Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What do you think Commander?” Obi Wan asked, flipping his saber around in his hand, staring out over the devastated landscape of the city. Cody followed his gaze. There were so few of them, maybe only the two of them left, and no one was coming. The Senate had decided that both the planet and what little remained of the 212th were not important enough to send any of their forces from other more vital battles and stations around the galaxy. Even the ship that they had been bouncing their signal off of to send messages to the Senate had been moved on, leaving them to fend for themselves.

“I don’t think there’s really anything for it.” Cody said, gripping Obi Wan’s wrist tightly. The two of them were the only members of the squad they had been with left and they were both injured. Cody only had so much charge left in his blasters’ cartridges. “We either go out there and try to fight our way to the last known location of Gregor’s squad, or we can just wait here to die.”

“I am not going to await death cowering in a doorway.” Obi Wan said sharply. “I refuse.”

“I’m not particularly fond of the idea myself.” Cody said. If they could get to Gregor, who Obi Wan said was still alive, good. If they couldn’t, they wouldn’t give the Seps the pleasure of their quiet execution.

“A kiss for good luck?” Obi Wan asked, and Cody unlatched his bucket, letting his blaster fall to his side and lifting the bucket so that Obi Wan could lean in and kiss him.

He tasted like blood and dust and the scent of burnt metal and plastoid hung heavy on the air.

“I love you.” Obi Wan murmured against his lips.

“I love you too.” Cody said, and then: “Will you say the riduurok with me?”

“I wish it could have been under happier circumstances.” Obi Wan said, pulling Cody’s bucket all the way off, hooking it onto Cody’s belt and taking both of Cody’s hands in his own. “You should lead us cyare. It is your culture. And then I will teach you the Jedi wedding vows.”

“Jedi have a set of wedding vows?” Cody asked, and he regretted, on top of all of the other things that he regretted like the death of his vode and the way he and his General were going to die, alone on a backwater no one cared about, surrounded by dead vode that he knew so little about Obi Wan’s culture.

“We do.” Obi Wan said. “They are similar to the riduurok in the sense that they only have to be said between partners, and in their message.” Cody tightened his grip on Obi Wan’s hands.

“I would say them with you before everyone if I could.” He admitted.

“I wish we could.” Obi Wan said. There was a beat of silence and then Cody gently cleared his throat.

“Mhi solus tome.” He began, his voice already growing thick with tears.

“Mhi solus tome.” Obi Wan repeated, his voice also shaking.

“Mhi solus dar’tome.”

“Mhi solus dar’tome.”

“Mhi me’dinui an.”

“Mhi me’dinui an.”

“Mhi ba’juri—“ Cody’s voice failed. They would not be able to raise warriors. Had done their best with their shinies and Obi Wan’s vod’ike, but they would not get the chance to make the conscious decision to raise them together.

“Mhi ba’juri verde.” Obi Wan finished, tears tracing down his cheeks. He brought them together in a gentle Keldabe kiss, pressing his forehead against Cody’s.

“Mhi ba’juri verde.” Cody repeated, a little stronger this time, those it was hard through the tears that were now falling freely.

“We join as one among the stars,” Obi Wan began after a brief pause, “and among all living things.”

“We join as one among the stars and among all living things.” Cody repeated. Neither of them were speaking particularly clearly, voices trembling and hesitant through their tears.

“We join as one in the Force.”

“We join as one in the Force.”

“And the Force is with us always.”

“And the Force is with us always.”

“I love you.” Obi Wan said, and Cody sobbed.

“I love you too.” He managed, after a moment of deep breathing to get himself back under control.

They took several minutes to pull themselves back together, and then recorded a message on the inbuilt comm on Cody’s vambrace that would inform anyone who found them that they had married, and that they were setting out to find Gregor’s squad. If anyone ever actually saw it, it would probably mean that they had been long dead.

