Till Death Do Us Part

From the True Heart

Marco shielded his eyes from the blinding white light that seemed to take up the entire atmosphere.  The rest of them followed his example, placing hands and arms over their faces to protect themselves from going blind.  The blast seemed to take up the entire desert, and lasted for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, Marco felt it's heat fading away from his face.  Slowly and carefully, he lowered his arm down and took a quick glance around.  The first thing that caught his eye was his best friend's motionless form lying facedown in the desert sands.

"Star!"  He ran towards her as fast as his skinny legs could carry him.  He didn't notice that his clothes were ripped and beat-up from his successful battle with Coffee's monsters, or even that Coffee himself was badly injured from the Princess's magnificent spell.  And frankly, he didn't care.  Right now, Star was his only concern.

He collapsed onto the sand beside her and turned her over.  She had scratches and light scorch marks on her face, and her cheekmarks seemed to had faded in brightness.  Marco took her by the shoulders and began to shake her.  "Star!  Star!  Its me, Marco!  We did it!  We beat Coffee!  You can wake up now!"

He kept shaking her, but she did not respond.  "Star?", he said, his voice cracking at the end.  "...Star?"  She did not seem to hear him.  She lay there in his arms, still and limp, and she did not seem to be breathing.  As the situation slowly sank in, Marco felt his senses go numb.  "I'm too late..."

This couldn't be real.  This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.  He was supposed to stop the wedding, stop her from marrying Coffee, and than they would defeat him side-by-side.  She was supposed to survive this whole mess, and then return with him to Earth.  They would go to college together, like they had originally planned.  They would continue their wacky adventures together, just as they always had before.  They would grow up and grow old together, because he would never allow anyone or anything, not even himself, to separate them again.

But now none of that would ever happen.  He would never hold her hand again.  He would never hear her bubbly, vivacious laughter again.  He would never see the light dance in her beautiful blue eyes again.  He would never get to hold her in his arms, and kiss her lovely lips, or be able to call her his.  Worst of all, he would never, ever, get the chance to tell her how he really felt about her.

Tears stinging at his eyes, he took off his red hoodie and used it to wrap around her.  Cradling her close, Marco could feel his heart breaking in pieces as he looked at her beautiful, peaceful face.  "If only I'd payed more attention to you.", he sobbed.  "I shouldn't have neglected you for so long, Star!  I should have been there for you, instead of chasing after Jackie!"

"If I had, I could've have found out what you were going through, and I could've helped you!"  He stroked the side of her face.  "But its too late now.  I blew it.  I ruined everything with my stupidity, and now I'll never get to tell you that...that I'm totally in love with you, Star Butterfly."  A waterfall of tears streamed down his face.  "I guess my only regret now...is not realizing it sooner."

He held her close to his chest and rocked her as he sobbed loud and clear.  The others saw what had happened, and their own hearts broke as well.  StarFan13 began crying a river on the sandy grounds on which they stood, with Pony Head adding in her own rainbow tears.  Jackie, Janna and the rest of the Earth gang hung their heads in mourning.  Tom walked over and placed his clawed hand on Marco's shoulder, but it offered little comfort to the distraught boy.

Just then, Marco felt two slim, warm arms wrap around his body and caress his back.  He looked back at Star to see that her gorgeous blue eyes were wide open, and she was smiling at him.  "Good to know."  Marco's tears of sadness were replaced with those of joy.  "You're alive!"  Tom turned to the others.  "She's alive!"  A great cheer rose up.

Star got into a sitting position to look Marco in the eyes.  "Marco...did you really mean what you said?"  Marco beamed at her through his watery eyes.  "Every word."  "B-But what about—"  He cut her off.  "Jackie and I are just friends.  She saw what I was too blind to see.  She's half of what made me realize that it was you I wanted."  Star stared.  "And...the other half was..."

"You know the old saying, 'you never know what you have until its gone'?", Marco explained.  "This whole 'wedding' experience did the same thing to me.  I couldn't imagine my life without you in it, Star.  Nearly losing you made me realize just how much you really mean to me.  And I don't ever want to let you slip away like that ever again."  He stared deep into her eyes, chocolate brown meeting crystal blue.  "I love you, Star Butterfly."  She felt her once-broken heart mend itself and grow with joy.  "I love you, too, Marco Diaz."

At the very same moment, they both dove in, and their lips met in a perfect, long-awaited kiss, into which they poured all of the passions and feeling they had been holding inside for years.  All of their friends clapped and cheered, shouting words of congratulations.  Neither heard them, however.  They were a bit preoccupied at the moment.

Jackie watched her ex-boyfriend and his best friend embrace one another wholeheartedly.  While she was still a little sad at losing Marco, she was glad that he was with someone who he loved very much, and who loved him back just as much.  Just then, she heard a masculine groan, and looked up to see Coffee rising up.

He looked to see one of his hands had been burnt off.  Smirking, he shook his head and concentrated on the stump.  A bit of black rose up from his singed wrist before crumbling to dust.  He gasped.  "It...Its not growing back?"  He tried again, but he only got the same results.  "No..."  He looked down to see that his other arm, his right foot, and his entire left leg had been burned off as well.  "NO!"

His screams of anguish were loud enough to get Star and Marco to break their kiss and watch with all their friends as Coffee fell to the floor and writhed around like a fish on the deck of a ship.  Jackie brought up the question that they were all thinking.  "So...what do we do about your ex-fiancée?", she asked Star.  Star looked at her wand, still intact from the final battle.  "I'm not sure."

It was then that Janna stepped forward.  Marco could see the evil glint in her eye as she grinned devilishly and rubbed her hands together like a supervillian in a spy movie.  "Don't worry.", she said, the tone in her voice malevolent and devious.  "I know exactly what to do with him..."