Mariverde cast a spell to send herself, Anakin, and the preacher to a new castle on Mustafar.
"You're never gonna get away with this, Mariverde!" Anakin said.
"I already have." Mariverde said. "You will be my husband if it's the last thing I do."
Mariverde grabbed the preacher by the front of his robes and threatened him from under the veil.
"Marry us right now, or I will personally throw you in the lava down below!"
That terrified the preacher. So, he began to perform a little ceremony right then and there. But Anakin couldn't let this happen!
Come on, Anakin! You got your powers in a time of desperate need, you can get them to come now! Anakin shut his eyes and concentrated. His powers were in there somewhere, and if there were ever a time he needed them, he needed them now! He needed to buy time to avoid being married to a monster and so his true love could come and they could kiss and break the spell. This is for your family, your friends, your entire world!
Anakin opened his eyes, and when the preacher asked him to say I do, a bunch of powerful vines suddenly burst out from the floor and started attacking Mariverde. Anakin got the preacher to safety and ran for his own life to find a way off this planet, when he ran into some friends outside.
"Padme! Kids!" Anakin exclaimed. He quickly hugged the children, having missed them so much. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."
Anakin looked at Padme with pure love in his eyes. Padme saw the look in Anakin's eyes. Unlike with Clovis, Anakin didn't look at her with lust or obsession (well, not like Clovis' anyway), but rather with pure joy just to see her, like he was looking at an angel.
"Are you an angel?" Anakin said.
"What?" Padme smiled a little.
"An angel. You know. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe." Anakin took Padme's hands into his own.
"Now where do I remember those words?" Padme smiled. "Oh yeah, they were the first words you ever said to me."
"You don't remember, but the last words I've said to you every night are these. I love you, Padme. I always have."
"Is it really true? You're the father of my baby?"
"More than that. I'm your real husband. We have a family. We have five children. Boba, Omega, Gabriella, Luke, and..."
"Leia." Padme said with Anakin. "I always wanted to have a baby girl named Leia."
"And someday you will."
Padme looked at Anakin. Despite being married to Clovis in this world, she never stopped being madly in love with Anakin. It was like a tragic love story where these two lovers could never be together, but they couldn't forget how much they loved each other no matter how hard they tried.
"Ani... kiss me."
Anakin closed his eyes and was about to kiss Padme, when a familiar voice shouted, "Not another step!"
Anakin hugged Padme in his arms as Mariverde stepped in.
"Did you really think you could steal my prince from me?" Mariverde said. "If memory serves correctly, Padme, you have a husband."
"Clovis is not my husband, and you know it!" Padme said. "Why did you do it?"
"Oh, I thought you didn't want me to take Solaris by force. Would it not have been better to marry into the throne and thus be queen legally?"
"By changing our entire world and placing my real wife into a loveless marriage so you could force the same fate on me?" Anakin said angrily. "You're a psychotic woman! I can't believe Mariposa's related to you!"
"Don't mention my sister! Gray was easy to take care of, but I must confess, my younger sister is a real fighter, she is."
"Well, guess what? We're fighters too. And as long as we have our love, you're never going to win."
"Fine... you win." Mariverde said. "But... don't forget the first rule of calling off a wedding. Returning gifts."
Mariverde summoned more mariclavas and had them capture Mila and the kids and throw them onto a bunch of floating platforms in the river of lava!
"KIDS!" Padme and Anakin shouted.
The horses tried to go after the kids, but Mariverde had her mariclavas trap them.
"You have a choice, Anakin. Go after me, or rescue your children." Mariverde started to walk away. "Your choice."
Anakin only saw one choice. Mariverde could wait. The kids were in danger!
Quickly, as the mariclavas got off the horses the moment Mariverde disappeared, they got on them and went after the kids. The platforms were shrinking fast! Mila started to use her telekinesis to get the platforms closer together and hopefully buy some time for the kids to be rescued. With all the heat from this planet, it became a lot harder for her to use her power. The Encanto was not even half as hot as this planet! It was a wonder how anyone could even breathe on this planet.
"Hurry! I'm not sure how long I can hold them!" Mila shouted.
