And here we go.
Some of you who made the last chapter might be a little confused, because this chapter would seem like an odd jumping point to get off to with the events of the last chapter.
We're still trying to recount things and are moving through canon events. We should be getting to Mewni at about Chapter 4, and the following chapters should be a telling of some side events that are happening concurrently with the canon events before we get into the real divergence at around Chapter 10.
Chapter 2: Blueblood
Marco couldn't stop looking at the pop-up book that Star had shown him and the others with her presentation of Mewnipendence Day. He had looked at it during the actual reenactment, already sensing that something was off.
The pictures of the knights just got bigger and bigger, their arms deadlier and deadlier as they towered over the monsters. The word "massacre" wasn't just for show, it seemed.
It was one event after another with Star Butterfly in his life. They had just escaped St. Olga's after sparking a rebellion and overthrowing the institution by force. He had ever surprised Star when he appeared out of nowhere in one of the hallways she was going down. She had been frantically looking for him along with the back to normal Pony Head.
Just a few days later, he learned about Mewnipendence Day and the disastrous reenactment they went through. Star had sounded so enthusiastic about it and her kingdom's history, but Marco was reminded uncomfortably about aspects of Earth's own sordid history.
In a way, Marco thought even Star was starting to realize some things after he had hinted at it, given she didn't exactly look thrilled during the entire reenactment.
"MARRRCOOOOOOO!"
Marco put down the pop up book, and turned his attention to the shrill voice that was coming from somewhere downstairs, most likely the kitchen, judging by the smell of burning food.
Marco sighed and headed down the stairs, the smell getting stronger as he got closer to the source. A little bit of smoke and recurring beeping told him all he needed to know.
The kitchen was a warzone. After all their friends left, Star had looked clearly bothered. So, she decided she was going to fix herself some "cheer up nachos" and insisted on trying to do it herself.
Even though they had just had a feast of all things corn barely half an hour ago. That was another thing; despite being so skinny Star had a bottomless pit for a stomach. Maybe it had something to due with her strength and energy, or maybe Mewmans just required more calories in general.
But her attempt to make more food for herself was clearly botched. The burning smell had come from the overcooked chips that he always cooked homemade, and somehow she had managed to turn the cheese a shade of purple.
"Marco!" she cried to him, clutching her finger. A knife was on the counter next to her along with some jalapeno peppers she had clearly tried to cut up, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.
It was a little bit funny. She was a warrior princess who could presumably shrug off battle wounds as if they were nothing, but a little accident in the kitchen with no adrenaline involved and she started whining.
"Alright, alright. Just let me see it, you big baby." he said, as Star gave an annoyed whine at him as he pulled some bandaids out from underneath the cupboard.
Star held out her finger to him and he grasped it between two of his to inspect the wound. He leaned back at what he saw. It was a tiny little cut, but what was leaking from the incision was blood colored a deep shade of blue.
He stared up at Star in surprise. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Star bleed before.
"Marco? What's wrong?"
He let go of her cut finger, taking the knife she had cut herself with on the table and making a small cut of his own on his index finger. Star made a confused noise at the display, as Marco looked at his own red blood begin coming out from the cut.
He held it forward to show Star.
"W-Wha?" she asked, but she said nothing beyond that as her eyes focused mesmerized at the drop of red liquid coming from Marco's finger, opposite to the blue blood from her's.
Marco took her finger again and held it up before pressing his own against it. Their blood began to mix, and as their fingers pressed they locked eyes with each other. Marco's mouth was pressed into a thin line, but Star looked stunned.
No other words passed between the pair of them.
"Well, you've got me here. What do want with me?" Marco asked, chained to the chair within the crystal prison the lizard man had trapped him in. The jackass who looked like a lawyer had introduced himself as Toffee, but other than that didn't say anything and regarded him with little more than a look of disdain.
"What?" he asked, almost sounding incredulous if it weren't for the smooth, calm monotone he perpetually spoke with.
Of course, Marco realized. This was about Star and her wand, not him. He was just the bait to get Star to come running in here guns ablaze. After a quick display of braggadocio that just ended up with him humiliating himself when he got the lizard to temporarily release him from the chair, Marco realized he was back where he started.
"You're a disappointment..."
"Yeah, well... you're boring. And you dress like a lawyer." he shot back. If Toffee hadn't had his back turned to him, he would've seen that his little remark actually bothered the lizard a bit.
When he went to sit back down at the dining room table, he was as cool and stoic as ever. Marco sulked, lowering his head while ever so often stealing glances at the lizard. Toffee pretended to not notice.
