Chapter Text
Cody spent a few hours furiously focusing on paperwork in order to properly cool down before going hunting. He had questions, and he was getting answers.
Trapper had claimed Guard gossip spoke of Fox not in the medbay, but entirely missing. Cody knew from his own troops not to trust the gossip mill, but he would hunt this particular rumor down himself, and uncover any threads of truth.
A Guard stood in the hallway, straightening expectantly at Cody’s appearance. Cody shot him a suspicious look, hating the fact he couldn’t recognize which clone it was.
“Where’s Commander Thorn?” he asked instead.
The Guard hesitated, obviously. “I am unsure, sir,” he finally said.
Cody huffed in frustration. He could just comm the Commander, but he wanted to actually see him. “You’re Tally, right?” He wildly guessed. The Guard gave a tiny nod. Cody let out a relieved breath. A large group of rowdy Guards suddenly rounded the far corner. Excited chatter easily carried, the word, “Sparklight” bouncing from Guard to Guard.
They all paused slightly at the sight of a yellow Commander, but then lined up and respectfully passed, saluting him on their way by. Cody watched in bewilderment, automatically responding. There were at least twenty of them, buckets tucked under an arm, some even without their bucket in sight, something Cody had never seen from a Corrie. One obviously limped, and since he was one without his bucket, Cody recognized Raven.
There were at least twenty vod who filed past.
Cody whirled on Tally as soon as the last one vanished around the corner. “What the heck is going on?”
“Sparklight’s back, sir.” Even in full kit, Tally was radiating pleased excitement. He forged on without prompting, obviously too wound up to keep it in, “He was one who went missing with the Commander and the three others. But now he’s back, sir!”
“Good,” Cody said, sincerely, pleased. Tally hummed a happy agreement.
Cody suddenly froze. The words thrummed in his skull, beating understanding into his unwilling mind. Missing with the Commander. Cody had accounted for all the Commanders but one. It was one thing to get it from hearsay from Trapper, another to have a Guard directly, probably accidentally, admit their Marshal Commander was missing.
“Tally...?” He said slowly. The Guard turned, blithely unaware of the enlightenment Cody had abruptly received.
“Yes sir?”
“ Where is Commander Fox?”
“The...medbay, sir...?” Tally’s frown was evident in his voice, the rest of his body abruptly unreadable. One of his hands slid over, touching his vambrace. Cody suddenly snapped. He lept forward, pinning Tally against the wall with all the lithe grace of a predator on the hunt. There was a startled squeak from the Guard before he went limp, unresisting against his attacker. Cody ripped Tally’s helmet off, drawing a noticeable flinch from the man. He ignored it.
“I’m only going to ask one more time, Tally,” he purposefully omitted the title. “Where. Is. Commander. Fox? Where’s my ori’vod? ”
Tally shifted uneasily, every conflict clear on his face. “Uh, sir....”
“Let him go, Commander.” The sharp voice causes Cody to whirl toward the sound. Tally gratefully sagged against the wall. Cody snarled soundlessly at Thorn, who merely let out a tired sigh and motioned toward Cody’s office. Cody stalked by, glaring at Thorn on his way past. The Commander turned on heel to follow, shutting the door behind him.
“You want to know where Fox is,” he said blankly. “So would we.”
Cody blinked, letting the words sink in. Thorn stepped past the stunned Commander, rummaging around in the desk until he came up with a bottle and two cups. Mumbling something about needing to be drunk in order to explain, he filled the cups, downed one, and filled it again before setting the bottle on the desk.
“I wasn’t lying when I said he was on a blackout mission,” Thorn sighed. “Or at least, he was when he left. Usually blackout missions are a few hours. The longest was two days, run by Fox, myself, Tally, and a vod who’s marching on now. That mission the first time two Commanders have ever been sent, as well as being the mission directly preceding this most recent one Fox went on. We think they’re connected.”
“And now he’s missing?” Cody’s breath caught. Thorn sunk down in the visitors chair, sipping from the moonshine.
“Yes sir. We’ve nearly doubled patrols, but no sign of any of the missing four until tonight, when Sparklight walked in.”
“Have you cross-referenced data?” Cody took a step forward in spite of himself.
Thorn shook his head and down another glass. Cody hadn’t touched his own cup. “They’re literally blackout missions, Commander,” he said, his tone dangerously blank and even. “They come through Fox. I think he’s been on nearly every single one. Nobody remembers them. You just wake up once you’re back here. Sometimes in the barracks, sometimes out front at the Desk. Most often, in the medbay. You can ask Keikr more. He-he deals with the vod when they come back to themselves.” He tried to steady the sudden trembling in his voice.
“And Fox…” Cody gently prompted. Thorn nodded, trying to ignore the way his hands shook as he poured another glass. Cody walked around the desk, taking a seat in his own chair in case his legs decided to give out.
