Chapter 11: Conglomeration

Eclipsa laid Marco's mangled body down on the cold ground of the temple. The newly reborn Meteora was sleeping soundly in her nursery, uncovered after many long years of disuse. She needn't be here for what was about to take place; this could get ugly.

She pulled out her wand and sighed, looking at Marco's right arm. It was seared in places and hung there limply and lifelessly, but otherwise looked like the most intact part of his body. It was also a tentacle; that much was completely relevant.

Eclipsa was unaware of the specific details that followed that spell, in which it was one of Crescenta's many. But she did know that it appeared to be an application of one of her spells, a particularly nasty healing spell.

It was designed to replace irreversibly damaged body parts and tissue not by healing the wounds, but replacing and transforming the extremity into the functional body part of a monster.

"Sana Monstruo Mutatio..." she muttered the name of the spell under her breath, working her magic over the specific areas, which to be honest she would have to repair more than she could leave.

Marco's face was busted, his nose caved in and he was missing the majority of his teeth. Pretty soon, he was sporting a shiny new set of sharp monster teeth and purple splotches all over the damaged parts of his face.

The real problem was what was going on below his waist. He had been completely bifurcated when he had impacted that tree at the wrong angle, legs completely gone. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he had by and large died from. That would require something a little sturdier. The magic worked its... magic on the absent lower half of Marco's body. Within time, he also had a new set of legs.

Of course, they were not human legs. They were shiny, a deep red that was almost brown. They were also segmented at the kneecaps. There came an odd noise from Marco's backside, his body twitched with life as a scorpion's tail waved into existence.

Eclipsa put her wand down; his right arm didn't need any modifications. She felt bad for the poor boy; he was a hodgepodge of a human and several different monster types. He wouldn't be accepted in either society.

At some point during the procedure, he gasped and began breathing again, but his life functions were being artificially induced by magic. His heart would never actually beat again.

But he could move, and he could think. Eclipsa merely sat down and watched. The boy's body twitched and more life functions began to return to him. The only thing to do now was sit there and wait, until he woke up. She tightened her grip on her wand; she had never used the spell to actually revive someone who had been effectively dead.

She needed to be prepared. The physical damage may have... healed, but the worst may have yet to come.


Star stepped through the portal and back into her room. She had set out to find her mother, but she felt great in spite of not finding her. She had met with the spirit of a Mewman queen and taken a tip in some pure, magical liquid that dulled her senses and set her worries at ease. Completely rejuvenated and full of energy, she was ready to lead her kingdom.

But first... she went to her compact mirror.

"Call Tom," she said, as the mirror on the wall began to warm up. Pretty soon, Tom's confused face appeared on the other side. It had only been hours since the battle; he was covered in bandages from the bumps and bruises he had gotten.

"Star? What's up? Aren't you supposed to be looking for your mom in the magic place?" he asked. Star merely waved off the question.

"Yeah, yeah," she said dismissively, "Anyway, it seems I'm gonna be ruling Mewni for a while longer. Yadda yadda, some stuff happened, do you want to go on a date?"

"Is this really the time for that?" Tom asked incredulously, "Your mom and Marco are still missing. And no offense, but you may not be the ruler of Mewni after you gave up your wand to Eclipsa."

Tom stared at her; something wasn't right, and there was something in Star's blue eyes that made even the demon prince balk. He couldn't place what it was, but it was the cause the dismissive attitude. Which only begged the question of why.

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I've got it all covered."

"Star..."

"I've gotta go. But, let's meet up for a cornshake tonight, after I'm done with my queenly duties. Byeeee!" she giggled, as if the prospect of doing royal duties was ridiculous. She really meant to follow through on that; it was just that for Star the concept was so foreign.

Tom sputtered and tried to get in another word otherwise, but he was cut off as the connection was broken.

"Tom seemed upset about something. Oh well, can't be anything important; I've got bigger things to be worrying about, like how to get the wand back from Eclipsa!"

Star exited her room, not really noticing that her normally small Mewberty wings were beginning to slightly push against the back of her dress. She frowned as she thought about how she had given up the wand to Eclipsa.

She would have to rectify such an obvious mistake.

Conversation was abound in the situation room, between the Magical High Commission, the remaining knights who hadn't been sent on the expedition, and a few other assorted nobles.

"Hey, everyone! Thanks for coming..." Star said, sounding a lot more chipper than the last time she held council. The surrounding dignitaries didn't exactly share in her enthusiasm. The monster had been vanquished, but the wand had fallen into possession of the most infamous queen in their history thanks to the girl before them.

The Magical High Commission seemed particularly unamused, especially after she had snubbed them earlier during Meteora's rampage. In fact, no one even seemed to know if they were supposed to be following Star's orders.

