Chapter 11: Resisting Arrest

Doopliss

Doopliss trudged irritably along the unfamiliar field, muttering to himself.

'Stupid, crazy country...' he spat. Since he'd been here, he'd been assaulted by throngs of the Beanbean Kingdom's citizens, each one of them trying to get a good look at the strange creature. He stopped and looked up at a strange green plant, which seemed to be staring at him through beady black eyes. It had a wide, toothy grin on its face. He shook his head and moved on. 'Easy Doopliss,' he said to himself. 'Just a plant. Nothing dangerous.'

He squinted; a town! Perfect. All he had to do was go in there and ask where this stupid Beanstar thing was, then—

'Oh, whoops!' Doopliss disappeared in a puff of purple smoke and reappeared as a native Bean. He had only gotten into the messes he had gotten into because he had forgotten to blend in. Now, all he had to do was ask where the Beanstar was and then swipe it before those Heroes could take it.

'Heroes...' he spat. 'More like zeroes.' What he wouldn't give to smash that pathetic plumber's face into the dirt. 'Maybe once I do my job I can pop over to wherever they are and rough them up a bit.' He snickered to himself.

'So!' he declared aloud. 'Beanbean Castle, huh?' He grinned; what a pathetically easy place to keep a powerful object. 'I'll just transform into one of the guards and take the thing, no problem.'

Pop!

A Swarm suddenly popped out of the ground. It was basically a grey head with a long, thin neck that descended into the earth. It had huge orange lips and bulging white eyes. Two small hairs were on it head.

'Whoa!' Doopliss glared at the thing. 'Nearly gave me a heart attack!' It stared at him with a creepy smile. Doopliss gave it a wicked grin and then proceeded to kick it in the face. It gave a squeal and went into the earth. 'Ha! That's what ya get for messing with Doopliss, punk.' He took a step forward...

And then stopped cold.

Surrounding him were many, many Swarms, all glaring angrily at him.

'Uh...' Doopliss said, suddenly feeling very outnumbered. 'Sorry?'

People in nearby towns could hear the screams the poor Duplighost yelled out.

Fawful

Fawful's grey sandals squeaked as he skidded across the ground, blaster in hand. Two Beanbean guards had crashed into the stairs leading into the plane, their armour clattering noisily. A few guards jumped at him only to be blasted away. Fawful ducked hastily as a guard stabbed his sword through the air and, aiming at the guard's chest, fired another blast. The crazy Bean boy had an enraged glare on his face. Since when did "arresting" have the changing to "killing?" he thought furiously.

'What in the world are you DOING?' Mario screamed.

'Mario...' Lady Lima said in a hushed voice over the chaos. 'That boy has caused the Beanbean and Mushroom Kingdoms nothing but trouble. When we heard he was dead our security was slightly lessened. Now that he's back...' She shook her head. 'I'm afraid we can't take any chances. Fawful's a villain, and we're going to make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble.'

Fawful groaned as he fell face first onto the ground, a tremor going through his teeth and rattling his head. He couldn't rest though. Pulling himself quickly up off the hard landing area he ducked behind the plane. He panted, exhaustion already taking over. Sweat dripped from his body and a lone shudder went through him.

'I...I have...tiredness...' he sputtered.

He shook his head, trying to ease the fatigue from his bones. He pulled his deactivated Headgear from under his cloak and set it on his head. He felt the familiar hissing of wind as the dome fit perfectly on his cranium and the short suction that always accompanied it for a few moments.

He stepped out into the open, gritting his teeth. There was no way he'd allow himself to be assaulted by these two-bit soldiers.

One of them walked out and pointed his sword at him. 'By order of the Queen of the Beanbean Kingdom, you are under arrest. Any last words before we take you in?'

Fawful glared.

Then his mouth twitched.

And then he smiled. A large, toothy, evil smile. He sucked in his breath and screamed at the top of his lungs:

'I. HAVE. FURY! Headgear, attack mode!'

