Of course Fives’ body was sent to analysis in the Coruscant labs. Rex made sure that Kix would be assisting the autopsy so that he could keep an eye on whatever the Kaminoan doctor would do to him. After what happened, he couldn’t trust them anymore. He was still trying to understand where he could actually place his trust.
A message came from Kix, saying that the Kaminoan was done with his analysis, and that he would send Fives’ body to be destroyed; dissolved in acid, along with every scalpel and needle that had touched him, like he was contagious hospital waste. Rex wasn’t gonna have it. Maybe he wasn’t over his grieving yet. Maybe Fives’ words had gotten to him. All that mattered was that he was standing behind General Skywalker now, clearing his throat loudly.
“Sir.”
Skywalker turned to him, his voice a tad softer than usual; at least he seemed sympathetic to Rex’s loss.
“Hey Rex. Need anything?”
Rex stood with his squared shoulders, hands behind his back.
“As a matter of fact I do, sir. The kaminoan doctor told us he intends on destroying Fives’ body. I request his body to be handed to us so that we can give him the proper funeral rites.”
Skywalker frowned curiously.
“Funeral rites?”
“Yessir. Us clones… we follow the mandalorian traditions, as did the original. Such traditions say that a fallen brother’s body is to be burned in a pyre. We can’t do this often, as you can imagine; we often need to flee and leave their corpses behind. But Fives’ body is here in Coruscant. We have no assignments scheduled for now. I see no reason to deny the 501st to give Fives his honors.”
Skywalker seemed to be taken aback by Rex’s request. He scratched the back of his head, averting his eyes.
“I don’t know, Rex… if it was the Kaminoans’ order, perhaps whatever Fives had is still contagious, even if he’s…”
“Dead.” Rex completed sharply; it was a weird thing, how only now he could notice how uncomfortable Skywalker would get talking of a dead clone, and it wasn’t the first time. It never looked like sadness, though; it often seemed like… annoyance “I believe you’ll understand when I say that I am willing to take the risk. I can be the one to light his pyre, in a secluded room if you must. I’ll take three chemical baths afterwards. Whatever you need. But I want to honor my brother.”
He hadn’t noticed how his words would come out almost clipped in his tension until the last word. He looked at Skywalker, waiting for an answer. Skywalker looked back at him, crossing his arms.
“You of all people is the one I cannot afford to have contaminated, Rex.”
Rex tried as best as he could to see the sentiment as concern, but all he could see was selfishness. If Rex were to be sick and terminated, it would take long to train a new captain. It would destabilize the battalion. It would be troublesome for Skywalker to get used to the new situation. Like when they upgraded blasters and took a while to learn how to use their aims. He was Skywalker favorite weapon, and he wasn’t sure if he was anything besides that to the Jedi general.
“I understand that I am a valuable asset to your cause, sir” and when the word ‘slave’ echoed in the back of his head he silenced it “but I was there when he died. I had him in my arms. If I were to be sick, I would be doomed by then.”
Skywalker seemed to be growing impatient by now.
“Rex, I understand your grieving, but we have our duties to attend to. We both have to fill reports, make a selection for a ARC replacement, send the chosen trooper to kamino for his training, we can’t afford to wast time on this.”
He had heard it many times before, but the word replacement had never offended Rex so deeply. Like Fives was just a number as he always hated to be regarded. A broken cog in the machine, in need of being substituted. Rex clenched his fists behind his back but drew in a deep breath. He had to maintain protocol.
“Sir… allow me to worry about Fives’ replacement. All I want is to…”
“What’s the difference between the kaminoan’s decision and yours, anyway?” Skywalker cut him off abruptly, and his tone quickly changed for a kind one “either way, he’s gone, Rex. You need to move on.”
