"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...

"I'm starting to question a lot of things about her. Especially motives," Anakin returned in a clipped tone. Zelina realized he wasn't just holding to Padme with one arm possessively, but also protectively, like he perceived Zelina as a threat.

This is not headed in a good direction.

"My motives? I'm here to help, Anakin, like I've been doing since we were children. I'm not about to stop now when I'm needed the most," she said carefully, trying to figure out what was going on in his head as she spoke. That was something she needed to discover quickly if she was going to stay alive as well as help him—the twitches of his hand towards his lightsaber told her as much. At least he was letting her talk...for now.

"And yourself? Does what you want really line up with helping us?" Anakin accused venomously.

That was it. That was what this was all about. The realization hit her with the force of a lightning storm. Sometime between Zelina's confession that she loved him and now, he had gotten it in his head...

"Anakin, what are you saying?" Padme said warily. However, the look on her face told her she was coming to the same conclusion Zelina had already reached.

"He thinks I want you out of the way so I can have him to myself," Zelina told her, still refusing to break her gaze away from Anakin's. He bristled as Zelina answered Padme's question.

"I can speak for myself," he hissed. Zelina's response was instant and sharp. She wasn't used to Anakin being so hostile towards her, but she refused to cower or to let herself return his hostility with too much of her own—doing so would only escalate the situation, and the entire reason she was here was to diffuse the ticking time bomb that was Anakin Skywalker on the dark side.

"But it's true, isn't it? You really think I could stoop so low as to let one of my closest friends die so I could...what, make my own move?" Zelina accused, making sure her hurt and accusation came across clear so he would know how much this particular conspiracy he'd cooked up cut her deeply. "If you really thought so lowly of me you should have just killed me in the Temple. Why spare me if you were suspicious that I was out to get you—or out to get Padme, as I suppose the case would be?"

Before Anakin could respond, Padme cut in. "That's the most outrageous thing I've ever heard! Zelina's a sister to me, she's always stood up for you, even when she didn't agree with you. Even now, she's still standing up for you, and you're accusing her of betraying you? Of wanting me dead?"

"You don't know everything, Padme, you weren't there, you didn't hear what she said," Anakin dismissed sharply. "She has every reason to want you dead, and I won't risk it."

"I have every reason to not want her dead, considering she's my best friend and I know that it would destroy you, which is the last thing that I want!" Zelina said fiercely.

"Anakin, listen to her!" Padme added, clutching to his arm in an attempt to garner his attention

"She's—"

"In love with you, yes, I know—I've known for years," Padme cut Anakin off, finally catching his attention with the admission. She didn't stop there, either. "We used to talk about it quite a bit. In fact, it still will come up in conversation every now and then, because we're both well aware of how each of us feels, and we haven't let it come between us. In fact, there's a sort of solidarity between us because we know both of us only want you safe and happy."

Anakin being Anakin, especially considering his current volatile state of being, only focused on one thing. "You've known?"

"Since before we were even married, yes," Padme said quietly. "I actually went to her before we married to...I guess you could say get her permission. I knew how she felt, and I wanted to make sure she really was okay with it."

"Not that she needed to," Zelina added hastily, since the way Padme had worded it made it sound like Anakin and Padme had required her permission to marry—something Anakin would not appreciate. "I never spoke up, so I never had any claim to you. You chose Padme, you've been Padme's—I accepted that a long time ago."

Anakin stared long and hard at Zelina, a war going on behind his eyes. Yet again, Zelina offered him her lightsabers as a gesture of peace and trust. "Anakin, please. I'm not your enemy—I never was. I just want to help."

"You weren't too keen on helping me back at the Temple, when I asked for it," Anakin returned coolly.

"Because that's not the kind of help I'm offering," Zelina answered without pause. "Anakin, you're making a terrible mistake—"

"I'm doing what I must—I've already told you this," Anakin said sharply.

"By turning to the dark side?" Padme accused. Anakin's head whipped around to lock his gaze on his wife, who still clung to his arm in a silent, continuous plea. "She told me, Anakin—she told me what happened in the Temple, she told me you'd turned, that you led the attack."

"You—!" he started to accuse, but yet again he was cut off.

"She has every right to know, Anakin, she's your wife," Zelina said sharply, lowering her proffered lightsabers. Deciding they were never going to get to the point that she could actually hand them over, she simply clipped them back onto her belt.

"You had no right—"

"Well, you weren't about to tell me the truth!" Padme accused, drawing his attention again before she softened her voice. "Anakin...please. What you're doing, what you've done..."

"I'm doing this for you—to protect you."

Zelina did her best not to scream at him.

"Anakin, she was perfectly healthy!" she snapped, her left hand repeatedly chopping into the open palm of her right in a physical manifestation of the frustration she was trying to keep at bay.

