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5 BBY
It was quiet aboard the Millennium Falcon as the true gravity of what had just happened sank in, now that they had made a hyper-space jump away from the Vengeance.
Before anything could be said about a number of things – one of which was the whispered conversation between Luke and Han about the fact that the old man had been sat down and was staring blankly into space – one of the clones, a member of the 212th spoke up, voice heavy with dread, “So, who is going to tell the Commander what just happened?”
Snake Eyes looked at that brother with wide eyes, and it was a look shared among the other nine of the 212th as they realized someone would have to tell Cody what they’d let their fool of a General do.
Someone was muttering about how he probably already knew. Not a single one of the vode there doubted Cody had some sort of idea of what their jetii had done, he’d developed a pretty good instinct by the end of the Clone Wars, and the last fifteen years had only made it better whenever someone had to report about the situation on Tatooine.
The less said about the huts Obi-Wan had scrabbled together, numbers one through seven, nine, eleven through twenty-two, and twenty-five, the better. The same about the three Tusken raids, the liberation of four slave ships, two different sabaac tournaments, and incidents at five cantinas.
Cody had started going gray at the temples well before most other vode not because of any accelerated aging, but because of their jetii.
Their crazy Wizard of the Wastes.
Zero winced then, “I need to contact Rex before he hears from someone else that we ran into Vader.”
Lucky winced himself, “Don’t want to give the Captain another ulcer. The Padawan-Commander has given already given him plenty to worry about with her part in the Rebellion.”
Tricks looked at the three vod of the 501st with a lesser cousin of relief visibly playing across his face with his helmet under his arm.
“Cody needs to be told too.”
The rest of the 212th quickly nodded at that, “The Captain can take care of it.”
~
Cody was on-route to return from his unauthorized trip to Tatooine, already thinking of the dozen or so reasons why he had left his post in a matter that he wouldn’t be reprimanded for, when he was hailed by Lord Vader.
There was a brief moment of panic that perhaps his true loyalties had been discovered, that was ruthlessly suppressed as he answered, “Lord Vader, what can I do for you?”
If he was found out, the whole house of cards that was the vode’s rebellion would come down. He could give nothing away, not until the Empire was ash.
“Commander, Jedi Master Kenobi was here on the Vengeance.”
Cody blinked, speechless for a moment.
He’d just found out himself, after Tricks and Snake Eyes hadn’t reported in and he’d had a very bad feeling about what his jetii was about to do, only to find his General had already left Tatooine. Cody would ask what were the chances that the moment his jetii was away from Tatooine, he’d run into Vader, but that had been why his jetii had gone to Tatooine – anywhere else and Vader would find him. Leaving Tatooine was paramount to his jetii intentionally go looking for Vader.
“Are there any leads about where he would go?”
He had to ask, because if Vader knew, then he had to get a warning to his jetii.
“No. Come immediately to the Vengeance, Commander. I need your assistance in finding him.”
Cody had the sudden premonition that his jetii had done something very foolish indeed. It was a suspicion only furthered by how a vod rushed on deck, froze at the sight of Vader even as the communication ended, but said nothing more than, “Feck.”
~
Vader had summoned him, but Cody couldn’t explain why he’d instead gone elsewhere on the Star Destroyer.
Despite himself, he’d found his hand drifting to the ‘saber that he’d attached to his hip when he’d rather abruptly found a dark brown coarse cloak just lying on the floor in a heap. He knew exactly one person who had such a habit, and who had done this exact thing hundreds of times.
Four hundred seventy-three times, in the three years they’d served together, to be exact.
Behind his helmet, his eye twitched as he just stared at the cloak.
Fifteen years, the fall of a Republic, the massacre of the Jedi Order, and the rise of an Empire, and it was like being in the Clone Wars again. Cody hoped it wasn’t, but he had a feeling that it would be far more than he would like.
Only this time, they were the resistance.
He would need more than his jetii’kad.
Before he left this room, the cloak folded and tucked under one arm, he left a message for Rex – if his vod met his jetii before he found him, his vod should shove the man in a full set of armor and bind a blaster to his hand.
~
Cody stood in front of Vader, but it felt like standing in front of Anakin.
Vader kept pacing, making sharp turns every few steps, arms waving around as he talked.
“ . . I could have sworn Obi-Wan was there! Only it was Princess Leia of Alderaan. Her eyes were just like Padmé’s, Cody! All fire and refusing to stand down despite the danger.”
Turn. Slow, stop, turn. Didn’t seem to notice how Cody had straightened with alarm.
“I was having tea with Princess Leia when Obi-Wan showed his face. Led me on a chase throughout the ship, the fekking bastard!”
Stomp-stomp-stomp. Turn. Didn’t hear Cody’s, “What.”
“He pretended to not know me, Cody! Tried to pull that bantha-shit on me!”
Stomp-stomp-stomp. Stomp-stomp-stomp. Turn.
“DId yoU KNow hE WAs in lOVe wITh thE DucHESS! He didn’t even deny it!!”
Flailing, random objects floating and spinning before slamming into walls.
Cody ducked the tea-cup that nearly hit his head as his tone went completely flat, dry as dust, “He did what.”
“He threw SAND at me to escape! HE KNOWS HOW MUCH I HATE SAND!!”
A tea-bag exploded. Another three soon followed.
Vader mostly certainly didn’t notice that Cody had flown past worry, annoyance, tired exasperation, some form of anger, into when-I-get-my-hands-on-him. . !
“HE TOOK SOME OF MY MEN WITH HIM TOO!!”
Cody wanted to doubt that the situation could get much worse, not after his jetii had apparently bypassed simply kicking the hornet’s nest into stomping it to pieces, with a side of having an angry Anakin Skywalker and obsessed Vader nearly frothing at the mouth, but his jetii was Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He would find a way to make it worse. Cody just hoped that he got to him before then.