Amity looked over her plan once more. Step one, they get into town. Step two, carefully place sleepers into Doctor Waybright's food. Step three, place her palisman with the others in a room with plenty of food and toys to enjoy. Step four, enjoy a night of having Luz to herself. Step five, destroy paper to erase evidence. Underhanded, yes, but she needed to have ONE night where she cuddled with her girlfriend. Not fair that Lucci and Boscha got to do it all the time while she was left to dry.
"I know it's not going to last too, but I'm actually enjoying the detour we've been on for a while." Willow said as she laid on the couch. "Two locations in a row and we haven't had a major incident."
"So the genie from hell doesn't count?" Vee asked.
"When she says major incidents, she means fights with elder gods or mountain destroying property damage." Amity clarified. It would've been better if she CUDDLED with her girlfriend once in all this time.
"At this rate, we may actually avoid running from the police." Gus smiled. "New record to boot."
"I know, mom would be so disappointed." Lucci sighed.
"You know, with Belos gone, the Emperor Coven would no longer exist." Hunter noted. "When all is said and done, the Boiling Isles would probably lose the concept of a law to break."
"Add to the fact that Eda was right about Belos all along and tried to save the Isles….she wouldn't even be considered a criminal anymore, she'd be a hero." Luz smiled. "By extension…we'd be heroes."
"Heroes…nah, I don't think that fits me." Lucci said. "I'm more like a pirate. Both go out and have fun adventures, but a hero would give away all the money they find. I'd keep it all to myself."
"Of course that's your definition of a hero and villain." Vee deadpanned. "How close are we to the next town?"
"We're just about to hit a place called Echo Creek." Doctor Waybright, her target for the night, spoke up. "Shouldn't your furball have wrapped us to Illinois by now?"
"Grrrrr." The lion moaned as it laid on its back, sleeping soundly like it was dead. Lucci regularly checked Spice's pulse every three hours just to make sure he wasn't.
"I think warping to Hawaii was the biggest jump he's made in a long while." Lucci petted the pink creature. "It'll be a while before he jumps again."
"Great, he chooses to not warp us when we want it." The woman rolled her eyes.
"But we love him all the same, isn't that right?" Vee rubbed the creature.
"Grrr."After a second the creature's eyes bolted open, standing up as it gazed at the front of the bus. "GRAAA!" It shouted, running past Amity and leaping through the back window, shattering it.
"So not only does he go off on his own, he now has to break the bus while he does it." Sasha slammed her head on the steering wheel.
"Meow." Ghost popped up.
"Shouting about a threat?" Amity asked. "What would threaten-"
The witch felt a fist clutch her chest. She grasped herself, trying to alleviate the burning pain. "Amity!" Luz might have shouted, it sounded muffled, under the ringing building up as she tried to gasp for air. Her arm began to get numb. "It's … heart attack …" Was her heart damaged, was that why her stomach felt bubbly and boiling? Was that why her body was feeling more and more numb? "Won't … help … Ami …" Everything was so blurry … empty … a familiar tune of death whistled in her ear-
"CLEAR!" Next thing she knew, she felt her heart pulsing with electricity as Sasha pressed paddles on her chest. "Thank frog that Connie gave us three defibrillators."
"Thank later, everyone else!" Amity looked around her. Boscha and Hunter were rubbing their chests, Luz was hugging Willow, and Lucci was doing his best to keep Gus and Vee conscious and breathing. "CLEAR!"
She pressed it down on Gus, who gasped for air as he woke up. "Gah! I just saw Death again…..she was telling me to not give up yet….why is it that the most comforting person we've met on this trip is death itself?"
"Don't focus on it, have one left!" As Sasha charged the device, Amity looked over to Ghost.
"You doing okay?" She asked the tired looking palisman.
"Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeew…" Her palisman looked drained.
"CLEAR!" Sasha screamed as she placed the device on the basilisk.
Vee woke up with a gasp, eyes wide as she tried gasping for air, her stomach sounding like a slither beast. "Aaahhhh!" She screamed as Amity felt a drain, just like against other Basilisks, but the eyes on the girl held no malice, simply a desperate life or death hunger, like someone who hasn't eaten in a month. "Can…barely…move…..so little energy…barely….stand…"
"Hold on." Luz rushed to the fridge, pulling out Rose tears, dripping them down the Basilisk's throat as her eyes widened. "Lucci … these tears."
