codywan reverse bang

Codywan Reverse Bang (or 'reverse big bang'), similar to a 'big bang' event, is where artists create prompts for writers to fulfil. Please view the quick links for more information!

[codywanreversebang]

📌 Codywan Reverse Bang 2023

Codywan Reverse Bang (or ‘reverse big bang’), similar to a 'big bang’ event, is where artists create prompts for writers to fulfil.

📯 NOTICE BOARD • 2023 posting has finished! • The AO3 collection can be found here.

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📋 QUICK LINKS • rules & guidelines • FAQ • schedule

⌛ PAST EVENTS • 2022

📝 Masterlist of all Codywan Reverse Bang 2023 works • 2023 masterlist part 1 • 2023 masterlist part 2 • 2023 masterlist part 3

[cmmdrkote]

codywan reverse bang team #13: i should tell him i love him

The words fell away as Obi-Wan raised his head. He had been expecting another visit from Cetius only to find his Commander standing in the doorway. He blinked a few times, fearing he was merely hallucinating. “Cody?” “General.” The Commander stared for a moment, trying to think of what to say. I’m glad I found you in time. I’m glad you’re alive. I missed you. I was worried about you. I think I love you. “Did you need a rescue?” “Do you know, Commander?” Obi-Wan tried for a smile and a laugh that turned into a groan as his broken ribs made themselves known. “I just think I might.”

So, I'm unfortunately late (life and death happened) but here is 2/3 of my piece for CWRB '23! Obi-Wan has gotten himself into a situation, and Cody is annoyed and using that to cover up how worried he is.

i would like to thank the mods of @codywanreversebang Serie and Anon for their endless patience, my friends for getting me through a difficult time, and of course my amazing writers Kay @foreverchangingfandomsao3 and Mia who have written a fantastic story for this prompt that you can read here.

I'll see you all soon for Part 3....a Keldabe kiss is imminent 👀 Notes and close-ups sans shadows under the cut:

A consistent light source? Who? I've never heard of her in my entire life.

I swear I didn't mean for there to be Christ-like undertones (I'm not even Christian) but once I had Obi's pose laid out and the light focused on him, I was like "fuck I gotta commit to the space Jesus now".

I originally intended for this to have a much more cartoony style, but the shading on Cody's face got away from me and then I needed to match that level of realism for his whole body, which drastically increased the time taken and I had to scrap all my plans for Obi.

The pose/prompt and Obi's outfit are inspired by Crossfire by Brandon Flowers, a whumper's dream of a music video and also a bop. I had sketched something out about two years ago and ended up adapting it for this idea.

Obi is wearing suspenders and a dress shirt because 1. I hate drawing clothing and knew robes would suck 2. Brandon is wearing that outfit in the video which made an easier reference 3. Suspenders are hot 4. I needed to show the hairy chest

Clip Studio Paint can eat my ass, I'm never upgrading to their bs subscription model.

Ewan and Temuera are some of the most handsome men I've seen in my entire life and no I will not be taking questions.

Here are some close-ups because I want to show off what I did before covering it up with dramatic ass shadows:

[codywanreversebang]

Codywan Reverse Bang 2023: Masterlist Part 3

Team 13

crossfire [Art] by @cmmdrkote

Ni ru'kir rejorhaa'ir kaysh Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum kaysh (I should tell him I love him) [19.3k] by @foreverchangingfandomsao3 MiaSirtnev

Obi-Wan and Cody have yet to find the right time to tell each other they love them, but when Obi-Wan gets sent on a mission, everything from before changes. More so when the mission goes wrong and Cody needs to rescue his General.

Team 14

Team 14 [Art] by @owliix

Life happens wherever you are [5.5k] by @badgers-cats

Earth Kingdom Crown Prince Cody finds himself experiencing deeper feelings for an Air Nomad pilgrim staying in the palace. He's not entirely sure that he wants these new emotions. Until he is.

Team 15

Team 15 [Art] by @artbowls

Orbital Decay [26.5k] by @thejediandthemandalorian

Orbital decay [′ȯr·bəd·əl di′kā] a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods. Cody and Obi-Wan have been orbiting each other for a while, what happens when a series of events causes the pull to break and both to fall?

Thermodynamic Equilibrium [3.8k] by @neostriatum

"He held his general's life in his hands. It wasn't the first time, and all he needed was to keep his grip."

Team 16

Team 16 [Art] by @twackycat

Red Eye (Part One) [9.8k] by @codythecheshirecat

Commander Cody is General Qui-Gon Jinn's second in command. He leads the 3rd systems army. He's a good soldier. And he cares, very deeply, about his brothers. And then along comes General Jinn's old apprentice, making trouble. Obi-Wan Kenobi wants Qui-Gon Jinn to get exactly what he deserves, and there's nothing that can stop him.

Red Eye (Part Two) [16.9k] by @tired-bshocked

The new Empire struggles to be born out of the ashes of the Republic. Darth Solumn, or Obi-Wan Kenobi as he was once known, attempts to adjust to his place in this new galaxy, fighting alongside those who were once his enemies. Matters are not helped when he also finds himself stuck under the supervision of Commander Cody.

Team 17

Team 17 [Art] by @sissiarte

The Sun (bright as juice breaking in the mouth in its shape of morning) [17.1k] by @nightoftheland

Eyeing him critically for a second, Cody took the proffered hand and felt his entire body want to turn to goo as those slick leather-clad fingers curled around his bare fingers, and heat tingled up his spine, and he froze as Obi-Wan bowed slightly and pressed a kiss to the back of Cody’s knuckles. “Partners then,” Obi-Wan murmured his breath hot against the back of Cody’s hand. Mouth completely dry all Cody could do was nod, croaking out the word, “Partners.”

The King's Tree [31.2k] by GemmaRose

A prophecy, a stolen brother, and a King far more handsome than any fae has right to be, really. Cody isn't sure how his life became one of the cautionary tales his buir raised him on, but he's not about to let that stop him from doing what has to be done.

[codywanreversebang]

Codywan Reverse Bang 2023: Masterlist Part 2

Team 7

Team 7 [Art] by @thatonetimetraveller

Deflect [5.3k] by @fanfic-obsessed

Later review of his footage would reveal that he protected his general with his general’s lightsaber for almost two hours before the battle was won. He never discussed how the lightsaber appeared to be helping him at many points, because that would just be weird. Right?

Team 8

CWRB Team #8 - Bread [Art] by @dontbelasagnax

sourdough: flour, water, and starting over [18.9k] by @shortcuts-make-long-delays

Did Cody need to be up at 3:50am? No, not technically. But he had graciously offered to take Fox’s Sunday morning shifts at their Uncle’s bakery. Donning Fox's red apron as part of a decade long joke, he works at the bakery as he attempts to figure out what he wants from life. The first time Obi-wan shows up to dinner at Anakin's after moving back to Coruscant, he arrives twenty minutes late with the bag of rolls in hand, and unable to stop thinking about the baker in the red apron. Fox, he's pretty sure the name tag said. Cody and Obi-wan are both just trying to figure out what it means to start over and make your own happiness.

endings mean beginnings [8.3k] by @inkformyblood

A misplaced delivery leads Cody to find more than he ever would have expected after returning to help run the family bakery.

Joys Found and Made [8.2k] by @thehatphotograph

Cody loves his work at the bakery, and he’s grateful to have it, but when he looks at the chair at the other side of his kitchen table he can’t help but feel it’s all a little bit… empty. When he meets Obi-Wan, Cody realizes there might be something to fill his days with other than bagels and babka.

Team 9

Team 9 [Art] by @raccoonclty

what changes and what stays the same [7.5k] by @mymblesbuir

All things considered, then, it's an understatement of epic proportions to say that Ben isn't expecting to be woken up in the middle of the night by Cody of all people holding a gun to his head and a finger to his own lips. Ben has been keeping himself to himself since the violent loss of his brother and sister-in-law on outbreak day, but when his old friend Cody shows up to recruit him for the Fireflies, his life changes once again... (Codywan Reverse Bang - The Last of Us AU)

Seal it With a Kiss [6.5k] by @drowning-inthe-feels

"You can’t fight, Obi-Wan,” Cody cut off the argument already forming. He dragged Obi-Wan closer and rested their foreheads together. “Get a head start. I’ll find you afterwards. I promise.” “Seal it with a kiss?” Obi-Wan pleaded, fingers digging into Cody’s biceps.

