The inquisitor leaned against the side of the boarding ramp of the Mentis Mal, silently brooding.

Moff Toffee. That idiot. I have a job to do, and he lets those two escape again. I oughta cut that sleemo's tail off and shove it up his-

"So, uh..." Security Officer Rosado clomping his way down the ramp interrupted the inquisitor's thoughts. "Do you have any idea where we should try to...you know...pick up the trail again?"

"Nope. You got any more brilliant ideas like you had on Corellia?"

"...I do not."

"Then I guess we're out of luck unless someone responds to our BOLO."

"I guess so."

Before another thought could pass between them, the clicking footfalls of several stormtroopers approaching could be heard. There were three, each guiding an anti-grav stretcher. The stretchers held black body bags, each emblazoned with the new logo of the Imperial Army.

"Troopers!" The inquisitor raised a hand to halt them. "What are you doing?"

"The Moff instructed us to move the bodies of the royal family away and burn them, sir," answered the closest of the stormtroopers.

The inquisitor stepped forward. "Senator Eclipsa Butterfly is in one of these?"

"Yes, sir," said the trooper bringing up last stretcher in line. "This one."

"Leave her here."

Rosado frowned as he came up beside the Jedi hunter. "I almost hate to ask why..." He could practically see the inquisitor smiling beneath its helmet.

"I may have an idea."

Rosado shivered, and he couldn't be sure if it was because the temperature was dropping with the sinking sun, or if the inquisitor's words had unnerved him to the point of chills.

The troopers gently laid the body bag containing Senator Eclipsa Butterfly on the ground. The inquisitor dismissed the stormtroopers, leaving the Jedi hunter with Security Officer Rosado and the cadaver at the end of the boarding ramp.

"What exactly is your plan here?" Rosado asked as he watched the inquisitor open the bag and expose the Senator's head. Moff Toffee's killing shot had been slightly off target, the blaster bolt having burned away the flesh from the left side of Eclipsa's cranium, exposing but not fracturing the skull. Rosado grimaced. More pointless death.

"I don't suppose you've ever heard of Quinlan Vos?" The inquisitor parted the dead senator's green hair at the very front of her head.

"Quinlan Vos...it sounds vaguely familiar...but... I'm not sure?"

"He was a Jedi. Well, he may actually still be alive. I haven't heard if any of the other inquisitors have managed to track him down yet or not. Anyway, he was gifted with a Force-power that he called 'psychometry'. It allowed him to see the history of inanimate objects when he touched them, things like the people who held that object and what they did while holding it. Almost as if he were reading the memories of the object." The inquisitor ran its gloved fingers gently across Eclipsa's forehead. "This senator had regular contact with her niece Butterfly since she lived in such close proximity on Coruscant. Maybe she knew something useful that will help us track down those kids. I'm wondering if maybe I can read her memories with the Force much the same way Quinlan Vos read the history of objects."

"You can do that?"

"Did you seriously not hear me just say 'maybe' like five seconds ago?"

"...Sorry."

The inquisitor laid the finger tips of a gloved hand upon Eclipsa's brow, eyes closing beneath its helmet. "Let's see if I can find us a place to start."

Security Officer Rosado quietly watched from a respectful distance as the inquisitor attempted to read the memories of the deceased Republic Senator. The Jedi hunter sat motionless, mentally awash within the Force.

After twenty minutes, the inquisitor broke its connection, exhausted from the sheer depth of concentration and will it exerted. It considered giving up, but decided on a second attempt. It placed its fingers upon Eclipsa's brow once more and resumed its intense focus, attempting to read the memories that were hopefully still preserved by the midichlorians residing within.

Five more minutes passed. Then ten. Then twenty.

This is dumb, the inquisitor thought. This is a person, not an inanimate object. Memories don't just cling to-

"Any last words?"

Through blurry vision, Moff Toffee's evil smile and piercing gaze stared down at her.

"You may kill us, but trust me when I say you will never get Star and Marco. They are far too clever. And as long as those two kids are still alive, your days as the ruling power on Mewni are numbered."

The evil eyes lowered. "We'll see about that."

The inquisitor flinched as a sharp pain struck in its head, wrenching its hand away from Eclipsa's cranium. Immediately, the pain vanished. "Whoa..."

Rosado was sitting a few meters away on the boarding ramp of the Mentis Mal. "Everything okay, Inquisitor?"

"I did it. I just watched the Senator's last memory from her perspective. As Toffee executed her."

"That's kinda terrifying."

The inquisitor shook away the brief feeling of shock. "I did it. I was able to read her memories." It caressed Eclipsa's matted hair with a gloved hand. "Well, well, Senator. Your secrets are mine now. Let's see if we can't find out something more useful."

The inquisitor became consumed by the Force once more, and delved into Senator Butterfly's memories.


