Forgotten Ventures

by Ronald reagan

If you could go back two years in your life, and you could remember everything, what would you change? When Marco Diaz wakes up in his old bedroom, with memories of events that haven't come to pass, he finds out that some things should stay the same. And that some things will change on their own. Rated M for language, violent scenes, and some spicy stuff.

63. What You Deserve

"Come ooonn… show me something gooooood…"

Janna stared down at her small collection of tarot cards, the die having already been cast to come up short with nothing useful.

"Goddamnit," she grumbled, leaning back at her desk to stare at the ceiling, too disappointed in the outcome of her readings to look any longer, "The horn, The Stone, The Sword, Death, and an Angel. Of course it's useless. Why did I think it would be anything but nonsense."

She had spent the last two hours researching, preparing, and executing a psychic reading, and all of her efforts had amounted to little more than gibberish. Not that she ever really believed in the power of prophesying, as one's fate always lay in their own hands, but it was worth the shot.

And of course it was something to occupy her mind.

For the past three days she had little more to do than sit in her room and wait out the storm. Not a single call back from Star, Marco hadn't spoken to her since the disaster party, and even the two hotheads had been M.I.A. without so much as a parting word. All that was left was Jackie, and maybe Alphonso, but he was more Fergussens friend anyway, and Jackie… Well, Jackie was more of the ground for their group. Not a merry band to help wait out the storm without the life of the party. She knew well enough what Star was busy with, and it was easy to guess why Marco had chosen the silent treatment, but not even an update? It was like she had stepped back into the years before Star had arrived, where she spent most of her time idly messing with the less fortunate, and building her repertoire of magic.

But that kind of glum attitude was reserved for those without the means or the devotion to do something about their fortunes, and she had better things to do than wallow. Reaching down beneath the collar of her shirt, Janna pulled the spherical wooden talisman from hiding, running her fingers over the engravings. It looked ancient, a little too conspicuous for her liking, and it practically reeked of malicious power. The smell it gave off was akin to ozone and copper.

And it made Janna all but giddy.

"Marco will understand when Star comes back after her fight with gater-aid," she mused, stowing the talisman back in her shirt, content with the price she had paid to get it from Darc that night, "I got faith in mah girl, a couple more days and this'll aaaall be over."

She chanced a glance towards the skull on her desk she almost exclusively addressed when she was alone, finding these days it provided far more company than normal, and decided it was probably high time she gave the readings another go.

Or she would have, when her room erupted into a maelstrom of flames, and two figures straight out of the Edo period stepped into view. A tornado if fire sprouted into a column that threatened to consume everything combustible, save for the girl watching with tentative worry.

Janna fought to keep her eyes open, if only barely, careful not to get too close to the firestorm that thankfully left her room intact. 'Looks like I was right, after all. Back already and showboating their fire magic like always,' she wanted to grumble, but what struck her as odd was that the flames were exclusively warm colors, and not the usual shades of blue. Maybe they got an upgrade? She'd have to ask when Star gave her the rundown on-

"Janna! Where the heck is Marco!?" she heard Tom bark from beneath his helmet, the flames dying down to embers before she realized who she shared company with.

"We looked all over for him, and no one has any idea where he went," the second figure asked, it's voice, while feminine, a far cry from the bat-shit crazy princess gone rogue, "We need both of you to come with us so we can try to track down Star."

Janna gave them both a confused look, shifting her gaze from their now unobstructed faces towards their uniforms, finding the samurai-esk armor veeery agreeable. But all she had to answer their questions with was a shrug and a shake of her head. "How should I know? I'm not his babysitter. I already did my job, so I'm gonna chill out here until this mess blows over," she hummed back, giving their uniforms one last look-over, "For the record, you guys look pretty badass, not gonna lie."

Both Tom and Torriditty exchanged an uneasy glance, several unspoken questions firing between them before Tom asked, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Language," Torriditty hummed.

"Your outfits look cool, even worth a compliment. Though I think your entrance kinda outshined the-"

"No no no, we know we look cool," Tom barked, gesturing to his own attire with pride, "I'm talking about before that. What do you mean you 'already did your job'? Have you heard from Star? Is she okay?"

The flurry of questions and the intensity they were asked took Janna by surprise, though she had to give them credit for not knowing. It was days ago when it happened, and even then there were much bigger fish in the pan than a little magic slipping by. "I used magic to keep Marco on Earth, at the request of his doppleganger," she quipped, her words flowing with casual ease, "Guy paid me with a magic necklace to screw with Marco's powers so he had no choice but to stay, and from the look of it, he may have struck that 'deal' after all."

Another traded glance between the demons before Torriditty managed to ask, "What deal? With that parasite inside him?"

Janna nodded. "He said that Marco would almost definitely die if he left with Star, so I needed to keep him stuck here. That way, Diaz wouldn't have annny other choice but to make a deal with him to get to Mewni," she listed, taking a seat at her desk and brushing the collected momentos to the side. "My guess is he's probably with Star right now. That, or he's looking for her and kicking ass. It doesn't really matter to me, ya diiiig?"

For a moment, no one said a word as the news of Marco's imprisonment, and subsequent release rolled around in the air with bits of leftover ash. Until finally, Tom stepped closer, his face darkened with trademarked anger. "You could have killed- Do you have any idea- Star could be-..." He stopped cold, taking a moment to gather himself as Torriditty took control of the rapidly dissolving situation.

"Janna, you need to come with us to help find them. With your magic we could probably-"

"No way, Josephina," Janna barked, waving a dismissive hand in both of their faces, "I've seen what that lizard can do, and I can tell you right now that this human isn't marching to her own death because you guys don't think those guys can take care of themselves." With another pointed shrug, Janna folded her hands and leaned back, comfortable where she sat. "Take a chill pill and let Star handle this. Worst case scenario, you two charge in dick first and screw up whatever plan they're probably working out to take that guy down."

More stunned silence plagued the room before once again, Tom took the reins to delve them all into the reality they currently shared: "Mewni is gone," he spat, proudly wearing his contempt on his spiked shoulder, "No one is left, and even with the entire kingdom up in smoke, no souls have made it to the Underworld."

"Sounds like the opposite of a problem when no one is dying, Bucko."

"Vartek is doing something to them, and no one has any idea what's going on. There's no 'resistance', there's no war, there's just- nothing!" he shouted, the temperature of the room rising to meet his words. "Star and Marco are missing, the universe is next on the chopping block, and all you wanna do is sit around doing just as much nothing as my dad? Fuck you."

"Yeah fuck me, right!?" Janna bit back just as hard, storming to her feet to match the treasonous prince, "A lowly human is gonna waltz into another dimension and kick ass with two gods because you and your girlfriend are scared shitless? News flash, horns: We can't help them! If anything, we'll just get in their way and fuck things further down the toilet just so you can die with a clear concience? No thank you!"

At their shouting match, Tom bared his fangs and hissed as his eyes shifted to a blazing white, right before Torriditty stepped between them. Sending an equal glare in both directions, she pushed both parties back to their corner to do damage control. This was not how this meeting was supposed to go.

"Janna, we're not asking you to fight Vartek; we're not even asking you to stand with us against him," she offered, Janna scoffing and turning her own glare towards the floor. Torriditty could feel a very human guilt permeating the room, and she knew Janna wasn't happy with what she was suggesting.

"All we need is a way to find them, like you did for Marco and I when we got lost," came her gentle prompt, though Janna kept her gaze glued to the floor, "They need our help, so can you help us help them save Mewni? Please?"

But Janna showed no sign of melting to those honeyed words, her glare hardening in resolve. "They don't need our help, and you guys need to go home before you get killed," she spat, well and done with the prospect of getting herself mixed up in any more of their troubles. She'd done enough damage, and in all likelihood it would cost them their very existence. "This isn't our fight, it's theirs. They're big kids, let them sort it out on their own, and stop trying to white knight for your ex."

At such a clear refusal, Tom found his anger dissipating as though it didn't want to be spent on such a pathetic target. He even glossed over that jab at his history with Star. "Dude...it's been three days," he muttered, his shoulders slouching, "our friends need our help… Don't you care about seeing them again? Or have you already made up your mind to let them die?"

Torriditty watched as Janna's face twisted in disgust, but she knew humans well enough to know that that type of disgust was specially reserved for one's self. All she needed was a reason, and she was sure she could give her one.

"Janna, when I was lost in the Forest of Certain Death with Marco, I saw… some pretty crazy stuff. And you're right, they're more than powerful enough to handle just about anything the universe can throw their way…" she paused, making sure she had the human girl's attention before driving home the stake. "But they're also vulnerable. Star and Marco are just like us in every other aspect, so that means that even with all that power, they still need help to see their homes saved. No one can take on the world alone, so can you please… just come with us?"

Still, Janna said nothing, her face a shadow of sunken resolution to not intervene. In light of everything she had been told, her decision was clear: she had no interest in protecting her friends, and that was that. No amount of posturing or guilt tripping could convince her to horn in in their business any further than she already had.

Tom scoffed, folding his arms and turning to conjure a portal to Mewni. Help or not, he had every intention of doing everything he could to protect his home and his friends, a trait he had once been sure he didn't shoulder alone. "Whatever, dude. Vartek will turn the universe into a memory, including you. So I hope that when everything falls and there's nothing left anymore?" He gave the witch one last scornful glare. "You know that you could have done something, but chose not to."

Torriditty looked between the two, desperate to make one last attempt at securing a means of tracking their quarry, but there was nothing left to say. They'd done all they could, and in spite of Jannas dismissal, they would still push forward. The end of the universe wouldn't wait for them, or Janna, or Star, or anyone. So with an exhausted sigh, she turned to leave, Tom already chanting to open a portal.

Janna glared at them with pointed disgust, really what business did they have demanding she throw herself into the fray? Let alone ordering her to toss their hats into the ring like she worked for them. Marco and Star would… probably figure it out. They were… probably already doing something about the missing Mewmans, and all this party would do was just screw up their secret mission...right? They were tough, surely...they had… a plan?

"Just keep him here, on Earth. I can handle Vartek on my own," he had promised, his offer already taken, "Once Marco gives me control, it'll be quick and painless, I swear. All you have to do is mess with his magic, and he'll come running before you know it. Everyone will be fine."

"Wait, wait, stop the stupid spell," came an abrupt order from behind, both demons turning to find Janna sitting back and staring at the ceiling. Tom extinguished the growing flames and turned an annoyed ear. "I don't care if we all die; I think the end of the world would be kinda cool, honestly. But, do you guys really think we can even hold a candle to what we're up against? Are you guys ready to hoof it back home if things don't turn out like you expect? If Star and.. Marco.. have things under control? We could die for nothing."

Torriditty glanced at Tom, finding him to be abstaining from any further deliberation, and opted to take his place to answer. "We don't have to fight all on our own, and neither do they," she offered with sincerity, "Even if all our efforts amount to just checking in, fighting, or even dying, we should still go. They could already be dead for all we know, but we won't, unless we find them first."

"Plus, this mess is kind of all of our fault," Tom added nonchalantly, "We did sorta ditch you guys when Star left."

"Yeah yeah, Tom's to blame and Janna has to save the day," Janna noted, standing from her desk, "For the record, I still think we should let them handle this. We've messed things up enough, and one wrong move could get us all killed. But if you guys really think this is a good idea… I guess I'll see what I can do. But don't expect me to-" Out of nowhere, Tom had Janna in a crushing hug, his three eyes looking up with mascara-ruining tears pooling at the sides.

"YOUHAVENOIDEA HOWMUCH THISMEANS TOUS!" he shouted, laughing between breaths as Torriditty watched with a smile. It was a rarity for Tom to show such an outburst of positive, and she could hardly blame him. Nevermind the cause, nevermind the consequences, they were about to go save their friends, and if they all died? Well, they'd die together. A cozy thought to accompany the warming mood of the hot room.

"Alright alright, get your makeup off my shirt you big baby, we could totally still lose," Janna grumbled, shoving Tom back and wiping the splotches of black from her shoulder, "What all do you guys need? I'm not sticking around for a fight, but I'll tag along until we find those two idiots."

When Tom had gathered himself enough to handle his own enthusiasm, he listed off on his fingers a short list of necessities before they shoved off to the warzone. "We need that tracking pendant you gave us last time, some spare magic if you know how to find some, and maybe a little help staving off the creatures of Mewni. I'm pretty spent after that one portal, and Torriditty has even less firepower." Janna rolled her eyes and grabbed a few keepsakes she used to ward off robbers before he added jokingly, "And maybe notify your next of kin. We uhh… well you know. This could be a one way trip."

Of course, he meant it as a joke. Even a morbid one meant to lighten the mood a little, but Janna surprised him by nodding and pulling out her cellphone, not even a giggle for his troubles. "I'm fine with that. You guys mind giving me a minute?"

The demons exchanged some confused looks, but regardless they both nodded and quietly slipped out of the room, janna already dialing a number. Her parents? No, if she went missing on this particular excursion, it wouldn't be too long before they were gone too, along with the rest of the world. But one person needed- no, deserved a potentially parting word before she shipped out with the ninja clan.

"Hey, Fergs… it's me, Janna."

"...I can recognize your voice, so you don't have to introduce yourself, you know."

"Yeah, but you probably blocked me, so I figured that after the *67 treatment, you wouldn't-"

"Why are you calling me," came an abrupt inquiry, shooting the mood in the head before it even started to lift, "I thought you said 'there is no friends for us'? What gives?"

Janna pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, the bitter resentment rising, but not quite to a boil. "I know what I said. Look, I'm going to Mewni with the two horns, and… well we might not make it back. The big bad wolf has things turned upside down, and they need me. So if this is the last chance I have to talk to you… well… I uhhh…"

"Are you trying to apologize right now?" Fergusson asked, a hint of humor dripping through the receiver.

Janna's eyes narrowed before she clenched her fist in rage, slamming it down against her desk hard enough to send the dice rolling. But with marked effort, she smoothed herself over and rolled her eyes. "No, actually. I hope he kills me so I never have to see you again, and I just wanted to throw it in your face that it's all your fault," she noted angrily before letting out a gruff sigh, "Yes I'm apologizing, you idiot. I'm sorry."

The other end of the line went silent for a moment, the seconds ticking by long enough to let Janna properly stew in her own mess. Maaaaybe the sarcasm was a notch too tight on the belt she all but wanted to hang herself with. But thankfully, the silence was over before she could try.

"That's a pretty garbage apology," Fergusson finally laughed, earning a white-knickled fist from the Ordonia side of the call, "but you get points for trying. Really means alot to me that you'd spend your last words on your ex, of all people."

Despite herself, Janna found a smile creeping into the view of no one at all. And with that high of emotions came a crashing wave of motivation to see the call hit home on the message she intended to deliver.

"Look, Fergs. I really called because… I'm really sorry for what I did. I should never have messed with you in the first place, because you're right. You were perfect how you were before, sorta... and I don't deserve you as you are now."

More silence from the other side, but she had one more push to fill the void, and if she waited a second longer, there was a chance she wouldn't offer at all. "I honestly don't think I'm gonna make it back from this, and I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon," she noted, her tone grim with sincerity, "So, if you want me to… I can fix you right now before I miss my chance. One word, and you'll be your old self again, just like you were before I-"

"Wait, wait. You actually-," another pause as Fergusson weighed the proposition, right before the reality of the prompt hit him like a nine pound hammer. "Oh...fuck. you're serious, aren't you? About… not coming home?"

"Yeah. We're going on a suicide mission, not that these two idiots know it. Star and Marco are most likely down for the count, and we're gonna go join 'em." The cards didn't lie, and they weren't too hopeful. She waited for a moment, letting the gravity of her situation sink in before she continued, a more optimistic tune in her voice.

"This could probably be the end of everything. And since my bucket list is basically 'don't die with regrets', I figured I'd hit you up, one last time," she sighed, her shoulders sagging, "look, I don't use the word 'love' lightly. It's way too psychotic...and a little committed. But uh… I have strong feelings for you, whatever version of you you might be. So...there. Hope you feel as guilty as I do."

She wasn't sure what she was even saying anymore, or really what the point was in saying it, they were all either already dead, or Fergusson would just-

"I have strong feelings for you too, Janna," a soft voice answered her unintentional question, and immediately she felt herself relax. "So if you really mean it, then come back and fix me after you guys are done saving the world. I can tooootally brag about having a heroine for a… well maybe a girlfriend… someday."

Janna felt that grin on her face grow into a full fledged smile, not a half cocked tilt of contentedness she wore fondly. There was almost a reason to come back, and she wasn't going to let that chance at something that mattered go without a parting word of relief. "I'll see you soon, Fergs, so don't go falling in love with that barista up the road, alright?"

"Haha, which barista are you-"

She didn't wait for a proper answer, clicking the glaring red button of her phone before stuffing it back into her pocket. It didn't matter that he didn't know the secret phrase to change him back had just been given. And it didn't matter that she wasn't expecting to come back at all. All that mattered was that she left him feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future, regardless of the fact that it wasn't there. No regrets, no matter the cost.

"Alright lovers and losers! Let's get a move on before reality shits the bed! I wanna find a comfy spot to watch!" She shouted, throwing open her door and stepping into the unknown, ready to face the forces of evil lurking beyond the horizon.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Meanwhile, as Marco stood alone in a vast expanse of darkness without a horizon, he felt a growing sense of dread as to where he now found himself. After having just escaped this place, after having 'fixed it' for lack of better terms, now he saw he was back to square one, and back in the void.

'I'm… asleep or something, right?' He thought to himself, struggling to replay the most recent events in his head, 'Star was in here with me… we made it out… So what am I still doing here? Why is this place all dark again?'

He looked around, finding not even a campfire to light the way as before, and another glaring issue hit him: where was Glossaryck? Where was anything? The sky, the buildings, Darc, the fire, the vines, there was just… nothing.

But that question would be shelved for later, as through the darkness, one figure stepped out of the gloom wearing a broad smile, and matching clothes. And at his arrival, Marco felt his blood run cold. "Sup, man? Came back to say goodbye? Or did you just pass out from the licking we got?" Darc asked, gesturing to their shared shredded clothes and injuries.

Marco first felt a wash of stiffening dread when he had taken in his surroundings, a feeling only further stimulated by his present company. But before he could properly freak out, he remembered that warm embrace that had pulled him from the depths not even minutes ago. "Star: how did she-... she said Luna sent her in to get me?"

Darc nodded, and Marco felt a familiar sense of comfort with her presence in his mind.

"She said you wanted to trade places again," he continued, narrowing his eyes as he struggled to remember what promises were made, and with whom they were promised.

Again, Darc nodded. "Don't know if you remember, but uh… yeah. I- we... got whipped pretty badly. Vartek is on some crazy shit, juiced out for reals. So for now, I'm gonna head back to the campfire and let you guys sort it out. You're good at that, right?"

Now it was Marco's turn to nod, eying the oddity standing before him. "We're almost out of time, aren't we? Glossaryck says it's do or die, so what happens to you if we win?"

Darc managed a crooked smile paired with a shrug beneath his charred hoodie. "I die, genius. When vartek dies, it won't matter how burned into you I am. Poof, there he goes. Another happy ending for everyone, just like I promised Star after I got my shit kicked in."

Not a comprehensively uplifting prospect, but those were far from abundant these days. There wasn't much, frankly, to be singing praises for. So maybe Marco wouldn't have been out of line to give a bit of a consolation prize of his own for a change. "Thanks for trying, Darc. It's been a messed up ride, and you got me this far, so maybe Luna can-" but Darc waved a dismissive hand.

"Trust me, that ship sailed a long time ago. I've made my peace, man," he offered, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pocket and wistfully looking around at nothing. "When you kill Vartek, and uproot the corruption, I go with it. Without my source, there's nothing to keep my tethered anymore. I may not have lived a long, or even very good life, but I have both of yours to look back on fondly."

Marco tried to voice another suggestion, but from the way Darc sounded, it wouldn't do any good. He seemed plenty content with his situation, and from what he could remember, Luna was there when he woke up. Odds are, the Goddess and Darc had already spent plenty of time talking it over. So why did he feel so… hollow?

There were a few seconds of silence before Darc offered a smile, a wistful one, far unlike any he'd expressed thus far. It lacked the malice, that charm he had always expressed, like a car salesman knowing he's got your signature. "C'mere. Lemme show you something while I've got some company that isn't annoying."

That sobering compliment aside, Marco obliged to his request, stepping closer to his parasite. Darc rested a hand on Marco's shoulder, and before his very eyes, the entire void suddenly shifted. Gone was the endless expanse of blackness, replaced with a semi-transparent view of Echo Creek Academy. Or rather, the street just outside of it.

"Woooaaah… what the heck is-" Marco tried to ask, but Darc placed a finger to his lips, offering a smile more befitting his nature before he gestured a little further up the road.

"Why are you so desperate to be my friend?" Star asked, staring down another copy of Marco, though this one sporting a far cleaner attire.

Marco watched with silent amazement as a scene from his first day in the past played out before him, the two halves on his single coin able to remember it fondly. Despite the setbacks it gave later on, of course.

"Before you came to Earth, I was just some kid who was always afraid to take on the world," the transparent copy admitted, clearly giving it his all, "Well, you arrived and brought out something in me I didn't know I had. ...A need for adventure…"

Marco's eyes widened, his breath caught in his throat, and he felt utterly weightless as the world around him shifted, suddenly flooding with passing images and scenes from the second chance he had been given. He watched in amazement as he and Star danced beneath the blue beams of the Blood Moon, rocks rained overhead as he and Star teamed up against a behemoth at St. Olga's.

Darc watched with just as much remembrance when Machinor boomed forth from a mountain, taken head on by two unruly young adults. Vartek and Toffee waged a small war, before the Star from the past came and went, offering a solemn goodbye. Flag day displayed the virtues the two teens could shoulder, while a sleepover christened the beginning of the deepening of their relationship.

Marco watched in awe at the lengths Star had gone to rescue him from the Neverzone, just to shudder as his own death passed him by. And still she was there to carry him forward. They battled with Vartek, fronting the weight of a God, led revolutions into war, and threw the biggest party of the year across three dimensions. And as the last of the scenes fizzled out before his eyes, Marco watched as once again, it was only him and Star standing alone in the street.

"-you made every moment exciting. Every moment I spent with you, across dimensions fighting bad guys, I felt like I could be more than just some 'safe kid' too afraid to have fun," the ghostly Marco stated, the street around them beginning to fade from view, "you were fun. And I'm scared of losing that courage to be more than what I am. I'm scared that I'll lose you…"

The scene evaporated, a mist replaced by the returning void as Darc let go of Marco, his trademark smile never leaving his lips. "I may not have been here for all of that, but I can remember it like I was," he offered, pausing for a moment to let Marco comb through his own memories, "you have so much to live for, and I have so much to remember. I'm alright with how things turned out... I'm fine with letting go, even after my big chance blew up in my face."

For a moment, neither said a word as Marco continued to stare ahead, his eyes having been flooded with tears. Finally, he wiped his cheeks and furrowed his brow, looking down as his mind raced.

He had been the first to show some semblance of acceptance when Darc showed he wasn't what he appeared to be. After all, it wasn't his doppleganger that was to blame for all of his faults; it was the other half of Darc that had caused all this. And truth be told, he still owed him for his efforts in protecting Star, even if they wound up being somewhat fruitless.

"But, that's enough about me. You need to fight with everything you are, because your enemy has just as much to live for, and die for," Darc noted, losing his trademark smile and drawing Marco's attention back to the space around him.

Again, Darc placed a hand on Marco's shoulder. And again the void was awash with a flood of color, sound, and light. There, right before them, was a couple. Dancing under a spotlight of blood red, beset on all sides by Mewmans, Demons, and Monsters. It was a ball for the ages between all species of Mewni, and in the midst of it all was a woman with forest green hair, and a Septarian.

"- don't even know who you are… this is crazy," the woman, likely Merina, voiced her concern with dancing alongside Vartek, but it appeared she wasn't alone.

"Yes...this is bothersome. I have no intention of bonding myself to some Mewman," Vartek growled, though his moves and mannerisms told a different tale, "What could you possibly have to offer to the Prince of Monsters?"

Marco let his eyes go wide, again feeling a rush of wind that stole the air from his lungs before his vision flooded with memories. These being memories he had no business seeing.

With an Earth shattering boom, Vartek and Merina were laying waste to a pack of Griffons, dodging bolts of lightning and a hailstorm of icicles. Magic and sword were hand in hand as they bested a legion of vampires. Across dimensions they fought as one, and in every scene they grew closer, time and time again their lives put in peril only to be saved by their skill in battle.

A wedding came and went, participants looking far less satisfied than the two to be bound. They toured the universe, bathing in the light of a supernova and danced across the rings of a frozen planet. Marco was stunned by the beauty, but it always shifted into something else, his enemy following a Mewman just as he was.

And in no time, the battles began to slow. They were climbing the Jagged Mountains to find the chalice of Fertility. They built a Manor from the ground up only to see it burn to the ground at the hands of those who saw them as a heretic pair, but even that wasn't enough to stop their love. They moved, they rebuilt, and soon, a family was made: a young girl with seafoam hair brought into the world. But Marco could feel that she would only see it crumble around her by the hands of a woman he had seen only in visions.

