The penultimate chapter of the arc is here!
There are two things I want to note about this chapter, one is the ending which I have been looking forward to writing for a while, the other is that I that I should make a drinking game every time I make a reference or am inspired by a magical girl anime (Mainly Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure)
Also, I have found that someone made a tv tropes page for this story and it makes me so happy! I've always wanted one of my stories to get a trope page! Feel free to add to it! Thank you to whoever made it!
To Sugar: Sadly, Mina and Seth are dead for real. They were always meant to be killed off, freeing a mad spirit has it's consequences. Rest assured, their ghosts are in the Underworld and the two will be bickering for a long time over who's fault it was that they got killed.
They had failed,
Ragnarok was free, the whole universe would be destroyed in a little over an hour, and the five of them were trapped in a dark magic cage.
Star Butterfly could usually find a ray of hope in these situations, yet as she sat curled up on the floor, her hands clutching the necklace Marco had given her, she couldn't see any way to fix all of this.
As for the others, Kelly continued to cut at the magic bars; she was on the last weapon in her arsenal, hacking away with a battleaxe "UGH! It's no use! We're never getting out of here!"
On the other side of the cage, Pony had her phone in front of her, using her horn to type on the screen "So the universe is like, gonna be gone in a while cuz this ugly dude named Ragnarok got loose, #NotMyFault. With the short time we have left, go watch my autobiographical story 'Inside the Pony's Head.' It is #Awesmazing! You won't be able to finish watching all forty seven hours of it, so I recommend starting at the fifth musical number #YOLO #PonyWillLiveForever #NotGuilty" she went to press the send button, however her post was unable to be posted "THIS PLACE HAS NO WIFI! HOW WILL ANYONE READ MY FINAL TWATTER POST!?"
Ignoring the shouting, Tom and Janna sat side by side, both sadly confessing things they regret "-and I never got to drive my monster truck. I never enacted project ghost possum; I never got to go to Cuba. But most of all, I regret not ever getting to wear pink in public." Janna sighed "Ok, your turn Tom."
Listening to Janna list all of her regrets, Tom had more than enough time to think of a few of his own "Well, for starters I regret not talking to my parents since I stormed out on them. I regret all the times I was an angry demonic jerk, I regret not giving Marshmallow a goodbye kiss, I-I could keep going on forever!"
"Well we don't have forever." Janna solemnly reminded him "Time's running out, so whatever you need to say you better say it now."
Tom went silent, contemplating her words as he thought over what his biggest regret of all "Janna…if this really is the end. Then there is something I need to get off of my chest." "Your shirt?" Janna guessed, causing Tom's face to flush red "Wha-no! I'm being real here! Can you take this seriously for one minute" the demon grabbed Janna's hands in his own, his eyes pleading for her to listen to him "Janna, I have to tell you this…I-"
A loud crash interrupted what Tom was about to say, the whole team turned their attention to one of the walls as a large figure burst in "Kids!"
Rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, Star gasped in disbelief to see that the person who broke in was none other than Globgor! Riding on top of the sizeshifter's shoulders, was her own parents and Eclipsa "I-I don't believe it! How-Why are you all here?!"
The Mewman adult's hopped off of Globgor as he shrunk back down to regular size, once down Moon sprinted over to the cage as fast as she could "As soon as Eclipsa told me what you planned on doing, there was absolutely no way I could let you kids stop a bloodthirsty spirit all on your own. Thankfully, Eclipsa knew someone that could show us the way." The former queen stepped aside for the current one to approach the cage.
With Eclipsa closer, Star could see a flat object tied to her back. Eclipsa turned around and revealed Alphonse's portrait to the group "Looks like ye need a bit of assistance."
"Hey it's the weird sailor from Star's room!" Pony pointed out. Through the gaping hole in the wall, The Blood Moon flashed a message to Pony Head "Wait, he's who now?" Pony responded to the Blood Moon, who replied with more morse code "Get out of town! Star, BM says that the weird sailor is Eclipsa's dad! Did you know 'bout this?!"
