I'm using an element or two from the new video game Jedi: Fallen Order (best title ever) in this chapter, a game which is considered canon, while at the same time making some major deviations from canon, but I'm still adhering to all the movies and tv shows, so I'm only deviating from books and comics and such.

Also, just a reminder from my author's note many, many chapters ago, Eclipsa is Moon's sister (Star's Aunt) in this story because it's just easier that way. She *was* also the Senator representing Mewni in the Galactic Senate.

Also also: Rise of Skywalker kinda stole some of my ideas for...things that haven't happened in this story yet...so I can't exactly do anything about it. But it's also kind of too late to change the direction of the story...because it kind of starts actually taking shape in this chapter. So if the story reaches a certain point and you think to yourself "Dude, you just copied that from Rise of Skywalker." No, no I did not. Mr. Abrams and I just both had the same ideas.

Okay, super long author's note out of the way, here we go.

The two Padawans could barely believe their eyes, silently staring dumbstruck as they watched the tiny blue man sleeping soundly on the pages of the book. After a moment, though, he stirred slightly, stretching his arms and legs and yawning before opening his eyes. He was quite surprised to find two teenagers five or six times his size staring back at him.

"Oh. Hello there."

Still staring wide-eyed, Star hesitantly raised one hand in greeting. "'Sup."

Another moment of awkward silence passed.

"Is, uh...is there a problem?" asked the little man.

"Just...wondering why you're sleeping in my book," Star said.

The little blue man's eyes widened. "Ohhh, your book? You must be Princess Star!"

"...Yeeeeesss?"

He hopped to his feet. "Pleased to finally meet you, your Highness! I am Sir Glossaryck Of Terms," he said with a flourishing bow. "I am the guardian of this book, and I-" The little blue man suddenly froze, his eyes squinting at the Padawans standing before him. "Hm?"

He walked slowly over to Star, staring hard at her while she watched him, confused. "Uh...why are you looking at me like that?"

Ignoring her question, he suddenly took a flying leap and landed on her left shoulder. "Oh!" He placed a palm on her cheek, right on the heart-shaped mark that resided there. "Not sure what's going on here..." Star muttered as Marco watched with equal confusion.

"Shhhhh," Glossaryck shushed.

"Oh. Okay."

For a moment, the tiny blue man stood silently with his eyes closed, breathing steadily. Then he abruptly broke his stance and jumped up atop Star's head, causing her to squeak in surprise. He bent down on all fours and inhaled deeply.

"Are you sniffing my hair?!" Star asked, feeling quite creeped out.

Glossaryck did not reply. He leapt from Star's head to Marco's and the male Padawan cringed, frozen to the spot and afraid to move as Glossaryck bent down and aggressively smelled Marco, as well.

"Hmm..." he mused to himself as he stood up. Tapping his foot on Marco's head, the little blue man appeared to be deep in thought. Then, seemingly satisfied, he jumped back down onto the open pages of the book in which he had been sleeping.

"Hmm..." he said again. "Interesting."

"What? What's interesting?" Marco asked.

Glossaryck waved his hands dismissively. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Don't even worry about it. As I was saying, I am Sir Glossaryck Of Terms, guardian of the book, at your service, M'lady."

The Padawans exchanged a look of even further confusion, neither sure how to react to the strange inspection they seemed to have just undergone. Star turned back to Glossaryck and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I don't remember you being in this book last time I was on Mewni, when I actually wrote in this thing. And I don't remember my mom telling me that there was a guardian."

"That is usually tradition. The Queen doesn't tell the Princess I'm here so I can give the new keeper of the book a good surprise, usually on the third or fourth time they actually open it. That's how it's been for centuries, in fact, since the very first Queen of Mewni gave the book to her daughter." Glossaryck jumped into the air, crossed his legs beneath him, and then floated up to their eye level.

"Whoa! You can fly?!" Marco exclaimed.

Glossaryck laughed. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous! I am simply floating on the Force."

Marco's eyes about popped out of his head. "The Force?!"

Star finished his train of thought, asking, "You're a Jedi?"

Glossaryck tipped his palm back and forth. "Ehhh...sort of."

"'Sort of'?"

Glossaryck stroked his beard thoughtfully. "More like 'not really'."

