BraveSeeker3: Rachet! I love Rachet! And now that I think about it, yeah, Bacta is a lot like him. Fun! I do love the 501st, but I wish we could have gotten a little more of the 212th in Clone Wars. Eh, come what may and love it.
AbuvTheClouds: Bacta will definitely be back. Several times. We love him as well!
Sparks67: Coric is 501st. Unfortunately. But now that I think about it, we have Kix AND Coric. Can't believe I forgot Coric! *facepalm*
PhoenixLordess: Don't die! It's bad for your health! (; Thank you! We have really tried to keep the personalities accurate, but grow on them.
Jedi Master Megan: Sorry about the wait. Been a little busy.
So we have to parts to this story. Fluff and Angst. The first half was pure FLUFF. Now... we go to the angst. Don't say I didn't warn you.
And another original clone incoming this chapter. Hope you like him!
Cody was angry. No wait, he was furious. And for once, it wasn't directed at his General.
In fact, Obi-Wan was probably even more furious at the moment. The man was standing in the prison cell, arms crossed, glaring daggers at the still form of General Krell.
Behind him stood Cody and several other members of the 212th. Accompanying them was Rex, Fives, and Jesse, three men who had participated in the arrest and eventual execution of the traitorous Jedi. When Rex had finished his report on the events that had transpired, Obi-Wan had practically demanded to see the remains of Krell.
Several troopers went with him. All had their helmets on, but Cody didn't need the Force to know how angry they all were. The commander wanted to shoot the still body again- just to make sure the scum was dead.
It was several minutes before Obi-Wan spoke. "Take the body to the jungle."
Cody took in a deep breath and steadied his voice, "...Should we burn it?"
"...No. Leave it for a wild animal. This man was no Jedi." And with that, General Kenobi nodded to a clone to raise the elevator.
Cody couldn't help but smile grimly under his helmet. In his opinion, Obi-Wan was being very generous to the dead Jedi. He would have done something far worse then leave the body for an animal.
While moving the body, several clones approached Cody asking to shoot the dead man again, including a very angry Tile who asked over a dozen times. The commander refused until, he overheard two troopers talking about a man-eating plant that snatched a few brothers. He then ordered the men to throw the body to the plant.
No one objected the order and all felt deep satisfaction as they saw the dead man disappear into the gullet of the giant flower. The story spread and even General Kenobi seemed to approve of the disposal of the body, although he never did say it aloud or publicly acknowledged it.
After the disposal of the traitor, Cody went in search of the surviving 212th platoon that helped the 501st take down General Krell.
Cody felt like someone had shot him with a blaster straight through the chest.
Boil stood at attention in front of him, his cheeks stained with tears. The clone took a deep breath and managed to gasp out, "Waxer's dead," before he lost it. He fell to his knees and began to cry again.
The commander rushed over to catch him, gently dropping next to him. He wrapped his arms around his brother and held him, unable to speak. The idea that Waxer was gone was one that the clone could hardly comprehend. Cody was too shocked to feel any pain at that moment. After a few moments, he managed to ask, "How?"
Boil babbled the best he could, "Krell… ordered us to- to attack-" he broke off and began to weep again.
But Cody understood what he was telling him. He had heard enough of the report to know that for one horrifying battle, it had been clone vs clone- brother vs brother. The shock and horror of Waxer being killed by one of his own was enough to knock Cody out of his daze. He closed his eyes and let the tears fall, gripping his mourning brother.
Boil buried his head in Cody's shoulder and tried to find comfort- but it became useless and he broke again.
Neither spoke but held the other.
The Negotiator was quiet. A little too quiet, in Cody's opinion. He made a mental note to make sure Waxer wasn't up to another prank- then felt another painful stab in his heart as he remember that a prank from that brother wasn't possible.
It had been about a week since Umbra and everyone had felt Waxer's loss.
The mess was unusually quiet, beds were never checked for pranks and no one had to worry about the clone randomly showing up and dragging them into another trick. And it was awful.
Trapper had personally taken it on himself to comfort Boil to the best of his abilities. He trained with him, ate with him, and mourned with him. Boil slowly began to get better and better, but there was one point no one could help him with.
"What am I going to tell Numa?"
Cody was a little confused when he first heard Boil moan that. Then the image of the tiny Twi'lek girl popped into his head and Cody could only pat Boil on the back. No brother seemed to know what to say.
A week after Waxer's death, a rumor started floating around that Boil was trying to learn to learn Twi'lek. Cody never told anyone, but he often caught glimpses of the clone studying with General Kenobi, struggling with the new words and accent.
Those little study sessions seemed to help Boil steady a little. A clone with a purpose was very hard to defeat, indeed.
Boil wasn't the only one suffering. All of the clones were missing their brother's pranks and jokes. Everyone would tell one of his old ones or stories about why Waxer was assigned to clean-up duty for a week so many times. They'd laugh together, cry together, and then fall silent.
