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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye	By : all_possible_worlds Category: +S through Z > Star vs. The Forces of Evil Views: 29523 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Vs. the Forces of Evil or its characters. I made no money from writing this story.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chapter 13: 'Cause she's a Rebel Princess, She's the Best
Note: Please review if you enjoyed. Constructive criticism very welcome! I respond to reviews here: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/topic/64957-review-responses-and-open-discussion-for-i-summon-the-all-seeing-eye-star-vs-the-forces-of-evil/
'Cause she's a rebel princess, she's the best
She's a ball of lightning in a hot pink dress
- The Songstrel Ruberiot (both continuities)
----------
"Star," Marco spoke slowly, without turning back, looking at the floor, his clenched fist trembling in anger. "It's just... well, why didn't you tell me?"
Deep hurt dripped from the boy's quiet voice. He seemed to carefully weight every word, as if trying to hold back something of which he himself felt ashamed. Star thought she could hear the tiniest hint of an accusatory note, lingering just below the surface, but she wasn't sure. She knew him better than just about anyone, and yet, for once, she couldn't read him. The princess took a deep breath.
"I am sorry, Marco, alright," she mustered. She was sorry about the whole Tom incident, and not only because of what the people of Mewnie might think of her now, or because of how much it apparently pained Marco. That night had ended up in nothing but bad feelings for everyone involved, and apparently her decisions that day were not yet done messing up her life. Fuck Tom! Well, no, actually, don't fuck Tom. That was what caused the problem in the first place!
Then again, if she hadn't done that, would she and Marco ever gotten together? Without Janna's bizarre plot, without that night of imagining Marco while laying with Tom, without the magical link she had not yet even told him about, without him shouting her name to Jackie, without Jackie's crazy-awesomeness... without all of that, would they have ever come to date? If the answer was no, then no matter the bad feelings, and no matter the song, and no matter the kingdom, and no matter her mom, she had to stand by her decision. That night with Tom was worth it, but only because it brought her and Marco together. Unless, of course, it was now about to break them apart.
"Star, is not about you being sorry, is just..." Marco started to say something. Star cut him off. He was probably going to go on saying how she was a terrible person for sleeping with Tom, or at least to ask why she had chosen Tom specifically. She didn't want to hear that. She didn't have an answer. She could not even explain how it had, in the end, been for the best. At least, she couldn't do so without telling Marco her last shameful secret, that of the seeing-eye spell, at a time where it could only worsen things.
"Look, Marco, I really am sorry," she apologized again, lamely. If only Janna were here, she thought. The troublemaker girl always knew what to say in this kind of situation. "I am sorry, but, well, Marco, honestly? It is not really any of your business. It happened before we started dating, while you were dating Jackie. It was my choice, and perhaps it wasn't a great choice, but well, since when I am known to always make great choices? It happened, it's over, can we just move on?"
"Wait, what? No, Star, Tom isn't the problem!" Marco burst out, surprising Star. He turned around. He looked so angry, and at the same time, he seemed to be making an effort to stop himself from crying. Star was trying to contain her own tears as well. "Don't get me wrong, I don't trust Tom, and if he did anything to hurt you... if he mistreated you in any way... well, never mind. You once said you could handle a demon, and I know you can take care of yourself. I know you don't need a hero, Star..."
The mewman girl thought back to when she had said that to her best friend. It seemed so long ago now, another lifetime almost. She was much less sure of her ability to handle Tom after that night, after how defenseless she had felt in the end, unable to even dip down into herself. But Tom had not, in fact, harmed her. If anything, it had been the other way around. Star wondered if Marco somehow intuited that, if that was why he was angry. Did he perceive that she had, in a way, used Tom to get him instead? Would he think she was a horrible person for it? "Ok, Marco, if Tom isn't the issue, then what is it?"
"Star, it's just, I wish you had told me, that you had told me about..."
Marco's words were drowned by an unexpected 'Whoosh!' sound, and a surprised yelp from Jackie. The skateboarder girl had drifted towards the other corner of the huge hall, giving Star and Marco space to sort things out, literally. She had been looking away from the both of them, in what Star thought was her best effort not to eavesdrop, without actually having to leave the room. Star figured her friend didn't want to risk running into Moon, the high commission, or basically anyone in the entire kingdom who had listened to the song and now probably thought of her as the concubine of Mewni's future king, or whatever such nonsense. However, the way the girl had positioned herself meant she was easily taken by surprise as a tear opened up in the fabric of reality, right behind her. The tips of a pair of scissors materialized themselves in mid air, quickly cutting a shimmering blue portal through the empty space.
