Like Father, Like Daughter
Disclaimer: I don't own any elements of Star Vs.
Special Thanks to my beta APraeda.
Chapter 14: Can't Handle It
They found themselves in a tunnel, man-made from the looks of all the bricks it was built with.
The landing was rough, but it looked like they were safe.
"I'm done! I'm done!" Brittney yelled out. "I wanna go home!"
"Come on!" Janna groaned as she got up. "We survived a living house, what else could happen?"
Hekapoo disagreed. "She's right, I'm taking everyone back now." Taking out her scissors, she cut the air - but nothing happened. Her flame was back and she could sense magic running in her body. She slashed again. "No, no, they have a tramorfidian crystal in this place. I can't open a rift."
"I'll blast our way out!" Star readied her wand to fire upwards.
Marco placed his hand on her wand. "Star, no. We're underground - the blast could cause a cave-in and bury us."
"Oh, right." Star looked around - if she fired anywhere, that would certainly happen.
There were two open paths before them, each drenched in darkness.
"I think that's our way out." Jackie pointed out.
"Yeah," Hekapoo agreed, "the crystal is bound to be with the treasure so if we want to get it, we have to reach the end."
Marco noted there was a plaque between the doors. "It's a riddle. Brittney, we need to read this."
"No, no, no, no!" The rich girl refused, "I've nearly died today! I'm not doing any more of this."
"We can't get out unless we read this and you're the only one who can do that."
"I'm not doing it!" Brittney curled into herself as she started to shake.
Marco looked at Brittney who sat on the floor scared. Obviously almost getting eaten had shaken her.
Marco sighed, sitting beside her. "Do you mind if I sit?"
"Whatever."
"Brittney, please, I'm scared."
Brittney turned to him and found herself looking him straight in the eye. Slowly, he took her hand into his own, sandwiching them and holding them gently.
"I want to get Seraph home and I can't do that. The only one that can do that is you." Marco's voice was soft and gentle. "Please Brittney, we need your help. We need you."
"My help?"
"Yes, please. You're the only one who can do it."
"Me?"
"Yes, the only one."
"I'm the one."
"You are the one."
"I'm number one!"
"Yes you are!"
"I'm number one!" Brittney jumped on her feet and looked at the plaque. She kept repeating to herself "I'm number one. I'm number one."
Marco smiled as he got up.
"Uh, something else you learned in Hekapoo's dimension?" Jackie asked.
"Nope, just some psychology and a bit of some stuff I learned at a spiritual realization workshop at the community college my mom took me to. It's just boosting her ego when she was in a weak state. Letting her feel the power and then going with it. Honestly, I don't think she had a very good opinion about herself - it kinda makes her easy to trick if you know what to do."
"Sword fighting, manipulating, and super fertility, you're just the whole package, Diaz." Janna glanced at Marco.
Meanwhile, Brittney delighted. "Okay, it says 'Two paths lay before you - one the test of wisdom and heart, the other the test of strength. Careful about your choice - you will only get one chance.'"
"A physical trial and a mental one" Hekapoo surmised. "So, which one do we pick?"
Brittney spoke. "The one on the right is the physical one and to the left is the mental one."
Marco sighed. "Okay, let's just take the mental one. After fighting I don't feel like exerting myself more."
The others agreed and so Marco quickly stepped over the threshold of the left path - and as he did, the room began to shake, collapsing as the wall pushed in.
"One shot! Everyone go!" Hekapoo pushed the others in.
The chamber started to fall apart with rocks filling up the space, forcing everyone to jump onto the paths as they closed up. Marco, Seraph and StarFan pushed through left path. The others, in panic, pushed into the right path just before the room was filled with stones.
None expected that in the dark there was a slide - they screamed as they slid faster and faster into the unknown.
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"Self cleaning." Hekapoo groaned as she and the girls piled on the floor. "They made everything to fall apart behind them. Only one shot to get the treasure so don't try unless you mean to take it."
There was a glowing crystal above them in a small room at the bottom of the slide. Besides Hekapoo's flame it was the only source of light.
"Seraph? Marco?" Hekapoo looked around.
"Calm down." Star placated her. "I saw them go the other way with StarFan. They'll be fine. They're just stuck with the other test, we'll meet them at the end."
Hekapoo took a breath."Right. Let's just get going. What do we do? We're stuck doing the strength test."
