Marco woke up to pain. Before he could see anything, hear anything, smell, touch, taste, or do anything, his entire body lit up with excruciating pain. He let out an involuntary gasp and tried to get up. The pain, more than Marco had ever felt before, suddenly doubled and he fell back down onto the bed. He lay there for a second, unable to think through the torture when another jolt of agony went through his arm. His body stiffened and the pain from his arm receded, leaving him only with the rest of the mind-numbing misery. He opened his eyes slowly, carefully, breaking through the sand and crap in his eyes to find a watery image of a girl with brown hair, green eyes, and odd shapes on her cheeks. It took Marco a solid five seconds of logical deduction and memory chasing to remember who the person standing over him was.

"Elizabeth," he strained to say. His lips and mouth were dry, as though he hadn't had water for weeks. Also, when he spoke, his stomach rose and fell. That slight movement was enough to force him to stop and try to collect his thoughts again.

"Shhh," Elizabeth silenced him, bringing one finger up to lips. Marco shut up. He couldn't see what she was doing, only her face. He stayed still for a while, trying to remember how he had gotten so badly beat up. He remembered coming home with Star and Jackie and company, talking to everyone, and then-

Toffee.

Marco's blood began to boil and he tried to get up again. The insanity-inducing returned for a second round, but Marco simply grunted through it and kept getting up. Elizabeth's hands met his chest as he rose up and pushed back against him. Marco struggled against her through the agony, but Elizabeth turned out to be a lot stronger than him. He glared up at her as his back landed back on the bed. "Let me go," he rasped out.

"No." Elizabeth's response was short and crisp, very reminiscent of her mother's. Marco absentmindedly noticed that while the rest of his mind either screamed for relief or for blood. He tried struggling more, but Elizabeth wasn't having any of his shit today.

"Toffee," Marco grumbled, still trying to get up despite the severe disadvantage he held.

"Marco, Toffee's gone. We don't know where he is or how to find him, and even if we did, you wouldn't be going after him right now. Your entire body got hit really, really hard by both Toffee and Star, and even if you ignore all of that, your arm is dislocated. You aren't going anywhere for a while."

The irrational part of Marco's brain that had taken control of him after remembering that Toffee wasn't dead prepared to keep arguing to go after him no matter what was in his way, but some other part of his brain forced him to take a look at his arm. His face went white as a sheet. His arm was hanging a full two inches lower than it should have, bent backwards at an awkward angle. He tried to move it, but all it did was twitch here and there. Marco felt an odd sensation in his throat and his face turned green.

"No, no no no no no no no no no!" Elizabeth's words splurted out of her in less than a second. She backed away from him with her arms up by her face as though trying to get them as far away from him as possible. "Please don't puke, da- er, Marco. Please don't. Please, please please please don't. I don't have any extra clothes with me, just- hold it in. Please?"

Marco struggled with his body's desire to upchuck everything inside of it, and after a few moments of uncertainty, was able to keep his lunch down. After that, he simply lay there on the bed, reorganizing his thoughts.

Toffee was back. Marco's future kids from alternating realities had appeared to try to secure their own existences. And Marco needed to know how to keep his friendship with Star healthy while not dumping Jackie.

"Alright," Marco said out loud to himself. Elizabeth cocked her head towards him, listening. "There's a lot going on. We need to get everyone together and, uh, prioritize the issues in front of us." Marco moved his head to look at Elizabeth. "Hey, I'm- good now. Can you help round everyone up here?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Don't need to. Everyone got here about three hours ago."

Marco's eyes popped open and he shot up in bed, surprise insulating him from most of the pain. Most of it. "What?" he asked through gritted teeth. "What time is it?"

Elizabeth shot him a glare, but he didn't flinch. She sighed and squinted down at her wand. "Eh, looks like it's about… two in the afternoon."

The blood drained from Marco's face. He had a project due Monday, and it was only partially completed. Usually he got his work done by Friday, but with all of his preparations for his date with Jackie and the chaos that had ensued afterwards, he hadn't gotten any work done on it. With the way things were going now, Marco doubted he'd be able to work on the project at all before Monday morning came and it was due.

Elizabeth gave him a puzzled look. "What's wrong?"

Marco sighed. "Nothing," he muttered to himself, "it doesn't matter." He tried to sit up more but the pain made him reel back down. "No, wait, there is a problem. My whole body feels like it got hit by a truck."

Elizabeth took in a sharp breath. "Well, you kinda did. Toffee smacked you across the room and tried to choke you, then Star hit both of you with a big blast of magic, sooooooo," she trailed off as her face scrunched up in concern. "You really shouldn't move right now. Your body won't heal right."

"Yeah, well, considering all the crap that we've got to get handled over the next couple days, I think there's a pretty good chance that I'm gonna have to move my body a lot." Marco couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice as he glared at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth let out a frustrated sigh. "Right, because you'll be super helpful to everyone as you fall over in pain every time you take a step."

Marco fumbled for a retort, but he couldn't find one. Instead, he spat out, "well, I- I still have to be able to move and do stuff! Isn't there a magic spell that can heal me or something?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah. Star's looking for the spell right now. Glossaryck has been acting vague and moody lately, so she's been trying to look it up by herself. I've been watching over you to make sure Toffee didn't return to finish what he started."

Marco blinked. "Oh. Wait, why didn't you just tell me that to begin with?"

Elizabeth gave him a sassy look. "You were being an ass."

Marco scowled at her. "I liked you better when you were treating me like your dad."

"I like it better when you act like him."

