At the X-Naut Fortress, we find Grodus sitting on his throne as he looked down at an X-Naut R&D, Boogey was next to Grodus leaning against his throne in frustration, not only losing the Nightmare Ruby but wasn't able to get it back.
"Say that again!? You can't get in touch with Lord Crump?" Grodus asked as he leaned forward, though he could not display any facial emotions, his posture was enough to tell he was surprised.
"You are correct, sir. We are investigating now; we should hear anytime." Said the R&D
At that point, an X-Naut Soldier entered the room, crossed his arms in the fashion of an X and spoke up. "Sir Grodus! Please allow me to enter!" He then marched up to Grodus quickly.
Grodus stood up and replied. "Yes, what is it?"
"I have a report sir. The entire Boggly Woods has been smashed to pieces. Thankfully the death count of our men is zero, but in the commotion, Mario took the Crystal Star."
"WHAT!?" Grodus exclaimed. "You must be joking! What about Lord Crump and the Shadow Sirens?"
"Uh, I'm sorry, sir. Unfortunately, Mario laid a beating on all of them! And if our reports are correct, Mario was responsible for the destruction of the Boggly Woods, using the Crystal Star from Hooktail Castle."
Grodus was silent for a moment, but he soon sat back down and rubbed his chin. "Hmmm… disturbing. This Mario… What kind of character… and… I was aware the Crystal Stars could be used as power sources, but how…?"
"Um… apparently Mario just used it on its own, it turned giant and smashed into Magnus von Grapple. The impact was what caused the destruction of the Woods." Said the X-Naut.
"Hm, fine. Guess Mario's just as dangerous with or without the Crystal Stars. What is the status of the other Crystal Stars?"
"I apologise sir, we're still searching for the other Crystal Stars. Unsuccessfully sir."
Grodus rubbed his chin again while looking over to Boogey. "We knew of three of them. Hooktail Castle, Boggly Woods, the one we got in Rogueport. That means there are four left out there… and we WILL have them!" He turns to the X-Naut Soldier. Keep looking, so that Mario won't beat us to the punch!"
"Yes SIR!" The X-Naut crossed his arms in a similar manner to before and was about to walk away, until he jumped a bit. "Oh right. I almost forgot."
The X-Naut dug into his suit and took out a familiar looking red gem with a yellow eye and held it to Boogey who immediately flipped and ran to him. "T-THE NIGHTMARE RUBY!" He snatches it off the X-Naut and begins to cuddle it. "Oh, my sweet ruby! Back in my arms again!" He then gave it a quick kiss.
"Geez, get a room you two." Grodus mumbled.
"Beldam of the Shadow Sirens claimed she managed to sneakily snatch the ruby from Mario during their ruckus while he was distracted by Vivian being completely useless. Just for the record, those were her words, not mine."
Boogey opens up his shirt and gently places the Nightmare Ruby into his chest making a bright flash of red light with electrical sparks. He let out a sigh of relief. "Gets easier to put in every time."
"Well anyway, I must be off now." The X-Naut leaves properly this time.
Grodus then stood up and faced the X-Naut R&D. "Now then, I want you to keep a close watch on what Mario does from now on!"
"Absolutely sir!" The X-Naut R&D crossed his arms in an X-Fashion and then left the room.
"Mario… I loathe you…" Grodus said silently as he walked from his throne and entered his personal room behind the throne.
Boogey looked down at the ruby embedded into his chest and rubbed at a corner of it with his thumb to add extra shine. "Heh, Mario got lucky, but I'm sure with more training I can make my body even better so that jerk can't do anything to me!"
"BoTh Of Us WoUlD lIkE tHaT kInD oF pOwEr!"
Boogey jumped and looked around. "Who's there!?" he looked around frantically but no one else was in the room, in addition, the voice wasn't anything he could recognise, he looked around some more waiting for the voice to speak up again, but nothing.
