Act 3: The Final Ending

Chapter 55: Apples And Sleeping Beauties

Edit Finished On 11/26/19

Published On 12/13/19

Author Note: Aaaand here we are in the futu- i mean here we are with Chapter 55! Steven Universe Future has been great so far, and I can't wait for episodes 5 and 6 tomorrow! Well anyway, here's the next Chapter! (also on AO3, I've updated the character tags, and put up a finalized chapter count)

Review Response

Wishmaker1028: Thank you, I very much appreciate it!

A large, seemingly empty sandy field was where the first part of training would take place. These types of areas were apparently scarce on the purple planet, because it took a minute for them to find one. Nevertheless, the several of them that were training would try their absolute best to get ready for their eventual, inevitable battle with the Destructionator.

And as for the few that weren't training, but instead watching from the sidelines, it was… well…

"…What kind of 'training' is this supposed to be, exactly?" Mike asked.

"You know, that is a good question." Wanda agreed. "They've just been standing around for a few minutes, and Turbo Thunder disappeared."

"He might've had to try and prepare at the last minute." Cosmo smartly reasoned. "Nobody really knew we were gonna have to train until last minute."

"That's fair." Wanda replied, momentarily looking at the ground, seeing Poof fill his drawing pad with black crayon. "I just hope that they'll be alright. I've been worried about Timmy ever since we rescued him from the Darkness. It's just, oh I don't know, he sort of… feels a little different?"

"Eh, I didn't really notice much of a difference." Cosmo shrugged.

"I… kinda hope this training lasts a little while, honestly." Mike said matter-of-factly.

"Why?" Wanda asked.

Mike shrugged, as if he'd been asked that a million times before. "Eh, no reason…"

On the open, sandy field, the others were starting to grow a little impatient at the lack of Turbo's presence. But despite that, they conversed a little, simply trying to pass the time. Thankfully, soon enough, Turbo returned to them, carrying something in his hand.

"Sorry about the long wait, but I needed to find this for our first part of training." Turbo apologized. He then showed the five what he was carrying. It appeared to be a large pillow with a purple, circular gem in it. "This is-"

"Hey, that looks like the Desert Glass!" Steven said, pointing at what Turbo held.

"…What's that?" Junior asked.

"Well, over a year ago, the Gems and I were on a mission when we found that." Steven explained. "If you put it on sand, then it'll start creating a bunch of sand structures, and the structures will only go away if you take the pillow off the sand."

There was a bit of silence. "…Yes, thank you for explaining most of it for me, Steven." Turbo said. "But this one is a bit different than any other. I've managed to get this to where it won't just randomly start creating structures without reason. Now, let's watch."

Turbo set the pillow down and quickly ran out of its vicinity. The ground began shaking as a tall, sandy structure began building itself, until it was at least a hundred feet in the air. The structure was shaped on the outside to make it look like it was climbable.

"As you can see," Turbo said, walking a little closer to the structure. "I've specifically designed this to be an obstacle course that you must climb up in order to yank the pillow off. Of course, only when all of you are pulling at the same time will the pillow come off, so all of you must work together and use your abilities to reach the top." He clapped his hands together. "Now, are there any questions?"

"Hah, this is gonna be easy." Peridot said. "Climbing this structure is gonna be nothing compared to fighting those Eliminators."

"I have a question!" Junior said. "If we're going to be fighting, then why are we just climbing something?"

"That is a very good question." Turbo smiled. "If your description of the Destructionator is correct, then he is so much taller than any of you will ever be. So, in order to combat that, I decided we needed this tall structure."

"I see what you're saying." Luigi said. "Climbing up this structure is basically supposed to simulate climbing up the Destructionator for when we eventually fight him."

"Bingo. Luigi, you're right on the money with that." Turbo replied. "Any more questions?" Silence. "Very well. There will not be a time limit on this, but I advise you finish sooner than later, because we have a lot of training to do. Now, get in the starting position you desire."

The five of them lined up next to each other, all ready to run. Turbo began a countdown from five, and four, then three, two, one… "GO!" Turbo yelled. The five trainees ran to the structure, hoping that it wouldn't pose too great of a challenge.

