Note: This story will be divided into 3 parts. Part I starts here. And also this is obviously an AU, Padmé's Force Sensitive okay, you don't know, I've seen fics with Padmé as a Jedi with reviews saying it's not canon that she's Force Sensitive, hello, AU! Also this takes place during the time of TPM at the moment, again it's an AU so Padmé and Anakin are older.

Part I: Rising Jedi

Chapter 2: Solo

Two cerulean lightsabers contacted, sending a shower of sparks flying to the floor. The two combatants then pulled away from one another and paused to wait for the other to instigate the next strike.

"Come on Anakin, you're not even trying." Padmé taunted playfully and she flourished her blade.

"I'm trying to go easy on you." Anakin replied. "I didn't want you to suffer defeat for the tenth time."

"Eight time Anakin." Padmé corrected. "Those two times that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan distracted us don't count, even if you did have the upper hand."

Padmé rolled her eyes while shaking her chocolate brown hair out of her eyes. She and Anakin were both highly accomplished Jedi Padawans (Padmé wore the customary braid as did Anakin, of course his hair was neatly cropped), for most of their lives they had trained together since their masters were old friends. In fact both of them stood proudly near the door of the sparring rooms, watching their padawans practicing intently. Qui-Gon Jinn had found Anakin on Tatooine during a mission with his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had, a year later, found Padmé on Naboo himself, he was still a Jedi Knight, unlike Qui-Gon who was a Master.

Anakin had been a seven when he was found, slightly overage to begin his training, however after Obi-Wan successfully completed The Trials the Jedi Council allowed Qui-Gon to take Anakin in as a padawan. Obi-Wan received no hassle when he took Padmé in as she was six when he found her, the maximum age in which a youngling could be considered for training. Now, several years later Anakin was twenty-one and Padmé nineteen.

Both were superb, and nearly ready to face The Trials, there was little more their masters could teach them, only what they could teach one another. Anakin was the cocky hotshot Jedi, many Council members disapproved of him for that reason, despite the fact that he was likely the prophesized Chosen One (perhaps another reason he was accepted for training at a late age). Padmé, on the other hand had taken after Obi-Wan. She preferred negotiation over aggressive action, both she and Anakin working together were unstoppable, and so they spent many missions in one another's company, along with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

Padmé struck at Anakin first. The young, cocky Jedi raised his lightsaber to parry easily; he slid it around Padmé's and used the force generated, and the position of Padmé's wrist to push it away.

"You ought to spend a bit more time on your saber exercises." Anakin commented.

"Funny, I could say the same about you and your Force techniques." Padmé returned.

"Luckily," Anakin began as he swung his saber at Padmé's leg, she was not quick enough to parry so the blade dug into her brown leather boots, the saber was set on a low powered training mode and not able to cut through anything so Anakin was able to use it to trip her. During the fall she lost her own weapon and when she hit the ground Anakin's cerulean blade was at her neck. "Force isn't playing much of a key role here."

Padmé huffed in irritation from being defeated so easily. Both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan clapped lightly and respectfully in polite celebration of Anakin's victory.

"Well done my padawan." Qui-Gon commented.

"Thank you master." Anakin absently replied while deactivating his lightsaber and extending an open hand to Padmé, she smiled lightly and took it, with surprising physical strength he lifted her to her feet, she took note of how strong he was, even without the Force. Impressive.

Padmé called her dead hilt back to her open palm, clutched it as the cool metal hit her hand and clipped it lightly onto her brown belt. The two prior combatants then bowed to one another in respect. The moment they stood up however, the door to the training room shot open and Mace Windu entered the threshold.

"I hope I am not interrupting anything." he said crisply, clearly not in the best mood at the moment.

"No, we're all finished here." Anakin stated. Mace Windu shot him a look which was clearly an order to shut up. He followed it grudgingly; he held no high respect for Windu because Windu held no respect for him. Perhaps he was jealous, but no, a Jedi knows no jealously.

