"STAR!" the boy called out to the cuffed princess.

Marco growled when he saw the state of his girlfriend. He felt raging fury but also had the weight of guilty on his shoulders for not being there for her. Marco rushed towards the girl and Evil Marco ran to intercept the boy. The Queen stood up and was conjuring a spell to throw at the younger Marco and a wall of fire blocked her view, she turned to her right and narrowed her eyes at the caster. Tom looked back at her with a smirk and a wink.

"I'm not digging the black and purple makeup. It makes you look like the lead singer of a 80's grunge band. And not in a good way." Tom joked at the snarling QOD.

The Queen disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and reappeared at the foot of her throne with her wand in hand. She raised her wand and a purple aura flashed as black tendrils appeared above the woman's head and they raced towards the demon at insane speeds. Tom jumped and flipped past them with ease, firing blasts of fire at some, as he dodged the others. He ignited fire under his feet and flew towards the high ceiling of the throne room. He raised his hands up and chanted in a demonic language, resulting in the floor cracking around the Queen and massive lava infused rock hands closed together around the dark witch. It wasn't five seconds when the hands exploded. It sent chunks of rocks flying everywhere as the Queen of Darkness stood with an expression of pure anger written on her face. She was glowing black as she raised her hand up and the chunks of rocks rose from the ground covered in a dark aura and the Queen waved her hand towards the demon and the rocks were hurled in his direction. Tom cupped his hands together near his mouth and blew into the opening, which spewed hellfire in a massive cone of flames. All the rocks were immediately reduced to ash. Steam filled the man's vision as he saw a massive black fist emerge from the smoke and smash him into the ceiling before disappearing. Tom started to fall back to the floor and the fist reappeared and collided with his body, sending him into a pillar before he dropped onto the floor. Tom coughed up some blood and tried to stand, but was kicked in the face by QOD and he fell onto his back. She picked him up by the collar and stared deeply into his eyes.

"Why do you still fight? When there is nothing to FIGHT FOR! You keep coming back. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO KILL YOU?"

Tom laughed at the Queen's desperation, "You just don't get it. My goal isn't so trivial that I would give up when someone told me to. You don't get the privilege of this ending when I die. I'll fight till I win. And I would say my victory dance is closer than you think."

Evil Star raised an eyebrow at the last comment as she looked at Tom, but his eyes were focused on something behind her. She heard approaching footsteps and turned her head, but it was too late as Janna's scythe was already on the downswing. The blade cut through the QOD's right arm like butter, just missing her left, and the Queen immediately dropped the man and stumbled back. She yelled in agony as her stump overflowed with blood as she glared at the pair that stood together.

"Good to see you still bleed red, Star." Tom jeered.

The woman gritted her teeth and clutched her arm as she heard the name she threw away. She was radiating anger till she calmed herself down and chuckled slowly.

"You think this changes anything? You think you've won? All this is doing is delaying the inevitable. It is futile to oppose me." QOD said coldly.

The witch held out her stump and a purple shadow slithered out to the hand laying on the floor and grabbed it, the shadow reeled back in and attached her hand back to her arm. The Queen looked at her reattached hand, moving her fingers and twisting it.

"See? Futile." She called out as she raised her hand to show them.

Marco collided blades with his older self and grimaced at the slight pain in his shoulders. He ignored the pain and continued to engage in battle with Evil Marco. I am NOT losing! The boy told himself as he dodged a swing from his attacker. He rolled to the side and extended his shield to block another hit. The man let loose a rally of hits from his blade onto the boy's shield. Marco noticed he was slowing his attacks and took it as the chance to spin and swing Silver Lining outwards and managed to tag Evil Marco's shoulder. The man stumbled back to avoid any more damage but Marco was already upon him, swinging and slicing rapidly to keep the man on defense. Evil Marco ducked and dodged the upcoming attacks as he searched for an opening. But Marco stopped advancing and smiled. He didn't understand the boy's expression until he realized that the younger version of himself stood right in front of the princess and he was near the pillar. They had flipped positions! Evil Marco stepped forward and the boy stepped back in response.

