The sound of an approaching landspeeder reached the inquisitor's ears. From off to its right came a muted green two-seater XJ-91, very square and uninteresting in appearance, following alongside the maglev track. The speeder slowed to a stop beside it, the headlights casting a swathe of brightness in the darkness of Corellia's recently fallen night.

"It took you a very long time to get here," the inquisitor droned. "Now we've completely lost them. They could be anywhere by now."

Rosado flipped up his goggles. "I apologize, Inquisitor. I was in the middle of having this stab wound in my leg bandaged when-"

The sound of a lightsaber igniting cut off Rosado's words. The tip of a crimson blade was suddenly aimed right between his eyes. He froze as the inquisitor stared at him silently.

"Um...Inquisitor, I am, so, so sorr-"

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shove this blade through your skull right now," it spoke calmly.

Security Officer Rosado swallowed hard. "Um...I have two young boys at home-"

"I don't know what makes you think I'd care about that."

"Right. Um, I alerted security forces nearby the next station up the line to intercept them."

"Oh? How many were available there?"

"...just two."

"Not good enough. Even if those kids are dumb enough to still be on the train, two stormtroopers probably won't be enough to stop that girl."

"Uh, I, uh, also thought of another way we may be able to find them again."

Several very tense seconds passed, during which time neither the Imperial Officer nor the inquisitor moved. Rosado was getting a headache from the lightsaber being so close between his eyes. He was beginning to wonder if they would ever move or if they would be frozen there like that until one of them (likely him) passed out from exhaustion. Even a maglev suddenly rocketing past on the track right next to where they silently faced off was not enough to make the inquisitor budge.

And then, after what seemed like an eternity, the inquisitor switched off its lightsaber. "Let's hear it."

Rosado breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that he had been unintentionally holding his breath the entire time. "Um, why don't you climb in and I'll tell you on the way?"

The inquisitor stared at him again. Rosado got the impression that it was glaring at him beneath its mask.

"Fine."

It circled around to the other side of the speeder and jumped into the passenger seat. "Let's hear it."

"So! Marco, my boy! How's the new leg?"

River posed the question as the Padawans sat down for dinner with the King. Queen Moon had returned to Skywynne Airbase with some dinner and pie for Eclipsa. Since it was just the three of them, they were no longer in the massive dining hall, but instead ate in the smaller private dining room where the royal family ate when not hosting guests.

"It's pretty great, actually," Marco said. "I'm kind of amazed. If I'm not looking at it or touching it, I almost can't tell it's not real. It feels completely natural." He shoveled a bite of creamed Mewni corn into his mouth. "Except for all the little clicking noises it makes."

"Little clicking noises is certainly better than all that clomp! clomp! clomp!-ing you were doing on the leg Janna made you!" Star laughed.

Marco chuckled. "That's true. It would certainly be difficult to be stealthy with that big hunk of metal." He turned back to River. "Um, thank you, by the way, River. I never could have afforded something so nice myself. Well, actually, I couldn't have afforded anything myself.."

River shook his head. "Think nothing of it, my boy! For my daughter's boyfriend, I was happy to take care of it."

Star and Marco both rapidly blinked in surprise. Had they heard Star's father correctly?

Star began, "Did you just say-?"

"Best friend! I said best friend!" River quickly corrected himself.

"I never even said-"

"Marco! Have you tried the jumbo megafowl? It's so moist it just melts in your mouth!" And to drive the point home and further distract from his unintentional slip of the tongue, River noisily tore off a large bite from a drumstick of the meat in question.

Star decided to change the subject before the dinner conversation could become even more awkward. "Hey, Marco, what do you say after dinner we really put that new leg of yours to the test and try out a little lightsaber combat?"

"Oh, sure! Sounds great! If my footwork and stance are still good, that'll be the real test of my new leg."

