First chapter of 2023. Enjoy!
The sound of her friends' voices calling out her name faded into the stillness of the Tatooine night as Star Butterfly ran from Mos Espa Spaceport and out into the desert. She had no idea what lay beyond the next dune (aside from more sand and most likely another dune) and no idea where she as going. All she knew was that she was alone.
Her plan, loose though it may be, was clear: Leave her friends behind. She would not allow them to risk their lives for her any longer. Somewhere out here in the dunes there had to be another settlement, somewhere she could hitch a ride on a freighter off of Tatooine. Without the stealth ship Tom and Rosado had flown from Anaxes, she had no means of getting past the Mewni blockade, and while she considered trying to find "Beggar's Canyon" where Janna had instructed them to hide it, she decided against it. Even if she could find it, she doubted she'd be able to fly it, nor figure out how to use the cloaking device on her own. So, as she ran through the dunes, she devised a new plan.
Hitch a ride off-world was obviously step one. Once she was off Tatooine, there would be no chance of her friends tracking her down. Step two would require a great deal of stealth: Find an Imperial base, sneak inside, find a routing schedule, and then stowaway aboard any ship that would take her to Mewni. She may have to hop around from base-to-base a few times before she could reach one from which a ship bound for Mewni was departing, but that was okay. All that mattered to Star was that she alone. No one else she cared for would die.
She ran for nearly an hour without stopping, drawing strength from the Force to aid her muscles and lungs. Eventually, the dunes fell away, and Star found herself tearing across an empty, featureless expanse of sand. Her left hand carried her lightsaber, and her right hand held Marco's, pumping the weighted hilts back and forth as she ran like exercise dumbbells. Having formulated her plan, no thoughts flowed through her mind, her focus drawn entirely on the Force, using it to help propel her onward.
Star ran for one hour. Then two. Then three. The desert became much cooler in the absence of twin suns, but the young Padawan barely noticed, her body warmed by the continuous workout.
At last, Star began to tire. Even the aid of the Force could not sustain her indefinitely. Her run slowed to a jog, then a trot, and then a walk. And walk on she did, hour after hour after hour. But with the Force no longer aiding her, and no food in her stomach, and having not slept since before the raid on Anaxes, Star began to feel weak.
Her legs ached. Her eyelids grew heavy, sinking over stinging eyes, dry from the arid atmosphere. The weight of the lightsabers in her hands increased by the minute. Eventually, she was forced to return them to her purple bag.
Worst of all was the cold. The Tatooine desert did not typically plummet to uncomfortable levels at night, but out on the flat and featureless sandy plains, there was a consistent breeze, making the cooler night air feel colder than it was. Star's sleeveless dress was light and offered little protection from the wind, causing the wind to feel like icy daggers against her skin.
Maybe I was a little too ill-equipped for this… Star thought. But she never considered turning back. In her mind, that was not an option.
The wind picked up, whistling past her ears and blowing her long hair around her wildly, kicking up sand and blowing it into her eyes. Star shielded her face with her hand.
I need to get out of this wind. It could be a sandstorm.
The swirling dust made vision even more difficult in the darkness of night. Star drew Marco's lightsaber from her bag and ignited it, hoping the glowing blade would help her find something she could use for shelter.
There was nothing.
So Star pressed on.
As it turned out, the strengthening wind was indeed a sandstorm. Star trudged through the endless void of swirling sand, holding Marco's lightsaber ahead of her to help light the way. The blade crackled constantly, trailing smoke as thousands of sand particles were instantly vaporized by the plasma.
Gotta keep going…gotta keep going…
Desperate to protect her eyes, nose, mouth, and cheeks, Star held her mane of blonde hair across her face with her free hand, peering between the strands through a squint.
Gotta keep going…gotta keep going…
The sand stung her exposed skin like a swarm of insects, and crunched in the joints of her cybernetic arm. Star could even feel it trickling down past the neckline of her thin dress, the particulate against her skin. She shivered, chilled to the bone.
Gotta keep going…gotta keep going…
At last, the winds died down, and Star switched off Marco's lightsaber. She could finally stop shivering, and she attempted to shake some of the sand from her hair and clothing.
Then the twin suns began to rise, and so, too, rapidly, did the temperature. By the time the suns had reached the midpoint of the sky, Star's clothing had become drenched in sweat. Where her skin was bare, however, the blinding suns instantly evaporated the moisture, and scorched the cells of her epidermis. By midday, she had become dehydrated on top of extreme exhaustion and hunger, her dragging boots leaving a pair of ruts in the sand.
"Gotta keep going…gotta keep going…"
The intense sunlight reflecting off the sand felt like daggers in her retinas, and Star barely had the energy to raise a hand to shield her eyes. The hot air burned her exhausted lungs and parched throat. Her scalded skin screamed, and aching muscles begged for rest. Her vision blurred, and she could scarcely even make out her surroundings.
