Star's stomach growled; she hadn't been able to find any food since they confronted Bill. Not that she'd looked too hard, her mind was too busy beating itself up. She lost, and Marco paid for it. She couldn't even use magic to conjure up something to eat; Bills warning rung through her ears.
Where was she even at? Star had been reduced to roaming the streets, looking for anything that could bring Marco back. She passed a mall and decided it'd be better than being in the sun. Every department store had been completely trashed. The department store seemed to be the least destroyed, apparently nobody wanted to play street hockey during the end of the wor-
"uheugh," She may not be proud of the noise that came out of her mouth but what she saw definitely made up for it. Past the department store was a little food court. And there was a plate of nachos, just sitting there. She almost cried because Marco loved nachos, they were his favorite snack. She started towards it then stopped. Bill probably put it there to taunt her. Star refused to take the bait even though her stomach growled in protest.
A brown-haired teenager didn't have the same restraint as her because he came from a different hallway and beelined right for the delicious. He seemed to be her age, if not a little younger. He had a blue sweater vest and a trucker hat with a… pine tree on it? That didn't make sense to Star, but she never really got human fashion trends.
The second he picked the plate up a net rose around him and trapped him. Star couldn't let him fall in the trap that Bill left for her. She wouldn't let another man down, even a stranger.
"DON'T WORRY, I'LL SAVE YOU!" Star jumped on to the net and started biting it with her teeth. She didn't even notice the third person in the room till she felt the arms wrap around her. Needless to say, Star flipped out. Her body moved like a fish on the deck of a boat.
"Woah there! Chill out dude."
Star was puzzled; Bill didn't sound like a girl. She opened her eyes and found herself in a bear hug from a girl with red hair; she'd always wanted to be friends with a redhead. She wore green flannel and was a good foot taller than Star.
"Wendy?" The girl, Wendy apparently, looked at who was in the net and gasped. She dropped Star and cut the net down.
"Dipper!? Oh man am I glad to see you again!" Dipper? Was this the kid that the shapeshifting monster was talking about? Wendy went to pick him up in a hug but he scurried back, eyes widening in fear.
"Stay back! You could be the shapeshifter. Tell me something only the real Wendy would know." So it was that Dipper if he had crossed paths with that freak. Star may be empathetic towards the monsters on Mewni, but that thing was nothing but pure evil.
"WHAT!" Wendy must've met him too because she looked terrified for a second before her face was filled with rage. "Ooh when I get my hands on that monster, there's gonna be some pain dealt."
Dipper must've thought that that was enough proof because a big smile broke out on his face and he ran to embrace his friend. They embraced in a hug that made Star jealous. She couldn't help it; they obviously meant a lot to each other and once again her thoughts drifted to Marco.
"Hey Dipper umm… who's your friend?" two pairs of eyes turned to Star and she was suddenly aware of how badly this could go. She couldn't prove she wasn't the shapeshifter and even if they believed her there was no way she could prove she was actually from Mewni and was on a mission to stop Bill. She could say that her dimension was full of magic but they'd never believe she could cast a spell without proof and she refused to jeopardize Marcos safety.
"Uh… Hi guys, my name is Star Butterfly. I'm not the shapeshifter thing you guys are worried about. Marco and I actually crossed paths with him and the eyebat things ended up turning him into stone."
"Really?" Dipper didn't even try to hide his suspicion. "If that's true, where is this Marco and how come I've never seen you around town before?" The next few moments were critical for Star, if they didn't believe her then she would be alone again. She wouldn't survive much longer since she refused to use magic for the time being.
"So, funny story, I'm not from earth. I'm actually from another dimension called Mewni. Marco, my best friend – he's actually from earth too – and I learned that Bill was escaping his prison so we decided to try and stop him. Marco got trapped."
Wendy still seemed suspicious, but Dippers eyes widened – did he know Marco or something? Marco didn't seem to know of him, maybe Marco was famous ever since he became her squire or something.
"Mewni? Does everyone only eat corn there?"
"What? No." How stereotypical to think that all mewmans ate was corn, Star couldn't believe it. "We also eat corn on a stick, corn shake, creamed corn, and corned corn."
Dipper started breathing heavily; this girl was from the dimension Ford had visited! The shapeshifter would've never known about that place, so Dipper knew she was telling the truth. She looked so… human though. He always imagined aliens differently in his head. Did people from other dimensions count as aliens?
"Wendy, she's telling the truth. Great Uncle Ford visited her dimension when he was in that portal. Can you help us defeat Bill?" She wasn't just another knight or bishop in this game of chess, she was a completely new piece; who knows what she brought to the table.
"I can tell you about Bill and what he's done, but I can't help you fight him. When we confronted him, I failed and that demon turned Marco into a statue to remind me of how powerful he was. If I tried anything, he would know and could hurt Marco. I'm sorry, but I can't risk that." Dipper's heart fell at first, but realized she was offering information that could help them in the future.
Motioning for her to go on, he listened as she spoke about her realm and the magic that flowed through it. He could tell by the looks Wendy was shooting him that she wasn't buying it, which was a little ironic considering all the things they went through over the summer. However, he could see why she would be skeptical. Magic? That was just a fairy tale in this dimension. Although…
"Star, you said that there's magic in your dimension, can you still do magic in this one?"
"Well," she started, not really comfortable on the subject, "I can, but if I do, Bill will know. He said he could smell Mewni magic so my hands are tied as long as he has Marco." She was on the verge of tears so he knew this Marco must've meant a lot to her.
"Hey, it's okay. I think he has my twin sister locked up somewhere but I know I would never be able to forgive myself if I didn't save her. She means the world to me, just as I can tell Marco does to you." Dipper had always been socially awkward and, despite current events, he was proud of that little speech. Mable would've been proud too; she never had any trouble cheering people up.
"We just need to focus on one problem at a time." Wendy stepped in, taking charge of the situation. "Marco is in Bills hands now and the only way to free him is to defeat that demon so I'm sorry Star but you may not see him again for a little while." Star nodded, as long as he wasn't being tortured, she could wait a little longer to come up with a better strategy. "Mable, however, probably isn't. think about it, if Bill had Mable in the pyramid, he'd make sure we knew about it.
"Maybe he's hiding her somewhere obvious, taunting you." It made sense, but Dipper hadn't seen anything that looked like a prison recently though. Maybe the Gravity Falls Prison?
"Would a shooting star have any meaning to you guys?" Star asked.
"Yeah, actually it would. Mable's favorite sweater has a shooting star on it. Why?"
"Well, because there's that big purple sphere covered in chains with a shooting star on it" Dipper and Wendy both did a spit take.
"WHAT?" Dipper may not have been looking for a giant floating sphere, but you think he'd at least have noticed it. He'd been taking day trips around the area looking for gravity falls monsters to help in the fight against Bill, but he hadn't found a single one. There where either dead, converted by the wave of weirdness, or very good at hiding.
"Is that normal in this town? I'm never quite sure with earth. You can see it from outside the mall though if you want to see it for yourself." He was out the door before she finished talking.
And there it was, just like she said it'd be. A giant, purple sphere. It was even glowing, how on earth did he miss that? It even had the shooting star symbol, exactly like the one on her sweater.
"She's in there," Dipper said, hope filling his chest for the second time this day, "I can feel it."
AN: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, it's my longest one so far. Did you like how Star met Dipper and Wendy? I had a few different points in my head, but I chose this one so I can have Star deal with Mabel's prison. I only have a rough outline on what's going to happen for the rest of the story so if you have any ideas or something you'd like to see feel free to leave a comment or pm me.
Hope you're having a good week, and I'll see you in the next one.