Marco frowned. "How can you 'sort of, not really' be a Jedi?"

The little blue man arched his eyebrows teasingly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Uh, yeah, that's why I asked," Marco said, becoming slightly annoyed by all the back and forth.

Glossaryck rocked to and fro as if he were on an invisible swing, enjoying antagonizing the two kids who had interrupted his nap. "Fine, I'll tell you," he chuckled. "I was trained as a Jedi a long, lonnnng time ago, when I was but a few thousand years old, but I left the Order after seventy years or so because I felt like the Jedi were becoming too...erm...political? I always thought the Jedi should be more like servants of the Force, not servants of the Republic. So I came back home to Mewni and went back to living in this book again."

"Wait, a few thousand years old?" Marco asked. "How old are you?"

"Don't you know that's a very rude question to ask?" Glossaryck winked. "Really, really, really old. I was born here. I was here when the first Queen Of Mewni was crowned. I had already become a master of the Force back then, but we didn't even know the Jedi existed. Mostly because they didn't yet," he said with a laugh. "We called the Force 'Life-Wind' because that's-what the Zeffo called it."

"Zeffo?" Star wondered aloud.

"An ancient race of Force-wielders, not important. Because I was the only Force-user the ancient Mewmans had ever seen, I was heralded as a God, and became a royal advisor to the Queen. I was the royal advisor for the first dozen or so rulers of Mewni. Maybe two dozen. I don't know, it was a really long time ago, I can't remember every little detail!"

Still floating in the air, Glossaryck flipped over, pretending to lie on his back as he dangled his legs in the air. "Eventually, the Jedi came into being. One of them visited this world, found me and convinced me to return with him to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant so that I could be 'trained.'" He made sarcasm-laden air quotes with his fingers. "I ended up teaching them far more than they taught me," he said with a chuckle. "But, soon enough, I came to realize that the Jedi existed to serve and protect the Republic, and at the time, Mewni was not even a part of the Republic. Well, the 'Old Republic' now. Like I said, I felt like the Jedi should be servants of the Force, and I wasn't a big fan of all of their rules and codes and such."

"Neither was I!" Star said. "Look at us! Only known each other five minutes and we're already thinking alike!"

She earned another chuckle from Glossaryck before he went on. "I like you already, Princess. So I left the Order and came back here. I mean literally right back here. To living inside this book." He pointed to the tome in question beneath him.

"Why exactly do you live inside a book?" Marco asked. "Why not just live...you know...in a room? There's plenty of them in this place."

"Who are you to judge? Have you ever lived inside a book? It's very cozy."

"Um...okay then."

Glossaryck flipped himself back right side up again. "So, Princess, what's the Jedi Temple like now? Is that horrible statue out in the courtyard still there?"

Star and Marco glanced at each other nervously. "Um..." Star hesitated. "When was the last time you...got news? From, you know, outside the book?"

"Oh, you know, your mom checks up on me every couple of months. She hasn't been in here in a while, though. Why do you ask?"

"Well...because...the Chancellor...kinda...turned out to a be Sith Lord? And he...kinda ordered all of the Jedi...you know...executed."

Glossaryck's jovial expression vanished. "...The Jedi...are gone?"

The two Padawans nodded sadly.

"Oh...wow...And a Sith Lord, too, huh? Guess that whole 'Chosen One' prophecy didn't pan out like I thought it would."

Marco massaged his upper arm much the same way Glossaryck currently was doing to his head. "Yeah, not so much. The guy everyone thought was the Chosen One sorta joined the Chancellor and-"

"Hold on, wait." Star interrupted. "Like you thought it would?"

Glossaryck shrugged. "Sure. 'A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.' Where do you think that prophecy came from? It came from me. I prophesied it back when I was a Jedi."

"Get outta town!" Marco exclaimed in shock. "That was you?!"

"Sure was! But I guess I was wrong. Well, or else Qui-Gon was wrong."

"Qui-Gon Jinn?" Marco's surprised exclamations were coming with the frequency of shots from a Z-6 rotary blaster canon. "You knew him?"

Star was puzzled. "Who's Qui-Gon Jinn?"

"He trained Master Kenobi," Marco explained. "But how did you know him? You said you haven't been to the Jedi Temple in centuries."

