NOTES: Well, it's the three year anniversary on this series! It's crazy to think that when I started this series 3 years ago, my original intent was to post a 3-4K word "story" that was nothing more than a basic description and timeline of the world according to my headcanon, but I decided to go down a story route with visions of the past instead. I'm so glad I went down this route, hah. Thanks for the support, and I hope this is as fun to read as it was to write!
Now, let's get caught up with some characters we haven't checked in on for awhile.
Ice Land's government changed twice since the protests, once to a short-term provisional government, and the other to a pro-Dark Land regime, but even these upheavals couldn't quell the ongoing protests. Their targets changed from the government to each other. With a common enemy gone, they once again focused on their differences between supporting the Magikoopa East or the Darklandian West, or moving the capital from Darklandian-friendly White Ice City to Magikoopa-friendly Glacier City.
The former Icelandian Spring turned into Icelandian Winter, killing any hopes of a budding free, democratic, compromising government.
Nothing related the two conflicting parties to each other anymore. They threw away the concepts and common beliefs of their nation the moment they ousted Peach's cronies from power. They saw each other as foreign-funded adversaries needing to be removed. Neither wanted to compromise with their former compatriots they dehumanized.
Dark Land knew this. The Magikoopas knew this. But neither wanted to do anything more than back militias, or in Dark Land's case, their puppet regime. They didn't want to appear as distasteful in the populace's eyes with an invasion, and both have their eyes and their troops on Desert Land's border, ready to invade on a moment's notice.
But Ice Land's citizens didn't know the full scope, nor did they care. They wanted their lives to improve—to get out from the deepening depression the recent stock market crash and political turmoil caused.
Both White Ice City and Glacier City catered to the populist protesters, albeit in day-and-night differences. In White Ice Castle, the Crystal King paced around his throne room. Ever since Junior installed him into power, the King tried everything both he and his advisors could think of to unite the Land, but the East refused his every move. He did the same with the East's illegitimate government's commands—they legally weren't a country.
A mushroomer advisor bursted into the throne room, his face scrunched and his arms waving in panic.
"Your Majesty!" the flustered toad shouted, "A massive blizzard is moving south through Ice Land!"
The Crystal King rubbed his chin, "Of course there's a blizzard. It's Ice Land in November."
"This isn't a regular blizzard! This blizzard has extremely high winds and extremely low temperatures with it! This could cause power outages, and people could die from these cold temperatures!"
The King's eyes widened. The last thing his administration needed was a massive scandal.
"Get every governor and mayor to open their warming centers and make sure they have enough fuel! Include the Eastern provinces in that too!" the king commanded, "We need to put out a public announcement for the people too!"
The advisor nodded and hurried out. The Crystal King sighed. If he and his Western governors manage this calamity well enough, he could gain the entire Land's trust.
The Mushroom Province: a special administrative region in Grass Land used by the Mushroom Kingdom to centralize the kingdom's operations. The province hosted two vital cities: Toad Town, its political capital, and Mushroom City, its financial center. Despite the Magikoopas' takeover of the eastern lands, including the province, the status quo stood. Mushroom City boomed, as if no war occurred outside their cosmopolitan bubble.
But Flint Cragley knew better. His journalistic research into Jolene's random disappearances dug up dirt even he could barely stomach. That led him to be abducted to Madoso, where even the advanced technology couldn't hide the entire plan's rotting core. Council wanted to push a new world order, and they wanted to loot the assets from everyone who wasn't part of their conspiracy. Why else were they all trapped on Madoso?
But how could he whistleblow the situation without being brushed off as a conspiratorial loony? How could any criticism be handled without the Elites pushing everything out of view? Or does his journalist senses need to be recalibrated? He could always seek refuge in his native Flipside...
Flint mumbled his thoughts as he continued walking down Mushroom City's business district. He passed the Mushroom Exchange—the stock market's up by over four percent, but is nowhere near the levels before September's major crash. He paused at the Exchange's revolving doors. This is it. This building's the centerfold of the conspiracy. This building provided the funding Council depended on. It can't be a coincidence that the HQ collapsed the moment the stock market did. So, why is political turmoil still occurring even with a recovering economy? Was the unrest intentional, or unwanted fallout from the derailed conspiracy?
