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Cody hadn’t been on Geonosis when the clones had been sent in to help the Jedi fight. He’d been in the med-bay, dealing with a head injury that really should have left him dead and trying to remember what had happened. Even though his brothers knew what happened to him, they didn’t want to talk about it because it was the first time they’d ever come close to losing one of their own. They were made for this, for war, but death came as a shock and frightened them more than they had thought it would. Two other clones had been in the blast (he could remember that much) and they hadn’t survived. Cody was lucky.
The battle on Geonosis was supposed to be Cody’s first real mission as a commander. As anything, really, but it was pushed back. The Kaminoans had debated keeping him at all, but decided to wait to see if there was any brain damage before making that call. As he was alright, they kept him alive.
No, Cody’s first introduction to the Jedi was on Coruscant, at the Jedi temple. The troops had been displayed before a roaring crowd and the commanders were being shown off to their new generals. They had been marched into a long room that felt like it should have been a library, the vaulted ceilings peppered with paintings of stars. They waited.
The door opened again and a line of robed Jedi walked into the room, each of them an individual and each of them so vastly different from the Kaminoans. The brown fabric of their robes rustled slightly in the silence as they all lined up before their respective clone commander, each of them knowing who to go to without even being told. They probably had been told, Cody rationalised, before they’d gone into the room, and were being all silent and mysterious to seem more mystical. They’d only heard stories of the Jedi, but their powers and knowledge made them seem like gods.
No one stood in front of Cody.
His Jedi was missing. There was a gap between the two men in front of the clones on either side of him. Both were human, one pale, one dark. The pale one had a short haircut and a spindly, golden hand. The dark one was bald and had two regular hands.
“Master Kenobi should be here shortly,” the pale one said, a slight smirk on his face, looking from Rex next to him and to Cody.
“It’s unlike Kenobi to be late,” the dark one said.
“He’s… indisposed,” the pale one said, his smirk breaking through his self control.
“And what’s so funny, Skywalker?”
The pale one, Skywalker, laughed. “I made him a bet that I could get here before him. I’ve won, Master Windu.”
Windu looked at Neyo in front of him and sighed, shaking his head. “The younger among us tend not to be as serious.” He looked back at Skywalker. “What did you do to win?”
“I may have melted the door to the doorframe.”
Rex glanced at Cody, his worry plain on his face. What had he been assigned to?
The door opened with a soft hiss and a slightly ruffled human man walked in. He stopped only once to lean down to talk to the small green creature at the far end of the room in hushed tones before continuing down the hall to stop in front of Cody.
So this was General Kenobi.
The man was…
Well, the man was different. Every person that he’d seen since leaving Kamino had been different, but Kenobi was special. His hair was copper, his eyes were cerulean. His beard was neatly trimmed. His robes, while slightly rumpled, were clean and looked new. He had made an effort to look good when he met the clones.
When he met Cody.
The pairs were sent off to talk about battle strategies, but Kenobi held up a polite hand to have him stay where he was. The older man turned on the other pale man and cuffed him round the back of the head.
“Really, Anakin?” he huffed, his voice exasperated.
That voice sounded smooth and silken. It sounded like the rush of a calm ocean, like Cody’s favourite weather on Kamino. Those rare sunny, still days were his idea of peace, and the man in front of him had those days in his voice.
“What?” Skywalker laughed, his flesh hand rubbing the back of his head. “It’s just a little bit of fun, Master.”
Kenobi sighed through his nose and shook his head, lips pursed together.
“Think it wise, do you, to play around when on the eve of war, we are?”
Cody looked down at the little green creature Kenobi had talked to before. Up close, Cody distinguished that he was male and guessed that he was old.
“Master Yoda,” Skywalker said, his cheeks colouring slightly.
“I believe my young friend has a point,” Kenobi said, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “We may be about to go to war, but we mustn’t forget to live.”
