"Ah good evening, Laurence. What brings you to the campus grounds on this wee hour?"
"I should ask the same of you. Taking a moonlit stroll, perhaps?"
"Not quite. But if you must know, I am on my way to converse with Master Willem. I take it you've just done the same?"
"Yes. For the last time, I'm afraid."
"Oh. Finally leaving Byrgenwerth, are you?"
"Indeed. Have you decided to change your mind and join me?"
"My humblest apologies Laurence, but I've still no interest in the machinations of blood and its potential for your people's benefit. It is pertinent to my studies that I remain here."
"How ironic that such rebellious royalty has ultimately conformed to the whims of the establishment."
"Rest assured my friend, that my continued attendance is for my own interests. Not that of Willem's or the rest of the school's."
"Mind you, I am speaking in jest. Of course I completely understand. For what purpose do you seek the old man, if I may ask?"
"Well, do you recall weeks ago during one of our underground expeditions, I stumbled upon this?"
"Your ghastly amulet? What about it?"
"Yes well, I've yet to tell anyone until now, but ever since I first acquired it, I've been having a series of... recurring dreams every other night that seem to weave a narrative with each consecutive night. It started out frivolous enough to bear not mentioning, but the vividness of the imagery and their influence increased over time. Tonight was the breaking point in which I could not even close my eyes without beginning to hear... the voices and seeing their distinct, indescribable forms errantly cutting through the darkness of my dormitory."
"This sounds rather grave. What has been ailing you?"
"I've been getting confronted by visions of... five inhuman beings... every night. Demanding things of me through baffling abstraction after baffling abstraction. Constantly stating that I am their kin and we shall inevitably meet at the appointed time and place. They continued referring to me as the 'Bearer of the Crimson Behelit' and 'Queen of the Black Sun'. Strangely enough, I've yet to be crowned queen, but they insist on addressing me as such. I thought very little of it at first, but the consistence and their eventual manifesting before my sight compelled me to be here tonight."
"Eclipsa, are you sure these aren't just fabrications of your addled mind born from your fervent research into the 'Old Arts'? Have you been regularly taking your Sedatives as urged by the professors?"
"Of course I have, but they simply refuse to let up. As ridiculous as this sounds, I think I might have been contacted by Great Ones. Through this... 'Behelit' I believe they were referencing."
"That is a rather bold claim, Eclipsa... regardless, what else have they been telling you?"
"As I've mentioned, they've uttered very specific demands that offered very little in the way of clarity and rationality. Though, this only occured on a seldom few of my encounters with them. The first one was, 'Seek the mind united and the mind unseen with a mind unclouded'. Then it was 'swim with the vacuous beneath the fluid surface of knowledge. Another was 'Sever the ties of progenitor and progeny before the pale evening'. And finally, and this is the vaguest one yet, 'Unite, feed, ascend'."
"But that's impossible. Do you have any idea how long Willem and even Micolash have been making attempts to contact the Great Ones to very little avail? And now a group of them are just speaking to you in dreams? Unsolicited and unprovoked? Has Willem harvested all those eyes for naught? I honestly find this very hard to believe."
"I understand your apprehension, but what other explanation would you have for something like this? The frequency and the circumstances are far too suspect to be mere illusions."
"Well, the mind is a rather fragile thing that delves into the realms of the absurd and the surreal when pushed its limits. Hallucinations and other mental afflictions run rampant among scholars of this institution, as you are well aware of. Rather than wait and allow myself to deteriorate like everyone else, I'm opting to move forward and expedite our much-needed advancement. For your sake, perhaps you ought to do the same."
"I'm already doing just that, Laurence. For my own kingdom. I just need to delve further into this new development. Who knows? If my suspicions are to be confirmed, then perhaps it would do well to bring me further and further towards the fruits of my labor. And could you imagine how severely his wrinkling face will tear at the seams of it turns out that I've contacted Great Ones well before they received even a hint of his existence?"
