Chapter 2: Peach is a ghost? Trail up the Heavenly light!
As Peach wandered through the streets of Toad Town may of the Toads who saw here either fainted or stood paralyzed with fear. Mario was trying to invoke conversation but Peach would just smile at Mario and giggle. "Peach, what is wrong with you?" Mario whispered under his breath. Luigi finally caught up as the Peach ghost faded through the giant blue doors that lead to her magnificent castle (The exterior.). Luigi panted heavily and tried to catch his breath but Mario was already through the door. "What?" Luigi waved his arms in an annoyed gesture. "I shouldn't have quit my gym membership." Mario followed the spectre as she stealthily moved past her castle toward the path to Shooting Star Summit. Where is she taking me, Mario thought as he and Peach passed the castle and ended up on the path to the small mountain. Stars fell around them but both Mario and Peach didn't flinch when a star landed in front of them with a loud crash. Mario, don't do this, a voice wanted to say, don't wish me alive. Mario felt this voice but just thought of it as just the wind on the grass. He and Peach climbed Shooting Star Summit without much effort. As Mario passed a star he wished he knew what Peach was doing. Why was she leading him to Shooting Star Summit? It wouldn't make much of a romantic picnic with the rain of stars. Another falling star crashed into the ground by Mario, shooting up dirt on his clothes. "Peach, why are we here?" Mario barked when they finally reached the top. The ghost walked toward Mario and took its cold, smooth hands around Mario's face and gently kissed him. Talk to the stars, Peach's voice said. Wish me back. Mario was shocked at this.
"Why did you kill yourself if you-" He was cut off by another kiss. When the ghost's lips left Mario's he felt different. "It doesn't matter." He muttered. "I will revive you no matter what. I can't live without you!" Mario said while holding the ghost's hands in his own. The ghost smiled and giggled as Mario walked into the middle of the summit. Seven coloured lights appeared around Mario and they flew into the sky soon exploding in a bright light. The ghost smiled and laughed. Mario looked behind him. His precious Peach. He must be with her no matter what. I love her he thought with a smile I…love her. A blue concave ship with a star symbol sunk down from the sky. It landed lightly in front of Mario. He and Peach stepped on to it as it rose up but little did they know they had visitors. Two figures clung to the bottom of the ship, unseen by the love-struck Mario and the ghost Peach. "We're here, my sweet." Mario helped Peach out of the ship and the ghost looked around. Hmm, just a while now, my queen. Star Way (If I get the name wrong I'm sorry. It's been quite a while since I've played Paper Mario.) is what this area was called. It was a starry road swirling around a celestial light that led to Star Haven. The blue flames called Embers still guarded it but Mario wouldn't stop. "I'll clear these heathens away." Mario told Peach as he held out his two hands. Instantly a powerful stream of darkness emerged from each palm, destroying three Embers in its path. Mario led the way, destroying all the Embers with this powerful move while Peach followed close behind. The two figures who snuck on the ship, Luigi and Goombella watched in awe at Mario's new power. "If we touch that," Luigi gulped, "we'll die instantly."
Goombella gathered some courage. "Luigi, we've got to free your brother from that spell. That's not Peach you know!" She barked. The two charged toward Mario quietly and they were stealthy enough to be able to charge Mario and knock him down as he was killing a retreating pack of scared Embers. Luigi pinned his love-sick brother to the ground with all his strength while Goombella confronted "Peach". Mario seemed limp as he didn't respond to Luigi's move but Luigi couldn't notice as he was frantically pinning Mario with all the strength he could muster. "Hello, Vivian." Goombella said with contempt. "Aw, you ruined the game." Peach said, transforming into Vivian. "Changed your hair colour?" Goombella asked, noting Vivian's change from pink hair to black. Her striped cap was gone but her hair was covering her eyes. "Hmm?" Vivian seemed confused. "Changed my hair? I guess I did." "I don't know what happened to you but I'll knock the sense back into you!" Goombella sharply bonked Vivian on her head only to see it had no effect. "I'm a lot stronger now that I have my memory back. This is the real me" Vivian said. "I'll let that stupid excuse for an attack slide if you'll leave me alone with my precious Mario." She waved a gloved finger in the air and instantly Luigi was severely burned and fell off of Mario. He stood beside Vivian with a dull look on his face.
