"So, how do you think it's going?"

Astro looked up from his sword and towards Vera, who was pacing nervously around the room. The princess had been unable to sit still since the moment Amber had left. "I think it's going fine Vera. I also think you panicking about it won't really help. Just sit down and relax," he said sliding the whetstone against Ocean's Kiss blade.

Vera bit her lip. "I know. I just can't help it. I keep thinking something is going to go wrong or something is going to backfire. I really wish I could have gone," she said shaking her head. The rule about the young heirs not being allowed was stupid. They were going to have to be making decisions like this themselves eventually, so why not let them sit in and watch now?

Nia spun around as she went through her drills. Her wand was in the form of a jian, and she twirled it around gracefully. "Don't worry Vera. Amber is totally prepared for this. Plus she's got your mom and the Kelpbottom's to help her out. And Bloom too. I'm sure everything is gonna work out perfectly," she said smiling.

Vera hummed. They were right. She was probably stressing out over nothing. "I guess you're right. Not like I can do anything about it now anyway," she said before looking up towards Astro. "By the way, have you been to see Jocelyn lately?"

Astro stopped, and looked up towards her curiously. "Why would I need to go and visit Jocelyn?" he asked, sounding just a little offended.

Vera and Nia shared a glance before looking back towards him. "Astro… you know you've been a lot more on edge lately, right? I mean I wasn't there, but I could feel you magic spiking when you were fighting that guys with the suit. It felt really, really intense. Especially near the end," Nia said walking towards him.

"We're just a little worried that maybe with your monster training that you're getting a little more aggressive. And maybe that's natural or something, but… it wouldn't hurt to talk to Jocelyn and try to sort things out, right?" Vera asked. "She's helped a lot of other members in the league. She could probably help you too."

Astro sat in silence. He couldn't deny anything they'd said. He hadn't exactly been hiding his recent issues well lately. But still… "I don't think talking to Jocelyn is really going to help. This situation is… sort of out of her area of expertise." This wasn't a mental or emotional issue. It was biological.

"Yeah, but it still might make you feel better. C'mon, give it a shot." Nia felt like everything was going right for her right now. She was as happy as she could be. And she wanted her brother to be too. It bugged her to see him struggling like this.

"I'll think about it…"

Nia wished she could have gotten a yes, but she would take what she could get. She smiled and nodded towards him, and was about to smile back until he felt a throbbing pain in his head. He winced and reached up, grabbing his temple. "Uh… what in the…?"

Both Nia and Vera looked at him curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Did anybody else feel that? It felt like… I'm not sure. But I felt something." It felt like some kind of alarm went off in his head. Not quite like the King's Call his father used, but something along those lines.

"Are you okay? Do you want to go to the infirmary?" Nia asked.

He shook his head. "No, I'm fine now," he assured. It might have just been his instincts acting up again. He had to go and visit his father soon. As pissed off as he still was about him about the… soup incident, he had some questions that needed answering.

Suddenly another feeling came over him, this one less painful and more familiar. Nia seemed to feel it too, as she perked up. "Oh scissor portal! Amber must be back!" she said excitedly.

Vera looked confused. "What? No way she's back so soon." Meetings between the royal court usually took all day. Her parents would always come home in the late hours of the night and complain about how they practically got nothing done. Maybe they were on an intermission or something.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Amber!"

All three of the royals eyes went wide as they heard the commotion. A portal opening up and then screaming was never a good sign. They all shot up and rushed towards the door and to the rec room. Nia and Vera both gasped when they got there.

Standing in the middle of the room was Amber, who was bloody and injured. Her dress was torn, and one of her had scratches and cuts all over her body. One of her forearms was completely missing, a bloody stump that was struggling to reform itself. A few of the others are already making their way over to attend to her, but the moment she saw Astro and Nia walk in, she looked towards them.

"Asterossa… there's..."

