Episode:
6: Undaunted Eclipse
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Suspicious of Adam's behaviour, Star goes to great lengths to learn what he is hiding. Adam begins to feel the effects of exhaustion.

Everything was tranquil for a moment. The chirping of birds resounded through the windows, generating a symphony of serenity. Bright sunlight shone through the glass, painting the walls a bright, yellow hue. Outside into the city of dreams, one could clearly hear the sound of disgruntled pedestrians on busy street corners, along with the endless beeping and honking of cars on the urban roads. In this suburban area, traffic could not be considered busy. In fact, people around seldom had to worry about being run over to the extent that the axiom of "stop, look, listen" was largely forgotten – for better or for worse. However, the Doppler effect ensured that the distant, clumsy industrial zone far away still reached them within such a quiet residential area.

On such a lovely day, the bright sun or the fluffy clouds were not in his vision. Instead, he was looking at the bland ceiling hanging above him.

Of course, that was until something out of focus was suddenly thrown across his eyes, covering up some of the light that had shone on his face.

'Okay, what do you think of this one?'

Adam looked up from the couch to see a crudely humanoid small straw doll held above his face. He vaguely skimmed over its holistic details. He was lying on the sofa rather lazily, his body reaching from end to end. A certain occult-loving friend of his was sitting nonchalantly on his legs at the other end of the couch.

'Looks good to me, Janna,' the Mewman supposed, shrugging to himself. His nonchalant look dropped when he sat up slightly to inspect it closer. 'Wait a minute…' He pulled out a strand of dark brown hair. 'Whose hair is this?!'

'Marco's,' she answered casually, taking the doll from him.

'You stole some of Marco's hair?'

'Well, how else was it going to work?' She asked sarcastically, with a tone that was far too chill for the implication. Janna sat back on her couch with a whimsical smile on her face.

'How did you even get this?' He wondered bewilderedly.

'Wouldn't you like to know?' The girl teased, stabbing the shoulder of the doll with a needle. Adam chuckled.

'Never change, Janna,' he said humorously.

'One of my greatest strengths.'

Adam smiled and rested his head back on the couch. It was nice to get away from the castle now and again. With everyone seemingly on his back about his health earlier, he really needed a moment not to have to care about them. Janna always knew how to cheer him up, or at least distract him.

Currently, he was on Earth hanging out with the young Filipino-American at her house. By hanging out, of course, he was helping her with some voodoo supernatural stuff while consuming hordes of snacks. Such activities were commonplace when the two hung out.

Hanging out was helping move past the "getting to know one another" phase of their friendship.

Granted, Janna was a nonchalant person who, once she made friends, treated them how she treated all her other friends. However, Adam always felt like he wasn't putting in effort to understand who Janna was, only relying on knowledge of the Negative Multiverse Janna he'd known for far longer. (Although, by "far longer", he meant several months.) Not only that, but Adam wanted Janna to know him too, almost as if to justify why they should even be friends to begin with.

Last week they watched a movie called "Star Wars". Marco had mentioned it, once, saying it was one of the greatest movies of all time. He couldn't really disagree, since it was fun and rather interesting. The villain, Dark Vader (or was it Darth?), was exceptionally intimidating and mysterious. Adam was especially annoyed when he killed Ben Kenobi. At least Vader's favourite space base got blown up. True karma, right there.

Janna did get a little annoyed when he kept accusing Luke Skywalker of actually being a Mewman warlock, though. C'mon, the Force had to be magic.

'Oh, dude, I almost forgot,' the girl mentioned, prompting him to look over at her. She was leaning over the side of the couch, reaching for something.

'What?'

Janna drew back her hand to reveal a small turquoise book caked in dust. She blew on the cover, sending a wave of dust cascading off of it. It was a hard-cover book with an ornate, antique design on it. Reaching over, Adam spotted the title in the middle of the front cover.

'Keats: Poems Published in 1820,' he read, slightly confused. 'Who's Keats?'

'Seriously?' She gaped. 'Didn't the other me ever mention him?'

'No?' Adam replied, frowning.

'Pfft. Fake fan,' she scoffed, wiping some of the dust off the book's spine. 'Keats is only the best romantic poet ever!' Janna held the book close to her chest and sighed dreamily. 'Oh, he was amazing. And he died of tuberculosis when he was only twenty-five. So sad.'

'A romantic poet?' The Mewman quoted, confused by the concept. 'I didn't take you as the romantic type, Janna.'

'Not that type of romantic,' she practically groaned, though her voice was stoic. She set the book down beside her. 'Romantic poets were all about feelings and emotions. They liked talking about nature a lot, too. Escapism at its finest.'

'Janna?'

'What?'

'You're drooling.'

'Oh,' she muttered, wiping the saliva from her chin. 'Why don't I show you one of his poems?'

Adam gave a nod, not quite understanding her fascination with the poet. Janna opened the book and flicked to one of the pages. The title of the poem was, "Ode to a Nightingale".

'My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains,' Janna read, excitement creeping up in her voice. 'My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk…'

Adam listened to her read out the poem in its entirety. He could tell she was completely enthralled, given that she didn't even notice when he got up to get a drink. When he returned, Janna was still reading the poem, and Adam figured he'd just let her keep going. Admittedly, the Mewman couldn't really understand much of it, but he tried his best to listen. He knew Janna would appreciate it if he at least tried to demonstrate an interest in this "Keats" guy.

Romantic poems, which weren't actually about romance, were apparently very abstract. In fairness, he could see why Janna had such an interest in these things. Her penchant for the supernatural was a form of escapism for her, and she described Keats's works as thematically escapist.

Still, though, Adam couldn't find much interest in poetry.

