Chapter Text
Commander Cody is trying hard not to get his hopes up, but something seems to be shifting in the tide of the war. It starts with the abduction of the Chancellor, which ends with Count Dooku's defeat and a more decisive victory for the Republic than they've had in ages. General Grievous' flagship, Invisible Hand, is wrecked on the surface of Coruscant, and even though the cyborg general escapes, morale is high as the GAR slowly but surely begins to gain ground. For the first time, Cody sees that this war could, perhaps, end at some point.
But something isn't right. There are shadows, just barely outside his awareness. He and Obi-Wan both feel it, though they're unable to pinpoint the source of their unease. Even as progress is made, Cody watches his general, his lover, become more tense with every passing day. He knows Obi-Wan is worried for his former Padawan, whose growing mistrust in the Jedi Council is making him recalcitrant and unpredictable, more so than usual. All Cody can do is be there for him, hold him when their schedules permit, and hope that they're all just on edge from three years of constant, bloody warfare. Cody is grateful for the kisses they sneak in supply closets, their hushed exchanges and furtive looks, reminding him that no matter what happens, they have each other, and Cody isn't going to let anything change that.
At long last, Obi-Wan leaves a High Council meeting with news that General Grevious has been located on Utapau, and that he has been ordered to track him down. As they talk through the plan on the bridge of the star destroyer, Cody stands close enough to allow their hands to touch periodically under the guise of examining a projection of Grevious' location. It's a dangerous confrontation, and they won't have much support. When they drop out of hyperspace, Cody uses the Force to transmit a little of what he feels about this mission to Obi-Wan, who looks at him warmly.
"I'll be alright, my dear commander. This will all be over soon." And, with no regard for the bridge full of troopers, Obi-Wan plants a little kiss near the induction filter on his helmet. Cody blushes, though he wishes Obi-Wan could have kissed his skin rather than his plastoid shell. With that, his general strides off the bridge to the hangar. He wishes he could be with Obi-Wan for the initial engagement, but their plan depends on an element of surprise—the 212th will follow their general to the surface of Utapau shortly.
-----
He is, needless to say, a little miffed when one of his vode comes to him with his general's lightsaber a few moments after General Grievous' death is confirmed, indicating that the di'kut faced down one of their most formidable adversaries without his lightsaber.
"It fell out of the sky, sir!" Oh, for kriff's sake. Cody thanks the trooper and sighs, clipping the saber next to his own. The things Cody puts up with.
Obi-Wan should be on his way to them. The battle is moving in favor of the 212th, and Cody's doing his part, blasting droids with his pistol and using the Force to push them off the threatening cliff several yards away. When Obi-Wan arrives, he's riding on a humongous shrieking green lizard.
"Cody! Contact your troops. Tell them to move to the higher levels!" Obi-Wan calls down to him, his hair artfully disheveled.
"Very good, sir," Cody replies, the honorific coming out more petulant than he meant it to. "Oh, and you might be needing this." He holds out Obi-Wan's lightsaber, and the jetii has the gall to grin cheerily at him.
"Thank you, cyare." He reaches down to take the saber from Cody. "Now, let's get a move on. We've got a battle to win here!" And he's off again, leaving Cody shaking his head. His comm beeps and he takes it out.
"Commander Cody. The time has come. Execute Order 66."
"Yes, my lord," he finds himself saying, though the words sound as though they are coming from very far away. And then the pain hits.
He's dimly aware of a trooper giving an order to fire on someone in the distance, but the only thing Cody can process is the excruciating pain in his head and the onslaught of thoughts that don't belong to him. He falls to his knees as the searing sensation peaks, and the orders push their way into his consciousness.
The Jedi are traitors to the Republic. Kill the Jedi.
But...that's not right. What was it Rex had told him, nearly in tears, that night at 79's? What had Tup had repeated deliriously, over and over, until his death?
Kill the Jedi. Good soldiers follow orders. Kill the Jedi.
How could the Jedi betray them? Cody had trusted their Jedi Generals. Even as his mind wages war on itself, he feels parts of himself slip away.
Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Kill the Jedi. The Jedi are traitors (to the Empire) to the Republic. Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers—
If the Jedi were traitors, then why did Cody have a lightsaber on his belt? Cody isn't a traitor. If the Jedi were traitors, why could he feel hundreds of cries in his head, all at once? Somewhere, far away, a child is screaming. That's not a traitor.
Fight it, Cody. A new voice joins the others. A cool, soothing voice from his dreams. Fight...he can do that. He's been trained to fight since he was made. What is he fighting?
