Meanwhile, the guys were beginning new lessons with Garrett.

Qui-Gon demonstrated his super strength by bending a steel pipe into the shape of a rabbit as though it were a balloon animal, lifting a bunch of the horses at once as they stood on a wooden platform and then the Marauder, as well as punching the ground to make a quake, which made everyone fall down.

"Well, Your Majesty..." said Garrett.

"Just Qui-Gon or Master Jinn is fine, Garrett." Qui-Gon said.

"Well, then, Qui-Gon. You are indeed very strong. The amount of weight you are able to lift is beyond impressive, but from what I see, you tend to focus on your upper body strength, and not much on your lower body."

Qui-Gon looked down at his legs and started to become curious.

"You're not the first strength enchanted to do so." Garrett said. "It's really common, actually. But nevertheless, we'll need to test your lower body strength as well."

So, Garrett tested Qui-Gon's strength by having him kick a soccer ball against various surfaces. A tree Anakin grew, and three walls the unicorns conured. A brick wall, a concrete wall, and a steel wall.

Qui-Gon aimed and kicked the ball against the tree and then against the brick wall. He knocked the tree down, but didn't make a dent in the brick wall.

"Just as I thought. You require more training in your lower body." Garrett said, making some notes. "Start with doing at least three sets of 12 to 15 squats and ten to fifteen lunges each day starting today. These exercises will make your legs much stronger."

"I teach ballet," said Carmine. "Would that be helpful?"

"Yes, it would. Now, let's test out your abilities next, Carmine."

Carmine demonstrated for Garrett all his musical abilities. His ability to play any instrument, sing every note as well as high enough to a point that was inaudible to humans, and dance like a pro and do magic all while doing any of those things.

Garrett had to admit, he was impressed. Especially with how loudly Carmine could launch a Sonar Wave.

"How often have you ever sung to charm people?" said Garrett.

"Not a lot. Why?" Carmine asked.

"Mastering such an ability can be useful to distract any foes. There is even a special chord of song that could charm a siren."

Carmine's eyes widened with astonishment and curiosity. He'd heard of evil sirens in old stories who charmed sailors into crashing their ships, but such a way to defeat them sounded like a perfect power to have, especially if one of the escaped criminals was a siren.

"How do I learn it?" Carmine asked.

Garrett got out a lesson book.

"You know how to read music?" he asked.

"I do." said Carmine.

"Study these scores then. Practice them on your instruments, practice the rhythm in your dance, and finally sing them out true and pure."

Finally, there was Anakin.

Anakin explained to Garrett all the things Gabby had taught him to do when he first got his power from learning about plants to walking barefoot in some grass to connect to it.

"While the methods your daughter taught you are effective, I recommend spending a little more time talking to some of your plants." said Garrett. He chuckled as he thought of Mariposa at the moment. "God knows my wife just loves talking to hers. I might as well call every plant in the garden Goldie's brothers and sisters."

"She loves her plants that much, does she?" Anakin said.

"She adores them. I have never seen a day she walked into her garden and she was not happy to talk to them."

Anakin looked at Garrett and started to wonder.

"Can I ask you something personal?" He asked.

"What about?" Garrett asked.

"About how you and your wife met."

"What would you like to know?"

"Well, did you know she was a doresho gypsy when you met her?"

"Actually... yes."

"So, how did you end up married?"

Garrett had the guys sit as he told them a story from long ago.

"It was just another field trip, taking some students for some hands-on experience studying the plants that grew along the cliffside of Evergreen Mountain."

Fifteen years ago...

Garrett Heartwood guided his students as they climbed up the mountain range. Bits of rock crumbled as the climbers moved from place to place.

One climber gasped.

"Uh... Professor, this mountain doesn't feel very safe!" said one student.

"Don't worry, Jacque. It's normal to feel nervous." Garrett said. "Just remember to keep your breathing steady."

So, the group continued to climb, but the crumbling of the mountain did not cease. It only got worse with every minute. Bigger rocks began falling like heavy rain. Very heavy rain that barely missed some of the climbers. Garrett immediately began guiding the other climbers down the mountain and urged them to hurry out of there, when a really big rock hit him and knocked him to the ground, where he hit his head, and everything went black.

Eventually, Garrett woke up and found himself on a bed of leaves and flowers, a warm fire burning as he heard the patter and dripping of rain outside. And he looked around to find himself in a cave.

"You're awake," said a new voice.

And that was when Garrett looked and saw a young woman with a cup of steaming warm liquid of some sort. But Garrett immediately panicked when he saw she had butterfly wings. She was a Doresho gypsy!

