"How many more have we gotten in?"

"To be honest, still not many."

Python grunted as he sat perched on a boulder. After he had made his demands, he and the rest of the Ten had waited for any who would be willing to join them. Either the royals would give in to their demands, and they'd need their help reshaping mewni, or they would be in for a fight, and they'd need their current knowledge and know how for the upcoming fight.

With how the state of things had been, he had expected plenty of monsters to rally to their side. And quite a few had. But it hadn't been nearly as much as he had hoped. None of the major tribes had arrived. Well, some smaller septarians ones had, but apparently the two largest of them and a handful of others were missing. The giants were a no show completely.

The Earth Nymphs were understandable of course, due to their vow of neutrality. But many of the others? It was rather surprising that they hadn't showed up yet. He knew his brother and nephew had uttered some nonsense about change in mewni, he surely the other tribes couldn't have placed their faith in the kingdoms.

"We did get a few odd visitors as well. Some odd little mewman boy who was offering some sort of alliance. He mentioned some about his magic or some such. And another who led some band of mewmans and monsters. Claimed that we had the same enemies and offered to work with us," Argus said.

Python grunted. "And?"

"And Scylla and Gadfly threatened to kill them if they didn't get going. They scurried off after that," Argus explained. Python nodded. He didn't want any mewmans thinking they were an exception to his demands. He didn't care what cause they claimed to fight for, he wanted as many as possible out of the dimension by their time limit.

"Are you still unable to see my nephew?" he asked.

Arguis nodded. "Unfortunately. But I think Orthrus tracked him down. He got rather close to the castle before my vision of him cut out," he explained. "If you're looking to track him down though, I don't think we have to waste out time. He's probably on his way here. I lost sight of the castle for a while, but I can see it again. Still can't see the Typhon's boy or Orthrus though. So they're probably left together."

Python looked rather curious. He had hoped that when his nephew and his allies tried to clash with Orthrus, that he'd be able to sense it and make his way there. But if they were coming to him… that was odd. Was he coming to answer their demands? Or maybe for another fight? He really was as stubborn as his father if it was the latter.

Either way, it saved them some time hunting him down.

"Well, what proper timing. I sense Orthrus is on his way back…"

Python looked off into the distance. Yes, he was picking up Orthrus scent, along with a large magical power on top of him. "Gather the others together. I don't want to take any chances in case he tries anything." He doubted the boy would be any real threat to them, but he was still Typhon's son.

Argus nodded and walked off to gather the rest of the Ten. Python simply sat back and waited. For his sake he hoped his nephew came with words he wanted to hear. He wanted to avoid having to put him in his place, but if he didn't budge it wouldn't leave him with much of a choice…

Astro had jumped off of Orthrus back when he had reached the bottom of the mountain path, deciding to walk the rest of the way. He figured he was close enough that he should start buying time for his sister already. As he made his way up, he had passed by a few well armed monsters, who he assumed were among those taking the Ten up on their offer.

More than a few of them shot nastyy glares his way. These were probably mostly made up of rebels and raiders, and he was sure they knew who he was. One of them approached him, carrying a blade in his hand, but before he could speak Orthrus growled at him. He quickly backed off as Orthrus shot a quick warning glare towards the others as well.

They all either looked away or stepped back, and Orthrus looked back towards Astro and nuzzled his side. "Uh… thank you," Astro said, patting him on the head. It felt odd, but he could tell Orthrus wasn't just being friendly because he was ordered to. This was genuine. He must have sensed his connection to his father.

He wondered if the beasts knew what happened to his former master. He couldn't imagine he would be in such high spirits if he did. Or maybe he was lonely and was clinging to the next best thing? He doubted there was any chance of him being able to turn Orthrus against the others, but he was willing to try anything at this point.

Once he got up to the top of the mountain, he saw his uncle along with the test of the Ten sitting in a clearing. He could also see the souls of the royals court floating around them. To have them sitting out in the open would have been risky for anyone else, but for them… well, it wasn't like he could take or grab them himself. Not with any chance of escaping anyway.

He narrowed his eyes as he approached them. Python stood up and began to approach him, but before he could say anything, Argus popped up next to the boy. "So, you're Typhon's boy! Let me get a look at you," he said.

Astro's eyes went wide as Argus lifted up his arm and poked at him. "Hmm, strong. You've seen your fair share of combat. But something seems off. Like your body is trying to play catch up. Did the Butterfly family have something to do with this?" he asked curiously. "Bah, it doesn't matter. We'll sort it out."

Kyu sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Argus…"

The elderly monster ignored both her and the other annoyed looks from the Ten. "Hello there, Lus said you went by Asterossa. I would have advised a proper monster name, but oh well. You can call me Argus. Or grandpa Argus. Or just gramps," he said, reaching up and patting him on the shoulder.

