Sorry it's been so long, but with classes having started I've had hardly any time to write. Until now, that is. Here's chapter 8. And I'll try to work faster in the future, I promise. Thanks for reading, and please remember to leave feedback!

Chapter 8

Anakin purposely kept his distance behind Padme as she eagerly ran up the steps leading into her family's house. He kept his hand on his lightsaber, gripping it firmly and hoping to regain the feel of the disguise of a Jedi Knight he would have to wear for the Naberries. As she was met by an older woman barely into middle age at the door, Anakin let go of the saber and swung his arms back and forth while trying to puff his chest out as much as possible.

"Padme," cried the woman, obviously the mother, wrapping her arms around her daughter tightly. "Oh, Padme! Oh, thank the Gods you're safe! We were so worried about you."

"You already know about the attempt?" Padme looked dismayed at the fact.

"Were you going to hide it from us," asked her mother in consternation.

"Of course we're going to know what's happened to our youngest daughter," added in a gruff man that appeared to be Padme's father.

"Daddy, mother," Padme protested somewhat rebelliously, "I can take care of myself, you know. I have bodyguards, handmaidens, and a Jedi Knight who just saved my life." She pointed over to Anakin, who was still waiting by the street with his eyes mesmerized by the ground. At the mention of his title though, Anakin cautiously took the meager steps towards the predators that were disguised as the parents of the Queen.

"Hi," he said meekly.

"Oh, don't be shy," scolded Padme offhandedly. "Ranakin Skyesolo, this is my mother Jobal, and my dad Ruwee."

Anakin still hesitated, but any movement from him was unnecessary as Jobal flew down the steps faster than Master Yoda overdosed on caf and enveloped him in a warm hug.

"Oh, thank you, thank you so much for protecting my baby." It was after she released the red-cheeked Anakin that she noticed her baby's protector was not that far from being a baby himself. Before she could question his age her husband stepped towards the pavement and found a hand of Anakin's for him to shake.

"Master Jedi, I can't express how grateful I am for what you've done."

"Oh, it's no big deal." The Master Jedi phrase seemed to bring out of Anakin some of that old Skyesolo confidence. "That's what our job as Jedi Knights are, I guess. Saving lives."

"And he does it well too," said Padme, beaming with confidence. She walked back down the steps to rejoin the group below.

"Hey, aren't you a little young to be a Jedi Knight?" The voice came from a woman standing in the doorway. On further scrutiny Anakin noticed that she was cradling an infant in her arms.

"Oh, Sola, don't embarrass my Jedi protector." Anakin noticed that as she spoke, it was Padme who looked more embarrassed than anyone else. "Sola, Ranakin Skyesolo. Ranakin, my older sister Sola and," Padme walked up to her and motioned towards her baby, whom she reluctantly handed to her younger sister, "my beautiful little niece Ryoo."

Anakin absent-mindedly said hello to Ryoo, realizing after a few seconds of waiting for a response what a futile task it was. No one seemed to notice his slip-up except for Sola, who continued to examine him with her microscopic eyes.

"Well," Jobal interrupted finally, "I can imagine that the two of you are quite hungry. It's a good thing I'm almost finished cooking dinner."

"Lucky for you," Ruwee said with a smirk on his face, "my lovely wife prepares a full and voluminous meal whether or not we have guests."

The patriarch wrapped his arm around his youngest daughter and began to escort her into the house. It was after a few steps that Padme noticed something awry.

"Anakin, are you coming in?"

Anakin was standing by himself now as the family migrated back to their abode.

"In a little while. I think I need to do some meditating."

"Do you want me to call you when dinner is ready?"

"I'll know."

He found a secluded corner in the Naberrie back yard and started his meditation, sitting on the wet grass with his legs crossed. He yearned to just lie back onto the soft turf and roll around without a care in the world, but Anakin managed to discipline himself. Obi-Wan always said that he lacked discipline. Obi-Wan may not be his teacher any more, but that did not mean that the lessons that he had tried to impart lacked merit.

Discipline was what he needed right now. He was no longer a runaway fugitive hiding from his masters; he had a mission now, a purpose in his life, and a Queen to protect. Anakin had already begun to regret the course of action he had just taken. It had been so easy to accept Padme's offer to run away with her and act as a personal bodyguard, but he knew that he was really needed back in Theed at the scene of the crime. Padme would never be safe until whoever was trying to kill her was caught, and as he retraced his steps Anakin realized that he did not completely trust the people in charge of the investigation back at the capitol. Theed was where he needed to be.

