A Second Chance: Chapter One By Andrea Smith

The handmaiden of a Queen sat staring out her window as she waited for the Queen to arrive and her orders to be given. She did this everyday. Every morning she stared out the window, for this handmaiden was lonely. All the other handmaiden's had boyfriends or were married, even the Queen had a sweet heart. She didn't, well she used to, but he was gone. He wasn't dead, but he was gone and she missed him dearly. She would never admit it to anyone else, not even that man. That's right, the man she loved so much didn't even know she longed for him still after these five years.

She was the oldest handmaiden, being thirty, and everyone expected her to be married by now, but she didn't want to marry anyone except him. He was just a few months younger than she was and he was so handsome. She missed his handsome face and strong outline, the muscles. She missed him dearly. But he didn't even know her, he probably wasn't even aware of her existence. Some people have asked her about who he was, but she never answered. She didn't think she would ever see him again and she scolded herself every moment she thought of him for dwelling on him for so long. She should have been over it by now, she told herself. It was just a crush, just a crush. But somewhere deep inside her heart always told her differently.

"Sabe, are you there? Sabe, please come here." The Queen was calling her. Sabe left her seat at the window and headed for the entrance to meet the Queen, Queen Padme Naberrie Amidala. The Queen was a very beautiful woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was always hidden behind the royal mask though. She never had a chance to pursue the boy the handmaidens all knew she wanted. His name was Anakin Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker was five years younger than the Queen but the two had seemed so connected right away. Sabe couldn't help but see them together in the future.

As she walked to the Queen she called, "Yes your highness, I'm coming." As she drew nearer she tried one last time to clear her mind of him. He was Obi-Wan Kenobi. He had light brown hair with blue/green eyes. He was slightly taller and a little younger than she was, but she didn't mind. To the normal observer, there would seem no problem with this, but their was. The problem was that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were Jedi. Jedi are forbidden to love anyone! She had met Obi-Wan and Anakin on one day about five years ago.

The planet her Queen ruled was Naboo, a peaceful independent planet the consisted of beautiful waterfalls and wonderful scenery. It had been invaded by the droid armies of the Trade Federation. The Federation had hoped to force the Queen to sign a treaty making their presence here legal, but the Queen would not do it. Then, The Queen, dressed as a handmaiden for security, and a few handmaidens along with a little security, had fled the planet. Before they had left the planet, a pair of Jedi had joined them, along with another local creature called Jar Jar Binks, a local Gungan. One was a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn. He was an elderly man with grey hair and a grey beard and blue eyes. He had also been with a Jedi apprentice, also known as a Jedi Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi at the age of twenty-five. They helped us leave the planet safely. I had been dressed as the Queen the entire time for protection. I was the handmaiden that resembled The Queen the most, despite our age differences, so I often pretended to be the Queen. So, even if Kenobi had noticed her it was because he thought she was the Queen!

We had a small run in with the Trade Federation's blockade. The hyper drive had been damaged and we were forced to stop and become stranded on a small desert planet called Tatooine. We needed a whole new hyper drive and no republic credits were excepted as payment out there in the outer rim and we had no way to buy the parts. Qui-Gon found one dealer that had the part they needed but it had cost almost as much as a whole new ship! The dealer had been Watto, who owned his own shop. That is where Padme dressed as a handmaiden, along with Qui-Gon and Jar Jar Binks had met the slave at Watto's shop, Anakin Skywalker, a boy of nine. The boy fell for Padme right away, and the handmaidens and I believe she fell for him too.

He was an amazing boy of nine. It turned out that he had the potential to become a Jedi. But something was wrong with his age; he was to old to begin the training. Yet, Qui-Gon Jinn referred to him as "The Chosen One" and hoped to bring Anakin back to Courscant, The capital of the galaxy and their originally destination, with them. But the problem remained we had no money. Then Anakin suggested that we could bet on him at a podrace the following day. The Queen had been very unsure but Qui-Gon bet on him anyway. He bet that if we won that we would get the parts to the ship, and Watto could keep the rest of the money, or if we lost, Watto would get our ship. The next day Anakin won the podrace and we got the parts we need and Anakin even got to come with us. The only problem he had was leaving his mother behind.

