Hours of The Labyrinth

by Ronald reagan

When the world above is ravaged by an endless war, one curious soul delves deep into the underground to find the key to Humanity's survival. But what lies in wait within the ancient and decrepit halls of the Moon Labyrinth? Will it be enough to save his people? And will Marco Diaz be willing to team up with an unlikely enemy to defeat a long dormant entity?

AUTHORS NOTE

Hello and welcome to my little short story:

Hours of the Labyrinth

This work was created as part of a writing competition between myself, user Lord Cornwalis, and user Lord of The Storm. The prompt for this writing competition was "First Date", but as you may find as you read my entry, it seems like anything but. That is because I'm terrible at following rules, and because I was so captivated by the inspiration for this story that I couldn't shake it no matter what else I tried to create. But I hope that despite my inability to follow the rules; I hope you enjoy what I've made for you. So buckle in for a long one, and please...

...don't get lost.

~Mr Ronald Reagan

The air was still and heavy as the darkness of the cavern was beaten back by the light of a torch, its flames licking the air towards the hanging stalactites above. The once choked off and abandoned walls of the cave were lit up in the dim wash of light, only to fall back into silence as careful footsteps echoed past against the rock. Winding, endless corridors had led the cave's first visitor in centuries ever forward, until at last, Marco stopped before a set of intricately carved columns cut into the stone.

"I… I don't believe it," the young man could only whisper, his voice a shout compared to the stillness of the cavern, "All this time, and you've been right under our noses… waiting for me."

Without another word, he carefully set down his torch and produced his notebook, hurriedly sketching a rudimentary depiction of the gateway into the abyss. He jotted down everything, his analysis quick and deliberate, from the smell, right down to to the grooves worn into the ancient stones. After a moment of echoing scribbles, the archaeologist glanced back and forth between his notes and the doorway, satisfied to have captured every finer detail he could.

But here was not an adventure akin to his usual escapades and searches. As he stowed his journal and retrieved his torch, Marco let his hand glide over the stock of his crossbow, content to feel the lacquered wood sate his nerves. The Legend of the Moon Labyrinth had turned out to be true, and for the survival of his people? He had to endure the rest of the Legend, finding out firsthand if it was every bit as perilous as he'd been led to believe.

Sharply, he inhaled the cold, damp air to steady his shaking hand before releasing it.

"Step one, find the Labyrinth, check," He listed, taking an already unsteady step forward past the threshold of the columns, "Step two… enter the Labyrinth… check."

Nothing came flying from the darkness ahead, the walls beyond the columns already adopting the shape of an endless triangle. But nothing would come after him unless he stepped all the way inside. So resigning himself to commit to his journey, Marco took another tentative step forward, and then another, and another, until the columns marking the entrance had well faded into the inky void behind him. He had to endure, for the real prize could only be found at the end: an artifact said to carry immense power.

Power enough to end the war with the Mewmans.

Marco found the triangular corridor veering a hard right, and with it he followed. A hard left came up next, leading right into a split, both corridors leading into square-shaped hallways.

'Of course, they don't call it the labyrinth for nothing,' he mused, switching his torch to his left hand and moving his right to rest against the carving of the wall. His right hand trailed lazily against the etchings, gliding over the artwork he barely paid any mind. The first trick of a maze, he had learned, was to follow the wall to your right, and eventually you'll strike the end, or loop all the way back to the entrance. And with enough food to last him five days? He reasoned that he had the time.

Right.

Another right.

He definitely had time.

A thousand years, actually. The war above that very cavern had been raging for centuries, surviving longer than any stories or history passed down to justify it. Endless struggles, countless lives lost for a cause no one could remember, and yet the thirst for blood shared by Humans and Mewmans alike had persisted like a sickness. But should the artifact hidden at the end of the maze be real? Should it's power rival even the magic closely guarded by the Butterfly dynasty? He alone could see every Human returned safely to their homes. He could end the bloodshed. He alone could rid the world of it's thirst for an endless war.

Right.

Right again.

He alone, because while the rest of the world sought to advance its destructive prowess and skill in genocide, Marco was one of the few who chose another path. He'd turned his heart away from the bloodlust and instead toward the past, searching for meaning and understanding in the millenia shrouded before the war. Perhaps there were answers there, hidden beneath the mist their conflict had left behind. Answers that could end the fighting.

Marco stepped carefully over a collapsed section of the floor, it's intentional, geometric design given away by the jagged rocks beneath a skeleton draped across. So there were traps set in a maze guarding the object of irresistible power. While not unreasonable, it seemed a little much, but Marco pushed the notion aside, finding another corridor splitting off into three directions. As before, he let his right hand trace a path along the cracked and mesmerising wall, and he went right.

Right into a dead end.

But rather than be discouraged, he simply turned with the circular wall facing him, retraced his steps, and took another right. This time, the walls and ceiling took on a more complex, hexagonal design as they were slowly birthed into the light. With nothing else to do, Marco let his mind wander to the carvings, the patterned depictions of flora and… people? Yes, there were little people carved into the walls, like hieroglyphs depicting the ancient ways of farming, herding, worship… and…

Marco narrowed his eyes. His walk brought to a crawl to better investigate the scene playing out before him, he trailed his right hand along the smoothed stone, absorbing every detail he could.

As ten minutes of walking went by, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, save for one missing detail nearly intrinsic to Humanity itself.

War.

There was nothing of the sort, no swords, no arrows, no clubs, no death or violence, everything about the design conveyed a peaceful and lethargic lifestyle akin to monks. Where was the death? Where was the war? Where was there any indication as to what started everything? Even in the most ancient of temples and monasteries, there was evidence of the treatment of Mewmans and the fighting that had persisted for centuries! Mewmans kept as slaves, Humans sacrificed to the 'Lucitor' Empire, torture, warfare, revenge and repeat!

He stopped, letting his right hand fall to his side, nudging the crossbow at his waist. He'd been so enraptured by the depiction of peace surrounding him on every surface, he'd almost forgotten it was there. He'd almost forgotten how long he'd been walking. Marco let his gaze drift towards the delightful depictions of his human predecessors, a sense of longing washing over his shoulders. It felt funny; wanting something he had never known outside of a cave drawing. But with the artifact, he could see it brought to life. He could end the suffering, the needless loss of life, and return Humanity to a world of peace with the Mewmans.

Together.

Pressing his right hand against a depiction of a vineyard, Marco let out the breath he didn't remember catching and resumed his search.

5 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

For hours he made his way deeper into the Labyrinth, tracing his right hand along the wall to ensure his survival. To ensure his future. Pitfalls, dead ends, cave-ins, there were no shortages of obstacles to overcome, but with grit teeth, and a right hand? Marco endured deeper into the bowels of the cavern.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Nothing but peace and prosperity lined the walls of the endless stretches of webbing corridors, Marco taking every right presented to him. It was grueling to have his goal presented to him on every surface available, all when his miniscule bubble of light pressed no advance against the endless expanse of darkness. But after what must have been two days of walking, camping when needed, and more than a few close calls with the Labyrinths defenses?

52 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

Marco broke free from the repetitive, taunting walls that snaked in every direction but 'closer', and found himself in an empty room devoid of any artwork. It was flat, nearly polished on every wall, and presented itself as far cleaner than anything he'd seen thus far, not an ounce of dirt to be seen.

He narrowed his eyes, drinking in every detail of the blank slate before him. It was a dead end unlike any he'd seen before, and as such it deserved his utmost… attention… "What is that?" He asked no one in particular, stepping forward in a hurry to press his ear to the far wall. It sounded like a river, or rapids? And the stone at his fingertips was cool to the touch, perhaps there was some sort of reservoir just beyond the wall?

Without a word, Marco smacked his dry lips at the thought of cool, refreshing water, and pulled a shovel from his pack. He'd been rationing carefully to avoid dehydration, but with this promise on the line? "Give papa some sip," he chided, slamming the tip of his shovel against the polished stone.

Like an eggshell, the wall split with a web of cracks all snaking away from the point of impact. One more hit should produce a trickle at the very least, and a torrent at most. Another slam and Marco watched chips of the stone and clumps of dust fall to his shoes, his shovel resting against the loose stone.

But no water, yet. 'One last swing ought to do it,' he reasoned before following through, letting his weight carry the shovel forward, into the webbing, and right through the brittle stone. With an avalanche of falling stones and a cloud of dust kicked up to choke off his vision, Marco held his breath as he inched forward through the debris.

What he found on the other side was no hint of the maze from before, nor a vast underground reservoir, but an antechamber to the cave system he'd begun in. And as he drank in the sight of the looming darkness around him, it ebbed away as his torchlight coaxed even the smallest reaction from his surroundings.

A massive waterfall loomed above the antechamber, spilling a river over its edge and into an inky pool below. But as Marco drew closer to the underground oasis, he watched as the flames of his torch were mirrored not with yellow against the waves, but with electric cyan. His breath was released as a sigh of wonder just before it caught in his throat, the bioluminescent water taking on a glow to rival even his torchlight.

He stepped closer, carefully traversing the weathered, slippery rock below. He'd never seen anything like the display put on in the underwater pool, and hurriedly produced his notebook to jot down every detail he could scavenge. The water likely wasn't safe to drink with whatever microbes were producing the light, but it's beauty and grandeur was too tempting to pass up.

Jotting down the color, the vigor of the reaction, and the scale of the waterfall drowning the cave, Marco then took note of the particular lifelessness of the latter. No bioluminescence to be found until the pool below had been struck, so it was safe to assume that the water from above was free of those pesky, yet captivating microbes. Marco put away his notebook and secured his torch before inching closer to the waterfall, holding out a cupped pair of hands, and taking a ginger sip.

Safe enough indeed, he reasoned before plunging his hands back into the falling water and drinking his fill. It was cool to the touch and tasted of minerals, so he was more than glad to fill his canteen for the journey ahead. Two days in meant at least two days out, and it was anyone's guess when he'd see water again. All the power in the world was useless if he died of thirst trying to find the exit.

With his thirst sated, Marco abruptly turned on his heels to retrieve his torch, still buried in the thick stones around the pool. As beautiful of a cavern as it was, it was not a part of the maze he was trying to best. Dutifully he would remember this cavern, in the hopes that should he retrieve whatever artifact was in wait, he could revisit it as he was on his way out. Woefully optimistic, but the safest attitude to front given the circumstances.

With one last glance over his shoulder, Marco relished in the serene pool of electric cyan light, captivated by it as before. It brought a smile to his face, seeing such a peaceful place. "You've missed so much, locked away beneath the world like this," he sighed, "but I envy your solitude from the chaos above. And I admire your innocent beauty." For whatever reason, he felt a parting word would suffice, his spirits having been lifted, and he turned to leave.

But no sooner had Marco taken one step, he stopped, twisting about to look at the waterfall once more.

He could swear, for a fleeting moment, that he saw someone in the water. A face, glaring back at him from the waterfall, just before it touched the pool. "I think… I've spent too much time in this maze," he offered as consolation to himself, resigning himself to leave once more, "but I'll be out of here in no time. Just another day, tops."

He left the waterfall, a monument to isolation likely unseen by human eyes. He traversed the wet and weathered rocks it had beaten back over the centuries, and just as he was about to step through the threshold, back into the maze, he stopped again. This time Marco craned his neck, listening carefully past the roar of the distant waterfall, and over the rush of Blood in his own ears. Softly, somewhere just out of earshot, there was...music.

Music, baby!

Blood Moon Waltz : Giovanni Valentino

Once more he turned about, staring off into the darkness towards the waterfall, the pool having since fallen back into a dormant black. Had he packed a music box by accident, a simple tune playing from the deaths of his pack and muffled to near nothingness? Marco moved to rifle through his pack for whatever device was tickling his ears with such a soft song. But as before, a face caught his attention before vanishing beneath the waves of the water.

Marco stood deathly still for what felt like minutes, all the while the song playing gently just out of his reach. He stared at the pool, waiting for something to peek back out and scare him half to death, but nothing moved. So he resigned himself to investigating, taking a few ginger steps back towards the waterfall, and back towards the pool.

The music… It was so familiar, but unrecognizable. Where it lacked in remembrance, it made up for in comfort, washing him with a warmth unbecoming of a dank little cave. Carefully over the wet rocks and slowly around the stones he inched up to the edge of the pool, raising his torch to coax out the cyan light as the gentle tune played ever onward.

But this time, there was no electric cyan from any microscopic beings to react to his torchlight.

As Marco raised his torch, the pool before him flashed a deep, Blood red before his eyes, the waterfall lighting up scarlet in return. The pool rippled as a wave of red illuminated outward and up the waterfall, the flash reflecting carmine on every droplet. Marco caught his breath in a gasp, one quickly released as he watched, hypnotized by the display, and mesmerized by the sound.

What was happening? Was color change even possible for a luminous bacteria? And where was that music… coming from? Marco never waited for an answer as he watched the waterfall reflect the ripples of deep red. It was a dazzling display, the music growing only somewhat louder to accent what looked like… dancers? He blinked, hard, staring at the water to find the ripples and refractions of sanguine taking the shape of two dancers, stepping to a ghostly waltz.

