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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: 29524 -:- 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
- 15
- 16
- 17
Chapter 16: The Prince of the Princess' Deepest Desire
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Who is the boy in the earthly attire?
The prince of the princess's deepest desire
- The Songstrel Ruberiot (original continuity)
----------
The dawn was dark and foggy at St. Olga's. The sun was either fully occluded by the low flowing clouds, or it had not deigned come out altogether. It hid itself from sight, as if in fear, or in mourning. Jackie wondered, briefly, why such unusually morbid thoughts came to her now. Was her own brief bout of melancholy simply caused by the weather? Or perhaps by the scary, yet strangely poetic, prospect of her incoming duel?
"Jackie, are you still sure you want to do this?" her boyfriend asked. Maybe he had read the worry in her expression, or maybe he simply felt the need to ask one final time, even when he knew the answer.
"Yes, Marco, I do. Don't worry dude," she replied, trying to affect her usual chill persona. She found it harder than usual. To be fair, she very much doubted she was in any real danger. Jackie had once seen Star summon a herd of wild unicorns in one literal second. It was a fact that was well worth keeping in mind, when thinking about how the princess had just spent the last half hour layering spell after spell over Jackie's frame. She was as prepared to fight this duel as anyone could ever be. 'Prince Jack' was wearing a majestic golden suit of full plate armor, which covered every inch of her body except for her head. He, or she, carried a fierce looking longsword with a golden seashell for a hilt and a blade that looked sharp enough to cut diamonds. Both armor and weapon felt surprisingly light in her hands as well, or maybe, thanks to Star's magic, she was now too strong to even notice their weight. "Honestly, Marco, right now I feel like I could take on an entire army!"
"Well, you probably could," the princess of Mewni mussed. "Actually, you might want to go a bit easy on her. Like, maybe you don't want to tear her arm from her torso the first time she parries a hit?"
Star placed her wand against her own cheek and looked pensive for a moment, as if she couldn't quite decide whether dismemberment was proper etiquette for a formal duel or not. Jackie personally would much rather have Snow White surrender. Sure, she knew the evil princess would extend her no such courtesy in return, but she still felt that an actual murder would be a bad thing to carry on her conscience. Like, bad karma of sorts. Defeating a tyrant in single combat was something good guys were supposed to do. Killing disturbed teenage girls with overwhelming magical advantage? Not so much.
The trio walked into the school's courtyard to find a huge crowd of princesses already waiting for them there, far larger than the one they saw the previous night. Clearly the news about this trial had spread like a wild fire since yesterday, and none of the girls wished to miss it, whether they were cheering for White, or silently hoping to be saved from her by Princess Marco.
Miss 'most ruthless in all the land' was there already as well, flaked by her usual entourage: the green-eyed brunette and the pachydermal sycophant with the camera phone. Princess White wore black chainmail trousers and an ebony steel breastplate extending into spiky shoulder pads. Honestly, thought Jackie, didn't the princess' sense of fashion alone gave up all pretense of not being the bad guy? As if that weren't enough, her blood-red lips curved into a condescending smirk as she saw them approach. Her eyes quickly fixed themselves on Princess Marco. "Ah, so you did not made off during the night, after all? I was beginning to fear Cass' prognostications were wrong for once..."
"I told you once, sister, and I'll tell you again, you don't scare me one bit!" Marco replied, as he sashayed forward, taking point and showing her palm to the would be dictator. "Miss Heinous doesn't boss these girls around anymore, and soon enough, neither will you!"
"So, am I to assume you reiterate your challenge?" Snow White retorted calmly, her expression unreadable.
"You betcha I do!" Princess Marco replied. The other princess smiled viciously at this proclamation, and pushed her own coal-black hair off to the side with a swift gesture. Star gave Jackie a meaningful and worried look.
"And I... Prince Jack, will fight in Princess Marco stead, as her chosen and willing proxy!" she shouted, stepping forward with large resolute strides. She spoke her lines exactly as she and Star had rehearsed.
"Ah, so you are having your boyfriend fight your fight? How droll," Princess White mocked. "Frankly, I expected better from the once-famous Princess Marco..."
Jackie felt nervous for a moment, wondering if Marco was going to let his pride derail their plans in the last minute. Star had mentioned that Marco had to accept her self-designation as proxy, in order for it to be valid, and she was sure the goth girl's words were hard for the boy to take in stride.
"He wanted to be the one to kick your ass, Apple Pie," Marco replied with a shrug. "What can I say, I like a man that helps at home... you know, taking out the trash!"
Murmurs and snickers rippled through the crowd, and the evil princess' already white-as-snow skin went even whiter at the pink-clothed princess' comeback. Or perhaps, at the mention of apples.
"Very well then," Snow White spat, stopping the chatter in the background with a gesture of her hand. "I accept your challenge, and I will fight your prince Jack. You will get to mourn your love first, Princess Marco, by your own choice, and then I'll deal with you. I am the challenged party. I choose swords."
"Fine by me," countered Jackie, giving her own blade an easy swirl around her right hand.
Another round of murmurs ran along the audience. It was not unlike the wind through a row of bushes. Jackie saw, through the corner of her eye, coins and multicolor bills changing hands. It took her a second to understand: the princesses were betting on the outcome of the fight.
"Hey Cass," spoke the uglier of the two Snow White flunkies to her green-eyed comrade. "White's got this one for sure, right?" She was eying Prince Jack's gleaming sword with a distrustful expression.
