Jade is dazed. Where in the universe did Seth send her? Jade looks down, to find that she is kneeling in a yellow liquid. It has no smell. The air itself is like strawberries or cherries, a very pleasant, fruity smell. Jade looks next to her to find that a pile of pudding cups are there.
Jade: Did Seth send me these? Why pudding? What is this place?
Jade picks up a pudding cup, pocketing the thing. Jade begins massaging her head. From out of nowhere, a unicorn appears. It stares at Jade with large, peculiar eyes.
Jade: Am I hallucinating? What is this feeling? Why do I feel so... ecstatic?
Jade's eyes are growing big, the hallucinogenic affects of the Realm of Magic are taking affect. Jade starts petting the unicorn as it just stares at her with big unsettling eyes and a smile across its long face.
Jade: Wow! Unicorn... you're so pretty! I wish I could just stay here forever and just pet you. I feel so... so... happy here. I never want to leave.
Jade's stomach rumbles.
Jade: Gee, pretty unicorn, I sure am hungry. You wouldn't happen to have any pretty cupcakes with sprinkles lying around, would ya?
Unicorn nudges at Jade, looking down at her pudding cup.
Jade: Oh right! I have this pudding right here. Well... time to dig in.
Jade opens the pudding cup, sticking her whole snout into the cup and licking it dry. She has pudding all over the front of her face that she proceeds to lick off with her tongue.
Jade: Ah, that sure hit the spot.
As Jade ingests the pudding, she finds herself thinking and speaking with clarity once more.
Jade: Whoa... that was close. I should really be careful around this place.
Jade peruses the Realm of Magic, walking for what seems like an hour. In reality, it hasn't even been minutes. Time can become quite absurd in the Realm of Magic. Across the horizon of pink bubblegum sky, Jade spies a familiar looking figure, a tall, pale looking Septarian in formal attire. His skin is tranlucent and grey and his eyes bare no features. He merely stands there, facing away with his hands behind his back.
Jade: Dad?
She cautiously approaches the figure until she is mere feet away from him. He does not notice her until she calls his name.
Jade: Dad? Is that really you?
Toffee turns around, his expression becomes that of slight surprise, but he does not answer her.
Jade: Dad, can you hear me?
Toffee looks at the golden water. He kneels in it, sticking his hand in and pulling up nothing, making a slurping gesture.
Jade: You want me to drink the water?
He nods.
Jade puts her hands together into the water and draws a small handful of the golden liquid and puts it to her mouth, drinking it. The taste is indescribable, definitely water, but with "something added to it". She coughs a bit after ingesting it.
Toffee: So, now we can talk.
Jade: Dad! I'm so glad to see you, but aren't you_
Toffee: Dead? Well, yes. I am, in fact.
Jade: Why did you leave me?
Toffee: There are things that I couldn't tell you when you were a kid.
Jade: You can tell me now. I spent my whole life trying to avenge you.
Toffee: Well, I can tell you didn't succeed. Moon, is, in fact, still alive.
Jade: Are you mad at me for failing?
Toffee: No. I can never be mad at you. You know that.
Jade: What was your mission? It's really important.
Toffee: What's so important about it?
Jade: Seth is gonna destroy the magic. That's what it's all about, right?
Toffee: Well, look at you, you figured it out. That's my bright girl.
Jade: But dad, it doesn't make any sense. If Seth wants to destroy the magic, why did he go through so much effort of learning it?
Toffee: What are you talking about? Seth doesn't know magic.
Jade: Yes he does. I saw him use it. He knows the Mewnan magic, all of it.
Toffee: How did?... No... he can't. Dammit!... I'm such a fool!
Jade: What's wrong?
Toffee: That wasn't the plan!
Jade: What was the plan, dad?
Toffee: Seth was only supposed to destroy the magic, sever the bond between the Mewnans and the magic. Septarsis would be safe. No Mewnan would ever be able to hurt us ever again. And we could move on, drive them out of Mewni, to another dimension, reclaim our home! I can't believe it. He tricked me!
Jade: He said something even worse. He says that he's gonna "become one" with the magic, whatever that means.
Toffee: He used me... corrupting the magic... manipulating Ludo... all of it, to fuel this insane plan. And he's using you too.
Jade: What?
Toffee: He has to be stopped. If he's doing what I think he's doing, it spells doom for us all, for Mewni, for Septarsis, everyone, in and out of that dimension.