Astro raised an eyebrow. "Gramps…?" Was he being serious right now?

"Argus, for the love of Tartarus, get back over here and stop wasting time," Kyu said, clearly irritated by the antics of the older titan.

Argus frowned. "What? I didn't get to see him before. I want to get a decent look at my grandson. See if Ty did a decent job raising the boy," he argued.

At the mention of his father, Astro's magic flared up. These people had murdered him in cold blood, and not a single one of them seemed phased by it. Typhon had seen these people like family, and from what he knew they felt the same. For them to be so… uncaring. It infuriated him. He wanted to lash out and snap Argus head off, but he knew he couldn't risk that right now.

"Seems the boy is in no mood for your games, Argus," Echidna said, noticing Astro's expression. "Looks like the boy got his father's temper as well."

Astro grit his teeth, and then suddenly Gadfly appeared at his other side. "So, you're the old man's son huh?" he asked, smirking towards him. "You have no idea how crazy it was to hear you fought for the newmans. I don't give a shit who your mother was, that's a fucking disgrace. For Typhon's son to-"

He couldn't help himself.

Astro swung towards Gadfly, who quickly moved out of the way before the blow could connect. "You keep his name out of your fucking mouth you backstabber!" Astro growled angrily. Gadfly scowled towards him as Argus whistled. The rest of the Ten had mixed reactions. Branch looked sympathetic, and Matrona looked amused. Scylla narrowed her eyes at Astro.

Kyu and Echidna both remained calm, and Kruger kept his hand on his sword, in case the boy tried to continue the attack. "Gadfly, stop antagonizing the boy," Python called.

Gadfly turned towards him. "Oh c'mon. Surely you're not gonna begrudge me a moment with my 'brother'," he said turning back towards Astro.

"We're not brothers…" Astro said dangerously.

Before the two could argue any further, Python spoke out again. "Nevermind him nephew. I believe you came here for a reason," he said getting his attention back. "I assume that you're here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

Astro grunted. "I'm here to negotiate…"

Scylla scoffed. "I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that we made it clear our terms were non-negotiable. It's simple, you either hand over Kitsune and the commission and get the hell out of mewni, or we start removing them ourselves. And our version is going to be a lot more blood, like they all deserve," she said.

He glared towards her. "It's not as simple as you think. And frankly, with you having taken out our Queen I'm not sure how you expected things to go that smoothly in the first place. The court was in a state of chaos," he explained.

"Mewmans are chaos incarnate, so they should be used to it," Matrona said, shrugging her shoulders. "By the way, why sent you here to negotiate? You certainly have spirit little one, I admire that, but they had to know that-"

"I'm the new king of mewni, that's why," Astro said, cutting her off. So, it seemed like Argus didn't know about it yet. That was good. It meant they wouldn't be on the lookout for whatever Nia had up her sleeve.

The Ten all looked shocked. "You? You're kidding me," Kruger said stunned. For them to make a monster, even one of Butterfly blood, the king of mewni… it would have been unheard of in his time.

Kyu laughed. "I see. I suppose they thought if they made you king that it would give them some leeway in negotiations. Make up more sympathetic or understanding towards them. They must be quite desperate," she said.

Astro looked towards Python. "The monster tribes came together and named me the king of monsters. I brought them back to the Butterfly kingdom to make an alliance. Then I found out that my mother… Queen Star, named me her heir," he said. Python looked at him closely. There was no faltering in the boy's eyes. He wasn't lying.

"So, that explains why most of the tribes didn't show up," Echidna said, frowning. "I'm surprised that they chose to champion around you rather than us. Especially considering how your last bout against us played out. They must put quite a bit of faith in you boy. Or perhaps it's faith in your father that they're simply projecting onto you."

Astro balled his fist up. "I didn't want to be King of the monsters. I didn't want to be king of mewni. But thanks to you all, that's how it is. Now I figure since it's your fault I'm in this position, at the very least you could lend me an ear for a bit," he said.

Python stared back at him for a few moments, and then sighed. "This isn't going to lead us anywhere, but fine. I'll humor you nephew. I'll even show you an act of good faith," he said before nodding towards Branch.

The Earth nymph made his way towards Astro, pulling his hands from behind his back and revealing two souls floating in the palm of his hand. "These are the souls of the slime monster and his mewmans wife. I told my niece that I'd talk about returning them, and I succeeded. Please tell the half-breed prince to take them and go as soon as possible," he said, holding them out towards Astro.

The young king quickly took them, giving them a one over to make sure nothing was wrong. "They're unharmed boys," Python assured.

Astro looked up. "And they're all here. You didn't eat any of them?"

"Tempting as it was, no. they're all still intact, and will remain so unless we're given a reason to change that," Python warned.

"What about King Uran and Tom?"

"If you mean the earth deity and the demon king, they're fine," Argus said, holding up two crystals in his hand. "Sealed away safely where they can hurt themselves."

Astro nodded. "Let me send these back to the castle…" he said. He wanted to make sure that if something went wrong at least these two made it back okay.

Python though for a moment, then looked towards Argus. "Life the restitution just enough for him to send them through." Argus nodded and snapped his fingers. "You can make a portal now. Send them back. But be warned, the souls will not be able to return to the body yet. We've put a curse on them, one that will only be lifted once our demands are met. Until they, body and soul will never be able to reunite."

Shit! That meant even if Nia's plan did work then wouldn't be able to really wake his mother and the others back up! He kept his expression even as he turned around and made a small portal, gently pushing the souls of King and Queen Spiderbite through them. They were going to have to find a way around Argus sealing their portals.

For now though, he just needed to stall. Once the portals were closed back, Astro turned back towards them. "So, what is it you want to discuss boy?" Python asked.

"Something akin to peace if you're willing to listen," Astro said.

"So we're going through this again are we?" Kyu asked.

Astro frowned. "You were wronged. All of you. I'm not arguing that. But that doesn't justify giving everyone the ultimatum of genocide or uprooting from their homes."

"It's a far more fair deal than your ancestors gave us," Echidna said bluntly.

"I know," Astro said, glaring at her. "And they were wrong. Just like you are now. The monsters had their ancestral homes taken away, it was unfair. But now you're threatening to take the homes away from countless people. People who had nothing to do with those past crimes."

Scylla slammed her fist on the ground. "So what, that just absolves them of everything? We should just let it go and settle into this place like the rest of the monsters?" she asked angrily. If he was trying to convince them to be content and fall in line like the others, he was wasting his breath.

"No, I'm not. I know just ignoring it isn't going to fix anything. But I'm going to do something to change things."

Kruger grunted. "Why would things suddenly change now? The kingdoms have had over two thousand years to change, and-"

"It's going to change because I'm the King now," Astro said sternly.

Python looked down at his nephew amused. "Really now? And what would you do with this new title and power of yours, little king?" he asked.

Astro sighed. "Return the souls, and I'll convince the court to take action. We'll redistribute the land and between the tribes and kingdom. Make sure we give everyone enough land to claim so they can thrive. Set up new-"

"No," Kyu said bluntly.

He looked over towards her. "Listen, I know I can convince-"

"I'm sure you could convince them. But that isn't the problem," Kyu said, shaking her head. "We don't want our lands redistributed. We want them returned. None of the kingdoms, your family included, have any rightful claim to any of them. So we're not going to settle for splitting them down the middle."

Astro scowled. "I know it's still not ideal, but I'm trying to meet you halfway here."

"And that's the problem boy," Python said annoyed. "You claimed that things have slowly gotten better for monster kind over the years. And perhaps from your perspective, they have. But for us, who lived in a time where monsters were the dominant force in this dimension, they look worse than ever."

The young king flinched. He… he supposed his uncle had a point. It had been over two thousand years since they had been sealed away. And when they were, things had been so unimaginably different, that waking up to this must have been a nightmare. To most mewmans, and even some monsters, things might have seemed much better since his mother had taken the throne. Like they'd taken steps forward.

But to them, this was a thousand paces back.

"You say that you want to meet up halfway?" Echidna asked. "Well, we've tried that before. But every time we stepped forward to meet mewmanity halfway, they just took steps back. We're not walking any further than we already have."

"She's right. We've given them more than enough chances. I want to avoid conflict more than anyway, but there comes a point where we have no choice but to take action," Branch said, shaking his head. "It's admirable of you to try this, but you're a few thousand years too late."

Astro sighed. He came here knowing that he was going to fail. Succeeding had never been a part of the plan. But he had still wanted to try. "What about your son then?" he asked. Python and Kyu both went wide eyed. "If I said I could bring him back to you, would that make you reconsider?"

Python grit his teeth. "So you do have him?"

"No," Astro said. "The Commission sealed him away and sent him to some random dimension. So nobody knows where he is so for sure," he explained. "But I have a spell that could find him. If you agree to my terms I swear I'll do everything in my power to bring him back to you. And I'll make the Commission answer for that they did as well."

Kyu raised an eyebrow. "You'll kill them…?"

"No," Astro said firmly. "I can't do that, despite how tempting it sounds. Their jobs are important to keep mewni running. But I will strip them of all power they hold in the royal court, restrict them to their own dimensions unless it pertains to their jobs, and keep them under constant watch."

Gadfly scowled and hovered towards him. "And what if that isn't enough huh? You know what kind of sneaky shit they get up to?" he asked.

