Revised: 8/26/19

Chapter 22

Rex walked into the Council Chambers and studied the assembled Jedi. He'd been through enough of these meetings with Generals Skywalker and Kenobi that he already some idea of what to expect from the Council. The room was only half full. Several Jedi were represented by flickering holo-transmissions, three members of the Council were missing entirely. He knew Kenobi was injured and receiving much needed medical treatment. The whereabouts of Generals Fisto and Ti were unknown. Perhaps they were out-of-transmission range. He carefully studied the rest of the Jedi present. He knew from talks with his own General that certain members held more sway than others. Three of these were currently present: Generals Yoda, Windu and Plo Koon.

Rex faced the Council and saluted sharply. He stood at attention, waiting for permission to speak.

"At ease, Captain," said General Windu, resting his elbows on his knees and studying Rex intently like he was a puzzle he could not figure out.

Rex locked his arms behind his back at parade rest, pivoting slightly so he could address General Windu, but also see the other council members easily. He was filled with uncharacteristic nervousness. He'd been in the Council Chambers before, many times, in fact, with Skywalker. But, it was an entirely different feel without the brash Skywalker by his side. And, this was the first time where he was the focus of the meeting.

He tried to find the earlier calm he'd achieved when he'd been meditating. Who would have thought a practice he'd originally thought was ridiculous could be so helpful? He wished he could go back to it now. Alright, truth be told, he wished he was anyplace but here at the moment. Perhaps on a battlefield facing down a whole slew of tinnies.

Fek it all.

All calm was eluding him. His insides were locking up and making it hard to breathe. He needed to get out of here-

Breathe.

A strong but gentle command flooded over him like a rare warm breeze on Ando. Rex's gut unclenched and he instantly calmed. He had no time to think or reflect upon what had just happened.

"Captain Rex, your return caught us by surprise," Windu began, "but nevertheless, the Council considers it the will of the Force you returned to us alive."

Rex wasn't sure it was the will of the Force. He returned alive because his ship crashed, he fought off a bunch of pirates like a badass with very brave troopers the Republic had written off for disposal. But, Rex said none of this and he nodded respectfully. He was never sure how to react when the Jedi spoke of the Force controlling his destiny. He dipped his chin respectfully and politely like he'd been taught at Kamino. "Thank you, General."

"We have questions regarding your whereabouts since your departure from the Army Medical Base. An unaccounted timeframe of two months," his words were pleasant enough, but his voice held an edge of coolness.

General Ki-Al-Mundi, attending by holo transmission, interjected. "Captain, tell us what happened after your transport left the medical facility here on Coruscant?" His tone was polite and professional, reminding Rex of the calm mannerism of Cody's General.

Rex launched into his cover story, including everything he and Cody had rehearsed time and again on the journey home. The words flowed easily and naturally. He concluded his report, thinking he'd done a good job of it, all things considered. He waited for a reaction. The room was silent.

Windu frowned and glanced down at his datapad. And, Rex knew that look. It was never good.

Rex glanced over at the assembled Jedi. Something tugged at the corners of his mind. There was an odd current of energy in the air. Almost as if he were overhearing an argument.

Jedi, Rex sighed, doing his best to block out the sensation which now buzzed at his ears. He fixed his gaze out the window and watched the traffic going by in Coruscant, losing himself in the endless flow.

"Captain," Windu's voice held a slight edge of impatience. Had he called him more than once?

"Sir," Rex acknowledged with a crisp nod, straightening his spine.

"Thank you for your report," his dark eyes narrowed slightly and he stared Rex down with an intensity which would have even ARC troopers squirm. "This report tells us nothing, Captain. It is identical the report you filed." He stared at the 501st Captain. "I believe this is a fabrication with half-truths meant to conceal your true whereabouts."

"Sir?" Rex was immediately thrown off guard. His heart beat wildly in his chest. He struggled to regroup and think of a response, as blood hammered in his ears.

His mind went blank.

The lives of every vode on Ando were hanging in the balance.

Steady, Captain.

Again, Rex had no time to reflect upon where the voice came from, but it calmed his mind.

"However, I cannot prove anything," the frustration in the senior Jedi's voice was evident. "There is no one who can either dispute or corroborate your story since you are the only survivor from the medical transport to Kamino."

Rex almost passed out from relief, and then he nodded quickly to collaborate Windu's version of events. "Yes, sir."

General Windu looked down at the report in his hands again. "You say you could not contact the Republic for two months because you were on a scavenging ship in the far Outer Rim. Yet, once you were dropped off again at a settlement on..." he consulted his notes, "...Bunduki, you still chose not to tell the GAR of your whereabouts."

Rex had never been to Bunduki. But, it was about as far from Corrie as one could go. He gave another nod. "Yes, sir, Bunduki."

"By doing so, you deliberately violated GAR regulations, making you AWOL."

"No, sir."

Once again there was the slight tightening around the Jedi General's eyes. "OK, Captain, enlighten me."

"The GAR defines AWOL as absent from one's post without intent to desert," Rex began.

"I am aware of the regulations, Captain," Windu said.

"I was decommissioned, sir. I could not be AWOL if I was not in the GAR," Rex said.