"Was?" Anakin asked dangerously, a hand tightening on Padme's arm in a reflex to protect her from some unseen threat.

"Anyone remotely familiar with pregnancies could tell you that this much stress isn't good for the baby, especially with how far along she is. She's been under more stress in the past twenty-four hours, than during this entire damn war!" Zelina accused. "If anything, all your—your—antics have only made things worse! Intentional or not!"

Padme's hands dropped instinctively to her rounded belly, a movement neither Force Sensitive missed. "I'm not the one that dragged her all the way out here and told her about everything," Anakin growled.

"But you should have," Padme returned. "I shouldn't have had to hear it from someone else, you should have told me, I expect you to be honest with me!"

"I knew you wouldn't approve...and I need to do this—I won't let anyone change my mind!" Anakin said fiercely, looking between the two women as if to emphasize his point. Padme reached out to touch his face, to draw his attention solely to her as her fingers traced his jaw in an almost desperate manner. For the moment, Zelina stepped back, allowing Padme to try and reach her husband.

"Anakin...All I want is your love," Padme said in a shaking tone of voice. Anakin was quick to scoff at the thought.

"Love won't save you, Padme—what good is love if you're not alive, if you don't survive? I need these new powers so I can save you," Anakin returned, voice low and intense.

"But at what cost? Anakin, look at everything you've done because of a distant possibility that something could go wrong! I know you're a good person, don't do this!" Padme pled. She reached out with both hands to gently run her fingers through his hair in a soothing motion, as if hoping to coax the Anakin she knew back to the surface. "Please, Anakin...Come away with me. Help me raise our child away from all of this...this death and destruction. Leave everything else behind while we still can!"

"Don't you understand, love? We don't have to run away anymore, we don't have to answer to anyone!" Anakin had adopted the same tone he'd used as he'd tried to coax Zelina to join him, the one that seemed like he meant for it to be soothing, when really it only came off as creepy. "I have finally brought peace to the Republic. And I'm becoming more powerful than the Chancellor, I-I can overthrow him, especially if Zelina were to work with me, like I asked her too! Then together you and I can rule the galaxy—make things the way we want them to be!"

As Anakin spoke, Padme started to slowly back away, and Zelina could sense the woman's faith in what Zelina had said about there still being a chance to pull him back to the light dwindle. She chose that moment to step forward, placing a hand in reassurance on Padme's arm as she cut in, subtly starting to place herself between Padme and Anakin so Padme could have a moment to recover and Zelina could claim Anakin's attention.

"Anakin, you hate politics," Zelina stated bluntly. "And Padme doesn't want to be in charge of an empire that is built on blood—mostly innocent blood, on top of that—you know she doesn't! And if you don't want to be ruler that has to deal with all the politics than why would you try to force ruling an empire she wants no part in on her?"

"I think she can speak for herself, Zelina," Anakin snapped.

"You're right, she can, but I also think she needs a moment." Zelina put out a hand to gesture towards the woman a step behind her, as Padme currently had a hand over her mouth, a storm of emotions raging around the woman whose whole universe was collapsing around her.

"I don't need help, Zelina—I need people like you to stop making things seem worse than they really are," Anakin said in a dangerously low tone of voice.

"Worse than they really are? Anakin, you almost killed me, you helped wipe out the Jedi Order in a night, you did kill children!" she finally shouted, and behind her Padme let out a sob. "I'm scared for you, I'm scared for your son!"

Anakin held up a finger in warning. "Don't!" he said sharply. His tone, however, told her she was on the right track.

It was time to bring out her big guns—it was time to play the Luke card.

"You haven't even factored him in, have you? You've been so hell-bent on saving Padme, you're not even thinking about Luke!" Zelina accused. "Or maybe you don't want to think about him, because then you'll have to face more evidence that you're on the wrong path."

"Everything I'm doing is for my wife and child, Zelina," Anakin snarled.

"No, it isn't, Anakin, because if you were thinking about your son, you'd remember that in every blasted vision I've had of him he's begged for me to help you not fall to the dark side. Every vision, Anakin, every time, always had something about helping you resist the dark. How do you take all those warnings as permission to turn to the dark side?"

"You're the one who kept telling me visions aren't always accurate," Anakin shot back.

"Yes, because my many clear and potent visions about a child that was only just conceived pail in comparison to your vague recent dreams where you can't even see what specifically happens to Padme or if the baby is okay," Zelina said scathingly. Anakin raised his hand in a familiar gesture that had Zelina's heart leaping into her throat, but her hand shot out to take the one threatening to use a dark side power on her into her own hand. "Anakin, please...think of Luke, think of everything I've ever told you about him. Every one of our choices affect him, Anakin—did you ever think of what this is going to do to your son? He was terrified of all the darkness in the galaxy."

