For the remainder of the first day at the outpost, the clones bustled along busily as though nothing had happened to dampen their moods. It was through his management and decisive re-ordering that Cody had successfully instilled the air of work to be done, thereby preventing the troops from dwelling too long on the frankly dismal state of the mission so far: the Jedi were down, the perimeter was left undefended, and no one was any closer to understanding the enemy's motives. Morale, along with every other facet of the operation, was teetering on a single clone's ability to keep everything afloat. But if all continued going well, not a man would pause to consider how close to failure they actually were. Cody counted himself lucky that nobody thought to ask him if General Kenobi was still alive; he'd purposefully excluded any mention of that ambiguity through the duration of his speech. Even so, he did request periodic updates from the chief medical officer. Cody next set about verifying the identities and purposes of the unexpected guests: Liiqua explained for both of them that she and Majum were informants brought in from Vinnesta, by leave of Ahsoka, with intent to aid her mission. They were extensively searched and eventually cleared to take quarters inside the tower until Ahsoka was well enough to confirm or deny their statement. It did little good for Cody's growing headache that they both argued against the relinquishment of their weaponry.
The first set of medical reports came in while he was drawing up ideas for a second camp of clones to be stationed to the west. He didn't want to read them. For all his maturity demonstrated earlier, he so intensely wanted to leave those ominous messages undisturbed, as if any ill news contained within would only become real the instant he laid eyes on them. And what if the file titled 'Kenobi' was nothing more than a series of numbers depicting his date and time of death? What then? It wouldn't make a karking difference, Cody hammered into his mind. But it was no use. Lacking the focus to carry on, he abandoned the holomap spread wide in front of him and sat in the folding chair nearby. Such was his position when he was located at last by Rex and three clones of the 212th.
"Told'ya he'd be in there," commented Switch with an arm held in front.
"Thanks," responded Rex, "Now how's about giving us a moment of privacy?"
"Aye Captain," Switch granted in return, leading the other two men down the hall with a lazy overhead sweep of his arm.
Rex didn't much appreciate the informal demeanor, nor the old joke, but he elected not to add to Cody's problems by tacking on one less-than-ideal attitude of a subordinate. He leaned inside the open door of the hangar's dusty office.
"Commander. Permission to enter?"
Cody removed the hand supporting the weight of his head and looked back in Rex's direction. "At ease," he said with a sigh. Rex stepped up behind him.
"I take it you read the news," he prompted. Cody's palm found his face once more.
"Stars, Rex, don't ever start a conversation that way."
Rex muffled a laugh at his blatant exasperation. This was really not the time to be so cruel. "All right, all right. But hey, it could've turned out worse."
"Just quit with the decorations and tell me what you have to say," Cody grumbled at his optimism.
"I'm talking about the medical reports," he stated. "I know you're getting 'em too."
"And?" Cody still refused to put forth the effort required to get up and turn his chair around.
"And… You haven't read them, have you," Rex pieced together at last.
"It wouldn't make a lick'a difference if I did, now would it?"
Rex lowered the datapad in hand and set it gently upon the table. Given the terrific display of leadership not long ago, it was easy to forget that sitting here was a man who'd just spent eight days being ambushed in the desert. Rex plucked a chair where it laid against the wall and propped it open with a squeak in front of Cody. He sat. The hole in his friend's thigh was still there.
"…Why don't you take a minute to go get yourself cleaned up," he suggested more quietly.
Cody was unenthused. He fought with Rex in a soundless battle of wills, staring endlessly until he forfeited with the question he'd hitherto been too proud to ask.
"Kenobi's dead, isn't he." His face was empty.
Rex shifted his weight back and folded his arms in front. "Not yet," he responded with hesitation. "Couple'a leaks in the brain, believe it or not. Facilities here might not be able to handle it."
"Then we'll call for a transfer," Cody retorted immediately, yet calmly.
"That's an option. ...If you wanna risk driving 'im fifty klicks to the landing site. You know better than I do what happens to aircraft around these parts."
More talk of missiles was off the menu for sure.
"So what, it's up to chance?"
"Looks like it to me. General Skywalker's doing something with the Force to help him along, I guess. We'll recruit Commander Tano as well as soon as she's up. I mean, assuming it's the sort of thing you can just pile more muscle on to. She'll be the judge of that, 'course."
Cody turned his gaze down in contemplation. "And how about the men?"
"Lost a few on the ride up. Everyone who made it here has been stabilized."
"I see. All things considered that's not a bad outcome."
