I know Eclipsa isn't Star's aunt, but I didn't feel like coming up with an explanation for how her sixth great-grandmother was still alive. It was just easier to make Eclipsa Moon's sister and move on. I always thought Eclipsa seemed more like a "cool aunt" anyway.

Marco leaned against a display rack as he waited for Star to finish in the dressing room, his damp Jedi robe draped over his arm. He had selected a lightweight gray button-down short-sleeved shirt and a pair of plain black trousers. Nothing too noticeable; he wanted to attract as little attention to himself as possible. He had done his best to dry out his boots instead of replacing them, though, and had a fresh pair of socks. If there was one thing Marco absolutely couldn't stand, it was wet socks.

Something on the rack he was leaning against caught his eye. It was a medium-red garment that looked like some kind of cloak. He slid it off the rack and held it up. It was not long enough to be a cloak, only being waist long. It did have long sleeves and a hood, and the front was open, but it had strange metal teeth on either side of the opening.

"Excuse me," Marco said to the very bored human woman behind the counter, "What exactly is this?" He pointed to the teeth.

"Some new-fangled thing called a 'zipper.'"

"A zipper?" Marco let his Jedi robe drop to the floor, slid his arms into the sleeves of the garment and pulled the front together. At the bottom was a small tab that seemed to be affixed to one side of the teeth. It looked like the matching set of teeth on the other side would slide into it. Marco joined the two halves of the half-cloak and pulled the tab up. The garment was now securely fixed around him, and it was snug and cozy. The front had a pair of deep pockets, too.

"Oh, yeah. I am definitely getting this thing."

"What'd ya find there, Marco?"

Star's voice made Marco flinch in surprise. He hadn't heard her come up behind him. "Star!" He whirled around, but then froze. Star was holding onto her damp Jedi robe the same way he had, having traded it for a casual light blue sleeveless dress. She wore similarly colored leggings under it and a red belt was tied around her waist. A pair of fuzzy blue things covered the lower part of her legs and helped conceal the tops of her boots which, like Marco, was the only part of her Jedi outfit she had retained. Her long, blonde hair was still damp and somewhat frizzy, but she had a red headband fashioned to look like horns atop her head in an attempt to keep it somewhat under control.

"What do you think?" she asked quietly. "Normal everyday definitely-not-a-Jedi teenager?"

Her words barely registered in Marco's brain. OH MY GOSH SHE'S SO CUTE! "Uh, yeah, very, uh, very normal."

She smiled happily. "So what's that you're wearing?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Check it out, it's like a short cloak. It's really soft and cozy, and it's got this fancy thing on the front called a zipper." He moved the tab up and down to demonstrated.

Star leaned in for a closer look at this garment technology she had never before seen. "How...the heck...does it work?"

"Beats me! But I love it. I'm definitely getting it."

"Cool! I like it! So are we all set?"

"I think so. We just have to figure out..." Marco scooped up his Jedi robe from the floor and unfolded it, revealing Star's lightsaber nestled inside. "...what to do with this."

"Even more than our clothing, it makes us super-obviously Jedi," Star said. "As far as I'm concerned, we should just get rid of it."

"We're not getting rid of it. It's the only means of defense we have!"

Star rolled her eyes. "Fiiiiiiine. But we need a really good way of concealing it." Her eyes scanned the room, searching for something she could use to hide her lightsaber from observant passersby. On the back wall, she spotted what she was looking for.

"A-ha!" She darted over to a display section of accessories and selected a small purple bag on long, thin strap that she could wear over her shoulder. "Gimmie," she said, holding out her hand. Marco handed her the lightsaber and she dropped it into the bag before slinging it over her neck. "Well?" She struck a pose. "Completely unsuspecting, or what?"

Marco gazed at his best friend. "Perfect, Star. You look-" completely normal and unsuspecting "-very cute."

She blinked. "What?"

Marco's heart started racing in panic. I just did that backwards, didn't I?

Yes, yes you did. Way to go, genius.

"Did...did you say I look cute?" Star asked when he didn't reply.

"Uh..." Well, I can't take it back. "Yeah, you do. Very, uh..." He swallowed hard. "Very cute."

A friendly smile met Marco in return. "Aw, thanks, Bestie."