Brittney got up and looked at the wall that blocked them, where words were written on the door out. "Uh, in this room there can be no lie, no deception or omission. The truth can unblock your path, but only truth freely given."
"What does that mean?" Star scratched her head.
"Thats a riddle, a test of the mind. We went to the right, which you said was for the physical test. "
"Uh, I might have gotten those two words mixed up."
Hekapoo grabbed Brittney with a fierce, terrifying look in her eyes.
Star quickly put a reassuring hand on her should. "Let her go." She tried to take a page from Marco's book and talk softly. "Marco and Serie are gonna be fine. Serie is super strong, she can probably pass the test by herself! And Marco is smart, he can probably figure out what they need to do. They're going to be fine, we just have to go meet them, H-Poo."
"Don't call me that!" Hekapoo turned on her heels to face Star. "Only Marco is allowed to call me that and even then I keep telling him not to do it."
"What?" Star was confused by the statement.
"I like him calling me that. No one has ever bothered to give me a nickname before. It's stupid and silly and makes me feel a nice in a kinda weird way. I know that he does that to tease me, but I like it and I don't want him to know that because it makes me feel vulnerable, and that's scary for me."
The girls stared at her, confused by it all.
"Oh." Janna grinned. "No one can lie in this room."
Hekapoo covered her mouth.
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Marco, StarFan and Seraph landed roughly onto the floor. Marco and Seraph had some training with karate and knew how to roll, so they landed a lot better than StarFan.
"Ow…"
"Are you okay?" Marco asked her.
StarFan looked at the scratched-up knee, all bloodied now.
"Oh, let me help you there." Marco smiled and pulled his fanny pack from underneath his shirt.
"Uh, a fanny pack?" Starfan cringed.
"Yeah, I keep all sorts of things in here, like a first aid kit." Marco pulled out some band aids and disinfecting spray.
"Helpful, but…" Seraph started.
"I know everyone thinks they're stupid, but they help." He turned to StarFan. "This is going to sting a bit."
StarFan hissed as he talked and cleaned her wound.
"I used my fanny pack during my first few days in Hekapoo's dimension. It really helped me out a lot. I restocked it whenever I could. Eventually it broke and I started carrying everything in bags or on Nachos. But it's always helpful. I used to carry these leaves that, when ground up, would heal any wound in hours." He bandaged her scrape. "So I don't care if it's silly. I'll just keep on carrying it for things like this." Marco sat down next to Starfan. "Let's just rest for a little bit."
"You don't have to wait for me. I can move. I don't want to hold everyone up." StarFan told him.
"No, I'm tired. Let's just rest a bit."
Seraph sat down by them too. Sure, her dad carried a fanny pack, but he was cool in his own way too.
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"So, let me ask you something." Janna stared at the forger. "You and Marco did the deed, was he … you know, good?"
Hekapoo clamped her hands tightly over her mouth, but she found herself unable to stop her mouth from moving, "M-Marco…was amazing!"
"He was?" Janna asked, leaning in slightly with a grin on her face.
The other girls could only stare and watch the events unfold before them, their cheeks reddening a little at the subject matter.
"Yes!" Hekapoo practically shouted. "He was amazing! He was wonderful, caring, tender, powerful, passionate-" Hekapoo desperately tried to cover her mouth. "He rocks my world!"
"Rocks your world?" Janna almost laughed.
"Yes!" Hekapoo blurted out, "He does, and he loves it when I tell him that in those words. He gets all giddy and it's sooo cute!"
"Our little Marco?"
"He's not so little." Hekapoo bit her lip.
Janna laughed, enjoying the situation and putting the powerful entity on the spot.
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Marco looked around himself.
Seraph noticed this and asked "Uh, dad, is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I just have this feeling."
"A bad feeling?" StarFan curiously asked.
"No, I don't think so." Marco blushed lightly. "It's kinda nice."
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Hekapoo was blushing - she didn't recall the last time she was flushed like this. The only reason she didn't flash-fry her was because she was a friend of Marco, but it was getting harder to hold off on that.
"Okay, so tell me - Marco says Seraph is a miracle that possibly shouldn't have happened, that the stars just aligned and out came his miracle baby." There was an edge, a dangerous accusatory edge to her voice. "Marco is safety kid, always has been - I doubt he'd just forget to wrap it before he taps unless he didn't think he'd need to at all. Unless he was with someone he really trusted who he didn't have to worry about that stuff with."
