Chapter Text
It started on Kamino.
The battle was over, his brothers were safe, Echo and Fives were going into ARC training, and Cody wanted to scream. Even in the haze of dropping adrenaline levels and the post-combat exhaustion, he couldn’t fight off the urge to keep going, keep moving, keep making sure everyone was safe. The casualty report was brutal, with far more numbers than names on the list, far too many cadets marching on without him. Too many cadets that never earned a name, that lived life as a clone and not a soldier, that never knew what it was like to not be property.
The urge to protect is something ingrained in all of them, the knowledge that leaving a man behind meant leaving a brother to die drilled into them since they were old enough to know what being a brother meant. Rex always joked that Cody had it worst, that the extra training with Alpha-17 and the lessons from Prime always went straight to his heart, not his head, and though he would never let his vod’ika have the satisfaction of being right, Cody knew that he wasn’t exactly wrong either.
He checked in with his men first, ensured they all follow the proper post battle protocol, and that the names of any particularly stubborn and injured troopers were passed on to Helix and his team. He found Boil and Waxer curled into each other on the same bunk, the look he received from Boil telling him all he needed to know. Ever since Numa, Waxer had a tendency to bond with kids quickly, and Cody had ordered them to escort the youngest cadets to safety. The Seppies had, of course, targeted those areas specifically, and as soon as Cody heard what happened over comms, he knew it would be bad. When Waxer blearily lifted his head because Cody, despite being his brother, was still his commanding officer, Cody pressed their foreheads together, trying to communicate his sorrow without words. He looked up at Boil, who was exhausted in his own right, and nodded, knowing those two would take care of each other.
Cody briefly passed through the rest of the barracks, not having the energy for much more than telling his men to rest, before wandering back to his own room. He’d received several concerned looks from a few of his troopers and a raised eyebrow from Helix, who he was sure would be swinging by later, but his rank as Marshal Commander allowed him the privilege of privacy. Cody wasn’t quite sure how long he sat on his bunk, staring at his bucket, tracing the grooves and wondering how many died without paint. He was unsurprised to find his comm going off, knew it likely had been for a while before he registered the sound, and answered without looking at who was calling.
Rex looked tired. They all did, but there was something so numb behind his eyes that made Cody ache, wishing he had more than the pale blue holographic imitation of his brother for comfort.
“Vod?”
“Here.” Cody’s voice was rough, grating on his own ears as he responded.
There was a slight pause before, “Fives and Echo are set. Walked them through base 501st procedures they’ll be following after ARC training.”
The conversation dipped, Rex waiting for a response.
“Cody-”
“How are your men?”
“They’ll be alright.”
Cody grunted in affirmation, staring somewhere past Rex’s shoulder.
“Cody.”
“This can’t happen again.” It came out far softer than Cody intended.
“I know. General Ti is already working on better security systems and Skywalker is debriefing the Council.” That was good. Not good enough, but good.
“You seen the casualty list yet?” Rex’s face tightened as he nodded, and though no one but Cody would’ve been able to read it, he could see the line of fury snaking down his brother’s spine.
“It won’t happen again. The Senate will give them more funding, more protection.”
“Right. Protecting their investments.” The last word is almost growled, taking both men by surprise as the same anger in Rex began to seep into Cody’s veins.
Rex opened his mouth, something horribly placating and soothing guaranteed to come out before Cody cut him off. “I’m fine,” he sighed, running his hands through close cropped hair, “Not injured except for a bruise or two. Just…”
“Yeah. I know, vod.” Cody finally looked at Rex, taking in the same fog that seemed to have settled over all of his brothers, seeing it evident on his face and softened. “Are you alright?”
Rex laughed, something sharp and shaky in his throat, “Probably just as alright as you.” Cody gave him a gentle, sad smile.
“79’s on me next leave, yeah?” Rex laughed again, something closer to his usual bark, and relaxed his shoulders.
“That’s a dangerous offer, don’t let the rest of them hear you say that.” Cody gave a small laugh of his own, before grinning at his brother, about to answer when a sharp knock at the door interrupted.
