Aflame

Chapter 16

Who's behind the curtain?

"Time of death...estimated to be 5:19 PM. Gender...Male. Patients name, as well as date of birth...currently unknown. Autopsy to be conducted later. Cause of death...loss of blood, as well as massive internal injuries. *sigh* Alright people, nothing we could do. Time to go."

Far away from the lobby, in a random surgery room, at least a dozen doctors were surrounding Marco's body, having done everything they could to save him. Which was, to say, not much. Unfortunately, the "revival" had ended before it even began, as one quick look at Marco would tell anybody that he was too far gone to bring back to life. Total brain death had occurred long before they had put him on the table. The only thing they had really done was give him a number of x-rays to determine if there were more contributing factors than blood loss and a broken arm, which was confirmed, as it showed his ribcage literally smashed to pieces, as well as a ruptured stomach and spleen, having been burst open with brute force. How he remained alive after the "fight" for as long as he did was anyone's guess.

Somebody covered Marco's body with a sheet and the doctors all slowly shuffled out, and the last one to leave started whispering to someone else in the hallway. "Send that Mewman doctor who works in the morgue to take him there, and I'll go tell the people that brought him in the bad news." The doctor said, keeping his voice as low as possible.

The other doctor nodded solemnly then walked off. None of them liked doing this. It was one of the worst parts of the job. But it was still the job. Even if it sucked sometimes.

The room Marco was in had it's door locked, and the keys given to the doctor sent down to the morgue. Everyone walked away until the hallway was bare and empty, nobody going near that room as if they all had a personal vendetta against it.

Another day, another death in the Echo creek hospital, although this one in particular would carry much more consequences than anyone there could possibly know.

The lobby…

Back in the hospital's lobby, a heavy sense of dread hung over the air, and not a single person was having a good time. Star had just exited the bathroom a few moments ago, clean of any blood and still looking like she wanted to cry. Her current action at the moment was to impatiently pace around, restless and awaiting news of how Marco was doing. Just like before, a good number of people had come up to asking her if she was okay, but she refused to be treated for her own injuries until she got news about Marco.

However, Janna and Eclipsa had been doing something quite different. While Star was in the bathroom, the two had a heavy discussion about whether they should tell Star that nothing could be done for Marco, and that he wasn't coming back. They decided to just let the doctors tell her, as they both feared she would attack them if they tried to tell her that. Both of them were counting down the seconds, waiting for something that still hadn't come, wondering when the bad news would arrive and Star's world would fall apart.

Right on schedule with their wondering, the door that led into the hospital slowly creaked and a single doctor came into the room, the exact same one Star had ran up to earlier. Star immediately came to attention and slowly looked over at him, while Eclipsa and Janna got ready to grab Star and hold her back before she attacked the doctor, which she almost certainly would after learning what happened.

Everybody was quiet for a moment, as if subconsciously knowing that the soon-to-be-had conversation would end badly, before Star spoke first and broke the sullen silence.

"W-well?" She asked, her voice cracking. "How is he? Is he okay?"

The doctor bit his lip and slightly shook his head. "I'm...sorry." He said, doing his best to not look away from her. "He was too far gone. There was nothing we could do for him."

Despite knowing that this was exactly what the answer would be, both Eclipsa and Janna had tears reflexively form in their eyes, still not wanting to believe any of it. They then both tensed up and nervously looked over at Star, who had frozen in place.

"W-what?" She asked, her lip trembling. "What did you just say?"

"He-he's gone." The doctor repeated, the blood starting to drain from his face. "We couldn't save him. Again, I'm sorry."

Star's gaze slowly lowered to the floor while Eclipsa and Janna snuck up behind her, getting ready to hold her down. But she didn't move. She didn't leap at the doctor. Instead, the world around her went fuzzy, and out of nowhere she threw up all over the floor and then fainted, Eclipsa reaching out to catch her as her vision cut to black. She landed on the floor with a thud, having been hit with the worst thing she ever heard.

For better or for worse, Marco Diaz was dead, and Star only saw darkness.

But as for Marco, he was seeing something different altogether .

Somewhere…

Aches and pains.

Nothing but aches and pains.

That was the only thing Marco could feel as his mind slowly came back to him, his entire body feeling like it had been run over with a steamroller. He groaned in pain and opened his eyes, but even that measly action hurt, his own eyelids feeling bruised and beaten as the rest of him. Everything around him was so blurry he could hardly see any of it, but he did his best to ignore this and attempted to stand. He pushed himself up off the ground, struggling all the while. As he tried to remember what had just happened, he realized that his mind was blank. He couldn't recall a single thing.

Tired of seeing everything like it was on the world's oldest TV, he viciously rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, and steadily the blurriness went away and his sight came back to him. Unable to hold it in, he let out a small cry of surprise as he saw where he was. Bren's personal church of fire, the magic sanctuary. The one building in Earthni for which held the highest contempt.

Marco rubbed his forehead and again tried to recall what had happened, and a few giant memories started coming back. Something about his father missing...fighting Star and nearly killing her...him going to the sanctuary again...and then he fought Bren for some reason? Why did he do that? And how did that all turn out? Why was he back here? Or did none of it happen at all?

He decided that the only way to know what to figure it out for himself. There was no point in staying here. The sanctuary wouldn't provide any answers if he was the only one there, so he had to find someone else. He turned around and slowly made his way to the door, he legs feeling like they were made of thin pond ice. He finally reached the handle and pulled it open, but instead of taking anothet step forward, he did quite the opposite, stumbling back in shock at the sight before him.

Emptiness.

The space outside the sanctuary was completely empty and devoid of anything. An infinite black void stood before him, stretched out in all directions. It seemed like the sanctuary was floating in the middle of space, only there were no stars, no light, nothing at all except for him.

An intense feeling of fear crept from the void into the sanctuary, and every hair on his back tensed up. He squeezed the door handle and slammed it shut as if there was a great beast outside that was trying to break in, and the sudden feeling of fear dissipated. Freaking out both internally and externally, his breathing became faster and more panicky, with his heartbeat rising at a similar rate. He leaned back against the door and slid to the floor, confused as to why any of this was happening. Did-did he die? Did Bren kill him in that fight? Was he in some twisted version of hell, and his punishment was to-

His inner monologuing was suddenly interrupted by a loud cracking sound, like someone splitting a stone in half. He jumped to his feet and looked around for the source of the noise, his eyes eventually landing on one of the sanctuaries many statues, something that for some reason filled him with anger.

The statue seemed to tremble, then twitch, and then almost like a marionette being controlled by strings, it jerked its limbs around and came to life entirely. It's eyes lit up with a fiery glow, and then set them dead on Marco, who was now almost too scared to move.

Unhurriedly, it stepped down to the floor and walked towards Marco, each step sounding like a bowling ball being thrown to the ground. Marco attempted to back away from it, but he was stopped almost instantly by the door, and he knew there was no way he was going to take his chances in the darkness outside. He slowly moved from the door further along the wall, as if the statue was a wild animal staring him down.

Upon seeing this, the obsidian idol tilted its head, as if confused by Marco behavior. It then spoke, it's voice sounding like it was being broadcasted directly into Marco's soul.

"Marco Diaz…" It thundered, and Marco froze, shocked that it could speak. "What are you doing?"

"I…" Marco started, unsure of how to respond to the question. "I'm...inching away from you?"

"Why?" The statue asked him. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Kind of, yeah." Marco said, being as honest as he could. "I mean, I'm still not even sure what's going on, or who you are, or what's happened to me."

"Then which one would you like to know first?" The statue asked. "I will answer to the fullest of my knowledge."

"Oh. Okay." Marco said, surprised that getting answers was this easy. "Um, what happened to me? I can't remember much of what happened before this."

"You fought Bren." The statue answered, confirming Marco's earlier suspicions. "You agreed to his terms when you two spoke earlier, and then you quarreled with him. But you easily lost, and unfortunately it cost you your life."

"My life-wait, I'm actually dead?!" Marco asked, now in panic mode. "I died?!"

"Yes." The statue said. "You died soon after the fight of your injuries. Specifically in Star's arms, although it took her a moment to realize it."

"No...nononono!" Marco said, falling to his knees and grasping the sides of his head. "This can't be real. Come on. Come on! Wake up! This is a dream! I'm dreaming! I can't be dead! Mom! Dad! Star! There's still...there's still so much I want to tell them. So much I want to do with them! I...I'm not ready to say goodbye!"

As Marco started sobbing uncontrollably, the statue shook its head and took another step towards him. "My condolences. As I am sad to say that this is no dream. You are dead. Bren killed you.. That is now an irrefutable truth that you must bear. Again, I apologize."

