(A/N: At the end of that last chapter, Mario and Luigi have set out to rescue Peach. How is she doing? Well, let's get this chapter started and find out!)
It was morning in Bowser's Kingdom, even though the sky always looked the same, no matter what time of day or night it was. Bowser had arrived with Peach around 4:30 a.m., and surprisingly, she was still asleep! Now it was 7:00 a.m., and Bowser was thinking that Peach should be awake by now. He decided to go to the guest room he'd set up for her and check up on her.
Peach, meanwhile, woke up to a rather uncomfortable feeling. Was that a contraction that woke her up? She didn't know. Once she woke up more fully, she realized that she wasn't in her room in Mushroom Castle, because Mario wasn't lying next to her. She also knew for a fact that she wasn't in the castle's infirmary, either. Where in the world was she?
Then she looked out a window in the room and got a look at the sky. She recognized that sky. She'd seen it before, during that world tour she and Tiara went on for better memories. But which of the kingdoms had a sky like that? She was trying hard to remember, but she was having trouble concentrating from the pain of what she now knew were contractions, and she was also busy praying to the Star Spirits that she was in false labor.
Suddenly, Peach heard the sound of a knock at the door of the room she was in, and whoever knocked then opened the door. When Peach saw who was standing there, she was really upset, but at least she had the answer to her question.
"No! Not you!" Peach gasped, but it was hard to tell if she was gasping from the sight of Bowser or the pain of a contraction.
"Good morning, my beautiful wife-to-be." Bowser greeted Peach with an evil grin pasted on his ugly mug.
"How... how did I get here?" Peach asked, really upset. This had to be a nightmare, only it wasn't because of the pain. She wouldn't be in pain if she was dreaming.
"I brought you here while you and that stupid plumber you call your husband were asleep." Bowser said.
"First of all... his name is 'Mario'! Secondly... he really is my husband. And most importantly... I need him right now! You have to take me home to him!" Peach said.
"No. I have to marry you. And besides, this will be your new home! The castle you used to live in will be our summer home. And as you might have guessed, Mario's not allowed to live there, and he definitely can't live in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore, because my first act as King is to banish him from there. If he's not out of there by the time you're my wife, he'll be dead." Bowser said.
"I... I won't let you kill him!" Peach cried, trying hard not to let Bowser know what was going on. Thankfully, Bowser seemed to think her gasping and wincing was from fear, not from the fact that she was starting labor. He didn't know she was pregnant, and she really didn't want him to know it. Him finding out about her pregnancy would be the worst thing in the world.
"You have to get ready for our wedding, Peach. You might want to take a shower and put this on." Bowser said, handing her a dress that looked like the Lochlady Dress. It wasn't the dress, but it looked like it.
"I... I-I can't!" Peach exclaimed.
"Sure you can! I'll give you 30 minutes, and if you're not ready in that amount of time, I'll get you ready myself!" Bowser said as he left the room, probably to go get himself ready for a wedding Peach didn't want to be in.
"Mario... I hope you know... where I am! Please hurry!" Peach pleaded, tears of pain and fear coursing down her cheeks, not wanting Bowser to know that she was with child.
Meanwhile...
Mario and Luigi were nearing their destination. It had been almost an hour since they set off to rescue Peach, and now that they were close, they needed some sort of strategy to take down the Koopa King.
"How are we going to rescue Peach from Bowser this time?" Luigi asked his brother.
"Well, I promised myself that next time I saw Bowser, he was going to die." Mario replied. He didn't want Bowser to get away with any more shenanigans.
"Bowser's awfully big, Mario. It may take several days for you to kill him, or you might end up killing yourself in the process. I'd advise you not to do that. After all, you have a wife and a baby to think about." Luigi reminded him.
"You're right. Okay, let me think..." Mario said. Then he remembered that he kept several different power-ups on the Odyssey, just in case he'd need them. He found the area where he'd stashed them and came up with 2 Statue Leaves.
"Let's use these!" Mario said to his brother.
"Statue Leaves? How, may I ask, do you intend to stop Bowser with these?" Luigi asked when Mario showed him the power-ups he had in mind.
"Here's what we'll do: we'll fly real high into the air over Bowser's head, and hopefully, we'll be up so high, he won't be able to see us. When we're high enough, we'll ground-pound, which will turn us into statues. Because he wasn't able to see how high up we were, we'll end up hitting him on the head with enough force to knock him out cold. That'll give us time to save Peach and get out, whether or not she's had the baby." Mario said.
"It doesn't sound like it'll work, but I know that you're worried about Peach and the baby, so I'll go along with it." Luigi said.
"All I can do right now is hope Peach isn't having the baby yet. The last thing we want is for Bowser to find out that she's having my baby." Mario said.
Back with Peach...
Peach wasn't feeling any better. The contractions weren't stopping, so she now knew that she was in labor for real, and the last thing she wanted was to give birth to the baby in front of Bowser. She'd been having some really scary visions about what would happen if Bowser found out that she was having a baby. And each one showed that the Mushroom Kingdom would be forever doomed.
She had a vision of Bowser at first being excited about the baby, but after taking a closer look at the child, he knew who the father was, and he killed the baby for being Mario's, and then he killed Peach for losing her virginity to Mario. And finding his family dead would be enough to kill Mario before Bowser could!
Peach also saw a different variation of the same vision, but in this one, Mario showed up right when Bowser figured out who the baby's father was, and Bowser decided that Mario would be the first to die!
Another vision was Bowser deciding not to kill the baby, but he killed Mario and Peach so they couldn't stop him from raising the baby himself. Peach knew that if Bowser raised their baby, it most likely would not survive, or the Mushroom Kingdom would gain a corrupt king or queen. Not good.
