A/N: Cornwallis here! So excited to finally be getting this one out. To all our fans, we apologize it took about 6 months past when both Ronald and I had actually planned to get this out there, but two COVID diagnoses and some significant personal upheavals will always conspire to derail the best of intentions. But fear not! We're hoping to never repeat this crazy extended break again, and will get back to bringing your regular installments of our epic tale. I, for one, am excited to hear from all of you what you thought of it.
~LordCornwalis
Hey everyone! Hope y'all enjoy part two of our little season one finale! Sorry it took so long in the making, Corn and myself got caught up in an annoying thing called life, and as you probably noticed, the content has been a little stagnant for the better part of this year. But we're ramping back up to keep the good stuff coming, so don't get too discouraged! Thank you for being so patient, and thank you for reading our story. We hope you like it.
~Mr. Ronald Reagan
The Once And Future Queen
Chapter 17
The Storm
Howling wind ripped and tore at Star as she plunged down into inky blackness, the lights of the Geode rapidly fading and growing distant as she fell. Struggling, she tumbled, fighting for any semblance of control as she tried to orient herself feet down in the whipping airstream. 'Okay Star, keep it together girl,' she told herself, surprised at how clear her mind was despite the terrifying thrill making her chest tight with fear. 'You're in that demon's stupid nightmare realm and you think-no, you know that whatever crazy connection you have with Marco just got us out of there.'
Just like Marco, Star had no real idea what the true nature of the strange yet wonderful connection she shared with him was, but she did know that it had saved their lives more than once. 'Thank Mewni for crazy red moons I guess…' she mentally shrugged before another, more obvious thought clobbered her over the head. 'But if that was the case, then why was she still falling through this seemingly endless voi-' Star shot up with a choking gasp, her fingers scrabbling on the leafy ground in a panicked attempt to brace for an impact that never came. Breathing hard as she struggled to get a hold of her racing heart, she looked around and felt a shiver of real fear again.
Things were very wrong.
For one thing, she was not where she last remembered. Gone were the cobblestones and the road. Instead, she was in a sparse grove of those odd, bulbous trees she saw earlier. Strangely though, the sun was still the same hazy orange disk she remembered from before the fog incident. 'Did…any time even pass?' she speculated to herself, noticing how the deep shadows between the trees had taken on a much more sinister aspect now that she was seemingly alone."Marco? …Penelope?" she called out, though not as loudly as she normally would, wary of attracting any unwanted attention before she found them.
Nothing but the gentle rustle of the wind through the trees greeted her in response. Cautiously, she got up, her hand automatically snaking down to check that she still had her wand. A sharp crack at her feet made her leap back in a half-panic, only to stumble as her boot came down on something soft and squishy. With a yelp of surprise, Star tumbled backward, landing awkwardly on her butt with her legs draped over the unmoving form of–"Penelope!" she shouted once she'd realized what she'd tripped over.
Scrambling over to where the unconscious teen was lying sprawled on her back, Star racked her brain, trying to remember what to do. "Okay, what did Marco say to do again? Check the bearways? No, that's not it–" She shook her head in frustration as she strained to remember as many details as she could from the Saturday she'd tagged along to his first aid recertification at the fire department.
"Right, Airways!" she said to herself as she broke through the haze of boredom clouding the memory. Reaching down, she laid her fingers on the side of Penelope's neck, overjoyed when she felt a strong steady beat there. "Penelope? Are you okay?" she said, as loud as she felt was safe. No response. Trying again, Star repeated the question even louder, gently shaking the unconscious teen's shoulder for good measure.
*WHAM*
Lights flared in Star's vision as a sharp impact slammed into her temple, momentarily dazing her. She staggered to her side, more out of shock than pain, seeing the fuzzy form of Penelope getting to her feet with an angry growl. Her chest was heaving and she was glaring daggers, her still balled fist smeared with blood and dirt. "You…" she hissed, vitriol oozing like poison from the single barbed word.
"Penelope, I know you're pissed, and I can't even begin to tell you just how sorry I am about everything." Star held up her hands in a placating gesture, "But right now we need to find everyone else and get the heck outta here before anyone gets killed." Her heart was hammering in her chest, adrenaline pumping as she braced for the other princess to charge her.
"It isn't enough that you steal Marco from me. It isn't enough that you trick me into helping you make this fucking awful day possible. But now we're fucking trapped in this nightmare and it's all. Your. FAULT!" She shouted the last word, advancing on Star who raised her hands defensively. "Everyone's scattered out there. JACKIE'S OUT THERE!" She jabbed an angry finger at the treeline before boring her emerald glare back into Star. "She's out there and vulnerable, maybe even stuck alone with that fucking creep. She has no protection, NONE!"
"Penelope, I…" Star started but found her words failing in the face of the Spiderbite Princess's renewed rage. And while it lacked the strength-sapping power of whatever had been happening in that awful version of The Geode, she still felt her chest ache with the guilt of it all. "Please, just…" she said, her voice shaky as she struggled to organize her thoughts, "hate me later, okay? Trust me, I hate myself enough for the both of us right now. But can we please just focus on finding everyone and getting out of here?"
That seemed to catch Penelope off guard, the incandescent rage twisting her face falling momentarily as her advance on Star faltered. The two teens stood there for a second in stunned silence, Penelope looking like she very much wanted to break something while Star remained tense, on guard against another swing. But finally, she shook her head, taking a moment for a deep breath as she physically forced her hands to unclench and spoke calmly, every word enunciated in excruciating articulation. "Listen to me very carefully, Star. I. Hate. You. There isn't a thing on Mewni orEarth that would ever make me spend another fucking second here with you. So I'm going to go find Jackie and get the fuck out of here. Don't Follow me."
Whirling on her heel, she stomped away, though not before pausing and turning back to glare at Star, a cruel smile replacing the fury of only a moment before. "Oh, and if I see Tom, I'll be sure to let him know about what I've seen. If he feels like hanging around to help the rest of you assholes…" she trailed off, letting the unsaid words do all the twisting of the knife in Star's conscience for her.
Star just stood there, her mouth slightly agape as she watched Penelope storm away towards the nearby treeline. Her words had been an icy razor, cutting all the more deeply because they had been absolutely true.But as much as the idea of spending another minute in Penelope's presence filled her with a roiling pit of shame, guilt, and anger, Star couldn't let her go off on her own right now. She could feel the distinct change in the atmosphere around them as well as through the bond she shared with Marco: It felt off.
Bitter and acrid inside like the burning tar she'd smelled in the Underworld before, it made her skin crawl.Whatever the Demon had done to that stupid box, she was sure it was dangerous. Couple that with the fact that Star knew Penelope had zero actual combat experience, and they had a recipe for disaster. In fact, she wasn't even sure the powers T.H.E. B.O.X. had given to them even worked anymore. So after an agonizing few moments of indecision, Star rushed after her. She had almost caught up to where Penelope was just stepping into the woods when the other girl whipped around and made a furious slashing motion, clenching her hand in a tight fist.
"I said stay AWAY!"
Thick green vines erupted from the soil and coiled their way around both of Star's ankles, yanking backward hard enough to pull her feet out from under her. Struggling, she reached down and tried to pry off the stout plant still holding her in an iron grip only for another vine to pull one wrist away and pin it against the ground. "Pegasus feathers, Penelope, I'm trying to help you, damn it! We don't know what's out there and it's too dangerous to go alone!" But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears as she watched Penelope break into a jog only to be swallowed a moment later by the shadowy forest.
"Stupid… Airheaded…" Star growled to herself as she strained to rip her arm free from the grasping plant. It didn't budge. She'd been trying to work herself free from the snaring vines for several minutes by then, and her patience was just about over. Bracing against the wet ground, she pulled with every ounce of strength she could muster but still, the vine held fast. "Son of a-get ahold of yourself, girl…" she forced herself to take a calming breath so she could collect her thoughts. If Penelope wouldn't come willingly then she was going to have to use force. That meant she needed to stop screwing around and playing by the rules: it was time for the wand.
Twisting over as far as she could, Star reached under her hip and down her leg to grasp the head of her wand. Ripping it free, she swung it through the air, shouting, "Ninja Kitten Blast!" Out of the amber crystal, a squad of black gi-clad kittens materialized, swinging tiny swords to neatly sever each vine. In a flash, Star was on her feet, tearing after her as quickly as she could. "Penelope, wait!" she shouted, frantically listening for any sign of the other girl.
Silence.
Star shouted again, pausing once more to listen as hard as she could, though only the sound of a slight breeze lifting the leaves over her head was audible. It was confusion, paired only moments later with renewed frustrationas a delayed echo of her own shouted words came rushing back at her out of the gloomy forest. Penelope couldn't have gotten far in the short time it had taken to get free, but things were not as they seemed right now and Star knew she should still be able to hear her running through the forest.
Pulling out her wand, Star took another steadying breath as she held it out in front of her. She remembered the words, she just needed to quiet her racing thoughts for this much more intricate, delicate, and potentially dangerous spell to function properly. "I summon the all-seeing eye, to tear a hole into the sky," she began, the familiar darkening and rumbling sounding before a piercing scream rang out in the distance. A scream she recognized.
Gritting her teeth, Star ran towards the scream, still disbelieving that it could sound so far away. But then again, distances had been screwy from their very first moments here. 'Maybe it's just a trick of the-' but she never finished her thought as she burst through a low shrub and felt the ground fall away from under her feet. She fell with a startled cry, hitting the surprisingly soft ground and tumbling head over heels down the long embankment. Visions of trees flashed by in her blurred vision, and she felt her foot ricochet painfully off of something that felt like a large rock or stump. Holding onto her wand in a death grip lest she lose it in the fall, she shouted, "Shining Bubblegum Shield!"
A blinding flare of pink light erupted from the wand, enveloping her in a glossy pink, translucent sphere. It wasn't a second too soon, as only moments later it careened into a rotten tree, riding up the partially shattered trunk and bouncing high into the air. Her vision spun, and she felt her stomach flip end over end as the magical ball arced into the fading twilight, momentarily bursting through the canopy before plunging down through breaking branches. *Flump* The ball smacked into the ground, half-burying itself in a patch of soft moss and shooting out a geyser of dark mud in every direction.
Groaning, Star brushed the hanging blonde hair out of her eyes as she squinted through the walls of the pink bubble still surrounding her. Unfortunately, however, before she'd fully thought it through, she waved her wand, dismissing the spell only to drop with a wet splat into the muddy bottom of the crater.
"Ergh, gross…" she muttered, wiping her hands off on her now filthy clothes just as another piercing scream rang out, this one much closer than the last. "Hang on Penelope, I'm coming!" she shouted, leaping up and out of the mossy crater and taking off towards the direction she'd heard the scream.
"Help! He-ARGHHH" Penelope's plea morphed into a ragged cry of agony as Star poured on the speed, ducking low under broken branches and leaping gnarled roots. She was so close now, any second she'd run-
She burst through the last of the brush into a small clearing at the base of the hill she'd just fallen down, sliding to a stop at the sight in front of her. Penelope was on the ground, pain and terror written all over her face as a wolf dragged her back to where two others were waiting amid a tangle of torn-apart vines and plants. 'No… not a wolf,' Star's shocked brain finally realized as she swung her wand up and took aim. Like the earlier bandits on the road, bits of straw seemed to be poking out here and there between roughly sewn-together patches of fur, but that's where the similarity ended.
Spattering, noxious-smelling tar spilled from slavering jaws, as the same oily dark fog she saw before seemed to pool at the creature's feet. "Glittering Stardust Lance!" she roared, the coruscating beam of energy lancing out and scything the wolf-thing in half. The other two creatures snapped their gazes in her direction, slitted eyes glowing a malevolent yellow as they flashed toward her. Another pulse of energy tore out from the wand, smashing one into the soft earth with a crunch and a puff of straw.
Star threw herself sideways, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the remaining wolf as it sailed over her shoulder. Spinning, she brought up her wand again, firing off a series of energy blasts as she struggled to track her foe as it dashed in a wide arc around her and straight to where Penelope was feebly trying to get up. Fear that had earlier been replaced by adrenaline edged back into her as she desperately twisted to get on target.
