Your opinion is unasked for and unwanted.

So Anakin doesn't appreciate the existence of her children? 

Do. Not. Speak. Of. Them.

I intend to do more than speak of them.

They are beyond your reach, forever.

You'll find nothing is beyond my reach.

I doubt that, Sith. A flash of teeth and hidden claws, the primal promise of the predator protecting her family.

You didn't do such a good job of protecting Anakin before.

Things change.

The past does not. The ways you failed her do not. 

Don't think you can lecture me about failure.

I haven't failed, dear. The Dark Side never will. 

Elesse declines to respond further, focusing only on blocking the slow creep of the Sith's influence as Anakin continues her work.

She has more than one way of opposing them (and a keen instinct for how to dig at Elesse's rawest, most painful wounds) - but Elesse and Anakin can take away something - not victory, but a mitigation of loss, a thin gilding of hope like bright sun behind clouds. 

Still, the dead fall like rain, and the fight was lost before it even began. 

They won't save enough. 

More than none, nevertherless.

Though the dead still hurt. Every person she fails still hurts. 

But she can't keep doing this forever. Her mind is starting to stretch - thin, almost. 

She's done as much as she can. She has to let go. Find another way.

But failing hurts. 

It does, Elesse knows. They've saved who they can know. All that's left is to preserve themselves so they can do more later.

She -

She doesn't want to. But she'll retreat if Elesse does. 

She appreciates that.

And so Anakin pulls back. 

And then curls up at the back of Elesse's mind. 

So many mental hugs.

This sucks everything sucks death sucks she abandoned them but it was always a trap but she didn't see which she should've but no one saw the end coming no one realized the true nature of the trap and she failed -