Note: Ah. Hello. I'm a bit late, for which I apologize. The semester began so, just as a heads-up to anyone following along, I will be taking a bit longer. Also, THANK YOU to WildHoneyProse for being an amazing beta.
Rex couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Neither could General Windu if the incredulous arch of his brows was anything to go by.
"So your plan is to go... talk with the Supreme Chancellor?"
Ahsoka pursed her lips at the Master. "We need hard, corroborating evidence before any Jedi moves in to arrest him. Otherwise, he could turn the Guard on the Jedi on the charge of treason and, depending on his plan, enact the chip's protocol in the rest of the GAR. That's a lot of useless bloodshed that could be avoided if we do this right the first time."
Rex was torn and he knew Ahsoka could feel his divisiveness – on one hand, she was right. Rex wouldn't trust the Chancellor's own security team and recordings as far as he could throw them, but this was dangerous, even for them.
"What if another Jedi went in with you?" Rex asked, refusing to back down despite the small brush of Ahsoka's frustration.
But she was already shaking her head, frowning. "He would sense something was off. There would be no reason to have a Jedi with me simply to request a promotion to General."
She was right and Rex hated it.
He scrambled about in his brain for an alternative. It wasn't that he thought her incapable, but even he recognized the severity of this situation. It was bigger than the war, bigger than any of the other villains they had fought up to that point.
"Rex..." she began, fixing him with a look that was half apology, half pleading.
"What if I came with you? You could just call me extra security and have me stand guard," he offered, his own hope rising as he sensed her considering it.
"But how would we explain that to Anakin? I know Obi-Wan will be distracting him, but he won't just miss the fact that neither of us are responding to him." Her hesitant response only served to solidify his optimism.
Before he could respond, General Windu spoke. "Leave that to me. Should he ask, I'll inform Skywalker that the Council has given you a short assignment and that the Captain's protection was warranted. Notify me who you want in charge in your absence, Captain."
Rex knew his eyes – and Force signature – likely gave him away in his level of dedication, but he nodded gratefully to the man. "Yes, sir." The clone knew he didn't exactly have the skill set to fight a Sith lord, but the least he could do was have Ahsoka's back.
Ahsoka dipped her chin, grim in the set of her jaw. "It's settled then. Once Master Kenobi joins us at the base and is up to date, I'll request a meeting with the Chancellor."
Her gaze was durasteel and voice beskar. "Under no circumstances can Anakin know. The Chancellor has been a loyal friend and mentor and he wouldn't take this accusation lightly."
Ahsoka heard no arguments from the two men before her.
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The flap of the tent fell heavy behind them, leaving General Windu still staring at the slowly spinning holomap before him, a weight settled tangibly upon his shoulders.
Both Rex and Ahsoka were expected back in that very same control room in approximately five hours, but sleep was calling to him as he raked his eyes over the cluttered stacks of armor and sprawled bodies. Most men fit inside the tents they had, but not all of them. The double moons of Anaxes bathed the unfortunately unsheltered troopers in a faint blue hue.
Even amidst a campaign and the insanity of what the future had in store for them, the moment held a peace which soothed his soul.
These men were alive.
Breathing and warm, and, if the Force was willing, would be spared the injustice of what Palpatine had in store for them.
What their grand design was actually for.
A bitterness crept in, crawling up from the tips of his fingers towards his heart, but Ahsoka laid a gentle hand on his plastoid covered shoulder, peering at him.
A pair of troopers smirked at him from behind Ahsoka as they walked by. Rex gritted his teeth, a barely-there flush creeping up his neck, but forced his attention lower, staring into an equally weary pair of blue eyes.
Her presence caressed his mind, warmth-love-steadiness breathed over him. He inhaled deeply, letting it cleanse him as he slumped lightly into her touch with closed eyes. The men were going to say what they wanted either way.
"Let's go to bed, Rex."
He hummed softly in agreement, pulling away with a tender quirk of his lips.
"I love you," he murmured.
Rex wasn't sure if it was his elation or hers that he felt, but it was perfect to hear her voice brush against his skin.
"I love you too," she whispered, gliding her hand down to slide into his gloved palm.
