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❝𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘹𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐'𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘰. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵. ❞
                        - 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬é 𝐀. 𝐀𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞

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»»-----------►Ｆｏｒｃｅ

❝ 𝐖𝐄'𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 set up our main base of operations inside — ❞ Captain Panaka started before he was interrupted by a frantic Anakin Skywalker, who was chosen to watch for the remaining Gungans, running towards the group of strategic leaders discussing their plan for battle on a large tree stump, a map of Naboo spread along it for viewing. Clarissé Amidala led the discussion at the front of the stump, her head lifting up from its spot looking down at the map as she followed Anakin's voice while pointing out a certain spot in the center of the map.

"They're here!" Anakin called out, alerting the group of strategic diplomats.

Clarissé smiled with relief as she said, "Good, they made it." She of course referred to the rest of the Gungan army, who were steadily approaching the diplomatic group in one big unit.

The Gungan army made their way over to Jar Jar, who stood awkwardly at the edge of the diplomatic meeting, personally requested by her Royal Majesty of Naboo to join in with the meeting, as he knew the Naboo landscape better than anyone else, other than her Highness, of course.

Captain Panaka, while the Gungans talked to Jar Jar, was standing with Clarissé and the two Jedi brought by the Chancellor, one old and one young.

"What is the situation?" The brunette girl hastily asked, needing to know what the issue was as she knew they didn't have enough time before the Trade Federation would find them and attack.

"Almost everyone's in camps," Panaka informed as the young queen's heart broke at the newly discovered information. Her people were being forced to work for horrible creatures who only cared about wealth and power. The pain the Queen felt after that was discovered hurt her more than anything else in her life had. Not leaving her family or Anakin, or being threatened by death.

It broke her.

But despite that, she pushed forward.

And oh, how badly she wanted to punish and hurt the Trade Federation for all the had done to Naboo, her people.

"A few hundred police and guards have formed an underground resistance movement," Panaka continued, looking over to see one of his greatest friends dealing with grave emotional turmoil as her eyes flickered between sadness and anger, as if she couldn't decide which emotion to feel. Panaka reached over to pat her shoulder comfortably, not liking how distressed she looked. The girl looked up at him, visibly relaxing as she gave an appreciated smile towards the copper skinned man. "I brought back as many leaders as I could. The Federation's Army's also much larger than we thought, and much stronger. Your Highness, this is a battle I do not think we can win."

Clarissé's head shot up from its fallen position towards the floor to give Panaka a determined stare, her eyes intense and glowing vibrantly.

Naboo wouldn't give up.

Clarissé wouldn't give up.

"The battle is a diversion," she stated confidently, her eyes still piercing through Panaka's brown ones as he couldn't look away from the intimidating stare of the Queen. "The Gungans must draw the Droid Army away from the cities." She turned to her faithful friend, Artoo Detoo, who had persisted to stay by her side at all times, a promise he was determined to keep.

"Artoo," she started, bending down to sit on her upturned heels as she gently addressed the droid, "we can enter the city using the secret passages on the waterfall side. Once we get to the main entrance, Captain Panaka will create a diversion. Then we can enter the palace and capture the Viceroy. Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused, just as any army is without its leader."

Just like the Nubian army was without its rightful Queen guiding them to victory.

Artoo, in response to the order he was given by his favorite human, beeped happily in confirmation, excited to do something to help the kind Clarissé, prompting a grateful, beautiful smile from the mentioned girl as she silently thanked, "Thank you, Artoo." And with that, she give him a soft little pat on the top of his round, dome head.

The girl stood up as she looked at the two Jedi in the foursome, who were looking at each other with the corners of their eyes, as they clearly wanted to say something.

Clarissé noticed this very much as she delicately asked, "What do you think, Master Jedi?"

She trusted Qui-Gon's judgement a great deal, and felt as if she had to listen to what he had to say, as he was a very trusted friend of hers.

Qui-Gon timidly stared at the young girl he had come to know very well as he strangely imputed, "The Viceroy will be well guarded."

The Queen sighed as she soon realized that aspect would be a major thorn in her side, as the majority of her plan revolved around the Viceroy and his capture.

"The difficulty's getting into the throne room," Panaka interjected, hoping to give the Queen a little optimism. "Once we're inside, we shouldn't have a problem."

