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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
- 21
- 22
- 23
Chapter 22: Baloo-balee, baloo-balow. I let you go, I let you go
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/

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"I am so so sorry, sweetie," spoke Moon, her voice breaking. "So sorry, and so proud. You know? I lost my mom too, when I was not much older than you are now. So, what I am trying to say, Star, is that I understand, and that this is the last thing I ever wanted to do to you. Please, sweetie, forgive me."
"I... mom... I..." Star had no words, nothing to say. She had been thinking of things to say to her mom constantly for the past ten days, and now that she could finally speak to her, she had nothing. What could she say? That she missed her? That she felt lost? That it hurt? That she regretted never having been the daughter Moon would have wanted to have? That she took back every single time she had complained about her rules and her advice? That she would do it all differently now if she could? Even telling her mom of her plans, to find her killer, to avenge her... even that felt hollow.
Moon's phantasmal hand passed through Star's golden hairs. She could not feel her touch, not really, but she could imagine it and that was almost enough. "Sweetie, I know how hard this is, I really do. I will miss you more than anything, and I would have given everything for things to be different. But I am going to be fine where I am going. You need to be strong, and you are, stronger than I was, stronger than I could even conceive of back then. But you need to be strong for the sake of the living, not the dead."
"But... but... you are not dead, mommy! You are here!" Star lied to herself, more so than to her mom. Moon's translucent green visage looked at her helplessly, as if about to break down crying herself. A fresh pang of guilt hit the princess. Even in death, she caused her mother nothing but grief. "I... I am sorry... I know..."
"Then you also know that what you are doing is not what I want for you," the teal phantasm stated calmly. As gentle as the reprimand was, as kind as her rebuke was phrased, the princess felt her strength break. Tears begun flowing down Star's eyes. Yes, even now, she was a disappointment. "Star, please. I am not trying to hurt you. I just don't want you to put yourself in danger, to put your friends in danger. Not for my sake!"
"But mom, what if it comes back?" Star's voice was quieter than a mouse's whisper. "It... it defeated you, Hekapoo too, I... I am scared, but isn't protecting Mewni also my duty now?"
"Yes, Star, it is. That's why you need to stay back home with your people, and guard them, and guide them, and reassure them, as their queen," her mom insisted. "Again, Star, I am so sorry. I would not have you inherit that burden if I could still carry it for you. I know you don't want it. I didn't either. No one who deserves it can ever want it. But you are right, your duty is to the people of Mewni, as was mine before, and my mother's before me..."
"I can't, mom, not even if I wanted," replied Star regretfully. She had been feeling the weight of her decision even since the wake, and now she had confirmation that it had been the wrong one. But even so, it was done, "I promised Eclipsa. I made a deal! I... I don't think I can be queen now, even if I tried, not until, well, until I do what I said I would do..."
"Oh sweetie, how I wish you hadn't done that," Moon shook her head. "Eclipsa... she was my mistake, you shouldn't have to be the one to deal with her. But that's all the more reason not to leave Mewni, Star. You cannot leave her alone there! You need to inform the high commission... what is left of it! Eclipsa is evil, Star!"
She hadn't seemed evil. Nothing Star had heard about her, before or since, pointed at her being evil either, and she had researched the records on the matter thoroughly after their encounter. As thoroughly as Star could, under the circumstances. But nonetheless, she couldn't be sure, and this seemed like the worst possible time to start yet another argument with her mom. Nothing, no principle and no point of disagreement, was worth that now. The princess opted for saying nothing.
"Or," the former queen continued. "If you don't want to go back to Mewni... if you really can't be queen... Then how about staying here, sweetie? With that Marco boy you like, and your other friend as well? You always told me how much you liked Earth. Perhaps you can stay a little while, until you are ready for Mewni again. All I want, Star, is for you to be happy."
That did it. That broke the illusion. Star stopped crying, stopped shaking. She fixed Moon's ghost with a murderous glare, her hand tensing around the wand. Black tendrils tightened around her arms, climbing further and further up through the inside of her veins, towards her shoulders. "You are not my mom!"
