"Are you out of your mind?!"

"It's just a precaution."

"A precaution for what?! He's a child!"

"A child who could kill us all if he got angry enough!"

He sat inside of his cell with his knees huddled into his chest. The scary man with the horns had brought him back here, and then a bunch of other scary looking adults put him in here. He didn't like it in here. It was dark, and dirty, and scary. Everyone outside was yelling at each other. He didn't know what was happening.

He wanted to go home.

He wanted his mother.

"He's a huge threat to everyone in Mewni. We should crystalize him!"

"Honestly it might be better if we just… you know…"

There was a long moment of silence after that.

"If you don't open that door right now, I swear to stump I'll have each and every one of you banished. Get out of my way."

"Queen Star, just take a second to think about-"

"MOVE!"

A few moments later the door opened, and a woman with long blonde hair stepped in. She looked angry, but her face changed to worry when she saw him. She quickly walked over and then knelt down in front of him. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" she asked.

"Where's my mom?"

She flinched at the question. "Sweetie… I'm sorry…"

"Astro!"

The prince gasped and fell back onto the floor. He was in a cold sweat, and struggled to catch his breath. Everyone from the Supernatural Department sat around him looking at him worried.

A week had passed since Astro and Nia's run in with the Youngblood. Astro had told everything he knew to Kingsley, some of the info matching up with Renee's. Once Nia had found out how she had saved her brother she spent all her free time trying to open another portal or heal minor injuries from sparring. But she couldn't seem to do it again.

The lead officers had, just as Astro figured, been worried about how Paw seemed to escape from his cell. He had put the scissors back later so they didn't have any clue he'd been the one who freed him. He'd told them Paw was just some rebel monster who was after him and Nia, and they seemed to buy it.

Though he did notice Kingsley and Hank were giving him quick glances. Did they suspect something? Whatever it was he couldn't worry about it now. He had to keep an eye out for any more monsters. Until then he had to go on as he usually did.

Today that meant meditation.

Astro wasn't against the idea of mediating along with the rest of the supernatural department. In fact he usually enjoyed it. It never hurt to get a little time to clear his mind. Besides, it would teach Nia control. But today he had been slipping into dreams like this. Dreams he hadn't had for years. What the hell was going on?

"Are you okay man? This is like the third time you've had a total freak out," Sky asked worried.

He pinched his nose and held his hand up. "I'm good. I'm fine. I just… I need a second." These dreams had been messing with him for the last couple of days. Why in the hell was this happening? He was supposed to be over this.

"Bro, you've already had a lot of seconds. Are you sure you're good?" Nia asked.

Damian gave him a sympathetic look. "Your soul is feeling awfully unbalanced Astro. You did go through a traumatic experience not long ago. If you need some time to realign your aura then feel free to take a little time off," he said.

Astro got up and shook his head. "No, I'll be alright. I'm just going to take a little break," he said rubbing his head as he walked towards the door. A little time to calm down and relax might do him some good. Maybe a quick flight on Sear.

He whistled and the dragon poked his head up from the corner of the room. Sear flew over next to him and they were about to leave until the door opened and Cayenne stepped in. "Stump…"

Sear's eyes widened when he saw Cayenne and he immediately began growing towards her. It seemed like the dragon was still holding a grudge about that punch even now. She scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, I don't like you either. You overgrown gecko," she said annoyed.

Astro narrowed his eyes. "What do you want, Cayenne."

"I want you and your sister to ditch the sowing circle and come with me. I need you for something," she said crossing her arms.

"Do you really need our help? Can't you go find somebody else? Somebody who, you know, likes being in the same room as you?" Astro asked. He had long given up on trying to be polite with her. If she was going to be rude, he had no reason to keep up his manners.

Cayenne scowled at him. "Stop being a smartass and c'mon. I got someone I need you to meet," she said nodding towards the door.

Nia got up and started heading towards them. "Who?" Astro asked.

