If you haven't read the prologue to this, I would heavily recommend that you do because it gives context and depth to most of what I wrote here. And will definitely be important as the story progresses. As of now, i'm expecting the story to be around 12-15 chapters, but its not set in stone. Enjoy!

All he could see was blackness. It engulfed him, surrounded him, choked him-

He was drowning, and all he could do was gasp for air.

"It looks like you are stronger than I thought, earthling child. Good. It will make this much easier."

He knew that voice. It was the Lizard. The one with the toothy smirk and thin eyes. The one who kept coming back and back and back and back.

He snarled, but there was nothing there. His hands- no wait- paws- wait- they were hands again, whatever they were, they trembled. Terror raced through him. The darkness was still the only thing that met his wide eyes.

Agony. It was spreading, blossoming from where his stone was nested in his chest.

Bars shot up, trapping him, caging him. He roared, snarled, raged, screamed. Maybe he did all those things at once. A storm of panic and horror surged through his burning veins, consuming him.

He awoke to the sound of his cries, his throat raw and sore. Something warm pressed against him, and he shoved it away. Leaping back, his paws met the stony ground as he let out a deep growl, his stone lighting up in warning as he frantically searched for the inevitable attack.

"Marco? Are you okay?" The anxious whine made him pause, his stone dimming as his mind slowly recognized the voice.

"Star?" He whimpered, and the light in his stone faded completely. His senses began to come back to him, and he recognized the familiar lines of the cave they had been staying in. His breaths slowed, relaxing to a more even rhythm. Flopping to the ground, he laid his head in his paws, tail curling around his body as he rumbled in shame.

Star padded her way over to him, her paws moving carefully so she didn't make any unexpected noises. Her own tail, thinner with long, silky strands of fur, reached out to tentatively stroke Marco's back.

Marco bristled as he felt something touch his back. On instinct, he snapped at the presumed attacker with another growl. His jaws only hit air; Star's tail was already well behind her, as if she had been expecting him to lash out.

"I'm sorry." Marco whispered, his now human hands wrapping around his knees. He pressed himself against the cave wall, shrinking away from Star's compassionate gaze.

"It's okay." Star reassured him, but when Marco didn't agree immediately, she too shrunk back down into her human form and sat beside him, shoulder to shoulder.

Instead of fighting against the contact, Marco felt his tenseness fading. He nestled his head in the crook between Star's shoulder and her neck, relishing the warm familiarity it brought him.

Star combed her fingers through his hair in silent understanding, humming wordless tunes into the still morning air. Neither of them remembered where the songs came from, but both of them knew the songs by heart. Both had come to the agreement that the songs were sacred in a way, a shred of their past before the Lizard, a glimpse of a time when their lives were happier, or so they hoped.

Once Marco seemed sufficiently relaxed, Star stood, slipping back into her bestial form.

"Do you want to hunt?" Star asked excitedly, shaking off her tiredness. Briskly, she trotted over to the mouth of the cave, her tail swishing back and forth in an encouraging manner.

Marco didn't follow though, choosing to slink towards the back of the cave, his newly transformed tail hanging low.

"Just go without me." Marco growled softly, sitting down with his shoulders hunched as he stared at the rock beneath his paws.

"No." Star shook her head, the mane of blond hair running down her back moving with the motion. Stomping back over to him, she shoved her head against his side and pushed gently. "I don't want to go alone."

Marco stood up at that, hesitantly walking towards the exit. "I hate this." He admitted, his lips curling up in a soundless snarl for a moment, then drooping down as he let out a beast's equivalent of a sigh.

"I know." Star stood beside him, rubbing their cheeks together in comfort.

"Will it ever end?" He asked her. "Do you think we'll ever know? Who we were before the Lizard."

"I think so." Star responded with a wag of her tail. "We just need some more time."

Marco stared at the ground for a moment longer before giving his fur a shake and strolling to the entrance. "Ready?"

"I don't know why you asked." Star curled her lips up in a half smile, the edges of her sharp teeth glinting in the morning light. "You know I'm always hungry."

