"So, are you sure there's absolutely nothing I can do to help you out today?"

It took every ounce of Star's self-control not to roll her eyes at the demon. Not wanting to come off as rude, though, she smiled lovingly at him instead.

"Trust me, Tom, I got this," she said with confidence to the compact mirror's screen. "I totally, one hundred percent, absolutely, got this in the bag. Besides, it's not like you know anything about house-building magic, which is what I'll be dealing with all day."

"That's… true," Tom confessed, with a finger on his chin. "But, I can be pretty handy with a nail and hammer. It's a lot slower than magic but..."

"Whoa, they crucify people down there?" She lifted her eyebrows in mock surprise, before smiling devilishly at him. "My my, Mr. Lucitor, what naughty stuff have you been getting into while I'm not around?"

Tom didn't respond to her teasing. He only gave her a confused, somewhat offended, look in return.

Star had thought a bit of harmless flirting would help put him at ease. He usually responded really well to that, but, this time, it only seemed to make Tom more frustrated. His middle eye always twitched when he was suppressing his anger. She actually considered giving him props for not freaking out, positive reinforcement and all that, but now probably wasn't a good time.

Tom rubbed his temples. "I'm being serious here, Star. Remember that awesome carriage I brought you to the Blood Moon Ball in? I… well, I made that. From scratch."

That… seemed like a total lie. Still, she didn't feel like trying to contradict him on this. Instead, Star turned to one of her signature tactics for difficult conversations: changing the subject entirely.

"Hey, don't you have anything that needs to get done in the Underworld today, anyways?" She asked.

That definitely caught Tom off guard. He shrugged nervously, in that try-hard bad boy sort of way. "Ugh, maybe some things? I don't know."

Ah-Ha! She knew it!

"See, Tom? I'm busy, you're busy. Today just isn't a good day for hanging, but I promise that we can plan another day together as soon as I get through this list."

Star then pointed the compact mirror to the huge list spread across her bed. The same list her mom gave her this morning. The very same list that was expected to be completed by tonight, without fail. She tried stressing all this to Tom earlier when he first called her, but he just wasn't getting it!

She did feel sorry for not spending that much time with him. Tom didn't have many friends outside of her and Marco, so he was probably very lonely. But still, she couldn't allow him to turn her job into excuses to go on dates together. They needed to take their positions more seriously than that. She needed to do her job.

After panning the camera over the list several times, she flipped the mirror back and faced Tom, hoping that would be enough to convince the demon that this wasn't fun and games.

"Wow, that is a pretty big list," Tom admitted, both impressed and stunned. After saying that, though, his face got more intense, so intense that a few veins were visible. Star thought she saw a brief case of the glowy-red-eyes too. "And yet... you still don't want any of my help with that, like, at all?!"

"I don't want you to ignore your people for my sake," Star said. She didn't have the slightest idea what was expected from a demon prince, but Tom's time was clearly better spent in his own kingdom than hers.

"My people are doing just fine. Your people are the ones that are homeless and living off the streets!" he argued back.

Star groaned. That was uncalled for. Even if it wasn't exactly wrong, or even meant as an accusation, it still kinda stung.

"Look," she made an effort to take his comment the best possible way. "I appreciate you're trying to be sweet, but this is something only I can do. My house-conjuring isn't perfect, but it's a heck of a lot faster than what you could whip out with a nail and hammer. And I think the last thing anyone wants is for you to get mad and burn down another village in the process of 'helping' me."

Tom stopped for a second, confused, before putting on an expression of redoubled anger. There were definitely red glowing eyes with this one!

For a moment, Star worried that he was about to revert to one of his classic tantrums from one year ago. But he didn't. He was still holding back. Maybe it was fairer to say he looked 'fiercely frustrated'?

"Star, that was you! You were the one who burned down that village when we broke up, remember!?" he shouted. "And I was the one who stopped you from going too far!"

Really?

"Oh! Uh, right! Sorry, it's just... everyone kept saying it was you who did that. I guess even I bought into it." She forced a laugh.

Star felt her stomach drop a little, thinking about that. She felt pretty guilty, actually, and not just for mistakenly blaming Tom just now.

Like, ok, no one had gotten hurt… directly. She had enough sense even back then not to burn people, thank corn! But, still, at that time she hadn't really grasped what it meant to leave mewmans without a home. Never mind all the stuff she caused when she first got the wand.

She was so glad she wasn't the same person as back then!

Tom muttered to himself before looking back at Star. "You know what, maybe it is for the best if I don't help. Besides, it's not like I have the best reputation up there after that whole debacle from last year. So… there, your wish is granted. Sorry for trying to be useful for once."

Star started to feel the weight of her own words on her shoulders. "I'm sorry I made you mad. I didn't mean any of it like that…"

Tom took in a deep breath. "Look, it's none of my business. If you don't want my help, I won't push it anymore. But a part of me feels like you're two different people when we're together."

Two different people? "Um, what does that mean?"

He looked like he regretted using that exact wording, probably had said it without thinking, but it was too late to go back on it now. "W-well there's 'Star Butterfly,' the super awesome girl that likes to hang out with her boyfriend, and do random fun stuff whenever she has the time, and then there's…"

Tom looked away from the mirror.

"'Star Butterfly,' princess of the Butterfly Kingdom, who takes her responsibilities very seriously. This Star also has a boyfriend: a prince of the Underworld, but he's angry all the time and isn't a very good prince. She mostly sees him as a distraction when it comes to her duties and, well, she also sort of… looks down on him."

What!? She didn't come across that way, did she?

But, as much as she disagreed with the sentiment, she just couldn't find the right words to debunk the demon's worries.

"Anyway, I've said enough," Tom said, rubbing his neck. "You have a ton of stuff to do today, obviously. So, I'm gonna go on a walk and try to relax. I'll have my mirror on me. See ya, Starship."

Without waiting for her to even say goodbye, he hung up on her.

That… could've gone a lot better.

Star spent the next few moments looking at the blank screen within her palms, trying to figure out how she would make it up to Tom. Instead, she kept wondering if such a feat was even possible. She felt like she had messed up, big time.

She tried telling herself reasons why she was in the right, why it was okay not to trust Tom with helping her, but all it did was make Star feel worse.

She turned to the clock on her dresser. Realizing she didn't even have the time to cry, Star rolled up her To-Do list and left for the hallway.

Great! Just great!

She was already in a 'bleh' mood this morning, and now she needed to forget about Tom altogether if she was going to look presentable to the citizens.

Not only that, but the potency of her magic relied entirely on her mood. Star had learned that lesson the hard way, back when her wand was contaminated.

Bad Emotions equaled Bad Magic. Those were the exact words she wrote in her Notebook of Spells.

If Star wanted to be the best princess she could be, then she would need to be in a better state of mind.

To do that… um, she should go over to her mom... and make sure Marco was doing okay on his first mission!

Yeah, that was definitely the kind of pick-me-up she needed!

Once she had confirmed he was at least fine, she would leave the castle immediately and head towards the first place on her list. And, that way, her magic would be better than ever before!

That was, of course, the princess's logic as she frantically ran to Queen Moon's bedroom, before stopping in front of a most-likely locked door.

