"Sensei? Sensei?" Marco stepped out of the thrift store looking around in confusion as he searched for Sensei. "Now where could he…" Marco was interrupted when he heard Sensei's voice at an icy stand.

"Let's mix Black raspberry and lime… wait no do a little bit of everything zombie style." Marco blinked in confusion walking up and speaking to Sensei with Ms. Dimartino watching.

"Um Sensei, what are you doing?" Sensei turned to Marco and spoke without batting an eye.

"Oh my allowance isn't in yet this week, could you spare a few bucks?" Marco reached inside his uniform instinctively before coming to his senses.

"Wait you're an adult, why would need me for..." He looked around as Sensei had vanished again with the stand keeper shrugging at Marco's confusion. "Now where did he go?" He looked around with his eyes landing on Sensei who was bouncing on the back wheel of his bicycle counting the number of times.

"51,52,53…" Marco then noticed he was doing it for a group of ladies who looked impressed. Groaning in frustration he walked in Sensei's direction. "… 56,57,58…"

"SENSEI!" Everyone looked at Marco as he spoke to Sensei beyond annoyed. "We are supposed to be looking for a Black Belt VHS; what are you doing?!" Sensei continued bouncing up and down as he talked to Marco.

"Oh Marco, these chicks totally dig my bike." He gestured behind him with the girls chuckling and Marco's look going deadpan as he spoke.

"Are you for real?" Sensei stopped at that and turned to face Marco about to speak but was cut off. "You don't really want to earn your black belt do you?" Sensei looked around in confusion before speaking.

"Look man, we tried and we failed and that's ok." Marco's frustration really boiled over at this point.

"No it's not ok!" The ladies then walked off with Sensei giving Marco a genuinely shocked look. "I wanted to be like you but… you're just like me and I don't want to remain like this. I want to be better than myself, I want to be more than just an immature dude coasting through life and living with his parents. I genuinely respected you but you it seems are not a person worth respecting in the slightest." Marco glared daggers at Sensei with Ms. Dimartino still listening in a bit nervously. "Honestly, I never truly wanted to leave Ballet and perhaps I shouldn't have. Ms. Dimartino at least told me to reach for greater heights and encouraged me to keep going no matter what." He turned his back to Sensei speaking over his shoulder. "I am going to find that tape and I am going to get my black belt without you." He began walking away with Sensei calling out.

"Uh… bow to your Sensei." Marco closed eyes that brimmed with frustration and he spoke through clenched teeth.

"I have no Sensei." He kept on walking rounding a corner with Sensei staring after him.

Eventually Sensei got off his bicycle and sat on the sidewalk sighing in defeat as he stared at the ground. Ms. Dimartino looked after Marco and glanced back at Sensei before deciding maybe she should do something about this. She keeled down next to him and was about to speak when he spoke up first.

"Don't bother, the boy's right." A tear slid down from his eye. "I… did have dreams once but… they faded. I tried reaching up for the stars once; I was gonna be an actor in martial arts style movies. But then I failed college by getting in with the wrong crowd and losing most of my tuition money to a scammer. I took what was left and started up the dojo as I didn't know what else to do which has… not been panning out well. Only the Birnbaum's money has been keeping my business afloat and the Karate society has still not accepted me into it. I guess when my dreams faded away… I faded away." He closed his eyes with tears coming down from them. "That boy is better than I am, I don't deserve to be his Sensei or to get that black belt. All I deserve is to… fade away like the failure I am." As the two sat there for a minute Ms. Dimartino smiled and rubbed his head with Sensei looking up in shock.

"You failed, says who?" Sensei blinked in shock as she continued. "To say you failed for good in life is to say someone else had a goal for you to reach in the first place. I may seem on top of it given what Marco has said but there's more to me than meets the eye. From my experiences, both good and bad, the only one who can truly say that you failed is yourself. I will tell you something you already know, the world is not a friendly place especially when you go out naïve and innocent. People will beat you down and take advantage of you sometimes for the simple pleasure of doing it despite how hard you fight back. But it's not how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep going through the storm of fists that fly your way. So don't say that you should just fade away into nothingness because you failed in the past, that's what cowards do." She looked off in Marco's direction and sighed. "I get the feeling Marco recognized that as well at some point given how he was holding himself when he spoke about Jackie. So only you determine when you have failed, the question is if and when you fail what are you going to do about it? Can you honestly let your student go it alone because you deem the prize he seeks is beyond your worth?" Sensei blinked at her words and thought about it for a total of six seconds before he wiped the tears away and stood up with a determined look on his face uttering one word before going after Marco.

"No."