Jackie was even more surprised, evidenced by a wide-eyed open-mouthed break of her usual cool composure, when a disembodied horned horse head came out flying from the portal, its tongue still somehow holding on to the dimensional scissors. Star herself barely noticed the diminutive winged pixie girl that emerged next, following the first intruder.
"Whatsuuup B-fly!?" Ponyhead shouted. She glanced up and down at her Song Day outfit. "Looking goooood, girl!"
"Princess Ponyhead?!" Star shouted back, partly in surprise, partly in excitement. Despite the awful timing, it was good to once again see her best bestie in all of Mewnie. "What are you doing here? I though you were partying it up in St. O's!"
"Well, yeah, about that... well, Star, don't get too worried or anything, but we might have run into a little bit of trouble over there..." Ponyhead did that nervous looking around thing she always did whenever she got involved in some truly bad stuff and didn't want to admit it. "Things are not as good as when you two left, and well, turns out we might need a seriously baaad-ass princess to come and set some heads right, if you know what I mean?"
"I have no idea what you mean..." Star admitted, "but I am in!" She twirled her wand around in her hand and gave her best attempt at a menacing look. If they needed a seriously bad-ass princess, they had come to the right place.
Ok, sure, she really really needed to finish having this talk with Marco first. Then again, the talk was super mega awkward. So, maybe this was for the best? And, well, if the princesses of St O's needed her, if her bestie needed her, then how could she say no?
Marco scowled, not so much at her, but rather at the interrupting unicorn princess. It was clear that he hadn't gotten what he needed off his chest. Unfortunately, Star wasn't sure she wanted, or could handle, to hear it right now. Perhaps if she ignored the issue long enough, Marco would forget, or at least, calm down somewhat. Avoidance! Just as she originally planned to respond to her song day. And well, hadn't she been right back then? If she hadn't talked to Ruberiot, then none of this would have happened! Of course, it wasn't like she was planning on never again talking to Marco, just, like, give both him and herself a little time to think. That was a good idea, right? Right?
"Actually, B-fly, don't take this the wrong way, I know we are both best besties, and totally super-tough bad-ass princesses and all... but I kinda meant Earth Turd..." Ponyhead admitted sheepishly, shooting a look Marco's way, and rolling her eyes.
"Me?!" Marco glanced confused at Star, then back at the body-absent princess. "This is kind of a bad time for jokes, Pointy-head..."
Before he could say another word, the pixie girl came up flying towards them, quickly positioning herself in between Ponyhead and the two kids, and giving Marco a deep bow. "Please, Princess Marco! I am Princess Glintwisp of Pixtopia. I am sorry to ask, especially if we have indeed come at a bad time. But, for the good of the revolution, in the name of all princesses everywhere, I implore you! We need your help once more. Some of the girls have gone astray, and I fear that without your inspiration and leadership, we might soon lose the very individuality we fought to achieve!"
Seeing as how this was now anything but a private moment, Jackie walked towards the group, raised an eyebrow, and shot their boyfriend a quizzical look. "Princess Marco?"
----
"So," Jackie finally spoke, once Ponyhead first, then Star, were done bringing her up to date with the situation, more or less. "Let me see if I got this all straight: There is, or used to be, an inter-dimensional school dedicated to literally brainwashing princesses - which, by the way, fuck that!"
"You can say that again," commented Star, with a shudder.
"And flying horse-head over here, which happens to be Star's childhood friend, was sent there by her own family," the human girl continued.
"Excuse me?! Friend? I happen to be Star's bestest bestie overall! And it is Flying Princess Horse-Head to you, monkey-face!" Ponyhead retorted.
"Whatever," Jackie shrugged. It had been clear for a while that the other princess didn't like her much, and it was getting to be fairly mutual. From what Marco had said, she never liked any of Star's friends at first. She was, 'possessive', whatever that meant. In any case, Jackie Lynn Thomas wasn't going to be pushed around by a disembodied horse head, at least not now that the initial shock wore off. "The point is, Star and Marco went there to throw horse-head a birthday party, and in the process he ended up leading a rebellion. While dressed like a princess, for some reason."
