The finale is finally here! Just one day short of the two year anniversary of chapter one!
I want to thank everyone for reading this story, I hope you've all enjoyed reading it!
Star and Marco are my favorite ship and after the finale I just couldn't stop thinking of what their post cleaved life would be like, and now here I am wrapping it up as well. One day I might come back and write some one-shots for the series, but I'm going to give some other stories my attention for the time being.
The final sketch page will be uploaded either tomorrow or Sunday, find it and the others on tumblr and deviantart!
To RJWritingInk: It even hit me in the feels, and I'm the one who wrote it!
To animegamefanatic: Yeah those two will never really be gone. Milky doesn't end up naming her children after her grandparents, although her youngest ends up being named after her great aunt...
To FungusDungus000: Not even death can stop Star and Marco from doing what they do, only now they do more of what that do.
To Sugar: Milky never gets her marks, but she still ends up a competent queen. Not Milky but one of the twins ends up with the next generation Lucitor child.
To NightAroma: It was hard for me too, I actually cried as I wrote the death scene (and slapped my face to try and stop crying.) For the people with marks, Soluna ends up coining the term 'Emblem Bearers' which becomes the official title for them.
To Ironchef13: Thank you, that was what I was going for.
To everyone asking about Meteora: Not everyone get's a happy ending, even the good guys lives can end tragically. I always had planned for one of the good guys to have a bittersweet fate, it was actually between Meteora or Kelly for who it would be. I felt Meteora would have a more emotional impact and I guess I was right. She sacrificed her own life to save her best friend from her own alter ego, the act firmly cemented Meteora as a hero contrasting the villainous legacy Heinous left behind.
It took some time for the couple to adjust to their new forms. Despite how they looked Star and Marco were still dead and had no physical bodies anymore. In the days since their ascension the two had learned that food and sleep were optional. They couldn't feel pain, and they never needed to use the bathroom. It seemed great at first to no longer have bodily functions…
The couple had set up their own domain near to where they first arrived in the spirit world, creating a nice house for them and a stable for Hank. The dragcorn was happy to be with their creators again and voluntarily continued being the one to take away magic from those who have misused it. Everything seemed to go great so far. They could even go down to earth whenever they wanted and talk to Soluna or the others with marks.
Marco knew there was something missing, however, when he caught the sad expression on his wife's face when she pressed her head to his chest. It wasn't just one time either; she seemed to always hold a sorrowful look when she held her beloved like that. It had already been a week and Marco had never found a moment to bring it up. They would either be pulled away by their job or Star was in a really happy mood and Marco didn't want to ruin it.
Eventually, Marco thought he had figured it out; his abs! Sure they faded away once he had reached his senior years, but he looked like a teenager again, so could he work on bringing them back?
Asking around, it turns out it was easier to do than he had thought:
"Star, come in here! I've got a surprise for you!" Star sat up as she heard Marco's voice, hopping off of the couch and making her way to where she thought the sound was coming from "Ooh maybe he tried out my dessert nacho idea!" the blonde hoped.
Star came into the bedroom to see her husband just standing there… "Uhhh...so what's the surprise?" Star raised an eyebrow.
With a smirk, Marco snapped his fingers and instantly transformed with a flash of light. Where a teenage boy once stood a muscular man wearing the same shirt and pants took his place "Tada! I figured out how to change my age!"
"Woah!" Star gazed in awe "Teach me! Teach me!"
"It's simple, just envision yourself as an adult again." Marco demonstrated by switching back and forth between his teen and adult body several times. Star did as Marco said. She envisioned her appearance from her adult years, and just like Marco she changed into her mature form.
"That was easy! Why didn't we know about this sooner?" Star wondered.
Marco just shrugged "We never asked apparently." he repeated the answer he received from Alphonse when he asked the same question "Staying in this form takes up more energy, but I think we can manage it just fine for a couple hours."
"Sounds good to me!" With a small leap, Star threw herself into the arms of her true love, trying not to be obvious as she drooled over his abs. Placing her head to his chest, her happiness noticeably drooped "Star? What's wrong? Aren't you happy to have my abs back?" He thought he had fixed things, but his wife still looked sad.
"I am, I've really missed these babies!" Star answered honestly "But I... I just miss hearing your heartbeat a lot more…"
Oh... that was what it was...
Even in their final days, Star loved nuzzling up to her husband and listening to his heartbeat to calm her nerves. Unlike eating, sleeping or changing ages...Marco couldn't fix this one. They were dead; the dead don't have heartbeats, there was nothing either could do to change that. With all that has happened, it never truly felt like they were deceased, and it was such a cruel reminder that even with all that they could still do there were things they could not.
