"The two shades of green."

Chapter 2

"One's funeral is the other's rebirth."

Mario couldn't believe this all was happening.

They were all here.

Him, Peach, Daisy, Toad, Yoshi, Toadsworth, Wario, Waluigi and even Bowser with his koopalings.

Gathered in the giant, white church near Peach's castle.

At his baby brother's funeral.

He sniffed again looking at the unmoving dead body of the person he failed to protect.

He looked so peaceful on that altar.

With his beautiful blue eyes closed he looked as if he was asleep…just asleep.

Mario swallowed a lump in his throat. If only he was just sleeping.

Dressed in his usual clothes and his gloved hands wrapped together on his chest.

Mario felt a bang of guilt evolve in his guts. It was his fault Luigi had to sacrifice himself to save the princess.

If he just was a tad faster in pulling up Peach…if he just was a bit stronger…if he just cared to stop for a minute and actually listen to what the younger wanted to say…if only he was the brother the green plumber believed him to be, none of this would have happened.

Toadsworth stepped to the pedestal and started to talk about what kind of person his fallen brother was, but Mario wasn't listening, lost in a not so distant flashback.

#Flash back#

The moment the red plumber felt Luigi's hand slip from his grip he felt gravity pull him back, heard Bowser's shocked gasp and Peach calling his brother's name with a pain filled voice.

But Mario was having none of it.

Without even checking on the princess he rushed towards the edge of the cliff trying to find an alternate way to get down.

He needed to get to Luigi! NOW!

When he finally found a road leading towards the stone ground beneath the cliff, he ran faster than one of his karts, not caring that the sharp edges of the stone wall were ripping his red sweater apart along with a bit of his muscles.

Well hell! He can bleed all over the clothes! Mario no longer cared! Nothing mattered till he got to his fallen brother!

Then he saw it. A wave of nausea hit his stomach like a slow-motion hit with a hammer.

There it was.

Luigi's broken body.

With shaky steps the older plumber walked over to the fallen Mario brother.

Luigi's trademark green cap laid next to his broken leg, as if to remind the red clad hero just what caused the younger one's death.

The broken leg his little brother tried to tell him about and the one he failed to acknowledge.

With tears already streaming down his chubby cheeks he kneeled and gently lifted Luigi's broken body to his laps, felling all the crushed bones under the overalls and green sweater.

Mario moved his shaky, gloved hand across Luigi's light-brown, messy hair so similar to his own, no wonder they were seen as twins.

Why did you have to play hero Weegee?! He yelled mentally looking into the green plumber's half-lid eyes.

Once sparkly, happy, and innocent. Now dull, blank and dead.

After not receiving any form of answer Mario squeezed his own eyes shut, then moved his hand to gently push his eye lids down.

He couldn't stand the ever forgiving look in those lifeless eyes.

Even after death claimed him, Luigi still didn't blame his older brother for anything.

Mario looked away ashamed. He didn't deserve that look.

What could Luigi possibly do to deserve such a faith?

Mario now more than ever wanted to be able to switch places with his little bro.

So that their death can go the right order.

When they were little Mario always believed he was going to die first. Hell he even made this his duty to insure the green hero will live longer. Why do you think he left him behind on so many adventures? Because Luigi's body was always so fragile…so innocent and young. He simply didn't want to face the death of his younger brother before he himself reached the Undewhere first.

And now the very situation he tried so desperately to avoid was laughing in his face.

With a pained whimper he lifted his brother's limp, lifeless head and pressed his forehead to Luigi's.

The same thing he always did when he wanted to comfort his little brother when the younger hero was crying after a nightmare or because one of his flesh wounds reopened.

He didn't see Peach arrive a minute later, crying hysterically into her perfectly white gloves.

He didn't notice her rush over and weep into one of Luigi's hands.

Didn't hear her begging the green plumber for forgiveness.

He didn't even see Bowser bow his head in a silent way to honor the fallen boy.

#End of flashback#

Peach watched Mario from her spot next to Toadsworth.

He was lost in some kind of trance for he did not acknowledge Wario who was giving him his condolences.

The red plumber's eyes were bloodshot and had gray bags under them.

