Star Vs The Rebellion Vs The Foreign Enemy

by Twila Star

SvsTFOE AU. Mewni is a tyrannical planet that has conquered many planets and Earth is included. Marco is one of the major leaders in Earth's Rebellion forces but gets captured by the Mewni Empire. Star ends up meeting Marco, and takes an interests to him. But behind the scene a bigger enemy is lurking, forcing the rebellion and the empire to work together against the common enemy.

10. The Foreign Enemy

Here is the complete final chapter, and a HUGE thanks to MiguelHazard2 for pointing out a mistake not even my beta realized. It's fix now!

The Foreign Enemy

---

Marco stared out the ship's window to see the Earth again among the stars, looking lit up by the sun in an ethereal glow. Geez, how many times will he have to be tantalized by what he wants most? To be back home. He checked the time to mark when they exited hyper speed. 7:15.

Marco hoped his princess was still distracted and having a good time. He could only hope he could finish fast enough to rejoin her before she noticed. They started their descent.

Star was not having a good time. She had just groggily woke up not too long after exiting hyper speed and looked down at the ground to see dark splotches of blood, and she stopped herself from asking who was bleeding because she had remembered she had hit her head before passing out. That was a lot of blood. She didn't want to think about how much of a mess she looked or how bad her condition was, so she just tried not to move too much and hunkered down next to some crates as an anchor to hold as she felt their descent.

As she felt the ship rumble from entering the atmosphere, she became aware she didn't know what she would do now. She groaned, putting her head between her crossed arms. She always did this, she acted first then thought after. One thing she did know was she didn't want to get caught by anyone but to see Marco first. He'd understand why she was there. He did last time. He was nothing but concerned, and she really needed to talk to him. She hoped he was the first face she saw when those back doors opened.

---

Marco disembarked and looked around the wide savannah plain with browning grass and a tower not too far off. He saw off in the twilighting distance dim light sources that were obviously fires. Marco squinted his eyes as he tried to judge how close they were.

'I can't smell the fire from here but the light can be obviously distinguished as a fire... they're not 15 minutes off by foot. I don't think they're planning on holding off their attack till morning...' He judged, foreboding they'd attack tonight. But that didn't mean he didn't know when they were attacking. The rebels obviously knew the tower had very little security at the time; they should know, they were the cause of it. But then weren't they suppose to attack before reinforcements came? Thinking of that, Marco didn't think he had a lot of time to get his soldiers there and stationed for a benign counterattack.

"Alright guys, let's move, we're on a time crunch, don't let them know we've arrived at the building, they might have seen the ship already and could try to intercept us on our way there if we're not fast enough. Let's move swiftly and discreetly." He turned, ordering to his soilders, only to see them milling off the ship. He huffed slightly as they all jumped into gear. aren't they suppose to be the best? He straightened up a bit to take more control.

"You two, get the supplies, me and Elix will scout ahead to get jeeps to pack this stuff in and bring the others over." He said, starting to head towards the tower. Elix started into step with him and the others started opening the doors to the supplies.

Star was nearly nodding off and hoping she didn't lose too much blood when she heard the whirring of the doors. She felt hopeful and leaped up to peak above the doors that were lowering from the roof but saw black sleek hair instead of her Knight's brown tuft and she lowered herself, crouching behind a box in the shadows to stay out of sight. Two guys entered and started unloading, removing Star's potential hiding places, and she looked left and right and knew she had to hide in one the supplies again to keep out of sight until she could find Marco. She worked quickly to open the box next to her and saw it was sheets.

"Perfect!" She whispered to herself and cozied herself in and closed the top on. A few minutes later she felt the box being lifted up. She felt the bruise on her head throb and she felt fatigue wash over her as all the jumping around she just did caught up with her and she let her head bob back onto the comfy sheets.

"I'll just close my eyes real quick..." She murmured.

Marco returned driving a jeep to the others where the supplies were dutifully unloaded onto with Elix coming up behind him in another jeep.

"Alright, load supplies in this jeep, soldiers on the other. Let's go." Marco said, standing in the driver's seat of the open roof jeep.

---

They travelled to the tower by jeep, kicking up trails of dirt on the way. Marco hoped the rebels didn't see the trail. They got there and jumped out, starting to unload quickly. As the others were unloading supplies, youngish looking buff soldiers made their way over. Marco sized them up but didn't recognize them. They must have been relatively new soldiers that's only ever been positioned here on Earth or else he'd have met them on Mewni.

"Who do we answer to?" The one in front asked.

"Me." Marco said, standing up straight from bending over a supply box of sheets to look at them in the face. The soilder had to downcast his eyes slightly, having a few inches on Marco, but seemed to be pleasantly surprised at seeing him.

"Well, sir, we'd like to thank you for bringing the reinforcements and we'd like to catch you up with all the reports we have here." Marco's brows furrowed a bit, he was trained to be a knight, a fighter, but he was never really prepped for all the 'order' stuff. He hoped all that meant was battle plans.

"Alright, let me just let my group know what to do when they finish up with the supplies..." Marco said, turning to address them.

"Please, allow my troops, sir, we'll take the supplies to the supplies room, you just position your soldier to wait for you when the meeting's done." Marco blinked as the soldiers moved past him and to the supplies, tackling the task with efficiency and enthusiasm. He turned his head a bit so the soldiers were in his peripheral vision.

"Eeer, alright... then. Knights!" He barked out and they all turned, standing at attention. "Move to guard entrance points, main and minor, anyone without an entrancee to guard move to a vantage point to make sure the rebels aren't sneaking up on us. Work out a warning system, discrete, got it?"

"Yes sir!" They chorused out.

"At ease." He told them with a small wave of his hand and they started off to the building in a light jog to get it done quickly. Marco turned back to the commanding officer and was taken aback when it seemed he was beaming at him.

"What?" He asked warily.

"Oh, nothing sir, this way, to the meeting room." He motioned with some of the files in his hands and a smile on his face and Marco went off that way, giving the young man a wary look as he passed and the man continued next to him. They entered the building which had a long hallway down to the end, windows and doors on either side of them.

"I'm Leaf Bushes, by the way. I just remembered we didn't do introductions back there." He said with a happy tone in his voice. Marco gave a bit of a side glance to him, noting his name is mewni origin.

"Marco Diaz." He stated, not really wanting to entertain whatever this Mewni found so amusing. He was starting to get a bit tense around these soldiers like he use to back when he was fighting against them. He missed Star.

"Diaz, sir, if I may, I would just like to say I'm happy to see such a young commanding officer among these ranks." He said, bending a bit over to look at his face as they walked side by side. "I myself worked hard to get to my position such as one in charge of a major communication Tower for Mewni. But I know of all the doubt and hard times people can give just because you're young."

"Uh-huh..." Marco said indifferently, giving more attention to the layout of the building to remember his way.

"They underestimate you! Your abilities! What you can do! But that's a mistake in the fighting force for the Mewni empire. The way you commanded your troops back there Diaz, sir... that was astounding, inspiring! They obviously respect you, and I believe you're younger than me...?" He continued, gesturing his hands in Marco's direction to confirm. Marco returned his attention back in his direction, noticing the pause in his monologue. He said something about age...?

Marco looked him over and he did seem to have more developed muscles and mature profile. "Yea." He affirmed, though interacted much little else. Bushes smiled almost sympathetically.

"Yes, it is tough, being younger just means we have more to prove, so showing weakness can be tough. Keep up a wall and keep out emotion... We have to work harder and keep concentration. I know sometimes you can feel alienated..." He put his arm on Marco's shoulder, receiving his attention in a form of a karate chop off the body and a defensive position and Bushes put up his hands disarmingly.

"Just know it's different here. My men know the meaning of hard work, and they wont brush you off for being young. In here, shall we?" He said, finally reaching a door that was labelled 'Meeting Room A.' He opened the door and entered first and Marco followed, seeing a couple guards in there to join them and he breathed out a bit, trying to relax. He knew he didn't have much to worry about, but this kid...

'What does he know about being alienated? Mewni's his home planet... he doesn't what I've been through...' He thought as he joined the soldiers around the short table with some files and papers on it.

---

Jeremy flailed his hands around his head as he sat by the fire.

"I hate mosquitoes! I hate outdoors. I hate-"

"Shut it. Now." Janna snapped, looking up from the building lay-out. "This map is hard enough to see in the fading light, I don't need distractions from focusing too." Marco was taken weeks ago, almost 2 or 3 months ago. Of course they just didn't lay around and let their team, Marco's select, elite team, just fall apart. He'd be disappointed if they did that, as though he didn't train them right.

First thing they did was get Jeremy and the two he wiggled away back to the group. They needed all the skills they could get and there was no time for pickiness. Jeremy said he'd come back if he could be captain, and Jackie, still raw from losing Marco, told him to beat everyone on the team in hand-to-hand combat and the captain position would be his, because everyone sure knew Marco could do that. He failed on one of the cheerleaders, so he stood down.

They joined back up and worked on re-working the ranks so to include Jeremy, Ed and Tammy and to compensate for Marco's absence. If Marco could see them now, he'd be proud. But it's still hard for Janna sometimes, although she doesn't know about the others. They had time to cope and they have adjusted to not having him around, but they had him be leader for a reason. He was made for it, and both of his choice for next best captains were girls, and sometimes Janna thought the others didn't respect them as much because of they were girls.

She tries to come off as cool about it now, but she gets stressed sometimes on how they would do this, if they should get new leadership. This mission's a big one and she hopes they can execute it as well as Marco would want it. She came back out of her thoughts as she noticed movement coming to the fire. She tensed and reached behind her back and gripped her baton staff in defense. Jeremy, sitting across from her, notice her gaze on something behind him and whipped around, but then he rolled his eyes, turning back to her.

"Can you calm down a bit Janna? It's just Tammy back from recon." He said, taking a stick and poking the fire. She finally came into view nervously and Janna frowned, deciding to focus on the tower solely to command everyone properly.

"Er, I was watching and a Mewni ship came in and I'm pretty sure reinforcments arrived. But there weren't many, like there were maybe 10, if that many." She rambled, playing with the tip of her braid. Jeremy sat up straighter.

"Wait, what, really? Based off that and how many people we got off patrol... there's not 15 people guarding the tower! HA! Do they even care about this tower anymore? We're this close to winning." He snickered but Janna frowned.

"I don't know, doesn't that seem weird? They obviously sent out for reinforcement, so why so little?"

"Maybe they're running out of soldiers cause we're so awesome." He said, waving around his stick arrogantly.

"Or maybe there is something that's changed. Maybe this tower isn't as important, but they are trying to let us think it is while they build up another base."

"You sound ridiculous. Does that even-" He faced Tammy who slightly jumped, trying to stay out of it. "Does that even sound like it makes sense to you?" She shook her head but then gasped.

"I-I mean, yes! I mean-! Don't ask me!"

"The point is this just means this mission will be easier than expected."

"No, Jeremy, because if we don't find out what this means, it could ruin the whole mission, or it could become meaningless!" Jeremy opened his mouth to rretort when a figure came out from a tent.

"Hey! No fighting. This is the mission we were given, this is the mission we'll carry out to the best of our abilities, whether or not there are 10 or 100 soldiers. Understood?" The two others looked down.

"Yes, captain."

---

Star finally opened her eyes to darkness and tried to take in a deep awakening breath but found she couldn't take much in, the air was suffocating instead. She snapped her eyes open, realizing she felt stiff and warm, and hyperventilating from the lack of fresh air. She stretched out and her hands quickly found box and she remembered where she was. She had hid in this box so no one could find her before she found Marco, but then dozed off because of the pain in her head. She hoped it really wasn't that bad! But right now her problem was getting out before she suffocated!

She pushed at the top of the box but found it wouldn't budge. She started panting and her head started pounding again so she stopped and gathered herself. She took slower and longer breathes as not to hyperventilate and peaked out one of the cracks on top. She couldn't see anything so that probably meant there was a box on top of hers, so she went to one of the sides and before looking through a crack, she put her lips to it and took a couple sustaining gasps. She moved her eye to the crack and saw she was already moved to a storage room and that she was by the back of the room.

'This is bad...' She thought, leaning back. How would she get out? She probably can't get the box off on top of her but if she makes a ruckus to get people to help her out, they might send her back home before even seeing Marco! She laid on her back and braced her foot on the top of the box. She had to get out of here herself. She began pushing although the part on her head where she knew she had her injury began pulsing again.

---

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Bushes asked Marco as the meeting neared it's end. "Should we really only go defensive on this type of mission? We'd be sitting ducks in water waiting for their attack."

"Right, but in a way I think it's better to be defensive and less hostile, because in reality, they're rebelling because of the unfair treatment of the civilians. To attack them harshly and first is just to give them more fire and drive to keep fighting. This way we show our power and that they really can't win the way they are now." Marco explained, shuffling through the old battle plans on the table they had just went through that involved the initial battle strikes. Bushes nodded, looking off. He just gets more and more impressed with this guy every minute he's with him.

"Alright, then let's get your solders ready by-" His sentence was interrupted by the door as it slammed open and one of his solders came in.

"Sir! One of the knights on lookout confirmed the rebels are making advances to the tower!"

"What?" Bushes asked, rushing over to the door. "This is- we're completely unprepared!" Marco cursed under his breathe but went over to the commanding officer and put his hands on his shoulder to calm down.

"I would prefer to go over the plan with the team but they can handle themselves even if they don't have a proper formation." He jogged out the room to find his team and Bushes face hardened with determination.

"That's right! We should be able to perform under pressure. Let's go, give Diaz's team some backup." He followed out. Marco found his team gathered by Lithis, one of Marco's who was on lookout.

"Great, you guys are together. As you've heard, the rebels are closing in, so no time to tell you guys about the formation, the plan is just to keep them from infiltrating the main communicating room and to flush them out and back to their base, alright?"

"Yessir!" They saluted.

"Let's go!"

They started off to the front where they were met with extra soldier on base to help.

---

Star looked through the hole of the box and nodded, confirming that the room was empty. Geez, how empty headed was she being? she twirled out her wand and pointed it up at the roof of the box. She could just BLAST her way out of here! She huffed a strand of hair out of her face with a manic smile and thought up her spell.

"Sprinkle jaded roof blow off!" She cried out, and the box lid and all the boxes above hers were blown off in a shiny display of jewels. She tried hopping out in a triumphant bound but tripped over her cumbersome royal dress. She let out a growl of frustration and aimed her wand at her clothing.

"Magical battle transform!" She shouted and the bottom of her dress was engulfed in magic and when it died down her dress was shorter and easier to maneuver, along with a little pouch for her wand. She chuckled and twirled her wand before giving a short blow at the smoking top and tucking it in said pocket. She now exited the box successfully but heard voices from the front of the room where the door was.

"There was a big crash from in here!" A muffled voice said. The door opened and Star was too late to dive behind a box.

"Hey! It's a stow away!"

"Stow away?!" She gasped, but thinking about it, she technically was, especially the way she came here. They started at her and she held up her hands.

"Wait-wait-wait! I'm Star Butterfly, Mewni princess!" She said, and that made them stop, taking her in. While they hesitated, she also took them in. She didn't recognize them, so they must be from a branch of Mewni territory that was transferred directly to this territory. They may not know her as Princess just off name.

"We doubt that! She has her birthday gala today, why should she be down here on an iffy terriory!?"

To follow Marco... She thought, but knew that wouldn't cut it for these guards in front of her who didn't know the story between the two of them like the servants and guards did on Mewni.

So she ran.

"Flaming butterfly blitz!" She shouted and chaos ensued as they jumped at her.

---

She huffed her hair out of her eyes as the men, covered in singe marks and colors, brought her over to the meeting room where Marco was not 5 minutes ago.

"Come on, you saw my wand, you know that's the royal one passed down through generations!"

"Sorry, ma'am, we don't know what the lastest one looks like, we can't take that for word either."

"Geez, a paranoid bunch, aren't you?" She huffed. They were bringing her to answer to the captain on what to do. She sat between the two while they waited and soon Commander Bushes came into the room.

"What is going on? Is this a spy?" He asked, slamming both hands down on the table. Star jumped back appaulled, an offended hand on her chest.

"No, I am not a spy, I am princess Star Butterfly, and I demand to speak to Diaz immedian-" She tried, but one of the guards who brought her to the room interrupted her.

"That's what she claimed and she has a wand, but we found her coming out of one of our crates, without proper identification or crown. While we may suspect her to be a stowaway, she... looks like she needs medical attention."

Bushes inspected her, as she turned her head to glare at the man who interrupted her, and he saw the scabbing on her head and the redden streaks in her hair giving away how long she's been bleeding.

"We don't give stowaways medical care. Call up Mewni and get a transporting ship down her so we can send 'princess' back home. She'll be taken care of there." He said, turning to one of the guards and he saluted before moving away.

"Wh-wha- wait! No, you can't take me back home! I-I need to talk to Marco Diaz! Do you know him?"

"No, you can't bother him. We're at a very busy time and he needs to concentrate. He can't have distractions like you if he's to climb the Mewni ranks. He doesn't need obstacles getting in his way."

"Huh? No, I'm not an obstacle to him..." She said, softly trailing off. Was she? She did always go to Marco and he seems to have to stop her from herself but he doesn't feel like that... right?

"It doesn't matter. He's going into combat right now, he doesn't have time for you, he has to focus on commanding his troops. And you're our charge now and right now, you have a one way trip to Mewni." He snapped and the guards held out his arm respectfully to help her up.

"No! I-I...! I need to talk to Marco! Oh, this is why I wanted to see him first..." She grumbled.

"Too bad. Consider yourself arrested." Bushes issued one his way out. She tsked to herself.

---

Marco rolled over to the next hall over and held up a fist as he looked out the corner to the front entrance dock. He didn't know if the rebels infiltrated the building yet. He didn't see anyone so he signaled the rest of the knights to move out towards the door to surround then exit. He opened the door without exposing his face and someone further in the building sounded that it was all clear out there so they began moving out and getting behind some scare shrubs and thin trees by the entrance.

Marco was a little confused as he came out last, they should've made it here already, where were they? This just put Marco more at edge, not knowing where the assigned enemy was.

"Sweep the area, don't move away from the entrance until we know they won't sneak past us." Marco said quietly, waving out his hand from behind. They began moving out silently and outward as Marco stood by the door. He was getting clears from knight after knight as they finished checking up when he didn't hear back from the last. He looked over to his left and cocked his head in confusion, seeing he wasn't there.

"Go that way. Be alert." Marco said. Two knights nodded and headed over there slowly while Marco watched critically. They turned two different ways to look and the one that turned towards the building gave a strangled gasp as hands came out to try and stab some pressure points, but he remembered Marco's training and properly countered. The other turned to help him when he hear the gasp and at the same time the rebels started to make themselves known and started using their staffs and batons.

"They're coming in from around the building! Remember don't hurt them!" He ordered just before he brought up an arm to block an attack from a staff and stabbed forward to hit a pressure point and render his arm numb.

---

Star looked between the two guards as they escorted her back to the landing dock of the building with a waiting ship to take her back. She could hear the fighting in the front of the building. Marco was just that close! If she could just convince these guys to let her see Marco! She knows at least the one to her left thinks to some extent that she really is the princess.

"Come on, I have to go see Marco! You see, I'm... er, I'm in partner in fighting! We normally practice our styles together! I could help him! He can't win without me!"