"Gotta…keep…going…"
Star whispered the same three words to herself over and over and over again. Her exhausted mind barely capable of thought, the words she repeated to herself were the only thing giving her the strength to continue putting one foot in front of the other.
Until she no longer could do even that. Her left boot caught awkwardly in the sand, and she pitched forward, landing facedown with a heavy thud.
"Gotta…I gotta…keep…"
With immense effort, Star managed to gain traction in the soft sand and drag herself forward half a meter. And then another half. And another. And another.
"…Keep…going…"
But her limbs gave out altogether in short order, and Star could not move another centimeter.
"…Keep…going…" she whispered to herself as her fingertips dug into the sand, fruitlessly trying to pull her forward.
"Gotta…gotta…keep…"
Star could no longer hold her head up. She was beyond exhausted, severely dehydrated, and hopelessly lost in the endless expanse of desert, and at last, she was forced to rest her cheek in the scorching sand.
"…Gotta…keep…keep…"
But she couldn't. She could move no more.
"…I…I can't…keep…going…"
With no choice but to rest, Star finally allowed her muscles to go limp. Instantly, her entire body entered a state of incredible relief and relaxation, but also a not insignificant amount of pain.
Unfortunately, any amount of relief soon disappeared as the rays of the twin suns relentlessly beat down upon her already scalded skin. Star knew she would have to keep moving until she found shelter. So, with great reluctance, she rose to her knees-
But she couldn't. She couldn't rise to her knees. She couldn't lift her head from the sand. She could barely even bend her fingers. Star's muscles were so strained, her body had all but shut down. She simply was incapable of moving.
"Uhh…not good…"
The concept of time ceased to exist. How long did Star lay facedown in the hot sands of the endless desert? She could not say.
Why…why did I do this? I'm going to die all alone out here, and my friends will never even know what happened to me…
The suns scalded her neck, arms, and face, turning her skin an angry crimson.
Without me, Mewni is doomed. I failed. All those poor Mewmans will keep suffering because I tried to do this alone…
Star wanted to cry, but her tear ducts had no moisture left for tears. Dehydration had turned to delirium, and her mind was beginning to play tricks on her, creating apparitions in the rippling heat waves rising from the desert floor…
A squadron of stormtroopers marching in formation strode toward her from the horizon. Monstrous insects buzzed circles overhead. Tiny humanoids with colorful transparent wings fluttered back and forth in her vision. Each time something appeared, she would clench her eyes shut, and the mirage would disappear, only for another to appear soon after.
And blaze did the suns. Star felt as though she were literally cooking from the inside out; every centimeter of skin felt like it were ablaze. She clenched her eyes shut against the intense brightness.
"This is the end…" Star moaned aloud. "I'm going to die…"
Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. A ship had appeared on the horizon.
Another mirage… she thought, closing her eyes tightly again.
But when she opened them, the ship was still there. Surprised, she blinked hard, and to her great shock, the ship still had not vanished.
It's real?!
This was it. One last chance at survival. Perhaps the ship was crewed by pirates, or a bounty hunter, or some other such savage willing to kill a Jedi in the hopes of some monetary reward from the Empire. It didn't matter. One way or another, Star would die. At least if it were a savage, her death would likely be quicker and less painful.
And, of course, there was always a slim chance it could be someone willing to help her.
Drawing the Force around her, Star forced her limbs to move. She pushed herself up to a kneeling position, placed one foot down beneath her, and with Herculean effort, managed to stagger to her aching feet. She felt as if she would fall over at any second. Carefully, she took one small step toward the ship on the horizon. Then another. Then another. As the ship grew closer, so too did her confidence. She picked up speed, though she still hobbled along on weary, trembling legs.
"Hey!" she called out when she had about halved the distance to the ship, the words coming as little more than a hoarse whisper. Desperately attempting to moisten her lips and throat, she tried again. "Hey! Help! Please, help me!"
She could see a pair of beings milling about in the shade beneath the craft. A large box sat between them, and they would occasionally draw objects from it. Tools. A tool kit. They were repairing something.
"Help! Please!"
They stopped, examining something beneath the stabilizer wing. One nodded. The other slapped his companion on the back. They closed up the tool kit.
"Hey! Hey!"
The beings carried the tool kit up the ramp. They did not return.
"Help! Please! I need help!" Star hobbled faster.
The ramp retracted.
"No! Stop! Stop!" Two hundred meters still lay between her and the ship. She was close enough to hear the ship's sublight engines cough to life.
"Stop! Please, stop! Sto-!"
Star's right leg buckled beneath her and she face-planted into the sand. By the time she was able to lift herself up again, the ship was rising from the desert floor.
"No…"
It pointed its nose to the west and flew off toward the horizon, leaving a defeated Star far behind.
