When Jar Jar awoke, he was confronted with a strange sight. The room he was in seemed to be a small ice-cave of some sort. The smooth walls were supported by packed snow, and there didn't seem to be any windows or doors. It was like being in a frozen dome. In the center of the room was a small candle, which gave off a gentle, orange-pink light. It lay between Jar Jar and the other escapees, flickering weakly. The dragon had her left wing folded protectively over the Queen, who was lying on her side with one of her feet extended forward beside her chin. Her wound had been dressed, and she was breathing with less difficulty than before. Even so, she was in rough shape. Her beak was parted slightly, and it looked like she was in a troubled sleep. The rodent was perched on her cheek, nuzzling her snout tenderly with his forehead. He ran his tiny paws across her scales, then kissed her eyebrow with his fuzzy lips. His whiskers drooped sadly when she didn't respond.

Jar Jar rubbed his eyes with exhaustion, still lying on his side. He stretched out his legs and wiggled his toes, then pushed his haillu over his shoulders as he propped himself up on one elbow. The dragon gave him a brief side-glance before turning her eyes back to the Queen and the rodent.

"He's awake," she announced unenthusiastically.

The rodent's eyes flitted to the side, but he was clearly more concerned with his ailing wife. Jar Jar sat up and blinked, moving his stalk-eyes around to get a better look at the cave.

"Where are-"

The dragon held up her claw to silence him.

"Shush. The Queen is trying to rest, and your voice is obnoxious."

Jar Jar gulped and laced his fingers together humbly.

"And if I spake normal?"

"It won't help."

Ashamed of his misstep, Jar Jar hugged his knees and stared down at the candle. He considered blowing on it to pass the time, but decided that it would be a bad idea, lest he extinguish it accidentally. After an awkward pause, he risked speaking again.

"The Queen, she hurt bad?"

"Badly. Yes," the dragon said plainly, "But that's none of your concern. We're going to send you home as soon as possible. You'll be back on Coruscant before you know it, and it will be like none of this ever happened. You can go back to whatever it is that you do and forget all about us. Not that you ever cared anyway, considering you did nothing to help us when we were attacked."

Jar Jar's lip quivered.

"Mesa sorry."

The dragon didn't respond. Jar Jar cleared his throat and spoke louder, thinking that she hadn't heard him.

"Mesa-"

"I heard you," the dragon said calmly, "There's no need to apologize. It's our fault for involving you in this. We should have known better than to allow a complete klutz to participate in our expedition. Just be patient. We'll send you home soon."

Jar Jar didn't want to go home. He wanted to make sure that the Queen was okay, because she was his friend. He crawled over to her slowly, his knees making the grainy floor crunch. When he reached out to touch her beak, the rodent wheeled around and bared his teeth.

"Get away from her! This doesn't concern you."

Jar Jar pulled his hand back remorsefully and scooted across the cave. He sat near the dragon's chest with his back against the wall. He looked up at the domed roof and frowned in puzzlement.

"What's this snow-place?"

The dragon's nostrils twitched. She clearly lacked the patience to explain their situation to someone who tended to be rather dense. Seeing that the rodent was busy, she sighed and looked at Jar Jar.

"We're underground. I used magic to get us here, and that's all you need to know."

Jar Jar blinked.

"Why the nutsen man be chasing us?"

No one answered him. He looked up at the dragon helplessly. She sighed and folded her ears back in frustration.

"Look, it makes no difference to you, so you don't need to know. You'll be home soon, and-"

"Why he chase us?" Jar Jar repeated, more firmly.

The rodent turned around and flicked his tail angrily.

"If you really want to know, he has an issue with the way things are being run. Specifically, what this big, yellow idiot started. Abrams-"

The dragon thumped her tail against the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's get one thing straight: that man is not J. J. Abrams."

"What?!" the rodent spat.

"He's not J. J. Abrams," the dragon repeated, "He's only using that shape as a cover. I can tell because his inflection is different from the real Abrams. I've seen him in interviews, and there's no doubt that we're dealing with an imposter here."

"Who is he, then?" the rodent growled impatiently.

"No idea," the dragon sighed, "He's probably related to me. Most people who pretend to be famous directors are secretly members of my family with some kind of vendetta against me. I apologize if this is the case. I hate to drag innocents into my personal drama."

Jar Jar cocked his head.

"Mesa no understanden."

The dragon rubbed her forehead with two claws.

"Look, if it will get you to shut up, I'll tell you what's going on. We're from another world- another franchise- that is very close to yours in the land of Fiction. We came here to make sure that everything was ready for a new movie. Well, Claire did, at least. I wanted to profit off of this world while I still could."

The rodent nodded.

"And I'm a jerboa because-"

The dragon snorted.

