I know it probably doesn't make a ton of sense for Corellia and Mewni to be on the exact same day/night cycle, but for the sake of storytelling simplicity...it's just easier to keep track of everything and I don't really care that much.

The slight shifting of something against Marco's chest woke the young Padawan from his slumber. He blinked his tired eyes, the beckoning of sleep still tugging at his heavy eyelids. The window on the opposite side of the room showed him that the early morning Mewni sun was just barely poking above the horizon.

Way too early to get up.

Marco felt the sensation of movement against the front of his body a second time and was reminded that Star was still with him. She had slid down further beneath the blankets, the covers completely covering her head, the top of her considerable mane of blonde hair tickling his neck. Marco's arms were loosely draped around her midsection. He smiled, happy just to have his best friend there with him, and held her tighter. Star sighed contentedly in her sleep, and he gently nuzzled his cheek against the top of her head.

Man...I'm so lucky to have Star in my life. I'd be so lost without her right now, he thought to himself. Heh. No way I'd still be alive, either. I never would have made it off Coruscant.

I wonder what would have happened if all this stuff with Palpatine coming in and taking over hadn't happened. We were gonna run away. Would I have ever told Star how I feel if I hadn't-?

A chill shot down Marco's spine as he remembered something he had not thought about in quite some time. He'd told Star he loved her because he nearly died. He nearly died because he'd been scared out of his wits by the ghost of Darth Bane. Darth Bane had told him that he was strong with the Dark Side of the Force...

Is that why I was able to make that sword move so fast last night? Because I unknowingly tapped into the Dark Side?

Was Darth Bane actually right about me?

And the more Marco thought about the possible reality of that chilling thought, the more his anxiety grew, and the more his anxiety grew, the tighter he unconsciously squeezed Star.

Eventually she abruptly awoke, gasping for breath as Marco unintentionally squeezed the life out of her. "Mar...co! Can't...breathe!"

He quickly released her, brimming with embarrassment. "Oh, geez! Star, I'm so sorry!"

She rolled over to face him, her mouth curved into a good-natured grin. "Not exactly the sweet and romantic waking-up-together moment I was hoping for," she joked. But her smile faded when she caught the troubled expression on his face. "Marco, chill. It's not a big deal. You didn't hurt me or anything."

"It's not that." He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. "I was just...thinking..."

Star propped herself up on her elbow. "You're thinking about what Darth Grain said to you again, aren't you?"

Marco was taken by surprise. He hadn't expected her to know exactly what was on his mind. "Um...Darth Bane."

"Whatever."

"And, yeah, actually. That's exactly what I was thinking about."

She slid herself closer to him. "I told you before, it doesn't matter. Just forget about what Darth Shane said."

"Bane, Star. And I can't. I'm so worried that he was right. He said I already have darkness in me...what if I fall to it? And it causes me to hurt someone I care about? Like Tom, or Janna or..." Marco turned his head and met Star's vibrantly blue eyes. "...Or you."

Star sighed and wrapped her arms around her best friend, looking hard into his eyes. "Marco, if there's one thing I know for absolute certain, it's that you could never bring yourself to hurt me. Janna maybe not as much-"

Marco let out a short laugh.

"-but I don't think you have any reason at all to worry. So just put Darth Plain completely out of your head!"

"You're doing it on purpose now, aren't you?" He smiled. Star always did know how to cheer him up.

Star didn't answer. She just giggled mischievously. "Now how much would you bet that I can make all of your troubles disappear-" She snapped her fingers. "-just like that?"

"Ummmm..."

But before Marco could answer, Star leaned forward over him and pressed her lips against his. She had been correct; all of Marco's worries melted away, but he couldn't tell her that because the entire previous conversation was instantly forgotten. He pulled her on top of him and threw his arms around her as they became lost in the kiss, completely oblivious to the aroma of breakfast rising up through the castle from the kitchen.

When the kiss finally ended, Marco wove his fingers through her long, lustrous hair as he gazed lovingly into her eyes. "I love you so much, Star."

She rubbed the tip of her nose teasingly against his. "I know you do, silly. I love you, too."

The tender moment was interrupted by a faint growling noise. "Was that your stomach?" laughed Marco.

Star giggled again. "What, I'm hungry!"

He gave her one more peck on the lips. "C'mon, let's go get some breakfast."

"Oh, you know I'm all about that!" She rolled off of him and right out from beneath the covers haphazardly onto the floor. "Race you down the stairs!"

