Work Text:
Cody didn’t mean to join the Rebellion. It just kind of happened.
“Morning, Rex,” Cody says in the mess, and grabs a tray.
Rex looks tired. They both look tired, really. Both of them are getting older – even though their Kaminoan-fucked genetics kept them in good shape for a while, they’re starting to look their years now. Cody’s gone grey, and Rex has smile-wrinkles near his eyes. He no longer dyes his hair, mostly because he doesn’t have any; Cody and Wolffe tease him for that one.
Cody should be glad, probably, that they’ve had the chance to grow old.
“Where’s Wolffe?” Cody asks.
“Supply run. What’ve you got today?”
Cody shrugs. “Probably coordinating with the vode near Lothal. I know Bridger’s been pushing for that.”
Rex tosses a two-finger salute to someone across the room, even as he says, “Syndulla and her crew should be checking back in sometime today.” Then, “Strange to see a padawan again, eh?”
Cody laughs, because it’s better than crying. He tries not to think about how much they’ve lost, these days. “Commander Tano was far worse than Bridger.”
“You haven’t heard about that time he got trapped in an old supply station with two Inquisitors.”
Cody shakes his head, clearing his tray. Rex stands slowly, then strides across the hall with him. Cody cracks as he walks, limbs still thick with muscle but bones that click and ache now. They’re not the only clones in the Rebellion – there’s many of them, in fact, but a lot of them choose not to fight. Rex and Cody and Wolffe are still here, though, Wolffe as leader of his Wolf Squadron and Rex and Cody as commanders. They’ve built something here, something that will remember the clones as more than just traitors. Something that will remember the clones, at all.
Cody has lost much, but he has Rex, and Wolffe, and Gregor and Boil and Kix, and most days, that is enough.
“Commanders!” Someone calls. “Commanders!”
“Suppose they’re talking to us,” Rex sighs, and stops, turning. “Yeah, cadet?”
“Officer,” the kid corrects, and salutes. “Captain Kallus requires your presence in the briefing room, as soon as possible, sirs.”
“What does Kallus want today,” Cody mutters.
“Thanks, kid,” Rex says, elbowing him. “Dismissed.”
The kid salutes again and then turns, running through the halls of the Great Temple.
Cody nods at Andor as they walk, and greets Boil, who’s heading out soon. He and Rex go through the bay on their way to the briefing room – Wolf Squadron’s back, but still finishing post-landing – and by the time they’ve gotten to the dim room where Kallus conducts his intelligence operations, they’ve already gotten an earful of all the necessary information for the day.
“Report,” Cody says almost on instinct, shutting the door behind him. Then, “Morning, sirs.”
General Dodonna’s there, as well as Delto, Zavor, and – surprisingly – Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus.
“When did you get in, General?” Rex asks with a smile, completely ignoring the Jedi Knight. “We didn’t see you arrive.”
“Just got here,” Syndulla says, barely containing a grin. “The kids wanted fresh food.”
“Nice to see you too, Rex,” Jarrus adds, rolling his eyes.
Rex says, “Oh, didn’t see you there,” and then pounds Jarrus hard on the back.
Cody snorts. Little brothers never change.
Kallus clears his throat. “If we could?”
Jarrus and Rex grasp each other’s forearms, and then they all turn to the Rebel leaders, switching back to soldiers.
Kallus starts, “Today at 0700 we received a Fulcrum transmission from Ahsoka Tano. She’s been off the grid for a while so we ran it through standard security precautions and as far as we can tell, it’s real.”
Rex is gripping the table, knuckles white. “What’d it say?”
Kallus exchanges a look with Delto. “That’s the thing. We think it’s a code phrase of some sort, but it doesn’t match anything we know.”
Jarrus, who’s leaning over the table, makes some kind of noise. “Oh, this is old Jedi code.”
“Can you – ” Kallus sighs. “Not read the classified reports?”
“It’s right there,” Jarrus says, and then closes his mouth as Syndulla levels him with one of her glares. He clears his throat. “Anyway, it is. For when Jedi Shadows would come out of long term undercover missions.”
Zavor tilts his head. “Makes sense. Tano’s been out of communication for a while.”
“Maybe,” Jarrus replies, but his face says he isn’t sure.
“What’s the rest of it?” Rex asks.
“Tell them we’re coming home,” Dodonna’s aide reads. “Then a request for clearance to land at,” she glances at her watch, “1100 hours.” She pauses. “And then the last sentence says, take glory by surprise.”
Dodonna turns to Delto and Kallus. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Cody can almost feel the embarrassment radiating from them. He exchanges an amused look with Syndulla.
“We’re – not sure, sir,” Kallus says, and shifts his weight. “It’s rather obscure, actually – it may just be a platitude – but it is strange how she worded it.”
“And how did she word it?” Dodonna asks.