“And that’ll be Helix,” Cody supplied with a groan, “We’ll talk more later, vod’ika.”
Rex grinned, “It’s not nice to ignore your medics, you know.”
“You don’t get to lecture me on avoiding medics. I’m well aware of what all of you put Kix through. I’m surprised he hasn’t put in a transfer yet.”
“Nah, bastard’s too stubborn to let us win.”
The knock sounded again, a bit louder this time.
“I should probably go before Helix decides to kick the door in. Stay safe Rex’ika.” Rex gave him a small salute and one last “good luck” before signing off, leaving Cody at the mercy of his medical team.
---
Not for the first time, Cody cursed whatever bastard had invented assassin droids, ducking behind a rock outcropping to avoid the burst of blaster fire aimed at his troops. The mission was supposed to be a simple in and out, the General leading one squad and Cody leading the other. The General would provide a good distraction, the challenge of a Jedi and a platoon of troopers meant to draw out battle droid forces en mass, while Cody and his men snuck into the base and rigged it to blow. The Seppies had been using the outpost on Cossoc to intercept and decode Republic messages and had already struck several major blows against their forces.
Cossoc was a miserable planet, the initial report mentioning the swamps and low hanging fog that never seemed to evaporate, but conveniently leaving out the sentient plant life, which had already taken two troopers out of commission when they’d gotten close enough for a spindly plant to lash out, leaving their armor shredded from the thorns covering the thing. One of the battle medics, a shiny named Blur, if Cody remembered correctly, stayed behind with them to patch wounds and wait for evac. That left his squad jumpy, fingers itching over the trigger, waiting to fire at anything that moved, and without a medic. Which meant that when one of his men had fired, he’d given away their position, and Cody barely had time to cry out before the droids were on them.
From what he could tell there were only six or seven, but the fog worked in the droid’s favor, and they were quickly pinned behind a cluster of trees. His men were laying down a cover spray of blaster fire, aiming best they could with the low visibility and lack of heat signatures on their thermal cameras, and Cody was fairly sure one of those plants actually worked in their favor and caught one of the bastards, but if they didn’t find a solution soon, he wasn’t feeling too optimistic about their chances.
He yanked Wooley back behind cover, yelling over comms, “Circle in tight! We move together as a group! We can’t stay here!” Various affirmations came in over the headset as the group moved as a unit, Cody counting down in his head before pointing at the next cluster ahead of them in the direction of the base and giving the order to go.
It was a furious sprint, Cody didn’t allow himself to slow down, trusting his men to keep up, just barely leading them to cover before turning and firing beyond the group, making sure everyone got in before he fell in with them. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized they were two short, but he barely had time to worry before one of the droids was on him out of nowhere.
His blaster was knocked out of his hands, and Cody briefly registered the muzzle of a blaster barrel shoved against his head before he was moving, training kicking in as he knocked it upwards, the shot going wide. His fist connected with the torso of the droid, the force of the punch briefly knocking it back, but it was a short-lived victory. His knee exploded in pain as its foot connected, and the logical part of his brain told him his kneecap was shattered. He fell, his good leg braced on the muddy ground, and took the blow to his face, helmet taking the brunt of it.
Cody forced himself up, the adrenaline propelling him forward as he grabbed the back of the droid’s head and smashed it into a tree, fingers fumbling for the small weak spot he knew exposed a few wires on the back of the thing’s neck. He wasn’t fast enough, and he screamed as the head turned 180 degrees, grabbing his fingers and snapping them back, the crunch audible even with the layer of armor covering them. His good hand reached for his knife, jamming it into the visual sensors and effectively blinding the droid before grabbing his pistol off his belt and putting a hole through its central system.
There wasn’t time to wait, Waxer yanking on his uninjured hand and dragging him out of the line of fire. The others had still been firing into the fog, covering Cody during the fight, and Waxer dragged him into the center of the ring they formed before yanking off his bucket, checking his eyes and making sure his face wasn’t broken. Judging by the growing headache and the numbness in his left cheek, Cody knew he was gonna have a hell of a time getting Helix off his ass after this. Waxer yanked off his own helm, which is when Cody realized he’d been trying to talk to him.