Upon setting out, they stumbled across a squadron of battle droids almost immediately. Obi Wan took out most of them, Cody trying to preserve his charge, and they kept moving.

Everything seemed to be going relatively fine, though there was still many droids in the city, until Cody realized that they were being herded in a direction.

“Shit.” Cody said, and Obi Wan looked over at him. They were wedged behind more shelter, still be shot at.

“Are you alright?” Obi Wan asked.

“They’re trying to get us somewhere I think. Maybe there’s still someone alive somewhere commanding them.” Cody said and Obi Wan swore.

“They are, but I can’t see anywhere we might go besides forward.”

“No.” Cody agreed. He shifted his weight, trying to ease the pain in his injured leg.

“Shall we keep on?” Obi Wan asked, as more droids approached.

“Might as well.” Cody grunted, and followed him as he charged forward to the next bit of cover, Obi Wan deflecting as many blaster bolts as he could.

Eventually, they ended up back to back in a big square. They were hemmed in by droids and everything had started to melt into a blur when there was a loud crack like a slugthrower and pain bloomed in Cody’s shoulder. Obi Wan gasped, and then the press of his shoulders against Cody’s vanished.

Cody spun around inelegantly, and instead of finding his riduur collapsed on the ground, a slug having passed through his shoulder and in to Cody’s, he found that he had Force-leapt onto the roof of a nearby building.

“For kriff’s sake.” Cody said. He looked for the door, his blaster finally running out of charge as he did so. He dropped it, unholstering his pistols, and fought his way into the first floor of the building Obi Wan was atop.

There were more droids on the first two floors and Cody felt like he was almost wading through them. Unable to even try to make the charge in his pistols last, he had to drop them and slug a B1 across the head, stealing its blaster as it dropped and putting it down with one efficient shot.

He met Obi Wan again on the third floor of the building. Obi Wan had several new slug wounds in his torso and Cody knew he had taken several blaster bolts in the process of getting back to him.

“You’re hurt.” Obi Wan said into the silence, his saber wavering and going out as he stumbled over to Cody. Cody caught him, holding his soft shaking body close as they eased themselves down to the floor, leaning on each other as they did so.

“So are you.” Cody said, cupping Obi Wan’s head in one of his hands as he laid him on the ground. He barely had enough strength to keep himself upright, but he did his best, slumped over Obi Wan, their blood pooling and mixing together on the floor.

“I love you.” Obi Wan said, fumbling for the latch on Cody’s bucket.

“I love you too.” Cody said, helping Obi Wan with the latch. He pulled it off and let it fall to the floor, Obi Wan’s fingers sticky on his cheek.

“I’m sorry it had to end like this.” Obi Wan said slowly and Cody leaned down to rest their foreheads together.

“So am I.” Cody said. There was so much more Cody could have said, so much more he wanted to say, but in that moment, as they clung to each other in the ruins of the city that had chewed up and spit out their battalion on so many craggy teeth, there wasn’t anything more to say.

So they just breathed together until Obi Wan’s breath slowed and stopped, and then Cody, his vision blurred with tears, gently closed Obi Wan’s eyes, sent out the message they had recorded together those few short hours ago, and curled up next to Obi Wan to breath his last.

Chapter Text

At first Ahsoka couldn’t understand what had happened. Pain sheered across all of her senses, momentarily cutting her off from the Force, and she stumbled, hitting the training mats hard.

Fives knelt down beside her, and she could tell he was talking, probably trying to make sure she was okay, but she couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her head. It was the work of only a moment to figure out which one of her bonds had broken and then she wished desperately that she hadn’t.

She bolted to her feet and tore off through the ship.

Skyguy was in the main briefing room, and he would help her make sense of what was happening.

She burst through the door, and stumbled to a stop. Anakin was sitting on the floor, looking straight ahead at the holotable in the middle of the room.

“Commander—“ Rex said, but Ahsoka ignored him, climbing into Anakin’s lap without a second thought.

“Snips.” Anakin said dazedly, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “You felt it too?”

Ahsoka nodded, the tears she had been trying to hold back beginning to flow freely. They sat together, working through their grief for their older brother, their teacher, their anger for his death, together in Force, letting it flow through them until they both reached an exhausted almost-acceptance.

Ahsoka’s tears had petered out by the time they were done, and Anakin pushed himself to his feet, holding Ahsoka against his hip like she was a youngling still. In any other situation she would have protested, would have got herself back on her own feet no matter what, but she still wanted to keep holding on to Anakin, reassuring herself that her Master was still there even though her bond with Master Obi Wan had shattered.

“What’s happened?” Admiral Yularen asked kindly, when he noticed they were moving again. Ahsoka leaned her head against Anakin’s shoulder, looking around the room to find that almost everybody there was at least pretending to be working, and that Fives had followed her up from the training room.

“We need to check on the 212th.” Anakin said heavily. “Obi Wan has become one with the Force.”

There was a heavy beat of silence as everyone in the briefing room stilled.

“I see.” Yularen said as grief began to further suffuse the Force within the room. “Honey, can you connect us to the 212th?”

“Yes sir.” Honey, one of the naval soft-shells said. Ahsoka could see him out of the corner of her eye pulling things up on the holotable. “I can’t ping them sir. Seems like they might be out of range.” None of them wanted to acknowledge the other possibility that would render the 212th’s battle group unable to communicate.

“What was their last position?” Yularen asked.

“Give me a moment sir.” Honey said, pulling more things up on the ‘table. “The Chancellor himself appears to have ordered them to Reglinad, and that was their last known location. According to reports a ground force was landed before the destruction of the Negotiator and her battle group by unknown forces. Last contact with them was over seven standard days ago.” Another wave of shock and grief stole over the room.

“Reglinad?” Yularen asked, and he sounded as incredulous as he sometimes did with some of Skyguy’s more questionable plans. “Why would the Chancellor send them to Reglinad? Last I heard it had been abandoned by the group that had colonized it because they had wrung every last conceivably useable resource out of it.”

“Unknown sir.” Honey said. Before any more questions could be asked, there was a knock at the door and Dust poked his head in.

“We’ve got a call from the Jedi Council on the line for you General, should I patch it in here?”

“Yes please.” Anakin said. “Thank you Dust.” He saluted and then ducked back out again. A moment later Master Yoda flickered into view in the middle of the holotable.

“Sorry I am for the loss of your Master.” He said, and Ahsoka knew that he knew that Master Obi Wan was as much her Master as Skyguy was. “If peace time this was, order you home I would, and send another to find his body. But peace time this is not.”

“And I’m sorry for the loss of your Grandpadawan.” Anakin said. He paused for a moment. “You’re sending the 501st to Reglinad?”

“Eager you are, hm?” Master Yoda said, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, to Reglinad you will go.”

“Yes Master.” Anakin said, and then he paused again. “It is suspicious to me that it was on the Chancellor’s orders that the 212th was sent there, especially because Admiral Yularen says that there is little of worth there. He has been trying to create a rift between Obi Wan and I lately, and I. I don’t know, I just have a bad feeling about it.”

“Investigating the Office of the Chancellor we have been, close to a breakthrough we are. A bad feeling many of us have had.”

“Yes Master.”

“May the Force be with you all.” Master Yoda said, and Anakin and Ahsoka returned the farewell to him before the call winked out.

“I will go set our course for Reglinad.” Yularen said into the ensuing silence. “Please know, General, Commander, that you are not the only ones to mourn him, and that you, Captain, and your brothers, are not the only ones to mourn for the 212th.”

As they got closer to Reglinad their comms array began to pick up broadcasts coming from the planet. At first it was only a few, but then as they got closer and closer, more and more started to pick up. They were informed by the comms team that most of them were just looping messages, and that they were not painting a pretty picture of what the situation was like on the ground.

