Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/10583730.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Choose_Not_To_Use_Archive_Warnings, Underage, Major_Character_Death
  Category:
      F/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Star_vs._The_Forces_Of_Evil
  Relationship:
      Star_Butterfly/Marco_Diaz, Marco_Diaz/Jackie_Lynn_Thomas, Star_Butterfly/
      Tom_Lucitor, Marco_Diaz/Hekapoo, Tom_Lucitor/Janna_Ordonia
  Character:
      Star_Butterfly, Marco_Diaz, Jackie_Lynn_Thomas, Tom_Lucitor, Hekapoo_
      (Star_vs._The_Forces_Of_Evil), Janna_Ordonia, lots_more_but_those_are_the
      main_six
  Additional Tags:
      Smut, Shameless_Smut, Porn_With_Plot, starts_with_mostly_porn_will_evolve
      to_mostly_plot, Non-Consensual_Voyeurism, even_Star_ships_Jarco?, even
      Jackie_ships_Starco?, Light_BDSM, Bad_BDSM_Etiquette, Janna_is_into_some
      kinky_shit, High_Fantasy, Mystery_Villain, Valar_Fucking_Morghulis, come
      for_the_smut_stay_for_the_feels, Habit_Mythos, (yes_that's_a_thing!)
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-04-10 Updated: 2018-03-23 Chapters: 26/? Words: 203557
****** I Summon the All-Seeing Eye ******
by all_possible_worlds
Summary
     Star never stopped using Eclipsa's spell to spy on Marco and Jackie's
     dates. What happens when she catches a show she never expected to
     see? A cascade of shameful secrets that never shall be told.
     A love story at its most unconventional. Part erotica and part high-
     fantasy. A retelling of the later half of Season 2, where nothing is
     quite the same as it once was, and all goes so very wrong and yet so
     very right for our heroes. A tale of adventure, of relationships of
     more than one sort, of magic and its consequences, and, of course, of
     sex. Lots and lots of sex.
     "I am hope, triumphant. I am will, unbending. I am love, all-
     conquering!"
Notes
     This begins as pure undiluted 200 proof. smut, but for better or
     worse, plot is in the horizon. As well as even more smut, of course.
     Expect 100% smut for the first chapter, then something like 50-75%
     smut for the rest of Part I, and a smut-tastic scene every tree
     chapters or so for Part II.
     This fanfic is simultaneously published in AO3 on a rough bi-weekly
     (to, at worst, tri-weekly) schedule. It should be caught up with any
     other versions of the same fic elsewhere in the Internet.
     Extraordinarily obvious disclaimer: I do not own Star Vs. the Forces
     of Evil or its characters. They belong to Disney, Disney XD and Daron
     Nefcy. I made no money from writing this story.
     Somewhat obvious warning: This story represents fictional characters
     who are canonically 14 (and who must remain canonically 14 to fit the
     continuity of the referenced episodes) having sexual experiences very
     much unlike those that 14 year olds normally have or are in any way
     advised to have. Half of it is based on the experiences of people
     almost twice as old as the characters, the other half is outright
     impossible fantasy (and not always just the bits involving actual
     magic). If you are 14 years old, or otherwise a minor yourself, you
     frankly shouldn't be reading this. If, despite this site's and my
     best efforts, you are, please know that almost nothing that happens
     here (or elsewhere in Internet porn, in general) is a good point of
     comparison for a healthy teen romantic or sexual life. Stop reading
     now and get ya self to Scarleteen!
     Now... with that PSA out of the way, let's get to a dozen or more
     chapters about what goes in and out of Star Butterfly's pussy!
***** [P1] Star, Gazing *****
****** Part I: A Story Retold ******
***** Chapter 1: Star, Gazing *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place between "Running With
     Scissors" (S02E16b) and "Just Friends" (S02E20b) - and it was written
     before "Just Friends" aired.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/1.png]
"Sooo... bored!" cried Star. Her feet propped at the edge of her bed, while the
rest of her small frame lay on the ground. Both her hands gripped the wand,
pushing forwards and backwards as if she were lazily taking aim to blast the
high ceiling. Suddenly, she let both arms fall to her sides with an exasperated
and theatrical sigh. "Where are you Marco Diaz?!"
She had been waiting for her best friend to come back from his big important
date with Jackie. No, of course she didn't care that Marco was out with Jackie,
jeez! He was her friend, she was happy for him. But she was also alone, and
bored, and had planned to drag him to a cloudceratops race or something equally
exciting as soon as he got back. But he was instead at the stupid boring
movies, with stupid awesome Jackie, while she was in her stupid boring room
waiting for him to get back. She had thought of calling Ponyhead, or Janna.
Hell, she had considered calling Tom. Tom!! But she didn't want to hang out
with Tom, or Ponyhead, or Janna. She wanted to hang out with Marco!
As a matter of fact, she wanted to hang out with Marco a whole lot these days.
She especially wanted to hang out with Marco on those exact same occasions he
decided to go on dates with Jackie. Whatdoyoumeansuspicious?! Nah, it wasn't
like that. Was it? It was just that, well, Jackie was cool and all, but it was
always going to the movies or skateboarding, or going for a dance. Why did
Marco want to go on dates with Jackie so much, when Star could actually take
him somewhere really fun? They literally could go anywhere in any dimension. He
might have the scissors now, but she knew where things were at. Maybe Marco was
bored now too, or maybe Jackie was bored, or maybe they had gotten into a fight
and they were both miserable. Or maybe they got attacked by monsters. Oh no!
Well, if they had been attacked by monsters, Star reasoned, then she needed to
know. Didn't she? It was for the good of her friends! And is not like Marco
would ever find out...
She jumped onto the bed, flipping herself around so that she was now sitting on
the bed all boring-like. But that was needed for what she had to do now. She
pointed her wand forward. After all, this was for Marco's own good. They had
been gone for four hours. The movie should have lasted only two at most.
Surely, there was evil afoot.
"I summon the all-seeing eye, to tear a hole into the sky," she could hardly
believe she was doing it again. It was wrong. Dark magic under the best of
circumstances, and even worse under these circumstances. He was her friend,
more than that, her bestie! If he ever found out... no, what was she thinking?
She was simply protecting her friend. From monsters! Looking out for him, like
friends do. "Reveal to me that which is hidden." Plus, it was either this or
calling again, and at least this way didn't leave fifty plus notifications on
his phone. So no chance of Marco learning what she was doing, which was
important, because, after all, he just shouldn't know, alright? Even if this
was all for his own good, even if she was doing nothing wrong. "Unveil to me
what is forbidden!"
Dark clouds burst out of her wand and swirled around the middle of her room.
Star's heart was beating like crazy. Of course, Star's heart was always beating
like crazy. But this wasn't excited-beating, it was more like anxious-beating.
Well, worst case it was Jackie and Marco having a great time, and best case it
was monsters! Wait, no, she meant the other one, the other way around. Right?
If they were having fun, then she ought to be happy for her friend. Besides, is
not like she ever thought of Marco that way when they first met, and yet...
The view in the portal became clear, interrupting her thoughts. At first Star
could only see Marco's face and torso, he was wearing his usual red hoodie, but
the hood was pulled backwards. His cheeks flustered bright red and a few drops
of sweat shining on his brow. "Oh Marco, Marco, Marco. Good old Marco, always
sooo nervous over nothing at all," thought Star, her frown turning briefly into
an amused smile. "You two have been going out for over a month, you can't spend
aaaall your life getting nervous around Jackie!" she chuckled.
If anything, he seemed more nervous than he had seemed when she had scryed on
them during their first date. When she had been bored at the cemetery and,
and... well, she didn't want to re-live that night. The Marco thing was
confusing enough on its own, but the last thing she needed right now was
beating herself over losing Glossaryck.
Wait, why was Marco still staring ahead with that flustered expression? Why was
his mouth hanging open like that? He usually couldn't stop talking when he was
nervous, but this was the first time Star saw him freeze like that. Maybe there
was something wrong with her spell? Was she doing this to him like when she had
caused them to fall from Jackie's skateboard? Or, maybe she had been right all
along and they were in trouble!
"Well, Marco, what do you think?" came Jackie's voice from somewhere outside of
the viewing window created by Star's vortex spell. Marco seemed to only stutter
in response, "eh... uh... well... wow! Those are... I mean... you are... I
mean..."
Then it dawned on Star that the wall behind Marco didn't seem like part of the
cinema at all. Nor did it look like they were outside. The wall was too close,
and there was a shelf there, and two skateboarding posters. Nah. It couldn't
be. Right? Could it? Star focused on her spell, tried to zoom out or move it to
the side or somehow find Jackie in the picture. When she did, her mouth went
just as wide as Marco's.
"Heh, dude, relax," said the platinum blonde girl. Her eyebrow raised in a
quizzical look. In her hand, hanging to the side, was a white and green cotton
t-shirt. She let it fall to the floor. "If you keep going like that, you are
going to make me nervous too," she admonished him with a shrug. But despite her
words, her body language spoke of a confidence that Star could only admire. It
was not the only thing the princess of Mewni had to admire either. Through the
black clouds, she could now see Jackie's exposed upper body, covered only by a
matching green bra.
Jackie was hot. Flat stomach and a lean toned body product of a very active
lifestyle. Chest that seemed to be astoundingly developed for a fourteen year
old. Expertly tossed around hair and big smart eyes. Yet, what really made it
work was the way she stood there, straight yet relaxed, looking at Marco with a
face that said 'yeah, you bet it is your lucky day'. Few girls Jackie's age
were this sexy. Even fewer knew it.
Star's heart-shaped cheeks went bright glowing red. She shouldn't be seeing
this. They shouldn't be doing this today. They had said they were just going to
the movies. She shouldn't be seeing this. She shouldn't be annoyed that his
friend was having a good time. She shouldn't be seeing this. She shouldn't be
comparing her body to Jackie's. She shouldn't find the view arousing. She
shouldn't be seeing this!
"So, Marco, are you taking that hoodie off?" Jackie asked.
Star was totally going to keep seeing this!
"Yeah, I..." Marco fumbled with the red hoodie. Got a hand out and then back
in, tried to pull it while holding on to one of the arms. Jackie laughed again,
until Marco, face completely red, managed to pull the hoodie of himself fully
and throw it almost violently to the floor. "Done. See! Hoodie gone. Yeah! Told
you, no problem."
Jackie only smiled as she slowly walked towards him. Her eyes looking right at
Marco's. His own glance focused significantly lower than her's until the
skateboarder girl was right in front of his face. "Okay, Marco. But I think you
still have at least some catching up to do here," she said playfully as she
slid her hands under the boy's grey t-shirt and planted a kiss on his lips.
Star felt very strange watching this. There was the pang of jealousy she didn't
want to admit to herself, and the pang of guilt for spying on her friends like
that. "It's not spying!" her mind corrected herself, unconvincingly. But there
was also an overriding curiosity to see where this would end. A curiosity that
only increased as Jackie pulled back from the kiss and began lifting Marco's
shirt.
Star had seen older Marco during that brief interdimensional jaunt with
Hekapoo. What she saw now shouldn't have possibly compared to those incredible
chiseled abs and hot action hero body. However, Marco was still in quite good
shape despite her poking fun at him. In fact, due to years of karate and months
of monster fighting, he was in rather great shape. Besides, Star thought, there
was something different about this time; this was somehow, in a hard to define
way, more real than future Marco had been. The context was a lot hotter too,
even if it was Jackie and not herself who was actually involved.
"Oh," Star heard Jackie mutter appreciatively as she finished relieving Marco
of his t-shirt, and for a moment it was the cool girl that had her mouth open.
She composed it into a smile almost immediately. "Well, I am very glad I
invited you up."
Then Star realized that Jackie might have never seen Marco shirtless before.
Well, not recently. She had to remember they were friends since they were
children, which annoyed Star, for some strange reason. But she also remembered
that she herself saw Marco shirtless all the time. They shared a bathroom after
all, and they often got ready together. She had seen him with only a towel like
a million times! So had Janna... for some reason. But this might be a first for
Jackie. "Enjoy the view, girl..." she whispered to the empty room, and she
truly honestly hoped Jackie did.
"Eh..." Marco seemed a lot more self-conscious than his date about being
exposed like this, even if it was only his upper body. "Do you, do you do this
often? Invite boys up, I mean?" A split second later, he realized with horror
what he had just implied. Star knew him well enough to know his mouth had just
been running in automatic, but she wondered if Jackie would understand that. "I
mean... I didn't meant..."
Jackie chuckled. "No. First time ever. You?" she asked with an eye twinkle that
made it pretty clear she knew the answer.
"No! I mean, yes! I mean no! I mean, first time too. With girls, I mean. Not
with boys. I mean, not that I have done it with boys either..." Marco
stammered, and Jackie laughed. She pressed her body against Marco's naked torso
and leaned in for another kiss. This one much longer and much more passionate
than the first. The roundness of her breasts compressed ever so slightly
against his slim but toned body. Her hands cupped the seat of his jeans as
Marco's awkwardly found their way to the small of her back.
What Star was feeling now was so much more complicated than jealousy. She felt
flustered bright red, and her face was literally glowing. Not figurative
glowing. Shut-down-the-lights-and-use-it-as-a-lamp glowing. She felt the palms
of her hands holding the wand begin to get sweaty. She felt curiosity and
excitement overpower her poorly suppressed envy as her eyes were glued to the
scene unfolding before her. She felt this was so wrong, in the best possible
way. "Uh. Bad girl," she joked aloud, and even she wasn't sure if she meant
Jackie or herself.
Marco's hands climbed up Jackie's back, until they reached the clasp of her
bra, and after feeling around for just a few moments, they undid it. The girl
backed away from the kiss then in surprise, the bra still hanging there,
covering her nipples and most of her breasts but flowing down perilously low
over them. "Wow, Marco. I certainly wasn't expecting that!" she blurted, with
genuine surprise in her expression. "I thought guys usually had trouble with
that bit," she chided, seeming both amused and impressed.
Marco was smiling at her. "Well, it is a long story. You wouldn't want to know,
believe me," he said, as he ran his left hand through his hair.
"No. Now you have to tell me," Jackie retorted. Her eyes seemed to smile even
more than her mouth. "Come on, Marco. Tell me." Her voice lingered in the last
word for added emphasis.
"Well... it's just, this is going to sound really weird..." he began, nervously
shifting his posture. "I... practiced."
"You practiced?" she said, sounding confused. Then, after a few moments, "but I
thought this was your first time? I mean... not that it is bad if it isn't,
dude. I have at least kissed boys before. It is just you just said..." Jackie
seemed a bit awkward herself now. Star noted. There was something in her,
something petty and childish that drew some measure of satisfaction about the
fact the cool girl was not always so cool.
"It is. It definitely is, I promise," Marco hurried himself to reply. "I didn't
practice with a girl having them on or anything like that. I kinda. Well... I
kinda practiced on Star's bras, from her drawer, put around a chair." Jackie's
face seemed only mildly shocked. Star's eyes went wide like saucers. She took a
hand off her wand and subconsciously reached to the back of her own bra,
feeling the clasp. Had Marco been unhooking it? It was, soooo weird. But at the
same time, she didn't mind. No, she realized, she didn't mind at all. Besides,
she did weirder things than that. Not underwear related, but surely weirder.
She could have helped him with that; as a friend, of course.
"It wasn't a perverted thing, I swear. I wanted to know how to do it. Precisely
so I wouldn't fumble like all the guys in the movies or the stories, so I
practiced. But now I realize you must think I am a gigantic creep, and I messed
everything up again!" ranted Marco, panic rising in his voice making him speak
faster and faster.
Until Jackie's roaring laugher interrupted him. "Re-lax, Marco. Yes, it is a
bit weird, but not any weirder than the cats, or the truth-or-dare box, or
well... the neck guy." They both shuddered and she grinned at him. "Besides, it
was pretty hot before the explanation. You were right, I shouldn't have asked,"
she made a shrugging movement and slid the bra through one arm and then the
other, pulled it in one hand, extended her arm outwards and, with a self-
assured move, let it fall to the floor. "Well, show me, what else have you
practiced?"
Star curled inwardly a little bit. Her joy at learning about Marco's use of her
underwear suddenly deflated as she observed the sight before her. It wasn't
just that Jackie's assets made her feel insecure by comparison, which they did,
and that did not help. They were not only quite the handful for a girl Jackie's
age, but super round and super perky, with perfect pink nubs on top. But also,
Star couldn't help but notice the way Marco was looking at his date now. Part
deer in the headlights, part ravenous wolf. He was completely out of words and
completely out of his normal range of expression. His eyes fixated on the
girl's breasts, his mouth opening and closing on its own, a bulge in his pants
visible even through the magical portal. He looked, entranced, ensorcelled.
Star thought to herself that this was a spell Jackie could cast and she
couldn't. She wished there was anything that would make Marco look at her like
that. Without her noticing, the wand began glowing bright green.
"No, no, no, you don't!" she shouted and the green glow dissipated as she
fought to regain self-control. Star wasn't about to let her wand blast her two
best friends, ruin their date and, perhaps worst of all, stop the show! As
jealous as she was of Jackie, what Star Butterfly wanted more than anything in
the world right now was to see her "bestie" in action.
Some part of Star briefly realized something quite interesting in the moments
that followed. When it came to dating Jackie, nine times out of ten, Marco was
a wreak of insecurities, babbling and fumbling around. However, there were
those rare moments when something else seemed to take over him. A cool
elegance, a way to move like he was a dancer confidently entering the dance
floor. She had seen him do it when he had received Jackie at their home for
their first date, and she was seeing it now as he gently guided Jackie into her
own bed. His arm holding her back as he slowly lowered her down and placed
himself on top of her. The way he smiled at her before going in for a long
passionate kiss as he gently placed Jackie's head directly on her pillow. It
really seemed like he was leading her into a strange form of slow dance, and
for a second it seemed to the Mewni princess like she could hear faint Waltz
music in the background. Then whatever part of Star was processing the
realization immediately forgot it, as the rest of her took in the view.
"Oh, Marco... you are doing... a-mazing!" Star grinned with barely restrained
joy, as her best friend started trailing kisses down Jackie's neck. She was
glad for her friend, she really really was. Also, admittedly, she was getting
quite into watching him do his thing. The princess' cheeks where literally
glowing scarlet now. Where again, literally meant literally. Yes, quite into
it, concluded Star to herself. Jackie only let out a soft gasp, but her hands
seemed to grasp the bedsheets far more strongly than required. Now Star
wondered what it would be like to be in Jackie's place, with the boy's lips
pressing and sucking against her own neck. Her hands let go of the wand and she
too grasped the edge of the bed.
The portal should have vanished. Her wand should have fallen to the floor.
Neither happened. Instead the wand remained floating in mid air, projecting the
view before her, and Star didn't care one bit to investigate why. She was not
one to question her own magic much when it was working to her advantage, and
especially not right now.
"Ah Marco. I am really really glad I asked you out," said Jackie. As the boy
lifted his head from her neck, the blond girl took his left hand on her own and
calmly placed it against her right breast.
"Oh..." Marco seemed to snap back from whatever trance he was in and Star once
again recognized the nervous boy she shared a home with. Which was just as
good, since otherwise she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep any
composure while watching such an arousing scene. "I, oh... thanks. I am glad
too."
"You know, it is better if you play with them. Like this," Jackie took Marco's
hand again, stretched out two of his fingers and slowly guided them so that
they were describing a circular motion over her nipple. Marco was flustered
beyond belief, and as adorable in his own nervous Marco way as he had been hot
in his take-charge dancer trance. Jackie kept eye contact with the boy while
letting out a very soft satisfied gasp. Damn, Star thought, this girl really
was cool. She could understand why Marco liked her. She also really needed to
remember that move for, well, reasons.
"Eh, Jackie. How far are we planning on taking this?" Marco asked. Star
observed that his hand kept circling right where Jackie had left it, even as
Jackie's own hands both came to rest behind the girl's head. Me thinks the
gentleman doth protest too much, Star thought.
"Depends, dude. How far you want to take it?" the girl replied, as she lay in
bed in what would pass for a perfectly relaxed manner if not for the hardened
peaks on her chest.
"Ok, enough. No one has any right to be this cool as a teenager on her first
time, in any dimension!" thought Star. At the same time, she was also looking
at Marco for a response. She wasn't really sure what she wanted his response to
be. Did she want this to end here and now, or to have it continue to its last
consequences? Even if that meant her bestie was going to lose his first to
someone other than herself? It was barely a whisper when Marco said it, and
even softer as Star spoke, exactly at the same time. "All the way?"
Jackie's mouth opened briefly into a small circle shape of surprise as she
looked at Marco. Then he started backpedaling, "I... I mean, if you want. Only
if you want... sorry... shouldn't have..." Jackie's arms pushed back to the bed
and her face rose up to shut up Marco with a deep passionate kiss. Then, with a
move that Star almost missed, the skateboarder girl managed to roll both of
them around, so that Marco was laying on the bed and she was the one sitting on
top of him. "I want to, Marco. All the way sounds great. But lets take our time
to get there, ok? I mean, we have all night," she didn't so much wink as, well,
twinkle her eyes at him. Marco's face went red and he quietly nodded.
Jackie had started kissing and caressing down Marco's chest. She worked slowly,
pausing often to look at him. His face, Star intently noted, alternated between
surprise and bliss, and Jackie hadn't even done much yet. Star wondered, with a
pang in her chest that felt partly like drinking something too cold too fast,
if Marco would react that way to Star doing something like that, or if he did
only because it was Jackie Lynn Thomas.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Marco gasped. Star took a moment to notice
Jackie's right hand, grasping something in the middle of the boy pants. It
looked pretty big. Star noted with surprised glee how the cylindrical shape
extended on the fabric well beyond the area around which Jackie's hand was
closing. The girl moved up and down the length of it a few times through the
fabric and then let it go. Star's face frowned briefly in disappointment as
Jackie seemed to go back to kissing Marco's chest. Then, with a swift movement,
she unbuttoned Marco's pants and pulled them down, as well as the boxers
beneath. It was Star's turn to gasp. Her eyes went wide once more.
"Marco, Marco, Marco... where were you hiding that?" Star noted with
astonishment, after composing herself a bit. Well, truly she didn't have many
points of comparison. She and Ponyhead had seen pictures, and Marco wasn't as
big as the pictures, but he was still a teenager, and the pictures seemed,
well, over-optimistic. It just seemed bigger than Star expected it to be. When
she had thought about it. Once. Or twice. Well, a few times, but just out of
curiosity. Well, plenty of times but curiosity was her thing. "I do not often
fantasize about Marco's penis!" Star shouted to the empty room, unconvincingly.
Jackie was handling it with a lot more composure. Literally and figuratively.
Her hand was directly around it now and moving very slowly. She was halfway
back to a sitting position, as she used her free hand to finish helping the boy
beneath her out of his pants and underwear. She was looking at him and, when
their eyes met, she gave the flustered boy a broad smile. "Have I mentioned yet
that I am really glad I asked you out?" she tossed out casually.
"I... eh. You have. Feeling very exposed now. Awesome. But exposed," he
replied. His arms stiff at his sides. Jackie chuckled. Star would have too, if
she had been looking at her friend's arms at all, instead of, well, elsewhere
on him.
"Marco. I just wish you would relax. You got a girl half naked, on top of you,
holding your dong." He seemed to tense even more in her hands at this, but Star
wasn't sure if she had just imagined it. "I think you are way past the point
where you can mess it up," declared Jackie. Then a mischievous smile seemed to
form on her face. "Well, I think I figured a way to help you relax,
handsome..."
"Ah... and, how would you do that, eh... Jackie?" his face contorted a bit and
then he flashed a strange expression at Jackie that Star was sure was Marco's
attempt at a sexy smile. Well, not a bad first try, Marco, I guess. She
thought. Jackie's response eye twinkle was a whole other level, though. She let
go of Marco's cock.
"Well. I am going to rub your shoulders, like this." She proceeded to do just
that, as she leaned over Marco again. "And I am going to kiss you, like this."
She proceeded to demonstrate. Then separated her face from Marco's and looked
right into his eyes. "And now I am going to go down your chest kissing it again
and when I reach the bottom I am going to take your hard cock in my mouth and
blow you until you are so relaxed you cannot lift yourself off this bed," she
declared in total seriousness.
Marco went bright red all over, eyes seemed about to fall out of his sockets.
Figuratively, of course, Star thought, not like Glossaryck's. She dismissed the
thought with a quick shudder. Then she looked at Marco babble for a few seconds
without hearing much what he was saying. He was way tenser than he had been
before and Jackie was laughing once more. She had said the previous line with a
completely straight face and even a sultry tone that seemed out of place coming
from the high school girl, but was now trying hard to repress her laugh. Star,
however, wasn't, "oh, you sneaky girl... hahaha... that was priceless. The look
on his face. Awwww poor easily-embarrassed Marco!"
"W... Uh... eh... you, what? I mean... eh..." Then it finally dawned on him.
"That's mean! You did that only to see me get even more nervous!"
"What can I say? You are too cute when you are flustered." Marco's face seemed
annoyed for a moment. That is, until Jackie clarified, "I am still going to do
it, though," at which point he went back to flustered.
Jackie's kisses went lower and lower through Marco's chest and the boy seemed
to shiver a little as she did. Star was frozen now. Was Jackie really going to?
Well, I mean, of course she was, that was part of this. Marco himself had
explained her that whole thing with the bases and is not like she didn't know
how it went on Mewni (it was, all in all, pretty similar, there was that whole
step with the oils and silk that they seemed to skip on Earth, but in
general...). Then Star realized that she was seeing Jackie's lips close around
her best friend's cock.
She should have been hurt at the fact that she was losing Marco this way. Or
maybe horrified that she was looking at a friend doing this without his
knowledge. But Star wasn't either of those things. She was mostly just staring,
eyes big as saucers and face glowing so hard you could probably use it to read
a book... "Marcoooo." She pulled her hands up from the bed and slowly roamed
them through her own chest over her shirt. She was, she decided to admit to
herself, after long moments of indecision, very very horny.
Jackie's mouth eased down Marco's shaft and then back up. Slowly at first.
Taking in only half length. Then deeper. Then faster. Then slower again. She
tried flicking her tongue at the tip. Then breathing on it. Then moving her
tongue around as she took it in. Star's mind only half realized what Jackie was
doing. She was too focused on taking off her own top and looking at Marco's
flustered face, taking in the gasps and moans from her bestie. But she did
realize, that Jackie was unsure of what to do, that she was learning what
worked by Marco's reactions, that she had never done this before and that she
was nervous as hell.
She was a quick learner, and there was no way Marco would notice her small
hesitations and some of her sillier attempts while he lay in bed, eyes closed
taking in the pleasure. However, Star could see that this was clearly Jackie's
first time for anything after this point, and that the girl herself wasn't
nearly as relaxed as she pretended to be. None of it mattered, of course.
Jackie was doing great. Marco was on Cloud Nine. Well, Star thought, she had
been literally on Cloud Nine once and it didn't seem quite that enjoyable, so
maybe Cloud Ten or Eleven. Eleventy even!
Star was leaning over the edge of the bed. Left hand playing with her naked
chest. Eyes darting from Marco's expressions to Jackie's movements. Her hand
had somehow managed to get trapped between her legs, which now pressed it
firmly against the middle of her pants. She hadn't planned of touching herself
that night until way after Marco returned from his date and everyone had
ostensibly gone to sleep, but at this point it wasn't a conscious decision
anymore, it was a need. She was sure the images she was now seeing would be
burned into her mind for future use as well.
Marco was panting now. Now it was his turn to grasp the blanket and Jackie's
movements became faster and faster. "Jackie... you should probably know... I am
about to... you know..." The girl took that as her cue to go even faster. Then,
Marco seemed to shudder and let out a single additional moan. A moment later,
Jackie's eyes went wide with surprise. Not that she hadn't been expecting it,
Star thought, she was warned after all. "Which, by the way, was pretty
thoughtful. Very Marco," Star thought with some appreciation as she twisted her
nipple between her fingers. But nonetheless Jackie was still inexperienced at
this whole thing. She gave it the good college try, however. She looked at
Marco in the eyes, gulped and then slowly went up to hug the boy laying on her
bed.
"Well... how was it?" she seemed hesitant. For a rare moment, Jackie seemed
unsure of herself, her cheeks red as well. Marco didn't respond at first and
kept his eyes closed, Jackie seemed to start to frown. "I didn't, you know,
mess up, right?" She laughed nervously, trying to pass it as a cocky joke.
Marco kissed her. He had lifted himself of the bed and kissed her right on the
lips and held it for a long time as the kiss became one of their most
passionate. Star looked with approval, somewhat tempered by a slowly rising
jealousy now that her hands were back to gripping the bed and her arousal was
getting back to reasonable levels. "You so are a good guy, Marco Diaz, you know
that, right?" She imagined for a moment having had to do what Jackie just did
with Tom, her ex-boyfriend. How would he have reacted? What if she hadn't been
as good at it as Jackie seemed to have been?
"You know where my mouth just was, right?" asked Jackie raising an eyebrow as
her lips and Marco's became separated.
"I will probably remember that for the rest of my life. So, yeah," Marco said.
He smiled at Jackie and ran his fingers through her hair. "Jackie, that was
amazing. I have been fantasizing about you doing that to me since, well, since
I fantasize about anything, really, and it was still better than I had ever
dreamed of..."
Jackie was red. Bright red. Jackie Lynn Thomas, professional cool person, was
flustered from cheeks to ears. Marco seemed to notice. His expression became
surprised for a moment, then faded into a content smile. If Jackie had intended
for him to relax, she had succeeded.
"You know. I wanted to ask, though..." he said innocently, "... that thing
previously, the words, the whole 'take your hard cock into my mouth' bit. Where
did that come from?"
Jackie went red once again. "Well, it is a long story..." Then, realizing what
that sounded like, she smiled and seemed to regain a measure of confidence as
she echoed Marco's words, "you wouldn't want to know, believe me."
"Well, you know about the bra thing. Seems only fair," Marco pressed.
"It is from porn, Marco. I just tried my best to come up with a line like the
ones I have heard in a porno," Jackie shrugged, but the effect was only
partial, she still seemed a bit embarrassed about it.
"You watch porn?" Marco said surprised.
"Who doesn't?" said Star.
"I mean. Nothing bad with that," Marco hastily added. "I watch porn. I just
didn't think girls did!"
"Awww, Marco," said Star.
"Well, I do, at least," offered Jackie. "I know sex doesn't really turn out
like in pornos... usually," she laughed. "But, well, they are hot to watch."
"Not nearly as hot as what I am seeing now, though," said Marco, his voice a
bit deeper for a second as he looked Jackie up and down. He rolled himself to
be on top of Jackie once more, which was easier than what she had done, since
they had started sideways this time. "I think is only fair now," he paused, "if
I return the favor."
Jackie seemed confused for a moment, then she smiled at Marco. "Romance movie?"
"Aw, come on!" Marco complained. "How did you guess?"
"Well, you are still going to do it, right?" said Jackie, smiling at him. Star
gasped in anticipation.
Moments later, Marco was pressing his right hand against Jackie's left breast,
rubbing around in circular motions as he suckled on her neck and slowly made
his way down until reaching the same height with his mouth as well. He was
looking Jackie in the eyes as he flicked his tongue a couple of times over her
right nipple, then lowered his mouth on it and began some slow motion that Star
couldn't see but was all to happy to imagine. The princess hands once more
reached for her own chest. "Go get her, tiger!" she said with a bittersweet
smile.
Jackie just pulled her head back and began moaning, first rarely and softly,
then more and more desperately as Marco's hands and mouth attacked her chest.
He alternated sides with his tongue and lips, speed and intensity increasing in
tandem with the girl's noises. One hand always focused on the remaining breast
while the other one unbuttoned Jackie's pants and caressed her legs. With a
grunt, the blond girl began thrusting herself out of her own pants and pulling
away her own underwear. "Marco. Get, the fuck, down there already!" she
shouted. Star hoped the girl parents weren't home. Fortunately for her, Mr. and
Mrs. Diaz had gone away for the weekend, because the Mewni girl was also making
no effort to be quiet.
Star pushed her hand into her quickly unbuttoned pants just as Marco lowered
himself onto Jackie's pink slit. Wait, did Earth girls not have hair there? Or
had Jackie removed it as a fashion choice?
Star didn't get to hold that thought for long. All she could concentrate on now
was Marco's face between Jackie's legs, again seemingly moving slower at first
then rapidly picking up tempo as Jackie began to thrash around the bed and moan
even louder than before. Her naked chest panted furiously and a shiny layer of
sweat began to form over her. Star was rubbing herself furiously but she was
getting to where they were both going a whole lot slower than Jackie. She was
on the hand local and the skater girl was taking the Marco express!
Jackie exploded with a shout into a convulsing orgasm then and the action in
the portal stopped, leaving Star at the halfway station. "How was that even
possible? Marco was a boy and this was his first time..." thought Star
frustrated. There seemed to be no way he could be this good at it. Except. Star
cheeks lit in realization, briefly flashing in the shape of two pairs of
maracas, "Oooh... dancer mode..."
"Ahh... ahhh... Marco, that was..." Jackie panted, "I never... well, I have,
but never like this. Damn, Marco, if I had known we would have started dating
ages ago!"
"So..." Marco raised his head from between Jackie's legs were it still rested.
"You are basically saying you are only with me for the sex?" he asked,
seriously.
Jackie blinked. "Eh... no... I mean, I am with you because you are kind, and
brave, and always lift yourself up no matter what. I..." Marco was smiling.
Star was laughing to herself, if still a bit bummed she had not been able to
finish herself. She had gotten the joke before, but Jackie was realizing just
now.
"Heh, you wanted me to say that stuff, right?" Jackie smiled. Marco smiled
back.
"Well, if you had said you were with me only for the sex that would also have
been good for my ego," he joked.
"Fine, Don Juan, I am in love with you both because you are a great guy and
because that tongue of yours is a weapon of mass seduction, happy now?" she
smiled broadly at Marco and then giggled as he went once again a hundred
percent non-verbal. "Eh, uh, ah..."
"But honestly, Marco," added Jackie. "I only hope this was nearly as good for
you as it was for me."
"I... eh... of course it was! It was awesome and you are awesome and... wait?
did you say love?" Marco finally caught on. Star's mouth had been hanging open
since Jackie's confession.
"I mean..." Jackie started. "Dude, no pressure. I don't need you to say you
love me as well. I also don't mean that I think we are soulmates or destined
together or anything like that. But, Marco, you are my boyfriend, and you know
I like you, and I know you at least have had a crush on me for a while. I think
you said once that you wanted to get to know me better, and I am not sure if
you know me better yet or not, but I have gotten to know you pretty well these
few days, and I like what I see, a lot. So, yeah, for the time being, for now,
I am in love with you. Hopefully nothing too scary for either of us, right?"
Marco opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Star opened her mouth, then closed it again.
"I... Jackie, it is not scary," Marco seemed to struggle to explain himself a
lot more than his girlfriend had. "Or I mean, rather, it is, but only because I
don't want to hurt you. Not that I think I will hurt you. Is just. Well,
Jackie, you know I have liked you, a lot, for years. These few weeks have been
a dream come true and this we just did is what all my fantasies have been about
since I reached puberty. They were all about you Jackie, and they don't compare
one bit to the reality. You are the coolest most awesome person I know..." Star
frowned, "... and I think I am in love with you too. But there is a chance that
I am still too infatuated with you to know for certain that I am in love with
you and not just with the idea of dating you. I don't want to tell you that I
am in love with you, with you really, until I am absolutely certain that I am.
I think I am, just, well, playing it safe... hopefully that's not too bad an
answer..."
Jackie smile told Star that it wasn't. The princess herself listened to the
whole explanation with some amount of surprise. So, Marco wasn't sure he was in
love after all? Maybe he would fall out of love with Jackie, or fall in love
with someone else. Nah, no way, he was in love, is just that he didn't want to
tell Jackie that unless he was extremely sure about it. He was just being
the...
"Safe Kid!" Jackie laughed. "Aww, Marco. I can understand not yet having had
enough time to tease apart the fantasy from the reality. Especially this early
in the relationship. Maybe it is easier for me, since you weren't my fantasy
before." Marco looked crestfallen. Jackie raised and eyebrow. Oh right, kinda
hard to complain after she had told him she was in love with him. "That was not
a bad answer at all. Especially because now I know, that if and when you say
it, you'll really mean it," she smiled at Marco and they stared into each
other's eyes for a few moments. Star was feeling left out again, before
realizing that she should be left out, she wasn't supposed to be seeing this at
all!
"By the way, Safe Kid," Jackie asked after a few moments. "Do you have any
condoms around?"
Marco blinked a few times, "... yes." Then got up from the bed and picked his
wallet from his pants. A moment later he was back in the bed, holding a strip
of five condoms.
"Five?" Jackie asked.
"You can never be too prepared!" Marco answered. "What if we break one while
opening it, or it falls behind the bed or..."
"Just fuck already!" Star cried.
Moments later, Star got her wish. Jackie had been jacking Marco back to full
length while he again sucked at her breasts and caressed her insides until a
finger or two slid slippery and easily into her. Star had begun rubbing herself
as well, hand inside her pants, legs pressing against it. She saw the quick
movement with which Jackie opened the wrapper and rolled the condom down
Marco's length. Again, Star wondered what it would be like to touch Marco's
stiff member herself and the thought sent a shiver down her spine. As Jackie
lowered herself back onto the bed and Marco positioned himself to enter her,
Star wished it was her there instead of the other girl. That it was her wet
folds that her friend were about to plunge himself into instead of Jackie's,
her body pressed under his strong arms, her legs spreading to grant him
entrance. Then, suddenly, she was pushed backwards onto her bed and she felt
the first slow but sure thrust enter her.
Star's eyes opened wide. She was laying on her bed, as if an invisible force
pinned her there, a force she couldn't fight no matter how much of her strength
she put into it. She had her pants on, her underwear too, and yet she felt
something enter her through them, something thick and hard going in and out of
her. She looked up at the portal, saw Jackie with her arms around Marco's back
as he rhythmically thrust into her. She felt the same rhythm pounding against
her own cunt, sliding in and out of her with perfect synchronization to what
she was seeing through her portal. Her wand was glowing a bright green, bright
enough to cover the entirety of Star's vast room.
"Oh no, Marco!" Star didn't meant to do this. This was too much. Seeing it was
one thing, but this, this was not right. She heard Jackie moan and she felt her
own breath quicken. The thrusts came faster and faster now. She tried to go
into herself, to use magic to get her wand back or to cancel the spying spell.
Her mind was going crazy, this was too intense, too fast, too wrong. "Oh yes,
Marco!!"
Star had stopped fighting it. Her moans mixed with Jackie's and with Marco's
grunts. Her friend was reacting to the flesh and blood girl there with him, but
for some reason it seemed his movement was in perfect synchrony with Star's as
well. She could feel her wetness drenching her underwear as her best friend's
ghost dick fucked her to a climax. All three of them riding the same intense
roller-coaster. Back outside Jackie's room, a red light illuminated the sky,
but in Star's room only green brightness prevailed.
"Jackie, I am going to..." Marco shouted, his voice breaking.
"Me, toooo... Marco!" Jackie shouted. Her legs going around to embrace Marco's
body and push it even more firmly towards her own.
"Me three!" exploded star.
Marco collapsed atop Jackie. Sweat drops glistening on his back. Jackie panted
below him, her eyes almost rolled back completely into her head.
"That was amazing!" Star was the first to recover. Then realized what had just
happened. What she had done. Had she just... used her friend? Her smile turned
into a frown and she began pulling herself off the bed. She grabbed her still
floating wand with one hand. Her expression was one of anger, red hot anger at
herself. This ended now. She shouldn't have done that. Friends didn't do
something like that. Well, not without their friend's permission at any rate.
"Marco..." Jackie was still panting under the karate boy, "... this is probably
weird timing, but can I ask you a question about Star?"
A pale hand let go of the floating wand.
***** Old Flame *****
Chapter Summary
     In which someone overstays their welcome, harsh words are delivered,
     the past catches up to our horny heroine (what? I mean the headband
     thingy! jeez!) and more characters are introduced to complicate an
     already entangled situation.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 2: Old Flame *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place between "Running With
     Scissors" (S02E16b) and "Just Friends" (S02E20b) It also takes place
     immediately after Chapter 1. This story so far is considered
     compatible with SvtFoE season 2 events up to that point.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/2.png]
"About Star?" Marco asked surprised, as he rolled himself off his date and onto
the bed beside her.
"Well, I mean..." Jackie seemed unsure for a moment. Her cool facade once more
slipping away. Star thought the girl maybe hadn't yet fully recovered from the
powerful emotions of the afternoon, or from her recent climax. On the other
hand, perhaps she was just nervous about broaching this particular topic,
whatever it was. But, Star thought, why would Jackie be nervous about something
that involved her? And why on Earth or Mewni was she even thinking about that
at such a time, when she could be relaxing cuddling with Marco? Because, well,
that's what Star would have done. As friends, of course! Besties could cuddle
too, right? "It is just, Star is a cool girl, Marco. Heck, she is literally
out-of-this-world. You two live together and do everything together..."
Star's hand trembled over the wand, her cheeks glowing bright at the girl's
description, both of herself and her relationship with Marco. She could see
Marco's puzzled frowning look, though, she new what was coming. She really
ought to give them some privacy now. But she couldn't. What was Jackie about to
ask? Was she jealous of the time Marco spent with his bestie? And if she was,
what would Marco's response be? Star could not imagine Marco not being her
bestie, but then again, what would he chose, if the one asking was Jackie Lynn
Thomas?
"Jackie, what are you trying to say?" replied Marco, serious but calm. He laid
a hand on the girl's shoulder, reassuringly.
"Well, Marco, it's just that a lot of people at the school always assumed you
two were, well... a thing," Jackie turned to look at Marco, and Star couldn't
help but notice how vulnerable the usually cool girl looked. She imagined she
must have not looked too different, alone in her room, her heart half-stopped
in anticipation of the oncoming hit. "I assumed that too. You know, before the
sleepover thing. So... are you two or have you two ever..."
Star braced herself. Marco was a nice guy, a great guy, and he almost certainly
truly loved Jackie, so there was no reason to expect him to do anything but the
obvious. Right? He had to reassure his girlfriend. He wouldn't be lying either,
Star knew. They had truly never been anything other than friends. She had
realized things too late to have it be otherwise. She had no reason to hope
Marco would say anything else.
Yet, Star wanted it to be different. Marco had just been inside her, he had
just made love to her, even if he didn't know it. Well, he also had made love
to Jackie, Star reminded herself. The difference was, with Jackie, he had done
so knowingly and intentionally. Star felt a heavy weight in her gut. She ought
to yank the wand at once, before she heard something that would punch her like
a narwhal blast to the stomach. There was absolutely no way Marco was going to
say anything she wanted to hear right now.
"Jackie, Star is one of a kind. She is amazing and every day of hanging with
her is a super cool adventure." Star begun to smile. Awww, Marco. She suddenly
felt light. Jackie slowly began looking down, away from Marco, and Star could
no longer make her face. "She is frustrating at times, but she is brave and
cool and, more importantly, a really good person at heart."
Guilt shot through Star's entire body like lighting. A good person? After what
she had just done? What kind of good person would ever use someone like she
just had? No, Marco was wrong about that at least. She was not a good person.
"Yeah, Star is great, Jackie. As a friend." Star's heart sunk, bruised and
constricted. Jackie slowly looked up to Marco again, surprised. Her cheeks
still looked a bit flustered, probably from their earlier activities. "She is
the best friend I could ever hope for. But in the end that's all there is, we
are just friends."
Star's entire body begun to tremble. A tear fell down her left cheek. Of
course, Marco, good-friend Marco, was just talking up his bestie, even to his
girlfriend. But he still didn't see Star that way, and in the end...
"I don't love Star, Jackie..." Marco finished, and something fragile broke
inside the Mewnian princess chest. "...I ...I love you."
Star hit her flying wand with the back of her hand, sending it spiraling
against the wall of her room. The green light flickered, the dark clouds
exploded all around her, and the image of stupid smiling Jackie, and stupid
misleading Marco finally fizzled away. Star knew he had done everything right,
he had stood by his girlfriend while not putting down his best friend in the
least. And yet, yet she was angry at him, she had wished for something very
different, something unreasonable and wrong. But knowing that what you wish for
is wrong does not make you wish it any less.
She sat alone in her bed. Marco liked Jackie, and she was just his friend, and
she ought to have known that. Instead, she had used magic to spy on him, to
insinuate herself in his most intimate moments with the girl he loved, a girl
that was most definitely not Star. She had had every chance to stop: when she
saw they were alone and beginning to get intimate, when things escalated
sexually again and again. She hadn't even ended it right after she
inadvertently... she couldn't even think it! She had stayed there, uninvited,
until he had to explicitly tell her what was what: 'I don't love Star'.
In her huge dark room. She brought her hands up to bury her face in them,
preparing to let herself cry for a while. To let the pain and frustration out,
to deal with the confusion between what she knew to be true and what she felt
she had just experienced. However, that was not to be, as she was soon
interrupted, by the worst possible person.
"Ouch, Starship. I am truly sorry. That really must have been harsh to hear..."
spoke a low voice from behind the girl. It sounded sincere enough, concerned
even, but that didn't register on the princess' mind at all. She was supposed
to be alone in the house.
She jolted awake. Jumped up from her bed and grabbed her wand again, pointing
it at the intruder. "Who is that?! Come out or prepare to get narwhaled!
Wait... Tom?!"
Her demon ex-boyfriend sat on the window, small flames coming out from the
palms of his hands and traveling up the window frame. In the light of her wand,
Star could see that he was wearing his usual ripped shorts and pentagram tee.
He was looking at her with a sad look in his eyes. Wait! He was looking at her
and she was shirtless! In her room! When she was supposed to be alone!
"How long have you been there?!" she yelled indignantly, while she covered her
chest with her left arm. Using the right one to keep her wand trained on Tom.
"Don't you know it is super rude to spy on people?!"
Tom smiled and raised an eyebrow. Actually, he raised two, but you could only
barely see the one in his middle eye when he did that. He waited for Star's
mind to process what she had just said.
"Oh...right..." Star lowered her wand and blushed in shame, realizing exactly
how hypocritical she was being right now. "How... how much did you see?"
"More than I probably should have," answered Tom with a sad expression. It
dawned on Star that Tom liked her, really liked her, and he had just seen
herself having... well, magic-proxy-sex with Marco or whatever.
"Mmm. Yeah. Me too," commented Star slowly, lowering her wand. Then paused and
they stared at each other in silence. Tom looking dejected and Star covering
her chest and withdrawing into herself. She turned her back to him, facing the
opposite wall as she stood in the middle of her room. "You still should go away
now, Tom..."
"I probably should," he admitted dejectedly. "But, are you sure you want to be
alone after that, though?" The demon boy shrugged himself up the window frame.
He floated slowly towards Star, a trail of fire following his wake through the
room. Carefully, he extended his arms and put his hands on top of Star
shoulders and begun massaging her back.
"Star, I know you like Marco. I get it. Any other day I would be firing up in
rage over that. But I really can't stand seeing you like this. We had
something, Starship, and maybe it is long over now." His hands moved from their
positions, a single finger in each tracing a line of flames over Star's skin,
stopping just above her mewberty wings. The flames left a red trail, but no
real burns. Star shivered, in a good way. That felt pretty good, a little bit
of pain followed by a whole lot of soothing heat. "But I'd like to think I can
still at least make you feel a little better."
"Oooohhh..." moaned Star appreciatively, and her eyes opened wide as Tom traced
the side of her wings with a clawed finger. He wasn't half bad at this, and for
a second she wondered why she had ever broken up with the fiend in the first
place. Maybe it wasn't so bad that he was around now. Tom wasn't who she had
hoped for, but she had to admit, she was glad to not be alone in the house just
now.
Five claws danced through her back, leaving a trail of light scratches and
flames. It was just barely painful, but in a good way, or perhaps in a
deliciously bad way. "Star, what you did just now was pretty bad, we both know
that." Tom's words hurt Star more than his claws, and in a less pleasant way.
"Fortunately for you, I know a thing or two about being bad." The demon pulled
back on her hair and kissed her neck, nibbling carefully with his pointy teeth,
stopping right before piercing the skin. A single claw reached to the front
began tracing one-finger flaming circles around the mound of her right breast.
Starting far away from the center, but slowly working in a closer and closer
spiral. She felt her heartbeat quicken again and a wetness begin to build up in
her crotch, one unrelated to the whole seeing eye affair.
Tom's left claw grabbed at her ass through her pants, and she could feel a
burning heat going through the fabric. His breath also felt impossibly hot on
her neck, in both a literal and figurative sense. "Face it, Starlight. You
don't belong with Earth-boy, Jackie does. They are both nice safe kids. But
you, you are a rebel, you live for danger, for transgression, you belong with
me," he whispered in her ear, commanding and in charge in a way whispers had no
business sounding. Guilt trip aside, that voice was so deliciously not safe.
Maybe Tom was right, maybe she did belong with him. And, would that even be
that bad? Marco didn't think of her that way, he just thought of her as a
friend. Tom desired her, and the way in which he showed it was really turning
her on right now. Besides, they had had lots of fun when they dated, he was
always so confident and so dangerous. Why was it that they broke up in the
first place? The claw reached her nipple and pressed in, with a sharp pointy
nail. Star gasped, losing her train of thought.
She felt a claw going into the back of her pants, raking against her buttocks,
pressing firm trails of fire and measuredly hurt skin. The hand slid from her
pants again and she felt it slap her through the fabric. Why on earth was him
spanking her ass making her feel so good right now? It was not usually one of
Star's turn ons. At least, she didn't think it was. Was it because right now
she wanted to be punished? Because Marco was wrong and she wasn't a good
person? Maybe this whole Tom thing wasn't really such a bad idea. Perhaps she
had made a mistake breaking up with him, they did have much in common. They
were both bad deep down. So, why had she ended things?
Of course, there was the anger thing. That wasn't fun. One second Tom was being
great, the next he was exploding in flames and threatening to hurt her. Yeah,
that was not a good thing, but she was, well, Star. Her magic was stronger than
his even when they had been dating, and she was so much more powerful now. Tom
couldn't hurt Star, unless she wanted him to. She felt a bite, on the other
side of her neck, deep enough to draw a single drop of blood. Another smack on
her ass that left it tender and red through her pants. Oh yes, right now, she
wanted him to hurt her. To punish her for what she had just done to her best
friend, and to soothe her wounded heart all at the same time.
"You were always more at home in the dark with me," Tom reminded her as his
hand reached around to the front of her pants, undoing the button with a
literal magic touch. "Just let me show you how much..."
But there was another thing, though. A small voice in Star's head was trying to
remind her of something. It was not just the anger management issues. Not just
the rage and the fire and the threats. That was the easy part. The hard part
was the plotting. The most infuriating thing about Tom Lucitor was how
deceptive he could sometimes be. Not so much just that he lied, but that he
manipulated, almost by natural reflex. He was always running some kind of mind
game or another, not caring who he hurt to get what he wanted.
"No! Stop it," Star demanded and slipped sideways from the demon's embrace.
"Tom, I know what you are trying to do," she explained, summoning the last
shreds of determination left in her. She had to set things clear, for herself
and for him. To stop this all before it went too far. "This is not about making
me feel better. This is about you coming on to me when I am vulnerable, and
confused. This is you trying to get us to get back together, and you are doing
so in a sneaky way!"
Tom paused, the flames dancing around him turning up, eyes glowing red for a
second, then he recovered back to a controlled but frustrated expression.
"Can't it be both, Star? Can't I want you both to feel better and to be mine?"
"No no no, a million times no. We broke up, for good!" Star answered firmly,
but not without some internal regret at not having let the demon prince's
seduction scheme play out at least a half an hour longer or so. Her backside,
chest and neck ached, but not nearly as much as her nether regions did. But it
was not worth it to get tangled with Tom again. "And things like, well, like
this, are part of the reason!"
His eyes glowed bright red once more, his claws tightened, fire danced in
between them. For a moment Star feared she would have to deal with another Tom
tantrum. That would certainly be the shitty cherry on top of this confusing
painful night. Then as suddenly as he flared up, he calmed down, and sat on her
bed.
"Yeah, ok, guess I get that," he said finally. Then paused for a bit and looked
down at the floor. "It sucks to like somebody that doesn't like you back,
though, doesn't it, Starship?"
Star sat on her bed, leaving a small token space between herself and him,
feeling a lot less worried now. "Yeah. It really does," she answered in a slow
monotone.
"Can't even blame you on Marco, you know? He is a great guy to hang out with...
pretty good taste in music too," Tom offered. Perhaps his version of an olive
branch? There was a brief moment of silence. Star wondered if that was another
ploy. It sounded like a sincere concession, but that was the problem with Tom's
schemes, they always sounded sincere. "Well, you are right, I should be off
now."
Tom took out a tiny bell from his pockets and hit it with an equally tiny
hammer. Moments after, an elevator pulled up by a flying demon materialized in
flames in front of Star's window.
"Wait, Tom?" Star said hesitatingly. "We are not getting back together, no
matter what. But, you know... if you want it... we could, you know. I could do
this for you. For old times sake."
"Thanks for the offer Star... but no. At least not today," he extended his
arms, and a second later he had floated into the elevator and it had been
engulfed in flames. A moment after that, Star was again alone in her room with
all her bittersweet thoughts.
She was feeling better now, at least compared to what she felt after listening
to Jackie and Marco's last conversation. Tom had actually truly cheered her up
a little, whatever his ulterior motives were. And she? She had just offered him
pity sex. Wow, Star, you really do mess everything up, she thought to herself.
But, had it been pity sex? Star took off the rest of her clothes, threw a
nightie on herself and got into bed. Or had Star been genuinely excited about
the idea of a one night stand with Tom? He was hot, literally and figuratively,
and he could do things to her that even Marco, if she had him, never would dare
do. Things that Star was pretty sure she wanted done to her. But Tom was a
package deal, and she didn't want a lot of what came with it.
Forgetting to even cry, Star fell asleep from exhaustion.
----
Star opened her eyes to find the canopy of her bed missing, replaced by a
canopy of green leaves illuminated from behind by the red and purple of a sky
under a double sunset. She felt the bright emerald grass against her skin,
cushioning her body as it lay there on the open forest. She heard the chirping
song of birds she couldn't quite recognize, harmonizing against the background
sound of a waterfall she couldn't quite see from her position. From the looks
of it, the princess was in a pretty great place, but not on Earth exactly. "Uh.
This is weird. Cool, definitely cool... but weird," she told herself aloud, on
reflex.
She reached around for her wand. Her eyes opening wide as she failed to find it
under her pillow. She failed to find her pillow too, for that matter. "Ok,
Star... either you are dreaming, got captured in your sleep, or something very
fishy is going on," with that thought, she jumped to her feet. She began making
her way out of the trees, towards the sound of the waterfall. Maybe if she
could get out of the forest and somehow get a better look at the sky she could
figure out if she had been in this dimension before.
Her hands pushed aside a few last branches of a thick bush and then she saw...
well... she saw Marco. Except, not usual Marco. Older Marco. Sixteen years
older, multi-dimensional adventurer, ripped, bad-ass, hot as all hell Marco. He
stood there, bathing in a shallow waterfall, submerged in a river up to his
waist, showing his entire naked torso and tattoos, hair flowing behind him from
the breeze. "Dream. Definitely dream," Star muttered aloud as her heart cheeks
began flaring up with an almost blinding red. Star was still mostly hidden from
him behind the last few layers of vegetation, and Marco seemed not to notice
her yet.
"Right. But not your dream, princess," said a voice behind Star, a tone two
parts annoyance and one part surprise. "So, I have to wonder, what is Moon's
kid doing in here? Pretty sure her royal lameness would disapprove."
Star turned around to see Hekapoo glaring at her. The flame on her head was
dimmed to a small candle, an arm set on the sorceress own waist.
"Hekapoo?!" Star slowly recovered from the surprise. "What are you doing here?!
Wait... not my dream? How can I be dreaming a dream that's not my dream? That
doesn't make any sense!" Then, after a brief pause, "uh, does that mean it is
your dream?"
"Oh, no, not mine," Hekapoo said with a satisfied tone and a huge grin. "His
dream. I am just, kinda, well, you could say I am guest starring. Notsorry."
Star looked back at Marco as Hekapoo pointed in his direction. Then she saw a
second Hekapoo emerge through the woods on the other side of the river. That
Hekapoo walked a few steps towards the waterfall and then stopped to sit in a
nearby rock. The thirty-year-old warrior that was also Star's bestie looked up,
directly at that version of Hekapoo and raised an eyebrow. "Hey H-poo. Care to
join me?" he said with his smooth deep voice, his arms throwing his hair back
against the falling water.
"Tempting as that sounds, you know I don't much enjoy getting wet," the flame
sorceress sitting on the rock replied with a grin and pointed a finger to the
flame floating above her head.
"Then I am coming out, H-poo," Marco replied with a grin and begun walking
towards the shore. "But I can make no promises about not getting you wet." Star
got it immediately. Especially because she was no where near the waterfall, nor
Marco for that matter, and yet already getting quite damp herself.
"This show is not exactly going to be for kids, princess. You know that,
right?" said the voice of Hekapoo behind her. She sounded more amused than
annoyed now. With great difficulty, Star took a brief look away from Marco and
confirmed that her own copy of Hekapoo was still there beside her.
Her mind tried processing the situation, but her eyes kept going back to Marco,
whose waist was slowly emerging from the water. Was Hekapoo actually Hekapoo or
was she just part of her dream somehow? If she was, then her mind had gotten
really messed up, Star concluded. This was not her first wet dream about older
Marco, not by a long shot, but it was the first in which she imagined any third
person there, especially another woman, and especially Hekapoo of all people!
Unless watching him and Jackie had given her a thing for, for 'looking stuff'.
Nah, that couldn't be it! On the other hand, maybe somehow she had indeed
gotten into Marco's dream. Magic like that was always a possibility, especially
around Star. But then, it meant Hekapoo was a figment of Marco's imagination,
which meant Star was safe. Because then the real Hekapoo wouldn't know anything
about Star being here and thus not be able to tell her mom about this. Her mom
must neeeveeer know, Star thought with a shudder.
Star's train of thought crashed that very moment, when the perfect ass emerged
from under the water, as Marco made her way up the opposite river shore. Star's
eyes went wide like saucers as she took in the toned buttocks of the man her
bestie would, or at least could, become. The Hekapoo with Marco also seemed to
be looking down, composed, yet naughtily expectant, her small fangs protruding
from a closed mouth smile. "My my, have you grown up in this sixteen years,"
she teased.
"Turn around. Turn around. Turn around," Star muttered under her breath. But
Marco didn't seem to notice her. Then, a chilling thought broke through the
horniness and Star herself turned around to face her copy of Hekapoo. "Wait, he
doesn't know I am here. So, if you know I am here, and he doesn't know I am
here, then you are not part of him! Are you?"
"Afraid not," Hekapoo said, smiling at Star as she raised an eyebrow. "Although
I fully expect to have a part of him in me quite soon," she joked, causing Star
to give her a strange tilted look. Half of her wanted to groan at the terrible
pun, half of her was green with envy. "Both of me are well, me. And before you
ask, I am not doing much to his mind, just getting my real self involved on
something that was going to happen anyways. But, speaking of guest Star-s," she
stressed the Mewman princess' name, "I still don't know what you are doing
here..."
Hekapoo moved in an instant, seemingly disappearing in a blur, and then she was
right in front of Star, standing between her and the clearing with the river.
She moved her hand through the air, trailing a path of flame. Suddenly the
flame seemed to illuminate a partly translucent thread of dark greenish shadow
going from Star's chest to the entrance of the clearing, becoming invisible
again in direct sunlight. "Well, that's unexpected." As Hekapoo's hand finished
the motion, the thread disappeared again.
"What was that? Did you do something to me?" Star jumped up and her eyes
narrowed as she looked at the sorceress. She had instinctively raised her arm
and taken aim, even though she knew she didn't have her wand.
"Calm down princess, I was only checking something," Hekapoo shot back annoyed.
"Like I would do any harm to Moon's kid! Imagine how awkward that would make
high commission business. But I really don't know how you got yourself linked
with... oooohhh nice."
Hekapoo seemed to gasp as she interrupted her admonition. Star saw the
sorceress blush and smile. Her eyes darted to the other shore of the river,
where Marco's lips were pressing against his own copy of Hekapoo and a firm
hand was gripping her left horn, pushing her close.
"So, linked, you said. Right?" said Star. Eyes narrowing again in suspicion.
"Well, yeah, me and I are also linked, of course," Hekapoo smirked back. "But
what I was... ahhh..." Star looked back at the clearing and saw Marco's other
hand on the inside of his Hekapoo clone's right thigh.
"Keep. Talking." Star said, in a surprisingly commanding voice. Her own eyes
did not move from the scene on the other side of the river. She wanted to know
what Hekapoo had to say, but there was no way she was taking her eyes away from
older Marco. Why did he not just turn around already!?
"Well... mmmmhhh... you two are linked, somehow, by magic," Hekapoo managed to
reply. On the other side of the river, Marco had pulled away from the kiss, if
only briefly. They seemed to be bantering some more, but Star wasn't paying
attention to their words. Then Hekapoo got up, did something to the ribbon of
her dress, and the entire thing fell to the floor, leaving her completely naked
and only partly hidden from the princess' point of view by Marco's own nude
body. Star's version of Hekapoo continued in a serious tone. "Two links
actually, one about a year old, standard soul-bond stuff, one true love, blah,
blah, boring. The other one is very recent, however, fairly dark magic too..."
Star's heart skipped a beat. The All Seeing Eye spell? Had she done something
permanent to the two of them, somehow?
"Give me a second," Hekapoo interrupted her explanation. Star saw the other
Hekapoo snap her fingers and the copy beside her flickered out of existence and
right back again a moment after. Then, on the other shore, two more Hekapoos
also appeared our of thin air, already fully naked.
"Three on one. Think you can handle it, human?" one of them asked.
"You know I can handle all of you, Hekapoo," Marco answered confidently, his
voice was melting Star's... well, it was significantly further down than her
heart.
"Dark magic, as a rule, is powered by strong emotions of a small number of
categories. This link is Butterfly magic, if I am not mistaken," continued the
voice behind Star, which the princess was barely paying attention to as she
stared at the three naked devilish forms and Marco's firm posterior. Each
Hekapoo was a compact toned busty bundle of mischievous smiles and sex appeal
and they now moved on Marco like a well coordinated ensemble. Unfortunately,
most of the action was still facing away from Star, but she could see arms
rubbing in front and around the man's toned form. She could spend days just
staring at those shoulders, and especially at that ass.
"I am going to guess..." her Hekapoo continued, in the background of Star's
distracted mind, "... a dark spell powered by lust." Star's cheeks went even
brighter as she spun around despite her fear of missing out on the view. "What
on Mewni have you been getting up to with that kid, princess?!"
"It was not on purpose. I messed up. Please don't tell my mom," Star managed to
say. Her eyes went wide with fear. If the queen ever found out about this.
Well, St. Olga's wasn't as bad anymore, but Star was sure she would be pulled
away from earth, at the very least. Which meant, she would be pulled away from
Marco!
"Hahahaha... tell Moon?" Hekapoo just fell to the floor guffawing, a single
finger clearing a tear of laughter from her eye. "Why would I tell Moon about
anything of this? Like I want to explain what I am doing here to her either.
Kid, you are not putting the multiverse in danger by casting a spell on a boy
you have the hots for, dark magic or not. Which, you know, is the kind of thing
I'd actually be forced to report to the magic high commission: threats to any
major dimensions and the like. I have no intention on tattling on you just
because you happen to have a voyeurism fetish on your human boyfriend. Besides,
let me tell you, you have no idea what your mom got up to when she was your
age, no matter how much she denies it all now. Perfect princess Moon my furry
ass!"
Wait, what did her mom get up to when she was her age? Nah, couldn't be
anything like this, mom just got married to dad and that had been it, right?
Right? Then Star remembered what Moon had said to her about joining the game of
flag: "Star, I did a lot of things you won't be doing." For a moment, Star
though of pressing Hekapoo for more information, then decided that she really
didn't want to know that much about her mom. Then another thought caught up
with her.
"Wait, Marco is not my boyfriend, he is Jackie's... and I do not have a
voyeurism fetish!" she shouted indignantly and, as always, unconvincingly.
"Oh, really? Are you sure?" Hekapoo raised an eyebrow and smirked at the young
princess. "This should be amusing."
Then Star heard a deep low grunt behind her and turned around to see the three
other Hekapoos had grabbed Marco by the arms and turned him around. As two of
them began kissing his chest and roaming their hands through his arms, the
remaining one winked right in the direction Star was hiding.
Star almost missed the wink, her gaze darted directly downwards, to the hard
manhood of her crush. She had seen a lot of it that time with Jackie, but
Hekapoo was right, Marco still had grown quite a lot between fourteen and
thirty. It was, well, intimidating was an apt way to put it. Not that Star
would ever be the one to back down from a challenge if the opportunity ever
arose. Heh. Arose.
"So, you were saying..." a sardonic voice behind her begun, as the three
Hekapoos sat Marco on the rock one of them had been occupying before and ran
their hands down his chest. One of them going up until she was able to plant a
kiss on the hunk's lips, two of them going lower and lower, until their faces
reached the height of his member. A tongue traced each side of the shaft.
Star's eyes glued to the scene. Suddenly it seemed that it was way too warm out
here, despite it being the sunset. "... that you are not into watching."
"Yeah. Uhm. Not. Into. Waaatchiiing," Star responded without thinking. She
barely noticed Hekapoo getting closer to her, the sorceress also staring
towards the scene where she was thrice a participant. Marco's powerful hands
seemed to have grabbed hold of the breasts of the Hekapoo that was kissing his
mouth, while the other two began taking turns taking the tip of his cock into
their lips, while the remaining one licked the underside.
Whether because this was just a dream, or because older Marco was never really
what she thought of as 'her' Marco, Star didn't feel anywhere as conflicted as
she had when watching him and Jackie. This was not painful and confusing, just
plain hot. Sure, Star was jealous of Hekapoo, but it was more like the kind of
jealous you got when you saw someone eating something that looked delicious.
Well, exactly like that, actually.
Even across the river and the clearing she heard her best friend grunt and her
heart raced. She wondered if Marco was already at his limit, after all, there
were three Hekapoos there, and she seemed, well, experienced. What happened
next surprised her. His two hands left the middle Hekapoo's breasts as Marco's
entire body moved lower and with a swift movement his hands reached at the two
remaining copies, lifting them up by their backsides and begun massaging the
underside of them. "Got you!" A small remnant of childish amusement was mixed
into the deep forceful voice.
"Get on top, H-poo," Marco commanded the middle clone. As his hands grasped
around the other two, until two fingers began rubbing the outside of each
copy's crotch.
"Don't call me, H... ooohh. Ok." The middle clone wrapped her arms around
Marco's neck and pulled herself up, only to then begin lowering herself onto
his dick, just as Marco's hands begun probing the other two clones, inserting
one and then two fingers, while rubbing circular motions gently with his thumbs
just above the entrance.
Star heard the breath of the Hekapoo she had nearby quicken, and saw she had
pushed her own hand under her dress. The princess was severely tempted to do
something quite similar, but that just seemed too embarrassing with the
sorceress around, besides, wouldn't that prove her point?
Marco's movements started slow, but picked up pace quickly, both with his hands
and with his hips bouncing the middle Hekapoo up and down, until it looked like
she was riding an out of control warnicorn. Star could hear the moans from the
other side of the river, except when they were drowned by the moans of the
Hekapoo behind her. "That... ahhh... kid... uff... is... incredible! You are a
lucky girl, princess Butterfly!"
"Yeah... lucky. Totally. Totally," answered Star, a bit sullenly.
The middle clone flame seemed to grow and then go up and up and up, until, with
a long moan of orgasmic bliss, she faded out of existence.
"One done. Two to go," smiled Marco. "How was it, Hekapoo?"
"Do you even need to ask?" the clone to his right responded. Then the three of
them got apart and begun to shift position, until Marco was laying on the grass
and the two remaining Hekapoos lowered themselves on top of him. One over his
crotch the other over his face.
The clone near Star seemed to catch her breath momentarily. "Wait. You can't be
serious! You mean you two haven't done it yet?!"
Star felt a pang in her chest. Wait, was the woman, a member of the magic high
commission and a friend of her mom, no less, telling her that she should have
had sex with Marco? It wasn't like Star hadn't considered that, but she had
figured it out too late that she was into Marco, and by then, Jackie had
already asked him out. So they couldn't even date now, or kiss, let alone well,
what he was doing now with three Hekapoos. "He. He has a girlfriend... who is
not me."
"And you are letting that stop you?" Hekapoo smirked. "It would not stop me.
Clearly it doesn't here, and it wouldn't in the waking world either if I were
in your place. That boy is too good to let go of the chance. You... aaaahhh...
you don't know what you are... aaaahhhhhhhhh... what you are missing!"
On the other shore of the river, the Hekapoo sitting on Marco's face had
vanished with a long moan and a flame explosion. A moment after, the one
sitting on his cock exploded as well. Marco was sweating, but seemed still
ready to go. "Another clone? So, there is more of you around, H-poo? Are you
coming out, or do you want me to find you? Because you know I can play that
game too..."
Besides Star, Hekapoo began walking towards the clearing. Then, suddenly, she
stopped herself and threw one last, broad smile in Star's direction, fangs
showing. The princess was flustered, cheeks flaming red, legs pressed together,
wondering what else she was going to see Hekapoo and older Marco do tonight.
But nothing could have prepared her for what would happen next.
"Actually, princess, do you want to give it a try yourself?"
Chapter End Notes
     Well, Old Flames, technically, but originally H-poo's appearance was
     a (very) minor spoiler. Shame that my OCD with tagging ruins that on
     this site. Oh well, that is truly the least of the surprises to come.
***** The Man of Her Dreams *****
Chapter Summary
     In which ethical dilemmas are solved by impartial and flawless logic,
     a princess is loved once upon a dream, and we get our first look into
     the thoughts of some of our other protagonists.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 3: The Man of Her Dreams *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place between "Running With
     Scissors" (S02E16b) and "Just Friends" (S02E20b) It also takes place
     immediately after Chapter 2. This story so far is considered
     compatible with SvtFoE season 2 events up to that point.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/3.png]
"Actually, princess, do you want to give it a try yourself?" Hekapoo had
crossed her arms and was looking at Star with an eyebrow raised. The Mewman
princess felt instantly torn between enthusiastic agreement and conflicted
restraint. She stood on the tips of her toes, clenching her fists right in
front of her mouth, holding in a scream of joy. Her heart told her to say yes
to the sorceress' offer, her well exercised sense of adventure pushed her to
seize the opportunity, her arousal bid her to not hesitate. Yet something in
the back of her mind disagreed, demanding her to think through her actions.
Star had a reputation, perhaps more well deserved than she often liked to admit
to herself, for being reckless and irresponsible. But over the last year, she
had learned some painful lessons about actions and their consequences, and
gained a measure of responsibility, especially where Marco was concerned. This
unfortunately meant that, as much as she wanted what Hekapoo was offering her,
she had to consider what this all meant for her and her bestie.
"Wait. What? Really? But, you? I mean, of course yes! But him?" Argh! This
shouldn't be a hard choice at all. Since when did Star intentionally walk away
from fun and excitement? And this was fun an excitement of the best kind! But
well, Marco loved Jackie, not her. He had said so himself. Then again, he had
just fucked Hekapoo instead of Jackie too, three times! What did one go with
Star change things? It didn't. It shouldn't. Not at all, right? right?
"It is only a dream, princess," the sorceress goaded her on, "he doesn't have
to know you are not a figment of his imagination. Come tomorrow, you can
pretend all this was a figment of yours for all I care. As for me, well, I
could very well go another round myself if you say no to my offer, so either
way he is getting some. But well, I expect that seeing the two of you will
prove... entertaining."
"So it is you who is into watching, then?" Star asked, momentarily glad she
could bounce back the older woman's accusation. Hekapoo only shrugged,
seemingly unembarrassed to admit so. "And, you said it is just a dream, right?
Marco is not betraying Jackie if it's just a dream, and I get this stupid crush
out of my system, and no one's feelings get hurt, correct?"
Hekapoo shrugged. "I make no promises on all that other stuff. But I guarantee
you it is just a dream, princess." Then, with a wink, she pushed the last few
branches aside and slapped star's back with her other hand, just below the
wings, propelling her forward into the clearing by the river. Where Hekapoo's
palm had made contact, a burning mark began spreading through Star's shirt,
then her tights, then her boots. She barely felt the flames on her skin, but in
seconds her clothes had burned to ash.
"Wait, what...? Hekapoo!?" Star turned back in surprise. She hadn't said yes.
True, she was about to. But still, what the hell? Just a dream, she reminded
herself and turned again, looking up.
"Star?" Marco called from the other shore, his tone once more resembling that
of the fourteen year old boy she knew, albeit on a deeper vocal register, a
note of surprise and confusion mixed in as well. Yet his body remained that of
the hunky adventurer he had become while chasing the scissor maker. "Star, what
are you doing here and... oh, wow, I am so sorry!" His hands darted downwards
to cover his erection. He directed his eyes upwards and to the right, pointedly
averting his gaze from his best friend's naked form.
Star had rushed to cover her chest and crotch with her arms as well, when she
remembered her clothes were not there any more. But when she saw Marco's
bashful look and embarrassed body language, she began to laugh. Apparently,
even older Marco, when dealing with her friend and not Hekapoo, was still,
well, Marco. Star let her arms fall to her side and begun walking towards the
edge of the river, feeling slightly more at ease. "Hey, nothing to be sorry
about, believe me," she said with a bright glowing blush of her own.
"But, well, this is... I am not decent and, you are... well..." he was still
looking away, towards the sky, still covering himself. "Star, you are naked
too."
"I noticed," Star said as calmly as she could, sitting on a ledge by the river,
dipping her feet into the water. "How do I look?"
"You are... well, you are too young for me to be looking..." Star felt a pang
in her chest. Of course Marco wouldn't look at her, she was just a little girl
and her chest had had barely anything to cover, especially compared to
Hekapoo's. Ugh, this was such a bad idea! She quickly noticed, though, that
Marco didn't seem disgusted or uninterested. He mostly seemed embarrassed and,
well, conflicted. "I mean, I am thirty years old now, and I definitely don't
want to be a pe... a pervert," he clarified.
Star looked up in surprise. Then back down, towards the water, checking out
Marco's reflection. Maybe he was right, this kind of age difference was
something her parents had once warned her about. Even in Mewni, a princess was
not supposed to allow herself to be seduced by anyone more than half again her
age, unless her parents agreed to the suitor. Then again, her parents had not
thought of the case in which Star was doing the seducing and, well, Tom was
actually much older than thirty, chronologically, which came to show age and
wisdom where not one and the same and... wait a second!
"Marco, do you even remember those sixteen years?" Star asked with a quizzical
look. Marco turned to look at her, a puzzled expression on his handsome face.
"What do you remember of yesterday? Or of your last birthday?"
"Star, my last birthday was before you came to Ea..." Marco began, then his
eyes opened wide. "Wait, no, that doesn't make sense. I remember chasing
Hekapoo through all those dimensions, I remember Nachos. But those memories are
vague, like, like a dream. And yesterday, I think I was on a date with J..."
"See!" Star jumped out of the water, a little too eager to stop Marco's train
of thought there. "This is just a dream, Marco. You are not thirty, not anymore
that you were yesterday. You are just inside a thirty year old body again,
because you are dreaming you are! But you are still fourteen in real life, like
me. Which means you can swim over to this side and plow me without guilt... if
that's what you want..."
Star tried to sound confident when saying that. She had considered adding
something about how he clearly did, since he was dreaming of her. But it felt
to her too manipulative, too unfair and confusing for Marco, too, well... Tom.
He hadn't really dreamed of her, she had somehow sneaked into his dream. Still,
Star hoped Marco would not say no to that, because as bold as the Mewman
princess was prepared to be right now, as much as she needed this; a direct
rejection from Marco while being there, naked for him to see and asking him for
sex, would be a brutal blow to her heart and her ego. Besides, you know,
leaving her more frustrated than hitting mewberty at a convent!
"A dream?" Marco seemed to be looking at her again, up and down, as he
processed the implications of her speech. "Oh, I don't think I've had this
dream before..."
Star's heart sunk. But then she saw Marco's smile. At once childish glee and
smoldering hotness when coming from that handsome new body of his. He began
walking towards the river, and then never stopped, as he seamlessly
transitioned into swimming breast stroke until he was right by her side. "I
mean, I usually don't look like this when you show up, but I guess dreams are
weird like that."
"Yes, yes, totally, totally, weird dreams... always doing weird things," Star's
eyes were just glued to Marco's biceps beside her, and then to his chest, and
then, through the water, down to his very adult cock. Eventually, she got to
the point of actually processing his words, "wait, where do I usually show up?"
Marco held up a hand and began counting with his fingers. "School dreams,
inter-dimensional dreams, bounce-lounge dreams, at-home dreams..."
"Ok, ok, Marco, but are any of those dreams, you know, this kind of dream?"
Star asked, turning around in the water to face Marco as he leaned against what
had previously been her shore. She placed her hands on those magnificent pecs
of his. She wasn't sure she wanted to ask. Partly because she felt a bit guilty
interviewing her best friend under false pretenses, and partly because she was
more than ready to stop talking and get into the action.
"Not that I remember," Marco said, making Star feel deflated once more, until
he suddenly grabbed her by the chin and pulled her up for a kiss. Star felt the
blood rush to her face and a sort of electric current flow from her chest to
her cheek hearts. She felt Marco's lips press gently against hers, opening them
as his tongue darted inside her mouth. It was not a forceful kiss, but it was
not shy either. The touch on her chin was gentle as well, even though Star
sensed a strength in that hand she had never associated with the boy. There was
a deliberate carefulness to Marco's advances, like he feared hurting her or
scaring her, but at the same time there was raw animal power behind every
movement. He might not have the mind of a thirty year old dimensional
adventurer, but he had the body and the muscle memory. Star pushed back into
the kiss with hungry desire and all the force she could muster. They held there
for long blissful moments. "But this seems like a good place to start," Marco
concluded after their mouths separated.
"Woah! Way to go princess!" Hekapoo cheered on unabashedly. She had reappeared
on her rock, on the farther shore, fully dressed once more. She looked at the
two friends with a smug expression and a double-fanged grin. She flourished
with a hand in front of her and a huge bucket of popcorn emerged from a
swirling portal of flames. She begun grabbing a handful. "Didn't really think
you could be so bold, kid. I underestimated you."
"Hekapoo?" Marco seemed surprised and conflicted, "I well... you went away..."
"Oh, don't mhmind me, humhman," she just said through a popcorn stuffed mouth.
She continued after swallowing, "you just take care of your princess there. I
don't know what stories you read, but I don't think she is just after a kiss
from the handsome knight, if you catch my drift..."
Marco looked at Hekapoo some more and blinked, not quite getting the situation.
Star felt herself annoyed at the interruption. But then again, she kinda owed
the whole situation to Hekapoo to begin with.
"Apparently, she, well, she likes to watch, Marco," whispered Star a bit self-
consciously. "I guess I don't mind, if you don't. After all, is just a dream."
Marco looked back and forth between the sorceress and his friend, dumbfounded.
There was something very weird going on with his subconscious if this was his
dream. Apparently, he was kinkier than he thought he was. Well, dreams were
dreams after all. "If that's the case, Star, what you say we give her a show?"
He winked at his best friend and then, as if making sure he was not scaring her
away, ran a gentle hand through her soft golden hair.
Star was no longer sure if Marco was dreaming or she was. She moved like in a
trance, and things seemed to flow more like a fantasy than the way they did in
reality. She felt Marco's hands roam her back through the water, fingers
massaging her wings and gently falling on her lower back. She felt her own
hands touching Marco's muscular thighs, pushing her weightless floating body to
press a kiss on his mouth and her chest against his own. An instant later, the
kiss had pushed the two of them unto the grass, somehow softly transporting
them outside of the water and more than a meter away from where they started.
Star was on top of Marco and was kissing down his neck. As she went lower, her
ass made contact with something hard and upwards pointing, and she wasted no
time to rub herself against it.
Marco's hands stopped her. They grabbed her from under her arms and pushed her
back up. Before she could protest, she felt his hands press against her chest,
a strong pressure that gave way to individual fingers. A circular motion, a
pinch, another press. Marco's hands were playing the princess sensitive nipples
like a fine instrument, and her moans were the music. She felt like the ground
had disappeared from them and they were floating among the clouds.
They, in fact, were. Somehow they were going up as they played with each other,
laying on a white fluffy cloud. Both Marco and Star noticed, neither of them
cared. He rolled her around, so he was on top, and began applying his mouth in
earnest. To her neck, her arms, her breasts, her belly, her legs, her...
"Oh god! Marcooooo!" Star felt the man's tongue go into her and a shiver of
pleasure flow from there all the way to her fingers and toes. He had just
gotten started and it was already almost too much. It didn't hurt, not at all.
Star didn't know if it was even possible for anything they did here, in a cloud
in a magic dream, to hurt. But even if it were possible, Marco was being
incredibly gentle, and she was probably wet enough that he could have stuck far
more inside of her than his tongue and she would have been ready ages ago. But
for now she just felt Marco kiss her sex, his breath on her insides, his tongue
on her folds, and, eventually, his lips around her most pleasurable nub.
Star was melting into pleasure, and the sky itself seemed to change colors to
the tune of her moans. It was still sunset. Eternally sunset. Clouds changed
from red, to gold, to purple, as the Mewman princess' breath quickened and the
mounting pressure inside of her rose and fell, slowly gaining intensity through
each loop. In another cloud, sitting with a knee over another and a half empty
bucket of popcorn, Hekapoo was idly humming a song Star couldn't quite make
out.
Star felt something powerful building up inside her. No, this was too soon for
an ending, Star decided. This was Marco's dream, she didn't want to be greedy
with his bestie's dreams. Star's hands roamed Marco's hair and then she tapped
on his arm. Somehow, he knew. He immediately knew what to do, and lifted
himself briefly and turned himself so that his face stood in the same place,
but his body reoriented so that his legs rested on the cloud above Star's head.
Stretching a little to make up the height difference, the princess positioned
herself so that her mouth could kiss the tip of Marco's member. She licked a
few times along the shaft and tried pushing her lips around it. After a few
tries, she managed to get most of that monster into her mouth, and began
instinctively going up and down. Whether from having watched Jackie do this
before, or because of the magic of dreams, Star felt that she got the technique
mastered in no time at all. Her best friend's grunts confirmed to her that it
was not just wishful thinking.
Marco himself had also gone back to eagerly lapping Star's sex and the princess
could feel both of their bodies convulse with small waves of pleasure as they
both built up to something larger and larger. She heard more humming from the
sorceress' direction. Suddenly, she recognized it. It was from a really cheesy,
really annoying movie Marco had showed her three weeks after she got to Earth.
A movie about a princess, but, you know, one of those princesses, the ones that
were there just to be rescued. Marco had thought she would find it funny, but
she mostly found it annoying at the time.
A pair of powerful hands gripped her ass and pushed her up towards Marco's
mouth. He was not just licking now, he was practically penetrating her with his
tongue. It was not as intense as him sucking on her clitoris, but it was a
strange sensation and in her mind, she felt Marco's hunger for her, and almost
got over the edge on just that thought. She for her part picked up the pace,
taking Marco in and out of her mouth in rapid desperate movements, darting her
tongue around the head whenever she could. Lightning seemed to jump from cloud
to cloud now as they changed to brighter and brighter colors, with no sign of
approaching rain.
In the background, supremely amused, Hekapoo kept humming. And, despite her
focus being otherwise occupied, Star could make the lyrics in her mind: 'But if
I know you, I know what you'll do... You'll love me at once... The way you did,
once upon a dream.' The small part of her that still noticed felt annoyed at
the forger of dimensional scissors.
"Marcooo! Let's..." Star knew she was going to be done soon. She worried that
if they finished, they might wake up, there was something the dream was
building up to. Something that was happening while they were this high on the
clouds. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew, that once what they
were doing came to a conclusion, so would the dream, and she didn't want to end
it this way. "... Marco, please, get inside me!"
"Star? Are you sure?" Marco seemed hesitant. In his mind, it was still one
thing to do what they had done so far, even in an older body. But, well,
something felt strange about shoving himself into Star's younger self the way
he was now, even in a dream, even if this wasn't really Star, even if his mind
was just fourteen, even if he really wanted to.
"Marco Diaz!" Star cried impatiently. "I am very very sure. This is just a
dream. Your dream! So get on with it!"
Marco blinked. Star felt the guilt pour on her like a bucket of cold water. She
hadn't lied per se, but she was implying Marco wanted this and that it was just
his fantasy, while it was her that had maneuvered him into the situation.
Still, she would deal with the guilt later, right now she needed this, and like
Hekapoo said, this was only a dream either way. Marco held her up by the
shoulders. She opened her legs to give him access. He looked right into her
eyes as he lunged himself forward.
Star woke up.
Star looked up. Saw the canopy of her bed. Felt her pillow under her head, and
her precious wand still there. She swore copiously.
"Come on! Not even in my fucking dreams?!" was what the princess of Mewni said
after exhausting the more colorful expletives.
----
Waking up extremely frustrated, Star had taken matters into her own hands. For
the second time that night, she came alone in her bedroom, and this time, she
had only the memory of Marco, rather than whatever weird magic projection had
happened earlier. It had calmed her down somewhat, physically. But in a less
immediate way, it had left her even more deeply unsatisfied.
She had hoped getting the crush out of her system in the dream would have
helped her get over the whole Marco thing. It was really not good that she felt
that way about her best friend, especially when he was happy with his new
girlfriend. Star knew this could only end badly. And yet, she had to admit to
herself that she was not over it, not by a long shot. If anything, that
confusing dream had dragged her even deeper into the West Mewnian Swamp of
emotions that was 'the whole Marco thing'.
The worst part was, Star realized, that she wasn't sure now that had really
been Marco's dream. More likely, it had been her own dream. All she had was
Hekapoo's word that they had been inside Marco's dream, and for all the
princess knew, that Hekapoo was just a figment of her quite overactive
imagination. Which meant that, in the span of about eight hours, Star had:
spied on her best friend while he was having his first time with his
girlfriend, who was also her friend; involuntarily magically violated him
without his knowledge; and then had a dream in which she creeped on him a
second time and then manipulated him into having sex with her. A part of her
mind reminded her that she never even got to the sex. Another part retorted
that that wasn't the point at all.
Maybe Tom had been right about her, maybe Star was just like him after all:
impulsive, selfish, manipulative. Oh, and right, she had managed to hurt Tom's
feelings too in the same night. He hadn't even yelled at her. Not even gotten
mad, and Tom always got mad! Seeing him sad and hurt had been far more
unsettling to Star than any rage explosion could have been. He had just told
her that he understood her crush on Marco and that he would go away. Sadly,
Star realized, that was what she should be doing about the Marco thing herself:
just let him go out with Jackie and don't get in the way. If she could not do
at least that much, well, then she was actually a worse person than Tom had
been!
Then, why was it so hard to do just that? Why did she feel the impulse to cast
the seeing eye spell again and see if Marco had woken up at the same time she
did? To check if maybe the dream had been real? Or if he was instead sleeping
at Jackie's place, without a care in the world while Star needed him here...
"What is wrong with me?" the princess thought to herself.
----
Marco woke up sweaty and confused. Where was he? This wasn't his room! Who
was?... oh. He looked down to see Jackie's head resting on his chest, using it
as a pillow. They were still naked, and the covers were nowhere to be found.
But then again, Jackie's parents were away for the weekend and it was almost
Summer, in California, so the covers were more cosmetic than anything else.
He remembered the whole date. The movie had been great, but he had scarcely
paid attention to it, he had instead been focused on Jackie the entire time. He
still couldn't believe his luck just to be dating her. Jackie Lynn Thomas. When
she asked him to walk her home, he figured he was just being a gentleman. When
she told him to come up just for a bit, well, he had had his hopes, but quickly
reminded himself that it was probably not what he thought and to not ruin
things with the girl of his dreams just because he was getting horndog
thoughts. When Jackie had taken off her shirt, well, at that point Marco's
brain had fully given up. There was no way he could be this lucky, and yet, he
was.
The events of the previous night played on his mind. Jackie had been amazing,
and he, well, Marco thought he had managed to not mess up things too badly at
any rate. And, she had said, she had said she loved him! And he had said it
back! And then they had fallen asleep and...
... and Marco had dreamed about two other women while laying there with the
girl of his dreams. He had somehow gone and reverted to the Hekapoo-dreams,
which he had had for weeks after the dimensional scissors incident, way after
his memories had mostly faded. He didn't know why, is not like he had ever done
anything with Hekapoo during the time he was away from Earth. He remembered
their bantering, their flirting, their chase across entire worlds, but even in
a decade and a half it had never gone beyond that. Yet he had dreamed about
fucking Hekapoo many times after he got back to Earth. But, then again, the
dreams had gone away for a while now. Maybe having his first time with Jackie
triggered a weird association in his mind? Still, did dreaming about other
people constitute cheating? Would Jackie be mad if she knew? It is not like he
could control it, but...
Shit, Star! He had not only dreamed about having sex with Hekapoo. He had
dreamed about, well, about sixtynining Star, and possibly intended to do more
than that. He had dreamed about creeping on his best friend while being a
thirty-years old guy. Man, if Star ever knew he had dreamed something like
that, she would kill him!
The worst part was, it had felt alright. It hadn't been a nightmare or a crazy
messed up dream. Well, it had been crazy and messed up, but he had enjoyed it.
He had never thought of Star that way, or, well, at least not more than he
suspected most teenage boys thought of their teenage female friends in that
way. Which is to say, only very occasionally, if the situation put his mind
into a strange place. But now, he couldn't stop thinking about that dream. How
Star had looked naked, how she had acted and what she had said to him, what she
had asked him to do... He reminded himself that it was a dream, that the real
Star wouldn't ever ask for something like that from him. Well, not unless
Mewberty was something you could go through twice, which he thought unlikely.
Then he looked down, to his girlfriend, sleeping on top of him with a relaxed
expression. Not a care in the world. The girl that had just confessed love to
him. The girl who was way way out of his league. The girl that had just given
him her first time. The girl he didn't deserve. And he was laying there with
her, thinking about sex with his best friend instead.
"What is wrong with me?" the karate boy thought to himself.
----
An hour or so later, Marco was again fast asleep, snoring. Jackie woke up and
gently lifted her head from her boyfriend's chest. Last night had been great.
The movie had been kinda lame, but the cute boy being adorable and bashful had
more than made up for it. Ah, Marco Diaz, if only you realized how charming you
actually are under all those insecurities of yours. She had seen that in him
before, and last night, she had seen a lot more of it.
True, she had had to put some effort to contrive the right situation for him to
finally sleep with her. The boy had spent the last few weeks being first
charmingly and then frustratingly oblivious to any hint even slightly more
subtle than her undressing in front of him. But after they got started, there
had been a few times when Marco had really taken charge of the situation.
Especially near the end, Jackie thought, and her toes curled involuntarily. You
are smoother than you let on, Diaz, she thought.
But well, she was the opposite, wasn't she? She had been so afraid during the
whole thing, even if it had been her idea. Afraid that she might not know what
to do, or how to play it off, that her mask of coolness might slip. Many in
school would say Jackie was an effortlessly cool girl, but she knew better, she
knew that 'effortlessly cool' took the most effort. That was part of why she
liked Marco. Marco could fail, he could fail spectacularly and make a fool of
himself and then dust himself back up and try again. She had learned to do that
herself when she learned skateboarding, but somehow, she felt she had forgotten
how. Now she did not dare make a fool of herself, especially not in front of
others. Except perhaps, maybe sometimes, with Marco. The boy really acted like
he thought the sun shone out of her bottom. But what if she failed to live up
to that? Well, that was the thing, she didn't think Marco would think any less
of her even if she did.
But, well, there was one girl in the whole Echo Creek school that was actually
effortlessly cool. As in, she didn't care about the concept of cool at all and
yet she was intrinsically cool, just by virtue of what or who she was: Star.
That was the other thing that Jackie saw in Marco, if she forced herself to be
honest about it: his friendship with Star. The two were inseparable, and Marco
might not realize it, but he reflected Star in a way.
Now, most girls would be jealous to know their boyfriend lived with another
girl, especially if it was as amazing a girl as Star Butterfly. And maybe,
maybe a little bit of Jackie was jealous, or worried, or unsure about it. But
there was one part of her that felt strangely happy about it. A part that had
felt disappointed, rather than relieved, when Marco had said he wasn't in love
with Star, or even interested. She had even had to hide her face when asking,
so that Marco couldn't notice the eagerness she felt in asking. She had let him
believe it was uneasiness instead.
It was not that Jackie was attracted to Star, not at all, she was pretty sure
she was exclusively - or at least very much primarily - into boys. And she did
love Marco, either way, for who he himself was. Whatever self-esteem issues he
had, Jackie had no doubt she was in reality the one getting the better deal.
The boy was smart, brave, and way cuter than he himself knew. Yet there was
something about the idea of Marco and Star that made him even more attractive
to her, even as it worried her and confused her. It was majorly weird,
impossible to explain, and probably the opposite of how any other girl Jackie
knew thought or ought to think, but the feeling was there.
"What is wrong with me?" the skateboarding girl thought to herself.
----
In another dimension. A flame sorceress woke up with a wide grin. She lifted a
hand and the cover magically slid away from her body. She sat up while humming
to herself, a song she had learned while keeping tabs on the quite amusing boy
from Earth. The song she had hummed while watching the princess seduce her best
friend. She walked down stone stairs in the palatial temple she was currently
using as a Summer home, and proceeded to make herself some breakfast.
"What? There is nothing wrong with me," Hekapoo spoke aloud to the empty room.
Chapter End Notes
     I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
     I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
     Yet I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
     But if I know you, I know what you'll do
     You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream
     - Disney - Once Upon a Dream
     And dreams do always come true for magical Disney princesses, right?
     Right?
***** Plots within Plot within Porn *****
Chapter Summary
     In which our final protagonist is introduced, a master plan is
     secretly hatched and we get a new perspective on familiar events
Chapter Notes
     Content warning: SFW. I repeat, this chapter is SFW (except perhaps
     because of teenagers saying 'fuck' a lot). Yeah, ironically the one
     chapter with 'Porn' in the title contains no porn. My deepest
     apologies, and I assure you we will return to your regularly
     scheduled fuckfest in Chapter 5.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
***** Chapter 4: Plots within Plot within Porn *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place mostly during and
     around the SvtFoE episode "Just Friends" (S02E20b). This story so far
     is considered compatible with SvtFoE season 2 events up to that
     point.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/4.png]
The next morning had been majorly awkward. Marco had arrived when Star was
having breakfast. She had been slowly nursing her cereal while sitting in front
of their TV set. Her thoughts left her with little appetite, so it had been
slow going. She had been sitting there for half an hour and still was only
halfway through the bowl when Marco showed up. He seemed to avoid looking at
her, and Star was having trouble with how to act.
"Hey, good morning, Marco!" she said, hoping she sounded cheerful enough. It
tore at her heart to pretend that last night had not happened. But, she
realized, to him, it hadn't. None of it. Not her spell, nor her weird dream.
She had decided it was unlikely that it had truly been his dream, it must have
been just Star's own mind playing cruel tricks on her. "Hope you had a fun date
with Jackie last night..."
"Ah, ehem, yeah, watched a movie," he replied. Should Star tease him on that?
He had arrived the next morning! Even without spying on him, she should suspect
he had stayed at Jackie's place, and tease him. It was the proper friend
reaction. Maybe it would be suspicious that she didn't. Then again, what if it
wasn't obvious from just when he came back? What if he lied about it and then
Star had to walk the fine line between not believing him, but also not not-
believing him too strongly, since she wasn't supposed to know for certain
and... "Hopefully you weren't too bored without me around, Star, heh."
"Me? Bored? Pfff! No way!" Nice save, Marco. Now I pretend your little
distraction worked and we don't need to get into the topic. But, well, what to
talk about instead? Every topic that came to the princess' mind was related to
her feelings for him or to her overwhelming guilt over the last twelve hours.
She supposed she could mention Tom showing up, but what if Marco pressed for
details, or insisted on going after the demon? Yeah, that would be totally
awesome, Marco chases Tom to hell to let him have it for creeping into his best
friend's room at night, and Tom just calmly explains to him what kind of
per...son Star really is. No, no thanks. "So... see ya later, best bud. I have
plans, to go to the mall, with Janna! Yeah! So, later!"
The weird thing was Marco had seemed as relieved as she had been when she
actually headed out. Was he really that nervous to admit he had slept with
Jackie? Most guys in school would be bragging about that. Maybe he just didn't
want to brag to Star? Or maybe... did he remember the dream?
Star waved her magic wand to summon her trusty friend cloudy. She hopped right
in and waited until she had put some distance between her and the Diaz's home
before dialing. "Hey, Janna banana, want to go shopping right now and pretend
we had planned to do that all along since well, about two hours before this
conversation happened?" she spoke quickly into her phone as she floated towards
the mall.
Janna's response had been far more laconic, "Sure, Star."
----
Eventually, after a few hours of browsing randomly at the mall, they had ended
up at Janna's place. The room shared the girl's aesthetic: mostly black metal
band posters, a glass box containing her pet snake, three skulls, plenty of
candles and weird looking talismans, a wardrobe full of mostly greens and
blacks, Marco's library card on top of the bedside table, a large bookshelf
full of old poetry books, and, perhaps most surprisingly, bright pink
bedsheets. There were also a pair of fettered chains that Janna had asked Star
to magic up, attached to one of the walls. When the princess had asked what
Janna wanted those for, she had just winked and then made up a story about them
being decorative. She had insisted on a key for them and having them be
functional, though.
"Ok, Star, so, I believe this is the part where I ask what was really going on
this morning." Janna said with a shrug, as they both sat on the floor.
"Janna... well, I kinda do need to tell this whole mess to someone, because I
am afraid I will go crazy otherwise or do something... extreme." Janna raised
an eyebrow. Star Butterfly had once placed mines in a football field, and she
routinely blasted people with horned whales. She was not about to judge, but
she was not sure she wanted to know what her friend considered extreme.
"Calm down, Star, you can tell me anything." Besides, she loved secrets. She
knew most of Marco's. She had managed to extract some very juicy stuff from
Jackie over the years too, despite how private the skateboarding girl suddenly
became when you dug pass the first few layers of relatively tame secrets. She
also knew all about Ferguson's obsession with furry porn, which was just a bit
more than even she wanted to know. So really, nothing Star could tell her
should be able to shock her. Then again, this was Star we were talking about.
She ventured a hopeful guess, "You killed a person and need help hiding the
body?"
"What? No! But, Janna, I really need you to swear an oath, on your life, that
you will not repeat to any living soul what I am about to say..." Whoa, Star
seemed serious. Which meant, this was going to be seriously juicy stuff. No way
Janna could say no to that!
"Sure, I swear." Star seemed to look at her expectantly. "Ok, ok... Star
Butterfly of Mewni, I swear to thee on my life that I shall not speak of what
you are about to tell me with any other living soul. How was that?"
"Well, my mom would have some corrections on the wording. And the 'thee' is a
bit unnecessary. But you know what? It is good enough for me!" Star seemed
excited, she took a deep breath and then... "So-last-night-Marco-and-Jackie-
were-out-on-a-date-and-I-was-bored-and-they-said-they-were-only-going-to-the-
movies-so..."
Janna nodded and said 'aha' at all the right moments. Except for that, it took
all of her concentration to keep up with the hundred miles per hour of Star's
tale. She thought she had managed to understand most of it, although the
princess herself seemed confused about what had happened with the whole dream
bit. Well, that part probably mattered very little, actually. Her mind began
running through the possible courses of action once it seemed clear that Star's
tale was drawing to a close. Of course, the easiest would be to tell Star to
forget all about her crush, but that would not be fun at all. Besides, given
what she just heard, Janna did not think suppressing the feelings and waiting
for them to go away was going to work for Star.
"Ok, so, you are in love with Marco, right?" she confirmed the obvious.
"Well, I wouldn't say 'in love', he is a great friend, and he is cute, and I
might have the teensyest, tiniest crush on him..." Star corrected her,
unconvincingly.
"Do you want to date him, or do you mostly want to fuck him?" After all, one
was easier than the other.
"Janna!" Star reacted in embarrassment. Then placed one hand under her chin and
seemed to ponder for a second, "Well, since you are bound by an oath of secrecy
and all... I think I want both. Perhaps I'd really settle for the second one
right now. Maybe just that would be enough to, you know, get over the whole
thing, then go back to the way things were before. But, Janna, he is with
Jackie! And he loves Jackie, and she loves him back. Even if I could compete...
which, I don't think I could... I don't want to ruin that for him!"
"Ok, so the priority is that Marco should not be hurt by this, correct?" Janna
asked and Star nodded. She ignored Star's assessment of her competitive chances
for now. Honestly, the princess probably had more cards to play there than she
realized, but it would not matter unless she had the guts to go for the kill.
"How about Jackie? How much do you care about her getting hurt?"
"Janna! Jackie is my friend too, and she is not doing anything wrong. Of course
I don't want to hurt her!" Star seemed genuinely offended at Janna's question.
The troublemaker girl smiled at that.
"Calm down, Star. Remember, Jackie is my friend too. Way before we two met. I
am not sure I would even help you if you wanted her hurt... but it does
complicate things." She thought about it some more. This was a significantly
harder problem than, say, cracking Marco's latest computer password, but also
more fun, and probably more rewarding. That guy was into some pretty vanilla
porn anyways, so the best thing in his computer were actually his embarrassing
childhood pictures and that cheesy poem about Jackie he wrote ages ago. "Ok,
and you said Tom tried to manipulate you into going back with him, right? What
about him? Do you care if he gets hurt?"
"No, of course I don..." Star hesitated. "Well, not like I care about Marco and
Jackie. But I don't think I want to hurt him much either..."
"Any chance you want to go back to dating him instead of Marco?" Janna had to
ask. It was the easiest solution in any case.
"Ugh, no way! I mean... maybe he is what I deserve, but, he is not what I want,
ok?" Star looked down, guiltily.
"I mean, from your story it sounded like you regret not sleeping with him,
Star," Janna commented, setting the bait. "The claws thing sounded wicked hot!"
"Oh, it was! Super hot. Way hot. But, well, Tom and I, is not really a good
match, you know, as people..." Ok, ok, getting somewhere now.
"But you would still fuck him just the once if you could, right?" Check.
"What the hell, Janna!?" Pause. "Yeaah... I totally would." That was it!
Checkmate!
"Ok, Star. I got it all figured out. I can't promise no one will get hurt, but
it has the best chances to work for the best for all five people involved. Here
is what you are going to do, you are going to get three concert tickets to that
band Marco and you love so much, which is, coincidentally, coming to Echo Creek
soon, and you are going to invite Marco. Then..." this was the delicate part,
"... you are going to invite Jackie too!"
"What?!" Star's eyes went wide. "Oh, I see, maybe if I include her in our
friendship I can make it up to her for, for spying on them and stuff..."
"Sure, you can think of it like that..." Janna ran with it. The plan would work
best if Star was unaware of where things were going. Now Janna only had to make
sure what she knew about Jackie was still current, maybe give a push or two to
the other people involved. This was an ambitious plan, she knew, way more
moving pieces than most of what she usually got up to and very little chance to
influence things personally after they were set in motion. She knew that after
Star left, she would have to run through the whole scenario a few times before
she even called Jackie over to talk. And of course, it was not as if she could
tell the other girl anything directly, an oath was an oath after all. Also, was
she so sure that she could predict how he would react? She had some clue about
it from what she knew from Marco, and what Star herself had just told her, but
what if she got him all wrong?
"Hey, Janna... by the way... do you think I am a horrible person?" Star asked,
suddenly teary eyed. What?! Janna was taken by surprise, her mind was
elsewhere. Her train of thought was halfway across Siberia when it was forced
to a screeching halt. Well, she could always plan the details later, right now
she focused on her friend's question.
"What? No way, Star! You are sometimes a bit brash, sure, but you are one of
the most pure hearted people I know!" Janna spoke truthfully.
"But, but I spied on Marco!"
"Who hasn't?"
"And had magical sex with him without his knowledge..."
"By accident!"
"And hurt Tom's feelings real bad..."
"After he tried to guilt trip you into dating him. If anything, he deserves far
worse."
"And tried to seduce Marco..."
"In a dream," Janna concluded. "Star. Please. Based on the evidence presented
I, as your judge, conclude that you might be a great rebel princess... but you
suck at being a bad girl! Believe me! I mean, I actually am one, you know? You
do not even qualify for consideration to the bad girl club." Janna tried her
best to have Star not being that bad of a person sound like an insult. "Bad
girl card application rejected! Try again never."
They looked at each other in silence for a moment, and then, both girls started
laughing. Star seemed worlds more at ease now. Maybe calm enough to survive the
next few weeks. Janna almost felt bad for what she knew Star would need to go
through even if the plan succeeded.
----
Jackie made her way to the Diaz's home carrying two extra skateboards in her
arms. She had spent the whole morning designing them and getting them printed
by her uncle on his break. She was really excited about this, she had been
since Star had called her and told her that Marco was inviting her to go to the
Love Sentence concert, and whether she minded if Star went with them. Well, of
course she didn't! She had made sure to have a skateboard for Star too, just to
make sure she felt included.
It had been a few weeks already since she and Marco did it for the first time.
Their dates ended at her place or his a lot more often now that they did
before, but the requirement to keep things secret from their parents meant that
they hadn't had any other opportunity to let themselves go at it quite like
that time. Jackie got the feeling Marco's parents were mostly truly oblivious,
and hers kinda ignored things in a way that required the two kids simply to
maintain plausible deniability about what they were doing. But either way, they
couldn't be quite as brazen or quite as loud as they had been that one time.
Making out was easy, and some level of heavy petting was sometimes within
reach, but sealing the deal required more privacy than they were usually
afforded. Well, it was only a matter of waiting for another opportunity like
that, when either set of parents went on vacation or something.
She pushed the doorbell and Star opened the door wearing a t-shirt with what
seemed to be the three of them on it: Marco, Star and herself. "No way! You
made concert tees?" for some reason, Jackie felt a jolt of joy and relief when
she saw the funny t-shirts. So Star had included her on her design? Well, it
made sense since they were all going together and they were all friends. But
still, Jackie hadn't hung out much with Star since she started dating Marco.
She had begun to worry that maybe Star resented her in some way deep inside.
The tee gave her reason to believe that was not the case.
She traded gifts with the Mewman princess and went past her to say hi to Marco,
who seemed to be struggling with his own t-shirt. Apparently Star hadn't taken
into account that the boy was a bit larger of frame than the two girls and had
simply made all tees the same. But honestly, Marco looked hilarious with the t-
shirt and Jackie was not about to criticize Star's gift, so she just reassured
Marco on it a little bit. Marco took a lot of reassurance, but he was cute, so
she didn't mind.
Moments later, they were all skateboarding towards the arena. Well, she was
skateboarding, Star was on her cloud, with the skateboard between her and the
pink floating puffy critter. But hey, if it worked, it worked, and Jackie had
to admit it looked pretty cool. Marco was, well, a bit behind them. But maybe
that was good. This was Jackie's chance to ask Star a few things alone.
Of course, before she could bring herself to say anything beyond small talk,
Marco ran over some baby ducks.
----
"So, Star, can I ask a random question?" Jackie finally worked up the courage
to ask as they waited for Marco (and the ducks) to come out from the doctor's
office. Sure, the doctor was a veterinarian, but she had agreed to look over
his injuries too in a non-professional capacity, in case there was anything
that needed someone else to look at him. "How do you feel about Marco?"
"What? What do you mean? I mean, he is my bestie!" Star reply had started in a
note of shock, but ended cheerfully. After a pause she seemed to think a bit
and add, "He is super awesome and you are a very lucky girl to have him. And he
is lucky to have you too, of course!"
"Heh, Star, dude, I know. But well..." oh god, what was she saying? There was
no way she was bringing this up, she just couldn't. "You two do a lot of stuff
together, and have been to a lot of places, and have all sort of wacky cool
adventures..."
"Awww. Yes, we do, sometimes. As friends, though! Best buds. That's us." The
princess sounded nervous. Was she thinking that Jackie was accusing her of
something? Or that she was being the jealous bitchy girlfriend that got between
her boyfriend and his friends? Maybe she shouldn't have said anything. Star
seemed to ponder for a while. "You know, Jackie, we can include you in our
adventures too, if you want, of course... although it might get a bit weird,
and a bit wild!"
"Well, I am fine with weird," Jackie managed to keep her cool. Understatement
of the century. Right now, pink floating cloud or not, Jackie wondered if
perhaps she wasn't so much weirder than Star, just based on the way she felt.
"I mean, if you don't mind. If it's not weird to have me along."
"Whaaat? No way. Why would that be weird? That isn't weird. Not at all!" Star
replied enthusiastically, although Jackie felt something was off. Maybe she
imagined a twitch on the princess' left eye? "Marco would love it. You are
always invited to tag along..."
"Then I do want to join you adventuring! Just some of the time, no pressure,"
Jackie said. It wasn't what she had wanted to ask. But it was close enough, for
now. "You know something, Star?"
"Eh, what?" the princess replied reflexively.
"He is also very lucky to have you as well," Jackie said with a smile. She saw
Star smile widely as well. But then, for a split second, she looked conflicted
once more, almost... guilty. There was something Jackie was missing. She had
thought Star might have feelings for Marco, but her reaction was off if that
was simply the case. Maybe she and Marco had already done something she thought
she ought to be ashamed of? But that couldn't be. Marco hadn't told Jackie
anything that could have caused that, and the boy had the most transparent body
language ever. He was literally too nervous to ever be capable of 'cheating'.
So there was something else...
"The ducks will be fine!" explained the doctor, emerging through the back door,
Marco walking all hunched up behind her. And with that, the conversation was
over.
----
Jackie hadn't had another opportunity to talk to Star about anything
significant before they got to the concert. They had gotten along pretty well
after that, and bonded over releasing the ducks back to the Echo Creek, well,
creek. Star had the most funny stories about the place, and Jackie had to
wonder if even half of it was for real. Magic or no magic, Star's stories
sounded too incredible to be fully true.
Oddly enough, it was Marco who had felt a bit left out there. Jackie was sure
that was at least in part because he was bummed over the accident with the
ducks. Well, as always, plenty of reassurance did the job. As well as an
impromptu group hug instigated by Star.
Now they were finally there, sitting down as the stage lit for their favorite
band. Marco was excited like a little kid in a candy shop, and Jackie couldn't
take her eyes of him while he fanboyed about the teen band. Hell, the boys on
the stage were the kind of guy Jackie daydreamed about just a year or so ago,
and now she was paying more attention to the 'Safe Kid' sitting beside her. Not
that Justin Towers wasn't dreamy, but well, he had nothing on her Marco.
Her favorite song started and she took her boyfriend by the hand, picking him
up to start dancing, "Whoo! Dance with me, Diaz!"
She didn't quite notice when Star grabbed Marco's hand. Or had it been the
other way around? But somehow the three of them where soon bouncing to the
rhythm. It was a bit weird, but not in a bad way. Then Marco turned away from
her, and he and Star began lip syncing to the lyrics.
"It was no secret," Marco began.
"The way that we feel," Star continued.
"A love that's so pure."
"A love that's so real."
Jackie arched an eyebrow in surprise, but they weren't looking at her, and she
wasn't about to interrupt them. Sure, the song was ostensibly, if only barely
so, about friendship. But it was also about falling in love, romantic love,
with your best friend, or at least that's how Jackie had always interpreted it.
Despite Marco's protests, he and Star had a very strong kind of chemistry, one
that didn't exactly spell friends. You needed to be blind not to see it, and
Jackie always considered herself fairly good at observing people.
"You showed me your world and it felt like a sign."
Star had taken Marco outside of Earth, into other dimensions. Of course, she
had also taken the whole school once, but him she took every week. What had she
shown him? And, wasn't Marco showing Star Earth too?
"But you acted too slow and you ran out of ti-ii-me."
Jackie's eyes went wide. Did Marco not realize what he was saying? If Star did
have a crush on him, even if he did not, then that was...
"And now we'll be..." they both sang as the reached the chorus.
"Just friends"
"We will be"
"Just friends"
Jackie wasn't sure what to feel. She held on to Marco's hand, but he wasn't
there, not really. He and Star seemed to be in their own world and she was
watching from the outside, moving to the beat. It was, strange.
"And now we'll be"
"Just friends"
Maybe they were. Maybe that was all. But, even as friends, there was something
between the two of them inside of which Jackie would never be able to enter,
whether she accompanied them adventuring or not. A closeness to their
relationship that wasn't there for herself and Marco, even at their most
intimate.
"Be just friends"
It was scary. No, it was terrifying. Jackie didn't feel jealous about Star. She
couldn't. Marco was amazing, but yet she herself had only started noticing him
this year, and, the reason she had noticed him, was Star. Star made Marco a
different person, a more confident, happier, braver person. So, whatever they
had, Jackie would never wish to take it from them. In a way, she wanted them to
have more of it. But, she was also afraid. She was afraid that one day Marco
would realize he had something with Star that was more important than what he
had with her, that he would change his mind about what he had said two weeks
earlier.
"I didn't mean to hurt you," Star sang.
Then don't, Jackie thought.
"You didn't have a clue," Marco continued.
You both are clueless!
"So you went out and got busy," Star retorted.
Jackie's face flushed slightly. Maybe she was reading too much into the lyrics,
but still, that was one way to put it.
"And found somebody new. New. New. New."
They seemed to go closer and closer as they sang that last line, almost as if
they were about to turn to each other and kiss. This was too much. She had
wanted to have a look into their... well, friendship, maybe? And is not that
she didn't like what she saw, not exactly. But, this was too much, too early.
"And now we'll be"
"Just friends"
She pulled Marco towards her. Sweat running through her hands. She was
chickening out. She had prodded Marco about liking Star, and Star about liking
Marco. They both had denied it, while she had secretly hoped for confirmation.
But now, now she wasn't sure that is what she wanted.
"Oh we will be, just friends"
Marco was dancing with her. Star had let him go without any trouble. She still
held Marco's hand too, but like Jackie before, she was leaving the two of them
alone and dancing on her own. Jackie's heart was hammering in her chest, she
didn't let it show. She needed to reassure herself that Marco was hers, that he
did love her. Right now, them singing the same song he had just sung with Star,
Jackie's favorite song, wasn't enough. She felt the guitar solo start, and
pulled Marco towards her. She put a hand on his chest, and kissed him. She
needed reassurance.
Her lips pressed against Marco's, the heat of his skin was soothing. She had
half expected Marco to be annoyed when she pulled him from Star, or for his
mind not to be on the kiss. But it was. It felt just like when they were alone.
It was not their most passionate kiss, but it was a caring, loving one. Jackie
felt her worries melt away, and closed her eyes.
"Wow," Marco said when their lips finally separated. They both gazed lovingly
into each other's eyes for a split of a second, and then... "Star?"
Star had gone away, and Marco ran after her. Strangely, Jackie was ok with it.
She no longer felt worried about her boyfriend chasing down the stairs after
his best friend. She considered following too. But then she realized why Star
had gone away. Jackie felt guilty, very guilty. This wasn't the plan, Star and
Marco had both invited her, and at best she had just made Star uncomfortable,
and at worst... well, at worst the princess did have feelings for Marco, and
Jackie had just rubbed salt on the wound. Not only that, she had done so just
to reassure herself over the two of them singing a song together about simply
being friends. Shit.
The last thing she wanted was for Star to hate her, or for them to stop hanging
out all three together. Or, even worse, to cause a fight between Marco and
Star. Jackie liked what the two of them had, she truly did, she had thought she
could handle it even if the two friends had been in love, and yet she had felt
overwhelmed by a freaking dance routine. So much for keeping her cool.
She saw the two of them talking. Star was smiling, she was pushing Marco to go
back up. What would Jackie do when Marco came up? She could always play it as
being clueless. Marco would just make some excuse for Star, and Jackie would
pretend to believe them. She would also pretend that she had only kissed him
because she was at a concert with her boyfriend and 'it just happened'.
Meanwhile, Star was walking towards the exit now, removing herself from her own
plans so that Jackie and Marco could be alone. Star was definitely a better
person than she was, and Jackie never felt so small in her life.
----
Star was trying her best not to cry, bottling up her frustration and the
turmoil of jealousy within her. It was just a freaking kiss! Nothing at all
when compared to what she had seen a few weeks before through the Seeing Eye
spell. But it had been right in front of her, right while holding her hand.
Well, what did she expect? She had arranged this whole thing, as an apology to
Marco and Jackie. What, had she supposed that her bestie wouldn't want to kiss
his date at a romantic pop music concert? Hell, she had almost tried to kiss
Marco herself! Avoided it by her last thread of self control, actually, and she
then had the audacity to get shocked when his actual girlfriend kissed him?
But the emotions raging through her were not rational. Star hurt, badly. She
wanted Marco, and for a few minutes she had felt that the entire world was only
the two of them. He had given her his hand, he had sung with her. Why couldn't
he just have ignored her from the moment the song started playing!?
She lifted her wand, and let her fury and regret flow through it, visceral,
uncaring for all his reasons and all her mistakes. A blast of green energy flew
out from the tip of the cleaved wand, and the promotional sign for the concert
went up in a fiery explosion.
This would be less painful if Marco Diaz had meant to hurt her. The fact that
he had still cared enough to leave his date to try to make sure Star was ok
somehow made it worse. If instead of her caring but clueless friend, Marco had
just behaved like a straight up asshole, he would never have been able to wound
her half as deeply!
"Wow, Starship. And they say I have anger issues..." Speak of the devil,
literally.
"Fuck off, Tom!"
Chapter End Notes
     Oh, hey Tom...
     Also, hope you all didn't all miss the smut too badly ;)
***** What are Fiends for? *****
Chapter Summary
     In which the devil gets its due, the princess surrenders her wand,
     and a small mistake makes nobody happy.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 5: What are Fiends for? *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place immediately after the
     last one, meaning the night following the SvtFoE episode "Just
     Friends" (S02E20b). This story so far is considered compatible with
     SvtFoE season 2 events up to that point.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/5.png]
"Fuck off, Tom!" she growled at him. The three-eyed demon had just emerged from
the concert arena, right behind Star. With little more than a thought, he
dismissed the glamour that disguised him as a normal human teen and continued
walking towards her. He knew this was a bad idea, particularly after their last
meeting, but something seemed seriously off with Star. He had to know what was
going on. She, however, didn't seem particularly appreciative of his concern.
"When are you going to stop stalking me?!"
"Stalking you?! I am not..." Tom hadn't actually come to the concert to keep
tabs on Star. In fact, he had been surprised to notice her as she ran down the
stairs in the middle of the first and probably one of the best songs of the
night. He had seen her stop right in front of the stage. He had seen Marco go
after her. He had seen them hug and him go back up alone. Tom had noticed that
Star had seemed, well, a bit strange, even after their hug, and decided to
follow. Even he had failed to realize just how distressed Star truly was, until
he watched her hex the sign to pieces.
So, well, he was honestly looking out for her well being here, and she
responded by accusing him of following her around!? How dare she! Tom felt the
anger flare up and counted to ten in his head. It was almost a reflex now a
days, the year with Brian had helped him sense when he was getting angry and
stop himself momentarily, until he could think properly. If only Star gave him
even a little credit for that! Oh well, it wasn't like he hadn't given her
reason to expect the worst from him. Now that he thought about it, better that
Star believe that he was following her, it was easier to explain in any case.
"I mean, I am not 'stalking' anyone, just, you know, keeping a friendly eye on
you. Why else would I be at a Love Sentence concert, right?" he lied,
nervously. "But hey, it is a good thing that I did, Starship, you look like you
could use someone to talk to..."