"…I'm going to die," she whispered quietly to herself. "I'm going to die…I'm going to die…I'm going to die…"
Star let her weary head fall back to the sand and closed her eyes.
And she blacked out.
"Star! Hey, Star!"
Her senses felt dull, thoughts were fuzzy. Something was jabbing her in the cheek, and she didn't fully comprehend what was happening.
"Wake up, Star!"
Her senses rapidly came flooding in, and she snapped back to reality. Eyelids popped open, she batted at whoever was repeatedly poking at her face.
"Hey! Knock it off!" And then Star's jaw hung slack as her eyes focused on the being prodding at her. "Glossaryck?!"
The little blue man floating overhead waved a friendly greeting. "Hey-o!"
"Glossaryck, what are you doing here?!" She quickly looked around. There was only blackness in every direction. At first, she thought it was night, but no stars twinkled above. There was no horizon, no ground. She couldn't even tell what she was laying on, as if the surface were invisible. "And, for that matter, where is 'here' exactly?"
Glossaryck shrugged. "I don't know. I was honestly hoping you could tell me, because…" He looked left, right, up. "…it looks like we're…nowhere."
Star slowly got to her feet. She no longer felt exhausted, the aches and burns vanished. The realization struck her like a stun baton. "Oh no…I'm dead. I died! I'm dead, aren't I?!"
"Hmm…well, if you're dead, then I'm dead," Glossaryck muttered. "And if you're saying I'm dead, well, I find that rather insulting."
"You don't remember dying?"
"I can't say I do. Do you?"
"Remember you dying?"
"I meant do you remember dying?"
"Oh. Yeah, I guess. I was in the desert on Tatooine."
Glossaryck raised an eyebrow. "Tatooine? What possible reason could you have to be there?"
"My friends and I stole a ship from an Imperial base on Anaxes, and we had to split up, so we met up again on Tatooine."
Glossaryck rubbed his chin. "Anaxes? That must have been after I died. I don't remember going there."
Star narrowed her eyes at the little blue man. "Have…have you been spying on me and my friends?"
"Not so much 'spying' as…covert protective observation."
Star's face went red with anger. "What?! And you never once thought to help us?!"
"You didn't need my help, Star. But trust me, I never would have let you die."
Star brandished her cybernetic arm. "What about when I got my kriffing arm cut off?! Huh? You didn't think that would have been a good time to step in?!"
"I didn't need to. Marco saved you. And then you saved Marco. Look, it's not my place to interfere with the natural order of things. But if I had believed you were about to die, I would have prevented it. Like I did on the Moonshadow."
"Moonshadow? The Star Destroyer?"
Glossaryck nodded. "Yup. I knew if Marco got corrupted by that Vader guy, he'd almost certainly kill you. You as his natural counter might be enough to keep him from being corrupted under normal circumstances, but that wasn't exactly normal. So I just kinda…" He made a pulling motion with his hands, as if yanking on an invisible rope. "…coaxed him back over into the light. The color of his eye got a little messed up for a minute there, but it seemed like it all worked out."
"Wait wait wait…so all that time I spent not trusting my best friend…was pointless?"
"Sure was."
"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"
"I didn't need to. Janna straightened you guys out. I tell ya, she is amazing. Is there nothing she can't do?"
Star stumbled over her words for a bit, unsure how to even express what she was feeling, but she eventually just gave up and sat down again, hugging her knees to her chest. She sighed, and just let the anger go. "Well, I guess there's no point in being upset with you now, seeing as how we're dead and all."
"There you go! That's the spirit! Although…" Glossaryck floated down to hover just beside Star's head, holding out the palm of his right hand toward her temple. "…Hmmm…"
"What?"
"…Are you sure you're dead?"
"Pretty sure."
"Because you don't feel dead."
"…Say what now?"
"Well, now that I'm dead, I guess I've become a part of the cosmic Force. I had wondered why everything felt so different here."
"Does that mean that right now…?"
"Yes, I think so. We must be in some sort of boundary between the physical world of the living Force, and the non-physical cosmic Force. But you, Star, your presence here feels unlike anything else I can sense around me, and you feel like you're still a part of the living Force."
"Then how am I here?"
Glossaryck shrugged. "I don't know. You must be really close to being dead, but your heart is still beating or something."
"Then…do you think I can go back?"
"I would imagine so."
Star sprang back to her feet. "How do I do that? I have to go back!"
"How should I know? I've never been here before, I don't know how to get out!"
Star clenched her fists in frustration and sank back to whatever counted as the floor, once again hugging her knees to her chest again. And she began to cry.
"I'm sorry, Star. Truly, I am. But there are actually things about the Force that even I don't know." Glossaryck chuckled. "Heck, every Force user for two or three thousand generations has believed that once you die and become a part of the cosmic Force, you lose your individuality. But here we are, and we still seem like individuals, don't we?"
