SWTCW Oneshots (Mainly Clones) part 2

Broken Promises

"You promise you're gonna come back?"

"Promise. We wouldn't leave our little brother behind."

"Be careful.."

"We will. For your sake.

...

"No! Those are my brothers!"

"Rex, come on!"

"No!"

Rex jolted awake in his bunk with an audible gasp. His eyes were wide, tears that must have gathered while he was asleep slowly sliding down his face.

He wiped an arm across it to wipe them away quickly. As long as no one noticed, he'd be fine.

For some reason, he'd been getting consistent nightmares, each one being about his batchmates. His family. And at the time, the only people in the galaxy he could depend on.

Each dream left him shaken. He wasn't surprised. Vivid images of what had happened that night passed through his head, and ever since then it had been haunting him.

Someone gently tapped on his elbow and he turned his head. Fives, still in his blacks, was looking at him with an unreadable expression. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Rex gave a stiff nod and threw himself out of his bunk. He allowed his brother to lead him into the hallway.

"What was that about?"

The Captain raised a brow, caught off guard. "What was what about?"

"I saw you tossing around all night," He watched him warily. "And it's been happening for the past few days. What's going on?"

Rex paused for a moment. "I thought this was about you."

"Who said this was about me?"

"Well, you made it seem like it was about you that's why I asked."

Fives tilted his head. "You know I don't come to talk to you about me. You're just trying to change the subject."

Rex sighed, giving in. It was true. He really just didn't want to talk about it. It brought up bad memories.

"It was just a nightmare, alright? I'll be fine. I..don't want to talk about it right now."

The ARC looked like he was going to press, but seemed to change his mind last second and sighed. "Fine. But you know you can talk to me.."

Rex turned when he was halfway through the door and smiled. "I know."

When he returned to the barracks, he headed for his private office. Maybe he could relax there for a little while.

He settled down at his desk and flicked out his datapad, absentmindedly scrolling through old pictures he managed to upload onto it from when he was younger.

Hell, he even had some of his batchmates there too. Some of the good old days.

Before..—

He tried not to think about it.

Rex scrolled through the pictures for hours. One was of him and his batch standing in the barracks on Kamino, with the oldest of all of them, Trigger, holding him up in the air.

The face he was making was more of a scowl. Of course he didn't really like being manhandled but they were his brothers and best friends so they always annoyed him.

The youngest, although still older than Rex because he was the 'baby' of the group, was Charcoal. Don't even ask how he got his name. Trigger caught him with charcoal all over his face when they were barely able to walk. Thus, his name. They usually called him Chalk for short, though.