Team 10

Team 10 [Art] by @journen

Hold Fast [10k] by @bitwhizzle

Three years ago, Cody ran away from his feelings instead of confronting them. When a Spec Ops mission teams him with Ben Kenobi again, it's finally time to have a chat. During a heated firefight. As one does.

Got Your Back [7.7k] by @crownprincecody

"It could be worse, Lieutenant," Obi-Wan reminded him lightly. "At least our distraction worked." Cody's glower was entirely deserved and predictable. "Sir," he began, tone implying the words 'with all due respect' when there was none in the offing. "Our plan was batshit crazy and left us running on foot from our exploded, liberated ATV." Cody didn't need to look pointedly at the faint plume of smoke still visible at their six for Obi-Wan to understand. That was entirely true. But it had worked. And, given the way the mission had been a SNAFU from the start, Obi-Wan was keen on taking the win. "It worked, Cody," Obi-Wan said again, tone more gentle. There were no words to emphasise how much Cody hated it when their plans went off the rails. It's only supposed to be a milk run. In and out and no real trouble. It's why only two members of the legendary 212th Battalion are sent in. Pity life is never that simple.

Team 11

A Day at the Markets [Art] by @jaegrdrifts

Are You Going to Sundari's Market? [5k] by @nerjetii

At the tender age of fifteen, Kote knew Obi-Wan would be the love of his life. Alright, to be perfectly honest, he’d known that the moment the paper butterfly had come to rest on the tip of his nose. Age had only taken the tender feeling that had curled around his heart and warmed it, and turned it into a fire that smoldered through the year to become a raging fire when Market Day came around. Five Times Obi-Wan and Kote meet at the Market Day in Sundari.

Team 12

You Have Only Just Begun [Art] by @jaegrdrifts

as lanterns rising to the stars [28.6k] by vhetin

Obi-Wan knew the mission was going to be more than a few days, but more than a few days in Sundari was perfectly fine. It's everything else that happens that makes him take up praying to the Force and anyone who might listen. Luckily for him, someone is listening.

and then there was hope [42k] [WIP] by @reginastellaris

Years after the Jedi Order was forced into hiding, Emperor Sheev Palpatine rules over the lands with an iron fist. Close to extinction, the Order sends Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to destroy the Emperor and end his terrible reign once and for all. He takes with him the Order’s last pure kyber crystal, a tool able to grow stronger the more hope it is around to vanquish Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan knows it’s a suicide mission, but he’s made his peace with that. Until a group of Sith chase Obi-Wan into a Mandalorian temple where he meets the angel Cody, son of the God of War, Jango, who’s been watching Obi-Wan since he’s been thirteen. Together, they go on a journey to stop Sidious’ tyranny and find Cody’s brother, Rex, who disappeared five years ago. Will they be able to fulfill Obi-Wan’s mission? Or will they die trying?

[codywanreversebang]

Codywan Reverse Bang 2023: Masterlist Part 1

Team 1

codywan reverse bang - pokemon au [Art] by @cmarani

a heart so true [10.8k] by @sarmaril

At the tender young age of eleven, Cody Fett believed he knew exactly what love at first sight felt like. Or; Cody has his sights set on the Pokémon League. It's not going to be easy training his way to the top. He can't just leave home at ten and charge Tauros-headed through the Galax region like some kids can. He has to spend his time helping his family's daycare in Kamino City, but Cody's not going to let that stop him... And maybe if along the way he gets to hold hands with Professor Jinn's cute assistant then he certainly wouldn't complain.

Team 2

codywan reverse bang - stained glass [Art] by @cmarani

Until We Meet Again [5.1k] by @geodax

After deserting the Empire that raised him and his brothers, Cody finds himself on a isolated planet. There, he finds a face he never wanted to see again.

Team 3

Team 3 [Art] by @madbunnyarts

Rewinding the Skein [8.5k] by @itsgoldleaf

He’s seen the creases of that palm before. Another thing he doesn’t remember. He walks towards the alley. The first sun drops lower. The footsteps behind him are as loud as the blood in his ears. Or: Ben goes to market and comes home with more than dried fruit.

a remedy painted blue [20.2k] by @ihathbenobiwankenobied

After ten years trying to keep his head down on Tatooine, Cody finds Obi-Wan lost in a life he never planned on living. It's not what they dreamt about during the war, but perhaps together they can make it work. Except Cody has a secret he didn't know he was keeping. And it might just tear them apart.

Behind the Scenes [10k] by @catfur-and-greenscales

“Spare any credits?” Obi-Wan stopped on the spot, feeling a cold sensation creeping down his spine. He knew that voice as he had heard it hundreds of thousands of times. With wide eyes Obi-Wan turned around and saw a man, not anyone he could say he knew, but those features were more than familiar to him. Perhaps the Force could have provided him more information, but he dared not to use it to reach for the man. It had been ages since the last time, so starting now was not an option. For a moment they both were just staring at one another, until the rough looking man lifted his bandaged arm, with a helmet. Obi-Wan could not help himself but … There was no facial scar. And there shouldn't have been, since even after everything, the man in front of him was still wearing the colors of the 501st. This man was not Cody. Of course not. He should have known better to not hope. But the seconds their eyes were locked felt too long to Obi-Wan. The tension was broken only when the clone just lifted his bucket a little higher and said:“Help a veteran to get a warm meal.”

Team 4

Team #4 - CodyWan Reverse Bang 2023 [Art] by @djk-creations

Twin Suns on the Horizon [22.9k] by @tyedyeboogers

Out on the hots sands of Tatooine anything can happen. For the people that live there, it is a fight of survival. For the Hutt who lords over them, it's resting on his ill gotten laurels. For the two gunslingers with a bone to pick - well, that's something entirely new. A Codywan Cowboys Story

cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other [5.5k][WIP] by @catsnkooks

A new sheriff has come to Freetown, the town Ben has established himself in after the rise of the Empire. Sheriff Cody Fett isn't someone he was expecting, with his determination to make Freetown a place for everyone, away from the shackles of the ever-encroaching Empire, and it's not long before Ben finds himself falling for the selfless sheriff. But when Ben's past comes knocking on the door, threatening the livelihood of everyone in Freetown, he knows he must act to save everyone he loves in his town, which has now come to include a certain sheriff in his life.

Team 5

Team 5 [Art] by @nhyhu

Tied [17k] by @insertmeaningfulusername @embeanwrites @wixiany

Qui-Gon is gone and Obi-Wan, freshly promoted to a Jedi Knight, needs to take care of a Padawan of his own, but doubts and insecurities plague him. Elsewhere in the galaxy, Cody and his brothers are struggling through rigorous training on the water planet of Kamino. They meet and start working together once the Clone Wars begin. They steal comfortable and quiet moments with each other, slowly working their way towards more than just a friendship between Commander and General. But the war is relentless. In a skirmish, Cody is fatally injured. Obi-Wan reaches deep into the Force and into himself to change Cody’s fate, and in doing so, a powerful Force bond is created. Now, they will have to navigate the war and their growing affection alongside an as of yet unprecedented bond. or: Obi-Wan and Cody's journeys before and throughout the war and their relationship (in 3 parts)

Team 6

Art for I Will Support You (Even When You Fall) [Art] by @commanderfoxtheshield

I'll support you (even when you fall) [8.6k] by @robyn-hoood

The offer is also tempting for another reason; from here, he can spot the two figures on the front page, limbs poised in a graceful arc as the smaller figure is lifted up by the other, spotlights bathing them in golden light. Dance therapy, he thinks, quietly mulling it. A class that paired up veterans with volunteers to teach them how to dance to cope with PTSD, a year-long program that ended with a small competition with a small monetary prize. A tiny part of him, a part that suspiciously sounds like his younger, college-attending self, perks up in interest. He quickly pockets the flyer, and stands up. She startles slightly, but settles down with his next words: “I’ll think about it.” . . . . . Or, veteran Cody Fett and dancer Obi-Wan Kenobi are paired up for a dance competition. It all goes downhill from there.

