Held in suspense? Good, BACK TO THE ACTION!
Marco was walking over to the Mist where Star was fighting feeling pretty good about everything all things considered until the mist began to have green flashes in it with terrified screams of people from within it. Marco held up his hand making his friends stop as the mist continued to swirl and began changing color to a poison green with Janna commenting first.
"Well that can't be good." As she said that a blast of energy left the mist and flew overhead striking the bleachers.
As it struck the bleachers they saw it focused on their teacher, Mrs. Skullnick, and as it struck her she seemed to twist and contort. Even from their long distance they could see her skin go green, her hair stand up in Mohawk fashion, grow tusks, and just seemed to turn into some sort of mythical monster. She then began to dance around screaming something that they guessed were along the lines of, "Aaaaah, I'm hideous."
Alfonzo asked in a slow and cautious fashion, "What just happened to our teacher?"
"I think she was just turned into a Troll." Janna replied and added on "Honestly though, it's an improvement." The group agreed with her while more balls of green magic streamed out of the mist.
One struck a group of Teenagers giving them horrific acne in a matter of seconds which sent them into a panic. Another struck a goal post on the field making it twist into some sort of cage that trapped a few loose people inside of it. Brittany Wong had just gotten herself out of the glitter glue only to be struck by a blast that made her bald leaving her screeching. One final blast rocketed towards the football team making them grow hair all over their bodies in a matter of seconds similar to a Sasquatch.
"WHAT THE HELL MAN!" Oskar screamed with the bird he was on leaping up into the sky to get away from the scary flashing lights.
Ferguson tried taking charge again by slamming his hammer into the ground to provide blockage from the blasts only to have it be blasted and turned into dust. "TAKE COVER!" he screamed trying to find something to hide behind as everyone did the same thing. Marco began moving for the mist when Alfonzo grabbed his arm and pulled him back shaking his head no.
"I can't just leave Star in there!" Marco wrestled free and charged into the mist with his mind racing at a mile a minute. 'Don't worry Star, I will help you.'
As Marco charged in everyone who was taking cover noticed the Warriors running out of the mist to their bus which they boarded with an almost cartoonish fast speed as the bus driver started it up. The bus took off so fast that three of the Warriors were hanging on for dear life as the bus speed away from the chaos that was the football field. Marco noticed these out of the corner of his eye as he tried going through the mist waving it aside as best he could to try and see through. After a little while in pushing forward however Marco began having trouble breathing as the air seemed to burn his throat and lungs like acid was being poured down it. Marco bravely took off his hoodie and wrapped it around his nose and mouth and pushed deeper into the mist having no idea what was happening to Star but imagining the worst.
As he pushed further in he was stopped by what appeared to be someone lying on the ground prompting him to rush over and help. When he got there Marco saw one of the Janitors with his clothes smoldering and a broken mop next to him while muttering something about lizard folk Martians. Marco listened for only a moment but put enough pieces together to come to a horrific conclusion and rushed off to find Star as he figured the janitor would be ok. Marco pushed through the mist only a few feet further and finally found Star looking around with her eyes cat-eyed and yellow but now with streaks of red through them. Her face… he could only describe as something he once saw in the eyes of a wounded feral dog he found when he was 9 that bit him when he tried to help it; a primal fear but this face was lit up by a sickly toxic green from her wand. Star also seemed to be surrounded by rocks and debris that seemed to have been thrown at her by several someone's; whether in defense or an offensive measure Marco could not tell. As Marco gaped in horror at having his suspicions confirmed Star noticed him and raised her wand to him quickly and shouted "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and shot him.
Marco, reacting fast, dodged the blast and kept moving in case if Star shot him again, which she did in rapid succession. Marco did a double flip and power slide under Star's blasts and hid in some mist waiting for the blasts to die down. As they did Marco stepped out waiting for Star to notice him while calling out to her.
"Star, it's ok. No one is going to hurt you now. It's me Marco, your Bestie!"
Marco waited ready to bolt as Star turned towards him aiming her wand but held fire. They stood there looking at each other for what felt like eternity until Star's wand slowly lowered the light going away from it to be replaced by its normal color. Star's eyes changed from the horrifying reddish yellow cat slit back to its normal green color and shape with Star blinking rapidly. Marco began to cautiously step forward as Star looked around with a look of sickened horror in her eyes as they fell on something just to Marco's left. Marco looked and saw the body of the janitor that he knew was alright but didn't seem to be moving or making any sounds now.
"I did this." Marco looked at Star who was backing away from him. "I did this."
"Star it's alright. Everything is…"
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Star turned and bolted away from him through the now thinning mist and leapt over the 8 foot high chain link fence.