Marco blinked again, watching as the water seemed to play with the finest details, shimmering an iridescent scene of pure captivation. He looked over his shoulder, seeing in the gloomy distance the entrance to the maze. He was wasting time, precious time he didn't have, all to just stare at-

"What?"

He'd turned around, finding himself standing in the center of the pool of water, hovering an inch above its calm surface. "How did I-" his voice faltered, and he never got to finish the question as the waterfall parted in two, revealing a long-eroded cave even further into the black stone. The music was louder, reverberaying from somewhere deep inside the earth, but… it was so… far… away…

"Unwooorthy…. Traaaiiitorrrrr..."

Willing or not, Marco sighed a contented breath, letting his eyes glaze over as he took a step forward atop the water's surface. It rippled under his shoe and sent out a small wave of deep crimson, beckoning him further into the bowels of the cave. And for the music? He was happy to oblige. Another step, and another, Marco followed the lullaby; no more right hand turns, just a straight corridor into the darkness.

"Play nice… And you maayyyy liiiivee…."

How long he had been walking, whose voice was that, and when he'd dropped his torch were all questions that would flare up in his mind as he walked, but each time, the music would beckon him further, closer, and deeper into the cave. It was loud now, much more than before, so surely just a little farther in, and he'd be there. Besides, the cave was a beautiful shade of ruby now, little pockets of gems poking free from the bedrock to give the cave a healthy glow of red. What was he even doing here? Was he looking for something? Or… was he looking for someone? He remembered dancing with her, or… maybe he hadn't been dancing, but the music…? Where did she go?

What was he doing here?

He needed to get out of the cave.

Marco continued to walk along the illuminated ruby path of gemstones, absent-mindedly dragging his right hand along the wall, not that he needed any direction. He knew where he was going, and with such a lovely concerto to listen to, what was the rush? The music made him sad, but just as well it brought a well of happiness to his heart. Like ages long since passed and withered were wishing him well. It was so… peaceful down here, why did he need to hurry? Surely she would be waiting for him when he arrived, all he had to do was prove himself, and he could save… everyone...

What was he doing here?

He needed to get out of the cave.

54 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

Marco stopped on his heels and blinked, hard, shaking his head to throw off the mist he'd been trapped in. Perhaps it was some sort of spell? A defense mechanism of the Labyrinth to keep him from straying off the path; had he strayed so far off the path? Had he been moved? The music was gone, leaving nothing but an eerie stillness to the room around him. His torch? Marco looked around, but there was no sign of it anywhere, the only light being offered from glowing ruby lanterns hanging around the… "What is this place?" Marco found himself asking aloud. But before he could work on an answer, his eyes grew wide to inhale as much of his surroundings as he could.

The room he now stood in was immense and circular in shape, with over a dozen doorways all branching off in different directions. There was no light down any of the hallways, and no indication as to which he'd even come from, but what really drew his attention was the roof of the rotunda. Far above him, the dome-shaped ceiling was painted with a mural more befitting the world above, with scenes of war, magic, death, and calamity all melded into one horrific depiction. But at the center, there were two people standing above them all, cradling the moon in their hands as it bathed the atrium in a deep shade of crimson.

Marco shook his head again, fighting off another wave of whatever magic dissonance he'd been stuck in, before he let his attention follow the spotlight of red to the center of the room.

His breath fell short to fill his lungs as he took a tentative step closer.

Every. Single. Day. Every day of the war he'd endured was lifted from his shoulders as he stepped ever closer, steadily releasing a low sigh. He was staring at the end of it, surely. There was no other way to be sure but to check… right?

There, not twenty feet before him sat a pedestal of stone ordained with gemstones and gold, inlaid with silver and pearls. It sat, commanding the room from its center and etched with ancient carvings and depictions, all proving its stature. Dialect warning of great power, carvings telling of a prehistoric power to alter the world itself.

Marco took another step closer towards the center of the room, towards the pedestal, and towards what he could only dream, was the artifact he had been searching for: A set of matching, golden gauntlets. Another step closer. Marco could almost feel the enchanting glow they carried, but what if it was a trap? To make it so far, only to be lured into some deathtrap over a pair of gloves? If they were a trick, what would he have but a quick death, or a long walk home.

Another step closer.

With so many second thoughts, Marco almost didn't recognize his own hand reaching forward to slip into the gauntlet facing him. It was comfortable, warm, and it fit like a glove against his skin. But so much more than a good fit, Marco could feel a promise locked within the ancient artifact. It felt familiar, and comforting in his hand, like there was a warmth in its company alone. He felt a taste of the peace the artifact promised in his future, and gingerly, he smiled at the thought of a world free from war. A world he could see brought into reality.

He closed his hand, mesmerized by the shimmer of gold as he flexed his fingers into a fist. He could feel the power radiating from it, like an oppressive wave of heat against his mind. But something caught his eye, something he hadn't noticed in his hypnotic stupor: there was another gauntlet, and in it, another hand.

Marco let his gaze climb up the rags draped over the arm sprouting from the second gauntlet. There came a shoulder cloaked in thick robes, and up further was a hood, a ghostly figure looking up just as he did, the two staring at one another for only a brief momen, before they both screamed.

"AHHHHHHH!"

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Marco and the apparent young woman across from his let out blood curdling screams of their own before both fell back in a desperate attempt to escape whatever had snuck up on them. Scrambling to regain his footing and his composure, Marco quickly shook off his terror and asked in a voice two octaves too high-

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Both terrified explorers tried to give off an air of dominance, but as they spoke in perfect unison, both facades quickly crumbled. Marco was the first to shake off his surprise, noting the figure in further detail was a woman about his age. She was slender from what he could see beneath the robes, and her eyes, a startling azure, held him in such a contrast to the rest of the atrium, he nearly caught his breath.

The young woman, however, now finally drawing back her own wit, shook off her surprise and managed to stand first. She eyed the young and seemingly trembling gentleman with an air of intrigue, the patchwork of clothes on his body drawing the most curiosity. He was dressed and prepared with all manner of funny little trinkets and tools, but what she noticed most prominently was the all too familiar crossbow strapped to his hip.

"Who the heck are you? How did you get down here?" Marco managed to ask, standing to match her weary posture. The woman in question, her eyes darting down to his crossbow before looping back up to meet his own, carefully took a slow step back.

"My name's Star. And I walked here… I think," she answered in a soft voice, devoid of any emotion,

"You?"

Marco watched her eyes dip down to his hip, matching her retreating step to keep the air calm. He didn't need an altercation with a strange and potentially dangerous woman. Not when he was so close… his gaze fell to her right hand, before he glanced at his left. There still rested the golden gauntlet, giving off a gentle thrum of power as though to coax his mind to a worthy conclusion.

The war could finally end. So many lives could be spared. A world of peace brought back from the grave. All he had to do was… "My name is Marco, Marco Diaz. And I really hate to do this to you," he began, drawing his crossbow and leveling it at the young woman, "But I really, really need that gauntlet… please. It's very important to the survival of my people."

'Please, please you stupid girl… just give me the glove,' he pleaded, the cracks in his resolve showing well to the woman in question, 'don't make me do this… please.'

But the young lady took another step back, raising her hands and inspecting the one adorned with a golden gauntlet, her eyes giving away not a hint of submission, nor defiance. She was all too familiar with hiding one's intentions and emotions from those around her, and with a gentle smile, she reassured him, "I'd really prefer to keep it, actually. It's kind of important to my people too."

As if to prove her point, or to showcase some sort of warning, Star tossed back her hood, revealing a long braid of blonde hair tucked neatly into her robe. Despite the dirt on her skin, her hair was shiny and clean, as was her face, but Marco stopped there, readying his crossbow without hesitation. He tightened his metallic grip on the brace, and let his finger hover just to the right of the trigger, for atop both of the girls cheeks, were tattoos of hearts.

"You're a Mewman," he offered without an ounce of anger, his voice steady with newfound resolve… and intrigue.

"I am," she answered quickly, readying her fists to fight if the situation soured too soon, "And you're just a Human. So how's about you give me the gauntlet, and we can both walk away with our lives? Easy peasy."

'Easy peasy?' Marco could only seethe, reeling from such an audacious suggestion. Thousands died every day between their two races war, and she had the gall to suggest that handing away his future on a whim would be easy?! But no, he had to remain calm in the face of opposition, the safest route was away from any unnecessary conflict, though he feared it was rapidly approaching.

No, she had him beat in terms of raw strength. And he'd heard more than enough stories of what Mewmans could do to know that this woman was not someone he should be trifling with. Especially given her… bloodline. Those cheek marks told him plenty, the Butterfly family dynasty had worn them for centuries, and now they were staring at him in the same BLOODY LABYRINTH!? She could use magic, surely, or she atleast possessed an artifact with sizable firepower, if half the stories were true.

No, if he fired his crossbow, then it was likely that she'd transform into one of those creatures and tear across the room. He'd be dead before the bolt even struck the stone on the other side.

Marco narrowed his eyes at the woman and glanced down the length of his crossbow, finding nothing less than the object of his salvation firmly gripping the brace. The Gauntlet, he could use it against her.

If he could stomach taking one life. He could potentially save millions. That was fair, right?

At the very least, it would scare her into submission, or distract her long enough for him to fire off a round. Everything had a price, and if it meant seeing the mural from above put to an end, or the carving from the maze brought to life?

Marco released the breath he forgot he'd held, slowly lowering his crossbow to his side. His eyes darted towards the girls right hand, but she must have had the same idea, because as his hand opened to face a palm at her, the two took to madly splaying their respective fingers apart and 'aiming' the gauntlets at the other. The room fell into a hollow silence as Marco started, but he held firm, bracing his wrist below narrowed and finally angry eyes.

"Drop the glove or else!"

"Drop the glove or else!"

"Stop doing that and Drop it already!"

"Stop doing that and drop it already!"

"I'm warning you!" Marco shouted, well and tired of their little game, "Drop the glove, or so help me I'll-"

"You'll what, big guy? Do you even know how that thing works? Or even what it does?" Star quipped, bracing her own wrist to match him. But Marco saw right through it, she was just mirroring him, she likely had as much of a clue as he did how to operate the 'whatever they were'-s.

"Do you?" He demanded, taking a step to the left as Star mirrored him, the two circling the pedestal, "Unless you want me to find out, drop the gauntlet!"

"You must think I'm crazy! You'd just kill me anyways, Human!" Star retorted, her face twisting with annoyance, and by Marco's approximation, as much fear as he was likely wearing. "I can see it in your eyes, the moment I let this thing go, I can kiss my ass, and my people goodbye!"

He didn't have time for this, and as multitudes of alternatives vanished with each passing second, Marco knew the girl was thinking the same thing. As cute as she was, which alone wasn't anything like the stories, her eyes were as cold as ice, and far more calculating than any he'd ever seen. She could read him inside and out, and as the seconds ticked by, Marco made a choice. 'For the greater good. For both sides to survive.'

Marco closed his fist around the invisible force resting against his palm and crushed it with vigor. Though, as the two stopped circling the pedestal, it became immediately clear that Star was of the same mindset. She couldn't afford to slip up now, she couldn't trip at the finish line with so many lives and expectations riding on this very moment. So without any further provocation, she too closed her fist around an invisible force resting just against her palm.

As they both clenched their hands, both steeled with resolve to see their means fit the end, the gauntlets began to emit a deep thrum of golden light, harmonizing with the other as the reverberations set into the entire room. Marco took a careful step back as the room shook hard enough to throw them to the ground, and with the sound of breaking glass, the light abruptly cut to red. Both gauntlets began to scream above the thrumming as the walls of the room shattered and caved towards the center, arching over their heads to match the rising cry.

"TRAIIITOOOORRR! MURRRDERREEEERRR!"

Marco wedged his eyes shut at the last moment before a sound like thunder filled his ears. There came an unyielding weightlessness and a roar of wind as he fell. He tried throwing his arms around wildly to catch anything he could, but as he opened his eyes against the rush of air, he saw how fruitless it would be: above was a single skylight of red, the atrium he had just been standing in, and everything else? There was only darkness below. That is, save for one pinprick of fading red light falling beside him, thirty yards away and tumbling just as fast into sheer nothingness.

He knew it was the girl, Star as she called herself, and on instinct he arched his back to right himself, drawing back his legs to fall closer. She was falling without form, that gauntlet still in her hand, and although the idea flashed through his mind to simply take it while she was unconscious, Marco pushed it aside as she came into view. Whatever they had done had caused this, and in the coming seconds maybe they'd find the bottom of this cavern, but Marco was resigned to keep that from happening. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her form tight against his own, determined to shield her as best he could. Whatever their fates, whatever their origins, she was just a girl, she didn't deserve to die with so little meaning.

