"What happened? Where is the General?" Cody asks Boil, worried. Boil enters the tent, bloody, bruised, and out of breath.
"I don't know, Sir. We were scouting the area and then we were attacked, we lost four men. The General told me to go and run for backup." Boil urgently states.
"Who attacked you guys? There was no information on any Seps here." Cody inquires.
"They might have hidden on the planet or their sympathizers. But we need to go now, Commander." Boil states.
"I'll comm Helix and tell him to accompany us but lead me to where you guys were attacked." Cody states and they leave.
"There's no sign of the General anywhere, there are not even any clues!" Cody growls, frustrated.
"Calm down, Cody. We need to have our heads on straight or else we won't be able to find him." Helix says.
"If there are Seps, then they could be hurting the General as we speak, Helix. And it's my responsibility to keep him safe." Cody states.
"It's our responsibility, Cody. And getting angry won't help him right now." Helix says, calming Cody down. All of the sudden, Cody's comm starts beeping and he hopes it's Obi-Wan but regrets it greatly. It is indeed Obi-Wan, but he's hanging from chains, bloody, bruised, and gagged. He growls at seeing his General hurt. How dare they hurt him?!
"Well, if it isn't the 212th. Hello there." A guy says as he steps out from behind Obi-Wan. The man mimics Obi-Wan's accent as he says, "Hello there".
"Give us back our General, and we will kill you quickly." Cody snarls.
"Not even an introduction, how rude." The man says, snickering at Obi-Wan. "I'm Yusaren if you wanted to know, Commander Cody." Cody glares at him for daring to use his name.
"Enough with the messing around, give me back my General or there will be consequences." Cody demands.
"Oh, I'm afraid that won't be so easy, Commander." Yusaren says, frowning. "You see, I kidnapped your General because I wanted some information on the next missions for the Republic, but as you can see, he is quite a tough nut to crack." Yusaren says, laughing. "But, you're free to come and collect him if you give me the information for the next missions for the Republic."
"We don't negotiate with Separatists." Cody states, his voice rough and stern.
"I was afraid you'd say that." Yusaren says, shaking his head. He grabs something from a tray and Cody quickly recognizes it as a syringe. "You know what this is? It's a poison, it's called Idago I believe, and only I have the antidote. Once the poison is administered to the victim, the victim will only have twenty-four hours to be able to receive the antidote, and if they don't receive the antidote in time, they will die a horrible, agonizing death." Yusaren says, his voice faking concern.
Yusaren injects the syringe into Obi-Wans neck, and he hisses in pain. "Oops, my bad. Looks like you have twenty-four hours to give me my information or else he dies. And I'd hurry up if I were you, the poison is very painful." Yusaren smugly states. The comm shuts off, leaving a blank screen.
After a moment of silence, Cody looks to Waxer, desperate for good news. "Did you get the uh, did you get the coordinates?" Cody asks.
"Yes, Sir. He's in some sort of bunker to the west of here." Waxer confirms.
"Gear up than men, we're getting our General and killing those Separatists." Cody commands and they all quickly gather their supplies, ready to go find their General.
"You better hope they answer my request, Kenobi. Your time is running out." Yusaren states.
"They won't…answer…your demands." Obi-Wan says, struggling to breathe. The poison was already kicking in, making it painful to breathe and it felt like his veins were on fire, his skin scorching hot.
"So willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good, now are you." Yusaren says, walking around his hanging form. "But in the end, Kenobi, your sacrifice will be for nothing. It doesn't matter if I get my information or not, you will die either way and by my hands, one of the greatest Generals of the Republic will die."
Obi-Wan glares at him but he can't talk back at him, it hurts too much to move, he only hopes his men won't fall for Yusaren's trap, but deep down he knows they won't, they're one of the smartest and strongest battalions there is, and he's proud to be there General.
"We're nearing the entrance." Boil whispers.
"This place isn't even heavily guarded." Waxer observes.
"Thank the Galaxy!" Helix states, sighing in relief.
"What is it, Helix?" Cody asks, curious.
"I recognized the poison Yusaren was talking about, so I sent the details back to the med-bay, Stitch is almost finished making the antidote." Helix states.
"That's good, once he's done, have him meet us here with medical supplies, the General looked bad." Cody states and Helix nods.
They enter the underground bunker and walk into a multitude of halls, all leading to different rooms. Cody is about to command that they go in different directions, but the squad stiffens as they hear a scream from across the halls. Cody knows who it's from and his anger comes back to the surface. They follow the direction of the sound and find the chamber where Obi-Wan and his captor are.
Yusaren looks at them surprised once they enter, he doesn't even have a chance to speak before a rain of blaster bolts comes upon him. Cody regrets that his death was a quick one, he deserved to be in pain for what he did to his General.
Cody and Helix quickly rush to Obi-Wan, who is hanging from the ceiling, completely still. Boil and Waxer carefully release the chains and Cody gently lays Obi-Wan on the floor.
"It hasn't been twenty-four hours yet, what's wrong, Helix?" Cody asks, worried.
"It's twenty-four hours for an uninjured person, Cody, he's clearly injured, and badly if I might add." Helix says. He checks Obi-Wans pulse and curses.
"He doesn't have a pulse and he's not breathing. I need to perform CPR; Stitch should be here with the antidote soon." Helix says, his voice urgent. He performs CPR on Obi-Wan but he's not breathing, Stitch rushes in and hands the antidote to Helix who quickly injects it into Obi-Wan. Helix continues performing CPR as the 212th watch, hopeless to do anything but stare as Helix tries to revive the General.
"Come on, General. You can't die yet, not after everything we've been through." Cody says, tears pooling in his eyes as he prays to whatever the Force is for his General to come back.
Helix keeps trying but it's not working. Boil looks away, grief pooling in his brain. Stitch puts his hand on Helix reassuringly.
"It's over, Helix, he's gone." Stitch says.
"No, not yet. I haven't fixed him up all those times to just lose him now." Helix states, determined, he keeps going not caring that it might be too late.
"Come on, General. Come back to us, there are people who love you that are waiting for you. The 212th need you, The Duchess needs you, the Jedi needs you, and Skywalker and Tano need you. Please come back, Obi-Wan, please." Cody begs.
"I'm sorry, Helix, but you did everything you could." Stitch states as he tries to make Helix stop, but he keeps going, not relenting once.
Cody stares helplessly as he sees Obi-Wan's skin go paler, and his hands go colder. He closes his eyes, and wills himself not to cry, not here anyway. He failed his General, he was supposed to save him, he was supposed to protect him, and he couldn't even do that. He drops his head in grief. He comes back to himself when Helix suddenly shouts, the words coming out of his mouth are ones of joy, so he cries, in relief that he didn't have to bury another one of his vod.
"I've got a pulse!"