Marco couldn't replicate the gentle beating of his heart, instead he did the first thing he could think of "...Ba-bump...ba-bump…" "Marco, what are you doing?" Star lifted her head to look at him. Marco awkwardly grinned "I uhh... thought maybe I could try saying the sound out loud...it doesn't work, does it?"
Momentarily blinking in surprise, Star erupted into joyful laughter; it was music to Marco's ears. He might not have a heartbeat, but Marco was still the same dork Star had fallen in love with, and that is what really mattered "Marco, thank you." Star nuzzled in closer, wrapping her arms tightly around her loving husband as he did the same.
Things would be different from here on out, but the warmth the couple felt with every touch and kiss would always be the same as it's always been.
OXOXOXOX
Although the duo would appear in ghostly forms on Earth, it didn't mean there weren't times when they got to use corporeal forms. In dire circumstances, Star and Marco would take solid form and be allowed to interact with the living world until the crisis was over. It took a couple of years before they found this revelation, but it took no time at all to get back into the swing of battle.
"On the right, Star!" the blonde stepped to the right and pushed a magic blast towards one of the controlled summon creatures. She could hear a few more sneaking up behind her and knocked them out of the way with her new staff. Since neither had gotten a chance to fight as a spirit yet, the couple didn't realize the outfits Blood Moon had given them came with weapons. For Star she got a long silver staff with a red star crystal inside of a glass ball at the top, white wings to the side of it and a long red ribbon just below with a heart in the center; a tiny heart rested at the bottom of the long scepter and a matching tiny moon topped the glass orb.
"Thanks for the heads up. How are things on your end?" Star briefly glanced at her husband on the other side of the hall. Marco was pushing back a small army of vicious fuzzy creatures with a force field "They could be better!" his own weapon, a sword, was resting on the side of his belt. Unlike his wife's staff, the sword could accidentally stab one of the summons if he wasn't careful. Marco couldn't possibly hurt these little guys. They weren't themselves at the moment.
The couple had hoped that the next generation of high level magic users could handle whatever new evil came up on their own, only for the first real threat to take a pacifist girl with marks hostage. She had been the most recent to earn marks, little green flowers, and was against fighting of any kind. The girl became a target for whatever villain they were up against and now was strapped to a machine that was controlling her magic against her will.
Naturally, as someone trying to use magic for evil, Star and Marco had been called to put a stop to this. The spirits crashed into the dilapidated castle the bad guy was using as a base and stormed the castle just like the good old days "You know, this reminds me of when I had to save you from Toffee. Except now we're both fighting and we're in Scotland instead of Mewni." Star recalled as she subdued another group of possessed summons. Marco pushed his shield back and flipped over the adorable critters trying to fight him off "Let's hope this time we don't have to fight a lawyer." Marco trapped the summons in a net spell "But this is a cakewalk compared to then! None of these guys were made for fighting, it'll be over in no time."
In his overconfidence, Marco failed to notice a knight like summon spell materialize behind him and pull out an oversized flaming sword. The brunette only barely turned around before that same flaming sword cut right through his neck and chopped his head clean off!
Marco's head hit the ground with a thud, discovering that he could feel pain again in this form "Ouch-Little help Star!"
His wife pointed her staff at the knight "Bon Bon Chocolate Boulder!" out from her scepter, a massive piece of chocolate candy (still in its wrapper) rolled towards the decapitating knight like the world's biggest bowling ball, completely flattening the summon as it tried to escape.
Star flew over and picked up her lover's head. Marco sighed in annoyance "Good thing I'm already dead." Star brought his head back over to his equally annoyed body, popping the head back where it should be and reattaching like nothing had ever happened.
"I gotta ask. How did that feel?" Star curiously asked her husband as they began walking further inside.
"Well, my neck had a nice breeze."
Any other obstacles were swiftly dealt with as Star and Marco made their way towards the center. In no time they had found the young girl strapped to a table with cables connected to her cheek marks. There was no sign of whoever was behind this "Do you think this could be a trap? It's too easy." Marco pulled his wife back before she took another step forward.
Star wasn't worried in the slightest. She brushed off her husband's concern and gave him a cocky grin "Come on Marco, sometimes we just get lucky." The duo walked a few steps forward and a giant metal cage fell down on them "... guess this isn't one of those times." Marco muttered.
Maniacal laughter filled the air. The spirits looked up as a hole opened up in the ceiling and a deranged woman with curled horns like a sheep emerged from a platform "So you're the intruders here to ruin my evil plan!"
