"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.

"I wouldn't be surprised. I haven't particularly cared if I step on toes doing what I think is right, and I'm not oblivious to the fact that's made me some enemies. I'd also point out I'm on terrible terms with Palpatine, but the feelings are mutual, so I don't think I'm in a position to start pointing fingers."

Obi-Wan looked thoughtful at the mention that Palpatine was on that list of potential suspects. "It's something to keep in mind. In the meantime, we'll have to work on getting you a little more involved in republic matters while you're on Coruscant instead of keeping you isolated in the Temple. Just enough for the public to see loyalty to the Republic, not enough to force feed it to them?" Obi-Wan suggested.

"I've already got a lot of obligations I have to keep with now, Obi-Wan," Zelina said softly. "I'm teaching the younglings, studying Vaapad with Master Windu and Healing in the Halls of Healing, and I felt prompted by the Force to study Satele Shan, which has led me to practicing some other abilities I've discovered while studying her life and what remains of her teachings. I might be hard pressed to fit some Republic Community Service in there."

While he seemed surprised to hear she was being taught Vaapad, Obi-Wan managed to stay on topic. "This is serious, Zelina. You'll have to make the time to do something. You could help the relief efforts and refugees on Coruscant in your spare time."

Zelina turned to Satine and Padme, who shared a look. "I'm sure we can arrange something."

"Then that will be our minimalist retaliation," Zelina said with a nod. "Otherwise, we'll ignore it and let it die out."

The others looked uncomfortable, but Zelina did her best to seem determined.

In reality, she felt like she was in the process of being cornered, and it was putting her in a borderline panic.

****************************************

As she left Padme's apartment, Obi-Wan made sure he was right beside her.

"Do you mind if we talk?" he asked as they stepped into the turbolift together.

"You've already checked up on me once, recently, and you've already heard what's going on, I don't know how much we'll be able to talk about," Zelina commented.

"On the contrary, I think there's plenty to talk about."

"Then by all means."

"How are you feeling? Really? You're not as unfazed by these accusations as you're making it appear, I trust?"

"I'm feeling rather trapped, but if there's not much I can do about it, the best I can do is try not to think about it, right?" Zelina asked pointedly, staring up at the ceiling.

"Zelina, these accusations can turn serious. And the last thing I want is to see you put on trial for false accusations of being a Separatist Operative," Obi-Wan said seriously, gently touching her arm to get his attention. "I'm worried about you."

"And I'm grateful for that. I am," Zelina told him in an honest, soft tone of voice. "But there's no point in worrying over something you can't change. If these accusations do get worse, it'll have to go though the Council, first, since I'm under Order jurisdiction before Republic...though after what happened to Ahsoka..."

"I will not let what happened to Ahsoka happen to you as well," Obi-Wan said in a sudden firm tone. It surprised Zelina to hear the raw protection in his tone and the determined spark in his eye, but Zelina was touched to see it.

"Thank you, Obi-Wan. Though I am afraid you're just one member of an entire Council of Jedi who would need to be of a similar opinion," she said with a sad smile.

"You've shown your character time and time again. If Windu has agreed to start teaching you Vaapad, then it speaks to your character. You may have more support than you think, young one."

Zelina placed a hand on his shoulder. "Again, I'm grateful for the support, but I'll keep my realist point of view so that if the worst does happen I'm not too terribly disappointed."

"It's not a bad approach, I'll give you that, but it wouldn't hurt if you showed a little more optimism. At least then it won't seem like you're giving in to an inevitable outcome," Obi-Wan returned.

"I'll take it into consideration."

***************************************

Padme and Satine wasted no time in sending Zelina information about local, legitimate war relief efforts, and some of the refugee support groups that needed assistance and wasn't a credit vacuum for the good hearted to be conned into helping the greedy. After taking a look at the operation hours for both, Zelina made sure to fit time into her schedule for both wherever she could, hopefully without spreading herself too thin.

Now the only thing she had to do was ignore any follow up articles questioning her loyalty to the best of her ability. Of course, now that the rumors had been published in an article, the whispers now followed her in the halls of the Jedi Temple, though not as badly as they had plagued her in the Senate Building.