"Oh, you should have seen it, Jackie!" Star shouted excitedly. "You have no idea how well Marco pulls off a pink dress!"
"Star!" Marco protested. The mewman princess seemed to suddenly remember she and the boy were not in the best terms right now, and begun to stammer an apology.
"Actually, I can see that, Star," Jackie tried to make the save. Honestly, she wasn't sure what Marco's issue was. Yes, the song had been uncomfortable, for everyone involved. But if there was anyone who should be in a sullen mood over that, it was Star. Marco and herself had at most gotten splash damage from that particular bomb. "And he, or 'she', somehow became an icon of a revolutionary movement of princesses. Which, incidentally, mostly consisted of turning St O's into a party school. Correct so far?"
"Not just a party school, monkey-face, the best party school in the multiverse!" Ponyhead insisted. "Mostly because it had me in it! Of course!" The disembodied horse head made a puckered lips expression that Jackie assumed was meant to be sexy, but was instead disturbing in the extreme.
"Sure, whatever. But the problem is that it is not about having a party school anymore, not since this Miss White appeared and took over the 'movement', correct?" Jackie finished. "And now you want Marco to go chase this person away, just as he did with Miss Heinous."
"It is Princess White, not Miss White, and, well, not quite. We want Princess Marco to remind the girls of the ideas of the revolution: individuality, self expression, freedom!" Princess Glintwisp finally interjected. "White claims to care about that, but everything is about power and control for her in the end. I think the girls know that, but they won't listen to us, they are too scared. But with Princess Marco to inspire them again, I think we have a chance!"
"So, basically," Jackie reasoned. "You had a revolution, which ended up propping a dictator of sorts, and now you are asking the original revolutionaries to come back and oppose this character? Uh, Marco, I know you are not as much of a history nerd as I am, but, well, you know this is a bad idea, right?"
"Uh, why would it be a bad idea?" interjected Star.
"Nah, she is right, Star," Marco sighed. "I can see this ending badly. But I guess if things are as bad as these two say they are, then we don't really have a choice. I mean, we kind of created this whole situation in the first place. Sorry to ask now, and... well... sorry to postpone... you know, but... could you... princess me?" He gave Jackie a concerned look. "Hopefully this isn't going to be too weird?"
"Yeah, right, of course, Marco," Star stammered awkwardly. What the hell was wrong between the two of them? Jackie thought to herself. Star raised her wand, gave it a swirl and, "Radiant Shadow Transform!!"
Marco seemed to float up into the air, right below the hall's tall ceiling. His skin and clothes became covered in blinding bright purple light and streams of white light crisscrossed over his body as it contorted in midair. It was impossible to see properly through the spell's light show, but it seemed like it first made his princely suit vanish, replacing it then bit by bit with a puffy pink dress with a huge ribbon over his waist. Honestly, it was surprising how well Marco could pull that off too. Especially when he landed back to the floor, the magical glow fading away as his heeled feet touched the ground. He had a determined and confident expression Jackie had only occasionally seen on him. It was almost like he was wearing a battle outfit of sorts, rather than a frilly pink dress.
"Alright, Pointy-head, Glitterwisp, lets go set things straight, my wayward sisters!" Marco remarked. The pixie princess saluted him, while Ponyhead simply took out the scissors again and attempted to hand them to Marco. He shook his head, taking his own pair of scissors from under the dress' skirt. An embossed name gleamed on them in fiery letters: 'MARCO'. With a quick movement, he cut a doorway in the air, and confidently strode through it. The two St O's princesses followed after him.
The Mewman princess was about to follow suit, but Jackie stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Star, are you alright? What happened with you and Marco?"
"I," Star paused, uncomfortable. "I am not sure, Jackie..."
"Well, he will come around, I am sure of it. He loves you, Star, and you love him too. A stupid song is not going to change that, right?" the human girl tried to reassure her friend, and was glad to see Star smile faintly and nod in response. "But... Star, and I know is not the best timing... before we jump in through there, I sort of have a favor to ask from you...."
