King: Hey. I just wanted to stop in here real quick with a reminder so as to avoid confusion. As established in the previous chapter, six individuals have been sent to six different realities. They were sent alone to find the pieces of Nova's memory. However, some familiar faces will make an appearance with the same name. To avoid loosing my mind trying to come up with constant adjectives, I just used the name for each. Keep this in mind as you read. Anyway, that out of the way, hope you enjoy.

/\

Tom stepped out of the portal and onto a familiar looking floor. He looked around to himself in the hall from the Blood Moon Ball. Not his proudest moment, but that's not important right now. Now, he had to find that memory shard thing and get back to Star. He sighed and made his way through the hall. His steps let out an echo through the empty hall and it felt off-putting. His eyes darted back and forth, half expecting something to jump him. He finally reached the exit and opened the doors to find an underworld very different from his own.

Unlike his burning hell-scape, this was a massive casino-like structure. It was honestly a little jarring. He walked passed demons of all kinds in uniforms: red vests over black shirts and black dress pants. It was something he didn't think he'd ever see. Sure… demons wore their suits or dresses to the Blood Moon Ball, but that was only once every 667 years. Demons were acting as dealers at card tables or dice rollers. The gamblers ran the gambit from Mewman to some monsters; which was another odd site. He felt so out of place.

"Hey! Triclops!"

Tom turned toward the shouting. It wasn't the first time he'd been called that, but he had enough of a handle on his anger not to blow up at the guy this time. His anger management has made serious strides thanks to Star, so he was able to keep his head together.

The person waving him down was a young woman in the same uniform as the other demons. Said uniform had its top two buttons unbuttoned showing off her cleavage, a clear diversionary tactic. She was trying to flag him down toward her empty card table. "Care to try your luck~?"

Tom looked around like he was looking for a better table. He knew he had to blend in with the people around him. He might be able to find out something as well… He shrugged and sat down at her table. "Sorry… first time in a place like this."

"Welcome~ Thanks for stopping by at my table. House'll give you a nice K for today to use at the table. Deal is, that you only make money if you make earn more than 1,000 in the game."

"I appreciate it. What's the game?"

"A favorite of the human realm, 21. Also called Black Jack. Face cards are all worth 10 and aces are worth either 1 or 11, depending on what you choose. You need to reach but not exceed a value of 21."

"Got it." After placing an ante, Tom was dealt his two cards and held them to his face. Two 10 cards.

The dealer had her own cards, one face up and the other face down. The card Tom could see was a 9. She placed her hand over the deck of cards to her side. "Now, if you have 21 you win the hand right now. If you have less, you can ask to draw a card to get closer to 21. During each, you can either raise your bet from the ante or decide to leave it as is."

Tom nodded. He didn't really care about the game. He just wanted to find that piece of memory and get back to his own reality and back to Star. Perhaps he could use this situation to help progress with that goal… He tossed a couple extra chips in as he spoke, "I'm actually here to find something. Have you seen or heard of anything that just felt… out of place? Possibly broken?"

The dealer matched his chips and thought for a moment. "I think the boss has…"

"Boss?"

"Yeah. The casino head. Real firecracker that one…"

"Where can I find them?"

"What?"

"This casino head… where can I find them?"

She looked at him suspiciously, "Why do you want to know?"

"The thing I'm looking for needs to be returned to it's home." He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell the whole truth about this.

"Uhm… Well, the boss will have you pulled in if you break something. Tends to… Hey!"

Tom stood up and started walking off.

"Where are you going?!"

"I would think that was obvious." Tom let the fire surround his body.

"Sir! Please don't…!"

Too late. Tom set fire to a good five card tables in an instant. He caused a small king's ransom in property damage before he was tackled by a pair of large demons in black jumpsuits. Tom was quickly cuffed and beat across the head to keep him from fighting back. The two, much larger demons (we're talking demons crossed with bodybuilding sharks large) dragged him across the floor and tossed him into a single chair in a room. He was forced to sit down, facing away from the room's entrance. Tom sat there for a while, starting to get over the headache those two behemoths gave him. He had plenty of time to right himself again, as they made him wait for a solid twenty minutes. His ears perked a bit when he heard the door open behind him.

"Well now. You've certainly made a mess, haven't you?"

The voice sounded familiar. Tom had to hold himself back from an outburst hearing that voice. It was Star's friend Janna, the human that ran his nerves to the ground only hours before. She walked into view and Tom was almost at a loss for words.

