"I think Earth is a pret-ty great place. That's saying something, 'cause I've been though outer-space. I think it suits me; it's just my style. I think I'm going to stay a little whi-le." Star's out of tune singing drowned out the hiss of the shower water. Her fingers moved through her strands of hair and over her scalp to the tune of her little song.
Star still couldn't help but sing when she was truly happy. She still believed that skipping was a better way to get somewhere than just walking. And, despite it being her twenty-third-birthday-slash-wedding-day, she still believed it was better to be a little late than to miss out on potential fun. Anyone that really knew her had come to expect these things after all these years.
The door to the bathroom opened and the trashcan clattered against the wall as someone slipped through the narrow gap.
"Marco?"
"Polo." Marco answered.
"What do you think you're doing? Get the heck out of here," Star said with her face poking out of a little slit between the tile wall and the shower curtain. Her blonde hair was darkened with water still slightly soapy, she pushed a bit of it aside. "You aren't supposed to see me before the wedding!"
She noticed just before he explained, but she knew what he was going to say next. "It's okay," Marco said. "I'm covering my eyes. I didn't see you or the dress."
"Oh," Star smiled devilishly. "In that case," she reached out and grabbed him by the arm, tugging him toward the tub.
Marco wasn't dressed, he was in shorts and a white t-shirt with black socks. These were all things he could afford to change out of easily.
"Watch your step," Star said as Marco's leg bumped the side of the bathtub.
"What are you doing. Star! Star, my socks are wet!" Marco shouted.
Star pressed her body to his, her wet form pushing against his t-shirt as the water from the shower washed over them. "Shhh." She pressed her finger to Marco's lips. "You're going to get us caught. Keep your eyes closed," she ordered him."
"Huh? Oh!" Marco muttered into Star's mouth as her lips pressed to his.
"I love you so much, Marco Diaz."
"I love you too, Star Butterfly."
When Marco went to kiss her again, she twirled away. Blindly, he felt for Star, catching her around the waist and pulling her into his arms. A few years back he'd hit as growth spurt; Star loved the way her head fit comfortably under his chin. His chin rested atop her damp hair, his stubble pulling at the odd strand as she wiggled to get free.
"What are you going to do with me?" Star asked with an exaggerated gasp. "We only have a few hours before we need to get back to Mewni for the ceremony and we still need to get ready and go over any last minute things."
Marco's muscular hand clutched her thigh, his fingers trailing up and down her leg as he moved. "I have a few ideas. Won't need much time for any of them." He kissed the side of her neck. "Won't need much time either."
Then there was nothing. No warmth behind her. His hands had been gripping her leg and wrist, but they were gone. She could still feel the tension where his fingers had been.
"Marco?" Star said.
He was just gone.
"Very funny. Get Star all revved up like a dragon cycle and then leave her high and dry. You know how I get when I'm—" She pulled her fists down her hair in an effort to wring it out. The shower was empty behind her. Star peeked out from behind the curtain to see the door still closed, but Marco wasn't anywhere in the restroom though.
"Marco?" Star stepped over the side of the tub and reached for a towel to wrap around herself. "Come on, this really isn't funny."
Star opened the door to step out as she tucked the excess of the towel into down in the front to keep it held in place. "Alright, you better not look. You know if Angie or Mom find out that you saw me—oh-ho-ho-boy. Marco?"
Something in her chest sank. He isn't this sneaky or well coordinated. Where could he have gone?
Star's hands began to glow green. She closed her eyes and raised her arms above her head. "I summon the All-Seeing Eye to tear a hole into the sky. Reveal to me that which is hidden. Unveil to me what is forbidden," she said.
A fine crease formed in the fabric of reality, just in front of her. It widened into a hole revealing an expansive void.
It was blank. Showing her nothing.
"Show me Marco." Star swept her hand across in front of her face to move through vision after vision of empty blackness. "No, show him to me." Her fists tightened until her nails dug little crescent dimples in her palms.
No matter how many times she changed the image there was no sign of Marco or where he had gone. She dressed quickly, not nothing to dry her hair. As she was slipping into a pair of tennis shoes there was a knock at the door.
"Marco?" She asked.
"Wh-Star, it's me." Her mother, Moon Butterfly, was outside of the door. She could tell by the way her voice was muffled that she was leaning close and speaking quietly.