"Heh heh, I would very much enjoy seeing that. Well, whatever happens, I hope that all goes in your favor moving forward. It has been a pleasure, Eclipsa."
"The feeling is mutual. Goodbye, Laurence. May your future endeavors allow mankind to see the folly of their meager existence. Be sure to steer clear from any unfathomable depths, if the Adage is anything to go by."
"Many thanks. I urge you to do the same."
Star splashed right out of the bubble once again, but she was prepared enough to land on her feet as opposed to on her face.
"Ha! I was ready this time. Can't fool me twice!" She gloated to no one in particular. For a brief moment, the sea captain looked her way with those tired, baggy eyes, then continued staring into the flames once again.
"Alright the- whoa, wha?"
A feeling of shock and awe overtook Star as she surveyed the surrounding red sea. Many of the bubbles that were once blank now had clear, crisp images drawn across their surfaces. Every memory seemed to have filled in just by completing the arbitrary and somewhat confusing tasks ordained by the prior ordeal she just went through. As far as the eye could see, images of still events taken from Marco's perspective filled a huge chunk of the ocean with a few blank ones nestled in between. If the low point of view was anything to go by, then they all had to be childhood memories. Some were normal and mundane, some were pretty happy, and some... not so much. Star opted to ignore those as she scanned the area.
All in all, she was relieved that there was no need to go through and fix each individual memory. Not that she wouldn't be willing to do it, but it was a huge load off her shoulders knowing that this would end up being quicker and easier than she'd initially thought. Seems as though she only had to go through events that were pivotal to his upbringing and development as a person and in reviving those important moments, every other that were linked to them would in turn be revived as well.
"Hmm, I wonder..." Star curiously spoke. She was distracted by all the bubbles suddenly emerging from the sea to try it before, but she decided to take a hand to the one she just completed to see the result.
As she kept her touch on the surface, it replayed the memory of Sensei inducting Marco into his school. Star considered taking some time to go through these memories like some sort of movie marathon. She immediately crossed that off her mental to-do list when she realized that there were some things in Marco's mind that he'd most likely want to keep out of view from errant, curious eyes. There's a virtue in respecting another's privacy after all.
Seeing many blank bubbles beyond the horizon of filled in ones, Star's trek continued. Her wide blue eyes glazed over the fruits of her labor with each splashing step. Her gaze rose to the sky and she became ecstatic upon seeing her progress steadily perforating the field of clouds above, making way for the shining stars to grace the astral environment and lead her beloved back home.
With a gleam in her eyes and an inferno of determination burning brightly within the depths of her soul, Star marched on over to the next pivotal memory. A bubble swirling with a cloudy blend of varying shades of red and yellow. Learning her lesson from her last excursion, she opted to slowly walk into the water to insure a less painful transition.
"Whoa... I'm... huh?" Star's face went at every angle as she stood in a combination of confusion and disbelief. Her mouth repeatedly opened and closed as her mind fumbled to rationalize everything her eyes attempted to process.
By no means was this as baffling and surreal as her previous location. This was baffling and surreal for a different reason entirely.
This wasn't just a memory of Marco's, but a memory of hers as well. Her heart sunk into her stomach, then began pounding against every inch of its walls.
Though she was overtaken by her own emotions for a brief time, she understood exactly why she was here. In fact, this just might be the most important memory she was tasked with fixing. The occasion that became the crux of Marco's recovery. The glue that kept the two united, whether directly or tangentially despite their current ordeals. The very reason why she was able to stand here in the first place. And it has all come full circle.
The Blood Moon Ball.
Just as she remembered, the entirety of the large, circular dance hall was filled to the brim with well-dressed, yet still ghastly-looking demons, all frozen in time. Tom shared the same condition, standing by the DJ as he was in the middle of administering his loud, angsty persuasion to change the music, his eyes and jaws stretched to angry lengths and widths.