Star raised her foot and readied herself for a powerful kick-

No, you idiot! Princesses don't do things like that!

That's right. She forced her foot down, and simply knocked on the door like a civilized person.

After a few seconds, she could hear the lock being undone. The door was gently opened, inviting her to come in.

Star quietly walked inside, where she saw her mother sitting on a chair and staring at her full-sized mirror with rapt attention. There was a guest sitting beside her, chomping on popcorn and seeming to enjoy herself.

The mewman girl closed the door behind her, realizing that her mom must have used magic to unlock it for her. It put Star at ease a little, knowing she wasn't the only one who used magic for mundane things like that.

"Star," her mom began, keeping her gaze on the blurry picture the mirror displayed. "I highly doubt you already finished that list I gave you. Did you need something?"

"Well, I…" Star clenched the paper. "I haven't... started it yet. I got caught up with something. I'm sorry."

"Mhmm."

"Um, before I head out and do all that, though, could I get a quick status update on St. Olga's?"

"We discussed this last night, dear. Today, my job is to overlook the infiltration of St. Olga's, while your job is to use the wand to repair more mewman homes."

There wasn't a trace of disappointment in her tone. She didn't even raise her voice. Her mom just stated the facts, and that was enough to make Star feel ashamed for having even set a foot into the room.

She was right. It just didn't make sense for St. O's to be both their problems today.

Star sighed. "Okay, I understand. But... can I ask one question?"

For the first time since Star entered, the queen turned around to face her daughter. "Yes?"

"Why is Hekapoo here?"

Her mom looked at the sorceress next to her. The woman in question acted like she didn't hear Star's question, and simply ate her popcorn and watched the mirror, as if the mission surveillance presented in front of her was some sort of movie, or one of the countless public plays and ceremonies staged in Mewni.

"Well, Star, I am not exactly sure myself," noted Moon. "She, um, decided to invite herself, and I didn't see the harm in her observing. Although I have assured her that we have the situation well under control."

The latest bit was clearly directed at the forger of dimensional scissors herself.

"Right. Super controlled. Not expecting anyone… I mean, anything… to go wrong." Hekapoo grabbed another handful of popcorn and promptly shoved it into her mouth. "Any-mhmm-ways, I am pretty sure I have more than enough authority to be here, princess. Dimensional incursions are my jurisdiction and all that."

That's weird. Interdimensional or not, this was a fairly small rescue mission. Star always assumed the Magic High Commission was more or less indifferent to the political matters of Mewni's various kingdoms, and only inserted themselves into the scene during times of war and great conflict. It wasn't like they had used their magic to rebuild anything after Toffee's attack.

"Um, ok, but shouldn't she be, oh I don't know, preparing Eclipsa's trial?" Star suggested, replying to her mom rather than directly to their 'guest'.

"Ugh, can we please not talk about work right now?" Hekapo asked, avoiding her question entirely. "I get, like, one day off every fifty years, so just let me enjoy this. I promise I'll leave once I watch Marco eat it."

Star blinked. "Excuse me?"

Hekapoo sighed and put her empty bowl down. "See, when Marco was in the Neverzone, trying to blow out my flame, the kid got himself into all sorts of trouble. He'd get lost in the woods, get chased by ghosts, nearly became a sacrifice to a vengeful deity, you get the picture. I can't even count the amount of near-death experiences he went through while over there. It was hilarious!"

"That… isn't funny, Hekapoo," her mom noted.

The princess also failed to see anything 'hilarious' about that! But now that she thought about it, why hadn't Marco ever told her about those experiences? She had always assumed his quest there was just fun adventures. Was he… constantly in mortal danger for sixteen years straight!?

Ignoring Moon, Hekapoo continued. "Marco eventually got the hang of things, though. With each mess up, it only made him stronger, till he became a total hunk and was able to steamroll past all of my clones. I was happy for him when he finally beat me, but it was also kind of sad. Like, the end of an era, you know."

'The end of an era, huh,' Star thought as she remembered Marco's last letter to her.

"So, imagine how happy I was when I heard that not only is the little runt a squire now, but that he's going into combat! Watching him fumble about is going to be quite the trip down memory lane," Hekapoo said with a wicked smile.

Before Star could slap some sense into Hekapoo, she heard the sound of a door opening. She looked behind her to see who had entered, until she realized the sound had actually come from the mirror.

The picture displayed was no longer the fuzzy mess it had been when she arrived. Now it showed a barely lit office. It reminded her of Mr. Candle's office back in Echo Creek, but a lot less organized. There were plenty of bookshelves, but only a few scattered books on them. Star soon realized that was because the books had all been knocked off and thrown around the room. Of course, only the ones closer to their view were visible as anything more than dark angular lumps over the flat carpeted floor.

A shadowy figure took up the center of the frame; though Star couldn't see much more than an outline, she recognized the silhouette as Ms. Heinous almost immediately. The Headmistress of St. O's had that distinct old-lady shape. She sneered contemptuously at something slightly above the hidden camera, the angle only highlighting her derisive expression.

At once, Star, her mom, and Hekapoo all shut up and observed the video feed.

"Now then, Gemini," the crone said. "Did you happen to find anything incriminating on our little musician?"

"Milady, I'm afraid not," a distant voice said. "The only thing I managed to get from her were twenty-six daggers."

Right then, a faint snicker could be heard.

Heinous scoffed. "Are you an idiot? In what dimension is that not incriminating!?"

"The Dimension of Knives, to be exact," Gemini replied, completely failing to pick up the rhetorical nature of her question. "The young lady confided to me that those were merely family heirlooms. Nothing to fret over."

"And I keep telling you, that dimension doesn't exist!" The old woman slammed her fists on the desk. It may have been Star's imagination, but she could've sworn she heard the wood cracking under her. But, no, something like that was impossible!

"Now, now. Please calm down, milady," her lackey pleaded. "You need to watch your blood pressure. We wouldn't want to burn through another precious resource, would we?"

"'Precious resource?'" her mom said, confused. "What is he talking about?"

"Hmph." Heinous stepped around the desk and got closer to whoever had the camera on them. Star briefly wondered if it was Marco, but realized he'd probably be dead right now if it were him. Also, that hadn't been his snicker before, not even as Turdina. Probably another squire, then.

The Headmistress stretched her arm out and grabbed either the squire's face or her hair.

"Ow! Look but don't touch!" a girl's voice cried out.

Star looked at her mother, and noticed she was biting her lip.

"I know you're working for somebody. Is it King Pony Head? Tell me who, and I might let you live."

The video's image started shaking violently. "'Might?' What the hell kind of incentive is that!?"

Heinous finally pulled her arm back into frame. Her hand wasn't empty, it looked like she had a clump of hair between her fingers. Also, for the first time, Star was able to see her bare arm in the light. It looked a lot more… buff than it normally did, as if it had ripped straight through her glove and dress sleeve on muscle mass alone. It definitely clashed with Heinous' otherwise fragile looking frame.

"I suppose your testimony can't be trusted either way. No matter." She turned to her right. "Gemini! Grab my things from the lab."

"Y-yes, milady." He couldn't be seen, but the footsteps of his swift exit were heard clearly.

