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“Take me to see Captain Rex,” Cody demanded, injecting the full weight of his command experience into his voice.
“We don’t have a… oh!” The Corrie in front of him said, “is he the blond one they found in the lower levels? CT-7567?”
Cody clenched and unclenched his fist, forcing himself to stay calm. None of this made any sense - Rex had no reason to be in the lower levels at all, and the fact that he apparently had to be picked up by the Coruscant Guard… “That Captain Rex, yes.”
“You’re his CO, right?” The Corrie asked.
Among other things, Cody thought, but he merely dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment.
“Commander Thorn wanted to talk to you,” The Corrie continued, “so if you’ll just wait a moment-“
“How about this,” Cody interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest, “you take me to see Rex now, and Thorn can come and join me whenever he’s ready.”
“Um…”
“Now, Trooper,” Cody snapped. “Tell Thorn that Fox has my private comm number if he’s got a problem with it.”
“Errr… okay,” the trooper said hesitantly. “This way, sir.”
Cody wasn’t sure whether it was better or worse that his escort led him to the Corrie Medbay, rather than the holding cells that he had initially been expecting. On the one hand, it made marginally more sense that Rex hadn’t been answering his comm all night if he had been injured, but on the other hand…
“You must be here for the Captain,” a medic said, looking Cody up and down with a slight frown on their face. “Come with me.”
Cody nodded, trying to ignore the knot of anxiety tightening in his chest as the medic led him towards one of the private exam rooms.
“Have you talked to Commander Thorn yet?” The medic asked, coming to a stop in front of the door.
“I want to see Rex first,” Cody said firmly. “Whatever Thorn wants to say can wait.”
The medic sighed, but swiped their access card to open the door anyway. “I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but I’m not in the mood to argue.”
Cody brushed past them, only to freeze the moment he laid eyes on the figure lying on the biobed.
Rex appeared to be sleeping, his bare chest swathed in bandages and his hair so dusty it looked grey, but it was the stuncuffs encircling his wrists that caught Cody’s attention.
“Take them off,” Cody demanded. “I don’t care what happened, take them off.”
“I can’t,” the medic said, apparently unfazed. “Standing orders from Commander Fox.”
“What the fuck kind of standing order involves cuffing his baby brother to a biobed?” Cody snapped, shifting into a defensive stance between Rex and the medic. “He’s unconscious, for kark’s sake, there’s no reason for any of this!”
“The kind I would have explained to you if you had talked to me first,” Commander Thorn said, stepping into the room beside the medic. “Commander Cody, I presume?”
“Explain, then,” Cody said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Thorn glanced over at the medic. “Artery? Do you want to start us off?”
Artery nodded, pulling out a datapad as Cody turned to glare at them instead. “Captain Rex appears to be at Blackout Level Three, in addition to the cracked ribs and a sprained ankle. I administered a light sedative about three hours ago after the patrol brought him in, and restrained him as per blackout protocol.”
“And?” Cody demanded, glancing between the two of them. “What the hell is ‘Blackout Level Three’?”
“That’s the fun part,” Thorn said drily, “we don’t know.”
Cody felt something twist painfully in his chest. “What do you mean, you don’t know? How do you have a protocol for something you don’t know?”
“More correctly, we don’t know the root cause or where it’s coming from,” Artery explained. “We’ve had several instances of vode either not remembering certain things, losing large amounts of time, or having pretty severe injuries they can’t account for.”
“Level One is the mildest,” Thorn continued, “where the vod in question is confused and disoriented, but responds to questions and seems to recognize individuals they would know.”
“Level Two is more severe, where the patient refuses to answer questions or be diverted away from whatever task they’re doing.”
“And Level Three?” Cody asked, frowning.
“Level Threes are completely non-responsive to outside stimulus,” Artery said grimly, “including, unfortunately, pain. They will do whatever they can to complete their objective, even to the detriment of themselves.”
“And then what?”
Thorn shrugged. “Most of the time, we don’t find out until afterwards, so I assume it goes away once the objective is completed.”
“Otherwise I’ll try and knock him out and hope he sleeps it off,” Artery said, setting the datapad aside again. “I’ve run scans, but nothing seems particularly abnormal, even for Level Threes, and there’s nothing else for us to go on.”
