Cody pt. 2
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Cody jumped to his feet at the scream and sprinted to the door across the room as two shots rang out in successive claps. His blaster was drawn, his helmet slammed down on his head with pure reflex, in two heartbeats, four footsteps. He made a gesture for the receptionist to get down and stay down and she complied with a choked sound, eyes wild and wide.
He hit the button to open the door and rolled into the hallway, low and fast, blaster tucked to his chest. The wall and the floor shredded behind him, a writhing shadow to his movement with a hair's width of lag. He finally reached the cover of the lounge furniture in the center of the space and flung himself behind to return fire.
Two men stood on either side of the doorway he had just come through and he nicked one in the leg as they both dove for cover, one slipping behind a waste receptacle and the other disappearing with the aid of a large advertisement board.
Cody lined up a shot for the one behind the sign.
"Look out!"
He dropped instinctively at the call and a series of shots skimmed the apolstery above his head. He swiveled and aimed, then froze.
A third man was standing in front of the lift, one arm wrapped around a struggling Aiya. The interior panel of the turbolift lift sparked hot and bright at their backs and a charred comlink lay in smoking pieces at their feet.
Cody let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. So those had been the targets of the two shots from earlier...Aiya looked frightened but was otherwise unharmed.
The man paused his firing to grin down at the trooper who lay prone upon the floor, blaster whining with charge, poised to fire. But not firing.
The man was now very pleased in his decision to not kill the woman, but to use her instead. She had cost them the element of surprise, but would now make up for that. She had risked being shot to give them a warning. That meant they meant something to her, and she to them. How much he wasn't sure, but enough to stay the soldier's fire.
The man lifted his blaster in alignment with the trooper's helmet slowly, lazily and smirking. The other two men took up post on either side of the door, ready to catch the jedi in crossfire when he exited.
Cody heard the click of their weapons and the soft quick sound of feet from within. He spun and fired at the man on the left, knowing he only had a second to warn the jedi about to run through, whose attention he knew would automatically fall to him and the man holding the woman.
He knew he was a dead man, either way. He'd have to trust Obi-wan to save Aiya. The man at the door slumped to the floor as the man behind him fired.
Cody flinched, expecting the searing pass of the shot in his back or head, but it missed, kicking up a chunk of floor instead. Another shot rang wild and high, striking the ceiling and raining plaster on him. He looked back over his shoulder in surprise.
Aiya was trying to wrestle the blaster from the man's grip and another shot struck the doorframe as Obi-wan emerged at last, undressed above the waist, lightsaber hissing to life. He deflected a blast from the man at his side but his eyes were on Cody and Aiya.
Cody sprang to his feet and charged the man who had just knocked down Aiya and leveled the blaster with her forehead. The commander struck before the man could pull the trigger, and they all tumbled into the lift as a concussive blast shook the floor beneath them.
The second man had taken advantage of the jedi's attending on them and lobbed a small impact grenade and only the jedi's swift reflex of knocking it away had saved him. Even so, he was flung back and harshly to the ground, and coughed raspily as he rose to his knees, his bare chest a mess of charred wound.
In the lift Cody was tangled with the man and they wrangled furiously with one another for advantage. Aiya rolled away and made a grab for the man's blaster but it was shot from her reach by the other man. It skittered across the floor and he took aim again, this time at her.
But Obi-wan used the force to send the nearby waste bin flying in his direction and he was forced to give up the shot to dodge. It was a last-ditch endeavor on the jedi's part, his front was blackened and bloody and he fell to his hands and knees again, hacking. He called out for Aiya to get to the stairs beside the lift, and she ran as the man opened fired on her.
She was a few feet from the opening when several Coruscant guards burst through the door and ran up to her, letting loose a stream of blasts over her head. The one in front caught her by the arm with a hand and swung her behind him as he continued firing. She was passed into the arms of the second trooper and he pulled her with him into the stairwell and behind the wall to safety. Her legs buckled and she collapsed to the floor as he fell to his knees in front of her, running his hands over her, checking for wounds.
"Aiya. Aiya, are you alright?"
She looked up at him through tears, but she gave a weak smile. "Hatch?" She guessed.
He shook his head and looked at her, hands pausing on her arms.
"Turns. Are you hurt?"
Aiya's eyes fell and hovered upon the bodies of two men strewn across the landing of the level below them. They were accomplices of the men inside by their dress and weapons. If she had run in before Turns had arrived...