But it was too late now. To go back now would leave Padme unprotected, and that just simply could not be. He was just a boy, but he would protect her. He would prefer to have reinforcements. Obi-Wan for example. But he would do it alone if he had to. The mission now, he decided, was all he had left.

Anakin got up and took a blaster droid out of his knapsack. He set the machine on its most difficult level, closed his eyes, ignited his lightsaber, and waited for the blasts to come at him.

"So my little sister has brought home a young suitor." Sola beamed with contrived delight as she helped Padme unpack her belongings. "A little too young, I suppose, but I guess he is still a Jedi Knight."

"Sola," Padme protested uncomfortably. Uncomfortably because her sister had come too close to the truth, and had stumbled too close to the lie. "He is not a suitor. He's only a boy."

"But he's a Jedi Knight," she said again, repeating those two incriminating words. "I still have doubts that they could be so young. But, if that were the case, I should be scolding them for leaving you to at the mercy of a thirteen-year old bodyguard."

"An-, Ranakin is fourteen," replied Padme defensively.

"And you," Sola continued, ignoring her sister, "I am surprised that you have agreed to such terms. Or the Governor. Or your handmaidens. Or that protective head of the Royal Guard, Captain What's-his-name whose sole job is to protect you."

"They are involved in the investigation," stated Padme officially. "And don't forget, it was Anakin who almost single-handedly saved my life."

"Wait a minute!" Sola unceremoniously tossed the dress she was folding onto the floor and pointed an accusing finger at her sister. "What did you call him again?"

"Oh, um, I meant Ranakin." Padme immediately turned away and began rummaging through her case.

"I know you meant Ranakin. But you said…Anakin. That name sounds very familiar."

The now red-faced Queen continued to fling through her belongings without any clear purpose in mind. After a minute of not hearing a sound from her sister, she warily turned around. Sola was standing at the same place, staring at her with intent in her eyes.

"Sola, why are you doing this to me?"

"Why? Why? I'll tell you why, Padme. Someone just tried to kill my little sister, that's why!" She was shouting now, and Padme thought she saw tears starting to form in her eyes. "My little sister almost died, and what does she do? Instead of sheltering herself behind her best bodyguards and handmaidens, she brings home some love-smitten teenager…who I do not believe for one second is a real Jedi Knight!"

"Sola." Padme did not know how to respond. Instead she collapsed on her bed. Her sister sat down beside her.

"I'm worried for you, Padme. We all are. Even dad, though he hides it behind his tough facade, he's worried sick. I don't think he slept a wink last night, Padme. And neither did I."

"Sola," she said with resignation. "I'm sorry. I really am."

"I don't need you to apologize to me, Padme. I want to know the truth. Who is he, whatever his name is? What does he have to do with whatever is going on?"

Padme sat up so that she faced her sister and looked her in the eye for the first time since coming home.

"The truth is, he is a Jedi. Or was, actually. Something happened to him. I don't know what, but I know it's something really bad. Horrible. He ran away from them."

"Why did he run away to you?"

"I've known Ani for a long time." Padme thought back to when she first met him on the planet of Tatooine. How he had been their ticket off that planet. How he had continued to save them, again and again. "He's young. But don't underestimate him. Remember the little boy that saved us all? During the Trade Federation?"

"Yes." Sola paused for a second in recognition. "Anakin Skywalker. I knew I recognized that name."

"And the truth is, he did save my life back in Theed. In more than one way." Padme her hand unconsciously through her hair until she found the hairpin. "Don't worry about me Sola. I trust myself enough to trust him with my life."

She got up from the bed and looked outside. Below her window Anakin leapt around with dizzying velocity as he was able to deflect away every shot the practice droid fired at him. Sola eventually joined her.

"I guess the boy is pretty good."

"He's not just any boy either," Padme whispered softly. She wondered why she was whispering. "Did you know that he has no father. Not in the way that his father abandoned him or anything like that. He has never had a father from the moment he was conceived."

"How is that possible?"

The two sisters continued to watch the young ex-Jedi practice below on the lawn. Neither one commented on it to the other, but both noticed that the boy emitted some kind of glow around his body wherever it went. As his smooth motions moved him closer to the shade beneath their Shurra tree, Sola could have sworn that his color rivaled the setting sun in its luminosity.

"The late Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn told us that he was conceived purely by the Force itself. He has more power in him than any other Jedi in history. They called him the Chosen One."

Sola reached over and grabbed her sister's hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Is he powerful enough to protect you?"

Padme's mind did not let her hesitate.

"Yes."

But as she continued to watch the young man, who had just noticed their presence and had stopped his exercises to look at the two sisters staring out the window, she wondered who needed the protection more.