[geodax]

Codywan Reverse Bang

It’s that time of year! Here’s my contribution to the @codywanreversebang. It’s an enemies to maybe lovers story in an alternate universe where Cody and the clones were raised to serve the Empire and fight the Jedi. Read the fic below or on AO3.

Check out the amazing art by @cmarani linked here. And thanks to the mods for the extra time!

~~

Pain.

It radiated out from his abdomen, burning shards of agony shredding through his stomach and liver, splitting open his rib cage, and leaving his heart only just beating. The pain was far too familiar and no less agonizing than before. It was almost unfair that the agony of plasma cutting through skin and organs never seemed to lessen no matter how many times he endured it.

Cody was fairly certain he was screaming, or at the very least, yelling for a medic, but there were no medics here, no surgical wings equipped specifically to treat clones, no specialists standing at the ready to ensure the army lost none of its leadership.

He had long expected to die in battle. Not like this certainly, but it was a fact he had accepted a long time ago. Still, it was a shame. He had rather hoped that after dealing with the band of raiders, he would have enough credits to take a few months off and settle somewhere quiet, away from the roiling political shitstorm of the Core.

Blurry faces appeared in his vision. More pain lanced through his side - someone was touching him, trying to staunch the flow of blood where the blackened skin had broken open.

Cody tried to push them away. He’d rather die quickly, without the added pain of treatment, but his arms were caught and pulled aside.

Jumbled voices filled his ears, trying to calm him, but nothing could soothe him the way his brothers could. Their voices always meant help was coming, help was here, even if help was impossible, at least he would die in someone’s arms.

He thrashed violently when they moved him, nearly escaping their grasp, before they pinned him firmly to a stretcher.

More jumbled words, more soothing voices filtered through the pain. Something about healing, something about debt. No, he did not like the sound of that at all.

“Stop--” his voice slurred, then failed him entirely as he hacked at the blood suddenly filling his throat. The sickly sweet scent of bacta flooded his nostrils before it poured into his sinuses.

In the Core or in a medical bay, he would have inhaled deeply, allowing the mist to reach his lungs and staunch the bleeding until surgery could be completed.

But out here, bacta was worth more than the few thousand credits in his bank account. Certainly more than these people had paid him for this job.

How much would they demand in return?

How many years of service would they deem an acceptable exchange for saving his life?

This would never end, would it? He barely escaped the clutches of the Empire before they snatched back what little freedom they had offered the clones as thanks for fighting the war. And even then, he had to fight tooth and nail just to keep what bare semblance of choice he had.

“Breath,” the healer repeated again, this time just as someone else pressed on his wound. He screamed again, wheezed in another breath, and felt the bacta soothe the burning tissues even as he tried to cough it back up.

It was already too late, but he couldn’t give up.

He couldn’t--

The sunlight vanished and he found himself indoors, somehow. They were still hours away from the village, he had been certain of that. It’s why he had laid his trap here, where no one was supposed to get hurt.

They were gentle as they placed him back on the floor, but it did little to stop the blinding pain.

And then the chanting began.

Cody would have sighed if he had breath to spare. He knew this village was a little off - most groups isolated for long enough tended to diverge from the galactic norm at least slightly - but he hadn’t thought a cult was flourishing here. And it certainly was, judging by the sudden appearance of glittering white and gold robes swirling throughout the room.

Well, at least whenever their supposed god failed to save his life, Cody would die free. There wasn’t much more he could ask for at this point.

Metal clanked and then hands were on him. They lay upon his side and moved outwards, the pain numbing with each pass of their hands over the torn skin.

Cody wondered idly what painkiller they were using. There were more than a few on the market that acted so quickly, but they were extraordinarily expensive. Perhaps some crop had those properties. He had seen stranger things in the galaxy.

Still, it didn’t matter. No painkiller would save his life, just ease his passing. That had been an unheard of luxury to the clones; it had never made sense to waste resources on the dying. But lying here, on the receiving end, he thought it would have been justified to spare even a half dose to his brothers clutching their spilled guts in their hands.

Cody squinted upwards and caught a glimpse of brilliant blue eyes before his vision blurred again, too accosted by agony to focus on anything.

Some memory tickled at the back of his mind. Something important. Something--

He screamed through another wave of pain, even as the painkillers fought to soothe it. It wasn’t enough.

“Breath,” the man said. Now, there was a soothing - familiar? - voice. Yes, it had the same Coruscanti lilt of the Empire’s senators and bootlickers that had spent a lifetime trying to keep Cody enslaved, but this voice reminded him of the rare specialists that had visited medical frigates to conduct more complex surgeries than the clones were trained for.

It was one of those specialists that had stitched his brain back together after his skull had been cracked open. She hadn’t said much, but she had allowed Rex in during his recovery to ease his back awake from the anesthesia.

He hadn’t realized such an act was normal to so much of the galaxy, that this was only a hint of the kindness natborns showed each other on a day to day basis that was so often denied to the clones.

There were a lot of things he hadn’t realized back then.

Cody closed his eyes and allowed his body to relax as the pain continued to fade. Really, there was no harm in falling asleep. In all likelihood, he wouldn’t wake up again, but that was okay.

Maybe he’d finally get to see Rex again.

--

Pain was there when he woke up, but it was the light glaring into his eyes that drew him to wakefulness. Cody groaned and covered his eyes, too tired to consider moving out of the sunbeam. His whole body ached, but some of the supposed god’s painkiller must still be in his bloodstream because he didn’t feel the need to scream through the agony.

He was almost comfortable. The floor beneath him was plushily carpeted and a pillow was tucked under his head. Someone had wiped the blood off his face and hands and removed his armor to make room for the bandages wrapped around his torso.

He felt much better than he should, considering.

A blaster bolt to the chest was a death sentence, more often than not. In triage scenarios, it was too time intensive a surgery to be performed when so many others were in just as much danger. Even outside the chaos of a mass casualty event, it was a risky procedure on the best of days since surgeons were permanently in short supply.

Really, the only option was a Jedi healer.

But they were all long dead. Cody had made sure of that - had even once reveled in destroying the Empire’s enemies and facing a cunning opponent. He would have laughed at the irony of it all if the ghosts did not weigh so heavily on him.

The light in his eyes abruptly dimmed with the rustle of a curtain. Footsteps approached, accompanied by the soft clink of - a chain?

Carefully, Cody squinted into the dim light to find the supposed god haloed by what light still filtered in through the curtains.

“Hello again, Commander,” the god said and what little warmth Cody had felt in his bones turned to ice.

Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jedi master. The last knight of Alderaan, the savior of Christophsis, the guiding light of the Hyperion Cluster. The reaper, as his brothers called him. The man had a thousand names to accompany his own, dozens of titles to commemorate his victories against the Empire before Cody had finally outmaneuvered him.

The Empire had heralded the day as a great victory.

But too many brothers had lain dead at his feet.

Because Cody had to win, damn the consequences.

“You’re--” Cody choked on the rest of his sentence. Of course, Kenobi was alive. Of course, he was here, of all places, pretending to be a god, when Cody had no blaster at his side, no army at his back. Cody doubted he could even land a punch if Kenobi were to so helpfully place himself within range.

Kenobi would take his revenge.

And Cody wouldn’t be able to lift a finger to stop him.

He was free - from the Empire, from the smugglers that had gotten him off Coruscant in exchange for five years of his life, from the bounty hunters the Empire had sent after their most famous deserter. No more army, no more regulations, no more collars wrapped tight around his neck.

Cody deserved to die for what he did. His heart knew that even as he ran from it, too terrified still to dare recall that day.

He just wanted a little more time.

Just--

Kenobi smiled at him, but it wasn’t the blazing, flirtatious smile Cody had gotten to know over the battlefield. There was something too knowing in those eyes, too aware of everything Cody had done, every corpse he had left in his wake. And yet there was no hate in his gaze.

