Chapter 13

Omnitraxus Prime relaxed. Years of plotting and secrecy had pushed him to his limits. Peering through the murky lens of causality to see every potential and every possibility, was challenging. Subtly nudging events to unfold in the way he desired was even more so. Even a small change created ripples that could cause hard to predict effects- even for him- so he had needed to maintain constant vigilance.

But now, it was almost over. Marco Diaz had been taken care of, and to him it was inconsequential whether Star Butterfly was now firmly on the path to being deposed. The influence of the Earth dimension and the changes it could unleash had been stopped- the position and power of the Magical High Commission was secure. The fact that the chain of events he had instigated had crippled attempts to integrate monsters into Mewni was just an added bonus.

Seeing how close Toffee had come, how close he'd, by negligence, had let Toffee come to ruling all of Mewni had been a wakeup call. He couldn't afford to stand idle. But, the more he looked into possible futures, the more his concerns grew. Nearly every timeline had vast changes sweeping over the universe- including social unrest, revolution, wars, and at the end of it all he and the rest of the magical high commission would become irrelevant, obsolete.

So he went to work, at first just nudging events to drive Marco Diaz away from Mewni. He hadn't needed to do that much to drive him apart from Star Butterfly; for the most part he just had to make sure they never, ever got into a photo booth together. Then there was propping up Mina, who was really just a tool to make Star's position as Queen untenable. It had taken almost three years, but he was finally in the home stretch.

So when a golden portal opened up in front of him and Star Butterfly flew through it, Omnitraxus was, for the first time in centuries, taken by surprise. Even when Toffee had struck, he had seen the one small winding path to victory and played his part accordingly, but this… this was truly unexpected.

Emotions played across her face quick as lightening- confusion, understanding, fury. "You…" She growled. "Where's Marco?"How had she found him? More importantly, how had she circumvented his powers? These questions whirled through Omnitraxus' head, but Star would not give him time to ponder him.

She launched herself into the air, golden wings unfolding, her six hands crackled with golden energy, a prelude to the beam of light that was now on course to disintegrate him. Omnitraxus distorted the space in front of him, deflecting the beam over his head- though he still felt the heat from it. Star hadn't waited to see if her attack had landed, but instead had immediately followed up with another bolt of energy, and another, and another. With a savagery he'd never seen from her before, Star launched a barrage of some of the most powerful magical attacks he'd ever seen at him, and it took everything Omnitraxus had to merely avoid being hit.

Gone was her normal style of spellcasting- none of her trademark spells made an appearance, only pure, concentrated magical power that sizzled in the air. Even while on the backfoot against Star, he tried to make sense of what was happening, or more precisely, what would happen. Everything had been thrown into flux, but if he could just recalibrate…

Too late. Star had gotten around his defenses by portalling behind him. He hadn't seen it coming until it was too late, and all he could do was raise his arm to shield himself from the golden beam of energy hurtling towards him. The blast struck at his elbow, purple and black motes were cast into the air as his forearm was severed and fell to the ground.

Despite being a near omniscient being, the severing of an arm still hurt immensely. All thoughts of his grander plan fell from his mind as the pain robbed him of his faculties. The force of the attack combined with his disorientation succeeded in toppling over.

Star hovered above him, hands still glowing, ready to strike, but she held. "ANSWER ME!" She shouted "WHERE'S. MARCO." With each word, Omnitraxus felt an aggressive pulse of magic from her. Through the haze, he tried to focus, and his understanding of the timelines returned.

There was only one way he'd get out of this alive.

"I surrender."

Star's fury burned in her heart. It burned with the power of a sun, and it was only egged on by the matching fury that Marco seemed to be feeling at that very moment. "I don't care. If you don't tell me where Marco is, I'll… I'll… kill you." Part of her balked at her threat, not because she made it, but because she meant it. She could strike him down right now, and the only think that stayed her hand was that Omnitraxus could find Marco.

"I sent him to an alternate timeline." A dozen questions whirled through her mind. Why would he do this? Betray them, send Marco away... for what? What was his plan? What was Marco doing right now? But Star shunted them aside, they weren't important right now, not until she found Marco.

"Bring him back."

"I can't."

"LIAR!" Star anger flared, because there was no way, no way that she was going to let Marco stay trapped in another timeline, no way that she'd let Omnitraxus' bullshit from keeping him from the people who loved him.

"I'm not lying! I can send people to other timelines, but bringing them back requires there being a copy of me in that timeline." Star wasn't buying it, but if he was going to continue to refuse to help her she had only two options- humor him or follow through on her threat and try to get Marco back on her own.

Before she could make a decision, however, the others arrived, led by Hekapoo. She startled for a moment at seeing Omnitraxus, before she was consumed by rage. "You! You asshole!" She seethed, flames erupting from her head. "WHY?"

"I've seen what's going to happen. I only took the necessary steps to avoid disaster." Omnitraxus demurred

"What disaster?"

"War. Chaos. Upheaval! And it all ends with the high commission obsolete." Omnitraxus proclaimed "And I could have stopped it all! I should have been able to stop it all. I just don't understand how I failed. How you found me."

Star didn't care. Even as her friends all began shouting and arguing, she didn't care. She didn't care about why he did it, at least not at the moment, because right now Marco was gone and she had no idea how to get to him.

"It's the humans! They've already gotten their hands on magic, and soon they're going to change everything." Omnitraxus pleaded, but Star tuned him out, instead focusing on that connection between her and Marco. She could still feel that tug, a pull at her heart that guided her towards him, and right now it was telling her to go towards Omnitraxus.

It all was suddenly clear to her.

