The sun came out shining bright the next morning. Lamenta let out a big yawn and stretched as she felt so well rested. As usual, she got her teeth and hair brushed, washed her face, and got herself dressed, and now she was ready for some breakfast. Except, when she got out of her room, no one else was. Lamenta could hear snoring coming from various rooms. Well, Qui-Gon's, Tech's, Garrett's, and Carmine's anyway, as they were the only people she knew snored. She even looked inside a few rooms, including her cousins' and even the stables. Everyone was still fast asleep. That seemed a bit strange, but then again, they did have a tough day with all those gremlins yesterday.

Lamenta went downstairs, ready to have breakfast, and at the persistence of everyone's alarm clocks ringing nonstop, as well as the babies crying and waking their parents through the baby monitors, the others finally got out of bed and came to breakfast.

"Good morning, Mommy and Daddy. Good morning, everyone." Lamenta said.

"Morning... Morning, Lamb." Carmine yawned.

"What's for breakfast?" Crosshair said, groggily stretching out his back.

Luckily, the cooks, being droids, were not too exhausted to perform breakfast duty, unlike the family.

Garrett carried Goldie into the dining room, the little girl resting her head on her father's shoulder, while Mariposa's hair looked terrible and her wings were sagging like they'd started melting.

"I really need a cup o' joe this morning." Garrett said.

"I don't know about anyone else," said Mariposa, scratching her head. "But I did not sleep well last night."

"Neither did any of us, by the look of it." Echo yawned.

"I had a scary dream and couldn't go back to sleep." Goldie said, starting to get shaky. "There were so many snakes."

"It's okay, Caterpillar." Garrett soothed, getting Goldie her caterpillar plushie. "There are no snakes here."

"Gabby woke me up when she crawled into my bed last night," said Boba. He looked at his sister. "Why didn't you crawl in with Mom and Dad?"

"I went to them first, Mommy put me back in my bed. So, I came to you, Big Brother."

"Breakfast is served," said the serving droid.

Breakfast looked scrumptious as usual, but no one was doing much eating. Crosshair fell asleep on Echo's shoulder, Caroline against her chair, and Wrecker had his face in his food, but not because he was eating like a pig; because he was using his pancakes as a pillow. Everyone else was falling asleep too either with their face in their food or leaning back in their chair or against the shoulder of the person next to them.

Luke and Leia started crying, and Padme was so exhausted. It felt like such a chore just to be able to give Leia alone her breakfast.

"I know, Luke. You'll get breakfast when I'm finished with Leia." Padme yawned, just barely able to stop herself from spilling baby food on the floor.

"I can take her, Padme, Dear." Shmi said, taking Luke tiredly.

The horses arrived for breakfast too, but they all collapsed to the floor, deep in sleep. Even Indira could barely keep her eyes open and the rest of her balanced. A certain protocol droid and princess of the night were quick to notice this.

"Yikes!" Diamond exclaimed, rolling out of the way of Crescent before he could fall on her.

"What's the grub for this morning?" Carousella yawned.

"I haven't had such a poorly rested night since that time we tried to find that cricket in the haystacks." Banjo said with a yawn.

"If I were in a production of Sleeping Beauty," said Teatra tiredly. She yawned loudly. "I could definitely play the title character."

Gabby yawned hugely as she left the table to help Carousella with her breakfast, but she bumped right into R2, and then C-3PO.

"Sorry, R2!" Gabby yelped. "Sorry, Threepio."

But then she tripped on Mini-R2!

"Whoa!"

Luckily, Crescent was able to catch her with his wing; part of royal guard training was knowing how to be alert even when exhausted.

Mini-R2 beeped angrily until Gabby came and helped him up. She dusted off his little head.

"Sorry, Mini-R2." Gabby said.

She yawned again and started to fall asleep as she climbed back into her chair at the table.

"Oh, dear! Everyone appear very exhausted this morning, don't they?" said Threepio.

"You think?" Lamenta said. "I think I'm the only organic being awake here."

"Don't tell me Master Ani made everyone stay up all night watching horror movies."

"That was one time, and it was just Carmine!" Anakin snapped before falling asleep in his plate of eggs and bacon.

Qui-Gon was snoring face-down in his bowl of oatmeal, and Boba was so out of it he didn't realize he was holding his phone backwards as he tried to send a text.

"I really need some coffee this morning" Anakin yawned, grabbing the orange juice and pouring that into his mug, not realizing it was juice until he took a sip. "That's not coffee."