"You two are so much alike, it's scary. Even Luna agrees that the similarities between you and Star, and Vartek and Merina, were almost too perfect to pass up." Darc tightened his grip on Marco's shoulder just as the visions started to die down, his voice taking on a chilling tone. "But Vartek isn't who he once was. He's fallen far from his old self, Marco, and there's no climbing out of the pit he's in now."

Suddenly, the void started to glitch and lurch around them, sporadic bolts of green pixels shooting across the emptiness. Just as before, visions started to fill the emptiness, but they were chaotic and rugged, foggy against the clarity they had earlier.

Vartek was screaming for mercy, begging for the moon to spare the one he loved, but in a wash of blinding red light she was gone. Nebula was to blame, and as Marco felt a torrent of hatred burn into his mind, he saw himself raging against armies screaming for a chance to die, to no avail. The world had taken what he had to live for, and refused to give him the same fate.

The visions glitched and shifted, veins of lime green snaking their way from above as Vartek fought beings of incomprehensible size and scale. He stole stones made of the purest ores to fuel his mission, erecting a grotesque statue in a crumbling temple. He offered half of his soul to have it forged into a new being, and that beings magic only further fueled his descent into blinding madness

Hundreds were slain where they tried to stop him, he gathered power, knowledge, skills and rage incarnate to propel him further still. A deal was struck with a being from a nightmarish dimension to travel back in time, and even then it was a slog to fight for the final pieces he needed, the magic that gave him strength slowly breaking the already broken soul within. But he couldn't stop.

Marco could feel the magic burning into his veins as he heard Vartek beg for the pain to stop. Nothing could quench the unfathomable guilt plaguing his mind, the crushing weight of what he had lost, and the fractured reality he could not escape. Until finally, there was simply nothing left of him. The void was ripping itself apart at the seams in a cacophony of screams of war, but he couldn't. Stop.

He struck down Ludo, destroyed Toffee, Turned Moon, Star, and even himself to reach his goal, and when all of the pieces finally came together? The visions stopped. Nothing but a flash of green to silence the once unforgiving, and indifferent universe.

The void returned to that abrupt silence, leaving only Marco and Darc in its grotesque wake. Marco fell to his knees, the weight of what he had just lived through too much to carry alone.

"The man once known as Vartek is gone. The world took everything from him, chewed him up, and spit something else back out. You don't come back from pain like that. How could you?" Darc asked, choosing to look on into the distance, as though he was still reliving those memories. And in a way? He was. "If you die, then so do I, and so does everything else. You can't falter, you can't lose, and you can't save him. His mind is twisted and warped; in every way, the Vartek I used to be is as dead as Merina."

Marco struggled to his feet, flashes of events since passed and yet to come still whispering against the walls of his mind. And in the wake of such an onslaught he felt even more resolve than before to see this through to the end. "I understand," he whispered, "Vartek never deserved any of this, Merina either. But at this point, it's either him, or all of us."

Proud of the affirmation he had been worried for, Darc gave a wistful smile and met Marco's eyes. He was far less afraid for his host than he was weeks ago, though every bit satisfied with the role fate had dealt him. "Thanks again, by the way. For trusting me to keep Star safe. Even with two lives behind me, I don't know a lot of people who'd have made that choice."

This was starting to sound more and more like the goodbye Darc had promised, and not wanting to let the moment die so… indifferently, Marco decided he'd give his counterpart a taste of the peace they were both fighting for. "Do you have any regrets?" He asked simply, letting Darc mull it over at his own pace, "Last chance to get something off your chest. A parting word between two dying men."

Surprising them both, Darc stayed silent for a long, long time. Not that they were short of it here, they could spend years in this single moment of a dream. But everything had to come to an end eventually, so Darc let slip his one sole regret that wasn't even his to shoulder. "Silva…" he whispered, Marco watching as tears pooled and fell, "My daughter… she would have turned five by the time we abandoned our own reality."

Marco could recognize, and even empathize with that feeling of loss, to know someone you love is out there, but to be unable to reach them. The Star he knew when he was first cast back in time had been lost to him, and while he had a new version of her from day one, that didn't make the pain and fear any less real.

"I'll never see her again… she'll grow up and grow old, never knowing what truly became of her parents, and I will have wasted my life never being able to see her smile." Darc frowned, reaching for his chest to quell the building pressure in his throat. "But I suppose that's what wretches like Vartek and I deserve. Maybe in the afterlife… if I even make it that far..."

"We all might, sooner than we expect," Marco reasoned, watching as Darc collected himself before nodding.

"Don't let him destroy the world that turned him into this. Save him from himself, and build something better from the ashes," came Darc's nearabout demand, "leave a world that when Vartek comes around, won't leave a daughter without her father. Without me."

Marco nodded in return, reaching towards Darc, and pulling himself into a tight embrace. "We'll be better," he voiced, a prospect Darc had once offered to Merina in another life, just before everything fell apart, "I won't let that happen. I promise."

Darc, surprised by the hug, stiffened at the empty promise meant for a terminal patient. But he let himself relax, hugging half of his own conscience before he sighed, satisfied at the very least. "Good. Now go save your world, so I can someday enjoy mine."

O - O - O - O - O - O - O

How much time had passed, what had vaulted him from the selective dream state of the void, or what his current situation was? Marco had no idea, his body fighting to stave off sleep long enough for him to get his bearings. All he safely knew was that he was still being hugged, and that brought all of the comfort and ease he could ever want.

When he opened his eyes, he found the void was gone. In the wake of the dissipating darkness, Marco found himself lying on his back in a shallow pool of warm, murky water, nestled in the arms of a soundly sleeping Star. 'Oh yeah… we were at Buffrog's," he reasoned, shaking off the last bits of bleary fog, 'which probably means…"

He looked around the empty, trashed room and found himself staring right into the downturned eyes of The Blood Moon Goddess.

"Marco, so nice to see you again. Far better company than… the other one," Luna offered as a sobering good morning. Though truthfully, she'd have been lying if she said she hadn't grown to enjoy her prior company, at least a little. "How are you feeling, child?"

Marco tried to sit up, but a wrought iron grip from his better half and a slew of throbbing pains kept him at bay. For the moment he was bed ridden and chose to answer a Goddess while lying down, death penalty or not. "Like I got hit by a very angry bus carrying the worst hangover of my life," he laughed, wincing halfway through, "But atleast I'm not dead. ...not yet anyway. I guess I have you to thank for that?"

"Indeed, I cleaned you both up while you were resting," Luna noted before taking a seat, an odd sight if ever there was one, "and while it's nice to see both of my Chosen in such a state as this, I suspect we are too short on time to… 'chillax'."

"Yeah… Darc was pretty vague about it, but I know I don't have long before my light goes out for good, huh? The corruption is getting worse."

Luna nodded. "If I may, while I have your ear, child," she prompted, leaning forward to inspect Marco closely, "do you… resent me? For sending you back, that is. To this deplorable reality where a fight to the death is the least of your worries?"

With such a sudden question, Marco felt trapped, both in the vice that was Star Butterfly, and the suspicious look of the Blood Moon. "No, I don't- …at least, not anymore," he saw fit to give her his sincerity, she had said before that their thoughts were hers to read, "We used to, to a degree. I was mostly scared when I first got here, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the magic fire, but…"

He thought back to the memories he had been shown, a picturesque sideshow of his new life. Luna was at the forefront of it all, from the magic he could wield to the vessel of his time travel. "But I've changed a lot with history. I'm not the same kid I used to be, Neverzone or not. Both of my lives with Star have put me through so much, and I wouldn't trade any of it if I could."

"Not even Vartek?" Luna felt obliged to ask, though she knew the answer as plain as paper.

"There's a lot I would change about him, but even so he needs to be stopped. That wrong needs a right, you know?" Luna nodded again, this time adopting an air of muted dejection. She knew he was referring to her wrong in particular, the very action that vaulted them into this situation in the first place. But even a Goddess can practice humility, right?

"Would you take it back? If you could?" Marco asked, clearly taking her by surprise.

He remembered that flash of red, and that irresistible rage that burned like the sun. Surely there could have been another way, a compromise that left everyone in some form of satisfaction. But then again, that was a wildly optimistic view of people. Especially those that bore the scars of war and prejudice.

"I would," came Luna's flat answer. "If I could take it back, as you put it, I would have found a better path to take. But I was too consumed by disgust, anger, and fear of repercussions to see them. I let my emotions guide me, and now you two must pay the price of my actions."

Marco thought about that for a moment, finally coming to the reasoning that, "well, you are a love Goddess, so it's not all that crazy that you think with your emotions first."

"You think I am a love Goddess, child?" Came the response Marco hadn't expected. He turned to look up at Luna only to find her staring right back with curiosity. He nodded, eliciting a short laugh from her. "Marco, what on Earth would give you-"

"You guys talk really loud," Star grumbled, stirring from her nap to sit up, rubbing the sleep from her bleary vision, "gal tries to get a few winks of beauty rest, and we're all just getting… into…"

She locked eyes with Marco, blinking hard a few times before tackling him back to the floor with an irresistible, unceremonious hug. "Marco! Oh my god you're back!" She cried out with delight. Marco could only reciprocate at half her enthusiasm, grinning to match her excitement as he answered, "Thanks to you, yeah. I'm back."

Star pulled back from her hug and eyed him up and down, inspecting him in detail until she was satisfied he was neither catastrophically injured, nor under Darc's influence. "I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or not… but look at you now!" Another satisfied once over passed between them before she started, her smile wilting as her eyes fell to meet his.

With sincerity, all she could offer was "I'm sorry I-," before Marco leaned forward. Kissing her, he put an end to her apology and enjoyed a rapturous embrace with his better half. They'd already traded blame, and found neither of themselves at fault for what happened, so there was no need for any apologies. And once he was sure she got the point, he pulled back to find her smiling with her prior enthusiasm once more. "I love you."

Luna watched with vested interest as Star's face took on a shade of crimson almost rivaling her own, before the young princess sheepishly answered, "I love you too, Macho Man."

By her siblings, the fruits of her efforts never failed to remind Luna of all the better parts of life. To see two souls she had chosen to bind struggle through all manners of reality, and still persevere by carrying each other onward? She had lived for eons and had only ever found further proof that there was nothing else quite like it in the universe. But that only reminded her from where those struggles came to be. By all means they were subject to a long list of horrors forged by the world's they came from, but a select few were crafted by her own hand. And she needed to fix them before her chosen could persevere no longer.

"I hold no greater joy in my immortal life than seeing the two of you grow in such a way… but I'm afraid I must 'spoil the moment'," Luna interjected, standing from the couch and offering her seat to them, "As much as you both have struggled, there is one final struggle you two must overcome."

Star and Marco locked eyes, ripped from their second reunion before they each took a seat. "Vartek," Marco agreed, turning to Star, "you almost didn't make it out last time, so what do you think we should do? Do we… have a chance of beating him?"

"As you are now, no. And I wouldn't suggest trying again," the present Goddess offered before gesturing for Star to take the floor. But of the people in the room, Star looked the most unsure about what the next move could possibly be. Marco already knew it, but she barely escaped last time, and he wasn't exactly in peak fighting condition to help close the power gap. Fighting him outright would surely get them both killed, and that would be that.

"We can't fight him. He Turned everyone we could have called to for help, even my mom. He has an army and all of the magic, so there really isn't a whole lot we can do against that," Star speculated openly, her face crunching at the memory of her mother, "for now… I think we should focus more on keeping this away from him." She grabbed her now useless wand from the floor, stowing it in her purse as Marco weighed her words carefully.

"Well, if the name of the game is keepaway, why don't we just run?" Sure it would be difficult to hide from the man who could be everywhere, and everyone at once, but with a good enough hiding spot it was doable. "Atleast long enough for us to get an army of our own. We have help on Vintal, we could probably find some guys with a bit of power, right?"

The room was silent as the wall clock ticked precious seconds away, before Luna sighed, shaking her head. "It is unlikely that Vartek will allow such an act. His frustration at failing to secure the wand will only further his condition, and soon enough he will lose all sense of reason," she herself reasoned, "when he is totally lost to the magic within him, he will raze this world and simply move on to the next, until there is nowhere left to hide."

A grim outlook, but a true enough hypothesis.

"Alright, so we have to stop him sooner rather than later," Marco offered to a thoroughly deflated room, "is there any other source of magic we could draw some firepower from? If we get enough juice we could try to kill him before he has time to make his move, we could theoretically do to him what Star did to Toffee."

"And how are we even gonna do that?" Star slumped backwards, staring at the ceiling as flashes from her most recent battle passed her mind. "You can't sneak up on him when he's all coked out on magic. Which, we have zero of. We can't fight him without something as strong as all the magic in the universe."

That thought, while potent, had the unfortunate side effect of being entirely true. They had no Earthly reason to believe that they had any chance of fighting Vartek. It wasn't like last time where they could just make more magic with a mill horse, as the magic was technically still there. Just, broken. But as far as the unEarthly reasoning went? Both teens slowly turned their sights to the third present party in the room. "Unless, you might be able to help us?" Star asked.

Darc was no longer present to quell the flames of her audacity, and Marco didn't know the logistics of Luna's situation. So maybe asking once more would yield better results?

And as it turned out, it would.

Luna felt herself blush at the question. To assist them would almost certainly end in the revocation of her Godhood. But to abstain would mean the end of everything. "There might… be a means for you to combat Vartek," she finally answered, "but the risks are still great. I fear the gap between his power, and what I can offer you, is still far too wide."

"Let us have it, sister," came Star's optimism in a crashing wave, "you don't have to fight with us or do anything that might risk your job, all we need is a leg up on this guy to make things a little more fair."

"If fair is even a possibility at this point, I kind of agree," Marco noted, "Whatever advantage you could give us, we need it, Luna."

The Goddess in question watched the two of them carefully, whatever was going on behind her eyes they would never know. But finally, she let out a short sigh and relented. "My magic has the ability to purify the corruption. You both saw that when you brought Marco to me. Even your assessor, Baby, bore witness to such an ability in your castle, Star."

Both teens nodded as she explained, eager to learn more about something they hadn't put much thought into until now. Frankly, she was making a lot of sense, but… "Why didn't you purify it when things started to get out of hand?" Marco asked, immediately regretting it as he backpedaled. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything. Just uh… curious is all." Thankfully. Star came to his rescue.

"She can't interfere directly, like she did with Merina. If she steps out of line again, she'll be wiped from existence and history," she sighed, not happy to have lost her edge so soon, "but. If we do the purifying, then it's okay, right?"

Luna nodded. Though she looked uneasy with their proposition. "You would no doubt be able to purify the corruption, though the scale of the spell, and the use of it carry… certain disadvantages."

"Disadvantages? How could a spell that reverses your enemy's magic have a drawback?" Star asked, though she silently kicked herself for not realizing sooner. Of course such a spell existed, something to clean up magic in case someone like Toffee came around and mucked it up?

"The trick is not the effectiveness, child. The catch is that to use it, you have to purify the source of the corruption," came Luna's barbed response. Barbed not for the children, but for the implication it carried.

"...Vartek," Marco surmised. Of course they'd have to apply the spell to him directly. "So the only way to purify the magic, is to purify Vartek. Which, I guess he probably won't be too happy about, huh?"

Again, Luna nodded. But before either of the two could discuss the futility of that plan in full, she inclined her head toward Star. "Neither of the two of you possess enough magic to cure all magic of its sickness. As you are now, you wouldn't be able to cleanse enough of Varteks power for it to make a sizable difference."

Star's optimism took a hit, but Marco was there to push her forward, same as always. "What if we use it to clean up the High Commission? And Queen Moon?" He asked, leaning forward as though he could envision the addition of their forces, "with enough people on our side, we could overpower-"

"Wait. Wait wait wait," Star cut in with a silencing slice of her hand, "there is a third option. We could always destroy magic, that way Vartek-"

"NO!" Luna shouted, her hair violently thrashing like snakes as the room took on an invisible weight, "YOU CANNOT DESTROY THE- … MY... you...I'm sorry, I-." Upon witnessing the bewildered, confused faces of her chosen two, the Goddess smoothed herself over and inhaled sharply. "You cannot destroy magic, my child. I forbid you from tampering with the laws of nature. It would cause untold damage to… billions of lives would be forever changed!"

In light of her outburst, Star chanced a quick glance in Marco's direction, only to find him just as stumped. In their alternate future, they had done exactly that: tampered with the laws of nature and forever changed countless lives. But that was still a far cry better than the alternative… "Luna, I know you're the leading authority on this stuff, and I can understand why not," Star began with careful ease, "but… is this about Glossaryck?"

"Yes and no." Luna hadn't even hesitated, those three words already far from her grasp by the time she had said them. Thankfully, she opted for a little damage control, continuing, "among the lives forever changed by the destruction of magic, Glossaryck would be one of the many who would perish. But, as I once learned before I was turned into what I have been for eons, changing the Laws of Nature has consequences. The Ones granted you forgiveness in another timeline, but here, I can guarantee nothing. The both of you could be wiped from existence before you can even try."

"Well what about Vartek?" to think that Vartek had free reign to run around changing history and magic as he saw fit was ridiculous. But Luna had an answer he hadn't considered. One that hit close to home.

"Vartek is not changing the laws of nature, he is acting within them, as atrocious as his actions may be. But to destroy magic entirely, that would earn nothing less than the ire of the Ones. I forbid you both from tampering with such laws."

In response, Star was quick to furrow her brow even against a Goddess. "I don't like the idea any more than you do. Last time I didn't know any other way, and this time, there is no other way," she rooted with firm opposition, "Last time we were up against a tough enemy, and we cracked, I admit. But against someone who has control of all magic, and everyone on Mewni at his disposal? A better idea isn't just gonna fall into our lap, Luna! If we don't have any other choice, then we have to at least save who we can! The 'Ones' have to at least care about all the people vartek will kill, right?"

Watching all of this unfold, Marco felt his fair share of empathy for the Goddess. Unable to do anything as the world fell apart, she was facing the reality that maybe there really was no other way. Glossaryck, like so many others, would just be a part of a much bigger sacrifice they knew nothing about.

All they needed was a jump, any way to harness just enough power to purify the magic, and the rest they could handle themselves. But only Star, and maybe Moon, could possess that kind of power. Even he was in a much shallower league of his own, Marco remembering just how powerful Star really was when she cut loose.

Marco's eyes narrowed at the murky water surrounding them. He had a memory, one he was sure wasn't his, but a recollection he could see all the same. A spell of dark origins was used to tear down a wall, some kind of invisible barrier. Merina, she was at the center of it, sending nothing short of a hurricane forward with just the palm of her hand. She and Vartek had begun an onslaught on the Butterfly castle with nearly unrivaled strength, and resting in Merina's palm, was a single blue rock.

He inhaled hard enough to choke as he flailed madly, reaching and gesturing for Star as both she and Luna looked on in confusion. After a moment of coughing and manic staring at the both of them, Marco finally managed to clear his airway long enough to shout, "THE ROCK FROM THE FUTURE!"

Star chanced a befuddled look towards Luna, before turning her inquisitive stare at her boyfriend. "Marco, are you uh… are you still a little woozy from Darc's fight? Because you sound a little crazy, no offense."

"Nonononononono, no. The rock Star!" He all but demanded, once he had finally cleared his airways, "that weird 'present' that our 'counselor' gave us at school? The rock from the future?!"

Star stared at him for a downright maddening length of time, before she hit the mark and took to rummaging in her purse. "Of all the times to look at the stupid rock, you pick a crisis," she sighed, but nonetheless produced the small, shimmering blue stone. "Are you talking about this thing?"

"YES! OH MY GOD YES!" he cried out, eliciting yet another traded glance between the two women, "Star, do you seriously not know what this is!? I mean- well I don't, but I do know that it's got some insane power right?"

Star made to question both his sanity. And exactly what prophetic nonsense he was going on about now when Luna started, suddenly lurching forward and analyzing the rock with vested interest. "By my sisters… that's… where did you get this?" She asked, incredulous at what exactly Star had been carrying around in her purse of all places!

"We got it from some lady who was acting as our counselor, like a really long time ago," Marco began, helpfully supplemented by Star noting," she actually turned out to be a Goddess, we think. Saras...wati?"

Surprising the both of them, Luna facepalmed hard enough to send a ripple through her ethereal hair. Groaning into her hand, she glared daggers at the ceiling, but ultimately resigned herself to see it as a blessing, rather than a bout of unrivaled, divine stupidity. "Yes. I'm familiar with her, as it was me who sent her to interview the two of you," she offered, not noticing the traded nod between Star and Marco, "I wanted to know more about you both at the time, after our unceremonious first meeting, and that business with Vartek. But to think that she'd give you that? How senseless can the Goddess of knowledge really be?"

Star, after having observed and absorbed that tirade of information, leaned forward and gestured to the rock. "So what exactly is this thing? She said it would help save us, which I guess that's… it would be helpful here, but how is a rock supposed to make a difference?"

Luna immediately smoothed herself over and took a deep breath. She would surely have a word with that idiot deity later, but for now she had to address their salvation. "That rock, Star, is actually one of the most powerful weapons a magic user can possess. Merina once used it against Queen Nebula, six hundred or so years in the future after it was stolen from the Butterfly Vault. Furthermore, it is not a rock," she explained carefully, though Star had wisely chosen to set the stone down on a toppled ottoman, just in case. "That is a Raksuran Stone: a distilled, solidified crystal of magic that… well... Some of your descendants figured it would be best to create a failsafe, should the user of The Wand ever be tainted. It was created from magic itself; pure and powerful, though limited."

Marco looked down at the inconspicuous little stone. Magic, distilled and crystallized into a single source to keep the Queen in check… he was staring at the proverbial nuclear arms race of the future. Which further proved the point, "I can see why this thing was locked up. That's a whole nother level of danger if someone like Toffee got their hands on it."

"Precisely. The Raksuran Stone isn't so much a conduit for magic as the Wand is, but a separate reserve source," Luna noted, unable to take her eyes off of it, "the wand has checks, controls, and careful design to keep the flow of magic steady and safe. The Raksuran Stone does not, and grants more magic than the wand could use in a day, instantaneously."

Abruptly, Star stood. Taking the stone back from the ottoman, she tucked it back into her purse for safekeeping before she asked, "this is it then, right? With this much magic, we could actually do it. We could reverse the corruption and stop Vartek."

"And, magic won't have to be destroyed, right?" Marco asked in tandem, "all we have to do is get to Vartek and cast the spell, and we're hunky dory. Problem solved."

Luna thought for a moment, weighing every possible variable, and accounting for the prominent future mishap they'd have to work around. Frankly, this wasn't a jaunt into the woods to beat a wolf, they were talking about a man with the power of a God. Two teens on limited magic with an extinction capable stone to flip a switch, probably wasn't going to cut it.

Seeing her transfixed stare turn into one of perplexed pessimism, Marco found it best to give Luna some words of courage. Or at the very least, to say something that made her smoldering glare a little less hopeless. "We know what we're up against, Luna, and it's… pretty grim. But, these are the cards we've got, so we don't have much of a choice. I know you don't want to see magic destroyed, so I think… we have to go with option B. With any luck, the two of us might-"

*knock knock knock*

Nobody moved.

Even Luna fell silent, all three staring at the door with muted terror, too frozen with fear to even speak. Vartek had found them, surely. He had eyes all over Mewni, it was only a matter of time before he showed up at Buffrog's. The battle was already upon them.

Wordlessly, Star handed Marco his scissors before collecting as much magic as she could in her hands. Marco grew his scissors into a sword and let its blade ignite into a… somehow full, rolling teal flame, and while there was surprise at the color, it would have to wait until they weren't in immediate danger. Luna took a looming step closer to the door. Her hair, usually lively and ethereal, remained still.

"Yo, Buffrog? Are you home? We're looking for-" was all the voice from the other side of the door had time to say. In a blur, Star had charged forward, threw open the door, and unceremoniously dragged all three outsiders into the living room before slamming the door shut behind them.

"TOM!" She screamed with excitement, throwing her arms around him, Torriditty, and Janna.

She had them in a Johansen bear hug, nearly lifting all three into the air as the Demon in question grunted, "Sta-ahr! Good tuh shee you, but… can't… breathe!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Star cried out as she dropped them back to their feet, Janna among the first to collect her breath.

*cough cough* "See? What did I tell you, still going strong," she managed between ragged heaves, gesturing to the two, "Star is still kicking hard enough to break a rib, Marco's ready to kill from the looks of it, and she's-" Janna stopped, drawing the eyes of both Tom and Torriditty towards the third entity in the room. "Uhhh, she's… who are you?"

Reading a bewildered look on Luna's face matching with the confused stares of the new arrivals, Star took it upon herself to introduce them all. "Guys... this, is the Goddess of the Blood Moon, Luna," she explained, said Goddess taking to pose in a deific stance with her hair pouring over her shoulder, "She's the one we told you about that sent Marco back, and she's helping us figure out how to stop Vartek."