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The warmth of the tent was a homecoming. The snores of their men, snuffles, and shuffles wrapping her in a gentle embrace even as she removed her gauntlets and boots, adding them to Rex's pile.
Most of the clones were asleep, but there were a few still speaking softly to their brother or painting the ceiling with the glow of their datapad.
Rex's comfort-rightness flowed like a stream into her own being, stress bleeding from her shoulders to dissipate in the muffled hush. Her limbs felt heavy, but in a lazy way – like the exhaustion had finally reached her but it was okay because she could submit.
Rex's bedroll was barely big enough for a single clone, much less two beings, but Ahsoka didn't mind the cool of the stone touching her bare arms. Heat poured off Rex and the amount of bodies piled into such a small space only served to help.
Their Force signatures burned bright, full of life. She took in a deep breath – sweat, blaster-cleaner, and home greeting her senses.
This was where she was meant to be.
A few of the men elbowed their brother, failing miserably in the art of subtlety as they jerked their heads toward her and Rex, but she didn't particularly care. Whether that was primarily because she was too tired or safety cocooned her, Ahsoka wasn't sure.
All that mattered was the press of Rex's knees against the back of her calves as she curled against his chest, the mass of his arm across her ribcage, and face in between her lekku.
Ahsoka knew that she didn't smell good, but she didn't care - neither did Rex nor any of the other men. She nuzzled her side lek into the heat of Rex's skin, his stubble dragging across the sensitive headtail. A small smile teased her lips as he laid a chaste kiss on her chevrons even as her eyes remained closed, her breath slowing.
"Some of the boys are looking, cyare," he mumbled, sleep colouring his voice.
Ahsoka would've snorted if she wasn't tilted dangerously on that addictive edge of oblivion. "There's nothing to see here."
Rex hummed once more, pulling her tighter against him. Ahsoka realized, rather belatedly, that she was quite drunk on his adoration-desire-loyalty. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure quite a few of them would kill to be where I am."
A blush traveled like live wires beneath her skin. "Go to sleep, Rex," she muttered, closing her eyes to the deep rumble of his smug chuckle as he felt her embarrassment-pleasure.
"Good night, Ahsoka."
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Valae wasn't going to be able to sleep. He wasn't going to be able to close his eyes for longer than it took to blink, not with the sight that lay across from him. He was going to get blasted to bits on the field tomorrow because he was so drained, but he'd die a happy man.
Out of all the tents and all the troopers that could have housed their Captain and Commander, they'd somehow ended up in the same one he was residing in for the night. Not only that, but the Commander – as some great mercy in his short, shoddy existence – had ended up facing him as she slept, the Captain's arm draped over her.
His blood was racing as his eyes traced her markings with a previously impossible precision, her dark lips going slack and full as she drifted.
Captain's one lucky bastard, indeed.
"Stop staring," a voice to his left groused.
Valae blindly shoved a hand to smack his brother, feeling the unmistakable hunch of a man's shoulder as he laid on his side. "Shut up, you're staring too, Cam," he grumbled.
His batchmate pushed him back, but Valae would bet all the credits he didn't have it was only a guise to get a better view.
The smirk that had been on his lips morphed into dreamy longing when an almost inaudible sigh escaped her lips, her face relaxing further.
What I wouldn't give to be the Captain right now.
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There were some moments more than others that Ahsoka wished she had been born human instead of Togruta. She'd imagined it before – maybe thick dreadlocks like Master Vos or braids like a few of the Knights and younglings she had seen, skin probably closer to that of Master Windu's instead of her own sienna.
The best part, however, would be that she'd have weakened senses.
Specifically, her ability to smell would be dulled. And when trudging through the stench and grime of sewer systems – which, she thought cynically, was becoming a rather regrettable habit of hers – the journey would be just a little less atrocious.
Ahsoka led the way, following the path the scouts had mapped out in the few hours she and Rex had been asleep. They were making good time, but the going was testing both the fortitude of her nose and her boots.
Their entrance was, at least according to the scanners, going to put them near the back of the fortress in what appeared to be a bunkhouse or abandoned storeroom. The plan itself was relatively straightforward: infiltrate the base and disable command while Master Windu and the main body acted as a diversion. Some of Anakin's limited forces had been called in to keep the skies clear.
The Separatists had been known to destroy tactical advantages at their own injury rather than let them fall into the Republic's hands. They couldn't afford that to happen to Fort Anaxes.
Signaling for a halt, Ahsoka opened the comm channel to the General. "We're in position. Permission to proceed?"
There was a staticky pause before he responded. "Granted."
Ahsoka silently cut the line and motioned an all-clear, boots slippery with Force knows what as she began her ascent up the rusted rungs of the ladder. Rex was just below her, their shared adrenaline a familiar and welcome constant.
It wasn't long before they reached the top, Ahsoka wincing at the loud screeching the corroded wheel made as she twisted it open.
Opening it as low as she could, Ahsoka peeked through the crack. Nothing.
"Go," she signed for the men below her to see, fully pushing open the hatch. Ahsoka leapt out, landing quietly on the balls of her feet with her hands gripping the hilts of her sabers.
The room was carved out of the very mountain itself, grey-blue stone composing the cell-like abode, the walls wet with condensation.
Their boots landed with practiced precision, fanning out and checking down the corridor. Their first priority would be the tactical droid who was commanding the base. If there was the opportunity or time, they'd head to the hangar bay to give the clankers a nice surprise.
They had a record of the internal workings of the fort as, until recently, it had resided in Republic hands. It made their sneaking much simpler, Rex treading quietly at her side with the map pulled up on his HUD.
The number droids they met had been minimal, easily slashed in half or blasted before they could so much as protest. Ahsoka wasn't taking the ease at which the mission was going for granted, but it did make sense. There wasn't supposed to be a 'back-door' to this base, so there would be little need for heavy fortifications.
At least, that was until the echo of rollies and thud-thud-thud of droids reached her montrals. Rex's shock was her own. There was not a single reason for them to know they were here. They hadn't tripped any alarms – none of the tinnies had a chance to transmit their arrival.
"How do they know –" he began.
"We'll have to figure that out later, Rex. Right now, we have more immediate problems. Ridge, disperse those poppers!" she barked, unclipping her sabers as she fell into a crouch with lips pulled back in her fierce sneer.
The two droidekas made themselves known with cold brutality, blaster bolts popping off mercilessly, but the men with her were Torrent boys – they knew what to do. As she covered them, angling the fire upwards, they rolled the poppers through their ray-shields, effectively disabling the droids for Ahsoka to go run them through with her lightsabers.
Ahsoka stood firm, Rex just behind her as the marching drew near.
"How are we doing this, Ahsoka?" he asked, readjusting his DC's as he widened his stance. The rest of the squad fell against the wall, kneeling with their blasters drawn.
She crouched, twirling her shoto in her hand as blood pumped through her montrals. "Sword and shield, but if the flak gets too heavy, find cover and keep shooting."
This would have been child's play if it wasn't for the fact that confusion was digging at her. She could feel it from Rex too. How did they know they were here?
The sound of General Windu's voice coming through her comm most certainly did not help their situation either.
"Tano, come in! The droids have not taken the bait. I repeat – they have not taken the bait! Status report," he ordered.
Ahsoka clenched her jaw but opened the channel even as the first wave of B-1's turned the corner. "We've engaged the enemy. Somehow, they knew we were here. We –" She grunted, swinging her sabers as the onslaught of blaster fire began. "We will complete the objective. This is our best shot, so it's now or never, Master."
"Affirmative. Press on. As soon as we get these doors open, we'll head your way. Windu out."
Ahsoka allowed herself to fall into the flow that years of deadly practice had carved into existence between her and Rex. Their movements were two sides of the same coin, a perfect balance. It was natural – instinctive as they danced with one another, blue bolts flying over her shoulders as the green hue of her sabers became blurs before her own eyes.
It was nearly a trance, droids falling under their combined assault with a timeless ease till she seemed to blink, and reality came back into focus. The corridor was an oddly quiet void in the wake of the attack, and Ahsoka stared back in surprise at Rex. It had only felt like a couple of minutes but the amount of disabled droids indicated otherwise. His face was kept hidden from her - helmeted as he was - but she could sense his bewilderment.
They had always been good together, but never like this.
The men were just as surprised, if not more so, astonishment found in the set of their shoulders and tilt of their heads as they gazed upon their Captain and Commander.
