And As For You
Summary: Some reunions don't go as planned
"And as for you,
where were you when I needed you?
You just look at me like you see
but you can't recall
I could name the day I heard you say "Remember me —
I'll be there for you, I swear, if you ever fall""
It did not go as Rex thought it would.
He'd always thought if he reunited with Cody, there would be awkwardness, some brotherly tears, Cody begging forgiveness for not listening to Rex about the control chips, Rex assuring him that he didn't need forgiveness, a warm reassuring hug, and everything would fall back the way they should be: Rex and Cody working in sync, side by side, fighting for the Rebellion.
Rex didn't know what to make of this wary, sharp-eyed individual who Zeb and Kallus had rescued along with that Kaminoan scientist.
It was Cody. There was no mistaking the scar by his left eye, faded as it had from time. There was no mistaking all the little tics and gestures and posture that had marked one of Rex's brothers from another.
And still Cody stayed away from Rex, from Gregor, from Wolff, apparently preferring to stay by the side of the Kaminoan, Kniwta Sa.
Rex thought perhaps it was due some feeling of shame, which Rex desperately want to assure Cody was a burden he didn't need to carry. Or at least not carry alone.
So Rex approached Cody one day when he was eating alone in the commissary.
He cautious sat down and waited until Cody looked at him. And wasn't that disconcerting? The only other time he had seen that expression was on Boba Fett, when Fett has rather soundly pronounced that Rex and his Brothers were not his brothers. It was a cold knife's edge look.
"Cody…"
"I thought you had died. You were reported to have died on Mandalore," Cody interrupted him.
"Obviously, I didn't. Cody," he tried again.
"You knew I was alive?" there was something almost hopeful in the question, as if the right answer could fix everything.
"Yes?" Rex answered hesitantly.
The way Cody's face became even colder told Rex that that was the wrong answer.
"I see," Cody went back to eating his meal.
"Cody, can we talk? Please?"
"You gave up on me." Cody said quietly.
Rex felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over him.
"I know I should have listened to you about the control chips," Cody continued evenly, "I should have had it removed. Maybe a things would have been different," then he had to stop and take deep breath, beginning to fray, "but if our positions had been reversed, if you still had your control chip when Order 66, " they both winced, "came down and I didn't, do you honestly think I wouldn't have taken on the Emperor himself to get to you? To try and help you live with what you did?"
Cody was searching Rex's face for something, and he shook his head as he didn't find it. He rose from the table, taking his tray.
"I thought we were Brothers."
Rex sat there for a very long time.
"And when I fell, the way we do
I reached for hands to pull me through
I had a friend on whom I thought
I could depend — but where were you?
Time goes out of mind
Who gets left behind?
Brother, should I call you brother now?"
And As For You
By Oysterband
Author's Notes: For the curious, Kniwta Sa removed Cody's control chip and then absconded from the Empire with him and the one viable Zillo Beast genetic sample.
Rex and Cody do eventually reconcile.
