The place was dark , even the slightest sound they made would bounces between walls , rather than a tunnel it looked more like a cave with almost no end to it .
"It's kinda hard to breath here, man I never wish to be here again" Marco walked in front of Kelly but still keeping close distance with her while they tried to look for any clue about Star whereabout
"Why? ... of course I know why nobody wanted to come back here ... but still, what happened before when you visited this place with Star ?" Kelly questioned Marco's odd adventure
"Instead of 'visiting', I'd rather call it 'found it by accident', and ... the whole story is just kind of weird to be honest, I better keep it to myself . But I'll tell you one thing about what we will face on" Marco stopped his movement and turned his head facing Kelly , he put a serious face and she also did the same
"It's a robot, but not an ordinary robot . It has a ... some kind of brain or what I would called Artificial Intelligence . This robot was created to contain or ... to secure the so-called 'heaven' in this place. Me and Star was adventuring to every dimension with almost no goal, and by accident she heard this 'heaven' where she thought it's a warnicorn island. I was dragged into this dimension by Star ... even after the countless warning I told her. The robot I mentioned ..." Marco wanted to explain even further but Kelly stopped his words
"Wait, wait, wait !" she pointed her finger and closed her eyes over the weird information she just heard "What is this so-called heaven ?"
"It's actually a made-up reality simulation built-in triggered with limitless possibilities to overcome ..." Marco said something Kelly didn't understand
"English, please" Kelly demanded
"Sorry ... basically it's a device where you can literally make anything you ever wanted, but it's not real, like a dream" Marco rephrased his explanation
"Woah, sounds cool. I want to try it "
"Yeah, but I just said it, it's fake, and it'll make you cry how sad it is to return to reality leaving your dream all along"
"Oh" Kelly excitement slowly turned to sad expression "But then why would Star wanted to come back here ?"
"The dream can also be shared and experienced by multiple people, so I'm guessing Star wanted to show Tom something exciting but it turned out to be ... well you know the rest" Marco turned his body back to their destination "Anyway, the robot can go anywhere as long as it is in this underground site, it mostly reacted through hearing or computer order so that's why we walk slowly to avoid it. We need to go to the control room which supposedly around here somewhere so I can turn it back off"
"You mean this ?" Kelly tapped Marco shoulder and pointed her finger toward the door sign right beside them
"Oh yeah, all right let's go in, but keep you footsteps as silent as possible"
"Got it" Kelly opened the door and Marco entered first . The room was much more brighter than the hallway
"Star, are you here ?" Marco hold his voice low and overheard a sound under a desk, there Star and Tom crawling out slowly. Before he could say anything, Star jumped and hug Marco really hard, and he also did the same. They hugged for quite some time until Tom stepped in
cough, I don't want to interrupt you guys heartbreaking reunion ... even if you meet each other every day. But we have a much more serious thing to handle" Tom said it with irritated feeling, clearly visible on his face
"Oh yeah, right" Star free her grip and took a step back "Sooooo ... Marco, could you turn the thing back down before it finds us" she said that while still feeling a little awkward over what she just did
"Ehmmm, yeah, where's the command control again ?" he looked around "Oh here it is" he found it and quickly typed a shut-down line in the monitor to neutralize the robot but something went wrong
FAILED TO TURN OFF THE CABINET MAINFRAME SECURITY SYSTEM
A PROBLEM HAS OCCURED . UNEXPECTED DISTURBANCE IS DETECTED
SEARCHING FOR POSSIBLE THREAT NOW
"Uh oh, not good" suddenly the lights goes off and on, loud emergency alarm can also be heard "We better get out of here, NOW !" Marco and the panic group ran out of the room
When they were back at the hallway, a humanoid robot can be seen at the far edge from their sight and when it saw them, it chased them
"COME HERE, I'LL GIVE YOU A PRESENT FOR YOUR KINDNESS TO TURN ME BACK ON" it gave them an order
"Oh man, RUN !" They run without hesitation to the opposite direction of the robot to avoid it. Their speed out-matched the robot, they realized their distance with the thing became shorter.
"What are we gonna do !? Run or we fight ?" Kelly screamed while frightened
"I think we should fight that thing" Tom threw a fireball to it but it did nothing , the fire simply disappeared "WHAT !?"
"That thing can hold itself from any kind of magic ... or anything !" Star explained it with hysteria on her voice "MARCO !, QUICK DECISION !"
"Ehh, ehm, wait, the dimensional scissor ! How can I be so dumb ?!" He raised the tool and make a rift in the air "QUICK, into the portal !" the group entered it without hesitation and Marco closed the portal again right before the robot could reach it
They returned to Star bedroom, sound of relieve poured onto their voice. They all sat down on the floor after the tiring run except for Marco
"That was really close !" Kelly said something the other teens wanted to express
"Yeah, like really close !" Tom agreed
"Thank goodness, it's done" Star also agreed "Thanks Marco" she express her gratitude and the other two nod in agreement
"Your welcome, but..." Marco walked to Star "Could you please STOP making a MESS , could you?!" He snap over his anger "I'm worried about you ! And if things keep going like this, I can't even take my day-off seriously knowing you're always in trouble every 10 seconds. I..I..arggh" Marco walked back and left Star's room in furious feeling
"Wait, Marco !" Marco didn't look back "What did I do wrong ?"