Heinous turned towards the squire. The image started to shake again, but in a much more subtle way. Even though she was talking a big game, it was clear the girl was very much afraid of what might happen to her.

"You see, 'Princess Bonecleaner,' I have a method of determining something's place of origin. I just need the right chemicals, a pinch of this, a dash of that, as well as a sample from the subject." She dangled the clump of hair in front of the camera. "Once it's all together, the color it takes will tell me exactly what I need to know. If it turns out you are, in fact, from Mewni, well, I think I'll start with your 'sisters' and make you watch."

Star looked away from the mirror. She remembered how terrified she used to be of St. Olga's. She had heard how the school would train you to be an obedient princess and strip you of your individuality. To her, that was a fate worse than death.

She wanted to kick herself for ever having such an immature mentality. Yes, St. O's was a terrible place, but the reasons why were so much more than what she thought. Heinous was threatening the lives of those poor girls. It was unforgivable!

But, hold on. Heinous had mentioned that squire's 'sisters.'

Star got in front of the mirror. "Mom, where is Marco?" she asked, trying to suppress the anxiety in her voice.

The queen stared back, looking uncomfortable, even ashamed. "He… is currently inside the school, disguised as one of them. He and another squire were separated from the one with the hidden mirror we're watching now."

Her biggest fear had just been confirmed. Star's grip on her wand tightened. "Another squire? B-but you told me, no, you promised me that Sir Stabby would be there to protect him!"

"I know I did, Star," her mom said. "He is. Sort of. Heinous' men wouldn't allow Stabby to accompany them in, so he and the other knights are currently standing by outside the school, waiting for the safest time to intervene."

Unbelievable! Star couldn't believe her own mother would keep it a secret from her that Marco had been captured. Who knows what might have happened to him if she never happened to walk in here!

So much for St. O's not being her problem. The mewman marched over to Hekapoo and grabbed her dress with both hands.

"H-hey! What's the big idea!?" Hekapoo shouted.

Ignoring her, Star continued feeling for any pockets. There had to be a pair of dimensional scissors somewhere in there.

"Dear, please calm down for just one second," her mom pleaded. "It's not as bad as you think."

Once she realized rummaging through the forger of scissors was going nowhere, Star stopped and tried a more direct approach. She looked the Magic High Commission member in the eyes. "Hekapoo, I order you to make me a portal to the Dimension of Eternal Nighttime and Stormy Weather!"

Hekapoo blinked before scoffing. "Um, yeah, no. You're still a few years off before you can start bossing me around, Princess."

Right then, Star felt herself be lifted off the ground and torn away from Hekapoo. She had felt this sensation many times before, back when she misbehaved as a little girl.

She turned around and confirmed her suspicions. Her mother's hands each had a halo of blue glow around them. Star was pretty mad to be handled like a child right now, but not enough to make her forget what was really important here.

"Mom, please, you have to let me go over there," Star begged.

"I understand you're upset, Star, and I know this is difficult for you, but this is a very delicate mission we're dealing with. If things don't go according to plan, it could end in disaster."

To Star, things had already gotten to that point. Her friend, her bestie, was in danger, and without scissors, all she could do was sit and watch. That was like the textbook definition of the word 'disaster.'

"But, Heinous said-"

"I know what Heinous said, dear, and it's easy to take that at face value, but you need to look at it from a different point of view."

"What do you mean?" Star asked impatiently.

"If Heinous really does have a method of learning someone's dimension of origin, then yes, our cover will be blown, eventually. But something like that would take time. Time for her servant to retrieve the materials she needs, and time to carry out whatever procedure is involved. That means we have a time limit to work with. The young girl over there knows this too. Notice how she isn't panicking. We shouldn't overreact on her behalf."

Huh. Star didn't think of it that way. So, yeah, maybe Marco wasn't in immediate danger.

"And, I guess even if she does find out, Heinous said she's starting with her 'sisters.'" Star reasoned.

Her mom smiled. "Exactly, so even then, we can assume Meredith will remain relatively unharmed until Marco and the other squire are brought to her, which will also take time. You weren't here yet but, before they got separated, Marco was searching for the princesses. I have every confidence he will find them soon, if he hasn't already."

Star realized then that, going into today, she didn't have as much confidence in Marco as she should have. She had fought alongside him plenty of times before, and knew just how dependable her friend was, but you wouldn't have known it from the way she was freaking out over him just now.

"You're right," Star finally admitted. Of course she was. Her mom had been doing this kind of tough decision making for years. Star, on the other hand, did most things without having a plan to begin with, and rarely even had a split second to worry about those she put in danger, because a split second was all there often was between realization and reaction.

With a sigh of relief, her mom gently lowered Star to the ground and allowed the magic that had enveloped her to disappear.

"Does it... ever get easier?" Star asked, red with embarrassment. "Being… objective with this kind of stuff? Even though everything you said makes total sense, I'm still super worried about Marco."

She meant it. Even now that she understood - or thought she understood - that things really weren't as bad as she had imagined, Star still couldn't get rid of that queasy feeling in her stomach. Not just that. Her heart pumped fast, her skin itched, every part of her that wasn't her mind was telling her to run to find him, right now!

"I mean, I was the whole reason why he came back to Mewni in the first place, so if something happens to him…" she trailed off.

She felt her mother's hands on her shoulders. Before Star knew it, she was wrapped into a soft hug, not realizing how much she needed one until now.

"I know that feeling of guilt all too well, Star," Her mom said, pulling back to look at her daughter. "Do you remember that story about Toffee? The one I got the whole 'Undaunted' moniker from?"

If her mom expected Star to be reassured by bringing up Toffee, then she had some really weird ideas about what was and wasn't reassuring. Even Hekapoo flinched ever so slightly at the mention of the name. The princess just nodded.

"Well, sometimes, I think that was the easy part," Moon continued. "It was scary, and a lot of people could have gotten hurt if I failed. But right then, right there, it was just me."

After the events of the Summer, Star found that she could relate all too well. It was scary. It just wasn't the worst she'd ever felt.

She had fought a magically empowered giant Toffee in an ocean of black goop, that she'd drowned in, and she had confronted a perfectly non-magical Toffee that held Marco hostage in a shrinking glass cage. Given the choice, Star would rather have a rematch with the goop monster than a repeat of the later.

"It was the years after that which were the hardest, when I had to stay home and order others to chase monsters in my stead, when I learned that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't be everywhere at once. It wasn't just knights and soldiers I barely knew, either, but people I had grown up with, Star, kids my age, friends…" She took a deep breath. "Your father was one of them. You'd be surprised how long it took me to trust him as well as I trust myself, to see sweet River Johansen for the strong and resourceful warrior he really is."

Really? Her father would be the last person Star would worry about like that. Well, second last, right after her mom. They were both just too strong and too capable to ever really get hurt!

"And not just him," Moon continued. "There was a boy we both grew up with too, a nice sensitive kid who grew up into the finest knight in Mewni's living memory. I had to send him to fight, again and again, even times where I really should have been the one to go…"

Her mom was silent for a moment.

"Is he ok?" Star asked, worried at the implications of such sudden pause.