Qui-Gon pondered the Captain's words before stating firmly and very grimly, "There is a possibility, with this diversion many, Gungans will be killed."

At those words, the Queen's heart broke even more.

She couldn't have any one else getting hurt on her own turf. She couldn't. Especially not the Gungans, who had bravely decided to help Naboo's cause.

No one else would die.

Boss Nass, who was finished talking to Jar Jar across the vast wooded, shaded clearing, came over to hear the discussion as he loudly bellowed proudly to the Queen of Naboo while slapping his chest proudly, "Wesa ready to do are-sa part."

Clarissé smiled gratefully to the massive Gungan, but the still ever present threat of death on the Gungan civilization left a bad, unredeemable taste in her mouth.

It heavily tasted of death and sorrow.

The Queen took a deep, heavy breath as she informed her comrades, "We have a plan which should immobilize the Droid Army. We will send what pilots we have to knock out the Droid control ship orbiting our planet."

Qui-Gon nodded his head with approval, a sliver of doubt still placed into his melting grey eyes as he replied, "A well-conceived plan. However, there's great risk. The weapons on your fighters may not penetrate the fields."

Before the disgruntled Queen could reply, Obi-Wan, being the concerned Padawan he was, quickly jumped into the discussion by imputing, "And there's an even bigger danger. If the Viceroy escapes, your Highness, he will return with another droid army."

The brave, brunette haired Queen did not let those words bring her resolve down as she lifted her head high and confident into the air.

No, she let them build her up.

"Well that is why we must not fail to get to the Viceroy," she sternly yet calmly explained, her eyes shining dangerously with determination pulsing through the vibrant, almost darkened emerald.

Anakin Skywalker, shortly after Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan shared their own opinions with the Nubian ruler, made his way next to the older of the two as he stared straight at Clarissé, finding her strength and elegance to be captivating, and extremely difficult to look away from.

Woah, he thought, trying desperately to tear his eyes away from her, but not finding the strength deep within.

"Everything depends on it." And with that, the young Queen stared ahead firmly, set on winning this battle.

No matter what it took.

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»»-----------►Ｃｌａｒｉｓｓé

𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊. . .

My head snapped back at the unwanted sound to see Padmé gingerly stepped onto a mere, skinny little twig.

A twig that could of cost us our victory and the element of surprise.

Padmé sheepishly smiled back at my deadpan glare, and I rolled my emerald eyes in return before returning to my previous task of sneakily sliding my way over to a crook in between the main hanger and the lush Palace of Naboo.

Oh, how badly I missed my home.

It felt strange that I was here once more, after being gone for quite some time. It felt like an absolute eternity since I had set foot on Nubian soil, but it had only been a day or two, and I really didn't appreciate how quickly time seemed to move on without my sister and I, my loyal handmaidens.

It also saddened me that Anakin was on Naboo for the first time during horrific times like these. I wanted him to experience Naboo when it was joyful, and lively. The Naboo I grew up with.

Certainly the Naboo I lived with was not being taken over by a greedy, hellbent Federation.

I pressed myself against the cream colored stones of the main hanger as my entourage, which consisted of my sister (who still looked quite sheepish after her slip up), Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Artoo, and the rest of my handmaidens, including Indirá, who was still dressed up in my queenly attire. I had requested she had stay in it, as to draw attention to her rather than me should we get into a difficult interaction with our enemy.

I couldn't get captured by the Trade Federation before we won.

I needed to experience our victory by first hand.

Our plan for being here was simple enough: Get to the main hanger, get into the palace, and take the Viceroy into our custody.

It sounded easy on paper.

I took out a small, silver laser light to signal to my commanding Captain, Panaka (of course), that my team was in position for an invasion of the hanger.

I saw the alert captain standing guard with a couple other Resistance fighters we found undercover in the town streets. Panaka waited attentively for my signal of a bright red light, and I gave it to him as I shined the light directly at the space of beige brick next to his head.

Panaka, quickly noticing the small dot of ruby light emitting from my light transmitter, jumps into action by pulling out his own light pointer, and pointing it at the spot directly above my head.

I look up to find a little beam of emerald light, the color I had assigned him. I smiled silently and discreetly to myself.