Marco laughed as he flung the covers off and quickly pushed himself out of bed to his feet as Star bolted out the door. "Hey, no fair!"

"I sure hope Seahorse followed my instructions," Han mused aloud as he guided the ship toward the private Reflectacorp landing pad. "If he did, your parts will be here waiting, and you'll be off Corellia in, well...minutes."

Janna shook her head. "That's the best news I've heard all day."

The circular landing pad was in the open center of a warehouse a few buildings southwest from the Reflectacorp "showroom." Han guided the shuttle over the pad, switched to repulsorlift control, and gently lowered the ship down into the open middle of the building. In the copilot's seat, Janna lowered the landing gear, the four narrow legs simultaneously folding out from their respective corners of the ship's hull. As Han gently set the ship down, he and his passengers could see a pair of Reflectacorp assassin droids plus C-HRS3 standing beside four crates. One crate was nearly as tall as the droids and several yards long, two were about half the size of the giant one, and the last was just a cubic meter. C-HRS3 was holding the case containing the credits from King River.

Han stood from the pilot's seat. "I'll leave the engines running. This shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Good thinking," said Tom. "In fact, while we're loading the parts, why don't you plug in and program the navicomputer, Pony?"

The astromech bleeped in reply and connected to the computer terminal while Han, Janna, and Tom disembarked.

C-HRS3 met them at the bottom of the boarding ramp. "I am pleased to see that you are still breathing," it said cheerfully. It motioned to the pair of assassin droids, already guiding the levitating crates up toward the ramp. "Reflectacorp's top security droids will now load and secure your purchase."

Tom and Janna glanced at each other. "Like I said," Janna muttered. "Ridiculously good service."

"No argument there," Tom agreed.

C-HRS3 held out the slim carrying case. "I subtracted a small, reasonable fee for the use of Reflectacorp's shuttle and complying with the extra instructions provided to me by Master Han. I return to you the remainder of your credits."

Tom took the case, which he noted was not any considerable amount lighter. The protocol droid was true to his word. "Thank you, very much, uh, Seahorse." He turned back to Han. "And thank you, too. You really saved our skins."

"Yeah, Han." Janna held out her hand, and Han clasped it in a firm handshake. "Thanks for hooking us up, and for stealing our ship back."

Han flashed a dashing smile as he released Janna's hand. "Just what I do."

Janna looked over her shoulder. The Reflectacorp assassin droids were noisily clomping down boarding ramp, their task of loading and securing the purchased parts complete. That was C-HRS3's cue. "Your newly acquired components have been loaded and secured to the best of our ability! This completes your transaction! On behalf of the entire staff, I would like to personally thank you for choosing Reflectacorp Starship Legacy Parts Supply! We wish you a safe and profitable day!"

Before any of the organics could even think of anything else to say, the purple protocol droid spun around and hurried toward a door at the edge of the landing pad, the two assassin droids following closely behind. Janna and Tom were left staring wide-eyed, completely taken-aback by the very abrupt departure.

Janna could manage no more than, "Wow."

"I'm not sure why," Tom mused, "But for some reason, that was the single most unsettling droid personality I've ever seen."

"I don't disagree."

Han laughed. "Yeah, Seashorse is certainly a, uh...a, uh...a droid. Anyway..." He clasped Janna's hand for a second time. "I guess this is goodbye."

"I guess so. Unless..."

Han raised an eyebrow. "Unless what?"

"Unless...do you want to come with us? Finally get away from disgusting mudhorn nest of a planet?"

Han shook his head. "Oh, Janna...I'd love to get out of here, but, unfortunately...I have to stay." Strangely, there was a tiny twinkle in his eye and the corner of his mouth was curled into a whistful smile.

Janna did not notice. She couldn't imagine any reason why someone wouldn't want to get away from Corellia at the first opportunity. "Why not?"

Han shook his head again. "Maybe I'll tell you about it the next time our paths cross."

He shook hands with Tom, as well, and then they parted ways. The pair of smugglers boarded their borrowed shuttle, closing the hatch and retracting the boarding ramp behind them. PY-HD greeted them with a cheerful series of bleeps informing them that the navicomputer was programmed.

"Thanks, Pony. You're the best," Janna said as she sank into the pilot's seat beside Tom. As she flicked some toggle switches to prepare the shuttle for takeoff, she saw Han stroll into view in front of them. "I don't understand why he doesn't want to come with us," she said. "Why would anyone want to stay on Corellia?"

Tom didn't even avert his gaze from his console as he double checked the ship's systems. "You're kidding, right?" he chuckled.

