"Everybody listen up!"

The quiet murmurs of the crowd vanished at Janna's insistence.

"This ship is…not that big. There's only so much room inside. I'm pretty sure you'll all fit, but it's gonna be tight. So anything you can afford to lose, leave it behind!"

Those electing to leave Mewni had made their way to Monstertown, prepared to board Queen Moon's Revenge. Buff Frog, Lavabo, and Rosado were attempting to organize the Mewmans into an orderly line to allow for easier boarding. PY-HD was already on board as the astromech likely would not be able to reach its terminal once the refugees were crammed in.

"First aboard fill the engine room, it's the only way everyone is gonna fit," Janna continued. "Don't touch anything back there, some of that stuff gets really hot and your skin will instantly melt to it."

Tom quickly nudged her aside. "Oooookay, thank you, Captain Ordonia, I think that'll probably do." Then, to the crowd: "Okay, everyone, let's start getting on board in a calm and orderly fashion."

While Star and Tom joined Buff Frog and Lavabo in assisting the refugees aboard, Janna clambered up into the Raventalon, detached it from the stealth ship, and tucked it into the edge of the trees just beyond Monstertown.

"You're sure you wanna leave the Raventalon here?" Rosado asked when she returned.

"I'm not really sure about anything right now," Janna said. "I wasn't planning on leaving once we got here. But since we are, I think it's probably better to leave it here. If the cloaking device has a fault anywhere, it'll more likely be where it has to cover up mass it wasn't designed to cover. There's a lot more lives at stake now, too, and we're coming right back anyway, so…" She shrugged. "I think it'll be okay."

When the line of boarding Mewmans dwindled to the last two-dozen or so, Star and Tom left the adults to finish directing and reconvened with Janna and Rosado to the side of the ramp.

"Any idea where you'll take them?" Star asked.

"I've got a friend on Glee Anselm," Tom said. "He and his wife own an island with a huge communication relay tower on it that can probably hold everyone here. It won't exactly be a five-star hotel, but it'll be more comfortable than sleeping in tents on the ground."

Star frowned. "Glee Anselm…why does that sound familiar…?"

"I would guess because it was Master Fisto's homeworld," Rosado said. "He was a Nautolan, right?"

"Oh! Yeah, he was!"

"Nautolans are one of the two native species of Glee Anselm."

"And Tom just happens to have friends there? What a coincidence!" Then Star lowered her eyes. "Well…be careful, you guys. And hurry back. I'm gonna need you both."

Janna gave the princess a hug. "We will. And you be careful, too. You're probably in for a lot more danger and excitement than we are." She gave Rosado a slap on the shoulder. "That goes for you, too. Keep yourself in one piece until we get back."

"And try to keep Star in one piece, too," Tom added, giving Rosado a fist-bump.

The former Imperial laughed. "Somehow, I don't think I'll be able to keep up with Star, but I'll do my best to keep her from doing anything too crazy."

Tom exchanged a hug with Star as well, and then looked toward the almost nonexistent line of refugees. They had all but finished boarding. "Janna, we'd better get in the cockpit or we won't be able to get in at all."

"Yup. Let's go." She turned and waved again as they cut in front of the line and hurried up the ramp. "Stay safe, guys!"

"Doubt that'll even be an option," Star said.

Rosado nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately. But I guess if staying safe were an option, we wouldn't have needed to come back. Or rather, we would have been able to come back right away. Or…uh…"

Star chuckled. "I know what you mean."

As the final refugees boarded, the stealth ship's engines whined to life. When the last Mewman had squeezed into the packed cabin, Sir Lavabo hurried in front of Queen Moon's Revenge far enough that he could see the cockpit windows and signaled a thumbs up to the pilots seated at the controls. He saw Janna wave back, and a few seconds later the boarding ramp retracted.

Five fighters for Mewni's freedom stood together and watched as the engines whirred louder and the Revenge slowly rose into the air. As it cleared the tops of Monstertown's buildings, the surface of the ship's hull crackled with blue electricity, and a few moments later, the ship vanished as the cloaking device shrouded it from view. The sound of its engines faded away, too, as the ship zoomed off into the sky.