“He left, uh, two weeks ago. We knew it was a blackout, because he pulled three Guard off patrols, as well as a sniper rifle from the armory. After two days, we started worrying and tried to track his comm, but got nothing. Four days after, Sketch managed to break through the encryption on one of the other Guard’s comms and traced it to a nearby planet, Utrost. We couldn’t do anything, so waited and kept a watch on the ships. We have it on good intelligence that he and two Guard returned to Coruscant, but we lost them on the lower levels somewhere. We started searches, and Thire commed you.”
Cody rolled his eyes, “To help with paperwork . Kriffin’ paperwork!”
Thorn shakily nodded, “Tally and I couldn’t keep up with it all. I didn’t mean for Thire to comm you. We knew Fox took a lot, but we never realized how it would stack up with him and one other Commander not doing their work.”
“Another Commander not doing their work?” Cody frowned.
“Oh, right. You haven’t seen much of Thire or Hound because they’re coordinating the search, and covering each other’s shifts so one can always be in the field with the shinies. That means either one or the other is neglecting their paperwork. You haven’t seen much of me, because I’ve been stuck in my office from dawn to dusk doing kriffin’ paperwork for all four of us. Tally and Keikr have been pulling my shifts when they could, and Keikr fills out forms to save you time. The more simple paperwork I can pass to Tally. All the vod here are stretched thin. Being a Corrie is punishing, and adding in extra patrols to search for a missing squad just makes everything harder.”
Somewhere in the conversation, the door had slid open to admit Keikr. He glanced hesitantly between Thorn and Cody. Cody scowled at him, still put-out at the Guard grand-scale deceit. Thorn pointedly avoided Keikr’s gaze, slowly swishing the moonshine in the bottom of his cup in circles.
“Am I reading this right?”
Thorn grunted something that could either be negative or positive. Keikr took it positive. “Well then, sirs. I’ve come to tell you Sparklight is stable and will pull through. I won’t cover all his injuries, but I will say they are quite extensive and I was forced to sedate him because he kept panicking.”
Thorn mumbled again.
Cody sighed in relief, “Good. That’s good.” He didn’t even know the Guard, but he was pleased no brother would die today.
“Anymore questions?” Keikr asked. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall by the door, shaking his head when Thorn tried to offer him some moonshine.
“The guard...” Cody breathed, almost not wanting to know.
Keikr raised an eyebrow. “There’s a lot of them. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“The barrack’s guard. Why do you keep watch over your own barracks?”
Thorn let out a short, humorless laugh. He reached for the bottle, his glass empty again. “That’s because sometimes nosy Senators wander where they shouldn’t. You’ve seen how empty the base is usually, all the Guard out pulling shifts, in the medbay, or asleep in the barracks. The last thing a traumatized vod needs is to waken with a Senator leaning over them shouting.”
Cody didn’t reply, his mind leaping ahead. He felt scrambled as everything began crashing down at once. How much did he not know? How much had he ignored, because it was easier than facing the idea that the Guard were alone, incredibly alone, in a hell that the rest of the GAR was fighting to preserve.
Where was his ori’vod? How had he missed the fact he wasn’t on the base? Wasn’t safe?
Cody was shaking. “It wasn’t you who met me at the landing platform that day, was it? It was another Guard in your armour? The numbers. They didn’t match.”
Thorn winced. “Ah, yeah. I was, uh, kinda unconscious. They never actually admitted to me who it was, but I think it was Keikr or Tally.” He scowled.
“Tally was there,” Keikr admitted, looking entirely not guilty. Their voices faded to muffled mutterings as Thorn chastised his medic, probably not for the first time. Keikr responded in kind. Cody gazed blankly past them, mind struggling to grapple with everything he’d learned. The tendrils of calm he’d been trying to keep ahold of melted away as he took half a moment to consider the full implications of Thorn’s explanation, and the jigsaw pieces falling in around the words.
Fox was missing.
Blackout missions.
The Guard were afraid of Senators.
The Guard didn’t trust their own brothers.
Fox was missing.
The Guard had been abandoned, dropped in a pool without being told how to swim.
Fox was missing.
Fox was missing.
He’d been gone for two weeks.
Cody hadn’t even noticed .
Something tapped his knee. Muffled, faint voices echoed, distracting him slightly from his train of thought. Gray blurred the edges of his vision. There was a dull pinch in his neck. Everything harkened back to reality, but his mind fruitlessly reached for something else.
Someone else.
Fox .
But he was gone. Maybe even dead. Nobody knew.
Something warm shoved against his side, the grounding effect immediate as he suddenly became aware of his gasping breaths. A calm, low voice was murmuring, and he seized it as a lifeline.
“-with me. Come on, Cody. Deep breaths. If you pass out on me, I swear I’ll punt you out the airlock myself. Udesii, vod. ” The voice continued in the same calming tone.
“We don’t have an airlock!” Another voice hissed from behind him.