"Gingerbrick Popup Wall!" True to its namesake, a fifteen-foot-wide wall of golden brown bricks popped out of the ground directly in front of the streaking monster. With no time to turn or slow down, it smacked hard into the wall with a loud crack, the impact rocking the heavy barrier first backward, then forward. Only it didn't stop, instead tipping forward agonizingly slowly on the soft ground before accelerating downward to crush the dazed monster. "Eughhhhh," Star stuck her tongue out as a spray of smoking tar and moldy straw shot out from the now-flattened monster.
A pained whimper from her side dragged her attention away from the grizzly scene to where Penelope had just tried and failed to stand. Hurrying over, Star knelt. "Hold on Penelope, I'm here," she reassured her, taking a closer look at the ugly wound on the girl's right leg. There was no doubt in her mind that the ankle was broken, as Penny's foot was jutting off at a sickening angle and the area around the break was swelling up like a balloon in front of her eyes. Additionally, a series of ragged, but thankfully shallow, cuts encircled the area where the wolf monster's sharp teeth had torn through the robe.
"Don't expect a thank you…"
Penelope's words were barbed, though Star did note that at least the other princess had stopped shouting. "No of course not… Why would you thank me for saving your life…" she muttered to herself as Penelope sucked in a pained gasp of air when she peeled up the tattered and blood-soaked remnant of her robe.
"Can you fix it? Marco told me about that 'Radioactive Healing Slags' spell or whatever you used on him when you two were on Mejoga…" Back was the heat in her tone, though Star could detect a distinct undercurrent of bitterness joining it now as well.'Well of course she's bitter you idiot, you blew up her relationship and took Marco…' No, that wasn't fair, she scolded herself. Marco had chosen to be with her and he and Penelope had had their fair share of pro- "Are you going to fix my leg or what?" Penelope's strained voice jolted Star from her thoughts and she stood up abruptly, hurriedly aiming her wand.
"Radioactive Healing Slugs!" She spoke the familiar words, feeling the stirring of magic within as it raced down her arms and…died with a popping fizzle. A single, shriveled slug plopped feebly onto the mossy ground, giving a weak pulse of green light before turning grey and blowing away like dust.
"Did it work?" Penelope winced as she stretched to see without jostling too much. "My ankle still hurts like hell."
"It… didn't." Star stared at the spot where the slug had disintegrated before examining her wand. There didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with it; so, shrugging to herself, she deliberately settled into her stance and focused intensely on Penelope's injury. "Radioactive Healing Slugs!"
This time she spoke slowly and deliberately. Once more, she felt the welling magic inside of her race up only to wither and die with a sputtering green spark. "I don't know what's wrong. I've cast this spell a dozen times before when one of us was banged up." Star felt a tug of anxiety at the thought of what could be happening with the rest of her friends, especially Marco, without her there to help.
"You're kidding me right?" Penelope scoffed, laying back and letting out a pained gasp through clenched teeth. "If this is some sick punishment because I called you out on your bullshit, you can knock it the fuck off already."
Star didn't bother answering, she was too frustrated as she strained to call forth the magic that still steadfastly refused to materialize. "Radioactive. Healing. Slugs." She practically growled the last word, but as before there was nothing. Actually, less than nothing, as not even a spark flitted from the face of the wand this time. "C'mon…" she pleaded under her breath, her hands gripping the wand's handle so tightly her knuckles were white. Unbidden images of the horrors her friends might be facing at this very moment were swimming through her mind's eye.
"Seriously Star, this… this isn't fucking funny." There was fear in her voice now as she stared up at where Star was still standing, stock still, with her wand aimed at her leg.
"I'm not trying to scare you, I just can't get the spell to work!" To emphasize, Star aimed her wand off at the woods and shouted, "Narwhal Blast!" With a flash, the horned cetacean fired out of her wand, blasting a chunk out of one of the nearby trees before vanishing in a puff of glitter and smoke.
"Then why isn't that other spell working?!"
"I don't know! It's all the same magi-" Star cut out abruptly as her memory gave her a helpful nudge. She remembered a conversation she'd had with her mother two years ago when she'd fallen off of a Warnicorn she'd been racing against Reynard. The fall had broken both the bones in her forearm and she could still remember the hot tears on her cheek as the pain stole her breath away. But then her mother had arrived, consoling her with kind words interwoven with the usual admonishments of "recklessness and impropriety" as she held the wand over the broken bones. There had been a glow and slight tingle before her arm had straightened itself and the wounds sealed.
She'd been wide-eyed with wonder as she flexed her fingers and rolled her wrist, amazed at the instant relief. Usually, her injuries had always been tended to in the castle infirmary, and though the castle healers used magical salves and potions, the healing process was never so instantaneous or painless. "No matter how many times I tell you magic is useful for more than just blasting things, you always seem surprised." Her mother's amused voice made her look up into ice-blue eyes.
"It's just so…" Star couldn't quite put her finger on why she was so in awe of her mother's healing spell. After all, she'd personally witnessed far more impressive displays, but there was something about the understated simplicity of it that was a nice change of pace for someone who thrived in chaos.
Moon gave her daughter a wry smile as she stood up. "Destruction is generally a much easier feat to accomplish than other, moreee…refined forms of magic." She held out her hand to help her daughter to her feet. "For instance, the healing spell I just used on your arm required a great deal of focus and concentration to weave the delicate strands of magic as they repaired your injury. It isn't something I could have accomplished if I had my mind on something like the fact that you are over forty minutes late for your meeting with your etiquette instructor."
"Sorry, mom…"
Star felt the pit in her stomach sink a little deeper as she snapped out of her nostalgic memory. If ever there was a time for honesty with Penelope, now was that time. "I can't focus," she said, dropping her wand to her side.
"What?"
"I said I can't focus!" She glared at the grass below. "I can't explain it well, but it takes a lot of focus and concentration to cast healing spells. I didn't have an issue with it on Mejoga because we'd already beat Krunt and all I needed to do was heal Marco before we could go home. But now-"
"But now you can't concentrate because you fucking caused this entire damn disaster? Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone is aware." Penelope laid her head back on the loamy soil, letting out a deep sigh. It was getting harder and harder to maintain her outraged anger. The adrenaline of the attack was gone now, leaving only bone-deep exhaustion and an angry starburst pain in her ankle. "So what do we do now?" she sighed, closing her eyes for a second as she fought down a wave of pain-induced nausea.
Star nodded to herself as she made a decision. Taking aim at a long, straight branch about halfway up the nearest tree, she once more summoned her tiny squad of ninja kittens. Turning back to where a green-faced Penelope was squinting up at her, she felt the first smile grace her lips since everything had gone so wrong in The Geode. "Now," she said, bending down to accept the branch one of her ninja kittens offered and giving the magical creature a quick ear scratch, "now we take a page out of Marco's book."
Thirty minutes later, Star sat back on her ankles and wiped her sweaty brow after cinching the last knot on the splint she'd rigged up for Penelope's broken ankle. She'd used her spell to cut a branch into the appropriate lengths and had Penelope summon some small vines to bind the splint together. She'd surprised herself with how much of the basic first aid Marco had taught her she still remembered. She'd flushed and dressed the bleeding wounds before splinting her ankle, feeling terrible when the other girl had screamed as she straightened it. She'd even had her kittens cut a crutch so Penelope could walk relatively normally.
Now they sat in tense silence as she waited for Penelope to speak. She'd spotted several tentative glances from the Spiderbite Princess, signs that she may be open to talking, but Star wasn't going to make the first move.
"Look," Penelope finally spoke,her voice sounding bone tired as she swayed slightly on her crutch. "I'm too exhausted to keep screaming at you right now, but this isn't over. When we get out of here, I'm going to make sure the entire Kingdom knows what a snake their 'Perfect Little Princess Star' is." She made a face like she'd just gotten a face full of garbage. "But things are insanely dangerous right now. Soooo…"
Star could have let Penelope dangle on her tattered pride. She could have forced the girl she'd considered such a bitter rival for months to humiliate herself, but that just wasn't the kind of person she was. 'Or at least the person I want to be…' she thought. Meeting Penelope's furtive gaze and knowing what she had to do, she spoke. "I know everything that happened today is my fault. And I know how pissed you are. Honestly? You have every right to hate my guts right now. But I'm terrified for our friends, so can we please just call a truce until we get out of here?" Star's chest heaved as she waited for an answer, her pulse pounding in her ears. If Penelope didn't go for this; if she insisted they both go their own way, she might need to use force to keep them together.
"Agreed." An answer—finally. However reluctant, however hesitant, it was an answer and Star was so relieved she wouldn't have to force Penelope to come with her that she could have danced. Instead, however, she had her jubilant mood smashed with a hammer when Penelope continued, asking, "So what do you and Marco normally do when you fuck everything up? Got a list of options memorized?"
Star didn't answer right away. In truth, she wasn't entirely sure what to do next. Something as complicated as the All-Seeing Eye spell was going to be completely impossible with how worked up she was. She did know a useful compass spell, but that wasn't overly useful without a-"Penelope, didn't you mention you had a map?" she asked, excitement flaring up as she remembered the other princess complaining about having to use a paper map instead of having access to it on her compact.
"Yeah but that Alfonzo guy had the compass, so it's useless."
Star answered her by turning her wand around to reveal not its usual faceted crystal face, but an ornate pink and white compass rose complete with a glitter-covered needle. "Maybe not."
O - O - O - O - O - O - O
"Holy shit…" breathed Marco, snapping back to consciousness. He was face down on the dirty cold ground, the front of his armor soaked to the bone in muddy water. After what he'd just been through, he felt like he might be best served by laying in the dirt for a few minutes. He was in deep shit with pretty much everyone right now. Penelope was going to kill him. Tom was going to kill him. 'Shit… even Queen Moon is going to kill me,' he thought with a finality that made the pit of his stomach fall about three feet into the earth.
But that wasn't the worst part.
It had happened when Marco had slid off the edge of the giant sapphire dance floor. He'd tumbled through misty darkness, his mind racing as he struggled to get his feet under him, and that's when he'd seen it. Initially a pinprick of light, it rapidly grew and sharpened until Marco could clearly see an ornate hallway. A hallway whose distinctly macabre decorative style he instantly recognized from photos Star had shown him on her compact: The Underworld.
And then he'd smashed through. Like a stone hurled at some giant, fragile snowglobe, he careened through its crystalline walls, huge cracks expanding in every direction as he burst into a vivid scene. Below him was a tableau he wouldn't have been able to summon in his darkest nightmares: Tom was kneeling, held in place by what Marco could only guess was his father, being forced to watch a duplicate of himself and Star make love on a bed.
"Tom! TOM!" Marco shouted, and in skin-crawling unison, every person in the room turned their head and stared at him. He locked eyes with the teen, Tom's listless gaze flashing a dull, ruddy red in recognition as he passed by. Mascara ran in ugly streaks down his face, and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the human overhead. But before could speak, Marco had flashed past, bursting through the far wall of the room with the roar of shattering glass.
And that's when he'd woken up face down in a pile of mud beside a creek. Groaning slightly, he had just levered himself up to one knee when a tremendous splash from behind startled him out of his lethargy. Whirling to his feet, Marco freed Silverlight from its scabbard, the dying light of the day reflected in its burnished surface. He'd expected to find some horrific monster, or demon furiously rushing at him through the water. Instead, he saw a flash of sputtering flame rising from within a geyser of mud. "What the-" he began before realization smacked him in the face like a frying pan.
For the second time in as many minutes, Marco found himself calling the demon teen's name as he rushed over to the edge of the creek. Tom had smacked into the opposite bank at considerable speed, his body burrowing a foot into the soft mud to leave him mostly submerged in the dirty water. Steam rose in a torrent from superheated water before the icy current cooled Tom's incandescent body as Marco stood there, dumbfounded. That's when the crater Tom had made began to sag and fill, the waterlogged mud sliding down to cover the unconscious demon.
Not hesitating, Marco hurried down the nearside bank, struggling to not slide into a painful fall as he hit the water. It was cold. In fact, cold was an understatement.
