All original characters, dialog and situations used from Star vs The Forces of Evil are © 2015-2019 The Walt Disney Company.

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All original characters, dialog and situations used from the fanfics are © 2015-present by their respective authors.

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This is a work of fiction portraying alternate universes; all similarities to beings living, dead, or undead are entirely convergent.


Prologue

From a single hand, a beam of magic, with a ball the size of a cannonball on its end, lashed out, catching a slowly rising Marco square in the chest and flinging him back. The impact from the ball was devastating enough to his already damaged sternum, but it continued pushing him until he contacted the wall, the back of his head smashing into the stone, causing a fourth concussion. His skull fracture not yet healed, the impact separated the bone plate into two pieces. Bob dissipated the ram and, the magic released, an unconscious Marco fell bonelessly to the floor, on top of the wond; blood dripped from the back of his head and out the ear that was turned toward the ground.

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Gasping, Star was terrified as she was then helplessly ensnared by a Raspberry Ribbon Lasso studded with hooks, the same spell she had used against Hekapoo. As Star had done to Hekapoo, Bob proceeded to slam Star into the wall and floor. Pushing Star away to the end of the length of the lasso, Bob then spun Star like a hammer in the hammer throw, until she inflicted a blow to Star's head from hitting one of the still-standing busts. Bob released the lasso and Star fell to the floor, blood dripping from far too many wounds.

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"I have prevented the destruction of this Mewni, and countless others that would have come after. You see, I didn't come here to stop you, I know I can't; I came here to distract you."

Bob was caught by surprise, but her years of experience had honed her senses. Thanks to Star's mistake of an unintended warning, Bob sensed the attack from behind just before it struck home. She began to turn, saving her life, as a blade, which was about to be plunged through her heart, missed both heart and spine, running through to the right of her backbone.

An enraged female voice echoed off the wall, yelling, "Bitch!" as the flaming broadsword erupted from Bob's chest.

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Even though the wound was cauterized, Bob knew it was likely still fatal, having watched Red Star die from the same type of wound. Already weakening, Bob opened a dimensional portal beneath her feet, despite the tramorfidian crystal, and disappeared.

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Janna dipped down hard and, grunting as she waved all six hands and her tail, opened a dimensional portal beneath Star and Marco. They fell through, directly into the Butterfly Castle emergency ward, followed by Janna, the portal closing behind her.

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Angie took Eclipsa's hands. Her eyes swimming with tears, she said, "Granny Eclipsa, it's not good. Star and Marco were attacked and beaten badly." Angie indicated Janna with a sweep of her hand; Eclipsa felt a chill from seeing the normally stoic Janna in such distress. "Janna portaled them directly into the emergency ward. We don't know what actually happened; the strain of what Janna did knocked her senseless, and she's been hysterical ever since she started to recover."

Angie paused to collect herself; Rafael, who had been speaking with Buff Frog, joined her, putting an arm around her to provide strength and comfort. "There were still some Earth doctors here training the royal physicians, and they managed to stabilize the kids, then moved them here into intensive care. But ... they have severe head trauma and probably damage to their brains." Tears began to fall. "On Earth there would be no hope. There's some hope here, that Moon's healing magic will fix them, but even Moon is pessimistic; that's why she sent Manfred to collect all of us. We're out here to allow Moon to concentrate but ... she said to be ready to come in quickly to say our good-byes."

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A single tear rolled down Eclipsa's cheek. "Thank you," she whispered, as she picked up the wond. She moved between the two beds as Moon vacated the space, took a deep breath, opened the canopy of the wond, now in its parasol-shaped Eclipsa-Cast, then, with Magic-Pips glowing, said, "Cardigan Healing Cocoons."

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Eclipsa sighed, winded by the effort, as she closed the canopy. "If we were in time, the spell will quickly reduce the danger to their brains, then begin healing them. Our kids will have to remain in comas for two weeks or so, then we can replace the spell with the deep-healing spells. They should be perfectly fine, eventually ... physically, anyway."

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Bob closed her eyes, concentrating, preparing for the pain of channeling dark magic through her dying body, then, with the purple veins in her Magic-Pips aglow, cast, "Cardigan Healing Cocoon." The purple strands of fabric enveloped her; she could feel the healing begin.