"Yeah, lifesaver, keep feeding." The boy went on.
"No … don't they look ... less sparkly than usual?" Luz shoved the pink liquid in his face, and indeed…there was much less of a glimmer. "Try your spit on Boscha. See what happens."
He paused, moving over and kissing the girl's cheek, and watching as sparkles wrapped around the Boscha's entire body … for less than a second. Almost like it was all used up at once. "Feel … much better." Boscha sighed in relief.
Sasha looked at the incident, then at them. "Hey kids, where does magic come from?"
"From the heart." Willow said without thinking, moving over to hug Amity, who accepted the comfort of … well, anything.
"And everyone here got heart attacks at the same time?"
"Yeah….it felt like…..my bile sack was being ripped out." Hunter said. "And…and I can't use magic like other witches…so that's….frightening."
"Me, Luz, and Sasha are fine." Lucci muttered. "The Palisman and Vee went KO instantly … Spinel!? You doing alright?"
"Up-up-upup and-and and ready." Spinel said, her head and arms going up in a dizzying motion. "Heh, feel funny, like, like, like I'm drinky."
"Spice ran out before we hit the town line." Her girlfriend continued. "Animal instinct or something picked up … the incident in question."
"All we did was enter the city limits." Sasha explained. "I backed up and you guys become slightly more responsive…like…like…"
"It's some sort of dead zone." Luz glared out the window. "This town….it's an anti magic zone." She turned to them. "Me and Sasha will head in. Everyone else stay inside the van."
"I can go too." Lucci piped up.
"No, you're the only one with powers here. If something happens, you're the only one that can take care of everyone here." Luz placed her hands on Lucci. "Plus Spinel's not looking a hundred percent. Who knows what'll happen if you go further in."
"I can see my footsies …. Hehehe …" Spinel continued.
"Also … still … hungry …" Vee cried out. "Tears… not… working… fast enough…"
"Because they lost their mojo." Sasha nodded. "We follow Luz's plan. We'll figure out what's going on here. The rest of you just stay safe and out of danger…I know that's a tall order for you Lucci, but your friends lives are on the line."
"... Alright." Lucci nodded. Amity's plans for luz tonight would just have to wait … if they even made it past tonight.
========================================================================
Sasha walked through the streets, trepidatiously keeping her hands ready to grab her blades"There's something that's been bothering me." She said as they walked forward.
"What's that?" Luz asked.
"Gems are aliens, not magical beings." She explained. "So how would a dead zone account for a general paranormal environment of science and magic instead of just magic from the boiling isles?" Sasha questioned.
"Well, it's kind of on the spectrum whether or not the gems count as magic." Luz answered. "I was able to have limited magic on the planet me and Gus got stranded on, and then you have to account for people like the Collector, who's apparently also from space, and they can magic anything they want with a snap of a finger."
"Magic aliens … the universe always ups the weird." She muttered, looking to see if anything strange was up with the townsfolk. Lights seem to be off for the most part, people didn't seem to be out-oh look, there was a blonde skateboarder coming their way. Maybe she'd clear things up. "Hey-"
"Newcommers, right?" The girl rode up to them, circling around them without even stopping. "Not many people have the stones to come out at night unless they're insane or ignorant."
"...Is that the normal town greeting?" Luz raised an eyebrow.
"Only up to about a year ago, yes." The girl nodded. "Side note-don't drink the water. At night that's when the effects hit hard."
"Effects … what effects?" Sasha was instantly on edge. Was there some sort of radiation poisoning?
"Well, a year ago, don't really know the full details, everyone around town felt a sudden pain. Slight exhaustion, nausea, death, paralyzation, it all depended on how much people were exposed to it."
"Exposed to what?"
"Britta's tacos secret sauce." The girl nodded.
"... You know, Penny talked about an invasion of peanuts." Luz nodded. "Evil taco sauce isn't too far fetched."
"It wasn't the taco sauce that was evil, more like what it was made out of." The girl explained. "Turns out it was from a completely different dimension where all magic comes from, or something like that, and when it blew up, the sauce turned black and flooded the town.
"... The magic … blew up?" Sasha asked slowly.
