Hey, guys! I am currently writing this stranded at a high school waiting for a bus back to my middle school. :P Anyway, reviews!

Star's Keyblade4114: Thank you! Suspense is what I'm going for!

robertkellett: We'll see how things go with Star...

Okay... we're starting with the escape!

"Star!" cried Ludo. "What have I done to her?!"

Frustratingly, the lizard maintained his composure. "I don't know. But we have to go now."

Ludo cast one last longing glance at their cell then hurried out, the floating, moaning Gia trailing behind him. The lizard led Ludo through a series of twisting hallways. They finally came to a halt, being faced with twenty other lizards in tight black clothes. Thankfully, they were unarmed, but they could do much with their bare fists. Ludo and the lizard sprinted the other way. Gia floated dangerously close to the lounge of other lizards, but the lounge were mystified and afraid to touch the bluish substance enclosing the girl. (A/N: Lounge = group of lizards.) This distraction was the only thing that allowed Ludo and his new friend to get a head start. Ludo quickly fell behind due to his short legs. Despite Ludo running as fast as possible, the lounge caught up with him. A hand swiped at his arm but couldn't grab on. A boot snagged his cloak, tripping him and sending him skidding against the it all, Ludo managed to keep a small corner of his brain concentrated on the Levitato spell. The twenty-some lizards surrounded the helpless kappa, Gia floating above their heads.

Then Ludo felt a strong grip on his arm, pulling him back up to his feet. The reptile friend carried Ludo as they sprinted through the hallways.

They passed the cell again then took another turn. Three armed lizards blocked their way. Ludo glanced back, still seeing the lounge behind them. He got an idea. Hopefully it wouldn't hurt her too much. "Sorry Gia," he muttered. He swung around his wand, swinging Gia around and knocking down the three lizards like bowling pins. His friend kept running, stepping on an arm and a head.

"Twenty-five in the compound, that means one left. The leader," the lizard said.

"Wasn't that twenty-three?"

"You're looking at the twenty-fourth." The lizard was panting and sweating now.

They rounded several more corners. Finally, the light from outside showed through an opening.

From the left hallway, a large lizard stepped in front of the opening, blocking it off. He wore gold clothing and a crown of gold leaves. He towered a foot over the other lizard. He carried a carefully carved spear with a metal tip. He carried it easily; he was obviously adept at using it.

"Chief," Ludo's friend said.

"Soldier," the other boomed.

They stared each other down. Finally, the smaller lizard spoke again. "This is no betrayal to the tribe, Chief, I assure you."

"Then what is it?"

"An attempt to bring down Toffee, of course."

"Toffee? Our scouts say he's dead."

"He just bribed his two brothers to work for him. You didn't notice them being gone?"

"How do you know this?"

"I saw suspicious behavior, so I watched the whole thing."

The chief huffed in frustration. "Then how does breaking out his henchmen stop him?"

"Who said they work for him? Shall I tell you the story of each?"

A nod from the chief.

"This is Ludo. He once ruled a castle and had several minions. He used his power to try to steal Star Butterfly's wand. Toffee took everything from him. He was left in the wilderness without food or water.

"This girl is Gia. She was a normal Mewman girl until Toffee inhabited her body. When Toffee gained enough power, he took his normal form then threatened her life.

"The final girl, the Mewman princess… well, she died Toffee's poison just an hour ago. She was the leader of the group. Toffee killed her grandmother. What could these three possible want to do with Toffee besides kill him?"

There was a long silence. "That doesn't change the fact that you broke out prisoners. Now, you must suffer the consequences." He raised his spear.

In a flash, the smaller lizard took the wand from Ludo's grasp. Ludo and Gia fell to the ground. He turned the wand to the spear. A beam of warm yellow light shot out, slicing the spear in half. The half-spears landed on either side of him. His eyes turned a soft yellow, then he flicked the wand horizontally. A curved wall of yellow light flew toward the chief, and the room filled with blinding light.

Ludo felt a hand pulling on his arm. When he could see again, he was outside. He tried to keep up as the lizard sprinted toward the wall, Gia floating behind him in a yellow haze. The said lizard pulled out a remote and tapped its only button. The wall started to retract. Ludo's legs were short but rested, so he managed to keep up. They didn't stop until they reached the third layer of forest. They sat down to catch their breath. The lizard pulled a bandage role from his pocket and wrapped Gia's wound before resting.

"So… who are you, anyway?" Ludo asked after a minute.

"I am Mocha."

"Well, Mocha… thank you. A lot. Don't take this the wrong way, but… why did you do it?"

"Toffee needs to be ended. And… I think you three are the keys to his demise. Also… it was unfair."

"Toffee has a piece of the wand."

Mocha's eyes went wide. "That's not good at all."

"Will you help us?"

"I will. To the best of my ability."

"Thank you again."

There was a long pause broken by Gia, who sat up. "I feel dizzy."

"Yes, that's what it feels like when coming off of sleep serum," Mocha explained.

"Sleep serum! She's been under sleep serum this whole time? I thought it was from loss of blood!"

"No, this isn't too bad. She should be able to walk in a few days."

Ludo sighed in relief and disappointment. "But we need to find Star!"

"Either we leave Gia here, we wait with her, or we speed it up with magic."

The last option was appealing until Ludo remembered the corn-Gia.

"Not to mention we have no idea where she is or if she's even alive."

"I guess we wait, then."

When Star opened her eyes, she was in the all-too-familiar Underworld. Unpleasant memories of Tom surfaced in her mind. Among them was the way she entered every time. She really had no choice. Out here, she would die within the hour. She waited for a phoenix to take her away to Tom's castle.

Since it was Star, Tom hadn't sent any guards. She landed gracefully on the paved courtyard. She made her way to the throne room, remembering the path from all her previous visits. It was rather odd that the throne room was not at the front. She shrugged it off. Finally, she arrived.

"MARCO?!"

Marco lay against Tom's father's throne casually. "What do you want?" he demanded.

Seeing Marco on the throne of the king of the Underworld confused her. But even as confusion and anger and guilt washed through her, her cheeks turned bright red and she stuttered her next words. Tom and the thrones and the Underworld and everything went away except Marco Diaz. She'd thought she'd never see him again. And then, it was fine, but lately… well, Marco was not one of those people who was easily forgotten.

"M-M-Marco… look, I don't know why you're here, but…" she took a breath. "I was hoping… I'd like if… I mean, it would be best if… we should just start over. Put the past behind us. We could go on an adventure together, just like the old days." She smiled.

A moment passed. "No. I'm good staying right here. With the person you treated like dirt, and stomped on, and threw away like trash, just like you did to me!"

Star and Tom both gasped. There was fire in Star's eyes when she looked at Tom. "Is that what you told him?"

"No!" Tom protested, "I didn't say anything. He just assumed."

Star raised an eyebrow but let it slide.

"Wait!" Marco complained, "What are you talking about?"

"Should I tell the story?" Star asked, eager to disprove Marco's new friend.

He nodded, curious.

"It's best to start at when we met. The Silver Bell Ball.

"I had danced with more than twenty pristine, polite, perfect princess. They'd kiss my hand then twirl me around with a huge smile on their face. It was so fake. It was so… not me. Except for the last one, that is. The half-demon Thomas Lucitor. And trust me, I've never had a thing for demons, and I'm not saying I was attracted. In fact, we both hated each other at the beginning of the dance. But as it went on, I realized that he was at least being real with me. He wasn't like all those other ones. It really wasn't much, but… he was amazing by comparison. Then, a few months later, I was in this castle with Tom. We were playing video games and our family pet dogbird was yapping and flying in front of the screen. I just laughed, but when we lost the level Tom got so angry that he killed it in one quick ball of fire. He then turned on me, but I stopped him with a spell. You can imagine what happened when I came home without the pet who had been in the family for seven generations. Not to mention I loved him. I never quite got over that. I was always afraid he'd kill someone else that I love."

Marco looked over at Tom. Could he really have done that? He had almost killed Marco. Why had he considered Tom his friend? Then again, why had he considered Star his friend? "Go," he said coldly.

"I have nowhere to go," Star protested.

"Tom, scissors please."

Tom complied, handing over dimensional scissors from a pants pocket.

Marco cut a portal and pointed at it. "Go."

"Marco…"

Marco kicked her in the behind, sending her reeling into the portal.

Marco sat back down with a discontented sigh. It doesn't matter, he snapped at himself, she's useless to my plans. The only thing he wanted was the wand… and something he had read about in the books.

A/N: New plot line! Let's see how this goes...

By the way, Mocha is up on the gallery page! (Link on chapter 3 and profile page.)