CHAPTER TEN- Storm the Castle

MariposaFalls11: The Seer has been one of my favorite OC's that I've ever written. You'll see her again, don't worry.

Snotty Theories: Well, shit gets way worse in this chapter haha.

Jayswing96: You'll see why he kept him ;)

MissPineapples: As you wish!

Guest: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying haha

I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

With deadly accuracy, he pitched the pencil across the room, watching as it slammed point first into the photo on Ludo's office wall, quivering to a halt embedded into Ludo's beak.

GENERAL POV

It took a lot of convincing for Star to not go straight to The Diaz's-Marco's parents-because Marco really wanted to find a good way to tell them himself, without just randomly blurting it out while Mr. Diaz was sculpting and Mrs. Diaz was baking.

Star was over the moon with the new information, but she still wasn't letting up on Marco about the bruises on his neck.

"Come on, Marco!" she protested, following him out of the room and down the stairs. "It looks like someone grabbed you! Did you get in a fight or something?"

Marco swallowed, clenching his eyes shut and flexing his right hand slowly to keep calm as they reached the front door. "I told you, Star, it's no big deal. Okay? I'm just gonna go home and-"

"This is your home, Marco!"

Marco flinched and spun around to face the girl, one hand clutching onto the doorknob. "Star," he said softly, "this…as much as….it's not my home. Not yet. I need…I need to talk to them first, need to…need to figure this out. There's things that I haven't…"

He trailed off, lifting his eyes to look at Star, to meet her gaze. She had her head tilted and was watching him with furrowed eyebrows. "Haven't what, Marco?"

Marco swallowed, letting his hand fall from the doorknob to rub at his right arm. "I haven't been telling you the whole truth," he managed to say, shutting his eyes and looking away.

There was silence for a moment, and when he looked back up he found Star staring at him in disbelief. "What?" she asked slowly. "What do you mean?"

When he didn't respond, Star crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. "I thought we were friends, Marco. I thought we could tell each other anything."

Marco flinched and ran a hand through his hair. "Star, it's not that simple," he protested.

"No, it kind of is," Star spat out. "Look, I get that you have like, a weird past, especially now that you know who your real parents are and stuff, but that doesn't mean you can just keep secrets from me! You have literally never told me anything about yourself, Marco, except that you like karate or some crap like that. Sometimes…"

She shook her head and leaned around the sullen boy, pushing the door open and letting in the cool night air. "Sometimes I wonder why I decided to be your friend," she whispered, turning her back on him.

Marco's face fell and he faltered, feeling an ache in his chest that he had never felt before at the words. "Well…fine," he got out, sneering at her back. "If that's how you feel."

He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him with enough force to rattle the pictures on the wall in the living room. He clipped his way back to his room and threw himself onto the bed, taking just a second to press a pillow to his face and scream until he finally passed out.

Star did similarly, flopping onto her bed and screaming into her pillow before bursting into tears and slowly falling asleep, only waking up when she nearly fell off the bed.

The princess blinked at the clock on her bedside table and grimaced, seeing that it was nearly ten at night. She rubbed her eyes and stood slowly, moving over to her desk and picking up her inter-dimensional scissors.

"I should probably go apologize," she mumbled softly, shaking her head and clipping a portal in the air. Star stepped through quietly into what she assumed was Marco's living room, furnished only with a couch and a floor lamp, and Star frowned as she closed the portal behind her.

"Marco?" she called out cautiously. "You here?"

She tiptoed into the kitchen and frowned, seeing the refrigerator door slightly ajar, the inner light casting a soft glow across the tiled floor. She opened it briefly, seeing nothing inside but a single, half eaten banana, and shut it again. A bad feeling was starting to settle in the pit of her stomach, and she ascended the stairs with dread.

"Marco?" she yelled again, peeking into each of the rooms she walked by and finding all of them utterly bare.

When she stepped into what was obviously Marco's room, based on the disheveled comforter and various pieces of clothing strewn across the floor, Star sighed in slight relief. He still wasn't in sight, but at least she knew that he actually had been there, and was coming back.

Her gaze drifted across the room and Star felt her heart nearly stop as she stared at his nightstand. Her feet moved of their own will, pulling her across the carpet, and she stopped at the edge of the table, her shaking fingers brushing against the dimensional scissors that sat on the table top, a small note directly under them.

We have Marco. Bring the wand. –Toffee

The note fluttered to the floor and Star was gone.

"I don't get it!" Marco yelped, struggling against the restraints that held him down. "Why don't you just…let me go until she gets here?"

Toffee glowered at him. "Because we don't know when she'll be here, thanks to your petty little tiff."

Marco scowled and clenched his fists, letting his rage bubble into his right arm until the monster arm formed, still trapped to the arm of the chair. He began yanking it back, but Toffee just cackled. "Now, now, Marco, you wouldn't want Star to walk in and see you like this, would you? It would ruin everything we've worked for."

Marco was ready to snap and tell Toffee that he wanted nothing to do with his dumb plan anymore, but he faltered and sighed. He knew the monster was right; if Star walked in and saw him like this? He knew how she felt about most monsters. She wouldn't help him.

With a pang of regret, he let the monster arm retract back into his skin, the cold metal of the clamps scraping his skin unwelcomingly. "Well," he muttered. "Looks like I've had all the fun I can in here."

Toffee smiled thinly at him and sank into his chair primly, folding his hands on the table. Marco narrowed his eyes and sighed, absentmindedly spinning himself around in the chair he was in.

Maybe Star wouldn't even look for him. Maybe she wouldn't get the note. Maybe she would stay safe.

But then of course….

"You made it," Toffee noted, pressing his fingers together as Star stormed across the floor of the hall.