Marco was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. He followed Star as she skipped up to the counter, excitedly thinking to herself Oh my gosh, Marco thinks I'm cute!

It took 213 of Marco's credits to pay for their new clothing. After ditching their Jedi robes in a garbage pile in the alley behind the store, they hailed another air taxi and climbed aboard.

"Evening, youngsters," an aging togruta male with a friendly smile asked. "Where can I take you?"

"The Republic Senate Building, please," Star requested.

The cabbie looked confused. "Really?"

"Mhm."

"...you're sure?"

"Yes! Please!"

"Ooooookay." And he started away.

Marco turned to Star. "Are you going to call your aunt and let her know we're coming?"

"We don't have commlinks, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Marco chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

Marco shook his head. "Nothing. Just...we are, like, so unprepared for this."

Star slid closer and unexpectedly took his hand, giving it a squeeze. "We have each other," she whispered. "That's all we need, isn't it?"

Marco smiled at her. "Yeah. It is."

"Awwwwww," the cabbie cooed as he looked at them in the rear view mirror. "Young love. You two are adorable."

Star and Marco slid as far apart on the rear seat as they could, both blushing dark red.

"We're, uh...actually just best friends," Marco stammered.

"Oh," the old togruta said with more than a little disappointment in his voice. "Well, that's nice, too. Nothing is more valuable than friendship, you know."

Star and Marco blushed harder. For the remainder of the ride, they remained silent.

A clone trooper held up a hand to signal that the air taxi should stop as it pulled up in front of the Senate building. The cabbie rolled down his window while Star motioned something to Marco in the backseat.

"I'm sorry, sir," the trooper said, "This area is temporarily on lockdown. No one is permitted to disembark here."

"Oh, uh, I didn't know. I'm sorry," apologized old togruta.

"Move along, sir," the clone said curtly, raising his blaster and aiming it at the cabbie.

The togruta raised his hands defensively. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm going!" And he quickly drove off.

When he was a good distance away, the cabbie spoke to his passengers. "Well, I'm sorry, kids. Looks like I'll have to drop you somewhere..." He glanced in his rear view mirror and found only an empty back seat.

"...else."

Thinking to himself that he must be crazy, he pulled out of traffic and found a place where he could park. He turned around and checked the back seat again, but sure enough, it was vacant.

Only it wasn't actually empty. The old cabbie found a 100 credit chip sitting on the seat cushion.

"How curious," he said to himself. "Somehow, they must have gotten where they were going after all."

"Ow! Star!"

"What?"

"You just kicked me in the face!"

"Then don't follow me so closely!"

"But I can't see anything and you have the light!"

"Marco, keep your voice down. Someone is gonna hear us."

As soon as the clone trooper had called out to their cab driver, Star devised a plan in a split second. The air taxi had stopped at the very edge of the landing platform, so she and Marco had climbed out the passenger side of the cab completely unnoticed. They hung onto the side of the ledge until the cab had disappeared and the clone troopers who had been standing nearby had wandered away. Then they climbed up onto the landing platform and ran to a grate where the Senate building's ventilation system exhausted into the air, hopping down inside and using the Force to replace the grate behind them before anyone could notice. Now they were squeezing through a narrow duct that led into the Senate building's main ventilation shafts, Star in the lead, holding her lightsaber carefully out in front of her as she crawled to guide their way with its emerald glow.

After what seemed like an eternity of shuffling along on their hands and knees, they found their path blocked by another vent. Star cut through it with her lightsaber and then they carefully climbed through, dropping out into a passage that was tall enough to stand up in. This was a passage that served as both a ventilation shaft and a maintenance conduit so that repair staff could move about the Senate building without disrupting the various goings on in the corridors.

"Which way?" Marco asked.

"Uhhh..." Star looked down the shaft in each direction, but the illumination of her lightsaber only stretched so far, and all she could see was darkness. "I guess this way. I know Aunt Eclipsa's office is on this side of the building," she said, pointing down the shaft to their right.

"Well, that's the only logic we have to work with," Marco said, "so let's just go with it. We'll figure it out as we go."

So Star led the way down the maintenance shaft. Four minutes later, they reached a place where the shaft made a sharp ninety degree turn. There was a door on each outer side of the corner. One had a small window, which Marco looked through into a room filled with tools and diagnostic equipment, spools of cable, and stacks of metal stock. "I guess this is the maintenance storage room."

