Featured songs:
1. "Stadium Rave" from Spongebob
2. "Love Power (Reprise)" from Disenchanted
3. "Know Who You Are" from Moana
This was gonna be Chapter 100, but I decided to save that for a much better part. So, what was the original chapter 99 has been paired up with ch 98. So, if you haven't read it all, I suggest you read the previous chapter before delving into this one. Enjoy! :)
It was a real shock to everyone to learn Mariverde inherited her very same power from her father. Unlike his daughter, however, Constantine used this power for good, and only entrusted powers to those good of heart, and took back the power either following completion of the mission, or when he found the user abusing the power. For reasons not fully known, Constantine felt responsible for Mariverde turning out the way she did, but he said that was another story for another time. For now, they had to save the twins.
Gabby felt sure she could do this herself, but Remix insisted he come along. Constantine, of course, warned them that although he hadn't seen his other two daughters in a longer time than he'd apart from Mariposa, facing dark moth magic was no joke. All the powerflies would do was give them a boost to fighting the moths.
So, while Anakin went to the Temple and Constantine and Estrella got in contact with anyone he could for help, Gabby and Remix took on their roles of Snowflake and Soundwave.
Gabby's hero suit looked like an icy blue winter outfit that normally would've made her sweat like a pig under the current weather conditions, but surprisingly it actually kept her cool as a cucumber. As for Remix, his headphones and the jumpsuit he wore were mostly black made colorfully bright with neon lights of different colors. Both of them even had matching masks.
"What exactly did the mariclavas land on again?" Gabby, or rather Snowflake, asked.
"One on Omega's hair clip, two more on Boba's pom poms." Remix, or rather Soundwave, said.
"I guess Mariverde's moths can't clavatize pairs of things. Not unless they're touching when they land anyway. In other words, if we're gonna free Boba, we gotta destroy both pom poms."
"That's pretty clear."
"So, what do you know about the powers they were given?"
Remix only knew Omega had to be the one to get the heat making magic, given that she already had light based magic. He wasn't sure exactly how Boba's dark power worked.
"I only know that if he's still holding his pom poms, it might have something to do with cheerleading."
Snowflake then looked ahead and saw something terrifying.
"Or fear leading?"
"Fear leading?" Soundwave said, confused... until he looked ahead and saw a scary clown terrorizing children, a giant spider wrapping people like flies in a giant web, and gundarks and battle droids chasing other citizens, and the heat only seemed to provoke some of the beasts, as well as make it harder for people to run from them. That was when Snowflake noticed giant magnifying glasses and mirrors all around that had to be the cause of the spreading heat.
According to one of Garrett's lessons, dark spells could increase heat by making lava flow, stopping rain and snow, even making giant magnifying glasses, but they had no power over the suns themselves. Hence, that might have explained all the glasses and why Omega's original power didn't seem to be used in any way.
"Wait a minute," said Remix. "Last time everyone's worst fears came to life, it was just pesadilas, right?"
"Yeah, except pesadilas can't survive in sunlight," said Gabby. "and there's almost as much sunlight as Tatooine."
"And it's nearly that temperature, judging by the smoking engines."
"HELP!" screamed another voice.
That was when the two heroes noticed a rollercoaster that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and they saw Master Koth trapped on it. If Gabby recalled correctly, Eeth was terrified of roller coasters! That one time Padme had him and Master Fisto take Gabby and Boba to the carnival a few years back, he was not hesitant to take the job of watching Gabby since she was too little to get on the big roller coasters.
Gabby quickly used the Force as strongly as she could to slow down the coaster while Remix surfed across a musical score and used his magic to get Master Koth free.
"Are you alright, Master Koth?" Soundwave asked.
"I will be." Eeth said, amid his nausea.
He rushed to the nearest garbage bin and started throwing up. It was probably gonna be a while before he was ready to fight.
"How is it he could lead a clone squad in a war, and survive General Grievous, yet a roller coaster makes him throw up?" Snowflake said.
"That may remain a mystery." Soundwave said, amid the screams that filled the air from other things, and more mirrors started to float around and shine more heat onto the city.
Snowflake and Soundwave looked at each other and hatched a plan. While Snowflake took care of the magnifying glasses and mirrors, Soundwave spun a few tunes on his tables to distract the beasts.
"Time to face the music," said Remix, spinning a little Stadium Rave music.
The sound of the music boomed all around and irritated some of the monsters, giving people time to run away. Meanwhile, Snowflake flew as close as she could toward the mirrors and put something in front of them so the light wouldn't reflect off of them, and then she went for the magnifying glasses, at which she threw a powerful blast of ice and snow until the glass started cracking.
"SHARD STORM!" Snowflake screamed as it started raining shattered ice glass.
That was a new one for everyone, whether they faced disaster or not. Everyone got indoors as quickly as they could or ducked into a ball to avoid getting hurt. Fortunately, it appeared there was minimal damage at least to that one area, but there were still a lot more magnifying glasses and mirrors all over town, as well as all kinds of terrifying things terrorizing people. So, the two heroes did the only thing they could do.
They went and fought the beasts and broke three more magnifying glasses, but they only found a new problem.
All the while, Snowflake and Soundwave searched all around for the twins, but made no progress spotting them.
"Even if there weren't so many of these things," said Gabby. "There's too many for us to destroy ourselves, and Omega could probably make more."
Remix suddenly had an idea. "Maybe we need to block the source of the heat in that case. You could make some rain clouds."
"Yes! Why didn't I think of that?"
Gabby's eyes turned blue as she began to concentrate her power and make lots of dark clouds fill up the sky. More clouds came in, and they began to thunder, and with the sun blocking the clouds, Solar Flare's magnifying glasses and mirrors were powerless... unless you wanted to look at your reflection.
Unfortunately, Solar Flare was quick to notice as she was following her brother and his army that the sky suddenly turned dark.
"What the heck?!" Solar Flare growled. "Of all times to rain on my parade!"
Solar Flare threw some flames up at the clouds, only for more to come in after she did. After three attempts to stop those clouds, only for snow to begin to fall, Solar Flare really got steamed, as did any snow that fell on her.
Vince struggled again against the cheerleaders' grasp, which only got tighter. Normally, he would kill to be surrounded by lot of cheerleaders, namely the female ones, but not like this.
"Someone help me!" Vince screamed, only for one of the cheerleaders to gag him with a pom pom.
"Fear Leader... take care of Vince without me." Solar Flare growled. "I've got another pest to fry."
"You heard her, team." said Fear Leader. Then he got cheering again. "We're on our own, now follow me, we've got a bully to make scream."
Vince had no clue what that was supposed to mean, but Fear Leader told him...
"I know what you're afraid of, Vince. By the time we're through, you'll be swimming with the fishes... or not."
Snowflake and Soundwave took to the roofs of some of the higher buildings. All the while, Gabby made more snow and ice to cool things down, and freeze many of the monsters that were terrorizing the people. Some even began to play with the snow and face the beasts by throwing snowballs at them or running and making their chasers slip on some ice.
"Do you see them anywhere?" asked Gabby.
Suddenly, the two friends were met by two fireballs that barely missed them.
"Uh, found one." Remix said.
Solar Flare stomped onto the roof to confront the heroes.
"So, you're the one freezing everything." Solar Flare glared.
"Only because you made it way too hot!" Snowflake said. "This isn't right, Omega. This isn't you."
"You know nothing about me!" Omega said, getting fired up again.
"I know you, Big Sister." Snowflake said, taking off her mask so Omega could see her eyes more clearly. "I know you've been hurt, you've been a prisoner. And you've been wronged in so many other ways."
Solar Flare only continued to throw large fire balls at the two of them. Soundwave blasted a little Party Rock Anthem, making Solar Flare cover her ears, and Gabby kept cooling things down with some balls of snow and ice. But, Solar Flare shot another fire ball, this time one that hit Soundwave's headphones, making them fly off his head and hit the ground, freeing the powerfly the moment the device broke. And thus, Soundwave was transformed back into Remix.
"My powerfly!" Remix exclaimed.
Remix rushed off with a whinny as Solar Flare attempted to hit him again.
"Try to get the hairclip!" Gabby said. She attempted to grab it with the Force, but Solar Flare shot a fireball every time before she even got it to move.
Remix tried to grab the hair clip with his magic, but he got the same results. Thus, he and Gabby tried one more thing.
"Omega, think about what you're doing!" Remix called. "Is this really gonna do anything?"
"It will if you let me do something about the ones who dare to wrong the innocent."
"Omega, who hurt you?"
"I am not the one who's hurt, but you will be." Solar Flare shot another fire.
"Omega, please stop this! Becoming a villain is never the answer."
"Stop calling me that! I am Solar Flare!"
But Gabby knew that was the mariclava and Omega's anger talking. She'd seen too many bratty blondes both on TV and in real-life, but she knew Omega was not one of them. Omega needed a reminder of who she really was.
Suddenly, Gabby had an idea. She brought up a mirror so Omega could see what she had become, and then Omega heard a song as the mirror suddenly showed her who she was before, and she could see happy moments in the reflection.
Gabby could sense a great deal of hurt and sadness in her big sister, and not merely from the incident that clavatized her alone. She'd been judged for who she was, picked on for being different in many places, and she felt that if she didn't stop bullies from hurting anyone else, she would be powerless, and that made her both scared and angry. Omega was a curious young lady, and most of the time not a violent kind of responder. But, it has been said that the sweetest people can be the scariest when you piss them off enough.
As she looked in the mirror, Omega started to see memories of when she felt happy. The first time her parents tucked her in, her grandfather messing about with her, her brothers teaching her things, the time Caroline taught her and the other kids how to hula dance, and when Gabby showed her how to play Tigger Tag.
Remix spun a gentle tune from his horn to calm Solar Flare down, and Gabby began to slowly approach her sister.
Omega: I'm not even your real sister
Gabby:
You are my real sister, Omega
Because you are part of our family
And I'll tell you
How I absolutely know
It's how we'd make a world for you
That never breaks your heart
Where you can grow and thrive
And your every wish can flower
Gabby got Omega to look into her eyes as she placed a loving hand over Omega's heart
I will always love you, Omega
I'm so proud of how I know you'll carry on
I've known a lot of magic in my life
But never anything as strong
Gabby had tears of love in her eyes and gently touched her forehead to Omega's
Love power
My love for you has power
And you'll have it there inside you
No matter what
It was as though Omega suddenly broke out of Solar Flare's grasp, and was for a moment aware of what she'd done.
Omega:
No, no, no, no
What do I do now?
Gabby:
My love will be there
Ever after
Gabby hugged her sister, and Solar Flare froze, slowly wrapping her arms around the smaller child, which gave Remix time to take the hair clip and then stomp it with his hoof to release the mariclava. And Solar Flare transformed back into Omega.
Omega opened her eyes and collapsed to the floor looking dizzy, especially with the swirly eyes.
"Omega! Are you alright?" Gabby said. She snapped her fingers in front of Omega.
Omega quickly shook her head.
"Huh? What happened?" Omega said.
"You were clavatized and heating the whole city." Gabby said. "But we got you out of it."
Omega looked around and asked where Boba was.
"We were hoping you'd know. Do you remember what happened before you were clavatized or what Mariverde said to you?"
Omega massaged her head a little bit, trying to remember, and then it slowly came back to her. All she remembered, truthfully, was that this jerk Vince was making fun of Boba for cheerleading and had the gall to throw a football right at his stomach as he was trying out, making Boba fall and hurt himself.
"I tried to help him, but Vince only started hitting on me like Myra said he does with all the girls in school."
"What a pig!" Gabby said, sounding disgusted.
"That's an insult to pigs. Anyway, Mariverde said something about nightmares, and Boba using cheers to attack his enemies."
"I've heard of words hurting people," said Remix. "But usually that's just emotionally."
"That explains all the monsters we've been seeing. But I can't help wondering...Does something seem familiar about some of the last few clavatized villains' powers?" Gabby asked her friends. "Call me crazy, but I feel like we've been seeing some of the same kinds of powers along with new ones in a few villains we've faced. Like when Brenda turned into Mama Bear, I think she was wearing Miss Fortune's skirt."
"Yeah, that does seem a little weird. And when Garrett was clavatized, all the monsters he attacked with were pesadilas."
"And then Crescenda attacked with something from Comedia's nightmares."
"As strange as all that is, maybe we should worry about that later and focus on finding Boba?" Remix suggested.
"You're right, we can worry about that later." Gabby said. "Let's go to the high school and see if Boba left any clues."
Gabby, Remix, and Omega rushed as quickly as they could through all the snow, looking for Boba, or Fear Leader, as the first two were told he was calling himself. They were soon met by Estrella and Anakin.
"Daddy!" Omega exclaimed.
"Omega! You're not clavatized anymore!" Anakin said. He rushed over and spun his oldest daughter in his arms. "But where's Boba?"
"That's what we're here to find out." Remix said. "But this building looks empty."
"What exactly did Boba become?" Estrella asked. "So far, we've come across giant spiders, horror movie characters that nearly got us, and a giant tentacle popping out of the sewers!"
"Fear Leader." Omega said. "We both got angry at this jerky guy named Vince."
Omega explained to Anakin what happened at cheer tryouts and led to the incident, which angered Anakin too.
"Assuming that jerk survives this deal, he's gonna regret messing with my children." Anakin cracked his knuckles.
"Search now, pound bullies later, Daddy!" Gabby scolded.
"Master!" Ahsoka exclaimed, running in.
"Ahsoka, what are you doing here?" Anakin asked.
"Master Qui-Gon called me and asked me and Fiesta to pick up the twins, except, when we got here, Boba was turned into a fear leader. Apparently, he cheerleads, and then whatever he chants about makes bad things happen."
"It's as though he suddenly knows what everyone is afraid of," said Fiesta, a bunch of feathers in her mane.
"What happened to you?" Remix asked.
"I went after Fear Leader, then one of his minions attacked me with a swarm of owls."
Fiesta shuddered.
"You're afraid of owls?" Anakin said with disbelief.
"I don't like the way they look at me. It's so espeluznante. Creepy."
"Daddy, you've read Stellaluna to me since I was a baby," said Gabby. "I think we could see why owls might be frightening to some."
Omega started to think back, and then she remembered something. She remembered herself as Solar Flare and seeing Fear Leader grabbing Vince.
"What if Boba got to Vince now?" Fiesta said.
"He's probably got something really scary planned for him." Omega said.'
"What exactly is Vince afraid of?" Anakin asked.
"Beats me. We just met him." Omega said. "But, we do know someone who's known him longer."
Myra wet yet another towel and turned another fan full blast to help cool everyone down. Brenda even welcomed the kids to leave the freezer open, but it still wasn't enough...until the temperature started to slowly go down.
"Hey, it's cooling down in here." Brenda said. "Whatever caused that heat must have been fixed."
That was when Myra's phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Myra, we need your help!" Omega said. "Do you know what Vince is afraid of?"
"Well, he's afraid of me, and he better stay that way if he wants to live."
No one could say they blamed him. As hot as Myra was, as well as kind, she was good at being scary when she wanted to be. Like her parents. But, Omega had a feeling Vince had to be afraid of something else. So, Omega asked Myra if she'd ever seen Vince afraid of anything else.
Omega explained to Myra that Boba had been clavatized into some kind of fear making cheerleader and hypnotized all the other cheerleaders to become his army. Seeing as Vince was who he was primarily after, Omega felt sure Boba would have something special planned for him, so they needed to know what Vince was afraid of more than anything else.
"I don't spend every moment with him." Myra said. She then thought of something. "But I think I remember something from freshman year."
"What?"
"There was this one time when Vince thought it would be funny to play Keep Away with my backpack, until I chased him to the pool while the swim team was about to practice. Then he slipped and fell in. And then he grabbed the wall and pulled himself out all freaked out. To be fair, I'd probably freak too if I'd just fallen into the deep end. But he fell in the shallow end, and didn't stop freaking out until one of his buddies told him he was on the steps and it didn't even reach to his thighs when he stood up."
Suddenly, pretty much everyone was laughing.
"A super strong football player is afraid of water?" Remix laughed.
"He's gonna be real afraid of Boba later, then." Anakin chuckled.
"Everyone! Shame on you!" Gabby scolded. "It's not nice to make fun of someone for being afraid of anything, no matter silly it may sound. How would you feel if people laughed at you for whatever you're scared of?"
"She's right," sighed Omega, sounding guilty. "Even Vince doesn't deserve that. But, if Fear Leader wants to really give Vince a good scare, where exactly would he take him that has water?"
"The pool was vacant when I ran by it," said Fiesta. "What about the lake in the park?"
"I don't think so," said Estrella.
"She's right. If Vince is scared of water," said Myra over the phone. "Then someone trying to scare him would have to bring him somewhere with a lot of water."
"I think I might know a place." Anakin said.
Across the town was the Aquarium of the Galaxy, an aquatic exhibition area full of aquatic creatures from all across the galaxy.
Garrett had taken the children there for a little field trip to learn more about different aquatic species. As Boba and Gabby's mermaid powers were growing, both of them were discovering they could talk to fish, so Garrett saw fit to take them there to see how many kinds of fish they could communicate with. Gabby really liked the seahorses, Omega loved the dolphins and otters, and Mona was absolutely mesmerized by all the colorful coral reef plants and animals.
But... while the oceans did have lots of beautiful and adorable creatures, they also had scary creatures.
Vince struggled again as the cheerleaders carried him and followed Fear Leader to the Horrors of the Deep wing of the aquarium, where the scariest creatures of the deep were kept. There was even a sign that it was not advised for small children to go in there.
Fear Leader had all the cheer leaders scare off any other visitors and trapping any workers and droids there.
"Let me go you crazy prince! Put me down!" Vince demanded again.
"Oh, we will, Vince." Fear Leader said. "But we got a special place to put you down."
"Ready? Okay! Pyramid! Tap the glass! Irritate the sharks! Go sharks!"
"W-w-wait! Did you say sharks?" Vince said, sounding scared.
Sure enough, a bunch of the cheerleaders formed a pyramid and threw Vince up high where Fear Leader clapped his pom poms and held Vince in a red energy blob of some kind and held him above one of the tanks, where down below, there were a bunch of humongous sharks!
The other cheerleaders also kicked and banged on the glass to provoke the sharks, and get them riled up, which made them start leaping out of the water every second and snap at Vince.
Vince screamed as Fear Leader started slowly lowering him into the water, and the fear leaders started singing,
"Angry Sharks, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, Angry Sharks, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, Angry Sharks, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, Angry Sharks"
Even without the cheerleaders chanting that annoying (but catchy and cute) little kids' song, Vince feared for his very life. Water alone terrified him, but shark infested was even worse. He tried to squirm out, but the sharks kept snapping, looking hungry for fresh meat, and he was getting closer and closer, and nobody was coming to rescue him!
"SOMEONE HELP ME!" Vince screamed.
"No one can help you, it's too late..." Fear Leader cheered. "I'll drop you at the count of eight. One... two... three...four... five... six... seven..."
Vince started to scream like a little girl in a horror movie as he was just inches away from being shark chow.
"BOBA! NO!" screamed a female voice.
Fear Leader's attention was diverted as none other than Padme came along while Sapphire stayed out of sight to go and get Vince away from the sharks. Padme didn't have magic, but she believed she could reason with her son.
"Boba, don't do this. This isn't you. You're not a villain."
"Boba is gone. I am Fear Leader." said the clavatized boy.
"No, you're not. Listen to me, Boba." Padme started to come closer, though Boba held up his pom poms as though threatening her. "You're not a bad kid. You're a good boy, and you've been afraid, left alone, and denied a proper childhood. And now you still face some who may try to hurt you, but acting like this, letting your emotions get the best of you isn't the answer."
"You don't know a thing about me!" Boba said. "I have no mother at all."
"That's not true, Boba. I may not have given birth to you, but you are my little boy."
Fear Leader breathed heavily as Padme got closer and gently caressed his face in her hands. She got him to look into her eyes, and she thought only of how much she loved her boy. Despite having adopted him as a tween, Padme felt like she'd known Boba all his life. She still remembered the day she'd decided to adopt him. Despite her wealthy background and high status as a senator, the process of adoption was hard, namely in terms of finding him. But back then as she did now, all she could think of was that little boy who needed a home, a warm bed, and a mother's love he'd been so denied for ten years.
Padme:
I have crossed the horizon to find you
I know your name
Padme gently held Boba's cheek and got him to look closer into her eyes that held nothing but love in them, begging for her baby to come out of hiding.
They have stolen the heart from inside you
But this does not define you
Padme gently touched her forehead to Boba's
This is not who you are
You know who you are
Padme then did one last thing that was a surefire thing to cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart. A mother's sweetest kiss.
The moment Padme's soft lips touched Boba's cheek, the boy collapsed to the floor. Suddenly, the black and red pom poms changed back to blue and purple, and two green and black butterflies flew off of them. Not only that, but all the cheerleaders' eyes turned back to normal, and none of them seemed to have any memory of what happened.
For a moment, Vince screamed as the energy around him suddenly vanished and he began falling faster... until at the last second something swooped in and grabbed him, that something turning out to be Sapphire biting the back of his jacket and carrying him down to safety.
"UGH! Look what you did to my jacket!" Vince said, finding his jacket to have a big bite mark on them.
"You're welcome," said Sapphire, not sounding pleased with Vince's attitude.
"You'll be hearing from my dad's lawyers!" Vince said angrily at Padme as she was helping her practically passed out son up.
And the football captain left without another word. Padme paid no mind to him though.
"Boba? Boba! Are you okay, Sweetie?" Padme said, helping Boba sit up.
Padme snapped her fingers to snap Boba out of it. Boba groaned and slowly opened his eyes to see his mother.
"Mom? What happened? Where am I?"
"It's a long story, Baby. Right now, we should find your sister and get you home."
Padme helped Boba up and onto Sapphire so they could carry him home to be checked out.
"Follow the light," said Mariposa using her ophthalmoscope to see how Boba was after being de-clavatized.
Omega checked out fine, but Boba seemed dizzy.
"I don't get it," said Remix. "They were both de-clavatized, so why is Boba dizzy but Omega's fine?"
"It's likely because Boba was broken out through other means. When Padme gave him a kiss of true love, that weakened the spell quicker than destroying the clavatized object did." Mariposa explained. "And the fact that Boba had two mariclavas likely added to it."
Constantine held his head in shame.
"Why didn't I just stay when I had the chance?" he asked himself. "Perhaps, Mariana might have turned out differently."
"What do you mean?" Goldie asked her grandfather.
"It's a long story about what happened between your grandmother and I."
While Boba was taken to bed to rest off the dizziness, Constantine told everyone a story that was pretty rough for him.
A very long time ago, Constantine was very happy with his family. At the time Gray and Mariana were practically just babies, so innocent like any other child. Gray was lovely with her silvery hair, but Mariana... she was an angel. From the moment she was born, she was a real beauty, and Constantine never hesitated to tell her that seeing her face was always the highlight of his day. But back then, it was difficult for maricambas, or doresho gypsies as most preferred to call them, so finding basic needs was a challenge too.
One day, Constantine left on an expedition with his fellow doreshos to find a safe place to call home. It took three years for him to finally find a safe place, and he was ecstatic to share with his wife and daughters. Except, he didn't know that tragedy had struck while he was away. Shortly after he'd left, the Morphinas were attacked by doresho hunters. Bettina fought them as much as she could, but the hunters set their huts on fire. A then ten-year-old gray, had fortunately mastered her wings and managed to help her mother, but not without her mother permanently damaging her right wing. But that wasn't the worst of it.
Being only four at the time, Mariana did not even have wings yet, nor did she know how to fight. And she was trapped in the fire for a long time. Her mother did eventually manage to get her out, but not without some damage to the poor child.
The accident left Mariana's face permanently disfigured, and since then, she always hid her face behind a veil, never letting anyone see her. Not even her own family saw her face, and she grew up with much anger and devastation. It hurt even more so when a new baby girl was born, and she was the new beauty queen of the bunch. Constantly, Constantine blamed himself for not being there to protect his family.
To many, it was a mystery to why Mariverde still hid her face, but many of the few who knew anything about her said that no one since her accident had seen her face and lived to tell the tale.
"I've never seen her face either, and I grew up with her." Mona said. "I don't even know which of my parents I look like more."
"No matter who you look like, Mona..." Constantine said. "Your appearance doesn't define you."
That was when Luke walked over to him, having gotten better on his feet, and started cooing at him, which prompted Constantine to pick him up.
"Children learn all kinds of things about responsibility as they grow, but even grownups have a lot to learn about being responsible with how they raise their children. Perhaps if I'd just stayed behind, I could have protected all my children and Mariana wouldn't be the villain she's decided to be."
"That isn't your fault, Papa." Mariposa said. "You were helping to find a safe home for our family, for our people. You didn't know hunters were coming."
"I should've guessed they would though. You saw the one who was willing to attack you despite that you were married to his own nephew."
"Uncle Keanu has always been a bit of a psycho." Garrett said. "Nothing about him surprises me anymore. But you managed to survive because you said so yourself, you didn't want to give up hope that your daughter was alive, and she used every lesson you taught her too. Had she not, I never would've met the love of my life, or had the daughter we have now."
"I think we've all dealt with wondering if we could've done parenting differently at some point." Anakin said. "It kind of runs in this family."
Anakin knew that feeling all too well. When the Jedi separated him and Gabby years ago, it made him question if he fought hard enough for his daughter, or when she started using the Force and mastering magic, if he was at fault for the fact that he didn't get powers until much later, thus preventing him from being able to teach her to use them. Or Carmine and Caroline before they got rich and famous; they'd even worried they may have to give their baby up for adoption because of how bad finances were for them then, and they wondered if they could have done things differently. Qui-Gon especially felt he could have done so much differently, so much better, years ago and just been the children's father and raised them together.
It's common knowledge that life can be a constant game of 'What If' when thinking back to old times, namely when one looks back and recalls past mistakes or missed opportunities. But, the royal family knew that they couldn't change the past. What they could do, however, was keep moving forward, learn from their own mistakes, and hope for a better future.
However, they were soon called to come to the Jedi Temple for an important event, as there was one parent in the Temple whose very future with his daughter was depending on passing a critical test.