Whatever gods he could think of, he prayed to them as he plummeted with the Mewman girl in his arms, hoping for a miracle of magic, or some twist of fate to save them. But all that came was a deep thrum of energy, vibrating throughout his body. Looking down, he could see his gauntlet glowing red, humming as they fell, but it was useless. No magic came forth that he could use, and no prayers were answered.

All he was met with, was nothing short of a loud smack before his body was engulfed in pain. That, and a rush of freezing water.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O

61 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

Dulled and disoriented, Marco found his body once again chained in the shackles of gravity, and every nerve firing off a warning he couldn't interpret. Had he been unconscious for seconds? Hours? Minutes? He didn't have the time to worry about the finer details, the cave was falling apart as he lay there in thought. He could remember the atrium, and the way it seemed to convulse before collapsing in on itself.

Seconds ticked by, and there was nothing. He was just laying there, there wasn't any noise or movement besides a trickle of… water?

Marco wrenched his eyes open and bolted upright, his body forcing out a hiss of pain. What he could see was, unsurprisingly, exactly what he could see with his eyes closed. There wasn't a shred of light to be seen, and what he could feel was jagged rocks, cold water, and that girl draped across his lap. He could feel her shifting, and all too quickly the last encounter they had was coming back to him, but that problem could wait. For now, Marco pulled a vial of liquid from around his neck and shook it vigorously, producing just enough light to illuminate the surrounding area. Thankfully, he recognized his surroundings.

They were back at the waterfall, though now the bioluminescent bacteria had fallen into a state of scarcity. The girl was still lying on her back, draped over his legs and half submerged in the little pool, and on each of their hands? The gauntlets still remained… He could swipe it while she was asleep, it would be so easy to-

"Stop staring at my gauntlet and help me up," she choked, brushing past the formalities if it meant escaping the clutches of the icy water.

Marco was quick to oblige, pushing her out of the pool and hoisting himself up after her, but as he stood and surveyed their condition for damages and injuries, he quickly took notice of her horrified expression. "A Human… The gauntlets... No nononono…" she trailed off, her eyes darting between the matching pieces of armor as Marco wrung out his shirt. Of all the things to be concerned about, that was what she picked?

Annoyed, but still as practical as ever, the young man tried to pry his hand from the glove to at least alleviate her worries for the time being, but it wouldn't budge. It was as if the metal had grafted to his skin, and every tug threatened to take more than a couple fingers with it. To make matters immediately worse, his crossbow had also gone missing since their little scuffle in the atrium. Bad news, as this girl was a Mewman, notably one of the royal bloodline. She could wring the life out of him before he even had a chance to beg for it.

Coming to the same conclusion, Star let her gaze wander over the boy she'd only just met before noting, "I could definitely kill you if I wanted to. So no funny business, gimmee the stupid glove already." But she'd already seen him try to remove it, and to better sate her curiosity, tried to remove the armor as well. Unsurprisingly to everyone present, she was met with the same result, even her strength failing to separate skin from metal. Next was to try the same crushing action as before, but there was no unseen force to grab onto, only an empty palm full of wrinkled, watery skin.

"What the heck? Don't these stupid gloves work-" she began, but with a chime both gloves suddenly flashed red, and without warning they dragged their respective owners towards one another in a frenzy. Marco had no time to react nor answer before his gauntlet and Stars gauntlet clanged together, their fingers interlocking with a flash of golden light.

Silence ticked the seconds away before Star let out a gruff sigh beneath her blushing facade. "Well, isn't this juuust perfect?" Star asked, looking down at her own hand with distaste before letting her gaze rise up the offending arm, "I'm stuck at the bottom of the Blood Maze… holding hands... with a Human. Gods, could it possibly get any worse?"

Marco rolled his eyes, making to pry the two gauntlets apart when a crack like thunder erupted throughout the cave system, shaking loose debris from the ceiling and splitting the rock above the waterfall in two. All of the groundwater ceased its flow as the cave continued to shake, and as the pond began to boil before their eyes, there came an echoing voice to fill the cavern with a yell.

"You… spit on her name... You are… unwooooorthy... to carry… her gift…"

Both parties surveyed the visible area before letting their vision fall back to the pool, shaken to find a startling pair of red eyes gazing back at them.

"I… what-" Marco let his mind race to find even a proper question, as Star floundered to catch her breath. All the while, the eyes slowly rose from the inky pool, the once clean water turning to viscous muck as the head and shoulders of a woman tried to claw her way out.

"Writttthe and toil in our tomb... for it will be the grave of murderers… killers… and heartless wrrrrretches such as yourself!"

The entire cave shuddered and began to roll with thunder, the rocks above shooting with cracks and dropping torrents of stone as the ghastly woman let out a blood curdling scream. She snaked her arms toward them, taking to viciously clawing at the edge of the pool to reach for the two offenders. Marco tried to scramble away from her, but Star was acting as an anchor, petrified in place as her skin shifted to pale.

The entire cave shifted with the cracks and screams as the woman only continued to latch onto stone and pull herself closer. Underground was likely the worst possible place to be during an Earthquake, and without needing any more provocation, Marco never hesitated to grip the glove firmly lodged in his hand and book it. Though, he wasn't entirely sure if his heroics stopped at the end of the girls gauntlet.

Star tried to protest the sudden move, but when a bony hand hooked into the rock just inches from her boot? She screamed loud enough to make Marco's ears ring before kicking off the ground and taking flight beside the Human. Chunks of rock fell like rain all around then, sending out a ripple of red light wherever they struck. Marco pumped his legs as fast as he could, but with the weight of his pack, and the jarring shake of the- "What the *CRASH* is that thing!" Star shrieked, picking up the worthless excuse for a man in a fireman's carry.

She was faster, and stronger, and wasted no time in scooping Marco up in her arms to evade the skeletal woman dragging herself closer at a near sprint. Over the wails of the figure from the pool Marco pointed towards the hole he'd broken in the maze, madly shouting back, "DON'T KNOW! LEFT! GO LEFT! IT'S WHERE THE EXIT-"

*RRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLEEE*

The entire cave shifted jarringly to the right, loosing all the rock from the ceiling of the cavern to drop down below in a hurricane of dust and stone. The shrieking from behind was cut off with a deafening boom of rock, and just before the two could slide through the tunnel, Marco's vision was once again plunged into darkness.

62 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

When the dust finally settled, Marco found himself strewn about the pristine and polished room from before, with one unique change. The entire left entryway to the Labyrinth was blocked by a wall of loose stone. Coughing up more than a few fistfulls of dust and saliva, Marco tried to heave himself up to investigate, only to be pulled back down by his new anchor.

'Right. Almost forgot,' he kicked himself, shifting to better accommodate for- "Star!" He wheezed, finally catching sight of her condition. She was slumped against the wall, her chest heaving under a pile of dust, and across her temple was a gash oozing with blood. "Shut uuup. I can hear you," she grumbled, but Marco ignored her, slinging his now-torn and precarious pack towards his front.

Star watched as he rifled around for a moment, stifled as he was with the use of only one hand, until finally he produced a small green sack. "First aid," he offered to her silent question before pulling out his canteen and a rag. She sat there, silent as the dead as he cleaned and dressed her wound, finding the bleeding almost eliminated after he applied some blue cream to it. It felt warm, and her heartbeat pulsed against the bandages as Marco packed up his bag and revealed his pack.

"Thanks for carrying me," Marco noted under his breath, taking a swig from his canteen and offering Star a sip. She took a well-earned swing and nodded, though as she handed it back, she gestured to the gauntlets, still locked together. "Don't mention it. Because regardless of whatever horror show that just was, I still need that glove, care-bear."

"Do I need to remind you that I can't take the stupid thing off?" Marco snapped, gesturing to their tied hands with exasperated flair, "Or did you hit your head hard enough to knock a few screws loose, princess."

Star felt her cheeks bloom at the young man's knowledge of her title, growling obscenities to herself as she tried to pull the two gauntlets apart. But if anything, they only seemed to get tighter with each pull. Watching her, Marco gave our a derisive snort, gesturing to the two sealed paths around them. "Don't you think they would have separated when we-"

"Shut. Up," Star bit back, glaring at him as she struggled to pull, "you might be enjoying this, but I don't wanna spend another second tied to a-"

"-A Filthy Human, right?" Marco finished, putting an end to her struggles then and there. The air grew tight between them as she slowly turned her glare towards him, but Marco was at his wits end after a mere five minutes. "Because you Mewmans are sooo much better? Must not get any of my people's blood on your hands from way up in that Ivory tower of yours, huh?"

In a blur, Marco was given no time to react as Star's free hand curled into a fist and hooked right for his nose. But thanks to some invisible barrier shimmering where her fist struck, he was spared the act of having his lights punched out. Unfortunately, as if to goad their plight further down the toilet, both gauntlets seemed to tighten around the pair of hands, squeezing them in protest with a growing heat.

"Wha- ahhhhhHHHHH! OWW!" Star hissed in pain as her knuckles cracked from both hands, both for different reasons. But she was determined to keep her flame alight, biting through a glare aimed at her counterpart. "Yes, we are better than you!" She shouted at him, "Because we're not bloodthirsty killers like you! We don't slaughter our enemy and enslave the survivors like you!"

She watched as Marco crumbled under her seething accusations, but truly he was floored at the audacity she was flaunting so proudly. "Wha- are you- ...yes you do?! It's been that way on both sides for centuries!"

Star opened her mouth to rip him a new one, but caught her breath before she could shout. "No, my people are better than that, though I can see how someone of your species could make that mistake," she growled, her wounded hand curled into a crude fist. Fool her once, after all. "We'd never stoop to Human tactics like, I dunno, arsony, slavery, genocide-"

Once more, as if in protest, the gloves tightened further around each of their wrists, cracking more than a few joints as the heat only rose further. "Ahhhh! Shit! Stop lying! You're just making it worse!" Marco yelled, tugging to releive whatever pressure he could on his hand, but Star simply turned red at the cheek, biting her tongue to keep from punching a hole through his head.

"I'm not. Lying! I've never seen anything like the barbarity that you Humans can produce!"

Marco winced, turning away from the glove to help dull the pain, but nothing happened. If anything, the heat seemed to subside, if only slightly. Slowly, he turned back to stare at the gloves for a moment before turning his gaze back to Star. For the first time, it dawned on him that maybe she truly believed her people were innocent; that anyone could be innocent in a war such as theirs. She wasn't malicious, she was just a sheltered idiot.

"Maybe that's because your people don't want you to see what they do," he offered softly, though his expression was hardened at the thought of what he knew both sides were capable of, "I don't condone what Humans do in our war, but even I know that both sides have done terrible things for the sake of fear, and power. No one's innocent up there."

Star stared at him, speechless as the gloves slowly loosened just enough to notice. So he was being honest, if this really was a game of lie detector, but that didn't cool her nerves in the slightest. "Sitting back and letting those horrible things happen doesn't make you any more innocent than the rest of you-..." she spat, glaring into his brown eyes with bitter resentment, "at least I'm trying to do something about it."

Once more, the gloves cooled and loosened just enough to notice, and just enough for Marco to consider that she was likely being honest, but to what end? "So am I," he offered with dignity, "My plan was to find whatever artifact was locked in this maze and use it to end the fighting for good. But now, thanks to you, we both get to sit back and let the world burn."

Looser and cooler as Star could feel, she felt the freedom to at least wiggle her fingers inside the gauntlet. She stared at him, matching his air of dignity as she returned, "I have no intention of being a witness to the destruction of my people. So you, are gonna help me, figure out how to get these things off, so I, can use them to end the war."

Marco could recognize that she likely had good intentions, seeing as his hand felt more air against it than before. She was after the same thing as him, but there was one glaring detail that he couldn't face with just the gauntlet alone. "How can I trust that you won't just exterminate us?"

For a moment, Star didn't answer, she just let the silence of the Labyrinth do the talking for her. She stared at him with those same deep pools of azure, icy and calculating as they flew over him like a searchlight. Finally, just before Marco was about to give in, Star adjusted herself in some vain attempt to sit with higher authority. "I want to end the fighting too," she offered, her voice for once a soft murmur, "Not for my side, not as a Mewman, but as- …" she trailed off, her cheek marks blooming bright red. "...as a princess. I want to keep my people safe, and I want them to stop fighting. If you want the same for your Humans, then you can trust that I'll do right by you. ...on my honor as a Butterfly."

Despite himself, and the loosening gloves, Marco felt his heart flutter at her words. For whatever reason, she'd laid herself out on the line, and in spite of their situation, their standing, their differences, he felt obliged to accept it. If peace was really the end goal, and if he truly had the intention of ending the Endless War, then who better to make such an accord with, than the future ruler of his 'enemies'. "Okay then… I guess…," he could feel his cheeks blooming just as hers had, and there in the dim light of the cave he offered, "I trust you, Star Butterfly."

As if to lend credit to his statement, the Gauntlets loosened further until finally, with a metallic clang that echoed throughout the corridors, they broke apart, save for a thin vein of red energy pulsing between them.

"Oh? Ha! Haha!" Marco laughed aloud as he held up his freed hand, splaying his fingers and twisting his wrist.