When he was 13, he'd gone on an overnight field trip in the late spring to a mountain with his fellow karate students and Sensei Brantley. They'd hiked about halfway up on the first day and made camp, Marco leading several other kids to a nearby stream to gather water for cooking. He still vividly remembered the biting, stinging cold that soaked his fingers to the bone as he dipped the canteen in the steam. Now he felt that same needle-sharp pain over every inch of his body below the waist as he slogged through the rushing water to the other bank.
"Coldcoldcoldcoldcold," he hissed, pushing a bow wave of icy creek water in front of him as he struggled to cross the surprisingly deep channel. Reaching the unconscious demon, he plunged his hands into the frigid mud before struggling to grab a hold of his armor. Panting with effort, he heaved backward, dragging the mud-encrusted and limp body of Tom Lucitor out with a wet-sounding schlorp. Unfortunately for Marco, the additional weight and momentum of his abrupt rescue forced him to overbalance as he stumbled back on the rocky creek bed to crash into the water with a splash.
He came up spluttering and blinking, desperately looking for where Tom had gone. He'd lost his grip when they'd fallen, the current twisting and tugging the demon out of his grip. A loud splash of water grabbed his attention and he glanced over, relief spreading through him when he spotted the familiar, albeit still mud-streaked, pink hair. "Tom," he called over to where he was now crawling out of the creek and up the steep embankment.
The demon looked back at him and Marco paused despite the steadily increasing numbness in his legs. If he didn't know any better he'd of sworn the demon teen was scared. But then the look was gone, replaced instead by a frustrated scowl before he turned back and crested the bank. "Well…" he muttered to himself, splashing towards the shore, "this is going to be a disaster…"
Panting as he heaved himself over the mudbank several minutes later, Marco was surprised to see a small fire crackling merrily at the feet of a thoroughly disheveled and shell-shocked Tom. 'This could be dangerous…' he thought as he approached, slowly. He'd seen exactly what the Demon had been showing Tom, and if that hothead lost control of his temper? Well, Marco didn't really want to think about how that would go. So instead of saying anything when he reached the fire, he simply picked a spot on a nearby fallen log and sat down with a heavy groan.
They sat in silence for a long while, Tom occasionally rekindling the fire with a wave of his hand whenever it burned low. And as much as the spiraling silence was making Marco's anxiety spike, he was secretly glad he had a chance to strip out of the heavy plate armor and dry out his soaked gear. A chilly night in wet clothes that were at least half metal by his reckoning, would have made for a very uncomfortable evening.
"About…" Tom's voice made him glance up from where he'd been staring into the fire to find the demon now looking at him intently. "About what happened earlier…"
Marco felt his gut twist and his mouth run dry. If Tom pressed him about what he'd seen… Quickly assessing his options, Marco realized he had to make a choice between two truly terrible alternatives: To fess up about what he and Star had done and the unholy shitstorm that would unleash, or to simply keep his mouth shut and continue being the dishonorable ass he'd been for the last couple months. At least until they linked back up with the rest of his friends.
"They aren't supposed to affect me," Tom continued, his normally lavender skin appearing nearly white in the firelight, and Marco could have sworn he saw fresh tears welling at the edges of all three of the demon's eyes before he quickly wiped them away with a dirty sleeve. It made the once terrifying demon prince look almost human if that made sense. Whatever he was going to say, however, he could tell he was shaken to the core.
"I'm sorry what-"
"That demon's powers? They're not supposed to affect me," Tom interrupted, and for a moment, Marco was worried he'd triggered the volatile demon's temper. But no, he decided, it was just weary frustration and perhaps more than a little fear as he continued. "I'm a Lucitor… Heir to The Obsidian Throne. Whatever that thing is…it shouldn't have been able to affect me. It's supposed to be beneath me."
"So is it like, illegal for another demon to use his powers on you because you're a prince?" Despite the tension, Marco found himself leaning forward, eager to hear what Tom had to say.
"Illegal? Dude, really?" Tom let out a bitter bark of a laugh at the human teen's stunning naivety, laughing again when Marco looked suddenly sheepish at his question. "The Underworld isn't like Earth, with your squabbling politicians and petty rulers. Demons are bound by immutable laws and ancient spells. TheRoyal Family—My family?" He jabbed at his puffed-out chest for emphasis. "We're the undisputed rulers there, we have been since the beginning. Lower caste demons aren't able to use their powers on us; their magic isn't strong enough."
"Soooo…" Marco let the word drag on to buy him a second to organize his thoughts. A question was forming in his mind, a question he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer to. "So if those spells and laws have been in effect, could whatever this thing is, be even older and more powerful than your family?"
"Older than the Lucitors?" Tom laughed again, though Marco definitely noticed the mirth did not reach his eyes.
Deciding to shelve that speculation for now Marco pressed on, feeling slightly more at ease now that Tom seemed calm. "So how did you get trapped in that nightmare vision with that version of Star and me-"
"DON'T BRING THAT UP!" Tom roared, his eyes flaring a hellish red as the campfire at his feet became a thirty-foot column of hellfire. Marco scrambled backward, his cry of alarm drowned out by the roaring flames. He thought he might be in real trouble until the fire burned out in a searing flash as the light died in Tom's eyes. "Sorry…" he muttered, resummoning the small campfire at his feet, "I'm just on edge right now after what happened."
"Ya knowwww," began Marco as he tentatively sat back down on the log and raised his hands to soak in the heat. Suddenly Tom was doing his best to win a staring contest with the fire, but Marco did notice his three eyes flicking in his direction periodically. "I've experienced all these crazy demon shenanigans already. It might help to talk to someone who's actually seen it before."
Now Marco would be the first person to tell anyone who asked that he was no sunny optimist; that role belonged solidly and stubbornly to Star.But he did feel like he was getting somewhere with Tom, earlier in the day, before they linked up with Janna and Jackie. Maybe he could do a little good until the reality of what he and Star had done crushed him.
"Without getting into anyyyy…specific details…" said Tom slowly and hesitantly, seeming to stretch out the words as he struggled internally with something. "Let's just say that what happened in there… wasn't exactly a lie…" Marco felt his blood turn to ice. Now was the moment where the accusation came, along with fire, 'So much damn fire,' he thought bitterly.
"You know about the anger thing?" Tom sighed and wrung his hands, twisting in place on the log. "Well, it's a hell of a lot more complicated than just putting a damper on my social life. My father thinks it makes me an unreliable heir and a disappointment." Just then he noticed he'd drawn his arms around himself at that admission, something he had to consciously will himself to undo before continuing. "You know how strict and overbearing Queen Moon is? Yeah, my dad is twice as bad." Marco noticed the color come back into Tom's cheeks as his voice hardened. "Star gets a lot of shit because she doesn't take things as seriously as her mom wants her to. But like…like at least that's a conscious choice Star makes. I'm the way I am because I have thousands of angry souls inside of me."
Tom kicked the ground in front of the fire, the flying dirt momentarily muting the flames to cast his face in a harsh shadow. "Image is everything, Tom, a true king tempers his emotions and only acts to benefit The Underworld,"he sneered, doing his best to imitate his father's voice before letting out a bitter laugh. "He's one to fucking talk though… When he was my age, he was working as a barista serving coffee on Lava Lake Beach…"
Forty minutes later, Marco was at a bit of a loss as Tom descended deeper into what sounded like very well-trodden ground. Though, he strongly suspected this was something usually only relayed to Star in their most private of moments. His rant had opened the floodgates, and Tom had seemingly gone into great detail about the issues his anger had caused: How it always seemed to get in the way of his and Star's relationship, despite her bountiful patience and ability to see him for more than just demon. How it made making friends outside of toadies and lackeys extremely difficult and ultimately ended several attempts at dating outside of Star.
Tom had even let slip, after scolding himself for getting angry about it, that his rage issues were straining his relationship with his parents. "And yes, I got the stupid anger management coach he wanted—And yes, I also know he helps me keep from losing my temper over minor things, but it's a process. Brian says that lasting behavioral change takes time and my fucking dad thinks three months with a therapist is enough to turn me into a model prince."
"And Brian's absolutely right," nodded Marco, his interest involuntarily piqued now that Tom had mentioned his favorite subject: psychology. "Real change takes time and effort. It's not something that happens overnight."
"Dude, that's what I keep telling him!" said Tom, a look of vindication forcing a grin on his face. "I mean if even you get it, why can't my dad? No offense…"
Despite the dig, Marco was downright surprised to hear the friendliness in his tone. They'd made some progress earlier in the day towards extended civility, but there had been hostility and bitterness, both subtle and not-so-subtle on Tom's part. But now? Now, he seemed downright cheery in comparison as he spent the next few minutes venting about his father. Marco did his best to listen and be empathetic, though the nagging guilt in the pit of his gut over what he and Star had done and were planning to do didn't make it easy.
"Hey, uh…Marco?" Tom's question, but most of all his voluntary use of Marco's actual name, broke him out of his brooding thoughts. "Thanks for listening. I don't have a ton of people to talk to about serious stuff like this and I don't always want to dump it all on Star. She's already got a lot of stuff on her plate between everything that's going on and all the tension between well… Well you know…" Tom didn't need to say it, for Marco keenly felt the unspoken source of tension that only seemed to ratchet up as he and Star found themselves increasingly crossing the line with each other.
Marco sighed. He couldn't do it, couldn't lay another gut punch into Tom today as much as their past interactions made him want to. He and Star could wait until they all got out of there before dropping their bombshell on everyone. "After we get out of here, I think you, Penny, Star, and I all need to sit down and have a talk."
"Ah fuck it… You're probably right," sighed Tom, staring up into the now-dark sky. "Geeze how long have we been sitting here?"
"Well considering I'm basically dry now, I'd say about an hour?" Marco had also noticed the thick darkness now encroaching on their small clearing. In the distance, he could hear several different animals calling, none of which he could remember the name of at the moment. A flurry of movement and deep crimson from his side tore his gaze away from the inky sky to where Tom was hunched over, chanting in a low demonic growl as blood-red flames danced in his palm. "Uhhh?" he questioned.
The demon didn't bother looking up, merely grunting out a curt-sounding, "Tracking curse," once he'd stopped chanting and the flames had coalesced into a small brass bowl of black liquid.
"A tracking curse? Really?" asked Marco, giving him a disapproving glare. Here he was, thinking he was finally starting to warm up to the prickly demon, and he was an even bigger creep than he had originally thought. "Shameful…" he muttered, shaking his head in disappointment.
"It's not what you think," began Tom, his voice defensive as he quickly pricked a finger on one of his pointed teeth. Checking he'd drawn blood, he held the finger over the bowl and let three droplets fall into the black liquid which began to smoke immediately. "I know you won't understand this because you aren't a royal, but we have a few more things to worry about than failing a history test."
Marco was just about to fire back an angry, "Try me," when Tom saved him the trouble by pressing forward. "Princes and Princesses are the heirs to their respective kingdoms. That means enemies. Enemies who know that kidnapping the scion of the ruling family is a great way to get rich. Get even. Or both."
The black liquid in the small bowl bubbled with glutinous lethargy before he grimaced, tipped it to his lips, and drank. Marco shuddered as he watched Tom struggle to down the no doubt vile-tasting concoction. Several times he thought the teen was going to vomit, but he seemed to master the impulse each time, finally dropping the brass bowl with a muted clang.
"So-ahh," Tom shuddered, burping a cloud of dark smoke, "so disgusting. Look, you can think I'm a controlling asshole or not, I don't give a shit," he added, turning his attention back to their conversation. "I just wanted to keep Star as safe as I could. So when I got her that horned headband she always wears, I put a tracking curse on it. Even Toffee wasn't stupid enough to try to do anything to Star while she was in the castle with Queen Moon, but when she's out?" He shrugged, "I just wanted to be able to find her quickly if something bad ever happened while we were out together."
'So he doesn't know about the attempt on Star's life when she was 13…' That was interesting. Had Star not trusted Tom enough to share that traumatic memory with him? 'Still…' he thought, shelving that juicy fact for the moment, if he thought about what Tom's motivation was through the royal's admittedly much different lens, it was actually somewhat sweet. "Does Star know about this curse?" he asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow when Tom looked suddenly uncomfortable.