On the bottom of the structure was a lone stairway that led up to a more intricate and taller section that split off into multiple paths. Timmy and Junior went to one path, Peridot and Luigi went to another, and Steven went to the last one.

With Peridot and Luigi, the two of them were climbing up a side of the wall that has several platforms, a few of them fading away for a minute before reappearing. The climb proved tough, as there was also a fair bit of debris that Peridot was able to deflect with her light stick, and Luigi was able to redirect it with his lightning.

"You know, Luigi…" Peridot began. "I'd just like to say… I think it's pretty cool that we're pretty similar to each other."

Luigi stopped what he was doing and turned to face the green Gem. "Similar?" He asked. "What… do you mean by that, exactly?"

"Well, I originally served Yellow Diamond, and when I realized that she was too stubborn to listen to me, I decided… that I would become a Crystal Gem." Peridot explained. "And with you, that whole… Mr. L shtick you did was weird, but now you-"

"I'm not going to talk about it." Luigi said.

"Why not?" Peridot asked. "I mean, both of us did lose something along the way. I lost my limb enhancers, and you lost… uh… what was it again?"

"I said." Luigi turned to face her. "I'm not talking about it."

Peridot shut up before she made the situation any worse, wordlessly resuming the slow and steady climb up the structure. Behind her, Luigi sighed, having been needlessly reminded of something that he knew he could not forget, and continued to climb.

With Timmy and Junior, both of them were making pretty good progress on scaling the tall structure. For the most part, it was just them avoiding obstacles that either were rolling from ahead or falling from above. There were rare times when a section of the floor would fall out a few feet ahead of them, so they had to react quickly.

They were heading along fine for a while, until Timmy began to get tired. All the running was taking a while, and there was no telling when it would it end. Timmy decided to rest for a moment, putting his hands on his knees. But that would be his fatal mistake.

Little did he know, there was something falling right above him. It took Junior just barely noticing in time, running over to him, and pushing him out of the way for Timmy to realize there was something wrong. The two fell in a heap on the ground, rolling a few feet before stopping.

"Hey, are you alright?" Junior asked, getting up before helping Timmy get up. "You kinda stopped for a moment."

"Yeah, cause I'm getting tired." Timmy answered.

"You could've used your heat vision to try and stop that from falling on you." Junior pointed out.

"I'm not used to using it. I've only used it like, twice; one time to win a race for my dad in the past, and another to save my friends and family from Unwish Island." Timmy explained. "And besides, heat vision was just a wish from my fairies that I forgot to unwish, so it's just chance that I have it right now."

Timmy began to walk ahead, his mood now soured.

Lastly, Steven was having a pretty easy time on the path he chose. He must've gotten lucky, because this path hardly had any obstacles on it. …After a little while, he knew why. Eventually, the path just… stopped. Steven looked around for a moment, confused at what he was supposed to do. Then he realized.

He needed to climb.

At first, he wasn't sure if he was even able to climb up the structure, it looked… too smooth. But, as he soon found out, he was able to climb up the structure no problem.

As he climbed up, he saw that occasionally, a small piece of the structure fell, forcing him to move over a little bit to avoid it. For a while, this strategy worked. That is, until a much larger piece began to fall. Steven used one of his hands to summon his shield above him.

It stayed as the large piece continued to fall. It would harmlessly hit the shield, causing it to bounce off and fall to the ground… but that's not what happened. No, the shield glitched and then disappeared, causing Steven to panic. He tried to re-summon the shield, but it just wouldn't show up.

Steven clung as close to the wall as he could, and the large piece of the structure fell right past him, barely brushing against the back of his shirt. He eventually looked down, seeing the piece fall to the ground.

Frowning, Steven continued to climb the structure.

Eventually, all five of them reached the top of the structure. Steven was first; tired from all the climbing he had to do. Next were Peridot and Luigi, both of them quiet. Lastly, Timmy and Junior arrived, Timmy noticeably not in a great mood.

