If this battle didn't kill them both, so help him, he was going to kill Ahsoka himself.

She was so similar to him, too similar sometimes, and it drove him crazy. She questioned everything, talked back to him constantly whether she meant to be petulant or not, and chose not to listen to half of his orders. Today was no different.

"Ahsoka!" he yelled as he spun and cut a droid in half. He could barely make out the top of her head as she plowed on ahead through the battlefield, his vision obscured by the pouring rain that was bucketing the planet at the moment. The mud was treacherous and the air frigid. Many of the clones were slipping and having trouble aiming. It was definitely not what he'd planned—it was a slight disaster. She was supposed to stay right next to him, as he had very clearly stated, but per the usual she had come up with her own ideas.

"Master, let me go on ahead!" she'd shouted over the storm. "I can make it into the base!"

"Not an option, Snips," he said sharply as he deflected a blaster shot. "Splitting up in conditions like this is a bad idea. Plus, we planted—"

"No, it isn't! What choice do we have? They won't notice!" And with that, she'd pushed past a few clones and run off.

"Ahsoka, wait!" Gritting his teeth in frustration, Anakin pushed back his concern and attempted to control his anger. "Ahsoka!" he shouted again, but if she heard him she didn't acknowledge it. They weren't overrun, yet, but Separatist base under siege was more heavily armed than they'd anticipated. The two Jedi and the clones were locked in heavy combat, the fight teetering in between the armies—one wrong move could shift the advantage to the other side in an instant. He had no choice but to stay where he was and assist the clones in their slow march forwards, hoping to the Force that Ahsoka didn't get shot down. The heavy artillery raining down from the fortress was taking out a significant number of clones and making the advance much harder. He didn't know quite what she had in mind, but he could only hope she didn't go inside. She had no idea.

Ahsoka darted in between droids, racing through the battle as adrenaline rushed through her. She lived for the feeling of fighting, of gambling her life in front of a bunch of stupid tinnies. I can do this. Get inside, take out the artillery. Save a lot of lives.

Staying locked in a slow-moving formation just wasn't the best option. She hadn't had time to convince Anakin, so she had made the choice herself. She could hear her Master shouting at her to come back, and she knew he was going to be mad, but that would have to be dealt with later. He would get over it once she saved the day. She knew she could do it.

The wind blew the rain down in freezing sheets that momentarily blinded her every once in a while. A few droids, desperate to not be cut down even after Ahsoka slashed their weapons, lunged at her and got lucky when they scratched skin or tore clothing. She couldn't tell what was blood or what was just the rain, but she pressed on. She had to prove she could do these things herself and make the right call. She'd be the hero of the day.

Ahsoka was nearing the fortress, finally, and it loomed up in front of her like a titan. She scanned the architecture and zeroed in on where the heavy fire was coming from—she'd have to do some climbing.

A blaster shot missed her head by less than half an inch and she quickly cut down the droids around her. "Troopers! Cover me!"

It wasn't exactly a secret that she wasn't supposed to be up here, that she'd ditched her master, but the clones knew it was an order and accepted without question. A nervous feeling twisted in her gut, knowing that if they got hurt it would be on her.

I can't fail now.

Sprinting forward, she leaped up onto the face of the citadel and began making her ascent, the rugged building acting like a rock face with small ledges to grip. Fortunately she'd always been small and lithe, so fitting in these spaces and ducking for cover was easier than if Anakin or one of the troopers was doing it. Most of the Separatist troops hadn't noticed her yet, decreasing her chance of being shot and falling dead to the ground. A unfortunate way to die.

Heights had never really bothered Ahsoka—her first mission with Anakin had dissipated any fears she might have—but the rain made the surface slick and visibility pretty shitty. Not that she would use that language around any Jedi, but maybe a clone. Rex typically chuckled whenever she swore.

"You'd be laughing a lot if you could hear me now," Ahsoka muttered, followed by a string of expletives as her foot slipped. Clinging for dear life, she slammed into the wall and struggled to right herself. Almost there.

She moved up again before swinging up to the first platform, where a supertank that reminded her too much of the one she'd nearly died in on Geonosis sat, shooting down clones. She jumped on top and pried the cap open before dropping inside and eliminating the comically stupid battle droids, who shrieked in terror. Turning the guns on the Separatists, she took out several droids and cannons before moving on to the other tanks.

