Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Cody had never liked water much. Not even as a drink. Camino had taught him the rough sides of the wet element. He disliked rain, waves, Oceans, everything wet.
He gulped a bit, while he and his Men flew over a planets deep ocean, the water so dark blue, it was nearly black. The next shore was nearly an hour away from them and he knew he would be happy to be out of this little transport ship and back on land.
But it was not only the ocean that made him uncomfortable. It was also his General, who eyed him down, the sharp teeth showing on one side.
Cody looked away, he couldn‘t stand the look on his generals face, knowing that the last Missions changes in Plan were his idea and not so good at all. He wasn’t even allowed to do that. He was the Commander, but not allowed to do anything.
The mission was a normal routine Stuff for the clones. A town on this planet was sieged by the seperatists and it was, of course, their job to free the place, which was harder than they all thought.
Their General, Pong Krell, hadn‘t lifted a finger to help his clones and wanted them to went straight into the city to attack the droids, which was a suicide mission for them, to use the normal route into the city, because they had no cover.
And, in order to save his brothers, Cody had altered the plan behind his Generals back, to make their chances to succeed a bit higher.
It worked Codys way, but it blew their position pretty early and General Krell had to fight with them, what pissed him off very very much and he nearly killed Waxer in Rage, who was simply asking for more Ammo.
Waxer was still scared and in some sort of shock, General Krell was still pissed and Cody was just waiting for that bomb in him to explode.
Krell let go of the handle and turned to the commander, who was ready for a tongue-lashing.
„WHAT was THAT Commander?“ Krell yelled at him and the clones behind Cody flinched all hard and even stepped back as much as they could in the small room, without falling out of the open side of the ship. The door was blown off during the battle.
„The mission was the priority!! Not YOUR Life!!“
„I have to disagree, General!“ Cody said back harsh and took his helmet off.
„The plan was suicide! Half of my Men are Dead because of it! We should have chosen the side track from the beginning.“
„Are you saying my Method of dealing with fights is wrong?! Don‘t forget your Place CC-2224!“ Krell pushed his thick fingers against Codys chestplate and growled low in his throat.
„My Name is CODY! We might be Clones Sir, but we are not simple cannon fodder!!“
„Yes you are! ALL OF YOU!!“ Krell looked around.
„All of you are Numbers! All of you are replaceable!!“
Cody growled and bit his tongue to not enrage his general even more.
He cursed silently. Why? From all Jedi Generals they could end with, why did they ended up being under this guy? How was a heartless man like Krell even a Jedi?
Why not General Plo Koon? Why not General Kit Fisto? Okay that had involved a lot of water missions but better than this! And why not General Skywalker? Cody knew from Rex that Skywalker was kinda, no completely banthashit insane, but he cared for his men. Rex had told Cody storys how Skywalker went out of his way so many times to save them. His General would never do that. Krell would let them all die and would even complain to remember the numbers all over again.
„If you EVER change my Plans again Commander, there will be very unpleasant consequences for you!“ Krell continued and turned away.
„Why not Skywalker...“ Cody mumbled to himself, but sadly loud enough for his general to hear him.
„What did you just said?!“ he turned back to the Commander, who got pale and stepped back.
„N...Nothing Sir, I said nothing...“
„So you wanna be in a different unit?! Wanna be with the softboy and good for nothing Skywalker?!“
„He, at least has a heart!“ Cody said and looked at his brothers, all in shock about his answers.
„So, you wanna be more free? Or at least away from me, do I understand you correctly?“ Krell asked running the second right hand over his chin, while looking at Cody, who said nothing anymore.
„Treated like a human being?“
Cody still said nothing and could feel Boils Look in his back. Even without looking or hearing, he felt Boils silent plea for him to stay quiet now.
Krell made a sound, he always did when he was thinking before grabbing Codys Arm, pulling on him, until he let go of his handle.
„So you wanna be Free?!“ He said again, lifting the commander up, like he had no weight and then let him hang out of the broken door of their Ship.
Cody looked at his General, fear started to grow in him and all his brothers looked in shock, unsure what to do.
„You know Boy, the ocean makes no differences between human and clone!“ Krell said loud against the loud wind.
„It let all drown and its creatures feast on every cadaver they can find.“
The General smirked at Cody, seeing the fear in his eyes.
„So, be like Everybody CC-2224, we will get a good and loyal replacement for you.“ He laughed and let go of Codys arm.
In a high speed Cody fell, the water coming closer, the wind howling around him and panic rose to its maximum as he plunged into the ice cold water.