"Now that's more like it!" Came a rowdy agreement from Star. The two shared a hearty laugh as they inspected their hands and gloves, their spirits well and lifted. But as the chuckles died down to coughs, it was Star who finally broke the awkward silence after their new accord. "Alright so, what? Do these babies run on good manners? Or can I assume that we have to earn em?"

Marco held his chin with his empty hand, turning over the glove and investigating the thin vein of pulsing red that connected him to Star. "I don't really know," he answered honestly, giving her a shrug, "but, that's not a bad theory." Star gave him a nod before hoising herself up, dusting off her robes, and resting her hands on her hips.

"Well. There's gotta be another way out of here right?" She asked, remembering well how the exit was said to have been 'left', "I mean, these guys built a maze, so it's not like they'd only have the one entrance in the Temple. I say we set out and find another exit that isn't filled with rocks."

Marco lifted himself up in much the same fashion as Star, dusting himself off before he paused. Something didn't sound quite right there, and it took him a moment to figure it out as he and Star began their walk. "Back up a sec, what 'temple'? The entrance was in a cave. And what do you mean these guys? Do you know who built this place? Or why they built it? Or how?"

"Easy, slow down, scholar," Star snorted, rolling her eyes as he produced his little notebook. He was firing off questions a mile a minute, but she saw fit to give him the benefit of the doubt. "First of all, don't be silly. There's no way the Blood Maze starts in a cave, Marco," she jabbed, a misgiven bit of annoyance in her voice, "and as for who built this place, the Mewmans of course."

Understandably, Marco was put off by the jab, but set it aside if for no other reason than academic importance. Something wasn't adding up. "I got here through a cave, deep under a mountain west of the Plains of Plenty," he noted, even offering his notebook to reveal the path he'd taken from Primrose, "And according to legend, it was actually Humans who built this place."

Star stifled a laugh as they rounded a corner, brushing his notebook aside. "I'm sure that's what they told you in your little university, Marco, but you'll find that actual history… tells… a different…" She trailed off, and as Marco looked up from his notebook, he could see why. In front of them were two paths, both in the shape of diamonds, but the real issue was in deciding which path to take.

"I always go right."

"I always go left."

The two stared at each other in silence, the threat of speaking in unison proving too annoying to ignore. Finally, Marco gestured to himself, offering, "I always go right, since right is right in any Labyrinth, you know."

"I always go left, as in… Left to Leave?" Star muttered, "but whatever. I'm fine with going your way, whatever gets us away from that cave-in and out of this Maze."

68 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

Settling on right, the two carried on, walking down the diamond shaped corridor in silence with nothing but the hum of their gauntlets to make a sound. They walked for some hours down the carved paths, taking every right they came across and breaks as they needed. As Marco was quick to discover, the gauntlets would only allow the two to step five feet apart, which made bathroom trips all the more perilous, but he found he could endure when they ran into a particularly sharp corner.

Lunch, or perhaps it was dinner? Star didn't know, her timepiece was broken during the cave in. Either way, Marco was as prepared as ever with two meals at the ready for them to share: a dried fish cutlet and some stale bread. Not what she was used to, but hey, it was food.

72 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

After eating the two trekked on, neither of them finding much of use or station to say, until finally, they came across another room. "I dunno, last time I went into one of the Labyrinth rooms, I almost died," Marco grumbled, staring at the circular doorway. But Star pushed past him, jutting a thumb behind her.

"Hit the back of the caravan if you don't wanna be first in line, but I'm tired of staring at cave painting all day!"

Marco begrudgingly followed after her, stepping through the door to find- "Wow… thats… a lot of cave paintings," he noted with a whistle.

This room, in stark contrast to the first, was a sensory overload of carvings, etchings, and even Glyphs from centuries ago. Every square inch of the wall closest to them was covered.

"I change my mind, I don't wanna be the leader anymore," Star growled, folding her arms in a huff. But Marco was a far different story, already ears deep in his little notebook. Again, Star groaned aloud, as if to make it abundantly clear that she wanted no part in staying, but Marco was undeterred. "I know you don't wanna waste time here, but come on. This stuff could make us famous in the future-" He caught himself, both at the insinuation of us, and future. "I mean, after the war's over… you know."

Why he was insistent on stopping for even a moment to read over the minutiae of the Human language and sketch silly little drawings, Star had no idea. She could think of a million better things to do in a cave, especially one said to be teaming with monsters, traps, skeletons, the works! Instead, all she'd found thus far was mind numbing artwork, history, and a Human attached to her at the hip.

But as Marco began writing, reading, and scribbling, Star found an unsettling feature on the opposite wall of the room, one she'd almost overlooked in her gruff annoyance. There, on the opposite wall, were paragraphs carved into the wall, and all of it in Mewman runes.

"Marco… what exactly… does your side say?"

Marco stopped scribbling furious notes, his pencil having ran on autopilot as he inhaled information. When he heard Star ask what he'd learned so far, he stared at his pages and looked up, unsure if he was in the right cave, or if he'd simply been fed a lie. This, was not what he'd seen before, far from it. "I… I think it's the story of the Labyrinth, Star," he offered, his voice small in comparison to the sprawling texts and carvings, "according to these glyphs, the Labyrinth was built… by Humans and Mewmans… for a Goddess…"

Star heard him, but chose to remain silent as she read the runes outlining what carvings had survived the millenia. Marco looked back up at the wall and stepped with it, following along as he wrote. And this time, he spoke aloud for Star to hear. "The Moon Labyrinth was built for a Goddess, as a show of thanks for the peace and bounty she provided. She loved Humans, she loved Mewmans, but above all else, she loved what they could do together. So they built her a test? Some sort of trial, to find the most compatible of the two species, so that she could… bind them?"

"What do you mean bind them?"

"I don't know, it just says 'bind them', and there's a picture of two people standing under the moon. They each have…" Marco stopped, looking down at his gauntlet. And sure enough, it bore a striking resemblance to the one depicted just in front of him. "The two chosen are wearing gauntlets like ours. It says they do grant unspeakable magic power, but only to those 'who are worthy'?"

Star turned about, uninterested in the repetition of her side of the room, and strolled a few steps closer to Marco, watching as he transcribed everything in sight. "Both species lived in peace for… thousands of years, but after so long, they grew restless, hungering for more than the Goddess could provide. There were those in the shadows who schemed to take the gauntlets for themselves, and live like kings above everyone, including the Goddess. So… they killed the chosen…"

He stopped writing, looking up at the depictions of assasination used against the leaders of the warring nations. To his left, Star fared no better, her eyes wide at the sheer amount of red and orange used to accurately portray the execution. "It says… the Moon Goddess was enraged by what she saw, and sought to punish the two greedy nations, sealing away the gauntlets and wiping her gifts from the face of the earth. Without the bounty of the Goddess, the world fell into famine, hardship, and not long after, ...war. Still the two nations refused to reconcile, each side blaming the other for the tragedy. And so long as the Gauntlets remain sealed away, they will never reconcile."

Star had been following along with the rudimentary pictures, bumping into Marco as he stood motionless. "What happened?" She asked, nudging him to keep it going. But Marco only stowed his notebook.

"That's it, if you wanna see how it ends, go outside. They must have left the maze when they got tired of waiting, a few generations down the line." Marco let his shoulders sag, appalled by what he'd read. How much of it was true? What happened to all the history? The relics, the evidence!

"Okay, but like, I've never heard anything like this," Star noted, gesturing flagrantly to the wall, "I've seen the- … the royal archives. I would know if something like this went down, I'm kind of important in Mewni."

Marco once more surveyed the story, glossing over the more… carmine notes, but still he came up blank. "This doesn't make any sense, none of our records match this at all. I've done extensive research on everything we have related to the world before the war. Every religious artifact, every temple, every battle site! Sure the stuff from before the war is as scarce as it is apocryphal, but… there should be something more. Why was this place forgotten? Why did the Humans bury their side!? Why do-"

Marco trailed off, turning to look at his gauntlet, letting it roll in his hand as it hummed red. A glance to left showed that Star's gauntlet fared just the same. "We can't use these alone… we have to work together to make them work!" He shouted, turning madly to Star. But as he turned, she took a step back, the calculation in her eyes back to stay. "What?"

She wrinkled her nose at the insinuation pouring her way. "I'm not sure how… on board I am with the whole 'working together' thing," she offered, "baby steps, and even that's asking alot right now."

There were a few moments of silence as Marco surveyed her response, but for whatever solution he would be able to cook up, there was no point to it. Regardless of his plans, regardless of what they both came here to do, "Star, if we get these babies running like those two, we can solve all the world's problems! What issue could you have with that?" But as he looked her over, what he noticed was an all too familiar blush, as Star kept her eyes glued to the gauntlet in his hand.

"I get that, but we… have to be… bound, to get them to work…" she trailed off, the difficulty in her speech growing understandable as Marco listened. He felt his face bloom red even under the dim light of the Labyrinth. "I… I can see that… being an issue," he noted with equal difficulty, the two shifting uncomfortably, "but this- these gauntlets could change everything. We could use the gloves to feed the hungry, heal the sick, provide for the world… so no one ever has to fight again. If there's even a chance I can make that happen, I'd do anything. "

Again, silence reigned between them as the gauntlets hummed a low frequency. It was somewhat haunting what the prices of armor had witnessed, as depicted from the wall, and as Star looked back towards the darker side of the room, she found the Mewman runes far more direct. "And what happens… when Humans get greedy again?" She asked, stepping closer to the far side, "What happens when they want more than what we can give them?" She pointed at the reds and oranges.

"Is that, part of the anything you'd do? Are you ready to make a sacrifice like that?"

Marco grew stiff at her insinuation, wondering where such an idea had come from. Were they really devolving back to square one with this topic? "I… I would… but why does any of that matter? What do you mean 'again'? The wall said that both sides-"

"I get that. But this wall makes it very clear that Humans cannot be trusted," she explained, leading Marco to the Mewman runes, and the less than artistic depictions. It made his stomach turn, the way the runes were scrawled in place with haste and desperation, not finely carved, but scratched. "It says here that the Humans were the ones who plotted against the chosen pair. Humans were the ones that lusted after more power and schemed to make it happen. Do you really wanna die for those filthy- …for your race?"

He was thrown for a loop with so much information hurled his way. He could read Mewman well enough to comprehend the extent of the warning, but the calligraphy didn't leave much to the imagination. And another glaring issue was that Star didn't identify him as a human so easily in her question, but rather, pitted them against him. "Why do you- we don't know if that could happen again Star," he rebuked, giving a dismissive wave at the carvings, "maybe we can try to-"

"Marco. Look at that wall." Star pointed back to the Human side, towards the section bathed in red and orange, but Marco couldn't bring himself to comply. He let his gaze fall to the side as Star gestured with impatience and disdain. "It wasn't both chosen, just the Mewman. They burned her alive, to get the gauntlet. And do you know who showed them how? Who betrayed her?"

She let him pull out his notebook, hurriedly looking through his sketches and notes before she huffed angrily, directing him at the depiction of the two lovers. "Her Human partner," she answered with cold finality, not bothering to hide the distaste in her voice, "they promised him money, power, women, knowledge, and he showed them what to do to steal her gauntlet. In the end they killed both of them, and kicked off a thousand years of war."

For a moment, Marco allowed himself to feel a slight tinge of annoyance at the idea that she would assume he'd do the same, likely due to his species. But to her credit, or against it, only hours ago he had been fully prepared to take her life if it meant the survival of Humanity. "You and I were both prepared to do what we felt was necessary for the world," he argued, "I don't see how this is any different of a sacrifice. I trust you, Star."

Again Star felt her cheeks bloom at such a vote of confidence in her, but she looked away, pushing the feeling and the notion alike back down. She looked past Marco, back towards the wall, and back towards the red. "I… appreciate your trust, even from a Human," she still admitted with difficulty. But Marco could at least grasp the sincerity now. They'd made great strides, but to what end was a question left unanswered by her actions."But it's not your trust we need. If..." she deliberately trailed off, truly acknowledging how dark the cavern was, "if that thing… from the waterfall? If that was the girl that got betrayed or some ghost of the Maze? If she's still around somehow?"

Finally, Marco began to catch on, and much like Star he grew a new appreciation for the haste in which the Mewman Runes were written. "You think that because we tried to kill each other," he began, testing the weight of his glove, that familiar promise of power resonating within, "the thing that's been talking to us sees us as killers too."

Star nodded. "If the story really is true… then I think we already failed the test."

Marco made to reject the idea that the gloves grafted to their hands were already all but useless, that they'd already thrown away their one chance at helping their respective species. But before he could even off advice to the contrary, the entire cave shook again, cracks splitting down the length of the room. "We can run to-" Was all Marco could say before a blood curdling scream filled the cave system.

Both he and Star cupped their ears as the scream shook the walls around them, and far towards the doorway they'd entered from, the stone walls were ripped to shrapnel in a flurry. Dust and rock flew forward like a hurricane. And as the dust began to settle, the sound of dragging nails filled the air to accompany the glow of red emanating from the hole.

