Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

53

Rex set the holoprojector on the ground and stepped back as it lit up. Tension he didn't even know was there melted from his shoulders as he sat down heavily on a crate. Ahsoka's form appeared, sitting cross-legged at the edge of what he assumed was her bed. 

"Hey." He said softly. Ahsoka smiled and rubbed her eyes, the too big shirt hanging loose around her frame. He winced as he realized he forgot to check the time on Corascant again before calling. "I didn't wake you up again, did I?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, not at all. I was just getting to bed when you called. Perfect timing." She smiled. The hollows of her cheeks were a little more pronounced, and her lekku hung sleek and low, the pattern shifting and ripening into blue and white lightning bolts. Rex gave a lopsided grin. 

"You look good." He said softly, his eyes saddening. "How's it been on your side of the galaxy? Broken any more hands?"

Ahsoka laughed, the sound making everything he had been through here worth it. "No, they seemed to get the message after I beat one of them up again in front of the others. They called Corascant guard on me, and when Thire saw who it was he just laughed and told them that it was their own slagging fault for picking a fight with an ex-jedi."

Rex's smile widened now, and he laughed. "I'd pay to see the looks on their faces." He wheezed, and Ahsoka started to laugh too. 

"One just took off running. The other fainted and fell into a runoff vat from one of the air recyclers."  She recounted. Rex started laughing even harder at that image. Runoff was nasty on a nice, clean ship such as one of the GAR cruisers. It was hard to imagine something from a place a thousand times less clean, where carbon buildup seemed to coat everything in the lower levels no matter how much you scrubbed. 

"Thanks, Cyare. I needed that." He gasped, wiping away tears that formed in the corners of his eyes. Ahsoka smiled faintly. 

"Figured you did." She blew out a long breath before asking the question that both of them had been avoiding. 

"Did you find him?"

Rex closed his eyes wearily, the weight settling on his shoulders once more. "Yeah. We did. He's in surgery right now, first of three according to Kix." Rex hunched his shoulders and closed his eyes against the image of Echo falling out of that stasis pod. "I don't think I've ever seen so much metal in one person. Both legs have been replaced with poor prosthetics, and one arm with a droid's jig. Some internal stuff too. Not all of it was ever meant for humans it looks like. It's going to take hours of intensive surgery to fix some of it. What little human flesh is left is pale and emaciated. He's a walking skeleton." 

Ahsoka closed her eyes as well, empathizing with her husband's pain at seeing his little brother in such a state. Rex shook his head to clear it, sighing. 

"And... and I think he may be like me." He said. Ahsoka looked at him critically and he met her gaze. "Force sensitive. At least to a minor degree. He... Illum. When I saw him in the caves. He was really there. He knew and was... branded. When he touched the crystal. They cut off the arm that had the mark, but..." Re trailed off, knowing he was rambling. 

"Have Kix test. It's... not unheard of, impossible meetings at places that are incredibly saturated with the force to the point of becoming nearly sentient in their workings. On Mortis Master Kenobi claimed he had a conversation with his dead master, QuiGon Jinn." She looked at the bed in front of her. "I... I've heard some things about stuff like this. I'll see what I can find. Show me his midichlorian counts when you get them and can call again, ok? Or talk to Anakin. He'd probably have more access to information than I would. Force knows I already have so much work to do." She yawned again. Rex smiled.