Eleven


Rex took a long breath and looked at his plate.

Every part of his training told him he should eat.

But that was his past talking.

The soldier who knew better. That to stay fit, to survive, and fight, a body required fuel.

Right then however, all the rationalisation in the world didn't help.

Rex still couldn't stomach the idea of food.

There was that reality check again.

His old life.

So he decided to ignore it and sit at the wooden table, listening to Piia grumble in the background and just... stare.

"Not good enough for you?"

He didn't bother lift his head; he knew she was there long before she entered the room.

"Don't waste your breath witch. In order for you to insult me, I would first have to value your opinion."

Ventress laughed softly and moved her curvaceous hips around the table to stand opposite him. With her gnarled hands resting on either side of her body she took in his appearance.

Sullen.

Injured.

The hurt radiated from every pore.

She remembered Rex; two of her more memorable campaigns on Teth and then Dàsos.

She knew the kind of man this one was.

Smart.

Handsome.

Fearless in the heat of battle and Skywalker's chosen clone.

But what made the soldier sitting alone even more interesting was the illicit relationship he had undertaken with a Padawan.

The acolytes mind boggled at the logistics behind that liaison, but she had to give it to Rex; he had forged a life for himself against insurmountable odds.

And the women obviously like him.

The dynamics of the little shanty had dramatically changed over the past four days. Ahsoka had put her guard back up and had reigned in her feelings once her 'dirty little secret' had been aired.

Ventress on the other hand, found the whole thing quite amusing.

But this wasn't the captain she recognised.

The one who had been a formidable opponent on the field.

Unshaven and dressed only in the bottom half of his body suit, he was an anomaly. There was strength there, but the will had waned.

"You gonna do something about that?" She cocked her head towards the infant now crying in a cot fashioned from a wooden crate.

Rex ignored her, focussing all his energy on the meal for fear of losing his tenuous grip with reality.

He couldn't move his right arm. Ahsoka had bandaged his torso and wrapped it tight against his side to stop him from using it all together.

The pain was bearable; he wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't a constant reminder of what had happened that night in the Temple.

Fekking Skywalker.

But Ventress always did have a way of getting under his skin.

Rex slowly lifted his line of sight to accommodate her and even without his weapons, he had calculated at least three ways he could disable her. He would have a go if it weren't for his injuries.

You'll wait.

The one thing he had now he was out of the army, was time.

Watching Skywalker over the years and being intimate with a Jedi had taught him a few tricks in dealing with Force sensitive's.

Gemma was Force sensitive.

Then the memory of the night he woke up. Once he would have berated himself for crying like a shinie when Ahsoka had confirmed what he knew to be true.

But it all came crashing down; his emotions had got the better of him as soon as he laid eyes on his daughter.

Right there and then, he didn't care what anyone thought. It was a water shed of disappointment. Every set back after set back and resentment from the war had been released.

And then he had slept like never before.

Deep.

Exhaustive.

And for once, without the usual fear associated with closing his eyes.

Rex had pushed the embarrassment aside and had moved onto the second stage of loss.

Anger.

He was angry that she had gone to the Temple that day.

She never listened to me?

Angry that she had placed Piia in perilous danger.

What had she been thinking?

His thoughts only interrupted by the sound of that voice, the one that sent every hair on edge.

"Alright, then maybe I'll do something about your daughters howling."

Rex couldn't move; his anger had paralysed him. With a wave of her hand Ventress silenced the small child.

But what aggravated Rex most was that a woman he had spent the better part of three years trying to kill, was standing right-in front-of-him and he was powerless to do anything about it. She sensed it then, the spike of anger now directed towards her.

With a smile in her voice she continued.

"There's a good chance you don't like me captain, and an even better one that I don't give a shit. But you're gonna have to put those few remaining brains cells together and work with me here if little Pi - "

"Don't-you-ever-speak-her-name!" The words were slow and deliberate. Then in an even lower tone, "why don't you just disappear and die?"

Ventress took the bait.

In fact, she was bored with her babysitting duties involving Rex.

The child on the other hand was a different matter. Rescuing Piia that night at the Temple had been just about the best thing she had done in her life. But with that selfless act came a flood of memories from her past as well.

Ones she thought she had buried along with her old Master.

"Believe me captain, the last time I saw you, I really thought it would be, the last time I saw you."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Oh! Come now Rex," she drawled, "you never disappoint. Just your name is enough to piss me off."

"Well," Rex looked at the food on the plate, "be my guest, eat osik and die." He pushed the meal towards her.

"Good, you ate something," Ventress was overly animated; "now I just have to wait for the poison to work. Oh and FYI – I am all out of any medicine that might save you let alone make me like you."

As the insults kept coming, Ahsoka hid behind the door and held a hand over her mouth to stop her laughter from being heard. There was no need to interject.

Yet.

At last Rex had engaged.

And if anyone was going to lift his broken spirit, Ventress was just the woman to do it.

.

"Well, he has certainly complicated things." They both looked at Rex sleeping peacefully with Piia nestled in the crook of his arm.

They both knew they would have to leave their make shift home for either another level.

Or planet.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't either of them the authorities were immediately after.

Any run away clones now had a high price on their head.