Cody wondered what kind of general he would be. What kind of leader this man with the ocean in his eyes and his voice would become.
Kenobi turned to face Cody once more. He smiled. “So, Commander. Shall we?”
He held out a hand to indicate that they should walk. Cody followed a step behind, his hands clasped behind his back. He watched as Kenobi nodded to younglings and elders alike as they passed, giving each of them the respect he believed they deserved. They walked down hallways that towered over their heads, passed windows that let the sunlight stream in. It was so different from Kamino.
“You don’t talk much, do you?” Kenobi asked, turning to look at Cody beside him before realising that Cody wasn’t there.
Cody had drifted over to one of the windows. The platform it overlooked was abound with green.
“Ah, the meditation gardens.” Kenobi smiled. “Would you like to go out there?”
Blushing slightly, Cody nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, sir.”
Kenobi pointed that brilliant smile at him. “Of course I don’t mind, Commander. It’s one of my favourite places in the whole temple.”
They sat together under a large tree, its branches weeping leaves all around them. Cody studied the grooves on the tree trunk, marveling at how different a real tree was to a simulated one.
“You don’t get many trees on Kamino, do you?” Kenobi asked.
“No, sir.” Cody looked back to his general, who was smiling gently again. “I’m sorry, sir, I shouldn’t have gotten distracted.”
“Don’t mention it.” Kenobi placed a hand on the trunk, that twinkle back in his eye. “Nature has a way of pulling out the best in people.” He dropped his hand and looked back at Cody. “The Force flows through all living things and has a will of its own. I believe that it wanted us here.”
Cody blinked at him. “The Force… wanted us to… sit under a tree, sir?”
Kenobi nodded.
“Why?”
“I have no idea.”
They sat in silence for a moment, the wind rustling through the leaves above them. It was calming, somehow, to sit there with this stranger and contemplate the meaning of a tree. It wasn’t what Cody had been brought there to do, though.
“Sir,” he started. “What are your plans for the war?”
Kenobi watched him for a short while, like he was trying to figure Cody out. Then, he shrugged.
“You don’t have a plan?”
“I’ve never been to war.”
Cody was startled. Did the Jedi not have any training either? What were they hoping to do, placing an army of clones under the direction of Jedi with no experience?
“I’ve fought in many battles,” he continued, sensing Cody’s inner conflict. “And I have had extensive training. But we can’t predict war any more than we can predict peace. The senate has decided that we will fight on Muunilinst, but aside from knowing that I’m going to be there, I have no plans. We’ll make plans as we learn more about the planet's terrain and people, but for now, we’ll sit under this tree.”
Cody’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Right.”
They sat for another moment. Cody watched as a line of tiny insects crawled over the stones they were sitting on.
Kenobi smiled. “I feel slightly guilty, my friend.”
“What? Why?”
“I haven’t asked your name.”
“My number is CC-2224.”
“CC-2224.” Kenobi nodded. “Do you prefer to go by your assigned number?”
“Do I… prefer…?” Cody was lost. “Sir, what do you mean?”
“I mean, would you prefer that I call you CC-2224, or would you prefer it if I called you something else? A name, perhaps?”
Cody blinked at the man. “My… my batchmates call me Cody, sir.”
That brilliant smile returned to Kenobi’s face. “Commander Cody. It has a nice ring to it.” He held out his hand for a formal handshake. “My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Cody shook his hand, still feeling lost. “General, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. I thought we were brought here to talk battle strategies and formulate plans for the war?”
Kenobi pursed his lips slightly, thinking. He still hadn’t let go of Cody’s hand. His hand was warm, Cody thought, with calluses on the palm. It was a hand that had been used, the hand of a warrior.
“I don’t know what they told you,” Kenobi said. “But I was under the impression that you were brought here so that we might get to know each other. If we’re going to be fighting together, then we should know one another, shouldn’t we?”
