Episode:
13: The Morpheus Trap

With Marco freed from the Dream Entrapment spell, he and Adam must venture into Star's mind to free her too. Without her help, the entire kingdom may remain trapped in their nightmares forever.

Truly, Marco was never going to get used to the feeling of his mind being pulled around every which way. In fairness, he had only experienced it twice, but the Psionic Wandering Spell was exceedingly wacky. He could see why Star spoke of the weird feelings she felt when using the spell.

'Get up, Marco.'

Marco blinked and opened his eyes. Adam was standing over him, tapping his foot impatiently. He glared at him as he began to stand up.

'You coulda helped.'

'Time is of the essence,' said Adam, looking around with a steely eye. Marco examined his surroundings.

Of all the places they found themselves, Marco did not expect it to be an elementary school playground. It didn't look like any school he recognised, certainly not somewhere from Echo Creek. However, it was definitely Earth. The blue skies, wispy white clouds and bright eggy sunshine indicated as much. What did this have to do with Star?

'Must get those pipes working.'

Adam and Marco shuddered as they turned to see someone walking past them. They were walking over to a metal door in the wall of the main school building. Moments later, they left, carrying a toolbox and a screwdriver. Marco's eyes widened.

'River?!' he sputtered in shock. Adam, however, was impassive.

Indeed, it was River, clad in a blue janitor's uniform, going about his business fixing pipes. He twirled a spanner between his fingers. There was an undoubtable spring in his step. He began to fix some pipes in a wall panel, humming Space Unicorn to himself all the while.

'What the –?'

'Marco!' hollered an innocent voice. At the crack of a whip, Marco spun around in the direction of the voice. A small silhouette blurred past them, barely giving either of them enough time to identify it.

'Oh, what now?' groaned another voice.

To their right, leaning against a climbing frame in the playground, was an eleven-year-old Marco Diaz. He was wearing a school uniform. Marco felt like he was going to lose his mind. A nightmare version of himself. That wasn't troubling for him at all.

Someone collided with him at full force.

'Can we hang out now?'

'Later,' Nightmare Marco replied, rolling his eyes. 'I gotta talk to Janna first. Just wait, okay?'

'Okay…' said a very tiny voice. Nightmare Marco left, leaving the little silhouette standing there, alone. It was only when they turned around did Adam and Marco get a good look at who it was.

Marco's eyes nearly popped out his eye sockets. 'Star?!' He leaned forward to do something, but Adam stopped him.

Eight-year-old Star Butterfly trudged despondently over to the decrepit benches on the other side of the playground. She too was wearing a school uniform, although it was battered, worn and dirty. It didn't look it had been washed in weeks, perhaps at all. She had mismatching socks, one of them was white – although it was so dirty that it appeared yellow – and the other was black, with streaks of dust and dirt running across it. What passed for shoes looked more like modified sandals, with the exposed toes and the ungodly number of holes in the worn leather.

Deep dark bruises stretched across her sunken face, coupled with thin, red lacerations marring her cheeks. Any part of her face not bruised was unnaturally pale, as white as a sheet against the humid summer air. Her knees were caked in dried mud, littered with scabs and scars. Malnourishment and abuse drained her very soul.

The poor little girl politely dusted the mud and cobwebs off the bench before resting her full weight onto it. Resisting a sob, Star reached out and picked up her favourite stick from the concrete ground.

'Narwhal Blast!' she cried, flicking the stick in the air. Alas, nothing happened. 'Come on Marco, we've got to stop the Monsters!'

Some of the surrounding children laughed at her. Marco didn't think he'd seen anything less funny in his entire life.

'This…this is Star's greatest fear?'

'Apparently,' Adam uttered. His words were calm, but his voice was strained. His eyes were trained on Star, who was currently imagining a conversation with Cloudy the cloud.

'Hello, Star,' a withdrawn voice greeted behind them. Someone tall walked past them and caught the young girl's attention.

Star's pallid face lit up. 'Hi, Ms Moon!'

Marco tried to hide his shocked expression as Queen Moon, dressed in normal, human clothes, walked over to Star. Marco considered her get-up incongruous, although perhaps only incongruous to him, because she resembled Mrs Skullnick in some respects, which would be normal for an elementary school setting.

"Ms Moon" bent down to talk to Star.

'Are you okay, sweetie?' asked the teacher, a falsely dulcet tone in her voice. Star nodded slowly, dragging it out for as long as possible. 'What are you up to, Star?'

'I'm a magical princess from another dimension, here to save you all from the monsters!'

Moon chuckled awkwardly, a slightly disturbed smile on her lips.

'Of course you are, honey. Well, I think I hear the janitor calling me.' The moment she uttered that excuse, she skated away from Star to the other end of the playground.

'Wait!' called Star, holding out a desperate hand in her wake. As her eyes began to sparkle with tears, her voice fell so low and became so tiny, that Marco could not be certain he even heard it at all. 'Mom…'

'I can't keep watching this!' Marco protested, lunging forward towards Star. Once again, Adam stopped him.

'She won't be able to see you,' he told him, moving past him. 'Let me try.' He approached the young Star on the bench and crouched down to her level. 'Star? Are you in there?'

Young Star looked up at him, registering the words he spoke. Her big, sad eyes stared into his deep, slate ones. Adam would have to be truly heartless to feel nothing in the face of something so miserable. He reached out to hold her hand, but the girl suddenly spoke up.

'Ah!' she screeched, recoiling away from him. 'Stranger danger! Stranger danger!'

Adam blinked.

'Star, I'm –'

'Excuse me,' said a ridiculously cheery voice. He turned around and came face to face with Ms Moon. Her crooked smile belied her gritted teeth. 'You do not belong here.'

The Mewman opened his mouth to say something, but he never got the chance because Ms Moon suddenly powered up and punched him in the face. Adam was sent flying into one of the houses on the terrace on the other side of the road. He groaned in pain as he slowly lifted himself from the rubble.

'Adam!' Marco cried, flapping his arms helplessly. He took a step forward but faltered. 'What do I do? How did I get Star to see me?!'

'You just have to believe!' Adam hollered back, moments before being crushed by Ms Moon. The "teacher" was standing over him, her fingers tightening around his throat.

'Return to the hell from whence you came!' commanded Moon, a slithering wisp of snipe underlying her voice. Adam choked, grasping her wrist with both hands. It took all his might to pry her fingers off his throat and allow him to breathe again.

Ms Moon didn't seem pleased. She grabbed him and threw him down the street with little effort. Marco looked away, silently telling himself that Adam would figure it out.

Just believe, he thought. Believe Star can see you.

Breathing in deeply, he approached Star, who had gone back to playing with a stick. He sat down on the bench next to her.

'Star? It's me.'

After a few short seconds, Star looked up at him. Her eyes conveyed an infinite sadness to him that was truly ineffable. It took her a moment to recognise him but when she did, her pupils dilated wide.

'M-Marco?' She stammered. 'I-I thought you were gonna t-talk to Janna.'