"Sorry, ma'am, wether you're the princess or not, you're not suppose to be here, so we're sending you back to Mewni." She bit her lip and looked behind her.

"Alright... Alright, I-" She bolted backwards and started heading towards the fight in the front.

"Hey! Stop!" They shouted. She ran and readied her wand. She'll end whatever fight Marco is in to have the time to talk to him. And they can go home toether!

Up front, Marco watched another one of the tower's guards be brought down by a rebel and he snarled. The soldiers were getting in the way more than helping the knights out. Because there was no formation, fights were just out everywhere and it seemed the rebels had more of a plan than they did, ganging up on one person at a time to adjust for the fact they may be less trained.

Marco knew he had to do something, so he started making and fighting his way to the front to help out the front lines to hopefully push them back.

"Xyn! Copper, go to the fla-...!" He tried to order out, but he noticed in the chaos and spread out amoung the soldiers of the tower, he couldn't get this organized. He groaned and now decided he couldn't stay in the back to command out and had to get things done himself.

He was nearly at the front lines when at the same time, Star reached the edge of the battles, scanning her eyes frantically over it to try and find Marco. She knew those guards were right behind her, and she couldn't take long to get into the thick of it. She dodged underneath a swinging club and into the battle, looking left and right, before seeing a flash of brown hair to her left and used that as her little anchor for direction through the chaos. Eyes were drawn to the unusual hair color, the clothing she wore.

"Is that the princess?"

"Mewni?"

"Look at the clothes!"

Whispers between the rebels were carried across for a new impromptu plan, a new goal as their allies were slowly being chipped away, falling to the floor in limp piles. Something they could do that could be considered a success if not a small one.

"Let's get the girl."

Marco turned to the left, deftly locating and striking the pressure points beneath the arm, above the knee, on the mid back, turning to the right, unarming the man before flipping him over his shoulder and striking at a pressure point at his neck, effectively knocking him out. He was in it, he was feeling the adrieniline, the flow of the fight, knocking his enemies down one by one.

He whirled around, feeling a presence behind him and aburtly stopped at the sight of Star's face. His breath got caught in his throat and had to question himself if this was real or was this his conscious bringing her here in his mind for leaving her on her birthday.

"S-star?!" He choked out.

"Marco!" She cried out, all the feelings she wanted to discuss with him... they came flooding, successfully disrupting her thought process. This must be it. This must be more than some infatuation. She draped her arms over his neck in a hug and they embraced for not longer than a moment, although wrapped up in each other.

"What are you doing here?" He cried out, neither of them seeing that the rebels had moved to surround them, fighting outward to keep help away from them. He noticed her bruised face, finally appraising it with some care. The wound curved around her hairline from a little left of her crown and stopping by her eye, a couple centimeters wide.

"What happened to you?" He asked, cupping her face. It could have gotten infected! It needs to be treated now! I need to get her out of here. Star blushed at the attention, holding a hand over Marco's over her cheek. She felt a bit light headed, all the running around to get to Marco, dodging the fighting around her, and she swayed slightly on her feet.

"I needed to see you! I need-!" She started, sounding a bit breathless, but stopped, gasping at something behind him. She was only in shock a quick second before she got it together and began to aim at the threat with her wand. but in the same moment Marco read it in her eyes and turned. The sharpened weapon came barreling down as Star charged up her magic to blast and Marco leaped to action.

"STAR, NO!" He striked out to knock Star's aim off to blast into the sky and for the weapon to follow through and plow into the floor. With the loud blast, the fighting stopped and they looked over. Marco turned his head away from Star to face the offender.

"Jackie...?" He murmured in the brief silence before the rebels sprang into action again at seeing how their ally was almost blast at by the Mewni princess and went to surround the two by her. Other extra rebels went to tackle down the knights, keeping them at bay in a stalemate struggle at least. The rebels surrounded Marco and Star with staffs pointing at their necks as Jackie looked at Marco with a weird gaze and Star turning around at their situation, giving a useless point of her wand at everyone around them.

Marco was also gazing back at Jackie but mostly using her face as an anchor to shuffle through his thoughts. How could he have not seen? He's been fighting his old team. Thnking back, he almost blocked out their faces in his mind or tried not to look at their faces at all, knowing it'd only distract him from knowing he had a job to do. He felt tired and deflated and din't want to do it anymore.

Plus Star was really hurt, he needed to address that. And based on the attack he just stopped, he knew their aim was to seriously hurt her. And He needed to protect her, he had to. Too much was going on at one time. He needed to settle this. Safely.

He put a hand on Star's wand and slowly put it down to her side, Star looking at him, trying to decipher his thoughts. After it was down, he lifted his hands above his head.

"We surrender." He said, never leaving eye contact with Jackie.

Jackie bit her bottom lip softly, regarding him with a familiar but at the same time foreign eye. It seemed like a lifetime before she spoke, and Marco noticed when he had said they surrender, the knights had stopped fighting too, lifting their hands, and the battle field was quiet, waiting for Jackie's orders, her next words.

"Bring 'em in."

Bushes opened the door to a look-out point and a guard there slightly jumped as he sprang away from the edge where he was watching the battlefield below and saluted his commanding officer. Bushes slightly raised an eyebrow but didn't question it further.

"What is the status of the battle? Do they need back-up? Are they pressing on?" The solider slightly looked away nervously but then looked back at him.

"The Rebels surrounded the troops after the prisoner girl ran into the middle of it to commander Marco and now they're being taken prisoner!" Bushes's eyes widened.

"What?!"

ooooOoooooOooooo

Bushes ran out of the building, seeing his tower troops on the ground, rubbing parts of their bruised bodies. He quickly scanned the bodies among them but couldn't find any of Marco's knights or the prisoner who insisted she was the princess.

"Where are they?" He asked one of the better looking off soldier. He pointed off to the north where he could see a cloud of dirt being kicked up in the distance.

"When Commander Diaz surrendered, they only took him and the knights prisoner!"

"Prisoner? Not possible, Diaz would never surrender! This is serious- call the queen!"

ooooOooooooOoooo

A Mewni soldier stationed in the communications room lolled on his rolling chair in front of screens and phones sipping at his drink when a dinging came up and one of the screens indicated it was coming from the communications tower on Earth. He sighed, tired of all the problem calls he gets from there, and that's only when he's on call! He picked it up lazily and put it to his ear.

"Hello, Mewni castle, soldier name, number, station and status." He answered, taking a swing of his beverage. Frantic mumbling could be heard on the other side and then it slows down as he hestitantly tells the report and the soldier's eyes widen and he swallows so fast with a gasp he almost chokes, some dribbling out uncontrolablly. He swipes his mouth as he stood up, taking the call more seriously.

"It was WHO?!" Mercy on the poor soul that had to tell the queen they suspected Star was taken prisoner.

ooooOooooOooooo

Back at the party, the queen laughed off the latest joke from the circle of delegates she was entertaining at the time when someone came over and told her she had a report come in from a call. She raised her eyebrow skeptically, getting a small uneasy feeling in her gut, but excused herself and went with him out the room where another soilder was waiting for her.

"What is going on?" She chuckled nervously.

"W-well, your majesty... reported at 21 hours and 12 minutes, a call from troop number 2407 soilder Canton stationed on Earth reported that they seized a stow away prisoner but she escaped into a fight Commander Diaz was in the midst in. Soon after... they were all taken in prisoner!"

"A stow away?" She asked angrily, clenching her fist. "Allowing a stow away just undermines the strict security we take as-...!" She stopped speaking and felt as though a bucket of ice water sloshed over her as something dawned on her and the uneasy gut feeling got worse. "Star..." She murmured and ran out the room back out to the ballroom to find Star. She looked over the heads of all the guests and couldn't find her dear little girl anywhere.

"Star? Star!" She called out over the music. Of course it would be difficult for our security to have stow allowed in their systems! But there's only one person who has done it before... multiple times! The king soon came over to the aid of the Queen who was making quite a scene.

"My dear, what is the matter?" He asked softly, holding one of her hands, the other on her lower back to brace and comfort her.

"St-star! She somehow got onto the ship that was headed for Earth! And that whole troop got taken prisoner by the earth forces!" His face darkened considerably.

"What?!" He lead her to her throne chair and sat her down before he took center stage of their throne room. He addressed everyone curiously watching, wondering what was happening.

"Thank you everyone for coming today, but this party is over! Something urgent has come up for the royal family and we have to take action immediantly! Take an orderly exit and excuse us." He made his way back to his wife as everyone bagan exiting, some upset they never saw the princess get hooked up with a prince.

"We're heading to Earth to get our little girl back." He said determinedly. The Queen looked up at him with a slightly trembled lip before nodding.

---

"Message sent and received, sir." The solider at the phone reported. Bushes mumbled his response. He was too busy thinking stuff through, something about this was bothering him.

How could Diaz get captured? Bushes couldn't figure it out. He was doing so well, sure his troops didn't have the time to get a formation in order but they were elite soldiers! This should've been too easy.

"Oh wait... he wanted defensive, that's right... no killing." He mumbled. A soilder came into the room with a small stack of papers to place in a filing cabinet in the room.

"You! Any report from Diaz? Any plans to get them back?" He asked, sitting up straighter in his chair. The soilder jumped, turnig around to look at his commanding captain.

"E-er, no..." He said, giving his eyes a quick flick to the left. A sign of lying.

"Report soilder!" He snarled sharply. The soilder flinched.

"I-it's just that... a couple of us soldiers have been taking... it's- it's nothing serious, but... isn't Marco Diaz an Earth name? It's very possible he knew these people. That he wasn't actually having trouble witht he fight, but he gave in on purpose to get time with his allies without the watching eye of Mewni? The watchman who was watching... Marco sort of gave up with little resistance."

"What?! That's... ridiculous!" Bushes exclaim weakly. Was it really? Marco only wanted defense, no one getting extremely hurt or killed... he knew Marco was a human name when he first heard it but he was wearing Mewni's uniform... a knight uniform! The best of the best and the trusted of the trusted! How did he really get on this mission?

"And you know, the rebels never took people prisoner before... it was just do the mission and get out. If troops surrendered, they'd tie them up and out the way. Plus, they left behind only our troops." Bushes bit his lip. He couldn't believe it... Marco was a traitor. And he looked up to him so much.

"Hurry and get this place ready. We're expecting company." He snarled grumpily, getting up to leave. This is serious.

---

Star looked down at the wand Marco was slowly lowering and then back up to him, but he wasn't looking back. He was looking at her. This "Jackie." There was something in his eyes. Someway he never looked at her before. Jackie looked back with the same expression and Star felt like she was intruding on something personal between them. He raised his hands above his head and she knew what that meant, but the way he said it when he finally did... it sounded like it held a thousand words beneath it.

Star blinked back into focus in the dim light as the teared sheets hanging at the entrance of the rabbit like-hole were disturbed. Marco came in with a box filled with medical items through the curtain. Star looked back down with the subject of her thoughts bringing back the memories of what they just went through. When they surrendered, the earth rebels hijacked one of the Mewni jeeps and drove off with their newly acquired prisoners, the other rebels following on foot and Star in the back with the elite knights, but all she could do was stare at Marco, who was sitting in the front seat, next to Jackie who drove, as they sometime looked at the other sitting next to them, even if the other wasn't looking back at the time.

There was obviously something between them. History. tension. And Star found herself tounge tied to say anything to Marco now she was around. Like whatever they had or built on Mewni didn't apply now that they were on Earth, around his past. She felt silly being there now. She should have waited for him. Some birthday, huh? She thought somewhat bitterly, although, now it was so late into the night, Star was sure it's actually early of the next morning.

Marco knelt down in front of Star who sat on the low cot and made brief eye contact with her before looking at her forehead. She tried to say everything on how she felt in that moment of contact but she knew she couldn't speak through her eyes, not as intensely as this Jackie could with Marco. He slowly brushed her hair back away from the cut, flicking another glance at her to make sure she wasn't showing any facial cues that it hurt, not really noticing her internal conflict.

He felt so bad that she got hurt in the first place. He still doesn't know how she did, they haven't really gotten any chance to speak properly at all since she found him. That was another thing he was kicking himself over, how could he expect Star to just... not notice him? Especially on her birthday. Of course she'd come, he was her knight, and she was his princess, he should have been there the whole time, he should have just...let the Queen do as she liked for this mission...

And let people die? In fact, if you hadn't done anything, it was precisely your old rebel team that would be in danger of dying! A little logical voice piped in from the back of his head. Marco bit his lip as he finally got the hair away from Star cut. Then what was the right answer? What was he suppose to do...? He then noticed just how intensely Star was staring at him, and he wasn't even looking at her. The gaze was just that intense... Was she mad? For leaving her? They really hadn't gotten the chance to speak, but now that they have the time, what is he suppose to say? He couldn't really read her. It's especially harder to since he's not looking at her face, her pinning eyes.

He skipped over her face, going from the cut on her head to the box next to his kneeling figure to get out rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. It was weird, surreal and even awkward to arrive at the entrance of the very place he called home since Mewni took over. He exited the car and made brief cautious eye contact with Jackie before turning to the knights coming out the back.

"We're prisoners. We are not to pose a threat here." He stated as simply and firmly as he could in a few words, as not to make anything worse. He turned back to Jackie to make sure she approved of the message and was sure she knew there was no hidden messages. How could she think that? This is Marco, her leader, her closest friend who she thought was dead and would love to have him back, even for just a day, but this is also Marco, who she thought was dead, and she doesn't know how he stayed alive, and is now wearing the enemy's uniform and protecting Mewni royal family, Mewni's only future, the only thing that could stop the war...

Marco saw the confliction in her eyes but knew there was still trust there. He stiffly turned to the entrance and, not knowing if he should wait for Jackie to lead the way or just enter, he walked in first, hearing footsteps behind him. He felt awkward just walking around since he knew where everything was, like he was intruding in his own house, but carried on to get Star the first aid kit. It would be 2 times awkward to ask where it was anyway, like he forgot about this life on Earth when in reality it was the only thing he could think about when he first got captured. The knights were left to go about the hide-out as long as they stayed within custody of one other rebel member.

Now, all that was behind him, and right now he just needed to make sure Star was ok, even if she wasn't ok with him. He held up the wet cotton ball in the direction of her head and flapped his mouth open and closed, in a silent debate on what to say to her before he just settled for, "This is going to hurt." And placed it on her head.

"OW!" She squealed, and reflexively leaned back.

"I told you...-"

"You didn't let me prepare!" She protested, crossing her arms. He retracted his arms onto his lap.

"... I'm sorry." He let out in a tired murmur and she looked down at him from his knealt position. Star didn't really know what exactly he was saying sorry for. Maybe it was for everything, maybe it was just for the cut.

"It's ok." She said after a few beats, and Marco let out a small smile.

"Are you prepared now?" He asked with a slightly playful tone and she looked up thoughtfully with a finger to her chin.

"Almost. I'm sorry too." She said before looking down at him. He looked slightly shocked and confused but eased a smile anyway.

"Don't mention it." He sat up and gave her another bracing look before cupping the back of her head with his free hand and placing the cotton ball back onto the cut.

"OW! Marco!" She squealed, trying to back away again but was firmly kept in place by Marco's other hand.

"Star, just- calm down! It'll only sting for a little while!" He urged, swiping at the blotches. She bit her lip and screwed her eyes shut but sat still. Marco gave a small side smile as he continued wiping at the scar. It looked worse than it was, most of it scab over and on it's way to healing, with only little infection at the edges but Marco dealt with that with the rubbing alcohol. He got the Vaseline out and put it over the slightly raw wound then wrapped her forehead in a gauze to keep the wound isolated. He finished tying it at the back of her hair with a small sigh and a "there!"

His attention turned back to Star and found she was staring at him with the same gaze as when he thought she was mad, so that wasn't it...

"Are you ok?" He asked but she just looked down. She looked back up again but with a smile. She couldn't tell him how she felt... not now... not while he was with his old friends... old flames...

"We're on Earth~!" She said in a singsong tone. He gave a small smile.

"Yea... sorry it's not all I told you about." Star shook her head slightly.

"You told me it wouldn't... but we'll fix that." She said, but was caught a bit off guard when his face shifted slightly at the mention of "we." She took on a more cautious tone. "We... are going to fix it... right?" There was no way he wasn't coming back to Mewni with her, right?!

"I... yea." He said. "I got to go. Stay here, and rest. Ok?" Star bit her lip as she watched Marco duck out behind the curtain door again.

"Ok..." She said softly, looking down.

---

"We've just got update from our sensors that multiple Mewni battle ships have left the planet Mewni, including the main royal one saved for invasion." Toffee said, reporting to Ludo.

"Where are they headed? Did they know we were coming?" He asked.

"They're heading to Earth... intel shows it's another colony of theirs. Newly retrieved and not fully intergrated in Mewni's control, reports of rebellion here and there." Ludo rubbed at his beak thoughtfully.

"Hmm... well, that would even the playing field a bit..."

"Sir?" Toffee questioned.

"Well, it's better to cut them off at a place that is unfamiliar to us both than to cut them off on their home planet with homefield advantage and with the source of supplies. And we'll have the element of surprise. Follow them!"

"Yes sir!" Toffee said, rerouting the course. Once again, he's so impressed with his leader's logic and execution.

"To Earth!"

---

As Marco entered the lunch hall, most people turned their head to see him and they all had looks of either mistrust, puzzlement, tension, or awkwardness. He slowed at first, slightly wavering under the scrutiny of his old peers, but then continued on further into the lunch room. He's sure Star needed something to eat, this had been a long day for everyone, so he would endure this testy attention.

Jackie was sitting at the table closest to the lines and called him over when he was within earshot. It seemed the whole cafeteria's chatter quieted down to murmuring as waves of curiosity settled in on what they were going to say to each other. Marco sat down next to the young woman and met her studious gaze, patiently waiting for her to speak.

"When are we going to talk about this, Marco?" She murmured out after a while. Marco stifled a sigh. It was a long story but he could make it short.

"Now seems as good a time as any. We can't keep tip-toeing around it. But not here..." He said, barely hinting over his shoulder in a subtle signal that only his team could catch. She nodded, her mouth a thin line, and stood, making her way through the north exit of the cafeteria and Marco followed suit, taking note of Jackie from behind.

She looked good, he's happy the team and her didn't fall apart after he was taken, both mentally and physically, and didn't think he could handle it if his capture resulted in the breakdown of the people he cared most about. Care... Does she remember what he had desperately tried to tell her when he was being taken that time he was captured? His gaze turned down as he thought about whether or not he wanted her to remember.

'Why wouldn't you? You've wanted her to know for the longest time! ... But do I still feel the same?' Marco barely had time to linger on that when Jackie turned around in the corridor to speak.

"So, what happened? You're on their side now?" She asked, gesturing to his uniform before crossing her arms.

"No! It's- ugh... " Marco gave an expelling sighed to get his thoughts together and ran a hand through his hair before speaking.

"Alright, well... you know I got captured, and that was horrible for me, I was away from home, I was surrounded by the enemy, and the worst was the fact that there was an annoying little girl that thought everything they were doing was right." He sighed, barely fighting down a smile, thinking back to those days. You would think that those days would only bring bad memories that needed to be suppressed, but thinking how close Marco and Star were now, it was almost nostalgically comical how those days were.