Moon would never have told Star to run away from her responsibilities. She would have wanted her daughter to be happy, and safe, that much was true. But she would never advice her to desert Mewni, to abandon her people. The thought wouldn't even have occurred to her mother, not even as a remote possibility! Glossaryk had been off, but then again Glossaryk was always off. And Hekapoo had sounded strange, but it wasn't as if Star knew her well enough to tell for certain. But her mom? She knew her mom. This thing was not her mom!
"No, I am not. But, next time we meet, remember this, Star. Remember that I tried to do this the easy way," answered a deep voice, a male voice coming from the apparition that had so far pretended to be her mother. Not-Moon was now giving Star a scornful glare, flashing her a mocking smirk.
It was then that the princess noticed the teeth. They were sharp and feral, and not mewman at all. Before her eyes, her mom's image began to change: fingers merging together, scales replacing her hair, ribcage broadening to the sides, a monstrous snout expanding forward from her mouth. Her royal dress also shifted and reshaped itself, into a somber suit and tie.
Toffee's face flashed the princess an incredibly disturbing grin. "SURPRISE!!"
Then, cackling madly, he vanished into an explosion of ghostly green smoke.
Try as she might, alone in her Earth room, Star was not able to sleep that night.
----
"Jackie, listen, are you alright?" asked her boyfriend cautiously. They were half-way towards her place now. It was late night, and even in Echo Creek, California, it was starting to get chilly outside.
"Sure, dude, no worries," she reassured him with a smile. "How about you, though?"
She could tell Marco was worried, about Star, about their plan, and about something else. Maybe about his dream? She felt he hadn't told her all about it yet, that he remembered more of those sixteen years than what he claimed, and that whatever was buried in those memories was harsh stuff.
"I... I am not fine, none of us are," Marco shook his head. "But that's the point, Jackie. It was a rhetorical question. I can tell you are worried too, you know? Can you at least tell me why? Is it about this morning? Or about the invitation thing? The spell? Something else?"
"Seriously, no biggie, Marco," Jackie shrugged.
It truly wasn't. Star had just lost her mom. Marco had lost, well, whatever Hekapoo was to him, and in addition had to deal with the fact that there was this whole forgotten past catching up to him now. Compared to that, what did she have to worry about? A dumb role written in a card and some childish teenage insecurities? It would have been ridiculous to even bring those up to him now.
"Jackie..." Marco begun. Then he fell silent. They walked a few more steps until, "You can talk to me, too, you know? I feel that you are always there when I need to figure something out, and I know that you were there for Star too, back when we all started going out together. But you never talk about your own problems..."
"Well, Marco, I don't have that many," she smiled. "I am pretty lucky, honestly. The stuff I worry about, well, it's just nonsense..."
"Jackie, if that were true, then you would have told me," he smiled at her. It was a cute smile, that alone was more than enough for her. "We have had plenty of time to talk nonsense. But, if it worries you, then it isn't nonsense, not to me."
"You are worried about Star, Marco," Jackie stated. "I know you are. I am too. Worried that she is in pain. Worried that she will do something rash. I understand that she is in your mind a lot, and is not like that's the only thing in your mind now..."
"Jackie... I..." he started talking. Jackie held a hand up, silencing him.
"Marco, please, let me finish." If she didn't say it now, she might not be able to do so later. "This morning you came to leave me behind so that you could be there for Star. I get why. Hell, Marco, I even admire you for it, for being there for those you love, when the going gets truly tough, when few would blame you for staying behind. It is part of what I love about you. But I'd be lying to you, and lying to myself, if I said it didn't hurt to know for certain who you'd pick, if you really had to..."
She looked down, frustrated. Frustrated that it mattered this much, that she was laying it on him. There were real threats they had to face now, life or death stuff. There was a prophecy and a devil playing games and who knows what else. They had bigger problems than her wounded ego.
"Jackie, that's not it!" the boy protested. "I love you, Jackie. I have loved you since we were little kids. Yes, I like Star too, but is not like she is more important to me than you are. It's only, well, she really needs me now. You would be fine without me. Hell, you might be better off without the kind of boyfriend that drags you into all this chaos, all this danger! But Star really needs... a friend. She needs someone by her side now, unconditionally."