"Stay back!" He warned her, grabbing a stick to use as a weapon. "I have this stick and I'm not afraid to use it."

But the woman just grabbed the stick and put it down with a sigh.

"Typical of you humans," said the woman. "Even when one of my kind saves your life, you still believe we're monsters."

The man just backed up against the wall as the woman handed him the cup of tea she'd made to help him.

"It's not safe to go anywhere in that storm. I suggest you drink this to warm up."

Garrett looked at the drink. He'd been raised to believe that Doresho gypsies were devious, and would try any kind of trick to manipulate potential victims to do what they want. And he started to think maybe this tea was poisoned.

The woman sighed when she saw how this man was behaving. So, she took a sip herself to show him it wasn't poisoned.

"Don't worry, you won't be stuck with me for long." said the woman. "If you want to leave the cave now and risk death instead of being in a warm cave with a woman who saved your life, be my guest."

The woman sat by the fire and picked up an apple she'd picked from the forest earlier. Garrett was surprised when he saw her stick out her tongue and use it to suck juice from the apple like her tongue was a straw.

"Uh... can all doresho gypsies do that?" Garrett asked.

"Yes. We have more than butterfly wings." said the woman. "My species has more in common with butterflies than having colorful wings."

Garrett grew more curious about this woman. So, he asked her if she would tell him more about her species. Sure, he'd been told doresho gypsies supposedly used their power to control moths and butterflies and enslave people, but in all his classes, he never learned anything about their biology, dietary preferences, or living conditions.

So, the woman did tell him some things about Doresho Gypsies. What they liked to eat, how they liked flowers, and that doresho gypsies similar to caterpillars needed to eat a lot when they were young and eventually made a chrysalis to grow wings. But, when they had babies, they had them the same way humans did, rather than laying eggs.

And as Garrett grew weary again, the beautiful butterfly woman sang him to sleep with a voice as lovely as the sight of the first butterfly of spring after a cold, dark winter.

Sometime the next morning, the rain had indeed stopped. And the woman saw the rockslide had done some serious damage to the mountain. So, despite the risk that came with this, the woman flew Garrett safely down to the bottom of the mountain.

Garrett turned around to thank her, but she disappeared. Luckily, a rescue team came by, his students having been worried when they realized he was the only one who hadn't gotten out during the rockslide or the storm.

Garrett assured them he was fine, but he didn't tell them about the gypsy who saved him. He did keep notes about her species, though. But his curiosity grew, not just on doresho gypsy biology. If doresho gypsies were monsters, then why did this one save his life? He didn't even know her name, and he wanted to thank her for what she'd done. So, once the days got warmer and sunnier, he decided to make a solo trip to the mountain where he'd been saved. And eventually, he found the cave, but the gypsy wasn't there. So, he sat there and he waited.

He waited all day and fell asleep when night fell, but she never came. And then Garrett had a hypothesis. The woman must have worried that others might have seen her and would come after her, so she moved. But, Garrett was determined to find that woman again and show her his gratitude.

So, Garrett packed what he could and used his knowledge of magic and the woods to begin searching. He knew doresho gypsies liked flowers, fruit, and butterflies. So, he mapped out a route of places with all of these things and began searching for the unnamed blue butterfly woman. He looked and looked for months, but there seemed to be no sign of her. He saw lots of flowers, great plethoras of fruit to pick from, and even lots of butterflies.

Sadly, he couldn't talk to the butterflies like she could, so he had no way getting a lead. And if he asked villagers, they would think he was crazy and go after her.

And sure enough, that proved to be true without him telling anyone he was looking for a doresho gypsy, as he walked through a forest one day and heard a woman singing a song. A beautiful voice he recognized! But the song sounded remarkably similar to a siren's distress call.

Garrett rushed as fast as he could, following a plethora of butterflies heading towards an area in the forest, and they led him to a site of hunters looking for Doresho Gypsies, and the butterflies attacked them. Moths attacked also, and started eating their clothes, as well as the ropes on a net that held... the woman Garrett had been searching for!

Quickly, Garrett rushed in and helped undo the net and free the woman, but one of her wings was damaged, so Garrett grabbed her and ran as fast as he could to carry her to safety.

"I never thought we'd run into each other again," said the woman.

"I've been looking for you." Garrett said. "So I could say thank you for saving my life."

"Well... I guess we're even now."

Garrett carried the woman for a long time until he found a nice place to set her down to rest.

"I still don't even know your name." Garrett said.

"Mariposa Morphina." said the woman.

"Wow... that is a beautiful name." said Garrett.

"And yours is...?"

"Garrett. Heartwood. Garrett Heartwood."

