Adventuring Group: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, DK, Dixie, Goombella, Kooper, Parakarry, Lakilester, Koopie, Flurrie, Spike/Paper-Yoshi, Vivian, Bowser, Larry, Wario, Pauline, Mona, Jojora, Starlow, Luvbi, Kody

Imprisoned in Mirror-Crystal Palace: Koops, Bombette

Hospital group: Toadette, Bleck/Blumiere, Tippi/Timpani, Toadsworth, Fly Guy, Toadessa, Toado, Dr. Nokano, Morton, Lemmy, Ludwig, Bowser Jr., E. Gadd, Clawdia, Katia, Kenneth, Toodles, Tadano

Mushroom Corps.: Arfur, Toadari (Arfur's boss)

Island group: Tatanga, Beldam, Roy, Doopliss, Dimentio, Mimi, Diddy, Fire Bro/Konnor

Moon: TEC

Blackstone Tower: Grodus

Fort Koopington: Rosalina, Monty Mole

MIRROR-CRYSTAL PALACE

Everything went into full force chaos immediately after the mirror wall shattered into numerous pieces. The Crystal Queen's Duplighosts, Swoopulas, and Clubbas charged into the large group of heroes. Koopie, who was injured the worst out of everyone with the glass shard still stuck in her neck, dragged herself up the stairs to avoid getting hurt any further.

Gunshots went ablazing. Screams echoed throughout the large room along with the sounds of bodies hitting and rolling on the floor filling the air. Everyone and their mirror counterparts were mostly fighting side by side.

Peach and Mirror-Peach ganged up on a couple of Clubbas. Mirror-Peach punched one Clubba in the eye and then Peach swung her spiked club down onto his head and smashed it open. The other Clubba took advantage of her open vulnerability and kicked her in the kneecap, knocking her down. Mirror-Peach immediately caught this and swiped a mirror shard from the ground and stabbed his temple. The Clubba let out a screech and Peach stood herself back up and swung the spiked club up into the bottom of his jaw and knocked him down and dead.

DK wrestled on the ground with a Clubba, but while the ape was distracted with this, a Swoopula flew down and bit him on the shoulder. DK cried and rolled over on the ground and pulled the bat off of him and threw him at the wall. The Clubba kicked him in the side and was about to strike him with the spiked club, until Mirror-DK lunged at him and knocked him to the floor. Mirror-DK shoved the Clubba's face into the floor with the tiny glass shards lying about multiple times till the Clubba's face began to look mangled with the shards stuck into him.

Pauline lunged onto a Duplighost and stabbed him in the upper back with a shard. The Duplighost yelped out then spun around and ran backwards into the wall, hitting Pauline in her back and the back of her head and knocking her off. Mirror-Pauline came in and kicked the Duplighost in the jaw which knocked him to the floor. Mirror-Pauline then grabbed a shard and stabbed the enemy in the forehead.

"Where the hell did the Crystal Queen and Merle go!? Did anyone see them!?" Mario yelled as he pushed and punched through the enemy crowd along with his mirror counterpart.

"They must've used magic to just vanish out of here! AGH, FUCK!" Mirror-Mario suddenly screamed as he was hit in the shoulder by a Clubba's spiked club. Mario immediately kicked the Clubba down and shoved his thumbs into the Clubba's eye sockets, making the creature screech out in pure pain.

"We need some people to look for them! All of this crap is just a distraction!" Goombella yelled as she and her counterpart rammed into a Duplighost and got him up against the wall. Mirror-Goombella grabbed a shard from the floor and slit the Duplighost's throat, spewing out blood everywhere.

"She's right! Larry, come with me! We need to look all over this damn palace for those fuckers!" Bowser ordered as he just finished clawing a Swoopula out of the air, then stomped on it the second it hit the ground. "Kooper! Take my handgun, you might need it here more than we will!"

"Oh! Okay...thanks. Be safe!" Kooper said in surprise, but quickly took it and went back to fighting the enemies.

"Yes, go! We got this covered here! The two Marios, are you going with!?" Mirror-Bowser asked.

Both Marios looked at each other and nodded. "We're going! We're doing this now!" Mirror-Mario declared, holding his hurt and bloodied shoulder, but tried to not let it affect him.

"Oh Mario, PLEASE be careful! All of you!" Peach cried.

"I'm coming as well!" Luigi declared, and his counterpart joined in on the choice as well.

"I must come too! The only way to kill the Queen and Merle is by magic, so I'll have to come up with a spell that'll make them defeatable!" Junior Troopa added.

"That's right, so I'll go with too! I have that negation power in me, which will help stop the both of them temporarily!" Parakarry also joined in on the cause.

"If he's going, then I'm going!" Jojora added enthusiastically, holding onto Parakarry.

"You all please be careful! Don't let them pull any tricks on you!" Daisy yelled and then faced the wild crowd of violence and chaos. "TIMESLOW!" she screamed. All the enemies that were present in the room now moved in slow motion while Daisy groaned in pain as she fell to the floor, drained of her energy. This provided a major advantage to the heroes, killing off the enemies quicker. Luigi grabbed Daisy, put her arm over his shoulder and dragged her with him.

"Dais, I'm not letting you be in here with this mess while you can barely move! You're coming with us!" Luigi demanded. Daisy tiredly nodded, refusing to argue with that notion.

So, the two Marios, two Luigis, Daisy, Parakarry, Jojora, Junior Troopa, Bowser, and Larry ran away from the chaos and into the next room...but someone else followed them in.

"WOAH! What are you doing!?" Mirror-Luigi shrieked, not expecting to see this person.

"I'm also coming along. I want to see that witch and warlock pay for their gruesome deeds. For centuries, the Queen has been nothing but a deceitful wench to the entirety of the Shiver Region...that ends now," Kooplinia declared.

"I like that gusto! But, before we continue, I wanna try a spell that could tell us where those two went to. They're definitely still in the palace, but I can't tell where specifically. Gimme a sec…" Troopa said as he tightly grasped his wand and closed his eyes with pure focus.


Koopie dragged herself to the 'master bedroom' upstairs as she cried and gurgled on her blood from the shard still stuck on the side of her neck. She tried to remove it, but just moving it by one centimeter made the pain even worse, causing her to cry out more.

Vivian followed Koopie into the room.

"KOOPIE! Hey! HEY! It'll be okay, we'll barricade ourselves up here until it's over! Just don't move that shard out of your neck, because you'll lose more blood!" the shadow siren cried and knelt down to her.

"Viv...ah...fuck...this hurts so much...I don't think...there'll be enough time for me to get help…" Koopie weakly spoke and coughed up some more blood.

"DON'T SAY THAT! We just gotta wait it out! Come on, let's get over to the other side of the room!" Vivian yelled and started crying.

Suddenly, Kooper, Mirror-Kooper and Mirror-Koopie were seen coming into the room.

"I saw those two coming over h- WOAH! Oh m-my…" Mirror-Koopie shrieked when she suddenly saw the sight of her mirror counterpart. Kooper and Mirror-Kooper gasped at the saddening sight.

"You guys, w-we, umm, she needs to stay up here until the battle is over! Her wound isn't that bad, so she should make it out okay, right? RIGHT!?" Vivian panickedly cried.

"Viv...just stop...it's over...ooh...fuck...FUCK!" Koopie suddenly screamed and yanked out the shard from her neck, causing her to make a bloodcurdling scream this time.

"SHIT! Koopie, press this against it! Come on, we're not letting you die over a damn neck wound!" Kooper screeched as he grabbed the old sheet from the floor and held it against the wound. Koopie weakly held the sheet against it and started to cry.

"You guys barricade yourselves in this room! I'm gonna go back down and help!" Mirror-Kooper instructed.

"WAIT! LOOK!" Vivian screamed, pointing above Mirror-Kooper. They all looked in that direction and saw a swarm of Swoopulas from the main hall flood into the room.

"Damnit! Uhh...crap, there's only 4 bullets left in Bowser's handgun, and there are like 30 of these bats!" Kooper said in a panic, not knowing if it'd be wise to waste them all on the Swoopulas.

"I'd say to conserve them! AHHHH!" Vivian roared and jumped to do a Shade Fist move at a flying Swoopula, knocking it away and smashing it into the wall. Mirror-Kooper and Mirror-Koopie grabbed various objects and rubble they could find in the room and hurled them at the Swoopulas, knocking a few of them down to the floor, then stomping on them when they got the chance.

A couple of Swoopulas flew down and bit Koopie all over her body. She made another scream as Kooper yelped and shot one of them. He then ran over and pulled another one off of her and smashed it on the floor. Koopie yanked another one off and threw it at the wall.

"Ahhh...fuck...oooohhhh...just...leave me! LEAVE ME!" Koopie demanded as she stumbled towards the corner of the room, her blood trickling all over the floor now.

"STOP SAYING THAT! WE'RE NOT LEAVING YOU! GRAB MY HAND!" Kooper yelled and extended his arm to help her stand up.

But then the unexpected and even more horrific happened in a split second.

A spiked club was thrown across the room and it landed perfectly on her torso, stabbing inside her, and knocking her down. Kooper froze for a few seconds, petrified at the scene that happened so instantaneously that he couldn't process it.