He was sure it had its moments, and he liked the idea of deeper introspection, but all the metaphors just confused him. Poetry had a tendency to lead those who analysed it down a rabbit hole to the point where every word was saying something profound about society. There wasn't necessarily anything bad about that, but Adam wasn't going to spend an evening explaining or listening to the various inferences that could be made from Keats's work.

'That's great, Janna,' he said with the most sincerity he could conjure, as he sat down and rested his legs on the coffee table.

'It's my dream to meet John Keats!' She marvelled as the girl finished reading the poem. 'Oh, I wish I could meet him.' As Janna considered the thought, she slowly turned to look at the Mewman. Adam's eyes flickered away slightly uncomfortably.

'What?' He asked nervously.

'I don't suppose…you have a time-travel spell, or something?' The love-struck teenager wondered.

'No, I don't,' he answered with a snigger. 'That magic's beyond me, I'm afraid.'

'Oh,' she replied sadly, looking down at the book again. After a few seconds, her face lit up and she looked back at him again. 'Wait, I read your Book of Spells and –'

'You read my Book of Spells?!' Adam interrupted, his eyes widening in shock. 'Janna!'

'Relax, it's not like I'm gonna use any of those spells,' she dismissed, sitting back and relaxing her feet on his lap. 'Anyway, I read the book. Isn't there a…necromancy spell?'

'The Necromancy Summoning Spell, yeah…' Adam confirmed nervously, not liking where this was going.

'Well…would it work on Keats?' Janna suggested hopefully. The Mewman glared at her.

'Janna! I'm not going to resurrect Keats for you!' He snapped, suddenly jumping off the couch. Janna nearly fell off herself, when the legs that she called her seat were suddenly ripped out from under her. 'Have you ever tried bringing people back from the dead? The casting requirements are ridiculously complicated; you have to make a shrine and stuff! It's hard to get it right! And half the time the spell doesn't even work. Even when it does, it never actually resurrects the target. Either it brings them back as a ghost, or it just reanimates their bodies as a zombie. The dead like to stay dead, Janna. I'm not going to use necromancy to bring back some obsession of yours!'

By the time he'd finished his rant, Janna was just staring at him in shock. Obviously, she hadn't expected such an apoplectic outburst from him.

'Hey, Adam, are you alright?' The girl inquired caringly.

'Yes, I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that?' He protested, digging his fingers into his palms.

'Because you look really tired and angry all the time,' Janna answered candidly, putting a hand on his shoulder. 'I know I'm not exactly – y'know – the comforting type, but I'm here if you wanna talk. What's going on?'

'It's really nothing,' Adam lied, scratching the side of his jawline. 'I've been trying to get back home, but…no matter how hard I try I don't seem to be getting much closer to the answer.' He stifled a yawn and stretched his arms out.

'Dude, trust me, I get it,' Janna assured him. 'You gotta take a break every now and again. Your body's working overtime just to keep up.'

'Why do you think I decided to hang out with you?' The Mewman pointed out, a humorous smile on his face.

'Okay, good point,' she acknowledged. 'I just want to make sure everything's okay. You weren't this exhausted before.'

'I've been working harder,' Adam explained, shrugging his shoulders. He sat back down on the couch. 'Trust me, Janna. I'm okay.'

'Alright, whatever you say, man,' she backed off, putting her hands up in surrender. Janna looked down at the book on her lap. 'Well, maybe Keats can wait. Wanna watch Empire Strikes Back?'

'What's that?' He asked, frowning.

'It's the sequel to Star Wars,' she told him. Adam's face lit up at the mention of the movie.

'Ooh, sounds awesome!' He expressed, shuffling on the couch next to her.

'Oh, it is,' the Filipino assured, grabbing a hold of the TV remote on the coffee table.

A couple hours later, after the movie had concluded, Adam returned to Mewni. He claimed to Janna he had an errand to run, rattling off about check-ups with the Magic High Commission. Apparently, his anti-magic was unpredictable to the extent that MHC regularly got involved. Moon wanted to study him. She wasn't too concerned about that, unless Adam was lying again.

Again, of course. Janna knew he hadn't been truthful when he said he was fine. Something was definitely up with him, more so than usual. She just couldn't put her finger on it, exactly, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that his health was seriously declining.

When Adam left, she sat up on her couch.

'Did you get anything out of him?'

Janna sighed and looked up at the individual who had spoken. Star walked into the room, probably having just portalled to Earth.

'No, not really,' she answered her. 'He just said that he's been working hard to figure out a way home.'

'Really?' Star moped in disappointment, sinking down on the couch next to her. 'Couldn't you have tried a little harder to get something out of him?'

'If I did, he would have gotten suspicious, Star,' Janna pointed out exasperatedly. 'Look, you asked me to talk to him, I talked, and that's all he said. What more do you want from me?'

'It's just…something's up,' she told her. 'I'm worried that he's gonna collapse. I swear it's something he's doing in his spare time.'

'Well, how would you feel if you were ripped away from your home, Star?'

'Pretty lost.'

'Exactly,' the Filipino argued. 'Look, Star, if you really wanna know, why don't you just ask him?'

'Because he won't tell me!' The Butterfly Princess yelled. 'You're lucky, Janna – he isn't prejudiced against you. He was friends with the other you! Well, newsflash: evil me is evil! And I look like her! Look, I'm worried about him. Something isn't right. I thought maybe you would be able to get him to talk. You're the closest to him after all, without even trying!'

'Okay, I get it,' Janna said coolly, hoping to allow her to calm down. 'If you really do care, just talk to him. He's not completely unreasonable. When he sees that you just want to make sure he's okay, he'll more than likely listen. And if he doesn't: well, he'll have me to answer to.'

Star pursed her lips.

Truthfully, she already regretted yelling at her like that. Janna might have a point, after all. More than likely, the Filipino knew Adam better than she did. The two hung out frequently, which was the whole reason behind her asking him to talk to the guy. If she claimed that it was possible to convince Adam to open up, maybe it would be wise to listen to her.