"That could have just been the Chancellor—and I want to overthrow the Chancellor," Anakin argued, though Zelina pounced when she saw how weak of an excuse it was, how he was falling back on excuses with larger holes, his arguments starting to fail him.

"Forget the Chancellor, Anakin, this isn't about him, its about you and your family," Zelina stressed. "They need you, Anakin. They need Anakin Skywalker, Jedi, Father, Friend, Brother—not Darth Vader, destroyer of the Order and right hand to the Sith Lord Emperor. Your son needs you, whole and on the light side of the Force."

"I need to save him first—if Padme dies, Zelina, I could lose my son, too—you said it yourself he was afraid of dying, it's entirely possible he could," Anakin argued passionately. "I'll do anything to stop that from happening—I have to!"

"Luke also once said to me, in a vision that's now come completely true, that being willing to do anything could mean you're willing to do what cannot be done, and that's the reason we're all in this mess. The reason we're in this mess, Anakin, is because you're willing to do what can't be done, you're willing to forsake everything while trying to save some of it."

"I need to use this power—"

"No, Anakin! The dark side doesn't heal, it doesn't fix—it destroys! All you've done since turning has been destruction! You're destroying yourself, too, and they need Anakin! Luke needs Anakin, Padme needs Anakin, I need Anakin! Not Vader!" Zelina searched his eyes desperately, looking for inspiration, trying to figure out what she needed to say to pull him all the way back to reason—he was almost there. "Whatever Palpatine told you, it was a lie. Anakin, please, listen to reason, you're being deceived!"

"Anakin Skywalker isn't strong enough to protect what's his," Anakin shot back.

"And yet he's done just that for this entire war," Zelina returned sharply. She covered the hand she still held in hers with both hands, giving it a tight squeeze. "Anakin...my first vision of Luke came after we fought Dooku for the first time. He told me that his father was just trying to protect him and his mother, and the man lying on the ground, now that we're older and I see what you look like now, was you. And Luke was terrified, Anakin—terrified of the scary man, as he put it, and I think the yellow eyes were yours, you fallen to the dark side, and he was terrified of that. Please, Anakin, don't do this, don't make everything your son's feared real, don't abandon who you are and your family despite all the warnings we've been given, please!"

"She's right, Ani," Padme said, having collected herself once more and approaching Anakin to gently hold to his arm as she'd been doing previously. "Please...I don't want this, I don't want this for us or for our child. Let's just...let's talk about this, before anything else happens. Let's talk. We'll find a way to make things right okay? Please, just hear us out..."

Anakin looked down, doubt finally flickering in his gaze that he tried to hide from the two women pleading with him. "It's far too late to turn back now."

"That's not true," Zelina responded almost instantly—she'd been prepared for this part of the argument this entire time. "If it was too late, I'd be dead. We can still make this right, or at least start to—hope's not lost yet."

"I don't need you to fix everything in the galaxy, Anakin," Padme added, her voice retaining the same desperate plea as she'd had from the very beginning of this conversation. "I just want my Anakin to be with me, and with our child."

"Let's just talk first, and see where things go from there, okay? Little steps, and we might find a solution," Zelina soothed, still trying to catch Anakin's gaze. He didn't look at her, but neither did he argue any further, appearing to be warring with himself on a far deeper level.

This was still something she could work with, though.

"Okay...okay," Zelina said slowly, trying to gather her courage for the next part. They'd successfully talked him down—now they needed to try and keep him calm while Zelina tried to bring in the third, unexpected and somewhat reluctant member of the let's save Anakin brigade. She gently ran her thumb over the back of his hand. "We're going to talk, then, but first..."

Zelina glanced at Padme. She really hoped she wasn't about to send things plummeting south, but she doubted Obi-Wan would wait on the ship any longer even if she wasn't about to give him the come out nudge. The look on her face seemed to be enough to give the woman a heads up, understanding flickering in her eyes.

"We had...a stow away," Zelina began to explain, already giving Obi-Wan a gentle nudge in the Force where he was still hiding on Padme's ship. "We only planned on the two of us coming to see you...but they're willing to talk as well, so please, Ani, don't—"

Anakin's sharp gaze flashed towards the top of the landing ramp of Padme's ship, a hiss escaping from between his now clenched teeth.

Freak out...

As Obi-Wan descended the landing ramp, expression serious and posture coiled for a fight, Anakin yanked himself free of Padme and Zelina's grips. "This was a trap!" he fumed, hand already flying for his lightsaber.

Curses were streaming through Zelina's mind, but she forced herself to stay sharp and avoid drawing her lightsabers. Once again, Zelina put herself in front of Padme, though this time she did so with the intent to shield her from any possible break out of a fight.

"No! No, it's not, he's willing to talk, just like we—"

"Liar!" Anakin snarled at her.