Marco returned her lopsided grin with one of his own before bounding over the cave's edge and into the forest below. Star, determined not to be left behind, leapt after him, and with a bright flash from her stone, soared above him with wings of light. It was one of her favorite tricks, along with one of her most impressive ones.

Star landed in a sprint besides Marco, giving him a playful growl before splitting away to search for her food. The last time they hunted together had resulted in them scaring everything away for miles with their games.

It didn't take long for Star to find prey. The unsuspecting rabbit had never seen her coming. Licking the blood from her lips, Star devoured the rabbit in hungry gulps, satiating her rumbling stomach for the time being. She would need more to last her though, especially since today was traveling day.

They never stayed in one place for long, both of them grew uncomfortable if they didn't shift around. Besides, something always ended chasing them out anyways, whether it be other humans or a lack of food. Star didn't mind, as long as she and Marco weren't separated. She liked to say that moving around would give them more clues about their lives before the Lizard. Although if you asked her, they should go into the towns they avoided. Something about the townspeople called to her, even after Marco insisted it was far too dangerous.

And she did get it, somewhat. She knew that they couldn't trust the other humans who were like them, yet not like them at all. Apparently, those humans found it strange that she and Marco had stones growing out of their chest and could be human in one breath and beasts in the next. They had already dealt with furious crowds of weapon wielding humans, they didn't need to draw any more attention.

With a start, she realized she had ran all the way to the edge of the forest. Lost in her head, her paws had led her to the place she knew she couldn't go. Panting, she sat down and stared at the town just outside her reach. She could go, while Marco wasn't there. She could be back before midday, and she would have gotten the taste of the human's life she craved.

One paw after the other, she edged closer to the forest's end. She was so close. Surely a quick peek wouldn't hurt? She dared to stick her nose into the clearing separating her from the village. Just a quick look around. Just for a little while. She was a moment away from going back into her human form, when her mind, completely unbidden, flashed to the image of Marco looking for her, panicking because he couldn't find her. What if he hurt himself? What if she couldn't come back?

She drew back, slipping once again into the cool shade of the trees. Weaving her way through them with ease, she shook her mind of all thoughts involving the human village. She couldn't do that to Marco; wouldn't do that to Marco.

At her core, she knew she couldn't deny the calling forever, the pull in her heart that said to mingle, to interact, to be one of the humans. And it had only gotten stronger after the one human had shown up. The one with the butterfly wings who had known her name. She still didn't know why she had lowered her guard to the human. Never show their human side to other humans who had seen their beast forms, that was the rule they both followed, at least normally. She just couldn't help herself, the human had looked so sad, and so alone, and so familiar. It broke her heart, even in the face of what the human had done to Marco.

A feral growl pulled her out of her thoughts this time, and she skidded to a stop, scanning the dense forest around her.

"Marco?" She growled back, even knowing that whatever it was, it certainly wasn't Marco.

A furious roar answered her, and a blue swarmed her vision as her attacker dropped from the sky. Claws raked across her face. With a cry of pain, she shook her head, throwing the creature to the ground.

Her stone lit up, responding to her wish to heal her injuries while the creature found its footing.

But once Star got a good look at it, all she saw was red.

It sat on four legs, thinly webbed wings sitting on its back. Its scales were light blue, looking nothing like the Lizard. But it didn't matter, because its eyes were exactly like the Lizard's. Thin pupils, without a shred of remorse as they stared back at her. The irises were green, the same shade that was forever imprinted into her memories.

Her stone shone, fueled by her rage. All she wanted was to destroy, to obliterate, to annihilate the being in front of her. Every one of its claws was a mirror image of his claws. Every tooth a replica of his when they showed through his smug grins. Every breath it took a reminder that her and Marco's captor and torturer still existed somewhere, waiting for his chance to get them under his control.

She didn't care what she did to kill it, she just wanted it gone. The light surrounding her stone swirled, an eerie green mixed with tiny flecks of pink as it shot towards the creature.

The creature may have tried to dodge the blast, but there was no escaping Star's wrath. The beam of light hit the surrounding trees, condensing before it exploded with even more force.

