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Cody glared down at the object laying innocently on the ground, as if its presence didn’t mean that somewhere there was a Jedi fighting without his lightsaber. As if it didn’t mean said Jedi was probably in danger because the man seemed incapable of keeping hold of his weapon.
The 212th’s Commander closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath.
“I need eyes on the General.” He ordered into the general channels, bending over to grasp the lightsaber, maybe a bit more tightly than was strictly necessary.
“Does anyone have a visual?” He heard many negatives mixed with inquiring sounds. He didn’t sound frantic or nervous, so his brothers didn’t worry, yet.
“I have him Commander!” Cody shot a few clankers in the face before answering. Force did it feel good.
“Name and position trooper.”
“Sir! This is Nightfall, I’m up by the cliffs. General Kenobi is fighting Grievous on a platform, but he doesn’t seem have his lightsaber with him.” His brother suddenly snorted. “He keeps throwing anything he can at that big old clanker.”
“I’m going your way." He said before addressing the group he was with. "Ghost company continue firing from our current location. We're almost done with these clankers. Don’t let them through.”
A series of ‘Sir, yes sir!’s echoed in his bucket. Carefully moving between boulders and the cover fire his brothers provided, Cody made his way towards the cliffs.
“Sir, just follow the screams of frustration.” Nightfall chuckled. Cody didn’t find it amusing.
“Cut the chatter trooper. There’s nothing funny about the situation. The General is fighting defenseless and you’re cracking jokes.”
There was silence on the other side for a few seconds. “I meant no disrespect Commander.” It sounded annoyed, but Cody didn’t really care. He’d make sure to have the Shinies run more drills, and teach them the importance of always making sure they and especially their General wasn’t running around without any weapons. The Force could only do so much.
The way to the cliffs wasn’t that long, but Cody had to burrow down a few times with groups of his brothers and they dispatched a wave of clankers. The terrain they were in was uneven, filled with boulders, craters and mounds. The clankers were having difficulty maneuvering around them, and while the obstacles might annoy him and his brothers, it also provided them with sufficient cover. The battle had been a long one, but fortunately there hadn’t been any deaths confirmed and they were minutes away from clearing out this are. The only problem was Grievous.
Cody growled as blaster fire had him huddling next to Wooley and his squad.
“Is that the General’s lightsaber?” There was zero surprise in his voice. Just annoyance.
“It’s one of those days.” Cody answered after leaning around the other side of a large rock to shoot at some incoming commando droids.
“Isn’t this the eighth time this month?”
“He maintains the time in Ryloth doesn’t count, so let’s make it seventh.”
Cody could practically hear his brother roll his eyes under his bucket. He cursed under his breathe as a shot hit too close for comfort. As much as he loved talking to his brothers he had to keep moving. The current wave of clankers, while small, was making him waste too much time covering himself. It was taking him minutes their stupid Jedi might not have.
“Nightfall, give an update. How’s the General?”
He heard shots over the comm but waited patiently, knowing that if his brother was in the middle of an engagement, distracting him could get him and his squad killed.
“Sir!” There was no amusement now, and Cody felt his heart start to race. “The General has run out of things to throw effectively and the old clanker is full on attacking with four lightsabers! The General is doing great at dodging but-“
“I’m on my way trooper. Provide cover fire if possible. Just don’t. hit. the. General.” He warned, or rather… threatened. It had happened before. An over enthusiastic Shiny taking shots without taking his Jedi’s movement into account. No one forgot the blaster mark on the General’s chest armor. If it had been slightly lower… Needless to say, that Shiny had gotten the verbal beating of his life.
“Commander, we got this. Go!” One of his brothers shouted. As one, Wooley’s squad leaned around the boulder they were hiding behind and started firing non-stop.
“Vor’e!” He yelled his thanks as he ran for the next cover, getting nearer his Jedi. As Nightfall had mentioned beforehand, he could clearly make out Grievous’ roars of anger now that he was close enough. In the privacy of his bucket, Cody smirked.
“Give him hell General.”
Still, he had to hurry. The lightsaber bounced on his thigh as he moved, making its presence known.
“I know, I know you stupid light stick!” He thought, annoyed at the whole situation. Honestly, why was he the one that always found the lightsaber? Come to think about it, he was probably the only clone in the 212th to have ever come into contact with it. Many times. He was going to glue it to his General’s hand.
“Commander, not to pressure you but… please hurry!” Nightfall suddenly said trying and failing to sound calm.
“Haar'chak!”
A wall of troopers, now slightly desperate, stood up from the crater they had been taking cover in and fired with angry shouts.
