#which would have been another incredible comparison between post-empire and imperial cody

[yellowocaballero]

⭐!

SO fucking upset I'm not powerful enough to write the 60k version of this story. I mean like I could, but why.

“Clones aren’t allowed possessions,” Cody snapped, and Depa jerked back. “He was all I was allowed. You could never -” He stopped short, working his jaw, and for the first time Depa could see Cody fight for it - that implacability, that stone. “I won’t chase him down. I swear it. Nobody else even knows he’s alive, I won’t tell anybody. I won’t capture him, I won’t hurt him. I won’t try to take him back. The Empire, it’s - it’s not safe for him. He’s not safe with me. One day - but not yet.” Cody stared her down, ignoring Depa’s increasing twin shock and worry. “Just tell me where he is. If he’s okay.”

And somehow, for some strange and obscure reason, Depa wanted to tell him. This clone under the sick delusion that he was some sort of father - she wanted nothing more than to tell him that Obi-Wan was okay. That he couldn’t see him, and that he would never hold him again, but that he was alright. If that was all he wanted, then some hurting part of Depa’s soul wanted to give it.

“I can’t help you,” Depa said honestly, helplessly. “We thought he was dead. The Force tells me that he died more than a year ago. I can’t help you.”

To be absolutely clear: his line here and his like about 'whew at least he's not a terrorist' are the only two lines this story where Cody is not lying.

He is lying excessively. He is lying out of his ass. There are no trophies, no lightsabers on his wall (Didn't put on tumblr the fic that established this, but he does have four lightsabers of Jedi he killed in a trunk under his bed, looks at them when he feels sad, the morbid fuck). He doesn't care about the name of the Rebel base. He doesn't care about Mace Windu. He very, very much wants Grey and Depa to walk out of there untortured. The gun was not loaded. He very much, actually did a cost/benefit analysis, and decided that it was better to psychologically torture Depa than it is to let her be physically tortured. He is very willing to play the bad guy (and he was REALLY playing the bad guy) to prevent a worse outcome. Like three different times he says 'pick the less bad out of two bad choices', because that's his whole game (Hey, it worked for him...). He is actually doing everything he can to make sure everybody gets out of there safe - everything, except, like, not being a fascist, but you can't have everything.

He only actually cares about two things: keeping his men alive (which is why he doesn't actually help Depa - helping her kills his men!) and Obi-Wan. He just wants to know that Obi-Wan's okay. That's all he's asking for. Because he gave up everything for one thing - Obi-Wan's safety - and that got blown up like twenty minutes in. And he's not dipshit enough to think that Obi-Wan would be remotely safe with him so long as he's an Imperial. He gave Obi-Wan up and he knows that, he just needs to know that he's safe - that'll make it all worth it. Don't ask him to stop being an Imperial though, what is he, a communist?

That is an inside POV. It's what Rex's insider POV would show. To Depa, this is all super fucking insane, because this genuine love looks obsessive, possessive, and creepy when it comes at the tail end of everything that just happened. (Is it actually obsessive...?...eh) Heartwarming to play bad cop, but what Cody just did was incredibly cruel to her. Cody only sees two choices, and he's doing the best he can from there, but it's pretty fucking hard to call him a good person when he is incredibly skipping over the actual good choice he could make, which is leaving.

Outside POV of Cody is a fucking riot because from the inside you just kinda feel bad for him because he's an idiot jerk, but from the outside like holy SHIT he sucks. Ben really has no idea how the Cody that he knows and loves is an ENTIRELY different guy than who the rest of the galaxy is subjected to lol. 'Ugh Cody's such a jerk :/', local beloved son of local cartoon supervillain says.