Star didn't bother to see what little remained of her adversary, running away from the scene. Snarls were ripped from her throat against her will. In her rage induced haze, she realized that she wasn't near Marco. That he could be attacked, or hurt, or captured. The thought only served to make her fury even greater. Nothing would harm them again, not while she could still draw a breath.

With a howl, she raced forwards faster than ever, searching for Marco. She could feel him, his familiar presence a faint echo beneath where her stone sat. Her stone was guiding her to him, and she trusted it without suspicion or doubt. A streak of light and rage, nothing would stop her from finding her other half.

Marco sighed contentedly, his stomach warm and full. Stopping to simply soak in a patch of sunlight, he even slipped back into his human form as he laid down on the forest floor. Staring up at the foliage above him, he absentmindedly fingered the edges of his stone. It sat in the middle of his chest, most of it hidden underneath the red hoodie that constantly adorned his human figure. It was a star, or at least it had to have been at one point, although it was broken in half now, with jagged edges that lay half buried in skin.

That reminded him, he should probably see where Star had ended up. Closing his eyes, he cleared his mind in an effort to feel for her presence. Star could do it at the blink of an eye, but he had to actually concentrate to get his stone to work. A fact that continuously frustrated him and intrigued him. What was so different about him and Star that made her better at using her stone than him?

He didn't have time to ponder any questions though, because he could feel Star, and she was headed towards him at an alarming speed.

Jumping to his feet, Marco shoved his back against the nearest tree. He knew Star would never intentionally hurt him, but each of them had wounded the other before accidentally, when their fears clouded their mind. He was in a better place with his back protected than simply standing in the forest.

He was soon glad of his decision, as Star raced over where he had been sitting without a second thought. Her blue eyes were crazed, and foam flecked the sides of her mouth as she heaved for air. She sniffed the air, then turned her muzzle to him.

Marco stayed perfectly still as she took a step towards him, he thought about shifting, but quickly decided against it. He knew that any sudden movements would be considered an attack. So instead, he slowly offered his hands out for Star to smell.

Star's gaze flicked to his hands, then immediately went back to his face as she walked towards him, giving him a low whine.

"It's okay Star. I'm here, we're fine." Marco soothed her gently, the words feeling slightly foreign on his human tongue. "Nothing can hurt us now. It's just us."

He could feel her breath as she huffed into his hands, her nose mere inches away from his fingertips.

Hesitantly, he scooted his hands closer. When she didn't react, he rested them on her lower jaw, smiling as her fur began to come back down from where it had been bristling.

"Safe? Hurt? Injured? Captured?" The stream of panted questions met his touch, Star's wide eyes staring into his own hazel orbs.

"Shh Star. Nothing's wrong. Nothing happened." Marco rubbed soothing circles in the fur on Star's cheeks.

"I saw- lizard- his eyes." Star gave a weak growl, her lips curling up in a snarl. "I have to destroy- kill- protect-"

"He's not here Star. Remember? We escaped; we're free." Marco gave a breathless chuckle at that, pulling Star's head down so that their foreheads could touch. "We're free Star, and we'll make sure it stays that way."

Star gave out a sigh, shrinking down into her human form to give Marco a watery smile.

Wrapping his arms around her, Marco only pulled her closer as her tears dripped down into his hoodie.

Once her tremors subsided, Marco leaned away, keeping one hand over Star's hand as he smiled softly.

Her green dress had holes and singe marks everywhere, and her hair was wild and unkempt; Marco knew he looked almost twice as bad, but he also knew that he could care less about her appearance.

Shifting quickly, Marco laid down and offered his back to her. "Do you want a ride back?"

"But," Star sniffled. "we have to move today."

"We can wait one more day to move. We've both been through a lot today. Why don't we just relax?"

"Well when you say it like that…" Star gave him a grin, giggling slightly. "I guess I have to go."

"That was the point." Marco rumbled as Star nestled herself in the thick fur of his back. Checking one last time to make sure she was comfortable, he bounded off towards their cave, his nose leading him back to the shelter they had called home for the past few days, and the place they would abandon come tomorrow.