Legend of the Jedi Princess 3: Return of the Doresho

Elements of Pollution Part 4

Featured song:
Work With Me by Lea Michele from Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
——————————————————————-

Gabby managed to find a way out of the palace in the basement, where luckily no briars had gotten, and she quickly flew over to the lake, where most of the water pollution had begun. She looked at the ring Mariposa gave her and remembered what she said to do to make it work.
"Please work, Blue Morpho." Gabby said, looking at the water. She tapped the butterfly. "Clear the waters."
And then, Gabby gave the butterfly a kiss and sent it toward the lake. The little butterfly fluttered toward the lake and landed to touch the water. And by some miracle, the water started to clear itself of the slime and grime. Unfortunately, it didn't clear out all the litter thrown into the water. But it was a start.
The butterfly flew back onto Gabby's ring. According to Mariposa, each butterfly's power could be used three times before requiring recharging.
Gabby looked to see that there were still giant plants in town, and one of them, she recognized as her Baby Blue.
"Oh, Baby Blue, I hope this will have enough magic to save you!"
And with that, Gabby flew toward the plants, hoping to save her pet plant and the rest of Naboo.
——————————————————————-
If Coruscant's air wasn't toxic before, it certainly was becoming such now.
No one could walk outside without coughing and/or hacking from the lack of clear air, especially humans.
Air continued to go around and spread the awful gas and goop.
"Perhaps now you will think twice before using this planet's grounds as your personal trash can!"
Sirens began blaring as the police attempted to apprehend the clavatized villain, only for Air to blast them with more of the sticky goop.
Comedia flew through the air, the atmosphere looking to be turning a murky, icky green as more of the gas was spread into the outside.
"Oh, Daddy, where are you?" Comedia said worriedly. "Agh!"
Comedia suddenly felt an awful pain in her side where her stitches were. She was due to take her next pill, and she was supposed to be resting right now. With all this pollution in the air, it was starting to aggravate her condition, even with the mask giving her clear oxygen to breathe. But, Comedia couldn't stop now. At this time, she may be the only one who could stop her father and save him from Mariverde's grasp. The only problem was she didn't know what the mariclava landed on.
"Not now." Comedia told her wounds, attempting to ignore the pain. "Dad needs me to help him."
But Comedia's pain only continued to grow as she continued flying, but then her left wing started hurting, and she couldn't flap it as well as her right, which threw her flight off balance.
Suddenly, Comedia heard the sounds of police sirens going off and realized they must have been going after Air.
"Daddy!" she gasped, quickly following the officers as best she could.
But Comedia started feeling weaker as she continued to fly, and soon her right wing was starting to give out too. Comedia tried to keep herself in the air, but she was too weak! And down, Comedia began plummeting toward the ground... until something swooped in and caught her.
"Hang on, Comedia! I got you." said a familiar voice.
Comedia was feeling weak, but she recognized that voice.
"Emeraldi?!" gasped the young mare.
It turned out, Emeraldi learned from Reigna that Comedia had been seriously injured and caused illness from falling into polluted water and getting covered in sharp, hazardous garbage. Wanting to be a better big sister, Emeraldi decided to pay Comedia a visit and bring her a little bouquet of her favorite flower, violets, hoping they would make her happy. But when she got to the Temple, she learned from Myra that her sister's adoptive father had been clavatized, and that Comedia went after him.
"We have to get you out of here!" Emeraldi said.
"But we have to find my dad! He needs my help!"
"This pollution is dangerous for your condition," said Emeraldi. "I once stood by while our biological parents polluted our childhoods, especially yours. I'm not gonna let you put your life in danger intentionally."
"But the reason he got clavatized is because of my condition. He thinks he's helping me by doing this, and he needs to see he's doing more harm than good. Maybe then, he can break himself out of the spell."
Emeraldi was reluctant to take such a risk, but she realized her sister was right. Ki-Adi might only have been Comedia's father by adoption, but they were practically family by association in her eyes. And there was no way Emeraldi was going to let her sister lose the one who'd restored her faith in families to Mariverde.
——————————————————————-
Meanwhile, Anakin was doing everything he could to fight off the big plants he'd created as Earth. He had his lightsaber and the Force for defense, but for some reason, his magic was struggling against these monstrous flowers.
"Back, you overgrown flytrap!" Anakin said angrily, snapping another vine like a whip.
Sapphire started turning more of the plants' roots into sapphires, which weakened them until they wilted completely, but more just kept coming.
"There's too many of them!" Kara said, punching another plant. "If I recall our Enchanted Botany lessons correctly, these kinds of plants had to come from an outside source."
