"I'm telling you, that sandwich is gonna be delicious!" Star told him. "He'd love it if you guys went and got it!"

"Hard pass," Tom deadpanned. They still hadn't figured out how Marco's beard had gotten all magicked up without him even using the wand. "Look, I think he just needs some space. So I'll give it to him. It's fine. Goodbye, Star."

And then he hung open and plopped down on her bed. Ugh. He was so tired. School was surprisingly hard, even when he wasn't trying to keep everybody from killing themselves. And since he'd lost his temper earlier when Marco was trying to help him with his homework, he was now sitting in Star's room and trying to figure out how best to apologize.

He sighed. Just sitting here wasn't going to help anything. Especially since his temper was back under control again, maybe he should just go and say sorry. He was starting to sound like Marco, making a plan for literally the simplest thing.

He got up and walked over, rubbing his eyes and belatedly realizing he was smudging his mascara. Ah, whatever. It didn't really matter.

Knocking on the door, he said, "Hey, uh, Marco? Can I come in there? I just . . . I wanted to say that I'm sorry for shouting at you earlier. I shouldn't've lost my temper." He rubbed the back of his neck.

But . . . there was no response. ". . . Marco?" He opened the door cautiously, but he wasn't there. He hummed, concerned, and headed downstairs. "Mr. and Mrs. Diaz?" There was a strange lump on the couch with a flashlight and giggling coming from underneath it. "Uh . . ."

"Oh, Tom, we were just looking at Rafael's old book of medical illustrations," Mrs. Diaz said, poking her head out.

He opened his mouth, a little confused. "Not sure how to react to that . . . anyway. Uh, have you seen Marco?"

"I think he went to walk the laser puppies," she said.

Mr. Diaz flicked on the light from under his blanket, revealing his silhouette. "Try calling his cellular phone."

"Ah, right. Thanks." He walked a little further down and dialed Marco's number, curling the wire around his finger while he waited. But something was off. "Is it . . . in the house?" He pulled the phone away from his ear, and he could hear Marco's cell phone. "Just a sec."

He plopped it back down and walked upstairs again, his stomach starting to knot up. He was getting a growing feeling that something was wrong. He followed the ringtone back into Marco's room, where the human was sitting, hood up, looking away. "Marco? You okay?"

He started levitating, except he didn't have any legs.

Tom yelped and grabbed his wand from his pocket, pointing it defensively at the hovering jacket. "Who are you and what have you done with Marco?" Slowly, the jacket's hood spun around to reveal the hideous face of that one fly monster of Ludo's. He gasped.

"If you ever want to see the boy alive again, bring the wand to Ludo's castle tonight. And bring your friend Star. No one else." It garbled and flew out the window, and Tom frowned. His eyes fell downward to the dimensional scissors that the fly man had left.

Star? What did Star have to do with this?

"Tom?" Mr. Diaz asked. "We heard you shouting. Is everything all right? And did you find Marco?"

He looked at them, terrified, and Mrs. Diaz stepped forward, evidently reading his expression. "Tom? Where . . . where's Marco?"

"I . . . there's a lot I need to tell you," he admitted.

"Then I suggest you start."

Then, one confusing conversation later:

"Wait, no, don't call the cops!" he shouted. "They're not gonna understand any of it."

"Well, we don't understand it either." He deflated. "Look, this isn't your fault, Tom. If anything, we should've been paying more attention to the two of you."

He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I should've told you about Ludo. Then, maybe we could've been prepared for something like this . . ." He turned away, and Mrs. Diaz put a hand on his shoulder.

"Tom. Listen to me. You couldn't've predicted this. Don't blame yourself."

He took a deep breath, and then he nodded. "Okay. Yeah. You're right. I'm gonna go call Star. We've got a human to save."

Star and Tom stood on the black rocks, looking at the dark castle. "Kinda reminds me of Castle Lucitor," she commented.

"Huh. I guess it does."

He grabbed her and did a parkour blast to get them to the ground quickly, and they ran along, past two monsters. Star gasped and pulled his arm, pointing to Ludo, Buff Frog, and a suspiciously moving sack. His eyes went wide, and he blasted both of them as she ran forward towards the sack.

"Marco!" she said, and Tom shot the monsters again and watched as she opened it. Not Marco, not by any means—it was a whole bunch of—

"Tadpoles?" they both asked, beyond confused.

Buff Frog sat up again, and echoed, "Tadpoles?" Tom wasn't intending to shoot him this time, since he looked beat-up enough as it was, but Star fire-blasted him and went to loom over Ludo.

