It was about 5 PM when Peach and Koojo, riding an Airship captured from the Koopa Troop's forces, arrived at the outskirts of Toad Town. The entire town was either reduced to rubble, on fire, or reduced to fiery rubble; even the formerly majestic Mushroom Castle had been torn apart, with only its foundations remaining. Peach wiped away tears from her eyes, and focused on her Ripple breathing as a way to distract herself from the pain.
"Are you all right, Princess?" Koojo asked. He had finally ditched his white robe; underneath, he wore a form-fitting black shirt that exposed his midriff, black pants and a red-and-white triangle-pattern headband. (He claimed that the headband was a keepsake from his old master, though he'd had to modify it in order to fit around his current body's head.)
Peach remained silent. Grief and anger swelled in her throat, but she continued focusing on her breathing, pushing those feelings away. There would be time to grieve and rebuild in the future - for now, she needed to focus on the task at hand, namely killing Bowser, his Koopalings, and every vampire and zombie in his army.
Bowser's forces appeared to have withdrawn from Toad Town, as there were no other Airships in the sky, nor were there any soldiers on the ground. Peach and Koojo descended about a hundred meters to get a better look at the town, but all they saw was the extent of the town's devastation: plants and trees had been ripped up and torn apart, water fountains were destroyed and polluted, all of the ships in the harbor were sunk and the docks destroyed, and most importantly, there were no citizens or corpses present. It was possible that there were still survivors somewhere underneath the rubble, but...
"...searching for them would take too much time," Peach muttered aloud. "There's nothing left here. Bowser's forces have probably returned to his castle."
"Yeah," Koojo said. "But approaching it by air seems like a bad idea."
"We'll take the Airship to the borders of the Dark Land, then we'll abandon it and go the rest of the way by foot," Peach said, having formulated this plan in less than a few seconds. "Koojo, I thank you for your assistance up to this point, but I do not expect you to fight for a kingdom you have no stake in."
"Don't give me that, Princess," Koojo said. "Vampire hunting not's the sort of profession you get into if you're not willing to lay down your life for a cause. And to be honest, I'd rather go down fighting than wasting away in a shack in the middle of nowhere."
"...Thank you," Peach said. "If we survive this, I will bestow upon you the highest honours the Mushroom Kingdom has to offer."
Koojo chuckled. "We'll be fine, Princess."
The Airship ascended and continued northwest, towards the Dark Lands and the Castle contained within.
"There's something I wanted to ask you," Peach said. They were flying over the Mushroom Kingdom countryside, but even the many small hamlets bore the telltale signs of the Koopa Troop's destructive march. The sun was setting, but as Peach had explained to Koojo, the area around Bowser's Castle was shrouded in perpetual night even before he had become a vampire, so the time of their attack didn't really matter.
"Of course," Koojo said. He was sitting against the wall of the Airship's cabin, looking somewhat pained. Peach had fully recovered from the fight earlier in the day, but she was still in the prime of her life; Koojo, on the other hand, was both old and fighting in an unfamiliar body, and thus was still winded. He'd assured her that he would be fine, but Peach was unsure about that, as well as many other things about him.
"...I traveled from the Mushroom Kingdom to the edge of the Forest Maze in a single throw, or so I thought. There were extenuating circumstances, but traveling 500 kilometers in a single throw is highly unlikely."
Koojo nodded.
"And despite the fact that you live on the edge of the Forest Maze, largely isolated from civilization, you knew exactly what Bowser's forces were up to. There's also the fact that a Ripple master just happened to show up when vampires, otherwise unknown in the Mushroom World, appeared..."
Koojo chuckled. "I'm sorry, Princess. I don't want to insult your intelligence, but I was kind of hoping you wouldn't put the pieces together."
"You had your own reasons for hiding the truth from me," Peach said, "but I would prefer if you were honest with me, if you're able."
"Okay, I'll come clean." Koojo got up and looked Peach right in the eyes. "Princess, do you believe that the future can be foretold?"
"I believe that prophecy is a useful tool, but that it is not foolproof," Peach said. "I once met a man who dedicated his life to a book that supposedly told the future. The book ensured that he would succeed, but despite this, he was betrayed by one of his own and defeated." She neglected to mention the circumstances that had driven that man to such measures, but that was largely irrelevant to the discussion. "So you were told that these events would occur?"
"Indeed," he said. "I was given quite a bit of detail about what would happen, actually. I was told I would end up in this world in this body, that I would find you on the outskirts of Sarasaland, and that I had seven days to train you before the entire world was overrun."
"How far does the prediction go?" Peach asked.
"We'll arrive in the Dark Lands and successfully fight our way to Bowser, but..." Koojo trailed off.
"We die against him," Peach said. "Do we at least finish him off?"
"I don't know," he said. "But like you said, prophecy isn't foolproof. We'll find a way to succeed despite that."
Peach looked wistfully at the setting sun. "I hope so."
THUMP.
Peach shuddered involuntarily. "What was that?"
"A vampire's somewhere in the cargo hold," Koojo said. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Let's take care of it."
The two climbed down into the empty cargo hold, preparing themselves for another fight. Naturally, it was completely dark within, but Peach had that covered. She created a dazzling ball on her palm and swept it across the hold, making sure to illuminate every corner... but the vampire was nowhere to be found.
"They're good at blending in," Koojo said. "Keep your guard up."
But Peach wasn't about to be caught unaware. She pumped a bit of Ripple into the ball of light and destabilized it, flooding the hold with a single bright flash. Sure enough, the hidden vampire screeched in pain, but Peach only got a glimpse of the vampire before the light faded, returning the hold to darkness.
