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Orange forest as far as the eye could see. They were just ahead of the coming winter season, managed to destroy the base before the snow started. Struck down while the vast trees of the forest planet were cheering them on with their beautiful colors and aiding their attack by shielding them in rain that rusted and forced the droids to slow.
It was quite an enchanting view, for men who lived their entire lives in the gray gloom of Kamino, to see only mild showers. The spell only lasted until the ships landed and the soft ground swallowed them up to the knees in mud.
Cody’s General laughed softly as he slid in the mud. The tree trunks were covered in this dark red moss, everyone commented about it looking like Kenobi’s hair, they weren’t wrong but it was getting tiring.
The 212th was in the air and heading back to the Negotiator when the season betrayed them.
The treacherous winds of this planet's coldest months created too much turbulence, Cody fell out of the gunship thinking "Can't anything ever go my way?"
The landing was rough, waking up was even worse. He was welcomed back to consciousness by the aching pain of a piece of shrapnel lodged in his side. He took it out quickly, the wound began to bleed, and only then did Cody realize his medkit wasn't in his belt.
He stood up roughly and looked around, spotting his comm stuck in the lower branches of a nearby tree, he stretched to grab it and ended up groaning when it hurt his side, he applied pressure to the wound and kept going.
He wasn't wearing his helmet, but that was nowhere to be found. As he walked around, a trickle of blood fell right into his eye. He must have a head wound as well. He felt around his hair and found it to be small enough to not take priority.
Cody was able to find his emergency medkit in a bush nearby, the opening was busted and he struggled to open it with one hand applying pressure on his wound. Spotting a nearby rock, he used the jagged edge to pry it open.
Adding bacta to his head, his side, and covering his fresh wound in bandages, Cody felt much better to start his search for a clearing, somewhere his comm would work. He forcefully shoved the rock into the ground with a frustrated sigh, chose a direction, and began to walk.
The trees were similar, sure, but paying close attention to them was all Cody needed to be guided through the forest. He even saw some trees showing signs of disturbance, he might have fallen (crashed) near to where they already were before they tried to leave.
Which made the fact that he ended up at the same place the jagged rock was incredibly disorienting.
He wasn't lost, he wasn't going in a circle, so what was he doing here again?
Ok, no, he just fell from the sky. Most likely he did get confused, nothing a redo couldn't fix. Cody chose another direction and continued walking.
Right back to the rock protruding slightly from the soil in a manner that seemed taunting to Cody’s confused mind.
This wasn't only impossible, it was ridiculous, how is he so lost?
In the back of his mind, something told him he should stay put since clearly, he is in no shape to find his own way around, he ignored it in favor of the much louder side of his brain that was as stubborn as the rock in the ground. He chose another direction.
This time he made sure the trees he chose to follow were different, displacing the leaves and soft dirt as he walked.
His boots crunch the leaves underneath, Cody pays attention to his steps. That's how he hears another set of footsteps.
He falters, not too much, he keeps walking and pretends he hasn't noticed, but they're there.
It might be a droid, he can deal with that.
Except he suddenly finds himself at the stupid jagged rock again. How!?
The rustling is definitely there, he sees someone at the corner of his eye. Letting instinct take over he grabs the rock and throws it behind him.
He falls, the pain in his stomach he'd mostly forgotten about made itself known when he bent over.
Cody turns to see who he just threw a bloodied pointy rock at and looks up to see Obi-Wan Kenobi grabbing it from mid-air where he stopped it with the Force. He's relieved to see no threat but confused to see him there.
"General, what are you doing here? You're-"
"I know I'm not supposed to be here." His hair is graying at the temple, more than he thinks he's ever noticed, is it the way it contrasts with the trees?
The General helps Cody up and sits down at a nearby upturned log.
"Where am I supposed to be?" He asks Cody rather distractedly.
"The Negotiator? "
"Cody, listen, I can't keep this up." He motions for Cody to sit down next to him. "I don't know how long it will last, it's unstable, not to mention it's never worked before."
Cody sits down next to his General, well, now he's not even sure if this man is his General. There's something wrong with him. He tries to get comfortable on the upturned log and winces when his injury moves wrong, the man notices.
"Oh dear, you were walking around like that?"
Cody sneaks a glance up and their eyes meet. Obi-Wan's eyes are overtaken by a deep sadness that scares him for a second, "What are you doing here, Obi-Wan?" He repeats his question.