"Not really in a talking mood," Star said coldly. She began walking fast away
from the stadium. Tom followed a few meters behind her, cautiously. "Not in a
mood for you at all. Never am, now that I think about it."
She didn't sound like Star. There was no energy behind her words, no enthusiasm
and no indignation, just dispassionate annoyance. True, Star usually rejected
his advances, often with far more emphatic denials. But this was different.
When he saw how sad she had looked, Tom had considered testing his luck again,
trying to comfort the princess with a shoulder rub and take it from there,
maybe he could find a way to make both of them happier. There was a sharpness
to her tone that told him that would not, in fact, be a good idea.
"Star, no tricks, no schemes. I am honestly worried about you. This doesn't
sound like you," Tom tried, fully aware that he didn't sound like himself
either. The truth was that he did care. Maybe his love for Star was a selfish
one, but it was still love. This was not the Mewnian princess he knew and
coveted.
"What, no speech about how I am terrible and should be with you because we are
both garbage?" Star retorted, picking up the pace. "Because, you know, that's
the way to charm a girl... 'you are evil, I am evil, let's make babies!'" she
shouted, her previous indifference quickly replaced by fury, and yet the
coldness remained. Normally, that kind of tone, coming from anyone, would have
caused the underworld prince to incinerate the mortal who even dared speak to
him like that. Under the circumstances, however, it was mostly just plain
unsettling. Star had never been this angry. Even when they broke up she had
been... well, she had avoided him for a while and then simply told him she
couldn't keep dealing with his anger outbursts. She had never before
intentionally used her words to hurt him, even when he himself did. Now Tom
almost expected to see flames coming out of her instead.
"Starship, I am really sorry about that, I never meant it that way. You once
had a thing for bad boys, and I just thought..." Tom was not used to being the
gentle one. Star was impulsive, and she could be very direct, but she had never
been mean. Sure, a few times in the past he had had to apologize to her and got
immediately punched for it, but she usually got her anger out of her system
with just one, usually symbolic, punch. Wait, that was it! "If you want to take
out your anger on me a bit, I can deal, Star. You are probably right, I deserve
it."
Star looked back at him, a murderous glare in her eyes. Tom did not know that
glare. Toffee and his monsters had seen it once, right before Star freed Marco
from a certain glass prison. But for Tom, it was new, and it scared him. Tom,
who had seen that which lay below the foundations of the world, who had spoken
face to face with the archangel of death himself, who had called upon the names
of the unnamable, shuddered at seeing that expression on the face of Star
Butterfly. She turned around again and continued briskly walking away. He
followed in silence for what seemed like hours, but could have been just five
minutes.
"You know, Tom, I am not angry at you. Well, let me rephrase that, I am angry
at you, but this particular anger is not about you," she began, slowly, frozen
words spoken in a voice as sharp as steel, "and it is not towards Marco or
Jackie either. It is about me. For feeling this way, for not being able to be
happy for my friend. For doing things I never should have, and for wanting to
do even worse things. So, maybe you are right and Janna is wrong, maybe I am
indeed a bad person."
"Star, you know that was me lying to you." Tom decided that coming clean on it
would be better than having to see Star like this. "It was just me guilt-
tripping you to get back together, just like you said. You are not a bad
person. Come on, I'll prove it to you! If you truly are bad, then why aren't
you taking your anger out on me? It would be easy, just blast me until you feel
better or something! I would do it to you in an instant, you know that!" It was
a lie, he would do it to anyone else, for sure, but not to Star.
"And, you believe I won't?" Star asked, surprised. Was she surprised at him, at
what he was saying? Or was she surprised about herself, that she would not hurt
him? Or, maybe, Tom realized, she was surprised that she was considering doing
what he had suggested. Well, either way, if that snapped her from this state it
was worth it.
"I know you won't," Tom lied.
Star turned around, fast as lightning. Perhaps she feared she wouldn't go
through with it if she thought it through for more than an instant. She pointed
her wand straight at Tom. She narrowed her eyes and in a moment they glowed
bright emerald. Her cheekmarks shone as well, in the same unearthly hue. A huge
spiraling blast of green and black left the wand and hit him squarely in the
chest. He made no effort to block it or avoid it.
Pain shot through his body. This was nothing like being encased in ice or
having his hand chopped off. It was probably not like getting blasted by
narwhals or trampled by warnicorns either. Star's spells were brutal, but when
she casted those, she mostly meant to win a fight, causing harm was only the
necessary side-effect. Right now, though, she had meant to hurt him. Maybe she
had even meant to kill him. It certainly felt that way. It was like being
struck by lightning and immediately after that having your blood freeze and
your skin turn to acid. He was sure there was burning fire and deadly poison
somewhere in that spell too, but to those the demon was immune. He felt his
nerves overload with agony, and then he felt his consciousness fade.
----
Tom Lucitor opened his three eyes slowly. His body hurt all over. It hadn't
hurt like this in a very long time. He saw the stone arch above him. Was he
back in the underworld? No way! No, he was under a bridge. A small river flowed
in front of him. He looked to his left. Star was there, sitting on her knees,
eyes looking down, tears flowing from them. "S... Starship?"
"Tom! I am so so sorry! I don't know what came over me! I didn't mean to do
that, not really." The demon prince knew that was a lie. You simply could not
cast dark magic like that and not mean it. But he was not about to tell Star
that right now. He also realized he had deserved it. He had tried manipulating
Star time and time again, he had tried to get their souls bonded under the
blood moon without her knowledge, he had once kidnapped and almost killed her
best friend. In a way, it felt cathartic to feel that kind of anger and hate
coming from her, a long awaited punishment.
"Star, no biggy. You needed to let that kind of anger out on someone. That's
not the kind of hurt you want bottled inside of you. Believe me, I would know.
Besides, I am not exactly fragile, and you knew that. I was the obvious
target." Tom shrugged, then winced in pain from the effort. "How long was I
out, though?"
"Well... no more than three or four..." Star looked to the sky nervously, then
at her phone, "... hours."
What? Four hours?! What had that spell even been? Tom's eyes glowed red in
annoyance, but the searing pain that shot as his muscles tensed snapped him out
of it. "You... you are a lot stronger than I remember."
"Sorry," Star repeated, genuinely apologetic. She extended her hand and touched
Tom's chin, who flinched in response, her eyes looked into his own with a
worried expression. Star's eyes were puffy and red with crying. Over Marco? Or
over him? "I would have tried to heal you, but I have never been able to do
healing magic right."
"It doesn't matter, Starship. I heal fast," he assured her. It was true. If he
was awake, then it meant that his internal organs had finished regrowing where
needed, and mayor broken bones had mended, the rest should be a matter of
minutes, really. In any case, no amount of physical damage could end him
permanently. Tom was, for most intents an purposes, immortal. That said, that
kind of thing did come with caveats he did not care to fully test. "Would you
tell me now what has you so down? You owe me at least that... no, sorry, old
habits, you don't have to tell me if you don't want," he corrected. He was
being truthful. He also realized that if he were trying to guilt trip someone,
he could have hardly done better than that.
"Well, we three were at the concert together and... Marco and Jackie kissed..."
Star answered. They both blinked. Tom began laughing, his ribs ached like,
well, like home, but he couldn't help it. He laughed a thunderous laugh. After
a few moments of surprise and confusion, Star joined him.
"But you saw them have sex before!"
"Saw it? I felt it! I have seen Marco kiss every inch of Jackie Lynn Thomas
with a shit eating grin on his face!"
"And you went Queen of Darkness over peck on the lips?"
"Yeah... well, a bit more than a peck, but still... just a kiss at a concert!
Which I invited the two of them to. Well... except she didn't know it was me, I
think. She thinks it was Marco's idea!"
"Marco's idea? Starship, he is a great guy and all, but he couldn't plan a
romantic date to save his life. This Jackie girl obviously knows what's going
on!"
"And what is going on? Besides me totally being an idiot, I mean?"
"Obviously, that you were trying to get her jealous when she saw how much Marco
and you act like a couple!"
"Wait? What?! Marco and I don't act like a couple!" Star looked at Tom in
surprise. He grinned at her. Oh my, could it be that Star really hadn't planned
it like that? It was what he would do, if he were in her position. Well, in her
position and able to keep his temper in check long enough. Go to the date as
the third wheel, make ambiguous moves on the crush the whole night, wait for
the girlfriend to get jealous, then play innocent and try to convince the boy
that his date was being a bitch over nothing. It was, well, not quite the
oldest trick in the book, but right up there. Star still looked dumbfounded.
"So, so that's why Jackie pulled him over and kissed him? Because she thought I
was making moves on him?"
"That's actually a pretty good block on her part," Tom noted. "But honestly, I
don't know. Depends on what was actually happening there. So, you really were
not planning anything of the sort?"
"No! No way! I would never do that!" Star looked at him first confused, then
thoughtfully. "You think it would have worked?"
Tom shrugged, then smirked at Star. She seemed to be looking at him in a
different way. She had stopped crying a while ago, and seemed, a bit nervous.
Sometimes, her gaze was avoiding his even when looking in his direction. Then
Tom looked down and saw, first his torso, then his stomach and lack-of-
bellybutton, then his...
"Star! I am naked! Why am I naked? How long have I..." Tom realized that Star
hadn't been avoiding his gaze. She had been sneaking a peek! Multiple peeks,
actually. What the hell? Now she was into him?
"Sorry! Your clothes kinda got destroyed in the blast," she looked up and away,
but Tom saw her cheeks brighten just a little.
"Starship, if you want to look, then look," Tom goaded her. He had no plan, no
strategy. No scheme of his called for him to be naked and bruised under a
bridge while Star chatted about her crush on the human boy to him. But you
played the hand you were dealt, and he did not intend to be bashful little
Marco about the whole situation. He was sure Star had been looking before.
She turned slowly again and began staring at him, shamelessly. He smiled at
her, lifted his arms to the back of his head and spread his legs further apart.
"Like what you see?"
"Yeah..." Star blanked. "No. Wait. I like Marco, and you and I broke up!"
"Well, Marco is not here, Starship. Actually, you said three or four hours,
right?" Tom smiled at her maliciously. He didn't have a great hand, but he had
one good card to play. "Bet you anything you care to name, right now Marco and
Jackie are back from the concert, having all kinds of fun. Together. Alone."
Star seemed to get a bit sad again hearing that. Tom, however, wasn't done. "We
two are here now, though. Together. Alone." He faked thinking out the matter
for a moment. "As for us breaking up... I did not ask you to date me again,
Starship. I only asked if you like what you see."
The Mewman princess blushed deep crimson, her cheekmarks glowing like tiny
stars in the night. "Well, maybe, maybe I do..."
"So..." Tom suggested casually, "... how about we have some fun? I already
helped relieve your anger. Perhaps I can give you other kinds of relief as
well?"
"Ok," Star relented.
No, that was not correct; she agreed to his proposal, no tricks needed. Well,
not yet.
"With one condition!" she added. Tom arched two eyebrows. "Don't call me
Starship!"
"Fine!" Tom said, slightly annoyed at her vetoing his favorite pet name for
her. "But I have one condition of my own: Say that you want me!"
----
Star felt surprised to hear the demon's demand. Why ask her to say that, when
she had already agreed to sleep with him? Oh, dammit, her mind was just now
catching up to her mouth as she realized she had indeed agreed to sleeping with
Tom. It was one thing to imagine it when gossiping with her friend, or alone in
her room after that super confusing night the other time, but this was
different, this was happening for real. Her blush expanded through her face as
she replied. "Tom... I want you!"
She wasn't lying either, Star realized. Maybe having admitted that to Janna
before made it easier to admit it to Tom, and to herself. He was hot, and she
didn't mean it just in the literal sense either. Star had just been admiring
his well defined chest and abs in that deliciously slender body of smooth
purple skin. She had stolen many glances at his cock, semi-erect and
shamelessly displayed for her gaze. He smirked at her and made no effort to
conceal himself, his eyes looking directly at her face, narrowing ever so
slightly, bright with a mysterious emotion, opaque windows to an inscrutable
soul. Tom was enigmatic, and he was dangerous. It was the reason Star had dated
him in the first place and the reason they had stopped being together as well.
It was also the reason she still felt attracted to him, despite it all, despite
how bad he was for her, or how bad they were together.
He slowly got up, leaning against the wall of the tunnel for support, keeping
his clawed hand under Star's chin, pushing her to stand up as well. She felt
the need to say something, before the inevitable. "Just to be clear, Tom. This
is not about getting back together, and it is not about love."
Tom smiled at her, a sharp grin full of sharper fangs, "Starsh... Star. I am a
demon. Do you think you have to explain these things to me?" His hand pressed
against her chest for only a second. She felt a nipple harden against the
fabric. Then Tom drew his hand away, extended two fingers and poked at Star's
shirt. She didn't feel the claws touch her, but saw them go into the shirt.
They burned two fiery holes on her custom concert tee, erasing the faces of
Marco Diaz and Jackie Lynn Thomas. "This is about frustration. It is about
getting even."
He drew nearer, breathing on her neck, his hot naked body pressing against her
still clothed self. 'Still'? Star realized how much she was treating what was
to come as a foregone conclusion now. She felt Tom's heat envelop her, his
inhuman yet not at all unpleasant heat. Star hadn't quite noticed how cold the
night air had been just a moment before, even in the California summer, or how
much it bothered her. He whispered in her ear, "But I need this to also be
about desire, Star. To be about need. I don't need you to love me, or even to
like me, just to want me."
She blushed, and nodded. It was strange how much Tom had her figured out, when
he was not blinded by a fit of rage. It was indeed about all those things. Tom
had just reminded her a moment ago that Marco and Jackie were probably together
now, doing something like this. She could feel in her heart that he was right.
She needed someone tonight, she just couldn't stand to be alone while the boy
she loved was with another. If she could have Marco, then she would have never
agreed to being with Tom. But she couldn't. Marco was with Jackie. Tom was
here, with her. She pushed her head backwards slightly, until she felt the
demon prince's breath slide away from her neck. Then she moved forward again,
stood on her toes, and hungrily kissed Tom against the wall. He grunted and
winced as his shoulders impacted the stone, but still pushed himself forward as
well, kissing back.
She pressed herself against him, eager to feel the heat. She parted her lips
and felt his tongue go into her mouth, playfully fighting her own, pushing and
retreating, dancing and fighting. She felt hands against her back, a comforting
embrace. Then claws danced down her back, ripping her white concert tee to
shreds. She pushed back slowly and felt the pieces fall to the ground.
"Sorry about that, Star. I hope you didn't want to keep that one?" Tom said in
a serious tone. A smug smirk belied the insincerity of his apology.
"No, I didn't," Star replied, understanding the symbolism in the gesture, "and
I have a skateboard you can incinerate later, too." Maybe she would change her
mind later, but right now she wanted nothing from Jackie. "Let me take off the
rest myself, though. I don't think I want to walk home from here naked."
Tom's eyes went wide for a moment, then he laughed. "Star, we both know you
could magic up some clothes afterwards. But that is quite the mental image."
Star looked down at Tom's hard-on and smiled. She wondered if that was her
words or the kiss. "Well, I still like these clothes." She was wearing a light
blue dress and tights, not her favorite outfit, but also not one she wanted to
go up in flames.
"Ok, Star. Then do that. Undress for me!" Tom commanded her more than asked
her, leaning against the wall once more. Star felt herself go red with
embarrassment. She thought back to the night she had seen Marco and Jackie do
this. She remembered how confident the skateboarder girl had been when
undressing for Marco and wondered if she could even put up such a display for
Tom, or for anyone else. Was Jackie undressing for Marco right now? Sliding the
concert tee Star made and her own green and white top off her head with a swift
self assured movement? Star imagined she was. She could imagine it very
vividly. It made her blood boil.
She pushed her boots off from her feet, and forcefully yanked the dress above
her head, throwing it to the concrete floor. She knew it hadn't been graceful
or sexy, but Tom didn't seem to mind, he was looking hungrily at her chest.
Star could only wonder if right now Marco was looking at his girlfriend's much
larger breasts with a similar expression. She knew he was. She could almost see
it.
"Star, you are beautiful..." Tom began. But she raised a hand, cutting him off.
That was not the kind of words she wanted now, not from Tom at least. She
pulled down her tights until she was standing in front of her ex-boyfriend in
only a pair of cotton panties with a golden star in the middle. Tom seemed to
regard her expression for a moment, then he smiled and switched gears.
"Ok, Star. So you are now naked, outside, at night, under a bridge, with a
naughty, evil, demon," he pushed himself up from the wall with both hands and
advanced towards her. His eyes fixed on her chest, small flames dancing on his
claws. "What exactly is that you said you wanted?"
"You," Star said, trying to put all her conviction in her voice. She knew her
cheekmarks were literally glowing now, with both embarrassment and
anticipation. She let Tom advance on her. She let him grab her by the hands and
guide her back to the wall. Except this time, he pinned her against it, holding
her arms above her head. She held on to her wand. She could feel the cold
concrete on her back, but also the warmth from Tom's body pressing against her
from the front. She felt his kisses on her neck, then light bites, then a
painful but exciting sucking sensation on the right side.
"Star, put the wand on the floor," Tom said as he let her go. She hesitated for
a moment. Tom grinned at her. "What, you mean you don't trust me?"
Star felt cold as Tom retreated two steps back, giving her space to kneel down
and deposit her wand safely on the ground, carefully setting it away from both
of them and from the creek which passed under the bridge. She did as he wanted.
"No. I don't," she replied as she walked back to the wall were she had been
just moments before and raised her arms above her head. She grinned at Tom. "I
don't trust you one bit."
The demon walked towards her again and once more closed his claws around Star's
wrists, holding her in place. "You know, Star? Without that wand of yours you
are entirely at my mercy. I can do to you right now. Whatever. I. Want." he
whispered in her ear. It was not true, Star knew, she could always go deep down
if she really needed to, and overpower Tom with or without the wand. Yet, for
some reason, being at Tom's mercy, at least for now, was a strangely exciting
thought for her.
It helped that what he wanted to do to her seemed to be to slowly kiss down her
collarbone until reaching her chest. Tom's tongue was hot and soft and it felt
incredible as it started tracing little flicks on her small mounds, making her
wait in agony for those moments when it quickly darted for her hard nipples,
before retreating again to explore the flesh around it. Soon those touches
became more frequent, and moments after she felt the unearthly warmth of the
demon's breath as he easily took her right breast into his mouth and began
sucking on it, swirling his tongue around its center. Star opened her mouth and
a loud moan escaped into the silent night.
Were Marco and Jackie also doing this right now? Star was sure they were. She
could practically see them in Jackie's bed, his face buried in the other girl's
far more developed rack. She shook her head. Then she had an idea. Star closed
her eyes. She begun to imagine that the kisses in her chest came from Marco,
that the tongue around her nipple was Marco's. She moaned once again. She had
already been hot and bothered, but for some reason, imagining Tom as Marco made
it even more intense. She felt her wetness spread through the cotton panties.
A hand went into her underwear and a finger began cautiously exploring her
entrance. Marco's finger, she thought, lying to herself. She opened her legs
and lowered herself slightly on the wall to give him better access. She felt a
finger go in and out a few times, then arch up, touching something inside her
that made her whimper. She felt her strength leave her legs and opened her eyes
in surprise. She saw Tom, not Marco, grinning at her, holding her up with just
one hand. She blushed hard.
Tom drew his other hand up to show it to the princess. She hadn't even noticed
when he let go of her left arm. Tom's fingers were drenched in her juices. He
lifted them up to his mouth and licked them clean. "You taste so sweet... and
innocent." Tom smiled malevolently.
"Hey, you take that back!" Star retorted, in mock offense. She lowered her now
free hand and closed it around the demon's cock. She pumped him up and down a
couple of times. "Still think I am innocent?"
"Y... yes. Yes, I do," Tom replied hoarsely. He raised two eyebrows. "Do you
want to prove me wrong a second time today?"
"Of course I do." Star smiled, with a mixure of genuine interest and feigned
confidence.
"Then, Star..." Tom smiled at her, a nasty yet hopeful smile, "... get on your
knees."
Star blinked for a moment, not understanding. Then, a second later, she got it,
"Oooohhh..." she looked around nervously. She ought to have expected this, of
course, but, then again, she had never done that before. Ok, once in a dream.
But dreams were weird, and it had felt different, like she always knew what to
do there. Was she really trying that, for the first time, with Tom? Then she
saw it, a small wooden box two meters or so from where they were. "Ok, Tom. You
got it. But you have to sit... there!" she pointed at the box.
Tom looked at her with a puzzled expression, but he let her go and, without
further question, proceeded to sit himself on the wooden crate. He smirked at
her, daring her to come to him. Star was pretty sure that was the same box
Marco had been sitting on earlier on the day, when the three of them had come
to release the ducks. Which meant this was the same bridge. It was perfect. She
walked up to the front of the box, she knelt on the cold cement in front of it.
She opened her mouth, she thought of what she had seen Jackie do a few weeks
ago and about what she herself had dreamed doing, she imagined doing this to
Marco.
Star was taking her best friend's penis in her mouth, or at least half of it.
She tried pushing her lips further down, but failed. Instead, she began running
her tongue over the head. Then going up and down, lubricating it with her
saliva. Slowly, she found that she could take more and more of it without
gaging. She pushed her lips further together and alternated moving her tongue
around and flicking it below the member. She imagined herself doing this for
Marco. She wanted to do well for him, to have him enjoy it. She wanted to be
better at this than Jackie. Why was she still thinking of Jackie? She could
imagine the two of them, though, in vivid Technicolor in her mind, Jackie Lynn
Thomas expertly sucking Marco's dick as he laid in her bed and the boy
squirming in pleasure under her ministrations. It wasn't fair!
Star felt two hands push her head against Marco's lap, fixing her in place. She
kept doing what she was doing, thinking only of making her bestie feel as good
as possible. Ignoring the voice in the back of his mind that reminded her where
or with whom she was. She could hear her best friend grunt and moan with
satisfaction, see his expression of pleasure. Watch him tense up with the
inevitable approaching climax, and explode completely... in Jackie's mouth. She
saw the cool girl give Marco a satisfied grin and swallow. Star hated that
grin! Then she felt something flood her own mouth, something bitter and thick
that dribbled down the corner of her lips. She heard Tom's voice, "Whoa, Star.
Not bad for the first time!"
A claw ran along her chin. "Now, now, Star, don't waste it. Swallow properly.
You wanted to prove you are not too innocent, right?" Star felt annoyed, and
sad. But it mostly wasn't Tom's fault. She did as asked and quickly gulped down
the demon's cum. She felt it, warm and sticky, going down her throat. It
honestly wasn't that bad of an experience, but it certainly wasn't an enjoyable
one either.
There was something wrong with her imagination. She had meant to imagine Tom as
Marco, which, ok, wasn't really the kindest thing to do to the boy currently
with her, but, well, that wasn't the issue. The question was why Jackie kept
popping in her head as well, and why it all seemed so, so real? Sure, Star's
imagination was pretty good at painting vivid pictures. But this was something
else, she could had sworn she had seen Jackie blowing Marco. She had felt it
too, sort of. In a weird way she had felt his pleasure. Not like she was
orgasming too when he did, well, when his fantasy of Marco did, but she knew
exactly how he had felt.
"Well, well, I stand corrected," Tom said, looking down at Star with a pleased
expression. Wait, what was he talking about? Oh, right, their whole 'innocent'
thing, their obvious game of chicken. Ok, Star, focus, you are with Tom now. He
is no Marco, but imagining otherwise is just turning up super confusing
anyways, and even less fun. So let's stop fantasizing, ok?
"You should have let me known you were about to do that!" Star said, honestly a
bit bothered, if not very surprised. Tom shrugged unapologetically, then began
running his hands along her face, arms and breasts. It felt good, not really
that strong sexually, but soothing. She felt and saw traces of flames linger
wherever the demon touched. Two hands went under her armpits and tried to pull
her up. Tom grunted and gave up.
"Star. Climb on me, please," Tom asked. Not seeing why not, Star complied,
removing her underwear before straddling the demon boy. She was soon sitting on
his lap, facing him. Tom started kissing her again. Apparently the prince of
the underworld didn't care what had been in her mouth before either. He reached
back with his hands and Star felt a surge of pain and pleasure shoot through
her. It started near her shoulders, teasing her wings, and surged back towards
her lower back, caressing her backside, going under her to lap her folds. She
knew she was enveloped in fire, and that the fire was caressing her skin, all
of it, and her insides. It did so gently, but it was still fire. It could not
but hurt, but it did not harm her, and with the light pain, it also brought
heat and pressure, and gratification.
Star lost track of time as she let Tom's magics pleasure her. It was not as
intense as even his fingers had been, not in any given point of her body,
whether inside or outside. But it was pervasive and constant, and slowly
bringing her higher and higher. When he was done, she could barely think
straight. Tom, Marco, it didn't matter, she needed someone. She needed someone
in her, right now!
"So, what did you say you want?" Tom asked, almost mocking her. She only
grunted in response, but he seemed not to mind. He lifted her with some visible
effort and slid himself under her. Star felt something press inside her crotch,
she parted her legs to give it access. Barely aware that, as it pertained to a
real, flesh and blood, boy, this was her first time.
It hurt, but only a little, only at first. Not that much more than the flames
had hurt. Then she felt movement, and pleasure, and need. Tom pushed her up and
down as he went in and out of her, without noticing, she began to push herself
up and down as well, atop him. He grunted, shouted something she could not
quite hear and pushed her down to the ground. His own body followed, inside of
her. She impacted the pavement and she barely noticed. The crate broke and
splintered under them and she barely noticed. Star withstood harder hits than
that every other day in battle. The only thing she noticed was the emptiness in
her when Tom withdrew from inside her, and the ecstasy as Marco entered her
again.
She was seeing Marco again, not Tom. Feeling Marco inside her, like it should
have been. She was happy. Her senses overwhelmed, her mind clouded. She saw his
smile, his big brown eyes looking down at her, she smiled back. Jackie smiled
back. Wait, what? Reality seemed to split then for Star, she was experiencing a
single thing, but it was something that was happening in two places at once.
She was outside, under a bridge, naked on the cold concrete path, her back
pushing pieces of wood as Tom fucked her with animal hunger, eyes glowing red
with a feeling that was not anger but also, in some way, was. She did not hate
that, it felt strong and raw and wild. It was exciting, it was transgressive,
it was payback. She was also on a soft bed, hands caressing her, Marco's mouth
kissing her lips as he made love to her in a dim lit cozy room. Except there
she was sometimes Star, and sometimes Jackie, and sometimes she was Marco too,
feeling the warm bliss inside his lover's body. She enjoyed that, it felt
comforting, loving, intimate. It was beautiful, it was passionate, it was
solace.
Soon it all dissolved together. The hard concrete floor. The soft bed. The
transgression. The comfort. The payback. The solace. Tom's desire. Marco's
love. Jackie. Tom. Marco. Star. Tom. Marco. Jackie. Star. She felt it all blend
into the white noise of overwhelming climax.
"Staaar!" she heard Tom grunt, hungrily.
"Maaarco!" she heard Jackie moan, joyously.
"Staaar!" she heard Marco shout, lovingly.
"Maaarco!" she heard herself cry out, wishfully.
Star opened her eyes. She was back outside, in the cold night, under the stone
bridge, against the hard cement and broken wood. Three blood red eyes glared at
her with apocalyptic fury. She saw the fire flare up and sideways, blackening
the stone of the arch, burning the remains of the crate and her discarded
clothes. The flames lit up the night, they consumed everything around them,
except for where she was. She knew these were not caressing flames, these
burned with rage and contempt. Tom was holding them back from her.
"Star... I had one request. Just one. Just for tonight," Tom said with a
forcefully restrained calm tone. Then, he begun shouting. "Just. This. One.
Time!" The flames went from red, to orange, to yellow, and even though they
remained far from Star, she could feel the heat. She eyed her wand, far away
from her, too far to reach. She tried to go deep, but her mind was in turmoil.
She could not summon all of herself, not now.
"What did you said you wanted?!" he asked. She could feel the indignation, but
also the pain, in his voice. She couldn't answer. "Who did you say you
wanted?!" No answer. "Just for tonight! Just this once! I let you take your
anger on me! I offered relief! I did everything to please you! Was it too much
to ask for you to be mine for just a few moments!?"
Star closed her eyes. Normally she would have at least tried to kick him of
her, to defend herself, but she felt exhausted. She waited for the flames to
burn. They never did. She opened her eyes moments later, to see Tom limping
away from her, getting away on the far side of the tunnel. Wait, limping? Was
he still hurt from her spell? Had he been hurt the entire time? Had he done,
all of what he did, while in pain?
Star scrambled to her feet and ran to grab her wand. She thought of going after
Tom. To do what? Apologize? 'Hey, sorry I shouted Marco's name when we had sex,
hope you don't mind, since you are in love with me and all' Yeah, right. She
felt the night air around her. When had California gotten this cold? The only
warmth she felt, came from something fiery and sticky, running down her leg.
----
"Staaar!" she heard Marco shout, lovingly. It hit her like a punch to the gut.
"Marco?" Jackie asked. She felt surprise and hurt mix into her voice. The
weight of his body on top of her felt oppressive. Just a second ago it had been
comforting and reassuring, now it was just heavy. She saw him blink twice,
confused. Did he not realize what he had just said? In their most intimate
moment together? The girl felt her cool exterior crack, she could feel her eyes
wetting, a tear sliding down her cheek. Jackie saw the horror of realization in
Marco's face as he pushed himself off her. He sat on his knees on her bed,
looking at her, unsure what to do. He lifted a hand to cover his mouth. It was
much too late for that. She looked away from him, maybe facing her bedroom wall
would make this conversation easier. "Marco, we need to talk."
Chapter End Notes
     I think Earth is a pretty gre-at place.
     That's saying something, 'cause I've been through outer space.
     I think it suits me, it's just my style.
     I think I'm gonna stay a little while.
     ... ;)
***** A Tale of two Set-ups *****
Chapter Summary
     In which most things, but certainly not all, turn out according to
     plan, and Star and Marco spend a night together.
Chapter Notes
     Be warned this is a long-ass chapter (no, not a long ass-chapter, you
     pervs!). It is almost half the size of the previous five chapters put
     together, which are already much longer than what I believe is the
     norm for this site. I considered breaking this up into 2 or even 3
     chapters, but that would have meant not including a smut scene at
     all, and I remember how that went down the last time, so, well, long-
     ass chapter it is... enjoy ;)
See the end of the chapter for more notes
***** Chapter 06: A Tale of two Set-ups *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place the day after the
     SvtFoE episode "Just Friends" (S02E20b). At the end of this chapter,
     the story will have begun to diverge from the SvtFoE season 2
     mainline in ways that have yet to be fully explained.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/6.png]
Tom counted to fifty in his mind. Then he counted to fifty again, and again. It
didn't matter, the inferno inside of him raged on. He had been mad with fury
since he realized Star had been imagining herself with another. He had been
ready to let his rage fall on her. To hurt her like she had hurt him.
Twice that day she had struck him. The first time it had been so painful he
thought he would die, that he would cease to exist. It was an almost alien
thought for one such as him. The second time had been much much worse. He felt
like something in him had actually died that night. Yet he hadn't been able to
bring himself to make Star die with it as well.
The strange thing was, up to that point, up to that last second, that last cry,
he had been happy. He had had Star, in the way he had wanted her for over a
year, in the way he had pictured since so long ago. He had thought she wanted
him. Maybe she did not love him, but for a night, maybe she could want him. In
that last moment, though, he realized he never had her, and she would never
truly want him again, not even for an instant.
He dragged himself back to the now empty and dark stadium, to the parking lot
where a carriage pulled by an undead horse awaited. He had all the time in the
multiverse to process what had just happened. He would talk to Brian about it
if need be. Although, right now, Tom couldn't imagine himself saying a word of
this to anyone, trained professional or not. For now, getting home was enough.
He opened the door and climbed inside the hearse-like vehicle, only to notice a
stranger sitting in his favorite chair - his throne, if you will.
"So, how did your date with the princess go? Got any action?" a dark haired
girl wearing a green beanie asked him casually. She looked him up and down. Tom
realized he was still naked and growled in annoyance. "Seems to me like you
did. Good for you!"
"Get out of here mortal, before I obliterate you!" Tom saw red. Flames lit the
room as he made his threat. The girl merely looked directly at him and blinked
twice, very slowly, unimpressed.
"Janna," she corrected him. "This mortal is named Janna, prince Tom." How did
she know who he was? "I was just leaving anyway," she shrugged. "But first,
maybe I can tell you how I think your date went. OK?"
Tom considered blasting her into the depths of the abyss for her insolence. But
then, he realized, no one, not even he or Star knew they were going to meet
that night, and Star couldn't have told this girl about their 'date' before he
got here. There was something very strange going on. "Star and I weren't on a
date, we ran into each other..."
"...at the Love Sentence concert, I know," Janna interrupted him. "You attended
the concert because you are secretly a huge fan of Earth boy bands, which is
something you consider a dark shameful secret of sorts. There is a signed photo
of yourself with Justin Towers in, well, probably that cabinet," she pointed to
it, accurately. "You spotted Star as she was leaving the concert alone, looking
dejected, and decided that it was your perfect chance to get into her royal
knickers if only you found a way to cheer her up. She told you she got beaten
to her crush by another girl and you, selflessly, offered yourself as a
replacement." She laughed bitterly at that last part. "Surprising even you, she
accepted without much prodding and you two bumped uglies. Say, in a park
somewhere? Except, when it was all over and done, she gently clarified to you
your role as the rebound guy and told you, gently again, to get lost." She
paused and looked at him straight in the eyes. "How am I doing so far?"
"A little too well," Tom replied. His eyes narrowing in suspicion. Anger seemed
to give way to puzzlement and the strange sensation that he had, somehow, been
played. Only one way to find out for sure, though: keep the girl talking. "But
you are wrong on the last part. We did not talk afterwards. She... she yelled
Marco's name as she... finished."
Janna gave Tom a strange look, then seemed to be suppressing a laugh. "Wow,
that had to hurt!" she remarked. "There's no accounting for taste, I guess. I
mean, Marco is a fine boy and all, but going for that instead of well..." She
looked him up and down again and licked her lips. "What is Star even thinking?"
Tom would never let it show, but the words soothed his ego a little bit, even
coming from a stranger. He noticed that said stranger was a fairly attractive
human girl, of around Star's age, which was also in her favor. Surely nothing
special in the grand scheme of things, compared to the Mewman princess, but
attractive on a more simple - normal, was perhaps the word? - level.
Unfortunately, she would not be around to compliment him much longer.
"Well, now that I have told you about that, I hope you do realize I have to
kill you," he mentioned casually. In fact, it was the only reason he had felt
free to discuss his humiliation with the stranger. Dead girls only told tales
when he wished them to do so.
"Sure, sure, you definitely could do that," Janna replied calmly, seemingly not
at all bothered by her imminent demise, "or you could get back at Star."
Get back at Star? Tom hadn't realized how much he wanted that, until the
strange girl brought it up. Yeah, she had hurt him twice that day. Granted, he
had thought the first time actually made them square, balanced out what he had
done to her in the past. But that also meant the second time was completely
unjustified. Tom deserved revenge. Well, it couldn't hurt to hear what the girl
was going to say, especially if he was going to incinerate her afterwards
anyways. "How?"
"Mmm, dunno. Lots of options. If I were you I'd simply try to make her jealous
somehow, make her realize what she missed on, what she discarded," Janna began,
perilously prodding at his ego. "I mean, look at the facts. Evidence indicates
she only notices the guys in her life after they are taken by someone else.
Don't tell me you don't see that? Over half a year of 'Marco and I are just
friends', then Jackie asks him out and suddenly Star wants the D...iaz.
Meanwhile, you are following after her like a lovesick puppy, and of course she
feels you are worthless! It is a clichè so old the pharaohs probably complained
about it!"
Tom reflected on her words. They sounded true. There was definitely a type of
girl like that. But he didn't think Star worked that way. Maybe he was wrong?
Blinded by love, had he perhaps misjudged her?
"What you have to do, Tom, is find someone else. Preferably someone from Star's
life, so that she cannot forget you exist. The closer the better," Janna
continued, there was an almost hypnotic quality to the girl's voice now. "Hey,
I know!" She conspicuously pretended to just figure something out. Tom had done
that often enough to recognize when someone else was pulling that trick on him,
still, he listened. "How about her best friend?"
"Marco?!" Tom asked, disgusted.
"Well, that would be hot," Janna observed with a chuckle. "But I was thinking
about her best girl friend." She made an obvious dramatic pause. "Oh, what a
coincidence, I just realized... Star's best girl friend is, well... me." The
last word had sounded almost like a question, yet it conspicuously wasn't one.
Tom's eyes widened. So that was the girl's game? Well, she was cute, and she
might be fun for a date or two, especially if she could actually help him make
Star even a bit jealous. Wait a second! "If you are truly Star's best friend,
why would you help me make her jealous?"
"Maybe I find it fun. Maybe I am a bad friend. Maybe you are just that hot.
Maybe I have ulterior motives I can't yet tell you about," she listed calmly,
counting with her fingers. "One or more of those."
"How do I know you really are a close friend of Star? She never mentioned you,"
Tom retorted.
"Well, I knew about your night, didn't I?" Janna explained like it was obvious,
and the demon felt a bit slow to not have figured it out before. "Whom other
than a close friend could have arranged all those happy coincidences?"
"Wait, what?! Arranged? You planned this?!" Tom's eyes went red with rage once
more. "Are you saying that you not only knew what happened, but knew it before
it happened, because you planned it?!"
"Point Tom," Janna replied, amused. He again had to pause to wonder how much
she knew, which was probably the whole point of making that obvious reference.
It gave him time to count to ten in his head once more.
"But, how?" Tom honestly couldn't conceive how anyone would know he was going
to be at the concert, or predicted his interactions with Star this well.
"Mmmm... do you consider yourself a living soul, Tom?" she asked.
"Not really. Not exactly living. Don't really got the other thing either." What
kind of question was that, though? "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Then maybe one day I will explain it to you," she winked at him.
"So, wait, you are telling me, that you somehow contrived a scenario where Star
would get her heart broken, run into me, decide to have a one night stand with
me, and then completely and utterly humiliate me!?" Flames exploded out of
every pore of his body. He saw the girl flinch, just a little bit. But then he
realized he was missing something: motive. Sure, someone who could plot
something like that was impressive, but no one went to those lengths unless
they had something to win. He was sure she had told him what it was she wanted
already, too. The final piece clicked in his head. "You manipulated your best
friend into a dark enough place to do something she normally wouldn't do, to
hurt me to the point to which I would seek vengeance. Then you have been
pulling and prodding at those desires for revenge this entire conversation.
Playing me to... to... to convince me to go out with you?!"
"You got me there." Janna lifted both palms in the air. "Honestly, I thought we
would already be mid date by the time you figured it all out, you are a lot
more perceptive than Star or Marco make you out to be. But the real question
is: did it work?"
"Honestly? That's pretty fucked up..." Tom said with a serious face, then
grinned at her, "...and I have never felt more flattered in my life. Ok, you
know what? You win. One date, in exchange for your honest effort at making Star
jealous. Truly, you got my attention, now let's see how long you can keep it."
"Let's see how long you can keep mine," Janna retorted mockingly. "But, how
about you pick me up tomorrow night at, I don't know, seven O' six. Right now
is late, and you are a mess and smell of Star. I don't think I am quite into
that," she shrugged.
"Fine." Tom retorted, slightly annoyed that she was still controlling their
interaction. He definitely needed to go back home and think a lot of things
through before any new dates, though, so it wasn't exactly a bad idea to wait
till the next day. Tomorrow might even be too soon, but what the hell, going
out with this crazy chick was definitely better than mopping about Star in the
underworld. Janna hopped from his chair and started heading out of the
carriage. He realized he hadn't given her a way to call him, and he didn't know
how to find her either. "Wait! There is something I need to give you first!"
"No worries! I already got them," Janna shouted from the parking lot, waving a
tiny bell and a little hammer. She turned to run away. Tom sighed in confusion
and, with an exasperated gesture, ordered his ride to go to hell. Home, sweet
home.
----
It was late in the afternoon the next day, and Star had not left her room. She
had arrived through the window last night, clad in a hastily conjured gray
cloak. She had tried to magic up a copy of her old outfit, but for some reason
that's how the spell came out. She put the ragged ugly thing on and summoned
cloudy. Even the usually friendly cloud seemed gray and depressed, with a
slight green tint to it. It hadn't gone haywire or anything, it just didn't
talk to Star at all as it dragged her back to the Diaz's place. That was fine,
Star wasn't in a mood to talk either.
She had felt so tired, but still, she forced herself to get under the shower.
The water flowing down her face hid her own tears, as they slid down her
cheekmarks. She felt dirty in some undefined way, in a way the water falling on
her would not clean. She knew it was ridiculous. She was not usually ashamed of
her decisions, even when they got her into trouble, and it had been her
decision to sleep with Tom. It had even been fun at times, especially when she
had imagined Marco instead. She had mostly enjoyed herself; until the end, when
it all came crashing down. Yet, she knew she regretted it. She tried to figure
out what exactly she regretted. Doing it with Tom? That it had been her first
time? That she had been thinking of Marco? Hurting Tom? Betraying Marco?
She had been surprised at her last thought. Of course she was not betraying
Marco. Marco wasn't her boyfriend, he was Jackie's. Nonetheless, even after she
finished showering, even after she had gone to bed, even after she woke up the
next day, she could not get rid of that foolish thought. Now it was the end of
the afternoon and she was still thinking it. She felt even sillier for it.
She was hungry. She had snuck in a box of cereal and snacked on it through the
morning, but now she was not in the mood for more cereal. The Diaz family had
called her down to eat, both at breakfast and at lunch, knocking on her door or
shouting her name. She hadn't answered, and they had mostly let her be. That
was at least an advantage of the Diaz household. Back in Mewni her mother would
have dragged her out of her room to some royal function or another, or order
that she be dragged out by servants. Of course, back in Mewni she could also
have had run away to the Forest of Certain Death and hid there the entire day.
She thought of running away now, maybe go to the Bounce Lounge or even visit
Ponyhead in St. O's. But, she realized, the only scissors she had access to
here were in Marco's room. He was the last person she wanted to talk to right
now, even to ask for them.
Just then, as if on cue, she heard three quick and forceful knocks on the door.
"Ok, Star, I am sorry, I don't know what's the matter, but I need to talk to
you!"
"Marco, go away! I don't want to talk right now!" Star shouted back through the
locked door. He had come up six times already that day. First when he got home
early in the morning, and most recently just an hour ago. Each time more
insistent than the last. Each time she told him to go away, and he reluctantly
let her be. It was not really true that she didn't want to see Marco, it was
more like she couldn't face him. Would he ask about last night at the concert?
Or about what was going on with her? He sounded concerned, and hurt, but how
could she explain to him what had happened? There was no way Star could tell
Marco about how she had felt when she saw him kiss Jackie. There was even less
chance that she would be able to talk about what had happened with Tom.
"Star, you don't have to talk about anything if you don't want to," Marco
insisted. "Look, I am worried about you, my parents are worried about you, and
I would really like to know what is bothering you." No, Marco, you really
wouldn't. "If you need something, or if I can help, please, please let me know.
But if you don't want to talk, then don't talk. But I. Still. Need. To. Talk.
To. You."
He had put a lot of force behind that last sentence, and emphasized the "I" and
"to you" parts. Star blinked for a moment, peering out of the bed sheet that
she had bundled herself into as she sat in a corner of her room. Wait, so Marco
wanted to talk about something other than what was going wrong with her? She
wasn't sure if that made her feel relieved or hurt.
"Star, Jackie and I got into a fight last night..." she heard him say. Marco
sounded genuinely distraught. Something pinched at the princess' heart. She
felt guilt pooling around her like a cold mist. Guilt at not being there for
her friend, or guilt about Tom? Or guilt that she secretly had, for a split of
a second, felt happy that Marco and Jackie were fighting, before realizing that
must be horrible for her friend? It was so infuriatingly hard to pick her
feelings apart right now!
"Give me a second, Marco," she answered after a brief pause. It didn't matter
how she felt, because all of her was in agreement on one thing: if she failed
to be there for him now, she would forever regret it. She walked to her bed
slowly, took the wand from under the pillow. "Radiant Shadow Transform!" she
shouted, conjuring an outfit for herself. She hadn't bothered to dress yet that
day. The spell fell short of its usual level of fashion forwardness, but
nonetheless Star found herself dressed in a fairly decent plain black dress and
white leggings. "Defensive Gate Withdrawal!" she yelled without much
enthusiasm. The giant padlock and portcullis vanished from her bedroom door.
"Ok, you can come in now. What happened?"
----
Janna had to admit to herself she was nervous that afternoon. She was never
nervous, either about mischief or about boys. Sure, her courtship techniques
might have lacked a certain finesse, but she had never exactly been shy in
front of boys she found attractive. In fact, she usually managed to put them in
the more uncertain position. It helped that the only men who truly managed to
leave her speechless had been dead and buried long before she was born. It was
hard to feel insecure with Keats, when she could only reach him through the
pages of a book, his words to her already set in place where her response to
them would not taint their truth. After that, it hardly mattered what opinion
flesh and blood boys might have of her. It was not that she was not interested
in a few select cases, but if they did not reciprocate, well, it was no big
concern of hers.
Tom was different. Tom was not human. He was a mystery not the way the silent
hunk at a party was a mystery; that is, in that the only mystery was what you
had to do to get him to open up, and immediately reveal himself to be as boring
as any of a dozen more idiots her age. Marco was interesting, to an extent. He
had been outside of this dimension, apparently once for sixteen years straight.
He had had a demon bound to his arm. Janna felt a tingle remembering how it had
felt when she was holding the eldritch appendage. Star was mysterious too, of
course. The magic that she took for granted fascinated Janna. Even compared to
them, her date tonight was a whole different deal. Tom was not a human, or a
Mewman, or a handsome stranger from some random foreign dimension. He was a
demon. He was mysterious like the night is mysterious or like death is
mysterious.
Now, Janna was not fooling herself. At least she did not believe she was. She
knew Tom was a jerk, an anger-management disaster, a manipulative bastard, a
ticking time-bomb, and, perhaps worst of all, a guy that very often acted just
like a moody human teenager. Nonetheless, there was definitely a lot more to
that particular teenager than there was to any of the idiots at her school. Tom
was also very dangerous, a taste Janna realized she shared with her best friend
Star.
She had fished the only truly presentable item from her wardrobe: a vintage
dark green dress with knee-height skirt and a black velvet trim. She had gotten
it at a thrift shop months ago and never wore it. In fact, the only reason she
had taken that particular dress home, other than the color, was the the owner
had told her some lady had died in it and that was why it was so discounted.
She would have paid double for that! Ok, well, she shoplifted it either way,
but it was the thought that counted.
She completed her look with green heels and a black chocker with a ceramic
skull in the middle. Hopefully that look would not be out of place wherever Tom
intended to take her out on a date. The underworld, most likely, she thought
with an excited shiver.
Janna looked at her phone. Six forty-five, still some time before she planned
to ring up her ride. She wondered how the rest of her little plan was going.
She was sorry about what she had had to put Star through, but she knew her
friend would forgive her after it all resolved for the best. The truly
unfortunate thing is that she herself could not be around to see Marco's face
when it all fell into place. The boy should be beyond himself with excitement
right about now!
----
"I really don't know where to start, Star," said Marco gloomily, as he sat in
the bed beside an equally downcast Star. They both stared at the floor for a
while, sitting there together, as close as they could get without touching each
other. Star's mind was still a jumble of awful thoughts. She wanted to break
through it, to be there to comfort her friend, but she simply couldn't.
"Do you want to tell me what the fight was about?" she ventured the question,
glancing in his direction.
"Well, after you left the concert," Marco began. Star flinched. "Sorry, maybe I
should skip some of it. The concert doesn't matter. Unless you want to talk
about it?" Star kept quiet. "Ok, so, anyways, after the concert Jackie and I
went over to her place, to you know, say goodnight and stuff." Even bummed as
she was Star couldn't help but to chuckle a little bit at Marco's comment.
"'Say goodnight', Marco? You got back this morning. That must have been some
long good night," she chided. Marco blushed, but then seemed sad for some
reason. Star regretted her joke almost immediately.
"Ok, well, so, Star, just to be clear, you know what people who are dating and,
well, are attracted to each other, do, right? When they spend the night
together, I mean?" Star blinked at this. Was he asking if she knew what sex
was? "You see. At least on Earth, boys and girls are a bit different, in that
the boys have a..."
Star began laughing, despite herself. There was some bitterness to the laugh,
but it was overpowered by the sheer amusement at how innocent her bestie's
mental picture of her seemed to be. "Marco! We fuck on Mewni too!" she shouted
at him. Her cheekmarks immediately lit up, and then she felt a cold pang of
regret remembering the previous night. "I mean, I don't mean I have, I also
don't mean I haven't or wouldn't... let's just say I understand the concept,
Marco. Congrats on banging Jackie, by the way..." she forced the words out "...
hopefully it went well?"
Marco shook his head. He stared at the floor some more. He seemed very nervous,
more so than usual, more than he was even when Jackie was around. "That's it,
Star, I did something wrong when we were, well, when we were having sex..."
"Did you do anything to her she told you not to?" Star asked. It seemed
unlikely, it was Marco after all. He shook his head and seemed a bit hurt at
the implication. "Ok, then it can't be that bad, Marco." She thought for a bit.
"If it's a performance issue, just take it slow and give it time, that was a
pretty hectic day and I am sure Jackie would understand that you were
nervous..." there she went again, the good friend offering her bestie help in
getting back with her girlfriend. Good, she thought, that's how it should be.
"No, Star. It wasn't a performance problem!" Marco replied annoyed. Star
flinched a bit at that. "No, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It is just,
it was something very weird, and I can't say it to you, even if I try. It
was... well, it felt like my mind was playing tricks on me, and I said
something I shouldn't have, and that led to a whole long discussion where I
realized something about me. Something that makes me even more confused.
Something that I can't say, that I think I knew but I didn't know I knew, that
I can't spit out even thought I have been planning to tell you since I got back
home this morning..."
Star looked at her friend. For a moment she forgot all about Tom, about her
confusing night and about her complicated feelings. She was just worried about
Marco. He looked completely distressed. She wanted to figure out what to say
that would make him feel better, or get him back with Jackie or somehow fix
whatever it was that was hurting him.
"Star. I have been trying to ask you all day... will you go out on a date with
me?"
----
Janna stood in the curb outside her house. She had just finished collecting a
few items into her small black purse. She had applied some dark lipstick, as
well. Makeup was not her forte, but she figured this much at least she had
gotten down by now. She took out the bell and hit it with the ruby hammer.
Immediately a fiery abyss opened up from the street in front of her, noxious
fumes and searing flames exploded up into the dark sky. She heard the cries of
agony of billions of ancient souls and the maddening laughs of their immortal
tormentors. "Cool!"
Then she saw a large red demon chained to a wooden pillory, which was in turn
attached by ropes to a small black elevator. The doors opened and she climbed
inside. "Which floor, mortal?"
"Name is Janna, and, well, wherever your boss is at," she told the creature.
She knew well to act unimpressed, but she was just a little impressed. She had
friends, peers, acquaintances, occasionally pawns. Tom? Tom had minions. Well,
Star probably had minions too, she thought, of both the magical and mewman
kind. Janna had never been intimidated by Star, so why should Tom be any
different?
"Ah, Janna, so glad you could join me," Tom greeted her as the 'elevator'
stopped just a few centimeters above the black stone floor of an enormous
underground cavern. He was dressed in a black suit, with a white shirt and tie,
and three-eyed sunglasses over his face. He extended a hand to help her out of
her ride. "Welcome, to Hell!"
She felt herself blush slightly. This wasn't good. She reminded herself that
there was still plenty of work she still had to do on Tom, this was not the
time to become complacent. "Woah, Tom, don't you clean up nicely?" she replied.
It was a weak neg, and not really her style. But Star had told her Tom had said
it to her before, so maybe just the fact Janna knew would be enough to throw
him off balance a little bit. Unfortunately, she was running out of smug
callbacks to flick at Tom after last night.
"Funny, I was just about to say the same," he retorted, rising at least one
eyebrow. His expression was hard to read behind the glasses. Intentionally so,
Janna concluded. "Since we are apparently going for a reenactment of sorts, let
me offer you this," he said, and reached with his free hand behind him,
producing a nasty looking spider larger than his fist. Nice.
"Neat," Janna smiled. Tom explained that it went on her hair and Janna allowed
him to place the spider over her head. It probably did look wicked cool, even
if the legs tickled a bit. "Is it venomous?"
"Deadly," Tom assured her, "but it won't bite unless I command it to."
Ah, so it was only their first date and he was already putting himself in
control of whether she lived or died. Oh, Tom, who knew you were such a
hopeless romantic? She thought to herself. Mostly, but only mostly, in jest.
"Well, where to now? Pretty sure we are 666 years and a few months too early
for the next Blood Moon Ball..."
Tom seemed caught up by surprise by her comment, despite their previous
interaction. That was good, keep him guessing how much you know, Janna. The
more curious he is, the less likely you die from a spider bite and all that. He
seemed to ponder things for a second. "It depends. If you are hungry I can
always take you to the Faust. It is the best restaurant in this side of the
underworld, and only half of what they serve is poisonous for you or would doom
your soul for all eternity. After that, we can go for drinks to the Vermilion
Viper club."
"Sounds good, but, Tom, I am fourteen, no fake ID is going to conceal that.
Also, I don't really drink..."
"Janna, first, this is Hell, of course they serve alcohol to minors. Second, we
can figure it out once we get there. I am sure they have... juice," he muttered
disdainfully, "if that is all you truly want. So, shall we go then?"
----
"Yes! Yes, of course I will, Marco!" Star shouted, surprising even herself with
how emphatic her response had been. It felt, for a moment, as if all her
worries were blown away by a soothing breeze. Marco had just asked her out, and
she said yes! Wait, wait a minute. This wasn't right. It didn't make sense.
Unless, "Marco, wait, are you asking me out just because Jackie and you broke
up?" She felt sick once again. She loved Marco. Well, no, not 'loved'. But she
had maybe a super big crush on him, she told herself, unconvincingly. If he was
only asking her out to get over being dumped by Jackie, if he was about to
treat her like, like... 'like I treated Tom' she thought to herself, then she
didn't want it, not like that.
"Actually, Star, that's the really weird part," Marco continued. He seemed
nervous, like he expected Star to suddenly grow fangs and bite his head off.
That, by the way, was not likely to happen, well at least as far as she knew.
"Jackie and I didn't break up. We had a fight, maybe our first real fight, but
we, sort of, resolved it? She was the one who told me to ask you out."
What?! That didn't make any sense! "Marco, is this an Earth thing? Because if
it is you might have to explain it to me. I am lost. You are dating Jackie, and
she told you, to ask me out on a date?" Also, did that mean Marco didn't really
want to go out with her? It was only because Jackie had asked? She felt tears
coming up again.
"Well, I don't fully understand it either, Star. But basically, last night I
realized that, well, that I... that I like you, and I like Jackie too. It came
up at the worst possible moment, but it had been on my mind since, well, since
a dream I had a few weeks ago. Maybe since way earlier than that, but I had not
fully understood it before," he seemed afraid. "Jackie said, well, she said
that she knew. She told me, that she thought you liked me too, and that she was
happy about that, and also not happy about that, but that we would figure stuff
out. She told me to ask you out, and that if you said yes, to figure out what
our feelings were, you and I, I mean, and then to talk to her tomorrow." Then
he paused, and his eyes went wide. He looked mortified, "and, oh, I am sorry.
She also told me to tell you all of this before I asked you out. I kinda messed
up that part. It is sort of my first time asking anyone out, sorry..."
"Oh," Star blinked a few times. That was, complicated, and weird, and had
Jackie just, I don't know, lent her her boyfriend? "Well, Marco," she said very
quietly, "she is right on one thing. I... I... I do like you."
"Oh," said Marco. They both stood there, looking at each other, blushing bright
red.
"Then, maybe," Star continued, with some difficulty, "maybe she is right about
other stuff too. This is all super weird. I think I like you, and I am glad you
like me back. I get that you like Jackie as well, and I don't really want you
two to not be together, although sometimes I feel like I do. I have no idea how
this works, but I want to go out with you tonight, and we can figure the rest
tomorrow. My answer is still yes!"
"I am really glad, Star," Marco said, looking at her. He still seemed a bit
worried, but he also was smiling. "I do still love Jackie, though, and that
means I have no clue what will happen, and that I cannot promise that we won't
get hurt, that I won't hurt you. If I do... if I do I am so sorry in advance,
and I hope whatever happens won't break us up as friends..."
"Marco, the end of the world couldn't break us up as friends!" She saw him
smile, the tension inside of him seeming to ease a bit. She felt herself grow
calmer too, as she realized the truth in what she had just said. Even if this
did end badly, it wouldn't be like her and Tom, it couldn't be. She and Marco
were besties. Whatever was about to happen, they would always have that.
"Then, there is one more thing Jackie told me to say. She told me that after I
explained to you what happens tomorrow, I should shut up about her and tell you
that tonight is all about the two of us, and ask you if you wanted to go for
fancy dinner and then dancing afterwards."
"Marco, Jackie is awesome," she meant it, she really really did. "But she is
right, if you tell me one more time tonight something she told you to do or not
do... I will punch you. Tell me where you," she punctuated the pronoun, "want
to take me out to!"
"How about tacos and then dancing afterwards?"
"Sounds awesome!" she replied beaming him a smile. Then Star realized she was
wearing a dress that looked like she was about to attend a funeral in it.
"Maybe we both should get ready first, though. Check again in thirty, Marco?
Tell your parents we are not having dinner at home!"
----
"So, how do you like the Hors d'oeuvres?" Tom asked from across the table.
Janna had just tried one pentagonal shaped cracker with some raw bits of meat
on top of it. Surprisingly, it was delicious. But she wasn't sure she wanted to
know what kind of meat it was. At least she had made her dietary restrictions
clear to Tom before they got to the restaurant. In addition to nothing that
would kill her or damn her soul forever, she had insisted on no human parts,
nor any other creature capable of speech or otherwise similarly intelligent.
She felt that wording was probably airtight enough that she wouldn't need to
break the mood by asking about every dish. Besides, she had some trust that Tom
would understand and follow the spirit of her request, at least to a degree.
"Well, I like them so far," Janna said noncommittally. "Cool place, by the
way."
The Faust was an extraordinarily luxurious venue. The black marble walls and
blood-red vitrails, depicting demons and other unearthly denizens, made it look
like some perverse imitation of a medieval church. Apparently it took years to
get a reservation, but Tom had simply commanded they be given the best table in
the house and two poor undead saps had had to find themselves another place to
have their 300th anniversary dinner. Janna could certainly respect the
theatricality of such a conspicuous display of power, if nothing else.
"Ah, Master Tom, it's been far too long. What a pleasure to see you back in our
humble establishment," a tall pearl-white demon with ebony hair and curled goat
horns walked up to their table and received them with a vow, "and, may I add,
with such a lovely lady! It is good to see your highness is, oh, how do the
kids say these days, 'getting back in the saddle'?"
"Are you mocking me, Adorjan?" Tom's eyes lit up in red for a second. The
waiter remained impassive, an arm in front of him holding a napkin, another
extending forward the menus and depositing two leathery volumes in front of
each of them.
"Wouldn't dream of it, master Tom. After all, I am but a humble servant. One
who pays no heed to scurrilous rumors regarding the romantic travails of my
betters, no matter how widespread. Rather, shall I offer the two of you
anything to drink? Madam? Sire?" Janna stifled a chuckle, and quickly asked Tom
about ordering recommendations to, less than artfully but effectively enough,
distract him from the bad mood he was beginning to show.
"So, you mentioned helping me make Star jealous," Tom said offhandedly after
the waiter had left. Evidently his insinuations had brought the princess back
to the forefront of the demon prince's mind. "Pretty sure she doesn't even know
we are here, though. Was that just a ruse to get me to invite you down here or
do you intend to hold up your end of the bargain?"
"Tom, don't you think that it would be too obvious if we simply walked up to
Star the day after, well, you know what, and told her to her face we were
dating? She is naive, but not that naive. She would know what's up in an
instant." It was a plausible excuse, the truth usually was. "No. Here is how it
is going to work, if you must know: we are going to go on a very real date
tonight, and we are going to bond, so that I know enough about you and you know
enough about me that Star will believe we have been dating. Whether we go on a
second date or not, we will also need to wait at least a week before 'casually'
running into Star. Then I will hold up my end of the bargain, as you say. I'll
simply pretend to be really into you and see how Star responds to that."
"Pretend? You mean you are not really into me," Tom asked slightly surprised,
unable to avoid the bait. Janna kept her face unreadable.
"Well... right now, I am mostly just curious," she played it cool. "But my
point is, when we finally meet Star, I should be able to act like I am really,"
she looked directly into the dark glasses, "really," she touched his arm and
leaned forward, "into you." For a second, her face lingered right in front of
his, and she basically breathed the last part over his closed mouth. A moment
later, she was leaning back in her chair again and casually pondering one of
the vitrails. "You know, really sell it. For Star, of course." Tom was silent,
unreadable behind his dark glasses. Janna still felt she had probably made her
point.
"But Tom," she added. "I think it is you who does not want to hold up his end
of the bargain. I did not ask for a business meeting at a fancy restaurant, I
asked for a date. I assume you don't normally spend your dates talking about
your exes, right?"
"Well, it's honestly been a while since I have been on a date with someone
new..." Tom began, embarrassed. He was kinda cute when he opened up like that.
Janna did not have much time to enjoy it, however, she needed to press him for
a bit more, keep him talking, before he realized his mistake and closed up once
more.
"How about you tell me about yourself? Or about your life here? It must be so
cool to rule over all the Underworld!" Flattery and getting others to talk
about themselves were both good ways to put them at ease, and in this case, it
helped that Janna was genuinely curious about this whole Prince of Hell deal.
"Well, I don't really rule all of it, not even close. You see, 'the Underworld'
is a vast meta-dimension, older than Earth or Mewni, much older than myself.
But my family has always had an important place in..."
----
"Whoa, Marco, I am honored that you are sharing so much of your culture with
me, on our date!" Star shouted the last three words. She knew the whole
restaurant probably had heard it, and it made her a bit giddy. But mostly, she
wanted to say it for herself, just to make sure she believed it.
"Star, was that really necessary? Also, my culture? My dad's family is from
Mexico, but I was born in California..." he responded, not really angry at her,
more like, well, nervous. Nervous like when he was on a date with Jackie, Star
observed with pride. Ok, not really the same way, but close enough.
"Mexico? I meant your Earth-culture, Marco!" she clarified. 'La Fonda de Don
Alberto' was probably a more authentic Mexican place than Britta's, their usual
taco joint. The food here was spicier and less greasy, and there were more
private places to sit together. But to Star, it was mostly just a new place on
Earth. Besides, Marco had promised to teach her a new Earth dance afterwards.
Something called Salsa.
Marco chuckled, "I guess sometimes I forget you really aren't from around
here." He did? Star thought it was still pretty obvious that she wasn't really
from this dimension, although she had gotten a bit better at blending in, when
she didn't use magic. "Maybe I had gotten so familiar with you, that I forgot
there are still so many more things I haven't showed you..." he trailed off,
looking directly into her eyes.
"What would you want to show me, then?" Star said blushing. Marco didn't
respond. He seemed to be staring at her, seemingly lost in thought, or maybe
like he was seeing her for the first time. Star felt her cheekmarks lit up just
a little bit. "Marco?"
"Ah, yeah, uhmmm," he snapped out of it and began fidgeting with his fork.
"Well, right now I guess I want to show you this Pollo con Mole," he laughed
nervously. Star laughed too and focused on her plate. She cut a bit of the
chicken and tried it more to defuse the tension than because she was hungry.
Although, well, that was true too.
"Whoa! Is this spicy chocolate sauce?! Marco, this is truly a marvel of Earth
cuisine!" she declared, jumping from her seat.
"I knew you would like it!" Marco beamed at her. Of course, that was the thing
about Marco. He knew her so well. They knew each other's likes and dislikes.
They could usually predict what the other would say about almost anything. They
shared all their... most of their secrets, Star thought, guiltily. So, what did
that mean for their first date? Was there anything left for them to talk about
that was different from what they talked about as friends? How was this
different from two besties just hanging out?
"Star, is anything the matter? You went all serious for a moment there. Did I
say anything wrong? I thought you liked the food. I thought it would make you
smile, since you have been sort of... sad these last few days. Not that you
should smile if you don't want to," Marco babbled on, "but I like it when you
smile, Star. I feel that when you do, it lights the whole room. Yeah, kinda
like that."
----
"... and because I lost the game of dice, I had to revive the soldier's wife.
But what the idiot didn't know is that she had been fucking his brother the
entire time he had been away from home. So, out of spite, I offhandedly
mentioned that little detail and, wouldn't you know it, she was back down here
the week after. The brother too." Tom concluded his latest story. He had long
ago gotten rid of the sunglasses as he became more and more at ease with the
girl. Janna indulged him, it was definitely better stuff than what she usually
heard from her classmates, and the food had been delicious. The apple tart at
the end was pure paradise, maybe literally.
"You know, Janna, Star never really had the patience to listen to my stories
like this. It is always 'let's go to another dimension!' or 'yeah, yeah...
boring, let's play at something' with her," Tom added. Janna made a show of
raising an eyebrow. "Oh, right, not saying that name tonight. Sorry. How about
you, anything I should know about you?"
"Well, nothing as exciting as ruling a hell," she emphasized the 'a', showing
she had been listening. "I guess I am sort of into witchcraft stuff, but most
things I do don't really work. Me and... a friend, held a seance for a dead
clown once. It worked but it got interrupted by an idiot bird-man-midget-thing.
I like poetry and metal, which is maybe not the most common combination, but
also less rare than you might think. Dunno, I am also sorta good at messing
with people."
"Ah, so resurrecting the death and manipulating mortals. I can see why you are
drawn to, well, this," Tom indicated their surroundings. "Is that all you are
after, though? The magics of the Underworld? There are easier bargains you
could have struck for that than this date, mor... Janna."
"I imagine so," she shrugged her shoulders. "This seemed more fun, though. I
guess I figure I have my whole life to go after the powers of the occult the
usual way, but how many girls can say they have actually dated a prince of
darkness? Besides, it is not just the title, I also think you are hot. I guess
I thought so since the first time I saw you, when you were floating down the
hallway the day you... went to our school." A gleam in Tom's eyes told Janna of
her mistake. She had said too much. So stupid! All these manipulations and mind
games and she had been the first to admit to something like that. She might as
well just had come out and said she had a long-time teenage crush on Tom!
"Well, I suppose it is nice to hear that," Tom said, infuriatingly
noncommittal. "I think we should move to the Viper now. Get some drinks, loosen
up, maybe tell each other how we really feel," he teased. "Adorjan, you may now
bring the check."
Janna felt like she wanted the earth to swallow her. Then again, this was
probably the place you ended up when that happened, anyway.
The demon waiter arrived almost instantly. He seemed to notice Janna's
predicament and shot her a mysterious look. "Ah, I see, Sire wishes to pay in
kind, rather than keep balances in the royal tab? One must wonder whether this
is so that his human date might be suitably impressed." A pale white hand
produced a small black leather booklet. "Shall I make a gesture of showing her
the zeros? There are quite a few of those..."
"That," Tom interrupted the server with a furious look, "will certainly not be
necessary." He took the booklet, looked at its contents and discretely slipped
a bunch of red banknotes and silver coins into it, making sure Janna could not
actually count them.
Adorjan took the booklet from him, with a raised eyebrow. "A less discrete
servant than myself might comment on how his highness puts far much effort into
a pretend date that is, ostensibly, part of a dastardly scheme. In fact, such
servant might observe that master Tom looks far more cheerful today than in the
whole of last year." Tom glared daggers at the waiter. Janna gave him a silent
look of thanks, and received the faintest of winks in return.
----
The place Marco had taken Star after dinner was also new to her. It was not
really a dance club in the way the Bounce Lounge was, or a fancy dance hall
like the Royal Waltz Hall in Mewni, but a strange mixture of the two. Most of
the place was covered only by a dimly lit wooden dance floor, with tables set
aside only on one end of the room. The music was unusual as well: it sounded
older than pop or rock music, but it was also surprisingly fast paced and
rhythmic. People were dancing in complicated patterns of rapid twists and close
embraces. Their movements did not seem vulgar at all, but they still felt
sensual in a way that was hard to describe.
"Whoa, I really have never seen this kind of dance!" Star observed,
enthusiastically. It looked, well, it looked kinda intimate. She blushed
slightly.
"That's the point, Star. I wanted to show you something new tonight," he looked
at her with those big brown eyes and Star felt herself melt. "Now, I am not
like, super good at this or anything. Some of the regulars here do this every
weekend, for years." Star noticed then an older couple where the man seemed to
be holding the woman mostly upside down along the line formed by his
outstretched leg. "But I know enough to teach you the basics, if you want."
"Of course I do!" Star nodded vigorously. She was always up for learning new
things, and only like a million times more so if it also meant dancing with
Marco. "So, how do we begin?"
"Well, first, you hold my hands like this. Now, when I move my feet like this,
you move back like so," Marco began. Star was a quick learner, and she enjoyed
how confident Marco sounded as he explained the moves or corrected her form. He
was also very careful in how he guided her through the dance floor or through
the turns. Besides, unlike that time, long ago, with the bicycle thing, there
was no danger of him letting go without warning here.
There was no holding her upside down, or even lifting her from the dance floor.
There were, however, plenty of touches on her shoulders, or her arms, or the
small of her back as Marco guided her from one move to the next. It felt, to
Star, like loving, almost sexual, caresses. She wondered silently if Marco
intended them that way. She gasped as he pushed forward and held her, one feet
up, laying on air, horizontal to the dance floor. Wow, Marco! I wish we were
alone now and then I would show you a move or two, she thought to herself,
bitting her lip.
"You know, Star, I don't think I have ever been on a date like this," Marco
told her as he lifted her back up. "I mean, a date where I am the one teaching
things or planning stuff."
"Well, do you like it?" Star asked nervously. "I could have done the planning
if you prefer, there are tons of romantic dimensions I could show you, but you
kinda sprung this on me by surprise... do you know there is a spa on the cloud
dimension? I mean, not that I dislike you taking me here, or teaching me Salsa
or the food, not at all... I kinda like you planning stuff... but if you prefer
the other way around..."
"Star, I do like it. Planning stuff, I mean. It is a nice change of pace,"
Marco smiled at her, sweetly. He was looking at her in a way she didn't think
he had before. Well, maybe once, the day she went to the Blood Moon Ball.
"Besides, Star, I think you were kinda rambling."
"Yeah..." Star admitted, her mind half lost in Marco's eyes. "Is that bad?"
"No. But, Star," he leaned forward, "that's usually my thing."
She barely realized when he planted his lips on hers, or when she parted her
own to give him access. She noticed, as if in a trance, that they were indeed
kissing. It was a sweet, caring kiss, but in no way could be mistook as
friendly. It was a loving kiss, with the smallest hint of passion building up
between their barely open mouths. The older woman in the couple they had seen
before winked at Star as they passed them by. The princess felt like she was in
a trance again. She saw the scene both from within and from outside of herself,
she felt Marco's lips against her own, but also something else, a feeling of
surprised bliss that added to her own but was not her own. It didn't matter. It
was perfect. Marco Diaz was kissing her and it all was perfect.
----
Tom and Janna sat besides each other on a long black marble bar, under a
fluorescent purple light. The Red Viper was packed with demons, undead patrons
and indeterminate fiendish creatures, but they all gave the underworld prince
and his date ample space. The stools at either side of them remained
unoccupied, even as furtive glances were often cast their way.
In front of Tom was a half empty glass of some fiery amber liquid. Literally
fiery, the surface seemed to constantly be in flames, and the demon drank it
that way. Janna herself was slowly sipping from a pink concoction set in a
martini glass. It was mostly full still. She was trying to pace herself.
Despite all her bad girl creed, she did not really drink. In fact, she made a
point of principle not to. But Tom had insisted and, not wanting to disappoint
her date, she had let him order something light for her, just this once. A
little desecration was perhaps in order, after all, seeing as how she was in
hell. The cocktail tasted pretty sweet, fortunately, and didn't seem anywhere
near as terrifying as whatever sort of hard liquor her date was having.
"So, Janna, I was thinking," Tom smiled at her mischievously. "How about a
game, to pass the time and to get to know each other better. After all, we
should, how did you put it? Bond? For the plan, of course."
"Of course," Janna replied, raising a disbelieving eyebrow. "What kind of
game?"
"Oh, a very simple one: you ask me a question, any question. I either answer it
truthfully or I take a big swig at my drink. Then I get to ask you a question,
same terms," Tom explained. "Sounds simple enough?"
"Why would I agree to that, when I can just ask you stuff normally?" Janna
stalled. She understood the benefits well enough, actually. But she also
suspected she would fare poorly against Tom in any kind of drinking contest.
Besides, challenging him on this, at least a bit, seemed like a good move, even
if she planned to acquiesce in the end.
"Because, you get to ask stuff you wouldn't normally ask, and since it is a
game, and you are just trying to get me to drink, I can't get mad about
inappropriate questions," Tom explained. "Also, because it is fun."
"Ok, fine," Janna raised her hands in mock surrender. So, the plan was to make
Tom uncomfortable, well, she could do that. "So, was Star your first, and if
not, who?"
Tom's three eyes widened as he regarded the smirking girl sitting besides her.
"Didn't you say we weren't mentioning that name tonight?"
"I said I didn't want you to spend the date talking about Star, but you can
still answer if I am the one asking about it," Janna observed. Then her smile
went wide as she realized her play had gone even better than she had expected.
"By the way, that was not an answer, and you asked me a question. Which means
you drink and I get to ask again."
Tom groaned, but to his credit, he lifted the glass and took a big mouthful of
the blazing liquid. "Fine. As you said, your turn again. You cannot repeat the
question, by the way."
"No need of that," Janna replied. Honestly, she had not cared for an answer,
she was just aiming to shock the demon into drinking for now. Problem was, he
was probably ready now for her to try to surprise him, so any other question
about Star would probably be met with a more careful response now. She thought
back to her books on demons and their curses, surely there were also questions
Tom would not answer. "Tom Lucitor, what is your true name?"
The entirety of the bar's eyes seemed to be on Tom now. He just chuckled.
"Yeah, right," he commented, with a nod towards their curious audience, and
took another swig. "You play dirty, Janna Ordonia."
"Uh, you know my last name?" she muttered. "Rats!" she exclaimed just after,
once she realized her folly.
"Yes, I do. Also, I get two questions now," Tom stated matter-of-factly.
"First, how did you know Star and I would... ahem... get together after the
concert?"
It was a pretty open-ended question. Janna considered giving a cryptic
explanation, but that did not seem to be the spirit of this particular game.
"Well, I knew you would be there because you are Hell's biggest Love Sentence
fan," she proclaimed loudly, taking pleasure in watching Tom squirm as the bar
went silent for a second. She knew about the prince's music taste because Marco
had written a brief note about it in his computer, one of the few times he had
started, and then soon stopped, trying to keep a journal. But Tom had not asked
about that and thus he did not get that information. "I also knew Star would
not be able to handle being with Jackie and Marco when they were on a date. I
mean, those two are PDA central and Star is practically Egyptian, since she
lives in denial about how much she likes Marco." Denial, the Nile, it was
hilarious, Janna thought to herself. "So, all that I needed to do was ensure
that they would all go together, wait for the inevitable to happen and for you
to see it... and well, I had to plant the thought on Star about the possibility
of sleeping with you..."
"You..." Tom began surprised, almost asking the obvious question. He stopped
himself with a smile, "... are quite resourceful. Alright, second question,
what does your plan for Star entail now, from this point forward? All of it."
Janna sighed, reached out for her glass and took a generous sip.
----
It was late that night when Marco and Star finally made it back to the Diaz's
home. They had spent the entire evening dancing, talking and, Star recalled
with a strangely pleasant sensation in her stomach, kissing copiously. Her legs
were tired now, but she was beaming with happiness. More importantly, Marco
beamed too.
"You are amazing, Star!" he remarked, making her blush. "I think by the end of
it you were a better dancer than me." An obvious lie, but a nice lie
nonetheless.
"Really?! Nah! But take me out more and I might be!" Star shouted as they
entered the living room. "I am a magical princess, remember? Grace is kinda my
thing!" she boasted, as she unceremoniously launched herself at the couch,
knocking the remote flying towards the table. It bounced and hit the floor.
"I see that," Marco retorted with a raised eyebrow. She just smiled at him. It
was weird being with him like this. One moment she was speechless princess
Butterfly on a date with her long time crush, half-incredulous it was even
happening. The next she was Star, hanging out with her bestie since forever,
not worrying at all what he thought of her, because well, nobody knew her
better. She wondered if Marco felt the same way. It was strange, but not
altogether unpleasant, not at all.
"Uh," Marco said suddenly, looking at a note that had flown to the floor from
said living room table. "'Marco (and Star), We have decided to also go out for
dinner tonight. We might be out late. Don't wait up. Love, - Mom and Dad'", he
read. "Looks like we have the house to ourselves..."
"In that case, Marco," Star said with a big smile, "let's go up to my room!"
"W...Wha... I mean... you mean?" Marco began. Star stared at him for a second,
quickly realizing what the boy must have thought, her cheekmarks glowed
slightly.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Star chuckled. "I mean, you have been to my room
a thousand times already, Marco! It's just, my legs hurt right now, and my bed
is more comfortable than the couch..." Now that she thought about Marco and her
bed, she herself wasn't sure she really hadn't meant it that way. Certainly it
wasn't a conscious plan on her part, though, but maybe if it happened now it
wouldn't be too bad. Then again, would that be rushing things? Certainly it was
too soon, right? Right?
"Right. Sure thing, Star. It's just, well, last time I thought nothing of an
offer like that, it ended up being... woah, guess that's T.M.I., never mind, I
said nothing," he stammered. Star raised an eyebrow. She was about to make a
quip about his first time with Jackie, but she neither wanted to bring that up
now, nor was sure she could keep it a secret how much she really knew of the
matter. "Hey, you know, if your legs are too tired, I could probably carry you
up," he added with a smile.
"Really? Such a gentleman, Sir Diaz," Star affected a mocking tone, even though
she knew her blush probably betrayed her. "Please proceed."
He lifted her without problems and carried her in his arms up the stairs
without much effort. Star was light and Marco had once thrown Man-arm flying
through the air, so this was not surprising. What was surprising, to Star at
least, was how comfortable she felt letting him move her around like that. She
was not exactly down with the damsel act as a rule, but somehow, with Marco,
right now, it felt alright. He let her down in her own bed, far more gently
than necessary considering how Star normally 'landed' on her bed herself.
"Well, Star, this was an amazing night. I am so glad I asked you out," he said,
then he seemed to trail off, pensive. "Hope it was fun for you too. Maybe it is
time we both got some rest?"
Star felt cold as he said that, like something was leaving her body, something
warm and important and below it there was a bad thing. Right, she hadn't
thought about Tom or the last night at all since dinner. But if Marco left now,
then she was alone with her thoughts again, and she wasn't yet ready to face
them.
There was also the matter of the next morning. Wasn't Marco supposed to talk to
Jackie then? Then what? Would Jackie be mad after all? Was Marco supposed to
choose then? What if he didn't chose Star? Or if he did, but then regretted it?
This whole date had felt like a dream come true, but now that it was ending,
Star realized something horrifying: you woke up from dreams. She couldn't do
that, not again.
"Marco... don't go," she whispered at him as he began to walk away. He turned
back to look at her. She needed to say something, anything that would prolong
the dream. "Marco, if you want to, how to put it, heh, say goodnight... we can
do that, you know?" Star said, trying her best to give him a confident smile.
She wasn't sure that was what she wanted, not so soon after last night, after
Tom. But somehow, if it was with Marco, then it would be ok. Better than ok,
she realized, giving her 'bestie' an up and down look. It would be literally a
dream come true, and if the timing wasn't quite right, then well, that was just
a minor detail...
"Star... don't take this the wrong way, but I'd rather not." She felt the
rejection hit her like a slap to the face. He seemed to take notice of her
reaction because he flinched as well. "Is not that I don't want to, I do. Hell,
after all that dancing I definitely want to, a whole lot. But we are talking to
Jackie tomorrow, I am not sure how she would take something like that. Even if
that wasn't the case, I am not sure I am ready, not yet, not tonight. Star,
please don't be mad, but, could we, could we take it slow?"
Star felt confused. On the one hand, she wasn't sure she was ready herself. On
the other, 'taking it slow'? What if this was their first and only date? What
if things didn't work out well tomorrow? What if...? But Marco had talked about
it like it was a done deal that there would be time to take it slow, or at
least like he hoped, just as much as she did, that there would.
"Then, Marco, can you stay here anyways? Just, you know, sleep together. I mean
literally just sleep," she had turned around as she said it. For some reason
she didn't want to face him as she asked, just in case he said no again. She
felt him sit on her bed, and then lie down, and then hug her from behind.
"Sure, Star, that sounds lovely."
"Hey, Marco?" she asked after a few minutes of heavenly silence.
"Yeah?"
"You know we are fully clothed, right? We should at least change into our
pajamas..."
"Right..."
---
"You are, like, soo evil," Janna complained loudly, leaning on Tom's shoulder
for support as they walked down the long black staircase. She sounded like a
fool, and she knew it. Walked like one too, and yet could not avoid it. "I
think I am drunk... Why am I drunk? I mean, I answered like a hundred of your
stupid questions and you just drank each time, like a freaking chicken! A
thirsty chicken! Hah! So why am I drunk and not you?"
"Two reasons," Tom grinned at her as he helped her walk. "First, I hold my
alcohol way better than you do. Second, that pink sugary thing I ordered for
you? Second strongest hitter in the whole cocktail menu!" He let out a nasty
snicker.
"Pure, undiluted, evil!" Janna bemoaned, and chuckled, for no freaking good
reason.
"So, Janna, just to be clear about what I learned tonight: You manipulated Star
into sleeping with me so that she would then be ready to agree to go out on a
date with Marco. Which you didn't think she would do until she..." he began,
angrily.
"Yeah, yeah, until she touched rock bottom by sleeping with you, so that her
stubborn pride and denial could not possibly get in the way!" she shouted,
carelessly. Something in the back of her mind yelling that she shouldn't have
said that. But who cared now? It was the truth and she had explained it to Tom
already. If he wanted to know that fucking badly, then he better be able to
handle the truth. The truth about what he meant to his oh so precious Star.
Tom's eyes glowed red, his pace was quicker now, almost dragging her feet along
the stone steps. It actually hurt, but she felt the sensation muffled by
something, probably her own state of intoxication. "I see. And you said you
also arranged for Marco to ask her out, by making sure Jackie noticed Star
liked Marco? Explain again to me how in Azrael ten thousand names that is
supposed to work..."
"Well, the real trigger was that she needed to realize Marco liked Star back,
even if he, dense motherfucker that he is, did not yet get it himself. You see,
Jackie is pretty perceptive, and she has this big thing about... heh... I
forget the word right now. But she will actually push Star and Marco
together... at least I think she will..." Janna continued. Oh god, oh god, why
was she telling Tom that? He was going to murder her for it! Literally. Somehow
it did not seem to matter as much anymore, though. She felt this all didn't
matter, like it was happening in a dream. A spinning dream.
"So, you never had any intention of helping me get together with Star.
Correct?" Tom asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "None at all!"
Fire danced around the two of them. It was pretty.
"I mean, I never promised that. I promised to try and make her jealous, and I
was going to do my best. But she is not whom I want you to end up with, Tom..."
she turned around to look at him. Their faces were so close now, she looked
intently at his beautiful blue lips. He seemed less angry for a second, and
then he shifted to look away nervously.
He continued to help her walk, through a long corridor and a second flight of
stairs, leading to a small metal door embedded in a pentagram frame. He was a
bit gentler with her now. Not terribly so, but at least he was not dragging her
around like she was made of rags. He remained silent the whole time, probably
doing a second mental pass over the information she had just carelessly
revealed to him, again. At the end of it, he seemed more downcast than mad.
"Anyways, Janna. I guess I can't really blame you for the fallout. Is not like
I didn't know I wasn't the one Star wanted..." he spoke with a voice full of
defeat and resignation. "And, well, I had fun tonight. I really did. You are
certainly a here of a girl. A worthy adversary in some ways, even if you can't
handle your liquor. I have to admit that, as much as I hate the outcome, your
plan was surprisingly well thought out." He paused and ran a hand over the back
of his head. "How about I fetch you a big glass of water, don't actually kill
you, and instead send you back home?"
A few minutes later, she was sitting in a red leather chair with horns sticking
out of the sides of the headrest, in Tom's bedroom, drinking from a large Greek
vase. He was sitting on his surprisingly plain bed, looking down at the floor.
In the wall closest to them, an endless waterfall of molten lava flowed from a
large horned skull into a pentagram pool. There was also a rotatory wooden rack
of some sort there. The opposite wall had a series of shelfs and glass
displays, as well as the room's lone bookcase. There were also three different
arcade game machines and a ping pong table, for some reason. It was interesting
how surreal and at the same time how familiar that room felt to her.
"Why so glum?" she finally spoke. She was not exactly fully herself yet, but
felt a lot better than moments ago. They had sat there in silence for a very
long while, and it was becoming unbearable. In a way, Tom being irate would
have been easier to deal with than him being this desolate. Did he truly love
Star so much? "I mean, you won. You got me all figured out and I feel I barely
scratched the surface... I guess I don't really measure up to demon standards
with the whole intrigue game, after all," she tried.
"That's not exactly true," Tom replied unhappily. "I don't really have you all
figured out. All I really got you to tell me was your plan for Star. I actually
didn't ask that much about you." Somehow, rather than her making him better,
his words had managed to make Janna feel much worse.
"Yeah, well, guess there wasn't that much to know there, especially not much
you would care about knowing," Janna sighed, sullenly. "Just an ordinary girl
playing games with things she doesn't understand. Guess you get that sort of
thing all the time..."
"Heh, I wish," Tom shot back. The briefest of smiles crossed his lips. "I mean,
there are plenty of mortals looking for a deal with the devil, for sure. Some
of them come to me, and well, I have gotten tons of calls from girls where they
offer their body in exchange for the powers of hell and stuff, if you must
know. But honestly, this is the first time where being with me seems to be the
boon, and not the price..."
"Why would being with you be considered a price to pay?!" Janna asked,
genuinely surprised. Sure, Tom had his issues, but then again, they all did. At
least he was not boring. Then, in a more sly tone, she added, "also, out of
curiosity, how many of those offers did you accept?"
"None! Come on! I won't say I was never tempted, but I can't think of anything
more annoying than a demanding occultist who thinks she is doing you a favor by
telling you exactly how she expects to be ravished by the evil demon and then
asks for a ton of magical crap in return!" Tom made a face of disgust.
"Brimstone diggers! They are the worst."
Janna drank some more water. She looked at a glass display on the other side of
the room. Inside was a ruby the size of her head, a dragon skull and a black
iron urn decorated with snakes, along with a dozen or so smaller items.
"Magical crap like that?" she pointed at it.
"I suppose. Is that what you are after too, after all?" Tom glared at her.
"No. I am curious about it, but the thing I really want in this room is not
behind glass," she quipped. It felt weird, being so honest about it. Must be
the stupid drink still.
"Are you sure? That is the Ruby of Aeons, which can produce inextinguishable
flames. That is the skull of Tareth the Vile. That is the Urn of Midra'Apep,
which can raise dead kings," Tom described. "Are you saying none of that is
what you are after?" He smirked at her.
"Tempting, but no, not at the moment," Janna said, standing up from the chair.
She was feeling much better now. Not clear headed enough to avoid bad
decisions, but stable enough to see them through. Besides, she was going to
need all that liquid courage for what she was about to do. "Right now, the most
tempting thing in this room, is right, here," she grabbed at his tie. "So, how
about we flip the script, and you let me ravish the evil demon."
Tom raised two eyebrows. "Well, if that's truly all you want..."
"It isn't," Janna admitted, still honest, "but it will do for now."
She sat atop Tom's lap, facing him, straddling his sitting body between her
legs. She pulled his body forward using the tie, and kissed him hungrily. She
saw a triplet of eyes open wide in surprise, then relax to a half-closed state.
She felt the demon prince return the kiss, his tongue was soft and warm. Was it
warmer than that of other boys? It had to be, but Janna could not really know.
Perhaps her bad girl reputation was greatly exaggerated - she preferred to
think she had earned different merit badges there - but Tom was her first.
Would he be able to tell? Well, she was sure Tom would be able to tell she
wasn't very good at this, but perhaps she could blame it on the alcohol. She
felt him pull out from the kiss and for a second she felt worried. Was she bad
enough at kissing he was getting bored? She saw his smile, a single fang
escaping the corner of his lips. Then she felt a hand pushing on her left
shoulder and another pulling on her right. In her dizziness, she realized what
had happened only after she was laying in the bed, Tom atop of her. She bit her
lower lip.
"I think it might be better if I do the ravishing, after all," Tom smiled at
her. She had no objections to that. His hands left her shoulders to roam across
the length of her arms, resting finally on her wrists, immobilizing her against
the mattress. "So, I guess I really never did ask about you. Never had a
boyfriend yet?"
Janna's face flustered. "Was it that obvious?" she asked, trying to not show
her concern.
"And yet, you are the one coming onto me," he continued, ignoring her question.
"You get curiouser and curiouser," Tom mused. He lowered his face to Janna's
and kissed her again, his tongue dancing on her mouth. A hand left her left
wrist and she could feel a single claw tracing a line on her neck, just above
her chocker. On instinct, she broke the kiss and sought the finger with her
mouth, using her now free hand to guide Tom's. He let her catch it and Janna
sucked lightly on his finger, running her tongue around the digit, avoiding
getting a cut from the sharp claw. She might be inexperienced, but she was sure
she could make the difference with eagerness and imagination. The opportunity
was too good to pass up, after all.
Janna did not believe in saving herself for a steady boyfriend, let alone for
marriage. If she had done nothing like this before, it was only because she had
never found a partner who was both game and hit her very particular type. Tom
fit both categories. She was well aware that after spilling all the beans on
her plan, this was probably her last date with the demon prince. Her excuse
about making Star jealous was not likely to hold up now that he knew her whole
plan. It was tonight or never. Seize the godforsaken moment and all that. When
in hell, do as the sinners do.
"Heh, is there anything you are trying to tell me, Miss Ordonia?" Tom commented
with an infuriating smirk.
"Yes," she said, letting Tom take his finger out of her mouth. "That we are
both overdressed for this party." That got her a double eyebrow rise in return.
Tom let go of her remaining wrist, lifting that hand to rip the tie off his own
neck. He then let jacket fall behind him.
"Wait, allow me," asked Janna, as he started unbuttoning his shirt. He leaned
forward again and she began undoing the buttons, one by one. It was her first
time undoing buttons from this angle, but that did not faze Janna in the
slightest. She pick-pocketed for fun and undid complex knots with those fingers
every other weekend, ridding Tom of his shirt was child's play, even when
partially under the influence.
She tried kissing his chest as she uncovered the flesh beneath the shirt. It
was warm and soft, despite the firm muscles underneath. Tom was thin, but not
entirely scrawny. He breathed heavily, either pleased by her actions or by the
thoughts they probably evoked. Taking her cue from the demon's earlier play
around her neck and from what Star told her before, she ran her own nails along
his abdomen. She pressed hard, noting that she did not seem to be able to hurt
the fiend's skin, even if she had wanted to do so. Thus, no need to hold back.
He laughed at her, "so, you are into a bit of pain?"
"You are," Janna observed. She looked directly into his eyes, defiantly. She
motioned him to lift his weight from her, so she could slide her dress over her
head, without leaving her spot in the bed, under Tom. As the fabric covered her
face, she felt a sharp nail trace the inside of her leg carefully, probably
leaving a faint calculated scratch, stopping right before her underwear.
"Guilty," she heard Tom reply.
She felt his eyes roam over her underwear clad body, a lacy black matching set.
She knew there was not much to look at, at least in terms of the bust area, but
then again, if Tom's type was Star, she probably need not worry too much. He
seemed pleased, at any rate. She felt a fingertip, not a claw, trace the front
of her panties, pushing the fabric in slightly, damping it with her building
wetness.
"I believe," he said mockingly, "that I was given a preview of something."
Janna blushed. But summoning all her courage, both natural and from the ethylic
variety, she lifted her hands to undo the demon's belt and pants buttons. He
helped her slide the remaining clothes away and soon she was face to face with
his hard purple member. Looking up at Tom, trying her best to put on a hungry
lustful look, she proceeded to lick the tip with her outstretched tongue. After
a few moments, he began pushing forward, and she took it as her cue to take
more and more of the thick shaft into her mouth.
It was a new experience for her, but not all that unintuitive based on porn or
literary descriptions. In and out, a roll of the tongue here, a flick there.
Whatever she was doing seemed to be working, because Tom was grunting and
breathing heavily atop of her. He also was trashing around and thrusting
himself towards her face from time to time, which proved challenging at times,
but was also exciting in a way. There was something so obviously savage and
primal to the demon prince's movements now. Janna had been craving for
dangerous and risqué, and getting your face fucked by a demon in hell certainly
qualified for both.
Suddenly, a deliciously naughty thought crossed her mind, about something she
once read about in a book. She pressed her left hand against the demon's
stomach, pushing him out of her mouth. She knew he could overpower her if he
wished, but he responded to gesture by backing off willingly.
"Too much?" he asked with a grin.
She rolled her eyes at him. She took her right middle and index into her mouth
and practically spit on them, then she got her other hand out of the way and
resumed her earlier activities. Tom gladly obliged, pushing himself onto her
welcoming lips once more.
She continued to work her tongue around the hell prince's cock, but at the same
time, she reached around with her wet fingers, placing a probing index directly
between the fiend's butt-cheeks. Tom's eyes opened up again, glowing red. But
his mouth made a circle of surprise, rather than a grimace of fear, and Janna
took that as her cue to push forward, inserting a finger first and then the
other into her date's puckered asshole.
"By Baalzebûb below, you are filthy!" Tom cried, somehow making it sound like a
compliment. Feeling encouraged, she continued pumping him from the front as she
penetrated him with her fingers from behind. He grunted and thrashed around
until she felt him tense inside her mouth and around her fingers. In the last
second, however, he pulled out from her, and began spurting wildly all over her
chest, face and hair.
"You fucking asshole!" Janna felt the hot liquid smear her bra and muck her
hair. She ought to have hated the sensation, she knew Tom hadn't done that to
be nice. It was probably his idea of a joke: she was now literally filthy. Joke
was on him, though, it gave her a thrill to feel soiled. "You better not expect
to get away with not returning the favor."
Tom did not reply for a few seconds, he was panting, recovering from his
explosive climax. Then he looked at her and laughed. It was not a mean laugh
after all, more of a surprised laugh. He seemed to consider her words for a
moment. "You know what? I guess it is only fair..."
Slowly, he slid himself off from over her, ripping down her underwear and
lowering his face until she could feel his unnaturally warm breath in her sex.
Then a wet hot flexible thing parted the lips of her cunt apart, and she felt
it dance among her folds. She felt something rush to her head completely
unrelated to the alcohol. As her wetness spread and her breath quickened, she
felt his movements become faster and bolder. His tongue at times danced right
over her sensitive clit, and at others went so deep in her that she felt
something stretch inside her virgin pussy.
As she felt the wave of her pleasure begin to crest, Janna grabbed Tom's horns
with both hands and crossed her legs around the back of his head. He continued
as if nothing happened, except perhaps for going even faster. With his head
between her legs, he missed the malicious smirk that accompanied her climaxing
face. As she yelled in indulgent bliss, she blasted his mouth and face with her
wet messy ending. "Sorry, guess I forgot to tell you I am a bit of a squirter,"
she eventually told him, after she recovered herself. 'Payback, bitch,' she
thought to herself.
He coughed as he tried to respond. "Ugh. Ahg. Fuck you!"
"Don't mind if you do," she retorted. He jumped at her. Soon his arms were on
her wrists again and he had climbed atop of her with the speed of a hungry
animal, eyes red in supernatural fury. "Wait, Tom!" she shouted, suddenly
terrified. It was easy to be cocky when it was rhetorical fucking, not so much
when a demon in a furious trance was about to claim her by force.
"Yes?" he sounded exasperated, but to his credit, he held back.
"First, I am not exactly on the pill or anything. Dunno how it works with you,
but, I think I am a bit young to give birth to the antichrist or anything like
that..." she began.
He chuckled, despite the situation. "Not an issue. Demons do not produce life
by nature. I mean, there are rituals, and there are also some curses I could
choose to put on you if we do this... I promise you an explanation at a better
time... but trust me, this is not about any of that. No long term harm will
come to you from this, I promise." He sounded sincere, albeit impatient, as he
rushed through the lengthy explanation. "And, was there a second thing?"
"Yeah, sorry if this is lame, but... please be gentle, just this one time..."
"Sure, ok."
Tom stood there unmoving for a few seconds, it made her slightly nervous. She
had not wanted to stop their power games short, but it was her first time,
after all, and as much as she put a brave face so far, she was truly quite
scared. She wondered if the demon would find her request disappointing. But
when he opened his eyes, they were normal again. He seemed calm and even gave
her a gentle smile as he aligned himself with her own body and slowly pushed
forward. Janna bit her lip. She felt a short sharp pain, and then a somewhat
uncomfortable feeling as her walls stretched around the intruding object. As he
pulled out, she felt the emptiness hurt almost more. He entered again and it
hurt a little bit less. Out again and even less. Soon the pain was gone and
there was only the pleasurable sensation of his slow thrusts.
"I think... you can be rough now," she eventually admitted, in an almost
pleading tone.
Tom did as she asked, first gradually, methodically increasing the speed and
the force behind his movements thrust after thrust. She felt his hands grip her
shoulders from behind. Eventually, the calculated increases gave way to bestial
fury, to clawing fingers and hungry plunges. She closed her legs around his
waist and her arms around his back. She felt his hands roam her back looking
for something. Looking for wings. She felt a bit sad about that, in a deep
corner of her mind she could mostly push away. It didn't matter right now. She
felt her elation build up for a second time and soon nothing mattered but his
grunts and her moans and the unholy bliss that raptured them.
Chapter End Notes
     ... you all thought I meant Starco when I said this had a smut scene,
     but it was I, Jantom!
***** It Takes Three to Tango *****
Chapter Summary
     In which we deal with the aftermath of the previous night, an act of
     kleptomania sets up future pitfalls for our heroes, and unusual
     arrangements are discussed.
Chapter Notes
     Not the threesome chapter
See the end of the chapter for more notes
***** Chapter 07: It Takes Three to Tango *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place the morning after the
     last one, meaning two days following the SvtFoE episode "Just
     Friends" (S02E20b). The story has now begun to diverge from the
     SvtFoE season 2 mainline in ways that have yet to be fully explained.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/7.png]
For the first time in months, Tom slept like an angel. Which, sure,
theologically speaking, was all kinds of blasphemy. But, that morning at least,
the demon didn't care. Last night had been fun, and it had ended with, well,
with a bang. Janna might not quite be Star Butterfly, Tom thought, but she
certainly was a remarkable girl. She was interesting to talk to, shrewd in a
way that kept even him on his toes, surprisingly adventurous in the bedroom
given her previous lack of experience and, perhaps most important, she actually
desired being with him. Tom hadn't noticed before just how much chasing Star
around for over a year had lacerated his ego. The indignity of two nights ago
had just been the culmination of his parade of humiliations in trying to get
the princess back.
Then again, Janna was not really in the same league as Star. The witch wannabe
was certainly enjoyable, but she was a step down from the magical princess,
wasn't she? So, was Tom settling? Was he giving up on what he wanted to be
comfortable with what he had within reach? That wasn't like him. No, it wasn't
like him at all. Tom was used to getting what he wanted, sooner or later. Star
could not be the sole exception, he would not allow it for her to be. He was
sure eventually he would find a way to convince her to be with him.
But perhaps there was no harm in taking advantage of the company of the human
girl for a while. She had pretty much told him that Star would date Marco now,
and Janna was still willing, in theory, to go along with trying to make her
friend jealous. Maybe he could still make that plan work in the long run. Let
Star be with Marco for now, and he would date Janna instead. Eventually Star
would realize what Tom already knew, that the two of them were better for each
other than their respective human lovers, Blood Moon or not. Except, this way,
he would also get to have his fun too, while he waited for the princess to
understand the obvious.
Now that he thought of it, perhaps he and Janna could even go at it a second
time before he took her back to the surface. He turned around, naked in his
bed, expecting to see the aforementioned source of fun beside him. He was
alone. She was gone.
Tom sought her with his mind, but quickly realized she was no longer within his
domain. Finding a particular human within the hell under his rule was an easy
feat for the demon prince, but those powers did not extend all the way back to
Earth. He rubbed two fingers on his temple and counted to ten. Ok, that was
certainly not ideal, but he really ought to stop letting every little setback
set him off. He would find her again. At Star's school, perhaps? Besides, it
wasn't as if it mattered too much if this had been a one night thing. Janna had
served her main purpose: she got him to de-stress and to feel a bit better
about himself. Having her around to counterweight whatever Marco was to Star
was just one of many ideas he could brainstorm now, given the basic insights he
had gained the previous night.
Then Tom's eyes noticed something about the glass case on the opposite wall
from his bed. Inside of it, there were various items: a huge red ruby, a dragon
skull, and assorted other smaller objects. He blinked. There was a large and
conspicuously empty space besides the dead creature's head. The Urn of
Midra'Apep, an eldritch artifact older than the Great Pyramids of Giza or the
Ancient Obsidian Temple in Mewni, was missing!
Tom's vision turned red as he violently sat up on the bed. An instant after
that, the entirety of his room exploded in flames as he cried out in burning
rage, "Janna!!"
----
Unlike most days in the last few weeks, Jackie had slept terribly. She had
found it extraordinarily hard to fall asleep last night, only to experience a
restless slumber, full of disturbing dreams she couldn't quite remember once
awake. In the end, it was barely past sunrise when she decided to get out of
bed. Usually she slept in until late on weekends, and today was a Sunday, but
she had given up on getting a proper night rest at this point. In any case, she
knew that no amount of shut-eye would relieve her unease this morning. Only two
things truly had any chance of calming her discomfort.
The first, and most important: talking to Marco, was still hours away. They had
settled on brunch at a nearby diner, at 11:30 to give both of them a chance to
sleep in and get ready without hurry. It was almost ironic that she wouldn't
need the extra time after all. Usually Marco was far more of a morning person
than she was. Then again, Jackie thought, odds were he was actually sleeping in
today, considering he had gone out last night. Would he be waking up with Star
in his arms? The image made her feel... conflicted.
Jackie took a quick shower and dressed up in shorts and her favorite white and
green t-shirt, getting only slightly more carefully made up than she did for
school. She wanted to look good, of course, but it would be a bit silly to get
all dolled up for brunch. Besides, she was not sure whatever she did now would
hold up until then. If nothing else, her hair would be messed up. Fortunately,
she had years of experience in making messy hair look good. She grabbed her
skateboard, and her helmet, and headed out.
Skateboarding was the only other thing that had any chance of calming her
nerves. So that was what she planned on doing until she got a chance to talk to
Marco. 'And Star,' she mentally added. He had not called her last night, which
meant one of two things: either Marco had decided that Jackie was crazy and was
no longer interested in talking to her, or, he had followed her instructions
and that meant...
"If she says no, or the date ends early, please call me. If not, bring her
tomorrow," she had said near the end. Marco had tried to say something in
protest, but she had cut him off, she didn't even remember with what. It felt
surreal. Like the whole conversation had all been one of her anxious dreams.
But no, she reminded herself, it had happened two nights ago, and it had been
no dream at all.
Why had she pushed Marco to ask Star out? What could she possibly have to win
with that? Jackie frowned and kicked back the pavement, picking up speed. It
had hurt so badly when Marco called Star's name. She had been angry and
wounded. Marco had been apologetic and guilty.
"Marco, what the hell dude?! I know I asked you about Star before, but yelling
her fucking name while you nut in me is not exactly what I was hoping for!"
"Jackie, I am so sorry, I really am, I don't know what came over me... it was
weird, it just popped into my mind... I swear... and God, that sounds even
worse aloud..."
He had said he hadn't been imagining Star, not on purpose at least. That he had
somehow simply seen her face just jump into his mind. Jackie didn't know what
to believe, but he had seemed genuinely confused and contrite. She knew, when
she looked into his eyes, that he felt terrible about it, perhaps worse than
she herself did. She was hurt - that the reflex had been subconscious didn't
make it less painful - but she found it hard to stay mad at her boyfriend. It
took them several minutes of awkward silences and wounded looks to get to the
crux of the issue.
"Alright Marco, say I believe it that thinking of Star just now was a brain-
fart. Are you telling me, in all honesty, that you do not like her?"
"Jackie, I like you! I love you!"
"I believe that, Marco. But it is not what I asked..."
"..."
Jackie was going steeply downhill now, approaching the upwards slanted porch of
a house. The contrarian sixty-degree angle with the rest of the road made it
her favorite natural ramp. Skateboarding was indeed clearing her mind, removing
the non-essential from yesterday's conversation: the unbearable pauses, the
hemming and hawing, the hesitant guarded phrases, their mutual attempts to
dance around the issue.
"Marco, I think you can love more than one person. I mean, at the same time.
And... and... I think you might be in love with Star..."
"I... I don't know... I mean... maybe, maybe I do like Star in a way too, but
Jackie... I choose to be with you. I mean, if you will still have me after,
well, after just now..."
She remembered pausing a long time before replying to that. It wasn't that she
didn't know what she wanted to say, and it certainly wasn't to prolong Marco's
obvious terror and guilt. She had wanted to hug him, to reassure him that of
course she wanted him. But that would only have pushed the true issue further
down the road. She had needed all of her courage to force herself to make her
next suggestion instead.
"So, Marco... what if you didn't have to choose?"
She felt the wheels lose their final contact with the ground. She dropped her
own body low while the board took her meters into the air. She felt the
adrenaline pumping and her heartbeat accelerating. She thought of Marco, waking
up beside Star, relaxed, happy. Her beloved Marco, basking in the morning
afterglow after spending the night with the princess. Jackie felt elated, in
her mind, as she flew through the air. For a moment that thought was nothing
but beautiful to her. She wanted him to be as happy as he could be, and she
knew Star could be part of that happiness.
Then she felt the impact. She shifted her weight to avoid falling off from the
board as it touched the pavement once more. Back down to earth, Jackie had an
ugly afterthought, "but, what if it is me that is not part of his happiness?
What if he decides he doesn't want me after that?"
----
Jackie finally went into the diner at 11:20, taking the most isolated table she
could find, placing her skateboard against the wall and her helmet on the
table. She had gone around the block more than once before, decided it was too
early for her to come in and done lap after lap on her board. Hours of tracing
the streets of Echo Creek had helped her relax significantly, yet nothing could
truly remove the knot in her stomach, not until she had talked to her
boyfriend. She ordered a vanilla milk shake and spent the time fiddling with
her phone. There was a message from Janna, 'Yo. Come to my place by 5. Got
something wicked cool to show you...'
She was about to reply, when she saw them walking down the street. Marco was
getting there a few minutes early, and he had truly brought Star. She felt her
throat getting dry and quickly drank some more milkshake. They looked so happy,
smiling at each other and chatting loudly. Oh god, they were holding hands!
What had she just gotten into?
Just before they came in through the door, she noticed Marco saying something
to Star, who quickly let go of his hand, blushing slightly. He came in first,
his eyes scanning the place until they met Jackie's. "Hi Jackie," he greeted
her, almost apologetically. He had the most adorable nervous smile.
"Yo Diaz!" she replied, flashing him her own best smile. She waved her hand at
both of them. "Hey Star! How have you been?" she added, in a hopefully casual
tone.
"Oh, hey Jackie," Star beamed at her. "You know, doing well!" Jackie raised an
eyebrow at Star and the princess laughed nervously. "I mean, eh, how about
you?"
"Mhm, same old, same old," she lied. The two other teens sat together on the
opposite side of the table, and she tried not to read too much into it. Marco
was visibly tense, he almost looked like a rabbit about to bolt from the whole
scene. Star was probably doing the same thing she was, trying to appear casual
despite feeling everything but calm. The mewman was her usual bubbly self,
except her eyes kept darting from Jackie to Marco and all over the place, and
she occasionally had a weird twitch in her right eye. The two of them kept the
small talk going as they ordered breakfast, while Marco just sat there in tense
uncomfortable silence. They eventually got scrambled eggs for her, sunny-side
up for Marco and a huge stack of pancakes for their resident magical princess.
"So..." Star began, once they were all eating, seemingly unable to bear it
anymore. Jackie swore she saw Marco flinch slightly. She waited a few moments
for the other girl to finish the sentence, but it soon became apparent that she
was expecting her to lead this conversation. Well, Jackie imagined it was only
fair. She looked at Marco, just to be sure. He nodded.
"So," Jackie echoed. "I assume you two went out last night? How was it?" she
asked. Maybe she should have asked Marco to talk separately beforehand, rather
than put them both in the spot like this, but well, this was going to be
awkward either way, for all three of them, and she wanted to see both of their
reactions first.
"Jackie..." Marco tried to say something, but seemed to stop midway.
"It was amazing," Star said. She looked at Marco, smiling nervously, "at least
for me. Thank you, Jackie!"
"Eh? Me?" Jackie replied. The princess' candor and strangely heartfelt
gratitude had taken her by surprise. She was not sure the later was well
placed, in the end it was Marco that had taken his roommate on a date, Jackie
had at most gotten out of the way for that to happen, no more.
"Well, I mean, he said you told him to ask me out, so, if you hadn't, then he
wouldn't have, right? So, well, so thank you!" Star continued, she stared down
at her pancakes. "And well, I don't know how this works. I think it is an Earth
thing and you two will have to explain it to me, because I don't think we have
it in Mewni. I don't know if I get to, you know, borrow Marco again? Some sort
of concubine type deal? Or if it was a one time thing? Or if I now need to like
joust you for him? Or whatever else. But either way... thank you!"
'A concubine type deal'? The Earth girl was surprised the future Queen of Mewni
would even consider that kind of role, even if she probably didn't mean it the
way Jackie had interpreted. Also, hopefully Star was not serious on the
jousting thing either!
Jackie wasn't sure if she had imagined it, but she swore she saw a thin
teardrop fall on the pancakes. Before she herself could say anything, Marco's
arm was around the princess' shoulder, as he hugged her close. "Star..." he
finally seemed to find his words, "it was amazing for me too. It is amazing."
He shot Jackie a sheepish look. "I mean... you both are amazing."
The human girl smiled back at her boyfriend, assuming he still chose to be so,
then took a deep breath. Clearly her own hang ups around talking about this
plainly were making it more confusing than it needed to be, for everyone
involved. Well, time to come clean. "Star, this is not an Earth thing. I think,
I think it is a me thing, or, maybe, hopefully, an us thing. All three of us,"
she explained the best she could.
"As for how it works, well, I think we all decide that. I mean, Marco and you
could decide you want to only date each other, exclusively, and well, I am
prepared to cope with that, if that's the case," she looked sadly at her
adorable and kind boyfriend. She was truly prepared to let go, if that made him
happy, but she definitely didn't want to. She knew it would break her heart in
two. "Or, you could decide this is too weird for you, and we could go back to
where we were before the weekend, with Marco and I dating, and you could find
something less... complicated. But, what I think I would want, personally, is
to still be Marco's girlfriend and then, well, if you two want, you can keep
dating too, and whenever you two decide to be boyfriend and girlfriend as well,
then I guess Marco will have two girlfriends and we will have a time-share of
sorts..." Jackie laughed. Her bottled up nervousness seemed to all go into that
laughter, because it began as a nervous giggle, turned into a happy chuckle and
ended with her in a relaxed smile. Whatever they replied now, whatever they
thought of it, she had finally gotten it out her chest: her weirdness, and her
wild suggestion. "Hopefully you both don't think I am nuts?"
"Jackie, I think you are crazy..." Star replied, looking down. Then she lifted
her head to look at Jackie and the Earth girl could have sworn she had never
seen someone smile so brightly. Wait, was Star actually, literally, glowing?
"... crazy awesome! I mean, there are a lot of weird things about Earth, you
know? Parking meters, electric lights, football, chicken with spicy chocolate,
that cereal with the marshmallows!" she actually counted with her fingers as
she spoke. "They are all weird, but they are also awesome. And, ok, you say
this is not an usual Earth thing, and I hear that, but it is still weird-
awesome, and I love weird-awesome. It might be the most weird-awesome thing I
have ever heard. So, what I am saying is, I am in. I am in all the way... co-
girlfriend?"
Star sincere and untroubled reaction made Jackie smile in return. She knew that
if someone would ever be ok with her own weirdness, it had to be Star, so she
was lucky it was her whom Marco fancied. Well, that settled it! Or, actually,
that almost settled it, there was one more person involved in this whole
arrangement, after all. "Marco, penny for your thoughts?"
"Uh... Jackie, are you asking what I think about a plan that involves me dating
the two most incredible girls I know, simultaneously?" Marco asked with a grin.
"I think I must be dreaming. I think there is no way I could ever be this
absurdly undeservedly lucky. I think every guy at school is going to hate my
guts. I think I am for sure going to mess this up somehow, but even knowing
that I can't say anything but yes!" She hadn't seen him that excited since the
Love Sentence concert, and maybe not even then. "One thing, though, if either
of you ever have some other guy you like, then, well, we should talk about it,
and have the same... deal... apply. I would feel like such a jerk otherwise..."
"Hehe, sure, sounds fair, dude. But I don't have anyone else in mind right
now," she replied.
"Yeah..." Star seemed weirdly uncomfortable for a second, a hand rubbing the
right side of her neck. "No one else for me now, either."
"Well, so now that that is settled," Jackie began, directing a devilish grin
towards Star. "How would you describe Marco in bed? Wouldn't mind hearing a
second opinion!" She honestly wouldn't, and she figured out if Star was truly
so thankful, then she had earned the right of making the princess squirm a
little bit.
"Jackie!" Marco protested, turning beet red. Speaking of people she loved
making squirm.
"Eh... I'll have to get back to you on that one," Star finally spoke, after a
few moments of shocked silence. Jackie looked back confused. She had expected
Star to maybe not answer her question, of course. But it didn't sound like she
was avoiding giving an answer, it sounded more like she was saying she didn't
have one.
"We haven't... I mean, we didn't... you know..." Marco started. It was the
cutest thing how he couldn't even fucking say it. "We got dinner together, and
we danced, and well... we kissed, more than once," he almost whispered that
last part. "I guess we also sort of cuddled a bit. But, I guess I wasn't sure,
what exactly was or wasn't fair game there. You said to ask her out on a date,
and is not like we did anything beyond kiss on our first date..."
Honestly, they could have had, Jackie thought to herself, if Marco had pushed
for it. Well, and if they hadn't had to save Star from a bird-man midget in a
clown suit, a spider the size of a large dog and a literal army of rats. "Fair
enough, dude," she replied. It was actually a bit of a relief in a way. Not so
much because she would have been mad if Marco had slept with Star, but because
it was good to know that even out on a date with another girl, he was still
thinking about her feelings. It made this all so much easier. "It is actually
very sweet of you. But, well, from now on, you two officially have my blessing,
alright?"
Had Star just silently mouthed 'thank you' at her? Jackie laughed. Star quickly
followed suit, and then, nervously, Marco joined them.
"So, Jackie, Star, clarification: how much should I say of this at school?"
Marco asked. "Not that I want to brag or anything... I mean, unless I do get to
brag?"
Jackie rolled her eyes, sweet guy or not, still a guy. She thought it out for a
moment. "Well, I mean, is not going to be a big secret or anything. I don't
think that would be fair to Star. But I rather you not brag too much, school
rumors are going to be a pain to deal with either way, no need to make it
worse..."
They discussed the details for the next few minutes. They would keep it
reasonably discreet, not involving anyone else without talking it first with
the other two, etc. It was surprising how natural the conversation seemed to
flow from there between the three of them, even Marco. Soon they all seemed to
decide that it was enough of that and just naturally switched to other topics.
Marco and Star ended up telling Jackie about the Bounce Lounge and something
called a Goblindog. They talked until long after they had finished their food
and paid. Star seemed to be trying to reciprocate Jackie's opening of her
relationship with Marco to her, by sort of inviting her into their friendship.
It was a bit like what she had been doing the day of the concert. Except this
time, it seemed to Jackie like the air between them was finally clear, no big
weight on her chest bothering her anymore.
"So, I kinda told Janna I'd hang out with her later today," Jackie said
eventually, cutting short a discussion about the virtues and vices of the Mewni
Game of Flags, "and I think I am going to have to get a nap before that if I am
going to be awake enough to handle whatever she is up to. So, how about I head
home now and give you the rest of the afternoon on your own? I am sure there
are plenty of things the two of you want to... talk out today, before getting
back to school for the week." She flashed them both a conspiratorial smile as
she got up of her seat and fastened her helmet.
"Wait, Jackie, one thing first," Marco also got up. He ran his hand through the
back of his hair as he got closer to her. They stared into each other's eyes
for a moment. "Are you absolutely sure you are ok with all of this?"
"More than ok, Marco..." Jackie replied. "We can talk more about it later, but
dude, believe me, this conversation went so much better than I expected."
"Jackie, you are awesome," Marco stated, matter-of-factly. He leaned forwards
and they kissed. It was a short kiss, but Jackie felt herself blush. It gave
her... reassurance. She glanced at Star, the princess gave her a brief nervous
smile and a nod.
"You are pretty awesome yourself, Diaz, and I know people here who can back me
up on that," she joked, winking at Star. They said their goodbyes again, and
she walked out of the door, jumped on her skateboard and felt like she was
flying without even leaving the ground.
----
"So, do I get one of those too?" Star asked eventually.
Marco sat down beside her, wrapped his arm around her, and kissed her for a
long while. Out of the corner of her eye, Star noticed that one of the cashiers
was giving the boy a thumbs up.
----
"So, how does it feel to go from Safe Kid to playboy extraordinaire?" Star
teased the boy beside her. They were both back home, sitting on her bed, in her
room. Her heart beat fast. Then again, Star's heart always beat fast, and this
was some fine excited beating, albeit of a different sort than usual.
"Honestly, Star, is like I said this morning, I still don't believe it. Can't
wrap my head around you two being ok with this," Marco replied, seriously. "Are
you sure this works for you, Star? I can't even believe it works for Jackie and
well, it was her idea, not yours..."
"Marco, would you have asked me out yesterday if this didn't work for Jackie?"
she awaited his response, knowing she would not get it. Eventually, she smiled
and continued, "I see. Then it has to work for me too, doesn't it? Besides,
Jackie really is pretty awesome, and you like her, Marco, you've had a crush on
her since forever. Pretty sure I don't want to be the person that gets in
between that, I never wanted to be. This way I don't have to, and I still get
you for myself too!"
"Well, to be perfectly honest, she is not the only person I have had a crush on
for a while," Marco said as she got closer. "Even if I was too much of an idiot
to realize it."
They leaned in at the same time, lips pressing against each other. She felt
herself melt on contact, her arms falling on the boy's shoulders. She had been
worried that the previous night would be their one and only time to kiss. She
opened her mouth and felt Marco's tongue begin to search for her own. She
pushed more deeply into the kiss, pressing her body against his chest. Despite
her insistence, she was still a bit unsure about what their arrangement with
Jackie truly meant, but she knew it meant she got to be with Marco, and right
now that was all that mattered. She roamed a hand through his hair and felt his
mouth respond with increased passion.
Something inside Star caught fire on that kiss. She pulled back from the hug,
while maintaining the kiss, and quickly thrust her hands under the front of
Marco's shirt, caressing his flat stomach and the compact but toned muscles of
his chest. With a force that would have surprised anyone else but her bestie,
the princess pushed him down on the bed, laying atop of him as they continued
to make out. Finally, she couldn't resist anymore and broke the kiss, "Marco,
is this, you know, still too soon for you?". It felt just right for her.