"Uh, your majesty, are you aware of the situation at hand?"

Everyone seemed wary of her, but were afraid of voicing it.

"I am aware. My mom is missing and the Royal Magic Wand was stolen by the former queen Eclipsa..."

Star's lie didn't exactly inspire anyone to call her on it; they all knew that the wand was given up willingly by Star to Eclipsa. Apparently they wanted to believe it themselves, that Star had a 180. As long as she was taking steps to rectify her previous mistakes, and her mistaken attitudes on ruling...

Rhombulus, Omnitraxus Prime, and Hekapoo all looked at each other; it was an unexpected change of heart from the girl who just unearthed the greatest conspiracy of the Butterfly Royal Family.

Rhombulus whispered something in Hekapoo's ear as he stole a glance at Star, and her face lit up in recognition as the commission seemed to realize what had happened.

She nodded back at the crystal man, giving him a discreet thumb's up.

"That's right. Considering Eclipsa's theft of the wand, she is once again at large and should be regarded as the most dangerous interdimensional fugitive at present. It is clear her goal is to take back the throne of Mewni, and the theft of the wand has given her a dangerous avenue to do so."

The murmur on the council grew louder. Being backed by the Magical High Commission cleared the doubt on Star, but created a fear that permeated the room.

This could mean war, if Eclipsa and the monsters weren't snuffed.

"We will need to inform the peasants. The sooner we have Eclipsa recognizable as the at large criminal she is, the better."

"Are you kidding? Knowing that the ancient queen of evil is out there won't help anything. It will cause panic. They will be livid and begin asking too many questions. Faith in the monarchy will go lower than it already is."

The revelation sewed argument after argument. Star put two fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply.

"That's enough. We're going to put out wanted posters out for Eclipsa to capture her as soon as possible. I can assure you that I am dedicated to rectifying my mistake."

Star left the meeting feeling refreshed; it felt good. She had to get those wanted posters made, and begin finding her mom, but other than that she had the day to herself.

Oh, yeah. Marco and the expedition should be back soon. Since they didn't run into Meteora she couldn't imagine that their stay in the temple was a long one.

For the rest of today's agenda, she felt she would visit the grandma room, and try to reflect on the past deeds of the previous queens and how to imitate. Or in the case of one of them, avoid imitating.

No guards were stationed in this wing of the castle, so she was able to slip through the large wooden doors without a pointless bow from one of her vassals. The room was dimly lit, the only light coming from the slightly cracked sunroof.

She pushed down on the pedestal in the center and opened the sunroof completely, allowing light to filter into the room and illuminate the tapestries.

"Ugh, what should I do?" Star asked rhetorically to the inanimate art, "I let the wand slip away into the hands of someone evil. Mewni was in danger and I just let the wand slip away from me! What should I do?"


Eclipsa didn't react as Marco leapt to his feet, an incredible feat for one who was a mere corpse hours ago, and to be completely accurate more resembled a corpse rather than a living being.

He turned around frantically, mania in his eyes. When he faced her, she was able to look up and down the new Marco.

The only parts of him that were still human were the parts that weren't completely mangled or lost in his fight with Mina. Patches of his face were replaced with a red shell, specifically the bottom=right part and the bridge of his nose. But, those were the most minimal of Marco's changes.

His right had been crushed and burned, but as it was a tentacle it was still salvageable even as it hung there limply. The most striking change was to the entire bottom half of his body, which had been ripped clean off when he had impacted a tree at the right angle and the speed he was going.

His legs and feet were of the same-shell-like chitin that was present on his face, split into two segments at the kneecaps. Sticking out of his backside was the long tail of a scorpion with a nasty stinger on the very end of it.

Extremities had been replaced with functioning ones, but his heart had stopped beating and had not sense resumed. She hadn't returned him to the realm of the living; she had merely reanimated him. Functionally no different, but Eclipsa wasn't so sure Marco would see it the same way. His human skin would turn the clammy palour of grey, curdled milk before and he would cold to the touch.

"Marco? Marco, can you hear me?" Eclipsa asked, for once not all smiles and teasing.

Marco's head snapped up and toward the source of the noise and he let out a raspy groa. Eclipsa just noticed the manic look in his eyes intensify before the queen was punched hard in the face by Marco's monster arm.

She slid backwards through the dust, her normally pristine dress getting dirty near the ankles as she recovered and wiped her mouth.

Marco pounced on her with an inhuman screetch, his mind a whirlwind of stress, fear, rage, and despair mixed with the inhuman instincts that he was not used, all fueled by his sensitive ESP.

Eclipsa saw him coming and glared a fiery glare, unfolding her parasol wand. With a few quick strokes she unleashed waves of darkness. They barely slowed Marco down, and Eclipsa reacted by locking hands with Marco trying to hold him off.

