I do not own Star Vs. The Forces of Evil or Castlevania


Miss Heinous hummed merrily to herself as she tried to strap Rasticore, or rather his arm, into the baby seat in the back of the car she was currently living in. While she attempted this, Gemini was busy refueling the beat up automobile with a canister of gasoline. The vehicle had been sitting in the same desolate dimension filled with nothing but rocks for quite awhile now, but they had recently managed to buy some gas. He looked up from his task to shoot a concerned glance at Miss Heinous as she finally managed to secure the lizard arm in the baby seat.

"Um, milady? Are you certain this is wise?" Gemini asked as he set down the empty canister.

"What do you mean!?" Heinous shot back, sounding offended that he would ask. Her face then took on a rather unhinged look, "Today is the day we finally get our revenge on that princess!"

"But, are you certain we can trust this man? I can't find any reviews for him online. To be honest I don't even think he's really an assassin." Gemini voiced his concerns.

"All that matters is he offered to help us destroy Princess Marco. He could be pole-dancer for all I care." Heinous said.

"He certainly dresses like one." Gemini grumbled under his breath.

"And you saw his power." Heinous said, gesturing towards what had once been a large boulder, but was now simply a pile of rubble, "That revolutionist will be completely eviscerated!"

"But why would he want to help us? What does he get out of it? It's not like we're paying him." Gemini pointed out.

"A good thing too. We barely had enough money to afford both gasoline and my perfume." Heinous said.

"I'm just saying, I think all this is a touch suspect." Gemini said.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself then." Heinous snapped, "We have to meet up with him when we get there, and I will not let you makes us late! Now then, is the car ready to go?"

"Yes, milady." Gemini sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to change Miss Heinous' mind. After revving up the dimensional chainsaw strapped to the hood of the car, he quickly climbed into the driver's seat.

"Excellent. Next stop, Princess Marco's funeral!" Heinous cackled as she buckled into the passenger seat.

"Isn't the person usually dead for a while before the funeral is held?" Gemini asked.

"Shut your mouth and drive you obnoxious oaf!" Heinous yelled.

Less then five minutes a later, a portal opened in Echo Creek, directly in front of the Diaz house. Well, almost directly in front of it. Unfortunately, the dimensional chainsaw wasn't nearly as accurate as a pair of dimensional scissors, so they were a little off target. To be precise, they were about forty feet off target. Vertically.

After a short fall, the car landed atop another, thankfully empty, car, crushing it completely. The already rocky start to this mission only continued to get worse.

"Gemini, the door is jammed!" Heinous shouted.

"Are you sure it's not locked?" Gemini asked.

"I know what it looks like when it's locked!" Heinous snapped, "Get me out of this car!" Exiting the car in a hurry, Gemini forgot or just didn't realise that it was resting atop another car and not on the ground. As a result, he stumbled and fell roughly onto the road. The slight delay the tumble caused seemed to irk Miss Heinous, as though he were deliberately lollygagging and not falling on his face, "Gemini!"

"Oh, uh coming!" Gemini called back as he pushed himself to his feet, and rushed around to the other side of the car. Once there, he forcefully yanked the door open, which turned out to actually be stuck. Unfortunately, Heinous didn't seem prepared for the door to open so suddenly, and wound up falling out of the car just as Gemini had. Landing directly on her face, she then got to her feet with an annoyed grunt. Heinous took out some of her frustration by repeatedly kicking the car, which only really served to hurt her foot.

"How is my hair?" Heinous asked once she calmed down, adjusting her hair slightly.

"Like you just came from the salon." Gemini said, ever quick to lay down some flattery. Plus, he wanted to get back on her good side.

"Filthy lies." Heinous said, unimpressed, "But I'll allow it." She then headed to the back seat where Rasticore's arm was kept. As she unbuckled the baby seat, she started talking to the arm, "Come now, Rasticore. There's my baby bounty hunter. You're growing back so fast. Yes, you are. Yes, you are."

If Rasticore had been able to hear her, he probably would have been very uncomfortable.

Moving to the front of the car, Miss Heinous used the septarian's arm to pick up the chainsaw attached to the hood.

