Here's the next chapter at last! And we're almost at the end of this story!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 13: Dark and Dreadful

[BGM: Memory 3 – Super Paper Mario]

One day, when I was sipping some apricot-flavored tea while looking off into the depths of space, a tiny apricot-colored planet appeared on the horizon. From that planet, I was surprised to see another Luma of the same color emerging out of it.

"Oh, hello! Do you two know each other?!" I asked gleefully, but despite my excitement, both Lumas seemed uneasy. They neither drew closer nor backed away from each other. Instead, they just stared.

Then, Luma broke the silence. "My mama!"

At once, the apricot Luma parroted back, "My mama! My mama!"

"My mama! My mama!"

The two Lumas began to dance around me frantically, and neither showed any sign of stopping. It didn't help the fact that I was so charmed by this adorable scene that I started laughing. "Oh my, this is so precious!"

And that's when something very strange happened: more and more Lumas began to pop out from the same apricot planet. They were all in different colors, ranging from yellow, red, blue and green, but they were all shouting the same thing:

"My mama!"

"My mama!"

That sight of all these shouting Lumas only made me laugh harder. "What am I going to do with all these children?!" I wondered as I doubled over laughing, as the Lumas were just staring at me blankly. "I guess we'll have to name each and every one of you." I said once I calmed down.

Tomorrow, once I had finished naming them all, I would begin moving all the Lumas into the new house. And while I first saw all of these Lumas as friends, sooner or later, I would see them… as family.

[BGM End]

Rosalina softly giggled after having that flashback play in her head. "Ah, good times…" she sighed.

"Let me guess, another flashback of your past came into you, right?" Melissa guessed.

"How'd you know?"

"You've been having these different and odd reactions every time, so I figured that's what was happening."

"Oh… I guess I wasn't hiding them enough." Rosalina giggled sheepishly.

Melissa playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, aunt Rosie…"

"Hey, sis! Aunt Rosie!" Jewel called out to them. "Trifle and the others are coming!"

[BGM: To the Observatory Grounds 2 – Super Mario Galaxy]

Everyone in the Observatory looked up to see Trifle, Red and the Inklings arriving back with the Grand Star as it then plunged into the beacon, turning it turquoise and reaching its maximum size. A pink pipe gets lit, lighting up three Warp Pads leading even higher at the Observatory, with two of them linking to an isolate floating island with a blue-roofed house, and then the last dome's door opens. This one looked like a pink pearl with a golden tiara on top.

[BGM: Rosalina in the Observatory 3 – Super Mario Galaxy]

"Thanks to you all, the beacon is restored to its maximum potential and all of the Observatory's domes are working again." Rosalina told everyone. "Now we just need a few more Power Stars, and then we'll finally be able to fly to the center of the universe."

Everyone looked down at the circle in the middle, and saw that the number had dropped to 42. "Nice!" Trifle grinned. "Just a few more Stars to go!"

"Indeed!" Mario nodded.

"I have great news, everyone!" Polari informed. "I just checked the Green Lumas out, and they said that the doorway is finally ready to use!" he directed to the Green Launch Star below. "Even I don't know what's waiting for you out there beyond the Green Launch Star."

"I do." Melissa interfered. "That will lead to the Planet of Trials, where three incredibly difficult challenges await. After all, it's called the Planet of Trials for a reason. Those challenges range from the manta-ray surfing, Star Ball rolling, and the bubble."

"Did you say 'manta-ray surfing'?" Ann's eyes perked up. "It's been quite a while… I really want to do it again!"

"Honestly, me too." Makoto smiled.

"And me!" Haru added.

"So I guess you, Phantom Thieves, will give Loopdeeswoop Galaxy a shot, then?" Melissa guessed smugly.

"You bet!" Ryuji exclaimed. "I mean, how hard can it be?"

Melissa giggled. "Well okay, then. And what about the other two, Rolling Gizmo and Bubble Blast?"

"Kino and Nene will do the bubble one!" Nene offered.

"S-Sis!?" Kino's eyes widened. "K-Kino not sure about this, meh…" he trailed.

"Come on, Brotherpon! Big sis will be careful!" Nene assured, and Kino nodded nervously in response.

"I'll do the ball one!" Lacey volunteered, raising an arm.

