Chapter Text
“Cody you would not believe the osik we found out about the Guard.”
A headache just walked onto the bridge of the Negotiator, and that headache’s name was Rex. Cody loved him to death, but, little gods, everywhere he walked there was some sort of chaos following.
Cody sighed.
“Is it the kind of osik I need to be involved in as a Marshall Commander or as Fox’ ori’vod?”
There was spluttering from behind the headache and Cody realized his vod’ika had brought his vod’ike and if the 501st didn’t know Fox was his batcher, they sure did now.
It was probably too early to want a drink.
“Probably both, ori’vod. The Guard apparently have a dark net social sharing site.”
Something must be wrong with Cody’s ears.
“Me’ven?”
“It’s called GuardNet, and apparently it works like Spwitter and GalTok? Maybe a bit of Sentagram mixed in, but basically it’s just the Guard pretending to be real vode and sharing vids with each other.”
Cody would not sigh loudly at Hardcase and his, frankly, incorrect and unflattering view of the Coruscant Guard.
It would help no one.
“Have you looked at anything there? Or did you just find it?”
The whole bridge crew was doing an admirable job of pretending to do theirs, but Cody knew they were listening to everything they were saying.
Nothing as interesting as GAR Gossip unfolding before your eyes, after all. (Cody did not blame them; hyperspace travel could be very boring.)
“We came straight to you, ori’vod. Figured you’d want to be there for anything we uncovered.”
Cody did sigh this time.
“Rex. Vod’ika. I’m not off shift for at least six more hours.”
“Yeah but you have a holoprojector right there?”
Cody was not going to pinch between his eyes and wish that Fives would be launched into the vacuum of space.
He wasn’t.
This was Torrent, though, and Cody already knew that arguing with them is just a trial in futility so he might as well give them what they want.
“Fine. Connect the datapad, let’s see what’s going on with GuardNet.”
It only took Echo a few minutes to hook everything up, and by that time both Generals and the 501st’s Jetii Commander had joined them and Cody was hoping it was nothing so he could leave the bridge to Kenobi and go get a large kriffing drink of the rotgut that he wasn’t supposed to know Engineering was brewing.
Force knows he wasn’t that lucky.
The pad automatically cued the vids because that was how Social Media seemed to function theses days, and no one stopped it as a Corrie was suddenly on screen.
Perfectly kitted out, the only thing differing them from any other Corrie was an ARC kama (kriff Cody didn’t even know the Guard HAD those) and they were clearly not paying any attention to the vod doing the recording.
“I cannot stop any of you from comparing tattoos from the comfort of the barracks. But for the love of Commander Fox. Do NOT do it in a cleaning closet in the Senate Dome.”
The vod sounded exasperated and Cody could recognize the vod expression of shame from the two the ARC was scolding. Probably shinies. Not that Guard shinies looked any different from the veteran Guard.
“I didn’t think Corries were allowed to get tattoos?”
“Did they just swear to Commander Fox??”
The screen cut, clearly purposefully, to a few more shots of the same vod continuously telling Corries off for comparing tattoos.
And what a word choice that was, comparing? Wouldn’t it just be showing off?
After about six different talking downs in various parts of Coruscant, the next part was clearly in a dark vode space, probably the barracks, and the vod doing all of the scolding was walking in front of the cam into the room.
“Hey, ori’vod, how often do you get asked to compare tattoos?”
The voice came from behind the cam, and there was spluttering heard from around the room, like several vode were choking.
The ARC did a full body sigh that Cody absolutely related to right now, before turning to look at the holocam with the deadest face Cody had ever seen a vod convey with a bucket.
“More times that you can count, Flex. More times than you can count.”
The vid cut off with the beginning of a loud cackle that Cody remembered fondly from Kamino.
“Well that didn’t seem so bad. Just Corries being Corries.” Oh Dogma. You poor fool.
“Uhhh, except for the part where they were comparing tattoos? Why would you compare tattoos? Why not just show them off?” Thank you, Fives, for being so observant.
“I think it might be a euphemism for sex, actually.”
Both Jetii Generals choked at Jesse’s blasé reasoning that Cody was inclined to agree with.
“Why couldn’t they just be comparing weapons like everyone else in the GAR?”
