Betrayal (Star Wars Fanfiction)

Ultimatum

Sighing, Cody ran his fingers through his short hair before letting the datapad fall onto the table.

Finally, after weeks of transfers and recalling brothers from all over the Galaxy, they'd been able to gather everyone here on Coruscant in the clone barracks. Thankfully, it hadn't taken that much longer than he'd feared it would, since the entire 501st as well as most of the battalions commandeered by a Jedi Knight instead of a Master had already been stationed on the Republic's main planet whereas the 212th, the 104th, the 327th and many others had been involved in large battles on or above Utapau, Cato Neimoidia, Felucia and others. After General Kenobi's victory over Grievous, they'd almost immediately been ordered to return to a more than shaken Senate and a more than slightly damaged Senate building. True to his temperature, Skywalker had managed to almost completely destroy the upper levels in his battle with the Sith Lord before the Council had managed to reach him which had caused further chaos.

Not to mention that many people still couldn't believe that the main enemy had sat in a chair above all of their heads for all this years. The Chancellor was responsible for sending countless brothers and Jedi (although wasn't that just the same thing after all this time) to their deaths and Cody was sure glad that more impulsive vode, like Rex, hadn't been around when that bombshell had dropped. Perhaps the senate building would be missing more than just its upper floors then.

Speak of the devil, the doors barged open and a smirking Rex entered, in uniform, but without his helmet: "I knew I'd find you ruining your back with paperwork. You definitely picked that one up from your General."

"Not all of us were dragged around and thrown off exploding walls all the time," Cody answered, rolling his eyes as he stretched his arms and stood up from his desk. "Not to mention I outrank all of you and someone with a sense of responsibility has to clean up after you."

"Oh yes, excuse me, Marshal Commander Cody, for interrupting you damaging your spine to the point of no return, but I was wondering if you'd be up to damaging your ears instead."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Rex apparently couldn't decide whether to be amused or annoyed: "The Senate's been contacting us. They want a few of us to represent the vode while they release a new statement after they had their first real meeting with Organa as the new Chancellor."

Finally someone with common sense, Cody couldn't help but think as he reached for his comlink still lying on the desk. "Very well, I suppose it's best some of the higher ranks join me then. Wolffe, Bly, Ponds and you are free this afternoon and I'm sure you'll appreciate stretching your legs for a bit, even if it's just for a walk to the Senate."

Rex spluttered and held up his hands: "Whoa whoa, slow down there, Codes. I really don't need to be there, y'know, I'm not even a Commander and frankly, I have a feeling what I'd be hearing there would cause me to have an aneurysm. Thanks, but no thanks."

"Oh please." Cody's left eyebrow had risen to his hairline. "You're only not a Commander because you had Commander Tano running around. If she had been knighted during the war, I'm sure Skywalker would've promoted you in a heartbeat. It's what happened to me, basically, only I got promoted to Marshal because General Kenobi couldn't have two Commanders running around."

"Careful, Cody, your Padawan trauma is showing."

"Shut up, Rex. At least my Commander didn't almost start a civil war by accidently insulting the leader of that one planet."

The Captain barked a laugh at that and led Cody out of the small office into the main part of the barracks: "At least my Commander didn't nearly start a revolution in the canteen because of the vegetables."