The worst one was where Bowser thought of killing the baby since Mario was the father, but then he decided against it. He had a better idea. He would spare both the baby and Mario... if Peach agreed to marry him. And if she refused, then he'd force her to watch him kill Mario and the baby, and he'd kill the baby first so Mario and Peach could watch their firstborn child die.
Then Peach had a vision that upset her more than that last one. The baby was a girl, and although Bowser was at first angry that Peach had a baby with Mario, he thought that Peach's daughter would make a good wife for Bowser Jr., and he'd immediately announce their imminent betrothal! However, this brought about good news and bad news. The good news was that Bowser wouldn't be trying to marry Peach anymore, but the bad news was that this would make her child a member of Bowser's family, and she'd be Bowser Jr.'s mother-in-law! How horrible that would be! Of course, Peach would want to protest, but if she did, what if Bowser decided to follow through with the threat he made to her on Isle Delfino? And worse, he'd see to it that Jr. treated her daughter like that if she ever 'got out of line'!
The only thing that could prevent Bowser from doing any of those things would be if the baby was stillborn, but Peach didn't think her heart could handle another loss. She lost her parents much too soon, she almost lost Mario (several times), and the last thing she wanted was to lose a result of her and Mario's love: their first baby. Plus, it would hurt Mario, too, since he was so looking forward to being a father.
At that moment, Peach heard Bowser's footsteps outside the room she was in. What was she going to do? She hadn't gotten ready because the contractions, which were coming closer together, hurt her so much that she couldn't move!
The door slowly opened, and there was Bowser, who was dressed and ready to get married. He looked displeased to see that Peach hadn't gotten ready. It looked as though she hadn't moved from the bed, either.
"You've got to be kidding me! I gave you half an hour! That should've been plenty of time for you to get ready, Peach!" Bowser said to the really upset Queen.
"I-I don't... f-feel well! I can't... get m-married like this! P-please don't... make me do this!" Peach said. She wasn't going to tell him why she felt the way she did.
"That's too bad! I really don't care how you feel! We're getting married, and since you can't bring yourself to get ready for our wedding, then I guess I'll have to get you ready myself!" Bowser said, and he marched over to the bed upon which Peach lay.
"No... Please, no..." Peach whispered, trembling in pain and fear.
While this was going on, Mario and Luigi parked the Odyssey outside of Bowser's Castle and quickly made their way in after fighting the guards stationed outside the building.
"Where do you think Bowser is?" Luigi asked in a whisper as he and Mario made their way through the corridors of the castle, swiftly taking out any baddies that spotted them.
"If we're lucky, he'll be stupid enough to give us some sort of sign that'll point us right to where he is." Mario whispered back.
Just then, they heard a very terrified feminine voice screaming, "NO! D-DON'T TOUCH ME! PLEASE! M-MARIO! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP!"
Mario and Luigi recognized that voice right away! It was Peach, and she sounded like was in desperate need of help!
"PEACH! HANG IN THERE, PEACH! WE'RE COMING!" Mario yelled as he and Luigi ran in the direction Peach's voice came from.
"We'll save you, Peach!" Luigi added.
The brothers followed the sound of Peach's voice until they found the room she was in. To their luck, the door was open, but what they saw was something they never wanted to see again!
There was Peach, lying on a big bed and looking like she was in agony while trying to keep away from Bowser, who kept putting his hands on her, but every time he touched her, he ended up pulling his hands away because Peach screamed as though his touch burned her. The sight infuriated Mario like never before.
"TAKE YOUR STINKIN' PAWS OFF MY WIFE, YOU DARN, DIRTY KOOPA!" Mario shouted at the top of his voice, angrier than he'd ever been in his life.
"MARIO! Oh... th-thank goodness... you're here!" Peach cried in pain and relief.
"Mario! I thought I told you to stay away from here! What part of that did you not get?!" Bowser said.
"I hope you're not talking about yourself, Bowser! You seem to have trouble understanding Peach when she tells you to let her go or leave her alone!" Mario retorted.
"She doesn't realize that she really loves me. She just has yet to admit it to herself. And apparently, you refuse to believe that I'm the one for her." Bowser replied, deciding that this time, he would just ignore Peach's screams.
Before Mario could think of a clever retort, he heard Peach cry, "Mario, p-please help me!" That was enough for Mario.
"Luigi, get ready!" Mario said, using his Statue Leaf.
"Okie-dokie!" said Luigi, and he used his Statue Leaf, too.
"You know something? The two of you are really stupid. Those things aren't going to help you beat me, so you might as well let me have Peach." Bowser said, not noticing that Peach was in serious pain.
"Please, Mario! Please help m-me!" Peach pleaded in a loud whisper.
The Mario Bros. didn't answer Bowser or Peach. They flew as high as they could, right up to the high ceiling of the room they were in, and that was pretty high up.
"Ready?" Mario asked Luigi.
"Ready when you are, bro." Luigi replied.
"Let's-a do this!" Mario said.
Luigi went into his statue form first, followed by Mario. Bowser didn't know what Mario and Luigi were planning to do, so he turned his attention back to Peach. But that was a stupid move on his part, because he didn't notice when Statue Luigi fell, and the younger brother hit him right on the head. The Koopa King was dizzy, but he was still on his feet. But when Statue Mario came down on his head, Bowser was knocked out.
"Is he dead?" Luigi asked.
"No, just unconscious. But that's good enough for me. We have Peach to worry about." Mario said, and he hurried to his wife's side.
So Bowser is down and out, and Peach didn't have the baby in front of him! But will she and the baby be okay? Stay tuned if you wish to find out!