"K...K...who…" Kooper stuttered as his body shook in terror. He whipped his head around to see who the culprit was, and it was a Clubba who snuck his way into the room. He looked proud of the awful deed he just committed, which enraged Kooper to the absolute fullest.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kooper screamed at the top of his lungs and pulled the trigger of the gun twice at the Clubba. The creature was shot in the torso and another one in the neck.

Vivian turned her head and cried at the gruesome sight of Koopie lying motionless on the floor.

"NOOOOOO! KOOPIE! ERRRRGGGGHHHH...FIERY JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINX!" Vivian also screamed at the top of her lungs and all of the Swoopulas in the room were suddenly set ablaze. Ear-piercing screeches from the creatures were heard as they all circled down to the floor and quickly died. Vivian fell back, immediately exhausted from that more powerful version of Fiery Jinx she just performed.

"Oh my god! I-Is she…" Mirror-Kooper cried and ran over to her with the others while Vivian dragged herself over there.

"Koopie...oh god...oh god! KOOPIE! No...no no no!" Kooper began to cry, but then almost stopped when he heard Koopie cough up more blood.

"OH! Koopie! Um...oh...we...we're so sorry...if we had seen that bastard, we would've…" Vivian sobbed and held her hand.

"S...stop...don't blame...oogh...yourselves...Kooper and V-Viv...come closer to me...I need to tell you s-something...about Tatanga...something...you need to tell him...when you see him…" Koopie spoke as best as she could in between her spurting out more blood. Kooper and Vivian scooted themselves closer to her, and she lifted her head up to them as best as she could and whispered something that Mirror-Kooper and Mirror-Koopie couldn't tell what was being said, but didn't want to invade their privacy in that moment.

"Wha...Koopie...my god...you...you sure?" Vivian asked, seeming surprised.

Koopie nodded. "I...won't make it to see him...so please...t...tell him that...a-and...tell Koops...I...love him…"

Koopie's eyes then closed as she coughed one last time and her head rolled to the side. Kooper let out a loud cry and buried his head in his hands while Vivian cried into Mirror-Koopie's shoulder, her and Mirror-Kooper being teary-eyed at this heart-wrenching situation too.


Kody scrambled to hide in the smaller right hand-side hallway away from the madness. He slammed the door shut but then swore angrily when he saw that there was nothing to block the door from opening.

"Shit...shit! God, I don't wanna fucking die! I don't know where to go!" he cried and tugged on his hair in stress. He walked over to the next room which was another hallway and had a reflective floor. Another door was at the end and he ran over to it, but was stopped by an extremely familiar voice.

"HEY, WAIT!" called out a boy, echoing through the hallway. Kody froze for a second, then turned around to see his mirror counterpart standing at the other end of the hallway, waving at him. It felt so bizarre hearing his own voice call him out to him.

"Oh! Uhh, hey. I...uhh...look, I'm sorry I'm hiding, I just don't wanna die! I almost died when I nearly drowned in that icy lake and...man, I really really REALLY don't wanna get massacred out there! I'm so scared!" Kody began to sob and looked away in embarrassment.

"Hey, it's okay! I completely understand that you're scared. It's not easy, but in this world, I know some karate moves. I've taken classes for three years now! Just stay by me and I'll show you how to kick some major ass," Mirror Kody said in encouragement.

Kody was taken aback by this reveal. "Oh! I've never done anything like karate before in my world, but that's pretty cool. Um...o-okay. I...I'll come with…"

"You'll be fine! I'll make sure you live! Come on!" Mirror Kody urged and reached out his hand for him to grab. Kody hesitantly walked forward to him, not wanting to back out, but still truly wanting to stay out of any kind of crossfire.

But then, Kody stopped when he realized something even more out of the ordinary; His mirror counterpart had no reflection on the floor. Kody himself had a reflection on the floor, so why didn't his counterpart? He became outright terrified now.

"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" Mirror Kody asked with a hint of an attitude.

Kody gulped. He knew something was wrong here. He didn't know what to say right then and there, but he quickly pieced it together in his head that this was actually a Duplighost who was pretending to be his mirror counterpart.

"Hello!? What's the matter!?" the doppelganger raised his voice.

Kody had to figure out something to do. So, he bolted to the door that he was originally gonna go into before the doppelganger showed up.

"GET BACK HEEEEEEEERE!" angrily screamed the Duplighost as he made a mad dash after him.

Kody reached the door and grabbed the knob, but he made a sudden and writhing pain in his back from the Duplighost slashing his upper back with a glass shard.

"AGGGGGHHHHHH! OH MY GOD!" Kody screeched, falling to the floor. The Duplighost kicked him over on his back as Kody became face to face with his own doppelganger, adding more terror to the grim situation from seeing his own self ready to murder him.

"Ohhhh look at you. Such a scared little boy. Then there's me...I could replace you. Be the brave and strong man you never got to be. That's the worst kind of death...no one truly knowing you're gone forever!" the Duplighost mocked and snickered at Kody's petrified state as he brought the bloody glass shard into his view.

"P-Please d-don't kill me...I'll do whatever you want! Anything you want me to do, j-just please don't kill me!" Kody cried.

"Sorry, that's not gonna work for me. Night night!" the Duplighost cackled and was ready to stab in the heart, but he was suddenly kicked over by another Kody doppelganger with Dixie not too far behind.

The true Mirror-Kody punched the Duplighost in the face, swiped the shard from his hands, and stabbed him in the heart twice. The Duplighost let out a wail of pain but then slowly stopped moving.

"Oh...h-holy shit...y-you're the actual mirror me, right!? RIGHT?" Kody cried, not taking his eyes off of the dead doppelganger him.

"Yes, he is! I saw you run in here, then I saw the 'other you' run in here afterwards. I thought it was the mirror version of you, but then I saw the true mirror version out in the room still, so I put two and two together and had to check on you because I knew that was gonna end up horribly!" Dixie explained.

"Yeah, so glad we made it in time! You okay, bro? Are you hurt badly?" Mirror-Kody asked, helping him stand up.

"Not really...how bad is the wound in my back?" Kody grunted, crying a little from the sharp pain in his back. Mirror-Kody and Dixie examined the wound and expressed worry over the wound.

"Yowch. That's kind of a long slit there. Don't think you'll die over it, but we need to cover that up to get more blood from leaking out," Mirror-Kody said as he took off his shirt to reveal himself wearing a wifebeater underneath and held the shirt against Kody's wound.

"Thank you guys...I just...really REALLY didn't wanna die...I'm sorry for being a coward...just...dying seems horrible...I witnessed my family die...and now so many others...I don't wanna end up like that…" Kody said through his sobbing, Dixie noticing the desperate undertone in his voice, and also overhearing Kody telling the doppelganger that he'd do anything to live which struck more suspicion in her about him, but she bit her tongue because now wasn't the time to get into that topic again.


Flurrie used her Gale Force move to blow a couple Swoopulas and Clubbas away up against the wall, who were all heading towards Starlow who had tripped over and pierced her torso with a couple small glass shards on the floor. The Timeslow ability was still in effect in that room so the enemies were being killed at a quicker pace.

"AAAAHHH! Oh my god, that hurts! I need to get out of this room before they start moving in regular motion again!" Starlow wailed as she examined her body, cringing at the tiny glass stuck in her body.

"Just stay close to me! You'll be fine!" Spike yelled and got near her as he got his blindness gun and shot a couple nearby Duplighosts and a Clubba, blinding them and causing them to stumble around everywhere in slow motion. Mona came in punching and kicking another couple of nearby enemies immediately after, then Lakilester and Yoshi swooped in and stabbed those same enemies all with large glass shards.

Everything reverted back to normal motion again. The adrenaline immediately kicked back up for everyone.

"FLURRIE, BEHIND YOU!" Wario called out, pointing to her. Flurrie spun around to see a spiked club being swung at her. The wind spirit shrieked and ducked to the floor, just barely missing being hit.

Wario shot the clubba with his zap gun, stunning him momentarily. Mona darted over to the scene, swiped the spiked club, and bashed him in the head a couple times.

"They're dwindling down! We just gotta keep at it and…" Mona spoke confidently, but that confidence was soon lost when she saw Flurrie getting ambushed by a few Clubbas since she was an open target for a moment after dodging the previous Clubba.

"SHIT! FLURRIEEEEE!" Mona screamed and now darted over there with Yoshi, Spike, Wario, and Lakilester right behind.

"RAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" Yoshi roared and jumped on one of the Clubbas, tackling him down to the floor. The Clubba screeched and fought back, the two now tussling on the floor. Punches and scratches were done as the two rolled over each other a few times. The Clubba put Yoshi into a chokehold. The dino couldn't breathe whatsoever, but he saw from the corner of his eye another glass shard within arm's reach. He grabbed it and stabbed the Clubba in the neck, releasing his grip. Yoshi got on top of him now and proceeded to stab him multiple times in the torso while screaming in pure rage and adrenaline.

"DIE, YOU FUCKER! AAAAAHHHHHH!" he roared, making about 10 stab wounds in him before his body began to get tired. He breathed in and out heavily, but the second he felt someone touch him in the shoulder, he reacted on pure impulse, and swung the shard, nearly slicing Luvbi in the neck.