"Just come see for yourself you jackass," she said heading out.

When they reached her office, the sight that greeted them was… strange. Vera had been sitting on a nearby desk, smiling towards the other figure in the room. When she saw them she smiled. "Oh, hey guys! Guess who came to Earth and decided to help us out."

It was a girl, around sixteen. It was obvious she was from Mewni. Astro could tell she wasn't a full-blooded monster, but she had distinct traits that gave it away. She had alabaster skin and rose petal hair with purple ombre. The tips of her ears and her tail were green, and she had yellow and orange eyes with slits for pupils.

She wore a black and green leather jacket with dark blue jeans, along with a pair of brown boots. A pair of dimensional scissors was on her waist, along with…

She bowed towards them. "Prince Asterossa. Princess Nia. It's an honor to meet you both."

"Guys, this is-"

"Ambrosine the Immortal!" Nia squealed jumping up and down. "Oh my gosh! You're Ambrosine the Immortal! This is so cool!"

The girl looked up at them surprised. "You know me?"

Astro grunted. "We've heard of you. You're kind of a legend in the monster community." There were more than a few monsters in the royal guard who'd brought her up. "What are you doing here on Earth? Aren't you working with the Septarians?"

Amber narrowed her eyes at him. She couldn't help but noticed how he had nudged his sister behind him. Like he thought she was going to attack them or something. "I came here to seek Princess Vera's help. I need to learn to be a better princess for my people."

"And you chose Vera for that?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Hey!" Vera said, offended.

Nia frowned and elbowed him. "C'mon Astro. Cool off. She seems nice."

Astro kept his gaze locked on her weapon. He had never seen it in person before, but he'd heard plenty of stories about it from his mother and grandmother. That sickle she was carrying only could have belonged to one person. And her carrying it put him on edge. Plus the fact she was showing up now, when he knew his father was up to something. It seemed way too suspicious.

Still, as far as he knew the Septarians didn't have any ties to him, so he had no concrete reason to think she was here for anything but what she said. He'd have to keep an eye on her, but figured for now he'd just go along with this.

He bowed his head. "I apologize princess Ambrosine. Please forgive my rudeness. I've been a little unwell lately and I haven't been myself. It's a pleasure to both meet and have you here, and we'll assist you in any way we can," he said. Nia smiled and then curtsied, happy her brother was trying to be welcoming towards her.

Cayenne rolled her eyes. "Royals…" she muttered.

Amber bowed back. "The honor is mine. I had no idea the royal siblings were here on Earth as well," she said. She knew Vera was here, but when they told her the children of Star Butterfly were also on Earth it had caught her off guard.

It seemed like an opportunity and a problem at the same time. On one hand she had a chance to work alongside the royal siblings and earn their trust. On the other hand… well, the family that was responsible for how her people were being treated were right in front of her. It was hard not to hold a bit of a grudge.

And Prince Asterossa had seemed weary towards her. She could already tell there might be some kind of problem with him. Her thoughts were interrupted when the youngest princess in the room jumped in front of her. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here! I heard so many cool stories about you!" Nia yelled.

Amber looked at her slightly surprised. She heard the current queen had no grudges against monsters, but she hadn't expected the princess to be so upbeat towards her. "Thank you princess Titania. I've heard a lot of good things about you as well."

"Nia is fine," she said smiling before turning towards her brother. "Seriously, can you believe it?! This is so cool bro! Ambrosine the Undead, and Astro the Invincible! In the same place! On the same team! I bet nobody saw this coming!"

Astro hummed. "Yes. I'm looking forward to seeing if your skills actually match up to the legends." Nia once again nudged her brother. "What? I meant no offense."

"Well, if you really want to see maybe we'll get the chance to spar. After all, we'll both be in the same department won't we?" Amber asked.

"No. We're in the Supernatural Department," Astro explained.