King River slammed his fist down on the table, causing all of the dishes and cutlery to rattle slightly. "Ooooohhhh! May I please watch? Pretty please? I've always wanted to see real lightsaber duel! And I'd love to see my little girl in action!"

Star blushed slightly. "Well, uh, you know, you can, but, uh...Marco is way better with a lightsaber than I am, so-"

"Nonsense! My girl has her father's Johansen-Family blood in her veins!" River flexed his arms impressively. "The greatest warriors in all of Mewni!"

Despite the doubt on Star's face, Marco did not doubt the King's words. Despite Star's distaste for causing deaths, just in the time they had been on the run he had seen her perform some very impressive feats of combat. Star Butterfly was indeed a warrior, that was for sure. Her skills in saber-to-saber combat just needed a bit of work. In fact, ever since she had asked him to help her improve her skills, he had been planning out a bit of training for Star in his mind.

Seeing the look on his best friend's face, though, Marco pushed training out of his immediate thought and hatched a plan of a different sort.

"Oh, don't worry, River. Star is a straight up beast with a lightsaber, way better than even she gives herself credit for!" He noticed Star cringing the second the words were out of his mouth. He winked at her. "Oh, but you know what? I just realized, Star and I have actually never once dueled each other. Plus we're a little bit out of practice, what with being stranded on Moraband for so long, and I don't know yet how my leg is going to be in a fight-"

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to accidentally kill you!" Star cut in a bit too enthusiastically as she realized what Marco was doing.

"Exactly what I was thinking, Star! Maybe we can just use some sticks or poles or something, and go real slow. Just until we see how things are going."

"Oh, Marco, that is a fantastic idea! Love it!" I really hope dad doesn't catch on.

Fortunately for them, the King was oblivious to their deception. He was noticeably disappointed, though. "Oh...I see. Well, it would still be interesting to watch you two in action."

"Suuuuure, Dad! Of course! I just doubt it will be anywhere near as exciting as you think it will be. Right, Marco?"

"Oh, yes, for sure." Marco quickly picked up a piece of corn bread from his plate and jammed it in his mouth, effectively eliminating him from the conversation that was quickly becoming embarrassing.

King River snapped his fingers as he was struck by an idea. "As a matter of fact, I think I know just the thing for you two to use as stand-ins for your lightsabers!"

As they headed out the rear entrance and walked onto the grounds behind Butterfly Castle, Star whispered to Marco. "Okay, look, my dad is not a night owl. Whenever I talked to Mom when we were visiting Eclipsa, she always told me he falls asleep in front of the holoviewer not long after nightfall, and the sun is already going down. So let's just, like, pretend fight a couple times, and let me win so he doesn't get too overly worked up about me not 'living up to the Johansen-Family whatever' and then once he goes to bed we can practice for real."

Marco gave his best friend a nudge with his shoulder. "Don't worry, Star. Just follow my lead, and by the time you 'kill me' you'll never have to worry about living up to your dad's expectations again. And once we've made your dad a very proud papa, I've got some new techniques for you to try that I think will really help your blade-to-blade combat skills."

"Ooh, sounds fun! Let's impress the poodoo out of my dad!"

"Yeah! By the way..." Marco lowered his voice even more as they stopped walking. "Do you think your dad figured us out?"

Star touched her chin thoughtfully, recalling her dad's comments earlier at dinner. "I...am not sure..." A ripple in the Force told her that someone was approaching, and she sensed that it was her father who was drawing near. "Shh, here he comes!"

The castle's rear entrance slid open once more and King River exited, carrying a slim wooden case under his arm. "I found them!" he called.

"Found what, Dad?" Star asked as her father reached them.

He held out the case flat across his arms. "These!" He flicked the latch with his fingers and the lid popped open. Resting inside on a satin lining were a matched pair of long-bladed swords with elaborate cross-guards.

"Whoa!" Marco's eyes went wide. "They're beautiful!"

Star and Marco each picked one up, examining them closely. "Where'd you get these, Dad?" Star asked.

