Here's the next chapter!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 10: The Mountaintop's Secret

Mount Brrr is a snowy mountain located all the way to the north of the Mushroom Kingdom. Aside from being your typical Mario themed snow level, it is said that somewhere near the top, a shiny and sparkly mirror made of crystals is hidden there. It is still unknown of what it truly holds, but many said that it holds an entirely new world on the other side.

At the lower level of the mountain, Flutter Wiggler came down on a log platform with some flowers circling around it, and everyone hopped down from his back.

"Thanks for the ride!" Starlow thanked.

"You're welcome!" Flutter Wiggler replied. "If you ever need to get back down, just let me know!"

"Great!" Starlow nodded as the gang walked off.

"Brr… It's quite cold here!" Luigi shivered.

"Well, they don't call this place Mount Brrr for a reason." Alice pointed out.

"I'll admit, I've been to many frozen places in my adventures, but I don't think I've been or ever heard about Mount Brrr…" Mario admitted. "…until I and Luigi met Alice here."

"Oh, yeah… This was the place where we first met… I almost forgot about that. I wonder if we rescue all of the Fairies of Emotion, I'll be able to recall who I really am…"

"Speaking of us…" Petunia came in. "I… I think I can sense one right here."

"And of course the last one is in Bowser's Castle." Selene added. "I seriously can't believe you all only have two of us to rescue! I'm impressed."

"I'm glad to hear that!" Starlow exclaimed. "Anyway, the princesses are somewhere on this mountain. It's our duty to find them and save them."

They all nodded and as they were walking over a wooden bridge, Mario spoke to Lana:

"Lana, now that we're here, what about the secret of this mountain? You promised to tell me about it once we get here."

"Oh, right." Lana replied. "The secret is-…"

*RUUUMBLE!*

All of a sudden, a loud rumble interrupted Lana, catching everyone's attention.

"What the heck was that?" Starlow wondered… and another rumble came. "Is it coming from above us?" everyone then decided to look up.

Meanwhile, at the Mount Brrr Summit…

King Bob-omb was standing in front of an odd-looking machine with a bunch of cannons, along with Iggy, Lemmy, Morton and some of Bowser's minions.

"Fire!" King Bob-omb ordered, and the minions made one of the cannons fire out papery landscape all over the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Morton laughed.

"Don't stop!" Iggy demanded.

"Fire!" King Bob-omb ordered again, and the same thing from before happened, except the other cannon fired out paper minions instead of landscape.

"Heh heh heh!" Lemmy laughed.

"More! Fire more stuff!" Iggy demanded again.

"Fire!" King Bob-omb ordered one more time, and another one of the cannons fired out… what, exactly? Well…

Back with the heroes…

"Uh… Is something coming right at us?!" Kirby pointed.

Indeed: a large shadow appeared above them, causing them to panic.

"MAMA MIA!" Luigi yelled. "INCOMING!"

The gang quickly moved away from the shadow as papery landscape tumbled down on the ground where they used to be standing before. They were also surprised when cardboard icicles fell down as well all over the place.

"Whew… That was a close call!" Paper Luigi sighed in relief. "If we weren't careful, it could've been curtains for us!"

"But stuff like this doesn't just accidentally fall from the sky." Fox stated. "This has to be the work of Bowser and his minions!"

"We have to get to the bottom of this!" Lana exclaimed.

With that, the gang managed to get to the other side by just climbing over the papery landscape, while the two Mario Bros used Quartet Drill to dig under it and moved on. They ventured inside a cavern, filled with Buzzy Beetles. After they emerged out, once they walked a bit further, they heard a voice:

"Whoooooa." it was from Bowser Jr.

"Did you hear that?" Yoshi asked as everyone looked around.

"I'm so high up!" Bowser Jr spoke again.

"Up there!" Luigi pointed above them.

A few miles above, there was Bowser Jr, enjoying the view as usual:

"If I were scared of heights, I would for sure be freaking out right now." he pauses for a bit before speaking for himself: "Though, I can't stop thinking about that mirror… Why has nobody found it already?! That mirror can't be THAT hard to find, come on."

"Hey! Buddy!" Paper Bowser Jr's voice came in, catching Bowser Jr's attention. "The papercraft is so awesome! Whoa! SO cool!"

"Hey! Stop hogging it! It's half mine, you know!" Bowser Jr retorted before taking off after his paper self.

Back with the heroes below…

"I KNEW IT!" Alice suddenly exclaimed very loud, causing everyone to jump before turning back to her.

"Alice! Don't startle us like that!" Ness cried out.