"Good," Mace said. "Knight Kenobi, Master Jinn, Padawn Amidala, Padawan Skywalker, Chancellor Valorum has requested a meeting with all of you in his office."

"Did he say why?" Obi-Wan asked curiously in his accented voice, stroking the shadow of a beard that had appeared on the lower part of his face.

"Yes," Mace replied simply. "He has a mission for you, the Council has approved it."

"Very well," Qui-Gon said. "We'll be there."

XxX

Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé each filed in to the Chancellor's spacious and luxurious office, past several red robed guards and toward the desk at the far end which Valorum sat behind. The cityscape of Coruscant lay behind him, past the transparisteel of his giant window. The Supreme Chancellor's eyes flickered upward at them as they stopped in front of his desk; he immediately withdrew his folded hands from its surface.

"Please sit down." he requested. The four Jedi acquiesced and each took one of the four, very comfortable seats before the Chancellor.

"You are undoubtedly wondering what the mission I wish to send you on is." Valorum guessed.

"Yes," Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Padmé, and Anakin replied in unison.

"The Trade Federation is blockading Naboo, I don't know if you were aware. They are totally boycotting the planet and preventing all supplies from getting through. The citizens are growing worried, Queen Jimila of Naboo had repeatedly requested that they end the blockade but the Viceroy, Nute Gunray will not listen. I do not want this situation to become hostile. I wished to send you and your padawans to negotiate with this Viceroy and end the blockade." Valorum explained.

"You will not require four Jedi for simple negotiations." Qui-Gon stated. At this Valorum noticeably paled, to him these negotiations were far from simple.

"I concur," Obi-Wan stated. "Anakin and Padmé are more than capable of handling this. They have a good history together on small solo missions such as this. Padmé is also skilled in negotiation."

"I'm not sure if it is wise to send mere padawans to negotiate in a situation that threatens to turn hostile." Valorum said worriedly.

"You'll find both Anakin and Padmé are quite capable." Qui-Gon returned somewhat icily. "They are nearly ready to face the trials."

"Very well," Valorum said. "We must resolve this problem before the situation escalates any further."

XxX

A relatively small crimson passenger ship named the Radiant VII exited hyperspace near the fleet of Trade Federation capitol ships, in blockade formation around the planet Naboo. Anakin and Padmé sat in the cockpit along with the ship's captain Maoi Makakor as well as a Lieutenant Antidar Williams. As the ship grew nearer and nearer to the fleet of Federation ships, and the capitol Droid Controller Ship Anakin gave and order from the seat behind captain Makakor.

"Contact them and request landing." he said.

"Yes sir," Makakor replied while keying in a frequency. Seconds later a full color image of Viceroy Nute Gunray himself appeared on a screen above the captain and lieutenant.

"Please excuse us Viceroy," Makakor began. "The Chancellors ambassadors have arrived; we are requesting landing."

"Not at all captain," Gunray said. "We will be happy to receive the ambassadors, we are honored by your presence here, by all means you are cleared to land."

The colorful screen, full of the ugly green Neimoidian's image then faded black to its original oily black color.

"I don't like him." Anakin said to Padmé.

"I don't trust him," Padmé replied as their ship went in for a landing, receiving the proper coordinates on the computer. "Neimoidians are cowards; fear drives people to do horrible things."

"Fear is the path to the Dark Side, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Anakin stated, performing a decent impression of Yoda. "If that's all true then the Viceroy is probably an agent of the Dark Side."

"Don't joke like that, Anakin." Padmé said sternly as their ship touched down. "This is serious."

"Sorry," Anakin replied as their ship touched down in the iron gray hangers of the Federation flagship called Saak'ak. A boarding ramp lowered slowly under the bow of the ship which housed the cockpit. Anakin and Padmé braced themselves for the negotiations they were about to embark on, it was likely they would be intense since Neimoidians were know not only for their coward-ness, but for the slimy, scheming way in which they conducted business. They were not blunt about the way they did it either; they feigned respect and honor, making dealing with them all the worse. Anakin and Padmé had decided they would counter by being blunt to Gunray, and equally, if not more rude that he was.

