Aboard a small ship, Rex and Anakin were sitting side by side in the cockpit. They were traveling at light speed now and were well on their way. Rex was fidgeting around with a loose bolt keeping a lever in place. Anakin saw this, "What's wrong?"
Rex looked up, "Oh, uh, nothing sir, I'm fine,"
"You sure about that? You're fidgeting,"
"I know it's just whenever I'm really nervous I fidget a lot. It's a habit I picked up on Kamino,"
"Oh. Well why Kamino, if you don't mind me asking,"
Rex tried to find a way to word this without sounding like he was weak and needed someone to look out for him, "Um... well, when I was young, like three or four maybe, that's when I was starting to be.... picked on," he didn't want to say 'made fun of', partly because he didn't like to use those words, and because felt insecure about that small phrase.
"I'm sorry, Rex. What else happened?"
"When I was in the middle of my cadet training, that's when it was the worst. My differences stood out a lot more, and others started to point them out. I was always dreading to go to the training room because of this. I guess, somewhere along the way I started to fidget and it's carried on with me I suppose,"
Anakin was surprised. So basically Rex was bullied on Kamino, but they were all brothers, so why would they do this? Sheesh, poor guy, "Okay, well, what are your 'differences'?" He asked.
Rex looked up at his general, "You really haven't noticed? Well, there's my hair, which stands out the most. The older clones would talk about my 'smartness' and how I was a know-it-all,"
"So that's why you call out everyone's mistakes and know where the faults are,"
"Yeah. It just happens, I try not to do it as much. I'm also a hair shorter than the others and my body is sort of built differently. So I'm not as muscular, but that's where my flexibility comes handy. The others aren't as flexible and that sometimes costs them in training," Rex said with a hint of a smile.
Anakin thought back to when he watched Rex spar with the others, "That time when you were sparring with Jesse, you easily overtook him, did all that make it happen?"
"Yes. Well no, I guess not all of it. It helps to know their 'weak spots' and to strike when they are defenseless even if it's for a fraction of a second,"
"What's your weak spot,"
"You're not going to find out from me,"
"Stang, who knows? Wait, wait, wait, let me guess.... Ahsoka and Cody," Rex nodded, "Ha! I knew it. You tell 'em everything don't you?"
"Well yeah, Cody's by brother and has been with me since the beginning and Ahsoka's my wife, so yeah we talk,"
"That makes sense.... so did anything else happen on Kamino," Rex opened his mouth to speak but Anakin quickly added, "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to,"
"No, no it's okay. There was this time when a Trandoshan somehow snuck into the place where we all slept. It was nighttime so everyone was sleeping, except Cody. He had got up to do something and there was a bunch of loud clattering. I got up and and saw him wrestling with that Trandoshan. I got down and tried to distract the lizard but I ended up getting hit across my face by its claws, which is how I got this," he pointed to a scar on his chin, "Cody also got his scar from that incident. Even though he was blinded in one eye from the blood, he still fought the Trandoshan with the help of me and some other clones. Shaak Ti got there pretty quickly after the fact and with her help he was dead in a heartbeat,"
"Speaking of Shaak Ti, you said it was a long story earlier, and we've got a while till we reach the destination, why were you concerned about her so much?"
"She was the one who got me through Kamino. She was like the mother I never had, everyone else felt that way too. She helped me with my problems and some situations which I struggled to get out of,"
"By the way you acted I'm assuming this is an understatement?"
"Oh yeah. Big understatement compared to all she did,"
The rest of the trip was spent in silence as they both remembered why they were going to Coruscant.
*Landing Platform*
"Alright Rex, I'll keep my com on the whole time so you'll hear everything. Be on standby in case anything goes wrong," Anakin said.
"Yes sir," Rex replied.
Anakin left the ship and quickly headed into the large senate building. He hoped there weren't to many clones here, otherwise he'd be in trouble. He went into an elevator and entered to floor in which the Chancellor's office was on. The elevator went up and up until it reached the correct floor. He exited it and started to jog through the halls, but came to a stops when he heard someone call his name, "Ani, what are you doing here?"
