Cody studied Rex over his cup of caf, waiting for him to finish reading the planning document he'd written.

Rex's face was scrunched up in concentration, as it always was when he was focusing deeply, and his teeth chewed on his bottom lip.

Leaving his brother to his reading, Cody let his gaze wander around the room. It was massive, like everything on the Kaz'harian ship, but the colorings of the furnishings reminded him of something the Jedi might choose. Deep mahogany browns and undercuts of lighter natural woods. But, unlike the Temple, the Kaz'harians also favored shades of deep vibrant greens, a tribute, Cody was sure to their jungle heritage.

While he was trying so hard not to get pummeled the massive warriors, Cody had not even considered they had a rich culture of their own. But, the evidence was all around them on the ship they'd appropriated to get the troops home.

Rex's wild band of renegades had stolen the ship, and Cody was thankful for it, as they never would have gotten the men under his command off the planet in time without it. But, as he gazed at the carefully crafted design touches evident all over the ship, it left him with mixed feelings about stealing so blatantly from another people.

There was no helping it now, though. What was done was done and they were on their way back home.

Or...back to Coruscant.

Home was always where his brothers were no matter where in the galaxy they happened to be.

And, right now, they were speeding through hyperspace on a stolen ship.

Compared to purely functional grey and white decor of a standard Republic standard cruiser, the Kaz'harian warship was almost... Cody didn't have quite the right word for it. Warm? Trapper called it "cozy," but Cody was sure he'd been joking. (Maybe?) It was hard to tell with Trapper. On a ship where everything was so oversized, "cozy" was hardly the first word that came to mind. But, despite the pungent, lingering smell of Kaz'harian, (not a pleasant smell by any stretch of the imagination), the ship somehow reminded him of the rare peace he sometimes felt when they were dirtside on a mission... when he'd be sitting by the campfire at the end of the day and his men were all resting. Or, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Rex sharing their rations. Or, drinking a bad cup of caf while Obi-Wan complained he couldn't get a decent cup of tea. These were his best memories from the war. He'd been aboard the ship for three standard now and there was something about the ship that reminded him of these moments. Maybe it was pure sentiment on his part because his brothers were freed and the Jedi were alive. Maybe not in great health, but the medics were confident they could keep them alive long enough to get them back to their own healers at the Temple. They'd done it. Against all odds. They had done it.

Cody sighed and closed his eyes, allowing himself a brief rest, while Rex finished reading. The chair was oversized, (of course it was), and his head didn't reach the built-in pillow at top. The Kaz'harians were one of the few species that had ever made him feel undersized, despite his perfect height and musculature as a clone. But, the padded chair was still more comfortable than the standard issue synth-plastic on all of the cruisers, designed more for appearance and uniformity than actual sitting.

"Should I get you a pillow, Codes?" Rex quipped.

"Shut up and read, Rex," Cody muttered drowsily, not opening his eyes.

"Sir, yes, sir," Rex said, sounding not at all convincing, "commencing reading..."

And, proceeded to read the rest of the brief outloud, just audible enough to keep Cody awake. The fekker. Just when Cody was about to doze off. Cody tugged off his vambrace without opening his eyes and chucked it at Rex, nailing him in the head.

"Ow!" Rex objected, tossing it back, with enough force it echoed as it hit his chestplate.

Cody sensed the piece coming at him, even though his eyes were closed. Or, maybe he just knew his brother too well. He caught the piece and clipped it back into place. "You done yet?" He loved these rare moments when it was just him and Rex. It always brought him back to their cadet days on Kamino. His time on Kamino did not contain a lot of good memories, but the ones that were pleasant, revolved around Rex and a few other close vode from the command training cadre.

"Just finished. Very thorough. Did you stay up all night writing it?"

"Yes," Cody admitted, as Rex was one of the few people Cody could always be truthful around. "Haven't felt much like sleeping." He sat up and reached for the makeshift carafe and refilled his cup. "How about you? Have you slept since you got out of bacta?"

"Yes and no. I was exhausted at first, but now, I have a lot on my mind. I'll admit it's keeping me up." Me?" He fixed his gaze on Cody. "We were talking about you, though."

Cody scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his fist. It didn't do much other than make them grittier and dryer, but it didn't matter. He'd manage. "It's been a long few weeks, Rex. Feels like years have gone by since the 212th lost at at Kaz'haria."