"But she was only naïve, I told her about Earth and our perspective of the invasion and she learned, and I learned she had nothing to do with it and maybe not all mewnies are bad-!"

"Not all-! Marco, these people took our planet! Not just ours, a whole slew out there! This lady isn't just taking planets secretly, it's a thing every one of her people know of and approve-!"

"That's not-! You can't really...! It's a learnt thing! They don't know it's wrong!"

"And now they have you defending them! I can't believe you even slightly believe in them. Did they brainwash you?"

"No! In fact, Star protected me from them! From anything they were going to do to me. And every other prisoner they had. She just had to be told, they all just have to be told-!"

"Marco. They are still our enemy. We've got to do anything to get the advantage, to get them away from our planet. And now you've brought their crowned princess here. We can win. We can barter with her!"

"NO!" Jackie jumped slightly at his outburst. Marco shook his head as he regarded her sullenly. "You're not touching her. I don't care who the enemy is. She's my friend." He turned around and stalked out and Jackie sighed.

"Oh, Marco... what happened to you...?"

---

Marco entered Star's room again steaming. He shoved the lunch of potatoes and carrots for her on a small side table and sat down next to her roughly.

"Oh! Marco! What's wrong?" She asked softly, touching his tense shoulder, and as it eased underneath the touch, he sighed out a worn out sigh. Did he really used to have the same mindset as Jackie does right now? Star's so nice, and he'd like to think he was raised to give everyone a chance before judgement.

"Yea, no, everything's great, don't you worry about it." He breathed, and ruffled her front bangs before handing her the tray. "These are carrots and these are mashed potatoes. Sorry there's no meat, we eat what we grow down here."

"Oooh, my first Earth cuisine!" She chuckled and picked up the spork on the side of the tray. "Oh, my mewni, what is this, it's so cuuute!" Marco chuckled as well.

"It's called a spork. It's a combination of a spoon and a fork, so it can pick up or scoop." He explained, giving the tips a light tap.

"Oh, cool!" She said and scooped up some potatoes before poking up a piece of carrot at the end. "Look Marco! I made a little mushroom cup!" Marco snorted before laughing along with her.

OooooooOoooooOooooo

Marco exited the room with the tray in his hand and turned around, nearly to run into a massive chest.

"W-woah!" Before he could back away far enough to asses who it was, the person wrapped their arms around him and squeezed him forward, causing him to drop the tray. "H-hey-!"

"Oh, I didn't believe them when they said you came back!" The man bellowed. Marco laughed at the absurdity as he realized who it was.

"ah, Lars! It's good to see you! You weren't with the rest of the team?" He said, taking back control of his body and separated himself from Lars hug to look at him square in the face.

"No, I'm the muscle, you know, so the mission required more stealth than strength. I can't believe it, we finally got you back! Now you can take back control of the team." Marco sighed, being slapped in the face with the tough choice he'll have to make in the future again becoming a close reality for him.

"Right, but you guys look good! Stayed in shape." He said, patting his arm.

"Yea. We wanted to stay a team you would be proud of." Marco smiled fondly at that. Lars gave a sigh. "Whoo but I knew the rumors weren't true. You weren't with the Menwi's! You'd never betray us like that." He looked down at Marco's face and his smile slowly died away as he watched Marco's furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm not with the Mewnis, but I am protecting their princess." He dared with his tone. He raised an eyebrow when Lars raised both of his.

"What? Their princess?! No way! Why would you defend the crown princess! That's against everything this rebellion stands for!"

"what exactly does this place stand for, might I ask?" Marco questioned, feeling the absurdity that this is really the way the rebellion was before he left. I guess I can't really blame them, they've all been hurt by them, but it gives us no right to be just like them and steal a leader as a advantage point! He thought.

"It stands to bring Mewni down!" He said, turning on his intimidation factor for the first time in years against Marco and towering over him, the way he would trying to break down a person in interrogation. So this was it, huh? Branded as enemy for standing by Star.

"We can bring them down without shedding blood. And I won't sacrifice any of my friends to do it either."

"You won't be. Just the rotten princess!"

"Stop that! Don't call her names! You don't know her, so you can judge her!" Marco said, puffing his chest and meeting Lars in terms of intimiation. He wasn't backing down. Lars scoffed and backed down.

"But I know you plenty to judge you..." He turned off and started walking down the hall.

"Traitor!"

Marco frown, and bent over to pick up the fallen tray. He knows what he's doing. He'll stand his ground.

Marco entered the cafeteria and got the same reply as he did last time he entered but less intense. Hopefully this meant things were generally going back to order. He placed the tray on the stack of used and turned when he saw the three cheerleaders from his squad regarded him with distrust as they passed him by. Well, as normal as things were going to get with me defending Star. He was starting to think he was causing more of a civil war in his team from his returning then his leaving.

He stepped out a side exit to escape the bulk of stares from those in the cafeteria when he almost trampled over Jeremy.

"J-Jeremy!" He choked out. Jeremy gave him a smug grin.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Mewni!" Marco's face darkened into a glare. "I would think with you coming back, you would want your leadership position back! But it seems more like your pushing your team away. And all for what? A Mewni who you haven't know for... how long?"

"Stuff it Jeremy! You don't understand what I've been through. And it's not so much as me pushing you guys away, I just don't want you hurting her!"

"Awww, Does little Marco liiiiikkkkeeeesss~ her?" He teased. Marco's face flushed red and he clenched his fist.

"I said shut it! Right now, you all seem like the dangerous ones! Star hasn't done anything to you and all you guys want to do is use her for war! I won't let you!" Jeremy raised his hands in surrender.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, that just makes it that much easier for me to climb up the ranks and into my rightful leader position. The one I should have had since the beginning!" Marco huffed and pushed past his smaller frame, and only grew angrier when he heard Jeremy's mocking chuckle float down the hall after him. He was still a couple hallways away from his room when he saw a group of people walking his way up the same hallway. Slightly panicked and tired of confrontation, he looked around and saw the entrance to the meditation garden by him, so he rushed over and ducked in. He kept by the door and waited until he heard the group's chatter approach, pass and fade away down the other end of the hall.

Marco sighed finally believeing he's gotten away from it all for a break. He turned around and couldn't help the slight intake of breath from the beauty of the small garden. There were trees fading in different colors and flowers that were still in bloom and he could faintly hear the babbling of water, probably a small waterfall in a little pond. He's been here before but always forgets how beautiful it is, and honestly he should come here more often.

He stepped forward and touched a flower, feeling his stress level lowering for the first time in a while, but then he started hearing strumming. He tensed and looked left then right and saw Oskar sitting on a rock carved bench, strumming away at a homely guitar. He barely seemed to have taken notice of Marco so he was wondering whether to leave while it wasn't too late, but then Oskar finally turned his head and gave a bob of greeting.

"Hey." Oskar crooned. Marco gave a slight frown.

"What, are you going to give me grief for being 'with Mewni' too? I don't want to hear it!" He crossed his arms showing his guard was up, still wound up from all that's happened before hand.

"Ok." He said, facing foward once again, continuingly strumming away. Marco gave him a suspicious stare but walked toward him, trying to relax despite a mysterious variable in the same space. He remembered Oskar was the mysterious one even back when Marco was here, never knowing what he was thinking, but If I remember correctly, Marco thought, He was the one more often then not who cheered me up when feeling stressed or worried...

Marco wondered if he still could.

He cautiously walked past him to a bending willow tree in slight bloom not too far off from where Oskar was sitting. He sat in it's crest and soon, he was slightly swaying back and forth to the melodious tune Oskar was strumming out, almost involuntarily relaxing.

"Your new friend seems cool." He said after the silence descended into comfortable. Marco looked up at the break in the air but frowned after taking in the sentence.

"What? Is that sarcasm?" He jibed. Oskar lolled his head to face him and stopped strumming.

"No. She seems chill. Legit..." Marco cocked an eyebrow.

"Even though she's Mewni? You don't consider her the enemy or someone to be taken out because she's the princess?"

Oskar did some sort of nod by rolling his head over and back in a circle.

"There's no need for those kind of labels, man. Isn't that what we're fighting for?" Marco tensed up a bit, being reminded of the similar conversation he had with lars. What is Oskar fighting for? "Slaves, ruler, weak, strong, magic, human... we all just want to be free. No one wants to be put down, and we'd only be like the people we're fighting if we treat friends that way."

"Exactly!" Marco sighed out in relief! Again, Oskar gets him. He should have never doubted him.

"Besides, you brought her home, man, and I trust your judgement. Besides, I approve." Marco's cheeks flushed a slight tint at the insinuation.

"What do you mean you approve?"

"What? I mean, I approve, you know... she's cool." He said, with an undertone of teasing. Marco blushed a little deeper.

"Don't make fun of me! It's not like that!"

"Huh? You mean she's not cool-?"

"Oskar!" Marco cried out while Oskar chuckled.

Star officially was bored. She explored every inch of that small mud room, and she felt like she was not exaggerating when she says every inch because it was small in the first place and she's been in there a while. She read the few magazines on the floor but none of the bigger books, because she got bored trying to read those story lines. She jumped on the bed until she was scared it would give way underneath her. She tried to carve pictures of warnicorns on the walls before the dirt crusting in her finger nails just became too unappealing. She was getting really bored of waiting for Marco and that curtain was starting to look sooo interesting. She crawled towards it and started admiring the stich work and the holes and how faded blue it looked.

"Huh... I wonder if it looks different on the other... side...!" She said to herself innocently, and rolled underneath it and soon she emerged in the space of the hallway, and she suddenly wasn't so interested in the curtain anymore... You know, however much it was interesting in the first place... Star thought to herself getting up and dusting herself off. Let's explore Earth a little more! She followed the hallway down the way, trying to stay in the main hallway and not deviate into the smaller ones, despite her curiosity. She found herself walking into a large room with a couple of chairs and a small fire place and some colorful small boxes in the corner that said things like 'Sorry!' and 'Monopoly.' Where is this place? Star wondered as she walked in, but was startled as she realized there were others in the room.

"Wah!"

She noticed them after they popped their head up from the wide couch facing away from the door, looking quite like creeps.

"Wowie wow!" The robust one said, jumping out from the couch and sliding up to her in a smooth motion. "Hello~ Mama, the name's Ferguson, and you are?" He said, going for her hand and leaning to kiss it.

The lean one came out as well in a slight panic."Ferg! That's the Mewni princess!" Ferguson froze in his track before kissing her hand and looked up at her.

"Huh?!" He jumped back a bit, but looked her up and down then leaned closer to inspect her face.

"Are you sure Alfonzo? She looks a bit..." He started with a slight sneer, making Star feel self conscious, so she looked down at herself and did see she was quite unkempt. "... not royalty." Star blushed and started combing her fingers through her hair to try and look a bit better.

"I'm sure!" He nodded, and pushed up his glasses with confidence. Ferguson huffed.

"Well, then, we are enemies!" He crossed his arms and looked away and Alfonzo copied him. Star felt slightly panicked as she reached out to get their attention back.

"W-wait! You don't have to see me as the Mewni princess! You can just see me as..." She looked up in thought. "... An Earth girl! Here, let's start over! I'm Star and I'd love to be friends!" She said, giving her best smile and putting her hand out. Ferguson looked over his shoulder intrigued.

"An Earth girl, huh? Then that means all bets are off!" He slide back up to her side. "I'm Ferguson~" He shook her hand. Star giggled but Alfonzo still frowned.

"How do we know this isn't a trick?"

"well... Why would it be! I've always wanted to come down to Earth to see everything and everyone Marco always told me about-!" They both leaned in toward her, now very engaged.

"You're friends with MARCO?!" They rang out together. Star blinked, surprised at their reaction.

"W-yea, is that bad?"

"No! Your so lucky! How is it that even people from space get to hang out with our old buddy more than us!" Ferguson whined, crossing his arms.

"Yea, it sucks, but you know, any friend of Marco is a friend of ours! Sorry about before, I'm Alfonzo." He introduced, and offered her his hand which she gladly took to shake.

"Don't worry about it! I mean, I can understand why you would be nervous around me..." She acknowledged.

"Yea~ Because I wouldn't know where to take you out~" Ferguson purred flirtatiously. Star blushed a bit then shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no no nonono, no way- no, I'm not looking for anyone and I'm not interested and just... no." She finished, ending with her arms in an 'x.' Ferguson gave a slight scowl and faced away from her.

"Fine. Your loss, I have plenty of women that would throw themselves at my feet here. I'm considered... quite the ladies man." Alfonzo snorted but Star blinked in awe.

"Wow, really? What's that?" Ferguson chuckled.

"Well, little lady let me enlighten you..."

---

Marco plucked a small pink flower bud from the willow tree he was sitting underneath and looked it over as he listened to the latest story Oskar was telling him; a mission gone hilariously wrong during the time Marco was still on Mewni. Marco tuned him out a bit as he focused on the flower, observing it's beauty and serenity.

Small and pretty smelling...Pink... like Star's cheeks...

His eyes went wide as he realized.

"STAR! What am I doing here, how long have I been gone, oh man, I'm such a bad knight!" He freaked, shooting up to his feet and looking around.

"Calm down man. I'm sure she's fine! Come on, we'll both go, reduce the gang-ups. No need to freak, I'm sure she's waiting in your room." Oskar said, placing the guitar down by his seat and standing in a fluid and steady pace. But geez was he moving like he was in slow motion, and Marco was getting irritated. Didn't he know he's in a rush?!

"Alright, fine, let's just go!" Marco jogged out and Oskar gave a little walking hop start before jogging after him. They rounded a corner and Marco spotted Janna talking to one of the cheerleaders down that hall. He let out an exasperated sigh but kept moving. Another one from his old team to try and give him grief for being with Star. Janna turned and spotted him and Marco stumbled to a stop when he saw the furious face directed at him as she started making his way over.

"It's alright dude, you got this!" Oskar encouraged from behind him where he stopped too, seeing the oncoming storm. Marco gulped but put on a determined face as he waited for her. She marched right up to him, both of their faces screwed up in some emotion and without stopping in momentum, she punched him in the gut and he bent over wheezing. He did not expect her to be so upset that she did that. Before he even caught his breath, his world whizzed around as he was forcefully set upright. He blinked, trying to reorient himself of what just happened and found he didn't see Janna where he last saw her but felt a pressure on his torso. One more blink and he realized she was now hugging him. He also didn't expect this reaction from her for someone who was suppose to be upset with him.

"You dummy! I've been looking for you everywhere, Marco! You had me worried." She said, moving to look up at his face. Marco blinked one more time.

"Worried? What for?" He tried cautious, trying not to seem insensitive to her feelings.

"Idiot!" She snapped, punching him on the arm.

"OW!" He said with emphasis that was suppose to prompt explanation to all the hitting.

"We finally see you again, after we all thought you were captured and killed, looking like the enemy but fighting like a rebel! It was obvious to some degree you weren't completely on the enemy's side but we knew you weren't the same! I go looking for you and you're not seen, and obviously not being escorted with another rebel member, DUMMY!" She hit him on the arm again and Marco again cried out. "You know that was apart of the agreement for both of our well being's state of mind! And also, You being awol, I had no idea what you were going to do and if someone found you doing it before I did- and- and I could- I wouldn't be able to do anything-!"

Marco stopped her with a hug, burying her face into his shoulder, and after a beat she gladly took the offer, curling her hands around his back. He could obviously see she was getting hysterical over the topic. She wasn't mad, not really, she was more worried for his well being and whatever going through his mind that they can't trust it anymore since he's been with the enemy so long. Siding with them even. She was another ally Marco desperately needs on this rebel base.

"I'm sorry." Marco finally said after he noticed her breathing finally became regular. She peeled off him tiredly and blushed a bit after she saw Oskar behind him smiling like a goof. She looked down sheepishly.

"I guess you... were with someone... sorry." She said embarrassed.

"It's alright. So why were you looking for me?" He said, placing his hands on his hips, trying to get back into comfortable conversation.

"OH!" She cried with a smile on her face then shoved him back a little. "Well, man, where is she?!

---

"Oh no, and you don't get to hang out with Marco alot?"

"No, our squad deals mostly in communications with other bases while Marco goes out to the field alot. We barely see each other." Alfonzo said, moving his game peice in the board game they were teaching Star.

"You can't even talk to him using the communication thingies?" She asked reaching for the piece.

"It's not your turn and that's my piece." Ferguson said, slapping her hand away.

"Oh. Sorry. Again. For the 6th time." She chuckled bashfully.

"Anyway, no, because that's a different division. That's intra-base communications. We're inter-base, only bases outside of ours." Ferguson continued.

"Aw, that's so sad. Definitely, when this whole thing blows over, I'll make sure you and Marco... hang... out... alot" She said, hesitantly finishing her sentence as she realized what she was implying was that Marco stayed on Earth... Wasn't that going to happen anyway? I-

"STAR! There you are!" Marco called out as he entered the room. Star jumped, being startled out of her thought process but then she leaped to her feet to greet Marco.

"Oh, MARCO!" She giggled and did a wide circle in an animated display of the room. "Welcome to the common room! Although it's anything but! They have games! A fireplace and seating!" She said, swaying her arms side to side to point out what she was talking about. Marco rolled his eyes but walked over with a smile.

"Star, I told you to wait in the room! You had me worried when you weren't in there." He said, shaking her shoulders. She took a hand and slide his arms away.

"I knooow but I got bored!" She whined. She perked up as she remembered something. "Oh yea! And look who I~ FOUND~" She sang out, skipping backwards and motioning to the two who had stood up solemnly. Marco paused as he studied them for a second.

"Guys?" He managed, overwhelmed.

"Hey, Marco..." Alfonzo said with a lame smile and wave as Ferguson gave him a nod in greeting, and it was almost as though he was back in time, seeing them waiting for him in front of the high school.

"Oh my goodness! Ferguson! Alfonzo!" He cheered and ran forward and they all gathered together in an excited hug. "It's been forever since I've seen you two! How have you be-...!" His voice was droned out as all three began talking over each other in catching up.

"Wow... he's so happy..." Janna said after a while.

"Yea. Their biggest fears was that Marco wouldn't remember their names..." Star commented with almost tears in her eyes, standing next to Janna. Janna turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile as she waited for her episode to end, Star rubbing at her eye like a tear was dropping. Then she turned to Janna.

"Oh, I'm Star by the way!" She offered her hand which Janna took.

"Janna." She chuckled. "This is Oskar." She said, turning her body to put him in view.

"Oh, hi~" Star said, sort of giddily. He was really cute. She might have liked him in another life.

They talked to each other and caught up for old friends and got to know each other for new ones. They got hungry not 10 minutes later so they headed over to the cafeteria, and Marco felt so much better about the stares and being judged by those around him as long as he had these people, these true friends by his side. It didn't bother him as much. But he didn't notice he wasn't getting as many nasty stares as he did before.

---

Marco helped Star get up from her seat as she lethargically leaned from side to side.

"Yea, I'm gonna take Star to go lay down. She shouldn't have eaten so much." He said in a scolding tone.

"I wanted to try all of Earth's cuisine!" She whined, causing Janna and them to laugh at her as they walked away.

"You didn't have to eat it all at once!" Marco chuckled at her.

"Well, I didn't know the next time I would get to..." She said softly, trailing her eyes from the ground up to Marco's shyly, causing Marco to pause in thought at the implication. He opened his mouth the say something comforting, say anything really when he heard a voice from ahead of them in the hall.

