Part III: "I Should Have Listened When They Said, 'Never Say Never.'"

Ahsoka surfaced from her unconsciousness slowly, coming out of the turbulent Force in pieces. The first sense was sound, she could hear footsteps coming nearer then receding, back and forth, pacing. Then smells, the sharp smell of togruta mint leaves and alcohol mixed with blaster cleaning-oil, something smoky, and rain filled her nose. Tastes; alcohol and sweet sharp mint on her tongue. Touch; she felt the rough wool blankets of a bed that wasn't hers, her clothes were twisted uncomfortably under her and her shoto, strapped to her thigh was digging into her skin painfully. She shifted, trying to ease the pain. Her eyes fluttered and sight returned last.

She was looking up at the plaster ceiling of a room with blank walls, it looked like one of the palace guard rooms like her own, but bare and missing the distinctive cracks of her own ceiling. Suddenly a face was in her view.

"Rex," she said, finding her voice horse.

"Ahsoka," he looked relieved. Why? She wondered.

Then the knowledge hit her, like a waterfall on her back knocking the air from her lungs.

"Rex!" She threw her arms around his neck without thought as the tears came spilling from her screwed up eyes. "Rex, it's… it's over…" she sobbed into his shoulder, pressing her montrals against his neck, feeling the warmth of his blood. She gripped his jacket as she tried to explain, "They're dead Rex… Master Plo… Master Mundi… Master Secura… Barriss… Luminara… and Anakin… Anakin's dying…"

"What?" Rex's hands were light on her back and his tone confused, disbelieving.

"They're all dead, Rex! All of them… killed… the war is over… because… I can feel it. There's nothing but the Dark Side, it's everywhere…" she dug her nails into the fabric of his jacket, feeling the plates of armor he concealed under it.

"I don't understand, how could they all be dead? Who could kill all the Jedi at once?" He pulled away looking at her but Ahsoka wouldn't raise her eyes. She was limp again in his hands, hand hanging low. "Ahsoka!"

"I wasn't there. I should have been there…" She sniffed.

"I'm going to get the doctor again," He stood up quickly. "You stay right here, kid. You got me. Right here. If something is wrong with you he'll fix it..."

"It's over, Rex," Ahsoka said and continued to mumble it again and again. "It's over."

"No!" He shook his head firmly. "Stay right there until I come back with the doctor." The door shut firmly behind him. Ahsoka rolled over, laying back on the bed and crying. She was too scared to reach back into the Force, too scared to reach out to her master least the Dark Side might swallow her. She shivered despite the warm air of the Palace, feeling the cold fingers of the clouded Force all around her.

.

Rex strode with purposeful strides through the palace, past the open walkways that ringed the large courtyards under the glass domes. The columns threw shadows in the dim hallways and flashed by as he half ran toward the small suite where the Royal Doctor lived. Haste, he attributed his obviousness to that.

"Halt! Identify!" The familiar voice of a brother over helmet speakers froze him in his tracks. Two DC-15s were raised, leveled at his chest and his white armored brothers stared him down. Automatically Rex raised his arms.

"CT-7567, former Captain Rex of the 501st, on permanent reassignment, sir!" He answered. Their HUDs must have confirmed because the weapons lowered.

"Acknowledged, vod." The clone said.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked.

"Respectfully it's Republic business."

"As Captain of the Shili Senator Jaina Emala's Personal Guard, I'm asking you what is your business in the Royal Palace, trooper. This is sovereign ground." His voice was tight and commanding.

"Doing well for yourself, hut'uun (coward)" the other trooper said.

"Quiet, Chuckle," his partner snapped, "you don't know who you're talking to." Turning back to Rex he said, "Sir, we're tracking a traitor to the Republic. The Chancellor has issued Order 66."

Something stirred in the back of Rex's mind.

"We were sent here to apprehend and terminate a traitor to the Republic, former Jedi Padawan Tano," The trooper held out a holo comm and Ahsoka's head, short montrals and beaded Padawan braid, blue and transparent spun above the device. "Have you seen her, Captain?"

"Yes, I have Trooper. I can have her come to you."

"We'd appreciate the help, Captain Rex. It's an honor to meet you by the way."

"I may have been removed from the GAR but I still have a duty to the Republic," Rex said and pulled out his comm. He felt like he was back on Teth and the hairless bitch was reaching inside his head but he ignored the feeling. "Captain Tano," He said into the comm.

"Rex?" She answered, her voice dull and apathetic.

