Chapter 14: Awaiting Fate
Kamek dashed through the crowds of Koopa Troopas, pushing and shoving every one that stood in his way. They did nothing, as Kamek was higher authority than they, and could have them zapped out of existence at the drop of a hat. The Troopas merely exchanged annoyed glances and moved aside, letting the overexcited Magikoopa make his way to King Koopa's Airship, parked conveniently next to his new castle.
Bowser's Castle was hardly built, but there were a few walls standing where Princess Peach's Castle once stood. The cold grey stones were piled up nearby, waiting to be stacked upon what already stood, creating Bowser's grand new castle. The construction had been postponed temporarily, for what reason Kamek had no clue, but hadn't questioned Bowser. Nobody ever did.
Soon enough, Kamek reached the ship, out of breath. But his physical challenge hadn't ended yet.
He still needed to climb into it. And the ship's hull alone was unexplainably tall.
Kamek growled, cursing the fact that he had forgotten his broom at the watch tower in his excitement, and reached for the rope ladder that lead from the ground to the deck. Rung by rung, he slowly climbed up, pausing every now and then to take a breath, and eventually reached the edge of the hull. He threw his body over the edge and rolled onto the deck, panting and wheezing.
"Is anything wrong, sir?" came a voice from above him, and a paratroopa swooped down beside him, causing Kamek's cap to rustle in the wind created by his wings. Kamek stood up shakily, breathing deep, shuddering breaths, and straightened himself up in an attempt to make himself look slightly more regal. It was certainly better than lying on the ground wheezing, in the way of stature.
"Don't you have a job to do, Parakarry?" Kamek huffed, looking the Paratroopa straight in the eye, "we offered you a job, now do it, unless you want to land yourself a place in the dungeons."
Parakarry bowed stiffly, uttering an apology before flying off. He had duties to take care of, if he wanted to keep his head. Kamek watched Parakarry fly off, and was suddenly startled by the realization of why he was there, and rushed down below deck to find the King.
Bowser's chamber was guarded by the Hammer Brothers, whom held out their hammers in front of them, blocking Kamek.
"The King wishes not to be disturbed!" they said simultaneously, nodding their heads in coordination and growling when Kamek tried to take another step.
"I am Kamek, the Chief Magikoopa, and more than you two fools will ever be. I demand that you let me through this door!"
"We can't do that, the KING'S demands are far more important then that of the Chief Magikoopa."
Kamek snarled and whipped out a scepter from the folds of his gown. The Hammer Brothers were cowards, even a goomba knew that, and would dash away at any threat. The scepter that Kamek held was not his, as Bowser Junior had taken it, but merely one of the treasures he had managed to snatch from Peach's Castle before it was destroyed. He knew the Hammer Brothers would run once it was pointed at them, and he wouldn't have to do any magic. He couldn't anyway, without his proper scepter.
And run they did.
Kamek pocketed the scepter once again, very pleased with himself, and threw open the doors to Bowser's Chamber. He dashed along the red carpet to the throne, where Bowser sat. Kamek stopped abruptly when he saw Bowser rise to his feet, and take a few steps towards him.
"Didn't they tell you I didn't wish to be disturbed?"
Kamek opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't get any words out, and swallowed them as Bowser's shadow engulfed him. The Koopa King swept Kamek off his feet and pinned him against the wall roughly, causing it to shake and creak. He roared and bared his teeth, only a few inches from Kamek's face, before speaking again.
"How'd you like it if I killed you right now?" he bellowed, snapping his enormous jaws at Kamek's nose, causing him to draw back as far as he could and shudder in fear. Amused, Bowser smirked at his old caregiver, and dropped him to the floor, "Now Kamek, I wouldn't kill you just yet. You're too useful right now."
Kamek was half-relieved, half-terrified when he was dropped onto the old wood floor, and sighed shakily. He hated how Bowser would play mind tricks like that. He enjoyed watching his victim suffer, and kill them long after they had been tormented in such a way. Once again, he remembered why he was there, what he was doing, and what he had to say.
