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Rex was dreaming, which was strange because, aside from the occasional nightmare, he didn't usually have dreams. What he was experiencing now had to be a dream. There was no other explanation. He had to be dreaming. But it felt so real...

He walked down a corridor in an unfamiliar hallway. The air was hot and dry, a rancid smell of what seemed to be years of sweat soaked air making him wish that clones had a gag reflex. It was putrid, to say the least. He was bare to the waist, only wearing coarse tan trousers. A heavy metal collar was around his neck, two sharp spikes wearing away at the skin on his throat. He had a pickaxe in his hand, and he was practically dragging it behind him. 

A song, hauntingly beautiful and eerily familiar, seemed to pull at him. A harsh shove hit him in the shoulder. 

"Move it, skug." Came a harsh Zygerrian voice. Rex ducked his head submissively and picked up the pace. A blinding pain struck him across the back, and he bit his lip to keep from crying out. He tightened his grip on the pickaxe when another voice stopped him from bashing the slaver's head in. 

"Rex. It's not worth it." Kenobi. Rex looked to his left at the jedi, who was dressed much the same as Rex. His head hung low, and his shoulders slumped depressingly low. They passed by a room with it's door open. Rex paused and looked in. Ahsoka. 

She was hanging suspended in a cage in a circular room with no ceiling or floor. Another slaver on a repulsor lift platform hit her with a whip, and she let out a cry. As the pain faded, she turned and hissed at the slaver. 

"You are sentient." Yelled at her, pressing a button. Her body arced with electricity from her collar, and she screamed again. "You talk like one. You are not an animal." This brought an almost feline roar that tore from her throat. The slaver whipped and electrocuted her again. 

Rex was hit again by his slave driver. "You want to join her, Skug?" He growled, his breath wet and fetid on Rex's cheek. As badly as he wanted to say yes, so he could offer some comfort to her, he had to find the source of the song. Ahsoka raised her head wearily and shook her head. 

"No." Rex croaked, and started walking again. They walked into another room. A mine of some sort. The song grew louder, and louder, until Rex could barely hear his orders from the slave drivers. 

Finally, it was all he could hear. He found the source, a brilliant, almost blinding gold light. He reached out to touch it...

Rex's eyes opened slowly. He was on board the Negotiator, with Ahsoka curled up against him. The togruta colonists. Right. It was time to get up and find out Master Kenobi and Skywalker's plan for finding them. Master? When had he started thinking about them as Masters. They were General to him. Always had been. 

He tried to remember what he had dreamed about, but it was already slipping away into the oblivion of unconscious memory. He brushed a hand across Ahsoka's head. 

"'Soka." He whispered against her montrals, running his hand from her head down to her shoulder and back, tracing small circles against her cool skin. "It's time to get up Cyare."

Ahsoka stretched, and snuggled deeper into his chest. "Nooo... I's to early han'som." She slurred. Rex gave a low chuckle. 

"We have a mission to do. We have to get up." He pressed gently. 

"Nuh-uh. Five more min'us. You're waaaarrrrm" She sighed petulantly. A low rumble came from deep in her chest. It took Rex a couple seconds to figure out what it was. Ahsoka was purring. Rex sighed ruefully and sat up. He slid his arms under her, being mindful of the bacta wrap on her shoulder.

"Come on."He grunted, carefully throwing her over one shoulder. "Time to get up." Ahsoka let out an indignant squeal. 

"Reeeeeex!" She yelped, the blanket sliding off of her as he walked over to the 'fresher. "Put me doooowwwwn!" She whined. Rex switched shoulders so she was facing backwards over his left. He picked up his toothbrush that Ahsoka had insisted he leave in her rooms. (No use going back and forth if you're going to sleep here anyways.) And started to brush the taste of morning out of his mouth. He eventually set Ahsoka down, and they went through the morning routine with relative ease, Rex dressing in the refresher. 

He knocked on the door. "Safe to come out yet?"He called, and heard a scuffle on the other side of the door. 

"Yes." Came the reply, and he opened the door. Ahsoka sat with what looked to be a hand mirror in one hand as she carefully applied her headdress over the soft ripple of skin where her montrals met her forehead. 

"How do you even get that thing to stay?" He asked. He had seen her put it on dozens of times, but how it stayed was still a mystery to him. She gave him a lazy smile. 

"There's a leather cord that ties under my back lekku like a headband. What do you think. That I glued it on?" She laughed. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she laughed even harder. Finishing getting the headdress in place, she stood. "Come on. We're going to be late." She chided. Rex laughed. 

"And who's fault would that be, miss 'I'm going to stay in bed until eleven.'" He poked her in the ribs. She had taken the bacta off, and the skin on her shoulder and face had mostly healed. There was a faint scar trailing from the white diamond over her right eye to the bottom of her jaw under the marking on her left cheek. Rex traced the scar tenderly. It would fade with time, but it would always be there no matter how dim. 

Ahsoka smiled. They couldn't be sweet like this when on duty, but here there were no eyes watching. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. Rex returned the kiss gently, and wondered for the hundredth time how in the whole mysterious force he had been so lucky to have his girl love him in a way that most clones only dreamed of. Ahsoka smiled against his lips. 

"Rex, Anakin wants us on the bridge." She whispered, and squeezed his hand once before turning to the door. Rex sighed and followed her out the door. 

"I guess I'm the one asking for five more minutes this time."

A/N ~ I'm surprised actually. Nobody has freaked out yet that Neon died. Then again, he's not as big a character in this story as he is in WTCC. Speaking of that story, I've put it on hold until I get Cuyanir finished. For those of you who don't know, When the Cavalry Comes is a parallel story line to Cuyanir and it's planned sequels. So if you want more of the Clone-that's-not-a-clone, you can go read what I have up for now. I think it's just a telling of the pranking chapters I did from Cav's perspective way back in like 15 or so. RotD, What has words, but never speaks?

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