"Really? I expected the Prince of Mewni to show off his skills in the Combat Department, but I guess that unlike yourself, my skills are not solely dependent on my magical ability," she said.

Astro's eyes widened. "W-what is that supposed to mean?" he asked, frowning.

"Oh, I didn't mean any offense. I was just making an observation…"

With that she turned and headed for the door, Vera following after her to show her around the rest of the base. Cayenne and Nia looked towards Astro, the former with a proud smirk. "Amber just shaded the fuck outta of you…"

"I don't trust her."

Micah hummed as he fired another blast at the enemy on his screen. Astro was beside him, giving him cover fire. But it was clear his head wasn't in the game. "Why? Cause she shaded you?" he asked.

"I don't even know what that means…"

"It means she hit you with a clever insult."

"Oh… that's not the reason!" Astro said annoyed. "I just think the timing is too convenient. A monster from Mewni shows up, hailing from the clan that's plagued my family for years, and carrying the weapon that murdered one of my ancestors. She just shows up out of nowhere and you expect me not to think anything of it?"

Micah shrugged. "I'm not saying don't be weary. Just give her a chance. I mean it's kind of backwards for you to get on someone for being part monster right?" he asked.

Astro glared at him. "That's not the same…" His case was far worse than hers. "Besides, it's not her being part monster that I'm weary of. Her father wasn't exactly kind to my family, and her mother spent years lying to generations of Butterflies."

"So it sounds like she had a jacked up family. Kind of like someone with dad issues?"

"It's not the same!" Astro said. He then flinched as one of the enemies in the game nearly took him out. His character turned around and barely managed to blast him away.

"Nice reaction. But anyway, I don't get it. You said your family wanted to make monsters and mewmans get along. You've fought beside monsters. So what's the big deal?" Micah asked.

Astro hung his head. "Look, it's not like I want her to be up to something. I want her to be telling the truth. I want to be able to have some peace between us and the Septarians. But it's not like I can just take anyone at face value. There've been plenty of people, monsters and mewmans, who have both figuratively and literally stabbed me in the back."

Micah sighed. "Okay, fine. I'm not saying you have to try and be best friends with her. But at least give her a chance. She deserves that much doesn't she?" the teen asked.

Astro scowled. "Stop being right damn it…"

Micah smirked. "I can't. It's like second nature." The chemical X super's phone suddenly went off, and he picked it up. "Yo, what's up Cayenne?"

"Tell prince asshat he needs to head to Kingsley's office."

"Why would you assume he's here with me?" Micah asked.

"Is he?"

"…touché." He turned towards Astro. "Kingsley wants to see you. Not sure why."

Astro sighed before getting up and walking out of the room. He made his way down to Kingsley's office where he saw the leader of the Vanguard, along with Vera, Nia, and Ambrosine.

Kingsley smiled. "Hey Astro. Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."

Astro shook his head. "No, it's fine. What can I help you with?" Astro still wasn't quite sure how he felt about Kingsley as a leader. As a person he enjoyed his company enough. He was nice and polite. God knows how he and Cayenne somehow ended up friends.

But he hadn't gotten the chance to see him in action. He organized things around here well enough, but he'd yet to see him in the thick of things.

"Well, I wanted to gather all of you here to discuss something important. Angela thinks having the four of you here gives us an opportunity to gain some public support. With four royals backing the group it could do a lot for our public image," he explained. "Everyone already knows about Vera, but the rest of you are pretty much unknown to everyone else."

He pulled up some images of Nia and Astro from the past few days. One of them showed Astro lifting up a car, and the others showed Nia shooting an arrow at some monster. Astro grew wide eyed. "What the-?! Nia! I told you that you couldn't go on field missions yet!"

Nia smiled shyly. "What? I just happened to be right there…" she lied.

He sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. Please go on Kingsley."

Their leader nodded. "The public knows about you two, but they have no idea you're royalty. Amber of course just got here so they've got no clue about her either. So we were thinking that maybe we could have an event to introduce the three of you as new members."

Nia's eyes widened. "Really?! That would be so awesome!"

Vera smiled. "Yeah, a bunch of people showed up when we had that party at your place. With three royal families it would probably make a huge splash. Especially with you two," the demon princess said looking towards the royals siblings.

Astro raised an eyebrow. "Have you thought this through completely?" he asked. "Believe me, I know how important public support is to a group like this. I'm not against it. But making a big event like this could make us targets… well, bigger targets."

Kingsley frowned, the memory of what happened during their first press conference still bothering him. "I know. But we'll be having much tighter security than usual. Plus all our members will be there. I don't think the Youngblood will try anything with everyone there."

"That may be, but they're resourceful. They have dimensional scissors, both mine and a pair they got from someone else. Not to mention they have a shapeshifter. They could slip past security without us even knowing," Astro reasoned. "We need to have all bases covered."

Amber stepped forward. "If they're using dimensional scissors, then I could help. My mother taught me everything there is to know about them. I could sense any portal opening nearby." She hadn't said much since she was the newest here, but if she could offer help then she would.

"See, it'll be fine Astro!" Nia said beaming.

Astro narrowed his eyes. "Will you really be able to focus on just one or two portals while we're supposed to be making a debut?"

Amber glared back at him. "I can handle it."

"I didn't say you couldn't."

"But it sounds like that's what you meant."

Vera and Nia both looked pretty tense, and Kingsley gulped. "Uh, guys. Let's all calm down a bit huh? This is just brainstorming. We have plenty of time to work out how we'll do this. If we decide to of course," he said.

Nia sighed. "Oh come on bro. This way people will get to know who we are, and we'll help out the Vanguard. Even if they do show up everyone will be there to kick their butts."

"You're being naïve Nia. A move like this will put both you and the wand on a silver platter. I'm NOT against doing this, but we need to consider all the risk before going forward with it," he said sternly. "You can't just keep on doing stuff at random and hoping it works out! You're going to get yourself killed eventually!"

She frowned at him. "You never want to take risks with anything! Why can't you just lighten up for once and have some fun?"

"Because this isn't supposed to be fun Nia!" Astro snapped back. "I'm not sure if you forgot, but these guys almost killed me last week! I'm not too keen on letting the same thing happen to you!" he said trying to talk some sense into her.

"But they didn't, because I saved you! So I think I can handle being at a party for a day!" Nia said, crossing her arms. "And anyway, it's not really your call now it is?"

"Excuse me?" Astro asked, glaring.

"You always get to decide what we do and how we do it. But I'm the princess, and you're just the prince," she pointed out. "It's my call to make, and I say we're doing it. So it really doesn't matter whether you agree or not."

Vera and Kingsley both winced, while Amber looked uncomfortable. Astro stared at her, and for just the briefest of seconds a look of hurt flashed across his face. They stood in silence for a few moments.

Then Astro smiled. "Of course. How could I have forgotten. I must have lost my mind. Thinking about your safety over all the fun you could have. Thank you for reminding me of my meaningless little royal status, princess Titania," he said, giving a dramatic bow. "Since you're clearly calling all the shots here, I'll just take my leave. You have a lot to discuss after all."

He turned and headed for the door and began walking out. Nia frowned. "Astro, hold on. I didn't mean it like that…"

"I know how you meant it," Astro said, giving her a cold glare.

Nia flinched as he walked out of the door and slammed it behind him. She stared after him. She… had never seen her brother like that. He'd been annoyed at her plenty of times before, but that look was something different.

He looked hurt, and disappointed.

"Are you okay Nia?" Vera asked.

"Uh… yeah," she said, frowning. "I'm good…"

"Are you sure? You can go talk to him if you want?" Kingsley offered.

Nia bit her lip. "I… I think we should talk about how we're going to do this…" Her brother was just being overprotective again. He'd realize it soon… right?