The Jedi sighs and looks away at the sky. "I wanted to see you again. For the last time, I guess."
Cody takes deep breaths and processes the sentence. "Why won't you see me anymore?" To Cody, it sounds like he's about to be left on this planet to die.
(He wouldn't die… Also, they wouldn't leave him)
(Hopefully?)
"Don't worry, you will see me again," His gaze doesn't leave the sky. "See him again."
"What?"
"Cody, I'm not from here, I'm not currently here," The Jedi turns to face him, "I was trying something with the Force."
"The Force?" He was starting to feel like he's not catching something important.
"Ideally I would be able to stay here, but I tried and it won't let me." He runs his hand through his hair. "Believe me I tried."
"The Force won't let you stay on this planet?" Cody was rapidly gaining more questions than answers.
"Ah," He quietly laughs, like a private joke, "In the past."
Cody decided to just stare at him. The longer he held eye contact the more the Jedi seemed to soften.
"It's been a couple of years for me, and I found a way to look back."
"And you wanted to talk to me?"
"I did."
"So, I'm not," He chooses his words carefully, "Around. In a couple years?" Cody refuses to say the future like it's a tangible location.
Obi-Wan shakes his head. "No one is."
"You're alone?" The Jedi nods and it raises another question for Cody. "So why would you come to see me? Not Commander Tano or General Skywalker."
"I can't see Anakin." The sadness in his eyes and the tone of his voice tells him he could but he won't. "And this is only the first time I've been able to reach you at an appropriate time for talking."
Appropriate, he runs his hand through his forehead and feels the blood there, yeah sure. "If you are from in a couple years, something bad will happen?"
"Regrettably," He stands up and leaves sand behind. He notices, closing his eyes in the way he always does to check something in the Force. "I'm fine for now, I'm still here."
"General, what's going to happen? I could help you preve-"
"That won't work. You will not remember me when I leave."
"That's unsettling." Cody hates knowing something happened to him that he cannot remember.
The General sighs and kneels in front of Cody to rearrange the bandages in his abdomen a little better. "I'm here for selfish reasons, Commander."
"You're lonely."
He finishes his work and looks up at him. He finds something in Cody's eyes that makes him lean in for a hug, "Guess I am."
"I don't think I've ever hugged you." He gently sets his hands on the other man's back and the clothes feel gritty, his hands move away from the man coated in a thin layer of sand.
Behind him, he hears a strong wind rustle the leaves.
"You better hug me then, the me in the ship." They hug tighter. "He needs it."
"Are you leaving?"
"I have to." He moves away from the hug. The Jedi cups his face with his palms running his thumb over Cody's scar and plants a kiss on his forehead.
"Take care."
"You too, old friend." There's movement behind him, he turns around on instinct, Obi-Wan’s hands leave his face. When he turns back there's no one there.
There's a hand on his shoulder, it's one of his men. He says something but Cody suddenly feels way more lightheaded than before.
He rubs the tips of his fingers together as they take him to the transport but he can't feel the sand. He gets on the transport and he can't remember what he was supposed to feel, was he looking for something?
They take him up to the Negotiator, all the way to the medbay.
General Kenobi is at the entrance. Cody stops to give him a hug.
The General laughs but quietly asks him if he's ok. Cody tells him he's sad and passes out.
When he wakes up, he sees Kenobi reading something in a chair next to his bed in the medbay. "Oh, look who's up!" He puts the datapad down and sits on the foot of his bed. "You were very friendly before you passed out."
"I hugged you didn't I?"
Kenobi laughs, "You told me that I'd made you sad. I asked if you were fine, you said yes and immediately went down."
"I only vaguely remember that." He checks his stomach for the injury and it's still there, he then wonders what he did that for. "I remember being mostly ok waiting for the men to arrive and then nothing."
"Cody, you fell from the sky."
"And I was mostly fine for a while."
“You did hit your head on the only rock there, no permanent damage they said.”
“Just my luck.”
“Oh, someone grabbed it for you, actually.” He reached into the floor for a satchel. And pulled out the fucking jagged rock. “You passed out near enough the clearing we had settled in that the men found you easily.”
Cody hummed, “When I was there, it felt like I spent hours walking. I was probably concussed. I feel like maybe I hallucinated a little.”
“What did you see?”
Cody sighed, he turned the strange and unfamiliar red-stained rock in his hands. “I… don’t remember anymore.”