allen Vth - Yeah I'll give Glossaryck some more description next time he appears. Alfonzo! Yes, I was originally going to have an OC there, but then I changed it to Tom - but then I changed it to Alfonzo because I wanted to share a parallel with the canon, Alfonzo hadn't been explored too much yet so I thought I could use it very much like an OC, and Tom has another part to play :P Not sure where he'll fit in yet though. Next, Ophelia isn't interested in the competition itself, you'll see a bit more of that here and I'll tell you a bit more in the notes at bottom. Finally, yeah... River has to be like this for the story to work, I don't like it but at the same time - it's different? I guess.

AchingHeart2011 - Thank you very much :) , 'Phelia definitely has some sort of infatuation with Marco & Alfonzo given the mystery that surrounds them as she wasn't able to find much info on them.

They didn't talk too much for the rest of Marco's stay, he was there to calm her down and make her feel safe more than anything. Whatever conversations they did have were fun though, Marco enjoyed them – she gave him a story about how Glossaryck had accidentally set fire to a whole section of the library when trying to cook his own secret pudding under his desk. The Diaz wasn't that infatuated with the story since he didn't know who this Glossaryck was, he enjoyed it because Star wore one of the biggest cheesy grins when getting to the part of Glossy's pudding. That in and of itself was enough for Marco to return a grin.

He knew that he should ask about the abuse, but he couldn't do that to her. His mind was telling him that he needed to get to the bottom of it and unravel the mystery, so he could do something, but his heart was screaming to just let her be at peace for this short hour.

After she finished her story on Glossaryck's pudding, Marco shared one of his stories on how a bird poked him in the eye and made him fall out of tree because he got too close to a nest. He fell in a very dirt pond, this had earned a giggle from the butterfly.

Seemingly, time had flown away, a loud bell echoed throughout the halls, signalling that it was time for Marco to leave. "Well… I'm off to die of boredom, wanna come with?" He asked while extending his left arm out.

Her hand moved towards his thoughtlessly, ready to accept but just before it reached it, she had to stop herself. A pained look flashed across her face for only a moment before she donned her old happy face again. "No… It's fine, don't worry – they aren't my kind of thing anyway." She wasn't convincing. Marco had to accept the excuse though and, so he began to make his way to the door, Star's feelings were rising exponentially with each passing step, she couldn't put a word on what she was feeling. Love? No. Pain? Maybe… Anger? Possibly. She was sure that she hadn't fallen for him, I mean it was an hour of talking and she was sure that he only stayed there in the first place because he saw her crying.

Was she angry at Ophelia for taking her new friend away?

Was she pained to see her friend taken away?

Or was it something else?

Marco's feelings weren't as volatile, he felt like he accomplished something today, he made someone's life just a little bit better and that was enough for him. Just wait until Mom hears this, I mean… I'll leave out the part of abuse and all.

Once he made it to the door, he softly opened it – the latch made a much less violent noise when it was released compared to River's closing of it. He stepped outside and looked back at Star once more who wore her famously bad, fake smile. Marco let out a sigh, What has that bastard done to her… Then, in one swift movement he gently closed the door behind him.

He left for his room once he had exited Star's, they were told that once the bell sounded their assistants would head towards the chosen's rooms to collect them. He entered his room, it wasn't unlocked, therefore Marco knew that Emilia had not been yet. But as with everything in this castle, that was her cue to knock on the door.

*Knock Knock* Marco had literally just walked in, how she made it from the stairs to his room in the time she had was anyone's guess. *Inhale… Exhale* He brushed his suit down, opened the door and was greeted with "Hello Sir! It is me, Emilia! I am here to take you to the ball." Just as excited as ever. She came in the room with a boom, instantly banishing any sort of depression that had taken control of the room.

"Hello, Emilia!" Marco put on his best impression of her, to which she was only more amused. "Let me just collect my things and we're good to go." He should've had this done beforehand, but due to staying with Star all the time, he hadn't prepared anything. He polished his shoes, combed his hair in a matter of seconds, threw on his suit jacket. And was ready to go, just before exiting the room however, Emilia grabbed him on the shoulder. He turned around with a questioning expression to which she grabbed his bow and levelled it out.

"Trust me, if there's one thing you don't want to do. It's to make one silly mistake that announces your working-class title to any other candidate."

"Uh… Thanks, I guess."

"No problem Sir, now should we?" Her open-palmed hand gestured towards the stairway, to which he simply nodded in response.

