"Sit down Marco my boy," Eclipsa said holding his hand. "You seem stressed out. This whole situation is doing a number on your psyche it seems."
Marco continued to cough more violently. His forehead started to wrinkle up, withering away like a tree plagued by illness. The boy blinked his eyes rapidly with every passing second. His breath was heavy, and cold.
"I guess I'm just a little bit worried is all," said Marco. "I could really use a soda."
"How about a candy bar," Eclipsa pulled a Snookers bar from her pocket. "It always makes me feel better when I'm down."
"Um… thanks… but I think I'm going to pass."
"Welp, more for me," Eclipsa tore the wrapper off, instantly taking a bite.
"I just… I just worry for her, you know?" Said Marco, holding his head down. "It all happened so fast. I mean… what if… what if it happens again? Are any us safe? What if it happens to Star? I just got her back. I can't lose her again."
"Oh, sweetie."
"He's gone… Tom is gone," said Marco. "How could I have let it happen? I… I… I should be held responsible. There are no wound or mark of any kind. But if I had been there, I could… I could have seen it."
"Oh, you stop that right now," Eclipsa said, holding Marco's hands. "You can't blame yourself for what happened. None of us saw what happened. So that burden is not for you to bear, alright? The only thing for you to do… is GIVE IN…"
Marco turned his head, glared right at Eclipsa:
"What did you say?"
"Huh? I said the only thing we can do now is to not give up and try our hardest," Eclipsa smiled.
Something was turning inside Marco's head. He looked around. Earth, Mewni, as one. The cities and the kingdoms all cried out the sound of its people. They talked – Marco couldn't make out what. His eyes averted, spinning in all four dimensions. A linear sight towards the one-dimensional horizon where Janna stood by the crater, searching for clues. A wider sight towards the two-dimensional sun lighting the distance, its infinite prism of light came crashing down into the ambulance where Tom lied resting, scorching the steaming surface of his skin.
And over there, an even wider and larger sight towards the three-dimensional Mewman Moon exchanging words with other three-dimensional beings similar to her own, the massive Lady Lucitor and her husband Dave.
There he sat, rubbing his eyes, unconvinced of what he saw. When he looked again, he saw their dreams. Their ambitions, their thoughts, like a bubble inflating in the space above their consciousness.
"I… I'm hungry…" said Marco. "I think… I could use a drink…"
"Ooh, want half of my candy bar?"
"No… no…" Marco waved his hand, "I'll pass."
"Why don't you sit back and relax my dear boy. I'll go fetch my guitar and maybe we'll play a little happy tune. That'll cheer you up."
"Oh, hey Marco," a crowd of voices echoed in the distance.
There Jackie, her girlfriend Chloe, Ruberiot, his wife Foolduke, they all approached, closer and heavier with each step.
"Hosanna, Marco," Ruberiot said, waving his hand.
Marco looked up, blinking furiously:
"What did you say?"
"Huh? I said hey there," said Ruberiot. "Are you alright, dude? You look a little… queasy."
"How are you holding up in there, Marco?" Jackie said as she sat down next to him.
His breath was getting heavier by the minute, dragged down by a weight no one could see or touch.
"Jackie…" he said, "How could something be so amazing and so terrible at the same time?"
"Um…"
"When the universe first formed, it was but a baby," Marco mused to himself, "dangling about like a curious cat looking for purpose and answers in things it could barely understand. It looked for sadness… and gladness. It sought both for it was curious and it wanted to live. To feel life as it is and feel everything life has to offer. I am that cat, and I have been hurt and blessed. Blessed by friendship but hurt by their deaths."
"Um… dude… what are you rambling on about," Jackie asked, confused and squinting her eyes.
"Jackie… would you be a pal and go fetch me a soda…" Marco panted, "or maybe some tacos as well."
"Um… okay?" Jackie got up on her skateboard and glided away, "Just hang tight, Marco. I'll be right back in a bit. Just… GIVE IN…"
"What did you say?" Cried Marco.
"I said – just don't give up," she repeated. "We'll get through this… I promise."
Hosanna.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Star shouted. "How did this happen? Who did this to you? What have you done with the real Marco? MARCO! If you're still in there somewhere, give me a sign!"
The old god responded with a chuckle:
"It's good to see you, too, Star. Oh, how I've missed you so much."
