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Circarpous V, AKA Mimban.
The eve of Order 66.

The icy winds of a freezing Mimban winter whistled through the opening in the tent, causing the loose flap to rustle loudly and whip spastically through the air, but Captain Rex hardly noticed as the handheld holoprojector slipped from his fingers and clattered into the dirt, rolling to a stop a few feet away. It can't be, he thought, his mind numb and heavy, a dull whine ringing in the back of his head. They wouldn't do that. Ever. Especially not...

From somewhere deeper within the camp shots rang out, as well as a sound Rex had grown to recognize as the hum of a lightsaber cutting through the air, and he wasted no time gathering his pistols and dashing out into the maze of tents, running in the direction of the noise. When he arrived on the scene, what he saw both shocked and horrified him--on her knees in the middle of a ring of dead clone troopers, Ahsoka Tano sat gasping for breath, her expression of mixed fear and confusion illuminated by the cool green light of her still-activated weapons.
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Several hours earlier.

The sheer cliff straddling the western flank of the camp proved to be a solid vantage point despite an occasional snow, and so the spot was chosen for lookouts to take turns keeping watch and surveying the terrain ahead. Always a leader by example, it was Ahsoka occupying the current watch together with Captain Rex, lying prone in the snow atop the mountain's highest summit with a pair of binoculars in hand. The terrain was uninteresting, little more than an endless expanse of ice and snow dotted with mining tunnels, and as her boredom grew she smiled surreptitiously, increasingly aware of the fact that Rex's eyes were now focused on her instead of the landscape.

"It makes me uncomfortable when you stare at me like that."
"Can't help it. You're ten times more interesting than anything out there."
A soft laugh that was lighter than a chuckle but more defined than a giggle from Ahsoka.
"Watch your step on the way down. You'll trip over your own jaw."
"I'll be sure to pick it up after rolling up my tongue."
Ahsoka shot a sidelong glance at him, practically able to see the amusement lighting up his face beneath his helmet, and rolled her eyes.
"Maybe your nickname should've been Wolf instead of Rex."
"Aw come on, Ahsoka, don't do that. I was just teasing."
"You tease a little too rough sometimes."
"If my memory serves me correctly, you used to like it like that."
Rex burst out into full-blown laughter as Ahsoka turned towards him, her attempts to look shocked being undermined by her amusement, and held up his hands to block a light, joking punch.

"Seriously, though..." she murmured, her tone darkening and the volume of her voice dropping. "We might need to scale it back a bit. I think people are beginning to suspect something..."
"So what? I don't care if everyone in the whole damn galaxy knows about us."
Ahsoka smiled sadly, interlacing her fingers with Rex's and squeezing his hand.
"I love you, Rex...But I made a commitment to the Jedi Order. I like what we have, but I could never jeopardize that, just like you could never jeopardize being a soldier."
"I understand, Ahsoka. I really do...Which brings me to something I've been meaning to ask you."
"What is it?"
"Not right now...We'll be expected back soon."
Nodding, Ahsoka pushed herself up to her feet with a grunt and brushed herself off, starting back towards the camp side-by-side with Rex.
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Some time later.

In a semi-isolated tent on the edge of the camp, Rex sat on an ammo crate inspecting his blaster pistols when Ahsoka stepped inside, sealing the entrance flap behind her and leaning against the primary support beam. Grinning, he slipped the weapons into their holsters and reached for the spot by his foot where his helmet sat.
"Whatever it is, don't tell me yet...Let me guess, we're moving out?"
"Not quite. Guess your intuition's getting a bit rusty, eh?"
Rex with a chuckle. "I appreciate the concern, but my intuition's just fine. And if we're not shipping out, then what's going on?"
Ahsoka gave a long exhale, perhaps long enough to be considered a sigh, and settled down next to Rex on the crate, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder.

"What was it you wanted to ask me earlier?"
"Hmm?"
"At the lookout post, on the mountain. You said that you had something that you wanted to talk to me about."
"It's not really important anymore, Ahsoka. More a heat of the moment question than anything."
The distant, shimmery darkness of Rex's eyes told her just the opposite, however, and to coax him out of silence she adopted a small but subtly powerful pout and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, moving his hand so that it rested on her thigh.
"Come on, Rex. You promised we'd talk about it later, and now here we are..."
With one hand she indicated the otherwise empty tent.
"Nobody but us chickens. So...What's on your mind?"

