Chapter Text
There's a slight scraping noise above him, the barest hint of movement. Cody lowers the datapad he's been working on and turns his gaze to the vent cover in his ceiling.
If it's a brother in the vents, he's recommending them for stealth training. If it's not a brother, then he has a problem. It's been three days since a ship last docked with the Negotiator. An unidentified presence would be worrying.
It's not a brother that jumps down to land neatly in the tiny patch of floorspace that isn't taken up by his bunk.
It's a Sith.
Midnight blue robes, lightsaber, tidy ginger hair and beard, extremely pretty face, and eyes that are a molten gold.
Cody doesn't grab for his blaster. Force users can deflect blaster bolts. They are however generally shit at hand-to-hand.
Cody is not shit at hand to hand.
"I'm terribly sorry for bothering you," the Sith starts immediately, much politer than the ones Cody normally meets. Aside from the whole breaking and entering thing. The way his voice curls across the words in a fancy accent is nice. "But would you mind awfully just filling out this quick surve- Oh." The Sith cuts himself off, blinking rapidly, eyes focused on Cody's chest. His bare chest. Because his blacks are stripped to his waist. He runs hot, and he had been in the privacy of his own cupboard. He's not entirely sure if it's the tattoos or the scars that have caught the Sith's attention, but his attention has definitely been caught.
He raises his eyebrows, and the Sith coughs, coming back to himself, a faint red blush spreading across the top of pale cheekbones.
Cody hadn't known Sith could blush.
It's pretty.
"Ah," the Sith starts awkwardly but earnest. "My apologies, my dear, I hadn't meant to....ah..."
It's adorable. An adorable, pretty Sith that has managed to remain undetected on Cody's ship for at least three days, so he's skilled as well.
"Sorry." The Sith says, sheepishly. "Um, now, where had I-?"
"The survey, Sir." Cody supplies.
"Oh, yes." The Sith brightens, "thank you, my dear." Yep. Adorable. But there's a self aware mischief in his eyes that Cody almost certainly shouldn't be finding as attractive as he is.
"Now," the Sith says. "let me start again from the beginning and introduce myself properly." He folds his hands into his sleeves the same way the Generals do. "My name is Obi-wan Kenobi, and I'm the head librarian for the lost Sith temples. Part of my job is to record events as they happen, so that they can act as an accurate accounting for future generations. I'm afraid all the information I currently have about this war is extremely obviously warped by heavy propaganda, and that just won't do. So I have come to a primary source."
This is not at all how Cody's past interactions with other Sith have gone. It's an interesting change of pace.
"Just so I'm clear, Sir. You have managed to sneak yourself onto the flagship of the Grand Army of the Republic, remained undetected on a ship full of thousands of highly trained soldiers, for three days, all because you think there's too much propaganda in news reports and you want to write down what's happening so future Sith can learn from it."
"Exactly, Commander."
The Sith smiles at him, pleased.
The Force makes people strange. That's the only explanation.
Cody shifts the datapads off the end of his bunk in invitation. He'd offer a chair, but even the bunk barely fits in the private 'room' that comes with the privileges of rank.
The Sith eyes the end of the bunk, and then Cody's bare chest again. Cody bites back a smirk, and pulls his arms back into his sleeves. He leaves the front unfastened though, because he's fully aware he's a little shit, and he's enjoying this.
"You're aware that you likely have some questions that I can't or won't answer?" He asks the Sith.
"Oh, of course." The Sith agrees happily, sitting himself on the corner of Cody's bunk and leaning against the wall so he can face him. Even that looks elegant. "Obviously no source can be infallible, and I wouldn't ask you to compromise your own ethics." He smirks at Cody. "Half the fun is trying to tease the truth of a matter from a multitude of different view points."
Like dealing with arguments between shinies, Cody guesses. Four different versions of events from three different people. And the truth usually never quite known.
Cody nods.
"Lovely. Let's make a start then shall we?" The Sith rummages around in his robes, which seem to be made up of an infinite number of hidden pockets. "Ah, here we are." He pulls out a datapad and a stylus. "Let's start at the beginning then. Tell me, what do you know about your own origins?"
The Sith listens intently, asking clarifying questions, and occasionally humming in interest or confusion. There are definitely some things Cody tells him that contradict something he's learnt from another source. Cody makes note of these. He might be able to make a pattern out of them later.
"Thank you, Commander." The Sith says, just before he hops back up into the vents. "It was kind of you to indulge me."
His smile really is stupidly pretty.
---
Cody looks up as the vent shifts aside and the Sith pokes his head into Cody's room.
"Is now a good time, my dear?"
