Summary: Problems get worse and worse
The boy was strong, arguing with the voice that whispered sweet things and warmth into their heads. They were the enemy just by trying to resist. Following the voice was what led to eternal comfort and satisfaction. "I'm not..going to let…you…win!"[anger. Resistance. Rebellion. Desperation.]
Restrain him. The Hydra rushed forward, using her claws to try and pin the boy down. "Garnet, you're more than just puppet…just fight him..,for just one second.." The boy stopped her claws by raising his hands over himself, struggling to keep it off him.
"Sorry Steven, but I don't think words will work this time!" A voice called out from above her, and the hydra felt a snack run across the head with one eye. "Also sorry we're late, it took a while to find something in my hair to unlock the chains." A green bush flipped off her neck.
"Kelly, you're okay!" [Gratefulness. Love. Satisfaction. Warmth.] The boy shouted. "Where's Marco?" [Concern. Warmth.]
"Right here!" The red head turned to see a hoodie stab The Fish with a pink sword that set off her danger instincts. "We already took out Amethyst and Peridot, we need you to bubble them!"
"Kind of in the middle of something, a lot of something actually!" [Danger. Trouble. Task.] The pink boy grabbed the ground and tossed it at her stomach, making them slightly wince. "Physically, emotionally, basically worst case scenario times three." [Stress beyond stress.] The boy growled as he got in front of them. "Star's fighting Ludo right now, the main thing we need to do is get to her before she does something crazy…crazier." [Stalling. Master danger.]
"Grrrr." "Wrrrr." [Buy time. Defend Master.] [Ignore boy. Destroy the threat.] They began walking off, back to the inside of the castle.
"AH! STUPID MENTAL CONNECTION! WHY DO MY POWERS ALWAYS SUCK!?" [Self loathing. Complaining about the universe.] The boy grabbed a hold of her tail and began pulling it back, actually managing to drag them backwards just a bit. "WHY CAN'T YOU WORK WHEN I WANT IT!" A pink flashed emanated as the boy grew bigger, tossing the hydra overhead and into the fish creature.
"Hiss." [Buzz off. In way.]
"Grrr." "BRRRT." [Rude.][Pest.]
"Caaaaaw!" [Insolent. Disorderly. Lackluster.] The Swan acted all haughty before being blasted into the ground by a blue butterfly creature.
"Seem's even under mind control they can't be forced to cooperate with complete unity." The butterfly remarked as the wings faded on her back.
"Now, while they're all together!" They attacked with blasts, punches, and the pink sword. The hydra could feel themselves falling apart … alone.
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Ludo took a breather as Eagle and Spider fought off Star, looking at his hand. "So much power … but I still can't beat her … what should I do?" He asked the wand.
... "Why are you going silent now!? Why are you leaving me alone!"
"Because he doesn't need you!" Star shouted, blasting Spider away. "He already corrupted all the gems and ruined our lives, and took out the commission."
"No, that was all…!"
"Be honest with yourself, Ludo! Have you been doing anything on your own ever since you got the wand?!" Star shouted as Eagle attempted to swoop her upward. "Has every plan been suggested by the wand first?! Do you use the wand, or does the wand use you!?"
"No, no it can't be Toffee, it can't be!" ...… "It needs to be me…I need this…I need to win!" Ludo almost felt himself come to tears as he banged his head against the wall. "I just…I don't want to be a failure anymore…."
"We're both in the same boat, Ludo. I've been failing all the time for the past year." Star commented as she kicked Eagle away. "I've failed to use my wand right, I failed to protect the book, and I failed to protect my brother."
"Then … if we're both failures who can't do anything right …" He turned to her with teary eyes. "What's the point?"
"The point is that despite all that, we're both here right now, we both know what mistakes we've made." Star offered out her hand. "And we can both make it right if we help each other out."
He looked at her hand for a moment, before taking it. "Will people ever love me?"
"There's someone for everyone Ludo … someone's gonna love you at some point." The girl kneeled down, looking at the crystal in his hand, sighing as she got in close and began whispering to it.
"Star!" A deep and raspy voice called out to the Princess. Looking at the door, it was Quartz Butterfly and their mother, although it was in that semi monster form he occasionally formed into. Behind them were the other two kids and Buff Frog.
She looked at them. "Hey guys …" She spoke softly, watching as a small ghostly millhorse flew from his hand and into the air.