"Now we are prepared to wreak recrimination on our foes." Heinous said while smiling evilly.

"Yes. Recrim-mim-mim-ination!" Gemini stumbled over the word in his haste to agree. Miss Heinous shot him an annoyed glare before walking up to the front door of the Diaz house with the chainsaw. But before she could use it on the door, Gemini spoke up, "Um, milady. I thought we weren't going to do this until our backup arrives?" While he may not trust the man who agreed to help them, he also wasn't too keen on trying to attack Princess Marco with just the two of them.

"Ah yes, where is he? It's only a few minutes until we're suppose to meet." Heinous said, unable to comprehend the idea that not everyone arrives at least five minutes early to a meeting.

"Perhaps we should wait until he shows up?" Gemini suggested.

"If he doesn't arrive soon, we'll just have to proceed without him." Heinous grumbled. She was so close to finally getting her revenge, she wasn't going to let anything stop her.

Suddenly, to both their surprise, the front door to the house swung open. Standing in front of them was a middle aged woman with long brown hair. She looked between the pair with an air of slight confusion.

Now most people, even among the residents of Echo Creek, would probably be somewhat concerned at the sight of some weird goblinoid creature and a chainsaw wielding woman standing on their front porch. But the Diazes had grown used to bizarre and somewhat threatening people showing up to their house. A strange woman with a large spear had been coming around daily until recently, and a literal demon occasionally dropped by to hang out with their son. Also, they knew Janna, and compared to her, a woman with a chainsaw was downright tame.

"Can I help you?" Angie asked.

"Yes! Yes, you can." Heinous quickly responded before calming herself down, "Is this the residence of Princess Marco?"

"Oh, do you know Star and Marco?" Angie asked, mishearing the question and assuming Miss Heinous asked if this was where the princess and Marco lived.

"Yes, and it is most urgent that see her." Heinous said with a small but very malicious cackle.

"Well, they're not home right now. Oh, but you're more than welcome to wait for them to get back. Please come in, I'll make tea." Angie offered.

"Tea does sound lovely." Gemini said.

"I suppose we'll take you up on that offer." Heinous grumbled. She was less than happy that her revenge had been delayed.

"Excellent. Honey! We have guests!" Angie shouted into the house.

"Is it the Morrisons!?" A somewhat panicked Rafael responded from the kitchen. They weren't ready, the spinach puffs weren't done yet.

"No! It's-" Angie paused before turning back to the new house guests, "What did say your names were?"

"Miss Heinous." The ex-headmistress answered as she stepped into the house. While their taste in decor left much to be desired, the parents of Princess Marco didn't seem to share her horrible personality. Most likely, they simply lost control over their brat, as was the case for most of the parents who sent their children to Saint Olga's.

"Why don't you sit down why I get the tea ready." Angie motioned to some chairs set up around the coffee table in the living room.

"Thank you." Heinous said, sitting down. Once Angie left, she pulled out a pocket watch and checked the hour before scowling, "Where is he? It's nearly time."

Angie returned with Rafael and sat down on the couch across from the coffee table.

"The tea will be ready in just a minute." Rafael said.

"I must say, your home is lovely, milord and milady." Gemini commented.

"Yes, it is a rather unconventional domicile, but I suppose it's pleasant in its own way." Heinous added.

"Um, thank you?" Rafael replied.

"Miss Heinous was it? You said you needed to see Star and Marco?" Angie asked.

-000-

"Well, that's almost certainly not a good thing." Marco stated as both he and Star stared at the stacked cars sitting in front of his house.

"What'cha thinking? Night Creatures?" Star asked, eager to use the Morning Star Whip again.

"Probably not, it's the middle of the day after all." Marco responded. Looking around, he didn't see anything else amiss, "Maybe it was just a really weird car accident."

"If someone was a bad enough driver that they accidentally parked on top of another car, well I'd just be impressed." Star said with a small chuckle.

"Same. But let's be on the look out just in case." Marco said, heading towards the front door.

"You got it. Look out mode." Star got down on her stomach and started crawling across the front lawn, stopping every now and then to look around, or duck behind something. Marco, for his part, just walked up to the house.