Ahsoka had taken out half a dozen tanks before she stopped to check on the battle progress. The winning side was beginning to shift to the Republic, and she could see Anakin's lightsaber slashing through the enemy. The remaining artillery was too high for her to climb up to and out of her reach—she'd have to get inside somehow. Ahsoka turned and forced her lightsaber into the wall, cutting a slow circle. Maybe she could find a generator or access to the weaponry to shut it down. Her comm beeped annoyingly, but she ignored it as she worked on her entry point.

Finally she ducked into an empty hallway, surprised to see most of the level empty. Where was everyone? Surely there were even more troops inside. She crept along the hallway, listening intently for electronic noise that would mean a control room.

This really wasn't that hard. Why was Anakin so against this again?

A deep rumble echoed from inside the building, growing closer. The floor beneath Ahsoka's feet trembled.

Oh.

Maybe because there were bombs inside.

"Shit."

Ahsoka turned around so fast she nearly slipped, breaking into a sprint the way she'd came. So that was what he had been trying to tell her. Why didn't he just tell her that plan in the first place? Granted, it was kind of her fault for going against orders, but she didn't know.

Her heart was beating rapidly as she stumbled to the laser-carved hole. Thirty feet, twenty feet, ten—

Another explosion, closer this time, rocked the foundation and threw Ahsoka to the ground. Yelling out in a mix of pain and swears, she scrambled to her feet and narrowly missed a chunk of falling ceiling. She remembered Obi-Wan saying to her once that when a building falls, it falls fast. There was probably some important moral Jedi lesson attached to that, but her brain couldn't find it at the moment because it was trying to process her imminent death.

Skyguy's going to kill me.

She made it out the door and to the ledge, but just as she was calculating how far the jump would be because she knew she had nowhere near enough time to climb back down, the shit really hit the fan.

The building exploded in grand-finale style, like the fireworks they released on important Senator's birthdays. Ahsoka half-jumped, half was catapulted into the air and thrown to the ground, debris raining down. It wasn't like little pieces of wood, either—they were chunks of cement and steel weighing thousands of pounds. She was inches away from being flattened.

Somehow she landed without breaking every bone in her body—maybe it wasn't as high as she thought. It definitely hurt and it took all her effort keep stumbling forward, but at least she was alive. The rain came down harder than ever, and she was shivering violently. Her whole body ached and stung.

The explosions stopped, and Ahsoka noted smugly that the debris had crushed most of the Seperatist army and the bombs had gutted the fortress. The dust mixed with the rain and she struggled to see, searching for Anakin. There was a good chance he'd been hurt or thought she was dead. But all she saw were clones…where was he? Had he gotten hurt trying to get her to come back?

"Commander Tano!" Rex was making his way towards her as the battle settled. "Are you alright, sir?"

"I—I'll be fine." Ahsoka tried to keep the shivering out of her voice. She broke into dusty coughs. "Where's Master Skywalker?"

"He was concerned about you. Good to see you're okay, kid. He's—ah. Here he comes." He bowed his head and nervously glanced behind her as he left quickly.

Ahsoka turned to find a very angry Anakin Skywalker marching towards her. Well, this would be interesting.

"What were you thinking?" he seethed. "You could've been killed! You ignored my orders!"

"I was thinking I could take out the heavy machinery and help us win! It technically wasn't a direct order, just a plan—"

"Yes, and you don't always know all of the plan so you can't make rash decisions like that!"

"Why didn't you just tell me the whole plan?" she fired back. "It's not like I'm second-in-command here or anything!"

"Sometimes there isn't time to get all the details—"

"The details?" she exploded. "Like the kriffing bombs set to blow the building to pieces?"

"You shouldn't have run off in the first place!" Anakin threw his hands up in frustration, and Ahsoka could feel what little control he had over his temper melt away. "You never listen to me! You aren't even a Jedi Knight yet and you think you know better than everyone here, do you know how immature and disrespectful that is? Not to mention dangerous—"

Ahsoka cringed and crossed her arms, trying not to shake from the cold and her scrapes. "You don't exactly listen to every order either—"

"For Force sake, Ahsoka, this is not about me! You realize you could get in serious trouble for this?"

"I saved half of your lives! I was trying to help, dammit!" she screamed, and he flinched, a brief flash of guilt passing over his soaking and tired visage. A twinge of regret went through her, knowing that if she had said that to anyone else she'd be questioned as an apprentice. It wasn't that she didn't respect him, but they were so similar and all his behaviors rubbed off on her in the worst ways. Butting heads like this during a mission wasn't unusual.

"Making your own calls in a situation like that isn't the way to do it." His face was hard, voice low now and jaw set. But Ahsoka could sense something else that seemed remarkably like worry in him. Worry for her? "Go get on the transports and cool off. It's time to get out of here."