Tragically for him, his desire to have his soul bound to Star's was immediately quashed when Marco came into the picture and instead it was Marco and Star whose souls were bound. Despite the fact that she ended up being somewhat furious towards his misplaced concerns and need to protect her, she was, in retrospect, beyond glad that he came by and acted as the "hero", regardless. But according to Glossaryck, Tom and Star's souls wouldn't have been tethered anyways on account of the lack of any significant connection. And even if they were still dating at that point, it would've been severed eventually.
Star noticed that upon entering here, she felt a little... exposed. Like her clothes suddenly shifted to something a little more loose.
And lo and behold, she was in the state of dress made for the occasion. That shoulder-exposing, solid pink, dress with its white-pink bow tied around her abdomen and its frilly, puffy skirt surrounded by hearts. The pair of white gloves that went up to her elbows and the white boots that lined her legs and went slightly above her knees. Her knee-length hair tied and culminating into a large, blonde bun that hung behind her head.
She noticed that all the bystanders were arranged in such a way that widened the space of a particular area, most notably around the center of the dance hall. Pushing past heavy, distinctly shaped bodies, she headed towards the middle of the room, knowing full well why it was the way it was.
Standing within the open ring made by the surrounding ball-goers was current-age Marco, clad in his black tux, red sombrero, and mustached skull mask. He stood alone, his hands wrapping and holding something or someone that wasn't there.
Peering down at her current wardrobe, it immediately clicked. Star's heart went aflutter as she skipped joyously towards her beloved as she looked forward to reliving such a magical moment in her youthful life.
Standing before him, she nestled herself between his body and the arm that wound around her waist, then wrapped his raised, bent fingers in hers. The very moment the two made contact and stood in position, the blood-red spotlight was cast upon them, the rest of the room darkened to accentuate its hue and brightness, and the appropriate waltz music commenced playing.
As before, Star allowed herself to be swept up and led around the dance floor. Much like before, she was captivated by her partner's dexterous and fluid motions, completely lost in her juvenile exuberance as her lithe form moved in smooth, frictionless tandem with his. This time, she knew exactly who the masked stranger was, and in direct opposition of the event's first occurrence, her knowledge of his identity did very negligibly to sully the immense passion that formed an impenetrable, obtrusive layer over her mind, body, and heart. Her shimmering blue eyes gazed passed though the flimsy skull mask and peered deep into the hazel abyss that lied beyond. Her consciousness was completely detached from her body as they acted on their own volition and followed his rhythm.
As they glided across their wide open space graciously provided for them, they held a death grip on the attention of everyone else in attendance, their pupils moving along with them as they smiled, oohed, ahhed, and were just generally enthralled by their graceful movements.
For the moment, nothing else but her and Marco existed in this world. Everything that surrounded her became a complete blur, accentuating her awareness towards her beloved even further as the concept of sense slipped off the edge of her psyche. At that very moment, in a multitude of ways, the two teens coalesced into one single entity.
"Star?" He called out to her. Just like before.
She didn't answer at first, just like before.
"Star..." He repeated. Again. Again-again, one might even say.
This time around, Star deviated from the script and once again remained silent. Instead opting to continue dreamily staring into his concealed countenance with half-lidded eyes.
"Star! It's me! Marco!" He says as he took a second to pull his mask off and reveal his face.
"Mm-hmm..." And now the rest of the script has been thrown away. Her gaze remained dreamily transfixed and her body refused to break routine.
"Uh, we gotta get outta here. This place is the worst!"
"But I don't wanna leave..." Her voice was low and longing. "I wanna stay here foreverrr..."
"What!? But Star, you-Oof!"
Breaking the proverbial spell that was put on Star, her eyes widened and her lips parted when she stared in shock at the fury-filled Tom roughly pushing Marco onto the ground. On cue, the blood-red spotlight faded from view, and the demon prince stood there, festering in his boiling anger and igniting his entire being to prepare to scorch his rival in hapless romance into a smoldering crater.
