So a lot of people have been asking the same question; where's Marcus? Well let me tell you that at this point in my writing I asked that very same question before any of you and I answered that by making him have an explosive part in the next chapter and that's all I'm telling you. Now to get on with some of those amazing reviews. But first, 710 reviews? Wow, I must have broken some form of record.

Bigmike33321: When it does happen just remember, you begged for it.

Finnjr63: Paul? In love with Star? Don't make me laugh … well … technically seeing as he is no longer himself but a combination of Lannister and the person who feels for Star just as strongly or stronger and isn't driven insane by it then I guess he is in love with her.

H. Mae: There are a lot of twists and turns and I'm trying to wrap it all up in a nice little bow. Star doesn't want to be that kind of princess but she does want to be a heroin … I don't like that word, why can't we just call them all heroes like they are? Why do we need a term to differentiate gender when gender doesn't matter for that kind of profession? A hero is a hero, male or female and I'm getting off track. And I did tell you not to trust me but what's really going to get you thinking is if you should trust what I told you about not trusting me.

acosta perez jose Ramiro: Why thank you my friend.

MasterTigress4444: Star just cares too much about her little snuggle buddy.

PureWishes02: It's always the little things that make a chapter.

Gb: I can't wait either.

Rayfe: Well Starco is my new OTP.

mr. face: In my rush I forgot to give him a steady stream of appearances, my bad.

Mr: I'll try later; I don't want to spend all my time on this when I have to update this story.

i stay 12 4evr: Well based on your name you have to be older than 12 but you don't have an account yet meaning that you are nervous about it (or something else) making me think that your still a kid. Then again, you could still be older than 18 but I felt that if I was to make a guess then I was to go with my first instinct even though I suspected it was wrong.

Guest: I can't not respond to a review and if I did that then the other who isn't as good as the better one would stop trying to troll me.

troll face: You don't like anchovies? … HERESY!

starco 4evah: Can he teleport or … is there more to him than meets the eye?

hobos 4evr: Not a fan of that show really.

Disclaimer: Star vs. the Forces of Evil characters belong to Daron Nefcy.

Stella, Marcus, Lannister, Roy, Mathew, and story belong to me

Beta read by Sabrina06


(Marco's POV)

(Later)

He led me to an old house, rather large for a garage. "So this is where you keep your silver?"

"It's an old house my parents bought, they are planning to renovate. I asked them if I could use it for storage and they gave me the okay."

I cracked my knuckles three times and leered at him. "If you're luring me into a trap-"

"It's not a trap." He replied. "You want me to go first or second?"

"Lead the way." I said as I let him go first.

He walked inside and I followed close behind, he led me into the house, and into the living room, where partial weapons adorned the walls. "This is most of what I had managed to get my hands on. I wish I could say that I got my hands on all of the stuff I crafted but … save for this," He held up the bag with the silver he took from the shed. "I have no sterile silver."

"So all of this is regular silver?" I asked, surprised. "I thought Roy only had three tons of it?"

"He did, but it's all been recovered, I have a lot, but Paul has large amount of unsterilized silver."

I looked at it all for a moment and took it all in. "So … what does Paul plan to do with all of it?"

"Kill Star?" He asked. "Well … he did … until I saw him last."

"Yeah." I replied. "He's still dangerous to her though and I need to capture him."

"With his sterilized silver, you don't stand a chance."

"Says you." I replied. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

"You mean your patron?" He asked. "Last I checked, sterile silver inhibits stuff like that."

I turned to him, surprised. "How did you know about my patron?" I asked.

"The eyes." He replied causing me to reach up only to remember that I forgot to cover them.

"Damn it … I'm starting to forget about them."

"Well why worry about them?" He asked. "With all the stuff that's been going on, I don't think many people will find it strange." He walked over and placed his bag near a wall. "Doesn't really matter though; without something to block the effects of sterilized silver, it's useless to you."

I nodded in agreement, it wasn't like I could do anything against Paul if he had even one weapon made from sterile silver but there was one thing he said that caught my attention. "Wait … what do you mean block the effects?"

He shrugged. "Well, sterilized silver will negate magic, but if you were protected by something that had magic that couldn't be negated, then it would prevent the sterilized silver from affecting you."

I thought to myself for a moment, what he said sounded like it would work; but there was one critical problem with it. "Too bad there isn't anything that can block sterilized silver."

He looked at me as if I had just said something incredibly stupid. "Seriously? You don't think there's a single thing that could block it?"