'You know what? Maybe you're right!' Star declared, jumping up off the couch. 'Thanks, Janna!' She bent down and hugged her tightly, though Janna, for the most part, did not react.

'Whatever,' she shrugged off insincerely.

Mostly unreceptive to the response, Star transformed into her Full Butterfly form and, moments later, disappeared through a golden portal. Janna batted a disinterested eye up at the portal as it shut.

'Oh, yeah, she owes me now,' she commented idly.

Star arrived back on Mewni at a rapid pace, zipping through the castle with her golden translucent wings. She blasted through a poor servant carrying a stack of ceramic plates, causing them to be thrown out in opposite directions. Several of them smashed against the walls and shattered into a million pieces. Star wasn't paying attention, though.

As she flew past a door, she caught a glimpse of Moon staring out the door in her wake.

'Star!' She hollered after her. 'What have we said about flying in the castle?!'

Whether Star heard her, or simply did not care, was unclear. Moon figured it was probably the latter.

Star fluttered her wings at the end of the hallway, gently resting her feet on the ground. There was a flash of dazzling light, and she returned to her ordinary form. Today, she was wearing a peach-coloured dress and small white jacket.

She thought this was a particularly cute outfit. Marco would probably like it, too. Not that that was super important! Still, this was one of her favourites.

Star brushed away the thought as she marched towards Adam's room. He spotted the wooden door at the far end of the hallway, on the right. As she got closer to it, the Butterfly could've sworn she could hear the sound of music playing in the background.

As Star was about to kick open the door, she heard a voice accompanying the music. The tune was a catchy rhythm, one that Star found she liked a great deal. Confused, the magical princess opened the door a crack and peered inside.

Adam was sitting on the side of his bed with a guitar resting on his thigh. With one hand, he was strumming the notes, and the other moved up the neck to press against various frets. Not only that, but he was singing too.

'We get these rules to follow,' he sang quietly. 'That and this; these and those…no one knows.' Star hadn't heard this song before, but it was reminiscent of metal rock music that she faintly remembered Janna showing her once. [9] 'We get these pills to swallow; how they stick in your throat? Tastes like gold. Oh, what you do to me…no one knows.'

As much as the girl wished to prioritise the conversation she wanted with him above all else, Star did not have the heart to stop him. He was a decent singer; perhaps he'd spent a lot of time practicing this song. Either way, she was really enjoying his performance. After all, Star had never heard him play the guitar, only ever having vaguely noticed the guitar that sat in his bedroom 24/7.

'And I realise you're mine,' Adam continued in a higher inflection. 'Indeed a fool am I.' He then repeated the line, before humming a riff. 'I journey through the desert – of the mind with no hope…I follow. I drift along the ocean; dead lifeboats in the Sun…and come undone. Pleasantly caving in…I come undone.'

Star didn't know what to make of the song. It seemed so…sad and depressing. It was like a voice calling out its final musings before it died.

'And I realise you're mine…indeed a fool am I. And I realise you're mine…indeed a fool am I.'

A particularly epic guitar instrumental follow. It rose to a crescendo, repeating a similar rhythm until a pause. The music suddenly rose up again and a louder fortissimo occurred, the many notes and chords amalgamating together to a huge climax of epic proportions.

Just when Star thought the song was over, she heard the faint sound of a rhythm continuing despite it.

'Heaven smiles above me,' the Mewman sang quietly, before the rhythm got louder and returned to its original beat. 'What a gift, here below…but no one knows. The gift that you give to me…no one knows.'

After he finished that line, the beat began to repeat until the conclusion was reached. Desiring to add some flair, he strummed all the chords at once. The pleasant music echoed through the room, before deafening completely.

The silence was soon filled by the sound of applause. Star stepped into the room with a bright smile on her face.

Unfortunately, Adam did not share the same sentiment.

'Star!' He complained. 'Did you…hear all that?'

'Sorry, I couldn't help it,' she apologised. 'But wow, Adam, I didn't know you could sing and play.'

Adam looked embarrassed for a moment but otherwise nodded.

'Thanks,' he replied. 'Janna's the one who introduced me to this song. It's from Earth.'

'Er, which Janna?' Star inquired, frowning in uncertainty.

'Oh! Uh, my Janna,' he answered, looking down sadly for a moment. 'She, uh…she introduced me to a few things about Earth culture. We used to sing this song together.'

'Oh,' the princess realised, walking over to plop herself on the bed beside him. 'I'm sorry, Adam. I wouldn't have come in here if I knew this song was so personal to you.'

'It's okay,' he forgave. 'I wasn't exactly being quiet.'

'It was a good song,' the princess commented brightly. Adam fidgeted beside her.

'What can I do for you, Star?' He deadpanned, flattening his eyebrows. The girl immediately looked embarrassed.

'Er…I-I don't –'

'Star, you obviously came here for something,' Adam identified, folding his arms. 'What is it?'

Princess Butterfly shifted awkwardly beside him. She had hoped to find a better way to segue into the reason she was here. Unfortunately, the Mewman teen had easily caught her out. Now, he was staring at her, almost glaring – daring – her to tell her what she wanted.

'What's going on with you?' Star finally asked, allowing her voice to build in confidence. Adam opened his mouth to speak, but she stopped him. 'And don't just tell me you're fine. You're obviously not.'

'I don't know what you want me to say, Star,' the warlock admitted, shrugging his shoulders.

'How about the truth?' The princess suggested, the annoyed tone in her voice steadily rising. When Adam remained silent for the next few minutes, Star leapt up off the bed. 'Alright, you're coming with me.'

Adam's eyes widened.

'Wait wha–' he began, but she interrupted him by grabbing his arm and yanking him off the bed. Adam barely had time to react before Star morphed into her Full Butterfly form and threw him through a portal.