His Headgear sprang to life and the Bean felt his helmet grow hot on his head before it automatically regulated itself to the proper temperature. His rockets burned to life and he shot up into the air, hovering when he was out of reach.

There was a small pause...and then the guards ran for their lives.

Fawful swooped down upon them all. 'HAHAHAHAHA!' he laughed, his high-pitched voice sending a familiar fear through the cores of all Beanbean soldiers who had ever come across the boy before. He opened fire on them all, explosions shaking the earth and tearing up the ground.

'Do you not see?' Lady Lima cried. 'He'll doom us all!'

'Well he WOULDN'T be if you had just given him a chance!' Mario growled.

'Where are the rest of your friends?' the old woman asked. Then she gasped. 'Where's the Bean Queen?'

Mario looked around; they had all taken shelter behind the plane where it was safe. 'Don't worry, they'll be fine.'

Fawful, meanwhile, was having the time of his life. This was his pastime: blowing the heck out of anybody who dared attack him. He and Cackletta had done this enough times to realize that they were infinitely more powerful than the guards, so Fawful was having no trouble. 'Where is your confidence of hugeness now, fink-rats?' he taunted.

'Right HERE!'

Fawful didn't have enough time to react as a lone person fell from the sky and sliced through his Headgear rocket. Fawful was thrown off course and landed in a heap on the ground. Picking himself up and hastily beaming the damaged helmet into his storage cube, he drew his blaster again. 'Fink-rat!' he spat. 'Be showing yourself!'

'Ahahahahaha! Turn around and you'll see that I'm right here.'

Fawful spun around. He knew that laugh. It was similar to Dimentio's, though where the jester's was filled with a cruel, deadly, sadistic evil, this one was cocky and light-hearted. A horrible, fiery rage was building up inside of him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he looked into the smirking face of Prince Peasley. 'You,' he spat.

'It's been a long while Fawful, has it not?' he laughed.

'The time in which we had last had the sighting of each other is not being far enough in the past!' Fawful growled.

'Always so charming,' the prince replied sarcastically. 'I find it very interesting that you take one step into the Beanbean Kingdom and you're already causing trouble.' Fawful just glared. 'Ahahahaha! But I guess I can't expect you to be so civilized. After all, you aren't nearly as versed in the social arts as...' He flicked his hand through his hair, flipping it up. Fawful covered his eyes as a great, white, sparkling light shone spontaneously from him. 'Me.' He finished.

Fawful screamed and fired his blaster, knocking Peasley right off his feet. The guards instantly jumped back into action, running at the boy. Fawful opened fire on them but there were far too many.

Mario

'I'm very sorry,' Mario said. 'But if you don't trust us, then I guess we'll just have to do things our own way.' He leaped off into the crowd, ignoring the old Bean's cry of protest. The red-clad plumber ran through the crowd and skidded to a halt near the other Heroes.

'This is insane!' Mimi exclaimed. 'Why are they attacking Fawful if he's with us?'

Mario shrugged. 'Sometimes people act completely out of impulse.'

Midbus cracked his knuckles. 'Lord Fawful,' he murmured. 'I must protect him.'

'Just stay here,' Kamek commanded. 'No need us risking our lives for that kid.' Midbus and Mario both glared at different degrees.

'Well we can't just sit here and do nothing!' Luigi said. 'He's a Hero of Prophecy now, and we can't leave him to die.'

Mario thought for a moment. 'I have an idea.' He gave a small laugh and grinned, which was very uncharacteristic for him in situations like this. 'We need someone to go out and really scare those guards, enough for them to forget all about Fawful.'

'Alright!' Bowser roared. 'I'll go out there and scare 'em good!'

'No Bowser, not you.' Mario stopped him.

'Wait,' Mimi said. 'Bowser's gotta be the scariest out of all of us. Why not him?' Everyone suddenly looked at her. 'Um...what?'

'Mimi,' Mario said with a smile. 'Here's what you need to do...'