"Alright, so we have the Phantom Thieves for Loopdeeswoop, Kino and Nene for Bubble Blast and Lacey for Rolling Gizmo." Melissa said. "Just use the Green Launch Star and talk to the three Green Lumas, as each of them will lead to one of these galaxies."

"Got it!" the groups nodded and rushed over to the Green Launch Star to reach the Planet of Trials, before blasting off to their chosen galaxies.

"Well, three more Stars are on the way to be collected." Jack said. "What about the rest?"

Polari flew over to the map to check it out. "Wow! We already have all of the Garden dome's galaxies available! But first off, there's a Fast Foe Comet over at Toy Time…"

"I'll do it." without warning and before Polari could continue, Sonic immediately volunteered for this one and dashed off to the Engine Room, leaving a blue blur trail behind as everyone else had astonished looks.

"…That was fast." Polari blinked. "Ahem, anyways… The Garden only has four galaxies, those being Deep Dark, Dreadnought, Melty Molten, and Matter Splatter. However, these galaxies aside from Matter Splatter are pretty tough compared to all the previous ones you've been, so I recommend you going into bigger teams for these ones. And not to mention that there's already a Hungry Luma over there too."

Jewel flashed Trifle a smirk. "Well, we already have our specific teams, isn't that right, my love?"

"You said it, my princess." Trifle mirrored her expression. "However, I'll let Red and the Inklings rest, since I believe our fight against Chuckole must've taken its toll on them."

"Yep…" Inkling Girl nodded groggily.

"So you're free to take a rest, while I and the rest of my team can go to Dreadnought." Trifle then faced his team. "What do you all say?"

"We accept." Link nodded, along with the rest.

"Then I and the rest of my team will go to Melty Molten," Jewel spoke up. "While my Bodyguards will head to Deep Dark." she finished, and waited for the approval of her teams. To her relief, they accepted her choices.

"You're our leader, and so we won't turn down your choices!" Daisy exclaimed.

"I and big brother will go for the Hungry Luma, then!" Eira said.

"I guess that leaves Matter Splatter to me." Neri shrugged. "Probably won't have any water there, but eh, what can I do?"

"Well, the teams are all set." Rosalina said. "Good luck to you all."

Everyone then made their way up to the top of the Observatory by using the Warp Pads until they reached the platform with the Garden dome, where Jack and Eira proceeded to walk over to the Hungry Luma to feed it 1600 Star Bits before launching off to the Snow Cap Galaxy, while the rest went inside the dome.

[BGM: Observation Dome – Super Mario Galaxy]

The interior of the Garden dome was unlike any other dome interior they had been on this journey. It takes place outdoors instead of indoors, even being expansive and having a sky. Chirping birds and a small cluster of rocks making up the boundary of the 'room' and flower patches are the other things present in this unique dome.

"Whoa…" Luigi awed, he and the others looking around in awestruck.

"Oooh, pretty!" Kirby chirped.

"…Okay, HOW is this even possible?!" Trifle questioned. "I thought the garden would be an indoors-style one, not outdoors!"

"Aunt Rosie's Observatory is always full of surprises!" Jewel winked. "Believe me, I was also mind-blown when I saw this for the first time."

"We can definitely see why." Eleven said before they all used the Pull Star above to see the projections of the galaxies around them, and then they all blasted off.

[BGM End]

At Deep Dark Galaxy…

[BGM: Interlude – Super Mario Galaxy]

It might not look like much at first, but this galaxy is another haunted-themed one that takes place in an underwater grotto. The main planet has a beach with many Crabbers, and beyond its underwater depths lies a ghost ship, but there were also very few planets around aside from the big, main one.

The Loyal Bodyguards landed on the beach. "A beach… Interesting." Solo looked around.

"Quite out of place for a galaxy called 'Deep Dark', don't you think?" Arusu asked.

"It might be out of place, but I have a feeling there's something spooky behind that gate up ahead." Eleven said. "We'll just have to open it and find out ourselves."

They then walked over to the closed gate, where Eleven and Solo fired a Frizz spell to light each of the torches to make it open up and reveal a passageway leading to the grotto. While Eleven, Arusu and Solo moved onwards to the body of water, Eight spotted an unlit torch on the corner and decided to light it up with a Frizz as well, causing an Ice Flower to materialize in front of him.