"I ran into some brother in the palace who'd like to see you," he said.

"Troopers?"

"Yeah, Fives and Echo are with them."

"Oh, I see. I'll be right there." She said. Rex relaxed just a little hearing the harder note in her voice. If nothing else, she'd gotten the message. He could only pray that she got away in time.

"We've a lock on the comm, Captain," the trooper beside Rex said. His heart plummeted, like a grav generator had been flipped on in his rib cage. "Target located, all units proceed to sector 7."

"Thanks for the help," Chuckle said.

"I can do more than that," Rex heard the words but he couldn't tell if he was the one saying them, "let me come with you. I know Tano, she can be tricky."

"Appreciated, Captain," The first trooper said. The three set off back down the halls Rex had come from.

They were halfway back and Rex's heart was pounding against his ribs when the two troopers in front of him stopped. Their heads tipped at the same moment and he could tell someone was talking over the comms he couldn't hear.

"What is it?" he asked anxiously.

"Someone's spotted her. This way." They broke into a run and Rex took off behind them. His leg started to smart and ache after the long walk he'd already taken. He pushed away the pain and powered through it. Ahsoka needed him. For that he would endure.

They ran out onto one of the terraced walkways on the back of the place where it faced a sprawling garden that ran up to the edge of the Plateau. A small togruta figure was sprinting down the pathway around the palace. From above Rex could see that she was cut off from both directions. Ahsoka must have noticed it too because she turned on her heels and ran for the edge.

"She's got nowhere to go," Chuckle said, proving the origin of his name with the near girly noises he was making. Rex wanted to be sick.

"You don't know gundark shit about Jedi if you think that will stop her," Rex said to him and jumped. He knew the landing two stories below would hurt but he wasn't quite prepared for the jarring pain that traveled up his spine. He saw black for a moment and the ground pitched forward. He put his good foot out just in time to catch himself and used it to push off into a run, ignoring the jab that traveled up his side with every bound.

Two thuds came from behind him as Chuckle and his partner followed. They ran after Rex toward Ahsoka on the edge. She was running full tilt and light on her feet toward the edge. Rex knew she could make the jump but if she did… where would she go…

"Ahsoka, stop!" He yelled. She slid to a halt, teetering on the crumbling precipice over the sheer drop toward the shadowed grassy plains.

His feet made skidding noises on the dirt pathway and little clouds of red dust in the light breeze. It took one smooth motion to draw and aim, the chromium plating of his custom DC-17 flashed in the light of the Palace domes, and it took barely a pause to spin the small adjustment dial with his thumb. As soon as his finger depressed the trigger he knew his aim was true.

The blast hit Ahsoka in the chest above her heart just to the right. It lit up her face for a terrible moment, blue eyes washed out by the flash, wide in shock. Her dark lips were parted slightly, breath flowing out of them as a faint cloud of condensation and her chin tipped back.

Then she disappeared into the darkness over the edge.

"You got her!" Chuckle cried in surprise and admiration. Rex slowly lowered his DC-17, the customized chromium plated gift from the people of Naboo, from Senator Amidala and Anakin for saving Padme and Ahsoka, for staying with them, prepared to die for them. The very gift for saving her life he'd used against her. Rex wanted to throw up.

It was Umbara all over again, brother killing brother… but worse because it was Ahsoka, his smirking, smart mouthed commander who danced across battlefields and lingered among her men… and he had shot her.

The rest of the clone trooper squad ran up behind Rex, shuffling to the edge of the plateau and peering down in the darkness.

"Can't see a thing," one of them shouted. "We'll have to get down there, confirm the kill." Rex felt the words like a knife; they hurt more than his leg ever could.

"Get to the speeders. If she's injured we can't let her get away. Fan out, search pattern Foxtrot 6." Foxtrot 6, search and destroy, Rex repressed a shiver. "You the one who took the shot?" Another clone, one who seemed to be in charge, had approached him.

"I am, sir," he replied mechanically.

"Major Pike," Chuckle addressed the new clone as he and his partner came up behind Rex.

"Chuckle, Nickel, report!" the new Clone commanded.

"Sir," Nickel snapped to attention, "We encountered CT-7567, former Captain Rex of 501st in our search of the building, sir. He initiated a traceable comm link to the target and proceeded to accompany us in the search. In pursuit of the target he fired."

"Rex?" Pike turned to his discharged brother, "You served under General Skywalker."

"Yes, sir," Rex replied.

"I heard he was quite a handful," Pike went on.