Cody looked away.

“I didn’t know the Empire allowed for armor paint,” Kenobi said.

The gold stripes painted on his armor were certainly not regulation. Neither was the hair curling over the tops of his ears or the dusting of stubble across his cheeks that he hadn’t bothered to shave. The blaster he usually carried wasn’t standard issue nor were the few hesitant strokes of polish on his nails and the single piercing he had gotten during a drunken evening on the streets of Nar Shadda.

Each small deviation had felt unforgivable. For days, he couldn’t help but look over his shoulder, certain he would be caught and reprimanded - or worse. Not even deserting had cranked his paranoia so high.

But no one had said anything. His brothers hadn’t been waiting behind every corner to arrest him. Local security hadn’t even given him a second glance for so obviously flaunting the rules that the clones had never lived a day without.

“They don’t,” Cody said.

The silence stretched on.

“I don’t serve the Empire anymore.”

The words felt like an apology.

They weren’t.

“I see,” Kenobi said. The Jedi certainly did not - could not - see what Cody meant. But Cody wasn’t in the mood to clarify. Not to him.

Again, the Jedi’s gaze fell on him, searching for something, though Cody could not guess what. Too often he had borne the brunt of Kenobi’s piercing gaze and the too-knowing look in his eye that usually meant he was a dozen steps ahead of Cody and would be walking away from their confrontation without even igniting his saber.

It was strange now to realize how little stood between them. No armies, no politics, no strategies. It was just the two of them.

And all the bodies they left in their wake.

The Jedi remained still, far from Cody’s side and his twitchy trigger finger. His blaster was probably out in the field where he fell or maybe Kenobi had finally had the good sense to disarm his opponents before trying to sweet talk them.

He had tried to shoot the Jedi in the face on more than one occasion. It never landed, but it had always been satisfying to startle Kenobi out of whatever tangent he had travelled down and allow Cody to make a break for it before the Jedi’s word could sink too deeply in his mind.

“I need to change your bandages,” Kenobi said. He had the good sense not to approach, but Cody wasn’t sure how long that would last. If he was intent on saving Cody’s life, he would do it, one way or another. Because alone, Cody was no match for a Jedi. Especially a Jedi like Kenobi.

“Would you rather change them yourself?” Kenobi asked, a single eyebrow twitching almost into his characteristic smirk before it disappeared.

Cody scowled, but there was no way to change the bandages himself. He was almost willing to try anyway if he wasn’t guaranteed to rip back open what the bacta and Kenobi’s Force had begun to heal.

“Go ahead,” Cody said, trying not to feel as if he were surrendering. The battle was already over. He lost. Now, he could only hope for the mercy Cody had not once shown to Kenobi’s people.

Kenobi’s hands were quick and sure. He removed the soiled bandages and bacta patches before replacing them with fresh gauze and a new layer of bacta. Cody idly wondered at the cost of it all, before realizing it was probably beyond his ability to repay at this point. Besides, his life was in Kenobi’s hands now. His financial woes were the least of his concerns.

“You should be healed enough to leave in a few days,” Kenobi said as he finished. “The organs still need time to heal and you’re still at risk for infection, but you’re out of the woods. You’ve got your remarkable healing abilities to thank for that.”

Kenobi had already started talking about something else before the words finally caught up to Cody.

“You’d let me leave?” Cody asked. It felt like a trap to ask, but Cody had always thought it best to spring the trap rather than let it close when he least expected.

Kenobi shrugged. “I have no quarrel with you Commander, unless you feel inclined to dig up old grudges.”

The sentiment was so obviously a lie it was almost laughable. Kenobi was clearly trying to lull him into some false sense of security. Cody would not fall for it.

“And the town?” Cody asked.

“I don’t believe they have taken issue with you.”

Cody scowled, then looked away. Of course, the Jedi wouldn’t even have a proper answer. He had lived too long assured that his needs would be met, that medicial supplies would not be withheld as bartering chips or punishment. He wouldn’t even know what Cody was asking.

“Commander,” Kenobi said. There was a touch of steel in his voice, the hint of the general Cody remembered bleeding through. “I’m afraid I am not particularly involved in local politics. I cannot answer your question without the relevant information.

“I can’t--” Cody steeled himself. “I can’t afford the bacta treatments.”

The bacta treatments should have been his right after the war ended. He was supposed to have his citizenship, backpay, and medical care to cover the plethora of injuries he had sustained over the war. Even as a soldier, bacta was readily available. It was cheaper than fulltime surgeons. And once the Empire established a monopoly, they had as much as they needed while the civilian market struggled.

But even as he lamented the loss, he realized too late what he had revealed.

“You deserted,” Kenobi said.

“No!” Cody snapped, but the truth rang too loud to be ignored. His cheeks burned with shame, still just as fresh as it was ten years ago.

“There are people out there that can help you build a life away from the Empire, Commander. Help you get your feet on the ground, maybe--”

“I don’t want your help, Jedi. I just want to be left alone.”

“It’s a little late for that,” Kenobi said.

“I know.”

The silence between them stretched on. It was not the silence Cody had grown to know in the moments before battle nor the silence of the barracks when most had already gone to bed. It was not the sort of silence that begged to be broken, nor the kind that must not be. It was simply the space between breaths, stretched out a moment too long.

“Do you know why the Jedi fought in the war?” Kenobi asked, apparently oblivious to Cody’s own desire to never discuss the war or the Empire, but he supposed it was a fairly neutral question. Better than Kenobi asking after him.

They both knew the answer the propaganda fed them - greed, power, madness. Even the Alliance had gradually begun to turn their back on the Jedi; for all great feats the Jedi accomplished, the lives they saved, their abilities only served to alienate them from the general public.

Cody didn’t provide an answer, though he had a guess or two. One couldn’t learn to predict their enemies’ moves without knowing their motivations.

“We can feel the galaxy’s suffering. Not just the feelings of the people near us, but the actual weight of every sentient life that has ever lived or will ever live. Their feelings leave an imprint on the Force that echoes through time,” Obi-Wan said. “Every day, we wake up to a billion voices begging for help. By night, there are just as many, no matter how many lives we save. But we can’t stop trying.”

It was certainly not the official answer - that they were honor bound to restore the peace, to restore freedom and justice to a galaxy rapidly destabilizing under the ever expanding grip of the Empire - but it rang true in the way Kenobi’s words rarely did.

And yet it made no sense.

“Isn’t that an exercise in futility?” Cody asked.

“Perhaps,” Kenobi said. He paused to look down at his shaking hands. Cody wondered vaguely when that had developed. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry for what happened, Commander. You and your brothers deserved more than to fight a war that was not your own. And if you don’t mind me asking, I would very much like to know why you fought at all. Because you are certainly not mindless, obedient droids, no matter what your Senate claims.”

Cody could easily give him the official answer - citizenship, honor, duty, training. The list went on for miles, all of it dedicated to lofty ideals that the Empire claimed to uphold. But they all knew that was crap from the beginning.

Honor hadn’t kept him on Coruscant when the Empire declared war again mere days after they had finally defeated the Alliance. Duty hadn’t freed him of what he had done, of the ghosts that haunted his steps.

But love did.

At least, it used to. Before the death reports trickled in, before the numbers tallied up faster than Cody could track. Before his brothers stopped looking him in the eye, stopped trusting him to watch their back.

Before he had sacrificed hundreds of his brothers to win a war none of them cared about.

Before he had killed Rex.

It had been the right choice, tactically speaking. A few hundred brothers fed into the meat grinder, so that the rest of them could finally have the freedom to live, to breathe, to take whatever life they wanted and make it their own.

It had been love that drove his hand.

And love was why his brothers hated him - because they would have rather kept fighting than see their brothers slaughtered.

Because at war, they were together. United. Purposeful.

Without it…

“We were made for it,” Cody said.

It felt like a lie.

It had to be.

