildings. The building that topped in a platform in the lower city was old, gray, stained and crumbling on the outside but Ahsoka watched the changing guards and counted the security cameras around the outer walls. It was a fortress deep in the heart of the city. Most prisons were secured by isolation. The Citadel had been secured on the inhospitable burning planet of Lola Sayu in a nearly empty sector of space. This fortress had the opposite kind of protection. It was a pitcher plant, easy to enter but impossible to get out of. There was only one exist for all that Ahsoka could see, and that was the top, a small door and turbo lift down to the lower levels. Her scans showed her the first hundred floors visible from the still habited levels of the city were empty and quiet, no movement, life or power signatures: a one hundred floor maze. The facility seemed to extend even further below that into the old abandoned under-levels of the city. You couldn't go through those levels that were now a maze of duracrete filled with toxic waste dumps. You couldn't bomb the prison without going through the upper city over top. You couldn't bring any sizable force against it without going through the lower city and causing a stir. You couldn't assault it on your own without getting stuck inside and the staff was all clones so an inside job was out of the question.

Ahsoka sighed and dropped her binoculars. Anakin would have walked right into it, she knew. He would just gather as many forces as he could, abandoning surprise, and storm the place, then rely on luck and some fancy flying to escape. But if Ahsoka did that now she'd never make it out of the core, there were just too many Imperial fleets.

A creeping sensations that raised bumps under her lekku made Ahsoka freeze where she was laying on top of a warehouse, underneath their glowing billboard sign. She felt the familiar sensation in the Force of someone focusing on her. She'd been found, but not by the prison staff. She was monitoring them closely. This feeling was different and came from somewhere above her.

Slowly Ahsoka crawled back from the edge, keeping her eyes on the prison but her senses focused on the new observer. She crept back across the rooftop and dropped down off the edge she'd climbed over from. It was only when her feet hit the ground of the walkway that she started running.

Her follower did too.

Whoever he was, he was fast or airborne because he kept pace as she wove and dodged through the thickening traffic. She was too recognizable to get lost in anything less than a big crowd so she booked it for the nearest market. It was a busy bustling center at all times of day squished between the base of one of the largest high-rise buildings and butting up against the local entertainment district. The bright lights and flashing signs turned every color of skin garish and unnatural. Ahsoka slipped into the crowd and wove in a doubling back pattern through the throng.

She felt that her follower had lost her but she played it safe and checked her own path twice. There was nothing.

Smirking, Ahsoka found the nearest exit and hailed a passing speeder-cab. It started pulling closer to the landing platform. Just as Ahsoka felt the presence latch onto her again the speeder veered away. Strong solid hands grabbed her from behind, latching around her waist and one large meety, tough skinned hand covering her face. She tried to scream out but it was a muffled wail. She could hardly breath and writhed helplessly against the strong multiarmed grip. A growl vibrated her little body as she struggled. For a moment Ahsoka considered the Force. She could easily throw her attacker off with it but that would give her away as a Jedi. She hadn't even brought her lightsabers for fear of discovery, only his pair of DCs strapped to her hips. She felt the holsters jostle against her skirt as the weapons were wrenched out of her reach.

The sound of a speeder, drives screeching and repulsers faltering like bad glimick music, came suddenly up beside her. Ahsoka felt herself thrown in the back and scrambled around, free of the confining arms. She caught a flash of bright fuchsia light on a strange alien's features before the back door closed and she was thrown into darkness.

"What the hell do you want?" Ahsoka asked, her breathlessness passing for fear. She was reaching out with the Force meanwhile, calming herself for the fight ahead. The Force showed her two other occupants in the speeder besides the driver and the one who had thrown her inside. The last hadn't moved and the driver was currently zooming in and out of speeder lanes with the kind of reckless abandon Anakin was fond of. The two others were confused but not hostile… yet.

