Chapter 12: Corruption

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[This chapter is gonna be real. Just saying expect heavy feels and questions like "where TF did that come from?" Enjoy ^~^]

It was easy. And cool. And funny.
Funny how guards would lay down their lives for something so futile. They would risk everything because of a lie; that the royal family was worth protecting. That their emperors' lineages entitled them to rule over a land that's not meant to be theirs.
But since no one else has the guts to destroy the corrupt monarchy, it lies upon him to end the lineage all in one night. Tonight.
With each guard that charges at us with their spears and swords, their bodies covered in metal and their faces filled with fear, they were each met with an easy attack.
Easy for Toffee, hard for me. My hand would cramp up as the green poison infected every single one of my nerve endings with pain. It felt as if with every attack the green was biting into my bone and scraping from the inside of my skin out. My blood ran quickly, each little cell smashing against the veins and tearing it apart. Toffee didn't notice while he used Marco's body as a weapon. I felt all the repercussions of his irrational actions. But every time I felt like letting out a huge scream and tell him to stop, my soul felt corrupted and broken. Every time I even thought about taking back control of my body I could see less and less of what was happening. Soon each of the guards for the Mewman palace became a haze, their faces just a blur that melted into their useless armor against the green lightening.
"Now..." Toffee stand in front of the big doors of the castle, a trail of death behind us. "To kill or not to kill, that is my question."
"Kill who?" My voice was weak, my physical mouth barely moved when I talked.
"The royalty." Toffee scoffs.
"Star!" My heart lets out a solid beat from inside my spirit and the world goes into inverted colors for a split second. My nerves tingle like novocaine was wearing off while my vision, for just a moment, was sharpened.
But then everything fades back to numb and the whole world has added shade to shade, like wearing sunglasses at night.
"Scared for your self-acclaimed friend?" Toffee snickers and places his hand with the shattered star gem on the massive doors. "Poor little boy. No matter how much I try to warn you and trick you and persuade you, her grip over your heart is more than you could ever understand. I guess we'll have to break that bond the old fashion way."
"What-?" I cough, but my stumbled question is broken by the door exploding. From that, the courtyard behind him is met with a gust of wind, stirring up leaves and dust. The smoke from the pearly doors levels out and on their feet stand the king and the queen. The king looked more or less the same as when I first met him, but the queen's hair was down in a braid but her dress remained the same. Something about that image of a more casual Moon made Toffee's eye twitch. I could see the vision in my right eye come in and out of focus, getting outlined by black a little every so often.
"Who are you!?" The king screams, spear in hand.
"M-Marco?" The Queen wonders allowed. Toffee glides forward, Marco's tale-less body still causing him some unbalance. We pass a spotless window, the lights inside turning it to a shinning mirror. I glance into it and my faith melts a little. I wore the same ratty, dirty and torn white shirt and back shorts, but my shoes were gone. My hair was slicked back, some strands hanging over my face but not many. My eyes burned a gold and my face was covered in burn marks and dirt. Everything hurt, my body ran with cold blood seeping  through all the gashes. He turns back to the royalty.
"That is you." Moon's voice has a slight tingle of relief, but was also choked back with fear. "Marco what are you doing here?"
Toffee smirks, bearing my white teeth in a snarl. His voice was deep and melodic and no doubt, his and not mine, "Marco's not here right now, can I take a message?"
Without a beat, Moon breathes the word, "Toffee", her voice just an airy whisper of fear in a cold, stale room. The voice flipped a switch in River's brain and he launched a thin, metal spear at us.
But Toffee didn't move. I screamed at him, my brain shaking but the bastard didn't flinch. The spear impaled the side of my neck, the sharp, knife-like side of the head sliced my neck and caused the skin to tear open like a zipper. Blood spurted out and pooled down my shoulder and I let out a scream as the pain smacks my head. Toffee keeps marching forward but I felt limp, suspended in my own mind, pain all over my body. That bastard, the only reason I was here was to take all the damage for him.
The world became farther from my eyes.
"You are just as foolish as you were then, River." Toffee stalks forwards. "Thinking you were a match for the immortal monster."
"You're not immortal, in that form at least." River snaps back, his eyes intense.
"No?" He chucked back. "You sure, your highness? You kill me, you kill that little kid Marco that your daughter loves. I'm sure she'd love you after that."