"The Captain has a point," General Plo Koon agreed, almost a bit too enthusiastically, and Rex briefly wondered if he made a point of goading the head of the Jedi Council. He immediately dropped the thought. It wasn't possible.

He was encouraged, though, by the support. He figured he'd won for the moment on being AWOL. "The military seems to find it necessary to strip us of everything before sending us off to Kamino. I was not and I am still not in the GAR. It is why I am requesting to be reinstalled to my rank and position as Captain of the 501st Legion."

Windu paused to consider this request carefully. "You wish to be reinstated?"

"Yes, sir, as Captain of the 501st."

"Before we reinstate you, can you provide anyone who can backup these claims of where you have been over the past two months? Prove the sort of company you have been keeping?"

Rex's brow furrowed, and then narrowed as Windu's implications sank in.

Was he being accused of spying?

Rex's fists balled in anger. He was so thrown off by the accusation, he had no response.

"Captain?"

"Sir?"

"Do you have any witnesses?"

He was beaten. Everyone who knew his whereabouts during that time could never show their faces again. "No, sir. None."

The room was silent for a long moment. Rex clenched and unclenched one fist. Gah. The temperature regulators in his bodysuit were definitely not working. Now, he could feel a bead of sweat running down the middle of his back. He needed to do some serious work on his armor.

The General stared him down for a long moment before looking back down to Rex's report. "So, you had access to comm equipment on Bunduki. Instead of contacting the GAR with your whereabouts, you collaborated with Commander Cody upon learning of the clones at Darkknell."

"Respectfully, General, Commander Cody is and was a member of the GAR at the time I contacted him."

The senior Jedi scowled. "He was on medical leave at Ord Cestus, hardly a fitting contact."

"Commander Cody is my direct superior, sir, since Commander Tano and General Skywalker were unreachable. As soon as I made contact with him, I informed him I was alive," Rex paused, "Although, he did figure that part out on his own a few seconds into our conversation."

There was the slightest chuckle of amusement from behind him. He knew without turning around it was from General Plo Koon.

"You did all of this rather than simply contacting the nearest Republic military outpost. Why?"

"I was sent to Kamino to be reconditioned. My Legion was captured. Respectfully, sir, what would I be returning to?"

Windu dove back into the argument. "It was your duty."

Rex stared him down. Hard. Duty?! No one knew more about duty than clones. Rex bit his lip as he struggled with his response, but he couldn't help thinking this senior General had no understanding of clones. He wasn't sure why Ponds thought highly of the man.

"I understand my duty, sir," Rex said evenly, trying to keep his patience, and keep the edge out of his voice. "It is the code I live by." Something hot and fiery was rising up in his gut, though.

He was rankled, though. Thoroughly. This Jedi dared challenge him on the issue of duty? The issue which was most sacred to clones? The code by which all clones lived and died?!

"You should have immediately returned as soon as circumstances allowed. You would have been reassigned," Windu continued.

Aw, fek it. That had gone and done it. Rex's calm center was gone.

"Reassigned?! The 501st had been captured, sir, and was in dire straits," he shook his head. "If Cody and I hadn't taken action and rescued the missing Legions, those men would have died. They were barely alive when we found them, sir. What were you doing to find them?"

"We were working on strategies to-"

"You were likely debating it endlessly, like you always do, while good men died. Your plans didn't work. Your plans don't work. And, soldiers die. Clones die. Jedi are not meant to be Generals and it is my brothers who pay the price time and again."

Steady, Rex.

But, this time he ignored the voice. He was too frustrated. The pain over having been nearly put to death at the hands of his own army burned too deep.

"That's enough!" Mace Windu snapped and Rex knew he'd pushed too far. He was past the point of caring. Or stopping. Or returning. He was past the point of no return.

The pain and anger of everything that had happened over the past few months bubbled up inside of him. The fate of the 501st and the 212th. His near reconditioning. The thought of all the brothers before him, and likely those after him, still being sent to Kamino wouldn't allowed him to stay silent any longer. He simply wasn't the soldier he'd been before. He couldn't pretend anymore. "There were 12,000 men in that prison," Rex said in a voice, so low and deadly it didn't sound like his own any more. "Left there to starve and be experimented on. Forgotten by the Republic that created them. They would've all been starved to death if they'd stayed any longer. The Jedi, too, were all practically dead when we found them. Cody and I brought them all home. And, for that, you locked Cody up. We see each other as brothers. You treat us like canon fodder. But, we're not. I hope maybe one day you'll see us as something more. We are men."

"Captain Rex, that is enough!"

Rex wasn't sure who called him off this time. He wasn't listening anymore. At some point, he'd stopped listening to Jedi. If good soldiers follow orders, he'd turned into something else entirely over the past two months.

He had the floor to himself now, although he knew he had only seconds left. "It will never be enough! You left clones to die in that prison, just like you leave my brothers to die all the time. We are disposable men to you, nothing more. We are not citizens of this Republic so we have no rights. But, we are living, thinking beings. We do our duty, and in return, you sentence us to death. I did my duty, and in return I was sentenced to Kamino to die-"

Rex hadn't heard the Temple Guards come into the room. He had to give them credit for stealth. His arms were snapped up painfully behind his back and dual lightsaber blades appeared a hair's breadth from his throat.