"Did you pass Marco on the way in here?"
There was another pause. "Who? Star, the guests will be arriving in a matter of hours. Tom is at the palace already. I'll never understand why you insist on slumming it on Earth like this…"
Star yanked the door open. "What do you mean 'who?' Marco-Marco! The love of my life, Marco Diaz!"
Moon's cornflower blue eyes glazed over as she stared at her daughter. The former Queen was wearing an ornate lavender dress that hung elegantly off of her shoulders. Her crown had been long since replaced with a small, tasteful circlet, though Star still expected it to be there when she looked up. Moon stepped into the room, pressing her palm to Star's forehead.
"I'm not sick." Star swatted her hand away. "I'm…pissed that you're asking me who your future son-in-law is."
"Oh, dear. You're under too much stress; I knew we were rushing this wedding too much." Moon stomped her foot. "—did you open a spying portal in the bathroom?" The sight of the hole in the hanging in the air caught Moon's eye.
"I opened that to find Marco," Star said, the anger brimming just beneath her words. She let out a sigh and moved to sit on the edge of the tub, her legs poking out of the bottom of the towel that was wrapped around her body. "Look, Mom, Marco came to see me before the wedding, even though it's not allowed. We were…just fooling around a bit in the shower and then he was gone."
Moon writhed her hands together. "Star, I don't think—"
"What? That it's alright for me to see him before the wedding?"
"A marriage vow is a serious thing, Star. They're the trust that love and alliances are built upon. I'm always here for you and I will always be here for you, but this sounds like the kind of thing that you should discuss with Tom. I just hope that he will take what sounds like your brief infidelity as a momentary lapse in judgment."
Star's mouth fell open. "I'm not marrying Tom Lucitor, Mom. How can you just forget Marco?"
"Sweetie, I've never heard of this Marco—what did you say it was again—Diaz. I don't know who he is."
Curling her hand in the air next to her face, Star muttered a spell to dress herself in teal sundress and some red flats. "That's not possible. I'm going to go to Angie and Rafael's. Maybe I'll find Marco there." With a flash of golden light, Star changed into her Mewberty form. A portal to the Diaz Household opened at her side.
"Where are you going?"
"I just told you. I'm going to figure this out," said Star.
A sixteen year old Star Butterfly flattened the photo against the desk in Eclipsa's study, pulling the lamp so that the light centered on it. The picture was of Star standing off to the far right holding a multicolored beachball. Her blonde hair is pulled up into a ponytail with a red tie holding it in place.
"That's a wonderful picture of you, love," Eclipsa said.
"Look closer!" Star growled.
"What am I looking for?"
"What's missing from this picture?" Star asked.
A frigid wind swept through the open window; Eclipsa drew her robes up around herself and brushed a damp tendril of forest green hair away from her eyes. "It appears to be off center. Who took this?"
"Marco is supposed to be there!" Star said pointing to the vacant space on the left.
"Marco?" Eclipsa said. "Who—wait, how could I forget Marco?" Eclipsa's eyes went wide.
"What does it mean?" Star asked.
"Where is Marco now?"
"In bed."
Eclipsa rose from her chair and paced in a small circle. "Yes, he should be, but when did you last check on him?"
"I came straight here."
"When was this picture taken?"
"Last year, but this was given to me before we took it by Father Time," Star said.
"Quite troubling," Eclipsa said. "You're going to be needing the wand and Marco."
"Why would I need to borrow the wand?"
"Let me grab it from my bedchambers. Without it there's no chance you'll make it back."
"Back from where," Star asked as she gathered the picture up and headed for the door.
Star bolted out of the study, grabbing the doorframe to swing herself out into the hall. The sound of her bare feet pounding at the stone floors of the Monster Temple echoed through the corridor. When she reached the stairs she took them two at a time up toward Marco's room, using a spell to propel herself over the last several risers and onto the landing. She kicked the door to Marco's room wide open.
"Are you decent," she shouted out of sheer force of habit. "It doesn't matter, get up."
"Star?" Marco scooted his back up against the headboard, pulling the covers over his bare chest. His eyes were red with exhaustion and his hair was even more of a haphazard mess than normal. "What's the matter?"