Unfortunately, her plans were short lived. Hardly a day passed before something happened that blew the entire matter out of the shallow end and into a depth more on the scale of Kamino waters.

Footage of Zelina's battle on Ruusan was released, pieced together from local security recordings and some of the security cams that the 105th wore when they were spread out across a large field and needed to see what was happening. Specifically, it was footage of the assault of the Separatist Army on the village of the locals that had been arrested. Since it was pieced together footage from several places, the footage jumped around, showing the droids attacking defenseless civilians, 105th soldiers trying to defend the villagers as well as press the droids back...

And it particularly focused on Zelina leading the defense of the village with a few of the locals at the side of the Republic forces.

At first, Zelina felt a spark of pride at the quick defense that had to have been put together by one of her men, meant to showcase that the civilians killed in the accident had been civilians who had been victims of the Separatists as much as many other Republic citizens and had tried to help, and showed Zelina working to protect the civilians against the Separatists, fighting the Separatists and trying to keep the casualties as low as possible.

But then reality settled in, and with it, a spark of panic. This didn't help, not in her current position. She needed to be ignoring the rumors, not acknowledging them to give them merit. Not to mention, as responses started to come in, it was largely negative, with a particular outrage over the fact that Republic Soldiers had been sacrificed for Separatists, and that Zelina had worked with Separatists on the battlefield.

To make matters even worse, Zelina realized that the footage was sensitive, possibly even considered top secret. Whoever leaked the footage had leaked confidential material to the public. Whatever the intentions of the releaser, it was something that could easily get a treason charge placed on their heads.

She needed to find whoever was responsible. Hopefully before Coruscant Authorities or the Republic's Military Police traced the footage to whoever released it.

Having already left the safety of the Temple to head towards Coruscant's military base for her search, Zelina used her personal comm to reach out to her men that should have been on their way back from Ruusan by now.

The soldier on the other end snapped to a salute as soon as he saw Zelina's face. "General, we weren't expecting a call from you. Shall I go find Commander Cruiser?"

"That won't be necessary, soldier. I need to speak with Commy, is he nearby?"

Considering the call had been routed to the communications room on the ship, the man had to be nearby unless he was on break. The soldier currently in her line of view, turned to look behind his shoulder, ushering for someone to step into the picture. In the next moment, Zelina was able to see Commy as well.

"Yes, General?" Commy asked, snapping a quick salute before relaxing again.

"Commy, did someone ask for footage of Ruusan in the past twenty-four hours or so?" Zelina asked seriously.

"Ah, yes ma'am. Gambit said that he'd been asked to retrieve some of the footage for a briefing you needed to give to members of the Council...is something wrong, General?"

Zelina felt a flash of ice rush through her. She'd asked for footage for her briefings before, when she worried that some of her actions reached into a grey zone the Council would need to see in order to not judge her harshly for the action she'd taken under such circumstances. It wasn't that outlandish to think she'd asked one of her most trusted men to retrieve such footage for her if she was busy. And of all the men on Coruscant, it had to have been Gambit who had jumped to her defense at risk of himself. She should have guessed. The man had already been concerned for her when the rumors started to circulate, she should have done something, said something to her men once the rumors turned to articles in an attempt to prevent this very thing from happening.

"Lock down that footage, don't let anyone access it except members of the Jedi Council, myself...and Chancellor Palpatine," Zelina told him, reluctantly adding on the last bit as she knew that someone in the Senate needed to be allowed to access the footage. If she completely cut the footage off from the Senate it would seem suspicious, but considering what was happening in regards to her recent actions, having the footage locked away from everyone in the senate except the Chancellor might seem feasible. "There are things happening here on Coruscant, and I believe Gambit tried to use the footage to come to my defense. Unfortunately, it seems he's only made matters worse, and painted a target on his back. Don't let anyone pull that footage that isn't on that list, and tell anyone else who has to handle the footage."

"General Du'ahn, what's happening on Coruscant?" Commy asked in clear concern.

"Apparently there's a rumor that I'm a Separatist Sympathizer, or worse. Gambit tried to use the footage as a defense of my character, but the public's only taking it as further proof that my allegiances might not lie with the Republic anymore. Again, Commy, do you understand? No one gets access to that footage—"

"Except yourself, the Chancellor, and the Jedi Council. It's understood, ma'am," Commy said with a sharp nod. "Has Gambit been arrested?"

