Once There Was a Light

All Her Memories

Here's a nice long chapter for you all! Thanks for the lovely comments from everyone!

ALL HER MEMORIES 

Christophsis was also branded with the seal of the Empire. Too many clones. They all looked oddly familiar to her. She backed herself into an alleyway, the grief was too recent, they killing they’d done.

A voice interrupted her mourning, “I need to see your identification, please.”

It was a clone. He was staring her full in the face, she looking back with utter confusion. “Your identification, please.”

Ahsoka had no identification papers on her. That was when she noticed the color of his armor.

It was REX. Captain Rex was Ahsoka’s friend. He’d always been, ever since her arrival on the very planet she was on.

Instantly, she wanted to scream. This was too much. This was new branching into old like nothing else. The clone watched her, thinking that this cloaked figure must either be insane, or slowly becoming insane.

But Ahsoka was processing things very well, especially in her state. She wanted to put her arms around him, hugging him, out of relief that he had not died, even if he might have been the one to shoot her down in the end.

However, she was still immobile. Her small voice, rippling with sadness, came out of her cloak. “Hello, Rex.”

It was such a simple statement. It shouldn’t have meant anything. To her, it meant something. Also, to him, it meant something. To him, it nearly held the meaning, “Go grab your men and kill her.” But even clones have feelings; Sidious had been deceived into thinking that the regeneration of Jango Fett would have nothing to hold onto. Jango was a human, with feelings, like wanting to protect his young son, Boba. So the clones held onto rationality too, as much as was possible, with Order 66 having been transmitted into their DNA. So many dealings hidden from the eyes of the Jedi, the peacekeepers, during the Clone Wars. Even their Force-using eyes could not peer into the hearts of others, especially not the Trade Federation, Separatists, or Cloners.

“Commander….I mean, Ahsoka Tano.” Rex’s reply wasn’t gruff, or trite. It seemed almost scared. As if he too did not like the wound that was opened up by her presence.

Ahsoka’s hood tilted off of her head. Rex coughed in surprise. Ahsoka didn’t really know why.

Rex noticed how much Ahsoka had grown up. He may have been a clone, but his intelligence level was far superior to your average clone. How else would he have survived to fight another day so many times?

Her tan skin, peach lips, blue eyes, and snippy expression were not anew; her long lekku and pointed montrals were different, however. Her eyes had aged, however. They held secrets. They held pain. They held experience. And, in his opinion, experience outranked everything. In that brief moment he thought he would like to have Ahsoka Tano as his Commander, his leader, once again. But that thought was distilled when she said, a moment later,

“Do you remember, Rex, this is where we first met.” She had a smile, sad smile playing across her lips.     

Rex did remember, even if it was his duty to forget. “I remember, Sir,” he replied, calling her by her military address as if by instinct.

Ahsoka’s eyes began tearing up. Why did she have to keep running into all of these long lost friends? What was so special about her?

Rex, even through his visor, could see her teary blue eyes. He’d always thought them beautiful, though he’d never said so. With the war, there was not a spare moment for compliments. Even if he did feel a connection towards her. She was his special “kid”.