Aflame

Chapter 7

Ludo, We Found thou

With a brand new lead given to them by Brudo, Star and Marco walked away from mansion Avarius and entered the streets of the city.

"So, the forest of certain death, huh?" Marco said as they walked along. "Haven't they cleaned that place out?"

"Yup." Star said. "After the mayor decided that it was too dangerous to just be left there, I believe he hired a bunch of people to basically come in and burn everything. It looked like a horror movie. They came in with hazmat suits and everything."

"Did they succeed?" Marco asked.

"I think so." Star said. " I'm pretty sure they managed to kill most of the giant people eating plants and other things like that. I stopped paying attention after a while though. A few days into the cleanup, there were still no signs of it stopping. It got kind of boring. Although I suppose that if Ludo lives there, then they had to have cleaned it out a lot."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Marco said. "Remember that Ludo lived in a chip bag for months. I don't think he's going to be bothered by bad living standards."

Star stopped walking and burst out laughing at this. "He did, didn't he? I can't believe I'm just remembering how ridiculous he looked. Couldn't really care at the time though, because of all the other stuff he was doing."

"And then he grew a beard?" Marco said, laughing along with Star. "With all the wrinkles he already had, it made him look like eighty years old!"

"I know!" Star said. "Oh! Then there was the time that-"

"I'm right behind you you know." A voice from behind them said.

Star and Marco whipped around and there was Ludo, a bag of groceries in one hand, riding his giant spider and wearing a pink bathrobe.

"While I'm used to it by now," He said. "And I would probably expect out of you two after all I've done, I'd prefer it if you didn't insult me in public."

"Oh, um, Sorry." Star said. "We were actually looking for you."

Ludo tilted his head. "What? Why would you go looking for me? What did I do this time?"

"Hopefully nothing." Marco said. "Listen, I know we haven't always been...on the best of terms, but we need your help. A lot of things have been happening lately and the Mewnian high council...sent us to investigate you in case you were behind them."

"Hm." Ludo said. "The Mewnian high council? Alright then. Follow me if you want. We'll discuss it at my house. It's not often I get visitors, and there are too many prying ears in the streets."

Ludo slapped the back of his spider, who moved forward pass Star and Marco, who shrugged and followed him, confused as to why he seemingly didn't care about them.

"So...where's your bird?" Star asked, in some attempt to be friendly. She wasn't, and had never been anything close to "friends" with Ludo, but if they wanted to get information out of him, then she had to try and be friendly.

"Who?" Ludo asked. He then looked at the sky for a few seconds and then seemed to remember. "Oh, right. Almost forgot that thing existed. She's at my house. Guarding it. With it being in the forest of certain death, you can never be too careful."

"I though they cleaned the forest out of anything dangerous." Marco said.

"They did." Ludo responded. "But as you got deeper into the forest, the more dangerous it got. They eventually abandoned the project after the only solution that wouldn't result in casualties for the people clearing it out would be to do something called "firebombing." Which apparently, they didn't have access to the tools necessary to do that."

"Yeah, I can't imagine why…" Marco said sarcastically.

Ludo ignored or either didn't hear the comment and kept talking. "So they just left it as it was and declared it condemned. Didn't stop me though. Because they don't know I live there, I don't have to pay tax on the land. I don't have to pay anything. Which reminds me, you're going to have to sneak in."

"Got it." Star said.

The next few minutes were set in an awkward silence, with Ludo continuing on with his spider and Star and Marco following him, before Marco leaned over towards Star.

"This is so weird." He whispered. "How long ago was it when this guy took over Mewni?" He gestured at Ludo, then continued talking.

"How long ago was it when we blew up his castle? When you threw him into the void? When he asked you to throw him back into the void?"

"To be fair Marco." Star whispered back. "It's only been a year or so. Maybe a year and a half. It's been a while, yeah, but it hasn't been that long. And where are you going with this anyway?"

