Chapter 6 – Interim
Author's Note: In which people talk. :)
A guest begged me to write a scene of Rex and Cody being reunited, so I decided to oblige them, while adding in a few other scenes which might be interesting to see. I hope you enjoy this unexpected, added chapter! :D
Thank you all so, so much for reading this fic and showing your support with favorites, follows, and reviews! :D
We have finished a second tribute for Vader on our YT channel. Check it out if you're interested. :P No spaces in the link: youtu . be / TrRylvLR0fE
~ Amina Gila
Rex finds that he doesn't know what to say as Cody – it's him; he's really alive – leads them to the barracks. Everything is different here, and nothing is set up the way he remembers, but it still, oddly enough, feels like home. He can see his surviving brothers standing and sitting around in the barracks, and the entire area is obviously lived in. The 501st was always different from the other battalions, and that fact is evident in their surroundings.
"The officer's barracks are through that door," Cody tells the others, pointing. "It's far more private, and it's not used nearly as much as out here. I'll be fine with the rest of the men."
"Thank you," Princess Leia replies politely, gesturing for her companions to come with her. Rex decides not to comment on the oddity of her staying in the same room as a Jedi Master. He didn't even know that Yoda was still alive.
"Rex, you're alive." Cody's voice pulls him back to the present, and Rex turns his attention onto his brother. It's like a dream come true. After heard about how the Empire was replacing clones with stormtroopers, he'd thought that he, Wolffe, and Gregor were the last of the clones, aside from the Bad Batch with whom he'd lost contact.
Rex meets his brother's eyes, remembering just how much he'd missed him. He'd assumed him to be dead. "So are you," he manages to say, blinking away traces of moisture from his eyes. "What happened to you?"
Something like grief flickers through Cody's gaze, but it's gone in an instant. "I was with General Kenobi on Utapau when I got the Order," he admits. "I – we shot him down, but he managed to escape. When the Empire started reassigning clones, General Skywalker took us under his control, and we've been with him ever since."
Rex nods slightly, silently sharing Cody's regret as he expresses his own. "I was on the way back from Mandalore with Commander Tano," he informs him. "She found out about the inhibitor chips, and she helped me remove mine. We escaped together." He doesn't add the other details. He doesn't add how he had to shoot down his own brothers to protect the Commander. He doesn't add how she helped him bury everyone when it was all over. Some things are better left unsaid.
"The commander. Is she…?" Cody's expression is almost hopeful.
Rex shakes his head, feeling pain flood him once more. He'd promised – he'd promised to protect her, and he failed. He should have gone with her to Malachor. Maybe then he would have been able to rescue her. He wants to know the truth from the General, but he doesn't want to ask. Something happened between them there, something which resulted in her death. He only wishes that he had answers.
"Vader," he says by way of explanation. "He killed General Kenobi too." At least that's what Commander Skywalker – Luke – told him.
"I'm not surprised," Cody admits. "General Kenobi is the one who put him in the suit."
"How do you know that?" he asks, surprised. It seems that everything, all of them, fell apart, and he finds that he misses the Clone Wars. He misses the days when all of them were together: himself, Cody, the General, General Skywalker, Commander Tano…
"Kix," his brother replies. "He's the General's personal medic, and he's told us a few things." There's a muted sympathy in his eyes, and Rex decides not to ask for details. It's not really his place to inquire after the General's health, not after everything which has happened.
"Your inhibitor chips, are they gone?" Rex inquires.
Cody nods. "The General –" It is so weird to think of Cody calling General Skywalker that. "–told us to have it done discreetly. We've all been freed. We're stay here out of our own free will. It's not like we have anywhere else to go."
Fair enough. Rex isn't really surprised either. After the Clone Wars ended, all of the clones lost their purpose. They were no longer necessary, and none of them had any training for how to live a life like normal humans do. They'd only ever been taught how to fight. It would make sense for them to cling to something that they knew, for them to want to stay with a commanding officer who they knew. Perhaps if he had known about the General's survival, he, too, would have found his way back here.
They stare at one another for a few moments, taking in the many changes. It's been so many years since they've been together. "Come on," Cody declares at last, clapping Rex on the shoulder. "You should meet the others here."
**w**
Leia has slept and lived in her fair share of strange places – at least she has after Alderaan was destroyed – but none of them have felt nearly as awkward as sharing a small barracks with the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order. Just… weird. That doesn't mean she'll show her discomfort. Concealing her emotions has long been something which she's known how to do. It's something her mother, the Queen of Alderaan, taught her.
She doesn't really want to be here. The entire place feels dark and unpleasant. It feels cold, for some reason. Luke tells her that it's the Dark Side which she's feeling. She doesn't really like that or the implications. She's a Princess. She's not a Jedi. She doesn't want to be a Jedi. She doesn't want to have these… powers, not being as they came from the Emperor's attack dog. Vader isn't her father. No, her father is Bail. Vader is simply… an accident, a misfortune. She's not forgiving like Luke, and she wants nothing to do with her biological progenitor.
"Training with the Force you should have," Grandmaster Yoda declares as he walks up to her.
Leia tries her best not to glare down at the Jedi Master as he stands on the floor peering up at her, ears twitching slightly. "I don't want to be trained," she retorts icily.
Yoda hums. "Powerful you are," he comments. "Help against the Emperor you cannot unless training you receive. Too old you are to become a Jedi, yes, but flows through everything the Force does."