He pulled out a notepad and a pencil, and jotted his thoughts down. He wanted to research more and to connect the scattered dots.
But as he finished his research question, a tremor beneath him knocked him off his feet.
Screams resonated from the streets as passerbys rushed from every direction, desperate to seek some sort of shelter. Flint looked up at the skyline and noticed the buildings sway to and fro.
He kept a cool composure during the mess—journalism taught him to swallow his fears—but his innate sense of horror overtook him as the earthquake only intensified and one of the skyscrapers near him buckled. He turned around to an older skyscraper tilting toward the Mushroom Exchange—each violent shake pushed the teetering skyscraper, until one last shake caused the skyscraper to collapse into the Exchange.
Crashes and bangs rang from the damaged Exchange as dust rose in the air. By then, the earth stood still. He felt like he was trapped in a slow motion, black-and-white film with dulled audio. Horrid screams—including his own—and sirens replaced the crumbling foundations' ghastly echoes. Paramedics entered the damaged buildings and wheeled out survivors one by one. Flint looked around, at a loss of what to do. Not only did the city need to worry about invasions, but also cleaning up from this destructive tremor. The stock market collapsed yet again—this time literally—severing the city's monetary supply.
Flint looked back at his dirtied notepad clutched inside his shaky hands. He only hoped that whichever side wins and rules over him—they can at least provide relief efforts and stability.
Captain Syrup lounged on the SS Tea Cup's upper deck. She always took the oceans for granted until her abduction into the Society—now she'd rather be on her ship than anywhere else, especially now with a dozen bags of valuable diamonds from Diamond Isle resting on either side of her.
A large bird stood guard by her, glaring at the sky as if an invisible threat loomed. The bird's magenta feathers rustled as a salty gust pushed the ship towards Kitchen Island. Like Captain Syrup, the bird loved to be on the sea, and luckily for him, Council never needed to initiate him.
"Bobo," Captain Syrup called to the bird, "You can rest, y'know."
Bobo squawked, as if dissatisfied with the command.
"I didn't tell you not to guard," the pirate shrugged, "It's just not as necessary. Wario's out of commission, and the other Black Sugar Gang mutinied and now raid the northern isles."
The bird fluffed his feathers and puffed up his chest.
"Well, I'm glad someone's still loyal," Syrup sighed, "I love being on the ocean, but something bothers me about not being at the HQ."
Bobo angled his head.
"Long story short: I was forced to join a society. I was responsible for spying on people, and committing whichever crime fits the Society's needs. Y'know, stuff we do here," Syrup explained, "Obviously, I was the best thief, liar, and sneak there, but someone else made me actually try to win. I usually don't because it just comes naturally. His name's Larry, and we became rivals after that. Rivals, as in Wario-level."
Bobo uttered another squawk.
"I can't stop thinking about that win, or about him. Nobody ever came that close to outsmarting me. That's why I've been thinking about Larry lately. I feel like we could both learn from each other. Us three could raid islands together. Stuff like that," Syrup sat up and stared at the ocean, "Pathetic, right? Why am I thinking about other people? Especially other threats?"
Bobo flapped his wings—his alternative to a shrug.
"Me neither. My treasure's never getting split again. It's all mine… And yours."
Captain Syrup laid back down on the deck, her eyes closed. She sighed in content as the wind rushed over her. The favorable tides returned, and they pushed the boat towards Kitchen Island's Rice Beach.
Her eyes shot open. The tides were too favorable. She sprung up and peered at the coastline. A large wave developed between her and the shore, and it rushed towards the shore with vengeance. The wave didn't break as it neared the shore—it instead slammed into Rice Beach, wiping out every beachfront cabin in sight.
"Bobo! Readjust the mast! I'll steer!" Captain Syrup shouted, "We need to get back out to sea!"
The bird tugged the mast's rope with its beak until it aligned with the wind to blow the ship back out to sea. Captain Syrup returned to the hull and steered the ship. She took one last glance at Kitchen Island—only Mount Teapot remained above water, and its once-grand altitude only appeared as a pathetic atoll.