'I changed my mind,' he said, smiling warmly at her. He nodded at the stick in her hand. 'What's that you got there, Star?'

'Oh, this? It's my magic wand!' she exclaimed, emphasising her point with an excited wave of her stick.

'Cool! How'd you get it?' inquired Marco, trying to look as enraptured as possible.

'I'm a magical princess from another dimension!' repeated Star, her eyes wide and delusional. 'My mom, the Queen of Mewni, gave me this wand when I turned 7!' Her face fell. 'But then I blew up the kingdom…so she sent me away.'

'Do you want to go back?' Marco inquired. Star nodded mutely. 'I can take you back to Mewni, Star.'

'Can't.'

Marco blinked. 'Why?' he asked softly. He winced as he heard another explosion, no doubt Adam crashing into a wall.

'Scared.'

'What are you scared of?'

'Everything waiting for me back home,' the young girl squeaked, pulling her knees up to her face. 'Pain, death, destruction…maybe if I pretend it's all a game, I won't have to face it all. And it won't have to hurt anymore.'

It was then that Marco understood what this place was. It didn't simply represent the real world. It was Star's coping mechanism. It was how she escaped the burden of reality. His heart screamed out in sympathy for this poor, lonely soul, isolating itself inside the wastes of the dreamscapes. Star had never shown this side to anyone, not even him, and it felt like an invasion of privacy to witness it now.

Marco had to remind himself that he was doing this to save her. However, how do you save a soul that considers itself lost?

'It's a short-term escape, Star,' he comforted, putting a soothing arm around her. 'But if you keep hiding away from the real world…trying to live out a fantasy…you'll miss out on all the fun aspects of life. All the people who love you, you wouldn't want to leave them behind, would you?' Star shook her head. 'I know that sometimes…it feels like your life is nothing but pain and suffering, like the bad things always overwhelm the good things. But it doesn't have to be that way. The bad things can overwhelm the good things, but equally the good things can outweigh the bad things, if you just let them. We all just want you to wake up, Star. You don't have to be afraid anymore. You can let all that bottled up pain out.'

Star stared at him for a few moments, before she responded by shuffling off the dilapidated bench. Marco smiled at her encouragingly. She gave him a weak nod, which became stronger when the squire gave her a comforting pat on the back.

'Well, if it isn't the magical princess,' ridiculed a smooth, eloquent voice. Marco blinked and turned to his left. Three children, looking about ten years old, were approaching them with mocking smirks on their faces. Star only mustered the courage to display an ounce of resistance.

'L-Leave me alone, T-Toffee.'

'Oh, the little princess grew a backbone!' Toffee belittled, sharing a cruel guffaw with his lackeys. 'Do I need to punish you again, Star? Need I remind you who is in charge around here?' He emphasised his point by punching ominously into his palm.

Marco folded his arms disapprovingly. 'Leave her alone, you jerk!'

'Stay out of this, karate boy,' Toffee retorted, seemingly disgusted by his very existence. 'You are not meant to be here.'

'Do something about it then, you dumb lizard.'

'Perhaps I will.'

'No! Don't hurt him!' cried Star, kneeling on the floor and bowing to him. 'I'll do anything you want!'

'Good,' the lizard revelled, a cruel, crooked smile stretching across his thin lips. 'But I think you still require punishment.'

'Star! Don't let Toffee walk all over you!' Marco said, suddenly jumping off the bench. Star glanced between the two of them, a wealth of uncertainty welling up in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Adam was currently being beaten into a pump by Ms Moon. He was hardly able to form a coherent stream of thoughts before he was punched halfway across the street by the evidently serene teacher.

This version of Moon seemed even stronger than the original. Perhaps this Moon is as powerful as Star believes she is, and it was undeniable how much she looked up to her mother in terms of magical prowess. Star must have a higher expectation of Moon than was truly accurate. Although, why she imagined her as a teacher who occasionally and begrudgingly gives her attention, Adam had no idea.

'Hey! Get off!' He blocked a punch and managing to kick her back. Surprisingly, Ms Moon was knocked on his feet. 'Why am I even letting you get in the way? You're not even real!'

'In this world, I am very real,' argued Moon, glaring at him. 'You, however, are a rogue element. You do not belong here. You ignore its rules. You must be purged.'

Moon lunged forward and grabbed his jaw. Adam cried out in pain as he felt his jaw slowly being crushed. He needed to think of a quick way out of this.

Come on, Adam. Think, think! What do you know about mindscapes? The only way to become visible is to believe you are visible.

In that exact moment, it hit him. The plain and obvious truth. He had told Marco that, if he wanted Star to see him, he need only had to believe he was visible. He had changed the rules, or, rather, bypassed them.

Adam twisted Moon's wrist and set himself free. Thoughts raced through his mind at the speed of light.

The answer was already in front of him. He had already forced the reality of the dream to no longer affect him. Because Adam was not the prisoner of this nightmare, nor was he a construct of it, he should not be bound to its rules. Moon should not hold any power over him.

Yet, she did. Why? Because he believed that she did. All he had to do was believe, wholeheartedly, that she didn't.

'Welcome death, outlander!' Moon cried, firing a powerful Omega Blast at him. Tons of debris was kicked up in the air, causing a fog of dust plumes into the air.

When the fog cleared, however, Moon was left disappointed. Well, not as disappointed as she was shocked, because Adam had conjured a purple forcefield around his person, blocking and absorbing the blow in its entirety.

'What?!' she gawked. 'That's…that's impossible!'

'Hardly,' Adam retorted, seizing her in his Ropes of Binding and yanking her off her feet towards him. Moon struggled in his restraints. 'Don't bother. Those ropes are unbreakable.'

'How? Nothing here can be unbreakable!'

'Well, that was true, until I got here. They're unbreakable merely because I believe they are. Not that I would expect you to understand the concept of imagination.'

'You will not insult me!'

She fired numerous magical arrows from her hand. Only for said arrows to go straight through him, as though he were merely an intangible ghost. Adam shook his head and tutted loudly in disappointment. Ms Moon glared at him.

'Don't even bother,' he dismissed, reinforcing the Ropes around her so tightly that almost every muscle in her body was paralysed. 'You can't harm me, and you never will. Anyway, I have business to attend to. I think you'll stay trapped forever.'

With that, he walked away, leaving a screaming, immobile Ms Moon behind to rant about her predicament. All her yelling fell on deaf ears, although Adam was still tempted to smack her with the Total Silencing Spell just to shut her up. The idea was tantalizing, but he recognised he had more important shit to do.

Like saving his friend, for instance.

By the time Adam caught back up to Marco, he and the young Star were facing down three bullies. One of them, the one he identified as the leader, seemed to be far more reptilian than normal for a human, but he didn't understand immediately who they were meant to be. It was only when he heard Marco telling Star not to let Toffee walk all over her that he realised that he was meant to be the evil Septarian. All of a sudden, Adam understood where all those bruises and cuts on eight-year-old Star's body came from.

Adam watched as Marco crouched down to Star, took her hand, and lightly patted her on the back.

