CHAPTER 36 – BOWSER
There it was; red, then green. He saw it from the main bridge of his airship. The signal for distress and that the mission was a success. His crew had done it and somehow managed to survive the blast. Thoughts of the blight were wiped from his mind.
"Prepare a small craft for a rescue mission. I'll go down alone and take the crew back. Alert Kammy to prepare for quarantine lockdown when I get back."
"But Lord Bowser-"
He rode right over them, "Has the craft enough fuel to make it back?"
"Yes, Lord Bowser."
"Then stop sitting around flapping your lips! Prepare for my departure. I mean to bring back our men."
They didn't say anything else but did as he asked. The small craft was lightly provisioned with food, water, and a first aid kit. That should be enough.
"Launch the ship then make for The Koopa Kingdom. Do not wait for me. I want you to report back immediately."
And so the small ship was launched and sailed towards the land. The closer he got, the more he saw what his attack had done to the land. What was once lush and green was burned and brittle. It was a miracle that any of his men had survived the blast. Above all, he hoped to find his general, Morton. He'd be getting one hell of a promotion and pay raise.
He saw shapes lying on the beach, his men, one of them waived up at him, and he pulled in closer. When he threw down the rope ladder, only one figure dressed in dust-streaked getup climbed up.
He yelled down at him, "Tell the others to come too."
The figure didn't speak. He felt something nasty slithering through his insides as the idea hit him: this was it.
When he came onto the deck it was clear that it wasn't who he wanted, but some man. "Who are you?" He growled.
The figure pulled down his mask, and he saw a mustache and blood-soaked face.
He squinted. "… Luigi?"
The man nodded.
"Where are my men?"
At first, he didn't speak, then the story gushed from him. He heard about his infiltration, the assumed death of Palabra, the bomb and how he survived, and his meeting.
None of it made sense. The gravity of it caused him to uncouple from himself like a caboose from an engine. The words kept coming and he sat there.
When he finally spoke his voice was flat and even. "You killed Morton."
The man nodded sadly and his eyes shone from the lights surrounding him.
There was a hole in his mind where clear thought or anger should have been, instead, there was nothing but a haze and the lack of feeling. He said nothing, but walked over to the first aid kit, tossing it underhanded to the man, and he went back to the helm and flew away.
A nagging feeling kept assailing him. You should go back to get his body. He answered back. Why? He was dead. The conversation kept replaying over and over again with the same outcome.
He looked back at Luigi. The man was biting down on a gauze strip and crying, while he set his fractured arm back into place and wrapped it up with a support dowel. Where the tears rolled down his face, they washed paths through the grit and blood. He continued to cry as he turned to watch the island as it disappeared from sight as Bowser stood there, incapable of telling what he felt.
The conversation restarted: You should go back to get his body. He answered back. Why? He was dead.
Nothing made sense. Time held no sway over him as before he knew it he was pulling back into port and he was escorted to a closed quarter set up to contain the sick. Both he and Luigi went in. He moved over to a bench and waited. He pointed his eyes across the room, but they didn't see anything.
From time to time, Luigi passed by. First, he was the same, then he came back and the blood, dirt was gone, and he'd changed his outfit. None of it phased him.
You should have gone back to get the body.
When he looked up, Luigi was speaking to him.
"W-what?"
He was asking if he was hungry. No, he wasn't hungry. There was a hole inside him. If he tried to eat, it would just slip out.
Time moved, but he couldn't tell. Luigi spoke again, but he waved him aside.
The man spoke again, this time Bowser flared at him. "Why are you always talking?! Can't you shut up or a minute?"
Luigi told him that it'd been hours since he last spoke to him.
"Bah!" He growled and stood up. He paced the room.
He turned back to Luigi, "We should have gone back to get the body."
Luigi made some soothing noised at him. Suddenly, time seemed to return, and he roared. "We should have gone back!"
He turned around and slammed through the bench he'd been sitting on.
He was angry at himself. He'd destroyed the island when he meant to go and take it over. In the process, he'd lost a general and a boy he'd once mentored when he'd been left without a family. And who had been with him in the end? Luigi, a mere slip of a man, but a man who'd gone down on the ground during a rebellion to fight a mad man, while he cowered in his ship. Everything about this was wrong. Everything about him was wrong.
Everything was falling to pieces: Daisy murdered, the mainland's declared rebels, the booming of Delfino, everything was being destroyed, even his own beliefs.
What had once been hard and stoic, was soft and sad. To end this war he'd need to ally himself with those that had once been sworn enemies. The world had changed since the last war, and he was no exception.
He turned to Luigi, his voice was low and slow, "Let's have another Mario Party."