"Marco, Star... can I talk to you?" Jackie asked, her hands behind her back and balancing on one foot to shuffle the other into the ground humbly. Marco looked over at Star to see her looking at him.

"Sure." He said.

OoooooooooOooooooooOooooooo

Marco and Star followed Jackie to a small dugout room that was used for general recreation and meetings. She walked to the wall as Marco and Star stopped in the middle as they waited for her to address them. She turned at the wall and leaned on it as she still struggled to make eye contact with either of them.

"I..." She started out, looking up at them before finding she couldn't still and continued her eyes to the roof. "I'm sorry... Star... Marco.. both of you." She got out and finally was able to look in their direction. "Star, I'm sorry I judged you for your cover. You were born into this... you didn't exactly have a choice. Well, not that you didn't have a choice but that you weren't told... 'you can do this or you can not.' You just did it as it was taught to you. And to Marco, you taught her differently that she did have a choice... and she took that other one. You weren't siding with her, you brought her to our side. We couldn't see that because you were still... their princess. So, I'm sorry."

"Wow, Jackie..." Marco breathed, looking at her with awe, and Star seeing that, blushed a bit but jumped right into what she did best: talking.

"What exactly made you change your mind?" She asked, taking a small leap forward for their attention.

"Oh, your knights, Marco, that you brought here. They just hung around, and we realized they were really cool. They weren't mean, they weren't the enemy and we weren't the rebels. We were people being people. It felt normal again and I realized it was never the troops! It was the underlying ideals of Mewni. If we can destroy that, then that's when we win. That's what we're fighting for."

"Wow..." All Marco managed to say again. She has really grown since he's been gone. Real leader material. It was almost as if he could get those deep lost feelings back again but...

"Uh-! Uh-! UM! MARCO!" She shouted and he jumped.

"Ow, my ear! What, Star?" He asked.

"Auuggggggghhhhh...!"

"Jackie! We've got company!" One of the adult authorities said as they came through the makeshift door. She gasped and shared a look with Marco and she ran out with the teacher with both Marco and Star following her to see what was going on.

OoooooooOooooooooOoooooooo

The Queen took up the speaker as she stared down at the Earth in the location of Echo Creek with an angry glare. Since they still didn't know the exact location, all they could do was bring multiple small scale battleships to cover the whole area. She spoke into the speaker.

"Rebels of Earth! I know you have the princess, release her and we won't open fire on you!"

"She's bluffing." Jackie said, looking up at the situation from their safe dugout location that lead out to the open covered by shrub and foliage.

"Wait, this is all a misunderstanding! If I just go out to her and tell her, they'll leave you all alone!" Star argued.

"No, Marco! We can finally use this to end the rule Mewni has over us!" Jackie said, grabbing Marco' arm for his attention.

"No! Marco, you know we're trying to stop this the right way! That's why I've been taking my role as princess more seriously!"

"Oh please, and how much longer is that going to take?!"

"It's better than making them think you really did take me as prisoner!"

"Marco!"

"Marco!"

Marco rubbed his temples with his eyes closed as he thought about it.

"Let's... invite her down. To talk sensibly about this. She knows me. She just wants to know her daughter's safe. And yes, we can use Star to barter for peace, but we don't need a hostile angle." Marco reasoned. Jackie scoffed lightly but couldn't be complain. Star cheered slightly and jumped up, ready to run out there and flag down her mother's ship when marco grabbed her arm.

"No, not you. You're still a prisone...r..." He said firmly but trailing off at the end, feeling like he couldn't really be the one to talk when he was still a 'prisoner' himself. He guessed he must have got caught up, feeling like he was still the rebel leader in charge of his team. He let go of her arm. "Listen, we have communications with Bushes, let's have him call her down after assuring you're fine." Star gasped.

"Right! Alright, I'll go tell Ferguson." She said with determination to help. Marco chuckled.

"Yea, you go do that." He slightly waved as Star jogged off and returned his attention to the flying ships above them. He was absorded wondering how long he had, so he didn't notice Jackie studying him as he stared up. She couldn't believe him. He was like a whole different person, but at the same time the same one she knew her whole life. It was like unlocking a new side of Marco... a whole new side for her to fall in love with... but she didn't unlock this new side of Marco. She finally turned her eyes off of Marco to look off in the direction Star ran away.

That princess did...

---

Bushes ushered down the ships to land at the clearance landing pad for Mewni troops and battalions. He still had doubts of Marco's intentions. Looking into his files after having time during this surrendered battle and he was native to this planet. He's no better than a glorified slave, he has no ties to the Mewni empire that aren't bad. He couldn't believe he empathized with the likes of him, he wasn't mewni.

The Queen hurriedly rushed off the ship as Bushes went to meet her. He got the messages so they somehow knew how to communicate with them, but he hopes he could find a way to respond back and find where the signal's coming from. Find those traitors and criminals.

He ushered her in and sat her down and filled her in on what had happened up to when they surrendered.

"But they sent a message saying to tell you she's fine, that she's safe."

"Oh, thank goodness..." She gasped out.

"But... I have to voice my concern, my Queen... I had the pleasure of meeting Marco. He's the captain of your most elite knights, he's excellent at planning and he's demonstrated great fighting skills! So then, why would he surrender in the middle of battle? It's not like Mewni's ideals to surrender! I know he's native to this planet, and with his planning, it's very possible that he met up with his old allies and used a pretense of surrender to get away from Mewni."

"What...?! I- he...!" The Queen delicately bit at her thumb. She wondered if he would really do so. This officer presented plenty of eveidence as to why he's thinking this way... and she was really hard on him, basically blackmailing him into leaving Star on her birthday. Now she's here on this planet and Maco surrendered Mewni's strongest soldiers to the enemy and she can't help but blame herself for this. This was all to her planning.

But if what they say is true...

"Bushes! We're getting another transmission." A soilder said.

"What? What does it say?" He asked, jogging over, giving the queen some time to think.

"It's from an unknown source, previously never dealt with before now..." He said, holding his Ear phone as he listened in to it. "It says... surrender now... and it won't attack... your mothership!"

"What?" The Queen said, shooting up in her chair. "How absurd! The Mewni mothership is the best battle ship in this known galaxy!" She said indignantly. A watchman soldier came rushing in, gasping for breath.

"You might want to see this!" He breathed.

---

Marco stepped out the dugout with Jackie along side him as they noticed the ships, the bigger, more armored ships, descending from the atmosphere looming over the Mewni ships making them seem like small recon ships, not ready for battle at all.

"Marco... whose that?" Jackie murmured, feeling dread wash over her, similar to when Mewni first came down to take over the planet.

"I have no idea..." He breathed in reply.

"Oh man..." Bushes moaned from his position back at the base.

"All your base are belong to me!" Ludo's voice rang out over the speaker down to Earth below.

They all gaped up at the huge ship in fear. Ludo patiently waited a good 30 seconds before giving a small groan indicating his patience was over.

"Did they not hear me? Is this thing not on?" He inquired, shaking the speaker phone. Toffee clacked at the keyboard he was stationed at a few feet away from Ludo and shook his head.

"No sir, it was working, they all should have heard you." Ludo gave a dissatisfied grunt at the lack of response from the objects of his aim.

"Then let's make them notice me!" He slammed down the phone, and picked up a staff, proceeding to point it at the aerial view of Echo Creek displayed on the front windshield of his main commanding room. There it could be seen the scattered, seemingly frozen ships belonging to Mewni.

"FIRE!" Ludo's ship started raining down hostile shots on the Mewni ships, the noise bringing the soldiers inside to life as the realization of what was happening sank in. They rushed to land, huge clouds of dust coming up from rush landings and lasers landing could be seen across the plains, visible from the hidden base of the rebels.

Those outside the rebel base watched in solemn silence at the chaos not too far from them. They were all deep in thoughts and wonder at this new threat when Jackie broke the silence as she addressed Marco.

"Are they on our side?" Jackie asked, wrapping a hand around Marco's forearm.

"I don't know..." Marco said with a small sigh. What did this mean? Where did this ship even come from, how does it fit into this story?

"Maybe we should try it, try teaming, then we can finally get Mewni off our-" Jackie tried, but Marco sharply turned towards her to cut her off.

"No! Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. They could be way worse than Mewni, and you heard that first announcement! They only want Earth as a territory for themselves. If anything, we have to get rid of this bigger threat before dealing with Mewni, alright?" He waited for Jackie's hesitant nod of agreement before turning back into the base. She just turned back to continue to watch the scene unfold.

The soldiers evacuated their ships in a mad rush while dodging lasers. However, once they entered the fortified communications base the lasers ceased.

"That woke them up..." Ludo said smugly with a satisfied smile.

Inside, Moon Butterfly could swear the ship looked familiar but she was too busy freaking out from all that was happening to think clearly.

"This is ABSURD! Someone do something!" The king ordered around frantically while the queen didn't know what to do herself. She could claim to heaven and back that her Mewni Mothership was the best of the best constructed from magic and technology, but the ship hovering over the Earth's atmosphere dwarfing hers clearly shows these people have been doing some bulking up, and below the radar for that matter.

The Soldiers that filtered into the base flitting around like headless chickens weren't helping either. Bushes's face flushed with frustration at the lack of order going on in his base, his base. He prided himself on the order he keeps here and he wasn't about to let this carry on his presence. He let out a small growl and stood up on a chair to address all in the vicinity.

"ATTENTION!" He shouted out commandingly. All the soldiers stopped in their track either out of shock or out of command training. They all turned up to him as he regarded them all with a sneer that made them embarrassed in the way they were acting, heck, he almost made the royal couple feel embarrassed.

"We have a threat out there, putting our way of Mewni life at risk! We have a reputation to uphold as the best in the Galaxy and I need you all to get. it. TOGETHER!" He scolded. The soldiers slightly blushed with embarrassment but saluted with new resolve. They stood before him ready and able. The Commanding officer stepped down from the chair and moved over to talk to his Queen.

"Don't worry my queen, on behalf of the Mewni battalion, I assure you, we'll take care of this. Better than any rebel or traitorous human!" Bushes ensured, slightly adding in that last part bitterly with Diaz in mind. He was surely better than him, no matter how highly he regarded him before, he couldn't have been all that.

Moon gave a small swallow to drown her nerves and finally let herself be calm at the assurance of Bushes. She took her husbands hand in further comfort and support.

"Take them out!"

They prepped up, loading ships they already had in bay and shoving on fortified armor, ready to tackle the enemy head on in a full frontal attack. No way were they going to back down from a battle of Strength. They were the Mewni empire! Their weapons were superior to all others, it's why they ruled all.

The Queen overlooked the soldiers in the room going over the plan one more time and felt her heart fill with hope. They were going to win! They were able!

"This will work!" She whispered to herself.

"Ok, so once their weapons have been trained on our front lines, the second wave will come in hot and we'll overwhelm them and bring them down. Everyone got it?! And Break!" The soldiers shouted their confirmation in a roar of confidence. They all rushed off into their fighter ships and took stations and started off onto the battle.

Ludo, who decided to wait for them to come out of the building in surrender, was lost in playing with his model ships, one Mewni and one that looked like his own ship models.

"Pew, pew... blast blast blast..." He murmured to himself in amusement. A small rumbled had him glancing up in curiosity.

"Toffee...!?" He commanded for an answer. Toffee waited a moment as those working the auxiliary computers to assess the situation, then the conclusion was sent to Toffee's monitor.

"It's the Mewnis, they've began a retaliation attack!" He reported. Another rumble almost caused Ludo to tumble off his tall seat. "They've already taken down 2 of our back-up ships!" Outside the giant doomsday ship, the Mewnis blasted their shots off while nimbly flying circles around their targets. Those in the ships react too late at the surprise attack. Other's had their weapons turned into flowers and water falls from the magic charge blasted at them from the Mewni battle ships.

"W- Well, don't just stand there! Attack back! I didn't come this far for her to ruin my plans again..." Ludo commanded darkly. Toffee nodded with a "Yes Sir" and began communications with the support ships.

"You know what to do, we've prepared for this. Men and Women, shields up!" Toffee barked into the coms. Bushes laughed at the advances they were making.

"At this rate we'll have these losers driven out by sundown!" He commented. He noticed off by the corner of his eye that a nearby ship had it's weapons trained on him.

"Not today, Slime!" He laughed smugly. He cranked a handle to have his magic charge trained on the newly noticed ship and it soon gave the 'target locked' affirmation. He flipped a switch and pushed a button and a magical swirl of a built up spell gathered at the base of his ship coming forth from a focus rod that release in the direction of the enemy's ship. It was a direct hit and Bushes pumped his fist into the air from the success but then quickly griped back at his steering with both hands for balance when he felt his ship rock.

"Huh?!" He gasped out checking his surroundings. He gazed back where the enemy ship's weapons were suppose to have turned into idle useless things but saw the weapons were perfectly fine and functional, and actually charging up for another shot.

"Shoot!" He muttered and made evasive maneuver to get out of range and out of that situation. "What on Mewni...?" He asked himself from his position above the battle. He looked down to where another comrade was charging it's magic to blast at another enemy. Again, it made direct hit, but Bushes saw as the magic traces subsided that a shimmering that vaguely looked like a sphere around the ship appeared where the magic was making contact. Bushes eyes bulged as he noticed magic charge after magic charge the same things happened.

"No way..." He hit the communications to contact all ships. "They have Magic Shields! Retreat!" He shouted out. Some ships made maneuvers soon afterward to get out their battle and back towards the fort but others reamined in locked combat.

"But my shots still hit! I can still shoot 'em out the sky! I can still-!" One eager soldier shouted back excitedly as firing could be heard in the back, but then soon after, a bad explosion could be heard. "I'm hit! I'm hit! I'm going down!" And Bushes saw that one ship spin tailing down to Earth. He grimanced as he landed. He knew the only advantage they had over those guys were there assult magic, but without that edge, it was obvious their weapons would do more damage and faster.

"Retreat!" He repeated again more firmly for those that were still trying to stay. They began making their way back and the enemy were shooting after them, hitting many of them in engines and tanks.

"AAAAAA-"

"Well that didn't work." A burnt out and smoking Bushes said sheepishly in front of the pack of the rest of his troops that didn't look any better. The Queen looked on with a mortified look on her face before it quickly twisted to rage and disbelief.

"Oh, TOO INCOMPETENT-!"

"Look my queen!" The king cut her off and pointed off outside from a window near the front side of the base where Ludo's ship could be seen menacingly in the sky. They all scurried over in a rush to see what was in development next. There could be seen dark figures secretly making their ways to a fallen enemy ship.

"Who are they?" The king muttered to himself when a soldier made a pair of binoculars known.

"I'll find out sir." He answered, peaking through. They all waited in anticipation to what he was going to say.

"It's Diaz, sir!" He gasped out.

"What?!" Bushes barked out and grabbed at the device, shoving his own face in there. It could clearly be seen where the smoke from their last battle failed to cover was the faces of the rebels.

"What are they... doing?" Bushed muttered.

"Probably the same we are..." The Queen suggested watching the forms since they all couldn't look through the scope at once. 'We'll just see how this pans out...' The Queen thought as everyone in the room hunkered down to see the outcomes of the rebel's attempt. Marco was signaling his team to move in, which comprised of Jackie, Janna, a cheerleader, Justin, and Jeremy. Before moving in, they had watched the Mewni's initial move and they all agreed it was stupid.

"A frontal assault is no way to treat a threat with no knowledge on what fire power they have to counter with." Jackie inputted, a hand on her chin in concentrated thought.

"A point in why we should use a more sneaky tactic." Janna said with wiggling fingers. Marco nodded his agreement.

"We'll take a small team to sneak aboard the ship." He said and looked around the company he had. "Jackie, Janna, Sabrine, and... Justin, for muscle if we need it." He counted off and Star's face fell to a pout.

"Aw, Marco, come on, take meee!" She complained. "You know I'm good for the fire power!"

"I know you're good for attacking, which is why the Mewni army just failed in their attempt just now. We're looking for a non-confrontational approach. If we do this right, we won't be fighting anyone." He said. "And I know you don't have covert training, so there would be no use having you come." He then realized he was being too cold and calculating and too 'in the war' zone then Star was probably used to. "Sorry." He added with a slight wince of sympathy.

"And what exactly is the goal in this "non-confrontational assault" Jeremy droned, piping in from his location leaning on a wall the door, going mostly unnoticed, putting quotation in the air, emphasizing his doubts of the mission.

"Ugh, not now, Jeremy, we don't need your Debbie downer attitude here." Janna moaned. Jeremy scoffed but Marco put his hands up in a pacifying manor.

"No, no, he has a point. Er, well, we'll want to render them useless so that they're not a threat, so I guess... take out their technology stuff?" Marco offered up to Jeremy's consideration. He just gave him a deadpanned face.

"Really? Their 'tech stuff?'" Marco flushed a bit from his tone and realized it did sound vague.

"Well, this is harder to do under time constrains, spur of the moment and with no prior intel! We just need something, even if it's not completely refined, to try so we're all just not sitting here waiting for death." He countered. Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"I guess, as long as you know what you're looking for..." He commented and proceeded to pick at the grime under his nail as Marco and the other higher ups exchanged looks of uncertainty. Jeremy noted the silence and lack of continual plan development and looked up.

"Really?" He scoffed.

"Why, you...!" Janna muttered darkly and made a move in his direction, but she was held back by Jackie.

"OK, ok, come on, what should we be looking for?" Marco sighed. Jeremy got off the wall with a finger to his chin while looking up in thought. He made his way over to the main table they were discussing around through the people that parted for him like waves.

"well, they can't keep floating up there without lithium batteries or fuel cells, messing with their MEMs could release some sort of chemicals that could kill them if goes unnoticed... and their digital nanoelectronics might ruin communications through their ship and to other ships... but that's just what I would go for..." He looked up to be met with unbelieving and awed faces. He blushed deeply from the silent judgement he was obviously getting.

"what?! I was into rockets way before we were in this mess with the Mewni's and junk!"

"And we're bringing Jeremy." Marco added lastly.

Now they were making their way to an abandoned enemy ship to pose as one of them to get on board and carry out their plan in the first place. They all piled into the pretty spacious ship.

"Alright, we need to get this thing in the air." Marco said, while trying to assess the condition the ship was in, but obviously he was clueless on the technology, but he also felt awkward about asking Jeremy when they haven't exactly gelled in the past. Luckily for him, he had his girls.

"Alright Jer, that's your cue." Janna snickered, pushing forward the scrawny kid forward.

"Hey, I didn't come to be your punching bag!" He challenged.

"You didn't really volunteer to come in the first place. C'mon, we're on borrowed time, man..." Jackie replied with her arms folded by Marco sides. Jeremy grumbled while he trotted up to the controls before ducking underneath the control panels.

"Wouldn't even need me if I didn't know anything about rockets... don't know how valuable I really am... can't even say 'please'..." They heard some coherent grumbled as he pried a panel off and started plugging and rerouting wires connected on the circuit board. Marco waited in anticipation, really wondering how well this would work, but he couldn't ponder on it too long as the place hummed to life and Jeremy revealed himself from below the panel.

"There! Wow, I'm actually half surprised that worked, I couldn't recognize half the stuff I was messing with-" Jeremy stated before being pulled into a noogie by Janna.