Ball Hall

It was amazing how fast the servants worked, banners were strung across the hall in all places. It had a warm light being emitted from several massive chandeliers – all of which contained a lot of candles. "Hey Emilia, did you help do this?"

"Yes I did Sir, I'm not just your P.A. you know." She replied casually with a wink.

Once inside Marco began to look for Alfonzo, a friendly face in all this would've been most helpful. It took him a minute to identify which person he was under this dim light. But once he found him, he told Emilia that he'd be fine from here on out and she can go rest or something.

The assistants were meant to stay with the candidates in case they needed anything. But, as she was Marco's personal assistant, he should be able to give her orders. She needed the rest more than Marco needed her right now.

It wasn't until Marco was only a few metres away when Alfonzo noticed his approach. "Hey Marco." He greeted in a quiet voice, musicians were playing so there wasn't a fear of being overheard. But the boy was paranoid.

"Hey Alfonzo." Marco casually replied, he didn't want to expose King River to Alfonzo yet, he still wasn't sure how much he could trust him. And wanted to keep that close to the chest for now, the less people that knew the better. "Any sign of the princess yet?"

"None so far, but the royal family is up there." Alfonzo responded with a slight nudge of his head towards the front of the room. Marco couldn't quite look at River the same as he did before, he never liked the royalty because of what they put all the working-class through. But he didn't think that the king was so terrible as to abuse his own daughter. Who knows if Moon is the same? Regardless, he had to be extremely cautious around the two from now on, if that's what they do to a blood-relative, who knows what they'll do to a stranger.

Star's Bedroom

After Star's feelings had calmed down a little, she thought that a warm bath might help so she drew one up. As the bath was drawing she wanted to write in her journal everything that had happened. She kept one because she wanted to keep a record of all the happiness in her life. To help get her through all the abuse, needless to say today's section held a majority of what Marco did for her.

The bath had finally finished after about 20 minutes, she let go of her clothing and dipped herself in the bath, slowly at first – allowing her body to adapt to the heat. A few sharp breaths, but eventually got herself fully submerged into the warm liquid.

'It happened again… How would he feel if I pushed and beat him? Would he feel pain or proudness?'

While lost in her thoughts the door of her room unlocked.

At this point Star had her ears underwater and so didn't hear it until she saw the silhouette of the bathroom door swing open, there was a curtain, so it blocked most of her view of the intruder. Immediately, she rose her head out. "Hello little butterfly." Cooed 'Phelia.

"Bitch." Star responded with venom phasing into her voice.

"Oh, is this how we're going to play? So be it. I have a ball to attend to anyway. A bunch of sheep in wolf clothing if you ask me. All no personality or strength, just sacks of money. Not like it concerns you anyway, I'll be taking all the towels in the room just so you can't interfere. Have a good night." She finished with a slight giggle at the end.

"Wait! No you can-" by this point it was already too late, while she was monologuing, Ophelia was collecting all the towels and clothing in the room, as soon as she was finished she headed for the door and left. The little butterfly didn't know what to do, she couldn't do anything.

She could remain in the warm bath, possibly start to get a cold from having her face in the cold air too long, or try and get out to her bed. Keep warm there, but she'd probably just wet the bedding and make herself even colder.

The royal family didn't see her as welcome in the castle and, so they did not allow for her own personal assistant, therefore she had no bell to ring. She was alone, in a cold room with no way to dry off.

'Someone help…'

Ball Room – 10 Minutes After Star's Predicament Started

The two friends were talking about their families when the large wooden doors opened, revealing Ophelia who was dressed in a pink dress, blue diamonds plastered along the bottom left part of the dress. Her hair was in a couple plats that ran along the back of her head, mimicking 2 halos overlapping and flowing down her back. The rest of her hair was simply drooping down her spine.

Needless to say, she drew the attention of every person in the room. King and Queen Butterfly were currently talking to 3 candidates. Something about the economical downfall of Pralf, their neighbouring kingdom and their plan to save them for a Public Relations stunt.

'Phelia was making eyes at everyone, whilst Marco's attention was diverted at first, she didn't keep his attention long. A moment later he started to look elsewhere around the hall, glancing at the other chosen, trying to get an idea on what kind of people they were based on how they acted.

'What does that idiot think he's doing? Does he not realise he's ignoring a goddess?' Her face didn't reveal her inner thoughts, instead she kept an innocent smile to cover up whatever kind of evil dwelled inside her heart.

