Aflame

by Jknotdeadlol

6 months after the Merge, Star and Marco are finally together. But when an unfamiliar enemy appears and threatens everything, they'll have to face a final test together to make sure the conjoined world they brought together isn't consumed by flames.

15. Chapter 15: A Single Beating Heart

Aflame

Chapter 15

A Single Beating Heart

One foot in front of the other.

It was a simple as that.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Lef-LOOK OUT FOR THAT PEBBLE! Carefully step over it. Careful…there. Done. Keep going. But watch your step. Now, left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.

This is pretty much what was going through Marco Diaz's head as he made his way through Echo creek, slowly heading towards the magic sanctuary. Even something as simple as walking in a straight line was forcing him to have an enormous amount of concentration, and it was plain to see that fearlessness was one of the many things he was lacking at the moment.

But the harder he tried to make himself blend in, the more he stood out. What with his casting side glances at everybody that passed by him, his suspiciously straightened posture, and his heedful manner of walking, it would be an understatement to say that he was being conspicuous. His personal suspicion towards everyone else was exclusive to no one. As of this moment, everyone was an enemy. No one could be trusted. He looked around again at the swarm of people crowding the sidewalk, sweat starting to drip from the side of his head as nervous thoughts clouded his mind.

What were they thinking? Did they know what he did? Were they silently judging him for it, or was this something else entirely? Who knew? Who didn't know? Did any of them know, and if so, then what could he-

'Stop it.' He thought to himself. 'You're overreacting. There is no way that any of these people could possibly know what you did. You were the only one there. Only Star knows. Only Star…'

Marco stopped where he was and stood silently, pedestrians detouring around him as his mind went back to Star, the love of his life, the person who he almost beaten to death no less than a half hour.

'Why...why did I do that?' He thought, his normal mind coming back to him. 'What came over me? I nearly killed her! I hardly even hesitated to beat her into a bloody pulp! It felt like I was doing that, but at the same time, it was just like some weird dream. Like some kind of hypnosis. Did Janna…? No. She wouldn't make me do that. Star's her friend. She couldn't have made me do that. I'm pretty sure she's still in the hospital. Unless she escaped...NO! What had gotten over you? First beating Star into the ground, now accusing Janna of doing something that had to be your own fault? What is happening to me? What is-'

'Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…'

Marco's thought process stopped dead at the sudden shushing, a voice that didn't come from his own mind, and he then he then found himself suddenly agreeing with it like a hypnotized chicken.

'Yes.' He thought. 'I should stop. I'll be quiet. I'm overthinking this. Nobody knows. Simple as that. Just gotta go to the magic sanctuary, wait for Bren or find some way to make him come to me, and then kill him. There. Done. After that, everything will go back to normal! Yeah? Yeah.'

Marco then continued his slow walk towards the sanctuary, no longer looking at everyone around him like they had a gun to his head. Like a video on loop, he played the scene in his head about how it would go down. Bren enters the sanctuary...he sees Marco and is confused...Marco tells him to talk to Star and points behind him...Bren turns and Marco whips out the towel bar...and before Bren can react, he throws it like a spear directly at Bren's left eye, almost certainly killing him...and then he finally finds and rescues his dad. It was going to be glorious. This was his moment. Marco's moment. Nothing could in his way! Nothing! Not even...even…

Once again, Marco's smile faded and he stopped where he was, before quickly ducking into a nearby shop. Pushing past startled several people, he flung open the bathroom door and locked it behind him, before running over to the sink and gagging a few times like he was going to throw up.

Once he had finally stopped retching, he looked at himself in the mirror and saw a face that didn't belong to him. The person he saw didn't have his eyes. Or his hair. Hell, they didn't even have the same color skin tone. He stumbled backward in shock at the sight, before turning the faucet on and splashing water on his face. He let it slowly drip off of him before wiping it with his hoodie sleeve and then fearfully looking back in the mirror.

Back to normal. He saw his own face, his real face, and nothing more.

Marco breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the bathroom wall, letting himself slide down until he hit the floor. He simply sat there for a moment, wondering what all that had been.

'What...what is wrong with me?' He asked himself, the tone in his voice almost begging for an answer. 'First I attack Star, then I come up with that ridiculous plan. Distract Bren by telling him that Star's behind him? He would never fall for something so stupid! He's too smart for that. He's probably too smart for anything I come up with.'

Marco wiped the remaining water off his face with his hand and shook it off, dubious about attempting to continue with his plan. He wondered why he had come up with it in the first place. It was too simple...too obvious ...an imbecile could see through it. He carefully took the towel bar out of the back of his shirt and stared at it, before tossing it away with a loud clang, landing on the far side of the bathroom.

'And what's more.' He continued, his own self pity starting to get the better of him. 'I just realized what an absolute piece of shit I've been. If Star breaks up with me after this, I wouldn't blame her. That nightmare I had nearly tore us apart. And after what I just did to her...I think we're done. She'll never trust me again. Why? Why did I have to do that?! Why couldn't I have just kept my mouth shut?! Why did I have to tell her about that plan?! Why is any of this happening?! Why...why...somebody tell me. Somebody…please…'

He continued begging for answers and soon closed his eyes as he fell into a well of self-pity. He must have dozed off eventually, as it seemed like no time at all until he heard a loud knocking at the door, along with a, "Kid! Open up! The limit for public use of the lavatory is a half-hour! It's been twice that long!"

Marco tediously lifted his eyes in the direction of the door, a tired look in them that was easy to see. He grabbed the edge of the sink and forced himself up, before moving over to the other side of the room and picking up the towel bar, hiding it in the back of his shirt again.

He took one last look in the mirror. Same Marco. Nobody else.

'Okay.' He thought. 'That plan...that was a stupid plan. But I can't just give up on killing Bren. I've come so far. I have to do something to make up for what I just did. What can I do...I have to distract him. Ask him about my dad. If he has him, which I'm sure he's does, then it won't be as easy. I'll try to lure him in...get him a little closer to me...only strike when I know I can get him. But if he doesn't have my dad…' Marco rambled on. 'Then I still ask. Do the same thing. Lure him in. Don't let him leave. No matter what. I can't let him get away.'

Marco's head turned slightly to the side as he nodded along with his plan, foolishly believing that it was now foolproof. But just as he walked towards the bathroom door and was about to unlock it, he realized he had forgotten something. Something important. He took his hand off the knob and stood in front of the door, cursing his own stupidity.

'Shit. Tom.' He thought. 'What do I do about Tom? I mean, if I can kill Bren, then I don't have to do anything. But if Bren uses him as a shield, then I won't stand a chance. Just wish I knew what kind of leverage he has against Tom. My mom's theory was a good one, but I don't think that's it. There's no way Bren has Tom's parents. Not with Wraithmelior being the size of a house. It's something else.'

Growling, Marco narrowed his eyes and took hold of the handle again. 'Screw it. I'll figure it out when it comes to it. At this point, luck is the only thing I can count on. I want more time to plan this out, but time is just one of the things I have too few of.'

Marco then unlocked the door and side-stepped past the shop employee, who was glaring at him for taking his sweet time. He took notice of the rather long and angry line of people outside the door and quickened his pace, rushing out of the shop and back into the streets.

'Just keep walking…' He thought. 'Simple as that. Left. Right. Left. Right…'

The Diazes house…

Back at the Diazes house, or more specifically the Diazes driveway, Angie groggily made her way to the front door, having spent the last hour looking for Rafael. With absolutely no luck, as one would expect. Either this was serious and he was actually missing, or he was just participating in the worlds greatest game of hide and seek. Neither option made much sense, but she didn't have the energy to care at the moment. She just wanted to settle down and relax. This day was truly taking its toll on everyone.

Entering the house, she flung her shoes off and then headed up the stairs, fighting to keep her eyes open. Realizing that she wouldn't even make it to the bedroom without collapsing from exhaustion, she headed for the bathroom to splash some water on her face, maybe wake herself up a little.

She entered the bathroom, but didn't even make it past the doorway, stopping in her tracks at the sight of what remained of the towel rack lying on the floor, various chunks of plaster lying around it.

"What in…" She started, now fully awake, before her eyes darted over to a large hole in the bathroom wall. The slow realization that the towel rack had been ripped right out of the wall made her blink in confusion, and she took a deep breath and headed for Star's room.

"Star? Marco?" She called out, almost in a chiding manner. "Why on Earth is the towel rack ripped out of-"

Once again, her voice died in her throat as she laid eyes on the sight before her. But this one was a thousand times worse than a simple hole in a wall. Star's bedroom was an absolute mess, her bed leaning against the wall looking like it had been cracked in half, various bits of smashed furniture strewn about, and Star herself was lying on the floor, looking like she had been hit by a bus, a small trickle of blood coming out of her mouth.

"OH MY GOD!" She yelled, her cry of terror coming out almost reflexively. She ran over to Star and knelt

besides her, unsure of what to do. "S-Star?" She said, hoping that he was still alive. She slowly grabbed Star and shook her slightly, seeing if she would wake up.

After a few seconds of frantic shaking, Star slowly opened her eyes and groaned in pain, every part of her hurting. " ?" She whimpered weakly. "Is that you?"

"Yes." Angie said, relieved that she was still alive. "It's me. Thank god you're alright. But what happened to you?! Who did this to you?! Where's Marco?!"

"He...he…" Star attempted to say, before she violently started coughing and spat up a chunk of blood. Not liquid in any way, but a literal chunk of blood, looking similar to a gigantic clot. After she finished her vicious hacking, she painfully pushed herself up and leaned her back against the wall.

"Marco...he…"

"No." Angie said, now understanding the severity of how bad a state Star was in. "Don't try to talk. We're getting you to the hospital right now."

Angie reached for Star to help her up, but Star raised her arm and pushed her hand away. "Hospital's not important!" She yelled, her voice sounding like the inside of her throat had been sunburned. "I have...to find Marco. Have to get to the magic sanctuary. Have to stop him from fighting Bren. Have to save him from himself."