"Nice, our little resident geek we never knew we had! You shoulda swallowed your ego and joined Marco's team sooner, you coulda been in the inner circle." Jeremy finally pried himself out of her grip.

"Oh please like I'd want to be working under Marco" He replied snootily. Janna rolled her eyes.

"Suit yourself." She said and turned back to Marco for further instructions, but Jeremy looked down in thought.

If I never want to work under him... why did the offer sound so nice...? He thought sadly to himself.

"Alright, now that we got this stuff up and running we just need to get up to the main ship and ask for them to open up. We'll say... we were severely damaged and need to get back in the bay for repairs then move out. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find this stuff.

"It should be out of the way from people, it's not exactly nice to have fuel cells hissing steam by your workplace." Jeremy piped in from his thoughts.

"Great, even more out of the way." Jackie cheered for the mission.

"Right, let's get this underway!" Marco said and took the controls.

The Mewnis watched as the ship carelessly lifted off the ground, haphazardly climbing into the sky before steading enough to make a beeline for the main ship.

"What are they planning?" The Queen asked to herself.

"It seems like they're going to sneak on board." Bushes whispered, slightly in awe and almost as if he said it louder, it would alert the enemy of their secret advances.

"What? What kind of cowardly approach is that!?" The King yelled out.

"Well, it's not the worst plan..." Bushes admitted. "It kinda eliminates the extent to which they can counter you." He again found himself in wonder of Diaz's thinking, and found himself cursing himself for trying the fall back in that mind set again. No he's the enemy! It just mean he's crafty enough to have done that betraying plan and getting away from his slavery under Mewni.

"Look, they're approaching!" The Queen said to bring the attention back to the rebels. Back at the Rebel base, Star bit at her thumb nail in anticipation watching from a small deck outside, Ferguson and Alfonso was next to her.

"Oh, I can't watch!" Ferguson moan, covering his face with his hands.

"Well, you better figure out a way. Once they get inside, you won't have an option to watch them or not. And we won't be able to communicate with them until they're out because we don't know if they have internal communication detectors!" Alfonso informed and Ferguson gave him a small glare.

"It was an expression!"

Star was barely listening as she was worriedly watching them head to unknown danger. This was horrible, being in love! What if Marco didn't come back!? Then she would have never gotten the chance to tell him how she felt! But she knew she couldn't tell him earlier, it was most definitely not the right time in that tense situation with him reconnecting with his past life.

She couldn't live with herself if he never knew and she hated even more how she didn't have any sway in if he did or not. All she could do was watch and wait and leave his fate in the hands of those around him, including Jackie.

Ugh, Jackie. She didn't hate her, definitely not, she seemed like a really chill person and maybe they could be friends one day, but she was her rival vying for Marco's affection which was causing her anxiety and stress and that was associated with Jackie. Star shook her head to get those thoughts of her head, now was not the time to be thinking about it.

She looked up where the ship was nearly at it's destination. There was something else that was bothering her about the enemy that has chosen now to come attack. It was almost as if they knew the Mewnis were here before they came purposely to corner them. And how the Mewni firing ships couldn't use their magic on the ships after initial firing.

"This is all too convenient..." she mumbled to herself, but caught the attention of the two in her company.

"Huh?" They uttered.

"And they almost look like they have Mewni weapons... but different..." Star commented, observing the rods and firing tools on the large ship. Marco and the team just reached the main ship's proximity by it's loading bay. Marco nervously reached for what looked like the communications speaker phone and was about to speak into it when Jeremy poked his head up by the panel and pressed a button and a white noise began filtering out the device. Marco gave a quick glance over at the small person and Jeremy gave a strained smile in return. He just then noticed how palpable the tension was in the small space and glance back over his shoulder to see everyone anxiously looking toward him. This was the big moment and they all hoped for the best.

"Go ahead, soldier." A voice came through the speaker, causing everyone to give a small start.

"Er-" Marco cleared his throat. "We took bad damage in the last battle with the Mewnis. We were just able to get off the ground now... can we gain access to the ship bay for repairs?" They held their breath awaiting the enemy's answers.

The pale blue skinned communications officer who was manning the radio with Marco turned around to face Toffee who was listening in. He nodded to the man and then motioned to another as he started for the door that led out to the rest of the ship. The sickle blue man turned the tuner back on to Marco.

"Go ahead, soldier, your clear for entrance." He issued. Back in the smaller ship glances were exchanged in wariness but were pleasantly surprised when the loading dock was opened.

"Isn't this too easy? They didn't ask for clearance or anything, we didn't even have to do any sort of salute." Jackie whispered by Marco's side as he eased the ship forward.

"We're just lucky they have such sucky security. Let's just take advantage of it." Jeremy chided in.

"I gotta go with the gremlin on this one, don't look a gifted horse in the mouth." Janna remarked, leaning by her leaders.

"Right, it doesn't change our plans of having to get in, so the only thing we can do is go forward. I can only advise everyone to be extra cautious. It could be a trap..." Marco said as the ship landed. They looked out the ship's front windshield, expecting soldiers to come spilling out to greet them or fix the ship or anything, but no one came.

"Eerie..." Justin shivered as they prepared to get off and into the empty loading dock.

"Alright guys, follow my lead..." Marco said getting out a small staff from behind his back before heading off the ship. Jackie and Janna got out their blunt weapons as well and followed with the others behind. Jeremy took out his Swiss army knife that the leaders at the rebel based gave to him to do his work on the ship and took the rear.

"You guys better protect me, this plan won't get off the ground without me..." He murmured from the back.

"Geez, maybe you wouldn't have been so great on Marco's team..." Janna mumbled.

"I'm sure we still would've been able to break something." Justin commented. Jeremy bristled.

"Shut it, this is the best plan and it involves me!"

"You shush! We are trying to sneak!?" Jackie scolded in a loud whisper.

"Alright guys, now you all seriously need to shut up, I'm opening the door into the actual ship." Marco whispered. Everyone stilled with nerves but then nodded back their understandings. He opened the door to see pristine white walls that turned left. Marco scooted along the wall with his baton up and ready to be used and peaked around the corner seeing nothing but a long hallway the split off two ways when it reached the end.

"Alright... Clear." Marco remarked and started down the hall with the others orderly behind him. Sabrina pulled out a scratched piece of paper and looked at it.

"Ok, so it looks like we turn right at the end of this hall...!" She said in a meek voice but Marco heard her.

"Right. We're almost there-!" He said but then he stopped in his track when an unfamiliar blue light began shining from the roof not too far ahead of them. It materialized into a blue ray that shot down to the ground.

"What-what's going on?"

"What is that?" Panicked voices in the group chimed out as the ray began forming beings in the immediate area. Marco's eyes widened as he slowly pieced together what was happening.

Toffee, wielding a space looking laser ray, stood at the forefront of a small group of soldiers holding the same weapon and they were all pointed at them. Marco looked down at his small rustic baton and knew this was not a match to fight. Toffee's face twisted from his cool calm demeanor into one of pure maniacal craze.

"Surprise!" He crooned out before they started firing.

"Ah! Watch my hair, watch my hair!" Jeremy screamed out as they started dodging lasers.

"Retreat!" Marco shouted out and began running back out. They closed the hatch and piled back into the ship.

"The doors aren't open!" Jackie shouted out. Just then a loud beeping was heard and the hatch began opening up to reveal the expanse of earth below them.

"What's going on...!?" Janna shouted out as they felt the ship tilt to one side. The enemy was going to drop them out of the sky! And with few ships actually in the loading dock since they were in use, there was no danger or extensive damage this would cause to them. They all began screaming as their little support ship began scraping along the floor and out towards the exit, then the floor ran out and they were free falling in the sky.

They all shouted out but Marco knew he had to get the ship up and running again to save them from a fiery splat on the ground. He reached the controls and pulled up on the handles. It wasn't working! He looked under the panel and found the wires were free flying around instead of touching each other. He turned around to find Jeremy curled in a ball and crying out with the others. He gave a small exasperated groan and shoved off towards him.

"Jeremy!" He tried to scream over his cries. Jeremy pried open his eyes to peek up at Marco's urging face. "You need to put the cables back together again!" He shouted. Jeremy looked around and realized he might live, so he stopped his hyperventilating and followed Marco back over to panel. Marco pulled up as Jeremy did his stuff under the panel. He felt the ship come to life not too far from the ground and they were able to start steering the ship as not to plummet straight down to Earth like a comet. The ship skidded the ground but failed to get much higher and they ended up crash landing in a trench not too far from where they started.

They all ground and rubbed their bruises but were generally just happy to be alive. Marco lightly punched Jeremy's arm as he came up.

"Good job... I know that couldn't have been easy under that pressure..." Marco remarked. Jeremy blushed slightly from the praise but just twisted his body away from his view and folded his arms.

"I don't need to be told that from the likes of you! I know how great I am." Marco huffed but still had a light smile on his face as they filtered out. Back up in the ship Ludo gave a small angry growl as Toffee came back in with the other troops after running the intruders off.

"Alright sir, the infiltrators have been stopped." He stated.

"But this is ridiculous! There is obviously a problem... I am being way too nice and much too liberal if they have the time to try these stunts with me!" He shouted out. "Let's cut that time short..." He muttered darkly.

Marco entered the rebel base only to be bombarded with Ferguson and Alfonzo's rapid and indecipherable yelling. He blinked in confusion before flailing his arms around to get their attention.

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down!" He cried and looked at both of them with swift head movements to make sure they were taking their calming breaths. "Now what's going on?"

"Star said she knows something about the enemy!" Alfonzo cried out and Marco's eyes widened then turned to face her location further into the room. She was slightly rubbing her arm and looking down sheepishly.

"I don't know for sure, but their weapons look familiar! Now I know I don't a lot about Mewni's army official weapons, but my mom does! If we could just...?"

"No way, Marco, we can't reunite her with the royal family! She's our only leverage right now!" Jackie protested, hearing most of the conversation along with the small team that was filtering in behind him.

"I know, but that will be useless if we get new oppressors we have to fight... If she thinks we can get farther along this battle by speaking to her mother, we should try it."

"Come on, we're not that desperate yet! We haven't even tried allying with those lizard guys in the sky yet-"

"Jackie, again?" Marco sighed, rolling his eyes. "They just shot at us while we were outmatched and then chucked us out into the sky and you think they might be amicable?"

"Well, we did start it first..." she murmured, folding her arms.

"Hey, I gotta side with Marco on this one." Janna said, coming up to Jackie's side and touching her arm to try and ease her out of her defensive stance. "We won't be giving her back to her mother anyway, we'll just be talking and she'll be able to throw in input. Cool?" Jackie looked down but inevitably let her arms dangle back by her sides.

"Yea. Cool."

"Kay, let's head out then..."

Upon approaching the Mewni's they were greeted with verbal abuse.

"Ha, did you guys see how hard you failed?!" One of the watchtower men hollered out from above.

"Seriously? you wanna talk!? You guys looked pathetic, getting your butts kicked by those small fighter jets!" Justin defended, shaking his fist at him as they approached.

"Hey, they were cheating!" Another yelled out from the window. "At least we fought them head on!"

"And look where that got you!" Jeremy scoffed.

"I could say the same." Bushes said calmly as he exited the building with the royal family behind him.

"STAR!" Her parents chorused out in unison.

"Hi guys!" She crooned from behind the wall of rebels.

"I see you guys came to your senses and finally brought our princess back!" Bushes remarked.

"Hey, she came willingly!" Marco said, then cringed as he thought about it, she came to earth willingly but didn't ask to be a prisoner of the Earth rebels.

"Oh my, and look at her, she looks a mess! who did that?" The mother cried at her disheveled appearance.

"Hey, we got her like that..." Janna replied smoothly.

"Liar! You're all cowards!" The king shouted out heatedly.

"Where are the grounds for such accusations-!"

"If you never came, I'd have made short work of these-!"

"Let Earth go-!"

"LONG LIVE MEWNI-!" Their ridiculous baseless yells and arguments began overlapping each other into a yelling fest but it was interrupted by a loud feedback screech in the direction of the looming ship. They all covered their ears and crouched down slightly in instinctive defense but looked up as a command came bellowing out from Ludo's speaker.

"Mewnies... Earthlings... Surrender the Earth by sunset or I will blow up the planet. That is all." They all stood there is shock and awe as realization slowly sunk in.

"What!?" Jackie screeched, putting her hands in her hair.

"Harsh." Jeremy huffed.

"All I ever did was threaten to crumble your cities. But your whole planet?" The Queen agreed. Marco's resolve steeled as he faced back to Bushes and the royal family.

"Listen, we think Star has intel to get us all out of this mess, but we need you guys to work with us. We need to think up a plan." He practically pleaded, keeping his eyes locked on Bushes. Bushes bit his lower lip as he tried to resist giving in Diaz's plea, he now hated having anything be Diaz's brilliant planning, because he shouldn't be so bright for a human, it's who they were claiming to be superior to. But now they needed to work as equals? Again? But if it was to live...

"Fine..." He breathed out dejectedly. In the back, Star let out a happy squeal.

OooooooooOooooooooooOoooooooo

Marco rolled out the piece of paper on the meeting room table that Jeremy had drawn out to try and navigate the ship to find the engines and devices they wanted to sabotage. The room was small and to keep it from becoming overbearing and overwhelming, they kept the people to a minimum on a need to know basis, which was Bushes, the Queen, Marco, Star and Jackie. Star was less of a need to know, more like insisted with claims that she was some sort of neutral grounds since she wanted to fight for both Earth and Mewni and would make sure there was no bias in the plan towards either. Marco looked over the paper while he thought about their two approaches they previously tried on this foreign enemy.

"We obviously can't win with brute strength over their instincts and preparation as we saw with your guys's battle, but one thing that can overcome their almost involuntary instinct can be a calculated strategy. We let them think they know how to react and then we come from behind with a hidden stratedgy." He said, starting to point out and mark ideas on the map at certain points.

"That doesn't sound like it'd work. You guys tried that already."

"Not really, we didn't try the hidden plan part, we just tried to sneak on with no pretense." Jackie corrected

"Yea, this should also work better now that we are working with you guys. It should be more believable." Marco concluded.

"Sounds good." Moon stated curtly looking at the map too. "And new weapons that'll help all of us stand a chance if there is interference."

"Nice." Jackie hummed.

"But can we trust them, My Queen?" Bushes asked.

The Queen studied Marco and thought back to all the time he spent with them on Mewni, how she was mean to him, not trusting his influence on her daughter, but now, if she thought about it... she'd trust Marco with her life, more importantly, with her daughter's.

"Of course." She said after a timely pause. "But right, didn't you have something of importance to say, Star?" She said, turning to her daughter.

"Right! Right, well, while I was watching the battles, the way the guns and stuff looked and how they fired... it looked a lot like our weapons, right mom?" She asked. Moon thought back to it; she remembered the feeling of familiarity when that ship first came in but couldn't dwell on it long.

"You're right... not just the weapons, the ship designs... do you think they might have gotten hands on our technology and created counter measures?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to make sure it was taken into consideration..." Star stated. "It's probably why our magic shots weren't affecting them after the first couple of hits."

"Oh... pooh." The Queen, murmured. Marco and Jackie exchanged looks.

"You don't have to worry about that with us, your majesty." Marco stated. "We don't exactly like Magic, so if it's just your normal damaging guns you'll supply us, I can't see us losing in a match against these guys."

The Queen looked up with bright eyes. "Right! If we give technology to those who don't know how it's meant to be used, then those who made a counter for it when used properly can't counter fully when in battle!" Star gave a small hiccup.

"Huh?" She honked out.

"Oh, the point is, this'll work!" She giggled, and excitedly batted at Bushes's shoulders.

"Great... so we'll have someone go up with the pretense that we're surrendering Earth and then they'll help us sneak on from inside and then we can sabotage and fight and drive them off Earth!" Marco completed. The all gave small cheers of agreement.

"Now we just need someone to go on board-"

"I'll do it." Jackie said from beside Marco shoulder, nearly making him jump him. "I want to do my part." She smiled. Marco smiled back.

"Alright. Then lets get out there and debrief our fellow teammates."

OooooooooooOoooooooooOooooooo

Ludo watched as the sun glowed an orange fading hue with irritation. Were they really that stubborn? This was ridiculous, but supposed it helped reach his final goal, then he could move on to blow up Mewni. Without their leader heads, they would be completely unprepared and defenseless and his revenge will have been sweet and complete.

"Start charging up the laser!" Ludo commanded and Toffee nodded as he relayed the order to those who were in charge of those controls.

"Charging...!"

"Wait sir, it seems one of the humans are trying to catch our attention." A worker said from his post. Ludo looked at the screen in front of him to see where a platinum blonde looked as though she was trying to wave down the ship. Ludo swallowed a disappointed groan, it wasn't Mewni, but this could work. Mewni couldn't leave the planet even if they weren't the one surrendering it.

"Cut lasers." Ludo curtly said and Toffee was quick to follow the orders. Jackie down on the ground panted with relief happy that they finally saw her and the glow from the lasers stopped increasing with intensity.

"Step under the tractor beam." Ludo's voice rang out through his amplified speaker. As he said it, a light emanating from the mother ship came down and landed, concentrated in a small area. Jackie looked back to the dug-out base nervously where Marco gave her a thumbs up and with a couple wave of his wrists, gave her encouragement to keep going.

She nodded and turned back to the ship. It was now or never. She made up her mind and she had to follow through.

For Earth. She thought as she stepped forward. She placed a hand in the light, and when it did nothing but give her a slight tingling feeling where it made contact, she positioned her whole body under the beam. She felt her world disorient and almost felt as though her body was being stretched painlessly instead of the free falling feeling she was expecting. Before she knew it, she was in a glass chamber that lead out to a dimly lit square room connecting to a hallway more brightly lit. She pressed her hand against the glass and it slid upon without much more prompting. She let out a gasp but then shook her shoulders out to release some tension and anxiety. She could do this. Jackie stepped one hesitant sneaker clad foot out when a voice to her left invaded the silence.

"If you'll please follow me to my leader to concret this surrender." She nearly jumped out of her shoes and drop kicked the unknown entity. She steadied herself and took a breath as she gazed over and saw a tall lizard guy who was already moving to step out the room.

It's cool, remember your training… Her thoughts wandered to Marco, but feeling troubled at the thought of him, she shoved him out. For now… She steeled her resolve again and moved to follow the alien enemy.

Toffee led her to the main bridge and moved out the way as Ludo swiveled in his chair to face her.

"Weeeellllcome~!" He droned, probably trying to sound menacing. But Jackie wasn't buying it, a disbelieving expression glued on her face.

"A kid?!" She let out, exasperated. This is a disaster! Why did I think this would work-?! She thought, running a hand through her hair. Ludo sputtered indignantly, and was trying to process words of offense but Toffee beat him to it.

"I'll let you know Master Ludo is no kid, and it is very disrespectful to regard him as such! That's no way to treat your new ruler." Toffee said, letting the last sentence slide out in a reptilian growl.

"That's right! I've taken over countless planets, many of them having been Mewni at the time. We are much more powerful than your current slackers and you'd do best to recognize!" He said, standing up and snapping from his head to his opposite hip down by his knee. Jackie regarded him cautiously. Then maybe this can work…

"Alright." She said, nodding. "Ok, well, we surrender to you. Now, I want to make a deal." Ludo looked on, again looking insulted.