"Apologize?" Marco said, looking up at the statue, tears now streaming down his face. "Wow, thanks a lot! That makes me feel so much better! I'll get never get to see my family, my friends, or the love of my life ever again, and you're sorry for me?!"

"Calm yourself." The statue said. "There is no reason for you to be angry. There is not a single thing you can do that will bring you back to life. Only the most powerful magic users have ever come close to doing something like that."

"And magic is gone." Marco wailed, losing hope. "And it's not like I would be any kind of magician anyways. So I guess this is really it? There's nothing left for me? Do I have to walk out that door and enter oblivion, or will it reincarnate me or something?"

"No." The statue replied. "Well, technically, that is one option. Those who die are given two choices. They can enter through a door, the door to the fire sanctuary in your case, and be reincarnated as another person, put into the body of a newborn baby. Or they can take their chances with judgment, and enter the place designated for them."

"What, like Heaven, hell or purgatory?" Marco asked, getting up off the ground.

"Neither of those." The statue said. "The place the dead who face judgment go to is nowhere. A realm which the living cannot reach, the space beyond the great void. Judgment is just the word for entering it, because one day somebody called it that and it stuck. Nobody knows what actually lies in that realm, as only the deceased can ever go there. The space beyond surpasses even the most powerful of gods, and is an enigma to all living creatures."

"So...I just go there?" Marco asked. "Just go to this great beyond, and then that'll be it?"

"You could do that. But like I said, there is another option, and that is reincarnation. If one does not wish to go to the beyond, they can go through the door and be reborn, but with their memories, personality, any part of what made them "them" gone."

"Why would anybody choose that?"

"Some just don't want to face more of reality. Don't want to go somewhere that they know nothing about. I don't blame them. If I had the ability to die, I would likely choose to be reincarnated. I don't want to know what lies in the great vacuum of the multiverse, and I never will."

"You...you're not dead?" Marco asked, walking towards the statue. "Then how are you here? I thought you said-"

"We are not in the great beyond. Not yet." The statue responded. "Merely a...holding area for souls. I, along with many others, have the power to freely traverse in this area at our discretion. For some reason that I didn't get the privilege of knowing, this place takes the form of whatever domain carried the most trauma for you, the place that has affected you most in the recent weeks, and I suppose that being here, at the sanctuary, should be no surprise for you."

"I guess…" Marco said, agreeing with this statement. This place really had affected him. How much had he thought about it in the past week? How much did he just want to demolish it, but knew that nothing good would come out of that? That place had been at the top of his mind for so long. And now he was back. Always back.

"What about Star and the others?" He asked, his mind going back to them. "What are they going to do without me?"

"They will grieve. They will mourn. What else would they do?"

"I don't know…" Marco said. "Avenge me maybe? Kill Bren? I think Star would be pretty quick to do that."

"She would." The statue said. "At the current moment, she is passed out on the floor of the hospital lobby, after receiving the news that the doctors could not bring you back to life. After she wakes up, however, she will be filled with such rage and grief that she will go to this sanctuary, tear it apart, and then wait for Bren. He will arrive, see the state it's in, and then kill her. Quite brutally I might add."

"How do you know that's what will happen?" Marco asked, furious at the idea of anybody hurting Star. "Star wouldn't-"

"She would and you know it." The statue sighed. "After that, I predict that she'll decide to be sent to the great beyond, hoping that she will find you there. But I do not see that as likely in any way. Considering…"

"Considering what?" Marco asked.

"Considering that nobody knows what is there, so the odds are against her, as it could literally be anything." The statue replied. "Also considering that the most accepted theory among others like me is that everybody gets their own version of this afterlife, and if that is true, then you two will never come back together."

"Well, that's just a theory. Like you said." Marco grumbled. "But I still don't want Star to die, even if your theory is wrong and there's a chance we can still be together. I don't want her to get hurt. Especially not for me."

"As to be expected from someone like yourself." The statue remarked. "But I would like to add a personal comment. You gave her quite a beating earlier, if my memory serves me correctly. You hurt her a great deal."

Marco winced and then looked down at the ground, rubbing his arm. "I...I don't know what came over me." He replied. "It was like I was being controlled. Or at least influenced. Something told me that I had to do that. Or nothing would ever be good again."

"Hm. I do remember putting that idea in your mind. I didn't think it would be so effective though."

"Yeah, well it was effective enough. Now-wait what?" Marco asked, backtracking. "What...what did you just say? Did you just-did you just say that you remember putting the idea in my mind? Were-were you the one that made me do that?!"

"I did." The statue said, admitting to this as if it had nothing to hide. "But you must understand, I had my reasons. You see, in order for-"

Marco didn't wait for the statue to say anything else. In a sudden flurry of emotion, he screamed in rage and rushed straight at it, fists raised in the air. The figure didn't even attempt to move out of the way as Marco slammed his fist into the hard obsidian that made it up, bruising himself and fracturing one of his fingers.

But he didn't even seem to feel it, as Marco continued to punch the statue, blind with anger as he continued his relentless assault. Try as he might though, he did no real damage, and soon his hands became twisted and deformed as his fingers were all broken beyond repair and his bones were shattered into pieces.

"Marco. You are hurting yourself." The statue deadpanned.

"SHUT UP!" Marco screamed, feeling nothing but pure and utter enmity. The statue looked away from him, rather bored, knowing that he would stop eventually. Which he did. After what seemed like hours, Marco ceased his punching, but only because he had nothing left to punch with. He grimaced at the sight of his "hands", with the only thing remaining being a single one of his fingers, hanging by a thread. The rest were nothing short of obliterated. It looked like he stuck them in a blender. But he felt no pain. The anger clouded it all.

"Damn it…" He cursed, and realizing that his "hands" would be of no more use to him, he started kicked the statue with every bit of strength left in him, which wasn't much.

"Marco…" The statue sighed. "Stop. This won't get you anywhere. If you could just let me explain myself, then you'd understand why I did what I did."

"I don't care!" Marco growled. "I don't care if I can't hurt you! I don't care what your reasons were! I'm not going to stop attacking you, even if I have to destroy myself!"

"Well, I can't have that." The statue said, and then grabbed Marco's shoulder and threw him backwards against the wall, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to fall to the ground, gasping for air.

"There. Now will you please listen?" The statue asked, looking down on him with a look of great disappointment.

Marco, unable to speak, responded with an angry wheeze, and glared furiously at the statue.

"I'll take that as a "yes." Now, I admit, as I already did, I caused you to attack Star. But I had good reasons. If you had not done that, you would not have gone to the sanctuary, attempted to assassinate Bren, fight him, die, and then end up here. As for what comes next…well, I need that to happen in a certain manner as well."

"Y-you…" Marco huffed. "I t-told you, I d-don't care about r-reasons. Just shut up, and let me do this. You deserve to die for what you did."

"That is for you to decide." The statue said, almost whispering it. "You are not the arbiter of what is right, or what is wrong. Neither am I. I do the things I do because doing them will prolong my lifespan. It is the only thing I can do."

"Your lifespan?" Marco asked, puzzled. "Are you dying or something? Crossing my fingers."

"Stop that. And no, I am not dying. Beings like me do not "die". We simply move on to the next plane of existence. We are too important to have our lives permanently ended. I just want my lifespan on this plane to last longer. I've taken a fondness for it."

"How terrific for you." Marco spat. "But what are you anyways? A demon? A god? You don't look anything like one."

"You could call me a god. Many have. You could call me an entity. Or the personification of worship. All of these could be considered correct. In truth, I do not know what I am. I will never understand why I exist, or what I am truly supposed to do. But I know what I want to do, so that it my end goal."

"Well, it seems that our end goals might have conflicting opinions." Marco scoffed, getting to his feet. "Because mine is to keep kicking you. And when my legs are just as mangled as my hands, I'll use my head. You better be cool with that, because I don't care either way."

Marco slowly limped towards the obsidian effigy, still recovering from his earlier shove, and reached it after a minute or so of painful hobbling. He continued his kicking as promised earlier, but the statue, having lost it's patience for this, placed it's hand on his shoulder again and looked him dead in the eye.

"STOP." It thundered, and as if struck by a great earthniquake, the entire are shook violently. Marco flinched away from the creature as he felt the voice scratching his soul like a rusty nail. The eyes of the statues ignited in white flames, and any bit of anger Marco had was replaced by pure terror.

"HIT ME AGAIN AND WE ARE DONE. REINCARNATION. I WILL SHOVE YOU THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND YOU WILL FACE OBLIVION. DO YOU WANT THAT?"

