A/N: Well, less than 100 days to go for Season 3; I can't wait to see the cruel ways in which Nefcy will torture us! In the meanwhile, please enjoy this next Chapter! Also, thank you guys sooo much for over 400 reads on the newest chapter and nearly 15k altogether! You guys are the best!
Replies to the latest reviews:
kylegriggs13: Thanks! Much appreciated :)
Mother of Fire: As I mentioned, they definitely got their souls bound. And I think that Star will be sadder without Marco because she loves him, and Marco's feelings are still unknown.
Captin jar: Dude, it takes time to write quality content. And, honestly, I'm working on a Fantasy Novel which I plan to finish and publish by the end of the year; There I actually have to pay attention to detail and grammar, so it takes a lot of focus end energy to write. Combined that with College and I'm left with little to no free time to do much else, and I still have a life so I can't just sit behind my laptop all day long and write! This is a hobby, not a paid job. Sorry for the rant but this is the 2nd time you've asked me this question and I thought you deserved a justified answer from my side.
RobLebron: Oh, there will definitely be Drama with lots of twists and turns, that I can assure you! The rest of your questions will be answered in the following Chapters!
Rock Raider: Yep, I even drew her and am now using her as my profile pic ^.^! And your guess about what's going to happen to the girl is EXTREMELY close!
One-Crazed-Up-Dragon: Well, here it is :)
Disclaimer: All characters from Star vs. The Forces of Evil belong to the creators of the show. The plot of this story and any original characters that may appear in it, however, do belong to me and I would kindly ask you to inform me should you want to use anything from this story in your own fanfic.
Beta read by ElleFreak.
Story cover by Luzz015. Be sure to check her out on DeviantArt!
Star vs. The Forces of Evil: Staring it up!
Chapter 5
A Voice in the Cold Wind
Part 2
"What happened..." Marco murmured as the three wandered through the streets of the once-proud village, observing the ruins of the burnt buildings and spotting charred corpses wherever they looked. Some were piled atop of each other, while others lay in the middle of the street, left there to rot alone.
Marco heard a loud gasp escape Star's mouth and shot her an alarmed look. The princess had her mouth covered with her right hand and was gazing at something in front of them with pure shock and horror written on her face. Marco followed her look and soon saw the reason; A young boy, no older than the age of 6 or possibly 7, was impaled on a wooden spike that was sticking out of the ground. His lower half was missing and blood was oozing from his mouth, dripping slowly onto the ground like drops of water from a defect faucet.
Marco frowned sadly and placed a comforting hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Are you alright?" he asked with enough tender care in his voice to almost fully mask the grief in his heart.
Star closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying her best to stay calm and collected. She faced Marco before daring to open them again. Upon seeing the concern on his face, she nodded, "I'm alright. It's just... I've never..." she trailed off, unable to phrase her thoughts.
Marco, without hesitation, hugged her while making sure the girl on his shoulders wouldn't fall off. Star was a strong girl, both mentally and physically, but Marco knew that it was because of her cheerful and free-spirited attitude that such sights easily broke her; It was her nature to spread love to everything and everyone, and seeing such destruction was like a bullet straight through her chest.
Star lightly pushed him away, effectively ending the hug, and spoke, "We have to let my parents know about this. If there's been an attack right outside our borders, then one of our own towns might be the next target of whoever did this."
The speed at which Star was able to recover from the shock and fully focus on a more pressing matter astounded Marco. He nodded. "Alright. This place is creeping me the heck out anyway..." Marco shook his head. "Who could do such a thing, and why?"
"Maybe she could tell us?" Star said, referring to the girl on Marco's shoulders. Star frowned. "Ok, here's the plan. I'll carry her home to Earth and you go to my parents and tell them about... this."
"What?" Marco asked, one eyebrow raised. Star turned around gestured him to hand the girl over to her, which he did. Once the child was safe atop of Star's back, Marco said, "Why just me? Wouldn't it be better if we both went?"
Star shot him her 'really?' look. "Marco. In case you forgot-" she raised her left hand and pointed at her ring, the topaz gleaming in the sunlight.