"Oh, sorry, he is alive and well, Star," Moon reassured her. "It's just, well… that's not important right now. The point is, I can't tell you that it isn't hard, sweety. I can't even really tell you it's always going to turn out alright - although I feel compelled to say that, in this case, three of the best knights in Mewni are nearby, and seeing the same feed as us. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should learn to trust in those who serve you, as well as those who care about you, just as they trust you in return."

Star nodded, still far from reassured. To her, trusting Marco to take care of himself felt no different from doing absolutely nothing for him at all, and she had done that plenty these last few months...

"Tell you what, Star," her mom changed tacks slightly, a rare softness in her voice now. "If you are too worried about this to go over your duties for the day, then you can stay with me and monitor the mission."

The princess blinked, surprised. Wait, really? Her mom was allowing her to take the day off?

Could her subjects afford her doing something like that?

And what about Tom? She had basically told him not to come because she was going to be busy with work all day and now…

"It means more work tomorrow, for both of us, and I am afraid you might not find watching this the least bit relaxing," Moon clarified. "Besides, if Marco is serious about becoming a Knight of Mewni, then you definitely won't be able to do this every time he is away on a mission. But, in the end, this too is an important lesson to learn as a future queen."

Star practically jumped on her mom to give her another hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise after this I will never ask you for anything ever again!"

Star could hear her mom giggling, before pulling away from her and gently holding her hands.

"Well, I know that's a lie, but that's okay. I'm your mother, dear. I'll help you til the day of your coronation... and all the years after that."

The princess wanted to tell the queen how much she loved and appreciated her, but well, there's a time and a place for everything.

Now was business.

Star excused herself momentarily to retrieve a chair from another room. When she returned, she placed it in front of the mirror, between her mom and Hekapoo.

She let herself fall into the chair.

In the view through the portal, Gemini had just gotten back to the room, carrying a stack of glassware over a hefty old book. He handed it to Heinous.

Star frowned.

"I… I really appreciate you letting me do this, mom, and I do understand why we are staying here. But, well, I honestly still kinda wish I were there narwhal-blasting Heinous right now," she admitted, clutching the hems of her dress with closed fists.

Moon nodded. "You and me both, sweety."

Star looked at her clenched hands, and realized something was missing. It took her an instant to see it, down on the floor: a long half-unrolled parchment. It had fallen to the ground at some point.

Embarrassed, Star picked up the list of chores. Her mom politely pretended not to notice. As she began rerolling it, a particular name on it caught the princess' eye. It was the first place on her list, though she couldn't recall ever being in that part of the city herself.

'Rat's End', huh? That was a weird name.

She wondered what kind of place it was.

Marco ran. He ran to the rhythm of his hard leather squire boots hitting the stone hallway floor under the poofy Princess Turdina dress. He ran to the rhythm of blood pumping against the inside of his skull. He ran to the rhythm of war drums inside his head.

Ostensibly, he ran towards Lady Jaya and Sir Stabby, and the other squires headed to rescue Meredith. He ran behind, because he had stayed a minute too long, in that horrible room full of far too small cages, watching Sir Thorncloak and the squires left behind begin the evacuation of Miss Heinous' charges. In truth, he ran away from that, just as much.

In his mind, there was no escape. He had missed the invitation. He hadn't been around to help them when he ought to have been, and now it was much too late. He thought back to the aged wrinkled face of the ram-horned princess.

Oh God, it was all his fault.

Or, rather, it was his fault too. The direct blame lay with Miss Heinous. There would be time enough for Marco to blame himself and atone for his mistakes, but first, he would find the old hag, and make sure she paid for what she'd done to those poor girls!

Ahead of him were the sounds of battle. A din of metal hitting metal.

He turned around a hallway corner, and found Nicholas first. Besides Marco himself, the mewman boy was the one holding the rear. He held the small knife his knight had given him firmly in his right hand. Besides him, lying on the floor, was a leather sack, with backpack straps affixed to it.

Nick walked quickly along the hallway, opening the various doors along the walls. The first three led to single cell-like rooms, and opened away from him. The fourth, however, opened inwards towards them, a joining path through another hallway. Nicholas closed back that fourth door and dug inside his backpack to retrieve a strange looking steel bar. It ended in a spike on one end and a flat angled base on the other.

"Hey, Marco, just go on ahead. I just need to make sure we don't get flanked," Nick explained, as he rammed the point of the iron spike against the sturdy looking wooden door, propping the flat base firmly against the floor.

If anyone tried to push open those doors now, they would just end up pressing the flat end of the metal contraption directly against the stone floor, and would be unable to get into the hallway without breaking either the heavy oak doors or the steel bar itself. The spike meant you couldn't easily dislodge the barricade by just shaking the whole thing from the other end, and there was a small knot right below it, stopping you from pushing the door through the spike.

Smart. It made it much harder for Miss Heinous' goons to somehow ambush them from behind.

Was that one of Lady Jaya's tactical insights? Or had it been Nicholas' own idea?

"Do you… do you need me to cover you here?" Marco asked. He didn't want to stay back. But the idea of leaving Nicholas - with his pitiful knife - far away from the rest of the group didn't sit well with him.

He glanced at the leather sack. There were more spikes in there, and a bunch of half-hidden contraptions that Marco wasn't quite able to make out.

"Nah, Marco, I swear I got this," Nicholas retorted. "This is just a precaution. So far, they are all coming head on. It's like they are just mindless robots or something," he added with a grin.

Marco couldn't help but smile at his fellow squire's joke.

Very well, he trusted him. The Squire of the Wash ran forward.

Soon he doubled another corner, and saw that the hallway beyond was covered in the broken mechanic bodies of Miss Heinous' guards. He sped through, and the sounds ahead became louder and louder.

Another corner, another path of bodies, and then Marco could see what could only be termed the frontline of their small battle. It consisted of an eagerly violent Sir Stabby, walking ahead, carving a path of severed steel carcasses with his prized vorpal sword, followed by a phlegmatic Lady Jaya, effortlessly swatting aside with her lance the few guards to make it past her furiously slashing colleague.

Higgs walked behind them, lance at the ready, but looking almost bored. Rarely, if ever, an enemy reached her position. She was, however, guarding the rear of this group, and as such was the first to notice Marco. "Nice of you to finally join us, princess."

"Can it, Higgs. Not in the mood," shot back Marco.

He held his mop up, in the same defensive manner as the other squire, and looked both ahead and back for any signs of trouble getting past the two knights.

For a few minutes' march, he didn't see any.

Then Sir Stabby cut down one final door, and launched himself into pandemonium.

Beyond the door was the circular room where Meredith had first gotten separated from the group. Past it, there was no longer a single orderly front, but a dozen doors open in every direction, and from each poured an army of robot guards.

Sir Stabby rushed into the chaos like a diver jumping into warm water. He laughed as he began to spin around in the middle of the room, downing assailants from every direction. Lady Jaya, more circumspect, stayed at the entrance of the room, guarding the hallway they were on.

"Squires, we must break the line to advance ahead in a timely manner," she stated calmly. "Be careful. Make sure there is a wall behind you, or else rely on one another to cover your rear. Understand?"