"WOAH, YOSHI! SETTLE DOWN, IT'S JUST ME!" Luvbi screamed in sheer horror at almost dying by his hands.

Yoshi calmed his breathing and dropped the shard while his hand was bleeding a little from pressing too hard on it.

"Oh...I...I'm sorry...I got too out of control there for a second…" Yoshi said, clearly looking a little ashamed, especially since Luvbi still looked scared of him.

"Yeah, you think!? Gosh, I could've died! I know we're in battle right now, but you still need to have some level of control over your impulses!" Luvbi scolded.

Yoshi looked away, feeling awful now. He truly didn't mean to nearly kill Luvbi, but this battle he was in plus the Boshi situation had his mind completely twisted up.

"GOTCHA!" Wario yelped as he zapped one of the Clubbas with his gun. Lakilester flew and rammed into him, knocking him to the floor, then Mona ran over and stomped on his throat multiple times, eventually crushing it and spewing out blood from the Clubba's mouth. The creature slowly stopped moving.

Spike swiped the spiked club away from the Clubba that was on top of Flurrie and was about to bash him in the head with it, until another Clubba tugged the spiked club from the paper dino and bunted the stick end of the club on his forehead. Spike cried out in pain and fell backwards as the Clubba swung down the club. Spike moved just in time, the club hitting the floor a mere inch away from his body. Wario zapped the Clubba before he could do anything else, stunning him. Spike got the club again, roared in anger and bashed him in the head, flinging him a few feet away.

"AAAAHHH! OH MY GOD, PLEASE HEEEEEELP!" Flurrie cried out again as the Clubba on top of her was now seen clawing at her torso.

"SHIT!" Lakilester yelped and flew in to grab the Clubba by his arms, pulling him away from the wind spirit. Mona, Wario, Starlow, Luvbi, and Spike all came in and stabbed the Clubba, each with their own shard. The Clubba screeched out in pain. Lakilester decided to shut him up by shoving him to the floor and then slamming his face into the floor.

"Oh my god! Flurrie...umm…" Starlow shrieked, horrified from the numerous claw marks on Flurrie's torso. They didn't look too deep, but they were bleeding out and Flurrie couldn't move herself much.

"Ooooh...I...I'm okay...just help me get up! I won't die because of this!" Flurrie yelled. Mona and Wario helped her up. Lakilester tore off a piece of a dead Duplighost's sheet and pressed it up again Flurrie's wounds to help stop the bleeding out.


"Troopa, you see anything!? Come on, I don't wanna rush you, but we have little time to lose, if any!" Jojora urged as Troopa was in complete focus with his eyes closed, mentally scanning the palace with his magic,

"Come on...wait...yes! YES! I see the both of them! They're in two separate places! The Crystal Queen is going downstairs into what looks like a torture chamber and...there's Bombette down there trapped in a cage!? Oh, that's YOUR guys' Bombette!" Troopa revealed, shocking the others.

"WHAT!? Shit, she's probably gonna torture Bombette to death! What about Merle!?" Bowser asked.

"He's at the end of the palace...where the entry to your guys' world is...but what the hell is he doing!? Oh...NO! FUCK, I KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING! HE'S TRYING TO CONCEAL THE ENTRANCE BACK INTO YOUR GUYS' WORLD BY COLLAPSING THE CAVE! I have to go over there right now and stop him!" Troopa revealed further, providing more shock to the gang.

"Fuck, of course he is! But Troopa, you're gonna need back up in case things go south! I'm coming with you!" Mario demanded.

"I wanna go as well! To use my Timeslow ability again in case it's necessary. It might not even be useful because he has his magic, but I wanna try!" Daisy stated boldly.

"Fine by me! Both of you, take my hand, because I'm gonna teleport us to where he is. The rest of you, find that room the Queen and Bombette are in and save your friend! I'm gonna give one of you some of my power to kill the Queen!" Troopa said and shot a yellow magical ray at Luigi. The green brother was surprised by this act and nearly fell over.

"WOAH! Uhh...Troopa!? What did you do? H-How will I even know how to use this magic?" Luigi questioned in fright.

"I promise you, you will know! Now we must go! No more time to waste!" Troopa commanded and grabbed Mario and Daisy's hands.

"Good luck! We'll be back!" Daisy said to Luigi and nodded at him. Luigi got teary-eyed and nodded back, then the three disappeared in a flash.

"Alright, let's go kill that bitch and save Bombette!" Larry commanded and led the way.


Mirror-Merle was standing in front of the cave entrance, reciting a spell to make the cave collapse. The mountain was rumbling as rocks began to fall onto the cave ground.

This spell was interrupted, however, by a magic blast shot by none other than Troopa, sending him flying into the mountain wall.

"AGGGHHH! Ooooooh...Rinot Pajouro! I had a feeling you'd be coming to me sooner or later!" the warlock angrily yelled but then made a cackle as he easily stood himself up. He turned around and saw Troopa, Mario, and Daisy standing on the other side of the walkway in front of the door leading back into the palace.

"Sooooo I gotta ask ya, what the hell is the point of collapsing the cave in, when that door leading to the other world is gonna permanently close soon anyways!?" Troopa asked.

"Because I want to make this situation impossible for ANY of you to get out of, obviously! Mario...you and your annoying friends came into this world and you think you just get to have the leisure to go back anytime you want!? Not on my watch!" Mirror-Merle snarled and clenched his fists.

"Hey. You think we wanted all of this to happen!? This was completely out of the blue. I mean, really...a goddamn mirror world. Who would've thought we'd ever get into something like this, out of all the craziness we've endured already? But, we're here. We know what's going on now, and I'll make damn sure you're dead long before that door closes," Mario confidently affirmed.

"Ha. Typical cocky son of a bitch superhero. What else is new? GRAH!" Mirror-Merle suddenly screamed and held his hands out in front of him. The snow on the walkway suddenly blew towards the three like a crashing wave, blinding them momentarily.

"AGH! TIMESLOW!" Daisy cried, and the move went into effect as Daisy fell to the ground and lost her energy again.

"Ha! You really think such a simple spell like that will stop me? I'll show you the reverse of that dumb magic trick! CELERITAS!" Mirror-Merle cackled once more and suddenly zoomed towards the three. Mirror-Merle rammed into Daisy, knocking her through the doors leading back into the palace, breaking the doors apart in the process. Then he clawed Mario in his right leg which knocked him down to the ground, then got in front of Troopa, grabbed him by the neck and threw him on the walkway all in a span of a few seconds.

"AHHH! FUCK!" Troopa screamed as he slid off the walkway and held onto it with his hands.

"Hehehehe...bet you didn't see that coming, huh? God, you're so annoying. How you didn't end up getting killed after all these years for being a pure nuisance is truly beyond me!" Mirror-Merle spat and stood right above him.

"Agh...you...you're the one that's a nuisance! Trying to sacrifice little star kids for your own awful pleasure...you're the lowest type of scum to EVER exist!" Troopa retorted, seeming to be unable to lift himself up.

"Hmm. You know what? You're right. I am seriously scummy. But at least I know what I am. You...you're nothing. You're just gonna rot in the ground and only be remembered for being a desperate warlock. Farewell!" Mirror-Merle said then jumped up and stomped on Troopa's hands. The koopa warlock cried out in pain and fell to the snowy depths below.

Mirror-Merle made another cackle in joy and walked on over to Mario, who was struggling to get up.

"Sit down, you menace," he commanded and Mario's body fell back to the ground. He was now completely unable to get back up. "You're almost as bad as the koopa kid prick. I say almost because you have a maturity to you that the dumb koopa is lacking. Too bad it isn't enough for you to just quit the superhero shenanigans! Hey, maybe if you had just done that, you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place, along with all your follower friends!?"

"Ugh...of-of course you want me to do that. And all my friends. So you and the rest of the other low-lifes can run around and cause chaos. Only in your dreams!" Mario replied abrasively, preparing for his potential death.

"Well then...I suppose you can say that my dreams are coming true then! GOODNIGHT!" Mirror-Merle yelled as a black ball formed in his hands that got bigger and bigger...then he unleashed it at Mario.

But it bounced off of the plumber.

"What the hell!? How did that…" Mirror-Merle cried out, completely stunned by this unexpected result, but he immediately realized what had happened.

Mario was completely stone. He had a split moment where he could grab the Stone Cap from in his pocket that he kept when he traversed the Shiver Mountain in the original world and put it on him which made him invincible to any attack.

"Oh...ohhhh! You little TRICK! GODDAMNIT! WHAT IS THE SPELL THAT CAN BYPASS THE GODDAMN STONE CAP EFFECT!?" Mirror-Merle raged and felt embarrassed that he was outsmarted. He then felt a piercing blow on his back as he suddenly flew to the wall of the palace and smashed on it, causing a crack. He slid down to the ground and made a loud groan of pain as he looked up to see a flying Troopa snickering at him.

"Hey, idiot! You forgot that the ability to fly is a thing among spells!" Troopa hollered in joy at his pain.