She tried to keep speaking, but then fell forward. Astro rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground. "Amber! Nia, get over here!" His sister rushed over towards them and raised her hand, quickly doing her best to heal the numerous wounds covering Amber's body. For whatever reason they were healing slower than usual. Just what in the world had happened to her?

"Jesus, what the shit?!" Cayenne said. "Is the royal court some sort of death battle or some shit? Who did this shit?"

Amber coughed, struggling to stay conscious as Nia continued to heal her. She looked up towards Astro, grabbing his sleeve. "We need to go back to mewni…"

"Calm down, you need to-"

"No, we have to go back. Everyone needs help, right now. They're in the castle, Queen Star couldn't fight them all off…"

Both Astro and Nia looked towards one another, then glared.

Life was supposed to be better.

They'd resolved things with Typhon. They'd fought off Oberon. Two of the three great tribes were on their way to joining the court. Things were supposed to be calming down. To be relatively peaceful. So why was this happening? Why were they looking at all this destruction and damage?

At least a third of the Butterfly castle was just… gone. Hardly anything was left behind but rubble and debris. The meeting room was obviously the worst, but there were signs of battle in what was left in the halls and all the surrounding rooms as well. But the damage to the castle was far from the worst thing they were witnessing.

No, the worst thing was the body of their mother floating before them.

Star's eyes were dark and blank, her body looking more like an empty husk than the vibrant and radiant ruler of mewni. There were no signs of movement, or life coming from her. Astro had only seen something like this a few times before, but he knew what it was. She had been stripped of her soul.

Nia walked forward, a heartbroken look on her face. She reached up and grabbed her hand. "Mom…" She squeezed her hand tightly, tears forming in her eyes. How could this have happened? Between her mother and father alone, just who could have…? "Where's my dad?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"With the other souls that were taken. They sealed him and Tom somehow…" Omni said, looking down sadly. Their mother wasn't the only victim of what had happened. Practically all the noble families had been stripped of their souls, and the royals families… all of them, save one.

"Who sealed them…?" Astro muttered. His voice wasn't shaky like Nia's. It sounded scarily calm. "Who did this?"

Omni and Hekapoo could feel the dark magic radiating from the boy. Though he looked calm, they could tell he was doing everything he could to hold back his rage. They knew how protective he was of both his mother and sister. And this… this might just have made something inside of him snap.

"The Ten."

"The Ten?"

"The Titanic Ten?"

Astro blinked, his expression still stone faced. He slowly turned towards the two. Rhombulus had been badly injured during the attack, so it was just them. Which he was thankful for. He didn't like dealing with any of the Commission, but at least these two were smart enough to get proper answers from. "The Titanic Ten? As in the titans who worked under my father over two thousands years ago? The titans you supposedly killed?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

The two slowly nodded, and Astro reached up and rubbed his temple. "I want you to explain to me how that's possible. Explain to me how ten warriors who died over two thousand years ago just magically came back to life, and managed to…?" He let the question hang, his eye twitching slightly. He just knew he wouldn't like what he heard.

Omni sighed. "I think this can be discussed later, we have more-"

"It'll be discussed now!" Nia said, glaring at the two. "How?!"

Omni and Hekapoo both shared a glance, and then turned towards the siblings. "The truth is… we were never able to actually kill the Ten. Even individually they were too powerful to take down. The best we could do was seal them away," Hekapoo explained.

"But… this was more advanced than the one we used for your father. They were perfected, and reinforced with dark magic. The seals weren't supposed to ever be broken," Omni explained. "We have no idea how they-!"

Astro grew into his monster form and reached for his sword, but before he could lunge at them, a blast flew by and nearly struck the two. They barely moved out of the way, and Astro looked back over his shoulder and saw Nia, already in her mewberty form. "This is all your fault!" she shouted angrily. "You and all your stupid lies and secrets!"

Hekapoo held her hands up. "Nia, we didn't-!"

"Have you really not learned a single thing from what happened with my father?! What happened to me?!" Astro shouted angrily.

