Writing and editing this chapter was a huge ordeal. I hope you like it. As always, Star vs the Forces of Evil is owned by Disney and Stands are the creation of the brilliant and talented Hirohiko Araki. Yadda. Yadda. Enjoy.

A Clock in my Head: Chapter 13.

(At the bottom of the mountain, many hours later)

It was in the early hours of the morning that the relative calm of the area was suddenly shattered by a familiar tear in the spacetime continuum.

A peculiar purple portal had been slashed into the air, and from out of that open wound stepped the foulest malignancy Mewni would ever know.

A walking disease.

A plague in the form of a man.

A malicious, malevolent malady known only as the Hobyah Man.

With a gentle wave of his bony hand, the tear in reality was once again sealed; leaving the aged Stand User alone and seemingly unprotected in the bleak and barren wasteland at the base of the Jaggy Mountain Range.

But what, you might ask, as well you should, would bring such a powerful and imposing figure to such a desolate and isolated location?

Well, it's all rather simple really.

You see, dear reader, mere moments ago, the walking cadaver presently known as Marcus Brando received a psychic communication from his trusted pet, Mr. Jones; claiming that he had found the object his master do desperately desired. And since he'd never known his feathered friend to stretch the truth, Brando immediately grabbed his Dimensional Scissors and warpped right over to where the signal had originated.

However, when he arrived, Mr. Jones was nowhere to be found.

Very unusual.

Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones, where are you?

He called out psychically; hoping for a reply.

Come on, old friend. I know you're out there. Stop playing these silly games.

But again, there was no response.

Oh dear.

Suddenly Brando was starting to get a little worried. It wasn't like Mr. Jones to ignore his mental calls. Could something have happened to him? No, not likely. In terms of raw power, that little crow was one of the deadliest Stand Users alive. No one on Mewni could've possibly beaten him so easily. He was probably just lost somewhere in the fog.

Yes, that made sense.

Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones, where are you?

H… H…Here… Master…

Came a faint but unmistakable reply on the psychic plane.

Finally. Where are you? There's too much fog. I can't see the sky.

Not in sky… On… ground…

The ground? What are you talking about? What's wrong with you?

Unfortunately, the answer came in the form of a soft scraping sound that seemed to be coming from somewhere close by.

Moments later, a tiny figure emerged from the mist; causing Brando's black heart to leap into his throat. It was Mr. Jones, but not as the Hobyah Man remembered him. Feathers scorched. Wings mangled. Eyes blinded. Left foot broken; forcing him to limp along the ground like a wounded dog while dragging some kind of old bone in his blackened and broken beak.

"MR. JONES!" he cried hysterically as he rushed over to his beloved pet; tears streaming from his eyes. "Oh my little friend! What's happened to you?"

Ignoring the dusty old bone, Brando picked up the wounded bird and cradled it in his arms as though it were a child.

"Oh God! This is all my fault! I never should've sent you off alone!"

"K… K… K… Ka…aaaw…"

"No, don't try to speak. Save your energy." He pleaded paternally. "Just relax and let me read your mind. Show me who did this to you."

Heading his master's command, Mr. Jones conjured a mental image of his assailant. And when Brando caught a glimpse of it, his blood began to boil.

"Ludo." He said as his senses were suddenly overwhelmed by a powerful, animalistic rage. "That loathsome, sawed off, little nobody! How dare he do this to you! Oh, but don't you worry, old friend. He will suffer for this. He will pay! Before I'm done with him, he'll be begging for the FIRES OF HELL!"

Just then, an ominous green glow filled the area; causing the Hobyah Man to momentarily forget his anger.

To his immense surprise, the light seemed to be coming from the old bone Mr. Jones had been dragging. Only upon closer inspection, he realized that the bone was attached to a jagged chunk of rock and what appeared to be a broken crystal… shaped like a star!

Aha! The missing shard of the Royal Magic Wand. Exactly as he'd seen it in Buff Frog's memory. He should have known; even on the brink of death, Mr. Jones would stop at nothing to fulfill his mission. And now, because of his tireless devotion, Brando would finally have the necessary bargaining chip to put the MHC in his pocket.

Oh, but what's this?

Brando thought as his superhuman psychic senses picked up something strange.