----
THROUGH UNITY, VICTORY
Saint Olga's had always been a grim gray place. It was grim and gray, if luxuriously outfitted, when Miss Heinous administered it. It had remained grim and gray, and far less cared for, when the princesses took over, no matter what Pointy-head said about her own brief tenure as unofficial leader of the rebel princess movement. But now, it looked grimmer and grayer than ever. To the prison-like barbwire fence that surrounded the complex, someone had added protruding bits and pieces of broken glass, and the decor became only more oppressive and martial once you went past the gate. Once inside the courtyard, Marco noticed that the old posters, showing her as Princess Marco, had been ripped from the walls. Instead, imposing black placards showed a clenched red fist holding a crown. Disturbingly bellicose slogans were often printed atop, or around, the insignia.
DOWN WITH THE TYRANTS! PRINCESSES RULE
Ok, that one didn't even make sense. Or maybe it made too much sense. Of course princesses rule, or well, they were going to rule. So, who the hell were the tyrants, then? Their parents? Star and Moon might not have always seen eye to eye on everything, and he had the vague impression that they had ended in especially bad terms after Star's song, perhaps even worse than he and Star. But, as he looked at the posters along the courtyard walls, Marco felt these princesses were taking things way too far.
SOME FREEDOMS MUST BE POSTPONED FOR THE CAUSE
"Freedom is the cause..." he muttered, as he walked past that particular sign. Ponyhead and Glintwisp floated close by, almost huddled around him. The pixie princess nodded in silent acknowledgment of his 'wise' proclamation. They both looked cowed, even more so that they had been under Heinous and her solitary conformance chamber. Marco wondered where Star and Jackie were now. He had left the portal open for them, but when they didn't immediately follow, he decided to go ahead and take point. He needed to survey the situation before their group attracted any attention, to move while they still had the element of surprise, just like his favorite war movie hero, Rick Resilient. From what he could see, the two resident princesses had not been exaggerating when they described how bad the situation was.
"You got to be kidding me, there is no way that one is not on purpose!" came a voice from behind Marco. As he turned around, he saw Jackie casually leaning against the inside of the courtyard walls, just past the outer door, pointing at one particular slogan he had completely missed:
ALL PRINCESSES ARE EQUAL,
BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Now, Marco would have commented on the absurdity of the poster. He had read Animal Farm too! Ok, alright, he watched the cartoon movie, same thing. However, he was rendered speechless by the version of Jackie that confronted him. Short hair, combed back. A pair of dark green pants and matching shoulder pads, adorned in gold trimming. A white vest, buttoned in gold to her left side, and embroidered with a coat of arms: two swords crossing atop a skateboard bursting out of a seashell. Black gloves and black equestrian boots. A short red velvet cape. Jackie was standing with his feet, sorry, her feet, more than shoulder width apart and glancing at Princess Marco with a cocksure grin on his, no, her, face. She was pulling the whole 'Prince Charming' look better than Marco was comfortable admitting. In fact, he was uncomfortably sure that Jackie looked far better in her own prince outfit, than he had in his, merely hours ago.
"Jackie? What are you doing?!" he stammered in confusion. Did it meant he was gay if he thought she was handsome? Or did it mean just the opposite? Marco had long come to feel comfortable himself in a dress, even as he worried what his long-time crush might think of him for that. Turns out he needed not worry. But, instead, seeing Jackie in such a masculine presentation was a new and surreal experience for him. He liked it, and frankly wasn't fully sure what that said about himself.
"Matching my beautiful and brave princess, of course," Jackie grinned as she advanced towards him in surprisingly large strides. "I figured, if you are going to be Princess Marco, then I shall be Prince Jackie... at your service milady!" She put a hand behind her back and bowed dramatically. Before Marco could protest that he was, in truth, not a 'milady', Jackie continued, "Or should it be Prince Jack?"
"I'd keep going with Jackie," chimed up Star as she finally came in through St O's gate, in the same 'bad princess' getup she had worn the first time they were here. "Matches 'Princess Marco' better."
"Are you sure?" Jackie asked, after seeming to ponder the question for a second. She made a gesture of stroking her, nonexistent, beard. "I feel like a Jack."
"Oh, don't you worry about them gorgeous! I'll call you whatever you like," came a nasal voice from way above their position. "Right after I deliver these traitors to Princess White!"
