Roy was in Grodus' old room, talking with Beldam and Marilyn about his family life. This chapter takes place the night of the shootings.
"…Wow…so your brother actually hit you with a baseball bat just because you wanted to take back your comic book, that YOU, yourself, bought!?" Beldam asked, getting deep into the conversation.
"Yeah. It was fucking ridiculous. He kept it for a week and I was getting the urge to read it one day so I went in his room and tried to look for it. Then all of a sudden Morton comes running in, starts shouting at me for invading his personal space, I swipe my comic and run out of there and I shout something at him, he chases me with his bat and hits me in the back. I fall down and hits me another couple more times. It was a little scary…it's like he flipped a switch and turned into a wild animal…then again, he was always the most unstable one out of all of us, I think. I told my dad what happened and he just said that it was my fault, I shouldn't have gone in there without asking. So stupid, right? Maybe I should've asked first, but that doesn't give him the right to beat me down like a psychopath," Roy explained.
"You're not wrong there. Sorry that your family is all kinds of fucked up. I and Marilyn can kind of relate to that, actually…" Beldam led on.
"Really? How so?" Roy asked in curiosity.
"Well…I was pretty abusive to my sister, Vivian, a long time ago. I would beat her and call her the worst names. However, after the Shadow Queen was defeated, we reconciled and I apologized for everything I've done. She forgave me and life was good for a little while…" Beldam began to tell her story but then looked to Marilyn in slight distraught.
"Vivian…I know of her. So, why did you go back to being a villain then? Did Vivian knew you were teamed up with Tatanga?" Roy asked.
"…No, she didn't. You see Roy, being 'bad' is kind of like a drug. Once you get into a 'bad' lifestyle, it's hard to get out of it. It all started with Tatanga…" Beldam sighed and began her story on how she and Marilyn got involved with Tatanga.
FLASHBACK
It was late at night in Rogueport. Beldam was in the alley behind the inn, waiting impatiently for someone. In her hands was a long letter sent to her address that basically told her to be behind the inn at midnight because this person guaranteed her something that she couldn't refuse, signed by someone named Tatanga.
"Where the hell is this person? I have a feeling I shouldn't have even come here…this is all kinds of shady…but at least I'll be able to defend myself easily in case this Tatanga tries anything…" Beldam nervously said.
"Beldam?" spoke a male voice. The shadow siren turned around to see a dark figure approach her.
"T-Tatanga? That you?" she got a bit more nervous.
"Yes, it's me. Thank you for meeting me. It really means a lot," he said sincerely. He got a little closer and Beldam could see him clearer now. His whole body was dressed in black clothing except for his head, noting to her that he was some kind of alien.
"Y-Yeah…um, quick question, how were you able to find my address?" Beldam asked.
"One word, internet. If you're smart enough and know where to look, you could find anyone you want!" Tatanga chuckled. Beldam was a little creeped out by this.
"…Right. So, how do you know about me? Your letter seemed to indicate that you knew about my past a little," she asked.
"Your robot-like friend spilled all the details to me along with some guy dressed in a white sheet. Can you guess who they are?" he smirked.
Beldam gasped and stepped back. "You don't mean…Grodus!? He's alive!? And he's with you!? Doopliss is with you too!?"
"Yes, I found Doopliss a few months ago. We talked and he led me to Grodus last month and then they both told me about you, so I knew I had to find you. There's also another guy named Dimentio that's with me, along with MANY Koopatrols. I want you to join me in my quest to conquer the world. I want to make it a place that fits my vision…no…I mean, OUR vision, Beldam. We would have the power to change whatever we want and run the world as we see fit. We will make everything go our way for once! We could even cover the world in shadow because that WAS your original plan, wasn't it? I could give you all the power you want, Beldam. You will be able to help me accomplish the plan that you, yourself, originally wanted to accomplish. Doesn't that sound exciting? And you will have my 100% trust, especially because there is no way I can do this all by myself, so I NEED help, and you would be the perfect helper, Beldam," Tatanga explained it all. The shadow siren could hear the desperation in his voice.
"I…I see…world domination…yes…you're right, covering the world in shadow WAS my original plan…but…why exactly do you wanna do this, though? I'm really curious now," Beldam asked.
