DRABBLES | ocs, canon, x reader

burying the dead , canon character drabble

spoilers for the last episode of the clone wars a technically some of rebels

this is really just a character study for ashoka and rex

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for a moment, ashoka swore she could hear her old master's voice, his gentle and playful scolding voice. "your weapon is your life, ashoka."

he was right. but ashoka, the jedi padawan and child soldier, was dead. as dead as any of the men she buried in the ground. she had died when the falling cruiser kissed the ground in an inferno. she had died with her men.

and so here, on a planet she couldn't name, padawan ashoka was laid to rest.

she dropped the lightsaber.

rex didn't go with ashoka after they buried the dead.
it's not that he didn't want to— god, the thought of being alone scared him, but the memory of nearly killing someone who was practically his little sister scared him more.

his head felt gloriously empty, and he found his hand wandering to the bandage often. but rex saw it again whenever he closed his eyes— his blasters raising of his own accord, his vode in the hangar as the doors opened and a desolate moon spanned his vision.
rex felt like he was falling. and he didn't want ashoka to have to be the one to catch him, or— maker forbid— take her with him.

she didn't seem disappointed. she was empathetic, giving him a nod that said "i understand" and somehow that was worse. she had changed so much. and he wasn't there for her, to see her grow. she'd come so far from that overconfident padawan on christophisis. her confidence was well-founded.

rex's eyes stung.

and then she spoke. "ret'urcye mhi, rex." he smiled, willing the tears from his eyes. ashoka had known a little mando'a before she had left; no one could be around the clones as much as she had without picking up a thing or two. that, and fives had made it a point to teach her as many swear words as possible.
rex's breath shuddered in his chest.
maybe we'll meet again.

"'lek," he said, voice ragged and dripping with something he couldn't quite comprehend, not yet. she ignored the hitch. "maybe one day, kid."

"one day" was almost two decades later.