All five were on top of the structure, so now they could end this. They grabbed the pillow and began to pull. It didn't take long before they yanked the pillow off of the tower, leading it to slowly crumble down. Thankfully, a small part of the structure slowly lowered them all to the ground, leaving them unharmed.

As they reached the ground, they heard the sound of Turbo clapping for them. "Excellent! Well done!" Turbo congratulated as he walked over to them. "Honestly, you all cleared that faster than I was expecting. But be aware that this training will only get much, much harder from here. Now, who's ready for some more training?"

And so, the five trainees went through at least a few hours of rigorous training, involving many different exercises to test all of their skills. For the most part, it was straightforward, but sometimes Turbo would throw in a curveball or two to get them to think outside the box.

Luigi seemed to have the easiest, and also somehow hardest time during the training. He easily hid how weak he still was, but it still showed when he needed to take a minute to rest sometimes.

Peridot was quickly getting the hang of using her light stick, even saying herself that, "It's even better than my limb enhancers!" Which may've been a stretch. Nevertheless, she enjoyed using in unique ways to progress through the training challenges.

Steven had trouble getting his shield and bubble to work, strangely. It was just so weird to him, because before all this, he'd actually been getting better at using his powers, but now? …It didn't make sense. Still, even when his powers didn't work sometimes, he tried his best to get through everything that Turbo threw at him.

Junior, despite his young age, was getting through the training pretty well. As he proved time and time again, he was just powerful enough, maybe even to eventually surpass his older brothers and sister one day. But that would have to wait until he got back home and this was all over; they were still sick, after all.

Timmy… wasn't doing so great. Yes, he tried his best, but at every corner or turn, despite his best efforts, it always seemed like someone had to save him from something. And each time that happened, it only made him angrier.

Watching from the sidelines were Cosmo, Wanda, Poof, and Mike. The three fairies cheered the five on, especially Poof. However, even after Mike finished all of his food, he still seemed to be disinterested, no matter what the five were doing. But he couldn't help it; there was a lot on his mind right now.

As time went on, eventually they needed a break. They found an area filled with beds inside of an abandoned building, so they decided to use that. They all went in to relax, Mike being one of the first ones to take a bed.

"Hey, how come you get first bed?" Peridot asked, walking over to him. "You weren't even training at all!"

"I already told you that I wasn't going to be training, and that I wasn't going to take no for an answer." Mike responded. "So just leave me be and let me rest for a bit."

"Well, I'm only allowing a 15 minute break here, so make the most of it." Turbo said.

Aside from Mike, who'd already looked like he was about to fall asleep, everyone else sat on the beds as they chatted with each other. Everyone else except for… Steven.

He lied there are the bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. He couldn't stop thinking… thinking about why his powers were suddenly being unresponsive sometimes. There was that incident at the Dimmsdale Mall with his bubble, and a few hours ago with his shield disappearing. It didn't make sense.

Before, he'd been getting to use his shield more consistently. He'd been using his bubble a lot, too… What about his other powers? Would his healing spit not work still? Would he still be able to fuse? …Were there still any powers he'd yet to discover?

As he lay there, thinking about it… he felt it again. That tiny itch, right in the back of his Gem. Just like before, when he noticed it, it went away. He closed his eyes and groaned in frustration. Nothing really made any sense anymore.

"Maybe a power nap would help a little…" Steven closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he was asleep.

…

He felt… cold. Very cold. Why did he feel cold? Why was everything… pitch black? He also felt like he was… floating, somewhere… Where was he? What kind of dream was this?

Usually, when you know you're in a dream, you get to kind of… control it, in a sense. But even though Steven knew he was obviously in a dream, he couldn't light up the place, or even summon a Cookie Cat or something to eat.

He was swimming upwards, almost like he was in water. He swam up faster and faster, but not because he needed to breath. While he was swimming, it felt like there was some kind of force trying to tug him back, but it may as well have been so small it didn't matter.

The swimming abruptly stopped when he hit some kind of a wall above him. He growled in frustration before punching the wall, hearing a shattering sound. He tried to swim up again, presuming the wall was broken, but he hit his head on another wall. Even more frustrated, he punched that wall harder, but the only result was a hurt hand, causing him to hold it in pain.

