Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

50

The walk back to the ship wasn't a pleasant one. The two and a half klicks were spent in utter silence, Rex half carrying Echo as the others watched him like he was a dangerous creature. 

In a way, they weren't wrong. 

As soon as they were on board, Anakin glanced at Echo then announced that they would be spending the night. Rex frowned, but didn't argue. He grabbed his kit from the floor and shook out his bedroll, wrapping Echo up in it. 

He tried to get Echo to eat as well, but all he could get him to do was nibble on a rations bar and drink a little bit of water before he fell asleep, curled into a ball with his head in Rex's lap like a small child. Rex straightened the blankets around him with a fond smile before meeting the other's gazes. 

"Alright, what's with the jedi skills." Tech asked. "I'm dying to know." His caution around Rex seemed more out of curiosity than the fear and contempt of the rest of the bad batch. Rex sighed, leaning his head back against the wall and glanced at Anakin for guidance. 

"Where should I start?" He asked quietly. Anakin shrugged. 

"Beginning is as good a place as any."

Tech raised a finger. "If I may, we already know who you really are. You're Captain Rex, the one who supposedly died six months ago." Rex frowned.

"And how would you guess that?" He asked. 

"A, the jaig eyes. Not a common symbol in the GAR, even among clones. B, you slipped up on Anaxes. You called Echo an old friend, and mentioned that you served with him. While really, Captain 'Flip' wasn't even off Kamino yet when Echo was captured." 

At the mention of the beginning of his ordeal, Echo twitched in his sleep. Rex ran a soothing hand down his spine, being mindful of the metal plates, before settling for scratching gently on his arms. 

"Very... observant." Rex sighed. "Well then you know my reconditioning didn't stick." He pointed out. 

"Well, it had to have broken off sometime for you to be talking with us at the moment." Tech pointed out. Rex shrugged.

"Point. Alright, you know who I am. What I can do I didn't choose. If you ever get the chance to ask Ahsoka, the former commander of the 501st, she can tell you how I reacted to finding the crystal that powers my saber." Rex unwrapped a second ration bar and bit into it, chewing as he looked back.

"You threw it across the room." Anakin chuckled. 

Rex sighed. "I threw it across the room." He gave a wry smile. "In retrospect, considering that those things can be highly unstable, probably not my best idea." 

"Where, exactly, did you find the crystal?" Crosshair asked coolly. Anakin stiffened as Rex's face darkened, old memories of burning heat and sharp pain crisscrossing down his back rising to the surface. 

"Kavado." He ground out, his hands spasming and trembling. There was a slight numbness in his fingertips that hadn't been there a moment before. The ropelike scar across his back flashing with icy hot pain.

"The Kavado mining facility was a slave processing facility. Rex spent some time there a while back during a mass rescue of a togruta colony gone wrong. That's where he found the crystal." Anakin said softly, all traces of levity gone from his voice. 

White hot pain useless cold white hot pain useless cold white hot pain useless cold...

Rex knew he was shaking, but he couldn't seem to stop. His hands spasmed and ached with an old pain. Echo, as if empathizing in his distress, began to thrash a little in his sleep. The movement, the need to comfort and protect his little brother, pulled him out of the mental loop as he went back to cradling Echo a little closer. 

"So, you're a jedi?" Hunter asked, seemingly ignoring Rex's little episode. Rex shook his head. 

"N-No." His voice was tight as he fumbled with the words, his body trying to remember how to breath properly as he settled into deeper, slower breaths. "I'm... not a jedi. No offence, general. but the jedi and the council who run them are all hypocrites with their heads shoved so far up their shebs that they can see clearly out of their mouths."

Anakin threw back his head and let out a full blown cackle at that comment. "Couldn't have said it better myself." He laughed. Rex smiled weakly. 

"Ahsoka took me to the temple and gave me some basic lessons on how to use the mind powers and hold a lightsaber. And by lessons I mean she made me lift rocks and beat me up with a stick." Rex shook  his head. "Then there was... a couple more incidents, the rise of Caedus, the ordeal of naboo and the recovery from that. We spent some time on Onderon to help the rebellion there--"

"And immediately after that he married Ahsoka." Anakin cut in with a smirk. Rex flushed and looked at the ground.

"'Was gonna leave that part out." He grumbled. 

"Leave that detail out and you're missing context for half the story." Echo mumbled into Rex's kama, shivering a little more despite the mess of blankets around him. 

"Thought you were asleep." Rex blew out a long breath, messing around in the meager survival resources in his kit until he came up with a couple small emergency heating pads and shook them up before sliding them into the blankets around his brother. Echo gave a small sigh of contentment. 

"I was, but listening to you is better than nightmares." The sickly ARC complained. 

"Alright, fine." Rex pinched his brow. "Yes, I married Ahsoka after we got back from Onderon. Happy?"

"Yes." Anakin and Echo said simultaneously. Rex leaned back. 

"Well, there's really not much to tell. A while after that I built my lightsaber, and then there was the whole reconditioning and dealing with the fallout of my survival... and now I'm here." He finished. 

"This was something I was decanted with. Not something I chose or even wanted." He sighed. 

"Can we have a demonstration?" Wrecker asked. Rex sighed. 

"Was the octuptarra not demonstration enough?" 

"I wanna see you fight the General." Wrecker grinned like a maniac. Rex sighed and nodded down Echo, who was still resting. 

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll do a demonstration." 

Wrecker clapped his hands like a cadet being offered a piece of fresh fruit as a treat from one of the instructors. "Yes!"