"Sorry… I got carried away a bit. Anyway, Bowser's minions already have a new papercraft, just as I felt previously! That's really bad news with a capital B! And N! But no worries! This is a job that I can take care of!"

"Uh…" everyone looked at Alice weird, shocked by her attitude.

"OK, let's get down to brass tacks. As you know, we need to get working on new papercrafts too. Lucky for you, I've got more ideas than you can shake a stick at! However! I need a safe place where I can work!"

"But… There's no such thing as a safe place in this terrifying world!" Luigi told.

"What do you mean by that, Luigi? After all, there's always a Toad Village in any of the places we've been, isn't it? And that seems like a good spot to work! Except… I believe it's located at the very top of this area." she pointed upwards.

"That's a long way up…" Mario remarked. "And it's way higher than I expected!"

"Not only that, but the path to it is basically a giant puzzle…" Paper Mario added.

"Well, if we're able to solve it, we'll reach it!" Alice exclaimed.

"Guess we don't have a choice…" Paper Luigi shrugged.

One puzzle solving later…

The heroes finally reached the Toad Village at the top, where a Toad greeted them:

"Hello, everyone!" he then noticed the paper heroes. "Whoa! Another of each of you?! Well, hello to you too! I see that the rumors I've heard about paper versions of people are true! Anyway, welcome to our humble village. It's chilly up here, but I hope you'll make yourselves at home!"

"Thanks for the offer, but we have some important things to do." Samus said.

"Yeah." Starlow nodded. "OK, so I'm guessing that if we find Bowser Jr, we'll find the princesses too! We're going to need to find a way to get even higher on the mountain…"

"But before that, you should hunt for the Page Pieces and Special Page Pieces." Valeria interfered. "That way, Alice can help you once again!"

"Good idea. Let's go, everyone!"

Some minutes later…

The gang finally found all Page Pieces and Special Page Pieces by searching around the mountain, which wasn't a simple task, and the pieces flew back into the book, restoring another set of pages; the book was nearly restored now. Unlike last time, the Paper Toads did come out of hiding now.

"I can't stand here all day! That way I'll never see my friends again!" a nearby Paper Toad whined before running off.

"Okay… Which emotion was that?" Kirby wondered.

"Hmm, I believe it was sadness." Cecile replied. "Well, now Alice can work on the new papercrafts while we move on."

"Sure thing!" Alice nodded. "Time to gather some cardboard and work on my new projects! See you soon!" she left.

The group then continued on, up the mountain. After reaching the area that was close to the top of the mountain, Lana suddenly stopped everyone:

"Wait."

"What is it, Lana?" Zelda asked.

The group watched Lana walk a few steps to the right, stopping next to a rock with blue crystals carved in it. She then waves her hand in front of her with magic on what appears to be only just thin air, and to the group's surprise, a shiny and sparkly large mirror showed up. This mirror had pure, white glass and decorated with crystals around it.

"Whoa, what is this mirror?" Starlow asked. "And why was it invisible?"

"First of all…" Lana turned to face Mario. "Mario, this is the thing I was referring to. This mirror is the Mushroom Kingdom's deepest secret: the Crystal Mirror."

"The Crystal Mirror? How do you know about it, Lana? And who created it?"

"I don't know who created it, but I know about it because it was my ancestor who hid it here. Because I'm her descendant, only I can reveal the mirror, in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. That is the exact reason why nobody in the Mushroom Kingdom has ever found it, and so everyone claims that it's just a legend."

"Hmm, now that you said it, I do remember Peach telling me about this mirror." Mario remarked. "But she didn't know what it was called or what it truly holds, but she knows from the legends that it holds a world very different than this one."

"That is actually true. However, it is not any sort of different world; it is actually a brand new universe."

"A new universe?!" Paper Mario's eyes widened.

"Yes. It's more of a parallel universe. And… I, Cia and some of our friends from across the ages are the only ones in this universe who have been there before."

"REALLY?! How is that other universe like?!" Starlow asked.

"In that universe, the Mushroom Kingdom doesn't exist. Only the Hyrule Kingdom exists there, but it is not as big and wide as the Hyrule in this universe. There is a Link and a Zelda in that universe, of course, who appear more warlike than the Link and Zelda here."

"Wow…" Link breathed.

"And here are two biggest things that this other universe offers: one of them is that there is none of those timeline shenanigans that happened in the history of the Hyrule from this universe, though the people from the other universe had heard of those tales… until the War Across the Ages happened, in which I fought in. And the other one is… That universe is protected not only by its princess, but also by four individuals who are known as the Servants of the Goddesses."