Marco struggled to catch his breath. "Well, Jackie said we have her blessing,
Star. I... I think I am ready when you are... if you are sure you want to..."
"Marco! I am sure," she responded annoyed. How many times was he going to make
her say it? It was worse than Tom! At least the demon didn't treat Star like he
was shocked she might be interested in sex! Ok, that was bullshit. This was a
million times better than Tom. The fact that she could even look back at two
nights ago and laugh rather than crumble in guilt and disgust surprised Star,
but then again, it was hard to feel bad with Marco under her like that. "Don't
be the Safe Kid, Marco! Be my Wild Man..."
He blinked twice, then smiled at her. "Alright, Star," he replied. He caught
her by the shoulders and, before she knew it, he had rolled her around on the
bed, placing himself on top. She felt his hands roam her legs through the
fabric of her purple striped tights and then the pressing of his lips against
her neck. It was not dancer-Marco, she noted, it was still her bestie being his
usual methodical self, but he also felt leagues more confident and more skilled
than the night of his first time with Jackie. Apparently he had learned a thing
or two in the intervening weeks with his girlfriend, and Star found herself
surprised that the thought did not bother her much. It helped that she was
being the main beneficiary now, as the kisses in her neck trailed lower and
lower until they reached the collar of her green dress. She gasped, delighted.
Marco frowned.
"Star, actually... I just realized, my parents are downstairs," he seemed
conflicted. "Maybe we can still do a bit more, but we have to keep it quiet."
"Oh," Star blushed, suddenly uncomfortable. She had forgotten about Mr. and
Mrs. Diaz. They had been out of the house so often these last few days, and
they were so often ok with the weird magic stuff the two teens got to on a
daily basis, that Star had pretty much forgotten about the risk of being
overheard. But, she realized, no matter how cool Marco's parents were, it was
very unlikely that they would be alright with the two of them having loud sex
with them on the house. She felt herself frown.
"Marco, I don't want to be quiet..." she thought about it for a moment, "...get
the scissors. I know a place where we won't have to worry about being loud at
all!"
It was Marco's turn to blush, and nod at her. "Sure, Star. I'll get them from
my room. But... man, I kinda wanted to..." he trailed off, nervously. "Well, I
wanted it to be in your room."
"You did?" Star felt surprised and somehow flattered at once.
"Well, Star, this is going to sound kind of silly but," Marco trailed off, as
he moved away from her so that he was sitting in the bed besides the resting
princess. "This place is intimate and familiar, and absolutely you. It brings
up so many memories, and, in the last few days, whenever I thought of you...
you know, that way... I pictured it all here." He looked around. "Besides, and
this may be a wrong thing to wish for but, I guess I also kinda want you to
associate this place with a memory of me as well..."
Star laughed at him. "Marco, memories of you are what I associate this place
with already! It is my room in your home, and you have been here more than
anyone else by far..." Well, maybe not if you counted Glossaryck, but Star felt
that wasn't the same at all. "But, I get what you mean, I would also want it to
be here... wait!"
The Mewni girl jumped out from the bed and grabbed her wand. She was Star
Butterfly after all, wasn't she? If this room was what they wanted, and her bed
was where Marco wanted her and she wanted him, then this room is what they
would have!
"Defensive Gate Summoning Spell!" she shouted, pointing her wand to the door. A
portcullis and a giant padlock appeared in front of the door. Marco jumped,
surprised.
"Star?" he said, looking at her quizzically.
"Shh, let me concentrate," she admonished him. This next part was tricky. It
was not something she had practiced before, and it had better work the first
time, they had already interrupted things for too long if you asked the mewman
princess. "Sound-Proof Parent-Repelling Anti-Clam-Jamming Glitter Bubble!!"
A wave of pink light shot out of her wand in every direction around them,
stopping right before it expanded beyond the walls of the room. It lingered
there, a thin layer of bright pink magical energy with shimmering specks of
gleaming dust interspaced through its soap-bubble-like interface. She waited a
few moments, making sure the spell held and then flashed Marco a victorious
grin.
"No way that is a real spell," Marco commented.
"It is now," Star retorted, sitting back on the bed and leaving her wand back
on the bedside table. "Now, where were we?"
She barely had time to say that when she felt Marco kissing her lips again, his
hunger for her quickly getting her back into the mood as well. She closed her
eyes and focused on the sensations of the kiss. Moments after, she felt his
hands roaming under her skirt, pushing the entire dress up. She lifted her arms
to help the boy relieve her of her clothing. Marco broke off the kiss to push
the dress entirely off of her, and she reluctantly let go of the contact.
He stood up from the bed, calmly taking her dress and laying it on a nearby
chair, then headed back towards her and begun removing her boots. Star felt
self-conscious, exposed in her underwear in front of her bestie. He smiled at
her and looked her up and down, causing her cheekmarks to glow. "Marco... what
are you doing?"
"Making memories," he replied simply. He sat down again beside her and kissed
her closest cheek. It was but a chaste peck, but he quickly begun trailing down
from there, through her neck, to her shoulder, down the strap of her bra...
Star shuffled around and sat on her knees, so that she was facing Marco, with
both of them atop the bed. She pulled her chin up and kissed him on the lips
again, then began pushing his characteristic red hoodie off of him, and then
his shirt up. They broke the kiss and she lifted the gray t-shirt over his
head, throwing it towards the far side of the mattress.
She let her gaze linger over every inch of that chocolate-milk colored torso.
Then pushed Marco back once more, getting on top and roaming her hands and
mouth all over the boy's exposed skin. He smelled good, and tasted even better.
She heard him breathing heavily and felt something poking at her through his
pants and her underwear. She pressed and wiggled on it, feeling the wetness
build up in her crotch.
Marco's hands reached behind her, and with a swift movement opened the clasp of
her bra. She chuckled, knowing full well why Marco would never have any problem
removing that from her. "Practiced that one a lot?" she asked, innocently.
"Uh... ah..." there it was, nervous Marco, Star smiled inwardly but kept her
expression neutral.
"With Jackie, I mean," she lied. She was being mean teasing him like this but,
unfortunately for Marco, it was way too much fun.
"Ah... yes, I guess," Marco replied, visibly relieved.
"Well, Marco," she raised herself up until she was sitting on his lap. "I know
I don't have as much as Jackie does, ok? so... hopefully this is not too...
underwhelming," she said nervously, as she removed the straps from her
shoulders and let the bra fall on the bed.
The bra in question was an A cup, and even then, when she and Janna had gone
shopping for it, the dark haired girl had called it 'aspirational' in her case.
She truly hoped it wouldn't be a disappointment for the boy, considering how
much more developed his actual girlfriend was.
He stared at her, silently. Star felt the heat on her face as she turned red
with embarrassment, "Come on, Marco, say something!"
"You look... amazing," he pulled himself up and kissed her left puffy nipple
briefly, then opened his mouth to easily take the whole mound of flesh into it.
Star felt him suck, and kiss, and flick his tongue at her chest. She felt the
heat build between her legs and let out a long moan, thankful for the shiny
bubble around them. Marco had begun alternating between sides as he hungrily
devoured her chest. If Star had any remaining doubts her bestie liked that part
of her, they were quickly put to rest.
His hands gripped her back hard. It was nothing like Tom's clawed fingers,
though, and even if Star could feel his roughness, it was not as if he could
hurt her. For a magical princess, she was built of pretty strong stuff. In most
places, at least. She winced, however, as Marco accidentally grabbed one of her
wings. "Ouch, careful there... those are... sensitive," she protested, briefly,
and Marco's hand quickly let go.
"Sorry, Star," he said, lifting his head from her chest long enough to look at
her in the eye and make sure she was ok. "Guess Jackie doesn't have those," he
commented sheepishly. Star raised an eyebrow as she looked back at him.
Despite the brief mistake, the boy continued his ministrations towards her
front, pleasuring her nubs with his eager tongue, while keeping his hands on
her remaining breast and on the side of her body. Then, very carefully, a
finger began probing the outline of her left wing. After a few seconds, another
started tracing the right one. She felt her breath quicken and a whimper escape
her lips. Marco seemed to be taking cues from her sounds and she made a point
of being very vocal with her wordless moans. The boy rapidly mastered
stimulating her upper back just as much as her upper front and the combined
sensations were driving Star crazy.
"Maaaarco," she moaned. He took that as his cue to try even harder. Time seemed
to stretch forever as he kept softly playing with her wings and licking her
breasts. He was very much unlike Tom, who had passed through those areas mostly
as stops on his way to the next stage, or as a means to warm Star up. Marco
seemed to enjoy taking his time there, slowly kindling her sensations for what
felt like hours; if not on the clock, then at least inside her head. She
whimpered and moaned and grunted, and at some point she felt a powerful but
brief shudder. Even after it passed through her, she wasn't sure that was what
she thought it was. It had not been a particularly strong one, but... had she
just came from only having her wings and nipples pleasured?
Either way, what she knew for a fact was that this was driving her horny out of
her own mind! "Marco! Stop," she said hoarsely, surprising the boy who seemed
for a moment to be trying to figure out what he had done wrong. "My turn!"
She pushed herself down and almost ripped the pants from him, barely taking the
time to unbutton them, pulling the boxers at the same time and pushing it all
carelessly on the floor. She pulled her own soggy underwear down and discarded
it with equal inattention. Star looked at her bestie's hard long thick member
and licked her lips. She felt like she was in the throes of Mewberty all over
again. She needed the boy, particular singular boy.
"Star? Are you all... oooohhh!" Marco shouted as the princess practically
slammed her mouth on his cock and began to slurp messily on it. In a way it was
weird, that she had been so methodical and careful when imagining this while
blowing Tom, but now that it was the actual boy she liked all the technique
gave way to an unquenchable savage thirst. She was thirsty for Marco, for what
she wanted to suck out of him now. She wanted him to explode in her mouth, and
only part of it was wanting the boy to feel good. Marco didn't seem to mind in
the least, however, and quickly peaked from her wild attention. "Star, I am
about to..." he grunted.
She barely heard him, and did not stop until a few moments after she felt the
first shot hit the back of her throat. She drank it like it was the sweetest
milkshake she could imagine. In reality she knew it tasted nothing like that.
But, she told herself, she needed this, she wanted this, to wash away the taste
of Tom.
"Marco! I need you, please," Star begged, opening her legs to him, still in a
dazzled heat. A part of her was burning with embarrassment at the side of her
she was now showing her best friend. But it was too much: the months of pent up
desire, the feeling that this somehow absolved her from the Tom thing, Marco's
earlier prolonged slow-boiling teasing!
"Star... I kinda cannot do that right now," Marco replied, with visible regret.
"I sort of need a few minutes after... well, after what just happened. But... I
can do this," he added, rolling around on the bed until he was laying face
down, with his head almost between Star's legs. She felt his smooth flat tongue
describe a broad trail up her cunt, parting her lips as it went. She pushed her
feet forward and arched back, until she was laying down comfortably. Marco then
began to eat her out in earnest.
Once again he was careful and methodical, but she could also feel his desire in
every flick and movement. He began slow, but soon seemed to realize that was
not necessary at all, as Star was already drenched and ready from their earlier
acts. She felt him lap her up rapidly, his tongue moving all around her folds.
Every so often, his mouth sucked on her clit and she gasped loudly and
lustfully. It took no time at all for her to reach her peak, and this time
there was no doubt about it. She exploded with a loud shameless howling moan.
"Fuck, Marco! That was incredible," Star finally said.
"I just hope that bubble thing is really sound proof," Marco joked. "Otherwise
we are in trouble."
Star blushed. Her climax had brought her back somewhat from her altered state,
and now she felt unsure about it. Shit, that had been a bit too weird and bit
too wild.
"Marco, I..." she tried to put her thoughts in order, "hopefully what you just
saw doesn't change, you know, your opinion of me or anything?" After all, a
night ago he had thought her too innocent to even know what sex was!
Marco blinked, confused. "Star? What are you talking about? You were amazing...
I..."
"You were too, Marco, super amazing!" she smiled at him a huge grin. "But,
well, I guess even I am going to have to look at my bestie a little bit
differently, now that I know he can do... that, to me..."
"I see what you mean," Marco seemed to ponder. "I guess I also just got a lot
more memories than I expected. But, is that bad? Or is it good?"
"Honestly, I guess it is..." Star begun.
"...Amazing!" they both said at the same time. They laughed.
"Hugs!" shouted Star, and they shared a brief friendly hug. Star found it
strangely reassuring. They were still best besties. It was just that they were
also something else now as well.
"You know, Star? This is seriously the weirdest relationship," Marco commented.
"It is about to get even weirder," Star observed.
"Oh really?" Marco asked. "How?"
"Well, for one, I kinda still need you to fuck me," Star announced
nonchalantly. It was hard feeling embarrassed about that, considering how she
had just acted before. However, Marco reacted to it by becoming quite flustered
still, which only amused Star further.
"Oh," Marco managed to mutter, turning red. "Sure, of course, if you are still
up for it..." He walked up from the bed and retrieved his pants from the floor,
producing a wrapper from the left pocket.
"Well, someone was prepared," Star joked. "Nice one, Safe Kid!" She winked at
him.
"I mean, someone had to be," Marco retorted. "Unless you have a spell for
that?"
"Well, Marco, those sort of spells are a bit like... well, like healing spells,
I guess," she confessed honestly. "Not my forte. Also... super uncomfortable to
read through with Glossaryck looking over your shoulder, let me tell you..."
she grimaced. Although, truth be told, she missed the annoying little magic
man. She frowned, casting aside the thought for a less inappropriate time.
"So, Star, before we get to it, I kinda want to ask... is this going to be a
first for you?" Marco interrupted her thoughts as he sat back in the bed. "Is
not that I want to pry, or anything, but well, just want to know if I should be
extra careful..."
"Not my first," Star confessed, her frown deepening as she thought of two days
before: the hard cement, the wood splinters. Tom had not been careful in the
least. He had not even asked, or cared. Sure, Star Butterfly was much tougher
than almost anyone knew. She took punches and bites and fire breath from
monsters about as often as most people took baths and, as it turned out, her
first time hadn't been particularly painful to her. At least, not physically.
But still, she appreciated Marco asking.
"Tom?" he ventured. So much for not prying, Marco, Star thought, feeling a bit
annoyed.
"Yeah..." she answered in a grim monotone.
"Well, I supposed you two dated for a long while. So it is not too surprising,"
Marco commented, and she did not try to correct him. "Anyways, I am glad this
won't hurt for you, then." He smiled at her. Star felt relieved he did not
judge her about Tom, even knowing he might still react differently if he knew
the entire story.
She guided him atop her in the bed and they began kissing passionately. She
felt his hands on her breasts and quickly lowered one of her own to begin
pumping him to full mast. It was surprising how little time it took them to go
from two friends joking at each other to two lovers ready for one another.
Marco smiled at her as he used one hand to aim himself at her entrance, and
slowly thrust into her. Star gasped and tightly gripped the boy's back.
Marco was slowly going in and out of her, and Star felt as if back in the
dream, floating on multi-color clouds. Yet somehow, this was even better. She
felt her own arousal build up with every deep thrust, and at the same time, she
slowly became aware of something else: a growing feeling that matched her own
from the distance. She closed her eyes and felt it. It was like there was a big
ball of light floating inside infinite darkness and it beat to the rhythm of
her heart, expanding more and more as her arousal increased. But there was also
another ball of light, seemingly smaller if only because it was further away,
but she could see it beat and grow too. "Maaarco..."
He grunted in response. "Already, Star?" he asked.
"No..." she replied, panting slightly. It wasn't that, not yet. "But, Marco,
let me try something..."
She held his arms by the wrist and pushed herself up, deliberately tipping both
of them around, rolling them so that she was now on top. She had tried to be as
gentle as she could, while still not pushing Marco out of her. Then, she began
lowering herself up and down on Marco's cock. She closed her eyes, and began
timing herself to the rhythms of the more distant light. She heard Marco gasp
and his breath quicken. She smiled.
She felt his hands roam her chest, and then move to her back to caress her
wings. Star moaned with abandon, but quickly focused back on the lights inside
her mind. The princess barely paid attention to the sickly looking green mist
that begun to form and flow between the two spheres. It didn't matter, she knew
the distant one was Marco. Marco's desire. Marco's arousal. She could guide
herself by it, she could feel his pleasure.
Soon she didn't need to close her eyes and see the lights anymore, she felt his
sensations as well as her own with every time she impaled herself on him. She
went deep when he wanted deep and fast when he wanted fast. She knew he was
about to explode moments before he even tried to warn her, "Star..."
"Shh. I know," she looked directly at his eyes. She slowed down, dragging it
along, confidently keeping the boy at the very brink, then stopping to let him
fall down from it. As soon as she felt his disappointment in her heart, she
began moving again, deep and fast, slowing again as he approached climax. She
was barely able to keep herself from ending things every time, her own build up
quickly reaching the limit, but she made it into a challenge. She knew it would
be worth it. Time after time she took them to the edge of the precipice, and
back again.
"Oh god, Star, please..." Marco shouted. She grinned at him, and with a wink
began going at full speed again. This time she did not stop, she let herself go
completely. Her own desire exploded just an instant ahead of Marco's. Her moans
mixed with his grunts and soon she felt him twitching and pumping inside of
her. Eventually, she fell to his side, exhausted.
They lay there for a while in silence. Star couldn't believe her luck. Somehow,
she wasn't sure exactly why, she was able to feel what Marco felt, at least
when they were both doing this. Was that what had happened two nights ago, when
she had felt - maybe even seen - him and Jackie together when she was with Tom
under the bridge? How was that even possible? Either way, it gave her an
advantage, the princess thought, and without thinking, she asked a selfish
question. "So, Marco, was that better than Jackie?"
She felt horrible the moment the words left her lips. Jackie had been nothing
but kind to her that day, and here she was, thinking about using sex and magic
weirdness to, what? Out-compete her for Marco's affections? Why did she even
need to ask Marco to compare? And, what if he still said he preferred Jackie?
She had been his girlfriend for months now, after all.
The boy said nothing. He didn't even seem to acknowledge the question. The
sickening part was, that was what she expected Marco to do if she had been
right. She shook her head, her own selfishness was now making her feel
miserable, when she should be happy, basking in the after-glow of the moment
she had dreamed of for so long. So stupid!
Wait! Dreamed of? That was it! 'A dark spell powered by lust' Star recalled
Hekapoo's words. She remembered the green thread between her and older Marco
that had appeared when Hekapoo had "inspected" her. Green like the mist between
the light spheres, green like dark magic, green like the Seeing Eye spell!
This was not good. Well, it had been good so far, for her, but there was
something ominous about a dark lingering magical connection. She wasn't one to
think too deeply about how her spells worked, but even Star knew enough to
realize that somehow casting dark magic you did not fully understand was the
sort of thing you ought to worry about, especially a spell that seemed to last
weeks at a time.
A pair of arms closing around her interrupted her reflection, as Marco drew the
princess into a tight embrace. "Star, I love you!" he said, and the edifice of
her thoughts collapsed like a sandcastle.
Chapter End Notes
     Ladies and gentlemen, the Starco has landed! Surely this can't but
     mean happily ever after now.... right? ;)
***** You Set the Snakes Loose *****
Chapter Summary
     In which undead kings rise once more, an evil god is set free, and
     apocalyptic circumstances set the stage for some people to cast a
     look at their more personal demons.
Chapter Notes
     Content warning: Those tags on the fic about Underage, "Light" BDSM,
     and Bad BDSM Etiquette, are not there for decoration. I'd self-
     flagellate in penitence for writing this sort of smut, but that might
     end up being counter-productive. If not your cup of tea, skip the
     final scene ;)
See the end of the chapter for more notes
***** Chapter 08: You Set the Snakes Loose *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place two nights after the
     SvtFoE episode "Just Friends" (S02E20b). The story has now begun to
     diverge from the SvtFoE season 2 mainline with stakes both personal
     and cosmic.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/8.png]
"Space unicooorn... Soaring through the stars... Delivering the rainbooows all
around the wooorld!"
Star felt her heavy eyelids stubbornly refuse to open even as the song labored
to jolt her awake. She was only vaguely aware of Marco jumping up behind her,
rushing to get out of her bed, scrambling around the messy room searching for
his phone. She felt really groggy, and a peek out of her window told her it was
the middle of the night. "Marco?"
He didn't reply, and the ringtone stopped before he could find the blasted
device. Star felt herself begin to fall asleep again, as she heard Marco
rummaging through his discarded pants.
"Star! Wake up!!" he yelled at her, in an unnerved tone. "Get dressed! We need
to go, now!"
The princess did not understand what the fuss was about, but if it had her
bestie this worried, it must indeed be important. She forced herself awake and
reached around for her wand, just in time to see Marco smash head first against
the pink shimmering bubble that still surrounded the middle of her bedroom.
"Star!" he complained. "Take it down, quickly! The scissors are in my room!"
She didn't even ask, not before she dismissed both of her spells, dropping down
her sound-proof shield as well as the lock on the door. But as Marco darted
towards the now unlocked entrance, she begun to feel something was indeed
horribly wrong, and she did not want to be left in the dark about it. "Marco!
What's happening?"
He tossed her his phone as he ran out of her room. She unlocked it. Two missed
calls, four text messages, all from Jackie.
MARCO, STAR, HELP!!
AT JANNA'S
ZOMBIES!!?? BIG SNAKE!
NOT A DUCKING JOKE!!
Shit! Jackie was in danger! Janna too. Never mind half the stuff in those
messages did not add up, they would figure it out when they got there. Star
summoned herself an outfit, no time to dress the old fashioned way, or
otherwise get ready. Just as she did, she saw Marco come back into her room,
practically bashing the door in, pulling another red hoodie over himself and
holding the dimensional scissors on his right hand.
"Star, sorry for yelling..."
"Marco! No-time-for-unnecessary-apologies. Open that portal!"
----
The tear in the fabric of space happened to open up to Janna's front yard. The
place was unrecognizable. The grass was burned down to a black amorphous waste
all around them and a fiery chasm had opened in the ground in front of the
door. Beside the crack on the earth lay a broken wooden box. Star recognized it
immediately as Tom's underworld elevator. She saw the demon who usually lifted
it up, Tom's pet gargoyle, fighting for its life a few meters away. Around the
fiend were six or seven rotting corpses, risen from the ground and walking,
each body surrounded by a shadowy purple halo. The shambling bodies were
covered in ornate jewelry and decayed rags of what millennia ago might have
been fine clothing. One of the undead creatures was bitting into the demon's
shoulder.
"Ky-yaaa!" Marco shouted, and with a kick sent the offending zombie's head
flying into the air, separating it cleanly from its torso.
"Mega Narwhal Blast!" Star followed soon after, throwing four others back,
slamming them into the ground so strongly their limbs fell apart from their
decaying bodies. Normally she would have made a comment to Marco about the
score but, until they found their friends, it was no time for jokes. "You! What
is going on, and how is it Tom's fault?" she asked the demon.
A pillar of flame spiraled out of the fissure in the ground and the
aforementioned prince of the underworld came flying with it, propelling himself
up by shotting flames from both his hands, eyes glowing bright red. He landed
in front of his slave and blasted the remaining two corpses attacking it, one
with each of his outstretched hands. After he finished, he turned off the
flames, his eyes went back to normal at the same time. "Hey! Why would this be
my fault?!"
"Zombies, demons, chasms to hell," Marco enumerated with a sarcastic tint to
his voice. "It could be anyone, really! Now, where is my girlfriend, Tom?"
"Uh," Tom looked at the boy, then at Star. He huffed annoyed. "Right there, I
guess?"
"My other girlfriend, Tom!" Marco shouted. "I mean Jackie!"
Wait, had Marco just called her his girlfriend? Had Tom? Star dismissed the
wonderful, scary, and confusing emotions the word was bringing up from inside
her. She tried to focus on the situation at hand.
"Tom, explain now what the literal hell is going on here, or I am going to
blast you so hard you'll leave a whole new crater on the way down!" She had no
patience for Tom, or for how weirdly guilty seeing him now was making her feel,
much less when her friends were in danger!
"Fine.... Starship," he almost spat the pet name. It suddenly sounded to her
almost like he meant it as an insult. "Your friend... I mean Janna, not the
other one... took something from me, and apparently she made a mess with it.
She, or someone else, called the elevator up, but I am afraid whatever they did
was already too far along. In fact, if we don't hurry, this royal morons are
going to be the least of our problems... Also, 'my other girlfriend', what the
hell Marco? You fucking pig!"
"Look who is talking!" yelled Star, before Marco could stammer in embarrassment
or take the bait. Despite taking the split-second to shut up Tom, she still
took the information in stride. She moved quickly. Before she had even finished
speaking, she was blasting down Janna's door and jumping over the precipice.
They had to be in there somewhere. The hordes of zombies that came pouring out
of the living-room told the princess she was likely right. "Flesh Eating Moths
Hurricane!"
Between her wand and Tom's pyromancy, they made quick work clearing the place.
Hopefully they weren't too late.
"Jackie!" Marco shouted. A distant muffled cry came from the second floor, and
the boy rushed up the stairs, kicking and punching shambling cadavers along the
way. Star rushed behind him, blasting the remaining zombies with rainbow
punches and terrifyingly fierce woodland creatures. Tom flew up behind her,
surprisingly also in a hurry.
"So, what exactly are we looking at?" Star asked.
"Well, if we are early enough, it should be a black funerary urn. Give it to me
and I can stop this in just a sec," Tom observed, calmly.
"And if we are not early enough?" Star retorted.
"Then, let me guess: we are going to see a huge phantom snake?" Marco asked,
from farther ahead.
"Well, yes, something like that..." Tom confirmed. "How do you know?... wait,
nah, don't answer that, I can guess too..."
The two of them joined Marco inside Janna's room. The second thing they noticed
was that the roof was missing now. The third thing they noticed was the candles
and the blurred circle and pentagram drawn on the floor, broken apart by cracks
on the wood beneath them. However, the very first they noticed, was, of course,
the snake. The shadowy semi-translucent shape of a gigantic cobra, coiled
around the bodies of Jackie and Janna. It was half as thick as they were tall
and long enough to probably reach the houses on the other side of the street if
fully stretched. Blood red eyes glowed sinisterly against the night sky as it
turned to regard the three new arrivals. It opened its mouth to show two huge
ivory-white fangs.
"Marco!" Jackie shouted.
"Star!" Janna followed.
At least they seemed relatively unharmed.
"WHO DARES DISTURB MIDRA'APEP, DEMI-GOD OF TORMENT, SPAWN OF THE INFINITE
CHAOS, THE BEAST OF THE MAUSOLEUM OF STONE KNIVES, HE WHO COMMANDS TEN THOUSAND
DEAD KINGS?!" The snake spoke in an ominous tone. "KNOW THAT THIS WORLD IS NOW
MINE, I CLAIM IT AS MY DOMAIN, FROM NOW UNTIL ALL FLAMES IN HEAVEN GO DARK!"
"Oh, great," Tom muttered, more annoyed than afraid. After throwing an
exasperated look Janna's way, he began speaking back at the cobra in a
commanding tone. "Midra'Apep, I, Tom Lucitor, command you to withdraw. I invoke
my right of reign and domain..."
"YOU HAVE NO DOMAIN IN THIS DIMENSION, PRINCE TOM, AND THUS NO RIGHT TO COMMAND
ME!" It spoke back. "I HAVE CLAIMED DOMAIN, I COMMAND YOU TO WITHDRAW!"
"I am afraid that doesn't work for me, either," Tom responded, taking a single
step forward. "I reject your domain, by the way, it was improperly claimed.
Which means," his eyes glowed burning red and his voice became deeper and
echoing, "that we are doing this the hard way!"
"Oh, I can't believe I am agreeing with Tom, but," Star's face took a scarily
fierce look, "The hard way sounds great right about now! First... let go of my
boyfriend's girlfriend! Warnicorn Stampede!!"
A herd of terrifying one-horned horses came charging out of thin air. The
shadowy serpent's tail shook violently and swiped horizontally like a titanic
whip, meeting the entire stampede head on, throwing warnicorns flying into the
air. Tom and Marco took the opportunity to jump ahead, avoiding the viper's
tail. When they reached the coil that held the two girls, Tom pressed his claws
against the serpent's translucent mass and blasted it with a fiery shock-wave.
It twitched involuntarily, long enough for Marco to pull Jackie free and jump
away. Without the extra body between the coils, Janna simply fell, right into
Tom's arms.
"Woah, my hero," Jackie said in a half-joking tone, sounding surprisingly calm
under the circumstances. Star saw her smile broadly at Marco as he carried her
away from the monstrosity.
"Hey, Tom, funny story..." Janna spoke to the demon prince as if they knew each
other. He groaned in response.
Star realized this was her chance to get a clear shot. The warnicorns had
barely done any damage, and she figured a laser cannon might not help too much
this time either, but she had recently learned something that seemed to work
pretty well against demons. She focused her anger into the wand, letting it
produce a blast of emerald and shadow, a wordless spell of dark magic.
The ray came out thin and feeble, it hit Midra'Apep without effect, bouncing
off of its shadowy scales. The demi-god seemed slightly more solid, more
corporeal, now. It laughed thunderously at Star.
Tom groaned and glared at Marco. "Let me guess, you two just slept together and
now she is not angry or frustrated anymore?"
Jackie and Janna looked at both her and the human boy. Jackie seemed a bit
embarrassed but smiled faintly. Janna had an almost deranged expression of
glee, and gave them thumbs up when Tom was looking elsewhere.
"Fortunately," Tom continued. "I am having absolutely no problem being angry
right now!"
He was glaring at Janna, still in his arms, as he spoke. She barely had time to
get back on her feet as he let go of her and began muttering something in a
strange guttural language. Chains of flame and lightning sprung up from his
claws, wrapping the giant snake's body. He began to float up, into the night,
dragging the monstrous demi-god with him, breaking down one of the room's walls
as he pulled it out into the yard, and then down towards the chasm in the
ground. In the last minute, however, Midra'Apep began floating up, of its own
power, opposing Tom's pull.
The two seemed evenly matched in their tug of war. Star tried to help her ex-
boyfriend, ineffectively. Her narwhal blasts seemed to bounce against the snake
abomination, and her dark magic blasts kept coming out too puny to make the
slightest difference.
"Marco..." Tom spoke, voice strained by the effort of holding down the chains
on the monster "... kiss Jackie! Don't ask why, just do it!"
"Eh..." Marco answered surprised.
Jackie, however, still in his arms, quickly took his cheek in her hand and
pulled him down for a kiss. Star looked at that and felt a pang in her stomach.
Ok, she got what Tom was trying to do, but seriously, couldn't he have found a
more discreet way? Given their conversation earlier in the day, Star didn't
really want Jackie figuring out that it still bothered her when the human girl
and Marco kissed. It really wasn't fair that it did, especially given that
Jackie was willing to go out of her way to share Marco with her. Summoning all
of her annoyance at both Tom and herself, as well as her jealousy, she tried
blasting the serpent again. This time she managed a solid bolt of dark magic,
but still nothing like what she had done to Tom two nights ago. The shadow
snake flinched in pain, but held its ground. Or its air, as the case may be.
"FOOLS! EVERY SECOND I SPEND IN THIS WORLD, I GROW STRONGER!" The demi-god
shouted. It proceeded to affirm its boast by flying up a bit higher, dragging
Tom up into the air this time around.
The demon prince looked at Star, and she could see he was unsure about
something. He closed his eyes briefly and, when he opened them again, his
regretful sad look was replaced by a bright red iris-less glare of fury and
determination.
"Dammit, Star!" Tom shouted. "So now it turns out you don't even mind Marco
wrapping tongues with his side girl? Or, really, his main girl?! Since you are
the side-dish, from what I have heard so far. Which, by the way, seriously,
Star? That's kinda pathetic..." He pulled himself back down until his feet made
contact with the ground again, muscles tense and arms trembling with the
effort, ruby eyes glowing brighter than any other light around them. "Speaking
of pathetic, you realize you and all your friends are now going to be in deep
shit for basically all eternity, just because Marco gave you a happy, right?
Hell, wish you were back to being a mopey snappy bitch and seeking your comfort
in the streets like a common fucking wh..."
"Shut up!" Star shouted at him. She felt a cold sensation spread through her
body. Her cheekmarks shone emerald, her wand as well. "Tom, I understand what
you are trying to do and, to be absolutely fucking fair, it is working. But
damn it if you are not truly the biggest asshole in all of hell!!"
A thick twisting blast of green and black energy emerged forth from the front
of her wand, carrying all of her frustration and hate for Tom. Star called upon
her memories of that awful night two days ago and her annoyance at his current
comments, as well as the fact that she now would have to explain what the demon
had just said to Marco and Jackie (and, well, to Janna too, probably)! The
powerful beam hit Midra'Apep straight in its open mouth, blasting the
serpentine leviathan down into the depths of hell, where Tom reeled it in. The
demon prince made a gesture with his hand, and the crack sealed itself after
him. His gargoyle and the lift were already nowhere to be found either.
"Wait, what the down there was he on about?" Marco asked, looking at Star
confused. She felt a weight inside her stomach. "And why did he want Jackie and
I to kiss? ... Not that I am complaining," he clarified, looking down at the
skateboarder girl, who smiled back at him.
"I... he... emh..." Star did so not want to talk about any of that right now,
or, well, ever. "Hold that thought, Marco. Janna? Jackie? First, are you two
alright? Second, what was going on here before we arrived?!"
"I am fine. As for the second question... Star, it is a bit of a long story...
maybe we should get back downstairs first, make sure Jackie is alright too...
get you all some tea?" Janna looked around. "Oh, and I really need to figure
out how to explain to my parents what happened to the house when they get
back... on the one hand, they will never believe the truth... on the other, not
sure how they will even explain me doing any of this..."
While Janna was pondering the pro's and con's of supernatural home devastation,
Jackie finally spoke. "I am fine too, a bit shaken, perhaps," she admitted, not
sounding shaken in the least, for the standards of what she had just
experienced. "But I have a question. Well, like a million questions, really.
But, one in particular: how come you all seem to be on first name basis with a
purple horned demon from hell?"
"Ex-boyfriend," Star explained.
"We went out last night," Janna added, getting an incredulous look from both
Jackie and Star.
"Wait, so all of you have dated not only a demon, but that particular demon?"
Jackie pressed on.
"Demon prince," Janna corrected her, proudly.
"Not all of us!" Marco protested, just as quickly.
"Well," Jackie pondered it for a second. "That would be kinda hot, actually."
"Yeah..." Star agreed, absentmindedly.
"I said it first," Janna pointed out.
----
"Here," Janna handed Star a cup of tea, before turning toward the other sofa to
offer the remaining two to Marco and Jackie, who were sitting together. She
ventured a sideways glance at Star. If the princess was bothered by that
display, it did not show. "Well, glad at least the kitchen is still mostly
there. No gas leaks either, I think." Tom would have probably set those off if
that were the case, she reasoned.
"So, ok, Janna, I get the part where you went out with Tom... sort of... and I
am going to assume I can't talk you out of that one, but I am going to need you
to explain the snake thing!" Star began the interrogation. Janna had sort of
expected it to be Marco, but the boy seemed too busy looking at his other
girlfriend and trying to reassure her. Jackie did not look like she needed
reassurance, but she was also not complaining, the troublemaker girl noted.
"Well, Star, so Tom was telling me yesterday about this magical urn that
brought dead kings back to life," she said truthfully. "It sounded pretty
interesting, so, after the date, I decided to borrow it..."
"Steal it," Marco corrected, rolling his eyes.
"Whatever you want to call it, Safe Kid," Janna grumbled. "Anyways, it sounded
fun. He said nothing about giant snakes or anything like that. So, well, I
looked the thing up online and, again nothing about snakes, or any real
specifics, but there are some general rituals you can do to unlock an unknown
magical object. It kind of needed two people, so I called Jackie over too."
"Pro-tip, dudes: unlocking rituals are long, choral, majorly weird and vaguely
homo-erotic," Jackie commented, causing both Janna and Marco to blush. Star
threw the skateboarder girl a strange, somewhat worried, look. Jackie shook her
head.
"Honestly, I would have tried getting Star for it," Janna spoke. Jackie raised
an eyebrow. Star shuffled uneasily. "Not like that! I just mean it would have
been safer with her around. But honestly I was expecting it to not work at all,
like most of my stuff, or at most to get us a ghost inside the summoning
circle. We had Tom's bell on stand-by and everything, just in case. I was not
counting on dark, long and megalomaniacal showing up!"
"Janna, honestly, even I know to not go around poking at Tom's random hell
crap," Star admonished her. "But whatever, next time let me and Marco know, ok?
First, it looks like you two were in over your heads with this. Second, some of
it was honestly kind of exciting! At least once we knew you two were safe..."
The princess smiled at her and punched up in the air with her wand.
Janna was glad Star was in a good mood, after all. She had been worried her
friend would take a much dimmer view of her activities, specially after they
had called her and Marco in the middle of the night, and after all the stuff
Tom had ranted about just a few moments ago. But Star's happy go lucky demeanor
seemed to be back as the default, after months of relative absence. Janna was
about to ask herself what had gotten into the princess, but then quickly
glanced at Marco, chuckling at her own involuntary and unspoken joke.
"Actually, Jackie, just, could you never scare me like that again, please?"
Marco spoke out of the blue, suddenly sounding very serious. He was staring at
Jackie in the eyes and holding her tightly. Star glanced discretely away, but
not discretely enough for Janna not to notice.
"Marco," Jackie began, looking back at him, thoughtfully and sadly. "Well, I
kinda didn't know what Janna had in mind at first. I suppose I could have
refused to go along with it once she mentioned magic rituals, but it didn't
seem that bad at the time. I will probably be a bit more careful with this sort
of stuff in the future, but well... no. I mean, my answer is that I cannot
promise never to scare you again. What can I say, sometimes I want a little
danger in my life! Aww, don't make that face, Marco. You do this kind of thing
all the time, with Star. Hell, based on what you have told me, you spent
sixteen years in another dimension, risking your life every single day, and I
never even knew! Could you promise me then that you will never again put
yourself at risk?"
They all stood there, speechless. Even Janna or Star had nothing to add. The
witch wannabe had been about to reassure Marco that she would not involve his
girlfriend on something like this again, but now saying that seemed unfair to
Jackie.
Eventually, Marco sighed in defeat. "Ok, Jackie, that's all true. I can't
promise that either. How about this: can you promise to at least try to let me
know when you are going to do something this dangerous again? That way we can
at least be there for each other."
"Sure... if you are willing to promise the same?" Jackie countered, with an
excited twinkle in her eye.
Marco looked at Star, as if asking for confirmation.
"Oh... eh... Of course!" the princess eventually beamed back at the both of
them, still seeming a bit unsure but trying to appear decided. "I think I kinda
already promised Jackie she was invited to go on adventures with us, after
all..."
Janna could tell Star's heart was not in those words. The problem was, if she
could tell, so could the other two. Marco knew Star better than anyone, and
Jackie was actually fairly perceptive as a rule. A long uncomfortable silence
descended over the four of them. She was saved from having to do anything about
that, however, by a 'whossh' sound erupting outside, followed by the ringing of
her doorbell.
Janna stood up and, carefully, peeked through the peephole. On the other side,
the purple demon looked impatient, his hair messed up and shirt half shredded,
presumably from the fight with the snake demi-god.
"Hey, Tom, glad to see you back," the dark haired girl spoke quickly, in an
ambiguously apologetic tone. "Please, come in! Can I offer you some tea?"
"No," he replied simply. "I just wanted to make sure you all," he looked at
Janna, then at Star, "were doing ok."
"Pfft," Star huffed. Her good mood suddenly again dissipated. "We are fine,
Tom. By the way, thanks for the peptalk earlier, real classy stuff!"
The demon's initially neutral expression turned into an angry glare in
response. "Well, thanks for not leaving me to finish the fight on my own... oh,
wait, that's exactly what you all did!" Tom retorted, eyes glowing and flames
spewing out of him. Jackie looked around nervously, Marco just rolled his eyes
and mouthed silently: 'drama queen'.
"Figured you got things under control. I threw him square inside your dominion
or whatever the word is," Star served back.
"Domain! And I did have it under control," Tom replied, with contained
annoyance.
"Then? What was the problem?!" Star shouted, with open irritation.
"They really did use to date, didn't they?" Jackie joked at Marco, finally
getting a bit more at ease with the whole demon prince situation.
"Well, yeah," Star admitted, glancing back at them. Then, nervously, she added,
"A long time ago, though!"
"Oh, sure," Tom smirked viciously, stepping towards the princess. He spoke in a
mocking, sarcastic tone. "Long long ago. You know... water under the bridge?"
Star tensed in response to those words, her hand gripping her wand hard enough
that her knuckles were starting to turn white. Her back was to Marco and
Jackie, but Janna could see half of the horrified expression she wore. The
troublemaker girl was not sure exactly how the dots connected, but she knew
that was her cue to intervene, before Star blasted her ex or he let out any
information the other teens would regret hearing.
"Tom," she began, looking at the floor. "I... I am sorry about the urn, I
didn't know what would happen." That was true, as far as it went. "Thanks so
much for saving me..." Ok, she was maybe overdoing it just a tiny bit.
She moved towards him, placing herself between the demon and Star, touching a
hand up to his left cheek and winking at him. "It is just, after last night, I
needed a way to make sure I would see you again. I thought taking the urn with
me would ensure you showed up. I wasn't planning on using it at first. I am so
glad you did come back," she ranted, perhaps a bit melodramatically. That said,
that was two truths and one lie, so she was at least statistically honest.
"Oh, really?" he asked. Tom's smile became broader and only slightly less
sinister. Clearly he was catching on but, Janna observed, he also seemed
genuinely pleased. "Didn't figure I made that much of an impression." He was
smirking, at herself and at a probably disconcerted Star behind her. Good.
"Next time just ask for a second date. I'd rather you not release imprisoned
demi-gods every time... seriously, Janna, most people would have earned an
eternity of torment for just the one!"
Janna grinned mischievously at him. "Well, I am already going to be grounded
for fifty years at least for what happened to the house. But how about you
'torment' me for the night?" she purred. "After all, I just learned today you
are pretty handy with chains!"
Unable to resist it, Janna sneaked a peek back at the other three. Star and
Marco were both making a face, though Star's disgust seemed a bit exaggerated,
and perhaps mixed with something else, if you asked the dark haired girl.
Jackie just played it cool and sipped her tea.
"Oh, is that truly what you want?" Tom teased, with a pleased smile. "Fine. I
have my own reasons to not want you grounded, and I am pretty sure my servants
and I can get most of this mess sorted out before your parents show up. In
exchange, I shall personally punish you for your thievery..." he added
gleefully, and a shiver ran between Janna's legs.
Jackie calmly put her cup on the table. "Well, I think that's the cue for the
three of us to leave. Marco? Star?"
----
Well, that had been a truly strange day, thought Star to herself. No, not the
fifty feet snake or the undead hordes. That was well within the range of a
normal Sunday for her. But, Janna dating Tom? And, had he been, sort of, worse
than his usual self? Sure, he had needed her pissed off for the fight, maybe.
But he didn't even think of apologizing after, he just kept sniping at her! And
had Janna taken his side? Also, what was that about chains? Were Janna and Tom
now going to... she didn't want to even think of that, she told herself,
unconvincingly.
"Well, Jackie, I guess we should walk you home now," Marco interrupted the
princess thoughts. "Actually, I can walk you home. Star, thanks so much, for
everything. I understand if you'd rather go back to sleep now, sorry for
dragging you into this." He offered her the scissors.
Oh, right, that was the other weird thing that had happened today. She and
Marco had become lovers, at the very least. Star blushed.
"Awww, Marco, no need to apologize. I drag you into stuff like this all the
time!" she pointed out. Then a thought crossed her mind. There was one other
very weird thing about this day that Star felt she needed to address, sooner
rather than later. She took a deep breath. "Actually, you should go back to
sleep! I will take Jackie back to her place. I can always sleep in class!" She
smiled.
"Star, that's not..." Marco began admonishing.
"Yeah, yeah, you know it will happen either way," she stopped him. "Besides, I
kinda want to talk to Jackie. You know, girl stuff?"
Jackie raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. Marco shuffled nervously. "Ah,
Star... ok, sure. Jackie?"
"Sounds good to me!" the skateboarder girl replied. She leaned towards Marco
and kissed him smack in the lips. Well, that made this even harder, but also,
even more necessary, if you asked Star. The other blonde just seemed to look at
Star expectantly. "Well, aren't you going to kiss him goodnight too?" she
asked.
"I... ah... eh..." Star stammered.
Marco was red like a beet, but seeing Star's conflict, he walked towards her.
"Star, we can always kiss later, in private, if this is being too much on the
spot. For now... hugs?"
"Hugs!" Star laughed and hugged Marco. Then, feeling his now familiar arms
around her, she changed her mind. What the hell! She tilted her head upwards
and kissed him softly.
"Whoa, go Diaz!" Jackie chuckled.
Star felt super embarrassed, but she didn't feel Jackie had meant anything bad
by her comment. Eventually, Marco separated from her too and, after asking if
they were sure and shooting them both an apprehensive look, opened a portal
back to his bedroom and disappeared through it.
"So, what's up, Star?" Jackie asked immediately. "Going to trade racy stories
about our boy Marco?"
"What? No, Jackie..." Star begun, confused and flustered.
"Please, don't even try to tell me you don't have any this time!" the other
girl continued nonchalantly, amused even. "I knew you two were back from doing
it the moment he barged in through the door, his hair always gets messy in a
weird way after it. Sorry if we interrupted, by the way! But, well, it was
kinda life or death..."
"No! Jackie, stop!" Star shouted frustrated. The human blinked at her and
looked back, hurt. "I mean, yeah... we kinda... well... we did..." Oh God! Why
was she telling Jackie that?! Well, I mean, that was obvious, but still, to
come out and say it that way, to her, was weird. "I just, I just wanted to talk
about other stuff..."
"Oh," Jackie stopped on her tracks, stood there in silence for a moment and
turned back to face Star. "Sorry. What do you want to talk about?"
"I... well... why are you so alright with this? With me and Marco, I mean,"
Star asked. It took effort to get each word out.
"Are you not alright with it, Star? No, wait, you asked me a question, I should
answer first," Jackie took her hand to her chin, pondering. "I am not always
alright with it. Sometimes I am scared that Marco will decide that he likes you
much more than he likes me, or that you two will want to be a normal couple
after all and shut me out of it. But, on the other hand, I see that you make
him happy, and that he makes you happy, and I wouldn't feel right stopping you
two from making each other happy."
"And it doesn't bother you, when... if I make him happy, at all?" Star pressed.
"No," Jackie replied, almost too simply. "Not really. It never has, not with
Marco, not with the boys I have been interested in before. It is not for lack
of caring about him, I mean, I think I am in love with him, at least as much as
you are. It is actually the other way around: because I care about him, when
you make him happy, it mostly just makes me happy too. I guess I am just wired
that way? I dunno, I already told you, I think I am weird..."
"Jackie, you are weird-awesome!" Star said, a bit too forcefully. "The thing
is, what happens if I am not? If I can't be awesome about it like you are? If
sometimes I worry or fret when Marco is happy with you? If I get jealous or
feel selfish? If sometimes I feel like I am in a competition with you, that for
me to win you would have to lose? If... I guess, if I am a horrible person?"
"Star, I think that's all just you being normal..." Star blinked. There was a
first for everything, and certainly that was it for her name and that
particular adjective. "But, well, I doubt very much you are a horrible person,
or even that selfish, really. I mean, if you were, why are you telling me this?
If you wanted to, I dunno, steal Marco from me, then the last thing you should
probably be doing is telling me, right?"
"No, no, no, I don't want to do that!" Star answered, horrified. Then she
remembered her glee at the advantage her magic connection with Marco could give
her, and felt even more awful. "Ok, sometimes, a small part of me wants that.
But I could never do that to Marco, or to you. I'd rather go back to how things
were before than hurt you two, or abuse your trust... that's why I wanted to
tell you how I feel, guess to... warn you? I dunno... not that I want to change
things now, but..." She wasn't sure what she expected the human girl to do with
the information, actually.
"Star... would it help if I told you how I felt this afternoon? When I was with
Janna, knowing you and Marco were probably doing it? I am not asking you to
feel the way I feel about this sort of thing, just to understand, and maybe, if
you can come at it from my point of view, it will help you feel less bad when
the situation is reversed." Jackie spoke and Star nodded. "Basically, I got
reminded of the times I have seen you and Marco interact, how he looks at you,
the stories he has told me about you, how he can't really stop talking about
you. I imagined him having a good time, being happy with you, and, usually,
when I know he is being happy, I feel happy too. Let me put it this way, if he
called you and told you he was having really good ice-cream, and you knew you
couldn't be there to have ice-cream with him or you didn't like ice-cream,
would you be annoyed that he was enjoying ice-cream without you or just glad he
was having a good day?"
"Who doesn't like ice-cream?! Also, Jackie, I don't think that's quite the
same..." But Star wasn't sure she could quite pinpoint why exactly it wasn't.
"Maybe not. I guess I don't know how to explain it, then. I just don't
necessarily connect him being happy with you or liking you with him not liking
me... except..." Jackie went a bit somber for a moment. "I guess there was a
time it bothered me. Friday, actually, when he said your name when we were
having sex. Today doesn't bother me, or yesterday. If he is alone with you, it
doesn't bother me, but it did bother me when he was with me... and maybe
thinking of you..."
"He said my name?" Star tried processing the information. That had been the
night with Tom, hadn't it? When she had seen Marco and Jackie, and she had
called Marco's name. Had that really happened? Had she been seeing them through
her bond with Marco? Had he seen her back? Was that why he had said her name
and nothing else? Had he seen her... with Tom?
"He didn't tell you?" Jackie asked, interrupting Star's train of thought. "Oh,
sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up with you before he did, Star, nevermind
that."
"Jackie," Star finally was putting the pieces together. "I, I don't think that
was because he was thinking about me..." she begun, but the words died in her
mouth as the next realization hit her. "Wait! Was that why you two fought and
why you told him to ask me out?!"
Jackie stared back in silence, then nodded. "It was when I knew for a fact that
he liked you too, Star."
But, but Jackie has said that had been something that bothered her. So why ask
Marco to get closer to her? It didn't make any sense! But for all the sense it
didn't make, it had made Star happy last night and earlier that day, and it had
made Marco happy, and it seemed to make Jackie mostly happy. So, perhaps there
was something to the other girl's way of thinking that Star was just not
seeing.
Either way, neither of them seemed to be able to find their words for the rest
of the walk back to Jackie's place.
----
"So, Janna, how much of that was putting an act for Star, how much putting an
act for me, and how much was real?" Tom asked, darkly. His demeanor seeming a
lot less friendly with her after the others departed. "You know I can coax the
truth from you eventually, so this would be the time to come clean..."
"Mmmm," she made a show of thinking it out. She saw no point in making things
too easy for the demon prince. "What if I prefer it for you to coax the truth
from me, after all?"
"Fine," Tom sighed. His lip curved to the left and he opened his mouth slightly
to show off a single sharp fang in an unnerving smirk. "Let's do this the hard
way, then, seems like that is the order of the day. After all, you asked to be
punished, didn't you?"
She did, of course. But Janna hoped Tom had gotten that she meant fun sexy
punishment and not, well, literal torture. Right now, given the way he looked
at her, hollow eyes smoldering dark red, it was not clear that he understood
her intent, or cared. He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. Two pillars of
flame emerged to the thieving girl's sides, gracing her arms. The fire hurt and
burned, but much less than she would have expected it to, more like an
excessively hot shower than flesh charring blazes. When the flames stopped,
there where two heavy chains going from the floor of Janna's living room to a
pair of shackles on her wrists. She looked down to see an identical pair
holding her legs.
"I want you to understand, Janna, that stealing that urn was incredibly stupid,
and that attempting to use it without knowing anything about it was beyond
idiotic..." he said, advancing towards her.
He lowered his hands and the chains slid downwards through the floor and
backwards along the surface, forcing Janna on her knees and bending her arms
towards her back in an uncomfortable position. He extended his left index then
and pushed the tip of his claw into Janna's forehead, until it drew a single
drop of blood. Tom licked his finger, murmuring something in a language she
couldn't understand.
"Do you understand the kind of trouble you could have been in if Star and I had
gotten here even minutes later?"
"Yes."
"Did you understand it before you took the urn?"
"No."
Tom seemed to hesitate at her response, clearly it was not what he expected to
hear. "Would you have taken it anyways, had you known?"
"No."
"That's a LIE!" he growled. Eyes glowing fiercely, fire burning around him.
Janna felt the shackles tighten and pull even further back, stretching her arms
in a very painful manner. She felt afraid. For the first time since they had
done it, she felt genuinely scared of the demon prince.
"Fine," she spat. "I would have taken it anyways, but I would have probably not
unlocked it if I knew what was inside!"
He seemed surprised again. But he raised a hand and the chains gave out just a
little bit, easing her pain back into a more bearable level of discomfort. "Why
would you have still taken it then?!"
"I told you," Janna said, looking to the side, as annoyed at him as she was
afraid. "Because I wanted to make sure I'd see you again. Didn't think the bell
would necessarily be enough..."
She felt a powerful grip around her chin, as Tom forcefully turned her face
back to look into his hollow burning eyes. But when she looked back, she saw
the eyes were back to normal and Tom had a confused but calm expression.
"That... that wasn't a lie..."
He leaned forward, pressed his lips against her and kissed her. Despite the
chains and the awkward position, Janna found herself reciprocating the kiss.
Fiery passion flowed between the two of them as they welcomed and fought each
other in the space between their mouths. Eventually, Tom pulled himself back
up, smiling downwards at her.
"I believe, you still deserve to be... punished, some more," he winked at her.
"But if you want it to stop, feel free to say so."
She most certainly did not, especially now that she knew for sure she was in no
real danger. Or, at least, she had reason to hope that was the case. "Oh,
believe me, there is still a lot of punishment you have left to do here, Tommy-
boy! Besides, aren't you like, reading my mind now or something?" The way he
seemed to know which of her words were true and which weren't was suspicious,
to put it mildly.
"Not exactly. I can mostly just tell when you are lying for now." he explained.
Well, that was interesting, Janna thought to herself.
"Fine. I hate you!"
"Lie!" Tom shouted and slapped Janna's cheek with the back of his right hand.
Hard. Probably not as hard as he could, demon and all, but hard enough to send
a confusingly exciting jolt of pain through her face.
"That did not turn me on!" she protested, on purpose, trying to keep a straight
face.
"That... is a lie," Tom replied, grinning. "You are a freak."
"Well," she paused, "that is not a lie..."
Tom hit her again, on the other side, and at the same time she felt the chains
tense behind her. The pain shot through her face and her arms at the same time.
Janna felt herself getting wet. She knew Tom was truly phenomenally dangerous,
that he could hurt her for real if he wanted, that he had the temper and he had
cause. For some reason, that made Janna giddy inside. But also, the hottest
part, truly, was the he was controlling himself, hurting her only as much as
she could handle. Perhaps, less than what she could really handle.
Tom grabbed at the collar of her dark green t-shirt. He pulled down, using his
claws to rip it open, letting her chest free without undoing the chains. He
stared at her exposed breasts for a while, as if deciding what to do with them.
Then he lowered both hands and began softly twisting her nipples. Janna felt
the urge to squirm, but she could barely turn around given the way the chains
pulled her back, pushing her exposed chest forward. Tom twisted and pulled for
what felt like hours. Eventually she could not take it anymore.
"Tom, I want your cock!" she shouted. It was like a line out of a porno, but
surely that would make him switch tracks.
"That... wasn't a lie."
The demon raised an eyebrow and removed his pants. He walked over to Janna,
until his purple member was right in front of her face, firm and pointing
towards her. She had to stretch her neck to even begin to wrap her lips around
the tip. But, as soon as she did, Tom trusted forward violently, pushing
against her throat. She tried taking his dick deep, but he thrashed around,
making her gag, seemingly more interested in keeping punishing her than on
making her job easier. She felt herself reduced to sloppily fighting the
intrusions with her tongue as Tom carelessly fucked her face.
Suddenly, she felt claws pinching both nipples. Janna yelled in pain and
surprise, only to find that the demon took the opportunity to ram his cock deep
down her throat. She felt nauseous, and found it hard to breathe. But as
suddenly as it had entered her, Tom pulled back, taking his prick out of her
mouth entirely. That's when Janna noticed the chains were gone. How long ago
had Tom made them vanish?
"Crawl on your knees!" Tom commanded her, and she was only too eager to obey.
Janna felt a claw rip her underwear off. Then a pair of probing fingers pushing
inside her wet folds. Moments after, she felt Tom's hands on her shoulders and
his hard erection poking at her entrance. She thrust herself back at him before
Tom had a chance to surprise her again. They moved each of their own volition,
slamming violently against each other, mating like animals in her family living
room's floor.
She felt her own climax building up, and moaned loudly. She felt Tom's hand
forcefully slap her ass, causing her to contract around his cock, increasing
the pressure and friction. Then a second slap came, and then a third, and soon
it became part of their discordant rhythm together.
"I hate you!"
"That was a lie."
"I think you are a jerk!"
"... Lie."
"I only want power and magic from you!"
"... Lie."
"I want you, Tom!"
"..."
He grunted. She moaned. They came together and felt to the floor, exhausted.
Janna felt bruised, and sore all over, but strangely satisfied.
They almost fell asleep like that, until she realized there was still an issue
they needed to address. Two issues, really, but first things first. "So, Tom...
about getting the house back in one piece..."
He groaned, tiredly. "Oh, right, sure." He began getting dressed, and she
followed suit. "Janna, I can have demons guide every pebble of rubble, every
splinter of wood, back to where it belongs. But I am going to need you to give
me permission to see your surface thoughts, and I am going to need you to
remember how everything looked before, room by room and wall by wall, until we
have this whole thing fixed. I can't make plants grow, but you can always blame
the garden on a car driving over it or something..."
"Do you need my permission to read my thoughts?"
"Usually, yes."
"And it will only be what I am thinking about, right this instant?"
"Yup, nothing but surface thoughts."
She thought it for a while. Well, it couldn't be any worse that what she had
already revealed, could it? She shrugged her shoulders. "Sure. Go ahead!"
"Ok, good," Tom stopped, his eyes going wide. "Janna, you perv!"
"Sorry," she said with a smile. That was a lie, which he of course knew. But
she focused on the house from then on.
Chapter End Notes
     This chapter was a bitch to write. Next chapter should end Part I,
     and also give you all some more fluffy smut from our other main coupe
     (s?) :)
***** Acts of Compersion *****
Chapter Summary
     In which Star hatches and flawlessly executes a master plan of her
     own, a date is truly out of this world, and a main couple enjoys a
     well deserved happy ending, to the satisfaction of all parties!
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 09: Acts of Compersion *****
     Continuity stardate: This chapter takes place a week after the SvtFoE
     episode "Just Friends" (S02E20b) and shortly before "Face the Music"
     (S02E21). The story has diverged from the SvtFoE season 2 mainline.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/9.png]
The week that followed was surprisingly normal, almost eerily so; school,
homework, family dinners, the works. To the troublemaker's girl relief, Janna's
parents had arrived to a house almost in better shape than the one they left.
The only exception being the barren and dead garden, which she managed to
effectively blame on older drunk teens driving over it. Tom had even helped her
fake the tracks.
All in all, her plan had worked almost flawlessly, giant snake or not. Tom had
told her to keep the bell, and that he hoped to see her again. Jackie and Marco
were still officially a couple at school, with Star seemingly keeping her own
relationship with the boy under wraps. The later was greatly helped by the fact
that Marco and his roommate had always been ambiguously close.
So, victory sweet victory, dance puppets dance! And yet, she could not help but
feel a bit out of her depth even now. That Sunday night had been intense, in a
way she had not expected it to be. Sure, the unlocking ritual going out of her
control and summoning a snake monster was a bit unsettling and all. But really,
the scariest part had been what happened after, with Tom.
It was not just the chains and not just the forcefulness, but how it made her
feel. Sure, Janna owned her own pair of chains, and Tom had made some comment
about it when she had him restore that part of her room. But, she always had
thought that, well, if there was going to be any tying up in her sex life,
whenever it begun, she would be the one doing the tying. Now, in a weekend,
most of her fantasies had gone from hypothetical to very much real, and her
role had not been the one she had expected. The strangest thing was that she
had enjoyed it; very much so, in fact. That was, she thought, the part that
scared her the most.
Yeah, that must be it. It scared her how much she could get lost in the
sensations of pain and pleasure, in the excitement of surrendering control, or
the fun of their banter and back and forth. What if she lost control
completely? What if Tom did? He had not harmed her, not really. The demon could
kill her in an instant, and yet he had hurt her just enough to satisfy her own
personal cravings, without so much as leaving a mark for the next morning. But
wasn't he still dangerous nonetheless? Wasn't he unstable? Upon later
reflection, Janna was, literally enough, playing with fire.
Star had tried to tell her to stay away from Tom, more than once over the week.
"I mean, Janna, I guess he is not that bad as a friend," the princess had said,
grimacing as she forced herself to be fair. "He hangs out with Marco sometimes
and it goes... alright. But, dating Tom? It can get seriously un-fun, believe
me, I have been there."
"So, is dating the Diaz-Thomas hive-mind a much better idea, then?" Janna had
sniped back.
That managed to throw the mewman girl of her case. First, because she had to
explain to her she didn't mean a literal hive-mind. Second, because Star had
always made a weird face and excused herself whenever Janna asked about her
relationship with Marco, or about the skateboarder girl in general. The
princess and Marco had arrived together from his home every morning that week,
which was not unusual. But, whenever they were in school, the princess mostly
left him and Jackie alone together, and hung out with Janna or Starfan.
Whenever the former tried probing her about it, Star found a way to avoid the
subject altogether. She seemed in a good mood. In fact, Star was visibly
happier and bubblier in general these days, compared to any in the weeks
before, and she seemed to be in good terms with both Marco and Jackie. Still,
she would not talk much to them or about them, while in school, not even with
Janna.
Despite it all, Janna had to admit Star's advice regarding Tom seemed worth
heeding. The magical princess had a pretty high tolerance for danger, and she
could take care of herself far better than Janna could. Exciting as Tom was,
what if he took things too far? If he got angry? Could she stop him? Get away?
But in the almost three days straight she had spent with the demon, menacing as
he was, he had never truly harmed her. He had never harmed Star either, Janna
thought, despite his anger issues. From what she knew, he had truly tried
working on those problems too. In fact, that last night, after they had done
it, after the violence and the punishment, he had been almost sweet. He had
helped her repair the house, wall by wall, brick by brick, careful with the
access she had granted him to her thoughts. After they were done, he had held
her, and he had roamed a clawed hand through her hair, more mellow than she had
ever seen him. He told her to call him again soon.
What if this was what scared her, then? She was attracted to Tom, sure, that
was old news. But, was she falling for him? She knew he was not falling for
her. Tom's true crush was Star, always would be. Too many questions, too many
perils. Her plan had worked too well for her own good.
----
Friday arrived and Star was still hesitant about her decision. Not her decision
of dating Marco, of course. She would not miss their new situation for the
world! Sure, she had opted for giving him and Jackie as much space as she could
at school, but that was because, after all, she and her roommate had the
afternoons for themselves. The weird thing was, that had not been too different
from their dynamic before. Sure, there were more smooches now, on top of the
friendly hugs, and they certainly had made use of her glitter bubble spell once
or twice over the week. Yet, ninety percent of the time, they were what they
had always been up to that point, the world's bestest besties. They laughed
together, watched movies together, went hunting for magical gemstones together,
and, ok, occasionally, just occasionally, made out together. A lot.
But there was one thing they hadn't done yet, a place they hadn't been to,
which Star was saving as a surprise. Well, as half of a surprise. Carefully,
she took Marco's scissors out of her purse and waited, leaning against the
porch of the school. She waved at StarFan and Janna as they passed her by, but
kept on waiting. She waited until it seemed like every student had already come
out through that door. Every student except two. She waited some more. She did
not mind the wait. It was not like her mind was making up ideas about what the
other two teens might be getting up to inside the school buildings or anything
of the sort, she told herself, unconvincingly.
Eventually, Marco and Jackie emerged through the door, holding hands. The boy's
hair looked only slightly tousled, and it was pretty obvious, to Star at least,
that they had been making out back there. An understandable delay, all things
considered. She shrugged.
"Whoa, hey Star! Sorry to keep you waiting," Marco spoke hesitantly, looking
down. He seemed about as not used to this whole thing as she was, which, in a
way, was a relief. "Next time I can catch you home, I mean, if you prefer... or
I can hurry up too... I..."
"I believe," Jackie said, with a smile and a raised eyebrow. "That this is
where I hand him off. As he said, sorry for the delay, Star. But you get it the
rest of the day, so I hope you don't mind too much!" She beamed a knowing grin
at Star.
Star grinned back. "Actually, Jackie, are you busy this afternoon?"
"Well, I was planning to go do a few ramps, but nothing set in stone, really,"
she replied, a bit surprised. "Want to hang out? All three of us, or..."
"Actually, Jackie, I was thinking the two of you might want to get this
afternoon, since it is the weekend and all. And well, I think I know just the
place!" Star added, dramatically revealing the scissors she had hastily hid
behind her. Her palms were sweaty on the handles and she had to make a small
effort not to show her nerves. Well, fake it 'til you make it, she thought to
herself.
"Star?" Marco asked surprised.
"Just trust me, ok?! You'll see, no need to take anything, or worry about
missing dinner. I'll explain to your parents that you are out on a date,
Marco!" she added, in a quick torrent of words. She had put some thought into
her plan. But perhaps, not enough. "Jackie, you might want to text yours now, I
guess?"
"But, why, Star?" Marco pushed. "Not that I am complaining, but I thought you
said you had plans tonight..."
"I did," she admitted. "Plans for you two! This is it, or well, these are
them!"
"But, I thought... I mean..." He looked at her, then at Jackie. He exhaled
loudly. "I am not sure how to put this, Star, but, well, I am not complaining,
I just don't understand..."
"Marco," Jackie raised a hand, shutting him up. "Let me handle this, alright?"
The human girl grabbed Star and huddled close, as to not be overheard.
"Star, are you sure about this?" she whispered into the princess' ear. "I
thought you weren't too comfortable with, well... with Marco and I, so, why?"
"Yeah, well, that's part of the reason," Star replied, not bothering to whisper
back. "I guess I have been thinking about what you said, last time, and want to
give that a try. You know, your thing, whatever the opposite of jealousy is..."
She eyed Marco, waiting for his reaction to her tacit admission of having been
jealous before. He didn't look surprised. Mostly, he seemed relieved. 'Ok, so
much for being discreet and inconspicuous, Star,' she thought to herself.
Sometimes it was a pain how well Marco could read her.
"Anyways, the point is: there is this place I had been thinking of visiting
with Marco for a while, but this whole week I have been thinking about it, and
the more I think, the more it feels right that it is the two of you going there
instead! There are plenty of other fun places left to visit in the wide wild
multiverse, so you are not entirely off the hook on me taking you out on dates,
Marco Diaz," she jokingly prodded the underside of his chin with a finger.
"But, well, I think, today, it should be you two! I really hope you like it
and..."
She was interrupted by a hug from Marco, and a deep kiss. As soon as he let go,
Jackie briefly jumped at her and hugged her too.
"Thanks, Star! But, if you feel uncomfortable, now or in the future, let me
know, alright? You don't have to prove anything to us or pretend you are ok
unless you truly are," she spoke. "Plus, well, you know I don't want to
monopolize Marco either!"
Star laughed. Honestly, in the time since their first date, Star was sure she
had been spending more time overall with Marco than Jackie had been. Hell, even
before they were dating, Star and Marco spent more time together than he did
with Jackie.
"Yeah, yeah, alright," she pushed the scissors forward and concentrated on
their destination. "No more time to waste. Of you go!"
She pushed Marco first, then Jackie, closing the portal after them. With a
sight, she let herself collapse, sitting on the floor. Once she stopped
focusing on smiling, a look of worry and doubt settled on Star's face. Was she
doing the right thing? Could she handle it? What if she couldn't handle it?
----
The oval pink portal opened up on top of a large circular pillow, far too large
to fit on most rooms the human kids had ever been in before. It stood among an
infinite sea of similarly fluffy pillows of all shapes, sizes, colors and,
presumably, degrees of softness, judging from their appearance. The pillows
extended in every direction over the plane. As far as Marco's eyes could see,
Jackie and himself seemed to be alone in the entire cushion ocean. Above them,
an endless space was softly illuminated by bright balls of multicolored light.
They seemed far too close to the surface, and too well defined, to be stars. In
between the spheres, ran endlessly long ribbons of translucent fabric, wider
than the two of them were tall. Every color seemed to be represented too in the
canopy of ribbons, giving the landscape a vibrancy of hues that seemed almost
excessive, but stopped short of overwhelming the senses, remaining pleasing to
the eyes. The air was similarly saturated with sundry pleasant, yet reasonably
subtle, aromas, that seemed to come from nowhere in particular.
The particular pillow they landed on was red: the exact red of Marco's hoodie.
It was hard enough to walk on if needed, but soft enough that when they had
originally landed on it, sitting, they felt no harsh impact. The silky ribbon
right on top of them was ocean green. Clearly Star had planned this to the last
detail, at least in choosing their landing location on this strangely
comfortable dimension.
"Whoa," Jackie muttered, wide eyes looking around in every direction. "This
is... incredible." It was no overstatement.
Marco, more used by now to the amazing vistas of far flung dimensions, was the
first to recover his focus long enough to notice the items and the notes in the
middle of 'their' pillow. He grabbed one of the notes and glanced at its
contents, "Hey, this looks like Star's handwriting!"
"Oh, what does it say?" Jackie finally replied, once she was able to pry her
gaze away from the rivers of reflective multicolored silk in the sky. "You
know, Marco, when she did that field trip, I thought she was showing us the
best dimension. Like, she called it the dimension of Wonders and Amazements.
But this, this is something else... are all the dimensions you two travel to
this cool?"
"Well..." Marco started. Certainly there had been worse places they had
visited. "All are kind of amazing in their own way, really, but not all this
comfortable," he spoke. It was the truth, and if it made him sound cool and
knowledgeable to Jackie, all the better.
"So, Marco, the note?" she reminded him after a moment.
"First, take of your clothes."
"Woah! Ok, Diaz, sure, but, you know, we have the whole afternoon for that..."
Jackie replied, with a laugh and a shrug.
"No, no... I mean, that's, what Star's note says," Marco clarified, flustered
once more. "I was just reading, I didn't mean..."
"Oh, well, if Star says so..." the girl shrugged again and began pulling up her
t-shirt. Clearly Jackie didn't exactly dislike the idea, either way. "Is there
more to it, though?"
"Second, grab some food," he read on. Looking down, he noticed there was a
picnic basket. He opened to find two sandwiches inside. For some reason, they
seemed somehow unearthly, yet familiar, to him. There was also an assortment of
fruits, some he recognized from Earth, a few he did not, as well as a few
sodas, juices and two mini champagne bottles. "Seems like she left us
provisions..."
"Very thoughtful of her," Jackie murmured absentmindedly, somewhere behind
Marco.
"Third, use the vials. Parenthesis: it is oil, it goes on your skin," Marco
kept reading. He looked down to see a ribbon around two ornamented glass
bottles and an opaque black crystal. "Fourth, hold onto the crystal. Do not
touch until after the oils. Triple exclamation mark. I will fetch you both
tomorrow morning, try to be decent. Winky face. P.S. There is a restroom both
behind the big green triangle cushion... man, she did plan this one through..."
It was not like Star to be this detailed in her ideas. She usually made things
up as she went along. Then again, Marco thought, it wasn't as if she was going
to be along for this particular trip. Maybe she felt more compelled not to
leave things to chance if it was Jackie and Marco who would be left to their
own devises in an unknown dimension, especially after the Hekapoo incident...
"So, it would be a shame if we don't follow her instructions, right? Given how
much effort she clearly put into this," Jackie remarked, slowly, almost
whispering on the boy's ear. "With that in mind, aren't you a bit behind on the
list, Marco?"
Marco turned around when he felt her hand on his shoulder. His eyes opened wide
and his mouth hung low as he took in the view. Jackie had fully disrobed as he
read Star's letter, and now stood at arm length from him, entirely naked. Perky
breasts and toned slim body drawing his eyes, soft skin beckoning to be
touched, sparkling eyes beaming at him over her smile. Long lean legs ending in
a bare smooth triangle. Marco had been seeing a lot of Jackie these last few
weeks, yet it still always left him speechless, particularly now that he had
been caught by surprise. "Wow," he replied simply.
"So, Marco Diaz, still into your boring old girlfriend?" Jackie joked at him,
clearly pleased with his reaction. "Or does that become too ordinary after
dating magical princesses?"
It took Marco a few moments to process the words, or to collect his thoughts
back from the sight in front of him. "Jackie, I've always been into you, I
can't imagine not being into you. You can't ever be 'boring' or 'old' anything
to me. Honestly... what I still don't get is what you, well, either of you, see
in me..."
"Plenty of things, Diaz," she retorted, with a smile. "Can't speak for Star,
but I can see that you are brave, and caring, and handsome, and open-minded,
and well... clearly well traveled," she looked around. "But right now, I think
I'd like to see a lot more of you. After all, Star's orders, and is only fair."
She winked at him and Marco went red once more. Then, smiling calmly back, he
began removing his hoodie, as Jackie walked towards the picnic basket and
grabbed one of the sandwiches. "Mmmmhh... wow, I fthink, this is 'e besth
sandwich I 'ave ever had, like, ev'r!" she spoke, with her mouth still full.
Eventually, Marco sat besides her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Jackie
nested herself comfortably against the boy's naked torso and ran a hand through
his leg. The sandwich was indeed extraordinary, and Marco now had a pretty good
idea of the kind of trouble Star had probably gone through to get it. If he had
known it was this good, he perhaps would have not given her so much grief about
risking their lives pulling the stuff out of sleeping monsters. It was hard to
believe, but it was absolutely worth it.
"So, Jackie, are you still sure you are ok with it all? Me and Star, I mean?"
he ventured. Marco was still incredulous at his luck, and maybe a bit worried
that by asking the two of them so often, such luck would come to an end. But it
didn't feel right to not check on how Jackie felt about it.
"Yeah... I mean, clearly you still seem to like me and, well, look around, this
place is incredible. So, it is pretty obvious, there are perks of sharing you
with Star!" Jackie declared, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Honestly, I kinda wanted to ask about the two of you. I... I want you to tell
me everything," she bit her lip.
Not without significant awkwardness, Marco managed to relate the events of the
past week to Jackie. A lot of it was fairly mundane: movies, nachos, inter-
dimensional hunting trips. At first, it was difficult for him to even tell
Jackie about making out with Star, or, worse, sleeping with her. It felt wrong
to say that to the skateboarder girl. He was pretty sure he would feel at least
a bit bad if Jackie were talking about another guy to him. But instead of
seeming uncomfortable, she actually pressed him further whenever he mentioned
anything in that direction, with a curious look and a smile in her lips. When
he described Star riding atop him, Marco felt himself getting aroused by the
memory, despite his best efforts. He worried that the girl now sitting on his
lap would notice. To his surprise, Jackie reached back and stroked him.
"Heh, sorry," he muttered.
"About what?" she smiled at him, and turned around to kiss him. "Actually, that
does sound pretty hot. Glad you had fun, dude."
"Are you sure it doesn't bother you, Jackie?"
"Hey, as long as you don't get bored of me, and as long as I have you for
myself right now, it mostly just turns me on," she commented. Marco was sure
that reaction was getting him harder than even her hand's attentions. "But,
well, is Star alright with it, though?" she added, suddenly pensive.
"I... I don't know," Marco replied truthfully. "But, well, she basically
arranged this for us... I... I think she is trying to be alright with it. Not
sure if that's a good thing..." Again, Marco wondered what he would do if it
were the other way around, if Jackie, or Star, were dating someone else and he
had to choose between not dating her or sharing her with another guy. He
thought he could do it, thinking otherwise just felt too hypocritical to
consider, but he wasn't sure.
"Well, Marco, I think it might help if you keep her reassured that you love her
too," Jackie replied. "I mean, it is pretty obvious to me that you do, but it
might not be so obvious to her." She paused for a moment, looking up into the
uncanny sky of the dimension. Finally, she turned back to him with a broad
smile. "That said, how about you do that after we have finished enjoying her
generous gift, I am getting really... curious about that oils and crystal bit."
They stood up and walked back to the center of the pillow. Marco took his
bottle first, looked at it carefully, opened it and smelled its contents. "Wow,
this looks like pretty fancy stuff, Jackie, whatever it is. The venetian glass,
the full-bodied fragrance, the rich texture of the oils! It is exquisite!"
"And they say Star is the princess," joked Jackie, amused, as she opened up the
other vial and poured a slight stream in her hand. Marco felt her touch on his
shoulders, the oil was warm on contact, and he felt quickly relax as it spread
on his skin. Jackie's hands continued along his back. She slapped his glutes
softly with damp hands, which for some annoying reason reminded him of Janna.
Finally, he caught on and began pouring some of the oil on his own hands,
before starting to apply it to Jackie's torso and soft chest. She gasped, and
smiled an easy bright smile at him.
They took a long time to cover each other in the soothing warm liquids,
caressing each other's body calmly as they went along. They explored slowly,
comfortably, in a way they had not been able to match before. Not on their
first time, when nervousness and anticipation prevented such leisure. Not any
of the nights Jackie's parents had been at home. Nor the night of the concert,
where excitement and unspoken worries prevailed. They kissed as their hands
roamed every inch of each other's skin.
Their excitement was such that they almost forgot the note, or the steps, or
the crystal. Eventually, however, Marco remembered. He grabbed the opaque
gemstone-like object on one hand, and pressed the other side against Jackie's
palm. They both felt a jolt of electricity. Marco, more experienced in those
matters at least, recognized it as a touch of magical energy. He felt light.
Literally light. Both of their feet left the ground, as they floated upwards
towards the streams of silk.
"Oh, woah, what is this?" Jackie yelled in surprise.
"I don't know," Marco replied. He smiled at her reassuringly and pressed on for
a deep kiss. After their mouths separated once more, he added, "but I trust
Star, so lets go with it."
----
Star felt it when the two of them left the ground. At least, she thought she
could feel it. She had been feeling things all afternoon, things that scared
her, and excited her, and amused her. In truth, she was not sure how much was
just her imagination, and how much was the link. She had begun thinking about
her connection with Marco by that noun: link. It seemed more palatable to her
than considering it a magical bond or chain, or even string. It was complicated
stuff, alright? And is not like she had Glossaryck around to ask. Nor would she
ever bring this stuff up to her mom, which was the only source of information
on her magic she had left!
Whatever it was, it had gotten stronger that whole week, though. Star had often
felt a tingle in her lips while in the cafeteria, sitting with Janna, only to
look around and catch a glimpse of Marco and Jackie kissing. She still felt a
bit envious when that happened, hard as she tried not to. But she also felt a
feeling of happiness within her. Likely, that second sentiment came from Marco,
through their link. Still, after her conversation with Jackie, she had tried to
make that feeling her own. She wanted to be happy for them, she really did.
Sometimes, she even succeeded. Their date tonight was her latest, and most
ambitious, effort on that front.
The dimension she had picked was artificially created. A sort of magical
extreme version of a popular courting tradition in Mewnie. The place had
existed for a long time, and most of the required magic was weaved into the
dimension itself. Still, Star had spent a good deal of time at night that week
practicing the levitation spell that went into the crystal centerpiece. It was
a simple spell, but one she had long been stubbornly uninterested in learning,
until she had a real use for it.
She had anticipated getting emotions back from Marco, even across dimensions,
as a possibility. She had counted on it! It still surprised her how strong they
were. A few minutes after they went through the portal, Star had felt herself
blush, for no reason. Then, she briefly sensed the taste of her favorite
sandwich in the whole multiverse. That was strange, by the way, since she had
never gotten any emotions from Marco regarding food, only regarding things like
makeouts and him being in bed with Jackie, or with Star herself. Maybe just
eating with someone he liked triggered the link? Maybe the sandwich was just
that good!
Not long after, she had felt herself getting warm, and wet. She had wondered if
that meant Jackie and Marco were already doing it. She closed her eyes, as it
sometimes helped her sense things better, but felt only a wave of calm and
reassurance wash through her mind, while still leaving her slightly aroused.
Her mind seemed to vividly recall her first time with Marco, as if someone
where recounting it to her.
Now she sat in her bed, in her room, and she felt herself surprised out of
nowhere, followed by a happy light elation. She was pretty sure they had used
the crystal. There was no way for her to sense the crystal itself, of course,
but the feelings had to be coming from Marco and matched her own when she had
tested the spell. Star felt her heart quicken and her cheeks glow bright red.
She wondered if the arousal came from Marco, or from her own fantasies about
taking the boy out to that place. The princess felt regret at having given that
up by sending him with Jackie instead, then she felt guilty about that regret.
Those feelings, clearly, came from within.
She closed her eyes and opened them in shock once again! She had seen a flash
of Jackie's naked body pressed against an ocean green silk fabric, Marco's
delicious naked torso pressing against her, kissing her passionately. Was she
imagining that, or could she really watch them? No, it clearly was the truth.
The image had been unmistakably real. She had seen them once, when actively
casting the Seeing Eye spell, and that was clearly the origin of the link. She
had also caught some very vivid flashes that night with, well, with Tom. But
this time the images were even more detailed and clear, so much so that it was
impossible for her to honestly confuse them with her own imagination. How much
stronger was the link now than then?
The mewman girl took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. At first, it was
only darkness. Then she saw the bright pulsating spheres of light and green
mist she had seen a week ago, when she was with Marco. Except this time,
fainter, dimmer, further away, there was a third sphere. Star focused on that
sphere and was hit by a wave of strong pleasurable sensations, mostly centered
around her left breast. Then, the picture shifted again.
"Oooh, Diaz," Jackie exclaimed, as her boyfriend's lips and tongue enveloped
her left nipple. Star could see it clearly now, from a comfortable third person
perspective. The naked human girl sliding upwards slowly along the silk ribbon,
skin glistering with sensual oil. Marco's lean muscular body pressing against
her, shiny as well with the scented liquid. His hand was reaching between his
girlfriend's legs, easily slipping in between her folds, given the external,
and internal, lubrication.
Star felt those fingers too. Sort of. The sensations seemed muted compared to
being there, but only barely. Still, instinctively, she reached between her own
legs, adding her physical stimulation the psychic one she was receiving.
Emotions vied for control of her mind: jealousy at Jackie, which she tried to
fight; guilt at spying on her friends once more, which she sought to ignore;
overpowering elation, which she attempted to kindle.
"Jackie, slide up!" called Marco. With great athletic dexterity, the girl
complied, pushing herself faster upwards along the floating fabric. As her
belly reached face height with him, Marco stopped her with his hands on her
waist, and began kissing the inside of her thighs. Star felt herself shiver and
her mouth wet, somehow linked now to both of their sensations. A green gleam
seemed to pervade the edge of her vision, but it left the scene in front of her
unimpeded.
Marco's tongue darted inside the skateboarder girl, eliciting a loud moan of
pleasure. As he moved under her, Star felt his tongue lap around her own
crotch, tracing an intricate dancing pattern. She felt her legs buckle, even as
she sat, and then, she felt them not at all. She discovered, briefly, that she
could not move or open her eyes. But instead of terrified, she felt at ease,
and yet, hot.
Jackie moaned in pleasure and Star's mind replicated the sensations. Marco and
the girl rolled over, sliding out from a side of the silk ribbon, falling
slowly upwards. Floating in mid air, they climbed atop each other's body, until
their mouths met in a kiss and, seconds later, Marco's member penetrated her.
For infinitely long seconds they made love in mid air: weightless,
unconstrained, impossibly intimate. There, tethered to nothing but each other,
Marco rhythmically thrust into Jackie, as she wrapped her arms and legs around
him, pulling him towards her with all her strength and desire. Eventually they
landed into another, higher, silk ribbon of a soft pink hue. There they
continued the motions, faster, more savagely, racing together towards the
inevitable release.
It was impossible for Star to feel jealousy then. How could she envy Jackie,
when she felt every wonderful thing the human girl felt? How could she be angry
that Marco was with someone else, when it brought him such joy and pleasure,
and she felt what he felt as well? With every thrust, every moan, every pair of
hands grasping the aerial sheets, she felt both of their sensations. An
overwhelming mix of emotions and physical stimuli, too strong for a single mind
to contain.
There was an instant there, where Star knew, truly knew, that Marco did love
her, and that he loved Jackie too. She also knew Jackie liked and admired Star,
on a visceral level. She knew as well what her own feelings were. Star knew she
could make this work, this whole thing. Marco, Jackie, the spell, the link,
whatever it was. Dark magic or not.
But then she knew something else. She knew there was a fourth mind in there
with them, alien and distant, laughing at the smallness of her epiphany. A
green smirking chasm of unearthly force, that knew the horrifying cost behind
all happily ever afters. That thought slipped from her mind just an instant
after, as did her certainty about the other two. Forgetting all but the scene
she now witnessed.
A level removed, however, she could still see their movements, and feel their
mounting arousal. She could feel Marco inside of her just as well as Jackie
herself could, and she felt also the, to her, strange sensations of doing the
same act from Marco's point of view.
"Maaaarco!" she called, exactly as Jackie did.
"Jackiee!" she heard Marco call, and almost followed suit herself.
A synchronized wave of pleasure hit all three minds as their bodies climaxed as
one. Two together in a silky support, one alone in her room, in a dimension far
away.
"Wow, Marco, remind me to like, get Star the biggest gift I can possibly come
up with for her birthday..." Jackie finally spoke, gasping. Slowly, their
bodies began descending back into the ocean of pillows. Marco smiled and held
on tightly onto his girlfriend's frame. "Better yet, bring her here, and...
eh... thank her on my behalf." She laughed.
"Oh, don't worry, I plan to!" Marco announced, with a smirk, which earned him a
mock punch on the shoulder.
Star smiled at them, as the scene faded from her mind and she felt herself
return to her body and to her room. She felt her jealousy melt, at least for
now. She felt so happy about her friends, so hopeful for the future, and only
slightly embarrassed about having spied on them again.
She also felt scared, somewhere deep in her mind, and she didn't know why.
----
*** END of Part I ***
Chapter End Notes
     Extra-long Author's Note:
     So, here you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The end... of the
     beginning. To everyone's surprise, it ends on Jarco! ;) (Season 3
     intro be damned)
     First of all, for those who are long time readers of this fic,
     apologies for the month-long hiatus. Life got just slightly
     overwhelming from mid May to now. I knew that was going to be the
     case ahead of time, but I thought I could get Chapter 9, and thus the
     end of the arc, out, before I became too busy. At some point, though,
     the decision became between postponing Chapter 9 until now, or
     rushing it badly. I opted for the former. I will do my best to resume
     weekly or biweekly posting, starting Part II within two weeks from
     now.
     One thing I haven't decided, is how to publish Part II and beyond.
     This whole thing started as outright porn on adult-fanfiction.org,
     with only the first chapter planned originally, and grew from there.
     Part I, thus, can be at best characterized as porn with plot, and I
     have tried my best to cram a sex scene per chapter. I don't think
     that's what I want to do with Part II. Don't get me wrong, there will
     still be pretty detailed smut, but the idea is the plot will take the
     center stage, and most chapters will not contain a sex scene.
     Instead, I might do a big sex scene every 3 or 4 chapters, to
     accompany, but not define, the plot. So, given that, and not being
     that familiar with AO3 conventions, what do people suggest: a)
     Continue story in same fic? b) Continue story in M rated fic in same
     series, with optional E-rated smut chapters? c) Continue story in E-
     rated fic which will only occasionally live up to the rating?
     Either way, things to look forward to, if you have enjoyed this so
     far:
     More poly-V actual Starco+Jarco relationship!
     More strange, BDSM-y, sorta messed up, Jantom!
     Mystery Big Bad and actual world(s)-level stakes!
     Aaaand... "Face the Music" will still be in continuity! (Season 3
     almost certainly won't be, though)
***** [P2] Under the Shimmer, and Rubies and Pearls *****
Chapter Summary
     In which preparations for a grand event are under way, happy
     relationships abound, a princess rebels against authority, Janna
     gives her views as to the institution of monarchy and Glossaryck
     makes a speech about rivers.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
****** Part II: Princess Song ******
***** Chapter 10: Under the Shimmer, and Rubies and Pearls *****
     Continuity stardate: Chapters 10 to 12 take place during the span of
     SvtFoE episode "Face the Music" (S02E21), but the timeline has
     diverged enough that some important scenes will play out very
     differently from canon. Previous episodes are in continuity for this
     fic, episodes after S02E21, generally speaking, are not.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/10.png]
The boundless topography of pan-dimensional space stretched out in its
unimaginably vast cardinality, yet his eyes surveyed all of its limitless
contours. The endlessly forking streams of possibility and converging river
mouths of inevitability extended into the unfathomable horizon of time itself,
yet his gaze could travel far among the paths, to the deaths and births of
universes. For he was mighty Omnitraxus Prime, master of space and custodian of
time.
Today, however, the great Omnitraxus found himself vexed and perturbed. For
weeks he had peered into the structure of infinity itself, trying to find the
destination of the magical drain. Now, a terrifying new layer had affixed
itself to the issue. One that was completely unforeseen, even by one such as
himself, mighty among the mighty, wise among the wise.
Somehow, magic had started flowing out of many regions of the cosmos at once,
across dimensions, sometime around a month and a half ago, relative to the
Mewni time stream. His core region of the multiverse, spanning Mewni and a
billion other major dimensions, seemed to be central to the disruption. But it
was not the drain itself that preoccupied Omnitraxus. The original drain was a
foreseen event, tied to a fate he understood, even if only in the broadest of
strokes. It was a fate that involved him and the royal family, and which would
lead to his death, albeit perhaps only temporarily. But, more importantly, it
would also lead to a satisfactory conclusion for a long standing wrinkle in
this part of the great infinity. It was a shock that had to happen; a necessary
stanza in the symphony of existence. He could read that much in the big
picture, in the larger scale of the flows of destiny through the multiverse,
and so, he had not dared look any further into his own role.
Today, however, the song of the multiverse was discordant. The streams of
possible futures had shifted, and the entire tone and direction of all that
was, all that would and could be, had been yanked towards a much darker
conclusion, with all the elegance of a reluctant dog being forcefully pulled by
the leash. The magic drain was flowing somewhere else. Fate and destiny had
been altered. The continuum itself had been knocked from its primordial tracks.
Worst of all, it had happened right under Omnitraxus' skeletal nose.
Despite his vast powers, Omnitraxus Prime was not all-knowing. With but a
thought, he could see any one place in space and any one point in time along
any of the many paths of probability which lay before him, but that did not
help him when he did not know at least the general nature of that which he
sought. Neither did Omnitraxus know which locations or events were involved in
the cosmical aberration at hand. Thus, he had already begun the laborious
process of following the threads in the tapestry of time towards the origin of
the change, tracing each unexpected event to its proximal cause, then that one
to its own.
The dissonant elements went back further than he originally had expected. Large
alterations were perceptible through a period of many weeks, once he was aware
of the general bent of the change. It was possible that the more subtle origins
of the abnormality stretched into long gone millenia, but they had grown the
most in the last dozen days or so, incubating barely below the threshold of his
powerful awareness. Nevertheless, he would locate the original damage and
correct it, for he was Omnitraxus Prime. What were to him a few weeks, or even
a thousand years, out of eons of time? What were a few dimensions out of the
incalculable expanse of multiversal space?
But what the boundless Omnitraxus did not anticipate, was that, as he himself
pursued, the source of the change sought him out as well. It was a split second
before he noticed the viridescent malignancy embedded within his own core, the
spiderweb of corrosive magic crisscrossing the crystal fields near his nucleus.
He felt the drained magic converge into his core self with supernal force, with
undeniable purpose, and saw the path of his own existence approach its final
destination.
"Who are you?" Omnitraxus asked, with his last words. Aware that the streams
all converged in front of him, into a future that excluded the possibility of
his own permanence. In the face of true and final death, his greatest regret
was to never have figured the mystery of such an unexpected unraveling of
providence itself.
"I am hope, triumphant!" the voice in the void responded.
Then the mighty Omnitraxus Prime was no more.
-----
"Perfect Princess Moon, she's great in every way. Everything she says and does
is absolutely right..."
Star made a face and tried her best to suppress an annoyed groan. Her mother,
Moon the Undaunted, Queen of Mewni, and the subject of such a saccharine paean,
either did not notice, or pretended not to. On the other side of the magic
mirror, Star's mom kept looking at the aging songstrell with a pleasant,
although entirely non-committal royal smile. Moon also seemed not to hear the
faint stifled giggling coming from the left of Star.
"Her hair is silky soft. Her favorite color's pink. She flosses every day, and
she never needs to sleep!"
Did her mom even like pink? Star rarely saw Moon wearing anything other than
blue. The barely visible bags under Moon's eyes also told Star that, whatever
the song said, her mom would certainly benefit from some more shut eye time in
her busy schedule.
"The perfect Princess Moon, she's nice in every way. Always in a sunny mood,
even on the cloudy days."
A sunny mood? She could count the times a week her mom wore a genuine smile
with the fingers of one hand, and that was when she lived with her in Mewni.
Wait, was it because Star lived with her in Mewnie that Moon did not smile
regularly? The self-doubting thought wormed into the mewman girl's mind before
she quickly dismissed it for the falsehood it was. Nah. As much as the young
princess caused Queen Moon no end of troubles, she was fairly certain that her
mother loved her and was happier with Star around than without her. It was just
that there seemed to be very little joy that the job of ruling Mewni didn't
take away from you. Star grimaced. That was a depressing thought that she found
much harder to suppress.
"Her sugar-coated heart of gold will make everything fine. She plays with
puppies and kisses kitty cats, eats her veggies and smells like lavendeeeer."
Star grimaced again. But it was a less heavy frown, directed mostly at how
absurd and forced those lyrics were. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she
saw Marco silently lifting up a laser puppy, while Jackie leaned towards the
boy to exaggeratedly smell his hair, parodying the verses. Now it was the
princess time to be forced to conceal a chuckle. Fortunately the angle of the
mirror did not allow her mom to spot the two humans, who were sitting on her
bed, so long as they kept quiet.
"Perfect Princess Moon. She's a fan of smiles. Perfect Princess Moon will be
our que-ee-e-e-e-een!"
The songstrell ended the awful piece, and Moon clapped approvingly. Star could
not stand it any more, "Ugghh! Mom! Worst. Song. Ever. Do I have to have one of
those written about me?"
"Yes, Star. It's a tradition as old as the kingdom itself," her mother calmly
explained. It was a tradition due for abolishment, if you asked the princess,
like so many corny pointless old ceremonies. Her irritated face made her
opinion on the matter amply clear. Moon, undaunted, continued with even greater
enthusiasm, "and is your official introduction as Future Queen to the people of
Mewni!"
Star's mocking response about how generic the song was, was met with a much
less approving tone from the queen. Mother dear made it pretty clear that plans
for Star's Song Day were well underway, and that she had already sent one of
those awful songstrells her way. Moreover, the princess' feelings on the matter
did not make a lick of difference on that either.
"Hmmmmmm... fine," Star relented, or seemed too. There was no point in arguing
with her mom when it got to this point. She would deal with the songstrell
instead, or rather, not deal with him. Avoidance and making herself scarce had
always worked better for her in the past, when she had to get out of annoying
ceremonies and royal events, compared with trying to change the queen's mind.
"And remember, Star, the people of Mewnie like their Princess Songs light and
fluffy," Moon added, unhelpfully. The last thing that Star wanted associated
with her right now was a light and fluffy piece, specially if that also meant
one as devoid of any individual personality as her mom's had been. "Do you
think you can handle that?
"Yes, mom," Star said by way of sullen goodbye and hung up on the mirror.
Carefully choosing words that her mother would interpret as an agreement on the
course of action, while she could later claim to have meant only as an
acknowledgement. She could handle it. She just wasn't going to. She would not
even meet the damn songstrell, if she could help it.
"So, Star, dude, are we going the be able to go see this Song Day of yours?"
Jackie asked with a grin, clearly oblivious to the plans brewing in the
princess' head. "I've never been to Mewni. Sounds way fun!"
Jackie's head leaned to rest on Marco's shoulder, as her hand rested on the
boy's upper leg. Though there were clear limits they did not cross, both Star
and Marco had become a lot more comfortable respectively seeing and partaking
in that sort of affectionate displays when the three of them were alone
together. Jackie herself probably had never had a problem with Star and Marco
showing affection, but the princess was still getting fully used to that part,
beyond their effusive friendly hugs. So, mostly, it was the princess watching
the two human teens flirt and show their affection.
It surprised Star how quickly such gestures had gone from making her feel
envious and insecure, to feeling just right. Truth be told, Marco and Jackie
were adorable together. It also helped that Marco's love for Star seemed just
as genuine as the one he displayed for the other girl, and that Jackie and
herself had been becoming closer and closer as friends as well.
Nonetheless, despite their recent closeness, Star had not even thought of
inviting Jackie. Originally, she had figured out that if she had to bring a
friend, if she absolutely was unable to extricate herself from that awful Song
Day tradition, then it would be Marco. Then again, why not invite both him and
Jackie? Again, she was a very dear friend, and is not like the three of them
hadn't learned to be discreet about their arrangement. Maybe Janna could go
too? But still, there was a part of Star that did not want to have to introduce
Jackie, or, if she was fully honest with herself, Jackie's relationship with
Marco, to her family. "There is not going to be a Song Day, Jackie! There is no
way I am getting one of those insipid awful songs written about me..."
"But..." Marco pleaded, giving her puppy eyes - double puppy eyes, since he was
still holding the laser puppy too, who eyed her as well. Then, breaking into a
good natured mocking sing-song voice, the boy added, "But, perfect princess
Star, you are supposed to be nice in every way!" He laughed.
The princess would have been hurt hearing that from anyone else, but something
about Marco mocking how little the song applied to Star actually made her feel
better about the whole thing. That said, no way he was going to get away with
making fun of her like that. Star walked up to Marco slowly, with a bright
cheerful smile... and punched him in the arm. See if he found that 'nice'.
"Oww," Marco winced. Jackie gave him a sympathetic look, followed by a shrug.
She knew he deserved that one, and so did he. "Ok, ok, Star, fine, that song
was awful, and obviously it says nothing about your mom, or you for that
matter. But I still think it might be easier to just go along with it and don't
let it bother you. It will keep your mom off your back, and, well, what's the
worst that could happen?"
----
"Well, this is... unexpected," the monster spoke in a deadly cold voice. It was
not to his advantage to show his surprise in his tone, and thus, he did not.
But truth was, he was puzzled. Everything up to this point had gone, generally
speaking, according to plan. His manipulations had worked almost to perfection
so far, the princess and Ludo had both proven utterly predictable, puppets
unaware of their own strings. Up until now, Ludo knew nothing, even as Toffee
extended his pawn's hand to use the wand he now inhabited.
The 'borrowed' magic under his command had been growing by the day. That is,
until earlier that morning. Now he felt it being pulled away from him,
redirected somewhere else. Maybe Star had found a way to fight him? To drain
the magic from the other end of the wand? No, impossible, the child could not
possibly understand enough to do so, she had not even realized he was siphoning
the magic away, not once had she noticed in all these months. Moon then,
perhaps? Preposterous! The high commission? No, they all put together couldn't
find a giant hydra in the middle of a shallow corn field.
"Glossaryck, I don't suppose you'd tell me what is happening," he ventured. He
hardly trusted the little man. 'I don't have a side' meant he wasn't secretly
looking for a chance to help Star, and maybe, just maybe, he was even truthful
about that. But it also meant he had no particular reason to look after
Toffee's interests either.
"Well, the magic is flowing elsewhere," Glossaryck replied, without
elaboration. Typical. Well, it was better than a direct refusal.
"I see that," he observed. Two green glowing eyes, not truly his own, but no
longer Ludo's either, narrowed dangerously. "Where is it flowing to, and why?"
"Hard to tell," the little blue man replied, unfazed. He sat crossing his legs,
floating in mid air.
"Is it flowing back?" Toffee pressed on.
"Well... no, not exactly," Glossaryck replied, as his whole body rolled around
an axis parallel to the ground, his head ending upside down as he seemed to
examine something on Toffee's wand crystal.
"Then, where?" the monster kept his tone controlled, there was no use in angry
demands when it came to the book's inhabitant. Besides, if Glossaryck was
trying to hide something, calm and care were what was called for, in order to
spot the evasions and to ask the right questions.
"I don't know," was the response. Ludo's eyes grew wide under the other
monster's control.
"You don't know? Does this mean you don't know now or you can't know, little
man?" Toffee finally grinned, feeling sure that he had figured out the magic
being's game. "I know you can see into the future. Are you saying there is no
way for you to answer my question, despite that?"
"See into the future? See into the future? Mmmm... Toffee, there is not such a
thing as 'the future', not in the singular at least," Glossaryck declared by
way of a response, rolling on the spot again so that he was no longer upside
down, then floating to position himself at arm length from the immortal
monster's borrowed face and emphasizing the quotes around 'the future' with his
fingers. "You see, time is like a stream, one which is constantly
bifurcating..."
"Yes, Glossaryck, I understand possible and probable futures well enough," he
cut him off, annoyed. No way he was going to let this discussion get
sidetracked into a lecture, specially one as basic as that one. "Are you saying
time took a path you were not expecting, or that was different from the future
or futures you foresaw, then?"
"No," Glossaryck shock his head. Then his tongue slowly flowed out from his
mouth, scratching his own left ear, before he continued. "Toffee, yesterday the
most likely future had Moon confronting you tomorrow's night. In all but a few
streams you kill her... she gets better," the little man clarified as he saw
the monster's malevolent smirk.
"That future no longer exists, nor any of those around it," Sir Glossaryck of
Terms continued, in a grave tone. "It doesn't exist even if you were to muck
around with time, it is no longer a possible future, not even in the past.
Mmmmhh... how do I explain this? We didn't take 'another path' down the stream
of time. This is more like, well, like somebody threw a bunch of boulders on
time, blocking the river altogether, and now we are flowing down completely
unexplored paths through the mountain's cliff-side..."
Well, that was worrying. Very worrying indeed. Decades of planning, gone. His
future, a future in which he apparently won, gone too. For the first time in
years, Toffee's controlled facade cracked ever so slightly, and he groaned in
frustration.
----
"Greetings, princess Star! I am... Ruberiot!" the man introduced himself. He
looked like he had been pulled right out of a Ren Faire, dressed in the most
stereotypical minstrel costume imaginable. A lute hung in front of him,
supported by a strap on his shoulder. Without so much as looking or taking a
step inside, he began playing a few cords. "And maaay I just saaaay, thought we
have much to dooo, how much of a pleasure it is to meeeet...", the tune broke
abruptly as he finally looked up, "...you?"
"So... she is kinda not home right now," Marco answered wearily. His arguments,
and Jackie's for that matter, had fallen on deaf ears. Star was determined that
no stupid song should be written about her, not today, nor any time soon.
Meeting the songstrell in the flesh, Marco could see why his best friend felt
that way.
"But, that can't be right! Maybe she did not know I was to be sent here today?
You see, the Songday Ceremony is tomorrow, and..." Ruberiot rambled on, visibly
anxious.
"Oh, I would say she knows," the boy cut him off.
"Well, kind sir, would you know where I may find princess Star today, then?"
Ruberiot asked apprehensively. "Please, I assure you this is urgent."
"No clue," Marco answered honestly and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if that's
all. It was nice meeting you, have a great day!" He made a gesture to close the
door and extricate himself from the whole situation as soon as possible.
"Actually, perhaps I could wait for her inside?" the songstrell pressed on, and
putting a foot on the door, he saw himself in before Marco could reply.
"Man, I don't know where Star is, or when she is coming back, really! I swear!"
Marco protested.
"Well, she does live here, right? So I have a better chance of meeting her on
time if I wait here than if I try to search for her in an unknown dimension...
oh, I just hope she has not traveled far," Ruberiot bemoaned. That seemed, to
Marco, like the right verb, for that peculiar person. "Pardon, but, what did
you say your name was?"
"I am Marco, Marco Diaz," he ansewered with a sigh, as he walked back to sit on
the couch. "I am Star's roommate and," he paused, unsure, "...and best friend."
"The princess' best friend? What an honor!" Ruberiot exclaimed. "Forgive me, I
didn't mean to be so rude before. You must understand, I am quite nervous to
finally get to meet her as well, and to perform such an important task as
writing her Princess Song!"
Well, yeah, it sort of was an honor, Marco thought to himself. But not for the
reasons the songstrell probably thought. It was not an honor because of the
fact that Star was a princess, let alone the type of perfect princess described
in the sort of song he had heard last night. Rather, it was an honor because of
who Star was as a person: boundlessly enthusiastic, generous, adventurous,
trouble creating and trouble resolving. Star was the best friend one could ever
hope for, and an amazing girlfriend as well. Plenty of times these days, Marco
still had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that someone like Star
liked him back, an honor indeed.
But even for the sake of Star, dealing with the annoying minstrel was a test to
Marco's patience and nerves. Ruberiot spent hours on end playing his lute and
singing at him increasingly desperate songs asking about where Star might have
gone. If Marco had known the specifics, he would have cracked after the first
two or three hours, such was the depth of the torture involved in listening to
that man. He could not watch tv, he could not even do homework. He tried
distracting the songstrell with conversation, but somehow he always seemed to
break into song at the third or fourth response and it was even worse than what
he got by ignoring him.
So when the doorbell finally rang again, it was Marco that bolted up to the
door like lightning. "Star! So glad you are back!"
"Whoa, Diaz, wrong girlfriend," the blond girl at the door replied chidingly.
"Guess now I know who you miss the most."
She was dressed in white. A white padded, seemingly single piece, suit. A
fencing suit, actually. She carried a training foil in one hand and her
trademark skateboard in the other.
"Jackie... I didn't mean... is just..." Marco stammered. "Wait, why are you
wearing a fencing uniform? I thought you stopped taking lessons before 6th
grade."
"I know you didn't, Marco," she laughed. "I am just pulling your leg. And,
well, I am trying to get back into fencing. I guess the whole giant snake thing
got me thinking... you have your sweet karate moves, Star's got magic, I need
something more than my board if I am going to keep up with you guys. I don't
want to make a habit of being the damsel in distress, even if you make a pretty
sweet handsome knight. Mmmm, by the way, how did you know I took fencing
lessons back in elementary school, dude?"
"Well... ah, Jackie, you know I paid a lot of attention to you since back
then," Marco ran a hand through the back of his hair.
Jackie smiled, moved the sword to one side and pushed forward to plant a deep
kiss on Marco's lips. "... Stalker," she jokingly admonished him once more.
Behind them, lute silent for once, Ruberiot stared at the two in quiet
surprise.
----
"Hey, Janna Banana! So glad to see you!" the princess greeted her with a hug,
as she literally landed in front of her, having jumped from a pink talking
cloud.
"Yo, Star," Janna replied, briefly returning the hug before offering her fist
to be bumped. To her surprise, Star handled the gesture perfectly and bumped
fists with her without a hitch. Clearly hanging out with Jackie was rubbing off
on the princess. Speaking of which, better to cut to the chase "So, Star, is
this by any chance a boys' trouble shopping trip again?"
"What? No! Why would you think that?" Star asked. Janna resisted the urge of
saying something sarcastic, but the mewman sounded sincere enough. "Things are
going great with Marco. Weird, but mostly weird awesome. No. It is, well, it is
this stupid royal tradition... apparently I have to have a song written about
how I love puppies and kitty cats, and smiles! Ugh!"
"But, eh, Star, well... don't you? Love puppies and kitty cats, and smiles, I
mean?" Janna questioned her, a bit surprised. Star might be a rebel, but she
did love all sort of girly things, like puppies and rainbows.
"Well, ok, yeah, I do. But, well, they will make it sound like that's all there
is... to... to me. You should have heard my mom's song, there was nothing about
the real her in that song, and there will not be anything about the real me in
mine!" Star griped. "The people of Mewni will never know me as more than
another perfect, flawless, boring, princess!"
"Well, fuck them then!" Janna replied without hesitating.
"Janna! I don't think that's the part of me I want the people of Mewnie to know
either..." Star replied, surprised and quite flustered.
What? Oh, right, seemed Star was still not completely used to Earth,
apparently. "No, Star, I don't mean literally. I mean, who cares what they
think!? If you don't want to do a Song Day, don't do it! Aren't you the future
queen? You have the power to do whatever you please, and off with their heads
or whatever if they don't agree!"
"If only it were that simple. My mom is forcing me to do this Song Day stuff. I
am trying to hide from the whole thing right now. Hopefully, if they can find
me, this stuff will eventually blow over," Star explained with a sigh. "And,
Janna... I wouldn't be chopping any heads over this, even if I could."
"Well, you take all the fun away from being a witch queen," Janna retorted,
trying to distract Star from her bad mood.
"Being queen takes all the fun away from being queen, Janna," Star retorted
sourly.
"I doubt that!" Janna insisted. Ok, the law was not fun, but being the law was
a completely different matter. "If I were the magical queen of Mewni, I would
make it fun! I would use the power to get everything my heart desires. All
shall love me and despair!" she quoted, dramatically.
Star laughed. "Whatever you say... Eclipsa."
"Who?"
"Let's just say you would probably like her," Star replied mysteriously.
They walked around the mall some more, and Janna's ever more brazen jokes about
how she would abuse Star's power and what she would do to anyone who tried to
tell her what to do seemed to slowly help lift up the princess' mood. Star
might have a problem with being thought of as a perfect princess, but when
compared to Janna's outrageous declarations of what she would do with the
crown, and the wand, she had to admit she was a good kid at heart. Then again,
even Janna suspected, that in the real situation, she herself would also be
less willing to walk the tyrant walk than she was to talk the tyrant talk.
"So, Star, now that we have established how terrible of an idea would be to
give me any kind of power, how would you feel if I told you I am going to be
learning magic?" Janna suddenly asked. She had been thinking on how to bring up
that particular topic the entire morning, and while her segue ended up not
being the smoothest, it would have to do for now.
"Uh... Janna, that would be great and all, but... I don't think magic, at least
my kind of magic, is something that humans can learn," Star answered
hesitantly. "Most mewman's can't, either..."
"Well, Star, I don't think it will be exactly your kind of magic," Janna
explained, carefully. She herself had her doubts about whether what she had
heard last night was possible. However, given any chance, she chose to believe.
"But Tom says he knows a way, and he is going to teach me. Starting late
tonight he is going to be tutoring me on doing some magic..."
Star made a face, a show of discomfort quickly morphing into the rictus of
contained laugher. Janna knew Star didn't like her talking about Tom, specially
since the troublemaker girl never paid heed to the princess' heartfelt warnings
in that regard, but this time there seemed to be something else to her
reaction. "Suuure you are, Janna... sorry, but are you sure 'tutoring you on
doing magic at night' isn't just Tom's way of, you know...?"
"Of getting me alone at night for a quick game of bury the third horn? Of
inviting me into a dark deserted area so that he can have his way with me? Of
getting me chained and on all fours again to fuck me?" Janna asked Star loudly
and unashamedly, and the mewman made an expression of surprise, revulsion and
something else, far less innocent. Janna felt a tingle of delight in teasing
Star this way. "Frankly, Star, I am kind of hoping it is both that and actual
magic."
----
It was sunset by the time she got back, so hopefully by now that whole annoying
business with the songstrell had long resolved itself. Hanging out with Janna
had been good for her nerves. Unlike her other friends, and to Star's surprise,
the troublemaker girl had encouraged her to ditch her royal duties as much as
possible, or at least ignore the responsibilities inherent in them, which was a
refreshing point of view to hear. Then again, Janna was also the person who
couldn't stop telling her about how great was to date Tom, so Star had to admit
the dark haired girl's judgment was extremely suspect. Still, she would rather
go live of toads in the Forest of Certain Death than have a ridiculous song
made about how she was sooo perfect and flawless and boring.
Star walked the last few blocks on foot, after dismounting Cloudy, which
allowed her to see Jackie leaning in through the door, kissing Marco. Star
smiled. It had taken her a while to get to that point, but she no longer felt
panicked or threatened when she saw the two of them being affectionate with
each other and, she had to admit, once she got past that particular reaction,
she found the two lovebirds actually looked quite sweet.
"Awwww, you two," she said, coming up from behind Jackie's back, after they
were done kissing.
The other girl turned around with a smile. "Hey, Star, how's it going?"
"You know, same old, same old," Star replied, not wanting to talk about either
the Song Day or Janna's dating life. "Sweet sword, by the way, the point looks
a bit dull, though!" she commented. Honestly, the compliment part was mostly
her being polite. The sword was a pretty flimsy thing, and it didn't look like
it would do much in a real fight. Maybe she could help Jackie get a better
sword later? It seemed to be one of those things that Mewni craftsmen did way
better than Earth ones, for some reason.
"Princess Star, you are back!" a voice from inside the house interrupted her
planning and brought a frown to her face.
"Ah, the songstrell... well, good-bye," she replied, and turned on the spot.
Maybe she would have to be gone until after Song Day had passed as a whole. She
could do that.
"Please, princess, I have a job to do, and I can't leave until it's done,"
Ruberiot scrambled after her.
"And I won't stay, until you are gone." she replied, annoyed.
Soon she was arguing back and forth with the songstrell, her good humor gone.
Eventually, Marco, also visibly annoyed, pulled her into the kitchen.
Apparently the insufferable man had spent his time throwing song after annoying
song at the boy too. Didn't Marco get that was partly why she didn't want that
kind of creep writing a song about her? Specially one as fake and barf-inducing
as the one her mom had?
"It's ok, Star. Everyone knows you are anything but ordinary," the boy
reassured her, patting her hair as he said that.
"Aww, thanks Marco!" she beamed back at him, surprised how much it helped her
to hear him say that. To be reassured that she was not another cookie cutter
princess in a line of cookie cutter perfect princesses, or, more precisely,
that the people she truly cared about in her life didn't see her that way. She
couldn't hold herself from hugging Marco and planting a long passionate kiss on
his lips.
"He's, uh... he's staring at us, isn't he?" she asked after they pulled apart.
"Yup," Marco answered.
Ruberiot looked at them, then looked at Jackie who was sitting right besides
him in the couch, her sword resting in the small table in front of them. The
human girl just shrugged like it was no big deal.
Chapter End Notes
     "and, well, what's the worst that could happen?" - Marco Diaz :)
***** The Forces of Evil, that Lurk in the Night *****
Chapter Summary
     In which some plans change while others continue in motion, dark
     forces move unseen, we observe the craft of song writing, and Tom and
     Janna make some magic.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 11: The Forces of Evil, that Lurk in the Night *****
     Continuity stardate: Chapters 10 to 12 take place during the span of
     SvtFoE episode "Face the Music" (S02E21), but the timeline has
     diverged enough that some important scenes will play out very
     differently from canon. Previous episodes are in continuity for this
     fic, episodes after S02E21, generally speaking, are not. That said,
     Chapters from 11 onwards can contain indirect Battle For Mewni
     spoilers.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/11.png]
Janna sat immobile in the darkness, eyes closed. She could hear the rustling of
the leaves and the beating of her own heart. She could feel the hard cold
barren ground under her buttocks and crossed legs, even through the black
fabric of her tights. She could remember the position of the gravestones around
her, the markings for the tombs beneath. Or maybe, just maybe, she could sense
them.
It was not her first, not even her second time attempting to cast a spell in
the Echo Creek cemetery. But it was her second time to do so with help, and
unlike the clown séance with Star, this time her instructor seemed more
experienced in the kind of arts that she sought out, the kind that could be
taught.
"Do not open your eyes," Tom instructed as he grabbed her hands and positioned
them in front of her, making her cup the air within her palms and placing her
two thumbs touching each other above the form. "I want you to picture all of
the sources of energy close around you: me, yourself, the trees, the grass, the
worms in the Earth, the bodies interred here, the maggots inside those bodies.
You might also be able to feel the animals of the forest or the people back in
town, but ignore them from now. Draw energy from those close to you. You should
probably try to ignore my energy too, at first, since the forces in your own
dimension should be easier to control. Got it? Can you feel it all? Once you
can, try to form the flame."
Janna felt the things Tom described. It had taken her five or six hours just to
get to this point, but she could indeed sense the living energies around her.
She felt the slow pulsing power flowing up the trunk of a nearby tree. She also
felt the background magical radiation of the dry grass around them. Although
insignificant individually, each blade of mostly dead grass added its own power
to a surprisingly large and powerful whole.
The burrowing worms and the human corpses below were much less comforting to
her senses than the plant life was. In the case of the worms, as in that of the
maggots, the main problem was the speed at which their energies moved through
their diminutive bodies, brisk and electrified, tiny sparks of restless animus.
The force in the corpses, in contrast, was stagnant and deep, a water well
which bottom she could not see even as her mind skimmed the surface. Touching
the energies of the dead felt instinctively wrong to her mind, in a way that
had no analogy to any other sensation of which she knew. Janna did not believe
in any one single god, and her own faith was, let's say, complex, as to the
subject of cosmic transgression. Nonetheless, there was only one word that
truly fit the feeling, regardless of rationalizations: sacrilegious.
She could sense Tom too, like a huge eclipsing dark shadow in the corner of her
perception. Yet her mind refused to focus on him directly, or to feel out any
details about his unearthly energies. Tom was the most powerful source of magic
for miles around, and yet her own senses refused to let her draw from that vast
pool. The demon prince had explained that it was to be expected, that it was a
good thing, it meant Janna's own instincts were shielding her from doing
something that could hurt her.
Minutes passed by, and nothing changed. She could feel the energy in the tree,
in the grass, in the corpses and the maggots, but she could not do anything
with those forces. She focused on the task at hand, her first spell: a simple
candle flame floating inside the palm of her hands. Nothing happened. No flame
and no magic. It was no use, she could touch the energies around, but it was
like grasping at currents of water with a fishing net, the power simply slid
out of her grasp at every attempt.
Janna felt stupid, and more so with each passing second. Perhaps she had only
imagined that she could sense the magic around her. Perhaps there was nothing
more here than a foolish girl sitting in a graveyard with her eyes closed,
playing make believe for most of the night. Could it be that Tom was playing a
prank on her? Was he laughing at her as he made her sit for hours and imagine
that she felt sparks inside of worms?
She felt her anger break her concentration. She could no longer even feel the
damn tree, let alone all the things in the ground below. She grunted annoyed
and tried once again. She pulled forth the power, hastily, desperately. She
grasped out at any source of energy she could still sense and drew it to her
hands with all the willpower she could muster. She felt a hot painful sensation
in her left palm, a fountain of tiny sparks sprouted briefly from her flesh,
vanishing a second later. "Ouch!" she cried, opening her eyes in surprise.
Tom looked at her, frowning. "Mmmhm, let me see," he examined her palm. "Here
it is burned," he said, carelessly pressing a finger against the damaged skin,
causing Janna to wince, "and the rest of your hands are cold as a dead woman's.
That's not good, at all. We can't continue today."
"But..." Janna protested.
"No buts!" Tom replied with haste and annoyance that admitted no argument.
"Janna, you just tried to draw energy from your own core self. You should never
ever be doing that. If you had used your own life force to light the entire
flame, you could have easily passed out, or worse. The whole point of the
exercise is to draw magic from the outside, then guide it to do what you want,
not force through with your own limited reserves! I told you, right at the
beginning, it is extremely foolish for you to cast magic that way!"
"Isn't that how you do it, though?! Or how Star does it?!" Janna replied,
matching the demon's annoyance with her own. She was frustrated and tired of
all this fruitless trying, and even more pissed off at the fact that they were
going to stop now, after the first undeniable sign of progress. Even if the
only thing she had been able to cast was the 'Burning (My Own) Hands' spell.
"Yes, and no," Tom replied, pressing three fingers hard against his forehead.
