Star Wars the Clone Wars - One shots

What a Captain Knows

As a Captain, Rex's job was to pay attention to fine details.

With Skywalker as his General, he became pretty damn good at noticing things that his CO didn't. Rex had a sixth sense for identifying flaws in Skywalker's strategies and could spot the jetii's hidden injuries a mile off.

It only made sense that he knew about the relationship between General Skywalker and Senator Amidala before explicitly being told.

He had known that there was something other than friendship between the two after the Malevolence incident, which was only confirmed by the whispers he heard near his bed when they thought he was resting after the Blue Shadow Virus.

I thought I'd lost you, Padmé.

I always had faith in you, Anakin.

There was no doubt about it. His General (a kriffing jetii) was in love with a Senator.

Of course, being a good Captain (and more importantly, a good friend), Rex kept his mouth shut.

He had heard what happened to jetii who didn't follow the Code, and after Ahsoka's sudden departure, he was willing to do whatever it took to keep the 501st sane and together. They would not recover from losing their General too.

"I do worry about him, Rex." Amidala said to him quietly one day, watching the General from a distance as he talked with the Council. His face had aged over the last few weeks, with creases forming at the corners of his eyes and his cheeks hollowing out.

"I could trust Ahsoka to keep him safe before, but now she's gone, I'm terrified. You know how reckless he is." She looked up at Rex, "Can you look out for him for me?"

He didn't even need to think before replying, "I've always got his back, ma'am."

Her smile was small, but he could tell it eased her mind to know there was someone looking protecting him, "Thank you, Captain."

Rex kept his promise, risking his own skin whenever the General got carried away. Skywalker had always been reckless, but since losing his Padawan, it was getting bad. Rex stayed up at night, passing his commlink between his hands and wondering if he should call Ahsoka, but always deciding not to.

This wasn't her problem to fix; she had been through enough as it was.

"General Skywalker, you've broken formation! Where are you going?" Rex swore under his breath at Coric's panicked cry across the comm channel.

He blinked the sweat out of his eyes as he turned to where Skywalker's squad had been positioned. Sure enough, the General had pushed forwards, abandoning his men without the defence of a jetii in favour of rushing the droids head on.

"Hold the line!" He yelled to Appo, reloading his blasters before breaching his own squad.

Skywalker was running full speed towards the droids, ignoring the blaster bolts that seared past him. Rex ducked and rolled, not having the Jedi-like reaction speed. If he wasn't killed before he reached his General, it would be a miracle.

He had almost caught up when his comm rang in his ears, "Your left, Captain!"

Rex had a boost of adrenaline to jump forwards and tackle Skywalker to the ground, moments before a flaming blast from a turret rushed over their heads. Rex rolled with the momentum, pulling Skywalker behind a fallen tank.

He pinned the jetii to the metal with his tunic, staring into his eyes. His pupils were blown out.

"Don't be a kriffing idiot!" He growled, anger replacing the worry he had felt. "You're going to get yourself killed!"