Marco sighed. "I mean just look at how much he's changed. He's completely fine with us. He doesn't care at all. I'm surprised just how much he's okay with us. I'm actually surprised just how much you're okay with it."

"Well, I think I kinda understand that he doesn't want to take over Mewni or steal the now non-existent wand or anything, so I guess don't mind him anymore." Star said. "Even after all the things that happened."

"I can hear you perfectly fine." Ludo said. "You two are terrible whisperers."

"Oh." Marco said. "Sorrrry...maybe?"

"No, it's fine." Ludo said. "You're right anyways. I'm a new person. A new Ludo Avarius. No more plots to take over Mewni. No more plots to steal magical artifacts, because they don't exist anymore. And last but certainly not least, no more plots to destroy you two! I have a new home, a new place, to start over."

"We visited your dad, and he told us that you were kicked out of your old castle and built a new one out of garbage." Star said.

Ludo immediately grumbled and his shoulders dropped. "Well yes, there was that." Ludo said, disdain coating his every word. "Father tricked me into giving him possession over the castle and he kicked me out. But I don't need the castle. Father can stay in that dusty old home with his stickers and that old crone mother!"

"You...really hate your family, don't you?" Marco asked.

Ludo shook his head. "I only don't like my mother and father. They never supported me. Even after I kicked them out of the house to make room for my monsters, and then gave them a new house, were they grateful? No!"

Star and Marco exchanged glances, unsure of what to make of what Ludo just said.

"But I still have my siblings." Ludo continued. "Fudo, Mudo, Dudo, Crudo...and Dennis. All of them have been helpful! I never thought I needed their help before, but when I did, I realized it was easy as just asking them for it."

"That's nice...I guess." Star said. "But what about your monsters? Your dad told us that they...still work for you or something?"

"Not true." Ludo said. "After father kicked me out, I had to let them go. My new house isn't big enough to accommodate them, and I don't have the money necessary to feed them, as I already have myself, and my spider and the bird to take care of."

"Where are they now?" Marco asked.

"I don't know. Probably doing what they do best: Following the orders of someone else."

Star was about to ask another question, but before she could they arrived at the forest.

It looked relatively similar to when Star and Marco had last seen it, if not slightly smaller. All the plants and animals were still there, and the entire place was fenced off, with several signs on the fence marked "CONDEMNED." The top of the fence had barbed wire wrapped around it.

"Here we are". Ludo said. "Well, almost. We just have to get past the fence, and we'll be in."

All four of them walked along the side of the fence until they reached a large hole. It looked like it had been forcefully made, likely by Ludo himself.

"This is it." Ludo said. "Get in."

Both teens walked through the hole and Ludo followed them through. He then had his spider seal up the hole with silk.

"Can't be too careful." He said. "I don't want anybody to get in here that I don't know about."

"I don't think it would take a lot to break through that silk." Marco said.

Ludo cackled at this. "Are you sure? That webbing can sustain a lot. And with the barbed wire serving as extra protection, it's rather hard to get in here."

"Fine. Whatever you say." Marco said.

"Good! Now come along." Ludo said, climbing back on top of the spider, which then moved forward.

Star and Marco once again followed him and entered the forest. Every few feet there were several burn marks covering the ground and random trees, the end result of the attempt to clean the forest.

Seeing how Star and Marco were likely about to ask him about the burn marks, Ludo spoke up.

"Unfortunate, isn't it?" He said. "Just so it would be safe for the general public, I believe that several species of plants were exterminated. There are still dozens more, but still, it's a waste. Especially since it was closed off forever."

Star and Marco didn't have anything to say to this, and just kept walking. A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination. It was a house, just like Brudo said. But also like Brudo said, it did look like it was made of garbage. The walls and roof were all are of different materials, as if someone had taken several houses and mashed them together into some monstrosity. On the very top of the house, Ludo's eagle sat, waiting for his return.

"Home sweet home." Ludo said.

