Sorry about the wait guys! Completely slipped my mind that I hadn't put this one up.
~Two years later~
"The troops are closing in on the Forsyth battalion."
"Call in squadron B-Nexus for assistance."
"There have been reports of marooned soldiers in the Domare District."
"Send out the rescue team immediately. These are just reports, yes? Have them accompanied by Colonel Harris' troops."
"General Butterfly," a young woman walking beside her called. "Your meeting with the Lieutenants has been cancelled on account of movement from the J-Delta squadron."
"That's alright. It can wait. Schedule a meeting with Lieutenant General Reynolds for later this evening though."
"Right away, General." She nodded before swerving away.
Halley worked through the mental checklist she was constantly looking to. It was very rare that less than 15 items were on her list but she always made sure everything got done.
"Off to Safe Haven then."
Safe Haven was the code name for the section of camp were the children resided. Halley maneuvered past tents and bushes to reach the small collection of cottages. She knocked on the door of the closest. Inside she could hear the squealing and giggling of the girls.
"Come in," one of the mother's answered.
Halley let herself in and smiled. Today the girls were doing arts and crafts, a rare activity within the camp. She could see why they had sounded so happy.
"Good Evening Sophia. Gretchen." She nodded to the Mewman-Monster mother pair.
The two mothers bowed before turning back to the littler ones.
"Hallsie!" A loud squeal came. Halley was soon bombarded by small arms wrapping around her torso.
"Hope!" Sophia scolded. "It's impolite to address General Butterfly that way."
Halley smiled and hugged the girl back, "It's alright Sophia."
The little girl looked up at Halley and was suddenly scowling at her.
"What?" Halley asked.
"You said you'd visit last week! Where were you!?"
Halley sighed, "Yeah I know. I'm sorry. I was called out on duty. I only just came back yesterday morning."
"Oh..." Hope mumbled. "You didn't get hurt did you?"
"Just a few scrapes and bruises," Halley shrugged. "Nothing to worry about."
"Good," Hope nodded. She wiggled out of her arms. "Wait here!"
Halley watched curiously as Hope went around to each of the children, looking over their shoulders as they put the finishing touches on their crafts. The little girl went over to retrieve her own craft and returned to Halley along with the rest of the girls.
"Happy Birthday Princess!" They said in semi-unison.
Halley's heart began to fill. The kids were always so thoughtful. Their short arms were all extended, each pair trying to hand Halley their own unique gift.
"You all shouldn't have. Really. Arts and crafts don't come that often. You didn't want to make anything for yourselves?" The flustered General asked.
"Uh uh," Hope grinned. "It's your birthday and we all wanted to give you something."
"They're all so beautiful. I'm not sure how I'll carry them all."
There was a knock on the door followed by a herd of boys running inside. They were covered in mud and leaves but each held a small bouquet of wildflowers.
"Happy Birthday General Butterfly!" They said.
"Oh boys... You're all dirty. Did you do all this for me?"
"Yep! We got all the pretty ones we could find." A bear like monster named Julian responded.
"Thank you. You all have given me so much," Halley smiled warmly at all of them. "I have to repay you somehow."
Ten minutes later and Halley was sitting cross legged on the floor, about 20 handmade necklaces hanging from her neck, five or so paper crowns pinned to the top of her head, and eight ribbons tied to her horns. The boys sat in front of her listening to her stories from battle—abridged of course— and the girls sat behind, braiding the boys' flowers into her hair. It was after her hair was finished, three stories told, and several yawns throughout the room, that Halley decided to take her leave.
"No!" They tiredly whined.
"It's been so nice and thank you so so much for the gifts, but you all should be getting some rest. Besides, the spies should be getting back soon. I should be there to welcome them back."
The boys snickered and a few girls ooh-ed. Halley hoped she wasn't blushing to hard when she finally left.
Halley worked her way back to the other side of camp and made it just in time as their inside forces returned. Medics were already among their ranks, checking them over, but as they always did a flawless job, there was not a scratch on them.