He hold back the reflex to gasp as he sunk under water completely. His panic and Adrenalin were rushing through him and he needed a moment that felt like an eternity to remember how to swim. But as he figured it out again, he reached the surface soon and gasped for air.
Looking up, he saw the ship already far away from where he was and the panic rose more in him. He was left to die here in the ocean. Even if he would be the best swimmer in the entire clone army, he would never make it back to shore. He would get hypothermia and drown or would just simply die because of wild animals underneath him in the waters.
His blacksuit would not hold the water back forever and sooner or later he would feel the cold there as well and not only on his face.
His wounds, he got from the last battle would open again, if he moved too much and would sting badly when the salty water reaches them.
Cody shook his head. He had to calm down at least a bit and try to reach something.
He would most probably die here, but he would at least try.
The soft waves were pushing him in a direction and so Cody followed it, swimming slowly, to save his energy for as long as possible.
While the water was really really cold under him, the suns started to burn down on his head. This planet had two Suns and both shined equally bright and hot.
Cody wasn‘t sure what was worse? The icy water that reached his skin now and made him gasp again or the burning suns who heated his head up and made him slowly but surely dizzy.
His swimming became more and more slow, and most of his movement were by the waves who still pushed him around. He knew how to crawl and was doing it the whole time but the more time went by his swimming was more the movement of a dog.
Cody waved his hands through the water as if he could grab it, as if he could hold on anything, but there was nothing but the cold deep ocean around him.
A bigger wave crushed over him and Cody was now under water again.
That helped a bit against the burning heat on his head but also made him unoriented. The water burned in his eyes, he had no idea where the surface was or how deep he was.
Even though it burned, he opened an eye and let air escape from his mouth. The bubbles would show him the right way to the surface again.
While he tried to get up again, he registered a movement in the water. Something had found him. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was but something moved around him. And it seemed that there were more.
More creatures were around him and Cody, out of reflex reached for his blaster, but remembered that it was on the ship and also, that he really needed to breath again.
He forced himself to ignore the creatures around him in the water and started to swim again.
This time, he tried to be fast. He had nothing to lose anyway but he didn’t wanted to die in a painful way, mangled by, whatever was there in the water and was clearly following him. He could feel something brush his left boot and he tried to kick at it, but no chance.
Whatever it was, it was too fast for him.
Cody tried his best to escape the creatures, but he was getting too weak. He was swimming for hours now and he reached the end of his energy. His cold body was getting stiffer and every muscle in him protested to go any further.
“Kriff...” He gasped and gave up, as his armor pulled him slowly under water and the cold suddenly didn’t bothered him anymore. It was strangely welcoming now. He opened his eyes under water a bit, to at least see the creatures who would kill him now. At least he thought they would, but all he saw in the blue sea were cute looking creatures, with big dark eyes, dog like noses and whiskers. They came closer to him, one even softly poked Codys face with its nose.
Cody smiled weak and let his weak body sink deeper. At least he saw something cute before he died.
The creatures followed him down and he could see something taller between them, something more human shaped and then something grabbed his arm, pulling him closer.
Codys vision was about to turn black completely, but he could see a man, holding him. Long brown hair and deep black eyes.
Cody couldn’t see anymore, his vision turned black completely and he gave up. The sea could have him.
But it was not the end. As Cody opened his eyes again, he still felt a bit cold but he wasn’t wet anymore. He wasn’t in the ocean but in a bed, next to an old stove heater, who was burning some wood, which cracked quietly in the flames.
The commander sat up a bit. Where was he? Looking around he saw, he was in some sort of cabin or better a cottage. The place was painted white but the paint was already peeling off of the walls in some spots, it smelled like fish and salt water and he could hear the ocean outside.
The door of the room opened and an old woman, dressed in a poorly stitched up dress entered the room. She carried a small tray in her shaky hands and smiled as she saw him awake.
“Good morning, pretty boy. Finally awake?” she laughed and sat down by the bedside, handing him a steaming cup with, what smelled like soup.
Cody took the cup, but didn’t even dared to drink from it.
“Who are you? Where am I?” He asked and she smiled at him.
“At my house, pretty boy.” She said, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“My children found you in the ocean and brought you here, so I could take care of you. Luckily you weren’t wounded badly, just really cold and you swallowed a lot of sea water. You can call me Granny, everybody does that.”
Cody raised an eyebrow and looked around in the bedroom.
“Drink. You slept for nearly three days. And it will warm you up.” Granny said and got up.
