CHAPTER THIRTEEN-Ashes to Ashes

Jayswing96: ;) Just keep reading.

Liliana Dragonshard: Be scared. Be very scared.

Just a Little Spark: I do like The Seer; one of my friends has said she wants to try to draw her so we'll see what comes out of that.

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

The last thing Marco remembered was cold steel in his stomach and Star's screams.

GENERAL POV

Toffee cackled and shoved Marco's limp body off of him, dumping the bleeding boy to the floor and yanking the knife out of his stomach before turning and pointing the still bloody point at Star.

"Now, my dear Princess, if you know what's good for you and for this boy, you will kindly give me back my piece of the wand," he intoned, his voice low and warning.

Star's lip quivered and her eyes darted between Toffee and Marco. "Then I can't fix him," she whispered feebly.

Toffee tisked in the back of his throat and shook his head, examining the knife carefully. "Shame," he clucked. "But then again, if you want him to live at all, you'll stop stalling."

Star gulped and clutched the wand pieces closer to her body, looking helplessly over at The Seer, whose dark red eyes had been keeping a close eye on the positioning of the knife in Toffee's claws. "What do I do?" she pleaded.

The Seer glanced at the girl and pursed her cracked lips tightly, eyes flashing with fire at Toffee. "Fix the wand child."

Toffee snorted and twirled the knife lazily in his fingers, stepping back ever so slightly and resting the heel of his shoe against the gaping wound in Marco's torso, pressing back against it and making the boy writhe unconsciously.

"Stop it!" Star shrieked.

"Fix the wand!" The Seer snapped.

Star looked at her sideways with a helpless face. "I don't know how," she whimpered.

The Seer frowned. "Your feelings, Star. The wand responds best to emotion. You need to-"

Her voice slipped into a gurgled choke and Star nearly puked when she saw the knife quivering from The Seer's throat, silvery blue blood sliding from under the blade.

"You speak too much for a Seer," Toffee hissed.

Star dropped to her knees, eyes watering and free hand pressed to her mouth as she watched The Seer send one last glare at the reptilian monster before she completely disintegrated into a pile of dust and dead snakes, the jar with the finger that had been sitting in her claws shattering against the floor.

Toffee strolled over to the remains as if he were merely examining a cloth that had fallen from a table and scooped the knife and the finger out of the pile, twisting the handle of the knife in his fingers and turning back to Star and Pony Head as he tucked the finger into his suit jacket.

"Now. Hand over the wand piece."

Pony Head snarled and darted in front of Star, horn brandished. "Don't you dare, B-Fly. You fix that wand now. I'll hold this loser off."

Toffee nearly laughed, until Pony Head flung herself at him and he barely managed to parry the horn away from his chest, his steps forced backwards and away from Marco as Pony Head fought tooth and horn.

Star turned back to her wand and pressed the piece anxiously against the crack, applying as much pressure as she could to the piece and leaning her whole body into the task.

"Come on, come on, come on," she muttered. "Please work."

Much to her dismay, however, the wand remained broken no matter how hard she pushed, and when she heard Pony Head cry out behind her all of her concentration was lost. She whirled around to see a trickle of blood slide down Pony Head's neck; the princess was still fighting, however, which obviously seemed to startle Toffee.

Over to her left, Marco groaned, and Star scrambled to his side, knees sliding sickeningly in the blood that had started to drip onto the floor.

"Marco?" the girl pleaded. "Please wake up."

The boy just groaned again and his body spasmed violently, fingers curling and digging into his palms as sweat beaded his forehead. His right arm transformed halfway into his monster arm and then back again.

Star blanched and leaned over, pressing her free hand weakly against the wound in his stomach and trying hard to block out the sounds of Pony Head keeping Toffee away from them in the background.

"Come on, Marco," she whimpered. "I need you to wake up. I need you here. I'm…I'm sorry."

She whispered the last part, lower lip trembling as her fingers that held onto the wand tightened around the handle. She tightened her grip on his shirt and swallowed hard, tears finally slipping over the rims of her eyelids and making their way down her cheeks.

Star jumped as the wand began warming up in her hands, and she looked down at it frantically, startled to find it glowing dimly. She unclasped her palm from around the handle and the broken piece slid against her skin, the jagged edge glowing.

What had The Seer said?

The wand responds best to emotion.