When he finally regain his senses he nodded and even allowed the taller, fatter and uglier plumber hold him in a friendly embrace.

But his eyes were not concentrated on Wario.

No.

They were looking into her own with that sad look of a kicked puppy and tears silently making their way down his cheeks.

She looked away immediately, confident she saw Luigi in those eyes.

Looking at her sadly with a comforting smile on his face. Trying desperately to cheer her up. Even after his own death.

She pulled out a hanky and blew into it, trying to stop the wave of cries that were building up in her throat.

The princess of the mushroom kingdom couldn't believe her best friend was truly gone.

Who was going to comfort her after an argument with Mario? Or hug her tightly when the fear of heights will kick in again?

Who will giggle at her lame jokes? Who will listen patiently when she'll call in the middle of the night crying her heart out to the phone? Who will she share her deepest secrets with without worrying for them to appear in the public newspaper the next day?

Who?

Peach knew who.

Luigi.

But he was gone now and she herself lost a very kind, brave and loyal friend.

A best friend.

That thought made her think to the last time she saw the green clad plumber alive.

The last sight of his beautiful, baby blue, innocent eyes sparkling back at her along with that encouraging smile.

The memory of the reassuring squeeze to the shoulder he gave her made Peach crack.

She cried.

Cried for Luigi to wake up. For him hug her and ensure that everything will be alright.

She wanted him back so damn much.

Suddenly warm arms warped themselves around her body.

Her heart exploded with hope that the green plumber hear her plea and woke up to comfort her.

The hope died the moment she saw the color of the sweater the person wore.

It wasn't Luigi.

It was Mario.

Bowser looked at his feet unable to face the consequences of his own actions.

A dead body.

An innocent dead body. Who he had insulted by calling a "poor excuse of a hero".

He felt disgusted by himself.

Sure he wanted both plumbers out of his way.

But he never meant to actually kill them.

The great koopa king sighted. He had his issues with the red plumber but the green plumber was one of the very few people that tried to reason with him in a peaceful way instead of resorting with mindless violence.

He wasn't like his big brother.

Strong, dumb, always sticking his fat nose into other people's problems and hotheaded.

No.

Luigi was timid, calm, smart and a pacifist.

He never saw violence as an answer to all the world's problems, he believed that everything can be solved peacefully.

Bowser snorted sadly.

Out of the two of them he most lastly deserved to die.

I'm sorry Luigi. He thought taking his kids out for the funeral was over.

At night after the funeral

The body laid still on the stone table.

It was going to stay there till they decide to place it in the grave.

The body's golden heart was silent. Dead.

Luigi always had the purest of hearts out of all beings in the kingdom. But even he has secrets from his past he'd like to forget.

And like in most cases the past had a strange way to catch up to the plumber. Even after he was dead.

For the catacomb walls were once again echoing with the sound of a beating heart.

The chaos heart once merged with Luigi's pure one was reborn.

It moved around a little the body's ribcage trying to find a perfect place to settle in.

When it was comfortable the dark heart pumped dark blood though the body's veins, reawakening it from its slumber and inspecting it for injury.

As it suspected the body was severely damaged by a large fall that killed its predecessor.

Using its energy and black magic it began healing the body long promised to it by both Count Bleck and Dimentio.

The heart smirked to itself.

Luigi's body was indeed perfect for it and its plans for he had something he tried to hide from everyone.

Hatred for his older and more famous brother Mario.

Suddenly it felt a disturbance in the search for inspection.

Something in the green clad plumber's body was not perfect and wrong. Something good.

With worry in it the chaos heart began searching the source of the insecure feeling it felt.

After a minute it found the cause of the trouble.

The eyes.

It was the eyes.

So innocent, so kind, so helpful, so encouraging, so disbelievingly good.

So beautifully blue.

Forever cloaked in the color of hope.

The heart growled mentally.

This had to change.

With a bit of its power it pumped the blood that carried the hearts dark magic towards the eyes.

They began to turn blank. Fading from the innocent blue to the unforgiving silver.

As the action was complete the legendary heard allowed itself some rest.

Tomorrow Mr.L will rise again.