The third missile impacted the battlefield dead-center just before the line of tanks at the wall. The clones had already withdrawn from the area to either side after the first shell hit, but Ahsoka was streaking swiftly from cover to cover across the battlefield to reach Anakin. With forewarning through the Force, she tumbled under the smoldering husk of an assault walker just as the blast obliterated the ground before her. Hunks of rock and metal hailed down like meteors and struck the hood of her impromptu shelter. She cringed away at the fresh spray of sparks that roared into the small space she occupied, but otherwise remained unmoved until the tremors of heavy debris trickled away into the light tapping of non-lethal fragments. She slid back outside onto scorched earth. Her injured legs wobbled as she stood again, suddenly unfamiliar with the absence of vibration in the ground. The air was thick and black. Right when she would lift her hand to cough, her arm was caught in Anakin's sturdy, mechanical grip. She called his name then, recognizing his silhouette against the heavy fog, but not until he'd guided them both to safety behind the western cover with his clones did he give time to answer. Even then, he wouldn't look her way.
"You'd better have a good reason to be running around out there, Ahsoka," he scolded. He made busy watching the horizon for Sand Wraiths on the approach. Before explaining herself, Ahsoka took a moment to gather her bearings. Her vision was still blurry after being dragged through a hot strike zone at zero visibility. Perched above on a shelf in the rock they were clustered behind, she saw Rex matching Anakin's focus with a pair of macrobinoculars pointed south. The other clones crouched apprehensive with their weapons drawn tight. They all knew that if the next bomb came their way, mere rocks and downed walkers wouldn't shield them from anything. "I have a message from Master Obi-Wan," she reported concisely.
That got Anakin's attention. He turned to his Padawan at last, his face presenting a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. She took it as her signal to continue. "He wants you to order the troops into the tanks. He said that the missiles aren't armor-piercing, so that means we still have a chance at getting out of here!"
"Wait," Anakin countered immediately, "He thinks we can climb in this mess? Even if the missiles can't cut through the tanks, there's nothing to stop them from shooting us off the walls. Has he seen those craters?" He pointed in the direction of the canyon walls then, but the billowing smoke occluded his target. "No way. I'm not risking it. We have to stand and fight."
Ahsoka scoffed. In other circumstances she might have preferred to temper her displeasure with a sensible attempt at diplomacy, but with lives on the line and rocks in the air she found it considerably more difficult to debate with her Master in a calm fashion. "Oh come on!" she whined. "This is exactly what Obi-Wan said you would do. I want a safer way out too, but I don't think the injured are going to make it if we don't leave now."
"What, and you think they'll stand a better chance if they get blown off the cliffs?"
She flung her arms in frustration. "I- I don't know! Maybe they won't get blown off! Or maybe we can intercept their missiles with the tank cannons!" Her eyes met the sand in diminishing courage. "I just- I don't know. He didn't say what he wanted us to do in the tanks."
Anakin rubbed his face. He was beginning to appreciate not being invited outside in eight days. "Well why didn't you ask?! So far our options are 'defenseless escape,' or we take a stand and secure our escape."
"I couldn't ask! He's unconscious now! Or–" She stopped herself abruptly.
"–Or what?!" he challenged, daring her to say it, leaning forward aggressively into her space.
Ahsoka submitted. "Nothing! Ugh! I don't know why he said you would listen this time."
An unprecedented stillness washed over Anakin at those words. In the middle of missile bombardment and dying men, it was all too easy to forget that this whole scene might have been avoided if he'd let Obi-Wan's team catch the enemy as planned. If he'd simply stayed inside today, there might have been no explosion at the cliffs, no massacre of the Nikto, no stumble into the dark side… and maybe Obi-Wan would still be tractable somewhere in the Force. Why did things have to go so badly every time Anakin tried to keep one person safe?
"…Fine. We'll do it his way." He suddenly accepted, and climbed onto the boulder beside Rex. Ahsoka looked on in confusion while Anakin yelled out the orders to get to the tanks as quickly as possible, then hopped back down in front of her. "Happy?" he asked.
She responded with a warm smile. "Thank you, Master." As he turned to help the clones on their way, however, the second part of Ahsoka's message blared bright into her memory. Her victorious expression turned sullen. "Uh- Actually, Master?" She looked away when Anakin looked back. This was definitely going to be the hardest mission this week, in spite of everything. "There was, um, something else, that Master Obi-Wan wanted me to tell you."
