"Has tonight been too much for you, Diaz?"

Once the wall gave away, Crona slowly walked out, shoving the bunny out of their path. "Looks like your poor little nerd stomach finally gave in to the night's events. Or did one of those snakes take a bite out of you?" Their dark eyes roamed over to the kicked aside snake, not really examining the full extent of what was in front of them.

"One little snake?" they said with a scoff. "You're such a bitch, Diaz. I'll bet Jenny here, or whatever her name is, has more balls than you!"

"That's true in a metaphorical way." Janna said, with her arms crossed. She tried to jest and she didn't see the view that caused Marco to vomit. When she turned around, she gagged, feeling her stomach churn, but didn't vomit. Nevertheless, she took a step backwards.

However, Marco wasn't in the mood for jokes. He walked to not-Crona-but-Ragnarok-at-the-moment and punched him in the face, with all strength his body could allow, to the point of making his fist hurt.

Then, he grabbed him by the collar of his clothes and pressed him against the wall and said, glaring at him, "You will help me to get Star back before Medusa does anything to her."

Ragnarok's eyes widened as Marco's fist met with his face. For the briefest of seconds, his eyes flashed from bright blue to dark before they returned their brighter hue and flared with anger. He snarled before grabbing Marco by the front of his shirt and kicking him in the stomach.

"Who do you think you are, Wacko Diaz?! I've throttled creeps twice your size before! Now why the hell would I help out that blonde freak?! What's in it for me, huh?"

Ragnarok winced a bit before tapping the side of his head. "You better shut up in there, loser. You gave me control of the body and I don't intend to give it back anytime soon!"

Marco groaned when Ragnarok hit him in the stomach and stepped back. Taking advantage he was in conflict with his inner personality, he stomped Ragnarok in the knee and then hit him again with a kick to his chest, using the karate techniques he learned.

"Nothing," he said, while he pressed Ragnarok against the wall, using his feet to pin his legs and his left arm to pin his body, "Absolutely nothing." Marco glared deeply at him, to the point of tears rolling down his face.

"Marco…" Janna said, with a hand over her mouth. She had never seen Marco as angry as that.

"You have no one to care of," he said, his condemnatory tone increasing, "You're just your psycho mom's attack dog. You could never understand…" he gulped, swallowing his pride, "…please…"

Unfortunately, Ragnarok's dark heart wasn't moved. Despite the fact that their other personality was screaming and crying for release, the fury from Marco's words and actions kept the main host alive and angry.

Ragnarok took his free hands and grabbed the boy around the neck, cutting off his air supply. "You really think that's smart, Wacko? Making fun of the 'attack dog' as you put it? Now not only will I not help you, I'm going to fuckin' kill you!" He grabbed on to the spot on Marco's face that had been bitten by one of his mother's snake and gave it a sharp tug.

"Aaargghhh!" Marco grunted, trying to counter his pain while Ragnarok pressed the sore spot, right on the small hole caused by the bites. He felt his air supply being cut. Since Ragnarok was using his both hands to try to strangle him, Marco made a palm and shoved his finger against Ragnarok's own throat, a standard procedure of self-defense.

"I wasn't even making fun of you! Has Medusa ever been kind to you?" Marco said, his voice sounded more unhinged, while grabbing Ragnarok by the arm and tossing him over his own shoulder, against the ground, using a standard karate immobilization technique. "…" there was something wrong with Marco's eyes, it felt like a purple aura in his pupils, "You are not the only monster here."

Marco's anger was so intense he was willing to tap into a power he swore he'd never use. But, the fear and anger of losing Star made him consider…drastic measures.

Any friend of Marco would try to dissuade him…but the only friend available was Janna and she wouldn't waste the opportunity to go through the morally ambiguous path.

"Monster Arm! Monster Arm!" She chanted while pumping her fists up and down, with an eager look in her face. Meanwhile Solid Bunny decided that if they didn't solve the conflict in the next round, he'd use a paralyzing bomb to calm down them both.

Ragnarok groaned in pain from Marco's attack. A wicked grin spread across his face. It had been a long time since he had a victim fight back like this. It fed his bloodlust, making him crave more. "You talk….as if being a monster is a bad thing. It's much better than being a boring 'ol human!"

His dark eyes snapped up in Janna's direction, his grin stretching from ear to ear. "Geheh, I like you girlie! Why don't you come on over here and help me take this loser out? I'm sure I can get my mom to turn you into a snake or whatever if you help!"

"Eh, I'll pass," Janna said, dismissively waving her hand, but ending with a side glance, "Unless I can take her throne."

