Alright, everybody! Here's another rouge chapter. Thank you everyone again for the support!

Thank you Vanityflame for following the story!

And an extra special thanks to robertkellett (of course), HummingFeather and Star's Keyblade 4114 for reviewing or otherwise sharing your thoughts!

Here we go...


The spectator had been watching the girl the whole day. He or she had only gotten to the Earth dimension this morning. Now, the spectator was sure there was something off about Gia. And how had she gotten that shard? There was only one person besides Star and Marco who had been in the explosion and could have survived it. Could it be… Him? No… Whoever it was, the spectator had to tell Star.


Marco lay in his bed. His knuckles were sore. And yet, he fought through the pain to punch his pillow a dozen more times. He was breathing hard. Tears were falling from his eyes. "All I want is to be with her! Why does it have to be so complicated!" He punched again and again and again, but nothing could vent the anger and sadness and despair he felt. Finally, he gave up, letting the depression take over. He lay there and cried. Star was oblivious. She was oblivious to everything! If only she'd understand-

There came a knock.

Marco tried to hold in the tears and opened the door. He looked down upon... the spectator.

"Ludo?!"

"That is my name."

"Why are you here?"

"To save Star's life."

"Why would you do that?!"

"Because we're allies now. Friends, actually." Ludo puffed up his chest with pride at having a friend.

"Wish we could be," Marco mumbled.

"Come on. Let's get Star."

Marco followed Ludo outside the door.

"So, which one's her door?"

"That one," Marco pointed. It was the door at the end of the hall. It actually caused fear in Marco's heart.

Ludo stode up to the door and rapped on it. A voice from inside said, "Go away, Marco."
Ludo's head dropped in exasperation. "My name is not Marco."

"Ludo?" The door opened.

"That's more like it."

The tears in Star's eyes vanished. "Ludo!" she exclaimed. "Hugs!" She squeezed Ludo, lifting him off his feet. Ludo stood, or rather, hung awkwardly. Then he tried to reach his short arms around Star.

Marco slammed his door on the way to his bedroom.

"What's gotten into that boy?"

"I don't know." Star tapped her chin. "But… why are you here?"

"Haven't you noticed what that girl Gia has been doing?"

"Gia? Oh… hehe, kinda forgot about her."

"Well, she's not who you think she is."

"What do you mean?" Star asked in her carefree tone.

"She's been casting spells! She has a shard of your wand!"

Star gasped a long, drawn-out gasp. "No," she said, more surprised than unbelieving.

"She has. And the thing is, I think she might be… well, we'll see."

"Pleeeeeeeeease? Can you pleeeease tell me?" Star bounced on her toes excitedly.

"I'm not sure yet, so for now I'm not going to say. But it'll be dangerous…"

"Oooooh. Cool-oh, wait…" she touched her cheek with one hand and looked at her wand in the other. "The thing is… I can't do magic anymore."

Ludo was taken aback. "Really?"

Tears formed in Star's eyes. "Yeah. I lost it all. Something about Hate or…" she sighed.

"Well, then I guess you'll need a magical companion." He laughed, and Star joined in.

"Thanks, Ludo."

"But… if you're not going to use it…"

Star handed over her wand.

"Well, I finally have your wand. Come to think of it, it was a lot easier just asking."

He unstrapped his green portion of star fragment. He slipped it into the empty space in the wand. It changed color, melding with the other half-or less than half. The wand was not completely restored; there was a small shard missing. The one in Gia's arm. The entire wand now started to change. Instead of it becoming a skull like he'd imagined months ago, it turned blue. The star changed to form the green figure of a short kappa in a robe, its beak lifted pridefully, but with a chip out of the head. The handle was lined with darker blue pairs of hands, a symbol signifying the act of "lending a hand," he supposed. He couldn't ask for anything more except the final shard, which he was about to get. (A/N: See the link below if you want to see Ludo's wand.)

"Whoaaaaaaaa," Star murmured.

"You like it?" Ludo asked with a grin.

"Yeah. It's so cool! Can't wait to see you use it!"

"Well, can you teach me?"

"There's an instruction book! Come look!"

They dashed in, shutting the door behind them.

Marco had heard every word.

Star pulled out the instruction book. She flipped it open, then remembered her friend of late. Tears sprang up in her eyes. "Glossaryck… I guess we'll have to do this without him."