Higgs nodded. Marco followed soon after, "yes, ma'am!"

Deliberately, Lady Jaya stepped into the circular room, breaking the barrier that had previously been keeping the two teens out of the thick of combat.

If watching Sir Stabby fight was like witnessing a combination between a cornered lion and a spinning kitchen blender, seeing Lady Jaya in combat was like seeing a person-scale fortress slowly slide through the room. She was untouchable, and dispatched of every assailant with precision and economy of movement, even as they surrounded her from every side.

Marco leaped after the two knights. He might not have been as capable as either of them, but he could deal with Miss Heinous' goons well enough. A lunge of his mop, and a head exploded in nasty sparks. A swipe, and three guards were driven back. A turn, a kick and a downward swing, and there lay one more broken tin-man on the floor.

A half-turn and… there was an iron fist headed right towards his comparatively squishy face.

Crap!

In the last second, the arm fell to the ground, as Higgs, back against the wall, cut it down with the tip of her poleax.

"Um, thanks for the save," Marco muttered, as he turned around to plunge the magical mop into yet another enemy.

They were wasting too much time here. They had to get to Meredith. More importantly, he had to get to Heinous!

"You know, prince," Higgs shouted at him over the sound of battle. "If you are trying to imitate Sir Stabby… well, there is a secret to it."

The bellicose knight was now far towards the other side of the room, and probably well out of hearing. Marco didn't respond. He just continued swiping away with his mop, trying to down as many guards as he could. He was working up a sweat.

"He isn't actually a raging madman," Higgs continued. "He acts like one to intimidate his opponents, but he really doesn't…"

Another fist, headed towards Marco's back. He turned around and saw it only after Higgs had decapitated its owner, saving the human squire once again.

"... leave himself wide open like an idiot," Higgs finished.

"Look, Higgs, I appreciate the save, again," Marco retorted. "The lecture, not so much. Not right now."

"Well, prince, at this rate I am not going to get another chance, am I?" she asked, sounding frustrated.

Marco wasn't sure he understood.

There were more urgent things going on now, though, like a whole room of robot guards all around them. Marco lunged forwards once more with his mop, downing yet another foe and…

"Ugh!" he spat, as an iron fist pushed the air out of him, beginning with the left side of his stomach, where it first hit. The squire doubled down and fell to his knees.

"See what I mean now?" reproached Higgs, before stabbing the offending guard in its chest and jumping in between Marco and more incoming enemies. She shouted out to Lady Jaya, "With permission, Squire Diaz and I are retreating now. We'll follow as soon as we can."

"Wha…!?" began a shocked Marco. "No, it's fine, I just…"

There was no way he was staying behind now. Not before they found Miss Heinous.

"Permission granted," shouted back Lady Jaya. "Squire Diaz, you are under Squire Higgs' command until further notice, that's an order!"

"But…" tried Marco, weakly.

"You heard the boss, prince," Higgs cut him off, without even a hint of a smile. "Back through the passway we came from, now!

It took only a few minutes to get far back enough that guards stopped pursuing them. Sir Stabby and Lady Jaya probably drew most of their attention, anyways. Up ahead, the sounds of battle were becoming more and more distant, as the two knights pushed further in their advance.

"So, prince, are you just that much of an idiot, or did you suddenly decide to become suicidal in the middle of a mission?" asked Higgs, a few moments after she realized no more foes were coming after them.

Ignoring that, Marco leaned against the wall, before sliding down into a sitting position. That punch got him good. He really felt like throwing up, but resisted the urge, if only because she was right in front of him.

"Here. You're probably dehydrated. Take a quick swig."

Marco looked up and noticed Higgs was offering a leather canteen. He apprehensively grabbed the bottle from her and took a few gulps. With that, his stomach was already feeling a bit better.

"Um… thanks," he said.

"No problem." She took the canteen back and tied it to her belt. That was when he noticed.

"You… took off your dress," Marco noted. She must have done it while he stayed the extra minute in the room of cages. Higgs was back in her standard squire uniform, making it all the more apparent that he was still parading as Turdina.

"Well, it just made too much sense to keep the stupid thing on, you know?" Higgs said, turning the sarcasm up to eleven. "Wearing something like that to a fight? All those widely flowing folds and frills to slow you down? The long skirt with its many opportunities to trip yourself over or to have your opponent grab onto it and go to town with you? Of course that would have made perfect sense!"

Marco sighed. He couldn't even do small talk without opening himself up to being ridiculed. Not that he could particularly blame her in this instance.

Higgs crossed her arms and looked over at the direction they came from, likely keeping an eye out for enemies. "But, that's the thing. You're not wearing that stupid dress for practical reasons. You're wearing it for them, aren't you?"

Marco looked up in surprise.

"Look," Higgs began. "You're probably worried about those princesses. You probably want to strangle Heinous as well. I could even go one dangerous step further and assume that you might even be worried about Meredith too."

She cracked a smile after that last sentence, before putting on a more serious expression.

"But I think you should forget about all that for now. You don't need the burden of what they went through holding you down. And if you fixate on Heinous too much, you won't be able to focus on what's actually in front of you. So…"

She became quiet again, contemplating what to say next.

In that silence, Marco remembered how Lady Jaya had left Higgs in charge of him. She could have easily ordered the boy to rip out of his inappropriate attire, throw it on the dirty floor, and suck it up while they headed back into battle.

But she didn't. Rather than belittle and insult his moment of weakness, she deduced what was bothering him and was trying to tell him to take it off his shoulders, at least until the mission was complete.

It was way more kindness than he deserved.

She was also, surprisingly close to understanding how he felt.

"You're right," Marco admitted, as he began to lift the dress off and over his head, revealing the squire underneath.

Higgs blinked in mild surprise at how quick he was able to understand the meaning of her words. "Oh! Uh, great! Let's get head out and help them in that case."

The redhead made a few steps forward before stopping to face Marco again.

"And... sorry about letting you get sucker-punched back there. I was raised on the school of tough love, and I honestly wasn't seeing any other way to get through to you."

"Uh, no problem," Marco said, standing up. He then took off his wig and discarded it next to the dress. He was back in black jeans and a t-shirt. Not exactly armor, but at least he would be able to move more freely. "Before we go back out there, though, can I just say one thing?"

"Sure, sure, whatever. Just be quick about it," Higgs said impatiently, darting her gaze back towards where Jaya and Stabby were fighting.

"Thanks… for calling me out on my bullshit all the time," he said, straightfaced.

At first, she simply nodded. She wasn't even looking at him when he said it. But a few seconds and a few footsteps away from him later, she wiped around.

"Wait, what you said just now, that was weird," Higgs stated, with a look of utter confusion on her face. She walked back towards him, raising an accusing finger, very nearly poking him in the chest with it. "You're being weird. And you are going to tell me exactly what the hell is wrong with you before we head back into that fist buffet. Now is not the time to have a depressive episode on me, prince."

"N-nothing's wrong," Marco said, flustered. "I… truly am grateful for you criticizing me."

"'All the time'? Uh-huh. So, not just right now when I am obviously right and saving your ass but also… everything else? Oh, and I suppose you're also grateful for that time I ditched you at Mildrew's manor too, then," she said. "How about, instead of being 'grateful' towards me, you grow a spine for once, prince?"