"Oh!" Eight exclaimed and absorbed the Ice Flower before moving on to where the others went, and saw water spouts on a lone island up ahead. "Hmm… I wonder what's up there?" he wondered and proceeded to ice skate over the water to reach the island before freezing the water spouts to step on them and climb up a pole.

[BGM: Deep Dark Galaxy – Super Mario Galaxy]

Meanwhile, the rest of the Heroes were already swimming down the deep water, with Eleven and Arusu roasting some Bloopers with Sizz while Solo had spotted a Question Block on one of the protrusions on the wall and slashed it, as three Penguin Suits popped out. Being thankful for this Power-Up to show up, Solo absorbed one of them and grabbed the other two Penguin Suits for his two comrades as he swam over to them.

"Here you go, guys." he said with a smile while handing the Penguin Suits, as Eleven and Arusu immediately accepted them and absorbed them.

"Whew, I thought we would need to hold our breath all the time!" Arusu exclaimed.

"Come on, let's see what lies beyond these waters!" Eleven said as they swam down deeper while taking out more Bloopers on the way, with Arusu going into a cave on the right while Eleven and Solo kept swimming down to the bottom, where Eleven saw a bunch of Underwater Mines surrounding a broken ship mast and so he proceeded to cast Boom to blow them all up and cause the ship mast to explode, uncovering a Launch Star as he swam over to it to launch off, unaware that the explosion caught the attention of a certain familiar orca nearby.

Solo proceeded to follow Eleven and swam over to the Launch Star as well, but then stopped when he noticed said orca, who was none other than Guppy, and he swam over to him in curiosity.

"What in tarnation?! What is a landwalker doing here?" Guppy questioned. "You got to be kiddin' me. You want to run me out of this lake? Then you got to get through all eight rings!" he then swam off and created the first ring.

"That's… not what I had in mind." Solo sweatdropped before shrugging and swam towards the ring, making sure to remain on Guppy's tail while going through the rest of the rings. Eventually, the Zenithian Hero cleared Guppy's challenge with no problems thanks to the Penguin Suit's abilities and for swimming with a Green Shell on one point, leaving Guppy grumbling in defeat.

"All right, I'm a fish of my word. Take this." he muttered while handing a Power Star to Solo, and then swam off. "First I lose to a mermaid and now to an actual landwalker, grumble, grumble…" he kept grumbling to himself as he swam away.

"…What's his problem?" Solo tilted his head as he grabbed the Star and proceeded to swim over to the Launch Star again, only for Eleven to come right back with a Star shortly after. "Oh, back so soon?"

"Yup." Eleven nodded. "I found a Boo with a Power Star in it, and I just used Brightsplitter to easily defeat it and get its Star." he recounted. "I did see a window that was blocked with a crystal, which was probably to make light shine out of it, but that wasn't really necessary for me." he chuckled at the last sentence.

"Of course not. You have the Supreme Sword of Light, after all." Solo smirked. "Now, we should head over to where Arusu went." he said as they swam up to the cave and resurfaced, where they saw Arusu looking up at the ghost ship in front of him, having already taken off his scuba suit, revealing that he was still wearing his normal clothes underneath the suit.

Hearing noises from behind him, Arusu turned around to see Eleven and Solo coming out of the water and preparing to take off their scuba suits as well. "Where have you two been?" he asked.

"We did a little exploring at the bottom of the lake." Eleven replied after he and Solo took off their suits. "But we did get ourselves each a Power Star as a result."

"Ah, good. I was just exploring around and was right now about to head over to that ghost ship over there that highly reminds me of another ghost ship I ventured once, until you two came back."

"So we didn't take too long, then. Glad to hear it." Solo said, and so they boarded the ghost ship's deck.

[BGM End]

As soon as they stepped into the deck, a cackle filled the air around them as they looked up to see none other than Kamella coming from the bright moon in the sky and flying down towards them.

"Heeheeheeheehee!" she cackled. "Well, well, what do we have here? Three handsome guys as my new opponents?"

"Who are you?" Solo asked.

"I am Kamella, the most powerful magician in Bowser's army! I was previously defeated by a certain girl with extendable arms before, but I am NOT going to lose to the likes of you! I have even more powerful magic at my disposal!" she rose her wand aloft.