Everything so far, so good.

I could feel Qui-Gon turning around to address Anakin, and I certainly didn't hear their conversation when a large clot of battle droids filed into the plaza. Right on schedule.

Go, Panny, go...

And he did, and by go I mean he rushed the baffled battle droids on all sides, giving my group the opportunity to quickly sneak our way into the hanger.

I waved an arm to my group of rebels to gesture them forward, stealing one last glance to Panaka to make sure he was alright.

He was doing just fine on his own, with large blaster shots firing all around him while he fired his own, his hand steady and trained with incredible precision as he picked off the skinny bots off one by one. He didn't dare glance back at me, in fear that I would get caught, and we certainly didn't want that.

I turned away, and bustled my way into the hanger, my group following me while I ducked low to not only avoid the countless shots of energy being shot off at me, but to also make sure I wasn't detected, trying to be as stealthy and quiet as humanly possible.

Once we made it into Naboo's large aircraft carrier hanger, in which I had been in only a day ago, disguised as a handmaiden and fighting for my life, before I met Anakin and Shmi, and before I got to experience the whole of Tatooine, our group split up. Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin rushed over to the aircrafts on the right side of the hanger, while me, my handmaidens and my sister hid behind a large concrete pillar on the left side, making our two divisions completely opposite and parallel to each other.

Instead of just sitting around and waiting for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to do all the work of killing the merging mob of battle droids who had heard our commotion and filed into the once open space, I decided to take matters into my own hands by ripping my useful blaster off of my beige belt, and putting it to good use by aiming it with two hands on the cool metal, and shooting at a variety of similar battle droids rushing us from all directions, while also helping Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan out by firing shots in their direction.

As I fired shots galore while also smoothly ducking back into the tight little alcove the pillar provided, where the shadows seemed to reach out and grasp you, despite the cloudless, sunny day shining in through the massive window right next to us, I turned to look at my entourage, which now included around a dozen Nubian pilots after my Jedi friends freed them from further within the hanger. I nudged my head over to the awaiting ships, almost billowing with steam and anticipation for the pilots soon to accompany their empty, cold control seats.

"Get to your ships!" I ordered to the pilots, and they didn't seem to argue with me, even though it was strange that they would willingly take orders from a nine year old girl. They rushed off to their designated aircrafts, with a reluctant Artoo Detoo, who once again would not leave my side, even in battle.

He wouldn't go with them and instead stubbornly turned back to address me.

He beeped harshly at my still shooting figure, and didn't budge as he said he didn't want to leave me.

I would have smiled at him for his sweetness, thinking that it was cute, but now was obviously not the time to thank him for his loyalty.

"Artoo," I started, pausing to catch my breath as my finger pushed down on the trigger button to aim at two relentless battle droids. "I'll be okay, I promise, but right now, I need you to help the pilots. You need to get them out onto the battle field as quickly as possible. Do you understand me?"

Artoo grumbled something, and that reaction got a little quirk of my lips out of me.

What a stubborn little thing, even in war.

Artoo then let out what sounded like a little sigh, clearly not liking where this argument was going.

With one last fleeting look towards me, and a little beep which sounded like a question of safety, my little droid friend rolled himself quickly over to help the pilots.

Good, I thought, still brutally firing away, causing my index finger to start to cramp up.

This is only the beginning.

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A/N: Hey guys! First of all, I wanted to say sorry for the little hiatus I took. I just really got a bad case of Writer's Block this weekend, but all is fine again. Except for my mouth, that is. I got my spacers last Friday and they hurt like actual hell. I may just be overdramatic, but they do hurt. I get my actual braces this Friday, and I'm gonna be exhausted, so bear with me on that. I also have family coming this weekend, but I'm gonna really try to make an effort and publish the last two chapters, including an epilogue.

Fun Fact: I started this story after being inspired by going to Disneyland in early February of this year. I've always liked Star Wars, especially because my dad and I like to watch all those old 80's films together. I always like to impress him with my knowledge of them. And that's why we ended up here, and I'm glad I did.

Next chapter, I'm hoping, will be out on either Thursday or Friday, possibly Saturday. Goodbye, and thank you for your patience with me.

Word Count: 2710 words