'You're a magical warrior princess,' he reminded her. 'You're not gonna let some ten-year-old bully be the boss of you!'

'Magic isn't real!' she screamed, abruptly regressing into the nightmare. 'It's just…a fairy-tale! Devised by a lonely child trying to cope with a world that knows not kindness nor charity!'

'You don't sound like an ordinary eight-year-old,' Marco pointed out. 'Of course magic is real. You know it is.' He placed his palm on her chest just above where her heart would be. 'In here. You've just got to believe. Believe in yourself. I believe in you. You can do this.'

Marco let go of her hand and straightened back up. He stepped away from her, walking backwards to meet with Adam a few metres away.

'I think she can do this on her own, Adam,' he told him, breathing deeply in through his nostrils. Adam nodded, before looking around the playground with dissatisfaction.

'I really hate it here, you know,' he remarked, scratching his scalp impulsively.

'I know,' sympathised Marco. 'This place…it's like getting a detention that never ends.'

'You know, all of a sudden, I'm really glad that we don't have classrooms on Mewni.'

'Lucky you.'

There was a brief pause between them as they watched Star work up the courage to approach Toffee. She eventually managed to march over to him, but the lizard boy merely shoved her onto the floor. Star looked up at the bully and conscientiously objected to the tears running down her cheeks.

'If Star can't handle Toffee, we might have to deal with him ourselves,' Adam reasoned, grimacing at the sickening jeers and mockery that Toffee made of Star.

'Have some faith in her, will ya?' replied Marco, smiling as he watched Star get back onto her feet again. 'Besides…Star needs this. She needs to overcome this. If we step in, we're just hindering that.'

'Yeah, I suppose you're right.'

'Whatcha gonna do, Butterfly?' Toffee mocked, kicking her in the shin. Star staggered back but worked up the courage to resume a fighting stance.

'She's so pathetic!' ridiculed one of his goons, pushing her over onto the concrete again.

'Yeah, she actually thinks she can cast magic!' the other one said, kicking her in the stomach. Star held back her barf. Instead, a tiny, breathless voice piped up below them.

'Leave me alone.'

Toffee blinked, glancing at his two lackeys in surprise. Both of them shrugged. He stared down at the tiny girl lying on the playground floor.

His beady eyes got right up in her face. 'What was that?'

'I said…leave me alone!' Star bellowed at the top of her voice. Toffee hesitated for a moment, flummoxed, before resuming his arrogant disposition yet again.

'Really? Finally grown up, huh, Star?' Toffee derided, sniggering callously. 'Leave you alone? Or what? What are you gonna do if I don't?'

'I'll beat the stuffing out of you!'

'Yeah, right,' he scoffed, unconvinced. 'Perhaps, I need to teach you another lesson.'

He swung his fist at her with all the force he could muster. Adam wanted to look away just as much as Marco did, but they forced themselves to keep watching. And they were glad they did.

Before Toffee ever had the chance to crack his knuckles, he and his punch were immobilised in mid-air. He stared at Star in shock.

Her eyes were glowing scorching white, as were her heart-shaped cheek marks. Cheek marks which, up until that point, Toffee had thought were stickers on her face that Star simply refused to remove. They were not, and had never been, fake.

'What the –?'

Along with his two henchmen, Toffee was propelled several feet back into the air. He yelled in pain as he crashed into concrete and created a huge, cavernous crater in the playground. Nobody seemed to notice his plight, or they simply did not care.

'I warned you,' said Star, in a scarily calm voice. She raised her arms, hands now glowing with mystical pink energy, and caused the three stooges to be lifted helplessly into the air, prisoners of their own karma.

In one fell swoop, Star Butterfly sent the trio flying off into the clouds in the far distance like Team Rocket. They soared far and far away until they were nothing more than a twinkle on the horizon.

Enamoured by what she had just done, Star spun around and locked eyes with Marco. For the first time since they entered this nightmare, a bright, hundred-kilowatt smile beamed across her face. A great sense of pride welled up in Marco's heart at what she had just achieved. He could hardly believe it himself!
'Star!' Marco cried proudly, rushing over to her. 'You did it!'

'I know!' she yelled back, her face flush with windburn.

'I knew you could do it! I –'

'MARCO! Look out!' Marco glanced back at Adam. He was pointing at the ground at the squire's feet. His eyes fell to the ground.

Thick, widening cracks spread across the concrete ground, originating from his feet, as well as Adam and Star. As he skidded to a stop, large fragments of the ground split off and fell into a deep, endless void below. Marco's foot hit an unsupported piece of the ground, and he slipped and fell. Before he knew it, he was plummeting into an infinite abyss with no chance of escape.

Looking up, he saw that Star had also slipped, and she was falling with him. She reached out a hand towards him, desperately hoping to reach him. Alas, she was much too far away.

Marco heard a huge gust of wind blast past his face. Adam blitzed past him with a wordless Tornado Torpedo and towards Star. He reached his arms out, his fingers coming with an inch of the princess. Unfortunately, he never quite got the opportunity to save her.

Star yelled in pain, before an invisible force pulled her away. Just as Adam arrived at location, she was consumed by the darkness with no mercy. Marco heard himself cry out Star's name, but the word seemed to slip out beyond his control.

Unfortunately, neither Marco nor Adam comprehended much else before the sentient darkness consumed them too.

Unconsciousness in the face of mind magic was starting to become a regular occurrence for Marco. Being yanked into darkness like he was a victim in a horror movie was not something he appreciated very much, and he strongly suspected Adam wouldn't appreciate it either.

Marco felt something yanking him violently from side to side. He shuddered awake in surprise; bright light seeped in through his eyelids and washed over him with great curiosity. It took a moment for his eyes to adapt, but eventually he gained a clearer image of his surroundings.

Adam was peering down at him, crouched down by his side with a perplexed look on his face. To nobody's surprise, it had been the Mewman to shake Marco awake. Perhaps the warlock had listened to Marco the first time, but he actually did help him to his feet instead of just telling him to get up without any concern.

'We're still in Star's mind, aren't we?' asked Marco, rubbing the back of his sore head. Adam nodded.

'I'm not sure what happened,' he admitted, sniffing in curiosity. 'I think Star got caught in another nightmare. Maybe she has a second fear that's just as bad as the first one. But what even was her fear in that first one? That her real life is just a fantasy?'

'Actually…I think I know what it was,' his squire friend told him. Adam perked up an eyebrow in surprise. 'That wasn't her worst nightmare…that was her coping mechanism for it. Easier to pretend it's all a game than face reality. When we helped her stand up to Toffee, she stopped coping…so it all collapsed.'

'I'm impressed you figured that out,' conceded Adam, his eyes still wide with admiration. Marco shrugged his shoulders modestly.

'I have my moments,' he said proudly. He looked around curiously. 'So where are we now? The actual nightmare?'

'Must be.'

The two of them examined their surroundings. They were currently in what appeared to be a hallway in the Butterfly Castle, somewhere on the ground floor from what Marco would tell.

