Title: Faith
Author: The Corpse Bride
Summary: When a girl from the real world shows up, Peach fears it might make the Mario Bros' want to return home.
Characters: The characters you recognise are not mine, they belong to the amazing folk who created them and allow us to see their world. I am not making money from this. The characters you don't recognise are mine and are merely there to 'clog up the pipes' of the lives of the characters you do recognise, ha ha.
Author's notes: The idea for this came from one of the Super Mario Bro's cartoons. Can't remember which one though, but the Bro's bump into another plumber (whom for some reason is their Idol, despite disappearing and looking odd) who has a way they can return to Brooklyn. Luigi wanted to go home so therefore they decided to go. Low and behold, the Princess gets kidnapped in front of them just as they're about to leave. The brothers go back to save her while the other plumber leaves. Therefore they stay with the Princess and Toad! I decided to use the going home concept, but use a female character to put the cat amongst the pigeons! So there you have it!
Chapter 1
Just off the coast of the United Kingdom a young woman standing on the stern of a small boat. Standing with her eyes closed she stood with the wind blowing in her hair and the smell of the fresh air filling her with the most sensational feeling. As she opened her eye's she watched as the small waves gently crashed into the side of the boat. It would be so easy to jump and end it all in the icy depths below, but that would be the easy way out. The young woman barely twenty-five was enjoying her final moments of silence and tranquillity before her whole world changed. She waited patiently for a short time before two men approached her.
"Girl! Get here now!" Beckoned the shorter and rounder man. The girl turned round and walked over to them. Bowing down when she was in front of them.
"Prepare to drop the anchor," Sneered the man. The girl obediently did as she was told. As she was preparing for the anchor to be dropped she shivered at the thought of what they were going to make her do. The men had commandeered a boat with the necessary diving equipment in order to go in search of some legendary treasure.
The deck on the ship was wet and slippy, the girl treaded carefully.
"This is so ridiculous, legendary treasure indeed," She muttered to herself.
"Faith!" One of the men beckoned making her jump. It surprised her so much she slipped over and fell overboard. Before she hit the water below she managed to grab onto the rope from the anchor, which she was supposed to be getting ready. Trying not to panic she tried to wing herself back on board the ship but found it was too much of a task. Her last resort was to call for help.
"Barry! Rhys! Help me!" after a few moments of yelling for help the two men known as Barry and Rhys finally came to her aide. But before they rescued her they mocked her a little first. Unfortunately for Faith they spent a little too long mocking her and her grip on the rope loosened. Suddenly she felt herself falling down to the cold waters below. As soon as she felt contact with the water the ice coldness ripped through her body giving her a sharp unwanted shock. Frantically she tried to stay afloat. Rhys and Barry were now just a blur to her. Eventually she started to loose the fight to stay above the water and started to sink slowly.
Starting to slip into unconsciousness Faith waited for death to take her. As she closed her eyes for what she assumed was the final time the last thing she saw was a black circular hole. After that she saw nothing and felt nothing.
--
A world away the Princess Peach Toadstool was out walking in her garden, her long-term partner Mario, his brother Luigi and Toadsworth, accompanied her. The sun was shining brightly and everyone was in a good mood. The days festivities came to a halt when Peach's retainer Toad came running over to them and repeated tripped over his feet in the process. Toad was so excited about something and it took peach a while to calm the little fungus down.
"Toad calm down! What's the matter?" Peach asked. Toad breathed slowly and told Peach everything.
"There's a girl! A young girl! About your age!" Toad said loudly. Everyone looked at him oddly.
"Toad there are many girls in the Mushroom Kingdom" Mario said.
"Not from the real world there isn't!" Toad exclaimed. Mario and Luigi exchanged looks. Toadsworth looked sceptic, but Peach looked startled.
"How can this be Toad? The warp pipe that Mario and Luigi came down has since been destroyed?" Peach asked.
"There's another one. She came out all soaked and unconscious. Madam Fungi is looking after her right now. You must come!" Toad said. Peach nodded and told the Mario brothers to go with her.
