Third day since the assault. I was daydreaming in the arms of the murderer. That fact didn't matter for me. We would shift position sometimes by feeling each other's bony limbs, hot damp breath washing our heads. My shoulders would feel the coldness of the cave if Luigi – well, Mr.L, didn't land big hands on them. I understood when he wondered why his body had felt weird: hugging wasn't instinctive for him anymore. My head leaning on his shoulder, not caring about closing my eyelids since dark was surrounding us; of course I had to touch a weak spot. He wouldn't dare doing anything; I noticed who knows how much time after, what my knee was pressing. Awkward.
I broke the silence…
"…Mr.L…would you protect us?"
He whispered.
"…I would never hurt you. However, it's not the same for your friends. Be prepared."
"You won't hurt me because you love me…?"
Silence…
"I don't know. If it's love or threat…I don't remember."
"Then, if I ask you, could you stop doing this?"
"…"
"How can you do this?...It's inhumane…Can you realize it makes me want to cry?"
"Don't you love hearing pain moans multiple times? For me, fight is pleasure. But…"
…
The little clicks of our muttering resumed.
"…Never...I wasn't supposed to…"
"You know, Mr.L, I love you too. I always loved Luigi, so…"
"You only wanted to give away your virginity so you could convince me to side your friends."
My head lowered.
"What will you do to us?"
…
I take a deep breath. Raising my voice one little bit:
"Why did you become…this?"
…
He was forcing himself to remember. But in the end, it seemed he couldn't.
Untightening the soft scarf that slid, I sneaked my nose in the fragile skin of the neck. He shivered at the so light little kisses I landed there. After some nibbling, I kneeled to suck it – the taste of the skin was addicting; he let me fondling his body. I didn't care much for his comfort at one moment and felt something hard under…under his neck.
"Huh?"
I kneaded and palpated the area with my lips. He flinched with how hard I was biting him. The little pain made him hiss by surprise. Finally, I caught something in my mouth through his skin.
What does that mean? What the fuck? Is this?
And then my imagination worked too well. I jumped out of his embrace in horror. When he lit his hand with flames, he saw my hands joined in front of my mouth. On top: incredulous wide-opened eyes. Panting.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO LUIGI?!"
He didn't understand. Hundreds of words flew fast in my mind; but nothing else had to be said.
I left.
I swiftly caught a view of him reaching for his neck, wondering what the cause of my anew meltdown was. I think he understood then.
A metal collar under the neck. Who would bring that up? Sick bastards. I am an imbecile.
I didn't refuse the washing stuff Mr.L had brought. We could brush our teeth, take medicine to handle the rest of this bullshit. We have to stop being stupid, accept the facts that we're lost. Why do things surprise me anymore? All of this is normal bullshit. I knew, while we were walking on the snow in the absolute thick black night, I shouldn't say that to my companions, they have to stay in good mental state, for me too. I knew I wasn't thinking the normal way. Luigi, oh Luigi, I could nearly feel my throat tightening at the thought. I didn't know how to see him again. Charming Mr.L hadn't worked, we can't hit him. I wondered how many were left on Earth. Or space ? Rosalina? How was she doing? Tatanga had airships, he was an extra-terrestrial, he would surely try to conquer space too, the little shining stars far above our heads. We followed the blue-silver sea coast at our right. Eventually we saw the shadow of a hill with a cannon on top ahead. The atmosphere was beginning to be uneasy and bereaved. Probably the fear of launching ourselves right into Tatanga's claws.
"Can you feel that?" Prince Dreambert complained. "Somebody may be following us."
"That bastard behind us called Mr.L maybe?" I snorted. The prince was taken aback, but he pursued.
"No, there is a presence here. There's grief and curse. Princess, we should –"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY !"
He thought I was yelling at him. I actually was calling for his so scary ghosts. It wouldn't surprise me, he killed so many, eh…
"IS ANYBODY HERE?! OR CAN WE BE SURE WE ARE THE ONLY SURVIVORS AROUND?!"
"Princess! Please stop! It isn't wise to –"
"You are the only survivors indeed."
I did a U-turn and shouted at the man who'd blurted this one out:
"Shut up you fucking son of a bitch!"
So, I noticed him being all eyed. Serious; he snapped his fingers for an electrical discharge –
There were guts-clenching flashes of pale spherical eyes – stretched out grin and fangs – right in our field of vision!
We were about to be attacked! Oh the eyes! The fangs are about to bring me pain! Mr.L!
…But after the flashes – I noticed I'd screamed – the face was centimetres from Mr.L, floating above him. It wasn't a flying face alone, but a huge round boo. It was King Boo, recognizable from the crown wearing a purple gem. I gathered Dreambert and Yoshi between my arms and backstepped until calm water soaked my heels. Yoshi was panting, but only because he was about to collapse from pain and tiredness. Did he have an infection? I laid him down carefully and dried his cold sweat. I was brushing his cheek while looking out for the nemeses fifteen meters away.
The unearthly voice echoed, without any emotion in it.
"You really outdid yourself this time greenie. What's the matter with you? But that isn't important."
He approached the no-flinching pale face.
"See, killing all of those people across the Earth has filled my army of spirits."
My jaw slowly detached when I saw the shaded white snow being illuminated by…waves of hundreds of ghosts of every heavenly colours. All wore sad but determined faces. Some clenching their fists. Some still lowering their heads at King Boo's presence. Some raising them, eyes filled with life sparkle. I couldn't clearly see the lines of warriors behind. It was beautiful to watch. I recognized…I recognized! My own people among them… A tear circled to my chin and dropped. Prince Dreambert gasped at my side. Yes.