"I want to accomplish something no other villain has ever done before. If I were to achieve my plan of domination, I would be able to have things go my way for once. I'm tired of life never giving me the upper hand in things. I'm tired of seeing so many idiots in the world blindly follow what their society tells them to do. I'm taking control now. If you help me, I will share that control with you. This world needs to be redone. We could combine our plans together and do it all! Please Beldam…I know you have some powers within you…this would make everything for my plan go so much easier and faster. I truly believe you can do this," he started to plead a little now. Inside, the idea of going through with an evil plan actually excited Beldam a little bit. But then, she thought of Vivian and how they managed to reconcile a long time ago and how Vivian trusted her and loved her again. What would Vivian think of her if she did this?
"I…I'm sorry, I can't do this. I can't go back to that life. I…need to go…" Beldam said in a panic.
"Wait! Beldam, please. This is who you are. Grodus told me all about your past. You were born to be a villain. But that's okay! That's something we can't control. It's something we need to accept. I have this good gut instinct that you wanna do this. This is where we belong. We were meant to thrive in this crazy world by taking control and giving payback to those who wronged us. The minute I accepted that I was born to do evil in this world, I felt like I was free. I had something to live for now. I can now say that I have truly found myself and what my mission in life is," the alien said in a voice so serious that the excitement built up a little bit more inside of her but it also creeped her out a little.
"That's what you really think? Wow…what kind of fucked up life did you have?" she asked bluntly.
"Believe me when I say that it was all kinds of fucked up. But now that I'm starting to take control, things are looking up for me now! But if I want to continue that streak, then I need you to accompany me. If you do, I could give you so much more power than you could imagine. I need an answer now otherwise I'll have to do this without you…but without you, it will be much harder," he stated, growing impatient now.
Beldam stood there for a minute, thinking a billion things at once. She could tell this guy was 100% serious about conquering the world. She was actually a bit curious to try another world domination plan ever since the last one failed, but like she said, she didn't want to veer back in that direction. But the excitement of causing chaos and darkness in the world grew ever more steadily within her.
"I…I…will join you, Tatanga," she said hesitantly.
Tatanga grew a wicked grin on his face. "Just as I knew you would. You made the perfect decision, Beldam. I promise you won't regret it. Now then, pack whatever you can from your place and meet me at the old, abandoned castle on Kumo Road. It's on the outskirts of Mushroom City."
"…Right. Okay. I will. But…I'll try to bring my sister, Marilyn, with me. She may want to do this too," Beldam said with a forced smile.
"Excellent! The more, the merrier, right? Haha. You are a very wise woman, Beldam. I will see you soon," Tatanga cheered excitedly and walked off into the night.
Beldam re-analyzed her decision. She was very mixed about it. She wanted to do it, but she didn't want to do it at the same time. There was a struggle of whether to remain good or delve back into the dark side going on in her mind. She knew it would devastate Vivian when she found out the truth. But she kept thinking about what Tatanga told her about being born evil. As long as Beldam could remember, she, herself, did some pretty twisted things in her life. She remembers pushing a fellow first grade student down the stairs at her elementary school and not feeling bad at all. She remembers trying magic for the first time at age 12 and set a girl on fire in the classroom and never being caught for it. She remembers enjoying her screaming in agony and pain. She remembers tearing out Vivian's hair and slapping her for the tiniest mistake she made or whenever she got on her nerves and even remembers encouraging Marilyn to do the same to Viv. And that was just a few things on the very long list of treacherous deeds she has committed. Ever since the Shadow Queen was defeated, she nor Marilyn have done anything bad, but then again, they haven't done anything good either. Now that she thought about it, she and Marilyn just tolerated Vivian after the world was saved. Their attitude was purely neutral to not just Viv, but everything. What if she had just repressed her evil side till the next opportunity for evil came? What if that was her subconscious intention all along? Was she mistaking that narrow window for infinity?
She ported herself back to her home in the shadow realm. Marilyn was awake, while Vivian was asleep in her bedroom. Beldam talked to Marilyn about everything Tatanga told her and what she thought. They talked for hours and Marilyn ended up coming to the same conclusion that she did. She wanted to go back to the dark side too. They packed a few things and Beldam wrote a note to Vivian that she left taped to her bedroom door. It was a vague note, basically stating that she and Marilyn are taking a few weeks' vacation for a retreat to clear their minds.
Three weeks later, and the events of Tatanga attacking Mushroom City happen.
END FLASHBACK
Roy was a bit disturbed by her story. But at the same time, he could kind of relate to Beldam, with the struggle of trying to figure out if he truly was born to be evil and who he really is and wants to be.