"He was a crazy inconsiderate bastard, sir, but he got the job done." Even behind the helmets Rex could see his brothers were taken aback by his words. Screw them, Rex thought, I'm not their Captain anymore. Pike laughed.

"Rumors don't do your skills justice, that was some shot."

"Sir, I was just doing my duty."

"Of course. I'll see if I can't get a good word put in for you. The GAR never should have let you go, wounded or not."

"Thank you, sir."

"It was a pleasure, Captain."

"Major."

"Move out, boys!" The clones moved around him. Rex just stood where he was, not trusting his leg or his body to obey his orders. Finally the sounds of their jogging boots faded away.

Hand shaking he managed to raise his blaster, Neg as he liked to call her, short for Negotiator, named for the ever diplomatic General Kenobi. Rex didn't dare think where Kenobi might be, on a battlefield somewhere with his back to Cody, Cody who was loyal to the Republic first and foremost, who wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger and give the order. Rex didn't think about himself, what he would do in that position. Neg shook in his hand but the dial was clear, power was set to minimum, non-lethal. Rex dropped his arm and sighed. That meant Ahsoka was alive, she was nearby and she was injured.

Rex took the first step and pain shot up his spine like it had in the first days of recovery. He gritted his teeth and took another, and another until he was walking. Ahsoka is in pain too, he told himself. She's in pain because of you. She's in pain so I have to bear with it. She needs me so I have to keep moving. And he did.

.

Ahsoka crouched in the turu-grasses, legs bent and the tips of her long trailing lekku just above the dirt, they swayed with the movement in the breezes that rippled across the plains as she staked him. His speeder had landed just a few feet away and he was walking slowly, up to his waist in the white and red grass.

She could hear the others all around her, spread far over the plain. More than one had passed over her where she hid under tangles of the grass, in their shadows, hidden by her coloring. Never had she been so thankful for Jaccar's all too willing teachings.

Now she put every skill she'd learned in the last year to use as she crept up behind him, her sounds masked by the rhythmic swaying of the grasses. She moved with agonizing patience until she was close enough.

He toppled when she pounced, barely resisting, falling sideways under her, sprawling in the tall grass. Her saber ignited with a deadly hum and hovered inches from his throat. Brown eyes met blue for a startling moment and neither of them moved.

"Ahsoka," he breathed her name, "are you alright?" His eyes traveled down from her face and his brow furrowed, mouth falling open in silent anguish. "Haar'chak!" he choked out the curse, "Ahsoka." His eyes flickered back to her face, they were warm and brown just as she remembered and filled with guilt. She deactivated the blade and leaned back off of him, remaining crouched in the grasses.

Rex sprung into action, fumbling at his utility belt for the med pack he always kept there. He pulled out baccta patches and disinfectants quickly. Even as he fumbled with the supplies he glanced at the carnage he'd caused and let out a long breathless stream of cursing.

Her shirt was burned away and the skin underneath was blistered and broken in places, bruising spread cross her collarbone and up her neck, if she were lucky that was the extent of the damage but they might have run out of luck for the day and her collar bone was broken under the mess. He couldn't do anything for that but he could seal the cuts and put baccta on the burns.

Rex reached out toward her. Ahsoka hissed, a menacing primal sound he'd never heard from here. She barred her teeth at him, blue eyes glaring.

"Ahsoka, please, you need to look after that," He said. "I'm sorry, firefek, Ahsoka, I'm sorry I did that. It was the only way… I needed them to drop their guard." He could see her shuddering, even as she held herself away from him and her bright eyes searched his face. She remained frozen as he reached forward. Gently he lifted her lekku off her chest. It was soft under his calloused finger, the skin smooth and it flowed silkily in his grip as he slipped it around her shoulder. Now his view of the damage was clear.

"Does it hurt?" He asked. A quick look at her eyes answered his question. "On a scale of 1 to 10? Higher than a five? A seven?" She shook her head no to the last. He breathed a little sigh of relief.

"Collar bones probably not broken but it might be fractured. We need to get you out of here. This is going to pinch," he said before placing the needle over her neck. She jerked when it fired but didn't cry out. "Pain killer, should help," he tried to smile and failed. Rex started applying the disinfectant. She hissed as the stinging began and he flinched with her.

"It's like I always told the boys," he tried to sooth her, "better disinfected now then infected later. Prevention is the best cure." He saw her grip on her lightsaber tighten and she looked up, closing her eyes so she couldn't see his hands, only feel his fingers, wet with the jell moving over her disfigured skin.