"They were down in the basement! Your Great-Great-Great...some number of 'Great's...grandfather, Gem-robin Butterfly-"

"That's Great-Great-something Grandma Skywynne's husband, right?" Star interrupted.

"Indeed! Apparently he was a bit of a collector, especially when it came to the Jedi Order."

"Wow!" Marco mused as he flicked around the sword he held in a spiral as he would his lightsaber. "How unexpectedly appropriate!"

"There's all kinds of junk in the basement, things he collected, a lot of it ancient Jedi artifacts that were looted from Jedi Temples and scattered across the galaxy during old wars," River explained. "These were apparently some of the very first Jedi weapons, made before the technology for lightsabers came about!"

"Coooool." Star brandished the sword toward Marco. "Maybe not as easy to carry around as a lightsaber, but I feel super-cool with this thing!"

"Yeah!" Marco said. "We're like Jedi Knights of old!"

"Yeah! Let's try these babies out!"

Marco smiled. Star's earlier feelings of apprehension toward dueling for her father had completely vanished after their conversation, and the sword in her hand seemed to have imbued some primal instinct to fight. "I'm game! But before we actually...engage...maybe we should warm up a little first?"

"Mmmmm...sounds boring..."

"Star, these things are a lot heavier than our lightsabers, they're gonna be more difficult to wield. You don't want to lose control of your weapon and leave yourself open mid-fight, do you?"

"Ughhhhh," Star groaned, rolling her eyes. But, deep down, she knew Marco was right. "Fiiiiiiine."

They moved a few more paces away from the castle and faced each other, several steps apart. Marco slowly moved his sword through the motions of Shii-Cho, familiarizing himself with its balance and weight before speeding up his motions. The heavy steel sword did not allow him to move quite as fast as he could with a lightsaber. Opposite him, Star started off doing the same classic lightsaber style movements as her bestie, but quickly grew bored and instead began fighting against an imaginary opponent, swiping her sword back and forth through the air with enough speed to create a woosh of air.

After a few minutes, Marco said, "Okay, I think I'm ready."

"Me, too! Let's duel!"

"Just remember that thing is still sharp," Marco reminded her as he stepped closer and assumed his ready position.

Star took her own ready stance. "Don't worry, Marco, I got this!"

"Cut off his head, sweetie!" Both Padawans turned their heads toward where King River had sat down on a bench to spectate the fight. "Sorry, Marco, nothing personal."

Marco sighed. "No, no, it's cool. I get it." He held his sword with both hands, directly in front of him.

Star faced him, holding her blade horizontally above her right shoulder, utilizing just a singlehanded grip.

They stared each other down, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Star decided that her dad would probably appreciate her opening on the offensive and stepped forward, swinging her sword backwards, down, and then forward and up. Marco turned his blade sideways and blocked the attack, a sharp metallic clang! ringing out as the ancient swords clashed. He countered, swinging upwards over his head and around toward Star's left side. She easily brought her blade up to stop its travel.

Back and forth, the duel went on, both opponents moving much more slowly than they were capable of due to the weight of the heavy weapons. One would strike while the other blocked, then the roles would reverse. All the while, a starry-eyed King River watched, enthralled by the ebbs and flows of the Padawans' fight, the ringing of the crashing steel weapons echoing across the courtyard.

"Yes! That's my girl!" River called excitedly. "Get him! Get him! Yes!"

Gradually, Marco increased the sweeping motions of his stand-in lightsaber, eventually leaving him no time to strike at Star between blocks. Star was then able to strike at Marco multiple times in a row, giving off the impression that she was gaining the upper hand. Eventually, they locked their blades together. Star moved hers in a circular motion whilst pressing against her opponent's, and Marco let the sword fly out of his hands. It landed on the grass a few yards away and Star gently poked him in the belly with the blunt edge of her sword.

"Ow."

"A-Ha!" King River cried, leaping to his feet. "Good job, sweetie!"

