ꕥCelestialꕥ

ꕥChapter Oneꕥ

Amelia shifted uncomfortably, the chains that had been clasped tightly around her wrists making loud clanking sounds that echoed around the dimly lit room before her. The edges of the cuffs dug into her arms, causing her to emit a sharp hiss from between her teeth.

Amelia's head snapped up as she heard explosions and gunshots outside. They were getting closer. She turned her head to a cradle that was floating close to where she had been chained. She had caught a glimpse inside as she was shoved quite unceremoniously into the wall.

The cradle contained a small green creature that looked quite similar to someone she once knew well. "We'll be fine little one." She murmured, smiling as she received a small gurgle in reply. As she listened to the noises, her eyebrows furrowed upon realizing that this was going on longer than usual.

"Wonder who this one is, they're certainly better than the others." The comment was more to herself, but a babble of agreement still rose from the cradle to meet her ears.

Suddenly the sounds stopped, and Amelia held her breath, waiting to see if the door would open to a gang member making sure she hadn't escaped, or if it would reveal a bounty hunter, ready to take her to whoever it was that wanted her dead now. Half a minute later, a giant laser blast ripped through the metal, causing a gasp of surprise to escape her mouth. The shots kept coming, sparks showering the room, making her flinch away as a few grazed her cheek, leaving it stinging.

She closed her eyes and opened her right hand as best she could, redirecting the shots away from her and the cradle, into the wall on her left. The blasts stopped and the door fell inwards, creating a huge cloud of dust as it thudded against the ground. A few strands of hair fell out of Amelia's messy plait as she squinted her eyes at the sudden influx of light. When she opened her eyes, there were two figures standing on the threshold of the room, their silhouettes clear against the white light. A Mandalorian and a droid. How curious.

The Mandalorian had patchy armor, and the droid was an IG unit. Amelia's mother had given her one of those. She called it 'Iggy'.

A guard that Amelia somehow hadn't noticed stepped out from around the corner, raising his blaster at the figures. Before he could even touch the trigger, a shot rang out from the Mandalorian's blaster, killing the guard. "Anyone else?" His voice was deep and crackly, having been most likely filtered through a voice modulator.

Amelia cleared her throat, wiggling her fingers at the other two. "Hello! Thanks for getting rid of those guys. Now, I would very much appreciate it if one of you could get me out of these-" She shook her wrists, making the chains rattle. "-because they are cutting off my circulation."

"Who's this? I thought the bounty was fifty?"

Amelia scoffed. "Um- that's rude, I'm twenty-nine."

The IG unit stepped forward, swiveling its head. "That is the first half of the bounty. General Amelia Amidala, a known associate of Leia Organa-Solo, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, along with many other fugitives."

Amelia huffed in annoyance. "Still very mad that I couldn't get to their wedding. Bloody Tusken Raiders, always fucking everything up."

The Mandalorian looked around the room. "Where's the other half?"

Amelia rolled her eyes as she was ignored, while the Mandalorian and IG unit stepped further into the room together. "The tracking fob is still active. My sensors indicate that there is indeed a second life form present."

The Mandalorian held up a tracking fob, moving it around the room. It beeped rapidly as it swept over Amelia, slowed down, and then sped up again upon landing on the cradle. Amelia froze as the Mandalorian slowly walked towards the cradle. "Don't hurt it."

He glanced over at her for a second before slipping the woven blanket off the cradle while the IG unit walked up behind him. The Mandalorian pressed a button and the cradle made a whirring sound, the top of it sliding open to reveal a heap of brown blankets, the green creature bundled up in them, staring at the bounty hunters.

"Wait. They said fifty years old." The Mandalorian turned slightly to look at the IG unit.

"Species age differently." The IG unit spoke in its croaky voice. "Perhaps it could live many centuries."

"It could." Both the Mandalorian and the IG unit turned to look at Amelia as she spoke. Her head was facing the ground. "I knew one of its kind. He was around nine hundred when he died." She looked to the cradle, smiling softly as the creature reached out with its hand and pulled the blanket further away from its face.

"Sadly, we'll never know." The IG unit began to raise its blasters, one toward Amelia, one toward the child, and Amelia panicked.

"No, no, please! Don't kill it, you can kill me, but it is only a child, please don't hurt it." She calmed down slightly as the Mandalorian spoke, lowering the blaster that was pointed at the child.

"No. We'll it- bring both of them- in alive."

"The commission was quite specific. Both assets were to be terminated." The blasters were pointed back up at Amelia and the child.

Amelia squeezed her eyes shut in fear and a bit of disbelief. She had been so close to finding Luke. Had she really come all this way just to die on some dingy, backwater, dustball planet called Arvarla-7? I mean seriously, you get to name a planet, and you name it fucking Arvarla-7. Of all things. What happened to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6?

Amelia was brought out of her angry brain rant by a single blaster shot piercing the silence. She slowly cracked open her eyes to see the IG unit lying on the floor and the Mandalorian holding out his blaster. He lowered it and slowly reached a finger towards the child, the child's hand reaching up to meet it.

There was a moment more of silence before Amelia groaned. "Okay, this is all very touching and sweet, but my hands are about to fall off. Can you please get me out of these things?"

The Mandalorian begrudgingly walked over, aiming his blaster at the hook holding the chain of the cuffs. He pulled the trigger and suddenly Amelia's arms dropped down from above her head. She grinned as she fiddled with the cuffs, smiling even more when they dropped off her wrists. "Thanks." She swung her arms around, circulation returning to her hands.

As she knelt, the Mandalorian's blaster swung up into her face. Amelia put her hands up and chuckled. "Woah, woah. I'm not trying to escape, don't worry."

The Mandalorian tilted his head. "I call bullshit. Why should I believe anything you say?"

Amelia laughed again. "I only escape from the bounty hunters that I think are pricks, which, to be fair, is most of them. You don't seem so bad. I'm just making sure that lot-" She gestured outside. "-didn't steal my shit."

The Mandalorian slowly lowered his blaster as Amelia rifled through the bag at her feet, pulling out two silver tube-like things, both with intricate detailing. She sighed in thankfulness at the fact that they were still there, then placed them back in the bag, swinging the bag onto her back. "Let's go."

However, as she stood up, the Mandalorian held out a pair of cuffs, making her stop in her tracks, sighing. "Okay, I suppose that's fair."

A.N: Hello, and welcome to 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙! This is something that I'm very excited to write. I've loved Star Wars since my dad first showed me A New Hope when I was four and I can't believe I only just had the thought to write this! Sorry this first bit was so short, I couldn't find a way to make it longer. But don't worry! Chapter Two will start right where episode two begins (Although this chapter was in the third person, the next chapter will be in first person, and the rest of the chapters will likely be in first person as well).

Thanks for reading. Peace out, banthas!