Jade: What are you talking about?
Toffee: He wants to become the very thing that's more powerful than us. Imagine, Jade, to truly be unstoppable. To be immortal AND invulnerable, as well as all encompassing. If Seth becomes magic in and of itself, he will use it to destroy everything. I've seen that magic before, Jade. I had infinite power at my fingertips, but I refused to use it because I knew what horrors I could commit with it, against everyone... against you, and your mother.
He'll take over everything, every spell, the Magical High Commission, everything connected to the magic of this realm will become a slave to his will, even Glossaryk. He could use it to shatter the rift of space and time, send spells all through out the dimensions, far worse than any spell used against us. He could even go as far as to implode this entire universe in on itself. He has to be stopped.
Jade: What do I do? What do we do? We should leave here, go back to Mewni and warn everyone!
Toffee: Jade, I can't leave here.
Jade: What? Why?
Toffee: I'm dead. This is my purgatory. My afterlife is to be spent with the very people I tried to destroy. The other ghosts, they don't take kindly to me being here. Now that I think about it, it's more like my own personal Hell being stuck here with all these spirits that hate my guts.
Jade: Other ghosts?
Toffee: The former queens of Mewni. They exiled me to this far section of the Realm of Magic. I'm doomed to stay here for all of eternity, forever basking in their judgment. But you're still alive, and that means the world to me. You have to get back and warn the others. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you have to tell Queen Moon of Seth's plan. Only she and her daughter can stop them now.
Jade looks down into the water, suddenly overcome with despair.
Well, what's wrong? Go! The magic water should be wearing off soon, and then you won't be able to speak to me anymore, also... the pudding's effects maintaining your sanity won't last.
Jade tears up.
Toffee: What?
She throws her arms around her father, knowing it would likely be the last time she ever saw him.
Jade: It's not fair. I just got you back. I don't wanna leave you.
Toffee wants to scold her for being weak in front of him, but he can't just bring himself to do it. The coldness of his stoicism shatters then and there. He wraps his long arms all the way around his daughter, knowing it would be the last time he ever saw her too.
Jade: If I could just stay here forever... and we could never let each other go, I would be perfectly intent with that right now.
Toffee: I wouldn't trade this moment for the world. Just seeing you one more time gives me the strength to face this eternity as my punishment for the atrocities I've committed.
A single tear rolls down his face. Toffee is not a man to ever express such weakness. It is only ever Jade that could make him feel such a thing. To be able to express it however, is an honor to him. It makes him feel alive to care so deeply about something, someone, to not be so cold and distant towards someone for once in his vacant, joyless life. Behind the facade of a man on a mission, behind his apathetic demeanor, is a father, a man that risked it all for his people, for his daughter, for her future, for his wife, and for a chance at peace.
Jade: Dad... before I go... and I know I have to. I just have one more question.
Toffee: What is it, my little Jade?
Jade: I have to know, how did you die? Was it Ludo, or Queen Moon?
Toffee: It doesn't matter anymore.
Jade: It matters to me.
Toffee: Why?
Jade: Because, I've met Ludo. We've become friends. And he lied to me! If he killed you, I want to know!
Toffee: What did Ludo say?
Jade: At first he told me that Moon killed you, but then, later on, he confessed to killing you. He said you worked for him, and that you betrayed him, all this stuff with a wand and corrupted magic, and that Star Butterfly blasted you with magic and then he pushed a pillar on top of you.
Toffee: That's exactly how that happened. Ludo is telling you the truth... well, mostly. I didn't betray him because I was never with him to begin with. Why did he tell you that though? Was he tortured? He could have easily just kept it a secret.
Jade: We were in the Septarsis jail cell together, and he confessed that he had really strong feelings toward me, and then proceeded to voluntarily tell me all these horrible things because he said that he loved me and that I deserved to know the truth.
Toffee: He said all that stuff on his own, without any coercion? Man... that kids got guts, way more than I ever gave him credit for. He really looked up to me and I just kind of stepped all over him. Sigh, poor Ludo.
Jade: Dad?
Toffee: Jade, I just want to give you this one last message. If there's one thing to remember from this encounter, let it be this. Forgive them. Both of them. Queen Moon had every right to hate me, and even more to kill me, as did Star and Ludo. I took Moon's mother from her, Queen Comet, and for that, she took my finger. I spent years boiling in my own hatred on my quest for revenge. Getting revenge_
Jade: Doesn't make you feel better. All it does is make you feel empty on the inside.