Halley stood beside Major General Katrina and Lieutenant Buff Frog as they nodded formally to the returning spies.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fight back a smile as a familiar head of brown hair stepped into camp. As with the others, he stopped and bowed before the general and she returned it. When they raised to make eye contact, Captain Greys snorted.
"Quite regal today, aren't we General?"
Halley nodded, "The proper attire for one's birthday, don't you think Captain Greys?"
"I supposed you're right," He smiled.
"I expect a full report once you've gotten unpacked."
He bowed once more, "As you wish, Princess."
Halley rolled her eyes as he sauntered away. She hear Katrina scoff beside her before walking away herself. Halley tailed her Major General, "What?"
"You two are insufferable."
"What!" She blushed once again. "That's not true..."
"You can't even say that with a straight face, can you?" Katrina gave her a side glance.
"It's honestly nothing, Katrina. Don't worry about it." She smiled to herself.
"Mhm..." Katrina responded, tone laced with disbelief.
Halley had become good friend with Katrina over the years. Even though Katrina was very serious most of the time, Halley had managed to get through to her.
The princess stopped and watched Katrina go on her way. She referred back to her checklist. Making sure everything else was in order, Halley went off in the direction of the training grounds.
There, arrows were scattered across the dirt. The clash of metal could be heard not too far away.
She spotted her brother giving a lesson to a few of the teenagers. He was demonstrating how to correctly aim a bow hence the arrows that were far from their target. They looked incredibly frustrated and one girl was looking at her feet, as Phil taught absolutely no one.
Once Phil was done speaking, he turned to the girl and motioned for her to try again. The girl fumbled with placing the arrow on the bow and when she finally willed the two together, she clumsily shot the arrow and it was launched way up high in the night sky and down, down, down—
Halley stopped it right before it hit her third eye. It was frozen in midair as pink magic engulfed the projectile.
"Oh my Comets! I'm so so sorry Princess!" The aquatic monster stammered. "Please please forgive me! I didn't even see you there!"
Halley grabbed the arrow out of the air and walked over to the group.
"Really it's not problem. Nice shot though. You almost managed to take out the General. Not many can say that." Halley laughed.
That didn't seem to help the girl and she buried her face in her hands and groaned, "I'll never be able to fight."
"Hey it's alright, Beth." A red haired girl rubbed her back consolingly. "You'll get the hang of it."
"No I won't! Everyone else has got this except for me! It's been weeks!"
Phil spoke up, "Beth you're doing fine. You just need a little more time—"
"No," she mumbled miserably. "I'm done. I'm sorry Princess but I can't do this. I'm useless."
"Hey now, that's not true." Halley told her. She thought for a moment, "I've got an idea. Phil, Beth, come with me. The rest of you can call it a night."
Halley led them to a large tent in the front of camp. Inside Mewmans and monsters lay on cots, some more injured than others. The medics were scrambling around, making sure everyone got the attention they needed.
"Why did you bring me here, Princess?"
"Just a second." She called out to one of the nurses, "Diane."
"Yes, Your Highness?" The young woman scampered over to them.
"I've brought you some help for a little bit. Beth is just going to see what you do here."
Diane nodded, "Come along then. There's no time to waste."
Beth looked completely frazzled but went along with her. Diane led her to the bedside of a heavily bandaged Mewman. Ever so carefully, Diane lifted his arm and began to unwrap the bandages. Then she showed Beth how to properly wrap the wound in clean bandages. Her gills flared and she tentatively began to wrap the wound. Halley watched in satisfaction as Beth eventually got the hang of it and was soon doing it all on her own. Halley gave her a nod before leaving the tent with her brother.
"How'd you know she'd be a good medic?" Phil asked.
Halley shrugged, "Just a feeling. How's everything going with the new recruits?"
"Well enough. They are teenagers so getting them to act seriously can be an issue, but," he shrugged. "they've got potential."
"That's good." She nodded.
"How is everything with the troops? Has word gotten back yet?"
