Disclaimer is in the first chapter

000

The two girls watched as the droids prepared to open fire on them. Suddenly someone jumped between them and the droids. There was a snap-hiss and a blue beam of light appeared.

"Find some cover," the man said. Rin gripped Sindi's arm.

"You know who that is, right?" she asked. Sindi rolled her eyes and dragged her friend behind a tree. "Don't you-"

"Yes I know who that is, Rin," Sindi hissed. "I know that's Obi-Wan." The girls looked around the tree and watched the fight when a droid appeared behind them.

"Hands up," it commanded. Sindi did put her hands up…To grab the droid's head. She threw it to the ground and jumped onto its back pretty much breaking it.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Rin asked.

"I take tai-chi," Sindi said with a shrug. "Well the head grab and throw are tai-chi moves. I just figured that since the back was so thin, I could probably damage something by jumping on it."

"You have got to teach me how to do that," Rin said impressed.

"Okay," Sindi said. "You'd like it. It's for self defense and relieving stress."

"Sounds like something the Jedi would use," Rin laughed then she got serious. "Although that kind of shows that we're not locals."

"And what shows that you're not locals?" The two girls spun around and saw Obi-Wan standing there.

"Well," Rin said. "The Naboo are peaceful and well um." She motioned to the droid.

"That was my fault," Sindi said with a nervous laugh. There a strange humming noise and five droids on some kind of hover fighter were flying right at them.

"Run!" Obi-Wan shouted.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Rin shouted back and took off through the trees. As they ran, Obi-Wan was able to get rid of three of the droids but the last two proved to be a little bit harder. Then Sindi saw a man and some kind of frog thing just ahead. One of the droids shot at the fleeing humans and the man turned his head.

"Get down," he commanded as he activated a green lightsaber. Sindi, Rin, Obi-Wan, and the frog thing threw themselves to the ground and let the man take care of the last two droids.

"Yousa saved mi again," the frog thing said standing up.

"What's this?" Obi-Wan asked.

"A local," the older Jedi said. "Let's go before more droids show up." Rin and Sindi sighed, rolled their eyes, and followed the Jedi through the woods.

000

"Hey…slow down," Rin panted.

"Yeah," Sindi said irritably. "We're not cross-country runners here." The two Jedi slowed down and Jar-Jar tripped over a rock at the sudden stop. The two girls started breathing heavily and plopped onto the ground.

"We can't stay here for long," Qui-Gon told the girls. He didn't have to say what would happen if they were caught.

"If only there was some place we could hide for awhile," Rin said.

"Exsqueese me?" Jar-Jar said. "But the mostest safest place would be Gunga City. It's where I grew up, it's a hidden city." Qui-Gon looked at the Gungan disbelievingly.

"A city?" he asked.

"That's hidden?" Rin added. She and Sindi looked at each other.

"Works for me," Sindi said, brushing a strand of dark red hair from her face.

"Can you take us there?" Qui-Gon asked. Jar-Jar suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"Uh, no. Not really, no."

"No?" The Gungan found himself facing four glaring humans.

"It's embarrassing," he said nervously. "I've forgotten. I'm been banished. The bosses will do terrible things to me, terrible things if me going back there." There was an ominous crashing sound.

"You hear that?" Qui-Gon asked. Jar-Jar lifted one of his floppy ears to hear better.

"Yeah."

"That is the sound of a thousand terrible things headed this way," the Jedi continued. Jar-Jar backed away nervously.

"If they find us," Obi-Wan added. "They will crush us, grind us into tiny pieces, and blast us into oblivion." The two girls tried to keep their faces straight. Jar-Jar immediately changed his mind.

"Yousa point is well said," he turned and pointed. "This way, hurry."

000

The group eventually came to a small lake and stopped.

"How much further?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Wesa going underwater, oke-dai" Jar-Jar explained, pointing at the water. "But mi warning you. Gungans no liking outsiders so don't expect a warm welcome."

"Oh don't worry," Obi-Wan said as the Gungan stretched. "This hasn't been a day for warm welcomes." Jar-Jar leapt into the water as the Jedi pulled breathing apparatuses out of pouches on their belts and gave one to each girl.

"Why do you have more than one?" Rin asked.

"In case we lose one," Obi-Wan explained.

"Makes sense," Sindi said with a shrug. Rin and the Jedi waded into the water after Jar-Jar but Sindi held back for a reason soon to be revealed.

"CANNON BALL," she yelled as she jumped into the lake, careful to keep a firm grip on the breathing apparatus. When she surfaced, she saw to her amusement that she had managed to get both Obi-Wan and Rin wet. "What?" Sindi asked oh-so-innocently as they glared at her. "It's not like you weren't going to get wet anyways."

"True, but we would have preferred it when we were ready," Obi-Wan said sternly.

"And now you are," Sindi countered. Rin opened her mouth to say something but decided instead to place the rebreather between her teeth instead. The other humans followed suite as Jar-Jar's head broke the surface.

"Yousa follow me now, okie-day." The five of them dived into the water.

000

Sindi almost lost the rebreather as the group swam toward Otoh Gunga, the capital city. Seeing it in the movie was one thing but seeing it in real life, it was breath-taking the way the soft, warm orange glow from the serene bubble-like structures contrasted with the dark blue of the water. The group passed through a doorway-like arch and found themselves surprisingly (from the girls' point of view) dry.

"Cool," Rin said awe-struck. "Felt weird but was cool."

"You think that was cool?" Sindi asked. "This is cool." She gestured toward the city itself.

"So good being home," Jar-Jar said happily. Some nearby Gungan began to whisper and quietly converse. The four humans walked down from the entrance way platform into the city proper. They had barely taken five steps when a Gungan riding a long-legged, wingless and scalely duck-bill creature called a kaadu approached them.

"Yousa, stoppa there," called out that looked the leader. He seemed shocked and not too pleased to see Jar-Jar.

"Oh uh, hey dere Cap'n Tarpals," Jar-Jar said nervously. "Mesa back."

"No again Jar-Jar," Tarpals said with quite annoyance. "Yousa going to da bosses. Yousa in big doo doo dis time." Jar-Jar looked really nervous about facing the Gungan leaders. He turned toward Qui-Gon as if to ask for help as another kaadu-mounted Gungan jabbed him in the forearm with a vibro-spear.

"How wude," Jar-Jar said glaring ever so slightly before turning to Tarpals and shrugging.