"Starship's pretty big on self-reliance whenever there's trouble–not that there usually is any with her ability to make friends at the drop of a hat," Tom quickly corrected himself, though he couldn't help but let out another bitter laugh.
"And you swear you've never used it to do anything sketchy like track her down when she doesn't want to see you?"
"Dude I'm an asshole, not a creep. Now shut up, the potion is starting to work." Tom stood up, closing his three eyes as he focused his mind on the buzzing, faint ping of the curse. But there was something wrong. The signal, normally steady and clear after only a moment of stabilizing, never seemed to resolve itself into anything more than a hazy notion of direction and distance. One that seemed to jump all over in front of him, sliding left to right every time he focused on it like an eggshell being plucked from a bowl.
"I can't-" he began, focusing his will even harder on the cursed object and glad to see it slowly starting to resolve itself– "OW, SHIT!" he shouted, doubling over as a jolt of magical feedback seared through his head like a red hot blade. Tom spit, the overwhelming demonic energy leaving his tongue momentarily numb, but there was no mistaking it: this was the exact same magic as earlier in the fog.
Marco had sprung to his feet, concerned when Tom had bent over and clutched at his head, but the demon's raised hand made him pause. He watched as Tom lowered his hand and sat back up, his face damp with sweat, though he had a wry smile on his lips. "Well, I have good news and bad news. Good news is the curse is working, sort of…"
"And the bad news?"
"The bad news is this asshole has some very serious power and knows how to use it. He's preventing me from pinpointing Star's location." Tom blew out a breath as the last of the ringing energy faded out into a dull headache. The best I can do right now is a vague sense of direction and distance." Raising his hand, he pointed in the direction he felt had the strongest feeling. "If we head out now, we can probably find Star by morning."
Marco's rising panic spiked as he watched Tom stand up and quickly begin to gather the stuff he'd put out to dry. "Uhhhh?" he began, glancing behind him to where the
forest had settled into utter darkness, "I'm not sure heading off into a dangerous, pitch-black forest at night with a demon running around is a good idea."
"What's the matter? Scared of the dark? If you want I can keep a night light on for you," laughed Tom, though Marco noted it was without any of his usual sneering disdain.
"I just think that–" But he let his words die on his lips as he stared over Tom's shoulder to the place where the light faded out from the campfire. Marco could see several dim outlines against the forest, their presence only given away by the slight reflection of the flickering flames. "Tom, we're not alone," Marco hissed, making pointed eye contact and willing the still-chuckling demon to notice the shrouded figures standing unnaturally still.
"I think…" a familiar voice began before distorting into a low demonic growl, "you two are in a lot of trouble."
"Se-Segilis?" Tom asked as the figures stepped into the dim light at the edge of the campfire and for a moment, Marco's brain locked up. It was Segilis, or, at least, it used to be. He could recognize her by the armor and equipment she was carrying, but her face was a twisted mockery of what he remembered. Both of her eyes were sunken and cold, a black tar-like substance running down her cheeks like streaked mascara as, here and there, moldy bundles of straw showed through missing patches of skin.
Flanked by her equally grizzly companions she leaned forward and opened her mouth, purple fog billowing over ragged, shattered teeth. A twitch of movement from the companion closest to Tom drew Marco's eye and he only had a moment to shout, "Watch out!" before the creature drew a wickedly curved sickle and lashed out.
He watched in horror as the blade flashed in the firelight before the tip bit deep into the armor over Tom's shoulder. The demon cried out in pain and surprise, twisting away from his attacker as Marco's hand flashed to pull Silverlight from its scabbard. The three creatures charged, Segilis leaping the fire to reach him first and bring her blade down in a slash that Marco lept away from before ducking under a second from another monster. Twisting low, he just managed to spin away from the third monster that came at him out of the darkness, his sickle already whistling through the air.
Whipping Silverlight up in a low slash, he managed to keep his foes at bay, his sudden attack making the trio hesitate long enough for him to get his feet back under him. With a rustle of dried leaves, the three charged forward, their weapons hacking and slashing at him in a frenzy of steel. Individually, Marco knew he could take them in a fight without much trouble, but with the three of them crudely coordinating their attacks, he was having much more trouble. Segilis seemed to be the most competent, her strikes landing with more precision, not to mention significantly harder.
'You can't hold off all three forever,' his brain unhelpfully reminded him just as he parried a vicious backhanded slash from Segilis that would have opened his stomach. If he had his armor on he could afford to take more risks, but with only his "I'm a Hot Dawg" t-shirt to protect him, he couldn't afford to take a hit. He'd just have to be perfect. Furiously, he twisted and bent, using his martial arts skills to dodge and weave out of range, trying not to get overwhelmed. He was so hard-pressed, he didn't even have time to glance over and see how Tom was faring.
It wasn't working.
Slowly but surely, he was losing the fight as fatigue began to bite and slow his reactions. He had to take action and take it now if he wanted to come out of this fight alive. So after dodging several following strikes and timing them out in his head, Marco stepped into Segilis's latest swing, closing the range to nothing before driving his shoulder into her chest, the smell of rancid hay making his head swim as he knocked her to the ground. In a flash, he twisted his body, whipping a heel kick up into another monster's temple and knocking it spinning backward to tumble over the log he'd been sitting on. He was almostfast enough to bring Silverlight around to bear down on the last opponent still standing, almost.
In the instant he'd been turned around during the kick, he'd seen that his third attacker was already bringing down a jagged, rusty sword in a killing blow. He braced for searing pain as the blade sliced through him, but it never came. Instead, there was a bright flare of scarlet light as a fireblast the size of a basketball slammed into his would-be killer, engulfing the monster in flames as it was blasted twenty feet back and into a stout tree. "YES!" The words were out of his mouth before he even thought about it as he turned to see a very pissed-off Thomas Lucitor.
"Nobody stabs me!" Tom growled, his three eyes pits of hellfire as he hefted another fist of flames and hurled it towards where Segilis was just springing to her feet, her eyes glowing baleful yellow. It sailed wide and Tom swore as he willed another blast into his palm.
"Tom, behind you!"
He whirled at Marco's warning, the heads up allowing him to jump back from the slashing sickle. Instantly, he threw the flames, igniting his attacker's entire shoulder and arm. But instead of screaming and twisting to put it out as Tom had expected, the creature fought on, seemingly unaffected by the searing flames hungrily burning its clothing. "Shit!" he hissed in pain as the creature's flashing sickle reached him, neatly severing his hand at the wrist. He roared in fury, eyes stark white as the crimson flames in his other hand flared yellow. He brought his hand around, crashing it into the face of his attacker. Claws ripped and tore at the skin, digging deeply into the rotten straw beneath for a second before being consumed by the flames he poured out of his hand. The former villager-turned-monster crumpled, its head a bonfire.
Marco shot forward, Silverlight a gleaming razor as he intercepted Segilis who had just tried to ambush a distracted Tom. Once, twice, three times, their swords crossed, Marco maneuvering her away from where Tom was still dispatching the other creature. "You will both die here," Segilis growled as she hacked at him, her calculating strikes keeping him on his toes as they continued their lethal dance.
"Just gotta find my hand anddd gotcha–" Tom spotted the missing appendage, jogging over to grab it before slipping on a loose stick and stumbling. Teetering and windmilling his arms, he swore again as his foot contacted his errant hand, sending it tumbling into the brush. "Be with you in one second Marco, just gotta reattach my hand!"
"Reattach your WHAT?!" Segilis's flashing sword missed his face by inches, forcing Marco to bow like a reed in the wind. He kept going, using the momentum to combo into a back handspring before sliding to a stop. He didn't hesitate. Deciding to take a page out of Segilis's playbook, he charged, leaping the remains of the campfire to lay a scything chop that Segilis awkwardly blocked before springing forward to deliver a vicious front kick that took her in the jaw, snapping her head back and giving him the opening he needed.
Landing with grace despite his armored boots, Marco pirouetted, Silverlight's edge gleaming carmine as it split the air. Segilis tried to block, tried to deflect the scything blade, but couldn't get the edge of her sword turned in time. Instead, Silverlight cleaved straight through, its blade biting at the steel and snapping it clean in half before carrying on to slice off her head. A rush of dark smoke burst out of the headless torso that made Marco choke and shield his eyes as moldy bits of straw rained down. Sparing her deflated and sagging body one last glance of sad regret, he quickly scanned his surroundings, noting the other two monsters were down for the count. A muffled sounding, "Found it!" was followed by rapidly approaching footsteps until Tom, now with both hands reattached, came bounding out of the woods, searching for targets for the readied flames in his hands.
"AHHHYA!" The demon teen let out a shout of challenge.
Marco couldn't help but laugh as Tom's face fell from snarling wrath to confusion as he took stock of the battlefield. "Yeahhh, I um…" Marco was suddenly feeling very self-conscious as he awkwardly bent to wipe the ichor off of Silverlight.
"Well then–" Tom let the fire in his hands go out as eyed the aftermath of the battle. "It's good to see not all humans are as weak and useless as I suspected."
"You…do know I won the tournament, right?" Marco arched an eyebrow, a half-grin on his lips.
"Shut up…"
Several hours later, Marco quietly slipped a small handful of Captain Blanche's Sugar Seeds out of the small baggie he had set next to him. He chewed slowly and deliberately, doing his best not to make any noise and wake up a sleeping Tom not five feet away. A Tom that was creepily levitating several feet off the ground, his sleeping bag draped over him and giving Marco the impression of a body in the morgue.
'At least the fight changed his mind about waiting for morning,' he thought, noting that the sleeping demon had been much more agreeable to his plan of hunkering down until dawn after their attack. So they'd abandoned their previous camp by the creek and spent a tense half hour traveling in the dark to shelter under a fallen tree that was wedged securely in the split trunk of another. After that, they'd managed to dry out the rest of their things and Marco had taken first watch.
At first, he was tense, straining to hear any sign of approaching enemies in the pitch-black woods. Now he was just anxious. His mind kept bouncing between worrying about the rest of his friends, especially his less capable earth friends, to Star and how much he wished she was here. She was amazing in a crisis, keeping a level head and always giving it her all. 'And don't even get me started on our teamwork…' he thought, indulging in a happy moment thinking of all the amazing times he and Star had kicked butt when they were under pressure before a wave of guilt rolled over him and he began the entire process all over again.
A sound made him look up. It was faint, barely at a level he could hear, but he could tell whatever was making it was coming closer. As he listened, the sound he was straining to hear resolved itself into creaks and groans punctuated here and there by the snapping of tree limbs. "Tom," he whispered, sparing the levitating demon a nervous glance before a fresh new terror tore his attention back to the woods. A deep voice had begun to speak. "Smell their fear. Worthless, craven insects. Should grind their unworthy bones and snack on them."
"Oh shit, that can't be anything good…' thought Marco, shifting over to Tom and shaking his shoulder gently. "Tom!" he hissed, the panic in his chest rising as whatever huge thing was walking nearby seemed to be getting closer from how loud the rumbling voice was getting.
"Ugh, Marco, shut up. I heard you the first time, no need to talk so lou–" Tom shut up as his foggy brain caught up to the situation. "What the fuck is that?" he asked, joining Marco's gaze into the still pitch-black woods as whatever was out there continued to close in.
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
Marco could feel the heavy footfall in his hands as he crouched low behind a thick tree trunk. "The stink of it. But not yet, He says, not tonight…" The words made his skin crawl as the huge creature continued to walk closer. 'No, that isn't right,' he scolded himself, noticing now that while the huge creature was certainly close, it wasn't getting closer. He turned to Tom and held a finger up to his lips, mouthing a near-silent, "Don't. Move. He's. Going. Away."
Tom could taste the foulness of the demonic essence of whatever was out there. It was the same as before, but now it felt twice as strong and the force of it was almost enough to make his eyes water. There wasn't any other way to put it: he was scared. Every instinct told Tom that he shouldn't trust the human; that they needed to run, not hide. But instead of simply grabbing Marco and running, or simply abandoning him if the fool chose to stay and die, he did nothing. Instead, he only nodded in the near total darkness and shifted his position to hide better as whatever lumbering monstrosity was out there continued its ambling path, mumbling almost incoherently to itself in that skin-crawling voice that sounded like a mountain had been given voice.