Following the voice, out of one of the manor's windows, jumped a huge monstrous purple woman. She had an elephant trunk for a nose and a blue hairdo larger than her already gargantuan head. She wore a blue frilly dress the size of a small camping tent and was covered in jewelry, including a gem-encrusted golden crown. Out of the corners of her mouth, protruded two pointed tusks. Moving faster than could reasonably be expected from her size, she positioned herself behind Jackie, grabbed her from the waist and pointed a strange device directly at the human's face. A blinding flash exploded around them as she pushed the trigger.
"Ca-me-ra phone!" the ugly princess shouted as she took a selfie of herself with the newly minted handsome prince of the group. She then grabbed Jackie's arm, and twisted it behind her. "Now, deserter Princess Marco, traitor Princess Ponyhead, traitor Princess Glintwisp, and," she looked at Star up and down, confused, "and you, whoever you are! Follow me, or I will be forced to remove this hunk's dreamy face!"
Marco looked at Jackie first. He felt calmer when he saw she seemed more disoriented than actually afraid. He glanced then at Star, and finally at the criminal princess holding 'her prince' hostage. He and Star had met her once before, when she tried to steal the mewman princess's face in a harebrained scheme to escape from St. O's. Fortunately, they managed to throw the book at her that time, literally as well as figuratively. Frankly, after Heinous, and Toffee, and whatever that snake-thing Tom had sprung on them the other week was, Marco was not too scared of the old dizzy monster.
"Sure, fine," Princess Marco spoke defiantly. "Take me to your leader!" Truth be told, he always wanted to say that. "...and make sure the rest of the girls are there too! I think they are going to want to hear what I have to say to this 'Princess White' of yours."
It was soon clear he had no reason to worry about that. As they made their way through the manor's halls and passageways, the six of them seemed to accumulate an ever growing crowd of curious onlookers among the St. Olga's former students. Most of the princesses gave their supposed captor a wide berth. Jackie played the defiant hostage well, an arrogant scowl on 'his' princely face. Princess Marco marched right behind the trollish princess that held 'her' prince captive, he herself held her head tall and fists clenched. Ponyhead and Glintwisp seemed far more intimidated, marching a few steps behind Marco. Finally, Star brought the rear, just ahead of the accumulating spectators.
They passed more and more red-fist posters on their way up the manor.
THE REVOLUTION IS MORE IMPORTANT,
THAN ANY INDIVIDUAL
"Embrace the princess mentality..." Star muttered under her breath.
----
"So, that's it, Hekapoo, the whole truth, in as much as I myself know it," Moon admitted with a sigh. She took a seat at the edge of her bed, and prepared herself for the onslaught of fury that the sorceress was sure to unleash upon her. So be it. It would hardly be the first time she found herself on the receiving end of the other woman's displeasure, it came with the territory. It was the other side of the coin, the one Star didn't understand yet: having the power to make the big choices, but also having to live with the consequences. If it were up to Moon, her daughter would have been spared learning that lesson for a while longer. But, even as queen, it was not just up to her.
"You could have told us this months ago," the Forger of Scissors noted calmly. She was looking out through the balcony of the royal bedchamber, giving her back to Moon, purposefully concealing her facial expression, rendering herself even more unreadable than usual. "You could have told me."
"Yes, Hekapoo, I could have," the queen admitted. She knew it was a mistake to not have brought the high commission in on this sooner, or at least the crafty sorceress in particular. But she had done what she did to protect Star, to protect her family from additional exposure. Fat good it had done, in the end. "I had it under control. I still do. Ludo has half the wand, he has the book, and he has Glossaryck. Admittedly, that is quite bad. But I assure you, even with all of that, he is hardly what I'd call a threat."
"He was enough of a threat to steal the book from your daughter, Moon. Enough of a threat to drain the magic from many worlds. Enough of a threat to go after Omnitraxus..." Hekapoo retorted. Her flame crackled and sizzled atop her head, betraying her displeasure at her old friend and confidant.
"We don't really know if those things truly are related," the mewman reasoned, evenly. "Frankly, it disturbs me to think they might be. Lord Brudo didn't give any indication that the young Avarius represented that kind of menace. He is not, well, you know..."
