Chapter 13

Return to Mewni Part 1

Once Molly and her friends stepped through the portal to save Mewni, they were all surprised to find out that they were not at Butterfly castle. Instead, they were standing in the middle of the Forest of Certain Death. After dealing with all of the monsters and Heartless the last time they entered the forest, Molly and Libby hoped to never step foot in their again.

"I don't understand. I thought you were taking us to your castle, Star." Molly looked around confused.

Star gazed at her dimensional scissors, feeling just as confused as her friends. "It seems that the magic of the dimensional scissors are on the fritz."

"This must be Toffee's doing." Marco guessed. "Something told me that this wasn't going to be easy!"

"As long as Toffee continues to corrupt the magic in Mewni, it is too dangerous for us to use the dimensional scissors. I think we'll just have to get out of this forest on foot." Libby explained, wanting to get out of the forest as soon as possible.

Even though Molly and her friends had been here before, they were just as lost and confused as they were the last time they explored the forest. The only good thing about this was that there weren't any Heartless or monsters around to attack them.

As they traversed deeper in the forest, the sun began to set, causing the forest to somehow turn darker and creepier than ever. Molly didn't let this bother her as she walked forward in front of everyone else, keeping her spirits up.

"Come on, guys! I'm sure that we are close to getting out of here!" Molly said, trying to stay positive about the situation.

"Careful, Molly! We still don't know what is lurking in this forest." Libby explained before bringing her attention to Star and Marco. "You know, it's kind of strange. We have been walking through these woods for what feels like hours and we haven't encountered a single Heartless."

"Libby is right, Star. I don't like the looks of this." Marco said.

"Aw, try not to overthink this, Marco! If we were able to get this far in the Forest of Certain Death, I'm sure we have nothing to worry about! Right, Molly?" Star called out for Molly, only to not get a response.

It was at that moment when everyone realized that Molly was nowhere to be found. They looked around before they could make out what they could tell was Molly's voice.

"Mmmph!"

"Molly?" Libby looked up to see Molly wrapped up to a tree with the vines of the tree wrapped all over her body and mouth. "Molly!" Libby started to panic as she, Star, and Marco rushed over towards the tree.

As she summoned her keyblade, Libby tried to slash at the vines, only for the tree to knock her to the ground with more vines. After recovering from the attack, Libby stood back up to try again to free Molly.

Suddenly, the tree caught on fire from a powerful fire attack. This caused the vines to release their hold on Molly. Once she was free, Molly rushed over to Libby before the girlfriends hugged each other in relief.

"Thanks for saving me, Libby! That fire attack of yours was incredible!" Molly exclaimed.

With a puzzled look, Libby replied, "What? But I wasn't the one who casted the spell."

"Me neither." Star spoke up. "My spells are powerful but not that powerful."

Everyone soon brought their attention to Marco, who replied, "Hey, don't look at me! I don't even know how to use magic."

"If it wasn't any of you, then who-"

Molly paused when she took notice of someone approaching them. Even in the darkness of the forest, Molly and Libby knew exactly who this person was.

"Xehanort?"

Xehanort stepped forward before he spoke up. "So, we meet again."

"I'm sorry. Did you two just call that guy, Xehanort?" Marco asked in suspicion.

It was at that moment when Molly and Libby realized that they messed up from referring to Xehanort by his name. They forgot that Star and Marco had already met Xehanort's future self.

"Um, yeah. About that, this guy is supposed to be a past version of the Xehanort with met." Molly admittedly with an awkward grin.

"But don't worry! I can promise you that he is nothing like the Xehanort we met!" Libby promised.

Both, Star and Marco glared at the boy in suspicion. When they last saw him as an old man, he tried to help Toffee with his plan to destroy Star's wand. Despite the resentment they had towards Xehanort, they were still willing to trust their friends.

"Well, I don't really trust him, but I trust you, Libby!" Star replied before turning to Xehanort. "I've got my eye on you though!"

"Anyway, what are you doing here, Xehanort?" Molly asked.

"There seems to be darkness in this world, so I have come to investigate." Xehanort explained. "You and Libby are aware of this as well, aren't you?"

