Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Star lied in her bed, facing the ceiling. The marble tiles were white with gray swirls, she had never really noticed that before, how unique each swirl took up the large squares that made up the roof above her head. She had never really saw the small picture, it was the big picture that was her main concern.

A year on Earth had taught the Mewni princess quite a bit… Well, not so much Earth really, but her house mate and best friend, Marco Diaz.

Marco was most well known for his red hoodie and converse, his logic, and his anxiety ridden personality that Star had fallen head over heels for.

No. She didn’t like him, well she did. A lot. But she wasn’t allowing herself to, and she didn’t have the time or energy to divert towards her affections.

War took up everything.

The battlefield today took so many lives, Star hadn’t really been faced with death before. In fact, the Earth wars stressed it so much, but Star never understood it until Toffee’s army rose up against Mewni.

She usually stayed in her small tent with the other soldiers, but they lost the battle today, forced to retreat back into the castle walls. Star was sure Mewni would fall, but she fought regardless. She fought hard, the magic she once used happily to impress Earthlings, was now tainted with death. Her magic was no longer rainbows and narwhals, but the green lightning that melted weapons and oozed acid.

Her wand sat on her pillow, it’s half star a reminder of her failure against her people for the sake of one earthling that she would never see again. A reminder of her pride, her refusal to ask help from her parents. It seemed so long ago when she was a child; war had aged her, her and her people. Her mother’s generation lived for fluffy songs and pastels- but Star’s world turned fluffy songs to war chants and pastels to blood and dirt.

The wails of injured soldiers echoed through the floor. She stood up, her Princess Marco doll fell from the foot of the bed. Star stopped, another world, another realm. A younger Star would let tears stain her cheeks as she cuddled the old toy from her past, but now Star picked up the doll and placed it on the shelf next to all her old childhood toys, toys that meant nothing now.

Star walked towards her towering door, stopping in front of her floor length mirror. Her blonde hair was braided out of her face, her devil horn headband was replaced with a regular headband when she lost the devil horns on the battlefield. Her quirky dresses replaced with a dark tunic and black leggings, usually covered with armor. She looked away, then quickly turned back for her wand, before heading back out the door.

The hall was bustling with soldiers and servants with a harsh purpose. Star walked against them to her parent’s bedroom. She stopped the doors, hearing the argument through the double wooden doors. She placed a hand on the door, but her name slipped through the slim crack of the door, and she leaned forward to listen.

“We’re going to lose, Moon.” her father seemed angry.

“River, please-,” her mother tried to calm him down, but she was interrupted,

“No, Moon, no! This war doesn’t end with us on top! The monsters hate us, they’re fueled with so much anger-,”

“So are our people.” Moon’s voice was tilting with frustration, “If we could just talk to them-,”

“Surrender?!”

“Talk to! River, listen! If we can show them more compassion, they’ll work with us. They’re not all the same!”

A moment of silence screamed through the marble walls. Star took a deep breath, getting ready to push through in the break of the argument as her father finally spoke.

“That’s where she gets it from.”

Star froze.

“Who?” Moon asked, frustration turned into cold anger.

Star didn’t need her father to answer. The Mewni people didn’t need her father to answer. Star’s compassion for monsters brought her popularity amongst the people to an all time low, no one wanted to work alongside monsters, turning the monsters back to Toffee who accepted everyone. Star almost ran away back to Earth, but her family quickly reminded her this war was her fault, and therefore she was forced to deal with it.

“Star.” her name felt like a slap in the thin air. She took a step back, her hand slowly fell to her side.

“She’s caring-,”

“She’s the reason our people are dying!”

Star turned away, walking numbly anywhere else. She didn’t need to hear anymore.

There was a time when Star wa surrounded by people, by friends, who loved and cherished her, but now the only thing she had was the blanket of war. Ponyhead’s dimension banned Mewni from being explored, as did most others to avoid the threat of their war spreading.

Mewni was alone, forced into a small island of isolation. Star had never related to her homeland more.

Battle horns bellowed in the middle of the night, Star shot awake, grabbing her wand and running out the door barefoot in her night gown. Getting dressed would only give the enemy more time to destroy. It didn’t matter, this was a surprise attack, the horns were only waking up the people to die fighting and not in their sleep.

Mewni was lost to monsters.

Star could hear them down the hall, how long had they been planning this attack? They housed everyone in the castle, Mewni was done for. The castle was the last thing left of her people.