"Wow…intense…but, um, you seem kind of reluctant to still be with Tatanga right now, though. Are you rethinking your decision?" he asked.
Beldam lowered her head and stared at the ground. A long moment of silence ensued.
"You know…I'm just now realizing that there may have been a chance that our sister could've died in that shootout tonight…" Beldam said softly. Marilyn let out a depressing sigh.
"Do you still care for your sister…?" Roy asked hesitantly because of how serious this conversation is becoming.
Beldam looked back up at him. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She then looked back at Marilyn who kept her head down with her arms crossed. Roy got very nervous now, thinking he may have said something wrong.
"…It's getting late. I'm getting tired. I also think I hear them coming back so let's go check on them then we'll head to bed," she said without looking back at Roy. The two shadow sisters slowly exited the room while Roy sat there for a second, wondering if he should've just kept his mouth shut. He eventually followed them out, only to see a brutally damaged Dimentio dragging a just as damaged Doopliss with him.
"Holy crap! Is it safe to say that it didn't work out as planned?" Beldam exclaimed.
"Yergh…that's putting it very lightly, Beldam…those guys…together, they were so much more powerful than I imagined…every single one of our Koopatrols that went with us were destroyed by them…they made it look so easy…" Dimentio spoke in pain.
"Wow…sorry…um…so, do you know if any of the good guys got killed at least?" Beldam asked, secretly hoping her sister wasn't killed.
"Um…a few from what I saw…there was so much happening though so there may have been plenty more…" he answered. "That other shadow siren though…your sister…what was her name…I think she lived…I didn't want to do anything to her without your permission…"
Beldam felt relieved and held back a smile she so desperately wanted to show.
"Oh. Thank you for that, Dimentio. Her name is Vivian. I don't want either of you to do anything to her. I'll take care of her myself whenever I get the chance to see her," she stated.
"I just wanna sleep…Dimentio…someone…take me to my fucking bed please…" Doopliss spoke exhaustedly.
"I got you, Doopliss. Your room is right here. I'm so worn out myself…we'll talk more about this tomorrow, okay guys?" Dimentio asked.
"Yeah, but…where is Tatanga?" Roy asked.
As if on cue, the door to the hallway everyone was in slammed open and in came an equally battered Tatanga. He looked up to see everyone staring at him.
"…If you must know…mission failed. We lost. I'll take the blame for it," he bluntly spoke while quickly heading to his room.
"Tatanga, come on…we managed to kill some of them…not a TOTAL failure, right?" Dimentio tried to cheer him up but that didn't work since the alien ignored him and slammed his bedroom door shut.
"Ugh, I'll talk to him. Everyone else, just sleep or whatever. It's really late anyways…" Beldam sighed. Everyone else went to their rooms as the shadow siren went into Tatanga's. He was lying on his bed face down into his pillow.
"Hey, don't get so down on yourself. We're still preparing the ultimate weapon, remember? It's not over yet," Beldam said while sitting down next to him.
"Yeah, I know, it's just…I think I held back, Beldam…there were moments where I was hesitant on killing or even hurting those guys…I could've easily done so much more, but I didn't…why is that?" he revealed in utter confusion. This made Beldam confused too.
"Um…I'm not really sure. I guess that's kind of up to you to figure out, maybe? You really think you held back though? I thought you were hellbent on killing all of them no matter what?" she asked.
"I was…I-I mean, I still am…but I could've easily done so much more…well, whatever. I'm gonna head to sleep now. Tomorrow, we focus purely on the weapon, alright?" Tatanga ordered. Beldam nodded and let him be.
Tatanga rolled on to his back and stared at the dirty ceiling. At that moment, he felt weak. Depressed. Disappointed in himself. Tired. Oddly enough, he didn't feel any rage or any other similar emotion, which is what he had expected after that experience. It reminded him of a horrible time long ago…
FLASHBACK
An hour passed after Tatanga had discovered the spaceship and further destroyed his house. He landed it in a different forest.
"WOW! I'm getting used to this thing very quickly! This is so much fun…imagine all the things I can do with this…" he squealed with joy. He got out and immediately got an idea that made him even more excited. He looked around to make sure no one was around or watching him and left the spaceship there for later. He walked a half hour to his high school and saw Rena on the front steps.
"Hey Rena! Guess who's back!" he excitedly yelled as he ran up to her. Rena did a double take and gasped when she saw him.