"Not so!" A tiny snow-white man with a gray beard wearing white robes. The only things colorful about him were his blue heart-shaped eyes and lips, and the gem of the same color embedded in his forehead. He looked a lot like Glossaryck… just enough to be painful, but not enough to believe it was actually him. "Hello. I am Sir Indexus of Terms, but you can call me Indexus. See, you really should've been using the index this whole time. The glossary and index are not the same thing! But that Glossaryck guy trapped me in here with a spell a long, loooooong time ago. What year is it?"

"2017."

"B.C.?"

"A.D."

"Wow… it's been a long time. Excuse me for I moment while I stretch out a bit." He stretched his back then started going through a series of impossible stretches. Meanwhile, Star sighed. He's just not the same. "Ah… I'm good. So, what do you need?"

"Well, we were hoping you could teach this guy how to cast some simple spells."

Indexus only stared. Then, finally, he snapped his fingers. "Ah! That was why Glossaryck wanted control of the book. I have no idea how to teach spellcasting."

"Just give us an easy attack spell."

He lay down and the pages of the book flipped themselves, finally landing on a page. The top read, Light Beam Attack. "Most attack spells are rather complicated, but here is one of the easiest. Follow the pictures and say the words." He pointed to two pictures of a princess holding a wand, in the first behind her back, and in the second out in front of her.

"All right," Ludo muttered. He got into the starting position, then thrust the wand forward. "Laser Beam Attack!"

A beam of blue light shot out of the wand, shooting right through the wall and leaving it smoking. "Oh, sorry, Star," the spellcaster apologized.

"It's fine, I just gotta…" she was reaching for her wand, then remembered it was no longer hers. "I'll live with it."

Indexus continued, "And here's a good defense spell. No words, just the motion and the thought." These pictures were more complicated. Ludo copied them, starting with his wand pointing toward the roof, then swinging it down. Turning that into a spin, he swept his wand across his body horizontally. A blue shield surrounded him and Star. Indexus threw the spell book at it. Ludo turned away, shutting his eyes and waiting for the impact. The book's impact broke the shield, but it landed right in front of Ludo.

"That's something about this spell," Indexus continued, "you have to uphold it, or it will break. Try again."

Ludo repeated the movements. The blue aura surrounded the two again. When Indexus threw the book, the kappa gritted his teeth, thrusting the wand forward and forcing his will to uphold the spell. The book bounced off harmlessly and anticlimactically.

"Well done."

"Do you think I'm ready?" Ludo asked excitedly

"For what?"

"We're going to take on a magic user." Star answered.

"A single one?"

"Yes."

"How powerful?"

Star thought. "She's just learning magic, but she does seem powerful."

Indexus frowned pensively. "Two-on-one? You should be fine." He directed his next sentence to Ludo: "Remember, you can do more than you think, even with that partial wand."

"I will," Ludo smiled.

Star smiled at Indexus. "You know, you're actually not too bad at teaching."

His face brightened, although it was already the brightest white possible. "Thank you. It was easy, though; your friend is a natural."

"All right, then. Let's take this girl on!" Star shouted.

Ludo let out a whoop as they headed toward the stairs.


The old Star had returned. But not because of him. Because of her seemingly new best friend Ludo. She had acted so carefree and fun and… happy. Why couldn't Marco do that? Why was she always so depressed around him? Why couldn't he make her happy anymore? What had gone wrong? It came to him: he was the sandwich. Every time she looked at him, she was reminded of how she tried to kill him. That was the truth: Ludo had replaced him: as her friend, as her protector. But… there had to be a way. Marco only had one option left, one spot Star hadn't already filled: her boyfriend. Maybe she would get over it. Especially if she saw that he wasn't mad. Why was he kidding himself? It was impossible. But… he had to at least try. He got out of bed and approached the door. His hand was on the door handle when he heard Star's voice: "You know, you don't have to live in the wilderness anymore. One day, maybe you could live with me!"

She wasn't saying… No. No! Ludo had replaced him: as her friend, as her protector, as her boyfriend. He was suddenly very dizzy. He fell down and lay on the floor, passing in and out of focus.


"Really?!"

"Yeah! We can give you one of the guest bedrooms. We have, like, thirty of them."

"Wow! You'd do that for me?"

"Hey, that's what friends are for." Star smiled.

"And I don't suppose… could I eat some corn?"

Star's smile widened. "All the corn you can eat."

He was deep in thought, no doubt thinking about biting into a cob of corn, maybe the first in his life.

The two reached the stairs. "Okay, now. Let's focus. Remember your spells?"

"I'm good."

"Okay, just try to hold her off for a bit. I'll go at her physically."

