The Princess Sees Green, Chapter 7

            Seven knocks at the door sounded like a signal.

            Knock, knock.   Knock.  Knock. Knock, knock, knock.

            "I swear, if one more person bothers me today I'm going to get my ax.... Yes, who is it?"

            "Open the door, Mario!"

            The last person in the whole damned world he wanted to see now.  Wario.  Even though Mario wasn't up for another battle with his mercenary cousin, he opened the door anyway only for Wario to come rushing inside.

            "There's been a huge explosion at the castle!" Wario exclaimed waving his arms as he continued talking. "Dead guards all over the place..."

            Mario wasn't worried about this at all since he knew Luigi and Peach were safe in the war shelter.

            "And it's been reported to me that there's been a major collapse of the underground installation..."

            Mario turned around. "What?"

            "The secret passage beneath the castle...it's rubble now." Wario confirmed. "That seemed like a good idea you and Luigi had there...but there's rumor that someone you hired must have been working for the enemy, because the guards who managed to escape say there were bombs in the walls....and as far as Luigi and the princess....no one has seen them. I was told they were in a section that took very bad damage."

            If not for seeing it, the complete destruction of the castle would not have been believed. Nothing was left standing—not even its huge bell tower, and in the rubble were smoking hot spots popping up through the dust.

            Mario, with ax in hand, led Wario's Brotherhood of Latte Guardsmen into the site, weaving through cordoned off areas of police and firefighters (including some of the best firemen in the universe on loan from the FDNY) to reach his destination.

            "Here!" he stopped and shouted back to the guardsmen, and he raised his ax then slammed it into the smoldering leveled ground. "We start digging!"

            Early in the morning and late into the night, they dug. It would not end until Mario found his brother and the princess, and yes indeed, they had to be alive.

            "Luigi!" Toad yelled. "She's awake! Her eyes are opened!"

            Luigi quickly looked away from the spot he studied for looseness and went to join Toad at the princess' side. Her eyes were surely opened and she turned her head slightly to see him, at first looking almost like she didn't know him as he held her hand again and she squeezed his once more, this time very gently, then she spoke.

            "...everything is so dark in here, Luigi...and cold..."

            He could say nothing to that, knowing he and Toad had worked hard at making a bed of crushed rocks, and they had moved her there after cleaning the small wound on her head, keeping her above the water for just a little while but now it had risen up to that too.

            "Yes," Luigi said to the princess. "We don't have light right now, but we will. Don't you worry..."

            "No, we won't." said Peach. "We're trapped in here, I can see that."

            "Shhhh, just relax, Princess." Luigi touched her cheek that was still warm and tightened the blanket around her.

            "I can't move," she said. "Everything feels so numb, and Toad, you look like you're getting ready to cry. Please, don't, or you'll make me start crying and I don't want to do that."

            "Me?" went Toad. "I'm not going to cry, Princess. I'm fine. Luigi's doing everything he can to get us out and I know he will—"

            "Right there," Peach said suddenly. "I can see it.....it's hollow there....I can make an opening for the two you to get through...but you'd have to go fast...."

            Luigi looked at Toad and they both eyed the spot where Peach gazed and knew she must have been using her powerful extrasensory abilities to see the hollow, and if indeed it was there she would be able to use her magic to open it and they could escape, but it would depend upon her strength as to how long she could keep the passage open.

            "Princess, how long can you hold it?" asked Luigi.

            "You both could get through..." she answered weakly. "...but not me."

            "Yes, I'll carry you," Luigi insisted.

            "No, I can't promise—"

            "You'll do your very best regardless," Luigi insisted as the water began swirling around his thighs. "Toad, you go over there and soon as she opens it, you go through."

            Toad, who treaded water up to his neck, refused to move. "I cannot go without the princess!"

            "Go Toad..." Peach ordered him tiredly. "...And Luigi, I want you to go,"

            "Not without you. Now go ahead,"

            Peach didn't waste anymore time and focused on the hollow point in the rock, her mental connection making waves in the air that opened a small hole in the rock. The hole widened and Luigi surged forward to push Toad into it, and as he went back to get Peach out of the blanket and lifted her from the kneaded mound of crushed dirt that had been her bed, she began losing control of her powers.

            "I can't do it anymore...please, put me down, Luigi. I am your princess and I order you to put me down this instant and go without me!" she demanded in a voice not much louder than a whisper.