The girl called Cass closed her eyes, looked up and spoke with a distant and foggy tone, "This fading night has seen a clash of light and darkness, the starless sky is to swallow the moon, a pair of lovers to be separated by the grim chasm of death, and the rising sun shall find royal blood spilled..."
"Alright, alright, I'll take that as a yes," the blue elephantine princess interrupted her friend and shook her head. "Fine, five hundred for White!"
"I raise you, six fifty for Jacki... I mean, Prince Jack!" Marco jumped in. Jackie raised an eyebrow and her boyfriend gave her a sheepish look.
"Deal," the other girl spoke, and walked up to them to shake hands with Marco and take yet another surprise picture. "Ca-me-ra phone!"
It was almost like being at the park again, back in Echo Creek, with people betting on whether or not she could pull off specific stunts on the skateboard. So far, ten to one, Jackie had won almost every bet. The thought brought a confident smile to her lips, one that made her almost forget that, should she fail this time, not only would Marco be $650 poorer, they both might end up being a head shorter.
"Wait," Star spoke, suddenly. She had been silent for a while now. "Where is Ponyhead?"
Then Jackie realized; they had not seen the floating horse head, nor her little fairy companion, all morning. In fact, they hadn't seen them since last night.
"Oh," Princess White feigned surprise, as her face turned back from anger into a smug grin. "You needn't worry about that. The traitors are being dealt with already. We... took them into custody as you all slept."
Star gasped. Marco let out a curse. Jackie remained silent, but her eyes went wide with horror.
"Tell me what you did to them, right now!" Star demanded, pointing her wand directly at White. The other princess scoffed and kept quiet. She knew as well as Star, and even Jackie did, that if the mewman attacked her now, the duel would be forfeit on her and Marco's side. Star had been the one to explain that to Jackie, after all. There was one way to get an answer though, and it was through a swift victory. Prince Jack was determined as ever to achieve just that.
She didn't even like Ponyhead all that much. But still, she was quite sure that whatever 'dealt with' meant here, it was not something she wished on her worst enemy, much less the friend of her friend. For a moment she felt herself overcome with revulsion and horror at the person she was about to fight. Then again, she reminded herself, she was dealing with a power-mad dictator, right out from an analogue of a bloody revolution. She almost kicked herself for not thinking about that earlier, for not making sure they kept an eye out for each other through the night, and for having, even for a moment, forgotten to take the situation deadly seriously. She was sure Marco was feeling the same. Well, there would be plenty of time for recrimination later. For now, it just drove home how dangerous this 'Princess White' person was. Jackie needed to focus on the fight first, before anything else could go wrong.
Marco and Star walked out of the circle formed by the onlookers, leaving White and Jack in the middle, ten paces apart. All three of them glared at the dark-haired princess with silent and furious determination. The brunette, who the sociopathic princess and her other flunky had called Cass, begun counting down from ten, in a disinterested, or perhaps trance-like, tone. As per Star's instructions, and drawing from her own fencing lessons, Jackie prepared herself. She flexed her legs into a solid stance, and held her own blade high, to block any opening attack from the pale princess.
The count reached zero and neither fighter moved a muscle. They stood there, examining each other, waiting for their opponent to make the first move. Snow White stance was impeccable, at least as far as Jackie was capable of judging it. She soon realized that, as it came to technique, she was probably far outmatched. Well, fortunately, she did have a secret weapon that should more than even the odds.
Prince Jack lunged forward and sliced a broad horizontal slide as his opening move. If White jumped backwards, then he might break her balance. If she parried, then she could test her magical strength and force her off balance.
The dark haired princess chose to parry. Jackie's bright clean blade impacted the wicked looking jagged sword of Snow White with a loud clang. The Earth girl had calibrated her swing to be but a light tap, not knowing her own strength yet. Slowly, she began to apply more and more force, expecting the other princess' resistance to give in, sooner rather than later. However, Princess White did not budge, not one bit. She held their contest long past the point at which Jackie was giving it her all.
Had the spell perhaps failed somehow? Was she not as strong as Star had predicted? Jackie looked down, and saw the stone floor crack under the pressure her feet exerted on it as she dug-in to push against her rival.
"You are strong. Very strong," Princess White remarked. She smiled. It was a vicious knowing smile. "I am stronger!"
Jackie felt the force being applied on the other side of their tug of war explode and come crashing against her own blade. On reflex, she let go, and jumped to the side. A second blow followed the first, as Snow White's blade came swinging downwards on her position. The gold-clad prince fell to the floor and rolled away just in time, recovering her stance a second after with one swift movement.
Princess White's strike missed her mark and hit the ground directly. A long fissure, arm deep, extended from the point of impact until right before the feet of the nearest onlookers. The crowd gasped. Star covered her mouth in surprise. Marco went almost as pale as their enemy.
----
Marco felt terrified as he saw the princess slash an incredibly deep cut on the stone foundation of the courtyard. Whatever Snow White was, it wasn't human! Hell, by all accounts she wasn't mewman either. Star was strong, but not this strong. He wasn't even sure Miss Skullnick was this strong. And unlike Miss Skullnick, the dark princess was fast, horrifyingly fast.
She moved like a bladed tornado, slashing and lunging. Marco could hardly follow; by the time he comprehended the last feint, the tyrant princess had already launched her next attack. Through it all, Jackie kept parrying and evading, and the Earth boy couldn't help but be impressed at her skill. Her magical strength must have been astounding as well, since she could withstand to block against the force of White's hits. Unfortunately, it was also quite clear that 'Prince Jack' was barely holding on the defensive and had no hope in sight of a successful counterattack.