“Shut up, Thorn,” the first one sing-songed. “Looks to me like threats work. Whaddya know, batchmates are alike. That’s it, Cody. Keep breathing. Match me,” he wrapped gentle hands around Cody’s wrists, guiding the Commander’s hands against his chest. Cody focused, grounding himself with the steady, deep breaths he could feel from the medic. He wasn’t sure how long passed until he was aware that his breaths weren’t coming in ragged gasps anymore.
“That’s it...” Keikr murmured. “Can you tell me where you are?”
Cody blinked, struggling to keep his mind from falling back into panic. “C-Coruscant.”
“That’s pretty general, vod. What room are you in?”
Cody’s eyes flickered, darting around briefly before he recognized it. “Office. My-Fox’s office.”
“Better,” Keikr hummed, “What are you on?”
“Ah, a couch?” Cody ventured. It was soft. He’d been in his chair last he remembered. How had he got to the couch?
He abruptly became aware of the warm heat of Thorn pressed against his back, arms wrapped around him in a safe embrace. His upper armor was gone, as was Thorn’s. He flinched, hard. The arms allowed the movements, then tugged him back again.
“Take it easy,” Keikr smiled, “You might be a Marshal Commander, but you’re still a vod’ika, and Thorn’s still an ori’vod. Relax, and for kriff’s sake, don’t stop breathing!”
Cody gasped, not having realized he’d quit breathing entirely. He cautiously allowed himself to relax into Thorn’s warm embrace. Thorn pressed against him a little harder, resting his forehead against the back of Cody’s neck. Keikr rocked back on his heels, a pleased expression on his face.
“Good, vod. Guess we gave you a little too much info, huh?”
Cody shakily managed a nod. “Fox’s missi-”
“And we’re going to find him. Don’t stress.”
“S’my fault,” Cody had to make him understand. “Coruscant, the Guard, the-”
“Cody, vod, no.” Keikr’s tone was gentle, as to a fragile cadet. Perhaps that was what he was now. “Fox protected us. He has always made decisions based on how to best protect his brothers. He didn’t tell you. He didn’t want to drag you all into this mess. It is not your fault.”
Cody paused his thought process. He’d had a complete meltdown in front of another Commander and their medic. They’d had to deal with him. He tried pushing against Thorn’s arms again, but the Commander merely hugged him tighter. It was… oddly comforting. “I’m sorry,” he rasped, eyes dropping. “I-I didn’t mean to lose control.”
Keikr’s eyes went over his shoulder, to Thorn. “It’s fine,” he said, “Fox gets episodes, so we all learned to take care of it. Thorn does sometimes. Hell, every Guard on base has gotten at least one panic attack.”
But Cody was off again. His ori’vod suffered from this regularly, and he hadn’t even known ? How had Fox hidden this? He commed his batchmate regularly! Fox always said he was fine! He-
“Hey!” Keikr snapped his fingers under Cody’s nose. He flinched. Keikr nodded approvingly. “Stay with us.”
“Sorry,” Cody mumbled. As the panic melted away, he felt exhaustion creeping through every limb. There was still more that needed done, however. He sat up straight as he could without disturbing Thorn’s embrace, although the latter had already proved he was not easily persuaded into letting go. Cody drew a deep breath, settling himself. “So how can I help?”
Thorn let out a startled “what?”, and promptly tried to badly disguise it as a cough. Keikr raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
“That sounded ridiculous,” he smirked.
“Help?” Thorn finally spluttered out.
“I want to help,” Cody said firmly. Kriff, he was tired. It felt like he’d run a full mission by himself. The panic had drained away fully; he was too tired to even think about it, but he needed to figure this out.
“You can’t help,” Thorn said.
Keikr frowned, “I think he could.”
“And what if is he asleep?”
Keikr suddenly patted Cody’s cheek as if he was a baby, and he realized his eyes had closed. He opened them and scowled at the medic. It abruptly registered that he’d missed a section of the argument.
“Not quite, but well on the way there,” Keikr laughed. “Looks like I gave you too much. Let’s pick this discussion up later, yeah?”
Cody blearily nodded. Perhaps it would be a good idea. He didn’t quite understand what Keikr meant by ‘gave you too much’ but didn’t try to parse it out. It could wait. He was faintly aware he was tipping, and somebody let out a soft laugh. Their words were faint, and echoey.
“Gave him too much, indeed. You knocked him clean off his feet.”
“How was I supposed to remember he hasn’t built up immunity like the rest of you di’kuts? I wasn't gonna let him pass out from hyperventilation.”
"So you drugged him instead...."
"It was a mild sedative!"
He was on his side, then. Something warm curled against his back, draping a comforting weight over his side and thigh. Voices kept talking, but he couldn’t understand the words anymore. Something tugged at his feet. The warmth against his back rumbled, the feeling agonizingly familiar and comforting.
Things weren’t good, by any long shot, but they were certainly beginning to look up.