“Go, go, go!” They yelled as he passed them by. Cody saw a few go down as blaster fire caught them, and prayed the hits were all non-fatal.
Finally, Cody ran around a large mound and came into view of the cliffs. Troopers were holed up behind various boulders and in natural made depressions that acted as trenches. They were all shooting in the direction of a platform that had been built to receive small ships. His General was indeed fighting with only the Force to help him, and those that had been fighting alongside any Jedi for a long time knew that continued use of the Force drained them at an alarming rate.
Kenobi kept pushing Grievous backwards, but the cyborg would charge back immediately, roaring and slashing as he went. He only had three lightsabers now, so Cody assumed his General had found a way to unarm him at one point. Pity he hadn’t managed to use it for his own advantage.
The 212th’s Commander ran behind his brothers’s cover, now mostly without resistance. There was an almost prefect wall of dead clankers around them.
“Surrender Kenobi!” The clanker yelled.
“And miss out on this dance? I think not.” His General taunted.
Cody was sure he wasn’t the only one to roll his eyes at the usual repertoire. At the same time it frustrated the clones to no end. Their General was talented in making others angry, which meant he was the usual target. The angrier he made his opponents the dangerous and more unpredictable they were.
A few of his brothers had made it onto the platform, more clankers offlined all around them. Cody joined a group in pressing forward, but a couple of destroyers was making it pretty difficult.
“Damn clankers, let us through!I” Cody recognized Boil’s designs as the temperamental clone let loose shot after shot.
A groan of pain had Cody looking toward the Jedi. Kenobi was on his back with one of Grievous claws pressing down on him hard. Curses rained all around. They were so close.
“This is the end, Kenobi!” Grievous laughed, positioning his lightsabers ready to impale the Jedi. Cody forgot to breathe.
“General!” All around him troopers were yelling for their General, despair and fury in their voices.
And in the middle of all the chaos, Kenobi’s eyes found his. They weren’t surprised or scared, and he extended his hand in Cody’s direction. The Commander understood at once.
As quick as he could he grabbed the lightsaber from where it was strapped to his belt and with careful aim threw it as hard as he could. Mid-flight, the weapon straightened and hurried, picking up speed toward its Master. Just before the clanker General stabbed the Jedi, Kenobi’s hand closed around the hilt and he activated it, swinging it in a wide arch with a speed only those with the Force possessed.
There was a scream of pain and rage as Grievous stumbled back. Two of his mechanical hands cut, the lightsabers they were holding falling to the ground.
Kenobi flipped backwards to put some distance between them and raised his own saber in a stance they all knew by now.
“Surrender Grievous.” He ordered in a strong voice. He didn’t look nor sound like a man who had almost lost his life mere seconds ago.
“Never! I’ll will kill you Kenobi! One day, I will run all my sabers through your body, and leave you hanging for all to see!”
Cody wasn’t the only one who raged at the image, his grip on his blaster tightening. His brothers made to move forward but their General’s voice rang out.
“Stand back!” He yelled at them before glaring at Grievous.
“As always you find new ways to be even more uncivilized than before.” He smirked then. “For that to happen, you need to find new hands to grasp them first.”
Grievous let out terrifying scream of hatred before turning and running to the edge of the platform. Kenobi went after him giving the order to fire.
The troopers let out war cries and charged forward, their shots only grazing the Separatist General, much to their frustration. Kenobi picked up speed but Grievous had reached the edge and didn’t wait before jumping off.
Cody reached the site at the same time as his General, both looking down at the sea below. There was no sign of Grievous.
“Well, that went well.”
Cody looked at his General. His robes were slightly wrinkled and there was a tear in one of his sleeve. His hair was windblown and there were a few bruises on his face. The Commander removed his bucket and glared at the Jedi.
“It might have gone better if someone hadn’t decided to lose their lightsaber in the middle of the battle! You’re too irresponsible, Sir.” A few troopers around them looked up at that. A few of the Shinies let out scandalized gasps, unable to believe their Commander would mouth off at the General like that. The others either added their agreement or laughed at the look on their Jedi’s face.
“It’s not my fault it likes you best.” He all but pouted.
Cody’s eye twitched. It wasn’t the first time he had heard Kenobi say something along those lines. ‘My lightsaber is very fond of you.’ or ‘I know you’ll always find it.’ and so on. It was driving him crazy.
“Sir. Your lightsaber is your life, or so you have repeatedly told General Skywalker and Commander Tano. You tell them that it is vital they don’t lose it or let anything happen to it.” He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “So why is it you are always losing yours? And don’t say it’s because it follows me around or any other nonsense.”