I walked over to him, smiled, and then placed my hands on his shoulders. "Are you telling me that there's a way I can counter Paul's sterilized silver?"

"No, I am not saying that." He replied.

I sighed and looked down for a moment. "Look here … what's your name?"

"Zack."

"Look here Zack, I keep telling you that Star would forgive you for what you've done if you ask; but if you're still worried then I could put in a good word for you and say you helped me take down one of the biggest problems we're currently facing … but I'm not going to lie."

He paused for a moment with his mouth held open, then shook his head. "Well … sterilized silver can't remove magic from normal silver, you need a ritual to do that, so if you are wearing armor made from silver then it will prevent any magic inside you from being negated."

"And that doesn't counter sterilized silver because …"

He leered at me. "Because how will that prevent a spell from being dispersed? Are you going to cover every spell in silver?"

I paused. "Yeah that does sound troublesome but … we were just talking about-"

"AND." He continued. "When silver is sterilized it becomes slightly harder than steel while normal silver is a soft metal, use it as armor in a fight and there is a slim chance that it will last the fight."

I looked down and paused for a moment. "I would only need it for one fight."

He sighed. "For it to be flexible enough to actually use, I would recommend chain or ringmail, on my own it would take me about … a few days at the very least and that would be if I even hade proper equipment."

I looked away. "Should have known it was too good to be true."

"But." Zack began. "Roy commissioned a suit of chain mail for himself a while ago."

"He was wearing it when I fought him, it was already sterilized."

"That was the second version." Zack replied. "The first one was going to be more complete and cover a lot more than just the chest. Sadly, it would be too heavy for him, seeing as he wasn't going to be able to use his patrons strength to lift it."

"So there's another?"

"Yes there is." He walked over to a box and knelt down to before tapping on it. "And I just so happen to have recovered it before Paul."

I walked over to him, skeptical, before pausing. "What's the bad news?"

"It's half built." He said as he opened the box revealing a half suit of chainmail armor and a lot of links. "It wasn't going to be useful, so we never finished putting it together."

I looked at him suspiciously. "We?"

"Back when I was working with Paul, we had a few assistants as well; but now it's only me."

I walked over to the box and ran my fingers through the links. "How long before you can get it together?"

"Two days." He replied. "Maybe less … maybe more."

"Then get on it and I will tell Star how essential you are to taking down Paul."

"After." He interjected causing me to look at him. "Tell her after we've taken him, least that way I can finish this before she ends me."

"She's not going to-"

"I don't care what you think; I want to atone before I face judgment."

I sighed and shook my head. "All right but I will need that armor soon."

He put the lid on the box and picked it up. "All right, just remember, it won't protect you from much other than the sterilized silver's effects and even then, it might not be perfect."

"It's a start." I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down my cell phone number and handed it to him. "Give me a call when it's done."

I walked out of the house and proceeded to walk home. "Man, today's been a long day." I said as I walked. "All I want to do is get home, hug Star, tell her about what happened, work on my homework with her, and go to bed."

"Do you plan to make out with her at some point as well?" Monster Arm asked.

"I'm not in love with her damn it." I retorted. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Stop living in denial and remember what you heard when you looked into the mirror!"

I stopped walking and looked to the side. "What are you talking about?"

"Paul, remember what he said his name was?"

I froze as my eyes went wide. "He said … he was a mixture of Mathew and Lannister, right?"

"That was the previous copy that Star said was a failure, Paul has to be more recent and as a result, is someone new."

"No." I replied. "He … he didn't-"

"He was going to say his name was Marco."

"He never finished, he could have been saying Marcus and we know that he loves Star."

"Then where did he learn to fight? If it was Marcus then why didn't he have fireworks?"

"Because of Lannister, he can fight."

"Lannister didn't use hand to hand; he used fire, not to mention that Paul tried to argue that Star was a friend, something you do all the time."

"Why is this important?!" I demanded. "He was corrupted by Lannister's influence so-"

"This is no longer about your denial Marco, he has your skill and sterilized silver, I won't be of much use to you, you will need an edge."

"The armor that Zack is working on, is my edge."

"If it fails, you will be at a disadvantage, I have something that may help."

"Anything you give me will be countered by his sterilized silver."

"Only the temporary will be countered Marco, I have more permanent gifts that I can offer you."

"You mean like my eyes?" I asked as I opened them. "I have a hard enough time hiding them as it is, I don't need more things to worry about."

"This one can be hidden, or I would not mention it, please, this is your life we're talking about and by extension, my life!"

I sighed, Monster Arm's argument did have some merit; so I decided that I could at least hear him out. "Let's hear what it is this time and don't hide anything from me."

