In Command (#1 Post-Order 66 Series)

In Command - Part 30 - Epilogue

"I got old, same as you. I just got greyer and you went bald."

"It's by choice. It's lower maintenance."

"But you kept the beard."

"I happen to like the beard."

"No, no. It definitely makes you more distinguished."

The silence resumed for a few more minutes as they both took a sip of caf, dancing around the tension between them.

"You're a hard man to find, you know," she said quietly, finally dipping her toes in.

"Can't say you're much easier."

"You looked?"

He spluttered, his anger finally spilling to the forefront. "Of course I looked for you, Senna. I left the rebellion to find you. I looked for years. I turned over every rock in the outer rim trying to find you, and never could, and at some point, I had to give up. I went looking for my brothers after that. It was as if you disappeared from existence."

She nodded silently, chewing on her lip. "In a way, I did."

"Why? Why did you leave?"

"I feel like the note I left was pretty clear."

"We promised each other," he said, his tone calm but his eyes glittering with anger and grief.

"And I broke that promise, Rex. I know I did, and I'll spend the rest of my life being sorry for that, but I don't regret it for a second. You don't understand the danger you were in," she snapped.

"Enlighten me then. You sure didn't before you left. You just made a decision without me, decided what was best, and that was it." His voice was rising now, the anger he'd felt for two decades bleeding through as he lost his internal struggle to remain calm.

"He could track me through the Force, Rex. The Grand Inquisitor was hunting down Jedi using the Force and spies and whatever else was at his disposal. He had a huge, very effective network. He never stopped, at least not until he was killed by your friend Kanan Jarrus. But even then, there were more, and they just kept coming. I didn't want to cut myself off from the Force anymore. I'd strayed too far and could actually use my abilities to help the rebellion from a distance, but I couldn't have kept you safe, and you would have done the same. I know you would have," she yelled back, leaning across the table to match his anger. "I couldn't watch you die. Don't you get that? I couldn't let you suffer the way that boy on the Night Smoke did, not for me."

Rex seethed behind his mug. He was angry and the old wounds that he'd worked so hard to heal were ripping back open by her just being here. But the thing that made him the most angry was that he knew she was right; had the situation been reversed, he would have done the same.

"So why now? Why are you here? The Inquisitors have been gone for years," he asked, his voice lowering in volume, but his anger still bubbling just below the surface.

"I had to be sure. There were so many rumors about how many Vader actually had, and I wasn't even sure of his plans at the time. I started looking for you several years ago, but it was hard to pick up your trail, Rex. You did a good job hiding too."

The silence resumed as they turned over the information in their minds. Rex wanted so desperately to stay angry with her, but he felt her presence softening his edges, falling back into their old familiarity. He watched as she traced her thumb around the lip of the mug. "So, you got your farm," she whispered finally, a small smile playing across her lips and sadness in her eyes.

He nodded. "Yup. Cut and Suu are just next door. Their kids help out when I need them. It's peaceful. The first peace I've ever known."

She nodded, tilting her head down to stare into her mug. "I assume you found someone then."