"Tsunami," Captain Syrup exhaled. She experienced enough tsunamis to know that the deep ocean's the safest area to avoid one. The tsunami will be gone at any time, but she knew Kitchen Island will need more than the treasure she stole on this voyage just to repair everything. She shrugged—she could just steal more.
All that matters is rebuilding Kitchen Island, and more importantly, they're alive.
Toadbert wandered deep within Dimble Wood. Despite being on Western Giant Land's fringes, he never explored the forest. Dimble Wood and its exotic mushrooms never recovered from its heinous reputation after the blorbs epidemic struck Toad Town, and Toadbert was no exception to that disgust.
But other factors outweighed his fears. He was curious about Dimble Timber's operations, and who runs the corporation. He settled numerous deals with Dimble Timber while he oversaw the Rainbow Castle's renovations, but he never made contact with anyone except the deliverers.
The forest acted as a maze—the more Toadbert explored anything, from its literal paths to its history and economic activity, the more lost he felt in this expanse.
Maybe he needed to straighten his mind and think everything through. Toadbert shrugged—he might as well try.
He sat on a bare boulder and focused only on the forest's outermost surface. The green trees. The dense forest canopy. The birds' tweets and the bugs' buzzes.
Toadbert closed his eyes and inhaled. The spruces filled the air, as if nature's air freshener strived to cleanse Toadbert's mind from the artificial atrocities in the world. He held his breath before he exhaled. He repeated the process, until he entered his meditative mindset.
His thoughts flashed before his eyes. Concerns, invention ideas, personal relationships; they all zoomed around in an empty room within his mind, represented as bouncing balls. He grabbed each ball, prioritized them, and set them in a neat row. Before he could further study the balls, another ball appeared and bounced with more momentum than any of the previous balls did. Toadbert squinted at the ball and saw a faint "FIRE!" written on its surface.
Toadbert's eyes shot open. Smoke billowed around him, and the sickening smell of charred wood invaded the air. He looked around, his eyes wide and arms shaking. He felt hotter than he did, but he didn't see any fire around him; was the smell and the warmth from his fear?
He didn't have time to answer the question, nor did he want the fire to prove otherwise. He jetted from the rock and tried his best to backtrack. By now, his boots made the forest's only sounds, reminiscent of an old, corny horror film.
The smoke followed Toadbert, and embers threatened to ignite the brush around him. He sprinted towards the Cavi Cape Plateaus nearby, and climbed the steep trail. He reached the top and stopped to catch his breath.
He approached the cliff overlooking the forest, and he panicked once again. Beneath the blanket of smoke, vengeful orange flames burned through the green canopy. The fire's crackling and heat engulfed him, as if the blaze a half-kilometer away directly threatened him. He needed to keep moving; the fire won't stop.
As he sped through the plateaus, the fire and Dimble Timber kept running through his mind. How did the fire spread this quickly? Why didn't he notice smoke before? Was the fire accidental, or did an arsonist start it? Did a lightning strike cause the fire, or was the fire meant to cover something up? He didn't see any thunderheads, unless he meditated for longer than he realized.
Everything about the conspiracy left a disgusting taste in his mouth. At this point, he'd be surprised over any disaster that didn't involve the elites.
"Larry?!"
Toadette, Peach, Dixie, and Daisy rushed after Lemmy. Kylie wondered: was Larry here for her? He didn't join the others while she was at the castle, but they did everything they could to find him and bring him in. She shrugged and followed them, her curious journalist side preventing her from thinking about her safety.
"Yeah! He's back, and…" Lemmy trailed off. He shook his head, as if he lost his train of thought, "It's easier to just see."
The characters took the elevator up to the top floor, ran down the corridor, and exited the bunker. Outside, a giant sandstorm swarmed the base, raining sand down onto the characters. They shielded their eyes with their hands, and took every chance they could to make out the figure standing amid the storm. His blue Mohawk blew with the wind, but he otherwise seemed unfazed. His eyes were closed as he held a glowing wand in his right hand.
"Larry!" Peach cried out, "He's abusing the Elemental Wand!"
