Star and Marco vs Evil Book 2

XII

"I'm Star Butterfly, a magical princess from another dimension, and this is my boyfriend, Lord Marco Diaz."

"A princess and a knight?"

"Yeah, but here on Earth we're just Star and Marco."

"'On Earth' ... so you're aliens?"

"Kinda sorta," Marco jumped in. "Long story short, even though Star here is from another planet, recent DNA analysis shows her people originally came from Earth a thousand years ago. We haven't had time to sort through the how ... and the implications."

"Ah."

"I'm from Echo Creek, a suburb of Los Angeles."

"Yet you have those Cheek-Thingies like Star."

"Yes. It's a side-effect of using magic."

"Magic?"

"Yeah. It's not magic in the way we tend to think of it on Earth; think Green Lantern but without the ring." Marco conjured a perfect replica of a Green Lantern ring, tossing it to Trudy. "Actually, if you're into the comics, Jade is probably a closer analogy."

Trudy examined the ring, then tossed it back to Marco, who poofed it away. "I understand," Trudy said. "I collected comic books in my younger days and remember the characters. So ... we normally see only military personnel and veterans ... but you're too young, and yet our staff scheduled you. Why is that?"

Marco knew the forms he filled out contained all that information. He decided it wasn't so much what he said, but how he said it, so was being asked to repeat it in person. That was consistent with what he remembered from his own meager training in psychoanalysis.

"We fought a minor war, a coup d'état if you will, instigated by a powerful magic wielder that had used awful means to live for hundreds of years, and who turned out to be my great-great-something grandmother."

Trudy blinked hard at that statement.

"Yeah, it's complicated, and as long as this historia is, it's still a summary. We've both lived to thirty years old in another dimension, our bodies reverting to their age in this dimension when we returned. Even if we hadn't, Star's planet has a medieval society so very young officers, even among general officers, are not unusual. I ended up a general in command of two corps of light infantry, and Star was a monster."

"A monster?"

"I said it was complicated."

"And several years before that," Star interjected, "to stop another coup I had to kill myself in front of poor Marco here." Marco bristled and flushed, a physical response that did not go unnoticed by Trudy. "I got better, then turned the evildoer to goo, but ... it traumatized both of us. The nightmares we've been having since then ... well ... really suck."

The teens stopped, looking expectantly at the doctor. Making sure they were finished, Trudy asked, "Anything else?"

"Isn't that enough?" Marco asked, a slight edge to his voice.

Trudy smiled. "I want to emphasize one thing; we must have total honesty here. Suggestions based on dishonesty not only aren't useful, they could make things worse. That also means no repercussions between the two of you for what we talk about. If there are, we'll need to have separate sessions. I usually suggest that anyway unless it's couples therapy, but Marco emphasized to our staff that you two are a team."

Star and Marco didn't even hesitate, both immediately nodding their agreement.

"Good. Since you're a team, how about we start with a quick summary of your lives starting with when you two met."