Diaz Plan Chapter 26

Marco awoke to soft sunlight, tangled up in cool silk sheets in a humongous bed. The walls were the gray stone of Castle Mewni. His body ached all over, but it was a comfortable ache. Suddenly, he became aware that someone was holding him from behind, their breath warm on his back. He jumped up in shock and spun around, only to see Star, just waking up, her sleep interrupted by his movements.

"Hmmm...Marco? MARCO!" she cried, flinging her arms around him. She smelled sweet, like flowers. "You're awake!"

"Yeah...what happened?" Marco disengaged from her hug and looked down at his chest. There was an ugly, twisted scar there. "Also...why am I not wearing a shirt? Or pants?"

"Well, they were sort of covered in blood," said Star. She reached out with one hand and delicately touched his face, nervously flinching back when her fingers brushed his skin. Suddenly, Marco remembered what had happened before he had fallen unconscious: TickTock, dragging a blade deep against his face, so deep he could feel the blade scraping against bone -

Marco leapt out of the bed and ran to a mirror, examining the scar on his face. "Wow, it's not as bad as I thought it would be," he said, examining the light pink line that extended from his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, and down the corner of his lip.

"Well...I might have magicked away that scar a bit. TickTock actually almost sliced your face in two." Star cast her eyes down, squeezing her shoulders. Marco shuddered. "But I left some of it there. I thought you might want a scar to show off."

"Hmmmm...yeah, it looks...interesting. I like it!" Marco preened in front of the mirror. "Wait, where are my parents? Janna? Ferguson?"

"Ferguson...I...I honestly don't know. Your parents and Janna are back on earth," Star replied. She was staring at Marco with an intensity that almost made him uncomfortable. "You were actually out for a few days. Your parents agreed to leave you here - they figured that magical healing would be more than any hospital could do."

"I'm surprised they wanted to do that, after everything that's happened." Marco sat back on the edge of the bed. It felt good to be up and moving, but his muscles still ached.

Star laughed, and Marco could tell she was happy, genuinely happy. "That's the thing. After we fell through the portal, your dad helped save my mom and dad from the robots that TickTock summoned. If it wasn't for him, they would have been killed." She shrugged. "I think my mom is still a little wary of him, but it doesn't matter. She said I could go back!" She flung her arms around Marco again, and he fell back against the bed with her on top of him. "I can go back to living with you!"

"Really?" Marco laughed as Star hugged him tightly, nuzzling him.

"Yeah! My dad even said it might be good to have me living with a magic user. Someone who can make sure I don't do too much damage. I'm just glad I don't have to leave." Star was wearing a thin nightgown, and Marco could feel the heat of her body through it, pressing against his skin. Her face was inches from his. He could feel her heart fluttering, feel her chest rise and fall with each breath. "I thought I had lost you," she said, a tear suddenly rolling from one eye. "I thought I would never see you again...then I thought you were dead..." her hands trembled, clutching at his shoulders.

"I was worried too," said Marco, pulling her close, hugging her tight. Star gave out a little gasp. "I thought TickTock had killed you at one point."

Star's forehead was now touching his. He could feel her tears dripping from her eyes onto his face. Her breath was shaky, and she was trembling. "Please never leave again," she said, and then she was kissing him, and her lips tasted sweet, her hands were on his face, pulling him in to kiss him harder, and her body was pressing against his, and all Marco could think about was the feel of her skin on his and her lips on his.

When she broke off the kiss she was gasping, running her hands up and down Marco's back. He realized his hands had slipped under her nightgown, and were caressing the smooth skin of her back as well. His fingers trailed over the base of her wings and she gasped, pressing her hips down into him. She kissed him again, furiously, pressing her lips hard onto his. "Don't ever get yourself hurt for me ever again," she whispered into his ear when he was done.

"Well....I can't promise that," Marco whispered, holding her trembling against him. "I'll always look out for you. And I know you'll always look out for me." He trailed his hands up and down her back, enjoying the soft feel of her skin.

"I don't need you to die for me," she said, and he felt hot tears on his neck. "I just...I need YOU." She pulled back from him, straddling him, looking down at him. "I need you," she whispered, and then she pulled her nightgown above her head. She was wearing nothing beneath it. The light and shadow played across her creamy white skin, and even her breath was gorgeous, the way her body rose and fell. She leaned down and kissed Marco again, and he could feel her hot skin sliding across his, her hands exploring his body, tracing across his scars. Marco's hands were sliding across all her curves, squeezing, pinching, eliciting small gasps as Star kissed him over and over again, all the while babbling "I need you, I need you." Finally, her hands strayed down to his boxers. "Take them off," she said, demanding. "It's not fair that I'm the only one naked."

