Enjoy :)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario or its franchise; it belongs to

Nintendo and their affiliates. I just am really grateful to its creators for giving

me such a wonderful game and media series to write about!

I also don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all that belongs to J.K. Rowling,

but thanks go to her as well because, using her wonderful work, I can expand this

story to make it more interesting.

I also don't own anything related to Naruto if you see me throw a little of that, too

"Look who finally decided to show up!"

"You're late, Commander."

I cringed at both Portia's loud outcry and Lise-Marie's much quieter but much sterner observation. They were the first to see me coming downhill from the palace but soon the rest of the troops gathered in the camp took notice.

As I approached them I said, "I've got a good reason for being so late."

Portia's impish expression was the extreme version of Lise-Marie's slightly inquisitive raised brow.

"You don't have to explain yourself, Commander."

Oh. There was Troy, sitting on his haunches to the far left of the troops, standing when I caught sight of him. He gave me a respectful nod but someone snorted.

"Shut up, Troy, I wanna' know why."

Before an argument could break out I held up a hand, effectively quieting the mostly quiet troops. They stood almost at attention and gazed at me expectantly.

I said, "Well, I actually have some big news for you. It's about Bowser."

Was it possible for a silence to get even more silent?

"You found the Dark King?" Troy asked, breaking it.

"Sort of." I replied, frowning. "We've got a way of tracking him, like a GPS or something."

Was that a good comparison? I wasn't sure, but I was certain they had no idea what a GPS was.

"It's like we can follow his every move with a…" I started over. "We've got a map that shows us where he is at all times."

There were a lot of understanding nods among the soldiers, so I assumed they got the picture.

Further I explained, "We're gonna' set out in ten days to go find him and kill him."

I didn't get a clear reaction here and that's kinda' what I was dreading. I motioned for them to pull in closer and took a seat on the ground. Like kids at a campfire they dropped down around me. I didn't have a ghost story to tell, I needed to talk to them about something important. Well, all of this was important.

"Look," I said, running a hand through my hair—it needed to be cut again—and dropped it along with the other in my lap.

I glanced around at them, at their open faces, stared in their trusting eyes. They trusted me as their leader, they had for months. I didn't want to betray that trust by pulling them into something they're not prepared for; after all this training, I still feel like they're not prepared. Not for Bowser.

"I know I'm your Commander," I said, "but there's only so much I can teach you. Or have other people teach you, that is."

"You've taught us a lot." Troy put in earnestly, but his small smile faded when Lise-Marie muttered something under her breath and Portia smirked.

"There is nothing I can say to prepare you for what we're gonna' face," I told them, "Because I don't even know what we're gonna' face myself."

"The Dark King." One of my other shoulders shrugged.

"What was it like for you?" Troy asked.

I shook my head and said, "It was one thing to be in prison, that was a set environment. But when we go out there to wherever he and confront him and whoever he's with, I don't know what's gonna' go down." I looked at my knees and back up and said, "That's what I hate most. I don't know what's gonna' happen after we leave here. I don't know if I'll be able to protect you."

"That's not your job, Commander." Lise-Marie said in her usual perfunctory way. "Your job is to lead us and keep us organized. We're responsible for our own lives. It's not like we're children."

"Right," Portia nodded, her violet ponytail swinging. "We can handle whatever comes our way. Where's your faith in us?"

Brilliant as he was at times, he was still a thirteen-year-old prone to exhaustion and fatigue like anyone else, and walking for miles in several directions was tiring him out. It was starting to become evening and he still hadn't reached his destination. The bad thing was he couldn't teleport; physically and magically he was able, but it would be pointless seeing as how the place was somewhere around here, he just had to find it. He wasn't having much luck with that.

Back down at the paper Iggy looked, his eyes straining to make out his father's handwriting. Like his apparent track record, it was horrible and the boy groaned. It was getting harder to read the paper, chicken scratch or not, due to the fact that the sun was practically racing over the horizon. Iggy looked at it balefully as if it were deliberately impeding him on his search to find his mother and missed the sight of an approaching vehicle. His ears alerted him to the sound of wood on cobbled road and he got out of the middle of the road so as to let the oncoming wagon pass. This was a relatively small city compared to the one he'd been to in the Badlands so that's why he'd been comfortable enough to wander in the middle of the road, searching for a place he was beginning to think didn't exist. He let out a sigh. It was getting darker by the second.

"Slow down! It's a boy!"

Iggy frowned when he heard that and saw the wagon slow down as it passed him. He couldn't be sure if the driver was hailing him or if his eyes were being deceived in the unreliable light. No, they were definitely waving him over. Iggy hesitated.