There was some doubt as to their location for a moment, because the hallway had fallen entirely into disrepair. The paint on the walls were cracked, dry and crumbling into dust. All of the windows were smashed, exposing a war-torn, burning landscape outside. Numerous wooden ceiling panels had capsized, resting against the torn carpet and worn bricked floor.

What was perhaps most disturbing was the number of bodies littering the hallway.

For a moment, Marco might've thought they were somehow caught in the Dream Entrapment Spell, but their pale complexion and lack of breathing indicated they were definitely dead. Pools of blood around them had drained into the worn carpet, forming ominous dark spots across the fabric.

'I have a bad feeling about this,' Marco muttered grimly.

'You don't say,' mumbled Adam in his signature sarcastic tone.

He examined the various bodies of servants, knights and squires running across the floor and began following them down the length of the hallway. He said nothing as to his intention, but Marco opted to follow him for good measure.

Adam followed the trail of bodies, briefly praying he was following it in the right direction. However, it occurred to him that Star's mind was likely to lead them to the centre of the nightmare, so it probably didn't matter which way he went. Marco caught up to him and trailed along beside him.

'Adam…?' piped up the squire, after a brief silence.

'Yeah?'

'About that conversation we had – before we went under,' he prefaced. 'I get…why you made this spell. I can see its uses…but can't you see how this spell could be used for…really bad reasons?'

'Of course, I do, Marco,' Adam reassured him. 'That's why I don't advertise it. You can only find it in my spellbook.'

'And what if somebody gets their hands on it, huh?' Marco pointed out. 'What if Dark Star finds that spell?'

'She won't.'

'And if she does?'

'Using my own spells against me?' He scoffed. 'As if that's gonna work. It's my spell, I decide how it's used.'

'You're being stupid,' Marco warned, glaring at him. 'It's a spell. It doesn't care if you made it or not, it works the same way.'

'Says our resident magic expert,' said Adam sarcastically.

'Yeah, and what does Eclipsa think about this?'

'She said it was a good idea, actually,' the Mewman revealed, an arrogant smirk on his face. 'Look, Marco, I understand the point you're making, but any spell could be used for evil. Be mad at the person using it for evil, not me.'

'Even so, you gotta be prepared for the possibility that your own spells are used against you.'

'I'm more than prepared,' Adam claimed rather arrogantly. 'I've practiced mind magic dozens of times over the years. Red told me that your best weapon is your mind; take that out, and they're defenceless.'

'So are you!'

'Yes! I know! That's why I practiced mind magic so much, so that I could be ready in case it happens!'

Marco looked away.

'I hope you're right.'

When he heard no response, he turned back to Adam and saw why. Adam was no longer walking beside him; he was now halfway down the hallway at full sprint. Marco chased after him round the corner, coming to a dead stop just shy of the corner wall.

Adam was sitting next to a body, his eyes shut and breathing deeply like he was saying a silent prayer. Kneeling down beside him, Marco felt his heart drop when he saw whose body it was.

Janna was lying on the floor, her limbs mangled in awkward positions. Her clothes were torn and bloody, revealing the blotchy, lacerated pale skin underneath. Her eyes were sealed shut with blood and swollen skin, a deathly pale complexion that made Marco sick to his stomach. Dirt, grime and dried blood stuffed her fingernails, along with frayed pieces of fabric, as though she had been dragged screaming across the floor.

'Oh god…' Marco uttered. Adam swallowed the air in his throat, his onyx eyes flickered up at him.

'Stay calm,' he told him, although his voice wavered. 'This…this isn't real. Remember…this isn't real. If you fall into that trap, you risk becoming a prisoner of this place the same as Star.'

'I…It's just…it looks so real.'

'I know.'

Adam stumbled back up, staggering backwards and hitting the wall behind him. He lumbered forward and tore Marco away from the sight of Janna's discarded body. Adam rubbed his back soothingly as the squire slowly stabilised his breathing.

After a few moments, he gave a nod to indicate he was ready.

'So…where do we go now?' asked Marco warily.

'The, uh, the bodies seem to be leading into...in-into there,' the warlock told him, nodding to a set of double doors a few metres down the hall. 'Into the-the throne room.'

Adam walked reluctantly over to the throne room, not entirely certain what he would find inside. He grasped the doorknob, tightening his fingers around it. The Mewman looked at Marco, who was holding the knob on the other door. The squire nodded at him resolutely, and the two of them twisted the doorknobs and swung the door open.

Looking at it, you could barely tell this was even the throne room to the Butterfly Castle at all.

The ceiling had been ripped apart, revealing the burnt orange sky of the bleeding daytime. Bits of rebar and wooden panels had fallen from the ceiling and made their home at angles to the smashed, cracked marble floor. Once polished and clean, the marble floor had quickly fallen into disrepair, sharp and fragmented, serving no greater purpose than collecting dust and grime. The royal feasting table had been split in half widthways, various plates and crockery smashed at the waysides. The once ornate statues standing in the alcoves were upturned and fractured into a crumbled mess on the floor, layering the tiled floor in rock dust and stone clumps. Pony Head's crumpled horn poked out from underneath a stone statue, which told Adam immediately what happened to her. Tom had been impaled on a knight's spear.

Up on the stage, broken, fragmented remains of the thrones lay, bulldozed through by an unseen force.

'Adam,' Marco called, catching his attention. He pointed on the ground below them, just out of Adam's eye-line. He gazed down near his feet and saw something altogether surreal.

Himself. His battered, bloody, mutilated corpse lay on the floor, his skin pale and lifeless. Part of one of his arm bones stuck out at an awkward angle, smeared with dried blood. Marco looked like he was going to be sick. Had it not been for his upbringing in the Negative Multiverse, Adam might have been much the same.

Oh god, he thought, as his gaze moved just an inch away.

No less than a meter away, Marco's decapitated corpse sat against the wall to their right. Except his head. His head had rolled a few meters away, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

'I'm…dead?' uttered Marco, his eyes frozen in fear.

'In this nightmare…yes,' Adam replied quietly, briefly shutting his eyes despondently.

Adjacent to Marco lay Kelly's broken body. Most of her hair had been ripped out, and the rest was stained brownish red with blood. Three of her right fingers were missing, and Marco dare not wonder what happened to them. Adam had only met Kelly fairly recently, but he was still greatly saddened and disturbed to see her corpse, having been mutilated like that.

Inevitably, his eyes drifted up the stairs leading to the throne.

The dead bodies of Eclipsa, River and Moon slouched up the stairs, their tear-stained and bloody faces squashed against the ripped, worn carpet. All that had been excluded was Star herself.

This unspoken question was soon answered by a loud explosion in the wall by the destroyed thrones. Two silhouettes smashed through the wall and collided into the wall on the other side.

Adam and Marco rushed up the stairs to see what was going on. A muscular, lizard humanoid was holding a beaten and bloody Star Butterfly down by the throat against the stone floor.

Toffee. Marco knew him instantly. Adam recognised him from the Resistance propaganda.