“We’ve picked up a broadcast from Commander Cody sir.” Cast, one of the comms officers said as he came up behind Anakin and Ahsoka on the bridge. “Would you like to see it?” He sounded as though he did not want to be offering.

“Yes, thank you Cast.” Anakin said, letting him lead them into a briefing room off of the bridge. Rex joined them a moment later.

Cast set up the holotable and then stepped out of the room, leaving the three of them to stare at the floating image of Master Obi Wan and Commander Cody above the holotable. They looked exhausted, like they were only upright because they were leaning against each other, their features dim in the low light of wherever they were.

Finally, Anakin reached over the pressed play.

“If you’re seeing this, we’re probably dead.” Master Obi Wan began, and Ahsoka flinched backwards. She knew it would be hard to see him, knowing he was dead, but his direct acknowledgment of it was worse. Rex’s hand came to rest on her back and she leaned in to him, trying to offer back the same kind of support he was giving her.

Master Obi Wan rattled off a string of coordinates, indicating where they were when they received the message and where they were attempting to get.

“Almost no one is left.” Cody said, picking up the thread when Master Obi Wan’s voice faded out. “As Obi Wan said, we’re probably dead. If you find our bodies, we both have lists of everyone’s time and location of death that we know on us. As a further update, we have said the riduurok and the Jedi wedding vows, and we would like to be burned together.”

“Burn us with our men.” Master Obi Wan said. “Burn us all together. Let us march on as one.”

“Farewell to you all. We go to seek the sunrise.” Cody said, and Rex muffled a sob in his glove as the holo looped back around to the beginning.

They had to come out of hyperspace outside of the rubble field that had been created by the destruction of the Negotiator and her battle group. Anakin tried to order her to stay on the ship, to oversee the recovery of those who had been lost above the planet alongside Admiral Yularen, but Ahsoka insisted she was going to go down to the surface.

It was one of the most inhospitable places she had ever seen, grey and dead looking. There wasn’t any greenery as far as the eye could see. There were a few buildings on fire, and that and the whistling of the wind through the ruins were the only noise besides the whine of the engines of their ships as they flew down from the Resolute.

Some places were obvious sites to search for the 212th, such as where their equipment was visible from the air, but several squads were sent out to search other areas around places where comms signals could be traced.

Commander Cody’s comm had had a direction scrambler on it, and so they had to create a search pattern even for him.

Ahsoka hadn’t intended to be the first to find them. She and Rex had just encountered a concentration of clankers, some of them still online, most of them not, and had followed the trail of destruction into a building.

Commander Cody and Master Obi Wan were curled up together in a pool of their own blood on the third floor of the building.

“These are wounds from a slug thrower.” Rex said, crouching a short distance away from them, his voice both flat and horrified. “A sniper maybe. I’ll go check the roof, you comm General Skywalker and tell him we found them.”

“I’m not letting you go potentially fight someone with a slug thrower by yourself.” Ahsoka said, even though there was no ring of danger in the Force, only the oppressive weight of death.

“Fine.” Rex gave in easily, as Ahsoka suspected he would. No one wanted to fight someone with a slug thrower, and they had been basically attached at the hip since they had learnt of Master Obi Wan’s death. Neither of them wanted to be apart in the face of it.

Days later, they had accounted for nearly every member of the 212th and her battle group. They had built a massive pyre on one of the desolate plains outside of the city, and as many of the 501st as they could get down to the planet were there.

There was the roll of a drum as the signal, and then they spoke as one, torches held in the hands of those closest to the deceased.

“There is no death but the Force. And the Force is with us always. Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’echaaj’la. Ni su’cuyi, gar kyr’adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum.”

It was the longest remembrance Ahsoka had ever recited, the fire leaping and spitting up towards the sky as they spoke, Anakin on one of her sides and Rex on the other. They watched it all through the night, and the heat and smell of the pyre lingering long after it had burnt down to ashes.