"Uh, yeah." Star nodded "I asked Eclipsa about it after I met him."
"We all knew Pony Head." Kelly added "Why else would she have a random dead guy's portrait in her room?" taking a moment to think it over, Pony shrugged and let the subject pass.
River pounced at the cage and began gnawing at the bars "Dad, if magic couldn't break this cage then I don't think your teeth will." Star told her father "Not with that attitude it won't!" he countered.
"Allow me." Globgor grabbed River off of the cage and stuck his arm in. His arm grew to half the size of the cage, forcing the bars to bend against him. With a small opening, Star and the others crawled under Globgor's arm and out of the cage, the bars returned to normal as Globgor retracted his arm.
"Well now that we're out, we need to hurry." Tom spoke urgently "Ragnarok sent some gargoyles off to destroy Earthni."
Globgor's expression turned grim "Yes, I know those creatures all too well. Fortunately, that also means I know how to stop them." Despite this, Moon appeared troubled "Well if Alphonse can navigate us to where they are, we can stop them. But we can't leave that spire unattended."
"Spire, what spire?" Star looked to her mother for clarification "The-the ginormous spire right behind this place." Moon pointed to the hole in the wall. Rushing to the opening, Star looked up and found the pitch black spire reaching past the clouds "Oh no, it's just like the one in the pop-up book!"
Hearing that sentence, Eclipsa turned to Janna "Did she say a pop-up book?" "Yeah, go fig." Janna nodded.
Moving away from the hole, Star faced her friends and family "Ok, I know what Ragnarok plans to do and how he will do it. The rest of you need to intercept those beasts before they reach Earthni, I'll handle Marco and Ragnarok."
"By yourself!?" Moon gasped "Star I cannot allow you to do that!"
Star stood firm "I have to! Galaxina's prediction said the only way to stop Ragnarok once and for all is to bring light and darkness together. Once I get Marco back, the two of us can beat him!" taking a few steps forward, Star grabbed her mother's hands and looked her straight in the eyes "Trust me mom."
Looking into the eyes of her daughter, Moon was proud of how strong she had become. After what happened with Toffee and the Solarians, Moon never wanted to send Star into the heat of battle ever again. She knew it was selfish of her, but Star wasn't her little girl any more. The irresponsible young princess had blossomed into a brave warrior before she knew it. With great reluctance, Moon motioned for Star to go.
"Just come back safe dear."
"I will." Star smiled, letting go a second later as she made a mad dash for the spire. With a burst of magic, Star summoned Cloudy to scale the twisting tower. Moon watched sadly as her baby went off to save the universe, a melancholy ache tugging at her heart "Moon Pie…" the sound of her husband's voice got her attention. Everyone was riding atop Globgor except for the two of them "She's going to be ok; Star is our daughter after all."
Moon smiled "Yes, yes she is."
OXOXOXOX
With Alphonse leading the way, the group was making excellent progress catching up to the Devils of Ragnarok. Globgor jogged across the land with everyone but Tom holding tight, the demon flew alongside the current king "So we know where these things are, but what happens when we find them?" Tom questioned the hustling monster.
Eclipsa pressed her palm to her chin as she thought of a plan "Yes, one strike of their tails and we'll all be dust."
Kelly grimaced "I don't think that would feel so good."
The Blood Moon flashed quickly "'It's my time to shine' is that supposed to be a pun?!" Pony translated, groaning at the spirit's taste in puns.
The Blood Moon's light intensified, bathing the surrounding area all in red. All the red became condensed into a single beam, focused entirely on the group. When the light faded, everyone had a red glow around them "Cool!" Janna held out her glowing arm, admiring the warm feeling that came with it.
Giving an explanation in morse code, Alphonse smiled and translated "Now that Ragnarok is directly involved, she is allowed to grant you the help you need. That glowing energy is The Blood Moon's spirit power, it can't do much for regular mortals, but it will keep you from being affected by another spirit's abilities."