He let out another growl before attempting to punch the wall with the other hand, but with the same result. He let out a… roar? …A roar of frustration. It was pitch black, there was this stupid impenetrable wall, and now his hand hurt. All of his problems seemed to just keep piling up, building and building and building-

"Steven?" A voice he hadn't heard for almost two months. "I thought I told you before to just GO! Oh no, I'm starting to lose control, I-"

Steven abruptly woke up, screaming. As the others ran over to see what was wrong, he sat up in a cold sweat, clutching his chest. The others were all around him, talking over each other to him, but all the voices were overlapping each other, it was impossible to understand anything.

"Can everyone just speak one at a time, please?" When Steven yelled, the others shut up. He took a few deep breaths. "Thank you."

"Are… you alright, Steven?" Junior asked. "You scared us when you just woke up screaming like that after you only slept a few minutes."

"Well, I…" Steven paused. "I had this really weird dream."

"Yeah, I can relate." Cosmo said. "Sometimes I have a dream where I lose Phillip, but then I look under my pillow and he's right there!"

"Could you tell us what was in your dream? …If you don't mind." Luigi asked.

"Alright." Steven said. "I was just… feeling like I was swimming somewhere, and I was trying to punch through some walls, I managed to punch through one, but not the second one, and then I heard-" He paused, his eyes widening. "Oh no. Oh no no no no…"

"What, what did you hear?" Wanda asked.

"I… That wasn't a dream." Steven realized, looking at the bed. He looked back up at the others. "That wasn't a dream, I went to sleep, and then I was Malachite, and then I was talking to Lapis and she-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, can you please slow down?" Timmy asked. "Who's Malachite, and who the heck is Lapis?"

"They're both… other Gems." Steven answered, causing Mike's eyes to widen for a split second. "But, more specifically, Malachite is a fusion of Lapis and Jasper. The two of them fused, and then… Lapis forced Jasper into the ocean with her." He could practically see that horrible event in his mind again as he recounted it.

"I think around a couple months ago, I was able to contact Malachite in my dreams." Steven continued to explain. "I was really only talking to the Lapis part of her, but she was so adamant on not telling me where she was, she just wanted to keep Jasper down in the ocean…"

"Wait, Lazuli has Jasper trapped in a fusion?" Peridot asked, only now realizing what happened to them. "You're joking me."

"But it's true!" Steven said. "…I think Lapis is starting to get tired from battling Jasper for so long, it's taken a big toll on her…"

"Just being on a ship with Jasper made me tired." Peridot commented.

"Well, we need to do something!" Steven yelled, a few tears in his eyes. "Sooner or later, Jasper is going to take complete control of Malachite, and then-"

"Hey, Steven, hold on a second!" Turbo said, walking over and sitting down on the bed with him. "I know you're worried about them, but they are not going to be a problem for a little while. This may sound ironic, but as long as the Destructionator's metal covers the Earth, that fusion is only going to be confined to the underwater depths of the ocean."

"I guess… but when we free the Earth, what are we gonna do about Malachite?" Steven asked.

"…We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Turbo answered. "For now, we should try and focus on the more immediate threat. Speaking of that, you guys only have a few minutes left of rest, so…" He saw the look of pure despair on Steven's face. "…So I've decided to give you an additional five minutes. Enjoy!"

"Yes!" Mike pumped his fist, getting back into the bed. But… he couldn't help but think. Lapis? Jasper? There were… more Gems? Just… just how many more could there be? …Nah, he shouldn't focus on that right now. All he needed… was to relax.

The extra five minutes added to the break seemed to zip by, because they were soon right back to training. And now, it was harder than before, presumably to get them all ready for the real thing. But… it would not last very long.

They were all doing a… simpler training exercise. They each had to use a rope to climb to the top of a tall cliff, the rope being held up by Turbo at the top. First, Steven went. He hardly needed to even need to try and use his powers, so he wasn't at a disadvantage, despite how tired he already was.

Next was Junior, who climbed up the quickest. Not wanting to be outdone, Peridot went next, climbing even quicker than the young Koopa. Luigi took his time, not wanting to rush and wear himself out. And, last but not least was… Timmy.