"I told you," Obi-Wan told Zelina stoically from where he stood on the other side of her. Zelina stalwartly ignored him.

"We're not here to kill you, Anakin!" she repeated fiercely, ignoring the fact that killing Anakin was, in fact, the mission Yoda had assigned Obi-Wan. It wasn't their primary goal, and considering Padme and Zelina had talked Anakin down before Obi-Wan walked outside...

If he ruins this now...

"You expect me to believe that?" Anakin called his lightsaber into his hand as he spoke, turning on the blade as a murderous light crackled to life in his eyes. Obi-Wan was quick to mirror the threat, his own blue blade leaping to life. Panic shot through Zelina as they both took steps towards each other, falling into fighting stances. Before they could cross blades like they seemed on the brink of doing, Zelina quickly darted between them, planting herself with hands outstretched as if she could physically stop their lightsabers from slashing each other to ribbons. They were close enough that she could feel her palms heating up as the blades started to burn her hands, a pain that she was trying to ignore as she refused to move.

"Hey! Hey, no! Put them away, now! I won't have you two fighting when we're supposed to be here to talk," Zelina snapped.

"Step aside Zelina," Obi-Wan said firmly.

"Get out of the way," Anakin shouted at almost the same time.

"No," Zelina returned sharply.

"Zelina, move," Obi-Wan ordered.

"No!"

Always one to act instead of talk, Anakin stepped to move around her and charge Obi-Wan, prompting Zelina into action. Obi-Wan was already preparing to block, to retaliate, but Zelina pulled her lightly burned hands close to her chest in a motion she had once seen Anakin make. Taking a deep breath that gathered her own raw power into herself, she pushed both hands outwards in one sharp motion, and just as the Son and Daughter when Anakin had once done the same, Obi-Wan and Anakin were tossed backwards into the air in opposite directions. She restrained herself enough that they weren't sent flying off the platform and into the lava below, but it still put them a safe distance away from each other.

As the two got back on their feet, Zelina spoke again. "Stand down, both of you!" she ordered. Obi-Wan seemed to be reluctantly holding back from leaping into action again, though Anakin started to advance once more, lightsaber twirling loosely in his hand, before Zelina held up a threatening finger. "Anakin, don't make me do it again, because I will if you don't back down," she said sharply.

"Anakin, please," Padme interjected, taking a few steps towards her husband, but not getting too close since the three Jedi were on the brink of a fight, something she did not want to be in the path of if Anakin couldn't be pacified. "He stowed away on the ship, we didn't trick you—but he's willing to talk. Please, give him a chance, Anakin, he only wants to help."

A tense silence followed the statement, one where no one moved or spoke. Finally, Zelina cleared her throat and took the initiative.

"Now, I'm pretty sure we all have brains, even if some of them haven't been fully operational recently. So, you're both going to deactivate your lightsabers...We're going to go inside...and we're going to have a rational conversation, instead of instantly jabbing lightsabers at each other," Zelina said in as controlled and calm of a voice as she could, still standing firmly between the two with hands raised.

After a few more seconds of unbroken silence, Zelina heard Obi-Wan's lightsaber deactivate behind her, and out of her peripherals she saw the Jedi Master easing out of his ready stance, though he remained tense. Padme slowly approached her husband, gently placing a hand on his arm in an effort to sooth him. After a few heartbeats where Anakin glared at Obi-Wan, he deactivated his lightsaber with great reluctance, though he kept the weapon in hand as he tore his gaze from the older Jedi to look at Zelina.

"I don't think the décor is suitable for us to go inside," he said stiffly. Padme looked at him in bemusement, but Obi-Wan and Zelina, used to Anakin's play on words and darker sense of humor on the battlefield, found it easy to understand what he meant.

He'd probably massacred everyone inside and hadn't bothered to move the bodies—which was not a sight any of them wanted to expose to the pregnant senator. Whether or not she could handle it didn't matter—it wasn't something she needed to see, and if she could avoid seeing a massacre that was anything like what happened at the Temple, then she should.

"Then we'll stick to the walkways—maybe stop in another building. This facility looks big enough to have plenty of places to duck into if we feel like it," Zelina said evenly, holding Anakin's gaze. "Besides, it doesn't really matter where we talk, so long as we do."

Anakin nodded curtly, looking like he'd rather be anywhere than here. Zelina could empathize with the thought, though in the context that she wished they'd never reached this point. He was still watching Obi-Wan with clear distrust, and Zelina was also hyper aware that he was still fidgeting with his lightsaber. It was making her nervous, but as tempted as she was to ask that everyone turn over their lightsabers to someone who wasn't about to start swinging them—Padme, for example—she was certain that he'd be resistant, and asking him to disarm might escalate the situation. So, she kept her mouth shut and took the first tentative step towards the facility, glancing around at the others expectantly so that they would follow.