"Servants of the Goddesses?! So that means…" Zelda thought.

"Those Servants of the Goddesses each serve a different goddess of Hyrule, and they watch over different corners of that land related to their respective goddesses."

"That sounds interesting! Who are those Servants?" Starlow asked, curiosity filling her eyes.

"Unfortunately, I can't reveal them yet." this caused everyone, except for Lana and Zelda, to face-fault.

"Why not?!"

"Spoilers…"

"Oh, great…"

"Well, at least you all know what the deepest secret in the Mushroom Kingdom is." Lana said as she made the Crystal Mirror invisible again. "Now let's move on."

The gang went onward, walking up some wooden steps, where they heard a voice up ahead:

"Come along, Your Highness. Er…junior."

"Oh my… Look!" Paper Zelda pointed.

The screen scrolls up, revealing a Papercraft Bowser Jr, with the two Bowser Jrs standing on top of it, and the Kameks were with them as well.

"It's about time we head back to your father's castle." Kamek said.

"I don't wanna!" Bowser Jr refused. "Plus, you're the one who told me to play here!"

"True, but-"

"We've already explained to you that Mario and company will be here any moment." Paper Kamek interrupted.

"We don't care! We're not done playing yet!" Paper Bowser Jr argued. "AND we're not scared of Mario or anyone with him! Now that we've got this sweet papercraft, we're not scared of anything!"

"*sigh* Be reasonable." Kamek sighed. "Come, let's just go before-…"

"…Before what?" Captain Falcon's voice came as they turned towards the group.

"Agh! Look! What did I tell you?!"

"See? Now we have this to deal with!" Paper Kamek threw in.

"Heh. Mario! This is perfect timing!" Bowser Jr smirked, not afraid of the group at all.

"We're gonna take this papercraft for a test drive… All over your face!" Paper Bowser Jr added as Green Koopas arrived, getting ready to carry the papercraft.

"We've got a sticky situation here!" Starlow gulped. "Where's Alice and those papercrafts she were building?"

"Not to worry! Here I am! Over here!" Alice's voice suddenly came and the gang looked above… and were shocked at what they were seeing.

"Oh my god… No way!" Zelda exclaimed surprised.

"First, thank you for your patience… Now…feast your eyes on… THESE!"

There were three new papercrafts held up by lots of colorful balloons right above the gang, and the ropes were cut, dropping the three papercrafts as they fell down, one by one.

The three new papercrafts made were those of Princess Zelda, Lana and Ness. The Toads began to carry them towards the battlefield as the gang watched amazed.

"Oh my goodness! I look so KAWAII in papercraft!" Lana squealed, fangirling along with her paper self.

"Never expected Lana to fangirl like that." Paper Zelda giggled.

"Hey, finally a papercraft version of us!" Ness exclaimed.

"Dibs on this!" Paper Ness immediately hopped aboard the Papercraft Ness, followed up by his 3D self.

The Zeldas and Lanas did the same by hopping aboard their own papercrafts while the rest of the gang went to a safe spot to watch.

In an instant, some Papercraft Spikes and Papercraft Mechakoopas showed up on the battlefield. A Papercraft Mechakoopa was charging straight to Papercraft Zelda, but the Zeldas made their Papercraft cast Din's Fire to burn it up. A Papercraft Spike nearby then attempted to surprise the Zeldas by sending a papercraft spiked ball at them, but Papercraft Lana conjured up three papercraft walls to block the spiked ball, in addition to send them towards the Papercraft Spike, destroying it as well.

"PK Fire!" the Nesses shouted as they made their Papercraft cast PK Fire at the remaining Papercraft Mechakoopas, while the Lanas made their Papercraft use its Spear to make a papercraft tree grow right under the last Papercraft Spike, causing it to crumble to pieces.

Then, the Papercraft Bowser Jr showed up, and the Bowser Jrs immediately made it run away from them.

"Are they…running away from us?" Paper Lana questioned.

"Gahaha! Come and get us…if you can!" Bowser Jr taunted.

"Pfft. They probably can't!" Paper Bowser Jr scoffed.

"Hey! Get back here!" Paper Ness yelled as the three Papercrafts chased after Papercraft Bowser Jr.

"How are they so fast?!" Zelda asked. "We'll never catch them like this!"

"Not if we do this!" Lana winked as she made her Papercraft bring out the Summoning Gate. "Summon Giant Cucco!"

Eventually, a giant papercraft Cucco popped out from the Summoning Gate that was positioned right in front of Papercraft Bowser Jr and immediately rammed into it, surprising the Bowser Jrs.