Marco's scowl intensified ten fold, and he tried to imagine the situation where he would let his own daughter act so rudely to someone when the door opened up with a loud slam, hitting Elizabeth and hiding her from sight. From the entrance of the door, Marco could see Star's leg, still extended out from kicking the door open, and a large, purple book held by two small hands.

Star's voice was muffled as she said, "I found the spell." She threw the book onto the floor, letting it make an enormous 'whap' sound as it hit the ground. She looked up and smiled widely at Marco. "Hey, how you doing?"

"Awful," Marco complained. "It hurts to breathe."

"Ouch." Her voice was light and carefree, a lot more like what she normally sounded like. "Sorry about hitting you last night, couldn't let Toffee do whatever the heck he was trying to do."

Marco nodded. "I understand. He was trying to turn me into a plant of some sort. Or maybe more like a spy plant." He shuddered at the thought of being used against Star again. His first encounter with Toffee had made him feel… useless. Toffee had treated him like he was nothing more than a means to his ends, and it looked like he had tried to do it again. The memory of the cage slowly shrinking down on top of him, closer, closer, clos-

"Pffft, silly Marco, spies don't have plants, they have knives and gadgets and stuff." Marco snapped out his waking nightmare to find Star, undisturbed, looking back at him with a goofy smile. It was a little unsettling.

"Uh, Star?"

Star ignored him, scanning around the room with a curious expression. "Hey, where'd Elizabeth go?" The door slowly swung back to where Star was standing, revealing the face of a furious teenager. Star's mouth got small and she let out a quiet, "Oh, sorry."

Elizabeth took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, still glaring at Star. "You found the spell?"

Star nodded and opened up the Book of Spells to a page close to the front. "It's one of the older spells, I think. From, uh," she squinted down at the scrambled notes and ancient mewman characters in front of her, "I don't know. One of my ancestors. Apparently she did it with her twin sister for their father or something a long time ago."

"Hmmm," Elizabeth hummed in thought, slowly cooling off and relaxing. "Two people for one spell?"

"Looks like," Star said absently, still scanning the page. "She tried doing it by herself the first time and passed out. Yeesh." She looked up at Elizabeth and nodded over to her, indicating for her to come look at the book. "What're you waiting for?"

Elizabeth blinked. "Uh, what?"

Star frowned, irritated. "Do you know anyone else that can do magic and is currently available? Come on, we don't have all day."

"Uh, I'm not- I haven't had my wand for a full year yet. I can't-"

"Yes, you can." Star's voice was steady, confident, resolved. It didn't sound like the voice of a moody teenager or an unfocused princess. She sounded… older. Stronger. More like a queen than ever before. "You have to be able to do this. I have to be able to do this. I haven't had the wand any longer than you have, but if we don't heal Marco, then we're all screwed." She stretched her arm out to Elizabeth. "Please?"

Elizabeth stared at her for a long time, then nodded. "Okay. Alright." She took Star's hand and knelt down beside her. They studied the spell for a while, looking through every detail with intense observation. After a minute, they stood up and got out their wands.

"Alright, Marco. Here's hoping we don't get a repeat of the monster arm."

Marco gulped. Elizabeth's eyes widened and she started to ask, but Star cut her off. "Later." Elizabeth stared at her, but then reluctantly nodded. She looked nervous. Marco gulped again.

Then they lifted up their wands and began to murmur words that Marco couldn't understand. It was probably an ancient Mewman dialect or likewise, he figured. As they murmured, the light in the room, including the sunlight, dimmed dramatically, and their wands began to glow in a purplish light. Marco felt an odd tingling sensation, and looked down to see that his body had begun to glow as well. Panic erupted throughout his body, and he was just barely able to suppress the impulse to run away. The voices grew louder and the light pulsed brighter with them until it became blinding. Then, in a flash, it was gone, and the room grew silent. No one said anything for five seconds. Then,

"Well?"

Marco sat up. He didn't feel anything. He stood up… and nothing happened. A wide grin broke out across his face. "I'm fine. Perfect. Wow. Thanks, both of you."

Star looked at him with a cocky smile. "Of course you are and of course we did. That's what friends and-" she gave Elizabeth a weird look, "daughters from possible future timelines are for."

Elizabeth, for her part, looked stunned. Her cheeks were glowing, as were her fleur de lis's. "I- wow. It worked." She looked over at Star, still surprised and slightly abashed. "Uh, thanks. For the encouragement. How did you… pull yourself together so quickly?"

"Nope."

Marco and Elizabeth blinked. "Wait, wha-"

"Shut." Star interrupted with a blank smile. Then she turned for the door and left the room. Marco and Elizabeth exchanged concerned looks.

"Is she…"

Marco nodded. "Yeah. Avoiding her problems. She does it a lot, it's super annoying."

"Huh. She doesn't do that as much when she's… later."

Marco nodded. "Good to hear." He pointed at the door. "Shall we?"

Elizabeth looked at him and made a disgusted face. "I will. You… well, I think you need a shower. Maybe like, ten showers."

Marco gave her an odd look and lifted up his armpit. He nearly threw up again. He realized that after all of the adventures from the previous day, sweating through dirt and mud and grass and nearly dying, that he'd smell like a dead guy. He quickly nodded and rushed for the bathroom. "See you there."

Wow, 2260 words of f#$# $# filler. I meant to get to the actual meeting in this chapter, but I just kept adding detail after detail until this became one of the longest chapters. And I'm a week behind so there's no scraping this and starting fresh. Sorry. Next chapter will get everything settled and moving. Geez.