Chapter 36: Round Two

"Oh ye of utmost confidence," his voice rang once more, "do you not realize what you are dealing with?"

Daisy snorted, "Hey, this is the pocket dimension thing Luigi told me abo-" A sudden strike across the face cut her off. There was no real way of determining the origin as it was invisible. "Oof!"

"NEVER MENTION THAT NAME." The insane voice of King Boo shouted.

Larry growled at this. "Ey! What's your problem pickin' on ladies, eh? You mad that Bow won't drop and kiss you. Just 'cuz you're bigger don't mean you're better, ya know."

"Ooooooooh! Burn city up in this hizzy!" Daisy shouted.

"Argh. Why must I deal with such...insolence?" King Boo's voice grumbled.

"Because you choose to be insolent yourself maybe?" Larry said with a laugh before being slapped across the face and stumbled off his feet by the same invisible force. "Ow."

"Oh, real mature picking on a kid," Daisy shook her head, "And you wonder why Bow doesn't like you. You're a hazard to children! You would never make it with her, let alone would she let you take care of any children."

"Can Boos even have children?" Larry asked as he stood up.

"That's a good question…."

"Ya know I read somewhere that-"

"QUIET!" The ghost monarch shouted. So loud that it nearly swept the two off their feet with gale force winds. From there, the floor beneath them suddenly started shaking with the intensity of a 7.0 earthquake. Along with that, the floor would suddenly change to...water?

Daisy and Larry suddenly found themselves in water, yet everything was still pitch black. All along the floor, everything seemed to have changed into water as well with no real way to tell if there was solid ground anywhere. All would be silent in the emptiness as well, as if King Boo had disappeared...

"Woah! What just happened?" Daisy cried out as she suddenly felt the cool liquid around her. Larry meanwhile, had taken shelter in his shell as small grunts and grumbles were heard from within the Clow Car that was floating above the water. This prompted the redheaded princess to check on him. "Uh, Larry? You ok, there?"

The Koopaling would emerge moments later from his shell, and held up his scepter. "Here it is. I need this."

"For what?"

Larry shook his wand around, "So we can get some friggin' light here."

"Yeah, ain't that weird….I can only see you and that's it. Nothing else. Not even the water I'm floating in."

Larry turned away from her for a moment to try and fix his wand. "Yeah, but we'll get outta here. Right, Daisy?" There was no response, sending a startling chill down the Koopa's spine, "Um...Daisy?" He slowly turned around to find that she was gone…. "Ah! Daisy where'd you go?!"

There was no clear response besides cackling in the far distance. Daisy meanwhile, suddenly found herself being dragged through the water. She wanted to scream, but the water was zipping past her ears too fast for her to even realize what was going on. It was dark, and looked as if she was being dragged through nothing but emptiness. Her face grew frantic with horror as she tried to figure out what was happening.

And then, all the sudden, she would be able to breath again. Everything would be clear, and her ears were no longer pounding with a throbbing intensity. It was as if she had been snapped awake from a year long coma. She started coughing and took deep breaths as she breathed in the surface air. "...Gosh dangit what the…huh?" The blackness was gone-in fact, everything was seemingly normal as she woke up. However, something was...different. "Huh? Peach's place? All that stuff must've been a dream?"

In front of her was Princess Toadstool's castle. It was still dark and raining as hard as it was before she made it to her castle. But something about all of it was...strange. "...What's going on?" She muttered as she was soon soaking wet. Everything felt and seemed real enough to almost convince her that she was back in the Mushroom Kingdom. "Ok...better be careful…"

The brunette princess walked towards her best friend's castle. In the nighttime rain, it looked much different with many yellow glowing beams of light shining through the windows. As she got closer, Daisy would be able to hear the sounds of laughter around a table. "Huh?" She decided to look through one of the windows, and saw the silhouettes of four figures. One of them being Peach. "Yes!"

Quickly, she ran to the front door, and rapped upon it with her fist. "Yo, Peach! You there?"

After a moment or two, the door would slowly creak open. The blonde princess in her usual pink dress looked at Daisy, "Yes?"

"Oh, thank goodness it's you, Peach. I was having the craziest dream. King Boo was there and-"

Peach held her hand up, "Excuse me? First of all, do I know you? And second of all, King Boo doesn't exist anymore."

"...What?"

"Oh yes, Luigi handled him years ago." She stared at the flower princess, "But that doesn't tell me who you are."

"Uh, it's me, Daisy? Your best friend since childhood?"

Peach shook her head, "I'm sorry, but no one with that name has ever crossed my mind."

"What?! Alright look," she tried looking over Peach's head, "Is Luigi here?"

"Yes. But why do you ask? He has enough crazed fans attacking him and his girlfriend everyday as it is. He certainly doesn't need someone like you poking around in his business," the Mushroom princess replied sternly.