A second round of that same almost-glare of anticipation from Anakin prompted her to continue.
"He said…" She started gently, then deflated in a grand exhale. There was no kinder way to tell him. "He said you're now under Cody's authority."
It took Anakin a moment to process. Ahsoka met his increasingly incredulous expression with false confidence, feeling terribly out-of-place delivering the news as his Padawan. Rex and a number of other clones nearby peered over slowly from their business escorting others to the tanks. For three torturous seconds, nobody spoke. And then Anakin snapped.
"WHAT?!" he thundered shrilly. "Is he out of his MIND?! I'm being DEMOTED?! He can't DO that!" Both Ahsoka and Rex shrank away from his vehement outrage.
"I- I don't think he said you're being demoted… Just…" She struggled to find any euphemism.
"WHERE. IS HE," Anakin demanded, practically quaking with rage.
In a flash of protectiveness, her bravery was restored and she stood up straighter. "Unconscious, Master, like I already told you. Just- Listen. I don't know what in the Force happened before I got here, but if Master Obi-Wan thought it was important enough to put Cody in charge while he's about to pass out and hacking up blood, I say we should just do what he says. You can talk to him later." I hope, she didn't add.
Anakin said nothing more and stormed off in a whirlwind of fuming injustice. The whole collection of foul emotions stewing in the Force seemed to gather around him as he strode, leaving Ahsoka to wonder in earnest what it was that could have caused such a gruesome rift here before she arrived. Without her sensing it, Rex moved cautiously to stand beside her.
"Commander Tano," he addressed formally, stirring her from her worry.
"Oh– Captain. I- sorry, about that. I probably could've broken the news a little more… Nicely."
"It's never easy to tell a man when he's lost rank. You didn't back down. That's all you were ordered to do."
Ahsoka forced another smile. "Thanks, Rex."
"But ah, what I really wanted to ask, Commander…" he faltered, "Does that put the 501st under Cody, now? I'm pleased to serve the 212th, sir, but uh…"
Her exasperation flowed into her posture and out through her voice. "I don't know. Force, I just don't know. I don't understand any of this. I'm just the messenger here and General Kenobi is…" She trailed off. Rex's palm clapped her shoulder.
"He's going to be fine, sir. If anyone can survive this wreck, it's General Kenobi." With an optimistic nod, he removed his hand. The objective would have to be completed operating under an established chain of command or not. "Now go tell Cody 'bout his promotion. Let's get this show on the road."
Springing along on his rifle-crutch, Cody was found directing the clones to enter the tanks from behind, filing in from near to the canyon wall. The last missile hit the field over five minutes ago, meaning the next one was already overdue – if the rate of the previous three explosions could be trusted. When Ahsoka reported his newly assigned subordinate, he seemed to stop moving altogether. "…I see," was all he could think to reply with, suddenly swamped in responsibility, as well as one other thought: "Pardon my asking, Commander Tano. But if the General's transferred over his command… Does that mean…?"
Ahsoka couldn't answer, so she communicated her grief with the slump in her shoulders.
"I… Suppose it doesn't matter," he lied. It mattered to Cody. It mattered a lot. "Right. Well let's finish loading up these tanks and let's get moving. We'll climb our way up in a tight formation to minimize the chance of a ballistic strike between tanks. If they can only hit the walls from ahead and behind, we might stand a chance at holding on."
"Yes, sir," acknowledged Ahsoka without much feeling.
"I want you and General Skywalker to take one of the tanks in the middle. That's where I'm sending the wounded, with you. If a strike comes in from the sides, you should be safest between our flanks."
"Understood," she repeated. The fourth missile stole the ground out from beneath their feet when it impacted a measly ten meters off. Prior alert from Rex gave them all invaluable time to flatten against the cliffs behind the AT-TEs, but the proximity of the blast made the aftershock inescapable. Those inside the tanks already were efficiently drenched in a downpour of displaced sand that surged through the open hatch. Hastening back upright on a decommissioned leg, Cody reestablished order and sent Ahsoka to inspect the ravaged field for stragglers before the beginning of the ascent.