Some kind of… intelligence emanating from the broken crystal. So there really is someone in there. Guess Ludo's not crazy after all. Well… at least not about this. Still, I suppose this warrants an investigation.

He looked down at the injured bird in his arms; its breathing was becoming increasingly labored.

Don't worry, old friend. This will only take a moment.

Then without another word, the Hobyah Man focused all of his attention on the glowing ramshackle wand and dove right on in.

XXX

Less than half a second later, Brando found himself standing on the surface of what appeared to be a vast, possibly infinite, ocean. But unlike the oceans of Earth, this one was an odd mix of glittering gold and putrid black.

Less than five feet away stood another figure. A tall, grey skinned lizardman in a jet black power suit.

Not exactly what he'd been expecting, but it was no weirder than anything else he'd seen since coming to Mewni.

"Well, this is different." The reptilian said in a suave yet mildly surprised tone. "Where did you come from?"

"Oh, you know… around." Brando said playfully. "But more importantly, where did you come from? How ever did you end up in the Realm of Magic, Mr. Toffee?"

The look on his scaly face was absolutely priceless.

"How did…" he began, only to catch himself as realization dawned. "Oh, I see. You're reading my mind."

"Very good, mon general." The Hobyah Man said mockingly. "You catch on quicker than most. I'll give you that. I dare say your old master would be quite pleased with your powers of perception. What was his name again? Set? See-hat?"

"I know what you're doing." Toffee said flatly.

"Oh? And what am I doing?"

"You're trying to scare me by showing off how much you know about me. You think that by rattling on about my private thoughts and picking at my insecurities you can throw me off my game. An excellent strategy, I'll admit, but in this case, I'm afraid it just won't work. You see, I already know how you're doing it. I know that you know everything that I know. So there's literally nothing you could say that would surprise me. So why don't we just skip the preliminaries and get right to the point. Who are you? And why shouldn't I kill you for this intrusion?"

Brando felt a sudden twinge of irritation, but he managed to keep his emotions in check.

This operation was much too important to be thrown away on a childish whim.

"Very well, Mr. Toffee. Since you're in such an all-fire hurry, I'll cut to the chase. My name is Marcus Brando, and I am here as a representative of both the Magic High Commission and a new grassroots political movement with big plans for Mewni's future. Plans that you are a hindrance to. So, for the sake of all interested parties, I must insist that you cease your shameless contamination of our natural resources. At your earliest possible convenience, of course."

To which the lizardman replied,

"You didn't honestly think that would work, did you?"

"Heh. Heh. Heh. Of course not." Brando answered with a crooked smile. "But now I can say I gave you a choice. Well, it's been nice chatting with you, Mr. Toffee. But I'm afraid I haven't got all day. So… it's time for you to die."

"Oh really? And I suppose you'll just snap your fingers and then I'll suddenly drop dead?"

"Something like that." He said sinisterly before he broke into his favorite chant.

"Hobyah~ Hobyah~ Hobyah~"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Hobyah~ Hobyah~ Hobyah~"

"What is this? Some kind of curse or something?"

"Hobyah~ Hobyah~ Hobyah~"

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look right now?"

"TEAR DOWN THE HEMP…"

XXX

Suddenly, Brando awoke to find himself seated in a padded chair.

For a brief moment, he thought that his encounter with Toffee might've all been just a dream. But then he noticed that he was bound from head to toe in leather straps, which pretty much flushed that theory right down the tubes.

With his mobility severely limited, the Hobyah Man had to strain his eyes in order to get the full scope of his surroundings. Not that there was much to see, save for a large, mostly empty room with blank walls, tiled floors, and some kind of strange box like object that was just beyond his field of vision. Interestingly enough, everything, himself included, seemed to have been drained of its color; giving it the look and feel of an old RKO picture. And yet, there was something so eerily familiar about this place that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"It'll come to you." Said a suave yet oily voice that sent a chill down Brando's spine. "Just give it a minute."

Seemingly from out of nowhere, the owner of said voice stepped into view. As I'm sure you've already guessed, it was Toffee. Only, like everything else, he too had been reduced to a monochromatic state. Also, for some reason, he appeared to have abandoned his trademark power suit in favor of the medical scrubs of a Cold War Era surgeon.