He was probably counting again, trying to regain his calm. Janna had learned to
spot some of the demon's anger management techniques. "I can call enough
personal power to summon flames, among other things. It is just part of my
nature as a demon, Janna. But there are plenty spells where I need to draw
forces from... well, from elsewhere. Star channels most of her magic through
her wand, and even I don't know from where that thing, or her, really, draws
power. In general, all spellcasting is some combination of your own magic and
that which you can draw from the environment and, like I said, you don't have a
lot of the former, so you should master pulling from the later as much as
possible..." he explained once more, speaking slowly as if to a child, making
visible effort to keep his tone level.
"And," Janna asked, "even if I don't have much magic of my own, if I do learn
to draw magic from trees and corpses and worms, will I be able to cast spells
like you... and Star?"
"No," Tom responded bluntly. "Janna, how much magic you can control also
depends on how much magic you naturally have and what sources you can
reasonably access. You could spend your entire life practicing this sort of
thing and you will never be able to call forth one tenth of the power Star
could summon the second she got her magic wand. I never said you could. You are
a regular human and she, well, she is something quite rare and quite
extraordinary in this universe... I mean, Mewni royal magic is incredibly
powerful, in general, and so is Star in particular. She is truly an amazing
individual, so is not really a fair point of comparison for a normal human
girl..."
"So, no matter what I do, I won't ever be a tenth of what Star is then, Tom?"
Janna asked, and somehow she knew the conversation was not about spellcasting
anymore. It was way too childish of her, and she knew that as she spoke the
words. But, the more time she spent with Tom, the more she resented the
knowledge that the demon prince loved Star, and thought of her just a temporary
distraction while the princess was otherwise occupied. She could not fault
Star, of course. Neither for her magic, nor for her effect on the demon boy.
She could also not really fault Tom, at least not if she was trying to be fair.
Being a distraction from Star was the deal she had originally offered him, so
it was not reasonable to expect more now. But what had sounded like a great
deal when she was only sort of attracted to the idea of Tom, somehow did not
seem enough now that she was starting to fall for him, and for all the wrong
reasons.
Tom looked away from her. Then, as if he had not understood, he spoke, "Well,
the world isn't fair. But confirmation that you can learn to cast magic at all
was news to you last night. Isn't it good news to know it is at least possible?
Perhaps you should focus on that for now?" He seemed throughly irritated. Janna
only felt even more angry at him in return. He was obviously missing, or
avoiding, the point.
----
"Argh! Wack! Wack!" came a series of grunts and squawking noises from far
beyond the boundaries of the dark sea. Toffee found the racket most annoying,
but he endured it, as always. He was nothing if not patient. He could see
through Ludo's eyes, for as long as the Avarius child held the remains of his
own arm and the half-star crystal. He could watch the... lesser... monster
using the wand to stir the awful broth he had prepared for himself, and to
bludgeon a giant bug. One half of the most powerful instrument in all of Mewni,
and the foolish bird-brain was using it to cook dinner and smash beetles! No
matter, Ludo could not harm the wand, not even if he tried.
"She is here, you know?" Glossaryck spoke. "She just saw the wand."
A dark smile formed within the oily black liquid as Toffee dared manifest his
head and peek further towards the outside world, through Ludo's eyes. Right
now, he was mostly just a toothy lizard grin plastered on the crest of a slow
rolling wave of corrupted magical essence, black as tar. In all directions, the
sea of tainted magic flowed into a boundless expanse, the few remaining large
icebergs of golden pure light quickly melting into the darkness. Atop it, the
little blue man floated, while the monster lay below, merged with the malignant
substance.
"Moon is here?" Toffee confirmed, spitting out the name with slow deliberate
venom. Moon the Undaunted, who had scattered his armies and robbed him of his
finger. Little did she know that she herself had shown him the way to defeat
her, and her entire cursed family. "If she is here, then the timelines can't
have diverged that much yet. Perhaps history shall carry on as intended after
all."
"I'd be careful with what you wish for," Glossaryck commented with a shrug.
"But no, like I said, that future is long past."
"Is it?" The lizard retorted, genuinely surprised. "The way I see it, we are
almost back on schedule. Unless, I am missing something?"
Toffee had retreated into the depths of the wand to stop the outflow of magic,
and so far it seemed to be working. While he remained hidden from the outside
world, pulling and corrupting Star's magic, and the rest of the power flowing
through Mewni, he could feel himself winning the cosmic tug-of-war against
whomever or whatever else was trying to redirect the magical power. It was only
a matter of keeping his concentration here, rather than letting himself be
distracted by talking to his unwitting servant or by his new found chances at
corporealness.
"Mmmm, you know, Toffee, for someone who is literally submerged in magic, you
seem to be only looking at the surface of things," the magical being explained
calmly. A look of resignation in his diamond eyes.
"The surface? I don't stay at the surface of anything, little man," the flowing
lizard face spoke as it disappeared into the sea. Then the voice came from
nowhere and from everywhere at once. "I can go as deep as I want, and I assure
you, the magic is all here, and is all corrupted, right down to the bottom!"
"Yes," Glossaryck conceded. "Yes it is."
It was only after hearing that, that Toffee noted the bright emerald solid core
at the bottom of his dark well of magic. A sickly glowing thing of unearthly
beauty and incredible malevolence. The magic was there, and it was corrupted,
but it was no longer his corruption, or his magic.
----
The silence had grown thick between them. They stared at each other, glaring
daggers of annoyance and frustration. He felt the anger rising inside, embers
burning within his chest and gut. How could she be so damn unreasonable!
"Janna, damn it, I am trying to do you a favor here," he finally spat. "I don't
need an attitude on top of it!"
"Doing me a favor?" Janna rolled her eyes. "You mean by teaching me magic? Or
by going out with me?"
Tom contained the urge of yelling 'both' at her. He noticed that he wanted to
hurt her, to let out his frustration on the troublemaker girl. He took a deep
breath. What exactly was he frustrated about? What in particular was riling his
temper, other than the blazing rage that always burned in him, just below the
surface? Brian had taught him that sometimes just knowing what made him angry,
in each particular occasion, could help him calm down.
"Of course I meant teaching you magic! I don't need to do it, it will be hard
for you to learn and I don't have the patience to be a good teacher, Janna!" he
retorted. And is not like she had the patience to be a good student either, he
thought, but bit his tongue on that one.
That was it, though. He was frustrated because they had been practicing for
hours and Janna had made no progress. He saw her own frustration and felt
frustrated himself, frustrated at not being able to teach her better or have
her make progress faster. He had been so eager to get Janna working some basic
magic, to fulfill that desire of her, and also, if he had to be fully honest,
to reap the praise and admiration she would bestow on him for helping her with
that. But now she was angry at him, despite all his efforts, rather than
grateful for them, and it wounded him.
"It will be hard for me to learn," she repeated, coldly. "Unlike Star, you
mean?"
Oh, for fuck sake, that was it! Tom stopped even trying to calm himself. If the
dark haired girl wanted them to fight, then they would fight. "I wouldn't have
anything to teach Star about magic! Star was meant to do magic, from the moment
she was born. You... weren't!"
"So, you would still rather be dating Star, then. Is that right?" Janna asked,
a threatening undertone to her voice concealed a faint touch of doubt. She
glared at him, and he glared back.
"Well, yes! But magic has nothing to do with it," he shot back, without
hesitation. That is, until he caught the hurt look in the human girl's eyes. It
was brief, replaced in an instant by an even harsher scowl. But for a second,
only for a second, it looked as if Janna was about to break down crying. Tom
felt guilty about his admission. It was no lie, however, and she had been the
one to push him into saying it, even when she should have known better. It is
not that he didn't like the human, but Star was precious to him, in a way that
she couldn't possibly understand.
"To bad she prefers half of Marco to all of you, then," Janna spit back. It was
a low blow. Painful and bitting to his ego and to his heart. She kept going,
"Hell, she has spent the last two weeks telling me what a terrible idea hanging
out with you is, and I am starting to see her point!"
Tom had no response to that. He felt his heart sink into his chest. He felt
furious, and humiliated, but mostly, he felt sad and heartbroken. The human
girl's words rang true. Star did not want him anymore, and maybe now Janna
didn't either. He felt his body react to the pain and the sadness, turning it
all into the emotion that was the most familiar to him: rage. His clawed fists
clenched, flames danced around his knuckles. He was seeing red, literally.
"Then again, who could blame her? I mean, let's be honest, Tom, you got more
issues than a weekly magazine!" the girl continued to shout viciously at him.
At the same time, her face was turning red, a thin tear felt from her left eye.
"I have issues, Janna? I have issues?!" Tom growled. He felt the fire welling
up inside his core. Something ancient and instinctual in him bade him to
attack, to harm, to go for the kill. "You knew I liked Star, even before we
met! You made this whole elaborate plan to get together with me. A plan that
involved, I remind you, having me sleep with Star! A plan that you told me was
going to get me Star. You started this whole 'relationship', if you can call it
that, under false pretenses, and now you have the fucking nerve to spring this
crap on me when I am doing my damn best to help you achieve your stupid wish of
learning magic... Janna, maybe you are right and I do have issues, but you are
even more messed up than I am!"
She stared at him, silently. Her angry glare softening and avoiding his own.
She looked down. When she finally spoke, it was in a very quiet, distant,
voice. "Yeah, well, Tom, of course I know that. I know I manipulated you, and I
manipulated Star too. I know I am being selfish, and I know I have no right to
ask you for more than you agreed to when we first spoke." She paused and took a
deep trembling breath. "But Tom, that is the problem, you are already giving me
more than what you agreed to originally. You helped me fix my home after I
stole from you, and that same night, I mean, after... well... you know, it felt
so right and comfortable, at least to me. And now you are taking your entire
night to try and teach me to cast spells, even if I am not the best person to
learn and you are not the best person to teach either. You are already putting
more effort into this than what you agreed to the night of the concert. The
thing is, Tom, I have feelings for you, and all of this stuff we are doing is
not helping me keep those feelings in check. So at which point do I get to ask
if you also have any feelings for me? If I am something more than a ploy to
make your ex jealous, or a replacement goldfish for Star?"
Tom felt his anger abate, slightly, as he heard the girl explain herself.
"Janna, you are not a replacement for Star, and I don't think you could be,"
the demon prince replied calmly. "But that does not mean I don't have feelings
for you. That night, in your house, after the whole thing with Midra'Apep and,
well, what we did together in what was left of the house," he smirked a single
fanged smirk, "I don't know how to explain it, but I have never felt that
relaxed or that calm. There is a lot that is wrong with me, you are right on
that. But, that night, I felt like, like I had let it out of me for a while,
like opening a valve and venting out all the fire and all the darkness in me,
without really harming anyone or doing anything I would hate myself for doing.
At least, I thought I didn't harm you back then. Maybe I was wrong..."
"No," Janna replied, still looking down. "You didn't harm me. I enjoyed that
night, Tom. I enjoy you using me, and yelling at me, and being mean. Is you
being kind to me that I have trouble handling right now." She seemed to stop to
think for a few moments. Then, smiling weakly, she added, "Wow, aren't we both
a mess?"
"Heh. Yeah," Tom smiled at her, walked toward her and lifted her face up,
carefully cleaning the tears from it with the back of his clawed hand. "We are
both pretty fucked up."
----
"Whoa. So you're, like, a totally tortured artist. Cool!" Star felt she had
seriously misjudged the songstrel after all. She had been regretting not giving
him a chance ever since he made his wish of writing a genuine song about a real
princess known, back when she had just shouted him out of her bedroom. Now that
she saw him, burning through paper, still giving it his best effort to end up
with something other than a cheesy boring perfect princess song, she regretted
it even more.
"What do you want?!" He glowered at her, and the future queen felt pretty damn
small, if only for a second. She had thought of him the whole day as one more
songstrel in a long line of awful interchangeable songstrels. Which, whoa,
perspective, was exactly what the people who saw her just as another perfect
little princess did to her! Well, as if she didn't feel bad enough already.
"You, uh, you forgot your stupid notebook," was all she could think of
replying. Incredibly lame, she had to admit. She hadn't planned what exactly
she would tell him when she opened the portal and bolted after him, and it did
not help that this was the first time she was even considering Ruby as a
person, rather than as a symbol of his damned profession. Now that she was
truly seeing him for him, he seemed like a pretty interesting artsy guy. Looked
kinda cute too. Like, not Marco-cute, maybe not even Oskar-cute, but cute.
Still, priorities, Star. "Ruberiot, do you really hate Princess Songs as much
as I do?"
"I do, Princess. I thought I could change them. I know they can be better. I
can do better." He seemed hopeful for a second, before suddenly becoming
crestfallen again. "But, the show is tomorrow, and I have nothing!"
"Ruberiot, nothing is that bad when you have a magic wand!" Star smiled at him.
"Like, I can literally freeze time with this thing! Although, well, on second
thought, maybe we better just like extend it, or duplicate you, or something
less risky, ok? Messing with time can get kinda weird..." she rambled for a
second there before she caught herself. "Actually, first, you said you wanted
to know the real me, right? So, what do you want to know?"
"Ah, sure, princess, well, lots of things, but let's start simple: any unique
hobbies?" he asked, sounding uncertain. Like he didn't yet buy Star's sudden
change in attitude towards his own appointed task.
"Sure! I fight monsters! And tame wild unicorns!" Star replied, proudly.
"Whoa, that's good, that's really good. Bold. New. Unexpected. How about..." He
put his fingers to the keys and began improvising a tune as he sang, "And under
the glimmer of bright shining pearls, lies hidden a brave and adventurous
girl!"
"Uh, we are going to have to do something to actualize your beats, Ruby," Star
groaned at the tune. "But... I do like the lyrics."
"Actualize? Oh, right, like, music from other dimensions. Bold, super bold, I
like it. Say no more!" Ruberiot exclaimed. Then started musing, almost to
himself, "I am going to need instruments, and stage work, then, maybe...
animatronics? But, princess, we are getting side tracked. Themes first, notes
second, lyrics third. So, what are you most proud of, Princess Star, of all you
have done thus far?"
"Uh," Star looked sideways at her wand. "Oooh, I know." She smiled a broad,
dangerous, smile, and aimed at a wall. "Nar-whal BLAST!"
A full horde of tiny horned whales emerged from her wand and blew up a hole in
the tower's brickwork. The outside wind sucked out the troves of draft paper.
Bits of wall fell all over the place, one of them hit the piano, breaking all
the keys in the left side.
"Oh, oh, sorry, sorry, I'll fix that in one sec. But, isn't that pretty neat,
though?" the mewman girl asked, running a hand down the back of her own head.
"That's, that's... inspiring!" Ruberiot shouted excitedly. "Maybe something
like, I dunno: 'She is casting magic like a born spellcaster, crashing walls
like a natural disaster!' No, not walls, mmmhmm... well, we will work on that.
But, the thing is, princess, if the song is going to be real, about the real
you, it does also need to include more than your strengths, it needs to include
your flaws, your struggles, your failures! Princess, I am sorry to have to ask,
but art demands it! What would you say is your greatest regret?"
Star blinked. Her biggest regret? Well, if you had asked her a month ago it
would have probably been, dunno, not asking Marco before Jackie did? No,
actually, it would have been losing Glossaryck and her book of spells. That was
the one time she felt she had failed at something important, it had cost her a
precious family heirloom and, more importantly, her friend. Traitor or not.
Then again, as the princess went over the events of the last few weeks, she
realized that was no longer her biggest regret. There was another, more
hurtful, more personal, more intimate. A mistake she brought upon herself not
by failing to do something, but by doing something she would, in retrospect,
not have done. She remembered the cold stone floor, the sound of water running,
the splinters, the heat. She remembered laying under Tom, imagining she was
with Marco. She remembered how cold and insufficient it had felt, in her heart
of hearts, if not on her flesh and blood. She remembered Tom's furious and hurt
look, as she yearned and cried out for Marco instead. She had hurt Tom that
night, and hurt herself, and even though things turned out alright, that was
one episode of her life she could have done without.
"Well, Ruberiot, it is a long story, and is personal, I don't want to put it in
a song that the entire kingdom will hear..." she fretted. Sure, she wanted her
subjects to know the real her, but did they really need to know that?
"Princess, please, tell me, we can make sure to use, you know, metaphor and
analogy. True art is saying something truthful, not necessarily something
literal. But, well, I am going to need to know, otherwise, how can I make
something real?" Ruberiot pleaded.
Star sighed. Well, she could probably trust Ruberiot's judgment on this. He
seemed like a nice enough guy, and he really did get her. Besides, it was what
she wanted: a song about a real princess, with all her gifts and flaws. As long
as it was only alluded to indirectly. "Ok, Ruby, I guess I have to tell you
about my ex..."
----
"So, what you are saying is..." Tom begun asking, slowly. He paused, unsure of
how to continue paraphrasing her offer. Janna's lip curved into a smug smile,
feeling surprisingly satisfied at causing the demon so much hesitation. She
loved teasing him with the brazenness of her words, as much as she enjoyed
being teased by the boldness of his actions.
"I am saying that I want more of what we did that time in my house, only this
time it won't be 'punishment'. It won't need to be this controlled, carefully
dosed out sort of performance you put for my benefit. Not saying that I don't
want that in the future, far from it. But, tonight, it will simply be you
venting, Tom, letting the anger out, at me, at Star, at whatever you want," the
human girl reiterated. "How does that sound?"
She let her arms fall to her sides, standing in front of the demon prince,
presenting him a purposefully exposed and vulnerable position, tilting her head
ever so slightly, literally sticking out her neck to him, like prey tempting
predator. She gave him her best inviting sexy smile, and she did not have to
act to show him the excitement in her eyes. Janna wanted Tom to do things to
her, the kind of things that came from the darkness and fire he said lived
within himself. People thought of the demon as having a short fuse and being
quick to let his anger out. But, if she was right, then Tom was actually a
master of self-control, bottling up things inside of him that humans, or
mewmans for that matter, simply did not have to deal with, just because of what
he was.
"Sounds..." Tom shifted around uncomfortably, "... intriguing. I mean, it is a
great offer and all, but, Janna, are you doing this to get me to like you
instead of Star? If so, I am flattered, but you don't need to..."
It wasn't like that! Well, maybe it was partly like that. But that wasn't her
main reason. "Mostly, I am asking because I want to see. I want to see you let
lose, scratch that, I want to feel you let lose, for my benefit as well as
yours. Come on, Tom, wouldn't it feel good to let go, for once?"
"Yes, oh yes, you have no idea how tempting that is, Janna," Tom replied, in a
carefully subdued tone, which barely restrained the arousal in his voice. He
shook his head. "But, what if I go overboard? No offense, but you are more
fragile than... Anyways, I really don't want to end up causing you actual
harm."
"Then don't, Tom," Janna shrugged. "I mean, I am not asking you to throw
fireballs at me, or crush my bones to dust, or anything like that. Just, be
mean the way you want to be mean, rather than the way you think I want you to
be mean to me, just this once. If I can't handle it, or think you are close to
hurting me in any permanent way, I'll yell, I don't know... avocado!"
"Avocado?" Tom raised an eyebrow, or two.
"Yeah, avocado!" Janna chuckled. "It is called a safe-word, Tom. If I beg for
mercy or plead with you, from this point on, then I will be doing it to turn
you on," the girl winked and the demon blushed, slightly. "If I say avocado,
though, then I do mean for you to stop, right then and there. As long as I
don't say that, you will know I am having a good time. Does that work?"
Janna had been doing some reading online, ever since their previous time
together. Having a way to stop their games made sense, it made them safer to
play, and Tom seemed like a decent enough, well, demon, that he would
acknowledge the word if and when she needed to use it, even if he was still
having a good time. At least, that's what Janna hoped. Still, in the back of
her mind, a voice was telling her that she was doing something incredibly
dangerous, asking Tom to release control of his anger on her, asking him to
loosen control on purpose. That voice, annoyingly enough, sounded to the human
girl like a certain Star Butterfly.
"Ok, we can do that, if you are sure that's what you want?" Tom answered
hesitantly. When Janna nodded in agreement, his face quickly changed. He
smirked a smug and knowing smirk, suddenly switching into the living image of
self-assuredness. He walked towards her and slowly ran a clawed finger through
her jaw. "So now I can make you pay for all that crap you said before, and for
the time wasted on useless magic lessons..."
Hearing those words, Janna simply laughed in his face. The demon prince looked
back with a confused stare. "Didn't I say not to do what you think I want you
to do? Come on, Tom, I may not know you as well as Star does, but I do know
when you are faking it."
She considered for a while on what the best course of action would be. Then, a
thought occurred to her, a dangerous and nasty thought. She looked up at Tom,
closed her mouth, gathered saliva with one quick take and, without warning,
spat on his face. Tom's eyes glowed red, fire surged around him, and in one
rapid movement he slapped her face with the back of his hand. It felt
deliciously raw and brutal. So intense. So real. "Yeah, that's what I am
talking about, Tommy boy!"
"What?!" Tom shouted. "You can't be serious... you want me to just hit you?"
"Not 'just' hit me, Tom, but it is a start," Janna quipped, as she slowly
lifted her banged head back up.
"Oh, fine, then see how you like this, you crazy bitch," he suddenly smiled,
slowly getting into the spirit of things. He raised his hand again, and slapped
her opposite cheek. Her skin burned, both from the force of the impact and from
the intense heat pooled into his still partly scorching palm.
"Aww, Tom, such a charmer, you are going to make a girl blush," Janna retorted
once her teeth stopped shaking and her jaw felt like moving again. She wondered
how long she would be able to keep goading him on.
Tom jumped towards her, moving forward through the air as if propelled by some
unseen force. Closing his firm iron hands around both her wrists, he pinned her
against the tree. Now she really felt the tree for sure, no magic-sense
required: she felt every inch of hard rough bark against her thin summer
clothing. The fabric of her shirt and tights tangled against the rind's groves
and protrusions. "Oh, Janna, I am going to do a lot more to you than make you
blush."
"Hey, I thought we were doing what you wanted, not what I want?" the human girl
replied, only half seriously.
"Oh, don't worry, we are!" Tom's eyes went red again as he grabbed a fistful of
her dark hair, and pulled down, forcing the troublemaker on her knees. With his
other hand, he undid the front of his pants and pulled his dick out through the
open buttons of his black boxer-shorts. "I trust that you get the idea?"
Janna smiled and leaned forward, running her tongue along the length of the
demon's rapidly hardening cock. "Tom, tell me, how you feel about Star?" she
asked. Without waiting for an answer, he took the demon's twitching member into
her mouth and began moving up and down on it.
"What? About Star? Are you asking now? Why?" Tom retorted surprised. "Fine. I
love Star, I admire her inner strength and her energy, and the fact that she
does what she wants. But also, these days I mostly feel frustrated with her,
frustrated that she keeps turning her back on me, ignoring what we had... ugh,
are you really going to have me talking about Star while you do that? Right
now, fuck Star!"
That was what the girl wanted to hear, and she picked up the pace and pursed
her lips tighter in encouragement. She tried to take him deeper, like last
time, back at her place. She found she could not do so without help, her mind
was willing, but her throat muscles were utterly uncooperative in opening up.
Instead, she tried running her hand around the demon's buttocks and legs.
Eventually settling on massaging his unnaturally warm balls through his
underwear.
"Fuck Star! Fuck Marco! Fuck your questions! And. Fuck. You!" Tom shouted. He
reached down and pulled at Janna's t-shirt, ripping it open with ease. She felt
the cold night air against her breasts immediately, followed by the painfully
hot touch of the demon's hands and claws. He began pulling and twisting her
nipples, while at the same time pushing against her face with his hips, quite
literally fucking her mouth. She felt it slide easily down her throat now,
after his hands made her scream from the pain and he began thrusting hard
through her lips. It was a painful, almost suffocating sensation, yet also
exhilarating. She felt used. She felt sore. She felt like she was about to
puke. She felt like she was about to form a puddle through her pants just from
how wet this was making her.
Then, as sudden as it begun, it stopped. Tom pulled back. Janna opened her
mouth to protest, to beg, to demand that he returned to banging her face. A
slap on her left cheek shut her up before she could even say a word.
"On your feet!" Tom shouted. Janna hesitated and she immediately felt him
brutally pull her up by her hair. A clawed hand reached down and carelessly
ripped a hole in her tights, right over her melting crotch. The demon prince
slammed into her without so much as a warning, and Janna was surprised to
discover that she was so aroused that it glided in effortlessly, despite Tom's
impatient forcefulness.
Tom fucked her against the tree, her back scratching up and down the rough
bark. He held her up by the hair with one of his hands, while the other dug
claw marks into the side of the trunk. She rested her own arms on Tom's
shoulders, and parted her legs as much as she could without falling. Tom's
motions were fierce but regular, as he quickly picked up pace in his thrusting.
She felt him hitting all the right spots inside of her, delving deeper,
perhaps, than he had ever before. But what really did it for her were his
almost animalistic grunts and his forceful hunger. The demon prince seemed and
sounded feral, savage. He was out of his mind and it drove her out of hers.
Janna closed her eyes. The whole world dissolved into sensations too intense to
describe in words. The racking bark behind her, the burning hot pulsating rod
going in and out of her, her own flesh opening and closing around it, the pain
from her hair being violently pulled up, the pleasure building inside her. But
most of all, she felt Tom. He was wordless now, breath irregular, grunting
through his gritted fangs, pupil-less red eyes glaring at her. He seemed lost
in a trance of anger and pleasure. And she was in a trance of her own.
Suddenly she realized she could truly feel Tom. She did not mean just Tom's
cock inside her, or his skin against hers, but the fire deep within his being
as well. What had been an enormous ghostly shadow in the corner of her eye
before, was now clear to her, down to its finest contours. She pulled at the
fire inside her lover with hungry abandon. Letting go of Tom's shoulders, she
let both arms fall against her sides. In front of each of her hands, a sphere
of purple flame the size of a fist sprouted instantly out of thin air. Tom
grunted and tensed, and as he exploded inside her, emptying himself into her,
the two fireballs flew forward from her palms. They hit two separate
tombstones, turning them instantly into dust, leaving the area around black
with soot as they seared the grass and blew up clouds of dust and ash with a
thunderous roar.
Tom blinked, surprised, as his eyes returned to normal as his orgasmic bliss
faded. He looked back at the damage, dumbfounded, "Shit, Janna! I think you
just drew some major magic from me!"
"Yeah... and also some fireballs, I think," Janna said with a chuckle, and let
herself slowly fall to the floor besides the tree. Tom groaned.
----
The mountain surrounding the ancient temple was unnaturally quiet, without the
call of a single bird or the buzzing of a single bug. Toffee stood there, in
Ludo's stolen body, floating in mid air, fully in control, wand at the ready.
He had felt it approach, whatever it was. One of the advantages of being
connected to the entire stream of corrupted magic was that he could sense when
so much of it was nearby in the outside world. He was sure Glossaryck could
sense it too, although he did not know how exactly the diminutive magic being
did it.
Over the last few hours, the immortal monster had seen his dark ocean reduced
to a shallow pool over the frozen emerald crystal permafrost, spikes of
virdisent glass piercing out of the oily black 'water'. Whatever was the force
that opposed him, it had done in a day what had took months for him to pull
off. Toffee was angry, but more than anything, he was determined. Now it came
for him, it sought him out, but he would fight it and he would win. He was the
one who made the plans. He was in control. This... this meddler, would pay!
A diffuse fluttering sound, as if millions of gossamer wings flapping in the
air, reverberated softly around them. Sparks of green light shone all around in
the night sky, like ghostly fireflies. Quickly they all began converging in
front of the monster, slowly assembling into a tall slender humanoid shape of
bright green light. Soon it became clear that the resplendent figure was
female, but none of its features could be seen through the brightness. In place
of a face, a beautifully ornate but expressionless silver mask shimmered into
existence. It had blank emotionless holes for eyes, a solid metal lip
permanently curved into a slight smirk. The various reliefs on the false face
were rendered unreadable by the intense backlight.
"This, you see, well, this, is... quite bad," Glossaryck deadpanned, looking up
at the strange apparition.
"Oh, it is," Toffee agreed. "For her."
Guiding Ludo's hand, he aimed the wand straight against the intruder, hitting
it squarely in the masked face with a formidable green and black blast of
corrupted magic. A nasty smile crossed the lizard face as he anticipated his
victory. It quickly vanished. As soon as the spell connected, he felt a jolt of
electricity go up through his body, his real body in the handle and the inside
of the wand. An instant later, he was half-deafened by a booming metallic
sound, like the tolling of a humongous bell. As he reeled back in pain and the
magic beam faded away, the womanly figure calmly advanced towards him,
gracefully gliding through the air.
"What, what are you...?" Toffee asked in surprise, pain and terror.
"I am will, unbending," the form of light replied.
It raised a hand and a beam of unearthly green flame sprung forth from it, it
hit Toffee, and the wand, and the book of spells. The lizard in bird clothing
fell backwards, towards the temple, charred and consumed. His back hit a huge
pillar of stone, which cracked under the magical energies still surrounding his
body and fell upon him, entombing Toffee beneath its huge weight. The crystal
in the wand turned black as void and disintegrated into a million pieces.
Meanwhile, the book slowly burned to ashes.
"Well, what do you know?" Glossaryck pondered, in calm resignation, as he
ignited too, burning up as one with the book's pages. "The more things change,
the more they stay the same..."
Chapter End Notes
     Believe it or not, not much was changed in the Toffee scenes from the
     outline after I saw Battle for Mewni.
     * His first scene in this chapter was always going to be inside the
     wand. At the time I imagined it as an empty black void of some sort.
     But now that the show has given us the "ocean of goop" visual, it
     just felt right to use that instead.
     * He and old Glossy were going to die at the end of this Chapter
     either way. Of course, the details of their deaths were changed last
     minute for added irony. An important difference, besides it all
     happening much earlier in the timeline, is that Ludo has now died in
     the fic, while he lives in the show.
     Also, yes, I know, I know: Star's and Marco's magic link gets
     stronger whenever any of the two are fucking, and Janna literally
     gains magical powers from sex. What can I say, that's how this world
     works now. It is "My Little Porno, Sex Equals Magic". Promise the
     story will have stakes that don't get solved with a bang, though. ;)
     Speaking of which...
     Next, in "I Summon the All-seeing Eye": And now, Mewni's newest court
     composer, the songstrel, Ruberiot...
***** When this Shooting Star Ignites *****
Chapter Summary
     In which we observe yet more things our protagonists are unaware of,
     Marco spends $650, Jackie deals with a case of crown-envy and Star's
     secrets are revealed in song form.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 12: When this Shooting Star Ignites *****
     Continuity stardate: Chapters 10 to 12 take place during the span of
     SvtFoE episode "Face the Music" (S02E21), but the timeline has
     diverged enough that some important scenes will play out very
     differently from canon. Previous episodes are in continuity for this
     fic, episodes after S02E21, generally speaking, are not. That said,
     Chapters from 11 onwards can contain indirect Battle For Mewni
     spoilers.
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/12.png]
"Are you sure you know where we are going?"
"Shhhh!!" she shushed the other princess, not bothering to give her question
the obvious response. In fact, her own admonition was far louder than the tiny
pixie's voice. Fortunately for both of them, however, this particular hallway
seemed rather deserted. And, well, so what if she was a bit less than discreet?
After all, it was not like her to sneak around like this. Oh, who was she
kidding? It was totally like her to sneak around! She was baaad like that! But
that didn't mean she had to do it quiet-like, though, not really. Not her
style. Besides, no one had actually bothered being in this part of the manor in
a very long time, not since the old owner was, ahem, forced to tend her
resignation. Little did they suspect, back then, all the ways in which the new
management would turn out to be even worse. But hey, at least she knew just the
person to help them out of that particular bind. The problem was getting the
message out to her.
They found the door easily enough. She saw it first, of course, and pointed it
out with her horn. It was the biggest, most ornate and, at the same time, the
most depressingly sober and least inspired door in the entire floor. It took
deliberate effort to have a large door in a hallway of many identical doors,
and yet still have it stand out as the most unimaginative of the lot. If you
asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell how it was exactly that the door
achieved such paradoxical effect, but it did; the old hag had managed it
somehow.
Her pixie friend pulled a pin out of her belt, as if she were unsheathing a
rapier, and proceeded to quickly apply herself to picking the tumblers on the
lock with it. The lock lasted only a few seconds in her dexterous hands, and
they soon both walked, or floated, as the case might be, into the former
bedchamber. The room was old and dusty, and it showed no signs of anyone having
lived there in months, yet they both still felt nervous to go inside. They both
had bad memories of when this room was inhabited, back when the school was
still a school, or well, more like a jail, really. They moved quickly, despite
the foreboding feeling, opening drawers, unlocking chests, taking perverse
pleasure in untidying the damned room. Until she finally found what they
needed.
"Ohhh scoreee, Giiirl! Look what I just found!!" she shouted, not caring in the
least if anyone heard. Even if someone did hear, they would be far too late to
stop her now. Inside the cabinet was a small basket, and inside the basket a
dozen or so pairs of scissors. But not just any scissors, those were all
dimensional scissors, confiscated to all of the former students of Saint Olga's
Reform School for Wayward Princesses, by old hag miss Heinous herself. Those
were their ticket out of there! "Now we can go fetch my home girl... and when
we do, I swear White won't know what hit her!"
As she picked up a pair of scissors with her tongue, Ponyhead let out a loud
whine, which soon morphed into a maniacal laugh. Thunder and lightning outside,
an usual feature of St. O's, echoed her cackle.
----
"Get your exclusive Star Butterfly merch here!" a vendor shouted as their
carriage passed by its cart. Jackie looked out of the window, aware that she
was probably gawking around like an inexperienced tourist. She couldn't help
it. Try as she might to keep her usual cool, there was nothing usual about her
first visit to Mewnie. The entire place looked like it came from a cross
between her history books, a fairy tale animated picture, and literal
Disneyland. Especially what with all the food stands and glowing Star Butterfly
branded products.
"Yo, Manfred, could you please get us some of that sweet swag?" Marco asked,
leaning out through the window himself and passing their driver a large handful
of dollar bills. Six hundred and fifty dollars, to be precise.
"Certainly, young master," the servant replied.
Marco thanked the man, and soon they found themselves surrounded by Star-themed
trinkets. Jackie was holding a wooden replica of Star's wand with a glowing
star in the middle, while Marco held on to a similarly adorned wooden sword. He
was also wearing a horned diadem on top of his hair, which contrasted with his
otherwise impeccably prince-like attire. It was really surprising how handsome
the boy looked in that whole getup. He was even wearing shoulder pads and a
cape, atop a regal looking white vest. Star's blue and white dress was even
more ornate, and she was wearing an actual gold crown atop her massive updo.
Compared to the both of them, Jackie, even in her best sea-green formal dress,
felt way under-dressed.
"Marco, you know this is all for kids, right?" Star groaned, as Marco
brandished the wooden toy around, badly. The princess seemed used to the
commotion around them, but at the same time, bothered about it in a resigned
sort of way. She sat in the long cushioned seat facing backwards from the front
of the carriage, clearly uninterested in the view of Mewni's castle, which the
opposite seat offered the two humans. Jackie wouldn't miss that majestic sight
for the world, but she figured that, to Star, it was just home. "This whole
thing is going to be so boring, and so pointless..." the Mewman gripped.
"But Star," Marco smiled at the other girl, giving her a fake pleading look.
"How can we cheer on for your Princess Song, if we are not waving around the
merchandise!" he joked, getting a broad smile out of the magical princess
despite her sulky mood. Jackie laughed approvingly. Oh Marco, he was such a
cute idiot sometimes!
"Marco, you are not going to be wearing those," Star took off his horns. "Or
waving any of this stuff out there. As part of the royal entourage, you are
supposed to wave politely, smile measuredly, and be proper and regal. Honestly,
it really really sucks. Sorry to drag you guys to this!"
"Come on Star, this is pretty cool! I mean, I feel like I am hanging out with a
celebrity," Jackie said, making it sound like a joke. In reality, it was a bit
intimidating. Mostly because it was true: she was hanging out with a famous
celebrity. No, more than a celebrity. These people weren't Star's fans, they
were her subjects.
Even if the princess didn't make a big deal of it, and even if Jackie never
gave it that much thought when they were on Earth, it was pretty clear that
Star came from a very different social class than the two humans did. And,
well, of course, that didn't matter: she was her friend, and Marco's other
sweetheart, first, magical princess second. But the human girl would be lying
if she said that, now that she found herself confronted with the reality of
Star truly being a magical princess, with a kingdom of her own, she didn't find
it at least a bit intimidating.
"Yeah, Star, besides, weren't you saying you and Ruberiot changed a lot of
stuff on that song?" Marco asked, and the princess' eyes lit up. "Can't be
boring if you helped write it!"
"Oh, yeah, can't wait for you guys to hear it!" She beamed. "It's going to be
so much better than my mom's old song! Just hope she doesn't have an attack
from it... I mean, I don't think even her can get an actual heart attack from a
song, but..." she trailed off and laughed nervously.
Taking full advantage of the lull in the conversation, Jackie pulled Marco
closer to her side of the couch. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and
turned to kiss him. Their lips met and they melted into each other briefly. It
was a reassurance thing, again, just making sure Marco still thought both of
his girlfriends were cool enough. She felt a bit guilty about it but,
fortunately, Star's reaction was nothing like that at the concert.
"Awwww, you two!" the mewman grinned. "Better get the smooches out while you
can, though. I think it might be better if we all keep it friends-like in front
of my mom..."
Star had mentioned that, if they needed to introduce anyone as a couple today,
it would be Jackie and Marco, just as it was in school. But she had also asked
if they could all just act like friends. She seemed nervous about showing any
part of their complicated relationship around her people, and specially around
her mother, the queen. Jackie could understand that. What if some day Star had
to introduce Marco as her boyfriend? She would have a lot to explain if they
previously introduced him as Jackie's, particularly if she was still in the
picture. Given that Star was doing her a really big favor simply by inviting
her to the Song Day celebration at all, Jackie felt that following her request
not to flaunt her relationship with Marco was the least she could do. That
didn't mean, however, that Marco and her didn't get to be boyfriend and
girlfriend behind the privacy of the carriage's doors and curtains.
"Oh, right," Marco quipped at Star as soon as Jackie let go of his lips. Then,
in his best imitation of Queen Moon's voice, he continued, "Star, public
displays of affection aren't a Butterfly virtue."
Star rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, not-a-Butterfly-virtue this!" she shouted
and jumped from her side right on top of Marco's lap, straddling him. One of
her legs falling atop Jackie's own.
"Star, that sentence made no sen... ooh," Marco began to complain, but Star
shut up their boyfriend with a deep kiss. Jackie laughed. Princess or no
princess, magical kingdom or no magical kingdom, it was hard to see Star as
anything other than the happy-go-lucky friend she knew. Feeling appropriately
reassured, Jackie was left only to ponder how comfortable the three of them had
grown with one another in such a short span of time.
----
"With all due respect, Moon, we need to talk now!" Hekapoo asserted herself,
angrily stomping her foot on the ground.
"Hekapoo, I told you, we will re-convene after the celebration, it is starting
as we speak..." Moon replied impatiently, as she tried frantically to adjust
her hair.
"Omnitraxus is gone!" the sorceress argued. "We can't get ahold of Glossaryck
either, turns out nobody has seen him in months. I assume he is with your
daughter, in which case she must bring him here immediately!"
"Omnitraxus, gone?" Moon replied, pausing for a moment, sounding genuinely
surprised. "Are you sure of this?"
"Sure as can be, my queen," Romulus interrupted. "Thought glass ball might be
on the frizz. Went to find him in person. Not in time dimension! Not anywhere!"
"We need Glossaryck," Hekapoo continued exasperated. "He and Omnitraxus are the
only two who can find someone instantly across dimensions, and since Omnitraxus
is the one who is missing..."
"Alright, alright," Moon raised a hand. "Hekapoo, there is some stuff I need to
tell you, and you are not going to like it. I promise to explain it all, but
only after Star's song is done. We have this under control, an hour is not
going to kill anyone, alright?"
"But, Queen Moon..." she began, angrily, but was swiftly cut off.
"Hekapoo, I have my duties to my kingdom and my responsibilities as a mother.
One hour. One song. After that, I promise you I'll make this whole high
commission business my first priority," she looked at the short sorceress
directly in the eyes, then placed a hand firmly on her shoulder. "Trust me,
Hekapoo: I. Will. Do. My. Job."
The Forger of Dimensional Scissors held the gaze briefly, then she smiled,
nodded, and gave her queen a deep bow, "Of course, your majesty."
Hekapoo was not easily appeased, but she had learned to trust the word of Moon
the Undaunted, specially when she used that tone. Without further argument,
they all walked out together into the castle's balcony, leaving only the empty
crystal ball behind, as to not alarm the other guests with the dark void it
displayed.
----
"And now, Mewni's newest court composer, the songstrel, Ruberiot..." shouted
the announcer. The crowds below clapped loudly. "In honor of the royal
family..." The spotlight went up, shining on Queen Moon, and King River, and
Star, and, well, on him. Marco nervously shuffled himself out of the bright
radius, almost crashing into Jackie, who sat to the right of the whole row, and
begun clapping towards Star. The princess of Mewni simply waved around, like it
was nothing, while the two human teenagers exchanged an uncomfortable look.
Clearly, this was way too much exposure, for either of them. Although, Jackie,
as usual, seemed to be handling it better.
Besides a general discomfort about being the center of attention at this scale,
Marco also wasn't sure he wanted to create any implications that he was part of
any royal family. I mean, dating Star was one thing, and it was amazing. But,
well, he guessed neither of them were thinking at all about the future. Hell,
for all he knew, Star might be just thinking about him as a fling of her
teenage years, before she actually set to look for the kind of guy that would
be able to handle her life as Queen of Mewni. That seemed pretty likely, now
that he thought of it, specially given their unconventional relationship. When
the Earth boy thought of that, he wasn't sure whether he felt sad, or relieved.
It was clear that the crown weighted pretty heavy on Star, and she was like ten
times stronger than he was, metaphorically just as well as literally. If she
could barely handle that life, then what hope did he have?
He was interrupted from such grim and rather premature reflections, by the
sound of slow chords on a lute, amplified by god knows which magic to the point
to which the notes actually reached all the way to their balcony, together with
the songstrel's words. A ridiculously happy marionette of Star, with literal
hearts for eyes, glided into the stage as Ruberiot began singing. The puppet
dramatically mimicked along with the lyrics.
Who is the maid with the buttercup hair?
Who sleeps on moonbeams and dances on air
With tears made of honey and a heart full of bunnies
Whose infinite virtues are known near and far
It's Mewni's own sweetheart, our dear Princess Staaar
Even Marco felt weird hearing his best friend described that way. Sure, that
was Star, kinda, she was a happy joyful girl that could, sometimes literally,
dance on air. But there was also so much more to her than that! He glanced at
her, to gauge her own reaction, and saw her cringe and grimace. A second later,
though, she turned to him and Jackie and sent them a brief wink.
Marco wondered what kind of changes Star could have made to the song. She had
refused to tell him much about the plans she had made with the annoying
musician the other night, except to say that they had reached an agreement, and
that it would be nothing like her mom's princess song. Marco was a bit worried,
considering how Star sometimes got carried away with expressing herself, and
how important this event seemed to be for her and her family. But on the other
hand, deep down she knew all that much better than he did, and he trusted Star.
Besides, if worst came to worst, surely the songstrel would make sure the show
went well. The other day he had seemed, well, terrified of not being able to do
his job properly, which meant he would probably make sure to strike a balance
between pleasing Star and Queen Moon, right?
And under the shimmer and rubies and pearls
Lies hidden a fierce and adventurous girl
The forces of evil that lurk in the night
Will cower in fear when this shooting Star...
...ignites!
Marco was thinking to himself how those verses fit Star so much better than the
previous ones, when Ruberiot jumped forward and literally smashed his lute
against the floor. The bold gesture drew oh's of surprise from the crowd,
including Marco and Jackie. In the confusion, the musician seemed to pull a
guitar out of thin air, and the stage exploded into a light show and a really
sweet rock beat. "Whoohoo!" Marco yelled, and he wasn't the only one. Queen
Moon looked a bit surprised, but not angry. This was just perfect, this was
Star!
----
Weaving magic like a born spell-caster
And wreaking havoc like a natural disaster
She rocks her Narwhal Blast and Warnicorn Stampede
She's gonna earn her crown, so hail to the quee-e-e-een!
Wow, now that was cool! Jackie had to admit she was impressed. Not just by the
song or the elaborate visuals, but by Star herself. She might not know the
mewman girl as well as Marco did, but she knew the song was all true. Star was
not only royalty, she was some sort of magical fantasy warrior-girl! Again,
Star was cool and popular back in Echo Creek too, but it was easy to forget
there just how incredible the girl truly was, just her intrinsically, without
putting an ounce of effort into it. Like, how on Earth was that Jackie still
held on to her cool girl title when she had someone like Star around? She
herself didn't understand how that was possible.
'No, come on Jackie, be chill, you are not competing with Star' she mentally
reminded herself. Her eyes drifted towards the girl, and she saw how the
princess carelessly danced punching the air. She looked then at Marco, who
stared intently at the stage below and cheered. Ugh, she felt a sickly gluey
sensation in her stomach, like if she had eaten something bad. Jackie wasn't
happy with how she felt about this now. It wasn't like she had anything against
Star, or against her being royalty or famous, and she didn't worry about her
and Marco. Jealousy wasn't her thing, right? She was happy when her boyfriend
was with someone cool, it made her cool by transitivity, did it not? Then what
exactly was this feeling eating at her now? Why wasn't she happy for Star like
everyone else was? Like she should be?
'Cause she's a rebel princess, she's the best
She's a ball of lightning in a hot pink dress
She's a thunderstorm roaring through the night
She's our shooting Star, and she's lighting up the sky!
Yeah... yes she was, and Jackie was, well, what was she? A moderately popular
high school girl in a small town in California? How had she managed to get to
Marco first? And what had made her think it was a good idea to open her
relationship to Star? I mean, Marco might like them both equally now, or so he
said, but one day he would figure out how much cooler Star was than her, and
then what? Maybe this whole thing was a mistake, and she should have kept her
big mouth shut. Even if the three of them were pretty happy together for now,
how could she be sure it would last that way?
Jackie took a deep breath. Wow, Star was right, this jealousy and self-doubt
stuff was way heavy. She reminded herself of the advice she had given the other
girl when the roles were reversed and it was the princess that, for some
unknown reason, had felt jealous of her. 'Well, Lynn Thomas,' she silently
chided herself, 'don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk...' She would
learn to feel happy about Marco having someone like Star too, and deal with her
own doubts on the matter, it just maybe was a little bit harder than she had
anticipated, specially after witnessing something like this.
----
Star looked at her friends and family, and was pleased to see happy faces all
around. She loved her song, and they loved it too! Even her mom seemed pleased,
"What a delightful little ditty. Good job, Star!"
"Uh, right. It's not over yet," she replied. It really wasn't, and even she
didn't know what to expect. Ruberiot had asked her for help with all of the
parts so far, particularly with the stage work for this last part. He had
needed some serious Butterfly Light and Magic to get those Narwhals and
Warnicorns ready in time. However, for the third act, he had shooed her away,
something about true art needing solitude. She only knew one thing about the
third act, that it would be a darker contrast compared to the previous two
segments; which is why she didn't feel too worried when she heard slow somber
chords coming from the songstrel's guitar, or saw bright red light overflowing
the stage from behind.
Of royal secrets - sadly I must tell,
A tale of a princess under tragic love spell
She blushed a little. Well, Ruberiot had said this was necessary, for it to be
real, and that he would keep things hidden and metaphoric. She was sure she
could take this, in the name of the people of Mewni truly getting to know
something about the real her. She just hoped her mom would not be too shocked
at the result. I mean, after all, she knew about her dating Tom before being
sent to Earth, and that was all she really expected to hear put into her song.
She had once dated a demon, big freaking deal...
And who is the boy in the earthly attire?
Attached once already to the one he admires
Our princess with longing, watching from afar,
the prince who unwittingly stole her young heart!
Wait? What?! What was a puppet of Marco doing there, and a puppet of Jackie?
And, they were dancing, waltzing around on literally tangling strings. Puppet-
Star glided back into stage and glanced at them from the ground, falling on her
knees, clutching her heart. It hadn't been like that at all! Star told herself,
unconvincingly. Ok, alright, it had been like that, but why was this in her
Princess Song?
This wasn't what she and Ruberiot talked about! It was supposed to be about
Tom, about her previous relationship with him, with a demon, as kids. That was
scandal enough! She barely told anything about Marco, let alone him and Jackie,
to Ruby. She glanced at Moon, who had one eyebrow up in a regal gesture of
surprise and mild confusion. Besides her, River was glaring daggers her way.
Wait, no, he was glaring daggers at Marco!
Star glanced at the two human kids and saw that they had the same awkward
confused expression on their faces as she did. "Sorry-Ruberiot-never-told-me-
about-this-part!" she apologized.
Down on the streets the people were silent, and the tune picked up into slow
and powerful riffs. Ruberiot sang the next few verses as if it were a modern
epic, punctuated by metal cords. It would be kinda cool, if the subject of
matter weren't so incredibly humiliating.
With ache in her chest, with tears in her eyes,
She masked her feelings, encased them in ice.
And as I have promised, I won't say his name,
But our poor little princess confides in a fiend.
Then, a perfect puppet replica of Tom, three red-glowing eyes and everything,
entered stage left. So, this was about Tom after all? Wait, about Tom after
Marco and Jackie? Oh, no! No, no, no, no! This is not what she wanted. She had
told Ruberiot this stuff was a secret, surely he wouldn't dare include it. She
looked panicked at Marco. She hadn't told him yet! She had meant to, but, it
was never the right time. This was not how he was supposed to find out about
that night. Please, please don't be about that night!
She saw with horror as her own puppet glided towards puppet-Tom and began
dancing with him.
Playing with fire, and dancing on knives,
A tale of ex-lovers, of rebels, of knaves,
Of old flames yet burning, with passionate hate,
By dark they adjourn to their private daaaate!
A powerful chord punctuated the end of the verse and suddenly the stage lights
blasted red at their maximum brightness, blinding everyone in the audience,
before going dark in one fell swoop. Ok, that was a lot more than Star wanted
the people of Mewni to know about the real her. But at least Ruby had kept his
promise, he had kept it tasteful and metaphorical, almost. That last line was
still way too obvious if you asked Star, but she could still play it off. She
could explain "a date" with Tom to Marco, is not like he was her boyfriend at
the time! It was none of his business! Her mom would be too embarrassed to ask
for details, and her people could be convinced she had, I dunno, like, simply
hung out with Tom. This was bad, but it could have been so much worse.
As soon as Star thought that, the stage begun lighting up again. Ruberiot was
there in the middle, his guitar laying on the floor, and he had changed his
outfit again. He wore loosely fitting jeans and a ragged t-shirt with a musical
note inside a star on the middle. He also wore an impractical amount of golden
jewelry for some reason, and a blue baseball cap turned backwards on his head.
He looked to the floor and counted the beat with his left foot. Apparently, he
wasn't quite done yet.
Then Star saw the panel behind the songstrel. It was a crude painting of an
irregular stone brick wall, and a small river, and a bridge. She recognized it
immediately and her heart almost jumped to her throat. She felt paralyzed. It
was a graffiti painting of the bridge where the three of them had released the
ducks back into the creek, and where later that night she and Tom had... No, no
way! Ruby wouldn't do that! Would he?
With beats so inspired, and verses so fly,
I rap of the dalliances of Star Butterfly!
He would! Oh damn it, he would! Also, a rap? What the hell, Ruberiot? What the
hell?! Star considered for a moment just taking her wand and blasting the
stage, or creating a distraction somehow. Or plain just running away herself.
But she couldn't move a finger. She felt her palms get sweaty. Out of the
corner of her eyes, she saw the shocked, huge-eyed expressions on Jackie and
Marco's faces, as they begun processing the next few lines.
Under moonlight she craves alleviation,
Heart, loins, both need consolation.
She knows she is a liar, and feels like she cheats,
Got the harsh stone floor, not her silky bedsheets!
As Ruberiot busted out such crude lyrics, a shadow play unfolded behind him,
cast on the wall drawn on the stage curtains. Star could clearly make out a
shadow representing herself as it embraced and kissed a shadow clearly
representing Tom. Her wings and his horns made it obvious which one was which,
despite the limitations of shadow puppetry. She saw the projected shapes fall
together into the floor, in a clear depiction of two people having sex
together. What was Ruberiot thinking?! How on Mewni was this any sort of
metaphor?! Star was now hoping the chair she was sitting on would swallow her
whole. She could not wait for this torture to end.
And he pushes and pulls, he cuts and he bruises,
Demon prince's charms with deep carnal uses.
Release that she finds, amidst all this harming,
it fails to replace her one true prince charming!
A second spotlight shone on the stage, far up and to the left. Now it was
shadow-Marco and shadow-Jackie, hugging each other while they sat together on
the outline of a shadowy bed, clearly making out. Star ventured a look towards
her friends, and saw that they were also beet red and looking around
uncomfortably. Everyone else in the entire kingdom seemed transfixed, silently
looking at the scene in front of them, in a mixture of shock and morbid
curiosity. Star saw her shadowy doppelganger conspicuously look up towards the
scene involving Marco and Jackie, even as shadow-Tom still laid atop her.
Our princess so valiant, our princes so bold,
she slays down her foe with an action so cold.
For her lips do reveal, what her touches must hide,
the name of the boy that lits her inside!
A red heart lit up in the middle of her shadow and Marco's, and the shadow
representing Tom stood up and ran away, in obvious pain and anger. The lights
dimmed down. The shadows vanished, and Ruberiot took his guitar again.
'Please be over, please be over,' Star thought to herself. But then again, how
could it not be? Ruberiot had already sung everything she had told him, in
excruciating and indecent detail. There literally could not be anything worse
to come.
The wooden puppets from earlier floated into the stage: Star, Marco and Jackie.
They looked at one another and then down towards the floor as if sad. The next
few chords were slow and acoustic, sounding almost like waltz music. Ruberiot
continued in a soft melodious voice.
Our story has a happy ending,
for our princess and her future king,
confession and feelings requited,
that results in a triangular swing.
The puppets acted as if they were speaking to each other, until finally they
all held hands and begun floating up, rotating as if they all danced together.
For Marco is Jackie's and Staaaar's!
And it works for our princess
...so faaar!
And with one last guitar riff, Ruberiot fell silent and bowed deeply to the
audience. Moments passed, and not a noise was heard. Then a steady confused
murmur rose from the crowd.
"What's wrong? You are supposed to be clapping!" the songstrel spoke finally.
His pleas immediately drowned by angry shouts from the audience. Star heard
some very unkind words used to describe her and her friends, and those were
just the one's she recognized. Star looked at Marco and Jackie, they both
stared back at her in shock, without saying a word, and eventually she couldn't
help but avoid their gaze. She looked at her mom, expecting to see anger in her
eyes, but Queen Moon's regretful expression hurt her even more than the fury
she expected.
The queen lifted up from her chair and motioned everyone to go back into the
castle, Star and her friends first. Star's dad looked like he was about to
chase after them, his angry sight still trained on Marco, but Moon put her arm
in front of him, stopping his husband.
----
"Star!" Moon was the first to speak. "What was that?!" She seemed furious,
genuinely confused, and very uncomfortable, all at once.
"Mom, I am sorry, I didn't know, I didn't think... I am sorry, ok?" She was.
Under other circumstances she would have argued more, reminded her mom she
could not have done the kind of fluffy pop song she expected. But this time she
was truly sorry, and she didn't even know what for. For the song? For Tom? For
Jackie and Marco?
"Star, as a ruler, there are some things you don't say about yourself. What you
tell your people has implications, for you and for your friends," Moon
explained, angrily. "I can't believe you would be so foolish as to encourage
these sort of rumors about yourself!"
"Mom, I swear I didn't know Ruberiot would say anything about that," Star
replied. Then, she processed what her mom was saying. Rumors? Did she think the
song was fake? Or was it that she wanted to pretend it was fake? Was it only
the citizens of Mewni or did her mother too wanted to pretend Star was a
perfect little princess? Star knew this was hardly the time to make things
worse, but something in Moon's words just angered her, beyond the shame and
dread she now felt. "But well, mom, they are not rumors. Marco is my boyfriend!
... mine and Jackie's..." The Mewman princess shot her mother a determined
look.
Queen Moon sighed and lifted a hand to her forehead, massaging her temple. "And
I suppose you have given full thought to what it would mean for Mewni to have a
king regent with a second wife? Or for your other friend to accept a more, lets
say, secondary position, for the sake of the monarchy?"
"What?! Mom, no, I mean, I haven't even thought about... he is my boyfriend,
but well... we never talked about..." Star protested. King regent? She was
pretty certain she loved Marco, but that sounded too, well, permanent. She
wasn't even on board with the idea of being queen herself, thinking about a
royal husband was the furthest thing from her mind.
"I know, I know, sweetie. But well, that's what a lot of people in Mewni are
going to be discussing tonight. And they will discuss it again, whenever Marco
comes to visit, or for how ever long you stay on Earth. Incidentally, they will
also discuss whether consorting with demons makes one a dark queen, in the same
way consorting with monsters does. It is all nonsense, in either case, but it
might just be how they see it.
Star, the magic wand guarantees your own right of succession, no matter how
many traditions you break, or how flagrantly. But that doesn't mean there are
never consequences. Honestly, in the long run this all could lead to pretty bad
things happening, mostly to her and to the boy..." Moon looked to the side, as
if embarrassed of what she was about to suggest next, "Perhaps the best course
of action is for you to distance yourself from your Earth friends. Maybe if we
do that, further rumors can be avoided..."
"Mom?!" Star was shocked. Was her mom saying she could not date Marco anymore?
Or that she could not go back to Earth? "No, I love Marco! I might not know
much about the future, but I don't want to not see him again, or Jackie either!
Not over a stupid song!"
"A song that has put them both in danger, and you and me in a very delicate
political position. What do you want me to do, Star?!" the queen retorted,
sounding as tired and frustrated as Star was feeling.
"I want you," a fierce voice remarked behind the princess, "to do your job."
Hekapoo walked between Star and Queen Moon, cutting through the tense
atmosphere like a hot knife through butter, staring up at the monarch of Mewni
with a fierce glare.
"Hekapoo, I am sorry, this is kind of an emergency..." Star's mom began.
"So is Omnitraxus being missing!" Hekapoo remarked. "An emergency you promised
to handle before anything else. Certainly before the political implications of
your daughter's teenage indiscretions. Or is the kingdom going to fall tonight
just because some people are going to be talking badly about the princess'
private matters? Because, well, if so, certainly a lot has changed since the
days when you first took the throne..."
Moon's cheeks reddened slightly, and Star felt like she was missing some
subtext to this conversation, a lot of subtext, actually. The queen coughed
briefly, "yeah, well, you are right, of course, Hekapoo. Star, we will discuss
this fully sometime soon. But please, try to not drop any more shocking
revelations on the kingdom, at least for a while..."
Hekapoo followed Moon through a huge double door. Lekmet, Romulus and even King
River followed close behind. After they were all gone, Star felt a hand drop on
her shoulder. She looked back to see, well, Hekapoo again! No matter how many
times she did that, her whole cloning thing was always super weird. "Well,
nicely done, kid, you really fucked up this time," the sorceress smiled at her,
giving her at once a mocking grin and a comforting wink.
"Yeah, I know," Star replied with a half-smile. This Hekapoo just gave her a
nod of acknowledgement and poofed out of existence.
The princess was unspeakably thankful at the high commissioner for running
interference like that. Unfortunately, her mom wasn't the only one Star had to
talk to right now. She heard a voice behind her way before she was done
processing the previous exchange, "Eh, Star..."
It was Jackie, but she seemed very un-Jackie like. She was looking at the floor
and her voice felt flat and uncertain.
"Jackie, I am so sorry, I..." Star begun, but Jackie cut her off with a hand
gesture.
"Actually, Star, I am sorry too. First, I sort of overheard your conversation
with your mom right now, so, well, sorry about that," the human girl
apologized. "For the record, I understand if you decide not to go back to Earth
because of what is best for yourself, for your mom or for Marco, but as far as
I am concerned, I don't care what kind of crazy political danger our
relationship puts me in on Mewnie. We will figure stuff out if there is ever
stuff to be figured out, but it is not anyone else's business but ours. If your
subjects disagree, they can go suck on a big fat juicy..." she trailed off.
"... lemon?" Star suggested, but her tone made it perfectly clear she knew that
wasn't where the other girl was going with that sentence.
Jackie chuckled briefly, before getting back into a very serious expression,
"But also, I want to apologize too for, well, for not really believing you when
you said being a princess sort of sucked? I don't know if you noticed at all
but, today I've been, well... lets just say I got impressed by your life here,
and how much people care about you and look up to you, and I sort of got a bit
envious of that, you know?"
"Ptfff," Star almost laughed. "If it were up to me, you could have it instead,
all of it, Jackie."
"Yeah, I know," she looked around nervously. "Not sure I want it anymore. I
think Marco knew already why you felt like you did about being a princess... I
just didn't fully get it, until now."
Oh, right, Marco! "How is he doing?"
"Not well," Jackie replied. "He is not really talking to me right now..."
Star felt a weight drop in her stomach. She turned around to see Marco with his
forehead against a wall, fists closed. Oh fuck, guess he was taking the Tom
thing worse than she expected? Again, it wasn't as if it was really any of his
business, that was before they started dating, even if only by about twenty
hours or so. Then again, considering how she had felt about him and Jackie...
And, even back then, Star actually liked Jackie. Marco hated Tom. Well, not as
much a few days ago as he did when they first met. But those two, they were,
well, on complicated terms. Competitive too. This was not going to be an easy
conversation.
"Hey, Marco!" She put her best happy face forward. "Guess that wasn't as boring
in the end as I feared, but well, it was sort of terrible for a different
reason..." she babbled at him.
"Star," Marco spoke slowly, without turning back, looking at the floor, his
clenched fist trembling in anger. "It's just... well, why didn't you tell me?"
Chapter End Notes
     Marco is not taking it well.
     Also, we are 100% off the rails now! As in, there is no more viable
     cannon continuity that this fic will follow. From here on out,
     anything can happen! And there have been some interesting predictions
     in the comments... ;}
     Coming up next: Chapter 13: 'Cause she's a Rebel Princess, She's the
     Best
***** 'Cause she's a Rebel Princess, She's the Best *****
Chapter Summary
     In which things are awkward between Star and Marco, there is an
     abundance of princesses, Hekapoo and Moon converse, and yet another
     villain is introduced.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 13: 'Cause she's a Rebel Princess, She's the Best *****
     'Cause she's a rebel princess, she's the best
     She's a ball of lightning in a hot pink dress
     - The Songstrel Ruberiot (both continuities)
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/13.png]
"Star," Marco spoke slowly, without turning back, looking at the floor, his
clenched fist trembling in anger. "It's just... well, why didn't you tell me?"
Deep hurt dripped from the boy's quiet voice. He seemed to carefully weight
every word, as if trying to hold back something of which he himself felt
ashamed. Star thought she could hear the tiniest hint of an accusatory note,
lingering just below the surface, but she wasn't sure. She knew him better than
just about anyone, and yet, for once, she couldn't read him. The princess took
a deep breath.
"I am sorry, Marco, alright," she mustered. She was sorry about the whole Tom
incident, and not only because of what the people of Mewnie might think of her
now, or because of how much it apparently pained Marco. That night had ended up
in nothing but bad feelings for everyone involved, and apparently her decisions
that day were not yet done messing up her life. Fuck Tom! Well, no, actually,
don't fuck Tom. That was what caused the problem in the first place!
Then again, if she hadn't done that, would she and Marco ever gotten together?
Without Janna's bizarre plot, without that night of imagining Marco while
laying with Tom, without the magical link she had not yet even told him about,
without him shouting her name to Jackie, without Jackie's crazy-awesomeness...
without all of that, would they have ever come to date? If the answer was no,
then no matter the bad feelings, and no matter the song, and no matter the
kingdom, and no matter her mom, she had to stand by her decision. That night
with Tom was worth it, but only because it brought her and Marco together.
Unless, of course, it was now about to break them apart.
"Star, is not about you being sorry, is just..." Marco started to say
something. Star cut him off. He was probably going to go on saying how she was
a terrible person for sleeping with Tom, or at least to ask why she had chosen
Tom specifically. She didn't want to hear that. She didn't have an answer. She
could not even explain how it had, in the end, been for the best. At least, she
couldn't do so without telling Marco her last shameful secret, that of the
seeing-eye spell, at a time where it could only worsen things.
"Look, Marco, I really am sorry," she apologized again, lamely. If only Janna
were here, she thought. The troublemaker girl always knew what to say in this
kind of situation. "I am sorry, but, well, Marco, honestly? It is not really
any of your business. It happened before we started dating, while you were
dating Jackie. It was my choice, and perhaps it wasn't a great choice, but
well, since when I am known to always make great choices? It happened, it's
over, can we just move on?"
"Wait, what? No, Star, Tom isn't the problem!" Marco burst out, surprising
Star. He turned around. He looked so angry, and at the same time, he seemed to
be making an effort to stop himself from crying. Star was trying to contain her
own tears as well. "Don't get me wrong, I don't trust Tom, and if he did
anything to hurt you... if he mistreated you in any way... well, never mind.
You once said you could handle a demon, and I know you can take care of
yourself. I know you don't need a hero, Star..."
The mewman girl thought back to when she had said that to her best friend. It
seemed so long ago now, another lifetime almost. She was much less sure of her
ability to handle Tom after that night, after how defenseless she had felt in
the end, unable to even dip down into herself. But Tom had not, in fact, harmed
her. If anything, it had been the other way around. Star wondered if Marco
somehow intuited that, if that was why he was angry. Did he perceive that she
had, in a way, used Tom to get him instead? Would he think she was a horrible
person for it? "Ok, Marco, if Tom isn't the issue, then what is it?"
"Star, it's just, I wish you had told me, that you had told me about..."
Marco's words were drowned by an unexpected 'Whoosh!' sound, and a surprised
yelp from Jackie. The skateboarder girl had drifted towards the other corner of
the huge hall, giving Star and Marco space to sort things out, literally. She
had been looking away from the both of them, in what Star thought was her best
effort not to eavesdrop, without actually having to leave the room. Star
figured her friend didn't want to risk running into Moon, the high commission,
or basically anyone in the entire kingdom who had listened to the song and now
probably thought of her as the concubine of Mewni's future king, or whatever
such nonsense. However, the way the girl had positioned herself meant she was
easily taken by surprise as a tear opened up in the fabric of reality, right
behind her. The tips of a pair of scissors materialized themselves in mid air,
quickly cutting a shimmering blue portal through the empty space.
Jackie was even more surprised, evidenced by a wide-eyed open-mouthed break of
her usual cool composure, when a disembodied horned horse head came out flying
from the portal, its tongue still somehow holding on to the dimensional
scissors. Star herself barely noticed the diminutive winged pixie girl that
emerged next, following the first intruder.
"Whatsuuup B-fly!?" Ponyhead shouted. She glanced up and down at her Song Day
outfit. "Looking goooood, girl!"
"Princess Ponyhead?!" Star shouted back, partly in surprise, partly in
excitement. Despite the awful timing, it was good to once again see her best
bestie in all of Mewnie. "What are you doing here? I though you were partying
it up in St. O's!"
"Well, yeah, about that... well, Star, don't get too worried or anything, but
we might have run into a little bit of trouble over there..." Ponyhead did that
nervous looking around thing she always did whenever she got involved in some
truly bad stuff and didn't want to admit it. "Things are not as good as when
you two left, and well, turns out we might need a seriously baaad-ass princess
to come and set some heads right, if you know what I mean?"
"I have no idea what you mean..." Star admitted, "but I am in!" She twirled her
wand around in her hand and gave her best attempt at a menacing look. If they
needed a seriously bad-ass princess, they had come to the right place.
Ok, sure, she really really needed to finish having this talk with Marco first.
Then again, the talk was super mega awkward. So, maybe this was for the best?
And, well, if the princesses of St O's needed her, if her bestie needed her,
then how could she say no?
Marco scowled, not so much at her, but rather at the interrupting unicorn
princess. It was clear that he hadn't gotten what he needed off his chest.
Unfortunately, Star wasn't sure she wanted, or could handle, to hear it right
now. Perhaps if she ignored the issue long enough, Marco would forget, or at
least, calm down somewhat. Avoidance! Just as she originally planned to respond
to her song day. And well, hadn't she been right back then? If she hadn't
talked to Ruberiot, then none of this would have happened! Of course, it wasn't
like she was planning on never again talking to Marco, just, like, give both
him and herself a little time to think. That was a good idea, right? Right?
"Actually, B-fly, don't take this the wrong way, I know we are both best
besties, and totally super-tough bad-ass princesses and all... but I kinda
meant Earth Turd..." Ponyhead admitted sheepishly, shooting a look Marco's way,
and rolling her eyes.
"Me?!" Marco glanced confused at Star, then back at the body-absent princess.
"This is kind of a bad time for jokes, Pointy-head..."
Before he could say another word, the pixie girl came up flying towards them,
quickly positioning herself in between Ponyhead and the two kids, and giving
Marco a deep bow. "Please, Princess Marco! I am Princess Glintwisp of Pixtopia.
I am sorry to ask, especially if we have indeed come at a bad time. But, for
the good of the revolution, in the name of all princesses everywhere, I implore
you! We need your help once more. Some of the girls have gone astray, and I
fear that without your inspiration and leadership, we might soon lose the very
individuality we fought to achieve!"
Seeing as how this was now anything but a private moment, Jackie walked towards
the group, raised an eyebrow, and shot their boyfriend a quizzical look.
"Princess Marco?"
----
"So," Jackie finally spoke, once Ponyhead first, then Star, were done bringing
her up to date with the situation, more or less. "Let me see if I got this all
straight: There is, or used to be, an inter-dimensional school dedicated to
literally brainwashing princesses - which, by the way, fuck that!"
"You can say that again," commented Star, with a shudder.
"And flying horse-head over here, which happens to be Star's childhood friend,
was sent there by her own family," the human girl continued.
"Excuse me?! Friend? I happen to be Star's bestest bestie overall! And it is
Flying Princess Horse-Head to you, monkey-face!" Ponyhead retorted.
"Whatever," Jackie shrugged. It had been clear for a while that the other
princess didn't like her much, and it was getting to be fairly mutual. From
what Marco had said, she never liked any of Star's friends at first. She was,
'possessive', whatever that meant. In any case, Jackie Lynn Thomas wasn't going
to be pushed around by a disembodied horse head, at least not now that the
initial shock wore off. "The point is, Star and Marco went there to throw
horse-head a birthday party, and in the process he ended up leading a
rebellion. While dressed like a princess, for some reason."
"Oh, you should have seen it, Jackie!" Star shouted excitedly. "You have no
idea how well Marco pulls off a pink dress!"
"Star!" Marco protested. The mewman princess seemed to suddenly remember she
and the boy were not in the best terms right now, and begun to stammer an
apology.
"Actually, I can see that, Star," Jackie tried to make the save. Honestly, she
wasn't sure what Marco's issue was. Yes, the song had been uncomfortable, for
everyone involved. But if there was anyone who should be in a sullen mood over
that, it was Star. Marco and herself had at most gotten splash damage from that
particular bomb. "And he, or 'she', somehow became an icon of a revolutionary
movement of princesses. Which, incidentally, mostly consisted of turning St O's
into a party school. Correct so far?"
"Not just a party school, monkey-face, the best party school in the
multiverse!" Ponyhead insisted. "Mostly because it had me in it! Of course!"
The disembodied horse head made a puckered lips expression that Jackie assumed
was meant to be sexy, but was instead disturbing in the extreme.
"Sure, whatever. But the problem is that it is not about having a party school
anymore, not since this Miss White appeared and took over the 'movement',
correct?" Jackie finished. "And now you want Marco to go chase this person
away, just as he did with Miss Heinous."
"It is Princess White, not Miss White, and, well, not quite. We want Princess
Marco to remind the girls of the ideas of the revolution: individuality, self
expression, freedom!" Princess Glintwisp finally interjected. "White claims to
care about that, but everything is about power and control for her in the end.
I think the girls know that, but they won't listen to us, they are too scared.
But with Princess Marco to inspire them again, I think we have a chance!"
"So, basically," Jackie reasoned. "You had a revolution, which ended up
propping a dictator of sorts, and now you are asking the original
revolutionaries to come back and oppose this character? Uh, Marco, I know you
are not as much of a history nerd as I am, but, well, you know this is a bad
idea, right?"
"Uh, why would it be a bad idea?" interjected Star.
"Nah, she is right, Star," Marco sighed. "I can see this ending badly. But I
guess if things are as bad as these two say they are, then we don't really have
a choice. I mean, we kind of created this whole situation in the first place.
Sorry to ask now, and... well... sorry to postpone... you know, but... could
you... princess me?" He gave Jackie a concerned look. "Hopefully this isn't
going to be too weird?"
"Yeah, right, of course, Marco," Star stammered awkwardly. What the hell was
wrong between the two of them? Jackie thought to herself. Star raised her wand,
gave it a swirl and, "Radiant Shadow Transform!!"
Marco seemed to float up into the air, right below the hall's tall ceiling. His
skin and clothes became covered in blinding bright purple light and streams of
white light crisscrossed over his body as it contorted in midair. It was
impossible to see properly through the spell's light show, but it seemed like
it first made his princely suit vanish, replacing it then bit by bit with a
puffy pink dress with a huge ribbon over his waist. Honestly, it was surprising
how well Marco could pull that off too. Especially when he landed back to the
floor, the magical glow fading away as his heeled feet touched the ground. He
had a determined and confident expression Jackie had only occasionally seen on
him. It was almost like he was wearing a battle outfit of sorts, rather than a
frilly pink dress.
"Alright, Pointy-head, Glitterwisp, lets go set things straight, my wayward
sisters!" Marco remarked. The pixie princess saluted him, while Ponyhead simply
took out the scissors again and attempted to hand them to Marco. He shook his
head, taking his own pair of scissors from under the dress' skirt. An embossed
name gleamed on them in fiery letters: 'MARCO'. With a quick movement, he cut a
doorway in the air, and confidently strode through it. The two St O's
princesses followed after him.
The Mewman princess was about to follow suit, but Jackie stopped her with a
hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Star, are you alright? What happened with you and
Marco?"
"I," Star paused, uncomfortable. "I am not sure, Jackie..."
"Well, he will come around, I am sure of it. He loves you, Star, and you love
him too. A stupid song is not going to change that, right?" the human girl
tried to reassure her friend, and was glad to see Star smile faintly and nod in
response. "But... Star, and I know is not the best timing... before we jump in
through there, I sort of have a favor to ask from you...."
----
THROUGH UNITY, VICTORY
Saint Olga's had always been a grim gray place. It was grim and gray, if
luxuriously outfitted, when Miss Heinous administered it. It had remained grim
and gray, and far less cared for, when the princesses took over, no matter what
Pointy-head said about her own brief tenure as unofficial leader of the rebel
princess movement. But now, it looked grimmer and grayer than ever. To the
prison-like barbwire fence that surrounded the complex, someone had added
protruding bits and pieces of broken glass, and the decor became only more
oppressive and martial once you went past the gate. Once inside the courtyard,
Marco noticed that the old posters, showing her as Princess Marco, had been
ripped from the walls. Instead, imposing black placards showed a clenched red
fist holding a crown. Disturbingly bellicose slogans were often printed atop,
or around, the insignia.
DOWN WITH THE TYRANTS! PRINCESSES RULE
Ok, that one didn't even make sense. Or maybe it made too much sense. Of course
princesses rule, or well, they were going to rule. So, who the hell were the
tyrants, then? Their parents? Star and Moon might not have always seen eye to
eye on everything, and he had the vague impression that they had ended in
especially bad terms after Star's song, perhaps even worse than he and Star.
But, as he looked at the posters along the courtyard walls, Marco felt these
princesses were taking things way too far.
SOME FREEDOMS MUST BE POSTPONED FOR THE CAUSE
"Freedom is the cause..." he muttered, as he walked past that particular sign.
Ponyhead and Glintwisp floated close by, almost huddled around him. The pixie
princess nodded in silent acknowledgment of his 'wise' proclamation. They both
looked cowed, even more so that they had been under Heinous and her solitary
conformance chamber. Marco wondered where Star and Jackie were now. He had left
the portal open for them, but when they didn't immediately follow, he decided
to go ahead and take point. He needed to survey the situation before their
group attracted any attention, to move while they still had the element of
surprise, just like his favorite war movie hero, Rick Resilient. From what he
could see, the two resident princesses had not been exaggerating when they
described how bad the situation was.
"You got to be kidding me, there is no way that one is not on purpose!" came a
voice from behind Marco. As he turned around, he saw Jackie casually leaning
against the inside of the courtyard walls, just past the outer door, pointing
at one particular slogan he had completely missed:
ALL PRINCESSES ARE EQUAL,
BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Now, Marco would have commented on the absurdity of the poster. He had read
Animal Farm too! Ok, alright, he watched the cartoon movie, same thing.
However, he was rendered speechless by the version of Jackie that confronted
him. Short hair, combed back. A pair of dark green pants and matching shoulder
pads, adorned in gold trimming. A white vest, buttoned in gold to her left
side, and embroidered with a coat of arms: two swords crossing atop a
skateboard bursting out of a seashell. Black gloves and black equestrian boots.
A short red velvet cape. Jackie was standing with his feet, sorry, her feet,
more than shoulder width apart and glancing at Princess Marco with a cocksure
grin on his, no, her, face. She was pulling the whole 'Prince Charming' look
better than Marco was comfortable admitting. In fact, he was uncomfortably sure
that Jackie looked far better in her own prince outfit, than he had in his,
merely hours ago.
"Jackie? What are you doing?!" he stammered in confusion. Did it meant he was
gay if he thought she was handsome? Or did it mean just the opposite? Marco had
long come to feel comfortable himself in a dress, even as he worried what his
long-time crush might think of him for that. Turns out he needed not worry.
But, instead, seeing Jackie in such a masculine presentation was a new and
surreal experience for him. He liked it, and frankly wasn't fully sure what
that said about himself.
"Matching my beautiful and brave princess, of course," Jackie grinned as she
advanced towards him in surprisingly large strides. "I figured, if you are
going to be Princess Marco, then I shall be Prince Jackie... at your service
milady!" She put a hand behind her back and bowed dramatically. Before Marco
could protest that he was, in truth, not a 'milady', Jackie continued, "Or
should it be Prince Jack?"
"I'd keep going with Jackie," chimed up Star as she finally came in through St
O's gate, in the same 'bad princess' getup she had worn the first time they
were here. "Matches 'Princess Marco' better."
"Are you sure?" Jackie asked, after seeming to ponder the question for a
second. She made a gesture of stroking her, nonexistent, beard. "I feel like a
Jack."
"Oh, don't you worry about them gorgeous! I'll call you whatever you like,"
came a nasal voice from way above their position. "Right after I deliver these
traitors to Princess White!"
Following the voice, out of one of the manor's windows, jumped a huge monstrous
purple woman. She had an elephant trunk for a nose and a blue hairdo larger
than her already gargantuan head. She wore a blue frilly dress the size of a
small camping tent and was covered in jewelry, including a gem-encrusted golden
crown. Out of the corners of her mouth, protruded two pointed tusks. Moving
faster than could reasonably be expected from her size, she positioned herself
behind Jackie, grabbed her from the waist and pointed a strange device directly
at the human's face. A blinding flash exploded around them as she pushed the
trigger.
"Ca-me-ra phone!" the ugly princess shouted as she took a selfie of herself
with the newly minted handsome prince of the group. She then grabbed Jackie's
arm, and twisted it behind her. "Now, deserter Princess Marco, traitor Princess
Ponyhead, traitor Princess Glintwisp, and," she looked at Star up and down,
confused, "and you, whoever you are! Follow me, or I will be forced to remove
this hunk's dreamy face!"
Marco looked at Jackie first. He felt calmer when he saw she seemed more
disoriented than actually afraid. He glanced then at Star, and finally at the
criminal princess holding 'her prince' hostage. He and Star had met her once
before, when she tried to steal the mewman princess's face in a harebrained
scheme to escape from St. O's. Fortunately, they managed to throw the book at
her that time, literally as well as figuratively. Frankly, after Heinous, and
Toffee, and whatever that snake-thing Tom had sprung on them the other week
was, Marco was not too scared of the old dizzy monster.
"Sure, fine," Princess Marco spoke defiantly. "Take me to your leader!" Truth
be told, he always wanted to say that. "...and make sure the rest of the girls
are there too! I think they are going to want to hear what I have to say to
this 'Princess White' of yours."
It was soon clear he had no reason to worry about that. As they made their way
through the manor's halls and passageways, the six of them seemed to accumulate
an ever growing crowd of curious onlookers among the St. Olga's former
students. Most of the princesses gave their supposed captor a wide berth.
Jackie played the defiant hostage well, an arrogant scowl on 'his' princely
face. Princess Marco marched right behind the trollish princess that held 'her'
prince captive, he herself held her head tall and fists clenched. Ponyhead and
Glintwisp seemed far more intimidated, marching a few steps behind Marco.
Finally, Star brought the rear, just ahead of the accumulating spectators.
They passed more and more red-fist posters on their way up the manor.
THE REVOLUTION IS MORE IMPORTANT,
THAN ANY INDIVIDUAL
"Embrace the princess mentality..." Star muttered under her breath.
----
"So, that's it, Hekapoo, the whole truth, in as much as I myself know it," Moon
admitted with a sigh. She took a seat at the edge of her bed, and prepared
herself for the onslaught of fury that the sorceress was sure to unleash upon
her. So be it. It would hardly be the first time she found herself on the
receiving end of the other woman's displeasure, it came with the territory. It
was the other side of the coin, the one Star didn't understand yet: having the
power to make the big choices, but also having to live with the consequences.
If it were up to Moon, her daughter would have been spared learning that lesson
for a while longer. But, even as queen, it was not just up to her.
"You could have told us this months ago," the Forger of Scissors noted calmly.
She was looking out through the balcony of the royal bedchamber, giving her
back to Moon, purposefully concealing her facial expression, rendering herself
even more unreadable than usual. "You could have told me."
"Yes, Hekapoo, I could have," the queen admitted. She knew it was a mistake to
not have brought the high commission in on this sooner, or at least the crafty
sorceress in particular. But she had done what she did to protect Star, to
protect her family from additional exposure. Fat good it had done, in the end.
"I had it under control. I still do. Ludo has half the wand, he has the book,
and he has Glossaryck. Admittedly, that is quite bad. But I assure you, even
with all of that, he is hardly what I'd call a threat."
"He was enough of a threat to steal the book from your daughter, Moon. Enough
of a threat to drain the magic from many worlds. Enough of a threat to go after
Omnitraxus..." Hekapoo retorted. Her flame crackled and sizzled atop her head,
betraying her displeasure at her old friend and confidant.
"We don't really know if those things truly are related," the mewman reasoned,
evenly. "Frankly, it disturbs me to think they might be. Lord Brudo didn't give
any indication that the young Avarius represented that kind of menace. He is
not, well, you know..."
"Toffee?" Hekapoo completed the thought Queen Moon did not dare speak aloud. It
was a name that brought far too many unpleasant memories: the death of her
mother, her deal with Eclipsa, the weight of leadership, the coldness in her
own heart as she drew forth power from darkness, and from ancient evil. Then
again, in way, being reminded of that fiend, of that monster in every sense of
the word, also helped remind Moon of what and who she was.
"Not even close!" she responded forcefully. "And must I remind you, Hekapoo,
that I dealt with Toffee as well? Without assistance or advice from you, or
from the high commission."
"With all due respect, Moon," Hekapoo turned back, glaring at her, "you dealt
with Toffee by dabbling in dark magic, by bargaining with the Queen of Darkness
herself! It is only by the sheerest luck that your way of 'dealing' with Toffee
did not doom us all! What makes you think Star will be just as lucky, if it
comes to it?"
"It wasn't luck, Hekapoo. I told you then, and I'll tell you now, I know what I
am doing!" She didn't. Not now, and definitely not back then. She found the
loophole in her deal with Eclipsa only in the last second. By failing to kill
Toffee, she avoided having to fulfill her own end of the bargain with the
imprisoned queen. Yet, had she hesitated only a second less, had she been a
smidgen less or a smidgen more afraid, then Toffee would have died that morning
by her hand. If he had, then Moon would have been left to deal with the
consequences. "And... Star won't have to get lucky. I will deal with this
myself, without dragging her into it, and do it right. I will protect her. You
need to understand, there is no way she will ever have to... to deal with what
I dealt with... when my mother..."
The cool warrior-queen mask crumbled then, the unbreakable armor of Moon the
Undaunted, and for a second she was princess Moon again. Poor little orphan
princess Moon. Tears fell down her eyes, tears only three people in her life
had ever seen before. One was her husband, River. The other was Glossaryck, now
missing. The final one was with her now, in this room. The fiery glare of the
Forger softened as she walked back towards the Queen of Mewni.
"No, she won't, Moon. Because we will protect you. I will protect you," Hekapoo
placed a hand on the monarch shoulder. "But you need to let me do that, and
that means you don't hide the truth from me, or from the high commission."
"Yes, you are right Hekapoo," Moon finally admitted, in full. "It's just, it
seemed like something we should be able to handle within the family. I didn't
want to expose Star to, well, you know. Not this early. I suppose she manages
to get into enough trouble on her own... That awful song! Now she probably
thinks I am a monster, but what would you have me do?"
"The hardest thing, Moon," Hekapoo replied, somber, accepting the other woman's
sudden change of topic. "Nothing."
"What?" the queen asked, not understanding.
"Let her and her friends deal with the consequences of what was in that song.
Let them deal with the people of Mewnie if they must. You could have handled it
when you were her age. Those kids can handle it too. You'd be shocked out of
that hard royal skull of yours by what they can handle. Star is a strong kid,
same as you were. What she can't handle, though, is a mother she believes
disapproves of her every choice," the sorceress spoke with surprising insight,
as she took as seat at the edge of the bed, right besides Moon.
It was ironic, the more she tried to shield her daughter from the harshness of
the world, the more she herself became the face of that harshness. "Disapprove?
What right do I have to disapprove? I just wish she were... a bit more
thoughtful, and discrete, about the whole thing..."
"Well, that's your style, Moon. But it is not Star's. Don't worry, she will
find her own way. It is not my style either, by the way, but a deal is a deal,"
Hekapoo remarked with a smile, right before she leaned forth to kiss the lips
of her royal lover. In familiar warm lips, Moon found a measure of peace, after
one of the toughest days she had had in a good long while.
----
The only way to describe it, was to say that it was a throne room improvised
out of a dining hall, or out of a very fancy school cafeteria. Each of the
walls were lined with tables and chairs, pushed aside to make room for a ragged
red carpet, which itself looked as if it had been ripped out from the floor of
a separate room of the mansion. The carpet led to yet another table, atop which
someone had affixed a sofa-chair and two normal wooden chairs. Of those, only
the leftmost chair was empty. The walls were lined with some more of those
disturbing, almost self-parodying, posters. All in all, it was much less
impressive, and far more disturbing, than Mewnie castle's throne room. Or so
thought Jackie, despite having been inside the later only briefly.
"Princess White! Glorious leader of the princess revolution! I bring you back
the traitors, and the famed Princess Marco!" the bizarre woman that held her by
the arm claimed, in a bored but practiced tone, and took a deep bow. Then, she
extended the other arm, and with a quick movement took a picture of herself and
of all the people behind her, including Marco, Star and Jackie, and a few dozen
onlookers. "Ca-me-ra phone!"
The person sitting in the sofa chair, atop the table, raised an eyebrow, and
silently regarded the presumptive captives. She was a slender goth-looking
girl, seemingly not that much older than the three of them. She had long
disheveled raven-black hair, skull-pale skin, and blood-red lips that easily
twisted into a dangerous smirk. She wore an open spiked leather jacket and
embroidered leather pants. Her top was a white blouse, with the now familiar
fist-holding-a-crown symbol painted in red ink atop it. The crown in the symbol
matched in design with the crown she wore atop her head, in bright shimmering
silver. Hanging to the left side of her belt, glinted a wicked looking sword,
with a skull atop the handle. 'Princess White, I presume', Jackie thought to
herself.
"Princess Marco?" she spoke, bemusedly, and in a surprisingly melodious and
inviting voice. "An honor, and a pleasure, for sure; to meet the foremother of
our glorious revolution. Perhaps we could offer her and her two companions
something to eat? Then we might bring her up to date with the progress the
cause has made, in her, I assume quite explainable, absence?"
Dammit, whomever this girl was, she was a good public speaker. Jackie couldn't
help but notice how she was both appearing to politely welcome Princess Marco,
while at the same time casting doubts on the other princesses' minds about her.
There was something more as well... wait, two companions? Jackie saw the goth
princess surreptitiously make a gesture with her hand. Two other girls walked
through the crowd towards them, throwing a muzzle and a bug net, respectively,
on Pony Head and Glintwisp.
"Wait, what are they doing?!" Star protested in a surprised shout.
"Oh, surely Princess Marco would not be in any way associated with these
traitors, now, would she?" the sitting princess smiled calmly.
"Of course they are with me!" Marco shouted. "Let them go. And, for the record,
I think I have seen enough of your so called progress, thank you very much!"
Not precisely a master diplomat, thought Jackie, but he sure managed to pull
off the defiant rebel leader role.
"Yeah, let my bestie go!" shouted Star, leveling her wand at the princess
holding Ponyhead. Not wanting to be outdone, Jackie elbowed the huge princess
holding her, and quickly moved to grab the other girl's bug net out of her
hands.
To the side of the sofa-throne, in the one wooden chair that was occupied, a
scrawny brunette of sharp features and piercing green eyes leaned to whisper
something in White's ear. "Ah... I see. Princess Star, yet another honor!"
"Wait, you know who I am?" the Mewman asked, surprised. Presumably, she was
talking about her disguise, but the dark-haired princess decided to interpret
it quite differently.
"Of course. Your reputation precedes you," White stalled, attempting to
distract them from their friends being dragged around. Only when she saw that
further attempts would likely result in an all out brawl, she quietly gave the
signal to her cronies to let go. Even then, that barely registered in her
polite conversational tone. "Frankly, it is a miracle you did not end up among
us, here in St. O's. Or a shame, as the case might be. You would be such an
asset for our revolution..."
"A revolution against whom, exactly?" Princess Marco interrupted. "Way I see
it, Heinous was gone, the girls were free to embrace their individuality, then
you came along and this is now what? A princess Soviet Union?"
"I am unfamiliar with that kingdom," White replied, calmly. "As for against
whom... well, against our oppressors, of course! Same fight you started,
sister. Sure, you helped our sisters get rid of Heinous. Although, from what I
have heard recently, you didn't do as... permanent a job as I would have in
your place..."
Permanent? Was she suggesting that Marco ought to have killed their former
headmistress? The savage grin and the way White's hand drifted towards the
pommel of her sword, told Jackie the answer. Now, that miss Heinous did sound
like a horrid character, but surely that was taking it a step too far. Then
again, if she had to judge this whole thing by the standards of actual
revolutions...
"In any case, Heinous was nothing but a lackey of the true oppressors!" White
voice swiftly rose into a booming tone. "The ones who sent these princesses
here, to be brainwashed, to be enslaved to their lineages and to their
subjects! Who are they to tell us who we should be?! What we should do?! I say
we pay them back! No longer shall any princess be beholden to the whims of her
line or her kingdom!"
"Yeah!" shouted Star, as did many other princesses among the crowd. Most of the
observers, however, wisely kept silent. Then the Mewman's princess expression
seemed to change, as she realized to what she was agreeing exactly. "Wait, no!
You cannot mean that we should... hurt our parents?"
"No, of course not," White's face softened. "Not your parents, princess Star.
Like I said, your reputation as a rebel, as one of us, does you great honor.
But I will admit that your parents, whatever their faults might be, never sent
you to a place like St. O's. However... the parents of these girls did do just
that! They willingly subjected their kids to imprisonment and brainwashing! If
that doesn't make them, and their entire kingdoms, evil, if that doesn't make
them worthy of being overthrown, then what does?!"
"Look," Marco raised a hand. Standing on the floor, as the other princess
straightened herself atop her throne, he looked much feebler by comparison.
Jackie figured that was entirely intentional on White's part, it was probably
the whole point of setting up this makeshift royal hall in the first place. "I
am not saying that it is right to send anyone to a place like what this used to
be. But I don't think these girls' parents are expecting their daughters to be
brainwashed. They think this is a place to teach them the skills that they
need, to be good rulers..."
"There is only one skill necessary to rule," the goth princess smirked.
"Strength! And together, we have strength in abundance!"
"No," Princess Marco asserted herself, not willing to let that one slide. And
Jackie felt no small degree of admiration for her frilly-dressed boyfriend.
"Ruling through strength only makes you a tyrant, or a dictator. Look, I am not
saying each princess shouldn't be free to be themselves, to be who they truly
are, each and every one of our wayward sisters. They should be free to use
their gifts to be the best versions of themselves instead of a cookie-cutter
extension of their respective royal families. But when they rule, and they rule
their way, they should still be doing what is right for their people! If you
use strength to intimidate and cow others into submission, then that makes you
the oppressors!" Princess Marco paused her speech, and Jackie noticed a few
murmurs of agreement within the gathered crowd. "Besides, are you truly
suggesting that these girls kill their own parents?"
"Why not?" White retorted. "After all, I killed my mother!"
More murmurs. Star gasped. She suddenly looked pale, and horrified. Even Jackie
felt sick to her stomach, and she was neither a princess, nor had ever been
caught agreeing with the lunatic in question.
"So yes, strength, and resolve, are all that stands between each and everyone
of us and complete freedom and independence, the kind that only comes with
power," she continued. "I would know. I now rule my kingdom, and I do so
entirely my way, without lineages or tradition. Without being beholden to
anyone but myself!"
"And I assume your people love you for it?" retorted Marco, sarcastically.
"Absolutely," the other princess responded with a smile. "You see, my mother
was an evil queen."
"Then I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Princess Marco
quipped.
Suddenly, the sitting princess jumped out of her throne, her hands gripping the
sofa's armrests until they broke under the pressure into a shower of splinters.
Her eyes were wide open and her teeth clenched in a furious rictus. "What. Did.
You! Just! Say?!" Her previous composure had gone in an instant, and she seemed
to barely keep enough self control not to jump down from the table and charge
against Marco.
At first, Jackie thought White simply resented the comparison to her mother.
But then it hit her. It wasn't just being compared to her mother that bothered
Princess White. It was the saying itself! Rather, it had been a single word in
the saying: apple. She had reacted as soon as that word was mentioned.
Everything seemed to fall into place all at once then for the Earth girl: 'My
mother was an evil queen'. Apple. Princess White. Coal-black hair, blood-red
lips, skin as white as snow... "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me! Marco, I
think you are debating Snow White!"
The goth blinked twice, and seemed to calm down, momentarily. "I haven't been
called by that name in a very long time... you are?"
"Prince," she thought for a second, "Jack. Jack as in the giant killer." She
spoke with the utmost bravado, or at least all she could muster. Then,
mentally, she added, 'and if you believe that, I also have a bag of magic beans
to sell you'.
"Well, princess Marco, prince... Jack," Snow White spat the name, "I see my
arguments fall on deaf ears. So I propose we put our ideals to a test, a trial
on the morrow!" She smiled wickedly. A wicked queen smile, thought Jackie.
"Cass, tell me this, and only this, will our dear Princess Marco once again
flee from us unseen during the night?"
The green eyes of the woman sitting besides White turned her piercing gaze
towards Marco, as she seemed to concentrate. "She will stay," she answered
simply.
"Of course! I will debate you any day you want, sister!" Princess Marco quickly
retorted. Jackie, however, smelled a rat.
"It is set, then," Snow White proclaimed, "tomorrow at dawn. A trial by
combat!"
Chapter End Notes
     The original Chapter 13 was almost twice as long as it is now. Based
     on previous experiences with long chapters, I have decided to break
     it up into two parts. Unfortunately, this means that while the plot
     moves forward, the situation between Star and Marco remains
     unresolved.
     Now, some people might say that I had plenty enough time to resolve
     it in this chapter, had I not thrown gratuitous Moonkapoo at you all
     and introduced that ridiculous evil Snow White fellow. But to those
     people I say: Where would be the fun in that? ;)
     Coming up next: Chapter 14: A Thunderstorm Roaring Through the Night
     In which 'no boys allowed' backfires terribly, a letter arrives, and
     a plan to fight an evil princess is conceived.
***** A Thunderstorm Roaring Through the Night *****
Chapter Summary
     In which 'no boys allowed' backfires terribly, a letter arrives, and
     a plan to fight an evil princess is conceived.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 14: A Thunderstorm Roaring Through the Night *****
     She's a thunderstorm roaring through the night
     She's our shooting Star, and she's lighting up the sky!
     - The Songstrel Ruberiot (both continuities)
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/14.png]
After Princess White's latest proclamation, the five of them were quickly
escorted to three separate rooms within the mansion. Ponyhead and Glintwisp
were locked in together, as were Marco and Star. Jackie was shuffled into her
own room, in what the princess of Mewnie suspected was an ironic attempt at
enforcing some bizarre 'no boys allowed' rule. If you asked her, that was
closer to Heinous' way of thinking than that of a true rebel princess,
specially the party princesses of St. O's. But it seemed that, for all her talk
about fighting oppressors, Saint Olga's under White's leadership was even more
oppressive than it had ever been before. Was that even possible? How was it
possible?
Anyways, that all didn't matter, because there were two things right now that
seemed more important to Star Butterfly than the future of St. O's princess'
rebellion. The first was that, come tomorrow, Marco was supposed to fight some
crazy mother-killing princess from hell. And, well, is not like Star doubted
her bestie's fighting skills - which were, like, totally super awesome - but
she had never seen him fight with a sword, much less in a formal duel. She was
sure White would declare herself the challenged party, despite calling for the
trial, simply because it was Princess Marco coming into her... kingdom?
dominion? or, like, her little fiefdom? As opposed to vice versa. So, Star
needed to advice Marco both on sword fighting, and on royal dueling norms, and
is not like she ever had paid much attention to either of those things herself!
Then, of course, there was the second thing. The part that made her sad to room
with her best friend in the whole multiverse, with her... was he even still her
boyfriend? The question itself made her chest hurt and her stomach twist like
she needed to puke. It was the question that she had been trying to ignore the
whole night. The part where Marco maybe hated her now for being a manipulative
skank!
They waited there, in long uncomfortable silence, standing at the entrance of a
somberly decorated room that was twice the size of Marco's, yet smaller than
Star's own. Neither of them quite able to bring themselves to be the first to
speak.
"Star, we need to talk," Marco offered. He walked in and sat on the jacobean
chair, by the mirror, leaving Star to take over the huge bed in the middle.
She barely noticed the furnishings herself. Marco loved this old-fashioned
overly-ornamented royal crap that was all over the place in St. O's. Honestly,
she liked Earth furniture way better. There was even some you could assemble
and disassemble, without using magic! How cool was that? But, yeah, not the
time for thinking about cool things. Rather, it was the time to finally face
the music, as it were. Or maybe, maybe she didn't even have the time for that.
"We don't, Marco," she spoke. "If I hurt you, then I am sorry, and if you hate
me... well... nevermind, my point is that tomorrow's duel is what we should be
talking about. A duel is not just like a regular brawl, Marco. In this case, I
think it might be way more dangerous, like not fun-dangerous, dangerous-
dangerous," she tried to explain, but he cut her off.
"No, Star, all the more reason we need to talk. If tomorrow I am going to get
skewered by a fairytale character turned twentieth century dictator, then there
is something I need to tell you first! I've been thinking about it all
night..." He looked up at her, pausing as if he still couldn't find the words
to say what he had decided to say.
"You can say it tomorrow, Marco!" Star protested, tearing up a little. She
didn't want to hear it. She knew whatever the specific reason Marco was angry
at her, no matter how valid, it would shatter her, and she needed to be whole
right now, for his own good if nothing else. "Look, just let me make sure you
come out of this thing alright. You can hate me all you like after we deal with
this Princess White stuff, ok?"
"No! We can't do that, because you got it all wrong! Please, just listen for a
second." He took a deep breath and crossed one leg atop another underneath his
princess dress. "First of all, Star, I don't hate you, and you didn't hurt me.
I am really sorry I caused you to think that was the case. Apparently even now
I keep messing this stuff up! It is just, I didn't know, or I don't know, how
to begin... I guess the first thing I should have said, actually, is that it's
me that needs to apologize, so, well: I am sorry, Star."
"Wait, what?!" He was making no sense. What would Marco have to apologize for?
"But then, why did you seem so angry earlier? About me not telling you about
Tom?"
"Star, I already told you, I don't give an opossums' ass about Tom!" Marco
shouted. "And, I was angry at myself, alright? At being so stupid! At ignoring
the way my best friend felt! Why didn't you tell me, Star? Why didn't you tell
me that I was making you miserable when I began dating Jackie?!"
"Uh?" Star thought back to their conversation earlier that same night. Had
Marco ever truly said he was angry at her, or had she just assumed he was? Then
again, he truly had nothing to apologize for, other than perhaps being a
misleading idiot just now! "Marco, you were not making me miserable, ok? I was
happy that you were dating Jackie, because it made you happy. And ok, so I was
a bit jealous of her, and a bit worried that you didn't like me the way you
liked her. But well, surprise, you sort of did! It is pretty much the one thing
Ruberiot got right with his stupid song: that story did have a happy ending! At
least until earlier tonight..."
"I did like you! I do like you! Is just, I am ashamed it took me so long to
realize it, Star," Marco blushed, and shifted her, his, ponytail,
uncomfortably. Honestly, it was kind of adorable. "I am sorry if I hurt you by
being so oblivious!"
"Marco, I was fooling even myself back then about how I felt, so of course I
fooled you too!" she reasoned. "Anyways, suppose I had told you then, what
would you have done? Dumped Jackie for me?"
Marco fell silent, and they stared at each other for what seemed like forever.
"I am such an asshole," he said, simply. Because he wouldn't have? Or because
he would? He didn't say, and Star did not press him on that. For once, she
managed to keep her own impulsiveness from making her do something she knew she
would later regret.
"Marco, I know assholes, ok?" she grimaced, recalling a certain demon ex-
boyfriend. "You really, really, aren't one. And hopefully you don't think I am
one either..."
The Earth boy, St. O's rebel princess, her bestie, got off his chair and walked
towards Star. He was crying and smiling at once, and so was she. He extended
his arms and was about to lean down towards the bed, when Star jumped to meet
him.
"Hugs!" she cried. Suddenly, things between them felt right again. He was her
boyfriend, and her best friend. He cared about her so much that the thought of
having made her miserable, even if it was basically by failing to read her
mind, was the one thing that disturbed him the most about that entire gross
messed-up song. Tom didn't matter to him, and the reaction of the people of
Mewnie didn't matter to him, so why should those matter to Star? If it ever
came to that, she would find a way to get the citizens of Mewni to accept Marco
and her, and Jackie too, for that matter. Whether she had to bend tradition to
do so, or re-invent it, they would find a way, together.
As they embraced, a flash of inspiration hit her. "Wait, I got it! You don't
really have to fight Princess White tomorrow!"
"I don't?" Marco asked, visibly taken aback by the magical princess' rapid
change of tracks.
"No," she reassured him. "I just remembered! From my lessons. Guess I wasn't
always asleep! Traditionally, under most kingdoms dueling standards, you can
designate a proxy to fight for you. Which means... that I can take care of the
problem for you!" She made a swift wand-shooting motion, with her non-wand hand
just in case.
"Wait, Star, didn't you say that was dangerous?" he reminded her.
Thing was, he wasn't wrong. If the other princess' weapon of choice was swords,
then that banned magic wands, and what were the chances Snow White would chose
wands? Well, if worst came to worst, she could dip down and blast her, with or
without a wand. Then again, she reminded herself, doing that required a moment
of concentration she might not get right in the middle of a fight. At any rate,
Star was much more comfortable with it being dangerous for her, than for Marco.
"Oh, Marco, don't worry, I can handle a little danger!" she put her best smile
forward. She was not exactly the best princess to spot you in a formal duel,
but Star was sure she would do much better than 'Princess Marco' could, no
matter how cute he looked in a dress. Speaking of which, "For now, less
worrying, more smooching!"
Star turned the two of them around and pushed her boyfriend onto the bed,
climbing atop him as she pressed her lips, and her torso, firmly against his
own. A growing bulge between the folds of his pink dress told the true princess
that, at least as it pertained to her 'no boys allowed' plan, Princess White
had already been foiled.
"Wait, Star, just for the record: I haven't agreed. I am still fighting
tomorrow!" he protested. "I got us into this whole mess, remember?"
"Oh, really?" Star grinned at him as she cocked her head. "Tell you what,
Marco. You show me you can wrestle me here tonight, and I'll consider letting
you fight other princesses," she joked. "Besides, I got us into this mess
first!"
"Wrestle you, Star?" the karate boy raised an eyebrow. The mewman girl grabbed
his wrists pushing him down, kissing him fiercely. The look in his eyes told
her he got the idea. "Mmm, Star, not to rain on that particular parade, but I
don't think there is any connection between a formal duel and, well, this."
"Well, I dunno Marco, they both involve some... 'sword play'" she wiggled
herself atop him suggestively and chuckled. Marco groaned at her pun, but soon
his groans became panting, and acquired a whole different meaning. Star herself
felt her own excitement build up. There was something about the whole
situation, and their respective costumes, that made her feel so, so, wicked.
Tomorrow she would face Snow White, no matter what Marco said, but for now, she
herself was going to be the bad princess.
"Star, wrestling doesn't involve swords..." Marco remarked. Before the princess
could finish thinking of a retort, mentioning how much of a spoilsport the
'Safe Kid' was being, she felt his arms slid from under her hands and grab her
own wrists in return. With a quick movement, he flipped her over, and before
she knew it the positions were reversed, "... it involves grappling moves."
From his position straddling her, he bowed and placed his right fist on his
left palm. Star was about to protest that that wasn't wrestling either, but his
lips quickly shut up her own. She felt his hands slid around her shoulders,
removing the two suspender straps of her costume. He was doing something else
with them. Something that Star couldn't focus on, because his arms kept softly
brushing against her mewberty wings, and his hips kept grinding on hers as both
their skirts hiked higher and higher up. Soon she could feel his 'sword' poking
her through only the fabric of their underwear.
A moment later, she remembered their playful competition, and moved to pounce
Marco back on his back, reversing their positions. Except, it turns out she
wasn't able to do that. In fact, Star discovered, she couldn't move her arms
from behind her at all, even as Marco's hands let go of them to concentrate on
caressing her breasts through the black top of her costume. She gasped and
moaned in pleasure, and it took her a second to realize what the boy had done
just a moment before. Both her arms were tied against her back using her own
suspenders. "Hey, that's playing dirty!" she shouted.
"It's called strategy, Star," he smiled at her, a smug Princess Marco smile.
"So, do I win? Do I get to fight White tomorrow?"
"Sure, sure, Marco," she groaned. Maybe she would regret giving in so easily
later. But what could she do? If nothing else, Marco was resourceful, and if he
wanted to fight, then who was she to stop him? She had told him once that she
needed a friend, not a hero, perhaps that was true in reverse as well. "Just...
well... finish the job, alright?"
"Gladly," Marco remarked. Star didn't know if it was just a matter of having
significantly more practice, or if the Princess Marco persona made her bestie
more confident, even in such a bizarre context, but he seemed so much more sure
of himself than usual. She liked it. She liked it a lot. He was not being a
cocky asshole like Tom, or suave dancer-trance Marco, he was being her bestie,
just, you know, bolder! He roamed his lips along her neck, suckling and
kissing. He moved his hands along the edge of her wings, and dipped into her
top to trace circles around her nipples.
Star felt herself getting hotter and hotter, and she could feel the boys own
excitement without even needing to concentrate. She knew, through their
mysterious link, that he found the idea of her being bound and vulnerable just
as exciting as she found the idea of him being bold and in control. She could
perceive that he indeed felt powerful in pink, and that he was reluctant to do
away with either of their costumes. "Just push it aside," she suggested.
He understood and did as she asked. A hand went in between their skirts, and
pushed aside their underwear. Star felt Marco's cock slide into her through the
mess of fabrics and begin to move inside her. She felt an instinct to embrace
him as he begun fucking her rhythmically, but was quickly reminded of her
immobility by the tight grasp of the leather straps around her wrists. Her
brief struggle excited them both even more.
As he picked up pace, their sensations once again blended together. She could
feel herself around him as much as himself inside of her, both perspectives
becoming one and the same as he rode her towards climax. Realizing she could
still move her legs, she lifted them to embrace his, pushing him deeper inside
her. Her vision became a series of flashes, half from his perspective, half
from hers. She could see both their panting sweating faces as the other saw
them, hear their moans and grunts from either side.
A flash of green and she was Marco, feeling rebellious and in control, and at
once more like a girl and more like a guy than he had ever felt before. A flash
of green and she was Star, getting lost in the sensations, happy to be
completely at the mercy of the one person she trusted the most in the whole
world, excited to feel him inside her after having feared she would lose him. A
flash of green and she was up in the air above the forest of certain death,
flying at vertiginous speed towards the center of Mewni.
Before she could analyze that last scene, her mind went blank completely, as
the powerful wave of both their orgasms hit her, not quite simultaneously this
time, but in quick succession. She felt him pulsating and pumping into her even
as she rode a long climax. All the muscles in her body tensed at once, and then
became incredibly relaxed. Marco fell by her side and, summoning whatever
strength he had left, he undid the knotted straps holding her arms in place. As
soon as she could, she turned to hug him.
"Well, Marco, guess it was not the best idea to get you this tired the night
before your big fight," Star observed, conceding the point that started the
whole wonderful struggle.
"I will be alright, Star. We are still like, what? Four hours away from dawn?!
Oh, man..." Marco grimaced. "Well, Star, just promise me what we did just now
won't end up as a song," he joked.
Star punched him in the arm. "No more songs! Not now, not ever!" she declared.
"But, Marco, are you sure you are ok with, well, with all of that?"
"If you are ok with it, Star, then so I am," Marco shrugged in response.
"Although, if you have any other shocking revelations I should be aware of, now
would be a great time to bring those up. You know, when there is not an entire
kingdom for an audience..."
Star though back to their mysterious link, to the flashes she had just seen.
Why had she seen Mewni, and the forest of certain death, of all places? She
considered, for a second, to tell Marco about the visions, but that would
require mentioning the All-Seeing Eye spell, and that was an explanation she
still didn't want to get into, not now, and hopefully not ever.
"What? Marco, don't be silly! That was all of it, I swear it, all of the
shocking revelations. No more secrets, I promise!" she blurted, after a while.
The boy in the pink dress arched an eyebrow at her, in clear disbelief. She
forced a nervous smile.
"You know what, Star, never mind, I'll learn them when I learn them. I guess
that's the thing about being your best friend, or your boyfriend, it is always
going to be a surprise after another, and I wouldn't have it any other way," he
smiled a relaxed smile at her. "Lets sleep now. We have a fairytale dictator to
overturn tomorrow."
----
Tom looked up from the stash of envelopes on his hands, pausing to observe
Janna's focused movements. She sat on the floor of his room, in the lotus
position, waving her arms in intricate patterns around the flickering ball of
ghostly blue flames that floated in front of her. She had her eyes closed.
Could she see them, then? The dead souls swarming around them, circling her
sitting body as she drew from their power? The demon prince was sure she could
not see them with her eyes open. Humans, as a rule, could not. But perhaps she
already could sense them in her mind eye.
It wasn't as if she was consuming souls to power her sorcery, not even close.
The power required to permanently destroy a true soul was enormous, as was the
arcane energy liberated in the process. But she was attracting them to her, and
sipping away some of the remaining life-force of the long deceased, little by
little spinning it into her phantasmal yarn of flames. It figures that the
damned girl would have an affinity for the energies of the underworld, rather
than those of her own dimension.
He brought his focus back to the letters, as he sat quietly on his sofa, wary
of interrupting the apprentice witch. Bills ('To: Tom Lucitor, One Lucitor
Palace, #666'), petitions from mortals seeking favors from dark powers ('To:
His Grace, Tom Lucitor, Dark Prince Most Unhallowed'), and more junk mail that
you could even imagine ('To: Whomever it might reach'). To hell with
advertisers! Actually no, that they were all down here was the problem in the
first place.
"Tom, catch!" yelled Janna, as she let go of her fiery hex in his general
direction, probably seeking to startle him. The demon smiled a single-fanged
smile, and caught the fireball in his hand with ease. He closed his fist around
it, holding on to it, took a stack of letters with his other hand and slowly
burned them into the flame, before extinguishing the blue orb with his palm.
"Cool," he remarked evenly. "That's some pretty good progress, Janna."
"Is way too slow," she retorted, unconvinced. "Come on, Tom, the other way is
faster, and way more enjoyable!"
She gave him a seductive wink, and vulgarly roamed her hands around the curves
of her small breasts. The demon prince raised an eyebrow in return.
"Janna, last time we got lucky," no pun intended. "It was like being a
lightning rod. The only reason you didn't hurt yourself is that you fired off
the power as soon as you got it. I am pretty sure you don't want to take a risk
like that again."
He sighed and directed his attention elsewhere, away from the teasing mortal.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a black envelope, labeled simply 'To:
Tom, From: Sam'. A familiar feeling of dread nested itself in the back of the
demon prince's skull. Despite the simple informal addressing, the letter was
sealed in blood red wax, displaying the flaming blade and pentagram symbol that
the young prince knew only too well.
"So," Janna's words took him out of his contemplation, "you are saying you are
going to have me here for three days and not fuck me, Tom?" She mock-pouted.
"I said no such thing," he grinned, devilishly, "just that we might have to
exercise a bit more self control than that night, unless you literally can't
get off without me going full agro," he teased her back. "Speaking of which, I
can't believe your parents let you stay in here for three days. I mean it. I
literally did not believe you when you told me they were ok with this, Janna."
"Eh, fair enough. I told them I was going to be staying with Ingrid," she
shrugged. "Do you really care?"
"Lying is not nice, Janna," he noted, with a sarcastic smirk. He was neither
surprised, nor disappointed, of course. The human girl was a rebel, and that's
probably a big part of why he enjoyed being with her. As soon as the thought
was formed, he realized, to his annoyance, that it meant he had a type.
"Oh, right, like I have never lied to my parents before," she chuckled.
"Besides, what am I going to tell them? That I plan to spend the entire weekend
in bed with the devil?"
The devil, eh? Tom's eyes fell back into the black envelope. It wasn't just
black, it was dark enough that it sucked in the light around it, permanently
casting a bubble of shadows on itself even as he waved it closer to the candle
flame. Chances were, it would not burn either, not to worldly fire. Knowing
Sam, it was made of something like the darkness from the deepest depths of
creation. Or maybe from a piece of the fabric of the firmament, taken before
the first stars were placed there. Janna thought she was getting in bed with
the devil by dating him, she didn't know what the literal hell she was talking
about.
"Tom, what's that?" she startled him. In his contemplation, he didn't realize
when she had gotten up and walked towards him. Now she was looking right over
his shoulder. "Letter from an old girlfriend?"
"From an old friend of the family. Party invitation, I think," he added, waving
his hand dismissively. It probably was. One that Tom planned to decline. Blood
Moon Balls were one thing, but Sam's little soirees always turned out way more
intense than he found, well, tolerable, really.
----
Marco woke up to an intermittent knocking sound. He slowly opened his groggy
eyes to see an unfamiliar, yet sumptuous, bed canopy above him. The mattress
felt incredibly soft, fine silk sheets too, and the room had just a hint of the
perfume of pine-wood that rose up with the morning. Oh, right, St. Olga's!
Heinous might have been a horrible principal, but she was an amazing interior
decorator.
He heard knocking once more, and tried to get up to answer the door.
Unfortunately, something was pressing against his chin: Star's... foot? Man, he
had expected to wake up to her embracing him, or maybe vice versa. But not to
her splayed all around him, snoring as she hugged a pillow at the base of the
bed instead. He smiled. He should have known better.
"Marco? Star?" he heard Jackie's voice, accompanying another set of knocks.
"You two decent?"
To his surprise, the knocks came from the opposite end of the room he would
have expected, away from the door. He rushed up, adjusted his ponytail and his
dress. Oh man, he could do with a shower right now. Never mind that! He hurried
up to the window, opened the curtains, and flipped the lock. Jackie pushed the
left panel open and slid in a swift parkour movement. Outside, the light of
dawn was barely visible in the horizon, but a thick fog seemed to rise with the
morning.
"Jackie, what are you doing out there?" Marco asked, surprised. "We are on a
third floor! You could have hurt yourself!"
"Please, Marco," Jackie snorted, "with the amount of ledges, gargoyles, and
random protrusions this old house's got, Ferguson could have climbed between
the rooms, probably while carrying miss Skullnick or something," she observed,
playing it off.
"Oh, hey Jackie!" Star, suddenly wide awake and chirp as a morning dove,
greeted the other girl. "Wait, if you could have gone out of your room through
the window at any time, why not come here last night?"
Jackie leaned against the wall. "Well, seemed like you had some stuff to work
out on your own last night. I didn't want to intrude," she remarked. "By the
looks of it, I'd said you did work it out?"
Marco blushed. Had Jackie heard them too? I mean, if she was right the next
room... Star and he hadn't precisely been discreet. Then again, what if anyone
else heard them? Was Princess Marco about to be outed to the princesses of St.
O's as a raging lesbian?
"Aww, Jackie, thanks!" Star's voice interrupted Marco's mental tangent. "Ok,
alright now, enough chit-chat, we have a tyrant to fight!"
"Oh, right," Marco grumbled. He felt so tired after last night. It was one
thing to discuss morning duels in the abstract, a different one to wake up at
the crack of dawn to fight a psychopathic rebel princess. Why did nobody ever
schedule this damn things for mid-afternoon?
"I mean, if you are sure you are up for it, Marco?" Star asked, seeming to
notice her best friend's torpor. "If not, you know I can always tag in. Not
that I don't trust your fighting prowess if you still want to take White on
yourself, though..."
"Wait," Jackie asked, inquisitively, "you mean it doesn't have to be Marco that
fights her?"
"No," Star responded proudly, "Under the fifth trans-dimensional code of
chivalry and gallant conduct, on which Mewni's own rules are based, any party
to a trial by combat might designate a proxy, who may fight on their stead, if
willing." She recited, with surprising eloquence, given what Marco knew about
her grades.
"Ok, then I'll do it!" Jackie offered, almost excitedly.
"Wait, no!" Marco protested. No way he was going to let either of them fight
his battles. "I mean, ok, I am a bit tired right now. But nothing that the
adrenaline won't solve. I have been in morning fights before at the dojo
and..."
"Marco," Jackie stopped him with a hand raised. "It is not just that I am the
most well rested of the three of us, which I am. Is that I want to do this. To
take on the adventure head on, like you two do, not just being here for the
ride, ok?"
"I am not sure, Jackie," Star interjected. "Duels are pretty serious matters.
There is no way to back down once the fight starts, or get outside help without
breaking the rules. And, besides, that Princess White seems pretty vicious. I
think is better if you let me or Marco handle this one, and we can definitely
spot you on a simpler first time adventure, like punching monsters, or maybe
even a small hydra! You know, baby steps..."
"I see," Jackie appeared to ponder. Marco knew that look. "So, Star, question:
what kind of weapons are permitted in a duel?"
"Weeell," the princess started, "the challenged party picks, usually, and that
would be White in this case, I think. I am not sure."
"Ok, and White was carrying a sword last night," Jackie observed, logically,
"Star, Marco, do either of you know how to fight with a sword?"
Marco groaned. Of course Jackie knew the answer already.
"Well, not very well," Star conceded, "I can swing around a bunch of weapons,
but I usually use my wand, and before I got it I mostly punched stuff."