The Mewman managed to stick his hands out in time to break his fall against the grass. He heard Star landing gracefully on the ground beside him.

Looking up, Adam realised where he was. He was in one of the castle courtyards – one of the gardens where he commonly practiced magic with Star. Groaning, he jumped to his feet and turned to glare at Princess Butterfly.

Only to come face to face with a Solarian Blast from Star's direction.

Instructively, he threw up his hands, and a translucent purple forcefield formed from his fingertips. The barrier was able to somewhat absorb the blast, but Adam was still thrown back by the sheer force of the spell. The forcefield promptly shattered as the blast faded away.

Nonplussed, Adam landed on the ground with a painful thump. He groaned and began to get back up. He was really regretting having taught Star that spell.

'What the hell, Star?!' The teenager yelled, rubbing his back to quell the pain.

'If you're really okay, then fight me!' Star challenged, as she returned to her ordinary form. 'C'mon, this'll be a stalemate, won't it?'

Adam didn't answer verbally, other than a prompt groan of frustration at her persistence. Nonetheless, he agreed to the proposition with a reluctant nod.

'Crimson Comet!' Adam cried, hurtling a red fireball directly at her. The fireball was somewhat slower than usual, but it was still a satisfactory speed. When Star dodged it, he decided to step up his game. 'Crimson Comet Inferno!'

The spell summoned numerous fireballs in the air, flying towards his opponent one after the other. The warlock breathed heavily, feeling a weakness in his legs. Nonetheless, he continued to summon as many fireballs as possible that flew towards Star at diminishing speeds.

'Total Tidal Turmoil!' She responded, holding up her wand level with her eye-line.

Her wand glowed and spat out a huge wave of enchanted water. The water easily absorbed and extinguished all the flames Adam had summoned. Raising her wand, Star willed the water to fly upwards, before crashing towards Adam.

'Evaporation Matrix!' The Mewman cast, pointing his hand at the cascade of water. [10]

Instantly, the water bubbled and boiled with the introduced heat. It only took a few seconds before all of the liquid vaporized. Adam was spared from the blast of the tidal wave, but he keeled over and gulped in as much air as he could.

Unfortunately, he had no time to catch his breath. Star threw a series of spells at him at a rapid pace. His instincts kicked in and he dodged a few of them. Several of the spells were too fast to dodge, though, so Adam forced open portals to redirect the blasts. The more portals he opened, the more he felt like he was trying to rip excessively folded paper.

Breathing out hot breaths, Adam began to speak another offensive spell.

'Light of power, draw to me. Fill my wand with majesty. Flames that burn with mortal cold…a light sword form of blue-white gold!'

He generated the light sword quickly to cut through an incoming spell from Star. The Butterfly Princess was on him in an instant, barely giving him enough time to react. She locked blades with him using a yellow light sword of her own.

'Getting tired?' She taunted, pressing her weight against him. Adam's eyes flickered to her legs. He slid his blade up Star's and threw all the force he could into a kick to her knee.

Her sword immediately broke as she stumbled back and almost fell.

'No,' Adam replied breathlessly, before casting another spell. 'Chains of Captivity!'

Another spell he'd recently made.

Adam threw down multiple blue discs at Star's feet. Each of them shot out jagged bolts of energy that clung to her limbs. He watched as she struggled against their tensile strength.

'I said…I'm fine!' He persisted, as his light sword began to dissipate.

'I would disagree!' Star argued, before pulling against the shackles with as much strength as she could muster.

She managed to break them with a bright flash of magic. Adam squeezed his eyes shut and turned away from the bright light. As he turned back, he barely had time to dodge a blast of cupcakes from Star.

The fight progressed from there. Of course, Adam returned a few of his own spells. He was wary not to use any spells that Eclipsa had taught him, though. Star might recognise the magic as Dark and call him out on it.

Either way, he found himself becoming increasingly fatigued. His limbs were becoming sore. A mounting pain in his legs pooled at his feet, making it harder for him to stay on his feet. Every time he dodged a spell or followed his opponent, he could feel the soreness building up once again.

'Obscurus,' he whispered between breaths, throwing his hand down.

A magically magnified plume of smoke shot from his palm and hit the ground. The smoke began to expand until it covered a large area of the garden.

Now that he was out of sight, Adam bent over and tried to catch his breath. Admittedly, had the smoke not been magical, it would not have been intelligent to breathe it in. Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about that. None of this was really on his mind all too much, as he desperately fished for as much air as feasibly possible.

'Tornado Torpedo!' A voice exclaimed to his far right.

A strong gale of wind blew through the air in a continuous column. Instantaneously, nearly all the smoke was blasted away and the air was now semi-transparent. Adam looked up to see Star standing several meters away, pointing his wand at him.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, the Mewman tiredly held up a hand.

'Brutum…Fulmen,' he practically whispered.

A weak thunderbolt of lightning erupted from his hands striking Star where she stood. Or at least, it would have, had the Butterfly not held her wand tightly and conjured a pink forcefield around her. Rather easily, the forcefield absorbed the static electricity without sustaining so much as a blemish.

'Shooting Star Explosion!'

Pink blasts of energy propelled towards him at high speed. They were in the shapes of star-shaped prisms, glowing yellow at the end. They moved quickly towards him, or at least, it felt like they did to Adam. Nonetheless, the stars collided with him and exploded, throwing him backwards.

Slowly, the Mewman got back to his feet. Though his hands were shaking, he still managed to raise them again.

'Narwhal…Blast…' he said, panting for air. His palms faintly glowed in the shape of star marks.

Small, purple narwhals flew out of his hands. They didn't fly very far, not even close to hitting his opponent. Instead, they landed flat on the ground at the feet of a remarkably unimpressed Star.

Meanwhile, Star didn't even need to reply with a spell of her own. For that would be overkill.