"Another pinch," he warned before the needle entered her shoulder. That, she guessed, was the antibiotics to clear anything that might already be in her blood.

"It's good I keep supplies for the Senator or we'd be out of luck. Human medicine isn't the same as it is for Togruta. I'm surprised I didn't think of it when we were in GAR but I suppose Kix always had you covered then." Rex talked just to fill the silence a little. Ahsoka was never so silent or still as she was while he applied the baccta patches. He was thankful they covered the horrible burnt skin of her chest. He could still remember it though and the smell of burning flesh lingered in his nose.

"There you go, all patched up." He leaned back.

Slowly Ahsoka reached up to feel the patches over the burned skin of her shoulder and chest. Carefully she reached back to her lekku and pulled it back to hang comfortably over the wound. Rex was infinitely glad he hadn't hit that.

"Rex," her voice made him jump. "You shot me."

"Yeah," he said softly.

"I thought you… really…"

"Shot to kill?"

"I—" She shook her head quickly. "They would have."

"Ner vode? Fracking aruetiise (traitors)," Rex growled. "Haar'chak, I'm glad you're alive! But this…" He motioned toward the grasses where above their heads the other clones were searching for them.

"The Jedi have been betrayed… we were all betrayed."

"How do you know?"

"I felt it," she whispered harshly. Rex met her eyes. They were bloodshot from crying but steady on his own. She had the Jedi conviction they got when 'a feeling' warned them of impending danger. Rex knew better to ignore that kind of conviction in a Jedi.

"Alright," he said with a nod. "What do we do? If they don't find your body they might assume you died and some animal carried you off."

She shook her head. "They will never stop looking."

"So, what do we do?"

"We have to get away from here, get off Shili, away from the Republic," She said eyes downcast. "There's nothing we can do right now but hide."

"From who?"

"Everyone!"

"Ahsoka—" He was cut off my beeping of her comm. Quickly Ahsoka pulled it out and turned it on. A small transparent hollo of Obi-Wan Kenobi sprang from the device. Ahsoka's face brightened at the sight.

"Master Kenobi," she breathed in relief.

"Ahsoka, are you alright?"

"For now."

"They came for you too then. Damn, I'd hoped they would overlook you since you left the order but I suppose Palpatine doesn't trust Anakin's former Padawan not to cause trouble."

"Palpatine?"

"Yes, the Chancellor has been the Sith lord we've been searching for all along. He's orchestrated this war from the beginning, from the creation of the clones to this Purge of the Jedi."

"They're really gone, all of them."

"I'm afraid so. But have hope, we survived, others can too. There are people who will keep fighting. I'm with some of them now on my way back to Coruscant."

"They'll kill you!"

"I have to deactivate the beacon in the Jedi temple, it's calling all surviving Jedi into a trap. But…"

"What do you need of me, Master?" Ahsoka asked, seeing his reluctance to request anything of her.

"Ahsoka, I'm no longer your master and I can't force you to do anything, much less risk your life for someone else."

"Please, Obi-Wan."

"Anakin is badly injured and on his way to Kalevala. Senator Amidala is there and she's in danger. He can't save her and he needs medical attention."

"I'll go."

"I'll send you the coordinates of their location, but, Ahsoka, be careful. Anakin is… unstable. He's close to loosing everything he cares about. Padme is more than just a friend to him, she's pregnant with his child. If they don't make it… I don't know what will happen to him."

"I understand, Obi-Wan." Ahsoka said with a serious nod.

"Thank you. And Ahsoka, may the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you." She returned the blessing and terminated the comm. Reverently she held the small device to her chest as if it were Obi-Wan himself and she could embrace him. Rex's chest ached as he watched the bittersweet moment. Obi-Wan and Anakin were still alive, that knowledge at least would comfort her.

Something stirred again in the back of his mind but he pushed it away.

"We need a ship," Ahsoka said.

"We can't go back to Shili-kai," he glanced at the city plateau rising above them. "They'll have every ship and landing pad covered."

"Then we go to Shaddak, it's up the river from here. The river's lower than the plains so if we fly low over it they won't spot us." She said and pointed east toward a faint snaking shadow that crossed the flat grasslands.

"I'll take the speeder and wait for you by the bank," Rex said with a nod to her. He was surprised to see her reservations.

"Promise?" She asked in a whisper.

"I Promise, Ahsoka."