"Look, can ya just get him, please? Surely he knows m-did you say…girlfriend?"

Peach simply rolled her eyes, and went inside for a moment. A little while later, the younger of the Mario Brothers would answer the door, "Myes?"

"Luigi!" Daisy put her arms around him in a hug, "Please tell Peach she can drop the joke."

"Um…" he somewhat pushed Daisy away and dusted himself off. "What joke?"

"The joke about her not knowing me." Daisy scoffed, "Come on, I'm sure you know her and her little pranks by now."

Luigi exchanged a look of confusion with Peach and looked back at Daisy, "Have we met before or something?"

Daisy blinked, "We've known each other since we were babies! Hello, I'm the princess of Sarasaland, people! Don't ya'll know who you're talking to?"

"Eugh...no princess would ever talk like that." Luigi told her, "Or dress like that. What self-respecting princess would wear...anything like that?"

Daisy looked down at herself. Her clothes had changed. Instead of the dress she made from earlier, she was now wearing a simple white T shirt, and a pair of baggy pants that look like they had been out in the streets too long, patches of dirt all along her body, and not wearing any shoes on her feet. "What…?"

"And besides," Peach interjected, "Sarasaland had been destroyed in Bowser's assault many years ago. It would have been rebuilt, but no one considered it or its ruler to be important enough to take the time to put back together."

Daisy took a long pause. That stung. Hard. It felt to her as if someone thrown her into a pit of fire. However, she wanted some answers, "...What? So...what happened?"

"I know who can answer that." Luigi said before turning his head around, and motioning for someone to come to the door. When they did, Daisy's heart skipped a beat as she realized what was going on.

...It was Rosalina.

"Yes, honey?" The space princess asked Luigi, "You want me to explain what happened?" After her husband nodded, Rosalina began to give the details to Daisy, "After Sarasaland was destroyed, I used my magic to pave over the entire land. It is now my personal home away from home. Where the Lumas can laugh and play with other earthlings. I call it: Rosaland."

"That's right," Peach said in agreement, "So do you have anymore questions?"

This was simply too much for Daisy to process all at once. Everything was hitting home right into her heart. No one wanting to help her family's kingdom, her friends abandoning and forgetting about her, and her one true love being stolen right out from under her nose. It was enough to make her snap into a rage. However, there was still something that she wanted to ask. "Why do you like her?"

"Why?" Luigi replied, "Well only because she's the most important thing in the universe to me. Nobody matters more compared to her."

"..." Daisy rubbed her arm, "I see…"

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have wedding plans to set up…" Luigi said before turning and walking back inside with Rosalina following.

Daisy froze. It was as if the entire world seemed to slow to a crawl around her upon hearing those two words: "Wedding plans." She nearly passed out right then and there if it weren't for the fact that Peach was still standing there.

"Um, hello? Are you done?" Peach asked, "We get enough fans asking for stories and stuff everyday."

"Um...how long have they been together?" Daisy asked.

"Since they were children. It's so nice to see when real soul mates find their true partner in life and not some poser who thinks they're all that." Peach smirked to herself, "I remember one person who thought she could actually mean something just because she had a different personality. Poor girl didn't last a second in the world because her friends were much prettier, did more, and were actually worth something."

"...Huh. Isn't that strange."

"Not when you live under my rule…" Peach turned around to walk back inside, and stopped, "But for now, it is time for you to leave. You've had your little interview, now begone before you are cited for trespassing." She shook her head and went inside, muttering, "A hobo pretending to be a princess...now I've seen everything."

As the door closed, the flower princess didn't know what to do. It was as if she was still within a trance from pure shock, trying to hold back the tears that inevitably ran down her face. "This can't be real. This can't be real. This can't be…" With a whole mix of emotions swelling within her gut, she simply did the first thing she thought of: Run. She ran and ran, and kept running into teh forest as if that would solve her problem.

However, despite this, she kept getting lost and ended up right back at Peach's castle. No matter how many times she ran away into the forest, it would end up throwing her back into the courtyard of Peach's castle. It was as if the constant repetition was taunting her, showing her simply how unavoidable the entire thing was, and she just couldn't take it anymore.

After a while, she stopped, and sat on her knees. Out of breath, and out of effort to continue running, she felt pitiful, gelid, and forgotten. Her greatest fear in the universe had been realized, and she was going to be endlessly tormented by it, as if the scenario was trying to engrave itself upon her subconscious.

"No….I….It can't…"

The rain continued to pour down around her, and ran down along her skin, mixing with the tears that had been streaming from her eyes the entire time. She stared at the castle in front of her in complete silence for a long moment until she muttered softly.

"It can't end like this…"