"Star wait!" Marco started forward but stopped as he saw Star running on all fours at a speed that would outpace a professional cyclist.
As Marco stood there he heard cheering from behind him which prompted him to turn around and see the Possums and the rest of the school cheering wildly. Marco gaped in shock again until Janna and Alfonzo made it to him at long last with the mist finally gone.
"Why are they cheering?" Marco turned to Janna who was smiling slyly as she answered him.
"The Warriors ran away forfeiting the game to us. We won for the first time ever thanks to Star. So what if there were some injuries and that last trap caused some bad chaos, they succeeded with a bang." Janna pumped her fist as Alfonzo turned to Marco with a smile on his face.
"Say what happened to Star anyways? People want to give her a thank you party." Alfonzo and Janna's faces fell when they saw Marco's expression. "This is bad isn't it?" Alfonzo guessed as Marco turned at looked where Star had run.
"That green mist wasn't a trap that was Star." The two gasped at him as Marco turned around. "I don't know why she did it but I know she was scared beyond rational thought. I'm going after her; and DON'T tell anyone about this." Marco ran off as the two looked on with Marco climbing the fence with ease and hitting the ground running.
"So um, what do we tell everyone?" Alfonso said to Janna as they turned back to the festivities.
"Just tell them Star was knocked out by the action and Marco had to take her home. Now let's have some fun. If Marco needs our help, he'll call us."
Marco raced back home guessing that Star would go there and called Toffee via the mirror that he got from him to find out what just happened. Marco slowed down to get a more even breath as the mirror rang, 'Wow magic was weird' Marco thought, and finally Toffee picked up.
"Hello there… Marco?" Toffee answered his mirror blinking in surprise at Marco. "Moon come here, I think we may have a problem." A bit of shuffling on the other side of the call and Moon appeared next to Toffee. "Ok Marco, tell us what happened." Marco blinked in shock at the fact that Toffee caught on so quick to what was going on and proceeded to explain what happened in detail as they he traveled home.
"… so now Star has run off and hidden herself which is why I have called you. I need to know how to comfort Star and make her feel alright and for another matter I need to know what could have possessed Star to do this." Marco finally stopped talking with Moon and Toffee looking shocked with the look slowly being replaced with sadness.
Moon turned towards Toffee and began speaking, "I thought the doctor said she was good?"
Toffee turned back to Moon, "She is in a different world with magic affecting her in a very stressful situation while her vision was blocked by mist and people were attacking her. Given how young she was when she experienced it I'm not surprised that it could come back in a stressful enough situation." Toffee hugged Moon close as Moon began crying and Toffee turned back to Marco. "Marco, the story I am about to tell you should not be shared with anyone if you wish to live. Understand?" Toffee's blank expression somehow made the threat even more terrifying then any rage would especially with what had just happened to Star. Marco nodded which prompted Toffee to continue, "Well it happened when Star was only 5 years old…"
Star was a five year old girl wearing a turquoise dress that matched her eyes with twin pig tails that made her look adorable as she ran down the street.
"We were in a town that was in decline in Mewni as people moved away to find work or moved into the new style "duns" which were the new make of farming village we were introducing. We had gone there to help bring life to the town with the discovery of a vein of coal in the area and wanted to help set the mine up."
Star ran down the street waving at people who gave Star various reactions with many being pleasant, a few outright friendly, and some just ignoring her. Star seemed to hear a loud bustling noise of many people shouting and turned down an alley way to investigate with a royal guard stopping her short shaking his head no and pointed back to where they had come from.
"We decided to bring Star along to see more of the kingdom as she had learned much about the kingdom but never actually had seen much of it aside from the area surrounding the castle. Of course we forgot that Star, when curious, will find a way to get past guards and see what she wants to see."
Star sighed seemingly turning to go back but then ran right through the guards legs knocking him down into a puddle making the surrounding folk laugh as Star bolted down the alley on all fours. After zipping through losing the guard she went towards the noise and noticed a large crowd of people who appeared to be very angry with something. They were shouting at a man who seemed to be holding a giant doll that looked like her uncle Buff Frog poorly made of Straw which he seemed to be shaking around a lot. Star looked on in wonder until he tied it to a post and set it on fire with everyone cheering at that.
"Of course, we had also failed to take into account that people would blame something other than just "changing times" for this towns decline. Most of people who had accepted Monsters as equals had left the town at this point and while many were neutral to this, that still left a far too large portion of the populace who would blame Monsters for their problem's like they had done in the past." Marco nodded knowing the prejudice that people could suffer for being different.
