Chapter Text
“General Kenobi, I have received intel regarding a … situation, on Krystar.”
Cody remained silent as his General carefully regarding the flickering blue hologram before him, the familiar face of Senator Padme Amidala gazing back.
“What manner of intel, Senator Amidala?”
The Senator took a deep, fortifying breath before responding.
“Krystar’s Regent, an Ovissian Male by the name of Queb, has constructed a compound to house clone troopers as prisoners of war,” the Senator explained, the disdain in her voice evident even through the hologram.
Cody bit back the bile that threatened to rise in his throat.
His vod’e, prisoners of war.
And he hadn’t even known.
How could he not have known?
His General, apparently, had the same concerns – though he voiced them much more diplomatically than Cody was apt to do at the moment.
“Excuse my hesitance, Senator, but how can we be certain that the intel you received is accurate?” Obi-wan parried. “Krystar is aligned with the Galactic Republic – Vishar Koss represents Krystar in the Senate.”
“Because the intel came from Senator Vishar Koss herself,” Senator Amidala replied grimly. “To the best of her knowledge, Regent Queb has been housing clone troopers as prisoners of war in the compound on Krystar on behalf of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.”
The Separatists were holding his vod’e hostage.
Right under their karking noses.
Cody knew that Obi-wan could likely feel the rage and fury pouring off of him, but he fought to keep his expression neutral for Senator Amidala’s sake. She didn’t seem like the fragile type – but one could never tell how natborns would react to another openly plotting murder.
Rescue, though, was a different matter entirely.
“We have to rescue them,” Cody interjected, no longer able to contain himself.
The Senator smiled kindly at him.
“I quite agree, Commander,” she concurred. “Which is why I am already enroute to rendezvous with the Negotiator.”
“How – nevermind,” Obi-wan cut off, muttering something about Anakin and protocol. “I will send you our exact coordinates, and inform the hangar bay of your imminent arrival. We will proceed to Krystar once you have joined us.”
“Excellent,” Senator Amidala nodded. Before signing off, she turned her attention back to Cody.
“We will bring your brothers home, Commander.”
~~~
Krystar had been a nightmare.
The mission itself had been a success - the clones being held hostage in Queb’s nightmarish compound had been rescued, and Queb himself had been taken into custody. The Senator and Obi-wan were questioning Queb further now, after Obi-wan had been forced to all but bodily thrown Cody from the room when it had become clear that his Commander was hanging on to his morality by the thinnest of threads.
From what Cody had gathered before his ejection, Queb had held numerous clone troopers as prisoners throughout the war, either as prisoners of war at the behest of the Separatists, or so that he could sell them to Trandoshan hunters to be gunned down like livestock.
Sometimes both.
Cody had thought he knew the horrors of war by now – had thought that he had seen the worst that sentience had to offer and had overcome it.
But the conditions his vod’e had suffered on Krystar…
It made Cody’s stomach roil.
“Do you need an anti-nausea, Commander?” Helix asked drily, from where he was stationed at Cody’s elbow.
Cody shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.
He knew that he must look a wreck.
Helix hummed, but didn’t comment further, following Cody’s gaze to where the youngest trooper they had recovered was still laying unconscious.
“He’ll wake up,” Helix soothed as gently as he could. “None of his injuries are life-threatening, and now that we have him, the dehydration and malnutrition will be taken care of too. He’ll wake up.”
Cody nodded but didn’t look away, content to simply hover like a nervous buir over the frailest verd’ika he’d ever seen. He’d come straight to the medbay, after Obi-wan had thrown him out of Queb’s questioning, and had all but begged Helix to let him help.
He needed to help.
Needed to not feel useless.
Cody had counted every single one of the verd’ika’s ribs when he helped Helix settle him into his cot. Even now, he could clearly see the harsh points of his shoulders through the threadbare blanket Helix had thrown over him. His cheeks were sunken and sallow, the pallor of his skin far to pale and sickly for a vod’e.
It was a miracle that he was alive.
A few more days, and he likely wouldn’t have been.
His body had already been shutting down when they had rescued him, Helix had explained bluntly. There was no telling how long he’d been imprisoned, but Helix had explained that within days, faced with nothing to eat, his body would have begun feeding on itself. His metabolism would have slows, his body would have become unable to regulate its temperature, his kidney function would have been impaired, and his immune system would have weakened even further.
Eventually, his body would have attacked his muscles – including those in his heart, causing hallucinations, convulsions and disruptions in heart rhythm.
Eventually, the verd’ika’s heart would have simply stopped.
So, Cody was hovering, unable to tear his eyes away from his unmoving form, despite every logical part of his brain knowing that the younger clone was in good hands with Helix.
“When – when will he wake up?” Cody asked, well aware that he had been silent for too long.
Helix shrugged.
Politely ignored the waver in Cody’s voice.
“It’s hard to tell definitively,” Helix explained, still gentle and calm. “His body needs time to heal. It does that best when it has time to heal – sleep gives it that time.”
“And the others?”
Another shrug.