"There's no need to tell him why you're not human or why Claire's a winged stegoceratops. Unlike you, he has no reason to believe that this is odd. I guess now that the cat's out of the bag, though, we should tell Jar Jar that the fact that you're a rat is extremely odd without context. Not that it matters, since he'll be gone soon . . ."

Jar Jar swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I want to help."

The dragon gave him an neutral glance. When she saw that he was being serious, she clicked her beak lightly.

"That's nice, but I don't think you can help us. You're not exactly the hero type, if you don't mind me saying."

Jar Jar felt his heart tremble. The dragon's statement made him feel not-so-good. In fact, it made him feel bad. He thought about what Abrams had said about him being a coward. Maybe he was right. Maybe Jar Jar wasn't capable of helping his friends, even if he tried. All of a sudden, shouting "Go, me!" was starting to look like a foolish idea. It wasn't the world's fault that Jar Jar couldn't succeed: he alone was to blame. With a quiet whimper, Jar Jar buried his face in his hands.

"Mesa sorry . . . Mesa sorry . . ."

He perked up when he heard the Queen shifting drowsily in the snow. She groaned quietly, moving her front foot across the floor. Her stubby toes made shallow grooves as they moved, and Jar Jar noticed that she had bled on her leg at some point. Apparently, they had been in the dome long enough for her breath to melt the snow beneath her beak. It was alarming that she had remained in the same position for so long, which made her awakening all the more important. Her eyes fluttered open. Immediately, the rodent scuttled up her snout and dangled from her face, looking into her left eye while he wrapped his tail around her horn.

"Claire?"

She tried to focus on him. After blinking a few times, her gaze became steady. She gave him a look of recognition and took a deep breath.

"Owen . . ."

He gave a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

"Oh, thank god, thank god . . ."

The dragon craned her long neck around to get a better look at the Queen.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, pricking her ears with interest.

The Queen nodded drowsily, her jaw bobbing in a way that was unsynchronized with the rest of her skull.

"I feel like I was recently stabbed in the chest, but other than that, I'm just dandy," she muttered with a trace of irony.

The rodent slipped down her snout and scurried over to her bandages. When he saw that she was bleeding through the gauze, he bit his lip.

"We need to get you to a space-hospital or something. Do you think you can move?"

The Queen tried to push herself upright with her front feet, but went limp shortly after and gave a pained moo.

"It's still hurting," she rasped, "Are we in a hurry to leave?"

"No, no, of course not," the rodent cooed, "We'll take as much time as you need. There's no rush."

Suddenly, there was a loud crunching sound above them. The gang looked up at the ceiling in panic. The rodent gulped and tried to lift the Queen's foot.

"Then again . . ."

A deep cracking sound rattled the room. The dragon leapt to her feet and spread her wings.

"They're digging us out!"

Slithering away from the Queen and the rodent, the dragon began cutting into the wall with her horns. Jar Jar got to his feet and ran around the cave in panic, screaming shrilly. After a second, he thought better of it and went to dig with his friend. She seemed surprised that he was helping, but didn't attempt to stop him. Jar Jar pulled large clumps of snow away from the wall, letting them fall to the ground. His hands were cold and wet, but he kept digging.

A loud snapping sound indicated that Abrams and his followers were close to reaching the group's dome of safety. The dragon winced and stopped digging.

"We won't make it out this way. Any ideas?"

The rodent gulped and wrung his tail nervously.

"You said that you can make plotholes, right?"

The dragon rumbled uneasily.

"Yes, but it's not a good idea. Now that Fake Abrams is in charge of the universe, it's unlikely that we'll be able to escape his sphere of influence. I'd like nothing more than to take us home, but if he follows us, we'll be putting our friends in danger."

"What are our options?" the rodent asked.

The dragon rubbed her chin.

"We can travel within this universe. We might be able to buy some time by escaping to another planet, hopefully a civilized one. By the time he catches up with us, we'll have figured out a plan, I'm sure. If we can get our hands on a ship, we might be able to-"

The ceiling started to cave in. The rodent squeaked in fear and dodged a hail of snow. He ducked under the Queen's leg and covered his head.

"Whatever you're planning, do it fast!"

The dragon nodded. She closed her eyes, and the room was filled with a bright light. As huge chunks of ice began to tumble down, the four occupants shimmered in a dazzling display. The candle was snuffed out by a small avalanche, and their luminous shapes became the only light, save for a few broken beams that shone down through the cracked ceiling. They could hear a mob shouting above them. Among them was the person who was posing as J. J. Abrams. He seemed eager to get his hands on the four of them. He was using the pink lightsaber to cut into their half-bubble, melting the snow in a greedy attempt to capture them. His hand burst through the ceiling.

By the time the cave was exposed, they were gone.