"This...is where you live?" Star asked.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but it's what I have. I'm actually very used to living in such poor conditions, if not poorer."

The eagle, upon seeing them arrive, flew down to the ground. Ludo rummaged around in his grocery bag, pulled out a fish and then tossed it to the eagle, who ate it.

"There you go!" He said, and the muttered, "My bird who for some reason I can hardly remember."

The eagle squawked loudly and flew back up towards the house onto it's perch, and Ludo and the others entered the house. The spider stayed outside, and Ludo grabbed a bowl and shook a god awful amount of bugs out of his beard and into the bowl. He then gave it to the spider, who started eating it faster than a preschooler with crayons.

"And there's your supper!" Ludo said. "Now I'm going inside and chatting with my...guests."

Star and Marco watched this unfold with disgust, and Marco looked like he might throw up.

"Okay. That's gross." Star said.

"Hey!" Ludo said, hearing her. "I have to find some way to feed her. She doesn't complain, I don't complain, nobody complains. Except you, apparently. Now, are we going to keep talking or are we going to go inside?"

"We were actually planning on talking insi-" Marco said before being interrupted.

"Good! Then go in."

Both of them slowly went inside the house, unsure if it was a smart decision. When they finally got inside, they regretted ever entering.

The inside of the house was easily the dingiest place either of them had ever seen. There was garbage everywhere, along with several bugs that were prowling around. The smell was almost unbearable, and was like three day-old cheese mixed with hand sanitizer and then slathered in 20 year old ranch dressing.

"Pretty sweet deal, huh?" Ludo said. "Built it myself. Granted, it took a while. But it was all worth it in the end."

Ludo walked over to a record player resting on a gigantic pile of clothes, and turned it on. What sounded like classical music started coming out of it.

"Is this Chopin?" Marco asked.

"Chop-what?" Ludo asked. "I don't know who that is, but I found a bunch of these "records", and now playing them is the highlight of my day."

He then set the bag of groceries down on some random broken table and sat down on an old couch sitting in the corner.

"Now that I'm comfortable," He said. "What do you want? Why do you want to talk to me?"

Star straightened up.'"Alright, Listen." She said. "A lot of things have happened recently. Do you know about Mina Loveberry? The Solarian who tried to teal over Mewni?"

"I heard about her." Ludo said. "But I never actually saw her. I was at my castle when the whole Solarian incident went down. Dennis later told me what happened. As well as why magic was destroyed and Mewni was now merged with Earth."

"Well, ever since Mewni was merged with Earth, Mina had been gaining followers again, and she was kind of a nuisance since then."

"Was a nuisance?" Ludo asked, now paying slightly more attention to Star's words. "Did something happen to her?"

"Well." Star said. "She kinda, ummm…"

"She's dead". Marco said. "She died a few days ago."

"What?!" Ludo exclaimed, jumping off his couch. "I mean, not that I really care about her, but what killed her? Who did it?"

"She was burned to death." Marco continued. "After being abandoned by Manfred, and after all her followers were arrested."

"And...who did it?" Ludo asked.

Star took a deep breath. "Well…we don't know. But that's kind of the reason we're here. See, the Mewnian high council thinks you did it."

"WHAT?!" Ludo repeated, much louder this time. "Me?! Ludo Avarius, a killer?!"

"I mean, you did try to kill us multiple times in the past. Along with several other people." Marco said.

"Yeah, but that was a different Ludo! Like I said earlier, like you said earlier, I'm a new person. No more evil plans, no more nothing! I had nothing to do with Mina's death."

"We know." Star said. "We don't believe you did it. In fact, I'm positive that the only reason they suggested that you did it is so that they could leave the meeting earlier. But we had to start somewhere, and they told us to, so we went looking for you."

Ludo started pacing around while grumbling. Eventually, he walked over to a random door and opened it.

"I need a moment to think about this." He said, before slamming the door shut.