"What are you talking about?" Angie asked, using all of her willpower to not just grab Star and drag her to the hospital. "What's going on?"

"I was trying to tell you…" Star said. "Marco...he attacked me, and then he left to go to the sanctuary."

"Wha-MARCO DID THIS TO YOU?" Angie screeched, her tone a mixture of pure anger and disbelief.

"NO!" Star yelled, immediately regretting saying it that way. "Well, sorta…but it wasn't him! While we were at the beach, he had some weird nightmare, and something latched on to him. I saw it in his eyes. Those weren't his eyes. He was being controlled. He didn't do this. He would never do this."

"Oh thank goodness." Angie said, letting out a sigh of relief. "For a second there I thought my son had lost his mind entirely."

"Well, if we don't stop him, then he's gonna turn out a lot worse!" Star said, painfully pulling herself up. "He's gone to fight Bren and find your husband, because he thinks Bren kidnapped him. Which, by the way, he totally didn't. And if things are gonna go how I think they will, then he has no chance. We have to stop him from doing something rash."

"Right. Right." Angie said. "You tell me where to find him, I'll take you to the hospital, and then I'll go to this sanctuary and-"

"You can't!" Star said, interrupting her. "He's not going to listen to you. He's not going to listen to anyone. But I know how we can stop him. We need Janna. She can use her hypnosis skills to knock him out. I just need to call Eclipsa, tell her to pick Janna up from the hospital. She'll understand. Then you can take me to the magic sanctuary, and we'll all meet up there. Hopefully Marco isn't a bloody stain by the time we get there."

"Does Eclipsa even have a car?" Angie asked. "There's no way you can guarantee you'll all get there at the same time!"

"Maybe not, but it's the best I can do." Star said. "Now help me walk. And don't take me to the hospital, I have to go with you guys. I might be the only one who can talk Marco out of it if Janna's hypnosis doesn't work."

Angie balked slightly upon hearing this, but decided that Star knew what she was doing and reluctantly put her arm under her right shoulder, and the two slowly walked out of the room, down the stairs, and over to Angie's car. Angie carefully set Star down in the passenger seat, and then ran over to the drivers side, before starting the car up.

"Dang it…" She fumed. "I'm almost out of gas. I should have fueled up the tank on our way back from the beach. We might not have enough to make it all the way there and back."

"That's okay." Star said, putting her seatbelt on. "We just need enough to get to the path that leads to the sanctuary. It's not that far. Now give me your phone, I need to call Eclipsa."

Angie pulled her phone out of her pocket without looking and handed it over to Star. Star dialed the monster temple and anxiously waited for someone to answer. Before it even started ringing though, Angie bit her lip and looked over at Star, preparing to speak.

"Where is the sanctuary again?" She asked. "That magic sanctuary you guys always told me about, right? Where is that?"

"The path that takes you there is right next to Britta's tacos. Just drive over there, and let me, Eclipsa, and Janna do the rest."

Angie looked rather perplexed at this answer, and slowly gripped the steering wheel. "Star…" She started. "Are you sure there's nothing else I can do?"

"You...can start the car and get us to the sanctuary?" Star said, still waiting for Eclipsa to answer.

"That's not what I meant." Angie sighed. "Star, Marco's my son. I don't want him to get hurt because of this. And if something happens to him because I wasn't there to help, then I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"I'm not sure you can do anything." Star said. "I'm not sure if any of us can at this point. Even if we get to Marco before he gets there, I don't think we'll be able to stop him. When we fought-well, I don't think it could even be considered a fight. He thrashed me around with basically zero effort. And when I actually managed to land a hit on him, his skin felt like iron. Like, actual iron that the swords and armor of the Mewnian knights are made out of. Which-"

"Star? Is that you?" A sudden voice called out, sounding suspiciously like Eclipsa. Both Star and Angie perked up and Star looked down at the phone, not even noticing that Eclipsa had answered.

Star put the phone to her ear and motioned towards Angie to start up the car, who nodded and turned the key, before backing the car out of the driveway and heading towards the town.

"Yeah, I'm here." Star said into the phone. "Listen, I don't know how much time we have, but there's something I need you to do. I need you to go to the town hospital and pick up Janna. Then-"

"Oh, Janna?" Eclipsa said. "She's actually right here next to me. I got her another leave from the hospital, and she's busy filling me in on some more knowledge about the Underworld and demons. It's quite fascinating."

Star heard some shifting sounds, and then Janna's voice came into focus. "Hey Star." She said. "Nice speech you did earlier. I heard about the whole from Eclipsa. Pretty impressive. Anyways, what's up?"

"Janna!" Star yelled. "I need you and Eclipsa to-"

"Jeez, you sound awful." Janna said. "What happened? It's sounds like someone chopped your head off and then sewed it back on. That or your throat got stuck in a wood chipper."

Star took a moment to process what that would look like, but shook it off and focused on what was important. "That's great Janna. But now I need you two to get to the magic sanctuary and-"

"The magic sanctuary?" Eclipsa asked, taking back the phone. "Why would we need to go back there?"

"I'm getting to that." Star growled, quickly losing her patience. "Both of you get into a carriage or car or whatever and go there to-"

"Oh! That reminds me!" Eclipsa said cheerfully. "Speaking of cars, I just got one. It's one of those smart car things, one with only two seats. The person at the dealership was rather reluctant to sell it to me, but I assured him I was fully capable of driving it. I've had a few lessons."

"Wait, when was this?" Janna asked. "When did you get a car?"

"A few days ago." Eclipsa said. "I would have told you and Star earlier, but with everything going on, I didn't have the time."

"Uh, you had plenty of time." Janna said. "In fact, you-"

"WILL BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN?!" Star shouted, resulting in a sudden dead silence at the other end of the line while Angie slightly flinched away from Star, trying to keep her focus on the road.

"I…" Star started. "Sorry. I'm sorry. But just listen to me. Both of you get in Eclipsa's new car or whatever, go to the path that leads to the magic sanctuary, and wait for us there if we're not there already. Also, please ignore any traffic laws, because if you don't hurry then Marco could die. I'll explain everything there."

Silence on the other end of the line, and Star felt a twinge of fear that they might have hung up.

"Are you still there?" She asked,

"Yeah, we are." Eclipsa said. "I've just never heard you so angry at us before."

"I know." Star said. "But now can you-"

"Yup. Leaving." Eclipsa said, before the line went dead. Star handed the phone back to Angie, who slowly took it out of her hand and pocketed it.

"Are we really going to wait for those two?" She asked. "You did say we have to hurry."

"I hate it too, but we need them." Star said. "Or at least we need Janna. Without her, Marco would just tear us to pieces if we tried to stop him."

"How exactly can she hypnotize him again ?" Angie asked, swerving to avoid a parked car. "Come on, why does this thing only go up to eighty…"

"She does this thing." Star answered, ignoring Angie's complaint about the car's speed. "She snaps her fingers, says the word, "chickenbutt" and then Marco just passes out. I know it sounds weird, but it works. I've seen it before. Heck, I once did it myself."

"What it that doesn't work against him?"

Star thought about this for a moment and then nervously swallowed. "Then we'll have to take him down the normal way. Physically."

"Didn't you say that he had super-strength for some reason?" Angie asked, slightly clenching her teeth out of fear. "That he could tear us apart if he wanted to?"

"Yeah. But at that point, we don't have many other options left. We might be able to overwhelm him, but I doubt it. You and Eclipsa aren't really fighters when it comes to that stuff, Janna is still on crutches, and every part of me is so feels so bruised that even the smallest movement hurts. So you want me to be honest, then I don't think we could land a single hit on him. But it'll still be better than letting Bren kill him."

"Agreed…but one last thing." Angie said. "If we get there and Marco's in the middle of fighting Bren, then how do we separate them?"

"Same plan." Star said. "We get Janna to knock Marco out, and if that doesn't work, we'll have to take him down. As for Bren, I'll try and talk to him. Maybe get him to back off. That or we figure something else out."

"What do you plan on saying to him?" Angie asked.

"I have no idea." Star said. "So I'm reaaaaaly hoping it doesn't come to that."

"Okay, last last thing. What if Rafael's actually there?" Angie asked, remembering Star's mention of Marco going o the sanctuary to find Rafael.

"Like I said earlier, he won't be." Star said confidently. "Bren wouldn't do that. Not without a good reason. And there's no good reason I can think of as to why he would. At least...I hope."

"Me too Star, me too…" Angie said, pressing the gas pedal against the floor. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to stop if they needed to, but that didn't matter. They continued in silence, just like when they had come back from the beach, only this time one person short, and with that one person's life on the line.

The Fire (formally magic) Sanctuary…

There it was.

Right in front of him.

Just a few more steps, and he would be there. A quick walk over the stepping stones, a little push to open the door, and he would have made it. The whole process would take less than ten seconds. It was the easiest task in the world. That was all there was to say.

But to Marco, this felt like the most difficult thing he ever had to achieve.

'Why?' He thought, staring up at the sanctuary, no more than twenty feet away. 'Why can't I move? It's right there! This is it, right? This is what it's all been for! Why I had that dream, why I had that strength, and why...and why I fought Star. I have to. You can't get cold feet now. Something good has to come out of it.'

Marco narrowed his eyes and attempted to take a step forward, but the stepping stone almost acted like a reverse-magnet, and he felt his own mind fighting yelling at him to just turn back, while another part whispered to go forward. Then there was him. The third wheel in all of this. Completely subservient to whatever side he picked.

'Stop…' He pleaded. 'Can you please just stop. Both of you. I know I'm talking to myself, I know I must seem crazy, but can I please just have a second to think by myself?! To figure it out?!'

They didn't listen. In fact, they did quite the opposite, with the "turn back" side now screeching at him with full force, while the "go forward" side kept whispering, but much faster and and possibly angrier. He shuddered in place and begged the voices to stop, but they continued, ignoring his desperate pleas.

