#cindaku

since my au is a modern with magic kinda thing the way I incorporate the war will be vague and convoluted. First of all it comes when Ahsoka turns 18 because we don't support child soldiers and stuff. for all intents and purposes, Rex is like 20 at that point. the politics behind it and whatever palps does isn't super important and frankly I don't feel like thinking about that bc it's too complicated and I only have so many braincells. what's important is that Anakin becomes a general (somehow. again, not concerned with the technicalities---though we are concerned about the mental stability of whoever decided that would be a good idea). Rex and the 501st consist of volunteers who are assigned under Anakin's command. Many of them are part of Rex's family somehow haha. he has a huge family.

anyway a few months into the war a lot of them are kidnapped and made into cindaku like I described in this post since palps is a warlock as we recall and wanted to play around with that weird dark magic and kriff. Rex and many of the boys return to the 501st after this horrifying episode, despite the option to be discharged. they are infuriated and even more inspired to continue fighting (having assumed that the perpetrator was working for the separatists). of course, the body horror n all that kinda freaks them out. they don't tell anyone what happened when they were POWs because a) it shouldn't be possible and b) they don't know who to trust. obviously they trust anakin but not to handle the situation gracefully and like fair. so they're trying to figure out how to control their supernatural sides (while palps is also trying to figure out how to control their supernatural sides) and at the same time they have a war to fight so it's pretty standard chaos.

then ahsoka enters the scene. She's 19 when she joins up because she went to an academy that guaranteed her a position as an officer instead of enlisting as soon as the war started so she's appointed as Anakin's commander. He has mixed feelings about it because that's his little sister and he's seen how brutal this war is and doesn't want it to hurt her at all but at the same time he knows she'll be great and he can't wait to see her in action and brag about what a cool person she is. He proudly introduces her to Rex and that's where the fun begins.

As soon as they step into the same room, the air tastes like ozone. their eyes lock, their hackles raise, and every nerve in their bodies screams danger enemy danger so they're totally on edge right off the bat and Anakin is just standing there with his hands on his hips glancing back and forth between them like is this sexual tension or?

it's not sexual tension. although they both have the subtle thought of oh no she's/he's hot floating in the back of their minds. It's just some classic dog/cat stand off that neither of them can place. and it's doubly disorienting because like rex is a golden retriever and Ahsoka is peak cat behavior. the reason Rex and the rest of the men didn't have this reaction to Anakin when they were rescued is because they already had a developed relationship with him before they were turned into shapeshifters and they had a pretty deep bond. plus also he was definitely the one to find and free them (with some help from obi-wan and friends because cody was also kidnapped) so their experiences override the innate instinct to view him as a hostile. They don't have this benefit when it comes to Ahsoka and I think that's hilarious.

instinctively they want to hate her so much. being in the same room as her is enough to set everyone on edge and make them super uncomfortable, which is really inconvenient because she has to give them orders and stuff. but they all come around quickly. they see that she genuinely cares for them, that she supports them whenever they need it, that she's willing to protect them with her life. They eventually overcome the persistent impression of something being not quite normal about her and learn to trust her the way they trust Anakin.

at the same time, they're assimilating each other into their found families, as they do. Domino twins have adopted her. there's no going back. Rex meanwhile rapidly starts to think of Ahsoka as his best friend. they have little in common---he's strict and professional while she's borderline feral and weirdly mystic---but the way they work is so seamless. she's so warm and caring, she's brave and confident, and always willing to listen, and a few times Rex thinks it might be okay to tell her what he really is. but there's a war going on; there's no time for that sort of drama. besides, it's not just his secret to share. it involves all his vode too, and he shouldn't make that call for everyone. but a guy can fantasize a little bit. not that he would. he's too focused and selfless for that 💀