'…Solarian…Blast…' he gasped out, wheezing unhealthily for every last bit of air he could drink up.

A wave of nausea overtook his entire body. He couldn't even summon impotent sparks at this point.

Heavy eyelids overtook his vision. Ubiquitous darkness consumed him as he felt himself fall to the ground. Adam tried desperately to move, to do something, but his body refused to obey him. He heard the faint cries of Star in the background, but he couldn't respond.

The period of time he spent unconscious was particularly drowsy to Adam, though he didn't have the mental agency to identify that. He vaguely felt himself being lifted and moved, but everything felt ethereal for him. It was like being stuck between reality and the world of dreams. Nothing felt quite…real.

Maybe Adam should have been used to it by now – collapsing under physical exertion.

By the time the Mewman came to, he was in a completely different place. He blinked a few times. A wave of drowsiness and disorientation washed over him as he tried to discern his surroundings.

Looking down, Adam found himself in a white linen bed, the covers set neatly over him. On either side of him were rows of identical beds. Directly opposite him was another row of beds, neatly ironed and freshly cleaned. Both rows of beds were empty, leaving him completely alone. In fact, it was nearly impossible to tell that anybody had even been in this room besides himself.

Next to him was a strange sachet of liquid attached to a metal pole. A few white wire-looking things ran from the sachet to his arm, attached to him with a strange sticker. This technology didn't seem Mewman in origin; it seemed more human in its cold, mechanical appearance.

Of course, by now it had transpired to Adam that he was currently in the medical bay of the Butterfly Castle.

Adam groaned and reached over to his arm. He instantly regretted the idea, though, as his whole body suddenly lit up with electricity. It felt like every one of his nerves was firing off all at once, like numerous explosions setting off without delay.

Nevertheless, he persisted. The warlock ripped off the stickers and discovered they concealed needles. Once the needles were removed, Adam collapsed back against the softness of the bed.

'Off in a hurry?'

He sighed upon recognition of the voice.

'Couldn't even if I wanted to,' the teenager replied indignantly, pivoting his head to look at the origin of the voice.

Star Butterfly walked down the aisle between the beds towards him. There was a particularly unimpressed crease in her brow that Adam did not fail to notice.

'Good. Then you'll listen,' she said slightly aggressively. 'Uh, sorry about the…IV…thingy. Mom said she couldn't heal "overexertion" with magic, so…' her voice trailed off as she gestured towards the IV fluid.

'Yeah, it's uh…fine,' Adam replied awkwardly.

Star sat down on the side of his bed with a loud sigh. She looked up at him with a sympathetic look in her eyes. Adam's eyes darted away for a moment.

'Adam,' the princess addressed caringly. 'You're not okay. You just collapsed from exhaustion. There's no point in denying it.' She shuffled around to face him. 'I'm asking because I care about you. So please just tell me what's wrong. I know something's up that you aren't telling me. I won't tell anyone, I promise.'

Adam looked down pensively.

Was there really much harm in telling her? It wasn't like Star would be able to do anything about it. Not to mention she had just promised that she wouldn't tell anyone. Then again, the Mewman took her promises mostly with a grain of salt. She changed her mind like the weather. Even so, Adam wasn't about to let the Butterfly Princess get in the way of his mission to get back home.

'I've been working with Eclipsa,' he finally told her.

'What?!' She screeched.

'Yes,' the Mewman responded flatly. 'I've been trying to figure out a way back home. Eclipsa's been helping me.'

'How could Eclipsa help you?' Star criticised.

'Her knowledge of Dark magic, obviously,' he answered matter-of-factly. 'Of all magic, actually. She's helped me explore more avenues.'

'That's not the whole truth, is it?' She immediately discerned, folding her arms disapprovingly. Adam shrugged, not attempting to deny it.

'She's been teaching me magic, too,' he revealed without a speck of remorse. 'That's why I've been so tired lately – I've been training with Eclipsa late at night in the basement of her tower.'

'Why did you keep this from me?' Star asked sadly. 'You know you can trust me, right?'

'Actually, I don't know that,' Adam refuted. 'And I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't approve, and then you'd go blabbing.'

'It was Dark Magic, wasn't it?' The princess deduced almost immediately.

'Yes!' He snapped. 'You got a problem with that?'

Star exhaled exasperatedly out her nose.

'I don't,' she admitted. 'But my mom certainly would!'

'Then don't tell her!' The Mewman yelled back. Star shrank back.

'Eh?'

'Moon has a stupid superstition towards Dark magic. Not to mention she really doesn't trust Eclipsa! You know how she'd react if she found out that Eclipsa was teaching me Dark Magic!'

'I know, I know,' the Butterfly mediated, putting her hands up in surrender. 'I don't like how she views Eclipsa and Dark magic either. I just don't want to lie to her.'

'You promised not to tell anyone,' the Mewman pointed out confidently. Star opened her mouth to protest, but after a few seconds, she shut it again.

'Dang it,' she cursed herself. 'Fine. I won't tell Mom about this.'

Adam breathed a sigh of relief.

'Thank y–'

'If you let me go with you,' she interrupted. 'I wanna see for myself what you're getting up to.'

'Star!' The teenager complained. 'I don't need you to hold my hand. I can handle this on my own, thank you very much.'

'Yep, sure,' she commented sarcastically, gesturing towards his worn-out state in the bed.

'You know I'm two years older than you, right?' Adam derided childishly, folding his arms. [11]

'If you don't let me come along, I'll tell Moon.'

He rolled his eyes at the threat. As much as he would believe Star wouldn't do that, he had already admitted that the girl could break her promises rather easily.

'Fine. I'll let you tag along.'

'Good,' she replied with a bright smile. The princess briefly scanned the teen in his medical bed. 'No training tonight, though.'

'Hold on, I didn't agree to that!'