"I think it's gone," whispered Marco several minutes later as the last of the snapping and crushing branches faded into silence. Whatever had been out there had either not noticed them, or hadn't been interested it seemed.
"Marco…" A tiny pinprick of fire at the end of one of Tom's fingers got his attention, and he saw that all three of the demon's scarlet eyes were wide with fear. "Tell me everything you know about this asshole."
O - O - O - O - O - O - O
Janna jolted upright, struggling to break free of the clinging hands of sediment and roots, desperate for a breath and desperate to break free from the clasping earth below. Freedom was in sight, and every muscle in her body was burning to achieve it.
"He's back! The fucking demon is-!" She stopped mid-breath, sucking in air for the impending combat, only to find her surroundings completely still. Surroundings that seemed completely different from the cold forest she'd just been hiking through. Her hands were clean. She was fine, and the nightmare was over. Her throat wasn't abraded or filled with dirt. If anything, it was peaceful. She was completely isolated. Reclining against something solid, she rubbed her head clear of the fog but there was a panicked drum to her heartbeat. It caught up with her like a stalking predator, the need to keep a calm head and assess her surroundings.
Apart from the pale orange disk hanging through the mist above, there wasn't much to make out through the thick fog beyond the canopy. "Wait. Am I in a tree?" she asked aloud, looking down past the web of vines and hanging moss. She sat forward, careful to keep her balance in the rudimentary hammock.
It seemed that the answer to that rather silly question was, in fact, a yes. She was suspended in a tree, not unlike a cypress. Wide and tall, it towered above a small island of dirt surrounded by murky water and sawgrass. The environment had gone from a nightmarish forest to an unimpressive swamp, with nothing else showing through the veil of white mist. It was cloying, clinging to her like the noxious incense the manager of the occult bookstore she shopped at loved to burn. She could hear churning water in the distance, muffled by the fog, but that could wait until the immediate problem was solved.
Janna looked back down at the island, gauging the distance to be about thirty feet. 'Too far to jump…' she noted, huffing a clump of moss from her face and peering expectantly at the surrounding reeds. "What's your game, asshole?" She asked nobody, though she hoped she wouldn't get an answer.
Bearing took first priority, then her precarious situation. But to do that, she first needed to get down. Gripping a mossy branch she hoisted herself up and started her descent, ideas and memories coming in waves: The ground beneath her feet dissolved into hands and arms. A fog blasted in from the distant horizon to swallow the entire forest. The game. But before anything else, before the demon could show its face again she needed to move. This could all be a vision, or worse, she could be- "Yo, dude, nice to see you!"
"JESUS!" Her heart jumped to her throat as her foot slipped on wet bark. She scrambled to grab purchase of any limbs, falling sideways twenty feet to land face first in the murky swamp. Mercifully, or horrifyingly, she felt a hand grip her wrist and wrench her out of the muck. She fought the pull dragging her up to the scum-topped embankment, thrashing for freedom until she recognized, "Jaghie?!"
Janna spat and swallowed the last of the mud and swamp water that had shot up her nose in the fall before choking out, "What the- *cough cough* -hell are you doing here?" She settled into a barrage of hacking and wheezing, hunched over, waiting for vomit or an answer; she could take either at this point. Jackie kept her smile, her head listing.
"Last I checked we've been hanging out since yesterday." She wiped her hands and reclined against the tree's extensive roots. Her hair was frizzy and her robes were a little muddy, but otherwise, she didn't look hurt. "I could probably ask you the same thing, playing Tarzan up there."
Janna rolled her eyes and shook the algae from her hair. The vomit could wait until later. "Nevermind, shut up. Let me think for a sec."
"First time for everything, yeah?"
"Zip it. We were… I think we were hiking with Marco and Horns when the fog hit us. And we can thank our demon pal for fucking up our picnic plans with-" Janna paused the wringing of her clothes to properly stare at Jackie. 'Since yesterday?'
"It's been a whole day?!"
Jackie shrugged, her easy smile withstanding. "Not a whole day, it's only morning. I thought about climbing up to get you, but you looked pretty comfy."
Janna glared at her for a moment before relaxing her shoulders, stepping out of the mud, and sitting on the grass. "Thanks, I feel completely refreshed," she grumbled, staring out over the reeds. The murky, mossy water was almost tranquil in the morning haze. "First the game blows up, then the woods blow up… How does this shit keep happening?"
Jackie sat down beside her, comfortably lounging on the grass. "Is that a rhetorical question?"
"It's not like this is all my fault!"
Jackie arched an eyebrow and waited.
A dragonfly the size of a bird buzzed by overhead as Janna rolled her eyes. She knew Jackie had a point. The demonic thing had been summoned by her hands, and more than twice now it had gotten her and her friends into less-than-fortunate situations. But hindsight was hardly going to help anyone.
"Shut up. I keep trying to fix this mess, but the stupid thing always comes back, like a zit! How was I supposed to know that a harmless little summoning circle would lead to all this?"
"You couldn't have, but you dropped in on the pipe, and ya gotta see it through, Jan." Jackie eyed her with a twist of sincerity. "You messed with things you shouldn't have, so consider this a lesson in responsibility." A frog the size of a pumpkin snapped its tongue out to swallow a nearby dragonfly, the loud crunching drawing both girls' attention before Janna let out an annoyed sigh.
"Janna, this time you went too far! Janna, put my tongue back where you got it! Janna, you hexed the bus and now we have to walk to school! It's all Janna's fault! Believe me, I get enough of that from Marco. I don't really give a damn about-"
Jackie slugged her shoulder. "Naaah, this ones mostly on Star, if we're playin' the blame game. So how's Mean Machine Janna Banana gonna fix it, and learn from her crazy ways?"
Janna stared out over the sawgrass as she worked out an answer. "Well, to start? I think we should find the others. If we can get Star, then we can at least defend ourselves from this asshole's magic." She stood and further wrung out her robes. "So long as nobody… you know, died. First, we gotta track her down and shut this dumb game off."
Jackie stood and picked some mud off her robes. "Sounds good to me. I already got us a ride." She jerked a thumb to the other side of the island. There sat a moldy yellow skiff, one Janna hadn't noticed from her perch. "You awake enough for a little river cruise?"
Janna almost smiled before plucking two reeds from the waterline and trudging to the boat. Jackie climbed inside and waited as it was pushed into the open water. From there, it was a simple task of using the bo staff to push off, and head in any direction away from the lone tree.
"There's the creepiest witch in Echo Creek, so what's the move?" Jackie asked, taking to polling to set their course, "You got some scary ritual to track down the others? Maybe a GPS? Laser-guided bats? A skull that tells us directions if we pay with our fingers?"
"Someone's feeling chipper after a demonic overture."
"More like I'm happy sleeping beauty is done swinging from vines."
"Funny, but I don't need any of that kiddy stuff, I got the old-fashioned way. Just hope we don't run into someone with less… enthusiasm." Janna held out the two reeds and focused, directing her senses toward the subtle, hidden pressure behind her eyes. Jackie watched with casual interest, pushing the boat along as she found her mark, a warm, bubbly feeling a good way to the north, but unmistakably Star.
The two reeds pulled her to the right, and Jackie was quick to follow. "Got ya," Janna exulted. She set her jaw into a glare. "She's pretty far, and moving, but she's alive."
Jackie tightened the grip on her staff, alarmed. "Was that in question?"
Janna shrugged. "It was until just now. But I can't say the same for everyone else."
"I would probably keep that up, just in case. It looks easy to get lost… out… here?" Both girls let their eyes wander to a grove of cypress trees angrily churning water in a boil around their roots. But it wasn't a Swamp Thing coming to butcher them. It was the roots of the trees thrashing against the water.
Like a herd of thirty-foot octopuses, the trees were crawling toward the south. They seemed to navigate around the boat intentionally, the fog and rushing water creating the illusion that the two were traveling through them. It was Janna who gathered her wits first, her expression sour. "Keep your guard up. I dunno what the new rules of this place are, but I'm sure they've gotten wayyyy more fucked since yesterday."
Jackie shrugged and maneuvered them through the creeping cypress grove. "I dunno, this place was pretty crazy before it got turned upside down. I'm more concerned about-"
The water beneath the nearest cypress tree erupted as some sort of convulsing alligator wrestled with a thirty-foot boa. The snake was a foot wide and wrapped around the alligator's midsection, but the goliath reptile was snapping its jaws and thrashing back with enough force to topple trees. Janna jumped back and made to scramble away from the disturbance, but Jackie held fast, steering the vessel further away as the fight raged.
"You wanna take care of that Jan? I'd do it but I'm driving, got my hands full over here." Janna turned to Jackie with an incredulous stare, but finding a genuine offer on her face, slowly took to her feet and held her hands out. "Frostbite!"
At her command, two icicle lances formed before her open palms and shot forward toward the battling creatures. They never slowed their movements, jerking and snapping against each other and the surrounding trees. The icicles shattered against the beast's hides without even their tethered cables to shock them into submission.
Janna shook her hands and clapped, but there was no response. The warm feeling in her gut from the afternoon prior was all but gone. "Sooooo, update: apparently everything's fine except my dumb magic doesn't work anymore."
"Do you really need it for this? Just use your normal stuff." Jackie lunged forward and cracked her staff against the boa's head. Janna watched her with worry, but Jackie deftly wove through snapping jaws and over thrashing limbs, landing back on the boat without so much as a wasted breath. "See? Now you."
Janna shot her a puzzled look but held out two hands. She focused, searching for a taste of that darkness hidden just beyond her senses. With a snap, she clapped once and called out, "Dormio!"
With a last thrash, both creatures froze before the alligator fell back to the water, taking the snake with it as the swamp fell back into silence. A viscous, black film bubbled to the surface with hissing foam, and rotting strands of hay.
Janna sat down hard and sighed a breath of relief. "I get it's a swamp, but come on! What the fuck even is this game?!"
"Ahhh it's not so bad, it's kinda fun? In a, 'don't fall in the water again or you're so getting eaten' kinda way?" Jackie ignored the glare sent her way and continued pushing the boat with her bo staff, a subtle gleam in her eyes. "I'm glad you're alright, though. I was kinda worried when you, of all people, got so caught up in all… that."
Janna nodded and set her reeds pointed north. She needed a moment to process everything sent her way. "You sure you're alright, Jackie? You seem really… calm about all this. Even by your usual, 'surfer-chick' vibe. And that's not even taking into account how different you've been lately."
Jackie frowned. "Different… how?"
"Eh, I dunno, more reckless, outgoing… happy? You seem like the only friend of mine who isn't losing their mind, which is cool, but out here? It's dangerous if you don't take this stuff seriously."
Jackie let out a breath she didn't remember holding and shook off her nerves. As close as it was, she was fine, nothing to worry about. "Maybe I'm just better at hiding the things driving me crazy." She gestured to the creeping fog around them. "My problems aren't magical, alien, or metaphysical. So when I'm just along for the ride out here, it's more of an adventure than a fight for my life. Plus, I have you guys."
Janna returned a forced smile, confident in their heading and her answer. "Somethings gotta be on your shoulders, or you wouldn't be trying so hard to pretend there's not."
"Are you trying to get a read on me? Dude, you know I'm an open book."
"Yeah, and all the pages are blank to me. So what is it that's driving you crazy if magical aliens and interdimensional douchebags don't keep you up at night?"
This time in plain view, Jackie frowned. She looked down at the churning water to stare back at the easygoing, sun-kissed grin set beneath two yellow eyes. "You know, the same as everyone else," she sighed, turning away from the face in the water, "just bad choices, I guess."
Janna nodded, clearly unhappy with her answer before focusing on her reeds. Jackie did much the same, except she was focused on an inward force. "Now isn't exactly the best time, Adam. Can it wait?"
She felt his gaze shift to Janna, his thoughts echoing loud and clear. 'You don't want an update on everyone? I can feel how worried you are, Jacks, but I've got good news.'