"Tatanga!? Wow! You're finally back! And you're smiling!? Woah…this feels a bit surreal, heh," Rena giggled.
"Yeah! I'm a new person now, Rena. I woke up and finally saw the light…I now realize what I need to do to take care of my problems. In fact, I already handled a few of them. I don't think I've ever felt so alive!" Tatanga shouted in glee. Rena was impressed.
"Oh I'm so glad for you! I just knew you would get yourself out of that darkness. I just wanted you to know…I never gave up hope for you to get better," she said.
"I know you didn't. I'm finally taking the control that I need. Everything will be better for me now. Actually, Rena…I want you to come with me. I wanna show you something amazing," Tatanga gestured and grabbed her hand.
"Huh? Right now? But school's starting in 5 minutes…and I'm waiting for Yuki!" Rena took her hand away.
"So? Just miss a few classes today, it's no big deal. You're a straight A student anyways! Plus, Yuki will survive. It's not like you two are attached at the hip," Tatanga scoffed and grabbed her hand again. He pulled her into the street but Rena pulled away again.
"Tatanga…I'm glad you're back to your old self, but…something seems off here…also, on my way to school, I saw smoke coming from your neighborhood. You didn't see a fire around there?" Rena asked.
Tatanga paused, thinking of what he should even say about that. He actually didn't even know how he would break the news to her about everything he did last night. He knew she would find out eventually. He had to conjure up a really, well thought out lie in order for her to stay because she was the only person in his life that he actually liked and wanted to be with.
"RENA!" Yuki shouted from some feet away.
"Oh, Yuki! Did you finish the History report last night?" Rena immediately replied and started running to her.
"WOAH, RENA, LOOK OUT!" Tatanga screamed, seeing a car speeding in the parking lot right to her.
Rena had no time to react. The car slammed into her with the tires running over her body. Many students witnessed this and screamed in absolute terror. The car kept speeding away, as if the driver never even hit anyone. Yuki screamed out Rena's name and ran over to her body. Tatanga was frozen in horror, staring at her now dead body. The one person he truly liked and cared for…wiped away from his existence forever.
There was then the sound of police sirens. Three police cars came by and stopped when they saw a crowd of people hovering over Rena. Tatanga just kept staring at her body. Noise started to drown itself out. He heard the police men talking and yelling some stuff, something about the person they were chasing committing some crime. That explains why that bastard who ran her over didn't stop.
END FLASHBACK
A tear ran down Tatanga's cheek. He wanted her back so bad. Not in the form of Gekikara, who is merely just some kind of mirage of Rena, but the true Rena. The only place that Rena exists now is in his mind.
Barry, the now mind-controlled Koopatrol, stood still as a statue, staring coldly at the doomsday machine before him, and wielding a sledgehammer. The machine seemed to go up forever. Its color was pure white and it almost looked like a humongous thorn sticking out of the island. He saw many Koopatrols doing computations, wiring, and other complicated stuff that he just didn't care about at that moment. Grodus had wired his mind to tamper with the machine in hopes of delaying its completion or even destroying it. A few of the Koopatrols walked away from a certain section of the machine and he figured it was time to do the deed.
He walked up to a small computer screen that was directly connected to the machine, with right below it being some kind of large control panel. On the screen was a bunch of codes he didn't understand, but that didn't matter to him anyways. He punched through the screen, instantly smashing the glass. He cut himself in a few places on his hand and arm but he didn't care. Inside the screen was a bunch of wires that he quickly pulled and ripped apart, making a bunch of zappy noises in the process. He then smashes his sledgehammer into the control panel multiple times, each time damaging it more and more and letting out a bunch of sparks. After the control panel was a complete wreckage, he moved onto the next control panel he saw and proceeded to destroy that one too.
Of course, the noises brought forth the attention of some Koopatrols.
"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO THE MACHINE!?" yelled a Koopatrol. He ran to Barry to stop him, but Barry immediately caught him and swiftly slammed the sledgehammer into his jaw, knocking him down to the floor. The other Koopatrols witnessing this shrieked in shock. Barry then smashed the sledgehammer into the Koopatrols' face, creating a gory mess.
"HOLY SHIT! THAT'S IT, GET HIM!" yelled another Koopatrol and the group of Koopatrols ran in and proceeded to cause a huge fight which attracted the attention of many other Koopatrols.
EOC.
