It's (Not) All Your Fault

Vivian sighed, realizing she probably had been staring at the photo long enough. Beldam was probably wondering where she was and grew tired of waiting. Soon she'd come looking for her and if she found her sitting at a faraway tree just staring at a photo, she'd punish her for sure. Vivian tensed at the thought of being hurt like that again. She hid the photo and dust the white off of her then made her way back. She'd just have to tell Beldam that she couldn't find it.

She approached her sisters and took a deep breath. It was going to take a lot of nerve to tell Beldam what she was about to tell her now.

"Well?" Beldam asked as she sneered at her younger sister, "Did you find it? Hmm?"

"I…" Vivian rubbed her arms, and she didn't even have to say anything else after that. Beldam just knew, as she always did.

"I knew it! Of course, you wouldn't find it, you witless worm! This is why I never trust you with such things. You always screw it up! If she knew how clumsy you would be, she would never have let you see the light of day!"

Vivian sunk her head deep between her shoulders as if she were a dog tucking its tail between its legs. "I'm sorry Beldam… But I swear! I didn't have it to begin with!"

"Guh…" Marylin tried to interrupt so she could ease the tension between her sisters. She didn't like watching them fight like this.

"Silence, Marilyn!" Beldam said a little more calmly. She turned back at Vivian with another scowl. "I will not be talked back to by a lying, rebellious child such as yourself. You had only one job and you could not even do that! And now because of you we will never know what this Mario fellow will look like, and we won't have any chance of getting that map! This mission was important and meant a great deal of importance for you-know-who! Those fools back on the moon are a means to an end. This plan was perfect. And just as you always have, you've ruined it."

"Guh? Guh…" Marilyn again tried to calm Beldam down, but to little use.

"Beldam, don't say that… We still have plenty of chances. There's seven starts after…"

Beldam raised a hand as if to strike her but stopped. "Quiet! When we return back to the X-Naut base you will be punished for this!" Vivian broke down in tears. She knew this would happen. In her destress, the photo she took with Marty and his friends fell out and in front of Beldam. "What is this?"

Vivian looke dover and gasped. "Nothing! It's nothing Beldam!" She grabbed it to hide it but Beldam snatched it from her and looked at it.

"For shame, Vivian, is this what you were doing!? Were you even looking for the sketch!"

"O-of course I was!" Vivian replied, "I promise, I did! I really did! But they stopped to talk to me and… and they distracted me! I didn't mean to…"

"Oh, Vivian, it's just like you to dillydally along and forget that what you are doing is important! When we get back you're going through a world class punishment! Not only did you lose the sketch, but you also let strangers distract you form finding it! Hurry now! We must return to inform Grodus we failed. Or, more accurately, YOU failed."

"Beldam…" Vivian sobbed and fell back to the ground. When she looked back up to her sister, she saw something sticking out of the back part of her hat. "Wait a minute!" Vivian rushed up behind her sister and snatched the brown paper violently from Beldam's hat.

"What in the! What do you think you are…" Beldam saw the sketch in Vivian's hand and widened her wicked eyes. "The sketch!"

"Beldam! I TOLD you! And you blamed me for losing it… You had it this whole time!" Vivian screamed.

Beldam snatched it away from her with a red face of embarrassment and cleared her throat. "S-silence you twit. Now is not that time to be hung up in meaningless details! You found the sketch and that's what matters. I exempt you from your punishment…" Beldam looked the sketch over, but Vivian rolled her eyes.

Marilyn took the sketch and started looking at it with different angles. She wore a big grin and started to drool a little. "Guuh huuh…"

"Oh, give me that, you'll soil it, looking like that. Now! We must study this sketch carefully…"

"Guh," Marilyn affirmed, putting on her serious face then looked at it with more analytical eyes. "Huuuh?" She could have sworn she had actually seen this face before now.

Beldam blushed as she looked at the well-illustrated sketch of their target. "Wow! …I say, the princess has a deft hand to her, this Mario guy looks so manly."