"Ooh...you...you rotten little fucker...that...agh…" Mirror-Merle scowled as he could barely stand himself up.

Daisy slowly crawled herself back to the outside, clearly bruised all over her body. She looked up and saw a familiar person come out of the cave.

"Koops! Y-You're okay!" Daisy called out as loud as she could, her body in pain all over and still having little energy from the Timeslow effect.

Koops came in and saw the scene at hand. He saw a flying Junior Troopa, a Mario stone statue, a beat and battered Daisy, and the Merle that was almost equally beat and battered. He had no idea what to even say about this freaky situation he just walked in to by chance, but he knew where to start.

"THERE HE IS! MERLE! Don't kill him, he's possessed by the spirit of Kooprik...uhh, I mean the Crystal King! Or whoever you wanna call him!" Koops yelled and pointed to the man in question.

Troopa looked greatly confused at this and looked to Mirror-Merle. The evil warlock looked as if he was just caught red-handed.

"Possessed!? WHAT? Koops, how do you even know that!?" Daisy confusedly asked as the Stone Cap effect on Mario wore off.

"Don't...don't listen to what that crazy, random koopa is saying! His aura tells me he is INSANE!" Mirror-Merle accused in desperation.

"That 'random' koopa happens to be our friend, and he isn't insane! Koops wouldn't say you were possessed for no reason!" Mario yelled, knowing that Koops wouldn't just make a random accusation in this situation.

"Possessed…? Possessed...OH MY GOD, OF COURSE!" Troopa shrieked as if he had a 'light bulb' moment. "MANIFESTO!"

A lightning bolt blasted from Troopa's hands and hit Mirror-Merle. The evil warlock screeched in horror as the entire area was engulfed in pure whiteness.


Bombette woke up in a daze. She turned her head and her heart immediately raced as she noticed that she was in the torture room of the palace's basement. She got up and almost hit her head on some spikes above her. She quickly realized that she was in a cage hanging some amount of feet above the ground. Spikes were inside the cage, all pointing inward, leaving very little room to move.

"Oh...oh my god! HEEEEEEEEELP! LET ME OOOOUUUUT!" Bombette screamed for dear life.

"Screaming won't do a thing," said a feminine voice, startling the bomb gal.

"Wh-who's there!? Hello!?" she yelped.

"It's me. The one and only Crystal Queen!" she said brashly as she made her way downstairs into the room as if she was making her grand entrance. Bombette stared in pure shock at the pink Duplighost wearing a crystal crown. This was the first time she had seen the Crystal Queen. She became terrified at what she had planned to do to her.

"Oh my god, it's you! Holy shit...the...fucking Crystal Queen...you were the one that captured me TWICE!" Bombette stammered a little, frozen in fear.

"Hahaha! It's part of what I do best, dear. I don't know how in the world you managed to get yourself and the rest of those nobodies out of those cells, but I refuse to let you get away with that. You could've had a less torturous death in those cells. You could've died surrounded by people who could at least make an attempt to comfort you in your last moments. But no...you're gonna die all by your lonesome in this dark and dank basement," the Queen spoke degradingly, wanting to make the bomb gal feel as miserable as possible. However, the fear in Bombette now turned into anger from this.

"You know what? Think whatever you want, but my friends know I'm down here. They'll get here eventually, destroy you, and we'll get the hell out of this freakish world! So...taunt me all you want, bitch. I'm a lot tougher than I look. You're not gonna win. You and your dumb plan and your dumb creature pets are gonna be destroyed so fucking fast, your whole body will spin.

And...you know what? Even if I do die...it's still gonna happen to you. You can't escape it. You HIGHLY underestimate us. We've been through absolute hell, seen so many people die right in front of us, and fought the worst of the worst. We ALWAYS find a way through. It's literally just a matter of time before they kick your ass and send your soul to Hell, where you belong," Bombette responded fearlessly, glaring right at the Queen the entire time.

The Crystal Queen was silent for a moment, but Bombette could tell that she rightfully pissed her off and was satisfied at that.

"Hmm. Okay then. Well...let us say hypothetically that all of that DOES happen...then I suppose I should get started on slowly killing you now then, shouldn't I?" the Queen finally spoke, then suddenly floated in the air, then let out a high-pitched scream and flew straight at Bombette. The bomb gal gasped and braced for impact, but fell over in the cage, nearly hitting her body on the spikes, as she felt like her body was now out of her control.

"WHA! What's...what the...what the fuck!? WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Bombette screamed.

"Ever heard of a possession, sweetheart?" the Crystal Queen spoke through Bombette's lips then laughed. Bombette was now terrified again. She had little control of her body now but was still aware of everything that was still happening. The Queen then moved Bombette over to one of the spikes and pressed her body against it. Bombette screamed in agony as the sharp pain grew further and further as the spike began to stab into her skin.

However, the Queen stopped when she heard the noise of people coming down the stairs. She looked out through the cage from Bombette's eyes and got into a slight panic when she saw familiar faces enter the room. On the flipside, Bombette felt relieved at seeing those familiar faces. It was Bowser, Larry, the two Luigis, Parakarry, Jojora, Kooplinia, and Mirror-Mario that came on in.

"BOMBETTE! Are you okay!? Where's the Crystal Queen!?" Parakarry yelled, horrified at the contraption that his friend is trapped in.

"SHE...I...ahem...no, I don't know where she's at! She just disappeared!" the Crystal Queen spoke through Bombette, with Bombette trying her hardest to power over her.

"Oh great, she's hiding. Well, what the hell are we supposed to do now!?" Larry asked.

"Luigi, that power that Troopa gave you, could you use that to find her, or even draw her to us?" Mirror-Luigi asked.

"I could, but...I...I don't know why he gave me his magic! I don't even know what to use it for or what spell to say!" Luigi cried.

"He said that you'll know when to use it...but that's, like, the vaguest thing ever so, looks like we're at a loss!" Jojora grumbled.

"Let's at least get you out of there! Stay still, moving just an inch could hurt like hell!" Bowser said as he walked over to the cage.

"No no! Um, I don't want you guys to get killed because of me! You should go back upstairs and find her or even find Merle! I'll be fine, just go and don't waste time trying to save me right now!" the Crystal Queen frantically objected through Bombette. Everyone looked at her perplexedly now.

"Huh!? No, Bombette, we're not just gonna keep you in there! Besides, we have a few of the others taking down Merle as we speak. You don't need to worry!" Mirror-Mario assured.

"Uhhhhh...I...I AM worried, though! I'm so worried I'm gonna die th-that I'm gonna go completely insane! AAAAHHHH!" the Queen/Bombette suddenly screamed hysterically and slammed herself into one of the spikes, stabbing herself in the side. The others screamed at this, completely blindsided by this random action.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? CALM YOURSELF, YOU'RE JUST MAKING THE SITUATION WORSE!" Bowser roared.

"Something isn't right here! Bombette wouldn't just do that to herself!" Parakarry cried.

This is when it clicked for Luigi. "Oh my god...she's possessed! REVEAL YOURSELF!" He then threw a yellow-ish ball from his hands towards the cage, blowing it apart, and hitting Bombette. Two screams were heard. One from Bombette, who had been caught by Bowser, and the other one was from the Crystal Queen who had fallen onto a few chains.

"WOAH! Looks like Troopa was right, you knew exactly when to use the magic!" Mirror-Luigi shrieked and laughed a little at the sudden accomplishment.

"Yeah...yeah! It just hit me all of a sudden, like I somehow just knew what was going on and what to do. Guess that's the power of magic for ya," Luigi also laughed a little.

"Bombette, can you hear me? Are you okay?" Bowser asked in concern, doubly so when he saw her wound from the spike. It was somewhat small, but was still bleeding out a little.

"Ahhh...what...what the fuck just happened…" Bombette groaned, still in clear pain.

"Luigi got the Crystal Queen out of you, since you were possessed. You're gonna be okay, just hang in there!" Bowser assured.

Kooplinia ran over to the Crystal Queen and kicked her where she thought her head was, letting out another scream from the Queen.

"YOU WRETCHED WITCH! NOW YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE!" Kooplinia screamed in pure anger.

"KOOPLINIA, STAND BACK!" Parakarry yelled as he performed his Shell Shot move. He zoomed across the room and hit the wall. Parakarry fell onto his back, whereas the others were confused because his trajectory was perfect for hitting the Queen.

"What the hell!? You went right through her! I mean, I know she's a spirit and all, but she could still be physically attacked! Unless she did a spell where she's truly invisible!?" Larry theorized.

"No...that's not it!" Kooplinia said as she helped Parakarry up and pointed to the ground. "Look. The crown and her pink robe are against the wall. She took them off to make herself be unnoticed!"

"FUCK! That means she could be anywhere! What do we do!?" Bowser yelled.

"SHHHH! Stay quiet!" Jojora spoke with her finger to her lips. Everyone followed suit, knowing exactly what the next step would be, and went dead silent.

Seconds passed by as everyone tried to hear the most subtle sound in the room of the Crystal Queen walking about or even breathing. Everyone's nerves rose as they all looked around the room and at each other, trying their hardest not to make any kind of noise, and with the deafening silence making the situation all the more eerie.

