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❝𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴, 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘹𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦. ❞
                      - 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬é 𝐀. 𝐀𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞

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»»-----------►Ｆｏｒｃｅ

𝐈𝐅 𝐀 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 were to walk into Mos Espa on the sunny, bright day of the grand pod race, all would hear the deafening drone of the hundreds of engines getting turned on throughout the sandy race track.

On a viewing tower high above the chaos below, a Gungan, two beautiful sisters, a Jedi, an astro mech, an interpreter, and a middle aged woman all stood in anticipation for the big event to take place, rooting for a certain blonde boy in a homemade podracer.

A small tablet engraved into a metal stand by the thick railing of the viewing tower showed the friends and family of young Anakin Skywalker how the race was going, showing them just how well their young blonde was doing.

Back down into the sandy dune below, Anakin Skywalker quickly flipped a switch underneath the rest of the controls after one of the announcers shouted, "Start your engines!"

All the while, his mother and Clarissé stood up in the stands, the younger of the two pacing anxiously and biting her young nails, deep in worried thought with shallow breath.

Other aliens from all over the galaxy waved custom flags in their colorful, fat hands. These flags were meant to represent the podracers. Anakin's was a snowy white with an intricate blue design on the left. A golden letter in Huttese sat on the right side.

Jar Jar, in complete panic, swiftly covered his big eyes with his large hands, exclaiming, "Oh, dissen ganna be messy! Mesa no watchen!" The action from the childish Gungan made the young girl next to him pat his slumped shoulder with reassurance and hope, silently telling him that everything would be fine. Anakin would be okay, and he would win.

But even then, with all the hope and optimism in the galaxy, the young queen wasn't so sure.

Jabba the infamous Hutt, upon his throne, looking down at all the slaves and merchants below him with a disgusting scowl, yanked a poor, completely innocent frog from a tray next to him, and without an inch of sympathy for the small creature in his blob of a hand, Jabba pulled off the frog's head with his nonexistent teeth and munched harshly on the poor frog's body, spitting out a chunk of the frog at a golden gong in the corner of the balcony, signaling that the racers were free to finally race. Clarissé, who looked up at the Hutt with her usual spark of curiosity, grimaced in disgust at the horrid Hutt while also frowning with pity at the innocent frog that was unwillingly forced to give its life for something as horrible as Jabba the Hutt. Clarissé slightly shook her head in distaste at the fat alien, hating the bulbous Hutt immensely at that moment for the murder of something so innocent and small, such as herself.

With that tiny chime, and a bright green light emitting from its place on the bridge above the racing track, all the pods down below suddenly dashed forward, out of sight and onto the tedious track ahead of them.

All except two.

The first one; a droopy faced Toong named Ben Quadinaros. The mentioned Toong's pod didn't even move an inch before the engine sputtered out, causing the spring green alien to frantically and cartoonishly panic at the sound and sight of his pod failing.

The second one, unfortunately, was the very same little boy who had promised to get the Queen of Naboo the parts she needed for her Nubian transport.

Anakin Skywalker...

The blonde boy, at the sudden stop of his pod, looked with confusion behind him to find out what was happening, what went wrong?

Clarissé Amidala Naberrie, quickly sucked in a sharp breath at her friend's sudden pause, terrified at what this meant.

What was going on?

The double announcers were quick to comment on the scene, the one who could speak Galactic Basic commenting, "Oh... wait. Little Skywalker has stalled."

Clarissé still looked at Anakin with watchful eyes, everyone else around her in the stands looking at all the racers that had managed to make their way onto the actual track.

Clarissé could care less about the other, despicable racers.

Her eyes never left Anakin. He was all she cared about in that moment. She couldn't let him get hurt, or even worse, dead.

She held her breath with widened eyes.

Much to the young queen's dismay, everyone (minus her friends and sister) started to laugh at the young boy, pointing at him like he was an animal in a cage.

This, as expected, angered her in ways nothing else had. It reminded her of the time she had been told by a local Nubian boy that girls couldn't be rulers.

Needless to say, that very same boy had been punched so hard by the young brunette, he still to this day has a crooked nose.