When they reached Madam Fungi's home Peach grew a little anxious. Aside from Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi there had never been any other person from the real world. She didn't know what to expect.
Madam Fungi welcomed them all in and insisted that they sat down while she went over a few things.
"The girl is most definitely from the real world. We're not sure how she found her way here but she isn't in a great condition. The local authorities are coming round later to decipher what to do with her," Madam Fungi said.
"How did she take to seeing mushroom people?" Luigi asked. Remembering his first time in the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Not good I'm afraid. She freaked out and we had to use the tranquillising spores on her to calm her down" Madam Fungi explained grimly.
"Maybe if I went to talk to her. Luigi can come with me," Peach said. Madam Fungi nodded, but Mario looked offended.
"Why Luigi and not me?" He asked. Peach placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly.
"You found it easy to settle here. Luigi didn't," Peach replied. Mario nodded and sat down. Madam Fungi showed Peach and Luigi where the girl was. When they entered the room, the girl was sitting on a chair with a vacant expression. Her long brown hair was ragged and she was pale in complexion. The only movement she mad came when Luigi and Peach moved closer towards her.
Peach and Luigi exchanged glances. Neither of them knew how to begin. A moment's silence passed by before Peach took the first step. Gingerly she walked over to the girl and smiled encouragingly.
"Hello, my names Peach" She said, leaving out the Princess bit just in case it sent her even further into her shell. The girl looked up to Peach's warm face and felt compelled to talk back.
"I-I'm Faith"
Peach smiled and beckoned Luigi to come over.
"Ok Faith, this is Luigi," Luigi smiled and said hello.
"How did you get here Faith?"
"I'm not sure. One minute I was in the water and loosing consciousness and the next I was here...where ever here is," Faith said with a puzzled expression. Peach smiled.
"This is the Mushroom Kingdom, a different world to the one you know"
"Right so let me get this straight? I am in a totally different world with fungus people?" Faith asked in disbelief. This was on random dream, or maybe she was dead and this was the afterlife. Peach nodded.
"Am I dead?" She asked. Thinking being dead would be a reasonable excuse.
"No"
"Oh" Faith paused a moment thinking. This was weird.
"So how will I get back to my world then?" She asked. Luigi was the one to answer this question.
"We don't know. We're not sure where you came from. See if you go back through the warp pipe you will go back into the water ad will most likely drown,"
"Warp pipe?" Faith didn't understand what he meant.
"It's a big green pipe thing, it's what probably transported you here,"
"I See"
"You do?"
"No, but carry on" Faith said looking sheepish.
"Any way, the warp pipe that brought me and my brother here has been long since destroyed. Blocking our return to the real world" Luigi said. Peach winced at the last sentence. The Mario brothers' going home was her worst nightmare.
"So I can't go home?" Faith asked.
"We don't know yet," Peach said, not wanting to pour water on her hopes. Faith looked from Peach to Luigi and thought about something. Not going back wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She wouldn't have to return to Barry and Rhys for one thing.
"Ok...but what will I do and where will I go?" Faith asked, slightly worried as to what would happen to her.
"You can stay with me, in my castle" Peach said. Faith gawked at her. Did she just say castle?
"Castle?"
"Uh huh"
"O...K"
"She's taking it all much better then you did Luigi"
"Wait till she sees the Goomba's" Luigi said feeling a little bashful.
"Goomba's?" Faith repeated.
"Little brown annoying things with no arms" Luigi said flapping his arms trying to do an impression of a Goomba. Peach rolled her eyes.
"Any way I suppose we best get you to my castle" Peach said. Faith nodded. Getting off her chair she followed Peach and Luigi out of the room. The first people they came too was Madam Fungi and a fatter version of Luigi, only in red.
"Faith, Mario, Mario, Faith" Peach introduced them. With the introductions done, the foursome bid Madam Fungi farewell and set off towards Peach's castle. Faith didn't say much as they walked, she just kept thinking how surreal it all was. Warp pipes, castles, mushroom folk and things called Goomba's. Whatever next.
It would have been easy for Faith to freak out and panic, or even do something rash, but she decided the best thing to do was to ride out the randomness and see what would happen.