THALIA
Thalia looked down into the gardens from her bedroom window. Today was the last day of the Peace Talks and she'd begun resigning herself to the fact that war was inevitable,
She let her hands drop to her sides and bundled the green, satin skirt of her gown into her fists, then remembering it was satin, quickly let it go and looked about the room for another output for her anger. There was none, so she returned to her gown and instead, pinched it carefully between two fingers. It was a beautiful, dark green dress. The bodice had a Bardot neckline, with tight straps across her biceps and the skirt was full and had a slight train. Her hair was twisted around her head in an elaborate bun with a gold tiara pinned in place.
A knock came at her door and Beth entered. When she didn't say anything, Thalia turned to see her smiling proudly.
"What?" Thalia smiled, her shoulders relaxing.
"Sometimes I forget that you were once that little girl playing with her pencils and being scolded for painting the furniture." Beth reminisced.
"If I had my way, I'd still be painting the furniture." Thalia smiled as Beth pulled her into a comforting embrace.
"We should get going. The sooner we begin, the sooner we can get back to the peace and quiet." Beth smiled and looped her arm through Thalia's.
Waiting by the front steps was a speeder holding two guards and Master Qui-Gonn.
"Try not to worry, Princess. We'll keep you safe." He said and Thalia thanked him for his words before they sped off towards the palace.
When they arrived, Thalia watched as Master Windu went to each guard to double check their identification. It seemed like the Jedi weren't leaving any stone unturned as they positioned themselves around the long table in the hall.
Thalia watched as the representatives trooped into the hall, ready to cast their votes on the Peace Treaty. Her eyes searched the crowd for Padme and she was greeted with a warm smiled when her eyes fell on the ruler of Naboo.
"You look weary." Thalia said as she stepped up to join her.
"Peace is tiring. I don't know how you do it." Padme chuckled.
"You sleep when it's achieved. It's not easy but it's worth it." Thalia smiled knowingly.
"When I am old and grey I will come and live on Troska. Call it my retirement plan." Padme joked.
"You don't have to be old and grey. Throw in your rule for the quiet life. I'm sure people will be very understanding." Thalia replied sarcastically and Padme laughed.
"Peace is underrated." She agreed before the two parted ways and moved to take their seats.
Thalia looked up and down the table at all the representatives. This was the moment of truth.
"The vote will commence." Thalia addressed the congregation as a minister appeared beside her holding two bowls, one containing black stones and the other white. "White is for the Peace Treaty and Black is against."
She then nodded once to the servant, who slowly began to make his way around the table, allowing each member to cast their votes. Everyone was watching the voting with eager eyes, even the Jedi were consumed by the circulating voting bowls.
The minister finally got to the last vote, which belonged to a smug looking Count Dooku. He made a show of picking out a black stone and sliding it menacingly into the voting bowl. Up the steps her minister walked and held out the voting bowl to her.
With bated breath, she looked inside, staring at the stones that occupied the once empty bowl.
"The members of this congregation have…voted against the Peace Treaty." She announced and silence fell over the table before chaos erupted. Representatives leapt from their seats to yell at those sitting opposite them who only retaliated with the same fervor.
Amidst the chaos, Thalia spotted Count Dooku stepping around the arguing representatives towards the door where he turned to look back at Thalia. He bowed slightly before continuing on his way. He was up to something. She barely had time to look to Qui-Goon and meet his eyes before, suddenly, Thalia felt a searing heat engulf her from behind and an earsplitting bang echoed around the room. A blast sent her flying forward and she landed on the hard sandstone floor at the base of the table.
Her ears rang and her vision was blurred. The screams of the representatives were muffled and swam in her head as she rolled onto her stomach. Thalia tried desperately to push herself onto her knees, but she crumpled back to the ground as a wave of nausea washed over her. She lay there, unable and unwilling to move. She wanted the screaming to stop, she wanted the ringing in her ears to go…she wanted to go home.
Above her, blue armor swam in and out of her vision, but she recognized the armor of her Troskan guards. That meant safety. She reached up to them and they grabbed her roughly under her arms and hauled her to her feet.