"You are right, Marco, of course," agreed Jackie. And yet, at the same time... "But, if it wasn't just Star? If we both needed someone? I am not saying I do. I don't. But if we both needed you the same, and both loved you the same, can you tell me you would not still choose her?"
"No, Jackie, I... I wouldn't," he tried. His eyes avoiding her own.
"Marco, can I ask you a favor?"
"Anything."
"Don't lie to me," she said, flashing him a bittersweet smile made of fondness and fragility. "I don't think I deserve that."
Marco stared at her. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. She could tell that he cared, that he wanted to reassure her and, at the same time, that he was honoring her request.
"I love you, Jackie," he whispered tenderly. "That's not a lie."
She nodded. A gust of air swirled around them, and she shivered. Marco took off his hoodie and handed it to her.
"Jackie..." he seemed to be trying hard to find the right words. "I don't have to choose. Do I?"
"No, Marco, you don't," she replied. Slowly, she took his hoodie and slid it down her head, arms and torso. It felt warm, and soft. It smelled nice.
"I am glad," he remarked.
"Yeah..." she replied, "me too."
----
'Witch' had read her invitation, and Janna was pleased. It had felt like encouragement, like reaffirmation. It would be her role to play at Sam's mysterious costume party and, at the same time, it felt like more than a role, more than make pretend. Witch was what she truly was, what she was becoming. At least she hoped it was so. So what if she couldn't quite match Star? She could do things now, see things, understand things, that a month ago were literally beyond her comprehension. And yet, it did matter, despite her protests. It did matter that she was so far below Tom, below Star, below Sam.
She sat on the lotus position in the middle of Tom's room, floating in the air by her own power. Well, that was a lie, the power came from the damned souls and the demons that inhabited Tom's underworld. It was a huge tapestry made of bits and scraps of power which she had siphoned around herself to turn the air into an invisible hand, capable of holding her in its palm. It felt like her own power though, at this point, sometimes. But it was never good to forget where her magics came from, where she could look towards to gain even more power. In front of her was the black envelope, empty now of its treacherous invitation.
She had spent half of that night staring at the dark material, feeling it with her new senses. Now it was well past three, and she was nowhere nearer to her goal than she had been when she started. She could sense Sam's energies in the envelope, as well as something else, something dark and slow flowing below the devil boy's hellfire. But she could not draw from it. She could not get the magics that made the envelope to bend or reweave, to transform on her command. Try as she might, the black paper envelope remained indifferent to her will, more solid than stone, more real than reality itself.
Exasperated, Janna lifted a hand. A ball of blue flames sprouted between her fingers in an instant. At least she had gotten better at that since a week ago. She threw the fireball directly at the paper sleeve. It hit the dark envelope and blazed around it for a full minute before fading out. But when the embers died, the black paper was unscratched and, she confirmed, cold to the touch.
"Yes, I wouldn't have expected that to work, either," spoke a low composed voice behind Janna, coming from the wall opposite to the door. It wasn't Tom's voice.
Startled, the troublemaker girl turned around to face the intruder. Her levitation failed her, but she landed on her feet. She came face to face with a transparent glaucous apparition of a half-lizard man in a business suit and tie. It regarded her with a look of detached curiosity, making no movement towards her. Janna had heard enough from Star's stories, and read enough of Marco's private journal, to know who this was, even if the ghostly appearance was unexpected: Toffee.
She knew he was dangerous, knew it well enough to beginning drawing in power the moment she realized who she was seeing. Lightning crackled between her fingers. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I am afraid I have come to kill you," the lizard monster responded, equably. "Sorry, nothing personal, but Star has left me no choice. If she won't be convinced not to embark on this foolish path, then I must make sure the way itself is closed."
Perhaps it was true that Janna did not always show the best judgment. But, to her credit, she understood that when a smooth sociopath threatened you with murder, no matter how calmly, you didn't exactly waste time asking why. You either fled, or you cried for help, or you fought back. The apprentice witch did all three. It was an instinct acquired from the harshness of experience, even if her conscious mind did not remember the lesson. Even if she had forgotten Princess White.