"Alright, why am I such a disappointment?" Marco bit on the lingering bait. Toffee looked down at the sandwich on the plate, and then forward into the hallways of Ludo's castle. He drummed his hand, the one with the missing finger against the table.
"You don't even know what they are. You don't even know what they've done. You don't even know what you're supposed to do. The idea that someone like you would help people like them." he said, letting Marco digest the words and interpret for himself what they meant.
"Star's my best friend." he said with conviction.
Toffee didn't respond.
"And I have nothing to be afraid of."
That was when Toffee locked a bored eye with him. He didn't need to talk for Marco to figure out what that meant.
"Whatever. It isn't like you'd understand." Marco said.
"You're right about that. I don't live among the eagles, after all." Toffee said, prodding at the sandwich on his plate in boredom. He looked forward and sighed, "You really should have ate."
As soon as he said that, the lizard man was blasted off his chair by an irate Star, who stormed into the room and created chaos as she was so apt at doing. Marco blinked and the whole thing seemed to be over, decimated minions and what looked to be like Buff Frog accompanying Star for some reason, with a fountain filled with tadpoles on his back.
And now he was slowly being crushed by the crystal prison that was containing him. Wonderful. Marco began to try and hold him the ceiling, but it did little to slow the descent of the crystal. As he exerted himself, he could see Toffee push forward a plate and Star. There was Star, standing on the dining room table looking tentatively at her wand.
"Don't do it Star..." he mumbled, knowing full well that his best friend was contemplating giving up her wand, her birthright in order to save him. It got even worse when Toffee demanded her to destroy it.
And she obliged.
An image flashed before his mind, and Marco didn't know where it come from. A red devil-like monster, a scorpion's tail, and a strange dead-eyed unicorn all flashed through his mind, before ending with this very castle blowing up in an explosion of magic.
"What was that?" the Diaz boy thought. He would've expected his life flashing before his eyes at a time like this, not random imagery. He vaguely noted that Star was whispering to her wand by now.
His heart stopped when a little spiritual unicorn popped out of the wand and whispered back to her. It was just like the image that had just appeared in his mind, that unicorn had the same dead eyes. But the one in his vision was solid, like it was an actual creature rather than just a projection.
He barely even noticed the crystal retract off of him, and how he was just seconds away from being crushed. Huh, now that he thought about it, the adrenaline came racing back into his system.
"Star, what was th-?" he was cut off as he tried to make a break to the exit, but the bug princess was already there, grabbing onto the top of the door before tacking him back inside.
She landed on top of him, his face pressing into the ground as her arm restrained him. Her eyes were trained on Toffee and the dining room table, and her wand was beginning to act up.
"Wait a minute..." he thought. When he turned to look, another surprise awaited. The same apparition that had appeared to him at St. Olga's was standing between him and Toffee.
And throughout this experience, Marco found he couldn't really pay much attention to the actual events going on. When he stood in the ruins of Ludo's castle and hugged the distraught Star close to him, all he could think about were the things that didn't add up.
"What was all that. That ghost, that unicorn, the explosion. Toffee..." Marco thought as he wiped down the mirror that Toffee had put his boring lawyer suit onto. And if things that day couldn't get any crazier, crystals began to sprout out of the ground and produced Star's wand, the star in the middle cleaved in two by whatever stunt she pulled in there.
In the end, he was just glad everything was mostly back to normal, even if Star only had half her wand. He didn't think he could live with himself if his useless self cost Star and the Kingdom of Mewni one of the most powerful objects in the universe.
"Why am I thinking about that stuff at a time like this?" Marco said outloud, tossing a ball against his ceiling. It came back to earth and he caught it expertly, frowning as he did so.
In the end, all those questions he had had that day had been answered. When Star was pulled back into Mewni, Marco didn't think he would be getting roped into his craziest adventure yet with Star.
Except the ghost. He didn't know what the ghost he was seeing meant, but the entire situation in Mewni was a delicate one. The magical fritz and corruption had been solved, but Mewni was in shambles.
He thought he could let go of Mewni, but since Jackie had broke up with him things only seemed to be getting worse. He couldn't get his mind off of what happened beforehand, now that things were going sour thoughts of the place were dominating his thoughts.
Star was gone. Back to her home dimension. She probably wouldn't be returning to Earth. When they hugged goodbye there had been an unspoken air of finality to it. She had her life on Mewni after all; she was focused on rebuilding her kingdom.
That's what he thought, at least. He hadn't contacted her nor she him. Was that really right, though? Could they really just leave things as they were between the two of them?