Bob's hatred burned and seethed as she slowly lost consciousness. How dare they interfere with my glorious purpose?! she thought. Still, she mused, the final gambit was merely delayed. When it came, this Star and Marco, above all others, would be made to gruesomely suffer for the affront, provided they still lived, as would all of this AU's Mewni. Under her ersatz bandages, a grim smile crossed Bob's face as she drifted into unconsciousness.

And so, Bob's infinite war paused...


I

Three months later...

"Welcome back," Doctor Trudy North said to Star and Marco. "I'd decided you weren't going to return. It's been, what, four months?"

"Yes; to the day, in fact," Marco replied. "We're sorry; we intended to come back for regular sessions, but life sometimes proves to be a distraction."

"Heard that."

Marco glanced at Star. "Then ... 'the incident' happened."

"Oh?" Trudy smiled. "Do tell."

"Well, it had to do with severe head trauma, from the two of us being handed our asses on a platter. If it had happened on Earth, we would ... be having our session via séance."

Trudy's smile immediately disappeared.

Star and Marco tag-teamed describing the extent of their grievous injuries, and how their lives had been saved by dark magic.

After a long few moments staring at the teens that, judging from the descriptions of their injuries, shouldn't be sitting before her, Trudy asked, "How did it happen?"

"Our memories are a bit fuzzy," Star explained. "We see it like a dream, like the way we see our time in Hekapoo's Dimension and I see my time as a monster."

"There were Earth doctors on Mewni training the royal physicians when it occurred," Marco interjected. "They all worked on our care, and best they can tell is that when the magic healed our brains it ... decided, for lack of a better term, that part of the healing had to be obscuring the memories of what happened; it's even possible it removed some memories, we'll never know. Regardless, it was wrong."

"Why is that?"

"Because, provided our assailant lived, it diminishes our ability to learn how to fight her."

"Ah. Makes sense. What do you remember?"

"We remember exploring a tower, and finding a room that looked like a museum or gallery. The stuff in it was enough to pique even Star's interest. It was a trap, set by Bob, specifically for us."

"Bob? You said 'her.'"

"Yes," Star said. "That was the name she gave us. We have no idea if it's significant. While we've been recuperating, we watched a britcom called 'Blackadder II.' In one of the episodes a girl called herself Bob while disguised as a boy; it's possible that's where it comes from."

"Tell me what you know about her."

The teens told everything they knew, which wasn't much. They related what they saw in the 'Red Star' AU, what they'd been told in the others, and Glossaryck's warning.

"It's just a guess," Marco continued, "but we think she's traveling from alternate universe to alternate universe, destroying each one's Mewni. We don't know why, or even where she's from. Her magic's similar to ours, so we think she's Mewmin, which is consistent with her obsession with Mewni. But we don't know which alternate Mewni spawned her; hell, it could even be our Mewni."

"The whole 'museum' thing is a bit strange," Star said. "It was an awful lot of trouble to go to for a trap. It's another guess, but the only thing we can figure is that she's not concentrating on one Mewni at a time, but traveling among them, pushing her schemes forward a little in each. She must have set some sort of alarm that we tripped, alerting her we were there, and she needed us to stay long enough for her to come back to our Mewni."

"Sounds reasonable," Trudy interjected. "Also sounds scary; Bob knew enough about you both to create something with sufficient appeal to keep you in place for an extended period of time. That makes her even more dangerous to you two in particular."

Star and Marco both nodded, agreeing. They then proceeded to describe the battle as best they could remember.

Star said, "We lost, big time; she seemed to know what we were going to do before we did. Bob would have killed us had we not been rescued. After we were saved, she disappeared. Nobody's heard from her or seen her since. Given what happened to her, it's possible she's dead."

"How were you saved?"

"According to Janna, a Star that had escaped Bob's destruction of his Mewni ..."

"I'm sorry," Trudy interrupted, "but 'he?'"

"Yes, he was from a universe where everyone's gender was switched. Star was a boy and Marco was a girl. Anyhoo, Star sacrificed his life to distract Bob from Janna, who was sneaking up on Bob. Janna ran her through with a broadsword."