Delto’s the one who speaks up. “’Take kote by surprise’,” he reads. “Our translators picked up that – ”
“Hold on,” Cody says. He corrects the pronunciation. “Kote. That’s Mandalorian, for glory. It’s.” He stops, and Rex puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a version of my name.”
Rex mutters, “What’re you playing at, vod’ika?” Then, louder, “Guess we’d better get out there then, yeah?”
“Wait,” Dodonna starts.
“Come on, sir,” Rex says, and looks at him. “It’s Ahsoka Tano. You’ve already cleared her, haven’t you?”
Dodonna holds a hand up. “I was simply going to say, Commander, that I want her reporting back to me as soon as she’s off that ship.”
Rex’s shoulders relax a little.
“Yes, sir,” Cody replies, for the both of them.
Syndulla and Jarrus follow them out, talking quietly to each other.
“Yes,” Syndulla says. “Tell the kids.”
“It’s just that Ezra will probably really want to see her, and I don’t have the clearance to tell him that.”
"Kanan, I know for a fact you’ve already commed him.”
“Well yes, but – ”
Cody and Rex snort in unison. Jarrus jokingly kicks at the backs of their heels.
Ezra and Sabine meet them outside the Temple, near the landing zones. The young Mandalorian has dark roots now, purple hair brushing past her chin, and Ezra wears his lightsaber proudly on his belt, head held high. The two teenagers greet Rex enthusiastically, and though they’ve known Cody for less time, he still gets squeezed into a hug.
"Wolffe!” Rex shouts, and the man breaks off from his group near their ships, a herd of pilots following along behind him. It’s funny to see grizzled old Wolffe in his dark fatigues, leader of his squadron but all of them looking at least a decade younger. When he pulls of his helmet, revealing a thick white beard, Cody notes he’s got a smile kicking around his mouth – probably instigated by the design his squad has added to their helmets, not unlike the insignia of the Wolfpack during the war.
“What?” Wolffe asks Rex and Cody. “Some of us have jobs, you know.”
“Commander Tano’s landing in a few minutes,” Rex tells him. He whacks his vod on the shoulder. “Look lively.”
“Ahsoka Tano?” One of the pilots asks, a bright-eyed young Twi’lek. “The Jedi?”
“You know,” Ezra says. “I’m a Jedi too.”
Sabine rolls her eyes. “You’re a padawan, Ezra, there’s a difference.”
Sabine and Ezra bicker like they normally do, and Jarrus involves himself just because he thinks it’s amusing. Syndulla’s got that fond smile on her face, and Wolffe’s squadron are watching with wide eyes.
“Why so secretive?” Wolffe asks in an undertone, shifting his helmet to his other arm.
“We’re not sure,” Cody responds, and then catches sunlight flashing on a small starship’s belly, high above, just touching through the atmosphere and circling in order to approve clearance. Coming in fast, too, because Tano was taught how to fly by General Skywalker himself and of course she inherited his recklessness. “There she is.”
"Kih’vod’ika is coming home,” Rex says.
"Yeah, Rex,” Wolffe replies, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with him, the three of them leaning on each other like they’re back on Kamino, back in the war. “She is.”
Rex taps his comm. Now that Tano’s on-planet, she responds, and her holo pops up at Rex’s wrist.
“Hey, Rex,” she says. “Kanan there?”
“All of us are,” Rex replies, and smiles. “Good to see you.”
“You too, ori’vod.”
“What’s up, Ahsoka?” Jarrus calls.
“Your padawan’s about to have a new friend,” Tano says, and grins. She taps something on the holo, just as the ship begins to descend towards the base. “Hey, Rex, tell Cody to breathe, ok?”
Jarrus glances at Ezra, hope in his face. Syndulla puts an arm around his waist, and he leans into her. Ezra hasn’t noticed yet, but Wolffe and Rex are tilting their heads at each other. Has Tano finally taken a padawan?
Cody kind of feels like he’s missing something important.
The ship that lands is battered and beat-up, and Tano is the first person off. She doesn’t look much different, despite the fact it’s been two years since she disappeared into a Sith Temple. Her lekku are longer, and she wears white robes, but more than that is the smile on her face. She looks happy, happier than Cody’s seen her since before the Republic fell. She darts down the ramp and throws herself into Rex’s arms, leaning down a little because she’s always taller than they think she is.
“Hey, Cody,” she says, and reaches over to knock her forehead against his, then against Wolffe’s. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Yeah, we heard,” Cody replies dryly. “Though I’m not sure why you had to be so vague about it.”
Her face turns less mischievous, more soft. “Didn’t know who might be listening. You’ll see. Just – breathe, ok?”
From the doorway comes a boy, probably about Ezra’s age, with dirty blond hair and blue eyes and a lightsaber, belted around a short tunic. His face is familiar.