“I got you some clothes, your strange black suit is still drying and your armor...well most of it, the sea got, but my children saved a few pieces, pretty boy.”
“My Name is Cody.” he informed her and she giggled.
“Pretty boy fits you better.”
She left him alone. Cody sat there with the hot cup in his hands and took a sip. It was a fish soup, not is favorite but at least it was warm and filled his empty stomach a bit and he didn’t wanted to be unthankful to that old woman, who let him rest for so long in her house and in her Bed. Or is this a bed of one of her Children? Cody couldn’t hear anyone in the house.
As he finished his fish soup, he felt a bit better and got up. This old woman really stripped him naked and on a chair she left him, next to his underwear a brown shirt and a pair of pants, both made from linen.
The shirt was a bit too big for him and he couldn’t find any shoes or even socks, but he was sure to find his boots somewhere in the house.
He opened the old wooden door and went to the lower floor. There was a small kitchen area, a long table with a few chairs around and a big fireplace. His armor plates lay next to the fireplace, but his boots weren’t there.
Slowly he went outside. The two suns were shining bright again and the sand under his feet was really white and hot.
The cottage was directly at the ocean in a small bay. Behind that bay was a tropical looking forest and a small path lead from that forest into the bays white sand and down to the water.
The old woman was nowhere to see and Cody took his time to look around.
Behind the house was a washing line and on it, was his blacksuit. At least he found that.
Cody was still confused about the “Children” the woman had talked about. There were no footsteps in the sand and the house was empty.
“Where is everybody...where am I?!” Cody asked loud, stepping away from the waters as the waves came closer. He had enough from the water.
Wandering through the hot sand for a while, he saw the old woman coming out of the forest carrying two big buckets in her hands, filled with water.
Cody was directly by her side and took the buckets from her to help her.
“Oh so nice of you.” She smiled as he took the weight off of her.
“For what do you need that?” He asked and carried the buckets to her house for her.
“Well, as you can see, we only have salt water here and you can’t drink that.” she explained.
“So I have to carry these to the little well in the forest, every day.”
“You do that? Can’t one of your Children to that for you?”
Granny laughed a bit.
“If they had Hands and feet, I’m pretty sure they would do that.” She said and led him around the house. By the washing lines where a few beds with plants in them. Cody guessed vegetables and Granny took a cup from the ground to water these plants a bit.
“What do you mean if they had Hands and feet?” Cody asked confused and Granny laughed, pointing at the ocean.
“These are my children.”
Cody looked up. The cute creatures he saw in the ocean came out of the sea and laid down in the sand for sunbathing it seems.
“What are these…?” Cody looked at them. Nearly a dozen of these creatures came into the bay to bathe in the sunlight. Some small, some taller, some were gray and others nearly black and one between them was brown.
“I mean they are cute...but are they dangerous?”
Granny laughed, got up and went to the creatures who made barking like sounds as she came and they moved closer to her, to get pet.
“These, my dear are Seals and no, they aren’t dangerous, if you are friendly to them that is.” she explained, petting the belly of the brown one.
“They carried you here to my place. You lay on Obis back the whole journey through the ocean.” Cody came closer, got down on one knee and looked at the brown seal who looked at him with its big black eyes.
“Thanks for...saving me...” Cody said to the animal and the seal barked happily.
“What did you do in the ocean anyway?” Granny asked.
“Besides from drowning...”
“I was...thrown out of my ship...by my...General...”
“So you are a trooper?” Granny looked up to him and sighed.
“A clone trooper. So thats what they all look like...your ship must be in the town.”
“How far is it?” Cody asked, looking at the path that led into the forest.
“A few hours. But you shouldn’t go there now. The Soldiers locked every entrance and the general is a mean mean Man. I was trying to get in and he threatened to kill me, if I wouldn’t leave...called me a separatist spy...” She continued to pet the seals for a moment.
“Besides, if they threw you out, I’m sure they will not be very happy to see you again. Guess they wanted you to die...”
“My...My general wanted me to die...” Cody mumbled, still petting the seal.
“You know, you could stay here. I always need a helping hand.” Granny said with a smile.
Cody wasn’t so sure if he should smile because of this. He didn’t had a choice right now.
The first few days in his new Life were weird. Cody had no idea how to catch fish, how to make a fire the oldschool way or how to take care of vegetables in a garden. He was lucky that granny had so much patients with him.