Not a good sign Kote, he chided himself, that’s what you get for taking on one of those assholes by yourself.
“Sir!” Waxer was yelling now, dragging Cody out of his head. Cody felt a wave of frustration overcome him and shoved Waxer’s bucket back on his head.
“Keep your helmet on! We gotta move!” Cody pushed his own back on his head, barely hiding the full body wince before attempting to stand and – nope, that was not happening. His knee was well and truly fucked, unable to take any of his weight, even with the adrenaline induced energy surge. He fell back, momentarily stunned by the motion, before cursing and yelling over comms.
“Go! I can’t stand and there are more of those bastards coming, draw them away. I’ll comm the General and tell him what happened!”
Waxer obviously hesitated before Cody shoved him up, “That’s an order trooper!”
“We don’t leave people behind.”
“Listen to me,” Cody growled, “I. Can’t. Make. It. The only way this works is if you draw them away. We’re down five troopers and still four klicks out. You take the rest and get the job done. You do it right, I’ll be coming home right behind you boys.”
Waxer wavered, still not convinced, before shoving Cody’s discarded blaster back into his hands.
“Don’t you dare go on without us, Commander. That’s an order.”
Cody laughed, “I don’t plan on it trooper. Now go!”
Cody listened as Waxer communicated his orders to the rest of the group and situated himself on the ground behind the thickest tree trunk he could find. If luck was on his side, which he sincerely doubted, the droids would take the bait and follow the bulk of the group. If not, he’d take down as many of them as he could before they were on him.
He checked his blaster, making sure the mud and swampy water hadn’t jammed it, allowing himself a second to collect his thoughts. The blurry vision was either from the fog or the hit to the head, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to be precise. He wouldn’t be able to move between covers, so the first shot would give away his position and leave him vulnerable. It had to hit.
A few minutes passed as the sounds of fighting got further and further away and Cody held his breath, listening intently to his surroundings.
There.
Just to his right, he heard the telltale clack of metal against rock, a brief pause before the pace quickened, the droid obviously having calculated its mistake. He waited until the last second before twisting out and shoving his blaster directly into the metal of the faceless creation.
“Gotcha.” He pulled the trigger, too quick for the droid’s programming to kick in, and it fell with a wet sound into the mud. He quickly shoved the body on top of himself, hoping if another came along it would briefly hide him from its sensors, and had the added bonus of the metal acting as a secondary layer of armor. His broken fingers screamed at him as he hauled the majority of its body on top of himself, but he gritted his teeth and pushed down the groan of pain, not willing to take chances.
The minutes trickled by, Cody’s whole body tensed for a fight.
It was a good half hour before he allowed himself to relax a bit, fairly certain any immediate threats would’ve made themselves known by that point.
“Commander?” Came the soft call from directly behind him.
Whoever was crawling towards him obviously also doing his best to not draw attention. He heard harsh, ragged breathing coming from somewhere behind him.
Cody took a second to debate answering he answered, “Here. You alright trooper?”
“Got a bolt to the side, sir. Fell behind while we ran.”
Cody hummed quietly.
The silence behind him unfortunately gave the trooper away, “Why do I have the feeling you’re downplaying your injuries?”
A small pause.
“It wouldn’t do either of us good to dwell on what went wrong, sir.”
Cody laughed quietly, the sound barely loud enough to be heard by whoever was behind him, “Can you make it to me, trooper?”
“I…don’t think so sir. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. What’s your name trooper?”
“Shock, sir.”
“You a shiny?”
“Yes, sir.” That came a little quieter, and Cody heard a tinge of embarrassment color Shock’s voice.
“Hell of a first mission, Shock.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You gonna say anything other than ‘yes, sir?’” Cody heard a surprised laugh and the tell-tale sound of mud and water sloshing stopped, the trooper halting wherever he was.
