Chapter 2
The Jedi arrived in Theed and rescued Amidala and her handmaidens Eirtaé, Sabé and Rabé, while they were being escorted by a group of droids to meet with Viceroy Nute Gunray. Amidala was posing as one of her own handmaidens while Sabé continued to pose as her. The two Jedi easily destroyed the droids.
Amidala noticed that they had a Gungan with them. She wasn't sure why, the Gungan seemed to be a total klutz and seemed to be more of a liability that anything else. She wondered if perhaps the Jedi were taking pity on the creature. Amidala knew she wouldn't have, she would have killed it. The Sith routinely kidnapped lone Gungans to use as subjects for their force training and she had killed dozens of Gungans during her own training. Amidala thought that perhaps she could use the Gungan to train her Handmaidens once they reached Coruscant, assuming that the Gungan didn't get himself killed along the way.
They then fled to the Royal Hanger where the Royal Starship was awaiting, mostly prepped for launch. They all boarded the ship which took off. The Trade Federation attempted to shoot them down but were unsuccessful, they then tried to intercept the ship in orbit, and they succeeded in damaging the main hyperdrive. Using the backup hyperdrive they were able to make a short jump to the remote system of Tatooine where they landed to make repairs. A jump to Coruscant was out of the question as it would take several years on the backup hyperdrive and the ship would run out of power and the occupants would die before their journey would complete.
Once they were planet side the Jedi Master, a tall human with long dark hair and a short beard named Qui-Gon Jinn decided that he would go to get the parts they needed to repair the ship, while his apprentice would stay with the ship. The apprentice was surprisingly old being close to twenty-five, with his light brown hair kept short except for a single thin braid. His name was Obi-wan Kenobi and Amidala could tell that he felt he should be a full Jedi Knight by now.
Amidala who was still posing as the Handmaiden Padmé decided that she would travel with Qui-Gon to explore this new planet. However she was going not just for the opportunity to explore. She wanted to study a Jedi in person and see how he worked and if possible and necessary to kill him herself. Sabé who was still posing as Queen told Qui-Gon that he was going to take one of her Handmaidens with him.
Before she left Amidala gave her final orders to her Handmaidens, she had a special assignment for Eirtaé since she was the oldest.
"I want you to keep an eye on his apprentice," Amidala said. "Eirtaé, he may have vulnerabilities to certain… charms shall we say? Learn whatever you can from him about the Jedi, and if you can sway his allegiance to the dark side without revealing yourself you may find yourself well on your way to earning your Sith name."
Eirtaé beamed with excitement at the thought, "I will do so Master," she said.
Amidala then left to join Master Qui-Gon Jinn. The ship had set down just outside of a nearby spaceport so as not to attract much attention from locals. Qui-Gon had decided to take one of the astromech droids with them as well as the droid would know better than either of them if the parts they needed were good or not. To annoy Amidala further the Gungan had also decided to come across.
It took them about an hour to reach the spaceport due to them having to slow their pace so that the astromech droid could keep up.
"Why couldn't we just take the ships speeder?" Amidala asked the Jedi as she wiped sand out of her eyes.
"Mos Espa is a lawless place. We're in Hutt Territory here, and odds are it would just end up being stripped for parts or stolen. We're better off walking." Qui-Gon replied.
Amidala was somewhat fascinated with all the other life forms she encountered. She had only ever left Naboo to visit one of its three moons, and very few of the Sith from Naboo ever travelled the galaxy for fear of leading the Jedi back to Naboo so they were not overly familiar with other life forms or with other languages outside of Galactic Basic. And while Naboo was a very scenic planet they didn't promote themselves as a tourist destination, mostly because the Sith were very wary of detection which limited the number of offworlders visiting Naboo.
They went through the town visiting several shops and repair places, but none of them had the parts that they were looking for. Finally they came to a junkyard which was all the way on the other side of the spaceport. It had an odd bell-shaped building in front and sand coloured wall housed the area with all the parts in the back. From what Amidala could see poking out over the wall the parts were all covered with sand.
"I don't think anything we get here will work," Amidala said to Qui-Gon.