Again, Trudy was silent. Slowly, she began flipping through her notes. Finding what she was looking for, she asked Marco, "Janna Ordonia, the friend of yours from Echo Creek that followed you to Mewni?"

"Yes," Marco replied.

"I don't like her."

"She may be creepy and annoying, and doesn't know where the line between appropriate and inappropriate lies, but she cares for us. Possibly killing Bob doesn't seem to have fazed her at all, but I think seeing what happened to us has. We've been told she was inconsolable, if not hysterical, for weeks until it was clear the healing magic worked. She's been a bit strange ever since, which for her means she's been acting like a normal person. She's even found an acceptable way to indulge her nosiness. I think we might ask her to join us for a session or two, if that's okay with you."

"Normally I wouldn't as sessions need to be confidential, but I'm just far enough out of my experience zone on all this that I could probably use your help with her, at least to start." Trudy thought for a few moments. "What have you two been doing ever since?"

"We were in comas for three weeks," Star answered, "a bit longer than expected according to Eclipsa, who created the dark healing spell. After that we spent about a month receiving general healing spells from Eclipsa and my mother, and doing physical therapy. We've actually come through it all great, physically; we might even have come out of it stronger than before. Mentally, though ... that might be another story."

Marco continued, "We've spent the last two months here on Earth. I've been taking online college courses while looking into universities, while Star has been working on getting her Equivalency Diploma and taking early-placement courses in political science. We've not completely distanced ourselves from Mewni; we both have duties as royalty, especially Star, and we need to stay on top of several potential military situations. Our parents, though, have done what they can to remove as much of that stress as possible, and even, to some extent, to give us the opportunity to do some of the 'teen stuff' we both missed because of Meteora's War."

Star interjected, "We've also been working as volunteer consultants to the 'Dame Marco Turdina Royal Preparatory Academy,' the former 'Saint Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses,' renamed and rehabilitated in honor of my sweet boo."

Marco blushed.

"Congratulations, Marco, I can see how you might be an inspiration."

Marco blushed deeper, but the praise didn't cause him to fail to give Star her due. "Star's quite popular, too," he said. "Every week or so she takes a small group of girls on a training field trip to another dimension. It's used to reward the girls for their hard work, and Star's the reason they love it. Star's teaching has improved, too, to the point that now, more often than not, she returns with most of the girls she left with."

"Um..."

"Mom in particular's been great, using being a descendant of Eclipsa to justify helping with, if not taking outright, some of our duties."

"Wait," Trudy cut in, "can we go back and talk about..."

Ignoring Trudy, Marco finished his thought, chuckling and saying, "Mom might earn her own royal title; then there'll be no living with her."

Seeing she would get nowhere, Trudy decided to move on. "So ... how is your great-great-something grandmother?"

"She's doing extremely well," Marco answered. "Queen Moon restored her to a princess of the Butterfly Kingdom, and has been taking on royal duties of her own. She's the official liaison between the Butterfly Kingdom and the Monster Kingdom, working closely with our friend Buff Frog, their regent. The other kingdoms deal with her politely, at arms' length. They wouldn't even be doing that, if not for her sacrificing her daughter. It will take time for them to warm up to her after she was smeared as evil for 300 years; hard to say whether the Spiderbites ever will."

"It would be easier if not for the goddamn mother-fucking MHC," Star added. She blushed, saying, "I'm so sorry. Anyway, the fuckers have been worse than ever. They're being extremely rude, and for some reason they've been openly frostile toward us. Even Hekapoo, who's always seemed to have some weird crush on Marco, has been hostile and distant. The other kingdoms have noticed."

"Their father," Trudy asked, "Glossamatrix, can't help?"

"Glossaryck; still missing."

"Eclipsa isn't helping the situation," Marco continued. "She's angry that Rhombulus won't release her husband, my great-great-something grandfather, Globgor, from his crystal prison. She's attacked Rhombulus on several occasions, beating him so badly once that Queen Moon actually took away the wond for a week, grounding her. That isn't helping relations with the MHC, and certainly not with Rhombulus."

"How is she dealing with discovering she and her husband are your ancestors?"

