-Chapter 2-
Ungh...
...
Ohhh...
My head... What happened?
Eliza opened her eyes slowly.
She was standing in what looked like a grand, white chapel. There were beautiful brightly colored flowers everywhere, and an immense altar in front of her.
"Where... Am I?" She asked softly, her throat being sore and dry at the moment.
Her head was also pounding rather painfully. She reached up to feel her head, and noticed something was wrong.
"What am I wearing?" Eliza looked more closely at herself.
She was wearing a full, white wedding gown with matching gloves, and a long veil in her hair.
"Why am I in a wedding dress? I'm not getting married... What's going on here?"
"Aha ha~ I believe I can answer those questions." Eliza gasped, having not noticed anyone else around. She looked across the altar, spotting Dimentio on the other side. He looked like he normally did with his mask and jester's outfit, except he had a sleek, black bow-tie tied around his neck.
"Why so bewildered? You should be happy on your wedding day, like a small feline's paw forcibly tied to a piece of yarn."
Eliza was too frightened at the events happening to even cringe at Dimentio's terrible similes.
"B-but I don't want to get married! Especially not to you!" She looked furiously for a way out.
"Oh, you will find that you have no choice." Dimentio responded in a very sinister voice.
Too startled to say anything, Eliza tried to think of a way to escape this unholy matrimony. She spotted a door at the far end of the chapel and began to run towards it.
Before she could take more than a few steps though, a large, transparent box, just like the one in her room earlier, opened up around Eliza, trapping her.
"You can't make me do this!" She cried, her throat now terribly dry.
"You WILL do this, or the consequences may be dire." Dimentio seemed much more serious now, and was starting to become agitated with this persistent and stubborn girl. He was terrifying the poor girl, and he didn't seem to care at all.
"Now, we must begin..."
Eliza was still trapped in the box, except somehow she moved back to where she started. She could only think about how crazy this all was.
"Ahem. I, Dimentio, the rightful master of all dimensions, and greatest magician of all time, do take you as my bride, 'till our games be over. Now, do you, Eliza, take me to be your husband, 'till our games are over?"
Dimentio had spoken so clearly and calmly through all this, Eliza found it hard to believe that he was just some insane jester. He even seemed a little different than what she saw in her video game, back home. He seemed much more... sinister.
"No. I'm not going to marry you." Eliza crossed her arms and turned away from the altar. She knew she really couldn't do much, but maybe if she stalled long enough, someone would find out and put an end to this horrible wedding.
"If you don't say yes, then I will personally destroy your three-dimensional universe!" Dimentio shouted.
Eliza cringed, startled at his uproar. He clearly wasn't going to put up with any more of her stubbornness.
Dimentio touched his middle finger and thumb together, as if he was going to snap them.
Eliza looked at him, watching for his next move, but remained silent.
"If my fingers were to suddenly slip..." His hand started to move back.
"STOP!" Eliza suddenly shouted, her voice cracking with her sore throat and loudness of her voice. She placed her hands on the transparent box as she shouted.
She knew he could, and WOULD destroy her world. Right now, there was no other way. She couldn't let him destroy her world, her family and friends, just to get to her.
"I... I'll marry you." She said quietly, trembling as she looked down, away from Dimentio's horrifying eyes.
Suddenly, a low rumbling noise began and a large, black heart emerged from the altar. Still trapped, Eliza could do nothing but watch in horror as Dimentio floated forward and took the Chaos Heart into his possession.
The Chaos Heart was so full of pure evil that Eliza could feel the dark energy pulsating from it. She wanted to get away, to somewhere safe, but she couldn't as she was still trapped.
She was horrified that she helped to actually create that awful object, the object she knew was once used in an attempt to destroy the world.
"And now, the first part of my plans are completed! All worlds will soon be in my control!" Dimentio summoned his magic and took in the power of the Chaos Heart.
Noticing that Eliza was still standing there, he teleported her away.
"Unfortunately, I am not yet finished with you. Aha ha~ Ciao!"
...At the Mushroom Kingdom's finest event of the season...
"Daisy... I like your dress." Luigi turned red as he stood and waited for Princess Daisy to respond. "Oh, thanks Luigi!" The tomboyish princess smiled. "Do you want to go get some punch?"
"Uh, sure!" The awkward couple walked towards the punch bowl.
"Ah, young love, eh, Master Mario?" Toadsworth, Princess Peach's companion, was conversing with Mario.
The party was underway at Peach's castle, and it was very joyous and grand. Princess Peach had invited the entire Mushroom Kingdom to attend, and even several friends from the surrounding regions and kingdoms.
Professor Elvin Gadd was in the corner, showing off his latest invention, a device that allows you to grow your hair out to any length.