Ideally. Anakin could also decide to do away with a tentative peace and attack Obi-Wan, but that was one of the worst-case scenarios, and she was trying to be positive.

Padme followed Zelina first, Obi-Wan and Anakin staring at each other intently to see what the other would do before Obi-Wan carefully stepped to follow after Zelina and Padme, never putting his back to Anakin in the process. Once Obi-Wan moved to follow, Anakin swiftly came to his wife's side, Zelina the only one willing to put her back to all three (She was hoping Padme and she had soothed Anakin's concerns about Zelina being out to get Padme enough he wasn't liable to attack her, and she knew she had nothing to worry about from Obi-Wan and Padme). Padme seemed to be trying to position herself as a buffer between Obi-Wan and Anakin, which frankly terrified Zelina with thoughts of what would happen if a fight were to break out. Once they were no longer moving, Zelina had every intention to be the one standing between the two Jedi.

After an unbearably long silence, Zelina couldn't take the tension any longer, speaking up even though she had yet to find a door to a room that didn't make Anakin clear his throat or shift self-consciously to indicate there was unsuitable décor on the other side.

"I want us to put everything on the table, first," she said in a tone that was much more confident than she felt with everything going on. How was she supposed to be confident when everything around her was literally dying or being turned upside down? "It seems all of us have been keeping secrets—to one degree or another—and if this conversation is going to actually get somewhere, we need to be honest with each other. That way we can actually understand each other's situation instead of some of us being shortchanged information that could end up being important for how we see everything that's happened. Fair enough?"

"I agree," Padme said swiftly before either of the boys could object.

Anakin was casting dark looks at Obi-Wan, who wasn't even bothering to try and pretend he didn't notice. Zelina's next attempt of levity was a knee jerk response to the growing tension considering the people she was with, her usual response when things got difficult between Obi-Wan and Anakin, or Anakin and Padme had a spat of some kind.

"And may I just say, before anything else, that I called Palpatine being a bad person a long, long, long time ago? I didn't expect him to be a Sith Lord, but I have been rather outspoken about him for a while now," she remarked in an almost flippant tone of voice, drawing a disapproving stare from Obi-Wan.

"This is hardly the time for that, don't you think, Zelina?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I think it's the perfect time. Everything out in the open, right? I guess we're starting with me," Zelina said with a note of bitterness creeping into her voice. She stopped long enough to turn around to address the others, clapping her hands together. "It seems everyone but Anakin knew I love him, though now even he knows, and it's still weird to be saying that out loud. Also, I've been having visions of Anakin and Padme's unborn child since just before the war started...Anakin was the only one who knew the specifics about that."

She surprised herself with the bluntness of her words, brutally shattering the barrier the tension and ice between them was creating—on her end, anyway—rather than trying to melt it down slowly.

Some things required heavy artillery and aggressive negotiations over the slow, gradual approach.

"Wa—wait, you're saying you—so all those times you two called—you kept saying him...it was because you had visions—because you knew—"

Obi-Wan was far more direct with what he was trying to say than Padme.

"Luke Skywalker? All this time, the apprentice you've been holding out for—was Luke Skywalker?"

Zelina shrugged. "Yeah, it was a bit of a shock for me, too. I didn't say anything cause it didn't exactly feel like something that was mine to share."

That line seems to be the story of my life.

"And yet here you are, spilling the secret about my son to him," Anakin growled.

"He sensed the baby when he came to visit Padme earlier—that secret was already out. Besides, it's all going to come out anyway, that's the point. If you don't say it, then Padme or I will, so I suggest you let it be your own words instead of coming from what someone else knows," Zelina told him flatly. "Does that mean you want to start talking, next? There's quite a few questions everyone has, mostly about recent events, and yours is going to take the longest to explain."

"Obi-Wan first," Anakin ground out.

Zelina looked over at the older Jedi, cocking an eyebrow pointedly.

"The problem with that, Anakin, is that I haven't been keeping anything from you," Obi-Wan said evenly.

"Like I'm going to believe that," Anakin scoffed.

"It's true."

"Well..." Zelina said with a shrug. Obi-Wan turned a semi-incredulous, partially betrayed expression towards her, and she hurried to clarify. "There is plenty that you're aware of that Anakin doesn't know you've managed to piece together. We could work with that."

Anakin glanced between the two with growing suspicion. "What's she talking about?"

Obi-Wan didn't hesitate to make his exasperation clear as he shifted in place, shooting Zelina yet another disapproving look—that face was going to be burned into her retinas at this rate—as he folded his arms over his chest. "I've known...that you and Padme were continuing your relationship behind the Council's back. No one told me, I just knew," Obi-Wan added before Anakin could try accusing Zelina of being loose-lipped once again. "I never knew the...extent of your relationship, not until recently with the baby and the terms husband and wife being tossed around. I understand why you didn't say anything...and I don't hold it against you."