"Well, I have four years of fencing lessons as a kid, and a couple of weeks as
a refresher, Star," Jackie noted. "Not going to say I am a master duelist, but
out of the three of us, I am still our best sword fighter."
"Jackie, fencing is not the same as dueling, and you are not as, well,
resistant as I would be," Star remarked, apparently trying her best to be
polite about the differences between human and mewman fortitude and
constitution. "Unless... Wait! Jackie, this could work!"
"What could work?" Marco asked, worried about Star sudden swing towards the
other girl's case.
"Well, traditionally, the Queen of Mewnie would use the Royal Magic Wand to
empower the kingdom's soldiers," she explained. "To fight against the evil
monster hordes and stuff... except they weren't actually always evil, but
that's another story and well..."
"Wait," Jackie interrupted. "You mean the whole Mewnipendance Day stuff? The
huge armor suits and weapons?"
"Yes!" Star shouted excitedly. "Except, I think I can make those way more
discreet at this point. Unpierceable magic shield over your whole body,
magically empowered strength and reflexes, enchanted sword," she listed with
her fingers. "You won't be in any risk at all, White won't know what hit her,
and you get your first taste of ad-ven-ture! Ok, lets do this Jackie!"
"I dunno, Star," Jackie remarked, "isn't that kinda cheating?"
"Not really," Star retorted. "The rules are that I can't intervene during the
duel, and you can only bring a sword as weapon. Magic cast before duels is
actually pretty common... I think."
"Fair enough," Jackie shrugged. "Ok, buff me up, Butterfly!"
"Wait a second!" Marco shouted, angrily. "I didn't say I would let Jackie fight
for me. The whole magic empowering stuff is fine by me, but I should be the one
to fight!"
"Why?" Jackie asked, raising an eyebrow, and Marco knew he wasn't winning this
one either. But he had to try.
"Because she challenged me!"
"And you can pick a proxy, so pick me."
"But I got us into this in the first place!"
"No, that would be Horse Head."
"But I am the..."
"... guy?" Jackie completed his sentence. She, in her princely outfit, looked
up and down at Princess Marco, her chin resting on a globed hand. "Marco,
first, that's kinda sexist. Two, if that's the standard, then all the more
reason I should be the one defending the honor of my princess, no?"
Marco had no retort, none that could help him win the argument.
"Come on, dude," Jackie smiled at him. "I can do this. I want to do this. I am
the best suited one, and with Star's magic it should be a piece of cake. Trust
me, ok?"
----
A knock on her door woke up Queen Moon. Tiredly, she opened her eyes, noticing
that no light of dawn filtered yet through the curtains. She rose to her feet,
closed her nightgown and opened the door just enough to see who it was that
woke her up at this time. "River, dear? Since when do you knock on your own
room?"
"Well darling," the king rubbed the back of his head nervously. "It's just,
well, it's been a while since you two... I just thought I'd give you space for
the night."
Moon the Undaunted blushed at her husbands comment, and at the recollections of
the night before, which suddenly flooded her drowsy memory. Then, from behind
her, came a snore, followed by a chuckle. "Mightily appreciated, King River,"
quipped Hekapoo, from inside the room.
"Sorry, dear," Moon apologized, "I know this is all terribly unfair to you..."
"Nonsense," her husband cut her off. "Fair or unfair doesn't come into it, I
knew of you two back when I married you, and I am rather fond of old Hekapoo
anyways. Besides, I relish a good night of independence!"
"I, I will make it up to you, River, I promise," Moon said with a smile.
"You more than make it up, darling, just by being you," the king commented.
"You two are truly a fountain of sap," groaned the sorceress. "But, if you have
waited till now, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, why not wait until the
morning? Or maybe noon?"
"Actually," River coughed. "Moon, I am sorry to wake you but, it seems like you
are required. The... well, the songstrel, he says he needs to see you, and that
is urgent. The chap seemed rather terrified too, I swear I didn't even get to
rough him up myself!"
Queen Moon simply nodded in acknowledgement. Moments later she was fully
dressed and walking down the stairs beside her husband. At the end, in the
Mewni royal throne room, were a dozen or so guards and a stunned half-panicking
Ruberiot.
"Queen Moon! My queen! I came to warn you, there is a dark and terrible storm
brewing over the entire kingdom!" he shouted, as soon as he saw her. Truly, he
was the last of her subjects Moon Butterfly wished to speak with right now,
specially after the night's shameful performance!
"After that song of yours, it doesn't surprise me people are in a bad mood,"
she commented evenhandedly. Then, doing her best to conceal her boiling anger,
letting only a hint of polite disapproval filter through, she added "to tell
the truth, I am not fully pleased with it myself, master songstrel."
"No, my queen," Ruberiot shook his head and pointed terrified at the large
balcony podium. "I am not being poetic, I mean a literal dark and terrible
storm!"
"On June? In Mewni?" the queen asked puzzled, but directed her view out into
the night all the same. She saw indeed a starless sky, covered by dark
thunderstorm clouds. The lightning that crisscrossed them, however, was of a
most unnatural emerald color.
Before she could figure out an appropriate comment, a bright flash exploded at
the center of the storm and a green fiery meteor sprung forth from above the
sky. It lunged directly towards the royal palace, leaving an ominous hole on
the clouds in its wake. Moon, well acquainted with the significance of certain
magical phenomena, couldn't help but notice that even the sky behind the clouds
was empty of any of the usual celestial bodies of the night. "River, get my
armor, and wake Hekapoo! Guards sound the alarm!"
The meteor impacted the castle balcony, with surprisingly little effect for its
size, other than a blinding viridescent flash and a splashing of emerald fire.
As Moon's eyes adjusted to the sudden illumination, she thought she could see
the outline of a woman's body through the green flames that begun to burn on
the balcony's floor.
"Who are you? In the name of Moon the Undaunted, Queen of Mewni, identify
yourself!" she shouted at the intruder.
The inhuman voice that came back through the glass window chilled her to the
bone.
"I am love, all-conquering"
Chapter End Notes
     The perfect Princess Moon
     She's nice in every way
     Always in a sunny mood
     Even on the cloudy days
     Coming up next: Chapter 15: To Keep the Peace, We Will Play the Game
     In which we finish our look into the past, present, and future, of
     Moon the Undaunted.
***** To Keep the Peace, We Will Play the Game *****
Chapter Summary
     In which we finish our look into the past, present, and future, of
     Moon the Undaunted
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 15: To Keep the Peace, We Will Play the Game *****
     To keep the peace, we will play the game
     Royal secret from royal shame
     - The Songstrell Ruberiot (original continuity)
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/15.png]
"I will hunt down the remains of the monster army, and scatter them, without
country or leadership," had spoken Moon the Undaunted. Moon the Lizard-
vanquisher. Moon the Mighty Warrior Queen of Mewni. Moon the God-damned Fool!
Turns out that, unlike breaking The General's siege in the first place, hunting
down a disbanding army of various non-human monsters involved a lot less brave
proclamations and regal last stands than one might imagine. What it did
involve, however, were way too many months-long tracking expeditions through
the most recondite wastelands that Mewni and the surrounding lands had to
offer: scorching desert after damned scorching desert, barren tundra after
miserable barren tundra, icky swamp after bloody icky swamp! They were lizards,
for Selena's sake! Of course they all went into hiding in swamps. No, not near
swamps, or around swamps, in them! As in: inside the yucky leach-infested
waters. And where they hid, Moon the Undaunted, Queen of Mewni, had to follow.
It was not like she could just send the royal knights, either, and use her time
to focus on administering and rebuilding her kingdom. Even though she certainly
had a better brain for that than half of the damned royal council. Her best
friend, and ambiguous sweetheart, River, stayed on her behalf, as the queen's
chosen representative. He did so, even though he hated the bureaucracy as much
as she welcomed it, and would have been much happier than her pursuing Toffee's
former goons across the land.
But, no, young Queen Moon had to go on every single hunt herself, which meant
leaving someone she trusted behind. The lizards did not run from the knights of
Mewni, and they certainly did not run from River Johansen, they ran from her! A
seventeen year old awkward girl in ill fitting plate armor, who could barely
drag around her two longswords, much less swing them at them with any degree of
precision. But she had the magic wand, and she had the spell that could kill
them permanently; the power which would break that which couldn't be broken.
Never mind that she did not plan to use Eclipsa's dark powers ever again in her
life. As long as the monsters didn't know that, she could make them flee by her
mere presence.
She had to admit that she sometimes enjoyed her newly found reputation as a
powerful warrior and no-nonsense queen. She certainly liked that more than the
'perfect little princess' facade she had been forced to take on all those years
prior. But either was as much a fiction as the other, and in the end, the only
thing she was, behind it all, was Moon. Not Queen Moon of Mewni. Not Moon the
Undaunted. Just, you know, Moon. Right now, back at her castle after five weeks
out in the wilderness, just-Moon needed a bath.
"Oh, My Queen, welcome back," a mischievous voice greeted her from the ledge of
a balcony, as she climbed the stairway up the tower to her royal bed, and bath,
chambers. The inter-dimensional sorceress looked at her with both overt mockery
and genuine delight to see her back.
"Hekapoo," Moon replied evenly. "I suppose I could say the same. Didn't know
you were in Mewni."
"Well, you know, My Queen," she stressed and dragged out the title to the point
of ridicule, never mind the fact that Hekapoo was one of the few people in
Moon's life who were most definitely not among her subjects. She had been doing
that ever since Moon defeated Toffee, way over two years ago now. Then again,
they didn't cross paths so often after that. They were both rather busy people
these days. "I have had my own pest control problems to deal with, dimension
hopping abominations and the like. Very dull stuff. How goes, well, doing your
job? I heard you are, how shall I put it? ...literally swamped with work."
"It goes: tiring, wet and rather stinky," the mewman counted with her fingers.
"So while I am glad you are deigning to honor us with your always charming
presence and sense of wit, Hekapoo, I do really have to take a shower now."
"Of course, My Queen," the council member bowed, way too deeply for it to be
sincere. "Let me know if you need any, well, assistance."
"Assistance with what?" she responded without thinking, "Showering?"
She suddenly realized what she was saying, and felt the embarrassment creep up
to her cheeks. She hoped the mud and dirt in her face would conceal her blush.
What the hell had she just said? She looked at Hekapoo, who shrugged. Wait, had
the sorceress actually been proposing, no... no way. It couldn't be.
Moon had to admit that she enjoyed her rare verbal sparing with the Forger of
Scissors more than a little. She liked River, a lot, no change on that count.
But one of the things that had made him stand out, was that he believed in her
when no one else would. Now they all believed in her, and Hekapoo was the one
who challenged her, when no one else dared. The one person undaunted by Moon
the Undaunted. The only one, well, other than Moon herself, secretly poking fun
at the fiction of the great warrior queen.
Hekapoo was also the one person that could respect her royal magic, but also
understand its limits. Alright, the only person that wasn't her great-great-
great-grandma encased in ice, a literal wizened old goat, a giant cosmic entity
taking calls through a crystal ball, or a magical elf living inside a book.
None of them counted. Not, you know, in that way. In the way in which Hekapoo's
hips moved and drew Moon's furtive eyes to the sorceress backside every time
she left the room. The way she licked her lips, and the edge of her small
fangs, with slow expert motions. The way in which her smile promised wicked
things to the young queen if she only ever took her up on her ever more blatant
innuendos.
Dammit, Moon had thought not being able to decide between war and peace, or
between which boy she liked, was hard enough. Now it turned out that winning
the war was so much easier than maintaining the peace, and she didn't even know
if she liked boys or girls in the first place!
"Well, My Queen, as your humble advisor, I am glad to offer my assistance, with
whatever you might desire..." Hekapoo finally replied, after letting her bright
yellow eyes linger over the monarch body for a while, as she considered the
question. Moon swallowed hard. The feisty sorceress had been teasing her for a
while, or so she had thought, never quite certain if it was only her own
overactive imagination. But there was no mistaking this offer, though. It was a
straight line if she'd ever heard one. The older woman was literally offering
to join the young queen in the shower!
"Eh... I... I mean..." she stammered. "Look, Hekapoo, I... you are... is not
that I don't... Sorry! Going to shower now, sorry!"
Young queen Moon raced up the stairs, leaving behind an unsurprised, even
grinning, Hekapoo. She ran to her room, through the back door of her
bedchamber, into the royal bath. Moments later she was alone, laying inside the
tub, letting the hot water embrace her, reminding her of the heat that the
fiery sorceress herself radiated, and feeling... quite daunted.
----
"I am love, all-conquering"
The words were clearly nonsense, but the cold eldritch tone with which the
emerald apparition spoke them rendered them a clear threat. Moon closed her
eyes for just an instant, taking a moment to collect all that she was: queen,
mother, warrior, mage, wife, lover, protector. She dipped down and summoned the
magic around her into a powerful shielding bubble.
Not a moment too soon. The being from the meteor raised a diaphanous hand, and
the sound of thunder followed. The closed glass doors that led to the
ceremonial balcony shattered into a million pieces, each becoming a fast and
deadly projectile, flung towards her, the songstrell, and her royal guards. The
barrier spell held back the shards, protecting Moon and her subjects. All
around them, tapestries, furniture, and even the stone walls themselves were
ravaged by the ferocious crystal hailstorm.
The green fiery body floated in, slowly gliding behind the glass barrage. As it
left the conflagration outside, its outline became more and more clear. It was
made entirely of ghostly green flames, with two obvious exceptions: its head
was an ornate silver mask fixed in an unsettlingly calm rictus, and its arms
ended in two silvery gauntlets of similarly intricate design.
With reflexes honed through a lifetime of experience, Moon moved to
counterattack. She raised her left hand and five rays of bright blue light
emerged, one from each of her fingers, crisscrossing in the air and taking
separate paths to converge on the creature's position, giving it no way to
escape or avoid the hit. They all connected. A deafening brassy sound ringed
inside Moon's head, and a sharp jolt of pain shot through her arm, right before
it fell, numb and useless, to her side.
Moon had experienced magic resonance before, but never like this. Whatever the
being was, it was not just magical in nature, it was made of magic itself.
Worse than that, it was magical energy so antithetical to her own, that a
direct hit with her spells resulted in catastrophic levels of backslash. Which
meant... "Oh, no!"
The creature pointed at the glimmering blue bubble shield around her and the
mewman soldiers. Suddenly, a green tint began spreading through the spell. A
second later, the bubble popped, explosively. It threw the queen of Mewni back
a dozen paces, slamming her against the throne room's back wall. She felt dizzy
and disoriented.
"Protect the queen!" the guards shouted, charging the apparition, as Ruberiot
ran for cover under a chair. They fought valiantly, and briefly, and so
regrettably pointlessly. They never stood a chance. Some managed to hit the
assailant with their weapons, while it reached out to gently tap the rest with
the fingers of its gloves. In both cases, the final effect was exactly the
same: the merest contact between them and the apparition sent each knight
flying through the air with a blinding flash. They convulsed for a while after
hitting the ground, as if struck by a lightning. Whether they were in agony
then, or dead before they even landed, was anyone's guess. What was certain is
that once the spasms stopped, the brave men would never move again.
"W... what do you want?" Moon asked.
The creature turned its expressionless mask towards her, then, by way of a
response, it raised a silvery hand and pointed it at her chest. Arcs of green
arcane power begun discharging all around in the magically saturated air. Moon
closed her eyes, and tried desperately to summon all that she was once more,
hoping against hope it would be enough.
----
"You summoned me, My Queen," the fiery sorceress asked sardonically, as she
walked into the Mewni council room. At the end of the table, Moon sat regally.
She wore her battle armor, clean and shinny this time around. No swords to be
seen. Her wand, the true symbol of her power, laid in front of her on the
table. As Hekapoo arrived, the young monarch made a show of moving the wand
from her left to her right side, as if re-arranging a piece of tableware.
"Yes, Hekapoo," Moon spoke, in full formal register. "I'd like to," she paused,
"conduct negotiations."
"Negotiations? In the middle of the night?" Hekapoo pointed out to the starlit
sky through the window, then at the empty seats through the council table. What
was the kid's game. Whatever it was, it was rather novel, which made it all the
more tempting to play along. "Between Mewni and who? I don't really do ruling
stuff, and you know I can't speak for the high commission on my own. So, who am
I representing, then?"
"Yourself," the beautiful royal brat declared. "And I shall represent primarily
my own interest, not that of Mewni," she clarified. "So, Hekapoo, I'd like you
to elaborate as to the nature of the offer you made to me two months ago?"
The sorceress racked her brain to figure out whatever the young queen might be
referencing. Two months was a long while, particularly if you spent over a
hundred years of it on a dimension where time simply ran differently. But
Hekapoo had impeccable memory, and, to be absolutely truthful, she had been
thinking about the Queen of Mewni far more than she did about most people,
during that vast time.
"Oh," she recalled, with a grin. So that was what this was about? This should
prove rather amusing. "I offered to help her royal highness take a bath, if I
recall correctly."
"Funny thing that," Moon spoke. Her tone was haughty and controlled, but
Hekapoo could see her trembling ever so slightly, it made her own spine shiver
in anticipation. "I recall water is not generally to your liking, Hekapoo, so
why would you propose such a thing?"
"Simple, My Queen," she dragged her tongue over the uttered title, as she
finally took a seat, right atop the table, on the side opposite of Moon. "It is
the other factor in that scenario that would be to my liking."
"Myself," Moon stated, plainly, then raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Hekapoo dragged a hand over the mahogany wood, pushing aside maps and notes,
causing them to fall to the floor. "There are only a few people, of the vast
many I meet in my line of work, whom I find, well... interesting. Lately, that
includes you. My. Queen." She fixed her own eyes on those of the monarch of
Mewni.
It was no lie, there were only so many mortals that the Forger of Scissors
didn't come to find absolutely lame, or downright soporific, after mere minutes
of interaction. When such a rare person presented himself or herself, it
couldn't but pique her interest. It had been literally millennia, in her own
subjective time, since she had met someone quite like Moon: at once so innocent
and so strong, hard to predict, indomitable. Undaunted they called her and,
however much she made fun of it, she had to agree the title fit.
"Shall I assume, from this little ambush of yours, that you find me interesting
as well?" the sorceress asked, taking the offensive.
"What if I do?" was Moon's whole response.
"Then my offer... remains quite open," Hekapoo stated, running a finger through
her own leg.
"As I said," the younger woman responded, in a surprisingly controlled tone.
"We are conducting negotiations. I would hardly be a wise ruler if I agreed to
an offer I didn't understand, would I? What exactly are you proposing?"
The sorceress was confused. As far as she was concerned, she was being
exceedingly clear.
"Let me cut to the chase, Hekapoo," Moon interrupted her thoughts. "I am
interested. Curious might be the better description. But there is another one I
am interested in as well. He and I are not betrothed, and we don't owe each
other anything right now, but longer term, I think it is only natural that I
pick him, if he would have me. If I take you on your offer, Hekapoo, then I
can't promise you I will be with you long term, and I can't even promise you I
will acknowledge it to the outside world. As a queen, I have to do what's right
for Mewni. That also means, that if this would in any way disturb my relations
with the Magic High Commission, in a professional capacity, then I must
decline..."
Hekapoo laughed raucously, almost rolling on the table at Moon's long
monologue. So that was her concern? That was what troubled Queen Moon the
Undaunted about her little offer? As the Forger of Scissors began punching the
table in a fit of hysterics, Moon seemed shocked, almost offended. It had
probably taken her a good long while to come up with that little speech in her
head. She was sweet, and naive, and oh so young and tender. Hekapoo felt
herself blush. Doing her best to keep a good thing going, she forced herself to
calm down from her guffawing.
"Moon, I have been around longer than you can possibly conceive," she
explained. "You would not be able to promise me the 'long term' even if you
gave me your whole life, and, more to the point, I am definitely not asking you
to do so! You have your one - the Johansen boy, right? - I have a half-dozen
right now, give or take, across as many dimensions. And I assure you, I can be
professional when needed too. You are not even the first Queen of Mewni I have
had this dance with. Can you handle that?"
"I can," she replied simply, and the sorceress believed her easily, despite her
young age. "How about my last request? This is between the two of us, no one
else must know."
Hekapoo wasn't quite sure why that would be such a big deal. Then again, the
internal affairs of Mewnian politics were, more often than not, too tedious for
her to inform herself on them any more than was absolutely necessary. "Sure,
whatever."
"Then," Moon smiled, with transparently forced confidence, "I believe we have
reached acceptable terms."
The sorceress licked her lips, and lazily stretched herself over the table,
closing the distance between herself and the Butterfly child (and she'd be a
child to her, even if she were a hundred rather than just seventeen). As she
did, the forger leaned forward, showing the goods to Moon, through the low cut
of her dress.
"So... ehm... now what?" the queen spoke, suddenly sounding very unsure. So
much power, so much control, and yet so inexperienced. Deflowering her was
going to be the most fun thing she did in ages, Hekapoo thought to herself.
"Now you shut up, your majesty," she replied, "and you let me give you what you
bargained so hard for."
She leaned forward and kissed the queen's closed lips, enjoying the way she
tensed in nervous anticipation. Hekapoo inhaled the scent of the young ruler.
Apparently the song was right, she did smell of lavender. But she also smelled
of sweat, and determination, and over two years of pent up desire. Moon
Butterfly slowly opened her lips to receive her proving tongue. Soon after
surrendering, she was meeting it hungrily with her own.
The forger ran a hand slowly up the length of the queen's arm. It was indeed
silky soft as well. Despite the heat she knew her own skin radiated, her touch
seemed to leave gossebumps wherever it trod. Her pointy ears could hear the
beating of the girl's heart, still so pure, and yet so eager.
Carefully, she began removing the loose-fitting armor, piece by piece. It was
harder work than most any garment, and even the sorceress could not easily
break it apart, had she tried, for the armor was of course magical in nature.
It frustrated her at every step, increasing her own sense of urgency. For a
second she wondered if Moon had planned it so. No way, the young queen was too
inexperienced in this matters to plan a trick like that, was she not?
Moon herself ran her fingers through Hekapoo's long hair, carefully avoiding
the crackling flame. She firmly caressed the base of her right horn, which sent
a pleasurable shiver through her skull. They removed each other's crown at
once. Moments later, the forger finally managed to unburden the queen of her
steel breastplate. A blue cotton blouse beneath peaked up just barely, with the
ruler's small breasts. She ran two white hands over them, savoring the gasp
that action elicited from the mewman sovereign.
"Anyone played with them yet?" the forger quipped. "Other than yourself?" she
teased.
"None of your, ah, business, H-poo," Moon retorted.
The sorceress simply took the opportunity to sneak her hands under the blouse,
to tease them directly, with soft calculated pinches. However, as she began to
lift the fabric, the queen interrupted her, "Wait, I want to see yours
first..."
"As you command, My Queen," Hekapoo quipped, and gladly pulled down her top,
letting her, quite significant if she could say so herself, assets, out into
the night air. To her surprise, Moon moved quickly, and soon she felt the
mewman's lips close around her left breast. She suckled like a babe, with
hungry abandon, and it did things for Hekapoo she didn't think anything did for
her anymore. The young queen alternated circling with her tongue and literally
sucking on them, and she eventually begun switching from one breast to the
other. What she lacked in technique she more than made up in enthusiasm. It
also didn't hurt that the Forger of Scissors found the whole situation
unbelievably erotic.
"Queen Moon," she eventually interrupted her new lover, "lie on the table." she
commanded. The most powerful woman in all of Mewnie did exactly as she asked.
It took agonizing minutes to remove the lower half of the royal battle armor,
but eventually Hekapoo had her price. She ran her hands along the length of the
queen's legs once and again, making her whimper, then she ran her tongue over
the same path.
"Hekapoo, please," Moon begged. The vulnerable yet desirous tone almost sent
the older woman over the edge from just the sound of it.
"Please what, My Queen?" she teased her one final time.
"Please... lick me... you know, there," the mewman whimpered as she parted her
legs. The armor in her words and actions as discarded as that which used to
cover her body.
"As you command, My Queen," Hekapoo replied. She kissed Moon's other lips and
rolled her tongue over the sides and length of her opening. Gently at first,
she drew the girl's arousal, until the always composed Moon was trashing
around, yelping softly as she bit her own hand, and pushing herself pleadingly
onto the sorceress face. When it seemed like the mewman couldn't take more of
her slow torture, she began picking up the pace, running her tongue in circles
around the mewman's most private nub, gently sucking into it. She settled into
a much faster rhythm soon, and then stayed there, as the queen of Mewnie
trembled and broke into loud lustful moans. Her hands grasped at the important
papers in the table and crumpled them beyond recognition, her legs flailed and
kicked down a globe and her own royal wand. She came violently, sweetly, and
gloriously, under the forger's careful ministrations.
Another day, not far from that one in fact, and many more times after that, the
young queen would repay the favor. But for now, the fiery woman was quite
content with this conclusion. She had finally gotten through all the walls of
Moon the Undaunted.
"Ah... ah...," Moon breathed heavily. She was almost as red as the sorceress
hair. "You don't think... do you think... anyone heard that?"
"Probably," Hekapoo replied. "But hey, I kept my end of the bargain. I was
discreet. Not my problem if you were not... My Queen."
----
"Moon!" Hekapoo shouted horrified as her portal opened right in the middle of
Mewni's throne room. She spotted the queen immediately. She was laying on the
floor, her eyes closed. The powerful mewman looked resigned and defeated, as a
humanoid shape made of emerald blazes raised a hand ominously towards her prone
body. The sorceress felt, more than saw, the devastating magical force building
up within the apparition. No way to reach her on time, no way to block the
attack even if she did, none except...
With swift movements, Hekapoo broke her own dimensional scissors into two
separate blades, and with each half she cut a distinct portal through the
fabric of space: one to her left and one to her right, facing each other. The
far end of the first portal opened between Moon and her opponent, whereas the
second portal connected only with the dark void between the stars, in some
dimension far away from this. Once both portals were open, Hekapoo jumped back.
It was not a second too early.
A huge blast of green flames emerged from the appendage of the woman-shaped
conflagration. It went in through the first portal, which the sorceress had
placed between it and Moon. The blast then emerged in the left side of the two
consecutive openings that laid before the Forger of Scissors. Finally, the
flames disappeared into the right-side portal, flowing harmlessly into the
void. And yet, Hekapoo could sense a tremor as the magics passed through her
gateways, as if reality itself shook as the malignant spell was forced through
its walls more than once.
An expressionless silver mask turned towards her, and, fortunately, away from
Moon. The abomination then began floating, slowly, in her direction.
"That's right, come at me, you big nasty candle!" It was something someone had
once said to her, but, the sorceress felt, it applied even more so to this
monstrosity.
All around herself, she began summoning her clones, until a veritable army
stood ready to oppose the deadly intruder. They lunged forward as one, for that
was what they were. Each of them wielding the divided scissors as a pair of
daggers. If need be, they would rip the very fabric of the dimension to shreds,
right from under this phantasm's flaming form. They would do that and more to
protect Moon. Her friend. Her lover. Her queen.
The damned thing avoided every hit. Moving as fast as lightning itself. Perhaps
literally so, for it was a being of light and flame. The creature avoided each
and every one of her cuts. Miniature portals to nowhere opened and closed up in
the air, so fast that no mewman eye could keep track of them, as Hekapoo
slashed at the very foundations of space from every direction and every angle.
Yet not a single one of them caught the incorporeal being. In the back of her
mind, the sorceress imagined she could hear a laugh, as the expressionless mask
stared back at her in contempt.
Hekapoo felt a pair of metallic fingers against her chest. The light physical
impact was followed by an overwhelming magical current. It consumed her body,
burning her insides to ashes, and extinguishing the flame that was her life.
She felt herself die, again and again, as the creature popped her clones like
soap bubbles. The agony of a dozen excruciatingly painful deaths was enough to
paralyze her remaining selves, to cloud her thoughts, and to leave her unable
to coordinate her one-woman assault force. Twice a dozen Hekapoos fell to the
ground in unbearable agony.
----
"Thank you, Lekmet, Romulus, for your eloquent words. Mewni will of course
support the Magic High Commission's edict on this matter," Moon proclaimed,
with a nod.
It had been almost four years since she assumed the throne of Mewni, almost
four years since she fought Toffee and became Moon the Undaunted. In that time,
she had grown to be respected not only as a military leader, but also as one of
the most competent administrators the kingdom had ever seen. Under her reign,
Mewnie had grown more prosperous than it had been in over a century, at least
for the mewmans, if not for the monsters. Slowly, she had gained the respect of
all members of the high commission as well.
"Hekapoo, may we speak in private?" Moon asked, as the members of the
commission begun making motions to leave.
"Of course, Queen Moon," the sorceress replied, with a polite business-like
nod. But as soon as the last of their peers was out of sight, her expression
turned into a knowing smirk. "Or should I say, My Queen?"
"Hekapoo... I am afraid we do have to talk, for real this time," the mewman
continued, somberly. She avoided the other woman's eyes, knowing if she saw
them she might not be able to continue. Instead, she looked out through the
window.
"Really?" the sorceress asked, teasingly. "We do? I thought you just wanted to
recreate our first time, Moon. Do you remember? It was right here."
The forger ran a finger suggestively through the surface of the council room's
table. In the last two years, the two had met occasionally, as their incredibly
demanding lives allowed. They had joined one another in the queen's chambers,
out in the forest, across dimensions, and even in the long promised royal bath.
They had never once revisited this room, except for official business. Yet, for
many months after their first encounter, Moon always felt a perverse pleasure
during long and boring debates around this table, recalling the much more
exciting activities it had once witnessed.
"Hekapoo," the queen spoke in a quiet, tentative tone, one she rarely ever used
anymore. She had become used to being sure about so much, yet now was so
terribly unsure. Not of her decision, but of its consequences, and her own
ability to follow through with them. "I am marrying River before the summer
solstice."
The sorceress blinked, and she looked perplexed for a second, hurt even. But in
a moment that face was replaced by a soft smile, one Moon rarely saw in the
forger's face. Not her usual smirk, and not the fake polite smile of the full
officer of the Magic High Commission, but a genuine, if bittersweet, smile.
"He is an excellent choice, Moon," Hekapoo agreed. "He will be a good husband
for you, and a good king for Mewni."
"Yes, thank you," Moon agreed. "But, well, you realize this means we can't
continue... you know?"
"Yeah, no big deal, a brief fling for me, either way," the sorceress replied,
but the queen could notice the slight tremor in her arm. "Did he know, though?"
"Yes," the mewman added, "he's known for a long time now."
"And I assume he asked for us to stop?!" Hekapoo sounded irritated, like she
considered it rude for River to demand his own future wife to be loyal to him.
"No, Hekapoo, he didn't... but, I need to do what's good for the kingdom, and
what's fair for him," Moon retorted. "It is my decision, not his. For what is
worth, I am sorry..."
"Do you love him?"
"As much as I have ever loved anyone in my life," Moon admitted, truthfully.
But she kept to herself the rest of her thought: 'just as much as I love you'.
----
Moon saw the bodies of her lover and friend collapse to the floor. The sight
was enough to pull her back into her senses, and then a familiar voice drew her
back into the fray.
"Darling, catch!" shouted River, as he threw her two swords at her, and ran
down the stairs, unsheathing his own weapon. She knew he was not prepared for
this fight, just as well as she knew she could never dissuade him from fighting
alongside her.
Moon closed her eyes, and dipped down into her own being, summoning forth all
her will to protect them all: her husband, her lover, her subjects. Radiant
butterfly wings and four extra arms sprouted from her torso. She caught both
the swords with the upper pair. The middle arm on her left side, however, still
dangled down, immobile.
Fully transformed, she flew into the deadly circle in front of her, eyes
narrowing in determination as she saw the abomination execute Hekapoo's
motionless copies, one by one, with cold precise motions. She struck at the
torso of the being with one of the Royal Vorpal Swords of Mewni. It passed
through the jade-colored flames harmlessly. At least, Moon observed, the magic
of the swords didn't seem to produce the same backslash as her own. On the
other hand, the creature seemed to not even notice the hit, or herself, as it
focused on exterminating the sorceress' avatars.
Determined to interrupt the massacre before it was too late, the queen pulled
back into the air, and then, with all her strength, she charged downwards from
the sky, pointing the tip of her right-hand sword towards the back of the
silver mask. It was fortunately corporeal, and metal impacted metal with a
deafening sound. But while the mask showed no dent from the hit, Moon's
precious magical sword broke like glass. Pieces of steel flew all around them.
The mewman had managed to distract the phantasm, however, as the silvery face
turned expressionless to face in her direction. Taking advantage of the
distraction, ten Hekapoo clones rose back to their feet and lunged forwards at
the same time towards the apparition.
"Moon!" she heard a cry echoed tenfold. "I know what she is! We need to get
Star's wand! I should have realized before, whatever you do, don't..."
The being raised a single hand up into the sky, and an explosion of singular
potency discharged into every direction. Moon was flung through the air once
more, impacting into the ceiling. River, his valiant charge interrupted, was
pushed away into the corner of the room, left unconscious by the strength of
the blow. Hekapoos hit the walls all around the throne room, all but one
vanishing on impact.
The fiery creature turned towards the one remaining Hekapoo, and began gliding
leisurely in its direction. No! No way Moon would let this happen. She would
not let her lover die before her very eyes. She would not let anyone else die.
She was Moon the Undaunted! Moon the Lizard-vanquisher! Moon the Mighty Warrior
Queen of Mewni! She claimed those titles and more, with all the might they
might confer, and all the weight of their obligations!
She closed her eyes once more and pulled all her six hands together. Even her
broken arm responded to her commands, thus was the strength of her will. She
dipped down into herself, deeper than ever before, and summoned all she was,
perhaps all she could ever be. Her hopes and her fears. Her anger and her love.
The darkness from deepest depths. The light from highest heights. Magical
resonance be damned. A ball of blue power, bright like the midday sun, burned
in her hands, and from it extended forth a beam of pure magical power. A
personal conjuration, wordless and nameless. The brightest spell of Moon the
Undaunted!
The being turned once again to face her. From the flames emerged two other
pairs of glove-less fiery arms. Six to match Moon's own. It mirrored the
queen's gesture, and a ball of blackness, darker than the starless sky, emerged
between its hands. A dark beam, contrasted by green fire, rose to meet Moon's
spell.
"Moon, nooo!!" she heard Hekapoo cry out.
Darkness and light collided, and a sound like the firing of a colossal cannon
resounded through all the vastness of Mewni. Magical resonance like this world
had never before seen reverberated through the air, before converging back onto
Moon, and onto the emerald being. She felt as if her flesh was melting. Moon
shed a last tear of regret, as her last thought went not to Hekapoo, or to
River, but to her daughter, to Star, to a thought she had before she even met
her. And then there was only darkness.
----
Hekapoo felt the queen's hand lazily drift across the back of her hair. Her
other self, the one behind Moon, hugged her tightly in response. They were all
naked in the royal bed, naked and spent. The mewman lied nested between the two
clones, embracing one and being embraced by the other, while the sorceress
enjoyed being at once the little and the big spoon.
"You know, Hekapoo, River and I are trying for a child," Moon stated, matter-
of-factly.
King River, bless his soul, had suddenly remembered that he had an important
hunt to lead, deep within the forest of certain death, for an elusive creature
that came out only at night, exactly the one day the Forger of Scissors was
around. Honestly, Moon had to be commended on her decision, for that if nothing
else. It wasn't even that she and the queen's husband got along all that well,
but apparently the king was glad to get out of the way if being with the
sorceress made his wife happy. In fact, she suspected, it had probably been
River that pushed Moon to go back on her previous decision to end things with
her, less than a year after their marriage. Hekapoo had to say, to her own
credit, that she had given it her best effort to make the man's wife very happy
indeed.
"Well, glad to know you two are having fun," she quipped. Moon laughed. It was
so rare for her to laugh these days.
"We are," Moon retorted. "Jealous?"
"Heh, pu-leeze, don't make me laugh," Hekapoo ran a finger along the mewman's
back. "Should I tell you about this fighter I met on the arena of the
underworld pits? He fought with a wooden twig and wouldn't even kill. He had
muscles in places even I haven't seen before. Or about this guildmaster, lord
of a far domain, with rituals that do things to you you can't even imagine? Or
the gruff human colonel, deployed for years away from his wife? Or the
dimensional priestess, sworn by sacred vows to chastity? Or the she-pirate,
with the steel sharp wit and a tongue like the tide?"
"Alright, Hekapoo, I get the idea. But, well, do you tell them tales of the
magical queen in the far away kingdom?" Moon asked, rather undaunted by the
sorceress bragging.
"Not once," she grinned. "Because, as I remember, she swore me into silence."
Moon chuckled, but then went serious. She remained silent for a long while, and
Hekapoo knew her well enough to know it had nothing to do with their discussion
so far, or her own many affairs.
"You know," the queen's tone turned dark of a sudden, "I am scared."
"Scared?" Hekapoo asked curiously. "Of childbirth? You? My fierce queen
undaunted?" she teased. But she turned the version of herself in front of Moon
back to look at her directly, to embrace her from both sides.
"Heh, not the birth!" Moon rolled her eyes. "It is what comes after that
worries me. Can I raise a kid? I try to be a good queen, I am not sure I can be
a good wife... But I do wonder, can I ever be a good mother?"
"Are you asking me? You must truly be worried, then!" The Forger of Scissors
had never been a mother, not once in endless centuries. She was ill suited to
be the caring type. "Well, for what is worth, I am sure River will be a dotting
father. And I know you can do anything you set your mind to... My Queen."
"Hekapoo, Toffee is still out there..." Moon closed her eyes, her voice sounded
distant. "What if something happens? What if I can't be there, to be a mother,
good or bad. I don't want my kid to have to go through what I went..."
Tears begun falling down the queen's cheeks. Tears long repressed, the scars
left behind the queenly mask. The fire sorceress hugged her lover tightly, from
all sides.
"Moon, it won't be like that," Hekapoo reassured her. "Even if there were a
monster in this dumb dimension capable of besting you, he would first have to
go through me!"
----
Mewni castle was built by ancient magics, cast by powerful queens of old. That
was perhaps the only reason the place hadn't just been leveled to the ground by
the clash between light and darkness. Even so, cracks ran across all walls,
floor, and ceiling, of the royal throne room. Green flames crackled all around,
burning ancient and priceless tapestries. Precious vitrails had been smashed to
dust.
None of that was worth a damn, however. Not now that the one truly precious
thing this place had ever held laid demolished on the ground: six motionless
arms and two lifeless eyes, not even the movement of her breathing to be seen.
Moon. Her precious Moon. Even if she lived to see the death of the whole
multiverse, Hekapoo knew, she would never meet someone like her, not among a
million lovers in a million far away lands.
In the middle of the room, offensive by its mere presence, stood a six armed
body of emerald flames. It regarded the sorceress with a silvery visage of
indolently rigid metal.
"I. Am. Going. To. End. You!" cried Hekapoo. It was a promise, a sacred
covenant with all dimensions. She would avenge Moon. No other option existed.
Not acceptance. Not failure. Not death.
Her flame became a blazing bonfire atop of her, her hair became a twisted in
the air as if lifted by a tornado only she herself felt. There was only one of
her left, but one was enough once all restrain had been abandoned. With her
left blade, she cut a portal behind the apparition, and with her right, a
portal directly in front of herself.
The second portal opened to the bottom of an ocean, deeper than any found on
Earth or Mewni. Water sprung forth from it, pushed to supernatural velocity by
thousands of atmospheres of pressure. It hit the creature of flame and
lightning and it pushed it into the other gateway. Hekapoo tore a third hole
into the fabric of this dimension to follow in pursuit, and closed all three
portals with a gesture as soon as she was through. She would not dare devastate
Mewni with what she needed to do. Honestly, she would barely have cared, except
for it had been precious to Moon.
The place she had chosen to be the abomination's tomb was an empty dimension,
pure whiteness as far as the eye could see, in every direction of the map. It
had up and it had down, it had something that passed for ground - a blank
marble-like expanse that formed an unending floor - but little else.
The green burning cosmic shit-stain stood up unharmed, with a gesture it
instantaneously turned the water around it into vapor. Hekapoo begun to open up
portals to the most inhospitable worlds of which she knew. Bursts of acid,
hails of snow, burning lava, and a menagerie of infernal beasts, all came out
of the many doors she cut. Yet the insufferable magic malediction with the
silver face resisted all assaults. It stood there, impavid, taking all of her
anger in silent mockery.
"Well, have it your way, you undeserving dimensional pustule! See how you like
this one..." she flew up into the air, and raised her scissors, one final time,
to cut a hole into the sky.
At the center of creation, like at the center of all things, laid a raging
inferno of death and fire. Hekapoo braced herself, to open that final door, to
the place that was the forge of universes in the same way that stars were the
forges of planets. She knew the instant the tear opened, she herself would be
incinerated into nothing, and she did not care, so long as her opponent died
with her. So long as she could avenge Moon.
It did not happen so, however. The moment she lifted her scissors, a silver
gauntlet caught them, forcing them shut. It had taken every attack so far
without response, but this, apparently, it would not allow. Hekapoo felt the
destructive magical force flowing through the blades of her scissors, as the
phantasm held them. The magical instrument soaked the power, protecting its
creator. It sent the magics far away, spreading the damage. Across universes,
the forger knew, thousands of dimensional scissors were glowing green, burning
up with arcane corruption, their etched names erased by a deadly hex aimed at
herself.
"You know, I didn't come for her," Hekapoo heard the being speak, inside her
own head. It finally spoke back to her now. Now that there was nothing left to
say. "I came for you, she was merely in the way."
The sorceress eyes began to cry, despite herself, she felt herself crumble. It
came for her? For her? That meant she had caused Moon to die. She had killed
her. If she only had gone back, like the rest of the high commission, if she
hadn't spent the night on Menwni. But then, why her?
"You already know why. Because you knew me, because you would eventually
understand," the voice was cold and monotone, but the tone sounded somewhat
like Moon's kid, like Star. "Since you touched me once, upon a dream."
Hekapoo had known what this being was, as soon as it had first touched her
clones, because she had felt the magics that made it up once before. A dark
spell, binding two people. A thread of lust atop a heavenly soul bond.
Then Hekapoo realized her mistake. She had come here to kill Moon's murderer,
at any cost. Her own life a bargain by comparison. But not only was she bound
to fail against such an overwhelming foe, even in victory, she would have
dishonored Moon's memory. Moon would not have wanted her to avenger her death,
she would have wanted her to allay her greatest fear: that her child would be
left to stand alone against the night, as Moon herself once did.
She had to survive this! To escape somehow! To be there for Star. To warn her.
To, to explain to her what this foe was, and... that it wasn't her fault, not
really! Summoning all her resolve, Hekapoo let go of her scissors, and called
upon the magics she had long used to forge them. With her bare hands, she tore
a crack on the dimensional wall. It was not how it should be done, she wasn't
even sure it could even be done like this, but she had to try. The pain was
unbearable as she dug her own nails on the fabric of reality. She tumbled,
rather than jumped, into her own portal. As she fell, the tunnel began to
crumble around her, and she knew she would likely not make it whole to the
other end.
'Well, if I can't, then perhaps that horror will not be able to get out from
that place without a pair of scissors either,' Hekapoo thought, right before
she lost consciousness.
----
Ruberiot crawled timidly from under the debris. The throne room was
unrecognizable. His eyes hurt from the dryness and the flames. His leg felt
painful and his chest sore. Everything around him was muted by the shock of
what he had just gone through, but it remained hellish nonetheless. The stuff
of a hundred epic and sorrowful arias. In the end, however, he had survived.
"I am alive! I am alive!" he shouted in relief.
"Not for long, boy," came a cold furious voice from right in front of him.
Ruberiot looked up to see the king, King River, bruised and singed, kneeling
over a still figure in the center of the room. He didn't turn away from the
body, even as he spoke, "Not for long if you don't scram from here right this
instant and leave me bloody well alone!!"
Chapter End Notes
     Ruberiot lives!... yay?
     Coming up next: Chapter 16: The Prince of the Princess's Deepest
     Desire
     In which a duel is fought, we learn the dark secret behind the fairy
     tale, and a prince courts glory and death in equal measure for the
     sake of love and honor.
***** The Prince of the Princess' Deepest Desire *****
Chapter Summary
     In which a duel is fought, we learn the dark secret behind the fairy
     tale, and a prince courts glory and death in equal measure for the
     sake of love and honor.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 16: The Prince of the Princess' Deepest Desire *****
     Who is the boy in the earthly attire?
     The prince of the princess's deepest desire
     - The Songstrell Ruberiot (original continuity)
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/16.png]
The dawn was dark and foggy at St. Olga's. The sun was either fully occluded by
the low flowing clouds, or it had not deigned come out altogether. It hid
itself from sight, as if in fear, or in mourning. Jackie wondered, briefly, why
such unusually morbid thoughts came to her now. Was her own brief bout of
melancholy simply caused by the weather? Or perhaps by the scary, yet strangely
poetic, prospect of her incoming duel?
"Jackie, are you still sure you want to do this?" her boyfriend asked. Maybe he
had read the worry in her expression, or maybe he simply felt the need to ask
one final time, even when he knew the answer.
"Yes, Marco, I do. Don't worry dude," she replied, trying to affect her usual
chill persona. She found it harder than usual. To be fair, she very much
doubted she was in any real danger. Jackie had once seen Star summon a herd of
wild unicorns in one literal second. It was a fact that was well worth keeping
in mind, when thinking about how the princess had just spent the last half hour
layering spell after spell over Jackie's frame. She was as prepared to fight
this duel as anyone could ever be. 'Prince Jack' was wearing a majestic golden
suit of full plate armor, which covered every inch of her body except for her
head. He, or she, carried a fierce looking longsword with a golden seashell for
a hilt and a blade that looked sharp enough to cut diamonds. Both armor and
weapon felt surprisingly light in her hands as well, or maybe, thanks to Star's
magic, she was now too strong to even notice their weight. "Honestly, Marco,
right now I feel like I could take on an entire army!"
"Well, you probably could," the princess of Mewni mussed. "Actually, you might
want to go a bit easy on her. Like, maybe you don't want to tear her arm from
her torso the first time she parries a hit?"
Star placed her wand against her own cheek and looked pensive for a moment, as
if she couldn't quite decide whether dismemberment was proper etiquette for a
formal duel or not. Jackie personally would much rather have Snow White
surrender. Sure, she knew the evil princess would extend her no such courtesy
in return, but she still felt that an actual murder would be a bad thing to
carry on her conscience. Like, bad karma of sorts. Defeating a tyrant in single
combat was something good guys were supposed to do. Killing disturbed teenage
girls with overwhelming magical advantage? Not so much.
The trio walked into the school's courtyard to find a huge crowd of princesses
already waiting for them there, far larger than the one they saw the previous
night. Clearly the news about this trial had spread like a wild fire since
yesterday, and none of the girls wished to miss it, whether they were cheering
for White, or silently hoping to be saved from her by Princess Marco.
Miss 'most ruthless in all the land' was there already as well, flaked by her
usual entourage: the green-eyed brunette and the pachydermal sycophant with the
camera phone. Princess White wore black chainmail trousers and an ebony steel
breastplate extending into spiky shoulder pads. Honestly, thought Jackie,
didn't the princess' sense of fashion alone gave up all pretense of not being
the bad guy? As if that weren't enough, her blood-red lips curved into a
condescending smirk as she saw them approach. Her eyes quickly fixed themselves
on Princess Marco. "Ah, so you did not made off during the night, after all? I
was beginning to fear Cass' prognostications were wrong for once..."
"I told you once, sister, and I'll tell you again, you don't scare me one bit!"
Marco replied, as he sashayed forward, taking point and showing her palm to the
would be dictator. "Miss Heinous doesn't boss these girls around anymore, and
soon enough, neither will you!"
"So, am I to assume you reiterate your challenge?" Snow White retorted calmly,
her expression unreadable.
"You betcha I do!" Princess Marco replied. The other princess smiled viciously
at this proclamation, and pushed her own coal-black hair off to the side with a
swift gesture. Star gave Jackie a meaningful and worried look.
"And I... Prince Jack, will fight in Princess Marco stead, as her chosen and
willing proxy!" she shouted, stepping forward with large resolute strides. She
spoke her lines exactly as she and Star had rehearsed.
"Ah, so you are having your boyfriend fight your fight? How droll," Princess
White mocked. "Frankly, I expected better from the once-famous Princess
Marco..."
Jackie felt nervous for a moment, wondering if Marco was going to let his pride
derail their plans in the last minute. Star had mentioned that Marco had to
accept her self-designation as proxy, in order for it to be valid, and she was
sure the goth girl's words were hard for the boy to take in stride.
"He wanted to be the one to kick your ass, Apple Pie," Marco replied with a
shrug. "What can I say, I like a man that helps at home... you know, taking out
the trash!"
Murmurs and snickers rippled through the crowd, and the evil princess' already
white-as-snow skin went even whiter at the pink-clothed princess' comeback. Or
perhaps, at the mention of apples.
"Very well then," Snow White spat, stopping the chatter in the background with
a gesture of her hand. "I accept your challenge, and I will fight your prince
Jack. You will get to mourn your love first, Princess Marco, by your own
choice, and then I'll deal with you. I am the challenged party. I choose
swords."
"Fine by me," countered Jackie, giving her own blade an easy swirl around her
right hand.
Another round of murmurs ran along the audience. It was not unlike the wind
through a row of bushes. Jackie saw, through the corner of her eye, coins and
multicolor bills changing hands. It took her a second to understand: the
princesses were betting on the outcome of the fight.
"Hey Cass," spoke the uglier of the two Snow White flunkies to her green-eyed
comrade. "White's got this one for sure, right?" She was eying Prince Jack's
gleaming sword with a distrustful expression.
The girl called Cass closed her eyes, looked up and spoke with a distant and
foggy tone, "This fading night has seen a clash of light and darkness, the
starless sky is to swallow the moon, a pair of lovers to be separated by the
grim chasm of death, and the rising sun shall find royal blood spilled..."
"Alright, alright, I'll take that as a yes," the blue elephantine princess
interrupted her friend and shook her head. "Fine, five hundred for White!"
"I raise you, six fifty for Jacki... I mean, Prince Jack!" Marco jumped in.
Jackie raised an eyebrow and her boyfriend gave her a sheepish look.
"Deal," the other girl spoke, and walked up to them to shake hands with Marco
and take yet another surprise picture. "Ca-me-ra phone!"
It was almost like being at the park again, back in Echo Creek, with people
betting on whether or not she could pull off specific stunts on the skateboard.
So far, ten to one, Jackie had won almost every bet. The thought brought a
confident smile to her lips, one that made her almost forget that, should she
fail this time, not only would Marco be $650 poorer, they both might end up
being a head shorter.
"Wait," Star spoke, suddenly. She had been silent for a while now. "Where is
Ponyhead?"
Then Jackie realized; they had not seen the floating horse head, nor her little
fairy companion, all morning. In fact, they hadn't seen them since last night.
"Oh," Princess White feigned surprise, as her face turned back from anger into
a smug grin. "You needn't worry about that. The traitors are being dealt with
already. We... took them into custody as you all slept."
Star gasped. Marco let out a curse. Jackie remained silent, but her eyes went
wide with horror.
"Tell me what you did to them, right now!" Star demanded, pointing her wand
directly at White. The other princess scoffed and kept quiet. She knew as well
as Star, and even Jackie did, that if the mewman attacked her now, the duel
would be forfeit on her and Marco's side. Star had been the one to explain that
to Jackie, after all. There was one way to get an answer though, and it was
through a swift victory. Prince Jack was determined as ever to achieve just
that.
She didn't even like Ponyhead all that much. But still, she was quite sure that
whatever 'dealt with' meant here, it was not something she wished on her worst
enemy, much less the friend of her friend. For a moment she felt herself
overcome with revulsion and horror at the person she was about to fight. Then
again, she reminded herself, she was dealing with a power-mad dictator, right
out from an analogue of a bloody revolution. She almost kicked herself for not
thinking about that earlier, for not making sure they kept an eye out for each
other through the night, and for having, even for a moment, forgotten to take
the situation deadly seriously. She was sure Marco was feeling the same. Well,
there would be plenty of time for recrimination later. For now, it just drove
home how dangerous this 'Princess White' person was. Jackie needed to focus on
the fight first, before anything else could go wrong.
Marco and Star walked out of the circle formed by the onlookers, leaving White
and Jack in the middle, ten paces apart. All three of them glared at the dark-
haired princess with silent and furious determination. The brunette, who the
sociopathic princess and her other flunky had called Cass, begun counting down
from ten, in a disinterested, or perhaps trance-like, tone. As per Star's
instructions, and drawing from her own fencing lessons, Jackie prepared
herself. She flexed her legs into a solid stance, and held her own blade high,
to block any opening attack from the pale princess.
The count reached zero and neither fighter moved a muscle. They stood there,
examining each other, waiting for their opponent to make the first move. Snow
White stance was impeccable, at least as far as Jackie was capable of judging
it. She soon realized that, as it came to technique, she was probably far
outmatched. Well, fortunately, she did have a secret weapon that should more
than even the odds.
Prince Jack lunged forward and sliced a broad horizontal slide as his opening
move. If White jumped backwards, then he might break her balance. If she
parried, then she could test her magical strength and force her off balance.
The dark haired princess chose to parry. Jackie's bright clean blade impacted
the wicked looking jagged sword of Snow White with a loud clang. The Earth girl
had calibrated her swing to be but a light tap, not knowing her own strength
yet. Slowly, she began to apply more and more force, expecting the other
princess' resistance to give in, sooner rather than later. However, Princess
White did not budge, not one bit. She held their contest long past the point at
which Jackie was giving it her all.
Had the spell perhaps failed somehow? Was she not as strong as Star had
predicted? Jackie looked down, and saw the stone floor crack under the pressure
her feet exerted on it as she dug-in to push against her rival.
"You are strong. Very strong," Princess White remarked. She smiled. It was a
vicious knowing smile. "I am stronger!"
Jackie felt the force being applied on the other side of their tug of war
explode and come crashing against her own blade. On reflex, she let go, and
jumped to the side. A second blow followed the first, as Snow White's blade
came swinging downwards on her position. The gold-clad prince fell to the floor
and rolled away just in time, recovering her stance a second after with one
swift movement.
Princess White's strike missed her mark and hit the ground directly. A long
fissure, arm deep, extended from the point of impact until right before the
feet of the nearest onlookers. The crowd gasped. Star covered her mouth in
surprise. Marco went almost as pale as their enemy.
----
Marco felt terrified as he saw the princess slash an incredibly deep cut on the
stone foundation of the courtyard. Whatever Snow White was, it wasn't human!
Hell, by all accounts she wasn't mewman either. Star was strong, but not this
strong. He wasn't even sure Miss Skullnick was this strong. And unlike Miss
Skullnick, the dark princess was fast, horrifyingly fast.
She moved like a bladed tornado, slashing and lunging. Marco could hardly
follow; by the time he comprehended the last feint, the tyrant princess had
already launched her next attack. Through it all, Jackie kept parrying and
evading, and the Earth boy couldn't help but be impressed at her skill. Her
magical strength must have been astounding as well, since she could withstand
to block against the force of White's hits. Unfortunately, it was also quite
clear that 'Prince Jack' was barely holding on the defensive and had no hope in
sight of a successful counterattack.
"Gotta give it to you, Princess Marco," he heard Snow White quip as she kept on
her onslaught, "you surely know how to find yourself a real catch. It is been a
good while since anyone stood this long against my blade. I will have fun
skewering this prince charming, I'll tell you that. And know that, as I rip out
his still beating heart with my blade, I will be thinking of you. It will make
it even sweeter!"
The boy felt the anger swell within him, and for a second he was ready to jump
in, with a shout and a karate chop. Discreetly, Star grabbed him from behind
his shirt, pulling him back. If he intervened, then the duel was forfeit, and
is not like he would be more effective against the armed princess than Jackie
was, especially with all of Star's magic layered on top of her. Then again,
duel or not, Marco hoped Star would intervene if things got truly dire. He had
taken her aside, made her promise nothing would happen to Jackie. The mewman
princess had said nothing could go wrong, not with all she had cast on the
other girl, but that if for any reason it did, then she would break the rules
of the duel herself, and, quote 'go all narwhal on her ass'.
But, to Marco's eyes, it looked like things had gone wrong already. A bad
thought wormed itself into Marco's mind. What if Star decided not to intervene?
What if the mewman girl was ok with Jackie dying? He thought back to Ruberiot's
song, and to puppet Star jealous and hurt about puppet Jackie and puppet Marco.
He thought back to a certain Game of Flags, and to the tactics Star was
prepared to use to win. No! That was crazy. There was no way Star would want
Jackie to be hurt!
"Ripping out people's hearts? Sounds like quite the wicked queen style, Apple
Cider," Marco forced himself, or herself, to retort. It was a lame comeback,
hounded as he was with insane, yet absurdly persistent, worries. He hoped to at
least distract the raven-haired girl long enough for Jackie to gain back the
initiative. "You claim not to be a tyrant, to be fighting to help these girls.
But look at her, sisters, is that a liberator? Or just an even crueler
oppressor?!"
Princess White threw a savage look Marco's way, as she grinned maliciously and
pushed against Jackie with ever more vicious strikes. "Cruelty is in the eye of
the beholder. I merely have the will to do what I must, and the courage to
fight my own battles. Unlike fake leaders who sacrifice even their loved ones
as pawns!"
Marco fell silent at that comeback, partly because he could not deny, deep
down, that he still felt guilty about letting his girlfriend fight for him.
Whether it was Star or Jackie, it didn't matter, it should have been him.
A chuckle interrupted his thoughts, and as he turned back to look at the fight,
he saw not Snow White, but Prince Jack, grinning and laughing under her breath
as she blocked yet another downwards strike. "Please, I am no one's pawn. I
fight because I want to fight. If you had a single love, or a single friend, in
all of the world, you would understand that. That you don't, only tells me, and
these girls, what a miserable, quid-pro-quo, lonely bitch you are!"
"How dare you!" Snow White slashed horizontally, quickly and ferociously. But
even Marco could tell her movements had gotten a fair bit more sloppy. "I am
loved by millions! And I protect them, I guide them, in return! My subjects,
these princesses, my friends, they all adore me!"
"Really?" Marco shouted at her, providing at least verbal backup, seizing on
the nerve Jackie had apparently hit with her own declaration. "Because from
where I am standing, it looks to me like they fear your crazy bloodthirsty
ass!"
"You are a rotten apple, and they know it," Jackie pressed on. "I bet not even
your two cronies would put their lives on the line for you! Not one of those
people you claim love you would do what I am doing now. None. Not for you."
"Well," Snow White replied, her tone suddenly glacial, "after what they are
about to witness... they would be utter fools to follow your example!"
The dark-haired princess swung her blade furiously at the blond prince, and the
jagged sword made contact, right against Prince Jack's stomach. It hit the
middle of her glinting golden armor. Princess White's strike, powerful enough
to break the ground apart, stopped a hair's width away from the metal plate. In
the air, near the point of impact, shimmered golden waves of light, looking a
bit like those created by a pebble hitting the surface of water. Something
around the armor itself stopped the vicious princess' attack, something
powerful and magic in nature.
In her rush to deliver a mortal blow, the goth had left herself exposed in
return, and Prince Jack took the opportunity to deliver well deserved payback.
Her blade came down on her opponents shoulder, and it tore through the steel
shoulder pads and the chain mail beneath as if through butter. Whatever the
jagged sword of the tyrant-princess was made of, it had held remarkably well,
Marco realized, against what was surely a magical edge in Prince Jack's sword.
Unfortunately for Princess White, her armor was not made of the same stuff.
Jackie's blade dug into the other fighter's flesh, cutting a hand's width below
the shoulder. Blood splashed around, and Marco reminded himself not to ever
misjudge Star, or question her assurances, ever again.
----
Snow White stepped backwards, howling in pain. No matter how strong, this
strike should have severed the nerves to her sword arm. The fight was done.
Star recognized a crippling injury when she saw one, even if the two human kids
did not. In a Mewni duel, this was the time where the victor was supposed to
either make a spectacle of it, or, more rarely, a show of mercy.
So it came as great surprise to the mewman when Snow White lunged forward
again, with her half-severed arm responding almost as well as if it were
unharmed, and rammed the toothy-looking blade towards Jackie's face.
The human girl yelled in surprise, and Star could not fault her in the least.
She would have been scared too, even knowing what was going to happen. The
glimmering golden waves of the magical barrier rose in front of Prince Jack's
unprotected face just the same as they would have over any part of the surface
of her armor. Like, wouldn't it be sort of pointless if the spell protected
everything but her head? Duh! That was the most important part!
"Guess now I know where all that bravery of yours comes from," Snow White
commented, one part mockery and two parts exasperation. Her pointed fangs
showed as her face turned into an angry frown. Wait, her pointed fangs?! Since
when did she have fangs? They were small, to be sure, but definitely inhuman,
no like small cute Oskar-fangs, but sort of like, well, Tom-fangs, perhaps even
longer.
"Well," Star spoke, "and where does yours come from? Because I feel you were
just dealt a-, a-, a dis-arming blow, apple... mmm... juice?"
Compared to Marco's and Jackie's smack talk, Star felt seriously out of the
game, perhaps she needed to practice this sort of thing more...
"Oh," the wicked princess smirked back at her. "So you mean you haven't figured
it out? Even knowing who I am? Even knowing the legend?"
"What legend, Apple Peel?" Jackie asked in turn, now recovered from the shock
and swatting away her opponent's blade with her own. "The part about chocking
on fruit? Or living in a house alone with seven midgets?"
"No," Snow White retorted, and Star noticed the red irises shining in the fog.
"But ask yourselves, this, then: What do you make of a girl, with skin as white
as snow, as cold as snow, as dead as snow..."
Thunder crackled around them, far away they heard the howling of wolves, and
the evil princess dropped all pretense of humanity. Her limbs stretched and
bent in unnatural ways, her face twisted into a grotesque visage, full of
ridges and sharp fangs and drool. She moved faster than before, stroke more
violent than before. Jackie could not block or riposte a single hit now. Hit
after hit, the black sword connected against the golden armor. Or, in reality,
millimeters above, against the shielding spell. But Star knew what the other
princess seemed to intuit: every impact took some of the protection away. The
magical defenses she had cast on Jackie were very powerful, extraordinarily
powerful, but they were not inexhaustible.
"... with hair as black as coal, as black as night, as black as raven's
wings..." Snow White continued, as she kept pressing her assault. Soon they
could all hear the metallic clang of the sword actually hitting the armor, even
as faint circles of golden sparks still drifted out on every hit.
"... with lips as red as..." the blade hit Jackie's cheek, and despite the
magical shield, it sliced a shallow cut on the side of her face. Snow White
took her own blade to her lips and licked it, hungrily "... blood."
Every princess around the circle looked horrified now. Even Princess White's
two friends were taking a step backwards and shaking their heads in terror. The
vampire looked around at all of them, and began laughing malevolently into the
night.
"Oh, I so had hoped to keep the charade a bit longer," she spoke. "Rebel
princesses? A glorious fight against their oppressors? Give me a break! Fine,
you win, Princess Marco, Prince Jack, you have unmasked me!" the fiend cackled
with a deranged grin. Then it went silent all of a sudden and looked back down
at Jackie, who stood her ground despite trembling knees. "Now, die!"
----
The next strike smashed the side of her armor, cracking it and bending it
slightly inwards. A sharp jolt of pain spread along her left side as some of
the impact was transfered through the metal to her ribs. Jackie had been
feeling the hits for a while. The strike before this one, the one to her face,
had even cut her skin. Now it felt as if the magical protection wasn't there at
all anymore. Even when White slashed only at the parts of her body covered by
hard armor platting it hurt like a motherfucker. If she got hit in the fleshy
bits now, even once, it would be game over, Jackie was certain of it.
She focused on every fencing lesson she had ever had, tried the best she could
to block the super-humanly fast swings of the vampire's blade. 'Yes, Snow White
is not only an aspiring dictator, she is also a fucking vampire, how crazy is
that? No, Jackie, focus, come on, like your life depends on it!' she mentally
admonished herself.
Turns out that fighting for your life is not like fencing at all. You feel
something awful drop in your stomach, you feel your muscles tense, you see your
short life flashing before your eyes. At the same time, you are moving, and you
are jumping, and you are shifting your balance from foot to foot, because if
you miss a step, if you fumble a block, then you are dead. She was managing to
hold off the monster's attacks now, which she never could when the magical
barrier was protecting her, not after Snow White went full undead horror on
her. Curious what adrenaline and the prospect of imminent dead, combined with
magically enhanced reflexes, could do for you.
But in the end, it was only a question of time. And not much time at that. Soon
Jackie saw it, the slash that she would not be able to parry. The one that she
could not get away from. It was headed straight for her neck. Time seemed to
literally slow down as the edge of the wicked blade drew closer and closer. Oh
well, maybe Marco and Star had been right after all, she was not ready for
adventure. It turned out, her first inter-dimensional jaunt with them would be
her last.
Wait. Time was literally slowing down! Not figuratively slowing down, literally
slowing to a crawl! Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie saw Star walk into the
circle of the arena, her wand glowing, her face contorted in concentration.
"Hey Jackie," she spoke, apologetically.
"Hey Star," the human girl retorted. Surprisingly, she could move her mouth,
but not the rest of her body. It felt sort of like a dream, and so did their
conversation. "Thought Marco said you didn't freeze time anymore."
"I am not freezing it, just slowing it, and well, is kind of a special
situation, you know," the mewman explained.
"Oh, I know," Jackie retorted. With some difficulty, she managed to move her
eyes to point meaningfully at the blade slowly inching towards her neck. She
wanted to ask Star how exactly it was that she could only move some parts of
herself at normal speed, even as her mind processed things about as fast as
Star moved, and everything else was near frozen. But perhaps this was not the
time.
"So, just to be clear, Jackie," Star announced, apologetically. "I am about to
forfeit your duel and try to incinerate her with as much solar power as I can
manage to summon with this thing. Not sure if it will be enough, but I think at
this point the ideological debate is settled, so I am sure none of the
princesses are going to side with her, which makes this much easier and..."
"Wait, Star, don't," Jackie begged.
"Don't?" the princess replied confused.
"Just, like, give me a two seconds head start when you unfreeze things," she
had to ask for that at least, as much as it pained her. Otherwise she was dead,
literally. "But don't do anything else, let me finish this myself."
"Jackie, that's insane! She is a freaking vampire, probably a really old one or
something, considering how strong she is. We couldn't anticipate this, this is
clearly out of your league. She might be out of my league too. So, well, let's
fight her together," Star spoke. It was a way out, an easy way out, without
Jackie having to admit she was weak, because Star herself said this was a
formidable opponent, for either of them.
"No."
"No?"
"No," Jackie repeated. "Look, Star, I challenged her. I had my own aces up my
sleeve and she still managed to surprise us. But that doesn't change the fact
that I agreed to fight her, fair and square, or at least relatively so... so,
two seconds head start?"
"Jackie..." Star seemed visibly conflicted. "Are you sure? Marco would say no,
if he could hear you. He would tell me to disregard everything you are saying
and to blast her with everything I got..."
"Yeah," Jackie agreed. She smiled, which was hard to do when time was half-
frozen. "Hey, if she kills me, then you got him all for yourself, right?"
"Don't even joke about that..." Star replied. "Two seconds head start, and I am
not sure I will be able to stop things in time again. You better make it out
alive, Jackie, or I swear I am going to personally whoop your ass afterwards,
ok?"
Jackie chuckled. Then she moved like lightning to parry Snow White's strike.
Time resumed anew, as did her life and dead dance with a bloodsucking vampire.
Why the hell did she need to be so stubborn? If you asked Jackie, even she
wouldn't be able to tell you. But she had to all the same.
From that stubbornness rose a fighting spirit that surpassed even that
triggered by the risk of impending death. For to admit defeat after claiming
this challenge, would inexplicably have been much worse than to die. Jackie was
not fighting for Horse Head, or even for Marco, and she was not fighting for
her own skin. She was fighting for her honor and her self-respect, and that,
right now, seemed even more vital. With renewed strength, she was first able to
hold Princess White's assault, and then to press her own offensive. Soon the
vampire was taking backwards steps and making use of all its unholy strength
just to parry the slashes from the golden prince Jack.
As soon as she saw a clear opening, Jackie committed herself to the one final
push, even at the cost of leaving herself open to a fatal blow. She planted
both feet firmly in the ground, gripped the pommel of her sword with all of her
enhanced strength, and delivered a punishing lunge. The strike pierced White's
armor and buried the point of her sword deep into her chest, carving a hole
right through her most vital center and coming out, again through black metal,
on the other end.
The undead abomination simply chuckled at the futile attempt, and slashed back
towards the human's head, seemingly undeterred. Prince Jack jumped backwards,
out of the vampire's reach. But in doing so, she had to let go of her sword,
which remained stuck inside the tyrant princess' unbeating heart.
"You don't know much about vampires, do you, prince Jack?" Snow White scolded
her, as she advanced in her direction, without bothering to remove the sword
from her chest. The pointy end was sticking through the back of the girl and it
still din't seem to bother her. "A metal sword won't do it. Even a wooden stake
won't work, not on me, it would just shatter against my flesh. Only the sun can
harm me, and the sun will not dare shine on this forsaken school. Not as long
as I can be said to rule over here. The sun won't save you, unless I lose, and
without it you cannot win. All you can do now is useless!" she laughed,
"Useless!"
The evil princess lunged towards the gold armored prince, pushing the point of
her curved sword towards her face. The human managed to avoid the blow, but in
doing so, she lost her footing and fell to the ground. Out of the corner of her
eye, Jackie saw Star's grip around her wand tense. She forced herself to flash
a reassuring grin towards the mewman. Anything to stop her from intervening.
White lifted her wicked blade once more and followed through with a downward
slice. Prince Jack should have been finished, he was in the floor, he was
unarmed, he had no way to block or to dodge. But Jackie Lynn Thomas did. She
did as she had done so many times in the past, as she had done the countless
times she had fallen to the floor, learning to ride her skateboard: she got up.
She got up by pushing down with one hand and with both her legs, rolling her
body as she rose to her feet. It was a trick to get up quickly after a fall,
and with a normal human strength and reflexes it would have gotten her standing
straight in just a second. With a magically-enhanced body, it sent her flying
into the air, above Princess White. The acrobatic maneuver ended with her
falling back to the ground, on her feet, behind the raven-haired creature of
the night.
The vampire twisted around to attack once more, but Jackie was long ready. With
a swift movement, she kicked Snow White's wrist, causing her to release the
grip on her cruel black sword. At the same time, she lunged forward and grabbed
her own blade, ripping it from the bloody monster's chest in a single movement,
then swinging it back around, until the edge was resting directly on the former
tyrant's neck.
"So, only sunlight and no stakes, right? Well, how about decapitation?" she
asked, with a cold controlled tone. Her opponent froze as the blade touched the
snow-cold skin. "Oh, I hear that works on vampires well enough, at least in the
tales they tell where I am from. Maybe you are special, Snowflake. But guess
what? So is this sword. And we already know it can cut you. So, the question
is: how do you think you'll fare without a head?"
"Please, if you were really going to do it, you would have tried it already,
like you did in your last two futile attempts at harming me. But don't think I
don't notice what the difference is, Prince Jack: now you have the time to
think and I am disarmed. I think you don't have the guts for an execution,"
Snow White replied, as she begun to smirk. "That's what I love about knights in
shining armor, so noble, so predictable, and so utterly harmless."
"You know, it is true I don't like killing people, so you might have been
right," Jackie pretended to concede, "if you were alive. But you are not
people, are you? Way I see it, you are a corpse already, so why should I care
in how many pieces I leave you?"
Princess White remained silent, immobile, held there with a sword to her neck.
In all fairness, vampires seemed sentient, so the ethics of this weren't quite
as uncomplicated as Jackie was trying to pretend. She wondered for a second if,
by sparing Snow White, a literal bloodsucking monster, she would be responsible
for her future victims. Then she wondered if vampires were inherently evil or
had as much free will as anyone else, to be good or bad as they chose. She
admonished herself that Snow White didn't seem like the kind to ever be
redeemed, then admonished herself again that it was probably not her call to
make. It wouldn't have been, if she were human.
"Tell you what," spoke gallant Prince Jack, "I'll let you amble on some more,
on three conditions. The first is your full surrender in this duel, of course.
The second, is that you tell me where Princess Pony Head and Princess Glintwisp
are, and that they be unharmed. If you have hurt either of them in any way that
they won't be fully recovered from by tonight, the deal is off and, make no
mistake, I will end you. The third is that you scramble out of here and never
again show your ugly face in St. O's or in the presence of myself or my
friends. How does that sound? I'd say it is pretty generous, all things
considered. Reject that deal, and you will find my nobility to be quite
flexible when it comes to your kind."
Blood-red lips pursed together as the princess frowned in thought, and Jackie
pushed the blade closer to her neck to help her decision along. Finally, Snow
White replied, "they are in the highest room atop tower three, or what your
famous Princess Marco left of it. I haven't fed on either of them, nor had a
chance to torture them, I was saving that... pleasure... for after our duel."
The creature grinned and Jackie felt herself reconsider her mercy. "I do
promise not to come back to this stink-hole, and to leave you and your princess
Marco alone," Jackie caught on and pushed the slightest bit further into the
sneaky creature's neck, "...as well as the mewman and all the princesses here.
And... and... I concede."
The evil princess let both her arms fall to her sides, and withdrew back her
fangs. Her monstrous visage transformed back into one of unblemished fairytale
beauty, except for the resentful scowl it bore. A roar of cheers erupted all
around them, accompanied by a chant of "Jack, Jack, Jack!"
As the princesses rejoiced, the fog began to lift, and the sky started to
brighten. Whatever held back the dawn was gone the moment the vampire princess
admitted defeat. Snow White took a step backwards, and Jackie allowed her to do
so. She beamed her a victorious cocksure smile. And the charming Prince Jack
said, "looks like the sun is coming up after all. I'd be getting out of here
while you still can, if I were you!"
Like a bat out of hell, the dark-haired princess scrambled for the gates of St.
Olga's. Thin threads of smoke begun raising from her back and the top of her
head. She ran out into the dead trees surrounding the school, seeking refuge
from the rising sun, and soon vanished into the wilderness.
"Well, Snow White... how do you like them... apples!?" cried Princess Marco
from behind her brave prince. A fair number among the audience, and Jackie
herself, groaned.
But, in all fairness, hearing her boyfriend speak reminded Jackie of one thing,
one thing she still had left to do, that she wanted to do, needed to do after
the fight. Her heart was pumping, her breathing still fast, and she felt, well,
she felt invincible! She had to prolong this feeling of victory, and there was
only one way she could think of as to how. A perfect way to cap a perfect
adventure.
"Star, sorry to be selfish, but would you mind checking up on Pony Head and
Glintwisp?" Jackie finally spoke. She walked tiredly back towards the Mewman
princess and gave her back the magical golden sword. For all she knew, it might
turn into a pumpkin before the end of the day. Star had said none of the spells
were even close to permanent.
"Yeah, sure, but, don't you want to... oooohhh," Star stopped in mid-sentence,
as Prince Jack lifted Princess Marco into his arms and began walking back into
the mansion that housed the former school, with the pink dressed rebel princess
cradled in his arms.
"Jack! Jack! Jack!"
----
Marco's heart was pounding as he let himself be whisked away through dim lit
corridors and portrait-decorated stairways. They were alright. They were safe.
They had won! No, Jackie had won, and she had been... amazing!
He looked up, at the girl in the prince disguise. She was carrying him through
the hallways of Saint Olga's, holding him delicately and effortlessly in front
of herself, one arm under his neck and the other under his knees. He smiled a
faint nervous smile, and she gave him a confident grin in return.
It was not that he approved of it, of the risks Jackie had taken. Princess
White had been terrifying, and it was doubly terrifying when you weren't the
one in the line of fire. Marco had been in many life or death fights in the
last year of rooming with Star, and he had been Toffee's prisoner once. The
smug lizard was probably the only foe he knew who might have been even more
dangerous than the vampire princess. And yet, he hadn't been one tenth as
scared when facing him, as he had been watching Jackie and White fight. It was
always worse to see your loved ones endanger themselves on your behalf,
especially when they were obviously under-prepared for the fray. He almost
never worried like that about Star, not because he cared for her any less, far
from it, but because, well, she was Star! She was the strongest person he knew.
But, then again, was Jackie any weaker? Was she really? Given what he had just
seen, Marco was inclined to say no. A part of his brain kept nagging at him
that it should have been him out there, fighting that duel instead. But if it
had indeed been him, even empowered by Star's magic just as much as 'Prince
Jack' had been, would the result have been the same? Would he have won? Could
he have won? A voice in his head told him that he wouldn't have, couldn't have.
If he had fought instead of Jackie, then he would likely now be dead, and all
would have been lost for the princesses of St. O's. The idea that he might be,
in the end, the weaker of the three, surprised him. As did the fact that he
didn't seem to have a problem with it. Not if it was Star and Jackie, as
opposed to say, Jeremy, who bested him.
He had always had the biggest crush on Jackie, going as far as he could
remember. He was always in awe of how confident, how athletic, how popular, how
all around awesome she was. Sure, today she had literally been the day's hero:
the fairytale prince conquering the evil monster and delivering freedom onto
the masses. But then again, she had always been his hero (or, well, heroine).
"You know, Jackie, that was really, really cool," he finally said. In the
battle between the side of him that wanted to tell her to never do something
like that ever again, and the side of him that was overcome with awe, the
second won. "But, well, are you alright?"
"You mean after nearly dying fighting a literal bloodthirsty creature of the
night?" Jackie replied. She beamed at him. "Honestly, never been better!"
"That's... good," Marco responded, unable to think of anything smarter to say.
"Eh, shouldn't we be looking for Pointyhead and Glintwisp?"
"Star can handle that. It's not like we would get to them any quicker if we are
with her, and I think Horse Head would prefer seeing her than us," reasoned the
skateboarder girl. "Besides, I believe this is the part of the story in which
the prince, having rescued his princess and defended her honor, gets his well
deserved reward..."
"Oh," was all the boy was able to say in return. For a moment it was like the
last few months had never happened, and he was back to literally being unable
to form coherent sentences in the presence of Jackie Lynn Thomas, or Prince
Jack, or whomever she or he was.
The golden-armored knight looked down at him with a slight frown. "I mean, you
know I am being tongue in cheek here, right? You can always say no if not in
the mood, Marco... is just, you'd be surprised how much of a turn on this sort
of adrenaline is..."
"No, sister, I hear ya," replied the boy, taking on her best Princess Marco
persona. Weirdly enough, he felt more sure of himself with that. He also knew,
from experience, exactly what Jackie was talking about.
"Sister?" Jackie raised an eyebrow. Then, affecting what Marco was sure was her
best attempt at a masculine low bass voice. "I am afraid you must be mistaking
me for someone else, milady."
Marco rolled his eyes. "I am not a..." he begun. But something in the look
Jackie gave him, a smoldering desire-filled look, made him stop mid-sentence.
Soon after, they reached one of the rooms they had slept in the night before.
Jackie's room, actually, rather than his and Star's. The girl in the prince
costume kicked the door open, and as she did, Marco felt a wave of warm and
light surround both of them. He blinked a few times, then realized, to his
surprise, and Jackie's as well, that the golden armor had vanished into thin
air. Underneath, Prince Jack's original green, white and gold outfit, remained
unchanged.
"Wait, Jackie, are Star's spells fading? What about the extra strength?" He
asked, worried for a moment that she was going to collapse from exhaustion from
the fight, without the added energy provided by the spells. "Do you need me to
get off from you?"
"Heh, Marco, I can carry you without any magic, whenever you want," Jackie
boasted, in her normal voice. "Besides, I think the strength has been fading
slowly ever since the end of the fight, I think I am only about fifty percent
stronger than usual by now. Which I guess is a good thing..."
Prince Jack didn't go into any specifics, but the phrase 'death by Snu Snu'
came to Marco's mind. He had to agree it was a good thing that his girlfriend
could no longer crush rocks with her bare hands.
"So, do you really want me to..." Marco felt uncomfortable saying it, "... be
the girl?"
Jackie raised an eyebrow at him, as if asking if that was going to be too
different from their usual fare. Marco had to admit that, even with some
practice under his belt now, the blond haired girl had always been the more
confident assertive one. And is not like Prince Jack was suddenly going to pull
out a golden strap-on from beneath his dark green trousers, or worse. At least
Marco hoped he wouldn't, she wouldn't. Marco wasn't sure exactly what Star's
magic had done to Jackie, but he knew he himself was exactly as he always was,
just in girl clothes. But there was still a difference, in his mind, between
whatever it was that their dynamic usually was, and, well, this.
"Yeah, Marco," Jack spoke in her ear, as he gently let her down on the large
soft bed, "I want you to be my princess for tonight. And I want to be your
prince. Do you want that too?"
"... Yes," Marco responded. To his own surprise, he knew he was being honest.
It was very confusing, and scary, and new, and exciting.
Now, Marco knew that he was more in contact with his feminine side than most
guys. Jackie herself was a tomboy, Marco realized as well. She could pull off
'girly' better than almost anyone in school, and yet, she was most at ease
being one of the guys. He also knew that there were people for which the gender
they were born at never quite, well, fit. He didn't think that was quite his
case, nor Jackie's for that matter (although, if it was, he was going to be
there for Jack just as much as for Jackie, that was a given). No, he thought,
taking stock of the kind of smirk 'Prince Jack' was giving him, or her, or
whatever. This wasn't about any personal revelation for either of them, it was
play, and it was transgression, and it was fantasy, and it was deliciously
strange. Weird-awesome, he thought, remembering Star's phrase.
A moment later, his deliberations were forgotten as he felt Jackie's lips on
his neck, her hands roaming his torso atop the pink frilly blouse of his dress.
He let himself enjoy it, wondering for a second if being passive was unfairly
stereotypical of the role he was supposed to play. But Jackie, no, Prince Jack,
seemed to be enjoying it, and Marco was enjoying it, and that was in the end
what mattered.
Marco felt Prince Jack unbutton her blouse, he felt her hands on his nipples,
then her mouth kissing him there, sucking on them. He imagined for a moment
what it would feel to have breasts, to feel the sensations that he had seen
reflected in Jackie's and Star's faces whenever he did that for them. What
little it did for him physiologically, the image of Jackie ravishing him there
was a surprisingly arousing one for the boy.
"Oh, woah," the skateboarder girl almost yelped in surprise, "I didn't know
these got hard on you too! Does it feel good?"
Marco chuckled. "Well, it probably doesn't do for me what it does for you... do
you want me to, like, pretend to moan or something?"
"Dude, don't ever fake it!" she admonished him, in her normal Jackie tone. "I
mean, I don't..."
"Ok, ok, then I got an idea Jacki... eh, Prince Jack," Princess Marco replied.
"Can you stand up from the bed? I think you are quite right, my prince, that
you earned a reward, fighting for my honor and all..."
He couldn't help but think to himself that that had been a bit forced, and a
lot more meek than what Rebel Princess Marco was supposed to be all about. But
it would do. This wasn't a usual situation for the rabble-rouser of St O's
anyways, so how was Marco to know what was or wasn't her style to say under the
circumstances?
Jackie raised an eyebrow, but did as he asked. "Alright little lady, what did
you have in mind?" she said. There was something Harrison Ford-esque about the
look she gave him.
Then, Marco slid from the bed, his blouse still open and hanging down to the
sides. He literally crawled on his knees to where 'Prince Jack' was and roamed
his hands up through her legs. With a swift movement, he undid the button of
her trousers and pulled down both the pants and a set of sea green boxer
shorts. He looked up and fluttered his eyelashes, then pressed his mouth
towards Jackie's crotch and begun lapping at it in wide motions. Slow at first,
then faster as he was able to confirm his girlfriend's arousal. Soon his tongue
was exploring the length of her lips, and the inside of her folds, and
occasionally flicking at her sensitive nub.
"Oh yeah, princess!" shouted Prince Jack. "Suck. On. My. Cock!"
For months after, at night, before going to sleep, Marco would feel slightly
and irrationally ashamed, of how hard hearing those words made him that night.
'Princess Marco' kept going at it until Jackie, even with her still ever so
slightly bolstered strength, found that her weakened knees made it hard for her
to maintain the position. She, or he, or whatever, pushed a hand down and
lifted Marco up, motioning him to the bed.
Just before the boy, who was a princess, sat down, Jackie pulled the skirt of
his dress up, and removed the entire thing, throwing it to the side of the bed.
She pushed herself out of her boots, and the reminder of her lower garments. In
a superman-like move, she literally ripped her own white shirt open, sending
buttons flying all over the room with the last of her added strength. Her boobs
bounced free in the air.
It should have been the end of the game. She was no longer dressed like a
handsome prince, he was no longer dressed like a princess. It should have been
the end of Prince Jack and Princess Marco. But it wasn't. Not yet. Not for the
next few moments. The moments in which Princess Marco lied down in the bed,
blushing and excited, yearning to feel her prince's touch. The moments in which
Prince Jack, after winning the battle and rescuing the princess, got his
reward, climbing atop his love and embracing her, plunging himself into her. Or
that is what it was in his mind, even if the prince's anatomy was rather more
concave than convex. But they were united, and Prince Jack was thrusting, and
Princess Marco was moaning, and there was no faking in it at all.
It felt liberating, to be able to enjoy the ride and get lost in the sensation,
and be loud and unconstrained, in a way he never quite managed to do as a guy.
Marco also felt wanted, hungered for, in a way that was different than any he
had experienced before. Later he would ask Jackie, and she would tell him how
powerful she felt, like she was doing things to him, like she was 'the one
screwing you silly'. And Marco would say that she screwed him silly every time
they had sex, and she would say that it wasn't the same. But right then, in
that moment, Marco knew only his part, and he knew he was getting lost in the
sensations, and he was cresting up and up. Finally, he exploded, and as he
came, he came loudly and shamelessly, with a whimpering moan.
"That was... intense," Jackie finally said, many seconds after, being the first
to recover.
"Yes, yes it was," Marco agreed. "Hey, Jackie, if you ever feel like you should
have been a guy, you can tell me..."
"Nah, dude, pretty sure they gave me the right equipment. But I enjoyed playing
the part today, even more than I thought I would," she winked at him. "You can
also tell me if being Princess Marco feels better than being dude-Marco, I
think I'd be ok, if it was you..."
"Pretty sure I am a guy, Jackie."
"A guy who can pull off pink better than me!"
"Hey sister, if you got it, flaunt it!"
They both laughed together at that, then stayed there, silently looking at the
ceiling, taking a comfortable pause from a truly insane pair of days. Even by
the standards of his life after meeting Star, Marco was pretty sure these last
48 hours had been extraordinarily wild. Once they were back to Echo Creek, he
was looking forward to a week or two in which nothing much out of the ordinary
happened. At least if ordinary included his impossibly good luck of dating both
his childhood crush and his best friend.
"We should get dressed and find Star," Marco finally stated.
Chapter End Notes
     Author Note 1: And finally a chapter ending in a happy note! Weren't
     we starting to miss those? :) That said, Star hasn't seen Ponyhead
     yet, and knows nothing about mommy dear, so...
     ----
     Author Note 2: Please do note that it was none other than Neil
     Gaiman, in 'Snow, Glass, Apples', who first stated the incredibly
     obvious: that Snow White is, and has always been, an undead creature
     of the night.
     ----
     Author Note 3: Alternate ending to the Prince Jack / Snow White
     fight:
     Snow: "Rebel princesses? A glorious fight against their oppressors?
     Give me a break! Fine, you win, Princess Marco, Prince Jack, you have
     unmasked me! Now, die!"
     Star: "Ze WURDO!!"*
     Time freezes, soundtrack goes silent, Star walks up to Jackie, takes
     the sword from her immobile hands, decapitates a frozen vampire Snow
     White, puts sword back in Jackie's hands, exits stage left.
     * Because "Easy Peasy Time Freezy" is too mainstream, or, not
     mainstream enough...
     ----
     Coming up next: Chapter 17: Reveal to Me That Which is Hidden.
***** Reveal to Me That Which is Hidden *****
Chapter Summary
     None provided, for some secrets can only be told once.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 17: Reveal to Me That Which is Hidden *****
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/17.png]
Were Star to be entirely honest with herself, she would have had to admit she
felt a little bit neglected as Jackie carried their boyfriend off into the
sunrise, leaving her to deal with the fallout of the duel. In a similar spirit
of honesty, however, Star would also have had to admit that Jackie had well and
truly earned it. If she hadn't done so by defeating White, then she had by
leaving the other two teens alone to sort out their issues the previous night.
It was exceedingly fair that it was now the skateboarder girl who got some time
alone with Marco. It was also no lie to say that Star was way happier for him,
and for Jackie, than she was sad for herself. She knew that she would have her
own opportunities to celebrate with Marco later, when they were back home,
after all. Nevertheless, and despite the disguises, having the two of them flee
together so publicly, and leave her the odd girl out in front of all these
princesses, was a bit irritating. Only a bit, not much; and then only if she
were being honest with herself. Star Butterfly was seldom honest with herself.
"Ok, you!" she pointed her wand at the lanky green-eyed brunette, the girl Snow
White had called Cass. "Take me to where she put Ponyhead, and don't you dare
make a wrong move!"
Star didn't exactly know where the top of tower three was, not from the inside
at least, having never been there. The last time they were in St. O's, she
simply blew up the transmorfidian crystal with a far reaching blast from the
courtyard grounds. That was not, generally, the approach to take when rescuing
hostages, and so she could use a guide. White's former two flunkies were at
this point the chief candidates, given that they would know for sure where the
evil princess kept any prisoners. Of those two, Star had enough experience with
the tusked purple princess not to want her anywhere near her face. So that left
the other one. Better the devil you didn't know, reasoned Star. After all,
strangers were often just friends you hadn't met.
Cass, turned out, was a princess of few words. In response to Star's order and,
well, implied threat, she simply nodded, and begun walking towards the tower.
She opened the door and guided the mewman up the spiral stairway. Right before
she followed her inside, Star observed that the top of the tower had actually
been fully replaced: a wooden watchtower now sat atop the stone spire. Whoops!
She might have gone a teeny tiny bit overboard with her spells last time she
was here!
They walked alone. Not because the princesses of St. Olga's had any particular
respect for the privacy of Star's reunion with her best bestie on all of Mewni.
But because, Snow White being gone and all, they had decided to throw an
impromptu party to celebrate their newly recovered freedom. Despite the vague
sense of irritation with which her friends' departure had left her, Star
smiled.
It seemed that not only the sun had returned the moment the vampire princess of
fairy tale folklore had admitted defeat, but also, just as quickly, the true
spirit of the St. Olga's rebel princesses was back as well: that of rebellion
not against their parents, or against any perceived higher authority, but only
against responsibility itself. Which, all in all, suited Star just fine. Sure,
she had to get Ponyhead and Glintwisp back first, but soon enough all five of
them would join the party, and then she would get to be as carefree as all the
other rebel princesses. Leave dealing with her mom, and whatever she thought of
her relationship and her public image, for another day. Another day like, say:
never.
"So, I was wondering," she queried her guide, as the two princesses were about
halfway up the tower and the cheers outside had begun to become too muted to
hear. "Why were you on Snow White's side? I mean, no offense, but, well, you
don't seem… I dunno… evil? Guess I can understand if you didn't know what she
was, but…"
"Her darkness was apparent to me from the moment I first laid my eyes on her,
same as you now," Cass replied. Her tone flat as she walked forward, giving no
sign of surprise or concern.
"You mean you knew she was a vampire? You knew then what we know now? But
then..." Star pondered, flicking her wand against her chin. Then, suddenly, in
realization, she jumped, pointing her wand back at Cass. Her expression went
fierce and hard, as she steeled herself for the fight ahead. "So… are you like
her? A vampire?! What's your game?"
The girl named Cass laughed mirthlessly. "My game is one with no moves left. I
chose the white queen, knowing her to be a cruel one, in the hope that she
would forestall greater darkness. Now the black queen has captured this simple
pawn of fate, and the whole board is all but lost."
"That didn't make a lick of sense!" protested Star, still not letting her wand
down.
"I am afraid it will, in time, Queen Star," Cass added. "But you have little to
fear from me now, I have resigned myself to the inevitable."
"I am not a queen!" Star protested. Part of her felt that she had to add 'yet'.
But another part of her reminded herself that she might wish to avoid it
altogether, if she could. Specially given that on top of every sucky thing
about being queen, it apparently also meant she couldn't be with Marco, and
Jackie. Not without carefully weighting how every single person in Mewni might
feel about what, if you asked Star, was none of their damn business!
The green-eyed girl turned back, looking surprised for the first time. She
regarded Star for a good long while, like she were reading the pages of a book
rather than the face of a person. "Yes. Perhaps not a queen yet. Without a
proper coronation, that title might yet be another's. I could advise you to not
leave the space open for those who would usurp it, for they are each and all
more overtly cruel than yourself. But it matters not in truth. Your kingdom,
and more than your kingdom, is already lost..."
There was something in that voice which made Star feel like a cold wind had
passed through her. This whole conversation was getting more disturbing by the
minute, and there was something about the way the other girl spoke, that made
her think the warnings in her words were not idle threats. They didn't really
sound like threats at all, in fact. The brunette spoke regretfully, almost with
pity. Star wasn't sure she wanted to keep hearing this, and at the same time,
something told her it would be unwise not to listen on.
But Cass spoke no more, and Star didn't feel she was an immediate threat, and
so they walked in silence. They arrived to the top of the stairs before the
mewman princess could think of any more questions to ask.
----
"Well, what in the world took you so long, B-Fly!?" shouted Ponyhead, grinning,
the instant Star kicked down the door. Cass, holding the key she had just
retrieved from her pocket, simply sighed in resignation.
"Flying Princess Pony Head!" yelled Star back, a broad smile extending from one
cheek to the other, her worries forgotten in the elation of finding her bestie
safe and sound. The reason she always greeted Ponyhead with her full name was
lost even to her, an old tradition, probably born from one of their childhood
private jokes, now forgotten. "Are you ok? Did she hurt you?"
"Oh, B-Fly, she tried!" Ponyhead assured her, then grinned proudly and winked
at her. "But I was way too tough for her, gurrl!"
"Nobody tried anything. Princess White sent her two lieutenants for us, and
they simply muzzled her and encased me in a jar," corrected Glintwisp, huffing
indignantly at that later fact, "and then dragged us here... Wait! Watch out,
princess Star! One of them is behind you!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Star waved the pixie princess' warnings off. "She is with
me. Says she is not a vampire. I believe her."
"A what?! Why would she be a vampire? Gurrl... you get into the craziest
troubles..." Ponyhead seemed to think for a moment after saying that, and only,
it shall be noted, after. "... well, second craziest! After me! But tell me, B-
fly, what happened out there?! I am so sad we missed it! You must have really
whooped that witch's ass!"
"She was a vampire, not a witch," clarified Star, helpfully. "And well, it
wasn't me, the one who kicked her ass was Jackie... I mean, Prince Jack," she
corrected herself, a smidgen too late, as she looked at her green-eyed guide.
Sure, both other princess had met Jackie on Mewni, and knew the truth, but it
wouldn't do to have their former, and perhaps current, enemy, to hear something
like that. "You should have seen he... him! S...He was awesome!"
"Yes," Cass confirmed, "the maid in the knightly attire was remarkably nimble,
beyond all which could have been fairly expected."
Well, so much for Jackie's secret! The brunette princess' tone was laced with
mockery thick enough for even Star to catch on. She stressed the word 'maid',
as well as 'fairly'. However it was she knew things, it seemed a matter of fact
that she knew well the truth behind 'Prince Jack' and his gifts.
"What? You mean Monkey Face slayed a vampire?" Ponyhead whistled, or whinnied,
or something in between, genuinely impressed. "I don't say this often, but
those two earth turds are not half bad... But like, don't ever tell them I said
that!"
After that, Ponyhead finally managed to stay quiet long enough for Star to tell
her and Glintwisp all about Jackie's duel with White. Cass simply walked out to
the window, looking outside, seemingly disinterested. Or perhaps in deep
thought. It hadn't sounded to the mewman as if the vampire princess was her
friend, but still, the green-eyed girl might not have been all that comfortable
with Star's retelling of White's defeat, or with the loud cheers and gasps from
the other two princesses.
Star, for herself, felt happier the more she told the story. As she spoke about
the human girl cutting a bloody gash through the night creature's shoulder, or
piercing its chest, she felt a burst of pride and excitement spread from her
own heart. She felt joy in describing how the girl kicked away White's sword,
then picked her own back from her opponent's body and held her to surrender
with the blade against her neck. As she recounted Jackie's final victory, Star
felt... she felt invincible. And well, she felt a little turned on, actually.
Wait, no, that wasn't right. She wasn't into Jackie! So why did she...? oh. Oh!
Duh. Star knew what Jackie had planned the moment she took off with Marco in
her arms. She should have been ready, she should have expected it. But she had
been busy thinking a million other things about them, and about getting to
Ponyhead, and so, she forgot. She forgot all about the link! Now it dawned on
her that the pride, and the joy, and the invincibleness - was that a word? -
and of course the, well, excitement, she felt, were all Jackie's own. Or maybe
what Marco perceived from Jackie? It wasn't clear how much of the connection
extended to the other human teen, as well as it did to their mutual boyfriend.
But if it was hitting her this strongly, now rather than before, it meant that
Marco and Jackie had probably just arrived to wherever they eloped to, and were
about to... Ok, thinking about it definitely was not helping Star calm down!
"Oh! So she just let her go? Just like that?!" exploded Ponyhead as soon as the
princess of Mewni got to the end of her tale. "What was Monkey Face thinking?!
If it had been me against that White beyoch, I would have just skewered her
with my horn! Like this!" she stabbed the air with a flourish of her head.
Star had been besties with Ponyhead long enough to know that no good would come
of mentioning that her horn would probably not count as a stake as far as
vampires were concerned. Nor would it had been useful to remind her that the
reason they were all here was because Ponyhead had been here, had been faced
with Princess White and her brief reign of terror, and had chosen the rather
sensible course of looking for help. It also did not help that Star was
beginning to blush, and feel her breath quicken. For the first time, she was
regretting her strange connection to Marco.
"Wait, Princess Star, there is a part that doesn't make sense to me," Glintwisp
observed, flying up to the mewman in an attempt to get her diminutive voice
noticed against the background of Ponyhead's ever more bold statements about
what she would have done if it had been just her against Snow White. "You said
that after Princess White, eh, transformed, that your friend was not able to
match her in speed, right? Yet, after you froze time, sorry, slowed time, and
she rejected your help, she was suddenly able to land multiple hits, and block
without magical shielding too. That doesn't sound right..."
"What you talking about gurrl?" retorted Star's bestie. "Clearly she just saw
how awesome B-fly was, and trying to not let herself be totally outmatched by
my gurl here, she rose to the challenge!"
"Well, I think that could be part of it," Star said, bitting her lip. Part
because she had a confession to make, part because an image of Jackie kissing
Marco's chest had just popped into her mind. "But I might also have interpreted
her request, ah, creatively. Like, she asked me for two seconds, so I gave them
to her..." her voice turned to a whisper "... in every minute of the fight
after that."
She had sped up Jackie's own personal time by an extra 1/30th for the reminder
of the fight. It wasn't much of a push at all, the victory was still Jackie's
in the end. At most Star had only given her the chance to match White's
unnatural speed. It was not much more on top of all the spells she had cast on
her in the beginning. But, since she casted that last one during the duel,
rather than in advance, it did technically count as cheating. Star glanced at
Cass to see if the brunette protested, but she seemed not to notice. Right, she
probably knew already. There was something so very creepy about that girl!
Star couldn't finish that thought, because that very moment she got a jolt of
adrenaline as she felt Marco's knees hit the floor. She could see, and feel,
herself crawling in all fours towards Jackie, through her boyfriend's eyes, the
human girl still dressed in full prince outfit.
"Hey, come think of it, where are Monkey Face and Earth Turd?" pouted Ponyhead.
Clearly the implications of Star cheating in the fight with White had gone
right over her head. She loved her best bestie on Mewnie, but sometimes the
Cloud Kingdom princess could really be rather cloud-headed. "I'd thought they
would be with you..."
"Ah," Star gasped. In her mind, she could see the answer to her bestie's
question way too clearly. For once, Star decided to go with the truth, or
something close enough, "Well, Marco and Jackie are dating and, they probably
wanted some time alone in private to, like, comfort each other after the fight
and stuff..."
"Sure, Star, but, well, aren't you like their girlfriend too?" Ponyhead asked
like it was the most blatantly obvious thing in the world.
Glintwisp's eyes went wide in surprise. Cass stared out of the window, bored.
"What?! No! Yes!" Star scrambled to respond. "Ok, sort of... But, how do you
know?"
"Gurrl, it is kinda obvious from seeing the three of you. I mean, those two go
without saying, of coooourse," the other princess explained. "But like, you and
Earth Turd had gotten into a fight before I dragged you both here and you
patched stuff up - no need to thank me! I am nice like that! - and it was
obviously a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of fight, and it's obvious Monkey Face
knows about that, so... you three got one of those, eh, arrangements, no? You
can tell me! I won't judge, B-fly! I mean, I would have gone with guy-me-guy or
at worst me-guy-guy, but..."
So much for cloud-headed.
"Well, yeah, ok, it is something like that," Star conceded. "It's just a thing
Jackie came up with, and so I get Marco, and she also gets Marco."
For example, right this very moment, Jackie was getting to undress Marco as he
laid on the bed. She was pushing the pink dress Star conjured for him and
carelessly throwing it to the floor, and Marco was just looking up at the human
girl with nervous anticipation.
"So, with that situation,..." Ponyhead tried, "... you don't feel left out
sometimes, B-Fly? Like, who gets him the most?"
"We both do!" Star replied. Except, of course, Jackie got him now. Like, right
now. Like she was plunging herself onto his cock right this very second, and
Star both knew that and could feel it! It made the princess both indescribably
happy and also worried in a vague diffuse manner. And the fact that it made her
feel worried made her feel guilty in turn, like she was failing to live up to
her end of the bargain. After all, last night it had been her and Marco, with
Jackie probably within earshot, and she had not given any sign of resenting
that!
"Yeah, but," Ponyhead insisted, "who gets him the mostest?"
"Jackie," Star admitted. "No! We, we both do. And, like, I think we actually
spend more time together than the two of them. I mean, we live together..."
"Right," said her friend, "but, like, it doesn't quite feel that way, right B-
fly?"
It didn't. Jackie had been with him first. She had gone with him to the place
that Star had wanted so much to take him to, the dimension with all the hanging
silk ribbons. She was with him now, and it was the two of them who had been
prince and princess during this whole charade, while Star took the role of the
friend, just as she did at school!
The worst part was that Star knew she was being unfair. Jackie had been with
Marco first, and she had gotten him and Star out on their first date! She had
gone to the pillow's and silk dimension with him, because Star had sent them
there! She had him now, because Star had had him yesterday. And she had taken
Prince Jack's role... to fit into the adventures Star and Marco took for
granted.
But still, it sometimes felt like Star was playing second fiddle to Jackie as
far as Marco was concerned. At least, that's what a petty and mean voice inside
her head often told her. It did not help to see them now, in her mind eye.
Jackie riding him and he moaning in pleasure, in a way that Star had never
heard him moan when they were together. He didn't get lost in pleasure quite
that way, not with her. Was that a new thing? Or was it always like that when
he was with Jackie? Star couldn't remember.
She often found that her link with Marco made the situation more acceptable.
She got to feel good when he felt good, and thus became even more open to
cherish the pleasure he got with Jackie. But right now, feeling this as she had
to make an effort not to show it, as she tried to convince Ponyhead that she
didn't sometimes feel jealous about Jackie still, well, it was most definitely
not helping.
"You know, B-fly," her bestie suddenly spoke, sounding surprisingly subdued for
Ponyhead, "I think is true you both get him the mostest. Like, it looks like
that to me. But I don't feel that's how you feel. You know? And, like, the
facts are one thing, but the way you feel about them is the truth too! You get
what I am saying?"
"To hide from one's heart is to fear one's own shadow," Cass spoke, without
bothering to turn back from the window.
"Yeah, totally, totally... But, I know the way I feel, and I feel great!"
smiled Star, unconvincingly.
Privately, she thought that maybe her bestie had a point. It didn't mean she
wanted something other than what the three of them had. She had been willing to
face up to her mom, and her entire kingdom, for her right to continue things
exactly as they were with the two human teens. But perhaps it didn't hurt to
admit that, sometimes - not always, but sometimes - she still couldn't be as
perfectly chill about the whole thing as Jackie seemed to be. Now, the question
was, should she tell Jackie that? Could she tell Marco?
She tried to be as discrete as possible, as the force of the other two teens'
climax hit her through the link. A gasp still escaped her lips, drawing looks
of puzzlement from Ponyhead and Glintwisp, and what seemed almost like a
reproachful look from the green-eyed girl.
"The flipped lovers will be joining us soon," Cass spoke. "But then again, her
majesty already knows that."
Whatever else the future had in store for her, Star felt she would undoubtedly
be glad to leave St. Olga and all of its creepy new princesses behind. The
party below seemed less and less attractive by the minute.
----
Jackie was glad that they found Star still inside tower three. She was doubly
glad that Marco had found a way to get there which did not go out of the
building. She was particularly happy they didn't have to traverse the crowded
courtyard.
She did not wish to be seen by any of the princesses of St. O's now, mostly
because passing as Prince Jack had become rather difficult, now that the
buttons of her vest and shirt were both in tatters. Not to mention: whatever
magical force had been binding her breasts flat underneath was also gone. She
hadn't even realized that that was something included in her transformation,
until now. But in retrospect, it was rather obvious; a shirt and vest alone
should not have been able to disguise her gender. Not that Jackie was one to
brag about something like that, of course.
"Hey Star!" she shouted as soon as they found their friend.
"Hey Jackie!" the princess of Mewni yelled back as she turned around, smiling
at them. Jackie gave her an apologetic half smile. Then the mewman spotted
their boyfriend, "Hey Marco!"
Star jumped to hug him, and Marco held her tightly in return. It warmed
Jackie's heart, every time. She also felt quite happy to notice that Star
didn't seem at all bothered by their spur of the moment celebratory escapade.
Sometimes it was hard to tell with the princess, the way she always put a happy
face either way, but Jackie felt she had gotten better at telling when Star's
contentment was sincere. And she thought, and hoped, that was the case today.
After all, this whole thing had been possible only because of Star. How often
you met a friend who took you on an inter-dimensional adventure, gave you
super-powers and then let you use those super-powers to literally sweep the boy
she liked off his feet? Jackie was reputed to be a cool girl, and she would
admit she had her moments, but she had to agree with Marco's frequent
declarations: Star was the most amazing friend anyone could wish for! And while
Jackie was most lucky to have a rather wonderful boyfriend, she also felt quite
lucky of having made such a great friend as well.
"Hey, Monkey Face!" Ponyhead came out right after Star, giving Jackie a
derisive glare. "Heard you are a skank!"
Jackie rolled her eyes at that, "Heard you got jailed, Horse Head. Shame we
cannot just keep you locked up!"
Ponyhead huffed. "But like, glad you are not dead and all..." she finally
admitted with an embarrassed turn of her head.
"Same," conceded Jackie, with a chuckle and a knowing nod.
"Awwww, now we are all besties!" shouted Star with a huge grin, as she finally
let go of their mutual boyfriend. Both Jackie and Ponyhead made faces that made
it quite clear that the mewman was being far too optimistic on that count.
"But, well," Star continued, "I think it is time for all us to head back to
Mewni, and from there to Earth!"
"You don't have to say it twice," Marco agreed. "I have had enough adventure
for a pretty long while. Are the girls going to be ok without us, though?"
"We can take it from here, Princess Marco, ma'am," Glintwisp flew up to him.
"We will be alright. It was an honor to meet you and we shall now be doubly in
your debt!"
"You are in nobody's debt, my wayward sister!" Princess Marco replied. Then, in
his normal boy tone, "But, eh, you know I am not really a princess, right?"
"Of course, Princess Marco," Glintwisp replied with a bow.
"So," Jackie felt she had to ask, "how about her?"
She pointed at the brunette princess. She had noticed her a while back, as she
bantered with Ponyhead. But, since Star seemed to be ok with her around, Jackie
had figured she was no threat. That said, she was still one of White's goons.
Not being a threat to Star Butterfly didn't mean she was not a threat to a
crowd of other, less magical, princesses. That was Prince Jack's own expert
judgment, as the second liberator of St. O's.
"As the black queen leaves, so my role here shall be ended. None of the
princesses you leave behind has anything to fear from me," Cass spoke. "There
is only one task left for me, and it shall be done soon. Once the veil is
lifted, I shall give voice to the will of the heavens."
Jackie shot Star a questioning look, and the mewman simply shrugged.
"Well, that's settled then. I don't know you girls," Marco spoke then. "But I
am starving for some nachos!"
He held his pair of magical scissors in the air. A pair that, if Jackie was to
believe Star and Marco's stories - and, given what she had just experienced,
she was quite ready to believe just about anything - he had obtained after
sixteen years of grueling hardships in a foreign dimension, in pursuit of a
sadistic evil sorceress who also happened to be Star mom's good friend. Those
scissors were perhaps Marco's most valuable possession, and second only to
Star's magic wand. For a moment Jackie wondered if she would ever end up owning
her own magical artifact if she hung out with the two of them long enough.
"Nachos sound awesome, Diaz," she agreed. "Well, what are we waiting for? There
is no place like home!" She clicked the heels of her princely boots and her
boyfriend groaned, even as he smiled just a little bit.
Marco extended the scissors out in front of himself and cut through the air in
a single theatrical motion.
Nothing happened.
His smile turned to a frown as he opened and closed the scissors in mid air, to
no avail. He brought them up to his face and looked at them. "Star... my name!
It is gone from the blades!"
----
"What?! Marco, let me see," Star took the scissors from Marco and looked them
over. Indeed, his name seemed to have faded out of them. This wasn't right. She
had never seen a pair of dimensional scissors fail to open a portal, even on
the first try. Were his dimensional scissors on the frizz? Could dimensional
scissors even be on the frizz? She closed her eyes and focused, dipping down
into herself, stirring the magic around her, and particularly the magic within
the metal blades. She found none, no trace of power beyond that which lingered
within mundane materials. "Marco, I can't sense any of Hekapoo's stuff in
these, are you sure they are the right scissors?"
"Of course they are the right scissors, Star," spoke Marco. He didn't sound
angry, but he seemed scared, almost panicking. He took the scissors back from
Star and tried again, to no avail, to open a portal with them. Right, Marco had
always been very careful with those scissors, ever since he came back from his
quest for them. He would lend them to her without question, of course, but
otherwise he never let them out of his sight. Star remembered how she felt
right after losing the book of spells. Then she thought back to when she
thought she had just been forced to destroy her magic wand forever. The
realization hit her then, of just what exactly might be going through her best
friend's mind. Oh crap!
She put a hand on the boy's shoulder and shot him a reassuring smile. "It's
alright Marco, it will be fine. I don't know what is happening, but I am sure
we will find a way to repair those, or get Hekapoo to forge another pair. After
all, you already earned them, is not like she can say no to that!" At least,
Star hoped that was the case.
"But, eh, Star," Jackie interrupted. "How are we going to get back without the
scissors?"
"Mmmhmm," Star thought for a while, wand against her cheek. Maybe she could do
something with her magic. But, well, there was a reason even Mewni royalty used
dimensional scissors to travel around the multiverse. What if she managed to
open a portal but they didn't end up where she thought they would? Or somehow
got there only half-way? Or it was instead a twisted shadow of the world they
had left behind? Or... no, dimensional magic without instructions and without
scissors sounded like a bad idea, the kind of bad idea even Star Butterfly
wouldn't try if they had any other option. "Wait, I got it! Ponyhead, you still
have a pair of scissors, right?"
"Of course, B-fly!" Ponyhead said, sticking out her tongue and showing her
second pair of stolen scissors this year.
Star took them from her, and cut through the air in front of the both of them.
Nothing happened. She examined the scissors the same way she had inspected
Marco's, but no magic was to be found in these either.
Eventually, they resolved to go to Heinous room. Cass, Ponyhead and Glintwisp
showed the way, while the two humans and Star followed. In there they found a
dozen other dimensional scissors, all of them equally useless.
"Wait, I got another idea!" shouted Star, forcing herself to smile as she
looked at the deflated faces around her. Marco had been trying his best to
help, testing the other scissors. But now he just cradled his own in both
hands, looking at them with a sad expression. Jackie tried to comfort him with
a hug and reassuring words, but Star could tell she was getting worried too.
She knew the human girl must be thinking about the possibility that they might
not be able to go back to Earth. It was a reasonable fear, particularly
considering this was her first time outside her own dimension. But Star was not
ready to give up just yet. She looked around. "Of course! There!"
She took off the white sheet covering the mirror. Because, of course, Miss
Heinous had to have had a mirror. How else would she know which kids to expect
from their parents? Come to think about it, many of the princess' rooms also
had mirrors. All they had to do was call her mom, and she would figure out a
way to come fetch them!
Or, even better, they could call Hekapoo herself and ask her what the hell had
gone wrong with Marco's scissors and the others here. Now that she thought
about it, that was probably the best course of action. Given Star's last
interaction with the two of them, she felt Hekapoo might perhaps be more
sympathetic to getting them all out of here with minimal fuss. After all, her
mom probably didn't even know they had left Mewni, and wouldn't be thrilled to
hear so.
"Mirror mirror on the wall, call Hekapoo!" Star commanded. Three dots appeared
on top of the crystal surface, as her reflection and that of her friends
disappeared from it.
'CALL SUBJECT IS UNREACHABLE' showed the mirror's surface. The princess stared
at the words for what seemed like minutes.
"Star," Jackie suggested, cautiously. "Maybe call your mom, then?"
"Sigh. Yeah, yeah, alright..." Star already knew what the next step was, and
she suspected Jackie knew she knew. But Jackie also probably knew Moon and her
had, well, unresolved issues to discuss, as Star's mother would put it. "Mirror
mirror on the wall, call Mom!"
'CALL SUBJECT IS UNREACHABLE'
"This, this is bad, Star," Marco finally spoke. "This is bad and is all my
fault..."
"How is this your fault?" interjected Jackie.
"Well, my scissors should have gotten us out of here, or else I shouldn't have
been so confident in them, and planned a backup, or..." Marco seemed to realize
he was being silly, for once, "... ok, it just feels like my fault."
"Maybe it is mine," said Jackie smiling faintly, "maybe it had to do with
defeating White, or with not killing her, and now we are all sealed in this
dimension with her?"
"No, Marco, Jackie. It is my fault," spoke Star in a resolute tone. Her face
turned into a scowl. "It is always, ultimately, my fault. I got you two to
Mewnie first and now here, and I am going to get you both back to Earth. But
first, we need to know what is happening, and I think I know just the way..."
Her eyes went narrow, and she could see in the now inactive mirror that she
looked just a little bit scary. Marco and Jackie seemed nervous, but not too
concerned, while Cass went pale and scrambled to get her back against the wall,
as far from Star as she could without leaving the room. In retrospect, Star
shouldn't have missed that warning sign.
However, right now, the princess knew just what she had to do. She had to know
what exactly had happened to the scissors or to this place, why the mirror was
also not working, and where the hell was Hekapoo during all this. She began the
only spell that could offer her answers now, the one spell which could show her
the hidden truth.
"I summon the all-seeing eye..."
A gust of chilly wind began swirling around the room, as if the windows and
door were not closed, as if the sky was not sunny and clear. It lifted her hair
up in the air around her. She focused, with all her might, on her desire to
learn what was going on, to find a way back home.
"Eh, Star, is this a new spell?" asked Marco, nervously, "Is it safe?"
"... to tear a hole into the sky..."
Her half crystal glowed bright green. Cass gasped. A sense of dread began
growing in the back of Star's mind. That sensation was new. She had casted the
All-Seeing Eye spell many times before, and it did often feel just slightly
wrong. A sensation she had attributed either to the purposes she tended to use
it for, or to the fact that it was dark magic after all.
"...reveal to me that which is hidden..."
But this time the sensation was different. It was not just slightly wrong,
there was something awful about the magic that was flowing through her wand
now, and through her body. Alarm bells rang in Star's mind. But she found, to
her surprise, that she could not stop now, even if she tried.
"... unveil to me what is forbidden!"
A huge purple vortex opened up before all of them, tendrils of green energy
slowly creeping from within, the view on the other end of the portal a dark
haze. Star tried to shut down the spell, to drop her wand, to dip down. But
nothing worked. She was paralyzed in place, and from the looks of it, so were
her friends. After a long tense instant, the view on the other side of the
portal became clear.
It was Earth. More specifically, it was Marco's house. Even more specifically,
it was her room. On the other side of the portal, a perfect copy of Star was
looking at them upside down, as she laid on the floor with her feet on top of
the edge of the bed, playing with her wand, moving it forward and backward
slowly.
Star tried to open her mouth to speak to her idle look-alike, but she could not
even move her own lips. It was like having her mind pulled into slowed time by
someone else, the way she had done to Jackie earlier, only even more
restricting. She could barely move her eyes around, glancing at her human
friends to see the shocked expressions they wore. Then, she saw the image
inside the portal jump to sit in the bed, and realized to her horror what she
was seeing. She didn't know, she never knew, that the All-Seeing Eye could show
her scenes far away in time as well as space. But why this? Why now?!
"I summon the all-seeing eye, to tear a hole into the sky," spoke the other
Star. She could hardly believe she was seeing this again. It was wrong. A
shameful memory under the best of circumstances, and even worse under these
circumstances. Marco and Jackie were here with her! If they found out... no, oh
no! Not like this! "Reveal to me that which is hidden." She saw the Star in the
portal's wand glow emerald as a second portal opened within the first. "Unveil
to me what is forbidden."
"Well, Marco, what do you think?" came Jackie's voice from somewhere outside
either vortex. The past version of the princess adjusted the portal, so that
they were all now looking, through two different sets of shadowy clouds, at
Jackie standing in only her bra, that fateful night, seemingly so long ago.
Star looked at her friend, her real present friend, frozen in place with her,
and saw her eyes grow wide with surprise. Oh no! no! No, no, no, no, no! This
wasn't happening!
But it did, all of it! They remained held in place by the spell as the smaller
vortex showed Marco and Jackie's first intimacies, their private jokes, their
awkwardness (mostly his, but sometimes hers as well). The larger portal showed
Star, gazing at them with an expression that she now felt looked too... well,
too eager, perverted even. She felt ashamed, and disgusted at herself. A glance
at Jackie and Marco told her they were both shocked, and confused, and going
pale.
"Do you, do you do this often? Invite boys up, I mean?"
"No. First time ever. You?"
"No! I mean, yes! I mean no! I mean, first time too. With girls, I mean. Not
with boys. I mean, not that I have done it with boys either..."
"... I kinda practiced on Star's bras..."
"Oh, Marco... you are doing... a-mazing!"
"You know, it is better if you play with them. Like this,"
"Eh, Jackie. How far are we planning on taking this?"
"You know where my mouth just was, right?"
"Well, if you had said you were with me only for the sex that would also have
been good for my ego,"
"By the way, Safe Kid, do you have any condoms around?"
"Just fuck already!" Star heard herself yell, through the portal. Had she
really said that aloud? If her face hadn't been pale as a corpse with guilt and
fear, it would have been boiling red with embarrassment.
Worse, she knew what was coming. Soon they were all watching Marco entering
Jackie, trusting into her as they both sweat and moaned. They were watching
Star herself laying on the bed, being fucked by some magical echo of Marco. It
was beyond bizarre, and so embarrassing that Star wanted her wand to explode
right there and then and erase them all from the face of whatever dimension St.
O's was in. But, more than anything, she felt guilt, guilt at having seen that,
and at now showing it, against her own will, to the other two teens. And to
Ponyhead, Glintwisp and Cass as well! Once it was finally done, Star could only
manage to look at the floor in shame. But the Star in the vision had not
averted her eyes, and so she could not claim to be as ashamed at what she had
done as she was at having been caught.