"Blew up, corrupted, something along those lines, I didn't catch the details. My ex was more involved than I was." The girl shrugged. "Anyways, so now the whole town for the past year has been trying to contain it, though at night is when the pain really gets bad. Anyone that was exposed to the magic in high doses died or got critically sick. Everyone else experiences more flu-like symptoms."
"... So magic is … corrupted and dead." Sasha nodded.
"Somethin like that." The girl nodded. "Oh, my family's askin for me, gotta bounce." The girl got back on her board, pulling out a phone. "Later peeps!" She shouted as she skated away.
"She was … so nonchalantly chill about the whole thing." Luz stated. "Disturbingly so."
"Could be just her way of coping." Sasha reasoned. "I mean, your friends are more or less desensitized to uncanny events about now, right?"
"That's fair I guess … but … magic is dead." Luz looked down. "What kind of sick, twisted monster would do this … that isn't Belos?"
"That doesn't make any sense. Your friends can clearly still do magic. It's just this town." Sasha waved all around. "We need to look into this further. Make sure whatever's killing magic here stays here and doesn't try to follow us."
"Right … come on, let's see if a library has answers." Luz began walking away with a determined look. "Or whatever this place has that's still open at night."
"You heard her. This all started because of a taco sauce. Best way forward would be to head straight for the source." Sasha pointed out.
"Then let's interrogate a taco stand … not the most majestic of lines." Luz snapped her fingers.
"Coolness can happen at any time, you just gotta have the confidence to say what you want and not take it back." Sasha smirked, rolling out the swords. "Like this … Time to slice some chimi-fucking chungas."
"...Okay, that was a little cool."
"All in the subtext."
========================================================================
Lucci glared at the sign in front of him. Echo Creek. A town that almost killed his magical friends simply for existing … "Belos would love this place." He muttered to himself. This was officially the worst place on earth by a long shot. When he got the chance, he would blow it up, consequences be damned.
"Lucci, you doing alright?" Willow asked from the van.
"Alright enough. Just a slight headache for the most part." He answered back. Maybe it had something to do with being half gem/human instead of a full witch … great, the one thing he hated about himself was his saving grace. Cruel irony at its finest. "Just keep resting. I'm not sure how to make the shocky heart machine thing work." On the one hand, it'd be the perfect excuse to punch Hunter in the chest repeatedly. On the other hand, he was a grimwalker, and therefore probably in just as much risk as Vee and the Palisman. "And that means you too, Sugar, I don't need to watch you to know you're sneaking out for a snuggle."
"Sshh." The palisman sighed in disappointment.
"I know, but it's too risky. I don't want to find you on the ground all shriveled up and drained." He affirmed. "Just wish I could do more than just stand around here."
"Sshh." Leave it to Luz and the Doctor. Worst case scenario, they find the problem, the doctor gets offed, and Luz comes back.
"... I take it your best case scenario involves Luz not coming back." He could hear Sugar slithering away. "Really got to figure out how to make the palisman hate Luz less somehow." Not the easiest task, since the Bat Queen was still bitter at her. Maybe he should have let her fix the problem herself … sadly he was quite livid at the time. You don't hurt Palisman, ever, even if you argue all the time. Clawthorne's took that to heart first, a VERY close second to family.
Shaking his head, he began walking around. He wasn't expecting to find much out of this whole excursion, but anything was better than just sitting on his but while everyone else was recovering. While everyone else was having a bile sack attack, it was more like his stomach was being ripped apart for Lucci. Maybe he should have gotten a checkup for the first time in … in …
Shoot, being an immortal that never got sick and never got along with the healing coven meant that Lucci really DIDN'T know what was going on inside of his body. What even happened with normal doctors? Did they just look in your throat and say what was wrong? The most experience he had with any doctor was Sasha, and her speciality was just talking to people about how much life sucked.
In fact, if gems were made of light, then how much of his own body was actually made out of meat? Was his veins and organs made out of light? Were his bones made out of light? If he tore out his gem, would he even still have a working-pain, pain, pain, oh titan the pain was coming back!
"Gaah!" He winced, backing away as he realized without looking, he walked towards the city limit, towards the source of all his problems at the moment. "Stupid town!" He kicked a rock, which hit the sign and bounced back into his head. "... That didn't hurt, but I hate the sentiment all the same!" He shouted, before groaning. "I need a nap."