Omni tried to calm the two. "Come on now! You're being unreasonable! Did you just expect us to free one of the greatest enemies the crown has ever known?!"

"No! But I expect you to TELL the royals family about the greatest enemies the crown has ever known!" Astro shouted back. "All you idiots ever do is try to hide and bury the sins of your past! Pretend like they never exist! Well if you haven't figured it out by now, that doesn't work! They come back! They ALL come back!"

Nia balled both of her fist up. "The royal court is gone because of you! My mother is like this because of you! If she dies, that's on you!" she yelled.

Hekapoo tried to remain calm. "Listen to me, I understand why you're both upset, really I do. But this isn't the time for this. Right now we need to focus on how we're going to fix this mess and save the royals families," she said. Even if their souls had been devoured by the Ten, they weren't completely gone. Not yet. "If you'll let me-"

"I'm not letting you do anything," Nia said, shaking her head. "Every one of you does anything, all it does is make things worse. Just… just stay here, and don't even speak unless spoken too. I swear if you move from that spot-"

"Nia, Astro!"

The royal siblings turned their heads and saw Moon making her way towards them. "Grandma!" They both quickly rushed to meet her, and she grabbed them both into a hug. Nia quickly hugged her back, and then… she began sobbing. Astro wrapped his arms around the both of them.

Moon leaned down and tried to comfort Nia. "It's alright dear. I'm here," she said rubbing her back gently. "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you two. I knew you weren't here, but I just… I had to know you were safe."

Astro felt a wave of relief at seeing his grandmother. Seeing any familiar face that wasn't a floating soulless husk was a blessing right now. "Is Grandpa safe?" he asked.

Moon nodded. "A bit shaken from the commotion, but otherwise fine," she explained.

Astro hugged her for a bit longer, and then backed away. "Where is everyone else? Did anybody else manage to escape or..?"

Moon sighed. "Margo did. She headed back to the Underworld after they left. I'm fairly sure she's already preparing for a battle. Higgs managed to escape as well, along with a few other nobles. But they sealed off the section of the castle. Nobody could get in or out. Star fought them off for as long as she could but, they were just too and too numerous. Half of them slipped away and came after us, and we never stood a chance."

Astro grit his teeth. "Where did they go? I'll track them down and-!"

"No!" Moon said quickly. "You can't go! Not alone! I know you want to do something, but… you didn't see them Asterossa. They're not just powerful, they were terrifying. It's a miracle that any of us survived. I remember what the legends about the Ten said, and I promise you they're understated," she said warningly.

Astro held his hands out. "I can't just sit here and do nothing! If we don't get mother's soul back, ALL of their souls back, then-!"

"I'm not saying do nothing! But we can't rush into action without thinking," she said shaking her head. "What's the most important quality of a ruler?" she asked.

Astro hesitated for a moment, and then sighed. "Wisdom…"

"Exactly. Be wise right now Asterossa."

He grit his teeth. Every instinct in his body was telling him to get out there, track down whoever did this, and slaughter them. But he knew she was right. There were lives on the line right now, and their next move needed to be thought out carefully. "Where's Breeze?" he asked.

Breeze starred up blankly at the bodies of her parents. This whole thing was just surreal. Her father was always so boisterous and noisy. For him to be so silent was unsettling to her. Her mother… well, her mother honestly didn't look all that different if she was being honest.

"Breeze!"

She looked over her shoulder and saw Astro running towards her. He stopped when she got close, and then noticed the bodies of the Johansen king and queen. "Shit… I'm sorry," he said looking towards her sympathetically.

Breeze hummed and then turned back towards them. "Don't be. Moping around isn't going to do us any good right now. We need to focus on tracking down those who did this, and making them pay," she said. Astro glanced down and saw she was balling her fist up, a faint red glow around it.

He knew as much as she was trying to hide it, she was both furious and filled with dread right now. She was better at reigning her emotions in than him, or any of the others for that matter. But he knew there had to be a part of her that wanted to go after them. But even if she hadn't thought better of it, her responsibility would have kept her here.