"Marco... this is probably weird timing, but can I ask you a question about
Star?" she heard the Jackie in the mirror ask. Fortunately, the image faded out
then, not showing Star creeping in on their private conversation as well as
their first time. At last, it was over.
Except, instead of the spell fading and their movement being restored, the
scene simply changed. It showed her and Marco, older Marco, floating in the
clouds. It showed Hekapoo's smiling face for only a moment, and then the image
broke like shattered glass.
It changed then to a dark night outside, of even darker implications. A small
river flowing under a stone bridge.
"Then, Star..." she heard Tom's voice through the portal, "... get on your
knees."
And the spell showed them Star fellating Tom, and at the same time flashes of
Jackie doing the same to Marco, back in their bed. It didn't show a continuous
scene now, but jumped between one and the other, recreating that awful night as
Star had experienced it, where she saw the two humans half of the time as she
herself had sex with her ex-boyfriend. In the end, the spell showed all four
climaxing together. Each of their faces appeared in turn, large and clear
through the vortex, as they cried out.
"Staaar!" she heard Tom grunt, hungrily.
"Maaarco!" she heard Jackie moan, joyously.
"Staaar!" she heard Marco shout, lovingly.
"Maaarco!" she heard herself cry out, wishfully.
Jackie's face, the real Jackie, the current Jackie, looked horrified. Marco
seemed hurt and confused. Star's eyes were crying through the paralysis, it was
painful to force each tear out, but impossible to contain them.
The show did not end there, but it showed bits and pieces of every time Star
had been with Marco, and of every time she had sensed or seen him and Jackie
through the link, including this very morning. Most of the time, it was clear
Star was not only aware of it, but actively seeking the link, closing her eyes
to concentrate, looking for a quiet space... touching herself. They might yet
believe the truth: that she did not control those visions, that she could not
fully shut them down, that she had not actively cast the spell to spy on them
again. But there was no way she could convince them that she hadn't known, or
that she hadn't enjoyed what she saw, that she hadn't repeatedly violated their
privacy, and lied to them by omission.
The images in the portal became very different now, and in a way even more
disturbing. A web of emerald strings, bright as lightning, constricting someone
she couldn't quite see. Star's book of spells burning. Glossaryck burning!
Wait, was that Ludo being crushed under a stone pillar? The forest of certain
death, flowing beneath the view of the vortex. Mewni castle.
Star felt anger. A hate that burned cold like nothing she had ever felt before,
and it took her just an instant to realize that it was not, could not be, part
of her own feelings. Something was angry at her, angry that it was being
sought, spied on, touched. Something that had not cared at all when exposing
all of Star's deepest and darkest secrets, but which would not allow her to
peer into its own. The Seeing-Eye portal came crashing down, and Star felt a
sensation like being punched in the stomach... by Princess White's rock-
shattering fists.
She hit the wall and collapsed onto the ground, her wand falling down in the
middle of the room and rolling away from her, finally inert. Every inch of her
body felt like an army of ants were crawling over it. She could not move, could
not speak, could hardly breathe. Everyone else seemed to become unfrozen at
just that time.
"Star...!" she heard Marco and Jackie shout in unison.
"... are you ok?!" asked Marco.
"... what the hell was that?!" yelled Jackie, trembling. Her eyes sharp even as
they welled up with moisture.
"Ah, ahem," Ponyhead flew up in front of Star, "that was, that was clearly
fake! Something went funny with the spell... right, B-fly? And, and..."
"That wasn't fake," stated Jackie. Her tone suddenly ice-cold. Her expression
rigid and controlled, even as tears flowed from her eyes.
"Jackie, ah, maybe right now is not the best time. We can ask after we are sure
she is alright..." noted Marco. But Star noticed he also seemed to avoid
looking at her, his face was also red with embarrassment. Or with anger?
"No, Marco!" yelled Jackie. "She is fine. I know very well what Star can take.
She can answer now! Please, step aside, Ponyhead, this doesn't involve you..."
"We should go," said Glintwisp to the unicorn princess. The floating head
looked around and nodded apprehensively in response, and they made their way
towards the exit.
Star felt herself recover, ever so slowly, "Jackie, oh Jackie, I am so sorry, I
never meant for you to..."
"See any of that?!" asked Jackie. "Know that you have been spying on me this
whole time?! Honestly, Star, that makes it worse. I feel... I can't even
describe it... used? toyed with? violated? Come on, I trusted you! Trusted you
enough to open up about how I felt, to want us to be friends and... and... you
know... to be alright with you and Marco? To feel safe about you dating him
too. Trusted the both of you... I... why didn't you tell us?"
As the physical pain began to subside, the weight of her guilt, and the
realization that she had really hurt Jackie, quickly outpaced the magical
resonance as the source of Star's anguish. "Jackie, I am sorry, I am really
really sorry. But... would you have said something in my place? I can't even
begin to think how..."
"Yes, Star, I would have," Jackie responded without a thought. "Marco would
have too. Come on Star, I shouldn't have to explain to you how all that stuff
is really not cool!"
Star murmured something in response, it was a lame apology, and she knew it was
so even before she was done saying it.
"What was that?" asked Jackie.
"I said," Star repeated, ashamed, "that I wouldn't have gone out with Marco, or
ended up in this weird-awesome relationship, if not for... well... for what you
just saw..."
"Star," Jackie looked down at the floor, suddenly in a calmer, but not exactly
friendlier, tone. "You could have just asked. At any time, you could have
asked. I know it wouldn't have been a normal thing to do, and I can see why
that would have been scary. But, well, it wouldn't have been like this! It
would have been something Marco and I at least could consider, and agree to.
Rather than us having been exposed for your entertainment, without our
knowledge, without being asked..."
Star blinked. Had it truly been as simple as that? If she had spoken with
Marco, or with Jackie, would all this have happened, even without the link?
"And, Star... even after that, you could have said something afterwards, that
day at the dinner, perhaps, or any of the afternoons we were all at Marco's
home... ah, but maybe..." she glanced at Marco, and he simply shook his head.
He was still looking down at the floor, silently. "I see. Why? Why didn't you
say anything Star? To either of us? I trusted you. Marco trusted you. Why
didn't you trust us?"
"I do trust you!" protested Star. "I was, I was ashamed, and weirded out. I
wanted to tell you, but, but..." She realized that the boy hadn't said a word
in a while, "Marco, yesterday you said that you were fine with learning my
secrets whenever you learned them, right? That I didn't have to tell you all
back then? That it was ok if some of it was a surprise?"
Star knew, right after she had said that, that it was the wrong thing to say.
She hadn't asked Marco how he felt, she had just asked for forgiveness. No, not
even that. She had called him on his promise for blanket absolution, without
first even asking what he thought of... of everything he had just seen.
"Star, I..." he begun. Then he paused. He looked at the mewman princess, crying
in the floor, then at the human girl trembling with anger and hurt. "You were
watching us, right? Every time? This morning too?"
Star nodded, words stuck in her throat.
"Then, are we not allowed secrets as well? Only you?" Star's eyes went wide as
saucers and she felt hollow inside. Marco didn't sound angry. It was much worse
than that. He sounded distant. And he was still not looking at her. He walked
up to Jackie and held her tightly. Then he spoke, evenly, "can we talk about
all this later? We still need to find a way home."
But Star didn't want to go home anymore. She wanted to go back in time, to the
moment before she cast the seeing-eye spell again, or maybe further back than
that, to the time at which she might have told Marco and Jackie of the link,
without coming off as someone who disrespected and toyed with those she loved.
Without being a liar, and a creep. Jackie had been right, Marco would have told
her, immediately, if it had been him seeing her through the link and he knew
what it was. The human girl would have probably told her as well. What did it
say about Star, that she hadn't?
Cass walked slowly towards her. Honestly, the mewman had forgotten about the
last remaining princess in the room. But now the brunette was almost in front
of her, and she extended a finger to point at Star. Her eyes had rotated up in
their sockets, so that she could no longer see the green irises. When the words
came out of her mouth, it didn't sound like her voice at all. It didn't sound
human. It was a chorus of deep echoing voices that came out of the frail
looking girl.
Star understood then, why Cass knew things she had never been told, and why she
spoke in riddles. Mewni had legends, as did Earth, about vampires. Mewni also
had legends, as did Earth, about seers and prophesies.
"Behold the dark queen ascending,
her will the thread of fate unraveling.
Behold the force of evil incarnate,
borne of deepest heart's desire."
Thus spoke the girl called Cass, as she kept her finger pointed at Star,
declaring her evil beyond reckoning. The words felt true, in a piercing way.
They were not true because they were perceptive. Nor even because Star herself
was already questioning her own moral compass. They were true because they were
prophecy, true in a fatalistic sense, and Star knew that, even if she wasn't
sure how she knew it.
"Only surrender may undo the shadow,
but the price shall be too high to pay.
In the end the world itself must shatter,
and death shall be the one to claim her."
Star rose to her feet in one jump. She could not stand it any more: the
unearthly voice of the other princess, the looks of confusion in her human
friends' eyes, the guilt about what she had done, the horror about what she
might one day do, about what she was just told she would become. Without
bothering to even get her wand back, the princess of mewni, the "force of evil
incarnate", took off running out of that dreadful room. As she fled, the thing
that broke her heart was that, this time, she didn't even hear Marco call after
her.
Chapter End Notes
     She's a princess winning battles
     Through the break of dawn
     Don't worry when it's night
     'Cause she will keep the lights on
     Ohhhh, there goes a shining star...
      
     Coming up next: Chapter 18: With Ache in Her Chest, With Tears in Her
     Eyes
     See the first comment below, to find out that which is hidden, to
     unveil what is forbidden
***** With Ache in her Chest, With Tears in her Eyes *****
Chapter Summary
     In which our dear Star is sad, a villain is redeemed, a witch is
     quite clever, yet not clever enough, and we bid adieu to St. Olga's
     and all of its princesses.
Chapter Notes
     For the record, this chapter was fully written (but, of course, not
     fully edited) before the release of SvtFoE Season 3 Episode 5 and
     beyond, and thus contains no spoilers for any Star Vs episodes after
     Battle For Mewni. Any similarities with recent episodes from canon is
     purely prophetic.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
***** Chapter 18: With Ache in her Chest, With Tears in her Eyes *****
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/18.png]A girl with no friends, and
no loved ones left, skulked through the bleak cliffs surrounding Saint Olga's
Reform School for Wayward Princesses; slowly making her way among thick and
prickly tangles of dead tree branches. As she did so, the evil child only
thought of what had gone wrong, what she would do differently if she had only
another chance. She had been thinking, and fleeing, for hours. Now the sky was
dark once more, but the end of the day did not erase the damage done.
As her mind was balancing, for the eleventh time, the ledger of all of her
mistakes, she heard a sobbing sound from just ahead. Cautiously, she approached
the source of the noise. It came from a small valley clearing. A vulnerable
position. Or perhaps a trap. Not wanting to take any chances, the girl got only
as far as the edge of the dried woods, and with a swift movement jumped atop
one particularly tall, particularly sturdy, elm. As it landed, her lithe body
made nary a sound, none that would be heard over the ceaseless weeping.
The figure below was familiar to her. Even so, it took her a moment to
recognize her now, without the long horns and the ridiculous fake eye-patch.
The sniveling blond mess had curled herself into a ball in the middle of the
clearing, and was likely in the process of crying herself to sleep. She could
see her hands bracing her knees, as she shivered in the freezing night wind.
Perched atop the tree, Princess White smiled a long wicked smirk. Star
Butterfly had no wand on her person.
It would have been easy, and oh so satisfying, to drink the mewman princess dry
of her sweet young blood. A palliative for her hunger, and for her bruised
pride. But White recalled promising to leave the other princess alone, as part
of the terms of her surrender to Prince Jack, the giant killer. White was a
creature of the told story, a being of tale and myth, and she knew the traps
fate and legend usually put in the path of those who violated an important
promise.
There was a kind of magics, White knew, which acted like contracts with the
world and its powers, and were enforced by potencies far beyond mortal
comprehension. Cassandra's prophesies had been thus. It was that the reason why
she had found the brunette so indispensable an ally, despite her infuriating
crypticness. Invoking similar powers, she had managed to stave away the sun
from her temporary kingdom, claiming the ancient right of domain. But her
domain had been broken the second she declared herself to lose the duel she had
accepted to fight for its control. That meant her word and her promises had at
least some weight for the ancient powers. It followed then that she should
think it twice before seeing herself forsworn over a petty act of vengeance.
She had promised to leave Jack, 'and Princess Marco, and the mewman, and all
the princesses of St. Olga's alone'. Was there a loophole there? Anything she
might try that would count as technically keeping her promise, while achieving
the spirit of her revenge? Surely, the child was mewman, and the only one in St
O's, so she could not sneak out of her vow there by claiming its object was
ambiguous. If she had sworn to leave her alone, what was there left, that she
could do to her with impunity?
While she thought, a second figure entered the clearing, from the 3 o' clock
relative to where she kept watch. White ducked and hid further among the dry
branches, as she saw a boy approach. It was not Jack, and certainly no
princess.
"Hey, Star... are you alright?" the boy asked.
White noted the concern in his voice. A friend of the mewman perhaps? Well, now
that she thought of it, killing her friends did certainly match the wording of
a promise 'to leave her alone', quite nicely. Ah, the beauty of poetic irony!
The vampire princess grinned at the thought. She coiled herself over the tree,
ready to strike at Star's friend, to deprive the other princess of his company,
to multiply her misery without touching a golden hair of her head.
She did not attack.
It took her a moment of hesitation, a second to appraise the newcomer, to
decide firmly against that first plan. For even if you were a princess of skin
cold as snow, and lips red as blood, and ancient darkness of fairy tale lore,
it was nevertheless unwise to attempt to prey on a boy with skin of gravestone
tint, and burning red coals for eyes, and long taurine horns. No, it was not
wise at all to ambush a demon.
----
"Tom...?" Star looked up at him in surprise, her eyes red with crying. A moment
later, she turned her dulled gaze back to the floor, as if he weren't there.
She continued whimpering, more softly, but no less sorrowfully, than before.
She seemed so sad, and so defeated. The demon prince could not recall ever
seeing her in such a state, not even the night of... No. He forced himself to
think of anything but that. This was already going to be awkward enough as it
was. For once in his life, Tom wanted to be the ex Star deserved, to be
something to her other than her biggest regret, her biggest mistake.
"Star," he spoke. He felt the urge to call her 'Starship' and squashed that
feeling with all the wrath of the Astray One himself. "I... heard what
happened, some of it. Do you want to talk?"
"No," Star replied. "Marco hates me now, and Jackie hates me now, and... and I
hate you."
To hear that, spoken so plainly, hurt almost as much as that damned anger spell
had back then, the day of the concert. In some ways, it hurt even more. But now
it was not the time for him to indulge his ever-burning anger, or his own self-
pity. Tom breathed deeply, and kept his temper in check, without bothering to
count this time. He just didn't have the time for that. Instead, he made
himself to suppress his inner fire, through force of will alone.
"Star, Jackie is, well, she is angry, but I don't believe she hates you," Tom
spoke softly, as he sat besides Star and cautiously draped an arm around her.
She did not react. He knew well enough that it was more of an indicator of how
apathetic she felt right now, rather than any sign that she welcomed his touch.
Still, he couldn't help but feel happy to be holding her, then angry at himself
that he still felt so.
Tom forced himself to stay the course. He had promised, before coming out to
look for Star, that he would not lie, he would not plot, he would not
manipulate. He had promised that he would not put any moves on Star, no matter
what. That he was to be here out of concern, and out to help the mewman, as any
friend would. A friend and nothing more, if the princess was willing to accept
even that from him. It went against his nature, the same way calm went against
his nature. And yet, he had long ago mastered calm, nonchallantness, at least
most of the time. It took constant effort, but it was effort he was willing to
undertake.
"And I know Marco doesn't hate you, he..." The words dried his throat, like
puking dense burning lava, "... he loves you, Star."
"He hates me, Tom!" yelled Star, tossing his arm off of her and turning her
back towards him. "And he is right to do so! Guess you have also heard about me
being evil, no? Since you seem to know everything that has happened to me
lately!?"
She sounded angry. Anger was good. It was much better than hollow defeated
sadness. Maybe what Star needed was to hit him again with the dark vortex
spell, to let the anger and the hurt out of her system. Tom was surprised to
discover, that after all that had happened between the two of them, he would
gladly let her do that again. Except this time, he wouldn't mess it up by
expecting any kind of affection from her in return. Star didn't love him, and
she didn't want him. But if she indeed did simply hate him, then by the
deceiver, may that hate be put to a good a use!
"Evil is relative, Star, and I say so with some personal understanding of the
concept. I also have been called evil, after all," Tom said as he shrugged.
"From what I heard, you were less than forthcoming with one of your magical
mishaps, and then got some ambiguous seer mumbo jumbo thrown at you. Big deal!"
It was, actually, a bigger deal than he was making it out to be, but Star
didn't need to hear that now. Prophecies were one time a blessing and ten times
a curse, and it was always near impossible to untangle them until they came to
happen. Sure, the girl had called Star "the dark queen ascending" and "the
force of evil incarnate", but Tom had a hard time seeing either of those come
to pass, knowing Star like he did. Not that he would care if Star ever went
dark, not really. Good or evil, she would still be herself, and that was all
that mattered in his book. He was far more concerned about the fact that the
prophecy also said that "death shall be the one to claim her". That he could
visualize, all to clearly. Tom Lucitor, prince of the underworld, was
determined not to let that come to pass.
"Tom, you are evil," Star said, giving him a look of disgust. "And... well, I
didn't think so back when we first met, or when we were together. I only
realized it way too late. So, I think is very possible, well, that my moral
compass is so very twisted that I can't even realize that I am evil too, or
turning evil. That, maybe, I have done something truly beyond the pale. Jackie
seems to think so. And another reason I might be evil, is that I actually know
for a fact that right now I am not nearly as concerned about the fact that I
may become a dark queen when I grow-up-than-I-am-concerned-about-Marco-hating-
me!"
Her words became quicker and quicker as she got to the last part, until there
was a torrent of them stumbling one atop the other out of her mouth. In the
end, it almost seemed she only paused because, near the end, she had no choice
but to take a breath of air. Tom sighed. There was only one way to get to her
then, one way only. It was not what he would have preferred.
"Star, how do you think I know all of this? What happened back at Saint O's,
and the prophecy?" the demon prince asked her calmly.
"That's obvious," Star countered. "It is because you have been spying on me,
again. Like evil people do! Like I did to Marco and Jackie..."
"Actually, Star, is because Marco called me, and asked me to find you," he
admitted.
For the first time, Star looked up and met his gaze, eyes filled with surprise
and just the slightest dash of hope.
----
Princess White felt like she was going to puke listening to the two of them.
So, the girl had managed to annoy her friends and now felt bad about it? And
now the demon was, for some unfathomable reason, trying to reassure her it
didn't mean she was a bad person? Since when did a demon cared if someone was a
bad person? If anything, he should be welcoming the fact that the girl thought
herself evil. That self-perception made it so much more likely that she would
fall into the fiend's clever snare. White was sure, she could sense it in his
body language, that the purple fiend lusted after the princess. It defied all
she knew about the nature of the underworld denizens that he didn't take her by
force. Demons were, after all, creatures often slave to their own base
emotions: lust, wrath, envy, and so forth.
It took her only an instant, after she let her bored mind tune out their
conversation, to notice the rustling of the leaves a hundred or so paces away
from where she was perched. The movement was almost in a perfect line with the
angle from which the demon had come into the clearing.
Curious, the vampire slid unseen through branch and root, a quarter way around
the clearing, and a short walk away from it. There she found a girl with hair
almost as black as hers, with eyes dark green, and a black cloak around her.
Her body seemed to rest against the tree, giving her back to the children in
the clearing, just far away enough not to overhear even through the quietness
of the night. She deliberately pretended that she was ignoring the other two
teens, but her face was one of apprehension. In front of the girl,
uncomfortably nested between scorched trees, was a skeletal horse, chained to a
black unearthly carriage.
White gave herself a few minutes to examine the situation. She could kill the
girl, of course, but to what end? To steal the black hearse? That she might do.
If the vehicle belonged to the demon, then it was a way for her out of this
forsaken place. And, she reminded herself, into an even more forsaken one. No,
that would not do, not unless she was sure she could direct the carriage
somewhere other than the underworld. She was bound to end there eventually
anyways, and was in no hurry to make that trip.
Then, perhaps, it was better to learn more of the situation first. She drew her
fangs back. Her face human again, and not just human. Snow White had once been
called the fairest in all the land. Now, in what was left of her rebel princess
attire, she figured she would look like a pretty rad punk girl. No way to tell
for sure, of course, not without a reflection. She hadn't had one of those for
a pretty long while.
"Oh, sweet ride!" spoke White excitedly as she made her way out of the trees in
front of Janna. Her raised voice carefully measured to be just below the nearby
demon's threshold of awareness, even if the mewman child shouts were to
suddenly stop.
"Ah, it's alright, I suppose," the human girl shrugged. She seemed to
inconspicuously move an arm to the inside of her cloak. Looking for a weapon?
White thought it unimportant. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"Princess Lumi," she responded without hesitation. It was a name she had used
before. "I guess you have heard of St. O's, right? Used to be super lame, now
is a total party school. Which, I guess is a different kind of lame..."
"Right," Janna agreed. "Tell me about it. So you are like, a troublemaker
princess?"
"Eh," White gave a non-committal shrug. "I guess. I mean, clearly you get into
some trouble yourself," she observed, pointing at the carriage, "not that you
seem to mind. Are you the demon's... servant?"
White's mask was intended to look like a far more naive girl than she herself,
trying to appear to be shrewd and conspiratorial. The dark haired human smiled
in return, taking the role of the more experienced one, exactly as White had
hoped. No better way to make someone vulnerable, than to trick them into
feeling strong.
"What makes you think it is not the other way around?" Janna asked.
'Well, for one, kid, that is clearly a demon prince. For another, I can see the
chain marks on your wrists,' thought White. But Lumi's face reflected only
surprise and what was intended to read as badly concealed admiration.
"Oh, are you a powerful witch, then? You must be! Wow, that's actually pretty
cool," she spoke. The girl seemed like the type to be amenable to flattery. "If
you are the one in control, then perhaps I could... no, I mean, we just met, it
is too much to ask. But could I maybe see the inside of, of that...?" White
pointed towards the infernal carriage.
"Sure," the foolish human conceded with a smile. That's when White noticed the
flickering purple light emanating from inside the velvet cloak. "And, after
that, why don't I give you a ride to Earth myself so that you can feast on the
blood of all my classmates? I mean, I'd consider it if it was only Brittney,
maybe even Sabrina..."
"What?" Lumi reacted with confusion and surprise to the human's words. She
paused as if to try and comprehend what the other girl was saying. Inwardly,
White used that requisite pause, that pretended hesitation, to attempt to
figure out how it was she had been found out. The game was clearly up, even if
it didn't hurt her to keep the charade a few more seconds. Was there anything
she had forgotten in her disguise? "You are joking, right? I mean, jeez, I know
I don't dress like a goody-two-shoes, but you seriously have been spending too
much time with demons if you think..."
"Oh, come on, that's just sad. Just drop the damn act," Janna interrupted her.
"Seriously, how naive do you think I am?! You are obviously that vampire bitch
Marco was talking about!"
Ah, it seemed White's reputation had preceded her for once. She supposed that
would explain her failed bluff. When Janna took her left hand out the cloak, a
small sphere of burning purple flames danced in her palm. She raised her right
as well, and half of the flames jumped to that hand. In an instant, both
spheres had grown again to the size of a large man's fist.
Princess Lumi's mask fell in an instant at that point, and White's features,
still human, turned sharp and cruel. She smirked. "Naive enough to oppose me
openly. Which makes you at best a clever fool!"
----
"Marco called you?" Star asked, looking at Tom. That didn't sound right, why
would Marco send Tom to her, of all people? Specially after what he knew from
her Princess Song. But, but, it meant that Marco cared, didn't it? That he
wanted to have someone look after her, even if he himself didn't want to see
her. Oh, well, he had always been a sweetheart, taking pity on the evil wretch
that was the wicked princess of Mewni...
"Star, he, and Jackie too, searched for you the entire afternoon, until it went
dark. Then they started to get truly worried, so they went back to Heinous
room, and they called me on the mirror," Tom said. "I am sorry, I would have
been here sooner, but I insisted on knowing the whole story before I set out to
find you. Then, when I heard how she had spoken to you, I wasted even more time
in saying things to that Jackie girl that I don't really believe, but which
made me feel much better. I recall a particularly good one about her having
sexual congress with a dolphin..."
The mewman chuckled. She felt almost surprised that she could still chuckle.
But the knowledge that her friends still cared about her was enough to lift her
spirits considerably. Wait, was laughing about something like that something an
evil princess would do?
"So, basically, they are angry, Star," Tom admitted. The princess felt her
heart sink back into despair for a moment. "But they don't hate you, and they
certainly don't think you are evil. Ask Marco if you can't take my word for it.
Just like this: 'Hey, Marco, do you think I am evil, or did I just fuck up?'"
Star thought about it for a moment. Yeah, she had fucked up, and she had
doubled down on her fuck ups by not telling either of them sooner. She put
herself in Jackie's shoes, and she knew she would have been hurt, and Jackie
was more sensitive about her privacy than Star was. But feeling hurt, and
feeling angry, and yelling at someone, didn't mean you considered them
irredeemably evil, or even that they were no longer your friends.
She thought about Marco, he had clearly been put on the spot there, between
both of his girlfriends. He had just lost his most priced possession, and had
just wanted to figure out a way home. He didn't hate her, not really. Star
could almost see him, calling out after her just a moment too late for her to
hear, then spending the entire day searching for her.
Both of them would be worried, maybe even feel guilty, and here she was
wallowing in self-pity rather than owning up to what she had done to hurt them.
Well, fuck up number three.
"I, I think I know the answer," Star dried her tears with one arm. "But I am
going to ask, just in case."
"Good," Tom remarked. "Now, Star, not asking for anything between us anymore,
not even forgiveness, but... do you truly think I am evil, or did I just fuck
up?"
"You fucked up, Tom," Star said after taking a moment to think it through. "But
I also fucked up that night. Tom, I don't want you to think there is any chance
of us getting back together, because, I am sorry, there isn't. But I do forgive
you, and I hope you forgive me, and if all that works for you, I would want us
to be friends."
"Can't imagine anything better," said the demon boy, with a broad smile.
"Friends?" asked Star, nervously, lifting a fist.
"Friends!" Tom fist-bumped her.
Wait, was she the last person in all dimensions to learn that gesture? Guess
that's one downside of growing up with a bestie with no fists to bump. Speaking
of which, "Oh, Tom, what about Ponyhead?"
"She was with them too," noted Tom. "And angrier at Jackie than even I was. Say
what you want about that pain in the butt, she is fiercely loyal."
"Yeah, she is," Star admitted, feeling a lot better now that she knew she had
not lost all her friends. If anything, she had perhaps regained one. There were
plenty of amends to make, but well, she could always bake the two humans
cookies when they all got back to Earth! Ok, maybe not cookies. Based on
previous experiences that was not a good idea. Wait! How where they going to
get back to Earth? The scissors still didn't work, the mirror didn't work. One
moment! "Hey, Tom, you said they called you from the mirror?! I thought it was
broken."
"No, it reached me just fine," said Tom with a quick shrug. "Maybe it is not
reaching Mewni for some reason? Either way, we can check, right now. My
carriage is just that way, and it got me here. It will probably take us to
Mewni too unless there is something else wrong, no scissors required."
----
"Those magics did not impress me eight hundred years ago, when I was young and
foolish. They certainly do not impress me now." the vampire princess scoffed at
Janna's purple blazes. "If you truly know who I am, you know you cannot hope to
defeat me."
The troublemaker felt her head burn in pain with the concentration required to
keep the magical fireballs under control, to guide the forces she had stolen
from her undead enemy, from her magical friend, and from her demonic lover. She
knew it was just a whiff from their power, in each case, so little that they
had not noticed her reaching for it. It was, Janna thought, amused, a bit like
taking five dollars out of Marco's wallet for lunch. As long as she did it only
occasionally, neither would realize anything was missing.
She had considered playing along a bit longer. Let the vampire princess believe
she had bought her pretense, maybe try to get some information out of her. But
there was little she could ask 'Lumi' where the response wouldn't be
predictably useless. She could have just made excuses not to show her the
inside of the carriage, to stall until Tom came back, but then she wouldn't
have a chance to ask the real White any questions. As soon as Star and Tom got
involved, the evil princess would almost certainly flee, otherwise she would
have gone to the clearing in the first place.
"But I don't have to beat you," Janna observed, trying to match Snow White's
smirk with an evil grin of her own. "I only need something to hold you at bay
for long enough for me to cry out for help. Then Tom and Star will come, and
kick your undead ass, Vladislava."
Even that was not a given, that she could hold her off long enough to cry for
help. She had heard, from Jackie, that the evil princess was fast, impossibly
fast. She also knew she had gone toe to toe with Star's magic, or at least with
some of her spells cast in advance. Janna knew her own magic wasn't even in the
same ballpark. Maybe her spells would cause the creature no harm and her throat
would be pierced by sharp white fangs before she could even yell for help.
There was a pretty big chance forcing White's hand had been a bad idea after
all, that she should shout now if she was ever going to. But, there was also
the issue that, well, she didn't want to cry out. Not if there was any other
option.
"Ah, but the question is, then: why haven't you cried out already?" White
observed, more amused than concerned. "I see. You don't dare interrupt him, not
while he is talking to her, not unless you absolutely must. So you are looking
for an alternative, a way to beat me that does not involve them, or a way to
bluff me into withdrawing. Am I right?"
Janna tried to keep her face straight. To not betray even a hint of how much
White's cold read had shaken her. But the dark princess was right. Janna
definitely didn't want to yell for Tom when he was with Star. Partly because
she cared about her friend, and they had agreed, earlier, that it was better if
Tom went to her to talk some sense into her without bringing up the fact that
Janna had spent a weekend in hell. There would always be time to tell her that
after she had calmed down. But there were other reasons, darker reasons.
First, Janna didn't want to seem needy, or like she cared if Tom was talking to
Star. Second, she thought of the possibility of Tom coming to help her, and, in
her grief and confusion, Star fleeing away. It had taken them long enough to
find her as it was. Not only would that be bad for Star, it would also make Tom
angry at her. The worst part was, Janna knew those weren't good enough reasons
to risk her life over them, but still, she found that she could not just yell
for help, not unless Snow White moved to attack. She didn't. Not with fangs, at
least.
"Pfft, I just don't want you to go running away like a coward when they come
here!" pointed out Janna. It was no longer really true. In any case, it was not
wise to say it, it put White on guard about Janna's intentions at best, and
might make her angry at worst. There was something making it hard for Janna to
think, to strategize; the strain of maintaining her spell, perhaps? or
something else?. No matter, keep talking, keep her distracted, that was the
only thing that mattered now. "How come you are a vampire? Do you automatically
turn evil when you become a vampire? Why is that not part of the legend? What
the hell is the deal with your green eyed freak of a friend?"
Instead of seeming mad, the dark princess shrugged and grinned back at Janna.
She seemed to regard her very intently. Undead eyes gazing deeply into human
ones as she sized her up. The troublemaker girl felt her body shiver with the
effort of keeping the purple flames alive. White moved neither closer nor
further away from her, seemingly unconcerned by the magical fireballs.
"I was born dark, a myth among the myths, but most of my kind are turned. Those
who are turned are still themselves, until hunger and age strip them of their
delusions of morality," she had counted to two with her fingers, as she
answered the first two questions. "And there are many tales told of me, all
true in part and false in part."
Three fingers up. A mocking smile.
"What about your friend?!"
"What about her?"
"Her riddles, how do you know what they mean?" risked Janna. It was too
important to be left unasked.
"No one does. She has the gift of prophecy. What she says will come to pass,
one way or another, and you can spend years pouring over every word for a way
to avoid it and still be caught in the net in the end." The vampire's smirk
told the human girl that White had spotted her own shock. The vampire was
smart, smart enough to know that Janna wouldn't have asked if there hadn't been
a prophecy and that she would not have reacted this way unless the prophecy was
bad. A pale hand raised a fourth and final finger. "So, I have answered four of
your questions, and I shall ask four of mine: this prophecy, the one that made
you ask, does it involve your demon master? Does it involve you? How about the
Mewman princess?"
"Yes, yes, and no" Janna lied. She had never been one for playing fair. She
estimated a higher than even chance that her counterpart had been honest in all
her answers, but that did not mean she had to be. White seemed to buy her
answer. But then again, she was known to be a good actress.
"You care for him, don't you?" the princess smiled and glanced at a place
behind Janna's back. Not being an utter fool, the troublemaker girl did not
turn around to follow that gaze. "The demon. Alright, my fourth question: Do
you love him?"
"That, would be saying too much," Janna attempted to brush off the question.
"No," White's face was clearly mocking her now. "I think that would be saying
just enough. Also, I believe you lied about at least one other answer. You love
him. He loves her. It is a story as old as tale, and it has quite a sad ending,
am I right?"
Well, Janna thought, at least she had managed to fool the monster, throw her
off the scent. Cass prophecy had nothing to do with any of that. And yet, a
voice in her head whispered that it was indeed probable that White's own words
would also turn prophetic nonetheless. It was certainly not a new fear for the
troublemaker girl.
"She doesn't love him, though," the human girl replied, unsure of what
compelled her to argue against the vampire, specially about something like
this. She should be throwing her fireballs at her, or crying for help, now that
she had gotten her answers. But she felt like she could not move a muscle. Her
mind was racing with thoughts of Tom, and what he felt for Star, and not for
her, never for her.
"Ah," White spoke, "but she is pretty, and you are not. She is royalty and you
are not. She is powerful and you are not. And so, even if he stays with you,
his heart will always be hers, whether she ever choses to claim it or not. The
instant she wishes, what you imagine to be yours, she can take to be hers..."
"I can take something of hers too!" shouted Janna back, feeling suddenly
irritated. Angry at White, angry at Star, angry at reality. She wasn't sure why
she had even said that, but she could... she could... well, pickpocket Star's
magic, if you could call it that. And Star would never know! Maybe that made up
for the fact that Tom was still obsessed with Star. Maybe that made them even.
"No, foolish child," White shook her head sadly. "You can't. At best..."
In an instant she was in front of her, having moved too fast to be seen. Her
hand choked Janna's windpipe, making it impossible for her to cry out. White
lowered her own face, her blood red lips, towards Janna's outreached hands, and
blew out her magic flames like birthday candles.
"... at best you can beg for crumbs," the vampire lifted her face and grinned
victoriously. Then, she drew a finger to her face. "Now, shush, you wouldn't
want to distract your love when he is with someone he cares about. Not over
something as unimportant as your life. Would you?"
Fangs sprouted out from inside Snow White's pretty lips, her eyes turning
bloodshot as well. She leaned downwards again, towards her neck. Janna tried to
cry out, to yell, but she couldn't even breathe. She felt the vampire's lips
against her flesh, and then...
White licked her neck and drew away again, chuckling softly. The creature of
the night shrugged, as if implying she wasn't worth drinking her blood, only
barely worth toying with. Well, Janna thought, that's something White and Tom
had in common.
Faster than shadow, and faster than wind, White let go of her neck and jumped
up, disappearing almost into thin air. Janna did not see where she went, and
she did not cry out either. She just collapsed against the tree, pale with
fright and feeling terrible about her lot in the world, for quite unrelated
reasons. In her heart of hearts, something dark began to fester.
----
It was only a few minutes later when the other two teens finally left the
clearing. Star looked slightly less disconsolate than before, Tom walked
besides her, looking around nervously for, for...
"Hey, Star," spoke a seemingly bored girl, leaning against a tree.
"Whoa, Janna Banana," spoke Star, clearing her face once more with the back of
her own dirty right arm. "What are you doing here?"
"I wonder that myself," Janna scoffed.
"Eh, sorry Star," Tom scratched the back of his head. "She was, ahem, at my
place, you know, when Marco called."
"Oh," mouthed Star. "Sorry about what? Anyways, cool to see you. I am sorry I
am such a mess right now, I... lets go find Marco, and... and Ponyhead, and
Jackie."
Janna seemed about to say something, but held back in the last minute. The
other children didn't notice.
From her hiding spot, already inside the demon prince's hearse-like coach,
White felt her unbeating heart sing a song of joyous malice. All was going
according to plan. The longer she waited, the less the human would be able to
say anything about her encounter with her. It was all part of the suggestion,
and it would take hold slowly but surely in her mind. Snow White had always had
a way with words, and the mesmerizing gaze of a strong vampire, and those were
often more wicked weapons than blades or fangs. The seeds of her revenge were
already planted, and now all she had to do was wait. As a bonus, she could now
hitch a ride, making her own escape by secretly following her enemies. A shadow
of victory, within the mid-day of her temporary defeat.
----
"Star!" Marco cried out as soon as he saw her emerge from the blood red doors
of the hearse. He ran to hug her, but someone cut in before him, tackling him
out of the way.
"B-fly!" shouted Ponyhead. "Sooo good to see you are alright! Don't ever ever
scare me like that again, gurrl!"
"Awwww, Ponyhead! Nothing to worry about," Star said hugging her older bestie,
then made a gesture to punch the air. "I can handle myself, remember?"
"Right," scoffed Tom, emerging right behind her. Star stuck her tongue at him.
"Hey, glad you found her, man," Marco nodded towards Tom. Then, turning towards
Star, "He didn't do anything stupid, right? We couldn't think of anyone else to
call, so..."
"Yeah, no, Marco, it was alright," Star replied. It still felt a bit awkward,
she had to admit. There was so much to say, so much to apologize for. But for
now she was just happy the boy was looking at her and talking to her. "Tom and
I, well, were are cool now. We are friends. I mean, we fisted each other and
all!"
Everyone's eyes went huge at that. Tom gulped. Ponyhead's mouth went slack.
Jackie, who had not yet said anything and stood a few steps back from the
group, with her hands behind her back, suddenly seemed to cough in surprise.
"Wait, I think she means they fist-bumped," Marco reasoned, "please tell me you
mean you two fist-bumped, Star!"
"Yeah, yeah, that..." Star shrugged.
It begun with Marco, nervously. Then Tom, who rolled his eyes. Then Ponyhead,
raucously. Then Jackie, who tried to conceal it, and Janna, bitterly. They all,
one by one began to chuckle. Star didn't yet get the joke, and she intuited it
was at her expense, but she felt relieved as everyone seemed to relax, even
just a little bit. Soon she had joined them in laughing too, even if she didn't
know why.
"I... Star, I am sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did..." Marco begun. Star
cut him off.
"Not now, Marco. You were right, we need to get home first, then we can talk
this all calmly," the mewman said, holding her hand up. "But, for the record, I
know I fucked up, and I know what I did was terrible and keeping it a secret
was also terrible. I know it will take more than one apology, but for what is
worth, I am sorry... I... you don't think I am evil because of it, right?"
"Of course not, Star!" Marco shook his head in disbelief, and Star smiled in
return.
It was then that Jackie walked up to her, and extended both arms towards the
princess. In her palms laid the Kingdom of Mewni's most sacred heirloom: Star's
royal magic wand. The human girl offered it to her without hesitation. Not
exactly the wise thing to do when you heard someone was well in her path to
become a dark queen, not unless you believed that was absolute hogwash. "Star,
what you did wasn't cool. But you are still cool, alright?"
Star took back the wand from the other girl, carefully. Then, trying to
remember the right Earth custom, or at least the right Jackie custom, she
asked, "So, are we cool?"
Jackie seemed to hesitate for a bit. "... I think we are going to be, Star.
Just, maybe give me more than a day to process all of this? I mean, this
weekend was pretty crazy, you know? But, well, most of it wasn't bad at all...
so thanks for that?"
Star smiled and Jackie smiled back.
"Ok, what are we waiting for?!" Star shouted. "Tom, if you'd be so kind, could
we go to Mewni first? If the scissors are not working there either, then we
might also need you to take some of us to Earth..."
"Sure, Star," Tom shrugged. "Will wait for you all there for a bit. No biggie."
----
Tom's hearse was surprisingly spacious on the inside; quite able to accommodate
the five teens for the brief inter-dimensional road trip. It wasn't nearly as
instantaneous a method of travel as dimensional scissors were, but it was still
impressively fast given the vast gulf between worlds. It was barely a half-hour
trip between St O's and Mewni, it would perhaps be twice as long to Earth.
Strangely enough, Marco and Tom passed the time together, playing video games.
Meanwhile, Janna, who had remained inside before, was keeping Jackie busy by
asking her, in through detail, about her fight with princess White, seemingly
both curious and impressed. Since Ponyhead had once again stayed behind in St.
O's, this left out Star once more. She could not join either group right now,
not without feeling at least a bit awkward.
That said, it wasn't so bad this time, not like in the forest. Sure, she was
left alone to think, but this time her thoughts were calmer. She thought back
to Cass and her prophecy: "Only surrender may undo the shadow, but the price
shall be too high to pay". That meant there was a price, though, right?
Something she could do or sacrifice to avoid the fate that the brunette girl
had predicted for her. To avoid going dark.
It was not something Star wanted to think about. Normally, the mewman avoided
thinking about all the things she didn't want to think about. Hell, right now
she was avoiding thinking about the conversation she still had to have, with
Jackie and Marco, when they got back to Earth. But, even then, it didn't feel
right to ignore Cass' words in that same way, no matter what Tom had said. If
her fate was to become evil, and there was a price, any price, that she could
pay to avoid it, then she needed to be ready to pay that price. Right? Whatever
it was, it couldn't be worth it, not if the alternative was Star becoming...
what? Eclipsa? Princess White? Someone Marco and Jackie could truly hate rather
than just excuse as a mess up of a princess? Star didn't know.
"Hey, Star," Marco's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Are you ok?"
Star saw then, that Tom and the human boy had finished her game. 'Tom: 58,
Marco: 0' read the screen. The demon prince had then made his way to where
Janna and Jackie were talking, and was now laughing with them, with an arm
draped around the troublemaker's shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, Marco," Star forced a smile. "I am fine, go have fun."
"Fun? Playing any game with Tom is only fun for one of us, Star," Marco
shrugged. "But, seriously, are you sure you are fine? If this is about the
spell backfiring, I... Star, it doesn't matter to me, not as much as seeing you
hurt over it. Just, maybe, can you not do that again, Star, please?"
"It is not just about that, Marco. It is about, you know, the 'evil incarnate'
bit," Star admitted. "And, well, I am not sure I can avoid doing it again,
either. I get the visions now, whether I want them or not... I'll try, you
know? Make an effort not to watch, but..."
"An effort is enough for me, Star. Although not so sure about Jackie," Marco
hesitated. "But Star, no matter what it is: Ludo, Toffee, gift card monsters,
vampire princesses, weird sex telepathy, or even destiny itself! I'll be there,
alright? We will face it together, whatever it is. Because I love you. Because
you are my best friend. But most of all, because I know you Star, and I know no
matter what it is, you can do it. Screw prophecy. Prophecy never has had to
contend with Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz!"
"Awwwwww, Marco!" Star smiled, and cried. They were tears of joy. She turned
back to hug the best bestie a bestie could have, and the best boyfriend a girl
could wish for. They stayed like that, hugging in silence, for what felt like
an eternity. Only stopping when Tom announced they had reached the Mewni royal
castle.
----
The demonic carriage appeared right in front of the castle bridge. A few
townsfolk ran away in fright, spooked by the sudden burst of flames and the
skeletal horse. The royal guards remained at their posts, however. They were
all disciplined enough, or accustomed enough to the weirdness of Mewni nobility
and their allies, not to be surprised when the demon prince carriage emerged
from the flames. Nor did they seem particularly confused when their princess,
Star Butterfly, emerged from the hearse herself, her friends following behind
her.
The first thing Star noticed, was the somber expression in those same guards'
faces. They nodded gravely at her as she emerged from the carriage. They
clicked their heels a bit more stiffly, a bit more formally, than they would
usually do in the presence of the princess. Then she saw the banners; all
black. Then she spotted the flag of House Butterfly, flying at half-mast over
the castle towers. Finally, she saw her father.
King River Butterfly of Mewni, born River Johansen, seemed to have aged ten
years in the two days his daughter had been gone. Some measure of happiness and
a huge wave of relief washed over his face the moment he laid eyes on Star.
Even then, that did not hide the immense sorrow underneath. He came running
through the bridge as fast as she had ever seen him run, even when he was much
younger. His eyes were still bloodshot red, worse than her own had been earlier
that night. He looked pale, sick.
He hugged his daughter tightly, and Star let herself be hugged, limply.
Normally, she would have been so happy to see her dad, and so eager to hug him
in return. But her mind had taken in all the signs, even as she refused to
process them. She had read it all in his expression, even as she wished she was
wrong, as she told herself she had to be wrong. That there was no way, no way
at all.
It occurred then to Star that there was indeed a price that would have been too
high to pay for the goodness of her heart, or for her own life. It occurred to
her that such price might have already been paid, and that nothing that had
been gained, nothing that could be gained, in exchange, would ever come close
to being worth such a price.
River Butterfly let go of her daughter, and looked her in the eyes, as the
horror Star felt seemed to reflect into the usually carefree blue orbs of her
father.
"Dad, where is mommy?"
----
*** END of Part II ***
Chapter End Notes
     * Coming up next: *
     Part III: Going Through Hell
     Chapter 19: Long Live the Queen.
***** [P3] Long Live the Queen *****
Chapter Summary
     In which a wake is held, Marco casts a spell, Star delivers a truly
     heartfelt speech, and our heroes get not one but two messages from
     those thought forgotten.
Chapter Notes
     Chapters from 19 onwards can contain indirect post-Battle For Mewni
     Season 3 spoilers. This one was actually fully written before
     watching Nightlife, Deep Dive or Monster Bash (all of which came out
     today as of this writing).
      
     [https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/19.png]
See the end of the chapter for more notes
****** Part III: Going Through Hell ******
***** Chapter 19: Long Live the Queen *****
Jackie traced her fingers softly along the contours of the boy's chest. It had
been over a week now since they last had been alone like this. Her heart
thumped with excitement, as much the fiftieth time as it had the first. For
someone who could pull a pink dress better than her, Marco was downright manly.
Lean, sure, but also well toned, muscles trained over years of karate practice
and months of monster fighting. She whistled appreciatively and leaned in to
kiss the boy's soft lips.
Their tongues sought each other hungrily, as Jackie felt herself melt out of
reality for a second. She could feel his hands reaching behind and down to cup
her ass. The room around them, Marco's room, seemed to vanish, and soon it was
only the two of them, floating in empty space. It was not unlike that one time
in between the aerial silk ribbons.
She broke the kiss, then began tracing a trail of smaller kisses, tiny pecks on
the skin as she moved down his neck, his chest, his abs. When she got down to
the waist she looked up towards him, and gave Marco her most mischievous smile,
as her hands began to undo the buttons of his jeans.
"Wait, Jackie, I can't do this," Marco stopped her. His tone was regretful, but
his gaze firm. "Not today."
"Awww, Marco, having performance anxiety?" she joked. Jackie knew full well
that wasn't the issue, and Marco knew she knew. Still it didn't prevent her
from turning her frustration into a friendly jib at her boyfriend. "It happens
to a lot of guys, you know? Maybe you should just relax and wait a little bit?"
Marco groaned, "It is not that, Jackie, it's..."
"... Star," Jackie finished the sentence before he could. "Yeah, dude, I know."
It wasn't only that Star could be, would be, seeing them if they went any
further than that. Hell, for all they knew of that stupid spell, she had seen
what they had done just now too. Jackie herself had been hesitant to be alone
with her boyfriend for the last few days, precisely because she didn't know how
she felt about the fact that, well, that any time they got busy, Star would be
there, watching, whether she did that on purpose or not. But she knew that
wasn't what Marco meant. It was not that it didn't bother him too, but he was
even more worried about how the princess herself would feel.
"Tomorrow is the wake, Jackie," Marco reminded her, as if she needed to be
reminded. "It just doesn't seem right, for Star to see us, you know... not when
she is grieving."
"I don't see how that one is our fault, though, Marco," she scoffed bitterly.
It was petty of her to say it, but damn if it wasn't true.
"No, it isn't," agreed the boy. "But it is not about who is at fault. She told
me she literally can't prevent herself from watching at this point. I don't
want to put any more on her plate, not now."
Jackie nodded. Marco was a sweetheart, and he was right. The skateboarder girl
was still angry at Star, angry that she had been spying on them, angry that she
hadn't told them, angry that she had made things between her and Marco so
incredibly awkward. But in the end, that didn't matter compared to what their
mewman friend was going through right now.
"Right," Jackie mussed, as she began rearranging her hair. She really should
have thought about Star, should have stopped being angry at her. Her mom had
died, and instead of having the time to grieve and shout and be angry like a
normal teenager under those circumstances, Star Butterfly had to stay on Mewni
and organize her own mother's funeral. Not to mention, after that came the
coronation. The human girl remembered the Song Day celebration, what it meant
for Star to become queen. How much the other girl had wished that day never
came, and now that day was right around the corner, whether she wanted or not.
"Guess I am just awful."
"Oh, come on," lamented Marco. "Not you too. We are all under a lot of stress,
alright? It is messing all of us up."
"All of us?" quipped Jackie. "You seem to be dealing with it pretty well,
dude."
"I am not, Jackie," he replied. "I am finding it harder and harder to talk to
Star these days, even on the mirror. I miss having my best friend around and it
has only been a week. I feel guilty I didn't stay in Mewni with her, no matter
what she says. And, oh, yeah, I can't help but feel it is my fault that Queen
Moon died..."
"What?! Whoa, Diaz, how on Earth or Mewni is that last one your fault?" Jackie
stopped him and put a hand on his shoulder.
He paused for a moment before answering, "Well, if not for Princess Marco,
there wouldn't have been a princess revolution. Without that, no Princess
White. Without that, no Ponyhead dragging us to St. O's that night. Which means
we would have been in Mewni at the time, and Star would have been there when
her mom was attacked and she would have the wand and..."
"Dude," Jackie interrupted him again. "First of all, that is a remarkably long
chain of events in which many more people than you had a hand in. Second, if we
had been there, maybe Star herself would have been... for all you know, not
being there saved us, saved Star. Third, there is absolutely no chance you
could have predicted all that in advance! You can't blame yourself for not
anticipating something no one ever could."
"Yeah, Jackie, I know but, like I said, it is messing all of us up. Still,
thanks for saying it aloud, it helps to hear it from someone else," Marco
smiled. It soon turned into a frown. "But it is messing Star up the most,
though. I just wish I knew she was alright."
"Yeah, dude, me too."
----
"Moon Butterfly, Queen of Mewni, Honoris High-commissioner of Magic, Protector
of the Lands, Preserver of the Peace, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand, Moon the
Undaunted, The Lizard Vanquisher, my mother. A week ago she left us, and in her
place there is a hole in the firmament, and in the heart of every citizen of
Mewni, including my own. She was just, and wise, and kind, and fierce. She put
the kingdom's needs before her own, in times of plenty and in times of need.
She was our light in every cloudy day, and she would not sleep until the least
of her subjects was safe from harm," Star read to the empty cemetery, at night.
The statues of former queens of Mewni, as well as their kings and consorts,
were her only audience for this final rehearsal.
She paused to take a breath, and then continued, "She has left us, and none of
us can ever hope to fill her shoes. Least of all me. Nonetheless, I shall try
to be the best queen I can be in my mother stead. I am Star Butterfly, Princess
of Mewni, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand. I have spent the last year on Earth,
and many of you don't know me, and those who do might not have good reason to
trust my words. But I promise, with Solena, and Skywynne, and Celena, and
Solaria, and all former Queens of Mewni as my witnesses, that I will try to be
just and kind and wise as a ruler, and to... sniff... be half the queen my...
sniff... mother was."
She had written the words over days, and practiced them until she knew them by
heart, and yet every time she read them, she broke down crying. It was not her
usual infantile bawling, but a slow trickling of tears, accompanied by a sharp
pain in her heart like she had never experienced before; not when she lost her
wand, or when she lost Glossaryck, or when she lost her book of spells, not
even close.
Star was about to collapse on the ground to cry, amidst the marble tombs and
sculptures, atop the soft graveyard grass, when she heard a soft slow clapping
to her right. She turned around, to see Tom, in a somber black suit, walking
towards her.
"For what's it worth, Star, I think you'll do a much better job as queen than
I'll ever do as king," he remarked.
"Tom? What are you doing here?" the princess answered, surprised.
"Creeping, I guess, old habits..." he joked apologetically, and Star chuckled
despite herself. "But really, Star, I wanted to talk to you, to see how you
were doing and to, well, to offer my condolences. I don't think I can, or
should, be at the wake tomorrow, but I felt I had to say something. Only now, I
have no idea what to say."
"Tell me about it," replied Star.
She honestly wouldn't have minded Tom and his family attending her mom's
funeral tomorrow. They were, after all, friends of the family. But royal wakes
were open events in Mewni, which meant a large portion of the kingdom's
subjects would be in attendance. The fact that some monsters would be welcomed,
by special permission of Star, was already somewhat controversial. Inviting the
Lucitors too would be, how did her mom put it: bad optics. Star grimaced, not
even a queen yet and she had already had to start thinking like one, speaking
like one. It was suffocating.
"Tom," she spoke quietly, barely a whisper. "I have to ask: do you think you
could help me see my mom again, even for a moment? Is there any way? I already
tried on my own, everything but the Seeing Eye spell... I don't trust that one
now. Nothing I can do seems to work... I know you can bring the dead back, at
least partially, could you...?"
"Star..." Tom sounded uncomfortable, and sad beyond measure. He walked towards
her and shook his head, not quite regretfully. "Your mom is never going to be
down there, and I can't take you to the other place. For what is worth, I am
sure you'll see her again, though, when it is time."
"Unless I do end down there," Star mussed. She began walking towards the altar.
In a table, in front of the sacred symbols, was a crystal casket, built by
Rhombulus himself. Inside the casket was Moon, immobile, peaceful, as if
sleeping. Not for the first time, Star wished she had at least had the chance
to say sorry. For everything.
"You won't," Tom assured her.
"How can you be sure?" the mewman countered. "I have done some pretty bad
things already, to my friends. I was never a very good daughter, either. And
well, I have cast dark magic..."
"Star, your mom casted dark magic too, once," the demon prince reasoned. "That
doesn't make her a bad person. It is about intent, and the lines you
intentionally do or do not cross."
But Star was no longer listening, she had stopped listening the moment Tom
spoke about her mom, as if he knew her better than Star herself did. "My mom
casted dark magic?"
"Ah, well, I only heard about it back then from rumors, you know? I wasn't in
Mewni at the time or anything," he clarified. "But, well, how much do you know
about how your mom got that Lizard Vanquisher title?"
Right, Tom had been around back then. It was hard to imagine. The boy looked
her age, acted her age, and for all she knew might be the equivalent to her age
in demon years. But demons lived far longer than Mewmans, millennia instead of
decades. She wondered if that made her former relationship with the fiend like,
super icky. But, right now, she couldn't summon enough energy to care about
something like that.
"Not much," Star admitted. "I know she fought Toffee when she was young, and
maybe a whole monster army, but not much more than that."
Why had she never asked her mom about that? Why had Moon never told her? It was
silly to ask. Moon never talked about the days when she first became queen, and
Star never asked, because the topic was painful for both of them. It was then
that Star realized that her mom had lost grandma when she was not much older
than herself. She alone would have understood what Star was going through now,
and now Star would never be able to ask her, because she was gone.
"She defeated Toffee with a dark spell," Tom spoke.
"Yes, I guess I knew that: 'The immortal monster will long be haunted by the
darkest spell of Moon the Undaunted'," she quoted the tapestry's words.
"Except it was also a dark spell of Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness," Tom corrected
her. Then, he added with a shrug, "Not really sure if it was her darkest spell
too or not."
Star's mouth fell open with shock, and she couldn't think of anything to say.
Eclipsa's spell? From the book? She had read Eclipsa's chapter, and there
wasn't anything in there like that. But Tom proceeded to tell her the story,
the best he knew. And what a story it was!
Eclipsa was alive! And Star's mom had made a deal with her, a deal for a spell
that could kill Toffee in exchange for the dark queen's freedom. But the spell
had misfired, or maybe Moon had realized her potential mistake and purposefully
stayed her hand in the last moment. Either way, it had been sufficient to
disperse Toffee's army. And, not having killed him, the magical contract
remained unfulfilled. Eclipsa remained crystallized.
"Wow, Tom, I never knew..." Star grasped for something to say. Then, with a
smile, she settled on "...Thank you."
"No problem. I can see why your mom never told you, but you would have learned
this sooner or later, now that you are going to be... I mean, never mind, you
would have known soon," Tom corrected himself. "But my point is, using a dark
spell didn't make your mother dark, not when used for a good purpose."
"I don't think that's exactly what I did, though," reasoned Star, thinking back
to the night she casted the All-Seeing Eye. It had definitely not been for a
good purpose. Wasn't lust a cardinal sin, both on Earth and on Mewni?
"Right, Star. Let's just say that eternal damnation takes more than a prank
that accidentally went over the line," Tom shrugged. "Cold-blooded murder,
hurting the innocent in an obsessive quest for revenge, wanton acts of tyranny,
those are the kinds of things I see queens and kings go down there for. The
last Butterfly queen we got was Eris the Silent, who covered and approved of
the abuses of Mewni's cruelest guild for decades, and presided unmoved over the
most decadent and corrupt court your kingdom has ever seen. Even someone like
that is a borderline case."
"What about Eclipsa?" the princess asked.
"Star... Eclipsa is alive."
"Oh, Right."
----
Marco glided through the darkness, flying above the ocean of emerald flames.
Below him, the smoke rose from the ashes of the Afflicted Forest. Nachos, his
trusted dragon-cycle companion, was the only thing between him and a deadly
fall into the green inferno below. The last time he had been here, the air
itself had been infused with the deadliest of poisons. But the dark clouds
around him were completely inert, as if the fire had sterilized even the arcane
toxins of the place. The earth itself burned, as if made not of rock but dry
grass, down to the very foundations of the world.
"Hekapoo!" he cried, desperately. The squawking cries of a murder of five-eyed
crows was his only answer. The last time he had come here, it had been in
victory, his quest completed, his prize ready at hand. Now he felt just like
the crows, struggling just to keep afloat over the hell which welcomed him.
Marco lifted his right hand, keeping the left one on Nachos' horns, his
powerful muscular legs pressing against the equally strong dragon body. Sixteen
years older than even an hour ago, he was in the best shape of his entire life.
Neither as guild-master, nor as warrior, had he been so powerful. And yet,
compared to the devastation that surrounded him, he felt so very powerless.
Still, he carefully intoned twelve words of power, brought his knuckles to his
mouth, drew breath, and calmly exhaled into his clenched fist. It lit up with
golden light. He extended up a single finger, and all the power of the ritual
began flowing slowly towards its tip.
Magic always came from somewhere. It was a lesson that Marco had learned in
those long sixteen years away from home, a fact he would never have realized
while he only hung around Star, back on Earth or Mewni. People like Star, like
Hekapoo, like Tom, had vast pools of magic to draw from, wherever they went.
Most others drew power from those around them, or from the land itself.
There was a third source of magic, however, one favored by sages and by madmen,
and by the gods, when even they required help. It was the magic of barter, of
treaty, of compact. It was a bargain with just but uncompromising masters. The
ritual magics which Marco summoned now were one such trade: a spell to find
that which was missing. The cost was to lose what had been found, to forget
something one already knew, of equal value to that gained. The ancient powers
only rule was fairness, and their taste was one for irony.
Without knowing, or caring, which memory he might have given up in exchange, he
began tracing the word in the air with his finger. He began with the glyph for
'fire', one of the simplest and oldest in the ancient tongue of Riradesh. To
the left, he continued the line to draw the blade, another simple stroke,
continued into the slightly more involved glyph for 'construction'. Around the
two he traced a much more complicated pattern. It wasn't exactly void, or
universe; the literal translation would have perhaps been 'the empty place
between the many places'. The final component meant something akin to mastery,
and something akin to ownership, and it implied the feminine: 'she who knows
this thing so completely as to command it as its rightful mistress'.
Hekapoo's name, in her own script, shone bright and clear in white light, even
amidst the ebony smoke and the viridescent light from the burning land. It
flared for a second, and then it rolled onto itself, becoming a hollow ball of
brightness, flying through the darkened sky like a comet. Nachos flew behind,
in vertiginous pursuit.
The spell dragged Marco into the blackness that rose from below, to a world in
which he could see nothing but himself, and Nachos, and the magic shooting star
that would show the way. Eventually, the meteor crossed a wall of fire, not
green but bright red and golden. Marco, without hesitation, followed behind.
The flames did not burn him as he passed through.
He found himself in front of a tall dead spiked tree, the same he had visited
last time he had been here, now the last one standing in the entire Afflicted
Forest. Around the place was a bubble of red and gold fire, Hekapoo's fire. It
shrunk slowly, inch by inch. Calmly, as if in a trance, Marco dismounted and
walked into the sorceresses home.
"Was beginning to think you would not come in time," Hekapoo greeted him. She
sat calmly, on her knees, on the floor. The furniture inside the forge-home was
gone, in its place only a simple red carpet between round stone walls. Her
flame was not but a fading candle.
"You know I will always find you, H-poo," Marco spoke. He felt as if he were
reading lines from a script. Inside his mind another voice yelled at him that
none of this made sense, that it wasn't real. "Two hundred of you, across as
many dimensions. I always did find you. I always will."
"Aw, kid, you make me blush," she joked. Then she frowned, as if suddenly
reminded of something awful. "This one is going to be a little harder than last
time, I am afraid."
"I take it I haven't found you yet, then," Marco continued. "This is a dream.
It isn't real."
"It is a dream," Hekapoo agreed. "I wouldn't go as far as saying it is not
real. Maybe it looks like this, maybe it doesn't. But I am dying, most of me,
and with that, so does my world."
"How long?" asked the hero of a dozen different epics, Marco of Averx, and of
K'Ahleh, and of Zonst. Marco, of Earth, the real Marco, would have been sad,
and scared. In time, so would be the proud warrior as well. But now it was not
the time for grief, it was the time to act, to ask any question that could help
save the Forger of Scissors.
"This aspect of me will be dead by the time you wake up, perhaps for good," the
sorceress admitted. "Apparently, I entered into a bargain without intending to.
A ritual of sealing, you know? For a force greater than myself. The price is
that I must also be sealed. Because how the hell could it be anything else,
right?"
The ancient powers had a taste for irony. They could be called by men and by
gods, when either required help.
"Every echo I send out, allows it one of its own of... proportional magnitude.
I could risk only two aspects, neither complete." continued Hekapoo. "I would
have not done even that much, if I knew I could keep this evil contained. But
there are forces on top of forces here, pacts that must supersede other pacts,
and a dark destiny written in the heavens that I cannot fully avert. Wow, that
got a bit dramatic there, didn't it?" she smiled, bitterly.
"The prophecy, right?" Marco asked. Hekapoo only shrugged.
"If there is one, I did not hear it this time," she replied. "And don't bother
telling me. I'll be erased soon enough, already said most of what I had to say.
Honestly, we are wasting time now. I guess, mostly, I am trying to stall. Lame,
isn't it? After living this long, still afraid to die..."
"I'd trade mine for yours, Hekapoo, if the ancient powers didn't know that for
a poor exchange," older Marco spoke, truthfully. The sorceress laughed in
return.
"If that could be done, I would have already traded my life for someone else,
kid," she confessed. "But I wouldn't do it for you, and you shouldn't do it for
me. There is one you might one day soon have to die for, you know? Save your
bargain for her."
Marco raised an eyebrow. "You said you sent out two aspects of yourself?"
"Yes, one to find you, and one to be found," Hekapoo intoned. "One to explain,
the other to reveal a worthy ally. Look for me to find yourself, and when we
next shall meet, our roles shall have reversed."
"Is the riddle necessary, H-poo?" Marco asked.
"Believe it or not, Marco, it sort of is," she replied. Right, that was ritual
magic for you after all, rules over rules over more rules. "I know, right? Lame
times dek!"
They both smiled at that.
The bubble of flames crossed the walls of the place then, and all around them
the stone walls became occluded by a bright conflagration, in which red and
green fire danced together. Under different circumstances, it would have been
almost pretty.
"Why me? Why not Star?" Marco asked, and he knew it would be his last question
for her.
"Because what I have shown you is most useful to you. Because I wanted to see
you," Hekapoo smiled. "And because I could not have faced Star. Not after
Moon... You know Marco? Star's mom and I? We were close. You have no idea how
much. No one was to know. But I don't suppose that even matters now. I lo..."
Marco woke up in Jackie's arms, crying.
----
It was the hour before sunset and, unlike the night before, the Mewni royal
cemetery was packed with people. It was a beautiful place, despite its grim
significance: gardens of many-colored flowers and the most vibrant greens,
sprinkled with the busts of nobles and the full body statues of former queens
atop their lavish crypts. Each sculpture a work of art, and each reflecting the
personality of their represented monarch and the artistic style of her times.
From the angular fierceness of Solaria's warring form, to the delicate dancing
effigy of Solena, to the ominous empty black pedestal representing dark queen
Eclipsa.
Today everyone was here early, the high and the low alike, all wishing to pay
tribute and say their goodbyes to one of the most beloved monarchs this land
had ever had. And to hear, with perhaps some measure of apprehension, the words
of their next queen: Star Butterfly, the Yet-Untitled. A girl with tears made
of honey and a heart full of bunnies, but also known for her tempestuousness
and a penchant for wreaking havoc on par with a natural disaster. A wild card
in terms of the future of Mewni, and one mired in rumors which cast shadows
over the continuation of the royal line of succession.
Star herself hung back at first, inside the royal marquee, decorated in
cerulean blue but flying the black banners of mourning. King River was with
her. They waited for the crowds to finish arriving, before it was Star's turn
to address her people. When it came to this sort of thing, Mewni tradition did
not call for the king to speak. The king's power was at most symbolic, while
the queen wielded the wand. They needed reassurance not from River, but from
Star, their true future ruler. The only one who needed reassurance from King
River, was the princess herself.
"It is time, Sweetheart. You can do this. Moon Pie would be so proud," he
spoke, a tear in his eye.
"Thanks, daddy," she replied, hugging him lightly.
Star walked out of the royal tent, chin held high, face composed. It felt like
she was barely even there, acting in automatic, a puppet mimicry of what her
mother would have done, while the real Star curled in inside her head. Her
black dress was the perfect balance of royal elegance and appropriate
somberness, as the occasion demanded. Her nods and tone controlled and
reassuring, while showing just enough of her sorrow to fit the occasion.
"I am sorry. I miss her too. Hekapoo as well! I should have been there, to
fight! Who is going to be there now... to... to put me on timeout? To look over
us?"
"Bhaaaaaaaaa!"
"Thanks, Rhombulus, Lekmet. We will make it through, don't worry. It is what my
mother would have wanted us to do."
The words as empty as Star felt. Her eyes scanning the crowd, projecting self-
confidence, seeing nothing.
"I know your mom didn't like us much, she had reasons. Yet she was never cruel.
For what is worth, Star, am sorry. Is tragedy."
"Thank you, Yvgeny."
"Call Buff Frog."
She kept sleepwalking. A foot in front of the other. Knowing that if she
stopped she would fall down and not be able to stand anymore.
"Princess Star, I have composed an aria of lamentation for the fate of Queen
Moon. It would be an honor if you could deign to hear it."
"Perhaps later, Ruberiot. Thank you."
Not even anger. Beyond sadness. Just nothingness.
"Star, thanks for inviting us, I am so sorry. If there is anything we can
do..."
"Thanks, Jackie."
"Star..."
He ran to hug her. The guards flinched, but let him through. Like her, he had
no words.
"Thank you, Marco. I... I need to keep going."
"Yes, I know."
He let go.
----
She stood in a wooden podium. Behind her was the altar, and her mother's
casket. In front of her, forming an ocean of black and brown robes, crested by
waves of sullen faces, was the entire kingdom of Mewni. Along with them were:
the two remaining members of the high commission, Yvgeny Bulgolyubov and his
family, the two humans from Earth, Kelly and Tad, and many more people Star
recognized. Somewhere around, unseen, might have been Thomas Lucitor, prince of
hell, perhaps Janna too. Janna could have come openly, but she had declined
without explanation.
"Moon Butterfly, Queen of Mewni, Honoris High-commissioner of Magic, Protector
of the Lands, Preserver of the Peace, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand, Moon the
Undaunted, The Lizard Vanquisher, my mother. A week ago she left us, and in her
place there is a hole in the firmament, and in the heart of every citizen of
Mewni, including my own. She was just, and wise, and kind, and fierce. She put
the kingdom's needs before her own, in times of plenty and in times of need.
She was our light in every cloudy day, and she would not sleep until the least
of her subjects was safe from harm..." Hollow words. They meant nothing. They
were all true, but they still meant nothing. "She has left us, and none of us
can ever hope to fill her shoes. Least of all me."
It happened then, at that exact moment. Something inside the Star-marionette
broke, and the real Star came out. She rose from the depths of her mind with
fury and determination, breaking through the resignation and despair. Turning
sadness into defiant anger. Crying her resistance to the heavens. Externally,
Star did not move, but everyone still felt it when her look turned from one of
glazed out emptiness, to a glare made of steel. Her voice boomed with power.
"So, I am not going to," she continued, going off script. "Not yet, anyways.
Not while my mother remains to be avenged. While the creature that took her
from us yet lives. I will seek that evil out, whatever and wherever it is, and
I will end it!"
Star voice roared, her eyes flaming coals that would have frightened Tom
himself. The crowds murmured, some in fervent approval, some in abject terror.
"I will not take the crown, not until I have found this abomination and repaid
its cruelty a thousandfold! This I promise, with all former Queens of Mewni as
my witnesses: with Solena, and Skywynne, and Celena, and Solaria... and Eclipsa
as well!" she yelled, her hands grasping the podium so hard that it broke and
splintered.
A quiet tremor moved along the assembled people at the mention of the Queen of
Darkness' name.
"Until then," Star continued. "You shall have my father, River Johansen, River
Butterfly, as your rightful king and regent. And you shall obey him like you
would any Queen of Mewni. When I return, I will try my best to be a wise, and
kind, and good queen. But not until I have fulfilled my promise.
I have mourned my mom, privately for days, and now here, among all of you." She
let go of the wooden podium and searched inside her dark formal dress. She
extended her right hand in front of herself, the royal magic wand, the symbol
of her power, literal and figurative, glowing dark green, pointed at the sky in
defiance. "But I am done mourning her, now I am going to avenge her!"
"Yes! That's my girl!" shouted Rhombulus, even as everyone else fell silent
with shock and dread.
----
"Star, wait..." Marco ran behind her, even as the crowds parted to let her
pass, cowed by the princess' cold fury.
This wasn't right. Rhombulus was wrong, this wasn't Star. Not quite. Sure, she
might be impulsive and fierce and often far too ready to fight. But she wasn't
the kind to just pledge murder. He could see that she had terrified her
subjects. Even King River seemed disturbed. And, well, Marco was shocked too.
It wasn't that he didn't understand, it was that he understood only too well
what Star was thinking.
The moment she had raised her wand, the moment she had sworn herself to
vengeance, the boy couldn't help but hear the words of the girl named Cass. The
fragment of a prophecy that ended in Star's own death: 'Behold the dark queen
ascending...'.
"Marco, I'll speak to you before I leave, don't worry," she pointed out,
calmly, as he finally reached her. "Take good care of Jackie, ok? Sorry for
you-know-what."
Wait, before she left? Was Star planning to leave him and Jackie behind too? I
mean, sure, things had been a little bit tense between them this past few days,
but still, Marco had thought it was just a matter of some time, of letting Star
grieve and Jackie process her feelings. Even if Star did become queen, he
didn't even consider, didn't think that they would... well, not this soon.
For a second, he considered telling Star about his dream, about Hekapoo. If
there was a place to start the princess quest for revenge it was there. But,
well, Marco wasn't sure he should be helping Star, not with that. He made his
way past the confused guards and grabbed her left arm.
"Star, the prophecy," he finally said, quietly, so others wouldn't hear. His
eyes pleading for Star not to go down this path. She turned around, wand
leveled at him.
"Marco, I don't care," she replied, also a whisper. "Nothing has felt right
these days, nothing until now. I have to do this. If avenging my mom is wrong,
if it is the evil thing to do... then, well, call me a villainess."
She gritted the last part through her teeth, mindful of the potential audience
not too far from them. Marco sighed, and let her go. It is not as if he could
blame her.
The wake went on, and the funeral as well. In the absence of the princess, it
was an even gloomier affair than what it would have already been before. Marco
spent the night wondering, whether maybe Star was right, and he was wrong. What
would he do or not do, were something to happen to his own parents? Or to
Jackie? Or to Star?
----
"I summon the All-Seeing Eye," Star begun. As she said the words, she knew it
was a terrible idea, perhaps one of the very worst she had ever had. To do this
alone, in the middle of the Forest of Certain Death, after the ways in which
the spell had backfired the last time she tried it... it was madness! But the
spell was her only lead. It was the only way she could think of to find out
anything more about the flaming monstrosity that her father had seen murder her
mom.
She had seen Mewni, that last time she tried the spell. She had seen Omnitraxus
die, and Toffee, and Glossaryck, even if she hadn't seen who killed them. What
was the chance all those were not connected? How likely was it, really, that
those three and Moon were unrelated? Star wasn't sure how the pieces fit
together, she knew only that they did, somehow. Besides, even if the spell
backfire wasn't linked to whatever had happened back on Mewni, the Seeing Eye
itself was supposed to show her what she wished to see, if only she could get
it to work properly.
"To tear a hole into the sky..." she continued, bracing herself for madness.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," spoke a soft female voice behind her. The
tone was firm, yet casual. Not a threat. There was no surprise, nor fear, woven
into the words. It was a statement of fact. A friendly warning. "That's not a
spell you want to be casting in this state, believe me."
Star turned around to see a young girl, perhaps her own age. Her skin was very
pale, almost gray. Her purple eyeshadow matched her dress. Her flowing hair was
about as long as Star's own, but formed of green curls rather than straight
blond locks.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, dark magic, yada yada," Star countered. She wasn't sure if
she knew the stranger. She seemed, well, familiar somehow. She had met so many
people that day at her mom's wake, so many strangers offering condolences, both
heartfelt as well as insincere. "Look, it is just a scrying spell, and there is
something I need to find..."
"A scrying spell? Oh, dear," the strange girl exclaimed, taking a hand to her
mouth in surprise. Star had the weirdest feeling that she was missing
something. "Is that what you think that is?"
"Well, yeah," Star spoke. She felt annoyed at the stranger. How dare she
interrupt her now that she had decided to do everything in her power to find
her mom's killer? How dare she presume to know what Star's spells did? No one
ever knew how Star's magic worked! Even her mom would have known nothing about
this one. "It is an old spell, and a bit spooky. But I have done this before,
alright?"
"Yeah, so have I," the stranger mussed. Her tone slow, drifting in
contemplation, or recollection. "But I also didn't know better back then. I
wasn't really that much older than you, when I scribbled that one into the
book..."
"When you what?!" Star shouted in shock. She turned back to the stranger,
pointing her wand straight at her. The magical instrument glowed with deadly
power. It was then that the mewman princess noticed the spade marks in the
stranger's cheeks. "Wait a second! You are Eclipsa!"
"Well, yes," the girl shrugged. "I thought it was obvious, dear. By the way,
thanks for including me in that little speech of yours. It was very moving. It
is selfish of me, but it feels so nice after all the other things people are
saying about me these days..."
Star didn't move her wand one millimeter. For an instant she wondered if
perhaps she should be a tad bit more cautious about the names she swore stuff
on. Eclipsa was evil, and like, super dangerous. Wasn't she?
"Wait, but aren't you supposed to be like, you know... crystallized?" Star
whispered the last world, still struggling with the notion that she was talking
to her ninth great-grandmother, who looked her age, and was also perhaps the
greatest villain to ever have lived in Mewni.
"I was," her ancestor admitted, looking sad momentarily. "For a long while,
apparently. I only really got out recently. You see, your mom and I made a
deal..."
"... that you would be free as soon as Toffee died. And now Toffee is dead."
finished Star.
She noticed that this meant she had confirmation that the visions the All-
Seeing Eye spell had shown her last time corresponded to reality. All the more
reason she should cast it again, no matter the risk. Then, she thought of
something, and the brightness within the wand increased, turning a sickly shade
of green.
"Wait! How do I know it wasn't you? You have been free for days! Did you..."
she choked. "Did you kill my mother?!"
"Oh dear! Absolutely not!" Eclipsa exclaimed, looking genuinely shocked. "I
liked Moon. She was such a sweet kid. I mean, I know she was not fond of me,
but I would never hurt her..."
"How do I know you aren't lying?" pressed Star. Anger burned through her, ready
to be unleashed at the slightest sign that the woman before her was the one
responsible for her mom's death.
"Well, you don't," the Queen of Darkness reasoned, seemingly unconcerned about
the most powerful weapon in Mewni being pointed directly at her chest. "I mean,
if I had done it, I would certainly lie. Even if I were to tell you a spell to
make me tell the truth, why would you believe that is true either? I can tell
you I want the same thing you want, to see the creature that killed Moon gone.
But I suppose only you can decide whether you believe that or not. Maybe, well,
maybe I can show you. Perhaps I can be of assistance?"
"You mean helping me find the thing that killed my mom? To destroy it?" Star
replied, doubtfully. But she lowered her aim an inch, and the wand's glow
slowly faded away. This was bad, recruiting the evil queen as an ally. Then
again, wasn't that the same her mom had done?
"I am afraid not," Eclipsa answered regretfully. "I mean, I am sorry, I just
got out, you have no idea what that's like. I want a little while to just smell
the roses, eat the candy I didn't have all those years. I know it sounds
horrible. I am really sorry about Moon, really, I swear, by my own mother, and
my daughter, and all the queens before me or since. But I just got my freedom,
I don't want to dedicate it to vengeance..."
The princess' heart sank. Here she was, talking to the Queen of Darkness
herself, and it was Star whose heart seemed to be filled with hate, the one who
longed for revenge. She though for a second, about the scared faces of her
subjects, about what Marco had said. But then, she thought about the body; the
unmoving body in the glass casket, the cold flesh that had been her mom.
"What if I do want to do it? Vengance, I mean," she asked, her tone ice-cold.
"Could you help me still somehow? What about the spell you gave my mom?"
"Are you certain that's what you want?" replied Eclipsa surprised. "I can do
that. But that spell does require a magical contract. I am afraid that part is
sort of fundamental to the way it works."
The green-haired royal seemed to ponder the issue for a moment.
"Perhaps, well, if you truly are sure..." she trailed off an instant before
continuing, as if organizing her thoughts. "That speech you gave, what you said
before, that would work. You can promise to me you will find Moon's killer and
destroy it, before you become queen. That would be acceptable in exchange for
the spell, and is what you plan to do anyways. Isn't it?"
Star hesitated for a second. It was one thing to make that promise to her
subjects, in the heat of the moment. It was something that she could probably
still take back at this point. Her mother would have known the political cost
of doing that, she would have told her it was a bad image for the new queen to
be seen as going back on a promise as her first royal act. But it was at least
theoretically possible. This seemed a lot more permanent somehow.
"If you are not absolutely sure, though, you really shouldn't do it," Eclipsa
offered helpfully.
Star felt ashamed. She never even wanted to be queen! And, well, she had to
stand by her words either way. She had to avenge her mom, and she couldn't do
so if she had to assume all the responsibilities of Queen of Mewni at the same
time.
"I swear I will not be queen, until my mother has been avenged." Star extended
a hand. Then she smiled, "with Eclipsa as my witness."
The former queen chuckled in response. As she took Star's hand into her own, a
ribbon of darkness coiled around their outstretched arms, and the princess felt
a tingling sensation. Eclipsa leaned down and whispered the words of the spell
into her ear.
"So, will that really kill anything?" Star asked.
"Any creature, and anything living or undead, and most denizens of hell or
heaven," replied Eclipsa. "As long as you hit the heart. Or well, the closest
equivalent."
"Wow, that sounds really... powerful. I am kinda sad I don't have the rest of
your chapter," the princess admitted. "I lost the book, and I think, I am not
sure but I think, it is gone now, for good."
"Well, I lost the book once too," Eclipsa replied pensively. "When I... went
away, from Mewni. I sort of made one of my own after that: a few things I
remembered, a few things I found out after. Unfortunately, I was never diligent
enough at it to get even all of what was in my old chapter in there..."
"Yeah, tell me about it," echoed Star. Remembering her own experiences with
trying to keep her own notebook of spells after losing the book to Ludo.
Meanwhile, Eclipsa began rummaging through her dress.
"Here," she handed Star a small bundle of pages, sewed together with two black
covers made of what seemed to be something like fossilized rose petals. The
girl winked at Star. "I don't think I will need this anymore."
"Whoa, thanks!" Star replied, as she took the book carefully into her hands,
almost reverentially. She looked at it, thoughtfully, then back at Eclipsa. She
was definitely not what the princess had expected. "You know? You don't really
seem evil..."
"Well, thank you. Neither do you."
Chapter End Notes
     This is the first chapter of this fic which has elements from what I
     like to call the "Habit mythos". Meaning that some elements from the
     excellent fic: A_Habit_Hard_to_Break are considered fanon in this fic
     as well. I call it a mythos and not a universe or a fic-of-fic,
     because I am not aiming at full consistency here (for one, Marco did
     not come back from Hekapoo's dimension with PTSD in this fic). There
     is also no need to read Habit to understand this fic, I will explain
     the things I use from there as it becomes important to know them. You
     should still read Habit, because it is amazing.
     Special thanks to Grade_A_Sexual and Akeara4 (Habit's authors) for
     helping me understand the Habitverse and its rules, and thus break
     them in style.
     Another thing I want to clarify, is that while I am obviously using
     her Season 3 appearances to inform the character, the plan was always
     to have Eclipsa appear here and do pretty much what she just did.
     Don't believe me? Go back to the first comment under Chapter 17. The
     secret is #1 and the password is ancientevilunawoken
     Coming up next: Chapter 20: Paved with Good Intentions
***** Paved with Good Intentions *****
Chapter Summary
     In which we start getting a glimpse the road ahead, and many hard
     conversations take place.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
***** Chapter 20: Paved with Good Intentions *****
[https://ancient-spire-49002.herokuapp.com/20.png]"You know, Marco, when you
said you wanted to hang out today, this is not what I had in mind," Tom spoke,
irritated, as he guided the other boy lower and lower through the deepest
reaches of his corner of the underworld. He led through black decrepit
stairwells, through stone bridges over burning lava pools, through pitch-black
tunnels full of nameless horrors. By all rights he should hate the human, see
him as a rival, and dispose of him at the earliest opportunity. That was his
nature.
"What did you think I was going to ask you then, Tom?" Marco retorted, as he
nervously scuttled through the narrow downwards ledge, a bottomless abyss
extending ominously to his right. Well, not truly bottomless in the literal
sense, Tom knew. But the thing at the bottom would devour you before you
realized you had reached the ground, so it might as well be endless, really.
"Honestly, I thought you were here so I could destroy you at some other game. I
am still trying to beat my record, you know? Pulverize you sixty to zero, or
better, at something. Come on, I know we both can do it!" He laughed and gave
Marco a playful pat on the shoulder. The human yelped in terror as he lost his
balance, nearly falling to his demise. But Tom held him back with an
outstretched arm. Nature be dammed, he had grown to like the whelp. Not enough
to know what Star saw in him, but well, that was none of his business. "But
seriously, Marco, why do you want to see it?"
"Well, Tom, I don't know what you have heard about Star's speech, yesterday, at
her mom's wake..." Marco began. Tom smiled bitterly to himself.
"All of it, Marco," he replied with a shrug. "I was there too."
The look of confusion in the human boy's face was absolutely worth it. "Wait,
you were there? I didn't see you there. Star didn't see you there either, I
think."
"I know," Tom replied with a smug grin. 'Point, Tom', he thought to himself
with some satisfaction. Then his expression went far more serious for a moment.
"I didn't want to scare the locals too much. They know me, but that doesn't
mean they aren't afraid of demons showing up, specially at funerals. Given the
fright Star was putting them through, I didn't think it was a good idea for me
to make an appearance. Thanks for trying to stop her, by the way, not that I
expected it to work."
"Yeah, neither did I," Marco admitted.
"She just does whatever she wants," both of them intoned in unison and chuckled
nervously.
They fell into a short but uncomfortable silence, as they made their way
through a cave with teeth-like stalagmites, which might or might not have once
been something's real teeth. Marco was the first to speak. "Do you think she is
right? To seek vengeance for her mom, I mean."
Tom shrugged. He truly didn't know. His heart told him yes, while his mind, and
Brian, would have said no. It was a treacherous road Star was taking, almost
like the volcanic maw the two of them were now descending into. In the end,
though, it was her road to take or not take. Tom harbored no illusions that he
could influence Star's decision there. Maybe Marco could, but he doubted even
that.
There was an island inside a hellish caldera, reachable by a lead boat rowed by
faceless demons. On the island stood a tower, and there, down in its bottommost
basement, the room Marco had asked about.
"You know Star has one of those too, right? In upper Mewni," Tom pointed up. In
fact, Star's maps room was far easier to access than his. What was with demons
and placing all their important rooms in the deepest and most remote corners of
their domains? He would have to ask his mom someday. There were some things of
demon tradition that truly didn't make sense to him, even now.
"I don't want to tell Star about this, not until I know I am right," Marco
answered firmly. "If I am not, I don't want to give her false hope. And if I
am, well, I still don't know whether or not I should tell her..."
"Marco, you need to let Star make her own decisions here," Tom replied
solemnly. His words were met with a raised eyebrow and a quizzical stare on the
part of the boy. "Fine, call me a hypocrite! Doesn't mean I am wrong, Marco."
Marco nodded, "No, Tom, you are right. It is just... If she ends up hurting
herself, I don't think I could forgive myself."
"I won't forgive you, either," Tom said in a joking tone. It was no joke, and
he hoped the human knew that.
"Thanks," the boy replied, with an eye roll.
A long beat of silence as they started descending down the final flight of
ebony stairs.
"Marco, you know you are an infuriatingly lucky bastard, right?" Tom said. In
truth, he wasn't even thinking of the boy's human girlfriend, though well, that
too. He meant because of Star. That was luck enough for anyone. "Just want that
to be clear."
"I know, man, I know," he replied earnestly. Then, with a grin, "and you are
dating Janna... my condolences."
"Oh, come on, she is not as bad as you think," Tom retorted as he pushed the
heavy iron doors. He smirked at Marco. "She is way worse!"
The human boy's incipient laugher was cut short at the view of the Room of
Maps. It was indeed a sight to behold, Tom had to admit. The floor was crystal
glass, perfectly transparent and hard as diamond. Underneath, carved on black
volcanic stone was a perfect representation of the ten thousand domains of
hell: islands of ebony rock, each detailed to perfection, connected by narrow
bridges that would probably not fall to the lava below until the day of
judgment itself. The endless pool of magma, underneath it all, represented the
domain of The Morning Star, the core of hell, and it showed no known or fixed
features. The ceiling of the cavern reflected the light through a series of
golden inverted spires, only partly approximating the alien geometries of the
heavenly dimensions. In between those two, floated maps of every known world.
Parchment balloons and flying leaflets hung in mid air, magically suspended.
Each of them was a map of the dimension it represented in the larger
arrangement. If you were to look at the globes floating above the stretch of
volcanic stone that mirrored Tom's own domain within hell, for example, you
would find the disc-shaped map of Mewnie, right above the miniature of the
Lucitor palace. You would also find there a floating leaflet for the tiny
dimension hosting St Olga's, and a globe representing Earth. If you unrolled
the later just the right way, it would give you a map of the broader universe
of Marco's home dimension, with all its stars, planets, and galaxies, updating
in real time as their relative positions changed. Those were only a few of the
dozens of dimensions that floated above Tom's family lands, the ones to which
his carriage could travel unimpeded. Then again, even all those were only a
handful among the countless dimensions floating along the nearly infinite room.
"Well, Marco," he chided his companion, who was still staring dumbfounded at
the place. "Good luck finding anything in here. Let me know when you start
going mad!"
To his surprise, Marco just grinned. "Tom, did I ever tell you about the time I
spent sixteen years chasing Hekapoo to get a pair of scissors?"
"You did not," Tom replied. Sixteen years? Marco wasn't even fifteen years old!
Was that a joke? He tried not to have his own confusion show, but Marco's smug
look told the demon prince he had not succeeded in that. 'Point, Marco',
whatever!
"I was older back then," Marco shrugged. His tone of voice had changed: more
confident, more mature. Would almost have been hot, if Tom were into that. "I
learned a lot of things chasing H-poo. Magic of my own, I believe. Nothing like
Star, a few spells here and there, always with a price. But when I got back, I
slowly began to forget. I think I needed to forget. Would have been too damaged
otherwise. But I had a dream, two days ago. I dreamed of Hekapoo, and I think
she was really there, and when I woke up I still remembered a bit of who I was
during that dream, of my older self... I remembered a spell, a spell to find
things."
"So," Tom commented, still unsure whether he believed the other teen. "You are
going to use that spell to locate Moon's killer? To help Star take revenge?"
Marco shook his head. "No. The spell can only locate things I can name, in the
language of the spell itself. I remember about fifty words right now, from the
dream, twelve are part of the spell itself. Even if I was fully fluent in
Riradesh again, I don't think I would know the name of the thing King River
described."
"Then?" Tom asked, curious.
"I think it can find Hekapoo," Marco suggested.
"Marco, isn't Hekapoo..." Tom began. Hekapoo was dead, and Marco might be
already mad with grief; just as affected as Star was. Tom shuddered.
"I don't know. I don't think she is dead, or not completely dead," Marco said.
"If the spell works, if the dream was real, then she must be out there,
somehow."
"Ok," Tom reasoned. Nothing lost with trying. "Let's try this spell of yours
then."
"Well," Marco seemed nervous. "Remember when I said there was a price for every
spell I knew? This one's is bad. For everything found, I forget something of
the same kind, Tom. So to use it to find a person means forgetting someone. I
don't think I lost anything when casting it in a dream, but if this works...
What if it's Jackie? What if it's Star?"
Tom shuddered, understanding. So it was that kind of magic. The demon prince
was starting to believe, despite himself, that Marco wasn't entirely talking
out of his ass. It fit too much with what he knew of certain magics to be a
complete fabrication. Still, this was to help Star. Tom would have happily
traded turning Marco into a vegetable to help Star get what she wanted, and he
might even do the same to himself.
"Look at the bright side. It could be Janna," the demon prince joked. A pang in
his chest reminded him that he himself would never want to forget Janna, no
matter how annoying the girl was sometimes.
Marco chuckled. "If I forget you, do I also forget Naysaya?"
Then, with a look of determination suddenly taking over his face, Marco began
intoning a litany of twelve words in a language even Tom didn't recognize, and
he spoke over a thousand. Golden light steamed from the human boy's breath over
his closed fist, and he began drawing a complicated script in the air, one that
expanded from the center and towards all sides, without the single line of the
word ever being broken. The demon prince recognized a few glyphs, like fire,
which was similar to the equivalent in the ancient tongue of the lower planes.
The more complicated parts were unknown to him. Clearly Marco wasn't kidding
when he said he could cast magic. Better never tell Janna of this.
The script coiled into itself, became a sphere of brightness and... fizzled in
mid air. Marco looked puzzled at his hand.
"Well, that looked magic to me," Tom shrugged. "Maybe you got the name wrong?"
He hoped Marco wouldn't lose any memories for a miscast ritual, but he wasn't
sure.
"No, Tom," Marco replied. "The name is right: 'She who owns the blade of fire
that crosses the empty place between places; Hekapoo'. Maybe... maybe there is
not enough of her for the spell to recognize her," he clenched both fists and
looked down in despair.
"Well, Marco," Tom drew closer and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It was
a long shot anyways, right? Star will find another way."
"No. Wait!" Marco's eyes lit up again. "I know where to find Hekapoo, if she is
to be found anywhere, and she has to be, otherwise she would not have sent that
dream!"
Tom let go of Marco as he began the spell anew. The Lucitor prince wasn't sure
the dream was truly a vision now, even if the magic was real. How likely was it
that Marco had just gotten a normal dream that jogged back some old memories?
Or that whatever had sealed those memories inside him, possibly for his own
good, had died with Hekapoo? But he said nothing, and let Marco try again.
Once more the boy drew fire, and blade, and many more glyphs the demon did not
recognize. But then, around what he swore up and down was Hekapoo's name, he
drew the crown of thorns, the twelve pointed circle, Arus'Morgáth. Tom's eyes
went wide with surprise at the fact that the boy knew that symbol, "Marco, what
are you trying to write?"
"Just 'Hekapoo's dimension'," he replied absently, his concentration elsewhere,
going into the spell.
"That doesn't mean dimension, Marco," Tom clarified, unsure if the other boy
was listening. "I think you just wrote 'Hekapoo's domain'."
"Yeah, sure, that," replied Marco, missing the significance of the fact. As he
said that, the words in the air coiled around themselves and became a ball of
lightning. It began moving around the room. Tom and Marco followed. As they
moved, maps moved out of their way only to return to their places a second
after. Eventually, the sphere came to rest inside a cluster of maps: three
large parchment spheres and dozens of smaller strips. It divided into many
lights, illuminating the whole set of charts and globes.
"Tom?" Marco asked, without looking away from the constellation of maps. "Can
you take us here?"
Tom looked at the path below, the geography of hell that connected his own
domain with that of the Forger of Scissors. There was a path, many even, but
they all passed through the same place: the huge citadel in the middle of the
floor, all claw-like castles and needle-like spires. It was a place of
countless terrors, even to a prince of hell. He should have known. After all,
in hell, all roads led to Dis. To Sam's domain.
"It is not going to be easy, Marco. Not like going to St O's, or Earth, or
Mewni," Tom shuddered. "There is someone I need to ask for a favor. It will
cost me greatly, it might cost my family greatly too. And it will be dangerous,
for all of us."
"More dangerous than Star finding this same path and going on her own? Or that
any other thing she might try?" Marco asked, his features harder than the demon
had ever seen them before.
He had to admit the boy had a point. It was not like him saying no at this
point would stop Star from trying. Tom shuddered at the thought of the princess
trying to forge a way through Dis by force. Even having Marco keep quiet
wouldn't deter her from finding a way eventually. Maybe she would even try to
punch a hole into the fabric of the multiverse by force of will alone. Without
scissors, going through Dis, dealing with Sam, might in truth be the safest
path, even if it was anything but safe.
"No, probably not," he replied finally. He was also, to his annoyance,
beginning to understand what Star saw in the other boy. "Alright, Marco. I'll
do this, for Star. On one condition: you are all in, no hesitations, no divided
loyalties. We both do this for Star."
----
Marco had been thinking of Tom's final admonition for hours by the time he
reached Earth. He had asked the demon prince for one of his suit jackets, a bit
of hair gel, and to borrow his royal carriage for the rest of the day. It
turned out driving the hearse was easier than the boy had suspected, you needed
only to say where and the undead horse did the rest. Marco talked to the horse
for a while, as he sorted out his conflicted feelings. The skeleton was still
bitter that nobody had told it of its demise for years, Nonetheless, it did his
job without complaint. What it definitely wasn't, however, was any sort of
particularly insightful audience for the human's personal troubles.
As the vehicle materialized in front of Jackie's home, Marco looked at the
bouquet of roses in his hands, unnaturally red and with a light all of their
own, as if flame burned beneath the petals. Hell flowers. Tom had given him his
word that they were safe, but the Earth boy still had his doubts. This would be
hard enough without his gift trying to eat them before they could talk, or
burning his girlfriend's house down.
He walked out and rang the doorbell. Jackie opened up, looking amazing. She
looked at him up and down, and burst out laughing, "Hahaha Marco, you look
so... fancy?" She paused for a moment, looking behind him. "Sweet ride,
though!"
"Okay, okay," he conceded, taking off Tom's jacket and tousling his hair back
to normal. Jackie was right, this wasn't him. He just had wanted to make their
last date special. "Jackie Lynn Thomas. I am here to take you, on the ultimate
date!"
Jackie looked at him puzzled, then a little bit sadly. A flash in her eyes told
him she was reading more in his expression than what he wished to show. Jackie
always kept talking about them reading each other's mind, and Marco was often
half-convinced she could do that to him already. She took the bouquet and
motioned him over, "Marco, come on in."
Marco followed her sheepishly, and a bit disappointed. He had wanted to treat
Jackie today. It might be the last time he saw her for a while. She deserved
better, of course, so much better, but a great date was all he could give her
now. Maybe, if he survived, he would one day be able to make it up to her. Was
there an easy way to tell your girlfriend you had to go away, for months at
least, possibly forever, to cross the depths of hell with your other
girlfriend?
"What is this really about, Marco?" Jackie finally broke the silence, as she
put the roses in a vase. The water under them heated immediately to a soft
boil, and stayed there, bubbling slowly. "No offense, but with that face you
look less like you are asking me out, and more like you are on your way to a
funeral."
"Remember the dream I told you about?" Marco begun. He would have wanted to
give the two of them a few more hours together, before he had to explain. But
it was clear his heart wouldn't have been in it anyways. This was already too
painful for him, and in a minute he might cause the same pain to Jackie. That
idea felt even worse than his own misery. "I went to visit Tom. We found a
lead. I am telling Star."
"Are you sure you should be telling her?" Jackie asked pensively. "Marco, you
know she is in grief, right? Not thinking straight. This whole quest of revenge
thing could be the worst decision she makes in her life..."
"Yes, Jackie, I know," Marco admitted. "And no, I am not sure. But if I don't
help her, I think she will do it anyways. I want to be there, to protect her if
I can. If not, then at least to support her. And I want to help her honestly.
It would be one thing to tell her not to do it, another to withhold this
information from her."
"Yeah, because she has always been so forthcoming with the truth..." muttered
Jackie. She shook her head. "No, dude, you are right. Telling her is the right
thing, just promise me you will try to stop her from doing something really
stupid."
"I will," Marco swore. Then he looked into Jackie's eyes, sadly. "Which is why
I need to be going with her."
"Well, duh, of course," Jackie replied with a wave of her hand, completely
missing the point. Marco gulped.
"It is a long journey without the scissors. I don't know when, or if, we will
be back," he finally admitted. It hurt to speak, he felt tears welling inside
his eyes. "Jackie, I love you. But it wouldn't be fair for me to ask that you
wait until I return. I think... I think we should break up!"
They stared at each other in silence for a while, then he continued. There was
a lot he wanted to say, and yet nothing that could be nearly enough, "I love
you, like you have no idea! But, well, Star needs me now, and... you don't. If
I do come back, and you are free then, and still want to... maybe... no, lets
leave it at that for now. I am sorry."
Oh god, he felt like such an asshole. Jackie didn't deserve this. But he had to
be there for Star. Jackie was strong. She would do alright. And she was kind.
She would understand. Still, Marco felt oh so very small at that moment. Jackie
simply stared at him and blinked.
"Marco, I love you too, but sometimes you are kind of an idiot," she stated
calmly. It was like a slap to the face.
"I know," he agreed. He began walking back towards the door, shoulders hunched,
deflated.
"Not what I meant, Diaz!" Jackie shouted. "The reason you are an idiot, is
because it is obvious I am going with you two, dude!"
When Marco turned back, Jackie was smiling, and still shaking her head.
"Wait! Jackie, no, that's even worse, I definitely cannot ask you to..." he
began.
"You are not asking, Marco," she retorted. "And I am not asking you either.
Even if you do go ahead and break up with me right now, I am still going. Star
is still my friend too, despite that stupid voyeur spell, you know?"
"Jackie, no, this is going to be really dangerous!" yelled Marco. He couldn't
bear the idea of Jackie dying or getting hurt, and the hard truth was that it
was not an improbable outcome in the least. "I mean, the way Tom spoke of the
way there... we are going through the bowels of hell, literally! And, well, at
the end there is this... this thing that was able to overpower Hekapoo and
Star's mom. We could die. You... you could die."
"Shhh, Marco, it's ok," she said, walking towards him, placing a hand on his
shoulder, wiping a tear from his face. She flashed him what he had begun to
call her 'Prince Jack' grin. "I will protect you."
They kissed. Or Jackie kissed him. Marco was grateful, and guilty. He couldn't
help but think that he was still the one dragging Jackie into all of this,
putting her at risk. But on the other hand, he didn't know what he would do
without her support, without her strength. He could try to be there for Star
but, without Jackie, who would be there for him? He couldn't ask her to do
that, of course. But he was weak enough not to push her away, if she insisted.
"So, Marco, are we still together?" Jackie finally broke the kiss and asked
him. "Because, honestly, I would prefer that, if we ever do break up, is
because one of us no longer cares for the other, not because you are silly
enough to think I won't follow you into hell."
Tom was right, Marco thought, he was an infuriatingly lucky bastard.
"Jackie, I truly couldn't ask for a better girlfriend," Marco admitted and
nodded.
"No, you couldn't. Now, go deliver your other girlfriend the news, dude, before
she does something crazy...er. We can do your fancy date when we are all back,
I sort of need to pack now. How do you think is the weather in hell?" Jackie
laughed and pushed Marco out of the house. Then, turning serious for a moment,
she added, "By the way, if you don't come back for me, I'll ask Janna. I know
Tom is going after Star, and Janna practically lives with him now. And if you
make me go down that route, Marco, I am afraid I will have to kick your ass
when I do get there."
----
Tom marched back towards his room, his promise to Marco weighting heavy on his
mind. Sam was an old friend of the family, and he had a strange, sometimes
disturbing, fondness for Tom. But having Sam's friendship was like having a pet
viper; that it didn't bite you didn't mean the venom wasn't there, always at
the ready. Sam was ancient when Tom's oldest ancestors were young, and powerful
in a way that only the Astray One himself could top. If the other demon decided
to hurt Marco, or Janna, or Star, well, there was nothing Tom could do to stop
him.
"Shadow chains!" cried a familiar voice as the prince Lucitor entered his own
chambers. Black ribbons of living darkness coiled around his arms, tying them
behind his back. On his bed, naked underneath her open black silk robe, legs
crossed, Janna sat grinning. Strewn around her were half a dozen books. Ancient
tomes of power older than the Kingdom of Mewni itself.
"Where did you get those?" the demon inquired. He tugged at the arcane bindings
holding him. They were strong, much stronger than he expected from Janna. But
not nearly strong enough. His eyes lit red and he burned through the conjured
restraints with ease.
"Come on! You could have at least pretended those worked," Janna pouted. "It
took me hours to get that one to work!"
"You really are taking this seriously, aren't you?" Tom replied, somewhat
impressed. Even without much natural talent, the human girl practiced magic
with a diligence he had seldom ever seen in anyone. After the trip to St O's
she had, if anything, redoubled her efforts. "Still, Janna, you didn't answer.
Where are the books from?"
"Your family library, duh," she shrugged. It was not an apology.
Tom raised a hand and all tomes floated gently to a nearby bookcase. He was
beginning to learn it wasn't even worth it getting angry at Janna's antics, and
anyways he had more serious worries in his mind right now.
"Next time, Janna, ask," he scolded her, uselessly. "There are books there I
really wouldn't want to have you damage... and books that are more likely to
damage you instead." The flesh-eating ones were among the least dangerous in
that later category.
"Aw, someone looks sourer than usual!" the wannabe witch observed. "Heard Marco
was visiting. Jealous much?"
"No! ...maybe," Tom hesitated. "But anyways, that's not the point. There is a
call I have to make, it is a delicate one, something that could help Star..."
"It is always about Star, isn't it?" Janna grumbled.
"Janna, she lost her mom," Tom observed, glaring back at her. What was with
Janna and Star recently? The troublemaker girl had always resented Star on some
level, both for her magic and, if he was honest rather than humble, for what
she meant to him. But lately it was worse than ever. She bristled at every
mention of the mewman princess, and had even refused to attend Moon's wake. "I
thought she was your friend too!"
"A friend?" Janna raised an eyebrow. "Is that what she is to you Tom? Really?"
"Yes," he replied annoyed, a few sparks of fire dancing through his fingers.
"Yes, that is what she is to me. What I am trying to be to her, Janna. I am
trying to be the friend she needs now."
"Sure, sure," Janna nodded. "Not like you are trying to take advantage of her
grief to fuck her again, right?"
The demon prince's eyes glowed red at that comment. A strong wind filled the
room, coming out of nowhere. Tom's hair flew around him, his body rising into
the air as flames exploded below. A guttural voice replacing his usual boyish
tone. "NO. I am honestly trying to be a good person, and it hurts, and it is
hard, and it is driving me absolutely insane! But by Satan and Belial, I am
going to do the right thing this time! And I would appreciate that for once,
you didn't imply that I have to be the bad guy!"
Janna smirked, and got up from the bed. She let her black cloak hit the ground,
exposing her naked body. "Ah, but Tom, I like it when you are the bad guy. If
you are not going to be bad to Star, then how about being bad to me?"
Wait, was that what this was about? A come-on? Tom didn't have time for these
games. There was so much he needed to do, so much to arrange. Star needed him!
And, at the same time, he couldn't help but notice the moonlight allure of the
witch's pale naked body as she reflected the fires of hell. The playful spark
dancing in her eyes. The demon prince realized at that moment how, ahem,
frustrated he had been this past week, worrying about Star, burying down
feelings of his own that the mewman definitely shouldn't have to deal with.
That he managed to be a decent person didn't mean the feelings weren't there.
That it didn't hurt to be around his ex. Janna offered him an outlet.
"Fine!" he shouted. Honestly, he needed to unwind. If he called Sam in this
state, who knows what might happen.
Tom raised a hand and Janna's body began floating up towards him, like a
marionette pulled from strings. She delighted in her helplessness, a grin like
that of a mad woman. He moved his claw across the air, and a whip of fire
lashed at her from nowhere, hitting her arm, burning the skin. She moaned. She
fucking moaned of pleasure like if he had just given her the most sensual
caress. Janna was a freak. It was perhaps her best feature.
She lifted her own hand, and Tom felt himself being yanked towards her by some
unseen force. He could have resisted it, of course. He didn't.
His body smashed against Janna's and she wrapped her legs around him. The demon
prince controlled the flames, made them vanish before he seriously hurt the
human girl. No matter how fast she was improving, he didn't trust her to put up
her own defenses. She craved the pain a bit too much sometimes, it made even
Tom uneasy. But right now, as she began unbuttoning his coat and then his
shirt, the Lucitor boy could almost forget the burning signs of unhealthiness
in what they were doing.
He kissed her. Then, in an impulsive decision, he bit her lower lip and pulled
back. A metallic taste filled his mouth as he drew a single drop of blood. He
looked down into her eyes for signs of fear or distress. What he saw, was
hunger. A hunger echoing his own. Janna was the only person he knew, that
didn't recoil of Tom's darkest impulses, who didn't want him to suppress them.
She fetishized his darkest side; embraced it. It wasn't exactly healthy and it
wasn't exactly safe, but it felt good. It felt good to let go; and to be loved
for it.
She traced a line through his pants with her finger, a thin tendril of blue
flame burning away at the fabric. The demon's skin barely felt her weak spell,
but the clothes ripped and smoldered nonetheless. Soon they were embracing
naked in mid air. Tom dug his claws into her back. She whimpered
appreciatively. "Tom, damn it! Fuck me!"
He did. He plunged into her. Gently at first, but deep. She clamped her legs
around his waist and begun her own hip motions. Tom took the invitation for
what it was and began to thrust hard and fast. He could feel her heart beating
even through her howling in his ear. Lightning and fire danced across her skin
as she drank deep from his own demonic power. It was monstrously dangerous, but
the demon prince dared not interrupt her. It was not clear to him which
sensation was the most intense for the witch, the sex or the magic, or if there
was indeed a difference between the two.
They floated down towards his bed, all around them a rapid twister of red
flames and dark-blue bats made out of raw magical energy danced, following the
rhythm of their mating. Janna's eyes were blank. She was in trance, faded away
into a realm which words or reason would not reach, only raw sensation. Tom
forced himself to keep conscious, to reign himself in even as he wanted nothing
more than to let go. He grunted and gasped, but stayed afloat, thrusting into
her with wild but conscious hunger. He knew the girl below him was too fragile
for him to completely lose control. Yet he edged towards brutal abandon, and
towards his own climax.
Janna's body tensed as she arrived to her own orgasm. Her walls around Tom's
cock clenched violently, causing him to burst as well, emptying into her. The
troublemaker girl's hands stretched out towards the ceiling, and lightning
crackled all around the room, flowing out from the tips of each of her fingers.
They fell silent for a while, relaxing into each other's arms. Tom's muscles
had turned from the hardness of stone to the softness of wet earth. Janna
literally glowed, a soft reddish afterglow of the powers that had just flowed
through her.
"See, Tom? I told you this way was better than the books," she whispered,
softly.
"And I told you, it was like trying to be a lightning rod," Tom replied. Some
measure of worry in his voice. The girl was playing Russian roulette with
energies too destructive for her body to contain. And he kept allowing it,
because it helped him to let his own frustrations out, and because it
distracted him from Star. Did that mean he was still the bad guy then, after
all?
----
"I call the darkness unto me, from deepest depths of earth and sea, from
ancient evils unawoken, to break the one who can't be broken," intoned Star. It
was not even the words of the spell that terrified Marco as he approached the
princess, nor the dark clouds that seemed to gather around her as she spoke
them. It was the cold fury in his friend's eyes.
He had never seen Star so focused, so determined. Even when she had broken
Toffee's glass prison, seemingly so long ago, she didn't look nearly as
threatening. In front of her was a stone statue, crude in its shape and
features, but clearly representing a tall faceless female form with six arms.
"To blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to burning coal, to
summon forth the deathly power, to-see-my-hated-foe-devoured!"
A beam of inky purple darkness exploded out of Star's wand, as she stammered
the end of the spell as fast as she could. The crystal half-star turned pitch
black as the power its owner had summoned passed through it, venomous and
corrosive. The ray of death hit the center of the rough statue, right in the
middle of its torso. With a horrible rumble, the form cracked and exploded,
fragments of rock flying in every direction. Marco jumped to evade one such
projectile, while those headed for Star bounced away in mid air. Waves of
purple magic flashed all around the princess. They looked very much like the
golden waves of the magical armor that had protected Jackie in her duel with
Princess White.
Star closed her eyes and lifted her left hand from the wand. She made a fist in
mid air, and opened her eyes. They shone with blinding green light, a
brightness that extended to the heart marks on her cheeks as well. The next
moment, a new statue sprouted out from the ground itself, crude but fully
formed, right beside the one Star had just destroyed. Marco noticed then the
many piles of rubble around the courtyard where Star stood. It was obvious she
had been doing this for a while.
"Hey Star," Marco drew attention to himself, trying the best to sound casual.
Honestly, he felt more than a bit unnerved by what he had seen so far. Star
never took practicing magic this seriously before, and although her magics were
often violent, there was something different about these spells.
The way the princess turned her sight towards him - quick like a cobra, fixing
those incandescent green eyes on his own - did nothing to make the boy feel any
less disturbed. He had to remind himself that it was only Star, his best
friend, his girlfriend. She would never hurt him.
"Marco?" she blinked, and her eyes went back to their normal cerulean blue. Her
expression softened. She even smiled, as much as he had seen her smile since
they arrived back from St. O's at least, which was not much of a smile at all.
"What are you doing back on Mewni?
"No, that's not it," she muttered quietly, to no one in particular, glancing at
the empty space to her right. She frowned. Slowly, she turned back towards
Marco and lowered her wand. "Don't worry, I am not leaving yet. I said I'd see
you before then. Is not like I am going to forget that, Marco."
"Well, that's the thing, Star," the boy spoke, walking towards her, across the
pilled up debris covering her improvised training grounds. "I am going with
you. Or well, we are all going together. I have a lead on Hekapoo, I think she
is alive, or partly alive, and she can help us find the thing that... well...
the thing that..."
"Killed my mom?" Star finished the sentence, unflinching, a quizzical but
dispassionate look directed at Marco. It was frankly more unnerving than any
other reaction he could have expected. "You can say it. I do know she is dead,
you know?"
It was then that Marco noticed the blackened tendrils expanding out from Star's
hands, covering the entirety of her palms and stretching as far up as the
elbow. "Star, what happened to your arms?!"
"Oh, right, those," she shrugged. "Is just the spell, Marco. Just a minor side-
effect."
She inhaled and blinked. Her eyes shone green again. Slowly, the tendrils began
shifting and blurring, the darkened flesh seemingly vanishing into thin air.
Soon, the skin and her hands had recovered its rosy color. "See? Nothing to
worry about. So, you were saying, Hekapoo is alive? Are you sure?"
"Ah, well, that," Marco stammered, still off balance. "She appeared to me on a
dream and told me where to go, or at least gave me a clue. I know how that
sounds like, but I swear it is not just wishful thinking. It was really her!"
"Marco, I believe you," Star smiled. "I know she can visit you in dreams.
Wonder why you and Jackie don't consider her a creep too, but I suppose that
doesn't matter much now."
"Wait, what?" Marco looked at her best friend, both perturbed and confused.
Then he thought of a couple other dreams he'd had before involving Hekapoo. In
one of them, right before he started dating Star, he had dreamed of the mewman
girl too. Except now he wasn't entirely sure it had been a normal dream. He
even remembered seeing that scene again, briefly, back in St Olga's, through
the All-Seeing Eye spell. In the confusion of that horror show, and the fight
that followed, he had almost forgot. "Star, that night, when I dreamed... that
I was with you, and Hekapoo. That was real? You were there?!"
The mewman blushed slightly, but did not avert her gaze from Marco, nor did she
apologize. She simply nodded. "... yeah."
Marco had literally no response to that admission.
"So, where are we going?" Star eventually changed the subject. Marco finally
figured out what was creeping him out. It wasn't that Star seemed scary, or
angry, it was that she seemed muted somehow, distant, uncharacteristically
devoid of emotion. "And why is it that you are helping me, Marco? I thought you
didn't approve of revenge."
"Star, we are all going to hell!" he shouted, angrily, trying to elicit at
least some sort of reaction. She smiled lazily back at him, awaiting any
further explanation. Not that it was too surprising that she was unimpressed
about that, after all, given her ex. "Tom is arranging a way to get to
Hekapoo's old place as we speak, seems like our best bet so far. Apparently it
is a bit outside of where he can take us himself, though, so it might not be
that easy to get there."
"I see," Star muttered. "Is that all?"
"No, Star, that's not all!" Marco shouted, advancing towards her, trying to
grab her arm. For a second, he made contact with the hardened air, as a flash
of purple waves stood between his fingers and the princess' skin. She glanced
at him with detached curiosity. Eventually, she nodded and the barrier fell,
allowing him to grasp her. "Seriously Star, you are scaring me out of my skull
right now! I thought seeing you mad the other day was bad, but this is way
worse. You seem cold, your arm feels cold. Like, ice cold, seriously! No matter
what color you make it be. I know your mom just died, I know you are partly in
shock. So please, talk to me! If there is anything I can do, any way I can be
there for you..."
"Marco," Star stopped him, putting a finger to his lips. "That's why I don't
want you coming with me. I know you don't want to see this, I didn't want you
to see this. But it is what I need to do. To avenge my mom, and to be alright.
I will be back, I promise, from the thing I promised to do, and from all of
this as well. But right now, I need this, I need to master it, I need the
power. So many things I didn't learn before. So many tools I might need, that
my mom didn't have, that Hekapoo didn't have. All knowledge is good knowledge,
I think. I know how this looks, but I am not going to be the 'dark queen
ascending', Marco, I promise. I'll stop before that point."
Marco nodded sadly. Then he leaped to hug Star. She tensed for an instant, as
if ready to strike back at the contact, and then she let herself be embraced.
For a long time neither of them said anything, they just held one another amid
the ruins of so many consumed statues.
"Star, I am going with you, we are going with you," Marco finally spoke. "You
are right, I don't like seeing you like this. But I think I would like even
less to sit back on Earth while you do this, just wondering what is going on
with you. I'll be there to be your boyfriend, to be your best friend, Star, no
matter what. And if you do go dark, just know that you are taking me with you
as well. Jackie too, apparently. It is not what I would prefer, so please keep
that in mind, Star, but if you go dark, we are going dark together!"
The princess hugged him back. Her breath suddenly erratic. She was sobbing, and
yet she smiled.
Chapter End Notes
     This chapter and the next were originally going to be a single one
     but split due to length. It might be a bit more of a slow going than
     the past three in terms of "wham!" moments, but I think it was due
     time we checked up on everyone for a bit, before this all goes to
     hell, literally.
     Coming up next: Chapter 21: Sam, I Am (For real this time!)
***** Sam, I Am *****
Chapter Summary
     In which charades abound, a deal with the devil is struck, a vote is
     held, and a grand party is discussed.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
They had gotten barely an hour of rest after their literally electrifying fuck
session. Tom had insisted that they showered and dressed up before the call.
Somehow the demon prince had gotten hold of the dark green dress Janna wore to
their first date, and had demanded she put it on. On her head, he had placed
again the live spider broach. The fledgling witch magically petrified the
vermin this time, partly for her own safety, but mostly to show him that she
could. Tom himself wore an impeccable white suit, that the girl had come to
associate with those occasions in which he sought truly to impress.
Janna had thought about a lot of things as she bathed in the steaming hot
waters of Tom's shower. Fortunately, it wasn't lava, although it felt like it
might as well be. The demon prince's shower had essentially two settings: hot
and boiling. Then again, the human girl was almost used to it by now.
She had thought about their recent encounter, of course. About the pain, and
the pleasure, and the overwhelming sensation of power as she dug deep into
Tom's energies. 'Unlimited powaaah!' she thought with a chuckle, examining the
burned tips of her fingers. Was it really true that she got more power out of
banging Tom that she got by studying and practicing known spells? Or was it the
other way around? That the more proficient she got at her craft otherwise, the
more she could draw forth from the demon during their union? After all, they
had had sex before she started learning magic, and nothing like this had ever
happened back then.
She had thought about Star. About how the mewman princess irritated her so. She
couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with herself, with her own
instincts regarding Star. She was, after all, or used to be, her friend. But at
the same time, she couldn't control how much it irked her whenever Tom talked
about his ex. It always had bothered her somewhat. But it was so much worse
now, after that night back in St Olga's, after she had waited alone for Tom to
comfort the princess. Janna couldn't for the life of her say what was it that
made that night so significant. Was it that Star and Tom had gotten back to
being in good terms as friends? It didn't seem like a big enough deal. Yet,
somehow, it was. Alone in the woods, she had let her jealousy towards Star
blossom into bitter resentment, and now she couldn't shake it off, no matter
how much she tried.
Finally, she thought about this mystery person that made Tom so nervous. 'An
old friend of the family' is all the boy said about the other demon. But it was
obvious from his reactions that the demon prince was terrified of this guy, and
it wasn't clear why. The more nervous Tom got, the more eager Janna was to meet
this 'Sam'. And now, she was about to. She had asked and begged Tom to let her
be present. Finally, she had threatened to barge in either way. At that point,
he had relented, admonishing her to try to be silent unless asked to speak, to
be on her best behavior.
"Or as close to good behavior as it is possible in your case," had said the
boy, with a groan. It was so weird how similar him and Marco were sometimes,
not that either would welcome the comparison.
Tom Lucitor, prince of hell, knelt before his own mirror, and motioned Janna to
do the same. Puzzled, she acquiesced. Who the literal hell was this guy that
Tom felt the need to bow down to?
"Mirror," Tom took a deep breath, "call Sam."
"CALLING..."