Janna frowned. "Does it sound like I'm kidding?"

"Well, not now."

"What are you getting at, Lucitor? Why doesn't he want to leave?"

Tom shrugged and finally turned to make eye contact with her. "Obviously because of a girl."

"What in the galaxy would make you think that?"

"The look on his face when he said he couldn't leave. I thought it was pretty obvious. He's in love."

Janna turned back toward the viewscreen. Han waved to her from the edge of the landing pad. Janna waved back. Then she put her hands on the control yoke and guided the ship up through the open center of the surrounding building and into the sky. She didn't say a single word more on the subject. Tom decided it might be best to just drop it.

As they wove through the massive Imperial ship-building operation floating in space beyond Corellia's atmosphere, however, Tom was struck with another thought that warranted breaking the silence.

"Hey, Janna?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you going to tell Marco about what happened to his lightsaber?"

Janna didn't answer. They passed by the furthest reaches of starship-construction area and PY-HD whistled that they were clear to make the jump to hyperspace. Janna wasted no time in pushing the hyperdrive lever forward. Even once the shuttle had made the jump, she still did not give Tom's question an answer.

Because she didn't have one.

Marco closed his eyes, reveling in the flavor of Mewni cornbread as he chewed. "You know," he said to Star, River, and Moon seated around the breakfast table with him, "If we stayed here forever, I don't think I would ever get sick of this cornbread."

"Trust me, dear, it does eventually lose its majesty." The voice came from the open doorway, and the four seated around the table turned to find Eclipsa standing there, leaning on a cane in her left hand.

"Aunt Eclipsa!" Star exclaimed, jumping up from the table and knocking over her chair. "You're out of the hospital!"

"Yes! I- oof!" Eclipsa gasped as Star wrapped her in a tight hug. She winced as her niece squeezed the spot where she'd be shot. When Star released her, she continued. "The medical droid said I was strong enough to walk, so I thought I would drop in for some breakfast with my family."

"What an great and unexpected surprise," said Moon, smiling at her sister. "I'll have Manfred fetch you a place setting." She called toward a doorway on the opposite side of the room as Star led Eclipsa to a vacant seat at the table. "Oh, Manfred!"

The stuffy servant appeared at the doorway a moment later, nose turned upward, hands clasped behind his back. "Yes, M'lady?"

"Would you bring another place setting for Eclipsa, please?"

He lowered his face and spotted the former senator sitting down at the table across from Marco. "Oh, Senator Butterfly. How wonderful it is to see you."

Marco was not positive, but he thought Manfred's greeting sounded very sarcastic and insincere. Eclipsa just smiled at the servant politely. "It's nice to see you, too, Manfred."

With a flourishing wave of his finger, he gave a very over-exaggerated declaration. "I will fetch another place setting for you posthaste, Senator! I shall return!" And he disappeared back through the doorway.

Eclipsa giggled softly. "I see Manfred is doing well." She looked across the table and caught the puzzled look on Marco's face. "He hates me," she whispered, and winked at the young Padawan.

This left Marco with more questions than answers. "Why?" he whispered back.

Eclipsa gave a good-natured shrug. "No idea. And he'll never admit to it, either."

She quickly fell silent as Manfred returned with a plate, cup, and silverware. He placed them on the table and made a big show out of making sure that they were set just perfectly so in front of Eclipsa. "There you are, Senator. I do hope you enjoy your breakfast!"

Star rolled her eyes at Manfred's sarcasm, earning a stern look from her mother. The servant did not notice.

"Thank you, Manfred," Eclipsa said politely.

"Will you be in need of anything else, M'lady?" he purred.

"I think I'm alright at the moment, Manfred, thank you."

"Very good, M'lady." And he quickly stalked out of the room.

"That was uncomfortable to watch," Marco muttered.

Beside him, Star nodded in agreement. "Extremely."

Eclipsa chuckled again as she poured herself a cup of tea from the pot on the table. "I think it's far more entertaining to just go with it. He makes such a fool of himself. But Manfred is nowhere near as bad as some of the delegates I dealt with in the senate." She helped herself to a few slices of pig-goat bacon. "Quite the colorful bunch they were."

"Oh, totally!" Star said. "Remember that tall guy with the really long ears?"

"You mean Representative Binks?" Marco asked.

"Yeah! Him! He was terrified of you for some reason! Remember that one time Marco and I were there and he came to ask you for some documents?"