"Gotta give it to you, Princess Marco," he heard Snow White quip as she kept on her onslaught, "you surely know how to find yourself a real catch. It is been a good while since anyone stood this long against my blade. I will have fun skewering this prince charming, I'll tell you that. And know that, as I rip out his still beating heart with my blade, I will be thinking of you. It will make it even sweeter!"
The boy felt the anger swell within him, and for a second he was ready to jump in, with a shout and a karate chop. Discreetly, Star grabbed him from behind his shirt, pulling him back. If he intervened, then the duel was forfeit, and is not like he would be more effective against the armed princess than Jackie was, especially with all of Star's magic layered on top of her. Then again, duel or not, Marco hoped Star would intervene if things got truly dire. He had taken her aside, made her promise nothing would happen to Jackie. The mewman princess had said nothing could go wrong, not with all she had cast on the other girl, but that if for any reason it did, then she would break the rules of the duel herself, and, quote 'go all narwhal on her ass'.
But, to Marco's eyes, it looked like things had gone wrong already. A bad thought wormed itself into Marco's mind. What if Star decided not to intervene? What if the mewman girl was ok with Jackie dying? He thought back to Ruberiot's song, and to puppet Star jealous and hurt about puppet Jackie and puppet Marco. He thought back to a certain Game of Flags, and to the tactics Star was prepared to use to win. No! That was crazy. There was no way Star would want Jackie to be hurt!
"Ripping out people's hearts? Sounds like quite the wicked queen style, Apple Cider," Marco forced himself, or herself, to retort. It was a lame comeback, hounded as he was with insane, yet absurdly persistent, worries. He hoped to at least distract the raven-haired girl long enough for Jackie to gain back the initiative. "You claim not to be a tyrant, to be fighting to help these girls. But look at her, sisters, is that a liberator? Or just an even crueler oppressor?!"
Princess White threw a savage look Marco's way, as she grinned maliciously and pushed against Jackie with ever more vicious strikes. "Cruelty is in the eye of the beholder. I merely have the will to do what I must, and the courage to fight my own battles. Unlike fake leaders who sacrifice even their loved ones as pawns!"
Marco fell silent at that comeback, partly because he could not deny, deep down, that he still felt guilty about letting his girlfriend fight for him. Whether it was Star or Jackie, it didn't matter, it should have been him.
A chuckle interrupted his thoughts, and as he turned back to look at the fight, he saw not Snow White, but Prince Jack, grinning and laughing under her breath as she blocked yet another downwards strike. "Please, I am no one's pawn. I fight because I want to fight. If you had a single love, or a single friend, in all of the world, you would understand that. That you don't, only tells me, and these girls, what a miserable, quid-pro-quo, lonely bitch you are!"
"How dare you!" Snow White slashed horizontally, quickly and ferociously. But even Marco could tell her movements had gotten a fair bit more sloppy. "I am loved by millions! And I protect them, I guide them, in return! My subjects, these princesses, my friends, they all adore me!"
"Really?" Marco shouted at her, providing at least verbal backup, seizing on the nerve Jackie had apparently hit with her own declaration. "Because from where I am standing, it looks to me like they fear your crazy bloodthirsty ass!"
"You are a rotten apple, and they know it," Jackie pressed on. "I bet not even your two cronies would put their lives on the line for you! Not one of those people you claim love you would do what I am doing now. None. Not for you."
"Well," Snow White replied, her tone suddenly glacial, "after what they are about to witness... they would be utter fools to follow your example!"
The dark-haired princess swung her blade furiously at the blond prince, and the jagged sword made contact, right against Prince Jack's stomach. It hit the middle of her glinting golden armor. Princess White's strike, powerful enough to break the ground apart, stopped a hair's width away from the metal plate. In the air, near the point of impact, shimmered golden waves of light, looking a bit like those created by a pebble hitting the surface of water. Something around the armor itself stopped the vicious princess' attack, something powerful and magic in nature.
In her rush to deliver a mortal blow, the goth had left herself exposed in return, and Prince Jack took the opportunity to deliver well deserved payback. Her blade came down on her opponents shoulder, and it tore through the steel shoulder pads and the chain mail beneath as if through butter. Whatever the jagged sword of the tyrant-princess was made of, it had held remarkably well, Marco realized, against what was surely a magical edge in Prince Jack's sword. Unfortunately for Princess White, her armor was not made of the same stuff. Jackie's blade dug into the other fighter's flesh, cutting a hand's width below the shoulder. Blood splashed around, and Marco reminded himself not to ever misjudge Star, or question her assurances, ever again.
----
Snow White stepped backwards, howling in pain. No matter how strong, this strike should have severed the nerves to her sword arm. The fight was done. Star recognized a crippling injury when she saw one, even if the two human kids did not. In a Mewni duel, this was the time where the victor was supposed to either make a spectacle of it, or, more rarely, a show of mercy.
So it came as great surprise to the mewman when Snow White lunged forward again, with her half-severed arm responding almost as well as if it were unharmed, and rammed the toothy-looking blade towards Jackie's face.
The human girl yelled in surprise, and Star could not fault her in the least. She would have been scared too, even knowing what was going to happen. The glimmering golden waves of the magical barrier rose in front of Prince Jack's unprotected face just the same as they would have over any part of the surface of her armor. I mean, wouldn't it be sort of pointless if the spell protected everything but her head? Duh! That was the most important part!