Lemmy nodded, "Roy and Morton are abusing theirs too. Roy was telling me about it a few weeks before they discovered Larry. He said I'd regret not joining them…"
"What do they want with this place?" Dixie asked, "There's nothing here! Uhh, no offense to you or Toadette or anyone."
"No, you're right," Lemmy sighed, "But they said they needed this place for their plans."
The kong scowled. "What plans?"
Lemmy didn't answer. Instead, a voice boomed, its tone like a dozen echoing voices thrown into one, and like each grain of sand, the voice's sharpness pierced the characters.
"You will see soon, because we now have the power," the voice said. The characters looked around until they realized the voice came from Larry, "The Four Wands are now united in our goal. Anyone who tries to stop us will be put down."
Lemmy scowled, "Snap out of it, Larry! You're hurting people!"
"No! This system has been hurting people!" Larry growled, "People are already being needlessly sacrificed!"
"But power isn't infinite."
"You're naive, Lemmy..." Larry said, "Five thousand years. Five thousand years per magikoopa sacrifice, Lemmy. How did the magikoopa population explode, but that number remained the same? The sacrifice is fake."
Lemmy shrugged, "Maybe it's fake. Maybe it isn't. But your solution is to kill everyone who's against power overreach? And I'm the naive one?"
"Changing our broken system requires the other three wands. The true regulators are the other wands, which we have."
"But, look around you!" Lemmy begged, "The storm! The flying things! This isn't balance! This is unmonitored chaos!"
"It's not balanced because you and Dark Land are in the way. Once we have the seven Star Children, we can end the sacrifice and create a better world!"
This time, Peach gasped at Larry's declaration. "Star Children? What? What do we do?"
"That's for Kammy to figure out," Larry pointed his wand at Peach, "Now hold still, I need to capture you!"
Vines shot from the ground and wrapped around Peach—she struggled to free herself, but to no avail. Daisy, Toadette, and Kylie fought back the vines, while Dixie glared at Larry.
"You jerk! You'll pay for doing that to my friends!"
Dixie pointed her laser gun at Larry, but the vines from Peach choked the laser gun and shattered it. The vines wrapped around Dixie, and the kong wiggled in desperation.
"You'll pay for this! You hear me! You'll rue this day!" Dixie shouted just before the vines overcame her.
The vines spread to Daisy and Kylie, and they choked out the duo after a pitiful fight. Only Lemmy and Toadette remained. They both stared at Larry—Toadette with fear, but Lemmy with wrath.
"This has gone on for way too long, Larry!" Lemmy felt his small, usually-concealed fangs bear themselves. His teeth gritted and fists clenched around his koopa wand, Lemmy released a beam at Larry. The beam struck him, but the koopaling didn't even flinch.
"That's all you got?" Larry snickered at Lemmy's dejection, "You really are pathetic."
"At least I don't need to kill people to do magic!"
Larry smirked. "You're too cute. I want to toy with you more, but I have things to do, and I need you locked up and away from our plans."
"Bring it!" Lemmy crossed his arms, his scowl still painted on his face. Fright panged every part of his mind and his emotions, but he refused to appear weak before Larry.
The younger koopaling shrugged. "Your call."
Larry held up his wand, but before Lemmy could comprehend the setting, something dense whacked his head. He fell on the ground, and he heard both Toadette yelp and Larry cackling before unconsciousness seeped in.
"Iggy! How does my crown look?"
Wendy strutted through the doomship's cockpit, modeling her pink-gold designer crown. Iggy steered the doomship as it flew through the Darklandian skies, navigating to Roy's last recorded location. They led a fleet of at least thirty doomships, each packed with minions and each ready to provide backup in the boneyard.
"Crown? For what?" Iggy asked, his eyes still peeled on the doomship's windscreen.
"For when I'm Queen of Dark Land, duh!" Wendy stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Queen of Dark Land?!" Iggy cringed, "You're marrying Junior?"
Wendy recoiled. "Eww! You're such a gross pervert!" her mouth gaped at the comment. She placed her hand on her hip, all to prevent her from chucking the crown at Iggy's smug face, "Someone has to lead the kingdom during a war, buddy! Plus, my businesses were liquidated like everything else anyway!"