Neither Tom nor Torriditty could manage a response, the two of them floundering for something reasonable to offer in the presence of a God. Janna, however, took that introduction in stride, offering a modest, "Ohhhh, that Blood Moon Goddess. Obviously. Hey, any chance you find some extra fire magic lying around, you come find me first, yeah?"

Marco facepalmed, but Luna couldn't keep a proper stoic facade going. She smiled and gave a shrug as she answered, "if you survive for another six hundred and sixty six years, and you find a proper partner, I may take you up on that."

With a cocked eyebrow, Janna hummed back, "done and done, unlock immortality, get crazy superpowers. I'll hold you to it later this millenia."

"Okay okay, present parties aside, how did you guys get here? And what the heck is Janna doing here?" Marco cut in to demand, trying to keep himself in check. Far from Star's warm welcome, he was equal parts amazed, dismayed, and frankly offended to see that among the new arrivals, there was another human.

He had been all but forced to make a deal with a corrupt entity for his life just to get his body here, and had earned a proper thrashing that barely left him alive. He had been trapped within his own mind as a result of his bargain and had justly earned his way here, no thanks to his friends.

Meanwhile, Janna had strolled in as easily as Park Avenue with two demons in tote. Notably two demons who made it all but clear they had no intention of helping him get to Mewni when he needed it most. Granted, it was Star's doing, but it still left a sore spot as he glared.

Clearly, an explanation was due, Tom doing his best to look nonchalant despite the scorching glare he was receiving. He was, after all, the only one even capable of getting everyone to another dimension without scissors. But as much as he wanted some excuse to play it off and sweep it under the rug, no one voiced an objection to the interrogation.

"Look, I'm sorry man, but Star told me that if I took you from Earth, she would do to me whatever she did to Vartek," he reasoned, desperate to divy the blame, "and as much as I like being your friend, I like being alive a little bit more."

"And how does that explain why you brought Janna?" Marco inquired with languid interest.

"Well we had to find you guys somehow," was his lackluster explanation. Although, as Marco didn't look convinced, Tom decided to lay it all out. "Star fell off the radar, and we were coming to pick you up, but you were gone too. We didn't know if something bad happened to you guys, so we asked Janna to track you down. We were worried about you guys, and for good reason. Long story short, we're here to help."

Janna raised a hand as she plopped down onto the soggy sofa, kicking her feet up on the ottoman. "Correction, they're here to help. I did my part, so for the rest of my short life I'm gonna kick back, relax, and-" She didn't get the chance to finish. Luna, who had been watching her closely since they had arrived, suddenly approached her and took to staring. Far too close for comfort, but there was something in there. Something dark, but not...malicious?

Janna glanced around the room only to find the stare of a Goddess was a bit too much to ignore. "Change your mind on the fire magic? I get it, probably a bit too soon to ask but-"

"Janna. What do you have within you?" Luna abruptly asked, startling her quarry, "you carry something. A discordant magic I find to be in excess in light of our new foe. What...exactly...are you?"

Another glance around the room led Janna's eyes to Marco who, thankfully, seemed to understand the question a little better. He shook his head, still sore from the unexpected and unhelpful arrival, before gesturing to Janna with impatience written in the wrinkles of his furrowed brow. "Don't worry about her, she's just weird," he offered, "Human, witchy, theif-y, but mostly weird."

"No… no no I can see past the 'weird'," Luna continued, her analysis far from over, much to Janna's discomfort, "past the human, too, but no further. It's like you not only wield the corruption, but it's changed… taken root within you and grown. I feel as though you could fight with us."

Silence befell the room before Star cut through with a laugh, drawing the eyes of the little menagerie gathered there. "Hah, haha, nahhhh. Janna's not fighting Vartek, doy. C'mon, Luna, be serious."

More silence. And while it seemed that the room was divided between being shocked at Star's etiquette, and agreeing with her, Luna stood at the middle with a skeptical frown. "She made it this far has she not? With whatever dissonance she carries, she could keep Vartek from commanding the Turned," she offered, only adding to the divide of the room, "at the very least, she could be useful in keeping Vartek from communicating with all of them. The corrupted magic she carries could cancel out the magic used to create these monstrosities, two altered versions of the same thing would create a dissonance to brek his control."

"Hey, whatever takes this big douchebag down faster, right?" Tom chimed as he shot Janna a thumbs up, "we're toootally here to help, just like I said."

"You're not helping!"

"You're not fighting!"

Star and Marco spoke in tandem, each glaring at a set group of individuals. Star kept her scolding frown glued to the demons, while Marco made quick work of quelling whatever fire they were trying to light in Janna.

"What? Why not? You realize we came all the way here to help you guys, right? Tor' and I even had a crazy complex escape plan from the underworld, you can't just write us off." Tom looked to Torriditty for assurance, happy to find she shared the same sentiment. They weren't going anywhere, and they wouldn't accept the benchwarmer treatment now.

"Hate to change my mind so fast but, if I get to use magic and not get arrested, I might as well go out like my uncle: on my own terms," Janna agreed in a wild turn of heart, much to Marco's annoyance. With a flurry of her hands she produced the talisman hanging around her neck, putting it on display for all to see. "Guess since the jig is up, this is probably what your Goddess friend is so taken with. Got it from my best bud Marco. Or I guess, kinda not."

Star folded her arms, and like magic she adopted that same ironclad dissent that her mother was famous for. "I don't know what that is, or where you got it, but the three of you are not fighting Vartek. He'll kill you the moment he realizes we're not there to bargain," she scolded. Frighteningly, she even sounded like Moon. "If you guys want to help us figure out a plan, be my guest. But you're on the first demon portal home, got it?"

"Wha- Star, come on," came Tom's plea, "Let us help fight this dude. You said that if you lose, we lose everything right? Why are you two so set on kicking us to the sidelines when it's pretty obvious that you need a hand?"

Star, in a similar wild turn to Janna's, found that she couldn't actually form an argument for that, they did need help. But quite the same, she had her reservations, and in her place Marco chose to take the floor despite not being asked directly.

"This isn't your fight. It's ours and Luna's. If you guys got hurt trying to protect us, or worse?" He looked at Star. She was doing her best to avoid their stares. "You all know what Vartek's been capable of, what he's been doing... and now? He's juiced up on all the magic in the universe. I really don't have any place saying this, mostly because I was always the 'normal guy', but this is just way too big for you."

"Blah blah blah, jeez, Diaz. You might just wind up talking Vartek to death." Janna groaned, but she at least understood the intent. "We get it, you and Star are all sappy and scared, which is cool. And like it or not we're helping you take this gator down, because yeah, it's 'bigger than us', but that's all the more reason to step into the mud and get dirty. So suck it up and tell us what to do, or we'll just go off on our own and get in your way. Your choice."

Marco glared at her.

"Hypocrite."

"Sue me."

"Guys, not the time," Star barked, interrupting their little...thing. Despite the circumstances, it brought a smile to her face, having her friends together again, or at least some of them. It was nice to feel some semblance of normalcy before Mewni was about to be-

"Star, focus."

"Right right. Sorry. But honestly, she kind of has a point." Star watched as Marco's scowl turned from blatant disapproval, to that familiar look of shocked curiosity she always looked for. It was his tell, that sign that he was willing to listen to whatever plan or idea she could hatch up purely because she was Star.

"As much as I hate it, they're kinda right actually. I think it would be safer to have them with us. And before you say it, and I know that's rich coming from me, but it's true. If Tom and Torriditty can hold off the Mewmans and Monsters, while Janna messes with Varteks spell to talk to them? We'd have a way better chance at hitting him with the purification spell and saving everyone else without hurting them."

She watched as Marco seemed to consider the proposition. The demons definitely had some pretty sizable firepower, and if Luna was vouching for Janna… but none of that meant they were safe from harm. "Look, Star. I know you wanna make up for trying to go solo, but this isn't the way to do it. We don't even know if Vartek can actually be stopped with the rock, let alone if we can take him head on. There's way too much risk here for everyone to charge in blind." Star's enthusiasm gave a little, but she held firm enough to reason with him despite how right he actually was.

"Don't you think we should let them decide?" She asked, turning his attention to the eager combatants being discussed, "I don't know any more than you do, but I do know that we stand a better chance if we fight together. If they want to help save everyone, maybe it wouldn't be so crazy to let them."

Marco stared for a moment before letting out his captured breath, looking back to Star. "Some of us might not make it out of this. Can you live with that?" He asked bluntly.

Star felt her position falter, the weight of his question a sudden burden, but she found the courage to answer nonetheless. "I can't make the choice to stop them. Neither can you. All we can do is everything in our power to make it home safe. Together."

"Cheeeeeese feeeest," Janna groaned, but Torriditty seemed to find far more grasp in the idea.

"When we make it through this, 'together', can Tom and I crash at the castle?" She asked, finally taking a seat next to Janna, "We maaaay have committed treason to get here. Just sayin'."

Star turned to Marco with a flagrant grin and found his resolve cracking, those classic wrinkles in the corner of his frown giving away the pressure like dirty laundry. "Marcooooo, did you hear that? They committed treason, now we gotta take em with us."

Marco folded his arms, slouching into a disagreeable pout reserved for when his safe-kid alarms were going off. A rare sight in those days.

"Marcoooooooo, cmooooonnn, they're runawaaaaays," Star goaded, rocking his shoulder back and forth as her grin persisted, "you know you wanna assemble…" She leaned to his ear and whispered sweet dreams to his very soul.

"The marco-nifficent seveeeen."

His glare deepened. "There's only six of us."

"I can call Ponyhead if you want."

"Marco-nifficent six it is," He barked, a plastered grin to match Stars adorning his cheeks. He wasn't fooling anyone as traded glances of doubt were tossed around the room, but it was good enough to run with. "Before we divy out roles and plans and all that stuff, though, Luna: you said Janna could block Vartek from using his goons, is that a 'maybe'?"

Luna pursed her lips, her hair falling lower in misty waves. "It's possible. That object around her neck screams with the same stink of magic as Vartek," she noted, producing a wisp of red energy that snaked a circle in her palm, "If she can cast this spell close to him, it should at least make it difficult to command an army, hopefully even just a handful of Turned."

Janna stood idly by as the swirling cloud of red snaked its way closer before it was sucked into her talisman. Normally, it just felt kinda heavy, maybe a little cold to the touch, but now it felt warm and comforting, like it had been given to her by an old friend for safe keeping. "Sweeeeet, God magic," she hummed, rubbing her hands over the warm wood, "I can't wait until we get home, this is gonna be a riot."

Not wanting to dwell on the horrific idea that Janna now held a higher power than life itself, Marco shook it from his mind and turned to Tom and Torriditty. "While Janna's doing… that, can you guys hold off the goons long enough for us to get in and try to fix the magic? It's gonna be… messy, for lack of better terms."

To answer his question, Tom rubbed the back of his neck and kicked at the water at his feet. "I dunno man… if Janna's spell doesn't cut it, we might be able to hold our own, but holding back an army is a stretch," he reasoned, "We're almost out of gas, but if it means giving you two an opening, we can kick enough ass to get you in the door." For good measure, he punched his hand and smirked, a gesture particularly repulsive to Star for the implication it carried.

"You guys can't hurt the Turned too badly," came her warning, much to the demon's surprise, "These are still my people, and they're being controlled. We don't want to kill any of them, if that's even possible." That got everyone's attention. These weren't mindless zombies thrown their way, these were living Mewmans and Monsters that had been turned into… well, Turned.

"Star and I are gonna try and blitz Vartek, and we're gonna use a spell to purify his magic. Hopefully it'll be over before we know it," Marco took to listing, capitalizing on the plummeting mood of their reality despite the skeptical looks. Their situation was ugly, it was almost hopeless, but there was still a chance they could win. They needed that possible reality, and despite the skeptical looks, they wanted to believe him. "I know, there's a good chance this blows up in our faces, that it doesn't work and we all get the boot. If that happens… Well, we just have to go all out, okay? No reservations, save who you can, and hold nothing back."

But Star had reservations. Sure, despite the bravado and the power, the smiles and the laughter, people were likely going to die. But it was better to hope they could save everyone than to walk in knowing you have to take a life you never knew. Only Vartek wanted that, for the universe and everyone in it, whether or not he was in control. They were past saving him, and maybe they were past saving her people too.

Marco facepalmed, biting back a curse as he looked around the room. "I forgot, that still leaves the High Commission and...Queen moon," he shuddered, careful not to step too hard on the eggshells, "Those guys are gonna put up a fight worth ten of us. How do we get around them?"

"I can deal with Glossaryck's children," Luna cut in, the distaste of mentioning them far from hidden, "To avoid the issue of interfering directly, I can cut them off from most of their power. This fight is between you and Vartek, and I will not allow...them, to stand in your way."

Wordlessly, Star traded a nervous glance with Marco, the ire of her depiction of the Magical high commission not going unnoticed. Clearly, they would have to have a serious conversation with Glossaryck at some point about his relationship. But startling vendettas aside, that just left one person. "Star, are you gonna be able to keep your-... Queen Moon, off our backs? She's definitely gonna be there."

She paled to a lighter shade of alabaster, but nonetheless she nodded. At best, she would be low on magic just like she was, and at worst? Well, worst case scenario she would be just peachy running on corrupted magic now that she herself was corrupted. "I'll handle it. We can't afford to pick our battles right now, so leave it to me. If I can't help, then you're in charge of the spell."

Marco recognized a bad situation brewing, but they were well and fresh out of choices at this point. "Alright then, we all have our missions, let's try to finish this clean and quick," Marco announced, his resolve worn upon his sleeve. But shockingly, nobody seemed to share it. "What?"

"Dude, when did you get all commando on us?" Tom asked.

"Seriously, I feel like you want me to storm the beaches of Normandy next," Janna concurred, earning at least a blooming blush from the kid who once asked permission to ask to use the restroom.

"Just… don't die, okay?" he asked, this time earning their compliance, "I know we can't promise anything, but if we make it back, we can all go to Brittas together for lunch. My treat." At that, Janna pumped her fist in the air, Marco finding it odd that that was what got her investment. But whatever got everyone on the same page was fine by him.

"So, while we're all just hanging out, chilling before the end of the universe," Tom offered, sliding closer to the revered Goddess he had only read about, "Oh, my Blood Moon Goddess, I have to ask if I've earned your ire? For trying to use you to get back with Star? I admit I was being selfish and dumb, and I don't wish to harbor any ill tiding from you!"

"Why are you talking like a choir boy?"

"Seriously, you sound like you want her to kill you."

Luna gave him a smile, leaning closer to the terrified demon, and ruffled his rosey hair. "You are a sweet boy, and please: call me Luna," she offered, earning a wash of relief from Tom as Torriditty slid beside him to bask in the glow of their revered Goddess, "I think you've learned your lesson, as you were fated to. But if you ask me? The real crime during my last selection was the venue."

Marco watched as Janna joined in on the fun, poking at Tom's proud heritage as the Goddess suggested Dance Dance Craze as a Blood Moon Ball event, before the conversation took a turn towards her chosen two. As that trainwreck came and went, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder, turning to see Star making her way toward the kitchen with a beckoning finger.

Silently he followed, and when he had reached her, he found her leaning against the dimly lit counter, her eyes transfixed to him in that same, appraising stare from before. She didn't say anything, just drinking in the sight of him in earnest. Finally, he worked up the nerve to ask, "what is it?" Admittedly impatient to hear why she had pulled him aside.

Her answer? Once she was satisfied with what she saw, or having taken in enough sight of him, she pushed off from the counter and kissed him. It was soft, and warm like the sand on the beach back home, and much the same it scorched his skin where she touched.

He was starving for it too, that much she could tell. The way his hands explored her back and shoulders and sides as he exhaled a relieved breath? Ho yea, that was Marco at his worst, he was fiending for some of his Princess. But Star knew that as badly as she had missed him, the stress he was all but shedding was only growing. So after a moment of bold embrace she pulled back, happy to meet his confused yet happy grin with one of her own.

"If we lose, I just wanna take that with me to the other side."

Marco made to comment, either on the grim outlook or the bluntness of her explanation, he couldn't say. But he stopped when he saw the fear in her eyes that hid behind a smile. That fear was good at hiding, especially in her, but it wasn't alone. Because tucked away beside her fear and worry, was her overwhelming willpower to overcome their adversary. Grim report aside, she was still kicking in there, same as him.

"You're so different from when we first met," he sighed, though it was with content, "You've grown a lot, Star, despite everything holding you back."

She let a little laugh slip, not that anyone was close enough to notice. "You're one to talk, Macho Man. Who would have guessed that that creepy guy spouting about the future... would lead to this."

Marco rolled his eyes above an entertained grin as she squeezed his arm, all in good fun. "Seriously though, I know we spent ten years in a pocket dimension getting a head start, but… thanks. Here's hoping I get more chances to prove how much I've 'grown'."

She stared at him, daring him to criticize her attitude despite their situation, but his grin held firm to match her own. Gone was the helpless nature of their conversation, Marco was as himself as he ever was when he was with her. Like this. "You don't need to prove anything, Star. You're way past that now, and everyone out there knows how far you've come," he answered, his tone soft but steady, "when it's time to pick up the pieces, after this is over, I know you'll be right there at the front to keep us in line. Everyone's gonna look to you to pull them forward. Maybe not as a Queen, maybe not even as a princess, but as a leader that stepped up and made sure everyone made it through."

Despite what the future would hold, Star held nothing back as she broke into a wide smile and brought him into a tight embrace. His high opinion of her, the way that no matter what, he always held her higher than she could hold herself? There was nothing else like it in the universe. She could die happy knowing that at the very least, Marco was there for her. "In case this is it for the universe," she whispered into his ear, "I love you, Marco Diaz."

All he could do was smile at the wall behind her as he held the world in his arms, his cheeks as red as hers as he answered. "I love you too Star. I always-"

"What are all of you people doing in my house?"

Abruptly, both Star and Marco were given pause before scrambling to untangle themselves and make a break for the living room. There, they found Buffrog standing beside his ruined furniture, an angry look shifting into one of surprise when he saw the two people he actually knew. "Buffrog! You're actually here!" Star shouted, throwing her arms around the rotund amphibian.

Buffrog gave her a pat on the back, rubbing his bleary eyes. "Da, I live here, and I was sleeping, Booterfly. Is four in the morning," he grumbled, right before Luna approached with a courtesy bow.

"I apologize for intruding on your home, Yvgeny Bulgolyubov," she offered, his quizzical frown shifting towards one of acceptance. The Princess had a knack for having weird friends anyway, so it made sense that he'd eventually get dragged into meeting them. They weren't exactly friends, but she'd done him some favors, so maybe it was alright to just go with it. "Is no trouble, just be sure to clean living room before you leave."

Luna flicked her wrist, a wave of red magic sweeping across the room to reset everything to its rightful place, and previous state. And while Star wanted to ask if she had any intention of doing that earlier, she had better questions in mind. "Buffrog. Where are the babies? Are you okay?"

He gave her a puzzled look, but nodded after a moment of realization. "Da, babies are at sister's pad. After scary lizard man took over Ludo's operation, is much safer out of town."

"You have nooo idea," Marco groaned, and while another puzzled look was sent his way, Star took the reins back and addressed Buffrog with firm finality. "Buff frog, listen to me very carefully: go to your kids right now. Don't stop for anything, don't get caught, avoid anyone you see; you need to get out of here as fast as possible. That lizard man, Vartek? He's got all of Mewni under his spell, and he won't stop until everything is destroyed. Get. Out. Of the kingdom."

Buffrog, to his credit, took the instructions in stride and nodded with wide eyes. This was a far stretch from the bad business with Toffee, and from the look of everyone, the stakes were a little higher than just stealing the wand. Probably. "If you think is best… Da, I will go," he answered, quickly grabbing a small sack of supplies he kept tucked beside the fireplace, "but Booterfly?"

He curled his fingers into a fist, his wide knuckles cracking beneath the calloused, amphibian skin. "Make him bleed. Put him in ground, ubey yego."

Star met his stare with a growing, remorseless frown. Almost a year of torture, the hell this man had put her through? The death, the attacks, the corruption, Turning her family? It was all about to end, finally, by her hand, or by his. One way or another. "He's gonna suffer, so much more than we have," Star spat, her mind racing to discover any possibility as to how.

And with a sideways glance to Marco, her eyes training on him with deadly scrutiny, she found one hidden in the long scar adorning his chest. The teal flame, Darc, his visions? "Luna, I need you to do one more thing for me, and I don't want to hear the list of warnings."

The Goddess tilted her head. "If it is within my power, child." Star offered her a smile, grabbing Marco's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze, either for his or for her benefit, who could say.

"I want you to split my soul… and…" She faltered, losing the steam of her realization. It was a horrific thought, but if they failed regardless, the outcome wouldn't matter. "And give half to Marco. I think… I think I know a way to get some magic."

O - O - O - O - O - O - O

A scream echoed in the darkness that swallowed the world, and Vartek winced.

The voices, the thoughts, the pain, the weight, he struggled to force them all down as he breathed a steady curse.

Air hissed from his lungs as he fought back the pressure, compressing the magic back down.

Meditation was one of the last things he could wholeheartedly rely on in the final hours of his mission. It brought clarity in the storm, it silenced the cacophony of voices, it soothed every fiber of his being, and it was the one place he could think.

Here, alone? He could see every Turned in his army searching, endlessly hunting for the girl and her wand. The High Commision, useless as they were, were scouring every corner of Mewni for any sign of her, along with countless Mewmans and Monsters. He witnessed the full breath of Mewni through a few thousand eyes, and he waited. Patiently as he should.

They would find her, he would use her, and at long last he would know peace. Every ounce of magic in his body would be spent bringing her back, and he would be free. So too would be the Monsters under his control, they were borrowed vessels in a conquest they had no hope in winning on their own. They would be set free in a world cleansed of those who sought them harm. Everything would be fine, once he had the wand and the girl. Everything would be fine by tomorrow.

Another wince came and went as a scream echoed in his ear, a shrill beacon of terror and fear in his mind that always slipped by. He was slipping. Time was running out, for everyone, but it would all be fine by tomorrow. A tomorrow that would herald in a new dawn for Mewni. A tomorrow that would bring Merina back to his arms. A tomorrow that would be safe for all his people, for all his life.

Funny, that was what Toffee had been after, that treacherous worm. But Vartek had the knowledge to see that dream through, he had the power to make his dream a reality.

It was a shame that someone as cunning and genius as Toffee was blind to the future, blind to the reality he had ushered in with his own hands. He would have been useful, damn near inexpendable had he not betrayed Vartek, and gotten himself killed trying to undo his work. But only one mind can keep hold of another, and Ludo was his to command now.

Vartek was alone, and that was the only place he could think-

"Gahhhh…. Aaaghhhhh…." Vartek suddenly lurched forward, clutching his chest with an iron grip as a shrill ring sounded in his ears. That same stabbing pain threatened to rip his chest open, like he would burst at the seams and burn like a sun trapped in a cardboard box. For a while he sat still, careful to keep his power in check as the pain came and went. The cracks on his arms would split apart and glow furiously before closing back up. All over his body this went on, cracks forming and deepening before his skin would take back control. His healing couldn't keep up, not for so long.

Maybe it was time

So he tried to meditate, breathing steadily and wrenching that power back under control. His healing would keep it in check so long as he fought for control. Control over the force of nature that was steadily killing him. The pain was maddening at its worst, and burned like the sun at its best. It weighed as much as a million worlds, and ever further it drove him to madness. It stole his memories, it burned his soul, it cauterized his heart, and still he fought. He fought because the weight of his losses were always heavier, hotter, and more horrific than any pain he'd endure.

Maybe it was time.

In silence, Vartek stood, shaking off his cover and exiting his tent, the closest thing he had to isolation out there. Outside, as the morning sun was just beginning to rise, he made his way to her.

The Temple of Magic, or the Sanctuary, as the Mewmans called it, had been reduced to dust and ashes in his wake. Now, all that remained was a pool of toxic, corrupted magic that bubbled and hissed furiously. Sitting before the angry pool was the warp pad, a crystalline platform that would welcome Merina. And wading in the middle of the bubbling cauldron of corruption, was Merina. The heart shaped statue made of bone and emerald green crystal stood tall and proud, a monument to his goal.

"Goodmorning, my love," he groaned, careful not to let the heat in his chest boil over. He sat beside the pool, letting the early morning air cool his frills. Being closer to her always brought peace, though less so after their fight. 'Perhaps, he thought, I should break the ice?'

"I dreamt about you…" Vartek trailed off, palming his face. He was losing his mind. And here he was trying to get a grasp on conversation. "I suppose I do every night, actually. But this time, I dreamt about the new world, about the land we will rule together."

There was silence from the present Turned, and as it had been since she arrived, silence from the statue.

Vartek frowned. He felt more ridiculous than he probably looked.

"You resent me, for doing what I have to do. For taking the steps necessary, for your survival! The survival of our people!" he snapped at her, but she would not answer. Vartek seethed. Standing carefully to glare at the statue properly.

"I have done everything in my power to bring you back! All of this, is for you!" vartek screamed, his voice echoing far beyond the scorched, dead forest. But still she did not answer. The statue was lifeless to his words, to his pleas, and to his anger.

