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The Lothal Temple really wasn’t much to look at, Cody decided. He wondered if anyone had actually ever lived in this temple, or if it had always just been a small stop for wandering Jedi.
“Do you hear that?” Obi-Wan asked, suddenly.
“Hear what? ” Cody asked, but Obi-Wan was already wandering off.
Cody rolled his eyes and readied his blaster. Knowing his Jedi, they were about to get into trouble.
At least Master Eerin and her padawan were with them—well, they were somewhere in the temple, anyway. If they ran into anything bad, they’d have backup this time.
Obi-Wan led them to a small door, and when he touched it, it creaked open. The room was small and empty, except for a pedestal in the middle of the room that had a small statue atop it. As they got closer, Cody realized it was a Loth-wolf, carved out of what looked like some sort of glowing blue crystal.
Obi-Wan moved towards the statue, entranced.
“Sir, this feels like a trap.”
“Can’t you hear it, Cody?” Obi-Wan asked, not quite present. “It’s singing .”
Obi-Wan reached out to touch it.
Cody reached out to stop him.
He wasn’t quite fast enough. There was a loud crack , and everything went black.
When Cody woke, he was in some sort of Jedi Temple, lying on a dusty stone bed that seemed not to have been used in years .
He groaned as he got up. He wasn’t sure what had knocked him out, but he had an awful headache, as well as some dizziness and nausea, so he was guessing it was a stun bolt.
Where was the General?
“General?” he called out. He doubted that this was a trap exclusively of the Lothal Temple. He’d woken up on a bed, which meant someone had moved him, and since it took two Force users to get into the Temple, that probably meant Darksiders or Sith.
Which was just what he wanted to deal with today.
Then again, he wasn’t handcuffed, he was still wearing his armor, and they hadn’t even removed his blaster. It was...unnerving.
Cautiously, he moved to the door. He carefully examined it for traps, and then looked for a keypad to open it.
No luck.
Suddenly it opened. There were two small padawans just outside.
All three of them froze.
The padawans screamed.
“Whoa whoa, hey, it’s okay,” Cody said. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“G-g-ghost!” one of them stuttered.
Cody frowned. If they recognized his Company, why were they afraid of him? “That’s right,” he said. “I’m one of the Ghosts, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”
The taller padawan collapsed. Panicked, the shorter padawan grabbed at him, keeping him from hurting himself as he fell.
“Come on, Sy, don’t have a vision now ,” he whimpered.
Cody approached to help, but the small padawan snapped, “Stay back! ”
Cody held up his hands placatingly. “Are your Masters around?” he asked. “I’ll go find them for you if you tell me who they are.”
The small padawan looked torn, but finally said, “It’s Master Lene and Master Yoda. They should be back that way.”
“Mas—Master Yoda? ” Cody asked, confused. “I didn’t know he had a new padawan.”
The padawan looked at him like he was an idiot. “It’s probably been quite a while since you’ve seen him,” he said dryly.
Cody supposed that was true enough, and left in the direction indicated. He wished that Yoda would have told them that he was coming; he probably knew way more about the Lothal Temple than either of the others.
He ran into Obi-Wan on the way. Obi-Wan no longer seemed out of it; rather, he was acting like he was on a mission.
“Cody!” Obi-Wan said, with visible relief. Obi-Wan pulled him into a mirshmure’cya , clinging like he had expected to never see Cody again.
Cody held tight for a moment, basking in the fact that his ridiculous Jedi was alive and well. Then, he realized they needed to get back to the task at hand.
“There’s two scared padawans down the corridor,” Cody said. “I’m off to get their Masters, but you should help them.”
Obi-Wan gave a short nod, and the two split up.
It only took about five minutes of searching to find Yoda and his companion. Acquiring a new padawan had clearly been good for Yoda; he looked younger and happier than he ever had.
“General Yoda,” Cody said, snapping a salute automatically. “Your padawans are looking for you.”
“General, you call me?” Yoda asked, confused.
“Sorry, sir, force of habit,” Cody said automatically, though he was confused. He hadn’t realized that Yoda was one of the Generals that hated being called a General.
Yoda hummed. “Knew we had company, I did not.”
“Trust me sir, if we’d known you were coming to Lothal as well, we’d have coordinated.”
“Lothal?” the other Master asked. “Mandalorian...this is Kordoku.”
“Man—Mandalorian?” Cody asked, confused.
“Is that not what you are?” Master Lene asked.
Cody’s brain stumbled as he tried to figure out how to answer that. How did she not know what he was? Furthermore, why wasn’t General Yoda correcting her? Why, he looked almost as interested as she did.
