She'd only been walking for half an hour, the worn path already proving to be far longer than she anticipated, and Star was beginning to worry. She passed a floating mountain dotted with pines and scattered waterfalls, a crumbling castle that seemed oddly vibrant, and several buildings She swore she recognized from Echo Creek. But no Marco.
She could still feel him, slightly less distant than before, but there was no other sign of where he was hidden. Just more mountains, buildings, clouds, and vine-covered ruins. 'You'd really think a guy so anal about safety would have some guard rails though,' she mused. The stoney path had slowly become more overgrown with Vines as she went, and all that separated her from the endless expanse of sky beneath her was one trip over a loose brick.
Star made to comment on the notable emptiness of the rest of Marco's head, when a sudden WHOOSH sounded just to her right. Crouching down defensively, Star watched as a magnificent bird, something reminiscent of a six-winged cardinal flapped overhead in a flurry of movement. It cried out in a high pitched screech, but otherwise, it seemed safe enough. Before Star could stand, however, a dozen more smaller cardinals zoomed up from the clouds below, joining the leader in a tight formation.
Awestruck, Star stood carefully, watching as more creatures seemed to follow. Some variants looked like snake-bodied peacocks, others galloped like horses, and one even jolted through the air like a bolt of lightning, trailing a streak of light from its tail. There was a bat, flapping madly and angrily growling at any creature that strayed too close, followed closely behind by a timid-looking pigeon, easily twice the size of the cardinals before it.
'What...is this place?' She asked herself, knowing full well she was in Marco's mind, but having no idea what the creatures within were doing here.
She had no time to question the oddities flying through the air, however, when a swarm of Butterflies erupted from a nearby Stop 'n Slurp, flocking towards her.
Star took a tentative step back, reaching for a wand that wasn't there. Thankfully, they meant far less harm than that anry-looking bat, affectionately brushing against her skin and singing a gentle lullaby as they danced around her in a rainbowed vortex.
It came as a shock though, when with every touch of the Butterflies wings, there came about a sudden wash of emotions paired with a split second flash of her own memories.
A brush of the arm, and she felt euphoric, remembering the days they spent together on Vintal.
A flap against her cheek, and she felt nervous, remembering their first official date together.
Reaching out, Star held an open hand to let them land, curious as to what other filling memoires they carried, but when a single, blue butterfly perched in her palm, her vision entirely snapped to another reality.
'HE'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!' Came a burst of sound, her hands jutted before her in a torrent of blue flames, 'DON'T! LEAVE!'
Star felt an unfathomable amount of fear and pain in her chest as she watched the flames die down, only to find Moon standing beyond a translucent barrier. Her eyes widened with the realization that she was seeing that night from his point of view, and as Moon stepped through the portal, her chest burned with terror like she'd never known.
Thankfully, the vision ended as the butterfly in her palm took off, leaving her back in the serene clouds. Star, however, could do nothing but stare forward, letting her eyes sting with tears in the wake of the sudden emotions.
She betrayed him, breaking her promise and his trust, choosing to go it alone instead of taking their enemy on together. Marco had been heartbroken, none of his burning emotions held back in the vision, and it only drove the nail deeper into her heart. 'I… I'm sorry…I so sorry, Marco..." she whispered to herself, her words heavy with regret, when another, red butterfly landed in her hand.
Suddenly, she was back in her room, staring at...herself?
Star blinked, a wave of relief and happiness threatening to burst in her chest as she felt a torrent of tears flowing over her cheeks. The memory of Star smiled a warm smile, her eyes and cheeks glowing white as she held Marco's hands. 'I could never forget you Marco… even if I forget your name,' she offered.
An explosion of comfort and joy filled Star's chest as she realized where she was, and just how happy Marco had been when he got to say his goodbyes. But that happiness was ripped away as Star realized what she'd done just two days prior.
She'd forced him to say goodbye to her, abandoning him on Earth like a cast-away as she left on an almost certain suicide mission. As the Butterfly took off from her palm, Star tried to catch it again. To stay in that moment for just a little bit longer, to feel Marco's love first hand. But it was gone in an instant, dropping her right back on that walkway, alone.
Immediately, she dropped to her knees, tears pouring over her hearts as she wept.
There was no reason to be here, she realized. Marco would never forgive her for what she'd done. Even if she did find him, he'd likely prefer to stay, rather than go back with her after she'd failed so spectacularly. How could she have expected him to so easily forgive her, now knowing just how much she had hurt him.