"Toffee?" Hekapoo completed the thought Queen Moon did not dare speak aloud. It was a name that brought far too many unpleasant memories: the death of her mother, her deal with Eclipsa, the weight of leadership, the coldness in her own heart as she drew forth power from darkness, and from ancient evil. Then again, in way, being reminded of that fiend, of that monster in every sense of the word, also helped remind Moon of what and who she was.
"Not even close!" she responded forcefully. "And must I remind you, Hekapoo, that I dealt with Toffee as well? Without assistance or advice from you, or from the high commission."
"With all due respect, Moon," Hekapoo turned back, glaring at her, "you dealt with Toffee by dabbling in dark magic, by bargaining with the Queen of Darkness herself! It is only by the sheerest luck that your way of 'dealing' with Toffee did not doom us all! What makes you think Star will be just as lucky, if it comes to it?"
"It wasn't luck, Hekapoo. I told you then, and I'll tell you now, I know what I am doing!" She didn't. Not now, and definitely not back then. She found the loophole in her deal with Eclipsa only in the last second. By failing to kill Toffee, she avoided having to fulfill her own end of the bargain with the imprisoned queen. Yet, had she hesitated only a second less, had she been a smidgen less or a smidgen more afraid, then Toffee would have died that morning by her hand. If he had, then Moon would have been left to deal with the consequences. "And... Star won't have to get lucky. I will deal with this myself, without dragging her into it, and do it right. I will protect her. You need to understand, there is no way she will ever have to... to deal with what I dealt with... when my mother..."
The cool warrior-queen mask crumbled then, the unbreakable armor of Moon the Undaunted, and for a second she was princess Moon again. Poor little orphan princess Moon. Tears fell down her eyes, tears only three people in her life had ever seen before. One was her husband, River. The other was Glossaryck, now missing. The final one was with her now, in this room. The fiery glare of the Forger softened as she walked back towards the Queen of Mewni.
"No, she won't, Moon. Because we will protect you. I will protect you," Hekapoo placed a hand on the monarch shoulder. "But you need to let me do that, and that means you don't hide the truth from me, or from the high commission."
"Yes, you are right Hekapoo," Moon finally admitted, in full. "It's just, it seemed like something we should be able to handle within the family. I didn't want to expose Star to, well, you know. Not this early. I suppose she manages to get into enough trouble on her own... That awful song! Now she probably thinks I am a monster, but what would you have me do?"
"The hardest thing, Moon," Hekapoo replied, somber, accepting the other woman's sudden change of topic. "Nothing."
"What?" the queen asked, not understanding.
"Let her and her friends deal with the consequences of what was in that song. Let them deal with the people of Mewnie if they must. You could have handled it when you were her age. Those kids can handle it too. You'd be shocked out of that hard royal skull of yours by what they can handle. Star is a strong kid, same as you were. What she can't handle, though, is a mother she believes disapproves of her every choice," the sorceress spoke with surprising insight, as she took as seat at the edge of the bed, right besides Moon.
It was ironic, the more she tried to shield her daughter from the harshness of the world, the more she herself became the face of that harshness. "Disapprove? What right do I have to disapprove? I just wish she were... a bit more thoughtful, and discrete, about the whole thing..."
"Well, that's your style, Moon. But it is not Star's. Don't worry, she will find her own way. It is not my style either, by the way, but a deal is a deal," Hekapoo remarked with a smile, right before she leaned forth to kiss the lips of her royal lover. In familiar warm lips, Moon found a measure of peace, after one of the toughest days she had had in a good long while.
----
The only way to describe it, was to say that it was a throne room improvised out of a dining hall, or out of a very fancy school cafeteria. Each of the walls were lined with tables and chairs, pushed aside to make room for a ragged red carpet, which itself looked as if it had been ripped out from the floor of a separate room of the mansion. The carpet led to yet another table, atop which someone had affixed a sofa-chair and two normal wooden chairs. Of those, only the leftmost chair was empty. The walls were lined with some more of those disturbing, almost self-parodying, posters. All in all, it was much less impressive, and far more disturbing, than Mewnie castle's throne room. Or so thought Jackie, despite having been inside the later only briefly.
"Princess White! Glorious leader of the princess revolution! I bring you back the traitors, and the famed Princess Marco!" the bizarre woman that held her by the arm claimed, in a bored but practiced tone, and took a deep bow. Then, she extended the other arm, and with a quick movement took a picture of herself and of all the people behind her, including Marco, Star and Jackie, and a few dozen onlookers. "Ca-me-ra phone!"
