Mario and Luigi arrived at the Sarasaland palace gates; both worried terribly about the princess.

Luigi gripped onto the steel bars of the gateway and tried to tug and swing it open with all his might.

"agggh!" He cried, frustration overpowering him as he let his defeat overcome all strength, and turn his body into a withering pile of human flesh, slumping down on the mud.

Mario saw the pain in Luigi, how he truly loved Daisy, if anything had ever killed her he would most likely act as Romeo and kill himself, or kill the person responsible for her death. It hurt the older Mario to see his younger sibling so distraught, even more than that, he was becoming frightened over the events of the day, What if Daisy had come to the same fate as Toad?

Mario kicked the gateway and tried to make as much noise as he could, until he finally saw a small trench filled with rainwater. The trench was just big enough for the petite one to slip through and under the fence.

Mario did just that, covering his once bright scarlet outfit in a mess of brown slush.

Once he slid underneath to the other side, he opened the gate and Luigi ran in as if he had been charged with a mushroom.

Luckily for them both, the castle was unlocked, and they entered without any caution what so ever, scattering mud and dirt on the shiny polished floor.

As they stormed through, the King, whose face fore told that the coming news would hurt the brothers badly, welcomed Luigi. A pair of beefy men carrying swords that were shiny enough to be used as mirrors, however, held Mario back.

"It's me, Mario, I rescued Daisy once!" Mario cried feeling very unappreciated.

The king seemed reluctant to pull the guards away, but eventually he said, "Release him." And the men stepped back, freeing Mario to resume a position next to his younger brother.

The king escorted them into a room they had never seen before, and to be honest they were lucky they had never seen it, this room sent a surge of even more pain and despair into their hearts the second they arrived.

Inside were odd contraptions and beds that held people inside. In every bed a terribly ill person lie, and the funny machines looked as if they were slicing and dicing the people into bits.

Mario put a hand over his mouth in awe, when suddenly Luigi's jaw dropped as he fled across the room, eyes beginning to water. He stopped next to a small twin bed with a stuffed animal on it, that held a person who was bandaged and bleeding critically, one dainty hand hung out from underneath the covers with a daisy in-between two fingers.

"Daisy?" Luigi asked in a squeaky cracking voice that didn't sound like his own.

The bruised young woman opened her eyes and looked up at him with a sniffle.

"I didn't wish for you to see me, I look awful." She said breaking off into tears.

"no. you're wrong. You're beautiful, and you always will be.

The princess smiled weakly and instantly Luigi dove as close as he could to her and planted the sweetest most innocent kiss imaginable on her soft, pillowy lips.

The two heart broken lovers looked at each other and wiped their tears.

"Who did this to you, what happened?" Luigi asked, taking her arm to study the marks on her wrist.

The question seemed to cause even more sadness and even some fear hit Daisy, but she handled a mature response. "The. the kingdom's been.bombed!!!"

She eventually started sobbing and leaned her face into Luigi's shoulder. He could only stroke her hair and peck her fore head as she continued her story.

"I don't understand, I was just relaxing in the lounge in front of the fire. It was just about time for dinner in the grand dining hall and the chef had cooked up something delicious as always."

"all I remember was the loudest noise I've ever heard, blasting my ears. It looked like a fire lit up in front of me...." A few more tears slipped out. "And then I woke up with these bright lights shining in my face."

Luigi hated to hear of Daisy being in so much pain, especially after what the result had amounted to. It only led to more pain for her, and a sore body that would take weeks, probably months to heal.

"this bomb is obviously a declaration of war." Mario replied suddenly. "You need to round up your allies, quick, call in for the Toadstools, Peach will be delighted to help!"

Daisy sniffled and shed a few more tears, "How can she? Mario, the bomb came from The Mushroom Kingdom!"

"you don't know that!" Mario yelled, not about to let someone accuse Peach of anything.

"Mario, you don't understand, I know the bomb was a declaration of war because-"

Mario bit his tongue and his lip at the same time to keep from slashing Daisy with angry words and obscenities, and to prevent tears from falling.

Just when he began to worry that Peach was just vicious and blood thirsty, he remembered Toad, the Sarasa's had murdered Toad!

"I can't stand the sight of this, and to think I pitied you Daisy!"

"What are you talking about?" Luigi asked.

"The Sarasa's brought this upon themselves! And I will not stand here and listen to Daisy try and pick at Peach, all I can say is you got what you deserved and I will not stay here any longer!"

Luigi gave Daisy a gentle kiss and said good-bye, knowing he should probably follow after Mario.

Just before the two brother's left, the solemn voice of Daisy replied, "You guys better decide who you're allies with, the toadstool's have declared war on us.

~

The walk home was silent for the most part, neither brother wanted to say a word, for both would be slightly biased on their opinions about the war.

They sloshed through puddles, jumped through pipes and still not a word was spoken, harsh or not.

Then finally, a few miles from home, Mario spoke up.

"How dare she blame Peach? This is insane! I won't put up with any of this!"

"Mario! Why the hell won't you listen to anyone? Peach declared war on the Sarasa's Daisy was trying to tell you that!"

Mario just stopped walking and looked his brother in the eye.

"Loving somebody is one thing, but disregarding family and not standing up for what's right takes away any heroic qualities you ever had!" he screamed walking faster ahead of Luigi.

The younger Mario jogged to catch up with his elder sibling.

"Stop doing this to me! All I want is to know what reason the Toadstool's would have for any of this!"

"But what about Toad? Maybe All peach could do was declare war? Don't you think she's suffered enough what with Bowser's constant attacks!"

"Okay, but so what? You've rescued her every time! She hasn't really been through any horrendous ordeal!"

Mario gave the younger Mario a small shove. "There are things about her you don't even know."

"Such as?"

"You piece of shit fruit cup! Quit being ornery and just let someone be right for a change!"

"Well how about this, remember the Mario brothers? What ever happened to them? Now it's all about Mario! Well what if I did decide to join the Sarasaland army? Maybe I want to be the star, fly solo for a while and rescue the girl that loves me and not my brother!"

"Maybe for once you can accept the fact that you're a reject, out cast, little whiney freak that nobody even wants around in the first place! Maybe that's why nobody knows you exist!!"

Luigi couldn't stand it any longer; he grabbed Mario by the next and slammed him down into the ground, knocking his face against a wall.

Mario sat still for a moment, both brothers caught in an eerie silence, then in rage, Mario jumped up, kicked his brother in the shin, and smacked him so hard he fell on his back.

Just before Luigi could get up and lunge back, Mario put a hand out and said calmly; "lets just admit this to ourselves, we can't be that team anymore. We can't stand each other, go ahead and fly solo; we all have our own ideas."

Luigi lifted himself up and walked away, going the road opposite of their house, not another word or look was exchanged just a painful feeling in Mario's heart.

Mario leaned against the wall and felt himself sliding down as he buried his face into his hands. That was it, the Mario brothers really were over....