Kenobi collected the soiled bandages and disappeared from Cody’s eyeline. His instincts made a half-hearted attempt at panicking, but Cody was too tired to consider the danger. Kenobi was right; he would never have the quiet life he desired, never be at peace while his brothers were still enslaved by the Empire.

And yet none of them would ever desert - they were too loyal to each other to even consider it. And the promise of citizenship, of being acknowledged as a sentient, free people had been motivation enough to prevent their more scheming minds from finding them some way out.

But it was a lie. Just like every damn thing Cody had ever believed. Over and over he found himself living with the consequences of the lies the Empire told - that they were bringing peace to the galaxy, that they were doing something good, that the clones would be rewarded for their work, that they would all be free someday.

Only a few years alone had revealed the truth to him.

And with the truth, came the horror of what he had done - the blood he and his brothers had left in their wake. But much stronger than guilt, was frustration.

It had all been pointless. All the brothers that died for a better life, all the lives he had sacrificed: they were never going to be given their freedom.

He heard the clank of a chain again as Kenobi returned. He looked almost as bad as Cody was feeling: his face was gaunt, his skin almost gray, his eyes red. More than that, he looked exhausted.

“What are you doing here?” Cody asked. Kenobi was in hiding, certainly. All the Jedi (what remained of them) were. Cody had been quite efficient at wiping out their network of support. But Jedi didn’t go into hiding as gods - rumors traveled too quickly of such things. Even out here, far from most hyperspace lanes, on a planet that disdained outsiders, rumors should have spread eventually. And yet he was; alive and untouched by the hunters that had burned their way through the galaxy for years now.

Kenobi had always been the exception to the rule - too clever, too manipulative, too proud. It was what made him a great general, how he inspired devotion in his troops, how he could convince them to trust even his most ridiculous plans.

It’s why he had been the Empire’s greatest enemy, why Cody had been tasked with slaughtering his battalion, his allies, down to the last member. He had succeeded when no one else had, but never managed to track down the Jedi’s starfighter after they shot it out of the sky.

“The whole galaxy thinks you’re dead,” Cody said.

“I almost was,” Kenobi said. “I was caught in the hyperspace slipstream of a cruiser before I was spat out here, no comms, no support, not even a general idea of where I might be. I walked for days to find civilization, and when I did, it was under attack. I revealed myself as a Jedi to defend the town, but I was shot twice in the process and brought here to heal.”

The Jedi came to Cody’s side with a tray of biscuits and a glass of infused water that shimmered almost blue in the dim light.

“You should eat,” Kenobi said.

“It’s been ten years,” Cody said.

Kenobi didn’t answer. There was something terribly close to guilt in his eyes, but more than that, Cody finally glimpsed his freezing anger.

Good. It was about time they stopped this pointless, slow dance around each other.

“Kenobi--”

“What do you think happened, Commander?” Kenobi asked. “No matter how many times we offered you and your brothers a way out of slavery, you spit in our face. You destroyed our Temple, you developed the protocols for the killing squads, you ensured we had nowhere to run. And then when we were practically beaten, you gave the order to hunt and execute us. As if we were nothing but animals.”

“So you set yourself up as a god to these people? Using and manipulating them in the same way that the Empire does to us? Because if that’s the kind of people the Jedi really were, then I’m glad we never followed you. Because you deserved what we did to you.”

Kenobi looked away, his fringe falling over his eyes. And then pulled his robes aside to reveal a heavy chain around his ankle.

“I didn’t choose this,” he said. “No Jedi would.”

Kenobi ran his fingers through his hair and sighed at Cody’s skeptical expression.

“While I was healing, they trapped me here. They thought they could use my abilities to keep their crops growing, their children healthy, so they tried bribing me – giving me gifts and food, anything they could imagine. And when I couldn’t help them, they turned to punishments and coercion.”

Kenobi’s fingers ghosted over a nearly invisible scar cutting across his cheek.

“They had never heard of the Jedi. All they had were stories of fickle gods that wandered the stars that could destroy planets on a whim or bring great riches to those that won their favor. They thought they were doing the right thing. Eventually, I taught myself to heal. That was the one gift I could actually give them.”

“You healed them?” Cody growled. The very idea set him on edge. He certainly wouldn’t lift a finger to help the shitty natborns that denied him and his brothers their citizenship. “Why?”

“I couldn’t leave them to suffer.”

“But they hurt you, they—”

Cody stopped. Because Kenobi had been telling him why since he opened his mouth. Because it was only a chain – ten years was more than enough time to wiggle his way free one way or another, Cody had seen him escape for more secure prisons.

“It’s because you’re a Jedi, isn’t it?”

Kenobi nodded. “It is not such a bad life,” he said. “I can still help people without bringing the Empire down on my head. I can meditate freely, still practice my beliefs. I can sleep without worrying what tomorrow will bring or what harm I will have to cause. I can simply serve these people as best I can – and here, that means healing.”

“Then you already know why so many of my brothers cannot leave.”

Kenobi smiled sadly. “You love each other and each other only.”

“Yes.”

The truth was simple. It did not make the loss of their love any less agonizing.

“They hate me,” Cody said when it felt like the silence had stretched on for long enough. “That’s why I left. After what I did—” He shook his head. “We only ever had each other. And I—”

Cody couldn’t continue, but he didn’t need to. He had seen the shock on Kenobi’s face when he realized that Cody was going to walk his brothers into a trap just to distract the other Jedi generals and their army long enough to bring in the bombers and the surrounded them.

The annihilation had been complete.

Not a single survivor walked away.

Not even Rex.

The Alliance had tried to retreat under Kenobi’s quick direction, but Cody hadn’t let them go, hadn’t allowed for surrender, for decency.

He won the war.

And lost everything else.

“Then go back for them,” Kenobi said, as if it were that simple.

It wasn’t. There was no way to pull everyone off Coruscant and the outposts at once. Too many things could go wrong, too many brothers would be left behind to face the wrath of the Empire. Cody had spent years agonizing over the problem, turning it over and over, accounting for thousands of variables and possibilities without luck.

“It’s impossible.”

“Then let me help.”

Epilogue

The chain broke with the snap of Obi-Wan’s fingers. He had not bothered with fanfare or comment, simply done what he had spent ten long years avoiding. But Cody saw the way his shoulders uncurled, how the permanent tension seemed to bleed out of his body. This was a relief too long in the making.

Cody’s armor slipped back on easily now that his wound was healed. Kenobi had certainly become a master healer in the intervening years. With the help of bacta, there was not even a scar to remember it by nor any lingering tightness in his lungs. He was fairly sure the Jedi had managed to soften some of the scar tissue in his lungs and gut that had been his constant companion since the day he woke up with his skull stapled back together.

Obi-Wan packed them both a bag, woven together by the rich sheets the town’s residents had gifted him. In it went what necessities Obi-Wan could scrounge up, though there wasn’t much besides the simple robes he wore, a few hygiene items, and some medical supplies. He left the gifts and offerings behind, not budging even when Cody revealed his sorry financial situation. He was certain the Force would provide. It was a faith Cody allowed himself to hesitantly share.

He stretched his stiff muscles as they readjusted to the comforting weight of his armor. It felt much the same as always, but the persistent itch between his shoulders blades was gone.

“My ship’s only a few kliks south of here,” Cody said as Obi-Wan tidied up the cottage. There wasn’t much to do – the place was kept almost spotless – but he folded away the nest of blankets and set the pillow back on the bed. The meditation corner he set up for himself was quickly dismantled. In minutes, it was as if no one lived here.

“Clean slate,” Obi-Wan said as he pulled the curtains open, letting the light flood into the room. He hesitated briefly before the last, before flinging it open like the others, letting in a mess of colors and lights like Cody had never seen.

Cody tucked his helmet under his arm as he stepped forward, a hand outstretched to touch what was certainly the results of hundreds of hours of work. Hundreds of glass pieces had been cut and soldered together to depict Obi-Wan in the moments after a battle, the sun at his back, his lightsaber extinguished, his eyes closed as he centered himself, a perfectly serene expression on his face. The artist had added a pair of colorful wings to Obi-Wan’s back that glimmered as the sun passed through the glass before it pooled on the floor in a mesh of hues.

