Chapter Text
CC-2224 had been with the Empire for four years when the dreams started. They were... unsettling. But they didn't affect his performance, and there was nothing in the directives about reporting dreams. After all, clones didn't have soulmates.
But then why did he have that gray and black mark on his chest like a soulmark?
The most unsettling part was being able to think, to breathe, at least in the dreams. At first he didn't recognize the other person or their surroundings, but he always woke up content and ready to perform his duties. And yet, all they did was sit quietly, almost always just cuddling or drinking tea.
Each time the programming keeping him under control, wiping any form of personality, eroded just a little bit, until one day...
“Oh, Cody, I wish this were real.” The other man sighed, tracing CC-2224's scar wistfully.
“Me too.” CC-2224 couldn't help his response. This was so peaceful he wanted life to be like this. But he was never meant for this sort of life.
“If only I could figure out why I keep having these dreams... Maybe it's because I've never been able to understand why you turned on me, Cody.”
CC-2224 tried to formulate a response, but the dream was already fading.
Cody woke up with a gasp, sitting up, hand to his head as it throbbed. He remembered everything. That room they were in in the dream... that was General Kenobi's quarter's on the Negotiator. But he was supposed to be dead. Vader had a weird obsession with finding him, sure, but there was no way the general, that Obi-Wan had survived that fall.
And yet... Obi-Wan was talking like he was the one who was dreaming. Cody shook his head and dragged himself off of his bunk to start his daily routine. More than four years of muscle memory carried him through his usual routine without falter. By the time he was around anyone else, his bucket was in place and no one would be able to see any thing wrong with his expression. In that it was not blank.
He was grateful for the years of muscle memory, as it allowed Cody time to process, to think, without giving a thing away. He still remembered the last four years, though they were as if through a fog. As if it weren't really him. So his last real memory before the dream was handing his general back his lightsaber, returning his attention to the battle, getting a call... and then he was gone.
He started going through his memories of the last four years, trying to find any hints of what had happened to him. To all of the clones. Why had they betrayed their Jedi? Why had they turned and killed every single Jedi? Snippets of conversation slowly came to the surface. Something about chips, in the brain. Warning signs that the medics were to look out for and report.
Cody had to be careful. He couldn't be decommissioned. He had to know if Obi-Wan was actually alive, if it was possible their dreams were soulmate dreams. If they were, why had they not happened before? He had to escape. And it wouldn't be easy. Darth Vader liked to keep Cody around and would notice if Cody fled.
What was up with Darth Vader, anyways? Cody banished that thought as unimportant for now. His priorities were different.
1. Adjust to life now that he was in control again, now that he had somehow broken through his programming.
2. Figure out how to escape
3. Find a place to lay low
4. Figure out those dreams and if it means that Obi-Wan was alive.
.
It took him most of a month before he adjusted enough to start planning his escape. In that time he had the dream three times. He never got up the courage to say anything to Obi-Wan, just enjoyed his time, mostly cuddling. It wasn't like Obi-Wan was talking either, for the most part.
But he wasn't sure if these were just dreams, or if they were soulmate dreams. If they were soulmate dreams, it both made sense and didn't that they happened so rarely. They weren't supposed to be every night things, though stories liked to portray them that way. But he didn't think they were supposed to be less than once a week either.
At this point, Cody had a good idea of where he wanted to go. Tatooine was an ideal place, Vader was rumored to hate the planet, so he would just send others after him not go there himself, and a lot of different sorts of folk hung out on Tatooine. He would hopefully be able to blend in alright out there, but he'd have to be careful.
With a destination in mind, he really had to start planning his escape. He didn't think he'd be able to get anyone else out, not when he was still so uncertain of what was going on, what had been controlling him. And while Cody could stick around, he couldn't stomach the idea of being around everyone with them so blank. So much like the flesh droids others had called them during the war. No personality.
And that was without getting into what the Empire was doing. No, Cody couldn't start some sort of undercover op, especially without any support. He needed to get out. If he didn't have the hope of his soulmate being Obi-Wan, of Obi-Wan actually being alive... He wasn't sure he'd do more than try to go out in some sort of suicide mission. But if Obi-Wan was alive, was his soulmate, then he had to try.
It took him another month to settle on a plan, and some additional days to be ready to execute it.
Obi-Wan was cuddling with Cody in his room on the Negotiator, idly drinking some tea.
“I'm about to do something stupid.” Cody said suddenly. “I hope I see you again.”
“Oh, dear Cody, you will, this is just a dream after all.”
“Is it my dream or your dream?”
Obi-Wan laughed at him, not really considering the remote possibility that they were sharing this dream.