Cody looked down at their hands. Kenobi’s skin was much paler than his own, with little dots of brown. Freckles, he remembered Rex saying. One of the bounty hunters that trained them had been covered in them. Kenobi’s fingers were slender but looked tough, with small scars across the knuckles. It was breathtakingly human, so fragile and yet so strong. Cody let go of his hand.
“Why?” Cody didn’t look up to meet his eyes. “We’re clones, sir. We’re dispensable.”
Kenobi curled a finger under Cody’s chin and raised his head to look him in the eye. Cody had never felt such care when someone was touching him, not even from his own brothers. Wide brown eyes stared into blue ones, a smile crinkling in their corners.
“No life is dispensable, Cody.”
Cody had never believed in any gods, but if someone told him, right there and then, that Obi-Wan Kenobi had been sent from above to bless him with peace and light, then he’d devote the rest of his life to praying at that altar.
“I want to get to know you,” Kenobi said, his hand leaving Cody’s face, its warmth still burning his skin. “I know much about you, but I don’t know who you are. I can sense your presence in the Force, feel how you meld in with the rest of the world, but I don’t know your favourite foods.”
“I have a presence in the Force?” Cody asked, his voice hushed.
Kenobi smiled again, those sparkling eyes brimming with mirth. “You feel like a sunset. Warm and bright and… orange.”
Orange would forever be Cody’s favourite colour. Sunset would always be his favourite time of day.
“Thank you, sir.”
-
Many years later, on a planet so very different from Coruscant, Ben sighed and looked out over the horizon. The suns had set and the triple moons had risen. The night would be a cold one. He closed his eyes and breathed in the first chill of Tatooine winter.
The boy was with his family, had been for years. His trip off world to help the girl was over, though he missed her presence dearly. It was lonely on Tatooine and she had been a bright spot in the darkness. His visits from Qui-Gon were a light she’d brought back to him, but the spirit of a friend wasn’t the same as a friend. Qui-Gon would always be his mentor, his first teacher, his father figure, but he wasn’t always there. His presence felt like a concentration of the Force, different from how he’d felt in life. Qui-Gon had always been a calming presence, like a forest just after rainfall, but now he was the Force. He was part of it, it was part of him, he was it and it was him.
Just on the edge of his perception, there came a blip.
Opening his eyes, Obi-Wan looked as far to the east as he could. He recognised the Force presence of all of his acquaintances on Tatooine, but this wasn’t one of them. It didn’t feel like a Tusken Raider or some Tatooine creature. Reaching out with the Force again, Obi-Wan felt a comfort he hadn’t in years. It was warm and bright.
And orange.
Racing down the hill near his home, Obi-Wan nearly tripped over his own feet. He scattered sand and tumbled, his feet slipping on the moving surface, but he kept going. Qui-Gon had told him, both during his apprenticeship and during his time on Tatooine, to not give up and to hold true to himself. And this warmth, that brightness, that all-encompassing glowing orange sunset, was something he held true. Something he hadn’t felt since before the end of the war, since before his isolation. He had felt it melt away to nothing, to grey and cold, but it was back, it was back.
He came to a skidding stop. The presence was there, so close, but where was it? Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and reached out again. He could feel it, waves of it washing over him like so many of the dreams he’d had in the past. He turned, eyes still closed, and followed the Force. When he looked again, those beautiful brown eyes were staring at him from a distance. The air was sucked out of Obi-Wan’s chest and he watched as that man, the man that had tried to kill him, fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face.
“I’m sorry,” he babbled. “I’m so sorry.”
Obi-Wan took another step forward, then another, until he was running towards Cody. He stood, arms held up to show he was unarmed, and had the breath knocked out of him when Obi-Wan slammed into him, arms wrapped around his shoulders. They stumbled backwards a step until they fell, the sand only slightly cushioning their fall. Obi-Wan shook when he felt Cody wrap his arms around him.
“I’m so sorry,” Cody whispered.
Obi-Wan held him closer, basking in the sunset glow.