"No … Star, get away now!" The mom shouted.
"I'm sorry…but this is the tough choice I have to make."
"NO, STAR!" Quartz tried to run, being held back by Buff frog and Kelly. "Don't do this, we said we weren't going to sacrifice each other!!"
"I know…which is why I'm making sure you don't even get the chance to." The wand began shaking and sparks wildly.
"Um, Star?" Ludo asked. "What's happening?" He was a bit concerned as a high pitched wine began to give a high pitched whine.
"The wand is going to explode and send me into the magic realm." It was WHAT!?
"AND WHAT ABOUT THE GUY ATTACHED TO IT!?" He shouted with concern.
"….Toffee's in you, so you should be fine…probably."
"Should be!? PROBABLY!!?"
"STAR NO!" The boy was dragged away, tears in his eyes as his face became pink. "Please don't do this! Please!" Where was the concern for him!?
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Star fell into a black and inky pool after the flash vanished. "Bleck." She coughed. "Oh, it got in my mouth, it's in my mouth." Absolutely disgusting.
She looked around, looking at the abysmal sight that was before. Dark gunk that she could barely keep her head above along with stormy green clouds constantly shooting lighting everywhere, along with bits of gold nuggets around her that slowly faded into the inky void.
"Why does this place look so familiar?" It gave her the weirdest sense of dejavu.
"You were here once before." A familiar voice spoke. "It just has a habit of overloading your senses … the minds better off forgetting." She looked with anger as the pools of sludge gathered in one spot. "Unless your mind is capable of healing from the damage faster then it's inflicted."
"You…so you are in here." She looked at the slowly forming sludge that began to shape into a giant version of the head of her most hated enemy to date. "Toffee."
"In the flesh…so to speak." The lizard smirked. "Once again, I must applaud you and your brother for letting me get this far, you've been my greatest asset in this little excursion of mine."
"Oh, I'm sure you loved all the help." She waved him off. "So what, you come in here and grow into a giant sludge monster that I'm now swimming in?"
"Oh, I'm only part of it …" He gestured to the area. "This … is your magic."
"What the… this is magic?" Star looked around. "Much more slimy than I thought it would be."
"Well it was …" He tapped a golden piece of goo, as it slowly turned black and mucky. "Now it's, how did you all put it, 'fritzed'?"
"So you've been here this entire time just messing it up for shits and giggles?"
"Oh, this was always the main plan." He admitted. "Originally I was just going to kill all Mewmans so magic could never be used on us, on top of them being worthless abominations … then your mother blasted off my finger."
"Yeah, I heard the whole story, very confused how to feel about it." Star muttered.
"Well now here I am, destroying all of magic …" His eyes gazed into hers, full of malice and glee. "How do you intend on 'fixing it'? Last I checked all you can do is cast spells, and you can't do any of that as the Realm is now."
"Again, planning is not my thing." She admitted. "But since you're so chatty, why did you even bring the gems into this mess? They don't exactly mesh with magic as it is."
"I wanted to get rid of them in case they ever became a problem. So thank you for bonding with your brother … did you get all that, Moon?" What!? She turned, seeing two holes in the sky gazing at her mom.
"Mom!? Steven!?" She called out to them.
"Star, we're glad your okay!" Her brother shouted. " At least I think you are, you're talking out of Ludo."
"Now that the conversation is out of the picture, time for the bargaining stage."Toffee smirked with vengeance. "Give me my finger, or I drown the girl."
"Don't trust him, he's-gighgn-" the sludge began to rise to her mouth.
"I'm waiting, princess moon, or do we need to lead another Butterfly into an early grave?"
"I'll do it!" No, don't, please don't let him win! She could see her mom take out the bubble.
"Are you sure?" She could hear Kelly ask.
"We don't have a choice."
"No-" The sludge only rose higher and higher as Toffee pushed her down. She couldn't let out a single word as the gunk began to fill her mouth. "Stev-" She desperately called out as the world became black around her.
"Take comfort Star … you were doomed to fail before you were even born."
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Steven couldn't have felt more worthless as his mom floated the dismembered finger to the Toffee-possessed Ludo. In the end, everything that they had been fighting for was for nothing, and not even Kelly's hand on his back could give him any comfort.
