𝕮𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬
━━ 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘿

━━ 𝘒𝘈𝘕𝘛𝘖𝘖𝘕𝘐𝘈
𝟸𝟺 𝙱𝙱𝚈

Selyn has to lean against an icy wall as she hears his voice carried from the command central into the corridor leading towards it.

Anakin. He is there, just within reach, any second now she will see him, drink in those familiar features as if she was getting drunk on liquor. She hasn't seen him in more than half a month now, at least not in person. They have managed to sneak away and call each other via their holo projectors, but it just isn't the same – his voice sounds a little different, he is just a ghostly, blue version of himself, a painful reminder that they're lightyears away from each other's embrace.

But now he's here.

Selyn wants to touch him, she wants to feel the warmth of his skin, wants to lean against his chest and block out the rest of the world. She wants his arms around her waist and his reassurance that everything will be fine, she wants him close enough to make up for being too far apart for too long. She wants a million things as she steps into the command central, but she forces herself to remain calm and collected.

Obi-Wan, Nadia and Anakin stand around a circular holomap that shows their troops and their surroundings as pale blue projections. Selyn spots Noa and Ahsoka, too, lingering by Nadia's side as she quietly explains something to them. Their faces are illuminated by the map beneath them, and they appear ghostly and as if they were underwater in this otherwise empty, sterile room. And then there are several Clone Commanders, Rex, Cody and Wess (her commander) amongst them.

Selyn offers her greetings as she walks towards them, standing to Nadia's other side and across from Anakin. Their gaze meets, and in these few seconds they express all the emotion that has built up withing them in the past weeks, all the painful longing and the urge to be close to each other at all times. It is overwhelming and makes her knees weak, and with every second she spends looking into his eyes she feels as if there were a gravitational pull towards him growing stronger and stronger until she has to clasp her hands around the metal projector between them to prevent herself from doing something incredibly stupid. Like flinging into his arms. Or kissing him in front of everyone. Or-

"Hey, easy there," Nadia chuckles to her side and Selyn lands brutally in reality again. "You look like you're about to go absolutely feral on Anakin. Please spare me the embarrassment of having to explain that to Obi-Wan."

Selyn laughs absently and tries to calm her breathing. Her entire body seems to be in some state of exception, sending her spiralling into yearning and desire.

Luckily no one else notices but Anakin. As she dares to look up again, she finds his eyes fixed on her with such intensity that she can feel the ghostly touch of his hands on her body.

"Thanks to Selyn and the 105th we have managed to separate the enemy troops into two groups." Obi-Wan gives her an appreciative nod. "Technically we are still outnumbered, but the Seperatists still need to organize themselves and adapt to this new situation whilst we have been preparing for this attack for a few days now."

Anakin leans forward, resting his hands on the circular metal frame of the projector. "We attack swiftly and with great force. Our troops will be divided into two equal groups, each taking on one part of the Sepearatist army. We will lead them towards the rock formation we claimed earlier today where we have the support of our snipers as well. Between their elevated position and our soldiers closing in on them on the ground they will be crushed."

Nadia tilts her head sideways. "Me, Selyn and Noa will take care of this part with the 105th and my battalion. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, the 501st and the 212th take out the rest." She looks into the round. "Everyone clear?"

Nods and sounds of approval from all sides.

Nadia gives a grim smile. "Then everyone get ready. We've got an army to destroy."

Clones and Jedi alike scurry out of the central to ready their weapons and brief their troops. Selyn is almost by the door as a hand takes her by the wrist, whirling her around and swiftly guiding her into a smaller, darker room she hasn't spotted before.

Her eyes haven't adjusted to the dim light yet, but she doesn't need them to recognize Anakin – she knows his presence, knows the way the force moves around him, knows the way it's luring her in, telling her that this is where she belongs. It carries a tender warmth with it that she finds nowhere else.

Yes, something answers within her. This is where I belong.

As soon as the door closes behind them, she bridges the distance between them as fast as possible and flings into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders and burying her head by his chest.

As his arms tighten around her Selyn hears the thundering heartbeat that she knows matches her own. Here, in the darkness, their hearts beat in sync.

Anakin smells of war and of battle, but also of engine oil and warmth and him. As she takes her first calm breath in days, she can feel her whole body relax in his presence, her doubts and worries become nothing but white noise in the back of her mind. Every time she's in his arms she's surprised by how much a person can feel like home.

Nothing compares to being held by him. Nothing ever will.

Selyn kisses him, hungrily, fiercely, getting lost in the feeling of his lips against hers, as if trying to make up for all this time they've been apart.

They break apart but only as far as needed to catch their breath. Their foreheads remain touching, both driven by the will to be as close as possible when they have the chance to.

She laughs, head dizzy from their kiss. "To say that I've missed you is an understatement, as you can see."

He grins. "We surely had some catching up to do."

"Still do." She kisses him again.

He grins mischievously. "Suddenly I feel like dragging this battle out a bit more so that we can finally spend some time together."

"Ankain!" She laughs, twisting a lock of the longer hair at his neck between her fingers. His hair has grown into beautiful curls since the beginning of the war, and she never misses a chance to tell him how good it looks. "We really have to win today."