Lamenta giggled. "Nope. That's the orange juice, Uncle Ani." she found the coffee pot and helped her uncle pour some in another cup.

Anakin felt sweet relief as he took a sip.

"Thanks, Lamb."

"Hmm. Looks like everyone could use some of this stuff."

So, Lamenta poured everyone a cup of coffee, even the other kids.

Everyone who was able to stay awake long enough drank some coffee and started to feel a little boost.

"Wow, I needed that!" Crosshair said, feeling relieved.

Lamenta even poured some for the horses.

"That's good stuff," said Crescent, licking up some coffee.

"I never imagined I'd need this stuff so badly." Indira said, taking a big gulp of coffee.

Gabby took a small sip and got a strong boost of energy and started to feel much more like herself in seconds.

"Whoo! That woke me up!" She exclaimed.

"Me too." Omega said. Then she yawned again. "But not enough."

Omega took a bigger sip of coffee to wake up faster.

"I haven't felt this tired since we studied for that test until midnight." Boba yawned.

"I told you staying up that late was a bad idea, Boba." Omega said. "But at least we're not in school now."

"But you do graduate and take finals very soon, and you're not the only ones who will beed their beauty sleep." Kara said, yawning. "I need three days' straight worth of sleep at this rate."

That was when Anakin's comm beeped. Anakin was almost startled into spilling his coffee before he answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Anakin," said Obi-Wan, sounding tired. "Master Yoda has called an emergency *yawn* Council meeting. We request your family's presence as well."

"You sound tired, Master." Anakin commented.

"Probably because I am. Get whoever you can and get here soon."

That was also when everyone who'd drank coffee started falling asleep again; the effects of caffeine would only last so long.

Anakin hung up and shouted, "WAKE UP!"

Everyone suddenly shot awake, many with food on their faces.

"I'm awake!" Hunter exclaimed, wearing a bacon strip mustache.

"What? Where? Who turned out the lights?" Tech said, unable to see since he had eggs on his goggles, which made Lamenta and the other kids laugh.

"Ani, must you shout?" Shmi said.

"You could've made me smash the table," scolded Qui-Gon, oatmeal all over his face.

"Uh, I know oatmeal is good for your skin, Grandpa Qui-Gon..." said Gabby, trying not to laugh. "But I don't think you're supposed to sleep in it before eating it."

Sighing, Qui-Gon cleaned his face and asked Anakin why he woke everyone up so drastically.

The Jedi Council and the entire royal family was present for the meeting, except no one appeared able to stay awake. Hardly anyone even changed out of their pajamas before arriving. At most, some just put on a bathrobe over their sleepwear. Even Master Yoda looked exhausted this morning, and so did all the horses.

"Another predicament... we are in." Yoda yawned. "Sleep, none of us could. Will anyone share why sleep they could not?"

Most were too sleepy to pay attention. Even normally super energetic Comedia was fast asleep, laying her head in Master Mundi's lap.

Mace was laying back in his chair, snoring. His wife and children were back in the apartment, all fast asleep too.

Plo Koon sat asleep in his chair. It was hard to tell at first with his mask and goggles, but judging by how still he was, and the steady breathing, he was definitely asleep.

Masters Fisto and Tinn were both fast asleep, Eeth could barely keep his eyes open, and Obi-Wan was struggling to stay awake as he rocked Olivia, Satine having been too exhausted herself.

"I think everyone's too tired right now." Carmine yawned, falling asleep on Kara's shoulder.

"Okay, that's it!" Kara said, pushing Carmine off, making him fall on the floor, as she was getting cranky. "Boba, splash cold water on everyone's faces. Now!"

That startled Boba awake. If there was one thing worse than the lack of sleep making everyone feel out of it, it was that it made some folks very cranky.

"Okay! Okay! Geez, lack of sleep makes Aunt Kara cranky." Boba said.

So, Boba concentrated, and as his aunt commanded, he splashed cold water into everyone's faces, waking everyone right up with a gasp. Everyone started to calm themselves from the cold, wet awakening and try to dry themselves off either on their sleeves or with whatever towel someone could provide them.

"Okay, now that everyone's a little more awake," said Kara. "Who will go first?"

"I will," said Ahsoka.

Ahsoka explained that last night, when she went to bed, everything was fine. But then, she had a bad dream that she was battling some really dangerous criminals on Mustafar, and then she was hanging off the edge of a cliff. And then she woke up. Naturally, she was relieved to find it was just a nightmare. She'd taken a moment to calm down, and then fell asleep again. But then, her nightmare returned, and this time it was worse.