"Guess now I know where all that bravery of yours comes from," Snow White commented, one part mockery and two parts exasperation. Her pointed fangs showed as her face turned into an angry frown. Wait, her pointed fangs?! Since when did she have fangs? They were small, to be sure, but definitely inhuman, no like small cute Oskar-fangs, but sort of like, well, Tom-fangs, perhaps even longer.
"Well," Star spoke, "and where does yours come from? Because I feel you were just dealt a-, a-, a dis-arming blow, apple... mmm... juice?"
Compared to Marco's and Jackie's smack talk, Star felt seriously out of the game, perhaps she needed to practice this sort of thing more...
"Oh," the wicked princess smirked back at her. "So you mean you haven't figured it out? Even knowing who I am? Even knowing the legend?"
"What legend, Apple Peel?" Jackie asked in turn, now recovered from the shock and swatting away her opponent's blade with her own. "The part about chocking on fruit? Or living in a house alone with seven midgets?"
"No," Snow White retorted, and Star noticed the red irises shining in the fog. "But ask yourselves, this, then: What do you make of a girl, with skin as white as snow, as cold as snow, as dead as snow..."
Thunder crackled around them, far away they heard the howling of wolves, and the evil princess dropped all pretense of humanity. Her limbs stretched and bent in unnatural ways, her face twisted into a grotesque visage, full of ridges and sharp fangs and drool. She moved faster than before, stroke more violent than before. Jackie could not block or riposte a single hit now. Hit after hit, the black sword connected against the golden armor. Or, in reality, millimeters above, against the shielding spell. But Star knew what the other princess seemed to intuit: every impact took some of the protection away. The magical defenses she had cast on Jackie were very powerful, extraordinarily powerful, but they were not inexhaustible.
"... with hair as black as coal, as black as night, as black as raven's wings..." Snow White continued, as she kept pressing her assault. Soon they could all hear the metallic clang of the sword actually hitting the armor, even as faint circles of golden sparks still drifted out on every hit.
"... with lips as red as..." the blade hit Jackie's cheek, and despite the magical shield, it sliced a shallow cut on the side of her face. Snow White took her own blade to her lips and licked it, hungrily "... blood."
Every princess around the circle looked horrified now. Even Princess White's two friends were taking a step backwards and shaking their heads in terror. The vampire looked around at all of them, and began laughing malevolently into the night.
"Oh, I so had hoped to keep the charade a bit longer," she spoke. "Rebel princesses? A glorious fight against their oppressors? Give me a break! Fine, you win, Princess Marco, Prince Jack, you have unmasked me!" the fiend cackled with a deranged grin. Then it went silent all of a sudden and looked back down at Jackie, who stood her ground despite trembling knees. "Now, die!"
----
The next strike smashed the side of her armor, cracking it and bending it slightly inwards. A sharp jolt of pain spread along her left side as some of the impact was transfered through the metal to her ribs. Jackie had been feeling the hits for a while. The strike before this one, the one to her face, had even cut her skin. Now it felt as if the magical protection wasn't there at all anymore. Even when White slashed only at the parts of her body covered by hard armor platting it hurt like a motherfucker. If she got hit in the fleshy bits now, even once, it would be game over, Jackie was certain of it.
She focused on every fencing lesson she had ever had, tried the best she could to block the super-humanly fast swings of the vampire's blade. 'Yes, Snow White is not only an aspiring dictator, she is also a fucking vampire, how crazy is that? No, Jackie, focus, come on, like your life depends on it!' she mentally admonished herself.
Turns out that fighting for your life is not like fencing at all. You feel something awful drop in your stomach, you feel your muscles tense, you see your short life flashing before your eyes. At the same time, you are moving, and you are jumping, and you are shifting your balance from foot to foot, because if you miss a step, if you fumble a block, then you are dead. She was managing to hold off the monster's attacks now, which she never could when the magical barrier was protecting her, not after Snow White went full undead horror on her. Curious what adrenaline and the prospect of imminent dead, combined with magically enhanced reflexes, could do for you.
But in the end, it was only a question of time. And not much time at that. Soon Jackie saw it, the slash that she would not be able to parry. The one that she could not get away from. It was headed straight for her neck. Time seemed to literally slow down as the edge of the wicked blade drew closer and closer. Oh well, maybe Marco and Star had been right after all, she was not ready for adventure. It turned out, her first inter-dimensional jaunt with them would be her last.
Wait. Time was literally slowing down! Not figuratively slowing down, literally slowing to a crawl! Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie saw Star walk into the circle of the arena, her wand glowing, her face contorted in concentration.
"Hey Jackie," she spoke, apologetically.
"Hey Star," the human girl retorted. Surprisingly, she could move her mouth, but not the rest of her body. It felt sort of like a dream, and so did their conversation. "Thought Marco said you didn't freeze time anymore."
"I am not freezing it, just slowing it, and well, is kind of a special situation, you know," the mewman explained.
"Oh, I know," Jackie retorted. With some difficulty, she managed to move her eyes to point meaningfully at the blade slowly inching towards her neck. She wanted to ask Star how exactly it was that she could only move some parts of herself at normal speed, even as her mind processed things about as fast as Star moved, and everything else was near frozen. But perhaps this was not the time.
"So, just to be clear, Jackie," Star announced, apologetically. "I am about to forfeit your duel and try to incinerate her with as much solar power as I can manage to summon with this thing. Not sure if it will be enough, but I think at this point the ideological debate is settled, so I am sure none of the princesses are going to side with her, which makes this much easier and..."