Lucci walked over to a drain, resting next to it … as he heard a strange sound. A slurping of sorts. "... I've been in enough sewers to know that's not right." He looked down into the grate. Less green, and far too little rats and lizards. That alone was a sign that something was amiss. "Why is everything so black-?"
It…It was pure decay. Utterly lifenessnes..not unlike the lack of life in the Kindergarten..but on a more deep and dark level. "What the hell …" He created a small bubble, moving it down to try and get a scoop. "What the heck are you-"
"Drop it if you want to keep your powers intact." A knife whizzed by his face, making him turn over. "Hey." He turned his head to the green figure that had just thrown a knife at his feet. "You with Star Butterfly?"
"..Who the hell is Star Butterfly?" He asked.
"Right answer." The figure uncovered themselves, revealing a girl with dark skin, glasses, and giganty, green, poofy hair that could probably give Mom a run for her money on storage space. "The names Kelly, and if you want your friends to live, you have to follow me."
Lucci pulled out his shield. "Yeah, I'm not planning on letting you hurt them lady."
"I'm not the enemy here. I'm not the one that destroyed magic."
"What in the name of the titan are you talking about. Magic's not dead." He showed off his shield. "..Well actually my whole thing is kind of a gray area, but my point still stands."
"Yes it is." She pointed to the sewers. "That's leaking from the dimension all magic originated from … after it was destroyed."
"Look, I don't know what you're going on about, and I'll be sure to pass along this whole story later, but right now my main concern is making sure my friends are alright." He gestured to the bus. "So would you kindly get that sword out of my face before either of us do something we'll regret?"
"If you want to make sure they're alright, I suggest you leave." She said. "That stuff is dead magic. The longer you stick around it the worse off you'll all get."
"Noted, but I'm currently waiting for another two of my friends to come back, so we're kind of stuck here for the moment." He responded. "If the point was to warn me, then you shouldn't try throwing blades at me."
"What, you'd just believe some random girl you've never met before saying 'magic's dead, touch the black slime and you die'? Are you really naive?"
"No, I just know the first part is bullshit, but accept touch black slime and you die." He rolled his eyes.
"... With an ego that big I'd be surprised if you ever got a date."
"Screw you, I have a girlfriend." He growled. "Or is this a case of kettle's calling pots, because lady, you're not exactly pick of the litter yourself."
The girl's eyes twitched. "Take that back, or I chop off your head."
"Better Idea, you buzz off, or I slice off yours." He put razor blades at the edge of his shield.
"Bring it on then dickweed!" Oh, for some reason, this was going to be super cathartic for him
========================================================================
Marco watched as Star finished up her trick. "And that is, from what I've learned, how one does a flawless triple axle."
"Flawless …" Marco noted as he looked at a trail of fire. Life had slowly managed to get somewhat back on track after….the incident…and for Marco, he had taken it relatively well for the most part. Graduating early meant he could put all of his time into what matters the most to him right now….making sure Star was alright. "Well….the fire's…pretty."
"Yeah, I mean, sure I could've made fireworks from cotton candy and made it rain root beer, but, who needs magic?" It felt like every day Star was finding a new excuse to ignore what happened in the last year, and had it been the Marco that didn't stay in another universe for forty years, maybe he would've preferred it that way…but now…Marco could see the small cracks in the facade she was trying to put up.
"Star … do you want to-"
"Oh, kitty!" And she ran off, petting a stray cat. "Aww, aren't you an adorable little gal. Who's a good girl."
"MREEW!"
"Ah, scratches!" Every day she came up with a new distraction. She buried herself in school work, and got three part time jobs. Again, Marco would have usually been proud of this hard working determined Star, but not when she was determined to ignore her pain.
"Maybe just…put the kitty down." Marco got it off his girlfriend's face. "Why don't we just go back home and pet Barco, the two of us just sitting on the couch with some nachos, you know, like old times-"
"We can't relive old times. We just have now." Star told him straight to his face.
"... Yeah but … cartoons." He pointed out. "You like cartoons."
"Not anymore. Do you know what they put on cartoons?"
"...Subtle messages to convince kids to keep watching for merchandise?"
"No….okay yes, but they also present wonderful, colorful worlds, worlds so amazing and so fantastical you could just get lost in them, worlds that you want to explore….worlds where no matter what happens, EVERYTHING turns out fine in the end." She groaned. "Do you know what the problem with cartoons is….it's that they lie. There's no happy ending waiting for you. There's no destined good outcome…it all lies….all…miserable…..horrible…lies…."