Rex was silent for a long time, and Ahsoka briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep, contemplating tapping him on the shoulder when he spoke again.
"Have you ever considered what's going to happen after the war?"
Of course, all the time. For the majority of the past three years, the war had kept her away from Coruscant and the Jedi Temple, the only home she had ever known. As much as she loved Rex, she didn't want to fight, to put her life on the line, any longer than she had to, and there was no doubt in her mind that he felt the exact same way. More than anything else, though, she was concerned for the future of their unorthodox relationship once the conflict drew to a close-she would likely be sent back to Coruscant, and there was a good chance Rex would be reassigned or returned to Kamino. Whatever the situation, it was quite likely they'd remain (possibly) millions of light years apart from each other for a long time, possibly forever. It was a thought that so frightened Ahsoka that she kept it locked away in a vault in the back of her mind, praying that the day never came when the right key would release it and make it reality.

"...Sure." she finally managed to say. "The Jedi were only ever meant to be peacekeepers, not galaxy-wide warmongers. We fight for ideals of truth and liberty, but in doing so have become imprisoned...We've lost our home, many of our friends, everything we hold dear, all on account of this war." She shot a sullen, forlorn glance at Rex, and he met her gaze. "At the same time, though...I don't want this to be the last time we're ever together again."
He smiled, not a tired and half-hearted attempt but a warm, genuine smile, and cupped her chin with his thumb and forefinger, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Come away with me, Ahsoka."
"What?"
"When the war ends. I'm proud to have served the Republic, and wouldn't change things even if I could, but I've grown tired of conflict. I want to go somewhere nice and quiet, where the galaxy's problems won't reach us."
Ahsoka had definitely considered what life outside the Jedi Order would be like, but had never before entertained thoughts of acting on these considerations. This life was the only one she knew, and wouldn't know where to go or what to do if she ever lost that.
"I, uh...I..."

Rex, with a reassuring smile, took her hand in both of his.
"You don't have to have an answer right now. Just...Promise me that you'll think about it, okay?"
The smile was returned by Ahsoka, albeit with an amount of apprehension that may or may not have been noticeable.
"I will."
With this she stepped out of the tent, leaving Rex alone and with no recourse besides wondering if he'd made the right choice by asking her.
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Later still.

"Everything alright, Commander?"
Ahsoka had been absent-mindedly gazing into the fire for a few minutes and now glanced up to face the trooper who had addressed her, a newer member of Rex's squad named Coy.
"Yeah...Yeah, everything's fine." she said with a smile that had the unstated purpose of reassuring herself as well as him. Stopping herself just before turning back to the fire, she noticed the soldier was still standing erect and at attention and chuckled softly.
"At ease, trooper. Come sit down and take a load off, why don't you?"
Ahsoka patted the empty spot next to her on the log that had been dragged in front of the fire to serve as a makeshift bench, and Coy hesitated, much to the amusement of the young Jedi.
"It's okay...I don't bite, I promise."
The soldier removed his helmet, grinning sheepishly, and settled down next to her.

"...Coy? Can I ask a question?"
"Of course, Commander."
"'Ahsoka' is fine for right now." She paused momentarily, rubbing her palms together vigorously before thrusting them out towards the heat of the fire. "Have you ever considered what's going to happen once the war is over?"
"That's all I think about these days, to be honest. The Grand Army of the Republic was created for the sole purpose of combating the Seperatists, but...Once General Kenobi hunts down General Grievous and the conflict ends...The amount of uncertainty in my future scares me."
Ahsoka silently considered the similarity of their situations as Coy smiled a sad and bitter smile, shaking his head.

"That's what I've always thought made the difference between Jedi and clones. We fight the same battles, we share the beliefs of liberty and equality, but your thanks for your service is different than ours. You'll be able to go home when this is all over, and...And we have no home."
Ahsoka gulped, startled by the dark turn taken in the conversation, and rested a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. She had known that her question would take them to places neither of them particularly wanted to go, but such a response had still come fast and brutally unexpected.
"Coy...I'm so sorry."
He shrugged.
"I'm over it now. We're soldiers, bred to fight and die, with no one planning ahead for the day when our services were no longer needed. Still...It hurts to know you can be discarded so easily."