With a tick, Vartek felt that anger reach its limit, and without a word, he splayed his hands at his sides. "Be silent as you wish. When it is over, you will understand. You will forgive me," he whispered with cold indifference to her answer, and with a yell, he ripped the lid off the pressure cooker.

There was a roar of wind as corrupted magic flooded from his body and into the statue, arcs of energy cackling and carving into the stone as the heat seared rock into ash. All the magic in the universe poured out from his body in waves that slammed into the bastion of her statue. Enough energy to wipe out a dimension went by in a second, and with each one more Vartek felt his grin broaden at the sight.

Magic filled the statue to the brim, molding it, shaping it to his will in preparation for the final step. Where once it was bone and crystal, now it was solid emerald, having taken on the form of his dearly passed. Merina stood before him, frozen in place as she had been the moment she was ripped from reality. She wore an expression of fear, reaching for a salvation that would never come, and the magic stopped. The weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and along with it, Vartek had given her everything he could offer.

He fell to one knee, his body quick to draw power from the new source of insanity he would rely on, a new source of magic unlike anything in the universe.

Vartek slowly rose, basking in the toxic glow of his creation, and though he was smiling, one word echoed from Merina to silence his glee.

"Surrender."

He felt his chest tighten, but not because of the magic. He felt his chest tighten with rage, an anger fueled by the power he could wield. Still she resented him on the precipice of salvation, and further still he was driven mad in the silence. He remembered his promise to the boy, a ghost he had seen in the monster Temple: 'I will reduce Mewni to little more than a memory, as they did to Merina! I will bring her back, and when I do, I will bathe this land in the blood of the Mewmans!'

No, there would be no surrender. There would only be death, as endless and agonizing as his fate had been. "Tomorrow, we can begin anew, and we can rebuild from the ashes of these insects! The mewmans will be wiped from existence, and the few whose lives were lost will be forgotten by time. Tomorrow, I will have you. Tomorrow...there will be no one left to ruin our future."

His final ultimatum given, Vartek turned to leave.

In his walk back to his tent, he felt faint. The magic reverberating inside him whispered delusions, speaking to him, flooding his mind when he let it grow too far. He needed rest. The magic had been given, but still it burned under his skin like liquid steel. He needed more clarity, or he would slip.

But just as he turned, one of his Turned tilted its head, the grotesque creature angling its glowing eyes in every direction. It had sensed something, and in the coming seconds, Vartek could sense it too. Something was coming, fast.

Within a fraction of a second Vartek had dropped low and extended his palm skyward just as a bolt of teal magic screamed into the encampment. He twisted his wrist as it made contact and deflected the bolt off into the distance. It displaced air and ash alike as it bounced, and off in the distance it made contact, blasting trees to splinters in a fireball thirty feet wide.

With a stone glare, Vartek turned his attention towards the source, a pungent origin from where the bolt had begun its flight: a rocky hill not two hundred yards away. But there was nothing. An empty hill among the silent, dead trees that mocked him where he stood. 'So, you've come after all,' he guessed, straightening his posture before his glare deepened into seething hatred, 'and with magic… no. That's not possible, you had nothing left.'

Before he had time to divy up possibilities, another bolt of magic came screaming from another direction. Vartek had even less time to lurch backwards just enough for the blot to scrape by, narrowly missing him before burrowing itself into the soil at his feet. He turned down to look at it, not bothering to chase the notion of where it might have come from. And no sooner had he laid eyes on it the bolt burst with enough force to unearth the ground in a ten foot radius.

It sent chunks as big as bricks into the air, and as stone and dirt rained down, Vartek could only keep from slipping into a rage. Or he would have... had five more bolts not rained down from all directions, burrowing themselves into the ground with a high pitched vibration. They were scattered all about the encampment, easily within range, but just far enough away to not blow everything sky high.

There were several booms that shook the encampment with five fireballs of teal. Vartek had enough time to construct a rudimentary barrier to shield himself from the blast, but even he couldn't keep the dust and dirt down.

It was like breathing in a sandstorm, something he was well familiar with, and he felt a wave of anger crash against the bastion of his mind as the world around him was overtaken by darkness. 'That's. Not. Possible!'

Another bolt exploded somewhere nearby, and more dirt was kicked up to mask a sound he could recognize anywhere: Fire magic.

Fire magic was being cast in waves, and even amidst a rudimentary sandstorm he could see flashes in his peripherals. Having had well enough of their games, Vartek summoned magic down his arms, his cracks deepening into ravines. Like veins, streams of magic trickled down his arms to collect in his hands before he suddenly clapped

The magic compressed and released in an instant was enough to send out a concussive wave, a growing bubble of force that cleared the dust and debris, returning his world to light and revealing the state of his Turned.

Every. Last. One of them in the encampment was down, their bodies slowly mending the burns and holes to return to the fight. But Vartek wasn't interested in them. He was focused more on the two demons he glimpsed diving out of his line of sight and blasting themselves behind the trees. A bother, that the two of them should get themselves mixed up in this nasty business. Though it would be easy to dispatch a pair of unruly teenagers and get back to his real prize.

Vartek made to give chase. Toxic, liquid magic pooling around his fists, but before he could move, another bolt came screaming over the hills, this time slamming smack in the middle of his chest. The blast sent a ring of dirt up around him, but he held firm, the echo and the shock quick to die down. In their place, Vartek found only anger, and exhilaration.

"So you've conjured enough courage to come out here and face me?" he asked the smoldering air around him, the collected magic at his hands instead used to summon his armor. Black steel, nearly indestructible, and highly resistant to magic. "And by some means, enough magic to make me feel something other than a crippling annoyance?"

With a downward wave of his hands, Vartek pooled two rippling streams of magic into two ethereal scimitars. Their blades hissed with a cackling, toxic energy as he swung them low at his sides. With a slow and steady outward breath, Vartek let a chill ride up his spine as the magic collected within him steadily magnified.

That magic burned his very veins, webs of cracks opening across his skin to vent the excess. "Very well then, children, come along and show me your bitter resistance!"

Another bolt of teal magic screamed into view, but the time for games and parlor tricks was over. In one fluid motion Vartek turned, sweeping his blades up and shattering the magic missile into a cloud of dissipating energy. And out of the smoke, there they were at last, the two of them charging in headfirst to catch him unaware.

Marco rushed ahead of Star, cutting a portal for each of them before diving through. Vartek had half a second to turn and brace for the unseen attack, one of the boy's blades swinging from behind. Star, seizing her chance, surged forward and summoned a hammer of deep pink and green, swinging it in tandem with Marco for a flank strike.

But as steel met energy, Marcos blade skirted over Varteks in a parry he knew was coming. At the same time, Star watched with muted surprise as Varteks other sword cut through the head of her hammer and dissipated her spell with ease. She stopped her swing and skid just as Marco redoubled his strike, hacking at Vartek's bracer before swinging into a high kick.

Vartek blocked the feeble strike, magic fluid pulsing wherever contact was made. He grabbed the boy's ankle and spun, flinging him over his shoulder as he turned, now facing the girl. But Vartek started, not ready to find her waiting eagerly with a fist glowing red and green. "Strawberry Panzerfaust!" She shouted, blasting a growing copy of her fist at him at point blank range.

The blast dealt a concussive blow, exploding violently on impact, but Vartek simply leaned into it. His armor did well to catch, absorb, and disperse the force, smoke curling around him with a smoldering spot as the epicenter on his chest. He made to retaliate, but the boy portaled between them, using his falling momentum to drive his burning blades into Varteks shoulder.

But the Septarian was in a much higher league now.

With a grin, Vartek dissipated his ethereal scimitars and inclined his head a little to the left, shouldering the full force of the blow as steel rang against steel. Teal flames rippled the air and curled over his armor as Marco fell, dumbfounded. It was almost as funny a sight as watching the girl helplessly try to land a wild punch to his chest, a loud *thunk* was all she received for her efforts.

It was almost worth the wait, seeing the color drain from their faces, but business was due before pleasure.

With a grin, Vartek clasped his hands together to produce a shockwave of magic energy that sapped senses and energy alike. Star and Marco each fell to their knees, and before they knew it, Vartek was at their throats, hoisting them to eye level on outstretched arms. How he waited for this moment, and his chance to indulge proved too great to pass.

"I have no idea how you summoned magic enough to dispatch my little camp-" he smiled and gestured to the craters behind him, "-but I rest, satisfied with knowing that it was for nothing."

Corruption surged from his shoulders and down his arms in pooling waves of magic, the cracks on his arms widening to push them into the void. "Feeble attacks and a breath of magic, against the most powerful being in the universe," he goaded, though the pressure he felt against his flow of magic was unexpected, "what have the two biggest pests to my mission been busy with, since I saw you last? Coming to terms with death? Accepting your fates? Or perhaps you were just making good use of your final moments."

He poured more magic into his spell, letting it flow from his arms until it was practically drenching them. But still he felt that resistance, a stark barrier against his efforts that refused to break, or even yield. Why weren't they fucking Turned?! Thankfully he had an answer when the two of them traded a knowing glance, smiling at one another like they weren't in a strangle hold for two.

Why in the hell were they smiling. A chill rode up his spine as his only answer. Something was wrong. This was too easy. The two had been nothing short of maddening since he had arrived, and they chose now to slip? They resisted his spell somehow, and now they were oozing confidence, this reeked of foul play.

It was Star who broke posture first, letting a giggle escape her lips with a raspy breath. "Nahhh… just keeping you… busy," she managed, Marco moving to take over while she regained a sip of air. "We'd hate to...accidentally kill… your surprise…"

Vartek froze.

No.

There was no Earthly way these two teenagers had a trick up their sleeve worth risking death over. Vartek dropped his sadistic smile and let loose a viscous wave of magic down to his palms to force their souls to comply- somehow! He just had to use more magic and-

"Voce mea a Deo."

Like a change of wind there was a pressure in the air that Vartek could feel, and it sat squarely on his shoulders as it grew. The Magical liquid on his arms warped and snapped out of place, rippling with distortion and in a desperate bout of caution he threw the delinquents to the side, turning to face the unwelcome voice. Madly he swung about, expecting a spellcaster above the levels of the queens of Mewni, and instead? He found a human girl.

Janna flashed him a grin, the talisman around her neck glowing scarlet as it hummed. Vartek inhaled to charge, or simply to blast her with obscenities, but she put a finger to her lips, narrowing her eyes in his direction. "Pati es mortes silentium. Solus tu morieris."

With a flash, an invisible force slammed into him, aggravating the cracks and pressure at his core. Red washed over his vision and stole his senses as waves of force pushed harder and harder from that human epicenter. Screaming filled his ears, his thoughts were scrambled in a mad haze, and all of it only magnified by the second as the magic continued to pour.

"Cladem."

Every sound stopped. Varteks thoughts surged into overdrive to analyze the flood of information, and when it was ripped away, he was left vacant and dazed, his eyes trying to fixate on the space around him. "Wh-...what…" he narrowed his unfocused eyes, searching for his army. His Turned, he couldn't feel them no matter how hard he looked. It's like they were gone, but he knew they had to still be under his control.

Vartek clenched his fists, and ignoring the plaguing thoughts that they were stolen from him, he commanded them as before. Willing them to obey, Vartek watched as one by one, the Turned of his encampment and the surrounding area seemed to respond, slowly at first.

'They're still there. I can feel nothing, but the ones here follow me still."

He opened his dazed eyes to glare at Janna properly, collecting his magic to his palms. "What have you-" he meant to ask, but blindsiding him was a giant, pink and teal hammer that swept him off his feet with a powerful *smack*. He was sent rolling into the trees as Star smiled a wicked grin, giddy at having busted him so good.

"Alrighty, Janna banana. We can take it from here," she called out, dissipating the hammer in her hands and opting for a rudimentary crystal sword. It wasn't as good as what her wand could produce, but seeing as the latter was effectively useless? Hey, gotta pick your battles. "Get as far away as you can without breaking the spell. And when you get there, DO NOT come out until he's down, got it?"

Janna gave a stiff shrug, not needing to be told twice before pocketing her humming talisman and hoofing it as far away as possible, as fast as possible. Which frankly, to a man with teleportation? Probably not far enough, but she would know it when she found it.

Regardless, Star and Marco took to approaching the now entombed Vartek's dirt pile. Each of them carried their weapons with caution, unsure what surprises he had in store in return. The first surprise, apparently, was blasting apart everything in a twenty yard radius to glass and ash.

Debris erupted skyward and fire consumed the forest that had sat above the dirt as Vartek stepped from his crater, magic collected in his hands and cracks webbing up his arms. He was no longer smiling, Star noticed. "You cut me off from my Turned, and you can resist my spell," he noted, an unsettling mixture of disdain and calm anchoring his voice, "Smart. But unfortunately for the both of you, we have no plans for the rest of the day… and you didn't cut off all of them."

With a careful flex of his wrists Vartek summoned more magic to pool into scimitars, and then he waited.

Several seconds passed before a dozen portals ripped open behind him, all humming ominously among the dead, scorched trees.

The septarian smiled above the glow of his swords as three figures stepped out, followed by a slew of Turned, at least fifty of them. Moon, Hekapoo, and Rhombulous followed the small army, standing deathly still beside Vartek, expressionless and blank. Like zombies they stood there, sentinels to the orders of a deranged god.

Star swallowed. Lekmet and Omni were missing, which meant they were either dead, not useful to Vartek, or useful against him. But that didn't mean the coming battle was made any easier by these new arrivals. They had planned for it, but the hope on the menu was that they wouldn't have to. Even as Tom and Torriditty landed beside them, defiantly staring at the army of corruption, things looked way worse than her imagination had promised.

"I don't suppose you'll reconsider my offer?" Vartek growled. The scowl on his face was all business, but his tone was dripping with the hope she'd refuse. "Your death, to save Mewni."

All eyes turned to Star, the current de facto leader of their resistance in all facets but the name. The Marco-nificent six would have no deal, and they couldn't afford to accept anything less than a total victory. "We're not here to talk terms, Vartek," Star answered, making a show of the teal energy that cackled in her hands. It mixed with the teal flames dancing up her arms, and she knew the lizard was watching. "Stop this now, and we can fix you. This doesn't have to be the end, but it will be if you don't surrender."

In a marked show of defiance, Vartek rolled his eyes at her ultimatum. Not to say he was telling the truth about his, no no, but for her to make such demands was baffling. Here he was with all the power in the universe, and she had the nerve to defy him still. "I was atleast hoping you might be dumb enough to take me up on my offer. But you Mewmans are always so selfish," he grinned, giving a wave to his remaining army, "let's get this over with. Kill them all, but subdue the Mewman."

He didn't address anyone in particular, but Moon was the first to move, stepping forward and slicing the air to produce a hovering scar of green. The four of them watched as she hooked both hands into the chasm and pulled herself through. What came out the other side of the rift was animalistic, to say the least. It started with six arms of pale, cracked skin, and ended with two magnificent emerald wings. Her eyes narrowed at her daughter above a set of pointed fangs, and as she hovered skyward, she brandished a helical, magical blade that matched her glow.

"Cool, just going straight to the crazy," Star growled under her breath, bringing both hands together at her chest and letting out a steady sigh.

Marco watches as, unlike before, a steady chill rode the air as though her very presence had created a vacuum of power. Her hands parted to reveal two more pairs of arms, all six coming to rest at her side. Where once the azure flames that signified her bond to Marco blazed, now her flared wings and blazing hair burned teal, a curious sight in addition to her curious transformation. But to answer the call to battle, and to keep the strongest of Varteks forces at bay, Star ascended into the air, her eyes level with her mother. "Come and get it."

Without a word, Moon flared her wings and charged, matched by those of the high commission and the Turned, the forces of Evil making to slaughter those who resisted. She boomed forward as Star too surged to fight, their clash echoing across the forest as the battle truly began below.

Tom grabbed Torriditty's hand and blasted himself into the thick of the enemy forces, pivoting to launch her into the face of the first. She kicked from the face of one Turned, filling its orifices with fire before arching back under a set of claws. An explosion ripped across the fray as another swipe for her head threatened to decapitate her. Thankfully, Tom fell like a falcon, driving his heel into the offending enemy and flaring a rose bloom of fire in every direction. It staved off the majority of the forces, and as the two went back to back they dispatched one after another as they fell and rose, orange plumes of fire booming amidst the waves.

As flares of reds and yellows lit up the trees, Marco steadied himself as the last remaining against… well against the High Commission, and Vartek. Silently he prayed for the effects he was promised to take effect, a prospect that was fleeting by the moment. Hekapoo was eying him with malice unbecoming of a Turned, and Rhombulus' obsidian head conveyed more than enough blanket disdain for all of them. "I don't suppose you'd like a one on one?" He asked Vartek.

But Vartek only gave out a quick wave of his hand as answer, his two high commissions arming their scissors and snakes, respectively. In unison they darted forward as Marco readied his blades. It was going to be a battle fought uphill from the looks of it. Or rather it would have been, before Hekapoo and Rhombulus slowed, their movements sluggish and sporadic.

They gasped even as Turned, fighting for control of their limbs before they unexpectedly fell, their bodies flickering in and out of focus. Finally, they fell still, returning to a simple flame, and a pair of snake's in the dirt as Vartek looked on. Luna was due for a thousand thank you's.

Vartek smiled off his anger, though the flickering of light from his cracks gave plenty away that couldn't be seen. "So you both have been busy doing more than fornicating the end of your life away," he mused, summoning his scimitars, and a memory older than his ventures in a forgotten time. "Impressive, the resistance you both can conjure when at your lowest. I remember reading so much about the two of you in my youth, the 'Great Rulers of Mewni'. The lengths you'd go, the scale of the forces against you, the miracles you could produce, the power you would possess...all to let your kingdom fall to ruin."

He strolled closer, leveling his scimitar with the boy, Marco matching his posture, but not his mannerism. Vartek gave a chuckle and shook his head. "Surely, you know what I must be feeling, and the drive I have to bring the woman I am bonded to back. You of all people must be the only person alive with whom I can share my pain. And yet you resist so feverently."

Marco narrowed his eyes, stepping closer, circling his enemy as he looked for an opening. His body tense to outpace an attack at a moment's notice. He remembered what Darc had said about their similarities, and what Luna had said about her choice. But seeing Vartek in person again really brought it into perspective.

"I would never have let Star fall as far as you let Merina," he spat, Vartek stopping in place to stare, "we may be alike, but we are not the same. You could have saved her, chosen a different path, been better? Whatever. I know the pain you must be feeling, but you know what I can't empathize with?"

Vartek narrowed his eyes as the air chilled in the presence of his glare.

"The guilt. Because you know that even if your spell doesn't kill everyone, even if she does come back?" Marco smiled and took a ready stance. "I bet she hates what you've become. And really, that's all you deserve. You're daughter's probably better off without a cruel, murderous wretch for a fath-"

As expected, Vartek blasted forward in a blur of green light, the air imploding and booming where he had been. He was on him in a second, his scimitar cleaving the air as arcs of corrupted magic lapped at the ground. All without so much as a yell.

Varteks blade swiped for Marco hard enough to cut the ground open, his sword carving a trench, but Marco was ready. He vaulted beyond the reach of the downward slash and returned in kind. With both blades hooked into an uppercut he sent a wheel of fire tearing into the soil.

There was a wave of heat that approached Vartek, but with a charged punch his fist ruptured through the wheel with a blast of corruption and dust. Magic dissolved in every direction as two rifts made the ground bleed.

Through that burst of energy Marco rushed back in, driving his heels into Vartek's chest and blasting off, kicking him back. He kept coming, pushing with controlled attacks even though Vartek felt nothing of them. He hacked with a downward slash and pivoted, his blade hissing over the green magic, before finishing with a thrust, pushing his foe back a few more steps. But it was like fighting a mountain with blades of its own.

Vartek brandished the attacks with ease, stumbled back when he needed to, before throwing both blades forward and slamming his boot to the ground. Filling the earth with magic a wave of energy burst underfoot and rippled with force. Marco did well to parry the thrust despite it carrying the weight of a truck, dodging the brunt of it and jumping over Vartek, the landslide barely missing him.

He rushed back, out of range of any further attacks before falling into a portal. Behind him, Vartek heard another portal open and turned to face it just in time to receive a spinning kick to the jaw. Marco's heel echoed off of the force of magic spewing from Vartek, but the Septarian doubled over all the same, the boy slipping back into a portal.

A cheap trick that had worked far too often as of late, Vartek saw to it that that was the last time he'd fall for it. When he heard another portal open above, he didn't bother looking before blasting a plume of magic skyward.

Marco fell from the portal with exceptional grace, but his skill was for naught when he was immediately blasted to the side with magical flak. He flew without form before retreating his blade, rolling in the dirt and skidding to a stop on all fours, looking up with dazed eyes just as Vartek rushed in. "Focus boy, I've fought far greater battles than this, and I should like to find some pride in tearing you to pieces!"

Marco produced his blades in tandem and caught a strike meant for his face, but Varteks momentum was irresistible now. He sidestepped the unstoppable force and parried with everything he had. When Varteks blades sang against his own he returned, and he attacked, either blocked or pushed back over and over. Any of Varteks attacks were sure to be lethal, and yet every strike of Marcos that hit true was like hacking into a tree. A tree that could heal in minutes.

Marco dodged the backwards arc of a flailing strike before using his momentum to spin, trailing the glowing edges of his scissors blades behind him. When he turned back to Vartek, he let that energy fly, sending a torrent of teal flames out in a wide arc, cutting through trees and charring their wood.

But Vartek had power where he lacked the boy's finesse. As the titanic blade of fire approached, he dissolved his scimitars and crafter a liquid shield of emerald, facing the full force of the strike and letting it sweep past him with little more than a tinge on his skin. As it dissipated into smoke, so too did Varteks shield. He rested his hands on his hips, marveling at the leveled trees around him.

"My my, impressive, boy. You've come far from simple sword play, haven't you," Vartek growled with sadistic glee, leaning on a charred stump, "Let's see, I can assume that you and the girl have taken on my magic in some form, which explains your resilience to my spell. But… frankly I'd like to show you all of what you both have stolen so little of. The Queen was given a glimpse before she ran and hid, so try not to be as disappointing."

There was a blur, and Vartek was gone, not even a poof as his form vanished from view. Marco looked around madly with his blades drawn, careful for the sound of a portal or approach from behind, but there was nothing. Nothing, except for a sudden buzz from above, and only when he looked up did he realize how urgently he needed to 'MOVE DIAZ!'

His mind snapped him out of place as he blasted the ground at his feet apart, launching himself out of harm's way. A second later, a beam of toxic green magic screamed from the heavens, striking the earth and blasting apart the ground like a volcano. A bubble of energy burst from the spot Marco had been standing, and even with his speed it was hot on his heels, everything in its wake vaporized in an instant.

A blast of wind and sound hit him from behind, helping his speed if only slightly. It roared like the sun, a brilliant light cooking the back of his neck as he urged the flames at his feet to propel him farther. And just when it seemed like the blaze had caught up to him, it died down, the bubble darkening into smoke and ash as it receded into a mushroom.

What was left was a seared, smoldering crater of nothing. Only smoke pulled from the still burning ground to fill the new void. And as Marco gazed at the epicenter, he realized their odds had not just sunk, but plummeted. They were far more outmatched than they could have ever imagined, and as Vartek blurred back into place, still standing on air at the center, he smiled because he knew it too.

Sure, he couldn't just kill them, not as they were, but he would surely break them enough to Turn.

Too far away to be heard, Vartek offered only one thing as consolation for Marco's looming realization: two outstretched hands holding tufts of green flames. More liquefied corruption oozed from every crack, flowing up Varteks arms and face to form a droplet, and another, and another until he was ready for another go.

Far from the blast, however, Tom sent a barrage of flaming missiles into a group of Turned, indiscriminate to which or how many he was taking down. One by one they were blasted back and ripped apart, but just as before they were quickly replaced. A dozen went down, and as a dozen more stepped up, they were already beginning to heal. Frankly, the fight to the death over the fate of the universe...was annoying.

Tom prepared for another volley, the Turned all charging in like rabid beasts in every form of life. But just as he readied a flame, a blast of air ripped through the burning trees and extinguished every fire, knocking every Turned to the ground and throwing Tom back to skidding halt. Madly he looked to the distance to see the blasts, the violent explosions of green magic and teal fire raging against each other. But as Marco had put it, 'it was bigger than them.'

Tom stared in awe at the mushroom cloud forming, unaware of the snarling beast charging to his rear. When it was almost upon him, a flash of orange zoomed in from his right and swept it off its charge, pivoting with feet of fire and slamming it into the dirt with a boom.

As Tom turned to greet the welcome arrival, Torriditty stepped from the carcass and gave him a polite, but serious nod. "We keep taking them down, but they just get back up," she noted, wiping the dirt from her armor. She was definitely keeping it when this was all over. "Plus, the longer this takes, the more of them keep showing up. Pretty soon we're gonna be out of juice, and I don't think even Star and Marco can keep siphoning magic at this rate."