"Sand is just a minor inconvenience," Qui-Gon told her. "Some of these parts are perfectly fine except for a little sand."
Amidala had her doubts but decided not to voice them, she didn't want to risk revealing herself as the Queen, let alone as a Sith. She followed Qui-Gon and the droid into the shop. Inside they were met by a small ugly looking creature which was somehow able to fly with a pair of small wings.
"Hey what do you want?" the creature asked in an attempt to be friendly, although it came across as rude.
"I'm looking for a T-14 hyperdrive generator for a J-type 327 Nubian class space craft," Qui-Gon informed the alien.
"Oh Nubian eh? Well it just so happens I have just the part you're looking for," the creature said.
"Then perhaps we can do business," Qui-Gon said.
"I don't do business with people who don't tell me their name," the creature said.
Amidala would have been annoyed by that remark, and probably would have force choked the ugly little creature but Qui-Gon just smiled.
"I am Qui-Gon," he said. "And as I have given you my name, I believe courtesy dictates you should give me yours."
"I'm Watto and this is my shop," the creature replied.
"Meesa Jar Jar Binks!" the Gungan volunteered.
Amidala, Qui-Gon and Watto all gave the Gungan a brief look of annoyance and then ignored him.
"Well if you don't mind my droid and I would like to take a look at the part first, just to be sure it's in working condition." Qui-Gon said.
"Oh by all means," Watto said. "Follow me."
Watto led Qui-Gon and the droid out around back to look at the part, leaving Amidala with Jar Jar to explore the store. She wandered around looking at the various parts for a while before she finally noticed a young boy sitting on the counter watching her. She was surprised that she hadn't sensed his presence beforehand but as she probed with the force she realized that he had been hiding his presence in the force. She doubted that the boy had any training whatsoever, which could only mean that he was strong in the force. She dared not say anything about it though lest she give herself away to Qui-Gon. While she felt she could kill the Jedi it would only make getting off of this hellhole of a planet that much more difficult.
"Are you an angel?" the boy asked her.
Amidala was confused by the question, "Am I a what?"
"An angel," the boy replied. "The spacer tell stories about them down at the Cantina. They say they're the most beautiful creatures in the galaxy."
Amidala was somewhat flattered by the boy's compliment, however naïve it may be.
"Well thank you, but I'm not actually an angel," Amidala said.
"She's a handmaiden," Jar Jar stated.
Amidala glared over at the Gungan once again and noticed he was standing near a device that she was pretty sure was a water vaporator, which were used on Tatooine to extract moisture from the air to use as water which was extremely scarce on this planet. They were large and heavy pieces of equipment. Amidala gave the Gungan a small shove with the force and he suddenly stumbled backwards into the vaporator. The vaporator wobble on its base and Amidala gave a slight pull with the force and the vaporator toppled over onto the Gungan. The Gungan squealed in pain as he was crushed by the vaporator. The noise brought Watto and Qui-Gon back into the shop and they worked together to roll the heavy vaporator off of the Gungan, but the Gungan was badly injured.
"I'll get one of the other handmaidens to come take him back to the ship. The medical droid is equipped to take care of his species," Amidala said.
Qui-Gon nodded and she called the ship and asked Rabé and Eirtaé to come in the speeder and pick up the Gungan. About fifteen minutes later they arrived in the speeder along with Obi-Wan. While Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon helped put the Gungan into the speeder Amidala took the two handmaidens aside.
"Rabé I want the Gungan to be dead before I return to the ship," Amidala whispered.
"It will be my pleasure Master, I hate those disgusting creatures," Rabé replied.
"Eirtaé how goes things with Obi-Wan?" Amidala inquired.
"He's very committed to his code," Eirtaé said. "He definitely has interest but getting him to break his vows is going to be difficult."
"Well keep trying," Amidala said. "He will eventually break."
By now the Jedi had gotten the Gungan loaded into the speeder. Rabé and Eirtaé got back in the speeder with Obi-Wan and they headed back to the ship.
"What happened in there?" Qui-Gon asked almost as soon as the speeder was gone.