"He's been completely taken over!" Goombella noted. She looked to Luigi who was now unconscious on the ground, his shirt completely burned off showing signs of deep black burns in his skin. He could die. Goombella thought Vivian is way more powerful but why is she evil? I thought she was with us! Could it be that…? "Mario, take care of this pest." Vivian pointed toward Goombella. Mario raised one hand and shot a powerful stream of black toward the young goomba girl. Goombella still stood after the assault but weakly. "Mario…fight." was all she could say before she collapsed to the ground. Vivian came close to Mario and placed her arm in his. "Let's go, honey." She commanded, laying her head on Mario's shoulder. Together they entered the cloud toward Star Haven.
"Wow." Vivian stared in awe at the beautiful blue transparent houses of the stars. There was also a narrow road paved into the center of the fluffy white cloud that served as the ground. The odd thing was there weren't any stars around but Vivian didn't seem to notice. "Wow, Mario," Vivian was practically drooling over the place. "This would be the best place for our honeymoon!" she swooned. She tugged her oddly silent slave, Mario, to see he was missing! "Mario?" Vivian panicked and looked around the area seeing no sign of the missing Mario. Suddenly, a shooting star was heading straight for her! Vivian used her Veil power to duck under it. The star crashed behind her. "What is this?" she said with surprise. "Were they expecting me?" she whispered in panic. Skolar stood in front of all of Mario's partners from the Paper Mario game and its sequel (except Goombella.). "We were." Skolar said balancing his glasses. "We star spirits saw through your plan and called for a little help." Vivian clenched her teeth in anger then relaxed. "You really wouldn't hurt little ol' me would you?" she said, trying to infatuate the large party with a cute face but she didn't notice Koops and Kooper charging toward her inside their shells. They both hit Vivian straight on and knocked her back. "Ow!" she yelled as she hit the cloud floor. "How did that hurt? I am stronger! It's not supposed to hurt!" she whispered to herself. Koops and Kooper tried to continue their assault but Vivian blocked both of them simultaneously and tried to crush their shells. "This won't help you. Where is Mario?" Vivian said like she was above them. "You look kind of cute when you angry." this sound came from Koops, who now came out of his shell. "Really? You really think so?" Vivian loosened her grip on both Koopas and looked toward Koops with a blush. "Yeah," Kooper started. Vivian's face turned even redder. "Right!" Koops finished as both he and Kooper hopped out of Vivian's weakened grip and charged her to the floor a second time with the same technique. "This is annoying." Vivian said. "Time to fight!" Her hands grew bright with her fiery jinx power but someone squirted them out with a jet of water. "Who did that?" Vivian barked looking toward a smiling Cheep-Cheep, Sushi.
"Hi." it said. Vivian was about to rush toward the Cheep-Cheep in anger but then she suffered a horrible pain on her head then another. The blows forced her to the ground as she covered her head in pain. "Never mess with the best!" a familiar voice said. In front of Vivian landed the two attackers, the small Yoshi who just spoke, and Goombario. Vivian clenched her teeth again and disappeared underground, reappearing under Skolar. "I'll take you out first!" she grinned, thinking she could at least kill Skolar. "Boo!" a lady boo, Bow, appeared from the space where Skolar occupied. Vivian was so shocked she stumbled back and something landed in her hands, Watt. "Hello, Miss Shadow." Watt innocently said. Then she shone brightly, blinding Vivian. Vivian groaned painfully while covering her throbbing eyes and wandering blindly. She couldn't even see what happened next. Parakarry kicked her down to the floor to put her in place for Lakilester's rain of spineys on top of her. "How?" Vivian quietly said as the spineys crashed all over her body. Flurry used her breath to blow a big gust of wind toward Vivian which forced the damaged Shadow Siren into the explosion of Bobbery and Bombette. Vivian was thrown high into the air. How, Vivian was nearing unconsciousness as she thought this, how did I lose? How was I hurt? Vivian's head was now flooding with memories of being a Shadow Siren and adventuring with Mario. Mario, she said in her head before her mind faded into blackness, instincts took over the questioning mind. Suddenly, Vivian's limp body became active again as the Shadow Siren dived toward a certain plumber who was now on the scene. No memories, no thoughts, just death. Vivian's hands glowed with fiery jinx, this time Vivian would kill. "Take this!" Mario yelled before he cupped his hands together and forced them above him, toward the beast-like Vivian. A large stream of fire emerged from Mario's hands and engulfed Vivian in mid-air with a fiery blast which lit up the sky with a blinding light. When the light died all trace of the fire disappeared instantly, leaving nothing but the smell of smoke and ashes. "She was an ally. A friend." Mario quietly said, sinking to his knees at what he and his friends had done. When will the killing end? Mario thought as he remembered sweet memories of Peach and Vivian.
