Hi everybody! I come today with a rather short chapter, because, let's be honest, after the big bombastic fight we had last chapter, the most logical next step is something shorter, and much more calm in comparison.

So of course it has to be filled with lore and background details to compensate for it! But what those details are? You'll have to read yourself to find out.

Also, this will possibly be the last chapter for a while. Just saying.

But now, to the reviews!:

1) LoudAutomata16: And the Harry Potter references grow stronger.

* I will come back to it eventually, but remember: Magic hurts everyone.

* I can't wait to figure out what the next arc will be, either. XD

2) Nobody245:

* They're the same in the sense they have the same classification as hybrids, but they're different people, and different type of hybrids to boot.

* Yes, she took it, but seeing how Marco and the others aren't going to forget what happened anytime soon, I think her "victory" was more on the double-edge or phyrric side of things.

* Can't say for certain: Considering how both sides see each other, and what literally just happened, there's no telling who'll attack next.

3) animehero1000: Nobody really won, but since Marco already has enough on his plate, let's give him a bone and say he did win. And yes, he did something "magical" indeed.

4) allen Vth (all previous chapters): Thanks for reading the story up to this point!

5) Guest: Who?

And now, to the chapter!


The sun rose high in Echo Creek, the sunlight filtering into the various homes of the denizens, including the Diaz Household. It first entered in Marco's bedroom, where the guy himself wasn't around, but Janna, Jackie, and Brittney were around, the latter sleeping on a futon nearby while the former two were on Marco's bed, struggling with each other to remain on the bed.

"Okay, we slept together on Marco's bed," Janna spoke as she tried to push Jackie off. "Now get out of here and let me get my extra hour of sleep!"

"No, you get out of here!" Jackie retorted, trying to push Janna back. "Who knows what weird thing you'll do to his bed, just to scare him when he gets back home! Now get off his bed!"

"You honestly think I would prank or scare him after what happened yesterday?! Even I have my limits!" Janna growled. "And besides, what makes you think you're entitled to stay on his bed, but not me?!"

Jackie scoffed, "I was the first girl he had a crush on!"

Janna gritted her teeth. "Well, I was the first girl that comforted him after his first day in school!"

"Girls, ease up, you're both pretty, okay?" Alfonzo spoke from within Janna's grimoire, which laid on a desk nearby. "How about you two leave the petty argument behind and just sleep together like you did before?"

"Stay out of this!" Jackie and Janna yelled at the grimoire in unison.

While that happened, Mrs. Diaz watched the trio through the door's keyhole while her husband stood nearby, waiting for her to finish. "Are the girls still asleep?"

"Brittney's asleep, and Jackie and Janna are fighting over who gets to sleep in Marco's bed, but I'm sure they'll go to sleep eventually," Angie turned back to Rafael and took a deep breath. "Let's go check up on Mina and see if we can squeeze any information out of her."

"Before we go, how are your arms doing?" Mr. Diaz asked, getting his wife's attention. "You did spend quite a lot of time with them uncovered, do you think the corruption got worse?"

Angie looked at her bandaged arm and gripped it for a moment, before she shook it off and stated, "I'm fine, the corruption hasn't spread. Let's just focus on interrogating Mina, okay?"

Rafael took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay."

The guest room...

The parents entered the guest room, and found Mina was just waking up, letting out a long yawn as her blurry vision slowly turned clear, and revealed her both the room and the parents looking at her. However, rather than be scarred or worried, Mina was more along the lines of... confused.

"What happened?" Mina took a quick look around. "Where am I?"

"You're in our guest room. We managed to knock you out using a spear that had some sleeping material embedded in it," Mrs. Diaz pointed at her husband. "I then had my husband take you to the guest room, where you slept through the entire night. You were just supposed to stay asleep for a couple minutes, though, so you're either a heavy sleeper, or the hit was stronger than we thought."

Mina hummed to herself, then look around, quickly spotting the absence of a particular person. So of course, Mina had to ask, "Where's Marco?"

"He faced off against one of the intruders, and... well, he wound up with half his soul "broken," in a sense," Mr. Diaz frowned. "The only eye he could open was completely pitch black, and he couldn't even form full sentences!"

"I see," Mina folded her arms. "Where is he now?"

"We went to the dungeons, and to the highest level to ask for assistance from the only person who can heal his soul," Rafael answered, scratching the back of his head as he added, "But the process could take an entire day, so he remained back there."

"But enough about Marco," Mrs. Diaz spoke with a stern tone. "We brought you here because we want you to give us some answers. Like, for example, how do you know about Ubaldo?"

"I have a second job working as the "caretaker" of the "boss monsters" in the dungeon; Give them tips to improve their performances, help them keep the aritificial monsters in check, giving them therapy after each battle, stuff like that," Mina folded her arms. "And each and every boss monster, besides those from level 80 to above, sometimes pass the time by telling ghost stories about Ubaldo, "The Monster Killer" as he calls himself."

The parents exchanged worried looks as Mina continued:

"They speak about how his laughter can make the weaker monsters fear for their life, and how even the high-level monsters steady their guard when they hear it. They say how he has some sort of ponytail that's actually a bunch of tentacles wrapped together, and when he's angered or triggered into attacking, he uses those same tentacles to suck the very magic or life out of the artificial monsters around the dungeon, or even the boss or sentient monsters if they get on his bad side."

Angie narrowed her eyes. "And have you ever seen Ubaldo in action?"