Realizing that the only way to silence them would be to accept one side, he clenched his eyes shut and ran forward, inexplicably screaming while doing so. He ran so fast he took the stepping stones three at a time, and almost slammed into the front door, before stopping again. As he felt his heart rate steadily increase due to his sudden burst of speed, he put both of his arms against the door and pressed his forehead against it. He listened. He listened to the voices.

But they had nothing to say, just as he had hoped. The shouting was gone, as was the whispering, and it was just him. He let his arms slide down the door as fall to his sides, and leaned his head back. He looked down at the handle and slowly grabbed it, feeling the cold metal in his hands. He took a deep breath and pushing it forward, the door responded in kind, creaking as it moved out of the way.

Marco entered the sanctuary, expecting trouble, and found none. He was the only one here, as Bren was nowhere in sight. He closed the door behind him, checking out the place for the second time. None of it had changed. The fires were still going, the otherworldly silence was present, and the statues…

The statues…

Marco almost took a step back as his eyes fell upon the numerous obsidian statues located around the sanctuary. Flashbacks came to him of the nightmare he had, the crowd of creatures all cheering for his torture. He knew it had to be important. There had to be something he missed. This statues might be the key. They were something important too.

But at the same time, he had to resist the urge to simple for over and push them to the ground. The amount of pure loathing for the obsidian carvings was more hate than anyone would think humanly possible. But he knew that if he toppled them over, then Bren would likely kill him on sight. Or kidnap and torture him. Neither of these options really appealed to Marco, so he kept his emotions in check and let out a simple growl every time he looked at one.

"Now what?" He asked himself. "Should I just wait? Does he have a camera in this place? Motion sensors? Something? Please?! I'd like him to get here before Star manages to call Eclipsa or the police or whoever to try and stop me! Is anyone here? Anyone at all?! Bren! Tom! Are you just going to go missing for no…...wait. Missing...missing...wasn't there somebody that was-oh shit, Dad!"

Marco's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered one of the main reasons he had come there in the first place. With everything else going on, Rafael's possible kidnapping has slipped his mind entirely.

"Dad!" He called out desperately, running around the room, checking every nook, every cranny, every hidden corner for any sign of his father. "Dad, are you here?! Where are you?! Where are you…?"

This pattern continued for a while, with Marco running around and calling out for Rafael, all the while checking and double checking every square inch of the sanctuary. But he found nothing. No sign that Rafael had ever been there. By the time Marco's voice died out, he realized that his father had never been there. There would have been signs. Clues. Something, even the smallest indication would have given it away. But there was nothing.

'You're kidding me…' Marco thought. 'He-he was never here at all?'

Realizing that he had come all this way for no good reason other than to murder somebody, Marco fell to his knees, the weight of his failure beating down on him. He grasped the sides of his head, feeling like he was losing his mind, but his eyes flashed orange for a moment, and what seemed like a perfectly rational thought came to his mind.

'No.' He thought, getting back up. 'Just because my dad wasn't here, that doesn't mean Bren doesn't have him. Of course he wouldn't put him here you idiot! Think about it! This is Bren's sanctuary! His church to that fire religion he mentioned! Why would he put my dad here, where he could accidentally break one of those worthless statues or mess up those bonfires?! He has him somewhere else! Yes, that must be it! And I'm not going to wait another second!'

Marco ran over to one of Bren statues, grabbing ahold of it and starting to rock it side to side, getting closer and closer to pushing it over.

"Bren!" He shouted. "I don't know if you're really here, I don't know if you're listening to me, but if don't get here in the next five seconds, or if I don't start hearing that obnoxious, pretentious voice of yours sometime soon, then I'm gonna push over this precious statue of yours and shatter it in a million pieces!"

The only answer Marco got to this was a sudden crackle and pop by one of the nearby bonfires, and Marco, now completely out of control, made a noise that could only be described as a full-throated snarl and tipped the statue further off its base.

"I mean it!" He yelled, now struggling to keep the statues weight up.

No answer. No noise, except from the flames.

"Alright." "Marco" growled, his eyes now a burning orange. "You asked for it you fire loving son of a bitch!" He then pushed the statue further, and it was just about to fall to the floor when-

"Okay! Okay!" A sudden voice rang out. "I'm here! Calm down you psycho!"

"Marco" turned to see Bren walk through the doorway, slightly out of breath and with Tom directly behind him, both of them looking greatly confused at the whole situation. He let go of the statue as his eyes faded back to their normal brown color, and slowly approached the pair.

"Yeesh." Bren said, glaring at Marco. "You better thank Jesus or Buddha or whatever god you worship that I made it here in time, and that I placed motion sensors in this place. If you had even chipped that statue, then you'd be good as dead, no questions ask-"

"Where's my dad?" Marco yelled at him, somehow remembering to stick to his plan. "What did you do to him?"

Bren paused and tilted his head at him, his face one of pure perplexion. "I did what now?"

Marco jerked his head back in shock and became so angry that he struggled to make words, making sure to be as convincing as possible. He just had to get close enough. All he had to do was keep up the act. "Wha-you-my dad! He's gone! And I know you have something to do with it! So where is he?"

Bren rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "Is this a joke?" He asked. "What do you think I did?"

"Like I said. My. Dad. Is. Gone!" Marco repeated. "And I'm sure that you're behind his disappearance."

"Your dads missing?" Bren asked. "News to me…"

"Bullshit! You know exactly where he is, don't you?!" Marco yelled. "This has your fingerprints all over it! Probably both figuratively and literally."

"I didn't do it." Bren said. "If your dad's really gone, then I promise that I have nothing to do with it. This one isn't me. This time."

Marco growled. "Why you little-"

"Shut up."

"What?" Marco asked, his teeth clenched so hard that any more force would have shattered them.

"Shut up." Bren repeated. "You don't get to speak to me that way. The only reason I'm allowing you to continue to talk is because this whole thing you're doing is amusing. Seriously, why are you acting like someone you're not? Yelling at me without thinking about your words beforehand, the way you're looking at me right now, and most importantly, coming here alone. Like, where's Butterfly? Did you really come here by yourself?"

"I-yes." Marco said. "She's not here right now." He looked down at the ground, the memory of their one-sided fight once again coming back. "She's back at my house. It's just me. Just me and you. And Tom."

"I see…" Bren said. "So, what'd you do to her?"

"Huh? What are you talking abo-"

"Don't bullshit me Diaz." Bren said, giving him a knowing smile. "I can see it in your eyes. Well, more in the way you looked at the floor, but still, I can see it in your eyes. You did something to her, didn't you?"

"I...don't know what you're talking about."' Marco said, leaning his head back and crossing his arms.

"Did-did you seriously just cross your arms?" Bren asked, half talking, half laughing. "The hell was that? Some attempt to look tough? Come on Diaz. Just tell me. Whatever you did for her, it can be worse than what I have planned."

"I didn't do anything!" Marco yelled. "Don't try to fool me with-"

"Tell me." Bren demanded, his smile fading in an instant, and his tone now turning more serious than Marco had ever seen him. "Or I will kill you. Right here. Right now. Or I'll make it interesting, and torture you first."

"..."

"So what's it gonna be? The truth, or death by torture?"

"We…" Marco started, tears forming in the edges of his eyes. "We had a fight."

"Oh, Is that all?" Bren asked, unimpressed. "Well, I suppose it's inevitable for couples, even sickenly happy ones, to fight eventually. Sucks. But-"

"Not like that." Marco said. "A real fight. With punches being thrown. An actual fistfight."

"WHAT?!" Tom exploded, shocked beyond belief. "WHAT THE HELL MAN?! WHY DID YOU TWO...fight...each...other. Oh."

Tom realized his mistake and stopped talking,

slowly glancing over at Bren, who was now glaring intensely at him, his odd black device in his hand and his finger hovering over it's button. They both stared each other down for a moment before Bren simple narrowed his eyes at Tom and shoved the device back in his pocket.

"I am going to allow that." He said. "Mostly because I'm just as shocked as you are. But never speak again, unless I say you can. Got it?"

Tom rubbed his arm and slowly nodded, terrified on the outside but thankful on the inside that Bren only gave him a warning.

"Good. Now then…" Bren said, turning his attention back towards Marco. "Who won?"

"Who won?" Marco asked, repeating Bren's question while wiping his eyes.

"Yeah. Who won." Bren said expectantly. "I mean, I have to guess that you won, considering you're now here, and I'm also going to guess that you being here is what you fought over. Right?"

"...Yeah." Marco said, biting the edge of his lip, each of Bren's words feeling like a punch to the face.

"She better not be dead." Bren said. "I'm saving that for myself. Aw, who am I kidding. If she were dead, you'd be there, mourning her death! But I am surprised you managed to beat her. I know you have some fancy Kung-fu moves-"

"Karate." Marco corrected, still looking down at the floor, drowning in his own self-loathing.

"Right. Karate. Whatever. As I was saying, I know you have some fancy karate moves, but still! Star is a Mewnian princess! Trained to be a warrior! Even without her magic, I'm sure she still packs one hell of a punch. So how did you do it?"

"You...you really think I'm going to tell you that?" Marco asked rhetorically.

"Hmmm...nope." Bren said. "That's fair. I can imagine that it must have been very hard for you. Beating up your soulmate like that. Takes a very specific type of person. A type of person I never thought I'd see. Especially not in you."

"I did what I had to." Marco asked, starting to regret everything again. "She's fine. She's okay. She'll live. I came here to-"

"She'll live?!" Bren shouted, a mixture of shock and possibly disgust. "Did you beat her to near death or something?! My god Diaz! What is wrong with you? And another thing, I don't see a single scratch anywhere on you! I'm having doubts whether you two actually fought, but on the other hand, I don't see any other way you could have come here alone. She would never have let you do that."

"You don't know that." Marco said. "You don't know her. If she really trusted me, then I'm sure she would have let me go. But a few things happened earlier, and that trust started to...wane. But like I just said, you don't know her. You don't know me."

"Oh, sure." Bren said sarcastically. "What could I possibly know? I only spent six months spying on you! I couldn't know anything. I don't know anything important about you." He looked at Marco with a face of pure disappointment.

"...How did you even do that?"