"Tom, help!!!" she yelled, and in the same breath she was raising her hands to attack.
Lightning flowed from her fingertips. It crashed through and around Toffee's non-substance, harmlessly. The Lizard looked at her with bemusement, and with contempt. Janna turned around to run, but a flash of green fire passed her by on the side; suddenly the stairs going down into Tom's room were engulfed in blazes.
Terrified, she turned back towards Toffee, who walked slowly towards her. In desperation, she conjured two blue fireballs of her own and launched them at the specter, with predictable results. The ghost glided through the fire, unscathed.
"My turn," he spoke coldly, and pointed at Janna with a single finger of his right claw.
A stream of green flames flowed from the limb, moving fast towards her, too fast to dodge, too fast to think. She could feel the magic in that emerald fire. It was a magic that felt like Star's own, yet turned inside out into a profoundly wrong way. On reflex, without thinking, Janna casted a weak levitation spell. She pulled the black envelope which had contained Sam's party invitation and magically pulled it between herself and the viridescent torrent of deadly combustion. Toffee's attack forked in two as it made contact with the dark object. Janna was glad her guess about the envelope's indestructibility had proven right. The bifurcated streams hit opposite sides of Tom's room, blowing twin holes into the thick rock walls. Quickly, Janna scurried into one of the holes, and began running through the hallway parallel to the demon prince's chambers.
She had to flee, to hide, to find help.
"Tom!!" she cried. "Damn it, Tom! Help! Wrathmelior! Sam! Anyone! Please!"
Star. Toffee's magic had felt like Star's. Well, like Star's magic if it had been taken through a blender of evil, but still, it had a strong similarity with the mewman's power. Janna took out her phone, without ever stopping running. She loaded her contact list, saw Star's entry there, still near the top. For a moment, her finger hovered over the call button. She felt an overwhelming irritation, a retching feeling of revulsion, a torrent of humiliation and guilt. It was a visceral sentiment, reinforced into the core of her being by a malignant power. But even so, it wasn't enough to override her instinct for self-preservation. The phone rang. Once. Twice.
"Janna?!" she heard the shocked surprise of the princess on the other end.
"This is getting tiresome," remarked Toffee as he appeared right in front of the young witch. Evidently, there was little point in running away from someone who could just teleport himself into the back of a closed room, or go through walls, or whatever it was that the phantasm had done to get inside Tom's bedroom.
A claw caught Janna's arm. It felt surprisingly solid. With the back of his remaining hand, Toffee threw the girl's cellphone against the wall, before she could even say a word. It broke on impact. Smiling, the monster lifted that same hand to place it right in front of her face, and pointed an outstretched finger at her. Green flames began building up around the ghost's arm. She closed her eyes.
"Grraaaarggh!!" she heard a roaring cry of rage and madness, a familiar voice.
Janna opened her eyes to see the lizard's ghost flying through the air, Tom's hands around its neck, holding into the immaterial apparition with ease. Whether it was because Toffee had made himself corporeal to grab her, or because Tom, being a demon, could touch ghosts as a matter of course, he didn't seem to have any problem strangling the specter. The demon prince's eyes glowed bright red. All around the pair, a storm of green and crimson blazes devoured one another, vying for supremacy.
The young Lucitor began speaking a long incantation in a strange guttural tongue. Around him and the immortal monster, an array of stone pillars sprouted from the earth, tearing through the palace's carpet and walls. Symbols glowed in bright scarlet script unto the rocks. Janna felt a confluence of terrible energies gathering around the two combatants...
"Enough!" Toffee shouted. He hit Tom with the back of his arm, throwing him flying into the air, past Janna herself. The stones that had begun to form exploded into emerald dust. "Since you insist on getting in the way, demon child, I will remove you as well. In the end, you are both equally inconsequential!"
Toffee advanced towards the two teens, his serene expression now gone, a glare of fury and maddened determination replacing it.