"*Sigh* Where am I going to look next?" Marco spoke to himself as he walked down the sidewalk. "I mean I'm not going to just bump into where I need to go." He looked up hopefully but found he didn't bump into anything. "Well it was worth a shot." He continued walking before getting an idea. "Maybe I need to not look for a thrift store but a VHS store. One of those might still be in existence." He searched his phone quickly and found out where it was. "Wait a…" He quickly ran around the corner and saw the sign 'VHS DEPOT' one top of an aged store. "Huh, I almost did just run into it." He entered the store taking in the style that was obviously 80's with rows of VHS tapes everywhere. "Man, this feels like one of those Blockbuster stores from days of yore." There were only two people in the store with one of them being the person behind the counter, looking like a stereotypical fat geek, who was speaking as Marco approached.

"You are not a Sinophile. Next." He called out putting a tape back behind the counter with the man walking off and Marco speaking up.

"Ah yes, I'd like to see if you had any rare karate instructional videos?" The man's eyes lit up as he folded his hands on the counter and replied.

"Finally, a customer who actually knows what they're talking about." Marco spoke up eagerly.

"It's the 'How to Karate series' the black belt tape." The man smiled and gestured behind him speaking up.

"For behold the coveted final volume of the collection, the black belt cassette; viewed only once." Marco smiled ear to ear and reached out to it with the man slapping his hand away. "Not without gloves please." Marco groaned and spoke up.

"Ok ok fine, how much does it cost?"

"I will give you the effecianado price, $2,400." Marco's eyes bugged out as he replied.

"Dollars?! Ok I cannot afford that." The man rubbed his chin in thought before speaking again.

"Well there is another option for this particular cassette, fight me for it." Marco blinked thinking 'this is too easy' as he replied.

"Well… sure I'll take that option." The man smiled and stood up towering to about Buff Frog's height looking just as muscular. He smiled and got into a fighting stance as Marco got into one himself knowing he had constantly been outclassed by warriors like this in the past in a straight up fight. "I am not leaving without that tape!"

The man smiled and shoved the counter aside like it was nothing and went on the offensive giving short and sharp jabs at Marco. Marco dodged these blows as best as possible and found that the geek was slightly slower than he was when it came to attack speed. Marco shot forward with a frontal kick to test the geek's reflexes expecting him to block or try to grab Marco's leg. Instead the geek flexed his pectoral muscles and caught Marco's leg between them twirling him around and throwing him to the side. Marco managed to land on his feet but was suddenly assaulted by VHS tapes being shot out of random machines at him by the geek. Groaning in frustration at the unfair fight Marco dodged and blocked most of the VHS tapes but was struck by one out of four hitting him hard. Then the geek pulled out two tapes that were put together like nunchucks and twirled them around for a second before ensnaring Marco's feet with them. Marco didn't have time to marvel at the geek's fighting style as he fell to the ground leaving himself exposed to the geek's attack. Taking a flying assault the geek leapt into the air and came down with his foot coming down on Marco like the end of the world. Marco rolled out of the way at the last second coming upright and dodging secondary attacks the geek threw at him. As they continued to fight the door to the shop opened with Sensei and Ms. Dimartino coming into the store with Sensei speaking up.

"Marco, I've come to help you finish your… what the…" The two stared at the fight Marco and the geek were having before sensei spoke up. "Don't worry Marco, I'm not letting you fight this alone." The geek turned towards the new intruders and pulled out a remote hitting a button causing an avalanche of tapes to fall from a hidden area in the ceiling.

Ms. Dimartino was out of the fall area but Sensei was caught in the avalanche completely. Marco took this opportunity to try and strike at the geek's back with the Geek clenching his shoulder blades catching Marco's foot between them and throwing him across the room again. Ms. Dimartino leaned down to help Sensei who wriggled his way out of the pile of tapes with a frustrated look on his face speaking up.

"Oh come on, the one time I dig deep I get tied up and have to do the worm?!" Ms. Dimartino began pulling at the tapes speaking to him.

"Don't worry, I will get you out of that… eventually." She pulled at the tape with the geek hitting another button causing several 'geek ninjas' to come out of hiding and surround Ms. Dimartino and Sensei. "Excuse me a second." Ms. Dimartino then took of her shoes and took a crane Kung-Fu pose.

The ninjas looked at each other for a moment before attacking Ms. Dimartino in a group with her twirling out of the group and taking down one of them with several sharp jabs that seemed to almost paralyze the man. Sensei looked up in awe as she dodged more strikes and kicked straight up taking out a ninja with a kick to the jaw. The ninja's held back a moment prompting Sensei to speak up.

"Wait, you can fight?" Ms. Dimartino turned towards Sensei smiling and blew some hair out of her face.