Cody whipped around, when did Wooley get here?
Crowded around the holotable were more vode than they started with and Cody just sighed. He couldn’t control this circus anymore than the General could.
Which was to say, not at all.
He didn’t even get a chance to explain Vode culture to his General, or tell his Ghosts off for being so nosy, when the next holovid started due to autoplay.
“I will trade you anything you want if you can get Captain Lex to compare tats with you.”
“Copaani mirshmure’cye, vod? The Captain will absolutely make me do suicides, if their riduur doesn’t get to me first!”
The vid then zoomed in on the ARC from the first vid in the back of the hall, clearly staring at the two vode like they were going to commit a murder.
Apparently, whoever posted the vid thought they were funny and used old static to fade out.
No one had a chance to even think about making a comment before the next holovid already started.
“Why did no one warn me that shinies ask questions with no fear? How was I supposed to know that they don’t know what asking to see tats means? Isn’t that covered in orientation? With The Rules? How do I answer that?”
A Corrie was pacing a small room, possibly an office, gesturing widely with each question they had. Good to know that the Guard was the same when it came to shinies.
Cody could just hear both Dogma and Wooley’s noises of complaint, considering they both asked a lot of rude questions when they were shinies…he’s not surprised.
“Definitely talking about sex.”
The whole room heard the smack Kix delivered to Jesse’s head. Being the riduur to the CMO does NOT protect you from them, apparently.
“Oh, vod. Just do what I do and pull up Commander Fox’ speech on the GuardNet.”
The agitated Corrie stopped suddenly, whipping around to look at another Corrie that was also in full kit, but cleaning their blaster.
“The Commander’s speech is on the GuardNet?”
“Yeah? Captain Lex had Flex record it and save it at the time and when Codex and the other slicers made the GuardNet they had them post it and pin it to the Commanders Being Commanders page?”
The vid ended with the first Corrie tackling the second and just about smothering them into the hard duracrete of the small office.
Before another holovid could play, Cody snatched up the pad and managed to figure out how to navigate to the page mentioned in that vid.
The name sounded promising considering Cody never seemed to hear from his kih’vod anymore.
As soon as he clicked on the group a large photo of the four Guard Commanders took up the view of the holoprojector. And several vode on the bridge started choking at the photo.
Fox was the only one standing like a Corrie, parade rest and staring at the holocam like he was actually being paid to.
One of the other Commanders was hanging upside down from something outside the screen, holding the arm and the leg of another Commander doing their best to look like they were flying using a jetpack.
And the last one was using their legs to cling to Fox’ middle, set perpendicular to the ground, hand over their bucket like they were a natborn covering their eyes, looking off into the distance.
It looked like something Torrent would do.
Cody just took a minute to breathe, ignoring the gasping laughs and choking from behind him and scrolled down to the first holovid he could find and starting it. The autoplay would take care of everything else.
Corrie red lettering filled the screen.
Things to Know About Your Commanders
-Thorn knows
-Stone also knows
-Thire never knows
-Fox is probably the one to find it out in the first place
“How do you know I jumped from level 5471 to 5389, Commander?! No one was there?”
“You what?!”
Several laughing voices combined into one like something off of a natborn scary holo, and one sigh that Cody would recognize anywhere.
“There are cams everywhere, vod’ika, be more careful next time and head over to Hex for a full work up.”
The first Corrie grumbled and started walking off screen, they traveled just past the one recording close enough that the mumbled words were clearly heard.
“Not much Hex can do anyway, Hound and Apex haven’t come back from the rings yet.”
The vid changed to more lettering but not before Cody started to wonder what the kriff THAT meant.
-They cope
Focusing in on all four commanders laying on the floor and staring up at the ceiling in a small stacked two bunk room. They barely fit, several of them tucking in weird positions to do so.
The lighting was too dim to see any of them clearly but the point got across.
“If I have to tell Senator Dralg one more time that THAT is not in my purview I think I might just desert.”
Agreeing grunts from around the room.
“The next senator to try and feel up Klicks is getting my boot in their shebs, I don’t give a kriff if I get decommissioned.”
“Don’t worry vod, Klicks is permanently assigned to the prison after the last time.”
“Karking natborns.”
“Karking natborns.”