After Obi-Wan had finished with the repairs and Qui-Gon had returned to the Tatooine City to get Anakin, we were getting ready to leave. As Qui-Gon and Anakin approached the ship, a figure in black had come out after Qui-Gon and they had gotten into a large lightsaber battle, for the black man had a red lightsaber. Qui-Gon escaped onto the ship and we were introduced to Anakin. He was on the way to Courscant with us. I liked him, but I could tell Obi-Wan was having a difficult time sharing his time with Qui-Gon. He seemed to like the boy, but I noticed more and more of Qui-Gon's time being spent with Anakin, and less and less with Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon seemed to think since Anakin was special, he would be accepted for training, despite his age. Obi-Wan buried himself in work with the pilot and studying routes that may hide the ship better, to keep his mind off it. I think that is when I really started to love him.

When we arrived on Courscant, Jar Jar, the Queen dressed as a handmaiden, myself dressed as Queen, and security headed for the senate building to talk to the Senator of Naboo, Senator Palpatine. The Jedi took Anakin to be tested as a Jedi and to find what their next coarse of action should be. We knew Anakin had high hopes at being a Jedi and we all wished him luck. He did come to say good bye to Padme, thinking she was a handmaiden. She was back to Queen at that time and was forced to lie and say she had sent Padme on an errand. We all knew she wanted to tell Anakin, be she didn't. The Queen went to an emergency Senate meeting to help solve the crisis. Nothing was to be resolved then and The Queen and Palpatine called for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum's leadership. Then, Palpatine got nominated to become the next Chancellor!

We found out the Jedi Council had decided Anakin was indeed force sensitive and could have been a Jedi. But, they ruled him to old to be trained. We heard that Qui-Gon had not been pleased and had said he would train Anakin as his Padawan, even though he already had one! I can just imagine how Obi- Wan must have felt and my heart breaks for him. They council denied saying that it was forbidden by the code to have two apprentices. Qui-Gon and Anakin had been enraged I'm sure while Obi-Wan was filled with jealousy and a feeling of self-unworthiness.

The Queen decided to go back to Naboo. No one was sure why at the time and the Jedi didn't seem too sure. There had been some arguments between Obi- Wan and Qui-Gon over Anakin. Qui-Gon had ordered Obi-Wan on the ship early so he could talk to Anakin. I could just imagine how he felt and it made me feel so anger at Qui-Gon, but I hid my feelings for I was playing Queen again. On the way to Naboo, The Queen told us her plan to take back Naboo from Federation clutches. She would try to persuade the Gungan's, Jar Jar's race, to help in the fight for Naboo. They would draw the Federation army from the main city of Theed and cause a diversion battle. Then the Queen dressed as a handmaiden along with security, including me as the Queen, would go to the Palace and try to capture the Federation Viceroy, Nute Gunray, the one responsible for the whole invasion. Then, the fighter pilots would go to the droid control ship floating in space and destroy it to deactivate all Federation droids.

The negotiations with the Gungans went all right after a little sucking up. They thought that we from the Naboo were all pigheaded and thought we were better than the Gungans. The Queen came forward in her Handmaiden disguise and revealed her true identity and denied these claims. After a little talk the Gungans decided they would help us by fighting this battle. Soon, it was starting. Our group was busting back into the palace and was nearly half way to the main chambers. As we headed for the shortcut when the man in black was there! He was just there, waiting for us. He must have been an evil Jedi. He would never let us pass. Qui-Gon called out; "We'll handle this." Anakin had hidden in an empty ship and taken off the help the pilots. We decided to take the long way round.

We battled droid after droid, edging our way a little closer every minute but more droids kept arriving. Finally, Captain Panaka blaster the glass windows and we used our extension guns to reach a higher level. When we got up there, Padme and her group spilt from ours and we went separate ways. It turned out that her group had gotten captured and taken to the main chambers to force the Queen to sign the treaty to make the invasion legal. As she was about to be forced my group with me as the Queen rushed by the door, pretending to be the Queen! I called out, "Viceroy, your occupation here has ended!" and shot the few droid guards in the room with the viceroy and ran off. They followed thinking I was the real one. The Queen was able to force the Viceroy to sign a treaty making them never able to be here again.

Everything was going good. My group was able to destroy the rest of the droids. Before long, the pilots had destroyed the control ship and the droids the Gungans were fighting deactivated. The Gungans won that battle. Anakin Skywalker himself had actually destroyed the droid ship. He must have felt pretty good. Everything was going wonderful. We had the Viceroy arrested and we were just heading back outside to watch as our people were freed, when we remembered. We remembered that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had gone to fight that bad black man. "Your highness, the Jedi!" I called. The Queen gasped and nodded and we turned the other way.

So what did you think? Please review for me! This is my first story and I would really love some criticism! I'll even accept you telling me how much you hate it! Please just write something! I beg you! I need it to continue this story, if you want me to.

Obiwanfan