Chapter Text
“I don’t think we’re going to find him.”
“Well, shoot.”
Boil winces. “You’re officially in charge. You get to tell the commander, we lost our Jedi when he gets out of the bacta tank.”
Waxer, who’s not usually one for profanity, swears.
—————————
Earlier that night, Boil had breathed the cool night air through his helmet filters, and relaxed with his last watch before bed. According to intel there’s no battle droids for parsecs. Not that you can always trust reports from intel but there’s something peaceful here he can feel in his bones. According to the surveys the only thing that could try to eat him on this planet was a few animals that rarely attack humanoids. A wonderful change from Felucia’s clone-eating plants. This planet, Lothal, was so open, stretching from the mountains, where the 212th had set up base, to open plains. After the visual chaos, utter beauty, and death of Felucia the openness of Lothal was a relief. No one was shooting at him or his vod here, on the inner edge of the outer rim.
It was the longest Boil had spent outside under atmosphere other than Ryloth and growing up on Kamino without being shot at. This planet was so different from Ryloth, no hard rock, no underground caverns filled with refugees. No ordnance explosions cratering the landscape and none of the background sounds of shelling. The clear sky seemed so big compared to Kamino’s perpetual cloud deck, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. Lothal’s trio of moons danced together in the sky, and the grass plains moved like the waves of Kamino below. It was so peaceful compared to everywhere Boil had been thus far. He wondered if Numa would like Lothal, or if she would find it too different from her home. He snapped a picture with his HUD of some of the glowing “fireflies” fluttering around, including a closeup. She adored bugs. She’d love it.
He could have woken up Waxer to show him, but his riduur needs all the sleep he can get. Since Commander Cody, had gotten injured chasing Cad Bane and was now bobbing in a bacta tank, and because ghost’s company SiC had been eaten by a plant on Felucia, Waxer had been next in line in the chain of command. He had been in that chain of command because unlike some brothers such as Boil himself he was really good at talking to people. So at the moment Waxer was stuck with Cody’s labyrinthian amount of paperwork, and was really hoping Cody would get out of the drink before he gets stuck making their two year plans for trooper requests. (Although thankfully Commander Ponds had promised to help.) Why two year plans, things in the war seemed to change every week, who could figure their needs two years ahead. What was going to happen in two years?
The point was, Boil had just gotten his overworked cyare to sleep, and wasn’t going to wake him up for some pretty glowing insects. Which was a shame because it was a gorgeous night. Hopefully, the “fireflies” would still be around tomorrow night. The 212th is on light duty. Well, it’s called light duty, that only isn’t officially leave because General Kenobi is supposed to investigating the “agricultural issues,” on Lothal, and unofficially according to Ponds, because High General Windu took one look at their general, and said he didn’t want to see him back on Coruscant until he’d slept for least a week.
Boil is idly watching the fireflies weave in and out of the moonlight, while nominally keeping an eye on the plains when his comm buzzes.
“Ummm, Boil,” Wooley, who's on duty at the northern post, calls over the comms, “The General just walked past me.”
“Did he say what he was doing?”
“That’s the weird part. He said he was following a white Loth-cat.”
“Ok...” Boil prompts. Loth-cats were the Lothal specific sub species of tookas. Waxer thought they were adorable and wanted to pet one. Weird Jedi stuff was weird Jedi stuff.
“I’ve been out here since my shift started. There haven't been any Loth-Cats all night.” Wooley, like Waxer, and admittedly Boil himself, was also a Tooka person. “Much less any white ones.”
Boil rubs his helmet and sighs. He doesn’t get paid enough for this. Or at all come to think of it. Weird force stuff is supposed to be Cody’s problem.
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Boil’s follows the quick movement of his Jedi’s brown cloak around another rock. Obi-wan Kenobi is weaving back and forth through the mountains like the loth cat he is supposedly following. His behavior wouldn’t have been so concerning if they could simply comm him. But no, they just get a “your comm call can not be completed as dialed” message every time. According to Wooley one of the shinies had found the General’s communicator back at base completely out of power.
The Jedi Master takes two steps to the right, pauses and then darts forward not even touching the ground and to the left. Like a Loth cat. What if the Loth-cat isn’t even there, and it’s all in their Jedi’s head. Can that happen to Jedi, when they’re stressed and don’t get enough sleep? Not for the first time Boil wonders if they can feel everyone dying on the battlefield, should they even be on it? Boil’s seen his general’s face after they lose shinys. Do they start seeing things that aren’t there because it’s too much stress? What do they do with a Jedi that happens too.