All four of them raise their arms and tap their vambraces together as they all repeat the phrase but Cody’s brain just stopped working.
Feel up? Does that mean what he thinks it means?
“Ugh. Speaking of, I have to go see Senator Teeeee tonight.” Cody’s kih’vod grumbled, rubbing his bare face with his hands like he used to do when he was frustrated as a cadet.
There were sympathetic murmurs around the room.
“You want me to whip up a vod pile for when you get back?” the vod from behind the cam spoke, the same one from the first vid about comparing tattoos.
Fox made a negative sound, the commander directly to his left giggled.
“Nah, Fox has Vos for his aftercare now.” The giggling spread and Fox half-heartedly smacked the commander that spoke.
“Don’t be jealous that I found the one natborn that can kriff like a vod and kept him.”
Full blown laughter this time.
“Well at least Vos has a medpack on hand if Teeeee hurts you as badly as he did last time.”
Fox shrugged.
“Better me than a shiny.”
“Oya.” The commanders tapped their vambraces again and the ARC holding the cam cleared their throat.
“Sorry Commanders, your ten is up.”
Groans around the room.
“Well thanks for listening, ceiling.”
“A vod amongst vode, for sure.”
“The only one we can talk to anymore.”
“And natborns pay other natborns to listen to them. Who needs that when you have the Command Bunks’ Ceiling?”
The commanders all started heaving themselves to their feet, grumbling and snapping each other back into their gear, even if they didn’t fully remove it, the vid fading slowly.
Cody was still trying to process everything that happened in that scene.
-Vos is Fox’
-They’re basically riduur
-don’t worry about it
A tall Kiffar with a golden stripe across their nose and dreaded locs that hung below their shoulders was suddenly on the holoscreen.
Their appearance caused all of the jetii to make noises of surprise.
“Uhh…can I help you, sir?”
“Yeah, Foxy just came back from a Senator Call right? I need to see him.” His voice was firm even if his words sounded playful, the vod at the desk didn’t seem to know what to do with that.
“Sorry, sir, but Commander Fox is unavailable until tomorrow at-”
“Oh you must be a shiny, Toxic finally training up someone so he can sleep?”
“Sir?”
Another vod appeared from behind the desk, the door into the back sliding shut slowly, like the mechanism was broken.
“Vos.”
“Toxic.”
“What are you doing to my shiny?”
“I just need to see Foxy, Toxic.”
“Did you arrange that with the commander before he left?”
“Yes, it should be on his schedule. Probably something like, Meeting with the Menace. Maybe Nuisance. Possibly Malignant Growth.”
The poor shiny looked so lost despite being bucketed, and with each added word General Skywalker choked harder and harder until Rex had to pound on his back to get the poor man to breathe again.
“…reason for living today?”
The Kiffar’s face hardened suddenly and leaned in to the older vode, somehow more serious than he was before.
“When did he edit that in?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“Kriff. Where is he?”
“Medbay.”
“Got it. Nice to meet you, shiny.”
The vid followed Vos until he was no longer visible, running down the long hallway with the slowly closing door, then it flipped back to the shiny and Toxic.
“Sir?”
“That’s Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. If he ever comes in asking for Fox, double check the Commander’s schedule for a weirdly named meeting and then let him in. Even if the Commander isn’t expecting him, he manages to keep Fox going. If there is a meeting tell him where Commander Fox is, if there isn’t then just let him look.”
“Sir.”
The older vod sighed before giving the shiny a keldabe.
“You’re doing just fine, Nox.”
Another black out screen, Cody was now squeezing his fists so tightly that he wouldn’t be surprised to find marks from his finger nails later.
-I would die for Commander Fox
“Welcome to the Coruscant Guard.”
Fox was up on slightly raised platform, no bucket, upper armor placed off to the side, upper blacks rolled down to his waist.
His appearance made Cody want to hurl.
A scar from the top of his forehead cutting through his right eye, causing the once amber eye to look faded, and continued down to his neck. His left ear was missing, the hair no longer growing on that side, two symmetrical cuts on either corner of his mouth, a piece of his lower lip was so scarred you could barely see the lip.
Multiple lacerations around his neck like someone tried to garrote him, a massive burn scar on his left side, shoulder to hip, several healed blaster burns on his torso, and his right hand was missing three fingers.
