Work Text:
Cody watched Obi-wan, no, Ben, as his fingers flew through the keys on the data pad. Today was a good day, if he was typing and not staring off into space for hours, his gaze sad and lost.
Ben’s self imposed intention to write down every Jedi he could remember for a record for the future was draining and painful. Cody had seen him struggle with it, the memories turning him inside out, oblivious to the tears running down his face, typing, typing. So many names.
The extensive centuries old archives and the Temple of the Jedi Order had been destroyed. This pledged Opus was sometimes the only thing holding his General together.
There was no way of knowing of more Jedi hiding and if there was even a chance that the order would or could return. Cody at least knew that if anything Jedi was able to piece itself together, they better be karking sure they weren’t as arrogant and manipulated as before.
The perpetual gloom of the lower levels made the lines on Ben’s face more pronounced in the candlelight. It hurt Cody’s heart, to see his beloved’s aging but he held onto the fact that he was there, alive, after so very long.
His eyes moved down to the scars on Ben’s wrist. When he had been caught by the Inquisitor and they put him in force nulling cuffs on his ankles and arms. Cody shuddered to think of being cut off from the Force, so vibrant and present in this man in front of him.
He caught Ben looking at him, those incredible eyes, all for him. “Credit for your thoughts, love?” he drawled in his honeyed Coruscanti accent. The sound always made Cody go still, even when it had been used to flirt and taunt so many allies and enemies alike.
He thanked the Maker every single day for his life now. So many things-bad things—that happened before he gained the one he wanted, to simply be with Ben.
Cody has still barely come to terms with his eternal shame, even though Rex and others said it wasn’t his fault. That he had turned on this man who was everything to him. That the words, “Blast him!” had ever passed his lips.
Good Soldiers Follow Orders.
He thought the General had died then, the beast Ben was riding falling over the cliff with cannons blazing at him—that he ordered to fire. But somehow Cody had not allowed his men to search the area for a body. He just claimed that his - no, the General, could not have survived and told his men to head back to the ship.
In the end, it was Rex that proved to be the brother beyond all others. No guilt, just the Mando handshake after he found Cody. Saving him from being another tool in the Empire’s new army. Then the quick operation to remove the chip, and now he had matching scars on his temples to show for it.
He glanced around the excruciatingly small hovel they lived in, which was in a basement of another basement. They had managed to find a small enclave of Mandalorians deep on level 3852, and though they did not interact with them, Cody found their nearness calming, the familiar helmets still creating a sense of his brothers, his Vod’e that he missed with a physical ache.
They had become the eccentric locals, keeping to themselves. Tapping into the power grid, but it was kark at best, only working a few hours a day. Rarely emerging from their hidden spot for supplies. Engaging their security system with the expertise of years of practice with multiple traps as a perimeter and they never, ever left together. Ben was still a Jedi, still wanted by the Empire. Cody would do anything, kill anyone to keep him safe.
He remembered his first days years ago with Obi-wan. On Kamino, he and his brothers had been trained to think of the Jedi as Gods, infallible and remote. And he was ‘Kote’, the best of the best clones, according to the template Jango. When he was awarded the rank of Commander to General Kenobi, he was proud and knew he would do his utmost to be worthy.
Reality was somewhat different as he found out that first week on duty. General Kenobi actually treated him as a person, as a man. He was thoughtful and observant. Then on their first mission together, the General used the Force to heave a huge collapsing wall away from both of them and Cody had thrown himself over the General, protecting him from the debris. His body laying half over Obi-wan, the dust settling and he had turned his visor to check if his General was unharmed. Instead, he saw those eyes looking at his helmet in wonder. Then Kenobi had said, “I think we’ll get along just fine, Commander,” and Cody was…lost. He knew in a heartbeat that his life’s work was to protect this man, to love him even if it could never be reciprocated.
So he became the shadow behind Obi-wan’s shoulder. Reminding him to eat, to sleep, to shield him and serve. To chase the worry from his face, to lessen the never ending responsibilities of being in charge of the 7th Sky Corp. Forcibly handing Obi-wan over to the medics over his protestations of being “fine,” when he was bleeding and pushed beyond exhaustion.
It would have been unthinkable for the General to return his feelings, he knew. Obi-wan had ironclad principles for rank and would never take advantage of someone under his command, especially one who had no rights or even citizenship for the cause he was bred to die for. Even if it was consensual. That was not his way. His moral code was, to Cody’s secret regret, incorruptible.
So Cody endured the teasing from his brothers, the kissy sounds and murmurs of ‘pining’. They all thought the relationship was real, which made him hurt for his General more than himself. Obi-wan was perfect, which meant he should have been safe from speculation and whispers but Cody knew most of the 212th were half in love with the General themselves. This knowledge made him treasure his access to Obi-wan even more. His Vod’e could gossip all they wanted, but it was those late nights alone going over plans, filling out paperwork and signing off requisition data pads in the General’s quarters that filled Cody’s core with love and devotion. Just the two of them. Even if the General drank tea instead of caf like a good Vod.
He had seen his General pale at the flickering out of the Force when brothers were lost to them in battle. Obi-wan held the love of the entire 7th Sky Corp because kriff, the man cared so much.