Unlike the human he had to deal with earlier, this Janna was a demonic being. She had a pale skin-tone similar to his own and three red eyes. She also dressed drastically different to the Janna he knew; wearing a solid black dress that reached down to her knees with a slit up her left thigh. She completed the look with long gloves and a pair of heels. She stood in front of him and folded her arms. "So, what's so important to see me that you decided to destroy my casino?" Before she could answer, she raised an eyebrow and knelt down to look him in the eyes. "Thomas?"

Tom was confused for a moment. "Um… No? Or… yes? I am Thomas Luciter. But I go by Tom. But how do you know me?"

She narrowed her eyes, studying him. After a while of silence, she stood back up. "I don't think I do. For one, the Tom I know is a human. But you're clearly demonic…"

"I could explain that, but I need you to promise you'll listen to the end and that you'll answer a question for me as well."

The demonic Janna smiled. "Deal." One explanation of events later, the demonic Janna thought in silence for a few minutes after. "Well… that's quite the story."

"Now it's my turn to ask a question."

"Yeah… yeah… sure. Whatever." She was still mulling over what he told her.

"Where can I find that memory shard."

Janna was brought back to the moment and turned toward him. "I do own what you're looking for… Always felt out of place, no matter what I did with it… However, I'm not going to just hand it over."

Tom let out an exasperated sigh. "Let me guess, I have to complete some task to earn it."

"If you want something, you have to give and/or risk something. That's how demons work. It's only fair."

"Alright. What do I have to do?"

"There's a few people who owe me quite a substantial amount of money, and you're going to collect from them or bring them in to pay their due."

"Fine. Let's just get this over with."

\/

Tom walked through a small town in Mewni. He had collected from two of his charges by this point. They were fairly simple; just a quick threat and they paid pretty quickly. Now he had to collect from two more, and it was there was one on that list he wasn't sure how he felt about. The first was just another name to him; some shmuck going by the name [King-Mac-11]. The one that tripped him up was [Marco Diaz]. Tom knew this wasn't the Marco he was familiar with, but it still felt odd. But if Tom wanted to get back sooner rather than later, he had to collect from this reality's Marco and get back to Star. Tom shook his head and took a deep breath.

He used a demonic portal system to find Marco, leading him to Earth. He arrived and started walking around the familiar town of Echo Creek. He half expected to find a normal, human Marco similar to the one he knew in his reality. He eventually found himself in front of the school he invited Star to the Blood Moon Ball and he first met Marco. Tom took a moment to take in the area. It all seemed so much like the one he'd seen a few times by now in his own reality. He'd almost believe he crossed back somehow.

Tom was jolted out of his thoughts when someone bumped into him from behind. The figure fell backward while Tom remained still. Tom turned around to be met with an all too familiar face: his own. This Tom, however, was very much human. He dressed in more casual clothing with a devil face pattern emblazoned on his t-shirt. The human Tom quickly realized what happened and scrambled to his feet, apologizing to the person he bumped into.

Tom didn't say anything as his human counterpart apologized. He didn't want to cause a scene for now. "Look, it's fine. I'm in a bit of a rush right now, so can you tell me where to find Marco Diaz?"

The human Tom, we'll call him Thomas, froze for a moment. "Why do you need to see Marco?"

Tom raised an eyebrow. "You know him?"

"Um… yeah. But that doesn't answer my question."

"I just need to ask him a couple questions. Hopefully, nothing more."

"Hopefully?"

"If things go too far south, I will have to deal with the situation."

The Thomas seemed to shrink a little at Tom's indirect threat, but still held his ground. Almost as though he wasn't really afraid of the demon. "So long as you promise not to go overboard with things… I guess…" He turned and started to walk off down the street.

Tom took this as a 'follow me' action and started to walk with him. They eventually arrived at the familiar Diaz household.

Thomas opened the door and shouted inside, "¡Despierta! ¡Tenemos compañía!" After a moment of silence, he walked in and shouted again. "Marco! You here?" Thomas walked to the side and sighed. "There you are…"

Lying on the couch was the familiar form of Marco Diaz. However, Tom couldn't help but notice a few differences. This Marco wore a white hoodie with an angelic design. This Marco also had a more laid-back appearance compared to the hyper-anxious and schedule centric Marco Tom was familiar with. This Marco shifted to look to Thomas. "Alright… alright… I'm up, Thomas…"

As the two stood next to each other, Tom noticed something else. The two seemed to be a sort of matching set. Thomas wore red and black with demonic patterns while Marco wore white, gold, and blue with angelic themes. They both had the same hair and eye colors to top it off. And Thomas's Spanish when they arrived… Oh! O-oh…

Marco noticed the demon Tom and placed a hand on Thomas's shoulder. "Thomas… I need to speak to our guest alone."