Cody woke up suddenly, taking in a deep breath. That laugh could have been his subconscious laughing at him, or it could have been Obi-Wan not thinking they were actually dreaming together. But... at least he'd kind of warned Obi-Wan.
Today was the day. There was to be an inspection. And everyone was rushing around as usual, aside from the droid like clones. Cody went about his usual role, waiting. He purposefully messed up while the inspector was watching, got scolded for being defective, and sent to the medics. Perfect.
Rather than go to the medics, Cody just went to the hangar, changed into a pilot's jumper, took one of the ships that had just been inspected, and took off. Everyone was too frantic on inspection days to fully pay attention to who was taking off. And they never assigned clones to that duty, as it was too important to trust to mindless droids or something. They also generally assumed that if someone was taking off, they had permission. Who would be dumb enough to do so without permission on inspection day?
Cody would. He grinned widely as he entered hyperspace with no one following him. He was free of the Empire. He was a bit worried about the chip taking control again, but he'd been paying closer attention. The Empire didn't think that they could keep wiping those who showed signs of breaking control, as apparently they were just breaking it faster with each wipe. Which meant there was a good chance that since he was fully free, he would never face it again. He'd have to take precautions in the future. But. He was Free.
He pulled out of hyperspace, then started plotting a course for Tatooine that would hopefully be hard to track. He was never going back to the Empire, and he would just lay low, find some odd jobs to do. He was looking forward to life that was not on the run. To starting over.
.
Cody spent several days picking up odd jobs, figuring out new clothes and how to disguise himself. Thankfully, no one seemed to recognize him as a clone. He let his hair grow out, feeling a bit weird about it no longer being regulation cut, but he'd noticed that how someone wears their hair made a difference. And maybe if it got long enough he could use that to hide his rather distinctive scar a bit when he didn't have make up or other options.
What he didn't know was that someone had found and reported the fighter he had used to get there, so the Empire knew where he was. It took them three weeks to get to Tatooine and start razing the place under (distant) direction of Vader, who was happy to have an excuse to get rid of the place once and for all, not that Cody was aware of this. He had no clue Vader was Anakin Skywalker, that Vader had kept him around because he liked having Cody under his control, having something of Obi-Wan's where Obi-Wan couldn't get him. And then Cody escaped to his least favorite planet in the galaxy.
Cody wasn't even aware they were invading at first. He'd gone to a different city for better work. And he was enjoying it, kind of. Then the Empire marched on the city. He fled, panicked, the way they came, knowing they were not going to be likely to sweep the areas they had already searched beyond basic patrols once things were settled.
At least he'd had a chance to build up supplies. He had a bag of food, clothes, everything he needed. It wasn't ideal, but he could survive. He wasn't sure what he would do, but he had heard rumors of others living off the land. He could learn to do that until he could find a way off the planet. If the Empire was here after him, they had no way of knowing that he had actually stayed on planet after all. And if they weren't after him, well, all the better to wait until they had reached the usual sort of occupation the Empire did where those left didn't always do the greatest job vetting everyone. If they stayed at all way out here in the outer rim.
And so he fled into the desert. Eventually he came to a smoking farm, drawn to it. Something told him he had to stop here. So he did. The building's were collapsed, there was a lingering fire. He could smell burning flesh. Those who lived there were dead from the fire. He winced. This was probably his fault. It looked like it had been most of the day since the Empire was here. He had carefully skirted their army as he fled the town, evading notice on old war instincts.
Then he heard whimpering. His eyes widened. Cody set down his bag and scrambled into the wreckage, listening carefully. There. Crying child, it sounded like. He found the source of the sound, pinned behind a fallen wall, that being the only thing keeping him from being burned like his family. Cody pulled the wall away.
The child gasped and lifted his head revealing a tear stained face. He flinched away, huddling in fear. Cody crouched down.
“Hey, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not with the Empire. My name is Cody. What's yours?”
“L-Luke.”
“Okay, it's nice to meet you Luke. Are you hurt?”
He nodded.
“Where?”
Luke pointed to his leg.
“Can I look?”
Luke frowned at him, then nodded hesitantly.
Cody smiled then took a look. He found a few burns on the leg, and it looked like it was bruised, no worse than fractured. Just to be sure, he splinted it until he had a better chance to get it taken care of.
“Why don't we get out of here, how does that sound?”
“Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen are dead, aren't they?” Luke sniffled.
“I'm afraid so, kid.”
“Oh.” Luke threw himself into Cody's arms, sobbing
Cody fell back and held the kid, making soothing noises and rubbing his back. He hoped that what worked on grieving siblings during the war worked on kids. He didn't know any other way to comfort. Once the kid fell asleep, Cody stood and carried him over to the backpack. He laid out the bedroll and carefully laid the boy in it. It was almost night, anyways.