"Sire! We have them!"
"What? Have who?"
"The Mario Brothers, sire! The Princesses as well!" Kamek burst excitedly, "Waluigi and his team tracked them to the Sarasaland Palace, and caught them! They're on their way in Ship 12 as we speak!"
Much to Kamek's surprise, Bowser showed no emotion. Not excitement, as he did, not anger, not vengeance, not sadness. He stood over Kamek like a great black statue, motionless and solemn. After many minutes of silence, Bowser finally spoke, but in a dull, flat voice:
"Is that so?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Be sure to lock them up right away, and send Waluigi to me upon his arrival," he said simply, twisting around and swiftly marching back to his throne in a few long strides.
"Now get out."
Kamek humbly obeyed, edging over to the massive doors and slipping through them, not facing away from the King the entire time. Once he was sure he was out of earshot, he snarled fiercely, and threw down his hat.
He didn't receive a reward at all for such news! The nerve of that King Koopa!
Since Bowser Junior had moved into Shiver City, there had been strange goings on.
Penguins seemed to disappear from their homes, their homes themselves robbed, but the doors still locked. It was a strange chain of crimes they couldn't solve, and they were getting very tired of it. Once the villagers realized that these happenings had taken place after Junior moved in, they began to campaign to get him out.
The mayor had declined their requests, and kept Junior locked within his very own home, to "protect him from the angry citizens". But Junior was an antsy type, and couldn't stay in for long, no matter how many cookies and treats the Mayor's wife would give him. He needed to get out before they knew what he had done. For he remembered the sharp beaks and dark eyes all too well from when he first landed in Shiver City, and wasn't very keen on having those beaks dig into his throat.
That evening, Junior planned to escape. Not so much escape, as disappear. Kamek's Scepter had allowed him to break into those houses and wreak havoc among the penguins, but at the price of them turning on him. They had done so, and he had to leave before they knew. The scepter was perfect in such a situation, and before he knew it, he was out of the Mayor's house and over the mountain once the sun peeked over the tips of the mountains and its light spilled into the valley.
"Wait..." the young koopa said to himself, as nobody else was around. An idea suddenly hit him. He could use Kamek's scepter to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom! He knew how the magic worked, as his family was quite skilled in the dark arts. All you had to do was move the wand around a little bit, and think of what effect you wanted, as well as saying it out loud.
So Junior held the scepter in front of him at arm's length, slowly waving it in a clockwise motion, while chanting to himself.
"Take me to my father, take me to my father, take me to my father..." he whispered, and held the scepter up above his head, "Take me to my father!" he yelled, and thrust the scepter downwards. Once it hit the ground, there was a bright light, and a popping noise.
Bowser Junior had disappeared, and all that was left of him on that cold, lonely hill was his laughter that was carried through the valley by the harsh winter breeze.
"You won't get away with this!"
"I already have, Princess. There's no doubt about that," came the calm reply from the other side of the room, "You're all as good as dead. In fact, that would be a real treat. But no, worse things will happen to the lot of you once we reach Koopa."
Peach bit her lip to keep from lashing at Waluigi with obscenities, and sat down on the rusty cot at the back of their cell. There was only one cell in the tiny airship, and each prisoner had been crammed into it together for the ride to the Mushroom Kingdom. So they all sat huddled together on the floor of the cell on one side of the bars, while Waluigi smirked at them like they were caged animals. He sat calmly on the other side of the bars on a stool, staring at each of them in the eye and smirking cruelly.
"I swear, once we get out of here, I'm going to kill him," Luigi said, shaking with both rage and fear at the same time.
"I wouldn't try that. You don't want your head in the same condition as your arm, would you?"
Luigi fell silent, but still glared at Waluigi from the corner of his eye. He was right, of course. Waluigi fought dirty, with those Piranha Plants.