There was something vaguely familiar about this lady. Star snapped her fingers as she recalled where she recognized her from "Oh! You're Darla Cottonfluff! You earned magic a couple years ago then got it taken away after you tried to use it to kill your ex-boyfriend!" Although Hank was the one removing magic from corrupt people, Star and Marco always read up on who they were and why they lost it.
"How did you-never mind that! I may have lost my own magic, but soon I'll be more powerful than ever!" She gestured to the captured girl "By taking control of the Magic this one uses, I will have unstoppable power that no unicorn dragon thing can take away! The masses will bow to their new ruler, and I will soon rule the entire world! MUAHAHAHA!"
The spirits weren't impressed, they'd heard it all before "Yeah, yeah, the same old villain cliche." Star rolled her eyes "Would it kill ya to have some more unique motivations?" "We got corporeal forms to deal with this?" Marco muttered under his breath.
Darla was highly offended by the blonde's response, "How dare you! You have no idea who you're messing with!"
Star and Marco were still unfazed "Lady, we should be the one's saying that line." Marco unsheathed his sword, the silver blade with a red heart drawn at the top; a red hilt with a section resembling Marco's wand and scissors connecting the blade to the rest, and a red moon on the bottom like the heart under Star's staff.
The red moon's on Marco's face lit up with a shining red light, igniting his sword in the same aura. Effortlessly, Marco cut through the iron bars of the cage, letting it fall to the ground in pieces. Darla's jaw had basically hit the floor "We-well...it-you-...AAARGH!" She let out a frustrated scream "So what?! I still have little Miss love and peace hooked up to my device!"
Marco raised an eyebrow, not losing eye contact with the woman as he pointed his sword at the machine and blasted it with his magic. The magic blast was barely anything, yet it ripped through the machinery and dismantled it with a chain reaction as the red magic seemed to bounce around inside of it. Star tried not to laugh at the horned human as she sputtered in disbelief. With a flutter of her wings she leaped over to the captive girl; plucking the cables off of her emblems.
The young girl stirred and blinked her eyes awake "...what was...is that you Star?" the green flowers on her face glew softly as she recognized the spirit that gave them to her "Yup, me and Marco are here to get you out of this mess." Star held out her hand, helping the auburn-haired teen sit upright.
"No, no no! My plan was working perfectly! I had the magic again, more than I ever did before! Who are you to come crashing through my door and ruin everything?!" Darla banged her hands on the ruined device, throwing a tantrum like a child. Joining hands, Star and Marco stood confidently "Us? We're the guardians of magic, it's kind of our job to stop nutcases like you from using it in any evil plots." Marco introduced himself and his wife.
Star looked over to their young friend and addressed her as well "We're also here to save the emblem bearers when no one else can, but now it's up to you to finish what we started." the girl flinched in alarm "Wait, I can't fight! I can't stop her on my own!"
Star couldn't hide the devious smirk on her face "I think we can work around that." she moved in closer to the young magic wielder, whispering a spell she had used in her youth. The flower-cheeked girl's face lit up, and she excitedly repeated what she had heard "Fluffy Animal Metamorphosis!"
Darla saw the magic heading towards her and tried to escape. She only got a few steps away when the spell hit her in the back. In a wave of sparkles and flashes, the horned lady was turned into a cute sheep creature "Oh, very funny. I get it the horns and my last name makes me a sheep. Hilarious."
"Teddy Bear Cuddle Hug!" A new spell created a large living teddy bear that picked up the sheep and trap it in a tight hug "Let go of me! This is an outrage!"
Star and Marco stood back and watched in amusement, their bodies returning to their non-solid states. Darla the sheep eventually wiggles her way out of the teddy bear's grasp and hopped on the platform she arrived on, swearing vengeance against the one who trapped her in this form "Huh, now that reminds me of Ludo back when he tried to get the wand." Marco commented, watching the new nemesis relationship form.
OXOXOXOX
Marco double checked the slip of paper in his hand, making sure it matched with the address he was staring at. He prepared to phase through the door before remembering something "Oh wait- "he shifted into his adult form.
Being an intangible spirit in the mortal world, Marco had gotten used to not needing to use doors or anything blocking his way; so it was surprising when he smacked right into the door like a regular person "Ow! How in the-" he pressed his hand to the building, it wouldn't phase through?
Trying a more mundane option, Marco tried using the door handle to see if he could open it normally; and he could! Coming inside he took notice of everyone else in the room. It looked like a regular tavern but its occupants were anything but. Demons, monsters and even humans mingled together and were having a good time. Marco looked around for the couple that invited him here when he felt someone bump into him "Whoops, sorry, man." The minotaur monster apologized as he passed by.