"I can make scales, made from carbon so their density can harden for protection, or soften ... so they can be absorbed into your body."

"And what kind of protection could they offer me?" I asked.

"They will be strong enough to absorb some hits, they will be most effective against slashing. They won't cover your entire body and there will be some space between them. They will be most abundant on your torso, arms, and legs. As for your hands, they will be in small clusters on the back and miniature ones on the back of each finger, the feet will be similar. There will not be many on your face, only appearing on your cheeks and not many at that. Your neck will be most vulnerable, I won't be able to put any there. Your back will be the most protected but don't plan on being a contortionist. In addition, many of your joints will be exposed."

"And you get to control them I presume?"

"No, this would be biological, not magical, otherwise it wouldn't be any help against sterilized silver. You are the one who gets to control them."

I let out a sigh, it sounded cool and if I really could hide them when not using them, then it would be a plus but there was still one problem. "I did promise Star that I wouldn't use any more powers than I already have."

"Think on it, please. They will take six hours to grow in so you can't do this last minute, and you can't hide them while they're growing."

"Fine, I will think on it." Just then, I felt something strange come over me. I looked around, but I quickly noticed that there was a flashing light on my chest. "What the." I placed my hand over it but felt nothing, I then slowly closed my monster eyes and found that it disappeared. "It must be magic." I looked around for the source, but found nothing. Thinking quickly, I ran as fast as I could; hoping that I could get home and get Star to remove whatever was placed on me. As I ran home, I quickly found that the pulsing was becoming stronger and more frequent; which could only mean that whatever was after me was getting closer. "Damn." I said as I rounded a corner. "Looks like I'm going to have to fight."

I turned around and readied myself, but when I did I received a whole different kind of attack then what I expected. "MARCO!" Star shouted as she tackled me to the ground with a hug. "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you're all right!"

"Star?" I asked, confused as I quickly closed my monster eyes. "Were you the one who put a tracker on me?"

She opened her eyes and got up. "Maybe."

"You did, didn't you?" I asked as I also got up. "Why did you put a tracker on me?"

"To track you down if I lost you." She replied bluntly.

"Okay." I replied. "Um … why didn't you ask me?"

"You would have said no."

"Yeah I would have said no!" I snapped. "You can't just put a tracker on people!"

"I thought you were dead!" She retorted. She closed her eyes and turned around. "I was fighting two of the test subjects and … I almost had them, then one said you were dead."

"You fell for that?" I asked bluntly.

"NO!" She snapped as she turned around. "At first I didn't believe it, but when they knew exactly where you were … I feared the worst and ran as fast as I could. I couldn't find you so … I activated the tracker."

"And left both of them alone?"

She paused for a moment. "I need to go back." She began running and I followed her; I tried to ask her some more questions, but she seemed focused on getting back to the test subjects.

When we arrived at the theater, we found one guy unconscious against the far wall and sopping wet. "Phew, at least he's still here." Star said as she walked over to him. "That's one more down."

I thought back to my encounter with Paul and how he too was exposed to the serum. "Yeah … about that." I began. Star looked over to me, confused. "See … Paul was also exposed to the formula."

Star sighed and rubbed her eyebrows. "I guess that's the person the so called Lannister tested his new formula on. Any idea who the new personality is?"

I looked around the room for a moment. "Um … I don't know." I lied. "But they are really good at hand to hand. I nearly had him beat, until he managed to trick me and run off with all the sterilized silver that was hidden there."

She walked over to me and rubbed my shoulder. "At least you're safe."

"Yeah, about that." I began. "Can we talk about that tracker you placed on me?"

She looked at me, confused. "Why?"

"Because you were trying to keep tabs on me?" I replied. "When did you put it on me?"

She paused for a moment. "Um … after that time you were kidnapped."

I sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to be good for my dignity. "Which time?"

"I don't remember." She replied.

I was about to brush it off but I placed a hand over where I saw the tracker last, it was on my chest, around where Marcus stuck the needle a few days ago, meaning that if she was telling the truth then the tracker should be gone by now. "You're lying." I accused. "Star, I thought that we weren't going to keep things like this from each other anymore."

"I'm not lying!" She retorted.

"I haven't been kidnapped since we've found out about the cult, and I've been in battles with sterilized silver a number of times."

"And I'm glad it's still there."

"STAR!" I exclaimed. "When did you 'really' place it on me?"

She sighed and looked away. "When we agreed that you would go after Paul."

"Two days ago?" I asked. "You've … don't you trust that I can handle this myself?"