Tom made to answer, but the recently dispatched Turned scrambled furiously to its feet, grabbing Torriditty and roaring in her face. The Princess of Blazing Lake answered in kind, her eyes glowing red as she roared right back, a pillar of flames erupting from her mouth and scorching the beast. It dropped her and hissed for relief, just as Tom dove in and drove his heels into its chest.

It stumbled and scrambled to the ground, but another Turned was right there to pick up the fight. It swiped for him before Torriditty ax kicked the offending claws, blasting one, then two more back into the trees.

Tom gave her grateful nod, cracking his neck as two fresh plumes of fire sprouted in his hands. "Let's just hope they can get to him before we run out of gas," he answered, slicing another Turned into thirds with an arc of flames, "for now, we just gotta suck it up and keep these things busy."

Torriditty made to answer, but a booming shockwave from above drew their attention skyward. In the clouds, two blurs of green and teal zipped across the sky and collided. They drew back like two streaks of lightning before shooting closer, booming over and over again with every strike.

Star blocked a maddening punch that rippled the air. Moon glared in furious silence before zipping closer, this time with a kick charged to kill. Sent back further with a booming thud, Star flared her wings and flew in fast to strike with a flurry of punches, attacking from every angle. But Moon blocked every hit with ease, returning with a storm of her own.

It was infuriating to fight an opponent you couldn't actually hurt. Star wanted to be done with this duel so she could get back to Marco. But Moon was fast, strong, and persistent to no end. She'd go in for calculated punches, hit her with a shockwave of magic, and be out of range before Star could even recover. She flew high to use the sun as cover, then she flew low to seize an opening. Out of nowhere there she was again, three arms reeled back to hurl a wild punch intended to kill.

Star dodged two fists and curled around the third, getting behind and forcing Moon back with her heels. Her response was six spread arms and splayed hands to summon a hexagonal group of green orbs.

With a snap, all six screamed forward.

Star dove low and zipped high, circling Moon for an opening, but the orbs were still there, mimicking her every move and gaining. She zoomed past Moon, but they circumvented, tailing her ever closer. Star stopped, her wings buzzing behind her as she summoned three crystal blades, it's once purple sheen now a brilliant aquamarine.

Moon watched with silent contempt as Star snapped her wings in and fell, followed by the orbs. Down to the surface she plummeted, closer to the packs of Turned, and as she flew through them with blinding speed, she cut the orbs apart one by one in controlled bursts. They blasted Turned off their feet, and with the final orb dispatched with an explosion, she allowed herself a moment to breathe.

This was going nowhere fast. Vartek had just cast some stupid-powerful magic like it was a parlor trick, and Marco had been right at the middle of it, she didn't have time to waste fighting Moon in-

All further contemplation was seized when Moon stormed through the plumes of smoke, making a mad grab for Star with an ear piercing screech. She had six arms full of cackling green magic, and in a wild reaction Star screamed, slamming her fist forward with three charged Rainbow Fist Punches.

Her strike hit true, the multicolored jab plowing through Moon and forcing her to land with a booming, concussive blast into the forest.

Star cupped her hands to her mouth and waited, looking for movement as the fist dissipated to glitter. She saw Moon lying in a heap, her wings bent and her body crumpled amidst the rock. "Sorry… Mom," came her squeak, dropping down to check on her mother with careful concern. The crater looked pretty deep, and there was no denying the funny angles Moon was resting in. But she could heal… probably. With a moment to spare, Star looked off to the distance, eying the horizon for a sign of Marco holding his own against- "OOF!"

A Boulder the size of a car slammed into her. In a frenzied scramble she threw it off and looked towards the origin, finding Moon having already hucked another, with two more in her arms. Star dodged the first, blasted apart the second, and caught the third before throwing it to the Turned. She looked back to Moon and dove down, narrowly avoiding a thundering streak of green lightning.

Moon flexed her smoking hands and grit her teeth, eyeing her quarry before taking off with a buzzing boom.

Star glared, her eyes narrowing at the lock of singed hair hanging in her face.

This had gone on long enough. Moon could heal, she had to remind herself of the fact, and leniency at a time like this was a definite way to get killed. She couldn't see the monster that was fast approaching as her own mother. Like it or not, this was a fight she had to face with emotionless vigor, and Moon was going to return the favor.

With a boom, Star took off low, her flight path taking her through the trees, back towards the action. Charred trunks and burned land whizzed by as she passed the pack of turned, plumes of fire erupting indiscriminately in the fray. She zipped through the trees, kicking up ash where she went as Moon gave chase, firing beams of magic every chance she got.

One such beam blasted apart a trunk where Star had been milliseconds ago, before the princess turned about and fired a volley of Magic.

A ball of charged teal lightning blasted from her palms.

Two helical blasts of teal flames roared through the dead flora.

She threw a cloud of crystal cupcake flak bombs in every direction she could.

But Moon was stronger. She echoed with corrupted magic as all three spells came into view. A wave of green energy exploded outward, taking the brunt of it all with a shower of explosions and charged magic.

She was gaining.

Star took to serpentine, her wings flapping madly as she hooked around the trunks, cutting any down that stood tall enough to get in the way. Moon narrowed her eyes at the frenzied pattern, cutting straight through the middle and blasting the woods apart with controlled punches of energy.

When she could see those teal wings in plain view, she whipped three lassos over her head and cracked them forward, two of which made their mark. Flaring her wings, Moon dragged on the ropes with all her strength and pulled. Star felt the sting of the burning magic and was ripped back, swinging high and wide before being thrown into the thicket. Trees splintered apart as she was sent hurtling through the forest, rolling as her vision did the same.

Moon screamed as she dove down, three blades ready to swing, but just as she had done, a storm of thrown trees blocked her view. Star was in a panic, her ankles stung from the ropes as she hacked one down, threw, and repeated as fast as she could as Moon cut through them like paper.

The Queen of Mewni kicked and punched and cut, and when she grew tired of the stalemate, she summoned one final attack. A swirling tesseract of iridescent green magic formed in her hands, all six arms wide to control the cackling cube of energy capable of leveling a mountain.

Star stopped throwing and stared, captivated by the beauty before the smell of ozone reminded her that Vartek had the magic to see it through. Moon meant to end her, and there was nothing she could throw that would stop a Cataclysm Cube. She grit her teeth, drew in her wings, and formed a bow of teal flames in her hands.

It glowed with power, and as she aimed it up, she wasted no time in drawing the string, setting her target, and... she still saw Moon. anamalistic and carnal, but it was just Moon, it was just a spell, it was just magic making everything a nightmare. She would wake up and everything would be fine tomorrow, why would she have to let go?

Star chanced a rapid glance left.

They were far from the battle now, and as her eyes darted towards the Sanctuary, she could make out a plume of smoke and walls of green fire. They roared and batted against waves of teal, slamming against one another and carving into the earth until a careful slice cleaved the pillars of green. Marco was still in the fight, and he needed help.

That was the plan. Take care of the little guys, and beat Vartek together. So, stealing her nerves, Star blew the tuft of singed hair from her vision and glared up at Moon. The Queen released the cube with a snap, her wings flaring as it gave way.

Star let out a steady breath, letting loose one last bolt of energy.

With a flash of light it screamed forward like lightning, cutting across the canopy and shattering the tesseract with a silent crack. Moon's eyes widened as she brought all six hands up to catch the debris, but it was no good. The shattered remains if the tesseract lit up violently before the forest around her unraveled.

The sky was dark by comparison, and as a shockwave rippled the clouds from their perches, the fireball grew. It ate the ground beneath it, swallowed the sky above, and finally, it darkened to smoke as the new clearing was left empty, and hot.

Star flew to the center of the blast, scanning for Moon. She had her hands ready, two arcs of magic connecting four of them, but after a moment she flexed her fingers. The magic died down. There at the center of it all lay Moon, normal, Turned, and very tired. Star floated down and stood beside her, the Queens eyes closed as she breathed unsteady breaths.

Her wounds were slowly healing, but she wouldn't be up for a while.

"I'm sorry Mom…I'll make it up to you with breakfast in bed," Star whispered, inching back several steps before flaring her wings. With a boom, she was off from the clearing like a shooting star, her fists curling with anticipation. And excitement.

"How exciting!" Vartek roared, pulling corrupted energy from the ground to form a congealed ball, "you STILL refuse to give in! From WHERE do you find such WILL!?" He struggled to contain the growing orb, ultimately thrusting his hands forward and firing the toxic cannonball with vigor. It sailed for it's target as arcs of electricity licked at the rock below, and Vartek smiled, acutely aware of its futility.

Marco ended his stride and slid low on his knees, the ball barely missing him before booming against the hill behind. He twisted and flipped, landing hard and resuming his sprint, but the dust was unbearable. It scratched his throat, chipping at his endurance even further as he readied his blades and jumped.

Vartek reformed his magic into scimitars and parried the boy's thrust at the last moment, arcs of green energy hissing against the steel. Marco sidestepped to rear back as he watched Vartek dissolve his blades back into magic that pooled to his fist, sending a roaring punch to his gut with a boom.

Barely enough time to prepare, Marco was sent hurtling back, skidding to a stop on his heels. But Vartek was already on the move, summoning a javelin to hover before him. The septarian twisted and kicked, shooting the spear forward like a missile.

Marco looked up from his recovering chest in time to see the object fast approaching and readied his blades. No time to cut a portal, he'd have to block it or risk being impaled. But right before the Javelin struck true, a flash of teal sparked into view, shattering the weapon into a cloud of emerald shards. Star furled her wings and turned a half glance back, calling out, "Mom's down, let's take a crack at that spell before we miss our chance."

Not allowing himself to wash in relief, Marco split his blades into two knives, teal flames rolling across the edges as he rolled his shoulders and nodded. "Then I guess it's time we go all out," he offered, dropping into a ready stance, "be careful. He's out to kill, and his speed is unreal. Move fast and keep your distance when possible, and try not to take a hit."

Looking on from a distance, Vartek narrowed his eyes and watched as his weapon was dispatched, the girl returning from whatever battle she had likely won. They talked, whispering to one another before taking on a fighting posture. "Hmmm… making plans without the host of this party?" Vartek asked, loud enough for them to hear over the sporadic flames, "I really thought we were past such insolence by now. But I suppose you two are in your rebellious phase… children: always so INCONSIDERATE!"

With a yell, Vartek jutted two palms forward, his trademark move. Out from his hands a single wave of shimmering green energy echoed, solid enough to unearth the topsoil as it loomed closer.

A classic, and thankfully as useless as it was in the bounce lounge. Marco darted forward and sliced the air in an uppercut with both blades, producing a wheel of fire that hissed into motion. It tore across the battlefield, and when it made contact with the wave, it tore through that as well before Vartek swiped it into hot air. Given the clear, Star unfurled her wings and charged, booming towards their enemy as Marco continued his sprint, cut a portal, and fell in.

Speeding closer, Star dropped to the ground and dug her hand into the dirt. Out from the dust she pulled a massive boulder, twisting her body and hurling it at Vartek. He smiled, readying a punch just as a portal opened on the face of the rock, Marco using it as a launch pad to rocket forward at blinding speeds. Twisting in midair, he sunk both heels into Varteks chest and blasted, bouncing back with a fireball.

Vartek stumbled as Marco slipped into the very portal he had appeared from. He had no time to block when the boulder slammed into him with a shower of shattered stone, just before a blazing teal lasso whipped from the smoke and restrained his arms. As the field cleared, Star stood proud and pulled, but Vaetek held firm. He took a deep breath, eying the girl furiously before exhaling, the cracks on his skin widening. Pools of oozing green magic formed against the rope, flowing towards the source as Star watched, helpless as he drew power, the lasso in her hands corrupting by his will.

Without hesitation, she dissolved the rope, instead taking flight to draw closer. Vartek waved his hands, droplets of corrupted magic oozing from the cracks, collecting in the air, and shimmering to form seven lances. "Careful, Butterfly! Your mother was weak compared to the magic I now command!"

He sounded deranged, laughing as he reeled his hand back. But before he could throw, another portal opened in front of him, Marco diving out and sinking his blades into the dirt. One torrent of fire later and the ground burst at the seams, the blast throwing Vartek back into a sliding halt.

Marco charged after him, but with a snap of his fingers Vartek sent the lances onward, all traveling at breakneck speeds towards their target. Star narrowed her eyes as they approached, one by one curling around them and diving between their trajectories. When she was through the cluster of death, she reeled back three hands and zipped under his frenzied blast of magic.

Vartek lifted both hands above his head, locking his fingers to crush their rebellion at the bow, but a knot of pain took hold of his chest, his cracks glowing in protest. He was using too much magic. His body couldn't keep up with them while he hoarded so much power. This was taking too long.

Instead of a violent slam, his hands instinctively went for his chest. And in that moment of opportunity, Star seized her chance and swung, three tandem rainbow fists slamming into Vartek's chest hard enough to punch through steel. His armor cracked, then shattered as he was sent flying, but as he soared, a portal opened and out flew, "the boy…"

Marco twisted his body and lifted his leg, striking hard with a merciless drop kick just as his target came into range. He boomed towards the ground, hitting like a bomb as dirt and dust overtook his now unshielded body.

Not wanting to let up, Marco dropped in and slashed, sending an arc of flames rolling into the crater, but a shockwave of magic dissipated his strike. Vartek rose from the dust and grabbed the boy's leg, twisting hard and throwing him into the rapidly approaching Star. The pain was gone for now, and as the children collided and stumbled, he sent three flaming balls of magic their way.

Caught off guard, Star ripped Marco back and shielded him as three consecutive explosions threatened to rip her wings apart. A hurricane of dust stormed by before the two turned, unsteady but unyielding to the strike. Star took flight, rocketing towards Vartek and circling him before firing a beam of magic from six outstretched hands.

Vartek crouched, summoned a shield, and reflected the beam with ease, but the boy. He blasted himself into its new trajectory and opened a portal, another opening right behind Vartek. With no time to react, the Septarian was subject to a lethal blast of magic from behind that sent him flying in a smoldering heap. Closer to the temple he flew, but closer to his army as well…

He summoned a pair of scythes glowing with power before he sunk their blades into the earth, dragging to a stop before standing above the ruts he'd ploughed. That pain in his chest was returning. That stabbing pain was there to remind him that even with all the power in the universe, he was still only a man to wield it.

In the distance, past his narrowed eyesight and ragged breaths, he could see her. A statue of beauty and pain desperate to be freed. She was so close, and now she seemed further than ever before. Just out of reach, and always out of life.

Those pests were strong, siphoning his magic to use against him, but if that's how they wanted to play it, fine. Vartek ripped what remained of his armor away and readied his scythes, glaring at them as they approached.

"YOU WILL NOT STOP ME WITH THESE PATHETIC DISPLAYS!" He bellowed in rage, opening the floodgates and forcing a torrent of magic to flow in from the statue. The emerald fluid filled him relentlessly, waves of crashing energy pulsating within his body.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED, GODDESS?! THEIR LIVES WILL END WITH YOU!"

Star stopped Marco as a gust of wind whipped the dirt below into the air as Vartek screamed, his body flashing with green light. His cracks were widening faster than his body could heal. It set his skin ablaze and overtook everything in his mind with searing, unyielding pain. 'He's absorbing more magic,' Star realized, her eyes going wide despite the wind. At this rate, his body would fail, and he'd die in a fireball big enough to wipe out all of mewni, and everyone in it.

"YOU ARE ALL AGAINST ME! YOU WILL ALL PERISH! YOU WILL ALL BURN!"

He was going too far, but he was already too far gone to care. As magic poured in to drench his body with heat and energy, he felt what remained of his sanity slipping away. His memories were eroding, his plans, his very being was melting to make room for more power. And as the final wisp of magic echoed at his core, all that remained of him being his one goal, he felt the pain release.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH- "

*CRACK*

Like the world's largest mirror fracturing, Vartek shattered, his body a web of cracks that all finally connected. The glow spread wider and wider until, with a boom, he was blasted apart as his scream echoed across the horizon. Star shielded Marco as he yelled, "what the hell is he doing!?" But she couldn't answer. The roar of wind and the burn of the light was too much. It was the end. They had lost. She needed to at least protect Marco, that was all she could think of.

But after a moment of shared, terrified embrace amidst the hurricane, nothing more happened. The roaring wind slowed to a gale, the blinding light subsided, and when the two finally looked back towards the epicenter of the outburst, they were horrified with what they saw.

He was still there.

Glowing, fluid, ethereal, and silent.

Vartek looked down at his hands, a mirage of after images following like an echo of his movements as droplets came and went. He could feel everything, every ounce of magic, every life form in the universe that flourished under his power. Beings that lived under his magic turned feral and ravenous, all across the universe they raged in answer to his crumbling mind. And at his core? He could feel her. She was there, he could feel her at the center of his very being. But he was too lost to recognize the emotions it should have sown. Instead, he smiled a crooked smile beneath his vacant, black eyes, two pinpoints of light gazing out at the two who resisted him endlessly.

He collected more magic into two ghostly scythes at his sides. "Well… this is alarming," came his whisper, heard from every corner of the world, his smile never fading, "but, the end of an era always is."

His body blurred, and he was gone in an instant. Star and Marco could only hope to react in time as three echoes of his after image flashed, each of them flashing closer before a scythe swung for their heads. They fell into a portal, Marco losing a lock of hair as the sky of Mewni birthed them into a free fall.

With a boom, Vartek was there. He swung again, this time Star dropping into a dive, but his swing produced an arc of swirling black energy that plummeted with them. She turned from her dive and pivoted, watching as the wave fell, touching down and carving a trench into the earth without so much as an explosion. It just… cut through reality… and erased it.

"Star, look out!" Marco shouted, rocking her from her awe and veering her to the side with a pull, another wave coming from above, this time missing them by mere feet. It too carved a trench, and then Vartek was there, his fist pulled back behind his grin. "DIE!" He yelled, shooting his echoing punch. His fist trailed a stream of vented magic as Star summoned a Safety Bubble.

When he struck, the bubble collapsed immediately, the force of his fist booming them down from a spreading ring of black energy. Star clutched Marco close and rolled beneath, desperately flaring her wings to slow their fall. They hit the ground hard, buried in dirt and headed for the hills before Marco cut open a portal. They each fell through, deposited unceremoniously with momentum, but Vartek was there.

"Keep it up… the more I use...the closer to death you get!"

But in the distance, closer was exactly the plan as Janna sprinted through trees, dodged smoldering craters, and jumped carved trenches to reach her goal. She could hear and see the batshit crazy nonsense that had been going on for the last… who even knew how long! 'This is fucking stupid! Why am I even here?!' She seethed, stowing herself behind a tree as a Turned howled and took off running. Likely towards the demons closeby.

She decided to follow its example, taking off towards the center of the battle, and the middle of the entire mission: the weird statue.

She had been watching- granted, from behind ample layers of protection- as the statue glowed when the Lizard started his tune up. At first, it just reminded her of a suicide attempt lovingly shared with the rest of the universe. But when she really looked? She could see a river of magic pouring from the statue, and funneling straight into Vartek.

He looked like a ghost, and he was roided out on magic like nothing she'd even thought possible. Star and Marco had been able to hold their own against him thanks to their little trick, but now? Nah, they needed help, badly. And Janna had half a mind on how to provide some.

Her spell, the one given to her by the Goddess, worked by targeting a source of magic, and cutting the chords that made up its ley lines. Invisible paths for magic to pool, collect, and transfer information could be stretched, weakened, widened, and severed. All in theory, of course.. She had targeted Vartek, and giving the spell her own spin, she severed the chords that transferred information to and from him. Effectively, she cut his phone lines to the Turned buddies.

But, if the spell she'd been given really acted as a type of line cutter, then by all accounts she should be able to sever, or atleast weaken the lines that came and went from the statue. She could cut off Varteks connection to the source of the magic, thereby rendering him essentially powerless.

Double but, Janna had to get to it first, which, seeing the statue standing not fifty yards away? Done and done. The next part was the tricky one, which involved searching for a different kind of ley line, and making sure that all of the connections were cut. Not just a select blanket few.

A fireball whizzed by overhead as Janna ran, and further still, she watched as Vartek blurred and chased her friends in a lethal game of tag. The demons were running out of gas, and Star and Marco were waaay out of their league now. If this didn't work… Well, life insurance wouldn't matter when the universe was gone.

Janna stopped her sprint, standing just before the statue that glowed with a prominent, nuclear green. It was eerie by all accounts, the woman in form looking terrified and trapped. Really it could have been a real person, trapped within the crystal, but that was a useless analysis of artistic choice. And Janna was never one for the finer crafts that didn't involve the occult.

She produced her talisman, clutching the warm wood to her hands as she whispered, 'Aspectu,' and the world changed in an instant. She saw a spider web of pulsing green chords, leading to every Turned, to Vartek, the pool of magic, the sky, even her talisman. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't just the source of Varteks power, it was the center of everything related to him.

Another boom in the distance as Janna peered deeper into the tangled web, searching through the dewdrops of transferred data that littered the chords. So much was being given, and nothing was received as every line that led back to the statue sat dormant, and dark.

More booms shook the ground, and Janna steadied herself, peering deeper still. She saw a group of chords that led out from the core, and then right back in, nothing being transferred, and at the center of it all? "Ohhh yeah, that's a juicy one."

At the center was a chord that rivaled all the others, a steady stream of dewdrops racing out in clumps, rather than points. If this wasn't it, well, better hope for a second chance. Or atleast a quick death.

"Sever nexum."

She waited, but nothing happened. The chords still poured with information and energy, as strong and vibrant as before. Clearly it was too strong for her to cut on her own… or perhaps her magic wasn't sharp enough to do the job, but maybe she didn't have to sever the chord. If she could at least block it, that would be help enough.

"Nolite propagationem."

Seconds passed. And finally, there was a sound of a thread being plucked like a whisper in her ear, and the chord went quiet.

Janna smiled.

But before she could pat herself on the back, she heard something new amidst the frenzy of battle: she heard the end of it.

Vartek stopped mid swing, eying his targets as they ran. He felt something like a weight in the back of his mind being cut loose. For a moment, his eyes returned to normal, his topaz pupils dilating as his mind raced. Something was missing. A feeling in his very soul that had been present since… since before his memories became fuzzy.

For a moment he remained still, as did every Turned on the battlefield. The world fell quiet as he stared ahead, and with an echo of clarity he realized what had been lost.

"I can't feel you… my- our- it's gone… our bond…"

He could no longer feel Merina.

There was a void at the core of his very being that had always been there. Another presence in his soul that at its loss, now left him cold.

Vartek narrowed his eyes, and soon they returned to their vacant black, his body trembling with rage. Droplets of magic parted from his skin, hovering around him and rippling with his anger. By whatever means, the connection to merina had been broken. Half of his soul had been severed and molded into a new being with the blueprint of his own memories to build it. He paid every price, and had they not been bonded, it would have never worked. So to see his bond with Merina waver?

He needed to end this. That was the only thought that would escape the maelstrom of his mind. He needed to end the games, find a way to corrupt the brats, and complete his spell. There might still be time.

As Marco charged in with a blazing slash, Vartek swiped his scythe through it with ease, hooking the boy and slamming him into the ground with enough force to crack the bedrock, and a couple ribs. He didn't have any reason to hold back, the time for fun and games was over. With a clenched fist, he forced a tendril of corruption out of his arm, and buried it into the ground, ripping out a boulder that could crush a griffin.

Marco coughed up a few specks of blood, clearing his vision to find the object looming above dropping clumps of dirt. Star sped her flight as she saw him pinned, watching as Vartek released the boulder and blurred out of view. He was baiting her. He was luring her to Marco so he could do… something! But that didn't matter, as fast as a bolt of lightning Star zipped to Marco and scooped him up just before he was crushed under two hundred tons of stone. It barely scraped her wings.

But Vartek had effectively used the spare time he'd been given. In a blur, his afterimages led him to the statue, the source of his magic and the chrysalis of his once bonded soul. There, he saw the instrument of his abandonment, the human girl. She was standing there, her arms outstretched to Merina, casting some kind of magic he couldn't sense. Or perhaps he was too blinded by rage.

He didn't waste a moment, gaining speed as the ground around him was ripped apart to keep up.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" he roared, his body rippling like fluid as he boomed towards the girl. She wildly spun around with terror in her eyes as he readied his scythe and swung, not wasting a second to save Merina from whatever magic was splitting them apart.

Janna didn't even have time to gasp. She turned and saw all manner of horrors approaching, and before she could even register a response, an unseen force knocked her out of the way.

She stumbled, a rush of wind stealing her sense as the world rolled around her. And through the thick of it all, she heard a single, ear splitting *SHINK*.

When she had her bearing back, she scrambled to attention and turned to see what had happened, her eyes growing wide. There, in a heap before the unstoppable force known as Vartek, lay a demon under a scythe. And it was missing a horn.

Vartek never felt his anger subside. But seeing the Lucitor at his feet did bring a smile to his face. The fool had taken the girl's place at the last moment, just as he had swung, barely keeping his head and losing a horn. But it was enough. Vartek put forward an outstretched palm, and let a flood of corrupted magic drench and overtake the boy.

Tom twitched, his skin took on a shade of grey unknown to demons, and he sat up with a rigid motion. His three eyes were as black as obsidian, his skin was cracked with magic, and he stood with a shower of green flames.

