Notes: This is a long one. My longest chapter, Enjoy.
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Star's Room
Star had been enjoying Emilia's company once more, the two were in the midst of sharing a plentiful supply of pudding. The Princess was currently sat on her chair, leaning back with her feet on the desk – "Mmm, zis is shooo gooood." She cooed as another spoonful founds its way into her mouth. The maidservant was sat on the bed, legs crossed scooping the last remaining clumps from the bottom of the bowl.
"Sho Star…" *Gulp* "About that book you let me borrow, didn't you think it felt really cliché when Alex takes the arrow for Jibril?"
"'ou dought it was fliché?" Star had to take a moment to finish the current slurp of pudding, "I thought it was lovely! And when he picks her up in his arms after, ooooo! It's so cute!"
"It wasn't bad, however, I enjoyed David's parts more, just thinking about that hunk makes drool." Star simply wiggled her eyebrows toward the maid, at which, said maid blushed slightly and looked away. Star's teasing was cut short by the loud clanks of footsteps approaching her door.
"Hide!" Star whisper-shouted toward Emilia. Panicked, the servant looked for the simplest hiding spot, which just so happened to be under Star's bed. The Butterfly quickly jumped on top of the bed and pretended to be reading, that was when the monstrous shape of River took hold of the door's entirety. "Hello, father." Star politely greeted. The man looked around for a minute before smelling the pudding.
"Pudding? What are we stealing from the cafeteria now?!" The King asked looking down on the Princess.
"N-No father… It – It was a gift."
"A gift? From who?! You expect me to believe someone actually gives a damn about you in this castle?!" His anger flourished, "Let me make this clear Star, you are nothing but meaningless existence here." Emilia's hands clasped tightly, she was so close to getting out and beating the shit out of River; at least attempt to. "But that's not why I'm here. You'll be spending tonight in the dungeons, I can't afford to have you mess up your sister's results and ball—"
"But that's unfair, this is my ro—"
"WHAT?!" He burst forth, making his way over to Star with heavy thumps, Emilia was ready.
"My apologies, I'm sorry – I didn't mean it father—"
"KING!" He responded coldly; his hand started to quiver. Star looked down, preparing herself for another blow. "You think this is your room? This is simply a cage meant to house your… Disappointment."
"I'm s-sorry I didn't mean to insult you, I was just mentioning—"
*CREAK*
The floorboards, which haven't been maintained in a long time had eventually given slightly under Emilia's weight pushing down. Dread filled Star and Emilia – if she was caught under the bed, she'd probably be hung for treason or something ridiculous. "Yes, okay father!" Star tried her best to cover it up, "Whatever you say, I'll stay in the dungeons!"
"What was that?" He asked, fist still clenched.
"Must've just been an old board, you know how this castle is—"
"Don't lie to me."
…
The King began to make his way to the side of the bed, the drapes of the bedding hid the underneath from view until you pulled them up. A lump began to create a void in Star's throat, her spine was still paralysed from the fear of her father, she knew that she had to save Emilia but anything below her neck refused to move. COME ON… PLEASE, STOP HIM! She begged with herself, to which her legs responded by simply twitching. "OKAY!" She screamed in an outburst, his face returned to eye-level, "It's a mouse." She blurted without thinking, "I've been keeping a mouse as a friend." Thankfully River wasn't too suspicious of her actions. Needless to say, being as prideful as he is, the man would father save himself the action of having to kneel to look under the bed.
"Very well. I'll get the pest-extermination squad up here. Can't be having any of that filth lying around, you'd best be going down now. Bestn't you?" It was more of a threat than a question. Star humbly nodded and tip-tapped her way out the room quickly, River was soon to follow. Once the coast was clear, Emilia let out a large sigh of relief.
Matthew & Ophelia
Matthew stirred; he was exhausted from last night. His body ached, not to mention his hand – which was still covered in bandages thanks to Kelly's surprise attack. When his eyes fluttered open, they were staring into the back of a pink-haired girl, some of the pink strands had glued themselves to his face. He pulled the Princess in closer; this awoke her. "Hmm?" She asked, nuzzling herself further into his neck.
"I think it's time we get up." Matthew noted, looking at the brightness it seemed to be around 10 am, "Things will get suspicious if you're missing for too long."
