Of Love and War Book 4: When Darkness Falls

Chapter 18: Penultimate

"I think you should go outside first—you should be the first thing he sees. I'll be right behind you," Zelina murmured as the ship started to power down, both women looking out at the fiery surface of Mustafar. Even with the fact she knew there were energy shields that were protecting the facilities from the spewing lava flows, it still made her nervous to see such a dangerous substance everywhere.

Out on one of the balconies, they saw a cloaked figure moving to see who had arrived, one that picked up its pace once it recognized the Nabooian vessel.

"There he is—go on," Zelina encouraged, lowering the ramp for her. Padme had already rushed passed her as Zelina let out a slow, shaking breath, trying to calm the nerves that had suddenly roared to life now that she was here. She turned to the protocol droid beside her to delay the inevitable just a few seconds longer. "Watch the ship, Threepio."

She didn't wait for the protocol droid's response, already turning to follow Padme's path off the ship. She spared Obi-Wan's hiding place a brief, exasperated look before she shook it off, cautiously descending the landing ramp, unsure of how Anakin was going to react to her presence.

Padme and Anakin had been in the middle of a tight embrace as Zelina started to disembark the ship, one that Anakin pulled away from when he spotted Zelina over Padme's shoulder. "What are you doing here?" he asked sharply, taking a step around Padme and towards Zelina in what seemed to be a threat. She ignored the motion—outwardly, since she wasn't stupid enough to ignore a threatening movement towards herself no matter who was making it—retaining her calm.

"We both came for the same reason, Anakin—we came here to see you," she said evenly.

"You should still be asleep in the Temple," Anakin growled.

"I woke up."

"I don't recall waking you," Anakin returned, hand making a familiar twitch towards his lightsaber.

"Distance tends to weaken one's ability to use and hold a Force power, its basic knowledge. You did move from the core to the outer rim, and I'm not a pushover. Anakin," she said seriously, stepping forward and holding out a hand in a gesture of peace to stop him from drawing his weapon on her. "I came to talk."

"How do I know you're not here to kill me?" he practically snarled. Zelina looked at him in pained exasperation. How had he already gone from sparing her to thinking she might kill him in such a short period of time? Then again, hardly twenty-four hours ago he'd gone from Jedi to Sith, from about to execute her to faking her death to spare her life, was she really surprised that he'd gone from seeing for himself she refused to harm him to thinking she might want to kill him? He was all over the place, erratic, unstable.

Never a good mix with Anakin. The dark side was probably only making those moods and the instability worse, especially since he was newly turned...and still held to the light in some regards.

"Because we've already been through this—I won't fight you," she repeated adamantly. To prove her point, Zelina slowly unclipped the lightsabers from her belt before offering them to him hilt-first. "If it makes you feel better..."

"Anakin, it's true," Padme tried to reassure him, glancing between the two nervously. Anakin hadn't moved to take Zelina's lightsabers, but nor had she attempted to clip them back to her belt, the two weapons still held in a silent offering between them. "She came to help us, not to kill you, why would you think that?"

Anakin's gaze didn't break from Zelina, not even to glance at his wife as he stared intently at Zelina. She saw accusation in his eyes, distrust, suspicion, anger...