Moon steps in front, "I won't kill you, Marco. But I will kill Toffee."
"My my, you still got that bite." Toffee mocks. I held my breath as Moon conjures up some blue fire. I squint against the darkness and blurriness of my eyes and in a flashing can make out her skin turning from the pale mess to a majestic purple, big blue wings sprouting out of her back. She lets out a battle cry, like tears were beginning to well up. She charges at Toffee, but he lets her smash his head in and I feel the sharp pain spread through my body, like a I fell on a thousand needles. My eyes begin to bleed and I pull against the sharp pain.
Toffee pulls myself up and sends a dangerous blast towards Moon, my arm burning. I squint and I guess Moon dodged because Soon my vision turns green as Toffee throws up a shield. As soon as it shatters under purple light my arm explodes and it feels like the thousands of things that were digging around under my skin like scarabs finally broke through it. The vine that appeared reached for Moon and it felt a paper cut from cardboard when she slides it away. Her wings glides her towards him and that was it. She swine and he jump but not high enough, the sword caught our leg and we flew against the wall.
Toffee goes to get up but I can feel that his leg is broken. He curses at it and tried to stand up again. I cringe and hiss at the image of my shin being chopped in two the short way, the halves missing each other with each attempted to stand up. I pull at my eyes and harshly wipe away to blood so that patterns imprint in my eyelids. When I open them, the world is in perfect focus for a second and I see Moon standing over me.
"I can't-" her voice is all choked up. "Marco what did you do?"
I turn away in shame and the world becomes almost totally black. Toffee snarls, "I simply was telling him about how the Butterfly family operates."
"Toffee..." Moon is clearly in tears at this point, but I can barely see her through all the darkness.
"Let me tell you something. Star," Toffee scowls and adjusts himself slightly, "she's just like you. She has the same naive perspective on everything, believing that no matter what everything will work out. And it always does, for you and her, not us. Marco knows what it's like to be on the other side of your fantasies."
"So you destroyed him!?" Moon shouts.
"No. I'm just making sure he doesn't meet the same fate I did."
Moon huffs and I can strongly hear her footsteps bang away, her heels clicking on the (probably) destroyed marble floor.
"They were bonded by the Blood Moon too." Toffee uses the wall and his good foot to raise himself. "History has a funny way to repeating itself."
Moon stops. "The Blood Moon is nothing but a ritual made up by the demons so they could celebrate and drink another night away."
"You don't really believe that." My hand begins to sizzle and boil with pain and heat. "Which is why you took my finger and hid it in your wand. So time would stop on it so one day you could find a way to go back to the way things were, before you betrayed me!"
"I didn't betray you! It was for tradition-"
"Traditions change, Moon!" Toffee's heart beats loudly and blood rushes around his body to his face, but then he laughs a bit at his outbreak. "But you don't care. You followed your parents wish and did try to kill me but I'm the Immortal Monster, sweetie. So I guess now is my turn to return the favor!"
My hand felt like I stuck it straight into a bonfire as my skin sizzles and pops, melting off my bond. There was a shout from River, scream from Moon and a chuckle from Toffee.
"You killed him."
Then silence.
"You know she traveled into her wand, just like you did. But she took something out, not hide something inside. So tell Star," Toffee pulls his hair back and creates a portal limping into it, "I'm coming for my finger."
I stop breathing every part of my spirit covered in the worse kind of pain. I float in total blackness and endure the agony, my thoughts completely focused on not feeling it.
"Star." I mumble weakly as I lift my head a little to look down my body to my toes and beyond that a small red light. It grows slightly and suddenly my eyes rip into tears. Me heart crushes and my throat closes and I scream out for help. I feel myself getting heavier and my mouth opens sloppily. The light reaches out for me and I flip around, ignoring the pain, and I reach out for it to.
"I need to save you." I say as I grip my teeth and my fingers tickle the edge of the red spotlight. "I can't let you die by my hands."
My body gets weights down until I can see the portal ends and lands me at Star's door. My heart beats loudly as my spirit doesn't even fill out all my fingers and leaves my body feeling distant and numb. But I can see through my own eyes, Toffee smashing and screaming my head into a horrible pressurized headache.
I push open the door.

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WELP
GNIGHT
✌🏻️
WOLFIE

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