She was the acting captain commander. She couldn't just leave her post. Not when something like this had just happened. He had felt that burden before, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. "Did you send word to your family?" he asked.

"I did. I didn't give them all of the details, but I warned them to be on guard."

"Where's Fum?"

"He's organizing a defensive perimeter around the kingdom in case they come back."

"...Slick?"

Breeze let out an exhausted sigh. "The moment he laid eyes on his parents… he rushed off after them. Which is useless, because somehow they managed to cloak their magical power. Bloom and Arty went to stop him. I imagine that he'll be heading back to his kingdom to break the news to his sister, and… to take his spot as acting King."

Astro grunted. That was better than him just going rogue he supposed. "We're going to send word to the other kingdoms. Warn them to be on guard, fortify and raise their defenses. And to open their gates to every single village in their territory," he said.

Breeze snorted. "Who exactly do you think you're talking to? It's already been done," she said crossing her arms. "I don't suppose that you want to talk to your father about this. After all, it's his brother that made his mess, isn't it?"

Astro frowned. "I know. I… I can't leave right now. If he did and they came back… he just couldn't make that gamble. Until all of their defenses were properly set up, he wasn't going anywhere. "I'm going to go get my armor."

Breeze raised an eyebrow. "Am I to assume that the true captain is finally back from his little earth vacation?" she asked. "Because I'd like to stop focusing on leading and start focusing on making plans to catch and skin these titans alive…"

Astro narrowed his eyes. "You are, so get thinking..." Old acquaintances or not, his home, friends, and family had been attacked. Maybe his father could step in and smooth this over. Talk and reason with them. But until then, he was moving with every intention to bring them down.

"Do you see him?"

Argus sat on top of a mountain, humming as he tried to concentrate. The rest of the Ten sat and stood around him, and floating in the air were the numerous souls of the royals and nobles they had snatched away. "No, I'm afraid I can't find any signs of him," he said shaking his head.

Python and Kyu both frowned. "Please, keep looking. He has to be somewhere," Kyu said pleadingly. "Did you check the castle? He could have been in a different chamber."

Argus grunted. "If he's sealed away the same way we were, I won't be able to get a beat on him," he explained. "I doubt he'd be in one of the other castles either. I can start checking some of the other dimensions they frequented, but… it's been over two thousand years. He might just be-"

"He's alive!" Scylla said sternly. "That little furball is way too tough to go down to them!"

Echidna hummed and looked off in the distance. "If they couldn't kill us, I doubt they were able to kill him either. We may just have to head back and beat it out of them."

"They didn't know," Argus said bluntly. "I skimmed through all of their minds, and they didn't have any idea… well, those three might have, but…" The Commission members had managed to scurry away during the battle. No surprise there.

Kyu balled her fist up. "Then let's go back and find them! We'll force it out of them if we have to!" she said angrily.

Python reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Kyu calm down." She turned towards him, a glare in her eyes, but reached over and wrapped his arms around her. "We will find him. I swear it. But if they really do have him, then we need to plan our next move carefully. Mewni is… changed. It's different. We're in unknown territory. We should regain our strength, and then learn the lay of the land. Then we can focus on finding him."

Kyu kept glaring for a moment, and then sighed. She knew he was right. As desperate as she was to find him, they were practically in a brand new word. She barely even recognized the landscape. He cupped her face. "We'll be together again, and we'll make them pay. I swear it," he whispered.

Argus rubbed his chin, and then looked towards Python. "Well, if we're going to learn the lay of the land, I'd like to make a stop somewhere first." He wanted to make sure of something, and there was only one place in mewni he could go to do so.

Kruger stood up. "Wait, before you go, would you mind telling me where my sword is?" he asked. "Given that we wiped out what I assume were the biggest threats at the castle, I doubt I'll actually need it. But I feel naked without it."