Even Boil is breathing heavily. He’s genetically engineered and he’s having to work hard to keep up with their general. Maybe Helix had been on to something when they ordered the 212th to take it easy on their “light duty.” Especially driving home their points about how even clones needed sleep and ration bars alone could not be considered adequate nutrition.
Kenobi jumps down easily from a spear of rock easily 3 times Boil’s height and disappears over the side.
“Lieutenant Boil, report.” Waxer’s voice comes over the comm. Shoot. Someone must have woken him up.
“Still on Kenobi’s tail, He’s slippery as an aihwa.” Boil gasps, as he follows his Jedi, who has apparently decided landing in ponds is for people who aren’t Jedi Masters. Boil, unlike his general, is not a gravity defying Jedi Master. He lands right in the middle of the pond startling every avian in the entire area, several who based on their noises believed he was there to eat them and their entire families.
“You ok, Boil?” Waxer asks over the comms. That splash must of been loud. Always fun working with your spouse. The last thing Boil wants to do is worry his riduur.
“I’m Fine, just spooked all the avians around a pond Kenobi leapt over like a kybuck.”
“It’s not time for dinner yet,” Waxer laughs.
Boil cracks up, hearing the humor and unspoken sweetheart at the end of that sentence. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring some fried tip yip back for you back for you.” He quips.
“You do that.” The love of his life agrees.
Boil follows Kenobi’s dark, brown, cloak around another large boulder, and then there’s … nothing. No Jedi. Maybe he’s just too inside this grouping of boulders . He channels his inner Jedi and climbs up the nearest gray spire of rock and looks out.
“Uhh Wax,”
“Yeah, Boil.”
“I’ve lost the General.”
“Well, shoot.”
“No sign of him.”
“Stay put and keep looking. I’ve got to grab something and then I’m on my way. Cody had a plan for this.”
Boil answers an affirmative, and then scans the rocks around him. What did Waxer mean by that? Cody figured his Jedi would go traipsing across the countryside chasing a Loth cat no one else could see, while he was in the bacta tank?
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Waxer pulls up in a pair of BARC speeders, accompanied by Longshot. Boil climbs into the speeder's sidecar and Waxer hands him a data pad. There are stylized Tooka prints on the pad. He gives Waxer a questioning look. “What does the…” Boil reads the data pads label, “Pet Tracker 3000, have with finding our Jedi?”
“Cody, put a tracker on Kenobi.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to do that to natborns.”
“He didn’t put it in the general, he put it on his lightsaber.” Boil manages to keep from choking at just how Waxer inadvertently put that statement. The love of his life continues his explanation. Waxer’s brain doesn’t live in the gutter like Boil’s sometimes does.
“Cody figured the General would either lose his lightsaber, get kidnapped again, or wander off. He gave me the pad, right before he went under.” Waxer starts up the engine. “It’s civilian frequency with a fairly decent range. Commander Fox gave it to him as a gag gift. According to Cody it’s the most popular brand so everyone will assume it’s a stray Tooka instead of a stray Jedi. Turn it on and see if we got any readings.”
Boil fumbles with the decidedly more user friendly and colorful than military issue data pad and gets his bearings. “Straight ahead.”
————————-
They are staring at a blank, gray, wall of rock. There is nothing here. It’s a tall, megalithic mound of rock that splits the sky, surrounded by a lot of smaller mounds and nothing else. The pet tracker 3000, says that’s where the General is.
“I still don’t see any sign of him or where he could have dropped his lightsaber.” Boil comments.
“It’s like his tracks go right up to the cliff face and then vanish.” Waxer agrees.
“And,” Boil raps his knuckles lightly on the gray stone. “This is real rock, not like a hologram. We can check up higher but I’d think his locator would still be moving if he had jumped. I don’t think we’re going to find him.”
“Well, shoot.”
Boil winces, “You’re officially in charge. Which means you get to tell the commander, we lost our Jedi when he comes out of the tank.”
Waxer, who’s not usually one for profanity, swears.
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They have a good chunk of ghost company in the area, searchlights trained on the mountainside, and Waxer is on the comm with local authorities to see if they can borrow some tracking mastiffs when the entire mountain rumbles.
The entire thing twists. Rumbling and just turning in place like an enormous top. Some brothers yell, and then the entire thing freakin’ glows bright.
When Boil can see again there’s paintings. Huge multi-story murals. A woman dressed like a senator, a man who looks like a Sith, and an old figure dressed like one of the chancellor's advisors. The lady has a white bird and the sith has his hand closed into a fist.
