"Star…"

"Please… mommy," the girl whispered. "Just… let me listen to your heartbeat."

"Sweetie…"

"I just… I just want to know everything will be okay… just for this moment."

Moon began to choke up, suspecting the implications:

"You're… you're not my Star… aren't you?"

Star shook her head, as she held her even tighter. Moon felt a slight hiccup, as if the tears were starting to well up inside. Star's or hers, it was hard to tell.

"I… I'm so sorry," said Moon, embracing her back. Knowing this was what she needed, as she was suspecting even more disturbing implications.

"I miss you so much, mommy."

"I know, sweetie, I know," Moon felt the young girl's heartbeat, it was warm, recognizable and yet somehow, she knew – it was different.

"I'm not going to cry," Buff Frog said as he stood by, with teary eyes. "I'm not going to."

"Oh, Star, just look at you now," said Moon, caressing her daughter's cheek. "All grown up. My goodness. Last I saw you, you were just this tall. How old are you now?"

"Well, it's… kind of complicated," said Star, "since we don't really keep time like that anymore. Physically I'm in my twenties. But it's been a LONG time since we defeated Mina and destroyed the magic on my timeline, which was the point where our two universes diverted off."

"I don't understand," said Moon.

"It's like I said earlier," Meteora joined in. "It is a new world, we call it the Pantheon of the Metaphysics. There are newer powers that roam Mewni and Earth now. New gods and abstracts, replacing older gods like the Commission. Your daughter here is one of the most powerful of us all."

"What?"

"Your daughter, Star Butterfly is the God of Republic," said Meteora.

Star Butterfly, the last trace of the old age of Mewman Queens and magic, and it showed. She stood tall in a confident posture with her golden locks of hair tied and slicked back into a clean ponytail. She stood clad in a brilliant armor representative of the new world's science. The metal was light, nimble, and yet stronger than any solid on Mewni or Earth, painted bright sea blue with pink accents.

Behind her sharp pair of wing-like pauldrons draped along the wind a long silky blue cape, reminiscent of the cape Marco once wore when he was a knight, though the shade of blue here was slightly lighter. On her forearms she wore a pair of golden gloves glowing with strange powerful matrixes of the computers and machinery, peculiar patterns of powerful plasma were lighting from within. From afar, one could easily assume Star was holding the power of an entire solar system within her palms. And her silver skirt and silver spandex beneath this light layer of metal shined hints of the old world. Moon recognized the silver color. Because it was clear this was the battle skirt she once wore as a warrior queen, albeit completely redesigned to fit Star's own frame better.

"Oh, darling," Moon caressed Star's cheeks lovingly, "your hair… your armor…"

"I hope you don't mind," said Star nervously. "I made some modifications, to be better suited for space travel… if… if that's okay with you."

"Oh, sweetie," Moon did not hesitate to embrace her, squeezing her tight with motherly love. "Of course it's okay. You look beautiful. I am so proud of you, Star."

"Mommy…"

"I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt this… um… tender loving family… um… reuniting moment," Dennis reluctantly stepped in, "but a lot of this is still very much confusing to us."

"Yes," Buff Frog agreed, "What exactly is this Republic God?"

"As the age of the queens ended," Meteora explained, "a new age of constitution and representative democracy rose on New Mewni. It was supposed to be a new age of new freedom, new choices."

"It's just… difficult to accomplish," said Mariposa, "when there's an all-powerful God of Evil running around enslaving all your friends and families."

"I'm so sorry, mom," said Star. "I really didn't want to do it. I wanted the people to choose. But… I just… I just had to step up. I had to protect them."

"What about Eclipsa?" Moon asked, "What happened to her? Why couldn't she and her husband take over?"

Meteora answered reluctantly:

"My father… he couldn't make it. He was… taken away by Evil when I was young."

"Oh…" Moon withdrew, feeling bad for asking, "I'm so sorry."

"And my mother," Meteora continued, "similar to Star, she also ascended to godhood. In our time, she is known as the God of Peaceful Death. A direct antithesis to Marco's… um, I mean, Evil's God of Surviving Flesh. Because of her new job she couldn't really be around all that often."

"Not to mention," Mariposa joined in, "Star is one of the few people powerful enough to resist the God of Evil's influence."

"What? How?" Moon and Janna asked simultaneously.

"I… am not entirely sure myself," said Star.

"Our God of Science on New Mewni has some theories on the matter, of course," said Meteora, "but nothing is concrete as of right now."

"Who is the God of Science?" Janna asked.

"Um… can we tell her," Mariposa looked to Star and Meteora.

"There's a crisis going on," Meteora said. "She's on a different alternate universe anyway, it's not going to alter their timeline. Not to mention it's our job to Deliver Truth."

"I'm sorry, but what's going on?" Janna asked.

"The God of Science," Mariposa smiled excitedly, "is one Ms. Ordonia."

"Excuse me? WHAT?"

"Janna Ordonia," said Meteora, "the God of Science on New Mewni. Half of our technologies are only possible because of you."

The young girl stood there, frozen with her jaw glued to the floor. Her eyes emptied with shock and her mind raced to unthinkable places, places she did not think she would even dare go in her entire life.

Oh, the irony – Janna Ordonia, the author of weirdness, chaos and dark magic, yet on a world not far from here crowned as a leader of the very concept and form of logic and science.

"If the God of Evil was going to build an entire army of gods on New Earth," said Star, as she stood up, "then by corn, New Mewni needed to have its army, too."

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," both Meteora and Mariposa cleared their throats.

"Hi, my name is Meteora Butterfly."

"Hello, I'm Mariposa Diaz."