At first it looked like she was to be completely overwhelmed, but as if she were in complete control of the situation her eyes began to glow and magic coarsed through her veins, and she began to push back. With both a magical and physical force working on him, Marco balked, and his crazed animalistic fervor cracked as he was put on the defensive.

"Stop!" Eclipsa ordered, loud, louder than anything she had yelled during her confrontation with the rampaging Meteora, "Midnight Shriek!" she blasted Marco, who cried out before trying weakly to lash out once again.

"Please... the dark magic I used... it was my only option. Please don't let it consume you," Eclipsa said. Marco tilted his head in confusion for a split-second as he seemed to register something and a spark of clarity returned.

"All that anger, fear, pain, stress, all the things that make you hurt are overwhelming your mind."

With the adrenaline gone, Marco's collapsed to his knees, his turbulent mind going numb and in turn not even able to support him and his new body parts. He raised his arms and looked at the tentacle, then brushed them against the shell of his spindly legs. He grabbed a piece of broken glass laying nearby and regarded his face and body in full with horror, shock, and disgust. Eclipsa couldn't blame him.

Monsters were feared and reviled by Mewmans, but had their own culture and followed a natural order of things. Even her own half-monster daughter Meteora looked like what one would expect the offspring of herself and her monster love to look like, even if Mewni called it a crime against nature.

But Marco... Marco was a conglomeration of random monster parts in awkward places on an originally human body. He was a freak of nature, an anomaly made by magic underneath drastic circumstances.

Eclipsa put her wand away. Marco was done lashing out, but he just sat there, slouched shoulders and head bowed. His bottom lip trembled, his mouth gaped open uselessly a couple times before he began taking in precious gulps of air. Technically he didn't need to.

He wasn't exactly bawling like the infant Meteora, but his dam was threatening to burst. Eclipsa approached him slowly and when she did Marco wrapped his arms around her like a lifeline and buried his face in her gown.

Eclipsa was slightly surprised, less so by the gesture but more by the fact he had run the gamut of emotions so quickly. Unmindful of the tears and snot staining her gown, she hugged him back and pulled him closer.


Eclipsa rocked the reborn Meteora as Marco paced the room in front of her husband's crystal prison, telling his tale.

"So what happened was... I was sent on an expedition mission with the Knights of Mewni, being technically a squire and all. We were digging here in this temple when my old monster arm began to act up. Mina Loveberry was the one who... killed me. Punched me high into the air and then kicked me across the forest."

Marco trembled. The situation was hectic but the memory of those important moments was so vivid, burned into his mind. His legs had caught against a tree and that's what put him out of his misery, so to speak.

And now he was here. Eclipsa had found his mangled body, pulled it into the temple, and used her magic to heal him, or more accurately: revive him. With enough monster parts to make him a hodgepodge. There were still questions on his mind, such as how Eclipsa had the wand now, where was Star, what happened to Meteora, and what he was supposed to do now.

The thing was, he couldn't go out like... this. At the same time, he couldn't exactly stay here, deep in the monster temple living a half existence. He had to go back, just to let Star know what happened. The thought of doing so made his undead heart ache. Star would likely be mortified, and not only that but he would have to go back to face the ugliest side of Mewman society, that in a way caused his current state in the first place.

That wasn't even getting into what to do if he ever wanted to go back to Earth...

"I have to go back..." he finally proclaimed. Eclipsa raised her head, up to that point letting him vent and pontificate.

"Well, it's your decision on what you must do," she finally said, "But the Butterfly Kingdom is at a bit of an impasse, a true succession crisis for the ages."

"Oh yeah, Star gave you the wand, which I guess would be her way of abdicating the throne. But... you came straight here, and have been hanging around her ever since. Butterfly Castle is still occupied by Star, it seems. Gah, this is so confusing. I wasn't gone for very long but I seemed to have missed so much when Meteora reached the castle!"

"Having possession of the wand may technically make me Queen of Mewni, but as it stands I was never one for the rules anyway. I was miserable last time I ruled and was crystallized for my troubles, so I'm not exactly eager to get back on the warnicorn, so to speak." Eclipsa looked into the other chamber, "I think I'd rather stay here, raise my daughter, and try to release my husband. You're welcome to stay here as long as you wish."

Marco contemplated this honestly; he was tempted to stay there, and just hide. Away from the world, away from all the noise, emotions, and problems. It would be so easy... so relieving.

"I have to go back."

"If you think that's best. But be warned, there is an air surrounding the kingdom."

Marco heard rustling off to the side; it was Glossaryck, fixing himself a meal on a nearby table. The blue wizard had obviously come along with the wand, and seemed wholly unconcerned with its frequently changing owners.