"I'm going after him." She declared. Before anyone could react or question how she planned to do that, Star dived strait towards Omnitraxus' chest and into the vast expanse of parallel timelines he held within him. The pull at her heart was unerring, and she followed it to one cracked and blackened crystal. Without a moment's hesitation, she flew in.

I'm coming Marco.

Toffee regarded Marco coolly "I find myself at a loss, Marco. I seem to remember killing you. Tearing you limb from limb while your precious friend watched." He said this with the same calm, calculating demeanor that Marco remembered, from his memories and his nightmares. In different circumstances it might have intimidated him, but now, it infuriated him.

"Well I seem to remember Star utterly destroying you, so I guess we're both disappointed."

The cunning lizard quickly worked out Marco's meaning. "So, you're from a parallel timeline? Well, no matter, just another loose end to clean up." Clearly, Toffee didn't consider him a threat. Marco would have to disabuse him of that notion.

The two whirled into motion. Marco ducked and rolled, narrowly dodging the bolt of green energy Toffee shot at him. He'd been inches from death, but Marco hadn't flinched. With a fluid grace, he drew his scissor blades, and rolled again. Once again Toffee's magic didn't find its mark, and Marco was able to clip the lizard in the leg.

Toffee hissed, and lashed out with his tail and magic simultaneously. Marco leapt into the air and twisted to evade both attacks. However, the move put him in a precarious position. He landed right on the ledge, and when Toffee struck at Marco once again, he had little choice but let himself fall off to avoid the blow.

Marco was tumbling in midair, but Toffee wasn't sitting idly. He propelled himself downward, shooting Marco a sinister smile as he passed him, and landing on the ground with enough force to crack the stone beneath him. Toffee looked back up at him, and his eyes glowed a sinister green as he readied another attack.

That was exactly what Marco had been waiting for. As angry as Marco was, he wasn't stupid. He couldn't fight Toffee hand to hand and hope to win. Not when he had massive regenerative abilities and the most powerful magic in the universe on his side.

No, Marco would have to play dirty. All he needed was a way to get Star's body out of the crossfire. So, once Toffee landed, Marco rejoined his scissor blades, and struck. The blades tore into the fabric of reality, and slowed Marco's fall to a halt as they opened the portal. He then used his upper body strength to swing his body upwards, back-flipping into the portal he had opened.

Hekapoo's forge had seen better days. The building had been built to last with strong magical enchantments, but it must have been millennia since its caretaker had attended to it. The stone was worn and cracked, the metal was rusted and warped, the forge itself was cold and dark- Hekapoo's fire had long since died out.

Marco clenched his fist. He'd avenge her too.

It had taken him almost two months, or a mere five seconds on Mewni, but at last it was finally ready.

Marco had gone through many ideas, but most of them had been unworkable. Close range weapons just wouldn't do for what he had in mind. He'd even considered a gun, but even then it would be difficult to be clear of the blast radius he had in mind. Instead, Marco crafted a small metallic disk. It was engraved with glowing orange runes, and it pulsed with a violent, almost living, heat.

It was time.

Marco returned to the mountainside where he'd left Toffee those weeks ago. His emotions had hardened and cooled during the time he'd spent in Hekapoo's dimension, but with his return to Mewni, his grief and fury returned with such sudden force that Marco almost doubled over. The wounds that Marco had buried with tireless work were suddenly fresh once more.

No. He had a job to do. He'd arrived back to where he'd found Star, and from his vantage point he could see Toffee clearly. Marco's thumb found the top of the disk and pressed inward. The button depressed with a click, and Marco dropped the bomb.

He had five seconds. Marco quickly scooped Star's body in his arms, and cut open a portal that deposited them at a mountaintop a little over a mile away. Marco gently set Star's body to the ground, and turned just in time to feel the heat on his face.

There was always another annoyance, Toffee mused.

He'd defeated the magical high commission, the Queen and Princess of Mewni and all of their allies. Yet there was always someone else. Rebels from an outlying dimension that demanded autonomy, witches from Earth that fancied themselves more important than they actually were, some rotting necromancer that thought he found a way around Toffee's regenerative abilities.

All of them had failed, but they had all succeeded in irritating him.

And now he had to deal with Marco Diaz, again. The brat that wouldn't just give up. The one that, even after he'd killed the high commission and broken the royal wand, had led an underground, cross dimensional resistance for years. For so long, he'd been a thorn in his side, and just when Toffee thought he'd finally been rid of him, through some twist of fate he was back.

To make things more frustrating, he'd gotten away. Toffee had seen the fire in his eyes, and had been certain that the boy would fight him to the death, but apparently he'd come to his senses at the last moment, and escaped while he could. This wasn't ideal. He'd be able to rally scattered forces, and more or less do what the original had been doing- raiding, sabotage, and generally being a nuisance.

Toffee's was drawn from his thoughts by the thud of a small metallic disk as it landed at his feet. Odd, it practically radiated magic… with a jolt of fear Toffee realized, it could be a trap.

Toffee leapt away as a portal expanded from the edges of the device. While his reaction was swift, he hadn't prepared for what would come out of the portals. Not enemies, but a highly pressurized torrent of lava.

The lava burst from the portal with immense speed and was flung outward in all directions. Instinctively, Toffee raised a shield that diverted the lava away from him- but he neglected to shield himself from the heat. He screamed in pain as his skin charred before his very eyes, and that lapse in focus was his undoing. His defenses faltered and the lava broke through- soon enveloping him.

All Toffee could feel was pain.

And then he felt nothing at all.

A/N: Well, this story is nearing its conclusion. Next week's update will be the last, and you will die from having your heart warmed. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this update, and look forward to hearing what you think!