Of Love and War Book 4: When Darkness Falls

Chapter 8: A Bad Gamble

"Obviously something needs to be done about this before it can spiral any further out of control."

"Paying attention to these accusations only leads them credence."

"But not acting allows them to flourish and grow."

"But if she tries to quiet them or puts too much effort into letting the public know she's innocent it could look like she's trying to hide something."

"You're not giving us any options for something to do. We can't do anything, but we can't ignore this either, what choice does that leave us?"

Zelina listened to Obi-Wan, Satine, and Padme go back and forth in debate over the article that Zelina still held in her hands. She'd already placed herself firmly on the couch, staring down at the device without seeing it as she tried to think of what to do. The feeling of claustrophobia suddenly became real to her, but not because she was in a physically small space.

Someone was making the proverbial walls close in on her. Trapping her with politics, the one thing she'd always struggled with to the point she usually preferred to ignore it. They still needed solid evidence, of course, but Zelina wasn't about to provide them with anything that they could possibly use to claim she'd gone Separatist.

Not willingly or on purpose, of course.

The two politicians and other Jedi in the room continued to argue over what to do, Zelina continuing to ignore them until she rose to her feet, distracting them enough to bring the argument to a temporary standstill.

Zelina looked at all three of them, handing Satine her datapad back. "You're right, I can't do anything about this without making myself look suspicious. But I don't have to give them more fuel, either. I have other things to keep me busy, some of which involves serving the Republic. I'll just keep doing my duty, and eventually, with a little luck, they'll run out of material to work with their conspiracy theory."

"And if it only gets worse?" Obi-Wan asked pointedly.

"If it gets worse, then I'll worry about it when that does happen. They're right, I can't make myself look guiltier. I can keep serving the republic and let my actions speak louder than this article. If my actions don't match their article, then the accusations won't hold nearly as much water. It's the best I can hope to do for now. Besides, politics isn't my arena. If I tried to enter their arena, I'm grimly aware that I most likely wouldn't win that...verbal fight, or whatever it might be."

"Just tell me you're not looking into the explosion anymore?"

"No. I stopped my investigation a while ago. The leads all went cold and no one would work with me. Not to mention I was told these kinds of rumors started circulating. I'm not stupid, I know when to back off."

"Apparently you didn't back off soon enough," Obi-Wan remarked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Or it's not my fault, and this entire...mess was always going to escalate to this point," Zelina suggested, drawing curious looks from everyone in the room. She knew it sounded rather conspiracy theorist of her, but she did have a thought floating around in her head that she wasn't going to keep to herself. "I've only met resistance for this whole investigation on a governmental scale since day one. Someone purposely sabotaged the ship full of my civilian prisoners. And now there's vehement whispers and even an article questioning my loyalty to the Separatists? Don't any of you think that's rather targeted? Doesn't it make any of you wonder if I was meant to be the victim from the very start?"

"You think you're being targeted by someone high-up in the Senate?" Satine asked. She left the, isn't that a bit of a leap, unspoken, especially since everyone in the room held suspicions and reservations regarding the Republic Senate to some degree.