'Look around you, Butterfly,' Toffee mocked, a sinister grin on his face. 'Your family is dead. All your friends are dead. And you're next.'

'No…no…I'll stop you…' wheezed Star between coughs for air. Toffee smirked and licked his teeth with his slimy reptilian tongue.

'This is the end for you, Star Butterfly. I win.'

'STAR!' Marco cried desperately, sprinting over towards the two of them. When he reached Toffee, however, he fell straight through him, as though the lizard was nothing more than a ghost. 'Star! I'm here!' No matter how hard he tried to get the princess's attention, nothing happened.

Instead, Star managed to get free from Toffee's grasp and staggered backwards in retreat. She swiped her discarded wand from the floor and attempted to cast a spell at him. Toffee allowed the spell to hit him, but it didn't even leave a scratch on him.

'Star!' Marco yelled, lunging forward. Adam held him back with one arm and put a hand on his shoulder with the other.

'Marco, you're slipping,' he warned him.

'We can't just let her die!'

'I don't plan on doing anything of the sort,' Adam assured him. 'But we need to get through to her.'

'How? She can't even see us!'

'Same issue as before. Same problem; same solution.'

'I tried,' Marco pointed out. 'It didn't work. Why can't she see me?'

'You saw your own dead body,' responded Adam candidly. 'Then you saw Star like…that.' He gestured towards Star, who was currently trying to hold back Toffee with yet more spells. 'You're being too emotional…so now the rules of this nightmare are controlling you. And the rules are…that Star believes you're dead, so you are dead.'

'But Star thinks you're dead too.'

'I've already accepted this isn't reality. You haven't,' he told him. He glanced at Toffee. 'Look, I'll handle Toffee, okay? You need to help Star overcome this nightmare. Try not to get overwhelmed by your surroundings. Keep yourself distracted. Alright?'

Marco nodded and took a deep breath. He began to fill his mind with the happiest memories with Star he could think of. The Friendship Thursdays with nachos and movies; the concerts they watched together, dancing and singing to their favourite Love Sentence songs; travelling around the multiverse consuming ungodly amounts of Goblin Dogs and clubbing until 1am in the Bounce Lounge; all those cosy nights snuggled up against each other, blurring the lines between friendship and romance. All of it poured into his mind without pause, and he allowed to fill his entire existence. Marco certainly wasn't going to allow himself to meet his end by the hand of some slimy lizard in a black suit. Not now, not ever.

Marco let go of the breath he was holding and looked up at his friend.

'Alright. I'm ready.'

Adam smiled and hugged him. Once he let go, he began walking menacingly towards Toffee.

Meanwhile, Toffee had grown tired of Star's feeble attempts to hold him off. He smacked her across the face with enough force to send her flying into a nearby wall.

'You are pathetic,' he spat, standing threateningly over her bruised and brutalized form. The Septarian reached down and picked up her wand, inspecting it curiously. 'Whole empires would wage wars to get their hands on artefacts such as these.' His scaly eyes flicked down at Star. Wordlessly, he threw the wand away without a second thought. 'I have no need for such playthings.'

'Please…'

'Silence, child,' Toffee commanded, reaching down and grabbing her throat. He lifted her up against the wall. 'Perhaps if you had been smarter, quicker, stronger…you might have been able to prevent my return. Nevertheless, you wasted your time chasing fumes. Your legacy dies tonight, Butterfly.'

As he got ready to snap her neck, he was stopped by someone tapping him on the shoulder. Toffee froze for a moment, relaxing his grip on Star, who slumped down the wall to the ground. In a sharp second, Toffee spun around and swung his claws.

Only for Toffee's stony claws to go straight through Adam's face, like a knife trying to slice water.

'You could take someone's eye out with those,' Adam warned rather charismatically, folding his arms.

'A-Adam…?' Star croaked. 'B-But…y-you're…'

'Impossible,' Toffee stated begrudgingly. 'What are you?'

'Not impressed,' answered Adam abashedly. 'That's what I am.'

Then, rather casually, he flicked his index finger at his chest and sent the Septarian crashing into a nearby wall. Star had no idea what spell that even was, or how Adam, who was absolutely and unequivocally dead, had managed to cast it. The warlock kneeled down in front of the princess and hugged her tightly.

'It's okay, Star,' he reassured, when she refused to let go. Her eyes wandered over to Adam's supposed corpse should be, not ten feet away, but it had remarkably disappeared. 'Listen to me carefully, okay. None of this is real. You need to overcome this fear in order to escape.'

'But I…I don't…' the poor girl stuttered, slowly releasing him from the hug.

'Don't be scared,' Adam smiled warmly. 'I didn't say you had to do it alone. I brought someone with me.'

He stood up and nodded to his right. Sure enough, Marco became visible to Star, radiating warmth and reliance. Star's eyes twinkled with the happiest tears the squire had ever seen.

'MARCO!' she exclaimed, jumping up and encapsulating him in the tightest hug imaginable and cried into his arms. Marco didn't care; he hugged her back just as tightly and the two of them stayed there for a long, extended few moments.

'I trust you've got this,' said Adam to Marco, who nodded back at him. The warlock then sped over to Toffee, who was just now recovering from the blow he had received.

'You impugn my immortality?' the lizard seethed, appearing in front of him in seconds. He threw a punch at Adam, but again, the blow went straight through him.

'Pleased to finally meet your acquaintance, Toffee,' he said nonchalantly. 'I'd much rather wish it were the real Toffee, but…I have it on good authority that Star's memory of you is quite accurate.'

'You must be some kind of spectre,' the Septarian speculated. 'Why are you haunting me?'

'I'm no ghost. I'm just not a prisoner of this nightmare; you have no power over me, Toffee.'

Toffee's amber eyes flickered away for a moment. His scales seemed to twitch ever so slightly.

'Then this need not concern you,' he hissed, attempting to walk past him towards Star. Adam grabbed him by the shoulder and, through some wordless spell, paralysed him instantly.

'We're not done yet,' the Mewman scorned, catapulting him back into the stone wall. Toffee groaned in pain, although he tried to remain silent and unfazed. He failed. 'I have to say, I'm not very impressed.'

'I do not spend my days attempting to impress nobodies,' the lizard bit back, wiping off some blood from his mouth.

'Well, my world's Toffee had a more impressive portfolio than you,' Adam boasted, prompting a raised eyebrow from the Septarian. 'He was an insurrectionist…a leader of the Resistance against the Dark Butterflies. You worked tirelessly to free the Negative Multiverse from the influence of the Butterflies.'

'That does not sound much different from myself,' argued Toffee, glaring at him.

'Except my version didn't sport a hatred of anything non-Monster,' he said, folding his arms. 'Your intention was to save Mewmans and Monsters alike. Maybe to tear down the dictatorship, maybe to establish a new one. I don't know. But you were dedicated to peace. When you inevitably lost, you didn't back down. And so, you sacrificed yourself for the cause.'