"What is with you? You're not exactly in a position to make a deal!" Jackie barely suppressed her smirk.

"Don't worry, you'll like this one."

OoooooooOoooooooooOooooooooooO

Marco paced the base nervously. He didn't like how long it was taking for Jackie to somehow sneak them on board. What is they found out and already had to captured? But if they found out, then they'd blow up the Earth by now, right? What if they killed her but accepted the surrender? That's ridiculous. But… maybe they should send out another person? Just as he was about to start calling around for his team on the edge of hysteria, a crackling came from the comms.

Ferguson came to life and scrambled to slip on the headphones while putting up the volume on the speaker. First, no noise but crackling and perhaps a couple breaths were heard, then, "Marco? Are you the-re?" Jackie whispered in. Marco breathed a sigh of relief. There was no time for leisure catch up on her situation or how it went, she was most likely in a dangerous situation and the only thing they had time for were essentials. He picked up the out-transmitting communicator and breathed into the receiver, "Check, we read you, Jackie. Location of breach and time?" There was another pause.

"He's going to land for the night at 2100 hours. At that time, I'll leave an air lock open by the 3rd blaster. There shouldn't be any alerts or alarm since it'll be opened from the inside."

"Great. See you soon. Stay safe." He said back, and he waited a moment but then heard the cackling stop. Marco let his head dangled for a little while letting relief slip his breathing back into normal pattern. Star next to him placed her hand on his back and rubbed a small circle before he let his head up, peeking at her through his hair and let out a small smile. Star felt a heat crawl over her cheeks at the endearing sight but he pulled himself up to full height and turned away before he could notice.

"Alright guys, we have 2 hours to prep to board. Let's move, move, move!"

OoooooooooooOooooooooooooOooooooooooooO

The hours moved fast and soon the time to go was hovering closer like an impending pressure, seemingly crawling to an agonizing stop, creepily teasing them, trying to intimidate them. But Marco wouldn't let that get to him, and he snapped at everyone who seemed to try and let it get it them. They didn't seem to mind all that much, in fact it helped them remember their goal, become determined, shake off the nerves that seem to want to wrap them up in a tight squeeze.

As time grew closer, Star seemed a bit unnerved. And it seemed like the one person Marco wouldn't snap at. She finally, making sure her mother was not in the room, made her way over to Marco.

"Marco... for this mission, I want to come with." She said, taking a bracing breath and letting it out with her request. Marco looked her weird and then let out a breath, slowly shaking his head. He had enough stress trying to have this plan work out for everyone, and he was still worried about Jackie if she was still safe or hiding out, but he really didn't want to worry about Star as well.

"Star... I can't have you go. I don't have time to worry about your well being as a risk to the mission-"

"What? No, I'm not trying to go as some sort of spectator. I want to help fight."

"Star... if things go well, we won't have to fight. What we're trying to do, you don't have the training for."

"Marco, don't give me that, what is it, sneaking around? I've been sneaking around my mother my whole life-"

"You-you, Star, I just can't...!" Marco put his hands in his hair, but Star put a hand on his shoulder, getting him to calm down some.

"Marco... don't you trust me? I thought when we worked together in the forest... working on our fighting and fighting monsters together, we learned how to keep each other's back. Didn't I earn your trust, show you my skill enough to show you I can take care of myself and be of help?" She asked, and wiggled out her wand to emphasize. Marco gave her an appraising stare. He supposed he was being a little too over protective of her. But he just doesn't want her getting hurt, he didn't know what he'd do with himself if she got hurt because he brought her along, couldn't protect her.

He was worried out of his mind when he first saw her and she had that gash on her head.

"Star..." He started, and Star tensed up, feeling like he was about to reject her again. "... Yea, ok. You can come." Star let out a breath she was holding.

"Oh, phew! I thought I'd have to sneak about and follow you again. Geez, it was almost worse than trying to talk to my mother!"

"Really?" A regal voice chimed behind Star. Star froze then a bored look came over her.

"My mother's right behind me, isn't she?" She intoned, deadpanned.

"Don't worry, I have been here the whole time, just outside the room." She commented, coming closer, letting her dress drift around her as though she were floating. Star blanched.

"Er... so you heard... all of it- MOM PLEASE, LET ME GO!" Star begged, throwing herself down on her knees in front of the woman. The mother sighed and looked up at Marco, and he tensed up at her stare, feeling a like he was caught in an act.

"I am not in charge of this operation, so, unfortunately, unlike back on Mewni, I have no say in whether you go or not. But, I do believe, Marco should know what letting you go entails. I won't let Star go without me, there is no if ands or buts about this, non-negotiable." The queen said.

"What?! Mooom, you don't trust me either? "Star crooned.

"No, It's just..." She put a finger up to her lip in hesitant thought. "There was something about this ship... very familiar, I can't shake this feeling. I think if you go, I should go and maybe I won't feel as... weird about it. But for now, I feel I need to go." She nodded. Star stood up next to Marco.

"Wow, so I can go and you won't be breathing down my neck?" Star asked, giving a point in her direction. Moon sighed.

"No... Star." She let out.

"Whoo, great, Marco, I promise, I'll be good." She cheered, turning to her friend to see him giving her a weird look. "What?"

"Your mom will have to go if you go..." He muttered, rubbing his chin, obviously reconsidering.

"No, Marco, nooooooo-!" She cried.

"No, don't worry, if I go, I'll stay by the exit... or some." The Queen muttered.

"What?! Or some?!" Marco asked.

"Well, it depends on the feeing I get when I get there, if I feel the need to explore out to quench my weird feelings, I'll go. Consider it that I'm going with a different mission in mind."

Marco put a hand to his head and Star stamped her feet.

"Mom, no, don't put it like that, you'll make it sound like a bad deal!"

"How can I be sure your side mission won't put our mission in jeprody?"

"Marco, I don't know what to tell you. But my intuition just tells me... I have to go and it... won't be a problem to your mission, Its a feeling."

Marco gave her a flat look while Star looked on nervously at his face, waiting for something to give.

"Ugggh, Fine."

"Yay!" Star cheered while Moon let her eyes slip closed. His agreeing really helped put some of her anxiety at ease. She really felt like something was wrong with this situation. She had to be there.

OoooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooOoooooooooooO

Marco watched from the dugout as the ship eased its blasters to land in the large and open savannah. He checked the time and it was almost 9 as Jackie said he'd land, now Marco just needed to make sure everything was quiet and safe to start heading to area. Star came soon after the ship was completely grounded and settled next to Marco as he watched out on the plains, waiting for 9 o clock.

"So... how are you feeling?" Star asked after a couple moments of quiet. Marco didn't reply as he gave it a lot of thought.

"I'm... surprisingly calm. And ready too. I'm ready to do this." Marco said, then turned his head to smile at Star. Star was seating with her back away from the ship, but she looked over to him as well.

"That's good... It's 9." Star gave him a small lopesided smile and Marco smile back, feeling unprecedented happiness at Star's presence. He felt calm before, but now he aslo feels reassured with Star by his side.

"Star... I'm happy you're coming with." He said with an earnest smile. Star blushed, looking at his honest face and looked away, brushing off the butterflies in her stomach.

"Finally you understand my worth. C'mon. Let's go."

"Right." He stood up with her and started heading out to meet up with the rest of his team.

Marco's team of Star, Janna, Jeremy, Justin, The cheerleaders and Moon started on their way toward the ship, using the darkness as their cover. Marco leaned up against the ship, panting slightly at having ran the distance from the base to the ship and began counting the blaster, twice to make sure the blaster was the right one. The door was exactly where Jackie said it would be, slightly ajar. Marco let out a steeling breath and looked back at his team and made a gesture for them to be quiet and follow him slowly. If there was a trap set up, they could get away.

He moved in and slowly opened the door but only saw a dimly lit long hallway. There was no one positioned there, no one near by, not even Jackie. That made Marco nervous, shouldn't she rendezvous with them? Or maybe she can't because she had to hide out? But that didn't make any sense, then how did she open the door? Theses people would've noticed that a door by the blasters was open right? She had to have opened it after they landed.

"What's the problem, broad face?" Jeremy whispered. Justin smacked him over the head.

"Shush, man, If Marco's waiting, there's a reason. Let him work." He scolded. Marco let out a breath. He didn't know if this was a trap but he couldn't just back down from a probable trap. It didn't stop them before. They'll over come whatever the enemy tries to snare them in.

"Ok. Move in."

"I'm staying here." Moon piped up after they were all in. She didn't really feel the insistent urge to check out and calm her thoughts as she entered. Marco looked back at her but gave her a determined nod. "Come back safe." Moon continued, looking at Star this time. Star nodded, keeping by Marco's side. They moved on further into the hallway before Moon could no longer see them.

She sighed and leaned against the wall door, lifting an elegant hand to wipe at her forehead when that intuition came back. There was something urging her to go... find out what is up to this place. She got up and looked suspiciously to the left where a hallway could barely be made out in the darkness, unseen by the others. She daintily bit her lip but swallowed her doubt in order to sate her feelings. She moved into the darkness.

Marco couldn't say he wasn't nervous. Every corner they turned and every junction they come across, no guards, no nothing. He may have just not have been able to recognize the cameras they could have set up, thus allowing the enemy to know their locations and move to avoid them. That would mean they are already aware of their intrusion. That would mean this really is a trap!

"Marco."

Marco was pulled out of his thoughts by Star's soft probing.

"You ok?" She asked softly as they ran along the hall.

"Er, yea. It's just a little weird that there's no one here..." Marco said, stopping to look around a corner. Still no one! It unnerved him.

"Well, why did Ludo land? Maybe because they're all going to sleep? Or maybe they left the ship to stake their claim over Earth since Jackie did go under the pretense to surrender.

"But they wouldn't leave their ship unarmed... right?" He asked. Star gave him a small reassuring smile.

"It'll be fine, we just need to do what we need to do and get out, even better if we never run into them. So even if they set up a trap somewhere, it won't work if we leave first!" She said cheekily by the end. Marco chuckled at that.

"That true." He turned back to see the rest of the group successfully caught up and was waiting for him to continue. "Ok, we're at location C to continue on to destination Alpha. Jeremy, you got the USB, right?" He asked. Jeremy was caught slightly off guard and fumbled to pull it out quickly.

"Er, yea! Yea, right here." He said, holding up the sleek, tarnished drive. Marco nodded.

"Ok, Me, Justin and Star will stand guard while the cheerleaders go in with Jeremy in case there's any trouble." They all nodded back their understandings then eased around the corner where a door was immediately to their left. Jeremy kneeled down in front of the electronic door while the rest of the group covered him, glancing in all directions in case guards decided to do their jobs all of a sudden. He broke in promptly by hacking the lock and moved in swiftly like an eel and the girls followed him, leaving the other three outside.

"Wow, this is going well!" Star said, gripping the wand to her chest. Marco looked left and right, surveying the halls.

"I still don't like it..." Marco commented.

"Don't worry man, 3 more locations to go and then these people's ship will be useless to them and we'll be on equal grounds in fighting, plus the whole Mewni army to help." Justin commented. He slapped Marco on the back and he choked back a pained yell. "Without any technology to keep in touch, they'll be a jumbled mess easy to take down.

"Yea... true..." Marco mumbled, unable to shake the uneasy feelings.

"Marco!" Jeremy's urgent voice rang out from behind the door, and Marco swiftly turned and entered the room, by Jeremy's side in a heartbeat.

"Look!" He said, feeling Marco's presence upon him, and pointed to a screen that looked like a video was glitching into a 1 second loop, and in that loop Marco could see security footage catching Jackie. Being lead by two large soldiers. Through large grand doors.

Prisoner.

"Jackie! She did get captured! When was this?!" Marco cried out, feeling slightly panicked, Star and Justin having come in behind Marco. He looked at the time stamp to see it wasn't long after 9 pm. That may have been when they were even still trying to reach the ship across the savannah! So she got caught opening the door. But then why aren't there more guards? Or... Did she cover for them, saying she was trying to escape and they forgot that the door was open? That didn't make sense, then why are the hall empty?! He didn't like this-!

"Marco, breath!" Star shouted, taking his shoulders and shaking him slightly. Marco released the breath he didn't realize he was holding and he did find it easier to think now that he was breathing.

All that didn't matter, they just needed to find her first.

"Where is this?" Marco said once he's recovered, shaking Star off and returning to the screen. Star retracted her hands to her chest, feeling slightly hurt at the amount of attention he was giving Jackie, but she knew it was stupid, she was her childhood friend... But then she couldn't help but to think of when all this is over... What will Marco choose.

Jeremy looked at the hallway layout and the door then pulled out the map of the ship from his back pocket. He paled slightly before turning his green eyes onto Marco.

"This looks like... The main cockpit." Jeremy squeaked out. "She would be with the leader of the enemies."

Marco clenched his fists at his side, and then suddenly feeling Star's presence at his side, remembered to breath.

"That's fine, we'll need to go get her before we move on."

"Marco, that's stupid! We should do our mission first and then go get the girl! If we go first, they'll know we're here!" Jeremy scolded.

"But we don't know what they're doing to her right now! How long has it been, 10 minut-"

"That's too short to be worried right now!"

"I don't want to leave her in their hands any longer and let them have the chance to do anything!"

"Maaarco, you're being a buuuttt-!"

"C'mon, man, calling names is no way to argue." Justin scolded. One of the cheerleaders cleared her thoughts and the intense gazes fell on her.

"What if we split up and catch two birds with one stone?" Sabrina asked in a timid voice. Marco and Jeremy blinked at her before looking back at each other.

"Yea, I guess."

"That works, yea..."

"Ok, so we'll stay with Jeremy as guard like appointed, and you three go save Jackie. Ok?" Sabrina continued, clasping her hands together, happy to be of assistance. Marco gave her an approving smile.

"Yea, thanks. You really gave a calm solution in a tense situation. Good job. Let's move out guys." Marco said, turning away and moving out the door. Star gave smiles and thumbs up to the 4 left in the room and left behind Justin.

"See ya..." Jeremy mumbled. He gave a start then ran out the door quickly to catch them.

"Wait!" They turned around and suddenly Jeremy was super embarrassed. Why'd he run after them like that? "B-be... be careful..." He muttered, blushing and head downcast. Marco smirked at him.

"Yea, thanks. You too! And don't get caught, or else I'll have to go save you too!"

"Idiot! I should be saying that to you, your the one going straight to the head of the enemies!"

"Yea, ok." Marco laughed, turning off and running down the hall flanked by Justin and Star. Jeremy scoffed and returned back into the room only to be met by knowing smiles. His blush came back and he snapped at them, "What!?"

"Oh, nothing!" Sabrina called out.

"It was just sweet how you cared." Chantelle commented as well.

"Shut up, I didn't- I wasn't concerned, he was just- whatever!" He cussed, throwing his hands up in the air and returning to his work.

"Oh yea, how long does this take?" A cheerleader asked, looking over his shoulder.

"It takes about 20 minutes, cause their technology is different then ours and It has to effect the whole system in this sector... this could take a while, but as long as we stay out of sight and keep a low profile, they won't notice anything's wrong until it's too late." Jeremy commented, a proud smirk growing on his face as he worked.

"Mh!" They intoned, then fanned out at the door to stand guard.

Seriously, you stupid captain... be careful... Jeremy thought as he worked with the computer, that looping video a reminder of Marco's dangerous mission.

OooooooooooooooooooOOooooooooooooOOOooooooo

Marco pressed his back against the wall, feeling his heart beating against his ribcage. The main bridge was just around the corner, at the end of the hall. Marco knew, he already peaked from his position and saw it looked exactly how it did in the video. That's definiately where they brought Jackie.

"Alright." He said, fixing his fierce gaze onto his two teammates. "We're going to go in as quietly as we can. If we go in unnoticed, we go along the wall to the nearest cover and make out way to try and free Jackie secretly. If we are noticed as soon as we walk in, then..." He lugged the thin and long Meni weapon from his back over to his front. "... Consider this a frontal assault."

Star nodded, holding her wand at the ready and Justin brought his weapon to the front as well.

"Roger." He curtly said. Marco nodded, nodding his head back around the corner before moving forward towards the door. Star moved in step with him.

I want to prove to Marco all that time we spent fighting together on Mewni wasn't some fluke... I can be of use to him... I am really good as a partner! She thought to herself as they closed in on the main room. They stopped right in front of the massive doors and each gave a nod to each other showing they were ready to head in and he eased the door open.

He looked in and saw it was dimly lit, like the first hallway they entered when boarding the ship. He couldn't see much, but that meant the light he was letting in from the hallway was more noticeable. But were they even still here? He had to at least scope the place out and they were ready to fight if need be. So he motioned to the other to head in but the stick to the walls and he began moving along the walls himself. He was halfway in when he heard a grunt. Then-

"No! It's a trap!"

"Huh?!" Marco cried out. Moon-?! He barely had time to think when the lights were turned on, flooding his senses and blinding him for a moment. "Argh!" He cried out.

"Hahaha, you fell right into my trap! This is perfect, exactly how my little birdy said it would!" A scraggily voice cried out while Marco held his hand up to shield from the light. He heard a loud noise above him and he dived to the left to move out the way and as expected there was a loud crashing where just stood. He came out of his roll and looked back at where he was.

His eyes widened.

Star!

She was caught under the cage by herself as Justin also had the instinct to move out the way once the dropping sound was upon them.

"Star!" His voice twinned with someone else and he looked up to his left to see Moon Butterfly in a cage up in the air by the front of the room. His eyes were then drawn to the ground at the front of the room where a tall and short lizard duo was standing with a nervous looking Jackie standing by them.

"J-Jackie!" Marco yelled out.

"Don't move!" The short lizard one shouted just as Marco stood to make a move. He brought his weapon around to aim it at them, and a loading sound to his right let him know Justin was trained on the other one too.

"Marco, is this how your officers act, you have bad disciplinary!" Moon shouted from her prison, that was actually being lowered to the ground now. Marco allowed her a fleeting glance before he focused back on his targets.

"What are you talking about? Jackie! Get away from them, don't worry, we'll cover you." Marco barked out. The small one let out a demeaning laugh while Jackie looked away from his stare guiltily.

"Oh! Oh, goodness, he actually still thinks you're with him! Too rich!"

"Jackie, what's going on!"

"Marco, get it through your head, she's betrayed you!" Moon yelled out, her cage already grounded. Marco's eyes widened in disbelief before returning to a glare.

"Stop spouting stuff off, Butterfly! Jackie!" He snapped, her name coming out sharp, directing her to make eye contact. "Explain!" There was no room for negotiation in his order.

"Marco..." She started off weakly, rubbing her arm slightly, then resolution filled her eyes. "It's over. I made a deal with Ludo and them. We hand them over the Butterflies and they let Earth go free." She said.

"What...?" Marco said, disbelief slacking his limbs as he lowered the gun slightly.

"M-marco...!" Star let out in a shaky voice.

"Jackie, you can't be serious, right?!" She nodded.

"I am."

"Yes, and it all went so nicely, the trap we set up. Grab them and take away their weapons." Ludo commanded. Justin turned his weapon on the solider nearing him that seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. Marco's weapon had already slipped down to the point where it pointed down towards the ground.

"Marco?" Star asked, worrying. For both herself and for Marco who seemed to be breaking down.