Star shivered again at the cold as the boarding ramp lowered to the ice shelf. Despite the heavy fur-lined parka and trousers Janna and Tom had provided to her, her short, sleeveless blue dress did not do much good for insulation. She did still have Marco's hoodie on beneath the parka, but even it didn't help much. She pulled the hood tighter over her head, her horn-headband helping to keep the wind from blowing it off.

"C'mon," Janna urged. "Let's get inside."

They hurried down the boarding ramp, Tom lagging behind for just a moment to retract the ramp again and seal the Raventalon against the icy wind. PY-HD, on the other hand, raced ahead, twittering frantically about its sensors being frozen and how they would never thaw out.

With the new .5-class hyperdrive aboard the Raventalon, they'd reached the Outer Rim in record time. Janna had set the ship down on a flat ice shelf less than a minute's walk from the entrance to the abandoned Republic outpost.

Marco was worried about his best friend. He wasn't used to her being so quiet. Obviously, Star was grieving the loss of her family, but the way she had snapped and attacked him back on Mewni had him concerned about her overall mental state. Hesitantly, he reached out and took her by the hand as they walked. She did not look at him, nor did she say anything, but she did close her fingers gently around his, and that made both of them feel a little bit better.

The main entrance doors slid apart as PY-HD commanded them open, revealing an empty, low-ceilinged hanger that at one time housed speeder bikes. The astromech closed the doors behind them once again and activated the low-power emergency lights.

"Here we are," Janna announced. "Home sweet hideout."

"Doesn't really look like much," Marco said as he glanced around the empty room.

"This is just the hanger," Tom explained. "There's several levels." PY-HD pushed past him, making a series of sarcastic beeps. "There's a generator room under us, which Pony Head is heading to right now to get the power on."

The pair of Padawans watched as the astromech slid into a lift at the back of the room and disappeared.

"There's also barracks, a kitchen, a dining hall, a whole floor devoted to storage, and the command deck," Janna added as they made their way back to the lift. "And there is heat, but its a big space, so it takes awhile to warm up."

"I'm really hoping there's a place somewhere that I can take a shower," Marco joked. He'd dried his clothes on board the Raventalon on the trip to the Outer Rim, but he still felt quite icky from their swim in the drainage tunnel.

"There is. In the barracks," Tom told him. They all paused as the bright lights came on, accompanied by the initial whirring of the generator somewhere below them. "Speaking of which, I don't know about you guys, but I am beat."

"Me too," Janna concurred. "I think we could all probably stand to get cleaned up and have a good rest."

Marco nodded. "Yeah. I'm exhausted." He looked to Star. The princess had her eyes downcast, fixated on some random point on the floor. She gave a barely perceivable nod.

The door to the lift slid open, revealing PY-HD, twittering to its organic companions. Janna motioned for the others to follow her in joining the astromech in the lift. "C'mon, guys. Let's go."

After Tom and Janna had crammed in beside their droid, Marco had to let go of Star's hand in order to fit inside. They all watched as Star stood motionless, still staring at the floor.

"Star?" Marco asked softly. "Are you coming?"

Star took a very long, very slow, very deep breath. "Yeah." She squeezed into the lift with her friends and they rode up to the barracks.


Security Officer Rosado was equal parts fascinated and terrified of just what the inquisitor could do with the Force as it's ally. Sure, he knew that Force-users could manipulate physical objects and beings in space, moving them around by sheer will, and he had heard that they could influence the thoughts of the weak-minded...

...but reading the memories of the deceased? That was where using the Force turned creepy in his opinion.

The inquisitor did not share his thoughts. In fact, it had no thoughts whatsoever. It had entered a trance-like state, Eclipsa's memories playing out before its eyes as if they were the inquisitor's own, and all cognitive thought had ceased. This left the Jedi hunter "stuck" and unable to break its connection to the Force or exit the Senator's memories.

After the third hour passed and the inquisitor had not budged from its position kneeling over Eclipsa Butterfly's body, Rosado was beginning to wonder if he should ask his partner if it was okay. But as he stood from his seat on the bottom of the Mentis Mal's boarding ramp, he had a flashback of the inquisitor aiming its lightsaber at the spot between his eyes and decided against it.

And then the inquisitor abruptly fell over on its side, motionless.

"Inquisitor!" Rosado hurried to his partner's side. The helmet and armor made it impossible to tell if the Jedi hunter was conscious or even breathing. "Inquisitor, are you okay?"

Several excruciatingly long seconds passed. And then, the inquisitor spoke, the electronically altered voice coming slowly through the helmet. "I saw...everything." It sat up. "Every single memory and feeling still contained in the Senator's mind...I saw it all."

That's creepy. "And did you...learn anything helpful?"

Rosado could almost hear the smile in the inquisitor's voice as it answered. "Oh, yes. Very, helpful."


Marco awoke uneasily to find that he was alone.

"Star?"