"You know, I could've rescued myself. I had the butterflies helping already."

"Oh, I could see that. But with a damaged wing, those hunters might have made you into a trophy of some kind."

Mariposa knew she wasn't going to be able to fly for a while. So, she would have to go the rest of the way on foot.

"Where are you headed?" Garrett asked.

"Before I was trapped, I was headed for this Verdenian village called Redwood Oaks." said Mariposa. "There is where an old friend of my father's lives. Luckily, his friend is a healer, so he may be able to help my wing. They are one of few villages that trust my kind before attacking because unlike them, many villages do not know the whole story."

And so, Mariposa told Garrett the whole story of how her people were framed for crimes they never committed, and they barely managed to escape genocide. Garrett was horrified when he learned the terrible things Mariposa and her ancestors had gone through, especially those who did not follow in Bellona's legacy for revenge against Solaris and the other kingdoms.

"I'm not saying Bellona was right to respond how she did," said Garrett. "But now I can understand why she did. However, that should not be any reason others attack you. Months ago, you showed proof that doresho gypsies do have hearts of their own."

So, Garrett helped Mariposa go the rest of the way until they came to the very village she spoke of. And sure enough, they met Doctor Chiron Aceso, Constantine's old friend, who helped treat Mariposa's injured wing.

Garrett stayed by Mariposa's side the whole time she was healing, and throughout the time they spent together, they got better acquainted. Mariposa taught Garrett survival skills her father taught her when she was small, and Garrett told her about the many lessons he taught his students, and how he believed hands-on experience was the best way to create lessons that stuck forever.

And then, something happened that neither of them thought possible for either of them. Garrett and Mariposa fell in love, and they confessed that to each other through a kiss they shared beneath the moonlight in a field filled with fireflies.

Despite all the risks they knew would come from them being together, they knew they were meant to be together forever. And so, Mariposa and Garrett got married in a small ceremony with a few villagers as witnesses. Garrett could not believe his eyes when he saw his wife in her wedding dress made completely out of white flowers, her healed wings being her something blue.

The ring he placed on her was made from the stem of a beautiful flower which he enchanted so it would last for as long as he would love and cherish his Mariposa. And when they kissed, he felt his heart flutter like a plethora of butterflies migrating to a new home as spring arrived.

Over time, Mariposa and Garrett began to build themselves their own cottage in the village to live in and start new lives together. Garrett continued his teaching jobs, but always took a different route to prevent anyone from discovering he'd married a doresho gypsy. And eventually, the two of them were met with wonderful news that Mariposa was pregnant! Then, they were blessed with a beautiful baby girl with dark skin like her father and her mother's spring sky blue eyes, born at the most golden dawn they had ever seen. Thus, fitting with the day she was born, they named her Goldie.

Present Day...

"Believe it or not," said Garrett. "I never saw her use a butterfly before that day I got to rescue her, but the moment I met her, she had me under a spell alright. The only downside was that we had to keep our daughter's heritage hidden. After being able to have a hands-on experience on what doresho gypsies are truly like once you take the time to know them, it's truly a tragedy what happened to their once beautiful, peaceful lifestyle."

The guys couldn't believe what Garrett told them any better than the ladies when Mariposa told the story.

All of them being fathers and a grandfather now, each of them had a strong empathy for Garrett. Each of them loved their wives and their children so much, and they felt terrified of the mere thought of anything bad happening to them. Each of them had lost someone dear to them in one way or another. Anakin and Carmine might have gotten their parents back, but they still had so many other people they'd lost and would never get back.

Carmine would still forever be grieving for his grandmother Miranda, Anakin for the Jedi and even clones he'd fought alongside during the Clone War, and Qui-Gon would never fully recover from learning how his old master turned to the dark side and now was incarcerated.

Now the royal humans had their own questions.

"Does Goldie have all the same characteristics as her mother?" Anakin asked. "Butterfly-wise, I mean."

"Well, no. Being half-human, she has some other characteristics. One of them is not having a straw-like tongue, so there's no worry about that giving away her doresho heritage. But the fact that she eats a lot of leafy greens and doesn't gag may very likely get other children to look at her oddly."

"At least she eats her veggies." Anakin chuckled. "I've lost count of how many times Boba's tried to feed his kale to Remix, or Gabby feeding zucchini to Carousella. I keep telling Padme we should stop trying to get her to eat the stuff. She just won't, not that I can blame her."

Qui-Gon gagged at the mention of zucchinis. He never liked them as a kid either, even after he grew up.

"I wonder where she gets it from." Carmine said knowingly.

As for Goldie... things seemed to be going okay at school today.