"You can't even fight; you just get those damn Piranha Plants to do the dirty work. You couldn't fight like a real man if you tried!" Luigi yelled, standing up quickly and pointing at Waluigi with a shaking finger.
Waluigi suddenly stood up and strode over to the bars of the cell, staring Luigi straight in the eye and laughing loudly. Eventually he stopped, and a mocking expression took hold of his features as he leaned his face down to Luigi's level.
"You, sir, don't know anything about being a real man," he hissed, and laughed, turning around to leave, ignoring Luigi's enraged yelling behind him. He turned back around before he came to the stairs and spoke coldly to the group of prisoners huddled in the small cell.
"I hope you're ready to die, everyone, because we'll be there shortly."
And soon Waluigi was gone, having climbed the stairs to the deck, and left them alone to drown in misery.
"What're we gonna do?" Toad whimpered, and began to cry into Peach's dress, "I don't want to die!"
"None of us do, and none of us are going to," Mario said, trying to reassure them all, but they were beyond reassurance. The many days of running from Bowser, fighting, desperately trying to get away and nearly dying in the process had left their spirits weakened, and they had little or no will left. They had given up and accepted their fate.
"We are, aren't we?" Toadette said, "we are going to die."
"Don't say that! The Stars wouldn't let us come this far to fail!" Mario yelled, standing up, "they wouldn't let Bowser win, and let us die. We're the only hope they have left, and we WILL make it. Come on, who's with me!"
Mario's pep talk had no effect on the tired souls that lay sprawled out on the floor. They stared up at him silently, and Mario's heart shattered. They had given up!
"Come on, you aren't the friends I know. They would keep going; they would fight to survive until the bitter end. They would do what I'm doing."
They still sat in silence, but this time not even looking up at him.
"Alright, fine. If I don't know any of you, why am I talking to you? I'd better make a plan to survive now, shouldn't I?" Mario said, and dejectedly walked to the corner of the cell where nobody was, sitting down to think.
They've given up. They're just going to sit there and let Bowser kill them. They're going to let themselves die... Mario thought, blinking back the stinging tears. Everyone he loved had given in, and were going to practically throw themselves at Bowser's feet for him to kill them. He was on his own to either convince them otherwise, or to save them from this fate, alone.
"Mario..."
Mario looked up to see Yoshi in front of him, his once bright eyes full of unshed tears, "Mario, Yoshi won't give up. Yoshi swore he'd protect you until the day Yoshi dies, and will go through with that."
A sliver of hope ran through Mario's heart, and he threw his arms around the dinosaur," Thank you, Yoshi." He let go soon after, and Yoshi moved back to his original spot beside Luigi.
"Mario," Princess Peach said, sitting down beside him, "Mario, I'm so sorry..."
"Sorry? Why should you be?"
"Mario, you know why. For not believing in you. For giving up," Peach sighed, looking down, "It just - It seems so hopeless. We're nearly there, miles up in the sky - meaning no way to escape - and Bowser wants us all dead. I mean, it's really a lose-lose scenario. I only have so much hope left after all this..."
"It's not hopeless. You've proved that," Mario said quietly.
"What?"
"You've proved that it isn't hopeless. You do have a -little- hope left, therefore it isn't hopeless. More like semi-hopeless."
"Now you're just being silly," Peach said, giggling ever so slightly, so slight that it was barely noticeable.
"Being silly is better than being hopeless, Princess."
"That's true. And I'd rather you be silly than hopeless..." Peach said, moving in front of him, "But Mario, I'm so scared," she cried, and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, "What if we don't make it out alive?" came her muffled voice between sobs, and she tightened her hold on him.
Mario was surprised, but wrapped his arms around her tightly, pressing her body against his, "We will, Peach. We all will, I'll make sure of it," he whispered into her ear, "I won't let anything happen to you..."
"Well, isn't that just -adorable-" came a snide voice from down the hallway, and everyone's heads snapped towards the direction of the voice.
"Yeah, pity Daddy's gonna have to kill them, right?"