A soft sound was heard. It sounded like a footstep. No one was moving, but everyone took notice of this barely audible sound.

"AAAGGGHH!" Mirror-Mario screamed, doing a roundhouse kick as the sound was closest to him, successfully hitting the Queen into the wall behind her. Parakarry zoomed over, successfully doing his Shell Shot move this time and bashed into her, making her scream again and knocked her to the floor. The Queen desperately and quickly threw a small piece of a chain at Kooplinia in hopes of trying to hurt someone before she was potentially taken down. Kooplinia shrieked when the chain hit her in the face, which made her also flinch and step back, which then made her fall over onto one of the spikes from the blown apart cage, impaling her into her back and out her chest. Everyone shrieked at this and ran to her except for Jojora who punched the Queen as hard as she could and wrapped her up in the chains.

"KOOPLINIA! Oh my god! Don't, uhh, don't move! We'll get you help!" Luigi cried.

Kooplinia coughed up blood and cried as she could barely even move anyways. "Agh...oh...my...god...this is...it, isn't it…"

A cackle was heard from none other than the Crystal Queen, which infuriated everyone even more. Bowser set down Bombette and walked over to the now vulnerable and stuck spirit.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you. You're about to fucking die along with your warlock pal and the rest of your ugly creature pets. Any last words?" Bowser tauntingly spoke as he cracked his knuckles.

The Queen made a heavy sigh and said, "Some of my 'pets' are coming down right now. Heh...hehehe! HEHEHEHE! You really thought it'd be that easy!?"

Sounds of stomping down the stairs were then immediately heard as everyone turned around and saw yet another large group of Clubbas, Duplighosts, and Swoopulas filter the room. This was going to be the fight of their lives.


Back at the main hall, the numbers of the enemies were dwindling even further, but the heroes were becoming exhausted and more injured as the battle went on.

"Fuck...I...I'm running out of energy...I'm so tired now...I wanna keep fighting, but I don't know how much further I can go!" Pauline cried as she inhaled and exhaled greatly and leaned on DK.

"Same here, so we gotta come up with another plan! Fighting in just this room is going to completely burn us out!" DK announced as he swatted off a couple of Swoopulas.

"So, what do we do then!? We gotta think of something fast because these guys are clearly NOT getting tired at all!" Dixie yelled.

"Has anyone seen Koopie!? She was right behind me! KOOPIE!" Mirror-Kooper yelled in sheer panic.

"Dearie...my goodness, look at yourself...how badly are you hurting?" Mirror-Flurrie asked as she dragged herself over to the original Flurrie, who was leaning against the corner of the room by the entry door, completely beaten, bloodied, and bruised all over.

"Ooooh...my dear, it hurts so much. I...oh god...please don't say anything, but...I don't think I'm gonna make it…" Flurrie spoke softly as she cried a little, then became even more emotional when she saw that her mirror counterpart had the same severity of wounds as her.

"I won't say a word...because I know I won't make it either. It hurts so damn much...I was stabbed a few times and bit upon by those treacherous flying creatures. I feel so faint...I...agh...I don't think we'll make it to a hospital in time…" Mirror-Flurrie said as she cried as well with her counterpart.

"No...I'm afraid that we won't make it to a hospital either...it's too far away...but...you want to know something, my dear?" Flurrie said with a slight smile growing upon her face now.

"What is it? What have you got conjuring up?" Mirror-Flurrie asked, noting the small smile.

Peach was in the midst of fighting a Duplighost, also overhearing the others saying that there needs to be another plan to this before they all burn out. She stood still as a 'light bulb' moment occurred to her. She had the Mystery Box still from when they were climbing up the mountain in the original world, she could use that and see what happens.

However, this train of thought left her defenseless for just a second. The Duplighost took this opportunity to swipe a shard of glass at Peach's face, snapping her back into painful reality and making her screech and fall over.

"NOOOOOO! DAMNIT!" Mirror-Peach yelled at this and kicked the Duplighost away, then picked up a nearby spiked club and threw it at the Duplighost's head, successfully impaling it. Mirror-Peach then scrambled to the floor to see how badly her counterpart was hurt.

"Hey, HEY! Peach! Wake up! Are you okay!?" she cried, a little relieved that the shard only made a diagonal slice wound across half of Peach's right cheek.

"Ugh...I...oh! The Mystery Box! I-I need to use it!" Peach yelled, ignoring the pain on her cheek as best as she could and scrambled to get the Mystery Box out of her dress pocket. She grabbed it, opened it, then threw it out on the floor. Out of the box popped a giant Fire Flower, which then shot fireballs that targeted all the enemies in the room. The Duplighosts, Clubbas, and Swoopulas all screeched and fled everywhere they could as the fireballs torched most of them and put their bodies either into shock or killed them almost immediately.

Everyone saw this scene in relief...except for Mirror-Kooper as he caught something in the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw that his Koopie had been caught by a group of Swoopulas and taken into the air. He also saw that her neck was bleeding, likely from one of the Swoopulas biting into her, and she looked unconscious. A couple of the fireballs hit the Swoopulas, which made them squeal and drop Koopie.

"NOOOOOO! SOMEONE CATCH HER!" he screamed as loud as he could and booked it to where she would land.

DK caught what was happening almost immediately and ran as well. He lunged as soon as he saw her get close to the floor.

But he missed by just two seconds and she hit the floor on her back. Mirror-Kooper screamed in despair at the godawful sight that just occurred right in front of him.

"Oh god...Koopie…" Mirror-Daisy gasped and slowly walked over to where Mirror-Kooper was now shaking his lover in hopes that she still had a little bit of life left in her...but no response at all. He cried out heavily over her body and held her hand.

"Oh no! That's-that's so awful! And...oh...um...where's the other Koopie at!?" Starlow asked, looking everywhere for her since this situation made her think of the original Koopie.

"She's dead. Those fuckers killed her upstairs," Kooper bluntly replied, red in the eyes from all the crying he did and how furious he still was.

"WHAT? NO! DAMNIT! And...crap! Look, there's still quite a few left!" Dixie cried, pointing out that there were around 20 of the enemies left, most of them being Clubbas which were the deadliest ones out of the three species.

"What do we do then!? Do we even continue fighting them!? The others may need our help in fighting the Crystal Queen and Merle!" Vivian pointed out.

"You're all gonna go. We'll finish this right here," Flurrie spoke as her and her counterpart went to the middle of the room, facing all the remaining enemies.

"What!? What the hell do you mean, Flurrie!? You're not doing this all by yourself!" Mona objected.

"Yes, we are. Dearie...look at us. We're battered beyond means and we've lost a lot of blood. We...we won't make it to the hospital...you all need to go. Find the others and help them destroy the Queen and Merle. They're the source behind all this madness," Mirror-Flurrie stated while being out of breath, subtly pointing to her wounds. Cuts, bruises, and stab wounds were all over her, and same for the original Flurrie.

"No, don't say that! We're so close to finishing this! Just hold on a little longer, you two! PLEASE!" Mirror-Parakarry pleaded.

"This isn't up for discussion! Now go! They need you!" Flurrie demanded.

"YES, IT IS! Flurrie...please just stop and-" Peach cried, but was interrupted by the wind spirit's screams.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she and her mirror counterpart held hands and used the last of their energy to do the most powerful Gale Force move they could on the others, blowing them to the other side of the room so they could make a quick and easy escape to go deeper into the palace to find the others.

The pair then faced the remaining enemies, nearly collapsing from that more powerful version of the move they commonly do in battle.

"Alright, you bastards….it's...it's not them you want to fight, it's us. This is our final act. Hope you're ready," Mirror-Flurrie said, ready to use her last little bit of power till the show is over.

"It's been a pleasure doing this with you all. I've lived...oh...such a fun life filled with stardom, romance, and friendships. I don't regret a thing," Flurrie spoke while sobbing a little, slightly looking back at her friends.

The enemies made a loud roar all at once and charged for the two Flurries. The wind spirits collided with the small army and chaos and bloodshed continued.

"I...I can't watch this! We gotta go find the others now! There's nothing else we can do now!" DK also sobbed at the scene and led the way deeper into the palace to find the others.


Koops covered his eyes since the light from Troopa's lightning bolt spell practically blinded him. When he heard the screeching stop and everything fell totally silent, he slowly uncovered his eyes. He gasped and jumped a little when he saw that he was in a completely different area, but calmed down a little when he saw that Mario, Daisy, and Troopa were with him, so he wasn't alone. The area looked like it was at the frozen lake just outside Shiver City.

"Wh-what happened!? What did you do!? What's been going on!?" Koops yelped, wanting to be in the know of everything now.

"When you said he was possessed, something clicked for me. I've always had a tiny suspicion, but never dared to explore it further because Merle is wicked powerful and I may have been killed for even trying previously...but since he was in a perfectly vulnerable position for me to do that to him, I had to do it.

The spell I used is to get into the inner mind of a person. Or, I guess the more proper word would be the 'subconscious' of a person. It's usually used for uncovering deep rooted trauma, but also used for getting rid of possessions. I've done this spell only once before...it was scary, but I navigated my way perfectly," Troopa explained.