"What are you saying?" Hekapoo questioned, an uneasy edge growing in her tone.
"The last time you two hooked up was right before your game came to and end. " Janna stepped forwards. "Maybe you did something a little different, maybe you didn't want to let him go. Did you plan to get pregnant? Did you plan to have a little baby trap to keep Marco around? Maybe you planned to come in with a little bouncing baby and bring him back to you but the age thing with Seraph just didn't let things work out like you planned."
"Janna, Janna, Janna, Janna " Star spoke up, knowing Hekapoo's reputation. "No."
"No" Hekapoo said. She was enraged like Star expected, yet she also sounded sad. "I could never have planned for Seraph. If I had billion lifetimes I couldn't have expected I would ever be so lucky as to have Seraph." Hekapoo eyes filled with tears. "I wanted to have Marco stay with me that night. I just wanted to spend the night with him because I knew he might leave. I didn't plan for us to make love but maybe I hoped we would. I've never felt so close or so safe or so happy as the times we're together. I just wanted to feel like that one more time if he did decide to leave. But no, we shouldn't be able to have a child together, but we did - and that's why Seraph is our miracle. I thought I got so lucky, that I got to have some piece of Marco with me, but even she was taken away."
Hekapoo sniffled, the tears sliding down from her face. She couldn't even try to lie to herself at this point.
"I didn't mean for Marco to miss that time with Seraph and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. You don't know how much it hurts knowing I can't be with my little miracle."
"Oh…" Brittney, who didn't even really care about Hekapoo, felt that.
Something deeply personal was ripped out of Hekapoo because of that room and was now exposed for all to witness.
"And what?" Janna replied, clearly not going to stop. "You think it makes things better?"
"Janna, stop!" Jackie stepped in. She was being vindictive, something she honestly never thought Janna would be.
"Stop?!" Janna yelled at her friend in surprise. "She's the girl that dragged Marco away for years! She's the reason you're still not dating Marco! Why aren't you grilling her?!"
Jackie's mouth began to move, "I'm scared to hear what she might say."
She hadn't expected that herself.
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Marco was fiddling with his phone. He had hoped they'd be able to go online and translate the plaque on the door to find out what they had to do. As far as he knew, they were doing the mind test and were expected to do a puzzle. There were three slots by the door and three matching, heavy stone tablets. Marco assumed they were the key to the door but had no idea what else to do. They could probably lift them but it would probably require something else, maybe something on the plaque they couldn't read.
But his phone didn't work.
He only thought about it because he had gone to Quest Buy to make a complaint about his wallet and while he was there, he got an upgrade for his phone. It allowed to make calls across dimensions, making him think about getting to talk to Hekapoo more easily. It was working - they managed to talk more often, mostly about when it would be good for her to visit Seraph. But sometimes, they ended up talking about their days. Marco actually had started to miss talking to her.
"Oh, girl you got me actin' so cray cray~"
Seraph played with her compact - something Marco picked up when he got his upgrade and paid for with some of the tournament winnings. He figured that Seraph should always be able to talk to her mother and he didn't want to use all of Star's mirror minutes again.
"Oh, it's just like Star's." StarFan pointed out. It was a lot like Star's, but Seraph's had a dragon breathing fire as a decal.
"Yeah, she showed me how to download songs onto it. I put a bunch of Love Sentence songs and then it suggested this band too."
"CRAY CRAY
You tell me that you won't be my ba-bay"
"I just can't find their new album."
"Uh, yeah, I don't think they will make a new one." StarFan pointed out. "The whole band went missing last year. Then their manager got arrested - rumors online say they're hiding, afraid that he'll come for them. Though I heard on a blog that someone saw them running in the forest somewhere in Oregon."
Marco thought about the puzzle. Since he couldn't translate the instructions and he feared the wrong answer might get them killed, he decided just to strong-arm them.
He stretched out his hand and with a flash of light a large key formed. He pointed it at the door and a long ray of light beamed out, hitting it.
There was a click and the door opened.
"Okay, it's cheating a little but it works." Marco mumbled to himself.
"Marco! You have a magic key?" Starfan looked on, confused.
"Yeah, that's a long story," Marco shrugged.
"I'll tell it." Seraph jumped up, lifting Starfan into her arms.
"Whoa! You don't have to carry me."
"Don't worry about it." Seraph gave her the compact. "Just control the music and I'll tell you the story about the key."