"Is it actually good news? Or are you here to tell me you lost more of our friends?"
'Hey, that's not my fault.' The visage of the boy from her memories rippled against the water. 'How was I supposed to prepare for Marco and Star to go shooting through everyone's lessons? I'm not omniscient, ya know.'
"Omniscient enough to know what everyone fears most, but not that Penelope might get eaten by one of the-the things out there."
'Oh please, she has Star with her to-'
"Who, the one person she hates most out here? You really couldn't see a divide coming, after what you showed her? Adam, she doesn't have Magic to-"
'I KNOW!' The swamp water rippled beside the boat with enough force to rock it, but not enough to draw any unwanted attention. Adam smoothed himself and eyed the waterline. 'I get it, Jacks, things went sideways. Mea Culpa. But in all reality? Coulda been a lot worse.'
"Not by much, Adam. And it feels like you're just trying to do damage control because you think I'm mad."
He stared at her, the water churning beside the skiff for an uncomfortably long moment.
'...Are you mad?'
Jackie mimicked his cold stare, her emotions stark. "Ask me when I'm done finding my best friends passed out in trees or walking with crutches."
Immediately guilty of her spiteful barb, she chanced a glance at the waterline, watching as the visage of Adam collected on the spreading stream of ripples. He looked wearier than before, but no less satisfied as he casually stepped out of the water. He shook the algae out of his hair and walked alongside the skiff. 'Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know things would get this wild. I'm trying to fix it, and if you'd like me to-'
"It's okay, Adam. Just… gimme the short version. Please."
He watched her for a moment, combing his hand through a passing patch of sawgrass. 'Marco and Star got caught red-handed by Penelope. In their favorite memory and tongue-deep down each other's throats, no less,' he laughed, waving his hand through the air to calm the rippling waves. In the water's reflection was a picturesque view of the two in question, standing aghast before a fuming Penelope. 'And while it ended in disaster, thanks to Marco, I think I gave Thomas a good nudge towards owning his anger. With our new pairs attached at the hip, it's gonna be lit! They're gonna have to work together, or else.'
Jackie bit her lip, pushing the boat along as she chanced a glance at Janna. "Hopefully you can find them before something else does. What about Fergs and Alphonzo?"
Adam's mirage rippled, but his casual disposition didn't waver. 'Yeah… those two didn't really last too long."
"WHAT!?" She demanded, immediately clasping a hand over her mouth and staring at Janna.
"I didn't say anything?"
"Sorry, I thought I heard you- it sounded- my bad." Jackie sighed. She waved a hand towards a nearby grove. "Probably just the woods winding up my nerves. Don't worry about it."
Janna arched a brow but shrugged, holding up her reeds to check their heading. Jackie looked back at Adam with a touch more intensity, her emotions a gale through their connection. "What do you mean they didn't last?! Are they okay!? What happened?"
Finally, Adam's expression wavered towards an annoyed frown. He waved his hand towards the water again, this time letting the bubbles and algae collect into a chaotic image of flora tangled into a mess. At the center of what appeared to be a lurching cage of branches, stone, and moss were the two hopeless fools in question. A little beat up, terrified, but alive from the look of it.
'They're in good hands, Jacks, don't worry. Think of it as… time out. They'll be sitting out the rest of our little adventure today. I know those idiots don't have a point in being here, so I took measures to keep them out of the way. Same as our uninvited guest.' His gaze returned to watch her with scrutiny. 'I know those two knocked us off course with the bond, but I know what I'm doing. A bit of tough love is necessary when the people you care about are so rough around the edges. You don't learn to surf in the tide pool.'
"We did," Jackie scowled, "And what about the others? Are they gonna be-"
'Jackie,' Adam cut in, the smile wiped from his face. He looked more stern than angry, stepping closer and letting the images dissolve. 'Right now I need you to trust me, alright? I got this under control, everyone's fine. This is gonna be good for them remember? They need this, and I need you to keep Jan' out of the way so they can grow.'
After a moment of uneasy silence, Jackie nodded. "Okay, keep doing what you need to, and I'll work on Janna myself," she offered, pushing them toward the location of the fictitious magic beacon Adam had set up. "How's Marco holding up after all that? Remember that he's not-"
'He's putting up the biggest fight, actually,' Adam interrupted. He stepped away from the boat and eyed Janna with distaste. 'He can't help but be Marco, you know how he is. Dude just doesn't give up. If anything, he's pushing back even harder after being caught in the act, even pulling Tom up with him.'
"That's… good to hear? Just keep an eye on them. Please?" Jackie risked meeting his yellow eyes. How exhausted he looked, but the sight was still so familiar and comforting. "I can handle things out here. Focus on the others and make sure they make the best of this."
Adam flashed a grin and nodded. 'That's what it's all about, Jacks. Leave it to me and our friends will end up just as perfect as you. I promise.'
Jackie's cheeks lit up scarlet if only for a moment before Janna coughed, and as if he was never ever there, Adam was gone. "You've been awfully quiet, got a lot on your mind?" Janna asked, setting down her rods and taking a seat.
Jackie let herself relax, careful not to look too on edge. "You could say that. We got plenty to think about."
Ignoring the chill riding up her spine, Janna watched a flock of dragonflies alight onto a bent mangrove. "With friends like ours, I'm almost jealous of the people with normal drama." She swatted at a mosquito as Jackie steered around the sinking grove. "How crazy is school gonna be with Mewmans enrolling? Can you picture Star sitting through calculus?"
Jackie grinned, but she could see past the thinly veiled change of conversation. "Guess our problems are far from over, dude. Brittany's gonna raise hell with two more princesses at the lunch table, and I can already hear the bitch fest."
"Don't even get me started on Miss 'Queen B'," Janna scoffed. She grinned as the merry little hell cruise kept underway. The thought was far more entertaining than the alligators below. "With magic, demons, and whatever the hell Miss Skullnick might throw at us, it's gonna be an interesting year. Provided nobody kills each other by the end of this shitshow."
A flutter of luminous beetles buzzed past the creeping trees where a flock of frogs sat waiting. As an array of tongues shot up to catch the bugs unawares, Jackie nodded along as she pushed. "Give them a chance. It could be good for them to hash out their differences and put all the bullshit to bed in a controlled environment."
Janna scoffed. "Controlled? I dunno if you knocked your head in the fog, but this place is about as controlled as Penelope in the same room as Star."
"Yeah yeah, maybe it doesn't seem like it right now, but I think in hindsight everything'll make sense." Jackie swatted at a mosquito on her bare shoulder. "A little tough love might be what they need."
Janna stared out over the misty water, watching as what was probably another alligator skimmed by just beneath the surface. "Not unless I'm there to watch the fireworks. When Marco dumps Penelope I want front-row seats."
"Wait, they were planning to break up!?" Jackie looked incredulous, much to Janna's amusement.
"If you can even call them together, with how shoehorned Star is between 'em," Janna laughed. "Her too. I bet you she's dropping Horns to get jiggy with Marco, and when that bridge burns?" She didn't need to finish the thought.
Jackie let out a derisive snort. "I think they've got bigger problems, but that's a good first step."
"Nah, the first step was those two idiots going to town on each other after tripping balls in another dimension," Janna laughed.
Jackie's jaw dropped in mock surprise. "Have you been spying on them? Oh, Janna, that's so messed up!" she snorted, a wide grin plastered across her face.
"Oh, they get to cheat but I'm in hot water for knowing?"
Jackie whacked the top of her head with her bo staff, but it was clear she agreed. "Let's worry about finding them first, then we can enjoy the show. We can gossip all we want when our lives aren't in danger."
Janna picked up her rods and held them out. "Girls gotta have her… priorities… straight?" She trailed off, following a slight tug to her left. Where there was a bubbly energy that undoubtedly was leading her to Star, now there was an unchecked cold and throbbing pain. It was like a void drawing her off their course and towards something sinister. "I think… we need a detour," she continued, turning to eye Jackie warily.
She stared right back, not giving an ounce of emotion in return. "What is it? Did Star move?" She asked. But she knew what Janna was picking up on. If she wasn't following the imitation magic…
"I think it's him," Janna breathed, "it's gone now but… it was there, just like at your house." For a heartbeat, Jackie felt unsteady. Not afraid, as that feeling was all but alien to her now, but anxious.
"We should keep looking for Star," she ordered, not an ounce of play to her words, "we can't take him on alone, if that even is Ad-... the demon."
Janna stared for a moment, but let it go. A time and a place, but now wasn't it. "Think about it, Jackie," she began, setting her rods down, "if Star's magic is as messed up as mine? Then the sooner we confront the source, the better. We find her and everyone else, then we're fish in a barrel. But I bet you this bubble takes a shitload of energy, and I bet you our friend would be pretty easy to drive off."
"And what if you're wrong? What if he- it's, got more than enough magic to mess you up? We could be screwing everyone over by giving him our ace in the hole."
"Flattering, thanks, but I just… I feel like this is the right way," Janna countered, facing the west and eyeing the creeping trees, "something feels off to me, but this? This feels like the right direction. Trust me."
Jackie made to further dissuade the dangerous change of direction Janna was adamantly pursuing when a cold chill ran up her spine. She felt an invisible hand resting on her shoulder, warm but hollow as Adam's voice offered, 'Just go with it. We have time, and she can't do anything to the cube.'
He sounded unsure for the first time since he'd stepped back into her life, and Jackie could think of a million reasons why she'd disagree. Either of the two could so easily hurt the other if things got out of hand, and as of late, things often did. But she ultimately relented.
"Fine," she sighed, "but if things start getting too weird, we're out of there, got it?"
Janna smiled and retrieved her reeds to chart their new course. "Psshh, me? Weird? Nah, you got me mixed up with someone else," she scoffed. "First time I've seen you all 'Marco' on me in a while. Relax, I got a good feeling about this."
"I'm not scared, I just don't think this is a good idea. For anyone," Jackie answered, pushing the boat along. The presence over her shoulder withered into nothing. It left a hollow feeling in her chest. "We aren't alone out here, even though I wish we were."
O - O - O - O - O - O - O
Rasticore grunted in frustration. The wetness of his axe made it difficult to grasp with metallic fingers, something that always annoyed him. He was standing in a field shrouded in some sort of purple fog, as familiar as it was alien. How he got here, what he'd been doing, or what the rancid, burning smell in his nostrils was, he had no idea.
What he did know was that he was tired, adorned in his old armor, and ravenously hungry. Something about the smell of burning meat and iron in the air made his stomach churn, but whether it was hunger or disgust was debatable.
"I can feel you out there," he breathed, "You've been watching me. Reveal yourself, before I lose my patience."
The rolling purple fog rippled only slightly to reveal a silhouette in the distance. A figure Rasticore knew far too well to remain calm in the presence of.
"Yes, I relied on your patience in the past, though I can see now how great of an oversight that was. One that won't be repeated in the future."
"My deepest apologies, my lord. I just-"
"Rest, and listen, Rasticore. You did well, but still, I find your benefits… disappointing," Toffee answered. His voice was cool and collected, but just behind it lay a barely restrained gale of anger. "You lost control again, and your emotions got the better of you. How many of our ranks fell because of your lack of restraint? Because you only saw bodies yet to be cut down by your axe?"
"It wasn't-"
"Silence." Toffee's glare was iron. It was a frigid look few survived to remember. "There is no merit in victory if it costs us the very thing we fight for. Have I not explained that to you in painstaking detail? How often will you abuse my erroneously given faith that you can deliver?"
The fog was beginning to clear, and with it, Rasticores memory. The field around him wasn't budding with flora and life. It was blanketed with Mewman and Monster corpses alike with piles of bodies burning in bonfires. The stench of death only grew stronger as the wind blew away the mist, revealing an endless sea of death and blood.
Toffee began to pace, surveying the carnage with a disgusted frown.
Rasticore looked to his hands and armor to find them soaked in Mewman blood. The very ground beneath his feet was hidden below mangled flesh and charred corpses, yet still, he wanted to serve.
"I did this… for you," he growled. "For our people. For our future! Send me to the farthest reaches of Mewni and I will return with nothing short of total victory for you and our army."