Astro glared back at him. "Of course I know. You're not the only one who lost people they care about to them…" Gadfly looked at him confused, but a few of the Ten seemed to pick up on it immediately. They had wondered just how the Commission would react to someone from their precious little Butterfly family having a child by Typhon.

"They murdered your mother…" Echidna said, tilting her head. "And I'm guessing they tried to murder you as well." Astro nodded. "You see. Their corruption poisons even the members of their precious Butterfly family. Why agree to spare them?"

Matrona leaned over him. "I'm also not sure why you're so concerned with them. You shouldn't be fighting for them. You should be taking your place among us. Your of Typhon's blood. Your place is at our side little one," she said.

Python walked forward towards him. "Lusciniam told us the stories about you. You really have fought for monster kind. But as long as you're shackled to the Commission, to mewmanity, what you can do is limited. If you really are their king now, do what best for them. Send them away. Stay here, and help us organize monster kind. Let the mewmans figure things out for themselves," he said. "Everything that you've achieved working for the royals family, all the good that you've done, you can achieve ten times that if you were to work alongside us."

Astro stared at him for a moment, and for just a split second, he didn't see the person who had slain his father. He saw an uncle, pleading with his nephew to make what he thought was the right choice.

"I know you think that Python. And it's hard to blame you for it… but you took the last piece of blood family I have left away from me," Astro said, glaring at him. "And now you want to do it to who knows how many other people. You want me to just… go back and tell them to leave their homes?"

"How many half-breeds would be losing their parents? Or spouses of their partners? How many people will lose their friends? Their comrades? How many lives do you think you're going to ruin for what you think is 'the only way'? No, I won't give on this," he said shaking his head. "There's a better way. And maybe it's harder, and maybe it's a lot further off to you than it feels to me, but I know it's there."

He had bled in the dirt alongside monsters and mewmans. He'd eaten with them, played with them, fought for them, been saved by them. Every memory of every person he ever cared about was too precious a thing to just forget and let go off. "Now, you can help me be a part of it, or you can just be another obstacle in the way of it. I'm used to tearing them down by now," he said.

Python hummed. He could tell with a glance the boy had made up his mind. "I see. I'm sorry to hear that's how you feel about things. But I'm not willing to budge on my stance either. You know my terms, and they will be carried out one way or another," he warned.

"So you don't care about your son then?" Astro asked.

"You're not going to use my son as leverage. That's not the type of monster my brother was. It's not the type of monster you are either. You'll return him to me by the time it's over, just because it's the right thing to do," Python stated. "And even if you didn't want to, we'd find him eventually anyway."

Knowing that Kitsune was out there somewhere, somewhere even the Commission didn't know about, was relieving to him. He knew it wasn't the same as actually having him here, but just the confirmation he was okay was enough for now. And he would find him, even if he had to travel through every dimension one by one. "So, I'm going to ask you one last time, nephew. Are you agreeing to my terms?" he asked.

Astro shook his head. "No. I'm not. I'm going to fight you. And I'm going to bring each and every last one of you down," he said. He looked calm, but there was a dangerous look in his eyes. The Ten watched him closely. He very much seemed to resemble his father right now, and it put them on edge. "I guess you can consider this our declaration of war..."

There was a long tense silence. "Well, I guess the apple doesn't fall far if you shake the tree hard enough…" Scylla suddenly muttered. "You don't really think you can take us on, do you? Even if all the kingdoms and tribes banded together, we're more than enough to handle you."

Astro opened his mouth to say something, but then winced. He stumbled forward, his hand going to his chest. The Ten looked at him confused as he felt a throbbing wave of pain pass through him. Seriously? This was the worst possible time. "Are you alright?" Branch asked, making his way towards him.

The young titan grit his teeth as he clutched his chest in pain. What in the hell was going on right now?

Python looked at him worriedly, and then noticed something. He could hear his heartbeats, they were drumming rapidly. And… something was odd about them. Very odd. "He has it!" Python said suddenly. The rest of the Ten looked surprised, but before they could follow up, a bright light flashed behind Astro.

A portal had opened up behind him, and Astro felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and then saw Nia standing there.

Wait... no, that wasn't Nia.

"Titania?" Astro asked.

"A Butterfly!" Echidna said glaring.

"How did she get here?!" Kruger asked, reaching for his sword.

Argus rubbed his chin. The amount of magic this girl was using was absolutely massive, even considering she was a part of the Butterfly family. And it felt like that of a deity.

The girl held her one of her hands up, and a strong current of wind kicked up around them. "Do it now…" she said, as the Ten got ready to move in on them.

A/N: Astro officially declares war on the Ten, but what's happening to his body right now? And 'Titania' makes her reappearance! How did she get there? What does she have up her sleeve? Going to have to read the next chapter to find out!