The trio walked onto the path and to the next leg of the test.
"Oh! Play some Love Sentence." Marco requested. "Play 'Too Little Too late!'"
StarFan fiddled with the compact.
Seraph began. "So there was this valley…"
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"Scared? Why should that stop you?" Janna told Jackie. "Why aren't you angry?! She took Marco!"
"He could have left and come back." Jackie told her. "He told me himself, she took him, but he decided to stay."
"And that makes it better? She took Marco and he changed, he's keeping secrets now. He has all those stories and secrets with her about being on in a guild together, about adventures and all sorts of things. Marco didn't even say they slept together until it came out that he had a daughter! What else could they be keeping secret? Marco might still be lying, he's not writing anything in his dairy anymore or anything."
"It sounds to me," Hekapoo noticed something "that you're more upset that you don't know everything about Marco anymore and I do."
"You think you know everything about Marco?" Janna sounded angry. "I've known him since pre-school. I know every secret he thinks no one knows about, I know the thoughts he doesn't want to admit are his, you didn't even know the name he wanted to give his baby girl that he came up with when he was ten."
"Yuki!" Both Hekapoo and Janna spoke at once.
"He thought it seemed cute." Hekapoo explained.
"That's when he got all into manga and anime," Janna added "because his karate classes reminded him of those fighting animes. He's a secret weebo."
"I know, he had a sword made into a katana just because of that." Hekapoo chuckled. "I thought the name was cute too." Hekapoo looked down. "But it means snow and I thought it was just too ironic, especially if she developed fire powers." Hekapoo wiped away her tears. "We spent so much time talking about his life on Earth and I really got to know him over time."
"If you knew Marco so well why didn't you know about me?" Jackie questioned - she asked without realizing "You got with Marco when we were dating."
Hekapoo hissed. "…I did know about you." She bit her tongue. "The first year he mentioned you a lot, you and his family and Star … around year four or five he just stopped. Some time after that me and Marco had an actual date. I didn't remember your name, how was I supposed to remember someone I never met? It had been years since Marco last mentioned you… I never even thought about you."
Jackie stared at her, not sure how she was feeling about it.
Janna spoke up "Are you really okay with this?"
"I'm not over him." Jackie admitted. "I'm trying to be cool about all this, but it's hard. I'm trying to be okay for him and for Seraph. But suddenly this guy I'm dating moved on and has a daughter. I get how it happened, I understand he had a lot more time in comparison, but it's so sudden for me. I really liked Marco - he's sweet and there aren't a lot of guys I have met that actually want to get to know the real me… I wanted him to be happy so I broke it off, but it hurts. He was always there and I took that for granted, and when I finally started to get to know him, everything changed." Jackie took a deep breath. "And I can't help but blame you for that." Jackie pointed at Hekapoo. "I just want you to think of that."
"Is that just so you?" Janna spat out focusing on Hekapoo. "You never think about consequences. You can drag someone away, do whatever you want, and just drop them back here when-"
"Let's get to the real issue here." Hekapoo grew tired of taking this from "Janna Ordonia,"
Janna's eyes widened as she heard her say her full name.
"Marco talked about all of you. My memory might not be the best, but if I try, I can remember things. Marco told me about your relationship - how you kept stealing his stuff and going through his diary and all about the flirting. He described it as a way for you to get a reaction out of him. He thought you needlessly teasing and playing pranks on him was for fun. But that's not it - the real reason you do it is because you like him and you can't just come out and say it."
"Of course I like him!" Janna yelled out, blinking as she didn't realize what she said for a moment. "No, that's not what I meant! I like him! No! I like Marco Diaz! No! I've liked Marco Diaz for years! Since I saw that cute pudgy baby face of his! Oh god!"
Janna started to panic as she covered her mouth.
"I knew it!" Brittney said out loud.
"We all kind of had the feeling." Jackie was forced to say to the room.
"Really?" Star was actually surprised by the revelation.
Janna was getting upset, clearly not having been ready to admit something like that out loud.
Jackie tried to stop Janna before she said anything else while glaring at Hekapoo, "Just don't make this worse."
"Worse?" Hekapoo shot back, not liking being accused. "I didn't mean to do anything. She's the one that started to grill me. I didn't want any of you here!"