A light flicked on overhead and threw the wrinkled and whiskered face of a Besalisk into harshly contrasting shadows. A rodian sat to Ahsoka's left, eyeing her with suspicion. She could tell he was the one who had followed her from the prison. To the right was a Bothan, tall and furred, he felt male in the Force and wore a heavy dark red jacket.

"Well, well, well," the Besalisk said to himself in a voice that struck a cord in Ahsoka's memory. The large beast whipped one of his many hands on the grease stained apron he was wearing, smearing it with the white and red paint that used to cover Ahsoka's face. He reached another hand forward as he did and rubbed at Ahsoka's forehead. "If it isn't little 'Soka."

"Dex?" Ahsoka asked in shock.

"That's me. I'd hope little Ani's Padawan would remember me."

"Of course. You make that great roba fry up."

"Oh you did like that," Dex laughed, deep and good-naturedly. His companions around Ahsoka relaxed and leaned back in their seats, easing their hands away from their weapons. Ahsoka eyed the nasty looking knife the Bothan was carrying and sighed in relief.

"Suppose you'll be wanting these back," Dex said and held out the cromium blasters as a peace offering. "Strange choice of weapon for a Jedi." Ahsoka accepted them gingerly and slid them back into their holsters.

"I'm not a Jedi. Why did you grab me?"

"Well, we were just going to pull you over and have a little chat about your interest in the The Monolith."

"The Monolith?"

"That's the prison you was looking into so hard," Dex said, shuffling over to one of the long benching in the back of the speeder. Ahsoka pulled herself up onto the seat behind her.

"What do you know about it?" Ahsoka asked the old Besalisk.

"That it's no good for anyone to go messing with, least of all a wanted Jedi."

"I told you, I'm not a Jedi."

"Ye' are what the Empire says ye' are and they seem convinced you're Jedi enough."

Ahsoka just glowered.

"You know who they're keeping in there?" she asked Dex.

"I know of a few people… not all of them are worth springing. The galaxy is better without some individuals."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" She looked up but she didn't need to see the old cook's face to feel the shock that the news gave him.

"No?"

"Yes. He was captured in the Temple the night of the Purge. He's been down there, in The Monolith, for nearly two weeks."

"I'll be, Master Obi captured." Dex's face was hard to read but in the Force his remorse was clear. He was mourning his friend and desperately trying to stay hopeful.

"Why would the Empire leave someone like Kenobi alive?" The Bothan asked in a deep gravely voice. "He's too dangerous to them if he escapes. He was a member of the council. Why didn't they execute him like the others?"

"Perhaps they have found a way of using his connection to the Force?" The Rodian offered.

"No amount of convincing would turn Obi against the Jedi. The Force takes strength from faith." Dex defending his friend vehemently. "He's no use to them."

"They have a use for him," Ahsoka cut in. "He's the bait in the trap."

"For whom?" the Rodian asked. Ahsoka just looked at Dex.

"Ani?" He asked in awe. "I'd hoped he had survived. Him and his woman too?"

"Yes, she escaped as well. Anakin was injured. That's the only reason he isn't here busting down the front door." It was half of the truth but Ahsoka didn't think spreading the news of the Chosen One's lost son was good idea.

"Then you're here to bust out Obi-Wan."

"I was hoping to but I've been watching the facility for days. The main entrance is like a one way swinging door. I could get in but not out and I can't find any other entrances or exits. Lots of ventilation shafts but they're as good as a meat grinder."

"Yes," the Besalisk was nodding his head and stroking his large flabby chin. "I may have a solution to your problems little one," he said and a devilish grin slit his face. "It's daring but if you're anything like your Master, you'll be up for it I think."

"You have another entrance?"

"Maybe not, but an exit," the old Besalisk chuckled at his own plan. "What do you know of mole-runners?"

Ahsoka's brow furrowed.

"Nothing gets mined on Coruscant. What do you want with one of those?"

Dex just grinned his toothy, whisker bristling grin. He beckoned Ahsoka to lean in closer as they speed through the lowercity speeder lanes into the shadowy darkness.