"I wanted to invent something a little safer this time... Except the invention only works on small bushes so far." He kept saying. He proved it by giving all the plants inside a good hairdo. The potted trees in the front even had blond up-do's.
Even Bowser, the Koopa King, was there, though he still had the idea of having Peach as his wife.
"Braaagh! Where is my Princess?" Bowser stamped his foot repeatedly, shaking the surrounding area as he did so.
"Calm down, your Grumpiness! I'm sure the princess will come soon." Kammy Koopa was trying to calm the impatient Bowser down, with little success.
"She has to be here! Unless that stupid Mario tried to steal her again!" Bowser glared in Mario's direction.
The Monster King came stomping towards the plumber. "Where did you take her? Give her back!" Now furious, Bowser breathed fire towards Mario.
"Mama Mia!" Mario reeled back.
"Your Smelliness! Remember your blood pressure!" Kammy called, from a distance.
"No! This fat plumber thinks he can steal my wife? Well he can eat my fire!" Bowser unleashed a large fireball, barely missing Mario.
"Mama mia Mario! He never quits, does he? Fight him back, Bro!" Luigi called from the sidelines.
"Why don't you go out there and help?" Daisy asked impatiently.
"Uh... W-What? And fight? Um, I think I'll just stay here..." Luigi cowered behind a topiary cut to look like Princess Peach, with long blond hair on top.
"Humph... So much for the 'Hero of Light'." Daisy said with distaste.
As Bowser breathed another wave of flames, Mario jumped over the large beast, landing directly behind him.
Bowser looked up. "Where'd he go?" He looked around. "HA! There you are!"
And shot a fireball right at a topiary cut to look like Mario, which immediately burst into flames.
"Egad!" Professor E. Gadd cried from the sidelines. Mario was currently nowhere to be seen.
Quickly the T.F.B. (Toad Fire Brigade) put out all the flames, making the ballroom look just as it had at the beginning of the party.
While Bowser was distracted, Mario leaped up from behind the table where he was waiting and pounded the monster right in the gut with his foot. "Ow... You dirty, lowlife, son of-"
"Ahem!" A voice rang out pure and clear, breaking up the fight. Princess Peach was standing at the top of the stairs, where everyone could see her.
Bowser sighed at her sight, immediately forgetting the entire battle he just had.
"I would like to thank you all for coming to this joyous celebration! Of course, we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the Hero of Prophecy, Mario!" Applause and cheer rang out. Mario blushed. "And now-"
Before Peach could finish, the castle began to shake violently.
"What's happening?" asked Rosalina, the guardian of the Luma, and various galaxies.
Her question was drowned out by the rumbling and the shaking of the castle, and by the screams of many Toads and guests.
"Dearest love: Though the stars may lose their shine, and the moon may turn dark, my love for you will always be-"
Before Blumiere could finish reciting his poetry, an enormous rumbling and shaking began to occur.
"What's going on?" Timpani asked her husband. "It feels like an earthquake!"
The ground continued quaking violently, shaking the couple very brutally. Blumiere grabbed Timpani and floated upwards to protect themselves.
As suddenly as it began, though, it stopped.
"Are you alright, my dear?" Blumiere asked as he let his wife down.
"I'm fine..." Timpani had fallen on the ground before Blumiere grabbed her, her beautiful pearl-white dress was now soiled.
"What was that?" She looked around.
Blumiere winced, as he noticed a sharp pain in his right hand.
"Ow..."
"Darling? Are you alright?" Timpani asked with concern.
"I may have scratched myself. I will be alright." He grasped his hand to stop it from bleeding. Little drops of black blood fell from his hand, staining his once-exquisite velvet-lined glove.
"We can't just leave it like that... Here. Let me help." Timpani took a piece of cloth that tore off of her dress in the earthquake and wrapped her husband's hand with it.
"I didn't know your blood was black..."
"And yet we've known each other for more than 1,500 years?" Blumiere chuckled. Timpani shook her head and sighed. "I suppose you're right. There..." She gave the makeshift bandage a last little tug.
"How's that?"
He smiled. "Much better, my dear. It reminds me of the day we first met." They gazed into each other's eyes, thinking about the chain of events that led them both here now.
Then Blumiere's eyes gazed over at something else, something he didn't see before.
He shouted, "Look! In the distance!"
Timpani squinted to try and see what he was pointing at. "Is that... No, it couldn't be!"
"I'm afraid it is."
They could both see Castle Bleck in the far distance.
"Oh, Pierre! Pierre!"
"What is it, my love?"
"Oh, thank the stars Pierre! Our wish has finally come true!"
"My dearest Foi, this certainly requires celebrating!
Forget the housework... We shall dance in the moonlight!"
"Yes... We are soon to have our own child!"