Of Love and War Book 3: In The Thick of Battle

Chapter 28: Season 3 (Citadel Rescue)

Zelina floated in and out of consciousness...

"Come on General, stay with us!"

"Zee! Zee come on, don't quit on me now, keep moving..."

"Leave her, she's slowing us down!"

"Anakin, we have to go now; hand her to me, you and Ahsoka need to cover our escape!"

"I'm not leaving her! Obi-Wan, you cover the flank, I can carry her; Rex, let me, you help Echo..."

"Yes General Skywalker..."

"Stay with me Zelina, you're going to be fine, just stay with me."

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"Master Kenobi, what has happened?"

"I'm afraid we've had a situation with the shuttle..."

"By situation, he means big explosion. We're gonna need a rescue."

"It will be done; I'm sending our cruisers now..."

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"Wait, wait...I think she's waking up."

"It's about time..."

"Zee...Zee, can you hear me?"

Zelina moaned lightly, her eyelids fluttering but not yet opening. Her back felt like someone had burned off several layers with a lightsaber, and she had a murderous headache. "Ani..."

"That's it Zee, come on, open your eyes—can someone get me some water?"

"We're wasting valuable time we could spend putting distance between us and Sobek's men!"

"I'm sure you would have us leave you back there had it been you Captain? Please, be my guest and switch places with her."

"Ani," Zelina said, a little stronger. She cracked her eyelids open, fixing him with a weak droll stare. "Be polite; it's one of the few redeeming qualities you have...from time to time."

He rolled his eyes while several people snickered. "Oh yeah, she's better now."

Zelina moved to sit up, and Anakin put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Easy now, you don't want to hurt yourself. You've got a nasty burn all the way down your back; you're probably going to need to spend a few days in the Halls of Healing."

Zelina scowled to hide her grimace; she didn't miss the fact that the under tunic she wore was not her own, and she wasn't wearing anything else that but her friend's under tunic from the waist up. Hopefully it had been Ahsoka that had made the apparent switch and not Anakin, or she was going to die of embarrassment.

"I'd rather hurt a lot while I move then wind up dead cause I didn't move," she replied. She cast her gaze around, blatantly ignoring Tarkin and fixing her eyes on Cruiser. "Captain Cruiser, come here and help me up as General Skywalker insists I stay sitting."

"No Captain, you stay right there," Anakin responded sharply. Zelina smirked lightly.

"That was an order Captain. Sorry Ani, but he is my Captain, under my command," she responded as Cruiser came over and helped her to her feet. Zelina leaned into his shoulder, ignoring the dizzy wave that fell over her and the pain in her back. "What's the status?"

Anakin obviously wasn't happy she was straining herself, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to talk some sense into her either. He sighed. "We're going to have to fight our way to the rendezvous point Master Plo designated for our extraction. We were just about to contact the Council to see when they would rescue us when you woke up."