“They loved you,” Cody said.

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. His own hand reached out to trace the soldered lines, a labor of love by an artist who must have spent decades practicing their trade before they brought their work here. “Too much, perhaps.”

“They’ll be alright.”

“I know.”

Obi-Wan turned away from the window, the fire finally returning to his eyes. “Well, there’s no time to waste, my dear. Shall we?”

Cody put on his helmet and hefted his bag.

His brothers had been waiting long enough.

[catsnkooks]

codywan reverse big bang team #4

hello hello !!! here's my contribution for team #4 for the @codywanreversebang time for some cowboys !!!!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[foreverchangingfandomsao3]

I had a really fun time writing this piece for @codywanreversebang with MiaSirtnev on ao3 (check her out here) and @cmmdrkote who created the most wonderful art and I can’t wait for you to see it! There’s a little snippet below :D

Ni ru'kir rejorhaa'ir kaysh Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum kaysh (I should tell him I love him)

Cody couldn’t help but feel as if the Senate itself was actively working against their war efforts. They sent them to battles without rest or time to heal, and now, they were sending his General on another undercover mission to Skyklar. A planet that they were at least a day’s hyperspace travel from to attend a diplomatic reception at the Lewdonian Embassy of all things. To his knowledge, there were several Generals only a few hours away from the planet and most of those were not fresh out of battle.

They were only hours out of their last battle, still recovering and holding their position until much needed reinforcements could arrive. It was not simply inopportune  , but almost foolish to send General Kenobi away in this situation. They’d certainly lose any attack once he was gone.

He knew those missions saved lives. He’d seen it firsthand when Obi-Wan had returned from Nal Hutta with Quinlan Vos, unsuccessful but having tried to help the situation. Still, the Jedi Order had Shadows, Masters trained for undercover work and Generals who undertook it more frequently than Obi-Wan. Generals, like Vos, who would naturally be better suited for this type of mission. It was information recovery, no matter how the Senate painted the planet’s difficulties under Separatist control. Of course, they cared now the planet was no longer neutral in the war. They had barely given their Senator time in proceedings before. Regardless, the resources and information weren’t something that a High General should be taken from an active war zone to pursue.

[sissiarte]

Here is my piece for the @codywanreversebang !!!!

I had the best team and I can't believe the amazing stories these two wonderfull writers came up with from my drawing. What are you doing that you're not reading them already?? Go go!

The King's Tree by GemmaRose

The Sun (bright as juice breaking in the mouth in its shape of morning) by @nightoftheland

[artbowls]

Codywan Reverse Bang Team #15 Masterpost

Event by @codywanreversebang

Thermodynamic Equilibrium - by @neostriatum

Rating - Teen

[Dreamwidth] - He held his general's life in his hands. It wasn't the first time, and all he needed was to keep his grip. - Another droi

Orbital Decay - by @thejediandthemandalorian

Rating - Teen

Archive Warning - Graphic Depictions of Violence

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[artbowls]

Codywan Reverse Bang #15 art!!

It was such a pleasure to work with @thejediandthemandalorian and @neostriatum this year :) thank you to the lovely people over at @codywanreversebang for organizing all this!

[shortcuts-make-long-delays]

I had such an amazing time writing this for @codywanreversebang and working with @dontbelasagnax and Team Bread! Lasagna's art is actually amazing (as always) and you should totally go check it out :D

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[cmarani]

This are my prompts for @codywanreversebang 2023!

We, as in me and @sarmaril, are team #1 and we are giving you pokemon au codywan and cutest story in whole reverse bang. Here it is!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[sarmaril]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody, Qui-Gon Jinn, Jango Fett, Other Star Wars Character(s), Alpha-17 (Star Wars), the usual suspects make appearances Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Pokemon Training, Puppy Love, Love at First Sight, No Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Fluff, Happy with a Happy Ending, I cannot stress how many cavities this will give you, Friends to Lovers, Crush at First Sight Summary:

At the tender young age of eleven, Cody Fett believed he knew exactly what love at first sight felt like.

Or; Cody has his sights set on the Pokémon League. It’s not going to be easy training his way to the top. He can’t just leave home at ten and charge Tauros-headed through the Galax region like some kids can. He has to spend his time helping his family’s daycare in Kamino City, but Cody’s not going to let that stop him… And maybe if along the way he gets to hold hands with Professor Jinn’s cute assistant then he certainly wouldn’t complain.

AAAA! So excited to finally share my full piece for Team One for @codywanreversebang!!  I was delighted to write for @cmarani’s  ADORABLE art! On ao3 and on tumblr!

[thejediandthemandalorian]

Codywan Reverse Bang Team 15 Fic!!!

Hello everyone! I'm excited to finally share with you my fic for the @codywanreversebang ! I have had the enjoyment of being part of team 15 with the lovely @artbowls (artist) and @neostriatum (writer of the other amazing fic!)

You can find my fic at the link below! And make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the rest of Team 15's reveals!!!!!

Orbital Decay

----

Summary:

Orbital decay [′ȯr·bəd·əl di′kā]

a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods.

Cody and Obi-Wan have been orbiting each other for a while, what happens when a series of events causes the pull to break and both to fall?

----

Please enjoy it!

Go support Team 15 and all of the other teams of wonderful writers and artists for this year's event!

[neostriatum]

Thermodynamic equilibrium

[Dreamwidth]

-

He held his general's life in his hands. It wasn't the first time, and all he needed was to keep his grip.

-

Another droid goes down, and he flexes his hand, feeling the creaking of his armor as the plastoid fractures just the slightest bit more under the stress. Obi-Wan is behind him, panting silently – he only knows this from the press of his general’s side against him, staying propped up by sheer force of will despite the hastily-staunched wound in his side.

There wasn’t enough bacta, having passed his off to another trooper while he was en route to Kenobi’s rendezvous point, the crackling comm message still echoing in his ears as his HUD keeps a running tally of casualties on the field. Despite the numbers increasing at a regular rate, they were making good time in their battle plans. It was a typical exfil mission of a Jedi that had been working on a Separatist-held territory, with Skywalker working from Coruscant to ensure the end point of the Jedi’s travel was secured.

If it were earlier in the war, it would have been a riskier strategy, but many norms had been thrown out of the airlock. Shifting as he heard a sound, Cody tapped on his helmet, adjusting his screen settings to look around the bend of the bombed-out building he and his general were using as cover. The smoke from the competing cannons from both armies made it hazardous to see much, and from the suppressed rasping of his general, worse to breathe. He licked his lips, worried even as he exhaled to steady his pulse.

The way looked mostly deserted, and he took a moment to check on Kenobi, moving carefully so they always kept a continuous point of contact. Still, even the smoothest of transitions still made the man tense in pain, and he resisted the urge to hold the other close, not needing a connection to the Force to know their pool of relative safety could be disturbed at any moment. Kenobi leaned wearily into his chest, one hand on his ’saber and eyes holding the vague glaze that told him the general was using said Force to hold himself together and act as lookout at the same time.

Cody wished he could admire his general’s dedication to be useful, but right now all it made him was frustrated and heart-sore, knowing from harsh experience that any Jedi – and particularly Kenobi, with his history of throwing himself into the Force as its acting hand – sustaining such active contact in a war zone could result in potentially permanent neurological damage. He almost wished he had listened to the medics about what to carry with him, but between the accoutrements as commander and navigating an entire systems army, medical devices that could monitor and ward off seizures fell distressingly low on the list.

“Koyaci, Kote,” Kenobi murmured, the man’s lips dry even as his eyes were nearly luminescent with the Force, pulling the thought straight from their latent bond. He wanted to choke on a laugh, unsure if it would morph into a sob, choosing instead to press around the edges of the wound to see if it had bled beyond its bandages and wondering how many he could plaster on top of each other before his general truly risked bleeding out. A hand laid over his, ’saber between them and carrying a hum audible even to his Force-deaf ears, “All will be well. We need to move.”