"So we can fight them without dying!" River enthusiastically gasped, eager to punch a devil in the face.
"It will only save you from their tail's instant death, they can still kill ye with anything else." Alphonse clarified.
Pony Head turned to the Blood Moon "Well look at that, you're not completely useless after all." Unamused, The Blood Moon flashed a comment back to the pony 'At least I didn't forget to hide a seal', Alphonse glared at Pony Head, who gave an innocent whistle as she avoided eye contact.
"Up ahead!" Tom pointed to the rest of the bunch, the Devils of Ragnarok were in sight and getting closer by the second "Listen up; if we cut off their tails, their power destroys themselves." Globgor relayed to everyone.
With their plan set, Tom took the first attack to one of the devils, launching a massive fireball that enveloped the beast in flames. This got the attention of all of them, who turned their sights on their new targets. The creatures let out high pitched shrieks as they swarmed the group.
Moon led the others as they launched off of Globgor to start the battle, Eclipsa handed Alphonse's portrait over to Janna as the latter took cover behind a boulder. With her dead father's painting taken care of, Eclipsa reached under her dress and grabbed a rapier that had been strapped to the inside of the fabric. The queen dashed to the nearest devil and gave a direct hit to the tail, sadly the blade barely grazed the skin "Rats, I forgot how tough these guys are."
Her comrades were facing similar troubles; despite their strength the devils were very durable. River jumped onto the back of one of the devils and gave it a hard punch in the face "You think you're so tough?! I've beaten Earth security guards tougher than you!" he flipped the beast into the air and slammed it into the ground head-first. Seeing an opportunity, Kelly came over and hacked away at the devils tail while it was still reeling from the pain.
Up in the air, two of the devils chased after Tom who evaded their movements. Globgor reached out and grabbed the two in his claws, knocking them against each other. Tom gave his savior a thumb up, not noticing a third devil coming from behind him "Hey Demon boy! Pony Head's up!" the floating horse head herself tackled the beast with her drill horn, making a good dent in its thick skin "Yeah boi, you just got served!"
On her own, Moon fended off a devil as it slashed its claws at her, if she hadn't worn her armor then she'd have already been a bloody mess right now. With a loud grunt, Moon brandished a gleaming gold and silver sword, thrusting the blade forward she pierced the skin with one hit. The beast cried in pain as Moon withdrew her sword, taking the opportunity to slice off the tail in a few good swings. The devil turned to dust and blew away with the wind "One down, nine more to go."
OXOXOXOX
"WEEEEEEEE!" Cloudy happily screeched as he flew as fast as his wings would let him. Despite her spell's enthusiasm, Star remained determined as the two swiftly ascended the spire, flying in a twisting motion instead of straight upwards.
Star and Cloudy were up high enough that the regular clouds were only a short distance ahead; Star paid no attention to what they were heading towards, only to the spire as they passed it by. Her target wasn't the top of the tower, not yet at least, she was searching instead for someone that would try and stop her from reaching the top.
A bolt of black lightning nearly fried Cloudy as it shot out from an opening in the spire "Bingo." Star spoke under her breath. Charging forward, Star and Cloudy evaded more lightning blasts until they made their way to the source. Standing on a ledge at the side of the spire, was Marco standing guard "Your ride ends here!" he shot out multiple lightning blasts at once instead of a singular one.
Star yanked Cloudy into a sharp turn to avoid the blast, and then positioned herself to jump onto the ledge "Bunny Rocket Blast!" Cloudy poofed away as a burst of rabbit-based magic send Star zooming straight to where Marco was. Landing with a tumble to the floor, Star picked herself back up to find Marco standing only a few feet before her.
"Can't say I'm surprised to see you found a way out of my prison, it wouldn't feel right to leave you there when everything ends…Darkness needs to destroy the light first." Marco threatened.
Looking behind her corrupted lover, Star saw that there was a large empty room inside the spire. There wasn't enough room to fight on the ledge, Marco could easily push her over, Star needed to get on even ground "You want me? Come and get me!" Star pulled up a magic barrier as she rammed herself against Marco. The move surprised him and knocked the two of them into the empty space.
Flipping himself back up, Marco glared daggers at Star, who in turn gazed at him sadly "I'm not leaving here without you Marco!"
"You're not leaving here period!" the boy conjured up a whirling ball of dark energy "Dark Shadow Bomb!" the attack shot towards Star rapidly.
Thinking fast, Star twirled in a circle as she drew a gold ring around her body, guiding it over her head she tossed it forward "Light Princess Prism Escalation!" the ring captured the dark magic and compressed it into a small explosion.
Closing her eyes momentarily during the explosion, Star opened her eyes to see Marco right beside her, charging into a punch. She crossed her arms into an x shape as she blocked the attack from hitting her body, only to be pushed back several feet until she was up against the wall.
"Marco, you have to stop! Ragnarok has been lying to you about everything...except destroying all reality. He really meant that part." Star stopped to mention, before gathering golden particles to her hands for another spell. The princess materialized a large golden diamond before her, then slammed her hands together as she called out the spell "Rainbow Moonshine Crystal Halation!" the gem burst into a blinding rainbow light.
Shielding his eyes from the dazzling flash, Marco hurried a counterattack "Black Phantom Lance!" he sent a wave of magic into the ground. The spell traveled until it was beneath Star, erupting into dozens of black spikes that nearly skewered her alive if she hadn't jumped when she did.
Taking a few steps backwards as her feet touched the ground, Star found her balance and held her hands into a heart shape, taking aim at Marco "Infinity Cosmic Heartache!" a stream of pink hearts hit Marco directly. Under the barrage of hearts, Marco struggled to pull up a shield "De-Death Void!" a miniature black hole sucked up the remaining hearts, and threatened to pull Star in as well.
Zapping the black hole away with her magic, Star had not a second to rest as Marco released a flurry of dark arrows straight towards her. Star surrounded herself with a golden magic shield, holding it steady as Marco tried to break through with a magic drill "Marco, you need to snap out of it! You have to remember who you really are!"
"I know what I am! I'm-"
"You are Marco Diaz! You are my boyfriend! You are the sweetest, bravest, most amazing person I know!" Star fought hard to keep her voice from breaking as she spoke "I know the real you is still in there! The real Marco that I love, and I won't stop until I bring you back!" releasing her shield, Star rearranged the magic into a new spell "Dream Crisis Meditation!" the magic latched onto Marco as it held him in place.
Struggling against the magical-goop like substance as he tried to escape, Marco's cheekmarks flared with a dark aura "Calavera de los Muertos." A skull-shaped smoke cloud surrounded him as Star's spell dissolved. Now free, Marco set his sights back on his target "You will never defeat me with spells like that!"
"I'm not trying to defeat you! I'm trying to save you!" Star shouted in frustration "Please Marco, feel my love for you…" placing two fingers to her lips, Star blew a kiss that sparkled like her namesake "Starlight Eternal Kiss!"
The spell grew to half the size of the room, shining with the intensity of her love for her partner. The spell was impossible to dodge, so Marco cast another spell in a last ditch effort to avoid being hit "Chaos Destruction!" the two spells violently collided, sending both teens flying into the wall.
As the dust cleared, Star saw Marco slumped against the wall, unmoving "Marco!" she hurried over to his side "Marc-AAAAAAAAAHHH!" a massive electrical shock coursed through her body, when the attack subsided Star was writhing in pain as Marco glared at her sinisterly "I think it's time to end this once and for all!"
OXOXOXOX
"KRYAAAAH!" one of the devils shrieked in pain as it turned to ash. Breathing heavily, Tom watched the creature fall as the removed tail disintegrated in his hands "Alright that only took forever. Are we almost done?" he called out to whoever was closest to him.
Knocking another beast to the ground with her weapon, a tired Eclipsa came to the demon's side "Unfortunately we are not even close! There's still seven more of these things left." Other than the one Tom had slain, Moon had taken down the first and the second destroyed itself with its own tail as Pony Head talked to it.