"Padme?" Zelina murmured, hoping the other woman had something to say so that her husband didn't have time to scathingly reply to Obi-Wan.

Padme intertwined her fingers in front of her, brows furrowed in worry. "I suppose I've been keeping Zelina's feelings for you secret. It wasn't for me to tell, but I've known for...Since you two were assigned to guard me before the war. We would talk about how we both felt, and I asked her how she felt about our marriage because I knew how deeply she cares about you, and I knew she'd tried to tell you more than once, but...It's just how events played out. And I was never worried because I know she has a good heart, and I knew she'd always protect you and put your needs first, because that's what she's always done, Anakin."

Padme's short speech sent flashes of emotion through Zelina's being, brief moments of heartache and sorrow for everything she'd sacrificed for him, of the love she knew would never be reciprocated yet she continued to nurse.

Zelina turned her attention back to Anakin, who was refusing to look at anyone, staring out over the landscape of Mustafar. "Anakin...What happened?"

Anakin at least gave her the curtesy of a glance, his jaw flexing as a warning flickered in his gaze, a warning to leave well enough alone and back off, a plea to not push him, the ever-present anger that must have been kindled before the attack on the Temple that he was still keeping stoked, and desperation—

Anakin turned away before Zelina could gauge any more from his expression, passing the rest of them as he made his way down the walkway without an answer. Padme looked at Zelina in dismay, but Zelina only followed him—she was persistent, that was something all of them should have been aware of by now.

"Anakin, this isn't something you can just walk away from, you have to talk to us," Zelina lectured forcefully as she tailed her fallen friend, even as he opened a door to a room inside the facility far from where they had landed the ship. Her mind had enough time to tell her there were no bodies in immediate sight before Anakin rounded on her, his tone icy.

"I appreciate the concern, Zelina, but there's nothing to say, so you should take them and get out of here. I'll let Obi-Wan go this once for old time's sake, and I expect to see my wife safely back at her apartment."

"No, Anakin, there's everything to say, and we're not leaving until it's been said," Zelina returned as Padme and Obi-Wan filed in behind her. "Anakin, something happened between the time you left the Temple and the attack, something that was enough to make you take a sharp turn into darkness. It wasn't when you turned, a person doesn't turn that quickly. That's when you committed to turning—the turning part came during the Temple's attack, and when you came here. I know what made you desperate, I know what made you afraid, I want to know what made you commit."

"You don't know anything," Anakin returned scathingly.

"Then help me, Anakin!" Zelina's voice broke on the shrill note of desperation, palms face up and out in front of her in a pleading gesture. "No, I don't know what's happening, that's why I'm here asking you, now, to explain it to me, to tell me what's going on! What happened to you before the attack on the Temple, what changed?"

Anakin's teeth ground together as he took in a long, choppy breath, shoulders tense as he drew himself up to his full height, again refusing to look at them as he cast his gaze towards the monitors in the room instead.

"He told me he was a Sith Lord," Anakin abruptly said. Instantly, every eye was fixated on him, though he still refused to look at anyone in turn. "Blatantly, after I told him Obi-Wan had engaged Grievous. I told Master Windu, who took a few other Jedi Masters to arrest Palpatine and made me wait in the Council Room. But I couldn't stay. I had to go, to make sure nothing went wrong."

Anakin's eyes seemed distant as he recounted his tale, one that Zelina was mentally lining up with her own timeline of events. His discovery of Palpatine and waiting in the Council Room had to have been what Zelina was sensing all the way in 500 Republica—and clearly he had followed after Windu and the others to the Senate building, since Zelina had just missed him when she arrived at the Temple.

"The fight was already over when I arrived. Windu was the only one left, and he'd beaten Palpatine. Palptaine was defenseless, and he was surrendering, but Windu was going to kill him anyway. I tried to argue, tried to tell him I needed Palpatine alive, tried to remind him it wasn't the Jedi way to kill an unarmed man, especially one trying to surrender, but he didn't care. He didn't care—all that preaching about the Jedi way, all those times he looked down on me, and he didn't give a damn about the Code, he was just going to kill him!"

Zelina held out a hand to stop Anakin as his voice rose in volume and fury, just with the intent to calm him down again before he continued the story. Anakin's gaze fixated on Zelina at the interruption, snapping back to the present. She couldn't see Obi-Wan's and Padme's reactions behind her, and Anakin was only looking at her since she'd interrupted him, waiting for her to say something. A brief silence hung in the air as she waited for some of the fire to die from Anakin's gaze, for his temper to cool before she slowly nodded.

"Keep going."

