Chapter 1
She would not be going to Mars.
That was Anne's one thought when she registered that her brother had thrown her over the side of the Maid of the Mist boat. The tour only supplied plastic ponchos, not life jackets, and with her jeans dragging her down it would be impossible for her to swim in the fast moving river. She didn't think that though, she was trying to swim, not processing that it was useless. Her anger at her brother was enough to keep her afloat for a few moments as the river washed her away from the boat. Then a wave of the freeze water washed over her head. The thundering of the falls was blocked out by the water surrounding her. It only took a few seconds before her lungs began to fill and the world went black.
It was a pity; she had been looking forward to going to a new planet.
Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan, went to stand beside Padmé Amidala, Senator of Naboo. They both looked over the water. "It's very beautiful here," Anakin said. He turned his head and looked at Padmé .
"We used to come here when I was a girl," the woman reminisced. "We would swim to that island over there and then lie out on the beach and let the sun dry us." She sighed. "We were all so carefree then."
"Well-" Anakin stopped. The Force was nudging him, wanting him to turn away and look out onto the lake. He turned and saw a large rippling that couldn't have been caused by any of the creatures that usually ventured to the surface of the lakes.
"Anakin?" Padmé looked to. "What is it?"
The Force quivered with urgency. Anakin grabbed his A99 from his pocket and threw off his robes. "There's someone out there." The boat had already left so there was no choice as to what he would do. He kicked off his shoes and dove into the lake. His feet and hands beat the water, propelling him forwards as fast as possible.
Padmé followed the trial of bubbles left by Anakin as he swam to the disturbance. Moments after he reached it he broke through the surface dragging another being with him. With speed that could only have come from the aid of the Force he swam back to the steps where Padmé helped him pull the being, a dark-haired Human woman, out of the water.
Anakin raised his hand. Using the Force he pulled all of the water out of the woman's lungs. Padmé sighed with relief when the woman began breathing. "Where did she come from?"
"I don't know." Anakin frowned. The woman was wearing strange clothes that he didn't recognize from any planet he'd ever been to, heavy blue pants, a tight black shirt with no sleeves, and brightly-coloured shoes that looked like they belonged to an astromach droid. She could be a Separatist or one of the beings trying to kill Padmé but with her unconscious it was impossible to tell. "I'm going to wake her up." He looked up at Padmé , who looked back to the woman before nodding. "Be ready for anything."
He nudged the woman through the Force, softly at first and then harder when she didn't respond. After the second prod the woman gasped and her eyes flew open. Her throat convulsed like she was trying to cough.
"Are you alright?" Padmé asked. "Can you understand me?" The woman blinked.
"Am I dead?"
"No, you're not dead." Anakin drawled. "We just pulled you out of the lake." The woman blinked again. She began to sit up but was stopped by the appearance of Anakin's lightsaber at her throat. Padmé looked at him disapprovingly. "Who are you?"
The woman froze, looking at the glowing green blade with her eyes nearly crossing. "I…I…Anne." Anakin's grip on his lightsaber tightened.
"You're lying."
"No! I-. My first name is Shmi, Shmi-Anne Sparks!" Anakin's eyes widened.
"Are you from Stewjon?" Padmé asked, knowing that many Humans from that planet had compound first names. Shmi-Anne shook her head as best as she could with Anakin's lightsaber still in such close proximity.
"Shmi is my mother's name." Anakin's voice shook, and so did his hands. Padmé reached over and carefully extracted his lightsaber from his grip so that he wouldn't accidentally cut off Shmi-Anne's head. Anakin wisely put up no resistance.
Shmi-Anne looked between Anakin and Padmé , her face slack. "Who are you?"
"This is Anakin," Padmé said after a moment of thought. "I'm Padmé ." Shmi-Anne paled.
"Not Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, right?" Shmi-Anne asked slowly. "Because they aren't real."
"We're real!" Anakin exclaimed. "Why would we not be real?" Padmé give him a look that was clearly telling him to be quiet so he bit back the rest of the questions he wanted to shout out.
"Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala."
Shmi-Anne pulled her knees to her chin and put her face in her hands for a count of three. Then she asked, "Where are we?"
"Naboo," Padmé answered softly. "In the Lake Country." Shmi-Anne looked at Anakin, studying his hands. Then she looked at Padmé , who was kneeling beside her.
"You're the Senator of Naboo and you just escaped two assassination attempts. You came here on a refugee transport." Padmé gaped.
"How do you—?" Shmi-Anne turned to Anakin.
"You built a protocol droid called C-3PO for your mother but you had to leave him behind when you went to Coruscant. You're a Jedi Padawan and your Master would have been Qui-Gon Jinn if he hadn't been killed."
"How do you know that?" Shmi-Anne bit her lip.
"So you are real. On my planet…you aren't."
"What do you mean by that?" Anakin asked, making a face.
"Where I'm from you only exist in what you would call a holofilm series. Nearly everyone knows about you. My parents love Star Wars, that's what the series is called." She looked at Anakin. "They named me after your mother." Shmi-Anne shivered. "Maybe I've just gone crazy."
Anakin looked at Shmi-Anne. "You haven't gone crazy. You're telling the truth."
"I have a lot to tell you. If we could fix everything—" She was interrupted by her own sneezing. Padmé handed back Anakin's lightsaber and he absentmindedly thumbed the switch to turn it off.
"Let's get both of you into dry clothes, then we'll talk."
A/n: This is so you can all see what I've been working on, and why I'm not working on my other stories. Happy NaNoWriMo!
-Cynder2013