"I want to see you swallowing… those…words…" Marco said, unable to contain himself anymore. A dark aura surrounded him. He could hear the disdainful laugh of Monster Arm. He knew he was going to be back any day. And that day was going to be today…

Or would be today, since Solid Bunny threw a paralyzing grenade at them. The special grenade emitted a non-lethal but stingy shock that took anyone out of commission for a few moments that a professional, like Solid Bunny, could easily exploit.

"You had this coming, Marco." Janna said, while smirking at them being shocked.

The pink-haired teen's fingers were the first to regain mobility. The rest of the body soon followed, a loud gasp escaping it as it looked down at its hands.

The teen made a joyful noise as they reached up to touch their face. "I'm…I'm back! Yes! Thank you, strange bunny creature!" Remembering what had just occurred, Crona quickly leapt to their feet and scrambled over to the boy.

"Marco!" They leaned down and wrapped his arm around their neck to help support him. "Marco, I'm so sorry! About all of this! Especially letting Ragnarok hurt you like that…are you alright? Can you stand?"

Marco gasped for air, while Crona helped him get to his feet. He let go of them, shoving them off, but he looked at them and saw the sadistic, insane look was gone.

He refused to look at them and looked at his right arm instead. The sick cackle of Monster Arm echoed in his mind. He almost gave in to his most primal urges. He curled his right hand into a fist and wondered what Star would think of that…

"Hey, Marco," Janna said, while wrapping her arm around his right arm, "Now it's time to be a big boy," she approached her chest towards Marco's arm and purred, "You know I like big boys…"

While he didn't show any reaction to Janna's flirting, he had to admit her words were right.

"We need your help, Crona." He said, his pride not allowing him to look directly at their face.

Crona felt hurt by the obvious distrust Marco was displaying, but they couldn't blame him. They could of warned him far in advance what was going on, and they had been quite ready to hand him off to their mother for God only knew what. A thick wave of self-loathing began to overpower them, but they pushed it aside for now. They didn't have time for a pity-party. Marco was right! He needed their help!

"Y-Yes, of course!" Crona looked at Marco's monster arm warily, but didn't comment on it. They had no right to be uneasy around the boy after all they had put him through. "W-We have to rescue Star! We need to get her away from Medusa!" They bit their lower lip and looked back at the basement that was now in disarray. "But how are we going to get out of here? The basement door is still locked, and I believe there's a snake pit in the other direction!"

They looked down at the bunny who had miraculously returned them to the owner of their body. "Do you have any more of those exploding things? Maybe you can break the door down!"

At first Marco thought to be strange that Crona gave him a wary look. But when his eyes slid to the right, he gasped when he saw Monster Arm in the place where his arm was supposed to be. He didn't even notice how he let it go. It reminded him how he almost gave in to his urges.

He felt ashamed. At least its consciousness seemed dormant and thus waving his arm frantically he made it disappear.

"I could have had some fun it." Janna said, looking bored.

"Janna, now it's not the time." Marco grumbled, with his teeth clenched. "Let's go, Crona."

Meanwhile, Solid Bunny showed Crona an extra package of plastic explosive.

Crona actually clapped their hands in joy when the rabbit showed that it did indeed have a thing that exploded. "Excellent!" They eagerly pushed the bunny to the locked door at the top of the basement stairs.

"Um…I think it would be better if you were the one to do it. Ragnarok gets…loud when something deadly is put in his hands."

Although Solid Bunny nodded, he had no intention of handing such delicate material to anyone else. It needed a professional to operate it. Thus, without wasting time, he placed the explosive gel at the lock of the door and motioned to the others to keep their distances.

PAF!

The dull explosive sound indicated the lock was busted. Janna went forward to check it out, while Marco asked Crona, "Does Medusa have anything else in the store?"

Crona didn't pause to answer the boy and went in first. After the explosion, Solid Bunny's ears perked up. They could hear snakes coming to their direction and thus left them to fight the incoming snakes. Marco looked to Janna and they silently agreed they needed to be careful and walked behind Crona, who seemed to be eager to find Star. Dark eyes locked on to the door they knew less to Medusa's lab. They made a beeline for it, knocking down any furniture that got in their way. They fled down the stairs until they finally caught sight of their friend, still unconscious and strapped to the lab table.

A look of pure relief came across their face once they saw she was unharmed. So much so that they hadn't bothered to wonder where their mother was. They ran over to the girl in order to undo her bindings when-

Shing!

Crona made a strangled noise as they suddenly tasted blood. Their eyes shook as they looked down at the blade that was now embedded in their stomach. They turned their head to give their mother a look of disbelief before their eyes rolled back in their head. They collapsed to the floor.

Medusa's face was unmoving as she turned around to prepare for the other children she knew wouldn't be far behind.