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Cody blinks his eyes open and grabs blindly for his comm through the haze of sleep.
"Sir." Knives says, sounding shaken. Cody's brain immediately jumps alert. Something is very wrong. "I think you should come to the galley."
Cody throws on his armour, still tightening the last few straps as he leaves his quarters, and strides purposefully into the depths of his ship.
Knives is standing by the prep counter, cleaver in hand, watching ...a Sith root around in the cupboards.
Cody resists the vague urge to pinch himself. He knows full well he's awake. He narrows his eyes at the intruder.
Black robes, knee high boots, lightsaber on the sash of his belt, thick ginger hair, yep, that's a Sith. The pretty, nuisance Sith.
And not one of his di'kut brothers dressing up.
The pretty Sith. In the Negotiator. In the middle of the night cycle.
Knives is very much still alive, and so is Cody, so the Sith probably isn't going to go on an immediate killing spree.
Cody's going to have to work out how in the kriffing sith hells he got onboard without anyone knowing. If the Sith wasn't happily playing games with them, he could have eliminated the entire 212th already.
The Sith tuts in annoyance, closes the cupboard he's investigating, and opens the next.
Cody folds his arms and leans back against the counter next to Knives. He's perfectly happy to play the Sith's games if it stops his brothers getting killed. And Cody's yet to meet a game he can't win.
"I'm sure we had the exterminators in last time we had leave." He murmurs to Knives.
"I believe you." The Sith says, head all the way inside the cupboard. "This is an exceptionally clean kitchen. Very sanitary."
Knives raises an eyebrow.
"I would expect no less, of course." The Sith continues, voice muffled. "Ah hah!" He emerges from the cupboard, clutching a mixing bowl like a prize.
Cody is reasonably sure that breaking onto GAR ships and stealing mixing bowls is not typical Sith behaviour. Up until this point, he'd been absolutely sure that the odd piece of kitchen equipment that had mysteriously gone missing had ended up in the still that definitely doesn't exist in engineering. Or the cupboard informally named 'the dying cupboard' by those who thought they had a sense of humour, where artistically inclined vode experimented with colouring fabric and yarn and anything else they could get their hands on. Often themselves or each other. Sometimes even deliberately.
The Sith places the mixing bowl down on the counter, and turns to smile at Cody.
"Hello there, Commander." The Sith says, happily casual, as if they're acquaintances who have just bumped into each other while on leave, rather than mortal enemies meeting at shebs o'clock in the morning in the galley of somewhere supposedly impenetrable. Somewhere that's supposed to be safe.
Then the Sith turns and opens another cupboard.
Beside Cody, Knives watches stoically as his perfectly organised shelves are rummaged through.
"Why are you here?" Cody asks outright. He'd actually had time to sleep for once, and now he was being disturbed by a very polite feral Sith ransacking his kitchens. If said Sith wasn't about to murder them all in their bunks, then Cody was three steps away from just going back to bed. Unfortunately the first of these steps was to deal with the damned Sith. He didn't want the kitchen shinies waking up for the start of shift and causing a ruckus when they found an unexpected Sith in the galley.
"Well, I'm rather afraid I'm baking." The Sith says over his shoulder with a charming little smile.
Cody sighs and heads over to the water boiler. Looks like he's not getting back to bed any time soon. He pours himself a mug of caf, and glances at Knives, who indicates the still steaming mug at his elbow.
"Caf?" Cody offers.
"Oh!" The Sith seems genuinely surprised, before covering it with flirty pleasure. "I'll take tea if you have any?"
"Third tin on the left." Knives tells him, not taking his eyes off the Sith.
"You haven't called your General." The Sith observes, as he cracks eggs into the bowl. It isn't a question, so Cody remains quiet. "A Sith, sneaking onto your ship in the middle of the night cycle, one would have thought that's the sort of thing a dutiful Commander would make their General aware of." The Sith's tone is casually observant and mildly amused.
"Would you like me to?" Cody asks. He knows the answer. If the Sith had wanted General Jinn to know he was there, he wouldn't be engaging in this much subterfuge. No, it's Cody he wanted to talk to.
"Merely curious." The Sith says with a knowing little smile. As if he knows exactly what Cody is thinking. Which he might. Cody has no idea if or how Sith force-osik differs from Jedi force-osik.
