Chapter Text
Obi-Wan stepped inside his apartment with a little sigh of relief. It had been six months since the Armistice, but many matters were still underway and today’s Council meeting had been long and draining.
Cody was sitting laid-back on the couch with one leg folded over his knee. A holo of one of his vod in armor was projected from the low table. In contrast, Cody was wearing civvies: a white T-shirt with an orange 212th logo (a present from Tsix to the whole battalion) and brown pants tucked into military boots.
The demilitarization was underway, and Cody had been officially discharged three weeks ago with the rest of the 212th. They had thus lost their bunks in the barracks, and Obi-Wan had offered Cody to stay with him until he chose to leave for Lothal like the rest of the men.
Obi-Wan smiled at his friend distractedly and went to the kitchen for some tea.
“Obi-Wan.”
“Yes, dear?”
“Fox needs some advice, if you have a minute.”
“Of course. Just a moment, if you please,” he asked as he waited for the water to boil and prepared his cup. “What is it about?”
“Politics,” Cody sighed.
Obi-Wan chuckled. “I should have guessed.”
“Did you know that Tarkin has been appointed General of Coruscant’s Security?”
“Wilhuff Tarkin?” In his surprise, Obi-Wan nearly burnt himself pouring hot water in his cup and hissed a curse under his breath.
“Well, that settles it. If the General curses, it’s bad,” Fox commented.
Rolling his eyes, Obi-Wan wiped the mess and grabbed his cup to settle beside Cody. “Now, it doesn't have to be. Tarkin’s a quite competent man.”
“He just dressed down Fox in front of a room full of Senators because one of his men sneezed during a speech,” Cody explained with a raised eyebrow.
Obi-Wan carefully put down his cup on a coaster and straightened with pinched lips. “He also happens to be a despicable human being.”
Cody turned to Fox with a shrug. “As I said, Master Kenobi still hasn’t swallowed Tarkin’s involvement in Ahsoka Tano’s trial.”
“He was like a starved gundark chasing after a piece of meat,” Obi-Wan pointed out with a face of distaste.
“I didn’t say you were wrong.”
“I wanted to know if there was something we could do, Sir,” Fox said. “It’s not as much about me — I have perfected the art of taking a lecture without listening since Kamino — as it is about the men. Tarkin has only been in charge for three days, and he has already done two surprise inspections and given an official reprimand to twenty-seven men. That has to be a record.”
Obi-Wan winced and rubbed his beard. “That’s quite excessive, even for him…”
“You think he’s planning something?” Cody asked, following his thoughts.
“No doubt.”
“Can we reach out to the Chancellor, Sir?”
“I’m afraid it would be pointless, Fox. The Chancellor doesn’t appoint the security staff, that would be Coruscant's Governor which — if my memory serves me well — was appointed by Palpatine three years ago.”
“And Mon Mothma can’t do anything about it?”
“Not without a good reason, that would be an abuse of power. The Governor is appointed for five years. This means she’ll be able to change for someone better in a year or so, but in the meantime, she can’t involve herself in his decisions without cause.”
Fox sighed. “Well, here goes that thought…”
Obi-Wan leaned back and met Cody’s eyes who raised an eyebrow at him to question the pensive expression he recognized. “I may know what Tarkin’s trying to do. As you know, the Coruscant Guard is the last part of the GAR planned for demilitarization. The paperwork hasn’t started yet. With each discharge, troopers are given a severance pay calculated based on their military record, the better the record, the better the pay…”
Cody had had the highest severance pay of the whole army. The accountant in charge of his paperwork had done a double-take at it and then gaped at him when asked to donate it in its entirety to the GAR Solidarity Pension.
“Are you suggesting he’s trying to swindle my men of their severance pay?” Fox asked sharply, stiffening in outrage.
Obi-Wan scratched his beard thoughtfully. “It sounds like it, but it seems quite petty and small-minded. He’s an intelligent man, I’m sure he has something more complex in mind...”
“Leverage? Blackmail?” Cody suggested.
“Possibly.”
Fox grunted and crossed his arms before he looked to the side at someone out of range. “Again? You’ve got to be karking kidding me! … Vod, Master Kenobi, I have to go. Tarkin’s starting his third kriffing inspection.”
“Good luck, Commander. Keep us posted.”
The communication ended.
Obi-Wan reached for his tea with a sigh. “Men like Tarkin are a pain in the neck.”
Cody hummed in approval and reached for him, resting a hand between his shoulder blades and rubbing when the contact wasn’t rejected. He pressed at the knots he could find. When Obi-Wan sighed in relief, Cody adjusted both of their positions so he could give him a proper massage.
They appreciated the peace in companionable silence.
oOo
Two days later, Obi-Wan was meditating in front of the window letting in the sunset light when Cody took a communication.
“Vod,” Fox greeted him with a nod. “Is Master Kenobi available?”
Cody glanced to the side to see the Jedi stir. “He is now. What’s new?”
“Morale went down like a shot. Dissent is rising. There are rumors of men wanting to quit. And if Tarkin appears one more time for a surprise inspection, I’ll end up kriffing court-martialed.”