From around the corner another clone stepped towards the fire, Rex's second-in-command Sergeant Silvern, and Ahsoka blinked away the beginnings of a tear as she turned to greet him.
"Hello, Sergeant. Would you like to join us?"
Silvern gave no response, rigidly rooted to his spot in a manner similar to if he were in a trance. She cocked her head to the side, not understanding, closely examining the trooper when he finally spoke.
"Coy, take a walk. I need to discuss something privately with Commander Tano."
"Is there some sort of issue?" Ahsoka inquired, and without hesitation or emotion the soldier drew his blaster and fired a shot into Coy's shoulder, the latter dropping to the ground with a cry of pain. Startled, the young Jedi leaped to her feet, one hand on both of her lightsabers.
"Sergeant, stand down! Explain yourself!"
"Order 66 has been executed." he stated flatly, as if reciting some personal mantra, and only then did Ahsoka notice the half-dozen other clones emerging from between the tents ringing the firepit, their weapons trained on her.
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Elsewhere.

Rex was still debating whether or not telling Ahsoka had been the right move when a buzzing on his belt alerted him to an oncoming message on his holoprojector, and when he activated it he was surprised to see not one of his Jedi commanders but instead a miniature Chancellor Palpatine standing in image form upon the platform.
"Yes, Your Excellency?"
"Captain Rex..." the Chancellor spoke in a low hiss, a far cry from his usual calm and soothing politician's voice. Was it even truly Palpatine...? "The time has come. Execute Order 66."

As if a bomb had gone off in his mind, Rex's head quickly grew heavy and numb as the transmission ended and the holoprojector slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground and rolling to a stop a few feet away. A dull whine rang in his ears as he considered Palpatine's order. The Jedi had betrayed the Republic? But how? It's not possible, he reaffirmed silently. They wouldn't do that. Ever. Especially not...

From somewhere deeper within the camp shots rang out, as well as a sound that Rex had come to recognize as the hum of a lightsaber cutting through the air, and he wasted no time gathering his weapons and dashing out into the maze of tents in the direction of the noise.
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Back at the firepit.

The conflict was over in a matter of seconds. Ahsoka probably could've dispatched them all even quicker, but her confusion over men who she had fought, lived, and laughed with trying to kill her slowed her down a bit.

She had ducked just before the initial volley of fire, allowing the clones to accidentally take out several of their comrades and using the distraction to activate her weapons, squaring off against Silvern and the few other survivors. Two of the troopers-foolishly, she might add-charged her head-on at that point, and in two neat motions she had disarmed them (in a bodily sense as well as in terms of their weapons) and buried her blades deep in their chests. Laser bolts whizzed over her shoulder as Silvern began his own attack, and streaking through the air like a missile, one of the lightsabers left her hand and found a home in the sergeant's throat. Gurgling weakly he had spun about, clutching feebly at the weapon's handle, and during his struggle accidentally gunned down his last surviving man before collapsing dead himself.

Falling to her knees in the mud dotted by patches of snow, Ahsoka panted from exhaustion and exertion, her mind still racing at the thought of being attacked by her own men. She was on the verge of tears and close to hyperventilating when a final clone stepped into the ring of bodies, pausing a moment to examine the carnage but training his blasters on her immediately afterwards. It was Rex.
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The present moment.

The blaster pistols clutched in Rex's gloved hands trembled as his entire body shuddered with rage, grief, and disbelief, gazing around at his numerous dead brothers forming a ring around Ahsoka, on her knees with head bowed in a vulnerable manner. He had never believed himself capable of crying after all that he'd seen with eyes that hadn't once grown wet, but tears blurred his vision within his helmet as he met her gaze, startled by the intensity of the fear and confusion in her eyes.

"Ahsoka, you..."
Ahsoka deactivated her weapons and allowed the hilts to slip out of her hands, slowly rising to her feet with palms outstretched and facing upwards.
"Rex, I can explain..." she stammered, nervously eyeing the blasters still trained on her chest. "I didn't want to do that...They attacked me..."
"I...I know..." Rex cast his weapons aside and slowly approached the young Jedi, wrapping her in a comforting embrace as the first sobs wracked her body.
"I didn't want to kill them, Rex...I swear I didn't..."
"Sshh...I know, kid, I know."
"Wh-what is going on...? Why is this happening..?"
Angry shouting echoed through the labyrinth of tents, growing closer by the second, and Rex released Ahsoka, scooping up his blasters and tucking them back into their holsters.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to get you out of here..."