Something snapped within Star upon seeing her beloved laying flat on the ground. Exposed and vulnerable to any manner of heinous atrocities. For the narrowest of seconds, a familiar image flashed in her mind and pressed the switch that pushed her over the edge.
"That dance... WAS FOR-"
Rather than wait until Tom escalated his anger to the point of erupting the entire room in flames, Star tackled him into the ground. The fact that her wand, though a figment of a memory, was in her possession and primed for casting never once brushed her mind. Straddling her date's downed form, she began unleashing unrelenting punch after unrelenting punch upon Tom's face, gradually bruising it into a deeper shade of purple as her knuckles embedded into his flesh. The periodic cracks and thuds of fist hitting flesh and Star's vocal exertions were all that echoed throughout an otherwise silent ballroom.
The poor prince made every attempt to feebly block her savage strikes, crying and begging her to stop, but her feral fury numbed her to the unnecessary brutality of her actions and blinded her to the frozen gazes that bore witness to the brutal display before them. No one made even the slightest attempt to stop her. Not even Marco himself.
Just as she was lost within the throes of love and passion, so too was she lost in her own unbridled rage, disregarding the fact that she was severely altering the course of this event.
Satiated by Tom's visage reduced to an unrecognizable, swelling mass, she rose to her feet, taking a few moments to stabilize herself as as she panted profusely. The now-victim simply laid there. His body violently quivered. Soft, wavering whimpers escaped his swollen lips and tears slipped through the tightly shut cracks of his blackened eyes. Star got back on script and angrily trotted off in a huff. For reasons that weren't present the first time.
"Let's go, Marco." She breathed as she walked right past him. Marco staggered to his feet as he got up, briefly looking behind him in subtle worry as he followed his friend closely behind.
With that, the two departed the scene, leaving behind a silently sobbing, whimpering illusory mess and a horrified illusory crowd. The whole area dissolved into a blurry blend of colors, then into black as Marco and Star ascended their demonic carriage back home.
"Thanks for the lift!" Star flashed a moment of optimism before trudging into her room somewhat downtrodden as opposed to irritated. She was at odds with her own emotions now that she was retreading this event looking through a different set of lenses. A cracked, rose-tinted pair.
"Star? You ok?" He worriedly asked. She stayed silent. She merely plopped herself onto her bed and blankly stared at the ceiling.
Man, it felt like it's been ages since she's been here. She missed living with the Diaz family. She especially missed living in blissful ignorance of what horrors the future held that led up to this point in the first place. She wondered if she could just lay here and stay with this Marco forever.
With his sombrero and mask cast aside, he sat right beside her, letting the silence linger as he gazed into the floor and folded his hands.
"Um, thanks for saving me back there." He said as he rubbed the back of his head. "And yeah, I warned you about Tom. Though, I'm not sure if dealing with him that way was... really necessary."
"H-he... was going to hurt you..." She said, unconvincingly trying to justify her actions. She choked on her words a little as she made efforts to hold back the sorrow that attempted to spew forth. "If I hadn't stopped him, he would have..." She trailed off into silence. Her eyes haven't left the ceiling since she first spoke.
"Yeah, like I said, thanks. I guess he won't be bothering us any more after that, huh?" He shrugged and sheepishly smiled as he tried to bring a little levity to the situation.
Rather than think about the possible consequences of what she's done, she instead mulled over what Marco had said a few nights prior. That this was the night where his feelings for her reached their fever pitch. It's what pushed him to pursue her and brought them to this point in the first place. And she has this knowledge in hand while metaphorically going back in time.
She stood up on the bed and shared a solemn gaze with her best friend. While they were in different positions from the original event, Star still had the chance to make things right. She could fix this memory and go on to fix the rest of his mind and get him back. Sure, it'd be a bit different this time around, but the pivotal moment has yet to be realized. She just has to say "I don't need a hero, I need a friend". That was it. She just has to shoot him down this one time. She has to keep his mind's timeline on the right track.
So why was her face instead drawing closer to his?