This time, in her nightmare, she'd managed to get up from the cliff, when she heard a familiar voice calling to her for help, and when she looked over the edge, she was horrified to see it was her master hanging for his life, yelling, "Ahsoka, help me!" And in her dream, Ahsoka desperately tried to save her master. She reached for him, but just before she could grab his hand, someone else grabbed her from behind and pulled her back, forcing Ahsoka to watch as Anakin slipped and fell down to the river of lava while she screamed "NO!" in dismay.

"That sounds horrifying!" Gabby said.

"It was. Afterward, I couldn't go back to sleep. So, I just lay awake the rest of the night." Ahsoka yawned.

"I had a nightmare last night too." Gabby said. "At first, I was dreaming I was at a big party, and we were all dancing, but then a bunch of giant hairy spiders came in and trapped everyone in icky, sticky webs."

"You think you had a nightmare?" said Boba, shuddering as he recalled his unforgettably awful dream. "I dreamt I was marrying Aurra Sing, and she kept trying to kiss me!"

Boba looked like he wanted to throw up at that moment. So did the other kids. Not surprisingly, Boba found it impossible to go back to sleep after that, so like Ahsoka, Boba spent the rest of the night laying awake, hugging his sister by his side after she crawled in with him.

"What about the grownups?" Omega asked.

Obi-Wan took a turn. At first, he had a nice dream that he and his family were out in the park on a picnic together in a park filled with blue butterflies, but then, tons of dark clouds filled the air and struck purple lightning that changed Obi-Wan's sweet dream into a nightmare that Maul came back from the dead again and got to his entire family.

The other Jedi began taking turns describing their dreams as well, and most of them started out as sweet dreams full of good things and happiness, but then they saw these dark clouds and purple lightning just before all sorts of terrible things happened.

Eeth dreamed he was stuck on the scariest roller coaster of his life, whereas Mace had a nightmare that he was in a terrible crash. And when they questioned the Batch, they learned Wrecker dreamed he was falling from the sky, Tech dreamed he was being attacked by a kraken.

That was when Lamenta started to notice a pattern. Everyone here, so far, was woken up by horrible nightmares, each one starting out as a sweet dream, and then the dreamers saw dark clouds with purple lightning just before they had the nightmares that woke them up.

"I didn't have a dream at first," said Sunheart, but then I dreamed I was in a hospital of the undead."

"My dream was if a traumatic memory from when I was a filly," said Grassi. "A time I was nearly eaten by a giant clam. I'm not kidding. The ones in Enchanted waters are literally big enough to swallow a foal in one bite."

"What about you, Comedia?" Ki-Adi asked his daughter.

Comedia just hid herself in her wings; it was obvious she didn't want to talk about her dream.

"Comedia, what's the matter? Did you have another nightmare about your parents?"

"No."

"Then, what did you see?"

"Don't make me see it again!" Comedia cried, sounding terrified. "It's too horrible!"

The poor mare was shaking. Actually, trembling was more like it. She lay her head in her father's lap again, and he started petting her head to calm her down.

Qui-Gon was mortified to admit what his nightmare was; in his dream, he was in a public area, naked.

The kids all shuddered.

"Sounds like a nightmare for all of us!" Boba cringed.

"Thanks for putting that image in our heads, Grandpa!" Gabby said sarcastically.

"I still haven't gotten it out from mine," mumbled Kara, holding her aching head as she recalled when she walked in on her father and stepmother both... indecent.

"In my dream," Diamond said. "I saw this scary lady on a hill. She looked like a sorcerer of some kind in purple and black robes, and she cast a spell with purple clouds, lightning, and she was laughing. Andthen everything turned scary!"

Carmine thought of something. "Wait a minute. Now that I think of it, I saw a woman who looked like that just before my nightmare started too."

"So did I," said Peppermint.

"So did I," added Comedia.

Finally, Padme looked at Lamenta.

"Lamenta, don't you normally sense nightmares and turn them back into dreams?" Padme asked.

"Normally, yes. But not when I'm knocked into a deep sleep. That's when I tend to go into my dreamless state. If I'm on cough syrup or I'm extremely exhausted, my mind needs to be completely shut off so I can recharge and my power is strong enough to work while I'm sleeping. So, I didn't even sense nightmares or even happy dreams. Any dreamers last night were pretty much on their own then."

That made Lamenta stop and think. If she could turn nightmares into dreams, what if there were folks who could do the reverse of that spell?

The Jedi and the royal family interviewed as many people as they could, and sure enough, everyone they spoke to said they had a nightmare and saw dark clouds with purple lightning just before they started, and some even saw a woman in black and purple robes. It wasn't just the Jedi or the royal family either; people in Hera's town were having nightmares too. And so was everyone else on Ryloth, Naboo, and/or Coruscant.

Lamenta rushed home as Garrett was laying on his bed, trying to catch up on sleep with his wife, when Goldie and Lamenta shook him awake.

"Daddy, wake up!" Goldie said.

"Not now, Goldie." Garrett groaned, putting a pillow over his head."

"But we think we know why everyone's having nightmares!" Goldie said, shaking her father again.

"Everyone's saying they saw a woman in purple and black, and she made clouds with purple lightning," said Lamenta. "Do you know if any criminals in the MARED database fit that bill?"

"Get R2 to help you," said Garrett with a yawn.

Goldie and Lamenta sighed. Obviously, Garrett was too tired to do anything. He couldn't even do class with the royal family today because they were all too tired. Inconveniently, Goldie started yawning again.

"Goldie, maybe you should go take a nap." Lamenta suggested.

"Don't have to tell me twice," sighed Goldie. And she got under the blankets and went to sleep beside her equally exhausted parents. The Batch were all sleeping again now, as were the horses and the rest of the family, so they wouldn't be much help now.

So, Lamenta, being the only one who could stay awake at the moment, went to fetch R2 and Mini R2, and together they searched the database. Threepio, of course, helped Lamenta, as she was still learning to use this particular system.

"It appears the description matched that of a woman name Nefari Navarro. A highly dangerous fugitive." Threepio said.

"Wait a minute! Navarro?" Lamenta said, recognizing that surname.

Lamenta typed in some information, and then she found something. Just as she suspected, she was related to none other than Silvaria Navarro, the late Sidious' ex-fiance.

Nefari was in fact Silvaria's younger sister, and similar to the latter, Nefari fed on fear created by people's greatest fears. Except, while Silvaria used pesadilas to make illusions of people's worst fears while they were awake, Nefari attacked people while they were sleeping by entering the realm of dreams and turning dreamers' dreams into horrible nightmares. When she was arrested, she was transformed into a blob of purple gas that had to stay in the dark. Fitting, as she was also known to create a powerful sleeping gas that could place people into a deep sleep within seconds. In order to enter the realm of dreams, she needed to enter the mind of any dreamer while they were asleep. Then, from there, she could feed on fear caused by nightmares and make herself powerful enough to re-enter the real world as a human and torment dreamers on as many worlds as she wanted.

So far, Nefari could only enter the dreams of folks on Ryloth, Coruscant, and Naboo because she was only able to get into the minds of people who lived and slept on those worlds. But if she managed to get into the real world by feeding off enough fear from everyone's nightmares...

"We have to do something!" Lamenta said.

"If this villain is as dangerous as you say," said Threepio. "How exactly do you plan to stop her yourself?"

"She's trapped in the realm of dreams. She can't attack anyone unless it's night and they're asleep."

Lamenta did some research. Nefari, like many night wielding enchanteds, was a nocturnal spell caster, meaning she only fed at night. So, everyone napping in the daytime was safe... for now anyway.

"Now that I really think about it... all those diurnal gremlins appearing on Ryloth, making me need to make night come early, and then everyone having magically induced nightmares? That can't be a coincidence!" Lamenta theorized. "My hypothesis: Nefari either did so herself, or hired someone to place those gremlins on purpose, knowing someone would send a night wielder so she could get into someone's head and start causing nightmares again."

Garrett was having Lamenta study more about the realm of dreams recently, and according to what she learned so far, only a night wielder could perform the spell that could extract a nightmare maker from the realm of dreams. And being the only one with night powers, it was up to her. But it wouldn't be easy with the number of people whose dreams she'd entered so far. There was no way of knowing whose dream she would enter first.

"Judging by how everyone stayed up all night to avoid nightmares, and the fact that no worlds aside from Naboo, Ryloth, or Coruscant have been taunted by nightmares, Nefari hasn't gained enough power to enter the real world."

There was only one way to stop Nefari. Lamenta had to get as many people as she could gathered for a sleepover, and enter all their dreams to catch Nefari.

"R2, Mini, send a message to the Jedi Council and the entire family to come here tonight for a sleepover in the ballroom. Threepio, get out all the sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and sleep masks you can find." Lamenta got a determined look on her face. "No one messes with my family and gets away with it! Tonight, I'm gonna be Nefari's worst nightmare."