'Impossible,' Toffee scoffed. 'I would never sacrifice myself for dirty, filthy Mewmans. Do not dirty your tongue with such blasphemy.'

'Wow, you really are nothing but a pale imitation.'

'I'll show you imitation!' Toffee cried, running forward to attack him again. Adam shrugged his shoulders and reluctantly chose to entertain the arrogant Septarian long enough for Marco to help Star.

Meanwhile, Marco was holding Star close to his chest. She refused to move, refused to let go, refused to budge from the all-encompassing warmth of Marco's arms. Marco poised his mouth over her ear.

'I'm okay, Star,' he whispered. 'I'm okay. I need you to come back to me.'

'It's just…I'm scared,' the princess murmured back. 'All my mistakes…all the problem I cause…I have to pretend it's all some big game because if I don't…people will die. All of you will die because of me. My fault.'

'Honestly…I'm scared of that too, sometimes,' admitted the squire, rubbing her shoulder. 'But I believe in you. You can protect us, and we can protect you, and we can protect ourselves. Heck…we've managed to make it this far. And that's because of you, Star. You're always so determined and enthusiastic, you're always smiling; you never give up. You don't believe in giving up. So don't start now!'

'Yeah…it sounds great when you put it like that,' Star replied quietly. 'But the truth is…there's a lot of fear behind that smile. I have to keep going because if I don't, who will? The whole world is always screaming at me to give up and go home, but I can't. I just can't. But the more I do, the more people get hurt. I don't know how to keep going anymore…knowing that one tiny slip means people will die. What do I do, Marco?'

'You don't have to go through this alone, Star,' Marco comforted. 'It's okay to be afraid, but you don't have to let your fears rule you. Being too afraid to act is often worse than actually doing something, y'know? I get why you feel like you have to, but honestly…why walk around, carrying the world on your shoulders, when we can shoulder it with you? Trust me, if you ever feel like you're going to fall, I'll be there to catch you. We all will – me, Adam, Janna, Kelly, Jackie…you ask, and we'll be there.'

Star took a deep breath and slowly, but surely loosened her grip around her best friend.

'Thanks, Marco. Really, thank you…' she mumbled. The princess finally let go of him and looked into his eyes. 'Marco…you're the most amazing person I've ever met.'

Marco couldn't escape the warmth spreading to his cheeks as he heard her say those words. His cheeks were redder than tomatoes.

'So are you,' he replied. Star blinked.

'I'm the most amazing person I've ever met?'

'No…uh, well,' Marco stumbled. 'I mean…I'm the most amazing person I've ever met. No! I mean, you're the most amazing –'

'Hahaha!' She giggled. 'I know what you meant, Marco.' She lowered her smile, for a moment, and sighed. 'Okay…I'm…I'm ready.'

With some assistance from Marco, Star slowly rose to her feet and patted herself down. As if by magic, all the injuries she had sustained from Toffee had disappeared, and she was back to her usual self.

As she looked around, curiously, all the dead bodies of her friends and family had also disappeared, leaving only a destroyed throne room with no repercussions. It was like a war without casualties; a country with no patriot; a cause without a martyr.

'So…how do we get out of here?' Star enquired, slightly anxious.

'Uh…Adam!' Marco called, scratching the back of his head. On cue, there was a loud explosion in the wall, forming yet another hole in the wall. Adam walked over to them, dragging Toffee with him in his right hand.

Dumping a beaten Toffee at their feet, Adam smiled slightly at Star before sighing and dropping the smile.

'I can do this all day,' he said, nodding at Toffee. 'But…really, it's you who needs to conquer your fear, Star. That's the only way you're going to get out of here.'

'I know, Adam,' replied Star. 'I'm ready for this.'

The magical princess stepped towards Toffee, who by now had righted himself onto his feet. Her shadow cast over his reptilian form, his scaly eyes flickering weakly up at the princess.

'I'm done letting you control me, Toffee,' she declared confidently. 'All this time…I keep worrying you're going come back some day, but all I'm doing is letting you rule my head. Not anymore. And even if you do come back…I'll beat you again, like I always do. Did it once – twice, actually – and I'll do it again. Because I'm not weak. So get out of my head, Toffee.'

On command, the nightmare version of Toffee faded away into nothingness, as if he were never there in the first place. Bit by bit, the destruction in the throne room vanished, restoring the castle to its former glory. It was a lifelike re-enactment of reality.

Except it was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a nightmare. A nightmare which no longer had a basis for its existence, so could no longer maintain itself for much longer.

A massive fog of bright light engulfed all of them in moments, like a flashlight shining a spotlight on them. The figments of the nightmare melted away around them, and the trio felt themselves being pulled back into the real world.

It almost felt like the entire world stood to attention the moment Adam and Marco returned to their bodies in the real world. The jovial blue and yellow lights of the knight's tent washed over them again like a trickling waterfall. It was certainly a refreshing experience from all the blood and bones.

'Well, you certainly took your time,' Blue Glossaryck complained, sticking his finger in his ear and flicking off some earwax from his fingertips.

'Can it, you,' Adam ordered, with a glare.

Before any of them could say anything else, Star awoke from her slumber with a gasp. She sat up between Adam and Marco.

'Woah…my head…' she muttered, rubbing her forehead. She looked up at Adam and Marco, and then around, noticing all the unconscious bodies on the floor. Her eyes fell to Janna beside her. 'Wait, what's going on?'

'I think Adam knows the answer to that,' Marco deflected, staring at the warlock expectantly. The Mewman in question sighed and muttered his reluctance under his breath.

'Star, I…may or may not have tried to test the Dream Entrapment Spell on Blue Glossaryck and caused the entire kingdom to fall into an endless slumber,' he confessed at light speed. Star's eyes went wide, and she took a few moments to process what he just said.

'You did what?!' she screeched.

'Uh, well, I tested the –'

'I heard you!' Star snapped, folding her arms. 'I can't believe you'd do something like that! You know I hate that spell…and to test it on Glossaryck? You're torturing an innocent creature!'

'Look, I don't live my life to please you, Star,' Adam retorted arrogantly. 'I understand you don't like the spell, I really do, but you and I both know that it has its uses. You thought the same about the Truth Binding Spell, and you almost ended up using it yourself!'

'Well at least that spell didn't cause everyone in the kingdom to get trapped in their own nightmare!' Star yelled. 'If you'd actually thought things through, this wouldn't have happened!'

'"Thought things through"?' Adam scoffed. 'What? Like you do? Honestly, with all the shit you pull I'm surprised you haven't lost that wand yet!' He rolled his eyes. 'Besides…this isn't all my fault. Thank your buddy Glossaryck for causing half this mess.'

'Glossaryck?' the princess parroted. 'He can't even tell his toe apart from his food! What did he do?'

'Actually, Star,' Marco interjected, 'he's right about that one. Blue Glossaryck isn't actually brain damaged. He's pretending. He deflected the spell and caused it to backfire. That's why everyone is down under right now.'

'Wait, what?'