"I could get out… Or I could sit here a little longer." Where she said 'sit', the girl pushed herself further into his lower regions, granting a slight moan from the teen.
"No matter how much I love the sound of it, I think we should save ourselves until later."
The girl sighed and pushed herself away, sitting up to give Matthew a better view of her top region. "I'll never get bored of that." He commented.
"I'll make sure you do." She said with a smirk before standing up and getting to the bathroom, after waiting a little bit Matthew himself drove himself out of bed and got changed before heading out back to his room, careful to avoid any watchful eyes as he made his way there. The Princess' were housed on the same floor. As he was making his way to the stairs, a small clank could be heard from Star's door. Oh shit. He thought before looking around for a place to hide, there was not enough time to find any place good and so the door opened to a servant-ess creeping outside.
"Matt?!" She exclaimed, surprised to find him on the royal floor.
"hi." He sheepishly replied.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, he only rubbed his hands together.
"I got lost."
"Don't try that shit with me." She pointed at him with an unconvinced gaze.
"I went to see Ophelia to try and talk things through with her, she's having none of it though." It wasn't a total lie.
"Oh yeah?" She asked, "And tell me, did this talk involve you two in a bed?" Matthew didn't have a way to respond, he held his breath and looked around, a little embarrassed. "You know what forget it, I don't want to know. You keep me being here a secret, and I keep you fucking the Princess a secret, Deal?" Emilia wasn't really in the mood to mince her words before he had the chance to retort she was already making her way down the stairs. Now for the potion.
Dungeon – 10:40 A.M.
Star's father had brought her down, made sure that she made it to the dungeon. Once at the doorway, he simply commanded her to go down and the officer would show her into the prison. Not as different from my room. She thought as the girl made her way down the steep stone stairs. She could hear whimpering coming from one of the cells but before she could get a good look the guard came over. "Miss, this way please." They approached the cell of the curious sounds, as Star passed it, she saw what seemed to be a ball of green in the corner, panting heavily but shallow breaths. The light was too dim in the cell to get a good view, the candles only lit the guard's path.
"Hey!" She cried, "you alright?" No response came, the guard became a little more forceful.
"Miss, we encourage you not to speak with other prisoners. This way." The guard now took her hand and dragged her toward the neighbouring cell, there was a stone wall between the two cells and so communication seemed almost impossible. "In here please." The cell's bars were rusted, there appeared to be a little bit of dried blood on a couple of the bars – hell knows what happened here. The Butterfly knew she didn't have a chance of escape, the guard was on-guard constantly.
After the door had been closed and the guard left back toward his desk, Star began to look for an escape. Dad can get stuffed if he thinks I'm gonna sit here waiting. A determined look paved her face and with that resolve, she inspected the inside of the cage. After a minute she found a small crack in the wall that led to the neighbouring cell, it was a few inches wide and on a couple of inches high, maybe enough for a cheek of a person to be seen. Star took a peek and spotted the ball of clothing on the other side of the cell. "Psst." She whispered, a slight movement in acknowledgement was seen, "It's gonna be okay. Come here, can you? Can you move? What'd they do?" It took a while, but eventually, the ball of matter looked towards Star – it was still too dark to make any faces. No verbal response came but the ball unfolded and began to wiggle its way slowly toward Star. Only a few inches at a time, with plenty of breaths in between.
Roughly 10 minutes later the adjacent prisoner wormed their way to the gap, "Come on, give me your hand." Star asked, wiggling her digits through the gap, attempting to give comfort. The spread-out person took a while but the hand of the target eventually moved and clasped Star's hand. The victim's hands were cold, but still sweaty as if they're in a constant state of pain. "What happened?" Star asked once more. No response, only pants. "Don't worry, we'll get out soon. I know it!"
"Kelly!" Came a whispery voice from out the cells. Kelly? "It's time for your medication." The opposing cellmate began to worm violently, breathing even harder.
"nnnn…." It cried, making noise violently from within but unable to form words.
"Stop!" Star begged. The man had entered Kelly's cell along with 2 guards. "I said stop!" She shrieked, hoping to get them off – to no avail though.
