Cold, hard, packed soil made up the ground.

A chilling breeze whistled through the withered trees that made up the skeletal canopy.

An overcast night sky and the scent of rotting plant matter filled the air.

Clearly not the most ideal place to make a camp for the night, but with little else available within traveling distance, it would have to do. There wasn't much in means of food and shelter in the far reaches of the Forest of Certain Death, so predators were unlikely to be out stalking weary prey. But that also meant that fresh water, and the finer aspect of outdoor pleasures were certainly a miss.

That being said, it was their last night in the forest, their destination nestled in the base of the Jagged mountains to the north. It had been two days since that uncomfortable night on Earth, back when they'd left the Diaz household to make for their escape, but Moon could still feel the cold detachment of her daughter over the carefully-tended fire even now. And as carefully as she prodded the smoldering embers to keep the flame healthy and alive, so too had she been when interacting with Star.

Dennis had been polite in his own way, and could read the carriage atmosphere well enough to keep mostly to himself, and Ludo… Well, he still needed regular healing magic treatment, and was still out cold for the entirety of their retreat. That left two individuals in desperate need of a long conversation, with no intention of actually carrying one out without it turning into an all out brawl. Moon stared at the fire, comforted somewhat by its warmth, while still at a complete loss in how best to move forward.

Star had sacrificed much at her request even if there had been some argument, but she hadn't said a word to Moon since that night. She simply handed Moon the scissors, they bought a shabby carriage, and did their best to sneak to the northern swamps without detection from Hekapoo. All without a single word spoken between the two.

So without any present means to move forward, and without any reciprocation on their current situation, Moon curled her knees to her chest and rested her arms on them. It was bound to be a long night, so she did what she did best, what she had been doing since they got here: she thought about the future, and how best to secure the best possible outcome for her people.

Star, on the other hand, was resting under the back of the carriage, her head propped against the straw rolls they had procured to feed the warnicorns, and was doing what she had been doing since that fateful evening: thinking about Marco.

The fury he had displayed as he struggled to break through the wall, and how futile it all had been despite his force of will? It was etched into her mind and continued to reprimand her every minute she spent sulking over it. It was her fault he was so enraged, and while it might have been the fault of the universe that he was so helpless to do anything about it, now it was her fault that he was all alone. And yet, none of the anger on display that night was for her, but rather, towards the unlucky hand the universe had dealt him by forcing him to stay.

The unrivaled force he commanded as his entire world had been unraveled right in front of him, she couldn't bring herself to formulate some version of it where she wasn't responsible, or where he wouldn't hate her for leaving when their immediate conditions were resolved. Surely, she'd have to find some way to apologize, to show him how sorry she was, to fix things with him when she got back.

'...if I make it back,' she thought glumly, frowning at the idea that their reunion was anything but secure.

'No… We're gonna survive, and I'm gonna make it home...to him' she reaffirmed to no one but herself, desperate to make it sound true. But the sad reality was that she didn't know at all what the future, their new future, might hold. Without Marco by her side, things would be far more complicated, and carrying that much more weight alone was going to be a challenge worth reckoning. There simply was no guarantee that she'd ever see him again, let alone that he'd be willing to forgive her, 'But hey, at least I can say I tried.'

Wordlessly, Star pulled her wand from her small collection of supplies she'd put together over the last two days and stared at the split jewel that adorned its face. It reminded her of nothing but her own failures, her own pitfalls and misjudgments in her insane return to the past, but more importantly, it reminded her of an escape.

The All Seeing Eye, one of the few dark magic spells she knew of, and one that came with the promise of at least seeing Marco again. Granted, it was one-sided, hollow, and if her past uses of it were anything to go by, it wouldn't do much in the way of helping. Last time, all she saw was a heartbroken Marco bent over the moon about getting back to her, and it wasn't likely that this time would fare any better. Of course, this time around she was hoping he wouldn't come looking for her, so she had that going for her at the very least.

One message to Tom was all it took to keep things in check, a simple request that under no circumstances was Marco to leave Earth, and thank corn, the demon was more than willing to comply in light of her explanation. And as for Janna… what Star remembered through the hazy experience of that night was that Janna had used, or was attempting to use, some sort of spell on him. Magic from a weird little talisman Star could almost swear she recognized. But that begged the question: where did she get it? And what had she been doing? She didn't have any idea of the plans change, and she wasn't exactly known for her heroics in moments like those.

