Hi! Can I ask for Rex + 23 (whelve)?
23. whelve - to bury something deep, to hide
Rex has layers of things he’s hidden from himself.
At the top, he hides his feelings about General Skywalker.
Then, the guilt of the aftermath of Order Sixty-Six, of the brothers that are dead.
Below even that, he hides the guilt over Echo. Over Fives. Over Tup. More guilt over Echo. Other brothers dead from battle after useless battle. Keeping General Skywalker’s secrets. Keeping Cut’s secret.
Then, deep, deep, deep there are the memories that he doesn’t remember. He’s not supposed to remember those, he knows, to the point that it doesn’t even feel like his own memories. That’s someone else, that’s someone that other people knew and either don’t know Rex was that person too or they pretend they don’t remember.
Sometimes, Cody or the other commanders would trip up. Rex would always give them a bland, blank smile.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have as many issues with his own number. 7567. 7567. 7567.
Not Seventeen. Never Seventeen.
Even below the things labelled “Seventeen”, he’s buried his curiosity. To look into the Alpha class, to look into the people Seventeen lost, the people who really lost Seventeen and never got Rex.
He can’t. Not then, not now.
So he keeps it buried.
