CHAPTER XIII

The walk to our homes was very silent.

Bowsette's words bore a hard harshness in her recent speech towards Princess Peach, but none among us found something to counter say. Not even her best friend Daisy. I hated seeing our princess's depressed face, yet... I could not find any fault in the Koopa princess and her saying.

I had to admit it. There was wisdom in what she had said.

Master Mario assured Princess Peach to not pay too much attention to her words and that she did not mean any harm. She nodded and replied to him that she was okay, but her weakened smile was far from being convincing.

We all went our separate ways, trying to focus at least onto the beautiful memories along with the gleeful side of Bowsette that the fair offered us.

...

Master Mario sat on his couch, his mind lost onto Bowsette's words. More precisely, he was still holding in mind the confession of love made tonight. His heart kept bursting on every time he recalled the moment. That kept him from going to bed.

"Can't-a sleep, huh?" Luigi came to sit by his side.

"After what she said, I'd be surprised if I did..."

"So... you and Bowsette, eh? Who would have thought!"

"Yeah... I just wished Peach didn't have to get slapped like that."

"Indeed," Luigi said, "but if we're being frank, I think this was the first time that Bowsette was this honest in her entire life. And... she was quite right on everything. I mean, I love-a Peach like a sister. We all love her. And I don't think for a second that she meant to hurt you, ever."

"I know."

"But... someone finally said what some didn't have the courage to. And who better than a person who fell in love with you."

Luigi's last words made him blushed. "She really opened her heart out."

"Speaking of that," he said with a sly tone, "how-a do you feel about this? I know your heart must be bursting with joy, eh?"

"Ah, come on, bro!" Mario tried denying it, but his content and joyful face did very little in hiding his happiness.

"But seriously," Luigi continued, "after getting to know her, seeing you enjoy her company, I can see why you gave her a chance. And she's really worth it."

"Thanks Luigi, it means a lot."

"No problemo, bro!" Mario's younger brother nodded, smiling. "So, can I consider you two to be an item starting tomorrow?"

"Let's-a not be hasty here. We'll have to talk about this first. I could feel a lot of lack of self-esteem in what she said to Peach. Maybe she won't think she deserve to be happy like that."

"Then it will be okay," Luigi said. "They don't call-a you Super Mario for nothing. I believe you can convince her that it will be okay and it will work out fine between the two of you."

Master Mario smiled to these words. He was known to be a confident figure among those who knew his name. If he could save a princess countless times, he sure could pull this off, despite the latter challenge seeming much more difficult. After all, a woman's heart was not something easily understandable.

A loud knock resonated repeatedly from the door. The noise made Luigi jumped a few meters from the ground and hit his head on the ceiling. The pain felt like a Bob-Bomb had exploded from the inside of his skull. Luckily, he would survive.

"Mario, Luigi!!" A grave, but desperate voice called as it knocked the door again. "Please, open up!!"

Mario and Luigi recognized the voice filled with hopelessness.

"Wait, that's Larry!" Mario recognized his voice as he hasted himself towards the door.

"It sounds like he's about to die!" Luigi followed Mario to the entrance.

The brothers answered. The horror in front of them was not understandable.

The Hammer brother Larry was battered and injured beyond comprehension. His shell was cracked to numerous spots, his body carried many scars that bled; it was as if he went through a storm of blades. One of his eyes was unable to open, sliced in half. Seeing the Koopa in such a dire state questioned the matter on his travel to the Mario brothers's home. It was nothing short of a miracle.

His arms carried two smaller bodies. Both were also in a very critical situation, but one was unconscious. The brothers recognized them as well.

The unconscious one was the young aspiring poet and novelist Koopa named Clein that befriended the Mario brothers. The other, less welcomed and appreciated: the wizard Kamek. But the moment was not one for judgement and discrimination as Mario and Luigi rushed the trio inside.

"T-Thank you..." Larry entered and crumbled on the floor after a few steps. Luigi took Clein's body to lay him on the nearby couch.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" Mario exclaimed. "You look like you've battled Death itself!"

Freed from Larry's hold, Kamek walked a few steps away from him. He carried hurt and pain from what his behavior said, but he seemed well compared to the other two Koopas.

"Why in the world did we come to this retched place?" Kamek spat leaning against the wall.

Anger re-energizing him, Larry stretched his muscular arm to Kamek's neck. He started choking the air out of him.

"YOU..." fury was embedded in his eyes. "YOU ARE IN NO PLACE TO TALK!!"

"Unhand me... you...!!" Kamek struggled to get out of his hold, but with no luck.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"Hey, easy!" Mario shouted. "Larry, you need to release him!"

He did not want to. For the hell that he had unleashed, killing him by snapping his neck would have been justice. But for the time being, self-given justice would have to wait. Larry slammed the wizard back against the wall that he was leaning on. The blue-clothed Koopa gasped for air like his life depended on it.

"How dare you..." Kamek said, coughing. He was met with murder intent from Larry's gaze. He suddenly felt overpowered by him.

"What happened to you all?" Luigi asked, taken aback from the current scene.