A billowing wind, the crackle of distant thunder, and the mirror went dark. The
many flames of Tom's room faded out into nothingness all of a sudden. Their
only source of light was now the red glow of the cascade of molten magma that
served as the demon's decorative fountain. Black spots began appearing on the
mirror, until they covered its entire surface. When the glass had darkened in
its entirety, a swirling maelstrom of ghostly cerulean light began reflecting
upon the opal surface. A cacophony of cries and lamentations filled the air,
and underneath that, Janna thought she could hear a chorus of voices chanting
in an ancient tongue. As the pale teal currents became clearer and clearer, the
human girl was able to see that they were formed by a mass of phantasmal human
faces, all grimacing in agony.
The mirror zoomed in deeper into the haunted void, until it came to show a
naked young man. Most of his features, and his nude form, were hidden from her
sight by the mass of what had to be rivers upon rivers of human souls (Or were
they mewman? Something else entirely?). What bits of skin she could see where
white. Not white as in Caucasian. White like a marble statue, and beautiful in
exactly the same inhuman way. His hair was golden and shone with a brightness
that would have put the sun to shame. His eyes glowed with a blue light so
intense, it was literally impossible to meet his gaze.
"Who dares summon the final cold, the endless shadow, the sword aflame
inevitable?" boomed the unearthly creature's voice, words that echoed like huge
brass bells. He glanced at Janna, and she felt a presence so powerful, a well
of magic so deep, even through the mirror, that it made Tom's energies seem
like a roadside puddle by comparison. The blue eyes fixed themselves on the
Prince Lucitor and then... their blinding light went out. Two normal human eyes
replaced them, albeit still of an unusual azure intensity. "Tom? Tom Lucitor?!"
Sam snapped his fingers and the flames in Tom's room returned, the image inside
the mirror dissolved in a blink. A rather preppy college dorm room replaced the
sea of screaming faces. The boy sitting there on a messy twin bed was dressed
in simple brown khaki shorts and a pink polo shirt. His face was still
inhumanly beautiful and the tone of marble, but it now wore a very human smile.
"Tom! Long time no see, bro! You looking good! Hit the gym recently?"
"Eh, something like that," Tom blushed and ran a hand through the back of his
neck.
The blond boy looked at Janna, then back at the purple demon prince, clearly
drawing his own conclusions as to Tom's exercise routine. "Ah, I see. Niiice.
High five, brah!"
Incredibly, he actually held his palm up, on the other side of the mirror. The
boy waited then, stupidly, for the second part of a gesture that definitely
didn't work at a distance. Janna felt confused, just as much as she felt
disappointed.
"Sam, with all due respect, is this charade necessary?" Tom asked, timidly. A
piercing glare of fulminating blue light fixed upon the heir to the Lucitor
crown. It went away again as soon as it had come, and the other boy's eyes went
back to normal. Or perhaps, the blinding light was normal, and the human-
looking orbs an illusion.
"It is all a charade either way, Tom," Sam shrugged. "It is always a charade,
and then oblivion. Might as well be pleasant to my favorite Lucitor! Besides,
the whole 'sword aflame' bit gets old after the first few eons... Speaking of
which, what are you two doing on the floor?! Stand up, come on! We are all
friends!"
The boy kept motioning up with his hand until both Tom and the human girl had
gotten back on their feet.
He smiled at Janna, "Hey, I am Sam, Tom's old bud, nice to meet you!"
"Janna," she replied, still feeling off balance at the sudden shift in tone
from the boy. Damn, that was usually her job. Feeling like she had to at least
try to surprise the stranger, she added, "So are you the devil? Because that'd
be cool."
Tom glared at her. Sam laughed raucously.
"Oh man! The devil? THE? No way! A devil, sure. Or, well, something like that,"
he replied, making a dismissive gesture with his hand that was perhaps meant to
signal humbleness, but was way too obvious to be sincere. Or perhaps, it was
calculatedly insincere. "THE devil, though? Nah, J-Flame, I am not The Morning
Star..."
The apprentice witch felt herself relax just a bit. In a way, it was probably
good news that they weren't having a chat with Lucifer himself. Even if a part
of her had wished that had been the case.
"I mean, I know the guy. A truly inspiring bro. Really doesn't know when to
fold them, and takes it all way too seriously, but fuck me if he is not the
best motivational speaker I've ever known! He makes you want to follow him
into, well," he looked around and shrugged.
Janna once again felt unsteady. Just who the godforsaken here was this guy? He
sounded like an idiot half of the time. But it was obvious he was being an
idiot on purpose, and laughing at them all the way! And he spoke of the Dark
Prince of Hell the way Marco spoke of goddamn Justin Towers!
"But enough small talk," added Sam. He sighed. "Tom, I know you. You never call
unless you need something. So what is it this time, bro? What do I need to bail
you out on? Let's hear it."
"Sorry, Sam. I'd like to call you more often, of course, but, well, I just know
how busy you always are, didn't want to trouble you just to chat..." the demon
prince apologized. Even Janna knew that was a lame excuse. The boy in the polo
shirt actually rolled his eyes at it. Tom relented, realizing his attempts to
butter up the other demon were worse than pointless, "Ugh. Fine, fine. Sam, I
humbly request your permission to cross through the city of Dis, and through
the hells within your domain..."
"Tom, you are my bro! Your family and I go way back, like way-way back. You
don't even need to ask!" Sam replied effusively. "You are free to walk my
neighborhood any time you want, man. I wish you would come and visit me, but is
not like you have to do that either if you are not up for it, bro. Seriously,
no problem!"
"... and I would like to take some people with me." Tom added, tentatively.
Sam looked pensive for a moment, his smile gone. Then he looked at Janna, and
brightened up once again. "Your chick? Sure. For you, I can do that. Only the
one, right?"
"Four besides myself," the demon prince clarified. "I need your word that they
will get safe passage. All of them."
Sam whistled. Then he frowned. He seemed to mull it over, or at least made a
show of pretending to do so. "That doesn't sound much fun on my end, bro. How
about two out of four? You bring the four, I let you and two others out alive,
my choice! Sounds good?"
It was surreal to get a counter-offer like that from a guy dressed like
something out of an Ivy League admissions poster. Janna couldn't avoid being a
little bit freaked out, as she realized, from Tom's disturbed expression, that
the offer was probably a serious one.
"Sam, no, they all need to get through unharmed," Tom continued, only slightly
shaken. "This is sort of important. I wouldn't ask otherwise. Maybe there is
another way? Something I can offer? Another favor I can owe you?"
"Bro, you owe me way too many favors as it is," he lifted both his palms up.
"You are asking me to let four mortals through Dis, alive. It goes against
everything Dis is supposed to be about. Against everything I am supposed to be
about. It is like, my thing, bro! Sorry, can't do. No deal."
Sam paused for a moment. He and Tom exchanged glances, three eyes on two. But
it was obvious who had the final word, and by a wide margin.
"I can give you one other option," the alabaster devil finally spoke, with a
grin. She pointed at Janna. "How about this? The chick's soul upfront, you and
three mortals of your choice go through, no other conditions. Sweet, nah?"
Tom balked at that, looking truly horrified, which pleased the human girl more
than she let on. But before he could say anything, Janna interjected.
"My soul is not Tom's to give," she noted. "But I guess I could give you a good
deal on it, myself. Nothing upfront, though. The five of us go through, and you
still need to sweeten the deal for me personally. Then I pay up say, a century
from now? No time at all from your perspective, right? What do you say? Worth
chatting about?"
"Janna!" Tom yelled at her, his eyes glowing red. "I told you to be quiet!
That's not a deal you want to make."
"It is not a deal I would accept," Sam shrugged. "But I like your spunk, J-
Flame! Tell you what: Why don't the two of us have a chat, alone, without your
boyfriend running interference? I feel like we could reach an interesting
understanding. Something way more fun than her soul or a choice of two deaths."
"No way!" Tom shouted. "She has no idea what she is doing!"
"That's what he said!" Sam responded, laughing at his own joke. "But don't
worry, bro. I swear I won't seduce your chick. Not carnally, at least! I mean,
you know I don't swing that way!"
"Please, Sam, there must be something I can offer you instead!" Tom begged.
Sam looked at Tom, his eyes lingering up and down over the demon prince's body.
Eyes suddenly slitted, like those of a snake. He licked his lips. "No, Tom,
there isn't. Not even that." His tone carried a coldness now that belied
everything about the dumb jock he had been playing up to that point.
"I'll give you that, Sam... gladly," the Prince Lucitor continued. Janna wasn't
sure if they were talking about what she thought they were talking, but she let
her imagination run wild. "For safe passage for me and just one other!"
"The mewman princess, you mean? Don't you need the boy warrior too, at least,
to find your way once on the other side?" Sam retorted.
Wait, he knew about Star? And Marco? Janna was yanked out of her fantasy and
into the grips of shock. So the other boy knew exactly what this was all about,
from the beginning. He had been playing them the entire time, that much was
obvious even before this point. But only now was Janna beginning to realize to
what extent he was toying with them. How had he put it? 'It is always a
charade'.
"I am afraid that wouldn't work either, anyways. Although I did want you to at
least offer, Tom. Nice to know there is a price for that." The blond devil
shrugged. "No. I think I like my idea better, I'll negotiate with Miss Ordonia
here instead. For what it is worth, I'll give her my fairest deal."
"No! Forget it," Tom bellowed. "I won't allow that! By right of domain, she is
in my lands, under my protection, and..."
Sam smirked at that. It was as if he had just heard an old joke. "I am afraid,
it is not up to you... 'bro'."
That instant, the entire world around Janna went dark.
----
It was like something out of an old movie: the dim lit bar, the stench of
tobacco, the faceless patrons swinging around in the tiny dance floor. Janna
sat on a small circular table for two, and on the other side, Sam grinned at
her, dressed in a pinstripe suit and wearing a matching trilby hat. In the
background, out of literally nowhere, floated the tunes of Elvis Presley's
"Devil in Disguise". That, Janna thought, was a bit on the nose.
'Ok, Janna Ordonia, you are having a deal with the devil type situation; you
basically prepared your entire life for this moment, you got this,' she
reminded herself. Sam made a gesture with his hand and two sets of glasses
appeared in front of them, already filled.
"Old Fashioned?" he asked. "Seems appropriate. But of course, I can change
it..." He looked around. "All of it."
"Sorry, I am not drinking," replied Janna. That was a lesson from her first
date with Tom she would not soon forget.
"As you wish," shrugged the devil. "But tell me Janna, I am curious. How is ol'
Tommy Boy in the sack?"
Wait. What?! Janna had to hold herself from doing a double take again. It
wasn't just the question itself, it was the tone with which Sam had asked. He
wasn't mocking her, at least not blatantly. He wasn't just making strangely
personal small talk either. He seemed genuinely curious, conspiratorial even; a
twinkle of excitement in his eyes. That's not how she expected this
conversation to go at all. Was it perhaps a negotiating tactic? To keep her off
balance?
"What is it to you?" she retorted. Then, unable to contain her own curiosity,
"Do you actually like Tom? Men, in general?"
'Right, Janna, real smooth, ask the devil if he is gay, why don't you? There is
a brilliant negotiating tactic!' she reproached herself.
"Why yes, of course. I am what you might call..." he looked at his drink, took
a sip and shrugged again, "... old fashioned. Your kind only came around a bit
after my time, my dearest daughter of Eve."
Her kind? Daughter of Eve? Did he mean women? Like, in general? That had to be
some bullshit! Janna frowned. "So, that whole biblical stuff is for real, or
are you doing it for show?"
"Both," Sam smiled, clearly enjoying her confusion. He gestured all around
them, "It is all a show, after all. Props and actors in a comedy play with only
one possible punchline. But I do try to go for things that would be familiar to
you, and it is the truth that my kind predates that particular distinction."
Interesting as the implications of that admission might be, that wasn't getting
her anywhere. "Ok, so you like Tom, and you are annoyed at him for not calling
you more often, and that's why you want my soul or to kill two of his friends?"
When you put it like that, it was monumentally petty.
"Ah, miss Ordonia, I knew you were perceptive," Sam retorted, seemingly
delighted. "That's some of it. I do like making Tommy squirm, and he did snub
my latest party invitation. But I do also really loathe to let people through
Dis unscratched. It is terrible for my image, you see?"
His image? What image? This guy changed faces and tone like Brittney changed
clothes! Then it hit Janna. There was a third motive, one that was obvious
after you had seen all this performance, all the tricks and charades. 'It is
always a charade, and then oblivion'. Sam talked murder and soul bartering in
the same breath as sex, drinks and even polite pleasantries, and that was the
one part that wasn't an act. He genuinely didn't care. Didn't rank one of those
as more sacred or more foul than the others. At least, Janna hoped that was
true.
"I don't know if that's a lie, about your image, but that's not the real reason
either," Janna insisted. "You don't care about my soul, or about Tom sleeping
with you, or about the lives of my friends, and I don't think you care about
your reputation. You are doing all of this just to amuse yourself! Because you
are bored!"
Of course, from Janna's perspective, her soul or her life were expensive prices
to pay. So if she negotiated from her point of view only, she would have to pay
an astronomically high cost to offer Sam something equivalent. But if her
interlocutor was valuing them for entertainment, then all she had to do is to
offer something more entertaining, rather than something more valuable!
If she expected hers to be a piercing read, however, she was sorely
disappointed. Sam merely laughed and clapped his hands twice.
"Bingo! Now you are getting somewhere! Yes, I have more souls than I know what
to do with and, after you have killed a few trillion mortals, there is very
little variety in that business as well. And I'd bet you the apples of paradise
themselves that teasing Tom gives me more pleasure in the end than having him
be mine ever would," he chuckled. "What can I say, I am just trying to get a
little bit of fun back into an unbearably tedious and near-interminable
existence, just like you say. Some humor back into the dull play. 'Life's a
laugh and death's a joke' as you kids say."
Smiling at that confession, Janna sat silently, thinking carefully of what she
could offer that might amuse the ancient demon. Her interlocutor seemed not the
least bit impatient as she pondered her options.
"Fine," she spoke. "I have an idea. How about you invite all five of us to that
party you were talking about? I'll get Tom to go, for your teasing pleasure.
And how often you have living mortals there? It should amuse you more than
killing two more people would, I'd think, and your reputation should not be in
the line if we are there for your entertainment. The one condition is that we
get to cross to where we are going afterwards, and to return the same way, and
no harm shall come to any of us."
"But what if you guys abuse that last clause to spoil my party? Or, with all
due disrespect, Janna, to rob me blind?" Sam objected. He was completely calm.
At the same time, he hadn't needed an instant to think his objections. He had
spoken the moment she had finished her offer. Either he was an unbelievably
fast thinker, he could read her mind, or else this was the direction in which
the conversation was always supposed to go. Any of those was a possibility with
this guy, really. "If I offer you my blanket protection, I would be inviting
into my home people who I am powerless to defend against."
Janna was sure that much was a lie. Not harming them and being unable to stop
them were two different things. Another charade then? Either way, it was a cue
for her to sweeten the deal, or to address the concern, genuine or not, and see
where that led her.
"Then promise no harm shall come to any of us, as long as we don't try to harm
you, rob you or ruin your party," Janna amended. A conditional protection,
rather than a blanket one. If the demon had meant it only as a bartering prod,
then he would need to prod again.
"Now, that's an idea," the suited boy smirked at Janna in enthusiastic
agreement, and she knew then that the conversation was still following his
plan, not hers. "All five of you shall come to my party, this coming weekend.
You will stay the night before and the night after, three in total, and I shall
treat you all like my honored guests. No harm shall befall you while you are in
my domain, so long as you adhere to all rules of hospitality towards myself and
mine. Afterwards you will be allowed safe passage back through my lands, should
you truly need it. Deal?"
He extended his hand.
Janna left him waiting as she pondered the implications. It was not like it was
her idea, although it felt like it. It was not like she was in control,
although Sam had gotten out of his way to make her believe so. But in the end,
it was probably the fairest deal she was ever going to get from him. Despite
the feeling that she ought not to, Janna shook the devil's hand.
----
"Don't 'bro' me!" Tom yelled. "I said you are bargaining with me or not at all,
Sam!"
The boy in the mirror, wearing the pink polo shirt and khaki shorts, just
looked back amused. Janna looked down at her hands, and at the stack of four
black envelopes she was now holding. Tom looked at her with terrified surprise.
"Janna! What did you just do?! When?" Tom glared back at Sam accusingly. "You
stopped time! Messed with reality in my domain!"
"Ah, what's a little liberty like that between bros, Tom?" the other boy
chuckled. "Besides, I gave her my fairest deal, man, just like I said I would."
"Your fairest? Your fairest?! The plague is your fairest!!" the Prince Lucitor
unleashed, fire flowing all around them. Sam let him be, seeming rather
unimpressed.
"Actually, Tom," Janna interrupted. "I think we are all invited to the Frat
Party from Hell, and if we go and behave, then we all get to cross through."
"If?" Tom glared at Janna, eyes glowing red. "You made a deal with Sam that has
the word 'if' in it?!"
"Ahem," the blond boy in the mirror coughed. "I don't want to interrupt the
marital dispute, people. But I have stuff to get back too. People to deceive,
worlds to destroy. You know, the usual. See you all there this weekend. I
promise it'll be a blast! By the way, Janna, you are wrong; it won't be just a
rager, actually, but a masquerade ball! The details are on the invites. No
worries, the costumes are on me. Just, keep in mind that not wearing them, or
not playing along, would be real uncool."
'This too, is my sacred rule of hospitality, and you shall not dare violate it'
he might as well have said. Janna frowned. Tom was right. She was an idiot. She
had just agreed to a game for which she did not know the rules.
There was an explosion of blue flames on the other end, some of which flew out
into Tom's room through the mirror, and then the call dropped. Tom walked
towards his couch and sank in it, deflated.
"Well, I suppose that could have possibly gone even worse."
----
The five teens had chosen to meet at Marco's place. Jackie had skated there
from her own place. Star and Marco had taken Tom's carriage back from Mewni.
The demon prince himself had instead used the gargoyle-powered lift, and
brought Janna along. It was the best possible logistics without a working pair
of dimensional scissors, assuming they were all in. Hell, they probably where
all in now, no matter what, because of the stupid deal Janna had made, Marco
thought.
"Ok, let me see if I understand this," spoke the boy, exasperated. "We can
cross through the lands of this Sam person, but only if we spend three days at
his place, and go to his weird costume party. And if any of us is not on their
best behavior..."
He made a point of glaring at Janna, who was making a point of her own of
ignoring him in return. Instead, she appeared to busy herself playing with the
four black envelopes in her hands.
"... if any of us makes a faux pas, and we don't exactly know for sure what is
or isn't a faux pas, then he is free to kill us," the human boy continued. Tom
nodded in grim agreement. "That is, assuming he even respects the deal in the
first place!"
"He will, Marco," Tom assured him. "Sam is many things, but I have never known
him to break a promise. That sort of thing is a big no-no in the underworld,
actually. Misleading and lying is all fair game, but vow-breaking is, well,
almost unthinkable under these circumstances. The question is whether it is
even possible for us to keep our end of the bargain."
"I don't see why it wouldn't be," Jackie argued. "Don't break things, don't
steal, wear the costumes, play along. Sounds easy enough to me!"
Marco knew Jackie well enough to realize that she liked the idea of dressing up
in costume again. He knew better than anyone else that she had very much
enjoyed doing so in St O's. So, for her, the opportunity of disguising herself
again was a boon rather than an obstacle. He tried to meet her eyes for a
conspiratorial glance, but she was not looking his way.
The skateboarder girl had not said anything of the sort, but he could tell she
was not entirely thrilled with him after their last conversation. It was not
like they were fighting or anything. But obviously Jackie hadn't loved that he
tried to break up with her, even for ostensibly selfless reasons. Marco
realized he owed the girl an apology.
"Yeah, yeah, that's true," spoke Star absentmindedly, scratching her left arm.
She was lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling without looking at any of
them. It didn't sound like she was agreeing with Jackie, but rather responding
to someone else, someone only she could see. She sat up all of a sudden. "No,
Jackie, you are wrong. It will be hard to do. He would not have offered that
deal if it was going to be easy to comply for us. It is a game for him, after
all, and you don't make a game without a challenge."
"Well, Star," spoke Janna crossly. "He is bored, nothing wrong with that! It is
a better deal than any of the ones he was willing to offer Tom!"
"Right, right, bored," Star rolled her eyes. "Excellent excuse. Will remind it
the next time I feel like killing two out of five of your friends because I
want to be amused, Janna."
It was obviously sarcasm, but something in the tone Star said that still gave
Marco the chills. Janna glared at the princess and the mewman glared back.
"Anyways," Tom interrupted, pushing himself forward to sit in between the two
girls, blocking their line of sight to one another. "That theory about Sam
being bored? I don't buy it. Not that anything Star said about this being a
game, and thus a challenge, is wrong. But Sam doesn't do things on a whim,
there is always a reason. I bet his boredom is just another charade."
"Does it matter, Tom?" Janna spat. "I got us the only deal that does not
involve any guaranteed deaths. You think you could have done better?"
Janna and Tom bickered some more, but Marco wasn't listening. He kept his eyes
on Star, who was looking towards his window and nodding. Suddenly, she turned
around to glare at him. It was weird how glaring was something Star did
routinely now, it seemed like her sight had two modes: spaced out or burning
intensity. "Marco, assuming we do this. Then what? What are we looking for on
the other side?"
"I told you, Star," he answered nervously. "We are looking for Hekapoo. She is
out best lead to find whomever... whomever killed your mom."
"Marco, Hekapoo is dead," Star observed. It was not a question. Out of the
corner of his eye, he could see that everyone was looking at him now.
"I... I don't think so, Star," Marco tried to argue. "Or, if she is, not all of
her is dead. She told me to look for her, in the dream!"
Janna coughed. But everyone else seemed to be taking the boy at his word. Star
shifted her eyes back to the window, before looking towards Marco again.
"Are you sure about that?" she asked. Marco nodded.
"Well," Jackie interrupted finally. "I think we should first vote on whether or
not we are doing this."
Marco nodded, and so did Tom and Star. Janna crossed her arms.
"Pretty sure you all know which is my vote," said Janna.
"I vote yes too," spoke Jackie.
"Yes," followed Marco.
"Fine," grumbled Tom.
They all looked at Star, expectantly.
----
Star pondered the situation for a moment. It was as good as any lead she
currently had, given how much Glossaryck was not being forthcoming about the
creature that killed her mom. She looked up at the ceiling, at the floating
little man. A translucent ghost, blue and green, the color of seaweed. He
stared blankly at her, with infuriating indifference.
Star knew none of her friends could see him, and knew that she shouldn't tell
them about it. They wouldn't understand. They would think she was crazy. Janna
might have believed her, if she wasn't so angry at her all the time now. Marco
would balk, taking it as another sign of her slowly going evil, or mad, and
frankly Star didn't have the patience to deal with that conversation a third
time. Jackie? Well, things with Jackie were super awkward now a days, and what
did the girl even know of ghosts?
Maybe she ought to tell Tom? She wouldn't have considered it even a week
before. But the last few days Tom had been on a surprisingly excellent
behavior, and he knew more about ghosts and dead people than anyone else she
knew. Besides, he was the only one who didn't get so damn freaked out with her
now. He was the only one who didn't think she was going dark. Or, at least, the
only one who didn't care.
She became aware of the expectant stares of all her friends. They had all come
together to help her, and now they were just waiting for her to approve their
plan. It was a nice thoughtful plan too, except that...
She glanced again at the windowsill. Hekapoo's ghostly form smiled at her
apologetically, sitting there with a leg crossed over the other. "You won't
find me all the way there, you know? I am afraid this is all that's left of me,
kid."
Star shook her head. She didn't know who to believe. There was something off
about Glossaryck and Hekapoo. Something off since they started showing up
around her. Something other than their obvious ghostlyness. The little magic
man first came to her right after her chat with Eclipsa, while the sorceress
showed up right after Marco first told her he had dreamed of her. Every time
that it looked like there was a path to avenge her mother, another phantom
appeared to tell Star how that could not possibly work, how her friends were
all wrong, how she was wrong. She was beginning to distrust the ghosts.
"Yeah, Marco," she voted. "I am in."
It was still her best lead, by default, even if it was completely wrong.
Besides, maybe she could ask this Sam about her mom's killer. Force him to tell
her what he knew, if need be.
Hekapoo shrugged and shook her head.
----
"Oookay," Jackie said, after Star finally deigned to give her two cents. "Then
the second step is to look at the invitations. Right?"
"Already done," Tom said, holding up his own envelope, the only one addressed
to one of them in particular, the one he got weeks ago, around the time of
Star's Song Day. "There is not much here. Time: this Saturday night, which
means we need to be there Friday night as per Janna's already famous deal.
Fortunately, we can take the carriage for most of that journey, so a day will
suffice. Place: Sam's palace inside the City of Dis. Costume mandatory at all
times. Oh, and this..."
He passed them a black card with silver lettering. It had only two words in it:
'The Scoundrel'.
Jackie got it immediately, "That's the role you are going to play, right? Your
masquerade costume?"
Tom nodded.
"How about the other four? How do we distribute those," asked Marco.
"I guess we just pick the closed envelope at random," shrugged Jackie. Seemed
like the only fair way. "Then we keep whatever we got, unless someone wants to
trade."
"Sounds good to me," Janna agreed, taking an envelope from the pile and passing
the rest to Marco. She broke the seal. The cry of a tormented soul filled the
air as she did, but the troublemaker girl paid it no mind. She grinned as she
picked up her card and showed it to everyone: 'The Witch'
Marco took his envelope and passed the other two to Star first, walking all the
way to were she was sitting, rather than handing them to the human girl
directly to his side. Jackie noticed that, and it bothered her more than it
probably should have. Another hellish cry and Marco was holding a card saying
'The Champion'.
Star took an envelope absentmindedly, put a finger through the wax, and the
seal melted on its own. Jackie swore she could see a flash of green where Star
finger had made contact with the flaming-sword sigil.
"'The Countess'?" the mewman spoke with only mild disappointment. She looked up
at the ceiling again, silent for a second. She shrugged, "yeah, that's right,
seems like a step down, but whatever."
Finally, Star noticed she still had the final closed envelope in her hands. She
lifted a finger and the envelope floated all the way to where Jackie was
sitting. The skateboarder girl took the envelope in her hands. She tried
ripping apart the top, but the material wouldn't tear. An instant later she
found that breaking the wax seal was indeed much easier. Another damned soul
cried as he did.
She took the small black card from the inside, looked at the silvery letters
and her expression fell. It read, in big bold script: 'The Slave'. She showed
the others the card with some hesitation.
The Slave? They had all gotten some awesome role to play, and that was what she
got? Jackie felt disappointed. Hell, she felt downright insulted! Janna had
gotten 'witch', Star had gotten a nobility title, and Marco had gotten
something related to physical combat. There was no way those were coincidences.
Which meant the envelopes somehow predicted, or influenced, who chose which
one. Which meant in turn that the damn card was either mocking her, or worse,
judging her, disparaging her worth. It might as well have read 'The Second
Fiddle', 'The Spare'.
"Eh, Jackie," Marco finally spoke. "We can switch if you want..."
Ok, he got brownie points for that one at least! But no, she had set the rules,
and it was clear Marco didn't want her card either. Also, if she was right,
then the role had somehow chosen her. Irritating as that idea was, it was
probably better to play along. "Nah, dude, it's ok. You be the champion this
time around. It's only fair."
They talked some more about the next part, and agreed to meet at Tom's next
morning to start their journey, aiming to arrive at the gates of Dis by that
same night; Friday night. All through their planning, Jackie paid little
attention, her mind set on the card, and its implications.
----
It felt strange, to be back in her room; her Earth room. Star had only been
living back in Mewni for little over a week, preparing her mom's wake at first,
then setting everything up to delegate the functions of government back to King
River, and finally, studying Eclipsa's notes, preparing for the battle ahead.
It felt like so much longer than a week.
Now she was ready to leave Mewni for a long while, and Earth too, to fulfill
the promise she had made in front of her people, the pact she had made with
Eclipsa. She scratched her left hand. Then, realizing she was alone, she closed
her eyes and dipped down, undoing the silly glamour that concealed the black
tendrils of the killing spell, that disguised her burned veins. It was such a
relief to be rid of the illusion, to stop spending her magic and her focus on
the color of her arms, to get rid of the itching sensation of having the
corruption simmer beneath her skin, unseen. She hid that only for Marco's
benefit, really, and the boy was not with her tonight.
Instead, he had offered to walk Jackie home. It was a gentleman move, and it
made perfect sense, considering how crestfallen the other girl had seemed after
she read her card. It was clear too, that there was some friction between the
two human teens as well, some air that needed clearing. Same as between Marco
and herself. Because, let's face it, there was yet another explanation for
Marco offering to take Jackie to her place instead of staying in his own home:
that he was avoiding Star.
She had sensed that the boy was uncomfortable around her ever since her mom
died, and particularly of late, for understandable but still frustrating
reasons. In fact, Star and Marco hadn't so much as kissed since St Olga's.
Jackie and Marco hadn't had sex in that time either, the princess knew,
although they had certainly been closer to it than she and Marco had. She could
sense every time they started making out, just as well as when they stopped
themselves short. She was trying to stop herself from feeling the link, but it
was in vain. It was like trying to ignore the itching of her arms. She could
pretend not to feel it, but she could not actually ignore the sensation.
Telling them that she knew of their troubles would only make it harder for them
to feel comfortable again, however, and so Star didn't mention it. And Jackie
didn't mention it to Star that she was still mad at her, because she thought
that the princess had enough things to worry about. Which was, she noted,
rather the truth. The problem was that, like the itching, the fact that none of
them talked about why things were awkward all around didn't exactly meant they
weren't awkward.
Besides, there was a lot of stuff going through Star's head these days: the
burning rage, the suffocating emptiness, the nightmares, the ghosts, the
ambivalent sensations of revulsion and pleasure she felt when casting the
spells in Eclipsa's little book of dark magic. All of those things made it even
harder for her to open up to her friends like before.
Yet, despite her own withdrawal, and the ways in which she had hurt them
already, they had not abandoned her. If anything, they were even more
determined to help her than ever. Marco hated the idea of her revenge mission,
and yet had gone out of his way to find her a lead, however flimsy it might be.
Tom had moved all his contacts, and he seemed to have Star's back
unconditionally, in a way he never did back when they were dating. Janna seemed
to hate Star now a days, and yet she was the one who had brokered a deal with
this Sam person. They all, and Jackie too, were risking their lives in pursuit
of Star's self-imposed quest.
"Yes, Star," spoke a familiar voice behind her, loving and compassionate, yet
stern as well. "They are all willing to follow you, but that means you need to
be wise in where you lead them; in how you lead. The same goes for the people
of Mewni, you know? There are so many people who look up to you now. Is it
worth putting them all in harm's way because of this?"
Star's eyes welled up with tears as she turned around, to see the one ghost
that had not turned up before. The one who completed the pattern that had begun
with Glossaryck and continued with Hekapoo. The one she wanted to see more than
anything in all the worlds. And, sure enough, there she was, regally attired,
translucently green, and so very very sad, "M... Mom?"
"Hi, sweetie."
Chapter End Notes
     Yes, Star sees dead people! Because she wasn't creepy enough last
     chapter!
     Which leads us to...
     Coming up next: Chapter 22: Baloo-balee, baloo-balow. I let you go, I
     let you go.
     ----
     To Shock_Cooling: I did a double take when I saw your own "Hi,
     sweetie" scene in Shadows. Believe it or not, this chapter was 100%
     written (but not edited), before I saw that, as was the first scene
     of next chapter. I am writing these words together with my comment to
     the corresponding chapter of your fic, even though you won't see this
     for a few weeks. Here is hoping that the one we see here is the real
     Moon and not what yours turned out to be :)
***** Baloo-balee, baloo-balow. I let you go, I let you go *****
Chapter Summary
     In which Star and Moon have a chat, as do Jackie and Marco, and yet
     another familiar face visits Janna.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
"I am so so sorry, sweetie," spoke Moon, her voice breaking. "So sorry, and so
proud. You know? I lost my mom too, when I was not much older than you are now.
So, what I am trying to say, Star, is that I understand, and that this is the
last thing I ever wanted to do to you. Please, sweetie, forgive me."
"I... mom... I..." Star had no words, nothing to say. She had been thinking of
things to say to her mom constantly for the past ten days, and now that she
could finally speak to her, she had nothing. What could she say? That she
missed her? That she felt lost? That it hurt? That she regretted never having
been the daughter Moon would have wanted to have? That she took back every
single time she had complained about her rules and her advice? That she would
do it all differently now if she could? Even telling her mom of her plans, to
find her killer, to avenge her... even that felt hollow.
Moon's phantasmal hand passed through Star's golden hairs. She could not feel
her touch, not really, but she could imagine it and that was almost enough.
"Sweetie, I know how hard this is, I really do. I will miss you more than
anything, and I would have given everything for things to be different. But I
am going to be fine where I am going. You need to be strong, and you are,
stronger than I was, stronger than I could even conceive of back then. But you
need to be strong for the sake of the living, not the dead."
"But... but... you are not dead, mommy! You are here!" Star lied to herself,
more so than to her mom. Moon's translucent green visage looked at her
helplessly, as if about to break down crying herself. A fresh pang of guilt hit
the princess. Even in death, she caused her mother nothing but grief. "I... I
am sorry... I know..."
"Then you also know that what you are doing is not what I want for you," the
teal phantasm stated calmly. As gentle as the reprimand was, as kind as her
rebuke was phrased, the princess felt her strength break. Tears begun flowing
down Star's eyes. Yes, even now, she was a disappointment. "Star, please. I am
not trying to hurt you. I just don't want you to put yourself in danger, to put
your friends in danger. Not for my sake!"
"But mom, what if it comes back?" Star's voice was quieter than a mouse's
whisper. "It... it defeated you, Hekapoo too, I... I am scared, but isn't
protecting Mewni also my duty now?"
"Yes, Star, it is. That's why you need to stay back home with your people, and
guard them, and guide them, and reassure them, as their queen," her mom
insisted. "Again, Star, I am so sorry. I would not have you inherit that burden
if I could still carry it for you. I know you don't want it. I didn't either.
No one who deserves it can ever want it. But you are right, your duty is to the
people of Mewni, as was mine before, and my mother's before me..."
"I can't, mom, not even if I wanted," replied Star regretfully. She had been
feeling the weight of her decision even since the wake, and now she had
confirmation that it had been the wrong one. But even so, it was done, "I
promised Eclipsa. I made a deal! I... I don't think I can be queen now, even if
I tried, not until, well, until I do what I said I would do..."
"Oh sweetie, how I wish you hadn't done that," Moon shook her head. "Eclipsa...
she was my mistake, you shouldn't have to be the one to deal with her. But
that's all the more reason not to leave Mewni, Star. You cannot leave her alone
there! You need to inform the high commission... what is left of it! Eclipsa is
evil, Star!"
She hadn't seemed evil. Nothing Star had heard about her, before or since,
pointed at her being evil either, and she had researched the records on the
matter thoroughly after their encounter. As thoroughly as Star could, under the
circumstances. But nonetheless, she couldn't be sure, and this seemed like the
worst possible time to start yet another argument with her mom. Nothing, no
principle and no point of disagreement, was worth that now. The princess opted
for saying nothing.
"Or," the former queen continued. "If you don't want to go back to Mewni... if
you really can't be queen... Then how about staying here, sweetie? With that
Marco boy you like, and your other friend as well? You always told me how much
you liked Earth. Perhaps you can stay a little while, until you are ready for
Mewni again. All I want, Star, is for you to be happy."
That did it. That broke the illusion. Star stopped crying, stopped shaking. She
fixed Moon's ghost with a murderous glare, her hand tensing around the wand.
Black tendrils tightened around her arms, climbing further and further up
through the inside of her veins, towards her shoulders. "You are not my mom!"
Moon would never have told Star to run away from her responsibilities. She
would have wanted her daughter to be happy, and safe, that much was true. But
she would never advice her to desert Mewni, to abandon her people. The thought
wouldn't even have occurred to her mother, not even as a remote possibility!
Glossaryk had been off, but then again Glossaryk was always off. And Hekapoo
had sounded strange, but it wasn't as if Star knew her well enough to tell for
certain. But her mom? She knew her mom. This thing was not her mom!
"No, I am not. But, next time we meet, remember this, Star. Remember that I
tried to do this the easy way," answered a deep voice, a male voice coming from
the apparition that had so far pretended to be her mother. Not-Moon was now
giving Star a scornful glare, flashing her a mocking smirk.
It was then that the princess noticed the teeth. They were sharp and feral, and
not mewman at all. Before her eyes, her mom's image began to change: fingers
merging together, scales replacing her hair, ribcage broadening to the sides, a
monstrous snout expanding forward from her mouth. Her royal dress also shifted
and reshaped itself, into a somber suit and tie.
Toffee's face flashed the princess an incredibly disturbing grin. "SURPRISE!!"
Then, cackling madly, he vanished into an explosion of ghostly green smoke.
Try as she might, alone in her Earth room, Star was not able to sleep that
night.
----
"Jackie, listen, are you alright?" asked her boyfriend cautiously. They were
half-way towards her place now. It was late night, and even in Echo Creek,
California, it was starting to get chilly outside.
"Sure, dude, no worries," she reassured him with a smile. "How about you,
though?"
She could tell Marco was worried, about Star, about their plan, and about
something else. Maybe about his dream? She felt he hadn't told her all about it
yet, that he remembered more of those sixteen years than what he claimed, and
that whatever was buried in those memories was harsh stuff.
"I... I am not fine, none of us are," Marco shook his head. "But that's the
point, Jackie. It was a rhetorical question. I can tell you are worried too,
you know? Can you at least tell me why? Is it about this morning? Or about the
invitation thing? The spell? Something else?"
"Seriously, no biggie, Marco," Jackie shrugged.
It truly wasn't. Star had just lost her mom. Marco had lost, well, whatever
Hekapoo was to him, and in addition had to deal with the fact that there was
this whole forgotten past catching up to him now. Compared to that, what did
she have to worry about? A dumb role written in a card and some childish
teenage insecurities? It would have been ridiculous to even bring those up to
him now.
"Jackie..." Marco begun. Then he fell silent. They walked a few more steps
until, "You can talk to me, too, you know? I feel that you are always there
when I need to figure something out, and I know that you were there for Star
too, back when we all started going out together. But you never talk about your
own problems..."
"Well, Marco, I don't have that many," she smiled. "I am pretty lucky,
honestly. The stuff I worry about, well, it's just nonsense..."
"Jackie, if that were true, then you would have told me," he smiled at her. It
was a cute smile, that alone was more than enough for her. "We have had plenty
of time to talk nonsense. But, if it worries you, then it isn't nonsense, not
to me."
"You are worried about Star, Marco," Jackie stated. "I know you are. I am too.
Worried that she is in pain. Worried that she will do something rash. I
understand that she is in your mind a lot, and is not like that's the only
thing in your mind now..."
"Jackie... I..." he started talking. Jackie held a hand up, silencing him.
"Marco, please, let me finish." If she didn't say it now, she might not be able
to do so later. "This morning you came to leave me behind so that you could be
there for Star. I get why. Hell, Marco, I even admire you for it, for being
there for those you love, when the going gets truly tough, when few would blame
you for staying behind. It is part of what I love about you. But I'd be lying
to you, and lying to myself, if I said it didn't hurt to know for certain who
you'd pick, if you really had to..."
She looked down, frustrated. Frustrated that it mattered this much, that she
was laying it on him. There were real threats they had to face now, life or
death stuff. There was a prophecy and a devil playing games and who knows what
else. They had bigger problems than her wounded ego.
"Jackie, that's not it!" the boy protested. "I love you, Jackie. I have loved
you since we were little kids. Yes, I like Star too, but is not like she is
more important to me than you are. It's only, well, she really needs me now.
You would be fine without me. Hell, you might be better off without the kind of
boyfriend that drags you into all this chaos, all this danger! But Star really
needs... a friend. She needs someone by her side now, unconditionally."
"You are right, Marco, of course," agreed Jackie. And yet, at the same time...
"But, if it wasn't just Star? If we both needed someone? I am not saying I do.
I don't. But if we both needed you the same, and both loved you the same, can
you tell me you would not still choose her?"
"No, Jackie, I... I wouldn't," he tried. His eyes avoiding her own.
"Marco, can I ask you a favor?"
"Anything."
"Don't lie to me," she said, flashing him a bittersweet smile made of fondness
and fragility. "I don't think I deserve that."
Marco stared at her. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. She could
tell that he cared, that he wanted to reassure her and, at the same time, that
he was honoring her request.
"I love you, Jackie," he whispered tenderly. "That's not a lie."
She nodded. A gust of air swirled around them, and she shivered. Marco took off
his hoodie and handed it to her.
"Jackie..." he seemed to be trying hard to find the right words. "I don't have
to choose. Do I?"
"No, Marco, you don't," she replied. Slowly, she took his hoodie and slid it
down her head, arms and torso. It felt warm, and soft. It smelled nice.
"I am glad," he remarked.
"Yeah..." she replied, "me too."
----
'Witch' had read her invitation, and Janna was pleased. It had felt like
encouragement, like reaffirmation. It would be her role to play at Sam's
mysterious costume party and, at the same time, it felt like more than a role,
more than make pretend. Witch was what she truly was, what she was becoming. At
least she hoped it was so. So what if she couldn't quite match Star? She could
do things now, see things, understand things, that a month ago were literally
beyond her comprehension. And yet, it did matter, despite her protests. It did
matter that she was so far below Tom, below Star, below Sam.
She sat on the lotus position in the middle of Tom's room, floating in the air
by her own power. Well, that was a lie, the power came from the damned souls
and the demons that inhabited Tom's underworld. It was a huge tapestry made of
bits and scraps of power which she had siphoned around herself to turn the air
into an invisible hand, capable of holding her in its palm. It felt like her
own power though, at this point, sometimes. But it was never good to forget
where her magics came from, where she could look towards to gain even more
power. In front of her was the black envelope, empty now of its treacherous
invitation.
She had spent half of that night staring at the dark material, feeling it with
her new senses. Now it was well past three, and she was nowhere nearer to her
goal than she had been when she started. She could sense Sam's energies in the
envelope, as well as something else, something dark and slow flowing below the
devil boy's hellfire. But she could not draw from it. She could not get the
magics that made the envelope to bend or reweave, to transform on her command.
Try as she might, the black paper envelope remained indifferent to her will,
more solid than stone, more real than reality itself.
Exasperated, Janna lifted a hand. A ball of blue flames sprouted between her
fingers in an instant. At least she had gotten better at that since a week ago.
She threw the fireball directly at the paper sleeve. It hit the dark envelope
and blazed around it for a full minute before fading out. But when the embers
died, the black paper was unscratched and, she confirmed, cold to the touch.
"Yes, I wouldn't have expected that to work, either," spoke a low composed
voice behind Janna, coming from the wall opposite to the door. It wasn't Tom's
voice.
Startled, the troublemaker girl turned around to face the intruder. Her
levitation failed her, but she landed on her feet. She came face to face with a
transparent glaucous apparition of a half-lizard man in a business suit and
tie. It regarded her with a look of detached curiosity, making no movement
towards her. Janna had heard enough from Star's stories, and read enough of
Marco's private journal, to know who this was, even if the ghostly appearance
was unexpected: Toffee.
She knew he was dangerous, knew it well enough to beginning drawing in power
the moment she realized who she was seeing. Lightning crackled between her
fingers. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I am afraid I have come to kill you," the lizard monster responded, equably.
"Sorry, nothing personal, but Star has left me no choice. If she won't be
convinced not to embark on this foolish path, then I must make sure the way
itself is closed."
Perhaps it was true that Janna did not always show the best judgment. But, to
her credit, she understood that when a smooth sociopath threatened you with
murder, no matter how calmly, you didn't exactly waste time asking why. You
either fled, or you cried for help, or you fought back. The apprentice witch
did all three. It was an instinct acquired from the harshness of experience,
even if her conscious mind did not remember the lesson. Even if she had
forgotten Princess White.
"Tom, help!!!" she yelled, and in the same breath she was raising her hands to
attack.
Lightning flowed from her fingertips. It crashed through and around Toffee's
non-substance, harmlessly. The Lizard looked at her with bemusement, and with
contempt. Janna turned around to run, but a flash of green fire passed her by
on the side; suddenly the stairs going down into Tom's room were engulfed in
blazes.
Terrified, she turned back towards Toffee, who walked slowly towards her. In
desperation, she conjured two blue fireballs of her own and launched them at
the specter, with predictable results. The ghost glided through the fire,
unscathed.
"My turn," he spoke coldly, and pointed at Janna with a single finger of his
right claw.
A stream of green flames flowed from the limb, moving fast towards her, too
fast to dodge, too fast to think. She could feel the magic in that emerald
fire. It was a magic that felt like Star's own, yet turned inside out into a
profoundly wrong way. On reflex, without thinking, Janna casted a weak
levitation spell. She pulled the black envelope which had contained Sam's party
invitation and magically pulled it between herself and the viridescent torrent
of deadly combustion. Toffee's attack forked in two as it made contact with the
dark object. Janna was glad her guess about the envelope's indestructibility
had proven right. The bifurcated streams hit opposite sides of Tom's room,
blowing twin holes into the thick rock walls. Quickly, Janna scurried into one
of the holes, and began running through the hallway parallel to the demon
prince's chambers.
She had to flee, to hide, to find help.
"Tom!!" she cried. "Damn it, Tom! Help! Wrathmelior! Sam! Anyone! Please!"
Star. Toffee's magic had felt like Star's. Well, like Star's magic if it had
been taken through a blender of evil, but still, it had a strong similarity
with the mewman's power. Janna took out her phone, without ever stopping
running. She loaded her contact list, saw Star's entry there, still near the
top. For a moment, her finger hovered over the call button. She felt an
overwhelming irritation, a retching feeling of revulsion, a torrent of
humiliation and guilt. It was a visceral sentiment, reinforced into the core of
her being by a malignant power. But even so, it wasn't enough to override her
instinct for self-preservation. The phone rang. Once. Twice.
"Janna?!" she heard the shocked surprise of the princess on the other end.
"This is getting tiresome," remarked Toffee as he appeared right in front of
the young witch. Evidently, there was little point in running away from someone
who could just teleport himself into the back of a closed room, or go through
walls, or whatever it was that the phantasm had done to get inside Tom's
bedroom.
A claw caught Janna's arm. It felt surprisingly solid. With the back of his
remaining hand, Toffee threw the girl's cellphone against the wall, before she
could even say a word. It broke on impact. Smiling, the monster lifted that
same hand to place it right in front of her face, and pointed an outstretched
finger at her. Green flames began building up around the ghost's arm. She
closed her eyes.
"Grraaaarggh!!" she heard a roaring cry of rage and madness, a familiar voice.
Janna opened her eyes to see the lizard's ghost flying through the air, Tom's
hands around its neck, holding into the immaterial apparition with ease.
Whether it was because Toffee had made himself corporeal to grab her, or
because Tom, being a demon, could touch ghosts as a matter of course, he didn't
seem to have any problem strangling the specter. The demon prince's eyes glowed
bright red. All around the pair, a storm of green and crimson blazes devoured
one another, vying for supremacy.
The young Lucitor began speaking a long incantation in a strange guttural
tongue. Around him and the immortal monster, an array of stone pillars sprouted
from the earth, tearing through the palace's carpet and walls. Symbols glowed
in bright scarlet script unto the rocks. Janna felt a confluence of terrible
energies gathering around the two combatants...
"Enough!" Toffee shouted. He hit Tom with the back of his arm, throwing him
flying into the air, past Janna herself. The stones that had begun to form
exploded into emerald dust. "Since you insist on getting in the way, demon
child, I will remove you as well. In the end, you are both equally
inconsequential!"
Toffee advanced towards the two teens, his serene expression now gone, a glare
of fury and maddened determination replacing it.
"IRRADIATED SHRAPNEL DEATH BLIZZARD BLAST!!" shouted yet another familiar voice
from behind the troublemaker girl. A storm of emerald glass-like magic shards
came flying fast right behind those words, blowing the lizard back into the
opposite wall.
Janna turned around to see Star, followed by Marco and Jackie, as they all
emerged from Tom's hearse-like carriage. The princess' face held a glare of
fury and determination of her very own.
----
He had once held Marco prisoner, forced her to break the wand. He had
impersonated her mom. He had gone after her friends, yet again. He would pay.
Toffee would regret the day he crossed paths with Star Butterfly. If he was a
ghost, she would find a way to send him beyond the veil. And if he wasn't, he
soon would be!
"DEVOURING HORRORS HELL SWARM!!" she cried out. Flowing tentacles of undiluted
black ichor jumped from the shadows, all around the lizard monster, a thousand
eyes and mouths opening towards her victim. They began to bite, to rend, to
feast.
Star felt a strange sensation after casting each spell on Toffee. As if a part
of her magic was rebounding back onto her. She had felt the impacts against her
magic shield when she cast the irradiated shrapnel blast, and now she could
feel the scratches in her skin. But those were weak echoes, muted somehow,
either by their very nature, or because of the many layers of magical defenses
Star had weaved upon herself. Either way, this was not a sensation she had
expected. She had never felt this type of feedback when practicing her new
spells before.
In truth, both attacks were only a slight deviation from her usual spell
repertoire, based on the same basic principles as a Warnicorn Stampede or a
Narwhal Blast. Same principles, that is, but a different application,
predicated upon different intent. It was what her spells could do, what her
summons could be, when cast not with the intent to subdue or even to simply
win, but with the desire to kill, to hurt, to destroy her foes down to their
very core. A less childish spell, for far less childish purposes.
Yet it still wasn't enough. She could already see Toffee's ghost recovering
from the assault, getting ready to counter-attack. She would not give him such
opportunity. Screw taking those risks, and screw playing fair.
"From darkness deep and fires far, I call on time to flow like tar," she
intoned. All around her, the flames paused their ceaseless dance, freezing in
place. Time slowed down to a crawl. She calmly walked amidst a world nearly,
but not entirely, stopped.
It wasn't the same spell she had used during Jackie's duel with Princess White.
The enchantment back then had been 'Cozy flowsy, time slowsy', if she
remembered correctly. But this was a variation on that spell, reconstructed
under the principles of Eclipsa's notes. It had been Star's second attempt at
crafting true dark magic of her own. Time was a fragile thing, after all, and,
in a way, this kind of magic offered a much improved degree of control than her
past attempts; a more intimate understanding of the natural order she was
subverting. As for her first attempt at a dark spell...
"Seething poison, burning bright, I draw you forth with all my might," she
begun, taking aim. It was not worth using Eclipsa's original spell just yet,
not when she had the perfect opportunity to try the finished version of her
earliest dark spell. It was the same blast she had used once on Tom by
accident, drawing from her anger after she couldn't deal with Marco and Jackie
at the Love Sentence concert. That had been but a cute baby temper tantrum
compared to the ire she felt towards Toffee now. "To cinder burn all in your
path... unleashed storm of righteous wrath!!"
The frozen green and red flames shattered into nothing as a maelstrom of pure
black bile sprouted from Star's wand, a bright green lance of light at its
core. It wasn't quite the death spell, the darkest spell of Moon the Undaunted,
but it would be enough. Toffee would find his final end, frozen in time,
pierced by her well-deserved fury, as he should have since they first met. Star
actually smiled. It felt surprisingly like the right thing to do.
The spell impacted its target and a blinding flash dissolved the world around
the mewman. When the princess finally adjusted to the brightness, she saw
movement on the other end of a huge curtain of smoke. Impossible. Truly and
absolutely impossible. Toffee could not have survived that attack, even if he
had managed to resist the original barrage. Granting even that he still
existed, how could he walk towards her, when time itself had slowed to one
millionth of its usual speed? Impossible! And yet, it was so.
"Are you done?" the lizard asked, in a chillingly unperturbed voice.
The shock was big enough that she failed to maintain the time spell, and the
rest of the world around them resumed moving as well. Walls crumbled under
impacts that had already happened but that the stone itself was just now
feeling. Decorations burned under flames that had long passed them by. Her ears
thundered with the sonic boom of her earlier spell. All the while, Star felt
herself confused and lost. Nothing should have been able to move back there,
except for herself and her spells.
"You..." The princess tried to compose her thoughts, unsuccessfully.
Realization slowly swept in, through her anger and surprise. "You can't be
Toffee either. You just can't be. Who... What are you?!"
Before her eyes, Toffee's ghost dissolved. Instead of him, there was now
Glossaryck's phantasm, regarding her with disappointment.
"Well, you know, I sort of thought you might have figured it out by now. I
am..."
It changed form. Glossaryck was gone. In its place stood Hekapoo.
"Fierce,"
Another switch, and Moon stood again in front of Star. A heartbreaking mirage.
"Undaunted,"
The next instant it was Toffee once more, grinning cruelly.
"Relentless,"
It kept that form then, but the voice changed. It became a female voice, one
that spoke like a chorus of many voices, all beautiful and all terrifying.
"I am will, unbending."
Star shivered. Her eyes opened wide. She remembered what her dad had said,
about the night her mom died. The creature that had done it had said something
very similar back then. 'I am love, all-conquering'. And Star knew, she knew it
was the same being. She knew her journey was at an end before it ever started.
Beyond terror, beyond anger, beyond shock, she raised her wand and aimed true,
straight for the heart. Just like she had practiced.
"I call the darkness unto me, from deepest depths of earth and sea, from
ancient evils unawoken, to break the one who can't be broken," she recited, as
fast as she could. "To blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to
burning coal, to summon forth the deathly power, to-see-my-hated-foe..."
"Sweetie? What are you doing?" spoke Moon, just as the princess prepared to say
the last word of the death spell.
Star knew it was fake. She knew the creature she was seeing was not her mom.
That it was the thing that killed her. It should have incensed her rage to see
such a cowardly display, such a crude deception. It should have multiplied her
hate for this thing a thousandfold. And it did. And yet, she couldn't do it.
She was unable to complete the spell. Her hand veered to the side, and the thin
ray of perfect blackness hit the stone instead, drilling a hole through it.
A blast of green flames hit Star in retaliation. Her shields shattered and her
body flew backwards, thrown aside like a discarded rag doll.
----
It took Jackie a shamefully long time to catch up with what had just happened,
to even begin opening the zipper of her duffel bag. A mere hour ago, she would
have called her own duel with Princess White intense. It had been child's play
by comparison. Star had unleashed levels of ass-kicking on the green phantasm
that the skateboarder girl wouldn't have believed possible, had she not seen
her in action. Yet, not five minutes after they arrived, the princess laid on
the floor, surrounded by emerald flames, unconscious.
The human girl pulled out her sword from the bag, and steeled herself for one
brave - and foolish - act of defiance. It was no flimsy fencing foil she had
packed for the journey, but a real blade. As real as she could find. Forged by
some medieval weapons enthusiast back in L.A. It was truly sharp as well, not a
dull thing made to exhibit as decoration, she had tested it. She had made sure
to procure such a weapon as soon as they returned from St O's. It had cost her
many months of her own savings.
Even so, it was a far cry from the enchanted golden sword she had used in her
duel with the vampire princess. She herself was not nearly as strong, not as
quick, as she had been under the influence of Star's magics. Without the added
power, the girl could barely hold up the blade. She had no hope of fighting off
this foe, this abomination that wore the face of Queen Moon. But she had to do
something. Star and Tom were out cold, Janna was in a panic, and Marco was just
as weak as she was, when it came right down to it. Perhaps, if only she could
hold off their enemy for a few seconds, not much more than an instant, it might
be enough for the mewman girl to regain consciousness, or for the rest of them
to run away.
"Aaa-yaaa!" Jackie Lynn Thomas charged, sword in hand, channeling as much of
'Prince Jack' as she could muster.
"Oh, for corn's sake," spoke the thing that wasn't Star's mom. A green spectral
blade appeared in its hand, and it moved to effortlessly parry the human girl's
strike.
The true blade, the one forged from hard steel, broke in two as it made contact
with the edge of the ghostly weapon. A shower of sparks flowed around Jackie's
hair. The hilt heated to a burning red, and she was forced to let go, yelping
in pain. The emerald apparition fixed her a look of utter contempt, as it
kicked her in the stomach.
Jackie knew then that, if it had wanted, her opponent would have easily punched
a hole through her abdomen with its leg. As it was, it pushed her back and onto
the ground, knocking out all of the air inside her. She opened her mouth to
yell. She vomited instead. She hadn't bought them a single second.
Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw Marco glance briefly at her. Was his
look one of concern? Or was it pity? Either way, her boyfriend's eyes didn't
linger. He turned his back towards her, and began walking towards the many-
faced monstrosity. All of Jackie's pain faded away, overwhelmed by the terror
that he might try to fight the creature too... and die.
----
As he approached the creature, Moon's visage faded away. Instead, it was
Hekapoo's face which now regarded Marco with a dismissive smirk. "What is it,
kiddo? You want to fight me too? Because you are even dumber than I thought if
you really think you have a chance."
'Give me sixteen years', thought Marco. 'Sixteen years and then let's see who
doesn't have a chance'. But he knew the apparition was right. His body was
weak, the only ritual he could remember was useless in combat, and even if it
had been possible for him to fight now like he could at the end of Hekapoo's
scissor quest... Well, even then, this wasn't Hekapoo. It was the thing that
had managed to do her in.
"So, here is what I don't understand," he tried to buy time. Pretending a
confidence that he had only really felt in dreams. "You are supposed to be
trapped, no? Sealed away. What happened with that? And, if you are here, then
where is Hekapoo?!"
'A ritual of sealing, for a power greater than myself,' had said the sorceress
in his dream. Then how come this creature, whatever it was, walked free? It
didn't work that way. It couldn't work that way. Every ritual had a price, but
what you bought with it also had to be of fair value. There was no way, no way
at all, for Hekapoo's sacrifice to have been in vain. Marco didn't care how
great a power they were talking about, nothing could walk free mere days after
a trade like that!
"I am dead, muscles," she mocked him. "Gone. Undone. Laid low. Turned to dust.
But it is true I did seal away most of it. Most of me."
The voice had started as Hekapoo's, but turned into a chorus of different
voices for just the last three words. When the ghost spoke once more, after
that, it used the voice of the forger of scissors again.
"'Every echo I send out, allows it one of its own, of proportional magnitude,'"
she quoted the real Hekapoo. Her tone was ice cold, her manner smug and
sardonic. "An aspect for an aspect, kid. A dream... for a nightmare."
With that last utterance, two pairs of dimensional scissors appeared in the
specter's hands. With a swift movement, she raced past Marco's slow form, and
opened a portal right behind him.
"You are lucky I don't want to kill the three of you, kid," spoke the false
Hekapoo as she pushed the human boy through the dimensional gateway. "Honestly,
you all should be thanking me."
Marco saw the world in front of him fade as he made it through the swirling
opening. He didn't know what place laid at the other end, but it didn't matter,
it was not where he had to be. It was taking it away from his friends, who
needed him, away from Star. Then, a second later, he saw the scene return, as a
force yanked him out of the portal. The pull sent him sprawling out into the
floor of Tom's castle. He looked up to see Janna's outstretched hand, glowing
blue, far away from him.
"Ooops, Marco, sorry for the landing," she smiled, clearly not all that sorry.
"Guess I am still new at this stuff."
That was an understatement. Since when could Janna levitate him?
"I am afraid you will not live to turn pro," spoke Toffee, as the ghostly being
switched masks once more. "You see, unlike those two, I really do not mind
ending you, girl. So let's finish what I came here to do. Shall we?"
----
"No," spoke Tom dangerously. Anger didn't begin to describe the fire that
burned inside of him now. This thing had hurt Star, had intruded into his home,
had wounded him, and now, it was threatening the human girl again. "No, we
shall not."
Eyes glowed like blazing calderas. Flames and lightning danced all around him.
Through harsh pain and numbing fear, the Lucitor prince rose up a second time.
He flew up high into the air, and the entirety of the underworld under his
domain became quiet as his fundamental void begun calling all of demonkind to
his aid.
"Am I supposed to be scared?" retorted Toffee, unimpressed.
"Oh, terrified," assured him Tom in a grave guttural voice. He began chanting
in the ancient tongue, summoning all the damned under his rule, beseeching
demons and dead souls.
He could see, in Janna's face, that she was the first to perceive it for what
it was, to understand the energies he was gathering. She looked impressed,
awed, and more than a bit jealous. Oh, for fuck sake! He was saving her life,
she better deal with the fact he could do things she couldn't.
The green phantasm lifted a claw towards him, a blur of flames shimmering right
under the surface. In an instant, a sturdy metal chain came spilling out of the
ground and grabbed the offending appendage. Then came another, and another
after that. Fetters and shackles of iron black as night closed themselves
around the monster. It trashed and burned, it assaulted the restrains with
unearthly power, and yet they held. A circle of red flames began drawing itself
around the intruder's form, broken by twelve equidistant spikes. Arus'Morgáth,
the sigil of domain.
Marco gasped. Jackie looked up, still too shocked, and perhaps too much in
pain, to speak. They both beheld what the demon prince knew were the full
limits of his power. He would have to rub this one on Marco's face later. But
for now, he needed to remain focused.
"You should be afraid," Tom repeated, "because I am Tom Lucitor, son of
Wrathmelior Lucitor, descendant of Iblis Lucitor the Elder, and heir of their
line. You should be afraid, because you are in the underworld under my rule, on
the domain left to me by my ancestors, and given to them by The Morning Star
Himself!"
He had never done this before, never needed to. This thing, whatever it was,
was more powerful than him, more powerful than even Star. Yet, within his
domain, Tom could call unto powers far beyond his own, he could bend the
entirety of this place to his call. Every demon and every spirit, of the
underworld of Mewni and Earth and a dozen more dimensions, ultimately answered
to him. The creature before them was weakened, merely an echo of whatever it
used to be. It had admitted that much to Marco. There was no way that it would
be able to stand, on its own, against literally all the powers of hell! Of his
hell, at least.
"By right of domain, by ancient pacts and even older laws, I order you to
withdraw from my lands!" he shouted. "Or else be cast to the flame beneath the
flame!"
A crimson glow began flowing through the huge dark chains. The twelve pointed
circle shone blinding in mid air around the emerald phantom, as a whirlpool of
invisible demonic spirits began bearing down on it. Lightning and flame
assaulted the translucent monstrosity in lizard form. It grunted in pain and
frustration.
"Enough!" Toffee shouted. "Fine. You've made your point. I acquiesce to
withdraw."
Just like that, the forces of the underworld ceased their attack, and Tom could
not have forced them to continue if he tried to. Whatever this being was, it
knew the rules at least as well as Tom himself did. He had told it to go away,
and if it did, of its own free will, then the demon prince had no authority to
deny that. Not under the right of domain. He could use his own personal magics
to try and harm the creature, of course, but that did not seem wise.
"But hear me out, as I depart, all of you," Toffee spoke, keeping the voice, if
perhaps not the persona. "If you stay down here, you are safe from me. If you
go back to Earth or to Mewni, if you desist from seeking me out, then I promise
I'll leave you in peace there as well. But if you persist on this course, then
we will meet again, and it will be far away from your domain, young Lucitor.
Remember as well, that this is not nearly the fullness of my power. Star,
Marco, Jackie, I truly do not desire your deaths. They would inconvenience me.
But make no mistake, I'll accept them, if given no choice. Goodbye."
With a thunderous boom and an explosion of green flames, the emerald ghost
vanished.
Tom felt the last bit of strength drain away from him. He had never done this
before. Never commanded all of the hell under his domain at once. Even his
mother did so rarely. It had taken his all to retain control until now. He fell
to the ground from meters up in the air, his own flames extinguished for a
time. He fell into the arms of a recently awoken Star Butterfly.
"Tom, that was..." the princess spoke. He could barely hear her, his
consciousness fading. It was not death, nothing like that, only exhaustion. He
smiled at her.
"I am so glad you are alright, Starship," he whispered as his eyes closed,
right before everything around him turned to black.
Chapter End Notes
     As dark as this chapter may have been, I should point out this is the
     first time our villain makes an appearance and there is not a body
     count. Of course, it is not the original form of our villain either,
     though.
     For those wondering if this version of ghost!Toffee was the plan all
     along, I invite you to look at Chapter 17, First Comment, Secret #3,
     Password: gentlemenitsbeenapleasure ;)
     Coming up next: Chapter 23: I Call the Darkness Unto Me
     Delay note: Chapter 23 and those that follow are going to take a bit
     more than three weeks, unfortunately, due to various non-AO3 reasons.
     With any luck, Chapter 23 itself should be out before Feb. In the
     meantime, here is another story I have been working on with an epic
     surprise co-author of some renown (but this story is neither the
     reason for the delay, nor does it mean I have stopped writing IStASE,
     fear not, those few that have made it to here!): Squire_of_the_Wash
***** I Call the Darkness Unto Me *****
Chapter Summary
     In we get conversations between mismatched pairs, costumes are worn,
     and we begin our descent into hell.
Chapter Notes
     All warnings, tags, and disclaimers, apply in full force for this and
     the following three chapters. If things so far in IStASE have made
     you uncomfortable, this is where you might wish to step out of this
     ride.
     With that said... we are off to see the wizard, the magical wizard
     from hell...
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Tom woke up to what many would consider the best possible thing after an ordeal
like that: the sight of a pretty girl. Except it wasn't the one he had
expected. Nor was she the one he had hoped for, either. He blinked, confused.
His head ached way too much for him to quite process what he was seeing.
"Hey," Jackie greeted the waking demon. "How you feeling, dude?"
"I am..." he began. In tremendous pain, was how he was. But instead of saying
so, he simply asked, "...where am I?"
She needed not answer. As he looked around, he realized he was sleeping on a
familiar couch, in the back of his own personal carriage. He could feel the
gentle vibrations that indicated they were in motion. The undead horse
galloping through the dimensions fast as a comet and delicate as a gliding
shadow.
"We are on our way already. We've been traveling for a while, actually. Janna
said we would not make it in time unless we took off this morning," Jackie
explained.
Tom sighed. Of course. He had been the one who spent the entire evening
yesterday reminding the witch that they could not afford to be late to their
meeting with Sam, and that it meant departing early that next morning, no
matter what happened. Wait, that morning? It had been middle of the night when
he fought the abomination, which meant... "What time is it now? How long was I
out?!"
Jackie looked at her phone. "Well, I am not sure how timezones work in hell,
but on Earth, it would be 4pm, west-coast time. You have been out slightly over
twelve hours, man."
Twelve hours?! His eyes glowed red with fury at the realization. He tried to
feel the environment around them, the hell within his domain. He failed. They
were already past the threshold, far outside his lands. He couldn't protect
them here if the monstrosity showed up again. He flared up in anger and fear.
"No! We need to go back! Turn us back this instant, girl!"
Jackie leaned back, ever so slightly, as flames burst out around Tom's prone
form. But after the momentary surprise passed, she simply looked at him and
gently shook her head, "We are almost there already, Tom. Anyways, I don't see
us turning back. Star won't have it, and where she goes, I guess we go..."
Almost there? He closed his eyes, and felt it. It permeated the air around
them, the earth beneath them, the firmament high above: Sam's power. They were
already within his lands, already well inside the confines of his own domain.
Tom calmed down ever so slightly. Sam had promised his protection, conditional
as it was. While in his realm, nothing else would have them for prey, not even
the creature from last night. It was the devil you knew. Literally.
It occurred to Tom now, that he had never interacted much with Marco's human
girlfriend. Sure, he had argued with her, or rather at her, back in St O's. But
that had been brief. Star was missing then, and he had to find her, to undo the
human teens' stupidity. He had mostly dealt with Marco then, not the girl. But
here she was, this Jackie kid, calmly telling him no, even as he had blazed
fury, even after what she had just seen him do.
"You are not afraid of me?" Tom asked, surprised.
"Well, Marco isn't, and Star isn't, and I don't think Janna is, either," she
reasoned, shrugging as she counted with her fingers. "Whatever eye-glow
exploding thing you have going on, dude, you seem to have it under control when
it really counts. So, as long as I know you don't actually want to hurt me..."
She looked pensive for a moment. She stared down, avoiding his eyes, all three
of them.
"Besides, I think I have proved I don't have enough good sense in me to be
afraid, even when I should be," she spoke dejectedly. Suddenly, she seemed a
lot less self-assured than she had so far.
Tom was confused. Then he remembered her charging at the fiery apparition,
which had taken the form of none less than Moon the Undaunted, while
brandishing some flimsy Earth-sword. That had taken balls, he had to admit. He
chuckled at the irony.
"Well," he smiled, finally, "you are in good company. You humans all seem to
have a death wish."
He laughed, in a way he hoped was just perhaps a smidgen more friendly than it
was derisive.
"Hey! You are one to talk!" she chided him, and punched him playfully in the
arm. "What you did was badass, dude. I won't say it wasn't. But when you fell
down, at the end... we all thought... I mean, I think even Star was scared. She
looked like she was about to cry..."
Tom blinked. Star? Star had been about to cry? Over him? No way! Jackie must be
making it up. Or maybe misinterpreting the mewman somehow. It had barely gotten
to the point where she tolerated him, after all. And given everything he had
done to her in the past, even that much was nearly a miracle. Besides, if she
truly cared, she would be here now, wouldn't she?
"By the way, where is Star?" he asked. "Or Janna? Or Marco? Why are you here,
of all people?"
That came out a lot more rude than he had intended. Fortunately for him, Jackie
seemingly took no offense.
"Janna and Marco are driving. Apparently he is the only one of us with any
experience taking this thing for a ride, and Janna is the only one of us who
can read a map of hell," she explained. "Star is busy brooding up there."
She pointed at the ceiling above them.
"Star... brooding?" he repeated dumbly. It is not like he didn't know what the
princess was going through, or how much it had affected her. Hell, he had seen
the hurt and fury in her eyes last night as she fought, however briefly. Still,
knowing Star as long as he did, the thought of her sulking simply did not fit
his picture of the mewman princess. If anything, it was he that used to do
that, even back when they were dating and he had few excuses for unhappiness.
"I don't think she wants to be with anyone right now. She got into another spat
with Janna and has been sitting on the roof ever since," Jackie continued,
paying no mind to his confusion. "As for why me? Well, your girlfriend wanted
someone to keep watch over you, and she asked me to do it."
"My girlfriend?" he asked. Then it clicked. "Janna is not..."
Jackie raised an eyebrow. Tom stopped mid-sentence.
"I don't know what we are, ok?!" he spat, irritably.
"Fair enough, dude," Jackie shrugged. "... just make sure she doesn't know
either. Anyways, we should probably tell them that you are back in the land of
the living."
Tom sensed the endless currents of dead souls that flowed through the vastness
of Sam's domain. 'The land of the living'? It was anything but.
"Sure," he answered, getting up.
----
Guiding Tom's hearse through the depths of the underworld was certainly a
unique experience. It was not at all like riding it from one dimension to
another, where the entire ride seemed as if the horse and carriage were gliding
through an infinite sea of flame, with no geography of its own. It was also not
like riding it on Earth, where its slow movement seemed almost mundane by
comparison. Down here, the scene around them moved way too fast for how a
normal horse would gallop. Yet, Marco, holding the reins through the coach's
front window, didn't feel the flow of air against his face that their velocity
would imply, nor the bumpiness of the harsh rock terrain below them. Hell, Star
was sitting atop the damn thing now, and apparently she had no complaints, at
least none about their movement.
"So, what's going on between you and Star?" he ventured asking to the girl
besides him.
"What's going on between you and Star?" Janna echoed the question back to him.
Without looking away from the scene above them.
It was majestic, in a horrifying sort of way. Where Earth of Mewni would have
blue skies or, at night, a tapestry of constellations, Sam's hell had a
permanent blue aurora over its entire firmament. A blue aurora that, Janna had
assured the boy, was made of mind-bogglingly huge streams of souls, all flowing
towards a gaping void in the center of its celestial vault. Right below that
void, said Tom's maps, was a huge black fortress; inside that, a city; and
inside that, Sam's palace. The land was no less eerie than the sky, with narrow
bridges, hundreds of miles long, twisting and turning over an ocean sized
chasm. A faint red glow shone from below the bottomless abyss, and every so
often a huge black spike of rock rose from the depths, higher than the bridge
they were in: a wicked torn stabbing the sky.
"Me and Star?" Marco asked. In the back of his mind, he hoped the troublesome
girl had been reading the maps right. This would be a terrible place to get
lost in, even with the finding ritual at hand as their last resort. "You are
the one who almost got into a fist fight with her just now, Janna! Star and I
are fine."
"Suuuure you are," she said, sarcastically.
"Ok, so, maybe it freaks me out a little bit that she seems to be getting more
and more, well, maybe, forceful is the word? Like, the stuff she did back
there. I mean, the situation definitely warranted it. That shape-shifting thing
is going to give me nightmares for weeks! It's just, well, I have never seen
Star be so... vicious?" he hesitated. "I just don't know how to keep her from
being too far gone, you know? I can't imagine what she is going through, and I
am not going to tell her how to deal with what happened to her mom. How could
I? But, sometimes, I wish the old Star were back, that I knew how to bring her
back. I worry if there is anything left of her. And well, it is super dumb that
I am still worried about this too, but there is the thing with the spying
spell, and how Star and Jackie haven't really talked since then. Also, I think
I hurt Jackie, like really badly, even though she is being incredibly chill
about it, and... why am I telling you all of this?"
"No idea," Janna shrugged.
They rode in silence for some time after that.
A huge thing that looked somewhat like a rose and somewhat like an octopus,
passed flying above them. Its main body was a black bulb of amorphous 'petals',
of a bright purple color. That form alone was the size of Echo Creek's
cafeteria building. Attached to it was a mass of black tentacles, thick as
sewer mains, each of them full of eyes and mouths. It screamed a piercing
hunger-filled scream through ten thousand maws. For some reason, it reminded
Marco of something, of someone. He knew that they should have been more afraid
than they felt. But, honestly, they had been seeing things like that all day.
They always passed by and left them alone. When asked about that, Janna had
reminded him that they had all been invited, and that Sam had promised no harm
would come to them if they didn't fuck things up. Her words, not his.
Marco wondered a bit about Janna. About how comfortable she was with all of
this. The girl had always been fascinated by the morbid and creepy, but this
was different. She had spent weeks living with Tom in the underworld, immersing
herself in the lore, learning who knows what dark magical powers. Hell, it was
hard enough coming to terms with the fact that Janna had real magical powers!
It was one thing for Marco to see Star casting magic, or Tom throwing fireballs
around, another to see Janna shoot lightning from her hands.
Then again, he had magic of his own. He knew the ritual of finding, and also
knew that there were many more where that had come from. Marco knew that, once,
back in Hekapoo's dimension, he had mastered dozens of powerful magical
rituals, maybe more. He vaguely felt he could do things that would have given
even Star a run for her money. After all, it had been enough to level the
playing field with Hekapoo. But now? All he could do was find things, and
whatever he found cost him a memory. He still didn't even know what he had
forgotten, back when he used it to find a way in Tom's maps room. He hoped it
hadn't been something important.
Maybe, maybe he could use that ritual to find the others, the memories he was
missing. After all, if the ritual could find a place, or a person, why not a
memory? It certainly could take them from him. He took a deep breath. It was
worth a shot. He couldn't afford to keep being the most useless of the five of
them. At least Jackie knew how to use a weapon. A red belt in karate was just
not going to cut it for this. The problem was, how to name a memory? Perhaps...
He closed his eyes, lifted his closed fist to his mouth, muttered the words and
exhaled. The tip of his finger shone bright with white light. In the back of
his mind, he knew this was a bad idea. There was something dangerous about
attempting rituals using vague and hopeful wording, and what he was asking for
was as vague as could be. He traced the first glyph, rough and sharp, drawn in
a single curving pattern along the air.
"What is that?" Janna asked, curious. Marco grinned at her, happy he could also
still surprise the witch as well.
"Strength," he translated. He had asked to find strength. He didn't know the
glyphs for spell, or ritual.
He continued drawing in mid air, a light glyph that curled intricately around
the previous one, delicate and ephemeral. "And this one is thought, or memory.
I am trying to find something... to remember something I forgot. A sealed
memory is what Hekapoo called it."
"A sealed memory?" Janna muttered pensive. Her face turned into a frown, as if
she were trying to recall something herself.
Marco's drawing shone brighter and folded unto itself, turning into a small
sphere, a transparent flake of light. It flew towards him, to the middle of his
forehead, and buried itself into his skull. He felt no different. Was the spell
telling him that the strength was in him all along? That was nice and all,
kinda poetic, but well, also terribly useless! Or was it just saying: 'Hey you
lazy idiot, you have these memories inside you already. That you don't remember
is not my fucking problem!'
Marco felt that was a weird way for him to phrase it, actually, even in his
mind. It didn't sound like his own thoughts. It sounded like what someone else
would say, someone Marco knew well. But who? Try as he might, he couldn't
remember. Hekapoo? No, that wasn't quite right either... His thoughts were
interrupted as Janna raised her hand in front of his face, fingers poised as if
she were about to snap them together.
Janna clicked her fingers and a ball of blue flames floated in mid air in front
of him, causing the boy to back away in surprise from the heat, and almost let
go of the reins. She gave Marco the most smug look he had ever seen in her
face, and there had been plenty to benchmark against.
"Hey, nice one, Janna," came a familiar male voice behind the two of them.
Marco turned around to see Tom and Jackie walking into the driver compartment.
"Hey Marco, missed me?" Jackie joked. He, in fact, had.
Tom's otherwise glowing smile fell at that moment, as he looked out of the
window.
"Belial and Belphegor!" he swore. "We are here..."
Marco looked back towards the front of the hearse and saw what the fiend meant.
It was perhaps fifty miles away still, as the tentacled-monstrosity flies, and
probably a lot further through the labyrinthine bridges of hell. But the fast-
moving carriage would cross that span in just a handful more minutes. At the
distance, he could see a humongous citadel, almost more a mountain that an
edifice. On the corners, twelve enormous towers rose towards the sky, each
ended by a claw-like crown of five spikes. It looked almost as if those were
twelve titanic hands, holding up the black-hole at the center of this world's
heavens.
Just as Marco was about to comment on the sight before him, he felt a jolt in
his stomach, and the sight was no longer there. Nor the carriage. Nor the sky.
----
"Ah, just in time!" a bemused voice exclaimed. Star scrambled to find its
source, to figure out her new surroundings, to get ready to strike back at
whatever had yanked her from the top of Tom's hearse and deposited here. But,
where was 'here', exactly?
It looked like a gigantic foyer, one that reminded the princess of the throne
room of Butterfly Castle. It was, in fact, eerily similar. The same minaret
windows, the same diamond patterns, the blue banners. Oh god, it looked just
like the place her mom had died in!
She had avoided that room the whole week she was back in Mewni, opting to give
speeches in public squares and conduct more private government business in the
council chambers. As soon as she was able, she had delegated all hearings in
the throne room back to her dad. She felt sick, about to vomit, and not just
because of the disorienting teleportation.
Except it wasn't Mewni's throne room. It was wrong in too many ways to be the
real thing. The windows showed the hellish soul-river sky she had been watching
before. The banners had a flaming sword surrounded by a twelve pointed circle,
instead of any of the heraldry symbols more common in Mewni. The statues showed
grotesque cyclopean creatures instead of famous historical mewmans. Most
importantly, instead of two thrones, there was a single statue of an obsidian
clawed hand, rising up from the floor. Languidly sprawled along its palm, lied
a young man of marble-white skin, glowing golden hair, and blinding blue eyes.
"Hope you like the look, princess Star," Sam spoke equably. "I redecorated, in
honor of my esteemed guests. Please, make yourselves... at home."
Star glared at the devil, and it took all of her self-control to not point her
wand at him. Instead, she took a deep breath. When the princess spoke, her
voice was a polite but cold monotone. "Well, thank you for the invitation, lord
Sam, and for being such a gracious host. I assure you I wish nothing more than
to be able to return such politeness in kind and in the same spirit it was
given..."
The three humans looked at her dumbfounded. Even Tom seemed somewhat surprised,
although he gave her thumbs up behind his own back.
'Geez', Star thought. They could give her a bit more credit! Sure, diplomacy
wasn't like her strongest suit ever, but is not like she didn't see what this
asshole was trying to provoke her into doing. They were safe as long as they
didn't 'violate his hospitality', whatever that meant. If this passive
aggressive bullshit was how he wanted to play it, then Star would oblige.
"Excellently spoken," Sam responded, not bothering to conceal his amusement. "I
would assume, of course, that a guest as polite as yourself would have brought
some suitable gift for their humble host?"
Fuck, that was some Miss Heinous level of protocol horseshit! Star saw the
horror dawning in Tom's eyes. They had, of course, not had time to pack any
presents. Not that she seriously believed they could have brought anything Sam
wanted. It was just his next move in whatever sick game he was playing. It was
also a completely different behavior than the one Janna had described to her
before. But the girl had also warned Star that Sam changed attitude like a
snake changes skins.
Either way, this had an easy fix. Star smiled back at the devil and slowly
raised her wand, pointing it calmly to the space between the two, making sure
there was no way in here it could be misinterpreted as an act of aggression.
She closed her eyes and dipped down. She didn't know a spell for this occasion,
but that didn't really matter when you did things the hard way, when you took
the time to get to the chunks. With a thought, she summoned forth a huge
treasure chest, filled with gold, fine silks, diamonds, and, most important,
corn. It was much easier than recreating her entire room anyways.
"A sample of traditional mewnian crafts and goods," she announced with a
curtsy. She refrained from adding where she thought Sam could stick all of that
corn.
"A kind gift, and an even kinder sentiment," Sam remarked with a nod. Star got
an eerie feeling from his tone, almost as if he could read her previous thought
and was replying to it as well. Either way, he was openly grinning now. "Sorry
for the abruptness in getting you here, by the way. I do not believe a visit to
the slums of the city below would have been pleasant for any of you, or
particularly entertaining for myself. I could always be convinced otherwise, of
course."
"That won't be necessary," Tom interrupted, relieving Star from having to come
up with a witty response to the implied threat. She looked down through the
windows then, to the smoke filled labyrinth of alleys and cavernous dwellings
of the city of Dis. Sam's castle, apparently, literally floated in the middle
of the city, a thousand paces above the ground. The demon prince continued, "I
just hope my carriage and horse are being taken good care of?"
"Ah, don't you worry about that, bro," Sam responded, effusively, yet
evasively. As he regarded Tom, his eyes were not glowing anymore, and his
expression had become almost witless compared to his earlier show of devious
flair. "You should just relax and enjoy the party. Let your old pal Sam here
take care of the dets, man!"
If anything, Star liked his previous mask better. Easier to know where they
stood with that one.
Once again, as if he could tell what she was thinking, Sam's eyes lit up in
harsh blue light as he turned back to her. "Now, I do believe you all brought
your invitations. So how about we get you all more comfortable?" he asked.
It was clearly a rhetorical question, since just that very same instant, five
pieces of black paper came flying out of the teens' pockets and bags, coming up
to float right above their heads. The invitations exploded into a shower of
ashen confetti atop each of them. As the flakes fell on Star, she felt her
bright green dress lengthening and changing into a dark purple gown. The
cartoon octopus in the middle transmuted itself into a large silver blooming
rose. Long thorn-covered ivy-like vines extended out from the flower and
through all of the dress fabric in an intricate pattern. Her purple plastic
boots turned black and velvet, with sizable heels sprouting from their soles.
Her stockings lost the stripped pattern and became entirely black and
dangerously sheer, if not for the added length of the outfit's skirt. Her
horned diadem remained, but turned into pure shining silver. Her cheekmarks
themselves turned into mauve colored closed rosebuds.
Yes, Star thought, so much better this way. She felt elegant, she felt wicked,
she felt above it all. The countess. She could work with that. She understood
this was more than a costume. Maybe, if she had never read Eclipsa's notes, she
wouldn't have gotten it so quickly. It wasn't that the disguise controlled her,
that it overrode her own personality or thoughts, nothing quite so crude. But
there were additional instincts, additional sensations, additional feelings
that came with the role. Star liked those feelings. They resonated with her
current state of mind, powerfully and insidiously. This was how she could tell
this was going to be more dangerous than she initially thought. It was easier
to resist a compulsion you found hateful, rather than one you found pleasant;
or so had Eclipsa's little book of mischief warned, and advised, her.
She looked around, at the others. Marco was, well, he was hot. The champion. It
sort of reminded her of older Marco, but it wasn't quite that. His body hadn't
changed from his almost 15 year old self, and the outfit was very different
from that he ended up wearing in Hekapoo's dimension, even if it shared a
certain harsh aesthetic. He was clad in brown leather, which covered only his
torso and upper legs, leaving his strong arms bare. He had a red bandanna
around his head. A makeshift suit of armor covered his chest and abdomen, made
of iron plates strewn together with leather straps. It was a scratched dented
ugly thing, and Star loved it! The safe kid had never looked this dangerous.
Hell, Sam had given him a double edged iron sword to match. Primitive by mewman
standards, it resembled those weapons from her history classes back on Earth,
from a place called Rome, or sometimes Greece. Those were the same, right? Star
was never great at Earth history. Either way, Marco looked badass!
Tom also ended up rather dashing, in a very different way. The scoundrel
indeed. He was dressed in black thin silky fabric for the upper half, with a V
neck that reached well below the middle of his well-toned yet lean chest. The
lower half was a very tight-fitting set of long leather pants. His hands were
sprinkled by a series of rather interesting silver rings. He wore black and
smooth leather boots. Star realized that Sam had given him a rose tattoo on the
neck, and another one near his abdomen, whose shape she couldn't quite see
fully under even the low collar of his shirt. His usual earing had been
replaced by a silver one shaped into a sapphire-eyed skull.
Janna had said Sam liked men. Seeing the costume choices, Star had to believe
that was true. The troublemaker herself, by contrast, was dressed in a plain
black hooded robe, with a pentagram etched in what looked to be blood through
the back of it. Knowing Janna, she would love it. But to the mewman princess,
that was really, well, 'meh'. And Jackie... oh wow, and not the good kind!
Jackie was dressed in brown rags, her usually carefully tousled hair was messed
up to hell and plastered together into grimy clumps, her face covered in dirt.
Along her wrists were two very solid metal shackles, tied together by a short
chain. Same thing around her feet, to the point she would need to shuffle more
than walk. A lot of her was exposed through the old broken-down fabric, and
yet, it wasn't an alluring look. This was the harsh vulnerable kind of exposed,
not the playful kind. Mostly, Jackie looked miserable, and weak. Her expression
looked shocked and pained, and so very lost, probably courtesy of those extra
'instincts' that came with her costume. The slave. Star glared at Sam, and
noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Marco was doing the same.
"How do you all like your threads? You look fantastic, if I may say so myself,"
beamed the devil. "The party itself doesn't start until tomorrow's afternoon, I
am afraid. It would be good manners for you to keep the costumes on through
your stay, of course. I'd be happy to entertain you tonight as well, perhaps a
tour of..."
"Actually, Sam," Tom spoke. "We are thankful for the offer, but I believe we
are all quite tired from a long journey. Perhaps showing us to our rooms would
be enough for the day?"
He turned and winked at Star, and at the rest of them. Of course, the less time
they spent with Sam around, the better. So long as they could find a polite
excuse to get away.
"Mmm, Tom, bro, I am a little disappointed in you," remarked their host.
Despite the words, he was grinning. "I do not believe that early rest matches
the role of a proper scoundrel, now, does it?"
Right. Right. 'Be in character, or else'. Oh, Star was really getting to hate
this guy. She looked back at Tom, to see if he was worried, as he often was
when Sam was involved, or angry perhaps, at being toyed with like this. The
demon prince was grinning back at his 'old pal'.
"Oh, you don't see a reason why a scoundrel would want to retire to his
chambers with a crowd of beautiful ladies? Sam, that's exactly what this
deviant catsuit of yours is telling me I should do!" Tom countered. "Guess you
wouldn't understand." He flashed Sam a strangely cocky grin.
Star could hardly believe this was Tom. Sure, he had always been somewhat
suave, and sometimes a bit forward when it came to her, personally. But, 'three
beautiful ladies'? Really? She glanced at Janna, but the stupid cowl of her
witch costume didn't allow anyone to see her face. She would have paid to see
her reaction to that statement!
"Ah, well played, Tommy boy, very well played," Sam smiled. "I do believe you
will keep to your role quite nicely, after all, bro. But, can all of your
playmates say the same? Oh, this is going to be so much fun tomorrow... when we
play for keeps. Very well... early rest it is. Goodnight."
He clapped his hands once, and they were all yanked out of place once more.
----
Star looked out through the window of her room. Bonfires burned in the city
below. It was subtle, this high up, but the scent was one of burning meat. She
doubted it was a barbecue. Sam hadn't been kidding when he said they would
probably not enjoy a visit down there. Star shrugged, hell was what hell was,
after all. She closed her eyes and dipped down. In front of her, the ghostly
green form of Moon the Undaunted appeared, floating in mid air, immobile. It
was not her mom, and it was not the creature from last night. It was merely a
simulation, a sculpture of light.
She pointed her wand at the image and pierced her mom's heart with a single ray
of dark violet energy. The mirage popped away like a soap bubble. There. That
was how easy it was. So, why hadn't she been able to do it? Why did she
hesitate last night? She knew it wasn't her mom. She almost got them all
killed!
With a growl of frustration, Star pointed her wand down through the open
window. A blast of shadow and fire rained down on the burning city below,
barely noticeable over the background chaos that was Dis. It relieved the
princess of some frustration, and if she hit someone, well, if they were here,
not only would they deserve it, she could hardly make their day any worse than
Sam's domain would on its own.
Still, she had failed at the one thing she had been telling herself for days
she would not fail at. She had practiced with the statues, many many times, to
make sure to strike true. 'Aim it directly at its heart' had instructed
Eclipsa. Star knew that her mom had failed to kill Toffee, that she had missed
her shot, so the princess had diligently practiced her own aim. Even so, she
had failed too. She felt angry at herself, she felt like a screwup and, despite
the haughty persona flowing from her purple dress, she felt weak.
She heard a knock on the door.
Marco and Jackie, perhaps? She hadn't seen them since Sam clapped his hands and
sent them all to their rooms. Apparently they had all been assigned to
different lodgings. Hers looked very similar to her mom's old room in Mewni, of
course, because that was the kind of thing that gave the devil his jollies or
something. At this point, Star barely cared. There had at least been a warm
dinner on the table when she had popped into existence there.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"Me," responded a hesitant male voice.
"Tom?" she asked, surprised. "Come on in. Did you and Janna get separated in
this place as well?"
"Nah, he put us both together," he replied as he entered the room. Looking
around with wide eyes. "Is this...?"
"Yup," she cut him. She hoped that made it clear that she wasn't going to
discuss whose room this looked like.
Tom looked like he was about to say something, but then seemly thought better
of it. Instead, he added, "well, if its any consolation, he put Janna and I in
much crappier digs. Think a cross between a rental room at a bordello and a
pharmacy, with all these weird flasks on the walls."
"So, a room for a witch and whatever a 'scoundrel' is supposed to be in this
case?" Star observed. "Anyways, Tom, why are you not there with Janna now,
then?"
"Ah, well, she wanted to be alone right now, actually. She said something about
figuring out a thing she might have forgotten," the demon prince explained.
"And, well, after what happened last night, and what happened just now down
there... I had to make sure you were ok."
"Tom, you didn't have to do anything," Star remarked pointedly. "I am fine. I
can take care of myself."
The moment she said the words, she regretted them. After all, they weren't even
true. If not for Tom, they would have all lost last night, possibly died, maybe
something worse.
"I... I am sorry, Star, I didn't mean..." Tom looked like she had just slapped
him on the face. He began walking towards the door. "Well, anyways, glad to see
you are alright..."
It was a very different Tom than the one she had seen last night. She
remembered him floating into the air, invoking whatever weird magics he had by
virtue of being the ruler of the particular underworld they were in. She
remembered the strain on his body from commanding those energies, and how
fierce he had seem in his proclamation. Honestly, it had been kind of
impressive. She had seen Tom angry and vengeful before, but never on someone
else's behalf, and never quite so in control. When he fell, at the end, Star
had been terrified. She jumped to catch him, even as her own body burned with
pain.
"Tom, wait!" she stopped him. "I am sorry. And thank you... for checking on me,
and for yesterday too. Also, well, thank you for being there for me, these past
few days. I... I am not alright. I think it's pretty obvious I am not even
close to alright."
Tom gave her a very faint smile. "Want to talk about it, Star? I might know a
thing or two about not being alright."
She looked at him, hesitantly. For a moment, she wondered what was his angle
here? What was Tom planning?
A few months ago, the answer would have been obvious, even to a far more naive
version of herself. But Tom was with Janna these days, wasn't he? Plus, he had
given no signal of wanting to be anything but friends with the princess since
they patched things up. Except, well, last night, as he passed out, he had
called her Starship again. Hadn't he? And now he was alone with her, in her
room, at night, in his magical gigolo outfit. It was reasonable to wonder,
wasn't it? Star didn't think she was being unfair to at least consider whether
the demon might have less than perfectly chaste intentions in being here
tonight. But was she wondering because she feared he might have ulterior
motives? Or because she hoped so?
Her glance traveled up the slim leather pants and the dark silk shirt, to the
lean and toned chest underneath, and the mysterious tattoo half visible in the
exposed part of his chest. Whatever did peek out was vaguely triangle-shaped.
In most other boys, the ensemble would have perhaps looked just a little too
feminine, but Tom managed to pull it off quite nicely. Something inside tugged
at her as she regarded the fiend. Was the feeling her own? Or perhaps something
in her own role? Either way, it was a terrible idea. She was with Marco, Tom
was with Janna, and every time there had been something between the two of them
before it had ended in tears.
Tom blushed and then looked down, guiltily. "I, I know how this looks like,
but... Just talk, I swear! I can handle this stupid costume. After what I did
to you that night, the night of the concert... I don't want to hurt you like
that again, Star!"
Star pondered the words for a minute. Then realized she had something else to
say about that night, something she should have said back in St O's, or during
the last week. Something she only now fully understood, with the perspective of
much deeper wounds.
"Tom, I think I am the one who should have apologized for that night. You told
me exactly what you wanted, and I said yes, and then I used you," she pointed
out. "I am not saying you going all fire and brimstone at the end was a nice
look. But, well, now that I understand what having real anger burn within you
feels like, anger you can't quench or suppress, I am just saying... I get it. I
hurt you, and you made an effort not to hurt me in return, as best you could.
Then I acted as if you had been the bad guy, well, the only bad guy, as if I
was blameless."
He tried to say something and Star cut him off with a wave of her hand.
"But that's not the worst part," she continued. "I knew you were in pain
before, since we broke up, since even before that. I knew you were dealing with
dark difficult things, ugly things, and my response was to abandon you. And
now, when it is I who is hurting and full of fire, and no one can stand to be
around me, you have been there for me... For all I have complained about you
before, and for all I made you say you were sorry, in the end you are a better
friend to me than I was to you, Tom. I am sorry."
"Star, you don't need to apologize," Tom walked up towards her and hugged her.
"It was not your job to fix my problems, it was mine. You have probably been
the best friend I have ever had, and the best girlfriend too."
'Wait? Was he saying...? What about Janna?' Star thought.
"Maybe you are right Tom. It wasn't my job. But neither is yours to help me
with mine. Even Marco has no idea what to do with me now. Hell, even I don't
know what I want..." she vented.
It really wasn't the human boy's fault, he was doing the best he could to be
there for Star. But, well, he didn't get it. There was no darkness in Marco
Diaz's life, other than that Star herself brought him. And she didn't want to
show him even half of what was boiling inside of her now. But Tom, maybe Tom
would understand.
"What do you think you want, Star?" he asked, cautiously.
"To avenge my mom," she replied without hesitation. Then, a few seconds later,
"To get rid of this need to hurt someone, badly. To feel something other than
anger, and emptiness, and cold. To not hurt him, of all people..."
Star had been so lonely these days. Yes, she was avoiding Marco, at least as
much as he avoided her. But it was not that she didn't want the company. She
had fantasized about being with him so many times this week, about crying, and
shouting, about breaking things, and about making love. But she had to retain
control, because if she didn't, if she let go, she would hurt him. Even now,
she was thinking of doing something that would surely hurt him, if he ever
knew; him, and Tom, and Janna too.
Ah, hell, screw Janna! She had been nothing but a snappy bitch to Star these
days. And screw Marco too. After all, he hadn't come to find her, Tom had!
Marco had Jackie, Jackie and self-righteous sermons about how Star was turning
evil for wanting to get some payback on her mom's killer. He got two, it was
only fair that she got two as well, wasn't it?
With her new outfit's heels, Star was almost at eye level with Tom, so it was
just a matter of pushing herself slightly.
She kissed him.
He didn't recoil from it, and soon their lips were opening, their tongues
intertwined in passion. Star's hands roaming the sides of his torso. His hands
behind her back, seeking her wings.
She pushed herself away. "Wait, Tom! I shouldn't do this!" she exclaimed. It
was crazy! It was the costume speaking, and all of her frustration listening to
it!
"Right, right, you are in a vulnerable moment, and you are with Marco, and I am
being a huge jerk again..." Tom started walking back horrified. "I am so sorry,
Star."
"What? Are you kidding?! Weren't you listening just now?!" Star shouted at him.
"You are not being a jerk. I am! I... I was about to use you again, Tom. I am
lonely, and messed up, and angry at... at too many people, and I was just about
to foist all that stuff on you, again, because you are the one person I am
apparently ok with hurting, even though lately you have been nothing but kind
to me. I am sorry..."
"So, basically, you mean you are not in love with me - which, big surprise, I
knew that - but that you want me for... for what exactly?" he asked.
"I, I haven't been with Marco since my mom died. I don't even know if we are
still a thing. I guess we are. But he can't deal with the darkest parts of me
right now, nor can I show them to him, and those are the ones that want to do
this," she explained. "I don't want to stay like this forever: cold on the
outside, boiling with rage on the inside. I want to be the girl Marco used to
like, and I do still like him too. But I do miss... I need... I am sorry... I
thought... I mean... fuck, I am horrible."
"You thought you could pump me and dump me? Use me to get off and to unleash
all the dark stuff you got clogged up in there?" Tom clarified. He was
remarkably candid, and remarkably accurate. She nodded, ashamed. Then, he
added, "Ok, works for me, Star. Let's do this."
"What?! Tom, it is not a nice thing... I mean, I know you like me - like, like
me like me - and this is not fair to you!" Star reminded him. "I can't give you
what I know you really want from me. Besides, what about Janna?"
He closed the distance between them in a swift step. Looking at Star in the
eyes, he replied, "You told me exactly what you wanted, and I said yes. What
happens to me now is my own damn fault. Is roughly what you said before, so it
sounds extremely fair to me, Star."
He kissed her deeply, hungrily, pushing her body against his with his right
arm. She kissed him back, and felt something foul and nasty, and disturbingly
enjoyable, break free inside her. She was no longer at the point of giving any
more warnings. Tom wanted her to let go, and she would. So much pent up
frustration, so much pent up stress, and far worse things.
She felt a devious inspiration then, 'The Countess' no doubt, and she pointed
her wand at Tom's chest. She threw him back into her bed with a relatively
gentle wave of force. Relatively gentle for the two of them, of course. The
demon prince yelped, not in pain, but in surprise.
"Tom, sit there. I have something to show you," she announced. His shock turned
into a delighted grin as Star put the wand down by the floor, slowly kicked
away her boots, and began undoing the lace strings holding the blouse of her
gown together.
Sure, the rules said to stay in costume at all times, but somehow she didn't
believe Sam would count this one against them. It didn't seem like his style.
Tom's three eyes were glued to the middle of the princess' chest now. Whatever
this dress was, it had more lift there than anything the mewman had worn
before. But even so, it was not like there was much to lift in the first place.
Tom licked his lips hungrily, and that gave Star all the confidence boost she
needed to continue. She let the fabric fall from over one of her shoulders, and
the dress slipped down until it was barely above her nipple. She stopped there,
as long as she could hold, resisting the urge of rushing the surprise.
He looked at her attentively and impatiently, but said nothing. Star closed her
eyes, dipped down, and the fabric began turning translucent. Slowly, ever so
slowly, it vanished. She raised her left hand, and a web of green ribbons of
light rose from beneath the floor. It passed through the furniture of the room,
but was solid to the two teens. It lifted him from the bed and herself from the
floor. Naked, smiling, she began crawling along the spiderweb towards a very
bewildered Tom.
"Mephistopheles on a monocycle, Starship! ... I mean, Star, sorry... Since when
can you do this sort of thing without your wand?!" the demon prince asked.
Apparently she had managed to surprise him indeed.
"Oh, 'Starship' is fine, actually," she remarked, as she reached the middle of
the web, rolling herself to his side, pressing her naked body against his still
clothed form, whispering in his ear. "And you'd be surprised the things I can
do now..."
Her eyes glowed green as she traced a finger through the exposed triangle of
his chest, a thin trace of green flame burned below her touch. It was what he
had done to her, many times before, light pain, soothing pleasure. Tom gasped.
"How about you show me, again, what you can do to me?"
She rolled Tom's body over her own, with extreme ease, positioning him above
herself. She crossed her legs around his, pressing her naked crotch against the
leather pants of his costume. She felt a swell in the hard fabric reward her
performance.
Clumsily, still incredulous, Tom began undoing the buttons of his shirt,
letting it fall open to the sides. It was a star. The tattoo. Of course it was
a star. A message for her, then, from Sam. He knew this would happen, the smug
asshole.
"Star, you are going to need to let go a little bit there if you want me to
remove those too," the demon prince remarked, looking down to his pants, just
as he threw his shirt to the floor through the magic net. Star just wiggled,
relishing the probably uncomfortable pressure building up inside the boy's
trousers.
"I thought you were supposed to be some dashing rogue with those on, my
devilish scoundrel," she joked. "Why don't you figure a way to make me let go?"
Tom looked at her confused for only one more instant, then he smiled.
"Starship, you should know, I am a devilish scoundrel in any clothing."
His claws snapped closed around her wrists, and he lowered his mouth against
her neck. He kissed her, at first. Then he bit softly. Then he slid the tips of
his razor sharp teeth all over the right side of her nape, and down to the
shoulder. If anything, it made her legs close tighter around him, but he didn't
seem to mind.
"Oooh," exclaimed Star, appreciatively.
He breathed a hot excited breath along the front of her neck as he moved his
head to the other side, repeating his previous actions on her left. After that,
he moved up, to nibble on her lobe. He was moving rhythmically against her as
he did so. She could feel his strong naked chest against her breasts and the
texture of the raised leather against her mound. She wondered if that would
stain his pants.
As he rocked against her, he begun to slid lower and lower, until his mouth was
hovering over her breast. She waited, and waited. Her entire focus on his
breathing over her hard expectant nipple. Instead, she felt a claw caress the
boundary between her outer lips and her inner thigh. Suddenly, she opened her
eyes, and realized Tom was grinning at her from below. As she relaxed in
anticipation of his mouth over her boob, he had escaped the hold of her legs!
They were now around his abdomen, and he was busy pushing his pants away from
his ankles.
"Seems like I win," Tom remarked, as he lowered his mouth over her chest, his
tongue dancing circles around the small mounds and flicking at her pert
nipples. Star disagreed, this seemed to her a lot like her winning.
Then again, nice as his kisses and touches were, she was looking for something
more... visceral. She wanted to let go of things inside her that weren't all
puppies and rainbows. It was why she wanted him tonight, him in particular. She
dug her fingernails into Tom's back. The demon didn't even seem to notice. With
another plunge into the depths of her magic, Star sent waves of pain directly
into his back muscles through the tips of her fingers. Violet lightning
crisscrossed his purple flesh like ivy over a stone wall. The demon prince
grunted and howled.
"Tom, I am going to need you to hurt me too," she explained.
Two fingers plunged themselves into her cunt, just as the boy bit hard on her
nipple. Shit! Ouch! Fuck! Yeah, that was what she was talking about, actually!
Star howled and moaned.
"Good boy!" she remarked.
Soon, she got used to the motions of Tom finger-fucking her, and the pain was
replaced by pleasure as her already wet sex became drenched enough to
accommodate the fast motions. His teeth scrapping along her chest, as well as
the embracing fires, continued to provide a source of soothing torment. They
proceeded that way for a while. Every so often, he would hold his fingers
inside her as his open palm rubbed her most sensitive spot from the outside,
slowly, almost gently, just as he bit hard on her breast for contrast.
"Aaaah, fuck. Ok, Tom, my turn," she eventually spoke. The entire web twisted
around them, and she was now on top of him once more. "How do you like it?" she
asked, confidently. A far cry from their previous time together.
"However you need it, Starship," he responded with an equally cocky grin.
With that invitation extended to her, Star proceeded to rock herself over the
boy's erect member. Soon, effortlessly, he was inside her. She bounced up and
down a bit, but something wasn't right. It was not doing it for her. Not in the
way she needed.
The princess slowed down and pushed Tom down with her arms and chest. She
pressed his wrists against the magical net, and soon two extra ribbons of light
snapped around her partners arms, then two around his legs. She kissed him
softly. With a grin, she instructed him calmly, "I am going to need you to
struggle."
Tom blinked for a moment, then returned her smile. He began trashing, pulling
against the magical restrains. It was not enough. Star didn't feel like he was
trying to escape, not really, just giving a very half-hearted show of it.
Frustrated, she pushed two fingers towards the middle of Tom's star tattoo. A
burst of green flames sprouted from it, burning him for real. She began tracing
the contours of the star on his flesh.
Tom yelled. His eyes turned into bright red coals. He began trembling and
fighting for real, and as he did, Star continued to push herself up and down
his cock, faster and faster. She felt powerful, she felt in control. This is
what she wanted, what she needed. To hurt Tom, to subdue him, to have him
squirm below her mighty fury! This was why she couldn't have done this with
Marco, why she needed the demon tonight. This time, he was what she needed,
what she wanted. "Toooom!" she screamed.
"Staaarrgh!!" he shouted in agony. Then, as she removed her hand from his
abdomen, worried that she was harming him for real, he added, in the softest
whisper, "... continue."
She looked at her hands, they were dark, filled with glowing purple veins. In
her arousal, she had long ago forgotten to maintain the stupid glamour. She
pressed both her palms into Tom's chest, and let some of the darkness flow out
of her. Red fire burned all around them as Tom screeched. Not wanting to burn
the place down, and anger their infernal host in the process, Star contained
the flames in a shielding bubble. It was remarkable that, in the throes of
passion, she still had this much control. She was so more powerful than she had
ever been. It felt... exhilarating.
She focused on her movements then, on the wonderfully filling sensations of
impaling herself on Tom's cock. She kept one hand on his chest, pumping pain
into him, as she brought the other one down to her sex. The combined
stimulation of her trashing prey and her own fingers were drawing her closer
and closer to the end. Tom's own pulsating orgasm was the final straw that sent
her flying out of her skull. Almost literally so.
She could, for a second, see the scene from the outside. She was in the room's
ceiling, floating amongst a green mist. She saw her own expression of maniacal
glee and blissed-out climax. She saw Tom's burning red eyes, and the charred
marks in the flesh of his chest. In an instant, she was back inside her own
body.
"Oh, crap! Tom, are you ok?" she asked as she rolled herself down to his side.
Star knew Tom was tough, really tough. It was the only reason she had allowed
herself to go this far. But what if she had gone too far, even for him?
"I am fine, Starship. Demon, remember? I can handle a bit of doom and hellfire.
It is... an experience," he smiled, even as he winced. "Guess now I have an
idea of how Janna feels..."
Star saw Tom's expression turn sour at this, and perhaps a bit guilty. Right,
Janna! Tom was with her now, wasn't he? And they had just... And what about
Star herself? She was with Marco! And with Jackie, sort of. What was it they
had said about other people, a lifetime ago? 'If either of you ever have some
other guy you like, then we should talk about it, and have the same deal apply.
I would feel like such a jerk otherwise...' is what Marco had said. This didn't
seem like talking about it first, though.
She had felt justified, before; almost, albeit not completely, in the right.
She had reasoned that Janna was irritating, and Marco too self-righteous, and
that anyways two for two was fair. Star didn't feel so sure about those
arguments now.
"I think this was a mistake, Tom," she remarked.
"Yeah..." he answered.
Star didn't know if it was her imagination, but he sounded even more guilty
than she felt.
----
She was in the room's ceiling, floating amongst a green mist. She saw Star's
expression of maniacal glee and blissed-out climax. She saw Tom's burning red
eyes, and the charred marks in the flesh of his chest. In an instant, she was
back inside her own body. Jackie Lynn Thomas was shocked pale by what she had
just seen.
She turned around in the pile of straw that Sam had assigned her as a bed,
towards the boy who rested sitting against the stone wall of their cell. He
wore the same shocked expression she was sure she had.
"Marco, I am not sure what just happened, but I think I just saw Star and..."
"Yeah, me too..."
Chapter End Notes
     Yeah... that just happened. It's tomstar folks, but not as you know
     it!
     Believe it or not, this was planned way before Season 3 brought us a
     much fluffier version of tomstar. In fact, originally I was kind of
     afraid that this pairing would be reviled by the fandom in general
     (it wasn't in canon, but the way it happens here it still might be,
     of course ;) ), which explains the wording for Chapter 17, First
     Comment, Secret #2, Password: justfiends
     Coming up next: Chapter 24: Each Alone
     In which our main three have disturbing dreams, and Janna finally
     shows her true colors
***** Each Alone *****
Chapter Summary
     In which our main three have disturbing dreams, and Janna finally
     shows her true colors
Chapter Notes
     (Published on Feb 14/15) Oh well, I just realized that, this is like,
     the opposite of a Valentine's Day special. I swear it wasn't even
     intentional.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Star Butterfly sat atop her pink flying cloud. It was wider than usual, because
it had to accommodate more people than usual. Around her laid Marco, Tom, and
Jackie too. They were all naked, while Star wore the Countess disguise Sam had
given her. They were all happy, they did as Star wished, as her mind commanded.
A thought, and Tom began massaging her back. A gesture, and Marco leaned in to
kiss her. A nod, and Jackie fed her some grapes.
She was dreaming, of course, Star knew that. It was a good dream.
Below her was the city of Dis, or at least her mental image of it. Its narrow
streets looked like those of Mewni, except they were submerged in rivers of
flame, and there, covered up to their waist in burning oil, were the damned.
There was Ludo and his monsters, except Buff Frog, of course, who was nice.
There was Toffee, for sure deserving of any and every torment hell could dish
out. There was Princess White, and that snake monster thing that had lived
inside Tom's vase. There was the green phantasm that pretended to be, but
certainly wasn't, her mother. There was Brittney, because why not? And
Ruberioth, because of that stupid song. Sam was there too, and he was in pain,
for all that it made no sense. Yeah, it was the people who had wronged Star
that now suffered in hell. Their cries were music to her ears.
"Oh dear," spoke a voice above Star. The princess looked up to see Eclipsa
descending slowly, floating in mid air by holding on to a large purple
umbrella. As soon as she matched Star's altitude, she stopped there in place.
"This is certainly some interesting imagery, don't you think?"
"Meh, it's just a dream," Star shrugged. "Dreams are weird."
"They most certainly are," Eclipsa agreed, with a twinkle in her eye. "They can
also be rather insightful."
The older Butterfly glanced meaningfully at Marco, and suddenly he was wearing
a pair of square glasses. Still deliciously buck naked, mind you, but with
glasses.
He cleared his throat, "Well, obviously a power fantasy, with some cathartic
revenge imagery, and rather blatant sexual overtones. At the same time, having
all three of us tend to you, represents..."
"Sssshh," Star brought a finger to the boy's mouth as she silenced him. Then
she turned back towards Eclipsa. "Ok, I get it: Bad dream about being bad is
bad. 'Dark queen' ascending, yada yada..."
"Do you feel... dark?" Eclipsa asked, gently.
"No!" Star shouted. Green lightning sprouted all around cloudy, the flames
below rose and roared furiously. Eclipsa lifted an eyebrow. "Okay. Yes. Yes I
do. I mean, I don't think I am doing evil things, not exactly. I mean, seducing
Tom... if you can even call it that... was... bad... and maybe I owe Marco a
huge apology... But, on the other hand, is not like that qualifies for 'great
prophetic evil' bad, does it? And I do want to destroy the thing that killed my
mom, I really do, which is sort of a dark thought to have. But that doesn't
mean I really want to cast Ruberioth or Brittney into the fires of hell! I
think I still know the difference there..."
"Sleeping with a demon and using the dark arts to vanquish your foes... I was
condemned for lesser crimes," Eclipsa pointed out. "But as you say, that alone
perhaps didn't truly make me evil. It did make me a Dark Queen, however, in the
eyes of many. So, I think what you need to ask yourself is, what are you afraid
of? That you will be called evil? Or that you will do something you yourself
think of as evil?"
"I..." Star thought about it. She thought really hard. "I am afraid I will
change the definition. That I will do things that are evil, and not see them as
such."
"For example?" Eclipsa pressed on. "Torturing the songstrell?"
"No! Of course not!" Although, a part of Star genuinely wanted to, which scared
her enough. "For example: sleeping with Tom. For example: hurting him, even
though he said it was ok... I don't think I would have done it, you know,
before. Isn't wanting to hurt people, like, in general, evil?"
Eclipsa shrugged. "Don't look at me. Figment of your imagination, after all. I
don't think the real Eclipsa could answer that for you either. Only you can
answer those kinds of questions as they apply to yourself."
"Gee, thanks! Super insightful dream and all!" Star grumbled. "Couldn't we go
back to the version of the dream that involved shoulder rubs, kisses, and
fruit?"
"Well, Star," spoke Jackie, tentatively. "I think, and I might be wrong, but I
think, that you could do that easily, if that dream hadn't been making you feel
so incredibly guilty."
Star groaned in frustration.
"Word of advise, Princess Butterfly," came a smug voice arising from the flames
below. "Guilt is overrated."
Sam, or Star's dream of Sam, to be precise, floated up from the sea of flames.
His body still burned, even in mid air, but it seemed not to faze him in the
slightest.
"Oh, sorry... I meant: Oh. Ouch. It burns. I am in pain," he added in a
monotone. "Better?"
"Oh, right," Star muttered. "Here it comes: the "go ahead and just be evil!"
speech, as delivered by myself through the most unsubtle dream spokesperson
imaginable!"
"Now, now, that's not what I said," Sam remarked, with a mock pout. He held
both his palms up. "I said guilt is overrated. Not goodness. Not principles.
Not morality. Guilt."
"Isn't feeling guilty a sign that I did something I shouldn't have done,
though?" Star asked. Involuntarily, she looked at her dream image of Tom. But
he was immobile, looking down. So were Marco, and Jackie. Even Eclipsa had been
frozen in mid air.
"Perhaps. But, well, did it stop you from doing it? Did you not know, as you
were doing it, that it was the wrong thing to do?" Sam asked. He motioned all
around them with both arms, "You know, there are a lot of people that say that
the reason souls end up in hell is that they crave the punishment, that it is
their guilt that drags them here, not their actions."
He smiled, a mirthless knowing smile.
"They are wrong, of course, but the point is still rather poetic," the devil
clarified. "You make no one's life better by feeling guilty once you have
picked your desired course of action. Self-flagellating is not going to heal
Tom's flesh, or undo having fornicated with him, or clean up your betrayal of
those you think you love. However minor those sins might be in the cosmic
scale, they are now your own, whether you regret them or embrace them. Feeling
guilty will certainly not revive those you will kill, or undo the dark magic
you have summoned. It will not protect your friends of the harm you already
know you will likely inflict on them, either, and it has not prevented you from
putting them at risk. You agonized many many times about scrying on them, and
yet you never stopped, nor told them about it, until you got caught." He paused
then, letting Star digest all of that. "You see how guilt is useless, or very
nearly so? My point is not about what you should or shouldn't do, then. But if
you are going to sin, at least own the sin! Enjoy it!"
Star felt Tom's hands back on her shoulders, Marco's palm rubbing her arm.
Jackie, like a clockwork automaton, began moving again, feeding Star once more.
"Have your fantasy, Star! Be loved, served, feared... forgiven. Watch me burn
and whimper inside your mind! Do as thou will, and once done, don't give
yourself hell about it. There will be time enough for that! Do good, or do
evil, or both, or neither, but don't waste your time yelling at yourself inside
your skull for what you did or know you will do anyways! Regret makes you no
more virtuous than satisfaction." Sam grinned wildly and then began truly
yelling in agony, crying even, quite convincingly, as he fell back towards the
burning city below.
It was only much later, long after she'd woken up, that it occurred to Star
that, while nothing Eclipsa, Marco, or Jackie had said were things Star didn't
know on some level or another, that whole anecdote about why people thought
they went to hell was not something that would normally occur to her.
----
Marco Diaz looked down at the girl lying asleep in front of him and sighed. He
had covered her with the remains of his tattered red hoodie. She needed it more
than he did, after all; winters were brutal in Ennio, and a roof over their
heads was a luxury neither of them might ever know again. He leaned against the
huge stone walls that enclosed them all, more a pen for wild animals than a
prison for humans. Then again, many would dispute that those housed there were
human in the first place.
The girl herself had narrow snake-like slitted pupils in her eyes, vaguely
batracian looking limbs, and bat-wings for ears. What did the guards see when
they looked at her? A freak? A monster? An abomination? Or just a poor damned
soul with a deadly disease to be contained? Yet, as Marco watched her sleep, as
he saw her shiver in the cold winter night, as he remembered her lost scared
glances a few hours ago - when she was lowered down inside the great walled
circle that was Ennio Prison - he could not think of her as anything but a
scared little girl. More human than those who patrolled above the walls.
She was very young, perhaps younger than Marco had been when he began his quest
to hunt down Hekapoo and her clones. How long ago had that been? Seven years?
Eight? Nine? He wasn't sure. There were known gaps in his memory, after all.
Either way, he was older now, well into his twenties. He was much tougher,
harder, that he used to be, and yet, apparently, not entirely disabused of
misguided compassion.
He sighed. Allion would have yelled at him for being such a fool. Why did he do
this to himself? He knew the girl would not make it through the week, with or
without his assistance. That was half the reason he hadn't bothered to ask her
name yet. This place was not made for little lost girls. This place was hell.
"Hey pretty boy, how about you hand that sweet little thing over? Doesn't seem
you are making much use of her," Marco heard. He raised his eyes to find
himself looking at another prisoner, a burly 'freak' who was giving him a
particularly nasty grin. Case-in-fucking-point.
The man was huge, taller than people had any right being and twice over as
broad. His entire body was this amorphous blob of swollen human flesh covered
in gray protrusions of some metallic mineral formation. His right arm was
solely made of the same seemingly inorganic substance, and ended in sharp
knife-long metallic claws. He had one good eye and a rocky spike protruding out
of the socket where the other one should have been. Saying he was merely ugly
would have been a feat of politeness, and a misdeed of dishonesty.
"What it looks like is none of your business, bud," Marco replied, without so
much as a shrug. "She is with me. Save yourself the trouble and move along."
"Now, now, we are both reasonable individuals. Surely she is not worth much
trouble to you? After all, we all know you only have eyes for one girl in all
of this joint," the stranger remarked with a snickering laugh.
Right, he probably meant Hekapoo. Why was it that they always mistook his quest
to extinguish the clones' flames for some sort of bizarre romantic pursuit?
Couldn't a guy voluntarily lock himself in a hellish prison as a way to get
close to a woman, and have that just be a purely platonic assassination
attempt?
"Whereas me, well, I haven't had myself a birdie like that to warm me at night
in quite some time. You know how few of them last even the first day here," he
explained, as if he was just haggling over yet another piece of salted beef
from their morning rations. "So, I reckon... there is quite a bit of trouble I
am willing to get myself into for a succulent little morsel such as her..."
Well, that, right there, was the problem with people arriving to Ennio every
single fucking week. Stay out of trouble long enough, and your reputation
melted away, and then trouble found you. If this asshole thought Marco was just
going to hand him a teenage girl to rape, in order to avoid a fight, then his
reputation had surely decayed. If he thought he had a chance in hell of
intimidating him, or taking her by force in front of him, then his reputation
had most certainly all but vanished by now. When had this imbecile been
captured? Not this week, too cocky for that. A month ago? Two months? Three?