"Please miss, you'll be next if you don't quit it." The doc replied coldly before shifting Kelly's head to expose her neck, to which Kelly only internally screamed more. A few seconds later and the prisoner was on the floor again, completely motionless but breathing hard. It seemed to be even more shallow than previously. "We're done here," Jeremy said as he looked towards the guards and the 3 of them left.
"Kelly?" Star asked, "Listen, I know you've… Done stuff. But listen, I'm here for you! We're going to get out of here, just hold on! Don't give up."
"h…urt…s…" The girl writhed out before returning to her action. She was a few feet away from Star now, they dragged her back into the middle of the room to get enough light.
"I'm right here." Star confided, "I'm not leaving you – just hang on… Marco will be here soon."
Kitchen - 10:50 AM
The kitchen would be busy all-day preparing food for the ball, it wouldn't be too hard for her to slip in and nab a few things. The door swung open, what seemed like a million chefs: Whisked, Sliced and Baked in unison, a perfect culinary harmony. To be frank, it was impressive the amount of precision that each chef put into their work, Emilia slipped through the onslaught of food to find what she needed. Luckily everything had been labelled up for her, it took around 15 minutes to grab everything she needed. When questioned as to why she was in the kitchen, her simple response was "My Chosen would like it." The Chefs weren't bold enough to question the wishes of a temporary noble and so went about their business as usual.
After acquiring the needed ingredients, she returned to Glossaryck's library to concoct the sleeping agent. Glossaryck's liked to meddle in botany so he had a mortar and pestle in one of his many draws. A wicked smile crept on Emilia's face just thinking about how fun this was going to be, the guards never really got on with the servants – they were always stuck up about certain places you could or couldn't go. A real pain in the ass.
Tavern – 1 P.M.
"Do'ya got those swords yet?" Dash called out for Tess.
"You wanna carry these?" Came a voice back from the shed they used to store weapons and necessities.
"Nah I'm a'ight thanks."
"You guys finished up yet?" Came Susan's voice from inside the Tavern.
"Nearly there, keep yer panties on woman."
Back inside the Tavern, Marco and Tom had been revising the plan for going into the castle and the rest of the crew were making sure that everything was going to go smoothly getting to the castle, securing the pathways and such. They couldn't use the road that usually led from the town to the castle as all the noble guests would've been travelling along there and the last thing they needed was to run into some of them.
"Marco… Do you think this will work?"
"Getting butterflies are we Tom?" Marco asked, a little teasingly.
"…"
"Yeah… It will, it has to."
"Don't you think this plan relies on too much? What if there are too many guards? Then what?"
"If there is… I don't know… But I can tell you that this is the best chance we'll get: Ever. After today, the castle won't be this defenceless for a long time, it has to be now. Is there a better plan we could've come up with? Probably. Now isn't the time for wishful thinking, we have to do this, for everyone we love and will love. The King's oppression is over: Today."
He himself is the spark which will light the fire that burns the monarchy to the ground.
"… Wow, you really have a way with words, don't you?" Marco only nervously chuckled and sheepishly scratched his head before returning to the documents. "I didn't know you for long Marco Diaz, but if this is my last day; I want to tell you that you're a really solid guy."
"Thanks, Tom. You too."
7 P.M.
It was time to set off.
The Taverneers packed their weapons, decorated themselves in masks and wished their families the best. "I wanna go!" Sam complained, to which Susan picked her up and hugged her before looking into her eyes. "Sweetie, I've got to go for a little bit but don't worry, Margaret from down the street will look after you until I get back. I love you, and that's why I won't let you come. It's too dangerous."
"But I've got big and strong now!" The girl complained, "I've grown up so I can help!"
A tear began to well up in Susan's eye, "No dear. You've got to stay here, promise me that. Pinky promise you'll stay here."
Sam's lips began to wobble, "Okay… Okay but come back, auntie!"
Susie smiled before leaving with, "I will." And just like that, the group were off to the castle.
8:25 P.M.
The group walked slightly slower than Marco and Star did on their first trip down to town so they arrived a little later than Marco originally expected, but it was fine as the timings allowed for it. They all waited at the back entrance, on the way up they saw a plentiful amount of carriages drawing nobles from all across Mewni: House of Dale, House of Timmings, House of Montorno etc. All the Chosen's families were invited along with a few others e.g. high-ranking merchants.
