CHAPTER NINE: Questions

I'm really cranking this out right now. I'm like on a roll these last few days, it's great.

Liliana Dragonshard: You'll just have to read, won't you? ;)

Rayfe: You'll get to see more of her in this chapter!

Lupus Boulevard: Well this isn't the finale yet. There's a couple more chapters.

Bigmike33321: Since Jackie got her mind wiped, she doesn't really interact with Star and Marco at all. And since Marco was only originally there to befriend Star, he never really noticed Jackie (also, he's falling slowly for Star, no matter how much he denies it)

Godzilla2915: Who is? I'm sorry, Fanfiction won't show the name for some reason. Also, that was my favorite part to write.

I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. This one goes out to the mashed potato haters of the world. You know who you are, you little shit.

The words"Everything you know has changed" remained furled up in the dirt, the dust slowly closing around it as the tent collapsed.

GENERAL POV

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!"

Marco shrank back against the wall of Toffee's house, his body shaking as the monster leered over him, his eyes a flaming red color that Marco had never seen before. "I…I had no choice!" he managed to get out, his voice cracking in terror. "Ferguson was hurt and no one else was getting him help!"

Toffee's hand shot out so fast that Marco barely saw it before it was clamped around his throat, lifting him completely off the ground. The teen gasped, tears springing to his eyes as he struggled to pry away Toffee's claws from his neck.

"I told you," Toffee hissed in his face, "never to enter that house."

Marco gasped for air, kicking his legs out against Toffee, but the monster didn't relent, bringing Marco even closer to his face. "Have you forgotten what you went there to do?" he demanded.

The boy managed to choke out a "No" and Toffee dropped him unceremoniously onto the floor, where Marco laid for a second, gagging and coughing as he tried to regain his ability to breathe. He looked up at Toffee with a surprising amount of hatred in his eyes. "Why do you even care about that house so much?" Marco rasped out, rubbing at the bruises that were already appearing on his skin.

Toffee sneered at him, kneeling and lifting Marco's chin up with one claw. "That," he breathed, "is none of your business. Just know that in one day's time, the perfect opportunity to destroy that brat of a princess will be upon us."

He yanked his finger away, tearing into Marco's skin and leaving a trail of blood to trickle down his neck.

"Do not disappoint me."

Marco waited until the reptile had vanished completely before finally breaking down into tears, wiping the blood from his skin and pulling his scissors out of his hoodie pocket. Something crinkled inside the pocket and Marco hesitated for a moment before reaching back in and pulling out a fortune cookie of all things. He hadn't put that in his pocket before, not that he could remember anyway, so there was obviously something important about it.

He glanced up to make sure that Toffee really was gone before cracking it open and tossing aside the cookie part, unfurling the fortune in his fingers.

See me. –The Seer

His breath hitched in his throat and Marco stuffed the fortune back into his jacket, clipping open a portal in the air almost immediately.

The Seer was not someone Marco ever wanted to mess with. She was creepy and soft spoken, but incredibly intelligent. He had only met her twice, each time when she had come over to perform some kind of "mental" test on him that Toffee insisted was to make sure he was growing up without reflecting on the trauma of his entire family dying.

Now, though, Marco knew that wasn't true and he couldn't wait to get there, his feet carrying him at a pace that he didn't typically run at towards her tent.

Or at least…the remains of it.

Marco screeched to a halt and stared down at the rubble that had been The Seer's tent, getting down on one knee to brush his fingers across the ripped up fabric and shattered crystal ball. As his skin caught on the edge of one of the tears, he narrowed his eyes and his lip curled back.

"Toffee."

"You're absolutely right, Marco."

He spun around, still kneeling in the dirt, to find the fortune teller standing behind him, her clawed hands tucked behind her back in a nonthreatening way and a deep brown colored scarf draped across her head, which Marco knew from experience was covered with dozens of tiny snakes, almost like Medusa. Unlike Medusa, though, all of The Seer's snakes were dead.

"What do you want?" he demanded, getting to his feet and brushing off his jeans.

He was a good foot taller than The Seer, but he still ducked his head at her intense gaze, shivering a little when a gentle clawed hand caressed the fresh cut on his chin and wiped away more blood.

"I see Toffee hasn't been going easy on you," she murmured sympathetically, her voice crawling down his back like nails on a chalkboard. "I'm sorry this happened."

He shoved her hand away in disgust, finding the courage to look her in the eyes. "This…this is your fault?"

"No," the monster snapped firmly, her eyes flashing dangerously and literally; they nearly blinded Marco, and he was forced to look away again.

She gestured him towards the remains of her tent, but when Marco turned around again it was whole, a single tent standing along the barren dirt road. He didn't ask, merely entered before her and sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

"We don't have much time," The Seer muttered, shutting the flaps of the tent and moving to sit across from Marco. "Toffee will come after me again."

Marco looked up at her and gave her a tiny smile. "Sorry. That's…probably my fault."

The Seer waved a dismissive hand at him and laced her fingers under her chin, narrowing her dark red eyes at him. "I expected it. Tell me, Marco….how much do you know?"

Marco swallowed and glanced down, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie. "I'm…I'm not a monster, am I?" he asked softly, too scared to look up.

There was silence for a long moment, and he realized that she wanted him to keep going. "I'm human, right?" he questioned, lifting his gaze ever so slightly. "I'm…I'm the Diaz's missing son."

"You are clever," The Seer murmured, a smile crinkling on her chapped lips. "Tell me Marco, how did you figure it out?"