She was there.

The woman from the pool, her body rigid against the glow of red and orange pulsing within her bony chest.

Gone was the muck and scum that had congealed around her at the waterfall, now there was only smoke and ash pooling into the room and flooding the air, her skull a flat back as she unhinged her jaw, and shrieked at them. The woman didn't wait, she dug her hands straight into the stone and flowed forward on a wave of smoke as she bellowed with rage. Star could only brace herself, the two intruders too terrified to budge.

But the woman from the waterfall wasn't after her. She tore forward and ripped the stone floor into gravel, throwing the Mewman girl aside as she bellowed for the Human. Star slammed into the wall, the wind knocked out of her as cracks spread deep into the stone, but she couldn't register the pain. Where she'd been grabbed, that burning hand tearing at her robes and burning a hole through, she could feel a connection. Her eyes flashed with images of fire, and a crowd of Humans all roaring for her head. And at the center of the vision? At the center of the crowd standing just before her? There he was.

She saw a handsome human man, his long black hair pulled back above fanciful, exuberant clothes. He was smiling, but not with joy or malice. What brought happiness to his eyes was a comfort that Star felt resonating within her. He wanted this, but there wasn't a pride in his expression. She could feel a rage and seething hatred burning from the center of her chest almost as hot as the flames now licking the air around her. And above the roar of the flames she saw him speak, his words painted across his lips for her and her alone.

"For the good of Humanity… for our survival."

The flames roared louder and hotter until finally, Star came to, not a moment having passed since she'd hit the wall, staring ahead as the force of nature ripped closer to- "Marco!" She screamed, willing for him to "MOVE YOUR ASS!"

He was trembling as the ghastly woman lurched closer, coming to a stop in a snapping and popping heat. Smoke bellowed around her and poured through her charred lips as she offered, "Traiiitoorrrr… Deceeiveeerrr… Byyyy the handsssss of maaaaan….I burrrrrrned," came her choked words, raspy and ravenous as she looked closer to Marco. She radiated a heat like a stoked fire, the glow from underneath her bones sending wisps of smoke from her smoldering skin. And still Marco couldn't move.

"By myyyy haaaaands… yooouuu will-" *SLAM*

There'd been a flash of silver, and the woman was gone, Marco staring ahead through the displaced smoke with sweat pooling on his brow. Whether it was from the heat, or the fear, he couldn't yet allocate the blame. But as he followed the blur of metal, his brain catching up with his eyes, he realized that Star had rushed forward and punched the torrid being through the wall of the cave, her robes tearing away in the wind. There she stood, just feet to his left, in a full set of Mewman armor, polished and primed as her gauntleted fist glowed red.

"St-...Star?" Marco tried to ask, but the armored Mewman woman simply turned to face him, her eyes wide with trembling terror as she screamed, "I said RUN!"

He didn't wait to be told twice, as a cloud of smoke and a torrent of flames lit up the hole the woman had created. Marco rifled in his pack to produce a small brass orb, etched on every side with human Glyphs before Star pulled him to his feet. As they ran, he whispered softly, "Grahm dama vi craz a respo… IGVAZI!"

The brass ball began to hum in his hand, the Glyphs glowing purple as he threw it towards the hole. As he and Star rushed out of the 'story room', as it would later be called, there was an echoing blast that set the room alight. A shockwave rippled through the stone, the very earth groaning under the stress of the explosion, before finally the Labyrinth succumbed to the forces exerted against it. With a rumble, the room collapses in on itself, sending a storm of dust out, and once again plunging the corridor into darkness.

But Star and Marco were far beyond its reach. The goal was to buy time, and it had been a successful endeavor. After hours of running with minimal breaks, frenzied turns, and haphazard navigation, they finally allowed themselves to stop, resting against the corridor wall as they caught their breath.

78 hours in the Moon Labyrinth

And said breath was nearly exclusively spent… on questions.

"What the heck is with your armor?! You look like a general with all that gettup!"

"Can we just focus, please? That thing was definitely after you, it just pushed me out of the way!"

"Yeah but how did you punch it like that?! And why was your gauntlet glowing red?"

"I saw a vision of that lady burning at the stake! And what about you? Did you use magic?!"

The questions died down, and as the adrenaline was quick to follow, Star found she'd lead the charge in answering. "I'm wearing the armor… because…" She swallowed, ready to change everything. But given what she'd seen, what she'd just done, and what she'd endured, it was trivial nonsense by comparison. "I kind of am a General?" she offered, her eyes creased with difficulty, but still she pressed on, "My subjects demanded…. that their Queen be properly protected, and without an envoy, this was the least they would accept."

She found Marco staring at her, his skin a shade lighter even under the ghostly light of his necklace. "What?" She asked, though she obviously already knew.

"...Queen?" Marco asked, narrowing his eyes, careful to maintain the distance between the two, "Who… are you really?"

Star met his inquisitive gaze with a bloom, turning away as she formulated a proper response. This Human wasn't supposed to know, she wasn't supposed to be here, if the rest of the Humans found out why… but Marco… He was different wasn't he? He wasn't like the other Humans, he was smart, and careful, and while their life debt had been repaid, she still felt she owed him something.

"My name is Star Butterfly. And thanks to Humans… killing my Mother… I'm the new reigning Queen of Mewni. "

She watched as he processed that, and after a moment she felt herself relax as he nodded. "That's why you decided to try to find the Gauntlets, to try to end the fighting..." He asked in a soft voice, receiving a nod in return. But he also remembered fondly the way he had pointed a weapon at her, and the way she'd looked at him throughout the entire ordeal. "You should have just told me who you were. I'd still be helping you, Star, and not just because I've got no other choice." He gestured to his gauntlet, finally earning a smile from his captive partner.

"I sincerely doubt that, Marco Diaz. But… thank you. You're a gem hidden in the mud- …no offense," she offered with a laugh, a cute laugh that had previously only been teased once they'd been freed. It made Marco's heart flutter, and he found that once the war was over, he would have a new passion in life to pursue. "But that thing, she was after you, she just pushed me out of the way and ignored me," she continued, giving Marco a serious look.

"Yeah… she called me traitor, and deceiver. She didn't really do anything to me, but I could… feel her anger, her rage. She was ready to kill me, but she didn't." Marco rubbed his cheek, the warmth of that creature- that woman's presence all too familiar against his skin. "If you hadn't punched her through two feet of stone, I'd probably be dead."

Star managed a smile, standing up a little straighter at the praise. "Well, it's not often I see combat… or at all. So, it felt good to give it my all for a change," she laughed, giving him an exaggerated flex, "and what was that ball you threw at her!? How did you use magic like that!"

Now it was Marco's turn to smile, producing a smaller brass cube and whispering, "frimag hasat lok ret deem." And at his command, the cube began to frost, clouds of condensation collecting around its edges. "The sphere was just a heater, and this little guy is a cooler. They're for keeping the temperature of my tent regulated on expeditions," came his explanation, turning off the cube and stowing it in his pack, "I made them after some research in the the Eastern Territories, and I imbued them with some magic to work from the Glyphs. Though, you're not really supposed to tell them to explode you know?"

Star stared at him, the mad genius, for just a moment before breaking into a giggle, and then a laugh. They'd been spared a grisly death by a tent heating orb!

"What? I suppose Mewmans have better artifacts for-" Marco began, but Star silenced his recovery rant with a chest-thumping smile, her armor shimmering like starlight in the dim light. "We do, but I have never seen someone do something like that!" She laughed, enticing him to join her in the spectacle, "you really are something special aren't you?"

The question was simple, and direct, but it nonetheless made Marco's heart skip a beat, and he couldn't place quite exactly why. "I suppose I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but the real meat of my research lies back at my workshop. Years of data and history, technology from all my travels and magic from around the globe, the likes of which even you Mewmans haven't seen!"

He looked back at Star, his excitement dying down at her silence. But he found her still smiling, fondly at the idea of visiting such a fantastical place as that. "Well, I suppose I'll have to come around and see it sometime. After the war is over?"

That brought him back to reality, the walls of the Labyrinth seemingly squeezing back in around them. Their freedom was fleeting, and now they had an enemy to their mission, but in coming here they'd each found a comrade to such an endeavor. "Then we better find our way out of here, and how to make these bad boys start humming again," Marco chided. Turning back towards the extensive black tunnel, "I'd say we've rested enough St- I mean… your majesty, I wouldn't mind getting to see the real Mewni you call home, and take an entire notebook's worth of notes for my research."

Star smiled to herself, but it was wistful at the prospect. What their future would hold, and what could possibly await, was as unknown as the secrets of the Maze around them. "You don't have to use titles," she corrected, "To family and...friends, it's just Star. Like before."

As though he had no better response laid out, Marco felt his chest tighten, and his cheeks bloom before he nodded, gesturing further down the tunnel. "Then after you, Star."

They walked for a moment, taking two rights through the corkscrews tunnels, and for no good reason, a left. But Marco did still have something on his mind, and he was keen to get an answer before the opportunity was lost. "What did you see?" He asked, watching as Star slowed just enough to notice, her eyes trained forward. "You took a hit, one that should have been nothing, but you went pale and slumped for a moment before you came to. You saw something. Didn't you?"

For a while she was quiet, nothing but the sound of two sets of footsteps echoing through the tunnels before she let out a captivated breath. "Whatever that thing is now, it definitely used to be the woman who got betrayed," she explained, giving him the full rundown of her vision. From the burning of the fire to the blazing anger she held, Star spared no details, and Marco drank them in earnest. "She's got a pretty good reason to hate you, what with you being a Human male and all that."

"Forgive me if I don't share the same sentiment," Marco grumbled as the two came across a caved-in portion of the corridor. Star was quick to climb up and hoist Marco over, the gesture quick and considerate before they continued down a more worn and decrepit tunnel. "We really need to get the gauntlets working before she catches up. I have a pretty good feeling it's her job to make sure no 'Unworthy humans' and Mewmans grab her old gear."

"And where do we even start? There's no instructions, no books, we're just following a legend," Star growled as she turned her gauntlet over, "It started to glow red when I socked that ghost in the jaw, but it fizzled out right after."

"Don't suppose hard-core violence is the answer?" Marco asked with a grin, though the sentiment was lost on his travel buddy. Star rolled her eyes and flexed her fist, trying to recreate even the motion to coax out the light. But still, nothing. Marco stared at her as she fiddled with it, watching as the artifact shimmered to reflect the light of his necklace. He made to ask if she felt anything when she'd used it to clobber the creature, but before he could speak, Star asked, "What do we do if we can't get the gauntlets to work?"

He started, having been staring at the glove for so long. "I… well. We'll figure them out, they're gonna work, Star," he tried to reassure her, but the Queen of Mewni didn't seem so taken by his optimism. "They have to work. Because if this whole expedition was for nothing, I don't know if anything can save our people. There won't be anything left to do."

Still, Star didn't seem taken by his pessimism, resigning herself to walk in silence for a few minutes. Marco was keen to notice the way she kept stealing glances his way, but thought nothing of it until she asked, finally, "will you come back to-"

The dark hallway before them gave way, a brass set of double doors coming into view as both emissaries on mission stopped in its wake. Star floundered from her question, Marco noticing a heavy set blush, before she stepped forward and pushed against the brass doors. With a groan and a grunt, they slowly skid open, revealing a sight neither of the two could have expected: The Atrium that held the gauntlets.

Or rather, a room built to look very similar to the atrium? Gone was the pedestal, and all of the carvings and depictions on the walls had changed, but the red glow of the room, the columns, the polished tile floors, and the massive rotunda above all remained. "Is this… are we back?" Marco asked, trying his hand at that hopeless optimism, but Star was quick to shut him down, shaking her head and pointing up. "Not back. But closer," she offered.

The two stepped deeper into the room, their eyes panning over every red-stained surface they could behold, but both nearly jumped out of their shoes when the heavy set doors behind them slammed shut. The boom echoed and reverberated as Marco stepped back towards the door to investigate, but Star found something else of interest in the carvings framed between the columns securing the room. "Is this some kind of ballroom?" She asked aloud, scanning several carvings that seemed to all depict some form of dance or another, and all between a pair consisting of a Mewman, and a Human.

Marco returned to her side and rubbed his chin, particularly taken by the age of the carvings. The technique was practically alien compared to his usual works, but the language underneath was something completely unrecognizable. "I can't tell, the descriptions are written in some language I've never seen before," he answered with a shake of his head. Leaning back, he stared at the roof of the atrium, letting out a high whistle. "Check out that ruby though, it must have taken a decade to carve that."

Star followed his gaze upward, finding nothing short of the largest ruby she'd ever seen in her life, carved into the shape of a crescent moon to accent the intricate artwork decorating the ceiling. Above their heads were depictions of couples, Mewman and Human alike, standing in a circle around the Moon in various eras of clothing. They all bore in the hands one gauntlet, and one crescent moon.

"I think this place might be the center," Star noted, glancing around her at the gaps between the columns. And sure enough, there were doorways all closed off and leading in every direction.