He sighed, leaning down. "Star … you can have a happy ending."
"No I can't." She cried. "I had to fix everyone's messes cause they wanted to be happy, and that means I had to give up home … give up friends … give up family …" He hugged her. "I made a horrible mistake….I made everything worse…."
"You did what you had to do …" Mina wasn't going to be talked down to, and neither was the Commission barring Heckapoo.
"But what I had to do was Toffee's dirty work….what's the point in trying to be good if it means being the bad guy?"
Before Marco could even begin to deconstruct that can of worms, a voice stopped him. "Brtita's tacos….to think something so horrible started with substandard mexican food."
"I would've guessed knock off thai food that would kick start the apocalypse. Anne's mom's rage alone would be enough to shatter five cities." They turned to see a woman and a teenage girl not too much younger than them, one of which had a giant sword on her back, looking at the abandoned Brtita's Tacos. "I'll take a look inside, you keep watch."
"Wait, I have the magic sword, why am I keeping watch?" What?
"Because I'm still the most experienced between the two of us, and if something dangerous comes along, I'm pretty sure your friends would rather have it be you that runs back to them than me." The blonde woman noted, opening the door. "Bleegh, I don't know what they were making here, but it certainly wasn't good Mexican food."
They watched as the shorter girl groaned, leaning against a wall, before looking at them. "Hey." Shoot, they were staring too long. "So, you two seem well adjusted enough? Any news you can give us about the whole 'magic death' thing that everyone in this town seems to know about?"
"Oh … that …" Marco spoke, deciding to take the brunt of the uncomfortable conversation. "You see … there was a bit of an event … involving an army of immortal racists." Marco started.
"Ah, I understand. Been dealing with one for a while." The girl nodded. "So they did this?"
"No … they were powered by magic and delusion." He continued. "As long as they believed they were 'stopping evilI', not even a nuclear warhead could scratch them." Marco sighed. "They were deluded, but they were passionate. It didn't matter how many people got hurt along the way, they wanted to purge what they thought was wrong and wanted to be in control no matter the circumstances….so…we had to cut them off at the source."
"Marco, don't start talking vaguely, you're not glosseryck." Star rolled her eyes, walking up. "Names Star Butterfly, and that's my boyfriend Marco Diaz. I'm a….well…I used to be a magical princess from another dimension."
"Does that mean you can travel through dimensions?" It seemed they had the girl's attention.
"Used to … before I destroyed the realm of magic, and thus all magic in the multiverse." Star finished.
"Huh?" The girl questioned.
"What?" The blonde woman came crashing out of the abandoned shop.
"The crazy psycho we couldn't stop, her name was Mina BTdubs, and she was essentially a magically powered nuke driven insane because my ancestors were stubborn morons who couldn't accept monsters could be people too." They explained. "So they created an army, got some backup from gods of space time and crystallizing people, and decided 'let's wipe out every monster in every dimension', so they brainwashed half of my people and hunted down the other half." Star went on, a few tears in her eyes. "Couldn't reason with insanity and our strongest spell only managed to stop one of them while apparently endangering all of existence, so we decided to, you know … cut them off at the source."
"That magic dimension we heard about?" The girl asked.
"Yes…it links every known dimension to each other with a well, giving it magic, giving it life, all that jazz." Star snorted. "Turns out Earth's well was underneath Britta's tacos, and the idiots working there were scooping into the magic and putting it on their food."
"Never has tasty food been so evil." Marco rubbed his stomach.
"So then I dived in with my mom, my three hundred year old sort of aunt and sort of cousin , and we all performed a spell to kill the magic….and it worked." Star cackled brokenly. "Mina was cut off from her magic, and the mewmans lost theirs, as did I….of course, when you break magic….the worlds that use magic tend to break as well."
"… Are you telling me to stop an army you DESTROYED WORLD'S!?" The woman screamed.
"Yeah, I had to, literally NOTHING on me would work." Star rolled her eyes. "So it was the only thing I could do that would've had any effect. Mina would've just run rampant and tortured every non-mewman and mewman-like creature. So, really, it was more of a pick your poison situation."
"Why would you do something so stupid and reckless!?" The tall woman shouted.