She dashed downstairs and raised her wand ready to attack, but her mother’s shout distracted her. She dashed towards her mother’s battle cry into the throne room, she pushed the doors open as her father dropped to his knees, falling to his side. Toffee cackling and her father’s soul turned into a green light that  flew into the green crystal in the center of his palm.

“Dad!” Star screamed. Her mother slowly stood, her body bruised, hair ruffled, clothes torn. Moon looked at her daughter, Star felt tears burn her eyes. Mewni had fallen.

“Mom-,” Star took a shaky step towards her mother, but Toffee’s crystal lazily stole her mother’s soul. Her mother’s now empty shell of a body dropped to the marbled tiles as his hand turned towards her. Star threw her wand in front of her face as a shield, her mind racing with which spell to use as the green lightning shot towards her. Her wand shot out a burst of white light, but the green light barreled into her, knocking her back into the wall outside of the room.

Toffee laughed lazily, lowering himself to the ground and walking towards her.

“So, this is it, after all this time?”

Star struggled to stand up, her wand shooting off another burst of white light. It hit Toffee, who only staggered for a second before pushing forward,

“You put up quite a fight Star Butterfly.”

“You’re going down Toffee-,”

“Brave words from a dead girl.” He raised his hand with a smile.

“I’m not dead-,”

“Yet.” and the green light slithered towards her, Star shot one last rainbow dash, as if her innocent self was trying to save her. But her innocence had been long gone now. The light struck her with thunderous force. A series of pinches along the corners of her body then ripped at her. She wanted to scream, but the ongoing pain slowly turned into an agonizing numbness and then nothing. She was surrounded by darkness as death and defeat overwhelmed her.

A green light in the darkness shot through her core. Her last memory rerunning it’s course, she thought, before it started to spread through her. The green light filled every dark spot in the shell she no longer controlled until she could feel again. She blinked a few times, the marble walls looming above her as Toffee’s voice slowly reached her ears as he talked to his army, his back to her.

“The Royal Family has fallen. Queen and King Butterfly are dead. Princess Star Butterfly is dead-,”

“You wish.” She stood up. He was holding her wand, the winged spector now bones. He aimed it at her, but she waved her hand, green magic flying from her fingertips knocking the wand from his hand, “Fix my parents.”

“I can’t… I don’t even know how you’re alive-,”

“Alright.” Star shrugged, dangling her fingers at his army. A wave of green acid washed over them, leaving her and Toffee standing. His eyes grew wide in fear, and Star smiled.

“My people are gone. Your people are gone. Now it’s just you, me and the Mewni you wanted.” Star walked past the melting bones of her enemy army and sat down on her mother’s throne, patting the seat that belonged to her father, “Come rule with me.”

“What?” Toffee looked around, “There’s nothing to rule-,”

“Rule with me.” she growled and he slowly obeyed, sitting in the other throne, staring at his rival. Her eyes were glowing a bright green that didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. This Star was different… this Star was Dark Star.

…

Marco leaned against his car in the school parking lot. School just let out, but he had been waiting by his car for at least an hour. He smoked a cigarette, letting the tobacco distract him for all the ways his life sort of sucked.

Jacki, his ex-girlfriend walked by with Oskar. An unlikely pair most of the school thought, that was until homecoming after party caught Jacki and Oskar behind Ferguson’s garage smoking and making out. So naturally, Marco was spending the rest of his senior year single. It wasn’t that he was a great boyfriend, or even a great friend, so he didn’t really blame her too much.

When Star left at the end of his freshmen year of highschool, he was left without a best friend. In fact, he had given up his earthly hobbies, except for karate, to do things with Star. Then, just like that, she was gone. He tried a million ways to get back in contact. He even tried to use his interdimensional scissors, but the minute a portal was opened, guards threatened to execute him and his family for breaking a new law, and Ponyhead pardoned him, telling him not to try again. When she could, she would let him through.

He never saw her again either. The scissors sat in the back of his underwear drawer. Jacki became a good rock, but she didn’t have magical adventures or quirky mistakes. She was perfect, in every way.

Janna stepped in for awhile. Helping him break the rules, filling in the light hearted adventures with actual law breaking that got the pair a year in detention, much to his parents dismay. Detention was better than doing nothing with his time, and Janna had stepped in to be there while Ferguson and Alfonso just didn’t.

Janna finally walked out of the school doors, rolling her eyes at Jacki who had no shame holding her new boyfriend’s hand past her old one.

“Skipped?” she asked him.