It took longer than normal thanks to Star being in "look out mode" but they eventually reached the front door. Once Marco entered the living room, he saw his parents sitting at the coffee table along with two extra people. Miss Heinous whirled around at the sound of the door opening, and upon locking eyes with Marco, her face twisted into a furious scowl.

"You!" Heinous spat and pointed accusingly at him.

"You!" Marco said in response as he pointed at her in return, before leaning over to his best friend, "Star, who is she?"

"What!? You don't know- You ruined my life!" Heinous roared, shooting to a standing position and knocking over her chair in the process.

"Okay, but like, have we met?" Marco asked as he tried and failed to remember if he knew the older woman. If they had met before, it must have been before his sixteen years in Hekapoo's dimension.

"Marco, that's Miss Heinous. You know, from Saint O's?" Star said, a little surprised that he had forgotten.

"Oh, right, right." Marco said quickly. While he vaguely remembered Saint Olga's and had read about what happened in his diary, he had honestly forgotten what Heinous looked like. Now that he had a name to put the face, he actually started remember ex-headmistress a bit more, "I remember now, that was the first time I wore a dress."

"I can't believe you, you insufferable little-" Heinous ended her sentence with a series of strained noises, before forcing herself to calm down a little, "Well, while you may not remember me, I certainly remember you, Princess Marco. Even with your super-cute new haircut."

Marco had a sudden desire to change how he wore his hair.

"Okay, What is going on here?" Rafael asked, thoroughly confused. However, it seemed clear that Marco had done something to upset this nice old woman.

"She's evil." Marco said curtly, jerking a thumb towards Miss Heinous.

"Lies and slander! I was a well respected headmistress before you came along and turned Saint Olga's against me." Heinous objected. Marco gave her an unamused glare before turning to Star.

"Star?" He asked his bestie.

"Yeah, she's definitely evil." Star affirmed as she crossed her arms and nodded knowingly.

"See?" Marco said to his parents, before turning back Miss Heinous, "Now that that's cleared up, get out." He pointed to the front door with a glare.

"I'm not going anywhere until I receive justice for your crimes against me." Heinous scoffed, as she picked up her chair and sat back down. Both Angie and Rafael looked concerned by this statement.

"But if she doesn't leave-" Rafael started, and Angie continued, "-Then how are we gonna have dinner with-" Then they both finished, "The Morrisons?"

"The who?" Marco asked.

"The Morrisons are so cool." Angie said as she ran over to the mantle where a picture of these people was apparently sitting. Marco's confusion only grew, "We've been on the wait list to have them over for months."

"This dinner needs to be perfect. We can't mess it up." Rafael said.

"Th-that's what you're concerned about? Really?" Marco asked, utterly gobsmacked by his parents reaction.

"You're gonna resolve whatever issue you have with Miss Heinous right now." Angie sternly told her son.

"Or, I could just chuck her out." Marco suggested.

"Marco! How could you suggest being so cruel to this poor old woman?" Rafael scolded, "Now sit down, so we can talk this out like respectable people."

With an agitated sigh, Marco complied and motioned for Star to join him on the couch. Rafael stayed with them to make sure they didn't get up to any funny business, while Angie went to finish getting the tea ready. Once she was done, she returned to the living room and handed Miss Heinous and Gemini a cup of tea each before joining the rest of her family on the couch.

"Thank you, your Highness." Heinous said, still under the impression that the Diazes were royalty. Gemini went to drink some of his tea, and nearly burned his tongue.

"What exactly is your issue with Marco?" Angie asks, because while she managed to pick up a bit of context from earlier she was still pretty unclear on the whole situation.

"Gemini." Heinous held out her hand and Gemini passed her a magic hand mirror, similar to Star's compact mirrors, just an older model. Turning it on, a slide show started as she narrated, "Once, I was the headmistress of St. Olga's, the most esteemed princess school in the multiverse. It was a wonderful place where delinquent princesses were taught manners and respect. Until one day, an insolent princess showed up and inspired all the students to rebel against their elders who knew better. Princess Marco left, but the school was never the same. They made her the face of a revolution, even inspiring merchandise, influencing the next generation of young princesses with her devious ways."