She didn't respond, merely flung her arm out and sent off a wave of energy from her wand. Marco's jaw fell as the force of the hit blew Toffee backwards and ripped his arm clean off, and he sank back in his chair, jumping when the manacles around his wrists released.

Star spun to the box he was in and held her wand out, her eyes filled with fury. "Supersonic leech bomb!"

Glowing green leeches spread across the surface of the glass and Marco dove to the floor, covering his head as multiple blasts went off. But when he sat up, the glass was as smooth as ever.

It was then that he saw the crystals surrounding the cage, the very crystals he had picked up at Quest Buy only a month ago; the crystals that only got stronger the more they were attacked.

"Shit," he hissed, glancing up and searching for Star (and Buff Frog? What was that all about?) before spotting her standing above the room on the chandelier, shooting off a rainbow colored laser that hit the top of the cage and did nothing.

He watched in slight awe and, he would admit it, adoration, as she stormed over to the cage. Her entire figure started glowing and the second her eyes lit up Marco backed away from the glass in trepidation, flinging himself to the ground again as the world became completely white.

When he glanced up, the glass around him had shattered and Star seemed as startled as he did, looking up and meeting his gaze. "Marco!"

She ran towards him and he pushed himself to his feet, doing the same-only to slam face first into the glass as it reformed in front of him. "What?" Star yelped, her face filled with horror. She shrieked as one of the henchmen caught her around the waist and pulled her away from the prison.

Marco flinched and pressed his hands against the wall, glaring over at Toffee as he stood up. "That's enough," the monster decided, his voice firm but quiet. "That's no way to treat our guest of honor."

The look in Toffee's eyes unnerved Marco, and seconds later the demon had pulled out a remote and pressed a single button, and the glass cage surrounding Marco started sinking into the floor.

"No," he whispered, pressing his hands to the glass.

No way Toffee would kill him off, right? He had been doing exactly as he had asked for the last fourteen years of his life. Marco couldn't believe that he would just…

Actually, he could. He flashed back on all of the times that Toffee had sneered at him, had ridiculed him, and his fingers lifted to brush against the bruises still encircling his neck.

Dear god.

He was going to die.

A clattering sound rang in his ears and Marco turned his gaze to Toffee and Star, the glass beginning to push him to the floor.

"Take it," Star was saying, and he dropped his eyes to where her wand laid in between her and Toffee. "Now let Marco go."

She was…she was giving up her wand…for him?

Marco choked back a sob, knowing that it wouldn't work but nevertheless feeling complete gratitude towards the princess.

"Destroy it," Toffee commanded.

"What?" Star yelped, her eyes widening in surprise. "I don't know how!"

Marco missed the rest of the conversation, too intent on keeping the glass from killing him, from smashing him on impact and leaving nothing left of him aside from some bloody gore. His brain was going a little hazy when the pressure released, and for a second he thought he was dead.

Until the whirring sound of the door opening brought him back to his senses and Star was tackling him to the floor. "It's not over," she hissed at him, slamming the door shut behind her.

Marco was about to ask what she meant when he glanced out and saw the wand starting to glow a violent golden color. Toffee stared down at it as the other monsters ran for their lives, and just before everything exploded, Marco saw him smile.

There was utter silence when Star opened the door again and they poked their heads out, but Marco knew it wouldn't last.

As she surveyed the terrain, he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists at his sides. He was there. Marco could practically sense him.

Without a single warning, he shoved Star to the dusty ground, hovering over her body just as Toffee stepped from behind the box, where he had taken shelter. His suit wasn't even the slightest bit smudged, and Star growled when she saw him.

"Well done, Princess," Toffee applauded condescendingly. "I wasn't sure you knew what you were doing."

She and Marco got back to their feet and Marco positioned himself ever so slightly in front of her while Toffee chuckled. "Apparently you knew far more than I gave you credit for," he amended. "Now, Marco, if you would be ever so kind as to finish what we started?"

Marco flinched and shut his eyes tightly. "Marco?" Star asked cautiously from behind him. "What does he mean?"

Toffee snickered, tucking his hands behind his back. "Oh, wonderful. You really didn't blow your cover! My dear Butterfly, your friend here…well, he's been using you."

Star's intake of breath made Marco spin on his heel, his hands outstretched in front of him. "No, Star, you have to listen to me, I-"

"You what?" Toffee taunted, a sneer on his muzzle. "Made fun of her behind her back? Plotted to kill her? Remember Marco, you want revenge for your people. The people her kind killed."

Star was staring at him in horror, and she took the smallest step backwards. Marco swallowed and held out a shaky hand. "Please, Star….I…it started out that way, but I…"

Behind him, Toffee chuckled, and Marco turned back in time to see him pull another remote from behind his back and press the button on it.

In the next moment, Marco's thoughts went black. He felt untapped anger swirl out of nowhere and flow into his right arm, the one he had stretched out to Star, and his monster arm replaced his human skin. Star gave a shriek and backed up again, and Marco let a wicked smile cross his face.

A chase. A chase was always fun.

He moved towards her and the princess yelped, stumbling backwards before full on turning around and sprinting away from him, Marco in hot pursuit.

"You can't run, Princess!" he taunted her, his voice ugly and cackling.

She turned to glance at him and her foot caught on an upturned root, sending her plummeting to the ground, her hands and knees skidding painfully on the soil.

Marco slowed and planted his feet on either side of her ankles, an evil smile working its way up his cheeks as Star whimpered. He had never seen her so defeated, never seen her so scared, and he lifted his tentacle slowly, drawing it back behind him in preparation to finally end this nuisance of a girl.

The tears spilled onto Star's cheeks as Marco whipped his monster arm down at her.

See y'all next year! :)