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Despite Alpha's grumpiness, Obi-Wan was excited to work with the Bad Batch again. Of course, he could understand his Commander’s attitude, since the last time they’d met, the Batch and a few of their ARCs had turned their mission into a competition for who could take out the most droids with the most over-the-top maneuvers, but Obi-Wan thought it was good for morale.
So yes, he was happy to work with the Batch again.
He and Alpha were waiting in Docking Bay 22 for the Marauder to land, chatting lightly about the goings-on of their men. Well, Obi-Wan was chatting. Alpha was facing the bay opening, giving an occasional monosyllabic response to the particularly interesting things his General said.
“I understand the Batch’s elusive Commander will be joining us this time,” Obi-Wan said. “Do you know anything about him?”
He was bemused to see Alpha's entire body perk up, except for his face, of course, which remained a study in indifference. “Their Commander is coming?” he confirmed.
“Yes,” he drawled. “I presume you know him?”
Alpha grunted, though the sound seemed lighter than usual. “I do,” he said. “But his story is not mine to tell. You’ll have to ask him.”
“Can you at least tell me his name? I’d like to give him that respect when I greet him,” Obi-Wan asked as the Marauder slid through the shield.
Alpha paused for a moment, his eyes trained on the shuttle. “Cody,” he finally said. “His name is Cody.” And with that, he strode forward.
Obi-Wan followed his Commander, even more perplexed than before. How special this “Cody” must be, to earn such eagerness from the normally gruff clone.
The ramp dropped down, and the Batch descended. Tech and Crosshair came out first, their argument continuing without a hitch as they dodged Alpha and Obi-Wan. Wrecker came down next, his exuberance making the ramp buckle and bounce. Finally, Hunter exited with their Commander, and Obi-Wan got his first look at Cody.
Immediately, he was confused. Commander Cody looked like a…what did the Batch call them? Ah yes: Commander Cody looked like a “reg.” The only thing that made him different from the so-called “standard clone” was the scar curved around his left eye. Otherwise, he looked like someone had taken one of the Two-Twelfth and dropped them into the Batch’s red and gray armor.
He put that out of his mind and stepped forward. The Commander instantly came to attention in a crisp salute, and Obi-Wan tried not to frown at Hunter and Wrecker following a millisecond behind. Evidently, the boys thought their previous relaxed behavior wasn’t appropriate now their Commander was present, and Obi-Wan wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“General Kenobi, Clone Force 99 reporting in!” Commander Cody called, eyes perfectly set in the middle distance. The others must have heard because Tech and Crosshair quickly filled in on either side of the three and saluted as well.
“At ease, gentlemen.”
All five flowed smoothly into the new posture.
Before Obi-Wan could think of what else to say, Alpha spoke up. “Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch, kid.”
Cody tilted his head, his whole face relaxing into warmth as he looked at his fellow Commander. “How could I? Your barking still rings in my ears even after all these years.”
Alpha actually laughed , then pulled Cody into a hug. “You couldn’t tell me you were coming?”
Cody thumped the older clone on the back. “And ruin the surprise? Never.” He and Alpha separated, and Cody turned to his men. “Alright, you lot, get going. I’ll find you for the briefing later.”
Obi-Wan relaxed completely at that, his earlier concerns about this new Commander being unnecessarily harsh relieved. From just that short interaction, he could tell that Cody ran a tight ship for some things, but was easy-going in others, which Obi-Wan himself had found to be a necessary balancing act in a good leader.
As the rest of the Batch left the bay, Obi-Wan reached out a hand. “Commander Cody, good to meet you. I can already tell we’ll get along splendidly.”
Cody grasped his forearm in the Vode tradition and raised his scarred eyebrow. “Oh? What makes you say that?”
Obi-Wan grinned. “Anyone who can get one over Alpha like that is the kind of person I’d like to know.”
Cody grinned back, just a little lopsided and all the more charming for it. “I think I’d like that, General.”
In the briefing an hour later, Obi-Wan was even more impressed with the new Commander. Cody was thoughtful, yet decisive. He took suggestions from his team and was able to pull together most of what they said into one cohesive plan, one that should work wonderfully with the men of Ghost and their talents.
After, Cody left with the rest of the Batch to settle in since they still had more than a cycle’s journey left. Obi-Wan watched him go, noting how his men followed him in loose formation, comfortable with their leader even as they showed more traditional military discipline than he’d ever seen from them.
Behind him, Alpha sighed. “I should have seen this coming,” he said.
Obi-Wan dragged his gaze away from the Batch and looked at his Commander. “What’s that, Alpha?”
“I should have known you two would get along.”
“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Obi-Wan asked, his tone light with humor.
“On your own, you give me headaches.”
As he’d become used to with Alpha, Obi-Wan filled in the rest. Together, it’ll be even worse . He just grinned. “Why Alpha, I have no idea what you could be implying!”
The clone just slowly closed his eyes, the most drama he allowed himself on a daily basis.
Luckily for him, Obi-Wan’s comm chimed. He pulled it out and saw it was a holocomm from Anakin. “Once again, you have the Force’s timing, Alpha,” he said even as he turned to one of the small conference rooms off the bridge. He stepped inside, the door swooshing closed behind him, answered the comm, and put it on the table so the receptors could catch more of him. “Anakin! What did you do now?”
His former Padawan just rolled his eyes. “Very funny, Master.”
Obi-Wan waved a hand. “You know I’m just teasing, young one. To what do I owe the honor of this comm?”
“We’re heading out on a long campaign, and the planet apparently has spotty comm connections, so I wanted to check-in before that,” Anakin explained.
He immediately softened, wishing they could meet in-person so he could really see how his Padawan was doing. Still, he could tell through the holo that he was exhausted. “I’m sure everything will be fine, Anakin. How are you doing, though? You look a little tired.”