Getting the hint to not go off on side-tangent rants, Anakin let out a slow, annoyed breath before resuming his story. "I didn't even think about it when it happened. I just knew I had to stop him, because I needed Palpatine and...after I disarmed him, Palpatine sent him out the window." Anakin's gaze focused and hardened, but Zelina met it unflinchingly as her friend delved into the darker part of his story.

"The Jedi betrayed the Republic. All this time Palpatine's been suggesting it, worried that they might try to overthrow him, and he was right! They never trusted me, never, but they were ready to jump at the opportunity to use me to get close to the Chancellor so they could assassinate him and seize power for themselves. The Jedi would have been in control after killing him, if they somehow found a way to pacify the Senate. They didn't go there to arrest him, they went to murder him. They betrayed me, betrayed Palpatine, betrayed the Senate, the Republic, all of it! And they weren't going to stop—not after what happened in that room. And they're so willing to toss out their own—even towards death sentences—when they're innocent, like they were going to be merciful to me after what I did!" Anakin scoffed. "So I...I had to make a choice. When Palpatine asked me to join him...it was either the Jedi who've done nothing but cause me pain recently, that crossed me and the Republic...or Padme. And he promised to help Padme."

Zelina kept her face stoic as she took the information in, the series of events that led to where they were standing now, possibly from a warped point of view on Anakin's part. It was a mess of faulty logic, logic that had to have been carefully nursed by Palpatine in all those long hours Anakin spent with the man while carrying out the Jedi's honestly treasonous mission to spy on the Chancellor of the Republic. She hoped the reason he was talking was because he hoped he could convince them he was in the right, that they would see things from his point of view and gain a few allies—gain Zelina's support, secure Padme by his side despite his questionable choices, maybe he hoped to even get Obi-Wan's loose approval or support, or at least hoped the older Jedi would decide to leave it be or let it slide. That was something Zelina could still work with.

She set the majority of what she'd just been told aside, resolving that now was the time to play Palpatine's game—in reverse.

"So you agreed, and he sent you to the Temple before anyone could figure out what had happened," Zelina finished quietly. She didn't wait for an answer—it had been a statement, not a question. She did, however, gaze intently back into Anakin's eyes. "Palpatine's the one who told you about the alleged power to stop death, isn't he?"

Anakin nodded reluctantly, confirming Zelina's suspicion as Obi-Wan spoke up sharply from behind Zelina. "What power?"

Zelina started to turn towards the other two, though her gaze remained locked with Anakin as she raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you want to tell him about the nightmare, or should one of us?" she said pointedly.

Anakin huffed, resistant to share the personal nugget with the person he trusted the least out of the three, but they were already so far into the story, he might as well. There wasn't any reason to hold it back except out of spite, and while Anakin wasn't below doing that...there was no point, since Zelina or Padme would just admit it anyway. And he hated someone else speaking for him more than he hated telling Obi-Wan himself.

"I had...a nightmare of Padme dying in childbirth...like the nightmares I had of my mother dying," Anakin revealed reluctantly. Zelina saw horrified realization click in Obi-Wan's mind and settle over his features as the older Jedi turned his gaze towards Zelina.

"That's why you've been studying healing so much recently," Obi-Wan murmured, turning his attention back to Anakin for a moment. "Did you talk to Master Yoda about your...dreams?" he asked carefully. Obi-Wan was well aware of the intensity of Anakin when it came to protecting his loved ones. Anakin's motivations and what had led him down this destructive path suddenly made sense to him.

A desperate Anakin bent on protecting the woman he loved and his unborn child mixed in with a secret Sith Lord that had Anakin's complete trust and wanted to sway him into darkness was a terrible, terrible mix.

In fact, a small part of Zelina's brain was declaring blaming the Jedi for Anakin's fall—partially—as perfectly sound logic.

A sneer twisted across Anakin's lips at Obi-Wan's suggestion that he should have just sought council from the Jedi Grandmaster. "Yes, and he simply told me to let her go, so he wasn't any help. And then I heard about a Sith who once had the ability to create life, to stop death, even."

"Anakin, we already talked about that, though," Zelina started carefully, but Anakin cut her off viciously.

"I know, and I decided it's worth it. Besides, there was no going back—I did what I could with the hand I was dealt."

"No, you panicked, and he manipulated you," Zelina said flatly. "He manipulated you like he's been doing since we were young—all he's ever wanted from you is your power at his beck and call, and now he has it."

"Not for long."

Zelina's eyebrows rose. "Oh? So you're already planning on stabbing him in the back, are you? Actually, I'm not surprised, you asked me to help you do just that back at the Temple, and I must say I'm relieved to hear your not planning on letting him hold power. I want nothing more than to see the slimy serpent cut in half at the neck, so it's nice to hear that we're all on the same page that Palpatine needs to be stopped."

"After he tells me how to save Padme," Anakin reminded her firmly.