Gabby being the youngest, Padme had Carousella swoop down and grab her first, and Anakin got Boba and Omega using the Force, and when Mila finally lost her grip on her telekinesis, Lamenta reached down for her and grabbed her hand before getting her and the others to safety.
"Mariverde's getting away!" Omega said.
"Let her go, Sunshine." Anakin said, ruffling Omega's hair. "Something tells me we'll have another chance to get her very soon. But for now..."
Anakin looked at Padme again, and she caressed his face with no other expression but love on her face.
"Ani..."
"Padme..."
And for the first time in this alternate universe, Anakin and Padme leaned in and shared a big, passionate kiss, and the sand-viator started to glow as Lamenta passed it into Mila's hands. Sand seemed to swirl around everyone and the entire planet like a sparkling sand storm, and then suddenly, Crescent disappeared in a big poof! Then Lamenta disappeared, and then the twins. And then Gabby vanished!
"Gabby!" Mila and Carousella exclaimed.
The sandstorm only got stronger, and then Carousella and Mila found themselves caught in a giant swirling vortex to take them who-knows-where!
Mila groaned as she began to open her eyes, and she looked around to see... she was in front of the magic mirror in the guest room at the Casita.
With a gasp, Mila looked and saw Carousella and Gabby both asleep on the floor.
"Gabby! Carousella! Wake up!" Mila shook the girl and pony awake.
"Wha-What happened?" Gabby rubbed her eyes. "Where are we?"
Carousella stretched out and blinked the tiredness from her eyes. Then she was wide awake when she realized.
"We're back in Encanto!" Carousella said. "Look, the mirror."
Gabby was hesitant at first, but she ran through it, and...
The palace!
"Carousella! Mila! It worked. We're home!" Gabby exclaimed.
Carousella couldn't believe it when she came through either, and neither could Mila. Gabby also realized she had her scrapbook again. She opened it, and all the pictures were back! And she didn't lose the wooden bird Anakin gave her to protect. That reminded her... the family!
Gabby immediately ran out to look for her family just to make sure everything was normal.
"Mommy? Daddy? Anyone?" Gabby called, when she bumped into someone who'd been on his phone.
"Oh! Sorry, Gabby. Didn't see you." said Boba. And this time, he looked like his normal self again.
"Big Brother!" Gabby tackled Boba and knocked him to the floor. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."
And she showered his face with kisses, to Boba's confusion, but he welcomed the kisses anyway.
"I didn't realize you missed me even when I'm just in another room." Boba ruffled his sister's hair and got her to let him up.
Gabby got a glimpse at a clock and was confused. According to it, the time was only a few minutes past when she was supposed to have been home from the Encanto. But how was that possible?
"Where are Grandma and Grandpa?" Gabby asked her brother.
"I think they're in the backyard."
Without waiting for Boba to speak another word, Gabby sped off.
"Are we sure super speed isn't one of her powers?" Boba asked himself, scratching his head.
Gabby rushed into the backyard, where sure enough, she saw a sight for sore eyes.
"Such a beauty to behold." Qui-Gon said.
Shmi was looking at some lovely summer flowers that were in bloom.
"They are lovely." Shmi said.
"I'm not talking about the flowers." And Qui-Gon kissed his love's cheek, when he felt someone smaller hugging him from the side.
"Grandpa! Grandma! You're here!" Gabby squealed happily.
"Qui... I think we have a visitor." Shmi chuckled.
Qui-Gon picked Gabby into his arms, and she hugged him again.
"Why the exceptional greeting, little one?"
"I... I... just... missed you both so much." Gabby said. "I love you so much."
"We love you too, Gabriella." Shmi said, and she and Qui-Gon each gave her a kiss.
"We're always happy to see you, Dear." Qui-Gon nuzzled his granddaughter's nose.
As for Mila, the moment she saw Tech, she ran up to him and pulled him into a passionate kiss, which was interrupted as Gabby came along and asked the couple if they'd seen her parents.
"No, sorry." Mila said.
So, Gabby went running again, and walking out of the kitchen after checking on dinner, Gabby saw...
"Mommy! Daddy!"
Gabby didn't hesitate to speed over to her parents, and they were holding her baby brother and sister.
"Luke! Leia! You're really here!" Gabby said excitedly.