He nodded, inhaling sharply and considering the HUD read-out of his own vitals. There was going to be bruising on his hands regardless, but so far he had avoided anything warranting true medical attention. Checking the power on his blaster reflexively, he shuffled Kenobi closer to him, readying them to make the next point in their path back to the battalion. Nothing stood out even as his skin prickled in uneasiness. Clear enough.

One finger resting at readiness on the trigger, Cody led them through the slowly-settling haze, footsteps on uneven, broken ground muffled by the distant din of dying clankers and the reverb of cannons. Kenobi’s laboured breathing was his timepiece, calculating how much time they had and the rate they needed to move as he kept a firm grip on his general’s hand. The reciprocal grip was barely there, but it was there, and he gripped onto that hope like a lifeline.

It was obvious, now, when they were about to run across a droid. The place was deserted enough that there was only the cursory patrols, clanking metal alerting them more clearly than a HUD or the Force ever could. He kept his blaster at the ready, having surreptitiously dialed down the power in favour of silence and picking his shots carefully to disable them. Without fail, the combatants fell in a heap of sparking metal, and he let the satisfaction drift across his bond with Kenobi, bolstering the both of them.

They were pushed into a delicate balance of stealth and a dwindling clock, Cody stopping as often as he could to check on the blood-sodden bandages and murmuring a little prayer when necessary. Sometimes Kenobi even mouthed them along with him, a wisp of air that might have passed as speech if he were unencumbered by trying to keep them both alive to the rendezvous point. A part of him wishes that he didn’t need to wear his helmet – but then, he only ever took his helmet off when he was assured of the safety of the situation. This was no battleship painted in their colours, sailing amidst a fleet of their own and protected on all quarters.

He had miles to go until they could sleep, curled around each other and safe even from the bustle of the infirmary. Kenobi brushed a thumb weakly upon his own, both of them having reduced to holding hands as Cody focused on making sure they were cleared to shuffle across each uncomfortably open space. The next point in their path is within eyesight, faintly obscured in the artificial gloom, and he squeezes the hand in his, gesturing with a tilt of head toward it.

Defining signals had long since passed, and he knew the message was received for Kenobi to brace himself, the tight inhale his only response before he’s quickly scouting the area as he half-drags the general with him. One hand is held aloft and aiming instinctively in front of him in a loose, narrow sweep.

Kenobi must shift wrong, he must, because he gasps, the noise distracting him from the steady clank-clank-clank of an incoming droid patrolling. The loss of Kenobi's hand in his is as rattling as the three shots he fires on muscle memory alone, gripping tightly onto the corner of his mind that contains everything he cherishes about his general. He prays once more, knowing it’s the only thing that would stick until they were back under the tender wings of their troops, and takes his eyes off the next sight line to look for Kenobi behind him.

On some miracle, a currency he’s not willing to barter in, Kenobi isn’t thrown entirely to the ground. A couple hurried steps forward is all it takes for him to reach the other, one arm scooping around Kenobi's side and rucking the man close enough to imagine the thundering heartbeat that must surely echo his own. He glances quickly ahead, a scan for danger that proves no immediate concern, and then beside him to the sight of Kenobi's clenched jaw and furrowed brow.

Alive, though. Cody can work with that.

They’re out of bacta patches, bandages, and creative improvisation, so instead he clamps his hand on Kenobi's side, applying pressure with strength of desperation alone. It draws a shudder from his general, and he wants to sympathize, if he had any room in his situational assessment for a gram of weakness. He doesn’t, though, all of it being used up on allowing Kenobi his.

He grits his teeth, wishing he at least had the forethought to switch overlays on his HUD to better see through the gloom and the digital beacon he had set up on the battlemap. They weren’t there yet, and his vision was hazed in solar diffraction, the amber colouring muting extraneous tones.

Regardless, they’re still too far in the open to think too much. He briefly tightens his grip, enough to rouse Kenobi, vocoder transmuting the murmur to a whisper of voiced static, “Are you ready?”

Kenobi shifts in his grip – too easily, he thinks, and muffles that thought down along with its accompanying swell of panic – but finally assents with a nod that could well be a loll of the head. He takes it, knowing there wasn’t enough time to clarify matters, and mentally goes through the remainder of their route again, designating checkpoints with only mild despair that each stop would be in easy eyesight of each other. Still, it was better to take small steps that were more likely to succeed than large ones with a high chance of failure.

The next hideaway structure was close, and Kenobi made a good game of it, steps stealthy even as their cover was burned away by bright sunshine poking through the haze. He refused to look backwards, memorizing the feel of his general’s shoulders nestled into the crook of his arm as they snuck forward, his gaze alert to any unusual movement.

He didn’t want to say it was too quiet, but- But. Cody had already switched his pistol to his off-hand, and that required more concentration than he was willing to allocate when it came to compensating for his aim. They had only the scarcest of dust in the air to hide them, whisper-thin shadows that coiled around their boots and eddied in their steps. Beside him, Kenobi was still breathing.

It took him a moment to realize he was murmuring to himself, an unconscious bid to keep the general with him. Names rolled off his tongue, memorized in order, a long line of those marching ahead that stretched far back into his youth. They were weighted with grief, with that dangerous edge of wishful thinking. Nobody ever marched alone in this war, ghosts of their brethren invisible to the realities of the day but nevertheless clearing their way. He sucked in a breath, refusing to falter in the litany as he refused to falter in delivering his general to the rendezvous point.

Another droid nears them, loud in its chatter as it patrolled. The increased security was disconcerting for the problems it borrowed, but relieving in that he knew the ship’s radar would be able to track the shift in troop movement from orbit, changing their countdown to something more in their favour. The change in plans occurred swift as thought, both of them moving in sync as they decided to sneak up on the droid. Cody had the feeling that this was one of the last droids for a while, and also that it was Kenobi who had that feeling. He could almost feel himself grin, “Not always bad feelings, are they?”

Kenobi’s smirk was in his subdued voice, keeping pace with him in belying easiness even as his words were thinly spoken, “Statistically likely, my dear.”

They proceed to the next checkpoint, without visible haste but unrelentingly. Their shuffle step was muffled only by the ambient noise, one more rock kicked down the road along with many others. He wanted to tell himself that they were getting closer to their destination, but he knew that it was only a fact when they had already arrived.

The latent ping along their bond buoys him, the quiet affection tendrilled beneath the subtle nudge in his mind reminiscent of early morning tea and studious reflections of incoming orders. It has the entirely expected benefit of warning him of the next patrol – something that makes him want to smile fondly, Kenobi always keeping watch wherever he could – and Cody takes advantage of the blooming rays of sunshine at their backs to disguise them from the cheap and mass-produced optical sensors these droids had, a practiced wind-up that made the delivered punch all the more satisfying for the fact that it dropped like a sack of tarpa roots.

He rotated his wrist, feeling the ache reverberate down from their rush fleeing to another minuscule checkpoint to their rendezvous point. The silence was relative, and he kept one ear cocked to the fractured sound of his general’s breathing, hoping it wasn’t a timer that ran out before they could flag down a trooper. “Cody,” Obi-Wan whispered, ensnaring his attention without any special tricks at all. He turned in the loose circle of his general’s hold, one arm firm over the man’s armor and carefully away from the wound he deeply suspected was escaping its impromptu bandaging. The other’s eyes were beginning to glaze, making his heart pick up its pace. Before he could speak – probably something stiffly concerned, unused to handling Obi-Wan's injuries at such a severe level without some back-up better than creativity – his attention was riveted to the hand in his, a lethally defensive weapon pressed between their grips, “Will you- will you take care of him?” Looking back at Obi-wan made his eyes ache, as much from the vulnerability as from the bright rays of the sun his helmet had trouble filtering out from the shadows of his general. He licks his lips, too slight for the muscle ticks to be picked up by his HUD, gives a short nod, “We take care of our own,” he said, knowing by Kenobi's sigh that his sentiment was understood. As Anakin was Obi-Wan's family, and as Obi-Wan was… was his, that made Anakin Cody's family by proxy. He grips the lightsaber in his hand, feeling the pulse of its heart in time to the fluttering beat of its holder, feeling at once at peace and uneasy at the belief in him, “But you're going to tell him yourself, understood?” Obi-Wan nods, exhaling as he slumps against him, “Understood, Commander. Get us out of here.” He presses his head against his general, knowing he would have followed that order even if it were never voiced. They either made it out together or not at all, his mind decided long before he knew Obi-Wan could smile at him with weary wryness, fingers wet with his own blood latching on to Cody’s armor in a bid for another moment of strength. His HUD was ticking off his general’s vitals, scattered from their baseline and sent to languish in the background of running data fed to him from their environment, “I have you.” A brilliant smile, eclipsing the waning late afternoon sun before fading away on the heels of Obi-Wan's wavering consciousness, “You do.”