"Star...should we really do this?" Marco whispered. Her sweet blue eyes were filling up his entire vision.

Star laughed, yanking down Marco's boxers, her cool hand wrapping around him. "You're beautiful," she said. She guided one of his hands down between her legs. Marco felt the heat there, felt how wet she was. "I need you," she said again.

Marco pushed Star back down on the bed so he was on top of her. She gasped as he slid his fingers into her, arching her back, her hips rolling, pale skin flushing pink with excitement, moaning, gasping as he curled his fingers inside of her. Her eyes fluttered to the back of her head, and she grabbed him, kissing him, moaning into his mouth. "Enough," she gasped, then whispered, "I want you inside me."

She guided him inside her, trembling and gasping, pushing her hips forward when he was on the threshold. When he slid into her she arched her back and cried out, hands knotting the sheets, eyes staring off blankly into nothing, feeling him slide slowly in, shaking as her mind went blank. She felt him sliding in and out of her and wrapped her legs around him, pushing her hips against his, pushing him into her until it was almost painful, but she enjoyed the pain. She pulled Marco down to kiss him, and she enjoyed his weight on her, enjoyed the smell of his sweat, his small gasps. She ran her hands through his hair and kissed him, and then as she felt the pleasure building up in her, the tension building in her body, she held him against her, her nails scratching his back, as she gasped and moaned his name in his ear.

Her mind was going blank, now. Her entire body was tensed, and all she could feel was Marco sliding in and out of her, the pleasure radiating through her body with each stroke. Her hips were grinding, pushing against his, her body arched, until it was too much, too much, and she threw her head back and cried out, her body shaking, rolling, her mind a fog. She could feel herself squeezing down on Marco as he was inside her, and when he came she cried out again, as a fresh wave of pleasure rolled through her. She pulled Marco in and kissed him as their bodies shook, moaning, gasping until the pleasure finally receded in her.

Afterwards they lay panting, sweat-soaked, laughing, kissing each other. "We...didn't use a condom," Marco said, bashfully.

"A what?"

"Uh...protection? Birth control? To keep you from getting pregnant?"

"Oh!" said Star, grabbing her wand from where it had lain, forgotten, tangled in the sheets. "Don't worry about that, I have a spell for that." With a flash of light, she tapped the wand against her stomach and shivered. "I'll only ever have babies when I want to." Then she turned to Marco and grinned. "So...wanna do it again?"

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Later, Star and Marco were strolling through the ruins of the Mewnian capital, carrying picnic baskets. They were trailed by a coterie of the remaining loyal guards, the ones who had fought beside the King, to protect them against any remaining revolutionary peasants.

The city, though, had been largely depopulated. Many of the revolutionaries had been people from outlying villages that had swarmed into the capital under TickTock's orders in the days leading up to the battle; when it became clear they had lost, they had fled screaming into the wilderness. Many had been rounded up by the loyal guard, and were now being used as labor to bury the mounds of bodies the battle had produced.

A good portion of the city still lay under a thick tangle of heavy vines, relics of TickTock's magic, from which sprouted a beautiful, amazing array of gorgeous, unearthly flowers. Still lying in the streets were the charred shells of some of TickTock's robot army, melted, fused into the pavement, victims of the hellfire of Marco's father. Many of them had clearly died fighting to the very end, outstretched arms still clutching swords.

At the city walls, Marco had to marvel at what his father had done. Huge, gaping, charred holes marred the wall, and piles of skeletons, no longer animated by his father's magic, were strewn about the ruins. Across the landscape, a massive black swath of burnt ground stretched for miles, trailing off to the Necromancer's tower in the far distance. "They're calling it The Scar," Star said, breaking Marco out of his reverie.

"I don't understand," Marco replied as he surveyed the destruction. "How can your parents be okay with sending you back with me after my father did all this?"

"Well, I mean, he did save them. In the end, most of the people he killed were just peasants that were planning on betraying my mother anyway." Star shrugged. "Plus....I...I think my mom kind of understood him, once she talked to him a bit. Understood why, if he thought he lost a child, why he might want to burn the whole world down."

They stepped across the ruins of the wall, out into the wilderness, giving The Scar a wide berth. They spread their picnic blanket in a field of flowers, a dozen yards from the woods. They sat and ate, watching the attending guards practice swordplay. Marco was ravenously hungry. He devoured sandwiches as Star poked fun at him, his body crying out for food, nourishment for healing.

Suddenly, one of the guards shouted, picking up his sword and pointing it to the woods. Star and Marco looked behind themselves and gasped.

Walking from the woods, hands up, was TickTock.

