𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

    Anakin watches this encounter carefully, feeling a small sense of dread grip his chest. A heavy pit sank in his stomach as Astrid took a gulp of the beverage. The Force was warning him of something, but what?

    "Come," Dod leads them towards the dining hall, "everyone is eager to meet the future Queen of Apollo."

    They entered the room where everyone was seated. The table was filled with a dozen of the Nemoidian's food, it filled the air with a beautiful aroma that Astrid had desperately needed after inhaling Clovis's cologne.

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    "IF YOU WOULD PARDON ME FOR A MOMENT," Astrid rises from her seat to use the restroom. In all honesty, she was going to go to the hologram and send it to R2D2 so he can send it back to the Council. But the moment she rises, her head spins and her balance is lost.

    Anakin, who was seated next to her for security, had quickly caught her before she fell. His eyebrows pull together as she shakes her head slightly, pinching the bridge of her nose. She felt lightheaded, as if the world around her was spinning at a pace she could keep track of.

    "Are you alright, milady," Anakin's voice dripped with concern. His heart was racing as Astrid struggled to find her balance. Her hands pressed against the cool golden table as her face crinkled from the sudden raging headache she was experiencing.

    "Yes...I—" Astrid finally regains her balance and looks around at the concerned table, "I just got up too fast. I wish to go to the restroom, so if you excuse me."

    As quickly as she could, she made her way away from the dining table and into the main hall where the bathrooms and the staircase led to. She knew what she had to do, despite her head spinning at every sudden movement.

    Right now, her health wasn't her priority, finding out what that hologram is.

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    TURNS OUT THE HOLOGRAM WAS A LAYOUT OF A NEW DROID FACTORY NEEDING TO BE BUILT. Astrid was quick to send the disk to R2D2 before she returned to the table. Her headache only grew increasingly worse by the time the dinner was over. Anakin noticed it, and so did Senator Dod.

    As the group makes it to the main area that they'd first been welcomed to, Astrid begins stumbling as her vision blurred and her lip quivered. It hurt. A small groan slips her lips as she loses footing and falls into the arms of an inky black abyss as she slips out of consciousness.

    Anakin swiftly catches his lover's unconscious body before it makes an impact on the ground. His worried eyes quickly scan her face as he gently lays her on the ground, his thigh used as her pillow. She had grown paler, her plump lips parted as if she were sleeping, eyes unmoving beneath her colored eyelids.

    "What's going on?" Clovis's fingers quickly go to caress her face but Anakin's hand circles around his wrist. He was so angry with this fool. Not only did Clovis make it harder for Astrid to open up and be vulnerable, but the pathetic excuse of a man had the audacity to touch his girl—albeit he didn't know she was taken.

    "Don't touch her," his voice was dark, much too dark for a Jedi to be able to hold. No one noticed the slight flicker of his eyes. His blue eyes flickered slightly to an amber. Specks of yellow took place in them, like a sandy seafloor beneath the ocean peeking through.

    Clovis, taken back, quickly tugs his wrist out of Anakin's bruising grip. Clearly, he had mistaken how much this guard cared for Astrid. He admired it, but in Clovis's head, she was about to be his again.