A pained grunt came from somewhere in their immediate vicinity, and before he could draw a bead Ahsoka batted his gun away.
"Wait!" she ran over to one of the prone bodies, prying the helmet off and extending a finger just above the part in the trooper's lips. "It's Coy! He's alive!"
"Are you sure that we can trust him?" Rex, apprehensively.
"They shot at him, same as me. He's not looking to do them any favors." With some effort, Ahsoka helped Coy up into a seated position, tightly pressing a hand to the ragged hole in his shoulder.
"Coy...You with me?" Rex, snapping his fingers in front of Coy's face. The trooper grimaced and forced a smile.
"Affirmative, sir."
"Good man. Can you walk?"
"Nnh...Not sure about...About that..."

"Ahsoka, help me get him up." In one powerful motion the duo pulled Coy to his feet, the latter leaning heavily on Ahsoka.
"He's still really weak...Will we be able to make it?"
"Two of us can..." he pointed at the young Jedi and her charge, then jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "If one of us stays behind."
Ahsoka's eyes went wide, and she shook her head violently. "Rex, you can't! They'll kill you if you fight them!"
"No, they won't." he smiled, the same reassuring smile he had debuted only a few hours earlier in the tent, and gently touched Ahsoka's cheek, tracing the soft curve of her jawline. "I love you, Ahsoka. Stay safe, and I'll find you soon."
Ahsoka mimicked the expression, albeit with more sadness, and removed Rex's helmet just enough to pull him into a kiss.
"I love you too. May the Force be with you."

From between the tents the first responding troopers began to emerge, and slowed by the mental effects of the carnage, they were all easily dispatched by Rex, who turned on a dime and gunned them down far faster than he thought himself capable of doing.
"Now go! Get out of here!" He didn't see whether or not she complied right away, as a new volley of gunfire ripped through the canvas walls of a tent and forced him to seek cover behind the log-bench beside the fire. Behind him he heard footsteps growing dimmer, and fired wildly over the top of his cover, forcing the still-unseen assailants into momentary retreat. A lull in the shooting fell over the camp, and Rex risked a glance in the direction he assumed Ahsoka and Coy had run off in, seeing no one. So they made it. he thought. Good.

There was a sharp, terrible impact on the back of his head by some blunt object he guessed was the butt of a blaster rifle, and before he had even hit the ground a cool darkness swallowed his consciousness whole. Some distance away, on the outskirts of the camp, Ahsoka and Coy paused momentarily in the silence to glance back, not knowing if the sudden lack of commotion meant Rex had been captured or killed.
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Later that night.

After about an hour of walking (not counting the constant breaks taken to allow Coy some time to rest), an abandoned mine shaft remote enough (or so they believed) to keep away the majority of prying eyes was discovered and designated as the duo's campsite for the night. It was here that Coy finally received proper medical attention for his wound, and with the trooper in no condition to keep shifts at lookout with her, she sat alone at the mouth of the cave while he rested, keeping a watchful eye out for trouble. A number of scouts, as well as a search party or two, happened by and were easily dispatched by the young Jedi during the seemingly eternal wait, and with each passing hour she grew more and more concerned about Rex's condition. The night air had crept into every crevice and cranny and the silvery moon was sitting huge and glowing among the stars before her comlink finally buzzed, and though she jumped to answer it at first, she cautiously held off until Rex's voice crackled through the speaker.

"I'm hoping this is actually you and not a clone patrol who got the upper hand and took your comlink..."
"Funny...I was just thinking the same thing, more or less."
A sigh of relief. "I'm damned glad to hear your voice, Ahsoka."
"Likewise. Though I'm a little confused as to why you're still breathing..."
"I got hit from behind not long after you left. Convinced them my little rampage was the product of a Jedi mind trick on your part."
Despite all that had happened, Ahsoka couldn't help but chuckle. "Thanks for that."
"I thought it was pretty clever. They still don't completely trust me, though, so I can't talk for much longer."
"Understood. Any thoughts on how to get off this planet?"
"A few...I've got one idea that's probably my best, but there's a high probability we'll get killed in ten seconds if we try it..."
"Since when has beating impossible odds ever been an issue for us, Rex? Lay it on me."
"A fair point. Alright..." Rustling sounded on the other end of the line, and Rex cleared his throat.

"I told you that the others don't completely believe my story about being mind tricked. Well, tomorrow a gunship will be arriving from the Determination to take me back up for interrogation and observation."
"So you're thinking we, what? Hijack it? There's a very slim chance we'll be able to take out everyone before word gets back to the troopers on the Determination..."
"That's the thing, though...We won't have to fight for it, because they're going to give it to us."
"What? Why?"
"Coy, that's why. He's still MIA, and the common assumption has been that you either took him hostage or killed him. If you march into camp tomorrow with your saber at his neck, demanding the gunship for his life, well...We could take it and get the hell out of Dodge without even firing a shot."