Taking in a sturdy breath, he recollects their position, eyes sweeping across their surroundings and the HUD alike. He spends the interim time with a firm grasp upon both his general and the man’s weapon, attention split to try and reconnect his helmet to the trooper ’net, leaning on the tendril of Kenobi's mind in his own, as sure as if their hands were still twined lazily together. It’s difficult to carry him the last klick with the sound of his helmet running through the ’net diagnostics he ordered it to run in the background, the ion cannons and other artillery having obscured the connection until the dust could settle.

He can hear Obi-Wan's thoughts in the back of his head, a subconscious murmur that let him know there was more to the man than a weakening pulse and bleeding wound. It made him grip the ’saber tighter, feeling like a part of his general’s soul was there in his hands, vulnerable crystal encased in steel – very much like its wielder, a reassuring beat of energy he could coordinate his worries to.

-

They had been working to triangulate some sort of signal, patching through different protocols for noise and trying to get a match on voice patterns they had on record. Skywalker was busy in an Coruscant, and they couldn’t even borrow R2 at the moment. The trooper rubbed his fingers together, setting them back on the keyboard to try another route, a brother next to him working on a map as data was fed in live. Commander Cody was with the general, so the situation was either a waiting game or an emergency they hadn’t planned for.

A ping came in on his headset, and he tapped it to let the message go through, “This is Trooper Iron. Name and message, please.”

“Trooper Whoop here,” There was static crackling on the line, and Iron tapped a few controls, smoothing the connection out, “We’re seeing a dust cloud about ten klicks east of us, unusual activity.”

He glanced at his CO, tilting his head and adding the other to the line as the Captain stepped forward. Heart thumping, he inhaled, “Captain Sixes is on the line. Want to repeat that?”

“Sir,” Whoop’s verbal salute was crisp over the comms, “We’ve got a dust cloud about ten klicks east and unusual activity. Permission to check it out?”

Iron shared a look with Sixes, aware that the general chatter in the Comms room had dulled as soon as the conversation had registered. It was unusual activity, especially as the battle was winding down – the only thing missing was their general and commander. His captain looked at the map next to him, the trooper obligingly turning his chair so their CO could get a better look. A twitch of lips, and the captain tapped his own comm, “You have a go, Whooper. We’ll send someone to rendezvous with you.”

He grinned at the pleased “Sir” in Whooper’s voice, leaning back into his chair. Iron clapped a hand on his shoulder, “Good work, troopers.”

There were no shortage of volunteers to fetch their officers, but someone had to make sure the lights were still on at home, as General Kenobi was fond of saying. Beside him, the map was swiftly updated.

Ten klicks didn’t seem like that great of a distance, if one discounted the middling ravine that took a couple of hours for the engineers to pop a bridge over. Whoop couldn’t help the bounce in his step as he walked over to Booker, watching the trooper patch the signal from Comms over to a mobile unit that boosted its range. “Are we gonna be able to reach them with that?”

“Soon as I’m done getting through all the interference,” Booker replied, pointing to where the bridge was, all freshly unrolled like one of those luxury carpets in the Senate that Skywalker was gossiping about one time. Theirs was cooler, though, he decided, settling his hands over his rifle as he watched the faint flickering of the lights bobbing on the bridge nearly in time with Booker’s one-handed typing, “I’m adjusting the signal buoys so we can get a direct line between the commander and comms.”

Way cooler, He thinks smugly, wanting to let out a small whoop at it. With the way the nearby troopers tilted their helmets at him in amusement, he figured they knew.

His comm crackles in that particular way that lets him know Booker is running a diagnostic and hooking them up to a patched terminal, “Aaaand we have a go, sir. Whenever you’re ready.”

This time he doesn’t stop the delighted sound, one loud whoop! as he pats his rifle, striding forward, “Let’s get ’em home!”

At the ripple of identical whoops echoing out as half the troopers packed up and fell in line, he grinned. Best bridge ever.

-

When his comms clicked in, Cody almost startled. Almost, because if he did, he might have dropped his general, and that was an absolute no-go. Instead he hauled in a breath, meeting the faint, quizzical tug through the Force resounding through the ’saber in his hand.

“Almost there,” he murmured, keeping the unlit blade at the ready position, scanning for any last-minute clankers that might pop in on them, “Just got a ping, might be closer to our pick-up than I think.”

Obi-Wan spared him a delicate snort, both of them knowing that Cody rarely misjudged a distance. The man had been slowing down in incremental steps, breathing so steady it had to be intentional. He tamped down on his worry, not wanting it to swamp him with the fatigue that he was keeping at bay with positive thoughts. It was slow going, but at least they didn’t have much of a reason to be out of breath.

He tilted his head closer to Obi-Wan's for a moment, counting the breaths. Not too much of a reason, anyway.

The temperature gauge in one corner of his HUD registered the climbing temperature, mostly through the tint of infrared he had turned on a couple of check-points back, when the dust had first begun to settle. It wasn’t on so much for the clankers as it was his general, a quicker way of tracking vitals than trying to see how much blood was soaking through the compression bandage. The method was also better for his sanity, as well, despite how often he and Kenobi had cracked jokes about it being one of the first casualties, right next to their senses of humor.

Both of them were relying more on the Force now to communicate, silent as it was with Obi-Wan's focus being riveted to managing his wound and being conscious enough to drag his feet after Cody’s slow gait, so he had only the most marginal of ideas that he was walking with the living instead of someone with one foot already set to march. It made the crackle of static on his comms, a precursor to a rigged communication line being patched through, breath-taking.

“Commander?”

Exhaling roughly, he flicked his eyes to the gleaming icon in the corner of his HUD, activating the incoming line, “Name and rank.”

He supposed his clipped adherence to protocol could be forgiven, given the whoop of delight that served as both an answer and an identification. It made him grin, broad enough to confuse his HUD, “Good to hear you, trooper. Got a medic on hand?”

There was a murmured shit on the other side, “Sure do, Commander. How many do you need?”

Obi-Wan stirred in his arm, noticing that their usual was different but not entirely cognizant of why. He shushed his general, fingers aching with the need to curl around the man, to be safe in their quarters. He did one last visual sweep of the area, knowing they were within eyesight of the rendezvous point. It would have to be good enough.

Just in case, he lit the ’saber, the familiar, protective blue held in front of the both of them in deadly form. It wasn’t a true Soresu, but the spirit of it was encapsulated in the way Cody was unaltered in his protection of Kenobi, a bubble of determination that could not be broached.

“Just the one, Whoop,” Cody replied, holding Obi-Wan close, “We’ll see you there.”

-

Author's Notes

Written for the 2023 @codywanreversebang, based upon @artbowls' wonderful art piece , alongside fellow writer @thejediandthemandalorian (their fic here). Both were fantastic to work with!

Do I know what a tarpa root is? Nope. It's completely made-up, pretend it's a Space Potato.

I really enjoyed the new OCs, troopers Iron, Whoop, Booker, and Captain Sixes - hopefully I'll have some opportunity in future works to add them in.

[dontbelasagnax]

So excited to share my painting for this year's @codywanreversebang ! Team Bread (#8) has been such a wonderful group of authors to work with. Links to their fics will be added as they're posted throughout the week <3

"Joys Found and Made" by historical_allusions

"endings mean beginnings" by @inkformyblood [their ao3]

"sourdough: flour, water, and starting over" by @shortcuts-make-long-delays [their ao3]