"Kung Fu crane style, I studied it before I got into ballet. Like I said, there is more to me than meets the eye." She winked at him as she reengaged the ninja's with Sensei blushing slightly at that.

Marco on the other hand was struggling to keep up with the geek warrior and tried throwing a tape at the geek's face to distract him. The Geek blocked it but left Marco enough room to get up on top of the VHS shelves to get a respite. As he did so however the geek shot more tapes at Marco with him leaping to another shelf to avoid the blows. Growling in frustration the geek pushed over the shelves causing a domino effect that knocked down the shelf Marco was on throwing him to the floor. As he got his bearings back the Geek started charging in and took a flying leap bearing down on Marco. Marco tried to get up but found he was pinned under the shelf and could not get out easily. Getting himself ready for impact Marco suddenly heard Sensei call out to him.

"Marco. Clip. The. Toenail!" With no other options Marco closed his eyes, waved his hands, and shot one out going to clip the toenail.

His hand made contact with something prompting Marco to look up and double take at the fact he had just caught the geek's toe in mid-flight bringing him to a standstill. Marco gazed in shock as the geek swayed for a second comedically before falling to the ground with an oof and just stared at the ceiling in shock. As he did so Ms. Dimartino took out the last ninja and wiped her brow before helping Marco out of the shelf that had pinned him down.

"You… defeated me." The geek looked up at Marco in shock as he spoke. "The tape is yours." He held out the VHS to Marco who took it smiling while Sensei wormed his way up to them speaking up.

"Say, does he by any chance have the 'how to untangle VHS tapes' VHS tape?" Marco groaned and turned to the geek speaking to him in frustration.

"I've had enough of this. Do you have a pair of scissors?" The Geek smiled at this going to speak up. "And no not the critically acclaimed romantic comedy 'A Pair of Scissors', an actual pair of scissors." The geek then lowered his replying.

"No." Marco groaned and went off to look for scissors with Sensei speaking to Ms. Dimartino.

"Thank you for, you know, helping us out here." She shrugged and replied.

"It's what I do. Now then, let's get you out of there so you can learn your black belt."

The tape wrapped up with Marco and Sensei turning and bowing to each other solemnly with Sensei speaking up.

"Well done, red is your color but you pull off black really well." Marco smiled and replied to that.

"Well Black it most definitely your color." The two chuckled with Sensei speaking up seriously.

"Mr. Diaz, there is no more I can teach you as of now. Honestly the strip mall Karate dojo has nothing more to teach you as well. It is time you leave and seek out your next teacher if you wish to become greater still." Marco nodded and replied.

"Thank you Sensei, I will never forget what you have done for me." Marco then turned around and left with Sensei whispering under his breath.

"Nor will I forget what you have done for me."

Star sat in the ballet studio watching several of the students dance alongside multiple other people with interest as she munched quietly. She was currently wearing a green skirt-shirt with a rainbow in the chest region with red and pink leggings all of which were under a heavy coat due to the cold ballet temperature. Marco had recently rejoined the ballet studio and almost as if to celebrate his return Ms. Dimartino had made an open night for people to come in. According to Marco she had done this multiple times in the past but this was unusual for a ballet studio; however it helped her business by showing people what their friends had accomplished. The catch was you only come by invitation and the students could only invite one person which surprised Star a little that Marco invited her to watch. As the dance finished most of the students moved to the side, the group being almost completely female, with only Marco remaining in a leotard that showed off his physic rather well. Star giggled under her breath slightly only to feel a pang of jealousy when she noticed that some of the other students were staring at Marco with 'interest' in their eyes. Star frowned slightly before shaking the jealousy off and turning back to Marco who began dancing to some music being played.

Star watched Marco dance seeing him almost float around the studio as if he was as light as air. His feet formed a complex pattern that Star knew she would never master as he twisted and bent his body to maintain his balance. As he continued Star could feel the peace and joy radiating from him as he seemed to enter a type of zen zone. 'He must really love dancing' Star thought to herself as she sighed admiring his beautiful dancing. After what felt like an eternity Marco finally stopped with everyone applauding with Star just getting up and blowing Marco a kiss. Marco stepped off to the side as the people got up to leave with the other students going to mob Marco telling him how great he was. Star groaned and moved in their direction with Marco's eyes lighting up when he saw her and called out to her.

"Star, there you are." As he pushed towards her the other students turned in her direction double taking as they saw her. "I was wondering if you were going to get here." Star grabbed his head placing a long kiss on it before pulling back and speaking to him.

"Of course I would make it; I wanted to see my boyfriend dance ballet after all." Marco blinked at the sudden kiss and shook his head smiling as he replied.

