The two of us became alert and were jolted away from our brainstorming of what to do when we heard two loud sets of feet coming towards us then turning off to the side. We didn't move a muscle but our thoughts did a full 180. Finally, without moving my head, I glanced up to Rebel whose eyes had shifted up as well to look at me, then she tilted her head to her left side, a signal for me to give the two of them some space. I didn't mind her giving me an order for once, I had to talk to Rex anyway. I nodded once and made my way to the hallway at the front of the room, which wasn't very far away. "Company, attention!" I heard Rex drilling the 501st for their journey to Cato Neimoidia. Even though all of our voices were the same, the Kaminoans had made sure of that. I could pick out Rex's serious, tired, responsible tone, and not just because he would be the only one drilling his troops. "Captain," I said quietly, trying to respectfully interrupt. He looked my way curious, but also annoyed at my intrusion. "May I speak with you for a moment?" I asked, struggling not to sound like a girl. He knew what this was about when he saw me motion him away from his battalion and he knew it couldn't wait. "Yes, Commander." He said turning his feet in a tight angle like he always did, as if he was always being watched by our drill instructor, he never let himself be at ease. I walked, dragging my feet a little as he marched beside me, I looked down at his feet as he planted them down hard with each high kneed step, his hard plated shoes made a loud echoing clang, beating in perfect tune, one after the other, never missing cue. "Please stop doing that." I whispered, never removing my gaze from the concrete floor he was stomping on. "Doing what?" He was looking straight ahead at an invisible point on the horizon with his head tilted upwards at a slight angle, which is what our sergeant on Kamino had taught us. I halted. "From birth we're taught to just follow orders, to be thrown from planet to planet all across the galaxy and we're told we're doing it for a good cause bigger than we can imagine but how can a happy ending spring from all of this conflict and loss? Have you ever stopped to wonder if you really even believe in what we're fighting for or how this will all end up, if this is all just an evil plot to distract us and divide us from the bigger issue at hand?" I snapped, I hadn't really had a free moment to talk to Rebel about what we should do without being interrupted by all the chaos, so I exploded on Rex. Was that the idea? Was that what Palpatine or whoever was behind this wanted to happen? To make us doubt ourselves and the system so he could swoop in and destroy us all and take over what little victories we had achieved? Were we falling right into his trap? I had no idea, I just knew that I felt like I couldn't trust anyone except Rebel. I still stared at Rex who was a few steps ahead of me and looked me up and down shocked. I could tell he was confused, concerned and his mind was buzzing with anxiety about the upcoming mission and now about my outburst, but I saw something else too. I could tell he wanted to reprimand me for even thinking to question the Republic, but a small glimmer of something else shone through, something he'd wanted to say for a while was on the tip of his tongue, but he was careful, even now, not to let it slip out. I relaxed my muscles but not my mind with a heavy sigh. I looked down and wished I could just erase the events of the past year and a half. I wanted to return to the only home we'd ever had on Kamino, when we were still 'Shinies' with no idea of what war was, when we thought our drills were just games. I wished we could go back to the day we met Rebel and Wrecker. Just then I realized that a wish was just that, a hope for something that is not attainable and will never happen, when the blaring alarm went off indicating a need for us to be at our stations.