All original characters, dialog and situations used from Star vs The Forces of Evil and Moon Knight are © The Walt Disney Company.
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All original characters, dialog and situations used from fanfics are © by their respective authors.
XI
Jackie and Marco squeezed down the passage they had found, their movement slowed by its narrowness. The farther they travelled, the narrower it became, eventually constricting to the point where, with his build, Marco was having trouble squeezing through. Jackie's build was creating problems for her as well, although in a different way. Both could feel stone and vegetation brushing against them, and occasionally forms of life skittering over and past. Dirt and stone fragments fell to the already littered floor.
Marco mused, "God, I hope nothing shifts. How horrible would it be to get stuck and slowly die? It would have been better if Jack gave us guns or cyanide pills to end ourselves if we get trapped, there's little chance they could dig us out."
"I didn't think about the implications of what Jack said," Jackie responded, "but now I won't be able to stop thinking about them. Thanks for that."
The two lost track of time as they concentrated on their difficult journey. Finally, they popped out into a large, cave-like, void. It was shaped like a cube, except with a vaulted ceiling reminiscent of those in chambers found in other pyramids. The air smelled extremely stale, the scent of a cavity with little influx of outside air for millennia. The humidity was extremely low, there appeared to be no fungus or mold, and little vegetation; surprising given the vegetation that had snaked into the passageway. When a flashlight was shone onto the ceiling, the light glinted off numerous red jewels in the shape of a crescent moon. One of the jewels was larger than the rest, placed in the palm of a hand sculpted onto the very center of the ceiling.
In the middle of the floor, beneath the hand, was a small circle of crumbling brick, circumscribing a slight depression. It looked like a fire pit or the mouth of a filled-in well.
Three walls of the room were blank, smooth, stone, but half of the fourth was adorned with a mural. Marco strode over to the wall, then shined his light onto the floor. He bent over, picking up a pinch of the material piled there. He rubbed his fingers together, causing the substance to fall like dust back to the ground; the grains and flakes that remained on his skin shown with various colors in the artificial light. He then straightened to examine the painting.
"This is a buon fresco," Marco pronounced. He indicated the blank area of the wall below the colorful mural. "That dust is what's left of the bottom half, so there's no way to piece together what used to be here. Drat."
Jackie joined Marco. "I can't recall ever reading about true frescoes in South America," she said. After a few seconds examining the painting, she added, "These aren't just painted images, they're bas relief." Looking at the figures represented, she pointed at the top-left corner, stating, "Look at the symbol there in the top-left; it's like the Eye of Providence, but with a bowtie and stove-pipe hat."
Marco didn't reply, looking intently at the rest of the fresco. Marco mumbled as he described out loud, for his own benefit, the painted sculpture; Jackie followed along. "In the top-center, over a fire pit or well, the torso of an elf-like man with a long beard, sparks or stars emanating from him upwards to surround that weird Celtic cross we found. A river flowing down from each outstretched hand, one stream with what looks like canoes, the other with what looks like ... giraffes. From his mouth flows another river, falling down through the pit into a bunch of concentric half-circles where the fresco broke ... they were probably full circles on the complete sculpture, maybe a whirlpool. Stars or sparks are emanating from it. A couple large crystals on either side, and all the rest of the space covered with primum runes."
Reaching out, taking care to not actually touch the fragile painting, Jackie said, "Definitely primum runes and not Celtic runes, although I don't know how Celtic runes would have reached Peru." She thought for a second. "'Course, how the hell did primum runes get all over the globe?"
Jackie stepped back, putting her hands on hips. "Seeing the blood moon imagery on the ceiling I thought we might find an inscription like on the Kaskuh Tablet, but while I see many of the runes that are on the tablet, they're in different patterns. They're probably the same words, but if they express the same thoughts as on that tablet they're phrased differently." She shone her flashlight on the missing part of the sculpture, adding, "Or maybe the inscription's on the destroyed half."
"The Kaskuh Tablet translation wasn't real, Layla," Marco grumped.
Jackie chose to ignore Marco's statement. Both turned away from the mural and started shining their lights on the remaining walls and floor, looking for anything else.
"There's no plaster ... or whatever material they used ... at the bases of the other walls," Jackie said, "so that sculpture appears to have been the only one. No more runes or anything else on the walls, no pottery shards or anything else that looks man-made on the floor, other than those clay bricks." She bent over the pit. "Nothing in the pit, and the bricks are so deteriorated that if anything was on them it's long gone."
Marco shined his light onto the ceiling, Jackie quickly straightening and adding hers.
"Just the crystals, and the hand," Marco said. "If there are any runes or additional carvings, they're too small to see from down here." He looked at Jackie. "I think we've seen everything there is to see. If there's anything else, or any more switches, they're too well hidden."
"Agreed. Let's get out of here."