Star looked up. "We…we do…Glossaryck, could Marco be here, too?!"
Glossaryck raised an eyebrow. "Marco? Why would Marco be here?" Then his eyes widened. "Ohhhh. He…?"
Star nodded.
"Oh, Star…I'm so sorry. I really liked Marco. He was a good kid." He sighed. "Well, you're the only other presence I've felt since I've been in here, but I suppose it's possible. Let me see…" The old Force-guru closed his eyes and held his hands outstretched, reaching out into the Force as far as he could.
Star slowly got to her feet once more. "Anything?" she asked hopefully.
For a moment, Glossaryck said nothing. Then: "You know, I think I do feel another presence here…"
"Is it Marco?!"
"I'm not sure, but it seems familiar…"
"Then it's gotta be Marco!"
And then suddenly, Star's vision became fuzzy. She looked down at her hands and arms and saw that they had become transparent, as if she were fading away. "Glossaryck! What's happening?!"
When he opened his eyes, Glossaryck was surprised to find the Princess fading from existence. "I believe you're returning to the physical realm, Star."
"But-but what about Marco?!"
"I'm not even sure it is him, Star."
She looked at her arms again. Her hands had completely vanished. Her feet had, too. "Well…if it is him…tell him…!" She was fading fast now. Her arms had disappeared all the way up to her elbows, and her legs to her knees. "Tell him…!" Her mind raced. What should she say? Her limbs were completely gone now, and her vision was so dim she could barely see Glossaryck. Her head must have been fading away, too. "Tell him…I love him."
Glossaryck smiled. "I will, Star."
"Goodbye, Glossaryck. Thank you…"
"Goodbye, Star."
And then she was gone. Glossaryck sighed. "Alone in the void again…"
"Not quite, my old friend."
The presence which Glossaryck had sensed was now much stronger, but he did not need the Force to recognize the voice which echoed from the blackness around him, despite having been many years since he'd heard it last. "Hello, Master Jedi," Glossaryck greeted respectfully. "It is so nice to hear your voice again."
"Likewise," replied the disembodied voice of Qui-gon Jinn. "Was that girl just now a fellow Mewman Jedi?"
"Indeed. Her name is Star Butterfly. You didn't send her back, did you?"
"I did not. I can only assume that, if she were here but not yet dead, she must have been able to harness a great power to be able to return to the physical realm."
"What power is that?"
"Hope."
Glossaryck snapped his fingers. "Ah. There it is. No greater power in all the galaxy." He suddenly frowned. "Hmm…"
"I sense you are troubled, my old friend."
"Something Star said…she said she and her friends were on Anaxes."
"Anaxes? I don't believe I've ever been there."
"I didn't think I had, either. I figured they must have gone there after I died. I was following them around in secret."
"Ah. And you cannot recall how you died?"
"No. But suddenly…something about Anaxes seems familiar, like I was there."
"Perhaps I can help you to remember."
Glossaryck felt as though something were passing through his brain, swirling about. The midichlorians were probing his memories. "Ooh, that tickles! Feels nice though, like a massage for the 'ol subconscious." And then the memory snapped back to him.
And Glossaryck remembered.
"I didn't die after all. I merely passed here! That makes much more sense than me dying."
"How could you pass here without dying?"
Glossaryck told him.
"Interesting. Very interesting indeed," said Qui-gon.
"Oh, yes. I only wish I could have told Star before she left. I'm sure she would have liked to know."
"If your supposed method for conveying here is true, then hopefully she will find out on her own."
Glossaryck smiled. "Something tells me she will."
Star surmised that she was definitely not dead. She was in far too much pain to have died. Had she just been speaking with Glossaryck? No, couldn't be. Must have been her mind playing tricks on her again.
Her muscles failed her once more. She could barely move at all. Granules of sand crunched between her back teeth when she shut her jaw. She didn't want to be facedown anymore, so with a tremendous effort, she managed to turn herself onto her back. She attempted to spit out the intrusive particulate, but she lacked the saliva to do so. The sunlight hurt her eyes even when she shut them, so she pulled her hair over her face and attempted to make herself comfortable while she awaited death.
Time seemed to come to a standstill, baking in the heat of the desert. How long had Star been laying there? An hour? Two? Five? She could not say.
In reality, it was only about fifteen minutes before Star felt a tremor in the Force. Someone was approaching; Someone powerful in the Force. Someone familiar.
She pulled her hair aside, squinting against the suns. Her vision was fuzzy, but she could just make out a tall figure slowly approaching, its face obscured by a hooded robe. "Master Fisto…?" Star tried to move, but she had no strength with which to do so.
The figure knelt beside her. Still, she could not make out its face. "Please…help me," Star gasped horsely. "Or…kill me…"
"Rest easy, young one," said a gentle voice. "You are safe now."
And then Star fainted.