River was gnawing on one of the devil's necks, trying to wrestle it into submission. Moon aimed for the tail as it was distracted, but the tails tip struck her sword and turned it to dust "These things went head to head against the Solarian's. Just the few of us are lucky to have taken down as many as we have."
As a devil tried to pounce on Eclipsa, Globgor punched it away with his giant fist "Thank you my love!" Eclipsa waved to her husband.
Two of the devils spotted Janna and Alphonse's portrait in their hiding spot, then took a nosedive as they readied their tails to strike "A little help here!" Janna grabbed the painting and dashed away from the boulder as it turned to ashes. The devils set their sights back on the human, but Kelly jumped in front of them and kept the devils at bay "Any chance of reinforcements coming?!"
Tom rolled his eyes "We don't exactly have a secret fighting force on reserve!" after the words left his mouth, Tom felt the ground begin to shake "What in the-"a giant vehicle with a drill on the front erupted from under the earth and climbed into the middle of the battlefield.
The latch on top opened and countless Septarian's rushed out with weapons in hand. Before anyone could figure out what was happening, the newly arrived soldiers killed two more devils. The last to exit the vehicle was Rasticore, wearing a sash that had 'Rebellion Leader' written in bright red letters. He vaulted from the top and landed beside Tom and Globgor.
"Seth! For too long you have lorded over us! You cut back our gaming hours and refused to buy the good soda! Well no more! Today, we Septarian's will be free to do what we want! We are sick of fighting, so come out from wherever you are hiding so we may fight you, for the good of all Septarsis, and for the right to order deluxe pizzas!"
As the other Septarian's cheered, Tom walked up to Rasticore and nudged him "Uh dude, Seth is already dead." Rasticore stopped cheering and looked at the boy "Oh no, see we thought so too. But the old fart was locked in a basement."
"We saw him disintegrate into ashes like an hour ago. He's totally dead, for real now." Tom explained.
The group of lizards all stopped what they were doing, as they didn't know what to do in this scenario. Rasticore stood in awkward silence, taking a full thirty seconds before speaking again "Well…uh…this, I don't even know how to react to this." More silence ensued, Globgor broke the silence "You're already here, and you killed two more of the devils already, could you guys help out or…" "Uh, sure let's just-we're just gonna roll with that." Rasticore agreed.
The Septarian's continued attacking the devils; Blood Moon granted its red light to keep the new guys from meeting the same end as their former leader. Despite turning the tide of battle, Rasticore was disappointed "Aw, we worked so hard planning to overthrow him. I got a sash made and Joshua baked a victory cake and everything"
OXOXOXOX
Shaking off the excruciating pain of being electrocuted, Star moved out of the way just barely in time as Marco struck a pitch black sword into the space she had been sitting seconds prior. Once out of the way, Star shot rainbow beams from her fists towards Marco, the boy shrugged it off like it was nothing.
Dragging the sword across the floor, Marco continuously slashed at Star as she tried her best to avoid being hit. Eventually one blow landed directly against her knee and sent her crouching to the ground. Star quickly gathered some magic to fix the bleeding gash on her leg, healing it in time to face a barrage of dark magic balls heading in her direction. Star jumped up and shot out golden light beams that collided against the dark magic.
Sensing something to her left, Star matched Marco's punches with her own. Matching his strikes perfectly, the two went at it for a minute before Star broke the chain and sent a kick instead. Marco took the kick square in the chest and fell back for a moment, allowing both to catch their breath.
"Marco…please…" Star started to choke on the tears she was holding back, desperate for her words to reach him.
She attempted to take a step closer to him, and Marco responded by reaching out and grabbing her neck. As she felt her feet lift off the ground, Star gazed at her boyfriend with tear-filled eyes, unable to say anything as the love of her life glared at her with cold, unfeeling eyes.