'Adam, you still need to recuperate. You've barely gotten any sleep lately and you've been working nearly nonstop. Now's the time to take a break.'

'Okay, then,' he conceded disingenuously. 'I won't go tonight. I'll stay here.'

Star eyed him up and down with a sceptical frown. After a few moments, she retracted off the bed and nodded.

'Allllright then,' said the princess, unconvinced. She began pacing backwards, her critical eyes locked on Adam. It was as though she thought he'd simply disappear the moment she broke eye contact. 'I got my eye on you.' She ducked away out of the room, and Adam thought she was gone, but the girl's head reappeared one last time. 'My eye. On youuu.'

With that, the princess was gone.

Adam was confined to the Butterfly medical bay all afternoon, and was told to remain there until the next morning. Given that he wasn't seriously injured, Moon determined he'd only need to stay there for around twelve hours to recuperate. His complaints towards the concept weren't exactly quiet, but they fell on deaf ears. He had pushed himself too far and now he had to recover. It was an important lesson in not overworking yourself.

At least, that's how Star saw it.

She checked up on Adam frequently. Her good-natured side wanted to believe this was because she was worried about him. Unfortunately, her critical side disagreed. Star didn't think Adam would stay in bed; it didn't seem like him to want to stay in one place for extended periods of time.

When night fell, she found herself once again lying awake in her bed. The ceiling met her gaze with inflexible impassiveness. Not exactly the best talking partner, but it was functional.

She let out a pensive sigh.

'Why can't life just be…simple again?' The princess wondered.

Star longed for the days where she could be a young kid with no responsibilities to worry about. She could just play in the gardens or hang out with Pony Head and spend her days thinking about stuff that wasn't important but felt like they were. Times where she could have sleepovers, discuss their crushes, listen to bad boy music and give each other makeovers.

Now, Star focussed so much on being the best princess she could be that all those things were inevitably forgotten.

When was the last time she'd hung out with Pony Head? When had she recently paid her friendship with Marco much attention? The only time she seemed to get away was her dates with Tom. Was it bad that she prioritised that over the other aspects of her social life?

Probably. Maybe she should spend some time divvying up her timetable into something more reasonable.

Oh, who am I kidding? I'd just end up ignoring the timetable anyway.

Nonetheless, Star could see she was starting to lose sight of what it was like to be a teenager. Such was the fallacy of childhood. Children desire to be older and more independent; older people wish to be young again and without independence. If only people really knew what they wanted.

Adam was an anomaly.

He had this intense focus on what he wanted, so much so that he'd never let anyone get in the way. She didn't bother arguing with him over his training sessions with Eclipsa primarily because it wouldn't achieve anything. Whether she complained or not, Adam was going to do whatever he saw fit to achieve what he had set out to do. He didn't have many, if any, strings attached to this world, so it didn't matter to him if people got in his way. Adam would simply move them aside and carry on like nothing had happened.

The ends justified the means.

That's what Adam always said. As easy as it was for Star to write him off like that, she disagreed. If that were true, the Mewman would have completely dispensed with all morality and followed only his own self-interests. If he really had, then he wouldn't have taken her side against Red Glossaryck's prejudiced opinion of her. Even if he was finding it hard not to be discriminatory himself. He wouldn't have taken the effort to be better and fairer, or even care enough to try.

One thing she noticed about him was that Adam wasted little time on the materialistic things in life. Until he had first watched a movie with Janna, the guy did not understand the point in hanging out with friends. The closest thing he'd had to a friend in a long time was Janna from the Negative Multiverse.

Even then, Adam had said they only met when a common goal was involved. It was always to achieve something in his fight against the Dark Butterflies. It seemed as though everyone in the Negative Multiverse had their own ulterior motives.

She paused in her thought process. Abruptly, her mind turned a corner.

If Adam wasn't going to let anyone in his way, why did he agree to do as he was told? He had acquiesced and agreed to spend his time in bed. That seemed very out of character for him.

Star sat up in bed. Unless he wasn't going to do that!

Princess Butterfly shot out of her bed immediately. She didn't have the time or patience to change out of her night clothes. She also didn't have the energy to go Full Butterfly and open a portal directly to her destination.

She sprinted down the halls with reckless abandon. Her heart was beating fast and her legs already burned with lactic acid. Not that Star had particularly noticed.

The princess arrived at the medical bay at record speed. It was out of hours, so there were no visitors allowed. Not that she really cared. There weren't any nurses around to police her entry when she barged in.

The room was quiet and dark. The moonlight shone in through the windows and cast a light on the tiled floor. The air had a thick blue filter over it, like someone had thrown a pastel of blue watercolours over everything.

Star's eyes scanned the room for any occupants in the bed. Immediately, she spotted Adam's bed and sprinted over to it.

It was empty. The princess grabbed the covers and threw them up. Nobody was hiding inside. In a frail attempt, she even searched under and beside the bed just to see if Adam was somehow hiding there. Alas, he was not.

There was only one place Adam could be. It was rather obvious and the Mewman more than likely hadn't tried to hide his intention.

'Dammit!' She yelled, kicking the side of the bed in frustration. She felt an ounce of pain pulse in her toe, but the princess ignored it.

There were no words she could use to explain her fury right now. At the very least, Star should have seen this coming. What made her think Adam would actually do as he was told? All that mattered to him was the next mission. Nothing else.

With all this ire, she could honestly say she was fully woken up. Woken up enough to make an angry shortcut. So, in a gust of smoke, Star transformed into her Full Butterfly form and stomped her way through a golden portal.

Star arrived near the top of Eclipsa's tower. Fortunately, the guards didn't spot her as she flew directly down to the bottom to find the basement Adam had referred to. She wasted no time in her hurry, not even giving herself a second to cool off her mounting rage.