The door on the opposite side of the corner turned out to be an elevator. "My aunt's office is on the fifth floor," Star said. "If we take this elevator up, we can stay out of sight."

"Sounds like a plan," Marco replied, pressing the call button. The door opened instantly, revealing a cramped elevator that was really only meant for one fully grown being at a time.

"Mm, cozy," Star quipped. "Good thing we-" She was about to say "like each other" but thought maybe she shouldn't. "-don't hate each other."

"Haha, right," Marco laughed nervously.

The elevator was lit by a dim lamp in the ceiling and the tight fit would make having a super-heated sword a major safety hazard, so Star switched off her lightsaber and stepped into the elevator car. Marco wedged himself in front and pressed the button for the fifth floor. When the door closed, it was a very tight squeeze. Fortunately, the ride was only a few seconds before the door opened again and its passengers literally spilled out into the corner of a different but identical-looking equally-as-pitch-dark maintenance conduit/ventilation shaft.

Star's lightsaber came back to life and allowed them to see once again. "Okay, fifth floor. Aunt Eclipsa's office is near the back the back of the building, so we should go this way," she said pointing down the corridor.

Marco said nothing. When she looked at him, he was staring vacantly into the abyss of the other corridor.

"Marco?"

He didn't acknowledge her.

"Marco!"

"I...I sense something..."

"That's real specific. Wait, you sense something? Like, with the Force?"

"Yeah..."

"You have literally never sensed anything through the Force before."

"I know...and that worries me. I don't know what it is, I just know..." He fell silent.

Star wasn't sure what to do, but she felt as though their time was wearing thin. "Come on, Marco, we have to go." She started slowly walking down the corridor, hoping that he would follow. He took two steps and then stopped, loudly saying, "We have to go up."

Star turned to face him. "...But Aunt Eclipsa's office is this way."

"I know, but...I feel like we really need to go to up."

"For what, though?" Star pressed.

"I have no idea. I just..." Marco threw his hands up in defeat. "...really think we need to see..."

Star looked into his eyes. They seemed to be pleading to her. She shook her head. "Marco, the only levels above us are the conference rooms and the Chancellor's office on the top floor."

Marco's eyes went wide. "That's where we have to go! The Chancellor's office!"

"The Chancellor's office? That is a wonderful idea, Marco!" Star quipped sarcastically. "Let's just go right on up to the office of the guy who ordered all Jedi be shot on sight! We'll just walk right up and knock on his door and say, 'Hey, there Palpy! We were in the neighborhood and thought we'd drop in for a spot of tea.'"

Marco glared. "Hey, you said it yourself, I don't ever feel a 'disturbance in the Force'-" He made quotation marks with his fingers. "-like every other Jedi has at some point, but I feel something now, so, whatever it is, it has to be really important."

Star sighed. "It's hard to argue with logic like that." She glanced down the shaft in the direction that her Aunt's office would be. "Alright, let's go up."

Star extinguished her lightsaber as Marco activated the door that led from the maintenance shaft into the storage closet of the Senate's top most floor. "Just be quiet," she said softly as they squeezed between a floor buffer and the wall, "We don't know if he's up here or not."

"I know," Marco whispered back. He opened the door to the closet and checked to make sure the coast was clear. He saw no one and stepped out into the large vestibule area in front of the door to Chancellor Palpatine's office.

"Here we go," Marco said quietly. They tip-toed past a vacant reception desk to the door and Star pressed her ear to it. "Hear anything?"

"No." She closed her eyes and held her palm to the door. "I do sense someone, though, but...it's weak...like someone...dying." Confused she stepped back. "Well...after you," she said, gesturing to the door.

"Me?"

"You're the one who wanted to come up here, you can go in first."

Marco swallowed nervously and pushed the button to open the door, revealing a long hallway. Deep red walls flanked them as they walked to the far end. Marco looked at the various bronze statues that lined the hall. "These things give me the creeps."

The hall ended in a small, circular room that housed another bronze statue in its center. Two short hallways branched off to the sides. One led to the ceremonial office of the Chancellor where meetings with senators, military leaders, and special visitors would occur. The other, blocked by a double sliding door, led to the Chancellor's smaller private office.