"TOOOOOOOOMMMMM!" Torriditty screamed, charging in after him, chased by a few dozen Turned she no longer acknowledged. She had watched the entire ordeal, unable to stop him, but surely she could save him. Her feet were blazing with red flames, her fists were clenched with rage, and for the first time in her life, her eyes were a ghostly white.

Vartek turned from his new Turned, his latent echo still catching up as the ground as his feet erupted. A tendril of viscous lava shot from below and cracked against his jaw before more wells of magma began to vent around him. Torriditty slammed into him, drawing lava from the vents to collect around her hand before she took to punching him madly. And as he flew, she buried him into the ground, furiously pounding against his face as bits of it broke off, the liquid corruption quick to reform.

"GIVE! *SLAM* HIM! *SLAM* BAAACK! *SLAM* *SLAM*"

Janna stood on shaky legs, watching as Torriditty dished out a thousand degrees of smackdown. In her own words, she was a less powerful demon than Tom, hence why she'd picked her and Marco to be isolated, and yet here she was doing far more than she'd even seen Tom capable of.

Vartek blurred out from underneath the screaming demon and charged an orb of corrupted magic, but Torriditty wouldn't let him have the chance. She whipped a tendril of molten rock from the ground and wrapped it around Varteks throat. It sizzled against his skin and even as he resisted, she ripped him from the ground and slung him over her shoulder. He slammed back into unforgiving stone, and as pyroclastic fists continued to pound him he desperately tried to keep his defense in check.

But a defense wasn't needed for long. Her eyes glued to Vartek as she mercilessly continued her assault, Torriditty never allowed her attention to dwell on the orb of corrupted magic. In the time it took Janna to realize what was happening, Vartek had molded the orb into an arrow, and clenched his first, drawing it to his location like a bullet. There was no need to catch it, as in its path was the next body on his list.

"LET TOM GO RIGHT-"

*THUNK*

As fast as it had begun, Torriditty's assault ended, her face lighting up in shock before turning to look at her shoulder. There, protruding through her armor was the already dissipating arrow, melting underneath the steel plates and sinking into her skin.

She collapsed like a puppet with cut strings, and as Janna watched the vents all around her go dormant, Torriditty opened her black, vacant eyes.

"Janna get out of there!" Star screamed, slamming into Vartek with a double rainbow fist punch, Marco quickly following from a portal. But his movements were constricted and rigid, clearly he was suffering from his injuries more than Star. They were putting up a fight like only they could, but not even their power could match what Vartek was putting out.

It was her fault.

If she'd just hung back like she had been told, Tom would be fine, Torriditty would be fighting right there with him, and Vartek wouldn't have… There was a natural chance that Vartek would probably still have killed them all, but at least Janna wouldn't have been responsible for it!

Torriditty and Tom should have listened to her on Earth, and yeah, maybe this was by a wide margin unforeseeable, but c'mon! He was cheating! He was a bad guy, but the damn lizard didn't care how he won. All that crap about making a deal, and righting the wrongs, he deserved the same fate as his crazy wife, and luckily enough Janna could make that happen.

Janna reached for her talisman and snapped it from her neck, holding it out in front of her at the best angle for Vartek. His wife had gone by a Goddess, and he'd at least take a hit from the same power. "Let's see how you like it, asshole," she muttered, snapping the talisman in half.

At first, nothing happened but the insignificant snap of wood against the roar of an ongoing battle. Worried she may have broken her proverbial lifeline, Janna gave the two halves a shake, examining them. Without warning, the halves vibrated with a high pitched whine before glowing hot enough to burn Jannas hands. She let go of them, stumbling back with a cry as the halves slammed back together, unleashing the gift of a Goddess, and a corrupted soul.

It came flooding out in a river, a cascade of red and teal magic furiously mixing and curling around itself. It took flight as it screamed from the useless artifact, climbing higher and higher into the clouds as it searched for its target. And with murderous intent the collection of magic narrowed to the scent of corruption, taking a steep dive towards Vartek.

He grabbed Star and made to slam her into the dirt before she kicked him back, right into a wheel of teal flames spun by Marco. He stumbled, readying his scimitars, but the third combo to their flailing attack came in the form of a gale from above, screeching like a banshee.

Star and Marco jumped back just as a beam of red and teal magic boomed from the sky with a thunderous rapture, engulfing Vartek and burrowing into the soil. It rooted him in place, coursing into the ground with pulses of energy as the septarian took a knee, but he refused to yield. As long as the attack endured, so too did he, rigid as stone as he bore the brunt of that powerful… familiar magic.

Finally, with the last of the gift spent, the beam died down, leaving a scorched patch of dirt with a still-smoldering Vartek at its center. He groaned, but there was nothing of him to lose, his skin ethereal and iridescent as ever. Star and Marco could only catch their breath as he stood, his breathing ragged against the echoing thunder. "You… are...full… of… surprises," he growled between breaths, ultimately turning his attention to the powerful scent of magic: Janna. "A very familiar magic, one I've tasted only once before."

She started, as did the two brats. Star was quick to summon a polarizing ball of energy and blast Vartek back ten yards. But he only stumbled, his greedy smile worn well above the smoke. "I think I'll have you next."

"Star, we have to do this now," Marco voiced with concern, readying his blade. But Star gave him a nervous look, one that pleaded for more time. She knew well what Vartek was capable of, and what had happened the last time they challenged his might unprepared. Now, the stakes were ever higher, and they couldn't afford to be careless.

But Marco saw those constraints as all the more reason to move forward while they could. "We can't wait for him to die down, and we can't let him get stronger. We're out of chances here, and our best two backups are gone," he reasoned with her, "if we don't try it now, everyone dies."

Star looked back to Vartek, watching him carefully as he readied his blades. He looked as eager as ever to kick back into the fray, his crooked smile plastered across his face with malice. And finally, she nodded, taking the stone from her pocket. "Alright- okay... give me an opening and we'll see what this thing can do."

"I'll give you thirty," Marco noted, cutting open a portal for them both and diving through, his blades lighting up azure.

Without wasting a second, Marco flew from a portal low to the ground, several decoy portals opening around Vartek. From his vantage point, he swiped for Varteks leg with a powerful arc of flames, quickly kicking up and over his shoulders to strike again. Vartek blurred in place and turned, catching a chop for his shoulder with an ethereal blade and kicking Marco back.

The girl was missing, Vartek noted, parrying another strike aimed for his chest. A shower of sparks passed his vision as he scanned for the Butterfly. She was just there… planning with the boy as he- "Now Star!"

Marco readied his blades as Vartek turned for a heavy defense, but where he looked, there was nothing. Just the mass of decoy portals that dense fool had… Vartek narrowed his eyes and turned fast enough to send a shockwave of energy in every direction, cracking the ground at his feet. Marco cut right through it, skating down low, cutting his enemy down at the ankle and blasting back up, just as he had done before.

Vartek knelt and moved to thrust at the apoapsis of the boy's ascent, but it was a feint. Marco curled his body at the last moment and latched onto Varteks arm. With his wrist firmly in his grasp Marco twisted further and locked his legs around Varteks shoulder, and pulled with all his weight.

Vartek went down, his body hissing against Marco's with sizzling magic as several bones cracked, but as Marco ignited his arms and hair with azure flames, Vartek found himself unable to resist the armbar he was trapped in. And with a yell that signaled the all clear, Marco pulled harder and waited.

From the portals, a blur of teal shot from every direction and through again, zipping between portals as Marco had done with a portal dome. Vartek, finding himself thoroughly over their little wrassle, opened his mouth and spewed a fountain of green flames at the blur, using his free arm to fire indiscriminate bolts of corrupted magic.

But Star was using every ounce of speed admitted to her, dodging every bolt and tuft of flame. She erupted from the portal to Varteks left, the very same one Marco had come from. And as Vartek angrily blasted more bolts her way, she weaved around them with coordinated grace, locking her body around his arm and pulling with all her might.

They were in a stalemate, Vartek realized. Both of his arms were pinned and straining badly under their hold. But they couldn't attack him like this, much less stave off his Turned, once they arrived. He would hold them here just as they had done, and they would be overrun. At least, that was the plan, until Star carefully opened one of the hands holding Varteks arm, and spat a shimmering blue rock into it.

His eyes widened.

"Impossible," he growled in a low, reverberative tone, "those artifacts… do not… exist yet!" But there it was, sitting comfortably in Star's hand before she pressed it to his forearm, her eyes furious as she struggled to keep him still.

"Neither… should you… asshoooole!" She yelled, pouring just a spark of her magic into the stone to activate its potential.

"Radiant Purification Hurricane!"

The effects were nearly instant. Star had to wrench her eyes shut to avoid the overpowering light emitting from the stone. Marco felt a wind blow across his face so fast it burned, or perhaps that too was the light. It shone like a billion Suns and threatened to burn right through their eyelids, the roar of magic flowing and fighting itself deafening all who could hear it.

But for Vartek, the effects were far less ostentatious, though no less disorienting. As soon as the stone began to shine, he felt all of the weight on his shoulders, the pressure plaguing his mind, simply relent. It was a beautiful moment of clarity he found that even his sanity permitted him to enjoy. He felt the burn of his skin wane as quickly as the sharp pain of his chest. No longer did he feel he might explode, but that he might simply take flight, gravity releasing its hold of him.

As his skin began to return to its former state, the cracks dissolving and the magic giving way, Vartek caught his breath. A wave of serenity began to pass through his body, clearing the blocks to his mind and soul, washing away future centuries of pain and suffering. He felt some long distant part of himself begin to mend, and only then did Vartek realize, he was feeling everything. The numbing corruption that came with her magic, the weeds that had overtaken his mind the moment he sought to wield it, they were gone. It would have been everything to him, had it not been ripped away so soon.

In the seconds since he'd regained it, Vartek immediately felt his sanity beginning to retreat, like an ocean flooding in to fill an emptied glass of water. In waves it crashed into his mind, the pressure, the pain, the burning, the storm, the fog, the hatred, all returning with the gale of his corrupted magic.

Fueled by the energy surging to replenish his own, vartek blurred, ripping his arm free from Marco before slamming him back into the stone. He ignored the groaning boy and slammed his free hand down on Star, sending a shockwave of magic out through the bedrock. The two of them down, his body pulsed with magic to regain its ethereal glow, his skin cracking to reveal the energy within in a fireball of green.

Taking a glance at his scorched, but heeling arm, Vartek surged with a new breed of hatred. That was the only emotion that dared to return, and with every desire to feed it, he stood over the two children with enmity on his mind. "You cannot put out a forest fire with a drop of water, Butterfly," he spat with collected rage, "But since you so desperately want to see it spread? Very well, I will grant you your blaze!"

Suddenly, dozens of Turned were crawling from the battlefield, including Moon, Tom, and Torriditty, all called forth by their puppetmaster. With a carefully coordinated strike, Vartek plunged his hand into the rock below, filling it with energy. He closed his eyes and searched, snaking the corruption through every crack and crevice available, until he finally found his quarry. He ripped his arm from the stone, and with it, a tendril of magic that erupted in a twisted line towards- "Janna!" Marco shouted, wincing over his broken ribs.

Vartek smiled as he reeled her in, Janna fighting against the magic that bound her, but it was no good. Any resistance yielded a burn to her skin, not that present company provided any comforts.

"Before this one is Turned, I want you to look into her eyes," Vartek demanded, presenting her to them as he used more magic to turn their heads.

Star resisted, but Marco could only stare up at Janna, the only other human present, as she was corrupted from within. Vartek poured his magic over her, the ethereal liquid that made up his arm pooling and gushing forward. It drenched her in toxic magic soup, her skin shifting to grey as her eyes faded to black. Cracks snaked across her arms and cheeks, and with finality, Vartek dropped her. It was over as soon as it had begun.

"Do you feel responsible, knowing you caused this," he asked, his glowing eyes narrowing at them. And in every sense, he knew he was right. They refused his deal, they fought him every step of the way, their actions resulting in so much unwarranted violence. Vartek stepped around the now Turned Janna, letting her take her place among the silent sentries behind him.

"Two of you left, the culprits behind so much destruction. What should have been a simple task: capture the two of you, use your bound soles as batteries, and steal your wand… what should have been painless, deathless, you made into hell. Now, I won't make empty promises, but if you surrender the wand to me, I will atleast make this next part as painless as it should have been. What's it gonna be, children?"

He was smiling through his fangs, a faux pittance all he could offer with a laugh. But all Star and Marco could focus on was the scorched mark on his left wrist. They'd failed. The stone hadn't worked. Vartek wasn't purified or destroyed, maybe just a bit weaker, and the price for their attack had been the last of their allies. With no options left, Star looked over at Marco, struggling to stand, and as he rose to his feet alongside her, he knew what she was thinking. One last, last ditch. They would die fighting, and they'd die together.

"Ahh Ah, I wouldn't brother," Vartek chimed, pressing the blades of his scythes against Janna and Tom's throats, "Make a move, and all I need is to command them to die. But, surrender to me, accept my spell, and I swear that I will at least set the human free, back to Earth." He knew they saw right through him. But where was the fun in being honest. They were beaten and they knew it, and the tricky part was figuring out how to corrupt them. Once he broke them down enough, he would have Merina back.

But Star furrowed her brow at him.

"Kinda seems… like a stalemate," she reasoned, rolling her shoulders as she desperately tried to collect whatever magic she could from him. Enough to leave a mark, at least. Keeping her form was taxing enough without being beaten into the dirt, so a good charge was all it would take. "I don't think you really understand, but your spell will kill everyone. Really, you have nothing to offer us, so if it's all the same to you, I think we'll go down fighting."

Vartek felt himself smile at that, gesturing to the former Queen with glee. "Nothing at all? And with your mother still under my spell, I must admit: Very brave, little princess." But Star was smiling right back at him. Her wings slowly began to flare as she collected more magic, something Vartek had only just realized. "Or just really stupid," she quipped, sticking out her tongue, "but it takes one to know one."

Varteks eyes widened as he tightened his grip on his blades, but he was already too late. Marco ripped Janna and Tom through the portal behind his back, just as Star went for Torriditty and Moon, all four immediately being thrown into a new portal, destination unknown.

Truth be told, all of them could have just portalled to Vintal, maybe spent a day coming up with a better plan, but there was no telling what Vartek could do. He could track them, destroy the universe, or kill the others if his game was cut short.

That was really all it was to him; devoid of sanity, Vartek clearly saw this as a game, which explained why they still drew breath as the Turned watched. Just the two hundred dormant bystanders waiting for the lizard to finally snap and abandon his fruitless quest in leui of genocide, but given the circumstances, probably not optimistic. They had to keep him playing until they came up with plan C.

Marco split his blades, igniting their edges as a mask of teal flames overtook his eyes.

In much the same fashion, Star let her wings flare with fire, the two of them clearly ready to keep up the fight.

Vartek sighed with disappointment, his knuckles cracking under their grip. It would be useless to keep trying to Turn them, and to hell with precautions. They'd stood idly by for too long, and far too often. Merina was waiting, and with no other choice, he'd have to oblige. It was time to kill them both, and sort out the mess after. "Very well, I suppose there's no talking you down." Vartek readied his blades, and let a flow of magic unlike any other carry him slowly into the air, "I'll steal your soul and perform the spell without the wand as a focusing point, what's a few destroyed galaxies anyway?! I've got the time and power to remake the universe!"

With a yell, he surged forward on a wave of corruption, his body blurring with afterimages following every moment. But he wasn't alone. With him came a fierce howl, as a collection of Turned atrocities came running, their fangs and claws bared. "GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU'VE STOLEN! COME AT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!" Vartek rolled his body as he summoned an orb of cackling energy, kicking it down at the two who dared oppose his will.

It screamed toward the earth and buried itself as they ran, tearing apart the bedrock and blotting out the sun with a cloud of dust. "Star, we need a breather to-" Marco began, but she refused to hear him. She set him down, pointed at the sandstorm looming, and then at the Turned making their way closer. "You deal with those. Keep them off my ass, got it? I'm ending this one way or another, stone or not!"

"No you're not, the stupid rock didn't work!" Marco sent forward a slash of teal flames to cut through the incoming debris. "Save your energy so we can find somewhere to recuperate. We need a minute to make a plan and gather energy, not charge in head first and hope things go better a third time!"

But headfirst was the only option Star could see. She'd lost all her backup, and she wasn't keen on letting Marco go too. He couldn't fly, he had way less magic than Vartek, and there was still the Turned. So without a word, she again pointed at the incoming dust storm and horde, then smacked her fists together.

Marco stared at her for a moment before accepting that she had every intention of going solo. And maybe with their split soul boost, she could handle it until she figured out the stone. Finally he nodded, readying his blades as Star zipped for Vartek, the Raksuran Stone clutched in her palm.

Vartek allowed himself a moment of fear at seeing the stone still in her possession, but that worry melted as he knew it was hopeless. She collected magic in her six palms and slammed them together, congealing it into a sword to parry a swing for her head. Ducking under the follow up, she kicked at his stomach hard enough to ripple the air. Vartek swung again, this time clipping off the tip of her wing, just like in the desert, but waiting for him was a haymaker to the jaw. Star slammed her fist into him and pulled him closer, pressing the stone to Varteks chest, shouting, "Radiant Purification Hurricane!"

As before, a blinding flash came and went, but that was all. It was over immediately, Vartek even looking less delirious than before. He managed a toothy smile, grabbing Star by two of her arms and pulling her closer, the fire in his eyes returning in seconds. "I SHOULD EXPECT BETTER THAN THAT IN YOUR DYING MOMENTS, BUTTERFLY! OR ARE YOU TRULY OUT OF OPTIONS!?" He roared, flipping her over and drop kicking the little nuisance back down to reality. Watching her fall, he pulled more magic from the very air around him, collecting it into a ring, and fired a beam of magic straight down that split the dust and lit up the world.

"Star!"

Marco could only watch from below as the beam forced her down like a shimmering hammer. There was a boom and the ground cracked, Star taking far too long to get back up. He kicked back two Turned and cut another in half, using its head as a battering ram to blast through the crowds and closer to Star. They were even healing faster, already reforming under Varteks magnified magic. When he got to her, she was shaking off the debris and soot before she eyed the sky with venomous intent.

"Star, HANG BACK! We can figure something out just stop-!" He cried out, kicking through more snarling creatures, before Star blasted back the Turned around him.

Before Marco could stop her, she boomed back up, Vartek smiling from above as he readied his blades to end it, the corruption practically dripping from his scythes. He would end it here, the final swing to finish it all. He'd welcome Merina back to a grateful universe, his mind promised him. All would be well when he had the Butterflies head, all would be well by tomorrow.

Star readied the stone, glaring up at Vartek as her wings burned to make more speed. All her friends, her family, her kingdom? Vartek wanted to devour them all, and she knew she was the last bastion to stop him. He had all the power in the universe, but that didn't mean he was invincible, right? 'Let's find out just how much you can take,' Star seethed, narrowing her eyes, tucking in her arms, and blurring out of view.

Varteks eyes widened as he visibly started, making to ready his scythes for an attack before a blast like an atom bomb lit up the sky behind him. He was rocked from his magic perch, blasted down like a comet before two runic symbols appeared in his path. When he crossed them, she was there, smiling almost as madly as he had been. Another blast threatened to tear apart the sky as Vartek struggled to hold it back.

A web of magic snaked from his hands to subjugate the fireball, pressing it, squeezing it until it shrunk, compressing the blast into a ball the size of a hand grenade. He smiled up at the girl, extending his hands before he cut open the web, releasing her own attack in a slit of fire. It roared like thunder as he unleashed her hell. But Star brought all six hands together, latching onto the same magic Vartek had, and forced the torrent of flames apart, split neatly down the middle.

Through the flames she rushed in, blurring just as he had. Vartek dispersed the blast and brought his fists together to send out a rippling shockwave of magic. As he guessed, she was behind him, ready to strike when she was knocked off course, Vartek bringing both scythes up to cut her down.

She was smiling. Why the hell was she always-*BOOM!*

He never even saw the bolt of magic. She dove down to avoid the explosion that knocked Vartek back, slamming to the ground and bringing up all six hands to the sky. A risky spell to use at home, but the reward was a moment of ambush she desperately needed. She felt the tainted magic from the ground below, and let it flow up her body to her waiting hands. There, a ball of green energy formed, arcs of electricity digging into the dirt.

Ethereal and nearly invincible, Vartek brushed off his shell-shock and eyed the girl, dissolving his blades to instead collect two droplets of magic in either hand. His body echoed with after images as he moved closer, using the droplets to paint an intricate rune in the air. "If I can't fight you like the boy, then I'll fight like you."

But that enthusiasm faded when he readied his spell, finally realizing what she was already prepared to fire. And his eyes widened.

"Ravaging Erradication Annihalator!"

"HELLFIRE!"

Both parties were washed with teal and green light as the heat of their attacks vaporized the air between them. Star planted her feet to the ground and pushed with all her might as her beam of magic tore through the clouds. Vartek could only will his body to stay put as he ruptured the droplets of pure magic, forcing a torrent of flames and energy down. When the unstoppable force met the immovable object, reality seemed to bend.

Star grit her teeth and flared her wings behind her, ignoring the bend, ignoring Marco, and ignoring the Turned. What she had realized since the beginning was the simple truth she had been denied: this battle was between her, and Vartek. Marco may have been sent back by a Goddess, but even Luna had once admitted that it was to protect Star. And she would make good on her promise. "Get the hell OUT OF MY KINGDOM!"

The air warped around the attacks as they met in a firestorm of power and fury, even the light of their magic going dim. Far below, Marco had to portal further to avoid being caught in the crossfire, followed by escaping Turned. Looking back, he watched as the fireball caved in on itself at the middle, warping and distorting and reigniting before repeating again as the two culprits poured more power in. Waves of magic rippled outward in heartbeats. And the more power they added, the more distorted the middle became, sucking in the flames and energy that thrashed around the wasteland like a supernova.

Star glared with ferocity up towards the heavens at the congealing ball of darkness and explosive power. If she could get Vartek down for a minute, she could get the spell to work. Surely if he was knocked out, even dazed, he wouldn't be able to fight back. But hell, there was no limit to his power.

He fought back with just as much as she was able to give, unyielding to her, and unforgiving. The heat was indescribable, and the wind was deafening as they raged at one another. Both had only their ideals and their futures to fuel their attacks.

Star poured everything into her spell, nothing wasted, and everything to lose. She struggled to keep up, she struggled to be what everyone wanted her to be, she struggled to be herself, and there were mountains of expectations. She had been cast from mewni, apparently for a second time, and thrust into an apocalyptic battle for the universe that she had no business protecting, and she was just as alone as she was on day one. She had Marco, she had her kingdom to live for, but when it came down to it, it was just her. The universe was unforgiving in its ferocity, and as much as she wanted to rely on Marco, it had a habit of making her reliant on the one person who was always in her corner: herself.

Even now, as the fate of the universe hung in the balance, she resisted the urge to rely on Marco. She always relied on him, and he was always the one paying the prices. One day, it was going to get him killed; cleaning up her messes would be the death of him. That picture from her dream, so long ago. Queen Star standing before her kingdom alone… she wouldn't let that future come true. All she had to do was destroy Vartek.

But Vartek poured more than his soul into his mission. He poured his life, his past, his future, his very existence into his conquest. Merina, she was counting on him, he knew it. Though he felt his bond had been cut, he knew it couldn't be true, their love was just too strong. Merina was too strong. She had more magic than almost any other Mewman to ever exist, and it was his duty as her bondmate to carry that load.

It was so unimaginably heavy. She had so much power, so much virtue, even shouldering her strength nearly killed him. Had he not been effectively immortal, he would have been driven insane, destroyed, or worse. But Merinas love kept him in line, her bond had kept him sane even now, as he carried all the magic in the universe. He would save her, and by tomorrow, he'd be safe. She would take the weight from his shoulders, and she would save him. Merina would fix him… by tomorrow.

Both parties abruptly cut their magic, the air returning to fill the void left behind before two shockwaves shook the earth. Star torpedoed straight for Vartek, darting through the smoke and fire, as he did the same.

They collided somewhere in the middle, cloaked in darkness from the smoke. Star used three hands on either side to subdue one of Varteks, the two hovering in place to circumvent the other.

"How?!… How are you still here?" Star screamed, struggling to keep his strength in check. It was like wrestling with a mountain, and the mountain could vaporize you. "YOU should be purified! Why do you still have magic!?"

At first, Vartek seemed to struggle with her question, either too focused on keeping her subdued or too shocked by his ongoing battle. But after a moment taken to recognize what was asked, he smiled. It couldn't have been more funny if she had asked it in the form of a knock knock joke. That was their plan all along? That was their gambit?!

"Because, child... I am not… the origin... of the corruption you so fruitlessly… sought to cleanse." Vartek twisted his body and slammed a kick into Star's midsection, breaking free from her grasp as he rubbed his wrists. "Merina is the source. She was the cultivator of the magic now flowing within me. I am simply carrying that power to bring her back. One of the many perks of being bonded with someone. Wouldn't you agree?"