Star gasped:
"Is… is this the work of the Monster Arm? 'A virus that eats away at your soul…' is that what you're talking about? Or is it that purple unicorn from the magic? You let go of Marco right this instant you filthy dirty Monster Arm or so help me I'll…"
"Star, Star, please, you've got it all wrong," Marco grinned ear to ear. "I am not the Monster Arm… I never was…"
"What?"
"The Monster Arm," he cackled, reaching for his white skull mask, "was ME."
Star fell back down to the ground the moment he pulled his mask off revealing his true face. It was an unmistakable face, carved out of an unmistakable mold. It was the face of Marco Ubaldo Diaz. His hair was longer, darker, draping down the side of his shoulders. His skin was dry, grey and crumbling like old stones left under the mercy of time and decay. His eyes lit black and gloomy with his pupils burning red under those shades of darkness. And his smile – it was beyond thought, beyond imagination, beyond nightmares.
"No… no…"
"Ha-ha, time has done a number on me," he caressed his own rotting skin with his sharp bony fingers, "but rest assured – I am still the Marco you know and love."
"This is some kind of joke… it has to be."
"No Star, this is truth. This is reality. This is – the revelation."
"But if… if you're Marco… then this place… it's…"
"That's right," Marco cackled. "Star Butterfly – welcome to Earth."
A closer look at the blinding crimson light exploding from the sun in the distant horizon overlooking this dead barren wasteland revealed to Star one important truth, one she had not noticed before now. That was no sun – that was the Blood Moon.
The laugh that echoed across the multiverse. The laughter of a god.
"She's a princess winning battles through the break of dawn…" Ruberiot sung aloud from afar, in front of a crowd of people, desperately trying to lighten up the mood with his wife Foolduke by his side, juggling some rubber chickens. His voice echoed as twilight neared, carrying the sweet music to all the lands.
"Drink some water, Marco," said Moon. "You need to keep yourself hydrated."
"No… that um… no thank you," Marco held his hand up his mouth again, head getting dizzy. "I just need to… process this…"
"Oh, look at you. Star's only been gone for half an hour and here you are nearly falling apart. You poor thing."
"Half an hour?" He looked up at Moon. "No… can't be. I've been here for four hours."
"Oh, dear, and now you're hallucinating," said Moon. "Look I understand that you miss her. I've… been there myself. Almost falling apart, just like you are right now, as hard as that is to believe. But you have got to be strong for her. Whatever happens. We all still have our duties to do to investigate this tragedy, and comfort our loved ones."
The boy began coughing even more violently. His head spun. He could see in new directions, in new ways he did not think was possible before. The layers of the world were about to uncover themselves unto him. A new revelation.
"You're sweating an awful lot, my dear," said Moon as she wiped Marco's head with a napkin.
"Wait… is this… the napkin Lady Lucitor used?"
"Yeah, sorry. Globgor had to lend her his own. There aren't any with her size around. Careful. It's still warm."
"The voices… oh god…"
"Just relax… YOUR MAJESTY… everything will be alright."
"What did you say?" Marco spun his head.
"Huh? Oh, it's just a joke. I said just sit back and your highness, queen Moon here will be at your service. What a terrible thing to say. I'm not a queen anymore, I mean just think abo…"
"Evil won't deter her, 'cause magic flows through her…" Ruberiot's singing continued to echo.
"Hey, Marco," Jackie skated back, with a bottle of water in one hand and a large rectangular box on the other. "I got you your water here, just like you asked. Also, Britta's Tacos was closed when the incident occurred, but Oskar said they're firing up the grill again now that all these people are out here."
"Thanks… but no. I'm not thirsty…"
"Oh, come on," Jackie smiled, "just… GIVE IN ALREADY…"
"Wh… what did you just say?" Marco asked.
"Huh? Oh, I just said give it a try," Jackie handed him the bottle.
"Um… what's with that box you're carrying?"
"Oh, this. It's what you asked for remember?" She laid it down on the ground. "You told me to go get it back at your house. A box lying beside one of the Mackie Hand posters."
"I did?"
"Yeah, don't you remember?"
She flipped open the box to reveal inside – his sword, El Choppo. Still sharp, long and powerful. Though it did seem a little different somehow. Marco simply could not pinpoint how. It almost felt like he should be naming it something else now.
"Oh sweet, is that your sword?" Said Jackie as she marveled at the blade.
"No…" Marco responded. "This… is my limb. With it I shall cut a path into the eternity of my salvation. Where you will all follow me and my teachings, grabbing on the steel, letting it dig deep into your flesh, and let me lead you into a world beyond stars…"
"Dude… you're rambling again."