"No." She tried to keep the tremble from her voice but her whole body was quaking. Turns tucked her face to his chest and wrapped his arms around her, turning her away from the bodies.
"It's alright. It's...the Commander's on his way," he spoke softly, running a hand over her hair. She gripped the back of his bodysuit tightly beneath his arms and felt the trembling ease somewhat . Relief flooded her at the mention of Fox, and Turns was warm and safe against her.
The other trooper ducked in and slid behind the wall with them amid a flurry of blasts and she and Turns turned their heads his way. Aiya caught sight of the small insignia on his helmet and realized it was Lex.
The sergeant looked down at them with a quick once-over, noting that Aiya looked spooked but otherwise ok.
Thank the force.
He dipped in and out of the doorway, returning fire while opening an internal channel with Turns.
"The commander seems to be handling himself but the general's in bad shape...Either way, we're getting her out of here, now." He bobbed his head to the stairs going up. "Take her up top. Commander's en route and he'll pick her up on the roof. Don't want to risk running into more of those guys from below."
Turns nodded and unwrapped his arms to pull Aiya to her feet. He grabbed his decee from the floor and took her hand, taking a step to the stairs. But she pulled against him and he turned to her in surprise.
She looked between them in panic. "We have to help them! That man, he's hurt. Cody's still fighting. And Maey and Sia are stil in the clinic! We can't leave them!"
Lex paused shooting to address her on an external comm. "Aiya, you need to go with Turns now. We came for you and we're getting you out of here. The commander can handle himself and jedi are stronger than they look." He looked at her, " I promise, I will get to your friends. But, you-" he dodged a shot which missed his head by centimeters "are going now." He returned another round of shots then jerked his head at Turns.
He pullled her up the stairs and she went.
...
Cody had finally gotten the man into a hold, although he was struggling to maintain his grip and had no way of retrieving his blaster without lessening his grip and diving for it. He wasn't quite ready for that at the moment. The man was much more experienced in combat than he had anticipated and it had taken great effort to get to this point. The face below him was bruised and now sported a swollen eye and cracked mouth. Cody could feel his own lips seeping from his head being slammed upon the floor a few times, reopening the old wound and making a few more. His helmet wasn't much help in that regard, although it was handy for decent head-butts. The man growled and cursed beneath his hands, writhing to free himself.
Beside him a member of the Coruscant guard was exchanging fire with the man across the room, keeping his attention from the General, who was doubled over and looking rather worse for the wear. For a minute the guard slipped back into the stairwell, then popped out again with a fresh wave of blasts.
He gave Cody a quick look, which didn't really look like anything considering he had a helmet on which rendered his expression invisible. But Cody caught what he had in mind and nodded.
He gripped the man in his arms tightly, waiting, ready.
The trooper fired again and Cody flung his opponent away, swift and hard into the wall of the lift and dove for his blaster. The man across the room began to once again return fire, his focus still on the other trooper, and he was shot down by Cody who used that moment and to his advantage.
He turned with gun trained on the other man as he rose from the ground with a bloodied scalp, glaring at them both.
The trooper kept his weapon on the man as Cody secured him with binders. He received a glob of spit on his boots in return, which he ignored. The trooper went to check on the women inside the clinic as Cody knelt beside Obi-wan. He helped ease him into a sitting position against the back of a sofa and pulled out his med-kt.
"You sure know how to spend a night, General," he teased as he gingerly applied some bacta on the blackened marks across his friend's chest. He tried to keep his tone light but there was worry in his voice, which even he could pick up.
Obi-wan chuckled, and although it caused him to clutch his abdomen in pain there was a twinkle to his eyes.
"And you thought I was just a boring old man..."
Cody was mock-appalled.
"Sir, I never..."
The jedi shook a finger at him. "Oh, don't try to deny it Commander. I can read your thoughts, you know..."
He was joking, Cody knew. They had discussed that before. Mind-reading. It had been an interesting conversation which had fallen very much in the jedi's favor and he's had a good run against Cody by it. He grinned and shook his head.
"Well, to be perfectly fair General, you really arent a spring nuna anymore...and Skywalker makes you seem terribly...crickety."
"He does, doesn't he?" Obi-wan ran a hand over his beard out of habit and he coughed. "I imagine..."
"Keep imagining, Kenobi." The man interjected from the floor, a crazed look of anger on his face.
