1) English is not my mother tongue so, please, forgive me if there are any mistakes.
2) I do not own Star Wars.
3) TW: Mention and slight description of rape (in between asterisks (*) and in italics. It's short, you can skip it if you feel uncomfortable, and it does not influence the understanding of the story.
4) The title "The Bee Box" comes from a poem written by Sylvia Plath called "The Arrival of the Bee Box" (from her collection of poems "Ariel"). It is a metaphor for the author's overwhelming thoughts.
Rex couldn't sleep. He had tried, really, but he couldn't.
Every time he closed his eyes he could feel the slaver's whip hit his back violently because he wasn't working fast enough.
The previous mission had been hell. Pure hell, from the moment the Jedi Council had presented their cover for the mission to the moment they went back on the Resolute.
The Council had sent them, General Skywalker and Kenobi, Commander Tano and himself, on Kadavo to save the people of Kiros who had been sold into slavery during the Separatist invasion of the planet.
General Skywalker had appeared rather determined when the Council asked them to free a whole people from slavery. However, when they were told what their cover would be, her mood quickly went from determination to frustration and anger, which was not surprising considering her past on Tatooine.
The Council had asked her to play the slaver and the Commander to play the slave while he and General Kenobi searched for the missing people of Kiros.
Rex didn't know what had happened to the Commander and the General but he knew it wasn't good, at all.
The Commander had spent most of their journey back to Coruscant following the troopers or General Kenobi.
Regarding Skywalker, Rex hadn't seen her since they had boarded the ship and had been cleared from the infirmary by Kix. Since then, she had disappeared in her quarters.
Rex knew that something was very wrong. Usually after a mission, she spent time with the troopers or with him, sometimes, she would go to the infirmary and help Kix and give some support to those who needed it. But this time, no troopers had seen her.
He had tried to check on her to see if she was alright or if she needed anything but the door had been closed and there had been no response. So, he abandoned and decided that if she needed his help she would call him.
Unfortunately, this left him alone with his thoughts. He had tried to keep himself busy by filling out reports - at least he had caught up on the late work - and sparring with Cody, but, now that everyone was asleep, he had nothing left to do to keep his mind away from the memories of the mission.
That's why he found himself wandering around the ship. The silence was overwhelming and soothing at the same time. It was a weird sensation.
Rex found himself in the hangar where their ships were all parked when he heard some noises.
Who could be up at this hour of night? he wondered as he tried to find the source of the noise.
As he searched for it he found someone lying under a ship, working on it. He knew without a doubt who the person was.
"General, what are you doing up at this time?" he immediately asked.
No response.
Rex asked the same question, with a touch of worry in his voice.
She jumped and banged her head against the ship in an attempt to sit up to look at Rex when she heard his voice. His young General cursed in Huttese.
She had immersed herself in the Force to try to forget about the mission so she hadn't heard her captain's voice.
"Rex? What are you doing here?" she asked genuinely.
"Well, that is what I was asking you?"
"Oh, hum. I couldn't calm my mind so I went here to meditate. You?"
Rex wasn't even surprised about the fact that his general was meditating like this and here. It was common knowledge within the 501st that General Skywalker always loved being on the move, tinkering with robots and ships.
"Couldn't sleep."
The General studied him for a minute with her blue eyes seemingly seeing right through him. Rex felt naked but honestly, he couldn't care less.
"Zyggeria, hmm?"
Rex took some time before responding, still thinking about the events.
"Yeah." He admitted looking everywhere but her.
After some time, he decided to sit down on the floor in front of his General.
"Same here" she admitted tiredly. It had been said so quietly that had they been surrounded by noise Rex wouldn't have heard her.
"How could a mission go so wrong? I mean, why would the Republic agree to this kind of undercover?" Rex asked partly to himself.
"I don't know. Master Windu would say that we're at war and so we have to take drastic measures, but..." She didn't finish her explanation. It wasn't really necessary. Rex had an idea of what she was thinking.
"I'm sorry." she said instead.
Rex was taken aback by his General's words. It wasn't rare for her to apologise - which had been weird the first time she had done so, since, as a clone trooper, nobody had ever apologised to them -, he just didn't know why she was apologising for.
