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❝𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘦.❞

❝𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵. ❞

❝𝘞𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦. ❞

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»»-----------►Ｃｌａｒｉｓｓé

𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 considered running away in a vast sandy planet like Tatooine, I would not recommend it.

That's exactly what Anakin, Qui-Gon and I were doing as the loose sand whipped past our legs and faces, the warm, sharp wind pushing our hair back, my own braids flapping in the hot breeze with the sun beating down on my pale face.

Qui-Gon was significantly ahead of us with his longer legs, and Anakin and I had a difficult time keeping up.

I was having a hard time breathing as Anakin shouted, "Qui-Gon, sir, wait, we're tired!"

Despite the both of us being drained, Anakin and I still pushed onwards, even when a mysterious figure cloaked in black came rushing towards us on his speeder bike.

"Anakin, Clarissé, drop!"

The both of us didn't hesitate for a second before dropping to the ground, letting the cloaked figure sweep his speeder over us, my hair blowing even more aggressively now.

Anakin swiftly jumped up to his feet and offered a hand down to me. I took it, gratefully due to the fact that my legs felt like hsuberry jello after all the running, and looked over at Qui-Gon violently fighting against the cloaked man (I could tell from the boxy width of his shoulders).

My blonde friend and I just stood there like idiots as we watched our good friend swing his emerald light saber harshly at the mysterious man, his own bright ruby blade never failing to get put back into its container.

Qui-Gon, somehow in the midst of his battle, saw us standing there and yelled at us to get safely in the ship.

"Ani, Clarie, get on the ship, and tell them to take off!"

I immediately rejected this idea, not liking how we had to leave Qui-Gon behind to fight this hooded menace.

"What about you?" I shouted as Anakin forcefully grabbed my hand and raced me over to the yacht ship with him dragging me by my palm.

"Worry about your own safety first!" Qui-Gon replied, continuing to slash his way to victory, his bravery radiating off of him in large waves.

I angrily huffed at his insistence and followed Anakin up the lowered ramp and into the familiar Nubian ship.

How were we going to get ourselves out of this one?

"Come on, Ani," I urgently pushed as I led the way to Panaka's quarters. He would know what to do. My small feet clanged on the metal floors.

When I reached Panaka's room at the end of the service quarters, I didn't even bother to knock, just barging in on the account that something awful was happening just outside.

"Captain!" I yelled once I fully entered the minimally furnished room, hoping to gain the attention of Panaka, who sat in a metal chair, humming as he surveyed his room. His dark eyes finally landed on mine and he abruptly stood up, looking me in the eye as he reported in a professional tone, "Miss Naberrie. What's wrong?"

"Master Qui-Gon Jinn is in grave danger, fighting someone unknown outside."

Panaka seemed to understand the severity of our situation and hastily saluted me, marching out of his room to hopefully obtain Obi-Wan's attention, who was currently piloting the ship.

Anakin and I followed Panaka, hoping to get Qui-Gon out of trouble as soon as possible.

Somewhere along the way, Padmé came out of her room in the officials hallway to see what all the commotion was.

Her dark eyes landed on mine as she raised an eyebrow at my sweaty, out of breath appearance.

"Clarissé, what's wrong? Why are you out of breath and all sandy and sweaty?"

"I'll explain later," I promised, praying to the Force that Padmé would listen to me and not ask about it until later.

She bit her lip, clearly wanting to know what was going on, and I didn't blame her, but I needed to help Qui-Gon first.

Padmé eventually nodded and left it at that, to which I gave a satisfied sigh and grin in her direction, thankful for my beautiful sister.

And so Padmé joined our little ragtag group as we burst into the control room, catching Obi-Wan and Ric Olie, one of my best pilots, off guard.

"Qui-Gon's in trouble!" Panaka shouted with urgency as Anakin and I leaned over the pilot and co-pilot seat to see out the large window better, the sides of our heads pressing together due to the small space in between the seats.

"Take off," Obi-Wan calmly explained to Ric Olie after he assessed the situation, his brow ceasing in concentration. "Over there! Fly low."

We flew over to the spot that Obi-Wan had pointed out, and waited there for a moment as a large dust cloud settled over us.

It didn't take very long until a thump was heard on the suspended ramp up above, and I quickly deduced that Qui-Gon must have used his Jedi reflexes to high jump onto our ramp in midair.

I found myself more and more impressed with the older Jedi and his skills.

As soon as I heard the ramp slot itself back into place, I immediately ran over to find Qui-Gon and make sure he was alright. Obi-Wan and Anakin trailed right behind me.

When we entered the room before the ramp, I found Qui-Gon laying there, covered in a thick layer of sweat and breathing rapidly, his long hair sticking to his wetted forehead.

I ran over to the fallen man and knelt down by his hand, Anakin following suit while Obi-Wan opted to stay standing.

"Are you all right?" I asked with concern laced through my question, rushing to help Qui-Gon up.

He accepted my hand up as he answered, "I think so."

"What was it?" Obi-Wan questioned as he narrowed his eyes at his master, no doubt angry about whatever had attacked him.

Qui-Gon looked at his apprentice with a harrowing look in his grey eyes, as if he had a secret to tell.

"I'm not sure... but he was well trained in the Jedi arts. My guess is he was after the Queen..."

My eyes immediately widened at the last three words of his explanation.

...after the Queen...

I shivered at the thought of someone as ruthless as that cloaked man going after me, looking down in deep thought

All because I wouldn't sign a treaty.

Strangely enough, when I looked back up, Qui-Gon looked at me from the corner of his wise eyes, almost like he knew what type of difficult predicament I was in.

And once again that same question came back to me: Did Qui-Gon know that I was the Queen?

He was a Jedi, and it was very possible that he could know with his mind tricks, but I didn't want to believe that someone other than my loyal Nubian helpers knew who I was.

Instead of asking him about it to ease my curiosity, I kept my mouth shut.

"What are we going to do about it?" Anakin asked, causing Obi-Wan to look at the two of us strangely, as if he was wondering who we were.

We never did introduce ourselves to him.

"We will patient," Qui-Gon wistfully replied, turning towards Obi-Wan as he turned towards Anakin and I with an outstretched hand, gesturing to us. "Anakin Skywalker and Clarissé Naberrie, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi."

I curtsied slightly, my Queen instincts kicking in as I held up my short floral dress.

"It's nice to meet you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and formally this time."

The apprentice smiled slightly at my greeting, responding in reply, "It's nice to meet you as well, Clarissé Naberrie."

"Hi. You're a Jedi too? Pleased to meet you," Anakin quickly jumbled as Obi-Wan turned towards the young boy.

They stared at each other for a while before Anakin stuck out his hand, offering Obi-Wan a hand shake.

Obi-Wan looked at the outstretched hand before grinning and taking it firmly, shaking it slowly.

I looked at the two males in front of me, smirking slowly as I imagined the two becoming great friends in the near future.

Call it a feeling or a premonition.

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

»»-----------►Ｆｏｒｃｅ

𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐒É and her band of loyal supporters of the queen made their way out of the Tatooine atmosphere, Naboo was still in grave distress.

Nute Gunray, the troublesome and greedy Viceroy of the Trade Federation, sat in an electrical chair of some sort, guiding a silent Sio Bibble, governor of Naboo, along with him. Battle droids marched behind them in perfect unison around the beautiful palace of Theed.

"Your Queen is lost," Nute started, hoping to spread doubt into the mind of the elderly governor, "your people are starving, and you, Governor, are going to die, much sooner than your people, I'm afraid."

Bibble, despite the attempts, did not back down from his defensive position. Clarissé Amidala wouldn't back down so easily to an alien like this. Grotesque and wrinkled.

"This invasion will gain you nothing," Bibble replied, his demeanor strong and demanded, just like his Queen's, "We're a democracy. The people have decided to say no to your despicable treaty, and our Queen Amidala, who is much stronger and reliable than you think, will never bow to your wishes."

Nute scowled at the older man before replying, "Then we must kill her as well. Take him away," he lastly ordered to a nearby battle droid with a wave of his wrinkled hand, the robot programmed to do what it was told immediately jumping at the opportunity and roughly taking the governor in his hard, metal grasp, shoving him back to his lonely prison cell.