“Thought we were both bailing? I’ve been waiting out here since last class.” Marco handed her his pack as he jumped into his car. She jumped passenger side, lighting the cigarette and rolling down the window.

“Got caught before I could break out. Not all of us are skilled sneakers, alright?”

“Sure.” Marco shrugged, pressing down on the accelerator. She laughed as they sped past Jacki and a nervous Oskar. He drove to her place first, and she leaned over and patted his shoulder,

“Kiddo, prom is coming up.”

“Not going.” Marco shrugged.

“Hey, love the mentality, but my folks want me to go- date and all. Show up with me and we’ll bail? Hang in the cemetery and smoke for a bit? It’ll make your folks think you’re coming around alright.”

Marco sighed, “Fine.”

She kissed his cheek before jumping out of the car and heading inside as he drove to his place back across town.

He dragged himself inside and past his parents talking to the new exchange student. Marco didn’t really talk to the new kids that lived in Star’s old room, he couldn’t find it in himself to tell the new kids the great person that had lived there before them. A person they could never replace, now matter how hard his parents tried- Star left an empty void in the Diaz household.

He fell onto his bed with a sigh. He should do his homework, college applications, job applications, not that he needed one. His royalty checks were a steady income still, and he had started making even more after Star left. He wasn’t really sure why, but he didn’t care. It paid for his car, his insurance, and his cigarettes, with quite a good chunk left over every month.

He closed his eyes to sleep when a familiar voice echoed around him,

“Earth Turd, you in there?”

He shot up, the sassy voice seemed like a memory,

“Ponyhead?”

She smiled, her blue skin against pink hair hadn’t changed,

“Hey bestie, it’s… you… I told you I’d let you know when it was safe to use your scissors. Here we are. Alright, byeee-,”

“How’s Star?” Marco was up, digging through his drawer for his scissors.

“Um… Listen, Star’s… she’s gone, Marco.”

Marco was facing Ponyhead and her portal, his racing heart slamming to a stop,

“She’s dead?”

“All of Mewni is.”

“She’s dead?” he repeated himself, the world was blurry, his hands starting to tremble.

“No, but-,” Ponyhead started, but Marco didn’t listen as he split reality with his scissors,

“Then I’m going find her.” and he stepped through as Ponyhead shouted out behind him. It had been three years since he had seen Star, and he wasn’t letting anything stop him from reuniting with his best friend.

Chapter Text

Star kicked her feet up over the arm of the throne. She had been ruling her empty kingdom for three weeks. Toffee, and his pathetic wand, that she let him keep, wandered aimlessly, but never far from her sight.

When was the last time she saw the foolish monster? She looked around the room, whispering,

“Toffee, Toffee… where are you?”

He didn’t pop up. Her head tilted with a twinge of anger as she pulled herself up, raising her voice,

“Toffee… where are you?” her voice started to become sing song and something burned in her chest… joy? Happiness? Regardless, she didn’t care for it. Now that she was on her feet she shouted,

“TOFFEE!”

He was planning an escape? A call for help? She’d teach him to betray her.  She blinked, summoning the All Seeing Eye, her focus on her only companion in all of Mewni.

She saw him talking to a person in a portal, King Ponyhead? Toffee looked anxiously over his shoulder, before facing her again. Star knew the place, she skipped through her throne room, closing the All Seeing Eye behind her.

Up the stairs down a hall or two and there she faced her parents’ bedroom door. The door slightly ajar, her parent’s were in there, tucked in bed, as she bid Toffee do. Why was there door open? She tucked her head in, her curiosity always getting the better of her. Her heart stopped. Her chest burned with emotions she didn’t… couldn’t feel.

…

Marco fell through the portal, it was weird falling through dimensions again. He ended up in Star’s castle bedroom and counted how lucky he was not to end up across the entire realm. He stared at the room, it was very Star. Bright colors and pastels, stuffed toys and dolls everywhere… One caught his eye. A Princess Marco doll. Laughter escaped as he picked up the doll, of course she would have one. The purple dress, long pigtail, blush circles- who would have thought a princess rebellion would have reminded him of happier, easier times?

He placed the doll on the bed, and walked out into the hall, wondering where everyone was. The palace was quiet, his own footsteps echoing through the hall as he stopped at a pair of wooden doors.

He placed his hand on the doors, was something whispering inside? He pushed it open, and took a step back. The King and Queen were in bed, faces facing the ceiling, empty eyes.