She shook her head, "No not yet. They should be fine, hopefully. It's just a clean up job. Simply flushing out any Iron spies."
"Is that it?"
"Yeah I think so." They had reached her quarters. "Why? Should there be something else?"
Brother and sister stepped inside. Phil took a seat at her cluttered table. He glanced at the spare maps she kept, "Honestly...yeah."
Halley stepped behind her partition, "What do you mean?" She delicately took off her gifts and placed them on her vanity.
"James' forces have been giving us hell for the past four months and all of a sudden they're just letting up?"
Halley said nothing as she pinned her braid up into a bun, making sure the flowers stayed intact.
"I just think we should be careful, that's all."
"You're right," Halley relented. "It is very suspicious. I wonder if anyone else has caught on too." She took off her armor and changed into a light dress. "I still have to get a report from the Captain so maybe we'll get some insight." Halley stepped from behind the partition and saw Phil giving her a funny look.
"What?"
"Off on a date, I see?"
"Am I not allowed to step out of my armor for two seconds?" She crossed her arms.
He shrugged, "Fair enough."
With one final glare, Halley headed to the cliff.
They honestly weren't dating. They were just...close. She enjoyed talking to him when she could. With all of their respective responsibilities, they didn't spend nearly as much time together as they used to.
The first thing she noticed was that he was late. She had been sitting on the cliff fiddling with a blade of grass for ten minutes.
He'd better have a good damn excuse, she thought. She had another meeting to go to later. She didn't need him making her late. With a sigh she closed her eyes and started thinking about what Phil said. It was odd that James's forced were dwindling. There was no doubt that they were planning something big. She'd send out two battalions immediately and increase security around the camp. What on Mewni could he be planning...
Hands on her shoulders nearly sent her flying. She whipped around to face a laughing Tucker who seemed more than satisfied that he had spooked her.
"You shouldn't sneak up on a demon you know!" She yelled at him.
"One of these days you'll probably melt my face off for it but for now, it's definitely worth it."
"Ugh, such a jerk." She grumbled.
Tucker flopped down beside her, "Come on you know I didn't mean it. It's been ages since I've been able to sneak up on you. How was I supposed to know you'd freak out?"
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you not to do that." She turned away from him.
Tucker scoffed, "Sometimes I forget how uptight you can be."
"You know you didn't have to come back. You could've stayed in Mewni. Do more work there," She rolled her eyes.
His face grew a bit more serious, "Hey don't do that. I missed you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do." She glanced over at him. "I was just thinking about something important when you scared me."
"What was it?"
"James' forces are just dwindling all of a sudden. I know we couldn't have fought them all off so what's going—"
"That's just what I was going to tell you about." Tucker interrupted. "The castle is getting tighter and tighter to get into. Only Celine and one other can get in right now. Even so, Celine thinks that James is becoming suspicious. She said that he could be planning something that not even she knows about."
"Is it something big?" She asked.
Tucker shrugged, "Thats the thing. We don't know. James is shutting down. He's not saying anything to anyone so we honestly don't know anything."
She nodded firmly, "I'm increasing our forces and security around the camp. If Celine is up to it, I'd like for her to go back. I really want her to push on what's going on."
"But what if she can't?"
"I know she can." Halley closed her eyes and edited and added to her checklist. She heard Tucker quietly chuckle to himself.
"What's so funny?"
Tucker smiled, "Sometimes it's hard to believe your the same person that I met three years ago."
"Sometimes I can hardly believe it myself," she agreed.
"Oh!" Tucker reached into his pocket and held out his hand. "Happy Birthday. It's not too late is it?" He checked his watch, "Nope, only 11:30. Just in time."
Her dropped a small silver chain into her hands. She examined it closer, though it was hard to with the tears forming in her eyes.
"You like it?" Tucker grinned. "I stole it off an Iron corpse."
Halley gave him a horrified expression before he shook his head, "I'm kidding. I bought it in the kingdom."