He spend most of his time with a fishing rode at the small rack, catching, whatever he could. It was weird and also strangely peaceful to have such a normal and kind of easy Life. On one hand he wanted back. As a clone he had to fight for the republic. Fight and die for it, but on the other hand, thanks to Krell, he kind of was dead in the republics eyes.
And he knew is general, he would either say that he died during battles or as a traitor.
Cody shook his head and looked out over the water. He was dead and this was his afterlife now.
He still wasn’t that good with his fishing rode, but luckily for him, he got help from the Seals, who shared their Fish with him.
“You guys are saviors in more than one way.” Cody laughed, stroking over the round belly of one of the seals, while two others put fishes in the small bucket, he had brought with him.
Cody looked in. Enough fish for the day. He still wasn’t a big fan of Fish, but it was the best and easiest way to get food. Sometimes he even found clamps and they really tasted good.
With a soft sigh, Cody got up, took the bucket and went back to the cottage.
Granny was cutting vegetables, sitting in her favorite chair and he sat down next to her into the sand and started to clean and gut the fish.
“Whats on your mind?” She asked after a while in which they just sat there and worked.
Cody sighed a bit.
“A few things are on there… Mostly… how I can thank you for this… new life.”
Granny giggled a bit.
“Then… Its weird to be free for once, was made to fight and die for the republic… not to have a life and a free will and anything like that…”
Granny was quiet for a moment. She stopped cutting and looked out at the ocean.
“Everybody deserves to be free...” She then said.
“Clone or not, you are a human and not somebodies property. The republic really loses it when they see people as things.”
“There are millions of us… They don’t care about anyone…”
“Then be lucky that you got away from that.” she looked back at her Veggies, but giving him a smile first.
“Anything else, you have on your mind?”
“Yeah actually, there is one last thing.” Cody admitted, gutting a fish and putting him in a cleaner bucket.
“As I was in the ocean… nearly drowning… I’m sure I saw somebody.”
“Somebody?”
“A man… with black eyes...”
“You do realize that you was about to drown.” Granny remembered him.
“I’m pretty sure you just hallucinated at that point, because of the lack of oxygen…”
“Yeah maybe…” He sighed a bit, but smiled up to Granny.
“But it would be nice to be saved by a pretty merman or?”
“Oh yeah.” She giggled a bit and got up.
“Be a dear and get us some fresh water from the well, so I can start preparing the dinner.”
Cody got up and cleaned his pants from the sand.
“Sure thing.”
But now that Cody had remembered it, the mysterious merman, he thought he saw, didn’t left his mind anymore.
He was lying in bed that night, awake and staring at the ceiling, listening to the sound of the ocean, as something else was to hear.
Somebody was singing.
He sat up and looked out of the window. One of the three moons was full this night, its silver light was shining over the sea, the sand and over the person, that was sitting in the sand.
Now Cody was curious to know who that was. He went out of bed, quietly sneaked downstairs and out of the cottage. The sand under his feet was really cold, same the wind that blew over the beach and yet the person sitting there was naked.
It was a man with shoulder long hair, that shined almost red in the moonlight. He was sitting on a pelt or a blanket, Cody wasn’t sure what it was.
As he came closer the man stopped his singing and looked over his shoulder towards the clone. His bright blue eyes widened a bit, as if he was surprised to see Cody, who was just standing there now, staring at that beautiful young, bearded man.
The man got up slowly, covering his Body only barely with the pelt of a seal that he had sat on. A smile appeared on his lips and he reached for Cody, opening his arms and without realizing what he was doing, Cody walked closer to that mysterious man, getting in his embrace, his mind strangely numb now, while the man lead him towards the water.
Cody followed like a loyal puppy. His thinking had stopped almost completely. All he wanted was to stay in this warm arms and maybe kiss these soft looking lips.
The man seemed to read his mind or knows what to do, because he leaned closer, kissing Cody.
The kiss tasted weird at first. Like saltwater, fish and other things, Cody couldn’t identify right now, but he couldn’t care less. It was weird but it felt so good.
So good in fact that he didn’t even realized that he was up to his waist in the ocean already. The waves softly hit his naked upper body, but he didn’t cared. Everything on him was too focused on this salty but sweet kiss.
He would have followed this man deeper into the water, but all of the sudden something or better someone pulled hard on his hair, breaking the kiss and letting Cody stumble backwards into the water.
The cold shock woke all his senses again and as he got up again, coughing up water, he saw Granny standing there, a lamp in her hand, looking at him all worried, but the beautiful man was gone.
“Wha… What happened?” He coughed, but she only gave him a worried look.
“You are choosen…”