With a nod she rose onto her toes, bent in a graceful crouch and shifted back into the grasses, disappearing seamlessly in the red and white blades. Rex waited only a second before he mounted his speeder. He took off, winding over the grasslands so his brothers wouldn't suspect anything. He waited until he had drifted ahead of where he judged Ahsoka to be before activating his comm.

"Major Pike, this is Captain Rex of Senator Emala's Guard, I have information for the GAR."

.

Rex's stolen speeder rode low enough to make waves on the shores of the stagnant river that lazily cut into the flat Shili plains. He flew as low as he dared to, watching the grasses speed into a red blur passing just over their heads on either side. Ahsoka rode behind him, her thin arms around his waist and her head resting against his back, tips of her montrals touching his neck as the speeder rocked in the gentle curves of the river. He felt a little better feeling her weight on him even if his back was already aching, he needed to be reminded she was there, she was ok.

In front of them loomed the low flat canopied Talla-trees of the plains with their twisted up-reaching branches. They passed a few secluded groves that made hills in the flat landscape before the sparse forest that dominated the eastern horizon engulfed them. Rex could make out in the distance a faint glow and rising smoke trails in the darkness that marked Shaddak and their last chance of escape.

Ahsoka sat up suddenly.

"What is it?" He called back over the sound of the wind and the engine.

"We've been found."

"What?" How? Rex thought frantically. He felt her shift behind him, standing on the back of the speeder, balanced with her inhuman grace. He heard the buzz of her lightsaber igniting.

Then he saw the lights ahead of him. Two speeders came around the approaching bend, low as they were on the water and barreling straight for them, guns ahead.

"In front, Ahsoka," He cried but it was too late. The first few laser blasts were off target and they made loud splashes in the shallow water. "Frag," he cursed and turned. He grabbed Ahsoka around the middle and pushed off from the seat of the speeder.

They landed with a soft splat in the mud of the bank, rolling into the high reeds. Rex looked up in time to see their speeder swerving in the air, narrowly missing the last few shots before it jerked and crashed sidelong into one of the approaching enemies. There was a quick explosion of engines and short cry of a Clone cut short. It wrenched Rex's chest to hear his brother in pain.

Then the whir of the second engine was on them, the speeder sliding sideways till it hovered right in front of him, barrels leveled.

So this is it, killed by ner vod, Rex thought. Then the speeder shot backward as if the engines were pointed in reverse. The driver was thrown around and the vehicle angled down towards the far shore of the river. It crashed there with another explosion that left twisted shrapnel sticking up out of the soft mud.

Rex turned to see Ahsoka, mud splattered and panting, her hand upraised and eyes wide. He'd seen the Jedi do some scary things but never had Ahsoka called on so much power alone.

She looked at him, blue eyes shimmering in the dark.

"How did I…?" She whispered the trailing question as her head whipped back to the wreckage.

"We have to go," He snapped back into reality, "they will have heard and seen that. We need to move."

Scrambling in the mud they made for the trees. Behind them the whine of speeder engines was growing as their enemies approached across the plains.

"How did they find us?" Ahsoka asked as they ran from cover to cover, bending low in the grasses and glancing back constantly at the points of growing light that were their pursuers. She paused behind a Talla-tree to study the points as they spread out behind the two.

"It's like they know where we're going, how could they know? There's a settlement in every direction, how did they know we were going here?" She asked Rex as they crested a small rise, sheltered for the moment by a thicker grove of the trunks.

His footsteps faltered and then stopped. She turned back to him.

Rex's hands were at his sides, hanging limp next to the holsters of his DCs. He looked at Ahsoka with a furrowed brow and his mouth hanging open, working silently to say something.

"Rex?" She asked him worriedly, the wound on her shoulder twinged despite the painkillers.

"I did."

"What?" She whispered. Couldn't be, she thought. Not Rex, never Rex.

"I told them."

"Wh-hy?" she felt hot tears in her eyes. "Why?"

"I told them," he repeated, just staring at her face in horror. Her words from the bar came back, echoing in his head Why are you killing them?

The speeder engines whined louder, Ahsoka glanced up for split second and had to make her choice. Spinning on her heel she kicked out and up, catching Rex on the side of his head. He went down without any fight, crumpling like a puppet on cut string into the dirt, sprawled hap hazard. Ahsoka stared at him for a long moment, shaking. She bent down and slid his chromium plated DC-17s out of their holsters and latched them to her belt. Then she took to the trees, leaping toward Shaddak and escape, alone.