Kill the Jedi. Kill the Jedi. Kill the—
No. I will not.
Cody blacks out, and doesn't wake up for days.
-----
Obi-Wan feels the deaths of his fellow Jedi through the Force, and he knows long before he reaches Master Yoda and Bail Organa that the Order is gone. This knowledge, however, does not make it any easier to walk through the ruined Jedi Temple with Master Yoda, with its grand halls strewn with the bodies of Knights, Padawans, and even younglings. He suppresses waves of nausea when it dawns on him who is responsible for this massacre. With the help of Bail and Master Yoda, he records a message in a warning beacon, put in place to ward off unsuspecting surviving Jedi—Obi-Wan has to hope there are more—and goes with Padmé to Mustafar to confront his former Padawan. The man he finds there is unrecognizable, he has gone so far into the dark. The only thing worse than watching Anakin fall is defeating him, and Obi-Wan is unable to watch as his closest friend, his brother, is consumed by fire.
When Padmé succumbs to her grief, Obi-Wan takes it upon himself to find places for their children, who will likely be in danger until the Republic is restored. Leia is hidden on Alderaan with Bail and Breha, and Obi-Wan takes Luke to Anakin's family on Tatooine.
It's only then, after his duties as a Jedi and as Anakin's former Master are fulfilled, that he reaches out for Cody through the Force, afraid to see what he'll find. He sits in the cockpit of his starfighter, which rests lightly on the sands of the desert planet, and reaches with his awareness, down the fledgling bond that connects their minds. He hadn't saw fit to mention the bond, which developed almost entirely on its own, to Cody, though the man was adept enough by now that he may have sensed it anyway. If Cody, like all of the other clones, has turned to the Empire, Obi-Wan will have to sever their delicate connection. The thought makes his heart clench unpleasantly.
Cody's mind is only barely present. At first, Obi-Wan thinks the distance between them is dulling his sensitivity, but then he realizes that the reason he can barely register his lover's presence in the Force is that Cody is unconscious. Not asleep, that would be much easier—but, in fact, nearly comatose. He's not far, though—a medical frigate in open space, near Christophsis. Obi-Wan can work with that.
-----
Sneaking aboard the medical frigate turns out to be the easy part, though he's exhausted from using the Force to convince people that he's not actually there by the time he finds Cody. He's alone in the ward, apart from an unsophisticated medical droid hovering around him, doing tests. Obi-Wan activates his lightsaber and holds it to the droid's neck, and puts a finger over his lips when the damn thing starts beeping in alarm.
"Shh. Or I'll run you through." Obi-Wan has no idea when anyone will come by, but he needs this droid's help or this rescue mission will be for nothing.
"Bleep booooop. Beep bop boop!"
"I know I'm not supposed to be here. Don't call anyone. You're going to do something for me."
"Beep! Boop bep?" Obi-Wan holds the blade of his lightsaber even closer as the droid moves to an emergency call button, and its spindly metal hands go up in surrender.
"That's right."
"Bloop. Beep bop."
"There's something in his head. Like a tumor. I need you to take it out." Obi-Wan feels a pang of regret about the whole incident in the 501st all those weeks ago—if only the council had believed the account of that trooper who'd given his life to warn them about the chips implanted in the clones, so much pain could have been avoided. They had been foolish, complacent. The incident had worried Obi-Wan, but there'd been so much else going on...
"Bwop beep bop, beep boop." The droid gestures at a display screen with an analysis of Cody's condition on it. Obi-Wan wishes he were dealing with the 212th's medic. Aid may have had a bit of an attitude, but at least he was competent, like all the clones.
"There is, I'm telling you. Look closer." The indignant beeping continues as the droid scans and examines and re-scans Cody. Obi-Wan prays to the Force that, after everything he's lost in the past few wretched days, this one kriffing thing will work out. Minutes pass. And then there's a little pinging sound from the medical equipment, and Obi-Wan releases a breath. The computer has located the anomaly in Cody's brain.
"Beep blep. Beop bop bleep bep."
"Just do it. Quickly!" The droid does as its told, and Obi-Wan has to look away as the extraction occurs. He listens for the steady beeping of the machine monitoring Cody's vitals, which seem to be holding for now.
"Beep!"
"Thank you," Obi-Wan shuffles around the room, collecting medical supplies and Cody's armor, which is, surprisingly, accompanied by his lightsaber. Whoever picked him up must not have noticed it. He keeps one eye on the droid at all times, but it seems resigned to its role now and just floats there idly, its round eyes glowing.