Seven koopas stepped out of the shadows of the darkened hallway, making their way over to the dark cell. Morton was first, coming as close as he could to the bars and peering in at them, "Well, will ya look at that? Mario's pulling the ol Romeo act, ain't 'e?"
"We thought even YOU could come up with something more original," Wendy said, playing with her bracelets casually, "Anyway, that's not why we're here."
"Yeah, we're just here to look upon the faces of the stars of tomorrow's execution. Imagine our surprise when we heard who it was! The very people who had tormented the Koopa Kingdom for a lifetime! What a delightful treat!" Ludwig laughed in mock-excitement, and reached through the bars to tug at Toad's arm, pulling him up against the bars and whispering quietly, "Here's a secret between you and I, Fungus. You're going to receive the worst punishment of them all. How would you like it if your organs were ripped from your body while you were still breathing, and then you were to be hung by your feet for three days until the Piranha Plants get you? Hmm? Oh - Don't you look excited! You're shaking with anticipation!"
Toad's skin had gone ashen, and he opened and closed his wide open mouth in shock at what Ludwig had told him. Was it true?
The Koopalings laughed, and Ludwig thrust Toad back into the cell, laughing equally as loudly.
"Don't believe him Toad, they're just trying to scare you," Luigi said in an attempt to calm the shaking mushroom boy, whom had rushed into Daisy's arms and sobbed uncontrollably, "Great bunch you are!" Luigi yelled, "You've nearly scared him half to death!"
"Oh have I? I'm so terribly sorry! I should've saved that extra bit of life for King Dad to take out of him himself, shouldn't I?" Ludwig laughed along with the chorus of laughter of the other Koopalings.
"Don't worry Luigi! We've saved an extra special bit for you! You are to have your legs chopped off, your heart ripped out and to be eaten by Bowser himself while you watch!" Wendy giggled, delighted by the panicked expression Luigi's face had acquired.
Before anyone else could have their fate told to them in such a gruesome way, the airship lurched and they suddenly stopped. The pounding of many feet outside met their ears, and told them that they had arrived at the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Oh goodie! We're here!" Lemmy squealed, and dashed up to the deck, along with his six siblings.
"Oh no..." came Yoshi's voice from the far corner, "We're here!"
"I don't really think this is the right thing to do..." Waluigi said, mostly to himself, as he sat down in a chair. He had returned to Wario and his makeshift garage again after meeting with Bowser and receiving his reward.
"What?" Wario asked from his seat in front of the TV, as he flipped through channels boredly, not even bothering to look at his brother.
"You know what. Turning them over like that."
"Oh that. Well, if there's a good enough reward, I'd have done it. How much did ya get?" Wario asked, finally turning to Waluigi briefly, but turning his attention back to the television half-a-second later.
"About ten grand. Not much for them, but I wouldn't argue with him. But - I don't know, it just seems so wrong. Worse than anything I've ever done, which is saying something. I bet they wouldn't do that to us."
"So? You've got money; you've got power, what more do you want? I'd say that's a damn good reason to do it. They wouldn't do that because they're all the disgustingly good type."
"Yeah but, they're going to -die- ... I've never been responsible for someone's death before."
"Welcome to my world, little brother. It's every man for himself out here now. If they can't take the heat, they'd better get out of the kitchen!"
"What's that supposed to mean? What are you, stupid? They didn't do anything to me. Except that damned Luigi."
"Well, there ya go! Luigi deserves to die then. He's actually done something, and they're all associated with him."
"You have the most terrible logic, Wario. How do I keep sane around you?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Wario said, "Wait! I know what this is all about."
"Do you now? That's a first."
"This is all about -her- You don't want to see her die."
"What?" Waluigi said, surprised, "What are you talking about? Who?"
"Come on, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about! You're feeling guilty because she's going to die, and that's it's entirely your fault."
Waluigi said nothing, swiftly leaving the room. Wario watched him leave the garage and shook his head, turning back to the television again.