Rosado broke the silence. "Well…I guess let's go back to camp and see if Eddie found out anything."

Lavabo nodded. "Agreed."

"Before we do that," said Star, "I think maybe we oughta get a few things off the Raventalon first…"

Only about thirty Mewmans had volunteered to stay behind and join Star in the fight, a far cry from the hundreds which filled the camp before. Thus, when Star, Rosado, Buff Frog, and Lavabo made it back, it seemed as though the camp were empty.

As it turned out, Eddie had not yet returned, so Star and Rosado set to work feeding the troops. They had off-loaded whatever rations had remained aboard the Raventalon and brought them to camp, distributing them amongst the Mewman freedom fighters. The Mewmans were overjoyed, having not eaten a proper meal in weeks.

The Raventalon was typically stocked with enough food to last a crew of three or four for a few months, though that supply had been reduced significantly since the last time it had been resupplied. It was also now feeding several dozen beings, not just a handful. Star had hoped the crates of supply bars and ration packs would provide a couple days' worth of food. But by the time the fighters had had their fill, there was only enough left for one more meal.

"I wish we hadn't had to leave Tatooine in such a rush," Star said quietly to Rosado as she watched her people eat. "I really wanted to find more food and water to bring back here…"

"I know, Star. Don't worry. We'll figure something out."

They rejoined Buff Frog and Lavabo, who were eating in the general's tent. Rosado joined them in their meal. They had a portion set aside for Star as well, but she wasn't hungry. As they ate seated cross-legged on the ground, Buff Frog had many Imperial-centric questions for Rosado, who answered them to the best of his ability.

At last, Eddie returned. The news was not good.

"They've got way more troops now at each work camp."

"How many more is 'way more'?" Buff Frog asked.

"At least fifty each," Eddie said through a bite of food. "It's hard to count when they all look the same and some of 'em are inside where I can't see, you know?"

A soft murmur of discouragement worked its way around the group.

"How many troopers did they have before?" Rosado asked.

"Usually fourteen," answered Lavabo. "Now they have as many guards as they do prisoners."

Buff Frog set down his empty food tin. "Before, we would take them by surprise while they were distracted by cargo shuttle arriving in evening. Then they change schedule on us, so Eddie would sneak in and blow hole in the wall after nightfall." The Frog Man looked pensive. "Not sure either will be possible now that they outnumber us."

Rosado looked at Star, who had been strangely silent. She had been picking at her food, not really eating, and appeared deep in thought. Rosado could not tell if she were even listening. "Star?"

She turned her head to him abruptly, as if startled. "Hmm?"

"I don't suppose you have any ideas?"

"…I might."

When she did not elaborate further, Buff Frog urged, "Would you…care to share?"

Star set down her ration tin. "I was just thinking…some of the Jedi - pretty much everyone besides Master Skywalker - used to like to say that there are alternatives to fighting. They were probably talking about 'negotiating', but…there might be an alternative."

Buff Frog raised a pensive eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"Poison," she said pointedly.

Rosado coughed, choking as he took a sip of water.

"You okay?" Star asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. What was that you said?"

"Huh? Oh, poison! Well, it's not really poison, technically. See, there's these things on Mewni called yadda yadda berries."

"'Yadda yadda berries'?" Rosado repeated, bewildered at the ridiculousness of the name.

"Of course!" Eddie interjected. "The fruit of the ol' yadda yadda bush!"

"Yeah, those are the ones!"

Buff Frog grinned slyly. "I think I see where it is you are going with this, Star Butterfly."

Rosado shook his head, flustered. "I don't?"

"Oh, right. Forgot. Mid-explanation here. Yadda yadda berries contain a very potent and fast-acting natural paralytic," Star said. "Eating just one will make every muscle in your body tense up and make you stiff as a board."

"So if we could sneak some into the troopers' food…"

"Exactly. No fighting required."

"Well, less fighting required."

Star raised an eyebrow at Rosado's comment. "Whatdya mean?"