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Rex debated over Nia Kahn's evaluation when he picked it up off his desk. He wasn't quite sure what to say about the false-mother caretaker who tended to Luke. His brothers' evaluations had all been fairly simple. The Commandos were blisteringly efficient, Walli was infuriatingly silent or bewilderingly insightful in turns, Ven was funny, Coric was stoic, and Fox was grouchy. They all did their jobs. Nia was different.

She cared for Luke as if he was her entire world, neglecting her own health. Coric had taken to asking her at every meal what she'd eaten and making sure she slept a decent amount. When Luke slept she wandered the rooms with a vacant expression and when he was awake she was there beside him. The first day she made one of Luke's toys move with the Force Kaden nearly pulled his blade on her. Walli seemed unsurprised while Ven and Sur'atiin were only mildly discomforted by it. Nia herself was never trouble and always good with Luke. She didn't act like a new mother, but went about her care of Luke like it was an enjoyable routine, something to be envied. She would hold Luke when he was upset in his silent way and whisper to him. Sometimes her faint words sounded almost like Mando'a to Rex.

The door snapped open and Coric walked in without knocking. Rex dropped Nia's half finished evaluation and had his mouth half way open to complain when he saw the tight set of the medic's shoulders. Coric pulled his helmet off to reveal the tight line of his mouth. He strode purposefully across the room.

"What is it?" Rex demanded. "Is something wrong with Luke?"

"No," Coric said flatly, his face white. He swept the room with his eyes, noticing the bottle of alcohol on the desk and the half finished glass. It was one of the things he overlooked about the new Rex. The old Rex never drank and hated pain-killers. This new one was never relaxed but the closest he came was under the influence of something, 'what' didn't seem to mater. Rex kept it strictly off duty though, the only reason Coric allowed it to continue.

"This an intervention, Coric?" Rex demanded. Regular people had those, he'd heard.

"No, sir. May I?" He asked and motioned toward the glass. Rex nodded solemnly. His expression transformed into shock as his straight-laced medic downed the whole glass. Coric whipped his eyes when he lowered the glass.

"I thought you might want to see this," he said and held out the data-pad in his hand. "I'll leave you to… read it over." Coric hitched his helmet to his belt and picked up Rex's. "Alone," he said meaningfully and turned around. The door closed leaving Rex in the soundproofed box of his office.

He looked down at the pad in his hand and with a pool of cold dread in his stomach he read:

Incident Report 274.6254.9

Source: Imperial Penitentiary Logistics and Services

Location: Imperial Deep Security Prison, Lower Imperial City (0, 0, 0)

Date: 0 A.I. 08.29 0204 hours

Security: Beta-9

At 0209 Hours the DeepSec was breached through the main entrance by one individual identified as Ahsoka Tano, Padawan of Anakin Skywalker and associate of the Jedi Order, wanted fugitive of the Galactic Empire. Tano breached security phases one through nine before cutting video and audio feeds to offsite surveillance. Galactic Intelligence suspected that Tano or Skywalker would make an attempt, on their own or in tandem, to retrieve prisoner 993, Obi-Wan Kenobi, former Master of the Jedi Order and former Member of the Jedi Council, captured 0 A.I. 08.03.

At 0219 Imperial Shock Troopers arrived at DeepSec main entrance. Security phases one through seven were reoccupied. No escapees were detected.

At 0220 Hours DeepSec fire alarms were set off. Ventilation failed to shut off. Fire spread rapidly from sections 7, 33, and 59. Evacuation began. By 0228 all sections were reporting fire.

At 0241 all detainees were evacuated. No escapees. Tano was not seen exiting the facility.

A through search of the facility was conducted. Damage: extensive. Levels -60 through -130 collapsed. Casualties: Unknown estimated, at 13 inmates, 35 clone troopers, 4 Military Personnel.

Ahsoka Tano and the intended Escapee Obi-Wan Kenobi were not recovered from the Facility nor where they observed leaving. Investigators conclude both perished in the collapse of the lower levels.