"It doesn't hurt to be safe!" She spat. "I don't want to lose you Marco, I don't want you involved in this at all; but you insist so … so I just wanted to make sure that I could help you if you needed it."

I sighed, in truth, there was reason for her to worry. I myself wasn't sure if I would be able to take Paul on, especially now that he has all my abilities, as well as Sterilized silver; but I couldn't let Star run head first into danger. "I understand your worry … but you need to remove it."

"What!?"

"Remove the tracker Star, I don't want someone using it to lure you into a trap."

"But-"

"NO!" I interrupted. "I will handle Paul on my own."

"I know but-"

"And if I fail." I continued. "Then I don't want you getting killed trying to rescue me."

"You're too important Marco." She replied. "I'm not going to take even the slightest chance of losing you."

I shook my head. "Well you're more important, Star." She was about to say something but I interrupted her. "And don't even think about saying that I'm more important than the princess of Mewni."

She took a moment before responding. "Fine … how about we compromise?"

I closed my eyes and took a moment before responding. "Fine … what do you have in mind?"

"Bring Stella along with you from now on."

"What?" I asked in disbelief. "But she's helping you with Lannister's test subjects."

"I can handle them Marco, not to mention that the sooner you deal with Paul, the sooner both of you can help with the test subjects."

I was about to argue, but I stopped as I realized something; Stella was significantly better than me at straight up fighting and if Paul really did turn into some twisted version of me ... she would be able to handle him no problem. "That's actually a great idea." I replied softly. "Fine then, Stella and I will go after Paul together, but you have to promise me that you will allow Mathew to place bodyguards on you."

"Marco." She replied, annoyed.

"At least three, not counting Marcus or Mathew."

She sighed and shook her head. "Only until you're done with Paul, then the only person I want by my side at all times is you."

"I'm fine with that."


(No one's POV)

(Later)

Paul stormed into the dimly lit room to find a hooded figure sitting at a chess table, along with Michel. "Lannister!" Paul exclaimed. "You have some explaining to do!"

"Do I?" The hooded figure asked. "It seems to me you are getting everything you ever wanted."

Paul slammed his hands on the table. "I never wanted to love Star!" He exclaimed. "I wanted to get rid of her, but these emotions are just … I can't fight her."

"Of course you can't." Lannister said as he got up. "Marco cares about her much more than poor little Mathew, he's feelings easily put my insanity in check in all the test subjects."

"But I don't want to love her!" Paul exclaimed. "Undo this, NOW!"

Lannister shook his head. "Sorry, but I need Star alive; so you can't kill her. You will just have to live with loving her."

Paul flipped over the table, scattering the pieces everywhere. "I'm going to end you."

Lannister smiled under his hood. "Why would you want to do that?"

Paul paused. "I … because of what you turned me into."

"But you've already turned Paul … or … should I call you Marco?"

"I'm not Marco!" He exclaimed. "I fought Marco earlier, I'm not him."

"Well then … too bad for you. From what I heard, Star has quite the crush on Marco."

Paul's eyes went wide. "She … likes him?"

"No." Lannister said as he shook his head. "She is in love with him and from what I can tell, he is in love with her. It's a little funny actually, the second they kiss it will bring about Star's doom."

"Star's … doom?"

"Yes." Lannister said with a nod. "Kill Marco and you save Star."

"I know that." Paul said with a blank stare.

"You do?" Lannister asked with confidence.

"Yes." Paul replied. "Marco … he's a … he is going to die."

"Good." Lannister looked to Michel who pulled out a box and handed it to him. "We managed to secure this when we freed the, it proved useless to Roy but … maybe it can help you."

He looked up, then took the box. "Thanks … this will save me some time."

"Glad to hear it, now you'd better get ready, Marco needs to die before Saturday, or everything is going to go to hell."

Paul leered at Lannister before walking out. "I'll get this taken care of, you just watch." He slammed the door, leaving Lannister and Michel alone.

"You really think he'll be able to handle Marco?" Michel asked.

Lannister shook his head. "I have no idea … but it would be better if I didn't have to deal with Marco as well as Star."

Michel picked up the table and began putting the pieces back on the board. "I believe you were about to have me in checkmate again?"

"Yes, I think that's how we left it."


Alright, so I bet you're all wondering when the next chapter will come out and I can tell you that I just need to do some touch ups with the main portion and then I will send it off to my beta. Until then, I will be working on my weekly Starco prompt for this week so don't forget to keep an eye out for that. I will see you all next time.

R&R