He kept an eye on the kid but checked the wreckage for anything they could take along. He found a better bag to carry his supplies in, and a smaller one he decided would be for Luke to pack some toys and small sentimental items to keep.
.
Luke woke up before the suns rose, confused. The smell of smoke had memories flooding back and he started crying without tears. The arm around him tightened.
“Sh, sh, I've got you,” the voice of the man from yesterday soothed him. “I'm sorry you lost your family.”
Eventually Luke stopped crying and pulled away. “'m hungry,” he mumbled.
“Okay.” Cody pulled out some of the food he was able to salvage. “What do you want?”
Luke pointed quietly.
Cody prepared it quickly and took a small portion for himself. He waited until Luke was mostly done eating. “How old are you?”
“I'll be five soon! Less than a month!” Then Luke's face fell. “We were planning a fun day but now we can't.”
“I'm sorry, Luke. That's hard.” Cody sighed. “And we can't stay here. I don't know if the Empire will be back or not.”
“Okay. Aunt Beru said that if anything ever happened to her and Uncle Owen to go find Crazy Ben. He lives by the Wastes.” Luke said as if reciting something he had heard repeatedly.
“Then let's do that. Do you want to ride my shoulders?”
“Can I?” Luke asked enthusiastically, brightening. “I don't have to walk?”
“I'm not going to make you walk when you have an injured leg. Now let's find see what we can find that fits in this bag.” Cody held up the little backpack he had found. “And that's what we'll take with us for you to keep.”
It took a good hour before they were ready to set off. Luke in the meantime was quiet and subdued mostly, but sometimes he was babbling about how to protect from the sands when he noticed that Cody didn't have adequate protection for being out like they would be. Cody was grateful for the help.
Protection from the suns and sands in place, and as much water as they could carry on top of their other supplies, and Luke had his little backpack on. Cody lifted the boy onto his shoulders and started walking. They remained silent for the most part.
Luke was still exhausted and grieving, and occasionally complaining of pain from his leg. Cody did his best to soothe him and comfort him while they kept moving. At least he'd remembered to check on the burns earlier.
After two hours of walking, they could see a man approaching on a speeder. Cody squinted at him.
“What do you think, kid? Is that Crazy Ben, or should we hide?”
Luke leaned forward, hands now covering Cody's eyes as he tried to get a better look. “It has to be him, he's the only one crazy enough to be out here Uncle Owen says. I think it's him... I see his beard and the robes look familiar...”
At this point, it was too late to try to hide, so Cody just braced himself. “Alright.” He carefully moved Luke's hands up to his forehead so the kid could keep holding on safely but Cody could actually see.
The speeder came to a stop. Ben jumped out, a look on his face so familiar that Cody nearly stumbled.
“Put Luke down,” he said lowly.
Cody didn't hesitate. He did not want to make Obi-Wan, it had to be Obi-Wan, any angrier. “He's having trouble walking right now,” he said as he put the kid down. Luke clung to him for balance.
Ben eyed him suspiciously but came over and picked up the kid when Cody made no move. Luke clung to him babbling about how nice Cody had been, about what happened to the farm and so on. Ben listened with half an ear but didn't move his eyes from Cody.
“Now that you have Luke, I suppose I should be on my way.” Cody's heart ached, seeing Obi-Wan so suspicious of him. But he deserved it, considering the last time Obi-Wan saw him he had ordered him shot down. At least Obi-Wan was alive. Maybe those really were soulmate dreams. But... he didn't deserve Obi-Wan, not after everything.
.
Obi-Wan, no he was Ben now, stared at Cody. This was definitely Cody. He may have covered up his scar and grown out his hair, but it was without a doubt Cody in the Force as he was before something twisted his presence and he tried to kill Obi-Wan. Why was he here?
Luke continued telling him about the scary men who burned down the farm when Uncle Owen didn't give them an answer they liked, how he'd been told to hide, and how he heard blasters after the fire started, and how he'd stayed hidden until Cody found him and took care of him hours later.
“Now that you have Luke, I suppose I should be on my way.”
That broke Ben out of his thoughts, seeing Cody turn away to walk off into the desert. He shifted Luke so that he was resting on Ben's hip. “Wait, where are you going? Why are you here, Cody?”
Cody shrugged, biting his lip and not even looking at Ben. “Fleeing the Empire. Tatooine seemed to be the best place to lay low after I heard that Vader hates the planet. I didn't expect them to come after me, nor did I expect to find you here, at all. I just wanted to help Luke when I realized there was a survivor.”
“Thank you for taking care of Luke.” Ben stared at Cody some more, knowing that Cody didn't, couldn't know that Vader was once Anakin. “And what made you decide to flee the Empire after siding with them?”