"What's the matter, Mr. Brando? You seem confused." The lizardman said mockingly. "Or do you prefer Mr. Mathews?"

Brando's heart almost stopped.

"W-What did you just say?"

"That is your name isn't it? Mr. David Allan Mathews. Born in Kennebunkport, Maine, November 5th, 1928. Married to Ms. Elizabeth Anne Epstein, May 12th, 1947. Widowed January 3rd, 1954. Inducted into the MKUltra Program…"

"How do you know that!" the Hobyah Man said harshly.

"Oh, it's quite simple really. The Wand acts as a sort of psychic conduit. It links my mind to that of whoever's holding it. You used it to try and kill me, but the connection runs both ways. That's how I was able to turn the tables." Toffee explained, his every word dripping with self-satisfaction. "Come now, don't look so surprised. I mean, what did you think? That I would just stand there and let you turn me into one of your puppets? I'm the greatest military strategist this dimension has ever seen! Did you honestly believe I wouldn't fight back?"

"Well, clearly I underestimated you. That's my fault." Brando admitted, trying not to show how shaken he really was. "But still, you're crazy if you think I'll let you get away with this. Don't you realize who you're messing with? I'm Marcus Brando. The Hobyah Man! The future god of the New Utopia! There isn't a Stand User on Earth who doesn't quake in fear of me!"

"Maybe, but you're not on Earth anymore. You're on Mewni. My domain." The lizardman said threateningly as he stepped over towards the mysterious boxlike contraption. "And you may have fooled everyone else with your smoke and mirrors, but I see you for what you are. You're not a god. You're not a Hobyah. You're not even Marcus Brando. You're just a decrepit old nobody who's in way over his head."

"And you're just an upright crocodile posing as an intellectual!" Brando spat back. "But you won't even be that before I'm done with you. I'll shatter that pathetic lump of narcissism you call a psyche and have my Monsters use your body for target practice!"

"Oh, I think not." Toffee replied dismissively as he wheeled the mysterious object in front of him. "In fact, before I'm done, you'll never think again."

The Hobyah Man's eyes went wide as he finally got a good look at the strange device. He recognized it instantly as an old fashioned ECT Machine. The very same infernal contraption that had awakened his powers so many years ago.

"You wouldn't." he said, once again trying to hide his fear.

"I would." The lizardman replied sinisterly as he placed his fingers on the dial. "Now, let's start you off with something simple."

Click.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Brando howled in agony as the current ran through his body; charging every cell with crackly hot torment. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Yes~ Yes~ That's it." Toffee said, taking a certain perverse pleasure in his suffering. "Keep screaming. Scream until your lungs burst."

Click.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!

"Oh, and there goes Percy." The lizardman said amusedly. "You remember Percy, don't you? Little Welsh Corgy. William Marcus, the Doctor's assistant, used to always bring him to the lab because he couldn't stand to leave him home alone. And every time they turned on this machine he'd bark."

Click.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!

Click.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!

"Just like clockwork." Toffee mused with a toothy smirk, before he pulled his hand away from the dial. "There, now do you understand? I am the one destined to rule this land, not you. I who was chosen by heaven to exterminate the Mewman Race and all the prideless Monsters who would dare stand with them. I who slayed Queen Comet, who arrogantly thought she could erase the sins of her kind with pastries. I who…"

"Do you ever stop talking?" Brando asked annoyedly. "Honestly. Listening to you is worse than the electroshocks."

"Go ahead, make your little jokes. You're still in my power. Your precious Witchdoctor may have helped you escape this lab in the real world, but it can't help you now. In this world, I control all."

Suddenly, the Hobyah Man was struck by inspiration; causing him to produce a crooked smirk.

"What are you smiling about?" Toffee asked confusedly.

"Oh, nothing." Brando replied teasingly. "I was just realizing what a rank amateur you are."

"Excuse me?"

"You don't have nearly as much control over this mindscape as you think. If you did, then you'd know that I didn't use Witchdoctor to escape from this lab the first time. In fact, I didn't escape at all."

"What are you talking about? Of course you escaped. You're right here."