"You are finished here, Captain," General Windu said, his face taking on an unsettling glow in the reflection of the lightsabers from the Temple Guards. "You are hereby sentenced to the brig for contempt of the Jedi Council."

The lightsabers were lowered as Rex was pulled out of the room by the Temple Guards.

"Respectfully, sir," Rex said, looking back over his shoulder at the General, "if you keep locking up all your command clones, you won't have anyone to fight your war for you. And," he muttered under his breath, "no one to die for you."

He knew he'd gone too far. Much too far. And, there would be very serious consequences for his actions. But, it was true. All of it.

"Take him away," General Windu said, his voice tightly restrained.

Fek it all. Rex had just made an enemy of the most powerful man on the Jedi Council.

The guards clamped a tight grip on either one of his arms and led him from the room.

As he was led from from the Council room, his heart stopped. Ahsoka was outside in the waiting area. Her eyes widened as he was ushered away by the Temple Guards. All defiance drained from him in an instant and he knew he'd failed her. Their eyes met for a second that seemed like an eternity.

Rex?!

His chest tightened and he couldn't breathe.

The realization struck him then and he couldn't breathe.

This was worse than getting shot point blank by a commando droid. He'd let them all down. Admiral Yularen. Cody. Ahsoka. The 501st. He hung his head down, refusing to look at Ahsoka any longer.

The lift opened up and Fox walked out accompanied by half a squadron of shock troopers. He walked briskly up to the Temple Guards. "I'll take it from here." He pulled a pair of binders off his belt, and slipped them onto the 501st Captain. He gave Rex's arm a sharp tug, guiding him along.

# # #

Plo Koon watched the 501st Captain being led away, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He saw the wide-eyed look Padawan Tano gave to the captain of her Legion as he was led away under guard.

Interesting.

The doors swished shut again, sequestering the Council behind closed doors once more. He turned his attention back to his fellow Jedi and broke the silence in the room. "The Captain made some excellent points. It bears discussion."

His words garnered him a steely look from Windu but discussion ensued.

# # #

When they reached the lift, Fox looked at the other shock troopers. "Meet me downstairs. I'll take him down alone." He removed his buckets and handed it to his second. "Take this down for me." His second nodded and headed away with the other troopers to a separate bank of lifts.

Their lift arrived and Fox gave Rex a non-too-gentle shove inside. He said nothing at first, but simply stared Rex down. It was worse than a dressing down. "You've changed, Rex." He shook his head. "No idea what happened to you or Cody out there in the Rim, but you both came back acting crazy." He stared down the 501st Captain. He pushed a finger into Rex's chest armor. "This needs to stop. We clones were created to follow orders. Nothing more." He shook his head, as if he couldn't figure out Rex. They both watched the floors zip by in a tense silence as if the future itself was speeding toward them and they were powerless to slow it down. The lights were making Rex dizzy.

As soon as the doors opened at ground level, Fox's second and the other shock troopers were already waiting for them. Fox accepted his helmet back, but clipped it to his belt rather than donning it.

On the walk to the RMB, Fox continued his tirade against renegade clones who had no respect for law and order. After Fox finished Rex's processing, he started in on his lecture again about how what an di'kut he was to end up in the RMB.

"The RMB is no place for a command clone," Fox hissed. "I'm having a hard enough time keeping Cody alive."

Rex didn't comment. Gah. He should have shut up a while ago, no matter what they said about him. Maybe General Windu had been goading him on purpose. He shouldn't have snapped. Everything he'd done in there was wrong. He'd screwed up. Maybe he didn't deserve to be Captain of the 501st.

Fek it all. Where did that leave his Legion? Appo?

What had he done? Rex's gut twisted in such misery he was sure it was one of those red Kazzie fruits trying to claw their way out.

# # #

Revision Notes:

8/26/19 Revised Rex's fiery speech to Windu in the council room. I could hear Rex's voice in my head as he said to Windu we are men, not droids. Shades of Umbara. A combination of Rex and Fives standing up for the rights of all clones in the defiance of the Jedi treatment of clones. Powerful ethical issues raised when you have others fight your way for you. Disney/LFL touch on the issue and then glance over it again, but it is an important issue.

6/2/2019. Tightened up the dialogue between Rex and Windu. Also revised the dialogue between Rex and Fox.

June 5, 2019: The latest revisions fit in with the master plan for the new outline.

A note about the character of Mace Windu. In the Ryloth arc, Mace Windu fights alongside his clone troopers. There's an unforgettable scene where he is fighting like a total badass and goes out of his way to rescue a clone trooper from a fallen AT-AT rather than leaving him to die. In my head canon, Windu is influenced by his interactions with Rex and Cody. The overreaching idea what happened to Rex and Cody has this ripple effect like a puddle in a pond which keeps spreading outwards.

It is undeniable Rex and Cody have changed a great deal from their experiences in Rex I. They are starting to question a great deal of their previously held beliefs. Will this sort of thinking save them or get them killed?