Marco flinched. It was one thing to figure it out on his own, and another to have someone, especially The Seer, confirm it. "You know how I figured it out," he snapped, balling his hands into fists and pressing them to his forehead as he leaned on the table. "But…what do I do? Toffee wants to kill Star, and he thinks I still hate her and I…"

He gulped and ran his fingers shakily through his hair. "I don't," he whispered, barely loud enough for The Seer to hear him. "I don't hate her. I…I really, really like her. I don't want her to get hurt."

The Seer made a soft sound in the back of her throat and Marco looked up to find her running her hands over her crystal ball. "I understand," the woman murmured. "For now, Marco, I suggest you pretend to still follow Toffee's plans. Star will surprise you."

A smile flickered on Marco's face and he glanced away, startled when he realized that his cheeks were warm. "I doubt that," he countered quietly. "I don't think she could surprise me anymore."

The Seer clucked her tongue, a harsh, sandpaper chuckle spilling from her lips. "Oh no, she will. Trust me. But Marco, you have your own part to play in this. I can't tell you much, child, or it will alter the outcome too much, but when the time comes? You must focus on your strongest emotion."

Marco stared at her for a second, wrinkling his nose. "What…what do you mean?"

The Seer's head shot up and she glared towards the tent doors. "Toffee approaches. You must go. I will make sure he does not catch a glimpse of you through this," she promised, gesturing to her crystal ball. "What you do now will be all up to you, Marco, and Toffee must not stop you. Go."

Marco fumbled his scissors out of his pocket, slicing them through the air and glancing back once at The Seer. "Thanks," he said sincerely, before hopping through and closing the portal from the other side.

The Seer smiled grimly and tucked her crystal ball away into a drawer for safekeeping before sitting back and waiting for the fury that she knew Toffee was about to unleash.

Marco hesitated in the darkening twilight, his hand lifted with his fingers curled around each other to knock on Star's front door.

On his front door, he reminded himself.

He chewed his lip for a moment before finally getting up the nerve to rap his knuckles against the wood, feeling like it made a much louder sound than he had anticipated. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the door was swung open to reveal Star on the other side.

"Marco!" she squealed, yanking him inside by the wrist and kicking the door shut behind them. "What are you doing here?"

He sent a weak smile back at her, pulling his hand away from hers and rubbing the back of his neck. "I um…I needed to come over," he admitted softly. "There's something I wanted to do."

Star tilted her head, glancing curiously at him, and he saw the exact moment she spotted the bruises on his neck. "Woah, wait, what happened?" she asked in concern, reaching a hand up to run a finger over one of the larger bruises.

Marco flinched and took a step back, drawing away from her touch. "It uh…it's nothing," he assured her. "Can I…will you take me to see the baby's room? The…the one who went missing?"

Star shot him a confused look. "Sure?" she agreed slowly.

She led him up the stairs and into the bedroom, gesturing him inside and flipping on the light switch, making the star shaped night light in the corner shut off. Marco stared at it for a second, glancing between the light and Star before deciding that it's shape and Star's name had to be some strange coincidence.

"What did you want up here?" Star questioned, watching him as he stepped into the room and moved directly to the pictures on the wall. "Do you have a lead on who you think the baby is now?"

Marco snorted softly, plucking one of the photos off the wall and staring at it for a long time, his eyes tracing over the curve of the baby's face and chin, the maroon blanket tucked around his body so that he was swaddled protectively.

Safe. A feeling that Marco had never truly felt. At least, not until he had stepped into this home for the first time. The eerie feeling he had felt before, that drawing in? It was because he felt safe there, felt like nothing could hurt him. He knew that wasn't true, of course; Toffee would kill him if he knew that Marco had figured it out.

That Marco had figured out…he wasn't orphaned. None of his family was dead. They were right under his feet in the kitchen below him, and they had no clue.

"Marco?" Star interrupted his thoughts. "Did you…have an idea? Of who the baby is?"

Her hand landed on his shoulder gently and Marco swallowed hard, surprised to find that there was a lump in his throat and he was choking up. He turned back to Star, his eyes shining with tears, and held up the picture so that it was next to his face.

"Yeah," he managed to get out, listening to Star's sudden intake of breath as she saw the similarities between him and the child in the photo. "I'm pretty sure it's me."

"Do you understand me? You are not to harm him," Toffee demanded of the fly next to him. "Do not even wake him if you can manage it. He will fight if you do; he's become too attached to the Earthlings, and is much too close to realizing that he is one of them."

The fly nodded quickly and started to buzz off, but Toffee grabbed him by the wing before he could.

"If harm comes to him," Toffee warned at a low level, his voice trembling with anger, "that I myself do not cause, you will find that those little legs of yours are not a good substitute for wings."

The insect gulped and zoomed away rapidly, and Toffee sank back in his seat, lacing his fingers together under his chin and smiling thinly.

"You'll see why you should have listened to me, Marco," Toffee muttered under his breath, moving his hand to pick up a sharpened pencil and tap it on the table in front of him. "You'll understand when your precious princess sees just who you really are, and that'll be the last thing you'll ever see or hear from her."

With deadly accuracy, he pitched the pencil across the room, watching as it slammed point first into the photo on Ludo's office wall, quivering to a halt as it embedded itself into Ludo's beak.

Okaaaaayyyyy this was a fun one to write. Like so much fun. But not quite as fun as future ones. *evil grin*

Reviews are very welcome.