In any case, Star would have to hope for a chance to ask her once she- ...if she made it back. No promises.

Star looked up from the broken gem of her wand to the cloudy night sky, the faintest glow of a bright and stunning moon hidden deep within the overcast. And as her restlessness knew no bounds, she took to think of failsafes, like she had done the moment she left. Tom was accounted for, and she had left specific instructions on how to deal with Janna. The rest of her friends were offered no such niceties, and as such they also yielded no means of getting to Mewni anyway.

She had taken Marco's scissors, and her mother had made it very clear that Hekapoo was no longer 'playing on the same team', so dimension hopping was a bust. All that really left was the magic wells, but Marco knew better than to try and navigate that space alone. From what she remembered of what Omnitraxus had shown them, he'd simply lose his memory and at least be safe until she went to get him. And even with a ready supply of pudding, he had no way of navigating back to Mewni in time to put himself in any real danger. So really, there shouldn't be anything to-

"Star."

Star bolted upright so fast, she hit her head against the rear support of the carriage, and after a moment of silent cursing and rubbing her throbbing forehead, she turned to look towards her mother. Moon was sitting by the fire, carefully tending to it as she stared at the orange flames licking the air. Star said nothing, not that she had said anything to her mother since she had left Earth, but Moon didn't find any issue in that. "We need to talk. Come sit with me," she asked, spoken in a soft, understanding voice that yielded no chance of argument.

Talking was the last thing Star wanted to do, especially with her mother at a time like this, but she also knew that simply refusing would only serve to escalate the situation. So without the usual fuss or hysteria, she simply stood, tucked her wand into her dress, and made her way over. It was a bit of trouble to scooch around Dennis and Ludo, the two of them sleeping close to the carriage, and in only a few steps, Star sat down next to Moon, the closest the two had been in two days.

"You've been hiding quite a lot of information from me, Star," she said, her voice proper, if a little tired, "We're almost to the Magic Sanctuary I told you about, so I think it's high time you divulged what you know, and what exactly has been going on."

As expected, Star tensed immediately as she kept her gaze glued to the fire, but she didn't say a word, instead opting to set her jaw in place and furrow her brows. She'd been through this before with Moon, and it didn't come as much of a surprise that it would come up now. 'But seriously? As if leaving Marco behind and ruining his trust in me wasn't enough, now of all times you wanna pry at the future?" Like hell she was changing her stance on the matter now, simply because her mother wanted-

"I know it's unfair to ask this of you yet again, especially after what happened that night. And you have every right to be upset with me because of that," Moon cut in, picking up her rod and poking the dying bits of tinder that were cooling, "but the situation has changed." Star narrowed her eyes at the fire and still said nothing, choosing to ignore her mothers request and be painfully reminded of Marco by the heat of the fire. And at her daughters continued silence, Moon decided she had had enough.

"None of this happened last time, I am aware of that much given what I've pieced together from Vartek and- ...the two of you," she spoke sternly, carefully avoiding saying his name so as not to set her off further, "so in light of that, clearly history has been drastically changed despite your omission of events yet to come. Don't you think you hold some semblance of responsibility to your people to inform me of the upcoming situation, at the very least? Honestly, we might have even been prepared enough to face him sooner had you just been-"

"I knew you would blame me for this!" Star blurted, slamming her fist against her stump seat and turning a scorching glare at her mother, "Do you honestly think we'd be here now if I knew how to stop him?! No, nothing I could have told you would have helped. No, I don't know what Varteks next move is. No, I don't plan on telling you anything in case we actually survive. And YES, we did everything we could to protect that future, but that future sent something back that we couldn't have prepared for!"

Star finished her last outburst with such indignant wrath, she hadn't even noticed the flame beside her had roared higher than the forest canopy. Glancing at the fire as it began to die down, then back at Moon, Star growled in annoyance and sat back down, folding her arms under another unyielding glare. "We've been doing everything we can to keep things under control on our end. But Vartek is something else entirely, and there's not a damn thing I could tell you that would help. Trust me, I know."