"Oh, but it's true. You see, that's the part of the story that everyone gets wrong. Everyone assumes that I was the one who killed the doctors and burned down the lab, but that's not what really happened. I was in far too much pain at the time. So when my Stand first activated, the only thing I could do was call for help."

Just then, the entire room began to shake and rattle; as if whatever was beyond it had just been struck by a tremendous explosion.

"What the hell was that?" asked the lizardman, trying to hide his alarm.

"Ask him."

Toffee looked like he was about to ask a follow up question, but before he could, a door on the far side of the room suddenly flew open; revealing a disheveled, faceless man in scrubs on the other side.

"Doctor Brando! Doctor Brando! We have to get out of here!" the faceless figure said to Toffee as though he were someone else. "It's a madhouse out there! The whole place is coming down?"

"What on Mewni is going on here? Who are you?"

"It's one of the lab animals, Sir." The man replied, apparently running on autopilot. "We injected it with the GX-100 like you said, but it… changed it somehow. And now it's on a rampage!"

"What the hell is this nonsense? Brando, what's going on?"

"Please, Sir! We don't have much time! The bird…"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly the walls were blown away by some enormous, unseen force; revealing numerous other rooms and corridors being engulfed in flames.

From his seat, Brando watched in twisted amusement as the shadow of a giant metal Pteranodon fell over his captor and smiled as the memory of his beloved pet unleashed its terrifying war cry.

RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKK!

XXX

Suddenly, Toffee awoke to find himself standing in an open field.

The skies above were tinted a hellish red and the ground was little more than a mass of Mewman bones.

In the distance he could see the smoking remains of Butterfly Castle and in its shadow he could just barely make out a trio of crucified corpses rotting in the pitch-black sun.

The Royal Family, he somehow knew.

And as he looked on at this horrific land of death, the saurian general felt a strange and wonderous new sensation wash over him.

At first he wasn't quite sure what it was, but after a moment or two he understood.

This was the one feeling that had alluded him all his life.

The one thing he'd longed for throughout his countless battles.

Pure.

Unadulterated.

Bliss.

"Pathetic."

Said a familiar voice that seemed to come from multiple places at once.

"This is your idealized vision of Mewni?"

"There's nothing but death and hopelessness."

"Bleh!"

Toffee craned his head in every possible direction, but could spot no sign of Brando or anyone else.

Nothing but bones as far as the eye could see.

"And worst of all, there's no one to rule here."

"Not unless you like talking to skeletons."

"Well, if that's you're in to, who am I to judge?"

Suddenly, a skeletal hand arose from the field of bones; causing the hardened saurian to jump back from the shock. Slowly but surely, the body it belonged to followed suit, revealing the grotesque form of an undead skeleton warrior garbed in traditional Mewman battle armor.

Before he could react, Toffee was quickly joined by another undead warrior. And then another. And then another. Within moments, he was surrounded by over two dozen skeletal soldiers; each one brandishing one deadly weapon or another.

"So, how do you like my undead horde?" asked one of the skeletons in a familiar voice.

"Does this float your boat?" asked another using the exact same voice.

"Brando." The saurian general said with quiet rage. "What trickery is this?"

"No trickery…"

"Just a little something I…"

"Picked up from decades of…"

"Practice…."

"But if it's tricks you want…"

"Then why don't you try this one on…"

"For size…"

All at once, the undead horde closed in on Toffee; each once poised to slice him into salami with their swords and battleaxes. But of course, since he was a highly trained, highly intelligent Monster Warrior, the saurian general made quick work of them; shattering the lot of them into a flurry of broken bones with one swing of his mighty tail.

"Is that the best you've got, you decrepit old monkey?"

"Heavens no…"

"I'm just…"

"Getting started…"

Almost immediately, another five dozen skeletons arose to replace the ones who had fallen; each one wielding an iron kanabo like the ancient oni of lore.

"I realized that cutting you to death…"

"Might be a little cliché…"

"So I thought I might try…"

"Beating you to death instead…"

As the horde closed in, Toffee once again tried the swinging tail maneuver. Unfortunately for him, the skeletons seemed to anticipate this and dodged accordingly. From there the scene devolved into a flurry of motion as the once great saurian general bobbed and weaved in every possible direction to avoid getting his bones bashed to bits by the enemy war clubs.