"Because he was from here," Glossaryck answered. "Qui-Gon Jinn was a Mewman."

This time both Padawans chorused their shock. "He was?"

"He was." Glossaryck's eyes shimmered as he reminisced. "Qui-Gon was my best friend. The only Jedi I ever met who shared my views of the Force. He was very interested in my ability to prophecy the future through the Force. Like, really interested. He had hoped to learn how to do it himself, but it's not something that can be taught. I don't even really know how I do it. It just sort of happens from time to time." Wistfully stroking his beard, Glossaryck looked up at the ceiling as he reminisced. "I remember when he found young Anakin Skywalker, he sent me a coded communicate in a cypher he and I had invented ourselves, excitedly telling me he had found the Chosen One." He sadly shook his head. "I sent him a message back, but I don't think he ever received it."

"What makes you think that?" Star asked.

Glossaryck gestured at Marco. "This know-it-all here probably knows."

"Uh...yeah." The young Padawan felt a bit embarrassed by Glossaryck's comment. "Master Qui-Gon Jinn was, uh...killed by Darth Maul on Naboo, back before the Clone War, not long after he found Master Skywalker as a boy. I think we were like four years old at the time," he told Star.

"Then how do you know?"

"...Because I read things? You know, the whole reason you brought me to the library?"

"Ohhhh, right, right, right."

"Did you ever have any other prophecies?" Marco asked Glossaryck.

The little blue man floated back down to the book. His eyes nervously turned toward the ceiling. "Um, well..."

But before Glossaryck could give an answer, the door to the library flew open, revealing King River.

"Star! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

The Padawans whirled around, spotting the frantic expression on the King's face. "Dad! Is everything okay?"

River's answer matched his expression in tone. "Eclipsa is here!"

"Aunt Eclipsa is here?!"

"Yes. And she is...not well."

Star grabbed Marco by the hood of his sweatshirt and dragged him along behind her. "C'mon, Marco!"

"Gak!" Marco gagged as his collar choked him. "Choking! Choking!"

"Senator Eclipsa?" Glossaryck said to no one in particular. "I always liked her. I'm coming, too!" And he floated along behind the others as they hastily vacated the library.

Moon stood in the Skywynne Airbase medical bay, watching from a few paces away as the medical droid did a full examination of her sister. General Bulgolyubov stood beside her, nervously clutching the senator's wide-brimmed hat.

Eclipsa Butterfly lay on the examination table, a respirator mask covering her nose and mouth. Her breathing was slow and shallow, her eyes fluttering as she fought to stay conscious.

The med bay door slid open, and Star, Marco, and King River hurried in. Glossaryck was riding in Marco's hood, though no one took any notice that he was present. When the Princess caught sight of her Aunt on the examination table, her eyes went wide, and her heart dropped into her stomach. "Aunt Eclipsa! Oh my gosh! Mom, what happened?"

"We aren't yet sure," the Queen replied. "She hasn't been coherent enough to tell us. She landed her ship here at the base, but she must have passed out just after touching down."

"I boarded her ship," Buff Frog explained, "because I thought it was taking very long time for her to exit. I find her still in pilot's seat, slumped over on controls."

River stepped up beside his wife. "How is she?" he asked the medical droid.

"She is severely dehydrated," the droid explained in its synthetic voice. "Her sodium, potassium, and electrolyte levels are also extremely low. I am administering an IV drip to restore her essential fluid levels. The best thing for her now is to rest." The droid pointed to Eclipsa's left side. The senator's dress appeared burned and slightly torn just about at her midsection. "She also appears to have a blaster wound just below her rib cage. Fortunately, it does not appear to have damaged anything vital internally. I will apply a bacta patch that should be more than sufficient to heal the damage."

Star made her way over to the side of the examination table, Glossaryck floating out of Marco's hood and hovering over her left shoulder. "Oh, Aunt Eclipsa..." The Senator looked at Star through her half-open eyes, too weak to reply to her niece. "What happened to you?"

Eclipsa slowly blinked, her muted violet eyes conveying sorrow, fear, remorse, but too weak to verbally express any of it.

River placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "She'll be fine, Star. We should leave so that the medical droid can do its job. And allow Eclipsa a chance to rest."

