The new CC cadets lined up at the edge of the training mats, they eyed the Prime as he stalked up and down its length. Alpha-17 stood at ease in the center of the room, his steady gaze caused them to fidget.

"This is the start of your training. You may be young but that doesn't mean you will be treated like it. You are expected to follow directions, learn new skills quickly and effectively, be disciplined, and act like the commanders you will be one day." The Prime paused and looked each cadet in the eyes. They lifted their chins and straightened their posture further under his scrutiny.

"You will be learning hand-to-hand combat, partner up!"

The room was filled with the smacks of hands catching forearms as the young cadets conducted the new drills they had just learned.

"Cody seems to be doing well," Alpha-17 commented mildly, watching as Cody and Fox exchange hits.

"He's got good reflexes." The prime said with light appraisal.

Alpha-17 narrowed his eye, surreptitiously reached into his pocket, and pulled out a pen. Prime glanced over at him, brow furrowed. "What's your plan for that?"

"Just testing a theory." Alpha-17 flung the pen at the side of the young cadet's head, but before it made contact Cody deftly snatched it from the air. Alpha-17 smirked and sent the Prime a sidelong look.

Cody, confused, glanced at the two trainers off to the side. Hand still raised by his head, pen clutched in his grip. Unfortunately, Fox didn't notice his partner's lack of attention and continued the drill.

Alpha-17 and the Prime both winced as Cody got clocked in the jaw. Alpha-17 looked away at the hard look from the Prime.

The rest of the cadets stopped and stared at Cody sitting on the floor clutching his face, and Fox swore profusely as he shook out his hand; between them, the pen laid innocently on the ground.

+++++++

Cody sat on his bunk reading a tactical analysis of one of the many battles that took place on Dxun during one of its civil war periods. It was kinda dry but if you could look past all of the official language and political drivel many of the tactics used were quite ingenious and interesting to consider and- Cody looked up from the holo novel.

"You asshole! Give it back!"

"I can't!"

"And why not?!"

Bly was chasing Wolffe around the barracks, leaping over beds and being a general nuisance. Cody shook his head and went back to what he was reading.

"Because I already ate it!"

"That was my last one!"

"Sucks to suck. You should have hidden it better."

Cody considered whether or not it would be acceptable to use guerilla warfare tactics to keep his vode quiet.

"That is so far beyond the point! I shouldn't even have to hide them!"

"Well, that's not how the real world works."

"This isn't even the real world!"

Cody was beginning to think that it would be understandable to tape them down at least. The running continued and Cody resumed his attempt at ignoring them.

Bly was pissed. His last taffy, gone. He was going to kill Wolffe, that bitch wasn't even apologetic. Bly thought fast as he and the thief came to a standstill.

"You had better give me one of your taffies the next time we get some!"

"There is no way in hell I'm doing that!"

"Then why'd you steal mine?"

"Well it was just sitting there," Bly pinned him with a glare.

"Okay maybe not just sitting there, but come on it was pretty obviou-" Bly's shoe flew past Wolffe's head, hand outstretched and scowl firmly in place. Wolffe laughed triumphantly in his crouch from where he ducked the projectile.

"Missed me!" His grin was cheeky and victorious.

At that moment, as Wolffe had been standing in front of Cody's bunk, the shoe made its way stubbornly to a different target. Every vod in the room watched as Cody's hand snapped up neatly and caught the shoe, setting it aside without looking up from his holo pad.

Upon seeing Bly's stunned face, Wolffe turned around and looked at the scene.

"Codes did you just..?"

"He didn't even look up," Rex whispered in awe from the door.

"Can you guys just shut up? I'm trying to focus," Cody grumbled, sinking lower on his cot.

+++++++

Rex looked down at his stylus, up at Cody, then down at his stylus again. Making up his mind he stood.

"Yo! Codes!" He yelled across the mess then proceeded to hurl his chosen weapon at his ori'vod

Cody looked up from his meal, surprise flickering across his face before he caught the stylus between two fingers. As he made his way over, Rex flashed Cody a smile.

"Hey, thanks!" he grabbed the pen from the still erect hand and sat down next to him.

Cody frowned but focused on his food soon after.

+++++++

"Cody!"