Tears welled up in his eyes, Peach committed suicide and Vivian was killed by his own hands. "We had to do what we had to do. She was Vivian no longer." Bobbery said stiffly. Bombette walked closer to Mario and chipped in. "Yeah, she was evil. I'm betting that wasn't the Vivian who helped you in Rogueport." Some sounds came from the united group of partners that now surrounded Mario in a circle. They seemed to agree with what Bombette was saying. "We saw everything," Flurry said, feeling compassionate for Mario. "Actually we heard it from the Star Spirits. They saw the Shadow Queen plotting and called us up here beforehand." she paused, moving closer to Mario. "They granted us with this special power that allowed us to hurt Vivian which was the only way to stop her. We saw she had used Peach to get to you, a dirty trick. Come here, sweetie! You must feel so horrible!" Flurry jumped on top of Mario like a happy puppy and bombarded him with kisses. Mario jokingly pushed her off. There was mixed emotions around the group, happy at this time of peace, sad at the death of two friends and mad at Shadow Queen. Mario got back up to his feet beside a smiling Flurry. "Mario," Goombario stepped forward once the murmuring finished. "We have all decided before you came here in this war against Shadow Queen we would like you to lead us." Mario stood silent at what Goombario had said but right now was no time to be unsure about anything. He was about to nod but the cloud shook and a crack in the cloud went between Mario and Goombario. The other star spirits! Mario thought in panic as he ran frantically toward Star Sanctuary followed by his squad of partners.
"Oh, my g-" Mario couldn't even finish. Where the beautiful Star Sanctuary once lied was a large hole, seemingly a deep hole. "Guh, Guh!" Mario angrily turned to the source of those grunts, Marilyn right beside Bedlam. They were standing on the opposite edge of the hole staring right back at Mario. "Hey, Mario. Looks like you didn't save your world after all. It seems Vivian couldn't beat you and boy am I glad." Bedlam said holding up the Star Rod and walking toward Mario and his speechless crew with Marilyn. "You know why she never killed you when she could have? She had a crush on you! How ridiculous! That's why we have no use for her in the new world order." Bedlam stopped in front of the angered Mario. "You going to save everybody again, plumber?" she taunted. Mario curled up a fist. "Well, two people you could've saved are dead! You can't win this time Mario! You can't be the hero anymore. You're a murderer!" "No-I'm not!" Mario said, scared. Bedlam leaned over his shoulder and whispered. "You've got the blood of Vivian on your hands. Trust me, it feels good to kill, doesn't it?" "No!" Mario swiped at Bedlam with a fist but she easily ducked under the attack. "Adios!" she said while she and Marilyn jumped backwards into the hole. "I won't let you get away!" Mario yelled jumping into the hole. Smack! He hit a cold, hard, cement floor. Nothing was there except corpses of the Star Spirits that stayed in the Sanctuary. Skolar was the only Star Spirit that could actually attack. All other powers would be ineffective against Vivian so Skolar helped Mario's partners fight while the other six broke the spell over Mario and gave him the power to fight. Mario punched the floor, imagining Bedlam's taunting face. Murderer, Murderer, the blood of Vivian, death these phrases rung through his head.