CHAPTER 2: Wrong Time

"Rex! Rex wake up!"

Captain Rex jumped. He had daydreamed again, and in the middle of a battle this time. He kept thinking back to previous battles, especially since it looked like they were repeating themselves, just on a different planet.

Star had rushed over to him and was shaking him. She had a look of panic in her eyes, which was rare. Her helmet was gone, her sword in hand. His senses snapped back into focus. They were on Kashyyk, defending the Wookiee colonies from the Separatists. The clankers had come in on water craft and were storming the beach. Though the kriffing things were the dumbest machines in the universe, they had the advantage of numbers, and huge explosives. Rex watched as they fired missiles into the trenches the troops had made and blew them sky high.

"Rex! Come on, we got to get out of here. General Skywalker called the order for retreat."

"That's a new one for him," was the only thing Rex said. Star rolled her eyes and gave him a shove.

"Yeah, I know. It was a shock to me too. I'm supposed to hold them while you get to the gunships."

"I'll stay here." He said. That got Star even more irritated, he could tell.

"No, you're not. Not after what happened last week." Rex knew what she was talking about. The Zygerrian slave drivers that had imprisoned him, Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, and Ahsoka. He could have run, but he stood by his officers and got captured. Then he spent time with Kenobi at a mining facility in the Kadavo system, where through treacherous torture they tried to break them into submission. Yet another moment he could vividly recall, especially the way Star looked at him when he got back.

"Rex, what is with you?" Star's cries brought him back to reality. She was staring directly into his eyes, as if trying to read his mind. "Whatever just stay back. There's enough fire here for me to actually get a good range." She was referring to her powers again, the one's given to her by renegade Nightsisters. They meant it to be a curse of sorts, but it didn't work out that way. Star had learned to control her abilities, specifically the one where she could conjure and shoot fire at will. She could even absorb fire from outside sources and use it.

Star sheathed her sword, ran over to the edge of the trench, and took her position, just like that first day. She spread her arms wide, and the fire from the previously launched missiles came to her. Star absorbed the flames into her palms, and a wicked, predatorial grin spread over her face. Her arm comlink was close to her face, so Rex could hear her faintly say, "Alright tinnies, let's dance."

She threw her arms down and a row of flames shot from her hands and part of her arms, landing right in front of the first row of droids. Her arms went up, and the flames went up to create a wall of fire. Rex could feel the heat from here. A thrust of her arms, and the wall went forward into the ranks of droids, incinerating thousands as it went. It even hit some of their watercraft and caused them to rupture and explode. Rex marveled anew every time Star used her powers. They reminded him of his vow to protect Star, which in turn made his feelings for her become stronger. Watching her made Rex…

No…. no, you can't do this to yourself, Rex told himself. They were both soldiers; that kind of emotion was not meant for them. Yet no matter how much he tried, Rex just couldn't help himself for wanting Star to be his own, to have the same feelings for him as he did for her. Rex found himself watching Star again as a droid limb almost hit him in the head.

Star had pulled out her sword, a ninjato if he remembered correctly, and was using that to fight as the tougher droids such as SBD's and commando droids moved in. Star was moving rapidly, blocking blaster bolts here, slicing a droid head there: at times she seemed almost as coordinated as a Jedi. But no matter how many tinnies she cut down, there seemed to be even more still. Rex grabbed his DC-17 pistols and ran in to help Star. Before long the two of them were back-to-back and up to their shebs in droid scraps.

"I thought I told you to stay back," Star shouted over the noise.

"Did you really think you keep me away that long?" was Rex's somewhat sarcastic reply.

She didn't say anything; she just kept hacking at commandos. Rex had been counting the number of gunships; there were only about three left. We're gonna make it, Rex thought. We just need to get out of this mess ourselves.

Then Rex saw it, just above them. A commando sniper was rustling in the trees along the cliffs, and he could just about make out the droids targeting laser.

It was pointed at the side of Star's chest.

Her arms were holding her sword in the air. If that blaster bolt hit its mark, it would break her ribs, and most likely go straight through her left lung. Rex knew he had to do something; Star probably hadn't seen the sniper yet, and her wolf senses were most likely focused on the problem I front of her. Her reflexes were good, but not that good. Then Rex remembered his vow; that he would fight until his last breath to protect Star. And that's what he was gonna do.

As the sniper pulled the trigger right as Rex pivoted his body so he was positioned with his back against Star's shoulder. Rex felt a searing pain shoot through his lower chest, knowing the bolt had hit him. The last thing Rex remembered was sinking to the ground, the edges of his vision going black,

and Star shouting his name once again.