"Where's Marco?" she asked, and her voice went all deep and her eyes went all red. He shivered just a tiny bit. He really was terrifying when he did that.

"I don't even know who that is," he squawked back.

Star's hands caught on fire and Tom started charging up the wand, and Buff Frog said, "He's talking about Karate Boy. Please, no more fire or laser beam."

Star took a deep breath, turned to the frog, and said, "She. We switched bodies a while back. I am the she, he is the he." To be honest, he looked more confused, and Tom couldn't blame him.

"I swear, I have no idea where your friend is," Ludo insisted.

"Then why did you summon us to your castle?" Tom fired back.

Buff Frog groaned and got to his feet. "It is no longer his castle."

Ludo sniffled. "He's right." He pulled his cloak down (thank goodness, he didn't want to see any more of that emaciated little body than he had to.) "It's Toffee's castle now."

"Toffee?" they both repeated, exchanging a confused look.

"Um, who is that, exact . . . ly . . ." Tom asked, trailing off and turning around to find Buff Frog tickling the tadpoles and babbling at them.

He stopped suddenly after figuring out they were watching. "Ludo gave me babies."

"Okay, we're done," Star said, turning around and tugging Tom with her.

"Wait, wait!" Ludo called, running after them.

And then Buff Frog called after him, "Ludo! I wanted to say thank you for giving me the gift of fatherhood."

Tom cooed, and Star gave him a look. He shrugged. "What? It's cute, alright?"

"That wasn't a gift, you ding-a-ling," Ludo said, annoyed. "It was a bribe. You see, the plan was, I'd buy your friendship with gifts because we're friends, and in return, you'd kick Toffee out of the castle for me because we're friends." He snickered. "But then, they showed up, and I don't need you anymore, you big old meatball."

Then he spun around and waddled after them. Tom was really tempted to kick him back.

Toffee waited in the dining hall for the children to arrive. His bait, the human, was fighting in his little glass cage. Toffee paid him no mind, and he just centered his plate, his eyes never leaving the door.

"Well, looks like I've had all the fun I can have in here," the human deadpanned, most likely in a strange attempt to escape. "Oh, wait." He spun around and grabbed the footstool with his feet, and had it spin with him. "Now I'm done."

Toffee didn't respond.

"All right, you got me here. What do you want with me?" he demanded.

"What?" Toffee asked, not even looking at him.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait," the annoying little fly man said at the top of his chair. "Tell him what you're gonna do to him. Wait till you hear this." He snickered, and Toffee was just about done.

He shook his chair, asking him, "Do you mind?" He buzzed away angrily, leaving him with some room to think. Of course, the fly didn't know any better. With his only experience with a villainous leader being Ludo, naturally, he expected the entire plan to be dumped on.

He got up and hung his coat on its rack, and the human spoke up again. "Look, if you're after the wand, it's harder to get than you think. Lots of people have tried." Toffee just walked around his cage, grabbing a sandwich on a plate and walking inside, a little doorway opening for him.

"Eat something. Could be your last meal," he pointed out, putting it on a table.

"Actually, I'm totally full. But if you're hungry, I'm a great cook, so why don't you let me out of this chair and I'll give you a taste." The boy glared up at him, and Toffee's emotionless gaze fell back on him.

"Okay."

He clicked the button, opening the cuffs, and the human went in for the punch, but the glass formed between the two, meaning his hand was mangled. The kid looked behind him, only to see another Toffee. "There's two of you?"

Toffee just curled his tail, sending the human back into the chair. He shoved the table back over. "You really should eat."

"I don't want your stinking sandwich!" He slapped it off to the side, but a bit stuck to his hand. "Oh!"

"You're a disappointment," Toffee said, miffed. He spun around to leave.

"Yeah? Well, you're boring. And you dress like a lawyer. At least that idiot came dressed for a good time." He pointed at Beard Deer, who tried to punch the glass and mangled his hand, too. "I feel your pain."

Toffee rolled his eyes. He was gonna have to try harder than that if he wanted to get under his skin.

Ludo and Star were arguing about getting in when Tom just vaulted over the wall with a parkour blast. He crouched on the top, grinning down at them. "Coming up, Starship?" he asked.

She just opened the door with the keys in there and raised her eyebrows. He just conjured a temporary slide and slid down to the bottom. They ran on.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Ludo screamed. "You have no idea . . . how powerful Toffee is," he said, panting as he tried (and failed) to keep up. "What you need is the element of surprise." He dropped down in front of them, and they both stopped. "Lucky for you, I know this castle like the back of my hand." He held up his hand, with a mole of the castle on the back of it.

