Rex carefully wrapped Ahsoak up in his blanket and picked her up. She was a little bit taller and lighter than he remembered. Upon Commander Fox arrival, the captain fetched Kix to assemble a sufficient food ration and medical relief aid. The red-clad commander truly outdid himself and went full-on search mode. In a flash, he recognized the uniform of a small diner at the lower-levels of the city where he ate once or twice with his squad.

"they have great caf and pies" He claimed "food is not bad either especially stakes"

With that remark, he narrowed his search into couple of buildings that were available by public transportation with tickets costing no more than what Ahsoka had in her wallet. The results were even more precise by matching the estimated date of the ex-commander leave, with the arrival of the new tenants. At the end, they could check the whole parameter in a matter of two hours, just in time to drop the ex-jedi to her own bed before she even woke up from her medication-induced slumber or anyone noticing both clones missing.

Kix came back soon after the debriefing, laden with backpacks… and Jesse by his side. The other clone had his helmet in his hands; it was clinking quietly as he was jogging alongside the medic.

"what's that?" Rex gestured in his direction.

"Fund-raise!" Jesse exclaimed in a juvenile tone and tipped his bucket to reveal rectangle coins filling it to the brim.

"a what?"

"once I squeezed out all the information from Kix, I run around a mess hall, sir." Jesse replied proudly "Guys gave me every credit they had on themselves"

Rex nodded, gesturing the medic to take Jesse's helmet as engines of Commander Fox's aircraft came to life.

"Fives swore he'll cover your backs if necessary!" Jesse shouted after them, waving his arms like a madman "just make sure she's all set!"

Rex watched as the younger clone run back to the mess hall. For the first time since Ahsoka disappearance, his brother acted… livelier.

"I wonder how much money he managed to accumulate" Kix wondered aloud playing with the gold-plated rectangles.

"Doesn't look much" Rex replied bitterly "it seems to be all petty change"

"that's the summary of our pay all right" Kix joked "I won't mind avoiding 79's for couple of weeks as long as commander Tano has at least few days of free rides home." the medic added awkwardly.

"yeah… I guess you're right"

The rest of the trip passed in silence. Rex kept quiet for the whole time, stroking the girl's lekkus delicately, as if they were made of the most fragile porcelain, like this caf set with tiny blue flowers that Rex once drank from during one of his bodyguard gigs for senator Amidala. The same set General Skywalker broke later that year almost bringing the senator to tears.

Fox dropped them off nearby the most probable destination with a list of the rest possible apartments matches downloaded to their HUDs. The ghetto was a hellhole: Offensive tags covered walls, doors were barely working or were broken out of their frames, not to mention an overwhelming smell of piss and digested alcohol the made both clones gag.

They knocked to several doors. Half-starved individuals with hollow eyes occupied most of apartments, Rex could have sworn they accidentally interrupted someone's suicide, while some doors didn't opened at all - their inhabitants were too scared to even check who's on the other side.

Suddenly an old woman emerged from one of the doors and cut their path, with one swift strike, she hit the captain in a shin with her cane.

"who are you?" she screamed "what are you doing to my Ashoka?"

There was possessiveness in her voice. Rex didn't like that at all.

"we're her friends" Kix replied in his mellow tone of a medic.

"she has no friends! She is all alone. Has only me!" the woman wailed "ME! such a fine soul going to such a waste"

"We were searching for here across the galaxy" Rex replied harshly "we're her brothers and she didn't even say goodbye to us-" the clone captain said, quieter now, more sorrowful "she just disappeared"

"You've abandoned her" the woman spat "you could have search better!"

"Don't argue, sir." Kix whispered to his superior's ear "that woman obviously had lost it"

"walls are thin" the woman continued her wailing "I could hear her crying every night"

"we just want to put Ahsoka to her bed, so she could rest properly. There is no harm in that. Isn't there, ma'am?" Kix inquired softly. "Tell us, what's her apartment number?"

Rex realized his subordinate was using the same tone of voice on their dying brothers… obviously; it also worked on old, crazy ladies.

"you are right, sonny. There is no harm in that." the woman finally replied, coaxed by the medic's soft approach "Ahsoka lives just right next to me - under 7567"

Hearing that number, Rex came to attention.

"We have our autopilot designation," Kix said under his breath "she must have confused her apartment number with your birth designation" the medic addressed his superior.

Rex's laugh was hollow and cold… just like the apartment the ex-Jedi was living in.

Ahsoka's home was empty and small. The heating was busted, air-conditioning none existing. Captain regretted not taking back up with him, yet he didn't anticipated Togruta's apartment to be this bad. It looked as if Ahsoka was squatting in here not living.

Kix was already in his zone: unpacking the backpacks, filling cupboards with dehydrated food rations, stocking shelves with medpacks and medkits. The medic even found a broom and gave the floor a testing sweep, it didn't do much: dirt and grease permanently dotted the bare surface.

"kriff!" The medic swore in annoyance "I bet if we poured disinfectant that Kaminioans use to clean birth pods with, the floor would stay pretty much the same!"

Rex found a bed jammed at the back of the living area and gently put here on there - although term bed was used rather loosely. He involuntary reached for the covers to tuck her in. There was no linen. The ex-jedi was literally sleeping on a bare mattress. The captain decided to leave his own blanket behind. He wouldn't mind getting pneumonia as long as he knew Ahsoka wouldn't freeze to death in this hellhole.

"it's all right comma- Ahsoka" Rex whispered, more to himself than to her, taking off her boots.

The blond clone glanced over at his brother; right now Kix was boiling water in a mess-tin, which was apparently the only pot Ahsoka owned, adding soup mixes and other secret-instant-fixes-spices-whatever to it. The room started to smell of food, warming if not the temperature itself, then mood of this run down place. Rex poured credits from Jesse's helmet into one of the teen's boots for safekeeping.

"I think we have to be going" the captain ordered, after a while of silence "There is nothing more we can do in such circumstances"

The medic nodded, turned the oven off and started to clean after himself.

"Kix fixed you something hot to eat" Rex tucked the teenager in "once you wake up, the broth will be waiting for you"

Ahsoka only stirred in her sleep and murmured something incoherently in, what seemed to be a reply.

"We will see each other again, I promise" Rex claimed solemnly.

He picked up Jesse's helmet from the floor.

Both clones left their friend's apartment with empty backpacks and heavy hearts.