I.

Bowser, Jr. did not know if he was dead or alive. Fire and rubble surrounded him. Thick smoke filled the air, blotting out the sun. The nearby volcano let out a deafening roar before letting out some of its flaming rocks. His head throbbed as he forced himself to rise to his feet.

Everything they had worked for was gone.

He knew there would be a fight when the plumbers came. He knew they would do everything in their power to take his mother away from him and to defeat his father. They had already gone across the continent, showing no mercy to Junior's siblings. When word arrived that they were nearing his home, his father's castle, Junior saw to the defenses himself.

Despite everything, it did not stop the plumbers. It barely slowed them down. Despite his best efforts, and the valiant sacrifice of countless members of the Goomba, Koopa, and Hammer Corps, the enemy forced their way deeper and deeper inside the fortress.

They reached the throne room. Junior and his father readied themselves, prepared to fight to the death with the invaders. Junior armed his cart, a gift from his siblings for his fifteenth birthday. His father did not need any carts, weapons, or armor to defend himself or the woman he loved.

"You think you can come into my home, destroy my armies, and take my bride away?" Bowser asked, his voice deep and menacing. He rarely bared his teeth, but he did with a growl. "No. No, you will not do anymore damage to my kingdom."

With that, Junior's father charged at the plumbers. The one in green quickly leapt out of the way, but the one in red showed no fear. He charged at Bowser, and for a moment, Junior could do nothing but stare. The two of them met in the middle of the throne room and clashed.

Fire all around them, their duel was like a clash of the titans. Everything hung in the balance of their battle, a single lucky blow could change the course of history. Their battle would pass into legend, regardless of the victor.

Perhaps if he had acted then, rather than watch in awe at his father battling the small human, Junior could have prevented the tragedy of that day, but he could not bring himself from looking away.

The fighting styles of the two could not have been more different. Junior's father's size made him slow, but every time he struck the red plumber, his opponent went flying backwards. The red plumber moved fast. What he lacked in strength he made up for in agility. He could not match Bowser in strength, but he could strike many blows in the time it took Bowser to land one.

Junior did not see the plumber in green climbing up the enormous drapes until it was too late. The green plumber leapt off the drapes and landed precariously on the enormous chandelier hanging high above the floor.

Bowser had the red plumber in his grip. He squeezed him, tightly. "It's over, boy," Bowser said.

In a quiet voice, with a thick accent, the plumber said, "Not yet," he turned his eyes towards the ceiling. "Luigi, do it now!"

"Father, look out!" Junior cried, but it was too late. The green plumber cut the rope of the chandelier, and it fell careening towards Junior's father. The Koopa King let go of the red plumber in his shock.

The chandelier crashed down on Bowser, crushing him beneath its weight. Rumbles shook the entire castle. Junior ran towards his father, pinned beneath the weight of the chandelier. He took his father's claws in his.

The red plumber approached Junior and grabbed him out of his cart. He raised a hand towards the boy, and a hot, red flame combusted above his palm. "Where is the Princess?" he demanded to know.

Junior could not bring himself to lie with his father's broken and battered body so close to him. He was too emotional to say anything but, "She's in her bedroom. The third floor."

The red plumber brought his flaming hand close to Junior's head so he could feel the heat on his face.

"That's enough, Mario. Let's get out of here before the volcano erupts and takes the whole castle down," the green plumber said, his voice shaking. He put a hand on the red one's shoulder.

Junior could tell by their faces that the two plumbers were brothers. He did not look like his own siblings, but that was because they had a different mother than him. They were only his half-siblings. Junior was the only child of his parents, the son of Bowser and Peach, the Princess the plumbers had come for.

The red plumber hesitated but let Junior go. The flame above his hand extinguished. He and his brother backed out of the throne room. The tremors of the eruption became more violent. The portrait of Bowser hanging behind the throne fell to the ground as Junior approached his father.

"Dad," he said with a crack in his voice. "Dad, I'm so sorry."

