In Command (#1 Post-Order 66 Series)

In Command - Part 7

Rex hesitated before speaking, choosing his words carefully. "We were created for a specific purpose, to be soldiers. In some people's eyes, that makes us equivalent to the droids we fought against. Disposable."

"But how could people think that way? You...you're people, Rex."

"You don't have to tell me."

"I know. It just turns my stomach. I formed some of the strongest friendships I've ever had with your brothers. They were my family during the war. And you, it's the same with you."

Rex quietly sipped his drink, not sure how to respond.

"So what about you?" she asked.

"What about me?"

"Do you have any horrific romantic encounters to regale me with?"

He laughed. "No, I'm afraid not. I've had people come in and out of my life, but never any that were serious enough to be classified as a partner. Wasn't exactly much time during the war, and I haven't really made time since."

"Is it something you want?" she asked quietly.

He thought about it, his mind drifting to Cut and Suu and their children. He had seen firsthand what life after the war could look like, and it had appealed to him at the time, but everything changed with Order 66.

"Yes, if the time and the person was right, I think I would. It's hard to imagine it anymore, but at a time, I did think having a farm with a wife and children would be what I'd do after the war."

"A farm huh?"

"It seems quiet, and quiet would have been nice."

"And yet, here you are."

"Here I am."

She chewed quietly for a few minutes, and he watched her mull over the next thing she wanted to ask. "Do you ever regret not walking away after the war? Just hiding out on some remote world, starting a new life?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Sometimes, but this is the only life I've ever known. It's what's right, and if I had walked away from it all, I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep at night, not that I do much of that anyway," he joked, laughing dryly. "You?"

"Not to get too dark here, but after Order 66, I felt like I had no real reason to...stick around," she said, her eyes reaching for a point more distant than the walls of the room they were in. "I'd lost everything I'd ever known and loved. I just wandered aimlessly until I stumbled onto Gerrera and his people. And then, it was like I had a purpose again, a reason for living. I'd never really given thought to life beyond the war because I didn't think I needed to. I was going to take a Padawan, teach them the ways, but all of that is gone now."