Marco yawned and stretched as he opened his eyes. He groaned as he rolled over to his side, his injuries and wounds were aching. He glanced at the sleeping form of Star and saw the cuts and bruises that littered her perfect face. He gently ran his fingers along the bruised skin and Star winced in her sleep before slowly fluttering her eyes open, and revealing those bright blue orbs. Marco ran his fingers through her blonde hair and kissed her forehead. Star looked up at the brown-haired boy and smiled.

"I know you must be tired but we gotta go to the castle. We have to let everyone know you're back."

"Ugh. Can't we just stay for a little bit longer." Star moaned.

"I wish. But your mom is probably worried sick. I'm gonna go take a shower. You should do the same."

Marco slowly got up and limped to the bathroom, he heard Star following him. When he entered the room, he scraped his clothing off his bloodied and sweaty body. He let the water run as he stepped up to the mirror to examine his injuries and grimaced at how many scars littered his body. Star stood beside him, looking herself over in the mirror and noticed how badly she was beaten. Star was deep in thought about what she was told by the Queen. She wondered if she was right about Glossaryck being in her mind. She hugged herself and closed her eyes, Glossaryck? Are you there? When she heard nothing but silence, she sighed loudly and walked towards the shower and joined Marco inside. She hugged her boyfriend from behind and leaned her head on his shoulders. They let the water wash away all the dirt,blood, and grime of past events. Star and Marco took turns washing the other's back and their wounds. Star tensed up when Marco washed the cuts across her chest and the boy kissed her on the lips slowly.

After their shower, the pair wrapped up their gashes with gauze and put bandaids over the smaller injuries. Once they got dressed Marco started his descent on the stairs when Star called out to him.

"Where are you going?"

"Uh. Downstairs to the front door?"

Star rolled her eyes then closed them as she raised her hand, she was able to conjure a portal in the hallway.

"You coming?" Star asked as she pointed to the portal.

"You know you shouldn't be doing that, right? You're still hurt!" Marco complained as he walked to the portal.

"There's my safety boy that I know and love."

The couple walked through the portal and landed in the throne room. They put their hands up in surrender as weapons were pointed at them.

"Who goes the- Marco?" Kelly asked as she walked up to guards that cornered the couple.

"And Star." The princess added as she waved her hand.

The guards backed off as Kelly ran up to the pair and hugged them. She had tears in her eyes as she laughed and sniffled.

"Told you that I'd bring her back." Marco whispered as he hugged the blue-haired girl back.

Star heard her name shouted from across the room and turned towards the voice to see her mother and father, Hekapoo, and Eclipsa running towards them. Moon scooped her daughter up and hugged her tightly. They cried in each other's embrace. Marco was hugged by Hekapoo and River. Eclipsa winked at him and smiled. The boy felt great that everyone was back together again.

"Haha where's Janna?" Marco laughed as he pulled back from the hugging.

The room went from laughing and crying to complete silence. Marco felt a chill run down his back when Kelly looked at him with sad eyes.

"Kelly? Why are you looking at me like that? GUYS? Where's Janna?" Marco questioned again as he looked around at the sad faces.

"Marco… I'm sorry." Kelly started.

"Sorry for what! Where. Is. Janna?" Marco desperately shouted to anyone who would listen.

Marco was about to flip out if someone didn't answer him but Star grabbed him from behind and pulled him into a hug.

"S-star? What happened to Janna? Why isn't anyone answering the question?" Marco stuttered as he felt tears roll down his cheeks.

"Marco, I'm so sorry." Star replied as she rubbed his back.

"We don't know what happened to her but the body was found in the village two days ago." Kelly muttered.

Marco heard her loud and clear. That was the final straw as he bursted out crying into Star's shoulder. It was his fault, he shouldn't have asked her to do such a dangerous mission with no help. He vowed that she would not die in vain. He WILL kill the person who did this. But, for now he was going to drown himself in tears. Everyone felt uncomfortable, their hero was now breaking down in his girlfriend's arms. He wanted to destroy something, take his pain and anger out on something else.

"Marco? This may not be the time but I got word from Father Time, we're running out of time." Hekapoo announced.

Marco pulled away from Star and wiped his tears away, he stepped away from the group deep in thought. The boy needed to find the traitor now and he knew just who to ask. He was going to pay a visit to grey Ludo. The little bird was the first to bring this betrayal bullshit up in the first place.

"Hekapoo, can you open a portal to that alternate Ludo's dimension?"

"Possibly, he's from a dimension called X-404. Why?"