"Someone's excited to see us," chuckled Anakin, kneeling down so Luke could be with his big sister.
Luke giggle as Gabby kissed him and tickled him. Gabby didn't even mind when he grabbed a strand of her hair this time.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to have my hair yanked." Gabby smiled, amid the pinch on her head. "Ouch!"
"You sound like you really missed the babies." Padme said. "I think they missed you too."
"They're not the only ones I've missed." Gabby said, letting Leia grip her fingers.
But Gabby realized she had another order of business to take care of.
"Where's Garrett?"
At dinner that night, Gabby announced that she had uncovered a relic that needed to be taken care of, and she placed the Sand-viator on the table.
Garrett, however, was the only one who recognized it.
"The Sand-viator? Where did you get the Sand-Viator?" Garrett asked.
"What's the Sand-Viator?" many people asked.
"A magic hourglass that allows a user to travel back in time, and only they remember the original timeline if they change any moment, thus altering the present. It was lost at sea years ago."
"Yeah, you told me this already." Gabby said.
"I did?" Garrett didn't remember.
It became clear nobody at the table but Carousella and Gabby remembered the ordeal. So, Gabby thought it was time she explained.
"It's kind of a long story. You might not believe me."
"What kind of story, Baby?" Padme asked.
"Well... we have it because somehow Rush Clovis got his hands on it, and he used it to turn back time and trick Mommy into thinking he was the one who got her pregnant so she'd marry him instead of Daddy."
"What?!" Anakin said, standing up, looking ready to murder someone. "Excuse me, I need to pay someone a little visit!"
But Kara quickly hugged her brother from behind and held him back.
"Anakin! Heel!" Kara said.
"You mean he traveled back in time?" Omega said. "How'd he even get that magic hourglass?"
"My best guess, Mariverde gave it to him along with instructions." Gabby said. "But, since Carousella and I were at Mila's house no doubt when he was casting the spell, the spell didn't affect us because we were in a different dimension."
Garrett thought Gabby sounded very smart in that observation. She really knew her magic and logistics, from what he could see.
"Just how different was everything?" Goldie asked.
"Very different. You and your parents still lived on Verden, Boba was in prison, Omega was still on Kamino, and none of the horses got matched. And my parents were miserable without each other. But even worse, Grandma and Grandpa were gone. A lot of people we knew and loved were because of what Clovis did. And then Mariverde tried to force Daddy to marry her."
"I've heard of desperation, but that's just all kinds of wrong." Hunter said, taking a bite of his food.
Then Carousella contributed to the story.
"She even used Gabby as a hostage in it all, and we had to use our connection to this timeline to restore everyone's memories so they could help us before we lost our memories too." said the alicorn. "Mariverde got away, but Anakin and Padme reunited and they kissed, which broke the spell since their separation was what created the whole fiasco in the first place."
"How romantic." Lamenta fluttered her lashes.
"I can't believe he would do something like this." Padme said.
"Really? He nearly led you to death. Twice!" Anakin said. "You really don't think he's above witchcraft by now?"
Padme might've argued about it with Anakin if he hadn't made that first point, and if the last two times Clovis was involved Gabby hadn't been traumatized, but she had to admit Anakin did have a point.
"You do make a good point." Padme sighed. "The important thing, Ani. Is we're together now. And I believe we have a special celebration regarding that coming soon."
Anakin smiled again as he was reminded of that upcoming event. He kissed his wife in that moment with such passion.
A few days later, Anakin was spinning his wife in his arms as they were finally celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary with their friends and family.
Padme absolutely loved the wooden bird Anakin made for her when he pulled it out to give it to her. And she had a special gift for him too. It turned out she got a little wood carved gift for him too. But instead of a bird, hers looked like a little pod racer, like the one Anakin raced when he and Padme first met. Anakin loved it, but he and Padme were both in for a big surprise when Gabby announced she had a special present for her parents, but for everyone as well.
Gabby cast a little spell that worked sort of like a projection, so when she turned each page, everyone could see her pictures and the arrangements she put together on each of them. And Gabby told a little story as she went through each page, people either laughing or having happy tears as they looked back at certain memories. And a few aww's at the baby pictures on some pages.
"Once upon a time, my parents came together. Though they were forbidden from being in love, they didn't let that stop them. And they had a baby girl, that baby was me, Gabby. But that was just the start. Many others came along the way. They had more kids, adopted some, and over the last few years, we all made lots of new friends and built an even bigger family, the greatest gift ever. Houses, clothes, trendy trinkets... those things come and go, but a thing about family, the people we love... that's totally timeless. It's amazing how we think of just one love story when it comes to a wedding anniversary, but it turns out, one love story, more times than we think, is connected to many love stories, and not just romantic love."
Since no one else experienced what Gabby and her two friends did, they likely wouldn't any time soon face a time when they face an event where literally their entire world changed and no one but them remembered the old days, no one remembered each other, and being the only one who could remember, knowing that was exactly why they were miserably. And Gabby hoped none of her loved one would ever have to face that.
"My parents marriage is a truly amazing story that deserves its happy ending." Gabby said. "But the truth is, each ending is only a new beginning. They made it through the wedding, but that was just the beginning of a great adventure known as family. And that's one adventure with them I am more than happy to be a part of, and extremely grateful to have many friends and family members be a part of it too."
Padme and Anakin felt very touched that Gabby worked on such a wonderful gift for everyone. Of all the things they'd make together during their marriage besides a family, was memories. And they made so many wonderful ones, many of them with their friends and loved ones. They'd made it this far, and they couldn't wait to make even more memories, starting with engaging in another passionate kiss.
"I love you, Ani. No matter what." Padme said.
"I love you too, Padme. No matter what." said Anakin. And he leaned in and kissed his wife once more.
What happened to Clovis, you might be wondering?
Clovis woke up back in his cell. He looked around for the Sand-Viator, but it was nowhere to be found.
"What? Where is it?!" Clovis gasped. "NO!"
Clovis was furious his work had failed.
"Mariverde! I know you can hear me!" Clovis shouted. "This is all your fault."
Clovis didn't get an answer. Except... he saw something fly in. Something green and black. Clovis thought Mariverde was going to clavatize him and give him powers like he'd heard she could do, so he grabbed his pillow and let the moth land on it. But instead of her usual offer of powers, Mariverde said...
"Clovis, you are at your own fault for failing to keep your end of the bargain."
"What?! How was I to know Gabriella and her friends would remember everything?"
"That, I have yet to figure out. However, in your case, I've noticed you spent more time obsessing over Padme than you did than pleading a case to make me queen."
"That's very complicated, and you know it! Besides, I don't have magic like you. How was I to be convincing?"
"You were a senator. You're supposed to be good at influencing people. Either way, we are done. You have failed me for the last time, and sadly since you know where I live, I'm afraid I can't risk you foiling my plans again."
And, to Clovis' great horror, the mariclava grew to an enormous size and attacked him!
The guards heard screaming from one of the cells. They thought there was a fight or something going on in one of the cells, but by the time they got there... Clovis lay on the floor motionless.
A guard checked his pulse, and found a black butterfly shaped mark on Clovis' neck.
"He's dead." The guard said.
Some days later, the royal family heard it all over the news. Naturally, Anakin thought it served him right, but when Mariposa heard about the black butterfly mark found on his neck when the reporters said the police couldn't identify any cause of death other than possibly being poisoned. Mariposa knew only one person could've done it.
"Mariverde!" Mariposa growled.
"You think Mariverde did this?" Padme asked.
"I don't think. I know. Mariana must've figured out how to create moths that could kill enemies with a special kind of bite that doesn't leave teeth marks or scratches. Just a symbol. It was an old practice by dark doreshos banned even in their realm because it's so dangerous and near impossible to master."
"Then your sister must have real skills in black arts." Anakin said. "But, as much as I disliked him, why would she kill Clovis?"
"He likely knew things about Mariverde she didn't want getting out." Qui-Gon said. "Mariverde clearly means business. She didn't just kill him for secrecy. I have the sense Mariverde is sending us a message."
"Watch your back." Gabby hypothesized. "Well, guess what, Mariverde? We don't scare that easily."
It was clear Mariverde was not going to stop until she had her way, but one thing she could never change even with time travel, there would always be someone willing to fight her and protect their home. If she struck one voice down, a chorus of many somehow, someday, would rise in its place.