"Give me your hand, Jackie…"
Reluctantly the girl extended to the boy who quickly grabbed hold of it, holding tight to it, and examining the seamline on her palm.
"Whoa dude, your hand is like… super cold right now."
"Answer me this," said Marco. "What do you think of me?"
"Huh? Where is this coming from?"
"I have been terrible to you. And that does not feel right. When the cosmos breathes it is supposed to give life. Give you happiness, the joy of living. When the light giveth its gifts of light, shining through fires, through thoughts, it's supposed to show us truth, Delivered Truth. When the darkness taketh us into its shadowy grips, comforting us in the warmth of the black, it's supposed to show us Mercy, the Mercy of a Peaceful Death."
"Um…"
"I'm sorry Jackie… I don't know what's gotten into me as of late. It's just… Tom is gone… and now Star is too."
"Well… she'll be back, I'm sure," said Jackie nervously.
"Are you? Can you say with absolute certainty, beyond a shadow of a doubt that she will return to me? Can you guarantee that she will be back in my arms? No matter what happens?"
"I… I…"
"Thought so," Marco lowered his head, still holding onto her hand. "The evil force that took Tom will soon fall on us, too. It may even take me next."
"No, don't say stuff like that," said Jackie as she sat down next to him. "Look, I know all of this is crazy and scary to you. I'm scared, too. But you must not let it get to you. You have to fight – live. Live on for everybody. For Tom, for Star… for me."
Marco raised an eyebrow. With his breath getting heavier.
"I don't know what's going on, Marco," said Jackie, looking up at him with her sparkling eyes. "The magic, the… dimensions, it's all too much for me. But… I… I don't want to lose you. Okay?"
"Jackie…" Marco coughed once more, "will… will you… will you stay… with me?"
She nodded her head in hopeful enthusiasm.
"I'll stay for as long as it takes. Until she comes back. And if she doesn't…"
"Thank you…"
When they looked to the distance, they could still hear Ruberiot's singing voice:
"She's a shining star…"
Hosanna.
"Do you have any idea how massive the multiverse is?" Marco said as he sat there on his throne. "There are so… MANY universes out there. So many… so many in fact, that I just knew, I JUST KNEW if I waited long enough, one of your alternate selves would cross over here eventually. Due to the nature of literal infinite possibilities. All I had to do… was wait."
"So this is really Earth…" Star stared around the dead land in awe. "What evil could've possibly done something like this."
"Some universes are so similar to one another; you could spend a billion lifetimes searching for a difference and even on your deathbed you would still see none. Other universes – so different, so strange, in every way imaginable, making it hard to even believe they once diverged off of one world, one singular timeline."
"What happened to this place?"
Marco smiled:
"You did."
"Excuse me?"
"Or rather," his grin instantly disappeared, "you never did."
"You better start making sense right now or so help me I'll…"
"In my universe," Marco cut her off, "the cleaving of the two dimensions never happened. And thus… I lost you to the other side of the portal – forever."
"Oh…"
"And because magic was destroyed from my universe… there was no other way back. With Hekapoo's and Omnitraxus Prime's death, space got locked in its place. Unable to be broken or altered. Reality should've collapsed."
"Why didn't it?" Star asked.
Marco's grin emerged back on his face:
"A simple cosmic truth most Stars and Marcos in infinite other timelines do not understand. Hekapoo, Omni, Glossaryck, these beings cannot be killed so easily. They are gods above gods. Above time and space. Every version of these gods in each of the infinite universes in the multiverses is just one single aspect of a nigh omnipotent whole existing outside of reality."
"Okay, you're losing me here," Star rubbed her forehead. "Just give it to me straight. What happened to this version of Earth? Where are your parents? Where is Jackie? Janna? Where is everybody?"
"Don't you understand?" Marco's eyes glowed of demonic red. "I am what happened to this place."
"WHAT?" Star shouted, consumed by shock, "You went mad and… and… and killed everybody? Just… just because the portal to Mewni didn't open up?"
"I did not kill them," said Marco. "I. AM. A. GOD. All that has ever been and ever will be has become a part of me. This New World is me. And soon – the universe – nay, the multiverse itself shall follow suit. Soon, the portal on MY universe's Mewni won't need to open up. For I shall be everything."
"You're saying this happened because you got separated from your Star?"
A horrified look suddenly crawled onto Star's face. Only now realizing the implication of the events that had unfolded before her eyes.
"Oh no," she gasped, "what if… what if this happens to MY Marco, too? Could it happen? I can't let that happen. I need to go back now."
"Ah, not so fast, daughter of Mewni," Marco cackled, wagging his finger. "The blade you hold, the dimensional scissors. The last dimensional scissors in the multiverse – it only has two cuts it can make. One for each blade. A result of its imperfection. You already used one portal to get to this dimension. You only have one left. If you use your last one, you will never be able to stop my advances against the multiverse."
"WHAT?" Star shouted, glaring at the scissors, "No, no, no, no, no, it can't be. You're bluffing. How do you even know any of that? Unless…" the girl widened her eyes, "are you… are you the one who sent us the typewriter and this pair of scissors? Are you the one named Sol?"
Marco merely responded with a long series of hysterical cackle, howling across the land, echoing the rough heavy depth of his vocal cords. It almost felt like he would eventually bleed out of his throat. The laughter was loud, echoing throughout the space, carried by time and wind.
He then replied simply:
"Maybe… maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. It's hard to tell when my skin crawls across the land so far. When my bones become the tectonic plates of the world. When my eyes become the sun and the moon in the sky. Mmmha-ha-ha-ha, HA HA HA! Behold – your God of Evil arrives. When he does, you will know the face of God. You will know the bite of my virus. You will taste the spread of my poison. And you will kneel and serve your master. For I am that I am. And I am the hell and never-ending nightmare that keep watch over your lives. The lives that you WILL give unto your God of the New World. No will be greater than mine, and no strength may overcome me."
"Enough of the babbling," Star howled in anger, steadily wielding her scissors. "What if I take care of you right here right now? I have a weapon in these scissors here and I'm not afraid to…"
She stopped herself from finishing the moment her eyes laid upon what Marco was holding as he sat arrogantly on his throne of scraps and stones. Her legs gave out, dropping on the crumbling soil, weakened by the massive shock that nearly paralyzed her every thought and feeling.
The magic wand.
The old god chuckled under his breath, playing around with the wand in his rocky bony fingers.
"Mewmans are so interesting," he grinned. "They can learn to open portals to the magic and draw power from there without the help of a wand. Dipping Down as they call it. Though convenient, it lacks true power. Tell me, Last Daughter of Mewni. Can you outrace the weapon that can do anything? Can you outrun a wishing machine capable of miracles? Can you surpass the very limits of speed and thoughts?"
"Oh Marco…"
"Jackie… help me up…"
"Yes, Marco, yes… I'll be here for you."
"Wrathmelior… help me to her. I must speak with her."
"Please, Marco, don't go. She'll burn you in the underworld. Scatter your soul across the world. Don't go, Marco. Don't…"
And thus, Marco interrupted her with a kiss. A passionate kiss. With one hand lovingly caressing her golden locks of hair flowing in the distant wind like waves crashing upon the shores, and the other stroking her smooth puffy cheeks, holding in his palm as one would hold a fruit forbade by the heaven itself. Jackie closed her eyes for that brief moment, letting herself go deeper into the endless streams of the cosmic waters flowing down a waterfall too tall for anyone to see. She fell down the water, and she couldn't be happier.
"Come with me, Jackie. Come with me."
"Yes Marco. Yes. Take me with you," cried Jackie as she held onto the side of his arm. "I still love you. Please don't leave me."
"Hey, Marco," Ruberiot waved his hand as he approached. "You've got to check this out. I wrote this new song to ease the tension after the whole Tom situation. I really think his parents Lord and Lady Lucitor will be touched by what…"
Marco cut him off instantly with a vicious backhand slap straight across the face. Sending the songstrel flying to the ground. He rubbed the back of his bony hand as it swelled and grew red.
"Rewrite it," Marco commanded, as he coughed. Rubbing the side of his temple, "get… get the noises out… my head… ugh… someone get me a soda… where… where is Eclipsa?"
"Oh, yes, yes, you're right," said Ruberiot, scrambling to get on his feet. "Of course. I don't know what I was thinking. Now, alright, let's see here. Let's start with a simple tune. Maybe even a little story. Who doesn't love a good story? Fairy tales of twins separated from birth and…"
"Get to it, Ruby!" Marco commanded.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Of course, of course, my bad. Let's get to some lyrics now. Let's start simple and small. How about… hmm… HALLELUJAH…"