Star Wars Rebels: When Hope Is Lost

Chapter 19: Realization

Ahsoka's meeting with Commander Sato had indeed given her cause to worry.

It had been a meeting between just the two of them, in the Commander's private quarters. Now, Ahsoka had known Jun Sato for many years: They had had many private discussions together. But never, in all her years of knowing him and in working together, had she ever seen him this panicked. Nor had he ever asked her to meet in his private quarters, one of the few places aboard the ship where there weren't security cameras, besides her own room and a couple other places aboard. She knew this was a very small detail, but the cameras had never been a problem in the past. She assumed that this was why Jun wanted to meet her there.

When she had knocked on the door, he had quickly opened it, hurried her inside, and then looked left and right before shutting it and locking it. This confirmed her suspicions that he didn't want their conversation overheard or recorded.

"Alright, Jun. What's wrong?" Ahsoka had asked, calling him by his first name rather than by rank, to indicate that she was worried about his behaviour. The answer had been terrifying, causing never-ending stress for her. And it wasn't just worry for herself, or for the rebel fleet; it was concern for a teenaged boy that didn't deserve to have a giant amount of stress placed upon his shoulders. Because of this, she had refrained from telling him, or his crew, about her worries and her new information that Jun had found.

Now, she regretted that decision with every bone in her body.

Regret was not something Master Yoda would have approved of. "Change the past, you cannot," he would have said. Regret was not a Jedi concept. Jedi were supposed to move on, to move forward from their mistakes and prevent them from happening in the future. They were not supposed to cling to their wrongs, to ponder over and over what they could have done to prevent something or to change something. They had to let go. This was the Jedi way.

But Ahsoka was no longer a Jedi.

And although she knew her decision could not be changed, she still wished she had decided differently. If she had, Ezra Bridger might still be happily with his crew, which she knew, was where he belonged.

But she couldn't change her decision. She had to continue onwards.

This proved that regardless of whether she liked it or not, her Jedi teachings were still ingrained in her very core.

A little over a month after Ezra had left, Ahsoka had found herself free of all tasks. There was no inventory to take, no readings to monitor, no meetings, and nothing to repair. These types of days were rare, and usually didn't last long. When you're a high-ranking rebel, there is usually something to do. But today, Ahsoka was finished everything. So she had aimlessly wandered the ship, doing various small tasks–meditation, checking the food supplies to make sure there was some extra, counting how many blasters had malfunctioned or simply been worn out during weapons training. She had even taken it upon herself to strip these broken guns for spare parts and had delivered the parts personally to their repair division, just because she had nothing else to do.

She had just come out of the repair wing, thinking about other tasks she could find to do, when she saw Rex walking towards her, helmet tucked under one arm, and a piece of his leg armour under the other.

"Rex," she greeted, offering a small smile.

"Commander Tano," he replied, a warm smile on his face. "Where are you off to?"

"That's a good question," she chuckled. "I've finished everything. What about you?"

The clone gestured to his leg armour that he currently held. "I wanted the repair team to do a check on this. One of the straps feels off, and it could use a touch-up paint job, just to keep it up-to-date. It's a few decades old, as you know."