... No, not three, Marco had roughed up seven members of the Primal Growl Gang
three months ago, people would surely remember that.
"Fine," Marco sighed and stood up. "Let's get this over with. Last chance to
walk away, you walking mountain of Osacontt's dung. Don't say I didn't warn
you."
He always did. They never listened.
The other prisoner charged at Marco. Literally charged, like a bull or a rhino,
using his bulk and potentially superhuman weight in an attempt to bulldoze his
opponent. This guy put the brute in brute force! Marco had seen more fighting
skill out of fresh cadets in his early days as a soldier for the guild in
Zonst. Normally, he would dodge, but if he did, then he wasn't sure this idiot
wouldn't just trample over the sleeping girl.
Instead, he brought his palms together, rapidly executed a sequence of twelve
hand gestures as he repeated as many words in the old tongue of Riradesh. He
felt the ritual warm him up, despite the icy wind around them, he felt his
muscles strain to contain the power, his bones rattle under the magical fire
coursing through his veins. Swiftly, he jumped over the girl's body, and raised
a single hand in front of him. His palm made contact with the iron-like skin of
the lowlife's right arm, effortlessly stopping his momentum.
"What the hell?! How did you..." the thug started to ask.
Marco simply smiled and drove his other fist right into the soft fleshy bits of
the deformed man's stomach. He probably shouldn't have felt so great about
hurting the poor bastard. Everyone in Ennio was a victim first and foremost,
reacting inhumanly to inhuman circumstances. Yet, there were those in here that
he couldn't truly muster compassion for, no matter how sad their own fate,
because of the pain they so readily inflicted on others. This animal was
clearly one such case. Marco tried to compensate for the effects the ritual had
on his mind, but, honestly, he didn't try too hard. He didn't think he would
mind hurting this bastard even in his unaltered state. Right now, high on the
side-effects of the spell, he relished causing him pain.
The massive prisoner clutched his stomach with his left hand, then clawed at
Marco's face with his right. Once again, it was trivial for the young man to
block with his left arm, holding onto the crushing weight of the metal
appendage by its tree-thick wrist. The Fierceness Ritual didn't just make him a
hundred times as strong, it also made him at least ten times as nimble. His
opponent had lost the fight as soon as Marco had completed the gestures
involved. He squished the iron until he heard the bones beneath crack.
"Augghhhh!!" yelped his opponent, tears of pain falling from his good eye
socket. Marco had an idea right then, a delicious idea. He knew it was the
ritual talking, but, well, he was listening. There would be time for regrets
later. He pulled the mountain of a man down by tugging at his broken arm, moved
his hand along the limb towards the thug's face, placed his thumb right in
front of his remaining eye, and pressed down, hard.
The shout that followed was one of primal torment.
"There, there, don't cry," Marco chided, cheerfully. "Now, what were you saying
about her being worth the trouble?"
"I... I... I was wrong... I am sorry... sir," the giant spoke through the pain.
Marco was half impressed by that, most people would not be able to do much more
than howl in agony after a broken arm and a freshly ruptured eyeball. "Please,
let me go. You'll never see me again, I swear..."
"No, I won't. No one will. Now, what did you call her? 'A succulent little
morsel'?" Marco pondered as he moved his right arm back once more. Slowly, the
limb began turning a dark shade of purple. It became sinuous and pliable. The
tentacle appendage kept growing and changing, until it had taken the distinct
form of his demonic colleague. "I suppose you are going to be much less
appetizing than that, but my pal here is not a picky eater... Kar, it's supper
time, Bon Appetit."
"Oh boy! Have I mentioned how infinitely more fun you are to be around when you
do the whole bad boy power-up thing, kid?," spoke a toothy mouth in the middle
of his very own monster arm. "You should really do it more often!"
It was just a demonic curse that Star had casted on Marco by mistake, back a
lifetime ago, before Hekapoo's quest. It was alive and intelligent, and an
altogether vicious asshole, with a taste for human entrails. It turned out he
had a name too, or had given himself a name: Kar'Margorach. Most days, Marco
wished he could get rid of the damn thing. But sometimes, Kar came in handy. He
had been useful in getting Marco 'admitted' into Ennio and its deformed crowd.
And right now, he was making quick work of devouring the stupid bully in front
of them. It had started with the prey still alive, but that, of course, did not
last long.
Marco felt satisfied, happy even. Sure, most of it was the side-effect of the
ritual. It made him... less squeamish than he would otherwise be, perhaps a
tiny bit callous, 'bloodthirsty' might not be entirely incorrect either. He
knew he would hate the way he was acting now, the very thoughts that crossed
his mind, as soon as the spell wore off. He would be sick to his stomach. But,
right now, all he could think was that after something like this, surely his
reputation as someone not to be messed with would last more than a few couple
months.
His thoughts, and Kar's meal, were interrupted by a high pitched yell coming
from behind him.
He turned around to see the young girl fully awake, crawling her way along the
wall, away from the fight, away from him. She dragged herself, half limping, as
if still unused to her new anatomy. His own hoodie laid discarded on the floor.
"Oh, you are awake," Marco remarked. "Sorry about that. Don't worry. You are
safe now."
He gave her what he intended to be a friendly smile, and waved a bloodied left
hand at her. Behind him, there was the sound of bones breaking and Kar burping
loudly.
"Oh god! Oh god!! S...Stay away from me!!" she yelled, and broke into a run.
Marco woke up sweating.
----
Jackie opened her eyes. She could feel the clumps of straw in her hair, the
harsh material scratching her skin even through the tattered fabric of her
costume. She was lying on the same pile of straw that Sam had arranged to be
her bed, in the same clothes he had assigned to her. But she was no longer in
her cell, no longer in Sam's castle, no longer in hell. At least, not in the
literal kind.
Around her, and her small pile of hay, was the open courtyard of St Olga's,
where she had once fought princess White. Marco was nowhere to be seen. Nor,
for that matter, was anyone else, until...
"Wow, shit! We look like crap!" came a voice from right behind her.
Jackie turned around and found herself face to face with, well, with herself.
But while she was wearing the rags of the slave costume, the other version of
her, the one standing tall above, giving her a pitying look, was dressed in
bright golden armor. The same armor she had worn back when she last was here.
The armor she fought a duel in. Prince Jack's literal (and figurative) knight
in shining armor outfit.
"Who? How? Why?" the girl managed to ask, still disoriented.
"You, a better you, the version of you as you wish you truly were," answered
her mirror double, as to the matter of who she was. She then proceeded to
address the second and third questions, as well: "How? In a dream. Why? Because
we need to talk. Oh boy do we need to talk..."
A dream? That, that made sense. It was as good an explanation as any. Better
than just assuming she had completely lost her mind!
"About what?" Jackie asked, cautiously, as she sat up to face her doppelganger.
She was still not sure this was what it seemed. She had never had a dream like
this one before. But, then again, was that not true of most dreams?
"About how disappointed we both are with, well, with ourselves," the other
Jackie replied dryly. "I mean, just look at us. We went from this," she
motioned her hand over her own form, then, in a swift movement, she unsheathed
the golden magic sword and drove the point forward, stopping just in front of
the Jackie's true nose, "to that!"
"Oh, come on, that's not fair," Jackie pushed the sword aside with her hand.
"Ok, I don't like this stupid costume, obviously, or else we wouldn't be having
this chat. But is what we need to wear to get through this crazy costume party.
I think I can deal with that for two days, and then we are rid of it. Big
deal."
"That's not what we meant," Prince Jack shook his head. "Think, Jackie! Of
course we need to wear the damn thing, you know... out there. But this is a
dream, we can look however you want! And yet you chose to keep the rags on." He
sighed. "You want to know why? Because that's how we see ourselves now. And I
am here to vehemently protest that!"
Jackie froze on the spot. How she saw herself now? That couldn't be right! This
costume was all a cruel prank, after all, from some demonic asshole no less! It
was a disguise that she would endure with grace and as much dignity as humanly
possible, but not one that she would chose for herself. Not that she really saw
her, permanently, as the haughty Prince Jack either, but...
"You are so full of shit, dude!" Prince Jack interrupted her thoughts. "It is
how we see ourselves: weak, broken, defeated."
An image flashed before Jackie's eyes: Her, charging valiantly with a sword, a
sword opaque rather than shining golden. She heard an exasperated, dismissive
voice, 'Oh, for corn's sake.' She saw herself being kicked away, her sword
broken in half, and her body doubling over to vomit.
"Now, Jackie, answer me: Did that look like me? Or like you?" Prince Jack asked
coldly.
"Well, easy for you to say it!" Jackie retorted angrily. "We were powered up by
Star when we were you. We were stronger, faster, not to mention magically
protected from harm. I can't do the things you could, not without Star!"
"Yes, true. And it eats at us, doesn't it?"
Jackie had no answer. No honest retort.
"It eats at us that whatever we are is either a foolish dumb girl with a
skateboard, or just whatever Star lets us be," Prince Jack smirked. "You know,
like how she lets you play at being Marco's girlfriend too?"
"What?! Hey, wait a minute! I was Marco's girlfriend before Star," Jackie
protested. Feeling foolish for arguing with herself, specially about something
like this. She felt like she was crazy just for having this conversation.
Perhaps she was. "I mean, I opened the relationship to her, because I knew
Marco liked her and she liked him too, but none of us are pretending anything.
We are both Marco's girlfriends, and it was mostly my doing... or, you know,
our doing... ugh... this is so confusing!"
Prince Jack walked around her, sword still drawn.
"Oh, yeah, right! How noble of us!" she scoffed. "Listen, we both know they
would have ended together, sooner rather than later. You know that, right now,
if he had to choose, he would choose her. You know it because: He. Told. Us.
So."
Jackie looked down, it was hard arguing with herself, unfortunately.
"And we both saw what Star did, right? And Marco still defended her! 'Oh, she
is going through some really harsh stuff. I'll try to talk to her tomorrow.'
She cheats on him, and yet he would still rather have her than you!"
"That's not how it went! We both agreed Star is not herself these days! That
what she did was shitty, really shitty, but that is better to ask why she did
it, given what she is going through. And seriously, we are in some sort of
hellish night-stop with an immortal sadist, forced to play some bizarre role-
playing game we only half understand, and being pursued by a glowing horror of
green fire who killed her mom!" Jackie yelled back at the golden prince.
"Honestly, focusing on this type of drama only makes us kind of petty, dude."
"You said it, not me." Prince Jack grinned. "But we do care. We care a whole
lot. Or else, I wouldn't be here, reminding you about it. We care about this,
and about her spying on us, and about the fact that despite it all, if Marco
had to choose..."
"But he doesn't have to choose!" she cut him off, annoyed. "We made it so he
didn't have to choose, back when we opened the relationship. We... we could as
easily not have pushed him to date Star in the first place... but, but, I
didn't want him to... we didn't want him to... well, to not have that..."
"What, you are asking for a cookie for not getting in the way? Like you even
could!" Prince Jack scoffed. "Face it, Marco and Star were going to end
together whether you opened up the relationship or not. And we knew it. That's
why we did it! It was not an act of selfness but of self-preservation."
No! That wasn't right. Was it? She had told him to date Star for him, no?
Because she wanted Marco to be as happy as he could be, to share in on the
happiness!
"You know, Jackie? Normal people accept when their crush doesn't like them
back, or doesn't like them anymore," Prince Jack spoke softly, putting a firm
compassionate hand on Jackie's shoulder. "They don't do this whole 'sharing in
on their happiness' thing. Are you sure is not an act? A psychological defence
mechanism? It's not yours to share anyways. Frankly... it's kinda creepy."
Was that it? Truly? Was that all her feelings were about, when looked at with
cold detachment? A response to feeling not good enough? Insecurity masquerading
as selflessness?
"No, no, I don't accept that!" Slave Jackie spoke. "I am happy that Marco likes
Star. I genuinely truly feel that way. And yes, I would be sad if he didn't
like me anymore, or didn't want to be with me anymore. But how much he likes
Star and how much he likes me are two separate things! I can be happy about
one, at the same time I am worried about the other. I can have gripes about
some of the things Star does, and some of the things Marco says, without hating
either of them, nor hating the way they love each other! It doesn't mean that I
was wrong to open up the relationship. This is who I am, how I chose to love.
Not just Marco, but anyone whom I might love in the future. And yes, his
happiness is mine to share... for as long as he wishes to share it with me!"
She tried to stand up then, and noticed the crushing force of her counterpart's
hand on her shoulder. She looked up. Prince Jack was still smiling, but his was
a nasty cruel grin. He was still in armor, but it was black now, rather than
golden, with pointed spikes sprouting from the dark metal. He was wearing not
his own outfit, but that of Princess White.
"Sure, girl, keep telling yourself that," Jack mocked her. She heard her own
shoulder bone cracking. "You can pretend you are OK with them, that what you
have now is all you ever wanted. But the reality is you wanted to win, you
wanted to be the one that mattered the most. You are just lying to yourself.
Masking insecurity as some noble code of ethics! You are no knight in shining
armor. You are a farce and a wreck! You simply don't fully realize it yet!
Tomorrow, you'll learn to see things my way..."
----
Jackie woke up then, crying. She looked up to see Marco. He was also weeping,
quietly, as he leaned against the cell's stone wall. Neither said a word as
they hugged, hesitantly. Eventually, they fell again into an uneasy but
dreamless sleep.
----
Janna did not sleep that night. She hardly had gotten any sleep last night,
either.
Turns out that when a horror of darkness and flame makes an attempt on your
life, you are likely to feel somewhat jumpy for a time. It actually surprised
her a smidgen that none of her friends had thought to check up on her regarding
that. But she supposed that they all had their own traumas from that night, and
their own concerns about the path ahead.
The witch knew she was 'safe' in Sam's palace, as safe from any other threat as
she was likely to be anywhere in the multiverse, and yet, she couldn't fall
asleep. She was tired, and she was cranky, and she was mad at one particular
mewman princess above all else. She was mad at Tom too, and mad at herself.
But, well, first of all: Star.
The girl needed to put her thoughts in order. A lot had happened in the last
twenty-four hours.
She jumped down from her mid-air lotus sitting position, wrapped her blood-
stained cloak around herself, and headed out of the lonely room she had been
left in. The whole place was a horror show, and yet, compared to the night
before, she would almost describe her current situation as cozy. If not for the
overwhelming rage, of course.
She was mad at Star, truly mad, since yesterday's night. Mad, not jealous.
There was a difference. She had been jealous - envious, technically - for much
longer, and that part was not really Star's fault. She got that it was not the
princess fault now, now that she remembered the truth. But, regardless of that,
after the attack of "will, unbending", she was mad, fully and throughly
furious. Rightly so, as far as she could tell!
She had let Star know that she was mad at her as soon as the episode ended.
Janna had spoken even as the princess held the unresponsive body of Tom in her
arms.
"Star! What in the name of all that's unholy was that thing?!" she had shouted
at the mewman, almost twenty-four hours ago.
As she remembered the words, Janna's body tensed. She began walking faster and
faster, along the twisting corridors of Sam's infernal palace.
Star had struggled to explain herself, back then. Mostly, she'd defaulted to
say that she wasn't sure. It eventually came out she had apparently been seeing
those evil green ghosts for a week, and yet neglected to tell anyone! Then, of
course, one of those things eventually tried to kill her friends, because, well
duh! Namely, it went after Janna herself.
Star had, in her defense, noted that Janna had called her for help, and that
she had come, and that Janna would be dead if not for her, and why wasn't she
thankful? To which the witch had retorted that she would not have been in
danger if not for Star in the first place, that both her and Tom almost did
truly not make it out alive, and that, in the end, it had been Tom and not Star
who defeated the threat. Apparently, whatever that thing was, it was after Star
to begin with. But, at the same time, it wouldn't hurt her, only her friends...
which was great, really fucking great. Thank you oh so very much, Star!
Janna begun walking down a long set of stairs then. All along were floating
black candles, the flames burning at the end were ocean blue, and permanently
formed into the shapes of ghostly human skulls.
The princess had even brought up Midra'Apep last night. The snake monster had
indeed been Janna's fault and had, like Star's green fire ghost, threatened the
lives of others. Which ok, that was a fair point, but is not like Janna sat on
the information for weeks, and not like she didn't apologize about it many many
times since! The thing yesterday, at any rate, was way more terrifying than any
giant snake. They were, quite frankly, past making the mistake of not letting
each other know about that kind of trouble.
Eventually, the whole argument had all degenerated into a shouting match. Star
brought up her dead mom, and when Janna pointed out that was not really an
argument, she just threw a fit, climbed up the top of Tom's hearse and left the
rest of them to deal with the fallout from her decisions, as usual. Star had,
not too long ago, been her friend, and she was Marco's and Jackie's still. But
it really rubbed Janna the wrong way how the princess seemed to assume
friendship automatically implied that they should all risk their damn lives to
help her get revenge for her dead mother!
The stairs ended, flowing out to a huge ballroom. It was outfitted with twelve
long tables along the walls and a large empty space in the middle. The floor
was a mosaic of marble and obsidian, representing scenes from a fight between
winged beings. Angels and demons, it would seem, although some of the angels
were depicted stabbing one another.
Tom had followed suit on that whole "risk his life for her sake" deal, because
he loved Star. He would love Star until she really did kill him. Meanwhile,
Janna was just this... toy that he used to pass the time. I mean, wasn't that
their original deal? Maybe it was Janna's fault for not waking up sooner, and
getting the here away from him, and from Star, both. She sighed.
Janna always considered herself to be very much not a moron when it came to
understanding other people's hidden motives, their true thoughts behind
whatever lies they told themselves. But she suspected that, given the available
evidence - that Tom had left their mutual room at 9pm, looking for Star, and
that he was very much still not back by 4am - even a bona fide moron would
figure out what had happened. If they hadn't slept together, and they most
likely had, they had at least gone to sleep together. A betrayal either way, as
far as she was concerned.
The dark haired girl sat down on one of the chairs along the huge tables, in
the head position. To her side was a velvet curtain, covering a gargantuan
window. In front of the curtain was a small desk, and atop it, a large ornate
porcelain vase of marvelous craftsmanship. It was adorned in gold and
meticulously painted.
Then, of course, there was Princess Snow-bloody-White, and that only
complicated things.
That afternoon, on the way here, Marco had mentioned having missing memories,
and that sort of... made Janna uncomfortable. It took her a moment to realize
that there seemed to be a hole in her memories as well, right around the time
her feelings about Star became the most spiteful. A hole that seemed to
coincide with the hour or so that she had spent waiting for Tom and Star to
have their little chat in St O's.
Earlier that same night, she had told Tom to leave her alone in the room for an
hour or two. Partly, it had been to see what he did, to get it over with and
done. He had been obsessing over Star since forever, bending over backwards to
help her in her quest, going to Sam, despite his abject terror when it came to
the older devil, all in order to help his dearest princess. And last night,
Star had jumped to hold him between her arms. Honestly, Janna saw it coming a
mile away, and the longer it took, the worse it was going to be for her.
But she had had a second motive for wanting Tom gone tonight in particular. She
needed the quietness to go back into her own mind, to pull back what had been
robbed from her: that hour of her memory. Eventually, she managed to recall the
vampire's transparent deception, and her insidious comments.
Janna would love to say it was her newly found skill in magic that allowed her
to recover those sealed memories. In truth, it had been a more mundane sort of
magic, one she knew even before she met Tom: self-hypnosis. She had managed to
put herself in a trance-like state, and, after some effort, break through the
block the vampire had put in her mind. It had been a humiliating, and
bothersome, revelation. Mostly because now she understood her mind had been
warped to put her against Star.
And yet, by cold slow logic, she still arrived at the conclusion that Star had
knowingly put Janna's own life in danger, that she and Tom were likely together
now, in the middle of the night, and that she had reason enough to be mad at
the princess with or without White's interference. The problem was separating
how mad she was supposed to be, from how mad she felt given the old vampire's
insidious mental suggestions. How much of her hate for Star was Janna's own,
and how much had been forced on her?
Then again, White herself, or at least Janna's encounter with her, was also
Star's fault. Hers, and that of Tom's unhealthy obsession with his royal ex. If
they hadn't had to go to St O's to look for Star, the troublemaker girl would
never had met the vampire princess. So why not add 'accidentally exposes
friends to mind rape' to the list of charges against her former friend?
The evil princess had destroyed Janna's remaining friendship towards Star. But
did that make her see the mewman's actions less or more clearly?
"Sam!" Janna finally shouted, tired of walking around looking for the devil, "I
know you are everywhere around this place! Show yourself... please."
"Everywhere?" came the response immediately, and two bright gleaming stars
appeared floating in mid air, on the other side of the table. Slowly, Sam's
entire form emerged from the shadows, and those bright points became his
blinding blue eyes. "You flatter me, J-flame. Omnipresence is part of a skill
set somewhat beyond my own."
The witch made her best effort not to flinch as the devil manifested himself.
Without answering just yet, Janna stood up, and walked slowly towards the
nearby desk, as she pondered how to word her proposal.
She admired the vase atop said desk. It was a work of art, albeit one with
terrifying implications: the edge was adorned in gold and the relief sculpted
on the metal started abstract and geometric but, as it flowed down the length
of the piece, those shapes turned into winged humanoid figures. Eventually, the
gold stopped, and painted china showed a different set of figures, beautiful
and angelic near the top, but becoming ever more twisted and monstrous as they
fell down the length of the vase. Yet, near the very bottom, stood one final
perfectly angelic winged form, receiving the fallen with open arms.
"A representation of the fall, and the likeness of the Morning Star," spoke
Sam, following her gaze.
"Valuable?" Janna asked.
"Yes," Sam agreed. "And no. Like all else."
"Sam, can I ask a question?" she asked. "Does it violate your kind hospitality
if I do so? Given it is a delicate question..."
She wasn't sure that she being out at this hour, or having called him like she
did, didn't constitute a violation. But the fact that she was still alive
seemed to hint that either it did not, or that the devil was waiting for an
specific offense.
"You may ask all you like, J-flame," Sam conceded generously. "Tonight, albeit
not tomorrow, and with no guarantee of a response, of course. There is a
question I am somewhat curious about, myself, and I think we both know I'll see
it answered soon."
"Did Tom and Star..." Janna begun. She felt like a little girl for even asking,
for wanting confirmation.
"They did," Sam answered, with a smirk.
"How do I know..." she tried to find an out.
"I swear it," Sam shrugged. "On the name of the Brightest Light of the Morning,
I swear your fears are the truth, and the two of them have known each other
tonight once more, in a rather biblical sense. They did so of their own free
will, and in whichever way I might have foreseen or facilitated it, as you did
foresee and facilitate it as well, I did not force them to do so. Now, Janna,
knowing this for a fact, will you do what you came down here to do?"
She ran a finger along the edge of the vase. Clearly, Sam was ahead of her, as
always. It shouldn't even surprise her. "Don't you know already what I am going
to do? Didn't you plan this from the start?"
Sam laughed at her unnerved, sleep-deprived, yet hardly unfounded, paranoia.
"J-flame, you and old Tommy boy have qualms with this world mainly because
things often fail to turn out the way you expect them to. My usual complain,
instead, is the opposite. For me, they very rarely turn out otherwise. But I
confess, I don't know for a fact whether or not you are going to break that
vase," he pressed the tips of his fingers together, expectantly.
"If I do, what will happen?" Janna had to ask.
"Exactly what you suspect," Sam replied calmly. "I'll consider it a violation
of my hospitality, and revoke my protection upon you all. After all, breaking
my stuff was among the conditions you yourself named."
"Then?" Janna pressed on, putting just the slightest pressure on the vase.
"I'll do what you hope I'll do. I'll murder Star Butterfly," he smiled ever so
slightly. It was a friendly smile, almost warm, and the contrast between the
words and the casual tone in which they were spoken only made it worse.
Janna hesitated. Hearing it stated in such unvarnished words made her feel
almost scared of herself. But well, she knew why she had asked, and Sam knew
too, apparently. Her hand didn't leave the vase.
"And Tom?"
"I do consider Tom a friend, in as much as the concept makes sense given the
difference between our natures," Sam remarked. "He will be angry, and I might
have to... dissuade him. But he will survive this plot of yours."
Janna thought about asking about Marco and Jackie, but honestly, she was beyond
caring. She also didn't really need to ask about herself, except... "Will you
kill me before or after Star?"
After all, what was the point if she wouldn't live to see it? If she didn't get
to watch?
Sam seemed to think for a moment. Janna knew it was most likely a ruse, but she
still had to wait patiently for his response.
"J-flame, let us make this whole thing more interesting," Sam finally replied,
in a cheerful tone. "I once promised to give you my fairest deal, and I shall
do so once more: If you do this, I will not kill you. After Star dies, I'll
send you and your other two mortal friends back home. I'll make it so they, and
Tom as well, forget that she ever lived. All of you will be spared, all except
the princess. You will be with Tom. But he will no longer have Star in his mind
to compare you against. You will remember it all, or none of it, your choice."
'I'll give you everything you ever wanted, if you betray the friend that
betrayed you, the one you already wish to enact revenge on, with all your
heart,' was the offer, in essence. No catch. No one would know or remember. It
would be between her and Sam, and if she ever felt bad about it, well, she
could just as easily pretend to herself that Star had never existed in the
first place, no one would contradict her. She could even get herself to forget
doing this. Even her conscience would be none the wiser, if she so chose.
Janna didn't even need to ask the devil why he was willing to give her that
offer. She was sure it would amuse him to see her be the one to condemn her
former friend, to know how twisted she really was, when no one else was
watching.
"Finally," Sam added, "know that I expect my hospitality to be breached, no
matter what you do tonight, before midnight tomorrow. When that happens, my
protection is gone. The rest of the offer, however, is only for this moment,
and this specific transgression."
So, essentially, if she didn't do this, Star was almost certainly bound to die
either way, and then, probably so was Janna herself. Strictly speaking, taking
Sam's deal would lead to the best outcome for all. Janna would be saving Jackie
and Marco, along with herself. Star was the one that had dragged them all to
the mouth of the wolf, and she was doomed either way. By that logic, Janna was
not only justified in her wish for revenge, she was actually being the hero.
Who was she kidding? That was a load of crap! It was not her real reason. It
was not like she could not spot when she was lying to herself. Her wish in the
matter was anything but noble, it was an ugly sick venomous thing, and yet...
She pressed further, and the bottom of the vase lifted from the wooden desk.
She held onto the edge, as the whole thing came to balance on just a small
corner of its base. She didn't even need to push now. If she simply let go, or
if she tilted her grip slightly to the left or slightly to the right, the vase
would tumble from its precarious perch. It would hit the ground, it would
shatter, and soon after, so would Star.
Janna closed her eyes. The image of Star and Tom naked together, resting in
bed, popped into her mind. But it wasn't really about Tom. It wasn't even about
Star putting them all in danger, not if Janna was completely honest with
herself. It was about power.
The demon prince himself had sworn, long ago, that Janna would never be able to
match Star's power. That Star would always win, not just in his heart but in
the world at large. "You could spend your entire life practicing this sort of
thing and you will never be able to call forth one tenth of the power Star
could summon the second she got her magic wand. You are a regular human and
she, well, she is something quite rare and quite extraordinary in this
universe," had been his words.
Well, right now, in this instant, she could direct the course of powers greater
than Star could comprehend. She could end her life, if she so wished! She could
erase her memory from the minds of everyone! It was the most pure form of
victory, the most definitive! She could win the contest that Tom had said she
would never win!
Janna pushed, and let go. The worst part was, the witch knew she was smiling as
she did it, genuinely looking forward to seeing her former friend dead.
The vase fell fast towards the ground... 3... 2...
It held in mid air. Slowly, it floated back up, until it was once more atop its
previous resting spot in the small wooden desk. Gently, Janna let go of her
levitation spell.
"Thanks for the kind offer, Sam, but, well, no deal," she frowned as she sat
back into the table. She should have felt so much better about having done the
right thing, about knowing this about herself. That she was capable of honor,
even when no one would see or know it had been her. In reality, she didn't feel
good about it. She had really considered going through with it. She knew Star,
and now maybe all of them, might die tomorrow anyways, and the only consolation
would be that she could claim it wasn't her fault. Still, maybe it meant
something nonetheless. "Guess I am a better person than we both thought.
Surprised?"
"J-flame, I have asked this question many many times before, and when I do, I
really don't know the answer ahead of time. How could I? When you yourselves
know not," Sam smirked, amused. "I have had those who took the deal, and I have
had those who refused. A thousand times each. Neither answer is much of a
surprise anymore, and neither ever changes anything of consequence, of course,
but I'll take whatever little amusement I can get. Refusing makes you no
particularly noble, acceding doesn't make you that much more villainous than
just getting to the point of asking the question. But if you wish to think
highly of yourself for this, then go ahead, it makes no difference to me."
The girl frowned. Sam was right, of course. The fact that she considered doing
a horrible deed and then decided in the last minute not to... well, it hardly
made her a paragon of virtue. Then again, what would Star have done, if the
roles had been reversed? If revenge for her mother's death had been on the
table as well? What would Tom have said, about trading Janna's death for Star's
unconditional love?
"Is there a deal you can offer by which we all make it out of here unharmed?"
Janna had to ask.
"You have it already," Sam retorted. "Stick to my hospitality, and I will not,
cannot, harm you."
"But you expect we will fail to do so?" she asked.
"Yes."
Janna sat there, in silence. She glanced back at the vase, at the depiction of
the fall. Was Sam there? Among the angels, or among the monsters? Or was he
something else altogether?
"J-flame," Sam interrupted her thoughts. "There is another deal we could
strike, unrelated to the fate of your friends, or Star."
She knew she shouldn't ask, but she did, "What deal?"
"Well, you want power, do you not?" he asked in return. "Power to match that of
Star? And you can no longer rely on Tom to draw your magics from, amusing as
your methods might have been to you, before."
He paused for an instant, letting her ponder his words.
"What if I could find you an... alternative source? One all of your own?"
Chapter End Notes
     Quick note: If anyone is following this fic at this point, but hasn't
     read A_Habit_Hard_to_Break. Well, I do recommend that fic to anyone
     reading SvtFoE fics, but before you do, if you have a chance, please
     hop in the comments and let me know if the Marco flashbacks are still
     possible to follow without having read Habit? Not in the sense of
     catching every little reference (they are chock-full with references
     to that fic) but in the sense of getting the gist of what is
     happening and being at least as fun to read as the non-flashback
     scenes. If not, any details on what parts are too cryptic would be
     very appreciated.
     Coming up next: Chapter 25: Always a Charade
     In which Sam's party takes place, masks must be worn at all costs,
     and the show, as they say, must go on, despite it all.
***** Always a Charade *****
Chapter Summary
     In which Sam's party takes place, masks must be worn at all costs,
     and the show, as they say, must go on, despite it all.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
"Dear devils, esteemed gentlefiends, I bid you welcome to my humble home,"
boomed Sam's voice through the grand ballroom. He didn't appear to raise his
tone, nor put any effort into talking louder or more forcefully than usual, yet
the speech carried strong to each corner of the huge room. "It is my honor and
my pleasure to have each and everyone of you in attendance this evening."
Tom looked around him, at the crowd gathered inside the ancient devil's palace.
They had been slowly marching into the place since as early as five in the
afternoon. By now, there was barely enough space in the room to hold them. It
was a bizarre and intimidating congregation: demon kings and queens, masters
over domains at least as vast as those of his own parents, and often far
grander, sat along the twelve long tables by the walls. They were wearing an
assortment of costumes. Most fit their wearer at least somewhat: giant flame
demons in medieval armor, tentacled inhuman horrors in long black cloaks, etc.
Orcus, in all his sickening bulk, sat naked, while two masked succubi catered
to his every whim. Her augustness, She-Who-Invites, to whom most gave almost as
much of a wide berth as they did Sam himself, was wearing a simple shinto
shrine maiden robe, white and red. If anyone had gotten to choose their own
costume, it was her, but hers was power beyond the need for ostentatiousness.
On the other hand, there were also many others whose disguises seemed far less
probable. An ancient lich wore a jester outfit. Mirage, The Great Deceiver, was
dressed as a countryside priest. One of the Balrog lords wore the garbs of a
medieval doctor. Princess Nephafel was dressed in an elementary school girl
uniform, and looked utterly pissed at the fact. Under different circumstances,
Tom would be delighted to see her annoyed so. But he was far too worried about
what Sam's game might be, and about what had happened last night. Hopefully she
hadn't seen him yet.
The dance floor was illuminated by a veritable galaxy of floating spheres of
bright blue flame, high along the vault of the room, and by the shaky red glow
of fire rising through the open windows. Standing on the marble and obsidian
floor, whose mosaic represented the first of all wars, stood most of the
attendants, those not important enough to get a seat by default. Apparently,
that included Tom himself, despite his princely title, which meant Star and the
three humans were also among that crowd, somewhere.
"As you all know, there are a few ground rules for this party. I am sure all of
you will do your best to abide by them," Sam continued. "First, none is to
leave before midnight. I shall make another announcement then."
It was seven now. Perhaps, if they held for five more hours, they would at
least be allowed to retreat to their rooms and wait there, without that being
in violation of their deal with Sam.
"Second, you must wear your costumes at all times, and represent your assigned
persona to the best of your abilities," the devil commanded. "If your card said
courtesan, then you must whore; if it said assassin, then thou shall kill; and
so on, and so forth..."
Certainly a large number of demons were dressed as prostitutes, particularly
among those standing, and an even larger number looked like dangerous killers.
Then again, in the later case, sometimes it was hard teasing the disguise apart
from the fact that they were indeed murderous fiends of the worst kind, by
nature as well as nurture. Tom wondered what would be required from his own
role as a scoundrel.
"... as for me," Sam paused for a moment, "Until the clock strikes twelve, I
shall be but a humble servant."
The blue fires of his eyes suddenly went out. His blindingly golden hair faded
into coal black. Two curled goat horns sprouted from his skull, and the marble
white of his skin became a more muted pearl color. A black tux appeared atop
his now frail thin body: a waiter's uniform.
It was Adorjan.
Sam had become an identical copy of the head of staff at The Faust. The same
old waiter that had attended Tom and Janna on their first date, and had served
the demon prince at the underworld restaurant within his family lands for
centuries. Tom looked up, and saw the old goat demon smile back at him. No, not
a copy. Sam had been Adorjan before, he had been Adorjan that night, he had
perhaps always been Adorjan. Another charade from the bored lord of Dis. A
chill went up the demon prince's spine.
Before Tom could recover from the surprise, Adorjan - no, Sam - continued his
address. "And one more thing, a final detail for all my honored guests to keep
in mind..."
A spotlight shone over Tom, and he saw, among the crowd, four other spotlights
come up in the middle of the marble and obsidian floor. He couldn't see the
people they illuminated, but was sure those sitting around the room had a
better view. He also knew that, if he were able to see past the sea of hats,
wigs, horns, skulls, and twisting bodies, he would see those lights trained on
Star, Janna, Jackie, and Marco.
"... the Prince Lucitor and his mortal friends are under my personal
protection. No harm will come to them by any hand other than my own, and I will
stay my hand, if they follow the rules," the devil concluded. "Now, with that
said, please, enjoy your evening! Make sure to play your roles. I'll be playing
mine."
Tom wasn't sure if Sam had done them a favor by announcing his protection, or
painted a target on their backs by hinting that they would be punished for a
violation of protocol. Knowing who it was, the demon prince had to suspect the
later was the true intent. Either way, Tom had someone he needed to talk to.
"Thomas, darling, glad to finally see you attend one of this things," spoke a
voice behind him. He meant someone else. Hell, come to think about it, he meant
anyone else!
"Hi Neph," he replied. "Sorry, there is something I need to do. Perhaps we
could catch up later?" Or, you know, never.
Nephafel smiled at him; a broad smile, one showing three rows of pointed razor-
sharp teeth. The rest of her looked almost human, if you were willing to ignore
the two bat wings behind her back and the pale lavender color of her demonic
skin. Her black hair was tied into two piggy tails, but that was probably only
for the dumb schoolgirl costume. She usually wore it down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tom saw Marco and Jackie through the crowd. The
boy was hurrying to move between his chain-bound girlfriend and an angry
looking slime demon. The creature seemed to be pointing at the trail behind
him, as it tried to shove a half-soiled rag at the human girl. It desisted,
however, as soon as Marco pulled out his iron sword. That was slime demons for
you in a nutshell, all bark and nauseating breath, but no real bite at all.
Neph, unfortunately, was another matter. She did bite. Tom knew that from
experience.
"But Thomas, it has been so very long," she pouted. Her bright red eyes
followed his, finding the two humans. "Oh, so it is true, then? You are
bringing mortals here?! Whatever for? Food? No, it can't be, I remember you
being quite squeamish..."
"Friends," Tom corrected her. "Not that you would know the meaning of the
word..."
Nephafel was not the most evil being Tom knew, but she was, without a doubt the
worst person: petty, scheming, volatile, and utterly selfish. She had been as
much of a bad influence in his life as Star and her friends had been a positive
one. Which, alright, didn't make him or the mewman a well-behaved pair. But, by
comparison...
"Friends?" the demon princess laughed. She glanced pointedly to the side. Tom
followed her eyes to find Star.
The other princess was standing in line for drinks. She seemed to be yelling
something at a pair of demons, no doubt fulfilling her assigned role as she
bullied her way through the queue. Before Tom could make an excuse to head that
way, Nephafel lifted her hand and ran her fingers through his neck, slowly
caressing his rose tattoo. A rose, like Star's transformed cheek marks. A fact
that was not lost on the demoness at all.
"Oh, Thomas, I think I know all about being 'friends' like that. I taught you
all about being... friendly, if I remember correctly," she mussed, running a
long red tongue through her inhuman teeth. "But mortals? Well, that's a new
one! Didn't think you'd have it in you, Thomas, darling! You were never that
adventurous when we were dating..."
Dating was a weird way to describe what they used to do. Tom had danced with
Nephafel at a few underworld balls before, and, well, a few times one thing led
to another. But he couldn't trust her, they had never been friends, and
certainly not boyfriend and girlfriend. He hadn't seen her in almost one
hundred years. She was just, a series of bad decisions. Bad decisions... like
last night.
"Nephafel, I..." Tom tried to extract himself out of the situation.
Suddenly, he noticed Adorjan, Sam, walking their way. He carried a plate of
eyes and crackers on one hand, and a long red napkin in the other. His
expression was the utterly unreadable mask of professionalism Tom had come to
associate with the servant, before he knew who he truly was.
"Pardon me, sir, madam," he interjected, with a deep servile bow. Tom had a
brief moment of gratification when he saw that Nephafel was even more unnerved
by Sam's act then he was. She flinched. The endless shadow, one of the greatest
powers in all of the hells, was serving them snacks. His next words, however,
reversed the feeling, causing Tom to frown and the demon princess to grin. "I
couldn't help but overhearing. It would seem to me, though it is certainly not
my place to judge, that a young girl being so forward and a true scoundrel
being shy is not how this particular encounter should play out. Certainly I
can't imagine either of you would risk breaking character, especially not the
Prince Lucitor..."
Tom sighed. 'Play your part, play your part or she dies', and he didn't mean
Neph. He took a cracker from the plate Sam was offering, and ate it as he
thought of his next move. It was admittedly somewhat viscous, but quite tasty.
"There are many things that you don't know about me, kid," he emphasized the
last word, savoring Nephafel's look of irritation. She was technically his
elder by almost a full thousand years. By demonic generations, they were peers.
But him treating her like a child was a reversal of their usual dynamic. She
usually presented herself as the more worldly of the two. "I am looking to chat
with some ladies tonight, not change anyone's diapers, so get lost!"
Actually, being in character wasn't going to be half bad.
"Aww, but siiir," she insisted in an exaggeratedly high-pitched voice. "All I
want is one little dance. I can make it worth your while. Pretty please!"
She drew a finger to her mouth and sucked on it. Then, she tripped forward, or
pretended to do so, and fell into Tom's arms. By reflex, he caught her, just in
time to see her smirk triumphantly.
With uncanny strength, the demon princess grabbed him by both arms and begun
forcing Tom to dance, pulling him in reverse through the motions, pretending to
follow but leading him on the sly. He could drop her now, if he truly tried,
but not without revealing she had dragged him along. Would that be breaking
character? For a few moments, he was forced into the awkward dance. He
eventually began leading her normally, as an alternative to being moved around
like a rag doll. She relaxed her grip, but only slightly, when she thought he
was no longer immediately planning to free himself.
They did a turn and then, behind Nephafel, Tom saw a girl in a black bloodied
cloak staring at them: Janna. Her gaze was one of pure contempt, tinged with
disappointment.
"Sorry, kid, but my date is here," he forced himself to give an in-character
reason. Then, summoning all of his own strength, he managed to extract himself
from the other demon's grip. Before Nephafel could react, he ran towards Janna.
As he did, the witch retreated into the crowd. He pursued.
"Janna, wait! It's not what you think!" he shouted. It was something a
scoundrel would say too, so it was fine to shout it in public. Except, unlike
the role he was meant to play, Tom really did mean it.
"And what do I think it was?" Janna's question came from his left. He turned
quickly, to see her right in front of him. It was strange, he never noticed her
doubling back towards him.
"I... I don't know," Tom admitted. "But Neph is just an old pain in the ass,
ok? I just couldn't get rid of her."
"Well," Janna observed. "Didn't seem that hard once you really tried. Maybe
there is a lesson in there for me..." she mussed.
"Wait, what?!" Tom asked, surprised, not sure he understood what the human girl
meant. "She was forcing me to dance, really, that was nothing..."
"I saw that," Janna shrugged. "I don't give a rat ass about her. But tell me,
yesterday... was that nothing? Star... was she forcing you too?"
"Wait! You know?!" Tom went pale.
Janna's eyes narrowed.
"That's your reaction? Seriously?! Surprise that I found out?!" the
troublemaker girl shook her head in disbelief. "I am not sure which is worse,
Tom: what you two did, the fact that you would have been ok with keeping that a
secret from me, or that you think I am so much of an idiot that you could ever
have!"
Tom felt anger rise within him. He wasn't going to be berated like this. After
all, it was not like he and the girl ever agreed they were going steady or
anything of the sort. Actually, him getting it on with Star had been the plan
from the beginning; her plan. "Janna, wait a minute! That was our deal!
Remember? You knew I wanted Star. You said you would help me get her, right?
That we would be dating until I had a chance to get Star back!"
"Right..." Janna replied, coldly. Around them, the crowd started parting, a lot
of eyes on them. "... yes, I did say that."
"And ok, maybe along the way it became a little bit more than that," Tom
explained. "A lot more than that, ok? But is not like I ever promised you
anything different, is it? You knew what the deal was! You set those terms! I
did nothing wrong!"
"Ok, sure, Tom, you are absolutely right! You did exactly what you promised!
What you always wanted!" she shouted. Her fists were clenched. There was
something in her left index finger. Blood? A cut? No, not quite, it looked like
the tattoo of a ring, except only half of the way around, like a crescent moon.
"Congratulations then! Mission fucking accomplished! Hope it was worth it...
because you are right, you don't owe me shit. The thing is, that one goes both
ways, Tom... I also don't owe you a damn thing."
She took a deep breath.
"You know? The funny thing is that, maybe, if that had been the first thing you
told me, that our deal had worked, well, I wouldn't be happy, perhaps, but I
could understand," she added. "But that's not what happened. You were fine with
keeping me in the dark, if you could. That doesn't make me a partner in a
scheme, fucked up and outdated as that scheme might have been... It makes me
the goddamn mark! That's not a role I'll accept, Tom. I am done with you. And
you know what? I think so is Star."
Sam was right, the costume fit. It seemed playing his part had been no
challenge at all.
Janna turned around. Tom felt sick. He hadn't realized it, but what he had said
before was true, his relationship with Janna had become a lot more than a game
for him long ago. It wasn't the last thing she said that was the most hurtful,
even if she meant it to be. He was fine with Star not being his, he was fine
with it having only been a one night thing. But this, this he didn't want. It
was not the trade he'd meant to make. Once more, he'd messed up, badly.
"Janna, wait! I am s..."
But she was no longer there. In an instant, Janna's cloaked figure had become
translucent, and then dissolved like a fading shadow. Tom blinked. She had
probably displaced herself to somewhere else within the room, or had made
herself invisible. She was far too smart to leave and let Sam win that way.
Either way, Tom didn't think she could do something like that yet. Hell, he
didn't think she would master magics like those for another fifty years, if
ever. He himself couldn't do that outside of his own domain. He didn't know if
Star could. More strangely, he hadn't felt her taking the necessary power from
him. The other guests, perhaps? It was an extraordinarily magically saturated
environment, after all.
In any case, Janna had vanished, and whether she was still in the room or not,
Tom knew that searching for her would be futile.
----
Well, it was a hell of a crowd. And yet, in a way, it was tamer than Star had
imagined it to be. Yes, ok, there were a few naked demons wearing carnival
masks, of at least two different genders, and not always a single one each. And
yes, some of them had rather extreme anatomies, and a handful were even making
use of them in ways that she dared not observe for long. But honestly, she had
sort of expected that to be a lot more common given that it was hell and Tom
had described Sam's parties as 'intense' even by infernal standards. And ok,
sure, there was a huge hairy creature laying in a pool of blood in the corner
of the dance room, probably because somebody was doing good on one of those
assassin roles. But, then again, that also happened with some regularity at
Star's family reunions. By and large, most attendants were dressed as if for a
normal costume party, more Halloween Night than "demonic orgy of sin and
debauchery".
Not saying she was disappointed or anything, it was a good thing that this
didn't live up to her worst nightmares. But, still, she had expected to be more
shocked.
"Out of my way, you imbecile!" she commanded once more, and a huge stone
gargoyle in chains moved to let her finally get to the drinks.
She smiled. It was part of staying in costume after all, nothing she could do
about it. She had to do it anyways to remain on Sam's good side. Her gown
didn't particularly fill her with a sense of kindness towards those beneath, so
being too polite might actually have been dangerous to her and her friends. And
well, if she really had to be bad, if there was no choice in the matter, well,
she might as well enjoy it. Guilt was overrated, after all.
"Hey, Star, there you are!" shouted Marco, walking towards her in long strides.
He was frowning.
Behind him, Jackie shuffled painfully, dragging her own chains behind, looking
down. Every so often, Marco glanced back at some of the patrons looking the
human girl's way, and gave them a quick peek at the blade of his otherwise
sheathed sword. His expression was that of someone not to mess with. Although
Star assumed it was mostly the effect of the Champion costume, she couldn't
avoid thinking that Marco was throughly pissed at her in particular, when his
eyes met hers.
Star gulped. It was hard seeing Marco right now, after last night, particularly
when he held so much fire in his gaze. It made her feel... that one emotion
that was pointless. She would have to tell them about last night, sooner or
later, it was the right thing to do. But now it was not the time. How could she
apologize to him and Jackie, and still keep her role? How could they say their
piece, and still keep theirs?
Well, if either way she had to fix it later, then what was the point in
agonizing about it? Better not to tell them just yet, and not let pointless
guilt show.
"Hey Marco, Jackie! Want any drinks?" she smiled at them. Then, lowering her
voice to a whisper. "All going well with, you know, the slave bullshit?
Anything I can do to help?"
"I...," Marco begun replying. Jackie just nodded. "We are managing. My role
helps. I think the really scary ones heard Sam and are not getting themselves
involved in his game, and the rest back off when threatened."
"Good, good... well, let me know if you need help with the threats..." Star
mussed. She downed a glass of some red liquid she had first assumed was wine.
It didn't taste like grapes, or alcoholic. It just tasted sort of metallic.
Ugh. Not pleasant at all.
"But, Star, there is something we wanted to ask..." he begun.
"Does it need to be now?" Star interrupted him. There was a lot she needed to
talk to them about. Not only last night, but also her dream, and what she had
decided because of it. But, right now, "We need to be careful, Marco. Our
roles..."
"But, Star, it is important..." Marco insisted. Star sighed, exasperated. She
knew the costume was influencing her, but well, didn't Marco get it? They
literally couldn't have an honest conversation right now!
A three headed cyclops, with a single eye in the middle head and huge foaming
circular maws occupying the entirety of the other two, stumbled onto the edge
of the small table. A dozen glasses fell to the ground, breaking and spilling
their contents. The monster grunted. The left head bellowed, baring its sharp
knife-long fangs as it spoke, "You! Slave girl! Clean this mess!"
Marco began to move his hand towards the sword, but Jackie pulled at his arm,
and shook her head. She whispered something into Marco's ear. Then moved
towards the table and grabbed a large cotton napkin. She knelt to the floor,
with some trouble due to the shackles around her feet, and begun to clean. The
three headed creature nodded satisfied and began stumbling away.
"Why?" Star asked Marco.
"She said," the boy muttered, angrily gritting his teeth. "She said that we all
have to play our roles at least somewhat, and that this was an easy one to
tackle. She also said you have to play yours."
"So, then you understand why I can't talk to you right now, right, Marco?" she
had intended it to be apologetic. But the tone came out a haughty sneer.
Something was going on with them tonight, with the costumes. Were the instincts
embedded in their magics stronger during the party? Or was this just the effect
of wearing them for so long? Or simply how well they aligned with their current
mental state?
"Ok, fine. I know you can't explain now, Lady Star," he highlighted the title,
addressing her as a countess, albeit using the wrong part of her name. He was
making a point of talking to her not as a princess, and definitely not as his
girlfriend or his best friend. "But, just so you know: We know. About Tom, I
mean."
Star's eyes went wide. They knew? How? Why? Oh, right... the link! Marco must
have seen her. Oh god! Marco had seen her, her and Tom!
"Marco, I am so..." she begun, not worrying about what the damn dress was
telling her to do.
"Ahem," she heard Sam cough behind her. Star turned around to see him smiling,
in his new goat-like appearance, silently offering her another glass of
whatever the hell it was. Blood, probably.
She sighed, and glared at him, which luckily was perfectly in character. The
devil kept toying with them. It would have been the easiest thing for him to
let them fail this little charade then and there, but he had stopped her from
breaking her role, at the cost of forcing her to do something she didn't want
to do.
She addressed Marco. "I believe we can discuss this another time. For now, the
party must go on, and I'd rather be on my own. I believe that would be the best
for all of us."
She tried to convey, with her eyes, what she would have said if she was free to
speak her mind. That she was sorry. That it had been a mistake. The she
understood if it meant the end. But that right now, their lives were at stake,
and that the longer they remained around one another, the higher the chance
that all their masks would crumble.
He seemed hurt, but he nodded right back in understanding. He and Jackie begun
walking away from her. It hurt, a lot. Well, better get used to that, because
once their three nights at Sam's place were done, she planned to send them both
away, permanently.
Sam had said it himself, in the dream, if it had truly been a dream: feeling
guilty was useless. If all she could do was to keep hurting them, to keep
putting them in danger, then feeling bad after the fact didn't help. She needed
them to go back to Earth, to leave her alone, for their own good. In a way, the
Tom thing should make it much easier. If Marco and Jackie hated her for it,
then it would be easier to convince them to turn back, to let her take the rest
of the road alone. Still, she felt... irritated. Yeah, let's go with irritated.
"So, you are Thomas new 'friend'?" said an even more irritating voice. It
belonged to this winged lavender-skinned demon in a school girl uniform, with
more teeth than fucking Toffee crossed with a hair comb. "Can you spell
downgrade?"
Star scoffed. Trying to ignore the stranger. She didn't seem like a threat, and
the least people she talked to at this party, the least chances she had to
break their stupid deal with Sam.
"The name is Nephafel, by the way, Princess Nephafel Gibborim," she kept at it.
"A bow is preferred, but a scream of terror would be fine too. Maybe Thomas
mentioned me? I am her ex. I mean, his original ex."
Star smirked, and answered truthfully "He never said a word about you."
"Oh, well," Nephafel shrugged. "He should have!"
She jumped at Star then, the middle finger of her right hand extending until it
was as long as a spear. Its sharp tip lounged towards Star's chest.
It hit a solid barrier of bright violet magical energy.
"Ugh," the demoness exclaimed. "Sam's protection?"
"No," Star corrected her. Pulling her wand from inside her purple gown. "My
own. Just like this..."
She took aim.
"GLOWING DARKNESS HELLBLAST!" she shouted. A thin beam of blinding violet light
emerged from it. It hit the demon princess' leg.
Star smiled as Nephafel yelled in pain. This was just what she needed after
that exchange with Marco, after the decision that had hatched inside her heart.
If all she was meant to do was hurt, then she would hurt those who deserved it.
She smelled the demon girl's flesh burning as the beam continued steady out of
her wand, piecing all the way through skin, muscle, and bone. Slowly, she moved
it further and further up the limb.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Nephafel cried. "You... you can't do this! You are
bound by Sam's hospitality, those are the rules! Argh!"
"Oh, but I am following the rules," Star observed. "I am just playing my role.
You should have asked what it was, I think, before you tried to attack me.
Turns out that, tonight, I have to pretend to be the kind of bitch you probably
are..."
Internally, Star was surprised at her own words. At the same time, saying that
felt better than she cared to admit. Star had never craved power over others,
the amount she had by virtue of her birth was burden enough already. But this
act let her feel in control of herself, of her own pain, able to direct it
intentionally against a foe rather than having it explode around her friends.
It was also a much needed victory, after her defeat against her mom's killer,
and her feelings of impotence when it came to dealing with Sam's games.
She looked around, most of the other guests were looking at the two of them
indifferently. In fact, there were three or four other fights in progress
around them, along with at least five separate ongoing sexual acts, and a dozen
other events that would normally count as extreme displays of one sort or
another. Yet, the vast majority of the people dancing or talking paid no
attention. Sam himself was elsewhere, carrying a few larger trays of food and
placing them on the tables around them. He was whistling.
Her beam reached past the girl's knee and Star begun to grow bored with her
screams. With a swift movement, she cut horizontally, severing the leg at that
height and cauterizing the wound in one shot. "Fine, that was enough. You can
go now. I meant it when I said I have never heard of you before, and I better
not hear of you again. Deal? Bye!"
Nephafel scrambled away on all three. If she was anything like Tom, her leg
would grow again. But either way, it was not Star's problem. The demon princess
had tried to kill her, after all. She deserved it, and it had been... relaxing.
----
Jackie's first visit to Tom's hell, and her meeting with the green ghost of
Queen Moon, had been humbling and violent. The road to Sam's place had been
eerie and haunting. As she tried to fall asleep last night, she had heard the
screams outside in the night: blood-curling howls from the burning city below.
She had also met their host yesterday, who in theory was the scariest thing
around, and she had no trouble believing that claim, despite his occasional
fake playfulness. She had faced all that with her chin held high. Yet, now, she
was truly terrified.
The room was full of bizarre inchoate monstrosities, animated corpses, and huge
red winged demons. There was a two-and-a-half meters tall walking skeleton in a
harlequin dress that seemed to lower the room temperature a full five degrees
all around it wherever it went. The snacks were eyes, the drinks seemed to be
blood. A fat red demon with goat legs and a goat skull for a face, was sitting
on a huge chair, jerking himself off, while two winged demon ladies in carnival
masks danced in front of him. There was the corpse of something that looked
like a four-horned minotaur sprawled on a corner, and she could have sworn he
had been alive when the party started. How was nobody else unnerved by this?
How could Star and Marco still act so... so... so unfazed?
The worst part, was the way some of the nightmarish creatures looked at her, at
her small form dragging chains around. In some eyes, she saw lust, and that was
chilling enough. But the appetites she saw on some of the inhuman eyes that
followed her made her sick to her core. She could tell who wanted to hurt her,
and who wanted to eat her like a pig or a chicken, and who wanted to break her
so thoroughly that death would be a welcome release. Somehow, she knew. And she
knew that if they asked, she would feel the need to obey.
Most of the guests simply treated her like a servant, asking her to clean
things of fetch them food. She tried to do those tasks, to keep her role as
best she could. It helped that she truly felt good serving, felt useful. A
voice in her mind recoiled at the idea, yelled at her that it was wrong,
humiliating. But as a practical matter, she was ok with handling the easy
stuff. Whenever any of the fiends asked for something more, she relied on Marco
to keep them at bay. Some of the requests were gross, or dangerous, and a few
were of a disturbingly sexual nature. Those were handled by the boy, with a
stern look and a glimpse of an iron edge.
She was surprised, and a bit awed, that Marco had turned such an effective
bodyguard. Sam's announcement that they were under his protection, and the fact
that Star had apparently mutilated someone earlier that night, certainly helped
make the creatures around them take the human boy seriously. But it also helped
that it didn't feel like a bluff. He seemed genuinely fearless, and ready to
exact bloody violence on anyone or anything that didn't back down from his
irate glare.
At first, she had felt worried that something wasn't right. That wasn't how
Marco acted, not even how he had acted last night. Jackie was grateful for him
keeping guard over her, but at the same time couldn't help but feel unnerved by
his behavior. He seemed different, rougher, angrier. It was not like him: Marco
was thoughtful, and analytical, and not the least bit likely to strut around
playing Conan the Barbarian in a room full of demons, striding ahead as she
followed him meekly shuffling in chains. If anything, Jackie was usually the
more confident one, the one who was brave almost to the point of foolishness...
sometimes way past it.
It dawned on her, earlier in the night, that she also wasn't acting like
herself. She was following her role, dragging herself around like a broken
person. Somehow, on some level, the roles they were meant to play were more
than just disguises, something was messing with their minds. Anger rose within
her, she stood a little bit higher, held a wolf beast's gaze with her own
defiant one. And then, realizing the problem, looked back down towards the
floor.
Following her role was exactly what she needed to do. If she tried to be brave,
she'd be breaking their deal with Sam. She had to let herself be cowed, be
afraid, and let Marco (and Star) keep her safe. But was that just the logical
choice? Or was that her role speaking? Or was it like Prince Jack had told her?
That she was really, deep down, just that much of a coward?
As the hours ran by, she became more at ease with her temporary misfortune.
More and more of the monsters learned what they would and wouldn't tolerate,
which also meant less unreasonable requests.
Still, she felt tired, and hungry. It was now past eleven, and she had not
dared eat a thing from this infernal buffet. Marco had taken a few disgusted
bites off a drumstick of meat that fortunately seemed too large to be human,
but was also raw and bloody. She had not been quite as brave. Then again, a few
more minutes, maybe just half-an-hour, and Sam would do his midnight address.
After that, they'd leave the party and the nightmare would be mostly over.
So far, it seemed like all five of them were holding their end of the bargain,
including herself. Maybe she wasn't playing the role she would have wanted to
play, but they were still winning, weren't they?
Deep in thought as she was, Jackie almost tripped on the dead body in front of
her. 'Deader body', she supposed. It was a clean skeleton, devoid of flesh but
wearing a bullfighter outfit. The bones themselves, however, were fractured and
splintered, and there was no bright magical glow in the eyes of its cracked
skull. An undead creature, rendered merely dead at a much more recent time.
Besides the remains, laid a sharp looking dagger, lodged into the marble of the
floor itself. Its hilt was also in the shape of a skull, with sapphire
encrusted eyes and a twelve-pointed ring of thorns carved into its forehead.
"Zzlave," she hard a clicking echoing voice behind her, as a hard cold hand
wrapped around her wrist. "We zzhall mate."
She turned around to see the most hideous creature she had yet seen that night.
Its lower body was that of a centipede the size of a horse. From it grew a
human torso, albeit one covered in a sort of black carapace, not unlike that of
a cockroach. Its mouth was also insectoid, with clicking external mandibles
that rattled as it spoke, while the rest of the face was vaguely humanoid, but
only in the broadest sense. Instead of hair, it had a mass of sprouting white
maggots, which slowly dripped into the floor.
Jackie yelled as she pulled away from the monster. A second later, with a gleam
of iron, Marco's sword came down between the two of them, forcing the horror to
pull back its hand.
----
"Let. Her. Go!" Marco demanded. Shooting an enraged glare at the entomological
nightmare before them.
He knew the creature would back down. He would make it back down.
Yes, the place was filled with bloodthirsty monsters, and he was not a fool to
pick unnecessary fights, but if any of them forced the issue when it came to
Jackie, he was ready. He had fought monsters before, with Star, and even more
while chasing Hekapoo across half-forgotten kingdoms. Scary things were afraid
of him. He had been ready for a fight since the beginning of this hellish
party. He felt his blood boil at every step, his muscles tense every time that
a creature held his gaze. He welcomed the sport! But so far, no being had taken
him on his offer, made him make good on his threat.
It was like it had been back in Ennio, except he hadn't yet been forced to
demonstrate a thing. So far, they had all backed down.
"No."
The creature pulled its hand back, but at the same time it rose on its lower
centipede body, until it towered twice Marco's height.
"No," it repeated. A clicking buzzing voice. "I won't letzz go. Zzzhe and I
muzzt mate."
Marco lunged forward with his iron sword, slashing against the beast torso.
Eight legs out of ten times as many held onto his blade, yanking it away from
its hand.
By reflex, Marco brought his hands up in front of him, and begun a sequence of
twelve gestures and twelve words in Riradesh. He had been holding out on using
the Fierceness Ritual. He wasn't sure what effects it would have on his mind
when the costume alone was already goading him into aggression. Well, it seemed
like this beast was about to find out.
Before he could complete the ritual, however, the monster tackled him, throwing
him to the ground, breaking the sequence. It launched itself towards Jackie,
too fast for Marco to respond.
----
Jackie saw Marco attack the creature, and the creature counter-attack. She saw
Marco fall to the ground. She saw the gleam of the skull dagger near her and
reflexively drew herself low to grab it. She hid it behind her back, as the
creature lunged at her.
Marco's sword had been caught in the monster's appendages because it was large,
and heavy, and slow, and it had swung in a wide slashing motion. The dagger was
small and quick, and all Jackie had to do was wait until the insect abomination
was close enough to her, and thrust the point against its chest. The blade
would kill it, she knew. Somehow she knew it with absolute certainty.
A bell tolled somewhere, but to Jackie it felt distant. It didn't matter.
Around her all seemed to freeze.
Marco was still in the floor, out of breath. Not unconscious, but not able to
get back up on time. Even if he did, he was unarmed. It was up to her.
A bell tolled. Behind the monster, Sam, in his waiter attire, stood
expectantly.
Time seemed to slow down, like it had during her fight with Princess White. The
creature lunged at Jackie in slow motion. She could certainly murder it, avoid
a fate worse than death. She wanted that foul beast nowhere near her.
A bell tolled. Sam smiled.
But she was a slave. She was supposed to be a slave. To serve. She was not the
champion, that had been Marco's role.
A bell tolled. A raised eyebrow from their host.
If she fought, that might violate Sam's hospitality. That was why time flowed
slowly, to give her the chance to act.
A bell tolled.
But if she did, if she fought her assailant, that would break her role, and
then not only her, but all of them would suffer.
A bell tolled.
Tom and Janna. Star. Marco. She could not let Marco get hurt. No matter what,
not even if he loved Star more than her.
A bell tolled.
He had tried to protect her. He kept her safe all the rest of the night, and
even if he had failed this one time, she still wanted to do her best to protect
him in return.
A bell tolled.
Even if it meant torment. Even if it meant hell.
A bell tolled.
The creature was now upon her, a second longer and the decision would no longer
be hers.
A bell tolled.
Horror overwhelmed Jackie's mind. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for
the worst. She dropped the blade.
A bell tolled.
A cry of agony forced Jackie's eyes back open, just in time to see a piercing
bright violet ray crisscross the monster's carapace. The creature felt
backwards, burnt and eviscerated. With tearful eyes, Jackie looked back to see
Star pointing her wand at the remains of the insect-like horror. The princess
looked appropriately murderous in her fury.
A bell tolled. Then, a long silence.
Jackie realized that Star was glaring past the monster's corpse now, directly
at Sam. The devil was back in his usual form: glowing blue eyes and burning
golden hair.
The human girl was vaguely aware that the time around them had begun moving
normally, and she was probably perceiving it at the same speed as everyone else
now. If anything, she was the one who felt slow. She new, on some level, that
she was in shock.
"Devils and gentlefiends, that was the twelfth bell. It is now midnight," Sam
spoke to the room, unconcerned, as he walked towards Jackie. "It is now
midnight, and the charade is ended. I am afraid to say, that, in the last
minute, one of my five guests of honor has delivered me a great insult, by
breaking her role."
"What?!" Star shouted. "I didn't! I am pretty sure what I just did fits my role
perfectly. But, you know what? If it didn't, I would have done it anyways! No
way I am letting that thing hurt one of my best friends!"
"Not who I meant." Sam knelt down besides Jackie and picked up the dagger. He
turned to address her, pointing the tip of the weapon carelessly towards her
face. "You, you broke your role."
"W..w..." Jackie tried to talk, but the shock of the last few minutes was still
too much, as was the creeping realization that they were all doomed, and
somehow, despite what she had been ready to do, to accept, it was still her
fault.
"I gave you the tool to kill him," Sam remarked, as he stood back up. "I gave
you time to decide. I gave you the knowledge that you would win. You didn't
raise your hand against an unbearable fate. Why?"
Slowly, Marco was beginning to get back up. She also saw that Tom was making
his way towards them. Suddenly, Janna seemed to pop out of thin air right ahead
of him.
"B... because," Jackie muttered. "Because of my role... because I was a
slave... so, so... so you are wrong, I didn't break the deal, I kept my role. I
swear it. I was even ready to... to..."
"Ah, but you see, child, that was not your role," he spoke. Suddenly, his smile
was not one of amusement. There was only one emotion in the devil's face, a
gelid cruelty, an utter malevolence. Slowly, those among the eldest and most
powerful of the guests began vanishing, making their own ways out of Sam's
domain after the designated hour. Those who weren't quite as powerful, but were
smart, scrambled for the doors. Even Nephafel ran for her life. "What is the
role of a slave, if not rebellion?"
"You..." spoke a voice behind her, almost bursting with barely restrained fury.
It broke through the dazed coldness she was slowly sinking into.
Jackie turned around to see Star pointing her wand straight at Sam.
"... you monumentally unfair asshole!!" shouted the princess.
"And now, princess Butterfly, you have directly insulted me," he remarked, "and
you have raised your hand against me, as well. By your friends actions, or by
yours, I am free of our bargain. Consider my protection withdrawn."
The walls around them begun to crack apart, the ceiling exploded into a cloud
of dust, falling upwards towards the sky. The spheres of blue flame, which used
to be trapped below the hall's vault, let out a long wailing sound and flew
away, to join their siblings in the aurora of souls of the now exposed sky.
Sam's body rose up, and lit up with blinding azure splendor. The demons and
aberrations dumb enough, or unlucky enough, to have remained in the room burned
to dust under the brightness of his light. Star lifted her wand, just in time,
and a glittering purple magical bubble appeared around the five of them. It
shook and wavered under the stress, but, for now, it held.
"Any last words?" boomed a voice like a thousand brass bells.
Chapter End Notes
     Coming up next: Chapter 26: And then Oblivion?
     Note: Unfortunately, Chapter 26 itself might be delayed a bit. Pardon
     the cliffhanger ;)
***** And then Oblivion? *****
Chapter Summary
     In which she dies.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Sam's azure fiery glow illuminated the entirety of the visible world beyond
Star's magic barrier. In the presence of his unearthly fire, midnight was as
bright as dawn. Not with the life giving light of the sun, but with the cruel
brightness of a much less hospitable celestial body, one with a malevolent will
of its own. There was something about the way Sam looked, surrounded by this
bright blue otherworldly light, that made Star's mind recoil in instinctive
terror. She perceived something, just below the threshold of comprehension,
that reminded her of the frailty of all living things.
To say Star was afraid would have been an understatement, and yet, in the face
of inevitability, she was not cowed. She knew she would never match the devil's
might, and he had repeatedly proved that he could outsmart any of them. But
maybe, just maybe, she could still take him by surprise, strike him before he
expected her to do so. There was always the possibility of being
underestimated. In any case, she won nothing by waiting for him to attack
first. She was not playing this defensively! She was not waiting for death to
come her way!
She jumped and rolled out of her protective magical bubble as fast as she
could, leaving her friends safe behind the shimmering shield. The floor
reflected the horrific blue light of their host back at her stinging eyes.
"GLOWING DARKNESS HELLBLAST!" cried Star, as she sprung back on her feet. She
pointed her wand directly at Sam's face, summoning forth the cutting blast of
focused violet light she had used against Princess Nephafel. She targeted her
foe with a destructive brightness much like his very own.
Sam was not surprised. He moved his right arm fast, so fast that Star couldn't
see it, fast enough to hit the incoming beam with the back of his hand. He
literally slapped the spell. The magical ray broke into pieces, as if it were
made, not of pure light, but of solid and rather fragile glass. After
shattering so, no more energy flowed from Star's wand, the spell fully negated
and, perhaps, forever undone. It made no sense, not according to the laws of
physics she had learned on Earth, not according to those of magic which she
read from Eclipsa's notebook. Yet it was so.
The devil stared at the princess, fixing on her a gaze so intense that it
literally burned like fire. Star jumped away just as the air around her ignited
in an explosion of blue flames. No beams, no incantation, no need for movements
or gestures, Sam had but to direct his attention to cause the empty air to
catch fire. He trailed her with his sight, and as she ran from it, blaze and
lightning followed in pursuit. Bits and pieces of the ancient mosaic under her
feet flew through the air as his sight slid through the floor. The roof was
long gone, and the remains of the walls simply crumbled as Sam's gaze touched
them. She was scrambling for dear life and the being in front of her hadn't so
much as taken a step in her direction. He simply glared towards her. His eyes
alone brought destruction.
"DEVOURING HORRORS HELL SWARM!!" Star shouted. A mass of black inchoate
tentacles launched themselves at the Endless Shadow. They burned to ashes
before they could touch his skin.
"DOBHAR-CHU BLAST!!"
"THESTRAL CHARGE!!"
The darker versions of her old favorite spells suffered the same fate.
Monstrous lutrinae and demonic horses cried in agony as they burned to death.
The Lord of Dis hardly seemed to notice her efforts.
Star tried a few more spells, while still evading their host's sight. But she
knew it was but an act of desperation. Beams dissolved before touching him,
summoned weapons melted, creatures burst into flames under the azure light. Her
older rainbows, cupcakes, and inexplicable explosions fizzled out before she
could even finish casting them, going against a tremendous magical pressure
that far exceeded the power of such paltry spells. After her first attempt, the
devil hadn't so much as deigned to lift a hand to defend himself. Instead, the
infernal power slowly radiating from his eyes and body undid most anything she
could throw at him.
"This is beyond disappointing, princess," boomed Sam, his voice the unfeeling
fury of brass bells. "I must say, I was still hoping for so much more than this
sorry collection of third rate parlor tricks..."
He pointed his open palm at Star, then closed it violently. A mass of portals,
not unlike those formerly created by the now inert dimensional scissors, if
perhaps smaller, opened all around the mewman. Out of each portal emerged an
intense beam of cerulean light. They formed into a swarm of blindingly bright
spectral twisting claws. They seemed to grab, not at her, but at her layers of
magical protection, tearing them down one by one. She felt her unshielded skin
crawl with searing pain under their host's burning light, as soon as her
defenses were removed. Star fell down to her knees, weakened and hurt.
The portals vanished. Sam stood, immobile, expectant. His brightness dimmed
ever so slightly, just below the point at which Star herself, now unprotected,
would have soon burst into flames. It still hurt her eyes, and slowly blistered
her skin.
"W...why?" she asked, struggling to regain her breath. "If you are truly going
to kill me, you could have done it already! What the hell are you waiting
for?!"
"For you to show me something new, anything that proves you can already do what
I need you to do," he replied. "It would avoid us both the inconvenience of
your death, and grant me the satisfaction of one rare surprise. Alas, I fear I
might be prolonging this in vain."
Right, he was toying with her, testing her for something. The problem was, Star
didn't know for what. On the one hand, it was beyond humiliating. On the other,
it meant there was a way out! She didn't need to defeat Sam, she just needed to
find a way to solve yet another of his cruel mind games, to figure out what he
wanted to see. But how? Maybe, maybe if she had a moment to think... wait, that
was it!
"From darkness deep and fires far, I call on time to flow like tar!" she
recited.
She didn't see what she could do that would pacify the powerful being, but
perhaps this would buy her some time. She only hoped he wouldn't be able to
follow her into slowed time, like Toffee's phantasm had. She was beginning to
suspect that, fortunately for her now, the only reason that had happened back
then, was because there was some connection between "will, unbending" and the
wand. Perhaps a connection to herself. Maybe, just maybe, Sam would simply
freeze. Then she could figure out, at worst, an escape plan.
"No, that won't do," he said simply, raising his left hand. He extended three
fingers, from middle to thumb, keeping the others closed upon his palm. A
twisted gesture of benediction.
The princess felt something other than her own magic tug at the flow of time,
canceling her own pull on it. She glanced back at Marco, Jackie, Janna and Tom,
none of them seemed frozen. As they looked at the scene in front of them
through the bubble, they were paralyzed by terror and held back by her own
barrier, but not fundamentally immobile. In the sky above them, the maelstrom
of souls continued to turn.
"It wouldn't have worked the way you wished for, either way," Sam explained,
"But I am afraid I want them to see this. For what is worth, that was indeed an
improvement."
An improvement? Why? Because time manipulation was a harder feat to accomplish?
Because it was a more powerful spell? Or maybe, he meant it was cleverer than
her approach so far? No, none of that sounded like the kind of thing the Lord
of Dis cared about. But there was another difference, between that spell and
the previous two. The later was dark magic. It was a spell based on the
principles of Eclipsa's notes, it called on powers beyond those Star could
directly command, and thus, it was what her mom and the high commission would
have termed dark magic. Of course that was what Sam wanted to see her do! He
wanted to see her cast dark magic! It made sense for a demon from hell to want
her to do that. Fine, she would happily oblige!
"I call the darkness unto me, from deepest depths of earth and sea..." she
begun.
Star was almost expecting the devil to stop her, again. Instead, he simply
lowered his arms and waited. A dark mist formed around the mewman princess.
"... from ancient evils unawoken, to break the one who can't be broken..."
He smiled at her as she said that, a smug knowing smile, like she had
accidentally told a joke only Sam got. Her arms burned, as the scorched black
veins surfaced once more, breaking through her usual glamour.
"To blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to burning coal, to
summon forth the deathly power..."
She made sure to point at his heart this time. The half-star of her wand turned
pitch black. Her own eyes glowed green.
"... to see my HATED. FOE. DEVOURED!!"
The ink-like blast emerged from the magic wand. Although a beam as well, this
was of a very different nature than her opening attack. This was not her own
magic, this was her calling unto the powers of death itself to annihilate her
foe. It was a power designed to kill that which was immortal, and the being in
front of her seemed likely to qualify for that title, particularly if Toffee,
now clearly quite dead, had. But, then again, there was immortal and then there
was immortal. So, would this be enough? Sam certainly didn't seem all that
concerned.
In fact, the ancient devil made no movement to stop her spell, or to block it.
He let it hit his chest, right where his heart should have been. For a moment,
tendrils of darkness crisscrossed his loathsome azure light, a black shadow
forming over his torso and projecting all around them as it blocked the light
flowing from the marble skin. His eyes grew wider with mild surprise, the air
in front of them once more catching fire. But then, the shadow began shrinking,
the tendrils withering, and an eternal burning brightness returned to his
unharmed form.
For a supposedly infallible spell, that particular bit of magic had so far
helped Star a total of zero times.
"Well, that was so much better!" Sam commented cheerfully. "Now we are finally
starting to get somewhere. What else have you got?"
Star let herself collapse onto the ground. That had been it. That was the
deadliest and darkest spell she knew, and it hadn't been enough to either hurt
or please the devil. She could use her other spell, the one powered by anger.
But it was strictly a downgrade compared to Eclipsa's original spell. Besides,
right now, she didn't feel anger, she felt despair.
She looked back at her friends behind the barrier. Marco was slamming his bare
fists against the shielding bubble, trying to get out. Jackie just looked,
well, she looked broken. Tom was horrified, but didn't dare move against Sam.
Janna was unreadable behind her cowl. Star held the human boy's eyes and
mouthed: 'I am so sorry'.
She didn't expect this to work, and also didn't expect it to impress Sam enough
to let her go. But if she was going to die here, then she would come out
swinging. She pointed the wand at him one last time, closed her eyes, and
dipped down.
When she opened her eyes once more, they glowed bright green, and a huge ball
of emerald flames burst out of the half-star crystal, then another, and
another. Raw meteors of destructive magic. As they got near the creature that
claimed the title of the Final Cold, the fireballs seemed to veer off course,
to go around his body, rather than through it. At first Star was confused, it
hurt to watch him now, her mind yelling at her that something was wrong. Then
she realized that it was not that her spells were being diverted, the green
flame comets flew in perfect straight lines, but space itself was curving
around her foe. His look was one of contemptuous disappointment.
"I see," he sighed. "So that was all? That's unfortunate. No, I don't think
that will do... it won't do at all. I am afraid we are back to the original
plan. Oh well, it makes little difference, I suppose."
He glared at Star, and blue fire exploded all around her, she felt a jolt of
electricity course through her body as lightning struck her. Vulnerable and
weak without her protective spells, she was thrown back, crashing on the floor
a few steps further away from Sam. The wand flew out of her hands, gracefully
floating towards the devil's open palm.
"Ah, yes, Mewni's royal magic wand: a remarkable tool, even in its cleaved
condition," he spoke appreciatively, inspecting the royal heirloom, passed onto
Star by her mother. "Yet it can be easily destroyed, by a simple verse,
whispered into it. You know? I could just lift that spell from your mind, were
I so inclined. But, then again, where is the fun in that? Let's see if we can
think of more clever ways..."
Star tried to get up, but her muscles didn't seem to be done spasming. The
wand. He was going to destroy the wand! Her mother's wand!
"In the absence of that spell, few forces can damage it. It was built to last a
million years!" he announced. There was a cold tinge of sarcasm to his awed
pronouncement. "Perhaps more. But how much more?"
He held the wand by its head, not its handle, and Star felt, more than saw,
something horrifying. Time seemed to bend just around Sam's fist. It seemed to
flow, not slow as tar, but quick and irresistible, like a river through a
broken dam, the crack widening more the more water passed through it in an
accelerating vicious cycle. The half-star grew ever dimmer, the handle began to
corrode, the wings to crack and break.
"Here is an old lesson, princess: time is an irresistible force, even in the
face of magic," he grinned. "Ten million. Twenty. A hundred million years. And
then, just dust."
He closed his palm and a stream of fine shimmering powder, like sand, crashed
onto the floor. The wand had been turned to nothing by the unnaturally induced
passage of time. Star wouldn't have felt worse if the devil had burned her
right arm to ashes instead. The wand was as much a piece of her as any part of
her body.
"Given time, things break, worlds crumble," Sam noted, "and people?..." He
extended his hand once more towards the princess, snapping his fingers at her.
"People die."
She was vaguely aware of the bubble spell behind her collapsing as the wand
dissolved. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Marco's look of fury as he
began some strange motions with his hands. Tom's eyes glowed red. Janna rushed
past where the barrier had been, unexpectedly, running towards Sam with her
left hand raised in front of her. Tom seemed to overtake the witch just a
second later.
But it was hard for Star to understand what was going on, because at that
moment, she stopped breathing. She felt air leaving her and not coming back.
She brought her hands to her throat. She tried to inhale. She grasped for air,
but none was to be found. She was suffocating, unable to breathe. It was not
that the air wasn't around her, it was that she couldn't touch it. For some
reason, air and her were no longer in the same world. Her lungs burned. She
felt dizzy.
It all went black.
----
Seven minutes, Marco thought to himself. It takes as many as seven minutes for
the human body to die from lack of oxygen. If that was indeed what was
happening to Star.
He had seen the wand crumble to dust, the barrier fall, and his best friend,
his girlfriend, the girl he loved, lie helpless on the marble floor,
convulsing. He begun the Fierceness Ritual the very moment the protective
shield was gone. Even with the added strength, he knew he couldn't win this
fight. If Star's magic couldn't harm Sam, then what hope had he? But there was
no way he would let her fight alone, not now that the bubble keeping him from
her side was not there anymore.
This was all his fault! If he had been able to protect Jackie a few minutes
ago, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have faced Sam's cruel
test, and Star wouldn't be fighting for her life now. Oh god, Marco had failed
both of them! All because he screwed up, all because he held back, because he
didn't use the ritual as soon as the stupid costume party started! He had been
such a coward, and now they all had to pay for his mistake!
When he saw Star gasping for air, motioning to her throat, he felt a sick cold
terror, an overwhelming sense of dread. It almost broke his concentration
entirely, causing the ritual to misfire. But he suddenly remembered his first
aid training. Star wasn't dead, not yet, the Safe Kid thought, just
unconscious. He only needed to find a way to get her breathing again in the
next seven minutes. Maybe more for a mewman. Mewmans were tougher than humans
in almost every way, after all.
This meant that he had to maintain control, to keep a clear mind.
Unfortunately, that was about to become ten times harder.
He finished the last word, the last gesture. Immediately, he felt his entire
body tense, his muscles ache, his bones compress under inhuman pressure, his
heart race faster than it had ever been designed to, and his mind cloud with an
overpowering thirst for violence. It seemed that the effects of Sam's costume
did add up with those of the ritual, just as he had feared. It didn't help that
Marco had every reason in the multiverse to want to do violence right now.
He had remembered all about the ritual from last night's dream. He figured that
was the point of him dreaming about it. Maybe the Finding Ritual had worked,
and he had indeed found strength. But strength had been the wrong thing to ask
for! It would not be enough. Sam was far beyond any mortal strength. Marco
needed smarts. He had to think, now, while he still somewhat could. He had to
find a way, any way, to save Star. He didn't care to die here, as long as she
survived. Wait, not only Star, Jackie too!
In a moment of clarity, before rushing towards Star, Marco stomped on Jackie's
lower chains, cutting them in two. He also crushed the ones tying her arms
together with his right hand. It took most of his newfound might, but the
magical chains did break under the strength of a hundred men. For a moment,
Marco had been worried that even that would not be enough to affect Sam's
magical costume props. But apparently, those were not meant to be real
restraints, not by the devil's standards.
Marco's little pause meant that Janna and Tom had gotten ahead of him.
Tom was the first to reach the damn bastard. Sam smiled at him. His eyes
dimmed. The extreme heat that had permeated the air from the moment Star's
barrier fell was suddenly gone as well.
"What's up, bro? Hope you enjoyed the party! Shame you all couldn't hold your
end of the deal. But, oh well, better luck next time? You, bro, are free to
go... the rest stay, of course..."
"Leave! Star! ALONE!!" growled Tom. His eyes burned red, streams of fire burst
out of his hands, he flew up high into the air.
The devil's eyes burned blue, a blisteringly hot wind blew all around them once
more. Sam's voice boomed, "Do you truly believe you can threaten me, Thomas
Lucitor?"
Tom floated back to the ground, his eyes back to normal, his teeth gritting in
anger, his entire body shaking, and yet he hesitated to fight a fight he knew
he couldn't win. Janna rushed past him.
Meanwhile, Marco, head pounding, turned his attention towards Star's
unconscious body. The Fierceness Ritual had been a mistake. He didn't need this
much strength for what he was about to do, what he needed was to be careful. He
leaned on top of the princess, put a single palm over her chest, and pressed
his lips to her own. He begun the compressions, and tried, carefully at first,
to breath air directly into her mouth. His clouded mind fought against him,
telling him that he should be out there, ripping Sam limb by limb rather than
clumsily trying to administer CPR.
It didn't work, anyway. The air seemed to refuse to go inside Star's body. Even
blowing with all his strength, he couldn't get the mewman to inhale. In his
desperation, he tried harder and harder, his thoughts falling behind a red mist
of anger and confusion. He heard a sickening crack. One of Star's ribs had
broken under his superhuman strength.
Janna held a hand up in front of herself. Around her ring finger, a double-
coiled spiral tattoo began to glow blue. It was too far for Marco to see it
clearly, even if he were paying full attention, but the mark shook and
slithered like a living thing. The girl's eyes glowed blue as well. It was the
same shade of blue light of Sam's own blinding eyes, although far less intense:
a candle-flame to his inferno. A mass of shadowy tendrils appeared all around
the witch.
"Shall I let you burn today, J-flame, then? Waste your fire in vain against
powers far beyond your comprehension? No, I think not," Sam declared. He
pointed his hand at Janna and clicked his fingers. Her skin begun turning an
unearthly shade of gray. She opened her mouth to scream in pain, but froze
before any sound could come out. In an instant she had been turned to stone. "I
do wonder if you simply felt you had to do this. A matter of pride perhaps? I
would have thought that, deep down, you'd be happy to see the princess gone."
"You... you..." Tom flew at the ancient being, eyes glowing, his entire body
covered in bright red flames, muttering something that sounded to Marco like
the demon prince's version of a ritual. This time, he was not deterred by his
own fear, or by the known futility of the assault. Guided by Tom's magic, dark
chains and slabs of stone appeared all around Sam, trying to contain him. They
immediately exploded into a thousand pieces, then fell uselessly to the floor.
A marble white hand seized a charging Tom by the neck.
"Whoa, way to grow a pair, 'bro'!" he spoke. His eyes still glowing this time,
the timbre of his voice still inhuman, the pretense of fake amiableness more
transparent than ever before. "You know very well who it is you face and yet...
yet you are willing to throw your long existence away? For them, who live lives
short as a candle's wick? For your human pet?"
"For my ex-girlfriend!" Tom corrected him.
"Well, what can I say? It touches my heart!" Then, with a cruel smile, he
added, "...shall I return the favor?"
He placed his free remaining hand atop Tom's chest, raised two fingers up, and,
with a swift movement, plunged them into the demon prince's skin, piercing
muscle and bone like it was wet tissue paper. Marco heard the Lucitor child
yell in agony, as the older fiend scrapped a large piece of his heart out of
his chest, throwing the rest of the eviscerated body to the ground. A
pressurized fountain of blood gushed out of the wound. Tom seemed alive, or
whatever it was that demons were as opposed to dead, but he twisted and howled
in pain, seemingly completely beyond conscious thought.
"By the way, that reminds me," Sam turned around towards Marco, who was still
desperately trying to bring Star back to life. "You are wasting your time."
The devil glared at the princess inert form, his eyes narrowing suddenly. Marco
felt his own skin blister under the heat and jumped away by reflex. What he saw
then was more horrifying than any sight in the last few days, than any other of
the horrors of hell.
Star's hair caught flames, burning from blond to coal black, turning slowly to
ashes. The Countess costume caught fire as well, quickly burning into nothing.
Then, her naked body began graying and shrinking, not turning into stone like
Janna's, but sort of desiccating. Her flesh turned coal-like first, and then
ignited, leaving only her bones. Finally, those too cracked and broke, until
nothing remained of the mewman but dust and a scorched silhouette on the marble
and obsidian floor.
It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. Star was... no...
Marco sprung up to his feet, looked at Sam's smug smiling face, and there was
no longer an ounce of human thought in the boy's mind. He roared like a savage
beast, and charged straight at the devil. In the back of his mind, he knew the
most important person in his life had just died, that he had seen her body
being literally cremated in front of him. But there was no grief yet, not even
anger, at least not anger of a kind he had ever known before. All that was
Marco was silent, dead just as much as Star was. What remained was a single
minded instinct, a need to see the being in front of him destroyed.
He punched Sam directly in the face, and the devil made no move to avoid him or
block his strike. It was yet again the familiar sound of cracking bones when
his right hand broke. He tried the left, with equal results. He kicked, and
broke one foot as well. A hand lifted him from his chin, and threw him back
hard against the floor, three out of four limbs were bending in entirely the
wrong way.
It all went black.
----
Jackie looked at the carnage around her through wide glazed out eyes. This was
all her fault. She had failed to do the right thing. She had mistook what she
was supposed to do. She had been willing to endure an inhuman act of violation
to avoid this fate, to suffer torture to spare her friends. Yet that surrender
itself had caused their demise. It had led to Star's death, possibly Marco's as
well. Her turn was probably next, and that was, in a way, the least of her
sorrows.
The azure brightness burned her flesh. She didn't feel it. The pain inside made
the one outside superfluous. She walked towards Sam, a step at a time. She
could have collapsed into the floor, just as easily. It made no difference to
her either way. But for some reason she kept marching towards the cruel devil.
He said something. She didn't understand what it was. She was barely aware of
Tom's screams of agony. Marco and Janna were both silent and unmoving, one
unconscious, the other stone. Star had burned to ashes before her very eyes.
What words could even have meaning after that? Did Sam taunt her? Ask her a
question? Threaten that she was next? Either way, she did not care. There was
nothing she could care about anymore.
She saw the devil raise a hand and point towards her, she did not flinch. She
wondered how he was going to kill her, with the detached curiosity of one who
knows such matters to be quite trivial, all things considered. Sam was right,
he was absolutely right, it was all a charade, and then came oblivion.
But the marble white hand shifted ever so slightly, pointing to the empty space
in front of her. Before Jackie, a black sword appeared, buried into the broken
mosaic under their feet. The hilt had once more the twelve spiked circle, and
the sigil of the flaming sword: Sam's seal.
The human girl put her hand on the hilt. It scorched her skin. It didn't
matter. She lifted the sword, pulling it from the ground. She charged
hopelessly against the refulgent devil with the weapon he himself gave her, she
stroke with fury and determination born of futility.
She felt the blade break into a dozen shards on impact. She felt her own body
fly through the air before hitting the hard floor. She felt the blunt pain of
the impact.
Jackie briefly considered staying down and simply waiting for the final blow.
When she got up, it wasn't that she cared enough to fight, it was that she
didn't care enough to surrender. Another sword, identical to the first,
appeared before her. She pulled it, and charged.
"... you think, perhaps, that you can defeat me?" she finally heard the words,
as the sword once again broke on impact and she was thrown through the air a
second time. It was not arrogance, but a quiet tone of amused curiosity coming
from her tormentor.
"No," she answered as she stood up. Another sword appeared before her.
"Do you expect this will help your friends?"
Metal exploded.
"No."
A fourth sword was brought forth into the world.
"Then... Why?"
A shrug. A shower of steel shards.
----
If Sam palace had been bright with a blue hateful dawn, this place was a
blackness beyond that of a moonless night. Worse than that, since no stars
shone inside the infinite expanse of the void. None until she opened her eyes.
Once she did, her own pale magical glow was the only source of light in the
nothingness. There was no up, and no down, no forward or backwards, there was
only her, and not a speck more.
"Where am I?" she questioned the emptiness.
"Think of it as the threshold," spoke a voice in the darkness. Sam's voice. Not
booming brass bells, but the cruel amused tone she had heard him use in her
dream. "It is the place after where 'place' has lost meaning, and the last
moment that exists in time. At least, for you."
He appeared before her, not as a glowing god of destruction, but as a bleak and
macabre figure. His eyes were not bright with burning azure light. They weren't
even the human blue irises he sometimes pretended to have. Instead, they were
empty sockets, filled only with darkness. His marble skin was still statuesque,
but now it looked muted gray, dirty, and full of cracks, it reminded her of
gravestones. Golden hair had turned to rusted lead. There was no brightness
coming from the Endless Shadow, just the same grimness that seemed to suffuse
this whole place. There was an instant in which Star wondered if this form was
weaker than the one she had just faced. It didn't quite seem that way, just an
insurmountable mightiness of a different kind. But maybe, just maybe, she could
chance to try again, to continue her fight in this place, to unleash righteous
vengeance upon the being who... who killed her.
"Oh... I am dead..." she realized. "I am dead, aren't I?"
"Mostly," Sam replied, smirking. At least, his lips curved. A smile in a face
with no eyes was a particularly unsettling expression to behold.
"So," Star speculated, "dead and in hell and you are the corresponding devil to
torture me? Because that'd be great, really great..." she spat, sarcastically.
Disturbing as Sam's new form was, Star was not afraid of it. If nothing else,
being already dead tended to remove fear of death as a factor in her decision
making.
"Not so," replied Sam. "I am just holding you here for but a moment, Princess
Butterfly. Soon enough I'll have to let go, and you will drift beyond..."
"You mean to heaven?" Frankly, she was surprised she still qualified for that.
"Oh no, you don't. Not in the least!" Sam assured her, with a laugh as dark as
the world around them.
So, that confirmed what she already suspected: he could read her thoughts.
Because, of course he could. They never had a chance, had they?
"No. And, well, it is somewhat more complicated than that, anyways, in your
particular case," Sam continued. "Dissolution, probably. Maybe reincarnation.
The City of Dis wouldn't be a final enough prison for a soul like yours, and
make no mistake, once I let go, if you are still here, the result will be very
final..."
"Good," said Star, defiantly. She had lost, she had died, but she would not
give the devil the satisfaction of seeing her break.
Honestly, she was not sure if it was a good thing. To die, that is. Although
she couldn't imagine how it could be worse than what she had just left behind.
On the other hand, if she was dead, then there was nobody left to avenge her
mother.
"Well, you could still do that..." Sam chuckled. It was a laugh that sucked out
joy from the void itself, an anti-laugh. "It would be a miracle, of course. But
you are doomed by prophecy, after all, Princess Star, and a proper destiny
begets many miracles..."
"Doomed?" Star asked, uncertain.
"It is another way to say: fated, destined," the devil explained, clearly aware
of which meaning Star had first understood. Then, solemnly, he intoned:
"'Behold the dark queen ascending, her will the thread of fate unraveling.
Behold the force of evil incarnate, borne of deepest heart's desire...' ...
sounds familiar?"
Indeed, those were familiar words, from Cass' prophecy. But Star couldn't see
what that had to do with anything right now. Clearly, if she was dead, and
about to be dissolved, or whatever, she could no longer become a dark queen.
Unless she was supposed to have been one already. The case could be made for
that one, she realized, although she had never really done anything quite that
evil...
"You are missing the second part, Princess Star. Your will has unraveled, or
will unravel fate. Maybe both. Maybe you continuously unravel it. Or maybe your
will is made of the thread of fate unraveling. Words are tricky slithering
things, after all," he mussed. "But the point is that you have a destiny, one I
think you haven't yet fulfilled, even if I perceive only the broadest contours
of what it might be. What is death against the tides of fate? No, Star, I do
not think I have destroyed you, although I would be amused to find otherwise.
In any case, as a matter of preference, I do not desire your tale to end today.
I expect not dissolution or reincarnation, but rather... resurrection."
"Resurrection?" Star repeated in confusion. "You will revive me? Then why kill
me in the first place?!" she asked, exasperated.
"I will do nothing of the sort!" Sam stated, pointedly. "In fact, I cannot. It
goes beyond my attributions. It might be more accurate to say it goes against
them. I destroy, I devour, I corrode, I kill. I do not create life. Holding you
in place is one thing. Pulling you towards life would be quite another. But
you, however, can do it. I have seen you do it, in a future that no longer
exists. All you need is sufficient motivation, I think. Something 'borne of
deepest heart's desire', perhaps? So, what do you desire?"
To avenge her mom, Star thought. That was the desire that had brought her to
the deepest depths of hell, that had pushed her to learn the dark arts, that
had made her drag all her friends into damnation with her. That was her wish,
to kill the thing that killed her mom! It was a want that she was willing to
undo death to fulfill.
Star closed her eyes and dipped down. The void was deep, deeper than any other
place she had dipped into before. There were no magical chunks of reality to
grasp at, not anywhere near enough for her to sense. Sam wasn't there, either,
not when she looked at the energies of the place he had called the threshold.
If he was here with her at all, it was inside her head. There was nothing
besides her in the realm of magic, same as there wasn't anything in the visible
void.
Until, after a while, Star became vaguely aware of something so distant as to
defy comprehension, a magical layer that laid even below that which she could
usually access while dipping down. It was dark, and bright, and
incomprehensibly powerful, and it called to her with a siren's song. If she
grasped at that power, she was certain that getting back to Sam's palace would
be easy. As her mind honed into it, the power pulsed violet and black. It told
her that she could do it, that she would have her revenge, that her mom would
be proud when the creature of green flames was extinguished under a darkness so
deep that it would swallow worlds, and a terrible violet brightness that could
turn the night into a life-ending dawn.
Star opened her eyes, terrified. "No, no, no, no..."
It was not what she wanted. Not at that cost! If that was where her quest for
revenge was leading her, if that was what the prophecy truly meant, then she
didn't want vengeance anymore! Her mom would never have wanted Star to do it,
anyways, especially not like that. She had been willing to delve into dark
magics to avenge Moon, but this was not the kind of evil she was willing to
embrace. Eclipsa's notes were wrong... not all knowledge was good knowledge.
Her wish, the wish of her deepest heart's desire, was to never become what she
had just glimpsed. She remembered the rest of the prophecy: 'Only surrender may
undo the shadow, but the price shall be too high to pay. In the end the world
itself must shatter, and death shall be the one to claim her'. She thought she
finally understood what it meant.
"I won't do it," she said. Death was preferable to a destiny like that. "Sam,
let me go! Let me die."
The devil seemed to think it through for a moment.
"No. That's not it. That's not what it means... I would know it if you got it
right," he declared. "I am afraid you must still ascend back to the world of
the living, until we both find out what those words truly conceal."
Sam waved a hand. It was a slow ponderous movement. He didn't seem weak, on the
contrary, there was an infinitely deep force to this version of him. But at the
same time, he certainly seemed less energetic than his shining visage from
earlier.
Below them, in a ghostly play made of blue light against the infinite black
vastness, the scene back at Sam's Palace unfolded before the mewman's eyes.
Star saw Marco's unconscious body on the floor, Janna's literally petrified
look of terror, Jackie stumbling back to her feet amidst a sea of broken metal
shards.
"Now, how is that for motivation?"
----
"Why?" asked Sam.
Jackie had no answer. She hadn't had one the first time, not the tenth, not the
twentieth. She had lost count after that. But she got up on her feet, grabbed
the black sword that appeared that very instant in front of her, and charged.
Well, she didn't charge. Not anymore. Her muscles were too sore, her body too
heavy. She walked. She dragged herself, step by step, towards the Lord of Dis.
Her skin was red now, insolated by the harsh blue light of the ancient devil.
It was hopeless. It had been hopeless from the beginning. This sword had no
more a chance of hurting Sam than any of the others. They said that the
definition of insanity was to try the same thing over and over again, expecting
different results. But, in this case, it was not like there was anything else
she could do that would work any better. It had been hopeless since the fight
begun, and she had known it even then. She could no more win against Sam than
she could bring Star back to life or wish Marco safely back to Echo Creek.
In fact, Jackie realized, it had been hopeless even before that. At some point
in her mad repetition, she had realized that they had been given no chance to
outsmart the devil at his game. She understood that, had she taken the dagger
back during the last minutes of the party, Sam would have claimed that
defending herself broke her role, and violated his hospitality. Her role was to
rebel, but only after she had chosen not to. If she had indeed rebelled, if she
had fought, her role would have been to bow down. She hadn't failed a test, she
had been placed in an unwinnable scenario. Just like the one she was in now.
Another broken sword, another rain of shards, another painful halting act of
standing up.
Maybe that ought to make her feel better, to know that she had not really made
a mistake back then, that either way the outcome was the same. It didn't. It
just meant Sam had been playing them for fools since far earlier than she
thought. She walked again towards her invincible foe.
"Why?" he questioned. No more bothered or more tiredly than the first, or
tenth, or twentieth, time.
Jackie wondered. She knew this was useless. She could not hurt him. Star was
gone. Marco was unconscious and she couldn't help him escape. Nor could she
help Janna or Tom. She had no illusions that begging or bargaining would allow
her to save any of them. Maybe, if she kept doing this, Sam would take longer
to kill them all. Maybe he was waiting for some other unfathomable reason, and
Jackie herself was just meant to be his entertainment while he waited. Either
way, he could kill them all in an instant, and nothing she did would stop him.
Her valor didn't matter. Her stubbornness didn't matter. Her love for Marco
didn't matter. He would kill her, and him, and them all, and nothing she did
one way or the other could affect that.
She had her answer.
"Why not?" she said, and she charged yet again.
Sam looked puzzled for a second, just a second. It was not an expression she
could ever recall seeing on him. Then, he smiled, and she knew he understood
her answer.
If it doesn't matter either way, if nothing she could do mattered, if life was
a charade, and the only possible end was oblivion, then why not? Why not fight
to the last breath? And why not keep charging? And why not stand up every time
until you couldn't stand anymore? If it was all meaningless, then how was
surrender any better than defiance? If nothing she did made any difference,
then all that made a difference, to herself, is what she did. She would die,
but she would die not as a slave, but as a fighter. Even Sam, with all his
power, couldn't take that away from her anymore.
And so they continued, more broken swords, more hailing shards. Each time it
was harder and harder to get up. Eventually, she couldn't do it anymore. She
lied on the floor, in the opposite condition of that in which she had begun
this fight: an unbreakable spirit in a broken body.
It was defeat, but inside that there was a small victory, the only left to
achieve. Sam never asked her 'why' again.
----
Star saw Jackie's body stop moving. She saw all of her friends lying there on
the remains of the marble and obsidian floor, defeated. She saw Sam raise a
hand and bring his fingers together in a familiar gesture. His expression one
of careless boredom. She knew he was about to do to them what he had done to
her, to end a game of which he had finally gotten tired.
She had no choice. She dipped down. If she had to burn worlds to the ground to
protect her friends, then so be it.
She reached for the magic deep below the void.
When she found it, she was surprised. It was different than before. There was
darkness and harsh consuming violet light, but also streams of golden
brightness, warm and inviting, and a rainbow shimmer over it all. It was no
less terrible than before, no less dangerous, but it was even more beautiful.
It was whole. The wish of her heart was not only vengeance upon her mother's
killer, and vengeance upon Sam, but also to help her friends, to heal them, to
protect them. She went into the depths with enough hate and pain for a dozen
dark queens ascending, but also, with just as great an amount of love.
Both emotions coursed intertwined through Star's mind as she brought herself
back into the world of the living. It felt a little bit like pushing through
the surface of an opaque ocean. She arrived with a flash of purple light, her
body unfolding in mid air in the center of the destroyed ballroom, right
between Sam's glowing form and Jackie's barely stirring body.
She had all of her six arms extended. Her hair shone golden, suddenly formed
into a set of miraculously levitating pigtails. The borders of her wings were
bright gold as well, tinted by the reflected blue and purple light around her.
The inside of the wings, however, the greater part of their surface, was pitch
black, black like the void had been. Her cheekmarks were pink hearts once
again, tinted mauve. Her eyes were closed.
She came into the world as most do: naked. A second later, however, she
manifested a dress for herself. It was black, with long golden trims in the
shape of flames along the neck and the hem of the skirt. In the middle, there
was an embroidered blooming rose with a heart symbol in its center. The entire
pattern was in dark violet thread and almost invisible against the light
radiating from her. A golden diadem with long devil horns appeared atop her
head, and black boots around her feet.
A stream of dust floated up from the ground, and gathered by Star's uppermost
right hand. It formed into a new, yet familiar, shape. First there was a
scepter of night-black steel, adorned with dragon wings, demon horns, and
twelve small spikes along the edge of its circular head. Inside the head there
was a hole, and a sphere of sun-bright golden flame. It was not a depiction of
a star, nor a gem shaped like a star. It was a star; a real burning star,
albeit of an impossibly small volume and mass. Slowly, it transmuted itself
into a crystal like that of Star's old wand, if still visibly brighter with its
own golden light. It was whole once more, not split in half, with each of the
five points touching the inner border of the hollow wand. A small crack in the
shape of a crescent moon formed inside the crystal, in the middle of the star.
Violet light shone from inside the fracture, bright enough to be seen even
against the solar brightness of the rest of the wand's core.
Star opened her eyes then. They glowed with a bright violet light that nearly
outshone Sam's own. She was love, and she was hate.
For now, love took priority.
----
Marco inhaled suddenly, and felt a soothing warmth over his arms and legs, and
on the inside of his chest, and in every corner of his battered body. He felt
himself healing and mending, and opened his eyes to see the mewman's floating
body through a new protective purple bubble all of his own.
"Star?!" he exclaimed, tears of joy running down his eyes.
He looked around, and saw Jackie getting back up, looking down at her hands as
deep burns seemed to recede in an instant. She was surrounded by her own
shielding bubble. Her hair flowed all around her in magical wind. Tom, whose
chest wound had now been closed, and Janna, who was no longer stone, had their
own protective spheres surround them as well.
They all stared at each other in surprise, and then at the gold and black shape
of Star, framed against intense violet light. She looked unearthly. She looked
powerful. She looked beautiful. She looked... amazing.
----
"Alright, now, this is exciting," Sam spoke. Star's attention converged towards
the evil fiend like an avalanche. If looks could kill, Star's would have
murdered her foe. Had it been anyone other than Sam, perhaps she could, and
would, have. But he barely seemed to notice. "It's been a rather long while
since I last witnessed an apotheosis."
He smirked as the mewman held his gaze. The air sparked and burned in between
their aligning line of sight. This time, she had no need to run from his
deathly brightness, from the burning power of his glare, she stared the devil
down. Her destructive will opposed his own.
He lifted a hand, and a swarm of tiny portals opened all around the princess,
leaving no escape path. She stirred the magic below the world, bending space
itself to create an opening, and gracefully glided out of the ambush. The
topology of the cosmos restored itself as she passed through. Behind her, many
bright claws of light grasped uselessly at the empty air. The resurrected
princess glared at the devil with murderous intent. Sam was grinning.
He floated slowly up into the air, and Star followed, cautiously. Below them,
she could see the City of Dis, ever burning, and to their sides the twelve
claw-like towers that surrounded it. Above them, the maelstrom of ghostly blue
souls, and the black hole in the middle to which they all flowed, encompassed
the entirety of the heavenly vault.
This was good, she thought, he was leading them away from her friends, where
she wouldn't need to worry about hurting them by accident with her new powers.
Up here, she could let go, hit him with everything she had, and hope it would
be enough. She had been in butterfly form before, back when she first went
through mewberty, and she had seen her mom do it as a battle technique as well.
This was different somehow, however. She felt like she was still dipping down,
every second, not going up and down like when she cast wordless and wandless
spells before, but rather as if she were constantly submerged in the chunkier
stuff of reality's stew, and slowly diving lower and lower.
She raised her wand towards the devil and simply willed him undone. A twisting
stream of gold and black fire shot out from the crystal core. Sam sidestepped
it with ease.
"Well... it is a start," he declared.
'I'll show you a start!' thought Star, furiously. Her mind tugged at the fabric
of reality itself around them, and a thousand lances of bright violet light
appeared out of nowhere, converging on Sam's floating form from every possible
direction. They impacted the fiend's marble body, creating ripples of blackness
like stones thrown on the surface of a lake. He seemed quite unbothered by
this. She groaned and the ground seemed to shake in response.
He swiped at the air with one hand. A dozen of the spheres above them, the ones
that were supposedly made out of souls, fell towards were Star was, like bright
blue comets. Flapping her wings furiously, she managed to dance around them
through the empty air. A single meteor graced her left boot, sending a jolt of
pain through her body, piercing through the magical power that protected her.
Somehow, even in this form, Sam remained well beyond her.
"So, what now?!" growled Star. Her voice was lower and it echoed with two
different tones. "You kill me again? Is that it? Then why coax me into
reviving? What's the point?! Why are you doing this?!"
"There is no point, Star Butterfly, never mistake that lesson, there is never
any point," he replied, a tint of annoyance in his voice. "As for why I am
doing this? To amuse myself... and to save me an unpleasant bit of work further
down the line. In terms of the second matter, actually, I am done. We can head
back down the moment you wish. I will let you and your friends go. I am
throughly satisfied with how this all has turned out..." He held both hands up,
then smirked. "But, well, I believe it is you who isn't done, Princess Star.
You still wish to hurt me, and it amuses me to see you try."
He was, she realized, entirely right. She wanted him dead. She wanted to
destroy him. She wanted to hurt him more than anything in the world right now,
except perhaps for making sure Marco, and Jackie, and Tom, were all alright.
Star had the odd sensation that she had struck some sort of bargain by coming
back. If nothing else, her resurrection had surely increased the chances of her
fulfilling that awful prophecy. She felt that she was being cheated out of
something if that deal did not include enough power to wipe that smug grin of
Sam's face, preferably against a bunch of jagged rocks.
Actually, that gave her an idea. Out of somewhere inside her mind, a word rose
to her lips. It was an old childish spell, one she hadn't even bothered to
consider or learn before now. But sometimes magnitude and raw power could
outshine magical complexity. She understood this now. The version of her that
knew a spell she never learned, the version of her that was continuously
tapping into the magic below the void the way her old self would tap into the
air she breathed, that version understood.
"Levitato!" she yelled, pointing her wand at one of the huge black towers.
The tower broke right in half. The upper part floated slowly in mid air towards
them, a veritable flying mountain. It then exploded into a million fragments of
stone, sharp edged projectiles of hard solid igneous rocks. She flung them like
a titanic hailstorm towards the devil.
"What the hell do you mean an unpleasant bit of work?!" she shouted at him as
she released her attack. Despite her fury, she processed every word he said.
Her mind burst with raw emotion and held itself in detached attention, all
simultaneously. This was not the first time the being had hinted at wanting
Star to accomplish something for his own benefit. She wanted to know what,
probably so she could do the opposite. Good fucking luck getting her to do any
favors for him!
Sam waved both hands around and the stone fragments sizzled and burned. They
turned to liquid magma and then evaporated, becoming a black cloud of noxious
smoke, enveloping the two of them. Star coughed, and adjusted her magical
shields to protect her from the inhospitable air as well as the burning heat of
vaporized rock.
"I mean the creature, the one you seek," he replied calmly. "It is something
that should never have been, called forth by an unknowing pact that never
should have been made. It is an abomination to the natural order of the
cosmos..."
"SHADOW BEAST SWARM!" was her first reply. Her second was: "So?! It sounds like
you would be happy about that! Might even throw a costume party for it as
well!"
Under her magic, the smoke around them began to form into fearsome winged
beings: dragons, thestrals, and huge phoenixes, all made of translucent smoke
and darkness, with bright pulsating hearts of violet light at their core. They
cried and growled and fell upon the marble-skinned devil from all directions.
Star could feel their hunger, it mirrored her own hate.
"Every creature at that party, from the meanest zombie to the proudest god has
a place in the order of the cosmos," Sam shrugged, taking on the tone of a
bored teacher repeating a standard lecture to a dull child. It was clear to the
mewman it was an idea he himself didn't believe in, not entirely. "Or so goes
that particular bit of nonsense."
He zoomed through the air, fast as lightning, tearing the summoned creatures
apart with his bare hands. He briefly smiled as he strangled shadowy phoenixes
and ripped the beating violet light out of conjured dragons. He was having fun,
the infernal bastard! Star could follow his movements easily, but to lesser
eyes he would have been an unseen flash, destroying a thousand beasts in less
than a second, one by one, with a craftsman's fastidiousness and zeal.
"I have a role of my own too, unfortunately," the devil added. "One I'd rather
not have to play, not in that way, not on their terms. But alas, there is only
so much my leash extends, after all. I can't avoid all of my own lines in the
script of our grand shared farce. If you don't destroy it first, then I'll
eventually be compelled to do so myself. It is a law I cannot break anymore
than I can return life..."
'Not if I find a way to kill you first', thought Star. She closed her eyes.
Suddenly, she was aware of, well, of everything. She felt the energies of her
friends down there, the tangle of strange magics that had somehow found
themselves mixed with Marco, without the princess even noticing, the twisted
inside-out thing that was now Janna's soul, as well as Tom's familiar fire. She
felt the legions of demons below, the chorus of souls above. And she felt Sam.
She felt Sam's power, all around her, some in front of her, but, mainly,
raining down from above. It was then that she realized her mistake.
Maybe Eclipsa's spell truly was not strong enough to hurt Sam either way, but
that was not the only reason it had failed. The older Butterfly had said so
herself: 'aim it directly at his heart'. Star wasn't aiming anywhere near Sam's
heart, when she pointed her wand at the marble skin chest.
"And you seriously expect me to do you a favor?!" she shouted at the devil.
"After all of this! Why would I not simply wait for you and that blighted thing
to kill each other instead?!"
It was worth considering. As much as she wanted to be the one to avenge her
mother, if the creature was going to die either way, why not wait? Especially
if that inconvenienced Sam.
"Because of the same reason your worlds have a Magical High Commission,
Princess Star," he begun. "For the same reason all worlds have their own
guardians, and heroes, and failsafes for this sort of thing, and don't simply
all wait for my intervention..."
Star took her chance then. She closed her eyes, she dipped lower than she ever
thought she could, and at the same time she begun to improvise. A dark poem of
her own, a version of Eclipsa's spell fitting of her new powers. A call for the
powers she had bargained with, to destroy her enemy. She didn't need to chant
it, just think it clearly enough.
'I call the darkness within me,
from deepest depths I set you free,
Prophetic evil now awoken,
dark queen ascending oft forespoken,'
Was that allowed? To invoke yourself as the entity that a dark spell called
forth? Well, Star was ready to find that out!
"... because when I am called to deal with the blights of reality, when I
absolutely must be bound to my role, despite my best efforts to postpone it,"
Sam continued, seemly oblivious to Star's silent invocations. "Well, when
things get to that point, the only choice is for me to, well... sterilize the
area around the infection, cauterize the wound so to speak..."
For visual aids, he summoned blue light representations of Mewni, of Earth, of
Tom's underworld, and a number of other worlds that the mewman realized
probably included Hekapoo's domain. The latter seemed to be comprised of three
major spheres and dozens of smaller dimensions in between. The maps made of
light and smoke soon burned in blue flames, as Sam made a graphic display of
what his intervention would entail. The term 'Apocalyptic' fell somewhat short,
in that the word implied the end of only one single world...
"... such is my role," he finished.
All the more reason why Star wanted Sam gone from his supposed place in the
cosmos if she had any say in that.
'I seize my fate without remorse,
I wish revenge and stay my course,
for just one spark of divine might,
that sets the skies themselves alight!'
She pointed upwards. Right at his heart. His real heart. A huge explosion of
blackness surrounded her, as all light around the two of them, including their
own blue and violet glows, seemed to be devoured in an instant by the crystal
star in the middle of her new wand. A blinding blast of violet light emerged
from the gem a moment after. It headed towards the center of the sky, towards
the black hole in the maelstrom of souls, towards Sam's true heart.
The figure that she had come to associate with the Endless Shadow, his
anthropomorphic avatar, the marble-skinned devil of glowing blue eyes, launched
itself up that instant, at an impossible speed. It chased the beam of glowing
death.
He extended a hand out, and something even brighter than Star's spell seemed to
appear inside his palm. It was hard to see from where she was flying, far below
Sam and the spell he pursued, but it looked a bit like a stream of fire, and a
bit like a weapon, and a bit like a bright cut in the tapestry that was
reality.
Star saw the Lord of Dis catch up to her own darkest spell, and cut through the
fore of it with this mighty blade. He descended towards her, cutting through
the middle of her spell as if it were a tree being carved in two by a lightning
strike. Except it was light itself that which now split and splintered. When
Sam finally approached the origin of the beam, and Star could see his face, she
found that his eyes were glowing more intensely than ever, and that he was, for
once, neither bored nor smiling. A moment before his blade reached her wand, he
managed to somehow rotate his body to elbow her in the face instead,
interrupting the spell and sending her flying down towards the ground.
Star crashed into what was left of the marble and obsidian mosaic of Sam's
ballroom floor, and pulverized the remaining design. She felt her strength
leave her. Her wings shrunk into their usual tiny pink shapes. Four of her arms
were absorbed back into her torso. The black and golden clothes vanished. Only
the wand remained, in the hand of an exhausted naked Star.
Sam descended gently, right in front of her. For a moment, Star flinched in
anticipation of the burning blue light, which her normal unshielded body was
quite vulnerable to. But the devil's glow was gone, or, at least, it was back
to that which he showed them when they first met. He was clapping his hands,
slowly.
"Well, today has been an exciting day!" Sam declared. "You were right J-flame!
Inviting all of you to my party really did made things so much less dull!"
Star saw Janna clench her fists and pointedly stare down at the floor.
The princess also noticed that the mosaic seemed to be reconstructing itself,
bit by bit, as were the walls around them.
"And Tom! You were great as well, bro!" he continued. "Standing up to me, for
the sake of your loved ones? Knowing what you know I can do? That takes guts,
you brave brave fool! I would know, I pulled out a bit of those too..."
Tom flinched and rubbed his chest, still looking nervous.
"Then there is Marco, of course," he added. "Such a dedication to healing
others while every fiber of your being is telling you to kill! Admirable! Shame
you weren't very good at either, of course, but such is life. To think you were
actually so much more powerful, back when you were older... so much forgotten,
so much wasted. Well, is not like it would have made a difference, but I would
love to have seen that nonetheless..."
The walls were back up now, and the dome ceiling of the ballroom begun
reforming atop them, covering the view of the empty wound in the heavens that
was Sam's true form.
"And what can I say about Jackie? Our unstoppable girl!" the devil grinned.
"'Why not'? 'Why not' indeed! In fact, well, since I am in such a generous
mood, here is one last one, as a souvenir. Nothing shall break it as long as
you have the will to continue to wield it..."
A rapier made entirely of clear glass, except for its golden basket-hilted
pommel, appeared in mid air in front of Jackie. It fell to the ground,
clattering loudly, yet the glass blade did not break or chip in the slightest.
The girl herself looked at the sword as if she was afraid it might bite. This
being one of Sam's creations, it well could.
"Finally there is our little supernova, back from the death and ready to
embrace the call of destiny, no matter how many shall fall in her way!" he
smiled broadly at Star. "You wouldn't believe how many beings with pretty
strong claims at godhood fail to see what you saw. And even fewer have gotten
anywhere near as close as you did to actually hurting me! Congratulations!"
"Wait!" Star finally interrupted Sam's monologue. "So, what now? Is that it?
You beat us, and tortured us, and toyed with us, and you are just letting us
go? I almost destroyed you and you are just... pleased? happy? entertained!?"
She knew she shouldn't be looking at a gift warnicorn in the mouth, but it all
seemed kind of, well, anti-climactic. The princess felt like there had to be a
reason for all their suffering, for all the fear and despair, something beyond
forcing her resurrection and amusing the devil.
"You tried to destroy me, Star. Tried. There is no guarantee you would have
succeeded even if that spell had hit its intended target. But I'll admit it was
more than I was comfortable risking, which is something you should be quite
proud about," he said neutrally. To Star it still felt condescending somehow.
"I see no reason to believe you will attempt it again, however, and I think I
have exhausted the value of each and every one of you to relieve my boredom.
You all still broke our deal, of course. But you are welcome to stay another
night in here, no tricks this time, and no promises. All I care to suggest is
that I likely won't harm you anymore if you don't go out of your way to upset
me," he declared, magnanimously.
Then, as if suddenly noticing something, he added, "in fact, I haven't actually
harmed any of you, all things considered. Few are the mortals that have met me
and walked away whole. If anything, each of you is now stronger than they were
last night when you arrived, and better prepared for the challenges ahead. The
way I see it, I did you a favor. Speaking of favors, I also warned you," he
looked at Star, "about why your mission is so much more important than a simple
act of revenge. You truly got my best deal, all of you. If anything, you should
all be grateful about how good of a friend I have been to you!"
"A friend?! A friend?!" Star shouted. The faces around her seemed equally
shocked by Sam's casual tone. "You murdered me! By suffocation!"
"Turned me to stone!" added Janna.
"Ripped my beating heart out!" noted Tom.
"Would it make any difference if I apologized?" he offered, shrugging.
"Of course not!" Star remarked, furious.
"Then, I shall not bother trying," Sam laughed.
Somewhat like a fading shadow, he disappeared, leaving them in an elegant
brightly lit ballroom. It gleamed impeccably, as if no one had so much as set a
foot on it that night.
Chapter End Notes
     SURPRISE! He was a good guy all along! ;)
     Also, I promise this is the one and only time in this story that a
     death fails to stick. In my defense, canon did it first, and a
     certain butterfly needed her wings.
     Next chapter is... well, is probably getting split in two, so I don't
     have the title ready just yet. It will mostly contain teens talking,
     nothing to worry about...
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