The person sitting in the sofa chair, atop the table, raised an eyebrow, and silently regarded the presumptive captives. She was a slender goth-looking girl, seemingly not that much older than the three of them. She had long disheveled raven-black hair, skull-pale skin, and blood-red lips that easily twisted into a dangerous smirk. She wore an open spiked leather jacket and embroidered leather pants. Her top was a white blouse, with the now familiar fist-holding-a-crown symbol painted in red ink atop it. The crown in the symbol matched in design with the crown she wore atop her head, in bright shimmering silver. Hanging to the left side of her belt, glinted a wicked looking sword, with a skull atop the handle. 'Princess White, I presume', Jackie thought to herself.
"Princess Marco?" she spoke, bemusedly, and in a surprisingly melodious and inviting voice. "An honor, and a pleasure, for sure; to meet the foremother of our glorious revolution. Perhaps we could offer her and her two companions something to eat? Then we might bring her up to date with the progress the cause has made, in her, I assume quite explainable, absence?"
Dammit, whomever this girl was, she was a good public speaker. Jackie couldn't help but notice how she was both appearing to politely welcome Princess Marco, while at the same time casting doubts on the other princesses' minds about her. There was something more as well... wait, two companions? Jackie saw the goth princess surreptitiously make a gesture with her hand. Two other girls walked through the crowd towards them, throwing a muzzle and a bug net, respectively, on Pony Head and Glintwisp.
"Wait, what are they doing?!" Star protested in a surprised shout.
"Oh, surely Princess Marco would not be in any way associated with these traitors, now, would she?" the sitting princess smiled calmly.
"Of course they are with me!" Marco shouted. "Let them go. And, for the record, I think I have seen enough of your so called progress, thank you very much!"
Not precisely a master diplomat, thought Jackie, but he sure managed to pull off the defiant rebel leader role.
"Yeah, let my bestie go!" shouted Star, leveling her wand at the princess holding Ponyhead. Not wanting to be outdone, Jackie elbowed the huge princess holding her, and quickly moved to grab the other girl's bug net out of her hands.
To the side of the sofa-throne, in the one wooden chair that was occupied, a scrawny brunette of sharp features and piercing green eyes leaned to whisper something in White's ear. "Ah... I see. Princess Star, yet another honor!"
"Wait, you know who I am?" the Mewman asked, surprised. Presumably, she was talking about her disguise, but the dark-haired princess decided to interpret it quite differently.
"Of course. Your reputation precedes you," White stalled, attempting to distract them from their friends being dragged around. Only when she saw that further attempts would likely result in an all out brawl, she quietly gave the signal to her cronies to let go. Even then, that barely registered in her polite conversational tone. "Frankly, it is a miracle you did not end up among us, here in St. O's. Or a shame, as the case might be. You would be such an asset for our revolution..."
"A revolution against whom, exactly?" Princess Marco interrupted. "Way I see it, Heinous was gone, the girls were free to embrace their individuality, then you came along and this is now what? A princess Soviet Union?"
"I am unfamiliar with that kingdom," White replied, calmly. "As for against whom... well, against our oppressors, of course! Same fight you started, sister. Sure, you helped our sisters get rid of Heinous. Although, from what I have heard recently, you didn't do as... permanent a job as I would have in your place..."
Permanent? Was she suggesting that Marco ought to have killed their former headmistress? The savage grin and the way White's hand drifted towards the pommel of her sword, told Jackie the answer. Now, that miss Heinous did sound like a horrid character, but surely that was taking it a step too far. Then again, if she had to judge this whole thing by the standards of actual revolutions...
"In any case, Heinous was nothing but a lackey of the true oppressors!" White voice swiftly rose into a booming tone. "The ones who sent these princesses here, to be brainwashed, to be enslaved to their lineages and to their subjects! Who are they to tell us who we should be?! What we should do?! I say we pay them back! No longer shall any princess be beholden to the whims of her line or her kingdom!"
"Yeah!" shouted Star, as did many other princesses among the crowd. Most of the observers, however, wisely kept silent. Then the Mewman's princess expression seemed to change, as she realized to what she was agreeing exactly. "Wait, no! You cannot mean that we should... hurt our parents?"