Ahsoka considered this, a smile slowly spreading across her face.
"That's a damn good plan, Rex...It just might work."
"Well, don't sound too surprised. I did come up with it, after all."
She rolled her eyes.
"Alright. I'll brief Coy when he wakes up."
"Stay safe, Ahsoka. I'll see you soon."
A crackle of static on Rex's end, and then silence. A hand lighted down on Ahsoka's shoulder and she spun around in surprise and fright, finding only Coy, just stirring from his slumber.
"Mmph...What are you briefing me on?"
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The next morning.

The duo encountered patrols in ever-increasing numbers as they got closer to the camp, and when they could they chose to attack and leave themselves with fewer adversaries to deal with later. Without too much difficulty they reached the encampment's outskirts, having traversed the terrain much faster than they had the previous night, and Ahsoka unclipped one of her lightsabers from her belt.
"You ready?"
Coy nodded, and the young Jedi thumbed the ignition, the brilliant green shaft of the blade shooting out of the device's open end. Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her arm around the trooper's midsection and raised her weapon to his neck with her free hand, attempting to look as fierce as possible as they approached a pair of guards stationed at the camp's entrance.

"Back!" she shouted, brandishing her lightsaber. "Back, or I open his throat!"
Startled, the soldiers hesitantly stepped to the side and allowed her through, but trailed behind her at a slight distance once she had made her way deeper into the camp. There were a fair number of clones milling about in different spots along the route she followed, and this exchange was repeated several times with (more or less) the same results, and by the time Ahsoka reached the gunship a crowd of a few dozen troopers were following along just behind her. On the opposite end of the gunship's open side doors was Captain Rex sans helmet, in handcuffs and surrounded by a ten-man escort, and their eyes met briefly before Ahsoka turned back to the assembled crowd, speaking loudly for the soldiers to hear.

"If you want him to live, toss your weapons and lie flat on the ground! Count to five hundred!"
The clones gradually began to comply, and she slowly lowered her blade from Coy's neck, but still the thought that there was some unseen danger lurking nagged at the back of her mind. Then she heard Rex call out.
"Ahsoka!"
Ahsoka whipped around just in time to see one of the troopers in Rex's detail raise his blaster and take aim at her with deadly purpose. She was standing just far enough out of the cover of the gunship's side-she wouldn't be able to get her lightsaber up in time to deflect it, nor would she be able to dodge it. The clone squeezed the trigger, and Ahsoka closed her eyes, bracing herself for the blunt impact and shocking pain...Which never came. When she opened them again, she found herself utterly unharmed, but in front of her Coy lay crumpled on the ground, a smoking hole in his visor from where the laser bolt had bored through his helmet and into his forehead.
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The shot had drawn the attention of the troopers on Ahsoka's side of the gunship, and as she fell to her knees with a cry of furious grief Rex knew he didn't have long if the plan were still to work.

"Hey, what are you..."
The guard never got to finish his sentence as Rex whipped a blaster pistol out of a holster on another escort's belt and jammed the barrel under his chin, firing two shots up through his head. The other troopers shouted in surprise and lifted their weapons, but Rex was much faster, gunning them all down before they could get off even a single shot. Ahsoka lifted her gaze from Coy's lifeless form, pulled back into the moment by the flurry of motion, and in the split second before the assembled clones opened fire he leapt into the empty interior of the gunship's holding area and yanked her to safety.

"Ahsoka, the pilots! Get the pilots!"
Sporting blaster pistols, a pair of clones emerged from the cockpit and were easily dispatched by Ahsoka, who found herself having to shout over the roar of blaster fire.
"Rex, what do we do?!"
"We can't sit here trading potshots!" he yelled back, waiting for a lull in the volley to shoot back. "We're outnumbered, and if we do that we'll be the pots getting shot!"
"Then what's the gameplan? You know how to fly this thing?"
Rex shook his head. "How about you?"
Ahsoka craned her neck to peek inside the cockpit, examining the controls. "I can probably figure things out...But there's no way we can take off while we're under such heavy fire!"
"Then let's give them something else to shoot at." he growled, and too late she realized his intentions.
"Rex...No, Rex, wait!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Rex retrieved a heavy six-barreled blaster cannon, a hefty plasma launcher, and a belt of thermal detonators from the arms locker, sliding the heavy side door shut behind him and taking up a position behind a large rock. Firing two shots with the launcher over the top of his cover, Rex sat listening to the sounds of dying and wounded clones and tossed the weapon aside, popping up and unleashing a hail of fire with the cannon. Over his comlink, Rex heard Ahsoka's panicked voice.
"Dammit, Rex, what are you doing?"
"Exactly what I need to do to ensure that you can get out of here safely."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Yes, you are." A lone trooper charged Rex from the side, and he scooped up a fallen blaster pistol and fired a shot through the man's chest. "This is what I was born to do...Fight and die. I'm proud to do it for someone I can genuinely say I love."
"Rex..."