The Butterflies suddenly took off, swarming back to the gas station, leaving Star alone on the path to wallow in her most recent failures. There was no point, she shouldn't be here, Marco would never want to see her again. What hope did she have of beating Vartek, let alone bringing Marco back? There was no point, and she was all alone.
'Do not lose your way, Child. You must stay on the path, if you are to find your bond mate.'
Luna's words flowed through her mind like a cold river, cutting through the dark, intrusive thoughts. Star shook her head, and nearly jolted back when she realized realized was standing on the edge of the pathway. Far below, the once calming and enchanted skies had turned into a swirling vortex of black, pulling her closer to the edge like a magnet.
It didn't take long for Star to push down her fears, and as she calmed herself, so too did the clouds below, slowing to a stop before calmly shifting back to a red tint. She stared, wide eyed at the now dormant maelstrom below, taking a slow step back towards the center of the path. 'was it... pulling me in?' she realized as the small tug in her gut slowly waned, "okay, focus girl. Stay on track, and don't get distracted and fall into the...fear storm?"
Easier said than done.
As Star continued walking, desperate to ignore the fantastical creatures flying around her, she instead turned her attention to the tug in her gut. Somewhere in this mess, Marco and Glossaryck were waiting for her. And whatever retribution she had to pay for her actions, she affirmed that she would take it in stride.
Another cry came from the massive cardinals, but Star ignored them, not even bothering to look at the passing, crumbling remnants of Echo Creek. Not even the slow shift from Earth to Mewman architecture could deter her, and as she continued, she found the tug growing stronger, leading her away from splitting paths, and guiding her further along the main thoroughfare. It was almost too easy, just stare straight ahead, follow the pull…
'What am I gonna say to him…' Came the sudden, alarming thought blaring through her mind, 'when I get him out, if he even wants to leave with me, how am I gonna explain things?'
A sudden crack shot across the walkway, and Star shook the thoughts from her head once more. Focus, the path ahead led to Marco, and all she had to do was take it. Who cared about the conversation they would tooootally totally be having after they got back? It didn't matter if Marco would probably hate her guts until-
Star stopped, glaring forward before once again shaking her head. "I. Am so boned. Like, completely and utterly fu- WOAH!" Another pull in her gut, fiercely demanding she keep moving forward, "okay okay! Jeez! Sorry I don't wanna get reemed when I rescue my-"
Star stopped, as did the force pulling her along, when she realized the path had since become a near jungle of vines and brambles. The stone walkway was now just a littered smatter of rocks in the flora, and the cries of the birds above had vanished, not another creature as far as the eye could see.
"Hooookayyyy?" Star glanced around, a sudden feeling of unease taking over. It was too quiet, the odd silence making her skin crawl as the feeling of a dozen sets of eyes on her made her twitch. Maybe it was just another allusion- "How'd you get in here?" A voice asked behind her, making Star jump ten feet in the air, reach for her wand, realize it wasn't there, and dart her eyes around looking for the source, all in the span of one second.
She took a step back. "Who said that?" she demanded, dropping into a poor rendition of a Karate stance, but there was no one there. The path wasn't large enough to hide anything, anyway, so maybe she was just losing it?
"You look scary, you should definitely stop making that face."
Star dropped her frown and turned her gaze downward, finding the latest in the odd menagerie of creatures inhabiting Marco's mind: a rabbit, white as snow, with two rosy pink cheeks, smiling up at her.
"W-...what?"
"You looked scary, but now you look soooo cute!" The rabbit offered gleefully, twitching its nose in her direction, "How'd you get in here?"
Star looked from side to side, seeing no dark clouds, no splitting cracks, and no other weird, talking animals. "I uh…." How the hell was she supposed to handle this? The rabbit was definitely evil, maybe it was the corruption tearing Marco's mind apart from the- "Yeah I uhm...I just kinda walked in. You?"
The rabbit continued to smile up at her, it's beady little eyes shining as she answered merrily, "Ha, what do you mean? I live here, silly! What are you, new?"
"Yeah, like I said, just walked in," Star grumbled, a particular pang of annoyance ringing through her mind. Something about the little rabbit, adorable as it may be, came off as infuriating, yet familiar. But an opportunity presented itself to her, the odds of finding a talking creature within the mindscape being too good to pass up. "I don't suppose...you can show me where Marco is, could you?"
The rabbit tilted her head, one ear drooping down to the side inquisitively. "Marco, MarcoMarcoMarco...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,' Star began to dip into an annoyed frown before the rabbit perked up immediately, "Ohhhh! Yeah yeah! Marco!"
"Do you know where he is?" Star all but demanded, things were finally turning around!
"No idea."
"...what?"
The rabbit continued smiling and twitched its nose. "Not a clue where that guy is. Hehe sorrrryyyyyy!"
A second of silence passed as the two blinked at one another, Star finding new and inventive swear words flooding her mind. But she didn't use them...yet. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, opting to simply try, "alright. Do you know... if there's like… a place someone new here might go… tooooo...find someone."
Again, silence passed between the two as the rabbit drooped one ear, a curious look taking over before it finally answered, "yup!" with a cheerful tone.
"..."
"..."
It just stared at her, smiling innocently before Star slowly, calmly asked, "can… you show me?"
"Well duhhh! Come on, it's this way! Follow me!" The rabbit suddenly took off back the way she came, disappearing around a bend. Star hurriedly made to follow her, but stopped cold the moment it was out of view.
"This could totally be a trap," she realized aloud, reaching down and holding her stomach. The pull was practically dragging her in the other direction, away from where the rabbit wanted to go. And Luna had made it very clear that Star was not to lose her way. So after a moment of silent deliberation, Star turned on her heels, and followed her gut.
She felt, admittedly, a little bad for the rabbit, but that sentiment was washed away in lieu of the reminder that it was likely, a death trap. Happily luring her off the trail, or right into a bird's mouth. 'Not falling for it, no way. It takes a lot more than a cute rabbit to trick me.'
Another tug came as if to agree with her, further solidifying her decision to follow her own way.
A few more minutes of walking passed as Star found new and inventive ways of entertaining herself, ranging from humming, trying to whistle, counting the budding flowers on the Vines, and noting the various different species of birds flying overhead. All of it, extremely boring, frankly. But there wasn't much else to do.
For lack of better terms, Marco's mind seemed pretty empty, unsurprisingly. 'Still, I wonder why I haven't seen any of me yet,' she thought, though to be fair, she hadn't seen much of anyone. 'But we're like, best besties and dating. You'd think I'd be somewhere around here.'
No sooner had Star finished that thought, a single blue butterfly fluttered past her, making the princess stop in her tracks. She didn't move a muscle, watching as it flew by carelessly. There was no way she was gonna roll the dice on another good/bad memory trip when she had so many more important things going on. She had too much to lose by messing up now.
Of course, with that she had to wonder, even if they did make it out of here together, what then? Vartek was still unstoppable, so what exactly-
Star inhaled slowly and held her breath, letting the worry of the future roll over her shoulders. "Doesn't matter if this is really the end or not. I just need to see Marco again." She shook her head, clearing the dizziness that came with what seemed like every negative thought she produced. A time and a place to worry about the future, for now, she had to figure out where Marco was. And from the feel of it, she was getting closer.
Of course, now that she really looked at her surroundings, it didn't seem like that was the case. The vines overtaking the stone pathway had all but replaced it, overgrown brambles and weeds making it almost impossible to walk in a straight line. That alone would have been fine, but the kicker was that all of the plant life here was dead. Here there was no green, only brown and yellow, the stalks of withered flowers and the stems of dried leaves all taking on the color of decay.
Even the atmosphere had taken on a more eerie look, with fog rolling beneath, and dark clouds threatening to drop rain overhead. And from the looks of it, it only got worse upo ahead. Star could only see about fifty yards down the path before it too was enveloped in a dark fog.
'If I were hiding someone from a certain someone else, this is definitely where I'd put them," Star surmised, holding her chin as she drank in her uninviting surroundings. The tug gave one final affirmative pull in her gut before it died altogether, leaving a hollow feeling beneath her ribs, but Star read the sign loud and clear. This was the place.
She made her way further down the withered vine trail, pushing past the brush and snapping away dried stems under her boots. She wanted to run, or even to take flight and race further down the path and embrace her prize at last, but she bided her time, choosing to approach the gloomy fog carefully, just in case the bright and shiny interior of Marco wasn't as friendly as the exterior. And true to form, it didn't look it
Star stopped after only another few minutes of walking, inclining her head as the fog began to burn away under the sudden break of sunlight. A hundred yards further down the path her gut had been leading her down, was a crumbling castle.
Its walls were overgrown with crumbling plant life, its towers were cracked and collapsed from neglect, and it's main hall was all but caved in, the pillars holding up its walls barely managing to support the damage of time. The castle reminded Star something of Pidgeon castle, only far more broken and ominous, if that was even possible. The vines that made up the pathway all seemed to snake towards the castle doors, or what was left of them, and all of them were very much still dead.