Cody flinched, stepping back. “I... I'm not sure what happened. I was CC-2224 for a long time, then I woke up as myself for the first time in more than four years a few months ago. I've overheard talk of control chips, but that doesn't explain much about what happened.”
Well, actually, that would explain a lot. Ben considered that. He remembered the report from Fives, though it had gotten buried and forgotten. He remembered how each of the troopers felt twisted and Dark in the Force out of nowhere.
“I'm sorry Obi-Wan,” Cody whispered before he started walking away, head lowered.
Ben couldn't let another person walk away from him. Not so soon after seeing him again, not after learning that Cody didn't want to betray him, none of the troopers wanted to betray their Jedi.
“Why don't you come to my place, at least for a bit? It'll give you a better chance of survival, compared to wandering the desert alone.”
Cody froze, mid-step. He turned, eyes wide, unable to form words.
“I mean it, Cody. I think we have a lot to talk about, at least, before we part ways.”
Cody swallowed, and nodded. “Alright.” He rejoined them, Luke beaming to see his rescuer joining them and climbed into the speeder. Ben passed Luke to him, and then headed back to his hut. He didn't use this speeder often, but he had wanted to be prepared, just in case. He had worried that the Empire had learned about Luke, but it seemed that they were just after causing as much harm to the planet as they could, after Cody fled. This had to be Vader's doing, sore after losing Cody. Or so Ben assumed.
The ride to his hut was silent. When they arrived, he took Luke once more into his hut and looked around. He grimaced. He was not prepared to take care of a little boy, or host another person. But... if Cody was sticking around at all, maybe he could convince Cody to help him build another room so that there was more room for Luke to grow.
Cody looked around the room curiously as he set his large pack down. It was relatively bare, very modest. About what he expected from Obi-Wan, really. Even almost five years later.
Ben quickly got something together for Luke to snack on, then took a look at his leg. Cody had done a good job, nothing he wouldn't have done himself. He just added some bacta from his supply and left it. With Luke occupied by toys and food, he turned to Cody.
“Thank you for getting Luke out of there before I could get there. He's more important than you could have known. His last name is Skywalker.”
Cody's eyes widened and he stared at Luke. Now that he was looking for it, he could see some resemblance between the almost five year old and Anakin. With hints of Padme in there. “So that's why you're here of all places.”
Ben chuckled. “That's why I'm here of all places,” he agreed. Then he sighed. “I'm going to have to build more room, this hut is really only meant for one person, not one person and a growing boy.”
Cody nodded awkwardly. “Uh... what happened to... his dad?”
Ben visibly winced. “Anakin Fell and became Vader.”
Cody stared, then swallowed. “Ah... I underestimated his hatred for this planet then.”
“Indeed. Are your plans really no more than lay low?”
Cody shrugged awkwardly. “I had thought to see if I could find you, if the rumors were true and you were alive, but mostly I just wanted to be sure I was free of the Empire before making any other decisions.”
“Then you might as well stay here as long as you're laying low. It'll help you figure out what you want to do, and I could use the help with Luke. I wasn't prepared to have to take him in, so I'll need to readjust all my plans for the next several years. Having another person here would help.”
Cody stared at him. “If you're okay with that,” he said hesitantly.
As Ben got up to wipe Luke's face clean he patted Cody's shoulder. “You just answered several questions that I've never been able to answer, including why your Force presence changed right before trying to kill me.”
“Oh. So... I didn't feel like me anymore.”
“You did not.” Ben confirmed before focusing on Luke.
.
They spent the next few days settling into a routine. Cody mostly kept an eye on Luke while he did the bulk of the work on digging out the new room, with Ben consulting the Force to be sure they weren't about to bring everything down on them. Ben went about his normal routine, making adjustments as needed.
Luke adjusted, and though he had nightmares and was still grieving, he was still a mostly happy boy with them, only occasionally lashing out. They celebrated his birthday when it came up, and then went right back to their new routine.
Cody had a few more soulmate dreams over that time, but he never said anything to Ben. He didn't want to scare him off by saying anything too soon. Would Ben even want him for a soulmate? Cody was pretty sure he'd already had a soulmate, he'd caught a glimpse of color on his chest more than once but never pried. He knew more than one soulmate was possible, but Cody couldn't replace someone else.
No, better to at least wait until he was more settled, until Ben stopped jumping every time he entered a room. And that was assuming he actually told Ben that he thought they might be soulmates. Cody had loved his general, thought maybe the feelings had been returned. He still loved Ben, but there was no way Ben could feel the same way anymore. So no matter how hard it hurt, Cody was prepared to walk away once it was time. As soon as Ben told him to go, he would be gone.