Marco turned toward the ceremonial office and strode cautiously to the end.

"Whoa!"

"What is it?" Star asked as she came up beside him.

Marco pointed to the far side of the office. "The window is...gone."

Sure enough, the massive transparisteel window that took up three-quarters of the exterior wall had been shattered, peppering the carpet behind the Chancellor's desk with sharp particles.

"Wow...what happened in here?" Star wondered aloud. "Hey...you don't think what that taxi driver said is true, do you?"

"Which taxi driver?"

"The first one."

"And which thing that he said are you referring to?"

"The thing about the Jedi staging a coup."

Marco frowned. He looked around as if searching for something specific. When he apparently didn't find it, he turned and strode briskly back down the hall to the set of doors blocking the passage to the Supreme Chancellor's private office.

"Marco?"

"I feel it, Star, I feel it. It's in here..."

Marco opened the door and was met with a sight he had never imagined he would see. At the end of the short corridor where it opened up into Palpatine's private office space, the unmistakable green-skinned form of Kit Fisto was laying motionless on the floor.

"Master Fisto!" Marco nearly yelled. He and Star ran to his side, falling to their knees on the floor beside him. Star briefly noticed two other bodies laying on the floor off to the side but did not acknowledge them.

Kit Fisto had a large burn through the front of his robe, cutting deep into the skin of his midsection. His breathing was shallow and labored, but he was still clinging to life. He opened his eyes at the sound of Star and Marco at his side. "M...Marco? Star? W-what are you doing here?" He struggled to get the words out, speech clearly causing him pain.

Marco ignored his question, not even sure how to properly answer. "Master Fisto, what..." He looked around the room, seeing the dead bodies of Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin a few feet away. "...what happened?"

Kit took a deep, raspy breath. "The Chancellor...is a Sith Lord."

"WHAT?!" the two Padawans cried.

"He was too...powerful...even for four of us," he said, sadly looking over at the bodies of his fallen compatriots. "And then...I could hear in the other room..." Kit winced in pain. "He...turned Anakin...to the dark side...and took him as his new apprentice."

Star and Marco gaped at each other, both now understanding Anakin's actions at the Jedi Temple earlier that night.

"And then," Kit continued, "the Chancellor ordered...every clone commander to execute their Jedi generals."

Star and Marco looked at each other. "Remember when I said this was really, really, really, really, really, really bad?" Star asked.

"Uh-huh."

"It's really, really, really, really really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY bad."

"Yeah."

Marco pulled Kit up to a sitting position, causing the Jedi Master to grimace in pain. "C'mon, Star, give me a hand. We've got to get him to a hospital."

"Marco...no..." Kit gasped. "You two have to get out of here."

"We can't just leave you here to die," Star protested.

"Even if you could get me to a hospital, every medical facility on Coruscant has a military guard and all of us would be killed."

The two Padawans exchanged another look, neither wanting to admit that Kit had a point. Catching something in her peripheral vision, Star suddenly rose to her feet and walked over to the window.

"Besides...if I am correct in what I am sensing...I will slow you down so much you will never make it out."

"...What...what are you sensing?" Marco asked nervously.

"Uh...Marco?"

The boy in question looked over at Star, who was pointing out the window. He quickly joined her and looked down at the concourse in front of the Senate building's main entrance. At least a dozen LAAT/i gunship's had just touched down, each off-loading a full squadron of clone troopers. Some of the troops took up sentry positions around the outside of the building, the rest marched inside.

"Well, Star, it's been nice knowing you."

"What do we do?"

Marco shrugged. "Get shot, probably."

Kit frowned. "Why are you so quick to lose hope, Marco?"

"Well, there's no way we'll be able to sneak out through the ventilation system now. They'll have it locked down for sure. And we'll never be able to fight our way out. Even if we were both Masters, we've only got one lightsaber between us. I was forced to leave mine behind when we escaped from the Temple."

Kit reached behind his back. His hand returned, outstretched, holding out his lightsaber. "Here," he said, "Take mine." He managed a small chuckle. "I certainly don't need it anymore."

Marco crossed the room so slowly, one might have thought he was trying not to set off land mines. Star followed right behind him. He hesitantly reached for the lightsaber hilt in Kit's hand, gently taking it from the Jedi Master as if it would would shatter.

