Of Love and War Book 2: The Oncoming Storm

Chapter 16: Count Dooku

Zelina had just registered that they were saved when the blaster fire resumed once more.

She pulled herself from her thoughts, throwing all of her focus into deflecting the blaster bolts that suddenly crisscrossed everywhere. The Jedi all stayed in their tightly knit circle as the aircrafts—gunships by the looks of them—slowly began to land, white clad soldiers jumping out to add to the blaster fire in the arena. Zelina gave a sigh of relief as she was finally able to stop the constant movement, gripping her shoulder with a grimace as she followed Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme into the nearest gunship.

Once they had risen safely off the ground, Anakin put a hand on Zelina's shoulder as they all held on tightly to the handles dangling from the ceiling. "Are you alright?"

She gave him a small smile. "I'll live. I'm not going to lie; it hurts a lot, but as long as I'm careful I should be fine."

Obi-Wan leaned over with a frown, eyes narrowing on her shoulder. "When did you get that?" he asked suspiciously.

"A few hours ago," Zelina said vaguely.

Obi-Wan nodded towards the hole in her arm. "The fabric's not singed, so it's not a blaster bolt wound...a regular bullet I'm guessing? And considering I tracked you three to Tatooine I'm assuming it was from a Tusken Raider."

Zelina blushed, looking away. "Yes Obi-Wan."

"You're going to need more than a bacta pad on that. We'll have to get you properly treated when we get out of here. Until then, you're right, you'll have to be careful."

Zelina met his gaze once more, smiling softly when Obi-Wan asked no more questions. "Of course. That's what I planned on," she said lightly.

The gunship hit turbulence, and their conversation was pushed aside. "Hold on!" Obi-Wan shouted over the roar of the engines. Zelina tightened her grip on the handle, glancing around at the others as they sped away from the arena. Blaster bolts continued to fly through the air as the battle raged on.

"Aim right above the fuel cells," Anakin told the gunners. Their next shot hit home, resulting in a raging inferno.

"Good call my young Padawan!" Obi-Wan said with a smile. Anakin returned with a small smirk, nodding in acceptance of the compliment.

Instead of landing like the other gunships were currently doing, their gunship pushed forward beyond the battle.

"Attack those federation starships, quickly!" Obi-Wan ordered to the soldiers.

More explosions followed suit, though Zelina focused on taking the time to rest herself, feeling drained after all of the exertion she had just put herself through. Anakin glanced at her. "How are you holding up Zee?"

"I'm looking forward to some well-deserved rest, how about that," she replied wearily. He chuckled lightly.

"You'll get your rest, you've just got to last a little longer," he encouraged.

"Copy that," she mumbled.

The crash of another starship caused dirt to fly everywhere, and Zelina scowled, covering her eyes as she tried to keep any more sand from blinding her. "Reason five thousand on why to hate sand," she grumbled.

"You're just full of optimism today, aren't you Zelina," Obi-Wan said with a smirk.

"Of course Obi-Wan. Always."

As the sand cleared, Obi-Wan seemed to notice something. "Look over there!" he called out.

All of their gazes centered on Count Dooku, obviously making his escape.