"I'm just saying, that's the only way to legitimately become a queen unless the king's gone…"
"Gone… In a crystal, perhaps?" Wendy straightened up, "What happened to Junior anyway?"
Iggy looked up from the map and shrugged. "I've never seen that kind of magic before, but he was out cold."
Wendy hummed at the answer. She was concerned about Junior's well-being, but she must focus on securing Dark Land from any threat, whether Roy or the Magikoopan troops on the other side of Desert Land.
"Remember just before Junior's coronation, when we said we should be open with the people?" Wendy asked, "What do we tell them now?"
"Dunno. Once we capture Roy, then we could probably force something out of him. The old dungeon scares even him. We'll just lock him there until he tells us everything from defeating the magikoopas to releasing Junior."
"Okay… I hope this works."
"It'll work, don't worry!" Iggy grinned.
The duo flew in silence, other than the intercom's occasional buzz-ins from the other doomships. Amid the tranquil flight, the duo noticed volcanic eruptions in the distance, their dark clouds immersing the then-grey skies.
"Huh?" Iggy glared at the eruptions, "We don't have active volcanoes this far north in Dark Land. They're all down south. These volcanoes are supposed to be extinct."
"Well, they're clearly erupting, aren't they?" Wendy scoffed, "What's going on, Iggy?!"
"This must be magic," Iggy voiced, "There's no other explanation!"
"You think it relates to Junior's little crystal thing?" Wendy asked, "Because-"
Another volcano erupted just below the doomship, spewing chunks of ash onto the doomship fleet. Wendy and Iggy, who barely escaped unscathed, stared behind them in horror as the other doomships crashed to the ground, each blanketed in the burning ash.
"Holy!" Iggy swore, "What the hell?!"
"We gotta go to Roy and get out of here before that happens to us too!"
"Do you reckon it's a good idea? We lost our fleet."
"He's one guy! If everything fails then we can just shoot bullet bills at him!"
"I prefer him alive," Iggy rejected the idea, "But I suppose you made your point. Let's do this."
Morton lay in the rainbow castle's courtyard, refusing to move even a muscle. His energy drained from him like the primitive MIDST prototypes that cursed the Complex's early stages. He knew that Kammy, Roy, and Larry will finish Dark Land within days, and the entire thing would be over by then, but Morton didn't want the strife to end that way.
He needed to expel what little energy he had into thinking over everything. What are Kammy's overall plans? She originally wanted to remove the Spirit Wand's insatiable hunger for magikoopa sacrifice, but how much further will she go? What will be the resulting fallout from ending the sacrifices? Did Roy and Larry consent to everything? Were they blackmailed? Possessed? If so, what caused them to be possessed, and can it be reversed?
But reality struck him. Even if Roy and Larry joined by force, that won't change the fact that Morton willingly joined and guided everyone into this quagmire. He dragged Larry back to Plit, knowing full well he'd cause Elemental imbalance. Morton exhaled; he's a despicable traitor to his planet, to his wand, and to his family. He and Kammy shared responsibility in this carnage, and that thought alone wrenched Morton's gut. But, he reasoned, he knew Kammy and the others would force a Cosmic practitioner into their plans, and Morton knew only one other person capable enough to meet Kammy's criteria.
Morton looked up at the stars. The meteors streaked the sky, as if the Cosmos wept for him—whether at his betrayal or at his steadfast vow of protection. He's doing this to protect them. He's doing this to protect her. She's pure, while he was bred to be evil from the start. She's the kindest, most selfless person he met, while he's a cursed koopa from a cursed bloodline. He could fulfill his evil purpose just to protect her righteous one.
Only that mantra kept him going through this nightmare.
Change.
The word alone was enough to cause Roy to seethe. He always hated change in any avenue, especially change in his way of life, and change in his inner circle.
But ideology warred in his mind—a vicious battle between Kammy's perfect world and Roy's perfect-enough life. A battle between balance and sacrifice. He was always too nationalistic to support any revolution against Dark Land, so why is he fighting his Land now? He always supported the people he cared about, so why is he turning on them? He always went with what he wanted to do, so why is he destroying his life just to accomplish some vague goal?