"Marco, please understand-" Jackie started, making a step forward.

"Yes, grab that one too, please Toffee." Ludo said, flippantly, a waving hand in Jackie's direction. Jackie yelled out a shout as Toffee grabbed her from behind before she could even react. Marco finally responded and lashed out just before a guard grabbed him from behind. His weapon was back in the air and trained on Toffee and Jackie.

"Let her go!" He growled out.

"What- What's going on?!" Jackie yelled out, directing her question at Ludo. He gave her a sly smile.

"Oh, did I never tell you? I was never going to let Earth go! You are all my prisoners now. Consider this a double cross, but thanks for the Butterflies!" He crooned. Jackie had shock over her face before it transformed into rage.

"What?!"

"Let her go!" Marco cried out again, giving the weapon a point in their direction.

"Drop the weapon or I'll kill her." Toffee commented calmly and Jackie tensed in his arms. She spent enough time with these guys to know he was serious.

"Marco!" Jackie cried out, cringing when how scared she was slipped into her voice. "Give up..." She let out weakly. Marco's hand shook slightly before he steadied them and dropped his weapon at his side. The solders behind him grabbed the weapon then secured their hands on his shoulders.

"Put them in the cage with Moon." Marco looked over to see Justin was de-armed as well, having given up after Marco did.

"No! Marco, no, I won't let them win like this!" Star shouted, and pulled out her wand, ready to blast at the cage.

"Star, nooo!" Moon cried out. Ludo let out a gasping cry.

"I can't believe it..." He said, softly, and made his way toward her cage.

"Stay away from me!" She said, and started up her wand. "Magical color-!" The cage around her glowed along with her wand and then she felt electric dance across her skin and she felt herself disconnect with consciousness. She collapsed to the ground, the wand rolling just within Ludo's reach.

"Star!" Moon cried out.

"Star!" Marco yelled, resisting against the solders to reach Star, but he was held back. He calmed down once he heard her groaning, and started getting up.

"What-... what was that...?" She asked, holding herself up.

"Star, are you ok?" Marco asked, as he was placed in the cage with Moon and Justin. The door was locked behind him.

"I'm fine." She growled, glaring at Ludo.

"For your info, that cage is synced with Magic, to let out equal voltage as much as it detects. Great for stopping attempts of escape." Ludo chuckled, walking himself to the front of the room once more where Toffee and Jackie were and climbed onto his throne type chair. "I can't believe how well this deal turned out for me! Even to the point where it includes things I couldn't even imagine accounting for! I never thought I'd get the Mewni wand as well as Star Butterfly! This is too good! Ah~ I'm on top of the world!" Ludo cheered happily. "I can't help but to thank you, Jackie bird."

"Shut up..." She grumbled.

"Who are you anyway! Why do you hate the Mewnies so much?" Star cried out.

"W-well, now Star..." The queen started out nervously, as if trying to steer the conversation away from that topic. Star's eyes widened.

"Were you from a planet that we took over? Did we bully you with magic like we did on Earth? I promise we're trying-!"

"Star! It's not that- definitely not that!" Her mother provided for her, although Jackie looked on as if seeing Star for the first time. Ludo allowed a deep chuckle to escape his lips, cackling and building up until its a sinister laughter filled with suspense.

"Star Butterfly... I am... your FATHER-!"

"NO! No, you stop right there, shut up, you are not." The Queen interrupted with curt waves of her wrists. Ludo looked insulted to have been interrupted while Star looked to be about to pass out.

"Mother, is that true?"

"No, Star I swear to you, you are in no way related to that slimy lizard. He wouldn't have even raised you anyway." Star looked better, more relieved at hearing that news. They looked at Ludo who seemed to be nodding along in confirmation to her claim.

"Yes, yea, I suppose, I would have just ate you." Star gasped again.

"You see Star, he wanted my first born child as proof of our allegiance, but I wasn't about to let that happen, so I ended it."

"THE POINT IS!..." Ludo shouted, waiting for side conversations to die down and have the lime light again. "You were promised to me as a child."

"You were never promised my child, LUDO!" The queen exclaimed, shaking her fist that would probably be doing more than just shaking if she was out of their predicament.

"You agreed to my planet's customs when we teamed up, Lady, and now, I plan on keeping all of your promises myself. Your empire and child is mine! I'm sure grown child is just as tasty as little child. Take them away!"

"NO!"

"Star!"

"Marco!" They shouted out in chaos as the minions began picking up their cells and moving them away. Marco swayed in trying to keep his upright position but ultimately fell forward and grabbed the bars to keep from colliding his head on the bars. He looked up and saw Star next to him in a similar position, closer than ever as they were being funneled out in the same exit. They locked eyes for a moment and reached out to intertwine their fingers. Star's eyes were shining and pleading and her mouth opened and closed in a hesitant attempt to say something, and Marco found himself wanting to say anything himself to comfort her, to let her know this was going to be ok and soon his mouth mimicked hers. Star didn't know how this would turn out, she didn't have her wand or powers and wouldn't know the next time she'd see Marco. Their hands were ripped away as Star's individual cell moved in the opposite direction.

"STAR!" He shouted, feeling his throat rash from the roar.

"Marco! Marco, I lo-!" She tried but was behind a sliding door before she could form the words. His hands slowly fell down, hanging limply over the end of the of his cell as a cold wash fell over his being. He felt numb and couldn't think. What was he suppose to do? What did he bring his team into?

OooooooooooooooOooooooooooOooooooooooo

The screen giving the only source of light in the small room showed the main room flood with lights then a cage crashing down on Star as Marco and Justin dived out the way and then they trained their weapons on enemies off the screen, before it looped again.

"Jeremy..." Sabrina hummed out in warning, watching the loop.

"Shut up. He knew what he was doing when he went. We each had our mission. We finish ours first." The young boy said, clacking away at the keys, but no matter what he told the girls or the façade he put on, the anxiety was making him shake slightly and he couldn't shake the bad feeling he had.

You're an idiot. He thought, only making him feel worse. But we finish first.

---

The dripping of the dungeon echoed in Marco's head as everything was blank to him. Justin had already stopped trying to snap him out of it, knowing he wouldn't until his fit is over.

Moon groaned into her hands.

"Oh, goodness, this is all my fault... Star was right. All the bad things we do only harbors up into a giant grudge against us, and we put ourselves in it by being so mean a heartless. If we weren't such... dictators, Star wouldn't be in this mess. This is... all my fault."

"Who is he?" Marco finally spoke, not really changing his expression or inflection of voice. "Ludo. Why is he...?" He left off expressively, generally meaning all he's done. The Queen lifted up a distressed and exhaughted face.

"Yes... I suppose I owe you an explanation. He's from when The empire was first starting."

OoooooooooOooooooooooOooooooooO

Jackie wiped up her tears, her hyperventilating finally stopping enough for her to even her breathing and sniff up the stray trails of boogers trying to slip past her nose. She feels so stupid. Why did she do this, why did she think this would work? Marco kept telling her, we don't know this enemy, we have way more experience with Mewnis, we'll know how they would react. But she just felt like this enemy was really after Mewnis, they didn't have any bad intentions with Earth or any of Mewni's colonies, but just trying to get ways to undermine and hurt the Mewnies. Like the rebels have been trying to do, but they were doing it on a larger scale, throughout the universe. If they really hated Mewnies as much as the Earthlings, they could work together with benefits for them both.

Jackie looked out of her cage with dull eyes, letting it roam aimlessly, the fight drained out of her, when it landed on her only warden and company in the dark lower brig.

"What's going to happen to us?" Jackie asked, her voice hoarse form crying so much. Hearing it just reminded and filled her of the regret, guilt, and stress she has. Toffee looked over at the girl apathetically before returning his neutral gaze onto a random spot.

"Ludo will be eating you one at a time. Although for our planet, we prefer small children or babies, it leaves less leftovers and quicker meals, as a ruler, Ludo can be as excessive as he wants. Plus, you guys are still young so you should taste fine. He'll probably just keep the old woman prisoner."

Jackie blanched at what he explained. They were going to be eaten? Who was firtst? Who went before her? Is anyone being eaten now? She was along here, so she had no idea what was going on with the others.

"T-toffee, wait, please! We've had a brief partnership, doesn't that count for something, can't you talk to your leader and get him to let everyone from Earth go? Or- or at least Marco...?" She said, her voice not nearly as steady as she would have liked it to be.

"No. There's no way he'd change his mind." Toffee said, but he finally let his gaze return to her with some consideration. "You offered to let this... Marco go. Who is he to you? Why at least him?"

Jackie raised her lowered gaze from when he had said it wouldn't change anything.

"He's my very best friend... He's... someone I l-... I love him..." Jackie choked out. "I'd do anything for him, which is why I betrayed him. I thought if I did something that would have turned out better for everyone at the end, he'd see why I had to do what I did and it would have been better, but I was a fool..." She cried again at the end and rubbed at her eyes to keep her tears at bay. Toffee sighed.

"I suppose I can relate in someway. I owe Ludo a lot myself. He's my master, my teacher and my best friend... and even if you are to die, I suppose I owe you at least the explanation why you find yourself in this situation now. I didn't always know Ludo, but when I met him, he was done wrong and he was very bitter."

OoOooooO

"It was a new Era of the Mewni empire. I was young and I wasn't even engaged to River yet. The hopes for the future of Mewni was to become the sole rulers of all the planets in the known universe, beyond if we could. As the heir, I had a lot of expectations and I suppose you could say I was eager to please. To the point where I drowned out my own conscious in order to make the powerful Mewni my parents wanted.

"On my coronation birthday ball, similar to the one we were having for Star before all this happened, I met a general from a small but productive planet with an efficient people, and we chatted all night. By the end, I already knew I wanted an alliance with this planet, to start our journey of conquering the galaxy. At the time, he was General Ludo.

"It went well, slow going at first, but with our planet's magic and his planet's defensive and advance technology, we had a steady rise, making colonies left and right. My parents dreams were slowly becoming a reality, and I delusionally thought it was mine, or at least refused to fight my pre-written destiny anymore. We were close to finishing off one solar system and were making plans to go into the next one, when I was summoned back home... they had found me suitor to join me in my conquest... River."

OoooooOooooO

"It was time for her arranged marriage so she left, requesting Ludo to continue the conquest without her. Just until she returned." Toffee said, rubbing the fabric of his sleeve, mindlessly fiddling with it. "Ludo knew what that meant... She would soon have a child. They've been working together for a while, so Ludo was looking to make this permanent. Once Moon returned from her marriage and they were on their way to the new solar system, Ludo did what was natural for him, what's customary on our planet."

Jackie leaned forward unconsciously. He twisted his head to look toward her.

"He asked for her first born as a sign of allegiance."

OooooooO

"You would imagine my surprise when he asked of me my first born! MY first born!" Moon got angry just thinking back to it again. "The nerve, my first born was to be my heir, and that piglet wanted it. And what's more, I learned later, it was for him to eat. Not to raise, or anything.

"Of course, I sent him packing. I barely needed him anymore, I had my new husband, new colonies, and solders to back me up on every planet that was mine. He was on the first escape pod on auto pilot back to his sorry little planet while I carried on to the next solar system to continue the Mewni empire."

OooooooO

"Ludo of course didn't ask before because she wasn't betrothed or preganant before, so without indication of a child, he wouldn't ask for a first born he wouldn't know would ever come. But now, they had worked years together, conquered planets in both their names, and their mark left throughout the stars, and she insisted he wasn't a factor, it was her colonies, he was barely an assistant. He was sent sailing back to his planet. That's where I met him.

"I won't deny, our planet is a little... naturally evil. So when he crashed in a crater near my home tribe and he emerged with such rage, vendetta and evil emitting from him... I admired him. The way he harbored it for years, crafted it and refined it into a perfect evil... I followed him and his ways and he taught me everything. He's still the most amazing person I've ever met, with cunning and craft that most evil dictators would envy after. But it wasn't all work with him... he's actually a little silly too..." Toffee couldn't help but chuckle and Jackie couldn't deny she saw that in him too, the moments she spent in that alliance.

"He'd get drunk some nights and confide in me secrets he wouldn't remember the next day. Try new technology only for it to blow up in his face. Truly, as time went on he became my best friend and I would do anything for him. As it came to be and Master Ludo's plan finally came into fruition not too long ago.

"Working and basically starting from the bottom up with the Mewnies, he obviously knew their mechanics inside and out. He was able to create counter measures for the magic attacks he knew of, and then he slowly started to undermine the empire."

OooooooO

"Of course I started to notice those planets that began to report in cases of unrest, rebellion and war. They began small, few and far in between on planets that we of little importance. Ludo had started on the insignificant planets to get momentum. I should've known, but I was too busy with bigger planet, bigger rebellions, you were just born and River was... well... anyway! I ignored it, never imagining it was Ludo. Once he started getting to bigger colonies, I started sending solders, but after a few weeks, they'd report in and say all is under control again, salute the empire, you know, swear their loyalty up and down so I wasn't suspicious. I never would have guessed it was Ludo this whole time, I didn't think... in my arrogance of a young queen, I thought being dismissed by me was humbling enough to rid of a non factor enemy! Now he has Star!" The queen placed her head in her hands feeling like crying again.

"I see... Marco hummed.

OooooooO

"Ludo now had the means to successfully undo the empire he helped build. It helped that any solders sent our way were able to be bribed to work for Ludo and keep the Queen off his doings. Now, he followed after the Queen's trail of conquering only to take it after her. He was determined to destroy the empire he helped and rebuild it in his own image, the image that the queen insisted Ludo didn't have in the alliance. It would be Ludo's empire. and by the time the Queen would have noticed, he would now be stronger than her to defeat her. And as you can see..." Toffee looked at the teen in the cage who was numbly looking off, who seemed more defeated at listening to the story. He was sitting with one knee up, holding up an arm, and leaning back with the other arm, by her cage as he spoke with her.

"...It worked." He began getting up, and felt a tug at his waist. He looked down at the girl once he was at his full height, but she looked not to have moved so he just turned off to stand in the corner of the room at attention as he was. Jackie worked hard to keep her face neutral, blank. Hopeless. But it was hard, her heart was beating too fast. She held fast the keys she snagged from Toffee's belt loop under her wrist away from sight.

Marco... I'm sorry... I'll make this right...

---

Ludo giggled giddily to himself as he held the wand, it glowed in warning, keeping it's pink appearance but giving an eerie green glow.

"I can't believe it... The crown jewel of the Mewni empire...! Now they are powerless and I am now the single most powerful dictators in this whole galaxy! I'll use this power to my will and make citizens fall before me! I just need to...!" He shook the wand a little before frustration entered his voice. "Learn how it works! Grrrr! Toffee!"

OoooO

Toffee looked down at a small beeping on his wrist and then looked at the girl in the cage.

"I'll be back." He felt the need to comment. After sharing a sort of intimate memory, he felt closer to her, even if she was doomed to die. He moved to the door and headed out.

Jackie forced herself to calm down and wait. She waited, counting her breath for 10 counts to make sure he was gone before she sprang into action, whipping the keys out and maneuvered her wrists to bend outside the bars and twist the key into the lock. It opened and Jackie slipped out, making sure to close the door behind her and locking it back. It might throw them off if they return and find she's gone but the door is still locked. It will be less likely that they think she has the keys if the doors still locked, and that she escaped some other way. They'll still know she's escaped and on the ship, but they won't think she'll go straight to the other prisoners if they don't suspect she has the key right away.

She snaked towards the door and peaked her head out, left and right, then she moved nimbly down the halls to where she knew the others would be. She wouldn't have infiltrated the enemy base without also memorizing the layout and important rooms of the ship. She slid up against the wall to the door, waiting a couple of beats to catch her breath in case she would need to fight guards once she entered. She used the keys she got from Toffee on the door and let herself in. She saw Marco, Jackie and the Queen in their cage, hanging a couple feet in the air.

"MARCO!" Jackie cried out, overjoyed that they were all fine.

"Jackie?!" Marco and Justin cried out, scrambling to the edge to look down at her.

"Hold on, I'll get you out of here!" Jackie assured, looking around for some sort of lever. Justin wooed out in joy but Marco just bit his lip. He was still a little bitter about what Jackie did, but he knew it wouldn't help their escape if he held it over her right now.

"Over there, I noticed they pushed a button or something before we were raised up." Marco pointed off to her left. Jackie looked up and nodded then moved off to her left to push the button. The cage began to descend.

"We need to find Star. She must be scared out of her mind." Marco said, watching as Jackie unlocked their locks and he jumped out quickly, going back to the door to secure their position while Justin helped the Queen down from there.

"They may have brought her to a higher room to be..." The Queen started, but couldn't fid the strength to finish her sentence.

"Don't worry, we have this under control, we'll save her and we'll all get out." Justin told her, helping her remain upright as she dealt with the possibility Star was being prepped to be eaten.

"But wait!" She cried out, gripping the front of his shirt desperately. "We can't leave the wand with that monster. It's too powerful, he'll only be a threat sooner rather than later again!"

Marco bit his lip as he listened to the conversation and they made their way over. That's true, but they can always deal with the wand after they get-!

"What time is it?" Marco asked, whipping his head in his comrades direction. Justin blinked before checking a small sun powered watch he kept in his pocket.

"It's nearly 10 o clock." Marco nodded, taking in the information.

"Ok, we'll start to head towards Star, Justin, I'll need you to head toward location delta." He said. Justin's eyes widened in realization then he nodded in resolve.

"Right!"

"Moon, you need to head back to where the exit is, we'll rendezvous with you as planned. We promise- I promise... we won't leave without Star." Marco stated, grabbing her shoulder with resolve. The Queen looked a little concerned, but then she remembered, she knew Marco. She'll trust him, as an ally. This is what this whole operation was. The cooperation of colony with mother planet, like Star would have wanted. The Queen nodded.

"I'll wait for you." She conceded. Marco nodded.

"Let's head out." He said, going out the door.

OoooooooO

Ludo hit the wall as the wand propelled him backwards from its force.

"Wow! It's got a kick, but I'm sure I'll get use to it and manage. Then I will have such great power, no one would be able to resist!" Ludo said deviously. Toffee smiled at his leader as the wand slowly was changing it's appearance to it's new master as Ludo got the hang of its power.

"That's great sir, I'm happy to help. I'll go on and get back to my post then." Toffee intoned, giving a respectable bow in his direction, then started turning away to leave.

"Wait, Toffee, I feel like celebrating. Won't you fetch and cook that Mewni princess for me? It's been years in the waiting, and I do believe I deserve it for all the work I put into all this." Ludo said, trotting back over to his seat then placing the wand on a pedestal with a pillow by him. Toffee frowned slightly, feeling like he should go back to the girl instead but bowed again nonetheless.

"Sir." He moved for the door. "I'll drop her off to the chef then head back to my post." Ludo barely paid him any mind as he laughed giddily to himself, probably making new plans for the future as he had accomplished his goal for now.

Toffee strode down the hall, not knowing there were eyes on him. Marco brought his head back from around the corner.

"We still don't know where Star is, and we're getting no where by wandering around aimlessly. I say we follow him." Marco told Jackie.

"No, there's no saying that he's headed her way."

"Do you have a better idea?" Marco asked with a raised eyebrow and Jackie's mouth just flopped open and closed. She refused to listen to Marco before, she suppose she should go along with him from now on.