Marco shook his head frantically, like a toddler being punished by a parent. The statue calmed itself and its eyes went out, before letting go of Marco's shoulder and turning away from him. Marco shuddered where he stood, and the statue sighed and walked towards the center of the sanctuary at a leisurely pace.

"I...apologize for that display." It said, now calm once again. "But I didn't know any other way to get you too stop. Sadly, these types of situations always have to end in a display of force, as much as I wish they didn't."

"I-I'm sorry." Marco stuttered. "But...you made me do that to Star. Why? Why did you do that? What did she do wrong to deserve that?"

"If you hadn't rushed at me like a madman, I might have had the time to explain that." It said. "And Star did not do anything "wrong". Merely what she thought was right in the moment."

"And what was that?"

The statue stopped walking and looked back at him, with what appeared to be of mild annoyance on its face. "Why, destroying the realm of magic. What else?"

"Destroying the magic dimension? You're angry at her for that?" Marco asked. "But she did it for a good reason! She saved all the monsters of Mewni with it! She defeated all of Mina's Solarian warriors!"

"While completely disregarding the consequences it would have for the rest of the multiverse!" The statue hissed at him, before pausing and quickly composing itself. "But like I said earlier, Star did not do anything "wrong", so I have no right to be angry at her. It would be setting a bad example."

"Bad example for who-actually, you know what, I don't care who you're setting an example for." Marco jeered. "Back to my main question. Why did you make me do that to Star?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the whole truth." The statue responded. "But I will tell you part of it. As I was clarifying earlier, I needed you to do that so a specific series of events would play out. Your fight with Star, the assassination attempt, hit fight with Bren, and then your death. These events are only part of it. Many more things will have to happen soon. It all depends on what you, Bren, and everybody else does from this point forward."

"So...is this all some kind of game to you?" Marco asked, his anger returning. "Are we just puppets or something? You controlling us and making us do what you want for your own benefit? Is that what you're doing to Bren? Making him try and kill us? Is he even doing this out of free will?!"

"Please...calm down." The statue said, practically begging. "Don't get angry again."

"I'm trying my hardest." Marco said through clenched teeth. "But every other sentence out of your mouth seems to harbor something that makes me even more pissed off."

"Then do your best to control your emotions." The statue demanded. "And yes, calling yourself a puppet is slightly accurate. It was me who made you do all those things earlier. I whispered voices into your head, and you did what they told you. As for Bren...that I will not tell you."

"Fine. But whispered voices? You're seriously calling those whispers?" Marco grumbled. "Sometimes it was just whispers, but others it was just straight mind control! I would never have fought Star, no matter how many poisonous ideas you put into my head! You had to be controlling me directly there."

"Not directly." The statue disputed. "I never had full control over you. There was never a time where I took over your body. But yes, there were times when I increased the voices to such a degree that you had no choice but to do what they said. And once you started, you couldn't stop."

"No shit." Marco snapped at it. "It's all coming back to me now. I can remember everything. I remember you shushing me when I got panicked back on the sidewalk, you convincing me to just run straight to the sanctuary door when I had more doubts, and those are just the things at the top of my head. This is just unfair."

"Life's unfair." The statue said, rolling its eyes. "Sometimes you forget to do your taxes, sometimes your car breaks down, and sometimes a fire deity gives you a terrible nightmare where you're tortured, makes you beat up your girlfriend, and then makes you fight your current nemesis, who then kills you. Sucks, doesn't it?"

"Is...is that supposed to be some kind of joke?" Marco asked, coming up behind the figure.

"No." It replied. "But I am telling you that you cannot control everything Diaz. Unfairness is something you will have to cope with, and if you cannot, then so be it. It doesn't matter to me either way."

"Of course it doesn't matter." Marco muttered. "What use am I to you now anyways? You're probably just answering all these questions to entertain yourself. I'm already dead, so it's not like convincing me to do stuff would get you anything now."

Marco's eyes dropped and he sank to the floor, sitting on his knees and frowning slightly, but more out of apathy for himself then annoyance.

"You know what, I'm ready." He said without emotion, making the statue look at him in surprise. "I choose this "great beyond." I don't care about any more of your answers. If I couldn't do anything to stop you controlling me, then I guess it was supposed to happen, right? No point in listening to anything else."

"Diaz…" It started, but Marco wasn't having it.

"No!" He hollered. "I heard what I needed to hear. When Star dies, maybe I'll see her again. Maybe not. But it doesn't make any difference to me. Screw the questions, screw their answers, just send me away and be done with it. And I still have dozens of questions for you. Why you gave me that nightmare back at the beach, because I'm pretty sure that was you, why you're working with Bren, and what your end goal is in all of this, just to name a few. And that doesn't even begin to describe the amount of questions I have about my dad. But if nothing mattered in the end, then those things don't matter to me either. Not anymore. And the only thing you could say to change my mind about this is to say there's a way I could be revived, which there isn't. It's over for me."

The statue sighed, and prepared to drop it's bombshell announcement. "There's a way you can be revived." It blurted out, in perfect correlation with what Marco just said.

Marco paused for a moment and then looked up at the creature, wondering if his ears were deceiving him.

"What?"

"There's a way you can be revived." The statue repeated. "I can bring you back to life, if you want."

Marco gawped at the statue and put on a face of pure indignation. If he had any hands left, the facepalm he would have given himself would cause him to black out from sheer force alone.

"Oh. I see. Well then...why." He said, not even posing it as a question. "Why'd you keep your damn mouth shut? First about how you made me attack Star, and now this? What else haven't you told me?" Marco's words continued to be spoken with zero emotion, caused by either shock or disbelief at this sudden reveal.

"Lots." The statue said. "But as for why, it's because I decided that after you continued to attack me, even after I told you to stop, that you deserve to suffer for a little while longer. I would have told you earlier if it wasn't for that."

"That's why you didn't tell me?!" Marco shrieked, jumping up while his emotions returned to him. "Because you were salty that I attacked you, which, by the way, did no damage to you whatsoever?!"

"Yes. It was annoying to the extreme. You should really learn to control yourself."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind next time I die." Marco said sarcastically. "But you know what, whatever. I'll try to keep calm here. So how exactly can you do that? Do you have control over life and death itself, or is there some kind of trick you can use?"

"It's complicated." The being said. "At least for you. In the earlier days, I could manipulate and control the souls of others. All of us could. It was a very special ability, one that was used scarily. We tried to keep this ability hidden from mortals and even from other god-beings like Glossaryck, because if we let it get out, then people would be praying to us all the time to resurrect their loved ones, and we were not going to have that. So we made up some BS about us having to follow rules that prevent us from doing it."

"Then why are you telling me now-hold on. Was? Could?" Marco asked, tilting his head. "It sounds like you're speaking in the past tense with this ability of yours. Is it harder for you now or something? Why would...oh. The destruction of magic. That's why, isn't it?"

"That's right." The statue said. "With the annihilation of the magic dimension, my powers and the powers of others waned. Not to a point where we weren't still extremely powerful to normal beings, but enough that we could never unleash our full potential again. It also took away some minor abilities we had. And one of them was…"

"Soul manipulation." Marco said, anticipating the answer. "But if it took it away, then how-"

"Shared abilities. Let's just say occasionally…"borrow" the abilities of someone else. Someone who kept their soul powers. Unfortunately, this time I only have it long enough that I will be able to resurrect you, and nobody else. Once you have been brought back, I must return this power before they get wise."

"So what you're saying is that if I die again, you won't be able to bring me back?" Marco asked. "Or anybody else?"

"Correct. At least not for years. So keep on your toes. You're getting a second chance here, but nobody else will. Any deaths from this point forward will be permanent, no matter what. The being I stole this power from...I would never be able to convince them to join my cause."

"Well, I guess that's that mystery solved…" Marco mumbled. "Another thing though. If you could revive me anytime you wanted, even if you could only do it once, why didn't you just do that from the start? What was the point of talking to me in the first place?"

"I was merely...interested." The statue said, looking away from him.

"Interested?"

"Yes. Interested. You see Marco, this isn't the first time I've done something like this. Across hundreds of worlds and thousands of lifetimes, I've had millions of talks with their inhabitants after death. Chats like this. You are not the first one to attack me, to insult me, or anything else of the sort. Nothing you did or said to me hasn't been done before."

"Nothing?" Marco asked. "Nothing I've done here is original?"

"Nothing." The statue replied. "Even that line you said earlier, "why'd you keep your damn mouth shut," has been said to me approximately 52 times. I don't know why, but some people just seem to use it a lot."

"Probably because you're an expert at withholding information." Marco grumbled. "But you acted like this is the first time you've done something like this. Is it the same formula every time? You let the dead person walk around for a bit, and then you appear in some form and start talking?"

"That's usually how it goes, yes."