But, when school ended, she didn't have anything else to do. She was riding home with the other kids, but their ride hadn't arrived yet because the royal children had their sports or extracurriculars. Except for Lamenta's since she was going to ballet class after school with Lee Ali. The other kids all had things going on at school.

Omega had engineering club today, Boba had cheerleading practice, and Gabby had art club today.

Goldie wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Having grown up in a very simple little village, she didn't know much about city life. So, she walked into the art room and looked around curiously.

"What are you making?" she asked Gabby.

"I'm making an origami horse." Gabby said. "Origami is the art of folding paper into lots of different shapes. It's really fun."

Gabby pulled over a book with instructions for all kinds of fun things to make out of paper. She turned the pages to one that showed how to make an origami swan.

"That one's a good one to start with. It's really easy if you're just beginning."

So, Goldie picked out a yellow piece of paper and started following the instructions to make a swan, but it was a little harder than Gabby said it would be. But, Gabby assured her that was normal.

"I overfolded or under folded on the first three steps eight times before I finally got it right. Then again, I was only three when I began learning."

Goldie tried a few more times, and eventually did get the swan right. But then she got kind of bored and decided to look and see what was happening in some of the other classrooms.

Goldie walked to where some of the other clubs were and saw one with a bunch of kids building things with robotic parts. She saw Omega building a little droid that looked like the one on the Marauder.

"What's all this stuff for?" Goldie asked, startling Omega.

"Oh! Hi, Goldie. Where did you come from?"

"From Verden?"

The other kids laughed, finding Goldie's unintentional humor adorable.

Omega helped Goldie onto a chair so she could see on the table, and she showed her all the blueprints for different kinds of things they built. Engineering looked really complicated. It dealt with physics, geometry, technical skills, and puzzle solving abilities too. Goldie didn't know a lot about any of those things. But to be fair, she was only in first grade.

"You can think of it like putting a puzzle together." Taylor said, taking out some droid pieces.

Taylor showed Goldie a simple droid to put together and how to assemble them. Goldie had never tried puzzles other than jigsaw puzzles, so this was an enitrely new thing for her. But, it was a lot of fun putting together the little unit and watching it work when it was turned on.

There was still some time after that, so Goldie decided to go to the gym to watch the cheerleaders.

"Five, six, seven, eight!" called the coach.

Goldie watched as the cheerleaders did all kinds of great tricks. Cartwheels, tumbles, even flips.

"Hmm..." Goldie started thinking.

She ran and did a cartwheel herself, only to fall down on her bottom after she landed on her feet and lost her balance.

"You okay?" Boba asked, helping the little one up.

"Can you teach me how to do that stuff" Goldie said. "You make it look easy."

"Sure, I can teach you. But I gotta warn you, it's not as easy as it looks. It took me a lot of practice to get even half as good."

So, when they got home that evening before dinner, Boba began teaching Goldie some of his moves from cheerleading. He showed her some basic tumbles and even how to do a cartwheel without falling. It took a few tries, but eventually, Goldie did it!

"Mommy! Daddy! I did a cartwheel!" she said excitedly, running to her parents.

Goldie was such a little ray of sunshine. The other grownups could definitely see why Mariposa and Garrett were so concerned for her future.

Anakin and Carmine felt the same way with their kids.

When Anakin and Padme only had Gabby, they felt similar to the Heartwoods in terms of Gabby's future. Having to hide that her connection to the Force was because of her father's blood rather than being a mere coincidence was a challenge, and it made them question how they would go about raising her once she was old enough to decide which of two worlds she would decide to stay in. But then the rules changed, Anakin and Padme adopted Boba, then they adopted Omega, and Luke and Leia were born.

Carmine, he still had just the one child, and he was okay with that. He loved Lamenta like there was no tomorrow, and in the beginning he and Caroline had almost nothing. Carmine thought it would be hardest on Caroline because she grew up in a very wealthy background. But it wasn't not living rich anymore that bothered her so much as her worry about being able to provide for her family. Some nights, they didn't know if they would be able to pay rent at the end of the month.

But Qui-Gon faced such an emotion with three children. First with Kara, and then his twins. Unlike them or the Heartwoods, he was forced to give up his children to ensure they would have a chance at a real future. That was the hardest thing any parent could do. But, the Heartwoods, even if they were strong enough to be able to give Goldie up to a family who could give her a brighter future, they couldn't because they knew if anyone else found out she was half doresho, they would kill her before she ever had a chance to grow up.

Now, seeing the Heartwoods' side of the story, the grownups knew they had to do everything they could to protect the galaxy from Mariposa's sister, and her family from the galaxy's prejudicial attitude towards Doresho Gypsies.