Only, it wasn't him, when they looked closer. This robot was more exotic looking. In place of TickTock's round lantern eyes, this one had three triangular beams of light. Where TickTock had been boxy, sturdy, strong, this robot was thin and tall, almost delicate looking, with spidery limbs, and where TickTock had moved with quick, ruthless, mechanical violence, this one moved with a fluid grace. It wore a voluminous, many-colored cloak, and a huge pointed hat. "Peace!" it cried. "Peace!"

Star lowered her wand. Marco had tried (and failed) to jump up quickly to do battle, but was too sore to move quickly; she gave him a glare and pushed him back down to the ground. "Careful!" she cried to the guards as they ran in front of her with swords ready, she knew how quick these robots could be. "Who are you?" she asked, addressing the robot.

The robot spread its hands and bowed. "I am the wizard Cessyl. Or, the 'mad mage', as my people were fond of calling me. I was at the battle a few days ago; when the tide turned, I fled." With a crooked smile, it shrugged. "I am also the last surviving member of the court of Prince Maedoc. I presume he's dead, since you hold the wand. I suppose that makes me royalty now."

"Should we smash this trash heap, Princess?" growled one of the guards. Cessyl gave him a nasty grin. Star noticed that he had a hefty spellbook at his hip, attached by a thick chain.

"No!" she shouted, startling the guard, and herself. "No. There's been enough magical shenanigans." She stepped forward, to address Cessyl. "What is it you want?"

"Well, first, I would like to know how my Prince died."

"He fell...into....whatever it was, there where your Tree of Life had been," replied Star. She glanced past Cessyl, nervously, wondering if there were any more robots that had escaped the battle.

Cessyl winced. "A...brutal way to go, I'm afraid. Ah well." He spread his hands and bowed deep. "And now, I would like to entreaty you for a couple of small favors."

"Why would the Princess do any favors for you?" growled the same guard as before, a burly brute with scars criss-crossing his face.

"It's true, she doesn't have to. Me and my people no longer have the numbers or the power to really compel favors from anyone. It's entirely up to the Princess's conscience whether she decides to help atone for the sins of her mother." Cessyl stared at Star, the three triangular beams of his eyes glowing green.

"What is it?" said Star warily.

"First," said Cessyl, "I have some of the survivors of my people with me. I ask for refuge in your world. Our numbers are too few to be any threat to you; we will stay hidden, secret, and never interfere with your rule. After the great losses we sustained in the battle, many are too tired and despondent to continue dimension-hopping. They want to settle and just live out the rest of their lives."

"Done," said Star.

"Your highness-" protested the guard.

Star squeezed his arm. "Just let them stay. They deserve SOMETHING after what my mother did to them. Please don't tell my mother about this, okay?"

The guard rolled his eyes, sheathed his sword, and crossed his arms. "Fine, Princess. I spoil you."

Cessyl reached into his robe and produced a large, polished brown ball, about the size of a basketball. "Second. This is a seed from the Tree of Life. The only one that we ever managed to save. We would have grown it, but it takes ten thousand years to reach maturity. We have long lives, but not that long. By the time it was full grown, our people would have already been dead." The robot reached into his robes and produced more, a sheaf of papers. "These," he said, "Are a set of experimental spells I developed to accelerate the growth of the Tree. If these are applied diligently, I believe that the Tree could be grown in as little as five hundred years. But the spells require a massive amount of magic." Cessyl's eyes flicked to the wand in Star's hand. "Like the wand. It won't drain it, like Prince Maedoc wanted to do. But it will take dedication." He knelt, and offered both the papers and the seed to Star. "Please, take these. Find a place to plant the tree. It's a long shot, but it's the last chance my people have to live."

"I....I don't know what to say," said Star, as the guards grabbed the seed and the papers for her. "Why would you trust my family  with these things? Of all people?"

Cessyl stood and gave an odd little grin. "Well, if I may be perfectly frank, Princess. I don't trust you with them. In all honesty, I don't think you'll keep the dedication necessary to grow the tree. But you're the one with the wand, and I'm not going to doom the rest of my people to death in battle trying to get it from you." Here, the robot shrugged and looked off into the distance wistfully. "Truth is, I accepted that my people were doomed a long, long time ago. Maedoc never really did."

"What? I TOTALLY will," shouted Star. "I'm going to plant the CRAP out of this Tree." She poked Cessyl in his hollow metal chest with the wand and muttered. "Tell me I have no dedication. What a bunch of-I'm going to un-doom your people so hard, your HEAD will spin."

Cessyl smiled knowingly. "If you say so, Princess. Now, goodbye. I will keep my word. Most likely, you will never see me, or my people, ever again."

And with a whirl and a flash and a flurry of orange and yellow leaves, Cessyl disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the smell of an autumn forest, and a small patch of flowers where he had once stood.