As the Butterfly Princess was about to barge into the room when she felt a strange shiver run up her back. Confused, Star took a few steps back and frowned at their air in front of her. She probably wouldn't have detected it had it not been for her instinctive magical connection to Adam.

Star reached forward and touched the air in front of it. As soon as her hand made contact, the air itself began to ripple like water waves. Looking around, the princess could see the shape of a dome rippling, passing through the stone wall beside her. A barrier, of some kind.

She vaguely remembered her mother telling her something about runes. Runes tended to have an epicentre through which barriers such as this were generated from. One thing Star unfortunately didn't remember was how to remove runes.

'Uh…Super Spell Deactivate!' She yelled, pointing her hands at the air. Unfortunately, she was only able to summon a few magical sparks. That was all she could muster, and the rune remained active regardless.

Perhaps runes had some complicated ritual she had to carry out in order to remove them. The caster had no difficulty in removing them, of course. However, it was apparent to Star that, by design, it was harder for other people to remove a rune. Not that the Butterfly was thinking about this all very critically at the moment. Instead, she groaned, allowing her golden form to wash away. She stomped through the bubble and towards the wooden door across the hall.

As she got closer to the door, she heard some voices from within.

'So what do you think?' A voice asked – Adam, she recognised. The strain in his voice was obvious.

'Well, I have to say it's…unconventional,' a feminine voice responded. Eclipsa, of course. 'I've never heard of a spell like that before.'

'To be fair, I doubt most Butterflies needed it,' Adam pointed out. 'How often was it that you'd be short of magical power?'

'Actually, quite often,' Eclipsa claimed with a hint of offense to the question. 'We can't do everything, you know. No matter how hard you try, some things even magic can't solve.'

'I didn't mean it like that,' Adam said hastily, evidently realising the offense he had caused.

'I know, dear,' the Queen of Darkness reassured him. 'What I was trying to explain was that…this kind of magic is alien to me.'

'I'm sorry, what?'

'I've never heard of it before because nobody has ever done it before,' the former Queen of Mewni explained. 'Natural magic users don't need to consider such intricate details. Most spells we create simply require thought.' She hummed in discontent. 'And this is not even taking into account the danger of this spell.'

'All powerful spells have a price,' he argued. 'I don't see another solution. From what I can tell, opening a portal between multiverses requires an insane amount of magical energy.'

'I don't know much about travelling between multiverses, but it must require a high consumption of mana,' Eclipsa elucidated in a pensive tone. 'And a lot of focus. The most challenging part would have to be creating a dimensional bridge between the two. That's complicated magic not even I can do. The size and shape of the bridge would also be important, not to mention the event horizon of the portals. And how do you control exactly where the portal leads?'

'I get it. It's really hard.'

'Hard, but not impossible, my dear. If you can open a portal between dimensions, then it stands to reason that you can open portals between multiverses. It's the same physics.'

'Yeah, you're right. Thanks Eclipsa.'

'You're very welcome. Now, shall we get back to training?'

By this time, Star had decided she had heard enough. Her mind dispensed her thoughts of all else but her intensely focussed frustration on the situation. She threw open the door and stormed in.

'Actually, I think you're done for the day,' she announced, glaring at Adam.

'Star!' He practically yelped, his eyes widening. 'Uh. Hi.'

'Oh, hello dear,' Eclipsa greeted with a bright smile. 'Come to train with Adam?'

'What? No!' The princess yelled angrily. Adam must've told Eclipsa that Star knew about their training sessions. 'Adam, you promised you wouldn't sneak out tonight!'

'I never promised you anything,' he pointed out with a hardening scowl.

'You said you wouldn't go!'

'I know,' the warlock retorted condescendingly. 'I lied.'

'Why did you say that?' Eclipsa questioned sceptically. 'And why lie?'

'You didn't tell her what happened, did you?' Star figured out, her eyes narrowing tauntingly at the teen. Adam remained silent, briefly glancing at Eclipsa. She sighed and turned to the Queen of Darkness. 'Adam collapsed from exhaustion earlier. He was told to stay in bed until tomorrow.'

'I beg your pardon!' Eclipsa gawked, her jaw dropping to the floor. 'Adam, is this true?'

The Mewman stared guiltily at the ground for a solid few moments before answering.

'Yes.'

'I can't believe you lied to me!' Star boomed. 'Actually, I can believe that! That's the kind of person you are, isn't it?'

'I have to get home, Star!' Adam argued. 'I can't even stop for a breath because if I do, that chance might just slip away. If I'm not powerful enough to beat the Butterflies, then I will die. So yes, I lied. Because I have to keep going until I'm where I need to be. I don't have the luxury of time for this.'

'You have tons of time!' The princess argued, folding her arms. 'There's no rush! The bad guys aren't going anywhere!'

'The longer I wait, the more powerful they get. I can't afford to waste any time.'

'You don't know if that's true.'

'Actually, I do. Don't you get it? It –'

'Both of you need to calm down,' Eclipsa interrupted, stepping in between them. 'Adam, while I admire your drive, sometimes you have to take a moment to breathe. I understand your urgency, but you're not going to get home any faster by working yourself so hard you collapse.'

Adam opened his mouth to argue, but Eclipsa spoke first.

'I understand – I honestly do. You feel trapped here and you want nothing more than to go home and do what you've devoted your life to doing. You must take things one step at a time. It won't happen overnight. All you're doing is worsening your mental wellbeing. I won't stand here and watch you destroy yourself like this.'

The Mewman sighed. As much as he hated it, he couldn't argue with the logic. It was undoubtedly getting harder and harder to cast magic now that he was constantly feeling exhausted. The fight with Star had proven this had taken too much of a toll on him. How did he expect to be able to take on Dark Star if he could barely stay awake?

It was stupid to even think that opening a portal back home was possible in the state he was in. Nor would he be able to cast the Seal of Arybailos. The whole thing was predicated on his mental state, and he had been neglecting that as of late.