He barely had time to look up before he caught the object hurtling towards him. Upon inspection, he saw that it was one of his many holopads on strategy. The very holopad that he had told Rex that he was going to get when he left the mess earlier. He looked around trying to find who could have thrown it at him but the hallway was empty. He lifted the pad in acknowledgment and thanks, then turned around and headed back to where he came from.

+++++++

Cody sat in the small archive that was available to the clones, trying to finish an assigned edu-module. Was the radical allowed to be the denominator, he didn't think so, but then why was that one of the answers to the problem. It's not like any of the other choices were even close to being correct. So maybe it wasn't a rule? But he was pretty positive that his teachers had mentioned it at one point.

The internal monologue regarding radicals was soon interrupted by yet another projectile. Snapping his hand out he caught the pad of flimsi. Across the room, Gree was doing his best to seem like he was studying (read; he was staring down at a holo, poorly hiding his giggles).

Cody tried to shoot him a questioning glance but Gree stubbornly refused to meet his gaze. Shugging, Cody pulled out a pen and continued to try and figure out where the damn radicals fitted into their statements.

+++++++

Cody could no longer go through any door without at least one hand free. It used to only be a couple of days a week, maybe when he was sitting down, reading, or after a workout that he would get something thrown at him. A water bottle or a pen, the occasional holo. But now he could never be sure, no door was safe, every moment could be the moment he had to catch something.

He could be going for a run and suddenly find a sock in his grasp, or during drills get a water bottle aimed at him. He had learned quickly from his first... experience shall we say... to never take his eye off the person in front of him. Unfortunately, most of the trainers were in on it and didn't stop the Vode. It wasn't even just the CCs and Rex anymore, any CT who had the guts would at some point throw something at him.

When the CCs finally got their armor, he found that it was some of their favorite projectiles to throw. His helmet was one of the most common as it was one of the few pieces he wasn't always wearing. Though they found it especially funny to throw his codpiece.

It was becoming a part of the culture in Tipoca city: don't trust the Kaminoans, water is wet, and shit gets thrown at Cody. A truth of the world, a constant. Honestly, it was just kinda annoying. Cody could only hope that it didn't transfer to his time as an active soldier.

When he served under General Windu he got a brief reprieve. Everyone was too nervous and ready to be the best soldiers they could, there was no time to mess around with your vode. And of course, they wouldn't do anything mid-battle but he once again became free game when he got to ARC training.

"Cody!"

A blaster, he threw a blaster at him. Fully functioning he might add. He shot Rex an incredulous look.

"A blaster?!"

"The safety is on." He was grinning from where he was kitting up.

The sound Cody made could only be described as one of pure exasperation and horror.

"Do the regs mean absolutely nothing to you?!"

"Never."

"Your General is going to hate you,"

"Maybe, but then again maybe not."

+++++++

It soon became clear to Cody as he began working with the 212th, that he would forever be on the receiving end of a throw. At first, no one attempted anything. Too nervous of upsetting their new General, just like his time under General Windu. That and he was the Martial Commander of the 7th sky corps and none of them wanted to be on his bad side. Unfortunately, his peace lasted only a short while as General Kenobi became known as not quite as by-the-books as his reputation made him out to be.

As the Vode got more comfortable, he could tell target practice was on their minds. Thought, nothing came to a head until their first joint mission with the 501st, and he knew Rex would not give two shits if both of their Generals were in the room.

As if he were a profit, his prediction came true.

Cody paused in front of the strategy room's door. He took a deep breath and made sure one hand was free before entering. He had barely set foot in the room when the all too familiar blur of Rex's newest projectile made its way towards him. He deftly snatched it out of the air, not breaking his stride. Rex had thrown a slipper at him, the question was whos was it. His or Rex's? He sincerely hoped it was Rex's, just so he could withhold it from him.

"Good catch, Commander." A small smile made its way onto his general's face.

"Thank you, sir."

Rex looked satisfied with himself, and General Skywalker looked as though the last piece of his 1,000-piece puzzle had been placed in front of him.

Soon after, many of the Vode decided to take that as the green light for them to join in as well. Thankfully they were smart enough to keep it to the mess and the training rooms.

+++++++

"Hey, Commander!"

Cody could only sigh and turn around with his hand already raised. Sure enough, he could see a can of 212th gold™ paint flying his way.

.

.

.