Star groaned in disgust, and Tom winced.

"I sneak us into the castle, and you two blast Toffee in the face." He giggled maliciously. "It's the circle of life."

"I don't think you know what that means," Tom told him.

"So what do you say? Do we have a deal?" He extended his hand, the one with the hideous mole on it.

Tom made a face, and Star deadpanned, "I'm not gonna touch the hand with the mole on it."

"Fine." He extended the other one.

Star touched it with a boot. "Actually, I don't wanna touch any of your skin with my skin."

Another voice piped up, "Don't trust him. I will guide you." They all looked, and it was Buff Frog who stood there, holding his babies.

"I don't really trust you either," Star admitted.

"I mean, I gave this guy a piece of corn," Tom said. "And he's a dad now. He's certainly more trustworthy than Ludo." They both looked at the little bird-man, who pouted and huffed.

Buff Frog nodded. "Like he said, I am father now." He dropped his babies in the fountain. "I would like my children to grow up inside castle." He pulled a rope out of a tree. "You don't have to trust me. But yes, consider alternative."

Ludo was already scrambling for the wind, so both of them simultaneously blasted him in the face.

Buff Frog looped the rope around the fountain with his children and he tied it around himself like a backpack, and he stood up with a great deal of difficulty. The lengths people go to for fatherhood. He started muttering in his foreign language and he ripped the door off its hinges.

"Wait," Tom said, holding out a hand. "I think Ludo was onto something with the element of surprise thing. Is there a way we can sneak in behind Toffee?"

Buff Frog smiled with all his pointy teeth and showed them a new way in. "I am glad you have plan. Come, there are windows."

Toffee walked up to find that irritating fly sticking half a million pillows on his chair again. "What did I say about the pillows?" he demanded.

"Yeah, it's just—"

He picked them all up and handed them to the fly. "I don't need pillows on my chair. I'm an adult."

"Okay."

He flew away, and Toffee settled in his seat before his sandwich, tucking a napkin into his collar. The fly came back with the stack of pillows. "No," he snapped. And this time, he left for good.

Tom made the windows vanish from outside, silently. Then, he murmured, "Silent Vault Jump!", and he was sent into the air. He levitated Buff Frog and Ludo up to the other one, and Star flew with the fire to be with him. There was Marco in a glass box, and Toffee with a sandwich in front of him.

"Marco!" Star hissed, getting ready to move, but he held her back with a hand.

"No, wait," he told her. "I have an idea. Don't do anything until they actually notice we're here, okay? I've got it under control." He looked into her eyes, his eyes, and she nodded. They both understood the stakes.

He took a deep breath and, once again, murmured, "Silent Vault Jump!" He cruised into the air over Toffee, and he felt Marco's eyes catching on him. Then he whispered, "White Fury Wipe-Out!" and a cascade of white fire burst from his wand and right onto Toffee. It swept over the ground, charring everything and burning everyone except Marco, who was safe in his glass cage.

As the white fire dissipated, he fell to the ground, thinking on his feet. He conjured another slide in midair, and he jumped off of it and down, on top of Marco's cage. "Shattering Shamrocks!" The green leaves shot down, but it didn't even harm the glass. He slowed his fall with another blast, his frustration coming up again.

"Frustrated Flaming Fury!" It didn't touch it, either.

Star fell down next to him and launched some fireballs at it, muttered some demonic curses, the works. Nothing happened. Buff Frog came down, too, taking out the recovering monsters.

"Orange Obliteration!" A wave of orange light shot out, doing just as much as the last two. His anger took over.

He felt it in his gut. Clearly something about him changed, because a torrent of wind started blowing around him, blowing away Star and all the monsters. His cheek marks lit up, and they changed. He just intuitively knew that they weren't the hearts right now.

They were fireballs.

They glowed a bright white, and so did the silver star on the wand. When he opened his eyes, those were glowing, too, and his rage exploded from the inside out with a scream, manifesting as a violent red and purple blast. When his eyes adjusted to the relative darkness, the glass was shattered and Marco was huddled there, unharmed.

He sat up, and the glow faded from Tom as they stared at each other in shock. He felt at his cheeks, confused—they were back to being hearts. Then he gasped. "Marco!"

"Tom!"