'Fine,' he gave up. 'You're right. I need to take a break.'

'I believe you owe someone an apology, my dear,' Eclipsa prompted, raising an eyebrow at him. Reluctantly, Adam turned to Star.

'I'm sorry for lying to you, Star,' he apologised sincerely.

'Apology accepted,' the Butterfly responded ebulliently. Adam sighed and sat down. Star frowned. 'You should go back to bed now, Adam.'

'I'm busy,' he breathed.

'Not tonight, you aren't!' Eclipsa scoffed in a shrill voice. 'You think you can collapse and expect me to want to help you?'

'But, Eclipsa –'

'No. I'm putting my foot down, my dear. Get some rest. Once you have recuperated, I will resume helping you.'

Adam opened his mouth to object, but the Queen of Darkness silenced him with a raise of her hand. She then merely pointed out the door and folded her arms.

'Can you take down this rune, too?' Star asked, looking around the room for evidence of the invisible bubble. 'What is it, anyway?'

'It's the Total Silencing Spell,' Adam replied, folding his arms. 'I made it because some peace and quiet is hard to come by.'

Star frowned.

'If you can't hear anything outside of it, how do you know if someone's coming?'

'I didn't design it for stealth,' he explained with a mildly offended tone.

'It would seem like a useful application,' Eclipsa chipped in with an intrigued hum.

'I'd have to modify it,' the Mewman claimed, shrugging.

'Another time,' Eclipsa insisted.

Adam reached out his hands, which began to softly glow purple. He then incanted, 'Muffliato.'

As soon as he spoke the incantation for the spell, the rune began to collapse around them. It began once the area of effect became a visibly translucent dome, as a silvery hole formed in the top centre. The hole expanded until the walls of the rune were brought down completely, marking the removal of the rune Adam had cast.

Taking the cue, the princess transformed back into her Full Butterfly form with a dazzling golden light. In one swift motion, she grabbed Adam and threw him through a portal onto his bed in the medical wing of the castle. He groaned and looked up at the closing portal. Star was floating above him, her two large butterfly wings beating elegantly.

'Don't even try to go back,' she warned.

'What would be the point?' Adam argued, not especially feeling like having this conversation right now.

'Exactly,' the princess said, before disappearing through another portal, no doubt back to her bedroom.

[9] In case you were wondering, this song is "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age. I love this song! More importantly, though, I think it fits with Adam's character.

[10] Wow, it's been way too long before I've had Adam use this spell!

[11] In this story, Adam is seventeen and Star is fifteen.

Wow, a long chapter and some character development to boot.

I quite like this chapter. Not to sound narcissistic, that is. Adam playing his guitar for the first time was something I'm glad I included, since it was implied in Chapter 1 that he had some musical skill (the guitar in his room).

Adam and Janna had some wholesome moments in this chapter. Sure, Janna's goal was slightly deceptive - but she only had his best interests at heart. Plus, she was being a good friend both to Adam for being concerned and to Star for helping her and providing some advice. She was partially wrong about Adam just opening up after one talk, though - Adam only opened up when the obviousness of his exhaustion was presented flatly to him when he collapsed. It's not like Adam is too concerned about Star knowing, anyway, he'd just rather keep it under wraps as much as possible. Currently, though, as he spends more time with Eclipsa, he's becoming less concerned about hiding his affinity for Dark magic. Hence why he so readily admitted using it.

I've toyed with the idea of making Janna and Adam a couple many times. Writing the two of them is really fun, because I think it's nice and wholesome - especially considering how dark this story can be sometimes. However, at the moment, I'm inconclusive about making them more than friends, or sticking to my original plan of Adam being asexual/aromantic. I have a lot of concerns about the idea.

For one, I'm not sure how relevant their romance would be to the plot, anyway. This story doesn't revolve around romance, obviously; it's mostly in the background. I'm not sure how well it would really contribute to the story other than character development for Adam. Plus, Janna deserves more than just being rendered the love interest.

The second concern I have is the meaningfulness of that relationship. Given how this story is written, it's pretty clear that Adam is going to go home eventually. His goal is to end the Dark Butterflies. Once that's complete, he won't have much reason to stay behind (other than attachment) and would rather go back home and fix the world (not his current character motivation, but that's where I'm working towards).

The third concern is more doubting myself, more than anything else. I don't think I could accurately and effectively write a romance sub-plot that isn't mostly in the background (like Marco and Star). If I'm gonna include it, then I figure it should be good, otherwise it's pointless. Bad romance is cringe. I hate reading it so I shouldn't force my viewers to read it.

Let me know what you think of this idea. I'd like to hear your opinions!

Other things to talk about: I'm considering envisioning a sequel to this story. I have several ideas for how this story could advance beyond this one, actually.

I've thought about rewriting some of season 4 to include Adam - mainly the ending, because the ending sucked. Adam would be HUGELY against destroying magic. The idea would then be that the ending changes, and we essentially get a Season 5 of SVTFOE, with Adam in it. Not sure. The idea I had for this is that Adam will come up with an alternative solution to the Mina problem, and essentially help save the day.

Another idea I had was more of a one-shot. Following on from the idea of magic NOT being destroyed, I'd do a short story thirty years in the future. The plot would revolve around Skylar Butterfly - the daughter of Star - being really bad at magic and not being able to pick up even the most basic of things. Star would try to teach her, but would fail because Skylar has a very low affinity for magic. Not unlike a certain black-haired warlock, eh? The idea is she'd then go to Adam to train...and that's all I got so far.

I'm not focussing much on this idea, only speculating it. I haven't finished writing THIS story yet, after all! Just a thought, really.

The Seal of Arybailos got another namedrop in this chapter. If you can't tell already, that's the plot of the next episode. I can't say much else as I only have so many characters left.

Anyways, thanks for reading!