The former Imperial shrugged. "If they operate like every other Imperial prison installation, they eat in shifts. You'd probably only be able to get about a third of the troopers to eat the poison at the same time. Then when a whole bunch of them suddenly drop dead-"

"Yadda yadda is non-lethal," corrected Lavabo. "It will wear off in time."

"Oh, okay. When a whole shift's worth of troopers suddenly turn to stone, the base will probably go on lockdown."

Star snapped her fingers. "Pegasus feathers! Guess that won't work."

Buff Frog nodded. "Yes, we might take out portion of stormtroopers, but putting facility on high alert will not make fight any easier."

Rosado scratched his beard. "Hang on a minute…you just said the Yadda yadda poison is non-lethal, right? The effects wear off after a while?"

"Half a day or so, I reckon," Eddie said. "Then you're right as rain again."

Rosado shot Star a grin. "I think your idea might just work after all."

"How exactly?"

"Because the stormtroopers aren't the ones we need to feed yadda yadda berries to."

Star frowned. "They're not?"

"Nope."

"Then…who are we feeding them to?"

"Alright, you know the drill. Against the wall, hands on your heads."

The stormtrooper gave the orders with the same level of enthusiasm as expressed by the prisoners trudging their way into the mess hall. He had been following the same guard duty routine for months, and he was bored. He had, of course, heard that all but one of the other work camps had been attacked and their prisoners liberated, and he almost wished the rebels would strike there, too, just to liven up the day. Now that the guard count had been increased, surely they could easily dispose of the rebels and get in a little target practice while they were at it.

When the last prisoner had taken their position against the far wall, the trooper standing beside the door retreated to the hallway, sealing the door behind him. Twelve troopers remained inside with the prisoners.

"Alright, go get your grub."

The prisoners lowered their hands to their sides, turned, and filed silently toward the food dispenser, each grabbing a tray from the stack and holding it beneath the spigot dispensing a glob of white, flavorless nutrient paste. They picked up a spoon, filled a cup with water, and dispersed about the hall. Seating was unassigned, but it was sort of an unspoken rule amongst prisoners that deviation from the spots they had selected on their first trip to the mess hall was uncouth. They spoke amongst themselves in hushed whispers beneath the watchful eyes of a dozen stormtroopers. The loudest sound in the room was the quiet clinking of utensils against plates.

Until that is…

"Argh!"

A male Mewman had abruptly stood from his seat, his entire body convulsing. He screamed in anguish.

Every stormtrooper in the hall trained his blaster on the Mewman, the nearest one barking orders to quiet down and "retake your seat!"

But the prisoner couldn't have even if he wanted to. He screamed and squirmed, his limbs twisting about, until, all at once, he fell silent and stopped moving, frozen in place, like a statue. And then, as stormtrooper guards and prisoners alike stared in confused horror, the Mewman toppled over, crashing to the ground, his appendages unyielding from where they had ceased motion.

For a moment, the mess hall was silent enough for one to hear a pin drop.

"What the hell was that?!" one of the troopers exclaimed.

Before anyone could answer, the space erupted into a cacophony of shrieks, shouts, and screams as every single prisoner began to convulse in the same way the first had. Some dropped to the floor, writhing like worms. They crashed into each other, no longer in control of their bodies. And then one by one, they fell silent, stopped moving, and toppled over, their limbs and facial expressions frozen as if carved from stone. And the mess hall fell silent once more.

"What happened?" asked one stormtrooper, shocked.

"I don't know!" replied another. "It's like they were poisoned or something!"

"Is it in the air?"

"It could be in the food!"

"Keep your helmets on, that might be the only thing keeping us alive!"

"We must evacuate this room and seal it off!"

Star slid down the embankment, pushing off with the Force and leaping into a tree where Lavabo and Rosado sat waiting, perched on a low branch. At the top of the hill stood the work camp facility from which she had just come.