Rex opened his mouth to say something and Cody saw the look that flashed across his face. That look of guilt and longing that he hadn't been there. "It wasn't your fault, Rex. You couldn't have done anything if you were there."

"But-"

"Not to sound all Kenobi, but maybe it was the will of the-"

Rex raised an eyebrow so high it was in danger of disappearing into his non-existent hairline.

Cody switched metaphors mid-sentence to something Rex could better understand. "...the will of the brothers who came before us that you weren't there." Rex tilted his head slightly to the side, accepting this logic and giving assent for his brother to continue on what was clearly a very sensitive topic. "Whether you were leading the 501st or Appo, the outcome would've been the same. The whole thing was a trap. I'm sure of it. I've been through it a thousand times in my head. I had nothing but time on my hands when I was laid up at Ord Cestus. No matter what we did, we were doomed to fail at that battle." Cody left unspoken the part that had been truly bothering him. It felt as if someone had set them up. Because the only one who could've set them up was someone on the inside, and not a clone this time, someone higher up. And, that meant asking questions Cody had no business asking as marshall commander. "Rex, if events hadn't played out the way they did, you wouldn't have been in a position to help your brothers."

It was over now and no sense dwelling on the past. Time to move on. Good solders follow orders. He wasn't sure who had drilled that into them. Alpha-17 maybe? One of their instructors? But, whenever he started overthinking something, his mind naturally fell back to that helpful phrase.

Probably part of my flash training.

There was another part of him, though, that knew if he hadn't clearly disobeyed orders the 212th would still be rotting on Darkknell and likely ended up dead, enslaved or used as human shields.

Now, he needed to help Rex move past the experiences of the few months.

"It wasn't all me," Rex objected. "You skipped out on Ord Cestus with exactly the same idea in mind."

Cody grimaced, a reminder of the consequences facing him when he returned to Coruscant. He'd gone knocked out two pilots, stolen a ship, convinced a dozen troopers and a Jedi to accompany him, and gone AWOL. Positive outcome or not, he was fekked.

No matter how you looked at it, he hadn't followed orders.

But, he'd be an awful commander if he focused on his own needs instead of the men under his command. "You were the catalyst that brought everything together, Rex. You appeared out of nowhere a bunch of mismatched troopers. But, somehow, that bad batch of troopers proved to be incredibly effective in taking out a much larger enemy force. You've redefined what troopers of all abilities can do. It was... extraordinary."

It was an interesting concept and defied the Kaminoans usual expectations of uniformity and perfection. But, it had worked, and worked very well. Could such success be repeated with other troopers?

Rex flushed in the way he did whenever someone praised him. He'd always been good at following orders, coming up with strategy and thinking outside the box. But, he was terrible at accepting accolades. "I don't know how much credit I deserve. I tried to sneak away on my own and leave them all behind."

Cody's face split into a grin. "You were planning on rescuing everyone by yourself?"

"I didn't want any of those vode to get hurt..." Rex's voice trailed off. "OK, it was a terrible plan. At the time, it made sense."

"As do all terrible plans. They were determined to back you up and didn't let you go alone?"

Rex nodded. "It was an incredible show of loyalty. I don't know if I deserved it. They also wanted to help the 501st and 212th- brothers they'd never met." He shook his head. "Brothers they'd never met, but still felt a responsibility to help." Rex stared out the large wall of plexiglass, with the expansive view of hyperspace beyond. "Good men, all of them."

Cody knew he was thinking of his loyal band of brothers heading back to... wherever it was they were hiding out. Hopefully someplace that allowed them a low enough profile to continue to stay off the GAR's radar. He'd heard whispers and rumors of what happened to clones who defected. "We'll make sure they are protected," Cody vowed. The brave men who'd rescue his Legion deserved better than to be hunted down by an execution squad.

Rex tore his gaze away from the vast expanse of space and tapped his datapad. "Now, we have to figure out a plan for getting our own boys home. Six more days until we reach the Core and we don't know how we'll be received when we get there."

Cody flipped on the holochart to show their current position. "When we drop out of hyperspace, we'll need to immediately transmit authorization and command codes."

"Agreed. But, both of our command codes are out-of-date. Will older codes still work?"