Hekapoo has had enough and she couldn't hold it back anymore. "I just wanted to take Seraph on a quest with Marco! You have no idea how hard it is for me! I live every day knowing that one day I'll outlive my daughter! That I can't spend every day with her! She's going to live most of her life without me around!" Tears started to flow out of her eyes. "One day my daughter is going to die and I'm still going to be around. I hate that fact, yet I have to accept it. As long as she can have a long, happy life I can accept that, but is it too much for me to ask to be a part of that life even just a little? I'm fine with Marco taking care of her - I know she will be happy, but I want to be a part of her life as well. I just want to be in her memories, want her to look back on her life and have good memories made with both her parents. Is that really so much to ask for? Then I found the map and this quest I thought I could give her that, give her a glimpse of how me and Marco were like when we went on adventures together. To make some of those memories. Then you all started inviting yourselves to our family outing! I didn't say anything because I didn't want to be rude to her friends… but I just wanted it to be the three of us…." Hekapoo sobbed. "It's just not fair." She was far more powerful than all of them, but her voice broke and she sounded weak. "… it's just not fair…when Marco left." A sob. "I was alone again, and then I had this little miracle, and then I couldn't keep her. Now I'm just clinging to the rare moments we get together before they all run out… it's just not fair…"
The girls around her couldn't find any words of comfort or simply to break the silence. Hekapoo's bangs fell forwards, covering her eyes. They still heard her quiet sobs and saw the tears drop onto the floor.
The door opened wide for them.
"How?" Brittney asked.
Star realized it first. "Freely given." Star could barely whisper it. "Every other thing we said was forced out… no one asked Hekapoo about that truth - she just said it on her own."
Hekapoo wiped her tears away. "We never mention this."
No one made eye contact, they just silently agreed.
Slowly the group walked onto the path.
Jackie felt a hand on her shoulder stopping her.
Hekapoo couldn't look her in the eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take Marco away from you. I just never thought about it, or those he left behind. I just focus on what is before me and what happening in the present. It never even occurred to me that we might hurt someone. I never wanted that."
Before Jackie could say anything else, Hekapoo walked ahead of her.
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Marco and the girls waited for the others to arrive at the end.
There were 3 tests and Marco just ended up using the key to unlock the doors and had shrunk it and placed it in his pocket.
They were just waiting for the others to catch up.
The other had two more tests - one was a riddle that Hekapoo had heard the answer to ages ago, and the last one was shifting panels puzzle. They solved them mostly silently, none really ready to talk about anything.
"Hey!" Seraph greeted them brightly.
Hekapoo didn't hesitate to run up to Seraph and hug her, showering her with kisses.
"Mom!" Seraph fussed at the affection.
"I missed you." Hekapoo whispered.
Marco got up. "We've been waiting for you. We found the treasure room and we decided we should open it up together."
"Let's just get this over with." Brittney spoke what many of them thought.
Marco shrugged and pushed the last door open. They were greeted with a large room filled with all sorts of treasures - gold coins, jewels, artifacts and anything they could imagine being worth anything.
Hekapoo sensed her items and quickly reached for a black velvet box sitting on a pile of gold.
"Uh, can we have this?" Janna asked.
"Help yourselves." Hekapoo told them, "I really only wanted this."
"Ah, cool." Jackie picked up a pearl necklace that caught her eyes.
Janna snatched Marco's leather jacket and hat right off him, using them to carry the treasures and the whip to tie it all together.
Brittney started to grab as many coins as she could and stuff them into her pockets.
Starfan laughed as she swam in the gold coins. "Weeee! I'm a cartoon duck!"
Seraph smiled, placing a tiara on Starfan.
Star asked Hekapoo. "So what's so special about that box?"
Pulling it open, Hekapoo revealed inside the box lay several rings, each paired with another. Each gold ring had a wavy design on them that filled in with what looked to be melted gems.
Hekapoo picked up the gold and ruby ring. "You see this?"
"Yeah?" Star asked, just noting Marco picking up the pair to inspect behind Hekapoo's back.
Marco slid the ring on his finger, realizing it changed size to fit him perfectly.
Hekapoo held out the ring before Star. "These took me years to make. I got the idea after I saw this weird gem species."
"Gems?"
"Well, they were odd - not real bodies, just sort of projections. Also, really mean and attacked this world that was filled with minerals I used for stuff. They dropped ships that drained all the planet's resources. They eventually ruined the whole thing - I spent most the day trying to get the animals off the planet before it collapsed. I did end up fighting some of their foot soldiers and they did this thing. I noticed that they had an ability to fuse and get stronger and that got me thinking."