"I don't find that believable in the slightest," Moon spat back, Star turning in surprise to find her glaring just as hard at her, "You have done nothing but flout your knowledge of the future, refusing to tell me even the slightest piece of helpful information despite the fact that it could very well save lives."

Confusion took over Star for only a fleeting moment before cascading back down into anger as she gripped the rotting wood of her seat hard enough to crack it. "And what do you know about it?" she demanded callously, "You have no idea what happens, and any time you hear anything about the future you assume I know how this aaaaalllll turns out! I already told you that Toffee was behind it last time, and that I had to die to beat him. Well guess what Mom? THERE'S NO TOFFEE THIS TIME AROUND!"

Moon stood, her arms held at her side in rigid restraint as she berated her daughter right back. "I have learned more of the situation we find ourselves in from our shared enemy than my own daughter," she spat, anger creasing her weathered brows, "I only know so much about what could possibly be coming, but I certainly know enough to grasp-"

"You only know what that creep told you, and it could just be a bucket of lies chummin' up the water to get you all riled up!"

"And how do you expect me to handle that when any other information I receive is shrouded in mystery and lies from my family!"

"You have no IDEA what we've been going through to keep things on the right course! You have no CLUE how different things are now that he's here!"

"AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT!?" Moon roared, her own forehead pressed against Star's as the two glared burning daggers at one another, their faces twisted in anger to cast ugly shadows in the fires dancing light. But ultimately, it was Star who broke first, reminded all over again the events that had led up to now, her reasons for secrecy, and the boy who shared said secrets. Wordlessly, she took a step back, shook her head in muted frustration, and sat back down on her stump. She wanted to argue further, to shatter her mothers accusation that she was withholding the future because she didn't care, but the fight was gone.

Moon, still glaring, watched as Star silently took a seat, and turned to face the fire as well. She hated not knowing. She hated being helpless. Just as much now as she did the day she found out her mother had been... She hadn't been trusted, she hadn't been asked for help, she simply could do nothing to avert that catastrophe, and letting another befall her kingdom was out of the question. But presently, she knew Star had deeper knowledge than her, and there was a chance her daughter was right. Perhaps it was too late to fix things by simply knowing.

Carefully, Moon took her seat as well and took to staring at the crackling fire. "I could have helped you," she noted with marked distaste in the fact that she was turning to hypotheticals, "We could have figured something out together. We could have done research, recognisance, we could have protected you, Star. we could have-"

"You didn't last time," Star grumbled, her eyes both narrow and cold, despite the fire's gentle warmth. Moon stammered for an immediate response, but found none. She knew nothing about the alternate history her daughter had lived, save for what she had told her. But if anything, it was still Star that had lived it, and some things were always the same. Namely, "And exactly how open with me were you last time, I wonder," Came Moon's scathing yet quiet response.

Star said nothing, true to form over the last two days. Not out of spite, but because she knew her mother had a point. Last time, she had done everything in her power to keep the issue contained. And when it couldn't be contained, she did what she could to keep it a secret. And when she couldn't do that, she tried to solve it on her own.

Moon recognized the silence exuded by her daughter as a glum concession to her point, and sighed, not pleased in the slightest to have been made the enemy for the fifth time that night. "I have done my best to raise you as a fine, yet able princess. And I know that because of that, I can be… overbearing. But it's only because…" Moon floundered, noticing that Star, if only slightly, was looking in her general direction.

"Because I fear so much that you'll someday have to go through the kind of pain I did at your age. The kind of pain that doesn't heal. I may be hard on you, but I will always do my very best to put you first, and do what I must to keep you safe from harm. I wanted to nip this in the bud before it got out of hand, and even now, all I can think about is how to end it as quickly as possible to keep you safe."Star turned her focus back on the fire, mulling over her mothers outlook with newfound care.

"I will admit, yes I am angry with you right now, but I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe," Moon offered, watching as the fire was beginning to wither like the trees of the forest around them. She brought out her Poking Rod and shuffled the logs, keeping the flames alive before continuing. "I will do whatever it takes to help you put an end to this, however out of my control it might be. I only want to know what you know, so I can take your place as the focus of this mess."