His ascent was slow. He could hear the others at the top cheering him on as he made his way up. His fairies and Mike were watching closer than usual. All eyes seemed to be on him.

As he continued to pull himself up toward the top, it only made him that much more tired. But he had to get through this, he just had to. He needed to beat the Destructionator. He needed to beat Darkness. That was his entire mantra. He repeated it in his head, causing himself to be more determined to go faster.

And just as he thought he was getting close, the rope snapped. It must've been worn down from the previous uses, and it was at its breaking point.

Immediate panic. He thought he was going to be safe, and now he wasn't. Time sped up and slowed down at the same time. Wanda thankfully was able to poof up a trampoline just in time for Timmy to land on safely. At landing on the trampoline, Timmy's worries immediately lessened, but still…

That could've been it. All of his hopes, aspirations, goals… gone in an instant because of some stupid faulty rope. But it wasn't, and he was still here.

As the others got to him as soon as they could… there was a feeling, almost like it was bubbling up inside of him. It'd been bubbling up for… how long? Somewhere in between trying to solve that stupid riddle or when the Eliminators kept tricking him over and over again. He got up off of the trampoline, his head kept down.

"Timmy, are you okay?" Wanda asked.

Throughout this entire training session, he just kept getting beaten up by seemingly every obstacle in his way. There were multiple holes in his clothes, his hair was frazzled, and he had nothing to show for it. Everyone else had to help him out at some point or tell him what to do or save him like with what just happened and…

…That was the breaking point.

"No." Timmy eventually said. "No… I'm not okay."

"Are you hurt? Is anything broken?" Cosmo asked, endlessly fussing over him. "Do you need me to do a checkup?"

"No, nothing like that!" Timmy yelled. "I'm just… sick of this! I'm sick of all this! All this stupid training is just… Ugh!"

"Okay, I admit that I should've gotten a better, more sturdier rope." Turbo said. "But that shouldn't matter. Timmy, you've been doing great with this training, I've seen it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah, I sure am doing great, aren't I?" Timmy questioned. "I sure am great at having other people come and save me when something happens! Do you know how many times that's happened during this training alone?"

"I'd have to say at least ten." Peridot commented.

"Well, it's not always so bad to rely on others, is it?" Steven asked. "I mean, we're all a team, so we help each other out!"

"Sure, we're a team, but how many times did you have to be saved, Steven?" Timmy asked. "Or Peridot, or Junior, or Luigi? Because I hardly saw any of it! The only thing I see is someone rescuing me, and you wanna know why? Compared to you, I hardly have any powers or any special abilities!"

"Um…" Peridot looked like she wanted to say something, but she wasn't going to do it in front of Steven, so she kept quiet.

"Everyone else has some magical ability that lets them summon a shield, or spit fire, or shoot electricity, or whatever!" Timmy continued ranting. "Meanwhile, what do I have? Magic that I can't even use because the Destructionator will just use his magic against me, and heat vision that I keep forgetting I have because I never use it!

"So what does that make me? Some ordinary kid with a pink hat that got a stupid destiny passed onto him! I mean, out of all the people in the world with the initials TT, it had to be me? Me? An eleven-year-old kid? That doesn't make any sense? And I… I… I QUIT!"

His final two words echoed for several seconds, making the implications that much clearer.

"Quit?" Turbo questioned. "You can't just 'quit' being the Chosen One! That's not how destiny works!"

"Yeah I can!" Timmy argued. "All because of some stupid prophecy, I've been running around trying to solve riddles, escaping deadly robots, and tried to save everyone by jumping into Darkness, but look how that turned out! I had to be saved again! Well, I'm not doing it anymore! You can have your Chosen One title that you earned back, Turbo, because I'm not doing it anymore!"

Turbo frowned before sighing. "Timmy, you have to listen to me. Only the Chosen One can destroy the Darkness. You are the new Chosen One. I don't know what forces were at work when you were made the new Chosen One, but… that's how it is."