“My name is Cody,” Cody said, deciding to deal with that later. “And your padawans need you. One of them collapsed, and the other is very freaked out.”
That finally spurred them into action.
When Cody and the Jedi returned to the padawans, the taller one had woken up again, though he seemed pretty out of it. Obi-Wan was sitting across the hallway from them, the shorter padawan had his lightsaber out but not lit, and Obi-Wan looked haunted .
“Cody,” Obi-Wan acknowledged.
“General, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Cody said.
“I’m looking right at you, Cody,” Obi-Wan said automatically.
“Hilarious as ever, General,” Cody said dryly.
The shorter padawan snorted, and then looked annoyed that they could provoke such a reaction from him.
“Master Lene!” the shorter padawan called out. “Sy had a vision again, and we’re being haunted .”
“Haunted, you say?” Yoda asked.
The taller padawan—Sy, Cody supposed—gazed up dazedly at Obi-Wan. “Are you a ghost, too?” he mumbled.
“Kid, he’s the head Ghost,” Cody informed him.
The shorter padawan paled, and Obi-Wan gave him a flat look.
“Stop freaking out the younglings,” Obi-Wan said.
“He’s telling the truth, though, I can sense it!” the shorter padawan said. “You’re ghosts! ”
Obi-Wan sighed, and it suddenly clicked for Cody.
He grinned, realizing exactly what sort of ghost they thought he was. “Spoooooky, isn’t it?”
“Cody,” Obi-Wan said warningly. “Stop that.”
“Permission to haunt, General?”
“Permission denied, leave Yoda’s lineage alone.”
Cody grinned wider. “What about your lineage, General?”
Obi-Wan gave him the flattest, least amused look he’d ever seen.
Sy gave them a curious look. “Are you a ghost of... my lineage?” he asked.
“I am not,” Obi-Wan said. “Cody thinks he’s being funny. We are Ghosts, in that we’re a part of Ghost Company. We’re not dead spirits.”
“Sure, are you?” Yoda asked. “Sealed, this Temple has been, for hundreds of years.”
“Oh goodie,” Cody said. “More fun Jedi nerfshit.”
“So you are ghosts?” the short padawan asked.
“I dunno,” Cody said. “Did they win the war yet?”
“The war? ”
“Yeah, you know, the war against the Sith?”
Obi-Wan buried his face in his hands.
The other Jedi looked horrified.
“The War against the Sith was like a thousand years ago!” the short padawan said.
Cody...didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Congratulations on aging so well, Master Yoda,” he managed weakly.
“Know you, I do not,” Yoda said. “However, know me, you do?”
“We met, once or twice,” Cody said. “But I suppose after so many years, it would get blurry.”
Obi-Wan made the battle sign for silence , and Cody tilted his head.
“You’re not Tarre Vizsla, are you?” the short padawan asked.
“ Tarre Vizsla? ” Obi-Wan asked in disbelief.
“Who’s Tarre Vizsla?” Cody asked.
“Neither of us,” Obi-Wan said. “You may call me Ben.”
Cody gave him quite the side-eye for that. Yoda might not remember Cody, but surely he’d know Obi-Wan.
“Ben...General?” the shorter padawan asked.
Obi-Wan quirked a smile at that.
“I’m Cody,” Cody said.
“Do you have a last name?” Master Lene asked.
“Fett,” Obi-Wan said, clearly as revenge.
Cody scowled at Obi-Wan. The General couldn’t see it through his helmet, but he didn’t have to see it to know he was doing it.
“Is that not your last name?” Master Lene asked, and oops, Cody forgot he was in the presence of other Jedi.
“It...depends on how you look at things,” Cody admitted reluctantly. “I really only ever go by Cody.”
“Other ghosts, are there, within this Temple?” Yoda asked curiously.
“We’re searching for two others,” Obi-Wan said. “A master and a padawan.”
“Are we sure neither of these younglings are the right one?” Cody joked, trying to distract himself from the implications. “I think the fainty one is a bit tall, but the small one might be it. What’s your name, half-pint?”
“I’m Padawan Dooku, and I’m very much alive, thank you,” the little one said stiffly.
It felt like the floor dropped out from underneath Cody as everything clicked into place, and he squashed his feelings like a spider droid to keep from freaking out the other Jedi.
“Dooku, huh,” Cody managed, not quite at his usual level of professionalism. “That’s...quite a name.”
Yes, this was going to end up being some Jedi nerfshit indeed .