"I was about to say the same thing," Marco noted, producing his notebook to scribble sketches of every detail from the moon above to the carvings around them. Fascinated, Star looked over his shoulder at his artwork, watching as his pencil recreated the scene around her. "It makes you wonder if both species built this place in unison, or if they built it separate and added their own techniques and art styles," he offered with a touch of excitement to his voice, "What if both species shared the same culture until the Goddess' curse, and split off into what we know now? Or have they always had such different and unique practices and traditions? And what about building techniques? How different would your half of the maze have been to-"

He stopped, noticing the silence of the room before looking behind him at the Queen of Mewni. She was giving him her full and undivided attention, drawing a blush from the young man's cheeks. "Sorry, I was… just making some theories. It gets exciting…" his confidence trailed off only to be reignited as Star gave him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about it, I find it pretty interesting too, actually," came her lighthearted response to his excitement before she stood a little straighter,

"Marco, what are you fighting for?"

Slowly, he began to stow his notebook, his mind catching up to the jarring question. "That's… a little bit out of left field… Why do you ask?" Star didn't seem to want an answer right away, as she took to strolling around the room, eyeing the decor for anything useful. Finally, when she'd gathered some sound reasoning, she gave him, "I'm Queen, and as such I have a duty to all of Mewni. I'm here risking my life for my people. To make sure that no one else has to die, or at the very least, no more Mewmans have to die. Now from what I can tell, you're here for the same thing. But why?"

Marco took a moment to digest her question in length, he himself taking to walk around and inspecting the room for any clues. "I guess… I just want some peace and quiet? Peace being the heavier word," he finally suggested with notable difficulty, "All my life I've wanted to explore, to study magic and delve into the history of our lands. But… I can't do any of that when my race is fighting yours. So, I dunno. I dedicated a few years of my life to finding this place, with the goal being to… get some peace and quiet."

Star in turn processed his answer, lazily tracing her finger over a carving of the gauntlets. What was most intriguing was that for her side of the Maze, it was a simple walk in, no journey or camping, just a stroll to the temple. But Marco? He had to find his entrance, a cave under a mountain as he put it. And sure he and Star shared the same goal, but all for some quiet to work?

After a moment, Marco noticed the silence and turned about. Finding Star staring at a wall, he asked, "That's probably not the noble answer you were expecting, was it?"

"No, I'm- It's more like…" Star whirled about to try and downplay the accusation, but finding him already staring expectantly, she let the steam fizzle out. "No, not quite," she admitted."

"Well, I can't say I have much else in mind," he offered in a sigh, turning back to trace his hands over a language he couldn't understand, "A world of peace, and a steady gig doing what I love? What else could I-"

"Come back to Mewni with me."

Silence fell like a hammer inside the daunting atrium, and slowly Marco turned about to face her. She was beat red, practically glowing in that light, but he'd heard her loud and clear. "Go back to- …with you? The Queen?"

Star forced a nod. She felt practically torrid under his gaze, but the question stood as asked. "I… can't stop the war on my own. If these Gauntlets don't work, or whatever curse the Goddess put on our races stays... I can't just wave a magic wand and make everything better just because I'm Queen. But you?" She gestured to every facet of his unimpressive stature, "You're better than every other Human out there. You're worth protecting, and you deserve a world where you could do what you love, even if these can't make that happen."

She held up her gauntlet to prove her point, but both were floored to find it glowing a deep shade of crimson. Marco made to scream with excitement, already reaching for his notebook when the ruby in the ceiling lit up to match, his own gauntlet quick to follow suit.

The entire room was bathed in red light, but even on the precipice of the success, Star was adamant to not be interrupted twice. "Marco, come back to Mewni with me. Please."

As if to accent her demand, the Crescent moon above glowed ever fiercer to send down two spotlights, one centered on each of the gauntlets. There was no time to answer before the gloves shot for one another, just as they had before, the hands conjoining with folded fingers to lock Star and Marco together. With a clang, the two were left in silence, staring at one another above the glowing armor, before finally? There came a familiar tune.

Music

Blood Moon Waltz : Giovanni Valentino

That same song began to fill Marco's ears, the gentle notes reverberating off the stone around them to fill every crevice of the room. It was as intoxicating as it had been before, but now, rather than his goal, Marco was fixated on the pair of sapphire eyes staring into his. He cleared his throat, stood up straight, and found nothing else to say but: "Dance with me? Your majesty?"

Why the hell did he ask that?!

Star bloomed all over again, but she too was as intoxicated as the first time she'd heard the music, drawn through the tunnels that led to the Gauntlets. And now, despite herself and everything she'd come here for, she could only nod.

Why the Flippin hell did I say yes?!

Carefully, as though she might burn him, Marco rested his hand on Star's plated hip, and likewise felt her rest her hand on his shoulder before they took their first steps. Forward…. Turn… right… the two began to move, and as they moved they found the intoxicating music loosen its hold, so long as they complied.

"What the hell is going on?" Star seethed through grit teeth, her eyes darting up to glare at the spotlight, "why are we-"

"This could be a test… look," Marco answered before she could ask, drawing her withering glare back down to the floor around them. They weren't alone anymore.

At least a dozen other pairs had taken to the dance floor, all of them actually dressed for the occasion, and all of them sporting the familiar golden gloves. "Maybe the Labyrinth is giving us another chance," Marco whispered, as though it might be listening, "let's just play along, it kinda seems like the right thing to do. Plus, the gloves…"

Star softened her gaze and looked at their interlocked hands, finding the two Gauntlets glowing a fiercer crimson than before. Perhaps he had a point, and there was a good chance that to deny the Maze its dance would mean another cave in. Likely, the other ethereal dancers were impressions left over from the other chosen pairs, but did that mean that this… was a type of ceremony? "Marco, I do not feel like being bonded right now!" She whispered in a shout, "quit enjoying this and figure out how we get out of this!"

But Marco met her oppressive demands with a frown, his steps turning them about as they laced through the ghostly crowd. "Even if it gets us the Gauntlets?" He asked with a touch of worry, enough to fully grasp Star's attention, "if being 'bonded' ends the war, I'm fine with going along, and then going our separate ways once we get out of-"

There was a crack throughout the room, and a quick glance skyward showed a hairline fracture appear on the gemstone above. It was small, but prominent enough to make all the visions of dancers glitch in place before resuming. Even the music seemed to skip like a record, the lullaby dissolving around them.

"You still haven't answered."

Marco turned back to face Star, finding her already staring expectantly. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was referring to, but now of all times? Was that really the best conversation to have? What happened to 'screw the dance, let's get the hell out of here!' "I-... Look, Star, it's not-" *crack*

Again the gemstone above split further, the crack growing more pronounced as it spread. Marco let his eyes fall back down as the two danced, the room skipping a beat around them. Star let out an unsteady breath, her eyes fierce, but intelligent enough to read him loud and clear. "I know it's not as easy as you dropping everything and coming over to hostile territory on a whim. But I can protect you, I can keep you safe, and you can-"

"I want to."

Star pursed her lips, her eyes drawing wide as she held her breath, her words put to rest in her throat. "What?" Was all she could ask after having been thrown for a loop. But Marco simply resumed their dance, weaving around the room with careful steps.

Backward… left… turn…

"I want to go back with you," he began, though his expression was grim enough to kill any hope, "when you asked what I was fighting for? Yes, I long for a world where I can do what I love in peace, and quiet. But, after meeting you? Star what I want is to remove you from a world where you hold responsibility for the death of your people. I want to end the war on your behalf. I want to cure the world of a poison that will slowly kill you."

Another turn, another step forward, and the music kept playing.

"You asked what I fight for?" Marco noted, his gauntlet tightening as much as was allowed, "I'm fighting for you. I'm fighting for a woman I've only just met and barely know, because I know she deserves the peace and quiet I've always dreamed of. I want to fix our broken world, so you can live without the consequences of the Goddess who cursed it."

"But if we can't fix things-" Star began, her eyes darting to the gauntlets now glowing a shimmering red. But Marco shook his head.

"If we can't then we're as good as dead. So I'll do anything… to make my dream a reality. So you get to do the same."

Star was speechless, her steps all but automatic as she swayed to the music. Rarely in her life, not even from her most loyal subject, had she heard of someone so willing to sacrifice everything for her sake. For the sake of their people. For the sake of the world. And to hear it now, from a Human?

Her own mother had given her life to such a cause as war, and here she was willing to throw it all away for the sake of… Marco. She wanted to keep him safe in much the same way, to protect his dream as he was willing to protect hers. But his dream didn't need protection. His dream was armed to the teeth, stronger than ten oxen, and the ruler of Mewni. His dream was standing right in front of him.

All she had to do? Dance with him.

Dance with him, and be bound.

Be bound, and end the war.

End the war… and…

"I'll fight for a chance," Star answered, tightening her fingers around the foreign piece of armor in her hand. She stared at the young man she barely knew, who only yesterday had been an enemy to her kind. But she didn't see him as she did when they'd bumped into one another, here was a man made all his own, by his own hands, willing to give her the world at the cost of his own.

But he didn't need to sacrifice anything, she was the Queen of Mewni, she could move heaven and Earth, right?

"I'll fight for you too, Ma-"

*rrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUMMMBLE*

The entire cave began to shake with growing intensity as the music was all but drowned out. The visions of the other dancers faded into obscurity as the gemstone above dimmed back down to dormancy. Marco and Star were released from their shackles and had a split second to shield themselves before the floor at the center of the room exploded, violently throwing chunks of rock and plumes of fire towards the ceiling.

Marco winced as a pain like fire lit up his right leg, several stones having blasted clean through his calf and thigh like shrapnel. He fell as the explosion roared, Star barely keeping them held down as more stone and rock were ripped apart around them.

The gemstone was shattered almost immediately, and as pieces of ruby rained down, Star and a seething Marco could only watch in horror as their last chance at peace trickled around the flames. And there at the center of it all was a skeleton burned black and engulfed in flames, the woman scorned letting out an ear splitting screech. It was loud enough to echo into their very souls, but as if to rage against the Maze itself, Star charged forward without a second thought, her fist already glowing red, and reared back as she lunged.

Marco had fallen, now clutching his badly wounded leg and watched in muted awe as the Queen of Mewni sailed forward, only to be swatted back down, her armor carving ruts into the polished marble. She skidded to a stop right back beside Marco, shuffling back to her feet as she wiped soot from her face.

"HOW DARE YOU!", Star bellowed, her face twisted with fragile rage. Rage at having watched their last chance at peace clatter to the floor around her. Rage at the forces of the universe fighting so firmly to keep her dream from reality. With the gemstone broken, Marco's injuries, and the ritual interrupted, there was no way they'd ever get the gauntlets to accept them. It was over.

"YOU! RUINED! EVERYTHING!"

"Liar… deceiver… the priiiice of his greeeeeed… will beeee your liiiife…,' came a raspy howl from the rattling bones of the Chosen. She lacked all expression, but her anger could be felt as it permitted the room. "Humans caannnot beee trusted… Before heeee betrayyyss yoouu… ask yourself… iss hee worth it?"

"Let's find out," Star growled, dropping down on all fours before the ghostly being. What happened next, Marco could only describe as… sickening, but intensely intriguing. Star's bones began to crack under her armor as the plates shifted to make room for two more sets of arms. Her skin chipped and broke off in petals of orange shaped like hearts, leaving behind a hue of yellow where once there was Ivory.

On her back, two previously hidden slots in her metal plates sprouted two massive, translucent wings, shaped as those of her family's namesake. And when they flapped, Marco could feel a gust of fruit-scented wind ruffle his hair as Star's hair plumed like fire before curling into itself, forming a tight string of buns behind her head, and with a low, earth shuddering growl, she spoke.

"tAkE him FrOm mE… SEE wHat hIs lIfE iS wOrtH tO tHe QUeeN oF MEwnI!"

There was a boom, and Star had phased out of view, her impressive form reappearing behind the ghost of the Chosen. With another consecutive boom, Star kicked with all her might, sending the skeleton flying into a wall as before, but not without cost. The flames of the Chosen's rage flared as she was struck, engulfing the room in fire as Marco watched from the sidelines. He was bleeding, far too quickly for his healing salve to save him, but a good spurt on the exposed bits of flesh did enough to dull the pain and slow… the inevitable. And despite himself, still he could only stare at the object of his fascination.

Star Butterfly was truly a force to behold, and as he felt an icy chill begin to take root beyond the burning pain on his injuries, still he couldn't look away.

So this was her transformation, the one only hinted at in the most coveted of Mewman literature. The proverbial ace in the hole for Mewman royalty, one not witnessed by any Human that lived to tell the tale. It was… awe inspiring to say the least, once you got past the grisly transformation. It made him wonder how any ruler of Mewni could fall at the hands of a lowly Human, but that was a question not worth his life. The life Star, for whatever reason, had deemed worth protecting.