"Son," Bowser said. He reserved the ferociousness of his voice for his enemies. He spoke in a tender voice to his son. "Where is your mother?"

"They're taking her, Dad. Come on. We can still stop them."

Bowser closed his eyes like he knew the answer before Junior said it. "You need to get out of here, son."

"I'm not going without you," Junior said. He climbed back into his cart and used its mechanical arms to try and lift the chandelier up, but it was too heavy. The arms bent and snapped. The shaking became nearly unbearable. Large stones fell from the ceiling. "I'm not going to let you die here."

A stone landed just a few meters away from Junior, but he did not notice. He took his father's claw in his and tried desperately to pull him out. He could not even get him to budge. He cursed himself for having such short, weak arms.

"Son," Bowser wheezed out a puff of smoke. "It's too late for me. You need to take over the Koopa cause. You need to lead our people to victory."

"We'll lead them together," Junior promised, but he knew it was too late. His father lay beneath the chandelier unmoving.

Bowser, the King of the Koopa, was dead.

Junior was not entirely sure what happened next. He remembered letting out a scream, and fire erupting from his mouth as he did. It was the first time he ever breathed fire. After that, his memory went dark. The next thing he knew, he was waking up amidst rubble and smoke, not certain if he was dead or alive.

There was no trace of the plumbers, nor of Peach. In a daze, Junior walked up the volcanic slope towards where the mightiest fortress the world had ever known once stood. Rivers of lava flowed down the slope around him, but he did not fear them. He gave the streams of liquid fire no notice, his eyes focused in on the pile of rubble beneath which lay his father's corpse.

Junior was the leader of the Koopa now. He always knew the day would come, but he did not expect it so soon or under such circumstances. In his head, he always pictured his father passing the title to him in an elaborate ceremony. In this fantasy, Peach sat by his father's side. His siblings would become his generals, and together, they would reclaim the lands stolen from them by the Mushroom Kingdom.

Reality had smashed that fantasy into smithereens. His father was dead. His siblings were dead. His mother was taken by the enemy. The armies he once felt destined to command were no more, having been devastated by the plumbers' attack.

Like his father's castle, Junior's life was demolished. The mountain shook beneath him. He had nothing and no one to turn to. Perhaps for the first time in his life he felt afraid. He did not see a way to lead his people to victory when so much had been lost.

Junior took one last look at where his home once stood. Then he turned away from the rubble and devastation and looked down the mountain slope. Far away, beyond the smoke and fire of the mountain, lay the Mushroom Kingdom. Centuries ago, its people had driven his kin away from the lush valleys and rolling hills to the barren, ashy wastes of Grumble Volcano. For centuries, Junior's ancestors fought to reclaim their land. Now the duty had been passed to him, but with no army, it seemed like the cause of his father would die alongside him.

Junior let out an agonized cry into the air. It echoed off the cliffs, but no flames came out of his mouth this time.

"Do not be afraid," a voice seemed to whisper on the wind.

Junior looked around, but he saw no one. "Who said that?" He asked. He readied his claws for a fight.

A brilliant, blinding light suddenly appeared. So bright was the light that it forced Junior to shield eyes. It was not red or orange like the lava of the volcano, but a pure, radiant white. The light itself seemed to speak to Junior.

"Do not be afraid of me, my child. It is your father, Bowser."

Junior did not know what to say. It did not sound like his father's voice. He stood in awestruck silence, unsure if he was hallucinating or if what he saw was real. He wondered if the light was a sign he truly was dead.

". . . father?"

"Come to me, my son. Step into the light."

Perhaps Junior was dead. Perhaps it was his father's voice speaking to him from beyond the mortal world. If that was the case, Junior felt no fear entering the glow. The possibility the light was lying, however, caused him to hesitate.

He thought about everything that had happened. He thought of his father's body lying limp beneath a chandelier. Maybe the light was not his father, but it promised him revenge. That was enough for him.

"You swear you're my father?"

"His spirit."

Bowser, Jr. looked back towards the Mushroom Kingdom. Then, he turned, and stepped into his father's light.