Taking one last look, Marco said, "Shame neither one of us thought to grab our phones from our packs before Frenchie took them. Dumb."
A while later, stepping back out into the main passageway, Jackie said, "So glad to be out of there. I kept thinking about getting trapped all the way back. Thanks again for that."
Marco looked at Jackie and said, in an approving tone of voice, "You've been really crushing it today; I think you may have missed your calling, you would have made one hell of an archeologist."
Jackie brushed off the debris that had accumulated on her clothes while navigating the passageway. "Nah, I'm good. Too much dirt." As Jackie spoke, the stone plug slipped back into place. "And you can now add being buried alive to the list of 'no-thank-yous,'" she added, as she gave an involuntary shudder. "'Hobby' is fine."
The pair walked down the main passageways, heading for the exit, encountering nobody as they went. When they stepped out of the pyramid, they discovered why ... the sun was low on the horizon.
"Funny how you lose track of time when there's no sun to give you a clue," Marco said.
Hearing voices, they followed them into another tent-filled clearing, finding all the workers sitting at long tables, sharing the evening meal. Noticing a buffet, Marco and Jackie strode over and helped themselves. Not having eaten since they left the airport that morning, they heaped their plates full, then looked for a place to sit and devour their food. Marco spied Frenchie and Belle sitting apart from everybody else; Belle waved the pair over.
The foursome spent the meal making conversation about life, the universe, and almost everything ... oddly, neither Frenchie nor Belle inquired about what Marco and Jackie might have found.
After the sun set, Jackie let out a large yawn. "You two must be exhausted," Belle said. "We set up accommodations for you a little way down that back trail," Belle pointed to a barely distinguishable trail heading out of the clearing, "so you two can have some privacy when you ... talk. Why don't you turn in? We'll get back together bright and early tomorrow."
Marco and Jackie thanked their hosts, then headed down the trail. When they reached them, it turned out the "accommodations" were a single, small, two-man tent.
"Um," Marco said, hesitating.
"Just get in there," Jackie said, pushing Marco into the tent, then following.
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Jackie stirred, awakened by movement. It was pitch dark in the tent, suggesting it was the middle of the night. In the throes of sleep inertia, it took her a few seconds to realize it was Marco crawling out of the tent that interrupted her slumber.
Her words slightly slurred by sleepiness, Jackie asked, "You're going out? Why?"
Marco cocked his head, and replied, "I need to ... um ... bleed the lizard monster."
"Ah. You sure you can find the porta-potties in the dark?"
"Not going to bother. There nothing that makes you feel more like a man than going to the bathroom in the woods."
"Oh. Okay. Well, be careful."
As Jackie began drifting back to sleep, she thought, Hm ... that warm bod, that buff bod ... that bod. The brains, too, of course. Brave, kind, the whole package. Just as she was about to fall fully asleep, she thought, And that exotic accent, wow.
Jackie launched herself out of the tent, looking around desperately for Marco. She spotted him already well down the trail, heading toward the pyramid. Chills reverberated up and down her spine; he had been speaking with the accent he used when speaking with Star's voice, and his movements as he walked were very feminine. She reached back into the tent, grabbing their flashlights and, remembering the lost opportunity to photograph the fresco, her phone, then speed-walked after him.
The atmosphere of the complex and forest was like that of a horror film; Jackie felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. The woods were quiet, the calls of night insects providing sound only from a distance, the buzzes, chirps and trills of those close-by silenced by the pair's passing. The sight of the pyramid was eerie, the entrance a black maw in the patchy light filtering through the canopy from the nearly full moon at its zenith. She figured everything would be better lit if it wasn't a blood moon; Pretty, though, she thought. As realization dawned, she looked up sharply at the red moon through a small break in the canopy. Great Cthulhu, all these blood moon coincidences.
Jackie was a couple dozen feet behind Marco; as he reached the pyramid's opening, Jackie slowed, thinking she might sneak in behind him.
"I know you're there, Layla," Marco said, quietly.
So much for that idea, Jackie thought.
"Go back to the tent. Pyramids at night are dangerous."
"For you, too ... Star," Jackie whispered, so that only Star could hear should any other person be within earshot.
Star stopped. "What, no, it's just me: Marc."
Jackie put her hand on Star's shoulder as she walked around to Star's front. Looking into Star's eyes, she asked, "So you think I'm stupid, too?"
Star smiled, saying, "No, I don't; I think you're brilliant and gorgeous." Star quickly turned away, hiding a blush. "And I don't really think Marc's stupid ... except where you're concerned. He should be more protective; you shouldn't be here to be in danger." When saying "here," Star swept her hand around the pyramid entrance.
"Really. I wonder ... can Marc's body see in the dark?" Jackie removed her hand from Star's shoulder, retrieved one of the flashlights from a pocket, then handed it to Star.