Both Star and Marco stared at the door for a few moments, then Marco sighed.

"I'm going to look around this place." He said. "Make sure there's nothing suspicious. I want to see if he's telling the truth about "no more evil plans." He might not have killed Mina, but I want to see if he truly is a new person."

"Yeah." Star said. "Good idea."

Both of them started looking around the house. But it was all basically just the same thing over and over: Garbage, giant piles of trash, and the occasional bag of groceries, some of which seemed rotten.

Finally, Marco opened a closet and was met with two shadow covered figures standing inside, an inch from his face.

"GAH!" He said, leaping back and taking a karate stance.

Star ran over. "What is it? Are you okay? Are you-" She said, before noticing the two figures.

However, instead of freaking out, she simply laughed.

"They're not real Marco. They're just dummies. That's one head is a balloon for Mewnis sake."

Marco once again took a normal stance and inspected the dummies. "They freaked me out, okay?! They were really close to the door. And why are they even here anyways?"

"Hm. That is odd." Star said. "Well, maybe it's just...wait. Don't these dummies look kind of…"

"Familiar?" Marco said, realization hitting him in the face.

Familiar indeed. One closely resembled Star, being a pink balloon with yellow confetti for hair, all while connected to a vase. The other one was a watermelon with a face drawn on it with a brown wig, being held up by a large red garbage bag, similar to Marco's hoodie.

"Are those dummies supposed to be us?" Marco asked nervously.

"Maybeeee?" Star said.

They both looked at the dummies for a moment.

Marco quickly closed the door. "Let's just...never speak of this again, okay?"

"Good idea." Star said. "Erasing that from my mind...right now."

They both left the closet with the dummies behind and continued inspecting the house, (and being slightly more careful than before) but still didn't find anything of worth. They both walked back into the room they had first entered the house from.

"Ugh." Marco said. "This was a waste of time, wasn't it? We didn't accomplish anything."

"That's not true." Star said. "We kind of proved Ludo didn't do it. Beside common sense already proving it, we looked around his house, and there was nothing that suggested he had anything to do with Mina's death."

"I guess. Still, we could have used this time to do something else." He looked over at the record player, which was still playing music. "And that song is getting on my nerves."

He walked over and turned it off, causing it to go silent.

"Now, we can-" He stopped. He looked around for a second, as if he had just heard something.

"Are you okay?" Star asked.

"Don't you hear that?" Marco said.

"I don't hear anything." Star said. "What are you talking about?"

"Just listen!"

"I-" Star started, but then she heard what Marco was talking about. It sounded like...voices? The music that had been playing must have covered up the noises.

"Those are voices. Several voices." Star said.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, and I have a hunch where they're coming from…" He looked over at the door that Ludo had entered earlier.

Marco slowly walked up to the door, while Star followed close behind him. He grabbed the handle and opened it, revealing an old, wooden staircase with a sharp right turn near the bottom.

"Yeah, that's not suspicious at all." Star said.

"Somebody tell me this isn't real". Marco said. "Because I really don't want to go down there."

"Same." Star said, before pushing past Marco and going down one of the steps. "But you know we have to."

Marco but his lip as he followed Star, and the both of them went down the stairs, taking care to not cause any creaking. The voices continued getting louder, and Star could swear that some of them seemed awfully familiar.

'I think I hear Ludo.' She thought to herself. 'And maybe a few others? I just hope that this ends well.'

After descending a few more steps, the pair reached the sharp corner in the staircase, revealing a large room at the bottom. Both Star and Marco froze, and everybody in the room turned their way.

The room in question was a very large basement with stone walls and with an unswept, concrete floor. There was a large table in the middle of the room, with several simple wooden chairs surrounding it. On the walls were maps, diagrams, and various pieces of paper. Several of which noticeably had blueprints for Mina's DMV hideout.