"Do what? Spy on you?" Bren asked. "Well, it's quite simple. You just gotta plant some cameras, a few hidden listening devices, maybe a-"

"Not that!" Marco yelled. "Six months. Only six months. That may seem like a long time, but for you to do all this in only six months…" He spread his arms out, gesturing towards at the sanctuary. "That's impossible. You're telling me you had time to make this place, spy on us, plan everything out, make friends with Mina, take control of Tom, and who knows what the hell else in only six months?!

"...Yes?"

Marco groaned and dragged his hand down his face. "How? I know you said you had help to build this place, but what about everything else?"

"Well, just that." Bren said, shrugging. "I got help. You really think I could do all of this alone? Ha! I would have been incapable. It would have been decades before I finished refurbishing the sanctuary into what it is now. Not to mention the plans, spying, and everything else you mentioned. One mustn't do things alone, as you well know."

"Then why is it every time I see you, you're only with Tom?" Marco asked. "Because I'm sure you have to have dozens, maybe hundreds, of people helping you, considering."

"That's an exaggeration." Bren said. "But why would I show up with anybody else? I only need Tom so I can intimidate weak people as well as kill you if you try and attack me. I don't need to show you anybody else, so why would I? Plus, most of them you don't even know, so it wouldn't make any difference."

"Fascinating." Marco said, starting to grow tired of all the sidetracking. "But now back to the main topic. What did you do with my dad?"

"Oh for fucks sake." Bren groaned, facepalming. "I didn't have anything to do with your dad disappearing! Even if I did, then I would have left a note or something describing how you should do this or he'll die by dawn. Blah blah blah, evil laugh, cliche villain kidnapping plan. I didn't do it. He probably just got caught up in something."

"He didn't." Marco said. "He went to Eclipsa's speech this morning, and said he would come back right after it, but it's been hours. Something had to have happened to him, and I immediately thought of you."

"I'm flattered." Bren said, looking ready to turn around and leave. "You immediately thought of me. Not that I blame you, but I do think that…...hold on a second. The speech? He went to Eclipsa's speech?"

"Yeah...why?" Marco asked.

"I-give me a second." Bren said, turning away from Marco and disappearing into his own head.

'Ugh...just give me an opening already.' Marco thought. 'I have to get him to come closer to me. I can't attack him right now, even if it looks like he's focusing on something else. There's no way he isn't still fully aware of everything around him. He's not that stupid. I just need the proper opening…'

Bren suddenly had a moment of realization, his head snapping up as he continued facing away from Marco. "Oh, that son of a bitch!" He yelled. "Of course he didn't listen to me. I told him that I would get my revenge, and he would get his! I told him to listen to me! But of course he had to go and take matters into his own hands. I should have known he wouldn't be patient!"

"Uh…who are you talking about?" Marco asked, genuinely curious.

"None of your business." Bren said. "Just...go home Diaz. I have to go take care of a problem."

"Wait, you can't just leave!" Marco yelled.

"Yes, I can." Bren said. "Who's gonna stop me? You? Don't make me laugh. I'm trying to help you anyways. Without me, you're probably never gonna see your dad again, if my suspicions are correct."

"But-"

"Doesn't matter, don't care." Bren said, heading towards the door. "Oh, and one last thing. Don't do this ever again. Don't just expect that you can waltz in here and summon me like this. I allowed you here for my purposes, not yours. If you try this again, then I'll actually kidnap your dad. And trust me, what I would do to him is a lot worse than what the other person has in store. Cheers."

Bren then head towards the door, with Tom looking at the ceiling and wishing he could be free of this whole situation. He turned heel and started to follow Bren, while Marco stayed where he was, fuming.

'Nonono!' He thought. 'You don't just get to leave! I have to do something! Anything! And...and...you know what, screw it!' He yelled at himself, his eyes once again changing hue. 'I'm going for it! Bren dies right fucking now!'

Not wasting a second, "Marco" reached into the back of his shirt and whipped out the towel bar, he tossed it slightly in the air and then caught it again, now holding it like a spear. In his peripheral vision, Bren caught the movement and turned slightly, but it was too late, as "Marco" leaned his arm back and then thrust it forward, launching the end of the bar at him like a missile.

Time almost seemed to stop as "Marco" saw that Bren wouldn't be able to react in time, and he realized that this was it. The end of all their problems. He had seen the bar, but it was already far too late for him to do anything about it.

But it wasn't for Tom.

Tom's face became one of pure panic as he spotted the bar flying towards Bren, and he reached his arm out grabbed it a second before it hit its mark, the end of the bar less than a centimeter from the back Bren's head. "Marco" gasped at this sudden move, looking at Tom like some kind of turncoat. He had failed. It hadn't worked. His eyes faded back to brown, and all his anger was replaced with a feeling of bottomless dread.

Bren slowly turned around completely, his eyes widening slightly at the bar, only a millisecond away from killing him. He glanced over at Marco, then at Tom, and then just like clockwork, a quick grin came over his face, seeing Marco's failed and wasted attempt at killing him.

Nobody moved, and only one person managed to find his voice.

"You…" Bren started, a mixture of anger, relief, and astonishment. Marco could tell that he was having trouble keeping his cool. "You almost got me. Just...wow. I didn't expect you to try that. You would have gotten me, if not for Tom. I can't say I'm not impressed."

"Yeah, about Tom…" Marco said calmly, before looking over at the demon boy and exploding. "TOM! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN HIM! I WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM! WHY DID YOU STOP IT?!"

Tom said nothing, his only respond to Marco's yelling being to look away from him in shame, unable to meet Marco's gaze.

"Oh Marco…" Bren said. "Stupid, naive Marco. Did you really think I hadn't thought that something like this would happen? I mean, that attack caught me off guard, but I suspected that you would try something like it eventually. Just because I'm dead, that doesn't mean the leverage I have on Tom is. Trust me, I thought of everything."

"..."

"Nothing left to say?" Bren asked. "I don't blame you. Or perhaps you're simply afraid. You have every right to be, of course. But before we get to the whole, "why your dumbass thought trying to assassinate me was a good idea," I have to ask, why the towel bar? Why not something like a knife?"

"That's personal." Marco said, trying to remain calm, despite how bad this was looking for him. "Let's just say I had a few bad dreams."

"Wait wait wait." Bren said, starting to do his "half laugh, half talk" thing again. "Did you have the judgment dream? And the crowd chose the rod as punishment? Oh, I know that had to hurt. When was this? Last night? Night before that? Even earlier?"

"Wha-how do you know about that dream?" Marco asked. "Were you actually there? I thought that was just a dream version of you that was being controlled by something, or someone else!"

"Oh no, I wasn't actually there." Bren answered. "That dream is a unique one. The person who administers whatever punishment the crowd chooses is the same person that's caused the most pain to you lately. So no surprise it should be me."

"But how did you-"

"There's much more at play that you don't know about." Bren said. "Stuff that doesn't involve me directly. That dream was one of them. The person that did that to you, they're on my side, but also on their own. Which is rare when it comes to working with me."

"I...I still don't understand."

"You're not meant to." Bren said. "It's simple as that Diaz. Just forget about that dream for now. Besides, I think we were in the middle of something. So, what the hell made you think that trying to kill me was a good idea?"

"I...you…" Marco stuttered, now terrified, knowing that Bren could just tell Tom to burn him at any time.

"It's okay." Bren said reassuringly. "You can tell me. I'm not going to hurt you...yet. Not here at least. You really think I'm going to risk damaging this place? I told you back when we first met here, remember?"

"I remember." Marco said. "I-I just saw an opportunity and took it. I wanted to use the towel bar for payback after that dream."

"Interesting." Bren said. "But tell me, did you come here for your dad, or were you just here to kill me? Which reason did you really do this all for?"

"Both." Marco pitifully responded. "But mostly the second one."

"Damn. That's cold." Bren said, shaking his head. "Ignoring your kidnapped father just so you could murder somebody. What was your big plan if you actually managed to kill me? Just hope that everything went back to normal?"

"What do you think?" Marco asked him. "Yes, that was it! And everything would have gone back to normal! You wouldn't be around to ruin our lives!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but killing me wouldn't have done anything." Bren said in a matter-of-fact tone. "In any case, it would have just made it worse. Even if I was dead, I've made sure to take enough countermeasures that my plan would still have come to fruition."

"So what you're saying is...it would have all been for nothing?" Marco asked, defeated.

"That's right!" Bren said cheerfully. "Congratulations, you're a failure either way! Feels bad, doesn't it?"

"..."

Marco's couldn't even say anything. Bren was probably going to kill him, and even if he managed to escape, then Star, Moon, his parents, and everyone else would never talk to him again. Now after what he did to Star. There was no point. He gave up and fell to his knees.

"If you're going to kill me, then just do it already." He said, staring down at the ground. "I failed to kill you, and I can't go back having accomplished nothing."

"Tch. Don't be like that." Bren said. "Diaz, I'm not going to execute you. That's not what I do. I want a fight. Like I said, I want you to try and stop me! I'm not going to get anything out of this. So, I have an offer for you. We can fight, just you and me, with Tom unable to interfere. If you win, then I leave Earthni, you get Tom back, and you never have to deal with me again! But if I win, then...well, you die. How bout it?"

Marco thought about this, and was about to say no, but then recalled something from one of their previous meetings. From both of their previous meetings. Something he had forgotten about entirely. Something he should have tried earlier. Something that he was positive could distract Bren long enough for him to land one good hit. Just one seven-word phrase, one thing that Marco knew would have an effect on him.

He had no choice. It was all or nothing now. He had to try, and now he had a new plan. He

"Okay." He said. "I agree to your terms or whatever. You and me. Right here, right now."

"Now hold on a second." Bren said. "If we are doing this, then we're going somewhere else for it. Don't want to risk damaging the sanctuary! And I also don't want to risk your friends coming here and interrupting our fight. Can't have that. Follow me outside, I know just the place where we can have our little showdown."