"For what?" Rex wanted to know.
"For bringing you into this. You, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan should never have gone through this." she explained looking him in the eyes.
Oh. She was blaming herself for it. Typical Skywalker behaviour.
"General, I'm not blaming you at all. It's not your fault if the mission went sideway or if we had to take this cover. I'm not mad at you, and I think the same goes for the Commander and General Kenobi.".
Besides, she had made him realise a few months ago that they were already slaves of the Republic. Of course, being under General Skywalker gave them more freedom than other battalions considering that she was much more loose with rules than the other Jedi, to say the least. She cared for the vods. Rex even believed that they had the best general in the whole GAR.
But, if he was honest with himself, the way they lived on the Resolute was nothing compared to what they went through on Zyggeria. Thanks the Force.
"I promised myself that my friends would never go through what I went through as a child and I failed. I kriffing failed, Rex! What kind of General am I? What kind of friendam I?" tears were now streaming down her face. Anakin didn't even care to wipe them off her face.
"You couldn't prevent that from happening, unfortunately. It was the Council's terrible and unfair idea to send us there, you had no words to say in this." He tried to convince her that it wasn't her fault. "And if there is one thing that I know for sure is that the 501st couldn't have asked for a better leader."
"Teacher Windu knows about my past and he didn't even try to stop the Council from sending us there." she complained rightfully.
Rex couldn't come up with something to say, she was right. Master Windu had been her Mas-teacher ever since she joined the Order. He should have known better than to send her on Zyggeria as a slaver.
Honestly, if there had not been so much at stake during this mission and if he hadn't been her Master, Rex would have hunted the man down for making his General go through all of this.
"I'm sorry about this." Rex said instead.
They stayed like this for some time while Anakin tried to calm herself.
Then she asked, "Are you okay?".
"Me ?" He was surprised that someone was worrying about his current mental state.
"Of course you. I'm worried about you."
Rex felt his heart melt but ignored it in favour of answering his general's question.
"I...it's difficult. I can't think of anything else but the slaver. My mind is just looping the mission over and over again." He explained on the verge of crying.
"Can I ask you what they did to you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Rex liked the way his general had always seen him and his brothers as real human beings who had thoughts and emotions. She always worried about how they felt.
"General Kenobi and I had to work in a mine. The punishment was harsh." Rex paused. He felt his back burn as if the slave-owner had just whipped him. The new scars were still stinging. It reminded him of the Kaminoans' punishment. A tear escaped from his eye. Great. Now he was crying in front of his General. How professional of him. "I'm sorry."
The general had tears streaming down her face too. "Hey hey, it's okay. You can cry. You have every right to."
Then apologised once again "I'm so sorry, Rex."
"Again, it's not your fault." He said as he wiped the tears on his face to no avail as more kept on streaming.
"And you? Can I ask you?" He wanted to console her as she did with him, to return the favour but he knew that he could easily overstep, if he had not already done so, after all, it was his Generalwhom he was talking to. She could easily send him back to Kamino for decommissioning if she wanted to. Thankfully, Rex knew she would never do that. Hell, she had threatened the long necks several times to the point where the Council had to intervene and force the Kaminoans to put an end to this practice (although Rex wasn't sure that the Council's order was still respected).
But the silence was all he could hear as the general looked at the floor, thinking, with tears streaming down her face. She seemed to have mentally left the conversation.
A flash of the Zyggerian Queen came to her mind. Her eyes were full of lust and want.
Another flash of the Queen's hands caressing her body replaced the other. A hand going down. The other is on her breast. One of the hands moved to her thigh. Then her belly and her ass. Her hands were everywhere.
She had no clothes. The small bikini that was given to her had been ripped from her body.
The images changed into sounds and sensations as it got even worse (was it even possible for things to get worse?). The moans coming from the Queen's mouth mixed and her desperate cries were all she could hear.*
"General? Are you alright?"
The General came back to herself without looking at him. There were even more tears running down her face now.
She ignored his last question and answered the first one instead. Her words were interrupted from time to time by sobs.
