Cozzizzie: Very, very true, it would be strange. Haha, he does, doesn't he? Tup was the comic relief, who would have thought... *Grins* Well, here this is - enjoy!
The streets were still filled with hundreds of thousands of people, all there to see the brilliant lights. They lit up every corner, every alley of the planet. Cody kept moving one foot in front of the other. He was still duty-bound, whether or not the Republic named him a traitor. And they had. They didn't investigate further, simply put out for his arrest.
After he'd fought his whole life for them and their forsaken war. He hadn't questioned it; he'd taken orders, he'd served his General and the Jedi.
He was no traitor. That word was equal to coward. The Republic was corrupt. The hearts of men wanted power, not peace – whoever pulled the strings, whoever hid behind the curtain of the skirmishes and battles, they wanted to rule. They wanted to be a god, playing with the lives of men. Millions of clones had died, many of them needlessly. Innocents, bystanders, Jedi, children, women, men.
Billions dead in a war that he now Sensed was only for one man's greed. He didn't know who pulled the strings. But it made sense; all of the times information had been leaked, incidentally causing even more death than usual – the times he heard General Kenobi musing, wondering if perhaps there was a chance someone was behind it all. Corruption in the midst.
Cody had been proud of his service. Maybe he'd just been blind. Maybe he had been serving a monster and not the cause he had been fighting for. He had been a good soldier. Finally, he could admit it to himself; the last months had been Sheol. The last years had been Sheol. Everything had been taken, nothing had been given. He had felt wrong for the wrongs done against him and his kind.
It wasn't wrong to watch out for family over others. He'd sold his soul for the millions who were also caught in the middle of this Light-forsaken war. Or maybe his soul had been sold without his consent.
The man stopped in the middle of a busy street. Everyone around ignored him entirely, and he was fine with that.
The only reason he was walking away was because of this war. Duty. It was ingrained into his mind from birth.
Maybe walking away wasn't the right thing.
Perhaps leaving Ahsoka was the will of his commanding officers; perhaps it was time he stopped listening to those voices. Walking away wasn't what the Light called him to do. It wasn't what he wanted. It didn't seem to be what she had wanted, either.
Just what they wanted of him.
He wasn't a soldier anymore.
He was a man; just a human.
He would rather die for Ahsoka, or for Boba – then to live for the manipulators and murderers that had sold his soul. The Republic bought hundreds of thousands of men to fight for them.
There were others who held his loyalty now.
He was walking back through the crowd, pushing his way through – what if she'd already left? And if he couldn't find her? He sped up to a jog, people moving out of his way thanks to the Mandalorian armor. He could see the building coming into view again, but he couldn't see her. His heart was pounding, thundering in his head, rushing in his ears. He broke away from the gathered people, searching for her Force signature.
There were too many different Force signatures.
'Ahsoka. Ahsoka.'
He was reaching, calling; she could have left. She could say no. He could have been losing it.
'Ahsoka. Ahsoka.'
People milled about, seeming not to notice the distress so close to them… then she appeared, weaving her way through the masses. She was looking around, eyes darting around the crowd.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ahsoka's gaze found Cody. She moved forward, narrowly avoiding being crashed into by people. Her feet wouldn't move fast enough in high-heels. She paused only long enough to pull them off, leaving them in the street—she didn't need them. Ahsoka pulled her skirt up enough that it wouldn't drag on the ground, then sped up.
She ended up coming to a stop only a yard away from Cody. Her eyes were wide, and for several seconds, she was quiet. Slowly, she reached up and pulled the string of beads—signifying her padawan status—from its place. "If you ask—I'll leave this…"
The man's hands hovered above her shoulders, as if he didn't dare touch her. He shouldn't. Voices still screamed in his head, clawing at his skull. "I want you to come with me," he spoke; he didn't know what she wanted. He respected whatever she did want.
Ahsoka beamed. "Then we'll go." She would leave the padawan beads in Anakin's room. She would explain—to a vague degree—that she couldn't stay. He would eventually understand. This was what she wanted. It wouldn't be right for her to remain a Jedi, if she couldn't even follow the code they believed… no. It was right for her to leave—this was right.
AN: Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. God bless, and gramercy!