“Meet Luke Skywalker,” Tano says, loud enough that Syndulla and Jarrus, and Ezra and Sabine too, can hear her. “My new padawan.”
Cody’s shocked – though not as shocked as he really should be, since Skywalker and the Senator were one of the worst-kept secrets in the GAR – but still not sure why the kid warrants so much secrecy, until he catches sight of the man walking behind him. Cody grips Wolffe’s arm painfully tight, because he knows that silhouette, and he knows that man is dead.
“Ahsoka,” he hears himself say very calmly, because Cody is good at being calm.
“Yeah, Cody,” Tano whispers. “It’s him.”
Cody steps forward, dazed, like he’s seeing a ghost. The man coming down the ramp is older and sun-worn, hair white as a shock and beard less clean-cut than it used to be, but his eyes are as blue as they were the last time Cody saw him. He wears full-length robes now, and his ‘saber still hangs at his belt on the same kind of clip Cody used to carry. Cody can feel the moment he looks up and catches sight of them, because his mouth twists into that hesitant smile. That’s all Cody needs.
Tackling his former General is admittedly not the best course of action, and he can hear at least one person start shouting, but Cody doesn’t really care. Obi-Wan makes an oomph as he hits the ramp, but otherwise doesn’t object. Instead, he reaches up and touches Cody’s face, hand shaking as it wanders past the scar around Cody’s eye, up to the graze on the side of his head from the removal of his chip, even years ago as it was.
“Cody,” Obi-Wan says. It’s the first time Cody’s heard him speak in seventeen years. “We’re too old to be doing that anymore.”
Cody closes his eyes, and he presses a kiss to each of Obi-Wan’s cheeks before pulling his forehead in. Obi-Wan maneuvers them to a position seated next to each other and then wraps his arms around Cody, draws him close. Cody wants to climb inside him like ivy seeking the sun; he wants to never let him go, never forget this warmth.
“Ner jetii,” Cody says hoarsely. “Cyar’ika. I thought you were dead.”
“So did I,” Obi-Wan responds. He closes his eyes. “When Ahsoka found me, told me about the Rebellion and Caleb and – and everything, she mentioned you. It was all I could do not to leave then and there.”
Cody glances back, where Luke and Ezra and Sabine seem to be taking a shine to each other, where Syndulla has her head tilted against Jarrus’s shoulder with a fond smile, where Rex and Wolffe are poking Tano in the side and making her laugh. Wolffe’s squadron are very obviously watching Cody and Obi-Wan, and they all find reasons to look away when Cody levels a glare at them.
“All that matters is you, here,” Cody says, and leans in to kiss Obi-Wan. “Come on. You have people to meet.” As they both slowly get to their feet – tackling him had been a bad idea, Cody admits to himself, and he’s going to have some bruises tomorrow – he says, “Always the Skywalkers, eh?”
Something deeply sad flickers over Obi-Wan’s face, before disappearing. “Yes,” he says quietly. “Always the Skywalkers. You’ll like him, Cody. He’s got so much of her in him.”
Cody is, then, reminded of all they’ve lost. He says, “Ni ceta.”
Obi-Wan’s eyes are still strong and fierce. He hunches, a little, but somehow, even still, in the sunlight he looks like a Jedi Master of old. He says, “I’m sorry too, Cody.”
Cody tilts his head, and he accepts it. He’s old enough to know that they are both apologizing for the same thing. He grips Obi-Wan’s hands. “Mhi solus tome.”
He means it softly, and reassuringly – we are one when together, because he had mourned the loss of a General and a friend and he had moved on, but how nice it is when the world gives just a little something back. Yet he forgets that Obi-Wan knows Mando’a, and the jetii’s face goes mischievous, an old man’s cackle. “Would you say the rest, dear one?”
Cody almost chokes. “What?”
“Mhi solus tome,” Obi-Wan says. “Mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.”
“Kriffing hell,” Cody replies, and hopes he doesn’t cry again. “I forgot how completely and totally insane you are.”
Obi-Wan laughs, a beam of living sunlight, and some kind of weight slides off his shoulders. When Cody repeats the words back – the marriage vows, because that’s what they are, and his jetii is crazy but Cody doesn’t mind having physical, tangible proof that he won’t disappear again – Obi-Wan brightens even more.
“Damn it, Tano,” Wolffe says as they approach. “Do you know how kriffing gross they’re going to be now?”
Cody reaches out to smack him, and Wolffe ducks away with a snort as Tano laughs.
Rex says to Obi-Wan, barely containing some kind of smug grin, “Good to see you, sir.”
Sabine, though, is standing next to Ezra and Luke with wide eyes. She takes a deep breath, and then asks, “Did you guys just get married?”
There’s a brief moment of silence, and then everyone starts shouting.