In Peach's room, we find her sitting on a lone chair listening to Grim chatter as he bounced around on a small table trying to recreate his motions with just his head. Grim went on and on about his adventures with Billy and Mandy, on one half it was to bring Peach up to speed about their situation, but the other was that Grim had nothing else to do besides talk. However, Peach wasn't fully listening, she was too concerned for Mario and couldn't stop thinking about him.
'Oh Mario… did you even read the mail I sent you, I wonder…' she thought to herself.
"And den Billy tried diggin' into me pockets, so I used me magic gloves on him to sever his hands and beat him up with his own hands and-" Grim only just noticed the longing look in Peach's eyes. "Um… Peach? You ok?"
Peach snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh? O-Oh I'm sorry… I…"
"Am I… borin' you?"
"Oh no, I find your stories to be interesting, strange… very strange but interesting. It's just that… I'm wondering how Mario's doing, I've also been wondering how everyone's doing at the castle. I've been feeling doubtful I'll ever escape… it's also making me wonder if I'll ever dance at the Mushroom Ball again… what will become of me and Mario…"
Grim was silent, but then he smiled. "I wouldn't worry too much. Mario was able to beat dat jerk Boogey in his powered-up form. I doubt dese X-Nauts or Boogey will do much to harm him."
Peach gave a forced smile and nod, she believed him, but she was still worried. "T-Thank you."
Just as Peach finished her sentence, the doors leading out of her room opened by themselves once again, the noise of it got their attention and they looked over.
"Is this TEC's doing?" Peach asked.
"One way te find out." Grim responded.
Peach stood up, picked up Grim and walked through the doors leading to the same hallway, they noticed the elevator again but it looked like it wasn't working, up ahead they saw the doors to TEC's room open up so Peach walked in with almost no hesitation.
As they entered the room, the lights went on again and the computer lit up once again. "Hello Princess Peach. I am glad you came."
"That mail I sent to Mario… Did it reach him all right?" asked Peach.
"Yes. I can confirm that Mario received the mail."
"Did he send a reply or someting?" asked Grim.
"No. I can only send mails to other recipients outside the fortress, not receive."
"Is that so? So… what do you want from me today? Is there more you want to know of love?" Peach then proceeded to walk up to the monitor.
"You expressed regret earlier that you would not be able to dance at a ball, correct?"
"Ex-CUSE ME!?" Peach exclaimed in shock, to the point of accidentally dropping Grim in her startled state. She quickly looked down at the grumbling Grim and picked him back up. "S-Sorry." She then placed him on the dashboard of the computer before going back to TEC. "TEC, were you… eavesdropping!?"
"TEC eavesdrops while Peach skull-drops." He sniggered slightly, but still felt sore from the drop.
"I am sorry, Princess Peach. I have been ordered to keep surveillance on you. But… it is odd… when you said that, I had an impulse to dance with you as well. How my CPU would produce this impulse is inexplicable. I must find what caused it."
Peach tilted her head slightly. "Find out what caused it? There's no reason behind such a feeling, TEC. Wanting to do something together… it's part of love." She then mumbled. "I know it."
"Again. Computer." Said Grim. "Sometimes I even have trouble figuring out these mortal tings too."
There was a bit of awkward silence, but then TEC spoke up again. "Princess Peach. Please dance with me."
Peach took a step back feeling startled. "Wait! Wait just a minute! What… am I supposed to do? You say you want to dance? It's just so… bizarre… I mean, how in the world can I dance with you? You have no arms. Or feet. Or moves."
"Would this be an acceptable dance substitute." Asked TEC. The moment he asked, the lights dimmed down a bit and behind Peach, there appeared a holographic copy of Peach just standing there nonchalantly.
Peach and Grim looked and saw this copy of her and both felt startled as the copy slowly walked. "Is that me!? Did you create that?" She fell silent for a moment, but then spoke up again. "Oh, all right, I guess… I must say though, it's going to feel weird, dancing with myself."