She lunged up onto his bed, hugging him tight. "You're okay."
Marco hugged her back, his words were slurred as he replied. "Yeah. I'm always okay. I'm here." His fingers caressed her hair tenderly, he was too drunk with sleep to care and she didn't mind in her current state of panic.
"I've got the wand. In some ways I still think of it as yours as much as it's mine—" Eclipsa's words were cut short and something clattered to the floor out of her hands. "Star, look!"
Star pulled freed herself from Marco's hug, grabbing him at the shoulders. Part of Marco's arms were granulating away like ash in the wind. One was down to the wrist while the other arm was completely gone up to the shoulder.
"Marco!"
"What's happening to me?" His voice was weak and distant. He sank against Star, resting his head on her chest. The weight of him, which she knew too well, felt shallow. He was cold, almost like he was tightly packed fog in human form.
"Eclipsa what is this?" Star yelled.
"Oh bother, give me a second," Eclipsa muttered.
"We don't have a second!" Star yelled. Marco was shaking in her arms, she could feel his body passing into her.
Eclipsa took a deep breath, holding the wand up. "Time isn't a stream that flows in a single direction, it's like pond. It all exists in one plane. If a whirlpool disrupts the water, the epicenter is the safest place to be."
"What?" Star yelled, turning to look at Eclipsa as tears welled up in the bottom of her eyes.
"You've only got the one chance. For Marco's sake, catch!" Eclipsa gave the wand an underhand toss and Star snatched it out of the air. The second her skin made contact with the wand a blinding light surrounded it. It glowed white and warm, shortening into the form she had carried it as last. The end was a round crystalline field with a complete yellow star as its core. A small heart marked the space that attached the hilt to the top. She hugged it and the photo to Marco's side, trying to will him to stay.
Eclipsa pressed her finger tips together, closed her eyes, and concentrated. "Darkness beyond the twilight. Crimson beyond the blood of my foes. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. By my hand, guide this spear to the center of our temporal woes!"
Black tentacles spread from all around Eclipsa like a shadow forking out and reaching to the farthest corners of the room. when she opened her eyes they were oiled over with what looked like stars and galaxies floating across their surface.
"VOID PIERCING SPEAR!" Eclipsa bellowed so loud that the stones of the keep shuddered. A brilliant red spear appeared jutting out of the ground at her side, she hefted it in one hand and threw it straight into Star.
Star screamed, but as it hit her she only felt force and a warmth. It passed right into her and into Marco, sticking through both of them. "What?"
"It'll lead you to the cause of this," Eclipsa's lips weren't moving now and her eyes were still black. Her words came from everywhere at once and there were other voices intertwined with hers, inhuman voices that spoke in tongues that hurt Star's head.
Marco was armless, most of his chest had vanished too and his eyelids flickered up and down. He didn't have long now; tears streamed down star's face.
"Hold him tight," Eclipsa's voice thundered around them. A moment later Eclipsa clapped her hands together sending an explosive wave through the room.
BAMF!
Star and Marco were outside in a flash of light, their bodies pressed together on the damp, itchy grass. Marco's head rested in her lap and it was solid again. He was all there. Star pulled him up into her arms, squeezing him tight. His skin stuck to her hands and pressed his warmth into her shirt.
"Star? What's going on?" Marco asked, his voice muffled against her chest.
"You're really okay, you're—"
"You're choking me," Marco managed.
"Sorry."
"Where are we?" Marco asked.
"I don't know. Eclipsa sent us here fix what was wrong with you."
"But where is here?"
"The epicenter—I think," Star said getting to her feet and reaching down to help Marco up. "Earth?"
Marco's room had been so bright with the glow of the spells that it took time for her eyes to adjust. They were on the corner of a lot next to houses and well out of reach of the nearest street lamp. A car drove past one block up and it immediately looked wrong to her.
The car was blocky with flat edges. Music wafted through the air from somewhere just far enough away that she had to really listen for it . Earth music wasn't Star's specialty. The bands she knew were more or less the ones that Marco had shown her, but something about this song sounded different than the things she had heard in her time in Echo Creek.
"And she a punk who rarely ever took advice "Now I'm guilt stricken, Sobbing with my head on the floor…"There was something decidedly familiar about this place. The signs were too far away to be seen at night, but she;'d been here so many times it didn't matter. "This is Callahan," she said.