"What?" Marco said. Why would she bring that up? "Higgs, what happened back at Mildrew's wasn't your fault."

"Sure, whatever," Higgs said, unconvinced.

Marco looked down at the floor. God, why was interacting with this girl always so difficult! But she clearly wasn't going to let them go join the knights again unless he said something. So, with a deep breath…

"It's just, I feel like my whole life, all people ever did was shower me with praise. I'm an honor student, I always stayed out of trouble, and I'm one of the best Red Belts in my region..."

He glanced over at a Princess Turndina poster still hung on the hallway wall.

"...but I think that gave me a bit of an ego."

He noticed Higgs staring at the poster as well. It was the one advertising the Turdina movie that was set to release next summer. Despite it being marketed as her origin story, the advanced screening Marco saw was less a documentary and more a fantastical exaggeration of what really happened when he first freed the school. Despite its inaccuracies, Marco never did correct the film's producers.

"I know I'm not perfect, but it seemed like whenever I acted like a jerk, nobody would say it to my face," he said. "My parents were always too nice, my friends would just get passive aggressive with me, Jackie was too considerate of my feelings, and Star… is mostly a coward when it comes to saying what's actually on her mind.."

Higgs blinked in astonishment, probably never expecting the 'prince' to say something like that about his dear princess.

"Even the princesses back there were holding back. I... know what they were really thinking." Marco said. "It's my fault that this mess happened."

"Excuse me?" Higgs said. "Your fault?"

"These girls have been living in this unattended school for a year now, way after Star and I liberated them. I should have sent them home to their kingdoms. Their parents… they thought their daughters were getting the tools they needed to one day rule a kingdom. But instead, they spent an entire year partying and destroying this building, being completely indifferent to whatever was happening to their people. And I helped enable that!"

Marco punched the Turdina poster.

"And then when they needed me, their hero, the most, I'm nowhere to be found. I probably could have protected them when Heinous came back, too. But no, I was off playing squire somewhere, just so I could avoid the reality that I'm kind of a douchebag that takes everyone for granted."

"Playing squire!?" Higgs asked, horrified.

"Sure," Marco admitted. "Isn't that what you said before? I guess I am finally getting it. You were right about me from the start, Higgs. I am just some loser playing pretend, piggybacking off of royalty."

There was a pause. Higgs looked at Marco up and down.

"You do have a big ego, prince," she conceded. "You must have, if you think you could have stopped Heinous back then, if you think that this place, that all of this is on you, is about you. How about we start with these girl's corndamned parents who sent them all to this torture dungeon of a school and go down from there? Then, what? You told them to take over the school and lie to their parents and make posters about you? Or was that what they decided to do, on their own?"

Admittedly, Marco hadn't been around long enough to tell the princesses what to do with their lives, one way or another.

"And let's not forget that, perhaps, Miss Heinous herself bears some of the responsibility here," Higgs quipped. "Just a tiny bit."

She took a deep breath before continuing.

"But, you got one more thing wrong, prince," Higgs added. "I wasn't right about you. I was wrong, and I know I was. I knew that since the day you saved that woman from being crushed to death and spent all night helping the Rat's End survivors. Plus, during the Blowout, you saved my life instead of the thing you wanted. And, with the Mildrew business, I am pretty sure you somehow took the fall for us, after we left you behind. The lack of chains around my wrists is a pretty good hint of that! And now you feel responsible for all those girls because you happened to help them once and they happened to put you on an… admittedly pretty creepy… pedestal. So, no, you are not the spoiled brat I keep pretending you are, Marco. And, I guess I was just waiting… for you to call me out on my bullshit!"

Higgs wasn't crying. Not exactly. She was flustered, and her breath was running fast, though, and she sounded, well, like Marco felt: ashamed of herself.

"O-oh," Marco said. He had been so preoccupied with his own flaws lately that he hadn't even considered what Higgs thought of herself. If nothing else, she clearly had regrets over the raid on Mildrew's mansion.

In the end, they were both screw-ups. She should have realized that going off of Old Guy's tale alone wasn't enough to justify robbing from Mildrew, and Marco should have been more outspoken about how against it he was. Maybe then, she would have reconsidered it.

Cause, isn't that what friends do? Keep each other out of trouble and help them be better?

Wait, were he and Higgs friends now?

Marco opened his mouth, before he even knew what he wanted to say, but Higgs lifted her finger up higher before he uttered a word, stopping him.

"Listen," she began. "I know there's a lot to talk about, but Sir Stabby and Lady Jaya are still fighting, and Meredith is still in trouble. As long as your head is in a better place, you should save it 'till after the mission is over. Okay?"

Yeah, that stuff could wait. They had used up too much time already.

"Alright. I'm ready," Marco said, smiling confidently. Turdina was gone now, and Squire Diaz had taken her place. He was going to do this right this time!

"I'm ready too," came a quiet voice that didn't belong to either of them.

Marco reflexively went into a defensive stance, but relaxed his body immediately when he saw it was Nick walking up to them. The short squire had his backpack on, which meant he was probably finished bolting each hallway door up to this point. He also was a little red in the face and didn't look at Marco or Higgs directly.

Which meant… ugh, he had listened in on them!

"Nick! Uh, hey! How… long have you been there?" Marco wasn't exactly worried about his friend misinterpreting the conversation. He was more afraid of him hearing anything about the whole Mildrew business!

"It doesn't matter," Higgs said, sternly. "More importantly, Nicholas, what the heck happened to your fingers?"

She sounded angry, rather than worried, which Marco was just now beginning to understand meant, when it came to Higgs, precisely that she was worried. Either way, her redirection seemed to work, Nick glanced down to his fingers with an annoyed look of his own.

Marco hadn't noticed them before, but they looked extremely bruised. He wasn't as observant as Higgs, but he was pretty sure they didn't look like that the last time he saw Nick. It was mostly his middle and pointer fingers that looked like that.

Nick grasped his one hand with the other. "It's… nothing. One of those robots caught me by surprise. I was eventually able to lock him in a room, but I accidentally crushed my fingers on the door while doing so."

"Oh, really?" Higgs said, making it clear through her tone that she wasn't buying it. "You were able to overpower one of those guards? The same killing machines that could give an average adult mewman soldier a run for their money, let alone, well, you?"

"Higgs!" Marco shouted. He wasn't going to let that one slide. Plus, she had basically told him she wanted people to call her out when she went too far like this, so… wish granted!

Higgs turned to Marco in surprise, before looking abashed. "Er… what I meant is... that's... pretty impressive to accomplish by yourself. Uh, good job?"

It was a pretty pathetic attempt at an 'apology' or compliment, but rather than get upset like he did with Jaya, Nick ignored her remark entirely and bent down to observe the metal rubble that had been spread throughout the hallway. He placed his small hand on what was once a guard's bulky forearm.

"You're right, though, Higgs," Nick said, peeking inside the arm's mess of wires and circuits. "These things truly are amazing. Artificial men capable of speech and autonomous enough to self-coordinate into rudimentary combat group tactics. They go far beyond anything Mewman engineers are capable of creating. Marco, do these kind of machines exist in your dimension?"

