-Chapter 11-

Days dragged on and she lost count after the third day. She was right to assume that she would be brought food and drinks through small portals. At first she ate and drank as much as she could, to at least try to live. But no results were being shown from it. The strength the wizard had spoken of—or rather, the lack of strength he spoke of—was still spiraling downhill. She herself found it a completely unexpected miracle that she could move. Neither her mother or father had contacted her since she last spoke through the mirror. And no matter how many times she tried calling them again, no one ever answered. It only left her feeling alone and sicker than she'd ever been before.

Well…she wasn't entirely alone, but it still wasn't the same. She was just barely starting to show, which proved that the wizard's claims were not only true, but that she could give birth to a live baby—or "birth well", as he'd put it—if the gas was ineffective. She didn't know if it affected a half human baby, born or unborn, but she did know that it had been used for centuries to kill mewmans. The baby was definitely stronger than a normal one but it was still half mewman. Chances were, it would outlive her if independent from her. But the chances of it actually surviving these toxic fumes was slim to none, even if independent…

Most of her time was spent asleep, which meant that, yes, sooner or later she wouldn't wake up. But then what? What if she died now? What would happen to Mewni without the wedding to maintain peace? If she died…would Mewni die too?

She balanced herself with a wide stance and a hand against the wall, beside her mirror. It was all she could do to continue trying to contact her parents, or anyone who graced her with an answer.

"Call Mom," she coughed.

"Calling 'Mom'," the mirror replied, for what had to be the millionth time.

For the next two minutes it rang, the dots practically hypnotizing her. But, as usual, it cut off.

She hung her head and looked towards her door again. It was hardly worth a shot but…

She trudged over to it anyway threw as much of her weight as possible on it. Still nothing. Of course. She honestly just wanted to give up and give in, because it seemed so pointless to keep fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win, but for some reason she felt the need to. Maybe it was because for the first time ever, yesterday she felt something move inside her—an actual, physical feeling. It could've been her imagination because she hadn't felt anything since, but what if it wasn't? What if this gas was only deadly to mewmans and humans weren't fazed by it? That would be a serious blow to the gut. Suffering for no reason. Vile.

She leaned her back against the door and pushed back with her legs. Nothing, still. It felt like trying to move an entire cliff side now. She would need the power of a supernatural to get this door to budge, and it made her really hate doors.

It was depressing too. Her entire room a prison cell and her past haunting her in all the worst ways. The life of a commoner didn't seem so bad. Her longing for Earth only grew stronger by the second, and this time not even because Marco was there. She wanted out. She wanted to go. Earth had a tolerance for this and showed a sympathy she'd never seen displayed in Mewni. If she had more time she was sure her parents would let her go back to have the baby and then give it to someone else, even if it did mean she would never see it again. But at least neither of them would die because a few anonymous classmates decided to spike her drink. And yes she did continue to drink after that but everyone did! It was practically a tradition to do stupid things on Earth. But their parents didn't kill them for it. Reprimand, yes, and punish, yes, but nothing remotely similar to what her parents were doing.

And worse, if that moment yesterday was in fact the baby moving and not in her imagination—everyone knew this gas could mess with their senses—then her parents' plan was failing and she couldn't tell them because they never answered whenever she tried to call them. She wouldn't last too much longer. They were running out of time. It was best to cancel the gas plan and simply let her have the baby first. Yes, it would take an indefinite amount of time but at least she would live. At least the baby would live. At least she could get married. Saving Mewni was the sole reason for any of this, yet the only plan they could come up with was to risk her life by confining her to a death room all in hopes that maybe the baby would die if she was in bad enough condition.

And if they would simply answer her calls, they would see she was getting progressively worse. Maybe then it would hit them—she'd been too weak from the beginning to endure a gas this toxic for a time this long. Maybe their plan was to check up on her a few more days or so and ignore her up to that point. She didn't know what they were thinking anymore.

She sighed and flopped to the floor, still feeling an urge to fight off the poison—somehow—but at the same time feeling like a hopeless mess. It was hard to describe the way the two normally conflicting feelings harmonized so perfectly within her.

She took a deep breath, inhaling the heavy fumes with a force that would normally suck in about three times as much air, and was immediately thrown into a coughing fit. Just another sign, she supposed.

Almost as if in reaction to the violent heaving, the movement she felt yesterday repeated itself, a mixture of something inside rubbing against her and pushing. It wasn't in her head, that had to be the baby—alive. Finally moving around to tell her that yes, it was still there, and it wasn't going down that easily.

She stood back up and threw herself against the door again, finally on the verge of tears after days of endurance, able to expect nothing but death from the inside out. Two lives this time, instead of just one. That made an escape all the more important, although by now that movement from the baby could've been the discomfort that always came prior to death… Rolling around, begging for mercy from its mother who was supposed to be protecting and sheltering it. The child of some Earth boy, one who wasn't even a prince. And she wanted to do something, she wanted to save it no matter who the father was. At the very least it was hers, and at the very least it had her bloodline. Right now she was responsible for whatever happened to it.

She threw herself against the door again—she was either going to save herself, and the baby, or literally die trying.

But then she realized that throwing herself against the door was like throwing herself against a rock. It was useless. And her moving around, consuming all this energy, was shortening her life little by little. She gave up on the door and walked back over to her mirror.

"Call Mom," she instructed it.

"Calling 'Mom'," it replied.

Each ring only dampened her spirits more. It was bad enough enough that they would just leave her to die here, but keep her completely isolated as well…? Why? Where was the logic in that?

"Call Mom," she said when the ringing cut off.

"Calling 'Mom'."

She coughed and rested her head against the wall as her mirror continued to ring. She tried flapping her wings again—not to fly, but to push the air back—but the pink fog in her room only swirled around before calmly settling back down. She folded her wings against her back and sighed heavily as the ringing of her mirror stopped yet again.

"You're causing so much trouble for me…" she sniffled. "I could've been in Thagerie by now, I could've been preventing a huge war. Then you showed up. I mean you're dying anyway, why are you taking me down with you?"

She flopped onto her bed and growled at the whole situation, knowing that without her Mewni would probably go to a war they couldn't win, and that thanks to her poor choices on Earth, she ended up in this no-win scenario. She could blame the baby all she wanted but that didn't make her any less at fault. And no child should have to die because of her mistakes…

A/N

I did say it would be delayed... Anyway this was all I could squeeze out, sorry. I guess you could say it's pretty much just a useless chapter but it's better than nothing. I guess...?

OH RIGHT. Okay. So. For two years reviews and PMs have STILL been coming in asking if I'll ever update A Rose Without Petals, and if so, when will I do it. I'm like...really shocked at that. Even you guys following this story, or Sixth Sense, or Whispering Lies; everyone's been begging me to update ARWP. And I've had a few that did mention Whispering Lies too. Anyway I am very pleased to announce that as of this very moment I am working on the next chapter of ARWP aaaaand as a little something extra, the next chapter of WL. Nova will be slow due to this.