"Wait a minute. You have merchandise?" Star asked turning to Marco.

"Oh, that reminds me. I need talk to them about some of products they're putting my face on." Marco said, recalling his conversation with Tom's father and the fact that Princess Marco body pillows were apparently a thing.

"As I was saying, my students lost all respect for authority. Soon, they were cutting classes just to party, even inviting the boys from the neighboring prince reform school. They threw me out! And now, I live in a car." Heinous said as she turned off the mirror and handed it back to Gemini, attempting to look as pitiable as possible. And sadly, Angie and Rafael seemed to fall for it. Gemini placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt at comforting her, but Miss Heinous jerked away from his grasp, "Don't touch me!" She then turned back to the Diazes, "And it's all thanks to Princess Marco and her little sidekick, Princess Butterfly!"

"Marco, is this all true?" Angie asked in the same way one might ask their child if they really shoplifted after a police officer accused them of doing so.

"Okay, yeah, I overthrew a cruel dictator who was abusing and brainwashing children. Sue me." Marco said, still not quite believing the fact that they were wasting their time listening to this woman.

"And they blew up my bodyguard!" Heinous shouted, holding up Rasticore's arm.

"Okay, I don't remember doing that at all." Marco said honestly, "Star?"

"Yeah, I'm drawing a blank on that one too." Star answered. The arms suddenly moved, and everyone on the couch recoiled slightly in surprise, "Wait, is that thing still alive?"

"Well, he's part lizard, so his whole body will grow back soon. And then he'll be a big boy, won't you, sweetie?" Heinous devolved into baby talk and kissed the severed arm tenderly. While the knowledge that she wasn't in fact carrying around the dead limb of her boyfriend(?) like a serial killer made things slightly less creepy, her kissing the arm quickly brought things back up to their previous creep level. To make things even weirder, Gemini looked to be jealous of the appendage.

"So, how shall we proceed, Miss Heinous?" Angie asked, desperate to get things back on topic and away from that.

"With a punishment commensurate with the crime. How about we annihilate her and display her skeleton as a warning against any further insurrection?" Heinous suggested with a demonic smile.

"How about I slit open your belly and hang by your own intestines." Marco countered, wanting more than anything to literally kick her out of his house right now.

"Marco!" Both his parents yell at once, shocked.

"What? I'm not going to be polite to her when she wants to kill me!" Marco said defensively.

Miss Heinous opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sudden sound of music.

"I'll be the round about

The words will make you out 'n' out"

The song seemed to be coming from the now vibrating magic mirror Gemini was holding. Heinous snatched it out of his hand and tapped the screen, answering the call.

"It's about time you called. Where are you!?" Heinous yelled at the screen, "Princess Marco is right here and you're late!"

Suddenly, everything froze. Miss Heinous stopped moving mid sentence, her mouth half open. Everyone in the room was as still as a statue. Everyone except Marco. Immediately, he knew what was going on. Time had slowed to a stopped. Galamoth's soul allowed him to recognise areas where time isn't flowing properly, and prevented him from being affected by it. Jumping off the couch, he steeled himself for whatever stopped time to show up. He didn't have to wait very long, because the front window exploded inward as a large figure crashed through it. Shards of glass slowed down and stopped in midair.

The intruder was large, almost seven feet tall and had a heavily muscular body with light blue skin and spiky orange hair that stuck straight up. In the place of fingers, the demon instead had knife-like talons. His clothing was rather bizarre, as he was wearing turquoise chaps and a skintight purple leotard along with gold armbands and bracelets.

The first thing he did upon entering the house was take out a dagger and hurl it at Marco. The knife stopped about a foot away from his face. Marco was careful not to move and let the demon know that the time stop hadn't affected him. He felt time start to return to normal speed, and his hand shot out to grab the dagger before it could stab into his face. While he started moving slightly before the time stop ended, the demon didn't seem notice, and time had already resumed by the time Marco actually caught the knife. In the distance there was the sound of electricity as the alchemical barrier tried to react to the presence of a Night Creature that had already moved through it.

"Sorry I'm late, I lost track of time." The time stopper said in a deep voice. If he was bothered or surprised by his knife throw failing, then he didn't show it.