All important…all…all of them! All of them heroes or villains, from kings to citizens or stateless! Oh God! There were so many! So many courageous, all allied under…King Boo's command?! Yoshis, Toads, Goombas, Koopas, Pinguins, Monkeys, Uf people, Vegesia people, cube people, skeleton people, plant people, isle Delfino people, Pi'illow people, humans, true ghosts – I can't describe all of them!
Yet I could recognize dozens of former enemies, that Yoshi, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong or whoever else had defeated. Cackletta, Fawful, Shroob sisters, Antasma, King Wart, Bow-Bowser and all of his kids.
Zeekeeper, Queen Vegesia, two stone spirits, Donkey Kong family…
All in different shiney colours.
All minions of all countries; no matter if they came from the past.
I wondered how they all accepted to be King Boo's minions, and how they were still in this world.
Maybe because they represented Mr.L's power, how dangerous he actually is.
"You just know what is going to happen."
Wait. They were all here to fight…
Mr.L can't handle this ARMY of GHOSTS! Were they here to kill us – yes they were!
"We are about to save what remains of this good world. You are one of the two obstacles."
"You're an error, you don't belong here," growled a Bomb-Omb.
And instead of silencing him, King Boo finally clamed:
"Have at you!"
Two chains pierced the ground and immobilized Mr.L.
The army gathered a measureless ball of light energy in the air.
Mr.L squirmed a bit; he could only frown with rage as the ball was ejected towards him. It hit him right in the chest. We couldn't see more without blinding ourselves. I opened my eyes halfway. The man was so bright. The sound, deafening. I thought he had absorbed somehow the huge amount of energy. He wouldn't dim out because he knew ghosts hated light. His eyes were tearing up by reflex too, but he would widen them to stare straight towards the army.
"It looks like I'm about to have the fight of my life. Heh heh eh, HA HAH! You still show up new mistakes! By showing yourselves to me, and giving me all of this power! You are just spirits; I can hit you with pure energy even when you become immaterial!"
Bowser snarled ferociously:
"We know your weakness, moron! You hate endurance matches, that's why you always attack strong and fast! But boy, this army, it will crush you, AND ESPACIALLY ME!"
Mr.L giggled. He took a breath…
And jumped into the fight.
One versus Thousands.
The one that brings new death or the dead world that stops more devastation?
…
Which one would you side?
…
Or would you let things go their way?
…
Because that's the only thing that could be done.
…
Protected spectators from each side.
…
It was kind of choreographed. It was music resonating our organs. Voices from uncountable songs. We wouldn't be able to think. You could understand if you had LIVED this...
…
Don't even try to interpret or imagine. This battle was incoherent. It would be….the most spectacular thing we'd see in our limited entire life. Heart going crazy, pounding fast, hard; my breath…
…
Those people were fighting for us; then, every issue is the best? We were filled of the living dead's hope. We could dream maybe…
…
All of them would roar with greatness, with…what filled them the most.
…
Let's say I wasn't scared until…
It took time to understand the battle had ended on Mr.L's defeat. We saw his hand lifting itself from the watery-snowed soil; he extracted himself from the gap some final impact had given. He was shaking on his legs, his head tilting upwards without force, trying to breathe correctly. But he had died several times… Blood was flowing from some cut eye, from the ears because of a fractured crane, from his mouth because of a broken rib cage. And other broken members too. He… He was bleeding too much!... He finally collapsed.
I had a strange feeling when he died at that moment… A feeling I shouldn't have after all he'd done… Honestly, I didn't want to feel that way, but I guess that's humane.
Silence filled the air. It felt strange after all this firework. And then…everybody clapped. Some whistled. And booed! It was over, "it's over!" they shouted! I couldn't help but cry along with Dreambert. I don't care about that thing over there! I hug Yoshi as hard as I could. "We're saved! They did it! They're all here, with us; they'll be the ones to defeat Tatanga soon! We're going to win! We…w-we! - !"
And so everything was over. Soon. What should happen right now, to break the mood? We were all prepared.
But being prepared is useless when life's a dick to you. Nothing could prevent, let alone counter this.
It was an artefact, broken in half, pure darkness, elevating from the dead body. Why would it levitate, when it fused with him short after. The artefact, it seemed familiar, but couldn't put a name to it at that ruined moment. We heard a sort of screech in all pitches. The body stood up, surely unconscious. All was black and white then. The body: black, except for the eyes, mouth, ears and every hole in it. The boos were grey. The rest was white.
It was hell.
A flash of the Luigi's Paper World book appeared before her eyes, a sudden memory of shy flirting times. To the page descripting the artefact. Eh… Eh eh… Guess what? It's the Chaos Heart. It and its counterparts only exist in the Paper World normally. What would summon the solution? Love, hope? We hadn't any, anymore, in this time of crisis.
Panic. King Boo and the captains were trying to reorganize the army and improvise. But all were falling one after another like dominoes. The Chaos Heart shatters space on its will.
King Boo glanced at me, and I knew it was my time to come. I ran towards the source of the wind and light trying to overcome the impenetrable echo. I screamed at the top of my lungs, it burned! I couldn't approach because of the intense heat, like my skin pressed by red-hot iron.
I snapped again…
Seeing all those deaths in death itself…
I screamed. I screamed yes. But it's useless.
Even with all heroes and villains and mixed people at my sides…
Who would expect us to fight a semi-god?
In whose mind did that concretize?
I collapsed, fainted….