Star struggled to release herself from his grip, failing as much of her body that she still had feeling in. Her movements caused the necklace she had been wearing to slip out from under the top of her dress, the golden star glimmering against the darkness around it.
The light from the necklace landed on Marco's face, as his eyes were drawn to the jewelry, he felt a pain in his chest, causing him to flinch away and drop Star. A strange foreign feeling stirred inside of him, he tried to make it go away but the feeling wouldn't stop "What-what is that…"
Taking note of his reaction, Star held the necklace in her hand as she stared at it thoughtfully "Do you remember this?" she asked hopefully, holding the winged star out for him to see.
Marco lingered at the sight of the object, his face softened as he felt unsure of himself. He felt like he recognized that necklace, and he started to realize that the girl holding it felt familiar as well. Marco took a step back, he felt wrong, something about all of this was wrong…
"Grrk!" Marco tightly gripped the sides of his hair, a splitting pain shot through his head as he tried to understand what was happening "Marco!" Star reached out to him. The sound of her voice intensified the pain, making his chest beat fast and his mind raced a mile a minute "Stop this now!" he shouted at the girl in front of him "Whatever you did to me, stop it right now!" he yelled desperately. The pain raging inside of his head had spread through his entire body, fighting against itself as nothing felt right anymore.
"AAAAAHHH!" Marco stumbled backwards, trying in vain to stop whatever war was going on inside of him. His raw screams were torture to listen to, but it only helped Star to see she was getting through to him.
"Marco, read the inscription on the back." She calmly approached the screaming boy, turning the star over so its words could be seen. Opening on of his eyes, Marco felt his breath stop as he read the engraving 'for now and all of eternity, the two of us are meant to be. My one and only love Star Butterfly, you hold the heart of Marco Diaz now and forevermore.'
"You told me this was proof of your love…" Star softly smiled "That love is still there, it's just lost in the darkness. You can break free Marco, I know you can."
Marco was frozen, unable to process what was going on. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, he could only stare in silence as the blonde captivated him with her eyes filled with love. Star got closer to Marco, close enough to feel his shaking as she cupped his cheek with her hand. Leaning in, Star whispered one last plea "Remember me…" and brought her lips to his.
All at once, the feeling that had been causing him so much pain flooded and overwhelmed his senses. This time he did not resist, he let the warm feeling engulf him as he closed his eyes and returned the kiss. Cracks of light formed over the pitch-black crescent moons on his cheeks, the light growing warmer and brighter until it caused the moon's to shatter and engulfed the couple in a pure white light.
As the light died down, and Star removed her lips from his, she felt her lover's body go limp at he slumped down to the ground. Star held him by the shoulders and guided him so that the two sat on their knees. Black goo melted from the top of his body, falling down as his black outfit melted down and revealed his usual grey shirt and black pants underneath. Where the black moons had been there were now two crimson crescent moons atop his cheeks instead.
"Marco!" Star shook his shoulders, trying to awaken him. Slowly, the boy stirred, his eyelids lifted to reveal his usual brown eyes "St-Star….?" His eyes shot open and he gasped out loud as he realized what he said "Star!"
Tears filled both of their eyes as the couple held each other in a tight embrace, holding on to one another for dear life as they wept tears of joy "Welcome home, Marco." Star nuzzled into the shoulder of her boyfriend. Marco buried his face into the fabric of the hoodie he had given her "Star I-I love you! I love you so much!" he loved her with every fiber of his being; he needed her to know that. He needed her to know how deeply, ridiculously in love he was with her.
The two wanted to stay like this forever, but the rumbling of the spire reminded them of the danger at hand "Ragnarok!" Marco gasped, reluctantly releasing himself from Star's grasp "We don't have much time, we need to stop him!"
Star's face shifted into one of determination "Yeah, let's kick his butt!" she stood up and held Marco's hand "Together."
Marco gave her a warm smile before she summoned Cloudy once more, the two of them got on top of the magic cloud as he flew them up to the top of the spire. Star and Marco held their hands tight, they were never going to let go ever again.