"Then what if I just do what you did?" Timmy questioned. "I'll just go and do whatever I want while Darkness attacks, and then this destiny stuff will realize I'm not going to do it, and then pass it on to someone else!"

"You know, that actually doesn't seem far-fetched." Luigi said. "But… I'm not sure if we'll have enough time to do that, or if it's even a good idea."

"Exactly!" Wanda agreed. "None of us have seen the Darkness ever since we rescued you and Steven from it! We don't know where it is or what it's doing! And the Destructionator might be planning to do something horrible to the Earth right now!"

"Then tell me what I'm supposed to do!" Timmy yelled. "Because as of right now, there's no way I stand any sort of chance against the Destructionator! All I am is just some normal, average, everyday kid…"

"I can change that." Turbo said. Timmy turned to face him. "I can transfer some of my powers to you. All you need to do is take my hands." Turbo extended his hands toward Timmy.

Timmy stayed quiet, deliberating over what he should do. Eventually… "Fine. But I'm only doing this for the sake of my friends and family, not because of some prophecy or whatever." Timmy extended his hands out, and Turbo grabbed them, his hands being much larger than Timmy's.

"From suns and storms…" Turbo began reciting something, and as he did, a blue glow enveloped him and Timmy. "Through pits of wonder…" A strange sensation washed over Timmy's body. "I transfer to you…" Turbo lifted Timmy up. "My powers of thunder!"

A pink light obscured their vision for a second before an explosion flung them apart. Turbo got up only seconds afterward, but Timmy stayed on the ground for a moment. The others rushed over to him as he slowly got up.

"Ugh…" Timmy groaned. "Okay, someone tell me what happened."

"Timmy, you…" Junior was star-struck. "Look so cool! That new outfit fits you perfectly!"

Slightly confused, Timmy looked down at himself. No longer was he wearing his usual pink shirt and blue pants. Instead, there was an outfit identical to Turbo's, shrunken to fit Timmy. The outfit was a little heavy, which would take some getting used.

"Do you… feel alright, Timmy?" Steven asked, concerned.

"I… I think I feel fine." Timmy answered. "I'm… I'm better than alright."

"Okay, I have literally no idea how this just happened." Mike cut in.

"Uh, same here!" Peridot said. "What was that, some sort of ritual or something?"

"Kind of." Turbo answered, walking over. "On Wonder World, there was a very rare chance that someone would be born without their power they inherited from their parents. So, over time, we figured out we'd be able to transfer those powers by saying something like I did, and the saying is different with each power, and the history of it is really interesting if you-"

"Yeah, I've heard enough. Thank you for the information." Peridot interrupted.

"Anyway…" Turbo said, leaning down on one knee to match Timmy's level. "Timmy. What I have just given you were a small amount of my powers, meaning that they won't last forever. Just long enough so you can help crush the Destructionator and the Darkness. I'd love for there to be more time to train you in using them, but we may not have much time left, so I'll only be instructing you quickly on the basics. Do you think you can handle that?"

"…Yeah. I think I can." Timmy said, a smile creeping onto his face. While shooting thunder from his armpits wasn't exactly what he was hoping for, it would have to work for now.

Our heroes had found their way out of the dark and confusion of The Underwhere.

Mario and the others now saw the sun shining brightly against a beautiful blue sky.

This was the sky paradise Grambi called home, a place of joy called The Overthere.

Somewhere above the never-ending layers of clouds waited Grambi himself.

Mario and his friends began to make their way up that fluffy road to above…

"Ah me, blue skies again!" Luvbi cheered, dancing on one of the larger clouds. "If we continue upward, we'll soon be in The Overthere. Let us away!"

"That sounds great and all, but we're still missing three of us." Mario reminded her. "Namely: Peach, Trixie, and Connie. We're all really worried about them."

"Pray, I would understand this!" Luvbi said. She was silent for a moment. "Can thou explain who those three are?"

"They're the friends of Mario, Timmy, and Steven respectively." Violet answered.

"…I know not who those two, 'Timmy', and 'Steven' are." Luvbi said. "Can thou-"

"Luvbi, we don't have time for twenty questions." Tippi said matter-of-factly. "We need to find the others and find the Pure Heart… and that's that."