"Well thank you regardless." He then turned towards the other students. "Hey guys, this is my girlfriend Star Butterfly." They all stared at Star for a minute looking at each other in confusion as Star grabbed onto Marco snuggling in close. "Wow, you're being a might bit cuddly right now." Star looked up at him before replying.

"It's cold in this studio; you know how I deal with cold." The students looked at each other again before one of the students spoke up.

"I thought you were with Jackie?" Marco shook his head no at that with Star glancing down unsure of what to say. "Well it doesn't matter; Star looks prettier and more energetic then Jackie." At that the students began to either talk to Star or break off to join their own families. While this happened Ms. Dimartino smiled at the gathering before turning to Sensei who spoke up to her.

"Thank you for inviting me to this. I think I needed to see what Marco was capable of." She shrugged and went to move over but Sensei was not finished. "Also, thank you for the pep talk. I'm getting the studio officiated in two weeks from now and I'm starting classes in business management this fall. Just wanted to let you know how much you um, helped me." He bowed to Ms. Dimartino with her blushing slightly before curtseying back to him.

"Helping people is kind of my thing Sensei… say do you have a name by any chance?" Sensei chuckled and spoke up to that.

"It's actually Brently, everyone just calls me Sensei; although honestly I should call you Sensei." He walked away with Dimartino's blush not going away as a thought entered her head.

'You know, he is actually kind of cute. Perhaps I should help him out some more.'

In a small town on Mewni there wasn't much activity going on due to a low population size caused by people moving away to look for work. The only real area of activity was the 'Red Dragon Inn and Bordello' where there was a still sizable crowd despite the loss of population. However, behind the front area where guests were attended to there was a treasonous secret behind its back. This was a safety house and meeting center for Forest Barbarians across the nation to plan and resupply if they could. Now it was needed more than ever as safe houses were being exposed by double agents at an exponential rate due to the new reforms made by Ludo of the senate. In the back room multiple warriors were sitting in silence contemplating their next move if there even was one. Eventually one of the barbarians bearing a brown beard that stretched to the floor broke the silence with the question on everyone's minds.

"We are losing on all fronts. What are we to do?" Others either shrugged or didn't respond with one scantily clad whore answering him as she passed by.

"Adapt and overcome, it's all we can do at this point." A sudden whump and shifting towards the back entrance got everyone's attention with a whore running in speaking fast.

"What appears to be a Butterfly family member has arrived and is coming in through the secret entrance." All the warriors looked at each other in worry as a tall and skinny barbarian spoke up to this.

"They discovered us already." Three short barbarians in a group spoke up to this in unison.

"Not good." As the crowd began to murmur in worry Dumnorix stood up picking up a random axe and shield sitting nearby and hit them together while turning to the back entry way.

"I will not be taken by these wannabe rulers." He turned to the crowd speaking up loudly. "Who wishes to spit at the Butterfly's one last time." The crowd looked at each other a second before grabbing their weapons and growling a challenge as footsteps signaled the approach of the individual with Dumnorix whispering. "It is a good day to die." At his words a familiar female voice spoke up.

"How about to come back from the dead?" Mavis stepped through the entry way smiling at the crowd who lowered their weapons.

"Mavis?!"

"You're alive?!"

"Impossible." Mavis smiled at their words and stepped into the room speaking up.

"Oh come on, I'm a survivor like all of you. And judging by the way you are all skulking in the shadows like this it must mean the war is not progressing very well is it?" Everyone looked back and forth at each other unsure with Dumnorix speaking up.

"Sadly it is. I'm afraid you have returned for our final hour." Mavis stood up straighter at that and spoke up.

"Well then, perhaps we should turn the odds to our favor." She pulled out her half of the wand which glowed a somber green color. "When Star destroyed her family heirloom several of the spirits of the wand turned on her. Now they follow the true queen of Mewni." Everyone gazed at it in awe with glints of hope in their eyes. There were some who had hesitant looks on their faces however which prompted Mavis to whistle. "Ancalagon!" Everyone looked up at her in confusion as the sound of heavy footsteps came through the hallway as the dragon entered the room prompting Dumnorix to stammer a little.

"Mavis. Is… is that a…" Mavis laughed out loud and turned back towards the crowd smiling more devilishly before speaking again.

"Like I said, time to true the odds in our favor. And what better to do it then with a dragon." She nodded to the now black bear sized Ancalagon who reared up extending his wings and breathing a short burst of lilac flame just to show off to the crowd.

WH: Whew, finally. *Steps away from the now defeated bug looking battered and bruised* Now that that is done I can get back important things like *phone ringing* Hold up a second. *listens to phone for a second and nods before hanging up* Well, change of plans. Meditation is over, time to see if I can survive the 'Season of the Dragon'.