Putting up no resistance or any effort to stop it, Marco immersed himself in the moment and allowed his lips to make contact with Star's, breaking every barrier and boundary that ever existed. Their contact pushed further as they held one another's cheeks to bring themselves even closer to the other. Their lips widened just a tad to engage in another passionate, fervent dance of tongues as they shared their fluids and their oxygen. A tantalizing fusion of his cologne and natural scent wafted into her nose, devolving her further and further into a lecherous frenzy. She didn't know why kissing a mere figment of her crush's memory felt as real as the actual person and she didn't care. Her primal desires clouded her judgement and melted away any and all inhibitions.
Her hands shifted from his face to his chest as she lightly pushed him flat on his back. Before their mouths were forced to part, her lips briefly gripped his lower lips. She momentarily lamented that they had to break off abruptly, even though she was the one who initiated it. She crawled on top of him and immediately pelted his face with consecutive, moist pecks. Then their lips met once again, the intensity of their consummation increasing with each breathless moment. Her hips began grinding against his. Wanting him. Needing him. To make him hers and hers alone. Her lust rocketed sky high when she felt a rather firm protrusion hitting her crotch. It was abundantly clear that he wanted the same thing.
"St... Star... we shouldn't-mmf." He attempted to speak within the fleeting reprieves between kisses, but she wanted nothing more than to bask in the moment and lose herself in their union. She was numb to the growing burning sensation in her forearm, its dermal effect concealed by her elbow-length glove.
With a quick smack, the two parted, though she kept her hands firmly on his cheeks as both of her thumbs gingerly rubbed circles against his soft, tan skin. She then started straddling and grinding against his hips, goading him further into giving into his clear desires so she could take the opportunity to placate her own. Just a scant few layers of cloths with one of them being damp was all that stood between her and complete gratification. To undo the errors of the past. To take back what was originally stolen from him.
Heh, a spitting image. I knew it.
Star's eyes went wide when she was drenched in the cold water bucket of realization. Her breath hitched and her heart sunk into her stomach when she became acutely aware of what she's been doing. What she has done. It was made even more plain to her when purple veins grew from the hems of her gloves and rose up her arm.
Countless cracking sounds resonated throughout the room as if it was made of glass that was on the precipice of breaking. Her eyes went all around as every inch of the environment was getting covered in dark purple veins spreading at the speed of wildfire. The very fabric of the space around her was steadily tearing at the seams.
"No! Nononononnoo! What have I done!? WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" Star shouted in peerless panic as the severity of her foolish, selfish decisions dawned on her.
Her eyes flicked to Marco, his face frozen in mid-grimace and his whole frozen in time as it was also enshrouded beneath all the branching lines that tore throughout his entire body.
"Marco!" She feebly yelled to no effect nor any purpose.
A high pitched whining noise pierced her ear drums as a purple-white light began cutting through all the cracks made in the environment and poured rapidly into the room, burying every distinct color until the light was all that remained. Marco's entire form ended up being cloaked beneath the blinding brightness as well and Star was left floating in an endless, colorless void.
A few seconds after and the entire "room" shattered into massive pieces of what looked like glowing, ethereal glass, revealing the Blood Moon-kissed, bubble-filled ocean that brought her here in the first place. She fell on her rear upon the solid water, her dress reverting back to her original clothes.
She sat there hopelessly, bearing witness to, with great devastation, the sight of every surrounding bubble, one after another, whether blank or otherwise, shattering like glass before her very eyes. Bit by bit, one by one, all of Marco's memories were breaking off into countless pieces, bringing her progress to a spiraling plummet and further destroying any hopes of ever recovering her beloved. His body would be comatose for the rest of his life and his soul will forever lack a proper vessel to return to. He has officially died. She'll never truly see him again. She'll never get to be with him in his entirety ever again. Eclipsa and Toffee has officially won. And it was all her fault.
No...Nononononononono! NO!