"So – er – you two practice much?" Appo finally asked, breaking the silence.
Ahsoka chuckled weakly, refusing to linger too long on this new ability of theirs. And she most certainly refused to meet the dubious look she could feel through Kix's visor.
"Come on, men. We've got ourselves a droid to find."
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Eventually, they did succeed in locating the tactical droid.
Killing it, however, had proved to be a bit trickier, but they managed. Sure, they took out half the control room in their attack, but the objective was completed and the droid had been relieved of duty.
From there, it was simple enough to unlock the main hangar bay doors, allowing the main body to storm the base and eliminate the remainder of the Separatist forces.
Still, they didn't understand how their infiltration had been detected and their diversion so thoroughly disregarded. That level of knowledge was beyond the mere calculations of a tactical droid, regardless of how smart it was programmed to be.
It was disturbing – disheartening even. As she now stood with General Windu and Rex in possession of the base they had so desperately needed, there was an edge in the atmosphere around them that left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Ahsoka didn't like it.
But she had more immediate problems on her plate: Obi-Wan's forces were taking quite a beating and in need of reinforcement. Then there was the fact that they needed to coordinate the set-up and distribution of their supplies. And worse yet, Kix was being utterly insufferable.
When she and Rex had been so dependent upon one another on the field, where emotions had run high, and stakes even higher, Ahsoka had felt Rex with frightening transparency.
And it showed.
Their timing and precision had been flawless, and as they fell deeper into that connection during the botched infiltration, words grew increasingly useless. All they needed was an inclination, emotion, or idea for the message to get across, their thoughts merging into a single stream.
Kix now hovered restlessly just in their peripheral, barely disguising his need to speak with them with, but apparent unwillingness to actually interrupt them.
Ahsoka just wanted to groan.
She still had to tell him that he would be removed from the field which, in and of itself was a conversation she didn't want to have, and then somehow maneuver around informing him of Fives' true status while updating him as to the protocols he should be searching for.
Now this.
General Windu's eyes had flicked to the clone a few times in the past couple of minutes, and he finally caved, a silent question in the arch of his brow.
Ahsoka fought the urge to sigh. "My apologies, Master. Kix apparently has some urgent news to discuss."
His dark brown eyes flicked back to the medic, alight with recognition as he finally was able to connect the name to the... face.
"I see. You're dismissed then. Once you two are done, however, come and find me. We have much to talk about."
She wasn't sure what he was specifically referring to, but there was an inflection in his voice and glint in his eyes that told her now was not the time to ask.
Ahsoka nodded and turned away from the hastily deployed holotable, fortifying herself for multiple unpleasant conversations. The hard set of Kix's jaw promised that.
Neither spoke whileAhsoka led them away from the bustle of the hub and down a sparsely populated corridor. Rex was currently overseeing the coordination of the recently deployed supplies as well as clean-up, otherwise Ahsoka would have been sure he had to suffer through this conversation with her.
As the heavy, metal door slid shut behind them and the lights flickered on. Ahsoka stood with her back to the wall, arms crossed, frowning as she watched Kix clench and unclench his fists in visible conflict.
She waited.
"What was that?" he finally asked, fixing her with a hard look. He didn't exactly sound angry, per se, but there was an edge to his question.
"What do you mean?" Ahsoka replied, cocking her head to the side. She knew exactly what he wanted to know.
"I'm going to have to tell Kix about... this. He's not going to drop it this time."
Rex's brief panic-frustration brushed against her before he quickly quelled it with understanding-displeasure. "Okay."
Ahsoka winced, but Kix's explanation drew her back.
"That. What you're doing right now, Commander. Especially when Rex is around, it's like you're only paying attention half the time. Ever since you found the chip, something has been off about the two of you," he said, brow furrowing as he ran a hand over his meticulously buzzed hair.
No wonder he and Fives had gotten along so well. They both noticed too much.
"And during the battle today – you answered questions he had never asked. And that's not even mentioning your fighting. It was like General Kenobi and General Skywalker."
Ahsoka sighed after a moment's pause, meeting his brown eyes. There was little point in denying his claim. "This isn't something you can share outside this room, Kix," she admitted wearily.
Kix just nodded like it was a given. Which – at this point – it likely was.
She jumped right into it, voice just a little too blank. "You're right. When I located the chip, that's when everything... changed. Somehow, we... connected? It's kind of like the training bond Anakin and I have except more. It wasn't on purpose, but now we can feel each other's emotions and – when we want to – each other's thoughts."
"So, you're telepathically linked?" he asked.
Ahsoka gestured, saying, "That's part of it, I guess. I think a better way to describe it would be Force bonded. Like I said, it's not just thoughts, but emotions, instincts, intentions."
"Which was why you two fought the way you did. You could feel each other through the Force?"
Shrugging, Ahsoka said, "Yes."
His face grew contemplative, gnawing on the inside of his cheek as he thought. Ahsoka, however, didn't exactly have the time to allow for a medical inquiry into the anomaly that was her and Rex.
"How far along are you into decoding the chip?"
Kix frowned, displeased in having to drop the topic, but he shook his head resignedly. "Not far. The design seems simple enough, but I just haven't had the time, the equipment, or the privacy to dig into it – not with Coric and the other boys always with me."
"Well, that's not going to be much of a problem anymore," she confessed, drumming her fingers along her upper arm, the weave of her bicep-bands catching on her nails.
"What do you mean?"
"Master Windu has allowed me to remove you from active-duty."
"You mean I won't be going with you? I'll have to stay here?" he demanded, his eyebrows pinching sharply.
Ahsoka leveled him with a hard stare. "Look, Kix, I get that you want to be there to help your brothers. I get it – I do. But we have to figure out exactly what's going on with the chip. I did some digging, and that conspiracy Fives was talking about – well, I understand it now. It's so much bigger than any single battle. Bigger than the war."
Anger-resentment-pain-interest flowed from Kix, silent as he mulled over his words.
"Explain, sir?"
"So, the chip regulates your aggression levels and obedience, right? But it's not as simple as that. That's merely the simple front to what the chip actually does. It has codes written into its makeup - protocols you can't resist. Your obedience is no longer a suggestion, but instead, you lose your will. I need you to break that code and fast."
His silence was a solemn and suspicious sentiment, before words fell from his tongue with cumbersome weight.
"How did you manage to learn that?"
Ahsoka forced herself to keep her arms loose, not tightening them. She met his dark brown eyes with an even gaze though she was well aware of his likely response to her answer.
"That's classified. You have the information you need and, right now, that's all I can share."
Kix's teeth grounded tightly, temple pulsing as his fingers drummed against the rerebrace of his upper arm. He nodded sharply.
Ahsoka fought the urge to heave a sigh of relief. Keeping this sort of information from him was not a censure she took pleasure in and when the truth came to light, Ahsoka wasn't expecting unwarranted gentleness.
She wouldn't ask for it.
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Ahsoka finally understood why Vaapad was as zealously guarded as it was.
After spending the past two and half hours discussing the rudimentary philosophy behind the form, the fine-edge blade between the walk and the fall of the path became all the more apparent.
It was dangerous, there was simply no other way of phrasing it. The fact that Master Windu could funnel his passion with such discipline was a feat in and of itself. The fact that he had been doing it as long as he had was especially impressive.
And now she realized why Anakin – despite his emotional tendencies and physical prowess – had never been invited into this realm of Force-sensitive combat. It required intense self-control and, above all, patience.
It was a weakness that Ahsoka herself had, one that Master Windu had sensed. In response, he had, at the end of their session, assigned her copious training and meditation exercises for her to employ in the meantime. She was to also meet him before dawn three times a week - should the war be so generous to permit such an excursion - to train.
Ahsoka avoided thinking about how Anakin would react, should he find out.
Which he would, hopefully at some point in the far, far future.
However, it was an easy enough task for the moment. Rex at her side, barking orders out to the men as they prepped to rescue Master Kenobi. The Jedi was currently trapped, his men being slowly surrounded and pressed toward one of the canyon's edges with no way out. It was a dire situation even for the best of their battalions.
If they didn't get there soon, Ahsoka could only imagine there wouldn't be many men left to save.
She shared a grim look with Rex, his fear-adrenaline-stoicism pounding against her beneath his helmet-covered face. Their progress on Anaxes had been an agonizing struggle, but Obi-Wan and Commander Cody would hold out.
They would.