“What’s the difference?…” Rex had snarled before he could stop himself, and he clenched his jaw “Sir, that man fought by my side for years, he was vital to the battle of kamino, he saved my life more times than I could count, he saved us from certain death in umbara, he…”
Rex’s tone was growing louder at each word, and only his deepest sense of self-control was holding him back from actually screaming in Skywalker’s face:
“He’s saved your life quite a handful of times as well and all I’m asking is to give him proper honors…”
Rather than remaining calm, Skywalker seemed to be spurred by Rex’s distress, pointing a finger at Rex:
“I’m not saying he wasn’t a good man, Rex. I’m saying we can’t afford to give a funeral to every dead trooper. This is war. We’ll have time for grieving when it’s over.”
The worst of it all was that, in a way, Rex knew that skywalker was right. But this felt wrong, the whole deal left a bad taste in his mouth, like Rex had failed to save Fives when he was alive and was failing again even now that he was dead. Rex’s voice dropped, cold and sharp.
“You say we have no time for funerals, sir. But I remember when the Jedi went under heavy gunfire to retrieve General Di’s body in Ryloth.” Rex took a single step closer to Skywalker, and even though he was shorter than him, not force-sensitive and nothing but a clone, the fire in his eyes made the General place a foot back “I remember the Jedi bringing his body back to the temple so that he could have a proper funeral. And do you know what else I remember?”
Rex’s voice was barely above a whisper now, his brown eyes trained on Skywalker’s face.
“I remember commander Keeli’s body being left to rot in that ravine, despite being right next to the Jedi general he had defended to his last breath under overwhelming enemy fire. I remember that his armor was blackened by explosions and there was a number of blaster burns on his chest.” he scowled, knowing fully well that he was far too gone past the line of insubordination to go back “if Keeli had been one to carry lightsabers rather than blasters, he’d be in that ship too. You asked me before so now I’ll ask you back, sir: what is the difference?”
Skywalker stared at Rex for a long time, studying him. Rex did not step back or blink, scowl still twisting his features. The Jedi looked away from Rex, frowning to then nod.
“Tell the Kaminoan you have my authorization to retrieve Fives’ body.”
Rex’s shoulders dropped,sharp breath out of him as his eyes went wide.
“Thank you, sir.” he paused, trying not to think that he didn’t owe the jedi any thanks. Quite the opposite; Skywalker owed him profuse apologies “I apologize if I were insubordinate, sir. Still in shock, I believe. Won’t happen again.”
Skywalker didn’t say a word, turning his back on Rex and walking away. Rex sent Kix his message, and he rubbed his eyes tiredly in the empty meeting room.
“I did it, vod.” he muttered quietly “You can march away now.”
Yesterday I talked about Rex’s men lost faith in him especially during and after Umbara. In addition they saw Fives as a leader. But the
truth is, I don’t think Fives ever lost faith in Rex. In fact, I think Fives
felt bad for Rex during Umbara—that’s why he took a stand. He knew that Rex
wouldn’t be able to. He knew that Rex was having a mental battle every second on
Umbara. So he wasn’t angry at him, and never held Rex’s actions (or lack of)
against him. I also believe that, Rex was also relieved that Fives took a stand
on Umbara. Of course he didn’t show it nor did he let anyone know but, Fives
gave him strength. Fives was strong where Rex wasn’t and for that, Rex was
grateful. And unbeknownst to Fives, Rex looked up to him and even depended on his
command. Rex saw Fives as a leader. He knew on Umbara everything would fall
apart if it weren’t for Fives, and that mentality carried long after they’d
left the planet.
So Rex telling Fives “don’t go”, when he’s about to die is even
more painful. Because Rex needs Fives. Since Umbara, Fives has been his
strength, he’s turned to Fives for encouragement even if Fives wasn’t aware.
Fives presence, and the fact that Fives held nothing against Rex and still
looked up to him as a leader, was extremely important to Rex. Fives was the one
thing Rex held on to, the one thing that gave him some hope that he was a good leader. After Fives died, so did the little self confidence Rex had left.
You know, I wonder how long it took for Rex’s men to trust
him after Umbara or if they ever did? Fives was basically the commander on
Umbara—let’s be honest. A lot of the men looked toward Fives during and after Umbara
and I can imagine they had certain thoughts about Rex (especially given rex didn’t
stand up to Krell esp when jesse and
fives were gonna be executed.)