"I think it's safe to say she's embraced it." Marco glanced at Star, who nodded. "She insists on being called Granny Eclipsa, even by mom, who is effectively older than her due to being frozen. Me, Star, mom, dad ... everybody who really knows her ... just love her to death."

Trudy nodded, flipped back to her notes from their first session, then asked, "Star, how is working on your anxiety over becoming queen going?"

Star and Marco exchanged a glance. "Still ... a work in progress," Star replied.

Trudy wrote down a few new notes, then shifted in her chair. She paused a few moments, gathering her thoughts, then asked, "So why did you decide to start your sessions, after four months?"

Star glanced at Marco. "Because we don't feel anything. At all."

Trudy waited for more, which was not forthcoming. "Can you explain that?"

"In addition to remembering the 'ass-kicking' as a dream, we remember little of the fear and pain. More side-effects from the healing magic, we're guessing. That makes it even more surreal, and we feel ... detached from the whole thing."

"We went through a traumatic experience," Marco added, "yet, so far as we can tell, it hasn't affected us in any way. We're both a little more serious, a little more 'adult' in our behaviors and interests, but I'll be eighteen in a month and Star in two, so I'd think that can be explained just by 'growing up.' But even without my admittedly shallow psychology training, I know there should be something. Even our nightmares aren't any worse."

Trudy nodded throughout. After pausing to think, Trudy replied, "Everybody responds to trauma in different ways. You two have spent years in a fairly violent, medieval, society. Marco, you fought a war, and Star, you had your ... uh ... Mewminity ... erm ... huminity ... um ... whatever stripped from you for fifteen years. I'm not certain we can apply 'normal' expectations to what you two have experienced."

Star and Marco nodded.

"But ... I bet my left two lugnuts you're both repressing your feelings. You two are exceptionally good at doing that." Trudy faked a sneeze, saying "crushes" over it.

Star and Marco both smiled.

"I think we want to keep an eye on that; they could surface at the worst possible time, and considering the lives you lead, that could be fatal. But even if you're fine in that respect, we still have your nightmares to work through, which I'm guessing you're still having based on what you said earlier." Trudy glanced at the clock. "Our time is up for today; see you both again next week?"

Without hesitation, the two teens replied in unison, "Yes ... and thank you."

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Buff Frog stood in front of a statue in the Butterfly Hall of Remembrance, his heart aching with regret. For the thousandth time since the statue had been erected, he read the inscription:

Here entombed are the mortal remains of a hero.
He made the ultimate sacrifice to save a kingdom not his own.
May we all prove ourselves worthy.

Buff Frog had learned, after that dreadful day, about alternate universes and travel between them. He didn't quite understand the concept of differing timelines, but he absolutely understood sacrifice. He was looking at a likeness of his good friend Star Butterfly, but as a boy from a different universe who had saved Buff Frog's teenage friends. He thought it was a shame they could not put all of the boy's acts of bravery on his epitaph, but understood why they must remain secret.

Buff Frog allowed himself a slight chuckle; if anybody asked why the boy looked and dressed so much like Star, they were told it was because he was a Star Butterfly fan-boy. With Mewmins familiar with StarcoFan1, it was an easy sell.

Buff Frog breathed in, his chuckle almost becoming a sob. He cuffed away a tear as his heartache became a literal ache. His regret was so deep and painful because it was all his fault ... or so he believed.

Buff Frog's Star and Karate-boy were nearly lost, and this other Star was lost, because he kept a secret too close to the vest. He had told Star about the being in black, but he now knew that Star had forgotten the information. Buff Frog shook his head; he had overlooked the fact that she was still a teenager, overwhelmed by her first meaningful activity in governance. Even if Star had remembered, he had kept the very real, as it turned out, threats of assassination from his friends.

Had Buff Frog told Moon, like he should have, perhaps "the incident," as his friends called it in public, the "ass-kicking," as they called it in private, would never have happened, and this boy would still be alive.

What the long-term effects on the teens would be, no one yet knew. Buff Frog feared he might have ruined their lives, or some part of them. Worse, he worried that they might not have lives at all in the long term.

This Bob, as Buff Frog now knew she called herself, was powerful. Scary powerful. Not just in raw magical power, but political skill as well. No more than a couple weeks would go by without him discovering something that she had been doing to destabilize Mewni. Even though, so far as he knew, she had not been seen for months, her machinations still rolled on. There was a possibility she was dead, his friend Janna having badly wounded the harpy, but in his stomachs Buff Frog knew they would not be so lucky.