Eclipsa laughed so hard that her injury strained, causing her quite a bit of discomfort, but she was not swayed from enjoying the moment. "Oh, yes! He was so nervous, he was visibly shaking! He could barely get the words out of his mouth!"

The King and Queen watched as their daughter, her best friend, and Moon's sister laughed together at the other end of the table. River met his wife's gaze.

"How are we ever going to tell the children it isn't safe for them to be here?" he whispered.

Moon sighed. "I don't know. I really don't know..."

Security Officer Rosado checked his datapad for the hundredth time. Still no reports. They had pursued after that Sheathipede-class shuttle as quickly as they could, but by the time they were able to get into the air, they had already lost sight of the bright red ship. A BOLO had been issued to all Imperial forces in the hopes that someone would spot it and allow the Mentis Mal to intercept it, but as of yet, it had seemingly vanished.

Shaking his head in disappointment, Rosado glanced up at the Inquisitor. The intimidating Jedi hunter was pacing back and forth across the Imperial frigate's bridge, having relinquished control of the ship back to the pair of stormtroopers that doubled as designated pilots. It had not said a single word since it had declared the entire task force to be "idiots." Rosado was beginning to worry that if they did not get some kind of good news soon, the inquisitor might turn the Mentis Mal into a flying coffin for he and his troops.

His thoughts were interrupted by the stormtrooper copilot. "Officer Rosado, we're receiving an incoming transmission."

"Oh, okay. Put-"

"Put it through. Now," the inquisitor snapped, cutting him off.

"Yes, Inquisitor."

The stormtrooper tapped a few command keys and the holoprojector lit up, showing a hologram of another stormtrooper.

"Sir, we've spotted that shuttle."

"Where?" asked the inquisitor.

"We are aboard an orbital ship yard security cruiser," explained the trooper."We spotted it making for open space."

"Stop that ship! NOW!"

"We tried, sir. It jumped to hyperspace before we even had a chance to target it."

Rosado winced. That would do it.

The inquisitor very calmly reached forward and pressed the button to kill the transmission. The holoprojector blinked off. "Take us back down. We're going to find out what those kids were doing here. If we can figure out where they went, we can track them down again and use them to find Butterfly and Diaz."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rosado watched as the inquisitor stalked out of the cabin.

Wow. That went over way better than I thought it-

That thought was interrupted as he heard a lightsaber ignite in the hold and the sound of something being hacked to pieces.

Never mind. Spoke too soon.

Considering that it was usually operated by droids, the cockpit seats in the Sheathipede-class Type-B shuttle were not constructed with any amount of comfort in mind. This did not deter Janna and Tom. Only ten minutes after making the jump to lightspeed, the exhausted smugglers both fell sound asleep in positions that would undoubtedly leave them feeling stiff and sore when they awoke. PY-HD watched them, taking very unflattering holo-recordings of its organic friends, certain it would be very amusing to show to Star later.

An alert chimed on the control panel, startling the pair of teenagers awake.

"Aw, man!" Janna moaned as she stretched and blinked her bleary eyes awake. "How long were we out for?"

Tom checked out the message on his console. "Looks like we're about to drop out of hyperspace," he yawned. "Ugh, I can't wait to get back to that massive guest bed at Butterfly castle. I could sleep for a week."

"Me too." Janna moved her hand to the hyperdrive lever. "I hope we don't make it back here only to find a half-dozen Star Destroyers in orbit over Mewni." She retracted the hyperdrive lever and the swirling colors of hyperspace morphed back into stars. The planet Mewni lay directly before them, thankfully devoid of an Imperial occupation. They both breathed a sigh of relief, but Captain Ordonia was now struck by another worrisome thought.

She really was not looking forward to seeing Marco.

"I'll transmit the clearance codes to the Airbase," Tom said.

Janna flicked a few switches, preparing the ship for atmospheric flight. "Cool. Pony, why don't you contact Star and let her know we're back?"

The droid whistled in compliance.

Tom leaned back his seat. "I'm willing to bet there'll be an aggressive hug from Star for both of us."

Janna nodded. "Yeah. Probably."

"You're back you're back you're back!"

"Hey, Star, good to- Hurrrk!" Tom was cut off mid-sentence as Star squeezed the air from his lungs with a crushing hug. "Good to- *gasp* -see you, too, Star," he choked out when Star released him.

The Jedi Padawan turned to Janna, still grinning excitedly. "Janna Banana!"

Janna held up her hands defensively. "Star. Wait. Please- Oof!"