"No. Let's go." She said. He nodded then they trailed down the hall just as he turned the corner out of sight. Marco slowed as he reached the corner to peak around inconspicuously. He saw just as the elevator doors closed.

"Ok, come on." Marco said and ran up to the elevator with Jackie behind him. He watched the numbers on the elevators climb, indicating it didn't go up even two floors. "Alright, lets hurry." He said, pressing the up button and it soon opened revealing an empty elevator space. They climbed in and pressed the 3rd floor. Marco impatiently waited as it went up, shifting from foot to foot slightly. Jackie studied him from the corner of her eye.

He must really care for her... It slightly hurt Jackie, but something also clicked in her. She knew it's be hard to admit but it was obvious and inevitable. The doors opened and they sprang into action, running forward. It was only one long hallway with one door at the end. Marco kicked it down, not even considering if it was unlocked.

Toffee gasped as he turned around and Star's eyes lit up.

"Marco!" She cried out. She was currently in the back corner of a pink cage as Toffee had the door open and trying to reach her. He snarled animalisticly, and closed the door again.

"Don't worry Star, we'll get you!" Marco growled, lowering himself to a fighting stance.

"I don't know how you got out, but you're going back in and I'm telling Ludo to put this place on lockdown." He lunged forward and Star lurched forward to grasp the bars and watch.

"CAREFUL MARCO!" She cried out. Marco ducked as Toffee's leg swung around and over his head. Marco stayed ducked and darted back away from his as Jackie moved in and tried to hit at his head but he moved back as well. Marco came sliding back in trying to scissor kick his ankels and Ludo jumped up only to be kicked onto his back by Jackie coming at him while he was in the air.

He grunted and flipped backwards to come back onto his feet. But soon he was occupied with blocking Jackie's martial arts while Marco went to Star's cage. There was a key hole but also a keypad, which is probably how Toffee opened it without his keys. He grabbed the bars to steady himself as he went to reach for Toffee's keys Jackie gave him when we almost fell over because the cage door swung open. He stared at it then glared at Star who looked a little sheepish.

"You never tried to see if the door was unlocked?" He griped.

"Sorry! I didn't think he'd be that dumb!"

"Come on!" He barked and turned and ran to the door, turning back to make sure Star made it out the door safely. "Jackie!" He called. Jackie looked over and ducked from a punch Toffee threw. She ran over, Toffee hot on her tail.

"You think you can get away?" Toffee growled. "Your in our ship!" He was cut off when the door slammed in his face, automated. He jumped back, avoiding the collision to the door.

"Your ship?" An annoying voice sounded out through the speaker. It chuckled rudely. "I'm sorry sir, but you've been overthrown. I've now rigged the whole place to be under my control. It's my ship now."

"Yea! Awesome, you sound so cool man!" Justin's voice rang out dimly in the back. A strangled noise came out and a slam.

"Justin, shut up! you ruined it!" Jeremy cried out.

"More intruders!" Toffee said to himself in realization, eyes wide. He went to the door and started trying to kick it down.

"Don't bother. Even if you were able to knock it down, I've got control of the elevator and I'd never let you down. Not in time anyway to warn your leader. And no one knows your in here, because I've isolated the speakers to this room so only you hear me. Oh! Wait, you idio- Haha, I'm gonna have to let you go. Have fun beating on a door." The voice cut off. Toffee gripped his hands in irritation. How could he let this happen.

"LUDO!" He cried out, banging on the door.

OooooooooO

Marco opened the elevator doors and let the girls in before slamming on the close button. He doesn't know why Toffee hadn't followed him yet. They were halfway from the 2nd floor to the 1st when it shuddered to a stop, and Marco felt a cold swear break out over him.

"W-what, why'd we stop?" Marco asked himself, pushing the buttons in a frenzy.

"Oh, stop your panicking idiot. I told you not to get caught." Jeremy's voice came out over the speaker and relief flooded him.

"Jeremy!" Marco cried out. "Is Justin-"

"Yea, he's fine, he's right here. I didn't want you going down to the first floor with no plan yet! Listen, our first plan to screw with the ship is going better than expected. We wanted it to run a virus through the system to make it go crazy and hopefully crash, but once I got it on the last computer and it seemed to link to the other infected computers and give me control. What's the plan now, I don't know exactly everything that happened with you guys, I only know you guys got caught."

"My wand! Ludo has it! We need it." Star said, clinging onto Marco's arm.

"Yea, your mom said that too. Its too powerful to leave in his hands. We go for that then we leave."

"Ok... Alright, I've got eyes... it's next to the guy. Oh geez, he looks like a grown baby man. What a shortie." Jeremy cackled at him. Marco smirked.

"Funny you should talk about sho-"

"Marco, you want my help or not?" Jeremy snapped, knowing what he was going to say next.

"Ok, here's the plan. You help us get the wand, but once we do, we all need to get out as soon as possible so the rest of the plan can go as planned. We don't want to give them any chance to escape." Marco said firmly.

"The rendezvous point, right?" Jeremy asked. "We're a little far from there. For that to work, I'm going to have to put the virus on auto drive to run it's course. They won't get control back, but neither will I. I can't say what will happen once I do that."

Marco nodded, taking that in, Star could see the gears turning.

"Ok, so then you watch us until we get the wand. Once we grab it and run, you activate the auto and run too. We'll meet up and get out the ship together." Marco devised and there was silence for a moment.

"A mad dash during an unpredictable break down? Sure." Jeremy said nonchalantly. Marco could practically hear the shrug in his voice. "I'll watch you guys and guide you so you have as little problems as possible. I'll change the cameras to go on loop so you aren't spotted by surveillance."

"Great. Thanks. Alright. Once we get down, where should we go?" Marco asked.

"OK, well you got some guards leading up to the main room but if you take the side hallway, you could get in before they even noticed you snuck past." Jeremy said, some clacking heard distantly.

"Great. When we leave, just ignore them and make a dash for the rendezvous. Anyway we can." Marco said, addressing the girls next to him now. They nodded.

"Alright. Let us down, Jeremy." Marco commanded. He heard the speaker cut off but the elevator rumbled back to life and the door dinged and let them out to the hallway they followed Toffee down.

"Let's go." Marco said lowly and followed the wall quickly moving towards their destination.

OooooooooooO

Ludo drummed his fingers impatiently. How long did it take to get a girl ready to be eaten? He didn't want to wait much longer and it was dampening his celebratory mood. Maybe he should call for Toffee again and tell him to tell the chef to hurry up. Once he finished eating and get a good night's rest, he'll properly take over this Earth Colony for himself tomorrow. He lazily looked over at his wand. Maybe he could fiddle with it some more? He giggled to himself, he couldn't resist and snatched it up, unaware of the hand that was slowly creeping for it. It zipped back in frustration.

"Ok.. let's see... I should write down some spells... what did I say earlier? Glob blast?" He mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Yes, I should definitely write this stuff down." He placed the wand back down and leaned over to the dash of the controls to pick up a pen and paper.

"Ok, glob blast... supreme! No, supreme blob glast- er I mean, royal blast of blob! Yes!" He giggled again. "I like it! Let's try it!" He stretched his hand out to grab the wand and felt a chill run through him when it didn't meet his hands. His head whipped in its direction only to see the pillow missing it's prize, then he whirled his head around the room to find out what possibly could be the problem and he saw the princess and Jackie and that dumb kid from before running towards the door. His eyes widened in surprise.

"No- They've escaped! Intruders! Toffee! they've got the wand!" Ludo cried out, pushing a bunch of buttons on the dash. A few solders ran in while others were heard trying to fight the kids. "We can't let them escape! Get this ship in the air. They won't be able to leave if we're thousands of feet in the air!" Ludo ordered and the solders ran to their positions in the cockpit.

They didn't notice yet as sparks flew off the dashes when they pressed certain controls.

Marco and Jackie hesitated in their run as the amount of guard tried to stop their advancement, but Star leaped in front of them and aimed it at the lot of them.

"Giant syrup tsunami!" She cried out, flood them out of the way and sticking them to the wall as the spell completed its course. "hurry up!" Star cried out, lights already started to flicking on and off, creating pockets of darkness in front of them. Up in the room Toffee was in, the door flew open in its sporadic act. Toffee, who was sitting against the door in defeat was caught off guard from the sudden movement, but then his eyes lit in understanding and resolve.

"LUDO!" He cried out, heading for the elevator, and hoping that even in this crazy event, it would still work long enough for him to ride down.

Marco turned a corner, nearing the rendezvous point, and almost punched the lights out of Jeremy when he suddenly turned the corner as well.

"GOSH, Marco, what the hell!" He cried out, face flush, but the others were behind him.

"Great, we're all together, c'mon it's this-... were you lost?" Marco asked. Jeremy blush deepened.

"Shut up! You said this way? Let's go already!" they ran down the hall together. They turned and saw Moon who seemed to be steadying herself against a wall, her face aghast.

"Mom!" Star cried out, puling ahead of the rest to collide in her in a hug.

"Star! Oh-! Marco, we have a problem!" Moon said, pointing towards the door they first entered the ship through. Marco threw the door open, and his face fell as he saw they were rapidly gaining distance from the ground, barely able to see the rebels and Mewni solders positioned on the savannah, the blasters irregularly turning on and off.

"Oh no... I didn't even feel us take off."

"This is bad, I don't wanna crash with this dumb ship!" Jeremy cried out. Star held Marco's hand and when he faced her, she gave him a look of resolution.

"No, we'll be fine. Mom." She said, turning towards her with a knowing look. Moon paled and shook her head.

"With all these people?!"

"It's fine! we just don't want to jump, ok? Anything to cushion the fall." Marco looked between Star and her mother as they exchanged, confused. Moon looked down but then back up with resolve.

"Alright." She said. Both her and Star stepped back from the group and the group stared back, curious. They slightly bowed forward before gorgeous purple wings sprouted out from their backs. The teens stared in awe, slack jawed, before Marco finally commented, "That'll work."

---

Ferguson aimed the magic Mewni plasma cannon up at the sparking ship as the team came out, clinging at the winged Mewnies, coming down at an alarming rate from the weight of the people, but it was better than plummeting to Earth.

"STOP! No, STOP, what did you do to my beautiful ship!" Ludo's loud speaker came on, relaying his voice in a loud distorting shout once he saw them escaping. Inside the hull of it, Ludo's soilders fled by the dozens to nearest escape pods, exits and hiding places as they lost establishment of the controls, scared of their fate and trying to flee the ship. Ludo clutched at the controls wildly looking around.

"How...! How could my plan have failed?! So close... I was so close to succeeding! this wasn't suppose to happen, this never would have happened if Mewni never changed and never worked with those humans!" A firm claw onto his shoulders and He swiveled his head around to see Toffee with a gentle and beseeching look.

"Please sir...! We have to go!" Ludo felt as thought that was losing, admitting defeat. That all was lost. But he knew everything would really be lost if he didn't move it.

"Let's go, Toffee!" He bit out, jumping off his command chair.

Marco clutched desperately to Star's waist as she descended on her Mewni wings and shouted when he believed he was within earshot of Ferguson and Alfonzo manning the cannon.

"Now! Shoot it now!" He yelled out. Ferguson nodded and looked into the cross hairs attached on the hull of the gun and blasted when it lined up with the floating ship in the sky, both of them knocked back by the force. Marco crashed into the ground with Star, Jackie, Jeremy and everyone else Star had managed to carry, rolling forward to cushion the blow. He caught balance as he came out of the tumble and turned his head to watch the missile sail to the large hulking ship that threatened to come crashing down on Earth.

It made contact, bursting some debris off, but then exploded in Magical essence, creating a transparent looking sphere concentrated where it connected then burst outward towards the ship, sending it off speedily out of Earth's atmosphere, no longer threatening the town below with it's bodily damage.

Marco looked up as he watched the ship go, no one seeing if Toffee or Ludo made it off. It seemed the whole world held their breath as everyone watched in silence as it went. Marco felt it well up inside him first, then finally in one, unified victorious voice, everyone around him present for the final battle cheered out their happiness. It was over, and they won. Marco turned toward Star, who was still slightly dazed but letting out squeals in excitement, and picked her up in a sweeping hug around in a circle. He barely put her down before he was onslaught with everyone on his team congratulating him on a job well done, how kick butt he was, and general cheers. He peaked up from a head ruffle he was currently being subjected to and his eyes fell on Jackie.

She wasn't too far from the group, but she stood off enough to seem out of the situation. She had her hands wrought together in anxiety and her face formed a soft unreadable expression as she looked on at Marco as though she wanted nothing more but to be over there with him in the celebration. Her hair was cascading down around her face framing it, the ocean green dye giving accent to her eyes, and the excess magic from the blast that threw the ship out of Earth's atmosphere rained down among her like a special effect. Marco's probably never seen her so beautiful since the invasion... and yet, this is probably the first time Marco didn't feel much from it. He almost felt numb, like his body wasn't letting him. He stepped forward to Jackie and noticed Star shifted next to him, like she made a move to follow him but then thought better of it and held back, and he also noticed Jackie's expression finally betrayed some emotion of regret before she looked down, hiding her expression from sight.

He finally stopped advancing when he was close enough that he could shuffle a foot out and touch the toes of her shoes. He didn't say anything at first, allowing the celebratory noises of everyone around him to help him focus on what he wants to say and remember its over now and to carefully choose his words. He opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off by Jackie.

"Marco, I'm really sorry... I just wanted to do what was right... or what I thought was right... at the time... I never meant for all this to happen." She said, finally turning her head up. Marco looked down onto her face... when did he get taller than her? Or so much taller that he had to look down? A lot have changed, Marco thought as he remembered all that happened when he finally got back to Earth. And when things change... they never go back to being the same. Marco finally saw how his lack of reply was making Jackie fidget with nervousness.

"I-I don't know what else to say." Marco gave a small smile at her as she brought her fingers together in nerves.

"You know, Jackie, you don't have to worry about that... You know, we went through some trouble from what... was going on with you..." Marco chuckled off awkwardly, trying to avoid talking directly what she did so maybe she didn't feel as bad or so she didn't think he was still mad about it. "But you know, you came through when it mattered most, so I can't really be mad at you. You made up for it, you plenty made up for it." Marco assured, giving an acknowledged pat on her shoulder.

Jackie looked up at him with mixed emotions, ranging from relieved to confused. It seemed as though she felt Marco was trying to say something important with some underlying meaning. He turned away, letting his hand slide off her shoulder, and faced Star, who was still in the same place he left her but her attention was arrested by Ferguson and Alfonzo avidly speaking on their skills of shooting that giant ship in the sky. He gave a soft smile as that familiar feeling filled his chest at the sight of her.

"Wait!" Jackie finally called out after having recovered from what Marco said. He stopped and looked back at Jackie who had made a half step forward and held a hesitant hand out. At seeing his attention back on her, she composed herself and gathered her body back into standing.

"Well-well... we finally defeated Ludo's army… and the Mewnies aren't a threat anymore... What are you going to do now?" Jackie asked. Marco gave her a fleeting look then returned his gaze to Star.

"I..." He started and then Star finally gave a glance in his direction and caught his eye. Her eyes widened and she darted her eyes around embarrassed before settling back on Marco's eyes and gave him a small blushing smile before turning back to Alfonzo who just imitated the boom of the torpedo. Marco gave a small smile and Jackie could read him like an open book.

"Ok... I get it..." Jackie commented as it seemed Marco forgot he was asked a question, He turned back to her, slightly embarrassed at the fact he left the conversation hanging too long. She just another smile in response.

"I get it." she repeated. Marco held her sad gaze before she finally nodded and turned away. Marco felt a tugging in his chest, feeling like he lost something really important and familiar. But that was ok... he'd be ok... because he had-

"MARCO!" Moon cried out happily as she made her way over from celebrating with her own close comrades. Marco jolted out of his thoughts and turned towards her, but Star's attention was caught by her mother and she began making her way over.

"I have nothing but thanks to you!" She cheered, grabbing his cheeks and pulling on them.

"AaahhaaAAh!" He cried out as she pulled his face around.

"Mother!" Star said scolding although she only looked on at Marco concerned. The Queen let go with a plop and Marco drew back, hands on his cheeks and Star at his elbow.

"Aherm, well, back to business. I think this trip and battle have been very enlightening." She said with resolve. "I clearly never valued any colony as anything other that property... maybe if I would have invested more time into the colonies, Mewni would be a much more prosperous and powerful empire..." Here she looked at Star. "So, I know when Star becomes Queen, she'll certainly lead the way of Mewni into something extraordinary..." She said, voice thick with affection. Star smiled back fondly, eyes shining.

"Thank you Mom..."

"Well, yes, now that this is all over, I've got to get things a little back into order so not everything falls on my little girl. First thing's first, we'll need each colony to have a representative to speak on the colony's behalf as we work closely with each other for best interest." She gestured to Marco with her hand. "I believe you would be the representative for Earth as we move forward to work together?"

At this both Marco and Star stiffened slightly and eyes widened ever so slightly, something not unnoticed by the Queen. Her eyebrows drew together suspiciously.

"Unless, there's some sort of problem?"

Marco and Star looked at each other and turned back to the Queen as Star spoke.

"W-well... if Marco was Earth's representative... wouldn't that mean he'd stay on Earth?" The Queen blinked then let her eyebrow arch elegantly.

"Well, I suppose the people of Earth would want their representative on Earth to know the situation and for general relations... why? What is the matter?"

Marco and Star again exchanged looks and it was Marco who spoke this time, quietly with determination that spoke volumes.

"I'm Star's personal knight. I don't plan on leaving her side." Star brimmed with happiness next to him, as she tightened her grip she had on his forearm. The Queen barely noticed however as she only blinked again.

"Huh?" She asked blank. "But I thought all you've wanted to do was return to Earth since you got to Mewni! You're free now, but your volunteering to-!" She clamped her mouth shut as she finally took in the looks in the young ones eyes that seemed to mirror each other's although they were not looking at each other. They just felt the same... and the Queen got it. She gave a small smile as she allowed her head to incline forward slightly.

"Alright... However, Earth still needs a representative. Would you at least pick someone for that, Marco?" she asked, finally lifting her eyes up to his. Marco nodded and let his eyes wander away from Moon's for it only to land on someone not too far behind her. He let a small smile light his face.

"Jackie's my number one choice."

"Jackie? But she had betrayed us up on the ship. Why would she be a good representative?"

"A representative is suppose to have the best interests of the people it's representing, and Jackie only betrayed us because she had the best intentions. But yea, she'll need help, someone like an advisor." At this he smirked as he watched as Janna galloped up to Jackie and tackle her in a hug. "She's got that too."

They've always been my first choices. That won't change.

The Queen took in his expression and nodded with a solemn expression. "I'll trust you. I asked you for a reason after all..." Marco nodded as the Queen finally took her leave.

Marco turned with Star by his side and he began leisurely strolling down along the grass, just taking in the scenery of the savannah and sky.

"Sooo..." Star sang out softly after a few relaxing moments.

"Soooo?" Marco chuckled.

"What now?" She asked, leaning her head forward to peak at his expression. He smiled at her and suddenly couldn't wait for whatever was next, as long as she was in the picture.

"We'll see."

---

Thank you so much for reading and hope this story was pleasing to you. Remember if you all have ideas for the epilogue, feel free to express it, I'll try to work with it. Until next time!

"We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands."
― Carl Sagan