Brudo drives like a mad man. Lady Avarius clenches onto her seat for her dear life, even though she's wearing a seat belt. She prays that Brudo doesn't leave them in a smoldering wreckage and that they make it out of the car in one piece. Within moments, Brudo has careened over a cliff and is heading straight for the New Castle Avarius, (for those not keeping track, that's Lady Avarius' rebuilt castle where the old one stood). Brudo spins the car to a screeching halt, kicking up dust all over the place.
Brudo: Woo! that was fun!
Lady Avarius: Alive... we're alive!
Brudo: What? did you think I'd crash us for a_
Lady Avarius: DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!
She beats his arm and he lifts them up to defend himself, laughing like a maniac. Lady Avarius marches into the castle followed by Brudo that just casually walks in with a big dumb smug smile.
Brudo: Well kids, miss me?
They all just look at him in utter confusion for a moment.
Brudo: Okay. I guess I have some explaining to do. You all deserve it. Okay, everyone front and center.
Brudo whistles loud enough to be heard throughout the entire castle. It is a trait that is specifically his, a tactic he would use whenever he wanted all the kids front and center.
Brudo: Hey kids. Hi... it's me, dad. Wow, you've all grown so much. I almost don't even recognize some of you because you've changed so much while I was gone. Let me just be blunt about it. I'm a bad father. I've been a bad father since day one. I come from a long line of bad fathers, but that is no excuse because I should have learned from hating them the way that you all likely hate me. When you all ditched me back on that trash planet, which I'm not blaming anyone for or trying to guilt trip, it hurt. It really did hurt me inside. That was my first encounter with the truth that had always been the truth.
The next, was coming to the realization that I made Ludo hate himself, and I probably had the same effect on many of you. I just want you all to know, that even though I never showed it, I am proud of you, all of you, and not because you're princes or princesses or because you're the prime cut or the real deal within the Avarius family... but because you're my kids. You're all so unique and special. I never want to try to take that from you, ever again. I drove my wife to madness, my lovely, beautiful wife that had been nothing but supportive of me the entire time. Everything negative that has transpired within the last few years, all of the tragedies, all of the sadness and heartbreak, all of the stress, and the loss of our homes, that is all 100% my fault.
I radicalized Ludo against us. I got us all kicked out of the castle. I got that castle blown up, and I am responsible for all of the stress that boy, and all of you have felt towards trying to live up to my unattainable standards. I have emotionally wrecked all of you. Even at the risk of coming up hollow, even at the risk of seeming insincere, all I can do is say that I am so sorry that I have failed all of you. That's right, you didn't fail me, I failed you. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I will try my hardest to get in your good graces again, even if it takes the rest of my life.
There's no time for that right now though. Your brother, our son Ludo, is missing. He's out there, most assuredly among the Septarians. Don't get me wrong, he's a strong boy, but he is in true danger around them. These guys aren't like the monsters that have been working towards fixing this place. These guys want blood. They want a war that will never, ever end, and they will use Ludo as leverage if they have to.
Everyone around the room looks nervous. All 49 kids are present. All of Ludo's henchmen are present.
Lady Avarius: Your father is right. We must work together to get Ludo back. A Septarian girl is responsible for his disappearance. She is the one that has attempted the assassination of Queen Moon. She is incredibly dangerous. This Septarian is also responsible for Ludo's arrest, as well as for breaking him out. Who knows where they are or if they're safe? We will find them though, at any cost.
Dennis: But how? We don't have any leads on where they could have possibly gone.
Lady Avarius: Queen Moon has had knights all over the kingdom planting wanted posters, both for the Septarian girl as well as Ludo. They are to be brought back alive.
Brudo: If you go out, any of you. Keep an eye out for Ludo or that Septarian girl. I doubt they'll be sticking around anywhere close, but honestly, that's all we can do.
Fudo: What if they have inter-dimensional scissors? They may not even be on Mewni.
Brudo: You're right. We can start by posting notices around the other dimensions. We have to do all we can to help.
The family gets to work putting additional posters and notices all over, keeping on the lookout for Ludo Avarius and the Septarian girl. They asks Queen Moon for additional posters and she agrees, and additional posters are added to each dimension. Star and Marco pass them around on earth and various other realms, and the kids have to share the scissors to go to other dimensions to hand them out. Star makes more with her wand to give to her friends to pass around in the other dimensions. She gives some to Tom to pin up in the Underworld, to Kelly to pass around in Woolandia, and even to Princess Ponyhead, who argumentatively fights with Star about putting out posters to help find the dude she wanted gone for so long.
After passing out as many posters around in as many places they can think of, they all grow tired and decide to wait for any news. Lord Brudo and Lady Avarius pace around the castle, driving the kids as well as their monster occupants nuts. Lady Avarius just sits in her chair, rocking back and forth, and it isn't a rocking chair she's sitting in, thinking about scenarios she really doesn't want to think about, but the images float back and forth in her mind of Ludo facing all sorts of torture and it brings her to the familiar stressful state of wondering of his whereabouts after the destruction of the original castle.