Star took a flourishing bow. "Victory is mine! Yes! In your face, Diaz!"

Marco rolled his eyes. I know we're trying to impress her dad, but come on! "Alright, alright." He held out his hand and tried to call the sword back to him with the Force. It dragged across the ground as he tried his best to concentrate, becoming increasingly frustrated at how long it was taking to reach him, his weak connection to the Force making it difficult to make it move with any kind of speed.

"Grrrr..." He grit his teeth in annoyance. C'mon, you stupid piece of-!

Then, just as it was nearly to him, it suddenly launched off the ground. He moved his hand slightly in surprise and the hilt of the sword flew right past it, the pommel on the bottom of the hilt clobbering him square in the face.

"Argh!"

And he fell over backwards onto the ground.

"Oh my gosh, Marco!" Star dropped her sword and fell to her knees beside him. "Are you okay?"

Marco rubbed his nose where the sword had smacked him, his eyes scrunched shut in pain. His voice was slightly more nasally when he spoke. "It clocked me right in the nose." A trickle of blood dripped from his left nostril, and his nose was noticeably crooked. "Oh, man, please don't tell me I'm bleeding again. If I lose any more midichlorians..."

Star carefully cradled his head with one hand as the King came over to see what was happening. "Want me to try my Force-healing on your nose?"

Force-healing? River wondered to himself.

"Sure, why not?" he moaned. "Might as well give it a shot."

River watched as Star gently touched the tips of three fingers around Marco's nose. She closed her eyes and concentrated carefully. After a few moments, Marco could feel something changing on the inside of his nasal passages.

Star opened her eyes, noticing her father standing just beside her. "Do you have a handkerchief or something, Dad?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, yes, certainly!" He quickly fished his hand into his breast pocket and extracted a square of linen, which he handed to Star. She wiped the trickle of blood away from Marco's upper lip, and then checked to see if he was still leaking. After about twenty seconds, no more blood had appeared from the inside of Marco's nostril, and, while still very red, his nose had regained its original shape. River could barely believe his eyes.

"I think the bleeding stopped," Star told her injured best friend. "How does your nose feel?"

"It hurts so much that I almost can't feel it at all."

"Sorry I couldn't do more," Star said as she looked at his very red nose. It already looked swollen. "I only learned Force-healing well enough to do a little at a time."

Marco slowly rose to a sitting position, still holding his aching head. "Hey, you made me stop bleeding. Even that much is amazing." He looked at her and smiled. "Thanks, Star."

Smiling back, Star took Marco by the hand and helped him to his feet. Star thought this would be an excellent excuse to cut the faux-duel short. "Well, I think that's enough for one night, wouldn't you say so, Dad?"

River was at a loss for words at the sight of what he had just seen. He had never known that Jedi were capable of such things. "Uh, yes...quite right. Marco should get some ice on that nose of his before it blows up like a Mewni tomato, and rest. Thank you both for allowing me to watch your dueling practice. It was...very...very impressive."

"No problem, King River," Marco winced. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

As Star helped Marco back inside the castle, River retrieved the pair of swords and returned them to the wooden case. "Enjoyed it...you have no idea."

Eclipsa set the plate and silverware down on the small table beside the hospital bed. "That pie was delicious, Moon! Thank you for bringing me dinner and keeping me company."

Moon gave her sister a smile. "It's no trouble, Eclipsa. You've been all alone for so long, I didn't want you to have to be alone anymore." Her smile faded. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about, while no one else was around."

This struck Eclipsa as odd. "What is it?"

Moon sighed. She had been dreading having this conversation. "The story you told us about what happened on Endor...about how the Empire executed an entire village just because Rhombulus was hiding there. Well...it worries me."

Eclipsa had a feeling she knew where Moon was leading with this conversation, but she remained silent.