Toffee stopped next to a bonfire of corpses, examining his finely manicured claws before turning back to face Rasticore. Half of his face was a glow of orange, while the other half was obscured in shadow. "Our Army… Hmm."
Under his gaze, Rasticore swallowed. The other Generals began to make themselves seen around him, stepping to file into ranks behind Toffee. The snickering and calls of inadequacy were potent to his ears.
"You think you hold claim over any of our forces? Look around you at the bodies of our fallen brethren. When you can put a name to every face, as I can, only then can you claim this army to be yours. Until then, you are a worn cog in a very productive machine. And one due to be replaced."
The pregnant silence in that field stretched, and in the absence of any excuses, Toffee sighed. "You bring only disappointment where failure cannot be tolerated. Take your time among those who trusted you, and know that I am no longer one of them, Rasticore."
He was stunned, staring as Toffee turned on his polished heels and walked away, flanked by the other generals. How long he'd served. How hard he'd fought. How many lives had he taken? None of it mattered. In the end, he was just another underling. Another name responsible for many others.
"You only realize it now?"
The roaring of flames softened, their light and heat turning cold and dark.
"Can ya smell all that death, big guy?" A voice asked from everywhere, "can you taste that sweet fear? It's gnarly isn't it?"
Rasticore thundered back to his senses and tore his axe in a wide arc to cleave the voice behind him. In a whirlwind, he spun about and sliced a mirage of himself in two. The other Rasticore dissipated immediately, but the voice came again from the bodies littering the field.
"Does this place make you feel at home? When you're soaked in blood and deaf from the screams? You like killing people, don't you?"
He made to attack, but everything around him was already dead. With a grinding snarl, Rasticore rested his weapon and spat on the ground. "I do it because it's necessary. This is the only way, and they deserve it."
"Ah, but it won't ever be enough will it?" The bodies echoed back, "It won't make you happy, winning. What hell you've sown here on Mewni, and still you live in Toffee's shadow, man. You're a warrior yet to be rivaled! But… you're still so pathetic, you need approval from better men. And you think you can pay for it with other people's blood."
"I would hold your tongue, before I remove it," Rasticore growled back.
"Why? This is what you want, right? Your blood lust is almost as ravenous as your craving for recognition. All our bodies don't satisfy that? The bodies of your brothers, sisters, and enemies?"
Rasticore gripped his axe tighter, staring out over the field. The gears in his knuckles groaned in protest, but he held his resolve. Toffee's words were still too fresh to ignore. "No. I want every last Mewman dead. This isn't about approval, regrets, or ideals. It's about revenge and conquest. Over a people more deserving than yourself. Barely."
"Revenge? Pfffftt, for what?" The voices mocked him with a chorus of laughter. Only after the roar settled did the echo continue. "For being too weak a race to stand up to better? For killing your own species in droves before the first Mewman ever fell through the Well? Face it, you were bred to kill more than Mewman, and they subjugated you by right. No amount of carnage and inadequacy is gonna change that. You were born to be ruled by-"
There came a loud *Ping*, and a flash of white light that overtook the hell around him. With a shallow breath, Rasticore found himself in a forest clearing, the air clean and cool. A boy was standing before him, a human in adolescence with a mess of sandy blond fur on his head.
The reptile scowled at it.
"Using magic to alter my mind?" He spat, "Toffee's generals carry wards against such underhanded techniques. But… your strength to render them useless is… impressive."
The boy smiled. "You sound like you didn't have fun. Makes sense, you're a little too old to be playing a game like mine, but you're doing alright."
Rasticore stared him down, fully aware that his eyes couldn't be trusted. "A human couldn't hope to pull off something like this. Show yourself, and I'll give you an honorable death."
"Like you give the Mewmans? Psh, hard pass, bro. But, since you asked nicely…"
It wasn't evening, but the early morning sunlight seemed to ebb from the sky. Against the treeline, shadows lashed to creep further into the clearing. The boy melted into darkness-given-form, pooling into something unrecognizable. It stood there, shapeless and weightless as it was, save for two coals of yellow staring back.
Horns as black as night jutted upward, not unlike an Elder Elk's, and a smile like a mouth full of needles flashed into view.
In a voice as deep and voluminous as thunder, it spoke. "I was a fool to believe you'd be so easily tricked, as the children were. A bit of magic to sway the weak, and subjugate the living, but my shortcomings end there," it groaned with satisfaction. "Never you forget: you're far from the deadliest thing on my playground. I am everywhere, and every-"
Rasticore swept his mechanical arm in a wide arc, letting the gears of his wrist and forearm whir. A screaming beam of purple energy leveled the trees at the far end of the clearing. One of three cartridges of sizzling steel ejected from his shoulder.
His attack ripped the figure to shreds, but still, it remained. What had been shaved from its body now collected into pools of tar and straw that bubbled and writhed into barely recognizable forms. They looked like Monsters, but wrong in every sense of the word.
"Your temper is befitting of a mortal. I'd say I was surprised to witness your tenacity in the face of certain death, but weak men often wear their hearts on their sleeves." The shadow seemed to extend an appendage forward, pointing at the lizard in question. "So much easier to manipulate that way, and so much more gratifying…"
"GrrrrrAAAAAHH!" Rasticore swung his axe around and charged, met equally by a rush of the oily creatures surrounding the shadow. As laughter echoed through the clearing, the shadow dissipated to flood into the forest beyond. And Rasticore saw fit to give chase.
With one sweep of his axe, seven of the creatures were reduced to sizzling piles of mush or splattered onto the grass. He ducked low under an array of claws and teeth, weaving around every advance. Rasticore's axe was a pen, and they were the inkwell. Within seconds of the charge fifteen of them now made up a signature of muck and slime across the clearing.
His locator was going crazy, beeping and humming in alarm, but Rasticore was deaf to it. "To hell with the mission! Give me a challenge!" He roared in fury, burying his iron fist into the dirt to launch himself forward.
He charged into the trees, more of the creatures popping up in random intervals to lead the way. He never slowed as his axe swung forward to cleave five in one fluid motion. The trees were painted black as Rasticore vaulted over another group, a backhanded swing wiping them out.
In truth, he was fighting himself to not find the dance so enjoyable. But with every strike, his fanged smile grew wider. Hooking his axe around a tree Rasticore drove his boots into another monster that splashed against two more. He swung and fired another beam that cleared a troublesome crowd further into the brush. A flash of purple and he pushed faster, swinging madly and weaving through trees and creatures alike.
The woods soon became a blur to match the glistening steel of his blade as Rasticore pushed even harder. His arm sunk into groaning bark to launch himself after the echoing laughter, all the while monsters rising and falling in waves. Leaves raked against his skin, trunks cracked and splintered where he ricocheted, and still, he pushed.
Finally, he realized the woods had long since given way to a field of rocky outcroppings. The terrain became jagged and barren, and as the familiar shadow came into view, Rasticore's smile fell.
He vaulted one final time and plowed into the rock below. His steel fingers met stone to slow his advance. With an avalanche of loose pebbles, he halted abruptly, staring at the figure as his arm gave off a hiss of heat in protest.
He shook off the dust and stood, his axe ready, and his jaw set into a scowl.
"Did you really think you could run?" The figure let off that same, satisfied grin. It radiated an air of calm delight as pools of purple mist hovered around its base. "If it was my intention to escape. You are indeed a force to be reckoned with, I commend you. But, unfortunately, you're out of your depth."
Rasticore readied his axe and splayed his fingers, eliciting an excited whir from his wrist. "You have no idea," he growled. "When I erase you from existence-"
"Oh, but you won't get the chance, I'm afraid," the figure cut him off, letting two tendrils of shadow collect at its side to gesture at him, "As much as I've enjoyed your little tantrum, my commendations end there. You are little more than a nuisance, and I need you out of the way of my fun."
Rasticore made to charge. Or mock the troublesome excuse for an adversary. He wasn't sure which, but his attention was pulled toward his hip, an alarm of beeps and buzzing finally making itself known. With brimming impatience, he clicked the receiver, and his locator set off a barrage of warnings.
"Mind magic detected!"
"Spacial magic detected!"
"Magic nullification detected!"
"Demonic magic detected!"
"Summoning magic detected!"
"Dimensional magic detected!"
"Negative energy detected!"
"Clairvoyance detected!"
"Warning: Class eight magic detected!"
"Warning: Combat not advised, seek shelter immediately!"
As the locator fired off warnings and assessments, Rasticores gaze never faltered from that of the shadowed figure.
"I've borne witness to such fascinating advancements since I last graced this plane of existence. It seems as though life itself, by its very nature, has changed."
Rasticore swallowed, but his scowl remained. He couldn't show weakness. Not now.
"What are you?"
An array of fangs smiled. "I was born again from fire and brimstone, and I spread my wings over the Fault of Creation. I breathed death over the worlds of every dimension, and I harvested souls from the bosom of the Universe. By my hands, man was given freedom, and by my hands, they will witness their end. Time is immaterial in my grasp, and the extent of my hold in this world is nearing absolute, child," the figure soothed, the cloak of darkness it wore ebbing away. "Listen to your little trinket. It sees me for what I truly am: Death itself."
Rasticore's frills began to lift, an involuntary reaction analogous to prey. He swung his axe forward. Leveling it with the abomination before him, he fought the trembling in his natural arm. "You have a very high opinion of yourself," he scoffed, but his voice wavered.
"I'm little more than a shadow of what I once was, I admit. Magic is so difficult to come by in this dimension. But not impossible…"
*BOOM*
*BOOM BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM BOOM*
The field of rocks and hills surrounding them shook at a steady interval, small pebbles clattering at Rasticore's feet. He readied his weapon for another feeble play at strength in numbers, but what lurched forward from behind the rocks was unlike anything he'd seen on Earth.
A low and loud warbling squeal shook the ground as the behemoth thundered into view, and finally, Rasticore took a step back. His scowl was now a pale-faced stare, obscured by the creature's shadow and the ghastly figure's smile only grew.
With a gesture of its sharpened bony fingers, the talking corpse pointed back the way he'd come.
"As ravenous as my appetite has grown, your fear is but an appetizer to the main course." Rasticore took a step back, and the larger of his assailants moved to follow. He had to warn the others. He had to retreat. He had to survive. "Your thoughts are laid bare, and I am feeling… generous. Here's your chance to scurry off like the vermin you are. But not without a few… fresh wounds to remember me by. Lest you forget your place in my world."
O - O - O - O - O - O - O
"As you can see, it's nigh-impenetrable and I have half a mind to believe they're inside it."
Reynard stood beside Queen Moon and the usual merry gang of royals and lickspittles. First responders and M.R.C. guards had approached as a unit, confusion and apprehension clear on their faces. The knights held their weapons at the ready, standing between the nobles and the glimmering, iridescent bubble that had swallowed the majority of Echo Creek Park. ECPD stood behind them, a watchful distance away and a little out of their depth, their radios buzzing with chatter and questions.
Moon nodded, barely aware of the report. Her eyes scanned over the opaque bubble to the scorched and melted asphalt at its rim. It spanned over the observable park, reaching into the sky and demanding the attention of everyone in the city. It wasn't anything she recognized, but with Star inside of it, she didn't have to. It had the Princess of Mewni's signature brand of chaos written all over it. Reynard had been out and about, no doubt in search of his latest conquest when he'd been notified by their hosts and the local authorities of trouble. Naturally, he'd kept any mention of Star from his report.
Her voice was tight and clipped, but even Moon couldn't hide the play to her words. "So. You just found it like this?"
"I wouldn't rule out the Monsters, they've been making moves in the-"
"Viscount Reynard Mordecai Butterfly, do I look as though I was born yesterday?"