"Wait, Star, don't," Jackie begged.
"Don't?" the princess replied confused.
"Just, like, give me a two seconds head start when you unfreeze things," she had to ask for that at least, as much as it pained her. Otherwise she was dead, literally. "But don't do anything else, let me finish this myself."
"Jackie, that's insane! She is a freaking vampire, probably a really old one or something, considering how strong she is. We couldn't anticipate this, this is clearly out of your league. She might be out of my league too. So, well, let's fight her together," Star spoke. It was a way out, an easy way out, without Jackie having to admit she was weak, because Star herself said this was a formidable opponent, for either of them.
"No."
"No?"
"No," Jackie repeated. "Look, Star, I challenged her. I had my own aces up my sleeve and she still managed to surprise us. But that doesn't change the fact that I agreed to fight her, fair and square, or at least relatively so... so, two seconds head start?"
"Jackie..." Star seemed visibly conflicted. "Are you sure? Marco would say no, if he could hear you. He would tell me to disregard everything you are saying and to blast her with everything I got..."
"Yeah," Jackie agreed. She smiled, which was hard to do when time was half-frozen. "Hey, if she kills me, then you got him all for yourself, right?"
"Don't even joke about that..." Star replied. "Two seconds head start, and I am not sure I will be able to stop things in time again. You better make it out alive, Jackie, or I swear I am going to personally whoop your ass afterwards, ok?"
Jackie chuckled. Then she moved like lightning to parry Snow White's strike. Time resumed anew, as did her life and dead dance with a bloodsucking vampire. Why the hell did she need to be so stubborn? If you asked Jackie, even she wouldn't be able to tell you. But she had to all the same.
From that stubbornness rose a fighting spirit that surpassed even that triggered by the risk of impending death. For to admit defeat after claiming this challenge, would inexplicably have been much worse than to die. Jackie was not fighting for Horse Head, or even for Marco, and she was not fighting for her own skin. She was fighting for her honor and her self-respect, and that, right now, seemed even more vital. With renewed strength, she was first able to hold Princess White's assault, and then to press her own offensive. Soon the vampire was taking backwards steps and making use of all its unholy strength just to parry the slashes from the golden prince Jack.
As soon as she saw a clear opening, Jackie committed herself to the one final push, even at the cost of leaving herself open to a fatal blow. She planted both feet firmly in the ground, gripped the pommel of her sword with all of her enhanced strength, and delivered a punishing lunge. The strike pierced White's armor and buried the point of her sword deep into her chest, carving a hole right through her most vital center and coming out, again through black metal, on the other end.
The undead abomination simply chuckled at the futile attempt, and slashed back towards the human's head, seemingly undeterred. Prince Jack jumped backwards, out of the vampire's reach. But in doing so, she had to let go of her sword, which remained stuck inside the tyrant princess' unbeating heart.
"You don't know much about vampires, do you, prince Jack?" Snow White scolded her, as she advanced in her direction, without bothering to remove the sword from her chest. The pointy end was sticking through the back of the girl and it still din't seem to bother her. "A metal sword won't do it. Even a wooden stake won't work, not on me, it would just shatter against my flesh. Only the sun can harm me, and the sun will not dare shine on this forsaken school. Not as long as I can be said to rule over here. The sun won't save you, unless I lose, and without it you cannot win. All you can do now is useless!" she laughed, "Useless!"
The evil princess lunged towards the gold armored prince, pushing the point of her curved sword towards her face. The human managed to avoid the blow, but in doing so, she lost her footing and fell to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie saw Star's grip around her wand tense. She forced herself to flash a reassuring grin towards the mewman. Anything to stop her from intervening.
White lifted her wicked blade once more and followed through with a downward slice. Prince Jack should have been finished, he was in the floor, he was unarmed, he had no way to block or to dodge. But Jackie Lynn Thomas did. She did as she had done so many times in the past, as she had done the countless times she had fallen to the floor, learning to ride her skateboard: she got up. She got up by pushing down with one hand and with both her legs, rolling her body as she rose to her feet. It was a trick to get up quickly after a fall, and with a normal human strength and reflexes it would have gotten her standing straight in just a second. With a magically-enhanced body, it sent her flying into the air, above Princess White. The acrobatic maneuver ended with her falling back to the ground, on her feet, behind the raven-haired creature of the night.
The vampire twisted around to attack once more, but Jackie was long ready. With a swift movement, she kicked Snow White's wrist, causing her to release the grip on her cruel black sword. At the same time, she lunged forward and grabbed her own blade, ripping it from the bloody monster's chest in a single movement, then swinging it back around, until the edge was resting directly on the former tyrant's neck.
"So, only sunlight and no stakes, right? Well, how about decapitation?" she asked, with a cold controlled tone. Her opponent froze as the blade touched the snow-cold skin. "Oh, I hear that works on vampires well enough, at least in the tales they tell where I am from. Maybe you are special, Snowflake. But guess what? So is this sword. And we already know it can cut you. So, the question is: how do you think you'll fare without a head?"
"Please, if you were really going to do it, you would have tried it already, like you did in your last two futile attempts at harming me. But don't think I don't notice what the difference is, Prince Jack: now you have the time to think and I am disarmed. I think you don't have the guts for an execution," Snow White replied, as she begun to smirk. "That's what I love about knights in shining armor, so noble, so predictable, and so utterly harmless."
"You know, it is true I don't like killing people, so you might have been right," Jackie pretended to concede, "if you were alive. But you are not people, are you? Way I see it, you are a corpse already, so why should I care in how many pieces I leave you?"