"Oh sure, you fight an immortal and unkillable army of nazis planning on making themselves the one true race that never changed in the multiverse, supported by a group of racist gods that treat space and time like a chew toy, then YOU can decide a better solution!" Star shouted. "I took a gamble to at least save some people, and I STILL lost everything! My best friend is dead, I don't know if Mewni is still standing, and I cut people off from hundreds of worlds, away from loved ones if they haven't immediately died!"
"Wait…you said you destroyed magic?" Luz said. "Like…all of magic everywhere?"
"Yeah, that's what Glosseryck said would happen."
"Star…magic still exists."
"... What?" They asked.
The girl nodded. "I've been in another dimension two. Stayed there for five months this past summer. A dimension full of witches..and they're still alive. They still have magic."
"…. WHAT!?" Star screamed.
========================================================================
Kelly slashed at a pink shield. "You know, after fifty strikes against a shield, most smart people realize that trying to hack away at something that doesn't even dent is rather pointless." The bastard she was trying to attack had the gull to yawn. "Of course, maybe I'm not one to judge, I usually solve most problems with my fists, but then again, that's because I can actually back the bite to my bark."
"Oh can it!" She turned her hair into a club, moving around the shield to whack him … only for the boy to not even react.
"So should I try striking back, or are we going to talk about this in a civilized manner?" He grabbed her by the hair and threw her across the ground.
"This is perfectly civilized for Woolets!" She shouted, going back to striking him. "Our punches are money, our peace treaties are wars, and our kisses are strangulations!"
"Really?" He caught her fist. "Then how much would this cost?" He punched her right in the chest…sending her into the nearest tree, and then another…and another, and through a giant boulder.
"Don't … know …" Wollets were creatures that were supposed to withstand the pain of punches. How hard did that kid hit? "I guess we could have a conversation …"
"Good." The kid held his hand out and picked her up. "Want some healing spit? Pretty sure I broke at least three of your ribs."
"Nah, I've felt worse." Kelly stretched herself out as she felt some crunching noises from her torso. "I'm a Wollet. Our hair's designed to absorb impact."
"Not that well apparently." The kid snarked. "So, what's the violent outburst for? Is that Woolet greeting or Woolet flirting? Cause I'm already taken."
"As if." She snorted…though admittedly by Woolet standards, this was how most first dates went. And by measurements, it was leaning towards the pretty well side of things. "No, I really was trying to warn you about entering…and maybe recruit you and whatever pink stuff you're using and beat the shit out of that Star girl I brought up earlier."
"Yeah sure." He shrugged. "As long as it's after my friends come back."
"Come on, it'll be quick!" She begged. "You obviously can go fast, just blip there and back."
"No. I'm not leaving everyone in the bus to fend for themselves with whatever's causing that magic drain." The boy nodded.
"Then push the bus away from the problem." She said. "Even standing here is essentially breathing toxic air."
"Guess you have a point." The kid nodded, getting to the front of the bus and pushing it back. Damn, the boy had some muscles on him. "Names Lucci by the way."
"Lucci?" Kelly tilted her head. "You look more like a Steve."
'Lucci's' eyes twitched at that. "You get that one free pass because you don't know, but never call me Steve, or any name sounding like that."
"What about Steve the former scout?" A voice from the bus asked.
"Steve's a likable guy, that works for him. Here, all that name does is remind me of my crappy sperm donor."
"Yeah … patching up with family is rough." She nodded. "Can't even enjoy that now thanks to Star."
"So you got yourself a mortal enemy?" Lucci asked as he pushed the bus. "What she do? Destroy your house? Steal your boyfriend? Lock you away from what you love forever?"
"All of the above!" Kelly screamed. "It's thanks to that blonde bitch that I lost everything! I'm stuck in this stupid world, while she gets to have the only decent person I've ever dated! She got everything, her home, her happy ending, and I got NOTHING!"
"This…this is how I am…just…blindlessly angry at the world, at my situation….I sound like an ungrateful brat." He muttered.
"HA!" A shout came from the van.
"I can and WILL break you, Golden Boy, do you really want to push your luck when you're feeling this weak?"
"....I will laugh about this later."
"What, you're going to tell me I'm overreacting? That I shouldn't feel frustrated or angry?" Kelly glared."
"No, I'm saying you should try to set fire to the town and get it over with." The boy countered. "How long ago did this happen?"