"Now let me get this straight, here we have the revered captain of the 501st, the one I should have killed, but didn't I might add, absent without leave, with his kid, God save me, whose wife, wait a sec, were they actually married?"

"Yes."

"Whose wife was a Force sensitive politician and killed by Skywalker at the Temple. And, lets' not forget, the little liaison with a certain Padawan."

"I ended it before it got out of hand."

"Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah," she ticked a long painted fingernail at her. "You started it, that's the interesting thing here."

Ahsoka was sorry that Ventress had sensed the unique bond she shared with Rex. She was wary of keeping her emotions in check from now on, especially when it came to Rex. Ahsoka felt excited and sick every time she thought of it.

Now they were both free, relatively speaking to pursue the life she had always dreamt of. Now it all made sense, the visions she thought were incorrect about her and Rex being together.

The visions that lead him back to her.

The loss of Gemma, whilst painful and devastating, now meant she could act out the future she knew in her heart to be true.

But why did she feel so bad?

She shook the thoughts from her mind quickly and returned to her conversation with Ventress, annoyed that she had to rehash everything one more time.

"Well, you had the chance to kill him more than once, what stopped you?"

Ventress shrugged a shoulder, "it's like Kenobi. Where would the fun be in that?"

"You liked Kenobi?"

"No. I respected Kenobi. There's a difference. Now, what you two got up too - " she smiled waving her hand around absently.

Ahsoka flushed.

"But that was yesterday," Ventress had enough of toying with Ahsoka's feelings. As interesting as it would have been to find out more, she really couldn't be bothered. "The question is what are you going to do now? None of us can stay here much longer. The patrols are delving deeper every day; Vader is meticulous in his searches. The kid is strong, you've sensed it. They need to get off Coruscant."

"You still have your ship?"

"I do, but where? The entire Universe is petrified and will report any clone or former Jedi to the authorities for fear of retribution in protecting them. You saw the vision on the holonet? Your captain is MIA. They know he survived Ahsoka."

"They assume he survived, that's all." She sat back and looked at Rex. Ventress was right, she needed to get them off world and somewhere new.

Then it dawned on her.

She opened up the leather pouch on her hip, the one she had been given the night she left the Jedi Order. Ahsoka pulled out the holo chip with the numbers illuminated on the front display panel.

"I think I know where to go," she said with a smile, "I think I know where we'll be safe."

.

"What are you up to out here hey?" Tash walked over to Fives as he sat on the old speeder bike in the garage.

He looked up and smiled. It took her back slightly; it was the first time she had seen him genuinely happy in ages.

"Rex has worked on this, he was here. Look!" He pointed to part of the transmission, "this is a clones work," he mused, "I'd know it anywhere."

"You've never really spoken about Rex before."

"Not much to say other than he is the reason I became an ARC. Me and Echo that is. He took a chance on us and well, the rest is history."

It was time.

"What happened the night you were shot?"

Fives was now as recovered as much as he ever would.

It took him a while to get going every morning, stiff and hunched over slightly until his medication kicked in. He had lost muscle tone that she knew would never return, he'd simply never be able to train that hard to regain it.

But slowly the old Fives was returning to her.

To Tash, Fives had evolved.

He had matured way beyond the young, angry soldier that walked into her office a lifetime ago. He may have been vulnerable and weak, but he finally had a sense of purpose. And that's how she wanted it to stay for all eternity, safe and hidden in a beautiful part of the galaxy.

Fives was, unbeknownst to her, always waiting for Reed to arrive with news on Coruscant. He might have been discharged with dishonour, but in his heart his brothers and their plight, were always at the fore in his mind.

She watched as he processed her question and sat back on the leather seat. "Commander Fox shot me."

"Fives!"

"I can't remember much more than that honest! The whole thing is a blur. Maybe I was mad? Maybe everything I thought I'd discovered was just that virus they kept talking about, affecting my thinking just like it did to Tup. I don't know Tash. I don't blame Fox. I remember I reached for the weapon. I would have done the same thing. Although," he said with a rueful smile, "I wouldn't have aimed at the chest, we're brothers after all," then under his breath, "chakaaryc."

She watched as he looked down at the starter on the ancient speeder bike.

"Rex was the one who came to our apartment that night."

Fives looked up quickly. She had never spoken about how she managed to get to Oriis other than Reed had delivered on a promise and brought her to him on a supply run.

"He was upset, that I know for sure. I was hysterical, crying and screaming at him. I remember he called you by your designation and I yelled at him, 'Fives, his name is Fives.' That's when I saw the hurt on his face. I couldn't help myself though, then he just turned and left."

"Rex," Fives shook his head, "he's a good man, the best of soldiers."

"Strange name for a clone though."

Fives then roared with laughter. "Strange? No! He earned that name."

"Well," she watched him with amusement, "are you going to elaborate?"

"Ah, not now," he said laughing. Fives then hit the starter button and the engine didn't miss a beat. He then looked up form under his eyes as only Fives could and flicked his head, intonating for Tash to get on.

"I'm waiting."

"You're going to ride that?"

"What, you don't think I can?"

"No, no I never doubted it."

He may not look like the old Fives, but Tash was certainly happy with the new one.

.