'Did you miss me?' announced Glossaryck gallantly, zooming right up next to her face. 'Well, I wasn't missing entirely, but I was, in a manner of speaking.'

'Glossaryck?!' Star exclaimed, just about ready to tear her hair out. 'You were…pretending, all this time? Are you kidding me? Why the corn would you do that?!'

'You were far too dependent upon me, Star,' Blue Glossaryck responded casually. 'I had accepted my death when Toffee burned my pages, because I believed you needed to go forth on your own. Without my assistance. As it happens, you resurrected me – which, make no mistake, I am grateful for – but you didn't need my help, Star. You just didn't realise it yet.'

'Okay, but…you coulda just told me to stop asking you for help,' the princess pointed out.

'Not necessarily. I am your liege; I am required to do as you command. The only way to prevent your taking advantage of me, is for you to have thought I was of no use to you at all.'

'Pretending to be a man-dog is a little extreme, Glossaryck,' Star deadpanned, folding her arms.

'Extremes are my specialty.'

'You didn't need to keep yelling gobbledygook at us all the time.'

'What I spoke was far from "gobbledygook", Star,' he shot down rather impishly. 'Globgor is a matter of great importance.'

'Globgor is the name of Eclipsa's monster husband,' Adam said. 'That big dude she's been looking for. The Monster King.'

'Huh. Eclipsa never told me his name,' Star admitted to herself. 'But why does it matter so much that you had to yell it at me all the time?'

'Sooner or later, it will become important,' Blue Glossaryck elaborated. 'Although, I must admit…the appearance of Adam was unexpected. I did not foresee these events taking place.'

'You didn't see Adam coming?' Marco squawked. 'That's…a little scary.'

'So…me travelling here has changed things?' asked Adam. Glossaryck shook his head.

'"Delayed things" would be more accurate,' he explained. 'The moment you arrived in the Positive Multiverse, I sensed that fate had been forced into a different path. A path in which the events I have foreseen will take place at a later date…but I cannot see the path between then and now, as though a forest is blocking the route in time. I cannot tell you what events specifically, for the path must remain the same, give or take a few pavement tiles.'

'Before my head starts hurting again, Glossaryck, perhaps we should get to work reversing the spell?' Adam proposed, receiving a nod from the floating little blue man. 'So, Star. We have a plan. We need to open a portal to the Realm of Magic. Glossaryck's gonna possess your wand so he can add some power to it, and then we're all gonna draw some power from the Realm of Magic to use as a relay to spread the counter-curse across the entire kingdom.'

'I'm surprised you even bothered to make a counter-curse,' Star muttered derisively under her breath, but Adam still heard it.

'Of course I made a counter-curse,' he scorned diffidently. 'I'm not an idiot.' He scratched his chin absentmindedly. 'Still, like I said, in order to spread the counter-curse far enough, I need your help. Can't use the Seal, I need all my concentration focussed on this. Can I count on you?'

Star sighed.

'Yes. Just tell me what to do.'

Adam conjured a piece of paper and pen from thin air and scribbled down the words to the counter-curse. He handed it to Star.

'I need you to speak this counter-curse with me while Gloss draws out the power from the Realm of Magic.'

Star nodded in understanding, and, in a dazzling display of light, she transformed into her Full Butterfly form. She glanced over at Marco.

'Marco, I need you on standby in case I get any weird compulsion to jump into the Realm of Magic.'

'You got it, Star,' he reassured her, nodding encouragingly. Star spotted him a smile before turning back to the piece of paper Adam had handed her.

'Okay, let's do this,' she announced, reaching an arm out. Adam raised his arm with her, and the two of them slowly opened a bright yellow portal in the centre of the tent. Without a word, Blue Glossaryck jumped into Star's wand and activated it.

''Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams,'' the pair of them chanted in unison. "Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams. Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams…"

As they chanted the spell, Star's wand lit up blue and the star crystal was replaced with a rhombus of Glossaryck's eye. Lashes of golden lightning streamed out of the portal, striking the ground they stood on. Slowly, but surely, the lightning was guided into Star's wand.

"Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams. Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams."

Star's wand began making a powering up noise, and the Realm of Magic portal grew larger and more powerful with every passing second. Its vicious lightning struck the tent walls and set them alight, slowly burning the tent to the ground around them.

"Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams!"

On that final incantation, a scorching purple beam shot out Adam's hand, Star's six hands, and Star's wand. They formed a barrage of magic in a cylinder against the portal. The second the beams made contact with the portal, they dissolved into a massive wave of purple energy which expanded in all directions, blanketing the entire Butterfly Kingdom with its might.

The portal closed moments later, followed by Glossaryck jumping out of Star's wand. Star returned to her normal form, while Adam had his eyes trained intensely on Janna's body a few feet away.

Until she woke up.

'Oh god…that was one heck of a dream,' she mustered, tiredly sitting up. It was not a second later that she was enveloped in a hug from Adam, who was muttering apologies into her ear. 'Dude…it's okay. I'm fine.'

Bit by bit, everyone around them woke up too, followed by everyone in the kingdom. Even the people who were already having a nap prior to when the spell hit were violently awoken from their slumber.

'Hey, what happened to the tent?' yelled a knight in dissatisfaction, picking up the ashes of the tent and letting them slip through his fingers.

'Looooong story,' Star admitted, abashed. 'Which I'm sure Adam can explain to you!'

Without so much as a whisper of indignation, Star scurried away out of sight. Presumably, she was heading back to the castle. Adam didn't care though. He just sighed in relief and helped Janna to her feet.

'You alright?' he asked her warily. 'You weren't…too messed up from seeing your worst nightmare, were you?'

'Nah,' she dismissed cavalierly. 'My worst fear was meeting John Keats and him hating me. No biggie.'

Adam frowned, unconvinced, but opted not to push it.

'You know, Adam, you really gotta be careful with that spellbook,' Marco warned him. 'What if someone gets their hands on it? Same thing happened to our Magic Instruction Book.'

'It's possible, yeah,' he confessed. 'But I put a ton of locking spells and security runes on it, so it'll be quite hard for anyone to crack it.'

'Star was able to open it just fine,' Marco pointed out, folding his arms. 'Back when you were kidnapped, she looked through your spellbook to find the Truth Binding Spell. She didn't have any issues there.'

'That's because I made her an exception to the locks,' Adam revealed. 'Yeah, I know I put "KEEP OUT STAR" on the first page but…I trust her with it. Her and Eclipsa.'

'Maybe you should tell her that sometime,' the squire suggested. The Mewman shrugged.

'Maybe,' he agreed. 'In the meantime, Janna…wanna go hang out?'

'Hell yeah, dude!' Janna agreed excitedly.

Blue Glossaryck rolled his eyes.

'Humans,' he uttered, catching the attention of the three of them. He disappeared in front of them before they could say anything. Janna blinked.

'Wait…was that…?'

"Yes, yes it was," Adam and Marco said in unison, an annoyed look on their faces. This time, they opted not to explain why Blue Glossaryck was alright now. Not for the third time.