"No, of course not," White's face softened. "Not your parents, princess Star. Like I said, your reputation as a rebel, as one of us, does you great honor. But I will admit that your parents, whatever their faults might be, never sent you to a place like St. O's. However... the parents of these girls did do just that! They willingly subjected their kids to imprisonment and brainwashing! If that doesn't make them, and their entire kingdoms, evil, if that doesn't make them worthy of being overthrown, then what does?!"
"Look," Marco raised a hand. Standing on the floor, as the other princess straightened herself atop her throne, he looked much feebler by comparison. Jackie figured that was entirely intentional on White's part, it was probably the whole point of setting up this makeshift royal hall in the first place. "I am not saying that it is right to send anyone to a place like what this used to be. But I don't think these girls' parents are expecting their daughters to be brainwashed. They think this is a place to teach them the skills that they need, to be good rulers..."
"There is only one skill necessary to rule," the goth princess smirked. "Strength! And together, we have strength in abundance!"
"No," Princess Marco asserted herself, not willing to let that one slide. And Jackie felt no small degree of admiration for her frilly-dressed boyfriend. "Ruling through strength only makes you a tyrant, or a dictator. Look, I am not saying each princess shouldn't be free to be themselves, to be who they truly are, each and every one of our wayward sisters. They should be free to use their gifts to be the best versions of themselves instead of a cookie-cutter extension of their respective royal families. But when they rule, and they rule their way, they should still be doing what is right for their people! If you use strength to intimidate and cow others into submission, then that makes you the oppressors!" Princess Marco paused her speech, and Jackie noticed a few murmurs of agreement within the gathered crowd. "Besides, are you truly suggesting that these girls kill their own parents?"
"Why not?" White retorted. "After all, I killed my mother!"
More murmurs. Star gasped. She suddenly looked pale, and horrified. Even Jackie felt sick to her stomach, and she was neither a princess, nor had ever been caught agreeing with the lunatic in question.
"So yes, strength, and resolve, are all that stands between each and everyone of us and complete freedom and independence, the kind that only comes with power," she continued. "I would know. I now rule my kingdom, and I do so entirely my way, without lineages or tradition. Without being beholden to anyone but myself!"
"And I assume your people love you for it?" retorted Marco, sarcastically.
"Absolutely," the other princess responded with a smile. "You see, my mother was an evil queen."
"Then I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Princess Marco quipped.
Suddenly, the sitting princess jumped out of her throne, her hands gripping the sofa's armrests until they broke under the pressure into a shower of splinters. Her eyes were wide open and her teeth clenched in a furious rictus. "What. Did. You! Just! Say?!" Her previous composure had gone in an instant, and she seemed to barely keep enough self control not to jump down from the table and charge against Marco.
At first, Jackie thought White simply resented the comparison to her mother. But then it hit her. It wasn't just being compared to her mother that bothered Princess White. It was the saying itself! Rather, it had been a single word in the saying: apple. She had reacted as soon as that word was mentioned. Everything seemed to fall into place all at once then for the Earth girl: 'My mother was an evil queen'. Apple. Princess White. Coal-black hair, blood-red lips, skin as white as snow... "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me! Marco, I think you are debating Snow White!"
The goth blinked twice, and seemed to calm down, momentarily. "I haven't been called by that name in a very long time... you are?"
"Prince," she thought for a second, "Jack. Jack as in the giant killer." She spoke with the utmost bravado, or at least all she could muster. Then, mentally, she added, 'and if you believe that, I also have a bag of magic beans to sell you'.
"Well, princess Marco, prince... Jack," Snow White spat the name, "I see my arguments fall on deaf ears. So I propose we put our ideals to a test, a trial on the morrow!" She smiled wickedly. A wicked queen smile, thought Jackie. "Cass, tell me this, and only this, will our dear Princess Marco once again flee from us unseen during the night?"
The green eyes of the woman sitting besides White turned her piercing gaze towards Marco, as she seemed to concentrate. "She will stay," she answered simply.
"Of course! I will debate you any day you want, sister!" Princess Marco quickly retorted. Jackie, however, smelled a rat.
"It is set, then," Snow White proclaimed, "tomorrow at dawn. A trial by combat!"
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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye