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Hours after Obi-wan had removed his inhibitor chip, Cody still wasn’t feeling well. The operation had gone smoothly, but now he was on his knees on the deck of his sleeping quarters, convulsing as his stomach tried to vomit up nothing. His face was burning up, and his hands were balled into fists pressed into his thighs, trying to steel himself against the spasms of pain. He wanted water. Acid bit into his throat, but if he drank anything to get rid of the awful sensation, then he’d just be spewing it up and might not even make it to the refresher in time.
The refresher.
He crawled there on his hands and knees and slumped into the shower compartment before another jolt of nausea sent him doubling over. He lay on the ground for a minute before he found the strength to reach up and hit the controls.
A spray of cool water bathed his face and shoulders, matting his hair to his head and soaking his blacks. He shut his eyes, letting water stream over his fevered skin as he forgot the flow of time.
Then there was another feeling, something sharp and bitter that wasn’t the compulsion to vomit or suck in air. He remembered there was something he had to do, and it crushed his chest and squeezed his throat shut.
The water beating down over him now felt icy, numbing.
He brought his hands up to his face, crying silently as the memories came flooding back in.
***
Cody?
Obi-wan felt something in the Force, an empathetic twinge, like something had stung him. Just pain, or…no, something else too. He pulled his eyes from the starfield outside the cockpit and got up from the pilot’s chair, letting the nav computer take over.
Wolffe’s chip removal had gone off without a problem, and he knew that Rex’s had too from what Ahsoka had told him, when she finally had been able to say anything about it at all. Obi-wan didn’t think she’d really wanted to, but she did want to assure him that Rex had been alright. That was probably the only reason. The tips of her lekku had curled in slightly and something had come over her face as she’d told him. He saw Rex wrap his fingers around her wrist, then the look passed as calm washed over her.
Obi-wan felt no calm in the Force now. He frowned, and went immediately to Cody’s quarters.
“Why am I the only one here who’s nervous?” Anakin had half-asked, half-demanded that day years ago on Naboo as Padmé was trapped in a compound with the blue shadow virus, battle droids, and an insane criminal.
“Oh you’re not the only one, I just hide it better,” he’d replied… That was how he felt now, suppressing his mounting worry, struggling to release it into the Force. But Obi-Wan was a Jedi Master, and he willed himself to stay calm as he moved through the ship, cycling through meditative exercises in his mind.
***
Obi-wan knocked on the door to Cody’s cabin before hitting the door controls and going in.
An oppressive feeling came over him as he saw Cody, laying on top of his bed with his legs on the pillow, wet hair soaking the fabric at the end of the thin mattress. The commander was trembling like a leaf, his eyes closed, shielding him from the cabin lights which he hadn’t had the strength to turn off. With a wave of his hand, Obi-Wan shut them off for him.
He sat at the edge of the bed and held one of Cody’s hands.
“Cody, what’s wrong?” he whispered, heart swelling.
Cody took a deep, shuddering breath and turned his face from Obi-wan, gripping his hand like a vise.
“If you’d like a stim pack, I can get you one, or I can…” He placed a hand over the side of Cody’s head and touched the edge of his consciousness with the Force, pressing his palm into the damp hair that curled over the bacta patch protecting the fresh surgery scar.
“…only if it’s alright with you, of course” he finished, massaging his fingers gently into Cody’s scalp.
“No,” Cody croaked. It was the first thing he’d said to Obi-wan since the operation. He convulsed and clenched his jaw as breath rattled through his teeth. A wall jutted up around Cody’s presence in the Force and Obi-wan withdrew, taking his hand off his head. He’d taught Cody how to do that, a way to prevent Force-users like Asajj or Maul from getting anything out of him should he be captured and interrogated. Obi-wan had been impressed by how quickly he’d mastered the technique and proud of the strength of his ability– just more of Cody the pure professional.
Obi-wan nodded and squeezed Cody’s hand, then pressed it to his lips for a moment. Cody’s grip relaxed, and he shifted in the bed trying to roll onto his side, to turn his body away as much as possible.
“I’ll give you some space… Just rest, Cody. Sleep,” he said, keeping his voice steady to disguise the sting of rejection.
Obi-wan got up, walked to the door, and decided on an attempt at some of his humor.
“I suppose I can still trust you not to sneak off this time? I’d hate for this to become another Eadu,” he said, voice playful.
Cody lay silent and motionless after the Jedi left. The lingering glow of Obi-wan’s presence and his hand on the commander’s own warred with his flashbacks to Utupau, to the shocking holo call that had upended half of what he thought he knew and believed in.
Anger flared inside his aching head. He felt sick. He wished he could still trust Obi-wan too.
***
Whoop whoop! Whoop whoop!
Obi-wan eyes darted over the instrumental panels. Flashing lights punched across his vision, each vying for his attention as the ship threw warnings at him; vital hyperdrive components removed, fire on the lower decks, cargo compartment vented, tibanna leak…
He jumped out of the cockpit and headed for Cody’s cabin, boots clanging on the durasteel. When he got there the door was already open, the bed empty. He stretched out with the Force, looking for him, but got nothing. Not even that wall the commander had sent up earlier. Obi-wan tore down the passageway, heading for the next most likely place the commander would be.
He came up in front of the escape pod, heart hammering in his chest. The sight of Cody standing inside sent a wave of relief through him, washing away the weight on his mind and the anxiety pitting his stomach.
Obi-wan heaved a great sigh as his tension evaporated. He ran in and slapped Cody on the shoulder as he jammed himself into the navigator’s chair with a grin. He silently thanked the gods of his homeworld– but the Force first and foremost, of course– that Cody was such a better pilot than he was that, even while sick, the commander would still be able to handle the ship much more competently than he could.
