Rila: I blame feels from the TCW movie, and rayn44's "Reason to cry" on dA. And again with the music...I can't help it — music is definitely one of the reasons I write. It helps me envision a particular scene or get behind the emotion — it might not make sense, but it does to me. :) The lines are from are to Flowers for a Ghost by Thriving Ivory.

Disclaimer: Angst likes to creep up on my brain and nom it to death. :/

Word Count: 645

You disappear with all your good intentions...

Gone.

It was not, were he honest with himself, a word that he ever thought he'd associate with her. Not because she was invincible — but because it had never crossed his mind that he would end up saying goodbye so soon.

He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to her — he hadn't known that she had left until General Skywalker came back, the absence of a certain Padawan with bright blue eyes and sunset orange skin prompting him to ask.

"She's gone." The word itself was bitter, made even more so by the look on the General's face. It was a mixture of sorrow and understanding; a bittersweet expression that told Rex that it was not some sort of joke.

"Gone, sir?" Perhaps it was out of disbelief that he repeated General Skywalker's words, and General Skywalker lifted his head, watching him with dispassionate blue eyes. "I thought she was cleared of the charges."

"She was." General Skywalker's mouth quirked, a bitter smile to match the emotion in his eyes. "She chose to leave, Rex." He shifted, lifting his hand and uncurling his fingers.

In his palm was Ahsoka's Padawan braid.

She took a plane to somewhere out in space. To start a life and maybe change the world.

Rex wasn't sure why General Skywalker had given him Ahsoka's Padawan braid. The blue-eyed man had not given a reason, simply pressing it into his hand and walking off. Now, sitting alone on the edge of his bed, Rex could only stare at it, turning it over gently.

Made of silka beads, without its owner it didn't seem like much. Without the fiesty Togruta girl that had worn it for so long, it was just a trinket, a painful momento to what had once been and never would be again.

"The name's Ahsoka. I'm Master Skywalker's new Padawan."

His fingers closed around the braid, and he closed his eyes. "Couldn't be bothered to say goodbye, could you kid."

And perhaps it was better that she hadn't. A goodbye from her would have been painful, if only for the fact that he would have had to watch the girl who had become so much more than a Commander leave behind everything she had stood for. Comrade, confidant — his best friend. And even though he understood why she had done it, it didn't make it hurt any less. His comlink chirped, tearing him away from his thoughts as he keyed it. "Captain Rex here."

"Rex," General Skywalker began, "meet me in the briefing room."

Rex stood. "On my way, sir." Helmet tucked under his arm, Rex glanced at the braid in his hand before tucking it into one of the pouches on his belt. Perhaps not the wisest place to put it, but he found that he couldn't let go of it just yet. And in the off chance that Ahsoka were to return, surely she would want it back. Striding towards the door and moving to put his helmet on, Rex paused and glanced back. Maybe it was stupid — it wasn't like she would hear him — but he said it anyway. "Good luck, Ahsoka."

I never meant to let you go at all...