"Zephyr! About time you showed up. Quickly now, destroy her!" Heinous shouted.

Not bothering with the time stop this time, Zephyr threw another dagger at Marco. The boy responded by throwing the knife he had caught and the two blades collided in midair before clattering to the ground. Without wasting a second, Marco charged at Zephyr and the demon decided to do the same. Zephyr's reach was larger than Marco's and he swung at the boy with his clawed hand, however, Marco slide underneath the swing and kicked upwards, planting his foot in the demon's stomach. The Night Creature flew back a few feet before landing nimbly like a cat, never facing away from his opponent.

"Time, stop!" Zephyr yelled out. Time obeyed his command and everything froze once more, Marco making sure to hold still as well. Leaping into the air, Zephyr soared over Marco's head, and lobbed several knives at him as he did. Once the demon landed, time started again and the daggers sped towards Marco. He dashed backwards out of their path and the blades embedded harmlessly into the ground. Unfortunately, he got within Zephyr's reach and was only barely able to jump to the side to avoid being cut in half by the demon's talons, though he still received a shallow cut along his arm.

Before Zephyr could press the attack, a magical blast hit him in the back. He turned around with a roundhouse kick that Star was fortunately able to duck underneath. She responded with a Rainbow Fist Punch to his face, and he staggered back slightly, but was otherwise unharmed. As much as Star wanted to just hit the demon with the Morning Star Whip, doing so in such a confined space would be a terrible idea. The resulting explosion would completely destroy the living room and possibly bring down the house. Instead, she'd have to use her normal spells, which sadly didn't quite pack the punch she needed to fight such a Night Creature.

After being hit by the spell, Zephyr's form began to waver like a desert mirage. Taking advantage of the demons's distracted state, Marco jumped at him from behind and aimed a kick at Zephyr's head. Just as it's about to land however, time suddenly stopped again, and this time Marco couldn't pretend to be frozen. The blow connected with the demon's head and he was sent flying across the room. In a state of shock Zephyr was unable to catch himself and crashed into the fireplace. He looked up at Marco just as the boy landed, surprise written clearly on his face before being replaced with anger.

"So, you can move within my world of stopped time." Zephyr growled. His face shifted to smug contempt, "And yet you failed to makes good use of it, utter fool. While time was stopped you could have used your magic powers against me to your heart's content." Marco's eyes widened in shock, "Yes, that's right Marco. I know all about your abilities. And I know you won't risk using them in front of these people. What? Afraid of what they might do when they learn the truth about you?"

Before Marco had a chance to respond, time began to flow again. The brick fireplace behind Zephyr suddenly shattered from the delayed impact of when he slammed into it in frozen time, and the wall collapsed along with it. Star blinked in confusion. To her, Marco and Zephyr suddenly teleported to new locations, and the wall just exploded for no reason. She didn't have time to question it though, as the demon suddenly charged forward back into the fray. He slashed at Marco again and the boy jumped backwards to avoid the attack, but Zephyr's leg lashed out and caught Marco in the stomach. He was thrown backwards into the air and smashed through the railings on the stairs, before coming to stop upon hitting the wall.

"Strawberry Annihilation!" Star fired the spell at Zephyr, but he simply back flipped over it. Before landing, the demon took out three knives and threw them at Star. She managed to dodge all of them, but was distracted when Zephyr suddenly dashed forward and swiped at her with his claws. Unable to dodge, Star brought up her wand to block the strike. The blow landed with enough force that it nearly knocked the wand out of her hands, and her knees buckled under its wight. Then, before she could recover, Zephyr kicked Star in the side and she felt some of her ribs crack. She slammed into the floor, which shattered under the impact.

Whirling around, Zephyr threw another dagger at Marco, who had been charging at him. He caught the knife, and then used it to parry another slash from Zephyr's talons. With his other hand, Marco punched the demon in the face. Zephyr's retaliation came immediately, and his foot kicked out and hit Marco in the leg. As the boy stumbled backwards from the blow, the demon pulled his arm back to try and slice him again.

