Hello again! I had a small case of writer's block, so this chapter was a little overdue, but here it is! Without further ado, let's get into it :)

Rose walked into her parents' rooms slowly and quietly, with an empty hope that they would be absent, but no such luck.

"Hey, dear, what are you doing here?" her mother asked. "I thought you were going for a walk."

"I ... can't." Rose struggled to find her words. "It's ... too dangerous ... ?"

Mario might have not been fully listening to his daughter before, but he surely was now.

"What? What happened? Did you escape?! DO I NEED TO SEND REINFORCEMENTS?!" He exclaimed.

"Calm down, Dad. I'm not getting kidnapped ... yet." Rose smiled, but then her tone got serious again. "Mom, Dad, I'm going to tell you something very important and frightening and you need to promise me that you won't panic, okay?"

"I'm already starting to panic, just because you feel the need to warn us," Peach said. "What is it?"

Rose took a deep breath, resolving to just say it all at once before she could regret it. "Last night I accidentally woke up in the middle of the night and went to the window, and I saw something in the sky among the stars ... and it disappeared and then it appeared again against the moon and it was ... it was the silhouette of the Clown ... the Clown Copter." Her face was wild, her eyes full of worry but still trying to contain her panic.

"No, no, no," Mario started muttering. "It can't be. It was supposed to be years before that happened, you should have at least been queen by then ... Are you sure it was the Clown Copter and not just someone's air balloon? How can you be sure? Are you sure? You can't be sure."

"I'm afraid I'm sure," Rose stated solemnly. "It couldn't have been anything else."

"I would believe Rosie," Peach said in a trembling voice. "She's usually right about these things. I ... can't believe this. I ... " she stopped talking and looked like she was about to break into fits of tears. "This can't be right! How old would Bowser Junior even be now, anyway?!"

"Sixteen years old," Mario said resentfully.

"Really? Only sixteen?" Peach asked with sudden clarity. "I remember him as a pretty well-grown baby ..."

"Well, Rosie was born not long after that," Mario responded. "I think him being sixteen sounds about right. He's probably going to be doing his father's work now, which is just ... fantastic news for us," he added sarcastically. "Just fantastic."

"Well," Peach said, "We've learned from my kidnappings, haven't we? I doubt Bowser Junior would go a very different path. He's probably going to be invading the kingdom loudly, just like Bowser used to, and we've set up so many barriers and armies to prevent that. Even if something does happen, I'm sure Rosie will be safe."

"Maybe ... but that doesn't make it untrue that an invasion is going to happen. This is not going to sound good to anyone. I don't even know how I'm going to tell them this ... am I just going to say, 'Oh, yeah, so, Bowser's a problem again after all these years, no big deal'?" Mario asked.

"Well, first of all, there's no need to say that it's no big deal," Peach advised. "Perhaps we shouldn't even tell anyone at all. We don't want hundreds fleeing our kingdom in terror when nothing has really even happened yet. Yes, we now know that Bowser or Bowser Junior - or both - are nearby, but maybe it was just this one time last night that they managed to get this close. Yes, we should warn the armies, but we should keep it a secret, probably. There's no need to be spreading war terrors and it's not like the Kingdom's residents are completely relaxed - they know Bowser's still out there, and so are his eight children."

"Mom ... " Rose said quietly, looking down onto her flowing gown. "I don't think it will be that simple."

"What do you mean?" Peach asked, her voice full of worry.

"Bowser's been gone for so long ... surely he's been plotting something," Rose said.

"Ah! You're smart!" Mario exclaimed, picking up on what Rose was saying. "And you're right ... Bowser may have used the same plan for years, but that doesn't mean his son will continue with that. Surely, surely they're smarter than they used to be."

Peach sighed and nearly fell onto a nearby couch, covering her face with her hands stressfully. "Why does this keep happening to us?! Why Rosie?! Rosie isn't me, and never will be! Yes, she's probably going to grow up to accomplish even more than I ever have, but she and I are not the same person ..." The Queen's voice broke.

"Well, we need to make sure Rosie is safe now. Look, we're really sorry about this, honey, but it looks like you'll be staying in the castle now," Mario said slowly. "We can't take any risks."

Rose looked downward again. She wanted to protest, but she couldn't find any arguments. Her parents were right - it was dangerous, and her staying in the castle was pretty much required. In fact, if she had a daughter that was in a similar situation, she would have likely done the same.

"I understand," she said finally. "I will try my best to remain in this castle as much as possible."

"Good." Mario relaxed slightly. "Meanwhile, I'll see what extra precautions we can take."

"Thank you so much for telling us about this, Rosie," Peach said. "We can't imagine what this must be like for you, so we really appreciate your patience with this. Hopefully this will get sorted out without too much trouble."

Somehow I doubt it, Rose thought. Out loud, however, she simply said, "Thank you" and quickly walked out of the room.

Rose knew that she had made the right decision telling her parents about what had happened last night, and she didn't regret it, yet she kept needing to remind herself of this as she walked down the castle halls. She wanted desperately to go outside, but she knew better than that. Her next option would probably be her room, but she didn't want to go there either - there was still too much stress connected to that room from what she had seen last night, and besides, she didn't want to appear like an emotional wreck to anyone who would ask where she was and why couldn't they see her about. Instead, she decided to opt for an upper level. There was rarely anyone there, and she would feel safe knowing that no one would question her right now. She just wanted to be alone.

Rose boarded one of the castle's glass elevators and pressed the button for the highest floor. Sighing, she leaned against one of the walls and relaxed her body. She could see the castle's Toads going back and forth working, and thankfully, somehow they didn't seem to have noticed her. Ignorance is bliss, she thought longingly as she looked onto them from above. As she passed floors, they seemed to be disappearing underneath her feet, and she found some comfort in this - as if her parents' worry, her room's discovery, and the Toads' comfortable ignorance of facts were all being left behind. She obviously knew this was far from true (every good Princess knows how to face the facts properly), but just thinking of it relaxed her.

Finally, the elevator arrived at the Castle's highest floor and the doors opened. Rose elegantly stepped out of the elevator, and tried to carry herself with confidence even though, just as she had expected, there was practically no one around. She could hear someone (probably a janitor) scrubbing and shuffling with something in the distance, but other than that, the floor was peacefully tranquil. She kept walking until she reached a small room with cream-colored couches, oriental rugs in pastel colors, and some magazines (this was some kind of a private lounge), but the most beautiful and appealing thing of all was that the room was illuminated by the large balcony that a glass door was leading out to.

She stopped for a moment. Should I? She thought. Technically, she promised her parents that she wouldn't leave the castle, and she wasn't intending on breaking that promise anytime soon. However, the balcony was still technically on castle grounds, and the castle's property, and therefore it wasn't breaking the rules. Additionally, the balcony was located in a place where it didn't face the Kingdom, but rather the Castle Gardens, which were not exactly right out in the open, but in a more secluded area.

Finally, she made her decision. She walked over to the balcony and opened the door. She could immediately feel a gust of inviting early summer air welcoming her in. The balcony had beautiful oriental railing and was painted a single shade of a flawless off-white color. It was completely clean, too, which made her wonder how often it was cleaned - and how often it was used.

Oh, silly me. Thinking about clean balconies at a time like this, she thought to herself. She immediately regretted this, because it immediately brought her back to what she had seen last night. She wondered if it was fate that she would be awake at the exact time the 'Copter was flying by. What would have happened if she hadn't been awake? Had she missed more informative things while she was asleep?

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. "A true Princess keeps her composure in even the most stressful of situations and tones down her panic to form a solution." Those were the exact words that her mother had once spoken to her, many years ago. They hadn't meant much at the time, but the older Rose became, the more she began to understand their importance. She sighed again. Was her life only going to become more difficult? Most likely. She breathed deep, fresh air filling her lungs. She could smell the scent of familiar, comforting things: bakery treats cooking, summer flowers blossoming, and even some air fresheners from open windows.

I guess I better enjoy this moment while it lasts, she thought sadly. Who knows, tomorrow I may be smelling lava.