The past few months were a jumbled mess, and Roy's mind was exhausted from unraveling each sickening string. He never had to think about moral questions in his thirty years of life, and he felt unequipped and unprepared for fate's test. At what point does ideology trump family? When should society's interests come before his personal desires?
He knew the Koopalings couldn't ever be separated, else they'd all be weak. But when his other siblings reject what's best for the world, would he truly be on the moral high ground if he blindly followed them? Would he allow corruption and imbalance to continue just to selfishly side with them? And what would they have to lose in a balanced world?
And Kylie… Roy sighed as he thought about how he slaughtered her emotions. He wished that she knew he was trying to protect her, and that he would never harm her in any way. He wished she could understand why the path he's traversing is the best for a functioning world. But his love for her also made him question his beliefs, albeit for a split second.
He surveyed the grim boneyard. He knew everything was dead, but as his wand glowed, he sensed countless spirits congregating in the boneyard. Roy wanted to dump his predicaments onto the spirits and hear their wisdom and opinions, but he knew the spirits didn't care about his personal struggles. All they cared about is the Spirit Wand and pleasing its holder. They're simple yes-men rather than harsh therapists.
Roy dug deeper within his powers, where he sensed a barrage of screams. He mastered Spirit magic enough to put a face to each scream, and to observe their struggles. He saw the Crystal King dealing with a blizzard. Flint and the earthquake. Captain Syrup and the tsunami. Countless other faces and scenes appeared alongside their shrieks, and they all fast-forwarded through his mind.
Wendy and Iggy came into his mind, and Roy immediately focused on the memory. Their fleet headed northwest—Roy assumed they're coming to arrest him—but the volcanic ash wiped out their entire crew. Wendy and Iggy continued as the lone doomship, and their memories were a mix between frightened emotions and how to capture Roy—Roy snickered at their ambitious ideas.
The koopaling lounged on a bone pile as he observed the spiritual plane. They were more restless than they were months ago—Roy blamed Junior's revolutions, wars, and contempt towards a sacrifice-free society. Roy even blamed the Yoshnors he created, but those were to round up those against balance rather than to cause the unbalance.
He knew he had to make up for this current instability for the spirits.
An engine's woosh echoed around Roy, breaking him from his trance. A shadow overcame the boneyard as a doomship lowered to the ground, its helm pointed at him. From within the cockpit, Wendy and Iggy glared at Roy.
"You're surrounded, Roy! Now give up!" The doomship amplified Wendy's voice.
Roy smirked. He knew the truth, simply from reading Iggy's mind. She's bluffing—they only have one doomship left.
"Wow. Not even a hello to your favorite brother, Sis?" Roy teased. Wendy only scowled.
"We repeat! You're surrounded!" Iggy impatiently repeated his sister.
Roy snickered. "Am I supposed to be afraid? C'mon, Iggy. You're a wimp, not stupid. I'm supposed to be the stupid one."
He saw Wendy and Iggy whisper to each other. He honed in on their minds, but he was barraged by a slew of nonsense and high-paced thoughts. He couldn't decipher anything, but he knew they were panicking.
"We have an entire army waiting for you!" Wendy tried her best intimidating voice, "You're outnumbered, Roy!"
"Nah Sis, I like it here," Roy shook his head, "And I can easily destroy your army. Larry did a great job destroying the other doomships, and I can do the rest."
"First of all, that was from a volcano, not from Larry. Second of all, thanks for confirming that he's just another traitor. Third of all, how'd you know?" Iggy questioned.
"I have my ways," Roy shrugged. He forgot they didn't have any knowledge about the Sages or the Wands, "But maybe it's a good thing, just so you'll feel less humiliated by me beating one doomship instead of all of them."
Roy grinned at his comment, but it didn't amuse either Wendy or Iggy. The two Koopalings unsheathed the doomship's bill blasters and aimed them at Roy. Several koopa troopas, hammer brothers, and sledge brothers leaked from the doomship, each eying their former king in contempt.