Mina sighed. "I can't give you the answers you seek."

"Ugh, typical mewman," Angie rubbed her forehead. "Keeping the truth to themselves, even when they know that's the worst option they could go with-"

"No, I mean I literally can't give you the answers you seek," Mina narrowed her eyes. "What I know is limited: Wanna know what the fragments are? Why are they important? Some random Mewman culture fact, that I can answer. But everything besides that draws a complete blank in my mind."

The parents exchanged looks, then nodded before Angie turned back to Mina and sternly asked:

"Okay, answer us this: If you're a mewman, what are you doing on Earth?"

Mina and Mr. Diaz flinched, with the former closing her eyes and shaking her head as she chuckled, then asked, "You're not going to waste time, aren't you? You're going to go straight for the personal stuff?"

"Well, yeah, might as well get that information out of the way," Angie remarked. "And besides, that's the thing I'm more curious about, as well."

Mina smiled, shook her head, then took a deep breath before explaining:

"I once used to be among the most prestigious elites in all of Mewni: I was a member of the diamond court, which meant that I worked for Queen Moon, and to a lesser extent a spoiled brat of a sentient crystal called Rhombulus. Everything was fine for the most part: People respected me, my enemies feared me, and even when I got into a relationship with the queen herself, we managed to work things out in a way that benefitted everybody."

"Wait, what was that about the queen?" Rafael asked.

"I won't repeat myself, Diazes. Mostly because doing so will make me feel depressed," Mina took a deep breath. "As I was saying, everything was going fine..."

Mina looked somberly at the ground.

"But then, I found out a horrible truth about our world, and in order to try and change things, and avenge a fellow Loveberry, I joined forces with some fellow revolutionaries and we launched an attack on the Council of Queens, the highest authority in all of Mewni, in an event known as "The Loveberrian Revolution" or something melodramatic like that."

Despite getting an idea as to why the event was called like that, Angie still felt compelled to ask, "Why did they call it that?"

"Because the council, being a bunch incompetent buffoons, assumed I was the leader and instigator of the whole thing," Mina rolled her eyes and put her arms behind her head. "But I was more along the lines of a second-in-command."

Rafael raised an eyebrow. "If you were just the second in-command, who was the leader of the group?"

"You seriously expect me to spill the beans on something so sensitive?" Mina shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm already spilling enough beans as it is. Ask me something else."

"You're a mewman, as you just told us, and you do have the six fingers mewmans have by default," Rafael scratched his head in confusion. "But don't mewmans also have some odd symbols on their cheeks as well? Natural symbols, at that?"

"The cheekmarks are nothing more than proof that the specific mewman has become capable of controlling the magical potential within them," Mina narrowed her eyes and looked elsewhere. "Take away the mewman's magic, and the cheekmarks fade back into nothingness."

"So you lost your magic?" Angie inquired. "How could that even happen, though?"

"There are several ways mewmans can lose magic, actually; One of the most common methods involves sealing either part of, or all of the magic, inside some sort of object, creating a magical artifact in the process," Mina explained with a stern tone. "Another method involves transferring the magic to another mewman or human, basically a swap of sorts."

Mina put her arms behind her head and leaned back as she added, with a serious tone:

"But there's a third method, which is the one I dealt with: A mewman, in my case the queen, grabbed me by cheekmarks and absorbed my magic while I stood helplessly, flailing my arms and pleading her to stop as my comrades stood and watched me lose any ounce of dignity I used to have."

Mina got off the bed and dusted herself. "Now, if you excuse me, dawn has already started, so I have to go."

Rafael nodded in agreement. "You gotta go to the school, right?"

"I gotta go to work, yes, but I don't work at the school today, I'm only in charge of the MAO program and that only happens on mondays and wednesdays," Mina answered. "I have another job to go to, though, so It's not like I can stay here either."

Mina promptly walked to the door, but stopped before she went through.

"Listen, Diazes," Mina spoke, getting the couple's attention. "Be sure to enjoy whatever time you have left to relax. Because sooner or later, you're going to be dragged into an interdimensional mess."

Angie narrowed her eyes. "Are you threatening us?!"

"I'm giving you a fair warning," Mina stated as she turned to and gave the couple a stern look. "You seriously think that what happened yesterday is never going to happen again? Listen, I know you told me that the fragments weren't taken, but it doesn't matter if the council got what they wanted or not. They never go to one dimension once, they always make sure to revisit dimensions just in case they missed something."

Mina narrowed her eyes. "And seeing how your son managed to survive fighting one of their own, then their interest will definitely be piqued. They'll try find out how the heck he managed to fight on equal grounds with Star, and if my assumptions about him are correct, and they find out about that particular tidbit... then they may try to kill him."

Mina shifted her focus to Angie. "Also, Mrs. Diaz? You may want to keep your emotions in check. The more emotional you are, the easier you'll make it for magic to corrupt you."

Angie turned back to her bandaged arms and looked at them as the seasoned warrior left the room, with Angie clenching her fists as her husband put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "Mina has a point; It's morning already, and we need to help the girls get ready for school."

Mrs. Diaz looked elsewhere with a concerned look.

"And, if we have time, we can go to the dungeon and check up on Marco," Mr. Diaz added. "But for now, let's focus on the girls, okay?"

Mrs. Diaz nodded, and continued to look at her arms as she thought:

"Mina... can we really trust you?"

Then she turned to her husband and stated:

"Rafael, get the phone. We need to make a call."