“What the Hell-,” he ran to them, shaking them awake, but nothing. They were.. Gone. Just like Ponyhead said, all of Mewni was gone. Was Star like this? How could he save her? Who could’ve done this to them-

“How did you get here?” a familiar voice hissed behind him. He turned and a smile rushed to his face before he had time to take in the new Star in front of him. She was in a soldiers outfit, her blonde hair braided away, her blue eyes now a glowing green. His smile faded when he realized she wasn’t happy to see him, she was, angry?

“Star?” he asked, she waved her fingers lazily, a green light turning into ribbon that tied him to the bedpost,

“I have more important matters to deal with. I’ll be back for you.” She turned, briskly walking away before saying over her shoulder, “Don’t struggle, it’ll burn you.” Then she was gone.  

Marco wished, for the first time in three years, that he had listened to someone besides himself.

…

Star’s walk had more than purpose to it now, it had anger. She was livid, how had some Earthling ended up in her realm? Was this Toffee? She burst into the war room and glared at the open portal, King Ponyhead and Toffee.

“All deals go through me. I am Queen of Mewni, this is just Toffee. He’s been demoted to my servant for backstabbing.”

“I wasn’t-,” Toffee started to defend himself, but Star rolled her eyes, sending a lash of green magic to silence him. He fell back, glowing green duct tape covering his mouth,

“Silence.” She looked at King Ponyhead, her head tilting, “Has he told you our war is done? Has he told you people can come back now? That we’re all… friends?” she chuckled, “Or has he told you that I’m not Star Butterfly anymore? I am. I am Star Butterfly, Queen Star, and I’ll have no more deals behind my back. I rule this wasteland now. You can open up for tourism, people won’t die by crossing through. Thanks for your time.” She pushed the king back through his portal, closing it behind him.

She glared at Toffee, “Is the Earth boy your fault too?”

“Earth boy?” the boy said from behind her. Toffee blinked, then looked at Star in confusion, but Star snapped,

“How?!”

“I’ve got… ways.” keeping his scissors a secret from this new Star, “I’m not an Earth boy. Well… I am, but I’m Marco. Marco Diaz?”

Star ripped the tape off Toffee’s mouth, “Who?” she asked her rival. He sighed,

“Queen Star… your best friend?”

“I have no friends. Suck out his soul.”

Toffee shrugged, raising his hand as Marco shook his head,

“Princess Marco! I’m Princess Marco!” he raised his hands in self defense, “I lived on Earth with you! Star, please!”

She walked past him and out the door, “You’re too late.”

Marco looked at Toffee, his heart dropped as the lizard’s palm emitted a green glow meant to kill him. Toffee walked towards him,

“Save Mewni.” the lizard’s voice dropped to a whisper, “Go to the monster realm. In that dimension you’ll find a woman named Eclipsa, tell her Mewni needs her. Tell her… tell her I need her.”

Toffee ripped open a portal and pushed Marco through, “Quickly.” And Marco was falling.

Chapter Text

Marco closed his eyes, only seeing Star’s green ones glaring back at him, the image of his best friend seared into his memory.

There had to be a way to save her, otherwise Toffee wouldn’t be sending him into another dimension. Eclipsa. Had he heard that name before? He had met so many people, but he wasn’t quite sure if this was one of them.

He landed,  in what seemed, the middle of nowhere. And the middle of nowhere stretched for as far as his human eyes can see. He shrugged and started walking. He felt familiar in this dimension, as if he had spent a lifetime here. The back of his head started to burn as the memories of trying to blow out a flame caught up with him. Heckapoo. He remembered her, he was in love with her, and she with him. The game of chase with her thousands of clones until he caught up with her, the original being that held his heart for majority of that life. He had forgotten all about his home, his family, his Star.

His Star. That’s what she was to him. His Star. Just like Heckapoo was his Heckapoo. He never called Jacki his. And Janna, she was obviously starting to crush on him, was “his” either. It was as if his entire mundane life was filled with nothing that he actually cared about. Of course he cared about his parents. He used to care about his grades, about his future, but everything had fallen apart so quickly.

An old highschool prompt for his English honors class was “If you could go back in time, what would you fix and why?”

Marco stared at the paper for so long. The blank sheet screaming all of his regrets. All of them having something to do with Star. He wrote about grabbing her hand, when she turned away from him instead of standing there like some rock. Some brainless piece of brick who only understood the concept of food and shelter. He should’ve grabbed her. He shouldn’t have waited so long to run after her. That second of hesitation was all it took for him to lose the best friend he ever had. He wrote that paper. Then threw it away, replacing the emotional work with how he wished he would’ve taken regulars so he didn’t have to write a paper on such a silly topic. He got a C. He didn’t care.