They both then said in unison:

"We are the God of Delivering Truth. The direct antithesis to Evil's Propaganda."

And that moment, that infinitesimal moment in this warped reality of the Neverzone where temporal fields were bending everything outside of itself to a slow halt, in that moment all the people, creatures, animals, even plants in this cold dimension began to sense the presence of gods. It was difficult to do so before, because of their new world technology suppressing their limits, but they were here, no denying that, and they were huge. Too big to be contained in any celestial body, so big in fact they could easily dwarf galaxies if they so wish, and it was only by their own will and abilities that they could contain their own massive size within a form mortals could easily comprehend.

Moon could see the true size in their eyes and feel the true power from the aura emanating from their heavenly bodies. The age of magic was over, and yet here they stood, more powerful than ever before.

Magic was never so simple, even back in those simpler times. The world was never so simple. Because there were cosmic forces in the universe that were not magical in nature.

The magic wand was the most powerful weapon in the universe. But how could one possibly surpass a miracle device that could grant wishes?

That was the secret of the gods.

"Somebody please pinch me now and wake me up from this dream," Janna said. "I'm pretty sure my brain is mush now from all the explosion… in my head."

"Dream? Ha!" Ludo cried, "This is more a nightmare. I didn't follow any of this nonsense."

"For once," said Buff Frog, "I agree with you."

"Where on earth do you even draw your powers from?" Moon asked, also desperately trying to keep her brain from melting.

"In our world, the God of Evil has amassed a massive army of gods," Star explained, "by having reincarnations of the older gods possess bodies of lesser mortals. Some of these old gods include previous souls of the queens of Mewni."

"But they aren't really full reincarnations of the original versions of the queens and old gods," Meteora followed up. "Rather they seem like aspects of the God of Evil's will and thoughts given form."

"There are exceptions to this rule," Mariposa said. "Star and Eclipsa for example are not possessed by any of the previous queens. Not that they really need it, given how ridiculously powerful they are."

"What about you two?" Dennis pointed at Meteora and Mariposa. "Who are you two possessed by?"

"It's complicated," said Mariposa, "but in a nutshell, on New Mewni, we do not do bodily possession."

"The very idea of messing with free will and taking over someone else's body is a big no in my book," Star firmly said.

"So instead what we do on New Mewni is something a little different," Mariposa continued. "I wouldn't personally describe it as possession. More like… fusion of the soul."

"Or rather in this case the souls," Meteora said. "Mariposa's and my own god essence are somehow bound together, as if they were deemed necessary by some higher power. So in a way, the God of Delivering Truth is the both of us combined, two souls – acting as one."

"And the one we draw power from is queen Celena the Shy," Mariposa said.

"Celena?" Moon raised her eyebrow. "The Celena? The thirty-third queen of Mewni? Daughter of Rhina the Riddled?"

"Yes," Meteora nodded, "she doesn't exactly talk much in our heads. We don't hear much from her. But her essence gives us just enough to power our godhood."

"Just unfortunately not enough to defeat the God of Evil on their own," said Star. "The God of Evil's army is growing fast. And we're barely keeping up. I fear he bears an even more sinister goal behind all this recruiting, all this chaos."

"That…" Meteora then pointed her finger at everybody, "is the reason why we have brought you here."

That easily got all of their attention, as this whole mess of chaotic truth was difficult to navigate. Meteora explained:

"We've brought you here not only to save you from the God of Evil's enslavement. But also, because each and every one of you are suitable candidates to receive soul fusion and ascend into godhood."

"WHAT?"

"The multiverse is in danger," said Star. "And we need your help. One republic cannot do this alone. His poison spreads farther than anybody could've imagined."

"You… you… want us… to become gods?" Dennis stammered.

"I can't tell if this is getting better or worse by the minute," said Ludo, pinching his own cheek.

"But how?" Janna asked. "I'm… I'm just an ordinary human Earth girl. I'm not special, or even cool like you, Star."

"HA!" Star couldn't help herself but burst out loud. "You're going to do great, I can already tell."

"The new age of change is coming," Meteora said. "Magic and queens are gone. But I'm afraid the change in this universe, your universe is coming faster than it did in ours. The cleaving of Mewni and Earth has only given Evil more materials to work with, more livestock for him to enslave. The Magical High Commission and their true omnipotent forms outside the universe are big targets for Evil, and whatever we do we have to get to them before he does. Especially Omnitraxus Prime, the old God of Space-Time. He is an agent of Dream, as such he holds partial power over reality itself. If Evil ever gets to him, it's almost certain Evil will be allowed to rewrite the very fabric of reality itself to his will."

"Please," Star offered her hand. "Join us – and help us save the multiverse."

"Give in… Kelly…" he whispered.

"I just don't get it," said Kelly, "ever since Tom passed away, Marco's been… different. It's hard to put my finger on it."

"How so?" Jackie asked.

"Give in…"

"Oh, forget him girl," said Pony Head, "come on, join me on this party that never ends! It is so lit right now you won't believe."

"Like, he keeps me around, ME," cried Kelly, "unafraid that I might Betray him at any time. He even asked me to do it. Betray him."

Jackie couldn't help herself but laugh:

"That's because he has me around, Loyalty. He's not afraid."

"Just give in…"

"I hear voices in my head, you know," said Kelly, "three voices in fact. And my brain hardens up to some kind of hard crystal."

"Yo, DJ, turn up the music, dawg!" Pony Head yelled. "We're going to raise the roof! WOO!"

"I guess… I guess I just want Marco to be happy," said Kelly.

Jackie smiled:

"Dude, that's easy. Just do what I did – give in."

Hosanna.