It is. Suspiciously so. It's been four days since their last engagement, and two until the next. They're in a brief lull, with less than usual to do. The Sith is either surprisingly considerate, or knows Cody's only likely to indulge him when he isn't busy.
---
They've been trapped in the cave for two days by Cody's chrono. If rescue was coming, it would have happened by now.
"Go on, Wooley, tell us another one." Boil encourages, rolling onto his other side.
"Fair maidens." Waxer requests. "Can it have fair maidens and dashing heroes and romance?"
Longshot groans.
"Zombies." He suggests. "Lots of zombies."
"Why do the heroes have to be dashing?" Crys asks. "Make him a grumpy bastard like Cody."
"I want a platypus." Trapper grumbles. "Can there be a platypus please Wooley?"
Wooley hums in thought.
"So." He starts. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a spouse."
"Is it though?" Boil asks, and is promptly shushed by Waxer.
The rocks blocking them in shift slightly, and silence falls as they all spin to face them.
"Sir."
"I see it." Cody confirms.
The rocks had been stable so far, not shifting after they'd originally settled.
There's another scrape, and a trickle of dust and gravel. Purposeful. Someone is digging them out. But it's not clear whether they're friend or foe.
Cody stands, and his men stand with him, spreading out into defensible positions.
Daylight streams in through the hole. Cody squints against it, and makes out the silhouette of familiar hair and beard.
"Hold." He commands on a sigh, and around him, blasters are lowered. "He's mine."
"Yours, huh?" Boil asks, and Cody reaches back to cuff the top of his bucket.
"Well, I certainly could be." His Sith says with a grin, leaning forward and holding out a hand.
Cody huffs a chuckle and takes it, letting his Sith help him over the rubble.
"I wouldn't want to hurry you, gentlemen, but I'm currently stabilising quite a large quantity of rock with the force, and I'm afraid my reserves aren't infinite."
The rest of his men follow him out.
"Thank you, Sir."
"My dear, you're an extremely reliable primary source. The way you assess and consolidate information is a thing of beauty. It really would be a shame to lose you. Besides, unlike the Jedi archivists, the Sith don't have a non-interference policy. We do as we please."
"Sir..." Boil starts. "Are we... colluding with the Sith now?"
"Only this one." Cody confirms.
"He's too pretty to be evil." Wooley decides.
"I don't think that's how that works." Waxer tells him as the Sith blushes again.
"He's a librarian." Cody tells them.
"But you still have a laser sword, Sir?" Wooley asks.
"Oh, of course, my dear. I'm quite skilled in combat. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it is to get late fines out of a Sith." He turns to Cody. "On that note, you don't happen to know the whereabouts of a Darth Sidious do you, I'm afraid some of the resources he borrowed are quite overdue."
This feels like an opportunity. If his Sith regularly hunts down and fights other Sith, this is definitely something Cody can take advantage of.
"I believe Count Dooku might know." Cody tells him. "Rumour has it he hinted once to one of the Generals that there was a Sith in the senate, but they believed it to be a purposeful misdirection in an attempt to sow division."
His Sith studies him shrewdly with a hum, and then relaxes into a smile.
"Well, it's a place to start at least. Thank you, Commander. Your help is invaluable, as always."
He turns to leave.
"Thank you for saving us, Mister Sith!" Wooley calls cheerfully.
"Thank you!" The rest of his di'kuts chorus.
"Ah," his Sith says turning to face them. "Believe me, it was my pleasure. It was lovely to meet you gentlemen."
"Sir," Boil murmurs, a fun mix of incredulous, impressed and resigned. "Did you just sic a Sith on the other Sith?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Cody nods at the rest of them. "Good work men, on digging us out of that cave."
---
Darth Sidious steps into the dark of his rooms with a quiet cackle. Yes, everything is proceeding as planned.
There's a snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting, and he looks up to see which foolish Jedi has decided - but no. The blade is red. A double cross then. No matter.
"Hello Sid." A voice says from the darkness. Silent footsteps move closer, red light illuminating a pale, bearded, face. That shouldn't be possible, he'd hidden himself. No one should have been able to find - Golden eyes glitter. "I believe you have some fines due."
Oh shit.
---
"Decapitated by his own lightsaber." Fox reports. "No sign of a fight. And there's this." He pulls up a holo of the Chancellor's decapitated head. There's the inky mark of a stamp in the middle of his forehead. "Is that some sort of seal?" Madame Nu asks, leaning forwards.
"Yessir." Fox confirms. "As best we can make out through the wrinkles, it says 'Fine paid' in the middle, and 'The Archives of the Lost Libraries of the Sith' around the edge."
Madame Nu nods approvingly.