"The Empire has already been here once asking about Star. We thought for sure that she was dead. They clearly knew otherwise. What if...what if they return? If the Empire somehow discovers Star and Marco's presence here..." The Queen took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully. "I'm just worried about the safety of our people. I have a responsibility to my family, but as Queen, I have a responsibility to my people, as well."

Eclipsa nodded solemnly. "I understand. I honestly wondered if returning to Mewni was a good idea at all, but I simply could think of nowhere else to go. I fear I may be putting everyone in danger myself."

Moon slowly nodded. "It certainly is a very...delicate...situation."

Eclipsa folded her hands in her lap and looked at the wall beside her bed opposite where Moon sat, where her wide-brimmed hat hung from a hook. "Indeed, it is," she said quietly.

Moon shifted slightly in the uncomfortable chair. "I'm glad that you agree. We'll have to discuss safe living arrangements for you and the children. Another time. Once Star and Marco's friends return."

"Ah, yes, Janna and Tom. And Pony Head, of course."

Moon chuckled. "You remembered," she said, assuming that Eclipsa recalled the names of the Raventalon's crew from when Star and Marco had recounted their adventures to the former Senator.

"Of course I remember. I'm the one who introduced them, after all."

"What?"

"They didn't fill you in on how they met?"

Moon shook her head. "They did not, no. You introduced them?"

"I did!"

"How...how did you meet Janna and Tom?"

Eclipsa smiled and shifted herself up a little straighter on the bed, Moon thinking her sister looked downright mischievous. "I hired them, of course!"

"Hired them? You mean as in...?"

"A smuggling job, yes."

This was information that Moon found rather distressing, and she had no idea how she should react. "You...actually hired...a pair of teenagers...to smuggle something?"

"Sure did."

"...Why?"

Eclipsa shrugged. "No one ever suspects kids."

Moon pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do I even want to know what you asked them to smuggle?"

"Illegal stuff, obviously. But it wasn't even for me, it was for another senator, to get them on my side."

"So you were bribing someone?! With...contraband?" Moon was suddenly questioning Eclipsa's entire senatorial career, wondering what else her sister may have done to slander Mewni in the eyes of the Galactic Senate.

"Moon. It's the Senate. Everyone is corrupt. Sometimes, the only way to get what you want is to be corrupt yourself. Just, you know...for the right reason."

That was a surprisingly convincing argument, one Moon had definitely not considered. The Mewnian government was downright puny in comparison to that of the Galactic Senate, and it was ultimately up to the Queen (and King, to a slightly lesser extent) to decide what was best for the citizens of Mewni. Having to accrue a majority vote in a senate comprised of representatives from a thousand different worlds, though? Moon had always thought that sounded nearly impossible. While she didn't agree with the dishonesty - or hiring kids to do your dirty work - even Moon had to admit that Eclipsa probably had a bit of a point.

"Anyway, Janna and Tom came by my apartment to collect their payment for the job while Star and Marco were visiting me," Eclipsa went on. "Star just immediately wants to make friends with everyone, and that's pretty much all there is to tell. Star said they went to Corellia for parts, yes?"

Moon nodded. "They did, the morning before you arrived."

"I wonder how they're getting on..."

The Corellia Mass Transit System runs in two loops, parallel to one another. One set of automated maglev trains runs in one direction, the other set on the opposing "track" runs the opposite direction. There are a few subdivisions that run directly between the largest cities, but for the most part, if you can't afford to travel to another location on-world by air, you're stuck riding the CMTS through every station stop in one direction or the other.

Tom and Janna were stuck. In their bid to escape the inquisitor, they had jumped onto the wrong train, the one running away from the city of Clefttorch, home of the spaceport where they had left the ship. They thought about getting off at the first station they stopped at and changing trains, but they were worried that if they backtracked, the inquisitor might be waiting for them. But, it didn't matter, they could ride the train all the way back around the long way. Janna had PY-HD send a coded transmission to Han via her commlink alerting him and the Reflectacorp droids that they were going to be very late to their rendezvous before settling in for the long ride. The lead car of the maglev was mostly empty, and they sat down in the furthest forward unoccupied seats.