Toffee: How did you know what I was gonna say?
Jade: Ludo said the same thing to me once.
Toffee: Ludo's not a bad kid. He's a little dense, admittedly, but he really got attached to me. I think it really tore him apart when I betrayed him. I didn't feel so bad before. But I suppose, now I kinda do. Jade, I want you to forgive them and be happy. It was always my purpose to die and wind up here. Tell Ludo I'm sorry for what I did to him, for making him believe I thought so little of him. Truth is, he was just another pawn in the game, and he really didn't deserve that. And if he had the courage to tell you such a horrible unfortunate truth, it's quite possible that he really does genuinely love you.
Jade: Dad, I think you're starting to fade, so one last thing... I love you.
Toffee: Tell your mother I love her and... I... love... you... too.
With that, Toffee become translucent again. His eyes are once again a blank stare. He doesn't face away from Jade as she runs off in the other direction back to the others. She knows that with the golden water's effects wearing off, that the pudding's anti-hallucinogenic properties would soon wear off too. Unfortunately for Jade, as her father has provided her with directions to get back to Mewni, she finds that there is a discrepancy with his directions. Instead of a single portal, Jade sees two. The portals are identical.
Jade: Oh man, which one? Which one. Uh oh, feeling strange again. Gotta just pick one. Here goes!
jade enters the portal to the right and is met with a beach. The portal closes behind her, trapping her inside.
Jade: No!
Jade turns around. She walks in the empty desert for what seems like hours. She notices that the sky never changes, but remains the same twilight periwinkle color fading in gradient into a misty lilac color, as if the sun does not fully set on the horizon. The moon before her is massive, a pale blue, and the sky is filled with stars and bizarre constellations she had never seen before. In the distance, she can see a man, lounging on a couch as a massive wheel, caught in some magical contraption in which it is forced to move on its own perpetually, spins round and round.
The man is a tall with blue skin and a long beard extending a foot and a half off of his face. He has a bald head, and is adorned in a finely woven, albeit rather short white robe that barely maintains decency, bound together with a rope. Around his neck he bares a clock, hanging from a golden chain necklace. His large blue legs and feet are bare, but from his thighs, all the way down to his massive calf muscles, he is covered in rather unattractive leg hair. As she approaches the strange man, he looks at her with a smile, almost as if he'd been expecting her. He speaks to her in a rather casual manner.
Father Time: Ah, Jade. It's about TIME.
Jade: I'm sorry. Do I know you?
Father: No, but I know you.
Jade: How do you know me? What is this place? Where am I.
Father Time: In this order: I know you because I've been watching you mortals, this, is where all time comes from, and here, is the Plains of Time.
Jade: Father Time?
Father Time: Correctamundo.
Jade: I can't stay here. I need help. I need to get back to my friends. There's something I urgently have to tell them. I just don't have the time.
Father Time: Don't have the time? Dear child. Sit, right here, relax.
Jade: Aren't you listening to me? I have to get out of here!
Father Time: Jade, time does not progress in this dimension. It progresses everywhere else, but not here. So sit, relax. I want you to watch something with me, and then, when it's TIME for you to leave, I shall send you on your merry way.
Jade: I really don't think I should.
Father Time: Oh... okay. *Sigh.
Jade: What's wrong?
Father Time: It's just, I hardly ever get any visitors around here. Do you know how long I've been doing this?
Jade: I imagine since the beginning of time?
Father Time: And do you have any idea how long that actually is?
Jade: Not a clue.
Father Time: One hundred billion years.
Jade: Whoa.
Father Time: Yeah, I'm older than your entire race and bloodline combined. So you can imagine it gets pretty lonely out here.
Jade: Fine. I'll spend a little bit of time with you. You swear that time doesn't move in here? I've lost no time in my own dimension?
Father Time perks right up.
Father Time: Yes, absolutely. Now sit and watch a bit of the old boob tube with me.
Jade: What are we watching?
Father Time: Oh! This is my FAVORITE sitcom. It's called "The Lives of Mortals".
Father Time gets up and approaches a massive stack of VHS tapes, truly, the most dated of all forms of media, and pulls a black spined VHS tape from the stack. The front is a plain white label, with the words "Ludo Avarius" written on it in a Sharpie marker.