Osik! That was an open can of paint!

Without thinking he dropped his buy'ce so he could use both hands to receive it as softly as possible. As it was, gold paint sloshed over his freshly touched-up kom'rke and vambraces. Cody paused as he evaluated the mess that was his forearms. Paint dripped onto the floor and he briefly considered dropping the entire can just to make the two hellions in front of him clean it up. But after a short deliberation decided that it would waste too much paint.

Careful not to drip anything on the rest of his armor, he made his way to one of the many painting tables to free his hands. He considered the new paint job and decided that he didn't mind it too much and put the newly wet pieces on the drying rack.

"Boil! Waxer! Thank you for volunteering to clean the paint room floors and pack away all the brushes and cans!"

At those words, Waxer and Boil stop snickering and look at their Commander. At least they had enough grace to look a little sheepish. As he swept past them he swore that he heard 'worth it', he narrowed his eyes and thought that perhaps the latrine cleaning schedule may be in need of rearranging.

When he stepped onto the bridge the next day, Obi-wan gave him a raised eyebrow but said nothing about his new design.

+++++++

There was smoke in the air and blasters were screaming around him. He had lost sight of the General some minutes ago or was it hours? He couldn't tell anymore. The entire battle had been a slugfest. His carefully planned formations had become meaningless as they stumbled into a massive ambush. He was glad that only a small portion of Ghost company was with him for this stage of the mission.

The plan had been to take the communications tower quickly before the seppies in the main fort got word. The trees on the planet made sending and receiving missives difficult so the seppies had built a tower for off-world communication, unfortunately, it was much more heavily guarded than assumed.

Soon after they had landed they were attacked from multiple directions causing most of the men to be separated. At the moment Cody was hunkered down behind one of the many force damned, sith forsaken, absolute pain in the shebs trees, trying to coordinate his men; occasionally he made potshots at the droids around them. With him were Wooley and a shiny by the name of Blip.

He swore and smacked his comm again; nothing was going through. The karking trees were running far too much interference. The only good thing that came out of the situation is that the droids couldn't act with their usual precision and didn't have very specific orders. It looked as though they were relying on pure numbers to handle the situation.

Occasionally he would see a blur of brilliant blue, or hear the distinctive sound of his general's lightsaber but it was never for more than a second. They needed to regroup, having everyone separated like this was doing them no favors. But without a way to communicate, setting up a rendezvous point would be almost impossible. 25 men, not including himself or the General, had come planetside for this portion of the mission. He could see 5 now either injured or dead. That left 20 he needed to find.

When they originally mapped out the area, searching for the best place to land and start their approach to the comms tower, they found an easily defensible location just across a minor river near their landing area. There were many large boulders where his men could take cover behind, and a bend in the river that would force the seppies to come out from the trees or cross the river itself if they wanted to get a good shot. Before they had landed, it had been established that this location would be known as R03. By his estimate, R03 was across the clearing and through the forest about a half a klick. He looked around the clearing, he could spot four places where blaster blots are coming from behind trees. He taped the pauldrons next to him and they both spared him a glance.

"I need you two to work your way on our left around the clearing, collect any vode you find on your way. Our rendezvous is R03. I am moving along our right doing the same thing, got it?"

A firm "Yessir!" from Blip, and a sharp nod from Wooley quickly followed.

They broke off at the same time and ducked behind trees; slowly they made their way towards their respective groups.

The First group he found had four vode, including Helix; The senior medic assigned to the mission.

"Good to see you, Commander," Helix grunted out between shots.

"Could be under better circumstances," He replied amiably.

"You got a plan to get us out of this?"

"Yes actually, though you will be delayed. We are meeting at R03 but I need you four to stay behind to collect the injured vode. Most of the clankers will be pursuing the rest of us and I assume you can handle any stragglers. Get them out of the clearing, and set up a defensive position at R01. We will pick you up when the rest of these shabuire have been handled."

"Understood."

Cody took a deep breath and continued on his path. A bolt skimmed past him and split his blacks behind the knee; it left him with a painful burn. He gritted his teeth and let out a controlled exhale before he continued. There were a couple more near-misses before he got to the other group but he got there without further injury.

The group of seven seemed to relax just slightly when they saw him emerge from the trees.

"What's the plan Commander?" Trapper looked at him expectantly.