"IRRADIATED SHRAPNEL DEATH BLIZZARD BLAST!!" shouted yet another familiar voice from behind the troublemaker girl. A storm of emerald glass-like magic shards came flying fast right behind those words, blowing the lizard back into the opposite wall.
Janna turned around to see Star, followed by Marco and Jackie, as they all emerged from Tom's hearse-like carriage. The princess' face held a glare of fury and determination of her very own.
----
He had once held Marco prisoner, forced her to break the wand. He had impersonated her mom. He had gone after her friends, yet again. He would pay. Toffee would regret the day he crossed paths with Star Butterfly. If he was a ghost, she would find a way to send him beyond the veil. And if he wasn't, he soon would be!
"DEVOURING HORRORS HELL SWARM!!" she cried out. Flowing tentacles of undiluted black ichor jumped from the shadows, all around the lizard monster, a thousand eyes and mouths opening towards her victim. They began to bite, to rend, to feast.
Star felt a strange sensation after casting each spell on Toffee. As if a part of her magic was rebounding back onto her. She had felt the impacts against her magic shield when she cast the irradiated shrapnel blast, and now she could feel the scratches in her skin. But those were weak echoes, muted somehow, either by their very nature, or because of the many layers of magical defenses Star had weaved upon herself. Either way, this was not a sensation she had expected. She had never felt this type of feedback when practicing her new spells before.
In truth, both attacks were only a slight deviation from her usual spell repertoire, based on the same basic principles as a Warnicorn Stampede or a Narwhal Blast. Same principles, that is, but a different application, predicated upon different intent. It was what her spells could do, what her summons could be, when cast not with the intent to subdue or even to simply win, but with the desire to kill, to hurt, to destroy her foes down to their very core. A less childish spell, for far less childish purposes.
Yet it still wasn't enough. She could already see Toffee's ghost recovering from the assault, getting ready to counter-attack. She would not give him such opportunity. Screw taking those risks, and screw playing fair.
"From darkness deep and fires far, I call on time to flow like tar," she intoned. All around her, the flames paused their ceaseless dance, freezing in place. Time slowed down to a crawl. She calmly walked amidst a world nearly, but not entirely, stopped.
It wasn't the same spell she had used during Jackie's duel with Princess White. The enchantment back then had been 'Cozy flowsy, time slowsy', if she remembered correctly. But this was a variation on that spell, reconstructed under the principles of Eclipsa's notes. It had been Star's second attempt at crafting true dark magic of her own. Time was a fragile thing, after all, and, in a way, this kind of magic offered a much improved degree of control than her past attempts; a more intimate understanding of the natural order she was subverting. As for her first attempt at a dark spell...
"Seething poison, burning bright, I draw you forth with all my might," she begun, taking aim. It was not worth using Eclipsa's original spell just yet, not when she had the perfect opportunity to try the finished version of her earliest dark spell. It was the same blast she had used once on Tom by accident, drawing from her anger after she couldn't deal with Marco and Jackie at the Love Sentence concert. That had been but a cute baby temper tantrum compared to the ire she felt towards Toffee now. "To cinder burn all in your path... unleashed storm of righteous wrath!!"
The frozen green and red flames shattered into nothing as a maelstrom of pure black bile sprouted from Star's wand, a bright green lance of light at its core. It wasn't quite the death spell, the darkest spell of Moon the Undaunted, but it would be enough. Toffee would find his final end, frozen in time, pierced by her well-deserved fury, as he should have since they first met. Star actually smiled. It felt surprisingly like the right thing to do.
The spell impacted its target and a blinding flash dissolved the world around the mewman. When the princess finally adjusted to the brightness, she saw movement on the other end of a huge curtain of smoke. Impossible. Truly and absolutely impossible. Toffee could not have survived that attack, even if he had managed to resist the original barrage. Granting even that he still existed, how could he walk towards her, when time itself had slowed to one millionth of its usual speed? Impossible! And yet, it was so.
"Are you done?" the lizard asked, in a chillingly unperturbed voice.