“Actually, that’s where we were hoping you could help us out a little,” Thorn said. “This is the first time it’s happened to a frontie, and since Fox said you’re… close… with Captain Rex, we’d like to see if we can narrow down where these blackouts are coming from.”
“Let me get this straight,” Cody said, shooting a glance over his shoulder to where Rex was still asleep, “your men have been experiencing random, unexplained blackouts where they’re trying to complete mysterious objectives and that often cause them to be injured, and you have no idea what they are, why this is occurring, and who is giving the orders. Not only that, but the only solution you’ve come up with is to strap them down, drug them, and hope for the best?”
“That about sums it up, yes,” Thorn said. "I've only had it happen once or twice myself, but we've all been there."
Cody sucked in a breath, then let it out again. “Fine. How long until-“
The sound of movement behind him caught his attention, and Cody spun around just in time to watch Rex twist his wrist at an unnatural angle, heedless of any discomfort as he struggled against his restraints.
"Rex'ika, don't," Cody begged, falling back to his cyare's bedside to place a hand on Rex's shoulder. "Don't do this to yourself."
"He can't hear you," Artery said, shaking their head as they prepared a hyposyringe. "Not really."
Rex let out a soft growl in the back of his throat, his attention entirely focused on the hypo in Artery's hand.
"I might need you to hold him steady," the medic warned, "and you'll need to be careful. He's a lot stronger than you think he is."
"I'm sorry, Commander," Thorn added, giving Cody a sympathetic smile as Rex tried in vain to wriggle out of Cody's grip, "we can handle it, if you want to step out for a minute-"
"No," Cody said firmly, "I'm staying right- hold on. I have an idea."
Artery raised an eyebrow. "You know the longer it takes for the drugs to kick in, the more chances he'll have to hurt himself."
"I know," Cody murmured, sitting down on the side of Rex's bed, "but I owe it to him to at least try."
"It can't make things much worse," Thorn said with a shrug, taking up position on Rex's other side, "unless you're saying you can't manage a few extra bruises."
Cody missed Artery's response, focusing his attention entirely on Rex as he had done so many times before. Rex would be mortified later, if he ever found out Cody had done this with an audience - of vode he didn't know, no less - but it was still better than the alternative.
"You're safe, Rex'ika," Cody murmured softly, cupping the back of Rex's head to bring their foreheads together. "Focus on the sound of my voice and the warmth of my hands, cyare. The memories cannot hurt you while I'm here."
He braced himself for the response - and the concussion Rex could easily give him if he tried - but nothing happened.
Cody opened his eyes slowly, pleased to find the faintest spark of recognition staring back at him in Rex's otherwise blank expression.
"You're alive, you're safe, and I'm here, Rex'ika," Cody whispered. "No harm can come to you while you're safe in my arms."
Rex blinked, pulling away ever so slightly. "Cody?"
"Yeah, cyare, it's me," Cody breathed, relief washing over him. "You with me?"
"Not really," Rex admitted, dropping his gaze. "I'm… getting there."
Cody nodded, leaning in to plant a gentle kiss on his lips. "Take as long as you need, Rex'ika. We're in no rush."
"You know," a voice said from beside them, "I never tried kissing Fox to snap him out of it. Maybe I should have."
"Well I'm not going to do it," another voice said as Cody belatedly remembered they had an audience, "but you're welcome to try."
"Cody?" Rex asked, glancing between his partner and the cuffs around his wrists. "What's going on? I don't… Where are we?"
"Coruscant Guard Medbay," Thorn said, giving him a tiny wave. "I don't suppose you remember how you got here?"
Rex shook his head, glancing back towards Cody. "I… we were going to meet for dinner, but Skywalker wanted me for… something first. Something important, but I can't remember what, exactly."
"Why don't we get those cuffs off," Artery said, reaching down towards Rex's wrist, "and then we can talk."
Rex nodded, still looking uncertain. "Did I hurt someone? I don't- nothing makes any sense and… did I break my ankle??"
"Badly sprained, actually," Artery said without looking up, "and as far as I know, none of the troopers who brought you in were injured enough to tell me about it."
"The Guard found you on the lower levels," Cody explained, "and when you were acting strangely they brought you here. Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened."
"Pretty much," Thorn agreed, "although this is the first time we've seen it in a Frontie."
