Jag turned in the pilot seat at the sound of the cockpit door sliding open, and his eyes widened and lowered almost simultaneously in relief at seeing his wife up.

"Jaina!" he said as he stood up to vacate his seat for his spouse.

The Jedi Master resumed her seat at the pilot station, took stock that they were ten minutes from dropping out of hyperspace for the Sagju system, and said, "We're pulling away from Sagju."

"What?" Jag asked. "Why?"

"This was a waste of time," Jaina said as she began the procedure for an early dropout from hyperspace. "We gotta get to Mandalore as soon as possible."

"Jaina, I think your mom and uncle can take care of things-"

"It's not just about that, Jag," Jaina said, not even slowing down from her work. "Vestara thinks that the Death Watch are gonna pull something there, that they're not interested in any negotiations."

"How does she know that?" Jag asked.

"She doesn't, really," Jaina answered just as they dropped out of hyperspace into an empty system and began the reorientation for where Mandalore would be in the galaxy. "But I don't think we should risk continuing for Sagju if Mom, Dad, Uncle Luke, and the other Jedi need our help there."

A few moments later, Jaina got the coordinates for Mandalore and launched for hyperspace again.

.

As quickly as he returned home, Jar Jar was back in space in less than half an hour in his Nubian starfighter, and a few minutes after he breached Naboo's atmosphere, he left its gravity well and engaged for hyperspace.

He knew where Khai would be after this: the Sagju system, which he could make within four hours. He figured that he'd still catch the Sith there, kill any Mandalorians who got in the way, and force her to tell him what she wouldn't over a commlink.

Stupid, he thought of himself. He thought he'd gone past that after Padme Amidala died all those decades ago. And yet, he still somehow fell for a Sith's tricks, just as he did when Palpatine gave him the ability to give him emergency powers prior to the Clone Wars. How could this be that he could be smart and powerful enough to take out a whole fleet of Mandalorian mercenaries, yet still fall for the machinations of a Sith?

He thought he'd gone past all this. He thought he'd gone past all this on that fateful day...

.

Sixty-three years earlier, Jar Jar Binks was his usual self again.

While Emperor Palpatine's anti-alien policies hadn't really taken full effect at the time, Jar Jar was one of the first aliens in the now-defunct Republic Senate who was annexed from his position as a representative for Naboo.

It was no wonder that was to be so, for now he was slipping all over the mess on the kitchen floor that he had just made, which was composed entirely of mixed vegetables and meats for Boss Nass. And when he finally fell forward, he ended up taking the last of the foods from the counter just next to him, with the bowls containing them falling on top of him so that he was completely coated in the mess that he just made.

"Oooohhhhh..." Jar Jar muttered beneath the mess he created.

Then the doors to the kitchen were barged open, and Boss Nass himself, escorted by two slim Gungun bodyguards, entered the near-destroyed kitchen. The fat leading Gungun called his party to an abrupt halt once they took in the extent of the mess that the idiot in their midst had just created.

When Nass's judgmental gaze finally fell upon Jar Jar, the latter looked back with complete nervousness. "Oopsie," he said with a forced smile.

"JAR JAR!" Nass hollered. "Whata yousa doin' here?! You not supposed to be in da kitchen! You not supposed to be anywhere neara the process of fooda-makinga!"

"Oh, but meesa soa sorry, Boss Nass, Your Honor!" Jar Jar exclaimed as he tried to stand up, only to slip back prone to the floor again. He emitted a low nervous chuckle that did not match his slumped body language.

Nass growled incessantly. "You ruined da royal dinner tonight, Jar Jar! Now weesa have nothing to de party!" He sighed in resignation. "Jar Jar, yousa to be banished, never to return to de city ever again."

"But what if meesa make representative of da Naboo again, Your Honor?" Jar Jar asked.

"Noh, no, not again, Jar Jar," Nass said. "Yousa maketa Palpatine Emperor. Yousa maketa big doodoo dis time."

"Awwwww," Jar Jar moaned.

A moment later, one of Nass's bodyguards walked past his charge to approach Jar Jar, carefully wading through the slippery mess that he caused, and prodded the clumsy Gungun with his electrostaff.

"Eep!" Jar Jar yelped. "How wude!"

.

"Meesa so sorry that Ia do disa to you, Padme," Jar Jar said as he sat cross-legged at the headstone of Padme Amidala. "If dere was anything I coulda makeita upa to you, I would do it. I ama so sorry dat I gave Palpatine dat power. If I had known..." He trailed off as he sighed again. "Meesa am a clumsy one. But dat... dat was my biggest clumsiness yet. Oha, Padme, what I would do to makeita up to you!"

"There is nothing more that you can do for her, Jar Jar Binks," a grand, masculine voice said behind the Gungun.

Jar Jar instantly shot up to his feet and spun around while screaming, "Ahh!" Once he saw who it was - what appeared to be a giant honeycomb, as he thought of it - he calmed down quickly and asked, "Who be you?"

"I am Waru," the being introduced itself. "And I am here to see that you fulfill your destiny."

"Destiny?" Jar Jar asked in disbelief. "What destiny?"

"The destiny of saving this galaxy from destruction," Waru answered.

Then, in a flash of bright white light, Jar Jar and Waru were gone from not only Naboo, but also from the galaxy.

When Jar Jar next saw something other than that all-encompassing whiteness, he found himself and Waru, who was in front of him again, in a starfighter hangar bay, populated with dozens of X-wings, A-wings, and the like. Currently, pilots all around them, who seemed to be oblivious to Waru and Jar Jar's presences, were scrambling for their fighters, with some already launching out of the bay through the energy barrier that separated the bay from space.

"Where weesa we?" Jar Jar asked Waru.

"Jar Jar," Waru began, "you are in another reality. Do you know what that means?"

The Gungun shook his head. "Uh-uh."

"Well, let us just say that we are in another galaxy, like the one you lived in, but this one is different," Waru explained. "In this galaxy, Palpatine's Galactic Empire managed to defeat the Alliance to Restore the Republic over Endor. What you are now seeing is a meager, pathetic attempt by the Rebel Alliance in fighting back Palpatine's forces."

"So whata weesa doing here den?" Jar Jar asked.

"You, Jar Jar Binks, are now under my hand as I use this reality to train you to save your galaxy," Waru said. "And we will start by using that X-wing behind you."

Jar Jar turned and saw that there was indeed an X-wing there. He just as quickly turned back.

"But meesa no know how to fly a spaceship!" the Gungun exclaimed.

"Do not worry," Waru said. "I will help you."