OOM-9, the commanding battle droid of the Trade Federation's squadron of battle droids, came up to Nute to address his current standing.

"My troops are in position to begin searching the swamps for these rumored underwater villages... they will not stay hidden for long... hopefully like the Queen."

Nute grumbled at the mere mention of the slippery little ruler, finding her to be increasingly annoying, as if she was a mere thorn in his side, always invading him, always in his grasp but always managing to slip out at the last second.

"Don't worry, my friend... we will get our hands on her eventually."

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

»»-----------►Ｆｏｒｃｅ

𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 and still as a mouse as the young Queen of Naboo woke up with a start in her warm queen bed, the pale pink sheets twisting around her slim torso, her long chocolate hair out of their braids and flowing down to her waist, curled at the ends.

She was breathing heavily, as she had remembered that she had urgent matters to attend to revolving around Naboo. She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but Padmé insisted on it, saying that her little sister needed some rest after Tatooine, and had even sung an old Nubian lullaby their mother used to sing when they were smaller children plagued with nightmares, the soft lyrics immediately putting Clarissé to a long sleep.

She wasn't Clarissé Naberrie anymore.

She was now fully Queen Amidala.

With that thought in mind, she quickly whipped the tangled, soft sheets out of her way, standing up to reveal the lovely satin nightgown she wore to bed, something Padmé specifically picked out.

It was relatively long and reached down just below her kneecaps. The sleeves flowed like a soft breeze and reached to her elbow. It was breezy and seemed to move elegantly with Clarissé's movements. To top it off, an angelic ribbon was wrapped around the top of her head in a little bow, giving the impression that she was a beautiful angel from the heavens. Her vibrant green eyes popped against the pure color of her dress.

She truly looked otherworldly.

From her bedside table, she grabbed a lacey Nubian shawl that once belonged to her mother when she was around Sola's age, making it much too big for Clarissé's small frame. She always brought it with her whenever she traveled far from Naboo, carrying a piece of her mother with her always. She wrapped it tightly around her still shaking body. It was so big on her petite body, it looked more like an oversized blanket.

She had forgotten how cold space could become at night especially.

Tiptoeing her way slowly to the door of her room, which was zipped shut, to her dismay, Clarissé firmly pushed the button to open her door.

The door opened, as it was designed, but left a faint hissing air into the open. Clarissé cringed as she thought about Padmé waking up from her slumber and sending the very anxious Clarissé back to bed.

But Clarissé couldn't sleep. Not at a time like this. Not when her people were in danger and starving. She only hoped Padmé could understand that.

She slowly and quietly made her way to the main strategy room in the Nubian yacht ship, hoping to the Force that no one was in there, ready to rat her out.

Lucky for her, only Jar Jar and Artoo appeared to be in the room, with the Gungan sleeping noisily in a chair bending back from the weight of the silly creature at the control console, and Artoo positioned himself next to the console, cutely cooing metallically as he slept soundly.

Clarissé smiled at the two and rolled her eyes playfully at Jar Jar while also feeling slightly jealous at the fact that they could both catch a wink.

It must be nice not to have the galaxy's pressures on your shoulders at nine years old.

She moved around both Jar Jar and Artoo to sit at the monitor, using her pale fingers to click on the transmission Sio Bibble had sent a day or two ago.

Throughout the entire transmission of Bibble, she had to pause the video to take a deep breath at the sudden pressure placed upon her shaking shoulders, terrified at what Bibble was going through back on Naboo, and even more terrified for her people. The transmission was scary, no doubt, but it was even more horrific for the young queen to not know how she was going to deal with the issue. To ease her growing headache, she put a hand to her sweating forehead and started to rub it soothingly.

Am I strong enough... This is all my fault... I don't feel too well...

Then all of a sudden, she felt someone watching her.

A pair of azure eyes staring at her from the corner of the room.

She abruptly looked over to see Anakin assessing her with glossy, glazed over eyes, as if he thought he was in a dream of some kind.

He was shivering, and looked terribly cold. It made sense, as he had never truly been cold before, living on Tatooine and all, arguably one of the hottest planets in the galaxy. He also had never been in space before, and space was known for being freezing.