On the end of the chain there was an S charm. She a was little confused. Her eyes narrowed at Tucker and she crossed her arms, "What? 'S' for stupid or something?"
"No of course not." She glared at him. "It's 'S'," He thumped her forehead. "For squirt, stupid."
"Such a jerk..." She mumbled. Halley examined the jewelry in between her fingers. "This is real silver." It was her turn to smirk. "You really went all out, didn't you?"
"It was nothing," he shrugged. "Cost me nothing."
It was an obvious lie. Silver was extremely hard to come by these days. Mewni didn't receive many imports as James syphoned off all outside communications. It must have cost an arm and a leg. For just a moment she felt so overwhelmed with emotions that she didn't know what to do with herself. It was short lived however. Soon after she began to feel nauseous. Just holding the necklace made her feel nervous.
"I um...yeah. I like it. Thank you." She put the necklace in her dress pocket. He looked a little disappointed that she didn't put it on, but said nothing of it.
"I really should be going..." She stammered, riding hastily. "The troops need to be sent out and I uh... yeah."
"Are you alright?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I'm just busy. That's all."
"Oh," Tucker mumbled.
"Hey," Halley said before she scrambled down the cliff. "Thank you, Tuck. Really."
Tucker gave her a small smile, "Sure."
...
The next day she woke up at sunrise as usual. The camp was pretty quiet on account of most of the troops had been sent out. She nodded to the guard outside her quarters before heading out to see if Celine was ready.
Unlike most of the residents of the camp, the spies resided in a tent seeing as they often weren't there most of the time. Halley ducked through the opening and saw several sleeping bodies on a row of bunk beds. Well...they were trying to sleep. Halley spotted Celine and Tucker at the end of the row "quietly" arguing.
"Is there a problem?" Halley approached the two.
Celine turned away from her brother and spoke to the general, "No it's nothing, General. I was simply preparing for my mission when Captain Greys demanded that he goes too."
Halley tried not to show too much hurt at the prospect of him wanting to go. She cleared her throat, "Well uh, do you think you should be accompanied?"
"No. I've handled many missions by myself." She looked pointedly at Tucker, "I don't need a chaperone."
"General, I'm going to ask you to reconsider." Captain Greys said.
"On what grounds?"
"On the grounds that we don't know exactly what's going on in Mewni right now," He quickly countered.
"And how do you suppose we figure that out?" Celine interjected. "I'm the only one who can get close enough to James. Not you."
The Captain opened his mouth to reply but Halley raised a hand that silenced the both of them.
"Captain, Celine is perfectly capable of completing this mission on her own. I trust she knows her limits."
"But—"
"Enough." She turned to Celine, "Are you ready? If so I'll see you out."
The general turned to leave and the spy followed from behind. Once they left the tent Halley asked her, "And you're sure you don't want backup?"
"I'm positive. I know James better than anyone."
The princess shuffled uncomfortably.
"Sorry," Celine winced.
"It's uh...fine."
Celine snorted, "You know what, Princess? You've grown so much over these past few years but when it comes to me you're still that scared little kid."
Halley flinched a bit at her words.
"Princess it's time for some tough love. You are a wonderful General but when it comes to your demons, you shrink up. You need to learn to conquer that. I and many other did so many horrible things to you and I'm really sorry for that. In the end though, you can't shrink up. Not with this many people behind you."
Halley nodded slowly. Celine gave her a small smile, "I know we can probably never be friends but I want you to know that I do respect you, Halley and I know you'll do great things."
"Thank you, Celine." Halley returned the smile. "Good luck."
With one final look back at the camp Celine responded, "I don't need it."
...
An entire week went by and all was silent. Silent in terms of the battlefield. The camp was anything but. All of the small children took advantage of the practically empty camp and were running amok. Halley was always glad to see them so happy.
She was sitting with Major General Katrina when it happened. That distant boom. Halley was up immediately.
"Kids, back inside," she ordered.
The children all scrambled away back to Safe Haven.