Marco chuckled as he watched Captain Ordonia have the life squeezed out of her. "No use trying to fight it, Janna. Just let it happen."

Soon enough, Star released Janna and began asking questions rapid-fire. "So how was Corellia? Did you find all the parts? Did you run into any trouble?"

"Trouble?" Tom began sarcastically. "You wouldn't believe- ow!"

Janna discreetly elbowed her copilot in the ribs, picking up his sentence before he had a chance to finish it. "-how little trouble we had! Completely uneventful! But we did find all the parts we needed," Janna told them, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the Sheathipede-class shuttle. Buff Frog was directing six Skywynne Airbase technicians in the unloading of the replacement parts and the adapter kit for the upgraded hyperdrive. PY-HD was with him, bleeping out curt orders to the technicians who were not sure if they were supposed to be listening to the horned astromech or not.

"That's great!" Marco said. "I can't believe you guys are back so soon. I thought it would have taken you a couple more days, at least."

"Well, you know..." Janna was trying very hard to make eye contact with Marco or even look in his general direction, but found it impossible. She kept involuntarily looking away. At one point her eyes landed on Star, who seemed to be looking back at her with a very perplexed expression. "...I had a very good contact who told us exactly where to look for the parts, and..." Now Marco was watching her with the same confusion. Change the subject fast. "...We found them right away. What did we miss while we were gone?"

"Oh, yeah," Tom chimed in. "Anything exciting?"

Neither Padawan responded immediately. They both thought their smuggler friends were acting very strangely.

More strangely than usual, anyway.

"Well, I got my new leg," Marco finally said, lifting the leg of his trousers to show off the new cybernetic appendage.

"Whoa!" Tom and Janna exclaimed as they took in the sight.

"How does it feel?" Tom asked.

"Feels like I have a real leg," Marco replied, bouncing up and down slightly to demonstrate. "I can't even tell it's a prosthetic unless I look at it."

"Lucky," Janna said. "Wish I had one."

Marco folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at her. "That can be arranged. If you give me back my-"

"Sooo!" Seeing where he was going with that statement, Tom quickly cut Marco off. It didn't stop a nervous chill from shooting down Janna's spine, though. "Anything else happen while we were gone?"

Marco raised a suspicious eyebrow at Tom's interruption.

"Oh! Duh!" Star exclaimed. "Aunt Eclipsa showed up!"

"Senator Eclipsa is here?" Janna quickly asked. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah! She was excited to hear that you guys would be back, she wanted to see you!"

"Well, then let's go see her!" Janna started off toward the edge of the landing platform before any more could be said. Tom quickly followed.

Star and Marco looked at each other quizzically as they followed several paces behind their friends.

"Okay, that was super weird, right?" Star asked quietly.

Marco agreed. "Yeah, what is with them?"

"Did you feel it?"

Marco frowned. "Feel what?"

"In the Force. Tom was lying."

"He was? About what?"

"When he said they didn't run into any trouble on Corellia, I could feel his heart rate quicken. He lied."

Marco squinted at their friends walking just ahead of them, heading through the door into the main building of the airbase. "Well, Janna was acting awfully weird, too. Weird by Janna standards, anyway."

"Yeah, I noticed. Something weird is going on with them, and I don't much care for it."

"Me neither. Something definitely happened on Corellia." Marco stopped walking, placing a hand on Star's shoulder. He made hard eye contact with her. "And if they don't want to tell us about it..."

Star's eyes widened. "Then it must be something really bad."

"Exactly."

It was Star's turn to frown. "But what would be bad enough that wouldn't they just tell us?"

As they hurried toward the exit and a waiting speeder to take them all back to Butterfly Castle, Tom whispered to Janna, hoping that their friends were out of earshot. "So, what, we're just lying to Star and Marco now?"

"I panicked, okay? Look, I'll tell Marco when there isn't anyone else around."

"What difference does it make?"

"I don't know. It's embarrassing! Would you want to tell somebody that you lost the single most important thing they own when there's a whole bunch of other people around to witness your screwup?"

Tom shot a quick glance back to make sure their Jedi friends had not closed the gap between them. Star and Marco still lagged behind. "...I guess not."

"I promise I'll tell them right after we get something to eat. I'm starving."

"Yeah, so am I. But, Janna, they are Jedi. What if they can sense that you're lying?"

"Then I won't lie. I'll tell the truth and just leave out certain information."

Tom rolled his eyes as they walked out the front door into Mewni sunshine. "Yeah, I'm sure this won't backfire."

Next: Glossaryck reveals secrets...