Terracotta soldier AU from Rex's pov
Rex has never made his mind up on any idea of faith. Not the kind in a higher power at least. He'd had faith in his brothers. That's why he carried on their traditions. Long after most of them had gone when so many names had been lost to a relatively short period of time. He recites all that he can remember.
He speaks the name of each brother into the cold night air and promises that he will see them at the end of the long march.
It might not be a proper religion. But its all he has left.
And Rex is a man of his word. When he exhales his last lonely breath into the darkness his eyes going blind and his chest still, his legs are the first things he's aware of. The familiar pump of muscles.
One foot in front of the other. Like learning to walk all over again. There's a sea of white as far as the eye can see. A great blinding glare that moves all around him. But slowly it solidifies. The shape of helmets crawling over each other until they start to look like men, One in front of another. Stretching in every direction. Forever.
There isn't enough of him here to really be conscious. There aren't really thoughts in his mind. Just echoes of instincts. Like the instinct to put on foot in front of the other. The instinct to blink until his sight adjusts to the view.
It's the colors slowly emerging that draw his attention. It bleeds through the light one spot at a time. Slowly markings appear on the armor of the men around him. Blue and red and green and gold. One after another. A red circle on the pauldron beside him, a blue line up another arm.
It tickles something within him. Blue. He was blue too right? Once.
He wants to follow the blue. That's where he belongs. The mass of troops shudder once to the side, every line of men staggering one to the right another to the left. Reshuffling themselves like cards. Slipping between each other in interlocking lines. Moving forward. Always forward with ever unified foot fall. But shifting too. reaching out toward each other.
He shifts to the right toward the blue stripe who shifts as well in the same direction, farther ahead now. But there is more blue around both of them. Lines spreading around him like on interconnected web. countless troopers stacked on each other like the solders on playing cards. Shuffling around each other all looking for their own suit.
Always moving forward always together.
The blue solidifies as they shuffle around each other. Filling in the gaps until there's as much of it as there is white. He is blue. He is the blue. They are the blue. All existing here in this place together. Every piece in place.
It felt right. This is where he was always supposed to be. just one among the blue.
They march on forever. Everywhere. Far far away. Everywhere at once. Him among the blue. The blue among the white. Don't all colors come together to make white? Or is that only inside the light?
He marches. One foot in front of forever; one foot behind always.
Moving so much in sync it's like they aren't moving at all.
If everything is moving in the same direction at the same speed then is any of it really moving. What is still if nothing is?
Except....except something is. He sees it because it's blue, he thinks. He is blue and they are all blue. So of course he sees the blue.
It's not moving. It's not with them. That's wrong. They are all blue together.
His feet shuffle him again. Cards in the hands of the collective folding into themselves. There is no edge of everything. Everything is everything. it goes on forever. There is no end. But if there was, that's where he finds the blue.
She stands still. The only thing in everything that isn't moving. She needs to move. With them. He takes another unified step foreword and he is past her now. Marching away.
No. That's not right. He tries to shuffle again but there is no behind. The march is forward. All moving forward with every step. Always one foot in front of the other. He tries to look back but there is no back.
But there is. He can feel it. He can feel her a single steadiness in the flow. Parting the blue. Being among but not part of.
That's not right. He should tell her. Maybe she doesn't remember how. Maybe she doesn't have the word for foot like he didn't have the word blue until he saw it again.
But he can't tell her if she's still back there. He has to get to her. Every step takes him farther away but he knows that isn't right either. He needs to stop.
As soon as he thinks it he does. His feet stuck between always and forever. The cards shuffle around him. Moving on and leaving him behind. He...he is sad about that.
But it's okay. If Everything is always then back is always too. He turns back seeing the faces moving towards him for the first time in forever. He knows them. The faces.
They see him. See his face for the first time in forever and they stop too. Their feet stalling in time. Behind all of them, way back, he sees her. She's still there. Standing. Waiting patiently.
He remembers how to do this. It's the only thing he remembered before he saw anything here. Marching is easy. One foot....He doesn't know where forever or always are. One foot goes....Infront.
He takes a step and feels like he's learning it all over again. He forgets what the next step is. One foot in front is all his mind conjures. So he tries again. One at a time. One step, two, three.
He walks past the face. the ones moving and those standing still. She's waiting for him. He has to get back to her. He marches towards her....Ahsoka. And it isn't easy like it was before. It isn't everything always. But it is him. It is Rex. He'd forgotten that.
He is Rex. Rex follows Ahsoka.
He will walk back through forever to get to her.
One foot behind forever one foot in front of always. The wrong way. His way. Backwards.
There's another one following him. Another foot falling backwards. He can feel it disrupting the flow with him. One foot after another. One man after another. The blue warps and bends against it's self. Fracturing into a thousand pieces. Breaking away from everything. Becoming singular.
Rex marches back to Ahsoka and Fives follows. They all follow one by one. They are the blue. The 501st. Torrent company. Medics and pilots and snipers. Heavy gunner and scouts. They are men. Soliders. They are singular in the constant flow of everything all the time.
And Ahsoka waits patiently for them to remember.
To remember their names. Each others names. Her name.
Rex forgot he could speak. He forgot he could say names.
She says them one by one. "...Oppo, slate, cadaver, coric..."
Rex says them too just to hear them. "Dogma, Hawk, Limp, Chatter..."
Maybe that's how he saw her in the first place. Past all of the blue. Because she said his name. Remembered it for him.
Fives speaks, discovering his voice too. Then Jesse.
Most of the blue stops. Every one Ahsoka remembered then every one each of them remembered until the blue had bled out of the white. Outside of Everything and forever.
"You've all served your time. Served it long and well." She says when there are no more names, "You have earned your rest. But I have a mission. And I am asking for your help. I'm asking you to come back with me."
He remembers reciting her name. When he thought she was dead. Hoping if there was something after, then he could at least see her one last time.
Fives says it too. Then Jesse. All the way down the line they say her name. "Ahsoka"
Rex reaches a hand out to her and almost glows when it touches her shoulder. She is solid. Not made of light. Made of something more solid.
He's...he's solid too right? He thinks they were all solid together once. He knocks his vambrace against his chest plate to check and is pleased when it rattles. He hits it again just to hear the noise.
And it grows. One at a time. It rattle far too solid to exist within forever. It is fleeting as temporary as the collision that causes it. It only exists so long as they create it.
He remembers another word. One that isn't a name.
"Oya" he shouts just to hear it.
Because He is Rex and Rex follows Ahsoka.
