The Force Works In Mysterious Ways (And Commander Cody Would Like A Word About That...)

Mace Windu was going to die. He knew that. Accepted it, if grudgingly, but in his last moment he felt compelled to plead with the Force to save and protect his fellow Jedi.

Mace would never know, but the Force had been listening.

But, of course, the Ways of the Force were mysterious, capricious, and not without a slightly warped sense of humor.


Cody stared down at the tiny boy that was swimming in General Ken...THE TRAITOR'S (the grating artificial voice in his head screamed) robes. The large frightened blue-green eyes framed by tousled copper hair, as tiny hands clutched the fabric around him.

Cody thought for a moment, then took off his helmet and knelt down.

"Hello there," he asked as gently as he could, "I'm Cody, who are you?"

"O..Obian Ken'bi," the child replied softly, his eyes darting at the other soldiers.

For a brief moment the voice in Cody's head roared, and Cody winced, but dammit this wasn't General Ken...THE TRAITOR, this was a little boy (kriff! just how young was he?) who was clearly scared. And deliberately harming younglings was a War Crime as far as Cody knew or cared.

Cody turned to the men gathered around them.

"Take your buckets off," he ordered in a low voice, meant only for the men not involved in the clean up of Utapau. And he watched as the little boy's eye grew impossibly rounder as he saw that they all more or less looked alike, "these are my brothers," he answered to the unasked question.

The boy nodded, looking a little less fearful.

"We're going to have to find something that fits you better than...than those," Cody nodded to the Jedi TRAITOR robes. Cody was really getting tired of that voice, "in the meantime..."

He scooped little Obi-wan up in his arms, muddle of robes and all.

"Is this okay?' he asked.

"Yes, thank you," came the tiny, serious reply, and a sigh as he rested his head against Cody's chest.

Cody felt a swell of protectiveness over take him. Whoever this little boy had been (TRAITOR!) he was Cody's responsibility now, and Cody felt an icy calm surety that if anyone tried to harm this youngling now Cody would tear them to little chunks. And that awful voice in Cody's head could go frell itself.

"Commander! Sir! We have incoming transmissions you need to take," Boil called out.


It was the same story over and over, just as the Clone Troopers had received Order 66 they would turn and find the Jedi TRAITORS were gone, and very small younglings were left in their place.

Across the holo-table, Gree was holding a tiny green sprite in the palm of one hand and Cody could feel the mischief rolling off the little thing through the transmission. Bly had a little Twi'lek girl wrapped up in the jacket part of his non-armor uniform. One of the Wolf Pack was holding an emergency mask over a small Kel Dor's face while Wolffe lived up to his name and snarled and snapped at anyone not a part of the Pack who tried to get close. And there were so many others all looking like Cody felt about his own unexpected youngling.

They all wanted Cody to tell them what to do, since...since it just didn't feel right to contact anyone else, and Cody was the highest-ranking clone member of the GAR.

So, he told the Clones on Coruscant who were now all holed up in the Jedi Temple with the mix of true younglings and suddenly appeared younglings to stay put, he would be coming soon. He told the rest to grab their younglings and head to Kamino and if anyone gave them any trouble they had his full permission to blast them to stardust…especially the long-necks.


"I'm sorry, sir, I'm not certain I heard that correctly, sir?" Cody was glad he had kept his helmet on when he was greeted by the new…Emperor.

He had never liked Palpatine and now the man was telling him that he and his brothers had to either execute or turn over the younglings, their younglings. He was glad he had run into Senator Organa before he had reported to the new Emperor's office. Senator Organa was currently overseeing the secret evacuation of the Temple.

It wasn't Palpatine that answered, but General Skywalker by his side.

"Cody, I know this is hard to understand, but the Jedi have turned against the Republic. Whatever is going on now is a trick. You must…"

Cody wasn't going to listen to any more. He was exceptionally glad he had his helmet on, as he could give the order to open fire without either men hearing. Yes, Skywalker had managed to block a few shots, but he couldn't block all of them and fell. Cody felt bad about General Skywalker's death and would mourn the General he had known. But he would treasure the look on Palpatine's face just before a shot from Cody's own blaster obliterated it. The sheer look of shock as if the man's own furniture had suddenly decided to take a shot at him. Knowing the Chancellor and short-lived Emperor's attitude towards the GAR, it's possible that's exactly what he felt had happened.

"Commander Cody?" Organa's voice was at his ear, "the last ship will be leaving soon."

"Thank you, Senator, we'll be on it," Cody acknowledged.


A few systems (Alderaan, Naboo, Chandrila, and surprisingly Mandalore) supported the newly founded Clone Collective, and were willing to work with the now completely free-willed clones - when Rex had told Cody about the chips there had been a reckoning on Kamino.

It had ended peacefully. Mostly thanks to Senator Amidala unwittingly choosing the tensest moment to go into labor. Free-born children on Kamino that were not Kaminoan. There was some ancient prophecy involved that Cody didn't understand or really give a kriff about, but it almost immediately changed how the Kaminoans considered the Clones, and Cody would be thankful for that.

Nonetheless apparently a great many in the Senate had shared Palpatine's view that the Clone Troopers were basically furniture, and weren't very happy when they received the transmission from Kamino that the GAR was permanently standing down, they were keeping the force-sensitive younglings and raising them with their own little ones, and if the Republic/Empire/Whatever the Kriff They Were Calling Themselves Now really wanted to make it into a fight, well, Commander Cody and his Brothers would be waiting for them.