Thomas's eyes narrowed, but he nodded and walked off up the stairs.

Marco kept his attention on Tom, saying nothing for minutes on end.

Tom felt a little awkward in the silence and tried to break the ice a bit. "So… Thomas is… your brother?"

Marco folded his arms, remaining defensive. "Yeah… Fraternal twin."

"Cool…"

The awkward silence returned for a few more minutes before Marco spoke up. "This is a new low for Janna… Sending her collector and making him look like my brother…"

Tom scoffed hearing that. "No one made me look like anything. I'm Tom Luciter. I have a deal with Janna to get something I need. To get it, I need you to pay off your debt to her. Pay up and we can go our separate ways."

Marco glared at Tom for a solid minute in silence. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I drag you back to pay her. Look, you need to pay your dues. So, let's get this over with without violence. I don't want to have to hurt you."

"Funny." Marco held up his hand like it was a gun. "I was about to say the same thing." Marco's hand shot upward, as if he fired said finger gun. This was because he actually did fire the 'gun'. A small burst of energy slammed into Tom and sent him flying into the wall, cracking the surface. As Tom started to black out, Marco walked over and kicked the demon in the nose for good measure.

\/

Tom eventually came to again in a dark room, tied to a chair. "Starting to see a pattern here…"

Tom looked up to see Marco sitting backward on a chair, staring at him.

"Something wrong?"

"You tell me." Marco stood up and spun the chair around to sit in it normally, crossing his legs. "I make it a point to at least hear out the sob stories of Janna's collectors and why they were sent to track me down. So, start talking."

Tom was taken aback at this. "Are you sure you're Marco Diaz?"

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"No. You're just… not what I expected."

"I get that a lot…"

"I wasn't told anything when I got sent here. I was just told to collect whatever your debt is. Mind if I ask what it is? Seeing as you're so keen not to pay it."

Marco sighed seemed to relax a little. "Sure… Whatever. I'm supposed to work in Janna's little casino to pay off getting her help for Star during the Battle for Mewni…"

"Battle for Mewni?"

"Long story…"

"Okay…" Tom had an idea what the events could have been but didn't want to go down that road if he didn't have to.

"Point is, she never showed, and we had to deal things on our own. So, I don't owe her jack."

"She seems to think differently…"

"Let her. As far as I care, she can go to her grave unsatisfied for that bull…"

"If I may… You said she keeps sending more collectors, right?"

"What of it?"

"If this keeps up, your family might become targets…"

Marco leapt up from his chair and grabbed Tom's collar, pulling him and the chair off the ground. "Is that supposed to be a threat? Last I checked, I sent you into the wall with just my finger!"

"Calm down!" Something about Tom being on the receiving end of an angry outburst felt a bit odd… "Look, I just need to take you back and I get what I want. You can settle whatever your issue is with her in person. It'll get the collectors to stop before something happens."

Marco dropped the demon prince, still tied to that chair, back onto the ground. "Alright. You win. I'll follow you back to Janna. But if this is some kind of trap, I will rip your head off for this."

"Noted…"

\/

After being released from the chair and collecting the debt from that one shmuck, Tom returned to the demonic casino with Marco in tow. The two walked into the hellish house of greed and made their way passed the tables and to the office of the casino head, Janna. As they approached, Janna stood with her arms folded and a smug smile on her face.

She chuckled a little when they stopped in front of her. "About time~ My new right-hand man is finally here for his first day on the job."

Tom was the first of the two to speak. "I've delivered your debts. Now give me the memory shard."

Janna smiled. "True… Alright then… but…"

"No 'buts.' Memory shard. Now!" Tom was losing his patience after being tossed into a wall.

Janna lost her smug smile for a moment, instead having an annoyed look.

This was the point where Marco entered the conversation. "Might as well just tell him the truth. You had no intention of handing over what he wants."

Tom turned toward Marco. "What?"

"This is how she operates… If my story from before wasn't enough to give you a clue about her, she makes you pay while she does nothing but sit on her ass and laugh at you."