"Raspberry Ribbon Lasso!" Suddenly, ropes made of magic wrapped around Zephyr's arm, halting his attack. Looking back, he saw that the magic lasso came out of the bell of Star's wand. He grabbed onto the rope with his other hand, and gave a sharp tug on the spell.

"Useless! Useless! Useless!" Zephyr yelled maniacally, as Star was yanked forward off her feet. He swung her around and threw her directly at Marco. When the two collided with each other, Star's spell ended and they both were thrown back into the wall.

Marco shoved Star out of the way as Zephyr leaped at them and brought his leg down on the boy. Marco managed to raise his arms to block the blow, but the force caused the ground underneath him to crater. Adjusting his arm, Marco managed to grab onto the demon's leg, and threw him to the ground. Zephyr kicked with his other leg, landing a clean blow to Marco's chest, breaking a few of the boy's ribs, and forcing him to let go of the demon's leg. Just as the Night Creature rose to a standing position, Star smashed him over the back of the head with her wand. He let out a noise of pain before backhanding the princess across the room. She landed on the coffee table, shattering it.

By now, Miss Heinous and Gemini, along with Marco's parents, had retreated into the kitchen in order to avoid getting caught up in the fight. While Heinous watched with glee as Zephyr attacked the two teens, Angie and Rafael were almost frozen with fear and horror at the scene unfolding before them.

Marco hit the ground and Zephyr pounced upon him. The demon jabbed his hand forward, looking to impale the boy with his talons. Marco's hands shot out and grabbed the blade-like claws. Although he sliced his palms and fingers open, he was able to stop the attack just before the talons stabbed into his chest. In response, Zephyr leaned forward, putting more weight and strength into sinking his claws into Marco's flesh. Despite the boy's best efforts, the sharpened points inched closer and closer to his body.

"Mega Narwhal Blast!" From her position in front of the entrance to the kitchen, Star fired a massive blast of several large narwhals at Zephyr.

"Once more. Time Stop!" As everything froze, Zephyr leapt off of Marco and out of the Narwhal Blast's path. The demon then took out a plethora of knives and hurled them at Star, all of the blades slowing to a stop a foot or two away from her.

Marco's eyes widened in horror. He threw himself towards Star, desperate to reach her before time resumed. There's no way she'd be able to avoid those knives when she wasn't expecting them and when they were so close. Tearing up the ground from how fast he was moving, Marco reached her just as time returned to its normal speed. He tackled her to the ground, and two of the daggers meant for her stabbed themselves in his arm and leg instead. Sadly, he wasn't able to protect her from all of them, and one of the blades sunk into Star's shoulder. As they both hit the ground, they heard a scream of pain. Marco looked up...

...And saw his mother on her knees with a dagger embedded in her arm.

Marco ripped the knife out of his arm and spun around as Zephyr tried to bring his talons down on him. With the knife, Marco parried the blow, knocking it aside, his strength fueled by anger. Zephyr was open now, and Marco conjured a dagger of his own and threw it. The blade stabbed straight into the demon's throat, and he stumbled back. Gurgling, Zephyr tried and failed to say something through the blood in his mouth and windpipe. Taking a step forward, Marco called forth the magic of the Balor's soul, and power flowed into his arm. His fist rocketed forward, and collided with Zephyr with the force of an exploding bomb. The demon's ribs and spine splintered from the blow, before he shot backwards like an artillery shell.

-000-

A police officer looked at Heinous' car with a bemused expression on his face. When he got a call about a double parked car, he hadn't been expecting two cars literally parked in the same spot. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if there was a law being violated her since the top car's wheels weren't even on the ground. If you hadn't noticed by now, he wasn't a very good cop.

He decided to ask around, maybe a lawyer or judge lived nearby and could clear this up for him. Starting with the house directly in front of the two cars, he began walking to the front door when he heard what sounded like people shouting. Suddenly, the front door exploded outwards as something flew out of the house at high speeds. The unidentified projectile collided with the officer's police cruiser and the car was thrown back with it. Both the vehicle and the projectile traveled across the street before slamming into yet another automobile sitting in a driveway on the other side of the road, at which point both cars exploded violently.

A figure walked out of the flaming wreckage before slumping on to their knees. Slowly they brought a hand to their throat and pulled out a knife that been lodged there. The officer watched them rise to their feet, and promptly turned around and ran away, deciding he wasn't getting paid to deal with this.