"Yooouu fiiight... for a beeeing... that wouuulld sellll yoouurrr soouuul…"

Star ignored the goading and pulled a blade of pure blue light from the air, forming a double helix before charging back into the fray. The Chosen didn't hesitate to surge forward on a gust of superheated air, her fists collecting torrents of flame to combat the impudence to her fury. But Star had practice, and all the desire she needed to cut loose. She roared closer and hacked into the bones that kept the Chosens flames alight. She weaved around a column of fire and lobbed off the bony hand before driving her heels into the Monster's chest.

With a boom the beast of rage slammed into the wall, another slice removing everything below the elbow. But like shadows the Chosen collected darkness to her center as fresh flames sprouted replacement limbs. She was reforming what she'd lost as fast as it had been taken, a bony fist surging from the smoke and fire to bat the Queen back.

Her hands slammed together to form a bubble of pure starlight, like a miniature Sun collecting between her hands. She watched as Star flew closer and with a yell, pushed the ball of superheated gas and light forward, igniting the air and nearly blasting the atrium apart. Marco shielded his eyes and braced against the force of the impact, his body screaming in protest, and when he opened them Star was barely recovering, her powerful form straining to keep up with a Goddess' Chosen.

"My power inn thisss maaaaze… is absoluuute," the creature sneered, her body cracking in the fire as she stared down the Queen of Mewni, "Yoouuu will faaalll… before theeee haaands of a Godddeeeeesssss…

A fireball was thrown across the room only to be blasted apart with a flash of yellow as Star roared through the flames, a heavy punch booming from her side. But the Chosen woman was stronger than she'd been in the cave, and bigger. She was twice as tall as any Human Marco knew of, and she was a walking bonfire with a vendetta against him.

She collected the flames around her into a trident, slashing through the air with enough vigor to ripple the space where Star had just been. But on her second swing, she was keen to see her mark hit. Star took the broadside of the trident, slammed back against the wall before a hurricane of fire boomed across the room. The Queen was engulfed in flames, and before Marco could register the fight as over, a looming fist thundered into the fire to put her to rest.

The flames died down, and before the boom had even finished its echo, before Marco even knew what had happened, Star fell to her knees against the wall, the light knocked from her eyes.

"STAR!" He shouted, making to crawl or limp to her side. Surely he had enough burn cream, enough healing salves, enough water? He was always prepared. He could do it. But his cry to his comrade against the horrors of the world had drawn the attention of the chosen, and the flaming monolith loomed over him with death in her eye sockets.

"You... Are not… worthy."

Four words. A judgment that Marco found he had no defense for. Unworthy to stand beside a Queen, unworthy to embark on such a perilous quest, unworthy to dream of peace. She stared at him, the object of her scorn and pain, waiting for any kind of denial, but none came.

Instead, Marco adjusted more weight off of his shredded leg, staring up into the soulless eyes of the Chosen. "I know," was all he could offer in return. There was no redemption, there was no talking his way out of it. And yet? "But I will do whatever I have to, if it protects my people- her people. And killing me won't get in the way of that. She'll see to it that my dream comes true, of that you can be assured."

"Then you will die for heeeeerrrr."

She brought back her first, her skeletal frame rolling with newfound anger and rage, and pain. For a split second, Marco could see it all.

The love she'd harbored for that man, the confession, the time spent together, the talks about family… all for him to sell her soul for a blank check. She had been betrayed under the protection of a Goddess, and mankind had turned its back on its benefactor. She loved him, wholly, but now all that love had turned into hatred, burning from her center and poisoning the land. It spread to the forests, it brought down the mountains, it swept away the water, it burned the crops, and it started a war.

Her hatred had spread as far as the labyrinth could reach, poisoning any mind it touched and filling the world with her anger.

But not Marco.

Not Star.

They were spared. Why, he would never know. There was nothing left to do, no avenue left to take, all he could do was accept whatever fate the universe had dealt him, and hope that in his death there would come retribution. He could only hope that the world would be cured when he alone paid the price. Maybe this vengeful, powerful spirit would be put to rest once her anger had been satisfied.

He closed his eyes and waited for the end.

But there it was again, that warmth in the back of his mind. Just as it had been at the waterfall, or during their dance, that music played just out of earshot. He could have sworn it was really playing, a gentle lullaby to calm his nerves and-

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!" Star yelled, blocking the looming fist with everything she had, pummeling back the giant's rage with a fury of her own. All six hands boomed forward with a powerful rush of yellow magic, dissolving the concussive force and shielding Marco from the worst of it. A wall of fire roared past them, around the golden bubble Star had created, flaring against the stone behind them and curling into itself in a twisted inferno. Marco could only watch as Stars wings faded before his eyes, her transformation dwindling against the unstoppable force.

But the shield held against the Chosen's blow, barely keeping the worst of it at bay, but at the cost of Star's metamorphosis. The shockwave rippled through the stone floor, but the Chosen backed down, pulling her fist to her side as Star panted beneath the heat and force.

"YOUDARE… DEFEND A HUMAN!"

Marco made to do… something, really he wasn't sure what, perhaps struggle to meet his maker? But Star stepped in his way, blocking him from the burning gaze of the betrayed Chosen. "This HUMAN hasn't done anything to me since I got here!" She shouted, raging just as hot as she stepped closer, but with a wave of her skeletal hand, the Chosen produced a woven image of flames. In it was depicted Star and Marco, each with a gauntlet raised at the other as Marcos thoughts echoed for all to hear.

"For the greater good. For both sides to survive."

"I was ready to kill him too," Star answered, clenching her fist as she strode closer, "But he-!"

"Heeeee wiill killl yoouu…," the skeletal being replied, slamming her massive fist into the ground to shoot a web of cracks across the floor. Her face was filled with fire, finally giving her lips, eyes, and a scornful glares directed at the both of them. She "Humans… they are a sickness that will poison the land and reap it for all its worth. They have no place among the living!"

But Star wasn't willing to hear it. Closer she marched, the heat of the fires almost unbearable as she bore herself proudly before the burning visage of the woman. "I don't trust Humans. But I do trust him."

"Then you are a fool! You side with monsters in the hope of peace, and all you shall find is a knife through your heart!" She bellowed rearing back as plumes of flames and smoke enveloped her, "I WILL NOT SIT IDLY BY AND LET THOSE VERMIN MURDER MORE OF PEOPLE! NO LONGER WILL HUMANS HOLD ANY DOMINION OVER THESE LANDS!"

Star braced herself to protect the one Human worth saving, just as the skeletal creature slammed both fists down onto the marble, sending out a shockwave of black energy. It rippled through the ground, and it shook the very heart of the Labyrinth. Star was blasted back into Marco as the walls of the atrium were disintegrated by the force.

How Marco had managed to hold on to consciousness, he could only assume it was because Star had taken the brunt of the force. The cave around them gave way to swirling darkness, and in the distance Marco could barely make out the paths of the Labyrinths corridors. It looked like a woven basket of corridors illuminating the dark distance. Endless intertwining pathways snaked in every direction in the void, surrounding the center of the maze, but he couldn't focus on that now. He had to get Star back up. Only she was strong enough to fight back against the creature imbued with a Goddess' powers, a Goddess' curse. But she wouldn't wake up. She was limp in his arms as the Chosen loomed closer, a miniature Sun collecting in her hands.

She meant to-

"Goddess of the Blood Moon! Purify the gauntlets you hold dear! They will know suffering… as I have suffered! I will bury the Blood Moon Labyrinth, and free Mewmanity of its curse! NO LONGER WILL HUMANITY BREED SUFFERING! NO LONGER WILL HUMANS! BETRAY! YOUR! LOVE!"

Marco had almost no time to react. His eyes were drawn to the gauntlets he and Star shared, and then to the flaming monster surging towards them. His life's work flashed before his eyes, every moment spent searching for the history that was bearing down on him like a hurricane. It was all for nothing. And it was all over. But… Marco looked down at Star, the woman he barely knew, the woman who trusted him with her future. The future of both of their homes.

If she was killed, then everything really was for nothing. Humans and Mewmans would fight to the last man standing, until extinction was the last enemy to face. But with Star at the helm, maybe he made just enough of an impact to steer the course of the future. Maybe she could do something on her own after all. Maybe there was still a chance, in her.

His bag.

Marco tore the leather straps of his pack as he whirled it to his front, tearing it open just the same to rifle through it. He didn't dare look up, he didn't dare risk wasting even a microsecond on the Chosen. He kept his focus straight until he found what he was looking for, pulling it from his bag as he whispered to it, "frimag hasat lok ret zinota… IMAZI!"

At his command and as he threw it, the brass cube began to frost as a trail of condensation formed. It sailed through the air towards its quarry, leaving behind bits of flaking ice and snow as Marco braced himself, covering Star from the worst of the damage. The heat behind him was so intense, he might as well have been on fire, but he had to endure. He had to see her dream brought to life.

He had to make sure she could see her dream brought to life.

There was a blinding flash and a rush of hit wind, scalding Marco's back as the blast ripped him from where he sat. All six Glyphs on the cube were destroyed at once, releasing every ounce of stored magic on the Chosen. There came a chain reaction between the magic pooling in her hands and the magic set free from the cube. It doubled back into itself, doubling and multiplying as it bounced back and forth until finally, the reaction turned critical.

Marco winced as his hearing and vision were stolen, replaced only with a searing pain that reverberated into his very soul. The floor beneath him was obliterated with a boom that rocked the mountains and fractured every vein of the Labyrinth at once. A stream of magic was released into the Earth itself, but Marco was blind to everything that ensued. He wasn't sure what would come next, but still he braced himself for the worst as he waited for an answer. And there it was, just like last time: the weightlessness.

They were falling, to or from where Marco had no idea. There was nothing around them save for the remaining and fractured criss crossing paths of the Labyrinth floating in more… nothing. But Star was the center of his attention. Marco forced himself to endure for her sake, whatever it took. She could survive one more fall if it meant the end of a world at war. And if it cost him his life...

Just like last time, there came a deep thrum of energy throughout his body, a harmonizing hum to accompany a soft glow of red. Marco drew his gaze from Star long enough to find his Gauntlet glowing scarlet, as was its counterpart. How they worked, what he'd done to earn their favor, or what they could do, he'd never get to find out. But still he prayed, just as before. He would beg with every inch of his life to spare the Queen who could end the war, to save the Mewman who had befriended the Human.

He would give anything for peace and quiet, though the rush of wind past his ears and the scalding skin on his back were as far from it as one could be.

He would do anything for the end of the war.

He would even take a life.

He would even give one.

Past the glow of red between them, Marco looked at Star. She looked as peaceful as any world he wished to live in. But more than that, he didn't see a Mewman anymore, or anything different from what he was at his core: a curious oddity amongst a raging world looking for peace.

And quiet.

"I'll be with you in Mewni, Star Butterfly. Make sure... it's as good as... the woman who rules it… "

There came a deep, resonating hum, but Marco was all but deaf to it. He was all but blind to the bright red beams spewing from his gauntlet, rewriting the paths of the Labyrinth and reconstructing the cavernous structures. All he could see was the Labyrinth around him slowly rising past them as they fell, the object of his deepest desires ripped from his grasp. It was a pipe dream now, a lost cause to a man doomed to die.

But he wasn't alone.

"Stay with me," he barely heard Star shout over the wind.

He met her gaze, finding her eyes wide with terror, but was it from the fall? He didn't know, all he could do was listen. "Don't go. Come with me."

Marco moved his mouth to answer, never getting to utter a word before the darkness around them was set ablaze with a flash of red. And then? Nothing.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O

0 Hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

Marco blinked, hard.

He stood just before the precipice of the Labyrinth he'd only read about, the columns outlining the entrance looming before him.

"I… I don't believe it," He could only whisper, his voice a shout compared to the stillness of the cavern, "All this time, and you've been right under our noses… waiting for me."

Madly he produced his notebook, nearly tearing the pages to outline his latest finding. But as he drew his pencil to sketch what he could see? He stopped short, his eyes wide at the already filled pages before them. There was already a sketch of the entrance, notes on the air quality, the smell… Marco lowered his book, slowly looking back up at the gaping maw of the Labyrinth.

"What… just… happened?" He asked, his head suddenly swimming with recollection, but all of it was out of reach. He felt a wash of emotions he couldn't ascertain, and saw glimpses of his underground travels flash through his mind as he rifled through the pages of his notebook. Dancing? A waterfall? Fire? Marco caught his breath, pawing through notes about an ancient history, a Goddess, a betrayal, war, famine, death and destruction, and then there was nothing.

He flipped the pages further. There was something missing from his notes. They outlined every detail of a journey into the Labyrinth that lasted- Marco checked his timepiece and nearly fainted. "Eighty hours…," he sighed, staring at his watch before turning back to his notes. Eighty hours had gone by, and he had all the proof of his journey he needed, his every movement carefully detailed and outlined in the fresh pages. So why did it feel like...

"Something is missing," he repeated, madly flipping the pages.