Marco shook his head, once he realized an answer was expected of him. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to think about the relative distance between Mewni's engineering, Earth's robotics, and these heartless android jailers.

"I thought so," added Nick, clearly not reading the room. "And, yet, they don't seem to be overtly magical at all. Plain old mechanics at work, just incredibly more advanced than the ones we know!"

He looked up at the ceiling.

"And there's also that youth sucking machine. How can that possibly work? Is there a substance that it transfers? Some sort of 'fuel of youth' on which we run? The implications are so fascinating! I wonder what's gonna happen to all this stuff once we arrest Heinous."

"Not that squires have a say, but if it were up to me, I'd burn it down with the rest of this building. It's all too dangerous for anyone's good," Higgs said, kicking a guard's head that was staring at her.

Nick looked like he wanted to object to that logic, but didn't. He dropped the robot arm, along with the topic, and picked himself up.

"Well, I'll worry about that later," he offered, seeming to realize the other two squires didn't share his enthusiasm for Miss Heinous' princess murdering machinery. "Let's go guys, we have to get Meredith free. I'll show you and Lady Jaya what I'm capable of."

"R-right," Marco mumbled.

The three squires encountered no resistance in their race through the hallways of Saint Olga's. It hadn't seemed that long; the time he and Higgs spent sorting out things, getting his head back where it belonged, taking off the proverbial blindfold. But it clearly had been plenty for the two adult knights. The trail of broken metal husks littered around like an obstacle course was evidence enough of that.

Said evidence was causing the Squire of the Wash to once again reevaluate just how effective the knights of Mewni truly were.

Early in the Summer, in the midst of their failure to stop Ludo's Rat invasion, Marco would have rated their competence quite lowly. Then when he became a squire, he considered Sir Lavabo to be a rare exception. But now, seeing Lady Jaya, and - in his own way - Sir Stabby, in action, he was forced to reckon with the fact that maybe their defeat had more to do with Toffee's plotting and the powers of the magic wand, rather than with any major failings of mewman chivalry.

Those reflections were somewhat cut short when the sounds of battle became once again audible ahead. It wasn't quite the sharp metallic din of steel hitting steel, but the dull crashing sounds of hard heavy things being smashed and broken, occasionally interrupted by the higher notes of breaking glass and by two sets of furious roars.

One such set belonged, of course, to the choleric Sir Stabby. The other, however, was female, inasmuch as it was even Mewman. It sounded deep and feral, almost like an animal's howl, and yet it remained distinctly a woman's voice. There was no chance at all that those other cries belonged to the always methodical Lady Jaya. Yet the alternative seemed somehow even more unlikely…

The trio doubled around a corner. The very second they did, just a few steps further ahead, a wooden door exploded into a shower of broken boards and splinters. A shadow zoomed out of it, too fast to see clearly. Not until the body was splayed against the stone wall on the other side of the passage did its shape become recognizable.

"Urg. I'll show you what is what, you filthy monster!" shouted the heap, scrambling back up to reveal a bloody and bruised Sir Stabby.

Well, so much for the prowess of the Knights of Mewni…

"Calm down, Ronald," cautioned a voice from inside the now doorless room. "Keep her cornered, then wait for an opening, don't just simply rush in. Did I truly teach you nothing in all those years?"

"No, you old bat, you really didn't," muttered an exasperated Sir Stabby, far too quietly for Lady Jaya to hear.

Only then did his eyes briefly fall upon the arriving squires. He sighed in further annoyance, perhaps at realizing he'd been overheard, or perhaps simply at the notion of one more thing to complicate the situation.

"Stay where you are, kids, this is way out of your league!" he barked a warning at the trio.

"Belay that order," floated out Lady Jaya's voice again, calm and precise. "Squires, if you are out there, follow Sir Stabby in. Do not engage, take cover, and help Squire Meredith out of her restraints. Then leave. Again, I repeat, do not engage."

Somehow, the note of concern in that steely voice, and the repeated instruction not to fight whatever was inside, was more alarming than even Sir Stabby's outright admonition about them being outmatched. Marco's alertness shot to levels he hadn't experienced since that night inside the lint catcher.

"Yes, ma'am," he swore pointlessly under his breath.

Sir Stabby charged in. Behind him, careful, head low and poleax forward, followed Higgs. And behind her, Marco, mop at the ready. He could hear Nicholas taking a deep breath and following behind.

The scene behind the collapsed door was, unsurprisingly, a battlefield. But it was one condensed to a small room, a war theater of only five people; not counting the new arrivals.

On one end, was a certain 'Princess Bonecleaner', tied to a chair, eyes wide with either horror or morbid fascination, hard to tell which with her. The ground around that chair was the only part of the room that wasn't covered in rubble and broken glass pieces.

There was a reason for that: a stalwart Lady Jaya had planted herself in a wide stance between the captive squire and the rest of the room. As the other squires walked in, her lance deflected yet another glass flask flying at them from the opposite side of the confined battlefield.

In between the two halves of the room was a hefty oak desk, toppled down into an improvised barricade. Two figures took cover behind it, cut off from the only door out. The first was Miss Heinous' loyal assistant, the one-eyed hunchback Gemini. He cowered behind the desk, hiding his small body entirely on the other side of its thick wooden board, occasionally peeking out to aim another piece of glassware, or even a stray book, at Meredith and Lady Jaya.

The second figure was even further back, clawing at the stone of the far end wall, grunting and howling like a madman or a beast. It was…

No!

It couldn't be.

The creature ripped apart a head-sized block of solid rock and threw it at Lady Jaya with yet another savage roar. The weaponmaster's massive shield took the hit. It shook. It held.

It couldn't be. But it was.

"You should save that kind of strength to fight me, you vile creature!" shouted Stabby as he charged the barricade, cutting the desk in two with the magical sword.

Miss Heinous - for it was Miss Heinous, as much as it didn't make sense... - jumped on top of the severed pieces, growling, baring her long tiger-like fangs. She swiped right at the knight's face. Sir Stabby was forced to jump back to avoid the monstrous claws, then to step backwards further to recover his footing.

Lady Jaya sighed.

It was unreal to think of her as Miss Heinous: this wild-looking creature, part beast and part woman, with bulging muscles and mismatched arm girts, half-covered in purple fur, sporting a protruding tail and horns. A part of Marco nearly refused to believe this truly was the formerly elderly, frail, and aggressively prim headmistress of St. Olga's.

Then again, there was no mistaking that hairdo, or that expression, or the way Gemini seemed to fawn over the monster.

It was her.

But how?

"She is obviously a good deal stronger physically than we are, Ronald. So please try to be smarter than the rabid cornered monster hybrid," scolded Lady Jaya.

"I am being smart, old woman. It has claws. I have a sword. I got reach on the damn thing if I can only close in a bit more!" retorted Sir Stabby. "Besides, I don't see you accomplishing much from over there, either!"

"I am protecting the squires," retorted Lady Jaya. "The first order of business is to get Squire Meredith out of here, and to not let either of those two escape while we do so."