And the kicker? Buff Frog was now stuck keeping it all secret. Letting it out now that he had known something, even if it was only a little something, could destroy his standing in the Butterfly court and, if it got out, with other kingdoms. And he knew he needed his power.

Buff Frog had been worried for some time about the stability of the new Monster Kingdom under King Brudo. Bob was playing a skillful game not only to pit the Monsters against the rest of Mewni, and vice versa, but against themselves as well. The influence of the Septarians had grown, yet Buff Frog commanded enough respect from other Monsters that the numbers were still in the minority, if barely.

The real problem was the lack of support from either faction for King Brudo. Even Brudo's own family was split; Buff Frog had found circumstantial evidence that the disappearance of one of Brudo's daughters was tied to her conspiring with Bob against her own father.

Buff Frog now knew that taking matters into his strong hands was certain, in order to avoid a bloody civil war. Beings were going to die no matter what he did, including doing nothing, so it was better to sacrifice hundreds to save thousands. Worse, to take outside pressure off the Monsters until he could act, Buff Frog was going to have to do to the other kingdoms what Bob had done to his; pit them against each other, helping advance Bob's apparent goal to destabilize Mewni. He desperately hoped he could act before everything fell apart.

The trapped frog Monster also dearly hoped that his friends would not end up having to be among those sacrificed. If they survived, he hoped they, and history, would forgive him ... he doubted he would ever forgive himself for not finding a different way.

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Star and Marco sat on a hill, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Star sat between Marco's legs, his arms wrapped around her and his chin on her shoulder, Star holding one of Marco's hands. They watched silently, cheek to cheek, as the sun slowly descended past the horizon.

"Who woulda thought," Star said quietly, "I'd enjoy this as much as an adventure?"

"I wouldn't have bet money on it when we first met, but I'm really not surprised now. You ... we ... started changing when we went to Mewni after our freshman year ... and we did spend more than a little 'bestie time' on a castle roof, watching the sunset and the stars. I guess it's just part of growing up ... 'unfortunately,' as Janna says." Star sighed, pressing her cheek harder into Marco's. "But I don't think our adventuring days are done, not quite yet; we're still teenagers. Our adventures will just be a little more ... mature, I guess."

"So no more going to the Candy Dimension to eat Smile Dip until we hallucinate fighting chocolate pixies, causing us to destroy the dimension's entire society ... for a fifth time?"

"That's crazy talk; of course we'll still do that. And let's not forget the other cool teen stuff, like moping, self-pity, and so on..."

Star tittered at Marco's joke. The two quietly watched the horizon for a few minutes, then Star asked, "How goes the party planning?"

"Jackie located the club, and we booked it. The owner promised to secretly invite the regulars that are there when Janna's normally there. He wouldn't even take a tip ... Janna's apparently really popular with that crowd."

"And the practicing with Tom?"

"It's going great. I think we have it nailed."

"I'm so glad we were able to get Janna and Tom to reconcile. I don't think I've ever seen anybody as mad as Janna was. I wish she had never blamed Tom for us nearly being killed; how could he possibly have known Janna's spying stuff might have led to her bringing help sooner and," a slight hitch appeared in Star's voice, "prevent Star's death. Or so she thought, anyway."

"I'm glad she's forgiven you, too. I think that punch hurt her feelings more than her face. But I still don't think you would have gotten through to her without it, and I still agree that if she and Star and maybe others had confronted that witch directly instead of ambushing her, there would have been more dead bodies than just one, including ours."

The two sat silently for a few minutes, clinging to each other, thankful the other was still alive. Finally, Star asked, "Do you think Janna'll like her gift?"

"With Janna, you can never be 100% certain of anything. But I strongly suspect she won't just like it, she'll love it."

Star smiled and squeezed Marco's hand.

Once the sun was past the curve of the Earth and twilight began its journey into night, Marco asked, "It's Friendship Thursday; dinner and a movie?"

"Mmm'hmm," Star answered.

"Italian?"

"Italian."


Stay amazing!