lol this goes both ways tho. ahsoka says this is my bestie rex and introduces him to everyone like that. sorry barris. (barris understands. she has a bird's eye view and all the wherewithal to ship them to the nth degree). Ahsoka likes that rex is so firm and unflinching. he's super cool and kickbutt. he's also crazy smart, a mad strategist, and he's always commanding and collective which is way more than she can say for other guys her age, kriff. also he's hot. like that's definitely something to consider. she's contemplated biting him many times, or at least telling him that she's a wolf blood, but there's a war going on and she wouldn't put that on him when they have more important things to keep track of. she would never bite him without first explaining everything in detail because Anakin told her what happened when half the battalion was captured and Ahsoka could never bring herself to deprive Rex of his freedom in that way.

Ahsoka likes to compliment Rex on his incredible reflexes. whenever she does it around the rest of the men they all kind of just laugh nervously and give each other weird looks LOL 😭 one time Tup said Ahsoka smelled like wet dog because she walked into the tent and it was raining outside and Rex almost SKINNED that poor kitty even though she did omg I'm so funny what else? hmmm, Ahsoka found a jar of pickles in a town they passed through and was eating them as a snack and everyone got spooked by them before realizing they were pickles. She pulls one out of the jar in front of Rex and he jumps on top of the fridge. they stare at each other in disbelief for a solid few minutes. one time Rex got hit in the head with a stick that fell off a tree or something and in a fit of unchecked rage he yeeted it as hard as he could. Having just arrived on scene and clueless to the context, Ahsoka impulsively runs it down and brings it back. she grins and tells him that was fun. Rex's brain short circuits. Fives loans him a braincell. he throws the stick again. She brings it back again.

I think the reveal should happen in the middle of a battle because let's face it that's how they roll haha. the image in my mind right now is the classic Anakin and Ahsoka throwing Rex off the wall while it's exploding except he lands on his feet because he's a cat meanwhile anakin breaks his arm and dislocates both shoulders and Ahsoka is put into a coma. Up until that point Anakin and Ahsoka haven't been so badly injured that they couldn't heal within a day or two and easily hide from Kix and Coric or at least take care of each other, but now they're forced to see the medic for once and Kix doesn't know what to do with their weird biology he's just crying holding the test results like bro are you even human meanwhile Anakin is momentarily high on all the meds kix gave him and he's just babbling like "rex landed on his feet. he landed on his feet and didn't get hurt. rex landed. on his feet. on his feet oh force. we were thirty meters from the ground and there were explosions and he landed like a kriffing ballerina." and rex is just sitting outside sweating buckets like kriff kriff kriff i'm dead we're all dead because what he did shouldn't have been possible and he's just praying to the force that anakin and ahsoka won't remember. they do.

Ahsoka wakes up in a few hours which gives kix a flipping heart attack because she'd sustained a traumatic brain bleed then healed almost completely in less than a day and got up her same chipper self and turns to anakin who's chilling in the next cot over no longer high with both arms in slings looking very stupid (she takes the obligatory time to make fun of him for this) then just kinda raises her eyebrows like "so rex huh" he landed before they did so they had like two seconds to see him stick it before making contact.

They corner him after sneaking out of the medbay. Ahsoka apprehends him because Anakin still has those slings and can't really move 💀 then they both grill him about his impossible landing which may or may not have involved some sparkles (it was hard to tell with all the dust). they bring up every other instance where he performed just beyond the bounds of human capability, citing also his unusual bend towards catlike reactions and demand an explanation. he resists them for a surprisingly long time, still believing it's not his place to tell them, but eventually he breaks and spills everything. he's just so tired of keeping it secret, and they convince him that they'll keep it between themselves. He's somewhat ashamed that he caved and told them, feeling like he betrayed his brothers, but those feelings are pushed to the back of his mind when Ahsoka finally stops gaping at him and laughs out loud. "Well, I'm glad I didn't bite you." She snorts.

His brain is so fried this poor man. Anakin says they're werewolves. it makes too much sense for Rex to even ask for proof.