Bren then turned tail and walked out of the sanctuary, Tom, sensing a small opportunity, motioned for Marco to follow them before quickly mouthing "sorry. He has my parents," before following Bren as well. Marco's response to this was to get up and glare at him, but he was surprised to know that his mom's theory had been correct. It was his parents that Bren had. That was the leverage. Unfortunately, that only helped a small bit, as Marco had no idea if they were still in the Underworld, on Earthni, or somewhere else entirely.

But he didn't have the time to contemplate any of that. It was all or nothing now, and he to put everything on the table. He speed walked to catch up with Bren's and Tom and followed them outside, where they were both waiting for him. He approached the pair until he got about two meters away, upon which Bren held up a hand to signal him to stop, which Marco reluctantly did.

"Not too close." Bren said. "Don't want you to try and murder me again before the fight truly begins." He turned towards Tom. "Lucitor, melt that stupid thing down. Don't want it to cause any more trouble for me later."

Tom paused and then looked down at the towel bar he was holding, not even realizing he had been holding it the entire time. He slowly formed as his hands became engulfed in flames and the bar turned a bright shade of red, then orange, then yellow as the metal flipped over and fell apart, molten pieces of it dripping and burning the grass beneath them.

Marco flinched at this display, getting flashbacks of the burning bar in his nightmare, and Bren slamming it into his head. A single tear started to form in the corner of his left eye as he slowly remembered the terrible scene, but he shook his head a few times and brushed it off, not wanting to go any further. He was still left shuddering though, secretly terrified that the melting of that bar, nothing but a simple show of power, had had such a great effect on him.

"Where are we going?" He asked, wanting to focus his mind on something else. "Someplace special in mind?"

"You could say that, although it would be best to simply show you…" Bren replied, before looking over at Tom. "Lucitor. Take us to the edge."

"The wha-" Marco attempted to say, but before he could finish his words, Tom threw his arms up, and the three of them disappeared into a portal of fire, which vanished no more than second later, leaving nothing but a small patch of burnt grass.

And thus the days main event had begun…

The beginning of the path…

As Britta's Tacos came into Star's view, Angie made a hard right, almost throwing Star out of her seat. She continued down the road for a few seconds before slamming on the brakes, resulting in Star being lurched forward and her seatbelt almost bruising one her ribs.

"OW!" She yelled, unclipping the seatbelt and throwing it off. "I know we're in a hurry, but could you be a little more careful?! I'm already injured enough as it is!"

"Sorry, Sorry…" Angie said. "I'm just worried about Marco. Considering you did say he could literally die in if we don't get there in time. I think I have a bit of right to go fast. But speaking of being injured, how are you feeling? Do you think you can walk?"

"I can walk just fine." Star responded. "Even if it does hurt like hell. These wounds will heal, death doesn't. So I'm not concerned with myself at the moment."

"I suppose that's fair." Angie said, in looping her own seatbelt and turning the car off. "But we are taking you to a hospital after all this, no matter what. You still look like you got run over by a truck." Angie then shoved the car keys in her pocket and opened her door. "Now let's go to that sanctuary and-"

"Wait." Star said. "We have to wait for Eclipsa and Janna, remember? Without Janna, we won't be able to do anything."

"Oh...right." Angie said, so caught up with worrying about Marco that she had already forgotten about Janna and Eclipsa. "So all we can do is wait?" She asked. "Nothing else?"

"That's the gist of it." Star seethed, equally annoyed as Angie. "It all depends on them. I've probably said that like ten times already, but it's what we've got at the moment. Huh. Probably said that ten times as well."

"Might have, but I don't think that-" Angie started, before she was interrupted by an insane screeching noise, which sounded exactly like someone drifting a smart car about three hundred feet away from them. Both of them turn around and looked out the cars back window, where they saw Eclipsa's car rocket down the street towards the path, going even faster than Angie had been.

"Uh...they're not stopping!" Star yelled, stating the obvious. But it was true. They hadn't even slowed down since the pair had spotted them.

"Should we get out of-"

"Yup!"

Both Star and Angie got out of the car as fast as they could, Star almost crying out in pain at the sudden movement. They both got as far away from the path of the car as they could, just as it shot past them and finally stopped, the tires squealing against the road. It came to a complete stop directly in front of the path, with everybody at the taco stand watching in shock, every person left wondering how it didn't hit anything. The doors to the car were practically kicked open, and Eclipsa and Janna slowly got out and wobbled around, dizzy and looking like they were about it to throw up.

"Eclipsa!" Janna yelled, struggling to keep her crutches up and ignoring Star and Angie entirely. "What was that? You said you got driving lessons! You said you were good for this! We nearly ran over two dozen people! Seriously, I counted! What was that?"

Eclipsa slowly gazed at Janna, almost entirely unaffected by her rare outburst of anger. "I thought it would be easier. But I didn't know it would be so hard to control the car when it was going that fast. Nobody told me that." She responded. "It didn't help with you yelling at me the entire way here."

"Well, sorry, but I'd rather not die just yet." Janna said. "Plus, Star said Marco is going to die if we didn't get here, and I wasn't about to let you crash. And speaking of which, where is-"

"Guys!" Star yelled, running over to them, before almost kneeling over in pain and settling on a light jog. "You made it! You're okay, right?"

"We're fine." Janna said, looking over at Star. "But ummm...what happened to you? You look like you got thrown in a trash compactor."

"Long, long story. I'll explain later. But as for right now, we need to get to the magic sanctuary." Star said, getting straight to the point.

"Wasn't that place destroyed?" Eclipsa asked, walking over to the two. "Last I saw, it was an abandoned pile of rubble."

"Not anymore." Star said. "Both of you follow me." Star then jogged as fast as she could down the path, with Eclipsa and Janna exchanging glances and then following her, with Janna visibly struggling to keep up.

Angie started to follow Star as well, but Star quickly stopped her. "Wait." She said. "There's actually something really helpful you can do. At this point, Marco and Bren are probably already fighting. It's been too long."

"What!" Eclipsa yelled. "Why would they be-"

"SO I need to stay here and get the car running so we get back here and make a quick escape if we need to!" Star said, ignoring Eclipsa. "Got it? Cool."

Star then continued her constant trot down the path, with Eclipsa and Janna struggling to keep up with her, leaving Angie behind them.

"Hold on!" Angie yelled, calling them back. But it was already too late. They were already too far away, and Star probably wouldn't have stopped even if she did hear it. "Star! Don't you remember? There's no gas left...in…my car." Angie said, sighing as they disappeared from view. She turned away and looked over at Eclipsa's car, only two seats strong.

"Hope we can squeeze everybody in…" She mumbled, realizing that it would be best if she helped in an escape attempt. She walked over to it and got ready to drive off at any moment, looking down the path with an unblinking stare.

And if she looked a little bit further, she would have seen Star going as fast as she could without having throw up from the pain, as well as Eclipsa stopping every few seconds to let Janna catch up with them.

"Star!" She yelled. "Slow down! You're going to get there before we do!"

"Doesn't matter!" Star yelled back at them. "It may already be too late…"

Eclipsa and Janna merely grumbled at this and tried to quicken their pace, but eventually Eclipsa gave up and practically picked Janna up, running as hard as she could to catch up with Star. As they got closer, they all took notice of the dozens of smashed and burned trees, a grim reminder of Bren's demon attack. Despite the memories it brought up, Star's got a small feeling of hope from it. It meant they were close. She just had to keep ignoring the pain. Just had to keep going.

Her agonizing attempts at running faster soon paid off, as the sanctuary came into view. Star put on one final and painful burst of speed, while Eclipsa did the exact opposite, setting Janna down and slowing her pace, both of them looking at the sanctuary in shock.

"Whoa…" Janna said. "Someone really did repair it."

"Unfortunately, yes." Star said. "Now come on! They have to be inside!" Star then bolted into the sanctuary, throwing the door open as her arms and legs continued to feel like they were on fire. She frantically looked around for a few moments, and saw that it was deserted. Not a soul in sight.

"Marco!" She called out, her voice echoing off the walls of the sanctuary. "Bren! Mr. Diaz! Are any of you guys here?"

But there was no response, and Eclipsa and Janna came up from behind her, the look of awe on their faces tripling.

"This...is incredible." Eclipsa said. "I've never seen anything like this before. The detail on this statues, the patterns in the walls and floor, the-"

"Oh yeah, it's really pretty." Star said, running around and searching the place. "Now stop looking at this place help me find them!"

"I don't think I'll be able to help with that..." Janna said, looking down at her crutches. "Hey, why didn't you tell us about this place before? You obviously knew about it. Marco as well. Is this Bren's hideout or something?"

"It's his…" Star started, unsure of how to put it. "...church I guess? I think it's devoted to some religion he follows, some religion of fire. It was all kind of vague. Everything he says is."

"A religion of fire…" Janna echoed, rubbing her chin and losing herself in thought.

"Yeah. That." Star said. "But it's not his hideout. He just repaired this place and turned it into some weird fire church. I don't know what it's about, and I don't really care right now."

"But why didn't you-"

"I didn't think it would be a good idea." Star responded. "If I told you guys, then you would have told the Mewnian high council, and then they would have demolished this place as revenge for the demon attack. And I knew that if they did that, Bren would just come after them, and they would die."

"You could have just asked us not to tell them." Eclipsa said. "If you really didn't want us too, then we wouldn't have told them anything."

"Oh...thanks." Star said. "Even if that is kind of a pointless gesture now. But come in, help me find-"

"They're not here." Janna said confidently. "They haven't been for some time now."

"How are you so sure?" Star said, not even looking at her, instead opting to check the fire pits for any sign of Marco. "Do you figure that out just by taking one look at this place?"

"No." Janna said, holding up her phone. "But I do think that the tracking device I put on Marco wouldn't lie…"

Star stopped cold and slowly swiveled around towards, her right eye twitching. "You...knew?" She asked, slowly approaching her. "Why didn't you say anything?! We could have saved Marco already!"

"Because I just got the notification five seconds ago!" Janna yelled. "Literally just after you mentioned that "pointless gesture." Please don't yell at me for this."

"Then why didn't you look at it beforehand?!" Star hissed at her. "Can you only look at it when you get a notification or something? Hell, what kind of app even is that?! What app allows someone to track someone else!?"

"Several apps actually." Janna said. "And for your question about the notification thing, no. I can look at it at any time. But I didn't tell you because I forgot about it with everything going on."

"F-forgot?!" Star exclaimed. "You. You forgot something?! Something as important as this?!"

"Are you surprised?" Janna asked her. "In the last half-hour I have the most terrifying car ride of my life, almost died at least ten times because of that car ride, then we arrive here, you start screaming at us to follow you, we do and you tell us to hurry up to the point where Eclipsa has to carry me, which was extremely uncomfortable and painful by the way, and finally, after all that, you don't give us a chance to do anything, and tell us to look for Marco. We still don't know why this is happening by the way! Or why you're all beat up! You never explained that!"

"..."

"So yeah…" Janna concluded. "I think I have the right to let something slip my mind in this situation."

Star paused, never having heard Janna talk so much in a single sentence. And she was right of course. If all that had happened to Star, then she would have forgotten a lot more than a tracking device. But she had just been through so much as well. Thrashed around by Marco, a terrifying car ride just like Janna's, all with an agonizing pain torturing her the entire time. She decided to just let it go.

"Okay, that's fair." Star said. "But I have to explain later, and I know you can understand that. So if he's not here, then where is he."

"According to this…" Janna said, looking at the screen. "He's in the abandoned section of town. Same place Mina's hideout was in. It's been a few minutes since he got there. I guess it makes sense that he's there. Bren probably would have some kind of secret lair in that-"

"Time to go!" Star yelled, dashing past them. "Sorry for making you run again, but come up with your questions on the way there!"

As Star ran out of the sanctuary, Eclipsa and Janna took one quick look at each other and then followed her, Eclipsa once again picking up Janna and carrying her as best she could, much to Janna's visible discomfort.

The mad dash through the forest was almost like a dream, all of them thinking about nothing else but going faster. Even if they knew it was impossible to do so without their muscles failing, it was the only thing occupying their minds. The cars soon came into view, with Angie pacing around her own. They started yelling to grab her attention, using all their remaining energy to call out.

"Angie!" Star yelled, arriving and falling to her knees. "Get the car started! We know where we're going!"

"Where's Marco?" Angie asked, rushing over to her. "Is he okay? Did you find Rafael?

"We didn't find him or Rafael. As for if he's okay, maybe, maybe not." Star answered. "But there still might be a chance to help him. So get the car started! We need to go now.we can't afford to waste any more time."

"I can't." Angie said, earning a surprised look from the three of them. "I was trying to tell you as you ran away earlier, but you didn't hear me. My cars out of gas. It won't be able to go anywhere, unless you're up to push."

Star growled at this, cursing their misfortune. There was no time to get gas from anywhere else. But there was still Eclipsa's car. "Eclipsa!" She yelled. "We're taking your car!"

"We can't all fit." Eclipsa said, wincing. "Only three of us. The inside is extremely small, even more so than other cars like it."

"Why'd you buy a car with so little space inside?!" Star screeched.

"It was a bargain deal!" Eclipsa yelled back. "And I thought a smaller car would be easier to control.

But the point is that one of use will have to stay behind."

"I'll stay." Janna said. "I'm useless in a fight. I mean, just look at me. You guys go on ahead, I'll give you my phone so you can-"

"No!" Star yelled. "You're the most important person here. Why do you think I asked Eclipsa to bring you here? If you see Marco, I need you to hypnotize him by doing that "chickenbutt" thing! We can't do this without you!"

"You're...making this sound like Marco's the one that needs restraining, not Bren." Janna said. "Is something wrong with him? Or does he- wait, does this have anything to do with why you're all beat up?"

"Pretty much. Explain on the way." Star said. "But I don't care if we don't all fit, I can ride on the roof if I have too. I'm not going to give this up."

"You don't have too." Angie said. "I'll stay. You three go and save Marco. I wouldn't be of any use anyway."

"That's not true." Star said. "And you can't stay here. You're his mother for Mewni's sake! You're coming with us, and we're all going to save him."

"There's no room, and there's no time." Angie said, forcing a smile. "Star, just go. You have to go and save him. Nor one else but you can do it. You mean more to him than anything else."

"But-"

"Star." Eclipsa said, putting her hand and Star's shoulder. "It's what she decided. We have to go. Just like you said, there's no time to waste."

Star looked from Angie, then to Eclipsa, and then back to Angie. She nodded at her, and then ran over to the car, fighting back a few tears. Eclipsa and Janna then followed her soon after, and they all squeezed in. The car backed up and then took off down the street, no time wasted doing anything else.

Angie kept her smile on as they left, but the second they disappeared from view, it vanished and she turned back to her car, putting her hands on the hood. Practically hyperventilating, she wondered if what she did was right, not telling them her the truth.

Why couldn't she say it?

Surely Star would understand that no mother wanted to risk the possibility of seeing their child's body dead on the ground in front of them?

Angie knew she would understand, but she could never bring herself to tell her that.

In the car…

As Star looked in the rearview window back towards Angie, believing that she saw her smile vanish as they got further away. Star sighed and looked straight ahead, while Janna gave Eclipsa directions, which grew to me extremely annoying.

"So, are you gonna tell us now?" Eclipsa asked, having reached a lengthy straightaway. "About what's been going on with Marco?"

"I guess." Star responded. "But first, I need you to promise me something. Earlier, I decided that if we got there, and found Bren and Marco fighting, I would try to talk Bren out of it. That's what I told Angie. But if you see him, go as fast as you can and just run him over."

"Uhh...sure." Eclipsa said, slightly startled by this request but fully understanding it. "Run him over. Got it. And then we save Marco. Two birds with one stone."

"Precisely." Star said. "Best case, we kill him, worst case, we cripple him. Win-win either way. Then once he's taken care of, Tom will be free and Marco will be safe."

"I don't think that's worst case…" Janna said. "I think the best case scenario will be a broken bone or two, not killing him. Hm, turn right here."

"What are you talking about?" Eclipsa asked, quickly spinning the steering wheel. "Is he more tough than a normal person?"

"He's-okay, just listen." Janna said. "This is all a hunch based on one thing Star said, but if what I'm thinking is true, then we could be in much more trouble than we know. Bren might not even be the big bad here. It might be someone else entirely."

"Who?" Star asked. "Who's begins it all?"

"Turn left. It's hard to explain. It would be best with a visual aid. I have a book which can explain some things, so I'll have to show it to you guys later."

"Got it." Eclipsa said. "I just hope you're wrong. The last thing we need is more enemies to fight."

"Agreed." Janna. "Now turn right. Now, Star, weren't you going to tell us about why this is all happening?"

"Yeah, I'll try to go as quickly as I can." Star said, the memories of everything hay had happened starting to come back. "Okay, it all started soon after we got to the beach…"

15 minutes earlier...the abandoned section of town (The Edge)...

It only took one second.

Less than one second for the wall of flames to appear in front of him, the familiar feeling of magically being teleported a great distance returning, and then the wall vanishing before Marco's eyes. He blinked for a second, and quickly recognized it as the very edge of town, the ruined buildings viable in the distance, with some trees littering the area. Tom and Bren quickly stepped away from him, taking up a position a few meters away.

"Alright." Marco said, "not really caring why Bren brought him to this specific place. "So how are we gonna do this? Am I going to get a weapon or-"

"One moment." Bren said, before turning towards Tom. "Go wait somewhere nearby. Don't interfere, no matter what you see, no matter what you here. When the fights over, I'll come find you, depending on who won. If I don't, go to the Underworld and tell him what happened. If I do win, then get ready to leave. Something I need to take care of."

Tom merely nodded and then walked away from the two, never looking back. He went over to abandoned shop and entered it, slamming the door behind him.

"Hm. He still has that temper sometimes." Bren said. "I guess it's the only form of defiance he has at this point…"

"Why don't you just let him go?" Marco asked. "Why can't you just use another demon to help you with this?"

"Ah, now there's a question I'm going to have fun answering." Bren said, turning away from Marco and peering at the building Tom went into. "You see Marco, Tom is more than just some guy who can make portals for me. I mean, that was one of the main reasons, he's really good at it, but that wasn't the only thing on my mind when I-"

"Oh for the love of god, just forget it." Marco complained, interrupting him. "I should have known that question would just turn into another one of your stupid monologues."

Bren, although visibly annoyed at being interrupted, shook his anger off and merely sighed. "That's fair." He said. "I do have a fondness for them. I would be lying if I said I don't have a list of some I'm saving for when the time is right."

"Fascinating." Marco said sarcastically. "But as I was saying earlier, how are we gonna fight? Are we gonna use weapons or our bare fists?"

"Look around you Marco, there are no weapons here." Bren said, waving his hands around. "I suppose you could count the rocks as a weapon, but I'm not. No, this will be a fight on pure physical might alone. I'm interested in seeing what you can truly do. Much like most things, I would have preferred for this to come later, but you forced my hand, just like Janna did."

"Preferred for this to come later…" Marco repeated, confused. "Do you mean that you always planned to fight me?"

"Not so much that I planned it…" Bren answered. "...But I did see it as inevitable. I knew you would eventually snap and want to fight me, although I admit, I am very surprised that it happened in this manner. You beating up Star and then rushing down here to fight me, I must say I did not see that one coming."

"First time for everything." Marco said. "So this is it then? This random place?"

"If by "empty with nobody to interrupt us", then yes." Bren said. "Here are the rules: There are none. Fight me anyway you wish, and I will do them same. Underhanded moves, using a nearby rock as a weapon, anything of that sort goes."

"Fair enough." Marco said, readying himself. "But one last thing. Why are you fighting me? Why don't you just have Tom do it."

"Simply put, you made it personal." Bren answered. "After you threw that bar at me, I knew I couldn't just have Tom kill you. I wanted some revenge of my own. Plus, I doubt Tom would have actually done it, as while he's willing you kill some random guards for me, killing you is something quite different."

Marco took on a karate stance, preparing to begin the fight. "Personal, eh? I'm sure you're going to want to kill me even more after this."

"Hm. Don't be overconfident Marco." Bren said, grinning at him. "I may not look like much, and may use Tom to kill people, but I'm fully capable of doing it myself. You see-ah, screw it. It's just like you said. I'm going to start another one of my monologues. Come on Diaz! Show me what you got!"

Bren spread his arms, daring Maroc to attack him, but Marco merely smiled at this and played his trump card.

"Bren…" He started. "Do you know why you're doing this?"

Marco didn't know what to expect next. But he did know what he wanted to happen. Bren to get a sudden look of confusion on his face, then terror, and then break down entirely, giving Marco the opportunity to grab a nearby rock and start bashing his head in. It would have been glorious.

Emphasis on the "would have", as reality decided to be much crueler on Marco than his own fantasy was.

Bren simply tilted his head at this, but did nothing more. He then smiled widely, the same smile that Marco had seen on Janna whenever she tricked somebody. "Wow." He said, unimpressed in every way. "You really thought that was going to work?"

"I-I-" Marco stuttered, shocked that it had no effect on him. "I thought it would have-"

"What? What did you think it would have done?" Bren asked him. "Did you think it would cause me to have a breakdown? To start repeating things to myself? To go crazy? Incase you haven't noticed, but that doesn't affect me anymore. Remember the meeting of the council I crashed? It didn't work then, at least not permanently, so why did you think it would work now?"

"..."

"ANSWER ME!" Bren screeched. "TELL ME MARCO, WHY DID YOU THINK IT WOULD WORK?! WHAT PART OF YOUR LITTLE PEA-BRAIN THOUGHT IT WOULD DO ANYTHING TO ME?"

"Um, are you sure it didn't affect you?" Marco asked, slightly backing away from him. "Your eyes aren't orange anymore."

"Is that so?" Bren asked. "Well then, why don't you-wait what? What did you just say?"

"Your eyes." Marco responded. "They're not orange anymore. They're green."

"Green...nononono!" Bren said, starting to freak out. "Come on! I trained myself for this. Just...remember what you're here for. Who you're supposed to be…"

The second part of this was mumbled, making it difficult for Marco to understand, but he understood enough to know that this was his chance. Seizing the opportunity, he carefully reached down to the ground and grab a rock, cupping it and preparing to strike. But just as he was about to rush at Bren with it, Bren came back into focus and glowered at him, making Marco stop dead in his tracks. His green eye coloring didn't so much as fade as cease entirely, replaced with the familiar orange color. Only this time, it was so bright it almost looked like it was glowing.

"Don't even think about it." Bren growled. "If I'm being honest, it's best I came back in that moment, otherwise I probably would have ripped your heart out."

"Came...back?" Marco asked, dropping the rock and once again stepping away from him.

"None of your concern." Bren said. "None of that is your business. I'll just say that we all have problems with who we're supposed to be, some more than others. Now, we're starting this fight now. Try that again and I will rip your fucking head off."

Seeing that Bren wasn't bluffing about the last part, Marco gulped and made a mental note to never those words on Bren again, if he made it through this. But speaking of which, it was time. He took his karate stance and got ready.

"Are you gonna do some kind of countdown?" He asked. "Or should we just rush at each other?"

"You can rush at me." Bren said, quickly composing himself. "I'm ready for you."

Alright Bren." Marco said, fists tightening. "Don't expect me to hold back!"

Bren blinked at Marco, unfazed in any way by this threat. Marco dashed towards Bren, jumped high in the air, and raised his fist to karate-chop him.

"HII-YAHH-" He started, before being cut off by Bren grabbing his wrist an inch from his face.

Marco blinked.

Bren smiled.

Marco was quickly met with Bren's fist slamming into his gut with all the speed and force of a sledgehammer, causing Marco to literally cough up blood from this one blow. Bren then let go of his wrist and punched him in the face, causing him to fly backwards onto his back.

Marco groaned in pain and weakly got up, already struggling to stand on his on his two feet.

'Oh my god.' He thought, wiping the blood off his lip. 'That felt a like truck hitting me. Just two punches and I feel like my body is already about to give out. Just what the hell is this guy? Is he even human at all? Or Mewman? That was even worse than the time Toffee smacked me into a wall. And I'm not even sure if he was holding back or not.'

Despite every nerve in his body telling him to quit, Marco knew that he had to do this. Giving up would only result in coming back with nothing, and him beating up Star for nothing, which was a fate worse than death.

"D-dont worry!" He said, barely getting the words out. "I'm-i'm not done yet!"

Bren sighed and outspread his arms. "Come on then." He said. "Finish the fight. Give me your all."

Marco started walking towards Bren and once again attempt to hit him with another karate chop. Bren however stepsided this move, and with absolutely o physical effort, grabbed his arm and twisted it around, producing a loud SNAP as the bone broke.

Marco cried in pain and fell to the ground, holding his broken arm. He could feel the shattered bone trying to poke its way through his skin, and his entire arm felt like it was on fire. How poetic. Marco tried to turn the fight around by attempting to throw a punch at Bren with his good arm, but it seemed the entire universe for rooting against him and he easily dodged the attack and landed a devastating head butt on Marco's nose, instantly fracturing the bone behind it and almost causing him to black out.

Before Marco could even fully fall to the ground,

Bren grabbed his collar and forced him up.

"You know…" He said. "If we're going to keep doing this, to keep going on with this fight, then I may as well try and enjoy it. Don't you agree?"

Before Marco could do anything, Bren grabbed a rock off the ground and slowly scraped it back and forth along Marco's forehead. Marco, too weak to try and stop him, once again cried in pain at the horrible sensation.

Bren then dropped the now blood-covered rock and threw Marco to the ground before backing away, waiting for his next move, if there was one.

Marco got on his knees and put his hand on the ground, breathing heavily. His chest hurt so much he felt like his organs had burst. His head hurt so much it felt like pieces of his skull had been embedded into his brain. His arm had already gone numb. And his forehead felt the skin on it had been scraped off with oyster shells.

But he had to keep going. It was the only thing he could do at this point. Surrender wasn't an option, and they both knew it.

He got to his feet, the only thing keeping him going being his willpower. But as he got up, gravity took control and the blood coming out of his forehead dripped down into his eyes, blurring his vision. With his legs failing and his face slowly being painted crimson, Marco struggled to move forward. But he could still see Bren clearly enough to try and attack him.

Slowly, steadily, he dragged himself forward towards Bren, who had already grown bored of the spectacle. He raised his fist, and attempted to hit him. Bren sighed and caught it, and then once again slammed his fist into Marco's chest, shattering his entire rib cage and causing Marco to fall to his knees yet again. He hacked up enormous amounts of blood as he slowly lifted his head and looked up at Bren, his eyes blurred, bones obliterated.

Marco stared at Bren and dug up what little strength the had left to speak. His voice was weak and throaty, each word causing more of his life to be taken away from him. "You-you don't have to do-"

"I know." Bren said. He approached Marco and drew his foot back. "But you agreed to my proposition, so now you have to die. It's your own fault. You could have let me walk away, but now...well, don't blame me for never having the chance to see your father again. Or anybody else really."

With almost superhuman speed, Bren shot his foot forward and kicked Marco in the chin, snapping his head back in a fountain of blood. Marco almost flew through the air and landed on flat on his back. He attempted to get up, but his muscles were spent, and too many of his bones were broken. This time, he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried. He could almost feel the life draining from his body. If Bren didn't kill him right now, then he would eventually succumb to his other injuries. He was already dead. He knew it.

"Just so we're clear…" Bren said. "Even after that thing I did with your forehead, I'm not enjoying this as much as I feel like I should. That may not sound like much, but it is. It means there's some small part of me that doesn't want to do this to you. It makes sense. Star is the one I want. You're just in the way. You just got in the way."

Bren walked up and grabbed Marco by his throat, choking him. A large grin suddenly spread across his face. But there was no joy behind that smile. Just malice. Just hatred. Marco gagged as he tightened his grip, getting ready to snap his neck. He could feel his vision fade...he couldn't breath...he-

Marco suddenly gasped out as Bren's strip around his throat loosened, allowing him to take a breath, albeit a small one. But it was all he needed to stay alive for a little while longer.

"No…" Bren started. "I can't just kill you right here. Earlier you asked if I knew what I was doing this for. So did Star back at the meeting and sanctuary. Well, I think I do now. I'm doing this to make butterfly suffer. Killing you would definitely help me achieve that goal, but not in the way I want. I want this to last. I want her pain to last. Yours as well, but only because you just tried to kill me. Still salty about that."

Bren tossed Marco to the ground. "So many things I could do. I could torture you, continuing beating you, so many possibilities! Anything I do could make your girlfriend lose her mind!"

Bren's tone shifted, and he seemed to be greatly enjoying thinking of all the things he could do to Marco to hurt Star. His tone was filled with nothing but sadism, and Marco was forced to hear every word of it.

"Oh!" He said. "I know! How about I kidnap you, and then every day I'll cut little pieces off of you and then I'll send them to Butterfly so I can-"

Before Bren could say anything more, he was interrupted by an insanely bright light being flashed into his eyes, and he turned to see Eclipsa's smart car roaring towards him, high beams turned on and going faster than anyone thought possible.

"Ah cra-" He started, before the car slammed full-force into him, denting its hood and sending him flying twenty feet through the air, where he crashed into a nearby tree and fell to the ground, the blow doing little more than momentarily dazing him.

The car door were practically ripped open as Star, and Eclipsa got out of it and ran up to Marco, who was barely even conscious anymore. He didn't have much time left, and everybody knew that just by looking at him.

"Help me pick him up!" Star said, grabbing his legs and lifting him off the ground, ignoring the pain in her arms. Eclipsa grabbed his torso and helped Star, lifting the barely-alive Marco off the ground and into the car, and they both piled in. Star laid Marco out so he was half in the front seat, half in the storage space in the back, and everybody positioned themselves to give him as much room as possible.