Star had changed his life; there would always be that imprint she left on him. Not to mention, all the other things that happened that lingered in the back of his mind. So much had happened. All the incidents with Toffee, Ludo gaining half of the wand, losing Glossaryck and the spellbook, and the effect of Toffee's dark magic on the universe.
He still had questions. A lot of questions. First and foremost, Glossaryck was apparently gone, along with the spellbook. The most powerful magical jerk just gone. Marco still remembered the night he had questioned Glossaryck about Mewberty. That whole experience made his skin crawl, almost making him question everything he thought he knew about his best friend.
The tiny wizard had assailed his fears somewhat, but not completely. His ominous warning toward Marco didn't help. Glossaryck was always cryptic, and gave off the impression that he knew more than he actually let on. Whatever the case, things were not as they seemed.
Marco was pulled from his thoughts when there came a knock at his bedroom door. He got up from his desk chair, fully realizing what he was still wearing when the cape he had received from River caught on the edge of his desk.
He hadn't forgotten about it; he had been wearing the thing constantly, even on his latest and now final date with Jackie. That put a damper on things, and he unclipped the garment while letting it fall to the floor before he got up to answer the door.
It was his mom.
"Oh! Hey mom, what's up?" he asked, taking note of the fact that his mother seemed enthused. His dad was nowhere to be found, but that didn't stop Angie Diaz from outright bouncing in place.
"Oh, Marco! Terrific news. We were so inspired when Star took you to her family gather that we just had to try and schedule a family reunion of our own for this summer. And after making a ton of calls, your father and I have finally convinced the entire family to come out!"
Marco felt his heart swell a bit, and even he couldn't suppress the beaming grin that matched his mother's own.
"Awesome! The whole family? Uncle Enrique, Aunt Maribel, Grandma, Sofia... All of them?"
This event was perfect to get his mind off of Mewni and Star.
"If only I could introduce her to my extended family. She introduced me to hers..." he thought. Marco shook his head free of the offending thoughts.
Angie put her hands on her hips and gave her son a chiding smile.
"Ah, ah, ah! Aren't you forgetting someone? It's not just your father's side. For the first time, the entire Diaz and Phalange clan will be together under the same roof!"
In what seemed like record time, Marco's expression turned sour, with the grin turning into an unhappy frown.
"Your side of the family?" Marco grunted out. His mom didn't seem to notice the shift in attitude.
"Of course! My mom and dad. Even your cousin Lionel will be joining us along with your Aunt Charlotte."
Mario stuck his bottom lip in his mouth, and bit down hard. He vaguely heard his mom drone on about the reunion. It would be next weekend, he heard. His mom hugged him but he didn't return it with any gusto.
"It's just for one weekend..." Marco thought, as he went downstairs. But, as he did so he couldn't keep his eyes off the picture frames that litterered the walls of the staircase. One would mistake the Diazes to have a ton of kids judging from the number of children that appeared in the pictures.
Those were just the multitude of exchange students that had stayed with them over the years. Star herself was added to a few pictures that were put along the staircase only recently.
Those with a keen eye would notice a more recurring face in the pictures, though. Marco passed by one of those said pictures, a family portrait that included his parents, a nine-year old Marco, and another boy who looked to be around thirteen.
He stopped and stared at the photo blankly, before turning to head down into the kitchen.
The weeks came and went, and the joint Diaz-Phalange family reunion arrived.
The sounds of his family resounded through the house and backyard, including a yelp of pain from his father as he no doubt touched something hot in the oven by accident. Marco munched on some tortilla chips by the banquet table, looking around with shifty eyes.
The smell of barbecue filled the air, courtesy of his mom's side of the family. Everyone seemed to be here, and if that was the case then this was fine.
Perhaps he should loosen up and enjoy being around the family he didn't see all that often?
He talked to his Uncle Enrique, and spent some time with the cousins on his dad's side of the family. Things were going well, and he thought maybe he could truly loosen up.
He was just about settled in when there was a knock on their door. He moved through the crowd when he heard the knock from inside the house, his mind already jumping to the worst.
"Hola, Marco!"
Just as he thought he could get away, his grandmother cornered him.
"Hola, grandma..." he said. It was times like this that he was thankful his grandmother had so much energy for a woman her age. She just looked happy to be here, surrounded by family.
"Where's your little girlfriend? Your mama says she quite the firecracker..." his grandmother asked.
Firecracker? Marco's face screwed up. That didn't sound like Jackie. Besides, it wasn't like Jackie was actually his girlfriend anymore; he sadly reminded himself of that fact.
"Jackie? That wasn't her name, no? I believe her name was Estrella?"
"Star's not my girlfriend!" Marco blurted out, perhaps a little too quickly.