Luvbi frowned. "Very well. That shall be enough idle chatter from me." She began to float ahead of the group. "I shall run ahead, so keepest up if thou canst!" She giggled as she rushed ahead.

"So instead of playing twenty questions, we're now apparently playing cat and mouse." Chester said. "Also, can someone explain to me how we're even standing on this cloud?"

"Hm… I suppose that clouds from this dimension may have a greater density from ours, which would allow them to act as a surface for us, provided we don't put too much weight on them." AJ explained.

"And what would happen if we were too heavy?" Bowser asked, sweating a little.

"We'd probably all be screaming as we plunged back down into the Underwhere." AJ answered.

"Yikes." Tootie said. She looked ahead. "Let's go, Luvbi's already climbing up the clouds!"

And so, Mario and co hurried to try and catch up with Luvbi. The vertical climb upward proved to be exhausting, especially when it was obvious it would take a while. Thankfully, Luvbi didn't just leave them in the dust, and actually stopped once in a while to make sure they were still following her.

There were many enemies they had to defeat along the way, such as Beepboxers, Ghoul Shrooms, Spiky Parabuzzies, and many others. Every so often on a cloud, there would be a number etched into it. The numbers got higher as they climbed higher, so that meant that they were at least making some progress.

What was perhaps the strangest part of the climb was that they found two trees along the way; one bearing blue apples, and another bearing red. They took a few of each, just in case they were important.

Shortly after getting the red apples, and somehow getting ahead of Luvbi, they went through a door and down a cloudy path to see… It was a tree, similar to the two they'd been to before, except a bit smaller. But that wasn't the point of interest. No… three figures leaned on the tree, resting.

"Oh, look over here!" Tippi called out, seeing Peach, Connie, and Trixie sleeping. There was a yellow apple besides them, three bites taken out of it.

"That's a relief." Mario breathed, his worry over them decreasing majorly. "Alright, let's wake them up, tell them what's going on, and find… Grambi, was it?"

"But why are they all sleeping, though?" Tootie asked.

"Hm… they probably walked around a bit, got tired, and fell asleep on this tree." AJ explained.

"And now it's time for them to wake up." Chester said, walking over to Trixie. "Okay Trixie, time to wake up!" Despite Chester's words, Trixie stayed asleep. "Trixie? …Trixie!" He blinked. "TRIXIE!" She continued to snore away.

"It's not gonna work, Chester." Violet sighed.

"Bah, let a real king handle this!" Bowser said. "My yell will surely wake them up! …Oh, and you might wanna cover your ears, fair warning." He took a deep breath before roaring at the top of his lungs directly at the three snoozers. They remained asleep. "Wow, they're deep sleepers."

"Why won't they wake up...?" Tippi asked. "This is really bad…"

"Ah me…" Luvbi said from behind them, finally catching up. "Prithee, tell me… Peach, Connie, and Trixie, I presume?"

"Yes. They're asleep and we don't know why they won't wake up." Mario explained.

Luvbi floated closer to the three to see what was going on, and saw the yellow apple near them. "They hath eaten of the golden fruit." Luvbi explained. "They lacketh the common sense, I fear." She sighed before tossing the apple off the cloud, never to be seen again.

"What's wrong with eating that? It's just a weird-looking apple." Bowser asked.

"The Overthere teemeth with magical trees whose fruit maketh many an odd effect." Luvbi explained. "The fruit of golden hue maketh people so satisfied, they falleth into deep sleep. And I mean deep sleep… The kind thou dost not wake up from for a hundred years…"

"Wh-A hundred years?" Violet questioned. "Nobody here is going to be alive by the time they wake up!"

"With every poison is an antidote." AJ said. "So there has to be a way to wake them back up, right?"

"Pray. wherefore would I know of such…" Luvbi was about to go on a rant until she remembered something. "Ah, but hold a moment… I do remember my father's words of long ago. Yea, he said one tree in The Overthere bore a taboo fruit that could waketh anyone…"

"So where do we find it, then?" Tootie asked.

"Pray… Wherefore should I know, huh?" Luvbi questioned.