Somehow, that finally broke Marco out of his confused daze, and he rushed towards the tied up girl. To his surprise, Higgs seemed to react at about the same time he did. Apparently, the redheaded squire could also be held still by shock.

On the other hand, they found Nick already fast at work with his small knife on Meredith's restraints. He'd been the only one of the three, apparently, not to freeze like a deer in headlights at the sight of the transformed Miss Heinous. Marco could almost mistake it for fearlessness, if not for the trembling of the boy's hands as he worked to free their comrade in arms.

Higgs' much sharper poleax helped greatly accelerate the process of cutting most of the ropes and leather bands pinning Meredith to the chair, while Marco unknotted, as best he could, those few fastenings that were pressed too tight into the skin to cut safely.

"Uh, so, a lot of experience untying people, eh, Marco?" quipped the goth squire, despite her predicament. "Any practice tying them? Asking for a friend."

Marco was saved from answering that ill-timed question by Sir Stabby's booming angry voice:

"Fine. Then how about you worry about the actual squires," he yelled at the other knight, as he charged once again, sword-point forward. "And stop treating me like I am still one myself!"

Miss Heinous twisted out of the way of the vorpal blade, moving faster than any human - or mewman - likely could. She flanked Sir Stabby, smiling viciously, and leaped towards his unprotected right side.

A red steel lance cut through the air between predator and prey like a bolt of lightning, as Lady Jaya rushed forward to cover her fellow knight. It left Marco with a strange feeling of deja vu, as he shared a glance with Higgs.

Miss Heinous, her catch denied, jumped aside, grabbed onto a nearby wall, and began rapidly crawling up the solid stone with her claws. Soon she was perched on the ceiling, hanging upside down, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle like something out of a horror movie. She growled at the elderly knight.

"Perhaps…" Lady Jaya spoke quietly, softly, and very very coldly. "Perhaps if I had been a better mentor, Ronald, perhaps if I had been better able to teach you when you were my squire, then I wouldn't need to treat you like a child now."

Sir Stabby glared at her, then at the monster hanging from the ceiling. He seemed about to say something else, when, suddenly, the electric lights began to flicker in and out, all in unison, inside the room just as much as out in the hallway.

"Urgh! My eyes!" yelped Miss Heinous, in a deep hoarse voice. Marco had almost begun to think she had somehow lost the power of speech after her bizarre transformation.

"I am sorry, milady," apologized Gemini reflexively. "Someone must have activated the machine…"

Miss Heinous recovered herself just in time to crawl out of the way of Lady Jaya's lance. The older knight had gotten her opening. It hadn't been long enough.

Meanwhile, a shadowy thought coalesced inside Marco's mind. Eyes closed. Fingers working on the last few knots as fast as he could.

The machine.

There was only one machine, in this whole Frankenstein Castle of a manor, filled with robot guards and torture devices, that could qualify as the machine. It was back in the room they had left Timore, and Claus, and O.G. at, where they had left the princesses at…

Maybe they had already found a way to make it run in reverse?

But, wouldn't they need Miss Heinous for that? To return the youth she'd stolen?

Something was wrong. Horribly wrong among all that had already been horribly wrong a moment before.

"Nicholas, get her out," he muttered to the squire besides him as he loosened the final rope around Meredith's hands. "Ma'am, with permission. I have to…"

"Understood and granted," came the reply.

Lady Jaya and the monstrous Miss Heinous were now within reach of each other, one on the ground with her lance pointed forward and upwards, the other hanging from the ceiling coiled like a tiger about to pounce. Each poised to strike. Each waiting for the other to commit first.

Marco didn't stay to see the results of that portentous clash. He ran.

Not even half an hour ago, he had wanted revenge on Miss Heinous more than anything else. He had obsessed with seeing her brought to justice, even if it cost him his life, with righting his own past mistakes. But now, faced with the possibility that the princesses were again in danger, that he would be leaving them to face it on their own again, that he would be late yet another time…

Marco ran faster than he ever had, jumping over the lifeless robotic husks of Miss Heinous' guards, retracing their earlier march.

"Coming right behind you, prince," he heard a familiar voice, close on his heels.

It was shocking how that voice, and the nickname, had suddenly transmuted from an annoyance into so much reassurance.

"Meredith and Nick?" Marco asked.

"Eventually," Higgs responded. "She is a bit numb right now. Physically, I mean. Joints and crap. The hag tied her way too tight. Nicholas is helping her out."

Higgs was fast. Faster than Marco. The Squire Blowout race had shown that to be true before. By the time they reached the final hallway, they were running side by side.

Nicholas' clever door barricades were still in place. There were no newer signs of combat since their original advance, nor anything that made one suspect that a door had been forced, that an ambush had ever happened.

So, who had activated the machine? Where had they come from? How had they ever gotten the jump on Timore and the others? Had Marco severely underestimated the speed at which Rasticore could regenerate?

Higgs kicked the door to the room the princesses had been held in. It was unsecured, and she was mad and had a long runway to build momentum. The hinges broke and the hard oak plank came crashing down.

Marco thought there couldn't be anything more shocking than the fate of the princesses of St. O's, or the sudden transformation of Miss Heinous into a demonic-looking creature that could pierce rock with her fingernails. He thought this terrible terrible day couldn't get any worse.

He was, of course, wrong.

The cells were empty, that was the good news.

The princesses were nowhere to be seen, that too was a relief.

But there was indeed a body strapped to the machine. It was a bulky body, old, dry and wrinkled. A long mane of white fine hair all around his face, like he hadn't shaved or groomed in years. The fat man seemed ancient in all ways but one: he had retained that plump baby face that had once given him his nickname.

The body's eyes were closed shut. There was no visible breathing.

Besides ancient shriveled Claus, stood a young boy of around Marco's age. A boy he recognized twice.

Once as Old Guy, aged down to his teen years, gray hair turned lively black, spine straightened, beard shriveled to just stubble. A cruel gleam shone in his eyes, which Marco had glimpsed once before, inside Mildrew's treasure room.

But he also recognized him a second time. This time as the boy from the missing poster. His happy earnest expression was gone, but his features were otherwise unmistakable: bright brown eyes, short jet-black hair, and the same scrawny frame, which he had somehow missed before.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you two back," muttered Larkin, as he pointed his loaded bow right at Higgs. The metal tip of the arrow glowed blood crimson. 'Solarian Thunder Arrows', was what Timore had called them. They looked real nasty from this end. "Drop your weapons, walk back to the end of the hallway, and then turn around."

Marco's eyes traveled from the point of the arrow, to the tensed string of the bow, to the pulling arm behind it, to the cold eyes calculating the shot. Finally, he saw one more thing, stuck into the waist of the young boy's pants: the handle of Marco's own dimensional scissors.

If they did as he asked, he'd soon be gone.

"W… who the hell are you? What did you do to Baby Man!?" yelled Higgs.

"What I had to," said Larkin. He paused for a second, as if considering something. "Don't make me kill you as well, Higgs. I know you are fast, but you are not faster than an arrow. Drop. Your. Weapons."

Author's Notes: Another long wait, another long chapter! We appreciate everyone who has waited for these. Part 4 is under construction as we speak.

Have a lovely day and thanks again for the comments!