Princess White remained silent, immobile, held there with a sword to her neck. In all fairness, vampires seemed sentient, so the ethics of this weren't quite as uncomplicated as Jackie was trying to pretend. She wondered for a second if, by sparing Snow White, a literal bloodsucking monster, she would be responsible for her future victims. Then she wondered if vampires were inherently evil or had as much free will as anyone else, to be good or bad as they chose. She admonished herself that Snow White didn't seem like the kind to ever be redeemed, then admonished herself again that it was probably not her call to make. It wouldn't have been, if she were human.
"Tell you what," spoke gallant Prince Jack, "I'll let you amble on some more, on three conditions. The first is your full surrender in this duel, of course. The second, is that you tell me where Princess Pony Head and Princess Glintwisp are, and that they be unharmed. If you have hurt either of them in any way that they won't be fully recovered from by tonight, the deal is off and, make no mistake, I will end you. The third is that you scramble out of here and never again show your ugly face in St. O's or in the presence of myself or my friends. How does that sound? I'd say it is pretty generous, all things considered. Reject that deal, and you will find my nobility to be quite flexible when it comes to your kind."
Blood-red lips pursed together as the princess frowned in thought, and Jackie pushed the blade closer to her neck to help her decision along. Finally, Snow White replied, "they are in the highest room atop tower three, or what your famous Princess Marco left of it. I haven't fed on either of them, nor had a chance to torture them, I was saving that... pleasure... for after our duel." The creature grinned and Jackie felt herself reconsider her mercy. "I do promise not to come back to this stink-hole, and to leave you and your princess Marco alone," Jackie caught on and pushed the slightest bit further into the sneaky creature's neck, "...as well as the mewman and all the princesses here. And... and... I concede."
The evil princess let both her arms fall to her sides, and withdrew back her fangs. Her monstrous visage transformed back into one of unblemished fairytale beauty, except for the resentful scowl it bore. A roar of cheers erupted all around them, accompanied by a chant of "Jack, Jack, Jack!"
As the princesses rejoiced, the fog began to lift, and the sky started to brighten. Whatever held back the dawn was gone the moment the vampire princess admitted defeat. Snow White took a step backwards, and Jackie allowed her to do so. She beamed her a victorious cocksure smile. And the charming Prince Jack said, "looks like the sun is coming up after all. I'd be getting out of here while you still can, if I were you!"
Like a bat out of hell, the dark-haired princess scrambled for the gates of St. Olga's. Thin threads of smoke begun raising from her back and the top of her head. She ran out into the dead trees surrounding the school, seeking refuge from the raising sun, and soon vanished into the wilderness.
"Well, Snow White... how do you like them... apples!?" cried Princess Marco from behind her brave prince. A fair number among the audience, and Jackie herself, groaned.
But, in all fairness, hearing her boyfriend speak reminded Jackie of one thing, one thing she still had left to do, that she wanted to do, needed to do after the fight. Her heart was pumping, her breathing still fast, and she felt, well, she felt invincible! She had to prolong this feeling of victory, and there was only one way she could think of as to how. A perfect way to cap a perfect adventure.
"Star, sorry to be selfish, but would you mind checking up on Pony Head and Glintwisp?" Jackie finally spoke. She walked tiredly back towards the Mewman princess and gave her back the magical golden sword. For all she knew, it might turn into a pumpkin before the end of the day. Star had said none of the spells were even close to permanent.
"Yeah, sure, but, don't you want to... oooohhh," Star stopped in mid-sentence, as Prince Jack lifted Princess Marco into his arms and began walking back into the mansion that housed the former school, with the pink dressed rebel princess cradled in his arms.
"Jack! Jack! Jack!"
----
Marco's heart was pounding as he let himself be whisked away through dim lit corridors and portrait-decorated stairways. They were alright. They were safe. They had won! No, Jackie had won, and she had been... amazing!
He looked up, at the girl in the prince disguise. She was carrying him through the hallways of Saint Olga's, holding him delicately and effortlessly in front of herself, one arm under his neck and the other under his knees. He smiled a faint nervous smile, and she gave him a confident grin in return.
It was not that he approved of it, of the risks Jackie had taken. Princess White had been terrifying, and it was doubly terrifying when you weren't the one in the line of fire. Marco had been in many life or death fights in the last year of rooming with Star, and he had been Toffee's prisoner once. The smug lizard was probably the only foe he knew who might have been even more dangerous than the vampire princess. And yet, he hadn't been one tenth as scared when facing him, as he had been watching Jackie and White fight. It was always worse to see your loved ones endanger themselves on your behalf, especially when they were obviously under-prepared for the fray. He almost never worried like that about Star, not because he cared for her any less, far from it, but because, well, she was Star! She was the strongest person he knew.
But, then again, was Jackie any weaker? Was she really? Given what he had just seen, Marco was inclined to say no. A part of his brain kept nagging at him that it should have been him out there, fighting that duel instead. But if it had indeed been him, even empowered by Star's magic just as much as 'Prince Jack' had been, would the result have been the same? Would he have won? Could he have won? A voice in his head told him that he wouldn't have, couldn't have. If he had fought instead of Jackie, then he would likely now be dead, and all would have been lost for the princesses of St. O's. The idea that he might be, in the end, the weaker of the three, surprised him. As did the fact that he didn't seem to have a problem with it. Not if it was Star and Jackie, as opposed to say, Jeremy, who bested him.
He had always had the biggest crush on Jackie, going as far as he could remember. He was always in awe of how confident, how athletic, how popular, how all around awesome she was. Sure, today she had literally been the day's hero: the fairytale prince conquering the evil monster and delivering freedom onto the masses. But then again, she had always been his hero (or, well, heroine).
"You know, Jackie, that was really, really cool," he finally said. In the battle between the side of him that wanted to tell her to never do something like that ever again, and the side of him that was overcome with awe, the second won. "But, well, are you alright?"
"You mean after nearly dying fighting a literal bloodthirsty creature of the night?" Jackie replied. She beamed at him. "Honestly, never been better!"
"That's... good," Marco responded, unable to think of anything smarter to say. "Eh, shouldn't we be looking for Pointyhead and Glintwisp?"
"Star can handle that. It's not like we would get to them any quicker if we are with her, and I think Horse Head would prefer seeing her than us," reasoned the skateboarder girl. "Besides, I believe this is the part of the story in which the prince, having rescued his princess and defended her honor, gets his well deserved reward..."
"Oh," was all the boy was able to say in return. For a moment it was like the last few months had never happened, and he was back to literally being unable to form coherent sentences in the presence of Jackie Lynn Thomas, or Prince Jack, or whomever she or he was.
The golden-armored knight looked down at him with a slight frown. "I mean, you know I am being tongue in cheek here, right? You can always say no if not in the mood, Marco... is just, you'd be surprised how much of a turn on this sort of adrenaline is..."
"No, sister, I hear ya," replied the boy, taking on her best Princess Marco persona. Weirdly enough, he felt more sure of himself with that. He also knew, from experience, exactly what Jackie was talking about.
"Sister?" Jackie raised an eyebrow. Then, affecting what Marco was sure was her best attempt at a masculine low bass voice. "I am afraid you must be mistaking me for someone else, milady."
Marco rolled his eyes. "I am not a..." he begun. But something in the look Jackie gave him, a smoldering desire-filled look, made him stop mid-sentence.
Soon after, they reached one of the rooms they had slept in the night before. Jackie's room, actually, rather than his and Star's. The girl in the prince costume kicked the door open, and as she did, Marco felt a wave of warm and light surround both of them. He blinked a few times, then realized, to his surprise, and Jackie's as well, that the golden armor had vanished into thin air. Underneath, Prince Jack's original green, white and gold outfit, remained unchanged.
"Wait, Jackie, are Star's spells fading? What about the extra strength?" He asked, worried for a moment that she was going to collapse from exhaustion from the fight, without the added energy provided by the spells. "Do you need me to get off from you?"
"Heh, Marco, I can carry you without any magic, whenever you want," Jackie boasted, in her normal voice. "Besides, I think the strength has been fading slowly ever since the end of the fight, I think I am only about fifty percent stronger than usual by now. Which I guess is a good thing..."
Prince Jack didn't go into any specifics, but the phrase 'death by Snu Snu' came to Marco's mind. He had to agree it was a good thing that his girlfriend could no longer crush rocks with her bare hands.
"So, do you really want me to..." Marco felt uncomfortable saying it, "... be the girl?"
Jackie raised an eyebrow at him, as if asking if that was going to be too different from their usual fare. Marco had to admit that, even with some practice under his belt now, the blond haired girl had always been the more confident assertive one. And is not like Prince Jack was suddenly going to pull out a golden strap-on from beneath his dark green trousers, or worse. At least Marco hoped he wouldn't, she wouldn't. Marco wasn't sure exactly what Star's magic had done to Jackie, but he knew he himself was exactly as he always was, just in girl clothes. But there was still a difference, in his mind, between whatever it was that their dynamic usually was, and, well, this.
"Yeah, Marco," Jack spoke in her ear, as he gently let her down on the large soft bed, "I want you to be my princess for tonight. And I want to be your prince. Do you want that too?"
"... Yes," Marco responded. To his own surprise, he knew he was being honest. It was very confusing, and scary, and new, and exciting.
Now, Marco knew that he was more in contact with his feminine side than most guys. Jackie herself was a tomboy, Marco realized as well. She could pull off 'girly' better than almost anyone in school, and yet, she was most at ease being one of the guys. He also knew that there were people for which the gender they were born at never quite, well, fit. He didn't think that was quite his case, nor Jackie's for that matter (although, if it was, he was going to be there for Jack just as much as for Jackie, that was a given). No, he thought, taking stock of the kind of smirk 'Prince Jack' was giving him, or her, or whatever. This wasn't about any personal revelation for either of them, it was play, and it was transgression, and it was fantasy, and it was deliciously strange. Weird-awesome, he thought, remembering Star's phrase.
A moment later, his deliberations were forgotten as he felt Jackie's lips on his neck, her hands roaming his torso atop the pink frilly blouse of his dress. He let himself enjoy it, wondering for a second if being passive was unfairly stereotypical of the role he was supposed to play. But Jackie, no, Prince Jack, seemed to be enjoying it, and Marco was enjoying it, and that was in the end what mattered.
Marco felt Prince Jack unbutton her blouse, he felt her hands on his nipples, then her mouth kissing him there, sucking on them. He imagined for a moment what it would feel to have breasts, to feel the sensations that he had seen reflected in Jackie's and Star's faces whenever he did that for them. What little it did for him physiologically, the image of Jackie ravishing him there was a surprisingly arousing one for the boy.
"Oh, woah," the skateboarder girl almost yelped in surprise, "I didn't know these got hard on you too! Does it feel good?"
Marco chuckled. "Well, it probably doesn't do for me what it does for you... do you want me to, like, pretend to moan or something?"
"Dude, don't ever fake it!" she admonished him, in her normal Jackie tone. "I mean, I don't..."
"Ok, ok, then I got an idea Jacki... eh, Prince Jack," Princess Marco replied. "Can you stand up from the bed? I think you are quite right, my prince, that you earned a reward, fighting for my honor and all..."
He couldn't help but think to himself that that had been a bit forced, and a lot more meek than what Rebel Princess Marco was supposed to be all about. But it would do. This wasn't a usual situation for the rabble-rouser of St O's anyways, so how was Marco to know what was or wasn't her style to say under the circumstances?
Jackie raised an eyebrow, but did as he asked. "Alright little lady, what did you have in mind?" she said. There was something Harrison Ford-esque about the look she gave him.
Then, Marco slid from the bed, his blouse still open and hanging down to the sides. He literally crawled on his knees to where 'Prince Jack' was and roamed his hands up through her legs. With a swift movement, he undid the button of her trousers and pulled down both the pants and a set of sea green boxer shorts. He looked up and fluttered his eyelashes, then pressed his mouth towards Jackie's crotch and begun lapping at it in wide motions. Slow at first, then faster as he was able to confirm his girlfriend's arousal. Soon his tongue was exploring the length of her lips, and the inside of her folds, and occasionally flicking at her sensitive nub.
"Oh yeah, princess!" shouted Prince Jack. "Suck. On. My. Cock!"
For months after, at night, before going to sleep, Marco would feel slightly and irrationally ashamed, of how hard hearing those words made him that night.
'Princess Marco' kept going at it until Jackie, even with her still ever so slightly bolstered strength, found that her weakened knees made it hard for her to maintain the position. She, or he, or whatever, pushed a hand down and lifted Marco up, motioning him to the bed.
Just before the boy, who was a princess, sat down, Jackie pulled the skirt of his dress up, and removed the entire thing, throwing it to the side of the bed. She pushed herself out of her boots, and the reminder of her lower garments. In a superman-like move, she literally ripped her own white shirt open, sending buttons flying all over the room with the last of her added strength. Her boobs bounced free in the air.
It should have been the end of the game. She was no longer dressed like a handsome prince, he was no longer dressed like a princess. It should have been the end of Prince Jack and Princess Marco. But it wasn't. Not yet. Not for the next few moments. The moments in which Princess Marco lied down in the bed, blushing and excited, yearning to feel her prince's touch. The moments in which Prince Jack, after winning the battle and rescuing the princess, got his reward, climbing atop his love and embracing her, plunging himself into her. Or that is what it was in his mind, even if the prince's anatomy was rather more concave than convex. But they were united, and Prince Jack was thrusting, and Princess Marco was moaning, and there was no faking in it at all.
It felt liberating, to be able to enjoy the ride and get lost in the sensation, and be loud and unconstrained, in a way he never quite managed to do as a guy. Marco also felt wanted, hungered for, in a way that was different than any he had experienced before. Later he would ask Jackie, and she would tell him how powerful she felt, like she was doing things to him, like she was 'the one screwing you silly'. And Marco would say that she screwed him silly every time they had sex, and she would say that it wasn't the same. But right then, in that moment, Marco knew only his part, and he knew he was getting lost in the sensations, and he was cresting up and up. Finally, he exploded, and as he came, he came loudly and shamelessly, with a whimpering moan.
"That was... intense," Jackie finally said, many seconds after, being the first to recover.
"Yes, yes it was," Marco agreed. "Hey, Jackie, if you ever feel like you should have been a guy, you can tell me..."
"Nah, dude, pretty sure they gave me the right equipment. But I enjoyed playing the part today, even more than I thought I would," she winked at him. "You can also tell me if being Princess Marco feels better than being dude-Marco, I think I'd be ok, if it was you..."
"Pretty sure I am a guy, Jackie."
"A guy who can pull off pink better than me!"
"Hey sister, if you got it, flaunt it!"
They both laughed together at that, then stayed there, silently looking at the ceiling, taking a comfortable pause from a truly insane pair of days. Even by the standards of his life after meeting Star, Marco was pretty sure these last 48 hours had been extraordinarily wild. Once they were back to Echo Creek, he was looking forward to a week or two in which nothing much out of the ordinary happened. At least if ordinary included his impossibly good luck of dating both his childhood crush and his best friend.
"We should get dressed and find Star," Marco finally stated.
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Author Note 1: And finally a chapter ending in a happy note! Weren't we starting to miss those? :) That said, Star hasn't seen Ponyhead yet, and knows nothing about mommy dear, so...
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Author Note 2: Please do note that it was none other than Neil Gaiman, in 'Snow, Glass, Apples', who first stated the incredibly obvious: that Snow White is, and has always been, an undead creature of the night.
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Author Note 3: Alternate ending to the Prince Jack / Snow White fight:
Snow: "Rebel princesses? A glorious fight against their oppressors? Give me a break! Fine, you win, Princess Marco, Prince Jack, you have unmasked me! Now, die!"
Star: "Ze WURDO!!"*
Time freezes, soundtrack goes silent, Star walks up to Jackie, takes the sword from her immobile hands, decapitates a frozen vampire Snow White, puts sword back in Jackie's hands, exits stage left.
* Because "Easy Peasy Time Freezy" is too mainstream, or, not mainstream enough...
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Coming up next: Chapter 17: Reveal to Me That Which is Hidden.
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