"Senator Amidala."

Padme turned to look in the doorway of the hangar, where Captain Panaka was standing. There was a handmaiden standing beside Panaka, one that didn't look familiar to her. There was a red hood over the young woman's face, hiding much of her forehead, but Padme could still see green eyes and black hair that lay about her shoulders. The woman stood about as tall as Padme, with maybe an inch on her that made her taller.

"Padme, this is Hariel Potter. She has accepted the job as your newest handmaiden," Panaka remarked.

Padme raised an eyebrow at the name, going through the noble families of Naboo in her mind and coming up with nothing. "Potter?"

"I… am not from Naboo, m'lady. But I can fight and protect you just as well," Hari offered, reaching up to drop the hood from her face. Padme's eyes widened only a little at the scar on Hari's forehead, seeing the lightning bolt scarring that forked downward on her skin.

"Your accent is not familiar."

Hari's lips twitched up and her green eyes narrowed in what looked like bemusement. "My home world is… very far away."

"The Queen asked me to investigate a possible Separatist incursion to the eastern swamps, in the country," Padme said, narrowing her eyes at Hari's words. "Captain, I can go alone. We do not need to draw this much attention."

"I can make sure we don't draw attention," Hari remarked, raising her hood over her head. "If you would let me go with you. I know Dorme was a good friend of yours. I can be invisible when I want to be."

"Very well. Let's go. We need to inform the Jedi Council before going out there," Padme spoke, crossing her arms. "I hope… The Separatists better not have intentions of another invasion."

"Thank you, Master Yoda, but I do not think a Jedi presence is needed," Padme said, raising an eyebrow at the blue hologram of the Jedi Master.

Hari stood quietly behind her, her handmaiden's robes curling tightly around her body, and took in the sight of her first Jedi. Panaka had spoken at length about the Jedi and about their friendship with Padme but Hari hadn't quite known what to think. The Jedi had kind of sounded like space wizards at first, pushing their bodies to extremes with the aid of the Force. And fighting with lightsabers.

"Another Separatist invasion to Naboo, bad it would be. Appreciate your friendship with us, we do."

"Master Yoda…"

Hari's eyes narrowed as Padme continued to argue with Yoda, the little green being that was apparently the head of the Jedi, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. He was about as tall as goblin from her homeworld, all green and looked… wise. She couldn't sense anything through the holo but if they met, she had the sense that he would be very powerful.

"Send we will Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker."

"Of course. Thank you, master Jedi."

Padme sighed and turned to look at Hari, who raised an eyebrow.

"We're still going out to investigate, aren't we?" Hari questioned, her lips curling up into a small grin at the determination in Padme's eyes.

"The Queen asked me to investigate and we will," Padme said, her blue eyes narrowed. "I hope that this isn't the case though. The citizens of Naboo can't take another invasion. If these battle droids are from the Separatists..."

"You did weather one before, right?"

Padme nodded and started out the door of the small room outside the hangar. Hari walked alongside her, glancing out into the main hangar of the Royal Palace, looking at the various ships that were parked. A few were the one person fighter jets while the big Nubian starship of the Queen. There was a smaller, inbetween ship that Padme was headed for, one that looked like it was only meant for planetary travel.

"We did. Many suffered so many hardships going into those work camps," Padme remarked, as they stepped up onto the ramp of the ship and headed into the cockpit. "You can pilot, I hope?"

Hari grinned a little and walked over to sit in the pilot's seat, with Padme sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "Yes. I definitely can. It was my favorite thing to learn in the last few months. I already knew how to fly… on a different… uh… method but this is still fun too."

Padme raised an eyebrow at her as she turned on the ship's engines and directed the ship up and out of the hangar. "What do you mean by that?"

Hari shrugged and kept an eye on the ship's systems as they flew. "The homeworld I come from had two kinds of people living on it. The majority of the people were regular, mundane people and the others… Witches and wizards. Kind of like the Jedi here are."

Padme's eyes widened, as they flew over the land and towards the east. "Witches?"

"Yeah. One of the sports that we enjoyed in the wizarding world was quidditch," Hari added, flashes of her favorite quidditch games coming to mind. She would always remember her first quidditch game, remember the adrenaline rush of catching her first snitch. "We played it on broomsticks up in the air."

"That sounds… like something that General Skywalker would love," Padme said, glancing out the window as they flew over a gungan farmer and her herd of animals. The gungan woman waved up to them and Padme waved back through the transparent windows, gesturing to the swamps. "That's where we're headed. Set down somewhere within a mile. I do not want to alert anyone of our arrival."

Hari nodded and began to look for a place to set down, pondering Padme's words. "Panaka told me about your friendship with Kenobi and Skywalker. What are they like? I've only heard that Skywalker's supposed to be the Chosen One, the Hero Without Fear, and that Kenobi is The Negotiator."

Padme grinned and didn't answer for a minute or two as they landed after five minutes. "They are a pair. Opposites really but they fit together. Skywalker was Kenobi's padawan learner after Master Qui-Gon died in the Battle of Naboo."

Hari dipped her head in a nod, hearing something else in Padme's voice that she couldn't decipher. "The Sith killed Master Qui-Gon, if I remember what Panaka said."

"Hmmm. Kenobi and Jinn both saved my life multiple times during those few months and Skywalker saved Naboo. I owe both of them my life several times over."

Hari turned off the engines of the ship, patting the ship's dashboard. Padme grinned a little and stood up, gathering up a cloak and throwing the hood over her face.

"Of course Skywalker is a troublemaker whenever I see him. Reckless, strong but compassionate. Kenobi is quiet, a wading pool to Skywalker's tsunami."

"Sounds like you have a bit of a crush on him," Hari offered, making sure her two wands were tucked in an easily accessible pocket. The Elder Wand hummed underneath her fingers and slid away to drop in another pocket entirely. Hari rolled her eyes and followed Padme off the ship, glancing up at the blue, cloudless sky. "Or on both of them."

The eastern swamps lay ahead of them and Hari wrinkled her nose at the smell, pulling her own hood up to hide her face. It was warm and humid around them, no breeze or wind that she could see.

Padme snorted at Hari's words and led the way as they wandered through the tall grasses, wading through the pools of swamp water. She made sure to avoid any living creatures that she could see at least, her eyes widening at a few unusual creatures that were new to her. Panaka had taken her through weapons training, diplomacy training, how to read body language and such things that a handmaiden to a senator might need. She was already very knowledgeable on a few things, like honing her reflexes just right in order to protect someone or how to judge if someone was going to reach for their weapon first.

"They are very hard to not have a crush on," Padme finally answered quietly, her eyes drawn to a spot on the soil, pointing to a bootprint. "That looks like a droid print."

Hari's eyes narrowed as she knelt down, moving away the gravel and dirt that had fallen over the print. She had learned a lot about the world now around her over the past few months, learned what kind droids that the Separatists built at their factories and about the generals of the war. "Yes, that does look like a droid. Perhaps not a Super battle droid though. I also saw the treadmarks of a droideka a few feet back."

She stretched out her magic, whispering a spell or two and watched as the ground around them lit up. Padme sucked in a tight breath as Hari's magic went to work, drawing grids of light over the swamp grounds and sinking into the ground underneath them.

"What… are you doing?"

"Searching for anything out of the ordinary," Hari said, looking around at the ground. "If the Separatists were really here… wouldn't they have a reason?"

Padme nodded, her eyes narrowing in thought. "The Gungan that brought us this information did say that her animals were dying because they had drunk from the water that filled out this swamp. Perhaps the Separatists were hoping to poison our waters?"

Hari focused on her magic, seeing the bright blue of the spell indicate that everything was normal all over the ground… except for one stream of water. Padme walked over there first, her hand dropping to the pistol at her hip. According to Panaka, Padme was good enough with a pistol that Hari needn't have worried but with what they had seen…

Her fingers went to her holly wand, as they followed the trail of sickly red magic. Padme pulled out her communicator and commed Captain Typho about what they had found as they walked, following the stream of poisoned water. They found a trail of dead fish and animals that had obviously died of poison as there was no other visible cause of death beside froth coming out of their mouths.

"Senator, I can take it from here," Hari offered, as they walked on, avoiding the sickened water next to them. "It might be too dangerous."

Padme frowned as she turned to look at her. "We need evidence that the Separatists are trying something else on Naboo. And to get evidence…"

"Even if there's an ambush waiting for us at the end of this trail?"

"Even if," Padme replied, her eyes narrowing and her shoulders curling inward.

The trail led them to a hatch and they both peered down at the metal beneath them. Hari canceled the spell that led them there and knelt down, attempted to open it only for Hari's magic to sound the alarm. A blasting spell was on her lips but the butt of a gun hit her on the back of her head and darkness met her.

Hari woke up, tried to move only to realize she was restrained by a collar around her neck. Her eyes widened as her heart beat on, opening her eyes and looking around for Senator Amidala. Padme was restrained the same way too, next to her, but didn't look any worse for wear. Hari didn't feel any outright bruising or injuries on herself and didn't see any on Padme either as high pitched laughter met her ears.

They were in what looked like an underground bunker and… It rather looked like a high tech military, mad scientist laboratory.

"Senator Amidala, I'm glad you could witness this new advancement in science."

Hari turned towards the voice while she wordlessly cast an unlocking charm. The collar held still around her neck and didn't budge. Hari's eyes narrowed, half watching the mad scientist in question as he walked towards Padme and the other half of her attention on the scientist that had captured them. He wasn't of any species that she recognized from Panaka's lessons but she filed his appearance away for later, noting the Separatist battle droids lining the walls around them.

There was at least one droideka guarding her and Padme and Hari idly pondered their escape, taking in the layout of the room. And now she could hear the slight hum of the power that was entwined within the collar, the sonic restraints that held both of them.

"Who are you?" Padme asked, glaring at the nonhuman scientist.

"I am Doctor Nuvo Vindi and I am the man who brought back the Blue Shadow Virus. I will be honored until the end of time for my accomplishments. It is lucky that you will be here to witness the virus' new start."

Hari stared at the doctor and wrinkled her nose at his words. He did sound like a mad scientist and she would cast a hex at him in that moment but she felt… something. Foreign power. Power that was chaotic in nature but still… power as it radiated out from three individuals. Three people who were close by. Maybe this was what the Force felt like. Order and yet chaos at the same time.

One of the three people was practically glowing with it and Hari figured that to be General Skywalker, the Chosen One. She had rolled her eyes when she had heard about that but she had been glad it wasn't her, again. 17 years of being the Chosen One for her own people was bad enough. She was just glad that being a handmaiden to a single Senator didn't draw any undue attention her way. Or at least, it hadn't yet and she hoped to keep it that way. No one stared at her scar or looked at her like they expected her to save them and the world and she had found she had enjoyed the new found freedom.

She felt the Force swirl around the three people as they ventured closer towards her and Padme before focusing back on the mad scientist. The nonhuman scientist was staring right at Padme and not paying any attention to her, which she decidedly liked. She spared a look at Padme, noting that she was not unduly uncomfortable and cast a wordless patronus, willing it to be invisible to anyone but the three Jedi that were coming their way.

Ahsoka Tano followed her knight master as they ventured into the secret Separatist lab, holding her lit saber aloft for light. Obi-Wan and Anakin were in the lead, with her in the middle and Rex and his men followed, a small squad of 15 soldiers.

"This lab is like a maze," Anakin muttered, glaring down yet another dead end. "Padme could be dead for all we know and we're lost in a secret Separatist laboratory."

"Anakin, have patience. Listen to what the Force is telling us," Obi-Wan remarked quietly, glancing at Anakin wearily. "The Senator has been through enough to be wary of what goes on around her. Besides, what kind of role model are you for your padawan?"

Ahsoka grinned and rolled her eyes, skipping ahead of her two masters. "You might be lost, Skyguy. I'm not."

Anakin scowled and grumbled under his breath. "If we had Artoo with us…"

"We didn't have time to bring Artoo," Ahsoka said, gesturing to the lab around them. "The Senator was missing for two days."

Anakin and Obi-Wan both slowed to a stop at the next corner, signaling the men behind them to stop. Ahsoka peered around her masters, her eyes narrowing at the sight of a droideka. She used her lekku to listen to the air around them, 'seeing' all the battle droids behind the droideka but not Padme. She shook her head at Anakin's questioning look and continued to look beyond the two men, glancing down the other hallways that they had yet to try.

"General…"

She turned at Rex's voice only for her eyes to widen at the sight behind her. A bright glowing… male deer stood in front of her, its antlers reaching the ceiling of the tunnel. Rex and his men pointed their rifles at it and Ahsoka stared at it, meeting the ghostly eyes, before sighing and relaxing. The deer radiated a sense of… warmth and security?

"Ahsoka?" Anakin asked, looking to her like she had the answers to what was going on.

"I don't…" Ahsoka trailed off as the deer bent its head to her and then galloped off the other way, back down the hall. Once it got to the end of the hall, it looked back at them, pawing at the cement with ghostly hooves. "Maybe it's trying to tell us something?"

"Yeah, but what?" Obi-Wan questioned, dropping his hand down to his lightsaber.

"Let's follow it," Anakin offered, shrugging and already taking the lead towards the ghostly deer.

"Anakin! Oh, alright," Obi-Wan replied, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation and grinning.

Ahsoka laughed and followed, signaling for Rex and his men to follow them. They ran off, quickly but quietly, after the ghostly, blue deer, rifles and lightsabers raised. Ahsoka ran in between her two masters and the clones, deactivating her blade and tucking it back to her belt. They ran back the way they came and then took a sharp left, following the ghost deer, and then took another right and stopped right alongside the apparition.

The loud, high pitched cackle drew Ahsoka's attention to the door in front of them and she gestured to it, seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan walk up to it.

"I sense a trap," Anakin murmured.

"Then let's spring the trap," Obi-Wan replied, glancing at Ahsoka.

Anakin turned to look at her too, raising an eyebrow. "You should probably stay here."

"I'm coming with you," Ahsoka retorted, crossing her arms under her lekku. "What if I see a droideka out here or two and I can't handle them? What then?"

Anakin glared at her and Obi-Wan laughed quietly.

"She's got you there, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Alright, come on. Let's see where you led us."

The ghostly deer whinnied, loud and eerie sounding, and then disappeared before their very eyes. Something exploded beyond the door, the very loud boom echoing throughout the hall and beyond. A scream filled the air and Ahsoka's heart started to race at it, hearing Rex and his men check their weapons behind her. Smoke slithered under the door and Obi-Wan and Anakin used the Force to crush the door, pushing it open.

The three of them sprang through the opening, sabers lit and held to a guard position. Ahsoka reached out her hand and pushed the smoke away from her, coughing a little and covering her mouth.

"Senator!" Obi-Wan called out.

"We're saved!"

Ahsoka turned towards the voice, a unfamiliar woman's voice, seeing Senator Padme Amidala and a younger woman a few feet away. The two women stood in front of the remains of two holding cells, with the younger of the two women holding the arms of a nonhuman man behind his back. That woman turned to look at the three of them, a bemused grin on her face and Ahsoka's heart beat even faster.

The woman was in the normal handmaiden robes of Naboo, with its hood down so that Ahsoka could see her face and the scar on her forehead. The woman's eyes were bright green, the brightest green that Ahsoka had ever seen on a human, and slightly glowing as she caught Ahsoka's eyes. Ahsoka stared back, meeting the woman's eyes head on as Anakin and Obi-Wan made sure Padme was alright. The woman's long black hair was pulled back in one single braid but Ahsoka could see that there were strands trying to escape and that there was dust in her hair and bits of scrap metal.

"Senator Amidala, are you alright?" Obi-Wan questioned, walking over to Padme and assessing her. The Senator held a pistol in her right hand, aiming it at the scientist with not a tremble in sight.

Anakin walked over to Padme immediately and did the same. Ahsoka saw his eyes narrowing at a bruise on her face, his eyes going dark before he turned to the nonhuman man.

"Who are you?"

The young woman, whom Ahsoka figured was a new handmaiden to the Senator, still held the man's arms behind his back as she grimaced. Padme frowned and gestured to the man, her lips curling into a wider frown.

"He is Doctor Nuvo Vindi, General Skywalker. He says he brought back the Blue Shadow Virus."

Obi-Wan sucked in a tight breath and walked over to look at the man, bringing out a set of binders and attaching them to the man's hands. "The Blue Shadow Virus? Doctor, you are now under arrest."

"Wasn't that extinct?" Ahsoka asked, looking between Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan.

"It is," Anakin replied, scowling and glaring at the man in question. "Rex, have your men scout the remaining tunnels. We can't have any of this substance get out."

"Yes, sir."