The sky darkened and a wind picked up. It began to swirl around and a dark purple cloud collected in the center of camp. All those left in camp formed a circle around the mysterious cloud.
"Step back!" Halley snapped. She approached the cloud and everyone else had moved aside.
The cloud swirled and formed a portal. Shortly after, a face appeared.
"What do you want?" Halley growled venomously.
James smirked, "So quick to assume that I want something from you."
Halley gave him a hard glare.
"I actually have something for you."
Halley narrowed her eyes and her hand instantly found her sword.
James raised his hand to reveal a body, broken and bloodied. Halley had long ago learned to mask her emotions. She kept a steady gaze with her brother and could hear the gasps within the crowd. She could only imagine what Tucker was thinking.
Shit...
James dropped the body and she didn't so much as flinch which was clearly not the reaction James was hoping for.
"I killed your little spy myself in case you were wondering. You know," He chuckled sinisterly. "You really got one by me. To think I was going to make her my queen. Oh well." He shrugged.
"You're a fucking maniac," Halley hissed.
James dismissed her insult and continued, "I've just about had it with this war, what about you? In a week's time I'm ending this. Myself. Be prepared General Butterfly."
He went to close the portal but Halley stopped him.
"Hey! I'm not done with you."
"What do you want?"
"Mom and Dad. What have you done with them?"
After that day years ago, she hadn't been able to make contact with her parents again, nor could any of the spies find out where they were. If this was ending in a week, she needed to know. Halley clenched her fists, nervously anticipating an answer.
Her heart dropped when he replied, "That's none of your concern."
With that, he severed their connection and the purple cloud dissipated into thin air. Halley stood with her eyes closed for a moment before turning to the worried crowd.
"Everyone, you heard him. The war ends next week. We better start preparing," Halley said grimly. "Sergent Lewis." The monster stepped forward with a salute.
"I want you to take Private Waller and Corporal Zephyr with you to bring back the troops."
"Yes, General." All three replied.
Halley addressed the remaining, "The rest of you I want training, prepping the med tent, or restocking supply. I doubt this will be a small battle."
They all promptly dispersed and Halley didn't even bother to look for Tucker. She couldn't face him. Not yet. Instead she headed to the training grounds. She noticed in her last battle that she was getting a bit clumsy in her swordsmanship. A round with Lieutenant General Reynolds would spruce up her skills as well as keep her mind off things.
...
"Fuck!" Halley hissed in frustration as she was flung onto the ground, yet again.
"Princess," Lieutenant General Reynolds started. "Maybe you should take it easy for today. This clearly isn't—"
"No," She interrupted. "I'm rusty. I need to train."
The burly man sighed but helped the princess up all the same. They got into their positions and were off.
Parry. Thrust. Thrust. Dodge. Parry. Watch your flank. Thrust. Dodge. Thrust. James—
Knocked on her ass yet again. Halley dusted herself off in frustration. There wasn't any time to waste. She had to get back on track.
"Again—"
Shrieking could be heard from the front of camp. Halley was instantly up and on response. Her heart jumped out of her chest at the scene she arrived to.
Blood. There was so much blood. So much bleeding and groaning from so many people. Her troops. The troops she'd sent out to fight no one had fallen right into James' trap. The sound from earlier. What had he done? The medics were out trying to help as many as they could, but were sorely understaffed. Halley wasn't even sure they had that much room in the medic tent.
Still in a state of shock, she forced her mouth to make cognizant sounds.
"Wha...What happened?" She asked no one in particular. The only response she got was someone yelling for her at the entrance.
A little elf was scurrying along, maneuvering around the injured soldiers.
"Princess Halley!" She called.
The general did her a favor and met her halfway.
"I-I have a message for you." She stammered.
Halley took the rolled up scroll and a few of her remaining officers gathered around her. The note read:
Dear General,
If you're receiving this letter then James has finally killed me. I suspected he would sooner or later. He's been acting...differently. All I know now is that he wants a fight. And soon. He's grown stronger. I believe he's reached his full butterfly form. You need to be ready. This is what he's been waiting for I think. He's been drawing out this war so he could finally face you.