"You haven't even attempted to kill me." The Sith says with the hint of a playful whine in his voice, carefully pouring sugar into the bowl. "Really Commander," he says glancing at him over his shoulder and from under his lashes. "One might begin to wonder where your loyalties lie."
Cody leans back in his chair and takes a sip of his caf.
"Is that something you have a lot of experience with?" He asks. "Doubting loyalties?"
He watches the Sith pause. He knows where Cody's going with this. Good.
"Because," he starts slowly, "one might begin to wonder where your loyalties lie. How many battlefields have we faced each other across? How many after action reports have I read? How many injury lists? Casualty reports?" Cody takes another sip of caf. "Did you know something interesting?" He asks the Sith's frozen back. "There are surprisingly few reports of lightsaber injuries after those battles. In fact, I'm not sure I recall reading a single one."
The Sith puts down the mixing spoon he's holding and turns to face him, leaning back against the counter.
"How really very fascinating, Commander."
"You're here because you want something from us." Cody says, meeting golden eyes.
"Yes." The Sith agrees. "But I'm afraid even I can't get something for nothing. I've brought information to trade. Information that I think you really would like to know, Commander."
Cody tilts his head. He'd assumed the Sith would attempt to claim a favour in return for not killing them. But this is something more.
"Would you mind comming a medic for me, my dear?" There's something unusually serious in his tone.
"What." Artery snaps when he picks up his com.
"Might need an off the books favour." Cody tells him.
"What have you done now?" Artery grumbles, suspicious.
The Sith chuckles, low and warm.
"Cody." Artery warns.
"Do you have the equipment to do a level five atomic brain scan?" The Sith asks, leaning over Cody's shoulder. Right in his personal space. "On any of your brothers, doesn't matter which."
Artery hums, full of suspicion, and cuts the com.
"Eloquent fellow." The Sith observes happily as he steps back, amusement dancing in his eyes.
Cody just raises his eyebrows, and makes a show of checking his chrono.
"It's 3am." He tells the Sith flatly. Who just smiles angelically at him. Entirely unrepentant. And then turns and starts rolling whatever he's been mixing into small balls and placing them on a tray.
The Sith's baking is in the oven and filling the room with incredibly delicious smells when Artery sends a report through.
It details the extraction of an unknown bio chip from Staple's brain, and has an attached list of orders Dicer had managed to slice from it. All in under twenty minutes. There's a reason the 212th are feared.
"So it's the Chancellor then." Cody says, resigned. That actually explains a lot.
The Sith turns to him with a wry smile, and something that looks very like interest, satisfaction and delight lurking in his eyes.
"I do so love competence, my dear Commander."
That was his angle then. Sith fought each other all the time apparently. And if this one gained the loyalty of an army, an army designed to kill Sith and protect the republic, their goals would align. And without the control chips in their brains, the pretty Sith would have a difficult time commanding them once the other Sith were dead.
"What happens after?" Cody asks, leaning back in his chair.
The Sith strokes his beard.
"You know, I really hadn't thought that far ahead."
Cody raises an extremely sceptical eyebrow, and the Sith pretends to stroke his beard again to hide a smile.
"I suspect I'll just have to hope that you won't kill me, Commander. Although I'm happy to promise you that Galaxy wide domination really isn't my thing." He eyes Cody with a sly little smirk, amusement glittering in his eyes. "Any domination at all, actually."
Cody resists the urge to roll his eyes.
"As you say, Sir."
The Sith's com beeps as a timer goes off, and he slides the trays out of the oven.
"Come to the dark side, Commander." The Sith says with a smile, setting a plate down on the table in front of Cody. They really do smell divine. "We have cookies."
Cody eyes the plate.
"Only if you make enough for everyone."
The Sith smiles at him, slow and pleased.
"Several million cookies it is then. Although it might take me a while."
Cody just shrugs.
"It'll take a while to get the brain chips out."
The Sith's smile softens.
"Well, my dear, I should probably get going. But I must say, I really do look forward to working with you." He's giving them time to get the chips out, to remove the threat, before he gives them orders. That's a level of consideration the General said Sith were incapable of. The Sith flashes him a grin. "Keep me updated, won't you Sunshine."