“So.” A voice came from behind him, “I rarely get new folk.”

Marco turned, scissors out and ready. She laughed, her short black hair framed her chubby cheeks marked with spades.

“You’re magic?” Marco asked, knowing that Star’s cheeks were hearts.

“So, you’re not stupid.”

“I didn’t say that.” Marco shrugged. She smiled,

“I like you. You’re quite funny. What do you want?”

“I’m here for Eclipsa.”

“Why?”

“Toffee sent me for her. He needs her… Star, Star Butterfly, she’s… she’s not herself. She’s… her eyes are…”

“She’s evil. Toffee messed up and wants mother dearest to fix it. Always running to me when he’s messed something up. My husband loved that little orphaned brat…” she sighed, shaking her head, “Alright. Tell me what’s happened.”

“Toffee can suck out souls?” Marco asked, not quite sure of it himself, “That’s all I possibly know? I showed up and Star doesn’t really remember who I am-,”

“And who are you?”

“Her best friend!”

“Ah.”

“And she had Toffee kill me, but he sent me in search for you.”

“Momma’s boys, they grow up, but will always need us. Alright, where are we going? Earth?”

“Mewni.” Marco corrected.

“Mewni? No. I’m not going.”

“What? Why not?” Marco asked as she started to walk away. He quickly followed her.

“Mewni banished me-,”

“Okay, but like there’s nobody-,”

“Called me Dark, Monster Lover, Evil-,”

“Okay, but right now Star is actually dark and evil-,”

Eclipsa turned around, her glare could kill. Marco stepped back as she sighed, annoyed,

“I was a good ruler. I wanted change and instead I got this.” she gestured to the empty world around her, “All because I wouldn’t kill a monster.”

“Star only attacks the ones trying to kill her. We’ve never killed anyone-,”

“But now this Star girl is evil?”

“Well… I think so. Toffee thinks so. Which is a tell-tale sign, since you know, Toffee is evil.”

“Toffee is evil? Because he’s a monster?”

“No, he kept me locked away in a glass box and almost killed me.” Marco snapped, “You know, I don’t need this. I’ll Toffee to come get you, if he’s still alive.” Marco ripped his scissors angrily through the air, and walked through the portal, closing it behind him. He blinked, inside his own room. He cursed, out of anger, he messed up bringing him back to Earth. He checked the time on his computer, he’d been gone for two days.

He walked downstairs and saw his parents on the phone.

“He’s here! He’s home!” they hung up and rushed to hug him. Guilt swallowed him like an oversized t shirt,

“Mom, Dad, I’m sorry- I-,”

“Where were you?” His mother asked.

“Another dimension.” Marco said honestly. His parents blinked slowly, the honesty was refreshing for the small family, so refreshing that Marco continued, “I went to Mewni, it’s legal to go and travel around again. Star… she needs my help. There’s something wrong with her and-,”

“You’re the only one to help her?” asked his father.

“No, but I want to help her. I know I’ll miss school-,”

“You’re missing school anyways, Marco.” his mother said sadly.

“But I’ll make it up. If I can save Star, or at least try to, then-,”

“Go.” his father nodded, “We’ll say we sent you to another school to pull your life together. Come back, son.”

They hugged again, and marco cut the air with his scissors, stepping back into Mewni, closing the portal door behind him. He turned around in anguish, outside the castle was war torn. Empty roads, burned houses, where was everyone? Was everyone like Star’s parents? Or worse? He trekked towards the castle, but Star was on the balcony, waiting for him.

“Earth boy’s dead and tossed back to Earth where he belongs.” she mocked.

“My family saved me.” Marco shouted up.

“Or Toffee did.” she snapped, flying down to him. Her green eyes glared, “So, you’re telling me that, what, you’re here to save me too?”

“If you want to be.” Marco said slowly.

“This world is dead, thanks to Toffee and his little war that RUINED MY LIFE.” She shouted into the sky. Her eyes flickered into white pupils, before glowing bright green again, staring at Marco, “I lived on Earth for awhile. I assume I knew you while I was there?”