"Tell them!" Larry shouted to Kamek. "Or would you rather I do it instead?"

A twisted and disgust hesitation formed on the sorcerer's face. He did not feel obligated to tell them anything. Yet their gazes weighted heavily towards him along with the pressing silence.

He could not hold them at bay any longer.

"That despicable bond that you and the princess shared," he started saying, "it made me want to vomit every single day. Your presence made her and everybody else so soft and weak! I had no choice!"

"What-a did you do?" Mario advanced towards him.

He hesitated but continued. "She told me that she could make Bowsette as evil as she was before and even more powerful than ever! I wanted her to become what she was meant to be; the queen of all that existed! So I set her free!"

"Who are you talking about?" Luigi asked.

"The... The Shadow Queen..." Kamek said with hesitation.

Like lightning striking someone; that was how the brothers's face seemed to be after being splashed by the news of the immeasurable threat. They may had been born in the other world, but even they knew the history behind the Shadow Queen and the path of chaos that she had created in the past.

"That-a thing was sealed in her castle?" Luigi shouted in astonishment! "And you let her free?"

"I didn't know that her aim was to gain and possess Princess Bowsette! If I knew, I—"

Mario stomped furiously towards Kamek and grabbed him by the collar to then slam him onto the wall.

"ARE YOU-A CRAZY?!" There was genuine hatred in Mario's eyes. "YOU CHOSE YOUR OWN SELFISH EGO AGAINST HER WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS! THAT-A THING WILL KILL HER!! THERE WON'T-A BE ANYTHING LEFT OF HER IN HEART AND SOUL!!"

Kamek was paralyzed in front of this new side of Mario's fury. I admitted; I had never witnessed such anger from our hero, and I preferred not to. But his vivid wrath did not come from Kamek's selfish and foolish action of releasing the ancient entity of darkness. It also came from care; a great and unbound one that he bore for Bowsette.

And now, the one that he cared about the most was prey to the most dangerous threat of all.

Mario let him drop on the floor. "Luigi, bring them all to Mushroom General Hospital. I'm going to save Bowsette."

"Bro! Are you sure?" Luigi said worried. "This is an entity of darkness we're talking about! We should be two on this job."

"Luigi's right," added Larry. "This threat is nothing like the battles we've fought before. The more, the better."

"I know that... but I must do this. Besides, these three need immediate care that can't wait."

Luigi saw how much he cared for Bowsette. And this was something Mario had to do on this own. If Daisy was in such danger, Luigi would had wanted to make this on his own as well.

He nodded. "I don't like the odds, but hey! They don't call you Super Mario for nothing. I'll take those three to the hospital. You go and save your princess!"

"Thank-a you bro!" He bumped fists with his brother.

"Wait..." Kamek said as he got up on his feet.

"What do you want?" There was an acid tone in Mario's voice.

Kamek sighed in exasperation and defeat. He snapped his fingers and seven stars made of crystals appeared glowing above him. They shined with a pure and divine light.

"Those star crystals," Kamek said, "they were the keys that kept the Shadow Queen locked away. In the past, seven warriors each wielded a star and managed to seal her. I don't know what it will do to you if you wield them all at the same time, but..."

The stars hovered towards Mario and fused with him. The plumber suddenly pulsed with powerful radiance that embedded his body with luminous might.

"I can't wield that much power due to old age, but perhaps a younger body could."

"Wow... The power coursing in me... it's amazing!"

"You're welcome, by the way," Kamek said drily.

"I beg you pardon?" Mario said as everyone looked at the Koopa sorcerer in an unwelcomed way. "You're the reason we're in this-a mess! Giving us the crystal stars was the right to do, not something you should expect us to thank you for!"

Mario walked away towards the door, but not before reassuring his friends and brother with a confident nod. As he exited the home, he rocketed to the skies imbued with the power of the crystal stars and headed towards Koopa Kingdom to save his princess.

Luigi helped carried the unconscious body of Clein. "For your sake, I hope Mario manages to save her."

"What is this, a threat?" Kamek asked.

"No," Luigi said. "It's a promise. Because you'll have a lot of explaining to do to your entire kingdom on why you betrayed your princess.

"Betrayal? I've never—"

"You unleashed a monstrous entity that wants to possess Bowsette and kill her in the process. And for what? Because you couldn't stand seeing two persons together. I can guarantee you that the Koopa army won't look at that as a simple mistake, neither will Bowsette once she's rescued."

"I'll make sure of that," Larry assured Luigi's words.

Kamek felt cornered. Escape was impossible with his powers drained. If Mario and Bowsette did not come out alive of this ordeal, the world would suffer unparalleled chaos by the Shadow Queen's iron fist. If they did, Bowsette's rage would know absolutely no bounds towards him.

He was condemned, no matter how this story would end.

But right now, Kamek's fate was the least important. As Luigi drove the injured to the hospital, he felt helpless to the situation. But if one could make the impossible possible, it was his brother. He could only pray silently for his and Bowsette's safe return with the vanquishing of this demonic threat.

If not, nowhere would be safe anymore.