Marco blushed and looked away. "Oh, right, that..." he murmured whilst rubbing the back of his head with one hand.
"Yes, that! I'm still legally not allowed to set foot on Mewman grounds."
"What about the girl? Shouldn't I take her to the castle and hand her over to your parents?"
"Your mom knows what to do. Trust me; When I was sick that one time, she took better care of me than any Mewman doctor ever could!" Star's lips curled upwards into a bright smile as she fondly remembered the time she'd been attacked by the elusive 'Flu' and had to stay in bed for an entire week, unable to attend school -which was an upside- or run around and have fun. Luckily for her, Mrs. Diaz had nursed her back to health in no time and she was soon able to return to her daily routine. "Just tell my parents that we'll ask her as soon as she's back on her feet, alright?"
"Alright," Marco gave her a thumbs up. "I'll be back as soon as I've explained everything to them."
Star gave him a quick smooch on the cheek, then took out her dimensional scissors and cut open 2 portals; The first leading to the Diaz' Household, the other leading to Castle Mewni. Each of the teens entered their respected one.
"Oh, Marco," Queen Moon said, surprised upon seeing the boy enter through a dimensional portal and greet her. King River was currently absent as he was busy performing other royal duties -AKA Secretly being on a 'business trip' with Rafael Diaz- which left the Queen of Mewni alone with the Earth boy, not counting the guards that were present.
"You do know that entering the royal hall in such a fashion is punishable and that you must first be granted permission, don't you?"
Marco chuckled nervously. "Um, no?"
Moon stared flatly at the nervous boy for several moments before chuckling and letting a smile creep onto her face. "I'm joking, Marco. Well, not entirely. Were it anyone other than you, then perhaps those rules would apply. But, seeing as how you're practically royalty already, I suppose that I can grant you free access to the throne room." The queen cleared her throat and masked her smile with her usual calm and focused expression. "Now, what brings you here?"
"I'm here to give a, um, report about the findings just outside of your Kingdom's borders, your majesty."
"Again with the formalities..." Moon groaned and rolled her eyes "Boy, there's honestly no need for that! Just be frank!"
"Sorry..." Marco apologised and decided to rephrase his words. "Basically, that thing you told Star to do, we did it and now I'm here to tell you about it since she can't really come here."
"Much better." Moon smiled, very pleased with the boy's change in attitude. "Continue," she beckoned.
"Well, you know how there was a village there, right?"
Moon nodded.
"Well, now you can say that there literally was a village!" Marco put special emphasis on the word and sparked the queen's curiosity. "We went there and..."
"...And?"
Marco took a deep breath and frowned before locking his gaze with the Queen's. "The entire town is basically charcoal now..."
Moon's eyes widened in alarm. She was hoping that she's misheard something, but the boy's expression said otherwise. "You mean...?"
Marco slowly nodded. "All we found were burned buildings and piles upon piles of corpses scattered all over the place. Star looked like she was about to freak out."
Queen Moon slumped into her chair and looked upward, staring at the ceiling. "As if I didn't have enough trouble already, and now this..." she sighed deeply and looked at Marco. "Is there anything else worth mentioning?
"Actually, yeah. Star and I found a young girl just lying in the middle of the forest."
"A girl?"
"Yep." Marco nodded, then continued, "We think she's from the village, but we won't find out until she wakes up and tells us. Anyway, Star took her back to Earth so she can rest up in someplace warm; Her kimono was soaked and she was probably freezing."
"Her what?" Moon questioned upon hearing the unfamiliar word.
"Oh, sorry," Marco smiled sheepishly, "Her robe. But yeah, she's on Earth right now and we'll let you know if she has any, uh, information about this whole situation." Man, I hate it when words rhyme like that!
The Queen nodded. "Alright. Thank you for sharing this news. I'll be sure to let the neighbouring Kingdom's rulers know about the situation if they've yet to find out and send more men to monitor Mewni's northern borders." She clapped her hands a couple of times and a quill and a piece of paper floated over to her. She took the feather and scribbled something onto the paper before tucking both objects away. Moon then looked at Marco, and spoke, "Now, there's one more thing I've been meaning to discuss with you. Well, not so much discuss, but more along the lines of make you aware of it."