“Housemates. Best friends. Went on quite a few adventures together-,”

“Did you ever betray me?” Star asked. Marco shook his head,

“Not on purpose. Not knowingly. Star-,”

“Come with me.” Star walked away and Marco quickly followed. She didn’t want him dead anymore, so that was better than nothing, right?

Chapter Text

Marco stared in horror at the melted bones. Star sighed,

“I don’t really know how to clean this up. Toffee says manually for the respect. But it’s easier with magic.”

“What?” Marco could barely hear himself.

“Are you deaf?” she snapped. He shook his head,

“N-no. I… why are they dead?” he struggled to find the words.

“They were going to kill me-,”

“What happened to Narwhal Blast?” he asked, his breaths were getting shallow. He needed to pull himself together, but this… he wasn’t expecting this.

“Please, stupid spells like that are for children. This is war- well, was. I ended it-,”

“At what cost?” Marco tore his gaze to look at Star, her green eyes bored with the dead,

“They’re dead.” she shrugged, “War isn’t milkshakes and stuffed animals, Marco. It’s death. And I realized that and I won-,”

“Star-,”

“Are you with me or against me?” she asked and Marco nodded,

“I’m with you Star. I’m always with you. It’s Toffee’s army. He wants it done respectfully, he does it.”

Star smiled, but it wasn’t the happy one that brightened his day as a kid, this one was more proud, twisted and she grabbed his hand,

“You were right, Marco Diaz. We are best friends. There’s a couple more things I need your help with.” She pulled him along, skipping through the dead and Marco was starting to wonder how much of the old Star was left inside this dark version that lived in the shell of her body, as he avoided stepping on bones.

Chapter Text

Marco sat on the throne as Star walked through the large double doors. He stood, but she waved at him, and he sat back down as a few monsters, dressed as servants, rushed in behind her, quickly setting up a table filled with food. They never looked directly at her, terrified of becoming a pile of melted bones again.

It was hard convincing her to bring them back to life, but Toffee had asked for help from another kingdom and begged Marco to help him with the solution, they needed Star’s magic and power.

She did it for Marco. Marco promised to never leave her. He promised to stay loyal to her, never betray her and the monsters were sworn in to be her servants and loyal subjects.

Marco was afraid of her… at first, but now her assertive behavior was normal after a month of listening to her. At first he was concerned about going back home, but Star needed him, even Dark Star. It was as if real Star was in there, trying to claw her way back out.

Star sat down, her poofy dress pouring out at her hips. She sat at the chair that was pulled up for her, glancing at Marco who stood back up, and sat next to her.

"Corn." He nodded, understanding that corn was like gold to the Mewnese. He would have liked anything else after a month of corn, but he would never go against Star. It's the reason she kept him at her side, at all times.

"Of course." she nodded back, the servants scattered and she seemed to relax now that they were alone. She wasn't completly evil, although that's what it seemed, she was still a person. A person created out of hatred and broken heart. A person from the dead.

Toffee had told Marco what happened, what he had done. Destroying Mewni by sucking up their souls to power him and his magic, he had never returned anyone back their souls, he had never planned on it, but now he wish he had at least thought about it.

If Star would have her soul back, maybe he could run away and disappear, but now he was stuck as one of her servants, and he was constantly practicing putting souls back in their bodies, and constantly failing.

Marco focused back on the relaxed shoulders of the Mewni Queen, "Rough day?" he asked.

"International Council of Kings wants to meet with me to discuss my kingdom. What kingdom? I've got a bunch of monsters and empty people-,"

"We could ask for help? Tell them about the war and the casualties. We don't have to hide from them, we weren't in the wrong. We just need help-,"

"They know about the monsters-," she shook her head.

"How?" Marco interrupted her, "And why's it matter? It was war and you fixed it-,"

"Unwillingly, you told me to-,"

"I suggested it would make us look better, and it will. Trust me, Star.” Marco reached across the table, offering his hand. She stared at it for a moment, leaving it empty and reaching as she sighed,

“If my family is revived, they’ll know what I did.”

“You ended a war.” Was he breaking through to her?

She stared at him, “I massacred an entire army. I don’t regret it.” she stood up, “You’re searching for your old friend. I was searching for her too, people missed her so. She’s dead. That Star is dead. You follow me now. If you cannot be my friend-,”

“I’m yours.” Marco quickly interrupted, his heart racing, “I’m yours, whichever Star you become.”

“If I stay this dark, twisted version of the woman you remember?”

“I’m yours.” he looked into her glowing green eyes and was greeted back with a smile as she sat back down and they ate in silence.