He could almost see it, that something was lost just on the outskirts of his memory, but there was nothing there to latch onto. It was lost to the void, a shadow of a memory that slipped from his grasp. For all his efforts, he had no idea what it was, and ultimately he could do nothing but accept that it was either a trick of the imagination or an unimportant detail. It was unfortunate to have forgotten something after an expedition, but with such a daunting supply of notes? He would have plenty to review, and so much more to study.

Stowing his notebook, Marco made to retrieve his torch but stopped, staring at the back of his hand. There, etched into his skin, was an emblem of a crescent moon. "Thats… not going to conform with the dress code," he noted to himself, drawing a rag and tying it around his hand to stow the mark. Grabbing his torch with his free hand, Marco stood there for a moment, staring at the mouth of the Labyrinth.

He'd apparently already gone in, his memory stolen by some wicked act or spell. What had happened on his journey? Where did the emblem come from? What had he seen? Had the Labyrinth rejected him? He dove headfirst into the unknown to find salvation.

And evidently turned up nothing.

It had already cost him eighty hours of his life chasing whatever artifact was said to reside within its walls, and to stroll back in alone and unprepared was too great a risk.

His food supplies had been decimated.

His water supply wasn't spared a better fate.

No, the only option was to head back, and try again another time. He had plenty of notes to review, and plenty to talk about with those who would believe him. He could come back with a team if the university granted it, a supply train, mining equipment, the works. So without much further worry, Marco accepted that he would leave. For now.

The Labyrinth would be there waiting for him, whenever he returned.

12 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

On my journey back to civilization, I saw a yellow Butterfly. Not particularly noteworthy, but for some reason it caught my attention. I'd been completely captivated with it and stumbled over a branch, nearly twisting my ankle. But still the little thing clung to me, either out of brazen stupidity or perhaps a guilt in having distracted me. I guess I'll have to ask the entomologist downstairs for its name.

42 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

On the ship home I had a peculiar dream that I was ballroom dancing with a young woman. I could not bring myself to look above my own feet, but still I knew she held a beauty unrivaled. Of course, the dream turned south when she and I fell through the floor, and I woke up Ina cold sweat screaming for "a shining star?" Possible effect of the Labyrinth? More to follow.

79 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

Finally, we've made berth back home, and I can see the copper domes of the University from here. The smell of the city left much to be desired, but I find it comforting all the same. Notably, I bumped into a woman with the most striking blue eyes I've ever seen. I had half a mind to ask for her name, but… alas. It seemed her husband wouldn't have taken kindly to that.

189 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

The emblem on my hand hasn't faded since my return. I'm worried it may be tattooed under my skin or worse, but worrying won't solve anything. I'll just have to endure, and take to wearing gloves.

238 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

All good things have to come to an end. My week of relaxation and recuperation is over, and it's time I head back to work. Nothing out of the ordinary, but according to the newspaper, there's been a break in the fighting. Apparently the Mewmans are calling for peace, as if they'll get it. But one can dream…

325 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

As expected, my notes were turned away by other so-called scholars. They assume I was hallucinating, or that I'm making it all up to further my career. Detailed schematics and sketches, but I suppose when the artist has no recollection of any details outside of drawings, his credibility is questioned. Perhaps in a year I'll try another expedition, only this time I'll bring Janna from Parapsychology.

418 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

It's really happening.

The Mewmans have called for peace… and the Humans answered it. As if the world has regained its sanity lost long ago, finally we're moving towards peace? Could this be real? What could have sparked such a change? I'd be lying to say I didn't wish I had played the part I'd imagined for myself, but to see the war finally drawing to a close? I won't hold my breath for it to happen, but I can dream.

Supposedly the peace summit will take place in three days.

Addendum: Janna has agreed to an expedition, provided I don't come. Well, she can just rot with the moldy books then.

490 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

I have been summoned by the heads of state? For whatever reason, my presence has been requested during the peace summit, and they only decide to tell me the day of! I write this as I pack my things, wondering why not the linguist? Why not the polemology dept.? Why me? Either way, I suppose I get to witness the greatest moment of human history with my own eyes- purely for academic purposes of course. By the Gods, please let this be real. Please let this be real. Please let this be real.

494 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

I have been told that my presence was not requested due to an academic position, but rather… a personal request? As it were, outlined specifically in the Mewman formal request of peace…

My presence was requested by the Queen of Mewni herself.

Pages and pages of requests and sacrifices and gestures of goodwill, but outlined at the very end, I was specifically requested. They only just now told me for security reasons, but I believe they're as baffled as I am

I have an audience with her, alone, and I can feel my heart in my throat. Has she heard of my work? Did she find out about my expedition? Could she have been after the same thing? What is this about? I might die before I find out.

495 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

Marco adjusted his tie, careful to keep his suit clean and presentable as he waited. He sat, alone in a room tucked to the side of the daunting figurehead to the Capital of Mewni: Butterfly Castle. It's impressive architecture and intimidating stature commanded the country Humanity had been at war with for a millenia. And now, that was all coming to an end.

There was nothing left to do but wait, to sit idly by as the peace talks were underway. According to the council of his university, he was due to meet with the Queen once the day's meetings were over, and he was expected to ask as many questions as possible. They wanted what anyone else wanted, to know the woman behind the nightmare, and the woman responsible for the salvation of both countries. But Marco pushed all that aside.

A lump in his throat, he could only imagine what was in store for him, or why the Queen of Mewni could possibly want him specifically. His colleagues were dumbfounded, jesting that he had won an academic lottery, or that it must surely be a mistake.

But he knew. He knew it was about the Moon Labyrinth. Whatever he had found there, whoever he told about it, whatever he claimed to have gone through, she knew. Or rather, perhaps wanted to know?

Seconds flew by to alleviate none of his stress, the possibilities and circumstances mounting with each tick. He felt so out of place here at the proverbial center of the world. All eyes were on the Queen, and her eyes were on him. What could she possibly-

*CHIIIIIME*

Marco nearly jumped out of his skin as the grandfather clock in the corner of the room chimed on the hour, it's toll alerting him that by now, the meeting was officially over for the day. And in the coming minutes Marco would have his answer at last, his nerves due to be sated… by…

Marco stopped his fidgeting and craned his neck. It sounded like heavy knocking slowly growing louder, and with a turn of his head he could figure it was coming from just outside the room. If he had half a mind, he'd have almost assumed someone was running at full speed down the corridor to reach- *BOOM!*

The door to the room was nearly blasted open as Marco scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide and his nerves firing up to full. He stood ready for whatever peril had been approaching, but what he found at the entrance to the room was not an envoy of soldiers coming to arrest him, or an army storming the castle, but a young woman. She was panting, her hair thrown into a frenzied mess from her sprint, and her elegant clothes fared no better as she stepped closer.

Marco was petrified as she approached, her eyes locked with his, but as he noticed the alluring shade of blue they held, he could do nothing more than catch his breath. She was so familiar, so mesmerizing, but what was it?

"HER ROYAL MAJESTY… THE QUEEN… my word... OF MEWNI!" A herald called out her title with what was surely the last of the air from his lungs. He must have been sprinting to keep up with her. But did he say Queen? "STAR BUTTERFLY!"

Marco trailed his gaze back to the young woman who had stopped just out of arm's reach. By all accounts he knew he was in for an ordeal the moment he'd been summoned, but to think that the Queen of Mewni was the woman standing before him? The young, fragile, frenzied creaute stalking closer with a look of deceptive worry in her eyes?

The herald immediately saw himself out, a look of lingering surprise on his face as he went. "He's real… I thought she'd gone m-"

He was speechless as she took another step closer, he was captivated by her presence as the door to the room closed. There was nothing and everything to say as she approached him, commanding the room and his attention. He was at a total loss of words, only to be thrown completely off his hinges when she threw her arms around him in a bone crushing hug.

"You're… *pant* alive… *pant*," The Queen wheezed between ragged breaths. But Marco hadn't the slightest clue what she was talking about. At no point was it ever assumed that he'd died, much less was it any issue to THE QUEEN OF MEWNI! But here she was, all dressed up and hugging a Human so freely, her embrace as warm and inviting as a summer afternoon.

After a moment of uncomfortable hugging, she pulled back, looking the young man up and down with an inquisitive but jovial smirk. "I thought I'd never see you…," she all but whispered as she held his face, her tone eliciting a shiver that traveled up his spine, "I woke up and you were gone, and I was back at the temple, but I had to be sure! I didn't think they'd find you, or I didn't know what they'd find? I don't know what I thought, but look at you! You made it!"

She was staring at him with a wide smile bright enough to melt candle wax, but all Marco could do was stare right back. He had no words for any of what he could barely process, and he had no idea what any of it meant. So to take it slow, and to better understand where the misunderstanding had stemmed from, he pulled her hands from his shoulders, helped her sit down, and offered carefully, "Your majesty… I think you may have me confused for someone else. I'm just a scholar at Ponveat University… a Human scholar."

He half expected her to turn pale at the admission that she had mistaken him for someone, or to simply order him from the castle once she realized who he wasn't. But instead he was met with a confused stare, her head tilting to the right as she leaned closer to him. "What do you mean? Aren't you… Marco it's me, I know I look different in this getup but c'mon, It's Star," she offered with a half worried giggle, but Marco didn't laugh back.

"Your Highness I really am sorry, but I'm afraid we've never met before. I've never been to Mewni in my life," he explained carefully, desperate to end the misunderstanding before he was executed on a whim, "I'd assumed you'd heard of my work, somehow, but now I believe you may just have the wrong man. I mean you no disrespect, but you must be mistaken, I'm not the Marco Diaz you're looking-"

"We met in the Maze," Star interrupted, watching as his eyes widened, the little details giving away the intensity of his realization. He understood that, at the very least. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you? You were looking for the Gauntlets, you went looking for a way to end the war, and we got stuck together."

As if to test him, or lull him into further curiosity, Star slowly raised her right hand, removing her glove to reveal the back of her palm. And there, for one soul among the millions of her kingdom to witness, was a crescent moon etched into her skin. Marco was slow to match, drawing his left hand and removing his own glove to reveal a matching mark. But… What did it mean? How did she….

Star was relieved to no end to see him lean forward and produce that little notebook that had captivated her so. Clearly he was finally drawn in by the gravity of the situation, his expression now deadly serious, but giving off an air of… yearning. "You... I don't… Your majesty I don't have any memory of the Labyrinth," Marco whispered, watching as her expression fell, "all I do know of it is what I have written in here, and I'm afraid there's no mention of you or those markings anywhere."

"Yeah, because you suck at taking notes," Star scoffed, only to shake her head at the snide remark. In all honesty he was actually amazing at it, and a damn good- "Plus, the moons didn't show up until we woke up, right? The point is- we met in the Blood Maze, I was there with you for most of it and we… There was so much that happened so fast. We- I wanted to make sure that you-..."

Marco watched as the Queen of Mewni sighed, defeated. She resigned herself to look out the window as she tried to form her frenzied thoughts into words. He had no Earthly idea what she was talking about, or how she knew so much about his expedition, but she clearly had experienced something to point her interest in his direction. But what? His answer came in the form of a question, his hands taken over slowly by the Queen of Mewni, her eyes having since turned back to his.

"Would you like to… go out with me this evening?" She asked, a smile once against gracing her lips between two heart-shaped tattoos, "I could tell you everything I remember, we could catch up on what's happened since, and… maybe we could dance?"

Marco swallowed. She was staring at him with a nervous smile, but it wasn't as unsettling as he would have taken it earlier. He was deeply curious about what she knew, and what she could tell him, and despite his two left feet in any other setting, he was unusually taken with the idea of dancing. He remembered there being something missing from his expedition, that some part of it was barred from his notes, and now this?

"Is this… are you proposing... a date?" Was all his brain felt compelled to ask. A Mewman Queen, asking a Human…? No no no. But twice now she had asked for him. She'd specifically requested him out of every Human alive, and now she was asking him… no. There was no way.

But rather than laugh at the question, or get angry at the mere suggestion, the Queen of Mewni shrugged, standing from the small table while holding his hand, implying he should join her. "Our first date was a mess, so it's more like a second... But yes. If you'll have me?"

She waited patiently for him to catch up with her proposal. She was Queen, she had all the time in the world to help coax his memories along, and to help him remember the Maze. She had him to thank for her dream being made a reality, so by her powers, she would see his brought to life.

...but man was he taking a while to answer.

"I understand it's a lot to process, but I-"

"I want to." Marco stood, watching her carefully as the Blood rushed to his face. The hollowness left in those fleeting memories of the Labyrinth… She was instrumental in alleviating them. "Something happened down in the Labyrinth that I can't remember, something that isn't in my notes, and it's been eating me alive," he reasoned, the tightness of his necktie suddenly becoming rudely apparent, "but some part of me does know you. So... I would be honored to accompany you for the evening, if it helps either of us reach an understanding."

Star felt her cheeks bloom at his acceptance to her terms, and likewise watched as he blushed to match. She gestured to the door and offered simply, "then let's get lost, together."

501 hours since the Blood Moon Labyrinth

We had a lovely first- ...second date.