Hopefully this letter was given to you in enough time. I would have had it sent out with another spy in the event that I had been killed. I wish you good luck General and it was an honor serving under you.
-C
Halley felt like the air was getting thicker and the trees were closing in on her. Her officers were suddenly suffocating her. She shoved the note into Katrina before bolting away.
"Princess!" Lieutenant Katrina called after her.
"Give me a minute!" She hastily called back.
At her quarters, she slammed the door behind her and slid down against it. She couldn't breathe. Her clothes were getting so tight.
James wiped out half of her entire army and it was all her fault. They'd all die because she hadn't wanted to reach her full Butterfly form.
"Stupid, selfish piece of shit," She cursed at herself. So much blood was already on her hands. She was leading so many to the slaughter house because she was fucking afraid.
There was banging on her door. She didn't answer.
"Halley!" It was her brother. "Open the damn door!"
She couldn't do much trying to fight back a panic attack so her brother pushed the door open with her still against it.
"Hal!" He looked down at her in alarm.
"Stop it," She managed in between breaths. "I'll be fine." Halley shoved her brother's hands away.
"No..." Phil mumbled. In a firmer tone he said again, "No."
"Leave me—"
"Damnit Halley, shut up!" He snapped angrily. Halley's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'm so fucking sick and tired of this. You are not a little kid anymore. Stop being so stubborn."
She glanced at the floor.
Phil sighed, "Look Hal, I get it. You're scared and under impossible levels of stress, but you need to understand that you're not alone. Every single person out there is terrified but they're still doing this and still here to support you."
"I know that," she muttered. "They can train as hard as they like, but in the end," Her voice wavered. "It doesn't matter. James will kill me, then kill them. I'm not strong enough."
"Halley you know I'll help you."
She sniffed, "Buy what if? What if I can't get strong enough and all that we've fought for, all that they've fought for, is lost?"
"Sis you can't focus on things like that. Now is all that matters." Phil pulled Halley up off the ground. She sighed.
"I want you to get some rest. At least for a few hours. We've got a lot of work to do."
Halley knew that everyone else was working hard and she felt compelled to as well but she might quite literally explode if she didn't take a moment to herself. Halley hugged her brother. He used to be so carefree and relaxed. He too had been forced to grow much more responsible and even wiser. It amazed her yet saddened her at the same time.
...
She came out after sunset. The moon was waning. Before she began training there was one thing she had to take care of first.
The climb up the hill was second nature to her, she had been doing it for so long and so often. Halley knew he'd be up there. He had to be.
Just as she thought, he was standing with his back towards her, arms crossed, looking out onto the trees below.
As General it was her duty to give her condolences to the family and loved ones of those lost to the war. It was probably the hardest thing she had to do during the war.
"Tuck..." she cursed the way her voice cracked. He said nothing.
"Tuck," she tried again. Nothing. The princess walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso. She rested her head against his back.
"I'm sorry," She breathed.
After a while he said, "You know, she didn't even write to me."
All she could do was squeeze harder. He was in so much pain. She could tell by the way he spoke.
"I knew my sister for barely two years but it felt like so much longer. She wasn't the best of people when I met her but somehow she changed overtime. This war changed her. She was always so formal. So willing to take I wish... I wish I could've been there for her. I should've..."
She didn't cry too often anymore when giving these grave messages but somehow she just couldn't help it. He wasn't vocally blaming her but the guilt was piling up. She hated herself for crying so openly when it didn't seem that Tucker had shed a tear.
"Halley," he spoke softly after she continued to sob. "Don't cry. Please."
She only cried harder. The princess cried for Celine, for her parents, for her army, for Mewni, for Tuck, and most importantly for herself.
And they stayed that way for a long time, she and Tucker.
General Butterfly and Captain Greys.
They were close. Nothing more.
And a little part of her was glad.
...