"Koops, how'd you know that he was possessed? And where were you and Bombette the whole time after we made it to the Mirror World?" Mario asked.

"We were imprisoned in these cells that were in the Mirror World's Crystal Palace. A lot of the Shiver City people from our world were there too. We managed to escape and went back into our world, but the Crystal Queen caught Bombette and took her back in. I wanted to try to save her, but Bombette insisted that I go and lead the people to safety.

So, I took them and led them to that place underneath the ice staircase on the mountain, because those enemies may still have been around Starborn Village. Y-You know what cave I'm talking about, right Mario? The cave where Madam Merlar's spirit resides? While I was in there, Merlar appeared and told me that she saw that Merle in the Mirror World is possessed by the spirit of Kooprik, which is why his personality is so drastic compared to the Merle from our world. She said that Merle needs to be kept alive in order for there to be a watcher over the Star Kids, and also said that the only way to draw Kooprik's spirit out is by killing the Crystal Queen," Koops told the story. The other three looked intrigued yet surprised at all of this info.

"Yes...I remember that cave when I first went up the mountain to save the star spirit, Kalmar, all those years ago. But wow. Good thing you showed up just in time to tell us that!" Mario said with relief.

"Yeah...REALLY good thing! Right now, we're in the midst of battling the Crystal Queen and her creatures. We had to split off to fight the Queen and the other Merle because we weren't gonna get anywhere without destroying them," Daisy added.

"Hmm. You know...there ARE exceptions to the rule of Mirror Worlds where both counterparts could actually have drastic personalities from each other. It's very rare, though. Don't get me wrong, I still definitely think Merle is possessed, but I just wanted to let it be known that that exception to the rule can occur where both counterparts' personalities can greatly differ from another, or there's also the other rare occurrence where one person dies in one world but their counterpart won't die in the other world for a very long time," Troopa explained and then continued further, "Oh, and about killing the Crystal Queen to draw out Kooprik's spirit...how does that even make sense? First of all, that can't be the ONLY way to draw out his spirit, and secondly, if it truly IS the only way, then we must be missing something else here."

"There's nothing else missing here," another voice spoke from behind, spooking the four. They jumped around to see Mirror-Merle and a young male koopa with piercing blue eyes standing there.

"Oh my god! Merle! And...um, who are you?" Koops yelped.

"My name is Kooprik. You're technically in MY subconscious right now," he answered softly. The other four widened their eyes.

"SERIOUSLY!? It's been you all of this fucking time taking over Merle's body and wrecking everything!? You son of a bitch!" Daisy angrily yelled while seeing red.

"Daisy, stop. Please. There's more to the story than what you are seeing right now," Mirror-Merle assured. Daisy took in a deep breath and crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation.

"Yeah...yeah! There has to be! When the Merle in our world told us about the story of the origins of the Crystal Palace and the Mirror World, there wasn't anything indicating that Kooprik in the Mirror World was a bad guy. Nothing like the Crystal King from our world at least! So, it makes no sense that your spirit would take over Merle's body and do all these awful things!" Mario concluded.

"You're right. What you're about to see right now is the continuation of what the Crystal Queen was telling you earlier in the main room of the Crystal Palace. When she told you all of that story, about how she joined with Merleon, Kooplinia being sent to the Underworld, and me being killed...she left a big part out. She did it for a reason, because she knew that if she told the entire truth, Merle would be saved and she'd have no one to fight by her side anymore," Mirror-Kooprik said and pointed behind them to the frozen lake.

"Oh, of course she left a part out! She's the biggest liar I've ever had the displeasure of meeting," Daisy snarkily commented and turned around with the others to see what was happening.

The water was bubbling from the only open surface of the frozen lake. Then, out shot Mirror-Merleon and Kooplinia into the air, and the two landed on the snow.

Kooplinia screamed and scrambled to get herself up. "OH MY GOODNESS! That...that was the Underworld!? You sure you don't mean Hell!? The trees came to life! The spiders there were humongous! And...uuugghh...s-so many snakes! And where was the other Kooplinia!?"

Mirror-Merleon groaned exhaustedly and slowly turned to her. "N...no...not Hell...Underworld...the Hell you're thinking of...that one would be worse than the Underworld...but still wouldn't be an ideal place to be...now...do you see what I mean? Would you rather be the Queen of this world or be sent to deal with the misfortunes that the Underworld brings? Come on...I know you want to do this…"

Kooplinia calmed herself down and looked back at the lake. She knew what her answer was gonna be. She just needed to say it outloud so she could obtain the dream that she's always wanted. It may not have happened in the way she expected, but she had to deal with the cards she was currently being dealt with.

"Yes. I...I do want this. I want this. I want this!" Kooplinia raised her voice and felt invigorated from letting that out into the world.

The warlock laughed a little and struggled to stand himself up. "Excellent. I knew you were smart enough to go down this path that will lead you to a life of power. As for your mirror counterpart...she probably just hid away wherever she could...she's stuck for an eternity of isolation and torture there...hehehe..."

Kooplinia noticed Merleon seemed very off and helped him stand up. "What is going on with you? Are you okay?"

"Yergh...whenever I travel from one dimension to another...my body goes through a bit of a loop and becomes temporarily drained. Happens when you get to my age. Such a shame that there's no magic spell to keep one forever youthful! Well...YET, at least," he explained with another tired groan. He then made a slight gasp when he looked out into the distance.

"What is it?" Kooplinia asked, noticing this.

"Where...where did he go!? Where's his body!?" he yelled. Kooplinia looked at him very confusedly but then looked out to where he was looking, and also realized that Mirror-Kooprik's body was nowhere to be seen.

"What on earth!? Was he not actually dead!?" she yelped, and now scanned everywhere for him, knowing damn well that, if he really was alive, he'd be out for blood.

"I see footprints...and a tiny trail of his blood...it goes to the east…" Mirror-Merleon whispered, his tone now coming across as determined to end this man's life. He pushed himself to walk forward and follow the footprints.

"What are we going to do if he's reached the village and told everyone about what happened!? We will surely be shunned and hunted down by a mob!" Kooplinia cried.

"Don't...worry about that...I'll take care of everything...gah…" Mirror-Merleon huffed, now moving quicker and following the footprints which led to where the trees became more abundant.

Kooplinia decided to move quickly and went ahead of him. She followed the footprints to a tree which now went behind it, but as she turned to look behind, the presumed dead Mirror-Kooprik jumped out and stabbed Kooplinia with the dagger in the shoulder.

"AAAAHHHH!" she screeched and fell down to the snow. Merleon gasped and jumped at this sudden encounter. Mirror-Kooprik ran with all his might towards Merleon and lunged at him, knocking him down to the snow and then stabbed him in the chest.

"OH! Aaaaaggh...you...ooohh…" Mirror-Merleon cried and groaned, staring into his cold, angry eyes.

"You're too late, you bastard. I found someone in the forest and told them everything that's happening. They went to go get help. It's over. You and this demonic plan you're trying to fulfill are done for!" Mirror-Kooprik angrily yelled.

Merleon made a growl and gripped Mirror-Kooprik's hand, which was still gripped on the dagger. He then spoke the following, "Post mortem, pererrabis terram ultrix cupidine chaos et sanguinis!"

Mirror-Kooprik made a loud gasp as he felt an electric jolt within his body, then was blown backwards and hit his head on a tree and slid down to the snow.

"Ahhhhh! Wha...oh...what the hell did you just do to me!?" he groaned in pain.

Mirror-Merleon took the dagger out of his wound and cried out a little as he gave a cold stare to the koopa. "You...when you die...your spirit will roam the earth...causing havoc and having a lust for blood...but that lust will never be quenched...errrrgghhh...so, for all eternity...you will NEVER be your true self ever again!"

Hearing this completely petrified and froze the poor koopa. He was given a life sentence beyond death to be transformed into pretty much a demonic entity. "Wha...no...n-no! NO! YOU MONSTER! YOU WILL ROT IN THE DEEPEST PIT OF HEEEEELLLLLL!"

"SHUT UUUUUP!" Merleon roared, lunged at him now, and stabbed him in the neck with the dagger. Mirror-Kooprik gargled and coughed up his own blood, then fell over to the side. His coughing and gargling slowed as he, once again, locked his eyes onto Kooplinia forever as his life was now officially gone.

"Oh...my goodness!" Kooplinia shrieked at the whole scene, holding her shoulder in pain. "So, umm, you cursed him essentially? Is that right?"

He pulled the dagger out of the koopa's neck and plopped down to the snow. "Yes. It's a curse that corrupts someone's spirit after death. The spirit in question won't affect the doer of the spell nor will it affect you. It's...it's...a very powerful spell...can only be used when the other person's blood is touched upon. But the drawback is...I...will be drained of my magic for a while. Not permanently. But...a while…"

"Oh my...wh-what do we do then!? I'm sure the whole village knows about this by now!" Kooplinia cried.

"Take me back to the palace. I'll be okay. I just need to be out of the cold," Mirror-Merleon instructed.