He rolled out from beneath the covers, finding that the temperature in the barracks had become pleasantly warm as he slept, the heating elements finally successful in driving the cold from the long abandoned outpost. He spied Janna and Tom each sleeping soundly in their own bunks on the opposite side of the room. Only about two dozen Republic troopers had been stationed at the outpost during the Clone Wars, so the barracks were not large, but there were more than enough bunks for the two smugglers to have a significant buffer between them. Star had climbed into bed with Marco as they turned in earlier that evening, but he had found her demeanor uneasy and hesitant.

Not finding his best friend anywhere in the living quarters, Marco took the lift up to the command deck. Here, several panes of transparisteel had been set into the face of the tall rock formation that the base had been hewn from. It provided the only view of the outside that did not involve opening the hanger door. PY-HD was there, plugged into the central terminal. Most of the outpost's sensor arrays were still functional, and Janna had instructed the droid to monitor for incoming ships. The astromech bleeped a sarcastic greeting as Marco stepped out of the lift.

"Hey, Pony. Have you seen Star? I can't find her."

PY-HD twittered back a reply.

"Oh, right, I forgot. I don't understand droid binary."

The droid smacked it's dome into the terminal in frustration. It unplugged from the computer and rolled over to the window. Marco followed. Several stories below, obscured by the perpetual haze of snow and ice kicked up by the wind, stood Star, standing motionless as she stared out into the darkness.

"What is she doing out there?" Marco wondered aloud. He quickly turned and hurried back to the lift, returning to the barracks for his cold weather gear before heading down to the hanger.

Star was only about a dozen paces off beyond the doors. Marco approached slowly, the snow crunching softly beneath his feet. "Star?"

At first, he thought she hadn't heard him over the wind, but she responded with a half-hearted greeting. "Hi...Marco."

"What, uh...what are you doing out here?"

She slowly turned to face him. "I just wanted to...be alone." She gestured to their bleak and desolate surroundings. "Doesn't get much more alone than this," she sighed.

Marco shifted. Never in his life had he felt uncomfortable talking to Star, but he certainly was now. "Are you, uh...okay?"

"My homeworld just got invaded by the Empire and my family is dead. What do you think?"

Marco looked away. "Right. Yeah."

Star let her legs crumple beneath her and fell to a sitting position in the snow, hugging her knees to her chest. "This is all my fault. I never should have suggested going back to Mewni. Mom and Dad and Aunt Eclipsa would still be alive right now if it wasn't for me."

Marco sat down beside her, wrapping one arm around his best friend and holding her close. But he remained silent.

Star looked at him. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Like what?"

"Like that it isn't my fault, and how would we have known the Empire would find us, and we're only two kids, what would we have done? And blah, blah, blah."

Marco shook his head. "No," he said matter-of-factly.

She raised an eyebrow. "You're not?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because no matter what I say, I'll never change your mind. Besides, you clearly already know all the things I could say right now."

Star blinked, feeling the frozen moisture crackle on her eyelashes. "Huh." Yeah...he's right. She gently nestled into his side, and he held her tighter. For a few minutes, they sat in silence as the harsh wind whipped ice and snow at them.

"Do you have a plan?" Star asked, breaking the silence. "For taking back Mewni from the Empire?"

"Sort of."

"What is it?"

"For starters, you and I need to perfect our Force-cleave ability."

"How are we even going to do that without Glossaryck? The only time we used that power successfully, we passed out!"

Marco squeezed her shoulders. "C'mon, Star. You and me together, we'll figure it out! We already know what to do, we just have to do it, you know, better."

Star was skeptical, but voiced no further concerns. "Okay, assuming that we can learn to do it better, then what?"

"Then..." Then...what? There's still only four of us. Even if we can learn to Force-cleave perfectly, I doubt we can do this on our own. "I guess...we'll have to find help."

"Where are we gonna find anyone willing to help us? We need an army, and by now I'm sure anyone who would help has heard what happens to people who try to defy the Empire."

Marco sighed. "Yeah, I'm still working on that part."

They both fell silent once more. Several minutes passed.

"Marco?"

"Yeah, Star?"

"I'm cold."

Marco gave a small laugh. "C'mon. Let's go inside."

"Okay."

He helped her to her feet and she clung to him as they made their way back into the hideout. In the barracks, Marco helped Star to shed her cold weather gear before taking off his own and leading her back to their bunk. She remained silent and kept her eyes downturned throughout.

As he slid into bed beside her, she wrapped her arms around him once again and buried her face into his shirt. "Hey, Marco?"

"Yeah, Star?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too, Star."

He felt her grip him even tighter. "Promise me you'll never leave me."

He gently stroked her hair. "I promise."

Marco only hoped that was a promise he would never be forced to break.

Next: Act 2

No sneak peak for reviewing on this particular chapter. I don't want to give away what happens next.