"We are regrouping at R03 and getting out from under these damned trees. We should be meeting up with Wooley and eight others. Helix and three others are staying behind to clean up."

At this point, the General had noticed the men moving north along the clearing, as he had moved in that direction with them. Soon His group Merged with Wooley's and they were off, making the 500m trip to the river. They moved backward, careful to keep the clankers within their sights.

A silver cylinder toppled end over end as it moved towards him, Cody snatched it from the air only to realize that it was his general's lightsaber.

Haar'chak! How did that di'kut lose his 'saber this time? He Spotted his General on the ground, and Cody made his way over to him. Obi-wan was trying, and failing, to stand.

Without a second thought, Cody jumped in front of his general and brought up the lit lightsaber in a vain effort to mimic his general's smooth motions. But after realizing how absurd that was he clipped it to his belt and reach for his blaster.

"Sir! Can you stand?" The worry in Cody's voice was obvious.

"No need to worry Commander, I'll be fine just," He paused to breathe, "Just give me a moment."

Together they worked their way behind a tree, as they defended against the oncoming droids. Obi-Wan's breaths were coming in shaky gasps and it was really starting to concern Cody.

"Good catch Commander."

"What?!"

The light-hearted comment was so out of place in their current environment Cody missed his next shot.

"Haar'chak! I think the blood loss has gone to your head, Sir." Cody looked down at his general, he was indeed a bit pale.

"Now you are the one talking nonsense, Commander. I am fine-"

"Sir, you are bleeding out."

"Oh. well, yes. It appears that I am."

This karking man.

"You and your need for minimal armor, I swear. If I have to do this for you again I'm staging a coup and forcing you to wear tassets at least." He quickly retrieved his emergency tourniquet and attached it over his general's upper thigh.

Obi-wan sucked in a breath through his teeth.

"Ah, that does hurt as much as I remember."

"Do you think you could handle a fireman's carry?"

"Well, if you must."

Cody hoisted the other man onto his shoulder, careful of his injured leg. He handed the other man his lightsaber and peered out from the tree.

"Can you protect us as I retreat to the men?" Cody was pretty sure he could evade the droids as they were already chasing after the Vode making their way to R03, but it wouldn't hurt for more defense.

"I'm pretty sure, but do try not to count on it."

"Yessir."

In the end, they were able to take the tower but they lost 6 men in the process. Cody had hoped that his little stunt with the general's lightsaber earlier would be ignored, instead, his Vode decided that it would be the perfect reason to continue.

"Wow, Commander your reflexes are on point."

"Amazing Commander, your catching practice is paying off."

"I think, Commander, that you need to keep up those skills if you want to be able to save our General in the future."

What did he need to do to get some respect around here? Laps? He could make them do more laps.

+++++++

It had been 50 hours since they had finished their last campaign, and General Kenobi hadn't slept whatsoever. Every time he tried to bring it up with his general, he was told:

"Don't worry about it, Commander."

"I'm fine, let me just finish one more report."

"When was the last time you've slept, Cody?", which was irrelevant.

It had been a couple of hours since his last stim shot, and he rubbed at one of the bruises on his legs. Should he take another? If his general was going to keep up this pace, he probably should. No, He was going to find that man and force him to sleep if it was the last thing he did.

He checked his chrono, It was about 0200 in their time cycle. If he had to guess, he would say that Obi-wan was in the mess.

He did, in fact, find the man there, surrounded by holopads and loose notes on flimsi. A pitcher of caff was half full on the corner of the table, and there was a mug nearly empty next to it.

"Sir."

"'Lo, Cody. Was there something you needed?" He looked exhausted. His eyelids were drooping, and he stared at him blearily.

"Obi-wan, when was the last time you slept?"

"I'm sure you know that to greater accuracy than I do, Commander."

"Right. You can see why that would be problematic."

"Cody, I've just got a couple of these, and then I'll take a break. Meditate maybe."

"I know meditating is important, but it is no substitute for sleep. With all due respect, Sir, I will be escorting you to your cabin now. Your reports can wait, you don't have to finish them all now."

Obi-wan's eyes darted to the door.

"Oh no, you don-!"

Obi-wan had already jumped up and made for the door.

This. Bitch.