"Af-after you and Obi-Wan were put into sla-slavery, the Queen she, she-"
She couldn't say it. Rex would be so ashamed of her. He would hate her for being so weak. He would think that she wasn't able to lead his brothers. She wasn't even able to prevent this mission, so how could she lead the men? She looked at him and saw the encouraging look directed to her. Love? coming from him was all she could feel in the Force. How could he feel that way?
Anakin decided to try to continue her explanation. She trusted Rex with all her heart, if he looked at her like that, it must mean something.
"he made m-me her personal s-slave."
Oh no. Rex feared what she would say next.
"He put his h-hands all all over me and then he he..." She couldn't say the word. It wouldn't come out.
And she didn't need to, Rex had unfortunately understood what she wanted to say.
Anakin's cries emplified.
What could he do to help her? He wanted so badly to comfort her but how?
"It's not your fault Anakin if there are so many ill-intentioned bastards in this galaxy." He said a bit angry in the end. "Don't you blame yourself for what happened. You're a wonderful woman and it's not a dikut like him who will change that, ok?" he added softly so that she understood he wasn't mad at her.
Rex waited a few seconds before asking "Is there something I can do to help you?".
He waited patiently for his young General to respond. He heard her sniffle and ask softly, quietly and - was that fear? - "A hug?"
He wasn't expecting that. He thought that she wouldn't have wanted physical contact after everything that happened to her.
She added quietly a little "Please?" before he started to move to hug her.
The position they were in wasn't adequate for a hug but it would do. It had to. His General was wrapped in his arms, in a fœtus position, crying and seeking comfort in her Captain's arms.
She looked so fragile.was the first thought that came to his mind while he held her tight, whispering soft words in her ears and caressing her hair.
If his timeline was right, his General was only 21 years old, which was so young for a general. Just like the majority of the Jedi, she had been thrown into this war without any experience as a soldier (even though he admired what the Jedi did, he didn't call it "experience as a soldier"). They even sent Jedi cadets now.
Sure enough, Rex and his brothers were way younger than her since they were only 10 years old. But, they had been trained for this. The Kaminoans made sure to train them well enough so that they could face any unpredictable, dangerous and deadly missions. Damn, they were born for this. His General was not.
As she had once explained, they were supposed to be keepers of the peace, not soldiers, and here she was in the middle of a cursed war leading trained soldiers.
Of course, he admired his general and he knew that he and the rest of the 501st were lucky to have her as a General. They couldn't have asked for a better Jedi to lead them. She saw them as something more than replaceable clones, as someonewho deserved to be loved and to have rights just like them.
But, she was still too young to live the life she has right now. Nobody should ever experience what she went through.
She may be the Hero With No Fear, a strong Jedi and a damn good leader but right now, she looked like she would break into million pieces if Rex moved even a toe.
They stayed in this position for quite some time, waiting for her to calm down so that Rex could bring her back to her quarters. She needed to sleep, it would do her no good if she didn't.
"Come on General, I'll bring you back to your quarters." Rex told her while getting up.
"I can't go back to sleep." she responded worriedly.
Rex felt sorry for her, she looked at him like he had betrayed her. "I'm sorry but I think it will do you some good to get some sleep. You're not getting any and it isn't helping you." He tried to reason with her.
She looked down at her feet, knowing that he was right. "I know but... I can't sleep. I can't get this mission out of my head.". She was now looking at him with a pleading look. "Will you stay with me for a bit. It will help me to know that I'm not there." she asked looking down, ashamed.
Rex sighed, knowing too well what she meant, before saying "Hey hey hey don't be ashamed ok? I will repeat it over and over again until you get that it's absolutely not your fault. Don't blame yourself for something that isn't your fault." he said taking her face in his hands. He knew he shouldn't do that. He was violating the majority of his regulations, for sure. But it didn't matter, his General wasn't doing well. Anakin *needed* him. "I'll stay with you if it helps, but if you want me to leave just tell me, alright?"
"Thank you, Rex. It means so much to me."
Rex smiled as they started to head to her quarters.
When they arrived there, Rex helped her get ready to sleep and sat on the chair not far from the bed.
It seemed the General had finally fallen asleep. She looked more peaceful than before. Rex hoped no nightmare would disturb her sleep. And, if there were, he would be there to reassure her. He hoped he would always be there for her.