"It will serve you well," Kit said simply.

Marco looked closely at the lightsaber he had crossed blades with so many times, and squeezed it hard in his hands. Much as he tried, he couldn't help it, tears began streaming down his face. He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around the Jedi Master's shoulders. Star was sure Kit would say something about that being inappropriate, but Fisto put one arm around Marco and hugged him back. That was all the invitation Star needed. She knelt down, too, and threw her arms around the Nautolan's neck, her blue eyes filling up with tears, as well.

After a few moments, Kit spoke. "Listen to me." They released him so that they could see his face. "You two must leave right now and get as far away from Coruscant as possible. Find somewhere in the Outer Rim where you can blend in and disappear. For all we know, you two could be the very last of the Jedi Order. If the Sith are ever to be defeated, the spark of the Jedi must live on."

They nodded affirmatively, but could not coax words from their throats. Kit put his arms around them and drew them into a tight embrace once more. "I am very proud of you both. I know you two would have become great Jedi. And you make such a good team. Stick together. Always have each other's backs. Find some place to hide, and keep the Jedi Order alive."

"We will, Master."

Then Kit released them again and gently pushed them away. "Now go! You must leave!"

Star sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Thank you, Master Fisto...for everything."

"We...we won't let you down..." Marco added.

Kit smiled. "I know you won't. Now go! Hurry!"

"May the Force be with you, Master Fisto," Star said quietly. Then she took Marco by the hand. "Come on, Marco," she whispered. "We need to go." Marco didn't move. "Marco. We need to leave."

He was staring past her, his eyes wide. "Uh...Star...?" He pointed down the hallway.

She swiveled her head around to see what he was pointing to...

...and found herself looking into the yellowed eyes of Chancellor Palpatine.

Star Wars discussion:

Let's talk about lightsaber colors.

I really, really wanted Star's lightsaber to be blue and Marco's to be green just because I thought those colors matched each character's color palette better. (I'm not an artist at all, so you'll just have to picture it.) Unfortunately, lightsaber colors in the Star Wars universe have different meanings. In case you are unfamiliar, allow me to enlighten you:

A blue blade is the color of a Jedi Guardian. Think Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi who typically solves problems with either a Starfighter or his lightsaber. These are Jedi who are warriors first. Green blades, like that of Master Yoda, are for Jedi Consulars. They are much more interested in negotiating and typically only use their lightsaber as a last resort.

These are *extremely* basic descriptions, by the way. Check out Wookiepedia for more in depth descriptions.

Because of this, and because of the way that I wrote Star and Marco's characters in this story, I really felt like Star was more of a Jedi Consular and that her lightsaber should be green, and Marco was more of a Jedi Guardian and his lightsaber (for the brief time that it appeared) should be blue.

In Marco's case, I knew almost from the start that his lightsaber should be blue because one of the very first aspects of this story that I knew for 100% certain was that he was going to lose his own weapon and end up with Kit Fisto's. So, I really wanted his original lightsaber to be *not green* so that Kit's would be obviously different from his own...even though this is a fanfic and you can't actually see the blades anyway.

So if Marco's were to be blue, then I felt like Star's had to be green because I didn't want them to have the same color lightsaber...even though they were going to end up with the same color lightsaber anyway. Then I thought "well, maybe I'll just have her lose her lightsaber, too, and she can take Agen Kolar's blue lightsaber and then they'll be different colors again." But then I was like, "No, I can't do that, her lightsaber is her freakin' wand, she can't lose it."

So Star's is green, and Marco's was blue, and now Marco has Kit's, so they both have green. Which I guess is kinda cool because it's a rare thing in Star Wars that two main characters both have green lightsabers. The only example I can think of is that one episode of the Clone Wars...

Anyway, I agonized over the colors of their lightsabers for a long time, and it was not a decision made lightly, but now you know why I made them the way they are.

SVTFOE discussion:

Obviously, I wanted to get Star and Marco into their "normal" clothing, hence the whole scene where I try to make Marco's hoodie fit into Star Wars. I chose Star's blue dress (first seen in "Monster Arm", last seen in "Just Friends") because

A. It's my favorite of her recurring outfits and

B. I just think it fits into the Star Wars lexicon the best.