Star stood there slowly becoming scared at the vicious and bloodthirsty tone the crowd was taking on beginning to back away, but not fast enough. One of the members of the crowd noticed Star with her Mewni marks and pointed her out to everyone screaming something about an unholy hybrid amongst them. The crowd turned towards her with the man who had been shaking the giant straw doll picking up a pitchfork laying nearby and running at Star with many of the people following him. Star turned and ran trying to lose them but only ripped and muddied up her dress in the process with the crowd keeping pace with her. As she ran many started throwing stones, bricks, knives, wood chunks, refuse, or even manure at her trying to slow her down.
"And for many people a half Monster half Mewman being was an unholy abomination on what was the natural order, not even deserving to exist. That much hatred combined with the stress of a dying town resulted in them not wanting help rebuilding, they wanted revenge. And Star was their outlet for rage."
Star made it to the main square with her parents looking at her cross with the guard she had ditched but their expressions turned to horror as they saw the crowd chasing her. A knife that was thrown managed to pierce Star's spine making her legs give out causing her to scrape up her body as she slid to a stop. A cheer went up from the crowd behind her only to be silenced by a blast of energy going over Stars head from her mother who had gone Butterfly mode to protect her daughter from the angry crowd. As Star looked up more royal guards poured in, Mewman and Monster, to protect Star and beat down the rioters. Toffee came up alongside Star and pulled the knife out of her back picking her up and holding her close whispering calming words to her.
"We were lucky she had my healing capabilities from birth because even with Moon's magic she may never have walked again. The guards and Moon had to kill a total of five people and beat many more before the mob was pacified. If Star had not made it to us I have no doubt they would have killed her." A tear slid down Toffee's face as he continued with Moon now sobbing into his shoulder. "And when we finally brought the crowd down and they pointed out the one who had roused them up in the first place he had the gall to say to us "Your child is an abomination and never should have been born. I was doing my duty as a true Mewman putting her down." We dragged him away and he stood trial for attempted murder and treason as well as inciting violence and terrorism. He was hanged but the damage to our daughter was already done. For years we tried to help her and we thought we had succeeded, but it seems she still has PTSD from the incident."
Marco had stopped walking and looked at them in horror at hearing about what had happened. He got being excluded from groups or bullied by people for being different; but outright being lynched because people thought she was an abomination that never should have existed? Marco felt tears on his face as the parent sobbed over old wounds torn open. No wonder Star was scared like a frightened animal back there, she genuinely believed she would have to fight for her life at any moment simply because of what she was. But with that news Marco grew calm inside knowing exactly what he needed to do.
"I will find Star and calm her down. You do not need to worry because I will help her." Marco looked at them in determination as he began running again.
Moon looked up through a tear streaked face, "Thank you so much Marco, *sniff* I have no idea what we would do without you." Moon smiled with Toffee following along and speaking next.
"We would come over immediately but we can't just leap dimensions as we have a kingdom to run. But we will come over at our first free time. We promise you that." Toffee then hung up allowing Marco to get home faster.
Marco stood outside Star's room taking deep breath after deep breath trying to prepare himself for seeing Star. It wasn't that he didn't know what to do; it's that he still wasn't sure on how to do it and honestly he didn't want to leave Star alone for even the time it would take to come up with an answer. He knocked on the door, he had confirmed Star was home, and waited for Star to respond for a few seconds before calling out.
"Star its Marco, I'm coming in." Marco opened the door to see what appeared to be an army of stuffed animals surrounding Stars bed which she had built up into a child's pillow fort covered with blankets.
"Star is not here right now, she is in blanket land." Star answered Marco from inside of the fort as Marco stepped forward.
He made his way carefully around the stuffed animals, he had no idea what would happen if he touched one, and made it to the pillow fort. He looked around the outside for a few minutes while talking to Star to try and calm her down and let him in.
"Star, you didn't know any better when you set up the traps and animals to help or team. That was my fault for not noticing and Janna's fault for not stepping in when she did notice something; which I will deal with when we meet again." Marco fumed for a second before returning to Star. "The Warriors attacking you was undeserved and all you were doing was defending yourself from them. Believe it or not our school benefited from all this including our group of friends in particular. Ferguson is now popular with the ladies for being a hero, Oskar now has a mythic bird pet of some sort, and we actually won the match when the Warriors fled the scene; oh and Brittany went bald as a bonus." He heard Star giggle from inside of the fort.
"Now, will you let me in so I can just… be there for you?" After a long silence one of the pillows opened allowing Marco in so he could scotch up next to Star. "See isn't that better?" Marco looked at Star in the dim light who wasn't even crying anymore but staring blankly into space. "Star, I know what happened when you were five. Your parents told me when I called asking what I could do for you. You can't help it when things spiral out of control but I can help you, my parents can, your parents can, and our friends can. You just need to let us help you not let this bring you down." Marco held Star close to him with her head slowly turning to look at him with big green eyes and began speaking.