She didn't go to her seat, instead she stopped just before the steps to her table were and spewed out another bullshit speech about how she's so excited to meet everyone and meet her future husband etc. It was quite annoying at this point for Marco, he had enough of that rehearsed, well-written, unsympathetic crap. It was all but confirmed for Marco at this point that something was wrong with her. "Alfonzo, what do you think of the princess?" He asked once the speech was over.

"My opinion remains the same as it was, something is wrong with her and I don't know what. She's too perfect, perfect hair, perfect clothing, perfect speeches… I think your escort – Pete, was it? – Was right to warn you about her." Marco let out a small 'hmmm' in agreement.

"What do we do to find out?" He asked, to which Alfonzo stared at him blankly with a worried look.

"Nothing!" He blurted, "I mean. We can't accuse the princess of anything, if we do we're basically broadcasting treason." He had a point, if this were a normal case they could go snooping around, worst case scenario they're arrested for trespassing. But this was royalty, even one slip up, one single mishap and they'd be hung for their crimes. Not to mention what they could do to Marco's family.

"Alright… I give up… Wanna get some food?" Marco asked, his voice changing to a more carefree one, there wasn't much point in agonising over it. The royal family were all here, together. Meaning that Star wouldn't be hurt for now at least.

Star's Room

'It's cold…' When Ophelia left, she turned off Star's heating. For most of the time the bath water remained warm and, so she hadn't felt the cold. But once it starts to get cold it really goes. 'Right. All I gotta do is get back to the front of the room and turn the heating on. It's fine.' Her thoughts led her to the conclusion that she'd have to run to the front door, turn the nozzle to allow the heating to come back. And get back in the bath before she freezes completely, the bath water was still lukewarm, but she wet her face earlier and so the cold atmosphere was accelerating the coldness on her face.

Star dived out the bath and tried to calmly - but quickly walk to the front door.

She got there!

It was a bit dark now, but she could still make out the switch, once flipped, a loud hum started to be generated above her ceiling. 'That's it!' All she had to do was get back to the bath now, by this point her entire body felt absurdly cold from the atmosphere so she hurried back.

But, she wasn't cautious enough.

The floor had been wet from her previous venture out to the switch and she made her fatal error, her foot had too much forward velocity that it glided across a little bit of water. Causing the rest of her body to fall backwards in reaction. Luckily, her head was still above the carpet surface of the room previously, so it didn't suffer any major damage compared to the rest of her spine which hit the tile floor with a massive *Thump*.

And yes, while the damage to her head wasn't severe, it was still a nasty bang to the head, enough to put her unconscious.

When she awoke she had no idea what time it was, her head was buzzing, and her core temperature had dropped dramatically. She assumed that maybe 15 minutes had past given the position of the moon change. 'argh… My head, a concussion? Crap…' Which leads on to her next predicament.

She had fixed the heating, but she now had a concussion – she could crawl to the bath and turn the hot water on… But who knows if she'd fall asleep in the bath and forget to turn it off, possibly drowning. Or, she could crawl to her bed and wet it all, likely resulting in hypothermia. She would get dry using other clothes if she could, but she didn't have many to use, and they were held in another room just across the hall.

'Bath.' Hypothermia would've caused major injury to her body, and would almost definitely be a possibility. She forced herself to her knees and shimmied over to the bath, which had dropped from a lukewarm to a slightly colder temperature now. The good news was that it woke her up a bit more, bad news was that it was colder. But warmer than having exposed skin to the air.

She fumbled around with her fingers for a little, trying her hardest to turn the hot tap on. A few tries later: She got it!

It took 3 minutes of it being on before the temperature was at a point where it was pleasurable to be in again. But she couldn't sit in a bath forever, turning the hot tap on every so often. She'd have to sleep eventually.

Plus, to make things worse, now that the bath was warmer, it did a good job at inviting subconsciousness to take over.

'No. Nope! I'm not gonna die here! Try it… I dare, you… just…'

…

…

It won.

Notes:

Ooooo! Cliffhanger, am I right? Oh well, it's only for a day until chap 5 comes out ;P

I like the way this is evolving very much so: Ophelia has a god complex, River is abusive and two-faced, Moon remains an enigma for the audience and Star has troubles facing up to her fears out of even more fear of her father. Marco doesn't know how to help her and (I) can't think of a way to expose River with safety.

Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing, it put a smile on my face even though it's only 2 people so far, but those two were very nice and constructive, left some good ideas for me to follow and I'm grateful :) .

Peace~

Tidbit: Might be a regular thing, who knows - anyhoo, when I was proof reading the 4th paragraph I ate a sandwich.