They half carried; half dragged her out of the hall to safety. But when they turned towards a speeder she didn't recognize, she pulled away from them. This wasn't the way her emergency departure had been planned.
She looked down at her feet and started when she saw that she too was wearing Troskan armor. This wasn't right. She managed to look over her shoulder to see the Jedi sprinting towards her.
"Don't worry, your highness. We'll take good care of you." One of the guards growled and his armor melted away to reveal the face of a bounty hunter she'd hoped never to lay her eyes on again. Cad Bain.
"No." She mumbled faintly and tried to yank her arm away, but it did nothing thanks to her weak muscles.
When they reached the speeder, Thalia was thrown into the back before being sped away the second they were in, leaving the Jedi staring after them.
Thalia watched blearily as the driver and the second guard's armor melted away to reveal a man she didn't recognize and Moralo Eval; another bounty hunter she'd thwarted the plan of.
"Dooku was right. Not that hard at all." Eval grinned and looked down at Thalia who's head lolled back as she tried to clear it of the fog.
They drove all the way to the mills at the edge of the city.
"This is the rendezvous point." Bain said.
"Dooku said he'd meet us here." Eval confirmed, grabbing Thalia's arm and throwing her out of the speeder. She landed with a thud on the hard ground and her forearm scraped against the loose gravel. Her hair had fallen out of it's bun and she brushed it out of her face as she gingerly got to her feet.
She looked around for anyone who might be near or a possible escape route, but there was no one and no way out.
"Don't even think about it, little lady." Bain growled and pointed his blaster at her.
"Where's Dooku?" The Bounty Hunter she didn't recognize asked.
"Don't know, Taj. He said he'd meet us here." Eval replied, sounding a little panicked.
"I think we've been double-crossed." Bain said and Eval started.
"What do you mean? W-what do we do with her?" He stammered.
"We'll ransom her ourselves." Bain grinned, grabbing a hold of Thalia's chin. "You've got quite a bounty on your pretty little head." He chuckled and Thalia pulled her face away from his grasp.
"I'm not afraid of you." She growled, her voice sounding surprisingly steady.
"Oho, feeling brave are we?" Eval laughed as Taj, the third bounty hunter, slowly made his way around her. "It won't last long, enjoy it while it lasts."
"I'm afraid…the Princess is coming with me." Taj declared, and wrapped his arm around Thalia's shoulders while aiming his blaster at the other two Bounty Hunters.
"Osanadar, what do you think you're doing?" Bain snarled, aiming his own blaster at his fellow bounty hunter. The grip around Thalia's shoulders tightened, and her hands flew up to pull the man's arm away. When she did so, she felt his grip loosen slightly. Not enough to let her go, but enough to make it bearable.
"Trust me, Thalia." The man whispered into her ear and her eyes widened. Why would she trust him? Surely, he didn't think a reassuring voice would make her trust him, a kidnapper!
The sound of a speeder approaching made everyone look up to see Mace Windu and Qui-Gonn leap out of a Troskan speeder, followed by six guards who surrounded them.
The two Jedi ignited their lightsabers and aimed them at Eval and Bain who begrudgingly threw down their blasters and raised their hands in the air.
Thalia felt Taj's grip on her loosen and she took her chance to pull away from him. She whirled around and threw her fist into the side of his face, sending him stumbling back a few paces.
"Ah! Please! Do not kill Moralo Eval!" Eval pleaded.
"Take him and Bain into custody." Master Windu ordered and the guards leapt forward, clamping a pair of handcuffs around each Bounty Hunter's wrists.
Qui-Gonn turned to Thalia who was glaring at Taj as if her life depended on it. Why wasn't he being arrested too?
"It's alright, Princess." He said before looking at Taj. "You did a good job, Obi-Wan."
Thalia thought she'd heard him incorrectly and her head whipped up to look up at the Jedi Master, who placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"What?" She demanded.
"I'm sorry, Thalia." Taj said, stepping forward. "If you would, please let me explain it."
Thalia stared at him in disbelief, confusion, and every other emotion that didn't make sense.
"Obi-Wan?" She asked carefully and the man in front of her nodded slowly, an apologetic smile making it's way onto his face.