She walked up to this hologram and placed her hands out, the hologram did the exact same thing and gently held Peach's. To her surprise, despite being a hologram, it felt partially solid, she could feel the hologram's hands against hers, but her hands could still go through, it was like she was touching a cloud, or water if it was floating. Peach however didn't question this, she just moved herself and the hologram into position to dance. The lights dimmed down further, and a spotlight shined on them, then slow ball music began to play, Peach recognised it as a slow waltz and proceeded to dance according to it.
Grim just watched in silence, he wasn't into these types of dances, he much preferred more upbeat, one you could really dance to, but he hardly felt the need to speak up since he couldn't dance anyway, besides, this was solely meant for Peach and TEC. So, he just continued to watch Peach move very elegantly.
He watched more, seeing Peach move gently and gracefully, the flow of her steps and turns, that confident smile that shows she's sweet and gentle, but also in control, the waves of her golden hair and how they swish and sway with even the slightest movement. During the dance, Peach leaned back slightly causing the crown on the top of her head to slip off, but she quickly swung her right leg up to kick the crown up making it spin and land squarely back on her head, exact same position and everything, the whole thing looked as if it was part of the dance, the movements were so natural and fluid that it was hard to believe it was improvised. In addition, considering how quickly she reacted to this and how effortless it looked, it was a sign that this happens almost every time she dances.
Grim stared more, he couldn't comprehend what he was witnessing, but it reminded him deeply of Malaria, the goth woman he dated a few years ago, they never saw each other again after that incident when she found out he really was the Grim Reaper and was too scared to see him again. It filled him with sadness, how he lost a love because of who he is, but seeing Peach's beautiful and confident movements, she was drastically different from what he liked from women. He preferred goth, sadistic women, Peach was brightly coloured and quite girlish, a polar opposite. But seeing Peach still made Grim feel like he wanted to be with her more, to know more about her, he was beginning to feel what he felt so long ago.
Soon the song ended with both Peach and the hologram bowing to each other, the hologram disappeared, the spotlight faded, and the lights brightened up to normal slowly. Peach then made her way back to TEC.
"Thank you, Princess Peach. That was very fun." Said TEC but realised what he said. "Just a moment…" He was silent for about three seconds with Peach and Grim staring awkwardly. "Fun? Is this impulse I feel the concept known as fun?"
"TEC? Are you ok?"
TEC quickly responded. "Princess Peach, I will fulfil my promise to you. Please use my communicator. Use the keyboard to send whatever message you want."
Peach wanted to ask what he was thinking, but she decided not to press him further and began to type on the keyboard. She turned to Grim quickly. "Anything you wanna say?"
Grim jumped a bit, he was too distracted by Peach, but he quickly responded. "N-Nah, just say I'm still here."
Peach nodded and continued to type. After a second of typing, she spoke up again. "I'm finished, TEC. Could you send it?" TEC didn't say anything, but there was an image of a letter being sent away on his monitor.
"The message has been sent. Please go back to your room. I want to analyse the data from this dance immediately. The data that I thought was fun."
Peach nodded, gently picked up Grim, surprising him this time but kept still. She walked towards the door, but before she went through it, she tilted her head towards TEC. "You're a weeeeird computer." She said in a somewhat joking tone.
"No. You are mistaken. I am the world's best and only perfect computer." Peach didn't respond, instead she just shrugged her shoulders and walked through the door. As they closed behind her, TEC spoke up again. "Good night Princess Peach."
As Peach and Grim returned to their room, she gently placed Grim back onto the table and sat onto the chair. Grim pondered for a moment, but then spoke up. "Actually, I noticed I was talkin' too much about meself. And I never even bothered askin' about you."
"Oh, well I… what would you like to know about me?"
"Um, how did you and Mario meet?"
Peach perked up a little, it was clear she liked to talk about Mario. Thus, she began to talk about how she and Mario first met. As she went into detail, Grim listened carefully, wanting to know more about her. But as she talked, he slowly imagined Malaria speaking to him instead, which only made him feel happier and more relaxed.