"What?"
"Why not try that? I made these rings to allow that to happen with non-projection beings. All you need is two people to put on the matching rings, like this." Hekapoo slid the finger on herself.
"Huh?" Marco felt like someone grabbed his hand and moved it towards Hekapoo, who mirrored his actions.
"Take them off!" Hekapoo yelled, trying to frantically remove her own ring.
They were both pulled in together and they merged into a flash of light.
The others tumbled backwards, unsure of what was happening.
Seraph being the first to react as the light faded away, "Mom? Dad?"
Standing before them was a different figure, neither Hekapoo or Marco. It was new individual with traits of both.
"Mom? Dad? Moms?… Progenitor?" Seraph questioned, "I don't know how you self-identify in this case."
The new person looked at their hands confused. They were taller than anyone else in the room, with a shapely figure but long thin arms. They had two eyes - one brown, one gold - that blinked as they looked around. She had short choppy red hair with two lightning bolt-like horns sticking out of it, her skin light brown. She wore a yellow dress that seemed to be made out of a hoodie, a red belt wrapped around her waist as the rest of the hoodie below it turned into a red skirt with a ragged hem, cut up end making it look like dancing embers. She wore a pair of flat brown heeled boots.
"Are you okay?" Star looked at her. "Ah, are you both there? Who's talking?"
"Star?" The voice was new, soft yet strong and so very confused.
"Star!" Marco's voice rang out.
"Star." Hekapoo's voice spoke.
"They're like Marco and Hekapoo together." StarFan noted, "Marcapoo."
Marcapoo stared at her hands, looking at her body for the first time. Everything felt new and odd.
"What's going on?" Marcapoo's voice spoke as she looked around.
"Marco, Marco, Marco!" Hekapoo's voice came out worried. "You need to listen, you need to focus, we have to take off the ring together-"
"Hekapoo!" Marco spoke, "Fire! So much fire! Alone!"
"You are not alone!" Hekapoo tried to sound reassuring, "I'm here, I'm right here. Listen! We have to do this together!"
"Together!" Marcapoo spoke up and they yanked the rings off their hands.
In another flash of light the pair fell apart, collapsing onto the floor as the rings fell between them.
Both of them were gasping for breath.
"Ah! Marco!" Hekapoo got up." Marco?"
Marco got up and looked at her. He was crying, his eyes streaming tears in a way that seemed like he'd never stop.
"Marco? It's okay, it's gonna be okay." Hekapoo was trying to be reassuring, "This whole thing can be very intense. You get an overview of someone, everything that made them who they are, their best and worst days … you basically look at someone's whole soul. I've had a lot of days to see. If you're not ready for it-"
Hekapoo was silenced as Marco hugged her tightly.
Hekapoo hugged back. "Okay."
No one spoke about this - what was there to say?
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A few minutes later everyone had packed up as much as they could carry in one go.
Hekapoo found a platform that was built right into the brickwork of the room, the crystal at its top.
"Okay, so it powers the whole test thing and keeps my rifts from working. "
"Can I have it too?" Janna asked, looking at the strange glowing gem.
"Yeah, sure, we just have to take it off first."
"Got it." Janna just yanked it off the platform.
Hekapoo stared at her in horror. "After we shut it down!"
The room began to shake and the tunnels they had come from started to collapse. "It was keeping everything together! This whole place was set up to collapse once it wasn't needed anymore!"
Then they heard something, the sound of rushing water.
"Uh," Marco gulped, "Isn't there a river somewhere near here?"
They all saw water rushing towards them.
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A rift formed right on the top floor of the Eiffel Tower
A powerful stream of water shot out of it, flooding the tower - luckily, at this hour, no one was on it. Hekapoo closed the rift, struggling against the water, and as it vanished the water flowed away, leaving them there.
The group was soaking wet, bits of their treasure scattered around them, most lost to the flooded tunnels and some lost with the water that rushed around them.
"That was fun!" Seraph cheered, being the first one to get back to her feet, "…wow."
The demi-human paused as something caught her attention. "That's beautiful."
She looked around at the view of the city of Paris, and all the lights it had to offer shone at her all at once. The others got to their feet and after a moment were just as taken by the view.
