Author's Note:
Hello everybody to my first Mario fanfic! I recently started to play Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and just fell in love with Antasma as a character. Love his design and character to bits. I'd love to see more of him. I was super disappointed to learned that he mcfreakin dies at the end aaand I was having none of that.
I made some slight changes to the canon plot to make this fic work.
Firstly Browser doesn't straight up betray Antasma. Here he is tired from both the dream battle and having a lot of his energy practically eaten so he still is 'buddies' with the Bat King because it works in his favor.
Secondly Peach and the Dream Stone are already on the top of the castle with Antamsa and Bowser. Both are planning to drain her peachy powers to defeat Mario and Luigi then take over the world! Of Course!
Peach is close enough to the Stone to make her own wish.
Again this is my first time writing any of the mario characters so feel free to PM if I got anyone wrong. I will most likely come back to chapters to fix them up later if I have successful thought up something different and better for the story :)
With all of these in mind, let us begin the story yes? :D
1/14/19 edit: Fixing all kinds of small errors and making it a little easier to read!
[Everyone]
Breathe…
Just Breathe… She told herself over and over. Staying awake is a task she wasn't well equipped today. Her latest kidnapping costed her a great deal of energy and it showed. Risking a glance around, she briefly watched the clouds zip by, then to the pulsing purple vines, and finally onto a Stone that glowed all the colors of the rainbow. All reminders of her newest prison.
Neo Bowser castle...
High above the land and on top of the clouds, the air here is thin. Peach gasped for breath, dragging her body up and onto her elbows. They shock with fatigue and the weight of her body. Peach briefly wondered if staying awake is worth all of this trouble, it would be much easier to just… lay down, tuck her arms under her head… close her eyes…
Her hand slipped, almost falling face first into the ground and jostling her foggy mind into staying alert. She may be a trapped princess, but she had dealt with worse and will not let that bat have satisfaction with her weaken state. Shifting her body a little, Peach sighed heavily. All she can do is wait, alone with her thoughts…
She didn't have to wait every long however. Peach blinked a few times as suddenly the purple vines stopped shining then turned a pale grey and finally shrivelled up into twigs. A few seconds later, Peach could hear some shouting then heard the flapping of wings fast approaching.
Peach forced herself to hold her head high. All of her body and mind scared in protest, tired and afraid. However She wanted to look at her captor in the eye. Or eyes, in this case. Antasma flew into the air with grace, even though there is two VERY large hands clutched on the lower part of his tiny owner of the hand let go of the king bat and landed on the ground with a loud THUD. Peach felt the ground shake a little and had to steady herself.
Bowser slowly got up with a groan, Antasma fluttered around him while making some soft chirping sounds. Peach observed that the Koopa King looked and seemingly felt as terrible as she is judging by the way he has his hands on his knees. Breathing in deeply, Bowser stood up then glared at the purple bat.
"Gaaah… I feel like a castle crashed on top of me… you just had to drain me dry.." Complained Bowser, blinking a few times to rid himself of his own fatigue. He rubbed his face a little, all the while still glaring at Antasma.
"SRCEECH… Ah my apologies my friend." The Bat King spoke, grinning widely. Dark purple clouds swirled around him as he popped into his true form then floated closer to the ground. "It appears I that haff took must more that I thought. But no matter!"
Antasma dramatically threw his hands up into the air, his cape billowing in the wind as he proudly spoke.
"SCREEE-AHEHEH! Soon the Dream Stone will be at full pover once more! SCREEE!" He thought pointed towards Peach, who tried not to flinch. "Und vith the pure holy pover Peach possesses! Nothing vill stop us! SKEELEK!"
Bowser muttered something under his breath as he stood. This clearly wasn't going the way he envisioned it and by the look in his inpatient eyes made Peach shiver a little. Antasma didn't seem to notice as he just stood proudly next to the koopa king.
"N… No.." She huffed, trying her best to put on a brave face. Her soft catch the attention of the Bat King, he slowly turned to look at Peach, an evil glint in his narrowing eyes. "M-Mario will s-stop you..!"