"So then all we know is that we need to find a kind of fruit… Marvelous." Tippi said.

"We already have two kinds of fruit, maybe one of those is it." Mario suggested.

"So, yon three women… All seem to holdeth them in regard most high…" Luvbi noted, a bit miffed. "Hmph! Do what thou wantest! I am not helping! I am sulking!" She floating over to the tree and began to sit on top of it, staring angrily at the group.

And so, with nothing else they could do, they decided to see if the blue or the red apple was the supposed 'taboo' fruit. They gave the blue apple to Connie, but it just made her shrink temporarily. They gave the red apple to Trixie, and while it did wake her up, it also caused her to grow twice her size before going back to normal and falling back asleep.

After exploring around the Overthere Stair for a while, the group found several more types of apples; a yellow, pink, and black apple. They went back and gave Peach the yellow apple, and even though it woke her up, she also grew a mustache and began freaking out before falling asleep without any mustache. They tried giving the pink fruit to Connie, but it only turned her into a strawberry for several seconds.

They were down to one fruit. The black apple. The group split the apple into thirds and gave each part to one of the asleep girls. They waited a few seconds, until… they barely heard it, but… it sounded like Peach was saying something. A few of them leaned to try and hear her better, and then that's when it happened.

All of a sudden, Peach yelled, only screaming, "GROSS!" The other two girls soon stood up having similar reactions to Peach, but not nearly as over-the-top.

"Ugh, what the heck?" Connie said, coughing. "It feels like I just ate death!"

"It feels like I just ate a skunk!" Trixie added. "Ugh, who put that in my mouth?"

"Yes, it worked!" Chester suddenly yelled. He turned to AJ. "Thanks buddy of mine, for letting me give that apple to Trixie." He turned around only to see Trixie glaring at him.

"Glad to see you're awake, Peach." Mario said, walking over to said Princess.

"Thanks, but… where are we? And what were the three of us doing here?" Peach asked, referring to herself, Connie, and Trixie.

"We are in The Overthere. Dimentio's attack sent you three here…" Tippi explained.

"Really?" Connie asked. She thought on it for a few seconds. "You know… I sorta remember walking over to this tree, but not much else."

"That is because the fruit of this tree also bears a terrible side effect: memory loss." Luvbi said, finally coming out from the tree after seeing the three were finally awake.

"How do you know so much about this tree?" Violet asked.

"Sometimes, my mother or Grambi would take me to see them." Luvbi answered with a slight smile, recalling the happy memory. Upon seeing the look of confusion toward her from the newly awoken three, her smiled lowered a bit. "I am Luvbi. I am bound for The Overthere, and I take yon travelers with me."

"Is that so…" Peach said, walking up to the Nimbi. "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Luvbi."

"I shall head onward, so dawdleth not!" Luvbi demanded. "Heareth me, princess of silly peaches?" She then huffed as she floated back to the door.

Peach frowned. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Honestly, I think she was being really rude." Trixie said.

"Then you should get used to it, cause rude is all she is." Bowser commented.

"Ugh, don't worry about it…" Tippi added, hoping to drop the topic.

"Well, I'm sorry that I fell asleep on you." Connie apologized. "None of us knew that apple would make us fall asleep."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about it." Tootie reassured. "I'm just glad that all of us are back together now!"

Indeed, what Tootie said was true. First, it was just Mario, alone. Then, he found Violet. And they found Tippi, which eventually led to them finding Bowser and Kammy, and then Chester, AJ, and Tootie. And now, they've found the last three: Peach, Connie, and Trixie.

At Kammy's suggestion for them to hurry on in order to catch Tippi, the group mostly was back in high spirits. There was no more wondering or worrying about when or even if they'd find their entire team. But now that they have, it was like… they'd finally lifted that giant weight, and was able to set it down.

Even if they had to endure a confusing climb up a long flight of clouds, and even if it felt like said climb had no end, it would surely turn out to be okay. They'd come so far in collecting the previous seven Pure Hearts, it was impossible that they would give up now. They would only keep climbing higher and higher, steadily closing in on The Overthere… and the final Pure Heart.