"Hmph, well guess what, old hag, we're also magic wielders!" Arusu declared, as the trio made rings of magic appear on their left hands. "You call yourself the most powerful magician? We'll just see about that!"

Kamella laughed. "Oh, you might regret for saying that! Prepare to be vaporized!"

[BGM: Kamella – Super Mario Galaxy]

"Let's do this!" Eleven said as the trio got ready for the battle.

Kamella started by launching fireballs at the Heroes as they easily avoided them before Solo charged up a Kafrizz on his hand and fired it at her, hitting her directly. "Ooof!" she groaned and quickly twirled her wand to fire electrical magic at Solo, forcing him to dodge it as Eleven ran over and Flame Slashed her from the side while Arusu charged up his sword with lightning and fired a Zapple, striking Kamella directly after Solo hit her with Bang. After that, Arusu would run over and slash her before jumping back where Eleven roasted her with Sizzle.

"Rrrgh! Why, you miserable little pests!" Kamella growled and fired green magic at them.

"Green magic? What's that?" Solo wondered before avoiding the magic, and then a Green Shell materialized from it.

Seeing this, Arusu had an idea as he grinned, "A big mistake!" he quickly dove for the Shell to grab it, and then he aimed it at Kamella and tossed it at her after she got frozen into ice by Eleven's Kacrackle Slash.

"YOWCH!" Kamella yelled before flying up to the ship's crow nest as the Heroes followed her by casting the Zoom spell, and at the crow nest, they watched as Kamella called upon a few Magikoopas for assistance… only for all of them to get completely obliterated by a Kazap from Solo and a Gigasmash from Arusu, and then Eleven would shoot a Kaboom at Kamella's face while Arusu and Solo jumped over to slash her at the same time. "Aaargh!" she cried and conjured up another Green Shell, but this time onto her free hand and she would try to hit the trio with it… buuut it got immediately sent back to her due to Arusu casting Bounce, and the Shell hit her in the face.

[BGM End]

Kamella screamed in pain from the strong blow before crying in agony as she spun around clumsily in the air. "Bested…by…a gaggle…of magic swordsmen… How embarrassing…" those were her last words before exploding and leaving her wand behind, where it exploded and the Power Star in it came out.

"And that's that!" Arusu said while taking the Power Star.

"I thought that Kamek was the most powerful magician in Bowser's army…" Solo pondered. "I guess there might be even more magicians in this world that we still don't know about."

"Probably." Eleven nodded as they were starting to take off, and then something came into Eleven's mind, "You know, I wonder how Eight is doing right now?"

Speaking of Eight…

"Alright… Now how do I advance from here?" he wondered after he had wandered around the entire upper area of the main planet while dealing with some Magikoopas, and was now standing on a block with a rotating Fire Bar and looking around… while completely unaware of a Water Shooter from right behind him.

The Water Shooter proceeded to do its usual thing and shot a water bubble, trapping an unsuspecting Eight inside. "WHOOOOOOOOOA!" he yelled, as he was flung all the way up to the Cheep Cheep Gambol planet in the distance while in the bubble.

[BGM: Space Fantasy – Super Mario Galaxy]

The bubble popped upon touching the planet, causing Eight to faceplant on the ground. He then got back up and looked around the planet. "Well, that's one way to get to the next planet…" he remarked, and proceeded to lacerate the flopping Cheep Cheeps around with Crackle before using Hatchet Man to pound the three tree stumps, making a Water Shooter nearby start working.

Eight figured he'd have to use it to get to the next planet and stood in front of the Water Shooter, and this time he was ready, as when the bubble led him to the Marble planet above, he landed perfectly on his feet once the bubble popped. Looking down through the glass, Eight could see three giant tennis balls rolling around what appears to be a watermelon in the center, and so he decided to hit the tennis balls towards the watermelon with Hatchet Man while being mindful of the Ball Beamer sending out circular shockwaves.

The watermelon slowly expanded as more tennis balls were sent to it. In fact, once the last tennis ball was sent into the watermelon, it grew up to the point that was enough to completely shatter the glass covering the planet, leaving Eight standing on top of this now planet-sized watermelon as a Power Star emerged out of it.

"…Never thought I'd see the day where I would be standing on a giant watermelon in space." Eight said to himself and took the Star, as the Ice Flower on him gave up its power. "I'm definitely encountering even stranger things in this world." he chuckled and then flew off.

