Hey, guys! I'm so sorry I took so long! I kind of had severe writer's block, as usual, but I got it done now!

And I want to give a huge thanks to DScribbleF, lizy2839, Abymoosh911, fancystar12, Quack Quack, Benvincent917, Yes, Brokentail, Cutie-M3lo25, Luigiguy42 (To answer your question, yes, I am still updating.), and The Sci-Fi Gamer. ELEVEN reviews! You guys are AMAZING! I realize I'm saying the same thing each chapter, but I truly mean it every time.

So, I'm introducing a new character today, and even a new kingdom, both of them my own.

Anyway, this is boring even me, so let's jump right in!

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo's characters.

(Daisy's PoV)

"Really, guys, think about it," Daisy said. "If we go back to the castle now, it would give Drekkel a chance to notice that we've escaped. We need to just act now."

"But we're unprepared," Luigi pointed out. "Like the king said earlier, we need more guards." Luigi was clearly terrified. Daisy felt kind of bad for him, although she knew that going back to the castle was a bad idea.

Daisy shook her head. "No. We need to act now. If Drekkel were to catch us again..." Memories of being tortured by Drekkel flashed through her head. Daisy shuddered. "Look, guys, I really don't want to go back to being Drekkel's prisoner. It was horrible. Our best bet is to just go. Now."

Daisy's dad nodded. "I have to agree with Daisy. Come on. Let's go. Daisy..." he sighed. "Daisy, I was hoping that you wouldn't have to be here, in the midst of danger. But, at the same time, I think that you will be extremely helpful. Now, Merlon, what time is it?"

Merlon pulled a pocket watch out of his cloak. "Midnight."

"Perfect!" Daisy said. "Drekkel should be asleep by now."

"Alright, Daisy," the king sighed, drawing in an unsure breath. "Lead the way to Drekkel's room. I guess the mission has started."

"Or has it?"

Shit. There was that voice again. The one that haunted Daisy's nightmares. The one that had tortured her for years after separating her from her father.

"No," Daisy whimpered.

Drekkel made himself visible. "Yes." He laughed evilly. "I think you all are forgetting that I was listening to your plan back at the castle." He turned to Daisy's dad and raised an eyebrow. "Or, maybe you've forgotten that I have ears, and can hear when you shout, 'Oh, look, it's Merlon! We're escaping!' You know, there's a really bad echo down here, too, so yeah, I heard you."

Daisy just shook her head in disbelief. She could feel the anxiety and fear churning in her stomach.

"Now," Drekkel said, "it's time to end this. For real." Then he raised his hand, and a giant Thunder Ball appeared above it. Then he threw it down at them, and, as before, everything went black.

(Still Daisy's PoV)

When Daisy woke up, she was back in the room where she had been kept prisoner for much of her life.

I thought he meant he was going to kill us. I guess I was wrong. Either that, or he was bluffing.

Daisy yawned, sleepy, and looked around, and found that she was alone. She started panicking. Where were Luigi and William and her father and Merlon? Were they...? No. They couldn't be. They had to be just as alive as her.

Then Daisy remembered something else. Wasn't Merlon supposed to protect them against Drekkel's magic?

Suddenly, the door started to slowly open. Daisy started trembling in fear. She tried to hide behind or under the bed, but she realized that she couldn't move. Her wrists were chained to the wall. How hadn't she noticed?

The door, which was creaking open at a painfully slow rate, was now open wide enough that she could see a shadowy figure standing outside. She knew that shadowy figure all too well.

"Hello, Princess," he said as he walked into the room. "Welcome home."

Daisy swallowed the growing lump in her throat and hid away her fear. "This place will never be my home."

Drekkel laughed. "Your opinion matters not. Now, come on. We must pick up where we left off." Then he waved his hand, and the chains moved from the wall into his hand.

Daisy's fear became harder to hide. She was going to be tortured. Just like before. She tried to hide her tears as she followed Drekkel out of the room.

They walked down the long hallway that she had been down many times before. This time, they made several stops along the way.

The first stop was at a room very similar to hers, except Luigi was chained to the wall instead of her. He appeared to be unconscious. Daisy gasped, and a few tears escaped. She hoped Drekkel didn't see them as she focused on stopping the crying.

Drekkel raised up his hand, and this time, an ordinary fire ball appeared. Daisy was so shocked, horrified, and terrified that she couldn't even cry, couldn't even move. But instead hitting Luigi with it as she had expected, he threw it on the ground in front of him, startling Luigi into waking up. Luigi opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it, his gaze pinned on Drekkel. Then he looked over to Daisy. Daisy wished that she could speak to him with her thoughts, but even if she could, she didn't know what she would say.