"I'm headed to him now. Hopefully I get there before anyone else and I can smooth this out before it gets even more out of control. How far away from Coruscant are you?"

"Well, I'm afraid we won't be arriving tomorrow, Ma'am, but we're not too far out. Perhaps a day or two, give or take."

"I'll keep that in mind. I'm approaching the base now—again, no one touches those holos! I don't want any of my men slapped with a treason charge. Things are already tense enough here on Coruscant as it is, and I don't need any more of my men getting pulled into the middle of this mess."

"I'll let the other communications officers know, General. Good luck," Commy said sincerely, and the connection ended.

After landing her borrowed Temple speeder, Zelina made her way swiftly towards the 105th barracks section, swiftly passing the bunks for the rookies and lower ranked soldiers and headed right towards the officer and Arc Trooper lodgings. Not many of the men looked twice as she made her way through, as she wasn't a General who was above spending some of her free time with her men. If she wasn't here on official business, she would come down here for some rounds of Sabacc or simply to socialize. If they did look again, it was either because they were new to the ranks of the 105th, or they saw the purpose that she was making her way through the barracks with and were wondering what was going on that had the General so worked up and in the army's base.

The officer and Arc Trooper lodgings were mostly empty, as the majority had stayed behind for the rest of the Ruusanian conflict while a handful of soldiers, mostly the lower ranked ones, had returned with Zelina to Coruscant. Thankfully, Gambit was in his room, as Zelina entered to find him fixated on a datapad, though she couldn't see what exactly he was looking at that had him so entranced.

Though she did have a pretty good guess.

"What were you thinking?" Zelina blurted out without so much as announcing her presence or saying his name. The soldier nearly leapt off of his seat on his bunk in surprise. "Gambit, you could be arrested! You probably will be at any moment!"

Gambit rose to his feet then, standing at attention. "I did what I felt was my duty, Ma'am. They're trying to drag your name through the mud, and I know the charges that could lead to. I was hoping if they saw your calls on the battlefield, how you're a soldier of the people and you do your duty and respect all life and fight for the Republic, the rumors might stop. Or at least lose traction."

"But now they're focused on the fact that I sacrificed Republic Soldiers protecting Separatists instead of Republic citizens, that I worked with them. And you leaked sensitive, confidential footage. They could charge you with treason, Gambit, and there's not much I can do to help you if they do! This isn't Umbara, they're not Krell, I'm not going to have enough pull to stop them if they decide to charge you—I couldn't even get someone to look into the explosion that killed the Ruusanians! What were you thinking?" Zelina asked almost frantically, finding that in her fervor she'd placed her hands on either side of his arms to shake him at least once, tearing apart his expression with her gaze.

"I did what I thought was right, General. I couldn't stand by while they tried to paint you as a traitor when you're one of the best the Republic's got fighting for them. And if they arrest me for it, they arrest me for it. I'm prepared to pay any price for what I believe in, and you're one of the few things I still believe in after everything I've seen in this war," Gambit said firmly.

Zelina was about to do something that would make her an accomplice, the command for him to run for it on the brink of her lips when the door slid open once again to reveal Republic Soldiers in the red and white armor that her mind immediately referenced with Coruscant's prison.

At least she didn't see Commander Fox among them. She wasn't particularly fond of the Commander after the Ahsoka incident and his execution of Fives.

One of the soldiers stepped forward. "General Du'ahn, I'm going to have to ask you to step aside," he said firmly, and though it was with extreme reluctance, Zelina knew her window to act had closed and Gambit's fate had slipped out of her hands, so she released her hold on Gambit's arms and stepped back.

"CT-7337, Gambit, you're charged with unlawfully disclosing sensitive military recordings to the public, and are hereby placed under arrest."

**************************************************

"This makes everything so much worse."

"I know."

"They're saying it's proof that you're sympathetic to the Separatists and willing to work with them."

"I know."

"They're claiming it as evidence that the accusations are true."

"I know."

"And your presence at Gambit's arrest only makes you look worse."

"I know."

"They're saying you conspired with him to leak the footage in an effort to cover your hide, or that you'd asked him to destroy the footage to save your skin and instead he released it to show your true colors."