Taking groggy steps forward, Zephyr raised a clawed hand to try and keep the sun off him. As far as Night Creatures were concerned, the demon wasn't badly affected by it. It didn't turn him to dust or cause any sort of physical harm. But its light disoriented him horribly, making him feel tired and extremely ill. The bright midday sun made him feel far worse than any of the injuries he had sustained. He tried to walk back to the Diaz house, but instead fell forward onto the hot road the minute he took a step forward.

-000-

"Um, milady? I think we should go." Gemini said quietly.

"Yes, you're probably correct." Heinous agreed, also keeping her voice down.

The two of them, along with everyone else in the room, stared at Princess Marco with wide eyes. The princess was panting heavily, and the fist she punched Zephyr with was freaking smoking. Slowly, so as not to attract attention, Miss Heinous and Gemini began creeping towards the nearest exit. Heinous had never realised just how dangerous Princess Marco actually was before, having only thought of her as a troublesome brat. Now however... well, let's just say that Heinous was beginning to rethink her assumption that the two princesses had used some form of underhanded trickery to destroy her beloved Rasitcore (Though in reality neither Marco or Star were responsible).

Only a few seconds after they started inching away, Heinous and Gemini's luck ran dry. Marco's head snapped in their direction and he reached them less than a second later and slammed Miss Heinous into the wall. His right hand was wrapped around her throat, keeping her pinned against the wall, while he still held onto the knife he had pulled out of his arm earlier with his other hand. The ex-headmistress couldn't help but eye the dagger in fear.

"G-Gemini." Heinous choked out, finding it hard to breath through Marco's grip.

"Milady!" Gemini's voice was filled with concern. But before the small man could do anything, Marco punted him across the room with a kick, his hate-filled glare never once leaving Heinous. She tried to pry his hand away from her throat, but her attempts only resulted in his hand choking her tighter, cutting off her airflow entirely.

Heinous had been afraid plenty of times before, afraid of failing in her duties, afraid of her robotic mother, Saint Olga. But she had never been afraid like this. This was a very primal fear, fear in the face of death. There was no doubt in her mind right now, Marco was going to kill her.

Breathing heavily, Marco's left hand began to shake. He was angry. This woman had broken into his house, no, she had tricked his parents into letting her in and then used their kindness to attack him. As a result, both his mother and Star were hurt. And Heinous didn't give a damn that his parents had been caught in the crossfire of whatever feud she had with him. He was furious beyond words. Rarely did he ever feel this much anger, but when he did someone usually wound up dead.

With ever growing fear and desperation, Heinous kicked Marco in the leg, the one that still had a knife lodged in it, in a last desperate attempt to escape. Instead, Marco responded by drawing the dagger he was holding back, switching to holding it reverse grip as he did so. Before he could bring it down on her however, three new blades soared through the air and stabbed into Marco's back. Then before he had a chance to react, Zephyr delivered a flying roundhouse kick to the side of the boy's head, knocking him away. Coughing, Heinous collapsed to the ground.

No one had even noticed Zephyr enter the house until now, everyone had been so focused on Marco and Miss Heinous. Also, he had moved so quickly that the time between entering the house, throwing the knives, and attacking Marco was less than a second. With Marco a safe distance away, the demon stuck out his pinky finger and used it to cut open a portal. Grabbing both Heinous and Gemini, who had waddled back towards them, Zephyr tossed the two of them through the tear in the fabric of space. Before he himself went through, he whistled and all the various knives that had been scattered about over the course of the battle floated back to him, including the ones currently stuck in people. Star screamed in pain as the dagger was roughly pulled out of her shoulder and she heard Angie cry out as well, Marco had been in the middle of pushing himself to his feet when it happened, and almost collapsed back to ground. Once all the knives had returned to Zephyr he turned around and walked towards the portal.