"Everyone except one, you know," Rex continued mysteriously. Cody never enjoyed his penchant for the dramatic. "…That's you, Commander."
"Me?" Cody startled in earnest confusion. "What are you–"
Rex stretched out a leg and batted his new commanding officer's knee with his right foot. Cody vaulted forward on cue and gripped his punctured thigh with both hands. "Dammit Rex!" he snarled in pain.
"Get it fixed, Cody. You want to tell me this isn't how General Kenobi started out?" Somewhere in the past five minutes any sentiment of difference in rank dissolved between them.
"There's a few things I want to tell you, that's for bloody sure."
Rex cackled as he stood from his chair. "You can tell me on the operating table. C'mon. If we go now, I'll make sure they don't drug ya too bad." He held out his hand. Cody grimaced, but took it nonetheless.
On the second day at the outpost, Ahsoka woke and was discharged with matching stitches on bandaged legs. During her evaluation, she gathered that Anakin was closed off in Obi-Wan's room, bound in a trance and unresponsive since yesterday evening. On her way to report for the summons from Rex, she was greeted heartily at the hangar by a whole slew of clones who most definitely seemed way too energetic for what she recalled as her last waking memory out in the field. They poured onto her their thanks and congratulations, leaving Ahsoka feeling almost like they'd all won some kind of victory, rather than having barely survived a hard and uncertain escape. Any semblance of the feeling was neatly swept aside when she piped up and asked to see Cody. The clones fell quiet then – nervous, even. Kix was the first to step up and explain.
"Right, ah, about Commander Cody," he fumbled. "He's doing fine, not to cause any worry, but you might… Not… Well, let's just say I'm fairly sure he hasn't slept in a few days."
Feeling the description was inadequate, Gander joined in from the side. "Made me re-catalog the entire fragging outpost's armory just for askin' an update on the General. Just– Don't talk to 'im right now, Commander Tano. If you know what's best."
True to their words, on Ahsoka's path toward locating Rex, she discovered Cody among the crowded hangar. He leered about piercingly upon his crutch – a real one this time, to her approval – and monitored everyone's work with unwavering scrutiny. She wondered how Gander brought up the courage to approach him at all. Rex was fast to guide her away from his laser-like line of sight. "Good thing I found you when I did," he reassured. The air leading up to the room containing Obi-Wan and Anakin was hostile and dark, but Ahsoka said nothing of it, knowing the feeling was imperceptible to anyone but herself.
"This is it," Rex informed her at the entryway.
"…Okay." she accepted with bravery.
Inside the unlit hospital room, Anakin sat with his back turned, hunched in a chair beside Obi-Wan's bed. His frame occluded much of their elder Master's condition, and instinct warned her to walk forward with caution. Reaching the forefront of the forbidding scene, she found Anakin's eyes were half-lidded and unblinking. Like Obi-Wan before, he was entirely absent in the Force. Obi-Wan, lying still with his face in Anakin's direction, was breathing artificially through the assistance of a complex array of small tubes. He wouldn't react at her touch. A surge of anger coursed through Ahsoka then, that neither of them had bothered to teach her the basics of Force healing. It wasn't her natural inclination, she admitted, nor was it theirs, but still it was difficult to ignore the importance of such an ability while the two people most dear to her were so obviously teasing the line between life and death. These things withstanding, she made herself comfortable at the foot of the bed. She stretched thin branches of herself into the Force on bended knees, waiting restlessly for the first thing their fingers would hit. Only a moment later, it felt as though an invisible shield of transparisteel developed within the Force and arrested her probing at once. The profane amalgamation of presences before her was unlike anything she had experienced. Obi-Wan was missing. Anakin was missing, too. But in the bond woven between them, a new sort of energy was writhing, contorted over itself and positively pulsing with all the elements of either half. This was something well beyond the books she might ever have been shown. When she tried to pry into their strangled, knotted space again, she was completely and abruptly repulsed. Ahsoka resigned from meditation. She slipped away from her place on the bed, closed Anakin's eyes with the Force, and settled Obi-Wan's arms more comfortably upon his chest.
"Commander Tano," Rex acknowledged her exit from the room in surprise. "How's everything look?"
She let the door slide closed on its own before speaking. "There's nothing I can do, Captain. I wish I could've… I mean, if I was able to start from the beginning with Master Anakin… But by now he's just way too… It- it doesn't matter." She waved her hands to eliminate her rambling. "I'm sorry I can't do anything more."
"It's not a problem," Rex consoled through her feelings of inadequacy, "Those are the two best men we have in the army; so long as they're willing to work for it, I know they'll come back to us in one piece."
