"Later, H-Poo." With that, Marco stepped through the portal back to Earth. He could faintly hear Hekapoo's indignant cry of "don't call me that!" behind him as he did so. Now, for the first time in 16 years, he was back, standing in his room with Star beside him. It was good to be back, sure, but it felt all wrong, somehow, and he was sure that the way his 30-year-old body changed the scale of everything around him didn't help. It also certainly didn't help that he hadn't seen any of his friends or family in that 16 years. However, before he could think about it too much, Star enveloped him in a hug.

"It's so good to have you back, Marco! Even though you were only gone for like eight minutes here so it wasn't really that bad." She beamed at him and he returned her smile.

"Likewise. You have no idea how good it is to see you again after so long." Then, he hesitated, slightly frowning. "How do you think my parents will react? Like you said, it's only been eight minutes here but I was gone for 16 years and…" He trailed off, gesturing to his adult body. Star frowned, squinting in thought for a second, but then just shrugged and smiled brightly.

"I'm sure they'll understand and just be glad you're safe. You should go downstairs and talk to them and, while you do that, I'll make us all some nachos to smooth the whole thing over, okay?" He nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, Star, you're the best." He let her lead the way downstairs. Just as they reached the base of the stairs, they were cut off by his dad.

"Who are you and why are you in my house?" Marco had never seen his dad so serious, extending a protective arm in front of his wife with a cold glare etched into his face.

"Dad, it's me, Marco." Before Rafael Diaz could so much as open his mouth to respond, Marco removed what was left of his hoodie and presented it to his parents. They both gasped.

"But-but that's impossible!"

"Can we sit? I'll explain everything."

Once they were all settled in the living room, Marco pulled out his scissors.

"These are dimensional scissors." He opened a portal to demonstrate and then closed it. "I had borrowed a pair from Star so I could walk the laser puppies even though it was raining, but then, once I realized how convenient they are, I got carried away and started opening portals for all kinds of things. Then, I went to open another portal but this time it was orange and fiery and someone reached out of it, grabbed me, and dragged me through it. It was Hekapoo, a member of the magical high commission, because she is the one who makes all the dimensional scissors and the pair I had been using was actually hers. She took them back but said that I could earn my own pair, all I had to do was blow out the little flame on her head. It seemed easy enough, but it turns out she can teleport and clone herself." He pulled out the notebook he'd been using to keep track while in the other dimension and showed it to them. "I spent 16 years snuffing out all her clones until finally, just now, I found her, blew out her flame, and earned these scissors. See? She put my name on them to mark them as mine." He showed them. "But time moves differently in that dimension, which is how, while I was there for 16 years, only 8 minutes passed here, on Earth." His parents gasped.

"16 years? So you're 30 now?" His dad looked like he was going to pass out.

"Yeah." His mother started to cry.

"You went and grew up and we weren't even there for it." Marco scratched the back of his head, frowning.

"I guess so."

After a few minutes of more crying and fretting, they finally calmed down.

"Well, then, there's nothing we can do about it. You'll just have to tell us everything about your time there." His mom gave him a watery smile, which he returned. His dad looked like he wanted to argue, but Marco cut him off before he could.

"Of course, Mom." And he obliged. For hours, they sat there, eating Star's nachos and listening to Marco's tales of adventure.