"Normally, older codes have a chance of still being accepted, but not your codes, or mine. All your command codes would've been deactivated when you were decommissioned. Standard procedure." He noticed Rex's hand clenching tightly around his mug at the mention of his decommissioning, but there was no time to dwell on it. Rex had to work past it. "Mine would have been shut down the moment I went AWOL." It was strange to say the words. He'd only ever known of one clone who'd gone AWOL. Alpha-02 had disappeared before the GAR had ever been unleashed on the galaxy. The trainers at first insisted he fell into the sea in a training accident and then the story changed that he'd been decommissioned. But, there were whisperings among the command clones that 02 had run off.

It was inconceivable to Cody then that a clone would ever have reason to go anywhere except under explicit orders from a commanding officer. Yet, Cody had decided on his own to leave Ord Cestus.

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He'd deal with the consequences later.

Cody's hands flew over the controls to project a hologram of their approach to Coruscant. Leon had been kind enough to label the controls in Aurebesh. "We are flying in an enemy battle cruiser and can only transmit outdated codes. It is safe to assume we will come under immediate attack when we approach Coruscant. If the Fifth Fleet has been reassigned, we may even come under attack by the Resolute and the Vigilance." Cody manipulated the controls a little more, doing a passable simulation of the Fifth Fleet surrounding the large Kaz'harian warship. "So, where does that leave us?"

Silence.

Rex was ignoring him. So much for Cody's impressive holographic skills. But, Rex knew what Cody was doing. He was already deep at work on the problem, rapidly sketching something out on his datapad.

The 501st Captain could be unconventional, much like his Jedi General, and damned stubborn sometimes, but he had an amazing mind for strategy.

Cody fished a rations bar out of his belt pouch and slowly chewed it while he waited for Rex to finish. The Kazzie caf was getting to his stomach. He needed a bit of food to balance out the highly acidic brew. He left Rex to his... doodling?

Cody took out his datapad and caught up on approving status reports and answering questions from the department heads around the ship.

Several minutes later, Rex cleared his throat to get Cody's attention. "I have an idea, based upon a few tricks we learned from the pirates. Or, at least what we could figure out from their crashed ship."

Cody gestured for Rex to continue. He wasn't opposed to trying new tech, even if it was... pirate inspired technology.

Rex studied his drawings critically, doubting himself now. "I'm not sure this translates over to the Kazzie ship..."

"Show me and I'll do the criticizing," Cody prompted.

Rex slid his datapad across the table. "I don't know for sure if it'll work..."

Cody's eyes widened, staring at a complex vector diagram. Rex had sketched it out by hand and the engineering skills it took to complete the drawing spoke volumes about his keen intellect. "Fek!" Cody tilted his head at all different angles, studying the diagram, and moving the datapad in every direction. "Is this what I think it is?"

Rex grinned proudly as he realized Cody was on board with his insane pirate inspired design. "I'm going to need Leon for language assist to interface with the ship and every engineer who's out of medbay. Heck, I'll even send work to the ones in medbay, if they are willing. We have a lot of work to do."

# # #

Many hours later, Rex took a break to grab a short rest. There were so many logistics they still needed to complete before they touched down on Corrie. He almost didn't see the clone walking toward him, barely able to keep to his feet.

"Coric?" Rex questioned, steadying the medic as he wavered uncertainly. "Where are you headed?"

"My quarters," the medic blinked owlishly, barely able to keep his eyes open. "Commander Cody ordered me off-duty," he looked offended and relieved.

"Ah," Rex said, barely able to hold back a smile.

Coric peered at him and poked a hand into his chest plate. "Your doing, I imagine."

Rex shrugged and changed the topic. "Come on, I'll walk you there."

The two men fell into step together.

Coric stumbled again, and Rex slipped an arm around his shoulders. The medic was perilously thin and there was bone in places where there should have been thickly corded muscle. Rex wanted to say something. Make light of it like they usually do. But, Coric had been starved in the dungeons until Rex could wrap his arms around his biceps with a single hand. Knowing the medic, he may have been giving what little food he had to others. It still chilled Rex to the core knowing how close he'd come to losing the 501st. It wasn't unheard of in the war for entire Legions to be wiped out. The 501st would have been just another footnote in the Clone Wars. A lost Legion.

"Thanks, vod," Coric muttered, his voice so sleepy it was barely intelligible.

Rex muttered something unintelligible back, his mind elsewhere. But, part of him rejoiced just to be back amongst his brothers again.