"That's not particularly reassuring," Rex said, flexing his fingers experimentally as Artery took a step back from the bed, "especially since the Seppies shouldn't have much influence here."
Thorn and Artery shared a long glance before Thorn coughed awkwardly. "I should let Fox know you're out of Blackout and see if Powershell has made any progress with the security footage."
"And I have other patients to attend to," Artery added. "I'll be back in an hour to see how you're healing up, but yell if you need something before then."
Cody nodded, waiting until they were alone before he pulled Rex into a hug. Rex smelled of sweat, blood, and the unmistakable stench of the lower levels, but it didn't matter to Cody, not when he finally could feel the warmth of his cyare against his chest again.
"I assume I'm late for dinner, aren't I?" Rex murmured, his practiced fingers locating the seals on Cody's armour with ease.
"Only by about fourteen hours," Cody replied, reluctantly sitting back on the bed so Rex could take the armour off his chest. He hadn't meant to sound quite so bitter - this was hardly Rex's fault, after all - but he hadn't slept in well over a day and it was supposed to have been their day, dammit-
"Fourteen-" Rex started, his eyes going wide as the realization hit him in full. "Fuck. I missed it, didn't I?"
"It's not your fault," Cody said immediately, taking Rex's hand and giving it a squeeze. Regardless of his own frustrations, he wasn't about to let Rex blame himself for this, not when he was the one who had been used like this. "We're still on Coruscant for another few days, maybe if we get lucky we could still go out for dinner somewhere…"
"Yeah…" Rex said, swallowing hard before he looked up at Cody again, "but it won't be the same."
Cody sighed, letting himself fall gently back against Rex's shoulder. "I know it won't. But an anniversary dinner a day late is still better than either of us being deployed."
Or worse, Cody added silently.
"I suppose," Rex said, shifting slightly so Cody could fit on the tiny biobed beside him. "I just… Skywalker knew we were going out toni-last night. He knew I had plans with you and he promised the meeting with the Chancellor would be short, and yet…"
"You were meeting with the Chancellor?" Cody asked, pulling Rex closer against his chest. "You didn't mention that before."
Rex shrugged. "At least, I think it was the Chancellor - everything from yesterday is so fuzzy it feels like it happened last year instead of last night."
"Walk me through it," Cody said, slipping his arm around Rex's side so his cyare was leaning on his shoulder. "Tell me everything you remember and maybe we can piece it together from there."
"You texted me," Rex murmured, closing his eyes as he tried to recall. "You texted me a picture of the suit you were going to wear and asked what time I would be off duty."
Cody nodded. "I remember. Where are you when you get my message?"
"In a speeder," Rex continued, his hand pressed against Cody's chest. "Skywalker is driving, and we're heading towards the Senate building."
"Did Skywalker say why?"
"He… wanted the Chancellor to meet me," Rex said, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Something about wanting to prove a point? I'm not sure."
"All right," Cody said, pushing away the possibilities forming in his mind for the moment, "do you remember getting to the Chancellor's office?"
"I… remember parking the speeder on the landing platform," Rex said hesitantly, "and… the Chancellor said something about being impressed with my service record despite my… defects."
Cody's grip tightened around Rex's arm and he had to force himself to relax again. "Was there anything else? Do you remember leaving afterwards?"
Rex shook his head. "No. I… the Chancellor came over to… inspect my hair, I think, and he leaned in to whisper something in my ear. Then I woke up to you kissing me."
"Fuck," Cody breathed. "That's… do you think Skywalker was involved at all?"
Rex let out a long sigh. "I can't remember. I want to think he wouldn't be, but it's hard to say."
"Either way, we need to tell the Guard," Cody said, slowly untangling himself from Rex's arms, "and the Jedi. We need to-"
"Cod'ika," Rex said, placing a gentle hand on Cody's arm, "wait."
Cody raised a skeptical eyebrow, waiting for Rex to explain.
"You didn't sleep last night, did you?"
"It's not my first all-nighter, and it won't be my last, Rex. I'm fine."
"I know," Rex said, putting on his best tooka eyes, "but a few hours won't make a difference one way or another."
Cody sighed, reluctantly allowing Rex to pull him back onto the bed. "I suppose we are on leave…"