"Oh my god…" Marco groaned. "Is there even anything special about me? How many humans have you done this to?"

"I have done it to countless humans. Your species has always been about of an enigma to me and others like me. In fact, so much so that we like to keep a close eye; make sure nothing happens that could wipe you out. We've spent a good deal of our time saving you from yourselves. That's how interesting you are to us. We all just want to see what happens next."

"Wait, so we just have a giant conglomerate of god-beings watching over Earth and making sure humanity doesn't go extinct?"

"Of course!" The statue exclaimed. "What, you really think you guys have stayed alive because you talked out your problems yourselves? It's us influencing you. If we left you to your devices, your entire world would burn in a nuclear holocaust within a week."

"Oh, um, thanks?" Marco murmured, disturbed that the only reason humanity was still around was because of someone else. "Kind of a random bit of information to just put out there...but how long have you been doing that for?"

"For a while." The statue said. "And before you ask, we didn't stop Earthni because we knew that it wouldn't wipe anybody out. In fact, we saw that it would make some improvements to the place. But all this is besides the point. Don't act like you aren't special. You are more special than at least...hm, probably about 90% of the beings I've talked to. You've had quite a life these past few years."

"Yeah. I know. I was there." Marco said. "But I'm getting some conflicting signals here. Earlier you said you just wanted to extend your lifespan, but now you're saying that you're just interested in seeing what happens next. Which one is it?"

"Both." The statue said. "Although sometimes one takes precedence over the other, they're both at the top of my mind. Survival and entertainment, that's all there is to my life. Honestly, looking at the lives of beings like you, seeing all the options you have, it's not uncommon for me to feel a little cheated."

"Well, life's unfair." Marco said, throwing the statues own words back at it. "And options? We have options? Please. Most people on this planet don't have any damn choice about what person they get to be. The only ones that do are the people with levels of money so insanely high that they can basically cheat at life."

"Then I suppose we are in the same boat." The statue said. "And congratulations for saying something I hadn't heard before."

"Really? You never heard that one before? That's a surprise…"

"True. But most species are less insane than yours."

"Based on what I've seen of the multiverse, I highly doubt that." Marco said. "The Woolandians entire culture is literally based off of fighting."

"It's still an orderly culture. It works well in its own way. They enjoy it. Unlike yours, which is chaotic and usually tortuous for everybody involved. But I did not bring you here to talk about why your species is weird. You can find plenty of that among your peers. Now, because you now know why I am doing this, I assume that all your questions that I can answer have been answered."

"Uh, no," Marco contested. "Now that I know I can be revived, there are still things that I-"

"Short on time, Star might wake up and go to the sanctuary soon." The statue reminded him. "And I already told you how that one will play out."

Marco gulped and consented to this. He didn't want Star to think he was dead any longer than he could allow it. "Alright then. Do you just wave your hand and send me back, or is it something else?"

"Hold on." The statue said. "There is one more thing I must tell you."

"Let me guess." Marco sighed. "I'm not allowed to tell anybody anything about what happened here. I can't tell them about you, about the conversation we just had, nothing."

"Correct." The statue said, giving him a nod. "You must keep quiet. If things are too go as I want them too, the events of this meeting between us must remain a secret. I know it will be hard, but you mustn't tell anyone. And if you do, there will be consequences. Not just for yourself but for the person or people you told."

"I get the idea." Marco said. "But what about my wounds back in the real world? What am I supposed to do after that? Are you going to take possession of me again? Where's my dad? Did Bren really take him or is it something else? I don't know-"

"You know what, I'm just going to answer all three of those at once, and then you're going on your way." The statue interjected. "One, Your wounds will be healed completely. Two, just do what you would normally do. Three, no. You have served your purpose in that regard. No more whispers. Four, also no. Bren did not take your father. He told you this himself, if I remember correctly. He was in no way directly responsible for his disappearance."

"Thank god…"

"You're welcome. Now goodbye Diaz. And remember what I told you. Not a word about this. In fact, just try and forget about it altogether. Now...wake."

Marco attempted to speak again, but his voice died in his throat, and the sanctuary faded into nothingness as an insanely bright light flooded his vision. He blinked a few times, onto discover that the light was coming from a large hospital lamp shining directly into his face, and he turned away and squired his eyes to shield himself from the light.

As he felt the feeling in his arms and legs come back to him, he groaned and sat up, the sheet the doctors put on him sliding down to his waist. He rubbed his head and noticed that nothing hurt anymore. He felt no pain from any part of his body. He looked at his arm, which had previously been broken so bad he could almost see bone, and his eyes widened to see that it was completely healed.

"Holy shit…" He exclaimed, poking his elbow as if to make sure it wasn't a hallucination. "That fire-god or whatever was telling the truth." He then rubbed his forehead, which had also been healed. His chest felt fine, his nasal bone was still in one piece, and he could see everything clearly. He was well and truly back.

"Heh...hehe...hahaha!" He laughed, crying tears of pure joy. "I can't believe it! That thing really brought me back to life! It really...really…...where the hell are my clothes?"

Marco suddenly turned bright red upon seeing that he wasn't wearing a single article of clothing, and he quickly looked around the room for them, desperate to protect his dignity. He finally spotted them on a nearby gurney, stacked into the most uneven pile he had ever seen, with numerous splotches of dried blood covering them. But before he could get up and grab them, he was interrupted by a loud scream, and he looked to his left to see the Mewman doctor sent to retrieve his body running out of the room, screaming something about zombies.

Yes, it was good to be back. But he had no idea how he was going to explain this one.

The lobby…

Back in the lobby, a most dismal affair was occurring. Several doctors and nurses were surrounding the unconscious Star, trying to give her assistance, while Eclipsa and Janna were doing their best to wake her up. A nearby janitor was cleaning up Star's pile of vomit with a bored expression, wishing that he had just stayed home for the day.

"Damn it...wake up!" Janna yelled at her. "I'm not losing two friends in the same day Star!"

"Move aside!" One of the doctors told her. "We have to get her into the OR. How she managed to fend us off before with these injuries is beyond me…"

The doctor had a point. Despite acting like she was perfectly fine before she passed out, Star was still covered in dozens of fist-shaped bruises and contusions, not to mention her occasional coughing up of small amounts of blood that Janna and Eclipsa had noticed earlier. The pair finally moved out of the way to give the hospital staff some room, but the second one of them laid a hand on her, Star's eyes shot open, and she leaped up off the ground, backed away from them, and started panting as if she had just woken up from a nightmare.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled at them, inching towards Eclipsa and Janna. "I'm fine! I don't need your help!"

Despite the shock they received upon seeing Star wake up and start yelling at them in less than five seconds flat, one of the doctors came to their senses and approached her, an anesthetic in her hand.

"You are not fine." She said. "Even if you don't think so, one glance at you would tell anybody that you need medical attention. You can either willingly come with us, or we can give you some anesthesia and then give you treatment. Please. We just want to help."

"The only person who needs help right now is Marco!" She shrieked. "What are you all doing standing around me?! Go bring him back to life! Work your Earth medical magic!"

"Star…" Janna started, coming up behind her. "Don't you remember? They told you that they couldn't do that, right before you passed out. He-he's gone. They couldn't do anything for him."

"Oh, I remember." Star growled, before turning back to the doctors. "But I don't care! Try again! Do something! Anything! As long as it saves him!"

"You're not listening!" One of the doctors said, starting to lose his patience with her. "We could try every last method of bringing him back to life, but it wouldn't do a damn thing! There is nothing we can do, Period! I'm sorry. Really, I am. But he was long gone before we even had the chance to try and bring him back."

"You-you…" Star tried to say, before turning her back to them and crouching in a fetal position, tears welling up in her eyes. Her Marco was gone. She knew it. Everybody else knew it, and they kept repeating that fact to her. But she just couldn't believe it. What he was thinking in his last moment? Was he thinking about her? About his family? About Bren, and how he failed too…

Too…

Star suddenly clenched her teeth and she wiped her tears away, her sadness and inability to accept Marco's death now replaced with pure rage. It was Bren. He had done this. He had taken her Marco away. He had taken everything away from her. Her hopes, her dreams, her vision of a future with Marco and herself just living happily. Everything.

So she decided that it was finally time to return the favor.

"I'm going to kill him." She whispered, getting up and staring at nothing.

"What? What did you say?" Eclipsa asked. "Actually, it doesn't matter. Listen Star, I know how hard this must be for you. But please, for us, for Marco, settle down and don't do anything rash or-"

"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" Star screeched, resulting in everybody taking a step away from her. "DO YOU HEAR ME BREN?! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Wait! Star! Don't-" Eclipsa started to say, reached for her. But Star glared at Eclipsa and slapped her hand away, before heading for the exit.