One thought crossed her mind: What if this is all a trick! No, that was stupid. Ludo was her friend. She had to trust him. An anomaly worked its way into her head. "Hey, where are the laser puppies? They're usually yapping at me at the bottom of the stairs."

"Oh, uh… she… ate them."

"She what?!"

"She ate them, swallowed them whole. They're fueling her magic, just like any magical object she can get her hands on. I have a feeling she's building up to something. Something big that she'll use her magic for."

"Well, then let's stop-" they had reached the bottom of the stairs. They were met with a wreck of mangled, smoking, and frozen objects strewn about the floor. "Well, if I wasn't convinced before, I am, now. She did all of this?"

"All of this."

"But… where is she?"

"Probably the-" They heard a zap from their right. "-kitchen."

They snuck to the kitchen, watching Gia. Fire danced on her hands. She used it to incinerate the fake fruit on the counter.

"What is wrong with her?"

"Shhh!" Ludo crept to the other side of the counter, his height concealing him. He counted on his fingers. 3… 2… 1… He jumped out from his cover, aiming his spell at the hooded back of the girl's head. It connected, leaving a smoking hole in the fabric and leaving a bald red spot on her head. She fell. Star attacked. She leaped over the counter. But when she landed, she was surrounded by ice. There were a few cracks which allowed her to breathe. "C'mon, Ludo! You got this!"

Gia summoned the death spell. But it had a long incantation to activate it, allowing Ludo the time to put up his shield spell. The spell tumbled toward him. It hit the blue barrier. It started to puncture, denting his shield. Ludo gritted his teeth and mentally pushed the spell away. It worked, the spell bouncing off harmlessly and killing a small potted plant.

Gia lashed out with fire, a much quicker spell. Ludo still had his shield up, and the fire bounced off without much of his effort. It hit Star's block of ice, sizzling and melting it. The warm water trickled down, taking even more of the ice with it.

Ludo broke his shield, casting another spell. Gia dodged, but was hit by his quick follow-up in the hip. Star could see the pain on her face and was tempted to tell Ludo to stop, but she knew that Gia was evil and would kill them if they showed any mercy. But why? Had anything she'd told them been true?

Gia ducked behind the counter to minimize further damage. Ludo was already ready with his shield. Gia uttered the death spell behind cover, then leaped up and pointed it straight at Ludo as she said the final word.

With effort, the death spell reflected off his barricade, coming back at Gia. She frantically dodged, but ended up with a smoking hole through the fabric hanging only inches from her arm. "I can't hold off for much longer," she muttered. She shot two bursts of fire, but they were both deflected into Star's ice cube. Gia knew she couldn't refreeze Star without taking a severe blow.

Star worked her arm free and punched Gia in the head. She barely hit her, as she was just too far away for solid contact. Nevertheless, she ducked away, leaving her open to another blast from Ludo. Her robes were now in tatters, and every spot of skin showing through was red. She couldn't take any more damage. There was only one thing that might work…

When Ludo fired his next blast of blue light, Gia opened her mouth wide, swallowing it.

Gia's robes turned into her skin, her shadowed face becoming longer and greener. Her fingers became pointed, her legs longer, her face reptilian…

And Toffee, in all his glory, stood in front of them, wearing his typical suit. He coughed. His mouth opened impossible wide and a girl tumbled out, along with seven laser puppies who had been drained of their magic. The latter scampered away. The former wore a casual pink dress, as many Mewman girls did, and blue leggings. Her boots were green and had turtles on the feet. Her eyes had turned from green to blue. Gia. Gia! Gia Raven! Star remembered her now! She was the daughter of one of the royal advisors, and they used to play together. Her father retired when Star was about seven, and the girls hadn't seen each other since.

"Star!" she gasped.

"Gia!"

Toffee picked up the weak girl with one hand. He placed the other under her chin and summoned fire into it. The fire danced dangerously close to the girl's face. Tears streamed down it. "Star, please! Save me!" she cried. She was so small, so helpless.

"The wand," Toffee demanded.

Ludo looked to Star. He didn't want to give up his wand when he'd just gotten it, but… he couldn't just let this girl die, could he? Especially if she was a friend of Star's. Star looked panicked, and, upon seeing his gaze, she nodded.