[BGM End]

At Dreadnought Galaxy…

[BGM: Battlerock Galaxy – Super Mario Galaxy]

This galaxy is a mechanical and technological battle station, and not to mention that its name comes from an actual real-life type of battleship, which is what this galaxy is based upon. At the hourglass-shaped Beam planet filled with Eye Beamers, Trifle and his team members landed there.

"So this is Dreadnought Galaxy." Cloud said while looking around, and then caught a glimpse of the massive Dreadnought in the distance. "Well, that dreadnought over there certainly has piqued my interest."

"I'm guessing that you're heading over to it, right Cloud?" Trifle guessed as Cloud nodded. "Then I'll go with you, if you don't mind."

"Of course not." Cloud replied with a small smile as he and Trifle made their way to the topside of the planet to get into a Launch Star and fly off to the Dreadnought, while the rest of Trifle's team remained on the starting planet as they noticed two Launch Stars behind them. Link and Pikachu went to the Launch Star on the left, taking them to a large UFO, while Shulk and Min Min went to the one on the right, leading them to the Mini Wanwan Path planet.

At the Mini Wanwan planet, the duo used the Bolt Lift to cross a gap and saw many Flipswitch Panels on the path's hill complete with Mini Wanwans rolling down. Shulk first decided to use Monado Shield on him and Min Min so that they could step on the Flipswitch Panels unharmed by the Mini Wanwans and deactivate the electric fences, and then they used more Bolt Lifts to navigate ahead, where Min Min used her Ramram ARM to rebound the coconuts spat out from the Octopuses to defeat them. This caused a bridge to lower and it led them to the Launch Star, as they blasted off to the Cannon Fleet Path.

Meanwhile, at the UFO, Pikachu used a Quick Attack to get up to the Sling Star above the Spring Topman while Link noticed a Warp Pipe from underneath the UFO, to where he curiously went inside and was taken to Dreadnought's version of the Ammo Depot from Battlerock Galaxy… so you know exactly how Link dealt with this trash problem again if you recall what he did last time, and after this, he earned himself a Power Star from the Gearmo and flew off.

Cutting over to Trifle and Cloud…

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting a dreadnought to have a gravity zone inside of it." Cloud said once they arrived at the Tower planet via a Warp Pipe.

"I mean, we're in space after all." Trifle stated as they proceeded to go up by using the Spring Topmen to launch themselves to the upper levels and do some wall jumping between two moving walls at the top, reaching the Launch Star that took them to a cubic planet where the Eye Beamers flipped over to shine their laser beams to the planet. Trifle and Cloud carefully moved around the laser beams to get to the Sling Star and land on the Aqua planet.

There, they saw a Power Star right in front of them but couldn't reach it. So they went down as Cloud noticed a water spray inside a cage and destroyed it with Cross Slash, making the planet flood with water. However, more Eye Beamers showed up as well and began shining down their laser beams towards the planet while moving around. Trifle and Cloud saw that the topside of the Eye Beamers could work as platforms, and thus they would get on top of one of them and ride it to the other ones until they reached the platform with the Power Star.

"Too easy." Cloud simply said and then he and Trifle flew off.

Moving back to Shulk and Min Min…

"There! I can see the Star!" Shulk pointed to the Power Star right above a Jump Beamer while they were nearing the end of the Lift ride across the Dreadnought's cannon barrage.

"Well, it's about time!" Min Min said as she was repelling some cannonballs with her Ramram ARM, and when the Lift finally stopped moving, she and Shulk first jumped over the shockwaves coming from the Jump Beamer and then she used ARMS Jump to leap up to the Star. "Got it!" she exclaimed.

"Nice one!" Shulk complimented and they both took off.

Going back to Pikachu…

[BGM: A Tense Moment – Super Mario Galaxy]

"Odd, why does this place look familiar…?" Pikachu wondered after he landed at the bottom of Topmaniac's Saucer before making his way to the topside while avoiding the Spiky Topmen and electric fences, and then he went up the stairs to reach Topmaniac's arena where he came across Topmaniac itself coming down in front of him.

[BGM: King Kaliente – Super Mario Galaxy]

"So you're back again?" Pikachu questioned, but Topmaniac didn't say anything. "…Still silent as ever, I see. Well, I'm up for round two!" he challenged, his cheeks crackling with electricity.