Anakin looked at him in disbelief, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes a little wide. “Your talent for understatement knows no bounds, Master. Besides, we’re all tired – we have been for almost three years now.” He shook his head, like he could get rid of his fatigue that way. “Anyway, tell me how you’re doing. You look like you’re in a good mood.”
Even though he wouldn’t be able to tell through the holo, Obi-Wan fought down a blush anyway. “It’s nothing special, we just have another mission with the Bad Batch.”
Anakin raised an eyebrow in an expression Obi-Wan had seen in the mirror many times. “The boys of the Batch definitely bring the fun, but you wouldn’t be so…squirmy if it were just that. So what gives?”
Obi-Wan sighed. He knew his Padawan would find out what was going on somehow, so he might as well tell him. “I finally met the Batch’s Commander,” he said.
The eyebrow lifted higher. “Oh? And what makes this Commander so special?”
Obi-Wan shrugged, not wanting to give too much away. “He seems capable, and he clearly cares for his men. He’s also been very pleasant so far.”
“Pleasant,” Anakin repeated. “ Very pleasant, even. Oh Master, have you finally found someone who can charm as well as you can?”
As his Padawan broke into just-this-side-of-too-boisterous laughter, Obi-Wan could only wait patiently for him to be done. If he thought of sparkling eyes and a crooked grin while he did so, then that was his business.
He got his answer as to Cody’s mutation within the first minutes of their mission on Takodana. They’d landed on the far side of the planet from Maz Kanata’s castle, looking for the ruins of the former Jedi Temple. The Batch was assisting because they’d received intelligence that the ruins had been booby trapped by several generations of the pirates that called Takodana home. Obi-Wan wouldn’t be surprised if Maz had put them up to it as a twisted kind of protection for the remnants of the Temple.
They’d landed the shuttles on the far side of the lake, electing to swim across rather than risk tripping some kind of sensor with the ships. It wasn’t a long swim, and thankfully all clones were trained to swim in their armor or the whole process would have taken much longer.
The surprise came when they reached the other side. Obi-Wan was standing on the shore, wringing out his tabards, while he looked around to check on the men. A couple were grumbling about being soaked, but he knew their blacks were designed to dry quickly, so he didn’t worry too much about that. He turned his attention to the Batch, and blinked in surprise.
Cody had gills. Three slits on each side of his neck that Obi-Wan swore weren’t there before. The Commander reached up to press water out of his hair, and Obi-Wan saw that his fingers had grown webbing between them too. At that point, Cody noticed Obi-Wan staring and made eye contact, showing eyes that refracted more light and curved out from his face just enough to be noticeable.
Yet even as Obi-Wan watched, all of those traits disappeared. The gills sealed up, the webbing melded with nearby skin, and his eyes shrank until they were as before. He looked like a reg again. A reg who was carefully watching Obi-Wan’s reaction, his whole face shut down and guarded.
Obi-Wan smiled gently and nodded once. Cody relaxed and nodded back. He turned back to his men.
“Okay, Tech, tell us what’s in there,” he said.
Tech carefully unzipped his waterproof bag and whipped out a pad. “Just as our sources told us, the ruins are surrounded by traps,” he reported absently, never looking up from the screen. “The closest to us seems to be…”
About two hours later, they made it inside the Temple. So far, everyone had made it through the traps, although they seemed to get deadlier the farther in they went. Still, some troopers’ armor had been damaged, including Cody’s. His chest plate had taken a beating, cracking jagged down the middle after it was hit by a crude arrow of all things. He was lucky it hadn’t punctured his blacks, let alone gone any farther.
According to Tech, the next trap was some kind of laser field. He got out his padd to try hacking it, but before he could even turn it on, it was blasted out of his hands, tumbling to the ground with a circular burn hole right through its middle.
Everyone immediately scattered, scrambling backward to try to get out of the lasers’ range while staying just inside the range of their own weapons.
Everyone, that is, except Cody.
Instead of doing the sane, rational thing, Cody stayed within the beams’ reach, even moving more into the field to get a better vantage point to shoot them down. For just a few never-ending seconds, Obi-Wan watched, heart in his throat, as more and more lasers recognized easy prey and aimed at the Commander. He was just about to jump back in and start batting them back with his saber when one found the exact same place the arrow had found before.
“No!” Obi-Wan cried out, his voice joined by several others. He couldn’t help but notice, though, that none of the Batch yelled. They seemed unconcerned as they kept destroying lasers one by one.
After a moment’s breath, Obi-Wan could see why.
Cody was not taken down by the shot to the heart. In fact, it didn’t seem to faze him at all. He just rocked with the momentum and continued to shoot, just like his team.
Obi-Wan decided to wonder about the details later, and pulled all of his focus back to demolishing the laser field.
Just a minute later, they were done. And Obi-Wan and all the Ghosts stood in silence, staring at the Commander as he strolled back to them. His chest plate wasn’t the only damaged piece anymore. It looked as though every part of his armor was broken in some way, ragged holes all the way through his blacks showing just how deep the lasers penetrated. Yet through the holes, they didn’t see skin.
They saw armor. Interwoven plates of silver metal where skin should be. And as they watched, it vanished, submerging slowly until only brown skin remained. Just like the gills Obi-Wan had seen earlier.
Cody finally made it back to them and stopped, swinging his blaster up to his shoulder and cocking one hip. He looked around, his expression shut down again like it was by the lake. Then his gaze landed on Obi-Wan, and he grinned that unfairly charming asymmetric grin.
“Well? Are you coming?” he said, eyes shining again with confidence and good humor.
And how could Obi-Wan say no to that?