"Will he be okay?"
"Bwep blop beep."
"You don't sound too sure," Obi-Wan says, but there's nothing left that can be done. He walks to Cody's cot and begins floating it out of the room, towards one of the docking bays. Almost immediately, he runs into a trooper, their shiny white armor glistening eerily in the bright lights of the hall. It hurts him to have to use his abilities on the troopers who'd served the Republic loyally for so long, but this was better than killing them.
"I'm moving this patient to another facility," Obi-Wan suggests before the trooper can say anything, waving his hand.
"You're moving this patient to another facility."
"You have to go have lunch now."
"I have to go have lunch now." The trooper turns and leaves. No alarm is raised until Obi-Wan is only a couple yards from the shuttle he's going to steal, since there's no way he's going to make it back to his own starfighter. He pushes the cot aboard first just as the troopers round the corner into the docking bay, blasters firing. Obi-Wan deflects them deftly, and backs his way into the shuttle. The moment the door is sealed, he dashes to the pilot's chair. The ship shudders with the impact of a blast, but Obi-Wan manages to get it in the air and out into space. He plots a course back to Tatooine and makes the jump into hyperspace just as the frigate's cannons come online.
-----
When Cody wakes up, he's very warm. He reaches out with his senses before opening his eyes. He feels dry, hot air. He's lying on a scratchy blanket. His head aches and he has no idea what's going on. The last thing Cody remembers clearly is handing Obi-Wan his lightsaber on Utapau, and his general's mischievous smile...and then he remembers the pain and death and feeling his general fall from very high up but not being able to pull himself out of his own internal struggle enough to do anything about it.
He sits bolt upright, which turns out to be a bad move. His head swims and throbs. Then, a familiar figure leans in, placing a soft hand on his chest.
"Udesiir, cyare. You're safe." Obi-Wan looks rough. There are circles under his worried eyes, and his hair is unkempt, dirty. He is, as always, most beautiful thing Cody's ever seen.
"Oh, thank the Force." Ignoring Obi-Wan's request that he relax, Cody sits up again and fights through the discomfort to embrace his lover, who melts into him. They stay in each other's arms for a long time, in their new hiding spot on Tatooine, and for now, the war is over.
-----
Luke Skywalker is a restless child.
Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen did their best to discourage their young nephew's incessant wanderings, but little Luke is persistent. He vanishes from the moisture farm at odd times, and return in the evening covered in dirt and bruises from scrambling around the rocky cliffs of Tatooine. He visits the small town of Anchorhead with his friends quite often—sometimes he makes it all the way to Mos Eisley, where he loves to listen to the stories of the travelers and observe all the fascinating aliens and droids that pass though the spaceport. One day, he promises himself, he'll leave this desert planet and see these magical places he hears about—the green plains of Naboo, the mountains of Alderaan, the forests of Endor, the bustling, many-layered city of Coruscant.
The Jundland Wastes have their appeal, too—Luke knows the land better than he knows himself, and he likes to pretend he's an adventurer, and that his father once played in these very sand dunes when he was Luke's age.
Luke's most favorite thing to do on Tatooine, though, is go visit Ben and Cody. They live across the Wastes from his family's moisture farm, a long journey, but not too bad if he can "borrow" a speeder from his aunt and uncle. He almost always gets in trouble—he senses that there's some mistrust between Uncle Owen and Ben Kenobi, though he isn't sure how he knows that. But the couple is always happy to see him when he visits, and the stories they tell him and the delicious snacks they provide make the trip well worth suffering his aunt and uncle's irritation.
Ben and Cody knew Luke's father, before he was born. Ben and Cody have all the best books and parts for him to tinker with. Ben and Cody teach Luke little phrases in Mando'a, Cody's first language, which they speak to each other in hushed tones while they do housework together. Ben and Cody have been everywhere in the galaxy, it seems—Luke has to wonder why they live on Tatooine now, of all places. He wonders if it's the same reason that Ben seems sad and distant sometimes, though Cody never fails to cheer his partner up.
If he's very lucky, he'll get to watch Ben and Cody spar using laser swords, which is better than any HoloTV program. Ben's blade is a bright, cool blue; Cody's is amber like the setting suns. They dance around each other for hours, their sabers connecting with crackling crashes faster than Luke can follow, and the flares of light are more impressive than any fireworks display. Despite the drama of it all, the light shows always end in laughter when one of them eventually trips the other up and they fall onto the soft sandy ground.
They promise Luke that one day, when he's old enough, they'll teach him to fight too.