"I know."

"Of course, Gambit is denying both of those claims, though the public doesn't particularly care since they believe his loyalty would have him say anything to protect you, but either way it still paints you in an even worse light then before."

"I know."

Padme and Satine paced different spots of Zelina's apartment furiously, shooting off all the way that Gambits actions had made the situation worse—something Zelina was already well aware of—in an effort to vent out their frustrations before they got to work trying to help Zelina salvage the situation, or at least come out of it only slightly scathed instead of falling into an ever-worsening hole. Obi-Wan would have been there as well, but he'd gone to find Anakin, as it had become rather difficult to find the other Jedi considering how often Palpatine liked to call Anakin to his side simply to witness the day to day operations of the Senate.

And whisper his ever-twisted knowledge into his ear, Zelina also noted, though she bitterly acknowledged there was nothing she could do about that since it was an official position Anakin now held that both the Council and Palpatine wanted.

"What I don't know is what's going to happen to Gambit. I can think of some pretty nasty things, but that might just be overreaction on my part. They can't put him to death for this, can they?" Zelina asked, drawing the attention of the two women who were wearing trenches into her carpeting.

The two shared a look. "If they trumped up the severity of the leak and pushed for the worst punishment, perhaps. Usually this would just result in imprisonment, though," Padme reasoned.

"So if they treat this like any other case and there's no outside interference, he should just end up imprisoned," Zelina echoed, just to clarify.

"I believe so. Though if what you say about someone in the Senate being out to get you is in fact true..." Satine trailed off.

"Then its entirely possible that a death sentence is on the table. They might say his actions were treasonous. They might even try to pull me into this mess considering the accusations going around that it was something the two of us decided to do."

Padme shook her head. "They would need hard evidence for that last part, which they have none of. You're safe. Gambit, however, isn't."

"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Zelina asked.

"Represent him at his trial, try to douse the fire all of this has caused with some water, or in other words, tell it how it is and take out the inflammatory media perspective of the entire situation, show that it isn't as dire as some are saying that it is," Satine said softly.

Zelina sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I should have known as soon as we came up with a plan to help things settle down and put this...fiasco behind us, something would happen to send it spiraling out of control."

Padme took a seat next to her. "But we can still fix this, Zelina. No one's coming to arrest you, and despite everything that's happening, it's all still just wild accusations and claims. They don't have any evidence to pin against you yet."

"That doesn't reassure me," Zelina told her quietly. "I might not be arrested—yet—but now one of my men is facing charges that could potentially turn lethal because he tried to stand up for me with everything going on."

"At least it's something," Satine supplied, sitting on the opposite side of Zelina. Zelina didn't look up, simply fixed her gaze on a spot in front of her without really seeing anything.

"How did this even happen," she murmured.

The door to her apartment opened for what felt like the thousandth time that day, admitting both Anakin and Obi-Wan. The concern and even some fear was rolling off Anakin in waves as he entered the room, and while Zelina could also sense Obi-Wan's potent concern for her, it was Anakin's that was overpowering and filled the room.

"Zelina," Anakin said simply as he approached her. She knew he was going to say he was sorry for everything that was happening, that they were going to fix it, that he would do everything he could, that everything would be all right, that they would get through this. She didn't want him to say it, though. As long as he didn't say it out loud, she might still believe it, knowing he meant to say it, that he believed it. If he said it out loud she'd have to address it with her own skepticism, with the reality of the situation. If it remained unsaid, then perhaps she could preserve the hope he was offering her just a little longer.

Zelina rose from her seat on the couch, wrapping her arms around him in a hug he'd already been ready to supply, partially for the comfort she desperately needed, and also to stop him from saying all of it out loud.

"I'm glad you're here," she murmured quietly.

"Obi-Wan told me—"

"I know," she said softly, and he quieted, holding her a little tighter.

He knew.

He knew she wouldn't believe him if he said it out loud.

So he let her have her hope, and he hugged her back like she clearly wanted. He held her like she needed, and simply supplied the support she desperately desired from him.

Because despite everything going on, all the arguments and miscommunications and how much the war had changed them both...he still knew.

And they were both afraid, and too scared to say it aloud.