Cyare (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

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Ahsoka froze, every panic and fear grinding to a halt as she tried to process what had happened. Padme slipped an arm around her waist, supporting her. Then, her world shattered as she felt the gravity of what had happened.

Rex. Reconditioning. Complete memory wipe. She stumbled, her knees almost giving out as she clutched at the rail. The guard was taking him away.

She found her voice, giving a small sob. "Rex." She whispered. They locked eyes for a second, a single gut wrenching second, and then he was gone. Ahsoka stood there for a while longer, time making no difference in her shell-shocked mind. The only clear thoughts in her head played on a constant loop.

They're taking him away. They're going to kill my husband then reuse his body as another disposable soldier. He knew. He knew they would do this. He pleaded guilty! They're taking him away.

She walked stiffly behind Padme as the older woman lead her out of the senatorial chambers. She was dimly aware of Barriss being hauled away down the hall.

Anakin saw them and raced towards them. Then Ahsoka really did collapse, and the tears came. She wrapped her arms around Anakin, clinging to one of the few people she had left. Rex had made it ok. He was gone now. 

With an effort, she yanked her broken pieces into a pile. He was not gone yet. The council would want to talk to her. She had a few choice words for them. Then she would visit him before they took him to Kamino. She forced herself to take a deep breath. Then another. She willed the tears to stop, and eventually they began to slow. Finally, hiccuping still but with the crushing weight of reality at bay, she pushed back from Anakin. 

Her friend looked at her as she scrubbed at her eyes, searching her face and skimming her emotions through the force. "Ahsoka?" He asked quietly. She took a shuddering breath. 

"I imagine the council has been notified of the trials and would like to see me?" She said at last, her voice hard and cold. At least it hid her devastation. Anakin's eyebrows lifted slightly.

"Are you sure? I'm sure they would understand waiting a few days." He suggested. Ahsoka stood up suddenly. 

"No, they wouldn't. You of all people should know that. Besides, I have to see them before I can see him." Her voice hitched slightly on the 'him'. Anakin put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Ok. I'll go talk to them first. You get everything you need together, since I think I know what you're going to do." He took a deep breath. "You know what you're doing?" He asked. Ahsoka looked at the ground. 

"I hope I do." She whispered. 

She packed up her things from her rooms at the temple. She didn't have much. Toiletries essentials, some clothes, and a few mementos in a bag, and that was it. She sat on the bed, resisting the urge to cry. She had to hold together. She had to be cold and numb. She could cry when she sees him. She could scream and yell and feel his arms around her, protecting her. She slid off the hard slab and looked under it, searching for something. She found it and pulled it out, wrapping her hand around it tightly despite the sharp edges. 

When she opened her hand to stare at the baked pottery shard, the end of it stained red from when she had gotten it stuck in her palm, it almost undid the careful dam of emotions she had put in place. She grabbed a leather cord, an extra that she used for her headdress, and wrapped it around the triangular shard before securing it around her neck. 

Time to face the murderers. 

She took the turbo up to the council chambers. The room had been buzzing, but it was a silent as a tomb when she entered. She stared at each one of them in turn, eyes coming to rest on Yoda. 

"I was informed that you wanted to see me, masters?" She said flatly, shifting to clone parade rest. They all shifted uncomfortably. Plo Koon spoke up first, making Ahsoka's heart ache. He had believed in her. This would crush him. 

"We were wrong to accuse you, little 'Soka." He said softly, raising his head to expose his throat in a togruta sign of submissiveness. 

"Blinded, we were. Played politics, we did. Find the truth, we did not." Yoda said. Ahsoka held his gaze intently for a few seconds, an outward show of defiance. She ducked her head. Mace Windu stepped forward. 

"Ahsoka Tano. You have faced many challenges, ones that would make you a better jedi than you would have become. By admission of our own error, we welcome you back to the order." He said imperiously. Rage filled Ahsoka, but she fought it down.

"No." She said. 

"No?" Asked Windu, surprised. Ahsoka curled her lip up.

"No. I will not return to the order. I've seen how you treat it's members." She said coolly. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go see my captain, who is giving away his entire identity, so that Anakin could catch the real bomber." She turned to leave when Master Mundi spoke out. 

"Leave? We give you the chance to be a part of the greatest order in the galaxy again and you have the audacity to leave, because a simple clone is being reconditioned to serve the greater good?" He snarled. Ahsoka stiffened, and the dam burst. She turned around slowly to face him and gave a predatory growl low in her throat as her fangs extended to their longest reach.

"Audacity?" She said softly. "You dare talk to me about audacity? I was just framed for killing a civilian and several clones, who I value much more than you, apparently, on sketchy evidence just to be a political scapegoat and take the death sentence, and my clone captain, my husband of a month and a half is getting his mind erased because he helped prove my innocence when the jedi council, YOU, have the power to see my memories and what happened and still stand up for me, yet you didn't." She sneered.

"Oh no. You cast me out of your order, to give me a military trial by a biased and racist admiral with doctored evidence, and it took my Master, the only one in this room who still deserves that title, disobeying your orders and finding the person who was really behind this. Barriss Offee. My friend. Driven to hate by this war that you force children to serve in. And when I was on the run, the two people who actually helped me was my, and I quote, 'Disloyal deserter' of a husband, and Asajj-kriffing-Ventress." She borderline yelled. The council masters all took a step back from her, some of them genuinely afraid of the almost seventeen year old girl. Ahsoka sucked her fangs in and calmed herself the best she could. She was shaking. 

"Another, abandoned by both the jedi and the sith. And now you are killing an innocent man who has nothing but utmost loyalty and respect for you. And you talk about audacity. If this is what the order has come to, I want no part of it." She finished her rant at a whisper. She closed her eyes tightly, and twin tears she hadn't even known she was holding back traced down her cheeks, down the scarred and stress aged face of somebody too old for their appearance. 

"Is there anything else you'd like to say while you're at it, Snips?" Asked Anakin. She glanced at him, at his own teary eyes and big grin. All she felt from him was pride. Pride in her. She took a breath and looked down at Yoda again. He was the only one who didn't seem offended at her little tirade. He also had a dim spark of pride coming off of him, surprisingly. 

"Yes. I want Ventress's name cleared of all war crimes and all republic issued bounties removed from her head." Ahsoka said. There was a stunned silence in the room, even deeper that her rant had earned. 

"But-what- That's ludicrous. It's insane. It-" Mundi started. Surprisingly, it was master Luminara who cut him off. 

"And it will be done." She said decisively. There was a fire in the usually serene master's eyes that Ahsoka had never seen before. She nodded at Ahsoka. "Ahsoka, your story is far from over. I feel the republic and the jedi order separately will owe you a great many debts."

Ahsoka returned the gesture. "Thank you, Master jedi." She said softly. "Now, I have a prisoner to see." She said quietly, all bluster gone and only the cold weight of depression pressing down on her. She took the turbo lift down, watching the small chamber get farther and farther away. Her and Anakin had never used mental communication before, he did now. 

Good luck, Ahsoka. I'm proud of you. If you ever need me, you know where to find me.

And then, just like that, Ahsoka Tano was no longer a jedi.