Another day, another planet. Sol had never thought she would have visited so many planets in the space of one week. Geonosis was like Tatooine from the outside; a sandy yellow with little white clouds seen in its blue sky. Through the windscreen of the cockpit, Sol could see that it was small and had a few moons surrounding it. Their descent was smooth, but the three inhabitants of the ship were nervous. They didn't know what they were entering and what the situation was with Master Obi-wan. The council didn't fill them in, as they weren't meant to have even ventured off Naboo. For all the Jedi council knew, they were on the core planet at Padme's childhood home; safe and away from the rise of separatist activity.
The ship nestled onto the landing pad that looked deserted in a canyon built into the sand of the planet. It was quiet on the scanners of the ship and there was no sign of Master Obi-wan's starfighter. R2 and C3-PO stood in cockpit as the humanoids bustled about to prepare their exit from the ship.
'I really think someone should stay with the ship,' C3-PO said, but was ignored. Even R2 didn't beep at the protocol droid's suggestion and followed the two Jedi and senator down the hall. C3-PO let out some more words of concern to himself before following the company onto the landing pad.
'Talk about standing out, Padme,' Sol mumbled as she eyed the white the senator wore from head to toe. An off-white scarf was wrapped around her neck and hung by her feet, Sol eyeing how easily it would be for Padme to step back and slip from the fabric.
'Just because you two never change,' Padme trailed off without needing to elaborate further. Anakin rolled his eyes at the two's quarrelling, before he led the way to a hallway that was attached to the landing pad.
The Jedi mutually agreed to keep the senator in between them as they ventured into the unknown hallway. Sol stayed in the back, looking up at the high ceiling that had curved edges. She eyed the brown texture that looked grotesque, before looking behind her to make sure they weren't being followed. C3-PO and R2 were slower than the trio, only just reaching the hallway and following their humanoids at their own pace. Something didn't feel right, but Sol couldn't see anything or sense what it was specifically.
They were halfway down the hall, and Anakin was yet to say anything from the front. Padme walked with cautious steps, not yet regretting her adventurous desire to try and rescue Master Kenobi. There was a door up ahead and they hoped that they would miraculously find Master Obi-wan and leave all within fifteen minutes of arriving on the planet.
Not trusting her eyes, Sol decided to look into the Force to search for what was so unsettling about the hallway. With her eyes still trailing behind them, she dived into the entity that ran through anything. She sensed Anakin's orange beam in the front and Padme's light pink signature in front of her. But she didn't have to time to dwell on them, as the overwhelming blots of black sat all around them. They moved and pulsated, showing that there was an infinite amount in the hallway with them, but hidden in plain sight.
She snapped her head to the left and caught the movement that she had been sensing. Suddenly, winged bug-like beings moved in the walls in a sea of brown. They had angled eyes and bony limbs that looked as if they were constantly oozing a sticky substance. But the worst of all, was that they were watching the three humanoids move down the hall. They started to break from their disguises and show the sheer mass there was of them.
'Run!'
Sol ignited her lightsaber before Anakin, sending the insect-like beings to use their wings and fly towards them. Anakin whipped around at Sol's demand and didn't waste time as he grabbed his weapon and ignited it. Padme looked around her and bolted, heading for the door that sat at the end of the hallway. Luckily, they had nearly made it through until the walls attacked, leaving a few metres between them and the door.
Blades of cyan and blue sliced through bugs and the Jedi were splashed with green blood. Sol and Anakin worked together in trying to clear their path, but it was futile. No matter how much Sol jumped around and cut through bony bodies, more came, and overwhelmed her and her partner.
She threw her hand out to Force push the insects closest to her away, before she turned on her heel to head to where Padme had escaped. As she ran, she grabbed the back of Anakin's robes and pulled him with her. He stumbled at the sudden jerk, but turned while regaining his footing and ran after Sol, their lightsabers in hand and still ignited. The whisps of wings followed after them and Anakin hoped that Sol had some sort of plan, as he hadn't yet thought of one.
With a swipe of her hand, the door at the end of the hall flew open and Sol ran through. But in her rush, she hadn't seen that there was no path on the other end, only a fifteen-foot drop onto a construction line. Anakin had somehow been able to stop himself and reached to grab Sol's wrist, her feet teetering on the edge of the doorway. She let out a yelp in surprise but was pulled back from the drop by Anakin's hand.
'What do we do?' Sol said aloud and Anakin looked behind him, seeing that the insects were gaining on them. They had no choice and Anakin wore it on his face as he turned back to Sol.
'We jump.'
Sol gulped and sheathed her lightsaber. She didn't have time to look down at the drop before she crouched down and asked the Force to guide her. With a leap, she and Anakin left the doorway as the insects reached their original place. The Jedi manoeuvred their jump and landed on a conveyer belt, their boots clinking against the scraps it held.
With a quick look down, Sol saw that the scraps weren't just any pieces of metal, but droid parts. The torso plates of super-battle droids sat in rows as they were chartered down the construction line, the ones that had clinked against Sol and Anakin's feet sitting askew.
Anakin looked up to where they had jumped from and saw that the insects were flying out into the factory after them. He readied his lightsaber once more but didn't have the chance to ignite it after he heard a loud thud that rattled the conveyer belt. He looked to where he and Sol were moving towards and saw a large machine that attached legs to the super-battle droids torso, before another contraption slammed down to ensure that the parts were connected.
'Don't think we want to go that way,' Anakin said aloud, and Sol noticed the possibility of a painful death. She looked around the factory of droids parts before she spotted the white clothes of Senator Amidala, and Sol took back her previous mocking of her 'standing out'.
'I see Padme!'
---
In a dark cell, Sol sat with her hands shackled to an iron loop that was welded to the floor. With her back to the wall and her knees propped up near her chest, she waited for the Geonosian guards to take her to the arena, where she would be executed alongside Anakin, Padme and Master Kenobi.
There had been a mad dash through the droid factory, with the three ducking under large slicers and flying over welders. But it had been futile, as Anakin and Sol were surrounded by the insects that had been after them, and Padme was taken by Count Dooku. Dooku was an ex-Jedi Knight who went to the dark side, which had been believed by Padme to be part of the separatist movement. She insisted that he was the one behind her attempted assignation, but the Jedi Order didn't believe her. But after the failed negotiations between herself and the Count for their and Master Kenobi's lives to be spared, she realised that she was right from the beginning.
They were now to be sentenced to death after a trial that labelled them as criminals of espionage. They had no say in the matter and were sent to the holding cells before they would be reunited with Master Kenobi in unison of their deaths.
Sol spent her last hours in meditation. The cell fell away from her as she was met with the glows of the Force. She manoeuvred out of the cell in her spiritual form of blinding white and found another cell, which contained a ball of pulsating teal. It was the colour of the oceans of Glee Anselm; not that Sol had ever been there, but she had seen it in the Jedi archives back at the temple.
Sol sensed that this signature was Master Obi-wan Kenobi's, who was yet to learn of his Padawan's team's presence on Geonosis. The teal signature radiated light and the good of the Jedi, but it wasn't who Sol was searching for. She headed towards the next signature, which was warm and drew her in without the intention of doing so. Orange hues with a warm centre, Anakin's Force signature was alluring. It called to her, just as her's did to his.
'Don't be afraid.'
Sol jumped in her cell, her Force signature quivering in the spiritual world at the surprise. She heard Anakin's voice, and it came from the orange glow that sat in his cell. It sounded in her head, and she thought that it was the Force's way of calming her, but when his voice sounded again, she knew that it was coming from the man himself.
'I'm sorry I got you into this, Solaris. It was selfish of me.'
'How am I hearing you? Is this something you have always been able to do?' Sol asked, hoping that her voice carried as Anakin's did.
'I'm not sure, but it's happening. But Solaris? I really am sorry,' sincerity filled his voice, and she pictured him shaking his head. 'You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. We should have just stayed on Naboo.'
'Don't say that. I chose to leave with you, and I know Padme would say the same. Besides, there's nothing we can do about the past. I'm not afraid to die. We will be one with the Force, and we will fulfil our true purposes as Jedi.'
'Do you really believe that?'
Sol paused.
'After this week, no. Since we're going to die soon anyway, I'll reveal that something has changed in me. I don't know what it is, but I don't... solely believe that what the Jedi Order enforce is right.'
'That's certainly a different tune from you, Solaris,' Anakin sounded amused, and Sol rolled her eyes.
'Please don't say anything when we see Obi-wan. Not that we'll have much time to chat before we're executed, but I wouldn't like his last thought of me to be a sort of traitor.'
'Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. I somewhat think the same. Losing my mother... it made me think about what it's all really for. Why did she have to suffer? What did the Force gain from that? Who is it to choose who lives or dies?'
She had forgotten what Anakin did from the rage of his mother's death. He had slaughtered an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders and didn't feel an ounce of regret from it. She remembered his blazing eyes and the way he had stalked towards her in the workshop on Tatooine. She had been frightened for a moment, but when Anakin broke down into tears, Sol crumbled into a forgiving blob. The two had even embraced and Anakin sobbed into her shoulder, his tight grip making Sol's stomach warm.
She could deny it no longer, and what good was it to continue the deception when she would be dead within the next day? Sol liked Anakin. She liked Anakin, as the butterflies of Naboo loved flowers, and as Padme loved the lake by her childhood home. Anakin was someone who challenged Sol, but she now noticed the small gestures he did that were kind and soft. He grabbed Sol before she could fly off the drop into the droid factory, he sent away the species on Tatooine that tried to sell her into the slave trade, he checked on her in the club on Coruscant after the man said uncomfortable things to her; Anakin had been there to save her more times that anyone ever had.
'Ani?' she called to him, her heart racing, but at peace from the acceptance of her feelings.
'Hm?'
'Don't tell the council in the afterlife, but I think I might like you.'
There was silence in the Force and Sol was ready to retract from the spiritual realm. But at the sound of Anakin's smooth chuckle and the grin that she could somehow feel through the Force, she remained in front of the orange signature she found to be the most pleasant in the entire galaxy.
'Only if you don't hold it against me after death that I'm wholly infatuated with you, Solaris.'