Part Two: The Past

66 BBY – 1st Semester

Her

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Marilla, the padawan, got out of her temporary bed to prepare a soothing tea for her Master. It was late and chilling so she put on a cozy robe and fetched the necessary items for the serving. Travelling has always been hard on Master Yaddle, the least Marilla could do was serve her as a good apprentice. Marilla was a beautiful Togruta, skilled in the ways of the force.

With her power she tried to pour the herbal tea into the cup. It was a hard thing to do, to focus on one object and make it act precisely as you wish. Usually her Master would tell her to use the training helmet that incapacitates her vision, but Marilla was sure she could do it this way. She was to become a powerful Jedi, the best female saber fighter in the galaxy.

Her concentration was not to be shaken as the tea poured nicely, fuming. Her right hand controls the action mid-air as her left hand holds down the cup.

Suddenly, there's a sound, a hollow thump behind her. She turns shattering the teapot flooding the kitchen counter. There was no hesitation as she grabbed the lightsaber on her belt and lit it up. Behind her there was someone sneaking in this lonely night at Theed University.

The Campus for Naboo's prime education facility was made of little houses that held students during their formative years. Master Yaddle's class of 66, from the Jedi Academy in Coruscant, was taking the yearly trip to assist the new graduating students. It was a serving activity Master Yaddle believed could help with some Jedi skills, allowing them to interact with non-users of the Force of the same age.

The distracting sound Marilla heard came from one of these students. An adolescent ginger boy was standing in the shadows behind her, hidden between a cabinet and a food container. Seeing the mess he caused, quickly he set himself to help her.

"I'm so sorry!" he leaned in to clean up the broken pieces of porcelain.

"No! That's okay!" She said, pushing him aside. "I'll do it. It's my job."

"Well, you're not a droid cleaner, are you?"

Marilla stopped shooting him a threatening look.

"That was joke, I'm sorry!" He said regretful.

They remained silent for a moment as the Togruta cleaned up her mess sending the shatters down the vacuum trashcan. Even with the deafening sound of porcelain banging against metal while being sucked away, there was still an awkward silence among them. The boy decided to break it. "So… how does it light up?"

"What?" Marilla responded still focused on her duty.

"The… lightsaber…" there was a strange tone in his voice as he said it.

She looked at him, with her eyes piercing. They were about the same age. "You just push the button." Marilla clicked the activation switch for the saber. A celestial blue lit up his face, and his eyes fixated on it mesmerized. To break him off the hypnosis, she switched it back off. "You should go to bed." She took on another teapot from a cabinet and filled it with hot water from the sink. It came fuming.

"Huh, shouldn't you be in bed too?" he asked teasing.

"I'm serving my Master, and I'm not a complementary student."

"Why are you here? The Jedi…"

"My class came to help with the finalists this year. Are you a finalist?"

"I will be… next year. Will you come then?"

She stopped her doing once more to fully analyze the boy. "No, it will be another class next year."

"Oh." He seemed disappointed.

With that, Marilla remembered what seemed like an important question. "Were you stalking me back there?"

He seemed taken aback by that. "No, not at all. I just couldn't sleep… I've never seen a Togruta in…" he gulped "… real life."

She chuckles at that. "Really?"

"Yeah… You have really pretty… Tentacles…?" he tried.

Marilla smiles at the innocence of him "Thank you. They're called lekku."

"Okay…" she could swear he was blushing a little bit.

After Marilla had successfully prepared the tea for her Master, with no Force necessary, she put the cup on a tray.

"Well it was nice to meet you…" she squinted, realizing they never really introduced each other.

"Palpatine." He smiled.

"Nice to meet you Palpatine. My name is Marilla." She leaned in curtsey and walked away. She could feel his eyes on her.

'If only he was a finalist.' She thought.