Obi-wan blinked at him in genuine confusion. "Do I know you? Somehow this feels deeper than retaliation for a little bar brawl."
"You think this is about that?!"
"Well, no actually. Like I said-"
"This is about revenge, jedi. Your previous little scuffle just let us know you were here. We've been waiting for you."
"Revenge?" Obi-wan lifted an eyebrow. "For what? I don't believe we've met. Although..." His eyes passed over the man as though he was struggling to place him.
"You murdered my father and fleeced our planet, Republic filth."
"A battle, then." Cody looked at him. "Separatist?"
"Yes."
"The good kind, or the bad kind?"
Cody and the man both turned to Obi-wan with incredulous expressions.
He continued "I mean, because I've known some of both. There are some really bad eggs like Dooku and Grievous, of course. But also some very charming little communities. Why there's this one little village I visited once. It had the most lovely-"
"Shut. Up."
The jedi gave him a new look, narrowed eyes and calculation.
"Since you're obviously not interested in small talk, I'll admit I don't really have the passion for it either at the moment. So answer this, what is it you have up your sleeve, because for someone who's bound for a very miserable place without accomplishing what they set out to do, you seem very...content."
Cody glanced at the General with unease. What was he talking about?
The man before them cracked a wide grin and rolled onto his back so he could fix the ceiling with a demented smile.
"If you think you've won by subduing me, you're sadly mistaken Jedi. Try to leave the building, why don't you? Maybe...take the stairs?"
Obi-wan's eyes widened just as the sound of loud, peppering shots rang from above.
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Turns and Aiya had reached the final landing and could hear the sound of the larty on the roof, engines whirring and hydraulics hissing. Turns let out a breath of relief and he gave Aiya's hand a squeeze.
"I bet Fay's waiting up for you. She'll have her three books all laid out and ready..."
Aiya felt a smile tugging at her lips.
He looked back at her and though she couldn't see his face, he spoke with his usual deadpan voice. "You should make the Commander read them all. Especially that one with all the rhymes."
She snorted. They all knew Fox hated that one, even though he read it repeatedly at Fayna's whim. So did Turns, actually. And everyone else. She had them all wrapped around her sweet little fingers so badly. All she had to do was look up at them with those big bright eyes and pout and they all did anything she asked.
Aiya was grinning and shaking her head as they stepped out onto the roof. Turns stopped short and she bumped into him and blinked past. She only had enough time to realize that the craft on the roof wasn't GAR operated, that it wasn't Fox...before they opened fire.
Turns swung and arm out behind him and knocked her back into the stairwell and she landed flat on her back as the shots whistled over her and connected with him. He was knocked back by the impact of several rounds and stumbled backwards over her just as a GAR ship surfaced over the lip of the building.
There was a pause, a moment in time where everything seemed to become still and silent, colorless and frozen.
Neither of the ships expected the other, everyone's breaths caught in surprise at the same time, that frozen moment. A dead standstill.
And then they were firing on each other in a frenzy of flashes and explosions and screams.
A scream.
It was hers.
It took Aiya a moment to realize that and her mouth snapped shut and her eyes squeezed pain and fear and her fingers pulled at the carpet to pull herself free from beneath Turns.
She scrambled loose and dragged him clear of the doorway, hitting the console with her hands so that it slid closed, pulling Turns' smearing red across the floor. The sight made her eyes stream but she finished what she set out to do and eased him to the carpet to look him over. She ran hands over him, as he had done to her earlier, feeling for wounds.
Her fingers snagged on the jagged edges of where his armor had been pierced and she pressed the spot tight with her palm, begging the flow of it to cease. He had four of these wounds, and she kneeled on him to stop up two with her knees and pressed her palms to the others.
Please, please, please someone, anyone...
She gasped as she felt something touch her leg. She looked down to see that Turns had fingertips to her ankle.
"Aiya..."
"Turns!" He was alive. "Hold on, ok?"
"They're..." He lifted his head a little and coughed. "...coming. No-" he coughed again and it sounded like liquid spraying the inside of his helmet "...worries."
He lowered his head and coughed wetly again.
"Turns!"
And then Cody and Lex were there, a med kit slapped to the floor and Lex rummaging through it while Cody took up guard at the door. Lex pulled off Turn's helmet and propped him up to prevent him choking.