His mind snapped back to boos. To dry bones. To the Forest of Illusion in Dinosaur Land. All came into existence because of Spirit magic, and all either handled their enemies or mentally scarred them with trauma. Roy had to keep his guard up when he conquered that forest during that kidnapping trip—lest he'd become more insane than Iggy—and that resulted in Roy being more attuned to the magic.
He refocused on the Spirit Wand: the Wand's tip illuminated brighter than any time Roy could remember, including from the Yoshnor creations.
"Fine. You want to fight with an army, then I'll bring one too!" he held up the Wand and commanded, "Rise up, Bone Army!"
The wind speed increased through the boneyard, just enough to pick up the scattered bones and form them into coherent walking dry bones. Roy noticed Wendy and Iggy gape in terror as the thousands of skeletons came back to life and targeted the doomship. The doomship's armies targeted the skeletons, but every time one got destroyed, it regenerated without harm.
"Now do you see what Spirit magic can do?" Roy shook his head, "Bone Army: invade the doomship and trap the two prisoners!"
The army meandered toward the doomship, quick enough for the two koopalings to panic, but slow enough for the doomship to lift off. The doomship hovered from the ground with no problem… Until the dry bones all threw their tibias at the four engines. Roy winced as the bone shredding's horrid pitch pierced his ears, then as the damaged engines clunked and squeaked. The sounds' pace slowed, until the doomship landed and all engines stopped altogether.
He stared into the doomship's windshield. Wendy's passed out by now, while Iggy ferociously pressed every button on the dashboard. Roy smirked—two of the movement's three biggest adversaries were cornered.
'Morton,' Roy explored the spiritual plane until he connected with Morton's spirit, 'I have Iggy and Wendy. Teleport them away.'
'Cool, I'll pick them up. I should be there right about… Now.'
Roy's eyes didn't leave the doomship even as Morton appeared beside him. He only watched as Iggy panicked even more as the dry bones invaded the doomship before Iggy also passed out from fear.
"Uhh, why are you in the boneyard?" Morton asked. Then he observed the scene, "Oh. Duh."
"Yeeeeah. Getting ready to mobilize an army sucks. Why do it when I can summon my own and trap Junior and those two into false victory?" Roy shrugged.
"I like your thinking," Morton held his wand up, "I'll take the prisoners back to the castle."
"Wait," Roy interrupted. Morton lowered his wand and stared at him, "I know what we're doing is best for the world, but sometimes I just doubt. But whenever I doubt, I doubt those doubts…"
Roy cringed at his terribly-worded concern—he never excelled at speech unless it was to tease or demean. He was afraid Morton noticed, because the younger koopaling shook his head.
"You know you're doing the right thing? How do you know that, Roy?"
"Well…" Roy never thought deeper than the "no sacrifices" portion.
"I'm not questioning you. I'm just saying that everything comes with a sacrifice, and sometimes the sacrifices are too great. You think you know what's best, but your intuition disagrees."
Roy only looked at the ground. He sought clarification from Morton, but he only made the situation worse.
"Remember reading about Isle Delfino's Revolution against their king long ago? The rebels did a bunch of messed up crap, but they stood for change, more openness, and more power for the people. Because of their core beliefs, they became much more civilized once the democratic government was established," Morton continued, "Sometimes, the ends justify the means. Other times, we become as barbaric as the monsters we fought. Think about where you are, Roy. Are you in the first group, or are you in the second? I'll leave it at that."
Roy nodded. He did like the question, even if it's one of the thousand questions his mind had to deal with. He turned to where Morton was, but the koopaling teleported into the doomship before Roy could thank him.
Morton grabbed the arms of both Wendy and Iggy, and teleported them from the scene. Roy wiped his forehead, waved the Spirit Wand, and the bones crumbled back to the earth. He knows he'll summon them again to do a final push for Caldera, whenever Kammy authorizes the operation.
But for now, Roy's once again alone with his thoughts. His rationale and his doubts butted heads, but for the first time, doubt had the upper hand. Was he really improving life, or is he only intensifying the world's suffering? Do the ends justify the means, or is he barbaric? But every time he hesitated against Kammy's plans, something from within only pushed him further into them.