"Yeah, you're right," Marco said, "But isn't there supposed to be a gas station there?"
The heart-shaped Mewman marks on her cheeks glowed with panic just as she clasped her hands to her face. "Oh no. Marco, the song, does anything about the song strike you as odd."
Tilting his head to the side, it seemed as if Marco only noticed the music ass she mentioned it, but he listened intently.
"I can't be held responsible "'Cause she was touching her face "And I won't be held responsible "She fell in love in the first place "For the life of me I cannot remember "What made us think that we were wise and "We'd never compromise "For the life of me I cannot believe "We'd ever die for these sins "We were merely freshmen""Mom loves this song. She always talks about how it used to make her sad…" Marco said.
"Is it something you hear randomly on the radio?" Star asked.
Marco glanced around. "She usually just plays it from her phone. It's pretty old," Marco said. "Star, it's cold out here and I'm kind of half naked," Marco said suddenly very aware of his nipples. He tried to cover them with his hands. "Please tell me you grabbed my scissors or at least my hoodie."
"You don't remember?" Star asked.
"Remember what?"
"Fading away. I had to get you out of there or you'd be…" Star sank onto her knees in the grass, covering her eyes with her hands. "Marco, you were barely there. Eclipsa didn't seem to know you at first and the picture of us at the beach—" she held it up to show him.
Marco studied it. "Where am I?"
"Exactly. You used to be on the left holding that ball with me, now you're gone."
He slapped his hands to the sides of his head, grasping at his hair. "What the heck, man, what did you do to me?"
"I didn't do anything." Star said socking him in the stomach with her fist. "It was just randomly happened. By the time Eclipsa tried to help whatever had done this was already taking you with it."
"What did she say it was?"
"She just said that the spell she did would take us to the source. I think she sent us back in time," Star explained.
"How do we get back?" Asked Marco.
Star looked down at the wand in her hands. The wand she had once thought of as her birthright. The wand she had given away. Even if she had the kind of juice that Eclipsa did that spell seemed pretty one directional. It had exactly the use Eclipsa had cast it for. Star didn't know any time travel spells and without scissors they couldn't piggyback onto a dimension with faster moving time to ride back to their present.
Her heart thundered in her chest and she gripped the shaft of the wand tight in her hand. All this magic and just useless. "I don't think we can," she said.
BAMF!
The force of the spell sucked the breath right out of Eclipsa's lungs. She dropped onto her hands and knees in a small mound of Marco's dirty clothes, drinking in the cold night air.
Her mind raced through all of the places that someone could have gotten hold of that spell. The book was gone. It would take someone with her skill or Glossaryck to recreate the book and they would still need to find a piece of it. Even if they had it the amount of power one would have to use to time travel…there'd be some trace of it. And she would recognize the sign.
After all, it was her spell. One of her more direct but simple works. People saw her as the dark one, the evil one, but it was a rather simple solution to a problem that she had never had to solve. You wouldn't need to kill someone if they never existed. For all of the complicated things that have to fall into place for any one event to take place she tried to find a way to disrupt that, to make time work in her favor. The further back that you went the harder it would be for someone to correct what you did in the present and if you erased a whole person, well then…poof.
Of course that was the danger. A person is an important lynchpin in the universe, even the more mundane ones. Plucking someone out of time had been one of her better inventions, but it had been one of the more dangerous ones. She hadn't had time to tell Star, not that the girl needed to be under even more pressure.
Marco Diaz stopped being a normal human the moment that he became entangled in Star's strand of fate. A world where Marco Diaz suddenly ceased being across all of space time could be catastrophic.
Embarrassingly, though she wouldn't admit it even if pressed with a Truth Box, a small part of her welled with pride that her spell had worked. It wasn't just some theoretical thing noted down in a book. It was a living spell-work. Though that portion was outweighed by the brimming anger. Someone had stolen from her and her family and cast a spell that threatened her child and husband and Star.
Eclipsa had felt the pain Star's stare. The girl cared for Marco in a way that Eclipsa was sure that her young heart didn't understand. Star had obliterated Toffee if what Moon had told her was true. She hoped in the deepest part of her heart that Star did the same with this thief.