'This is absurd.' He thought bitterly as he narrowly avoided getting his head knocked off. 'He's split his focus sixty ways and yet his constructs move so fluidly. So deliberately. This makes no sense. This much effort should be giving him a seizure. How? How is he doing this?'

"Simple…"

"You just have to be…"

"A genius…"

"My body…"

"Might be all broken and…"

"Used up, but my mind is as…"

"Strong as ever…"

"Maybe so. But this kind of strain can't be good for you. You've spread yourself too thin. Sooner or later, something's going to break."

"HA! Shows what you know…"

"I've controlled thousands more than this at once…"

"And I will again, once I…"

"Finish you off…"

"Don't you mean if you finish me off? You've got sixty maces swinging and you still haven't hit me once. Very sloppy."

"Trying to mess with my mind again?"

"HA! You're out of your league, boy."

"You can read my mind, but I can read your soul."

"I know what you really are."

"I know what scares you."

"I fear nothing!"

"WRONG!"

For a split second, Toffee let his guard down. And in that instant one of the undead warriors delivered a devastating blow to the side of his face; sending him flying several feet before colliding with the ground with a painful THUD.

"Ugh…" he groaned as he picked himself up out of a pile of bones.

"AH-HAHAHAHAH! Not so tough now, are you?"

One of the skeleton warriors taunted as he and his brethren hung back for a bit.

"You act like you're the be all, end all warrior of the Monster Army, but I know the truth."

"I know why you tried to sabotage Batwin's Banquet…"

"I know why you went rogue…"

"I know why you killed Queen Comet…"

"That's hardly a secret." Toffee shot back, having regained his composure. "I announced my intentions in front of my entire army. I would've paraded her corpse through the street if I'd gotten my hands on it."

"I know what you told your army…"

"I know what you told yourself…"

"But I also know that it was a lie…"

"Excuse me?"

"It wasn't Monster Pride or the rage of your ancestors that guided your hand that day."

"It was fear."

"Fear of a world where you don't fit in."

"You're babbling!"

"Am I? Think about it. You're a solider."

"Born and bred."

"From the day you were hatched you were trained to do one thing and one thing only."

"Destroy…"

"So what?"

"So~ You can't do anything else."

"You can't build. You can't imagine. All you can do is destroy."

"Destroy the evil Mewmans."

"Destroy their farms."

"Destroy their castles."

"Destroy their Magic."

"Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!"

"Shut up!"

"You act like an intellectual. But in your heart you're nothing but a rabid animal."

"And in a world at peace there's no room for a man like you."

"That's why you killed her. To spare yourself the shame of being an outcast."

"Of being forgotten."

"I said shut up!"

"As you wish."

Suddenly, a swarm of skeletal hands sprung up from the ground beneath him and started grabbing at his legs; dragging him down into the earth.

"No! Get off me! Get away!" he shouted as his legs and pelvis sank slowly into the dirt. "Damn you, Brando! This isn't over! I'll get out of this!"

"Wrong again."

"This is where we part ways."

"Nice chatting with you, Chopper Face."

"It's been fu…"

XXX

Suddenly, Brando awoke to find himself sitting in a large, comfy chair.

No longer was his consciousness spread amongst a multitude of psychic constructs.

Once more he was but of one mind and one body.

"Damn it." He cursed bitterly; pounding his fist against one of the armrests. "Sneaky little crocodile. Let my guard down for half a second and he takes control. Again! Ugh… I hate getting old. Why, if I was twenty years younger…"

"You'd still be ancient." A familiar voice said mockingly.

"Speak of the salamander." Brando retorted. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come out and show yourself, you saw-toothed gecko."

"My, aren't we impatient. We'll have plenty of time to talk later. But first, how about a little music?"

With an unseen snap of the lizardman's clawed fingers, the house lights came on; revealing a massive, ornate ballroom befitting Louis XIV. Gothic, ornate walls made of sterling silver. Floors of polished marble. Muraled ceiling befitting the Sistine Chapel. And beneath that magnificent fresco, dancing in perfect synchronization to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, were dozens, if not hundreds, of life sized mechanical dolls; each one modeled after a different lord or lady of the Court of Marie Antionette.