Star swallowed. "Yeah...you're right, Dad."

She took one last look at her aunt before slowly following her dad out of the room, Marco and Buff Frog silently falling in behind them.

Moon didn't move. Glossaryck also remained, still floating where he had been above Star's shoulder, now somewhat in the medical droid's way. Eclipsa relaxed her head, closing her eyes. In a few moments, she finally succumbed to exhaustion and passed out.

"Um, Honey?" River called, poking his head back into the room. "I did sort of mean...all of us."

The Queen just stared at her sister on the examination table. "Take the children back to the castle, dear," she said softly, never averting her eyes. "I'll be along shortly."

The King sighed. "Alright, dear."

After he left, the medical droid went into an adjoining room for supplies, leaving Eclipsa alone with Moon and Glossaryck for a few moments. The little blue man floated down onto the table beside the Senator's head, gently lying his hand upon her cheek as he had done to Star earlier. "Her life force is still strong, my liege," he said. "Her body may be physically weak, but her spirit is unbroken. She will recover. Don't worry."

Moon nodded. "I'm not worried about that. I know Eclipsa is very strong-willed. It'll take more than exhaustion, dehydration, and a blaster wound to take her out." She sighed. "I'm just terrified to find out what happened to her." She pointed to Eclipsa's hip. "Because of that!" she whispered.

Glossaryck looked to see what the Queen was referring to. There, barely sticking out of the pocket of Eclipsa's dress, was the emitter end of a lightsaber.

PY-HD bleeped an announcement, which Captain Ordonia repeated aloud.

"We're coming up on Corellia. Preparing to drop out of hyperspace."

"Roger-doger," Tom said, flicking a few control switches to prepare the ship for Real Space.

Janna pulled back the hyperdrive lever and the Sheathipede-class Type-B shuttle dropped out of hyperspace several dozen klicks from the planet's surface. Janna's eyes about popped out of her head. "Whoaaaa."

Tom concurred her sense of awe. "I know this is a ship-building planet, but...wow!"

Everywhere they looked, small craft ferrying droids and beings in pressure suits attended to massive wedge-shaped ships in various states of construction, silently floating in space.

Star Destroyers.

There were not many things that could make Janna Ordonia speechless. The sight of so many Imperial ships, though, had her completely awestruck.

"That...is a lot of ships."

"Yeah...no kidding. A lot, a looooot of ships," Tom agreed, his own three eyes just as big as Janna's.

"Let's do our best to keep a low profile, huh?" Janna replied, throttling down the engines.

"Yeah..." Tom watched as they passed beneath the hull of the Star Destroyer that was the furthest out in the rings of the ship yard. "No argument here."

The shuttle attracted very little attention, just as Buff Frog had promised, appearing not at all like a former military vessel with its fresh red paint. Following the proper channels mapped out by beacon markers, they wove in and out of the ships and equipment floating in space as they drew nearer to the planet. They gawked at the sheer number of Imperial ships being built, pilot and copilot at a complete loss for words. Eventually, PY-HD squeaked as the public spaceport on the surface asked for identification codes.

"Right," Tom said, snapping out of his awed trance. His eyes scanned the controls, looking for the inputs he needed. "Uh, let's see...here we go. Transmitting codes now."

"Let's not waste any time once we land, okay?" Janna said. "As if I needed another reason to not want to spend a lot of time here."

"Another reason?" This struck Tom as odd. "I thought you'd love to be in a place like Corellia. You know, considering the Raventalon was built here and you love your ship and..."

"No," Janna said curtly as they began descending through Corellia's upper atmosphere. "I hate this place."

"Really? Why?"

Janna turned on the inertial dampers and answered dryly without averting her eyes from the forward viewscreen. "I don't want to talk about it."

Next: Corellia

I kind of hate the Force-healing ability that was in Rise of Skywalker, too. I don't hate that it exists in the context of the films, but I do hate it in the context of this story. It seems like the kind of thing Glossaryck should be able to do, but if he could, it would completely eliminate all of the gravitas of the above scene in the medical bay.

Look, I'm not one of those people who hates the sequel trilogy. I love it. Especially Rise of Skywalker. It's just that it's existence kind of screws up my story here...kind of a lot.