Janna would just have to stay confused until Adam inevitably explained it to her later.

If there was one thing Adam definitely sucked at, it was fighting games. It was ironic really; he'd become pretty skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but he couldn't imitate it when playing video games. That was why he was currently being utterly subjugated in Mortal Kombat.

'Dammit!' he cursed, nearly throwing his controller across the room. His Cyrax was hurled across the screen to the other end of the stage.

Janna, who was currently playing Scorpion, rolled her eyes humorously. The two of them were sat at the couch in her house on Earth, in front of the television.

'Sore loser, huh?'

'I just don't get it.' Adam waved animatedly at the screen. 'How can you…perform so many combos so easily? I can barely get the most basic moves!'

'It's just practice, dude,' said Janna nonchalantly, as the Second Round began.

From the offset, Adam had his ass handed to him. Janna's Scorpion continually flew around the screen, with that annoying teleport kick and that grapple kunai. However, he was smart enough to notice the repetition in her technique.

On the fifth iteration, the Mewman was able to use a Combo Breaker and initiate a set of basic combos that threw Janna/Scorpion onto the ground.

'A-ha!' he cried triumphantly. 'Take that!'

'Not bad, Butterfly,' she admitted modestly, before subsequently executing a complex series of combos that subsequently drained his health to null.

Adam opted not to question why she had started addressing him with the surname Butterfly, but just about everyone had started doing it apart from Moon and River. Moon had not made it official, nor had she even mentioned it, but all the Ambassadors addressed him that way.

'FINISH HIM!'

'But not good enough.'

'Oh, come on!'

'Eh, mad cuz bad,' she muttered, shrugging her shoulders. She then casually executed her fatality. Scorpion sliced clean through Cyrax's torso, then decapitated him, then kicked away his torso before slicing vertically through his head.

'Well, that was…excessive,' remarked Adam, grimacing. 'Are all video games on Earth like this?'

'Really?' She raised an eyebrow. 'I'm surprised you're so squeamish about guts and gore. Y'know, given your…upbringing.'

'I mean…yeah, I guess I saw a lot of blood, guts and gore when I grew up,' he supposed, shrugging. 'But that doesn't mean I like seeing it.'

'To be honest, your world sounds like a nightmare.'

Adam's eyes widened in surprise. Reaching forward to his controller, he plucked it off the table and paused the game.

'That does remind me, though.'

'About what?'

He nervously shifted a little closer to her. 'Why don't you tell me what your real nightmare was?'

'I dunno what you're talking about, man,' replied Janna dumbly, setting her controller down on the coffee table.

'Jan, I don't need a Truth Binding Spell to know when you're lying to me.' He put a hand on her shoulder. 'You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I just want to make sure you're okay.'

'It's alright…I-I'll tell you.' She took deep breath. 'You know I have some…unorthodox interests. What I'm scared of is…one day, I'll take my obsessions too far, and I'll push you all away and I'll lose all my friends.' Small beads of tears began to form in her eyes. 'Everyone was so cold and mean. I remember…I remember…' she shuddered a little and Adam drew her into a hug. 'You told me…you said I was a creep…y-you said I "care more about raising the dead than helping my friends" and that I'd…I'd "never understand friendship, or love".'

'Jan…you know I don't really think those things, right?' he soothed, his voice soft and warm. 'Yeah, you sure are into some weird stuff, but we all know you care more about your friends than that. I'll always be here for you. I'm never gonna give up on you. And…honestly, I think your obsession with the occult is kinda cute.' Janna blushed for a millisecond, but she squeezed her eyes shut to banish it away.

'But…there was that time you yelled at me because I wanted to use your magic to raise Keats back from the dead.'

'Oh…I…I can't believe I never apologised for that. I'm sorry.'

She waved a hand indifferently.

'That's not the point. I annoyed you. Because of my obsession. That proves I can be a nuisance.'

'Anyone can be nuisance sometimes, Janna,' he said, rubbing her back placatingly. 'No, you're not perfect, but who is? Your pros overcome your flaws. I wouldn't be friends with you if I didn't like you. Besides, I was really stressed at the time, you know that. I didn't mean what I said.'

'Thank you, Adam. You've…you've always been there for me. I don't deserve someone like you.'

'Don't talk like that. You deserve the best; it's the least I can do, as your friend.'

'Best friend.'

Adam beamed and gave her another hug.

'So…does this mean we can resurrect Keats?' mumbled the girl excitedly through his shoulder. Adam groaned comically.

'No, Janna.'

Thank you very much for reading the latest chapter of 'Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse'!

Sorry about taking so long to update, I honestly forgot to update it on this site, and I was busy writing the chapters for AO3. I hope I kept everyone entertained.

I say 'entertained', but this chapter was pretty traumatic, wasn't it? I always believed that Star's greatest fear was linked to not being a good enough princess, not being able to protect her friends, and the potential return of Toffee. This was where the concept of her coping mechanism came in. I always thought that Star likes to bottle up her trauma and pretend everything is a big game - that's partly why she acts so immature most of the time. That's always been my impression. This episode was largely about Star, I suppose, although she doesn't appear until the second half of it. This chapter focusses heavily on expanding and developing her character.

I'm also still building towards Starco. I do not expect to actually get to it for another fifteen or so chapters. I have a 3-episode arc to get through, followed by one more episode before leading into the episode in which Starco happens. It won't be the focus of that episode, though, it'll be half of it.

There's also an important thing to do with how this episode was resolved. Blue Glossaryck's suggested technique of opening a portal to the Realm of Magic to use it as a "relay" to induce a positive feedback loop, causing any spell (magic or anti-magic) to become infinitely stronger. Adam might consider this a new angle to take with the space-time fracture. Hint, hint, this is important.

I also included another scene of Adam and Janna at the ned of this episode. Sorry if you're getting tired of them, or you think it's repetitive since it was in the previous episode too. I enjoyed writing it, so I hoped you liked reading it. I didn't want to go too in deep with Janna's greatest fear, but I feel as though as having Janna wave it off with an excuse for comedy would not be enough. Hence the scene at the end outlining her fears. It also establishes that Adam and Janna are best friends now. I have sorta been setting up that scene up ever since Janna was found in the same room as Star.

Anyways, thank you all for your continued support with this story. It's greatly appreciated, and I cannot express this enough. I'm hoping I'll have this finished this story within six months, if I'm fortunate. It might be sooner than that if I'm really lucky. I'm looking at about 25 chapters in Volume II.

Anyways, I'll see you all in the next chapter, 'Magnum Opus', which is the beginning of Episode 14, 'Warpshift'. This will part of a 3-episode arc with Episode 15 ('Elementary') and Episode 16 ('Get Me Out Of Here').

If you're interested, Episode 17, ('Hekapoo's Electric Boogaloo'), and Episode 18, ('Penultimate Peril') will form the bridge to Volume III, which is a six-episode finale arc (Episodes 19-24, 'The Great Monsoon, Part 1-6').

So in a way. I'm actually almost done! I look forward to seeing you all in the next chapter!