Like so his relationship between he and his men had to
dwindle. And after Fives died…I think it completely dissipated? Because the men
already lost so much trust in Rex when he wouldn’t stand up to another Jedi for
Fives. From their perspective, I feel they blamed the Jedi (especially Anakin)
for Fives’ death, and for not helping him. And again, Rex was there and he didn’t
stand up for him. And this time Fives died.
So no, I can’t see his men ever fully trusting him again. In my AUs
where he deserts, that makes things easier for him. He feels like his men won’t
miss him when he’s gone; he feels like a failure. But in canon, it’s painful. And
what’s even more painful is during Order 66, he may have to kill some of his men to save Ahsoka and
damn…that’s gonna be tough for him. I can’t imagine how he’d feel after that.
Ok but like. Fives straight up ignoring Krell’s orders and when questioned about it, he just answers him with a ton of long sentences justifying his actions… in mando’a. Krell doesn’t speak a single word of mando’a. He turns to Kix for help and Kix just shrugs and dumps another truckload of mando words, most of them similar do “shebs”, “di’kut” and so on.
Dumbfounded as the clones just do their stuff, meaning carry on the assault with perfection and ruining his plans of messing with the invasion, Krell turns to Rex as a last resource; after all, Rex did speak to him when he first arrived in the dark planet.
“Clone. What is going on? Your men will not communicate with me.”
“That’s not true” Hardcase says in mando’a as he walks past them carrying a bunch of thermal detonators “we are talking to him alright, not our fault if he’s too dumb to understand it.”
The clones nearby are cackling, and Appo has to sit down he’s laughing so hard. Rex has a wide smile under his helmet.
“Oh, sir, you are new. See, most of these men are shinies pulled from kamino before finishing their lessons in Basic. They can only speak in Mando’a. General Skywalker is perfectly fluent in it, so it’s never been a problem. I guess you’ll have to pass your orders to me, and I’ll pass them on. Hopefully we won’t have any translation issues.”
Krell is beyond pissed now, and he pokes a finger on Rex’s chest plate:
“This is outrageous, captain! Not only your so called shinies are speaking in this savage dialect of yours, but so are sergeant Appo and ARC trooper fifty-five fifty-five! How do you justify this?!”
Rex looks at Appo, who’s being helped back up by Jesse, who is also laughing.
“Appo is…uh… with a sore throat, sir. Can’t speak.”
Krell is puffing up like a an angry toad.
“What about ARC trooper fifty-five fifty-five?!”
Rex looks ahead and Fives is just lifting his kama and twerking behind Krell’s back. Tup dropping down to his knees, laughing so hard he gets a cough fit.
“He’s…. uh. Had a concussion. I’m shocked he’s even able to walk, sir. Are we done here?”
Krell facepalms tiredly.
“Yes. Tell them to sit down and wait for new orders.”
“Copy that, sir.”
While Krell is walking up to his office, Rex turns to his men, speaking in mando’a:
“I need a squad sitting up here to distract the frog-face. Everyone else, move out. Hardcase, give them hell with that z-6. Fives, stop dancing and lead the men. I’ll catch up soon.”
Long after the men are moved out, Krell shows up livid.
“And just where are those men going?!”
Rex scratches his head, clicking his tongue.
“No idea, sir.”
“Did you tell them to wait for my orders?!”
“Oh, I did! Something must’ve… gotten lost in translation. I’ll catch up with them, tell them to come back.”
Krell huffs angrily.
“You do that. And tell those men they’re absolutely forbidden from trying to take the capital!”
“Absolutely forbidden. That would be… Nastaar. Got it. I’ll be back soon, sir.”
Rex puts on his jaig eyed helmet and starts marching ahead. Krell’s voice stops him:
“Before you leave, captain… your men seem to repeat a word quite often at me. Osi’yaim. What does it mean?”
Rex disguises his snort, pretending to be clearing his throat.
“Oh, it means, ‘brave leader’. I’ll be back soon, sir.”
Raf's rants 