They raised their respective hoods over their heads and disembarked the ship. At the ramp they expected some greeting party of nervous looking Neimoidians, plus an escort of the battle droids that the Trade Federation employed for security. Instead they found only an overly shiny silver protocol droid.

"I am TC-14 at your service, ambassadors." the droid announced. "This was please."

Anakin and Padmé exchanged looks as the droid began to head off for the hanger exit. Was the Viceroy so fearful of them that he sent only a droid, or perhaps he was just intentionally being rude, either way both Jedi took off at a quick pace to catch up with the droid.

XxX

Nute Gunray stood with his hands folded nervously on the bridge of the Saak'ak, the Republic had sent people to negotiate, things were starting to heat up, Gunray was not looking forward to it. He would probably have to end up killing the ambassadors and then there would be no turning back, he'd have to invade Naboo and force Queen Jimila to sign the treaty which would make the invasion legal. Gunray was not looking forward to any of this in the least.

"We've got an incoming transmission from the planet sir!" a Neimoidian announced from the control chair, jogging Gunray from his thoughts. "It's Queen Jimila herself."

"Do you think she suspects something?" Rune Haako, another Neimoidian asked from Nute's side.

"No, I don't think so," Gunray replied. "Let's try not to give her reason to expect something. Send the transmission through."

The two Neimoidians then turned to face the large communication screen on the bridge which was currently in a passive state, giving it the appearance of a wall made of rippling silver water. It seemed as though an invisible rock was tossed into the middle, two ripples seemed to go out, opening up a hole in the water which an image could be seen through, the rest of it was cast away as the colored figure of Queen Jimila appeared on it. Her face was completely pale, she wore blood red lipstick across her upper lip and one stripe below it, she was clad in a royal looking black, feathery gown, and she looked rather cross.

"Ah, yes, Queen Jimila, this is an unexpected pleasure, we are honored." Nute lied, while giving the queen a small bow.

"Silence Viceroy, save your formalities, and this will hardly be pleasurable for you, I regret to inform you that your trade boycott of this planet had ended."

"I was… not aware of such failure." the Viceroy replied.

"Senator Palpatine has contacted me with word from the Senate. The Chancellor has dispatched two Jedi to negotiate with you."

Two Jedi?! Those words made Nute Gunray sick with fear. The Chancellor had sent Jedi to negotiate with him, Jedi were bad news, they had not come to simply negotiate, they had come to shut down his entire operation, sending Jedi to negotiate was like bluntly stating "we're shutting you down", as opposed to sending Senate officials to talk was more like "we wish to shut you down, however we are willing to discuss terms." Gunray had to stop himself from visibly quivering in fear, and it took all of his effort not to let a surprised look cross his face.

"I regret to inform you, milady that no such Jedi have arrived." Gunray lied. "No negotiations are to take place."

"Beware Viceroy," Jimila said; clearly she had not believed him. "The Senate will intervene if this boycott continues, and they will side with us."

"I doubt it will come to that." Nute replied dismissively, though he was positive it would. "The boycott will continue."

"We'll see." Jimila stated icily. The silver water then flooded back over her image, causing it to disappear. Nute Gunray turned nervously to his comrade Rune Haako.

"Get Lord Sidious on the line! Only he will know how to handle these Jedi."

Rune Haako nodded nervously, the only thing worse than Jedi was the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. However Sidious was on their side. Seconds later a transparent, blue hologram of the hooded Dark Lord appeared before Nute Gunray.

"What is it Viceroy?" Sidious spat. "I have matters to attend to."

"We must have gone to far milord! The Chancellor has sent two Jedi for negotiations."

"I am aware of the situation Viceroy." Sidious returned coldly. "It is of no consequence, we will have to accelerate our plans however. Begin landing your troops."

"What of the Jedi?" Nute asked nervously, knowing he would not like the answer.

"Kill them immediately, dispose of them of and their ship, make it seem as though they never arrived."