𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐎 || 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐤𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫

Chapter 18 - A Dying Confession

Sensing my anxiety through the Force, Anakin told me softly, "Don't be afraid, Jet... It'll all be over soon,"

"I've been afraid of a lot of things in my life..." I admitted quietly in the darkness, taking a deep, shuddering breath before speaking the words long suppressed in my heart, "...but my feelings for you have terrified me most of all..."

Anakin watched me a moment before his eyebrows knit together in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

Pausing as I gazed back deeply into those cerulean eyes I'd known for so many years now, I confessed, "I love you, Anakin,"

A range of emotions flitted across his face within seconds, too fast for me to discern them before he choked out in a stunned voice, "You love me?!"

He glanced down, taking a breath as he gathered his thoughts.

"I thought we had decided not to fall in love. That we would be forced to live a lie...That it was taboo,"

"I don't care anymore - all I know is that I need you. Taboo or not, I'm in love with you, Anakin Skywalker," I said, passion lacing my every word as gazing back into his blue eyes, the both of us leaning in, "I always have. And I can't die without you knowing that."

Our lips collided, the warmth of his mouth lighting a fire within me as the shape of them fit together like puzzle pieces. But this kiss was very different from the first - this kiss was as sweet and gentle as a promise. A promise that no matter what, we wouldn't be kept apart any longer. A promise that no matter how long we both had left to live, we would always love each other. And that one promise? That one promise meant more than anything in this entire galaxy.

The press of his lips connected to mine over and over as the cart began to move forward. Slowly, Anakin pulled away, my forehead resting on his just as the sunlight broke over the pair of us. As the roar of the crowd hit a crescendo, I reluctantly ripped my gaze from Anakin's to view the Geonosians amassed in the stands. They numbered in the thousands, cheering and flitting their wings in eager anticipation of the deaths to come.

As the cart eventually came to a stop in front of four lone pillars, my eyes locked on the figure already chained to the last one. I couldn't fight the grin that emerged on my face at the sight of him as I was led to my pillar.

"How's it hanging?" I called over to him, nodding to the chains binding his wrists above his head.

Obi-Wan scowled at me in response before saying to Anakin to my right, "I was beginning to wonder if you'd got my message,"

"I retransmitted it just as you had requested, Master," he replied as the Geonosian guard began to chain him to the pillar as well, "Then we decided to come and rescue you,"

Obi-Wan glanced up at his bound wrists before sassing back, "Good job!"

A derisive snort escaped from my mouth as Anakin made a face. Glancing up then as the crowd's cheers intensified, I noticed the archducal box had filled up with many familiar faces - Poggle the Lesser, Count Dooku, Nute Gunray, the Separatist dignitaries from the trial - but also ones completely unfamiliar to me. That of a middle-aged dark-haired man clad in blue and silver armor along with a young boy likely around 10 or 11 years old. The looks were so uncanny in their similarity that they must be family.

The man's gaze, which had been surveying the captives, fell on me then and an unreadable expression flitted across his face before being schooled back into that of somber indifference.

Poggle began to speak in Geonosian then as the crowd's cheers fell to a lull, "The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis. Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this public arena henceforth,"

The crowd roared their approval with applause, the stamping of feet, and fluttering of their gossamer wings.

"Let the executions begin!"

The crowd went wild then, erupting into deafening cheers as the gates lining the arena began to squeak open. Monstrous creatures poured out of the open gates in that moment - a Reek, a Nexu, an Acklay, and a Knobby White Spider. Out of all of them, the spider made my skin crawl. And my luck, that one was evidently the one meant for me as it ambled across the ground in my direction.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Anakin muttered ominously as we watched them grow ever closer.

"You've got a bad feeling about this?" I shot back with wide eyes as I shook my chains in agitation, "At least yours looks more docile than mine. He's looking at me like I'm some sort of overstuffed jumbo jubba bird."

It was Anakin's turn to laugh at this to which I glared daggers back at him, "Yes, laugh at my misfortunes, why don't you?... I'm about to become a buffet. And not the good kind."

"Just relax. Concentrate," Obi-Wan advised me, keeping his eyes fixed on the Acklay clambering his way.

"This coming from the man who nearly wet himself the first time he flew with Anakin is surprisingly not helping me feel so relaxed!" I shot back.

Obi-Wan was about to dignify this with a well-placed retort when the creatures were upon us and every Jedi for him or herself.