Then Tom pointed out that all their attacker had to do was fly a ship ahead of the train, not a difficult feat, and wait for them at a station further up the line. Or it could alert any of the Imperial forces guarding the ship yards and have stormtroopers waiting to nab them at any of the station stops.

Janna scowled as she looked out the window. The train had returned to the underground and there was not much to see besides the tunnel wall. "Drat. I hate it when you're right."

Tom frowned. "Why do you-?"

"There's only one thing to do."

"I'm almost afraid to as-"

"We'll have to force this train into an emergency stop and bail out."

"...but doesn't the train transmit its position? If it stops, they'll know exactly where to look for us."

Tom watched as Janna glared at him through narrow eyes, her lips scrunched together angrily.

"Uh...Janna?"

"Could you stop being right for just a couple minutes? Please?" She let out another groan. "Fine. Then we'll just have to jump out of this moving train at speed."

"Yeah..." Tom took a turn looking out the window at the tunnel wall shooting past. "How are we going do that without...you know...dying?"

PY-HD concurred this dilemma, and there were several seconds of awkward silence before Janna finally said, "I got nothing."

Tom looked around, waiting to see if his companion would say anything else, and when she remained silent, he asked, "So...what do we do then?"

Janna shook her head and held her head in her hands. "I don't know."

"Now arriving, Tyrena Station."

The teenagers' eyes met. PY-HD twittered in distress.

"Well...I guess now..." Janna said dramatically as she reached into her jacket and pulled out her remaining blaster. She had found the other DC-17 in the car where they'd first encountered the inquisitor, but it had been destroyed by its own deflected blaster bolt. "...all we can do is prepare for a fight."

Tom nodded and retrieved his own weapon from his jacket. "I guess so," he replied solemnly.

As the maglev slowed entering the station, Janna positioned herself on the seat so that she faced the door - the same one she had climbed out of up to the roof earlier - her index finger resting on the trigger guard, the safety flipped off, holding the blaster between her thigh and the bulkhead so that it was out of sight. Tom held his WESTAR-32 hidden inside of his bantha leather jacket so that it, too, was hidden from view but still immediately at the ready.

As the station platform slid past the window on the opposite side of the train, Janna scanned the beings who stood there prepared to board the maglev. Lots of humans, a Twi'lek, a pair of Duros, even a Kappa, but no stormtroopers, and definitely no black-clad helmeted thing with lightsabers.

The maglev stopped. The boarding doors opened. While passengers disembarked and others climbed aboard, Janna kept her eyes locked on the set of doors across from where she and Tom sat, and Tom kept watch of the far end of the maglev car incase someone boarded from the adjoining car. There were no boarding doors on their side of the train as the other maglev track was immediately on the other side.

Only one person who had been riding in the maglev's lead car got off at Tyrena Station, and only one more, the lanky Kappa Janna had seen earlier, took a seat there. No passengers who boarded throughout the rest of the train moved into the lead car, either.

Finally, the doors closed and the maglev accelerated out of the station. Janna and Tom, having both been waiting with every muscle in their bodies tensed and ready to fight, sank down into the seat and let out equal sighs of relief.

Janna slid her remaining DC-17 back into its home inside of her jacket. "Well, that was a waste of some perfectly good adrenaline."

"I find it very difficult to believe that they didn't have someone waiting here to intercept us," Tom mused.

"Unless that thing that attacked us just thinks we'd be too stupid to stay on this train."

Janna shrugged. "Beats me. For all we know, it could be-"

"Let me see your identification!"

The slightly electronic voice was muffled, just barely audible, but both smugglers, and PY-HD, picked it up.

"You heard that, too, right?" Tom asked.

"Uh-Huh."

PY-HD frantically chittered that they were dead.