Antasma's toothy smile grew to an impossible size while he floated to her, not missing the chance of giving the princess a little spook. He let out a low hiss, intending and succeeding in frightening the princess, who looked at the Bat King in wide eyes.
"My dear…" He said smoothly, placing his hand back under his cape "It is already over for your friends…"
Peach's squinted her eyes in confusion for a second before a swirl of color caught her attention. With horror in her eyes, Peach realized what he meant. She turned her head towards the Dream stone and saw that it was glowing brighter than ever. Its ancient power is at maximum. Mouth hanging opening, a cold dread formed in the pit of her stomach and she shivered while Antasma chuckled.
Before she could say another word, a loud CLANG echoed in the air. Everyone looked over to the elevator. Bowser growled, Antasma hummed in irritation, and Peach let out a gasp of joy. Mario, Luigi, Starlow, and Dreambert stood (and floated) proudly on the pad. Determination glinted in their eyes and all of them quickly left the pad behind and ran over to the evil duo.
"M-Mario!" Called out Peach, overjoyed to see her hero. She has complete faith in him, he has never failed her before and she is sure he won't fail her now.
Antasma laughed as he floated over to Bowser.
"SCREEP! Impressive, to haff made it this far!" He said with a smirk.
"Antasma! Hear me!" Said Dreambert, he clenched his fists into tight balls and his eyes filled with a righteous rage. "This is the end of you! This time, I will ensure you will never return."
"SCREEK! I haff heard those vords before, a long time ago…and yet here we are! This time things vill be a little different, I haff Bowser on my side! SCREE!"
The Koopa King glanced at Antasma before folding his arms together and stared down at the pair of his greatest enemies. He smiled and it was full of sharp teeth.
"Gwahaha! Yeah! This time will be different!" He said he thrust his head towards the dream stone and Peach. "With the combine powers of the Dream Stone and Peach, there is nothing you can do!"
The ground shook a little as the Dream Stone's glow changed into the color white and came to life. Peach gasped then cried out in pain as she felt her very life energy was being drained from her body and funneled into the stone.
"SCREEK! Bowser, together! Let's make everyone suffer! SCREEE!" Called Out Antasma. He flexed his long sharp claws and his teeth chatter together in glee, eager to end this.
"Antasma no! You must put a stop to this! Think what you are doing!" Cried out Dreambert, his eyes widening in horror as he is forced to watch Princess Peach energy being forcefully drained from her and placed into the Dream Stone.
"SCREEEP! But I haff!" Mocked Antasma "und this is vhat I haff decided!"
Through her tears, Princess Peach watched as the Dream Stone slowing floating up into the air. So many thoughts flooded her pained mind. The thought of her friends, the thought of Mario being hurt and defeated, the thought of her kingdom, and the thought of her people.
Each and everyone one of the is going to suffer forever if this beast's plan came through. The thought of such evil made her cry even harder. She bowed her head in defeat, perhaps this is the end after all.
She was helpless to her champions and to everyone. She couldn't do a thing while Mario and Luigi flung themselves at Bowser and Antasma. Peach could barely keep her eyes open to watch the battle. She can, though, hear it. The battle sounded hard and painful. Antasma would cry out spells that buff and sometimes heal Bowser while the Koopa King would guard his fighting partner. He roared out when he hit the brothers with brutal attacks from his fists and fiery breath.
Antasma created bottom pits of darkness, threw balls of dark matter, duplicated himself to confuse the brothers and sometimes exploded into a swarm of bats.
Bowser still used his usual attacks. Throwing hard punches and billowed out fire from the Giant Koopa's maw, burning everything in its path. Mario and Luigi did their best to counter and dodge the attacks, but they are not perfect and sometimes they slight up. Each mistake was costly and often they had to waste time to consume mushrooms to recover enough to continue to fight. Sometimes their heals was in vain as the raw power coming from both attacking parties would just brought their health back down and even lower on some turns.
"SCREEET! Bowser! It is almost time to take your vish!" Called out Antasma, sensing the Dream Stone's wish granting power awakening.
Struggling to keep her body up, Princess Peach slowly looked up and at the stone. It was glowing like the sun and felt the power pulsing in it. There was so much power in that stone, enough to grant wishes… Wishes…
Suddenly in her pain laced mind, a thought, an idea formed. It was crazy, it was stupid, and possibly life ending yet such a simple, amazing idea… Gasping in pain, Peach summoned all of her remaining strength to forcefully pushes herself up into onto her hands and started to drag her body toward the stone. Every fiber of her being is screaming at her to stop! It's too much! Please stop moving! She ignore the pain the best she can as she slowly and painfully crawled towards the Dream Stone.
The first one to notice Peach's movement towards the stone was Antasma. He shrieked in such a way that cause everyone to pause in combat and protect their ears. Peach flinched and collapsed into a pitiful heap.
"SCREEEK! Vhat are you doing?!" He shouted, zipping over to the fallen princess and picked her up by the back of her dress. She couldn't move, her body was finally giving out from all the stress.
"Hey!" Barked Bowser, turning to look at Antasma "You be gentle with her! She's mine!"
Antasma ignored the enraged Koopa King in favor to glare in Peach's tired eyes. He lend in close to her paled face, teeth bared and eyes glared.
"You think you can just valk up to the Dream Stone?" He growled, hatred and rage in his voice. Peach whimpered a little as fear began to form in her cloudy mind. "I should send your mind into the deepest part of Dream World then drain your body's pover drain for being such a path-! ."
Antasma didn't have time to finish his threat as Bowser growled loudly. The Bat King turned to watch Bowser practically charging at him, clearly not liking the way he's threatening Peach.
"Back… OFF!" Rumbled Bowser, forgetting the tired hero duo behind him. "No one is harming Peach."
Antasma turned to look at Bowser and snapped back "SCREEEK! She was making her vay to the Dream Stone! Ve can not let that happen!"
"That's still no excuse to handling her like she's a scrap of meat! Put her down this instant"
"SHRIEEEEE NO!"
While the two bickered, Peach looked back at the Dream Stone. So close, yet so far… She can feel the pulses of warm energy from the magical stone…. Somehow… that gave her courage…
"I… I…" She couldn't speak correctly, the stress, the thin air, the way her dress strangled her body.
"Bowser my friend! SCREEE! If she obtained the Dream Stone all of our vork vill for not!"
"She's the one of the main reasons I'm putting up with you! If you are going to harm her then the deal is off!"
"VAIT VHAT?! SCREEE! Vhat is the meaning of this 'putting up'?!"
With a heavy sigh, Bowser's shoulder slumped and looked up at the sky as if asking why. Just why… Looking back at Antasma's confused face, he decided that the jig was up.
"The 'meaning of this' is that I have been just pretending to be buddies with you! I never wanted to be partners with you in the first place! You were just useful for my own plans! And you were too stupid to realize it!"
Antasma stood there shock written on his features. His shoulders slumped, mouth slightly open, and his eyes a little wider. He was truly stunned.
"You've never… vanted…" He mumbled out, momentarily forgetting Peach.
"I… I wish…" Gasped Peach, struggling to draw in breath. She reach out for the Stone, feeling the magic seemingly drawn to her, and danced around her fingers. Antasma finally noted what Peach is doing. He snarled as he harshly shook her then brought her closer to his fanged maw. She gasped and let out a tiny yelp.
"SCREEE ENOUGH! You pathetic girl!" He shouted cruelly. In her dazed mind, Peach could not understand how dark and evil this… this thing is! She could understand Bowser, she could mostly understand all the other villains she encountered… but she could not understand him...
The final straw for Bowser was when Antasma wrapped his free hand around Peach's neck, as if to strangle her. He roared and began to charge at the Bat King.
Everything was happening too fast. It was too much! Peach closed her eyes, her hands on the arm of the Bat King. Then the strangest thing happened.. While her eyes were closed and her sigh dark, she could still see the Dream Stone. It pulse with a rainbow tinted light, warm and inviting. Peach summoned what little strength she still possess. She lifted her head and away from her captor, tears in her eyes then she opened her mouth to scream out the first thing that popped in her mind.
"I wish you have compassion!"