And as he sat upon his golden throne, Brando couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this most peculiar scene.

"Is there a point to this or are you just showing off?" he asked, clearly in no mood for such frivolity.

"Just returning the favor." Toffee replied as he suddenly materialized at the center of the dancefloor. "You showed me my ideal version of Mewni and now here's yours. I hope you like it."

"Seriously? In what way does this nonsense even remotely resemble my Utopia?"

"Why, this is the world you've always wanted. A Kingdom of Dolls. No ugliness. No emotions. No free will. Everyone and everything moving in perfect synchronization with no deviations or mistakes. A Clockwork World."

"Again I ask, do you have a point?"

"Just one. Dolls are pretty to look at, but they break much too easily."

With a toothy smirk, the barrel chested mugger lightly tapped one of the female figurines, causing it to collapse into a heap of gears and porcelain. Moments later, several of the other dolls began to break as well. Shortly after that the entire room began to shake; large jagged cracks forming in the walls and ceiling. Then with another condescending snap of his clawed fingers, the entire room shattered; leaving only an inky abyss

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Brando roared as his throne started to fall into the infinite void.

Fueled by every once of hate and fury he could summon from his black heart, the Hobyah Man launched himself at Toffee with the force of a cannonball and attempted to wrap his boney fingers around the latter's thick reptilian neck.

Ever the fighter, the Septarian General resisted this attack, but alas, the sudden loss of concentration caused them both to start plummeting into the great blackness.

Not that either of them seemed to notice this fact. As they were much too preoccupied trying to kill one another to even notice.

"Saurian Psychopath!"

"Decrepit old fool!"

"Saw-toothed Salamander!"

"Senile old goat!"

"Overgrown Gecko!"

"Pretentious ass!"

But suddenly the two ceased their senseless name-calling when they noticing that they were apparently hurdling towards what appeared to be an ever-expanding ball of white light.

"What is that?" asked Toffee, almost fearfully.

"Not sure." Brando answered casually. "But if I had to guess, I'd say our shared mindscape has been pushed to its limits. Any second now it will collapse, and the resulting psychic shockwave will rip your mind to shreds."

"Oh well, if this is my fate then I'll embrace it as I would a lover. I may have lost my chance for revenge, but at least I can take comfort in the knowledge that your dreams will die too."

"Wrong again, my good Gila Monster. You see, when it comes to mental fortitude I'm afraid you're just a big fish in a small pond. Where as I on the other hand am a veritable megalodon."

Just then, the white light enveloped them; forcing upon them intense amounts of pressure comparable only to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

"Welcome to the ocean, big boy!"

XXX

Suddenly, Brando awoke to find himself back in the real world.

Or at least, he thought it was the real world.

Best to make sure.

Arthritic fingers.

Check.

Aching back.

Check.

Labored breathing.

Check.

Yep, this was reality alright.

With that confirmed, the Hobyah Man checked his watch to see how much time had passed.

"Two minutes, thirty-five seconds. Damn! I hate getting old." He muttered before turning his attention to the black and grey mass lying at his feet. "Oh well, at least I'm in better shape than you are, old sport."

With a cruel, almost childlike sense of amusement, Brando looked down at what remained of the once great Saurian General. Gone were his piercing gaze and silver tongue, and in their place were blank, lifeless eyes and a puddle of drool.

"How sad. You were indeed a worthy opponent. So clever. So devious. But in the end, your mind just wasn't strong enough. And now you're nothing but a mindless husk." He said mockingly as he bent down to pluck the blackened jewel shard from the lizardman's palm. "Where as I am one step closer to achieving my fondest wish. My Utopia."

"k…k…kaa…aaw…"

"Mr. Jones!" Brando exclaimed as he finally remembered the injured bird in his arms. "Oh my sweet heavens! I completely forgot about you! Oh, please forgive me, old friend."

"ka…kaw…"

"No, no, don't strain yourself. I know just what to do." He said in an attempt to soothe his beloved pet. "Unfortunately, it's too late to get you to a vet. Your body's too badly damaged."

His concern quickly turned to joy as he looked down at Toffee's empty vessel; a hideous, crooked smile spreading across his lips.

"But luckily for you, I've already found a replacement."

End Notes:

See you in the next one.

Peace.