Over time, General Kenobi and he became famous, the faces of the 212th, the GAR and Ghost Company. New troops would secretly hope to be a part of their legend, their glory. Together, they fought, planned, were injured, comforted their brethren and lived to fight another day. Until Utapau. Until the Order came.
***********
That chip, that kriffing chip. Turning over 5 million loyal clone troops into unthinking killers of their own leaders, even the young padawans. As soon as he had recovered from its removal, Cody tried to find any intel on Kenobi. He was horrified to learn that all but 100 of the Jedi had been killed in those first moments of Order 66 and that a dedicated task force was in place to track down any survivors.
So he did his hunting in secret, slicing into anything he could find, pursuing any rumor, keeping it stealthy and hidden. He flew to so many places, so many dusty cantinas, so many back alleys. Quietly chasing leads, connecting with rebel spies and even sometimes Vod who had managed to escape the Stormtrooper Army.
For years he scoured any source, thankful that Kenobi was always one step ahead of his pursuers. Until he discovered that the Inquisitor had indeed caught up with his General.
He reached out to Rex and they both agreed that the Obi-wan they knew would probably figure out how to escape. They set up a surveillance system of ISB headquarters between them, hoping to grab him and spirit him away. Their assessment of their old General did not disappoint. After several rotations on watch, late one night he saw the figure of a man crawling from the sanitation system for the building and he followed. He reached Obi-wan in the docks area, just as he was about to steal an Empire freighter.
“General,” Cody said, his voice full of pain. All those years.
Obi-wan turned, a blaster pointed at his chest. He’s got an uncivilized weapon, thought Cody, of course, his lightsaber was taken away, and he remembered the dozens of times he had handed it back to this man, even right before his betrayal.
“I will shoot you, Cody,” Obi-wan had said, his gravelly voice showing his weakened state.
Cody raised his hands. “I had the chip removed, Sir.” He took a small step forward, making Obi-wan flinch.
“If you’ll let me, I will spend the rest of my life protecting you, even though it will never make up for…up for what I did to you, to all the Jedi.”
Cody just stood silently, waiting his General’s decision. He noticed the new livid scars on his wrist, and the trembling arm that Obi-wan was trying hard to suppress.
With a gasp, Obi-wan lowered the blaster. “Alright, we’re stealing this ship and crashing it in another ship in atmo, while we grab its shuttle and crash it on the other side of the planet.”
“That’s a lot of crashing, Sir.” Cody looked him in the eye. “To what end?”
“To make it look as if I died, of course,” Obi-wan answered with a tiny bit of his old confidence.
“Well, let’s make this look good then, Sir,” and Cody felt himself moving up the ramp to join his General.
And for the most part, the plan worked a charm. Of course there was the heart wrenching moment when the bay doors refused to open as their ship crumpled into another and they sat in the shuttle trying to decide if they should ram through it. Obi-wan was definitely weaker in the Force than he had been, but he was able to punch a hole they could skitter out of in time, but it had been close.
It took several weeks to walk back to the capitol, and Cody used that time to help Obi-wan, now Ben, recover. They stole food, and only traveled at night. They debated over plans and strategies to stay alive and it was almost like old times.
The final decision was not to head out to the Outer Rim but to hide in the lower levels of Coruscant. In plain sight of the new Empire. No one would willingly live there if they could help it. Life wouldn’t be easy, but they were still being hunted and life so deep in the lower levels had many advantages. Also, their new neighbors, the thieves, spice dealers and Hutt gangs had an aversion to the Empire and could reliably be a first warning system without even knowing it.
Ben’s recovery took time, lots of it. There were the nightmares, waking either drenched in sweat or sometimes crying, begging for the pain to end. Cody held him in his arms, shushing him and wiping down his forehead, rocking him back to awareness. Whispering little terms of endearment, all the things he wanted to say now unstoppered, flowing out like water in the desert. Finally his General would relax, his body worn out and limp from exhaustion. Cody would keep a vigil until those blue eyes closed in true sleep again, just so thankful to be able to do this service, this love.
As Ben got stronger, he meditates in the Force and it did bring a kind of peace. The memory of torture as well as the stress of being pursued for nearly five years may never fully leave him. Though his body recovers, the astonishing strength and beauty that it had before the war would never quite return. But he was alive and with Cody. After ten years he finishes the Opus dedicated to his slaughtered Jedi.
Be careful what you wish for, sometimes Cody thinks. If the price of being with Ben took killing off the entire Jedi Order as well as untold millions, even billions—he can’t let himself think like that. But then he comes to his senses, that insanity wasn’t his fault. They are just two people trying to get by in an entire galaxy of others with a similar sad back story. They have become phantoms, a true Ghost Company.
He glances over at Ben who is watering a small plant that Cody got for him. Such a tiny thing but it makes his General so happy. It’s a good day.
Years pass, they stay undetected, overlooked by the madness plundering their world. His advanced aging as a clone makes him look 65 even though in actual years he is 30 and Ben is 57 but looks older. Each day is now just like another and the peace they have finally ground out is a gift, bland in its simplicity but never taken for granted. Until one day, Ben wakes him, grabs his shoulders and says, “We need to get to Tatooine.”