Damages to the DeepSec Facility were extensive including…

The rest of the page blurred before Rex's eyes. He could feel the hot drops rolling down his cheeks. Slowly he lifted his hand to his face and felt the liquid seeping into his glove. His grip on the data pad was nearly painful and finger by finger he forced himself to let go of the instrument and let it clatter to the table top.

Ahsoka dead? He wondered to himself. Is that possible? Yes of course it is! You of all people know how breakable she is. You've seen her torn down exhausted, dying of an extinct plague, you kriffing SHOT her!

"So she's dead," he heard the words past his own lips but they didn't sound like his. They were dead and cold as Nia's words. Oh, yes I am, she'd said when Walli noticed her crying. Just like him.

Why am I crying? He wondered to himself. I don't feel sad. And he didn't. His shoulders felt lighter, his head clearer, and the pain in his back that had driven him to drinking was now manageable. He wasn't sad; he was relieved.

Why am I relieved? He asked in horror. Was I just scared I would be the one to kill her? Or was I scared that it would hurt? Maybe it just hasn't hit me yet? No! I know she's dead. I've accepted that but it still doesn't hurt. Then was it all in my head? Did I ever care if she lived or died? Or did I just secretly want her dead the whole time?

What about all those times I saved her? Risked my life saving her? Was all of that just duty? It didn't feel like it at the time.

But still when he thought of Ahsoka and pictured her face, happy smile and bright blue eyes all he could think of was his brothers dying in a foggy dim lit forest on some alien world of unknown threats. Thoughts of her made his stomach flip and flop restlessly and hands long for the solid grip of a weapon. She sent shivers up his spin and the sick feeling of fear into his chest, clamping down on his heart.

No, no, no! Rex shook his head. That wasn't her! He tried to remember sitting up late after their return from Kadavo swapping stories that were hard to remember and harder to think about. He tried to remember how she'd cried for the youngling who died in her arms on the Trandoshan Moon. He tried to remember the way she cursed Krell through her tears and recited the Mandalorian prayer for the dead with him. He tried to remember forcing a laugh at her horrible pronunciation. But that, like all the other good times they'd shared was lost to him. He reached and reached but there was nothing in his memory but bitterness.

"Arrgh!" Rex jumped up and slammed his fist into the wall, trying to punch out all the bitter anger that was bottled up behind his skin. If he could get it out maybe, maybe he could get her back. Maybe…

So he punched the wall again and again. He kept punching it blindly, blind to his own pain and the bloody spot forming on the walls. He beat it and screamed at the four walls confining him. He threw his frustration at the filing cabinet and the chair and the desk. Glass shattered as the bottle hit the floor and data-pads clattered off each other. Rex kicked the whole upturned thing and sent it skidding loudly across the floor. He screamed into his hands and scrapped his bloody gloves over his scalp crying tears he didn't understand.

The blinding red anger faded as Rex collapsed onto the floor but the cloud over his memory and the bitterness remained. All the happy moments of his life were still out of his reach, lost somewhere in the tides of the war… the never ending war… one long never ending mission… one long never ending nightmare. Suddenly he thought of Fives.

…the mission… the nightmares… they're finally over. Those had been his last words. His mad ramblings in hindsight were prophetic.

There's a sinister plot… even kill the Jedi… It's in here… chips built into our genetic code… it's in every clone… true beyond a shadow of a doubt… a massive deception… because I know the truth… he told me… this is bigger than any of us… The chancellor… a sinister plot… he orchestrated much of this… the mission… It's in here… the nightmares… I only meant to do my duty. Rex let Fives words tumble through his head. He thought of Niner's words and the deep frown that pulled unfamiliar lines in the identical face. He remembered Dar's anger, a tempest just under the man's skin that was the same shade as Rex's. He sat back against the wall and tried to slow his breathing, tried not to panic.

It's in here. Fives had said, finger to his temple. Rex realized it wasn't his sanity he should have been questioning these past weeks. It was his brain that was suspect.