The shock was big enough that she failed to maintain the time spell, and the rest of the world around them resumed moving as well. Walls crumbled under impacts that had already happened but that the stone itself was just now feeling. Decorations burned under flames that had long passed them by. Her ears thundered with the sonic boom of her earlier spell. All the while, Star felt herself confused and lost. Nothing should have been able to move back there, except for herself and her spells.
"You..." The princess tried to compose her thoughts, unsuccessfully. Realization slowly swept in, through her anger and surprise. "You can't be Toffee either. You just can't be. Who... What are you?!"
Before her eyes, Toffee's ghost dissolved. Instead of him, there was now Glossaryck's phantasm, regarding her with disappointment.
"Well, you know, I sort of thought you might have figured it out by now. I am..."
It changed form. Glossaryck was gone. In its place stood Hekapoo.
"Fierce,"
Another switch, and Moon stood again in front of Star. A heartbreaking mirage.
"Undaunted,"
The next instant it was Toffee once more, grinning cruelly.
"Relentless,"
It kept that form then, but the voice changed. It became a female voice, one that spoke like a chorus of many voices, all beautiful and all terrifying.
"I am will, unbending."
Star shivered. Her eyes opened wide. She remembered what her dad had said, about the night her mom died. The creature that had done it had said something very similar back then. 'I am love, all-conquering'. And Star knew, she knew it was the same being. She knew her journey was at an end before it ever started. Beyond terror, beyond anger, beyond shock, she raised her wand and aimed true, straight for the heart. Just like she had practiced.
"I call the darkness unto me, from deepest depths of earth and sea, from ancient evils unawoken, to break the one who can't be broken," she recited, as fast as she could. "To blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to burning coal, to summon forth the deathly power, to-see-my-hated-foe..."
"Sweetie? What are you doing?" spoke Moon, just as the princess prepared to say the last word of the death spell.
Star knew it was fake. She knew the creature she was seeing was not her mom. That it was the thing that killed her. It should have incensed her rage to see such a cowardly display, such a crude deception. It should have multiplied her hate for this thing a thousandfold. And it did. And yet, she couldn't do it. She was unable to complete the spell. Her hand veered to the side, and the thin ray of perfect blackness hit the stone instead, drilling a hole through it.
A blast of green flames hit Star in retaliation. Her shields shattered and her body flew backwards, thrown aside like a discarded rag doll.
----
It took Jackie a shamefully long time to catch up with what had just happened, to even begin opening the zipper of her duffel bag. A mere hour ago, she would have called her own duel with Princess White intense. It had been child's play by comparison. Star had unleashed levels of ass-kicking on the green phantasm that the skateboarder girl wouldn't have believed possible, had she not seen her in action. Yet, not five minutes after they arrived, the princess laid on the floor, surrounded by emerald flames, unconscious.
The human girl pulled out her sword from the bag, and steeled herself for one brave - and foolish - act of defiance. It was no flimsy fencing foil she had packed for the journey, but a real blade. As real as she could find. Forged by some medieval weapons enthusiast back in L.A. It was truly sharp as well, not a dull thing made to exhibit as decoration, she had tested it. She had made sure to procure such a weapon as soon as they returned from St O's. It had cost her many months of her own savings.
Even so, it was a far cry from the enchanted golden sword she had used in her duel with the vampire princess. She herself was not nearly as strong, not as quick, as she had been under the influence of Star's magics. Without the added power, the girl could barely hold up the blade. She had no hope of fighting off this foe, this abomination that wore the face of Queen Moon. But she had to do something. Star and Tom were out cold, Janna was in a panic, and Marco was just as weak as she was, when it came right down to it. Perhaps, if only she could hold off their enemy for a few seconds, not much more than an instant, it might be enough for the mewman girl to regain consciousness, or for the rest of them to run away.
"Aaa-yaaa!" Jackie Lynn Thomas charged, sword in hand, channeling as much of 'Prince Jack' as she could muster.
"Oh, for corn's sake," spoke the thing that wasn't Star's mom. A green spectral blade appeared in its hand, and it moved to effortlessly parry the human girl's strike.