Father Time: This one might interest you.
Jade: What is it?
Father: Why, it's your boyfriend Ludo. He is your boyfriend, right?
Jade: I wouldn't go THAT far.
Jade folds her arms, somewhat blushing.
Father Time puts the VHS tape into a really old VCR and they proceed to watch Ludo's life on an extremely old, massive, clunky CRT television.
Father Time: This is Ludo when he was a tiny little tot. See Lady Avarius, holding him.
Jade: He's so tiny. I never knew they looked like that when they were young.
Father Time: Okay, so I know you don't wanna sit here and watch all 23 years of Ludo's life.
Jade: Yeah, I really don't need that.
Father Time: Okay so lets skip past the childhood, blah blah blah, get the wand, boring, and stop.
Jade: What's going on? When's this?
Father Time: This, is when your daddy met Ludo.
On the screen, she can see the interview. Her father is dressed formally, and Ludo, dressed in ridiculous attire she'd never seen him in before, is hunching over a table as Toffee sits there casually answering questions about how he is qualified to be an "efficiency expert".
Father Time: And lets fast forward a bit. Blah blah blah, and stop.
Father Time fast forwards to the time when Toffee had kidnapped Marco Diaz and held him ransom in Ludo's castle after Ludo had been kicked out. Jade sees everything, the box, Marco, Toffee sitting at a table, as well as Star Butterfly as she cleaves the wand. Father Time freeze frames during the explosion of the castle, and zooms into the explosion to reveal that Toffee had not actually died from the explosion, but was sucked INTO the wand and the wand itself, had split apart, causing an atomic reaction and annihilating the house and the residents inside.
Father Time: Crazy stuff, huh?
Jade: What in the world did I just watch? My dad got sucked into a wand, Ludo was eaten by a giant chicken, and everything just blew up? Ludo's the reason Yveny has tadpole kids? Italian unicorn... what?
Father Time: Yeah, I don't think anyone has ANY idea what happened that day.
Jade: This video. This is what ACTUALLY happened?
Father Time: Edited for TIME, but yeah.
Jade: I want you to show me one more thing.
Father Time: What's that?
Jade: I want to see my father's death.
Father Time: Are you sure? I was about to shut this off. It was gonna get real awkward.
Jade: I want to see it with my own eyes. It's the only way I can truly have closure, and I can never think of it again.
Father Time: Okay. Blah blah blah, Glossaryck teaches Ludo, Toffee possesses Ludo, Ludo destroys the magical Book of Spells, yada yada yada. Man, lots of pointless stuff happens between these two events. Sorry this is taking so long.
Jade: Stop!
Father Time: Okay, here we are. Butterfly Castle is in ruins after Ludo sacked the town with an army of rats.
Jade: What in the world is he wearing now?
Father Time: A Gold N Crisps bag of potato chips.
Jade: Maybe it was a good thing that Marco boy gave him those baby clothes.
Jade looks on as Moon lunges at Toffee, swinging as Toffee deflects the blows with ease, followed by Marco Diaz punching him through the heart, which he shrugs off as a minor annoyance. And then, she watches as Star Butterfly, in a truly horrific golden form she's never seen before, unleashes a positively nuclear blast at her father, melting him to bones. She watches in complete awe as her father is reduced to a skeletal pile of muck. He mocks them, eyeballs and organs oozing from his body before Ludo topples the pillar on top of him.
Ludo: Turns out you're dead!
The scene plays in her mind, rewinding itself, over and over and over again. Only now does she fully understand the truth, how Toffee manipulated Ludo, how he weeded his way into Ludo's good graces simply so he could get close to Star, how he utilized magic. The story was complete. Jade, for what it's worth, doesn't find herself angry at having witnessed her father's death. She knows now what she must do. She knows that she can face the truth now.
Jade: Father Time?
Father Time: Yes, my dear?
Jade: Thank you. I know what needs to be done now. May I please go?
Father Time: Of course, but Jade?
Jade: Yeah?
Father Time: Remember, even Septarians, as long as they live, only have limited TIME in this world. Don't spend your life living in the past. Nothing is more important than the now, as that is the only TIME that really matters.
Jade: Okay.
Father Time opens yet another portal for Jade, sending her to her true destination.