Star flinched and removed her right hand from Marco's torso, bringing her bloody fingers over and picking up the broken piece of the wand, sliding it gently against the cut that ran down the center.

"Please," she choked out desperately. "I need to help him. I need to heal him."

The wand glowed even more brightly, the warmth and heat focused on the center of the wand, and Star shut her eyes tightly and turned her head away as the glow intensified to the point where it nearly scorched the inside of her eyelids.

She heard Toffee scream behind her but she paid him no mind, letting her eyelids flutter open as the golden light died down.

The star in the center of the wand sat in front of her, once again whole and untainted, and Star couldn't help but squeal as she felt the power course into her finger tips.

"B-Fly!"
Star spun to see Pony Head roughly shoving the point of her horn under Toffee's throat, the only thing keeping the knife away from her the angle at which her head was positioned. "Fix Marco and let's get OUT OF HERE!"

Star nodded and turned to Marco, holding the wand out with trembling hands and positioning it above his stomach. "Magic cleansing light," she whispered under her breath.

Warm blue light filtered out of the wand and surrounded Marco's body, the gash in his stomach healing up entirely and the color reappearing in his cheeks. Star grinned brightly and pulled the wand back to her side.

"Marco?" she questioned softly.

The boy's eyes flickered open and he frowned, looking towards the sound of Star's voice. His gaze almost instantly flickered upwards, however, and he gasped. "Star!"

She twisted around in time to see Toffee chuck Pony Head into the far wall and sprint towards her, knife raised and face twisted in rage.

Star didn't even get a chance to lift her wand before a purple tentacle shot out from behind her and wrapped itself firmly around Toffee's wrist. She glanced back to see Marco there, eyebrows furrowed and a scowl on his face.

"Not a chance, motherfucker."

Toffee's wrist snapped with a sickening sound that filled the room, and the knife clattered to the floor as the fingers around it were forcibly removed. The monster howled in pain and anger and Marco forced him to his knees with another squeeze of the monster arm, standing up shakily behind Star and moving towards Toffee.

"Get the finger," he instructed the princess.

Toffee snarled and Marco shut him up quickly by spinning the monster around so that his back was pressed against Marco's chest, and the boy wrapped his free arm around Toffee's neck faster than the reptile could move.

As quickly as she could, Star bolted over and dug into Toffee's jacket even while the monster struggled. But the tentacle that now wrapped around his body pinned his arm to his side and Marco pressing on his neck prevented him from actually moving his head around.

Star pulled back with the finger in hand and scrunched her nose up at it, backing up quickly when Toffee lashed his leg out at her.

"Destroy it," Marco growled.

Star hesitated for a second, only a second. But then she looked up at Marco, met his desperate gaze, and without another thought she tossed the finger straight into the air and held up her wand.

"Ultimate fiery destruction!"

Toffee howled as the finger burst into flames and shriveled in on itself, and Marco cried out and stumbled backwards as the monster burst into flames himself, scorching Marco's skin and singeing the eyebrows off of his head.

Star swirled around threw her hands over her eyes, trembling against the heat of the flames. As Toffee's screams dwindled down into nothing, Marco carefully stepped around the ashes and flickering flames and moved slowly over to Star, glancing off to the left to make sure that Pony Head was okay.

The horse seemed all right, though she was bleeding a little, and she gave Marco an encouraging smile as she sank back against the wall to wait.

"Star?" Marco tried gently, reaching a shaking hand out and looking down to make sure that he had both arms normal. "I…I'm sorry. For everything."

Star shook her head and turned around, wrapping her arms around herself and looking ashamed. "No. I'm the one who's sorry. I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself back there and I'm…I realized after Toffee stabbed you that what happened wasn't your fault and I didn't want…I couldn't lose you."

Marco opened and closed his mouth several times, unsure of how to respond, and he lifted a hand to rub at his neck. "Still. I'm sorry anyway. I should have told you who I was and what was going on when I realized what was happening in the first place."

Star shrugged and stared at the floor. "I can't blame you for not telling me," she whispered. "I wasn't exactly…the friendliest towards monsters."

"Would you two just shut up and kiss or something?" Pony Head groaned from her corner.

Gotta end on Pony Head. But yeah. Seer's dead. But so is Toffee, so that's a good thing!

Reviews are welcome, and I need some sleep. Also Megan flipped me off a lot while I wrote this chapter.