Brudo, however, spends his time trying to rationalize, knowing Septarian behavior, how they would genuinely be treating Ludo, whether or not it was intended for Ludo to even be found, and even whether or not the Septarians could be possibly using Ludo as bait to coerce them to go after him. He then wonders if Ludo even wants to be found. He thinks about how unkind he and Lady Avarius have been to him over the years and genuinely considers that maybe, wherever he is, whoever he's with, is treating better than they ever have. His presence is entirely unknown to them.
Meanwhile, Ludo has been hanging out with Iggy in his lab while Seth attends to "important things". Ludo is bored, and Iggy tolerates Ludo so long as he doesn't touch anything merely because Iggy is quite unadmittedly lonely, always hammering away, always on the verge of some sort of scientific breakthrough. Ludo stares wondrously at Iggy's extremely complex chemistry lab, with beakers of all different colors weaving in and out of a maze of stuff Ludo can't begin to comprehend.
Ludo: Wow Iggy, have I told you how neat all your stuff is?
Iggy: Only ten times now, Ludo.
Ludo: Be honest with me, do you think I'm annoying?
Iggy: Of course not. While many are fascinated in my science, very few people want to actually be around me, I'm afraid. I think a lot of people get this impression that purely because I'm an introvert that I don't like people or that I'm mean.
Ludo: So you don't think I'm a pain in the butt?
Iggy: Ha ha, no.
Ludo: So could I ask you about your stuff and you won't be annoyed by me?
Iggy: Ludo, I will never turn down an individual that is in the pursuit of knowledge. As a scientist, it is my sworn duty to educate the minds of those around me. I love to teach, and answering questions is one of the best ways of teaching.
Ludo smiles and gets really excited that someone wants to hear his annoying and excessive questions.
Ludo: Where did you get all of this cool stuff from?
Iggy: I've obtained these various relics from all over in the course of years to even decades.
Ludo looks through Iggy's stuff and notices something odd, that there are various objects fixated on magic.
Ludo: Is this a wand?
Iggy: Well, yes, and no.
Ludo: Why do you have it?
Iggy: Well, Ludo, one of my biggest fascinations over the last few centuries has been the correlation of science and magic. They say that magic is that which is beyond explanation, but it is because of that, that it fascinates me. It's like the unobtainable, coveted knowledge that forever eludes as well as surprises me. Normal science, I suppose, can get rather dull when you know so much about it. But magic, that was a new branch of knowledge to me. I used to believe that magic was nonsense, just some hocus pocus stuff, but as I've opened my mind to thinking of magic as a form of science in and of itself, breaking it down into explainable tangible information, that is what fascinates me about it. In fact, Ludo, did you know that magic, like all other objects in the universe, exists in the form of matter?
Ludo: Really?
Iggy: Yes! Magic, in its natural form, materializes as a liquid.
Ludo: Magic is a liquid?
Iggy: Yup, and it also possesses all of the standard properties that make it a matter as well. It can be measured in weight, and also, it has a boiling and freezing point, but the temperatures are so high and so low that they can only be measured accurately in Kelvin.
Ludo: Kelvin? What's that?
Iggy: Kelvin is a means of measuring temperature. It is adequate in calculating the boiling and freezing point of magic because it varies so greatly between such a great distance in numerical values. It's quite odd that the science used to study magic itself defies conventions of standard science.
Ludo: Whoa! So, why do you have a pair of inter-dimensional scissors? And why don't they work?
Iggy: These scissors, I obtained a long time ago. They've since been deactivated by the Magical High Commission. When I obtained them, I ran them under a microscope, and with them, I found traces of magic still on them. This is one of the earliest samples of magic I obtained as a matter of fact. I long to get a hold of a pair of active inter-dimensional scissors so I can study how they work. It would be quite substantial in my study to find means of inter-dimensional travel using science. My current theory involves the folding of space time but the means are far beyond current comprehension.
Ludo: What's this stuff?
Ludo points at a large cylindrical glass tube filled with liquid. Inside are pale green body parts floating around: Three Septarian fingers and a thumb, an eyeball with the nerve endings still attached, and an entire, unclothed Septarian leg from the thigh all the way down to the foot.
Iggy: Those, are my old body parts. Some time after the incident, I had gone back to home to retrieve them.
Ludo: What? How did that happen?
Iggy: It's a really long story, Ludo.
Ludo: I have time if you do.
Iggy: I'm kinda busy.
Ludo: Please? I like you Iggy. I never met anyone like you before. A lot of monsters in my area aren't very smart, but Septarians seem to be on a whole different level. Where other monsters struggle to make a living, you guys are living in here under everyone's radar. You're really smart, way smarter than me, and you have all this stuff I've never even seen or heard of before. It feels like I'm in a museum with you. You're such a cool friend, and I want to get to know how you guys came to be in this big serpent thing. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life.
Iggy stops what he's doing and pauses. He turns his swivel chair over and looks at Ludo in curiosity.
Iggy: Do you really mean that, Ludo?
Ludo: I do! I love it here, I like hanging out with you guys, and I really want to help Seth out, but I feel like there's just so much I don't understand about this place, and I'm so overwhelmed.
Iggy smiles at Ludo, a big twinkle forms in his organic eye.
Iggy: Very well then, Ludo. This is my story, the truth, all of it.
Iggy gives Ludo a history lesson. He sits in his swivel chair and begins to detail events from a very long time ago, dating back to the original Septarsis.