Janna snapped at that one. "I gave you the power to fight back against Toffee, didn't I?"

"Our deal was that 'you' would help us to save Mewni. Instead, you tried to sell off magical energy as some big thing when I learned it during the Battle to survive! Not from you!"

Tom stepped between the two before something happened. "Okay… let keep our heads together, shall we?" The irony of Tom Luciter of all people saying this was not lost on the demon prince. But he had a job to do and a girlfriend to return to. It was time to test his mediation training as a prince. "I have an idea… this is a casino, so why not play a game to decide this."

Marco stepped forward as Tom stretched out his hand to keep the angry human back, "Like hell I'll agree to that!"

Janna smirked, "I like the idea. If anything, it's the best way to fairly solve this without biases getting in the way."

Tom stepped in front of Marco, staring the demon Janna down. "Here's the deal… We'll play one hand of 21. If you win, Marco will have to fulfill his obligation at double the length."

"What the hell, Luciter?!" Marco failed to push passed the demon prince.

"However, if I win, you throw out his contract and hand over the memory shard you owe me. Deal?" Tom held his hand out toward the demon Janna, wanting to shake hands, a feint flame licking at his palm.

Janna laughed a little and shook Tom's hand. "Sounds like a plan to me."

They moved over toward one of the card tables. The gamblers fled away from the table as they approached. Tom sat down opposite Janna. "And to make this a bit more fair… I'll let you shuffle and I'll deal the cards."

Janna took the cards in hand and smiled. "If you insist." Janna started to shuffle the cards, occasionally hitting the sides of the deck onto the table to keep the cards together.

Marco grabbed Tom's collar and pulled him back a bit. "What the hell do you think you're trying to pull?"

Tom made Marco release his collar before fixing hi attire. "Trust me. I've got this."

"You better…"

The demon Janna placed the deck in front of Tom and sat back, smiling. "Ready to lose?"

Tom took the deck into his hand, "You seem sure of yourself." Tom handed out the cards one by one until they both had their two cards. Tom flipped his cards over revealing an ace and queen, both of hearts. "21. I win."

Janna looked like she nearly had a heart attack. She practically jumped up over the cards with a look of disbelief. "How?! You…! You had to have cheated!"

"I don't see how… It's more than possible for me to have these cards. Unless you have one of those cards in your hand… Or maybe… you were supposed to get these cards?"

Janna had a look of someone caught red handed.

Tom picked up the cards and looked at them as he talked. "I had a feeling you'd try to cheat the shuffle, setting yourself up to win. So, I cheated the draw." He took the deck in hand, tapping it with his thumb to remove the second card without touching the first.

Janna had a mix of emotions. She was angry to have been cheated, but also a little impressed she had been duped by something so simple but so brilliant. After a while, she started to laugh. "You really shouldn't have said anything… Since you cheated me, I don't have to uphold the deal!" This is where she expected one of the two to have an outburst, so he could throw them out, but Marco just stared on in confusion and Tom had a smug look on his face.

Confused, Janna followed Marco's sight to her right hand, which was starting to rise up on its own. She used her other hand to try to keep it down, only for it to overpower her own strength and continue on. Her traitorous hand raised to shoulder height and opened. As her hand opened, Marco's contract appeared floating above her open palm. Before she react again, the paper was up in smoke. Replacing it was a brilliant red gemstone shard, clearly a broken piece of a larger whole. She slowly held the shard toward Tom, who took the gem in hand. Once this was done, Janna's movements were her own again and she fell backward.

Her breath was shaky as she looked up toward Tom, "What the hell are you?"

Tom looked over the shard. "We had a deal… And a demon prince gets his due…" Tom would admit it was a big gamble. If Janna had been a higher rank of demon, she would have been able to reverse his deal. Thankfully, Tom was a very high rank, being a prince, and his deal was law to all of equal or lower rank among the demonic.

Marco, now free from his contract to Janna, looked toward the demonic dealer and looked with disgust. It was the face of someone that had what he wanted after so long, but still felt cheated somehow. Tom could see the emotional rollercoaster going on his head. An idea to lash out and beat the demon dealer into the ground. Then a moment of clarity where he starts to piece his freedom together in his mind. Finally, something of a look of pity; the idea that she wasn't worth his anger any more. Marco turned around, the angel wings on the back of his hoodie seeming to glow in the lights of the casino and walked out of the hellish gambling house.

Tom made his way back to the Blood Moon hall and to the portal to his home reality.