They had no choice but to be silent as they watched the bastard pop it with glee, laughing as it merged with his hand, growing over his body as it became scales and skin … and somehow grew a suit. Ludo was soon replaced with Toffee, staring at his hand. "Oh I can't put into words how good this day feel-" He coughed a bit, then started hacking like Lion before he shot a slime covered Ludo out of his mouth. "Ugh … disgusting."
"You have your damn finger back, now where's Star?" Marco growled.
"What?" He asked with confusion. "Oh no, I just promised to not drown her." He showed a blackened half of the star … crushing it as it became lost. "I never said I'd let you have her back."
"You what…you…you.." Mom visibly showed off the collective boiling rage of everyone in the area as her eyes widened in absolute horror and her diamond marks became a sickly black. " You bastard!" She charged at the man, with Star's abandoned wand, and aimed it directly at Toffee's chest.
" I call the darkness unto me From deepest depths of Earth and sea! From ancient evils unawoke Break the one who can't be broken." Black veins grew from under mom's gloves. "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 devoured!"
… Absolutely nothing happened. Toffee just smiled as he grabbed her chin. "Your children lost forever, your magic never working, your castle in shambles and my army soon to return as they see we are indeed unkillable … how I've longed to see the utter hopelessness in your eyes." He smiled with sharp teeth as he chuckled.
"You…you completely loathsome underhanded selfish and utter asshole!" Steven was craving blood, and he didn't care a single damn about it. "I'm going to tear your limb from limb!!"
"And people call us monsters." The lizard laughed. "Go ahead, lose the last bits of your rationality, strike me down and give in to the loss of your sanity. I'll just regrow and let you rampage against your remaining friends and family as you can never recall their faces again."
"Just answer me this…..why…why the hell did you go this far!?" The earth shook around him as the ground cracked as he approached, Kelly's hand and warmth slipping off him. "Why are you willing to kill so many for a finger, why..why do any of this to my sister!? What did she ever do to you!?"
Toffee stared at him with the coldest and most expressionless face he had ever seen in any sentient being. "Because she was born under Moon, because she was born a Mewman … but most of all, because she wasn't born a Septarsis."
"I..can admit when I'm wrong…I can admit when I'm being dumb and naive..but I'll be damned before I let you even think that you'll walk out of this alive after all you've done!!!!"
"Then do it boy!" He laughed. "Give in to the rage and break in front of your mother, see if you can kill me when she couldn't, when no one else could!!"
"Quartz…please don't do this!" His mom called out to him. "Please…I can't lose you too, I can't lose you…not again…" Steven didn't need to read minds to know what she meant.
"I'm sorry mom..but I'm not Quartz anymore..I'm not Steven…and I'm not Rose…" His vision got blurry as everything looked smaller around him.
"Could have fooled most people on the last one, but go on!" The lizard shouted.
He turned to the bastard that started it all, that brought him all this pain and suffering to his entire family. "I…am…a monster."
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White watched with disappointment as the gems of homeworld ran ammock. "Such trouble that Little Starlight brings." She commented. "I let her play her little games to vent out some steam and not interrupt the progress of perfection, but here she is bringing out the flaws of everyone else, just like she always does."
She wondered if she should have let it play out for this long. Honestly, the whole idea of a diamond being shattered was ridiculous from the start, but Yellow and Blue got so hysterical when word of it spread throughout the galaxy that she thought she could use their grief and anger to teach Pink a lesson on playing tricks.
But it's been a while since Pink came how, and now she was touching magic, something that only brought out flaws and imperfection. Such absolute chaos and disarray, it was tragic how barbaric the organics that used it could be.
There were a few options that she could use now. Let the gems run amok and start their entire empire over... No, that wouldn't work. She could feel the magic constantly, even if she made new gems they would still be imperfect. Maybe she should bolster her purification with Yellow and Blue's help, create a galaxy wide ray of perfection to cleanse out the disaster Pink brought upon them.
There was always the option of just going to earth and forcing Pink to work with them to purify the gems, but that would give the girl an easy out, and she'd likely just rebel again in another five hundred years when she lost her gratefulness.
Then there was letting Pink fix the problem herself…which was laughable on so many levels, the girl was helpless on her own. She should probably just wait it out. If the problem isn't fixed within a year … she'd just purify Pink herself and make her one with her like she did with her old Pearl. Let the rotten attitude out of the Diamond.