Rosado flashed an inquisitive thumbs up, to which Star returned in kind, smiling excitedly. She held up the empty canteen which had once contained the juice squeezed from a bush's worth of yadda yadda berries, tossing it to Lavabo. "Successfully mixed into the prisoners' food supply without getting caught. I could already hear it starting to take effect as I crawled back out the vents. It, uh…did not sound pleasant."

"Well done, Princess!" Lavabo replied. "Very well done indeed."

"Good job, Star," agreed Rosado. "Now, if they follow basic Imperial procedure, they'll hopefully think the prisoners are dead and extricate them from the facility as quickly as possible."

"Then we retrieve them and bring them back to camp," finished Star. "Anyone hear from Eddie and Buff Frog?"

Lavabo nodded. "Just after you left. They informed us they had arrived at the other facility and Eddie was beginning his infiltration. General Bulgolyubov said he would contact us when Eddie returned."

As if on cue, Sir Lavabo's commlink chimed. "Yes?" he asked in a cordial tone.

"Mission successful," reported Buff Frog's whisper. "Standing by for extraction of prisoners."

"Easy does it, Janna! Keep it steady!"

"Doing my best here, Raf!"

Queen Moon's Revenge was too long to set down on the landing pad floating just off of Rafeal's island, so Janna was attempting to hold the stealth ship in a consistent hover just to the pad's side. She had to hold the ship steady enough for the refugees to disembark, and low enough for the deployed boarding ramp to reach the deck of the landing pad. This was much easier said than done, however. The weather was cloudy and overcast, a wicked cross-wind blowing in sudden, hard gusts against the broadside of the Revenge.

"There you go, Janna, just a little bit further down."

Janna didn't even bother responding, afraid to move even one hand from the control yoke lest the wind nudge the ship away from the landing pad. She nudged the Revenge downward, awaiting the signal to stop. Beside her, Tom was looking out the viewscreen, watching Raf on the platform as he directed Janna. Normally, he would be assisting Janna in holding the ship steady, and indeed he had been, but the winds were so unpredictable that two pilots reacting to the gusts had been causing the ship to buck wildly. Janna had become so frustrated she had unintentionally screamed at him to take his hands off the yoke.

"That's it…a bit more…half a meter…good! Right there!"

"Everybody get off!" Janna yelled to the nervous and somewhat motion-sick Mewmans in the hold. She held onto the yoke with a white-knuckled grip, fighting to hold it still as it jolted and twitched in her hands. "Fast as you can! I don't know how long I can hold it here!"

The refugees wasted no time. They scurried from the bobbing ship as hastily as they could, quickly vacating the landing pad and heading for the safety of shore. When the last Mewman had gone, Tom quickly hurried down to meet Raf.

"Thanks so much for doing this, Raf."

The big man smiled warmly. "Of course! It has always been a life mantra of mine to help those in need!" He looked toward the refugees milling about on the beach. "Though, I hope they don't have to stay here too terribly long. I'm not sure how my wife and I will ever afford to feed them all…"

Tom reached inside his jacket and withdrew a thin valise. "This should help."

Rather suspiciously, Raf took the valise and peered inside. He was shocked to find several dozen credit chips, all of the highest denomination. "Tom, I cannot accept so much money from you!"

"Well, it's technically not from me. Star's dad gave me and Janna a huge reward for rescuing her from the Jedi Purge. We've been on our own for so long, this is actually the last of it. Use it to buy food for the Mewmans." Tom swallowed nervously. He knew that, despite the still generous sum he'd just given Raf, it still would not last very long. "Hopefully it'll only be a couple days and then we can take them back home."

"You do what you must do, Thomas." Raf smiled, and gave Tom a very enthusiastic salute. "I will keep these people safe until then!"

"Tom, get your butt back in here!"

Janna's voice was coming from Raf's commlink, the line still open. Tom looked back. Janna was clearly starting to lose her hold on the Revenge. It was indeed time to go. He turned back to Raf.

"Go, Tom."

Tom gave him a light touch on the wrist in farewell and sprinted back to the stealth ship, jumping up to the ramp as it bobbed. Raf watched as Queen Moon's Revenge rose back up to the heavens and disappeared into the overcast sky.