But most troubling of all were the people sitting around the table. Buff frog was at its head, with Ludo, Slime, Penelope Spiderbite, Rasticore, Dennis, and a plethora of other monsters (and a few Mewmans and humans) that Star didn't recognize making up the rest.

Everybody looked at Star and Marco, who were still frozen in place, unsure of what to do.

Star's instincts took over and she immediately turned to run, but Buff frog stopped her.

"Star Butterfly, wait!" He said. "I don't know what you're thinking, but it is not what it looks like."

Star turned back around and faced him. "Then what is it supposed to look like?!" She asked. "Because from what I can see, with the diagrams and plans on the walls, I'm pretty sure that you guys were the ones that killed Mina! What even is this anyway?!"

Buff frog took a deep breath. "I know. I know. It looks bad. Please trust me though. We did not kill Mina. We had nothing to do with that."

"Then...then what is this?" Marco asked, looking from face to face.

"We are...freedom fighters." Buff frog said. "Every since Mina started causing trouble in town, we have gathered together, all of us, at Ludo's house to discuss how to handle her."

"And what was your plan to "handle" her?" Star asked, her arms crossed .

"We weren't planning to kill her or anything like that." Slime said, getting into the conversation. "We were just going to raid her base, restrain her, and make sure that she was handed over to the proper authorities. That's why we have all these maps and stuff. We weren't actually planning to hurt anybody."

"Wait, If you knew where Mina's base was," Marco said. "Then why didn't you call the police earlier and let them know? We could have ended this a long time ago."

"Couldn't." Buff frog said. "We could not risk possibility that Mina had followers in Earth police department. If that were the case, she might have escaped. Couldn't do it."

"I guess that makes sense…" Star said. "So, you weren't planning to hurt anybody?"

"No."

"And you didn't kill Mina?"

"We swear it on our lives!"

"Okay." Star said. "Okay. But...why here? Why at Ludo's house?"

"It's empty." Penelope said. "Nobody is supposed to be in this forest anyways, so it's the perfect place to hold our meetings. Nobody would suspect a thing."

Ludo got up from his chair. "Constantly too." He said. "Almost every day now. I'm not even with these guys, they just pay me to let them do this. Also, sorry for not telling you. They told me not to tell you. I wouldn't have let you in here while they were over in the first place, but I knew that it would look suspicious."

"No problem…" Star said. "But why wasn't I told about this? Does Eclipsa know about it? Who else does?"

"Just everyone here." Dennis said. "And now you guys. We tried to keep a low profile. We didn't tell Eclipsa or Globgor because we felt like they already had enough going on with Mewni stuff than to also have to listen to us. You weren't told because...umm…" Dennis looked over at Buff frog. "Why didn't we tell her again?"

"Simple." Buff frog said. "We saw how happy you were with karate boy at the moment, so we didn't want to ruin your happiness with our meetings at the problems that we dealt with. But I suppose you went looking for those problems anyways."

Star started to smile, but then looked over at Ludo. "And him?"

"Meh. We pay him money, he lets us stay here. Win-win. Now, Star Butterfly, we're good, right?"

"Yup." Star said. "You know what, I'm just going to leave now. I kinda want to know now about your little secret society, but I'm tired, and I want to go home. So I'll see you guys around. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow."

"Very well. We'll see you then? If you want to join us. But...please don't tell anyone about us." Buff frog said. "We want to make sure that if there are more Mina sympathizers, then they don't know who we are so we can stay safe."

"Of course Buff Frog. Goodbye."

"Bye."

Star left the basement and Marco followed her, and the both of them exited the house and started walking towards the hole in the fence.

"So, we're just gonna leave?" Marco asked.

"Oh yeah. I'm tired. It's only midday, and I'm already exhausted. I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Sounds good. I'm going to go back to my house. See how my parents are doing. I don't think it's a crime scene anymore."

"Then I'm coming with you. Hey, by the way, you wanna go on a date or something later tonight? The two of us? I feel like we deserve a bit of a break."