Ahsoka stormed past him and made her way to the ship, thankful to be out of the rain. She sat on the floor and watched miserably as the clones loaded up. She was more affected by her master's words than she would have liked to admit. His approval meant everything to her, and she'd thought he would be proud of her in the long run, recognize her great idea and tell her it beat the Council's. It had happened before. Usually, it did. That was one of the best things about him—he didn't discount her ideas because she was a Padawan, but instead actually listened and used them.

Most of the time.

Now, she was stung and felt betrayed. He made a point to not even get on the same transport as she did, and the ride back to the ship was lonely and filled her with anxiety.

The transport docked, and Ahsoka nearly keeled over when she tried to stand up. Dizzied, she attempted to steady herself against the wall as her nausea passed and she stumbled out. Her head pounded and she still felt freezing even though the ship was usually warm. She had a few nasty gashes in her side that made her wince.

She shuffled over to the control room, where troops were gathering for a debrief and Obi-Wan was talking to them and Anakin. Everything was a blur and she didn't hear a word they said, completely zoned out until she felt a sharp nudge.

"Ahsoka!"

Startled, she turned to face her master, surprised to find not an angry face but a confused and concerned one. "What are you doing here?"

"What? I'm fine." She muttered, swaying a little.

"No," he said, pulling his cloak off and draping it around her shoulders, "you look like you're about to pass out and you're practically blue. You need to go to the medbay."

She made another attempt to shake her head, weakly, before he turned her around and began marching her there himself. "I can go myself!" she exclaimed irritably, trying to shove his hand away.

Anakin glared at her. "Come on, before I have to carry you."

"Don't you have to go file a report to the Council or something? Something under 'reckless and disobedient Padawan'?" Ahsoka snapped, pushing past him. "I don't need your help." She left him standing alone in the corridor, regretful.

Anakin got held up with Council calls in the main bay for what seemed like days; he paced impatiently while Master Windu droned on and Obi-Wan glared at him for his lapse in attention. He was not only worried about Ahsoka but conflicted and remorseful for how he'd treated her. Simply put, he panicked and took it out on her. Losing her wasn't something he wanted to even imagine, not to mention come close to witnessing. He'd hurt her, made her feel like her unbelievably courageous actions were foolish and a penalizing, shameful mistake.

An hour or two later, Anakin and Obi-Wan were dismissed and he hurriedly headed for the medbay. Ahsoka was sitting on a bed, bandaged up and shaken but looking considerably better, her chin tucked over her knees and a sullen look on her face. His cloak was still wrapped around her.

She glanced up in gloomy silence as he approached, preparing herself for his reprimands. But, to her surprise, they didn't come.

"I'm here to apologize," he stated softly, resting his hands on his hips, "for everything I said today. Maybe you didn't listen to the specific orders, but you made the smart call. The right one. There's a good chance that even with those bombs, we'd have lost too many men from that heavy machinery to win."

His Padawan knitted her eyebrows in thought but still didn't speak. He could sense her hurt and hesitancy.

Anakin sighed and cautiously sat next to her on the hospital bunk. "Look, Ahsoka, I wasn't mad at you for not listening. Okay, maybe a little. Mostly, I was really just upset because you almost got really hurt. You made a decision to save lives by risking yours, and I panicked because when I saw that explosion I thought you were gone. I…I thought you were going to die, and I just couldn't handle that. I yelled at you because I thought I lost you." His voice is raw and vulnerable, reminding Ahsoka of the previous times she'd almost died. It makes sense now, how furious he was at the battle. She should've known that was the reason—that Anakin Skywalker, one of the best Jedi alive, was far too attached to people.

But maybe she liked it that way.

Ahsoka cracked a smile and put her hand on his arm. "Hey. It's okay. I'm still here to annoy you, Skyguy."

He glanced sideways at her, and she finally saw his features relax. He grinned, and before she knew it he pulled her into a tight hug (sometimes his relieved hugs were slightly strangling, but she didn't mind). "You know, this cloak is pretty cozy. I might have to keep it just so you have to go through the annoyance of getting a new one."

He groaned. "Ahsoka. Obi-Wan will kill me! I've already lost, like, three lightsabers."

"Three?"

"Hey, the life of a brave Jedi is very chaotic."

"Right."

"It's true!" he protested petulantly.

"You're impossible!" she exclaimed, and their laughter echoed through the medbay and through the halls, causing Obi-Wan to stop and smile.

They sat, staring out the enormous window at the galaxy, Master and Padawan, inseparable.