... wait... he had felt and seen him... that shouldn't be possible!
"Hold on! You can see me?!" Marco stopped the monster before he left, his hand actually making contact with the minotaur's arm "Yeah-oh! This is your first time isn't it?" he seemed amused "You'll get used to it."
Marco was going to ask for more clarification when he heard his name called from a booth in the corner "Marco! Over here!" the spirit recognized the voice as one of his closest friends. Moving through the crowd Marco found Tom Lucitor waving him over to the table he was sitting at. Janna sat there beside him with her trademark smirk across her lips.
"Tom! Hey!" Marco forgot he was tangible at the moment and walked into the table as he approached. Tom winced and waited for Marco to move inside the booth seat so they were next to each other "Marco, it's great to see you...like even easier to see you than it normally is." Despite approaching his two hundredth birthday, Tom still looked like he could be in his fifties. Lucitor demons lived incredibly long lives. The former king expected himself to last around 1,500 years more or less.
"Yeah, it would have been nice to know I'm tangible here before I repeatedly walked into objects." the spirit glared at the other person at the table, who merely shrugged "Sorry, looks like I forgot to mention it. Wish I could have seen you try to enter though." Janna didn't even try to hide her amusement. Although her husband had barely changed, Janna had undergone a large change since Marco had become a spirit. In order to keep up with Tom's longevity, Janna used her magic and demon knowledge to turn herself into a zombie. Her physical appearance looked closer to how she looked in her fifties rather than how she did at 88 when she performed the procedure, her skin now a pale blue with stitches here and there and her eyes were red instead of brown and sunken in at the edges.
Tom rolled his eyes at his lover, although inside he thought it was funny too "So Marco, welcome to the 'Graveyard Shift'. The underworld's newest tavern for the dead... and undead in Janna's case." Marco looked around in amazement, realizing the implications of that "Wait, wait, wait-so everyone here is dead?!"
"Deader than a doorknob, Diaz." Janna quipped "The underworld is full of restless souls that want to feel alive again, and inside of this building it feels like they are." The zombie girl motioned for Marco to inspect some people inside, noticing how they all had wounds and injuries that no one could live through, there was a whole pool table just for people that got decapitated using their own heads as pool balls.
Marco was floored. He had been to the underworld countless times since his own death and never once saw anything like this "Who built this place and how did they do it?" "Why don't you ask the owner?" Tom pointed to his jacket, and the name tag hanging on it read 'Owner' "Tom!?"
"That's right, I'm the owner and mastermind behind this joint. Things have been kind of boring for us since Mandy and her partner stepped up to the throne. Sure we babysit the grandkids and relax at the lake house but it gets so dull." Tom explained, "I got the idea a couple of months ago the last time we met up." Being a high level demon with countless angry souls inside of him, Tom had been able to see and hear Star and Marco in their spirit forms. Unlike Emblem Bearers, however, he could not see them as clearly as they could and he could not touch them. Janna couldn't see them at all at first, which she was actually hurt by, but her zombie hood let her perceive them the same way Tom did.
"When we got home afterwards Janna was complaining about how blurry you two always look and asked if there was any way to enhance our perception. We flipped through some books in the archives and found one that explains how to create an overlapping area between life and death, so once we got it right we built this tavern on top of it." Tom explained, taking a sip of his drink as he finished, "The tavern was so there was something to do in the space...and I beat Janna at arm wrestling so I got to pick what we built." "Hey, if my arm hadn't fallen off, this place would be a bowling alley with human skulls as the balls!" Janna added.
Silently thankful that Janna's choice hadn't gone through, Marco looked even more impressed with Tom "I can't believe you did all of this...it's incredible!" he had to bring Star here the next time they both have a break, he felt bad that she was stuck on duty right now and his face visibly fell. Probably reading his mind, Janna smacked Marco on the arm "I missed that-" she quickly muttered "Dude we get that you and Star have a lot going on, this place and us aren't going anywhere so just drop by whenever you can." the zombie former queen of the underworld reassured him, she personally couldn't wait until Star stopped by; if anyone was the afterlife of the party, it was her.
Tom had been feeling that same anticipation earlier that evening while they had been waiting for the magic spirit to arrive. It was a blessing enough to still be friends long after their mortal lives were over, but as he watched his best friend right now, he truly felt like he was alive again. Heck, anyone that came in the room right now would believe all the dead were alive once more! Tom noticed Marco was holding out his fist to him, he wasted no time bumping his own back against his "It's great to finally do that again."
Marco had to agree. "It really is."
Taking a long sip of her beverage, a thought suddenly occurred to Janna, "Hey babe, when we built this place did we remember to put in a bathroom for you?"
Tom paused, in his effort to make this place a blast for the dead he had neglected to consider a small but important addition for the one person alive: himself.
"Crap."
OXOXOXOX
If anyone asked Star what one of her favorite things about being a spirit was, she would say it was being able to eat as many sweets as you want without gaining weight or getting full. It turns out many spirits feel the same, so getting herself a mountain of pancakes for breakfast at the only restaurant in the spirit world was a must on her days off.
"No matter how many times I come here these don't get any less delicious!" the blonde girl buried her final flapjack under a cloud of sugar and syrup, pulling off a piece with her fork and happily taking a large bite "I can see why you're the spirit of breakfast Eggs Ann Bakey!" Star complimented the spirit cooking in the kitchen in the center of the restaurant; a giant egg with black bead eyes and a mouth with arms and legs made of bacon.
Once the last of the pancake was devoured, Star thanked the chef again before heading back home. While she usually flew back home with her wings, this morning Star made her way back on foot. The spirit world's landscape was never truly consistent. One moment the sky would be blue and green grass and plants would surround her and the next she was looking at a starry sky over a miniature desert. Several environmental changes later she found the sky blue again and her and Marco's modest house within reach, Star kicked the front door open and changed from her 'spirit duty' outfit to her plain white dress "Well I shaved off about two hours of my free day, now what am I going to do with the rest?"
Belly flopping onto the couch, Star looked around for inspiration. She could make another battleship in a bottle... but that's what she did on her last day off. She could use the Memorial Sphere to watch moments from her mortal past, but there wouldn't be anything new to see. She could go out for a day on the town... but she wouldn't be able to do anything since no one would perceive her.
"Ugh! What haven't I done in a while?" boredom was the mortal nemesis of Star Butterfly. If she could not overcome it then all would be lost "Oh! There's always the bucket list!" Star leapt off of the couch and over to a bookshelf across the room, reaching under the lowest compartment and grabbing a large metal bucket. Inside of the bucket was a long, long list with several items crossed out and countless that were not "Now where did I leave off?" the blonde scrolled down the list, skimming through until she found the first thing not crossed out "Number 113, do a DIY." She read her handwriting aloud.
DIY is a term used on earth when someone makes a thing by themself instead of buying it from somewhere. Star wondered if hanging up her Love Sentence poster without magic counted as a DIY. She figured it was a good place to start for reference "So if I'm going to do this right, then I can't use any magic." Star was sure she had everything she needed to make something simple. If she didn't she would just improvise.
"DIY is normally furniture so... aha! I'll build a chair!"
With no blueprint or prior knowledge to carpentry, Star ran around the house, grabbing anything she thought she might need. There was a massive tree in the center of the house so Star pulled off a few pieces of wood "I'll fix you when I'm done." she promised the towering flora. She and Marco had no use for glue or nails, so Star had to get creative for what could keep the chair together "I know what I can use... but it's a great personal sacrifice…"
The pantry door swung open. Star solemnly saluted the jug of maple syrup she had gotten from Eggs Ann Bakey for international breakfast day. It was the only thing sticky enough to hold the chair together steadily, but she dipped her finger on top and let herself have one last lick, "You will not die in vain my sweetness."
The house lacked saws and woodcutting tools, but a sword was sharp enough to cut the wood, right? That was Star's train of thought when she grabbed a sword from the armory collection "That should be everything needed to make a chair." Star was ready.
Star spread out the chunks of bark on the floor and hacked away at it with the sword. It wasn't easy to cut it into two flat squares and four round legs. Once Star had cut pieces closely resembling what she needed, she swapped the sword for the syrup and tried to fit it all into place. She knew the chair wouldn't exactly be even, but the legs were more mismatched than she expected. The only sensible thing to do was use the sword to cut down the longer legs until they all matched.
It was only after getting the sword covered in syrup did Star think to cut the legs at the bottom rather than the top. The syrupy sword slathered more of the wood in sticky goodness than Star meant to. But there was no time to clean up if she wanted to get this finished. Through much trial-and-error Star finally got all the legs even...at the cost of the chair only standing four inches off of the ground "It'll be fine." Now it was time to decorate her creation.
The closest thing to paint Star could find was blue kool-aid in the fridge. She mixed it up with some syrup in hopes it would be enough like paint. Star at least found a paintbrush to use and began slathering her DIY 'paint' onto the 'chair'.
"Why-why is this so hard?!" The brush would hardly coat the wood, the kool-aid syrup mix failed to paint it blue and only made the chair wet and sticky. In a stroke of so-called genius, Star held the bowl of blue mix over the chair and watched it slowly cover the whole structure. Once it was even slightly blue, Star knew it was done.
"Oh Marco is going to be so proud when he sees this!" her lumpy, misshapen, low to the ground, slightly blue, gooey mess stood in all its glory.
Leaning down, Star prepared to sit on her creation...it broke apart the moment she sat on it "Maybe I didn't use enough syrup?" When she stood up the broken wood and blue syrup refused to leave her dress "...yeah this was a bad idea…"
OXOXOXOX
Being the guardians of magic, it was Star and Marco's job to watch over every magic user. While they could interact and teach the so called 'emblem bearers' they still took special notice of a few others, namely their descendants.
The couple always took the time to check in on their bloodline, sadly while many of the future Butterfly's earned magic, none since their daughter had earned cheek marks. Generations passed, and they watched each of their successors come and go, they loved, made mistakes, and found their own unique ways to rule Earthni one after another. Star and Marco wondered if any of them would ever have strong enough hearts to reach the next level of magic... and eventually, she was born.
Nebby Butterfly, great-great-great granddaughter of the legendary Star and Marco Butterfly.
Right off the bat she had much in common with her great-great-great granny, a rebellious free spirit that loved to fight, tame wild unicorns and have fun at the cost of giving her parents a headache. Star would cheer her on the new rebel princess while Marco watched with a sense of deja vu. By the age of nine Nebby had dipped down and earn her magic... Star continuously whispered with her fingers crossed "Please set a rainbow on fire please set a rainbow on fire-" "NO! Wh-why would you WANT her to do that?!" Marco was overjoyed at his descendant as well, but in a way that did not involve hoping that she committed arson.
No rainbows caught fire that day... however Nebby's first spell caused a pig-goat to get struck by lightning.
Shortly after Nebby had earned magic, she had found her best friend in a boy named Kai. Kai was a Chinese-American boy who became Nebby's voice of reason and loyal fighting companion... the spirits recognized this boy was her own Marco. The magic spirits felt that history was repeating itself as they continued to watch them grow, protecting and caring for one another as their friendship grew stronger with each passing day.
And that leads us to today.
What would a new heroine be without a villain? Like how Star and Moon had faced off against Toffee of Septarsis, Nebby had found herself up against a dangerous foe of her own. A monster resembling a praying mantis but in human size, donning a snazzy outfit and cane going by the name Roulette, was bent on destroying the Butterfly legacy.
Nebby and Kai were both fourteen now, and through their adventures became tangled up in Roulette's endgame. The cunning insect bid his time and stayed in the shadows until he saw his opportunity to turn the tide in his favor. The best friends were tired from a fight with a lesser villain when Roulette swooped in and took Kai the moment he left Nebby. Star and Marco had felt something was wrong and checked in on their descendant, finding her with a ransom video message and on her way to save her best friend.
The spirits followed their distant grandchild as she made her way to the location the message told her to go, Nebby glared at the decrepit building as she approached, her waist length purple hair with two buns at the top flowing dramatically in the wind "I'll save you Kai."
Nebby walked through the front door, finding the interior to be like an old theater from over a century ago, long forgotten and unused. The princess stepped through the aisles with her great grandparents secretly a few steps behind. The darkened theater suddenly became lit with stage lights as Roulette appeared on the stage "Oh my, it looks like you came after all!" His unnerving grin creeped the three Butterfly's out.
"Where is he?!" Nebby was not in the mood for whatever game he was playing. The only thing on her mind was saving her bestie.
With a snap of his fingers, Roulette summoned another spotlight onto the stage. The light shone directly onto a large wheel behind the mantis monster, with Kai bound in the center, "Nebby, get out of here!" He shouted.
Preparing to fire her magic at her nemesis, Nebby was stopped when Roulette held up a remote controller "Oh non non-we won't have any of your little parlor tricks today! One tiny spell and your buddy goes for a spin on... THE WHEEL OF TORMENT!" Confetti erupted and tiny horns blared at his announcement. Taking a closer look, Nebby and the spirits could read some words written onto the wheel holding Kai.
"Is this some kind of game show?" Star whispered to her husband, who just shot her a 'not funny' look.
"How about a little demonstration for our wonderful audience!" Roulette clicked his button and the wheel (and Kai) spun at a breakneck speed. When the button was pressed again, it came to an abrupt stop, with the poor boy's face turning a sickly green "I can feel my lunch coming up…" he had been stopped with his head in the southeast corner of the wheel, the panel on the top lit up and revealed the words 'Acid Bungee Jump'
Tapping his cane on the floor, Roulette activated its warping mechanism to teleport himself and the teens to a nearby location. Star and Marco were left behind and could only wait until they returned "I hate this! We would've beaten this guy already and saved the kid if we had our corporeal forms!" Star complained, frustrated at her inability to help.
Marco was feeling the same, yet he was resigned more to his role "Star, you know the rules. We can only intervene when it involves magic itself. And...I think they need to solve this on their own. I mean, we didn't have any all powerful dead people bailing us out of a hard situation."
Sighing out loud, Star admitted, "You're right, as almost always." "...'almost'?"
Meanwhile, their descendant had found herself in some sort of industrial plant, staring at her best friend dangling from a bungee cord at the top of the high ceiling "Now then princess- "The mantis creeped up behind her "-would you like to place a bet on whether the cord is short enough to pull him up before he reaches the acid?"
Doing a double take, Nebby saw a vat of boiling green liquid directly below Kai "Now don't go getting any ideas about using magic to save him, that's called cheating and all it will get you is his bungee cord cut mid drop." Roulette warned.
Without warning Kai was dropped from the ceiling and sent plunging towards the boiling acid. He could hear Nebby scream his name as he fell and braced himself for impact. The tip of his hair barely touched the boiling surface before he felt himself yanked back up into the air, coming up and down a few more times until he came to a stop.
"Looks like the cord was short enough after all! You should've taken the bet." Roulette smirked to the girl beside him. Another tap of the cane and the three were back in their original positions on the theater stage.
"What do you want?!" Nebby demanded.
Roulette pretended to mull it over "Let's see, a beachside villa in the Bahamas, a never ending supply of vegetable fried rice, your daddy's head on a silver platter... but right now I'll settle for watching you squirm."
This wasn't fair, Kai should never have been caught up in this. Roulette was Nebby's family problem. If anyone should be on that wheel it should be...
"Stop! Leave Kai out of this and let me take his place!" Nebby blurted out. The other four in the room looked at her, surprised "Nebby…" Kai uttered.
"Hmm...fine by me! Either way I make a Butterfly suffer by watching their loved one be tortured." Roulette saw no cons to this outcome. Tapping his cane Nebby and Kai disappeared and reappeared where the other was previously. The boy immediately tried to attack the mantis but another tap of the cane and Kai was tied up in one of the seats in the front row of the audience.
The two Butterfly spirits sensed a familiar power "Marco...this feeling…" Star watched her great-something granddaughter in awe "Yeah...it's finally happening…" Marco did the same.
Setting up a video recording, Roulette addressed the camera "Greetings King Butterfly, it's your old pal Roulette here with a special surprise for you! Your little girl didn't take your advice to stay away fromnme and now... let's say I'm taking her for a spin!" The mantis stepped aside to reveal Nebby on the wheel and pressed the button that sent it spinning at a sickening speed.
The wheel stopped hard and quick with the space on top lighting up "Oh how lucky! You landed on 'knife toss'!" Roulette announced with a disturbing smile. He didn't warp them away like last time, instead he pulled four sharp knives from the inside of his jacket and wrapped a blindfold on himself "Not to worry, the chance of one of these hitting something vital is slim."
Nebby didn't feel the least bit relieved to hear that, yet she continued to put on a brave face despite how terrified she actually was. She glanced over into the audience and locked eyes with Kai. As long as he was out of harm's way... then she could withstand anything. The very real chance she could get killed still lingered, and accompanying it was the realization of just how much Kai meant to her.
The first knife pierced through the air... and stopped inches before striking Nebby in the arm. A brilliant light emerged from the princess, destroying the wheel she was bound to and lifting her into the air. Nebby felt a burning sensation on her cheeks. Her magic felt stronger than ever as two pink stars appeared on her face.
"It's about time! I was starting to think no one in our family would earn emblems!" the princess jumped at the new voice. Nebby noticed she was no longer on the stage and instead found herself surrounded by nothing but light and the two spirits smiling proudly at her "What the-where am I! Who are you!?" the purple-haired teen finally noticed the hearts and moons that decorated the faces of the couple before her, recognizing the symbols from her family history "You...you're-"
"Yep! We're you're great great great grandparents Star and Marco!" Star excitedly introduced herself and her husband "We're also the spirits of magic... Nebby, you are the first Butterfly since our daughter to earn cheek emblems." Marco stepped forward and gestured to the newly added stars on the girl's face "We've been watching over you this whole time, and we're really proud of you."
