Star and Marco vs Evil Book 1

XII

The doors to the war room opened, the guards to either side stiffening to attention as Marco and Janna walked out. They had spent the past few hours in the post-mission debriefing, followed by discussion of what to do next. When the meeting moved toward details about defense of the castle, Marco asked to be dismissed. He thought he should probably stay, but he was so beat he could barely keep his eyes open. Janna, effectively his aide-de-camp, left with him.

As they were walking slowly and quietly toward the exit, Marco listened to a royal tech. "We're still tracking surges in the tramorfidian crystal," he said. "They've been occurring randomly ever since the rift defenses were activated more than a year ago, and we're no closer to an explanation. We've even replaced the crystal three times. There was another surge several hours ago, immediately after the latest mission ended. We thought ..." The tech was cut off as the doors closed.

Marco and Janna walked side-by-side toward their rooms. As they passed the Hall of Remembrance, a swarm of flying cats buzzed them, causing Marco to glance toward the Ponyhead memorial. The floating head that made up the memorial still gave him the creeps.

King Ponyhead had died several months after Star's turning, under mysterious circumstances. Princess Lilacia Ponyhead ascended to the throne, but she was not ready to be queen; in just a few short weeks she managed to alienate every kingdom on Mewni. Eventually, the abuse she heaped on her quasi-boyfriend Seahorse undid his demoncism. Afterwards, he worked with Ponyhead's sisters, aiding them in their plot to stage a coup, but Seahorse was deceiving them. He had misused Reflectacorp technology to set up a cataclysm that, when triggered by the Ponyhead sisters, wiped out all the pony-heads. Marco, Moon, and River wanted Seahorse punished, but the rest of the kingdoms insisted he be given a medal instead. Marco knew Mewni was largely a medieval society, but that seemed extremely bloodthirsty even for them. Queen Ponyhead must have really screwed up.

"Sooooo, Janna, I'm glad we have this chance to talk one-on-one..."

"Chicken-butt."

There was a bright spark when Janna snapped her fingers, giving her a large jolt. Marco smiled and kept walking. Janna sighed, then said, "Alright, talk."

"How are things between you and Tom these days?"

"They're good, and I'm still working to make them better."

Janna's and Tom's relationship had started with a typical schoolgirl crush, although more because Tom was an actual demon than for any other reason. Janna was initially disappointed to find Tom wasn't interested in the occult and macabre the way she was, mostly because for him, as an Underworld demon, such things were common and mundane. But as Janna trained with Tom and spent time with him, she began to appreciate Tom for Tom. He indulged her interests, and Janna helped him with his, and they began to find common ground. She now considered him a good friend, and she was fairly certain he felt the same way about her. Janna knew that was how Star and Marco started out, so she was hopeful that, like Star's and Marco's friendship, hers and Tom's would progress into more.

Janna continued, "He's still hurting from Star stringing him along."

"What? He was about to dump Star."

"True, but you know a boy's ego is one of the two most fragile things in the multiverse. He's not mad at you and Star for pounding his heart flat, he knows that wasn't on purpose. He knows Star was under a lot of pressure and confused about what she wanted and needed in her life, and he knows that you're just clueless and a bit of an idiot ... although a cute one."

Marco rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

"But he's mad at himself for not seeing earlier what everybody else was seeing ... well, except for you and Star, of course. He is mad, though, at the two of you for keeping secrets from him, important things for a boyfriend to know ... like Star's uncontrolled Butterfly Monster transformations and sleep portalling, and you two leaving Tom alone at the Monster Bash to go down into the catacombs together, where you took Star's virginity while Tom waited upstairs."