Anakin turned around and saw Padmé standing there and he mentally cursed, sure, he was glad to his wife, but he needed this to be stealth mission. But he had an idea so we quickly walked up to her, "Look, I don't have much time to explain, but I need to to take some you trust with your life and figure out a way to stop the accelerated aging for the clones,"
"What, why?" Padmé started to become concerned.
"You know what, never mind. Look I have to go,"
And with that, he rushed off, leaving his wife in utter confusion. Anakin finally got to Palpatine's office and he took a breath to calm himself down and to try and act normal. He knocked on the closed door and opened the door when a voice call he'd for him to enter. He stepped in and saw Palpatine sitting at his desk.
Anakin walked over to him and the Chancellor said, "Anakin, my dear boy, what are you doing here?"
He pulled up a chair at sat down, "I'm sorry for just coming here and not telling you, but I've been wanting to talk to you for some time,"
"About what?"
Kriff, Anakin had to think, he should've rehearsed this, "About the war," he said slowly.
"Oh. Well, I don't see how I could be of any help to you,"
"I know, it's just that I'm wondering if you could come up with a remedy for the clones,"
"A remedy for what?"
"Their aging,"
"I don't think I could help you with this, the Kaminoans are the experts with them. How's Obi-Wan doing by the way,"
"Um, Obi-Wan is fine, a long with the rest of the Jedi, why do want to know?" Anakin had to slowly hint at the situation and see if he could sense through the Force how the Chancellor was feeling, but so far, it was blocked by something. Like a wall he couldn't get though, and it was bothering him.
"Well that's good."
——Aboard the small ship, Rex was carefully listening into the conversation when an explosion suddenly went off a couple blocks away, causing a large shockwave to follow suit. It passed over and rocked the ship to no end. Rex was launched out of his seat and cracked his head off the control panel, but not hard enough to knock him out, but enough to cause a massive headache though. Rex groaned as he stood up, his blood pounding in his ears, and it felt like he had the worst migraine ever. He steadied himself and looked out the windshield.
The dust had finally settled and he saw a building had just fell to the ground and a mass panic of people fleeing and crying out. Rex instantly reacted, grabbing his helmet and rushing outside. He put it on and put the range-finder down so he could see better through some of the dirt and dust hanging in the air. He also put on the air filter and ran over to the collapsed building.
A young Togruta woman, who looked only a few years older than Ahsoka, cried out, "Help!"
Rex ran to her, "What's wrong ma'am?"
"She's trapped!" She pointed to the fallen rubble.
Many people were still crowding around, pushing and shoving into each other, causing Rex to nearly go mad with the confusion and pain in his head, "Who?"
"By baby girl!"
"Ill get her," he said with determination.
The bottom half of the building was on fire and the top half was on the ground. Rex jumped through a hole and flames covered it up almost immediately. He walked through the thick smoke and heard a baby wailing in the distance. He headed to where the sound was coming from and saw something pink underneath the rubble. He gingerly picked up the wood and metal and saw a pink baby carrier that was closed.
He picked it up and the baby started to cry again, yep, this was the one. He looked around incase anyone else was trapped inside, but he didn't see anything and beads of sweat started to fall down his back, saying it was hot was an understatement. A wood rafter from above started to creak, and ashes fell down on Rex's arms. The beam cracked and it groaned as it suddenly stared to descend quickly. Rex leapt out of the way, making sure the baby was still safe.
He looked around and saw a large hole for him to escape through. He rushed over to it, carful not to run into any flames or trip over random things on the floor. Rex was about to get out when a chard and blackened skeleton dropped down, make him gasp. He stepped over it and took a sigh of relief as he was finally out of the burning building. He ran over to the crowd of people and police droids. The Togruta woman beamed when she saw the familiar carrier she had her baby in. They were far enough from the smoke and debris, so Rex opened it up it show led the woman. He smiled under his helmet was he saw a tiny Togruta baby girl with her small montrals and lekku. Her skin was a light red and there were white markings on her forehead and chin.
The Togruta was about to take her out of the carrier when a she dropped to ground. Rex stepped back and was confused, did she faint? He soon answered his own questions when he saw a steaming hole in her upper back.