8:30 P.M. – Castle Guards
"Hello?" Called a familiar servant's voice holding a tray of tea.
"Hey." Replied one of the guards, they were stood up overlooking the entrance.
"I've brought refreshments." The guards looked a little confused at first, slightly suspicious at the offer, "The King's orders, we're supposed to bring tea to all the guards as thanks on this glorious day of the Choosing." A decent enough lie to convince the guards to partake in the thirst-quenching beverage. "Well, I've got other people to see, see you later!" Emilia called back before stepping down the stairs, a smirk on her face. She waited at the bottom of the stairs for about 15 minutes. It took that long for the mixture to worm its way through the guards' system.
Once she was sure they were knocked out, the maid returned to the top of the overlook and pushed the release mechanism for the bridge, with a monstrous thud it hit the soft muddy ground and opened the path straight to the castle's heart. Great. Thought Marco before giving the nod that it was time.
At 8:45 P.M. The Siege commenced.
"Marco, you and Tom go for the Princess, the rest of us will storm the ballroom," Susan commanded before splitting off with the rest of the group, Dash gave a cheeky wink before drawing his sword. Emilia reached the bottom of the lookout and shouted for Marco.
"Star's in the dungeon!" Marco was already running away and didn't have time to question it, although it did kind of piss him off that River would pull that kind of shit while he was gone, I hope she's okay. Now… Where the f*** is the dungeon?
Marco assumed the stairs would lead to it if they went down but he didn't know for certain. That was when a singular guard arose from a set of stairs, Tom and Marco exchanged a look at they ran, agreeing on a strategy the guard wasn't even sure what hit him before he was on the floor and held down by a couple of very intimidating teens in masks. "Where's the dungeon?" Marco interrogated the guard as he pushed a blade against the guard's throat.
"down the stairs." The guard choked out before Tom whacked him unconscious.
"Yo Marco that was smooth—"
"Oh my God I know!—"
"as fuck!"
"Did you see that?! I was all like 'Where's the dungeons?'" He pronounced the question in a very masculine voice, one which he did not do whilst interrogating the guard.
At the end of the day, they really were two idiot boys.
Dungeon – 8:49 P.M.
The metal door opened with a huge swing, letting light pour into the cellblock. "STAR BUTTERFLY!" Marco shouted, "GRAB YOUR COAT!" Before the doors closed and the light ceased, surrounding the room in darkness again. The fuck? The guard thought as he stood up to go inspect the intruder, after turning onto the stairs he noticed the intruders, his sword was too large to unsheathe in this large space and he only fumbled when trying to do so. That was when Tom kneed the guard in the head and he tipped back onto the ground. "Aghh.." The guard complained as he cradled his head, the metal helmet really shook up his brain.
At the announcement of her saviour, Star stood up and reached for the bars to the cell – banging them and shouting, "OVER HERE MARCO!" Once she signalled him, the boy came running for the cell. Keys.
"Tom throw me those keys!" Marco shouted back, Tom checked his surroundings for them but couldn't find them on the desk, "Check his pockets!" 'Ah, there we go' Thought Tom as he ripped out the large ring of keys, 'Oh dear.'
"Have fun, Marco!" He shouted back along with throwing the keys.
"Oh…" Marco said as he began to try every key, there were at least 50. It took about 10 tries thankfully before the door opened up. "Okay let's go!" Marco said as he grabbed Star by the wrist and began to leave.
"Wait! We need to rescue her too!" Star pointed to her opposing jail buddy, Marco looked over and grabbed a candle to ignite the air around the cell.
"Kelly?" Marco asked, "After what she did?"
"Marco Diaz!" Star said in a commanding tone, "Open that door." Kelly was still motionless, her breath was becoming a little more normal now, after a few hours it seemed to wear off a lot. But she was still panting heavily, she'd been like this for nearly 2 days. A horrible existence.
"Ugh fine." He said before shifting through keys, this time it took about 35 tries before getting the right key. "Okay Kelly come on!" He shouted but she didn't move.
"She can't Marco, they injected her with some drug and she can't move."