That was it. He had to do it. At least he was giving it away for a good reason. He was content with himself as a person. He didn't need a wand to be happy. He held it flat in both his palms and approached Toffee, whose previously burning hand was extended. Ludo shut his eyes and set the wand on Toffee's palm. There were two sounds: the sound of fist hitting flesh, and the wand hitting the ground. When Ludo opened his eyes, he saw Star smiling down on him, having wriggled out of the remainder of the ice block, and Toffee laying on the ground with a bruised cheek. Gia was quivering on the ground. Star put her hand down low for a high five, and Ludo did as suggested. Toffee groaned. The two turned back to him, seeing him struggle to stand up. He raised his arm, showing off the jagged shard of a star.

Ludo, grabbing Star by the arm, dove in front of Gia. He performed his shield spell just before Toffee let loose a death spell. The spell pushed into the shield like it was Jell-O. It was inches, now centimeters from Ludo's beak as he sweated, using all the will he had to push back the spell. And yet, the death spell inched closer. He felt a hand in his right: Star's. And one in his left: Gia's. He found strength he didn't know he had.

The kappa and two Mewman girls, all holding hands, pushed away the spell. There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, Toffee was gone.

No one wanted to break the silence, but Gia eventually did: "He's not dead. I can sense it."

There was another long silence before Star spoke: "At least we know where the rest of the star is."

"I guess we're going after him," Ludo announced.

"Yes," Star confirmed. "We can't let someone like that be running around with magic."

"I have to go," Gia spoke up, "I keep… sensing things about him. It's almost like a sixth sense. You won't be able to find him without me."

Star didn't want to pull the young girl into this, but it seemed she had no choice.

"All right, but I don't want you getting hurt. Let us do the dangerous stuff."

"Okay." Gia smiled. She was going on a quest with the Star Butterfly!

Footsteps pounded down the stairs. Marco rounded the the corner and came into view.

"Hey," Star mentioned dryly, "Look who finally decided to show up."

" I heard something, and…" Marco looked at Gia. "Who are you?"

"Gia," she responded.

"You don't look like Gia."

"That wasn't me, silly, that was Toffee inhabiting my body."

"Toffee? Where is he?"

"We don't know," Star answered vaguely."

"Okay, someone explain to me what is going on!"
"We're going after him," Star announced somberly.

"Well, I'm coming!"

"No, you're not," she said coldly. "I'm not having you ruin my life again when things are finally starting to look up."

"Star! I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not! I'm not letting you ditch me again!"

"Star," Ludo asked, "is Marco bothering you?" He pointed his wand at the boy.

"If he continues to, I don't see why you couldn't practice a bit on him," she said matter-of-factly.

Marco's face became infuriated. He pounded up the stairs, and Star laughed. "I think I'll get along just fine without him," she decided aloud.

"So," Ludo asked, "when do we go?"

"Let me get the spell book, then we're off!"

She took the stairs two at a time in excitement. When she passed Marco's door, however, she frowned. Sighing, she resolved to write a note. She continued to her room, wrote the note, grabbed the spell book with Indexus inside it (which Indexus had managed to shrink, something beyond Glossaryck's abilities), and slipped the note under Marco's door. She reunited with her two recently acquired friends and they left.

"So, Ludo, here's some good food-generating spells I found…"


Marco rubbed his eyes and saw the pink slip of paper by his door. He opened it, reading Star's scrawly script:

My dear friend Marco, I'm sorry things turned out how they did. Maybe something could have happened between us, but complications got in the way. I wish I could be with you, but I think it's impossible now. I just want you to remember that you are the best friend I've ever had, and our experiences together are still fresh in my mind and will never be forgotten. It wasn't your fault; it was mine. It's too late to make up for my mistakes, so I have to start over. But you are and always will be my very best friend. - Star

END OF BOOK


A/N: Well, I wasn't planning on ending the book here, but it all just came together! Don't worry, though! I will continue the story under the name of "Quest for the Broken Star," in which Ludo, Gia, and Star set out in search of Toffee and the star shard. I guess robertkellett deserves credit for subliminally convincing me to use this name by writing, "A Quest for the Falling Star." But really, I thought of it on my own. It was subliminal messaging, I tell you! :) I changed my mind on the poll! I've already The reason I'm stopping it here i because from now on, the story is going to take a different turn, focusing more on adventure than romance. Marco will not disappear though, and neither will Starco. I'll tie it all in. :) In addition, the chapters will all be "rouge" or not tied to any of the episodes. A final thank you to everyone who made this story possible!

And one last thing: Check out this google doc to see some of my art, including Gia, Ludo's wand, and Indexus:

h*ttps*:/*/do*cs*.go*og*le*.*com/document/d/14ThwXD95NUbvNE-N5ladYtj0gRmjywO3S53ms2c5T7Q/edit?usp=sharing (remove asterisks).