He rolls his eyes. "Fine. But maybe at least we could get injured - only lightly of course - and then we'll have to recover together?"

"I'll see what I can do."

He grins. "That's my girl. I've got some ideas, too, regarding-"

A knock sounds on the door, startling them both. Out of reflex Selyn jumps back, bringing adequately enough space between them.

Then she hears Noa's muffled voice. "Master, General Skywalker, have you finished studying the maps?"

"What?" Selyn asks, confused.

A short pause. "You're...you're in the map room right now."

"Oh." She feels her cheeks heat up. "Oh, right. Yes, yes we are."

"Just a minute," Anakin adds, glancing towards Selyn. "Just one more thing we need to do."

Five minutes later a still-flushed Selyn and a rather smug looking Anakin step out of the maps room, joining Noa who has patiently waited a few metres away.

"Master." He nods at Selyn. "General."

As they walk towards the corridor, she swears she can see him suppress a smile. She's got to find a very convincing lie to cover up for that.

Later, as she is engulfed in cannon fire and smoke, all those little worries have completely vanished from her mind. Gone is her amusement at Noa's provocative comments she had to endure the whole way back from the map room, gone is her and Anakin's carefreeness, joking about getting injured to spend some time together. His touch is merely a distant memory, but the threat of injury and death is even more real – she has become General Val'aeon now, Golden Flash, a menace in battle.

It's not going well. The Seperatists must have seen their strategy coming because they adapted to this new situation far quicker than anticipated. And now their superiority in numbers allows them to gain the upper hand.

Nadia is somewhere to her right, too far away to see and lost in the noise and icy dust. But Noa is still by her side, his green saber flashing in her periphery from time to time, offering relief in the knowledge that he is alright.

But they've allowed the Seperatist troops to push them and a small group of clones into lower terrain resembling a canyon of red ice that Selyn hasn't spotted upon landing. Her neck tingles as she realizes that there is a dead end ahead. She doesn't like this. Not at all.

Attempting to break free from this disadvantageous situation they got themselves into she doubles her effort in attacking. Her mind works tirelessly, searching for a way out or for an opening. But there's nothing. She can feel Noa getting nervous, too, the force drones with uneasiness and tension around him.

The Seperatists must have seen their desperation because the amount of troops closing in on them grows. The sickly familiar whirring of droidekas sends her stomach plummeting ten feet down. They have their hands full defending themselves from the existing droids already.

A clone drops to the ground next to her and suddenly she's on Geonosis again, seeing that black, smoking hole in the chest of someone who was alive just a moment ago.

Blue flashes all around them as the droidekas ready their shields and open fire. Sweat pools down her brow.

The troops close in even further. Another clone falls by her side, his chest littered with those horrible, gaping spots of darkness. What a gruesome way to die.

And suddenly she can't breathe. She sees the look in Noa's eyes, his wide, terrified gaze. He has never seen that much death before this day, either. She sees how he struggles to put on a brave face as he realizes that he could be the next to fall.

Her chest is too tight, she knows she should be focusing right now, she should be thinking rationally to get them out of this, but panic rises like water in her lungs, faster with every second, making it impossible to breathe. All she can think about is how he's too young, how she's too young, how this is his first time on a real battlefield, how this is a full-scale war and he's just a kid and how she isn't strong like Nadia, how she couldn't never get over losing her padawan.

All she can think about is this look in his eyes, how it mirrors the same terror she felt, barely nineteen, on the geonosian battlefield when war had given her a taste of hell for the first time.

She couldn't bear it at nineteen. She can't even bear it now. But Noa is a child. He's fourteen, too young, too young, too young.

Too young.

And then something in Selyn just snaps.

It feels as if a switch was flipped inside her brain, as if her vision shortly tilts and then readjusts. She explodes into something animalistic, something primitive with only one goal: to protect.

Red snow sprays as she lunges forward, screaming, unleashing hell. It stains her cheeks, looking like drops of blood.

Later she won't be able to tell what happened, everything she sees blurs together into a haze of violence and fury. Red snow and red sparks, blood on her hand and crimson fog in her mind. She isn't herself anymore as she strikes without mercy, the force on fire all around, flames licking higher and higher, sending pitch-black smoke into the sky. And she burns and burns and burns amidst the icy wasteland.

Later, she only remembers the heat and the world swallowed by a wildfire and the strength that came with it. It is as if she stepped outside of her body and let someone, no, some thing inside her take over.

✧･ﾟ:* 𝕬𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘖𝘙'𝘚 𝘕𝘖𝘛𝘌 *:･ﾟ✧

huh 🫠

now the angst is starting y'all 😙✌️

Selyn going on some insanity-themed side quests this chapter, crazy girl 😭

but Anakin and Selyn are so grown up now and adulting and being amazing together YES I love them - war-core Selyn and Anakin can step on me and I would absolutely thank them 🥰

and now we finally have Anakin's long hair!! whohoo!✨

what are your thoughts on Selyn's little episode right there and just in general?

bye bye kiss kiss! 🫶🫶

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