            He watched the hole shrink while holding her in his arms as water rushed around him, and the bottom of her dress had become sopping wet and the ends of her hair floated in it. The first thing on his mind now was saving her, so he pushed through the rising water to the hole and turned to get her inside, then it closed rapidly, almost like she'd done it on purpose.

            "..And I'll not go without you..." said Peach.

            "Please, no." he held her tightly in his arms. "Save yourself, my princess.. open it."

            "I can't.." tears rolled down her cheeks as she weakened. "..I can't open it again..."

            The cold water was now waist high. Toad's flashlight floated on its surface as Luigi carefully let Peach stand then he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her body to his.

            "Then so be it," he touched her cheek again then slightly raised her chin for a kiss, and he pulled away with a smile to combat her tears. "We are together, right?"

            Peach suddenly tightened her arms around him in fear and trembled, her heart thumped strong against his chest.

            "That's all right, Princess...here, rest your head on my shoulder and close your eyes...."

            The water swirled and lapped against the rocks in brisk motion as Luigi and Peach shared another kiss, and were joined not only physically but spiritually. One thing Luigi had to admit at last was that they were good together—he and Princess Peach Toadstool, as they had been lovers far longer than anyone suspected, even before Mario rescued her the first time.

            "Luigi...?" Peach whispered as the waters rose almost to her neck.. "I want you to hold me...just hold me until this is over..."

            He did that, cherishing the honor and grace of her royal blood, and she was then silent with him while gazing into his eyes.

            "I love you, my sweet princess," he finally admitted to himself and to her as she locked her arms around him and he held her tightly while the water continued to rise and was soon above their heads. Luigi was sure that he could hear the angels singing then, yet his angel was right there with him, and forever she would be his to keep, for they would remain true to each others hearts long after they took their last breath.

*

            This seemed to be a day for believing, more than ever before, in something beyond what was real. With the castle destroyed and so many of the kingdom's finest guards dead, Mario waited anxiously to see what the rescuers would bring from the huge pit in the ground. It had to be good news, he was thinking, because Toad had come out and told them all how Peach had used her magic to free him. Certainly she would have used that magic to save herself and Luigi as well.

            "Stop! Hold everything!" Wario called out to his troops.

            Mario heard his cousin shouting but then his interest shifted to a commotion going on behind him, and he was surprised when the guards stepped aside to allow a visitor come through.

            "Mario!"

            It was Princess Daisy.

            "I came soon as I could...  They told me Luigi's buried alive down there!..." then she saw the workers lowering a stretcher and pushed forward screaming, ".....Luigi!...."

            Mario held her back and watched closely to see what the men were bringing up. First there was a huge gush of water, and for a long time they were digging again and removing piles of heavy rock, then Mario was stunned by what came next, so stunned that he released Daisy's arm and went quickly to the area where the stretchers came up and he stood near the huge crater that had been dug out when they brought up the inundated body of his beloved brother Luigi, then Princess Toadstool, her beauty still with her but her life snuffed out by someone who had no regard for life whatsoever.

            "Weeeeggeeee!" Princess Daisy came crying and fell to her knees on the ground beside the stretcher.

            A sour taste formed inside Mario's mouth and ran down to the pit of his stomach and caused him to feel a combination of sadness and anger and emptiness and everything else that hurt like hell.

            "Mario?"

            He saw the yellow hue in the corner of his eyes but the lump in his throat wouldn't let him answer.

            "I...I don't know what to say..." said Wario. "Are you all right, Mario?"

            There was a gleam of bitter hatred for an unseen enemy in his eyes as he couldn't stop looking at his brother whose body was being tagged for a pending examination by the kingdom's coroner while Daisy continued crying on the ground and the body of the Mushroom Kingdom's perished princess was being wrapped with the Royal Cloth.

            "No. I'm not all right." Mario replied.

            "Oh," Wario was very careful with his words. "Well...I am extremely sorry for this, cousin...." Then suddenly he was moved to make a proclamation, raising an index finger into the air, "But we find who did this! And we go after them! And we kill them this way...no...even worse than this way!"

            Mario nodded and cut a vengeful eye at Wario, "Yes...we kill them worse than this way."

            Soon enough whoever did this would pay dearly. Mario would see to that if he had to kill with is own bare hands.

Next: The Princess Sees Green, Luigi's Revenge!

Stay Tuned!

A/N: Many thanks those who reviewed the first time around(well as whoever takes the time to review this time around)and gave their honest opinions. It really does help in the very, very, long run.  ^_^