Chapter Text
“Commander Cody. Execute Order 66.”
At Cody’s side, Obi-Wan shivered as the cold voice from the comm wrapped around the air, silencing all other communiqué.
It wasn’t a voice he would immediately recognize, but also one that haunted his dreams. Kept him running and screaming from an invisible force as it hounded relentlessly after him. A presence none wanted to acknowledge, but still had much of an effect to play the villain in the Crèche.
The Sith Lord.
With his lightsaber pointed to the ground, Obi-Wan had no defense against the cold muzzle of Cody’s blaster nuzzled in between his orange curls.
“Commander?”
”Good soldiers follow orders.”
”Cody, my dear, what is going on?”
Cody’s bucket was unfortunately on, so Obi-Wan had zero hope of looking up into his Commander’s eyes and seeing a familiar hint of humour. He had to rely on the Force alone.
And the Force felt dark.
Dark and coiling around his Cody’s head. Twisting memories and whispering lies. Nothing like the jubilant and excited state it always was.
Obi-Wan once tried to tell Cody of the way the Force felt around him.
“Happy. It simply loves you, Cody.”
”Love, huh?” Cody smirked, as he dodged a data-pad thrown by his General, easily catching it before it hit tile and placing it on the desk.
”Don’t be so quick to laugh, my dear.” Obi-Wan replied from his place in his couch. “It hums around you. Keeps you safe.”
Cody didn’t say anything but gestured to the infamous scar wrapped around his eye to his cheek.
”Safe in the way that matters, I mean. Yes, if there’s anyone to survive this blasted war, Cody. It would be you.”
The blaster was pushed further into his head, as if to remind him to stay in the present.
”All Jedi must die.” Whatever had possessed his Commander spoke with his mouth.
The famed Negotiator saw only one path to this where he escaped with his life.
Act dumb, Obi-Wan.
”What’s a Jedi?”
Not that dumb!!
The blasted blaster quivered where it was, as it seemed that question confused its wielder.
”What?”
Obi-Wan contorted his face to look as confused as possible.
”I said, what’s a Jedi?”
Cody seemed to have enough, removing the helmet, face stoic as he looked into Obi-Wan’s eyes,
then at his lightsaber
back to his eyes
to the lightsaber again
around to Waxer for some reason
then to the lightsaber
to complete its round back to Obi-Wan’s eyes.
”Good soldiers follow orders?” Cody asked in a confused cadence.
”I simply don’t know what that means.” Obi-Wan nonchalantly shrugged, Jedi-like. “What even is a Je-Jed-Jedee? Am I saying that right?”
It seemed even possession couldn’t remove Cody’s deadpan voice.
”Good soldiers follow orders,” he remarked, deliberately staring at the still lit lightsaber.
Obi-Wan looked down and gasped, as if noticing the weapon for the first time.
”This old thing? Why, I just found it this morning! Nice little beard trimmer we got here.” He said, holding the weapon closer to his face, miming the movements of shaving with such a carelessness, he could swear he heard Qui-Gon yelling at him from the After-Life.
The intelligence Cody normally had thankfully wasn’t present at this moment, the blaster moving from the Jedi’s skull, as there was no enemy there. Just a very stupid man with a glowing blue razor.
Noticing the Commander’s blaster sloop, one of the other Clones, Crys, marched to the pair.
He stopped about a two meters away, his guard unnaturally on, and a stiffness in his gait; an unwelcome sight.
”Good soldiers follow orders?” He saluted to Cody.
”All Jedi must die.” Cody nodded to the other. “Good soldiers follow orders.” He clapped Obi-Wan on the shoulder, a signal of any, that this was not a Jedi.
It was clear from the turning of heads and conflicted looks, that Obi-Wan's presence on the ship was undoubtedly questioned, as they sped back to Coruscant. Gregor, normally a sweetheart, glared daggers into his head from his table in the Refectory. Obi-Wan drank his soup in silence amidst the whispered "Good soldiers follow orders?" and "All Jedi must die!" The clones wouldn't even bother giving him the pretense that their hushed conversations weren't about him, his spoon the only one moving in the room.
Also due to the fact that he was sitting at a table comprised of the entire Ghost Company.
Every sip he took drew their murderous eyes towards him. Every water break brought hands reaching towards their side for a weapon.
Obi-Wan was glad of Cody's presence at his side, warning the others of his civilian aesthetic, as Obi-Wan wasn’t doing a good job at pretending to not be a Jedi.
Every move, every flick of a wrist proved that you could take the man out of the Jedi robes—robes he dashed the second he got on the ship— but you couldn’t take the Jedi out of the man.
Take that Bruck, Obi-Wan slightly gloated over his dead agemate. Guess I was a Jedi after all.
An idiot Jedi as it may be as his desire for the salt at the end of the table had blinded his senses, the innocent shaker floating gently towards him, followed on its path by the glares of the mess hall.
Tens of blasters were picked up where they had been pointed towards him on their tables to now being pointed towards him in the air.
Obi-Wan felt sweaty as though he never stripped from his robes, as he thought of any excuse to save himself.
”Y’all’ve never seen this magic trick before? Even kids do it.”
Cody frowned and for some reason, Obi-Wan’s ankles itched.
The trepidation Obi-Wan felt as he landed the Negotiator in front of the Temple on Coruscant was even worse than when he was invited to give a lecture on the Ruusan Reformation at the Community College of Coruscant (CCC), or even when he was seven and was worried that he was pregnant after kissing Quinlan in the Archives, or even when confessing his feelings for his dear Commander.
But he needed answers and the Jedi definitely had it.
So imagine yourself in Obi-Wan’s place. You, are a Jedi Master, leading a group of brainwashed soldiers hellbent on killing Jedi, through a Temple full of Jedi.
Perfectly normal Taungsday.
The Stewjoni’s face was pinched with strain as he never noticed exactly how much Jedi were actually in this blasted Temple.
He didn’t know about his men but at some point, someone was gonna have to call him out on his lame excuses.
”Hold your fire, Waxer. Today’s only a Halloween celebration for the younglings.” He said about the passing Jedi in Jedi garb talking about Jedi crap.
”Good soldiers follow orders?”
”Well, they’re very interactive.”
”All Jedi must die!”
”Yes, yes, so you’ve said.” He brushed off Longshot’s answer.
It’s only a magic trick, was said about the group of padawan using the force to play a card game.
It’s just an illusion, to the Master and Knight jumping impossibly high in order to reach one of the higher levels of the Temple.
Boil, you should know that Togruta can’t be Jedi, don’t be stupid, was said about the Togruta Jedi who was older than Obi-Wan and had taught him many lessons about being a Jedi.
It’s the start of an orgy, Obi-Wan panicked at someone Knighthood trial that they passed, the new Knight on the floor whipping their head to face him, face turned up in disgust, as the Knighting Master nearly slicing their lekku off with the lightsaber.
Forcessakes, what wasn’t a Jedi thing around here??
They finally made it to the Jedi Council room where Jedi often reconvened to discuss Jedi business.
Obi-Wan entered first, sending out a hint of warning through his bonds that turned to confusion at his former padawan’s state in front of the council.
”Am I…interrupting something?”Obi -Wan asked, The Ghost Company trailing behind him, their weapons slowly raising their weapons in the absence of Obi-Wan’s explanation.
“Obi-Wan! You’re back early. Interrupting? Nonsense, Anakin was just informing the Jed-“ Master Windu started to say.
“SITH!” Obi-Wan yelled.
“What?” Master Billaba asked, eyes blinking owlishly in confusion.
“I was just finishing your sentence, my dear.” Obi-Wan blabbered out. “So what was Anakin about to tell the Sith High Council that rule over other Sith as we’ve always done because we’re definitely not Jedi and have always been Sith?” He attempted to lean casually on the nearest object, that happened to be a stone-faced Wooley.
Obi-Wan didn’t know how silence could be this loud and embarrassing.
After a devastating long time, the clones lowered their blasters and Obi-Wan’s heart started beating again.
“Good soldiers follow orders.”
“That they do, Cody.”
“All Jedi must die.”
“If only there was some Jedi in here for you to kill, my love.”
“So what Knight Skywalker was telling us,” Mace continued with a deeply concerned glance to Obi-Wan’s near naked form, clad only in leggings, refusing to make eye contact with anybody in the room. “Was that Chacellor Palpatine had revealed to him that he is the,”Mace’s voice faded out in the background.
Sith, Obi-Wan’s mind supplied unnecessarily. That was the voice that had called Cody.
The voice that turned his men against him.
Into the very man they were cloned to be.
Jedi-killers.
And now he was in reach of his former padawan? His works? The reason he gets up in the morning?
Palpatine is Darth Sidious.
The Sith.
“The Jedi.” Obi-Wan mumbled at first.
“The Jedi,” He repeated louder this time. “He has revealed to Anakin that he is the Jedi we’ve been looking for.”
The Clones perked up at the word of their enemy, the Council thoroughly forgotten, as Obi-Wan grabbed Cody’s face and stared into his eyes, desperate to convey his message.
“Chancellor Palpatine is the enemy of the Sith. He is a Jedi.” Obi-Wan watched as their eyes started to gloss over in the excitement of prey.
“He is the very model of a modern Jedi, robes and lightsaber and all. The only one in possession of a lightsaber at all.” Obi-Wan said, adjusting his lightsaber at his waist. His actions startled the rest of the Jedi into hiding their Jedi lightsabers, some sitting on it, others holding it to the ceiling with the Force, Master Plo going so far as to chuck it out the window.
“All Jedi must die.” The clones echoed through the Chambers.
“So go kill that one,” Obi-Wan instructed, walking backwards to kill seat, as he watched the blood thrust take over the clones, turning them into something indescribable, wreaths in the Force, as they abandoned them to hunt their enemy.
“Good soldiers follow orders.” Rasped the ghastly form of Cody, who turned back as if the real Cody knew what Obi-Wan’s plan was and was still in there, head nodded in acceptance.
Obi-Wan collapsed in his chair, shivering slightly until Master Fisto floated his cloak over too him, to which he grunted a soft groan of appreciation.
“Lots to say, have you?”
“Their heads, there was a dark presence that should not have been there.” Master Windu answered in lieu of Obi-Wan’s lack of one. “It twists their mind and their autonomy.”
“Then why didn’t they register us as Jedi?” Master Mundi asked.
“Because we’re the best damn Sith in the entire galaxy.” Obi-Wan sighed.