As he blinks his eyes clear a flash of movement draws Boil’s attention, there’s a small white Loth-cat coming out the base of the mountain. He finally found the tooka. He swears it winks at him. It disappears in a flash of light and he wonders if he should have Helix check him for a concussion, if he’s going to start seeing things,
Because out of nowhere is his Jedi followed by a shorter, late, cadet sized human, with clone dark skin and blue eyes. His Jedi looks mostly unhurt but Boil is so siccing Helix on him the first chance he gets.
“Hello there,” says their Jedi, heading over to the knot gathering around Waxer, Boil, and Longshot. He notices the entire search network they’ve assembled, and looks a little nonplussed. “I apologize for any trouble my absence may have caused you.”
Obi-wan smiles, “However the force works in mysterious ways, and I’ve learned to heed it. I would like to introduce all of you to my new padawan, Ezra Bridger.”
The young commander looks a bit wide eyed at the total number of brothers and ducks his head. “Nice to meet you.”
——————————-
Cody is finally out of the bacta tank, and he looks a whole hell of a lot better than when he went in. Waxer gives him a chance to have the techs rinse him off and put on clean blacks, and then they’re ready to bring him up to date. Waxer because he’s ghost companies nominal SiC and Boil because he wants to see Cody's face when he hears all the craziness. And ok Boil is also Ghost’s lead scout directly involved in the events but that's not why he wants to enjoy his friend’s reaction first hand.
“So,” their Marshall Commander asks, “What happened while I was out?” Boil attempts to keep a straight face and based on Cody’s look doesn’t completely succeed.
“It’s quite a bit of a story, sir.” Waxer begins, and at Cody’s second look hurries to explain himself, “I will start by saying the General is now completely fine now and has a new padawan.” Cody reaches a hand up, rubs his eyes and starts cracking up. Waxer gives him a look and that only makes it worse. Cody sits down on one of the uncomfortable medbay chairs, and can’t stop laughing. Boil and Waxer exchange a look, maybe they can blame it on the meds. They can't have crazy commanding officers can they? Cody needs to at least be somewhat saner than the jetti.
They let him calm down. Then Cody goes, “Ok so I think I heard you say, while I was in medical my general got a new padawan. Is this padawan anything like Skywalker?”
“Don’t know yet Cody, just met him yesterday.” Waxer admits.
“And I take it this wasn’t some normal expected temple arrival.” Cody states.
Boil shakes his head in agreement with Cody. “Not in the slightest.”
“The circumstances were rather unique.” Waxer agrees.
“Oh? Cody asks.
“Yup,” Waxer says, “I’ll let Boil explain, since he had a direct view as it were.” Boil snorts at how Waxer completely delegated the job of explaining to Cody. The joys of working with your spouse. He starts at the beginning filling Cody in on what happened, invisible Loth-cats and all.
At the end of the explanation, Cody is laughing again and manages to wipe his eyes. “So you actually found him following a Loth-cat.”
“That I couldn’t see.” Boil agrees.
“To a lost mythical Jedi temple,” Cody continues.
“That was on the completely blank side of a mountain.” Waxer agrees.
“Then the Loth-cat came out, and winked at you.” Cody confirms.
“I know what I saw.” Boil insists.
“And then Obi-wan came out of the mountain, with a brand new padawan.” Cody finishes.
“Yes. Oddly enough on the padawan, Cody.” Waxer hesitates, “He uh might not be from around here… not at all.”
“Oh?”
“I heard from Helix after he did the padawan’s medical intake. Ezra kept on talking about an empire and something called stormtroopers.”
“I don’t think there’s anything like that around here.” Cody says.
“There isn’t, unless you count the Hutts, or the zygerrians. We checked.” Waxer straightens up. Well, are you ready to meet your general’s new padawan?”
“No time like the present.”
“Oh,” Waxer says, “I almost forgot. These just came from Fox,” he holds out a small box to Cody. And now Cody definitely knows something is up, Waxer is fighting a smile, and Boil’s face is purposefully blank, except for the air of amusement he can’t seem to get rid of. His riduur hands Cody a small box, as Boil loses the fight with hiding his smile, “Fox figures losing lightsabers and getting lost is a learned Jedi trait. I think he also sent these to Rex.”
Cody very carefully moves the box well away from his body. Boil understands the caution. Fox’s pranks on Kamino were rare but legendary. Cody carefully flicks the box open and inside there are 3 new pet tracker 3000 tags. Obviously, one for his Jedi, his Jedi’s new padawan, and his jedi’s new padawan’s lightsaber.
Cody just shakes his head, while Waxer and Boil cackle. After what happened while Cody was out Boil thinks his friend will have a use for the trackers after all.