She was exhausted; it was time for bed. The journey to Varykino had been long. Traversing the shuttle routes without anyone recognizing her had been rather difficult. But here she was, in the retreat home of her grandmother, Padme Naberrie Amidala I, and she was alone, finally alone.
She relished in the feelings of seclusion. Kiki wasn't nagging her, Jacen wasn't looming over her, and there were no papers to be signed, no wars to be fought…She sighed; she could honestly say she was happy. A smile crossed her face. How refreshed she would feel when she returned home to Theed after this one night. A sneaky idea crossed her mind. If she could get stuck here, then she could have more time like this. She let the thought slip away. She wasn't a child anymore; those kinds of tricks had to be abolished from her repertoire.
She sat down on the bed and leaned backward into the mattress. She sunk down into its softness and she closed her eyes to sleep. Then, she remembered what Jacen had said and given her. She owed it to her brother to hear him out on whatever it was, she thought.
She pulled the wooden box from her bag and opened it. She paced it underneath her pillow and once again closed her eyes to sleep.
After a little while, her body began to tingle and she felt heavy; she couldn't move any of her limbs. She could open and close her mouth but it felt as though her jaw was moving through molasses. Colored lights began to dance behind her eyelids which looked like the sensation she got when she pressed on them. Though she couldn't open them, she began to see the room around her. She wondered if she was actually in her own body. Then she heard it, a deep rumbling noise, and then a crash which sounded like a train bursting through her room. She got up.
She walked to the door and stepped outside, only to find the outside rooms completely underwater. Though she herself was now underwater, surprisingly she could still breathe.
"Missa welcome yousa to Ossorus," came a voice from behind her. "Da Gungan heaven." She turned to see a Gungan looking at her, smiling. He was taller than most Gungans she'd seen in books, and not nearly as fierce as they'd been depicted. She began to back away slowly, as she'd heard so many horrific things about their race.
"Don't yousa be afraid of missa," he said, "missa won't hurt yousa." His smile got abnormally large. "Missa be bringa yousa here to taleo yousa da truth and ask for yousa help."
"You want me to help you?" Jaina asked. "She was very scared by this point and didn't exactly know what to do.
"Let missa showin yousa," he said. "Missa name is Dapnad Flupps by da way."
He swam downward, and turned when Jaina didn't follow him. "Yousa com?"
Jaina resolved to go with him in a sudden burst of curiosity. Though they swam for several minutes, Jaina noticed that she wasn't getting tired.
Eventually they reached an area that was not open water. It was an old city made out of coral. Jaina saw that the coral had been adjusted with markers to form the shape of the buildings, rather than being carved, broken or killed. They were conserving the environment, she mused.
They swam into one of the buildings and Dapnad waved a hand to have Jaina be seated at one of the stools, which were made of a spongy moss like material.
Jaina sat and Dapnad swam to a shelf on the side of the room. He lifted a small blue iridescent ball from off of the shelf. 'Dis was longo forgotten," he said. "isa time it went back to yousa Naboo".
"What is it?" Jaina asked him.
"Dis is da Globe of Peace. Yousa grandmother, Queen Amidala, gave it toda Gungans as a way of sayin thesa can no fight us anymore."
"That's impossible," Jaina said, "Kiki told me that there has always been war between the Gungans and the Naboo."
"Kiki…" Dapnad mused, "yeah, she isa liar…"
Jaina looked in disbelief and anger at Dapnad.
Dapnad sighed. "Let missa start from da begninn, and take Kiki out of da equation..." He thought for a moment, "…for da moment anyway." He closed his eyes, then opened them again and began his story:
"Whena missa a child missa wanna be a scientist. Missa wanna explore da galaxy and learn about everyth. Missa grandfather wanna missa to be a bubble builder because he thought missa was no bombad enough do important jobs, so missa went to prove missa worth. Missa left Naboo and missa built a space station.
"Kiki was an apprentice who jobbin for handmaiden at da time and was gettin maxibig of power. She start a massacre of da Gungans and missa no know whya. Missa ask come home and join da army, but missa thought missa can doin more bombad by creat a weapon on missa space station. Missa spent so much time mak da weapon bombad da day massacre end da day missa finish and missa da on gungan left. It was Kiki who attackin us and us lies and mischief to end weesa race."
"But why would she do a thing like that?" Jaina asked him, it didn't make any sense.
"Missa told yousa, missa no know," Dapnad reminded her, "but da is no all. Kiki is also da one responsible for yousa kidnapp as a baby. She is da one who took yousa to Earth and hid yousa from yousa fami. Missa doin know a litta bitty about da: der was some kind of disputa about who should be da monarch. Naboo wanna a unspoil innocent queen who was a relative of a queen from da past."
"So they hid me to keep me from outside ideas…" Jaina thought out loud. This made much more sense than Kiki's story. Jaina was starting to have a bad feeling about Kiki.
"Yeah," Dapnad said, "thesa did, and thesa blam missa and drove missa to exile to try and exterminata da one thesa miss."
Jaina was horrified. Though she sat in an coral house in the sacred city of the Gungan God, Oma-Oma, and all was well for him, she felt terrible for having brought Dapnad to the end of his life.
"You mentioned my ability to help you," she said, "How can I possibly help you now?"
"Da Place with No Water is no a weapon storage facility. Isa da place wherea da last of da Gungans putin thesa eggs to wait for them to return. Unfortunata da is no possible now. What missa can ask yousa do is go der and make sure thesa is safe to start a new race of Gungans who ganna eventual take back what is thesa."
By the tone in his voice, Jaina knew that Dapnad was sincere. She smiled at him. "I promise I will do everything I can to help you," she vowed, "I will repay this like a life debt."
Suddenly she couldn't breathe; she began to choke and gag.
She jolted, and opened her eyes. She was in her bed in Varykino. She'd been asleep.