Topmaniac went after Pikachu, but he ran out of the way and shot a Thunder Jolt at it to stun it in place while its spikes retreated, giving Pikachu the chance to hit it with Skull Bash and knock it into the electric fence. Topmaniac recovered and bounced back to try to hit Pikachu, but he ran out of the way again and this time launched an Electro Ball at it to immediately send it to the electric fence without having to stun it. Topmaniac jumped back again and summoned two Spiky Topmen to aid it, only for Pikachu to simply ignore them as he charged his body with electricity, and…

"PIKA…CHUUUUUUUUUUUU!" he yelled, unleashing Thunderbolt to shove Topmaniac into the electric fence one last time and destroy it.

[BGM End]

The two Spiky Topmen disappeared into a puff of smoke by Topmaniac's defeat, and a Power Star came out from its destroyed remains.

"Yeah!" Pikachu cheered as he took the Star, and then flew off.

At Snow Cap Galaxy…

[BGM: Ice Mountain – Super Mario Galaxy]

This galaxy comprises two planets, where it is perpetually snowing on the main one and depositing a white mat of snow on several portions on the ground. For an extra touch, the background of this galaxy features an aurora. The twins Jack and Eira landed on the starting planet, which was just a glass orb.

"Oooh, this is a rather peaceful galaxy!" Eira beamed.

"It sure is, sister." Jack said with a smile as they found the Sling Star and flew off together to the main planet, landing in front of three Star Bunnies.

"Let's play chase!" one of them chirped. "Can you catch us all, boiyoing?"

[BGM: Chase the Bunnies! – Super Mario Galaxy]

All three Bunnies immediately hopped off and disappeared. "Oh great, this is gonna be a nightmare." Jack sweatdropped. "We don't even have any Fire-Type Pokémon with us…"

"Brother, did you forget that our powers aren't limited to just ice?" Eira winked playfully at him. "We can manipulate snow too!"

"Ah, right…" Jack chuckled and then he and Eira closed their eyes and slowly lifted their hands, causing all of the snow around the planet to hover and reveal two of the three Bunnies and a few Flipswitch Panels, and with a swift movement from their arms, all of the snow dispersed, leaving the entire planet snow-less.

"There we go!" Eira exclaimed. "But we better be quick, since it's still snowing in this planet."

"Got it." Jack nodded as he went to go retrieve the two exposed Bunnies, while Eira went to step on the Flipswitch Panels to uncover the third Star Bunny that was hiding in the other hand of the planet. After getting the two Bunnies, Jack spotted the last one that his sister just uncovered and went after it, catching all three of them.

[BGM End]

"I can't believe you caught all of us!" the last caught Star Bunny whined. "I give up! Here, take this Star, boiyoing!" it gave them the Power Star as Jack took it.

"Thanks. Let's be off, sis." Jack said, with Eira nodding in response and they both flew off.

To be continued…

I'll be honest, I was having a little trouble deciding which of these galaxies (Matter Splatter, the three galaxies in the Planet of Trials, and Snow Cap) I would cover up at the end of this chapter while the rest would be done offscreen since the next chapter will only feature Melty Molten, the last Prankster Comets and the Gateway's Stars. After some thought, I was like, "Okay, I can left out Matter Splatter since there isn't any water for Neri, and so the progression would be just like in the original game. The Planet of Trials... eh, they would be just like the progressions of Loopdeeloop (which was ALSO done offscreen), Bubble Breeze and Rolling Green. So I guess that leaves Snow Cap."

I also had fun working on the rematches against Kamella and Topmaniac, with Kamella's battle being more magic-based since the Dragon Quest Heroes are also magic wielders, while for Topmaniac I had Pikachu use stronger moves against it since he already knew what to do to defeat it.

Just a few more Power Stars to go! The rest of them shall be obtained at the next chapter! Until then!

Trivia for this chapter:

1. Deep Dark Galaxy is very infamous for being the galaxy that features a lot of secrets and glitches, ranging from being able to see the underground room in the distance at several parts of the level, glitching through the blue-roofed house at the Scale Down Relay planet, long-jumping around that same planet as it shrinks, and even clipping through the floor at the main planet to swim out of bounds.