The true blade, the one forged from hard steel, broke in two as it made contact with the edge of the ghostly weapon. A shower of sparks flowed around Jackie's hair. The hilt heated to a burning red, and she was forced to let go, yelping in pain. The emerald apparition fixed her a look of utter contempt, as it kicked her in the stomach.
Jackie knew then that, if it had wanted, her opponent would have easily punched a hole through her abdomen with its leg. As it was, it pushed her back and onto the ground, knocking out all of the air inside her. She opened her mouth to yell. She vomited instead. She hadn't bought them a single second.
Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw Marco glance briefly at her. Was his look one of concern? Or was it pity? Either way, her boyfriend's eyes didn't linger. He turned his back towards her, and began walking towards the many-faced monstrosity. All of Jackie's pain faded away, overwhelmed by the terror that he might try to fight the creature too... and die.
----
As he approached the creature, Moon's visage faded away. Instead, it was Hekapoo's face which now regarded Marco with a dismissive smirk. "What is it, kiddo? You want to fight me too? Because you are even dumber than I thought if you really think you have a chance."
'Give me sixteen years', thought Marco. 'Sixteen years and then let's see who doesn't have a chance'. But he knew the apparition was right. His body was weak, the only ritual he could remember was useless in combat, and even if it had been possible for him to fight now like he could at the end of Hekapoo's scissor quest... Well, even then, this wasn't Hekapoo. It was the thing that had managed to do her in.
"So, here is what I don't understand," he tried to buy time. Pretending a confidence that he had only really felt in dreams. "You are supposed to be trapped, no? Sealed away. What happened with that? And, if you are here, then where is Hekapoo?!"
'A ritual of sealing, for a power greater than myself,' had said the sorceress in his dream. Then how come this creature, whatever it was, walked free? It didn't work that way. It couldn't work that way. Every ritual had a price, but what you bought with it also had to be of fair value. There was no way, no way at all, for Hekapoo's sacrifice to have been in vain. Marco didn't care how great a power they were talking about, nothing could walk free mere days after a trade like that!
"I am dead, muscles," she mocked him. "Gone. Undone. Laid low. Turned to dust. But it is true I did seal away most of it. Most of me."
The voice had started as Hekapoo's, but turned into a chorus of different voices for just the last three words. When the ghost spoke once more, after that, it used the voice of the forger of scissors again.
"'Every echo I send out, allows it one of its own, of proportional magnitude,'" she quoted the real Hekapoo. Her tone was ice cold, her manner smug and sardonic. "An aspect for an aspect, kid. A dream... for a nightmare."
With that last utterance, two pairs of dimensional scissors appeared in the specter's hands. With a swift movement, she raced past Marco's slow form, and opened a portal right behind him.
"You are lucky I don't want to kill the three of you, kid," spoke the false Hekapoo as she pushed the human boy through the dimensional gateway. "Honestly, you all should be thanking me."
Marco saw the world in front of him fade as he made it through the swirling opening. He didn't know what place laid at the other end, but it didn't matter, it was not where he had to be. It was taking it away from his friends, who needed him, away from Star. Then, a second later, he saw the scene return, as a force yanked him out of the portal. The pull sent him sprawling out into the floor of Tom's castle. He looked up to see Janna's outstretched hand, glowing blue, far away from him.
"Ooops, Marco, sorry for the landing," she smiled, clearly not all that sorry. "Guess I am still new at this stuff."
That was an understatement. Since when could Janna levitate him?
"I am afraid you will not live to turn pro," spoke Toffee, as the ghostly being switched masks once more. "You see, unlike those two, I really do not mind ending you, girl. So let's finish what I came here to do. Shall we?"
----
"No," spoke Tom dangerously. Anger didn't begin to describe the fire that burned inside of him now. This thing had hurt Star, had intruded into his home, had wounded him, and now, it was threatening the human girl again. "No, we shall not."
Eyes glowed like blazing calderas. Flames and lightning danced all around him. Through harsh pain and numbing fear, the Lucitor prince rose up a second time. He flew up high into the air, and the entirety of the underworld under his domain became quiet as his fundamental void begun calling all of demonkind to his aid.
"Am I supposed to be scared?" retorted Toffee, unimpressed.
"Oh, terrified," assured him Tom in a grave guttural voice. He began chanting in the ancient tongue, summoning all the damned under his rule, beseeching demons and dead souls.
He could see, in Janna's face, that she was the first to perceive it for what it was, to understand the energies he was gathering. She looked impressed, awed, and more than a bit jealous. Oh, for fuck sake! He was saving her life, she better deal with the fact he could do things she couldn't.
The green phantasm lifted a claw towards him, a blur of flames shimmering right under the surface. In an instant, a sturdy metal chain came spilling out of the ground and grabbed the offending appendage. Then came another, and another after that. Fetters and shackles of iron black as night closed themselves around the monster. It trashed and burned, it assaulted the restrains with unearthly power, and yet they held. A circle of red flames began drawing itself around the intruder's form, broken by twelve equidistant spikes. Arus'Morgáth, the sigil of domain.
Marco gasped. Jackie looked up, still too shocked, and perhaps too much in pain, to speak. They both beheld what the demon prince knew were the full limits of his power. He would have to rub this one on Marco's face later. But for now, he needed to remain focused.
"You should be afraid," Tom repeated, "because I am Tom Lucitor, son of Wrathmelior Lucitor, descendant of Iblis Lucitor the Elder, and heir of their line. You should be afraid, because you are in the underworld under my rule, on the domain left to me by my ancestors, and given to them by The Morning Star Himself!"
He had never done this before, never needed to. This thing, whatever it was, was more powerful than him, more powerful than even Star. Yet, within his domain, Tom could call unto powers far beyond his own, he could bend the entirety of this place to his call. Every demon and every spirit, of the underworld of Mewni and Earth and a dozen more dimensions, ultimately answered to him. The creature before them was weakened, merely an echo of whatever it used to be. It had admitted that much to Marco. There was no way that it would be able to stand, on its own, against literally all the powers of hell! Of his hell, at least.
"By right of domain, by ancient pacts and even older laws, I order you to withdraw from my lands!" he shouted. "Or else be cast to the flame beneath the flame!"
A crimson glow began flowing through the huge dark chains. The twelve pointed circle shone blinding in mid air around the emerald phantom, as a whirlpool of invisible demonic spirits began bearing down on it. Lightning and flame assaulted the translucent monstrosity in lizard form. It grunted in pain and frustration.
"Enough!" Toffee shouted. "Fine. You've made your point. I acquiesce to withdraw."
Just like that, the forces of the underworld ceased their attack, and Tom could not have forced them to continue if he tried to. Whatever this being was, it knew the rules at least as well as Tom himself did. He had told it to go away, and if it did, of its own free will, then the demon prince had no authority to deny that. Not under the right of domain. He could use his own personal magics to try and harm the creature, of course, but that did not seem wise.
"But hear me out, as I depart, all of you," Toffee spoke, keeping the voice, if perhaps not the persona. "If you stay down here, you are safe from me. If you go back to Earth or to Mewni, if you desist from seeking me out, then I promise I'll leave you in peace there as well. But if you persist on this course, then we will meet again, and it will be far away from your domain, young Lucitor. Remember as well, that this is not nearly the fullness of my power. Star, Marco, Jackie, I truly do not desire your deaths. They would inconvenience me. But make no mistake, I'll accept them, if given no choice. Goodbye."
With a thunderous boom and an explosion of green flames, the emerald ghost vanished.
Tom felt the last bit of strength drain away from him. He had never done this before. Never commanded all of the hell under his domain at once. Even his mother did so rarely. It had taken his all to retain control until now. He fell to the ground from meters up in the air, his own flames extinguished for a time. He fell into the arms of a recently awoken Star Butterfly.
"Tom, that was..." the princess spoke. He could barely hear her, his consciousness fading. It was not death, nothing like that, only exhaustion. He smiled at her.
"I am so glad you are alright, Starship," he whispered as his eyes closed, right before everything around him turned to black.
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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye