Sorry, this one took a little longer than I wanted it to. I've been kind of busy. Enjoy!

Marco soon found himself sitting in a cold, dark cell in the depths of the castle's dungeons. Despite his many attempts to get an explanation for the reason of his arrest, or why the princess was so happy to see him, none of the guards had even acknowledged the fact that he was speaking to them. Marco leaned against the far wall of the cell, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed. "Man, I'm starting to get tired of all these people ignoring me."

He looked around the cell, but there wasn't much to be seen. It was a small room, cube-shaped, with walls that were about seven feet in width. The walls themselves were made of dark grey stone, and, despite the damp environment, they showed no signs of erosion, not even a small crack. The front of the cell was made of solid steel bars, each only separated by a few inches. The only item inside the room was a small cot laid out in the back corner.

However, it wasn't the plainness of the room that bothered Marco. It was the utter lack of sound. The silence was deafening.

No footsteps. No dripping water. No flickering torches.

Nothing.

Silence.

It was disturbing. There didn't seem to be any other prisoners, or even any guards. It was as if they had put Marco in a cell and left him to rot. He began to move around, just to generate noise to cut through the silence. He paced the room, thinking out loud to distract himself from the horrible stillness.

"OK, Diaz. Think. What's going on? That girl — what's her name? Star? – obviously knows you. But from where? And this place. The guards called it Mewni. And the scissors were called dimensional scissors. It's all so familiar. But why? What is happening? And why me?"

In the back of his mind, something – a memory – was trying to break free. Something important that he had forgotten. The answer to his problem.

"The reason I'm here."


Back at the throne room, Star sat in the center of the floor, rocking back and forth in the fetal position, oblivious to her surroundings, quietly mumbling, "He forgot… he doesn't remember…he forgot…" Her parents had regarded the guard's entry into the throne room with confusion, but, after the guard set Star on the floor and proceeded with his report, the Queen's expression changed from confused to irritated.

"So he managed to crawl his way here, did he?" she hissed.

"And, as per your orders, he has been confined to the most isolated cell in the dungeon," confirmed the guard.

"Thank you. You're dismissed," replied the Queen.

Meanwhile, the King watched his wife as the guard saluted and marched out of the throne room.

"Moon, darling, I—"

"Star," the Queen interrupted. "You wouldn't have anything to do with your friend's sudden appearance on Mewni, would you?"

Star didn't respond.

"Star?"

Nothing.

"STAR."

In reality, Star couldn't hear her mother. She couldn't hear anything. Her mind was distracted and her heart was broken. There was almost nothing that could get through to her now. Once more, King River Butterfly turned to his wife.

"Dear, we really must reconsider what we've done. Star clearly cares for Marco, and, by the look of her now, your spell worked. Marco can't remember anything and now Star is in shock. We must restore the boy's memory, or at least give our daughter an explanation. We owe her that," pleaded River.

The calm expression on Moon's face surprised the King. "And tell her what? We destroyed the memory of everyone she held dear on Earth in order to better prepare her for her role as Queen?" scoffed Moon. "Not only will that not help her, but it will turn her against us, and Mewni would be doomed. If only she'd never met that boy- "

"Marco."

"What?"

"His name is Marco," said River. "And perhaps we should at least give him a chance. Restore his memory and allow him to visit Star on occasion. Make a compromise and everyone will be happy."

"Have you forgotten?" replied Moon. "If their friendship remains, even if they don't marry, the Butterfly name will still be damaged. Royalty becoming friends with a commoner? And a commoner from another dimension advising royalty? That will make us look weak."

River leaned back in his chair and stroked his long, blonde beard. "Perhaps. But when the time comes, will that not be Star's decision anyway? We barely have control over her now, and when she succeeds the throne, I doubt we will have any power at all." The King looked down at his daughter, still mumbling on the floor. "Guards! Escort our daughter back to her room." Two guards quickly appeared, picked up Star, and exited as swiftly as they had entered.

As they left, Moon sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Still, I believe it is in our best interest to maintain the strength of the Butterfly name. If Mewni came under attack during Star's rule, I don't think she could handle it," she said. "Despite what Star may think, I'm trying to protect her. I know the boy himself isn't a threat, but the assumptions people will make are. And those assumptions will lead to attacks and war. Star is a strong girl, but she might not be a strong leader. I just want to try to make things easier for her."

River continued to stroke his beard, deep in thought. "All this talk of the future is giving me a headache. I'm going for a walk to clear my head."

As she watched her husband exit the throne room, Moon sighed once more. "Maybe I'm not going about this the right way."


The guards set Star on her bed and took a step back. "Is there anything else we can do for you, Princess?" Star remained unresponsive. The two guards looked at each other, shrugged, and exited the room, shutting the door behind them.

Once they had gone, Star immediately turned to the nightstand. She rose, walked to the small table, and picked up the picture of her and Marco. "Why?" she mumbled. "Why did you forget? How did you forget? How could you?"

Star once again broke down in tears. Clutching the photo to her chest, she fell back onto the bed and curled into a ball.

"Why does it hurt so much?" she whispered. "There have been other people who I'm not friends with anymore, people who I thought I'd know forever but don't see anymore. So why does Marco make it hurt so much?"

She looked back down at the picture. "We were supposed to be friends forever… no… no, not just friends. We protected each other. We cared about each other. We'd give our lives for each other." More tears fell from her eyes as a realization dawned on her.

"Marco… we… I… I think I love you…"


Several floors below the weeping Star, Marco sat bored, feeling the slow onset of insanity. He was laying down on the cot, staring at the ceiling, seeing nothing, hearing nothing.

After what felt like hours alone in the silence, Marco heard footsteps coming down the hall. Moments later, a shadow appeared, followed by a figure that stopped in front of Marco's cell.

Full disclosure, the next update may take a while. School's starting to pick up and it's getting harder to stay focused when I'm writing these. I don't want the quality of the chapters to get worse, so the next chapter might not be out as quickly, but it'll probably be the last chapter.

And, yes, this is becoming Starco. I apologize if it's not what some people wanted.