Cody’s kih’vod looked like literal osik.
He could practically hear the breath punched out of every vode watching the vid. And the whines of sorrow from the General and the little commander making a symphony of sorrow that Cody had to fight not to add to.
“I am sorry that you got posted here. I am sorry that this is not the battleground that you were promised. I am sorry that sooner or later you will end up looking like me. And I am sorry that your vode will start believing that you aren’t real vode because you aren’t fighting the real fight.
“Our fight is different. But it is still a fight, just not one you’ve been trained for. But that’s for a different time. For now, I just want you to know that these,” he gestured to his body, his scars, “are not scars. They are not something to be ashamed of, even if you’ll get them from something you feel is shameful.
“They are not a reminder of those horrible things, they are not proof that you are meatdroid, that you are worthless, that they can do anything they want to you and get away with it.
“I used to think that, I would hide them, I would keep my kit on all the time, you’d never see me without my bucket. But that gives them power. These aren’t scars, they are tattoos and they tell a story of my survival. They are proof that there was someone that couldn’t kill me and it made me brave.
“You will get your own tattoos. Not ones done with ink like our vode in the GAR, but ones made with pain, fear, shame, depression, some by others, some by your own hand.” Fox flipped his arms so the underside of his forearms were visible, methodical evenly placed scars similar to a ladder tracked from wrist to inner elbow on both sides.
“More proof. More evidence that you are stronger, that you have purpose, that you are alive and still living. This is what you have to look forward to on Coruscant and I wish I could save you from it. But all I can offer you is the platitude that I will always be here for you. For any and everything. Any time of day or night, for a shoulder to cry on, an accomplice to plot with, a commander to take the lead, a friend to hold your hand.
“I am here for you. The Guard is here for you. We will get through this and we will come out of the other side stronger and better for it. Welcome to the Coruscant Guard. We stand.”
-We would die for Commander Fox
The vid faded out into a holo with several Corries dressed similarly to how Fox was in the last vid, their torsos a story of pain just like his was, their faces ranging from covered in scar tissue to barely a scratch.
Every vod was saluting at the holocam, looking serious.
The holo faded out.
The bridge was silent.
Cody didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t have a chance to figure it out either.
Damn autoplay.
“I think it started with hate kriffing.”
“What?”
“Fox and Quinlan. I think they started with hate kriffing.”
“Oh yeah, like in a “make hate to me” kind of way, right?”
“Stone. That is the best thing you have ever said to me in your life.”
“Wasn’t it because Fox threw him in the drunk tank?”
“Then Quinlan kept dropping off criminals like a demented tooka.”
“Hate kriffing to friends to lovers pipeline. Here for it.”
“I think they skipped the friends part.”
“Need me a freak like that.”
“Don’t Skywalker and Amidala give you eyes like that, Thorn?”
“Pretty sure that’s because they’re using me in place of the vod they actually want.”
“Nah. I think you mean in addition to.”
“Hmmmm. Captain Rex is a handsome vod. Very chaos inclined. I dig it.”
“Really? A foursome with a vod and two natborns? Is that safe?”
“As safe as it can get with a natborn.”
“Luckily Quinlan would sooner take himself out than hurt Fox, right?”
“I think any natborn that gets into a relationship with a Corrie should automatically be on the safe list. If they just wanna kriff they’re normally pretty honest about it.”
“Or they’re senators and tell you to do it regardless of what you want.”
A “hear, hear” went around the room before fading out.
Cody looked over to see General Skywalker and Rex both flushed different dark shades of red, impressive considering vode complexion.
Fives slowly reached for the datapad to turn it off, karking autoplay, but the next vid started and he stopped when the Corrie on the screen mentioned Echo’s name.
“I don’t think they know it’s you every time, vod’ika.”
“They always ask if it is, and Echo seems to think it’s me.”
“Still can’t believe you have the hots for the Chaos Twins from the 501st.”
“It’s better than being Apex and crushing on Commander Ponds?”
“No.”
“Come on, ori’vod, Apex already has a riduur and they’re both thirsting after Commander Ponds. Me having a thing for Fives and Echo isn’t that bad considering.”
