All right, so…yeah, I've never attempted to do a Mario fic before. It's just…hm. Difficult, I guess? Ha, I dunno. But enough of that! Let us go on to the fic…yes…hopefully, it will be good, though I can almost assuredly say that many characters here will be OOC, simply…because. Onwards!

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Mario, and I see that as a good thing considering the things I would most likely subject the series to go through. Erm…Yeah, so I got some of my own characters in here, but the main players ain't mine…I's a swagga jacka, lol.

…Hmmm….well. Read. Plz. :D

The following fan fiction has been rated T, due to possible scenarios including violence and/or some mildly adult content.

PRELUDE

Dark Foreshadowing

In the impenetrable darkness that shrouded this particular room in this particular place, shady intent and sinister thoughts seemed to manifest themselves to the extent that the presence of these two combined elements would prove overwhelming to just about anyone who entered the domain.

This darkness, too, was in such a way unbearable. This is because it, like many things in this particular place, was a dark not natural, but darkness warped, molded from the shadows into something even more than the abstract of day. And how, you may ask, is this so? In this realm, the natural array of things that prevailed above need not apply. When a force of malice this large gathers in any area born of natural means, the transition alone is enough to alter the nature of the place…but in this case, the evil currently biding it's time, waiting for something, had been here long enough that it could bend the fabric of existence around it, bring it to be anything he desired.

It is passed down in mushroom kingdom lore that, at the time of creation of this world, that individual deities, entities of divine influence that held sway over certain aspects of life, death, and the states of in-between, after, and whatever else there may be, came down from the heavens…or wherever it was such forces hailed…to shape the world themselves.

Of course, creation is but an unbalanced equation of celestial proportions without it's antithesis, the abstract of creation…called many things. Not merely death, but the obliteration of not only life, but that which existed in-between and out of. Simply put…everything. The divine bringer of this anticreation, it which was responsible for bringing life and death into balance, was a demonical thing known as Alterus.

Of course, such is only legend. But in this particular place, beneath the precipice that divides the lives and afterlives of normal people, lies such a compelling presence of evil that it's enough to conclude…some legends aren't merely bed time stories.

Of course, this is all incompetent babbling, to most. Most people don't understand, don't want to understand, or simply ignore it and go on with life. But you can't deny that something out there exists for the sole means of bringing that which is created to an end.

An example of this is what happens when you stand on a great ledge looking downwards. If you jump, certainly, you will die. So why is it that, however small, some strange part of us tells us to jump?

Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe you think, "Man, that would suck to fall. I better be careful." Or "Wow, long drop." Or something along those lines. But somewhere deep inside us all, that influence remains.

And it has slept for thousands of years. The demon lies beneath our world, waiting…and there are those who are willing to risk awakening such a thing only to bring things to an end. Some see it as a final solution, most simply chase after these legends in the pursuit of what they want.

And, as always, when there are those who seek an ideal, there are those who will oppose that ideal.

Such is the case in the tale I am about to tell you…