"Grab her!" Eclipsa said to the doctors, not daring to get close to Star herself. "She's going to-"

Before Eclipsa could even finish her sentence, the doctors all responded by running over to Star and grabbing her in masse, realizing that there was no other way to calm her down at this point. Star's response to this was to try and beat them off, and the doctor with the anesthesia shot yelled at them to hold her down. Star quickly snatched the needle out of her hand and prepared to stab one of the doctors with it, when suddenly another person burst into the room, screaming like a madman.

"ZOMBIE!" He yelled, his face pale white out of fear. "THE DEAD ARE RISING!"

Every single person in the lobby, even Star, stopped what they were doing and stared at him in confusion, simultaneously wondering what he was going on about.

"...What?" One person said, breaking the silence.

"Zombies!" The doctor repeated. "The dead are coming back! Just like in the stories my mother used to tell me. We have to get out of here! The apocalypse is probably upon us!"

Despite his frantic warnings and screaming, everybody was still too confused to understand what he was talking about, and the doctors let go of Star and one of them spoke up.

"Someone came back to life?" They asked.

"Yes!" The Mewman doctor yelled at them. "I saw it with my own two eyes!"

"Who? Who's the zombie?"

"The kid we just brought in!" The doctor responded. "The one that they brought in!" He then pointed at Eclipsa, Star, and Janna, earning a look of shock from them all.

"Marco came back to life?" Star asked hopefully. "Where is he?"

"Hallway C, room 28. And he-" The doctor said, but before he could say anything more, Star dashed past every person in the room and ran into the main hospital. Everybody in the lobby ran after her except the Mewman doctor and Janna, one of which couldn't move very fast and one that was still too scared to do anything else.

"Yes!" He yelled. "Go princess Butterfly! Kill the monster! Save us!"

Janna scoffed at this excessive display and watched the group of people disappear from sight.

"Marco better have just been brought back normally." She mumbled. "Because if I get cheated out of the opportunity to see a real zombie, then somebody else is gonna be wearing these crutches."

Janna's threat fell to deaf ears as Star continued to run through the hospital, swerving around random patients and staff as she desperately searched for room number 28. The group of people behind her were yelling at her all the way, Eclipsa leading them. Still yelling something about not acting rashly. None of them knew what was going on anymore, but they knew that it couldn't be good. Eclipsa knew that if Marco was an actually zombie for whatever reason, Star would probably let herself be bitten so she could be with him.

And she wasn't losing them both in one day.

But Star was too fast for them, and they could only keep up with her. Eventually Star found the room she was looking for, and found the door slightly ajar. Eclipsa yelled out one final desperate shout, but Star didn't listen and kicked the door open, snapping it off one of its hinges.

She was greeted with the sight of Marco, slipping on his blood-stained hoodie and freezing in shock at seeing her just barge in. Star froze as well, praying that she wasn't hallucinating or in a dream. But it didn't vanish. She didn't wake up. It was all real.

"M-Marco?" She said, slowly taking a step forward into the room, the group of people behind her finally reaching the room and freezing as well, seeing Marco alive and well.

"Are you a zombie?" She asked, her voice shaking. "You're still you, right?"

"Am I a what now-" Marco started to day, before Star rushed forward and hugged him, his voice already confirming that it was him. They both fell to the ground together while the doctors and Eclipsa looked on in shock.

"I...don't get it." One of them said, watching Star cry tears of joy while Marco tried to push her off him. "He was dead. We couldn't do anything for him. He...this...this shouldn't be possible!"

"Well, it apparently is." Eclipsa said, stepping past them. "I'm going to try and sort this mess out. All of you just wait here. Don't follow me." She then walked into the room and started to close the door, but one of the doctors stuck their foot in and stopped it from closing.

"Hold on." He said. "We're not just going to leave you alone with him! We still don't know what happened! We don't know if he's dangerous! We-"

"I am the Queen and one half of the duumvirate, and I am ordering you to wait outside this room until I am finished talking to them." Eclipsa said, giving them her best serious look. "Do you understand that, or am I going to have to make you?"

"..."

"That's what I thought. Wait here. No matter what." Eclipsa then shut the door in the shocked doctors faces, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thought that would work. It's probably best if I settle this by myself. Now onto those two…"

Eclipsa strode towards the pair, Marco still writhing underneath Star's crushing hug while looking at Eclipsa for help.

"Help me…" He whimpered, his face turning red. "She's crushing me…"

"Star, let go of him. He can't breath." Eclipsa said, to no effect. She sighed. "Star, don't let him die twice in one day."

Star stopped and seemed to hear this, pausing her hug and then letting go of him, but still sitting on top of him, wiping the tears in her eyes away.

"Sorry, Sorry, don't want that…" She said, her cheeks red from crying. "I just...you're back! Everybody told me you were dead! But here you are, fine and dandy! I don't see a single injury on you anymore! I thought-I thought I would never see you again."

"Neither did I." Marco said, squirming out from under her and standing up. "And technically, I'm pretty sure I was dead."

"Not anymore." Star said. "And that's all that's important."

"Actually…" Eclipsa said, approaching both of them. "There are things that are more important than that right now, and I'm just going to-"

"Wait. There's something I want to say first." Marco said, turning towards Star. "Star...I...I'm sorry. About what I did back at your bedroom. About the fight we had. I-I didn't know what came over me, and I know you're probably never going to forgive me, but please understand that I was-"

"Being controlled by someone else?" Star said, anticipating his next words. "Yeah, I figured as much."

"Wha-how?" Marco asked, tears forming in his eyes. "How'd you know? I thought that-"

"Well, for starters, your eyes changed to match Bren's." She said. " All orange and fiery and stuff."

"My-my eyes changed color?" Marco asked. "That's...odd."

"Oh yeah. And then there was the whole deal with you having super-strength, and not acting like yourself, and then just leaving me there, wherein the really Marco would have helped me, even if we had just fought."

Marco didn't say anything to this. He was thinking back to his fight with Bren. About how his eyes changed to a green color after he said the words. Could that fire god thing be controlling Bren too? Was he a puppet as well, just as innocent as himself? Nothing but a slave? It had mentioned something about Bren, but didn't go any further than that. But what did it mean if Bren was really being-

"Earthni to Marco." Star said, snapping him out of his stupor. "Jeez Dude, you were sitting there for like a minute not saying a word. Kinda freaked me out."

"Oh. Sorry." Marco apologized. "But...you really don't hate me for this? Not after everything that happened? I mean, just look at you!"

"Marco, we've already established that whatever it was that attacked me in my bedroom, it wasn't you. I don't know what it was, maybe you can fill us in on that later, but yeah, I don't hate you. Not for this."

Marco smiled and wiped his tears away. "Th-thanks. I-I'm glad I can still count on you. You cannot believe how scared I was that our relationship might have been ruined by this."

"I think you dying might have accomplished that…"

Both of them looked at each other and then giggled at this joke, before abruptly stopping.

"I-I don't actually want to laugh about that."

"Yeah. Sorry. Too soon. Waaaay too soon." Star said quickly.

"If you've both reestablished your love for each other, I'd like to ask some questions of my own." Eclipsa interrupted, who had been watching the whole time. "Although that whole thing was amusing as it was adorable." She whispered to herself.

"Oh right. What were you saying earlier?" Marco asked.

"As I was about to say...how?" Eclipsa asked. "The doctors told us you were dead. A great number of times. So how exactly did this happen?"

"Like, how I was brought back to life?

"Yes." Eclipsa said. "Do you have any idea?"

Marco was about to answer, but then the words of the statue echoed in his mind, and he reckless it telling him not to tell anyone what had happened. He had to lie. It had said that the consequences for everyone involved would be dire if he told the truth.

"I don't know." He said. "I don't even remember seeing anything. Star's voice...a few more voices...darkness...and then the light of that lamp." He pointed to the hospital lamp, the same one that had almost blinded him earlier. "Then I saw that a doctor screaming about zombies, I put my clothes on, and then you guys showed up."

"Nothing?" Eclipsa asked, unconvinced. "You really saw nothing at all?"

"Yeah." Marco said. "Just...darkness. Some infinite void."

"Hmm…" Eclipsa thought, looking Marco up and down. "Well alright then. But on to something else then. About the injuries you had. They're all gone. There's not even any scars. Almost like they were never there to begin with…"

"What's your point?" Marco asked.

"My point is that magic had to have been used in your resurrection." Eclipsa stated. "Powerful magic to be precise. Healing spells can usually only do one thing at a time, but whatever you were hit with...are you sure you're feeling okay? You lost a lot of blood back in your fight. You're not feeling dizzy or nauseous right? Anything like that?"