She refused. She will not be subjugated by her own flaws or the evil acts of others. She will not let the results of her mistakes remain. She will not let the likes of them have even the most scarce chance of victory.
And most of all, she will not be the one to have a hand in Marco's demise.
While all the pieces of every memory still floated in the air, Star instantly shot to her feet and her eyes commenced glowing a blank white as she Dipped Down. And with a booming echo, she uttered the invocation for her mother's spell.
"Shining justice burning in me. Good as new will this body be. Unbreakable can we only aspire. Let the voice of love take us higher."
With her right hand raised to the air, she became cloaked in a sky blue aura, which soon spewed forth out of her open palm. Then it cloaked the space around the floating pieces in a cloud of energy, keeping them in place. From the ethereal blue mass, came more streams of magic that spread all throughout the field of shattered bubbles, grabbing each and every individual group of broken memories going so far as beyond the horizon.
Finally, with a hard squeeze of her palm, every piece fell back into place, returning and molding back to their liquid, spherical shapes. All the images for the revived memories were splayed across their watery orbs once again.
With a fading of the light in her eyes and a staggering of her body, Star emerged from her dipping down. Her head pounded against her skull and her lungs were on fire. She fell back onto the solid water, letting her exhaustion pass over as she wallowed in frustration and self-loathing. She pounded her fists to her temples repeatedly, rebuking herself over the absolutely slimy lecherousness of her actions.
"Oh ho ho, you are so lucky your mommy taught you that spell." The Serpent snarkily commented. "See what I mean when I said you needed me? You couldn't bring your wand, but at least I'm the next best thing."
"Fuck you." She shot back without a hint of emotion, yet with a dormant anger that lied beneath.
"Hey hey, who was the one who almost ruined everything again? And who was the one who ended up fixing it?"
She didn't say anything more. Instead she got back up and went back into the memory.
This time, she made every effort not to change any part of the memory. She decided to heed Glossaryck's warning this time and do as much as she could to maintain accuracy and get as close to her original actions and effects as she could. She wasn't completely meticulous over every single minute detail as she mainly focused on the broader, more crucial aspects.
Though she put on the best enamored teen girl act while dancing with Marco, she couldn't get into it as much as she did prior after that crisis that she fortuitously averted. It felt more like going through the motions at that point.
And instead of rearranging Tom's face to quell the inferno that enveloped his being and the room, she froze him in a block of ice with her wand as was intended. She even poofed his "0 Days Anger-Free" Pin onto his tux even though she didn't really have to. She didn't even consider seeing if she could cast any other spell with her replica wand. She was going through this thing again with absolutely zero deviations.
Then onto the climax of this whole debacle. The shootdown. While she was able to produce the genuine frustration needed for this part, it was still difficult to execute, all things considered. Though all of her intended lines were directed specifically at Marco, she pretended that she was chastising herself, as he as well as she deserved it for that moment, but for different reasons and in different points in time. She especially put more emphasis on the "You're infuriating" line, directing that more towards herself.
She also intensified her emotions and tone when she got to the "I don't need a hero, I need a friend" part. Not only was she saying it for his retrospective benefit, but it was a very subtle cry for help. The line rung true in more ways than one and right here, right now, she needed him now more than ever. The real him, not past him.
After all that's been said and done and Star urged him to go get her some Nachos, her body slacked and leaned against the stone railings of her balcony. She noticed the entire balcony was awash in a faint, red light that poured from the sky above.
"What? Was this here before?" She inquired out loud as she was genuinely surprised by this new development upon going through this event for the third time.
Her eyes followed the luminescence to the black, star-spotted evening sky.
While she did see the Blood Moon just looming over them as she expected, she could swear that, for a fraction of a second, she caught sight of something else that cut in front of it before it instantly blinked out of existence. The dark, abominable silhouette of something not of their world. It had unnaturally stretchy limbs, an elongated body, multiple tails, and a bulbous head crowned with wriggling tentacles.
Was that there originally, too?