Instead of asking him why he was sitting on the couch in the command room, Clarissé, in the goodness of her heart and with her immense kindness, instead asked, "Are you alright, Ani?" She was heavily concerned with his shivering, not liking how cold and miserable he looked.

"I should be asking you that," he replied cheekily, noticing how stressed she looked, still shivering from the cold air around him. "It's very cold."

The angelic little girl across from him smiled compassionately at him, silently shrugging her mother's shawl off of her shoulders as she moved across the room to him, her movements so elegant, it looked as if she didn't place a foot on the metal floor, only gliding and floating her way to him. Once she reached him, she plopped down on the couch and securely wrapped it around his quivering body, being as gentle as possible, her touch feather soft and leaving goosebumps along Anakin's skin.

Anakin just looked at her, and maybe it was there where he fell in love with her.

He looked at the light from the faraway stars glinting on her pale body, creating an unmistakable glow surrounding her, as if she was an angel.

Maybe he wasn't that far off when he called her an angel on Tatooine.

She sure looked angelic here.

The thing that stood out most to Anakin, was her glowing eyes, the vibrant green beautifully contrasting with her white skin and attire.

Her hair looked silky in the starlight, but he couldn't help looking at her eyes, and their captivating pull. He also realized that this was his first time he had seen her hair down in all its glory.

If that's what her hair is like all down, I never want to see her without all of it out.

She was the most beautiful thing in the galaxy to him in that moment, and she would continue to be, for many years to come.

"You come from a warm planet, Ani," Clarissé explained softly, still adjusting the shawl to fit just right on her friend, her green irises flitting over to his own eyes occasionally, making soft eye contact with him. "A little too warm and sandy for my taste, but that's only because I grew up on Naboo, which doesn't get very hot in the summer. It's usually cool breezes and soft sunshine there. Space is cold, but don't worry; I didn't get used to the cold until my fifth or sixth flight."

"Why do you travel so much?"

Clarissé slightly stilled at that question, turning to look at Anakin before smiling and answering, "The Queen often needs to travel to sign a treaty of some sort or visit a certain landmark on some planet. It can get a bit tedious sometimes, but I have to go, because I'm the most important handmaiden to her Royal Highness."

The two sat in silence for a moment before Anakin quietly observed, "You seem sad. What's wrong?"

Clarissé stopped moving for a second, taking a deep breath at the mention of her planet's condition. She looked back at Anakin with big, saddened eyes and tried explaining.

"The Queen is... worried. Her people are suffering... dying. She must convince the Senate to intervene, and I'm not sure what will happen. It's a lot of pressure for someone so young. And we must succeed, or else the Trade Federation will seize Naboo as its own. That's why we need to get to Coruscant as soon as possible, so they don't have a chance to strike back." Clarissé bit her bottom lip in complete fear of not getting to Coruscant in time.

That would be a complete disaster.

Anakin looked at the beautiful young girl before deciding now was the perfect time to give his gift to Clarissé. He was originally supposed to give it when she was supposed to leave Tatooine for Coruscant, but he never got the chance before they left.

As if the Force had heard his prayers, Clarissé and Qui-Gon ended up returning to Tatooine not even an hour after they had supposedly departed from the sandy wasteland.

The young blonde reached into his pocket to grab his gift for the Queen of Naboo; a humble japor snippet, carved by his own hand, intended to make sure the young girl remembered him.

"I made this for you," Anakin informed as he handed the little snippet held together by a black string to his favorite girl, the intended young girl taking it while smiling brightly at her friend, silently thanking him for whatever he had given her. "So you'd remember me, because I never want to forget you, Clarissé. And I hope you feel the same way. I carved it out of a japor snippet... It will bring you good fortune."

The girl smiled wistfully at the little necklace in her small hand, her little fingers grasping onto it tightly, as if it were her new favorite thing.

"It's beautiful," Clarissé whispered gently, her eyes bright and dreamy as she lifted it above her head and fastened it around her neck, making sure it was secure before saying directly to Anakin, "but I don't need this to remember you by, Anakin. Like I said back on Tatooine; I could never forget you even if I tried. Many things will change when we reach the capital, Ani, but my caring for you