Mirror-Kooprik stepped in front of Troopa, Mario, Daisy, and Koops who viewed the entire scene in awe and horror, and then spoke, "So, this is where it all started. My spirit became corrupted by Merleon and I've roamed the lands causing trouble for centuries now. Not too long ago, my spirit possessed Merle in the present day and here we are now.

And after this event happened, Merleon surprisingly survived being stabbed. The two went to the palace and they began their ruling. Merleon's magic came back. Harsh laws were enforced upon the Shiver Region, and anyone who broke the law, no matter how minor the law was, was given severely harsh punishments like a lengthy prison time or even execution. The ruling softened when Merleon died of old age, and not too long after that, the Crystal Queen also passed away from a deathly illness, but she continued having a minimal ruling effect on the region in her spirit form."

"Wow...so, all of this time, it's been your 'corrupted' spirit that's been possessing Merle...but how are you here then if you're technically an evil spirit? You're not coming off as 'evil' right now," Daisy asked.

"I am a tiny part of my spirit that's been unaffected from Merleon's curse. Curses like the one he put on me don't completely erase the true inner self of a person, whether they're alive or a spirit," Mirror-Kooprik explained.

"I see. Okay then! So, we know not to kill Merle then. How do we get you out of Merle then? And is there a way to 'uncorrupt' your spirit?" Mario questioned.

"When I talked to Madam Merlar, she said that killing the Crystal Queen would draw the spirit out of Merle, so it might have to be that method!" Koops recalled. Troopa shook his head at ths.

"But that can't be the ONLY way to do it! There's gotta be a spell that can remove the possession! Merle? Any ideas?" Troopa looked to the wizard for clarity. He nodded a little but looked hesitant.

"There IS a spell to remove a possession...but...here's the thing: you're removing a corrupted spirit from my body. That corrupted spirit can easily and very quickly move on to another person, which is something we don't want. We need to separate the 'demon' infiltrating Kooprik's spirit in order to not completely destroy his soul either. If we were to destroy Kooprik's spirit, he would no longer exist in any shape or form. In other words, he'd be completely wiped from all existence!" Mirror-Merle spoke with a hint of fear in his voice.

"And I certainly don't want to not exist! I'm ready to move on to whatever afterlife is waiting for me!" Mirror-Kooprik added genuinely.

"Damn. So, then, what's the solution here? We gotta think of something fast, guys! Something that will protect all of us in the end!" Daisy said with haste.

"I know of a spell that will do the trick perfectly. It'll get rid of the possession, 'uncorrupt' Kooprik's spirit, and even kill the Crystal Queen if we have the opportunity to do so. It's called the Miracle spell. One person who has experience in the magics borrows another person who has experience in the magics' energy and they become someone with God-like powers for a temporary time. They are unstoppable. Powerful beyond means. A spell like that can destroy the corruptness of Kooprik's spirit and end all of this," Mirror-Merle explained, still having that slight tone of concern which made the others think that there's more to it.

"Oh wow! Well, in that case, we gotta do that spell then! Troopa and Merle, you two are the only people here with magic, so it'll have to be you two that could do it!" Koops pointed out.

"Fuck…I know exactly what spell you're talking about. It's the only option, isn't it?" Troopa said with disappointment and a sigh.

"Huh? Why do you say it like that? I take it there's a big catch?" Mario asked.

"Indeed. The person who borrows the energy from another magical doer becomes permanently 'drained' of magic, technically speaking. The energy returns back to the person they borrowed it from, but the person borrowing the magic starts back at zero with their abilities because the power of the spell is so strong and overwhelming that it essentially zaps any kind of magic and magical knowledge out of their body. It's a spell so powerful and mystical that any living being cannot handle it for too long without being completely drained," the wizard answered, surprising the others that there's such a big drawback.

"Oh! Yikes. That's...err...upsetting…" Koops awkwardly responded, glancing at Troopa, who indeed looked upset.

"Yeah...I mean...I'm not saying I won't do it...but it took me years to get to the level I'm at now...to start off at the very beginning after all that hard work...it's so disappointing. I used magic to live where I'm at now, to be more comfortable being all alone since I'm an orphan and have no friends and literally nowhere else to go. People in Shiver City think I'm a nuisance and, while I like throwing my tricks here and there, it was all in harmless fun...but I should've known some people wouldn't see it that way," the koopa teen explained himself as his eyes welled up.

"This might sound like a dumb question, but is there a spell to get your powers back? Or a spell to just, uhh, make you automatically regain knowledge of the spells?" Daisy asked.

"Believe me, if there was a spell like that, I'd know of it, and so many more people in the world would have magical abilities. It takes time, effort, and patience to gain these magics. And I can't have Merle be the one to do the Miracle spell, because he needs his powers to protect Starborn Valley. So...I have to be the one to do it. I WILL do it," Troopa stated, preparing to lose everything but knowing that it's worth it in the end.

"Rinot...or, I guess, Junior Troopa...you will be secure no matter what once this is done. That is a promise I will make unto you. Now...let's waste no more time and finish this once and for all! RETURN!" Mirror-Merle and the white flash appeared and blinded everyone again momentarily.

Everyone opened their eyes and saw that they were back at the exit of the Crystal Palace leading to the cave entrance.

Mirror-Merle started coughing a lot, still on the ground, feeling like he was just rammed into.

"Aggghhh...what...the fuck...was…" he muttered, trying to regain his sense of self in this world. He saw Troopa quickly fly down to him and he touched both of his shoulders. Troopa began reciting the spell.

"The gods of light, hear my plea! Take this man's power unto me! For the good of the world shall prevail, this magical charge shall not fail!" Troopa chanted. Mirror-Merle began to scream and scramble away from him.

"NOOOOOOOOO! YOU BASTARD! YOU IDIOTIC PEST! YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR MAGIC AND WILL GO BACK TO BEING A MISERABLE, LONELY, POWERLESS ORPHAN! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT!? IS THAT THE LIFE YOU WANNA GO BACK TOO!?" the evil warlock screamed at the top of his lungs, desperately wanting the koopa teen to change his mind.

"HOLD HIM DOWN!" Troopa yelled, not giving into the warlock's cries. Mario, Daisy, and Koops pushed the warlock to the ground and pinned him down.

"Summon forth all of the power that I need, grant me the radical strength and I'll take the lead! POTESTATEM AD VITAM ADDUCERE! POTESTATEM AD VITAM ADDUCERE! ME ANIMA! ME ANIMA!" Troopa began to roar and then his whole body began to glow bright. Mario, Daisy, and Koops stepped back in awe at this event. Mirror-Merle sat there in horror, knowing that there was no way out now.

Troopa floated in the air, still glowing and glared daggers at the warlock. The koopa teen laughed at his obvious fear.

"You really thought this would go on forever, huh?" he said and chuckled as his voice echoed. "Your reign ends now. REVEAL!" he threw a golden energy sphere at Mirror-Merle and it blew him backwards, hitting the wall again. The warlock let out an ear-piercing screech as his whole body shook like he was having a seizure.

Then, another surprising twist occurred.

A bright flash of light shone from Merle, blinding everyone again, but briefer this time around. Two beings flew from the warlock as if they came straight out of him. One was the spirit of Mirror-Kooprik and the other was an extremely pale and sickly-looking koopa figure with eyes of pure blackness. Its arms were abnormally long and it scrambled to stand up from the ground as it made low, panicky, very wild animal-like growls.

"WOAH! What the hell is that thing!?" Daisy shrieked in fright at the horrid-looking creature.

"It's the physical manifestation of the 'corruptness' that took over Kooprik's spirit. This is probably the closest thing to an actual demon that you'll ever see!" Troopa answered, looking disgusted at the evil being.

"Ohhh...kill that thing...before it runs loose and possesses someone else. Now! It's more dangerous than it looks!" Mirror-Merle hastily spoke, now back to his normal self. Troopa nodded and swooped down to the demonic being, grabbed it by its neck, and proceeded to squeeze its neck. The creature's cries became more squeaky and frantic as Troopa's hands kept squeezing further on its neck until the head popped off and fell to the ground along with the rest of its body. The head and the body started shining bright and then quickly vaporized into the air.

"Hehe. That's it! He's gone. Just like that. Wiped from all existence," Troopa rejoiced.

"R-Really!? You have the powers to just wipe anything out of existence? Including demons or just even spirits!?" Koops asked in surprise.

"Yes. I have the powers of a god pretty much right now. But only for a short time! We must now go to the Crystal Queen!" Troopa commanded, snapped his fingers, and everyone teleported with him.


Back at the torture room, Bowser stepped in front of his group, facing the group of Clubbas, Duplighosts, and Swoopulas.

"We'll take you all on. If you think we're just gonna back down just because you all decided to show up right when we got her where we need her, then you're dead wrong," the koopa king spoke boldly, completely unafraid of the bleak situation they were now in.

"Yeah! We've faced worse than you chumps. Bring it on!" Larry spoke in equal boldness.

"How precious. Fighting together till your very last moments...guess it won't end on such a horrid note, after all?" the Crystal Queen tiredly spoke with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"It's called friendships and bonds, something that we've developed over the course of this mission, and something that YOU clearly never got to have. Maybe if you had bothered to be genuinely friendly to others, you wouldn't be in this predicament," Jojora spat. An angry sigh was heard from the Queen.