In one of Garrett's previous lessons, he taught them how while most botanical enchanteds could grow many species of plants, certain special plants required an outside source to grow. A special seed or sprout, even a clipping of a particular plant could be used for very powerful spells.
"We need to stop the problem at its source!" Garrett said.
"Anakin," said Teatra. "Do you remember how you created those giant plants?"
"By the look of these plants, I'd say it's the same kind of plant as Baby Blue."
"You mean that baby plant you gave Gabriella recently?" Kara said.
"Unfortunately."
Anakin didn't like where this was going; if they had to destroy the source of the problem, it may mean destroying his daughter's pet. Gabby only had that plant for a few weeks, but she loved Baby Blue so much and treated him like her baby. He couldn't imagine the heartbreak Gabby might experience.
But then, that was when Gabby flew in, calling for Baby Blue.
"Gabby, don't go in there!" Anakin said, getting winged and flying after his daughter.
"Baby Blue needs me!" Gabby said.
Anakin grabbed Gabby with the Force and told her it was too dangerous for her to approach that giant plant.
"It's all my fault, Gabby. I'm so sorry. I never wanted to take Baby Blue away from you. But we may have to destroy him to save everyone else."
"No! I know how to fix him!" Gabby struggled in her father's grip, the latter flying away quickly as another plant threatened to chomp them.
"I don't like the idea of destroying a living thing any better than you do, but-"
"Mariposa gave me something to help him! Just let me try before you destroy him."
Gabby managed to get herself free and she searched among the plants for Baby Blue. She pulled out a little bag of blueberries she had been saving to feed her plant later. Meanwhile, her father and aunt kept fighting the other plants to buy her time to escape if she needed to.
"Baby Blue! I got your favorite snack!" Gabby sang, shaking the bag. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
More plants nearly chomped the little girl, Gabby just barely managing to dodge them all. And then, Gabby spotted one plant with a blue ribbon. That was how Gabby knew she'd found Baby Blue.
Baby Blue, as if turned out, was the biggest of all the monster plants. He let out a mighty roar. Without Earth to control them, the plants were going crazy.
"Baby Blue! Stop this, please." Gabby begged. "You're not a killer. I know you. This isn't you."
Baby Blue seemed to look at Gabby and snarl as she came closer.
"Shh. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Gabby reached into the bag and pulled out some blueberries. "Remember your favorite snack?"
Gabby tasted one to show Baby Blue the berries were harmless.
"Yummy! Blueberries."
And she tossed some toward Baby Blue, who then chomped the berries and licked his mouth, like he did when he was a little plant.
"See, Baby Blue? I know you're still in there," said Gabby, starting to smile. "Now to get you back to normal."
Gabby tapped the ring a second time.
"Clean the roots and living source of Baby Blue!" Gabby kissed the ring and sent the butterfly out towards the plants.
The little butterfly flew until it reached the plant that was Baby Blue. This time, the butterfly fluttered about, starting at Baby Blue's roots and landing on top of the plant's head. Baby Blue was soon engulfed in blue sparkles, and so were the other plants like him. All the monster plants began disappearing, whereas Baby Blue... he shrunk down to his regular size.
Gabby immediately ran over to the little plant and dug him out from his roots before placing him back into his pot and giving him a hug, the little plant hugging back with his little leaves.
"Are you okay, Baby Blue?" Gabby asked her plant. And Baby Blue answered with a kiss on his girl's cheek. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Now we best get those briars off the palace walls and ensure Prince Carmine and his wife are okay." Teatra said, shaking some leaves off her wings.
"I'll go find Carmine, you guys take care of the briars." Kara said before zipping off.
"Are the others okay?" Anakin asked Gabby.
"They're fine. And Goldie went to Coruscant. Apparently Uncle Ki-Adi got clavatized too."
Anakin froze at that. A Jedi Master clavatized? Ki-Adi was one of the most level-headed individuals he'd known.
"How did that happen?"
"Comedia getting hurt by more garbage."
——————————————————————-
Emeraldi coughed and gagged as she carried her sister through the murky fog that filled the air. It was getting too polluted to even see where she was going at one point.
"The gas is getting thicker!" Emeraldi said. "How are we supposed to find him?"
"I don't know," said Comedia. But then she had an idea. "I can make some light."
Comedia lit up her horn and shined the light ahead, making it a little easier for her sister to see where she was going.
By now, the streets were practically empty. The only thing that was on now was the giant screens, advising people to stay indoors and keep all windows and doors closed. At the moment, there were folks working on some air filters to clean the air of the awful gas, but at the moment, authorities were unable to catch the one spreading the awful air and the disgusting goop.
"One person actually did so much damage?" Comedia said, looking in horror.
"Cousin Reigna always says it only takes one person to make a difference, good or bad. And Mariverde's magic is just proof of that with an added boost."
Emeraldi continued to fly with Comedia on her back until they came upon another building, where they saw a soldier in black and green armor cornering another citizen, threatening to blast him with goop.
"I am going to teach you a lesson you will never forget," said Air. "No one pollutes my daughter's favorite play area or endangers her life and gets away with it!"
But just as he was about to blast the man with a huge blast of ooze, he heard someone shout.
"DADDY!"
Comedia pulled herself off Emeraldi's back and started to move toward her father.
"Don't... do this! It's no good." Comedia would've collapsed if Emeraldi hadn't caught her.
"Comedia!" Air exclaimed, dropping his weapon.
Comedia spotted the joy buzzer on Master Mundi's hand, and immediately recognized it. That was the same joy buzzer she'd originally pranked her father with before he adopted her. The mariclava had to be in that.
"Master Mundi, you're not helping Comedia by doing this!" Emeraldi said. "Comedia got hurt because of pollution. If you create more of it, you're only endangering everyone, including her, more!"
"Daddy... I know you're still in there. Please, don't let Mariverde corrupt you the way she did me before." Comedia begged. "The man who adopted me wouldn't want to hurt anyone."
Comedia begged her father with her turquoise eyes not to continue harming anyone. Ki-Adi looked at his daughter's eyes, and then at the joy buzzer on his hand. Inside, Ki-Adi could see what his daughter was saying, and he looked at her condition now. She and her sister were right. He was only making the problem worse for many other families and didn't even realize it because he'd let his anger over Comedia getting hurt because of other people's thoughtlessness with littering. What kind of example was he setting for his daughter if he was taking revenge, which was not just against the Jedi way, but not a great way of demonstrating good individuality.
Air took off the joy buzzer and hit it against the ground without hesitation, allowing the mariclava to fly out, and transforming Air back into Ki-Adi Mundi. Except, he forgot about the air being unbreathable, and he started coughing and gagging from all the pollution in the air.
Quickly, Emeraldi grabbed her sister and got Ki-Adi on her back before beginning to fly them as fast as she could back to the Jedi Temple, where they were immediately let in and taken to the healers' wing.
Fortunately, Ki-Adi hadn't breathed in enough of the fumes to be dangerous, but the same couldn't be said for a lot of people outside now in the hospitals.
"Something tells me we're gonna need a lot of trees to clear that air." Emeraldi said.
"Or a few magical butterflies." Goldie said, getting out her ring.
Goldie tapped her ring and said, "Clean the air," and kissed the butterfly. This, she repeated two more times for the air and to clean up the goop that was spread. The air was cleared somewhat, but not enough.
"On a planet mostly made of metal and concrete, it's probably gonna be a little trickier cleaning up this mess." Goldie commented.
"You think?" said Emeraldi sarcastically.
Anakin and Gabby arrived on their horses to check the conditions of Coruscant, and sure enough, they were glad to see Ki-Adi was okay, but not so much with how badly the air was polluted.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Comedia asked.
"My mom said these blue morpho butterflies would clean anything, but they wouldn't be enough to fix all the damage." Goldie said. "Back home in the village I grew up in, when a big mess was made, we fixed it ourselves and worked together."
"So, you're saying if we just work together, we can clean up the mess?" Gabby said.
"If we do that, we can come up with a solution to any problem. But it's gonna take a lot of people to clean up each mess."
So, Goldie came up with a plan.
——————————————————————-
The royal family and the Jedi rallied as many people as they could to help pick up all the trash that was thrown everywhere, as well as to clean up the mess of sewage, dead plants, and germ-filled goop. And with a little research, Gabby figured if all the flying horse flew fast enough together in a big circle, they could collect all the gas into a tornado that she, using her wind magic, could send toward some magical trees Anakin would grow to absorb the pollution and transform into clean oxygen.
"Are we sure this will work?" Zipp asked.
"It will if we work together," said Fantasia, getting ready to fly.
On both Naboo and Coruscant, everyone got to work.
Padme and other Senators rallied groups of people to work different jobs and kept everything organized.
The kids also called their friends and rallied them to help out.
Caroline, Boba, Jar Jar, and Aqualia's family were put in charge of water patrol. The Gungans' home had gotten polluted too, so Jar Jar was more than willing to help out of the kindness of his heart.
The Jedi focused on clearing the air and making sure all their flying horses had their wings powered up and measured how fast all of them could fly.
Mila and Tech worked out some calculations to ensure the best flight patterns, how to clean the water, and the best ways to dispose of all the trash.
Goldie:
Gonna get things Rollin' I know I can
Let's get things goin' 'cause I've got a plan
Put it up together till the job is done
This should be easy it should be fun
(Work with me)
Can't get a cross its sink or swim
I'll build the boat its next best thing
We're better together all is one
With a little help it'll get this done
Wrecker, and Qui-Gon, being the strongest, lifted the biggest plants and debris, and so did folks operating machines to pick them up.
Omega and the other Batchers began planting lots of seeds and baby trees to help the environment across the planet.
Everyone did their part, cleaning up the litter, separating the recyclable materials and green waste. The horses even pulled some plows to clear the dirt for planting some new trees.
Chorus:
Work with me
Work with me I will
Work with you maybe
We will see just what we can do
Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true
Work with me I'll work with you
Myra's family as well as Ahsoka were some of those helping to clean up the park where Comedia got hurt. And little by little, it was looking a lot cleaner.
Ahsoka:
We're gonna get there need a little time
You givе me yours
Myra:
I give you mine
Both:
Heads together till the end
All I need is a help from my friend
Chorus:
Work with me I will
Work with you maybe
We just see just what we can do
Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true
Work with me I'll work with you
"Okay, everypony!" Gabby called through a loudspeaker. "When I say go, each group go when called. On three!"
And Gabby counted to three, and called each group up, each of them sorted out by speed.
"Group A, go! Group B! Group C!"
And so, all the flying horses began flying in a large circle at hypersonic speed. Their combined wing power created a force that pulled the pollutants in the air to one place so Gabby could gather it with her magical wind.
"Okay, Daddy. Do your thing!"
Anakin immediately got to growing lots of maple, spruce, true fir, and beech trees, some of the trees known to produce the most oxygen.
Come on
Come on guys that's up there
It took more than just one day to get everything done, but by the time everything was done, the planets looked absolutely beautiful!
Gabby even made a rainbow in the sky once it was clear and blue again.
Chorus 2:
Work with me I will
Work with me you maybe
We will see just what we can do
Work with me I will
Work with you maybe
We will see just what we can do
Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true, Its true
Work with me I'll work with you
People cheered seeing everything was clean again. The air was breathable again, the lake and so many other bodies of water were clean for drinking and for fish and other aquatic species to live in, and the plants were growing more beautiful and healthier than ever.
Comedia was even feeling much better too.
But, Caroline was concerned about one other thing. That slime that covered the Naboo lake turned out to be coming from a secret lab of some kind, which she of course reported to the authorities.
However, the cops were confused, as well as worried. When they looked into this lab, they found that a lot of the equipment and experiments were very similar to the Kaminoans' lab back on Kamino. When Omega and the other clones heard about this, you can bet they were worried.
"You don't think the Kaminoans are planning to come after us, do you?" Omega asked her grandfather.
"We can only hope not," said Qui-Gon, holding Omega's cheek. "But if they so much as try to touch you or anyone else in this family, we will be ready for them."
"There's still one thing I don't get though," said Anakin. "Mariverde didn't ask any of us to bring her our crown jewels when she clavatized us. Why is that?"
"Maybe she did all this purely to scare all of you into damaging your home," said Susy. "I'm not an expert on magic, but in all the years I've spent as a ballet teacher and a ballet dancer, I've seen many a dancer try to sabotage their competition, including newcomers through scare tactics."
"That is a good point," said Mariposa. "If I know my sister, and I do, she used to like making people fear themselves, even when we were children."
Mariposa remembered a time when she was young how her older sister used to taunt her all the time, and once made her afraid of trees by making one crash through the wall of her bedroom.
"The very nerve of some people."
"I'd hypothesize her intent was probably to lead some of us to harm our own home in order to weaken us," said Sapphire.
"Or maybe she wanted us to believe strongly that we are our own worst enemies," said Carousella. "And she thought by clavatizing two royals and a Jedi, she could destroy the public trust in us, thus making it easier to get to the crown jewels."
"If that's the case, and they carry such power, wouldn't it be easier if we just destroyed them?" Gabby asked.
"That wouldn't do much good, I'm afraid." Garrett said. "Once a crown absorbs magic, it is very difficult to destroy. Even if you did manage to do so, traces of it would remain somewhere, and some villanous someone may find them and use them to their advantage."
"So, the only thing we can do is find Mariverde and destroy the problem at its source."
"Whatever she may throw at us," said Hunter, picking Gabby up. "She's not gonna beat us easily."
"Because we have something she doesn't." Indira added. "Family."