Cody stood in front of his brother, sympathetic, but watched his Jedi rise with effortless grace and calm. Obi-Wan stepped to the holoprojector so he could be seen, his shoulder brushing Cody’s.
“There is no doubt that this is Tarkin’s intent. He’s an experienced leader, he knows how to handle his men and get what he wants from them. Whether he wishes to push you to the fault or discredit you, you’ll pay the price of his deviousness.”
“What option do we have, Sir?”
Obi-Wan rubbed the underside of his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t see many. Two, if you think you can last until your discharge—”
“No kriffing way, Sir. Five days. Five days and I’m ready for murder.”
“His ability to undo years of your legendary resilience learned in the halls of the Senate is remarkable," Obi-Wan commented with dry humor.
“He’s laying into my men, Sir! They’re good kriffing men. They’re doing their job, and they’re doing it well! But he comes, insults them, devaluates them… just because they didn’t fight on the front lines doesn’t mean they aren’t good soldiers!”
The outburst surprised Obi-Wan, but Cody leaned forward and said firmly:
“Vod. Breathe.”
Fox looked away and took a moment to calm down. “Apologies, Sir.”
“Not at all, Fox. You’re absolutely right,” Obi-Wan replied softly. “ I have an idea to turn the tables on Tarkin, but you might not like it…”
“Tell me.”
oOo
A week later, Mon Mothma was working in her office when her assistant stepped inside with quick steps indicating an emergency. The Chancellor tilted her head up, questioning.
“It’s the Guard, your Excellency…”
“The Guard?”
“They… they all resigned, your Excellency.”
Taken aback, Mon Mothma put down her datapad. “All of them?”
“All of the clones, your Excellency. They’re in the entrance and getting ready to leave.”
The clones made up more than half of the Coruscant Guard and a third of the Senate Guard. Even when accounting for a reduction of the numbers in peacetime, replacing them in time for the demilitarization was a difficult challenge and the reason why they were planned to leave last. Mon had been hoping to convince some of them to enroll in the Guard once they were discharged, especially Commander Fox, for a better transition.
If they left now… and they could, Force, they could! Due to the demilitarization process, all clones could resign with only one week of notice given to their immediate superior officer, which happened to be Commander Fox (or, in his case, General Tarkin).
Mon Mothma stood up and power walked to the Main Hall, noticing as she did that the news had already gone around and many Senators or Senate workers were coming down to see the event by themselves.
As she reached the long stairs leading to the Main Hall, she found it packed with clones standing in perfect rows. At the bottom of the stairs, General Tarkin was talking animatedly with Commander Fox.
“—gave me your resignation, not theirs!”
“With all due respect, Sir, I followed demilitarization regulations which state that the approval of only one superior officer of High Rank was necessary. I figured you wouldn’t want to be bothered about a few thousand resignations.”
“You figured?! This is a dereliction of duty, Commander! You’re leaving the Senate defenseless!”
“As you told us multiple times, Sir,” Fox replied pointedly and curtly, “we have made our time and outlasted our usefulness. We wouldn’t want to be in the way of the friends you have ready to replace us…”
Mon Mothma (and all the eavesdroppers gathered) had heard enough. She stepped up to the edge of the stairs and called, loud and clear: “General Tarkin.”
The officers paused and looked up at her.
“Your Excellency—”
“To my office, immediately,” Mon Mothma demanded with eyes of steel and a face of marble.
Tarkin bowed, hiding his displeasure until he heard the polite way she asked for Fox, then he couldn’t hold back a twitch of anger.
“Commander Fox, if you please.”
Rumors would later circulate stating that the Chancellor had never been seen angrier and that she could be heard shouting at Tarkin from the hallway, demanding to know why he’d have accepted Commander Fox’s resignation in the first place without letting her know.
General Tarkin was fired within the day.
The Governor of Coruscant was forced to resign within a week.
Commander Fox and the clones of the Guard agreed to cancel their resignation (which, for some fortunate bureaucratic reason, hadn’t been validated yet) until their official discharge.
Very few of them enrolled again afterward.
oOo
Obi-Wan looked through his present with delighted surprise. “That’s so thoughtful, Fox. You shouldn’t have.”
“Sir, we owe you far more than that. Especially me. I’m pretty sure Tarkin was gunning for my head from the start,” Fox commented. "The HR director was also very clear that she was only helping us due to your call." Seeing the Jedi's delight at the gift, Fox raised an eyebrow to Cody and signed a "thanks for the tip.”
Cody watched his Jedi beam at the assortment of teas and shrugged a “that was easy” before waving a “go on now that he’s distracted.”
“Sir, I was wondering…”
“Yes?”
“What are the requirements to become a Temple Guard, Sir?”
Pulled out of his discovery of new teas he hadn’t tried yet, Obi-Wan looked up and blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Now that you have two main temples, we figured you might want to recruit. I have a few hundred suggestions, for your consideration...”
“Oh, dear…”
Thus, the Negotiator’s next mission was to convince the Council to change hundred of years of tradition to let non-Jedi in the Temple Guard…
It worked, of course.