Molly nodded. "Of course! This is being caused by guy this named, Toffee. We were on our way to Butterfly Castle to stop him."

"We were, but we might want to take a break, just look up." Marco pointed towards the sky as it was now completely dark. "If we keep going when it is dark, we'll just get even more lost."

"Come on, Marco! We can still make it!" Star tried to reason with Marco.

Deep down, Marco understood how Star felt. Her family was in danger and her home was slowly being enveloped in darkness. However, they would never make it to the castle if they kept on going.

"Listen, Star. I know that you are worried about your family, but we'll never get out of this forest in the dark. I promise we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning." Marco promised.

With a defeated sigh, Star reluctantly agreed. "Fine!"

Once nighttime came, Molly and her friends gathered some wood to make a campfire. The flames of the fire were the only source of light in the entire forest, so everyone kept it ablaze as long as possible.

A few hours went by before Star and Marco decided to go to sleep. Before closing her eyes, Star pointed two fingers at her eyes before pointing them at Xehanort, motioning that she is still watching him. Xehanort felt weirded out by this since Star looked as though she was more concerned about him than the various monsters lurking in the forest. Before long, Star and Marco went to sleep, giving Chirithy the opportunity to appear out of thin air.

"Looks like we are not going anywhere for the rest of the night." Chirithy commented, joining Molly and the others around the campfire.

"Then that gives us the perfect opportunity to get to know each other better!" Molly exclaimed. "So, Xehanort! Do you have any friends other than the guy you played chess with?"

"You mean Eraqus." Xehanort explained. "As for my other friends, there was Bragi, Urd, Hermod, and Vor."

Hearing this left Molly, Libby, and Chirithy surprised by how many friends Xehanort had back home.

"It sounds like you have a lot of wonderful friends, Xehanort!" Molly replied with a smile. "I'm sure that they would all be happy to see you again when you return home!"

"They are all dead." Xehanort replied in an emotionless tone.

Silence filled the air as Molly silently wished that she wasn't too positive towards Xehanort.

"Ooh! Awkward!" Libby said as she awkwardly looked away.

After a few moments of silence, Xehanort decided to ask a question that has been on his mind for awhile. He knew that it was dangerous to find out about his future, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"Your friends appear to be suspicious of me. What was it that my future self did that was so bad?" Xehanort asked.

Thinking back to what happened the last time they were in Mewni, Libby replied. "You see, your future self kidnapped Marco and tried to force Star to destroy her wand."

"That wasn't even the worst part. You have caused a lot of hurt to a lot of friends Libby and I met on our journey." Molly looked down with a glare, thinking back to all of the terrible things Xehanort had done. "You even killed Libby. I had to dive into her heart and restore her soul to bring her back."

Molly looked back to Xehanort to see that he had a look of guilt. After all the hell she and Libby went through with Xehanort's future self, she never would have thought that he would show remorse for his actions.

"I know that I'm not the same as the version of myself that you two encountered, but I'm still sorry for what I have done to you." Xehanort apologized.

Surprised that it was Xehanort of all people who apologized to them, Libby chose to accept his apology. "Well, it's okay, I guess. Anyway, we'd better get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow."

"Yes." Xehanort nodded in agreement. "I've been sensing a powerful darkness. A darkness corrupting all magic in the world. We should all be ready for anything. This could be more dangerous than those Pistachioids we fought."

"Pistachions." Libby corrected.

"Whatever."

"So, you're going to help us fight the darkness? That means that you have no interest in finding out about more of the darkness, right?" Molly asked, feeling hopeful.

Instead of responding, Xehanort paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "If I'm being honest, I always have been intrigued by the darkness. My whole life I have learned to fight for the light, but sometimes I wonder what it is like on the other side. Anyway, we should all rest for tomorrow. Goodnight."

Without another word, Xehanort rested on the ground before going to sleep. As everyone else went to sleep, Molly and Libby started to worry over Xehanort's words. If even his younger self was fascinated by the power of darkness, who's to say that he won't use it against them? Whether Xehanort would end up being their friend or enemy was hard for Molly and Libby to say for sure. One thing they knew for sure was that they would find out tomorrow when he fights with them during the battle for Mewni.