A shot tore through Rex's shoulder, and instantly he was pulled back into the moment, realizing all at once that the cannon had overheated and that the troopers' shots were now slamming unimpeded into the gunship's hull.
"Now go! Get out of here!" The words echoed in his head as he realized these were the same words he'd used yesterday at the camp, convincing her to flee with Coy. "I'll find you! I promise!"
From his belt of detonators he plucked three lone charges, then activated the others and tossed them into the swarm of clones quickly advancing on his position. Behind him a faint humming signaled the starting of the gunship's engine, and a massive explosion showered a number of body parts and chunks of gore over the immediate area, as well as several whole corpses that hit the ground with either dull thumps and sickening cracks. The humming had picked up in both speed and volume, and the vehicle's thrusters fired several times, though no forward or upward motion was produced. Ahsoka still hasn't gotten the hang of the controls, Rex thought, and activated one of the detonators he had saved, but as he jumped up ready to throw a stray laser bolt struck his wrist, reflexively loosening his fingers and allowing the charge to go flying and plop down just inches from the gunship.

Time slowed to a crawl as Rex scrambled towards the ship with speed he'd never known himself to have, every step seeming to cover miles and miles of ground but the charge still apparently an eternity away. A step and a half away from the explosive, the gunship began to ascend, but he knew she'd never make it unless he reached the detonator first. Diving headlong towards the ground to cover the final bit of distance, he noticed out of the corner of his eye Ahsoka staring at him through the cockpit's side window, eyes wide with horror and disbelief. For what he imagined would be the last time, he flashed her his reassuring smile, and a split second later the breath was knocked from his lungs as he landed on the hard, round metal detonator.

The explosion was, in reality, much louder and more powerful than it seemed to Rex, and with great force the blast eviscerated his midsection, propelling him a short distance into the air before he crashed back down, hard, with a long and slow sigh. Ahsoka didn't witness the explosion, but rather heard it as the gunship gained altitude, and as it climbed higher and higher into the atmosphere she wept, mourning the loss of her lover and closest friend.
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3 years later.
Dantooine.

The years since the incident on Mimban hadn't been kind to Rex-already aging at twice the rate of an ordinary human, jumping on top of a live grenade hadn't exactly helped his situation-but his appearance had remained more or less the same (or so he thought, at least), and he had even kept his close-cut military style haircut in hopes that she would recognize him more easily when they were finally reunited. And now it's finally happening, he thought, and with a small, pleasant smile set off across an expanse of open, grassy field towards a small wooden home sitting against the horizon.

"One second!"
Sitting alone at the kitchen table, Ahsoka was halfway through a late breakfast when there was a knock at the door, and rose swiftly to answer it. When she finally reached the door, she nearly fainted upon examining the face of her visitor, Rex propping her up in his arms just before her knees buckled.
"Hey there, beautiful."
For several long moments Ahsoka stood in stunned silence, dumbfounded by the fact that he was alive and, more importantly, standing in front of her, when the tears finally came and she sobbed openly into Rex's shoulder, clutching his body tightly to her own. After a minute or two, she wiped her eyes and smiled.
"You're the luckiest scruffy-lookin' nerf herder I've ever met, you know that?"
He chuckled. "I guess luck had something to do with it...Because if not for that and some 'creative testimonies' on the parts of some fellas I got to look the other way, I'd probably be getting court-martialled or dead right now."
Sheltered under the branches of a tall tree in the front yard, he noticed a small shrine.
"Is that for..."
"Coy, yeah. He died saving my life...He's a hero."
"He saved both of our lives."
Ahsoka nodded in agreement, still numb from the disbelief.
"How the heck did you find me?"
Rex smiled, wrapping one arm around her waist and gently touching her cheek with the thumb of his free hand.
"I promised you I would."

They shared a slow, sweet kiss, the world and all of its sights and sounds vanishing from around them as they did so, and walked hand-in-hand back inside together.

The End