"I told you, I'm fine." Marco said. "I'm in no pain whatsoever. I don't feel bad or dizzy or any of those. I don't think there's a single thing wrong with me anymore."

"We'll see about that. But as for right now, Star, can I talk to you over here for a moment?" Eclipsa asked, walking to the other side of the room.

"Oh. Uh, okay." Star said, separating herself from Marco and walking over towards Eclipsa. Marco got the impression that this was a conversation meant for them and then alone, so he stayed where he was.

Once Star had reached Eclipsa, she leaned in and started whispering. "Yeah?"

"Somethings wrong." Eclipsa whispered back. "This doesn't feel right."

"I feel that way too." Star said admitted. "I mean, Marco was brought back to life just like that. With no real explanation at the moment, of course this doesn't feel right."

"It's not just that." Eclipsa hissed. "I...I just...okay, I'll say it flat out. The pieces aren't fitting together."

"How so?"

"His story. About how he saw nothing but darkness. It's a lie. I've met people who have been brought back to life through magic."

"Wait, how can you be so sure this was magic?" Star asked, before realizing the stupidity behind her own question.

Eclipsa said nothing, and simply gave her a look.

"Yeah yeah, realized as soon as I said it…" Star sighed. "But what was this about people who were brought back by magic?"

"Maybe I should start somewhere else with that. People who died, they see a variety of things. A bright light, familiar faces, past memories, all kinds of things. At least, this is how it is for people who are brought back regularly. The Earth way, you might say. But when people are brought back by magic, they always report the same thing, without fail."

"And that is…"

"They meet someone." Eclipsa explained. "A being, an entity, some kind of god, the reports vary greatly. But in the end, they meet this person, they chat, and then they are brought back. But it all ends the same way. Anybody who was resurrected that tells other people what they saw and heard dies soon after, along with everybody that heard them."

"Wait, if this is true, then how do you-"

"Because I never heard any specific reports." Eclipsa said. "Just that this is what happens. I don't know what anybody ever saw exactly. Haven't been that unlucky."

"So who or whatever is bringing people back doesn't want anybody knowing about them?"

"Precisely. And if they spill the beans, then they die. Often in "mysterious" ways. But they are murdered, the numerous autopsies performed on them proved this. There's no real point in keeping that a secret."

"You think Marco had one of these "chats?"

"Almost certainly. And he lied in order to protect us. No doubt that whoever he met with ordered him to keep quiet."

"So where does that leave us?" Star asked, glancing back at Marco, who was busy looking at his fingers for some reason.

"It leaves us with no clue about what to do next." Eclipsa said. "This means that there is someone out there. Someone extremely powerful, watching over Marco for some reason. And likely the rest of us. As well as likely altering events to suit their needs."

"You think it has anything to do with Bren and his church of fire? He did say he worshipped some God. Maybe it's that guy."

Eclipsa paused and then looked away from Star, deep in thought. Like a lightbulb going off in her head, she turned back to her and started swearing intensely under her breath.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Star asked.

"I remember." Eclipsa responded. "Something Janna told me before you called telling us to go to the new and improved sanctuary, which we will discuss later, and I just remembered it now. We were talking about the demons of the Underworld, and she mentioned that the people that created the same types of demons that Bren used to attack the town got that energy from faith. The faith that they had in their god, who gave them the power they needed."

"In their god? You don't think-"

"I do." Eclipsa said. "Whoever gave Bren the ability to bring that demon back, they're the same person that brought Marco back to life. This is a divine threat we're dealing with. Oh Mewni, they're probably watching us right now! They might be hearing everything we say!"

"Quiet down." Star said. "Marco's still here. And as terrifying as that possibility is, it doesn't add up all the way. For one thing, Bren wasn't the one who brought the demon back, it was Tom. He snapped his fingers and brought it to life! Remember what Janna said? It was with demon...magic...oh shit."

"What is it?"

"I remember something else she said." Star said. "Janna said that demon magic was created by this supremely powerful being. One that was proud of its creation and disconnected it from the magic realm so it would never die out. She said it was still around. I think that-"

"It's the same damn person." Eclipsa growled. "It's all connected. The creator of demon magic is the same person who resurrected Marco. The same person who gave Bren his power. The same person who's probably behind every bad thing that's happened the last few weeks. This...this is unprecedented."

"How do we stop this person?" Star asked. "Hmm,'I bet Janna knows something. I wonder how-"

"Stop?!" Eclipsa exclaimed, losing control of her voice before returning to a whisper. "Star, this is a literal god we're dealing with. I'm not sure if anything we puny mortals do would be able to stop it. We can't ask Marco what it said to him because it'd just kill us for learning, and no spell that Tom taught Janna would likely be able to do anything to it either. We are completely at it's mercy here."

"I'm still confused though." Star said. "Why would the same person who's helping Bren also help Marco? Bren literally killed Marco with the powers probably gone to him by theirs being, and then it just brought it him back to life. Like, what the hell!?"

"I can't make any sense of it either." Eclipsa said. "But I don't think we could understand even if we knew why. For now, we do what we can. We be as careful as possible, even if it won't do us much good. At this point, the only thing we can do is hope for the best."

"That's disheartening." Star said. "But what other pieces aren't fitting together? What else did you notice?"

"The blood."

"The blood?"

"He bled out." Eclipsa said. "I'm going to assume that's what killed him, considering just how much of it we saw. It might not have, but it's what I'm going with. Anyways, the thing about bleeding out it that you can't use healing magic on it. Even if you heal the wounds, the blood is still gone. They're still dead."

"What's your point?"

"When that god resurrected him, it didn't just heal his wounds. It literally...refueled maybe? Sure, it refueled the blood in his body and then healed him. Which means this god isn't just a god of fire. Gods have abilities that pertain to what they are gods of. It could create demon magic because demon magic mostly related to fire and stuff, at least that's what Janna told me. But it should not have the ability to to bring Marco back like that."

"Why not? It's a god. Shouldn't gods be able to do whatever they want-"

"Because there are rules Star." Eclipsa said. "Rules older than them. They must follow these rules, set in place by a being more powerful than any other. Only having abilities that pertain to them is one. So whoever did this...I think they...or perhaps...no. I don't know. I don't know how they did this. Maybe there's more than one god at play here, but that would just be catastrophic, especially if they were at odds with each other. If they fought, then…"

"All of Earthni would be collateral damage the next morning?" Star guessed.

"The entire planet would be collateral damage. The whole world used as a weapon of war. Nobody would survive. The whole galaxy would quake at their quarreling."

"That's bad." Star said, stating the obvious. "I guess that means we might all be dead by the end of this, right?"

"We may well be. Although I suppose that's what you get for destroying an entire dimension."

Star sighed. "Then it's like you said. We can only hope for the best, and do whatever we can do. But one last thing. About this god not having the ability to resurrect people. Are you absolutely sure about that? Are you sure that it couldn't have brought Marco back?"

Eclipsa shook her head. "Definitely not. Everything I just said might have been false. Most of it was taught to me by Glossarcyk, but even then it was just vague and full of hints."

"Yeah, he never was one for straight out answers. I've experienced that as well."

"We all had to at one point or another." Eclipsa said. "But you know something? I really wish he was here. Even if to just give his stupid hints. He might know what to do. He might be able to talk this being into backing down."

"Sure, if we have him a couple dozen cases of pudding first." Star said. "And you're right. It would be nice just to get one piece of advice from him. Although now I wonder if he's really dead."

"Why?"

"Well, these god beings are obviously still alive." Star answered. "So what if Glossaryck is too? If they could do it, then I feel like he should have been able to as well."

"I don't think so." Eclipsa said. "He was...different from the rest. He was never truly one of them, never among their ranks, he told me this himself. They didn't like him because they felt he spent too much time interacting with us rather than his fellow immortals, and he didn't like them because they, and this is exactly what he said to me, never "chilled out."

Star giggled slightly at this, but her smile soon faded. "Almost makes me miss all those dumb lessons. Almost."

Eclipsa responded with a chuckle of her own. "Yeah, I don't miss those things too much. But as I was saying, he was different. He was magic, personified. So when the magic dimension was destroyed, he was too. It's how he worked. And because of that, he doesn't exist anymore. Not here, not anywhere."

"I don't know. He already died once. I wouldn't put it past him to survive death a second time." Star said, remembering his resurrection back at the magic sanctuary.

"I think this time was different." Eclipsa said. "But…...we've already had this conversation before Star. So many times. We searched everywhere for any sign of him in the early days of the merge, remember? We found nothing."

"I remember." Star said. "It was an experience I don't want to recount. So let's drop it."