The young fighter's nose flared up as her cheeks became a glowing, angry red, her green eyes holding a murderous glint in them.

Despite her anger towards the disgusting crowd's behavior, Clarissé reluctantly tore her eyes away from Anakin, who still wasn't moving, and towards the still frantic Ben Quadinaros, who started to pound onto his steering wheel with tears running down his blobby face.

"Well it looks like Quadinaros is having engine trouble also," the Galactic Basic speaking announcer reported, his voice holding a bubbly, excited tone that made Clarissé mentally gag inside.

Jar Jar, at this point, took Clarissé's advice and got exceedingly hopeful for Anakin, shouting with encouragement, "C'mon Ani!"

The silly Gungan's response must have sparked something in Anakin's pod, for with one more kick and flick from the young slave, the speedy pod shot off into the hot air.

Clarissé Amidala Naberrie, at the sight of the small victory, jumped up into the warm air with a small sound of success and her tiny fist raised triumphantly in the air, her eyes wide, bright, and holding enough hope for the entire group. The smile on the young queen of Naboo's face was enough to make even the coldest of people soften at the sight of it, her pearly teeth gleaming in the bright sun.

Padmé, also excited by this revelation, picked her sister slightly up and squeezed her into the warm side of Padmé Naberrie.

Jar Jar decided to voice his enthusiasm by yelling, "Go Ani, go!"

The young green eyed girl softly exited her sister's side by moving towards the screen showing Anakin's progress, anxiously yanking on her soft braid as she did.

"C'mon, Anakin," she whispered to herself, her soft, gentle voice being carried throughout the wind, "You've got this. I know you do."

"And there goes Skywalker," the Galactic Basic announcer, who's name was Beed, imputed, his voice carrying greatly across the sandy boneyard due to the microphone he used, "He'll be hard pressed to catch up with the leaders."

From Clarissé's perspective of the viewing tablet they were given, Anakin impressively caught up with the other racers, making up for lost time. Unfortunately for Ben Quadinaros, he could not start up his pod, causing him to be forcefully and roughly shoved out of the boneyard, his pod being shot down at the spot. The action made Clarissé grimace with pity for the older Toong.

But Clarissé could not dwell with the fact that the poor older Toong was out of the race for good, as her attention was quickly placed back onto the young Anakin Skywalker zipping on the viewing screen, who had started to enter a gaping tunnel, zigzagging in between his competition.

Clarissé slightly crossed her tiny, petite and nicely manicured fingers in the comfort of her lap, hoping greatly that Anakin would win, and not crash. For good measure, she also slightly bit her lower pink lip, her sparkling teeth digging into the soft, young flesh of her mouth.

After a few moments of Anakin shockingly starting to beat everyone by swiftly traveling around them, Beed, along with his counterpart, Fode, shouted with twisted amusement, "Looks like a few Tusken Raiders have camped out on the canyon dune turn."

This made Clarissé's head to snap up with vigor, her braids slowly starting to come undone from the fast movement. She already had a bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion at what the double announcers had just revealed to the fellow crowd and viewers.

What in Force did they mean by Tusken Raiders? What could that possibly mean, and was it dangerous to Anakin Skywalker?

Whatever it was, it did not sound very good.

Clarissé soon got her answer when she looked back down onto the screen to see Anakin Skywalker swerving greatly due to the gunshots being shot off all around him.

The young girl audibly gasped as her lips started to tremble with anxiety present in her gorgeous eyes, fear being very evident on her porcelain face.

One thing was for sure; she was deathly terrified at what could happen to her young friend next.

The group of seven silently watched from the small viewing screen with absolute worry for their friend/son. Anakin continued to swerve and dodge the speedy bullets from the Tusken rifles, keen on making it back to have the chance to receive a second kiss from the young Amidala girl.

Despite wanting to desperately make it back to his green eyed motivation, Anakin had to deal with the persistent Sebulba, who had started to purposefully and harshly bump into the young slave boy's magnificent, intelligent pod.

Watto, the boy's slave owner, started to cruelly laugh at the blonde's sudden enemy pushing up against him, laughing with his other Toydarian and slave owner friends in the crowd. Clarissé looked over at the raspy sound, due to her impressive hearing, and scowled at the fat alien, his wings fluttering with glee at the thought of winning his little deal with the foolish Jedi.

With no thought afterwards, Clarissé quickly looked back at the viewing screen, not wanting to see Watto anymore.

Time passed to the point where the group could not continue to see Anakin due to the lack of a good camera angle.

This was either good... or very bad.

See-Threepio, the droid made by Anakin himself, stood behind Shmi as he started to internally panic, asking the group, "Where is master Anakin?"

Artoo, sitting next to Clarissé (as per usual) twiddled his response in a little beep, something only Threepio could understand.

"I don't know, Threepio," Clarissé answered back at the silence the poor droid had received, "But I sure hope he's okay..." the young girl trailed off at the end, getting quieter as she went.

Qui-Gon and Shmi unconsciously looked towards each other. Their hearts silently broke for the young girl's worry and nervousness towards her friends out on the dangerous track ahead of him.

Poor, sweet girl.

Padmé, at the sight and sound of her sister's wondering agony, decided to do something about it, not standing to listen to her sister being melancholy any longer, taking matters into her own hands as she ran up to the balcony with a following, slower Shmi, as they both watched out onto the horizon beyond, looking for a trace of the Skywalker boy.

They eventually found him, racing speedily towards the finishing line with Sebulba sitting mightily in his pod, hot on his tail.

"Look!" Padmé shouted, turning around to see her little sister perk up her hopeful, bright eyes. The little girl quickly ran over, only to see her friend engaged in a ferocious podracing battle with the horrible Dug she had encountered.

She gasped with slight shock but delight, overjoyed to finally know where her friend was, but also not extremely excited to see him fighting Sebulba like that, although she did halfway expect it, knowing that the Dug was a cruel, fat cheater from her one personal experience with him.

"Here he comes!" Padmé announced, alerting Qui-Gon, Artoo, Threepio, and Jar Jar that Anakin could be seen finally.

Anakin Skywalker raced around the big bend, very intent on winning the race for one special brunette.

That very same brunette cheered as her friend raced around, a breathtaking smile on her slightly tanned face from the Tatooine sun.

"It looks like little Skywalker is moving up in the field," Beed announced, his milky eyes glinting with excitement for the dangerous game the podracers were playing.

Artoo, at the sight of the young boy, starting to whirl around with excitement, beeping every often to show how truly excited he was for the blonde slave. Clarissé chuckled at his antics, patting him gently on his dome head, also extremely excited at her friend's recent uprising in the race.

The brave blue and white droid must have said something alarming to Threepio, for the naked droid exclaimed, "He has to complete two more circuits? Oh, dear!"

"He'll be fine, Threepio," Clarissé nicely replied, turning around to look at the interpreter, "I know he will."

As the racers swiftly jerked towards each other, another opponent of Anakin named Xelbree, challenged both Anakin and Sebulba, the latter not taking it very lightly.

The two rival Dug's eventually started to push each other with harsh, hard hitting shoves with their pods, Anakin trying to duck out of their wrathful way.

The fight would eventually come to an end when Sebulba rammed his sleazy pod into Xelbree, forcing the fellow podracer and Dug to violently crash into a giant sand rock, the aftermath vibrating and ringing around the dull desert planet of Tatooine.

A bright fiery explosion emitted as Xelbree flew up into the air and landed roughly on his back, thick sand rising up from its crevices and swirling around the fallen Dug.

Sebulba chuckled greedily at his fellow competitor's downfall, his teeth pulling back into a nasty grin.

Clarissé Amidala Naberrie and her group, from their spot on the tall viewing tower, could hear Beed announce in regards to Xelbree's crash, "Oh, I don't care what universe you're from, that's gotta hurt."

The young monarch started to panic as she didn't know exactly who had gotten hurt from their supposed crash.

What if it was Anakin? What if he's hurt? Did he crash?

At that moment, Clarissé Amidala Naberrie could care less about the parts they would receive from Anakin's win; she only cared about the slave boy, and if he was alright.

She prayed to the Force for his safety with all the hope and optimism she could muster up in her big, nine year old, caring heart.

Her fears were eradicated as soon as she looked back down at the screen and saw a still racing Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba head to head, the final two members of the race.

Clarissé quickly let out a sigh of contentment and relief at that new found fact, the stress and weight practically dripping off her shoulders.

"Here he comes, yahoo!" Jar Jar exclaimed with a hyper undertone and a little jump with his fist raised victoriously in the air at the sight of Anakin coming once again around the corner.

As the young boy diligently raced against Sebulba, he only had one thought on his mind: I'm coming, Clarissé.

Clarissé, with horror present in her bright eyes, started to breathe heavily at the news that Beed had just presented shortly after Anakin and Sebulba continued to race against each other.

"Skywalker's been forced onto the service ramp!"

Clarissé turned, her breath starting to flatten with every anxious breath, and dug her head into Padmé's mid drift, feeling utterly terrified for Anakin's life at this point, not believing that he would make it.

But still the girl held onto a tiny scrap of hope and faith, praying to the Force for the second time that day.

All of the queen's doubts were soon shattered, when suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, Anakin and his top notch brain decided to go above the ramp, the action being extremely dangerous yet worth it when Anakin quickly pulled ahead of Sebulba, causing the horrible Dug to be shocked and enraged at the same time, his yellowing teeth gritting in frustration for the slave boy he had threatened just yesterday.

"It's Skywalker!" Beed cried out in surprise in regards to the young boy in front of the legendary Sebulba. The crowd soon erupted into joyous applause, apparently content that they would finally have a new winner.

Clarissé quickly whipped around and out of Padmé's warm, comforting embrace at the sound of cheering and Beed's voice saying something about Anakin.

She raced over to the balcony, just in time to see Anakin pass Sebulba on the viewing screen she was given. Her eyes immediately brightened at the sight she was seeing, a wide, infectious smile breaking out across her detailed face.

"Amazing," Beed comments, his own eyes holding a bewildered glint in them, "a quick controlled thrust and he's back on course!"

Jar Jar slinked his way up to Clarissé, leaning over her shoulder to watch the tablet while asking, "Did he crashed?"

Clarissé looked up to the Gungan, smiling brightly as she shook her head and confirmed, "No, he didn't. He's going to win this race. Just you wait and see, he's going to win it. He's brilliant."

Although that statement would come true much later on, Anakin wasn't doing too well when Sebulba smacked into his pod and caused Anakin's engines to go all haywire, the Dug seemingly jealous at the young boy's success.

The boy, despite his hardships at the moment, did not give up, and instead thought about how calm Clarissé would be in a situation like this.

And so that's what the boy did: Act calm.

He swiftly yanked a rod of some sort of his pod, multitasking by attempting to level the rod with his energy binders, while also trying to drive properly. This ended up giving Sebulba a major advantage, who quickly took it and raced ahead of Anakin, much to the young boy's dismay, although he couldn't focus on that at the moment, not when his energy binders were currently failing him.

The blonde boy, who was truly skilled in podracing, quickly attached the rod to his broken energy binder, the extra support from the rod suddenly lighting the binder with a powerful spark, the driver finally getting the opportunity to return to his seat, and beat Sebulba.

"He's catching Sebulba," Beed commentated, his booming voice echoing off the Tatooine sandy floor.

Jar Jar, in response to this, leaned on the railing and exclaimed, "Careful, Ani, careful, Ani!"

Clarissé continued to watch the race with her intelligent eyes, hoping that at this point he'd at least get second, and came out alive.

Anakin and Sebulba from there started to engage into a major shoving battle, the end product being the two pods stuck together from a group of their wires.

"That little human being is out of his mind!" Beed shouted in wonder when Anakin started to attempt to unhook the two wires with another one of his rods. Sebulba just laughed cruelly at his efforts.

"They're side by side!" Beed translated when his partner, Fode, commented the exact same thing in Huttese.

"Come on, Ani," Clarissé whispered to assure herself, a nail in between her nicely set teeth, her eyes watching with hope gleaming out of her beautiful irises.

As both Anakin and Sebulba headed for the final stretch, Anakin attempted one more time to unhinge his wires with Sebulba's. He successfully and finally placed his rod underneath the haywire wiring, and pulled up with all his tiny, nine year old