Coric knocked on the door some times later, Rex didn't know if it was five minutes or five hours but the light was gone from the windows of the guard's quarters. Coric shut the door behind himself. Rex noticed he'd left their helmets outside. The Captain thought he should probably sweep the whole apartment for bugs again with some new equipment. Nothing was trustworthy now that his own brain wasn't.

"Got that off your chest then," Coric replied and gathered the overturned bottle from amid the wreckage. A portion was till trapped inside and sloshed around the bottom. "Feel better?"

"Will any of us ever be 'better', vod? After what we've seen and done?" Rex asked.

"No," Coric said and sat down heavily beside Rex. He took a swig from the bottle. "I don't think we will. All of us are going to be dead soon enough though, between the healthy lifestyle and our genetic predisposition to a long life." He took another swig and passed the bottle over.

Rex looked at it suspiciously. He knew the alcohol would ease away his worries, calm him down but he also knew it was artificial. Somehow the idea of letting anything else, even a known substance change his perceptions turned his stomach. He shook his head and Coric just shrugged.

"Remember the nightmares?" Rex asked. "The ones we talked about after Teth?"

"Yeah, I remember them. Teth happened; it's over. Those…"

"They're never over," Rex finished. Not for us but for Fives, and Tup, and Echo…

"I used to think when I woke up 'at least the war isn't like that'," Coric said, looking down the neck of the bottle. He tipped it back again.

"What about now?"

"Now I just dream about that blasted Temple burning."

"You were there during the Purge?"

"Yeah, the 501st took the Temple and eliminated the Jedi just like we were told. Every last one."

"Who was there? Most of the Jedi were serving across the galaxy."

"The ones who couldn't serve…not yet…" Coric emptied the bottle. "I did my duty. That doesn't mean I have to like it. You know that as well as I do." Coric stood, a little less steady on his feet and waved a hand at the destruction of Rex's office. "You get it. But we're soldiers. That's all we ever were. Soldiers in someone else's war, less than mercenaries. Dar'manda, soulless and futureless from the start… I guess I shouldn't have expected men like that to have decent jobs." Coric put the bottle on the top of the drawers of the desk that was now parallel with the ceiling.

"Get yourself cleaned up Rex. Come see me if you need help bandaging those hands. Just don't forget to wash the blood off the wall." Coric turned and walked out as he'd come, stumbling over scattered data pads. Rex doubted his old friend would still be awake to help bandage up his bruised and weeping knuckles.

Rex sat alone again in his office trying to imagine Coric shooting younglings, even Jedi younglings armed with sabers. He couldn't. Not Coric. Coric was a medic and had always taken pride in the fact that he was a clone who didn't just take lives. He gave them back. That Coric wouldn't shoot younglings even if they were half way to becoming Jedi. They weren't traitors of the Republic by any means. Coric just wouldn't.

But he had. The medic's placement on Luke's guard was proof enough of that. Walli was given a place because he found a Jedi stow-away on his transport. The Commando's had lost the other half of their squad to the Jedi they were tasked with eliminating. The former Shock Trooper, Ven had taken out a group of Jedi making their last stand in the lower city with a platoon of vode hostage with them. Ven saved his brothers and removed the Jedi. Fox's story was still a secret above Rex's clearance level and the former Commander seemed happy to leave it that way. All of them had been involved in Order 66 in some way, that was easy to figure out.

Rex just wasn't sure what all of it meant.

What could you see that I can't, Fives? He wondered and rubbed his temple where Fives had pointed on his own head. I'm sorry, ner vod. I'm sorry I didn't listen. I'm sorry I couldn't save you either. Rex hung his head and sighed in exhaustion. He looked at the wreckage around him despondently.

This is my life now, He realized. This will be the rest of my life. It was a dark and gloomy but short future like Coric said.

Author's Note: Yay for FIVES! I loved Fives and Echo. I'm trying to write Echo into the story later... much later unfortunately. Anyway, as always please leave reviews and thankyou to everyone who has left reviews. You make my day! -Ember