It was a day like any other. But it was better in the eyes of a man named Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Just a few days ago...
"Obi-Wan!" Satine exclaimed as her new husband practically fainted to the floor when she told him they were having a baby.
Luckily, someone came running. A best man's job was not done until the wedding was officially over, so it was proven that Anakin took his job seriously when he came in and helped Obi-Wan to his feet.
"Obi-Wan, are you okay?" Anakin asked. "You fell."
"I'm fine." Obi-Wan breathed, feeling a little light-headed.
"Obi-Wan!" Peppermint said, galloping into the scene when she heard her rider faint. "What's going on?"
"I just gave Obi-Wan some news." Satine said.
"What kind of news?" Anakin asked.
Satine took her husband's hands and brought him into the ballroom. But Peppermint stood by to catch her rider in case he fainted again.
Satine called for everyone's attention, declaring she and Obi-Wan both had a big announcement to make.
Satine put Obi-Wan's hand over hers on her stomach and said, "As of recently, Obi-Wan and I have learned that we are going to have a baby!"
People clapped and cheered at this news. Obi-Wan nearly fainted again, but this time Anakin caught him.
"I gotcha!" Anakin said, helping Obi-Wan to his feet.
"Thank you." Obi-Wan breathed. Despite having gotten the news, he was still overcome with shock.
"Uncle Obi-Wan's gonna be a daddy!" Gabby cheered, hugging her honorary uncle's legs.
But while he was happy to hear he would have a baby of his own, Obi-Wan was also scared. Would he be a good father? He'd never even thought about being a father before when he lived under the old Jedi Code. Sure, he'd raised Anakin and taken care of Anakin's kids many times. But, Anakin was nine when he started raising him, and he'd only looked after Gabby a few times when she was a baby and grew into a toddler. Mostly Anakin and Padme were the ones raising her. And he'd only babysat Lamenta for a few minutes once when Carmine was helping Anakin with something.
Today...
Obi-Wan looked through the many onesies and other clothes people sent for him and Satine's new baby. It was too early to tell the gender, so there were clothes of all kinds. And a lot of toys too.
"You're gonna be a great dad, Obi-Wan." said Peppermint, looking at some of the baby booties. "I just know it. And just wait till he or she gets her first horseback ride."
"That might be years away, Peppermint." Obi-Wan said. "Horseback riding is not exactly baby safe."
"Gabby first rode when she was one."
"She's Anakin's child." Obi-Wan said.
Peppermint rolled her eyes and looked at the baby booties again.
"I can't get over how cute these baby booties are. Or these little hats." Peppermint said. "I just love babies."
"Yes, they are adorable." said Obi-Wan. "I remember when Gabby was a baby."
Obi-Wan got his phone and showed Peppermint a couple pictures he had saved from when Gabby was a baby.
"Aww!" Peppermint had this twinkle in her eyes when she saw how tiny Gabby used to be. "How cute!"
"You should've seen how the rest of the Council responded when we met her for the first time." Obi-Wan chuckled. "Even Master Windu couldn't resist cooing over her."
"I don't blame him. Making people smile is about every baby's superpower." Peppermint took out some pictures. "Check out these pictures of when my little sister Firework was a foal."
"Aw. Look how little you were." Obi-Wan said, finding it adorable how small and cute his equine friend was long before he met her.
Meanwhile, the kids were at school, doing the usual stuff.
So far, everything seemed quiet since Obi-Wan and Satine's wedding. The grownups were working on making sure all the Jedi got one of those mariclava detection bracelets so they would be able to track Mariverde's magic and perhaps use them to find her. If they could stop the problem at its source, it could save a lot of lives.
Right now, Gabby and Lamenta were taking art class.
"You like my painting, Lamenta?" asked Lee Ali.
Lamenta looked at Lee Ali's painting of her pet voorpak Yappy.
"It looks just like Yappy." Lamenta smiled. She got back to painting her picture.
"Does a stork seem a little cliche to you?" Gabby asked, painting her picture.
"What are you painting?" asked Lee Ali.
"I'm making a picture for Uncle Obi-Wan's new baby's nursery." Gabby said. "When I was a baby, my mommy had lots of pretty pictures in my nursery. My favorite was a picture of a rainbow unicorn sitting in a bunch of pretty flowers."
"Of course." Lamenta said. "Even as a baby you loved horses."
In the eighth-grade classroom, while the teacher was giving a lecture, Boba was making a list of potential students Mariverde might target. Madison was one of them, given that she could be a bit of a diva, making her an easy prey for power hunger. It sounded cliche, but in the cheer squad, drama was an almost guaranteed. But then again, what setting full of teenagers isn't bound to face some kind of drama?