Star furrowed her brow and glared, making to retort somehow, but she couldn't wrap her head around it. Their plan was doomed before they even left Buffrog's, and Vartek was all but invincible. They couldn't purify him, and they couldn't kill him without taking away his magic. And as long as he still drew breath, with magic in his veins? The Turned would follow him to the ends of the Earth, or die trying.

In her daze, Star never saw the shadow pass by her as Vartek blurred out of sight, a gleeful grin plastered across his face. "You believe yourself to be wise; so crafty and cunning against your foe. You thought you could erase the power I wield. But really, you draw strength from the very evil you seek to destroy." A fist slammed into Star's gut, knocking the wind out of her as she doubled over, falling back down to Mewni. Vartek followed nearby as she gasped for breath, circling her in the air as she fell. "My magic, as it is now, is unstoppable. And as such, so is yours. But, if my magic were to run out? Can you imagine where that would leave you?"

Star's eyes widened.

He knew.

But before she could make a move, Vartek was already jutting his hands towards the fallen Sanctuary. From his ethereal skin, drops of liquid magic seemed to flow like a waterfall. And it all flooded toward the statue. From the distance it looked like raincoats had suddenly filled the air between him and Merina. It filled the sculpture, the liquid magic boiling as it circled it, with Varteks own skin and light beginning to dim by the second.

He wasn't alone, Star could feel the weightlessness of her transformation beginning to fade. The magic was being drained, siphoned away from her before she could react. Vartek poured an ocean of magic across the battlefield in an instant, his skin returning to grey, and his eyes returning to green. Star gasped as she fell, her wings suddenly snapping back into place, her arms sinking into one another as she transformed back to normal, falling ever faster without magic.

Marco watched as he fought, catching glimpses of the flowing corruption and the two falling from the sky, and made a move to get closer. He cut through Turned in his way, but he was beginning to feel a growing pressure on his body. Even the flames on his swords were growing dim. And when he looked up, he saw why. Every bit of Varteks magic was flowing towards the pool, sucked into the statue as he and Star turned to their original forms.

He felt so heavy now, his swords like weights in his hands. Even the Turned were moving slower, their eyes growing dim as the two gods fell. Marco pushed past Turned, struggling to get closer before his magic ran dry. His swords were too heavy to cut portals, too drained to latch onto the fabric of the dimension. He could take Vartek as he was provided Vartek was powerless, but it would take time. Time he didn't have.

Star hit the ground first, then Vartek, the two of them struggling to get up as the latter continued to pour more magic away. All the magic in the universe was being locked away, down to the very last drop. She needed to take him down when he was weak, but as she tried to summon a blast, a blade, anything? There wasn't even magic strong enough to conjure a hairpin.

As one of the last drips of magic left his fingertips, Vartek breathed a sigh of relief, opening his eyes as staring at the girl. She had her fists raised in a fighting stance, clearly ready to settle things without her precious spells. Looking back, Vartek saw that his army was all but shuffling zombies, effectively useless without his power.

"Hey… eyes over here...Lizard...face." Vartek looked back to Star, finding her apparently as drained as he felt, but all the more ready to fight. He was weak, and mostly defenseless, but so was she. All the magic in the universe locked away, save for one. Final. Drop. Enough to keep everything safe. Enough to finish it all.

"You… are not… leaving… this place...aliiive," Star huffed, desperate to put an end to this. One last hurrah to see it all through to the end.

But Vartek only smiled, raising a hand as that final drop lifted from his intact skin, congealing into an arrow. "Tell your little friends… I said hello," Vartek answered, out of breath, but far more satisfied with his victory. It was over.

Star furrowed her brow and grit her teeth.

She would protect her future to the very end.

She was going to save everyone.

She charged forward, her fists already in motion.

"Star!" Marco shouted, making a mad blast towards the strip of land where they'd fallen. He blew the ground apart underneath, but even in their vegetative state, a Turned swatted him down.

There was no more magic for a second attempt.

He slid against the gravel below, tucking into a roll before slicing at the legs of a Turned that stood in his way. They weren't healing anymore. Vartek had cut off the magic, and Star was close enough to him that… he growled under his breath and charged onward. He cut through Turned after Turned, corrupted bile splattering against his clothes as bodies fell in his wake. He sprinted between legs, vaulted over backs, sliced and chopped with every step he took. And there were always more Turned in his way.

It felt like he'd run a marathon in seconds, a blur of the battlefield passing him by before he could finally see a glimmer of light through the rushing creatures. Endless, nightmarish screeching filled his ears as he hacked forward. And finally, he cut through one more Turned to break through the pack, finding Vartek and Star waiting for him.

Or, what was left of them.

"STAAAAARRR!"

Marco screamed in abject horror at the sight before him, the wind knocked from his lungs as his chest tightened into a vice. Star stood before Vartek, his throat nestled neatly against her palm. A green, shimmering arrow protruding from her chest before dissolving into liquid that sunk into her body. Before Marco's very eyes, Star Butterfly was Turned, too drained of magic to defend herself, but having dished out a lick of her own.

As her alabaster skin shifted to a somber grey, like ash against her dress, Vartek struggled to break free from her death grip. His skin was blotched with red and purple lumps, his right arm was broken, and his jaw hung loosely under his busted face. She had beaten him badly, but all he needed was a second of convenience to corrupt the Princess of Mewni.

As Star's eyes darted to Marco, they faded to black as her grip on Vartek was lost. She dropped him and in seconds, Varteks arms cracked back into place, allowing him to push his jaw back against his skull and smile. Star grew two wings, both of shimmering emerald, as two pinpoints of green light lit up the dark void of her eyes. Fangs sprouted from her lips and elongated claws grew from her six new hands, her hair nothing more than a mane of green.

Marco was at a loss for words. His body refused to move as he stared, the last of his allies gone, and down for the count.

But it wasn't just an ally, or a good friend. It was Star. The one and only Star Butterfly, the one person who'd been able to share with him this nightmarish reality. His Star, from his own timeline, with whom he'd spent years beside. And now, she was just… Gone.

Vartek smiled.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned magic from the statue, undoing what he'd done to effectively kill Star. He collected only a small amount this time, waste not after all, so as not to ignite his body like before. A painful process to avoid. He let the reformed magic heal his body further as his Turned began to stir. "So nice of you to join us, Boy," Vartek sighed pleasantly, listing his head to the right to grin properly. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd miss out on the big finale. This one was so eager to join the fun."

Marco felt his blood boil as he charged forward, but several sets of claws ensnared him from behind, holding him in place as the Turned cackled. They knocked the swords from his hands, his lifeline clattering to the dusty ground. He glared daggers at Vartek with an almost palpable heat. "Fuck you," Marco spat, turning his glare to Star. He'd been Turned before, he knew she was in there, trapped within her own mind. Trapped in the void. "STAR! FIND THE LIGHT! FIGHT BACK! DON'T LET HIM WIN! YOU HAVE TO- *OOF*"

A Turned silenced the boy, the growing pack snarling as he struggled. A valiant call to arms, but one that went unheard.

Star remained dormant and still in her current state as Vartek stepped around her, gazing at his prize. He'd won, and everything he needed stood squarely in front of him. The Saptarian waved a dismissive hand, and every Turned present suddenly dropped cold, and unmoving. Marco fell to his knees. Gasping for breath as the many lacerations on his arms and back burned against the open air.

Vartek smiled, gesturing to Star. "I have no need for pawns, when I have my Queen. I will not let this one go. Let the gods witness the retribution of Monster kind! And let this land be CLEANSED OF MEWMANITY!"

Insane rants fired off, Marco struggled to his feet, standing on shaky legs. He was out of stamina, and the magic he could feel from Vartek wasn't nearly enough to turn the tide. Not that he had a choice, as Vartek quickly knocked him back to the ground, binding him with tendrils of liquid corruption that reformed into chains.

"You would be wise to stay in your place, Boy."

By Mackie Hand, Marco hated that man. "And you, Butterfly. The wand." Star inclined her head toward Vartek, a blank stare all she could afford. Marco struggled against the hissing, ethereal chains as she pulled the wand from her dress, a senseless hiding place if ever there was one. But it didn't matter now. "Go. Sacrifice yourself. And bring. Her. Back."

After a moment. Star nodded.

"NOOOOO!" Marco tried to cry out for her to stop, to get her attention, to waver the spell in any way, to rustle some long dormant memory, but she simply flared her wings and took off, soaring towards the sanctuary with a boom. She was gone. Vartek won. No amount of conjured magic would be enough to rival the Monster hoarding it all for himself.

"Don't embarrass yourself, boy. She is lost to you, and you have lost our little game. But… I am more generous than the Goddess that cursed you, a mere human, with this existence." Vartek summoned an ethereal scimitar from liquid corruption, approaching Marco like an executioner. All around him were the bodies of the Turned, and soon, he'd join them.

"I will afford you a quick and painless death, as well as to your partner. A better end than you both deserve, but I'm feeling… generous. Victory has a marvelous way of changing a man's perceptions. You will die, and your names will be but a memory to the new Kingdom of Monsters."

As the Magical chains hissed against his skin, Marco felt his blood run cold.

This was it. He'd been sent back in time, survived so much more than his old life had given him, and this was it. All the planning, all the training, the preparations? He was going to die. Everyone, was going to die.

But before everyone died?

"Star…" Marco let that name escape his lips with a mix of dread, and spite. Had she just listened to him, played it safe, or just… he didn't know. There had to have been another way. And in that, Marco hated to admit that he knew how Vartek must have felt. Broken inside to know that the love of his life had chosen a separate path, and paid the ultimate price.

But similar to Vartek still, Star was the only thing that mattered, as Merina was. If he could save her, stow her away in some forgotten dimension in some corner of the universe, she could maybe live out the rest of her life free of his spell in a few short seconds. And if Vartek wanted to destroy everything? Then at least she would have lived, maybe many others would too, far from Varteks control.

But to save her, Marco had to stop her, an impossible feat without magic.

"When you return to the void, and you face that familiar cold of death," Vartek began, raising his scimitar, "ask yourself: why were you chosen for the curse you wrought."

Staring death in the face, Marco found an all too easy answer to that. It was Star.

He fought against the chains that seared his skin, raging against the magic that bound him.

She was the reason for all of this, and not because she was the cause, but because she was a cause worth fighting for. Luna knew why Marco would fight, why he always fought, and why he always fought with everything he had.

Marco pushed with every ounce of his being, every muscle in his body giving purchase to climb out from under Varteks unbreakable spell.

She was all that mattered. Nothing else in the universe, not even the universe itself could compare. Selfish was a good description of that thought process, but it was undeniably true. Before anything else, there had been Star Butterfly. And when it was over, she would be there.

Finding no prospect to push out against the chains, Marco instead turned inward, back to the void, back to the campfire, back to the beginning of his adventures, back to the center of his life. He looked deep; into the furthest crevice he dipped, and there he found a single foothold, a drop amidst the endless storm.

When he was Turned, Star had been able to wield unbelievable power, shouldering both of their gifts as one. She rescued him, she saved him from whatever tortures Vartek had concocted, and now he had to do the same.

It felt like a cold icicle of magic, and he saw no other option but to chase it. It felt furious, it would burn him, it was dangerous; the thoughts chased him back from that tempting ember, but there was no other choice. Star had left her power to him. The campfire of magic in the center of his mind needed to consume him. He needed to dip into it.

It needed to corrupt him.

Vartek swung his blade, it's edge trailing a stream of light as his conquest finally came to an end.

But just before it struck true, a force slammed him down into the dirt, burrowing him beneath an irresistible, crushing weight. The air vibrated as he was forced down, the bedrock cracking under his weight while Marco struggled to stand. The ground rippled with force, a thousand yard stare in his eyes as he ignored Varteks struggle to resist. The chains were gone, and he felt weightless. That was all he realized before he turned his attention downward, eying Vartek with blank fury.

A beam of deep green magic poured out from the boy's mouth, a missile of corrupted energy that served only to bury Vartek further still, turning the rocks to slag and the air to plasma in his wake. It was an indescribable power, sent out from his insides almost by sheer instinct to make the man before him suffer. It felt good, soothing even to see Vartek crumple under the weight and heat. Some part of his twisted, new being wanted that.

With a start, Marco realized that he was using magic, and what was worse, it was toxic and corrupted. He grabbed his face and pulled back, the beam carving a trench into the earth before abruptly cutting off. He marveled at the heat, a violent grin spreading between his cheeks as newfound voices pleaded with him to vaporize the lands around him. Ancient words spoken to him through the corrupted magic to destroy. But with a gasp, he shook them off.

He didn't have time to listen to the voices begging him to kill, to subjugate all life; he needed to get to Star, and fast. Madly he swung about, eying the dot headed for the Sanctuary, and with a perplexing, deep buzzing over his shoulders, he charged forward, his feet obliterating the stone blow with a jump.

In a blinding display, he realized the ground beneath him was blurring by as the wind roared past his ears. Even more alarming was the realization that he wasn't running, but flying. He was almost on her, by some grace she was moving slower now that Vartek was busy healing and unearthing himself.

"Go back and kill him."

"Mince that man that did this to us."

"The Goddess must pay for our suffering

The voices…

He could hear an ocean of voices screaming for him to abandon her, to simply kill Vartek, to destroy everything, to be a God. But he fought them all back. Finally reaching her, Marco tackled Star to the ground in a flurry of dust, the Turned Princess struggling to fight him off. She hissed at him and bit and clawed, kicking him back as her wings flared, but he grabbed her and held her still. Six hands pinned six hands, and Star continued to fight him.

He needed to distract her long enough to get through to her. How had she always done it… that thing… There was a stretching on his back, accompanied by a rush of wind before Marco saw the shadows around him. He managed to flare his wings, shimmering blue and red and green despite his corruption, and Star stopped struggling to attack. Instead her vacant eyes were transfixed by the swirling blues and reds and greens.

"Why did you rush him alone?!" He demanded of the creature before him, though she had no mind to answer, "We were supposed to fight him together!"

Vartek would be back soon, he needed to hurry and kill- ...no no, and save Star, while she was docile enough to talk to. He had her pinned, and while her fangs bared against the sunlight, he found it hard not to… maybe… it had to be the corruption now flooding his veins. He kissed her with a long and passionate embrace, finding her form falling still. With no deeper connection to share, maybe the best way to pull her out, was to go in and get her.

He kissed her for only a handful of silent seconds, before a fist snuck free and slammed into his gut. Bones cracked, this time slowly mending, but as Star curled out from under him and slammed him back down, she was anything but healing. Her soulless eyes glared daggers as she summoned her blade, now solid emerald, wavering it above his chest.

"I know… you can beat this guy…" Marco rasped, fighting to free himself of her grip. His chest was burning, and he knew that from somewhere, Vartek was likely watching. The voices, yelling from everywhere? They told him so. Along with begging him to get revenge, and take all of Mewni with it. "You gotta remember me. Remember us."

For an unbelievable moment, she wavered, blinking hard as she took a deep breath. Star stared at him, and for a heartbeat he almost believed she had even heard him. But that burning blade that pierced his shoulder, sinking all the way through to the ground below to pin him down? It woke him up to the reality of his situation that Star was gone, and what was left of her wouldn't be helping any time soon.

He screamed when Star skewered him, her blade narrowly missing his collarbone to secure him to stone. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned in closer. As he hissed in pain, Star hissed right back, her wings flaring in a final warning to stay down. And with a flap of her wings she took off, storming towards the statue with grace, as Marco lay pinned in place. Their altercation was over in a minute, and Marco lay bleeding with a new weapon to boot.

He bit back the pain, and fought off the sarcastic, cynical voices as his blood boiled and flared with every beat of his heart. He stared up into the calming sky of Mewni, pink and inviting. The cool breeze that made him almost feel alive, when his body screamed that he surely was anything but. It was comforting, and in that comfort something deep down changed. The corruption felt less searing, and more like a hollow cold. An emptiness that would never be full

His shoulder burned, and as he pulled out that emerald blade, he screamed all over again, staring at the Butterfly flying away. She was going to kill herself completing that spell… and she'd take everyone with her. Everyone, that is, that wasn't already locked away by Varteks control. Marco could hear them all, a thousand voices screaming in chorus for salvation.

Free us, save us, deliver us from the tyrant.

Break the spell and free us, destroy him and set us free!

You have the power to do anything in the Universe!

"Marco."

Marco turned about madly, drawing the weapon left behind. The last voice sounded like it was right behind him. It was too real.

But there he was. Darc stood there, a mirror image to Marco just as before.

Smiling like he had already won, Darc furled his mesmerizing jet black wings and stepped closer. His body was a ghost, but the voices fell silent, like the leader to their craziness had shushed them down to speak. And what he offered was short, concise, and clarifying.

"We're out of time, bud. You saw what they did with that much magic, so you know what needs to be done. Save her, and surrender yourself."

Marco stared at the Visage of himself as it dissolved, evaporating into the sunlight. Darc had left, and in his place stood Vartek. He smiled, content with his victory and hungry for the spoils as he shook the dust off from his shoulders. He raised his scimitars, his eyes blazing green to match, and offered simply, "Let's get this over with, Boy. You were cursed to return, and against providence you fought, but there is nothing for you here. May your death deliver you to your own home, and me to mine."

He could only hold his shoulder as he seethed, that emerald blade still in his free hand. Corruption boiled in Marco's chest, and magic burned under his skin as it threatened to break his mind.

Kill him! Free us from this curse! Save us from the dark! SET US FREE FROM THIS PRISON!

BREAK THE SPELL!

The voices persisted that he would fight, and he fight to kill. But there wasn't anything left to give, he was spent and exhausted, bruised and broken. What could he do against the enemy even Star couldn't beat?

Marco stopped his ragged breathing for only a moment, looking down at that cold blade given to him by Star, whether she was aware of it or not.

Vartek had her under his spell and there was only one way to break it without the Raksuran stone. He was the one in control, the voices all screamed that there was but one way to set her free, to save everyone.

Take him with you to the end of the universe!

Marco stumbled down to his knees, the sword clanging by his feet as his wings drooped. He raged against the heat of his body. He was just a human. There was no way he could keep this up for long, and even less of a chance that he could use it to beat Vartek. But… maybe he didn't need to beat him. He just had to get Star free. And there was just one way to do that now that he was alone.

He looked at the sword by his feet, and then turned his eyes up to glare at Vartek, the Septarian smiling down as he readied his blade. Vartek needed to die, and it looked as though there was but one way to make that happen.

He would give up everything for Star.

He would give her everything he had.

There was no peace without sacrifice.

He had to surrender. Not to Vartek, not to the universe, but he would surrender to the end.

"Don't let sorrow cloud your last moments alive...Marco Diaz." Vartek used his full name as he pulled back his sword, his eyes flaring. Tomorrow was already upon them. He readied his final thrust. "You will see her again. Perhaps in another li-"

"RRAAAAUUGGGHHHH!

*SHUNK* - *SHINK*

All of Mewni stood still, as though holding its breath for what followed. There was no wind, and even the sunlight that had taken the morning now felt cold to all who could see it.

Two men stared at one another, their eyes bulging, one in surprise, and one in a last, furious charge of rage.

The tip of Varteks blade protruded through the back of Marcos hoodie, between his wings, the ethereal edge dripping blood. The boy never moved to dodge his strike, not that it would have done him any good. Vartek had speed in spades, and all the power of the universe at his disposal. Wisely, the boy must have chosen to go out on own terms, something that would have been honorable, had it not been the only option.

But Vartek wasn't smiling for long. As Marco's grimace wavered, his gaze fell down with it, and Vartek's followed. His eyes fell to his stomach. Where he saw the Princess' emerald blade, as corrupted as him, sprouting from his torso.

Electricity arched from Varteks blade. Marco stared at the scimirar sticking from his stomach, his head spinning at the sight of it. He'd charged Vartek and ran him through as planned, but that scimitar… It was as cold as it had been that night in the desert, a stark contrast to the heat leaving his body.

With a flash of green, Vartek turned his furious eyes back up to Marco's, his haughty sneer wide and crooked. "Did you really believe that you could stop me with that? A bit of magic and a blade through my gut?!" Vartek moved to free himself, his blade sinking deeper into the boy's chest.

But Marco held firm, twisting his blade to make Vartek scream as his wings folded around to keep him close. He used all five of his free hands to hold him closer, his ages narrowed in seething hatred. The Septarian howled as Marco continued to stare down at the instrument of his demise. And when Vartek twisted his own blade in return, Marco finally managed a scream of his own, hissing out air before he upped the ante and flooded magic through his sword.

He could hear it searing, but much more than that: Every ounce of magic he poured into Vartek, he felt a semblance of control over the blade in his stomach. He could feel some of Star's magic, and as he added more still, he could see her, sensing her thoughts and the command to execute Varteks will.

'It...it's the Turned Spell...' Was it really so simple as flooding a person with your own corruption?

Vartek could sense it too, that the boy was beginning to take control. He was quick to return in kind with more of his own breed of magic right back. The Visage of Star began to fade from Marco's mind before he pushed back, staring up at Vartek with a steadily growing scowl of pain. The two were locked in a stalemate, their split halves of corrupted magic pushing against the other to force them under control. It was searing down to the soul, like an irresistible pressure that could only be shouldered by pushing back against it.

"Haaaa, you… will not survive this," Vartek huffed, pushing a wave of magic through Marco's mind, his eyes flaring as cracks webbed over his skin. He was using more and more by the second, but he couldn't stop now. The magic Marco had, it was somehow… corrupted. It was the same as his own, and for every drop he sent out, there came a wave of unyielding resolve to answer. "I… am immortal, Boy. I will heal, but your body… will burn to ash, just like the rest of this world! You have… no right… to fight back!"

The ground rippled with newfound energy as cracks began to line the stone below. The wind kicked up dust and debris as it circled them like water in the drain. A tremendous power was beginning to pool, and it was a razor's edge battle to see who would stand in the deep end.

As the weightlessness of so much magic being released began to take hold, Marco and Vartek both began to hover, their bodies lifting off the ground as they struggled for control. The boy could feel an ocean of power within, just begging to be set loose on the world. It was limitless in its supply, but so too were its consequences. That much energy was too much for his body, or anyone's for that matter. It might as well have been a death sentence to fight back so feverently, but then again, so was the sword lodged between his lungs.

But that pain he fought back, the burning that made his skin smoke, it reminded him of what happened when too much magic was set free. When Star and Vartek had forced their powers against one another, compressing it past its limit...

There was some sort of rift, reality bending at their will and strength. Maybe he could do the same thing. Maybe he could go out with a bang.

He pushed with more magic, that vile, corrupted force as he listed his head to the side. With effort he managed to keep Vartek back, flooding magic through the sword as he searched for its owner. And far in the distance, she was there, motionless. She stood locked in place, her masters will blocked by the flow of magic.

Marco started as the blade in his gut twisted, ripping him from his thoughts with a burning grip. He glared at Vartek, the Septarian barely restraining his anger as he fought the emerald sword impaling him. This was a fight for the fate of the universe, and Vartek simply refused to give in.

'What if he's still too strong?'

That thought crept into the back of Marco's mind as the sky began to darken around them, the forces fighting against themselves pushing away the very ground below. And to prove his point, he felt Vartek stiffen, summoning a slew of magic to fill him with corruption. It burned to his core, eroding his memories. His family, his relationships, his plans, he could feel bits and pieces of them chipping away like memories.

"Looks like you and I are headed for the same place, amigo," Darc's voice sounded, bringing a touch of clarity back from the storm. The burning seemed to lighten with company, like two minds could carry the burden better than just one. "This… is probably gonna kill you, Diaz. If Vartek doesn't make it, there's a really good chance you don't either. Are you really okay with a one way ticket?"

Marco paled at those words, or maybe it was the loss of blood. Through his mind flashed images of his family, of Star, of his friends, all people he'd never get the chance to say goodbye to. This was really happening. But Marco could only nod, his eyes locked with varteks as he struggled to keep control amidst the hurricane. "Alright, well… don't let him win, Diaz. You're the last person who can see this through. Honestly, that crazy Goddess probably knew you would… for Star, anyway."

Marco grit his teeth as the magic continued to pour into his chest, like crashing waves of blazing flames. He closed his eyes, tears falling down his cheeks as he fought back against hell itself. But they weren't from the pain.

Silently, as Vartek pushed with all his might, Marco wished his family well, hoping that they'd find the strength to carry on. To maybe have another child, somewhere in the future, and continue being the best parents in the world.

He wished his friends to still find joy without him, to not dwell too long on what they'd lost. He would save them, and that would hopefully be enough to satisfy them in his absence. Hopefully they wouldn't blame themselves.

But lastly, as he opened his eyes and fought the stinging tears back, he thought of Star. He hoped beside himself that she would never stop being anything less than extraordinary. 'Star… if… fuck, if you can hear me… don't give up when I'm gone… Please keep fighting. Keep moving forward, and be everything you were always meant to be. ...I love you… so much… Please, forgive me.'

The world would keep spinning without him.

The chaos that surrounded them would only end when both of them lost.

Marco tightened his grip on the blade that had run Vartek through, and he ripped open the floodgates. All bets being off, a ripple of corruption bubbled in every direction, tearing apart the ground as they hovered. It surrounded them, shielding them from the world as it began to unravel against their battle.

