Of Love and War Book 5: The Tragedy of Hope

Chapter 3: From the Ground Up

IMPORTANT: Now that I have posted this chapter, I am going to start a one shot collection called Us Against the World. While it will feature some Clone Wars Era snippets, there will be a lot of one shots that fill in the nineteen years between this chapter and the prologue/next chapter, so it is WORTH going to read. It is not up yet (As of April 14, 2019), but it will be up ideally soon since its easier for me to write one shots during the craziness of the school year than it is for me to write full length chapters.

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Zelina did not tear her gaze from the child in her arms, marveling over him as she carefully wrapped the white blanket around his flailing body. The medical droid hovered over her, tuned out by Zelina's musings as she simply watched Luke squirm in her arms and slowly soaked in his light like it was revitalizing her own.

The droid spoke to her in its mechanical voice, still in another language, stretching its arms out expectantly. Zelina still did not raise her head, eyes trained on Luke, on his waving hand and kicking legs, at the mouth that worked as if searching for something, his little chest moving up and down with steady breath.

Was...was he hungry? She couldn't do anything to feed him—

"Zelina."

Obi-Wan's soft voice broke her concentration, and Zelina looked up to see that he had handed Leia to one of the medical droids. Both Obi-Wan and the other medical droid were looking at Zelina expectantly, with Luke beginning to cry with insistence.

The medical droids would take care of him. At the moment, there was nothing Zelina could do to help him except hand him over to the medical droids so they could take care of him. For the moment...she had to let him go.

Reluctantly, Zelina raised her arms to gently hand Luke off to the medical droid, never taking her eyes off of the child until the droid had left the room and Luke was no longer within her view. Slowly her fingers curled around the necklace still dangling from her hand, gaze unfocused as her thoughts threatened to drag her under yet again.

No, don't think about that—not yet at least. You need to hold it together just a little longer...for Luke's sake...

Carefully, Zelina dragged herself to her feet, using the wall behind her as a support. Obi-Wan stepped forward, but Zelina held out a hand to stop him, trying her best not to look at Padme's body. She could gather her wits long enough to be of use to the newborn Skywalkers. She'd sworn she'd look after Anakin's family; she'd already orward, taking up the rear of the group of five.

Dark images and thoughts danced in the back of her mind like scorned lovers wielding a blade, waiting for the right moment to strike. She ignored them, stepping out into the brightly lit hall and starting after the others. As soon as someone noticed she was following, she met resistance.

"Knight Du'ahn, you should resting, now," Bail protested, holding out a hand like he was expecting to have to steady or catch her.

"Concern you, this conversation does not," Yoda added.

"I mean no disrespect, Master Yoda, but that's not true," Zelina said with barely maintained patience. She was too tired and defeated to be trying to remain cordial right now. "This conversation is going to be about the twins, about where we go from here as some of the few Jedi who remain—this conversation concerns me more than I think you fully realize."

"Zelina," Obi-Wan said in a voice that would have sounded far more scolding if he hadn't sounded nearly as worn as she was.

"No, Obi-Wan," Zelina said, her voice a little stronger this time. "I'm going to be part of this conversation. I need to be part of this conversation."