"But you see my point, right?"

"Yeah." Star said, her head dropping. "I see it. So Glossaryck is gone, some kind of fire-god is in complete control of the situation and there's nothing we can do about it, and we have nowhere to go from here. I think that's what the entirety of this conversation ended up being."

"As much as I wouldn't like to agree, that's basically the whole of it." Eclipsa said. "But there's still a lot we have to talk about. There are somethings Janna told me that might be useful. Not to mention the things she's going to tell me, as well as the things you are Marco are going to tell at the meeting tomorrow."

Star groaned. "On please no. Can we put that on hold? So much had happened today that I'm still trying to process things from an hour ago. Can we not talk about the future?"

"If you insist." Eclipsa said. "But no, we can't put it on hold. The information you two have to share that you got from Bren will probably be useful or something, so you have to tell them. And...ugh. You're right. I don't care right now. Let's deal with what's going on with Marco, and then we can talk about that obnoxious meeting later."

"Now you're speaking my language." Star said. "Marco? We're done talking."

Both of them looked over at Marco, who was half asleep, slumped in a chair on the other side of the room. He groggily turned his eyes towards them, and then stretched and sat up.

"About time." He said. "You two were mumbling nonsense for what felt like forever."

"Sorry." Star said. "But we had a lot to talk about. There's still a lot to talk about…"

"It's fine." Marco said. "I get it. This is just as freaky for me as it is for you. Brought back to life with no explanation, I'll admit it, I'm just as lost as you are."

Star tilted her head at this and glanced to her left and right before looking back at Eclipsa. She quickly tugged on her sleeve and had them both turn away from Marco again.

Marco bit his lip and sighed. "Oh come on."

"What is it?" Eclipsa whispered as the two walked away from Marco again. "What's wrong now?"

"Should we tell him?" Star asked. "About how we know about the chat he had, about the being, and how he was resurrected. You did say he was lying. He knows. We know. Are we going to tell him we know?"

"I...hmm." Eclipsa started, before trailing off. That was a good question. One one hand, if they did tell him, Marco would probably just deny it and claim he didn't remember anything. Then that would be the end of it, as trying to push him further into telling them the truth would end badly. For all of them.

But on the other hand…what if he did tell them? He had already been through so much in the last day. On their way to save them from Bren, Star had told her and Janna everything. About his horrible nightmare and the atrocious tortures he went through, being possessed and forced to beat Star to near death, then having to fight Bren, which obviously didn't end up in his favor. So much pain. So much suffering. It was a miracle he was still sane at the moment.

If they pushed him, if they tried to force him to tell them the truth, then he might break down, and that sanity would crumble to pieces. And that wasn't even mentioning being revived by the god that was behind this whole mess. That settled it. They wouldn't tell him. One option wouldn't end with any benefit, and the other would likely end with their deaths.

"Absolutely not." Eclipsa finally said. "I just thought it all through. There's no point. Keep quiet for now. It's best if he didn't know that we know."

"Got it." Star said. With that, they both turned back to Marco, who was slightly peeved at having to wait for them to finish their private conversation for a second time.

"Okay, now we're really done." Star reassured him, before looking over at Eclipsa. "I mean, right?"

"Yes, of course." Eclipsa said. "I'm done if you are. Now Marco, we've talked it over, and we think you were brought back to life with magic. We don't know who or what brought you back with this magic, but we can find no other explanation. Your wounds have been healed completely, you seem to be in your right mind, and the only evidence that you died at all is the dried blood on your clothes." Eclipsa pointed at Marco's hoodie and pants, the brown stains on them sticking out like blobs of oil dropped into a cup of water.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, um, I think you're probably right. It has to be magic. There's no way the doctors did something to be. The first guy I saw when I woke up ran out of the room screaming about zombies." He chuckled slightly, but just like with Star's earlier joke, his laughter soon faded away. He still wasn't comfortable joking about anything at the moment.

"Hm. Unfortunately, the zombie guy was the first person that told us you came back, after he burst into the lobby." Star complained. "Heck, why did you think I asked if you were a zombie when I first saw you? Although, after everything the doctors told me, I probably would have asked that even if the zombie guy hadn't put that idea into my mind."

"Okay, but what if I had been a zombie?" Marco asked. "What would you have done then?"

"...I'm not going to answer that." Star said, visibly disturbed by the question. "But on another note, I think we should make a plan on what to do now. Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa nodded. "The best course of action from this point forward would be to find whoever brought you back to life Marco, and learn why. Whoever did this is likely extremely dangerous, so we're going to need help finding and subduing them. I think I'll ask the Mewnian knights to help us again, as well as the Echo creek police departm-"

"Whoawhoawhoa!" Marco said, putting his hands in front of him. "There's still something I need to do. I need to find my dad! I still have no idea where he is!"

Star groaned. "Marco, last time you went looking for him, you had to beat me into a bloody paste in order to do it at all and then you died! I don't think looking for him would be the best course of action at the moment, because I'm pretty sure that it won't end well! And please don't tell me you still think Bren took him."

"I don't." Marco said, remembering what the statue said. "But I still have a feeling that something bad has happened to him."

"I...okay." Star said. Although she still believed Marco was acting dramatically, the memory of what happened last time she refused to help him find his father was still fresh in her mind. She didn't know if that could happen again, but she wasn't about to risk it. "We'll go look for your dad. After we tell Angie what happened we-"

"Actually, can we not tell my mom what happened to me?" Marco asked. "I-I'd really prefer she not know."

"Wha-Marco, you died and then you were magically resurrected. We have to tell her." Star said. "I get where you're coming from, I get that she's gonna freak out, but whatever brought you back is still out there, and we need her to know if it comes back. All hands on deck for this one."

"All hands on deck? Wait, does that mean-"

"Yup. We're telling everyone." Star said. "Your mom, my mom, the Mewnian high council, all our friends, everyone. Me and Eclipsa think that this is a lot bigger than it seems. That it could be an even bigger threat than Bren. So if it comes down to it, then we need all the help we can get."

"Even Ponyhead?" Marco asked.

"Yes Marco, even Ponyhead." Star sighed. "Like I said earlier, I get it. If this had happened to me, then my mom would go into a frenzy, even if my death hadn't been permanent. But she would still need to know. And it's not like you could keep it a secret from your mom forever. If you or me didn't tell her, then you know Janna or those doctors would."

"That's fair." Marco said. "Janna would never keep her mouth shut about this one. Alright. Alrightalrightalright. But can you tell her? I don't think I have the strength to."

"Sure". Star said. "I'll-"

"No, I'll tell her." Eclipsa chimed in. "Marco, if you don't want to, then that's fine. But Star, you can't tell her right now, and you can't help us look for Marco's father either."

"Why not?" Star asked. "What's wrong with me?"

"Star, I'm pretty sure that you're in no condition to do anything else right now." Eclipsa said. "I let you put this off for a while, but it's time you finally get medical attention for the injuries that Marco gave you."

"Psh! I'm fine!" Star said. "That's exactly what I told the doctors earlier, and that's what I'm going to tell you! Sure, every part of me hurts, but I'm still talking okay! I'm still standing! I'm still...still…"

Star speech was interrupted by her suddenly letting out several loud coughs, which ended with her spitting out a few drops of blood onto the floor, which Marco and Eclipsa looked at as if they were a biohazard.

"Still fine!" Star finished, while wiping the blood off her mouth. "Still fine."

"Alright, that settles it." Eclipsa said. "I'm not a doctor Star, but I'm pretty sure that means you're dying, or at least going to die if you don't get help. So as Queen, I am ordering you to let the doctors outside give you medical attention."

"But-you-ugh. Fine." Star groaned, throwing her head back. "I'll let all those quack doctors check me out. But I've already made it this far. I'm only doing this because you told me too."

"That's good enough." Eclipsa said. "Now Marco, they're probably going to want to prefer I'm who know how many tests on you, so you should probably go with them too. Who knows how they'll classify this. I believe I heard a term once..."medical anomaly" I believe it was called?"

"Those usually only pertain to things that start from birth." Marco said. "But yeah. Who knows…"

"Then let's get it over with." Star said. "Come on."

All three of them opened the door to the surgery room, where a miniature army of doctors and nurses were still waiting outside. They all stopped their conversations the second the door opened, and eagerly waited for a response.

"Okay." Star said. "You guys can check me out now, even though I don't think I'm injured. And you can check Marco out as well to run all your tests or whatever you're going to do."

The doctors responded to this by literally grabbing the both of them, half of them running off with Star and the other half literally dragging Marco away like treasure hunters with a chest full of gold. Some of them were even whispering about the "secrets to immortality" and other such nonsense. Eclipsa overheard this and merely shook her head, knowing that they were farther from the truth than any of them knew.