"It's in the Lucitor vault," Argus said.

"Damn it. Of course it is," Kruger said, obviously annoyed. That was the last place he would have wanted Bloodedge to be. "Guess I'll be making a stop of my own."

Kyu looked towards Argus. "What about-?"

"They threw your shamisen in some volcano in the Underworld," he said chuckling. "It's still in one piece, but you're going to have to dive down there and get it."

"Sons of bitches…" she muttered angrily. She turned towards Kruger. "Well, I guess I'm going with you then."

Branch nodded. "That's smart. I think all of us need to make a stop or two. I have to… I have to see someone," he said. Orthrus barked and walked over towards him, nuzzling his side. He smiled. "Well, I guess Orthrus is coming with me."

Echidna let out a low hiss. "I'm picking up something strange in a certain place. I'm going to go investigate," she said. "I'll move faster alone."

Matrona smiled and pounded her fist into her hand. "So will I! I'm planning on having a little homecoming. I want to see just how much stronger the tribe has gotten in the time I've been gone," she said excitedly.

Gadfly opened his mouth, but Scylla cut him off. "Don't even think about it! You running off on your own is how you got caught in the first place," she said walking over and grabbing his wrist. "You're coming with me. I'm going to pay a little visit to the waterfolk royal family. Or what's left of it anyway." She had started the job, so she might as well finish it.

Gadfly clicked his tongue. "Whatever. As long as I get to knock some heads," he said cracking his neck.

Python grunted and looked towards Argus. "I'll go with you. I think we should take the scenic route. I want to know just how much has changed in all this time." They'd seen a few mewman villages on the way here. Far more than he'd liked. Argus nodded, and then Python turned towards the others. "Everyone, be careful. Learn what you can, and wipe out any threats you come across. We'll meet back here when we're done."

Everyone nodded, and then got ready to move out. "We're going to make a very loud and clear statement that the Titanic Ten have returned…" They all shot off in different directions.

Kruger's eyes glowed, and flames shot up and engulfed him and Kyu. She was calm as they swallowed them up, lowering them to the Underworld. Gadfly picked up Scylla and zipped off towards the ocean, and Matrona slid down the mountain, the ground shifting and moving to excel her towards her own destination.

Branch rode on Orthrus' back as the two headed beasts rushed off, and Echidna dashed across the ground at a rather impressive speed. Argus and Python both flew up into the air, the ladder following the more elderly member towards their goal. "By the way, did you want me to point out where Typhon is?" Argus suddenly asked.

"I know where he is," Python said bluntly. He could sense him. He didn't know if the others could, but… they shared blood. They had a deep connection that seemed to link them to one another, across endless miles and even dimensions.

"I see… was there a reason you didn't say anything to the others about seeking him out then?" Argus asked curiously.

Python grunted. "He was already awake from what I could tell. He had to have sensed us already. Which means either he couldn't get to us, or he doesn't want to. I get the feeling it's the ladder," he said. "I don't know why he would want to avoid us. Maybe it's shame, or maybe it's something else. Either way, I'm willing to leave him be for now. We'll go and see him after we get out bearings together."

Argus hummed. "Alright then… what about the other one?"

Python looked towards him. "You… you felt that too?" he asked. He thought he had felt something else odd. When he'd tried to sense the other titans in mewni, he had been shocked to discover too little of them around now. But he'd also been shocked to feel another familial presence.

At first he thought it might be his son, but it was different. Familiar, but… surely there couldn't have been another of them that spawned in Tartarus, could there? Or maybe his brother had finally slipped up and had a spawn of his own?

"It's not important right now. We'll deal with it later."

A/N: I'm so freaking excited for this arc, I just can't stop writing... I hope I'm not uploading too fast (is there is such a thing lol).

The butterfly siblings are back home, and are readying their kingdom to deal with the new that! Meanwhile the Titanic Ten are getting ready to make moves of their own! Mewni is about to be in for a very rude awakening!