Drekkel took Luigi's chains the same way he had taken Daisy's, then they continued walking in deafening silence.

(Luigi's PoV)

Luigi didn't know what was going on, but as soon as he saw the look on Daisy's face, he got pretty good idea. That look. That one look that said, "It's over."

Luigi wanted to just break down and cry. Everything he had fought for and believed in, all for nothing. Drekkel won. Luigi couldn't take it. But he had to. For Daisy.

As they walked down that hallway, he wondered how many times Daisy had gone through though this. Had felt this. He glanced over at her and saw the tears running down her face. He could tell she was trying to keep them in, but they were there. He hated seeing her like that. He could have sworn he heard a soft sound, almost like a whimper escape her throat, but that could have been his imagination.

As they continued walking down that terrible hallway, they encountered another door. When Drekkel opened this one up, Luigi saw that it was exactly the same as the room he had been kept him, right down to the teenage guy chained to the wall. Except instead of Luigi, this was William. He looked terrible. He was unconscious, and pale. Luigi thought of all the times he had wished that something like this would happen to William, and instantly regretted it. In that instant, he also stopped hating William.

Luigi watched as Drekkel threw a fireball on the floor in front of William, just barely missing his feet. William gasped awake as embers from the fireball singed his pants. William looked from Drekkel, to Daisy, to Luigi, and Luigi noticed that for once, the look that he gave him was not filled with hate, but instead with sympathy. It was a look that said, "I'm sorry that your dreams fell apart." Luigi returned the look, and neither of them looked away from each other as Drekkel brought William over to the group.

(William's PoV)

William felt terrible.

Even worse than when he had felt when he woke up in the cave. He had the most terrible headache and felt as if he was going to faint.

But, despite how bad he felt for himself, William felt even worse for Luigi.

The whole time, it was clear that Luigi was the most passionate about this mission, probably even more so than Daisy and the king. And now he had to watch it fall apart.

The worst part was why Luigi cared so much. William knew that what Luigi felt for Daisy was stronger than his small crush. Luigi cared about Daisy a lot, and now he had to watch her cry because they had failed.

William couldn't imagine how that had to feel.

He felt terrible for Luigi the instant he realized what was going on. Somehow, that sympathy made William stop hating him.

William walked down the hallway with Drekkel, Luigi, and Daisy, watching the tears slowly roll down Daisy's face, and the hatred in her eyes, hatred at the tears that fell despite her obvious efforts to keep them hidden. He shook his head in disgust. Not at Daisy, at Drekkel. He then realized that all of his hatred at Luigi was being toward Drekkel.

"How dare you?" William demanded, breaking the silence. Drekkel stopped walking, so everybody else did, too. Ha! He thinks he can scare me... To be honest, William was terrified, but he was too angry and disgusted to care.

Drekkel slowly turned toward William. "Excuse me?" he said. William swallowed down his fear. "How dare I what?"

"How dare you capture innocent people and torture them when they've done nothing to you?" Drekkel tilted his head, studying William. William hoped that he couldn't see his fear.

"Excuse me," Drekkel said once more. "but aren't you the ones who tried to attack me?" Instead of waiting for William to respond, he continued walking, dragging everyone along with him.

"Maybe," William agreed, "but aren't you the one who captured and tortured an innocent girl for eight years?"

Drekkel ignored the question, making William angry. He was about to say something else when they encountered another door. As Drekkel slowly opened the door, William expected to see either the king or Merlon, which concerned him because they were both older people, and if he could barely handle the feeling he had upon awakening, he didn't know how they would be able to handle it. However, when the door opened, instead of the king or Merlon, a girl in a torn purple dress looked up. She looked like she was somewhere between Daisy's age and William's.

"Ah, Lexi," Drekkel said with an evil smile. He turned and looked at Daisy. "You see, after you ran away, I took her as your replacement." William saw Daisy's jaw drop in shock and disgust. Then as he looked back at Lexi, he saw an unspeakable amount of hatred in her eyes that were pinned on Daisy. "You see," Drekkel continued, "I can't stand princesses. Lexi here is the princess of Dellionland."

"My name is Alexia," she growled. "Only my friends get to call me Lexi."

William was both surprised and impressed when Lexi – sorry, Alexia – said that. She looked fragile and innocent, but she was clearly a girl who knew how to stand up for herself. William smiled and started clapping. Everyone turned and looked at him.