Omega looked at her clava detector, which she called the bracelet for short.
"It's not turning green." said Omega quietly. "I don't think we have anything to worry about."
"Not yet." Boba whispered. "We gotta keep our eyes and ears peeled."
Meanwhile, Anakin walked with Sapphire by his side as he pushed the baby twins in their stroller through the park. Padme was on Coruscant doing business with Chancellor Organa and some other members of the Senate, and all the other adults were either working or having a date with their loved one. Kara and Qui-Gon were delivering clava detectors to the Jedi, Carmine was catching up with Shmi, and Caroline was working on planning a baby shower for Satine. That left Anakin in charge of his babies, all five of them today. But for now, three of them were at school, which meant Daddy-twin time with Luke and Leia.
The babies cooed and babbled as their father walked them through the beautiful park full of trees, flowers, and butterflies.
"You love the park, don't you?" Anakin smiled at his babies.
Naturally, people were in love when they caught a glimpse of the babies.
Sapphire chuckled and said, "The twins sure catch a lot of attention, don't they?"
"Is that really a surprise?" Anakin said, looking at the twins. "Luke, you inherited your daddy's good looks."
Anakin tickled Luke's little tummy, making him giggle and squeal with delight.
"Gah!" Leia whined, wanting Daddy's attention too.
"I didn't forget you, Princess." Anakin chuckled. He tickled her too. "Daddy loves you both. I wonder what kind of magic you'll have when you're older."
"Just be aware that their magic will likely be very powerful." said Sapphire. "It happens with a majority of all young Enchanteds, depending on the species. When I was a foal, I was flying all over the place. But when Princess Fantasia and her sisters were small... oh, you should've seen it."
Anakin chuckled as he took Leia out of the stroller so he could feed her. "I imagine it must've been like a rodeo."
"It was."
Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Kara was very quick to get as many bracelets to as many Jedi as she could. Despite the new Temple's larger space, it was no match for her super speed.
"Got at least half the Temple equipped with mariclava detectors, Daddy." Kara said once she'd met with her father.
"Good. All we can do now is wait for Mariverde to strike." Qui-Gon said. "Let's just hope we'll be ready to face her."
Meanwhile, Mariverde sat on a pillow and meditated as she awaited her next victim to arise.
And her magic mirror started to light up eratically.
Mariverde opened her eyes and stood up to approach her mirror.
"Magic mirror before me, show the target that I seek." she called.
And the mirror showed Mariverde a shop somewhere.
Somewhere in the shopping district of Coruscant...
Two teenage girls, a tholothian and a human, were walking through the stores and stopped at a baby shop.
"I'm telling you, Keena, it's so unfair." said the human, whose name was Hallie, angrily. "One minute Mom and Dad blame me for something Kisha did, and then they treat me like I can't take care of myself!"
"Well, parents are weird about babies." said the tholothian.
"Yeah, too weird. They get all the treatment, and then once they get older and aren't cute and unable to walk and talk anymore, they either make you a servant and then tell you that you're helpless on your own."
"I'm no expert on babies, but it's not their fault they can't do things on their own."
"Easy for you to say." said Hallie. "You're the baby of your family."
"Hmm, someone jealous of a baby, huh?" said Mariverde. She thought, and she had an idea. "How powerful would the royal family be if they were mere babies?"
Mariverde called a butterfly to her hand and turned it into a mariclava.
"Fly away my mariclava and transform my newest victim!"
Hallie picked up a rattle reluctantly. Her parents told her to get a new toy for her baby sister as a half birthday present.
"It's unbelievable. She's not even gonna remember it. Why celebrate her half-birthday at all?" Hallie whined. "I never get a half-birthday, and I would be able to remember and eat my cake without making a mess of myself."
Inconveniently, that was when the mariclava came in and landed on the rattle, and Hallie had a green butterfly mark appear on her face, and she saw the glowing green eyes from the cloaked gypsy.
"Rattle Snake. I am Mariverde." said the gypsy. "Your family and all other adults claim that you are helpless yet treat your baby sister as royalty. I am giving you the power to teach them a lesson by showing them how truly helpless they once were. But in return, you must bring me the crown jewels of the royal family of Solaris. Do we have a deal?"
"You bet." said Hallie.
Green and black clouds began to surround Hallie, and she began to transform.
People in the store were scared when they saw what was happening! And the whole room was filled with the sound of vicious hissing, and a large rattle was shaken, spreading green sparkles, and something very magical and very bad happened in the store.