Star sighed. "No, it can't. Alright, c'mon."
After entering the pyramid, Jackie asked, "Star, what are you looking for?"
"I want to see the secret chamber for myself."
"Why?"
"When I'm not awake, I have to rely on Marc's memories, and his memories of what you saw aren't clear, a bit muddled. And ... my access to memories is not always perfect, anyway."
"I've been told about alternate personalities not 'remembering' what other personalities experience, so makes sense."
"Right ... 'alternate personality.' But this time I think it's actually because he didn't understand what he was looking at."
The two walked in silence until they reached the hidden switch. Star placed her hand on the switch as Jackie moved up to help. To Jackie's surprise, Star needed no assistance as the button moved easily under her pressure.
In response to Jackie's raised eyebrow, Star said, "Um ... I remember Marc doing it so it's just, uh, knowing how to do it this time."
Jackie was certain Star was lying, but couldn't think of what the actual explanation could be.
The duo squeezed through the passageway to the hidden room. After reaching their destination, Star seemed unphased by the exertion while Jackie's respiration was elevated. Star asked, "You're breathing hard, was it that strenuous?"
"No," Jackie answered. "Marc's comment about getting stuck makes me anxious."
"Awwwww, poor baby. Hugs!" As Star embraced her, Jackie noticed how Star bent her knees a little so that they touched chests, giving Jackie the impression the hug was as much to surreptitiously cop a feel as provide comfort. It was a move she, herself, sometimes used when evaluating a possible female hookup.
As the two parted, Star said, "I'm anxious too, even if I don't show it."
"Because Marc was anxious?"
"No, personal experience."
Remembering their last encounter, when Star mentioned dying while pointing at a collapsed butte, Jackie thought, That can't mean what it sounds like, can it? Another chill reverberated up and down her spine, which prompted her to say to herself, Get a grip ... she only thinks that happened, or else Marco'd be dead.
Star pointed her flashlight at the fresco. She rested a hand on Marco's hip, her rear slightly akimbo in a very feminine stance, as if showing off her ass to Jackie.
God, that's disturbing, Jackie thought.
Star mumbled, "It speaks about a migration to Earth of mewmans and giraffe monsters. Doesn't say which migration it's referring to; maybe that means it's the first."
More "aliens built the pyramids" stuff, Jackie thought, while noting the similarity of "mewman" to a term Marco had used, "Low-Mewnian." Out loud, she said, "Giraffes are from Earth."
"Sure they are," Star replied. She stepped forward to take a closer look at the painting's runes. "Nothing useful, not even anything about the Blood Moon. Maybe you're right that it was in the destroyed half. Although..."
Star concentrated on the Celtic cross. Speaking softly, she said, "There's something so familiar about that. It feels like it's extremely important, and that I should know what it is, but..."
After a few more seconds Star huffed, then turned, shining her light about the room, pausing for a few moments on the possible well. She shook her head, then moved the light to the ceiling. "Can't see anything other than the crystals and hand from down here. Maybe a closer look..."
Jackie thought she saw glowing primum runes appear on Star's hands. They disappeared almost immediately, coinciding with a quick glance at Jackie, as though Star was thinking better of something.
What ... the ... actual ... fuck? Jackie screamed in her mind.
Jackie fished her phone out of a pocket, glad she had grabbed it before chasing after Marco. She raised it to photograph the painting, only for Star to slap it out of her hand. She heard glass break, and when she picked up the phone, found the camera lens smashed. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I ... thought ... I saw ... a bug. Yeah ... a big, nasty, venomous bug."
Jackie shook her head; Star hadn't even attempted to make the lie believable.
"I don't think I'm going to learn anything useful here; let's blow," Star said.
After leaving the hidden room and its passage behind, Jackie was in the lead as the two approached the exit. When Jackie was a couple steps outside the pyramid, Star said, "You go on back to sleep, I'm going to stay and look for anything else there might be to find."
"No," Jackie responded, "I'm going to stay with you to help."
Not hearing a response, Jackie turned, finding empty space.
"Star?" Jackie called as loud as she thought she could without waking somebody. "Marc?" She received no response. She chewed her lip for a couple seconds, looking through the trees toward what she could see of the horizon. The bright, white, moon had moved quite a bit toward it. Moonset before too long, then dawn soon after. She decided she had no choice but to trust Marco ... Star ... whoever, she thought. She turned and headed down the trail back towards their tent, then stopped short. What ... happened ... to ... the blood moon? She stared at the moon over her shoulder for a few moments, then continued toward camp, thinking, Fuckity fuck...