They both ran forward, and he extended a hand to help the human through. He was still a little shaken from that strange spell he'd cast, but whatever. Marco accepted the hand, and—

The glass reformed around his arm. They both looked at it in horror, and Marco strained, tugging his arm back through the hole, which sealed up again. They both locked eyes again.

A rather burned-looking monster grabbed him, and he kicked backwards, managing to keep his grip on the wand and sending the monster back. He vaulted back onto Marco's cage and furiously looked at everyone. Star was in a similarly angry pose.

"Stop."

Toffee pushed himself to his feet, clearly in a lot of pain. Half of his face was melted off, and he'd lost an arm from the initial blast. His clothes were in tatters, barely hanging on to his severely burned chest. "That's no way to treat our guests of honor." And, right in front of their eyes, he healed the damaged skin, regenerated an eye that had been beyond healing, and even recovered a missing limb. He flexed his arm and pressed a button on his remote.

The glass cage from beneath him started to sink, and all three of them gasped and started freaking out. He jumped off and tried to help Star and Marco, but it wasn't working. It was just getting progressively smaller.

"Tom! Do the thing again!"

He prepared the wand, but Toffee, just as calm as before, said, "That's not going to work again. The crystal's twice as strong now." He sat down, and Tom glared at him, his anger flashing up again, all bright.

"Don't worry, guys," Marco said, straining to keep it from crushing him. "I think I got it."

He very clearly did not got it.

They both looked at the wand, and they exchanged a look and nodded. He dropped it in front of Toffee. "Take it. Just let him go."

Ludo ran up laughing, and the big chicken monster just grabbed him with its beak. Toffee, looking at him unfavorably, asked, "Do you think I'm like Ludo?" The groaning from said Ludo continued, and he, annoyed, said, "Just swallow it."

The chicken did, and Tom tried not to be too disturbed about that.

The lawyerly-dressed lizard shoved the wand back to him, without touching it due to it being on the plate. "I don't want your wand. Destroy it."

His eyes widened. "What?" The same sentiment was expressed by both Star and Marco in his cage.

"Surprise!" Toffee said, exhibiting a strange amount of emotion and smiling. Honestly, it was really terrifying. Then he was back to the plain, emotionless expression as before.

"I don't know how, though," he said, confused.

He nodded at Star. "Your friend does. Why do you think she's here?" When she was about to argue, he turned to her and said, "It's the first spell your mother taught you."

Realization filled all three of her eyes. "The whispering spell," she murmured.

"Exactly. Marco's waiting."

They both turned to look at the horrified human, who was getting very close to being crushed. Tom turned to look at her again, and he nodded once, picking up the wand and handing it to her. "Do it."

"I'm sorry," she said, and she started to whisper. The silver star started to turn black, and the wings started to disintegrate. He couldn't make out the words of the spell, but then the star was completely darkened, and she set it down with tears in her eyes. The top lifted up, and a ghost of a unicorn came out. It whispered something in her ear, and she gasped.

He really wished he was in the know.

Then it neighed and left, and Star wiped her tears. "Now let Marco go," she said.

Toffee clicked the button, and the cage went back to its normal size. A doorway opened, and Star tugged Tom and threw both of the boys back into the cage. She whispered to Buff Frog, "Run," and he started to collect his babies and go away. She closed the door again, leaving them trapped.

Marco groaned. "Ow. Star, what the heck?"

"Yeah, what's going on?" Tom asked, concerned. Her eyes were locked on the wand.

"It's not over," she said softly.

Toffee smiled at the remnants of the wand and stood up. He said something, and the monsters all came around the table. He looked like he was about to do an evil monologue when the wand exploded with pink light. They all ran away, and Toffee just stared in shock. Wait, no. He was smiling. He could just barely make that out before the entire castle was destroyed.

They ended up in a cube, covered in soot, and the door opened. They poked their heads out, one by one, and the only thing that was left standing in the crater was Toffee's jacket. Marco rubbed some of the dust off the top, revealing a mirror. "Lawyers," he said, annoyed.

"Oooookay," Tom said, just confused.

"Look," Star said, grabbing both of their heads and turning them towards something else in the crater. An egg. "Nature." Before their eyes, it cracked open, and out came Ludo. All three of them groaned.

"Where is my castle?" he asked from inside the leg.

"It's gone," Star deadpanned.

"And where is your wand?" he asked Tom.

"That's gone too," he admitted.

The bird-man looked horrified. "Everything?" Then furious. "We are no longer friends!" He broke his egg at the bottom for two holes for his legs.