"My, my, Princess," William said. "I was going to tell him what a terrible person he was for having you, an innocent beauty, trapped here, but you seem to have that under control." Alexia was beautiful. He meant that. Despite all the scars and bruises she had from being tortured, her beauty was obvious. She had the biggest, most beautiful blue-green eyes he had ever seen, for one thing. Then there was her hair. Her beautiful straight brown hair went down to the middle of her back, with side nags going down to her chin. The ends of her hair were dyed red. It framed her tan skin beautifully. She obviously hadn't been there very long.

Alexia blushed and smiled. (She had the most beautiful smile.) "No, please, go ahead," she insisted. "He deserves it." Then she smiled again and said, "By the way, call me Lexi."

William smiled back. "If you insist." Then he turned to Drekkel. "Who do you think you are, just kidnapping innocent princesses? You clearly must have had some stupid reason for why you took Daisy. Lexi is older than her, which means that she existed before her, so if you really wanted to just take any princess, you would have taken her. But no, you took Daisy. Then, when she escaped, you just randomly took Lexi. Why is that?"

Drekkel studied William for a few minutes. "Those are some very good questions. But you know, there's no need for all that anger. I am only trying to help you."

"WELL THEN, YOU'RE CLEARLY DOING A GREAT JOB! BRAVO, BRAVO! THIS IS A MUCH BETTER WAY TO HELP PEOPLE THAN I COULD EVER THINK OF!" William was hysterical at this point. He couldn't handle the overwhelming rage he felt.

Drekkel held a hand above his head and a fireball appeared. He thrust his hand out toward William, and William flinched, expecting to be set on fire, when he realized that the fireball had disappeared.

Drekkel smirked. "Not so confident now, are you?" He laughed. "That was a mere warning. Next time you won't be so lucky."

William looked down, embarrassed that everyone saw him flinch. Drekkel took Lexi's chains, and she joined the group. They continued walking. William looked back up at Lexi.

"Hey, Lexi," William said slowly. Lexi looked up at him. "Do you think you could maybe not hate Daisy?"

Lexi glanced at Daisy, then growled, "Why shouldn't I hate her? She's the whole reason I'm here."

William shook his head. "No, Lexi. I know you feel that way, and I can understand why, but that's not true. You see, Daisy had been here since she was five. That's eight years. Then she escaped. She had no way of knowing that he would kidnap someone else afterward. If she did, I doubt she would have done it."

Daisy looked over at them. "It's true."

Lexi stared at her, then looked back over at William. "What's your name?"

"I'm William," he replied. "But you can – and this is the first and only time I will ever say this – call me Billy. Preferably William, but I would accept Billy or Bill."

Lexi laughed. "I'll just stick with William." Then she just smiled at him. "You know, this is the first time I've laughed since I got here. Thanks."

William smiled. "It's the least I can do."

(Daisy's PoV)

They reached the end of the hallway.

There was a door at the end.

"Ah, and we've reached our destination!" Drekkel announced.

Yup, that was his torture chamber alright. Daisy knew the way all too well.

She felt a nervous knot in her stomach.

Partially because she and her friends were about to be tortured.

Partially because there were people missing.

Daisy swallowed nervously as the tears came faster. "Where's my father? Where's Merlon?"

Drekkel just smiled evilly.

He opened the door.

Nothing could have prepared Daisy for what happened next.

Nothing.

Because she saw her father in there, sitting on Drekkel's couch, smiling.

"Dad?" Daisy felt relieved and terrified at the same time. "What's going on here? Why didn't he chain you up? Where's Merlon?"

The king laughed as he walked over to stand in front of Drekkel. "Oh, he wouldn't chain me up. We've been working together as good friends for too many years.

Okay! First of all, I know about, have fixed, and apologize for the terrible errors you may have seen while reading this before. Parts of sentences were missing and thrown somewhere else. Sorry about that. And thank you, DScribbleF, for letting me know.

So, I know that you have many questions. They will all be answered in the next chapter.

I also wasn't going to end it here, but I decided that the chapter was getting long enough, and this would be a GREAT cliffhanger.

I also have an announcement.

The next chapter is going to be the last of this story. I'm sorry. This is for three reasons:

1) I never really liked this story, but I know a lot of people do, so I refused to abandon it.

2) I wanted this to be a short story.

3) I want to start a sequel to The Teen Years.

There you go!

I hope to have the next chapter up soon, and since it's the last, it will be the longest.

I really want to hear your theories on what will happen next! Please tell me in a private message or, preferably, a review.

I'll see you next chapter! Remember: Follow, Favorite, and Review!