"He's hideous, Eclipsa. I have to say you did a great job!" Glossaryck said mirthfully as he and Marco locked eyes. The reborn boy frowned as Glossaryck scooped up his pudding.

"I wand to say thanks for everything you've done for me, but I'm not sure I can do that. There's a dark cloud in my mind, and I..."

There was a large part of his mind that wanted to yell at her for not leaving him dead and bringing him back like this. Dark thoughts were still storming in his mind and his behavior was altered to the point where it scared him, feeling like he was going to lose control at any point in time.

"Just let him go. It's his funeral, which he should have already been having anyway," Glossaryck commented.

"How long are you going to pretend that you're some neutral overseer in this all?" Marco asked, and Glossaryck paused in bringing the pudding up to his face and frowned.

"Boy, you've got it all mixed up. I haven't meddled in affairs for millennia, and I'm not about to start now. I definitely do not have anything to do with what's about to go down; if I did you needn't suffer as much as you're about to finding all this out."

Again, he could just hide away... never have to face magic or the Butterflies ever again. But Star kept resurfacing in his mind, and he turned and stormed out the temple without another word to Glossaryck.

"I wish you well," Eclipsa said worriedly from afar as she saw him off, "Head directly west and you will again reach Butterfly Castle. There should be a number of villages along the way, but it may be best to avoid those unless you can find a way to disguise yourself."

He waved tentatively to the forgotten queen from behind as she disappeared back into the monster temple, and he set off alone. The sooner he could get back to Butterfly Castle, the better. Star... he needed to see Star.

The first settlement he came across was about three miles away from the monster temple he had just left. The fabric of his cloak was rubbing against his... exoskeleton, and it wasn't a feel he was used to or enjoyed. And the shell was beginning to chafe the sensitive muscle underneath.

As he neared the village, he tucked his tail against his body and hid his non-human features. His monster features including the original tentacle didn't seem to be alive or were at least dormant, so he could be at least thankful for that in this this run of the mill mewman village. A number of houses and cottages dotted the area and dirty villagers wandering about them made up the town. He just wanted to get some rest in the village and move on.

He had no money on him which was unusual for Marco, nothing that would allow him to stay at whatever inn this village may have had.

"Oh, shoot," he thought, as he saw an unwelcome sight walking down the streets of the village. The ringing of a bell overcame his mind, and he suppressed a shuddered as a wave of palpable emotions overcame him.

The bell ringing was from a town crier, standing in the village square with two knights by him.

"Hear ye, hear ye! Reports of a new royal proclamation, from Queen Star Butterfly has been made!"

Odd. from what Marco could remember, Star loathed being referred to as Queen and not "Acting Queen".

Fear and paranoia. Those were the general emotions running high in the village.

"Some of you are no doubt aware of the wanted posters placed all around the village. Please take care to study them, for they are of the most dangerous individual in all of Mewni's long recorded history. Wanted for treason, theft, and crimes against mewmanity, the search for the infamous Queen Eclipsa, recently freed from her crystal prison, is underway. Please cooperate with the Knights of Mewni in their search for this dangerous criminal!"

Marco couldn't believe it; Eclipsa was a wanted criminal again. He even saw one of the posters on the wall, which he promptly ripped down. So Eclipsa wasn't the ruler of Mewni; she didn't even have a choice.

What was going on? Was Star behind this? Why would she be; she willingly gave up the wand barely a day ago. Was it a military coup, the knights being disgruntled by Star's attitudes on Eclipsa and monsters.

Or... was Eclipsa lying? No... she wasn't lying; Eclipsa's emotions were genuine, he could tell. Unless...

"Ugh, this is such a mess," Marco thought. The town crier was one thing, but there were a few knights wandering around the town and he wasn't keen on being recognized by them.

The last thing Marco wanted was to attract the attention of the knights, or worse yet Mina Loveberry. The royal family may be in his corner, but the knights definitely were not.

"They think I'm dead, but so does Star."

As the knights combed the village, Marco made his way out of it and into the dark woods nearby.


So Season 4 dropped. So far, nothing new from canon has ruined this story, except for one thing. We now know that Eclipsa did become the ruler of Mewni, after all.

In this one, she's on the run from the law. The rules regarding the ruling body are a bit murkier; however Star has also seized control of power unlike in canon where she's content to allow Eclipsa to rule. Little changes to things are snowballing into a butterfly effect that ends up a world of difference than in canon.

If events in this final season don't match up with this story, that's okay. I have this planned out well in advance and I'm not going to change anything unless it fits.

The only hangup I really might have is the fact that the Realm of Magic in canon is still so mysterious. It's sorta the basis for the story's events that allows everything to fall into place and still work.