"Not another step, Diaz."

"Whoops." the young boy mocked as he continued to backpedal towards the princess.

Evil Marco rushed forward with a warcry as he swung his blade at the boy's head, but his shield stopped his attack as Marco retaliated with his own swing. Their blades collided over and over again as they fought for dominance. Marco knocked the man back with his shield and thrust his sword at the man's chest, but the older Marco knocked his blade to the side and parried. The boy was expected to dodge and drop his weapon but instead he moved towards the blade and retracted his shield to deliver a punch to the man's face. Marco got a thin cut across his chest but gave a massive blow to the man who dropped to his knees as he held his broken eye socket. Blood ran down his face as he glared at the boy who walked up to him.

"Fuck you, asshole." Marco called out as he put all his strength into another punch.

The older man dropped to his side as he blacked out. Marco searched the man till he found what he was looking for. He held up a golden key as he limped over to his princess and unlocked her shackles. He helped Star to her feet and she smashed her lips against his in a passionate kiss. It was like everything was normal again when he felt Star's warm lips against his. They pulled away and looked into each other's eyes and smiled.

"Let's get out of here." Star quickly said and pulled Marco towards another door.

"Wait, we need to help them," Marco pointed to the couple that was still locked in battle with the Queen.

They rushed closer to the fight and Tom looked at the pair and smiled.

"Don't worry about us! We got this!" The demon shouted as he dodged another blast from the witch.

The Queen narrowed her eyes at the newly freed Star and hissed. She had enough of these games. The QOD raised her hands and enclosed the room in a dark purple aura.

"Nobody is going ANYWHERE!" The blonde screamed as tendrils appeared to attack the group.

Everyone was dodging the oncoming attacks but they couldn't keep it up forever.

"STAR! Portal us outta here!" Marco shouted as he ducked underneath a shadow tentacle.

"I can't! I can't focus!" Star cried out as she hid behind a pillar.

"You can do it! I believe in you!" Marco replied quickly.

"I'll give you some time to breath! But I can only do it once so make it count." Tom chimed in as he pushed Janna behind a pillar and kissed her forehead, "I love you."

"Wait! Tom!" Janna shouted at the running man.

He ran to the center of chaos and closed his eyes. The man began to glow as fire encased his body, at first it was embers but turned into massive fanning flames of orange and red that lit up the entire room. He screamed as he continued to burn brighter than he ever had, his flames changing from red to blue to a golden orange. The tendrils tried to attack him but were burned to ashes as soon as they neared. The Queen shielded her eyes from the bright light as the room was enveloped in Tom's hellfire. Marco and Janna were gasping as the oxygen was eaten by the ever-growing flames. The princess was levitating a few inches above the ground as her eyes glowed. A blue portal started to form next to Marco. When the portal was fully formed, the girl fell unconscious into Marco's arms.

"GO!" Janna shouted to the boy.

"What about you and Tom?" Marco called out.

"Didn't Tom tell you that we got this? Now GO!"

Marco smiled at the woman and jumped into the portal. Janna sighed as she slid down the pillar as she passed out. Tom continued to shout as his flame grew in size until an explosion filled the throne room.

Marco and Star fell onto the floor as he stumbled out. He picked his head up and glanced around the familiar room. They landed in his room. He slowly stood and picked Star up and gently placed her on his bed. He collapsed next to her in exhaustion and drifted to sleep.

AUTHOR's NOTE: Wow what a chapter! They finally got STAR BACK! You guys think everyone in the throne room bit the dust? Marco finally won against his alternate self. No crazy reveals this chapter but we got a fight scene. I quoted some things in there, let's see if you notice the lines. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Please read and review your comments so I can see what you think. Don't be scared to share your thoughts. Next chapter will probably be tomorrow unless I feel like releasing another tonight.