'Then again, even if I did tell them, they probably wouldn't believe me.' She thought. 'Men and women of science, natural opposites to magic. I remembered the reaction of some when we first arrived. So many believed it was a dream. I have no doubt that there's still a few out there still believing that fact. But people can believe what they want to. It's not my place to force them to change their minds. I only wish they'll learn to do that by themselves.'

Now standing alone in the hallway with her thoughts, Eclipsa turned away and headed back to the lobby, noticing that the entire hospital seemed deserted of staff. It was like every single person had either gone with Star or Marco.

'So much for the other patients…' She thought, surrounded by an eerie silence. 'Who's going to help them if something happens? What with everybody running off with those two, it looks like everyone's been left to fend for themselves.'

Eclipsa sighed internally, wondering how she had gotten to this point. How any of them had gotten to this point. The past few days had been one giant mess, only now she couldn't wave her wand and use magic to clean it all up. Janna was the only one who knew how to do any of that. She pondered about what other spells she might know. Who knows what that Lucitor boy taught her. They had only just started talking when they got the call from Star, screaming at them to get to the sanctuary. A secret which Star had foolishly kept from them. Even if that little blight Bren had threatened her to not tell anyone, she still needed to know.

Or did she? Eclipsa stopped where she was and put herself in Star's shoes. What was she thinking about? She had almost lost everything about an hour ago. If that doctor hadn't burst into the room, screaming about Marco being a zombie, then it might already be over. She would have marched down to that sanctuary and torn it to level, brick by brick. Then Bren would kill her like he did to Marco. Then-

Eclipsa shook her head and quickly washed her mind out, erasing the thoughts she was having. It was pointless. There was no need to be postulating on what might have gone wrong, because it didn't, and that was all there was to say about it. She started walking to the lobby again, not caring about what might have happened, but only what she knew was going to. That was all that mattered.

After a minute or so of walking, she saw the familiar double doors that led to the lobby, and pushed them open. There she could see Janna and the Mewman doctor conversing with one another, talking about what sounded like the coming apocalypse. The doctor had a wild look on his face, while Janna seemed a few seconds away from drowning him out entirely.

"I'm back." Eclipsa announced, catching the attention of them both. "And I have confirmation. Marco was brought back to life."

"So he was a zombie!" The doctor said. "Did you kill him? Please tell me you-"

"He was not a zombie!" Eclipsa yelled, getting tired of that little rumor. "He was simply...resurrected, with all his wounds healed. Me and Star theorized on how this happened, and we think we know how, but we don't have any real proof at the moment, so it's still an enigma."

"Well that's neat." Janna said, returning to her normal self in an instant. "So Marco was brought back to life. Cool. I wonder what he saw on the other side…"

"About that." Eclipsa said, before turning towards the Mewman doctor. "Could you leave us alone for a moment? I need to talk in private."

"Yes of course." The doctor said. "I need to see this for myself. And to make sure he's still not a zombie." The doctor then ran off, leaving Eclipsa and Janna wondering how he was even approved for this job.

"Anyways…" Janna said. "I feel like you're about to reveal something big to me, so I want to ask you something first. Where's Star and Marco?"

"Star is being treated for her injuries, and Marco is probably being tested on as we speak." Eclipsa said. "I suspect that we'll be without them for a while, so it's just us at the moment."

"Makes sense." Janna said. "Now, I should tell you, I used the hospital phone by the front desk and called Angie's cellphone and filled her in on what happened. It went to voicemail, so she might not have even heard yet."

"You might want to call her again." Eclipsa said. "Let her know that Marco is alive again. Because I'd rather her not think Marco is dead permanently for even a moment. I went through that with my own daughter for a while, and it was…...not a pleasant experience."

"I sympathize. But before I do that, what were you going to tell me? About what you guys think revived Marco?"

"Yes, we have a bit of a theory on that…" Eclipsa said. "We believe that everything that's happened in the recent days, everything involving Bren, that sanctuary, the demon, maybe even Mina and her followers, were all the work of one being who's been manipulating events for its own gain."

"Ah, that's bad." Janna said, sitting down on a nearby bench. "Because if what you're saying is true, then whoever this is is someone with pretty powerful magic. Maybe even on the divine scale of things."

"That's exactly right." Eclipsa said. "Me and Star are convinced that a god, or a being that's at least god-like, is the one behind the curtain. And remember back when Bren's demon was destroying the town? When you appeared and told us about the god that created demon magic?"

"Yeah, why is that important?"

Eclipsa did a sort of mini shrug, looking at Janna like she had expected her to get it by now.

"What are...Oh. Oh…...shit." Janna cursed, realization hitting her in the face.

"That was my reaction as well." Eclipsa sighed. "We think they are the same person. The same god. The one who's behind everything."

"Then we're well and truly screwed." Janna said, leaning back on the bench. "Nothing we can do against that level of power. Let's just wait it out and hope for the best."

"While that is what we suggested at first," Eclipsa started. "No. No, I think that we have to do more than "hope for the best." Lazing around won't get us anywhere."

"So what do we do?" Janna asked.

"Same thing we've always done." Eclipsa answered. "Fight it as best we can. First we do the original original plan, taking out Bren and any accomplices he has. Then we deal with this god. Try and talk it out. Whatever reason it has for doing this, it has to be important."

"I'm betting Star or Marco know the answer to that one." Janna mumbled. "Or at least they know something. There's so much stuff to take in nowadays. I'm not sure how much more my brain can handle."

"Agreed." Eclipsa said. "I need a break. More than anything, I just want a break from all of this. After months of making sure that humans, Mewmans, and monsters weren't at each other's throats, now I-now we have to deal with this. This new threat."

Janna closed her eyes in contemplation. "So what do you suggest we do? How do we deal with Bren?"

"I'm going to work on that." Eclipsa said. "I think the best option would be to capture him in some way and then-"

"Have fun with that." Janna snorted. "Star's gonna want to kill him after what he did to Marco. I mean, she probably did before, but now even more so. Even if Marco came back to life, the short amount of time that she thought he was dead for good is enough. She's going to tear him limb from limb if she so much as spots him."

"I don't think she'll have much luck." Eclipsa said. "You saw Marco. The extent of his injuries. And I briefly saw Bren before I hit him with my car. He was fine. There wasn't a single scratch on him. And even after I hit him, he wasn't even bothered by it. He just got up and ran straight for us. I don't know how he was able to do that, but if Star wants to try and fight him, then she's literally going to have to come in guns blazing. Because after that, I think the only thing that could hurt him would be to shoot him with those firearms that you humans make."

"That might not even be enough…" Janna murmured. "If what the book said is true."

"What book?"

"It's a…...well, actually, I'll show you once they release Star and Marco." Janna said. "Because what I'm about to show you, you all need to see it. It may be integral to your plan to capture Bren and deal with that god."

"I hardly even have a plan yet." Eclipsa said. "But those two aren't the only problems at the moment. We still have to deal with the towns lack of money, Bren's control of Tom which causes us to be cut off from the Underworld, thus sapping us of the support of one of the most powerful kingdoms, and finally, something that just popped up yesterday, there have been rumors of a secret pro-monster society meeting in the forest of certain death. Not really a problem, but something that we should still check out."

"Hm. I have no doubt that Star's somehow involved with this monster society." Janna said. "Seems like the kind of thing she'd support."

"That's true." Eclipsa said. "At least we're don't have to deal with Mina or any more of her monster hating followers. That ugly bigotry died with her and her followers being sent to prison. That's the only good thing to have come out of all of this."

"Ummm…" Janna fretted, now looking at the muted TV hanging on the lobby wall, broadcasting the local news. "I wouldn't be so sure about that…"

Eclipsa followed Janna's gaze and turned towards the TV, her eyes going wide at the sight of the headline.

"Mina Loveberry's followers and dozens of other escape from prison in massive breakout early this morning. Suspected to have been an inside job"

Eclipsa looked back at Janna, who was now pressing her forehead against the table in front of her, her brain finally shutting itself down. Eclipsa, on the other hand, looked back at the TV and let out a long and rage-filled expletive, tempted to tear the TV out of the wall. Fortune had turned against them once again.

Yet another problem to add to the list. One that she just didn't have the energy to deal with, and one of many more yet to come.

End chapter 16

A/N: Well, that happened. Marco's alive, had a nice chat with a god, Mina's followers are back to ruin everything out of nowhere, and they actually already did something mentioned earlier. The next few chapters are going to focused on dealing with them, Janna's mystery book and the secrets it holds, as well as a specific lackey that Bren kinda-mentioned last chapter.

Until next time.