Cody quickly made after him. They weaved around tables and chairs, and it became apparent that He was trying to grab one of his holopads. Cody Frowned, that would not do.

"Sir, if you could just come with me-" He grunted as he had to vault over a table.

"Sorry Cody, but I really must finish this."

"Obi-wan!"

"I know darling, but I really must. You could use some sleep yourself, I know you've been trying to keep up with me." They were running along one of the hallways outside the mess, Cody had made it clear that he wasn't going to let him anywhere near his work.

"That is far beyond the point!"

"Is it really?" He had looked behind him at that but was only met with a disappointed glare.

They passed several troopers, some of the shinies looked surprised but many of the others did not.

There was a flash and on instinct, Cody reached for whatever it was. It was a stylus that his general had stashed in his many layers. There was another flash, and Cody reached for it. It was one of his vod'ike's helmets. When he looked behind him, he saw some poor trooper looking after them bewildered; his helmet was gone :(. Cody quickly tossed it behind him and continued his chase.

Obi-wan had gained some ground and had stepped into a lift with...was that Wooley?

"Oh fuck me." He murmured under his breath. "Wooley! Don't shut the door! WOOLEY!!"

Wooley only gave the man a smile.

The lift door slid shut.

"Haar'chak!" He punched the wall, behind him some shiny jumped and took a step back. Cody just let out a tired sigh.

Taping the side of his helmet, he commed the surveillance team.

"Good.....Morning...Commander, how can I help you?" the friendly reply of Banks-the head of internal security-did little to settle his exasperation.

"Can you tell me what level The general is currently on?"

"No problemo, just a moment." There was a slight smile to his voice. He probably had watched that entire mess transpire from beginning to end. "Alright, so he is on the fifth level, hall A-3, moving towards B-7, now B-8, I think you get the idea."

"Thanks, Banks."

"You'll catch him."

"Yeah, I know. I just hope it doesn't take 3 hours."

"Yeah, that was fun to watch."

"Thanks, Banks."

"....sorry." Cody disconnected the call and stepped into the now-open lift.

It would be a lot harder now, Kenobi knew he was looking for him; finding a man who could sense with the force that did not want to be found was very difficult. The bastard was fast too, not faster than Cody but fast enough. His greatest advantage is that Kenobi was exhausted and would not be thinking as clearly.

The lift opened and Cody moved quickly. He made His way to A-2 and sprinted down it. If he could just get to the end of the hall before Kenobi did; hopefully the man had slowed down realizing that Cody wasn't on his tail anymore. At each intersection he glanced to his right, to see if he and Kenobi had crossed at the same time. It wasn't until B-42 that he finally saw a sign of the man, a flash of tabards as he fled around a corner.

Cody redoubled his speed, he was in hot pursuit now.

"Sir, please!"

He got no response except a smile that was flung over his shoulder. What Kenobi didn't realize was that he wasn't running straight, so when he looked over his shoulder he veered into the wall, stumbled, and fell.

Cody stood over his general, almost disappointed. Almost.

"Well, that was dumb." Obi-wan was a bit red, they were both breathing heavily.

"Yes, it was." Cody knelt, scooped the man into his arms, then onto his shoulder so the man's legs were against Cody's front.

"Commander! I am perfectly capable of walking!"

"Yes, well, I can't trust you not to run away from me, now can I?"

"Cody."

"Obi-wan."

"Put me down."

"You need sleep."

"I will have you court marshaled."

"No, you won't. I do too much of your paperwork."

"....touché."

He got into a lift and pressed the button for his general's floor. The trooper in the lift kept stealing glances at them before he let out a quiet "Good catch, Commander." and got out at the next level.

When they finally made it to Obi-wan's rooms he threw him bodily onto the bunk.

"Stay down, General."

Obi-wan looked to be considering his options before he just laid back and sighed.

"I guess my reports aren't that pressing." Cody stepped to leave but a hand on his wrist made him stop. He turned.

"Stay?" Obi-wan had scooched over so there was room for him. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. He was tired, and his bunk was a whole door down the hall, and it looked really warm.

Making up his mind, Cody flopped down onto the bunk, face down. He let out a groan that encapsulated every ounce of frustration and exhaustion he felt.

"I know," Obi-wan said and pulled him into his side.

It really was a good catch, wasn't it?