Peach considered creating another dazzling ball, but she realized that it would only make her a target - and despite her use of the Ripple, she was still rather fragile, and vampires had more than enough strength to tear her limb from limb. Instead, she steadied her breathing and listened, hearing the vampire's muted footsteps scampering madly around the cargo hold. It was approaching them from the right, but its steps were muted, somehow distant. Peach thought back, remembering the various vampiric abilities Koojo had told her about, including...
"There!" Peach threw a ball of magical white mist directly above her, eliciting another screech of pain. Vampires could walk on walls and ceiling with some effort; no doubt it was trying to get the drop on them. The vampire fell to the ground, and in the light of another dazzling ball, Peach finally saw its face.
His clothes were torn, his skin was discoloured and covered in cuts, and he lacked his trademark cap... but there was no mistaking it.
"Luigi?" Peach said. "Luigi, is that you?"
The vampire screamed again and launched himself at Peach, but Koojo stepped in and delivered a palm strike to Luigi's bulbous nose. But this time, rather than retreating and making another sneak attack, Luigi jumped directly upward, puncturing a hole in the cargo hold that filled it with the last rays of the dying sun.
"Luigi!" Peach jumped through the hole, expecting to see nothing but a pile of ash under crumpled clothing... but Luigi was still corporeal, though his skin was visibly burning in sunlight and his body was bent at an odd angle.
"Princess." The air seemed to shimmer around Luigi as he continued to bend his body in seemingly impossible ways. "At the end, when I was surrounded by the undead, you know what my final thoughts were? I wondered why we spent all that time rescuing you. And even now, after Bowser turned me into one of his undead puppets, I've had more time to ponder that question..." He grinned madly. "And you know what? I couldn't come up with an answer."
"I am sorry, Luigi," Peach said, returning to her formal tone of voice. "If I had been stronger, I could have prevented all of this... I failed you, and Mario, and everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Yeah you did!" Luigi stomped his foot on the deck, creating an odd zone of energy around himself. It seemed to block sunlight at the very least, as his skin stopped burning and started to heal... but Peach had the sneaking suspicion that that was the least of the spell's effects. "But honestly, I don't mind this vampirism thing. I've finally gained the power that I've craved - that I deserved - for the longest time. And this is just the beginning!"
Luigi's energy field continued to expand, quickly engulfing the rest of the Airship. "This is my Negative Zone! Within it, my power is absolute! Even those light spells of yours won't affect me here!"
Peach had long been aware of Luigi's potential power. On several occasions, he'd demonstrated strange and even terrifying abilities, unlike anything his brother Mario possessed. But because of laziness, or self-loathing, or some other reason, he'd held himself back... but whatever part of him responsible for that had died along with his life, leaving only this undead shell that only looked like her former ally.
When undergoing her Ripple training, Peach had inquired at length about a potential cure to vampirism. And Koojo had shot her down every time. He had seen many different types of vampires throughout the years, but only a couple of them could be truly cured of their condition... and based on the abilities of these particular vampires, they were one of the ones that couldn't. Koojo drilled it into her that the vampires she would fight were not friends that had turned into monsters, but monsters that inhabited the bodies of friends.
Peach readied herself for an attack, but she found that she had difficulty moving within Luigi's Negative Zone. Luigi himself seemed unrestricted, and he used his enhanced agility to quickly close the gap between them. He plunged his ungloved right hand into Peach's shoulder before she could react, but he withdrew his fingers just as quickly, his hand burning from the abundance of Ripple in her body. Peach took her chance and thrust her palm forward, preparing a Sunlight Yellow Overdrive, but the collected Ripple in her hand fizzled out in the atmosphere of the Negative Zone, and Luigi dodged the attack easily anyways.
"What did you do?" Luigi asked, his hand still burning. "I was looking forward to making you my servant. But no, you just had to booby-trap your body with some sort of poison! That can't be healthy for you!"
"It's called the Ripple, and it's plenty healthy for the living," Peach spat. Her Ripple was less effective in this spell, but her healing magic still worked, as proven when she quickly patched up the puncture wounds in her shoulder. "Luigi... I have no desire to kill you. Leave now and go in peace, and I promise that neither I nor anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom will hunt you down."
"Oh, that's rich. Even with that poison in your blood, you're still practically defenseless, and you still have the gall to threaten me? You're in over your head, babe, even you've gotta realize that."
"Please don't call me 'babe'." Peach conjured a dazzling ball and chucked it, but the Negative Zone caused it to quickly fizzle out. Luigi giggled again and ran right at Peach, his vampiric fangs bared and his hands outstretched. Despite the increased air resistance (or whatever was slowing her down), Peach easily rolled under Luigi and kicked him solidly in the stomach, nearly throwing him off the side of the deck. Luigi rolled with the impact and saved himself from falling over, but as he got back to his feet, he realized that his intestines were hanging out of a hole in his stomach.
"I've been training to fight vampires for the past week," Peach said. "It turns out that my white magic is quite effective against the undead, especially when supplemented and amplified by the Ripple. And I've also learned to use my spells in unconventional ways, such as channeling a Therapy spell into my feet."
Luigi screamed in inarticulate rage and again ran at Peach, but she nimbly sidestepped him, grabbed his face from behind, and pumped another Ripple-enhanced healing spell right into his eyes. Luigi's head burst into flame, and this was evidently enough to break his concentration and destabilize the Negative Zone around them. But even this wouldn't quite be enough to finish off a vampire, especially now that the sun had completely set. So Peach grabbed his hanging intestines, channeled quite a bit of Ripple into him, then threw him overboard. She watched his entire body burst into flame as it hit the countryside below, quickly disappearing as Luigi's vampire body disintegrated.
Peach stood silently, staring at the barely-visible blackened spot of earth below her. Then, unable to hold it in anymore, she collapsed to her knees and cried.
"I'm sorry."