"He was looking around and he accidently bumped into the vaporator and it fell over onto him," Amidala replied. "I mean I knew he was clumsy but this took it to another level."
Qui-Gon looked at the boy who just shrugged and nodded, he wasn't entirely sure what had happened but to him it looked like the Gungan accidently knocked the big machine over onto himself.
Watto meanwhile was eager to get back to business, he had ensured that the vaporator was still working.
"So you saw the part, it is good how do you intend to pay?" Watto inquired.
"I've got 20,000 credits," Qui-Gon replied.
"Your credits are no good here," Watto said. "This isn't Republic space."
Amidala could sense a tinge of frustration from Qui-Gon.
"Credits will be fine," Qui-Gon said waving his hand as he tried to use a Force Suggestion on Watto.
"What do you think you are some kind of Jedi waving your hand like that?" Watto asked angrily. "Jedi mind tricks don't work on Toydarians. Now how are you going to pay?"
Amidala kept her emotions in check, but she was somewhat pleased that Jedi had failed. Amidala herself would have been a lot more forceful with her suggestion than Qui-Gon had been, but he clearly felt he had some sort of ethics to hold on to. She noted that as a possible weakness to exploit if necessary.
"I only have credits," Qui-Gon replied. "Take them or leave them."
"No Credits," Watto said. "Get out of my shop."
Qui-Gon and Amidala left the shop where the astromech droid was waiting for them. As they headed back through town towards the ship they noticed all the people were all taking cover inside. Amidala wasn't sure if this was some sort of daily ritual she didn't know about.
"What's going on?" she asked Qui-Gon.
"A Sandstorm is coming," Qui-Gon replied. "We won't be able to make it back to the ship in time, we need to find shelter."
"You can wait the storm out at my place," someone said behind them.
They turned around to see the young boy from the shop. They learned that the boy's name was Anakin. There were no other options so they followed the boy back to the simple home that he shared with his mother. His mother graciously welcomed them into their home although Amidala got the sense that she wasn't overly thrilled with her son volunteering their home to strangers, at least without asking her first.
Amidala let the boy show her around the house pretending to be interested in his things, like the almost complete protocol droid that he had built from parts himself to help his mother around the house. Meanwhile Qui-Gon was talking with Anakin's mother Shmi and Amidala could sense a bit of excitement from Qui-Gon about something.
That night they sat down to have dinner, the sand storm could still be heard howling outside. Qui-Gon told them about what they were doing and how they needed the parts to get to Coruscant to inform the Senate about the Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation. Anakin said that he would enter and win the Boonta Eve Classic Pod Race and use the prize money to get them their parts. Amidala was surprised and a little disgusted that this boy was so openly generous. If she were in his position she would never offer help to anyone.
That night Qui-Gon was tending to a few small cuts that Anakin had gotten. Amidala noticed that Qui-Gon had taken a small blood sample and new something was up. Obviously Qui-Gon could sense this boy's force potential. When the storm had finally cleared Qui-Gon went outside to communicate back with the ship. Amidala quietly sat at the window and listened in on his conversation with his apprentice. While listening in she heard Qui-Gon suggest that this boy may be the Chosen One, sent to bring balance to the Force. She then heard Obi-Wan report to Qui-Gon that the boy seemed to be more powerful than Yoda, considered the strongest Jedi in the Galaxy today.
Amidala was concerned. Qui-Gon clearly wanted to train this boy to be a Jedi, and she had already seen firsthand his nature which was entirely un-Sith like. And then there was the prophecy about bring balance, that could mean any number of things. It could mean that he would bring about some sort of mix of dark side and light side. Or worse it could mean that he would eliminate all the Sith and other dark side users in the Galaxy. Of course it could also mean he would send the galaxy plummeting into darkness, but Amidala doubted that. Turning him would prove difficult and she felt that she could do that herself.
After rationalizing it in her mind repeatedly, Amidala decided that the boy needed to die. If he died then the prophecy wouldn't come to pass which would guarantee her success in bring the Sith back to power in the Galaxy. Now the problem was how to kill him without the Jedi being suspicious.
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