Marco hadn't intended to open the rift here but as he thought about where they were going to, he thought of this tower and sent them there just as the water hit.
He placed an arm around his daughter and smiled.
Soon the air was filled with the sound of sirens. "We should run, I think we triggered some sort of alarm."
And yes, they had.
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They opened another portal to the Diaz household, tossing as much of the treasure that was left into it and running before the cops showed up. Marco insisted on leaving some as well, having caused them some trouble and probably damaged the tower.
Marco got everyone some towels as they got home along with their things.
Brittney was the first to leave when her limo showed up, her servants carrying out her share of the treasure. While she was leaving she spoke "Diaz, don't think it's over. You still owe me a shopping trip!"
"Sure." Marco waved.
Jackie smiled at Marco. "Well, that was … something." She chuckled, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."
She filled her backpack with what she could carry and got on her board, skating away.
Janna could not carry everything she wanted. She grabbed a few tote bags from Marco's house and filled them, making sure the magical crystal was among her loot. She found she couldn't even drag all the treasure in the bag made from Marco's jacket.
"You can keep the rest!" Janna huffed, "Think of it as a tip."
Janna waddled away, carrying bags full of loot.
Marco worried about her back.
Starfan and Seraph exchanged numbers as they wanted to keep talking about bands later. She waved them goodbye as she carried a few handfuls of jewels.
Marco was left with a nice share which he was planning to save for the future.
"Here." Hekapoo handed Marco, Star and Seraph each a pair of rings. "Consider them a bonus."
"Your rings?" Star questioned them. She sensed a fair bit of magic in them.
"Maybe they'll be useful for you in the future. It's not like I don't have extra sets now." She stretched her arms. "I guess I better head home."
"Ah." Marco paused. "We were going to watch some movies. Do you want to stay?"
"Yeah, stay!" Star insisted. "I'm actually feeling really tired and Marco makes a lot of nachos to watch them with and without another person they'd go to waste. "
"You don't want to watch movies with us?" Seraph asked.
"No, but next time definitely. Just thinking of going to bed right now." Star smiled as she started to walk away.
She sighed - she took away a fun family trip for Hekapoo. The least she could do was give them a movie night.
"Okay, I guess it's just us for movie night." Marco stated. "I'll get started on the nachos."
"Sounds great." Hekapoo smiled.
"Oh, before I forget." Marco spoke up. "I had this idea."
"What?" Hekapoo questioned.
"I think we should take more trips together."
"Together?"
"I mean, for Seraph. We should show her the world, the whole multiverse. I mean, yeah, you two should both go on trips together, bond mother-daughter and I'll take her on trips by myself too, show her some of the cool stuff on Earth. Maybe take her back to Paris, show her the sights and museums and art. But maybe we should take her some-places together too, every once in a while."
Seraph looked at her parents, stars glimmering in her eyes.
"Well, I can't say that doesn't sound fun." Hekapoo agreed.
"Where can we go first?" Seraph asked eagerly.
"You start talking and I'll get some nachos going." Marco walked towards the kitchen.
Marco paused. When they fused, he got a glimpse at Hekapoo's soul and saw how lonely she was. It wasn't something new, it's gotten worse as of late but it wasn't new. She had been so alone for such long time that just a glimpse filled Marco with so much sorrow. If he could, he would try and balance it out. He'd try.
He wasn't sure what they were, but he was certain she was family. He wasn't willing to let her feel alone. He looked back, smiling as he saw Hekapoo talking to Seraph while continued to dry off her long hair.
0000
Star snuck down the stairs for her usual bowl of late night cereal. She spotted Seraph nuzzled between her parents, all three of them asleep on the couch as the movie kept playing. Marco had decided to show them the entire series of Indiana Jones movies and they kept playing after they fell asleep. Seraph was wearing the fedora - it was a little crumbled in between her horns, the leather jacket draped over her as a blanket.
Marco and Hekapoo held their daughter in their sleep.
Star couldn't help but think they looked happy. Star picked up their usual Friendship Thursday night blanket and pulled it over the trio.
She walked away silently. She, for all things, felt a little lucky. She hadn't blurted out her own feelings.
Author's Notes: Yeah, I don't actually have much to say. A fun little quest that let us get more insight into out characters. I felt that was pretty solid. Short and sweet. Uh, next arc is simple titled Wedding so look forwards to that. Okay, leave a review telling me what you think.