"Anakin," Padme suddenly spoke up before Anakin and Zelina's track of conversation could heat up into an argument, coming to stand next to Zelina. "What did Palpatine say, exactly, when he promised he'd help you save me?"

Anakin seemed taken aback. "Why?"

"Just...humor me. Palpatine's a skilled politician, I want to make sure that what he promised you is what he said. It will clear up whether the power you're talking about is a deception or not."

Anakin's gaze flickered towards Zelina, who was watching the two expectantly, waiting to see where this would go. "He said that...the power to cheat death had only been achieved by one but together we could discover the secret."

Anakin you idiot...I know you were panicked and stressed and everything else, but you idiot!

Padme's expression remained unreadable for a few heartbeats as she analyzed the secondhand words in her mind before she spoke in a calm and even tone of voice. "Anakin, he doesn't know, he doesn't have this power he's tried to draw you in with. He was very careful not to promise to save me and not to say that he had the power or knew it, he only said that the two of you might be able to figure it out."

"Unlocking such a big secret of the Force's could take years," Zelina added, turning her attention to the man in front of her that seemed like he desperately wanted to turn off his sense of hearing. "Padme is due any day now—he can't help, he just wants you to think he can so that you'll help him. He's using you, Anakin—don't let him."

To Zelina's mild surprise, Obi-Wan joined the verbal fray.

"Might I also point out that Palpatine has no reason or motive to help save Padme?" Obi-Wan said carefully, his tone of voice reflected in the way he cautiously approached and held himself tense and ready to retreat. "In fact, he has every reason to want her dead—something that he's already tried to do. If he's the Sith Lord that's been behind this whole war, if he's been orchestrating events on both sides, then that means he's also responsible for assassination attempts on both Padme and Zelina. He knows how much they care about you, and vice versa, they'd always be a pull on you back towards the light. That would cast them as beings to be exterminated, in his view, if he wanted you to be his apprentice and wanted you to turn completely to the dark side. I wouldn't put it past him to stall until it's too late, and then shift the blame elsewhere, or claim he did everything he could."

Anakin didn't even contradict him, which gave Zelina surge of a sense of oncoming victory she eagerly pursued. They were getting through to him!

A little...hopefully...

"Even if it was an actual ability, I highly doubt it would be something from the dark side," Zelina dared to say. "We already talked about what that ability might entail if it was from the dark side, but giving it more thought, it might not even be focused on saving someone else—it might be focused on self-preservation if it does exist, which means it wouldn't be of help to Padme because she's not Force Sensative."

"Anakin, you remember Mortis, when Ahsoka...died?" Obi-Wan asked carefully, hesitant to bring up a delicate subject, though Zelina trusted that the older man had a point to make. "It was the Father and Daughter that brought her back, through you, and from what I remember, that ability looked far more like something from the light than anything that came from darkness. If there is a way to stop death, to save someone's life or bring them back from the brink, it might not be dark at all—which would also mean it's an ability far beyond the Chancellor's means."

Zelina had to fight the overwhelming urge to kiss Obi-Wan's cheek as he finished, turning back to Anakin. "Anakin, Palpatine's lying—he doesn't know how to save Padme, he just wants to use your power to claim control of the galaxy. You can't trust him, so please, don't continue down this path any further than you already have!"

"How many times must I tell you—it's too late to turn back now," Anakin said in a surprisingly calm tone of voice. "The dark side, it—"

"Does not hold complete control over you yet," Obi-Wan said, surprising everyone as he too approached Anakin. "Zelina is right. If that was true, you wouldn't have spared her life, or have been convinced to listen to what we have to say and talk or let me live. If you were truly too far gone, you wouldn't actually care about Padme, either—you'd only look at what she could do for you to give you more power. You can still turn away from the dark side, Anakin—the only thing that will change that is whether or not you believe it to be possible."

"It is," Zelina said firmly. "Anakin...please...we want you to come back. Leave this behind, and come back to your wife and son. They need you. Luke doesn't want you on the dark side, Anakin, he wants his father whole and on the light side of the Force. He wants Anakin Skywalker, not the Sith Lord Palpatine has manipulated into being. If you stay on this path, you will inevitably destroy everything that you care about. My visions of Luke have suggested as much."

Zelina bit her lip, hesitant to push her luck with her next statement before she decided to do it anyway, just to be sure. "You mentioned it earlier. There was once I had a vision where Luke said that he was afraid to die, he said so before desperately pleading for me to help you with your darkness, he even called out for you. Please, if you won't do it for anyone else, or for yourself, do it for—"

A shrill alarm went off at one of the console stations, interrupting Zelina, who trailed off.

"...your son..."

Everyone's attention was now on the console that was alerting them to inbound ships—plural. Anakin hurried to the monitor before a dark look fell across his face, and Zelina felt an unforgiving cold settle across the room.

"It's Palpatine."