The Princess, The Pea And The Bounty Hunter

Chapter One: A Queen Does Not Beg...

Trapped on her own ship, a former Queen would sit in her royal quarters awaiting ransom from Naboo in exchange for her release...

Though, she knew that more than likely these raiders would simply murder her anyway...

And the Republic most likely knew the very same...

Lounging out on gorgeous pillows of silk brocades and plush velvets, she would enjoy a glass of Gungan water berry wine as worrying felt hardly productive...

"Little girl's not scared...? No begging for me...?" one of her guards purred out as she lay back dressed in a fitted black and gold jumpsuit, sleeveless and strapless... held up by an extravagant necklace of onyx metal and dark sapphires. Over this, she wore a floor length robe of translucent ebony satin lined with the same gold that accented her long boots.

The relaxing royal rolled her eyes, looking to the men who stood flanking her door, disheveled, "Forgive me, but a Queen does not beg...not unless a real man were to ask her so very sweet-like," she scolded them as she raised a remote to a screen on the wall, "And neither of you appear to be real men, sorry to say. Just look at yourselves! You don't even have the self respect to groom properly!" she exclaimed, gesturing to their mussed hair and beards before turning on the screen which displayed every security camera on the ship.

"I mean-!" she pointed at one of the men whose beard resembled something similar to a braid, yet left nearly unrecognizable by what she could only deduce to be general filth and perhaps...plant life?

"What even is that?" the royal shot at him as they both stood rather insecure, "Is that algae? Algae growing from your beard? Are you a freakin' sloth? Is that what you are? Because you certainly don't resemble a man of any decent standing, breeding or otherwise wholesome orientation... disgraceful," she spoke plainly, coldly... antagonizing them on purpose.

If they were just going to kill her anyway, she certainly wasn't going to bite her tongue. The hell was the point of it? It would dishonor the memory of every Empress who'd ever gone before her...

Then, as the men turned hostile... that's when she noticed it...

On the screen, she saw a man enter the airlock, "Oh...my. Now, that is a specimen. Lovely shoulders," she mused before gesturing to the men, "You might want to consider taking me hostage at some point. It seems a Mandalorian just breached airlock number two," the young woman advised as she sat up, watching in delight as this warrior swept through thugs with the ease of a brute twice his size and this...was truly intriguing.

"How are you not phased by any of this?!" one of her guards snapped as they both aimed at her then.

"Oh..." she paused, standing up from her place of comfort to offer a small bow, "...because I am Litha Hawma and the women of my family do not shy away from confrontation," the girl declared before one of them roared in annoyance, rushing with the intent to tackle her...but when his body froze in place against his will, both men were understandably confused.

The man left by the door fired a shot then, but with a rise of her hand, the bolt stopped mid-flight as well, "What-...what is this?!" he exclaimed in horror as she condensed the energy of the bolt into a ball before firing it back at him, striking his chest.

Litha then turned her attention to the frozen man, "To answer your dead friend's question: this is called the Force...a thing in which I am neither light, nor dark...but rather grey, I think," she explained before pulling his blaster from his frozen hand, "If the Mandalorian allows your Captain to live, I'll be sure to offer a formal commendation for your good work in guarding me. You may have even lived long enough to get paid, had you been a little more competent," she assured him before blowing him away...

And in her royal quarters she would remain to prepare for her guest's arrival...for much to her pleasant surprise, he had nearly cleared the entire ship...