I slowed blinked, rubbing my eyes as I realized finally opened to see a disturbing sight. Sawyer, looking down at me. I jumped a bit, sitting up, causing our heads to colidie. "Ow!" He screeched holding his head as I flew off the bed. He looked at me with hearts it his eyes. "Don't look at me like." He smirked. "Why," He got up walking towards me "Your my wife." He crossed his arms confidently. "Only by title." I took a few steps towards him. "I lost all my love and respect for you years ago." I saw tears weld up in him eyes, sparking a pang of sympathy. "That's a lie." I past Sawyer to see Bella, the light side of me. "You still love him." She reasoned with me as I looked across the room to see Reese, my dark side, rolling her eyes. "Like loving him is gonna get you anywhere." She remarked, heading towards me. "If you would just let me take over," She whispered in my ear. "We could get back at Rue, Palpatine," I scoffed at her efforts. "Thrawn." I felt my fists ball up. "Think about everything he did to do, don't you want to make him pay?" She walked towards Bella. "Think about it." She sat on the bed. And just like that, they were gone. I sunk to floor feeling exhausted. Why is my life this stressful?

I woke up in the bed, yawning as I was relived to see that Sawyer never came back. Isabella, my lady in waiting, was sitting in the chair by the window. "Your Majesty, I think there is something you might see outside." She said with a smile handing me a cup of Caf which I gladly accepted. Ha! In your face Thrawn, I can't have kids anyways. I looked out to window to see a scene that warmed my heart. I saw Ash playing with the kids in the water, having what looked like the time of their life. "This is why I could never ask them back of Ash." I mumbled to myself. I watched them until they left to go back inside, my heart light at the happiness shared by a father and his kids. Isabella started grabbing the cup from my hand "You have a busy schedule today, Your Majesty." She looking slightly glum. "Why the long face? I asked concerned. "Ummm" She looked down, "His Majesty would like to see you." Looking up at me with her lip bit nervously, she mumbled. I nodded trying to hide my fear as I started towards Sawyer's office. "You called?" I peeked my head through the door to see Sawyer and Emperor Palpatine conversing. I felt my hands start to shake, nervousness rushing through my blood. I've only ever dealt with one of them. "Yes, come in." The vile Emperor ushered me in, forcing me to obey. However, Sawyer checked his watch, tapping his foot on the ground as if signaling that he had somewhere to be. "How long is this going to take, Father?" He asked, completely ignoring me. "Only an hour or two." His father replied looking at him with a smug expression. I tensed up, why did they need me for two hours, no, what were they gonna do to me for two hours? I shivered at the thought. "Well I have somewhere to be in a few minutes so can we do this later?" He asked with ergency, his prior arrangement seeming important. "Fine." Palpatine sighed glaring at me as if I had won. "Don;t blame me," I put my hands up in the air. " I don't know what he has going on." I shoved the blame off of me, not willing to be responsible for my husband's (gross) schedule. "Then your both excused," Palpatine waved us out with a flick of the wrist. "I'll send someone to get you when your free." Me and Sawyer rushed out of the room going separate ways, Sawyer going to our room, and me going to what seemed to be a crying maid in the hallway. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked in a comforting voice, holding her hand. "The head maid scolded me, that's all." She responding, seemingly scared that I would do the same. "Why?" I inquired further, showing interest in her dilemma. "I dropped a plate." She mumbled as I chuckled. "I've done that so many times, it fine." She looked at me in shock. "I'll talk to her about it," I said sticking out my pinky. "She won't scold you for something so trivial again." I promised as she took a deep breath of relief. "Thank you." She bowed scurrying away as I turned around and started heading back to my room. "Rebel!" A familiar voice called out to me, in more a whisper than a yell. I whipped around, hoping it would be who I thought it was, Ash. I felt my eyes light up as I saw Ash standing a few feet behind me with tons of stuff in his arms, including three kids. I practically skipped towards him, feeling overjoyed that he was alive and well in such a harsh environment. He stared at me for a few seconds, wincing at something on my face. Is my face that ugly? You married this same face, dummy. He stroked my forehead with his thumb as I realized he was cringing at the apparent bruise on it. I cringed along with him, taking a few steps back to spare him from the injury, and to spare my forehead from his dirty fingers. "Yeah," I hestisated, making up an remark to his stupidity. "Let's just say, you don't do the seeing here." I said, embracing my pettiness. He laughed awkwardly, readjusting his set up with the kids. "I'm sorry." I felt myself jump at those words, Ash, saying sorry? Who is this man? "It's okay." I flicked off the apology, showing it was a big deal. It was a big deal, to my forehead at least. "These are for you." He gave a bouquet of flowers to me with a childish grin. I took them, staring to awe at the flowers. Queen of hearts, my favoriate, and the only flower I've ever received, but still my favoriate none the less. "You got me flowers?" I confirmed, slightly suspicious that Sawyer might have put his best friend up to this. "Well the kids did." He explained, winking at me, secretly telling me that it was his idea, but they followed through with it. "They saw the wildflowers and thought it might be a nice idea to surprise you with them." He lied, only confirming my interpretation of the secret singal. "They're beautiful." I stated the obvious, still adrmiring the delicate foliage."Thank you." I gave my more earnest praise to the person who acutally did the work. "Did they enjoy the water?" I inquired, nodding towards the children, indicating who I was talking about. "They loved it! Ash exclaimed, as I sensed a hint of regret. "You should join us sometime." He offered as he started to frown, which caused me to nod, worried that if I regected the idea that he would be bummed. "Tomorrow?" He got his enthusiasm back as I imagined him like a puppy, his ears all perked up and his tail wagging furiously. "We'll see." I shook my head, not making any promises of something I couldn't control. I felt him deflate like a balloon which had just been popped. He started walking on to his room, as I watched him march away, struggling to carry everything. As A floatie started to slip from his grip I discreetly used the force to prop it back up so that he could get to his destination safely. He started to turn around to look at me one last time, and I panicked quickly shoving my face into the flowers, acting as if I had been admiring them the entire time. However my acting had come to it's limits as I felt myself grin a grin of mischief, one I used to have as a cadet when I had been caught getting a ration bar from the Mess. He turned back around, the pep in his step clearly back as he hopped away to his room. Gosh Rue, how could you fall in love with such a childish man? Well, I guess the question is, how could you not?

After roaming the castle for about an hour, I ran into a familiar face. "Bella!" I called out to her as she quickly turned around and raced to me. "Yes Your Majesty?" She panted. "Did you get what I asked for?" I spoke in code, worried that a storm trooper or security camera would pick up on our conversation. "Ah, yes Your Majesty, I found some exits and distractions you could use to esca-" I put my hand over her mouth, preventing her from finnishing the senctence. "Code, Bella, code." I removed my hand as he thought for a bit. "I- um- I found some tracks and fathiers we could use the race." She badly winked, more like blinked, twice. If no one caught on about what she said before, they surely would with the wi- blink. "Great!" I clapped, excited that my plan was coming together. "Also Emperor Palpatine requested your presence." She hesitated as she pointed to his office, this surely couldn't go bad, I mean its just the worst man in the universe. I leisurely walked to his office, preparing myself to have items thrown at me, and to be scolded for something that wasn't my fault. This family and their anger issues, get a therapist for forces sake. I knocked on the door to his office, going in before getting a response because, well, I don't care. "Your being demoted." He said abruptly as I took a few steps back. "Wow, thats totally the right way to start a conversation," I rolled my eyes, sitting down on his desk to annoy him. "Why are you on my desk?" He inquired. "Becaus-" I started as I felt a stick poking my back. "Get off." He jabbed the stick into my spine causing me to jump off of my perch. "Anyways." He set the cane back down next to him and continued his thought. "I'm demoting you from queen, to senator." He explained in further detail, however I was hyper-focused on my every queen in Naboo becomes a senator, like, is it an unspoken rule or something? "Okay." I shrugged not really caring. "You know," I sat down in an acutal chair this time. "You could demote me even further and make me a normal citizen, with freedom." I proposed to idea to him, causing him to take the stick and wack me in the head with it. "Ow!" I exclaimed, covering my head with my arms, tucking my knees into my chest. "Move your arms." He ordered as I felt my hands starting to shake. I prepared to have stuff thrown at me and to be yelled at, but being hit was not in today's agenda. "I think it's fine." My voice quivered in protest to what my mind was telling me to do. "Oh," He sounded genuinely shocked. "Well then I guess we can just go to the dungeon then." He threatened in a friendly voice, as if the dungeon wasn't the place where he had tortured me for half a year. I removed my hands from my head, terrified as to why he wanted me to move them. However my overthinking was stopped by another abrasive hit, harder than last. I felt tears weld up and lump begin to rise in my throat as the pain was nearly unbearable. "You can go now." He flicked his wrist in the direction of the door and I rushed out. I practically ran to my room, slamming the door and sliding down it just like my tears. "Why don't you just kill him?" Reece asked, bending down in front of me. "Your stronger than him, and he knows it. Thats why hes oppressing you." She lifted up my chin. "Just think about it, and don't cry, you look pitiful and weak." She disappeared and I quickly wiped my tears, feeling my cheekes burn bright red with embarrassment. I remebered Ash and how I had a plan to escape, and a person to help me. I exited my room, hiding in a corner by Ash's room in the hopes to catch him (scare him). Soon enough Ash came striding across, being yanked into the little crevice. "Ash!" I whisper-yelled excitedly as he screamed causing me to shush him. "I found someone to help us escape." I was so excited I didn't realize that Ash wasn't even focusing "Are you okay?" He changed the subject cupping my face with his hands as I frowned at his affection, wrong time dude. "What has he done to you?" He didn't allow me to answer as he was fixated on the apparent bruise on my head. "Nothing so far." I shook my head. "But we need to hurry," I menuvered my face out of his grip, taking ahold of one of his hands and guiding him to the spot me and Bella had agreed to meet. I spotted her waiting for me nervously, anticipating my arrival. I stopped beside her and turned to Ash. "Meet my lady-in-waiting-" I was ever so rudely cut off by Ash. "Bella?!" He asked astounded, did he know her?