Yes, re-writing this chapter.

Chapter Three: Old and new

" Issa it true what theysa say, Missa palatin?"

A familar and very anxoius voice interupted Plassa's dreamless sleep.

" Angar, if I could tell you, I would."

Her mother was there too, then.

" Datsa mean she weally is den, huh. Messa smarter dan I wook, Miss Palatin."

Finally, plassa was able to fight the weights holding her eyelids down. Her bright eyes opened. Her mother's graceful form sat next to her, her dark eyes bloodshot and wet. Next to her was Angar.

" Plassa, yousa awake!' Angar exclaimed loudly, perhaps too loudly. " Wesa thought that yousa being in bigo trouble dor a fwile dere!"

Plassa smiled slightly, Angar was always a source of amusement and joy, even if it did come wiht the occasional headache. " It is good to see you to."

Her eyes fell on her mother. The young girl's smile faded into a deadpan.

" Mother."

" Plassa, we were so worried. What did you think you were doing!"

Plassa narrowed her eyes. " Saving everyone's life. The gaurd was incompent and no one else seemed to notice the danger." She said dully. Her face hardened. " I heard you two talking when I woke up. I suppose that Angar knows, then, about my lineage. "

Angar nodded solemnly and spoke slowly. " de emperor boss announceded yousa being da bombad princess." He smiled slightly. " Yousa shoulda being seen mesa face when mesa be hearing dat bit of neferwhillling news. Mesa nearly be choking on mesa lunch!"

Plassa tried to smile for his sake, he really was just tyring to humor her, but it wasn't working.

' Angar, do you think you could go ask a nurse to get me some water?" She asked witha fake cough. " I'm parched."

" Oh, youssa ban be counting on mesa!" He exclaimed as he darted out, knocking over a chair as he went.

Sala followed him. " I better make sure he doesn't destory the entire wing..." She said quickly as she went towards the door.

" Stay." Plassa's tone was quiet, but also sharp and angry. Sala slowly turned back and sat back down. They didn't look at eachother. Plassa sat, fuming, her face red and jaw set. A volcano ready to burst.

" He was here, wasn't he?" Sala said softly. " I can sense him. it's like stinging ice."

Sense him? Plassa turned to her mother.

" Yes, I have that power to. The same one that tells you when it will rain."

Plassa's body became rigid. She asked curtly. " So, why couldn't it tell you of the danger of the Ball?"

Sala smiled sadly, her eyes becoming dams to salty rivers." I'm not quite as strong as I once was. But as you become stronger, I'm startgin to become more in-tune with the Fo- with this power."

Plassa's hands clenched the bedsheets and her knuckles went white.

" Why-why didn't you tell me!" She exclaimed. " How could I have known the danger! Do you know what will happen to you if this "princess" thing doesn't work out! Do you know what he will do with me once my usefulness is over?"

Sala merely stared numbly, but the dams began to burst and the salty rivers flowed down her cheek canals. Plassa didn't care, she didn't notice, all she could see where red, bloody lies surrounding her, She hated it. It was all forced on her, all her plans ruined.

She hated it. She closed her eyes shut so tight that hot tears squeezed out.

Let them all know it! A horrible voice, her own, but twisted and hoarse rang in her ears. It became a music, dark, full of selfish undertones and a beat fueled by her racing heart. Anger, fury, rage, aggresion, and pure fear all rushed through her at once.

" Plassa..." Sala's eyes widened. She knew this feeling, the darkness. Her daughter didn't hear her.

The room began to shake, the bacta bags burst and the deactivated nurse droid crumpled like a tin can. The lights dimmed and flickered with Plassa's fury.

" Stop it! Stop it!" Sala grabbed her daughter by the cheeks and sobbed. Little tainted flecks of yellow and a red rim had tainted the girl. She grabbed her and pressed her only child tightly to her chest. " I wanted to tell you." She whispered. " But then, I would have to tell you everything. It was too risky. Please, let the anger go, darling. I love you so much. Please forgive me. Please."

The anger slowly subsided and the darkness hid, but she could sense it waiting in the shadows, like a monster ready to snatch and grab her daughter's soul. She would not let it take her.

Plassa was sobbing into her mother's chest. What was that feeling? She didn't understand it. She didn't understand any of it. She hated it, but there was nothing to be done about it now. Finally, she got control of herself. The girl lifted herself off her mother.

" I suppose you can't tell me what that... Power that was, can you?"

Sala shook her head and wiped the tears from Plassa's eyes as she did when the girl was a carefree child. " No, but I can tell you that no matter what happens, you must not let that...dark power control you again, nor you controlling it. It's dangerous. "

Plassa nodded. Sala got up and went towards the door.