"And those eyes…" Vivian said staring dreamily at the piercing gaze of a man in overalls sitting on a brick block and leaning on his hammer. He was looking past the artist over to the left and though he wasn't smiling, she could tell he was happy and content where he was. Is this what Princess Peach thought of Mario? If so, then he must have been some guy.

"Yes, indeed, and that bushy mustache… how handsome!" Beldam looked the sketch over and hummed to herself. "You know something through, my lovelies… I swear I've seen this gentleman before…"

"Me…too…" Vivian agreed. She kept staring at those eyes. Those… eyes! Vivian internally screamed. Oh no! If Beldam remembers… if she finds out! Vivian turned to hopefully find that Beldam had absent mindedly dropped it somewhere or put it where she had forgotten it. But Marilyn beat her to it. No! Vivian raced to her side and calmly reached out, "Marilyn, can I have that back, please?"

Marilyn tilted her head and looked at the picture that Beldam had dropped on the ground. "Guh?"

"Just let me have it, only a second…" She reached to take it, but Beldam swiped it again causing Vivian's heart to sink.

"Marilyn what is this? What did I tell you about picking trash up off the ground?" She looked at the photo.

"Uh, Beldam, that's just scrap, I'll get rid of it!" Vivian volunteered trying to take it back.

"Hold it!" Beldam pushed her back by her face then looked at the photo then the sketch. She went back and forth several times and a blizzard started to form around her head. She was furious and both Marilyn and Vivian were backing up. "GrrrrrrRRRR, VIVIAN!" Vivian was so certain she was off the hook at last… but alas, she was too snagged to be free. "This is entirely your fault! I will be dealing you with STRICT punishment after this, my dear sister! Oh yes, I will!"

"WHAT!?" Vivina screamed, "But that… that's not fair! You're the one who had the…"

Beldam gripped both papers in her hands, "Silence! You impudent child! Don't cop that innocent attitude at me!"

Vivian dropped her arms. "Ugh… this is so unfair!"

"To think I was going to give back the shiny necklace you had found earlier… I was thinking about giving it back to you, but no! I will be withholding it from you a little longer."

Marilyn again started to feel a little sorry for her younger sister. "Guuuhh."

"Quiet Marilyn. Yes, I mean it, you won't be getting it back! Never!"

"Aww…," Vivian started to cry again.

"And since you are responsible for this you will be in charge of figuring out how we'll lure back this Mario fool! Afterall, you are such great friends with him, aren't you?" Beldam sneered waving the picture in front of her. Vivian reached out for it, but Beldam withdrew it and attempted to tear it apart with the sketch. The sketch tore easily but the sturdy polaroid photo withstood her assault. "What in the… how do you…" Beldam doubled her efforts to Vivian's dismay. It bent and warped but it refused to tear. "What is this made out of, plastic metal or something?" She tripled her efforts and the photo's display of strength encouraged Vivian. Maybe Beldam would give up and throw it away so she could collect it later. But there was no such luck as Beldam had thrown it on the ground and used her ice magic on it. Vivian gasped in shock and watched as Beldam puffed away. "I need a vacation…"

Marilyn watched the display then watched for her sister's next reaction. Vivian stared teary-eyed at the small ice pillar. Marylin attempted to lift the ice pillar so she could get the photo, but the photo was stuck inside of it. "Guh… uuh, guh?" She looked for a way past it, but Vivian ended up stopping her.

"Don't worry about it Marilyn… I'll get it… and figure something out… just… leave me alone."

Marilyn shuffled her hands then left Vivian behind the melt the ice so she could get the photo. She could barely see through it to view the photo. The Koopa's face was whited out by a bend and "Marty's" face was nearly erased as well. The goomba girl was lucky and so was the cute little her smile, just like the Koopa, it was all but erased by Beldam's attempts to tear it. Vivian continued to melt the ice down in hopes maybe the ice was just making the photo unclear. While it was stuck in there, she had hop that the photo wasn't as damaged as it looked. But knowing her luck, she'd find it in just as bad of a condition as she saw it now. Vivian sniffed and whipped her eyes clean. "What'll I do? What'll I do? Poor me…"