"Aiya, lift your hand." Lex held up a small tube and looked between her fingers. He tapped the back of her hand and she lifted it slowly, reluctantly, not wanting even a fraction more liquid to escape from her friend's body. Lex squeezed some gel on the wound and smeared it with his fingers. "Coagulant" he said, to her.
It seemed to be working. Lex nodded at her to lift her other hand, and then her knees one by one. She complied faster after seeing the results of the first.
Aiya numbly sat, holding one of Turns' hands tightly in her own, her other arm wrapped around her legs as Lex worked on him more. The sounds of a fierce firefight raged beyond the door and shook the wall at her back. Cody shifted but stayed where he was, eyes on the door and blaster raised. It was suicide to try and step out of that door right now, but he sure as Force wasn't going to let any not-friendlies enter.
At last Lex seemed satisfied with his work, and he moved to sit beside her, eyes on the door as well and blaster across his knees. He reached over and took her free hand in his and gave it a squeeze.
"It's going to be ok soon, Aiya. The Commander'll break through their lines and be here in a minute tops." She nodded and gave him a small smile although she gripped his hand back fiercely.
Cody watched them out of the corner of his eye, curious.
A few minutes passed that seemed like eternity, and he shifted in frustration. He wanted to leap into the fray outside, to kick open the door and walk out guns blazing and light them all up. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the knowledge that it was suicide before the roof was under the GAR's hand once more. The private at his feet was proof of that.
He had no choice but to stand there and wait. He felt the gnawing desire to go and check on Obi-wan, but was afraid to leave the doorway on the chance the enemy did try to enter. On the chance his brothers outside lost.
Why was it taking so long?
Across the landing Aiya caught his eye and gave him a small teary-eyed smile. He gave her a light dip of his head and returned his attention to the door. He could feel the eyes of the other trooper on him. Perhaps he wanted to ask what he and the general were doing there. Or perhaps he had figured it out and was as curious as Cody was about his relationship with Aiya.
Cody sincerely hoped they weren't an item.
As simple and honest (and absolutely wonderful) as the massage had been, he'd feel a little awkward if he'd been massaged by another trooper's girl.
There was a sudden explosion that rocked the building and repeating blaster fire laced with screams.
Lex released Aiya's hand and he rose to stand beside Cody, blaster ready and standing between his fallen comrade and Aiya and whatever might approach from beyond the door. Cody let out a breath, nice and slow. He could hear the approach of footsteps from outside, see the slink of shadow beneath the door where it was bent a it at the bottom.
And then there was the slip-hush sound of Lex reholstering his weapon and he stepped back and to the side. Cody eyed him warily, but the sergeant did so as he bobbed his head and the commander realized he must've been given the all clear signal from someone outside.
Cody lowered his weapon but remained between the door and Aiya.
It hissed open.
And Commander Fox stepped in.
Then everything was a flurry of movement. Aiya practically flew into the other commander and flung her arms around him as more members of the Coruscant guard spilled through the frame around him and knelt beside Turns, hoisting him onto a hover-stretcher. They looked a little worse for the wear, they had definitely been the ones holding back the Separatists from entering the building, but they practically swarmed their fallen comrade and the woman with her thin and shaking arms around their commander.
She turned to greet each of them and they all bent to give her an exuberant hug.
She laughed and her eyes streamed with relief at seeing them and she watched as they loaded their comrade on the larty. Fox turned to Cody and held out an arm in greeting.
"It's been a while."
Cody returned the gesture, his mind doing flips.
"Too long, brother."
More members of the Coruscant guard poured past them to assist the others below, and Cody turned to follow. But something made him hesitate and he half turned to watch the other commander and his men out of the corner of his visor.
The troopers who had greeted Aiya before beckoned to her, and Cody saw Fox grip the woman tightly to him for a long moment, before placing an arm around her much smaller frame and walking her to the ship.
Cody suddenly felt very, very awkward.
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I hope you guys liked it! This part just didn't flow. At all. It was like I could see it all panning out in my mind but just couldn't put it to words. Oog.
And poor Turns...He ended up getting hurt so badly in this one :( But the silver lining is he brings in Kix and the 501st boys next chapter, though.
TGP, Cozzizzie, CaptainReb, Ct-782: You guys are awesome. You really are. :) Thank you for your reviews!
*Ah, I forgot- CaptainReb: I did a brief bar-fight, but no scar for Cody. I was thinking, TOC takes place after Cody already has his scar, but I can try to do a Kamino tale where he gets it, if that's ok.