Janna looked at Marco in shock, almost like she wasn't seeing him right. All of them thought the exact same thing as he lay there. 'Is it too late?' Star quickly grabbed one of his hands in a gesture of comfort meant for both Marco and herself. The hand was pale and bony, since most of the blood in Marco's body was currently seeping into the dirt outside the car.

As Eclipsa got ready to turn around and leave, Bren got up off the ground and rushed at them, his eyes glowing so bright that it was hard to see his pupils.

"OHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP GO ECLIPSA GO!" Star yelled.

Eclipsa slammed on the gas pedal, but Bren reached them at the last minute and grabbed cars back bumper, causing the tires to screech as he held them back.

"WHERE YOU GOING GUYS?!" He yelled, now filled with an anger that none of them had seen before.

"The brakes!" Janna yelled. "Step on the break!"

Eclipsa obeyed and put her foot on the brake, causing the car to stop, resulting in Bren ripping the bumper off and landing on his back.

"Hit it!" Janna yelled.

Eclipsa floored the gas pedal and the car roared away from Bren, leaving him in the dust. It head back into the road and made for the towns hospital, going by so fast that it left a small clue of dust behind it.

Bren watched them leave, breathing heavily. He rubbed his nose and stared at his index finger for a few moments, a single drop of blood hanging off of it.

He chuckled, and "Not bad Butterfly" was all he said as walked off and whistled a carefree tune, unaffected by what had just happened. He made a beeline for the shop Tom was in, deciding that he should probably go and "save" Marco's father, as well as punish one specific lackey for his foolishness.

In the car…

As Star screamed at Eclipsa to go faster, she and Janna were trying everything they could to help Marco, with little success, as most of his injuries were either internal, as well as both of them still feeling insane levels of pain anytime they moved their arms. They did their best to ignore this, but it was starting to become more difficult with everything going on.

"What do we do?" Star asked Janna, having no clue about what to do herself. "How do we help him?!"

"Uhhh…" Janna muttered out, equally ignorant as Star in this situation. Marco had so many injuries on him that she didn't even know what to try and do first, not to mention the ones she probably couldn't see.

"I don't know!" Janna finally responded, being as honest as she could. "I don't know what to do!"

"But-but-" Star sputtered out. "Why not?! You have to do something! Marco once told me you stopped your heart by snapping your fingers! You can hypnotize people super easily! Can't you do something here?!"

"Star, I'm not some magic healer." Janna said. "I don't have magic. I never had magic. I only ever had some connections to some weird people and I occasionally studied the occult and other creepy groups. I don't know what to do. For both you and Marco's sake, calm down. We can get through this."

"Calm down?!" Star yelled incredulously. "Do you see the state he's in?! How I can possibly remain calm?!"

"I don't know!" Janna yelled, her normally apathetic attitude having disappeared entirely. "But please try."

"She's right." Eclipsa chimed in. "You two fighting won't do anything for Marco. None of us are doctors. The best we can do right now is to get him to the hospital and try to stop any bleeding we can. How is he? What are his injuries?"

"Where do I even begin?!" Star shrieked, still unable to contain her emotions. "His arm is broken, all the skin on his forehead is gone, there's blood leaking out of his mouth and his nose, he's covered in gigantic bruises, land he's not even moving anymore!"

"Not...moving?" Eclipsa asked, the fear in her voice steadily rising.

"Yeah! What do you-oh no." Star said, realizing what this could mean. She quickly put her ear next to his chest and waited to hear something.

Then she heard it.

Or rather, what she didn't hear.

The worst thing she could ever think of, and something she hoped she would never have to listen to.

The sound of one heart, the heartbeat that had helped her fall asleep so many times, the heartbeat that she would always know to be Marco's...no longer beating.

"NOOO!" She screamed, grabbing the unmoving Marco and pulling him close to her. "Marco! Wake up! You can't...you…"

"Star!" Janna said. "Is he-"

"His-his heart stopped!" Star said, tears streaming down her face. "He's not breathing! He...he…"

"Oh my god!" Eclipsa said, starting to slow the car down.

"No!" Star yelled, noticing the lack of acceleration. "Keep going! Don't stop! Get to the hospital! They have to bring him back to life!"

"Right. Right." Eclipsa said, trying to concentrate on her driving. She sped the car through the streets, almost running down several people, by that didn't matter. She could have convoy of fifty police cars chasing her and she wouldn't have stopped.

Meanwhile, in the back seat, Star was still frantically trying to bring Marco back, slapping him as he was simply asleep, not lying dead in her lap. She was practically have a panic attack.

"Okayokayokay." She said, trying to calm herself despite already breaking down completely. "I'll have to give him CPR. I've seen it happen in those movies Marco showed me. It'll restart his heart. I've-"

"Star, I don't think that's going to work." Janna said, nearly having as bad a breakdown as Star. "He's lost too much blood, that's not the same as having a heart attack or drownin-"

"I don't care!" Star screamed. "We have to do something! Anything! He can't die like this! Not now! Not after all he's- no, not after all we've been through! I can't let that happen!"

"I'm not sure there's much we can do!" Janna yelled back. "I don't know what to do! I'm not a doctor! Sure, I can do some weird stuff, but I don't know how to help with this!"

"Can't you just do the thing you do?!" Star asked frantically. "The hypnotizing thing?!"

"No! He's dea-" Janna stopped mid sentence, unable to bring herself to say it. "I can't. I told you earlier, it won't work. He wouldn't hear me. He's not...here anymore."

"But...but...please! We have to-"

The car suddenly screeched to a sudden stop, slamming Star, Janna, and Marco's body into the back of the front seat. Both Star and Janna got up in a flash, completely unconcerned with the explosion of pain hey both received.

"We're here!" Eclipsa said. "We're at the hospital!"

"My god, that was fas-" Janna started, before Eclipsa ripped open her door and opened theirs.

"Yeah well, when you're going 60 mph over the speed limit, you tend to get where you need to go faster! I can't even imagine how traffic laws I broke. Now grab Marco and let's go! No time to waste!"

Star and Janna quickly responded to this, with Star grabbing Marco's head and Eclipsa grabbing his feet. Janna was right behind them as all three of them ran as fast as they could into the hospital, several nearby people looking on in horror.

Bursting through the door, Star started screaming wildly, catching the ears of every single person on the hospital. Ignoring the pain in her arms, she took Marco away from Eclipsa and carried him by herself, and then ran up to the closest doctor she could find. Before they could even react, she started yelling at them so fast that her words became nothing short of incomprehensible.

"HELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHESNOTBREATHINGANDHISHEARTSTOPPEDANDWECANT-"

"ENOUGH STAR!" Janna yelled, pushing past her and rushing over to the doctor. "Hey. This guy's heart stopped. Please bring him back to life." The tone she used for this was calm but also shaky, and it was easy to see that she was closer than anyone to start screaming as well.

This all happened so fast that it took a few moments for the doctor to respond, but soon they came to attention and called for help, and in no time flat a small army of nurses and doctors rolled out a stretcher, placed Marco on top of it and then wheeled him off into the main hospital. Star tried to follow them but Eclipsa held her back, knowing that she couldn't do anything.

"Let me go!" Star yelled. "I have to be there!"

"Star, you can't do anything!" Eclipsa yelled. "Let the doctors do their work. You'll just get in their way. I know you want to be with Marco, but you have to know that you can't do anything for him right now!"

"But-but what if they can't bring him back?" Star asked, her voice quivering. "What am I gonna do? He probably thinks I hate him for fighting me! He probably hates himself for it! And what are we gonna tell Angie?! I need to-"

"Star!" Janna barked at her. "Please calm down. I know how hard this must be right now. It is for me too. I'm freaking out inside. But freaking out isn't what's best for Marco right now. If he could talk to us, I'm sure he'd tell us to calm down and wait this out. I'm sure they can restart his heart. I've seen some pretty crazy medical stuff."

"Are you sure?" Star asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't want to live in a world without-"

"I'm sure." Janna said, putting her hand on Stars shoulder. "Now you might want to clean yourself up, you're covered in blood."

Star looked down at herself and saw that Janna was right, with large splotches of blood covering her dress and part of her shoes and socks. She started to tear up again knowing that it was Marco's, but remembered what Janna said, and so she simply wiped her tears away before walking off into a nearby bathroom to clean herself off. A few doctors tried to stop and help her, seeing how banged up she was, but Star pushed them away and locked the bathroom door behind her.

"Nice job." Eclipsa said, walking over to Janna. "I didn't think anybody would be able to calm her down. I just hope she lets those doctors help her soon. She's in real bad sha-"

"How are we gonna tell her?" Janna interrupted, her voice deadpan.

"How are we gonna tell her what?" Eclipsa asked.

Janna sighed. "How long did it take us to get here between the time his heart stopped? Four minutes? A little under? What did he die of? Blood loss? Internal injuries? How do you bring someone back who died of that?"

"What are you-"

"How are we gonna tell her?" Janna repeated. She then looked over at Eclipsa, a sad, mournful look in her eyes.

"How are we gonna tell Star that they're not gonna be able to bring him back?"

Eclipsa tensed up at the question, realizing what Janna meant. It was permanent. Marco's death was permanent. Eclipsa started shaking at the thought, while Janna had asked the only question anyone could ask. How could any of them tell Star?

And worse, what would she do when she found out?

She might set the entire world aflame.

End chapter 15

A/N: Well, Marco is dead. At least for now. Probably. I do have an idea on how he could be revived, and it involves his whole possession thing. But enough about possible spoilers. I actually intended tie chapter to be a few thousand words longer, but it's already 40 pages long, and I didn't want to force myself too much. Hope it's a good chapter.

And Bren's real eye color is green! Obviously the biggest surprise of the chapter. /s. But that will become important later. A detail not to be overlooked. As for his whole torturing plot, it would have failed anyway, as Marco would have been long dead before he could bring him anywhere else.

Until next time.