Star shivered, finally noticing the bitter cold that had overtaken her despite the bright rays of sunlight enveloping the castle. She could only stare at it, enraptured by the state of decay and chilling air around it. She took a tentative step closer, drawn to those doors that held an abyss within.
"I wouldn't go there, if I were-"
"OH MY GOD!"
Star nearly jumped out of her skin as the cheery yet foreboding voice of the rabbit she had ditched sounded of behind her. She heaved heavy breaths as her heart raced, turning a withering glare at the smiling little ball of fuzz. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she demanded.
"Uhhh, doy, I've always been here, silly," the rabbit answered before tilting her head and giving Star a curious look, "What are you doing here, scary lady? I thought you were following me to-"
"No, no no no. I am following my gut," Star answered with marked impatience, "And my gut says to go to the castle. That's probably where Marco is, so how about you hippity hop off to wherever you came from?"
The rabbit drooped both ears and- was it pouting? "But I thought we're gonna go together…" it whined like a child.
"No. I'm going into that castle to find Marco," Star returned with a frown, not easily won over by a pathetic display of- *sniff*
The rabbit sniffled into its arm and looked down, its beady little eyes welling with tears.
Star rolled her eyes. Of all of the terrible fates she had envisioned for herself in Marco's mind. Of all of the things she had expected to see here, this was not one of them. She wasn't about to just melt over a sad little rabbit. And yet? "Hey, c'mon," she offered, kneeling down to meet its eyes, "I'm sorry for being rude. But I really need to find someone important to me, and if I get distracted, I might lose him, or worse. And my guts telling me he's this way, so I kinda have to follow it, you know?"
The rabbit wiped whatever tears it could make from its eyes and nodded. It seemed to have calmed down a little, but still gave Star a downcast look of curiosity. "I'm sorry I said you look scary."
At that, Star actually managed a smile, reaching down to pet the rabbit gentle. "It's okay, my boyfriend says I look scary sometimes too," she offered with a laugh, "do you have a name, by the way? Or should I just give you one?"
The rabbit smiled with pride, gesturing to itself as it answered happily, "My name's Tif! And I don't have any nicknames because no one else here can talk. What's yours?" Star stood up and gestured proudly to herself right back before she laughed, "My names Star Butterfly, Tif. Do you, maybe wanna come with me to look for my friend?"
Suddenly, Tif's smile withered as she took a slow step back, looking around Star with careful scrutiny. "Nooo… you're going into the dark place," she mumbled, "Nothing that goes in there ever comes back out. And I promised the boy at the campfire that I'd come right back if I saw you."
Star slowly turned about to look at the decaying castle, the dead vines that crawled through its doors suddenly looking far more ominous than before. "Nothing...ever comes back out?" she managed, barely above a whisper. Her gut, dormant for the last few minutes, seemed to tug gently at the castle, coaxing her towards it with soothing finality.
'The corruption.' That castle, it must be where Darc had been locked away, a dark, empty, void. The vines must have been growing from whatever was festering down there, spreading further and further from the center. Corn, the vines she had been walking on this entire time was the corruption she had been told to avoid! The tug in her gut must have been it, trying to lure her down there for-
She snapped out of her trance, turning a mad look back at Tif. "Wait- did you say the boy at the campfire? Was he wearing red? Did he have brown hair?! Did he have a mole, and brown eyes, and was he kinda sweaty?"
Tif's eyes darted back and forth, her ears drooping as she took an uneasy step back, thankfully away from the dark place. "Yyyyyyes?" Star eyes shot open with all the confirmation she needed laid in front of her.
"Can you take me to him?!"
"Hmmmmmm, I dunoooooo," Tif mused as she held her chin, turning away from Star as the princess fumed at the holdup, "You didn't follow me last time. How do I know you're reeeaaally gonna come with me?"
The words, 'it's a trap' flashed through Star's mind once more, but she pushed them down as she drew closer to Tif with careful steps. "Please! I don't have a lot of time! I'm sorry I lied to you and I'm sorry for being rude but I really need to see Marco before it's too late!"
Tif slowly turned about and stared at the clearly agitated girl for a moment. She narrowed her eyes and stared for what felt like an eternity, before she finally gave a smile and turned about. She took off at breakneck speeds, calling out over her shoulder, "HURRY UP! HE'S THIS WAY, FOLLOW ME!"
Star fought back her second happy cry of the day and took off after the rabbit, leaving the dead vines, the fog, and the seemingly empty castle behind.