Janna stood from her seat and hurried to the door at the rear of the car at a crouch. She carefully peered through the window, looking across the vestibule and through the window of the adjoining car. A pair of stormtroopers were harassing a human woman and her toddler.

Janna snuck back to her companions, roughly sitting down in the seat beside Tom again. "Stormtroopers. Two of them. Next car."

"Where the heck did they come from? I didn't see them on the platform!"

"No idea. They must have climbed on from the other side of the train somehow. Question is, what do we do about them?"

"Uhhh..."

PY-HD twittered a quick suggestion.

Janna nodded. "Oh, yeah, just like that time on Nevarro. Remember, Lucy?"

"I remember. That could work."

Janna jumped back to her feet. "Let's do it."

Laying awake in bed, Marco stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. A troubling question lay heavily on his mind: How had that sword moved so fast? He was used to his connection to the Force being weak. It took a great amount of concentration and effort to make even small things move, and usually when they did, he couldn't make them move with any amount of speed. Yet, that sword had abruptly flown off the ground, taking him so much by surprise that he moved his hand and caused it to clock him in the face.

How in the world did I do that? Come to think of it...that's not the first time I've randomly been able to use the Force way more effectively than usual for a brief moment...

The example he was remembering felt like it had happened a lifetime ago, back on Coruscant, when he and Star were scouring the abandoned industrial facility for a piece of power cable. He had blasted a locked door out of its track with the Force. At the time, he hadn't questioned it, but now, after hitting himself in the face with that sword, he couldn't help but wonder...

...about his conversation with Darth Bane's ghost.

"Pssst. Marco!"

The whisper reverberated just slightly as it reached Marco's ears. He looked up to see Star looking back at him from the air vent overhead. He sat up as she pushed open the vent and somersaulted out, landing gracefully on the floor. She was still wearing her familiar blue dress, not having changed since earlier.

"How's your nose?" she asked.

"Sore, but not too bad, honestly," he said. "Any particular reason you're sneaking into my room in the middle of the night?"

"Well..." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "My mom just got back from visiting Eclipsa, and she and my dad are asleep, soooooooo I was wondering if you wanted to sneak out to the woods and, you know...teach me some of your lightsaber moves."

Marco breathed a sigh of a relief. He wasn't sure where Star was going with that sentence when she began. "Oh! Yeah, sure!" Marco flipped the blankets off and hopped to his feet, grabbing his hoodie from where he'd hung it on the bedpost and pulling it on. He sat back down on the edge of the bed again to don his new footgear, then hopped back up again. "Okay, ready!" Then, "Oh, wait. Duh. Lightsaber. What did I do with it?"

Star mockingly gasped. "Oh my gosh! Who are you and what have you done with my best friend? The real Marco Diaz would never not know the whereabouts of his lightsaber!"

"Ha ha, very funny, Star." He checked under his pillow where he often placed it when he slept, but the space beneath the billow was empty. "Not there..." He scanned the room, not managing to spot it. "Where in the world did I leave it?" He quickly searched beneath the bed, the bedside table drawer, and even pulled back the rug to look beneath it even though it very clearly was not there. Star could see that he was becoming frantic. "Where in the galaxy did I leave it?!"

"Did you leave it on the Raventalon?" Star suggested. "It could still be at the Airbase?"

"Maybe...I don't think so."

"When's the last time you remember having it?"

Marco thoughtfully scratched his chin. "The last time I remember having it...was..." Star watched his expression abruptly become sullen. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"The last time I remember having it...was on Moraband...when I gave it to Janna."

"Hey! You there! Let me see your identification!"

The young Twi'lek woman shrank back as the stormtrooper prodded her shoulder with the barrel of his blaster. She didn't speak Basic and had no idea what the stormtrooper was demanding of her.

"I said identification! Now!"

A series of bloops and whistles caught the stormtrooper's attention. Looking up, the trooper caught sight of a light-blue-and-pink astromech droid with a spike atop its dome standing in the open doorway to the lead car.

"Hey. TK-210."

The other stormtrooper took a pause from tormenting an elderly Dug on the opposite side of the maglev car and looked at his partner, who was pointing at an astromech droid.

"Didn't Officer Rosado say the fugitives had a blue-and-pink astro-droid like that?"

The other trooper took a step closer for a better look. The droid's photoreceptor stared back at him. "That's not blue-and-pink. It's cyan-and-fuchsia."

The first stormtrooper gave his helmeted head a shake in surprise. "What?"

"That isn't blue. And it isn't pink."

"Are you being serious right now?"

"I'm just saying, true blue, as a shade, is much darker than that. And if anything, that's closer to rose than pink."

The droid's head swiveled back and forth with each turn of the conversation, finding it very amusing.

"...Are we really going to have an argument about what color the droid is? How many pink-and-blue droids-"

"It's not pink-and-blue. It's cyan and fuchsia."

The first trooper groaned in annoyance. "How many astromech droids do you think there could possibly be around here that could be described as being a *shade* of blue and a *shade* of pink?"

"I don't know, but Rosado said it was blue-and-pink and that is not blue-and-pink!"

Standing with their backs to the bulkhead on the opposite side of the door to the lead maglev car, Tom and Janna glanced at each other. A silent, confused expression on Tom's face asked Janna if what they were observing was really happening. Her slow nod conveyed that, no, it was not their imagination. Two stormtroopers really were arguing about what colors PY-HD was.

"Alright, fine, forget the color! He also said the droid had a spike on its dome, and that is the only astro-droid I've ever seen with a spike on its dome!"

Several low-pitched beeps came from PY-HD as it conveyed "You are the worst troopers I've ever seen" in droid binary.

"What!" yelped the second trooper. "That's it! I don't care if this is the fugitives' droid or not! Com'ere, you rolling scrap pile!"

PY-HD quickly spun around and raced back through the door and across the vestibule to the lead car. The stormtroopers followed, single file due to the narrow doorway.

As soon as Janna and Tom saw PY-HD zip past them, they reached their arms out across the doorway and took each other by the hand, interlocking their fingers. The first stormtrooper ran into their joined hands helmet-first. They let the trooper's momentum carry him forward a bit, then flung the trooper backwards into the second, their helmets colliding hard and knocking both out cold. The two unconscious troopers lay sprawled out, one atop the other, in the vestibule between the cars.

"Nice job, Lucy," Janna said simply, feeling rather proud of herself. "You, too, Pony."

The droid bleeped a reply of appreciation that was anything but humble.

"So what do we do with them now?" Tom asked.

"Jam them into the refresher, of course." Janna bent down and picked up the nearest trooper by the feet. "Grab an end."

"Well, I'm sure Janna will be very careful with your lightsaber, Marco," Star said reassuringly.

"I sure hope so..."

Star was still on the opposite side of the bed from Marco, so she hopped atop the covers and walked on her knees across to her best friend. "You know, I think I thought of something better we can do instead of lightsaber training."

"What's that?"

She looped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, leaning close to his ear as she whispered, "Cuddle."

Marco chuckled. "Not that I don't want you to stay here, Star, but aren't you worried about it...not being proper, or whatever?"

She kissed his cheek and released him, kicking off her boots and siding beneath the bedsheets. "Don't care. Cuddle now."

Marco sighed. He couldn't deny, he had missed cuddling with his best friend since they had arrived on Mewni. Without another word, he removed his boots and hoodie and crawled into bed beside Star. He didn't think he would ever be able to quiet his mind enough to sleep, but, much to his surprise, he found Star's presence to be very calming just as he had felt when he was having nightmares aboard theRaventalon.

It still took quite a while, but holding his best friend tightly in his arms and listening to her gently breathe as she snoozed, Marco eventually drifted off to sleep.

Next: Nocturnal Track-down