Half an hour later, Ahsoka was slightly proud to say she won all six arm-wrestling matches. Was that appropriate behavior for a commander? No, but it was temporary anyways. Besides, they had six hours to kill before they reached Lokori. Half an hour of that was not going to hurt them.
Caleb came in right as the last of the matches was wrapping up. "All the checks are complete, Commander Tano," he updated her, and she grinned. He was loving this just as much as the troopers were.
"Where are Jinx and O-Mer?" she asked, not seeing them behind him.
"They ran off to train, I think," he answered. "I can go find them, if you need them."
She smiled and shook her head. "I just wanted to make sure they weren't getting into trouble. The troopers don't know them as well as they know me, and even you've met them before."
Rex, who had watched Ahsoka absolutely destroy her opponents, chimed in. "Not recently, but there were a few missions where Commander Dume joined us. Not to mention you have a good reputation among your own men."
"Well, we all know who that was thanks to," Caleb said, turning to Ahsoka. "Remember that first mission?"
"I remember," she laughed. "Very well, actually."
"She was the one who taught me about you, and how the troop works," Caleb explained to the captain. "There were other things too, but that's mostly what I remember."
Rex chuckled. "Good to know she passed it along. You're doing better than she did at your age."
"Thanks, Rex," she groaned sarcastically. "He's right, though. All of it started with him, after all."
"So you've mentioned," Caleb noted. "Why else would they have been so happy to see you?"
Ahsoka smiled up at Rex, who had broken out into a grin. "They wouldn't have done that four years ago, I imagine."
He chortled, admitting, "I doubt it. We probably would have crushed you four years ago. You were so tiny and so shiny."
Caleb laughed. "That would have been fun to watch." He looked out the door. "I'm going to find the others. They're probably mingling in the mess hall by now."
"If they start chicken fights, tell them no weapons!" Ahsoka called after him. "We don't need injuries before we exit hyperspace!"
"Weapons? Chicken fights?" Caleb asked, pausing mid-step. "Is this normal?"
Rex had to fight off laughter now. "Go ask the boys to show you, Commander."
He ran off, and the two snorted as he darted down the hallway. Only on General Skywalker's cruiser did shenanigans like this become normal. It was stuff like this that Ahsoka missed.
"Come on," Rex told her, following Caleb out the door. "There's something you should see."
Ahsoka followed him silently, and he led her to the hangars. He walked over to where the starfighters were kept when not in use. She expected him to show him a new model that Anakin had gotten his hands on, or some improvement he had made recently, or maybe one that he had scrapped in a fight.
What she didn't expect was for Rex to walk all the way to the last compartment, where old, damaged fighters were kept, and for a completely intact fighter to be sitting there. He activated the motors to roll it out, and Ahsoka saw that this wasn't just any fighter.
It was hers.
The troopers had given it a complete makeover. The original ship had been painted burgundy, to match her dress as a Jedi and to set it apart from Anakin's yellow fighter. Now, though, the wings were painted with blue stripes to match her montrals, and the nose had a layer of orange over it. White marks to match her forehead and cheeks were covering the middle, although they had changed a bit since the last time she had been here. That wasn't the impressive part, though.
On the wings, on the main body, near the hatch, basically anywhere possible, messages had been painted on in her honor. She walked up to it, reading the notes the troopers had left her.
'Best commander ever! We miss you!'
'We believe you Commander'
'We'll still follow you'
'I'm on my way, Commander'
Ahsoka squinted at that last one, wondering what it might mean. On his way to where? And who had left it?
Rex kneeled beside her, since this particular message was a bit hidden, under the engine. "That was Fives, before he..."
He didn't have to finish. Ahsoka looked back at him, her face falling. Fives, no. She realized that she hadn't seen him on board, but she should have known why. He should have been one of the first people to greet her, and now he never would.
She brushed her hand over the hurried lettering. "How did he go down?"
"He defected. That's what he meant when he said he was 'on his way.'"
Ahsoka stared at Rex. "Defected?"
He sighed, recalling the unpleasant memory. "He was on a mission with Tup when he shot General Tiplar during battle."
"Fives shot Master Tiplar?"
"No, Tup did. Fives went with him back to Kamino for testing. The next thing I know, he's on the run and he asks Kix to tell me and the General to meet him privately."
Ahsoka didn't understand. Why would Tup have shot a Jedi, and what did Fives do that he was in hiding? "What did he say?"
Rex looked around, to make sure no one else was listening. "He said we had chips in our necks, and Tup's chip had made him shoot Tiplar. Inhibitor chips, he called them."
She froze on the spot. Order 66. Tup's chip must have malfunctioned, and he followed orders.
"And Fives?"
"Fox shot him, under Palpatine's orders. Of course, now Palpatine is a traitor, but all the same..."
"Fives..." she murmured, "you were so close." Turning to Rex, she whispered, "He was right. Palpatine ordered his assassination because he had found the truth."
The muscles in Rex's face tightened, and he looked back at the message Fives had left. "So the conspiracy, the chips, the Chancellor..."
"All of it was true," she affirmed. "I saw it, Rex. One order from the Chancellor's office and all of the Jedi die. He called it Order 66. Remember the night he died?"
When he nodded quickly, she continued. "Palpatine would have activated Order 66 the next day. That's how close we got. That's what Tup thought had happened. I don't know how his chip malfunctioned, but somehow..."
Rex saw Fives dying in his arms again, his words as his eyes closed. "He was right," he realized, wishing more than ever that he had believed him when Fives told him.
His eyes went hard, and Ahsoka saw him steeling himself, trying to hold up despite the memory. A year ago, she would have settled for saying sorry or maybe laying a caring hand on his shoulder, but not anymore. She leaned up against him, closing her eyes and remembering Fives on Lola Sayu, and imagining him lying on the ground, motionless. What else had she missed when she was trapped on Dromund Kaas?
He wrapped an arm around his commander, grateful that even if Fives was dead, his legacy wasn't. Rex had never told anyone, but he had asked Kix for a favor after his death.
"Kix took mine out," he whispered, certain that no one else was listening. "I couldn't not do it, not after Fives died to tell us."
Ahsoka nodded, breathing a sigh of relief when she learned that her friend was free of control. "Hopefully, that won't matter now, since Palpatine is dead."
Rex paused, then tried to speak without shaking. "Should I tell the others?"
"If you can," she answered, "but keep it on the down-low, just in case. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still some of Palpatine's sympathizers around."
He nodded, not trusting himself to say anything else. Closing his eyes, he hoped that Fives knew that he had made a difference. Rex would make sure that his sacrifice had been worth it.
Maybe it's better that the commander isn't a Jedi after all, he thought. If she is free to help us like this, then maybe it's better.
Ahsoka looked back up at the rest of the messages, and she finally found one in Rex's scrawny lettering: 'In my book, experience outranks everything. We'll miss you, Commander Tano'.
I don't deserve this family, she thought to herself, but I'm glad I found it.