"This is it," Coric muttered, stopping in front of one oversized door, in a long corridor of identical doors. "Thanks, I'll-"

Rex ignored him, activated the door and walked him in. The lights automatically came on. They were dimmed and had a greenish tint. Not entirely unpleasant. Almost like being in a jungle. "Which bunk is yours?" It was a standard six bunk room, with four of them showing signs of having been used at some point.

"There," Coric pointed to the middle set of bunks. He pointed to the rest, providing answers before the Captain even asked. "Kix, Chopper, Fives, and there's one there for Echo, in case he gets out of bacta early."

"Will he... get out early, I mean." It was both a statement and a question. Rex didn't dare to hope.

"At this point, no. I thought at first, maybe. There might be a chance. But, he was in rough shape when we found him and he hasn't improved-" Coric couldn't suppress a huge yawn, and normally he loved nothing more than long medical dissertations on the status of patients.

"We'll talk about it later. Into your rack," Rex gave the medic a slight shove in the chest so that he sank back onto his bunk, and then reached down and tugged off his boots.

"This is nice," Coric muttered, holding up his other foot to make it easier for Rex to remove the footwear.

"Don't get used to this," Rex grumbled, shoving Coric all the way back onto his pillow. "I won't do this for just anyone." He gave Coric a critical look. "You want me to get you a plate from the mess? I can leave it here and you can eat it later-"

"Stop fussing, Rex. I'm fine," Coric muttered around another huge yawn.

"You're right. You will be." Rex reached down and fondly ruffled Coric's hair, a very rare gesture of affection from the Captain.

Coric closed his eyes and smiled at the pleasant, affectionate gesture.

Rex turned to leave.

"Rex?"

He paused by the door, peering back at Coric.

"It's good to have you back," the senior medic said, his voice quiet. "Nothing was right, when you were away. Everybody acted different."

"Coric," Rex's voice was thick with emotion. He wasn't sure how to say it. What he meant was, I'm not sure if things can go back to what they were before.

He didn't have to say it. Coric knew.

"Still good to have you back," Coric said around a huge shuddering yawn, he pointed down with a sweeping uncoordinated movement, "last bunk is open. Below Chopper's bunk. He couldn't suppress another yawn, and added: "It was always meant for you." He rolled over onto his side, and was out.

Rex stood there for a moment, watching the medic's quiet breathing. He had a lump in his throat, touched by the thoughtfulness of his men. These were the men he would die for but he knew in a heartbeat they would do the same for him.

Despite Coric's protestations that he didn't need food, Rex went to the mess to retrieve a plate of assorted fruits. He was greeted by men on break from the third shift, all of whom wanted to say hello and gifted him with more Kazzie fruit, so he ended up with a heaping plate full. Returning to the shared quarters, he patted down his armor pockets until he found a rations bar, and placed it on top of the plate of fruit. He left it all by Coric's bunk so he could eat as soon as he awoke.

Rex stripped down to his blacks, neatly stacking his armor near the empty bunk. The Kazzie ship wasn't all that different from a Republic cruiser in set-up or design. It had a few touches which harkened back to the green lush jungles of the planet, but Rex was starting to find the color scheme soothing. The temperature in the room was comfortably cool. He let his mind go blank and tuned in to the quiet, steady sound of Coric's breathing. He dropped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

He woke up to the rapid-fire whispering of clones trying to be quiet and failing miserably.

"Fives," Rex greeted, only bothering to open his eyes a slit. He was still comfortably drowsy. He could've picked out their voices anyway without looking. It didn't matter how long he'd been away. They were as familiar to him as the interior of his HUD.

"Did you enjoy the all the illustrations I left in your quarters about how to use the Kazzie stuff?"

"They were both helpful and anatomically intimidating."

Fives' laughter filled the quarters, and even Chopper chuckled, meaning Fives had shared the drawings before posting them around Rex's quarters. Of course he had. The room settled into the familiar sounds of armor plates being efficiently shed and stowed. They were such reassuring sounds Rex started to drift back off again. Things were starting to make sense again.

Chopper lightly sprang up into the top bunk with the slightest hiss of settling durafoam. "Welcome back, Captain," he said, quietly, as he settled in, sounding oddly content.

"Yeah," Fives echoed in the dark room, "welcome back, Rex."

# # #

Revised this scene to have a bit more fun with the dialogue between Rex and Cody.