Marco looked and Star and slightly blushed. "Sure. What place do you have in mind?"

"How about that new restaurant next to the town square? I think it was opened by a few Mewmans."

"Nice choice. I'd like to see how the Mewmans cook Earth food."

"Great! I'll see you there tonight at...six o'clock."

"Sounds like a plan." Marco said, smiling.

With that settled, the two teens continued walking through the forest, making sure to watch their surroundings in case any giant plants attacked them. But when they got to the hole in the fence, they were met with a confusing sight.

It was gone. The spider silk that Ludo has covered up the hole with was ripped open. Something had forced its way in.

"I thought Ludo said that webbing could sustain a lot." Marco said.

"Evidently not too much. Let's not stick around to find out what made it." Star said.

"I'm with you on that one."

Both Star and Marco carefully climbed through the hole, and went back into the street of the town. They then both headed towards Marco's house, eager to rest for a bit.

But as vigilant as they were watching out for any giant plants, they had failed to notice two bright orange eyes watching them from the foliage.

"Shame." Bren said to himself as they left. "You two weren't supposed to know about me just yet, but thanks to your little friend, I have to accelerate my plans. I doubt that will work out well for anybody." He sighed.

"But...that little date of yours? I should really thank you. That's just the thing I need. You helped me without even knowing it."

Bren started to walk away, but then looked in the direction of Ludo's house and narrowed his eyes.

"Perhaps I could them to my advantage as well…"

Not stopping for a moment more, he turned around and headed towards the house.

Ludo's house…

With Star and Marco gone, Ludo walked back upstairs to his house and opened the closet that contained the Star and Marco dummies.

"Alright." He said to the dummies, as if they were real people. "Who's up for a game of chara-"

He was interrupted by a loud knock on his front door.

"What?" He said in confusion. "They're back already? Did they forget something or what?"

He closed the closet, went over to his front door, and swung it open.

But instead of Star and Marco standing there like he expected, he was quickly met with a fist slamming into his face. He flew backwards and hit the door that led to the basement, then dropped to the floor.

Although his vision was blurry and he was barely conscious, he was still able to see and hear the person that had entered the house.

"Ludo, yes?" The figure said. "Hi. I'm Bren, and I'd like to speak with your little monster freedom-fighter group. There are some things I'd like to discuss. If they refuse to speak with me, then I will force them too. And while normally I'd force the demon boy to do the dirty work like that, I figured that I want to have some fun for myself every once in a while. So please, don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Ludo weakly got up off the ground and stared up at Bren, who started approaching the basement door. But suddenly, a loud screeching sound was heard, and Bren turned around to see Ludo's giant eagle and spider in the doorway, having sensed that their master was in danger. They charged, and Bren barely flinched at the sight.

Back in the basement, all the members had stopped talking and stared up at the ceiling, where they could hear various sounds coming from above. Sounds like yells of pain, furniture being thrown around, and Ludo screaming incomprehensibly.

The sounds finally concluded with a loud CRASH, as if a giant bird and spider had just been thrown into a wall. A second later, the basement door flew open and Ludo came flying through it, tumbling down the stairs like a bowling ball. He landed on the concrete floor, attempt to get up, but fell back down with a groan.

The basement stairs creaked as someone descended them, and everybody turned to look as Bren stood at the bottom of the steps, covered in feathers and holding a giant spiders leg in his right arm like a makeshift club.

"Hello boys and girls." He said to the shocked people in the room.

"Let's talk about Star Butterfly."

A/N: Well, Bren just single handedly kicked the shit out of Ludo's pets. Not something he'd normally do, as shown with his "demon boy" comment. (Don't forget about that.) But don't worry, the pets are still alive. No more people are going to die just yet. Wonder what he's gonna discuss with the freedom-fighters? They will return. This chapter was just kind of an introduction for them.

The next chapter will be a nicer chapter than the previous ones, as Star and Marco probably need a break from everything.

Until next time.