"We don't… belong… to this world… Vartek." Marco glared at the man who had stolen his future, all because of his past. Vartek answered the rhetoric with even more magic, his skin cracking and lifting to reveal that glow underneath. He refused to answer, and in return Marco refused to yield. He could see Varteks memories flooding by in droves, forcing his own right back, fueled by his own fear of what might happen if he failed.

The air itself ignited with flames, whipping around their bubble of cackling energy, Marco's skin cracking and tearing just like Varteks as he called out, "WE SHOULD NEVER… HAVE COME BACK HERE!"

Finally, the Septarians eyes flared in anger as his skin pulsed. The cracks widened, like he was about to shatter all over again. He could feel Marco's magic, along with his memories and emotions, and it was growing almost as fast as his. "I CAME HERE FOR HER!" He roared back through grit teeth, but even Marco could feel genuine fear, genuine sadness, and an overwhelming rage that threatened to break him. "I will take what was stolen from me! And no Goddess- nor witless Princess- will ever- BE ENOUGH- TO STOP MEEEE!"

With a final roar, Varteks skin shattered, breaking off into millions of fragments as the light poured out from underneath. His body returned to that wisp of magic it had been as liquid corruption flooded from every pore, circling them on the bubbles surface. Marco could only wince under the pressure, but more so under the realization that this was it.

Vartek was never going to stop, and neither should he.

Marco let his skin shatter with an ear splitting scream, his body glowing bright green with streams of blue mixed in in swirls. His wings burned away, the one force keeping him locked in place, but it came as a shock that he stayed put. The powers he commanded were too strong to let him go now. There was a gravity keeping them locked together. "They already have, Vartek. They sent me… and you chose to die."

There was a click in the air as both parties latched onto an unseen force within themselves. With it, a torrent of magic was released, more than the universe had ever seen before. The dirt below was set ablaze by the heat as the wind threatened to topple mountains. The magic set free was limitless, forcing its way back and forth as a crushing weight began to build.

Marco chanced a glance to the side, looking for Star, but instead he found sporadic glimpses of unrecognizable terrains passing by. Dimensions whizzed by beyond the bubble they occupied as reality began to bend and distort. Dark tears would form and reform in the blink of an eye as wrinkles in space collected and separated. Marco had been right. Magic was breaking the universe, and he needed to push it- "ALL I HAVE DONE, WAS DONE TO GIVE MY LOVE THE LIFE THAT WAS STOLEN FROM HER!" Vartek bellowed, shoving Marco back to the hilt of his scimitar, "I LIVE, TORTURED BY WHAT I HAVE DONE! BURDENED BY THE CURSE OF MAGIC THAT WAS NEVER MINE, AND STILL I AM DENIED MY RIGHTFUL PEACE!"

There was no hatred behind his words, Marco could feel the pain that came with them. Vartek was scared. Not of death, and not for those he was dooming, but he was scared that Merina was truly lost, and his fate had already been sealed. Marco forced himself back, pushing down the memories that threatened to corrupt him. "Merina had her chance! You both did!" He screamed over the roar of the bubble, dimensions shifting and changing too fast to even recognize. They were no longer on Mewni, and at the same time they hadn't moved a inch. "She made her choice, and so did you! You could have stopped before you were broken! You could have been better than Nebula, better than Mewni! YOU COULD HAVE SURRENDERED TO YOUR FATE!"

Reality continued to bend and ripple around them as arcs of corruption and droplets of magic pelted their skin and seared their insides. Magic continued to flow unchecked as they fought to Turn the other, neither willing to give an inch as the universe blinked by outside.

But Vartek would not accept defeat. Not when he was so close. Marco may have stolen his magic, he may have lost his upper hand, But even on equal footing he would win. He had to, because tomorrow was the one thing he had that Marco didn't. He had a future worth dying for, and a future worth killing for. It had all come to this, and after all he had done to so many, he would not accept anything less than Merinas return.

Vartek broke the locks, tearing open the last reserves as he called upon more magic, eager to use every drop from that cursed realm before he gave in. He was going to let everything go. "I WILL NEVER SURRENDEEEERRR!"

Marco felt the change in the weight building against him and let go just the same, giving the last embers of corrupted magic in his campfire to the universe. He would let go of everything he had, and everything he was, as long as it kept those he cared about safe. If it cost him his life, then maybe Luna did make the right choice. And maybe who he was before all this would make good on his own life, like he was meant to. "Then we go out together, Vartek," Marco all but whispered, reality beginning to tear and glitch beyond their bubble. Dimensions shifted as they began to blur by, and as a ringing grew in the air, the sound of tearing fabric broke through the encroaching darkness and pressure.

"Two men out of time. Two men forgotten by their futures."

Both men could only grimace at one another above the pain, the roar of the wind, and the breaking of the universe around them. And finally, when each had spent every drop of magic at their disposal, there was a blinding flash of light to steal their vision. There came a terrible sound of tearing fabric and a ringing that stole their hearing, and as a wall of pressure began to cave in, finally… there was nothing but silence.

O - O - O

Star fell to her knees. She felt weak. Like, more tired than she'd ever been in her life, plus a sizable hangover to dry things up.

She was back to normal, from whatever she had been when she… was fighting- "VARTEK!" She screamed that name in a half growl as she struggled to get up, but her body refused to comply.

She fumed for a moment as her migraine threatened to split her skull. "Oh…right. I got Turned…"

Thankfully, there was no danger to fret over as she slumped back down. The Turned… they were all dead? Or sleeping? There were piles of them strewn about, so maybe they'd just been turned off?

Star looked around, investigating what was left of… corn her memory was foggy. She was… at the Forest of Certain Death, that was it, if you could even call it that anymore. It looked more like the moonscape wasteland of certain death now, with craters dotting the land and fallen trees burning every twenty feet. There was nothing but an empty battlefield, and an empty sky in the morning.

Rather than take it as stock, Star's first assumption was that she was, in all likelihood, dead. There was nobody else there, it was as quiet as a graveyard. But what immediately shook her from her new fear, was an echoing boom. It would sound off like a cannon once a second, and with every ring it got louder, approaching from the west.

She turned, narrowing her bleary eyes at the horizon.

There was a ball, swirling with every color imaginable, and spinning fast enough to whip up a tornado of smoke and dust. It kept blipping out of existence, every second shooting off to somewhere new before reappearing with a boom. It spun, faster and faster and faster until it could no longer handle the force, warping and stretching before it finally collapsed, blipping into a dot and sucking in a hundred yards of dirt to dig up a crater.

Star was mesmerized before there came a blinding flash, like nothing she'd ever seen before. It lit up the faces of the Jagged Mountains and cleared the clouds from the sky as Star shielded her eyes. What followed was a deafening boom, the shockwave reaching her in a second and knocking her back into the dirt. When she could finally open her eyes against the blistering sandstorm, Star witnessed the forming of a purple and green mushroom cloud, toxic and beautiful as it scorched the land, and cleared the sky.

She struggled to get to her feet, eager to follow it. There was a chance that the battle might still be going on, and she needed to help in any way she-

'...W-what… What is this?'

She stopped, her eyes darting down from the cloud to grip her chest. There was a feeling she had all but forgotten, filling her and bringing a warmth she'd only just lost.

She was… whole again?

Immediately after the warmth in her chest had reminded her that her recently split soul had been reformed, there came a vice of pain that stabbed like cold iron. Star toppled down, her face planted into the dust as she gripped her chest, hot tears streaming down her cheeks as she heaved in agony. It was unbearable, it was the worst pain she'd ever felt in her life, it nearly drove her to madness as it droned on. It felt like a hot iron poker was ripping her heart out for a minute before it finally gave way to a hollow emptiness.

There was no way to tell, but the pain made it clear enough. Her soul was complete, and with its warmth there came a void in her heart that something had been lost. It was all but instinctual, and the pain she felt was only half physical as she realized what it was.

Her eyes shot wide open as scattered mewmans around her began to slowly shift back to normal, their cracks healing and their bodies bending back into place. But she was blind to them. Vartek was gone… and so was… "No no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO!" Star stood on shaky legs, her eyes frantically searching the battlefield, scanning over the bodies of the Turned.

The battlefield was silent, flames licking the air for a mile as clouds of smoke would darken the sky. It was as silent as the grave. And alone in the graveyard, Star could feel nothing but that emptiness in her soul. Something had been lost.

'Marco killed Vartek… he's probably just hurt… maybe I can just feel his pain… he needs me,'' She was grasping at straws, but she knew. She couldn't feel him at all, and the longer she scanned, the more desperate she got. But she knew. He was still here, he had to be.

'There's way too much risk here for everyone to charge in blind…'

Carefully and frantically, she struggled in desperation to her feet, exhausted and broken as she was. He had to still be here, Vartek too. The bodies should be lying around… he couldn't just be… Gone. But the throbbing pain in her chest, the mending of her split soul… more tears fell in droves as Star choked back a sob. The world around her was blurring as she cried.

"MARCOOOOOOOOOO!" Star called out to him, but there was no one to answer. Just fires and dusty Turned, slowly being freed from their curse.

Everywhere she looked there was only debris and smoke. The forest had been reduced to ashes and craters for miles, and Star was determined to search every inch of it to find Marco. It would just take time, one resource she now had an endless supply of.

But as the icy dagger in her chest crept deeper, she saw another figure close by, still as a stone, though not the one amidst the billions she was searching for.

Merinas statue stood in a pool of green magic, her frozen form glinting in the sunlight to catch Star's eye. Even if Vartek was gone, that statue was still present, and magic was still corrupted and broken. There was a chance things could fall back into chaos, or magic would find a way to spread its toxicity to those who lived off it.

Star wiped the tears from her eyes and dropped her face into a grimace. She wasn't quite ready to accept that Marco had… he was just missing.

'Some of us might not make it out of this. Can you live with that?'

Star shouldered a mounting guilt, a weight that came with every word he had said in warning. But for now, she had to carry it and keep moving. She still had a job to finish before she could search for him properly. She was the one person left standing who could cleanse the realm of magic of its corruption and finally undo what Vartek had destroyed. …mostly.

She trudged closer, her breathing ragged and burdened. There was no real rush, but the more time she wasted on purification, the less time Star had to search for- *oof!* Star fell on her butt, staring at an invisible, rippling barrier that surrounded the statue by thirty feet. It was as beautiful as a bubble, but far from as delicate as she reached out to touch it. It held firm, blocking any further advance towards Merina and the pool.

"More of that bastard's tricks." Star grumbled obscenities to herself as she pushed against the barrier, but it held firm, the rippling surface iridescent in the morning light.

"I wouldn't spend too long searching, child."

Star whirled around to find the last person she expected to see in a battlefield, and the last person she wanted any news from without Marco. Luna stood there, her arms folded and her hair as flowing as ever as she continued, "I'm sorry… you will not find what you need out here, child. And… I'm afraid I cannot help you any longer."

Before Star could even properly disagree that her search was fruitless- after all what did Luna know about the battle she'd missed- the very same Goddess leaned forward and held Star's cheek. Her hand felt warm, like the kind of warm you can only find on a summer night with loved ones, surrounded by freedom and ease. It brought peace to her, calming the raging storm in her mind as fresh tears fell above a shocked frown.

'All we can do is everything in our power to make it home safe. Together.'

Marco, the boy who'd been sent back in time from his home to relive the past with her, to protect her from dangers unforeseen. Marco, who'd chosen her above any other in the universe to be with, who's soul had been bound to hers and had devoted more than his life to keep her safe. Marco, that lovable idiot that could always make her smile, whom she'd spent years alongside, in a number of dimensions. He was simply gone. She could feel it through that gentle touch, he was gone, and there wasn't a trace left to find. He was gone, and she would never again feel the warmth of his hands, nor hear the joy of his laugh. It was pointless to search for something that wasn't there, and what had been done was final. Star was alone again, just like day one. And it was her fault.

Slowly, she nodded, her eyes wide with muted horror. What she was too afraid to admit, or even think, the Goddess already knew, and brought with her a wash of comfort to help ease the pain that only comes with losing a loved one. The kind of pain that has to be earned.

"I wish… I could have done more," Luna admitted, taking a moment to step back and admire the strength of her remaining chosen, "I cannot see without Glossaryck, and I did not see… I should have known- if only I'd have... I alone hold the burden of guilt in-"

Star silenced the Blood Moon with a hug, her face twisted in pain too heavy to bear alone. She breathed ragged sobs as Luna found she could only reciprocate the hug, her own eyes welling. There was nothing more for Star to say, and in her thoughts Luna could read forgiveness amidst the pain, guilt, fear, and anger. But she had come here for a reason, not just to grieve. No one else needed to die today, except for her.

She pulled away from her chosen, looking down at Star with admiration written on her sleeves. "You are so much more than I ever could have imagined, Star Butterfly. I wish you happiness, where there can be none, and I wish you all the strength in the universe…" Star was silent, her eyes wet and her heart empty. There was nothing to say, Luna had done what she needed, and now it was time to go. "But you've done enough for me, child, it's time for you to rest. To heal. Thank you… for being mine.. My last Chosen."

Star stopped, and made to question her, but Luna held out her hand, summoning a familiar blue crystal from inside the bubble, it's edges sizzling and crackling with energy. "...Marco..?" Star asked, almost too quiet to hear. It looked like his soul stone, confirmed when Luna nodded.

"May he find peace, as may Vartek, in the afterlife." With steadfast resolve, Luna crushed the crystal in her hand, letting an iridescent wisp of azure fire burst forth, the steady stream blitzing back and forth before disappearing. It didn't bring Star much comfort, but at least Marcos' soul was free now. Maybe now he could truly rest, and when she left to join him, they'd be together again.

"One last thing, child. The wand, please." Luna held out her hand, and after a moment of deliberation, Star obliged. Clearly this couldn't be one of Varteks tricks, so with a heavy hand, she dropped the artifact into the hands of a Goddess.

Luna closed her fist around the wand, but strangely, it didn't change form. It remained as Star desired it, and without a word, Luna stepped through the barrier, towards the statue. Star tried to follow, finding it still unbreachable. She began to worry that maybe this was some sort of mind trick, But Luna reassured her with a dismissive wave of her free hand. "This is where we part ways, Star. As my final act as Goddess, I intend to go as Marco did… and as Vartek did: sacrificing myself to save one of my Chosen." She held the wand out in front of her, her hair flaring to reveal an entire night sky with millions of stars hidden in her locks. "I will fulfil Varteks dying wish, as Marco fulfilled his. Take care of her, and tell her I regret… everything I have ever done to you."

Star watched with frozen amazement as a single, blazing tear cascaded over Luna's cheak. And without a word spoken between them, she began.

It was similar to painting in the air, using the wand as a brush to write ancient runes of deep scarlet between her and Merina. Runes so old that Star couldn't even recognize them as language filled the air as the Goddess wrote one after another, letting them float aimlessly in a patchwork constellation around the statue. They formed a dome, encircling them both before Luna finally stopped, holding the wand straight out.

"I am ready to attone...

Let me fix what has been broken, but do not punish my misdeeds.

Accept my status as a meager token, tear my heart until it bleeds."

Luna, by some ancient, unseen force, seemed to glow bright red as she all but pulled the remaining magic from the statue, collecting it against the wand. But she needed to pull it all out, or it would reject her.

"I do not ask forgiveness, for my crimes will be my end,

Let the Ones be my witness, let them do as I intend."

More and more magic she pulled from the statue, letting it hang in the air in drapes of green as the ground began to rumble. Star could only watch from a distance as the universe was being rewritten before her eyes.

"Save this soul and have it take my place,

Wipe away my wrongs and leave no trace.

Undo the future and change her fate,

Take my body and recreate!"

There was no buffer for what came next. Like a ravenous dragon, the long ribbon of corrupted Magic suddenly snapped to attention, taking off and circling the dome of runes with ferocity. It struggled to find an exit, amd Star knew somehow that if it broke free, the universe would collapse. But Luna had been thorough, and when there was only one conduit left, the ribbon turned to the Goddess.

It struck her in the chest, an endless stream of magic flowing through her, devouring her and the memories of a Goddess. It crackled with energy as it turned her back into what she had been before she had become a Goddess. Before she had meddled in the Magic of fate.

A God is only made, when a magic user trifles in the forces of nature that cannot be altered. Love, Fate, Magic, Time, Knowledge, all had been tampered with, and all those who sought to rewrite those rules had been bound by them for all eternity. Forced to enact their laws on any whom they deem unworthy. There was no escape from this fate, save for death, or as Luna had discovered, begging to right a wrong.

Her crimson body broke down, her hair falling out in clumps as her skin wrinkled and withered. She had been ancient when she had tried to mess with the magic of Fate, and it had been Eons ago when she had been cursed to fulfil the role given to her by the Ones. But as the soul trapped within the statue rewrote her own, the soul of a God, she found it hard to dwell on the past. She was free, and her soul would live through another, free from the fate she had been given long ago.

Star averted her eyes as the red and green light overtook the world, this time with a calming warmth rather than a burning heat. There was a rolling boom, like thunder echoing off the mountains, and after a moment, she looked to see what the spell had done.

There, where the Goddess had been standing only a moment ago, was a different woman, this one with tanned skin, freckles, and a mop of curly, forest green hair.

Star froze, tension gripping her spine as she retracted back a step.

It was her, the object of so much destruction, the driving force behind the madness: Merina.

The woman with the green hair stumbled forward, falling to her knees as she carefully examined every aspect of her reformed body. Star just stood there, a meager twenty feet away as Merina looked around, marveling at the sun, the sky, the air, all without a care. Star watched in abject terror as Merina took in the sensations and feelings of life, likely for the first time in years.

"Thank you, my Goddess…" The woman whispered, though her tone exposed a level of discomfort. Old wounds maybe… but Star shook it off.

If she went for it now, she could take her out, or purify her at the source if need be. She was weak, but surely so was Merina, right? Then again, Luna had gone through the troubles of reviving her, so maybe she was safe? Star never got the chance to test her theories, as out of the blue, Merina turned to face her, a gentle smile beneath her freckles.

Star froze, timidly taking a step back and tripping on debris. She fell as Merina stood, the woman's face twisting with worry before she took a step closer.

Star crawled back.

Merina took two steps closer.

Star crawled back.

Merina took one cautious step closer, and Star reached for her wand, finding it wasn't there, and she was out of magic.

Merina finally stopped, just ten feet away as she held out her hand. "You can rest easy, hun. It's over," she offered, her accent very similar to Eclipsa's, despite being a bit younger. But Star narrowed her eyes in a cautious glare. This could still be a trick, a terrible and very well crafted trick.

Sensing the young woman's distrust, Merina nodded and held her hand higher, clenching it with noticeable effort.

Behind her, the old statue that still bore her likeness shattered. The magic within spilled into the pool as a flaming tendril of energy whizzed through the air sporadically, another piece of a soul set free to find its home. And with careful ease, Merina handed Star back her wand, the princess taking it gingerly.

"See, not evil, I just need your help to make sure I stay that way," Merina offered, approaching Star carefully. When she was within arms reach, Star nearly bolting in fear, she held out her hand again. "I need you to purify me, like how Luna showed you. That way, I don't have to worry about losing myself… like my husband. Can you do that?'

Slowly, Star found the courage to nod, wordlessly producing the Raksuran Stone from her dress. Merinas eyes lit up for a startling moment before she smiled, helping Star press it against her chest. "Now, if you'd please, hun. It's starting to sting a little, and I should like to relax for a moment… without these voices in my head."

"...Radiant… Purification… Hurricane?"

For a moment, nothing as cataclysmic as before happened. Star was actually beginning to worry that there might be no cure for the corruption, when Merina let out a steady sigh. She relaxed as though she'd just been cleansed, her shoulders drooping as she gave Star a smile. "See, love? No worries here. Just needed to get cleaned up is all. Look…"

Merina directed Star's attention towards the pool, and just as what should have happened to Vartek, the green pool of emerald magic slowly began to clear. In its wake came ripples of gold, glowing under the shattered bits of emerald. Pieces of crystal sunk into the pond, but it was all consumed little by little until there was no sign it had ever been there at all.

Like a fresh wind in a meadow, Star felt clean, she felt her body ease and relax where it had been sore. She could all but feel the magic flowing within her slowly begin to align itself and heal from the damage that had been done. And when she finally felt that she could be at ease, Star let her face drop into a scowl. Marco was still gone, and even with magic cleaned up, even with everyone safe, that fact would forever stand.

But, as if she herself had been in the same line of thinking, Merina took a step back. She looked around the battlefield, at all of the destruction her husband had wrought. The bodies, the terror that stunk in the air, all of it in her name. And all of it to meet the ends of his death. Star turned at the sound of a choked sob, and slowly she realized that despite what had happened, she wasn't the only person who had lost something today.

She wasn't the only "chosen" who now sat without their pair.

Merina was now as alone as she was, even more so considering this wasn't even her time. These weren't even her people.

There was so much to explain, so much to do, so much to clean and fix and mourn, Star shook off the feelings of spite and anger for now, and rested her hand on Merinas shoulder. "The best thing we can do is move forward. We won't forget them," she offered solemnly, finding Merina nodding, her eyes glued to the horizon. She wasn't sure how much she believed that herself, but everyone needs a shoulder when they're weak. "We can't change what happened, and I know you tried to help...in the end. So what will you do? Will you try to go home? Or will you stay, and fix what he did?"

Merina was silent for a long time. She wasn't sure if she even had a home to go back to, after what Vartek had done. So much destruction and death was dealt to innocents, and not so innocents. "I think I should stay. Tidy up some of this rubbish he's left for me. It wouldn't do for Mewni to go back to hating Monsters, so… I'd like to better prepare a better future for people like me. I want to make sure tomorrow stays bright, no matter how dark he made today…"

Star made to answer, but before she could, there was a column of fire that illuminated the ashen stone around them. And out from the pillar ran four people, all of them sprinting towards Star.

As Tom, Torriditty and Janna all ran, Moon hung back, catching her breath at the sight of the battle around them. Her citizens, her lands, so much had been taken. The battle had been won, but the costs had yet to present themselves.

"STARRR!" Tom shrieked, tackling her to the ground as Torriditty and Janna piled on after them, "WE WOKE UP AND DIDN'T KNOW WHERE WE WERE OR WHAT HAPPENED AND-" Star shushed him and struggled to break free, giving them a flat smile for their efforts.

"Me too, guys. But I think we won," Star offered, her eyes vacant of satisfaction.

"All I know is, Marco's gonna have to open a tab at Brittas, because I am starving," Janna laughed, looking around to catch the safe kid's reaction, "could really go for… some burritos… about now...," she trailed off.

"You guys did good, we really put up a good fight," she offered, though with each passing second the mood plummeted. Something was wrong. Janna was the first to notice, her eyes widening slightly as she drew in an uneasy breath.

"Where's Marco?"

Star felt her knees start to give. Her chest grew tight. "Marco… h-he beat Vartek… so we're safe now…" her voice wavered, and the once irresistible smile of Star Butterfly began to crack. Torridity, Tom, and Janna stood silently, their minds working hard to catch up with the reality she was failing to soften.

It was Moon who caught it first, turning her eyes away from the mending Mewmans all around them. She stared at Star for a moment, watching as that wavering lie of a smile bent under the weight of what had happened. She'd seen that same smile I the families of knights who failed to return home. Wives explaining to their children why their father hadn't come back yet. Moon saw the mask fracture, that pain slipping by as Star had no Earthly reason to know how to hide it.

She walked right up to Star and threw her arms around her daughter. She hugged her, squeezed her, held her as tight as a mother could as Star broke down again, this time for good.

Moon ran her fingers through her daughter's hair as she bit back tears of her own. She listened as Star wailed, her friends moving in to form the circle of comfort that kept any more of the world's struggles from getting in.

So much had been saved today, at a very high cost. No one would dare haggle with fate over the cost of victory, as Vartek had, but Star was the loudest to cry out against its cruelty. She didn't want to live in a world without Marco, no matter how much she'd been spared in the fight. She'd have sacrificed so much in exchange for him, more than she'd have ever admitted.

But the universe is unforgiving. It doesn't make deals, and there were so many other people around the battlefield who would need her.

'When it's time to pick up the pieces, I know you'll be right there at the front to keep us in line.'

Star looked around the charred and broken battlefield, at all of her citizens in need of help, magic, and care. They needed her, just like Marco said.

'Everyones gonna look to you to pull them forward. Maybe not as a Queen, maybe not even as a princess, but as a leader that stepped up and made sure everyone made it through.'

Without a word, Star wiped away the tears of a once in a lifetime bad day. She would be strong. She would be what her people needed her to be; what Marco had seen in her since she had met him for the first time, and the second time. They had a lot of work to do, and a lot of people to help. So in a huff of resolve, hoping to be strong, Star shouldered the pain in her chest. She would be as strong as Marco knew she was.

'I love you...Marco Diaz.'

---

AUTHORS NOTE

I didn't like the split between act one and two, so I'm mashing them back together. I hope you've enjoyed Part one. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you down the line!

~Mr. Ronald Reagan