"I'm sorry Star, I agree with him, why do want to make trouble if you know you can't fix it ?" Kelly stood up "I'm going to find him. Star?" she watched Star looking down to the floor
"... what ?" she didn't want to look at her eyes
"Rather than him, I believe it should be you the one who takes a break" Kelly also walked out of the room leaving only Star and Tom
"Ehm, Star ? Can we talk about something ? It's important" Tom closed his distance with her "It's about you"
"What about me ?"
"Right until just now, it seems like you're trying to invite Marco with us"
"Isn't it normal ?"
"Your intention IS normal, but not the way you did it"
"What do you mean"
"Before the robot dimension, you know we visited lots of other dimensions just now, remember ?" Tom asked and Star nod "And ... I don't know if you realize it or not, but you DID try to find any kind of trouble you may can get"
"Wait Tom but that's ..." before Star could say anything any further Tom cut her speech
"Let me finish first. To be honest, I don't find any trouble in it, I mean I like being wild once in a while, making a mess or something like that. But what you did is not something for fun, every time we invite trouble you already picked up your phone ready to call someone but when we settle the problem ... instead of being happy, you were sad, like you just lost a perfect opportunity"
"What're you trying to imply ?"
"What I want to say is, I think you just subconsciously tried to find something ... or anything to force Marco saving you. I mean you just hugged him today like you haven't seen him for a decade. What you want is not having a date with me but rather your ordinary adventure day with Marco, right ?"
"I...I don't... do I... I don't know"
"Look, I don't want to be the bad person you once assumed I am ... well yes I was but ... the point is I don't want to be the only one happy here, cause who is in front of me right now is not the stuff-crashing Star I once knew. And if me being your boyfriend made you ... hard on yourself, and not being yourself, than I kinda feel guilty about it"
"Wait, do you mean..."
Meanwhile, Marco just stared into the sky on the castle balcony, think back about what he just said.
"Do I really have to say that ?" Marco lost in his mind up until Kelly surprised him from his back
"HEY, MARCO"
"Whoa ! Don't scare me like that" he stared at her a few seconds and return his head to the sky
"What's wrong ?"
"Well I..." Marco took a relaxed deep breath "I just felt really miserable, way more miserable than that time in Lava lake Beach" he lowered his head
"Tell me about it"
"I'm really tired over all the duties I need to do, and thinking back I don't even know the real reason why I accept those jobs and also why I returned to Mewni. What I wanted to do was just to have fun again with Star like what we used to do, but she suddenly had her responsibility to fulfill as a princess. After that ... I just felt left-out and unrecognized ... and the only thing I have in this dimension now is this fake Squire title"
"Go on"
"And when Star finally have free times, I was excited ... somehow but when I see her invited Tom for her dimension-adventure, I kinda feel sad"
"She didn't invite you ?"
"Well yes, she DID invited me but it's weird to have that adventure where it used to be just the two of us and suddenly there's someone else"
"Ehmm... from what you just said, I think you accept those jobs just to make yourself more recognizable, especially by Star. And you obviously wish to be together with her all the time ... I think you should tell her" She gave him an advice
"Tell her what ?" he didn't understand
"Tell her what you feel about her, it's obvious you have a crush on her" her statement almost made Marco jumped but calm himself down and oppose her with reasons
"But she still has a boyfriend, and it's Tom. I don't want to hurt his feeling. He's a cool demon, and while he used to have anger issue, he's already changed. And he's also a prince, and he's great with Star, and he also can have fun with her, and ..." every word felt like a needle into his heart
"Don't worry, I'm not anymore" Tom voice suddenly appeared behind them, surprising them
"Whoa, didn't see you there Tom" Kelly said
"Did you just heard about..." Marco asked while frightened
"I did, I heard everything. But it's okay, I'm not her boyfriend anymore" he walked closer to Marco
"What do you mea..." Tom hold and pulled his hoodie around the neck and bring Marco closer to him
"Look here Marco, I gave her an out cause I think you are better for her than me. So treat her best but if you ever make her feel bad than I'll crush you" his words are a mix of sadness and angriness, after that he released his grip to him "Star is still in her room, comfort her will you ?"
"Uh,em, Okay" Marco was still confused but he still rushed to Star's room
"Never once I thought you would give away something precious to you Tom" Kelly said
"I never did ... until now, and I hope what I just did is the right thing to do" Tom answered
"Don't worry, it sure is" Kelly answered back
Marco ran to Star's room, and when he arrived he found Star sitting on the bed with confused face and a slight tear can be seen. Marco slowly walked and hug Star really hard, Star realized it and hug him back
"Marco, I... I" her words were stuck
"Don't worry Star, I'm here" he calmed her down. After a few minutes, Marco knew how to cheer Star up "Hey Star, how about we go adventuring, it sure have been a while and right now ... I know just the place to make you happy"
"...sure thing" Star brushed her tear off and put a smile happy face
Marco opened a portal with his scissor
"After you m'lady"
"Don't call me that" after she said that. They laughed a lot like how they used to be and continue adventuring
All right , that's the end of the story. It's been a long hiatus but I did it . To be honest ,I kinda lost the motivation to continue this story because the reviewer are demanding me to fix grammar but to be honest I don't even know which one I did wrong.
Right now I just focused myself to wait for the upcoming season 3B and made lots of starco fanart
Achingheart2011 : Your ideas are great , they sure are , but that's not the whole point of this story . But still, thanks for reviewing my story , just knowing someone still reads my story already made me really happy