Nebby was completely stunned. "I-...wow I can't believe it!" she had always hoped to earn her emblems one day, every Butterfly that unlocked magic hoped to and yet none ever could. Other emblem bearers would not share the specifics required to reach the next level, for the knowledge of the requirements might taint the actions they would take. Although others had figured it out by learning of the circumstances each bearer went through, some like Nebby chose to leave themselves in the dark about the process.
The light began to fade away, and Nebby heard her great-something grandfather shout out to her before she was pulled back "There will be plenty of time to talk later, but you have something to finish right now!" The duo rarely got to explain everything during the first meeting, after all they all had a reason to earn their marks and most were urgent.
The settings changed and Nebby landed back where she had been prior, falling flat on her face instead of making a grand entrance. Her best friend and her enemy were rendered speechless when they saw the pink stars on her face "Magic...emblems…?!" Roulette for once had no witty response to what he had just witnessed, he'd only heard about the power magic users with cheek marks possessed and secretly prayed he'd never have to fight one...
The princess set her sights on the mantis, a burning hatred in her eyes "Guess you should have made a bet on this."
Now knowing that he couldn't spin this in his favor, Roulette tried to tap his cane on the floor and warp out of the area "Sparkle Kitten Cutie Blast!" pink kitten summons manifested from the princess and knocked the cane away from the villain. She only had a short time before he grabbed his cane again so Nebby quickly recited the dance like motions required to cast her favorite spell she had read in the history text "WARNICORN STAMPEDE!" a herd of warnicorns came into existence and charged towards the mantis as he tried to escape. Roulette regained his cane seconds before being stampeded by the summoned horses, he endured the full brunt of the spell before it ceased and he could get back on his feet "I suppose sometimes one can beat the house, but luck doesn't last forever, next time I'll be back to holding all the cards!" and with a tap he vanished.
Neither teen had really been listening to their enemy, Nebby's full focus was on freeing her best friend from the ropes "I've got this, Spaghetti Noodle Change!" The rope changed into a heap of spaghetti, thankfully without the red sauce (The stain would never come out of Kai's favorite shirt).
Nebby tackled Kai into a hug the moment he was free, eternally thankful that they both were safe "Kai! Are you hurt?!" Nebby tightened her arms around his chest "A little sore and queasy but I'm alright." Kai assured her, hugging back "You?" "I'm more than alright, I got my magic emblems!" Nebby was bursting with excitement.
As Nebby opened her eyes, she spotted the two spirits watching them in the back of the theater "Grandma Star! Grandpa Marco!" she gasped. Kai followed her line of vision but saw no one there "... uh... what?"
"He can't perceive us! Only you can!" Star called out.
"Oh!" Nebby let go of her bestie and ran to where her ancestors were. "I can see my dead family with this new magic!" she informed the boy, who took this information in stride "I shouldn't be surprised by anything at this point."
For the first time since their own child, Star and Marco were able to directly communicate with one from their bloodline. They would definitely teach Nebby more directly than they usually taught the bearers, but knowing how much she was like Star, she was going to need it. The couple were watching a new story unfold, and with any luck these new kids would find their own path forward.
OXOXOXOX
The sun set once more across the Earthni sky, painting the world of the distant future a bright orange. The two spirits of magic sat high on a ledge overlooking the country, the same spot they climbed to the day the worlds merged. The tree they had sat under had become crystallized at some point. Neither knew how but both agreed that it looked stunning.
"I never get tired of this." Marco gestured to the view.
"Me neither, it... makes me feel nostalgic." Star agreed with her husband, watching the light bounce off of her wedding ring. It was around three hundred years ago when Marco had proposed to her at this same spot, but Star remembered it like it was yesterday.
Other couples would inevitably be separated by death one day, if they were lucky they would meet in the afterlife or be reincarnated to start over anew. By some great miracle Star and Marco never had to part. They would stay together for eternity now. They never felt like they were really dead. Being spirits was just an extended life for them.
"Star?" Marco got his wife's attention "I love you." the words never lost their power. Marco would always love Star.
"I love you too, Marco." and Star would always love him just as much. They had been through so much to stay together. Becoming spirits felt like the ultimate reward for all that has happened.
The couple leaned in and shared a passionate kiss, their cheek marks glowing from the power their love held. Against all the odds, through heartbreak and tragedy, across two worlds, Star and Marco would always be together…
For they are a miracle.