Even Bacta was affected. He was even more snappy, rude, and horrible to his patients, while denying the fact that he missed, 'that insufferable little nerf-herder'.
Two weeks after Umbra, the 501st and the 212th got together to honor their brothers who had fallen fighting one another or by the hand of Krell. Full honors to both sides and a lot of crying. Many clones silently cursed Krell to the worst afterlife possibly conceived in their minds.
Cody walked into his office and got a bucket of water spilled on his head. Instinctively he roared, "WAXER!" Then paused and looked around very confused. Someone had gotten into his office and covered the floor in pillows- not waist deep, but just enough to not see the floor. A few of his files had been spread out and there were several paper airplanes.
When Cody got to his desk, a simple note was on top of the mess.
Commander Pillow,
I thought you might have needed a laugh. Hope this brightens your day!
The note wasn't signed, so whoever the prankster was was not completely willing to brave any punishment from the 'furious' commander.
Cody picked up one of the planes and threw it across the room. It was rather pathetic and crashed into the fluffy ground. And then the man fell to the ground laughing.
Wooley came running in, afraid his commander had finally snapped, only to look around and join the commander on the floor, tears streaming out of his eyes.
When the two had recovered, Cody had a twinkle in his eye. "I haven't laughed that hard in a long time… I have a feeling whoever this 'prankster' is, they'll be striking again soon."
"Agreed, sir. … Should we warn the others?"
Cody grinned, "... I think not. Let's see how this pans out."
Over the next week, childish pranks erupted from everywhere. From plastic detonators, to whoopee-cushions under the mattress. No one was safe from the new prankster's reign of terror.
Even General Kenobi found himself a victim to a prank- mind you it wasn't awful. He walked into the command center and found a jar labeled 'GUNGAN SNACKIES'. Obi-Wan was a little confused, but opened it up only to yelp and jump back as something shot out. He then laughed at the tiny stuffed toy of a gungan, quietly chuckling about how Jar Jar had attacked him from a jar.
Bacta was the one who discovered the prankster, which was no surprise to anyone.
The 'Prankster' turned out to be a newer clone, who Waxer had sort of taken under his wing when he joined the 212th. His name was Tile- but everyone called him Ti. Waxer and him had hit it off when the new shiny had first joined up (although poor Ti had been brought on during a strange occurrence involving General Kenobi being a puppy). In fact, Waxer taught him everything about his pranks and plots for his brothers. Many people considered Ti Waxer's 'prodigy' in a sense. However, there were a few differences. Unlike his successor, Ti actually thought about his pranks in great detail- including consequences and the victim's reaction- before doing them. He was quite sweet, and just wanted to make people smile, not so much angry at him. When people were down, he wanted to make them laugh- hence why he started his small pranks (THAT and he had a dream in which Waxer told him to cheer up the crew… and Ti couldn't find a reason to not follow 'dream Waxer's' order).
When Bacta had found him, Ti had been posting holo's of all the pictures Bacta had taken over the years around the medical bay. You can imagine the chaos that ensued.
"TI! YOU LITTLE- GET BACK HERE!"
"AAAHHH! BACTA! I THOUGHT YOU'D LIKE THE DECORATIONS! THERE'S ONE'S OF CODY AND THE GENERAL AND WAXER AND-"
"GET OVER HERE SO I CAN SEDATE YOU PROPERLY YOU KRIFFING LITTLE SHINY!"
"I'M NOT A SHINY! I'VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST NINE MONTHS!"
"SHINY IN MY BOOK! STAND STILL!"
"AAAHHHHHH! PLEASE, I WANT TO LIVE!"
Ti quite literally ran into Obi-Wan, who landed with a thud and a surprised 'oof!',as he escaped the clutches of Bacta's wrath (to be honest, Bacta was more pleased to yell at someone for messing with his stuff again then to be mad. But don't think he admitted that to anyone). And once the secret got out, you can bet several people started to keep a close eye on their younger brother.
A few days later, Ti organized another cuddle pile- the first one since Waxer's death. No clone missed it (except for Bacta, of course) and Cody even dragged the General along, but only when he agreed to be Obi-Wan's pillow again. All of the clones were a little miffed by this, but they got over it real quick.
Waxer would be sorely missed by the 212th, but the brothers knew things would be ok. Besides, Waxer would have pranked the entire ship till it exploded if the troops didn't keep blowing up the annoying clankers- and who were they to let their brother down?
Tile is the cinnamon roll of the clones. He's like the permanently shiny little brother, but don't get him angry- He can kill you. We thought we needed a cinnamon roll in the 212th since they were in the middle of the war. And after Waxer died in the Clone Wars, there needed to be someone who was a sunshine that Boil would watch over!
I think Numa and Tile would be excellent friends... great, someone pick up that idea because I am NOT writing it.
Review please! How'd you like Tile?