Our General

Reveal

Cody walked up behind Rex and Wolffe, who were waiting in the middle of the hangar with multiple other squads, waiting for the civie general to arrive. "Any minute now," he announced, checking his comlink for the time. 

"Just try not to blow your top off," Rex told Wolffe, resting a hand on his arm. "Let's try to make the first day somewhat bearable, yeah?"

"Sure."

"Wolffe."

He sighed but nodded all the same. "I want you to know, though, I'm doin' it for you."

"We all are," Cody told him. "Every clone is here for their brothers, not whoever steps off that ship."

"Heh. At least we're all on the same page," he said, smiling just a little. It dropped off of his face when he saw a gunship approaching. All heads turned upward to watch the ship come in. 

The three commanders looked at each other. "Here we go," Rex muttered, and they walked forward to address their new general. 

For once, the hangar fell silent. The first impression would make or break how the first tour would go. Everyone was praying it would go decent, or at least not terrible. Just don't be an asshole, they thought privately. Just don't be an asshole, just don't be an asshole, just don't be an a-

The gunship landed in the center of the runway. Rex, Cody, and Wolfe straightened up, psyching themselves for the worst-case scenario and hoping for anything better. The gunship doors opened and parted to reveal-

...Ahsoka Tano.

If the hangar was quiet before, it was dead silent now. All attempts to look professional were forgotten. Rex's jaw was on the floor, Cody was staring at her as if she had grown a second head, and Wolffe's good eye was bulging out of his face. 

She stepped off of the gunship, looking around. The clones were certainly shocked to see her, but she still couldn't tell if it was a 'we-are-pleasantly-surprised' shock or 'we-were-hoping-we-would-never-see-you-again' shock. Ahsoka didn't want to assume either way just in case she was wrong. 

As she scanned the room, she made eye contact with Rex first. Her anxiety dropped significantly when she saw him. At the very least, he was still alive. Ahsoka didn't know what she would have done if he had died in the past few months. She ventured a cautious smile.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?"

Rex charged at her full speed as the entire legion erupted into cheers. Everyone followed Rex's lead, breaking formation to crowd around her. Relieved and desperate to reunite with her friends again, Ahsoka dumped her bag on the ground and ran to meet him. He lifted her up in the best bear hug she had gotten in her life and was soon swarmed with joyful clones, jumping and shouting at the return of their long-lost friend. 

She got hugs from Cody, Wolffe, Jesse, Gregor, and tons of other old friends. Ahsoka couldn't have told you who was who, though: there were too many arms wrapped around her, too many faces surrounding her, too many voices yelling right next to her. It all blended together for a solid minute or so while everyone celebrated. 

When everyone's voices were finally hoarse from screaming, Cody wormed his way closer to her (he had gotten shoved aside in the chaos). "What in blazes are you doing here?"

Everyone quieted down to hear her answer. Having regained her confidence, Ahsoka grinned. "What, you didn't think I was gonna let some civilian toss you around, did you?"

"You're the new general???" Wolffe asked, his face lighting up like a star.

"Is that okay?"

"YES!!!!!" he shouted, picking her up in a hug. Ahsoka laughed and cheered with the rest of the legion, her new legion, and did her best to fight back happy tears.

Eventually, Wolffe set her back down again. Cody appeared at her side, holding out a comlink to her. Smiling, Ahsoka accepted it and snapped into place on her left gauntlet. "Command center, this is General Tano," she announced, testing out the sound of the new rank. "If everyone is on board, you have the green light to jump to hyperspace."

If they responded, Ahsoka didn't hear it over yet another cheer. The clones who had gotten to hug her already started stepping out of the way, letting their brothers in the back get closer. Ahsoka hugged even more clones and made several introductions with some she hadn't met yet. All the while, Rex, Cody, and Wolffe didn't leave her side. 

It was several minutes before the crowd disappeared. By that time, they had already jumped to hyperspace and were well on their way. Ahsoka was exhausted but happier than she had been in months. Finally, she turned to her commanders to talk to them personally. 

All three of them were smiling like fools. She chucked. "Not what you were expecting, huh?"

"Expecting you to appear out of nowhere to become our new general?" Cody asked, crossing his arms. "No, absolutely not. Where have you been?"

"Lower levels of Coruscant," she explained, "working as a mechanic. At least, I was until I saw the flyer calling for civilians to enlist."

Rex grabbed her bag and handed it to her. Thankfully, it hadn't been trampled in the past ten minutes. "I'm not sure you count as a civilian."

She shrugged. "Maybe not a normal civilian. I doubt many of them are being promoted to general on the spot."

"Good," Wolffe grumbled, nodding. "They shouldn't be."

"He's been complaining ever since we found out we were getting a civilian general," Cody told her, nudging his brother. "I wasn't entirely sure he wasn't going to beat the new guy to a pulp, come to find out the 'new guy' is you."

"You would have too if it was bad enough."

Cody thought about it for a moment. "Keyword: 'if.'"

"Does Skywalker know?" Rex asked her. "Do any of the Jedi?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "Not yet. I asked the Republic to keep quiet about this for now. I figured it would be a good surprise in a few weeks, though," she suggested. "What do you think?"

"Hey, if it's anything like this was, I'm in," Cody decided. He pointed down the hallways. "I'm assuming I don't need to give you the tour?"

"Not unless you want to."

"Welcome back, General," Wolffe told her, smiling again. He and Cody walked off, probably to help spread the word to anyone who hadn't already heard. 

Rex stuck around for a while longer. The other two didn't wonder why and didn't say anything about it. When they were out of earshot, he turned to Ahsoka again. "You had us worried," he said quietly. "No one saw you for months. Skywalker's been keeping an eye out for you."

She nodded, her face falling just a little bit. "I didn't exactly have a way to keep in touch. I doubt the Order would want me to anyway," she added, her eyes hardening slightly. "Not to mention, I doubt you're supposed to be calling an ex-criminal."

"Whatever," he groaned, waving it off. As they started to walk to the general's cabin, he told her, "I never believed that anyway."

"You're one of the few," Ahsoka remarked, shifting her bag on her shoulder. "Speaking of the Order."

"Well, they're not here anymore. Just us."

Grateful, she looked up at him. "Thank the Force."

As they walked through the hallways together, clones saluted both of them (but mostly Ahsoka) with a smile on their faces.