Reynard shifted uncomfortably in place as Moon continued to examine the bubble. "While I appreciate your attempt at covering for my daughter, this particular fiasco has her signature written all over it." This time he didn't shift. Instead, keeping his gaze sternly forward, appraising the bubble.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and released a weary sigh. "The bulk of our enemies, while great in number and scale, are dimensions away. If the small strike unit had this capability, they'd have used it before on something of greater value. Also, they'd have done something less conspicuous. No." She shook her head. "It's too direct, even for someone like Rasticore. Weeks of covert movement to test our walls just to ensnare them with such a rudimentary-"
*BOOOOOOONG*
The knights flew into high alert, forming a wall of shields and spears between the Queen and the barrier. All eyes turned to Chief Briscoe, who had kicked a stone into the shimmering wall. It warped at the touch, reverberating from the impact and shooting the rock back at him. Despite the stares and swords, he didn't react.
"Sure is an awful lot of trouble just for the park. But, trouble always seems to follow that girl of yours, yer, uhh… yer Queenliness. My money says she's got a hand in this, no question."
Moon begrudgingly spared him a quick glance, biting back a fuming retort. "As repulsive as the thought is, I have to agree. Reynard, what do you know?"
Rey pressed his lips together and shook his head. "I… don't have anything, Moon. There's been no signs, no ransom, no texts- hell, we can't even portal into the park. It's just… blank beyond the wall."
Lady Whosits finally lowered her sword, mimicked by the other knights. Pulling her visor up she asked, "Queen Moon, should we evacuate the humans and quarantine the area? I worry we might face more… interference, from the locals." She wasn't hiding her disdain, most notably for the police still gawking at the bubble. Briscoe frowned, spat on the ground, and sauntered over to them.
"Ma'am, 'the locals', aren't going anywhere until we get to the bottom of whatever freaky alien nonsense you have going on here. So the sooner you shut off the light show, the sooner I get some answers." He hoisted his belt higher to sit atop his round stomach and with a goading smile, his mustache twitched. "And the sooner we figure out who's behind the mess."
Lady Whosits narrowed her eyes, but Moon's voice cut through the tension like a hot knife. "With all due respect, Chief, I believe you're not only out of your pay grade, depth, and area of expertise, but also wildly unprepared to handle a situation like this."
"That a fact?"
Moon finally turned to eye him, her calculating gaze cold against the morning sun. "Can you describe a helical magic compression bridge and dimensional subversion burst? We could use someone up to speed on the latest theoretical magic applications."
Briscoe stared, spit on the ground once more, and folded his arms. "So what do you have in mind? Because I'm gonna have to keep about seven thousand folks out of the park today and give a report to the mayor. So if I'm forced to give him a bunch of alien mumbo jumbo it's gonna be my ass."
"My daughter is inside that bubble, along with several others, some of which are under your jurisdiction." She stepped closer and poked a finger against his badge, a crowd of both knights and officers waiting to respond. "Why or how she brought this situation to be, I haven't the luxury of caring. I've no time or patience to waste speculating, and letting you waste the afternoon coming up with senseless ideas is far less inviting than solving it myself. So unless you have something beneficial to add, do your job, clear a city block, and tell the Mayor it's under control."
He met her glare with patience he'd likely cultivated over years of dealing with worse. "Fine. Now I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, even lie and say this is all something you've got under your thumb. But when this blows up in your faces? I'll be there, with a pair of 'cuffs for your delinquent daughter."
He tipped his hat, inclining his head toward the other officers. "O'Durguson! Doolittle! Move your goofy asses! I want a cordon two blocks out and get the paramedics and fire department out here! Traffic is closed from Oak Boulevard to Third street!" He shot Moon one final smile, flashing an array of tobacco-stained teeth. "Be seeing you, yer Queenliness."
As the officers scurried to follow his orders, Briscoe sauntered to his patrol car. Moon hissed a sigh through her teeth as Reynard, who'd wisely kept his mouth shut, did the same. "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Star is behind the bubble," he murmured, "I still don't think she's capable of something this… impressive."
"That's what scares me," Moon said, gesturing to the block behind her. "Lady Whosits, please shepherd the police back and keep the knights on alert. I'm going to see what I can do about this bubble. Be prepared for anything. And Reynard? Keep trying to contact my daughter, but don't try to portal inside."
As everyone cleared off in a hurry, Moon approached the edge of the bubble, the asphalt at the edge of the shimmering wall still radiating heat. Small ripples pulsed across its surface, cascading down to the street to echo back up the dome's curve in waves. It didn't look like much, just a harmless opaque magical dome. But in her vast experience, she had come to understand that appearances were often deceiving. Filling her right hand with magic, she let it overflow, feeling the cool sensation of it roll over her palm and fingers in practiced familiarity.
Tentatively, she reached forward and touched the barrier. It didn't react at all, save for a new ring of ripples. It felt warm to the touch, and behind a vague sensation of static, it pulsed rhythmically. Carefully, Moon pushed more magic down her arm to collect at her fingertips, forming small lances at the ends of her nails. She pressed their points against the barrier, and while it seemed like it was just about to give, it held firm with an elastic stretch. Deciding to change course, she refocused the magic in an attempt to push her consciousness beyond the wall of the bubble. Where there had been heat before, now she felt only cold, like there was nothing there. It wasn't an unknown sensation, but it felt artificial.
"Glossaryck," she spoke directly.
Almost immediately, the small blue bookmark himself *popped* into view dressed as what the humans called, a 'Cowboy'. "Your Highness, I was just about to try my hand at some square dancing when we- Oh my… What did Star do this time?"
"A fair bit more than her usual flavor of trouble. What can you tell me about this thing, apart from the fact that it's strong and dangerous." She gestured to the barrier, to which Glossaryck tossed a curious glance. He floated over, mimicking Moon's gentle prodding. She could hear an unintelligible mumbling before he returned in a matter of seconds.
"Looks like you've got about as much understanding of it as I do," he shrugged. But at Moon's eye roll, he smiled. "As to why it's strong and dangerous, that would be because it's self-sustaining."
"Can you tell me if Star made it?"
"I wouldn't put it past her, but this smells more like Quest Buy junk."
Moon stared at him, calm as a summer breeze. She'd grown used to this sort of behavior, having been a student of his herself and didn't offer any sort of reaction out of practiced indifference. With Glossaryck, how you asked the question was as important as the answers you wanted. And the answers you didn't want, usually held information you did. "Even though it doesn't present an immediate danger, someone created this barrier for a reason and designed it to function autonomously. So we can assume that they're either protecting something, or trying to buy time. Both options lead me to believe the culprit being inside of this dome."
"Oh I like the smell of that, it really adds a layer of mystery." Glossaryck hovered back over to the barrier, poking at it and watching it ripple. "Though, I wouldn't really say there's an inside to the bubble. Or an outside for that matter." He held up an overly long finger when Moon's brow knitted in frustration. "Who's to say we're even on the same plane of existence? Maybe there's a whole universe in there, or nothing at all."
Moon stared at him, gathering everything she knew and sorting through information at lightspeed. Reynard had mentioned that they couldn't portal inside, and it hadn't reacted to magic at all. Only one thing came to mind, but she was pretty sure it was next to impossible for anyone on her dirty laundry list to conjure something like that. Even Toffee would be hard-pressed to deliver a Pocket Dimension to her front door.
Without a word, Moon jutted her arms forward and latched onto an invisible force, tearing open a rift of blue light. She stepped through it, emerging on the other side with antennae, two ethereal butterfly wings, three sets of arms, and a dazzling blue complexion.
Glossaryck watched as she took flight, soaring high above the bubble. She checked to ensure that there were no bystanders in range and swept into a graceful hover directly above the park. She spread her arms and focused her energy, the air turning frigid against her cheeks. "I wouldn't recommend taking a page out of Eclipsa's book," Glossaryck chided beside her, nearly breaking her concentration at his sudden appearance. "I'm sure you've given this lots of thought, but we're talking about another dimension here. A million things could go wrong, the least of which being-"
Each of Moon's splayed hands grew dim, drawing daylight from the air around them. Black folds of mist rolled into thin, dark channels between her palms, forming a hexagon. The air was so cold now, her breath huffed in ragged clouds. She heard him, but she was committed. Glossaryck could only watch in silence.
The darkness of the hexagon snapped violently toward its center, forming a swirling ball of pure darkness. It whirred as it spun at impossible speeds, compressing into a fine point. A violet mist collected over its surface, and as ice began to form on Moon's cheeks and arms, she finished the spell.
The swirling point pulsed in place, snapping at her free hands, but she kept it in check. She was focused purely on the bubble below, targeting its shimmering surface before clasping all six hands together. With a shockwave of sprayed ice and vapor, the ball shot straight down with blistering speed.
When it made contact, there was a flash of darkness, like she'd blinked for a second too long. A sudden snap of cold stole the air from her lungs as the entire world seemed to shudder for half a second. Shadow spread from the epicenter of its impact, pouring out in every direction like a dark curtain. Satisfied, Moon let her arms fall, watching as the spell took effect.
Before she could relax, however, there came another equally jarring shift as a low thrum blared loud enough to shake the pavement. The black energy flowing down the dome rippled and flashed red. Moon had no time to react as the obsidian blanket suddenly fractured and disintegrated.
She winced at the throbbing pain traveling up her forearms. Such an unbridled use of dark magic always left her feeling hollow and fatigued, but that was the least of her concerns. With restraint she landed near Reynard, her butterfly form dissipating. The knights and ECPD alike stared with various amounts of concern and awe as Glossaryck cleared his throat.
"Yeah, someone should have mentioned that there's nothing there for you to nullify. You tried erasing a localized dimension, and one with a mind of its own." He hovered close and pressed his hand to her forehead, as if checking her temperature. Immediately Moon felt a wash of relief and warmth flood her body before she relaxed enough to listen properly. "If Star really is in there, you could have trapped her and her friends, don't even get me started on what a headache getting them back would be for me. Not to mention how dangerous Eclipsa's spells can be."
"It should have worked," Moon sighed, rubbing her wrists free of any lingering aches. "Who could possibly have built a pocket dimension of that caliber. There's no way Star could have channeled that much magic at once at the level she's at right now."
Lady Whosits swept some of the remaining black powder from her shoulders. "Sorry, Your Highness, you had a little, uh…dirt on you."
Reynard scowled at the obstinate magical construct, tapping his foot and watching as the last of the ripples began to fade. There was a new shroud of powdered black, but otherwise, it looked entirely undamaged."I suppose that means Star is off the list of the accused, for now?"
"Nice try, but knowing my daughter as I do, I suspect one of her impulsive schemes has gotten away from her. Again. Otherwise, you wouldn't have felt the need to cover for her. We'll shall be discussing your your punishment at a later date, however."
Reynard slumped his shoulders and let out a disparaging huff. "Can't wait to sit through that committee… But first, let's assess the obvious. We may have a very real threat we need to address, and I don't think it's just Star's impulsiveness."
"Whoever or whatever may be behind this, most important is the fact that Star is inside of that thing. Assist the police in setting up a perimeter around the park. We're dealing with an unknown magical anomaly. No one is to approach it without my direct authorization. Our adversaries may seek to use this distraction to their advantage, should they not be the cause of it. I'm ordering a temporary lockdown of the M.R.C. until this crisis is over. Send out two squads to canvas the surrounding neighborhoods for clues, and to assess damages for compensation."
"Yes, Queen Moon!"
The knights all took off to relay their duties, and Reynard sensed an opening. "This could still be Toffee. They have the motive and the means of soliciting aid from stronger forces."
Moon nodded, pinching her chin. "I haven't forgotten, though this doesn't feel like Toffee's style. For now, we have to observe and hope that my daughter can find a way out herself, as grim as that prospect may be."
Glossaryck hovered nearby for a moment before glancing back at the barrier. He watched it with newfound interest, but his indifferent disposition remained. "If the plan is to relax, soak up some sun, and enjoy the smell, then I'll take my leave. Good luck, and don't be afraid to call on me should you run into more… pleasantries."
He *poofed* into thin air, leaving Moon to paw through her usual, longer list of questions than answers. But she stopped, turning back to face the dome, just as Glossaryck had. Apart from the obvious damages she'd have to explain later, there was something else that was loitering in the aftermath of her spell:
A lingering scent; it was reminiscent of burnt toast.
'An answer hidden in the question,' she thought. "Punishments and committees can wait. Reynard, I need you to go to the royal archives. How much do you know about the Underworld?"