"Oh? Well, your mother said you two are practically stitched at the hip."
"We're just friends. My actual girlfriend is... uh, well nevermind. Star is, well Star's back home right now..."
As he talked with his grandmother, he suddenly felt his butt get grabbed from behind in a firm squeeze, the person doing also making said squeeze long and drawn-out.
"Hello, Janna..." he said, annoyed. With their backyard gatherings, family friends were always sure to follow. Perhaps it was her he had heard at the door just now.
"Sup. You look thrilled,' Janna said sarcastically, while bidding a greeting to Marco's grandmother. Janna, being the person that she was, never failed to tease and ridicule.
"Surrounded by family, only a sad sack like you could find a way to make yourself miserable. Still hung up on Star?" Janna looked around and noted the assortment of caucasians to go along with the hispanic Diaz clan.
"Oh. Ohhhh!" Janna said, her mouth forming an "O" and he eyes lighting up with delight and mischief, "Lionel's here, isn't he? What's the matter, Marco? Your cousin realize any more otherworldly horrors into the world?" she teased.
Marco scoffed.
"Very funny, Janna. Need I remind you that you were more than eager to help him do that," Marco shot back, but Janna was unfazed and merely shrugged at him.
"Meh, whatever. You were there too, ya know. We wouldn't even have made it worked without three people, though you probably only agreed to do it because you were blackmailed or something."
Marco ignored her and turned around.
"For your information, Lionel isn't here. Maybe he won't show up..."
Now it was Janna's turn to scoff.
"Yeah, yeah. I know that's why you're so antsy right now, Marco Diaz." Janna stopped and adopted a dreamy look as she apparently started thinking about Marco's cousin.
"Oh, how I love that man, from the smell of tobacco to all his creepy interests," Janna gave a very un-Janna like giggle and Marco took a cautious step away from her.
She curled a lock of hair past her ear and cupped said appendage.
"In fact, I think I hear another car pulling up in the driveway. Could be them, or maybe not." Janna gave a cackle before waving and disappearing into the crowd with a flourish.
Marco snuck onto the back porch, dodging his little cousin Sofia before she could ask to play. His mom heard the bell ring and when she went to answer it, Marco peered through the window.
The woman on the other side of the door was the spitting image of his mom, only a bit more aged. Years of drug addiction would do that, even with the enormous amounts of plastic surgery his Aunt Charlotte had had over the years.
His aunt peered down her sunglasses and gave her sister a toothy grin. Her shrill voice rebounded throughout the house as she hugged her sister. Marco's mom, ever the saint, was just as thrilled to see her sister where everyone else in the family would not be.
"Ah, there's my big, handsome nephew. It has been a dog's age since I last saw you!"
Yeah, the last time was when she came to pick up her son after she had just been let out of jail, Marco thought to himself.
Speaking of her son, his cousin was standing in the doorway, his scruffy red hair sticking out a beanie. Macro's brown eyes locked with Lionel's green, and the Diaz boy slunk back into the backyard when his aunt let go of him.
"Here we go..." he breathed, once against standing on his back porch.
"Come on, Pablo! Let's go play horseshoes!" he yelled, grabbing one of his other cousins and pulling him over to the horseshoe pit. While he was doing that, Lionel came out and mingled with the rest of the family reunion. He was acting all too casual, and it just happened that he was conveniently standing right in front of him when he left the horseshoe pit.
"Ha!" he heard Janna's mocking voice from somewhere by the food table.
The cousins locked eyes again, and the older of the two grinned.
"Marco! My man!"
Marco forced a smile.
"How have you been, Lionel?"
The adults seemed to be mostly oblivious, but some of his other cousins breathed a sigh of relief when Lionel and Marco greeted each other at least somewhat cordially.
"Not go good, I'm afraid. I trashed the apartment when I was trying to summon a minion of Satan so my mom's kicking me out next month," he laughed. Marco winced.
"That's a joke!" he added. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and fiddled with them a little bit, ultimately deciding against it, "I really am moving out and getting my own place soon, though."
"Well, good luck with that. I think I hear Sofia calling," Marco said. He got out of there quickly, desperate to not have to talk to his older cousin for longer than he had to.
In reality, he didn't go straight to his younger cousin but instead made a beeline to the food table and mingled there casually.
"I couldn't help but overhear you had a little girlfriend, Marco?" one of his uncles asked, sliding up toward him to join the conversation.
"Ha? Girlfriend? You?"
And there it was.
Marco thought he might go this entire event without a snipe from Lionel. In trying to move away, Lionel had slunk over and and butted his way into the new conversation.
"Is it that Jackie girl you've been pining over your entire life? Don't tell me you finally worked up the courage to ask her out?"
"We're not together anymore," Marco said through clenched teeth, unhappy that he would have to admit that. Who knew where Lionel was going to take that. His cousin raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, she dumped your ass, already?" Lionel slung an arm around Marco's shoulder and pulled him close, "I'm sorry to hear that, buddy. Women, who needs 'em. You were better off not trying in the first place, y'know? I mean, you've got a great life, family, friends. Searching for love where it clearly doesn't exists just ends in disaster," Lionel waxed on. The scent of cigarettes from intoxicating being in this close.
Marco pushed Lionel off of him, who barely seemed to notice.
"I kept telling you not to talk to her, especially when you were in middle school. She was so far out of your league. Gotta search around your own wavelength, y'know? First relationship and all. I'll help you never make that mistake again."
"That's wonderful, Lionel," Marco said sarcastically, "But you're all the way in Cleveland and we don't talk all that much anymore. Really, you don't have to do that."
Lionel's face scrunched up.
"Oh, didn't your mom tell you? I'm moving back to Echo creek. Mom's coming with me, but my own pad I'm trying to get would be out here."
Marco's eye twitched, and to make matters worse now was the time Janna decided to make her presence felt.
"Hey, just so you know, Jackie is my friend and I really did want that to work out. Too bad Romeo here has his sights set elsewhere," she said, crawling out from under the food table to wedge herself between them.
Lionel looked at Jana, a look of recognition entering his eyes.
"Oh, is this about that magical girl your mom has been talking about?"
Marco grumbled.
"For the last time Janna, Star is not my girlfriend!"
Janna gave him a look, as if she were asking him who he was trying to fool.
"Star?" Lionel asked, "Her name is Star?"
"Oh, great. And not this jerk know about Star!" Marco thought.
"Yep," Janna replied, answering Lionel's question, "Star Butterfly, magical princess from another dimension and heir to the throne of Mewni. Wielder of a powerful magic wand, walking disaster area, and general sweetheart of Echo Creek," she went on.
"Hey, quit talking like I'm not here..." Marco complained. Lionel scratched his chin.
"Walking disaster? Well, that would explain the dopey look on your face, Marco. This girl spiced up your boring life, didn't she?"
"Star's my best friend," Marco said resolutely. Lionel didn't seem to care about the surly attitude Marco was giving him, but then again he never really did, even after he was done shoving Marco's head in the toilet.
"I know I'm not the one to be talking, but don't go chasing that life."
"Oh, it's too late for that," Janna chimed in, and Marco shuddered when Janna reached under his hoodie and stretched the fabric of his cape before releasing it.
"Uh-huh." Lionel wasn't impressed, "Well, you're not meant to be this bigshot daredevil. Am I supposed to believe a little crybaby like you is out here casing adventure with this alien girl? Whatever change you think is happening, it's not for the better."
They were beginning to talk louder, and were getting increasingly agitated. Even Janna seemed slightly perturbed by what Lionel had said last.
"I'm not the safe kid anymore! I don't need you to run my life for me, you damn control freak!" The seething Marco pushed past his cousin and stormed inside his house and up the stairs.
"What happened over here?" Angie asked, approaching the duo of Lionel and Janna.
"Nothing, Aunt Angie," Lionel said. Janna smirked.
"Yeesh, I guess those two can't work out their issues in one weekend," she thought.
Marco paced around his room, frustrated. The sounds of his family outside penetrated through the window and disallowed his mind of getting off talking with Lionel.
"What does he know? All he cares about is his occult stuff and putting me down. He's the one who taunted me for years about Jackie, and now he wants to pretend he knows what's best for me?"
He pulled his cape out from under his hoodie, looking at it intently. He still wound up wearing the thing under his hoodie to the family reunion in his backyard. Janna even knew he would.
He saw down on his bed, thoughts a storm in his mind.
His experiences on Mewni had been so eye-opening, and then he returned to Earth to a life that was so unfulfilling by comparison. He didn't know what he should; he craved not only adventure but answers to so many questions he had about the multiverse.
Sighing, he got up from his bed and prepared to head downstairs. He was just about to do so, but when he got up he found standing right in the middle of his doorway was the ghost.
And we're done here.
We're finishing up these introductory chapters next time. Next chapter will be mostly a flashback, but you're gonna get some clarity on things, from who Marco's cousin is and what he is like, and how Marco is seeing this ghost (who is indeed Celena the Shy), to even why Echo Creek is so casual in the face of magic.
Anyway, that's all for now. See you next time.