"NOOO!" The demon had only just stuck his foot through when Marco shouted. Looking over his shoulder, Zephyr saw the boy charging towards him, and smirked as their eyes met, before stepping though fully. The portal shrank and closed just as Marco reached it. He collapsed to his knees partly out of frustration, but mostly due to exhaustion and his injuries. Screaming, he tried to relieve some of his frustration by the punching the already destroyed ground, but it didn't help. Angry thoughts buzzed through his head, some aimed at Heinous and Zephyr, but now that they were gone most of his rage was directed instead at himself. He failed to stop them from escaping, and he failed to protect his family and Star.

"Marco." Star whispered, but it was enough to snap him out of his thoughts. Turning to look at her, he was relieved to see that she seemed mostly okay. Even if she was clutching her bleeding shoulder, she was able to stand. But then he looked at her face. There was an expression there that he couldn't quite place, and there was something about it that worried him.

Then he turned suddenly to look at his parents, he needed to see if they were okay. They as well had that expression, only now Marco was beginning to think he knew what it was.

Were they afraid? But why? Zephyr and Heinous were gone. And then he noticed, they were all staring at him.

Realisation crashed over him like a wave, pulling him under and drowning him. He remembered what had just happened, what he had just done. What he tried to do.

Why wouldn't they be afraid? They had just seen him for who he really was. The mask of 'old Marco' cracked and shattered, and he had showed them what lied beneath it. How he tried to kill someone in cold blood.

Suddenly, Marco needed to leave, to be anywhere but here, under the fearful gazes of the people he cared about. Reaching into this pocket, he pulled out his scissors and sliced open a portal to escape.

"Marco!" Star yelled, running towards him. But it was too late, both he and the portal were gone.

-000-

"Why did you run!? You could have eradicated Princess Marco right then and there!" Heinous shouted at Zephyr. Ever since they had escaped she had been yelling non-stop, furious that her plans had been foiled. Mostly, she had screaming at Zephyr, complaining about everything from his initial lateness to his outfit, and had decided that all of it was in some way responsible for things going wrong. By now, he was sick of it, and it took every once of his willpower to not turn her into a knife block. Eventually, she took a calming breath, "You know what, though I am loathe to admit it, Gemini you were right about him. This man can obviously not be trusted." She turned back to Zephyr, "Away with you. I don't want you in my presence any longer."

"That really isn't your decision to make." Zephyr said calmly, to which Miss Heinous responded with an offended scoff.

"Now that's enough, you ruffian!" Gemini stomped towards the demon. He had never liked Zephyr but had been willing to put up with him because Heinous wanted him to. Now that his lady wanted him gone, and the demon was being rude to her, Gemini was finally going to give him a piece of his mind, "You have no right talking like to-"

The sentence went unfinished as he suddenly fell apart, cut into several small pieces. Watching the various bits and parts of Gemini scatter across the floor, Zephyr more than a little disappointed that the dwarf had been robotic. The lack of blood diminished the display in his mind.

Heinous froze, eyes going wide with shock and terror. Dragging them away from Gemini's destroyed body, she forced herself to look at Zephyr. Only to find that he wasn't there anymore. Before she could look for him or wonder where he went, a hand cupped her face from behind.

"You don't have to be afraid. I have no plans to harm you. After all, you might prove to be very useful." Zephyr whispered softly in her ear as he rubbed her cheek. When he removed his hand, he had wiped away the concealer she had been wearing, revealing a club shaped cheek mark on Heinous' face. Zephyr smiled at the sight of it.

Heinous remained completely frozen, as she came to horrifying realisation that perhaps Marco wasn't the most terrifying thing she had encountered today.


Kind of a short chapter this time around, shorter than I was expecting honestly. But, I think it left a pretty big impact.

Jojo references galore! Can you honestly blame me though when Zephyr is literally a Dio expy? Actually, I've been planning this chapter for a while, and I think it's honestly the reason I was able to finish Stardust Crusaders. Because I did not care for that part at all. I'm really glad I finished it though, because Diamond is Unbreakable was amazing and Vento Aureo has been quite enjoyable. I should probably get around to reading the Manga soon.

Originally, when Zephyr touched Heinous' cheek mark, he was also going to touch her tail. But then I remembered where on her body said tail is located, and decided I was not going to write that. That part was already creepy enough.

The next chapter is probably going to have some angst. Which I am very very nervous about trying to write.