He started the pre-launch checks and began to enter the coordinates Bail had given them to regroup with Ahsoka’s team.
He stopped as he felt something like cold, spidery fingers on his shoulder beckoning him to turn around. He spun out of the chair and pushed with the Force, holding everything behind him motionless.
All his mental processes ground to a halt and his pulse pounded in his ears, louder than the explosions now going off deep inside the main ship.
Cody stood in front of the open hatch with his helmet clipped to his belt, pointing a DC-17 right at Obi-wan’s face. His forehead shone with sweat and his face was as intense as the Jedi had ever seen it.
“General Kenobi, you are guilty of treason against the Galactic Republic and the Grand Army thereof.”
No. Impossible. The chip was gone; he’d seen it and destroyed it himself. Had he done something wrong?
“Cody, Cody listen to me, you’re not well. We can talk about this, just trust–”
Anger flashed across Cody’s face. The pistol trembled in his hands as a tremor shot through his body. The deck shook beneath them as another explosion went off in the ship, somewhere closer this time.
“ Trust ?!” he practically spat out the word. “My men respected you, I respected you, like no other Jedi! For years , I–” but the words caught in Cody’s throat. He couldn’t say it, not now. He couldn’t put it in past tense when it still felt present to him; the weight was too much.
“Cody, the chancellor is a Sith lord who’s been orchestrating the entire war from the beginning! He created monsters like Maul and–”
“And the Jedi attempted to assassinate him, the head of state. If you had evidence then why was he not brought to trial!”
“He–“
“Even Slick got a kriffing trial. You were on the Jedi Council. You expect me to believe you were never aware of the coup?”
Durasteel creaked and moaned in the passageway behind them. Tendrils of smoke drifted into the pod and another emergency warning went off on a lower deck.
Obi-wan frowned, voice softening.
“No Cody. I wasn’t.”
He could practically see the muscles of the commander’s throat working through his blacks. Cody’s nostrils flared as he took a breath, quick and violent, clenching his jaw to dissipate the light and smoke, his headache, and this entire situation that had upended half of his identity and tore everything inside him to pieces. His scar ached.
“I need to get back to my brothers,” he said, sounding oddly hurried. He tried to step forward, but Obi-wan still held him in place with the Force. “I– you know my orders.”
So arrest had never been an option. Obi-wan had known that already but had hoped that without the chip things might be different...and Sidious might yet have the last laugh. He figured he might still have time to grab an emergency space suit then get into the second, damaged escape pod. He and Anakin had pulled off such “plans” with even worse odds– it’d probably work.
Something grim settled over Obi-wan as he reached out his other hand in a placating gesture.
“You can have the escape pod Cody. I’ll back out, back into the ship. I won’t touch my lightsaber. You can go back to our men.”
Cody twitched, knuckles pale as he gripped the blaster even harder. Opening his mouth to speak, the commander felt something hollow open up in his chest.
“Since when have either of us ever left the other behind, not finished the mission together? I won’t leave you Obi-wan. You know I won’t.” The undercurrent of emotion finally cracked through his voice as he said the Jedi’s name, staring down at him over the barrel of his weapon.
White smoke poured between his legs from outside. He coughed, wishing he’d put his helmet on first.
“Then I’ll do what I have to, Cody. You know that too.” Obi-wan took a breath, face screwed up with emotion, and reached out to touch his mind with the Force. Whatever I did Cody… I’m sorry it wasn’t enough.
A warning klaxon punched across the deck as air began venting off to space somewhere in another compartment. Down in the lower decks, durasteel plates were sheared from the bulkheads as tibanna reservoirs and power cores detonated, and electrical lines fizzed up in sparks and flame. An explosion rocked the ship, lurching Obi-wan and Cody off their feet. Flames danced at the end of the passageway visible out the hatch.
Obi-wan’s hold in the Force broke and Cody’s DC-17 clattered to the ground as the commander was flung against the wall. Cody inhaled smoke, throat burning as he coughed, eyes stinging. He snatched his other blaster from his hip, firing a cluster of two shots at Obi-wan’s chest and one at his head.
Obi-wan’s lightsaber snapped to life and sent the shots back towards Cody. One went wild, shattering a light panel, but the other hit its mark, right in the middle of Cody’s chest. The smell of burnt plastoid had never made Obi-wan feel sicker in his life.
Cody hit the deck, hissing in pain, the shot charring his skin and biting deep into the muscles beneath the glowing holes in his breastplate. His blood seemed to catch on fire as it leaked from his heart, draining away with his consciousness. Stars swam at the edges of his vision.
A final wave of relief washed over him, his fever and pain ebbing away at last. He was briefly aware of Kenobi holding him, and he was glad for the first time in his life that there was one mission he wouldn’t complete.
“No…no. Cody… Cody, please. ”
A silent sob wracked Obi-Wan as he cradled his commander in his arms. Regrets like countless drops of acid rain pooled in his heart as he pressed a hand into the fading warmth of Cody’s cheek for the last time.
The Jedi felt his emotions boil, overflow, drowning him in his own helplessness as he buried his face into the whorls of Cody’s hair, rich and dark like dreams of passion. He remained oblivious to the shrieks of the dying ship around them, to the hot tears coursing down his face as his chest spasmed with grief.
There is no emotion, there is peace.
Yet the feelings clung to him, and above all, the bitter realization that before long these emotions, this pain, would be all he had left of him.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
And yet here there were only Cody’s lips, already cool under his touch, never to stretch in a smile again, never to kiss or know love, pressing the heat of affection against his skin.
There is no death, there is the Force.
And yet Cody’s presence in the Force had evaporated as though it had never existed, a mirage over the Dune Sea of Tatooine.