“Healing as well as can be expected,” Helix responded carefully. “I’ve already contacted the Commanding Officers of the troopers who were assigned to specific battalions before their capture – most are sending detachments to pick them up once we rendezvous on Coruscant.”
“That – that’s good,” Cody murmured, eyes fixed on the verd’ika.
Something had changed, while Helix spoke.
He could swear he had moved – that his expression had tightened, ever so slightly.
So, Cody stepped forward cautiously, careful to let his boots scrape the ground as he moved forward, so that if the verd’ika was conscious, he would hear the Commander approaching.
Without so much as a flinch, the verd’ika launched himself off of the cot, flailing wildly as he tore IV’s from his skin, scrambling away from the sound of Cody’s approach. Once he had his back to the wall he settled, hackles clearly raised.
Kark.
“Verd’ika, I am not going to hurt you,” Cody tried, softening his voice and holding his hands up. Whatever – whoever the younger clone was seeing – it wasn’t him. The wild fear in his eyes, the tension in his body – his mind was trapped on Krystar, and whatever horrors he had experienced there.
“Usen’ye,” the verd’ika snarled, brandishing a thin piece of metal.
Karking hells, he was using one of his IV needles as a karking weapon.
“Udesii, verd’ika,” Cody barked, lunging forward to grab the younger clone before he could do more damage.
Only to have to reel back as the younger vod stabbed at him with terrifying accuracy.
“Kark,” Cody growled, narrowly missing being impaled on a sharp, bloody needle.
Helix chuckled.
“I’ll leave you two to it,” Helix observe airily. “Let me know if you want me to sedate him.”
Cody glowered at his Commanding Medical Officer’s back as he retreated to check on his other patients, leaving Cody with a feral verd’ika and no karking back-up.
Karking aruetii.
Cody sighed and began to disarm, shedding his armour and weapons without so much as a second thought. He had absolutely no intention of shooting the injured verd’ika, and even less inclination to stun him within Helix’s line of sight.
That done, Cody approached the injured trooper until he was just out of arms reach, moving slowly and keeping his hands where the verd’ika could see them.
“K’uur, verd’ika,” Cody cooed softly.
The younger vod didn’t relax a single muscle, maintaining a definitely defensive stance where he was crouched in the corner.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cody continued gently as he crouched down to the same level, still carefully keeping his hands in sight. “My name is Cody. CC-2224. I am the Marshal Commander of the 7th Sky Corps – and the 212th Attack Battalion.”
Nothing.
“Ghost Company and I, along with General Kenobi, rescued you and several other vod’e from Krystar,” Cody continued, his voice gentle and soothing. “General Kenobi and Senator Amidala have taken Regent Queb into custody, and the compound has been completely destroyed.”
Thoroughly destroyed.
Blasted to bits until not a hint remained of the horrors his vod’e had suffered.
Sometime during his rambling, the verd’ika had let his grip on the needle lighten – had relaxed ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly so.
Cody didn’t hesitate.
He lunged, knocking the needle out of the verd’ika’s hand before quickly grappling him into a firm hold, arms and legs wrapped around the almost skeletal frame of the other clone. For his part, the younger clone writhed and snarled and snapped, trying desperately to break free of Cody’s grip. Finally, he exhausted what little energy that initial burst of adrenaline had given him, slumping in Cody’s hold.
Cody couldn’t help but sigh in relief.
“Do you have a name, verd’ika?”
No response.
That was fine – Cody hadn’t really expected one.
“Or a number – that’s fine too,” Cody continued, tone slipping from calming to conversational, urging the younger trooper in his arms to respond.
“No number,” the verd’ika growled back vehemently, a hint of a snarl still lingering in his voice.
“No number – that’s fine,” Cody soothed agreeably. “I prefer to use my name as well – most vod’e do, once they’ve picked a name.”
Silence, again, for several long moments while Cody scrambled for what else to say, until finally –
“Am I really – did you really… You destroyed the compound on Krystar?”
The verd’ika’s voice was impossibly small, and Cody couldn’t help but let the hold settle into something that was distinctly more of a hug – or a cuddle – as the younger clone slowly relaxed in his arms.
“The entire thing,” Cody confirmed. “Blasted in to bits – General Kenobi even let us call in an orbital bombardment, once we’d cleared off the planet.”
Another long moment of silence, and then –
“I’m free?”
Cody could feel his karking heart breaking as he shifted the younger clone in his arms into something that was definitively a cuddle, snuggling impossibly closer.
“You’re free, verd’ika,” Cody confirmed, and the soldier in his arms feel to pieces, sobbing with abandon as he clung to Cody’s blacks, skeletal frame shaking his each great, heaving sob. Cody clung back, crushing the younger vod to him without hesitation, offering whatever comfort that he could.
Eventually, his sobs gentled and faded, his face still tucked under Cody’s chin. The Commander suspected that his verd’ika had drifted back to sleep, until a small voice spoke against his chest, almost imperceptibly quiet – had Cody not been listening for it.
“My name is Wooley.”