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The man stirred when he saw Jackie walk out of the pyramid. He moved only his head, and only slightly, as even a small movement of his body could give away his position under the light of the almost-full moon, despite it being well on its journey toward setting. To his confusion, Jackie was alone. As he watched Jackie walk down the trail to where he knew they were camped, he briefly considered paying her a visit to have "fun" with her before ending her life. He decided not to, as his orders were to watch, and "Harrow's Little Bitch," as he derisively called her, didn't like it when people exceeded their orders, especially when the excess included "fun." It didn't seem to him that she objected to "fun" in principle, simply that she thought it was better used as a coercive tool, regardless of which gender was the aggressor and which the victim, or whether it was same- or opposite-sex.
With Marco's whereabouts currently unknown the odds of an accidental meeting were increased. The spy was only mildly concerned about the consequences should Marco stumble upon him, but what would happen should DuChamp or Kristel be alerted was something he wished to avoid at all costs. He settled in, keeping his eyes toward the pyramid to pick up Marco when he reappeared.
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Marco slowly regained consciousness, hearing the calling of morning birds through the fabric of the tent. He yawned, then opened his eyes ... to find a face just a couple inches from his. "Yow!" he exclaimed, as he whipped forward a hand and violently pushed the face away.
"Ow," Jackie complained, rubbing her nose.
"Sorry. What the heck were you doing?"
Jackie chose not to answer, instead asking, "How do you feel?"
"Exhausted. I feel like I didn't sleep at all ... again."
"You didn't. You had a little adventure last night."
"I did? I remember dreaming about revisiting that secret room..."
"It wasn't a dream. Me and you went back ... or rather, me and Star."
Marco felt his gut twist. Star? Are you there? He received no answer.
"Afterwards," Jackie continued, "you didn't come back to the tent with me, you went off exploring on your own. Do you remember that?"
"I do ... sort of. I remember that like a dream, too; I studied all the 'glyphs and carvings I could find, I rooted around the artifacts that the archaeologists removed for study, I even explored the forest around the pyramid. I found some plinths, statue bases, and building blocks, most with pictographs on them ... maybe there was a stray primum rune here and there ... but I can't recall finding anything of importance."
Jackie paused a few seconds before continuing, as she decided where to take the conversation. Before Marco woke up, she'd already decided she imagined the primum runes appearing on his hands, and would save the breaking of the supposedly unbreakable military-grade camera lens until they'd returned home. She'd also decided to discuss with her therapist whether she should even bring up Star's apparent flirting.
Settling on the next topic, Jackie crossed her arms, stating, "Last night, I saw a blood moon."
"What? There wasn't supposed to be one."
"There wasn't."
"Hunh?"
"Yeah, I'm confused, too. I saw it when we were together, before going into the pyramid, but when I came out alone, it was normal."
"Weird."
The two spent the next fifteen minutes discussing what to share with Frenchie and Belle; in the end, they both agreed it best to keep it all to themselves. Afterwards, Marco called out to Star, but again received no reply. Great, she gets to sleep, while I have to push on without any. He yawned mightily.
After taking care of their morning "chores," the pair headed back to the main encampment, where they joined up with their hosts. The four had a nice breakfast, then, as they chatted about what to do that day, Doctor Grant came over and offered to give them all a tour of the entire site, inside and out. Frenchie and Belle demurred, but Jackie and Marco accepted.
The tour was fun and informative, but nothing more was learned that could help with the real reason the pair was there, to their great disappointment. The tour ended with Doctor Grant again leaving the two with Elsa and Jack, who asked if Jackie and Marco would like to help them with their work. They gladly accepted.
As the four worked, Jackie could not suppress the curiosity of a doctor of history, resulting in her grilling the two grad students about the area's past. She was especially interested in the activities of Francisco Pizarro's expeditions to the area in the 1530s.
"Elsa mentioned yesterday that, so far, we've not found out why this is called 'Temple of the Blood Moon,'" Jack said. "But local legends have it that there was more to Pizarro's activities in Peru than what modern historians know. The legends say he discovered a great many things, including why this temple's named what it is ... and that when he was assassinated in 1541 it was actually by aliens, to prevent him from telling the temple's secrets."
When the sun was close to the horizon, Elsa and Jack declared it was time to call it a day. As they walked back toward camp from where they'd been exploring among the trees, Jack stated, "The entire expedition has been invited by the locals to a huge party in the village to celebrate tonight's Seasonal Blue Moon. Lots of good food, music and dancing."
"Sounds like fun," Jackie replied. "Are you two going?"
"We'd love to," Elsa responded, "but Jack can't go because he has a phobia of full moons. I have to stay behind to keep an eye on him, in case he freaks out." Jack rolled his eyes, but didn't contradict her.
"It doesn't seem right for us to go if you're not."
"Pish tosh. Go, have a cracking good time."
Before returning to their tent to rest a bit before attending the party, Marco and Jackie paused to speak to their sponsors. Frenchie and Belle were anxious to hear any news, and seemed to be almost as disappointed as the americans that, over the two days there, they had found nothing that advanced their case.
As always, stay amazing!