"Really?! Fine!" He submitted, "Tom come help me carry this girl out."
"I didn't sign up for becoming a robin hood."
"Just grab her!" Marco replied before the 4 made there way back up the stairs towards the ballroom.
Ball Room – 9:01 P.M.
The quartet finally made their way to the room but when they approached the door, something was off. There wasn't any sound of the Taverneers inside. Marco peeked through the door, eyes becoming wide and a tightness in his chest only comparable to what Kelly must feel.
The rebellion was… On their knees, and each with a sword pointed at their throats. Tom was next to look as he was curious what had Marco looked so terrified when he saw what was going on – it took Marco everything he had to stop the teen from charging in to save his friends.
Ball Room – 8:49 P.M.
The group burst through the door, "KING!" Susan shouted, "We've come here to-… Wait…" There was nobody in the room, an empty ballroom that had the throne chairs empty.
Dash was the next to speak, "Did we get the wrong room?"
"No. You didn't." Ophelia's voiced boomed down from the balcony above, "It's just that I'm more well informed that you thought." She said before presenting Markus to the audience.
"You little shit." Dash spat.
"This isn't what I meant, I only came to try and save everyone, you – you were gonna get yourselves killed! I only came here because… I had to! To save you all."
"You've saved them alright." River's voice boomed from the other side, at that signal the doors closed and guards rushed in, surrounding the intruders. "You've saved them from ruling a country. Really, boy you are an idiot, saved them from death? Is that what little idea your stupid brain came up with? No, we're going to execute all of them. Thanks for the information though little one, I might give you a coin or two for this." After the guards had been brought in, the party guests were next… To presumably experience 'How King River deals with treason.' Alfonzo was among those guests when he saw the group his eyes scanned for Marco, it put him at ease to know that Marco wasn't there.
"I want all to bear witness!" Ophelia started. "When I'm Queen I'll accept nothing less than total submission, and if you're wondering what going against me results in. Let this be a lesson."
That was when Marco's group peered in through the door.
Al stepped out, "Your Majesties, with all due respect – is this not a little brutish? To execute people without first interrogating them? Or at the very least imprison them for trial?"
"Hmm…" 'Phe thought for a moment. Queen Moon was stood beside River, looking rather nervous at the outcome, she hadn't been able to see Star at all these past few days, only recently to hear she was in the dungeon. The Queen was fully aware of what monsters lurked down there. She didn't really think much of the intruders right now, her only worries were about Star. "Execute him too." She commanded, Matt looked rather displeased and tried to grab Ophelia's attention, despite not seeing eye to eye with Al anymore he couldn't overlook his murder.
From the shadows, "Tom take care of Star and Kelly. Get ready to bolt out if we need to."
"Wa-wha-"
That was the point at which Marco burst through the door, "STOP!" He commanded. The guards whipped around to see the newcomer; Ophelia only smirked. The Taverneers reared their heads around to look at the boy, Dashon had a warm smile towards the kid. Susan couldn't stop thinking about her niece.
"So that's where you were hiding." She applauded, "I didn't think you'd get here in time."
"You want me? Okay, have me, those people have nothing to do with this – it was only me!" Desperation laced his voice, "Al especially has done nothing wrong, I tried to get him in on this but he declined."
"So, you're saying he knew about an attempt at overthrowing and refused to tell the Crown? Seems pretty treasonous to me." Fuck.
"No, I only told him I was going to get back at you, not what I was planning."
"Regardless he still knew about something and refused to inform us…" She had a point. "Relax Marco, I'm not going to kill them."
"You're not?" He asked, still slightly on-edge.
"Oh God no, did you actually believe that?" She laughed, "Kill them."
"NO!" Marco cried.
"OPHELIA!" Matt shouted.
Tom could only scream into his clothes to stop any sound; he closed his eyes.
Emilia rejoined the party much earlier and was stood at the back, her hand covering her mouth which was agape at the thought of Al dying.
It was too late though; the blades had already found their victims, Al's heart had been pierced through, similarly, the rest of the group were punctured. Dashon gave one final look to Marco and mouthed "Good try kid." Susan couldn't stop tears and cried in agony before falling. The two brothers who were bakers fell onto each other; Tess screamed one final curse word before falling. It was over in a second, but it felt like an eternity. All the sound stopped for Marco; his heart throbbed in a pain he never thought he'd experience since his father. Emilia stood in the back and finally had enough – leaving the room and bawling into her hands before returning to see Ophelia's next command. At which point, she left, sprinting.