Star, for what it was worth, turned to Moon and offered her a shake of her head, glumly resuming her muted expression from before. She pulled her wand from her dress and set it down beside her, reminded grimly of the sacrifice she planned to make should things turn sour. "We can't end it yet, mom," she whispered, setting her jaw and fighting the pit in her chest for control of her expression, "It's… it's not time."

Sensing the clear emotions her daughter was wearing on her sleeve, Moon opted to make her way closer, and squatted in front of Star, meeting her gaze with nurturing care. "Then how's about I propose a trade, of sorts," she offered, earning Stars curiosity, though not improving her mood, "You tell me something about the future that might help, and I'll tell you something about my future. Does that sound fair?"

Silence.

Star didn't know what Moon was playing at, having been told repeatedly that knowledge wasn't the answer and now asking to simply trade some of her own. But at the same time, perhaps Moon had a bit of a point. The future had changed drastically, and if it would end her incessant prying to only tell her one thing… After some deliberation, her emotions and curiosity getting the better of her, she nodded in agreement. "What do you want to know."

Moon thought for a moment, carefully deciding what would be the most important thing to know in their battle of information with a man who already knew everything. She knew who she was fighting, and had a decent idea of what he was after: total Mewman destruction. So that didn't leave too much to ask, in the end. Ultimately, she found herself glancing at the wand on the stump, and after some careful consideration, she finally looked up to Star, meeting her grim expression with one of steadfast resolve. "What are you planning to do?"

"What do you mean?" Star asked, leaning forward and following her mother's gaze to- "Oh. Right." That was a dangerous question, and it was all too likely that Moon knew that well. She could simply just refuse to answer and be done with it, rather than informing her about the heavy risk she was planning to take, but honestly? There wasn't anything Moon could do with that information. Varitek would find them, and Moon wouldn't take away the wand for fear of leaving her powerless, so… "I used the whispering spell last time, released Toffee, and forged my own millhorse," Star mumbled, earning a horrified look at her words, "Because I did that, I was shown the way out, and I got to use all the magic in the wand at once to almoooost wipe Toffee from existence."

"...And...did that work?" Moon asked after a short moment of silence. It sounded rather convoluted to rewrite the fabric of the realm of magic, much less to be given access to all of the magic in the universe at once, but still, this was Star. There wasn't very much she couldn't do if it came down to a crunch.

Star nodded, careful to keep her gaze on the fire instead of her mothers worried expression. "When we fight Varitek, I'm gonna use it again, get inside the wand, and make it my own. Hopefully there's enough magic left in there to beat his, or I die anyways, right?" Moon slowly nodded in understanding, realizing just how precarious their situation must be for Star to consider such an option. How horrible the alternate history must have been for her to have done it before, and the present for her to consider doing it again. It was risky, unfathomably dangerous, but it was also far better than trying to face him head-on again, this time against the High Commission as well.

"So whaddya got for me?" Star suddenly asked, her voice as flat and expressionless as she'd been for the last two days. Ripped from her assessment, Moon pursed her lips and sat down beside Star once more, resting her hands in her lap. By comparison, her questionable information was trivial, but nonetheless she pressed forward, now thoroughly reminded of how grim their position in all of this actually was. "Apparently, Vartek's future only exists because I sacrifice myself to destroy 'an enemy of my own making'," she whispered, her eyes transfixed on the glow the fire cast into the night sky, "I don't know when or how, nor do I want to know. But, it sounds as though it's...my fault he's here."

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey all, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! Now, the meat of this note: I'll be releasing Battle for Mewni… in pieces. Short segments (at least by comparison) will be published once every two days, starting now, up until the grand finale, so buckle up, and I'll be seeing you guys and gals on Monday! That being said, I know you guys are either A.) Bummed that BFM is gonna be broken up into segments, or B.) Excited as hell that its finally going down! So I'll be completely honest with yall, I'm not doing this for the clout or the screen time, I want to pace this, keep ya'll guessing as it goes on, and make you, the reader, involved in the making of this Grand Finale. The Grand Finale of Forgotten Ventures. Feel free to hold reviews until the end, or follow along, make guesses, gripe at me, whatever you please. I'm right here with you, and I can't wait to show you all what happens when you have a chance to change your past.

So, see ya soon! :)

~Mr. Ronald Reagan