It takes her a moment to figure out what he's saying, and when she does, she frowns. "You mean Luke can't become a Jedi?"
His ears droop slightly. "Too old he is to learn the ways of the Jedi. Dangerous it may be to train him when so close to Vader's influence he is, but a necessary risk it will be if hope to the destroy the Emperor we do."
Well, Leia certainly can't disagree about Vader being a bad influence on Luke. Yes, her brother is becoming more skilled and powerful, but that doesn't mean that it will work out in their benefit. In the end, Vader may be the only victor. Perhaps it would be in her best interests to learn how to use the Force. She doesn't have to become a Jedi, right? She can still be a Rebel leader. She can still work towards reforming the Republic and destroying the Empire. If anything, her ability to use the Force will only aid her, but she's still hesitant to have anything to do with the power she inherited from Vader. She doesn't want to become like him.
"If train you I do then calm you must find," Yoda admonishes, tapping the floor with his gimer stick. Leia takes a moment to wonder where Han and Chewie went, before turning her attention back onto the Jedi Master. "Much fear I sense within you. Yes. Much anger," he continues. He seems almost disturbed by that. "Much like your father you are."
It's not difficult to figure out who he's talking about, though fear? Really? That doesn't even make sense. It doesn't fit with anything that she's heard or seen of Vader thus far. She flushes with anger, glowering furiously down at the small Jedi in front of her. "How dare you?" Leia growls. "I'm nothing like him!"
Yoda's ears twitch, and he manages to look disapproving and disappointed at once. "More alike to him you are than you realize," he informs her calmly. "If learn control you do not, go down the wrong path like Vader you might."
With sheer willpower, Leia manages to reign in her anger, even if she still feels like screaming at him. Because how dare he compare her to that monster?! "Then maybe it's better if I'm not trained," she snaps turning away from Yoda. Even as she says it, she can't help but wonder: what if she did learn to use the Force? At least it would give her some added measure of protection should Vader betray her, betray them. It's something she'll have to think about.
**w**
After looking around their new living spaces – Han doesn't know what anyone could possibly need with a castle this large – Han wanders back out to the landing platform where the Millennium Falcon is waiting. It might actually be cozier for him and Chewie to stay in the cabins here, but he doesn't really want to abandon the Princess to staying with a Jedi Master on her own. She'd probably be bored out of her mind, so that's why he's decided to remain in the barracks with her.
Han stops in his tracks when he sees Darth Vader standing next to the Falcon, seeming to be studying the design. "This is a fine ship, Captain Solo," Vader remarks, turning to look at him.
"Uh… thanks," Han replies uncertainly. He'll never get used to seeing Vader around, to knowing – hoping – that he's their ally, not their enemy. Vader is dangerous, very dangerous, and Han has had plenty of time to hear all of the horrifying rumors. Talking to him was never on the list of things which he's wanted to do.
"These modifications are custom-made," the Sith Lord notes, reaching out and running one gloved hand lightly over the hull. "Did you make them yourself?"
Han moves a little closer, wondering if Vader is really interested in the ship, or if he has an ulterior motive. "Yes," he admits, "Well, some of them anyways."
The respirator cycles once, before Vader turns towards him. "May I look around inside?"
There is definitely something almost awkward in the question, and Han wonders why Vader is even asking. He could do it if he wanted to, regardless of Han's thoughts on the matter, but at the same time, there are few people who actually admire the Falcon. Most think it's simply a pile of junk. Vader, it seems, is one of those few, so Han doesn't actually mind. "Yes," he replies, following Vader a bit uncertainly as he moves up the ramp and towards the back of the ship where the engines are located. It's not a place Vader would have been to during the trip here, and apparently, he's curious. Han finds that he's flattered, despite himself.
"The craftsmanship is impressive," Vader says after a few moments of surveying the interior. He seems to straighten, suddenly turning his full attention on Han, who takes a step back, unease snaking up his spine. Maybe he shouldn't have been so hasty to join Vader back here. "You have known my children for some time," he states. It's not a question, but Han nods anyways.
"I met Luke when he was leaving Tatooine," he supplies, as if Vader didn't already know that.
"You have protected them, and for that, you have my gratitude." Vader's tone remains inflectionless, but from the words, it's clear that he… just thanked Han? He can't quite recover himself enough to form a coherent response, so he ends up gaping stupidly at the Sith. Vader turns away again, though Han has the distinct impression that he's amused, asking about something else inside the ship, and Han soon begins to realize how knowledgeable he is about starships. And apparently, Vader doesn't really mind him being friends with the twins which is definitely unexpected.
"Would it be possible for me to leave here for a short time?" Han asks some time later, after they've finished an in-depth discussion about the weapons array, and how it was installed. It's too bad that Vader is a Sith because they could really get along if he wasn't.
"If you wish. Where would you go?" Vader inquires.
"I have a debt with Jabba," Han confesses after a momentary hesitation. He's been putting off repaying the debt, which is probably a foolish decision, come to think of it, but he hasn't wanted to get back involved with Jabba or any of his other contacts. His place is with the Rebellion now, even if it's hard to admit.
Vader stills impossibly, only his respirator giving any indication that he's still living. "I will have it taken care of," he says, turning to leave.
Han gapes at him, surprised by his words. "Thank you," he stammers out finally, unsure how to feel about Vader's words.
"Think nothing of it," the Sith replies, striding away. Well, that was unexpected.