“… But it does follow you around.” The General sounded both amused yet indignant that his weapon would, in fact, follow his Commander around and leave his side to do so. There was a special twinkle in his eyes, and Cody decided to give up.
With as much dignity as he could, the Commander gave him an unamused glare, turned and walked away, leaving a laughing Jedi behind.
Cody recognized that look as the one that said ‘I know something you don’t and I’m entertained by it’ mixed together with the sage demeanor that meant there was probably some Jedi ‘stuff’ going on as well. Cody knew better than to even try to figure it all out. Kenobi loved being cryptic and seemed to draw great entertainment from his men’s frustration when they just didn’t see what was under his words or actions. The 212th’s Commander had learnt the hard way not to pay any attention when he was like this. If he didn’t want to say what he meant, fine. Two could play that game.
Kenobi watched with a smile as his Commander practically stomped away fuming. It was gratifying to see the man that wouldn’t have dared to think of saying anything considered out of place for his position talking back at him. Cody was incapable of being disrespectful, but the Jedi loved seeing how he and all the other clones were growing and becoming more comfortable in how they interacted with the Jedi. The Commander had gone from willing to do anything and everything for his superiors without a single comment, to pointing out holes in plans and hunting him and even Anakin down to force them to rest. Cody acted like Obi-Wan's guardian rather than his Commander and the Jedi found it endearing. The rest of the battalion was the same.
There was also the small… not problem, but certainly a strange and surprising occurrence of his lightsaber. Kenobi knew Cody thought he was pulling the Commander’s leg. It wasn’t exactly a secret that kyber crystals were seen by the Jedi as sentient. It was why they had rituals like the Gathering. A true Jedi, knowing to respect any sentient, would wait for the crystals to choose them, and then form a bond with it as they constructed the casing that would house them.
However, everyone saw that as Jedi magic tricks and ridiculed them for it. They were called fools and extremists by some. Lunatics and fanatics by others. It didn’t bother them, as they knew the truth, and the crystals were their partners. They were always aware of the crystals, as they exuded a unique Force signature, and the Jedi could find their lightsabers anywhere by following it. When they meditated they could even communicate with them. Trade ideas, notions and even emotions.
Obi-Wan wasn’t lying when he said his lightsaber liked to follow Cody around. His crystal was drawn to him. There was alway a sense of curiosity and fascination coming from it whenever the Commander was near.
The Jedi watched as Cody spoke to some of his brothers, organizing them and sending them to different parts to finish off the stragglers or provide back-up and get a read on Grievous’ location.
“Cody thinks I’m being an idiot doesn’t he?” He murmured stoking his beard. A light vibration answered him, like a hum from a human. Obi-Wan brought the lightsaber at eye level, smiling.
“I wonder how he’ll react when it clicks that I’m really not trying to be funny.” He chuckled, amusement not his own flowing around him. “He really thinks I’m that careless as to go around dropping one of my closest friends.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed in fond exasperation, looking down at his lightsaber.
“But we know better, don’t we.” A sheepish tendril of Force caressed him in apology.
“General! We need to move.” Obi-Wan looked up, his Commander looked and sounded serious, waiting patiently for the Jedi to reach him. The Force surrounding him appeared calm and businesslike, so his Commander must have gotten over Kenobi’s last act of ‘madness and stupidity’, as he’d called it once. It brought a smile to the Jedi’s face when he remembered the horrified look on his Commander’s face when he realized how he’d addressed his General. Kenobi hadn't laughed that loud in years.
“I’m on my way Cody, no need to shout.” Obi-Wan made sure his lightsaber was safely clipped onto his belt, excitement emanating from the crystal as they neared the Commander.
Cody sent him a look. One that told him not to try anything funny before putting on his bucket. He waited until Kenobi walked past to fall in step with him. Both men walked side by side at a slow pace and in a comfortable silence born from their growing friendship, their arms almost touching.
Obi-Wan was content with his men near and the reassuring weight of his lightsaber on his side. He contemplated how to address the current problem. The Council was definitely going to be perplexed. Nothing like this had ever happened before after all. Kenobi chuckled to himself thinking about his fellow Jedi's reactions. After a few minutes where he got distracted thinking about the war, his friends, his men and the crystal that seemed eager to be around his Commander, Obi-Wan realized he no longer felt its presence on his hip.
When he looked back down, his lightsaber was firmly strapped onto Cody’s belt.
He could’t stop the smile that bloomed on his face.