"Me and him are going to have a little talk. How soon?"

"Gimme a hour."

Marco nodded at the demoness and looked at the confused faces of everyone in the room.

"This conversation doesn't leave this room. Got it?" Marco asked the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement and Marco walked towards the exit. Star ran and grabbed his hand before he could leave.

"Marco, what are you going to do?"

"Star, I suggest you get some food in your system, we're leaving as soon as that portal opens." Marco commanded as he ignored Star's question.

The boy left the room when he got no further questioning from Star. He headed upstairs to Star's room, throwing the door open and walking inside.

"Glossaryck! Get the FUCK out here. NOW!" Marco shouted as he scanned the room.

"Jeez you don't have to yell. I'm right here." The blue man complained as he floated out of Star's closet with pudding in his hand.

Marco turned and grabbed the little man from his flying position.

"Whoa! What's got your panties in a twist? You made me drop my pudding. Judging from your red eyes and angered expression then I would have to guess Janna died. Is it really Tuesday already?"

"YOU KNEW?" Marco snapped as he tightened his grip on Glossaryck.

"Of course I knew, Knowledge is my job after all."

"You let her die…"

"Whoa. Take it easy on the blame game there, fellow. You don't want to say anything you'd regret."

Marco's hand was forced open by a magic force and Glossaryck flew up and fixed his clothing before poofing another pudding into existence.

"It's not some much I knew SHE was going to die. It was more so that I knew someone was going to die. And Star just got kidnapped and you went after her by yourself so I took an educated guess. It just so happens that I was wrong, but you can't blame a man for trying." The blue man explained through spoonfuls of pudding.

Marco sat on the bed and sighed loudly, he didn't know what to do and everyone was counting on him.

"I need to speak to alternate Ludo and get some clues about our uninvited guest. Do you know anything about him?"

"Other than he lied directly to your face in that virtual meeting? Not much."

"Wait, he lied to us? About what?"

"Basically everything. Did you really believe that little rat? He's not originally from the same realm as the evil Star. And the Queen of Darkness isn't going around killing alternate Stars. Ludo IS! He tried to kill the Queen of Darkness and ended up offing Marco instead. He didn't run away, Star put him in a prison dimension! He wanted you to kill her because she was the only one keeping him there. And Ludo isn't trying to stop Toffee, Ludo IS Toffee. The Toffee you're trying to stop is not some physical lizard, he has his consciousness stuck in some void and he can only influence others. He invaded this Star-killing Ludo's mind and is using him like a puppet among others. The key he's searching for gets him out of the void. Let's see, did I miss anything? Or did I cover it all?"

"Um. Uh. THE traitor! What about the traitor?"

"Oh that? I don't exactly know. It might be the real ludo hinting at someone here having their mind invaded by Toffee, which is who probably killed Janna." Glossaryck replied.

Marco didn't know what to do, should he confront Ludo? It would be too risky to take Star there though. What if he taps into her mind, then we're all screwed.

"If you're wondering whether or not you should go to Ludo's prison with Star then let me help you decide. Don't. Focus on finding your own Ludo, who's hiding out on some farming dimension called X-303. He knows who killed Mina and that person is probably the same as Janna's murderer." Glossaryck informed.

Marco's eyes widened and he ran from the room, down the stairs, and rushed into the throne room to find Hekapoo and Star working together on a portal.

"STOP!" Marco shouted to the girls.

The duo stopped what they were doing and looked up at Marco in confusion. The boy dashed over to the small forming portal and used his magic negating sword to slice the portal in half. It shimmered before completely disappearing.

"Marco, what the actual FUCK!" Hekapoo yelled as her flame brightened immensely.

"You do NOT want to open that portal! Trust me when I say all hell would have broken loose if you completed that spell. Glossaryck told me a lot of shit and THAT Ludo isn't who we want to meet right now. I know where OUR Ludo is and he has some answers on who killed Mina and Janna." Marco quickly explained.

Star was still confused but decided to trust her boyfriend.

"Where are we going?" Star asked.

"X-303."

"The farming planet?" Hekapoo chipped in.

Marco nodded and smiled.

AUTHOR's NOTE: SURPRISE! TWO UPDATES IN ONE DAY! That was to make up for the not posting the other day. Holy moly ladies and gents! JANNA DIED? I couldn't believe it and I wrote it! Sorry for those who wanted to see an in-depth Tom and Janna ship. Let me know in the reviews if you want a filler chapter of Janna's funeral. If not, I'll just continue the story. Let me know what you think, people! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter comes out tomorrow.