Mimi

The small green girl stood up on top of Princess Peach's airplane. She cleared her throat and cupped her hands to her mouth. 'Hey!' she yelled. 'HEY!' Everyone turned and one person yelled at her to get off of there because it was too dangerous for a little girl like her. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, Fawful running away from the airport as fast as he could. She laughed to herself; these guards were easily distracted. 'Um...' She waved. 'Hi everyone.'

'Get off the plane!' someone yelled. 'You'll hurt yourself!'

'Naw, I'm fine,' Mimi answered. 'I wanna show you guys a trick.'

Someone snorted. 'We don't have time!'

'WELL THEN MAKE TIME!' Mimi snarled back, the sudden change in the girl's tone causing him to jump. 'Just...watch.' She smiled innocently.

He huffed. 'Fine. One trick.'

'Teehee!' Mimi laughed. 'Okay!' She tilted her neck sharply to one side and a large, sickening crack! could be heard clearly.

Everyone's breath left them. 'Um...' the mouthy guard said. 'Are you alright?'

Crac kcrac kcrack! Her neck tilted over 90 degrees and sharply jerked back a little. Her eyes widened and turned completely black in their sockets. It then spun like a gear in the other direction, getting faster, then stopped, rocking a little until her head was completely upside-down.

Everyone's eyes had widened to the size of saucers and their jaws dropped to the floor. 'HOLY—' Someone screamed, cutting off his next word.

Suddenly, an odd chime sounded for no apparent reason and six spider legs burst out of her head like a bird's beak through plastic, two of them tearing the hair that was bound in pigtails off of her head and leaving them hanging on the new legs. Her head inflated and it looked very similar to a huge, green, crumpled up paper bag. Her grin grew to a wide, wicked level. The neck attached to the huge head tore gruesomely, hanging off of it by just a thread.

A horrified hush had gone over everyone. No one moved. No one breathed. And then...

'MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI!'

That horrible, evil, demonic distortion of the young girl's laugh was enough to send them running in the opposite direction before she gave chase. When she did, they went in double-time.

Fawful

Fawful was running. His legs ached, his stomach ached, his sides ached...his entire body was aching. His breath came out in short, panting gasps and sweat was cascading off of every part of him like the rushing waters of Hazy Falls. He stopped, gasping for air and cursing himself for not doing cardio exercises every day when he had been exiled. He looked out ahead of him and saw a huge expanse of land stretching out below him; he was on the edge of a cliff.

The Bean was absolutely speechless, as if all the words he had ever known had left him. He just stood there, breathing in the familiar, bean-tainted air, looking at the kingdom as he had remembered it. He saw everything around him: the proud capital, Beanbean Castle Town, the Beanbean Castle at its centre; the dense, creepy Chucklehuck Woods, where the infamous Chuckola Cola had been manufactured for thousands of years in the Château de Chucklehuck; the tiny Hoohoo Village at the base of the daunting Hoohoo Mountain; Stardust Fields, the sparkling field near the border between the Beanbean and Mushroom Kingdoms; the hot, sandy Teehee Valley and mysterious Guffawha Ruins underneath Little Fungitown, the Toads' paradise; he could even see the Yoshi Theatre, a movie theatre constructed entirely for the sole purpose of providing Yoshis with entertainment, and Woohoo University; he felt a pang of loss as he remembered when he and Cackletta had taken over the latter to awaken the Beanstar, right before...

'Right before the mustaches had the intrusion...' he muttered gloomily.

He sighed and looked to the familiar, sparkling sea. He could see Oho Oasis far out into the horizon, a small haven for those travelling overseas. Looking farther out into the north, he could see the icy shores of Joke's End. He felt another pang of loss as he recalled when he and Cackletta, then reborn as Bowletta (Cackletta's soul in Bowser's body), had taken refuge there when trying to bargain the exchange that would have made everything go according to plan: the Beanstar for Princess Peach. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Suddenly, an unexpected fire rose up in him, filling him with a white hot rage. His muscles tensed with the raw anger coursing through him. Curse those brothers! If it weren't for them, none of this would be happening! He would be living his life as he should be: at the Great Cackletta's side!

Words formed on his tongue. He threw back his head and screamed it out for the world to hear. 'I HAVE FURY!' he bellowed. It echoed out across the land below, declaring his fury for all ears. Fawful hung his head and panted, the tiredness final catching up to him.

'That's nothing new,' a voice said behind him. Fawful spun around and drew his blaster, aiming it at the smirking face of his assailant. 'Now now Fawful, there's no need for any anarchy!' Prince Peasley swung his sword at the boy, who ducked under it and fired a shot. The Bean prince leapt aside and ran right at Fawful, swinging and jabbing his sword with excellent precision. A few times Fawful felt an intense pain as the blade dug into his body, but it wasn't nearly as painful as he thought it would be. 'Hmph!' the prince grunted. 'You're one tough miscreant!'

Fawful's next shot met its mark, hitting Peasley right in the chest. He hit the ground back first and somersaulted back onto his feet. A noticeable scorch mark could be seen. 'Ha!' Fawful taunted. 'Have the taking of THAT!'

Peasley snickered. 'Heh. You've always been one pain in the backside after the other haven't you? You and that witch, Cackletta.' He grinned and flipped his hair, causing a blinding light to shine around the area. 'But neither of you could stand up to me!'

'Muh-make with the up shut!' Fawful spat, growing hot. When he did not, Fawful aimed his gun again.

'HA HAH!' Peasley cried out. He swung his sword and sliced the blaster right in half, the two parts tumbling down off of the cliff. 'And here is where it finally ends, cretin! After many long years, I'll finally make right the evil deeds you and that witch committed!'

'Cuh...' Fawful sputtered. 'Cuh...CRETIN?' The boy's face turned redder than a tomato. 'HOW ARE YOU DARING TO INSULT THE GREAT LORD FAWFUL?' he screamed. 'I WILL HAVE THE DESTROYING OF YOUR FACE! RRRREAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH!'

Fawful ran at Peasley with enough anger pulsing through his being that it could only be understood if you were Fawful himself. Peasley strafed to the left and Fawful was sent on, arms flailing. He turned abruptly and fell on his side. Pain flared up in his cheek as he scraped it hard on the rocky ground. Pulling himself back up, he ran again at the prince, who dodged just as easily.

'Hey!'

Mario and co. ran up. Fawful didn't notice, and just kept trying (unsuccessfully) to clobber Peasley. 'Ah, Beanbean's heroes!' Peasley exclaimed. 'Hold on one moment, I just have to finish my job.' He swung around and beat the Bean boy over the head with the flat side of his sword.

'Hey!' Mimi snarled (having been done with scaring the guards). 'What do you think you're doing?'

'Oh my,' Peasley exclaimed. 'Such a beautiful girl should not be in the midst of such a crazed lunatic!' He spun around and hurled Fawful to the side.

'Yeah,' Mimi said. 'I agree, so I guess you gotta leave!'

Peasley laughed. 'I like your since of humour, little lady.'

'Grr...!' Fawful growled. 'Stupid fink-rat of silly, prissiness! You give me fury, like a rotten bologna sandwich that is having much smelliness!'

'Yours could use some work,' the prince replied.

'And...and...' Fawful seethed, wanting nothing more than to verbally unleash his rage. 'And your hair is like a doll's that was hit with the stick of ugly!'

Peasley's head whipped around. 'EXCUSE ME? I'll have you know it takes me five hours every morning to get this hair to perfection!'

'And your mother of stupidness is possessing much fat and is being ridiculously unfit to rule the kingdom which is this and it would be better if it was being ruled by something that is lower on the scale of intelligence than a baby Beanie!'

The prince suddenly went silent. Fawful saw, after a moment, his eye twitch. 'What...what did you just say?' His voice had a dangerous undertone to it. The Heroes had gone quiet.

'I...I...' Fawful was gasping after his outburst. 'I had the saying that the Bean Queen is not deserving of being a monarch in the least!'

The Bean boy realized far too late that he had touched a nerve that he should have left well enough alone. The prince's face had changed colour to a deep purple, then a bright red (which was surprising, given the green colour of his skin). 'You DARE insult the Queen?' he roared.

Fawful gulped. 'Uh...! That is meaning that—'

'You DARE insult my MOTHER?' he screamed. Before Fawful could respond, Peasley ran at him at a faster speed Fawful could muster. He grabbed onto his collar and punched him in the face. Fawful collapsed on the ground, his swirled glasses deeply cracked. He was picked up again and beaten in the stomach numerous times, the wind being blown out of him each time. 'YOU. DARE. MOCK. OUR. MONARCHY?' Peasley was in a rage Fawful had never seen him in before. He brought his fist across the young scientist's head, knocking him again to the ground. Fawful, his body aching, groaned in pain. He lifted himself up and tried to steady himself, but he suddenly was seeing triple. That was enough to see Peasley raise his sword. 'Crimes against our kingdom,' he bellowed with fury, 'will not go unpunished!' Fawful staggered back, but stopped as his heel felt empty space; there was nowhere to run. Peasley screamed and thrust the sword at Fawful's chest.

'FAWFUL!' Mimi screamed. Mario extended his hand in a futile gesture driven by hopelessness.

Fawful let out a strangled gasp as the blade met its mark, accompanied by the sickening squelch of metal tearing through flesh. His eyes widened and his body stiffened. Peasley, still holding the blade, was gasping, the green colour coming back into his face. Fawful slowly looked down; the prince's sword had driven right through his body. A clean stab, it was right through his heart.

His heart...

Fawful's head pounded with the Chaos Heart's weak beats. Blood seeped out of his wound and Peasley's eyes widened; the blood was not red, but pure black and very thick. Peasley seemed to snap out of a spell; his hand shook and he slowly let go of the hilt of his sword. His eyes remained wide. Fawful's entire body was coursing with unimaginable pain, and he could slowly feel and hear the heartbeats getting weaker and weaker.

The Chaos Heart was dying.

He felt a dark power surge through him like adrenaline, the Chaos Heart's effort to keep its host alive. Fawful knew it wouldn't help; this was too fatal.

'So...' he gasped, looking at his wound. 'This...is...the end...' He winced and shook. 'The...fury...' He paused, gasping. All of his allies' eyes were wide with shock and Mimi's were glistening with tears. 'It...is...' He wheezed. 'Gone...' He felt completely spent and weak. All of his energy was slowly leaving him. This wasn't like the quick, sudden death he had brought upon himself in his last-ditch explosion as the Dark Fawful Bug; this was slow and painful. He easily preferred the former. His arms dropped limply to his sides and he teetered on his feet. 'I...have...' He looked up and met Mimi's horrified eyes. 'Failure.'

Fawful tipped uncontrollably backwards and over the cliff. He heard Mimi scream, he heard Mario yell out his name, he heard Midbus roar out his rage.

His fall seemed to go by in slow motion. Memories of times long passed zoomed by in his brain: memories of he and Cackletta's early years together that he thought he had completely forgotten, memories of their greatest and final scheme together, memories of his exile, memories of his own various schemes. He remembered when he had taken over the Koopa Troop for a short time, when he had been so close to a victory. He remembered his desperate fight for survival alongside Kamek and many other villains. He remembered the Dark Star Incident, his greatest achievement. Memories of Dimentio passed by and he regretted dying so early; he hadn't been able to pay the jester back. Memories of Mimi followed; these came as his greatest sorrow. He didn't want to leave her...

One final memory went through his head: one of Cackletta looking over her newly found "child." She was smiling sincerely, a rarity for her. She spoke in a soft, soothing voice.

'You're going to do great things, little one...' she said. Fawful thought this was very unlike her, but something inside him knew this was real. 'Great, wicked, evil things. Sleep for now, because you're going to be my greatest ally soon.' She smiled warmly. 'Sleep...Fawful.'

Despite the pain, the sword through his chest, the blood leaking from him into the air...Fawful felt at peace. He closed his eyes and muttered something, something he had always wanted to say to Cackletta but had always been to afraid to:

'I love you...' he whispered. 'Mother.'

He hit the ground hard.