"Now get them," Ophelia commanded; the blood-stained guards proceeded to make a break for Marco. Being brought to his senses, his fight or flight took over and he ran, throwing the doors closed behind him he helped pick up Kelly and ran as fast he could, and he ran, not stopping for anything. Star's tears dropped onto the hard pebble floor. The guards had burst through the door and were following the team, they had to lose them. How? None of them could think right now. That was when another door opened to the guys left, Emilia?
"Get in." She shouted, leaving the door open. Once everyone was inside, she closed the door and pushed a bookshelf in front of it to stop them from getting in. It didn't do much as they began to hack away at the door, tenacious. "Go down here." She said, pointing to a shoot with a sign that read "Laundry shoot." Nobody had time to argue, Tom dropped first, then Star, then Kelly, they Marco and finally Emilia. Luckily, the guards' armour was too thick to fit through the shoot so once they actually got into the room they'd need to go and find them.
Marco was still in disbelief; he didn't think Ophelia would really go through with it. Why didn't Matt say anything earlier?
Once all of them landed on a soft padded pile of clothes, the team of 5 made a break for the exit, planning to escape through the front this time. The asynchronous repetition of footsteps kept most of them sane. Eventually, they reached the front and found a horse-drawn carriage, Emilia opened the door and pushed everyone in, she grabbed the reigns and took off down the mountain at top speed.
By the time the guards realised what had happened they were already outside the perimeter of the walls and making a break for the town. They had one last stop.
All the teens collapsed, Kelly was still unable to move very well but her senses were coming back – she heard what went on in the ballroom, despite not knowing anyone in there she still felt sad at the amount of death that ensued, they were good people. Dying for a just cause.
Star blamed herself for a lot of it, she's the rightful crown princess, she could've commanded them to stop over that bitch…
Marco & Tom felt guilty for not stopping Markus back when they caught him if they had done then maybe this could've been avoided.
Everyone was in a state of denial, Emilia's tears dried up to the winds, but a lingering pain was left in her chest. Everything she'd known for what seems like forever, gone. Her friends, her job, her home… Before Al went out, he had entrusted his notebook to her, all his final words – he wrote messages in there for Marco and others… Did he expect this outcome?
With a clip-clop the troop finally made it to the Tavern, Tom darted in. "Listen here sweetie, I know Susan said she'll be coming back and you should wait at Margaret's until then but I'm going to take care of you okay? Come on, let's go."
"But what if auntie comes back and I'm gone, where will she find me?"
"Don't worry, she'll find you, she always does right?"
"Yeah! She does." The girl said, "But what about my doll?"
"Quickly, quick quick quick!" Tom repeated as she rushed up the stairs, his chest seemed crushed by the conversation he knew he'd eventually have to have with her. The boy stood taking in the aroma, just a few days ago he was having a drinking game with Dash – that was the last one… Just yesterday he saw Susan pouring drinks to all the customers, Dave & Mike the bakers… But not anymore. He decided to grab some food for the road and carrots for the horses, it was the best he could do.
"I got it!" Sam said as she jumped down.
"Okay let's go!" Tom said as he pulled along the girl out of the building. "Goodbye." He whispered under his breath before jumping into the carriage, with that, Emilia pulled away – trying to get anywhere safer, out of the range of the dogs.
With those final thoughts, everyone drifted into a sleep – exhausted from everything. Tears were a common occurrence throughout the night, Marco woke up multiple times – still seeing their dying faces.
The Next Morning
Emilia had stopped the carriage in a clearing of the forest, she slept in the carriage too – it was fairly large. Albeit, packed when everyone was in there, but enough room for everyone to sleep.
It was about 8 A.M. when they all woke. Bags under their red eyes, and faces to match.
"What now?" Asked Star, looking around at the assortment of people they collected. Kelly's breathing had mostly recovered and so she was able to sit up properly now.
"I-… I don't know." Marco said.
The Story Will Continue.