Thalia stared at him for another moment in disbelief. Then, for a second time, she threw her fist at his face, this time knocking him to the ground.
. . .
"How could you?" Thalia shouted hysterically at Obi-Wan who sat patiently on the edge of the sofa in one of the lounge rooms in the palace. It's tall windows looked out across the city and a crescent of plush, dark red chairs were positioned in a circle in the center of the room. Thalia stood in the middle of them, fuming at Obi-Wan who had transformed back into himself. "What is the matter with you Jedi? What…was it some kind of sick joke because I was angry at them? I don't understand. I thought you were dead."
"This was the only way we could have discovered the plot against you. One of us had to go undercover." Obi-Wan began calmly.
"But why did it have to be you?" She interrupted.
"Because I've spent so long on Troska, I knew it better than any of the other Jedi. And Bain had to know for sure that I was no longer around to protect you, so his guard would be down. Everyone…knows how close we are. It was your reaction that sold it. I'm sure of it." Obi-Wan explained, but Thalia just scoffed and turned away from him. If this was him trying to make her feel better, it wasn't working. It definitely wasn't working. She felt embarrassed. She'd been played for a fool, at least that's how it felt to her.
"I've been an idiot." Thalia chuckled sadly.
"No." Obi-Wan firmly assured her.
"I killed you. I chose Troska over you and they killed you. It was my fault." Thalia continued, her voice unsteady because of how fast she was breathing.
"It was not your fault. It was cruel but we didn't have a choice." Obi-Wan pleaded, getting to his feet. "You made the right choice, I knew you would. That's why I knew we could go through with this plan. Your devotion to your people is stronger than anything. I never doubted you for a second."
"Never, ever put me in a position like that again." Thalia warned slowly, finally turning to face the Padawan. "You gave me an impossible decision." And thought for a second about whether to continue but went ahead. "I almost signed it, you know. You shouldn't have put so much faith in me."
As she stared at him, Obi-Wan watched as distress seeped into every fibre of her being.
"To know that I had been the reason for your death and for you to have died without telling you that …" Thalia paused and shut her eyes, taking a steadying breath. "…I'm not sorry for punching you, by the way."
"I deserved it." Obi-Wan nodded. Thalia's whole exterior crumbled then. She let out a shaky breath so long that she must have fought against every instinct not to come out as a sob. She'd gotten her anger out. All the emotions that had been building up inside her were gone and now she felt as if she could just fall to the floor and sleep.
"Here." She looked up to see Obi-Wan hold out his hand to her and gesture to the grazes on her forearm from where she'd hit the ground.
Throwing her eyes up to the ceiling, she trooped forwards and sat down, facing the Padawan before holding out her arm for him to treat. He reached into the medical kit and pulled out a white cloth and some cleansing solution.
Tipping the bottle onto the material a few times, he took hold of Thalia's wrist and gently pressed the cloth to her arm.
She flinched slightly as the solution stung her scratches but other than that she stayed perfectly still. Obi-Wan's grip around her wrist was firm but reassuring, and every so often, he'd gently brush his thumb over the delicate skin under her wrist.
As he worked, Thalia's eyes never left his face once. She couldn't believe she had him back.
Once he'd finished cleaning the wound, he looked up at her, holding her gaze for a few moments before turning to reach inside the medical kit for some gauze.
Carefully, he began to wrap the material around her arm so gently she hardly noticed he was doing it.
"There." He said softly, lowering her arm into her lap.
Thalia felt the force shift around them and when he looked up at her again she could see in his face that he had felt it to. His eyes had widened slightly, his eyebrows raised and his lips had a slight part to them. There had been so many times in the past year that Thalia had felt this indescribable feeling, and every time she'd waited for Obi-Wan. They were so close now that she couldn't believe there was still space between them.
"Promise me, that there'll be no more secrets." Thalia said quietly. "I don't think I could bare it."
"No more secrets. I promise." Obi-Wan whispered, barely audible to Thalia as his eyes fluttered to her lips and then back up to her eyes. "I…"
"I know." Thalia whispered and closed what little space there was between them, her lips meeting his.