"We never were friends," both Star and Tom said.

"You are now my mortal enemy." He pulled out his dimensional scissors. "This day I vow . . ." Star just took the scissors from him, opened a hole into the middle of space, and chucked him out.

Tom blinked. "Well, that just happened."

Suddenly, something fell from the sky behind them. A massive pink cloud grew in the distance, and they ran to check it out, because that was the reasonable thing that people did in that scenario. When the dust cleared, there was an even more massive crater with the broken wand in it. Star and Marco hugged each other, and Tom just kind of stared.

Then a random voice said something in another language, and a little horse stood there. He stuck a unicorn horn on his head, hopped down, and climbed into the wand. He got the impression that something dramatic that he couldn't understand just happened.

The wand started sinking into the ground, and he slid down the side of the crater to see what it was. He ended up in front of the hole, staring down. The ground rumbled, and crystals started protruding from all around the crater, with one big one in the middle. It opened up, and it had the wand in it, though it looked a little different.

It floated to Tom, and he caught it, his eyes widening in shock. Probably the biggest change was that half of the silver star was missing. Marco murmured, "Upgrade."

He ran his fingers along the empty area, but another rumble distracted him. Mewman forces had arrived. Two in particular came up, a small one who was having difficulty with their warnicorn, and another one, who ran up and hugged Marco.

"Oh, Marco, I am so happy to see you!" He recognized that voice as Mr. Diaz.

Marco evidently did not, as he looked very confused and asked, "Uh, do I know you?"

Mr. Diaz lifted his face plate and said, "Marco, it is me. I am your dad." A wide grin split Marco's face, and Tom couldn't help but snicker a little at the thought that he hadn't recognized his own dad's voice.

The other knight threw off their helmet and revealed themselves as Mrs. Diaz. "Ooh, ooh, my turn. Come here . . . !" She had a big of trouble getting off the warnicorn, and ended up hugging Marco upside down.

"This is so awkward, Mom."

"It's not awkward. Don't make it awkward."

Tom full on laughed at that. Marco's relationship with his parents was hilarious.

Star asked the important question, though: "Wait. How did you guys get here?"

Two more knights rode up, lifting their face masks to reveal themselves to be none other than King River and his own father, Dave Lucitor. "They used your mirror," the king said.

Both Tom and Star paled considerably.

"Ssso . . . bassssically, just to recap . . ." King River said, whistling with every s.

"You're not going to do that, are you?" Queen Moon asked. (He wasn't gonna lie, Tom was terrified to be standing in front of the queen of Mewni, who was under the assumption that he was her daughter. He'd at least rubbed off what remained of his mascara, though.)

"Do what, my dear?"

"You know that thing when you talk and every time you get to a word with an 's', you have that little whistle in your front teeth," she explained, annoyed. "I love you, honey. I just can't deal with that today." She looked at Tom and started walking downstairs. "Star, you abused your magic, frightened Mr. and Mrs. Diaz, dragged Tom into all this, and destroyed your wand."

Oh, trust me, Tom was in this waaaay before today.

"Did I leave anything out?"

Nothing that you know about! And I'm okay with keeping it that way.

"Nope, think that's everything. But, uh . . . there's a new wand now?" He showed her. "It's kinda fine."

She took it, looking a little worried. "It's, uh . . . I'll take it and get it cleaned for you." She took it away, and he felt a definite bit of fear.

"Are you mad? . . . that looks like a mad face." She hugged him, and he was very shocked by this. He awkwardly hugged her back, trying to pretend she was actually his mom. Oh, he hated this. "I'm guessing . . . not mad?"

"Oh, I'm always mad," she said. "But I'm happy that you're safe."

Mrs. Diaz's warnicorn whinnied, and she walked over. "Um . . . I'm sorry I made you worry," he apologized.

"We're just glad that . . ." She climbed back into the saddle with a grunt. ". . . everyone's okay. And I'm on a horse!" She smacked it, and it ran off. "Where are you going?!"

Marco and Mr. Diaz ran off to follow her, the latter screaming, "Don't you ride off with my wife!"

Star ran off after them, and Tom was about to follow, when he realized he needed to see his dad. He walked over. "I'm sorry I put your son in danger," he said pointedly, in a way that Queen Moon wouldn't be suspicious of.

"I'm glad you kept him safe. Now go have fun with your friends," his dad said with a grin. Tom nodded with a matching one and ran as fast as he could manage.

Thank goodness everything worked out and there were no ominous bits of foreshadowing!