"WHOA!" Bowser Jr flinched.

"We're being attacked by a giant CHICKEN of all things?!" Paper Bowser Jr didn't see that coming.

"Lightning Shower!" the Lanas yelled as electrifying papercraft books rained down all over the area around Papercraft Bowser Jr, damaging it even more.

"What… the heck was that?" Paper Ness' jaw dropped.

"I have no words…" Ness breathed.

That attack didn't make the Bowser Jrs very happy: they made their Papercraft run away again, but this time, they tried to attack their chasers with giant papercraft Green Shells, but Papercraft Zelda used Nayru's Love to repeal the Shells back at the Papercraft Bowser Jr, slowing it down a bit.

But before the Zeldas could get a clear shot at it, a Papercraft Spike had stopped them in their track and fired at papercraft spiked ball at them. Thankfully, Papercraft Ness whacked it back at Papercraft Spike with its papercraft Baseball Bat, defeating it. Another Papercraft Spike tried to attack Papercraft Ness, but it countered with its papercraft Yoyo.

With both Papercraft Spikes out of the way, the Nesses made their Papercraft fire PK Flash at Papercraft Bowser Jr to stun it in place before ramming into it with PK Thunder, knocking it out of the platform.

"OW!" Bowser Jr groaned.

"Hurry, lazy Koopas! Pick up our papercraft back!" Paper Bowser Jr demanded… only for Papercraft Zelda to get in the way.

"We don't think so!" Paper Zelda teased as her 3D counterpart made their Papercraft charge up a papercraft Light Arrow from a papercraft Bow of Light.

"…Ah crap…" Paper Bowser Jr groaned as the papercraft Light Arrow hit the papercraft, destroying it.

"Woohoo! We did it!" Lana cheered, high-fiving her paper self.

"That was fun!" Ness exclaimed.

"Indeed!" Paper Ness replied.

"WAAAAH! They broke our papercraft!" Bowser Jr whined like a frustrated child. "Why'd you make it so flimsy?!"

"I believe I warned you about this before the battle, Your Highness." Kamek remarked.

"That does zero good right now. Let's go back to the castle!" Paper Bowser Jr demanded.

"Yes, Your Highness." Paper Kamek said. "But first…"

All of a sudden, without a warning, both Kameks fired magic at both Zeldas, and to the gang's surprise, they began to get carried away by the Kameks!

"Hey! W-What are you doing?!" Zelda stuttered, struggling to escape, but no use.

"You both shouldn't have done that trashing to us!" Bowser Jr growled. "Now you'll pay for it by getting kidnapped as well!"

"After all, Calamity Ganon warned you that he'll be back for you, didn't he?" Paper Bowser Jr smirked. "So we're bringing you to where he is!"

"N-No! Let us go! Help!" Paper Zelda cried out as the Kameks and Bowser Jrs leave with the Zeldas.

"ZELDA!" both Links yelled.

"They're getting away!" Starlow hollered. "After them!"

However, as they were chasing after the villains, they nearly ran off a cliff, forcing them to stop, losing the Zeldas as a result.

"Agh! Dang it, we're too late!" Paper Link growled. "I can't believe they kidnapped the Zeldas too!"

"Do not worry, because I found something that might cheer you up." Cecile said, pointing to something next to some trees nearby. "They must of have dropped this during their escape."

This object was, guess what, a white card with blue details on the borders and a blue fairy in the middle. Mario touches the card, and it was surrounded in a bright glow. The glow then fades, and a blue fairy stood in its place.

Seen up close, this fairy had skin pale as snow, sapphire blue eyes, blue hair tied in two low ponytails by two small bells, a blue sleeveless top with a blue long skirt that resembles flower petals reaching past her knees, dark blue fingerless sleeves that stopped past her elbows, white tights and long blue boots. A black necklace with a light blue pendant resembling a teardrop was at her neck, and a blue flower hair clip was adorning her hair. This fairy was showing quite of a sorrowful expression.

"Oh, I'm so glad to be free…" she spoke quietly, with a hint of sadness, though she was speaking with a calm and soft tone. "I thank you all. My name is Wanda, the Fairy of Sadness, the one who helps people feel the need to cry at something he or she lost, when feeling hurt or feeling depressed. People need to feel sad since it helps others feel bad for him or her, which is where comfort comes into place."

"So true. It reminds me of how many times I comforted my brother multiple times in my previous adventures." Mario said.

"Well, that's because he was crying, wasn't he? If no one shows sadness, he or she will feel less comforting, coping or even unable to feel pain. Any time in our lives we have to let out our feelings of sorrow, despair and grief."

"We're so happy to have you freed, Wanda…" Petunia spoke cautiously. "Then, that means… There's only one of us left to be rescued!"

"That's right! You said the last one is at Bowser's Castle, right?" Starlow guessed. "That's where we're heading right now!"

"Yeah! But, how are we going to reach it?" Lana pondered. "We can't even reach it from here either."

"Hmm? Guys, I've found something!" Mario then noticed something on the ground right at the cliff's end. It looked like a large red medal with Bowser's face printed in the middle.

"What is that?" Luigi asked.

"That thingy looks awfully familiar, doesn't it?" Alice suspected. "I feel like I've seen it somewhere before…"

"AAAAAAAUGH!" all of a sudden, they heard Peach's scream. Everyone looked up, and to their surprise, they saw the Peaches, along with the Zeldas, being carried by the two Kameks, standing alongside the Bowser Jrs in their own Clown Carts.

"Let's go!" Paper Bowser Jr hollered as they flew away.

That's where everyone's adrenaline came into action: they unintentionally ran after the villains, completely forgetting that there was a cliff right in front of them, resulting in them stopping in mid-air, with the only exceptions being the paper heroes, who stopped right in front of the edge before they could run off of it.

"Uh… I think we made a huge mistake…" Luigi sweatdropped.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" all of the 3D heroes fell down the abyss.

"Oh no!" Paper Luigi panicked. "We HAVE to do something!"

"And I know how!" Paper Mario exclaimed. "Let's fold ourselves into parachutes!"

With that, the paper heroes jumped off the cliff, catching up with each of their 3D selves before folding themselves into parachutes for them to hold onto.

What about Alice? She just used her hydrokinesis to create a water trampoline at the very bottom of the mountain, which helped her soften her fall once she landed on it. She got off from the water trampoline, disabled it, and waited for everyone else to land. Once everyone landed safely, the 3D heroes thanked their paper counterparts for the safe landing.

"Wow! You're just full of surprises, paper heroes!" Starlow exclaimed. "That was really cool!"

"You're welcome." Paper Mario replied.

"I bet I can do almost the same thing too!" Mario interfered as he… attempts to imitate what the paper heroes did by gliding into the air while flapping his arms, which left everyone else staring at him with weird looks.

"Mario, I'll admit, I like where you're going with that, but something tells me it just won't fly…" Link shook his head.

"Aw, man…" Mario pouted once he landed.

"You don't have to feel down! You've got plenty of unique skills of your own! Some that I can't even do!" Paper Mario smiled. "I know you and your Luigi can't fold up into planes like me and my Luigi, but that's certainly nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yeah, you're right." Mario nodded.

"Besides, the paper heroes here can take care of all the papery tricks." Alice interfered. "Combined with each corresponding 3D hero, all of you make a great team!"

"Yeah!" the gang cheered.

"So, moving on…" Starlow interrupted. "They got away with the princesses again. Not to mention they got both Zeldas too…" everyone sighed. "We'll definitely jump on the Bowser Jrs' heads when we find them… But that's the whole problem. How do we find them?"

"Hmm… Wait, what about this object we just found?" Mario pulls out the large medal they found earlier.

"Oh, right! I almost forgot about that. It seems important!" Alice stated. "I feel like we've seen that symbol somewhere before…"

Everyone went on deep thought, trying to remember where they have seen something like that before. Then, Lana finally remembered:

"I know! Remember that I've told you all to memorize a large gate at the place where we were imprisoned?" that's where it hit everyone as well. "It was a place underground, which was located in…"

"…TWINSY TROPICS!" the whole gang finished in unison.

"Yes! I think you've all got it!" Starlow exclaimed. "Maybe that's the key to getting into Bowser's Castle…"

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Mario said. "Back to the Twinsy Tropics Dungeon!"

Somewhere, in an unknown place…

"Everyone, I'm having a feeling that they finally got to know about the existence of this place…"

"Really? What about us?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I believe it's negative."

"Let me guess: spoilers?"

"Yep. Aren't you a smart one?"

"Well, I do possess enough wisdom like my mistress."

"Do you think they might need our help? After all, our job is to maintain peace here and there."

"No, not yet. Let's wait for a little bit until they are in big trouble."

To be continued…

I freaking LOVE Mount Brrr's music! It sounds so calm, atmospheric and serene, but at the same time sorrowful and somewhat mysterious, which gave me the inspiration to come up with the Crystal Mirror!

The Zeldas have been kidnapped as well! And... who were those people at the very end? Until the next chapter! Please review!