"You atrocious wench of a fairy! I never needed friends, I needed power. How else do you think anyone is happy in this forsaken world!?" the Queen snapped at her, clearly striking a nerve.

"Are you serious!? Happiness doesn't come strictly from power...it comes from friendships, love, growth, relationships, goals, family...god, no wonder why you're such a miserable spirit!" Parakarry also took the Queen down a level, with Jojora having a satisfied smirk at that.

"ENOUGH TALKING! WE FIIIIIIIIIGHT!" screamed a Clubba and the enemies roared and all hell was about to break loose until more noises were heard from the stairwell. Everyone else from the main room came running down the stairs and was surprised to see the state of the crowded room.

"OH! Umm...we came to find you guys...and looks like we're just in time!" Yoshi said nervously at first, but then quickly prepped to go into battle again.

Before anything else happened, another thing caught everyone off guard. A bright flash of light shone in the room near the heroes and from that light popped out Mario, Daisy, Koops, Mirror-Merle, Troopa, and the spirit of Mirror-Kooprik. Everyone instantly saw that Troopa was glowing bright.

"What the hell!? What's going on!? Why is Merle there!? What happened with you guys!? I take it everything's okay!?" Dixie questioned in total confusion.

"Everything's just fine. Merle was possessed by the corrupted spirit of Kooprik, but Kooprik's spirit is back to normal now, and so is Merle," Troopa stated as he looked upon the enemy crowd and floated closer to them. "Now then...heh, look at this ugliness. Another army of enemies. You can have all the armies you want, but at the end of the day...without ALL of that power and enemies fighting for you...what is there left?" As he was saying this, all of the heroes' bodies began to glow bright. Everyone felt light and power suddenly and were astonished at this sudden effect.

"Wha...what on earth is going on here!?" the Queen yelled in fright.

"Simple...we're gonna fucking wipe all of your little pets from existence!" Troopa responded with a big smirk. The Queen made a loud gasp.

"NO! YOU BASTAAAAAAARD! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed in pure distress while the crowd of enemies became petrified.

Troopa formed a sphere of golden light in his hands, and everyone else uncontrollably moved their hands towards the sphere, everyone being taken over by the magic at this point.

"With this wonderful magic...everything you have done will be all for nothing. All your work, damage, plans...all ruined...BEGONE!" Troopa screamed as the sphere grew exponentially bigger, then he threw the sphere at the enemy crowd. The enemies' screams had filled the room and looked away, having nowhere to run. They were all zapped by the sphere and fell over each other as, one by one, they were all vaporized.

"NOOOOOOOOO! NO NO NO NO NO! YOU...YOU...OOOOOHHHHH I SHOULD'VE HAD YOU MURDERED WHEN I GOT THE CHANCE TO DO SO! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" the Queen angrily cried hopelessly, seeing the awful sight of all her 'pets' disappear from existence right in front of her.

Everyone then faced the Crystal Queen and walked to her, their bodies still glowing, and formed a circle around her. The Queen was crying hysterically now, knowing that this was truly the end for her.

"Ohhhh...please...please just send me to the afterlife! I don't care if it's Hell, just please don't erase me from all existence! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!" the Queen wailed.

Mario walked forward and knelt down to her. The Crystal Queen was suddenly made visible now from a snap from Troopa. Everyone was a little startled at the sudden physical appearance of the Crystal Queen.

She was gorgeous. Long blonde hair, piercing crystal-colored eyes...but her face looked emotionally destroyed. She knew it was over. She truly looked miserable and defeated.

"Please...M-Mario...find it in your heart to just send me away to the afterlife...non-existence sounds absolutely terrifying!" the Queen pleaded once more. Mario leaned a little closer to her, only a few inches from her face.

Mario smiled just the tiniest bit and opened his mouth to respond.

"No."

Then he quickly grabbed her by the neck as she frantically screamed and struggled to get out of his grasp. Her head eventually separated off from the rest of her body and both had vaporized into thin air.

"Damn...badass!" Kody commented.

Troopa snapped his fingers again and everyone felt a rush of air flow through their bodies, making them feel rejuvenated.

"Woah! What did you just do!?" Luvbi shrieked.

"All your wounds are healed just like that. Comes from having the power of a god!" Troopa cheered. Everyone smiled and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Power of a god!? Uhh, WHAT? I feel like there's a whole piece of info we're missing here! How the hell did all of that even happen!?" Pauline questioned perplexedly.

"We'll tell you later, but now, let's get out of here. We're finished. Everything is done," Mario stated as he stood up, staring at the pink robe and the crystal crown left behind.

Troopa snapped his fingers again and the two objects disappeared in a flash. "Those two objects have belonged to her for centuries...can't have that still lying around. Just to be on the safe...side…" Troopa then collapsed to the ground, everyone shrieking at this.

"Oh! Is he okay!? What just happened to him!?" Wario asked.

"He's okay. The effects of that 'god' spell has now officially worn off. He's been completely drained, but he's still alive," Mirror-Merle answered as he picked up Troopa's exhausted body and held him by his shoulders. DK took over and lifted the koopa over his shoulders.

"Hey, where's Kooplinia? She was just there on the ground!" Luigi pointed to a small puddle of blood on the floor. They all saw a small trail of blood lead to the door that led into the narrow passageway which had led to the room full of water they were dropped into when they first came into the Mirror World's Crystal Palace.

Peach opened the door and nearly yelped when she saw Kooplinia lying against the wall, motionless. She still had the spike impaled into her back.

"Oh my! Is she…" Peach whispered.

"Yes, she is. Such a shame because we could've saved her that Miracle spell's powers...but, I wonder why she dragged herself into here?" Mirror-Merle said.

"Because I wanted to," said a familiar, feminine voice. Everyone was startled at this and looked at the end of the passageway, shocked to see the spirits of the true Mirror-Kooplinia and Mirror-Kooprik standing there, holding their hands together.

"What? What do you mean by that?" Daisy asked.

"I had this...feeling...or, I guess, 'knowing' of what was gonna happen when you all showed up. I knew I was gonna be saved...but I didn't want that, honestly. I wanted to be with my Kooprik. I just had a knowing that I didn't fit into this new world I found myself in. And, you know what? That's perfectly okay. Because I get to be with my soulmate forever now, which is exactly what I've always wanted.

Even when we were homeless all those centuries ago...I was never truly miserable because we had each other through it all. In the Underworld, my main desire was to have Kooprik with me, because at least then, I'd be able to handle that awful world better. Now...ironically enough, we're right back where we started...but I know that the afterlife with my Kooprik, whatever kind of afterlife we may be going to, I know it'll be perfectly okay because we have each other. And that's all I truly ever wanted after all of this time," she explained with contentment in her choice.

"None of this would've happened without you all, so...thank you. From the bottom of our hearts. We wish you all the best in your journey. We know you'll save your world. Farewell!" Mirror-Kooprik spoke with genuinity and the couple waved goodbye as they slowly disappeared to the afterlife. Everyone waved goodbye back, getting a little emotional from how heartfelt all of that was.

As the gang went back upstairs back towards the main hall, Vivian tapped Koops on the shoulder.

"Yes? What's up?" Koops asked.

Vivian looked like she was about to cry as she struggled to get out the words. "Koops...I'm so sorry to tell you this, b-but...Koopie...AND Flurrie...th-they're both dead!"

Koops stopped walking and froze. Time stopped for him at that moment. Everyone else saw and heard this and mourned deeply for their losses.

"Both of them are gone!? No! Damnit! DAMNIT!" Daisy yelled as her eyes welled up.

"I...I...show me the bodies! SHOW ME THE FUCKING BODIES!" Koops exploded and darted through the hallways back to the main hall with everyone chasing behind.

Koops made it to the main hall and saw the plethora of dead enemy bodies scattered about. He spotted an all too familiar one by the entry door. He ran as fast as he could to get a better look and let out a terrified scream as he saw Flurrie and her mirror counterpart dead on the floor, battered and bruised all over with blood everywhere.

"F-F-F-FLURRIE! NOOOOO! I...OH...OH GOD, WH-WHERE'S KOOPIE!? WHERE IS SHE!?" Koops stammered as he cried and pulled on his face while hyperventilating.

"Her body is upstairs," Kooper spoke in a low voice as he choked up and his eyes became watery. "We did our best to save her, Koops...but these fuckers did everything they could to kill her, and us as well…"

Koops clenched his fists and then darted up the stairs leading to the bedrooms. A scream of horror and despair mixed with hysterical crying was heard, confirming to everyone else that he had seen the body of his ex-lover.

EoC.

THAT IS THE END OF THE MIRROR WORLD/CRYSTAL PALACE ARC! Woohoo! The gang will still be in the Shiver Region for one more chapter, but they'll also be seen heading back to the hospital and catching up on everything that they've missed. Also next chapter will be Tatanga and Dimentio purposely trying to mess with each other's heads, Kody is forced to admit his backstory about what really happened the night that his family was killed, and Rosalina makes a plan to go back to Mushroom City with Monty, but not without some hesitancy of course. Next chapter will be uploaded on or before Sunday, October 24. Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience!