Chapter Text
Day 1
“Please Don’t Cry
Lamb to the Slaughter | Ceremony | Beg for Forgiveness
Cody had only been on Tatooine for two rotations, and he already understood why the commander loathed sand. No matter what precautions you took, it got EVERYWHERE! He had a feeling that once they were back on The Negotiator, he would be shaking it out of his boots, undersuit, and armor for the near future.
The only reason they were on this sandy hellhole was because there had been incursions into Hutt territories by Separatist groups and their allies. While the Republic tended to look down on slavery, Cody had to admit that Jabba did keep the hyperspace lanes open for their use, and it would be beneficial to stay on his “good” side. So, when Jabba called Chancellor Palpatine for help taking back his territories, he had immediately dispatched the 212th and the 187th to Tatooine, much to the complaints of Obi Wan’s padawan. However, both Obi Wan and General Windu promised they would grant him some leave to go to the Lars homestead where his mother was living after being freed several years ago. So here they were, on this hot sand-filled level of hell. At least since they were running this mission with the 187th, it allowed him to spend time with his older brother Ponds as their missions tended to not align. He also got the bonus of Skywalker and his personal band of chaos creators pulling different stunts to see who they could drive to drink first, Obi Wan or General Windu.
The scouts reported that the group they were looking for had holed up in an old Tusken fort that could be used as a waypoint for supplies and weapons to their allies, along with a holding pen for those they had taken to be sold at slave auctions for additional credits. They had managed to break into the citadel as they were organizing their prisoners to be loaded onto ships for transport to different slave auctions. The clones were shocked to see some members of Kyr’tsad amongst the enemy, as they figured they would focus more on taking control of Mandalore, but they were also not known for their benevolent deeds and tended to be the worst of the worst when it came to bounty hunters and mercenaries, so why would they not be there. And in all honesty, it actually fired them up as there was not a clone that didn’t remember their poor treatment at the hands of their Kyr’tsad trainers, nor the chaos when the group revolted on Kamino several years ago, resulting in the loss of quite a few of their brothers during their escape.
Cody kept glancing at his datapad, scanning reports coming in to check progress and note any casualties. The medics were handling triage on the wounded soldiers, along with giving basic health checks to the freed slaves. If those health checks also happened to involve removal of their slave chips and disappearance into the underground freedom networks, well, what the oversized slug didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
Many of the freed slaves spoke a combination of Huttese and Amatakka, both languages Anakin was fluent in, and so he was over with a group of freed slaves, Ponds nearby overseeing discussions. He was just finishing checking in with the medics when Anakin opened the command channel.
“Hey, just had someone come up to me saying there are more slaves, mostly kids, in the lower levels. Gonna take the boys and follow her down there to see what we can find.”
“Be careful Anakin, there could still be slavers or other mercenaries still hiding down there,” Obi Wan replied back.
“Eh, we’ll be careful Master. You forget, these are my former stomping grounds.”
“Regardless Skywalker, please exercise caution,” Master Windu said. “Commander Ponds, please accompany Skywalker and company. Contact us if you run into any difficulties.”
Cody heard his brother acknowledge the order before the line disconnected. He continued to make the rounds for several minutes when he saw a group of vod starting to gather in one of the alcoves towards the rear of the arena. He started to make his way over and as he got closer, he could see the different soldiers hovering around a body, laughing and jeering as they took turns posing with it for holos and vids.
“WAXER!” His lieutenant was standing towards the back of the group and turned when he heard his name called. Seeing Cody heading their way, he turned and jogged to meet him halfway. “What in the ka’ra as those idiots doing?”
“Someone got Priest, commander,” Waxer replied as he grabbed Cody’s arm, stopping him from getting closer at that moment. “Don’t know who, have to go through footage later, but some lucky bastard got the fucker and well, the boys are just making their opinion known.
Cody’s breath caught in his throat. Of all of the Kyr’tsad to run into, Dred Priest was his number one target. Pity someone got to the shabuir first.
“Alright, tell them to wrap it up and be discreet about it. Doesn’t look good on us if word gets out of clone troopers posing with a dead body.”
“And what about Priest sir? What should we do with the body after documenting the confirmed kill?”
“Take it out and burn it,” Cody growled. “And let me know where the pyre was afterwards so I can piss on it before we leave.”
Waxer smirked and gave a jaunty salute as he turned to jog back over to the crowd to start giving orders to wrap things up and destroy the body as directed.
After completing his rounds, Cody started back over towards Generals Kenobi and Windu when he got a notification that Ponds was trying to reach him.
“Go for Cody.”
“Cody, I need you here like five minutes ago!”
Cody could hear some yelling in the background with scattered Mando overheard on the channel.
“Ponds? What…”
“NOW CODY!”
Ponds yelling over the channel got the attention of the generals as Cody turned and ran in the direction Ponds and Commander Skywalker had gone. He could hear Obi Wan yelling for him in the background, but he didn’t stop running. If anything, it made him go faster. Ponds was always calm and collected, to hear his oldest batcher yelling for him in near hysterics greatly unnerved him. He skidded around corners and as other troopers recognized his armor, they pointed him in the right direction. He started to slow when he saw a small crowd around Skywalker standing in the doorway to a room.
“He’s in there,” Skywalker pointed with his deactivated saber before looking further down the hall to see the two Jedi Masters following. He gently guided Cody past him to enter the room while he headed towards the Jedi. Cody released the seals on his helmet as he walked in the darkened abode. He could hear his brother’s quiet pleas and mutterings further in. He walked slowly towards the noise, finally seeing Kix standing outside a room towards the back. Kix nodded at him before Cody walked in, scraping his boots to let his brother know he was there,
“Ponds,” Cody breathed out as he heard his brother mutter “I told you he was here vod’ika” and “it’s going to be ok” over and over in Mando ‘a.
He started to kneel and placed his hand on Ponds’s shoulder when he stopped suddenly.
“Kote?”
Cody’s head shot up as he dropped his helmet before falling to his knees at the voice he thought he would never hear again.
“Rex’ika?”
The bundle shot forward into Cody’s open arms before embracing him and starting to cry. Cody’s eyes filled with tears and they started running down his face as Ponds turned to join the hug.
He had failed to protect his baby brother five years ago when Kyr’tsad led their revolt on Kamino. How would he ever forgive himself?