“No, it’s worse.”
Fox and Commander Thorn walked into the room with the other two Corries, both ARCs with signifying kamas.
“Commander Thorn wants to get with General Skywalker, Senator Amidala, and Captain Rex. Nothing is worse than that.”
Fox turned to Commander Thorn with the galaxy’s most unimpressed face and Cody would have grinned to see it if he wasn’t still reeling from what was happening to his vod’ika on Coruscant.
Commander Thorn started spluttering.
“Shame.”
“You are literally kriffing the Kiffar equivalent of a trash tooka, you have nothing to stand on.”
“Technically, more times than not, he’s the one kriffing me.”
A different flavor of silence both on the bridge and in the vid.
“Vod, why?”
“Didn’t want you to have any misconceptions. And I like it.”
“Really? After what the senators-”
“What I choose to do with Quinlan and what I’m forced to do with others are not related. I enjoy everything Quinlan and I get up to, and I enjoyed being kriffed by him.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
“That being said. You are right, Flex, nothing is worse than Thorn and his kriffed up desires, so please, go after the dini’la ARCs from the 501st. I’m sure they know how to please a vod.”
This time Cody got to the pad in time to stop the GuardNet from autoplaying another one and silence once more wrapped around everyone in the bridge.
General Skywalker and Rex were both still bright red and not looking at each other, Echo and Fives were doing the weird mental link thing they did while have a conversation solely with their eyebrows, Commander Tano looked sick, General Kenobi not that far behind her, and the rest of the vode had various faces of concern.
Well.
Time to be the Marshall Commander and figure out what the kriff to do with all that information.
“Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Rex. There is definitely a lot to be uncovered here. I’ll have SpecOps on it as soon as I can.”
The speech Fox gave was still playing in his head on repeat, his words, his appearance, his conviction.
Fox was wasted on Coruscant.
And apparently abused too.
Cody would be a terrible ori’vod if he let this continue. He’d be a terrible Commander if he didn’t do anything about this.
And Cody was neither.
“Why does the Commander have the same ‘I’m going to be a menace, legally’ face that Captain Rex does?”
Dogma was always good at asking the right questions.
--
“Hey, Foxy! Finally got a bite on the GuardNet!”
Fox raised his eyebrow at Quinlan’s entrance into his dingy little office, his jetii waving a pad in the air like it had the answers to winning the war.
“I wasn’t aware we were fishing on the GuardNet?”
“Maybe you weren’t. But as soon as Thire gave me access I was curating a good stream of vids to watch as an introduction to the Guard.”
Quinlan came over and shifted Fox out of the way so he could sit down in the uncomfortable chair and pulled Fox down on top of him.
It was his favorite way to work if he had the option, but he so rarely could sit down and do datawork as it was so he wasn’t going to complain about a little manhandling.
“For the shinies?” Fox barely even glanced away from his work while Quinlan kept acting like the tooka that caught the mousedroid.
“No, for whenever the GAR eventually managed to find the GuardNet.”
That drew Fox to a pause.
For what?
“What?”
“Come on, Foxy, you have to know that the GAR troopers love sticking their nose in things that aren’t their business. They were going to find the GuardNet no matter what. I just made it so that they’d see the vids I wanted them to see in the order I wanted them to see them in.”
Fox turned around in the chair, straddling Quinlan’s lap and leaning in for a keldabe, looking into warm brown eyes and seeing nothing but protectiveness and vindictive glee.
He sighed.
Of course, his cyare would do this.
Quinlan hated everything that happened to Fox and his Corries, hated that he couldn’t do anything about it except be there afterward. Of course he would try and bring it to the other battalions and hope something would come of it.
“And what did you make them see?”
Fox leaned in closer, his lips lightly brushing against Quinlan’s with every word and enjoyed the adoration that slipped across the Kiffar’s face.
“Everything.” Quinlan breathed out against his lips before claiming them for himself, dragging Fox into a deep kiss.
Closing his eyes, Fox just enjoyed the ministrations, enjoyed not being the one giving orders or making plans this time around, just enjoyed his cyare and his ability to take Fox out of his mind.
The GAR discovering the GuardNet and all that implied was a later problem.
Right now, Fox was in the lap of better things to be concerned with.
Much better things.