The events of "Starcrushed" are altered for this story. Star didn't confess her feelings to Marco in front of everyone at the party and she didn't have to leave earth. The whole thing with Toffee pretty much never happened but everything else should be the same. Song day still happened, everyone knows about Ludo and Glossaryck and so on. Star just didn't have to leave earth to hide, something else happened.

This will be in Marco's POV for however long this goes. I wan't him to be the one telling the story. Normal text is present time, italic text is a flashback or something to do with the past.

Let me know if it's terrible or if I should keep going.

I still remember the look in her eyes, so helpless and so defeated. This was something her magic couldn't fix; she had known that for a while but I don't think she expected the events that unfolded. It has all become a blur at this point; I'm not sure when or where I am or where or where home is. I can't even remember the day it all happened perfectly anymore, but I do remember the important parts. When I was finally able to talk to Star after song day, she confessed to having feelings for me and I didn't even know how to react. She avoided me the entire party and waited until everyone had gone before she said a word to me.

"So... yea... I just couldn't not tell you Marco, it just didn't feel right with you not knowing..."

"Star..." Before I could get a word in she interrupted me.

"I won't let this ruin our friendship Marco, I know that you don't feel the same, and I know you're with Jackie, and you deserve her, and I would never let me be the reason...

I could tell that Star wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

"STAR!' I yelled. "I care about you so much, you are the best friend I have ever had and nothing will change that. I just want you to know that... as far as feelings go I'm just confused, I need some time to think."

"Alright Marco, I'll be here when you're ready." I could tell that she was relieved that the conversation was over but was still upset over the situation.

"Well, tomorrow is friendshipThursday, how about we start there." She smiled back at me.

"I would love that Marco."

"Alright, Goodnight Star." I watched her make her way to her room lost in everything that had happened. After a few moments of blissful nothing I made my way to my room; I needed to think everything over. I threw myself on the bed face first, colliding with the sweet softness of my pillow. Eyes closed and my face hidden from the world, my thoughts stirred around my head, each one screaming out at me to answer. Where do I even start? How could Star have feelings for someone like me? She's the princess of another dimension! Why would someone as awesome as her want boring old Marco from earth? I guess I never even thought about Star like that because I thought I would never stand a chance with her. I just don't know what to feel... I care about Jackie, but Star and I have shared so much... I need to talk with Jackie about this...wonder what time it is. I flipped myself to the side of my bed and called Jackie. Three rings later I hear her voice on the other end.

"Hey Marco, What's up." Jackie's voice was so... normal to me. When Star was telling me everything just a few moments ago she didn't sound like Star... I could hear emotions she hadn't shared before in her words, it was a side I had never experienced before.

"Yo Marco! You called me, what's up dude."

"Oh, sorry Jackie. Lost in thought, I've got a lot on my mind tonight."

"Ah I see, everything ok?" I could tell she wasn't ready for the bombshell I was about to drop.

"That's actually why I called... Something just came up I need to talk to you about."

"What's going on Marco...?"

"Well, Star just told me she has feelings for me."

"Oh..." Concern now filled Jackie's voice.

"Yea, I just don't know what to even think about all this... like why would Star have a crush on me? I knew we were friends but I never thought she would think of me like that. I'm just Marco and she is, well... Star. Like I would never be good enough for her.." Jackie cut me off before I was able to continue.

"Marco it sounds like you need to really think things over..."

"Yea, I guess I do. This is all just so crazy you know."

"Yea, Love triangles tend to be a bit crazy... look, Marco, I like you and I like how close we have been getting, but it seems to me that your feelings are making it confusing to date someone right now..."

"Wait, Jackie, what are you saying? I'm glad that I'm with you.."

"I know Marco, It's just... I have seen how Star looks at you when you're not looking, and I've seen the way you look at her...

"Jackie that's ridiculous!" I couldn't tell what she was trying to get at.

"Marco I'm not mad at you, I just... I don't want to be stuck in the middle of all this. I think it's best if we break up until you have had enough time to figure everything out."

"But Jackie..."

"Marco it's cool dude! Don't worry, we are still friends and maybe one day more but for now you need time to sort things out. Look I'll talk to you later alright Marco."

That was the last time I ever spoke to Jackie. A week after we broke up, it happened. I guess it was best I called her that night and things happened the way they did. Star was convinced that Jackie breaking up with me was her fault and it took me five days to get Star to do anything but sit at home and blame herself for something that she didn't even cause. She finally agreed to go to Quest Buy with me so she could pick up something she had wanted for a while. We got there and everything was going great, Star was acting like Star and I was having fun until I had to go and fuck it up once again. We found ourselves in the very back of the store, a place we had not ventured yet, the place where it all happened... While looking at some of the half-empty shelves, that looked like they hadn't been stocked in years, I saw him, someone, who I can't explain, someone who's face I can't remember, someone that doesn't belong. I felt so drawn to him like he was calling me to him in silence. I approached him about to speak but before I could get a word out the man held out his hand and offered me what looked like a watch of some kind. My eyes were fixated on that watch; it felt as if it was a part of me I had lost. It was something I needed to have or I would never have the option to have it again. I can't explain these feelings or what came over me but I took it, and to this day it was the worst thing I could have ever done. I reached out and took the watch, the second the watch was in my hands the man was gone like he had never been there. Star had come over to me and was asking what I had found...

"What ya got there Marco?"

"I.. I don't know. Did you see that dude."

"What dude. It's only us here Marco, I don't think anyone has come this far in a while. What did you find, gimme that!" Star grabbed the watch out of my hands.

"Star what are you doing?" I moved in close to her to get a better look at the watch. It didn't look like a normal watch would, it had what looked like a leather band but the face of the watch was just darkness. It wasn't just a black watch with no parts; it almost looked like a black hole ready to suck you in. It just didn't look right to me. Star flipped the watch over to reveal a back plate of pure silver with words engraved into it. Star read to words without haste.

"For those who seek adventure. WE SEEK ADVENTURE MARCO." Star had a smile on her face, I hadn't seen her smile in over a week and I wanted to do everything I could to make her smile more.

"I guess we have to put it on then!" I boldly proclaimed as I stretched out my arm toward Star.

"I'm the one who the dude gave it to so I get to wear it!" Star gave me a funny look as she handed the watch over.

"There was no dude here Marco, are you going crazy?" My eyes were on the watch, the band had no holes in it and looked like it wouldn't stay on my arm but I put it on anyway. Once the back plate touched the top of my left wrist the watch bound to me, it clamped down, the straps wrapping around my wrist and forming a tight snug fit. It made me jump with how sudden it was. Star looked at me with an interested look.

"You ok Marco? What happened?"

"STAR COME HERE, SOMETHING HAPPENING." The blackness in the face of the watch had started to glow a soft white light, it was as if a sea of light covered the face of the watch and washed away the darkness that was there. Star had come in close with her arm around my shoulders as she was looking at the watch.

"Star I can feel something happening to me... I don't know what but something is happening...

"Does it hurt? What does it feel like?" Star's eyes were on the watch, she was staring into the light almost as if she was hypnotized.

"It doesn't hurt, I don't know what this is. I've felt magic before and this isn't that Star." In the light of the watch, the darkness returned in the shape of what looked like a countdown timer which was set at 10 seconds. Once the numbers had faded in clearly they started to count down.

9..."Star what's happening?"

8... "I don't know Marco how should I know what that thing is!"

5... "STAR SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN I CAN FEEL IT.

3...

2...

1...

One second we were in quest buy and now we were standing in a field covered in what looked like some kind of flowers but it was nothing I had seen before, on earth or anywhere Star had taken me. The flowers were taller than my dad and there was knee high grass with open planes for as far as the eye could see. We were in a field of flowers just slightly taller than us; It was beautiful I had never seen anything like this and Star looked like she shared in my wonder.

"Star what is this place..." She looked at me confused at what had just happened.

"I'm not sure but let's get out of here." She raised her dimensional scissors to open a portal but nothing happened. After many frustrated attempts to muster up a narwhal blast, or any form of magic we came to the conclusion that her magic doesn't work here.

"How are we going to get home if I can't teleport us, Marco? How do we even know we are still on earth?" She was right, we were in the middle of nowhere with no way out at the moment and no idea where to go.

"Well, I guess we have to walk from here Star."

"Walk where Marco?"

"Guess we will have to figure that out..." I took her by the hand and started off in hope of finding something.

That was three years ago... We found nothing in that place, or the next three places after that. The watch that I had put on my wrist was doing something that was not explainable to us. The watch has a 24-hour countdown timer and when it reaches 0 it will teleport the wearer and anyone who is touching them to a different world. Star and I thought each time we jumped it was just taking us to a different dimension within our universe but we were never so wrong. The watch does so much more than that, every time we jumped we were being sent through space and time. We would end up places in time where earth didn't exist, places where everyone we knew and loved were gone. Every 24 hours we would find ourselves in a new moment in time as well as a new moment in space. We had met people like us, we had met many monsters that were nothing like what we had ever seen. Some worlds had nothing, others were beaming with life, Some were hostile while others were welcoming. We had spent many days in the great company of people and creatures we will probably never see again. Those were the times we got lucky with a jump. There were too many times when we found ourselves close to death by the claws of some beast or the hands of sick and twisted people. No matter how many times we jumped Star's magic never came back and we had no idea of how to stop this watch from ripping us from time. Our plan was simple, if we jumped into a world with intelligence we would spend as much time as we could trying to find something about the watch, anything that could help us figure out what to do. I was never going to get that watch off by conventional means and deep down I already knew that there was something I had to do if I wanted this all to end, but I didn't have the slightest clue to what that was. All of our efforts were in vain, we never found anything, even in the biggest of libraries we had found, there was nothing about this watch or the man who gave it to me. If we jumped into a world that turned out to be hostile our plan was to find a place to lay low and rest. We only needed to wait out the 24 hours and we would be out of that place for good. We spent the last three years fighting and surviving trying to find a way home and an answer to the watch, but home and the watch will have to wait. One hundred jumps ago I lost her, we had jumped into what looked like a welcoming and peaceful place. After a few hours of hiking down what looked like a road for vehicles, we ran into a small town. There were children running around playing with one another, the ones that looked like adults had taken notice of us. We looked a lot like these people, they had on wears that looked like peasant clothing but each of them had some kind of stick in their hands. It didn't look like a weapon just a straight and very smooth stick. We didn't want to approach them right away but when they noticed us they yelled to us English.

"Hey, there friends! Are you two alright?" The man who had spoken had a caring and welcoming tone to him; it made me feel like he was a good man right away, made me trust him.

"We're actually a little lost and could use some help if you don't mind." The man waved us over with his hands yelling

"Come come! We will help you. Destro go and fetch some food and water right away!" the man was yelling more commands as we walked closer and closer to the village. He was making his way to us with a smile on his face when he reached out with his left hand to shake mine so I extended mine to be met with the face of horror. He was looking right at the watch, the man pulled away from me and pointed at the watch while screaming at the top of his lungs.

"IT'S BACK. IT'S BACK. GET THEM RIGHT THIS SECOND." The man and the others had raised their sticks to us as if they were rifles and before I knew it I felt a sharp sting in my neck. My vision went blurry and I faded to black. When I woke I was in a cell with cast iron bars and a cold air that felt stale.

"Ohhh my head..." I moaned as I sat myself up. I looked to my right and saw Star the cell next to mine still out cold on the floor. Her clothes were faded and torn, there was nothing in the cell, no bed, bathroom, just a small stone floor.

"STAR! STAR WAKE UP" I yelled at her for what felt like forever until she finally awoke.

"Ughh.. what... Marco?"

"STAR! It's me I'm over here." She rolled over to look at me, eyes still glazed a bit from whatever they hit us with.

"How long were we out?" She mumbled. I hadn't checked that yet so I looked at the watch and my heart sank. I had never felt anything like that feeling before and it shattered me.

"STAR YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME HAND." There were 30 seconds left until I jumped again, I had to get in contact with her or it would jump without her. I pushed my arm through the small gap between the bars and reached for her.

"STAR HURRY THERE'S ONLY 25 SECONDS." The look of fear she had in her eyes will haunt me forever. She jumped up off the floor and ran to the bars of her cell. She stuck her arm out but my hand was just a little too far to reach my hand. I pushed myself up against those bars as hard as I could and she was so close. I was so close. I was looking into her eyes, helpless and so defeated and then they were gone.

I lost her one hundred jumps ago and not once in the three years of our travels did we go to a place we had already been. I won't lose hope, the man who put us in those cell's knew what this watch was when he saw it, the answers are out there and I won't rest until I have them. Until I have Star.