"I saw it all again, I saw him coming at me with a pitchfork eager to finish what he had started from beyond the grave. I just wanted to be left alone but they wouldn't. Do you know what it's like to be hated by your own people?" Star looked at him with big eyes while he responded.
"The worst that has happened to me is being called a Wetback or a Border Rat since I am Hispanic which is nothing compared to you, but yeah." Star blinked in shock as she realized Marco knew what she was going through on a personal level through past experiences. "Some kids were even told to be mean to me and harass me simply because I was born this way so, I guess I do know what you are going through." Star latched onto him with Marco holding her close.
They sat there for an unknown amount of time until Star calmed down allowing Marco to get her ready for bed. It passed by uneventfully as Star showered and got into bed with her heater ready after eating some of Marco's nachos which he specially prepared for her. As he had finished preparing for bed however and was about to leave Star grabbed his hand looking up at him big eyed and vulnerable.
"Can you sleep with me tonight? I… I might have nightmares again like I once did." Marco sighed and nodded getting into bed with her.
As he did so Star squirmed until she had his arms wrapped around her and she was hugging onto him. Marco held her close as he felt her breathing go shallow and steady as Star drifted off to sleep holding onto him. Marco laid there for a while just breathing in Star's smell and listening to her breath feeling calm and protective. Then, as if by instinct, he reached over to a hair brush on the nightstand that looked familiar and began brushing Star's hair. Star smiled and mumbled happily in her sleep and she snuggled closer to him if that was even possible making Marco smile. He just laid there brushing her hair until before he knew it, he had fallen asleep too.
An alarm clock began beeping making Marco blink his eyes open groggily reaching over and hitting the alarm clock, or whatever it was in Star's room. He stretched as best he could and looked at the still sleeping Star feeling very refreshed from last night's sleep. He smiled at Star's messed up sleeping face with drool coming from her mouth and pulled back the covers to try and get up but froze when he saw Moon, Toffee, Angie, and Raphael coming into Star's room. They looked at him in surprise as Marco sat there like a deer in the headlights thinking of something to say with Angie beating him to it.
"So… did last night turn out ok despite what happened?" Angie smiled with the other three adults looking concerned.
"Well, yeah actually. Star didn't even have nightmares like she was afraid of having." Marco smiled as Star decided now was a good time to wake up. 'No no no no NO NOOOOO!' Marco thought in panic as Star got up stretching slightly.
"*YAWN* Thank you for comforting me last night Marco, I really needed that." Star smiled at Marco dazed from sleep until she realized that both their parents were in the room. Star's eyes went wide and she looked at Marco nervously with Marco not really sure what to do either until the four adults started laughing. As the blinked in confusion Moon was the first one to answer.
"We know you are afraid we would interpret you two doing "that" but me and Toffee have undergone similar misunderstandings in the past so no need to worry." Marco and Star calmed down slightly as the parents finally brought themselves down from laughing.
"I'm sorry but we couldn't help it." Raphael spoke with laughter still in his voice. "You should have seen your faces." Marco and Star both went red faced as the parents finished up laughing with Toffee speaking next.
"Star, we came here to insure that you are alright but judging from what has transpired you seem to be in good hands. We will stick around for breakfast but unfortunately we have to go. We can come back the day after tomorrow if you need us too." Toffee raised his eyebrow at Star who blinked deep in thought and then smiled.
"It's ok dad, I think I'm alright." She grabbed onto Marco. "I have him to help me as well." Toffee raised an eyebrow at Marco who began blushing and sweating under his gaze for some reason.
"Well, be sure to have her back by 9 pm and in the same condition you found her." Marco and Star gaped at Toffee as he laughed again. "Just kidding you two, now let's have breakfast; most important meal of the day after all." Marco smiled as he got up to get ready for breakfast turning to Star and speaking to her.
"Your parents are really cool Star. I think I'm gonna enjoy it when they come over again." Star looked at him wide eyed and confused as she answered.
"Cool?! Coooooool?" Star spoke as if the words were alien to her as she got ready for the day.
WOW that episode got dark towards the end. You know you made a good tragedy chapter when even the author gets wet eyes while writing it. At least it has a happy ending.
Well next chapter is far less dark, I need breaks from something that intense, so look for it as it will be coming soon.
Also feel free to leave constructive criticism as this is only my third piece of work and miles to go before I master writing. And do take a look at "Star vs the forces of Mewni (AU)" by 2000wires. I recommend this simply because I am intrigued by this work and for a first piece it is amazing so far. Do give them some love will you.
This is the Wandering Hippie, wondering what the bloody ell I'm gonna do next.