"...A year..'
"So you've had a whole you to get whatever revenge you wanted, to think about, to do anything other than obsess over it….and nothing?" He suggested.
"Well … it's not like I can get in!" She shouted. "That place is toxic to magic creatures. Too close and I die!"
"Rocket launcher? Missiles? Fireworks, any number of long range weapons would have allowed you to have your revenge from a distance." He kept going. "And again…you had a year to think this out."
"I …"
"Sitting around and bottling up your emotions isn't going to help your situation. Just let it out already and destroy them in any way you can." He kept going. "Or explore the world and get a hobby while you plan your revenge. Earth may suck, but there's a lot of places here where magic is still available. Gravity Falls, Hawaii, Endville, Nowhere, L.A, all of them I guarantee would be better than just sitting out here, breathing in the toxic fumes you say are out here and stewing in anger while you wait forever for your revenge."
"… Yeah … I think I'll take that tour." She nodded as they walked. "Ugh….it's so frustrating. So exhausting being angry all the time, isn't it?"
"You have no idea." The boy laughed. "Doesn't have to be a bad thing. We're able to channel it when we need to, and we're always ready for a fight."
"Don't get too chummy with her Crystal!" The van shouted.
"I'm just talking to someone who understands violent outbursts, no romance!" Bit of a shame, he was kind of cute.
========================================================================
Star began hyperventilating. "Did Glossaryck lie again?" Of course he did, he was Glossaryck. Which meant that magic was alive, which meant that Mina and the Commission was alive, which meant that Star sacrificed it all for nothing. She failed she failed she kept failing over and over and over. "We failed, they're still doing things, mom, dad …" Were they gone?
"Whoa, star, star, calm down, I think you're over reacting.." Luz tried to calm her down.
"Am I … if magic still exists … then that means I failed … that means I didn't solve anyone's problems.." Star pounded on the ground. "Because any time everyone gets magic, the bad guys use it and ruin it for everyone. And the problems of energy rushing to your head just keep building and building and building …"
"Star, look, you probably have your own problems…I know I've had my own issues with magic too." Luz said. "But I've never blamed magic…magic is just a tool people use…and I have plenty of friends that can use it well."
"But I've used it horribly…..I was irresponsible with the magic I had….I tried to be good, but I made everyone's lives worst."
"Just because you were bad with magic doesn't mean it was wrong for everyone …" Marco said. "Sometimes people just … suck."
"So what?" She asked. "Nobody can be trusted with anything because at some point someone's gonna use it to hurt others?" The Luz girl looked off to the side, looking guilty. "You've been there before…haven't you? You've made mistakes with magic too…mistakes that can't be forgiven."
"..Yes…" Luz sighed, before her face steeled up.. "But that doesn't mean I'm not doing my damndest to fix it."
"I DID do my damndest to fix it…and it RUINIED EVERYTHING!" She shouted.
"..You didn't ruin me." Marco hugged her arm. "My life's better because you're in it Star….and plus…if you didn't destroy all magic…that mean entire planets, those worlds you thought died…they aren't dead." He rubbed her back. "Maybe you not having magic means just mewmans don't have it anymore, instead of all worlds."
"Maybe …" Hopefully … "But … we'll never know." Because they couldn't check. "No magic, no scissors, no well…no portal back to Mewni.."
The girl sighed. "Look, me and my friends are doing everything they can to break through the dimensional barrier and into the boiling isles. If we succeed, I almost guarantee there has to be a way for you to go back to Mewni too." Luz patted her back.
"A … a way back." Star could see her vision getting blurry. Tears in her eyes were just flooding right through. "A way back … Mom, Dad."
"I know that it doesn't seem like much…but just having a little hope can make all the difference." The blonde woman patted her back too. "And if you ever need to talk about it…" She offered her a card. "I'll be available."
"Therapist?" Star looked over the card. "...You're not just going to sit me on a couch and have me do dumb mental exercises are you?" She pointed to Marco. "Cause he tried to do it to me once and it did not end well. Like. I am certain it made things worse."
"... Luz … take Star out for some ice cream." Sasha said in a very calm voice, handing over some bills.
"Can I have some-?" Marco tried to ask.
"Me and you are going to have a nice little chat together." The woman smiled in a way that reminded her of many villains."You don't get ice cream….you get pain."