Ahsoka was an excellent teacher. She dove into the material of teaching him meditation with great enthusiasm.
Rex realized he was happy just to be spending time alone with her again. He didn't much care if they were discussing the best way to rewire an R2 droid. These moments alone together were exceedingly rare. He composed his face into his best semblance of 'I've listening,' and simply enjoyed the moment.
"There are many benefits to meditation including better focus and concentration, improved self-awareness and self-esteem, lower levels of stress and anxiety and fostering kindness," Ahsoka paused and waited for his reaction.
Rex blinked and realized he was expected to come up with a response. Ah. OK, well, maybe he had been a bit distracted lately. He considered her words, chewing them over carefully. "Any sort of improved focus could be a tactical advantage." He backed up a bit, replaying her other words in his mind. "I generally don't have problems with self-esteem."
She cast him a fond teasing smile that made the room seem overly warm. "No, you don't."
He looked away from her gaze and stared out the viewport so he could focus better. "Managing stress could also be a strategic asset. If we win these battles, we can win the war."
"There's that confidence again," Ahsoka gently teased, "and I do believe you are correct. We will prevail if we work together."
He smiled back, enjoying the warm banter between them. He chewed over the last part of her words. "Fostering kindness, though? We can probably can skip those parts. I hardly see how that could be useful. I'm just a soldier, Ahsoka. I'm no Jedi."
Ahsoka put a hand in the center of his blacks, directly over his heart, and Rex cursed himself for how the simple action caused his heart to race wildly. "You are so much more than just a soldier, I've seen great compassion in you in the way you treat your brothers. The compassion we show others can win battles just as much as the fierce acts of bravery. It is because of your compassion that your brothers are so loyal to you and will follow you anywhere. That is the key to your leadership."
He considered her words. "I never thought of it that way. I always thought they followed me because I'm the Captain."
"It's a form of love. Your brothers love you. And, that is why you are such an effective leader."
It was a strange thing to be discussing love with Ahsoka. He nodded, a bit choked up with emotion about the topic. "I feel the same way about my brothers. I would do anything for them."
Rex had an epiphany, then, realizing why Appo had never connected with the men and they hadn't related to him. There was simply no emotional connection to him as their commanding officer. "I understand," he said, looking into Ahsoka's eyes.
She smiled at him, her eyes full of warmth, and something else he couldn't quite identify. It made him feel powerful and filled him with a sense of longing at the same time. He blinked hard and looked away.
If Ahsoka detected his awkwardness she didn't show it. Instead, she reached for his hand and grasped it in her own. Rather than increasing his awkwardness, the simple touch calmed and soothed him. He wasn't sure if he was doing some Jedi thing, but the touch of her hand in his own had a very grounding effect on him. She continued on with her lesson, lightly stroking the inside of his palm with her thumb. "Meditation can increase your imagination and creativity." She paused again, giving him time to absorb her words. Her thumb traced lazy circles inside the fleshy part of his hand.
"Increased imagination and creativity could be useful; allow us to stay one step ahead of the Seppies." Anytime he could outthink the enemy, he could save his brothers. He was liking the idea of this training more and more. "What else?" he asked eagerly.
"If you fully embrace the practice, you will develop an ability to focus on the present with heightened self-awareness and increased patience."
His mind did have a tendency to wander back to what his brothers were doing back on Ando. Such thoughts wouldn't do much good if he were to fully commit to saving the brothers he had here in the 501st.. "I'll need increased patience, I think, with the new batch of shinies we just took onboard. They're going to be a lot more work than usual."
Ahsoka's head cocked to the side with interest, her thumb continuing their soothing luxurious circles around his hand. "How so?"
He loved what she was doing to his hand. "They're different from shinies that have come through before. They have a different feel to them somehow. Like they're off somehow." He pushed out a sigh. "They don't have nicknames," Rex blurted out, "and I don't know why that is such a big deal to me, but it doesn't seem right. I assigned Fives and Jesse to work with them. And, it's more than that, the shiny we asked about it hadn't even ever heard about clones being given a name other than their designation. I thought maybe it was an isolated case, but none of them go by anything other than their full designations."
"Force," Ahsoka said, pushing out a long exhale, "I can't imagine referring to all those new troopers only by their numbers."
"There's more," Rex said, "they all have a designation we've never heard of before, a CX designation after their CT. I've asked Wolffe to look into it."
"CX? Like the moons of Coruscant?"
"What would that have to do with these clones?"
"I don't know, but on Coruscant, Centax 1 and Centax 2 are referred to by the prefix CX."
Rex pulled his vambrace out of his neatly stacked pile of armor and quickly typed a note to Wolffe with the possible new clue. He returned his armor to the stack, and resumed his meditation pose. He pushed out a long breath. "As long as the shinies can shoot straight, I suppose it doesn't much matter if they're a bit odd."
"I'll drop in on their training and let you know I think," Ahsoka said, "new recruits always have a very distinct presence in the Force."
Ahsoka dropped her hand from Rex's and he was disappointed at the loss of contact. She put her hands on her lap in a palms-up gesture that looked very natural for the Jedi padawan. Rex did his best to imitate the move. "For tonight, we are just going to focus on relaxed breathing. If you master this skill, we can progress to mindfulness meditation and perhaps even meditation with movement."
"Katas, right?" Rex supplied. He'd seen Generals Skywalker and Kenobi practicing these forms and admired the grace in which they did the moves. Although, when Ahsoka did the moves in front of either him or the men it was an entirely new kind of distraction. It went from graceful to something else entirely. He always ended up yelling at the men and making them run extra laps.
He had mixed feelings on the whole practice of katas.
"Even if you only master a single kata," Ahsoka continued, "you will see some benefit. Katas allow your body to enter a state of profound rest and relaxation. Your mind will achieve a state of inner peace, without needing to use concentration or effort."
"I'm not sure General Skywalker has achieved a sense of inner peace, perhaps he missed the point of exercise."
Ahsoka doubled over laughing, and Rex was very pleased he could evoke such a reaction from her. "Yes, well, I don't think he practices his forms nearly as often as he should. Perhaps you could get him to practice with you."
Rex's eyes widened. "That doesn't sound relaxing, at all. General Skywalker is very intense."
"Yes, that is a good description of my Master," she regarded Rex with a thoughtful expression, "but, you've always had a good influence on him. You're steady and calm." Her voice softened and grew a bit melancholy. "He wasn't the same when you were gone. None of us were." She pressed her fingers to his arm. Rex had to admit he liked how much physical touch was involved in meditation. "You've always had a good influence on him. You're steady and calm. Perhaps you are just what he needs."
Rex didn't like where this was headed, at all. "I hardly think I'm the right person for the job. Perhaps General Kenobi would be better suited-"
She moved her fingers from her arm to his chest in an imploring gesture. "I want you to be there for him. The Force wills it, I can feel it. He needs someone right now. He seems willing to open up to you. The two of you have a unique bond."
Rex opened his mouth to object, but snapped his jaw shut again. He couldn't deny the truth of her words. He took a deep breath and measured his words carefully. "I'm still not exactly sure what I can do, but I'll learn all the skills I can, as agreed, Rex hedged, still slightly distracted by the hand on his chest.
"And, I'll let Anakin know you'll be training with him, as well," Ahsoka pressed, removing her hand. He missed the feel of it immediately.
Rex groaned inwardly. He was close to his General but he hardly thought he was qualified to guide him on anything other than strategic matters. It was all his training covered.
"You are more than your training, Rex," Ahsoka said, softly, her eyes closed and her hands in a relaxed palms up gesture once again.
"How do you-" he frowned, "did you… did I…."
She smiled and opened her eyes, rewarding him with a teasing smile. "I did not read your thoughts and this time you did not broadcast your thoughts. Your shields are firmly back in place this evening, as I suspected they would be. You and I have been friends for a long time, Rex, it was easy to guess the direction of your thoughts. You often think you are the sum of your training. You are so much more. You have proven this time and again. You are perhaps the most unusual clone in the Grand Army in this regard and you know it."
Rex stared at her jaw agape. She closed her eyes again, a peaceful serene expression crossing her face, leaving him alone with his thoughts for a few minutes. He automatically imitated her position again, palms up and found it was very easy to think in this relaxed position.
Was he more than just his training? He'd been raised for ten years on Kamino to follow a strict set of beliefs and protocols. But, for the past three years, Generals Skywalker, Kenobi and Ahsoka had been continually pushing him to broaden his way of thinking. It was not his Kaminoan training that had ultimately driven him to rescue Ahsoka and the 501st on Darkknell. If he had learned anything during the war, it was he was more than just his programming. If he had followed his "programming," he would not have been capable of any of the actions that had led him down that path.
He took another deep breath and thought more about Ahsoka's words. Could he make any sort of difference to General Skywalker? Did the General actually need someone there for him outside of General Kenobi, Ahsoka and his relationship with the senator? If Ahsoka thought he could make a difference, he would do his best to do so. It was his duty as a Captain and as a friend to General Skywalker.
He relaxed more as he came to this conclusion and Ahsoka must have sensed the change in him. She moved on to the next part of their lesson.
They spent the next hour working on relaxed breathing. Ahsoka praised him a number of times for how quickly he mastered the skill. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't basking in her praise and trying his damndest to be perfect at every skill she asked of him. But, it was more than that, he was at peace and could think more clearly as he was mastering the exercise. The hour was gone in a flash and he was disappointed when it was done.
"Alright," Ahsoka said, as her chrono softly chimed signaling their hour was up, "that's time. We'll pick this up again tomorrow night."
Rex nodded, rising to his feet and quickly replacing all of his plates. Ahsoka rolled up their mats and replaced them in the corner of the room.
"Do you have to head back to your office and finish your reports?" Ahsoka asked.
"Yes," Rex nodded, he tucked his helmet under one arm as they walked side-by-side toward the lift.
"Want to grab a snack before you head back to your office?" she coaxed, pulling out a small data chip from a pouch on her belt. "I created a new subroutine to reprogram the mess hall droids. It should coax them into improving the quality of the food. I figured it would be good for morale."
Rex smiled. "You're always thinking of the men."
"To be fair, Rex, I also happen to like good food."
He laughed. "Alright. I suppose a bit of food might increase my productivity."
Ahsoka chatted happily the rest of the way to the mess hall, going on enthusiastically about her new subroutine and how she figured out how to subvert the existing wiring of droids without the units being aware of the changes. As Rex walked, content to simply listen to Ahsoka, he realized he was happy. It was such a rare thing in a time of war, but in these few rare moments alone with Ahsoka, he was at peace.
# # #
Rex was finishing up a strategy briefing when a text came in over his compad from Fives.
['Fives'] Rex, come down the hangar deck as soon as you're free. There's a problem with the shinies.
Rex disengaged himself from the meeting as soon as he could and worked his way down to the hangar deck.
Before he even arrived, he received a comm message from Ahsoka.
['Ahsoka'] Rex, I stopped by the hangar desk to check on the new recruits about an hour ago. Something is off about the way they present in the Force. They don't shine in the same way other new recruits have in the past. It is as if their presence is muted. I can tell you more about it tonight when I see you at our meditation practice.
Rex chewed over this latest clue as he made his way down to the hangar deck, an edgy sense of anxiety clawing at his gut. As he walked into the area they'd cleared out for training, he walked in with a brisk confident stride. It was his job to worry for everyone else.
He spotted Fives standing atop a supply crate where he had a better viewing of the training course. Jesse was on the other side of the training field on top of another supply crate, overseeing another batch of shinies.
"I'm here," Rex said, striding up to the ARC trooper, "what's the issue?"
But, he didn't need to ask. The new recruits were running through Closed Quarters Combat drills using training blasters and every spare crate, unused droid, empty fuel cell and out-of-service LAAT Fives and Jesse could put in their path. This was a common drill all new shinies to the 501st went through. There were specialized attachments for the DC-15s specifically designed to allow them to work with training targets. Score a direct and the target lit up. It was a very simple but effective exercise as new members were integrated and adjusted to working within the close confines of the ship. The only issues Rex could see was very few of the farkin' targets were actually lighting up.
Rex crossed his arms across his chest and watched for several minutes. Fives worked his way over to him.
"Are the training attachments malfunctioning?" he asked, his scowl growing as he watched the new recruits run the course.
"No, I checked several of them myself," Fives said, his voice tight and grim.
OK, breathe, just breathe, he reminded himself.
"Is it possible the targets are malfunctioning?" Rex asked.
Fives gave him a wry look, but still reached out to grab the nearest shiny, who squawked with surprise and nearly dropped his blaster.
"Trooper, present your weapon to Captain Rex for inspection."
"Sir, yes, sir," the shiny said, handing the blaster over and standing at stiff attention.
Rex took the blaster and aimed at the nearest target. The target immediately switched from red to green. A satisfying click registered on the training blaster. Rex aimed at another target and then another. They all lit up.
"Trooper, take a knee and hit that target," Rex ordered, pointing to the nearest target on the course. A fourth-year cadet could easily make the shot, especially from such a stable firing position. Rex could make that shot by the time he was a second-year.
"Yes, Captain," the trooper saluted enthusiastically and Rex handed the blaster back. He obediently took a knee and proceeded to squeeze off several shots. He missed all of them, not by a lot, but none of them hit the target.
"Feeeeeeek," Rex hissed under his breath.
"Sir?" The shiny looked up at him, his voice reflecting his concern and confusion.
"Not to worry, trooper," Fives said, placing a reassuring hand on the shiny's shoulder, "that's just the Captain's nickname for you. As you were."
Feeeeeeeek hopped nimbly to his feet, saluted both officers so sharply he nearly dropped his blaster again and scrambled off to continue the course.
Rex looked over at Fives. "We have a problem."
"Yeah, these shinies can't shoot," Fives looked out over the sea of blinding white running around the course. "We have a thousand shinies that can't hit a target."
# # #
Rex headed down to his office, determined to get some answers.
"What do you think?" Rex asked Wolffe over a secure channel, sharing a recording of the new recruiting training with Fives.
"Did Fives just name that trooper Feeeeeek?" Wolffe asked, a small smile tugging at his lips. When Wolffe smiled, it looked almost feral. His lips only ever curled up slightly and it tugged down the scar that dominated the left side of his face. "You know, that could catch on in the ranks." He looked delighted with the prospect.
"That's what you got out of watching the holo?" Rex demanded, stretching one arm behind him to jab at the caf machine and start a fresh cup brewing. He suspected there was still some old caf in his mug, but he didn't much care. "I shudder to think what he's naming the rest of them. Who the fek is training them these days? These troopers have never heard of nicknames. Beyond the naming issue, what else was left out of their training? They are unlike any recruits we've had before."
Wolffe 'hmmmped' under his breath. "Alright, hold up, I was just talking with Cody and Ponds anyway, I'm adding them to this call. They need to see this, too," Wolffe's shimmering hologram froze for a moment as he worked to add the other two participants to the call.
Cody and Ponds shimmered into place next to Wolffe.
"Hey Codes, Ponds," Rex greeted, taking a sip of his caf and grimacing. OK, he should have tossed the old caf first.
"I was just catching them up on what you told me," Wolffe said. "You and Cody received the most of these replacement troopers, but I added a few of them to replace some losses in my Wolfpack and Ponds received to replace some losses in Lightning. So, we all have some of these new shinies in our ranks now. Go on, replay the holo."
Rex replayed the short clip from the hangar deck of the shinies run around CQB course taking a knee and aiming at their targets. They looked exactly like clone troopers, except they couldn't hit their targets.
Ponds' raised eyebrow was clear even through the shimmering hologram. "Did Fives just name that trooper Feeeeeeek?"
"Should have deleted that part," Rex grumbled. "Can we please focus on the fact these shiny boys can't shoot for shit?"
Cody was scowling fiercely and in a way it was good to see. He was back to being the Cod'ika Rex knew and loved. It showed he was recovered now from his near fatal shooting in the chest by his 2IC. "Waxer reported the same thing this morning. I thought he was taking his new duties too seriously. I've appointed him as an acting Captain. But, I see now he was spot-on in his assessment. I was just about to head down there and take a look when you commed me."
Rex set the vid from his bucket to loop of the shiny missing the targets again and again. He pointed into it. "So, what would cause such an anomaly? From the time we're decanted we're trained to be the finest soldiers this galaxy has ever seen. The Kaminoans would never allow for such a deviation from their strict quality control." Rex wasn't quite able to keep the grimace off his face, having nearly been a victim of such quality control himself.
"I looked more into that CX designation you sent me, Rex," Wolffe said, "all of the new troopers sent to our four battalions have this same designation." He shared a datascreen into the call flashing up a series of numbers. "These are all the recruits that were sent over to the 501st, the 212th, the 104th and the 91st." He froze the screen to stop the scrolling. "Before their CT numbers, they are all labeled as CX. I thought at first maybe this was a new designation out of Kamino, possibly identifying their trainer. But, I checked with Alpha and he's never heard of such a practice or this designation. So, I assigned Boost to do a bit of creative investigating on the topic. Commander Tano was correct in her hunch. CX is an abbreviation for Centaux. I'm attaching Boost's report."
Rex's datapad hummed softly as it received the attachment and he tugged it off his belt and toggled it open. He started quickly scrolling through page after page of data, glancing up at the holocall, noticing Ponds and Cody doing the same. Wolffe waited patiently for their reaction. As Rex took in the scope of the facility on Centax, his jaw gaped open in amazement. "There's a cloning facility on Centax-2?!"
Wolffe nodded grimly. "Looks like it was constructed in secret. I don't know why or who authorized it. But, these are not Kaminoan clones."
"What?!" Rex almost toppled his caf mug as he jumped up in surprise, staring into the hologram. He always did have too much energy, by far, especially when he was upset. He started pacing the small confines of his office, relying upon the automatic sensors of the holivid camera to keep in frame. He continued to read on his datapad.
Rex, Cody and Ponds all swore at once, although their choices of swears were varied and colorful. Rex was glad Fives was not around, as he was sure he would have used it as an opportunity to immediately creatively name more shinies.
"Why are we being sent troopers that can't shoot?" Ponds demanded. "We all know Arkanian clones are shit. They're nothing like us. They go from vat to finish in a year and everything is flash-trained. You can't learn to shoot in that amount of time. We have a decade of training before we are sent out."
Ponds' questions were fair, but part of Rex already knew the answers. The answer lay in the devastating losses the 501st had sustained at Teth and Christophsis; the troopers Wolffe had lost on Mygeeto; Cody's overwhelming losses on Sarrish; and all the members of the 91st who'd perished on Ryloth. Millions of troopers had already died in the war and the Republic was bleeding troopers at an unsustainable rate. The CIS could manufacture droids much faster than the Republic could manufacture clones. The math no longer added up. He'd always known it was only a matter of time. It took ten years for a clone to mature and less than an hour for a B-1 to go from blob of metal to a unit capable of firing on his men. B-1s were dumb as rocks and only seemed to get stupider over time, but in massive quantities they could still kill effectively. It did not take intelligence to be deadly.
Wolffe signaled off-screen and Sinker and Boost came into view. "I've asked Sinker and Boost to join us and deliver the rest of their report. I think you should hear it first hand."
"Commanders, Captain," Sinker greeted with a nod of his head. "Boost and I have been training the new shinies we received for the 104th."
"We started running them through the more advanced paces we do to check to see if any of them could be Wolfpack material," Boost said, and then scoffed loudly, "they are not. They are about the furthest thing from it I have ever seen in new recruits."
Sinker shook his head slightly. "They're different, alright. Their performance is not up to par with what we usually see in a batch of shinies. Boost took this holo of training this morning when I was working with one of our new shinies. We nicknamed him spaarti. I'll explain why in a minute."
He played the holovid into the call.
"I'll try again, Sergeant," the shiny said earnestly, "I'm sure I can hit it this time." The trooper squeezed off several shots, finally succeeding in hitting a target.
Out of ten shots, the last one finally hit the target. He leapt up and gave a delighted yelp of victory.
On the vid, Sinker shook his head and placed a restraining hand on the new recruit's shoulder. "Alright, shiny, calm down, who was your firearms instructor on Kamino?"
"My trainer on Kamino, sir? I…I…" he shook his head in confusion.
Boost's voice emerged on the recording, loudly, since he was taking the recording. "Who taught you to shoot, trooper?"
The shiny cocked his head to the side. "Taught me, sir? I don't understand. I knew when I was decanted."
Sergeant Sinker ended the playback of the video.
"Are you saying these new clones are fully flash trained?" Cody demanded.
"Looks that way, sir," Sinker answered, "as you can see from the briefing we sent over, the facility is registered to Arkanian Microtechnologies. They use spaarti cylinders to produce clones."
"Spaartis?" Rex exhaled a long exasperated breath. "These clones are spaartis? That explains a lot."
"Yes, sir," the Wolfpack sergeant replied, "so rather than the ten years to maturity at which we are grown, a Spaarti cloning cylinder produces a completed unit in one year."
"Fully developed is a matter of debate," Wolffe grumbled, "you can't train a clone in a year."
"They're not trained, per se," Sinker corrected, "they have personalities formed by flash memory."
Wolffe shook his head, grumbling under his breath. "Calling it a personality is being generous."
"Regardless," Sinker said, turning to look at his commander, "whomever approved this project must not have cared about quality. I think this was all about producing a great quantity of clones. Some of which are being pushed out here to the Rim, as it's clear the Outer Rim campaign is being given a lot of focus. However, we were also able to detect a large movement of troopers directly from Centax down to Corrie."
"To what end?" Ponds demanded. "Why flood Coruscant with second-rate troopers?"
Sinker addressed the command clones. "Sirs, if I may, these new clones are very obedient. They have little sense of self-awareness from what I can see. If there is one thing they are exceptionally skilled at it is following orders. Hitting targets accurately may not matter so much if you have overwhelming numbers."
Just like the B-1s, Rex thought, feeling sick inside. And, just as it seems we are winning the war, they found a way to turn us into droids, after all.
Boost nodded in agreement. "At the rate they can generate these units, this facility can produce an entirely new army out of there. They can easily produce millions and millions of clones this way. Based on the size of this facility, the number of Spaarti clones will easily eclipse the number of Kaminoan clones in a few months."
"I still don't understand why?" Ponds demanded. "I get that we are bleeding clones at an incredible rate, but why deploy so many troopers to Corrie?" he hissed in frustration, "there are pieces here that don't add up."
"I agree. There is something more going on here," Wolffe muttered. "Sinker, Boost, I want you to keep digging and figure out who is funding these clones and why we weren't told about it." He gave a small hand signal, indicating they could take their leave of the discussion.
The two Wolfpack clones nodded respectfully to Wolffe and the other command clones and disappeared off-camera.
Wolffe looked back at the rest of the command team. "Until we figure out more of what is going on, we need to keep this between us brothers."
Rex shook his head. "Commander Tano already knows about it. She was down on the hangar deck today with the new recruits and said they don't feel right in the Force."
Wolffe pushed out a heavy sigh. "Alright, I was hoping to sort this out between us brothers before we drag the Jedi into it."
"I think we're starting to uncover bits and pieces we were never meant to find," Rex said narrowing his gaze at Wolffe and then regarding Cody and Ponds, "it will come to a point where we are going to need help on this one."
# # #