" I better see what's keeping up Angar."

" Mom?" Plassa called out suddenly, urgently.

Sala turned. Plassa would always see her mother in her memory just as this. A slender form standing against some secret enemy, her dark eyes flashing with love, sorrow, and determination. A beautiful face that covered secret scars. Plassa imagined that, a million dark and also good secrets lie with her, and each one could change Plassa's life.

She radiated something..something was forming in her mother's mind. She was involved. A plan? Her feeling from the Power and her own gut instinct told her so.

" I-I love you."

Sala smiled, but her eyes became wet again as she spoke. " Your a good girl, plassa, I love you. Don't ever change."

Then, she left.

Plassa looked down at her hands and felt sick. That horrible voice, her own twisted thoughts, whispered.

You better reconsider not using the Strength and Power.. It's the only hope your mother may have.

Plassa sighed and leaned against the pillow, hoping to drown it out in sleep.

...

Two weeks later.

...

The green Twil-eck handmaid insisted on making her appearance perfect, and it annoyed Plassa to no end. She wasn't going to a ball, nor a party, not even a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

No, Princess Plassathanoilia Aurora Palpatine, a thirteen year old, was going to a mid-rim planet to try to bring a peaceful end to the recent skirmishes against the regional governor on the planet Libaiya. And, only being two weeks out of recovery on top of that.

Despite not finishing her schooling at all, she was apparently the best one for the job because of her raw natural talents. She didn't buy it for a moment. The emperor had mentioned using her in order to "save more valuable resources." So, if she could make them resubmit without using a blaster that a trooper could be usign to blast away a rebel or two, she would be worthwhile to him. If she was not useful, she would be become a "agent", and her mother would be killed. If she did not succeed as an agent , she would be killed, or perhaps killed in the line of her solem duty to the glorious Empire.

So, the logical conclusion was to become...this.

Self-preservation calls for drastic measures. She thought with an inward sigh. Though with the reports of the violence on the planet, she may end up dead while trying to prevent death from coming to her in the first place. Perhaps this is a test, if I survive and end this properly and to his liking, I am worthy to go on. If not...She shuddered to think of what might happen.

" M'lady, the shuttle will be landing soon. Your Speech is ready, I assume? "

Yet another assistant, an elder human lady and a professorial in all things political and aesthetic. She walked into the room with unexpected graced from one of her short shape and pear-shaped body, holo-pad in one wrinkled hand. The woman pushed her small spectacles up the bridgeof her small, pointed nose, her sharp face starkly contrasted her plump body.

" Yes, Lady Jonna." Plassa could have called her by her first name, but habit still overruled her to call those older and wiser with respectful titles, and she did not wish to lose it." I wrote and re-wrote it hours ago. Do want to look over it?" She answered as she allowed the Twileck handmaiden to lift her arm to adjust a few more stitches.

" I trust that you will do well enough. I have seen your scores, very high marks for one so young. You will do very well."

Plassa felt her face flush and said nothing. Finally, the handmaiden finished. And no wonder she couldn't find herself in the mirror, for now her face had been painted white, but this makeover was in no way similar to the majesty of the past Queens of Naboo. It was dark, harshly lined, and to Plassa, she seemed nearly inhuman.

Plassathanoilia stared at her reflection in her floor length mirror. No matter how long she looked, she seemed unable to find herself. The beautiful but simple garbs her mother had made now laid on the bed. She nearly slapped her new handmaid for trying to throw them away, for she knew the hours and hours of work her mother spent to create each of her masterpieces.

Masterpiece was not a word she would have used to describe her present attire. Overdressed, intimidating or perhaps what happens when a monochromatic rainbow and blood rain down on a harsh dictator. Her poor ginger locks had been forced into long hair extensions and into a strange sort of crown of red, silver, and black. Instead of her simple but ornate shirt, a high collar framed her neck and face. Everyhting was dark robes now, or shiny black metal for the jewelery.

" I look nothing like myself." She stated dully. Jonna raised an eyebrow at her.

" My dear, that is precisely the point."

Plassa didn't agree. If she truly was to connect with these people and make them listen, how could she do that when she was so far removed from them in dress? But, she was the princess now, so...

Wait. She was the kriffing imperial princess! If she wanted something a certain way, she should get it that way.

" Lady Jonna, I'm changing the point." she said with a smile. Despite Jonna's unmoving face, she could feel approval and happiness flow from her. It startled Plassa at first, but then she remembered. the Emporer seemed to hint that I had special powers. I must be Empathic!

She let herself smile. This would be a very useful tool to her.