“Not sure I have the energy for much more, sir.”
“Tell me about the name, Shock.” If he could keep him talking, there was a chance they’d both make it out. Cody just had to keep him conscious until evac got there. If it got there.
“…Sir?”
“Your name, how’d you get it?”
“Oh, uh, I used to scare easy. As a cadet. My batchmates called me Shock ‘cause… ‘cause they liked to shock me. Thought it was funny. Grown out of it now though, sir. Nothin’ to worry about.” Cody smiled in spite of himself, remembering similar antics he and Fox used to get up to as cadets. They’d only stopped once Wolffe began to bite them in retaliation.
“That’s good, means you carry them with you, remembering the vode you grew up with.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There was another trooper that fell, you see him, Shock?”
“…Yes, sir.” Cody let his head fall back against the tree.
“Who was it?”
“Bear, sir.” The increasingly familiar urge to yell bubbled up in Cody’s throat. Another shiny. He knew why the General had given them to him for this mission. They weren’t supposed to be fighting, were supposed to encounter minimal resistance at best. He settled for cursing and slamming his head back against the tree and immediately regretted it as his vision went black and bile rose in his throat.
“He was my batchmate…named him Bear because…because he saw a holo of one once…” The trooper trailed off and Cody wished he could see him, just to assure himself he was still alive.
“Shock? Stay with me, understand?”
“Sorry, sir. He, uh, saw a holo and told us all he was gonna tame one. Wanted it as a pet. Stupid thing, would’ve eaten him alive.” Cody heard a small chuckle from the trooper, “Promised him if we made it out, I’d help him paint it on his armor.”
“You should paint it on yours. Keep him with you.”
“No offense sir, but…not quite sure I’ll get that far.”
Cody cursed to himself again, before he heaved the droid off himself and crawled as best he could with a busted knee. Cody made his way around the back of the tree, saw Shock a few feet away from the base and made his way over. He hooked his arms under Shock’s and pulled them both up against the trunk. It was slow going, Cody trying to figure out how to move them both with his knee protesting, but they made it, Shock’s body blanketing Cody’s. Cody took a second to examine Shock’s injuries and swore.
“That bad, sir?” He was slurring his words now, and Cody couldn’t blame him. His side had been hit like he said, but the bolt had torn clean through him, and when Cody rotated him, he could see the exit wound, almost two times as large in diameter as the entry wound. Blaster bolts meant the wound was mostly cauterized, but the edges bled sluggishly into the mud below them. Things like infection and bacteria swam through Cody’s mind, and he made sure to remember it so Helix would know best how to treat him. There was a crack running down his helmet, rendering the thing pretty much useless from a comms standpoint. No wonder he hadn’t called them for help earlier.
“Not bad enough for you to call it in, yeah? You and me, we’ll get out of this. Together.” Shock laughed a little, pretty much delirious.
“If you say so, sir.”
“I mean it. We’re gonna make it.” Shock just nodded. Cody pulled off his helmet for him, noting the glazed eyes and relaxed expression. He didn’t even have a tattoo yet.
The pair sat in silence for a bit, the headache (which was definitely a concussion, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit it yet) taking over.
“Cody?”
“Yeah?”
“Gotta batchmate back on the Negotiator. Name is Pop. Tell him…tell him I’m sorry. And the bottle is under my mattress. ‘S all his now.”
Cody raised an eyebrow, “Admitting to owning contraband, trooper?”
Shock laughed again, a painful, forced thing, “Not sure you’ll get the chance to punish me for it, sir.”
Cody took off his helmet, wanted Shock to see a face, to see his brother’s face, and knocked their heads together, the angle awkward and uncomfortable for his neck, the contact jolting his head even further, but murmured, “I’ll tell him.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Cody lost track of time again, but felt it when the body on top of his slowly stopped breathing, slipping away from his reach. He kissed Shock’s forehead and allowed himself time to grieve.
When the medical evac team, lead by the General himself, found them, Cody could barely find it in himself to let his brother’s body go.