Marco arched his right eyebrow at the Queen. "Alright, what?"
"The trial is near. That is all." She said firmly and fell silent.
"Huh?" Marco asked confusedly, unsure what the woman was even talking about.
"You'll find out soon enough. Now, return to your Dimension and make sure my daughter stays out of trouble."
"Umm... ok...?"
"Begone now. Shoo." She briskly waved him off and called one of her royal advisors over. The two adults soon fell into a conversation and Marco, seeing that there was nothing left for him to do at the palace, asked one of the court wizards to help him return home.
Earth
Dusk had settled itself across the landscape as the Sun was slowly disappearing yonder the horizon. As the latino boy exited the portal and entered his house he noticed that the living room was empty. Hearing muffled footsteps and voices coming from upstairs, he ascended the stairs and noticed that the door of Star's room was open. He made his way over and his mother exited the room just as he was about to enter.
"Marco, I'm glad you're here," the woman told her son and moved aside to give him enough space to enter the room. "Could you go in and help Star look after that little darling she brought home earlier? I need to go downstairs and make a healthy snack for when she wakes up."
Marco nodded.
"Thanks," Mrs. Diaz said before heading down to the kitchen.
The moment Marco set foot into the room he noticed that the girl was safely tucked in Star's bed, wrapped up tightly in Star's bedsheets with an ice-pack resting on her forehead. Star was sitting next to the bed and quietly watching the sleeping girl.
"How is she?" Marco asked, kneeling down next to the bed and looking at the Girl with a pitiful look.
Star let out a long sigh and didn't even bother to hide her worried expression. "Your mom told me she has a fever and is completely exhausted. Other than that, we put some dry clothes on her and managed to get her to swallow some pills. Right now, all she needs is lots of rest." Star turned to face Marco.
Marco placed a comforting hand on Star's shoulder. "Hey," he spoke with softness in his voice, trying to soothe his beloved, "She'll be alright."
Star sighed and turned to face Marco. "How did things with my mom go?"
"I told her everything we saw, and I let her know about this little girl. She didn't seem to mind that we took her to Earth, so I guess she can stay here until she gets better."
Star smiled, a sense of relief momentarily replacing all of her worries. The smile soon turned into a frown as dark thoughts began flooding her mind anew. "I just can't imagine what would've happened if we'd found her too late. She's already in poor shape as it is, a few hours later and-"
"Shhh," Marco interrupted her by placing a finger on her lips. "Don't think about stuff like that, Star. We found her and now she's safe and sound. End of story."
Star looked back at the girl, a soft smile forming on her lips.
"You're right. I should we happy that we saved at least one person, right?" Star hugged her knees and sighed. "I just wish we could have saved more..."
"What happened wasn't our fault."
"I know, but still..." Star trailed off and shook the thoughts out of her head, then glared. "I just hope that whoever is responsible for that massacre gets what's coming to them!" The princess said in a vengeful voice and clenched her fists.
As Marco was about to comment the two teenagers heard footsteps behind them and turned around to see Angie walking into the room, carrying a platter and eying them cutely. "Why don't you kids go downstairs and watch some TV?" she suggested.
Star shook her head. "I can't just leave her alone! What if something happens?"
Angie chuckled and set the platter onto the nightstand next to Star's bed. "It's sweet of you to be worried about her, Star, but all she needs is some peace and quiet. You've done plenty by bringing her here and letting her rest in your bed."
"But-"
"She'll be fine!" Marco's mother emphasised. "I'll check on her regularly and tell you if she needs anything or if she wakes up. Until then the two of you should also take things easy and rest, alright?"
"I suppose you're right," Star sighed and stood up along with Marco. She shot the girl one final worried glance before exiting the room with her boyfriend and heading downstairs to the living room. Star sat down on the left end of the couch while Marco sat down on the right end.
"Hey, before I forget, I wanna ask you something," Marco began, grabbing Star's attention. "Your mother said something weird. 'The Trial is near' or something like that. Would you happen to know what she meant?"
"Trial?" The princess questioned with a crooked eyebrow. "Uh... I think it has something to do with you being the next King or something like that. I don't remember..."
Marco sighed heavily and slumped into the sofa. "Let's just watch some TV." As he reached for the remote, he felt Star tap him on the shoulder. He turned his head to face her and was intrigued to see her staring at him with crossed arms.
"You seem to be forgetting something, Diaz," Star said whilst smirking devilishly at the latino boy. He raised an eyebrow at her and remained silent, waiting for her to conclude her sentence. "Our *ahem* Couch Policy?"
Marco's eyes widened when his brain registered what the princess was implying. His expression of shock then turned into one of amusement. He decided to toy with her for a bit so, instead of answering her question, he started tapping his right index finger on his chin. "Policy? What do you mean?"
Star's eyes narrowed, turning her expression into a playful glare. The princess then got on all fours and began crawling over to him, eying him like a predator eyes its prey. Marco, in turn, slowly crept to the other end of the sofa until his back hit the couch arm and he leant against it. Star was soon at eye level with the boy, their noses practically touching.
They remained thus, Star's gaze locked with Marco's own. "I believe you know exactly what I'm talking about, Marco," She said, then snuggled her head into his chest and sighed blissfully. "You agreed to be my snuggle buddy!"
"Did I? Can't recall..." Marco chuckled and wrapped his free arm around the princess. Star sunk even deeper into his embrace and closed her eyes. The boy kissed his lover on the forehead and snuck a few whiffs of her strawberry-scented hair, then grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
Later that evening
Star was still fast asleep atop of Marco when the latter's mother came down the stairs and signalled him to wake the princess and head upstairs. The boy did as instructed and nudged his girlfriend numerous times while calling her name. Star awoke with a grumble and a long yawn, irritated that she had to abandon her comfortable position.
"What..." She murmured while rubbing one eye and having the other half open.
"My mom wants us to come upstairs."
Star blinked a few times. Her eyes soon sprang to life as she realised what that probably meant. With a lightning motion, she hoped off the couch and rushed upstairs to her room without even bothering to wait up for Marco. The boy too stood up and made his way to the princess' room. Upon entering through the door, his suspicions were confirmed; The small girl was sitting upright in Star's bed while slowly nibbling on the food from the platter his mother had brought earlier, which was now on the girl's lap.
Angie and Star were both standing next to the bed and watching the girl in complete silence. Not wanting to be the black sheep, Marco took up position next to Star, then looked at his mother. "She's awake," he stated. Angie nodded.
The girl swallowed the last bit of food and turned her head towards the three strangers, who were smiling at her.
"Hi," the blonde girl with hearts on her cheeks greeted her. The woman and the boy soon followed suit. "Are you alright?" The blonde one asked. The girl responded with a single, unsure nod. The blonde girl smiled, and said, "I'm Star. And these are Marco-" the girl pointed at a brown haired boy dressed in an odd red robe. "-and his mother, Angie," she then pointed at a middle-aged woman with equally brown hair and an orange blouse.
The blonde haired one then asked, "What's your name?"
The girl remained silent and frowned sadly, then looked down at the bed sheets.
Mrs. Diaz knelt down next to the bed and gently took the girl's hand, a warm and comforting smile present on her face. "It's alright, sweetie," Angie spoke in the softest voice. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Go ahead, tell us your name."
After a few moments of hesitation, the girl took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
"..."
To be continued...
Chapter End Notes:
Muahahahaha! Cliffhangers FTW! :P
Anyway, this somewhat differed from the 'Sneak Preview' at the end of 'My Star', but I did change the plot slightly, in order to make it better. The girl's name shall be revealed in the next Chapter! Until then, let's see if anyone can guess it :P! It is in the style of the show (sorta...)
Special message to ElleFreak: Don't you dare tell anyone xD!
Well, feel free to leave a review if you liked what you've read; See you in about 2 weeks!