On the one hand, Ludwig had always warned him and his other siblings against dealing with strangers. But on the other hand, Iggy had thrown all those warnings out the window the moment he'd ran away to King Boo's. He walked towards the wagon.

The one who'd hailed him was a man in old hokey clothing and next to him on the front bench was a similarly dressed woman. They looked like they had more dirt than skin covering their tanned bodies but they also looked friendly. Well, the woman did. The man appeared to be gruffly scrutinizing the boy with his rustic brown mustache and matching thick brows. He was a man's man with burly, hairy arms and strong-jawed, square face and hard features. The woman was a plumper, softer sight with her worn red bonned covering grey-smattered brown hair. Crow's feet were near her eyes as her friendly expression filled with concern the closer Iggy got.

"Oh, now look at you," She tutted, gazing down at him and nudging the man beside her.

He gripped the reins of the horse-drawn vehicle and grunted.

She asked Iggy, "Are you lost, sweetie?"

Iggy started to shake his head out of habit but then realized that was a good way to describe his current predicament. The only thing was, he didn't really think the two could help him, so why bother divulging the details of his situation?

The woman asked gently, "Where are you headed, little guy?"

When Iggy told her she made a noise of surprise and said, "Oh well that's where we're going! Fancy that!"

The man rolled his eyes and said, "How convenient."

The woman nudged him again and said, "Now Herman, have a heart. You're not going to leave this poor boy to walk all the way there when we're going to the same place, are you?"

Herman grunted, "A little walking never hurt nobody. 'Ought to be good for the boy. Might put some hair on his chest."

"Oh, stop it." The woman swatted at his arm. She looked at Iggy and said, "Hop on in the back, honey. You can ride with us."

Iggy just stood there, trying to decide if it would be better to take the ride or continue looking on his own. He figured he might be out all night on his own, so it'd behoove him to just ride with the people who were already on their way to his destination. Why not? He stepped onto the wagon. Then he froze.

"What's the matter?" The woman inquired, then matronly demanded, "You kids make room for him back there!"

Obediently the children in the back of the wagon scooted around so that there was an empty space on one of the two benches, right in the middle of two older girls. Like the couple up front, the children looked like they'd rolled in the dirt and smelled like it, too. Or perhaps that was the wagon or the horses. Either way, it made Iggy want to turn up his nose but he tried to remain neutral in face and features. He didn't want to offend the people who were helping him out. He gingerly took his seat between the girls and straightened his bright white cloak over his lap. The wagon started to move.

"Who are you?"

Iggy glanced at the boy on the right across from him. Younger, wider-eyed, black-haired. Iggy tried to keep his composure as the wagon rocked and shook. He didn't like tight spaces and he didn't like interacting with a lot of people, especially ones he didn't know. But he didn't want to be rude.

"Ignatius Koopa." He said in answer, and was almost misheard.

"Ignatius?" Another boy, and older one echoed, looking befuddled. "What in tarnation made your mama go and name you something like that?"

Iggy shrugged.

"How come your hair is so green?"

Iggy shuddered and locked his jaw; the girl beside him had taken it upon herself to drag a clump of his silky lime locks through her mud-encrusted fingers. He didn't remark on that, just stilled and tried to remain calm.

"Your uh, shirt or dress thing is really pretty." The girl on his right said, petting and staining his cloak at the same time. "It's sooo smooth."

"It's not a dress," One of the boys piped up. "Boys don't wear dresses!"

"Then what you call it, smarty pants?" The girl challenged, thankfully withdrawing her hands from Iggy's person.

"I dunno, but it ain't no dress!" was the boy's reply.

The girl who'd violated his hair informed him, "We're going to see our grand-mamma. She's a nut. Who are you going to see?"

Iggy winced and instead of answering, he asked, "How soon will we arrive?"

One of the boys laughed a little and said, "Boy you sure talk all proper and such. Where you from?"

"The Badlands." Iggy answered, becoming more aware of the length of the journey as it progressed.

They stared at him and asked him question after question. They'd not seen anyone like him: alabaster skin, delicate, almost soft features, vivid eyes and small, slight frame. He was an enigma.

"How come you so quiet-like?" One of the girls asked in sort of a huff, probably because Iggy had stopped responding to them.

He just shrugged and waited for the ride to be over already.

It was late. What was she still doing up? Luigi was already asleep. She couldn't fault him for that; poor thing had come in and said a few words, showered, then dropped. He must've had a long day. Daisy did, too but she was much too preoccupied to sleep. The subject of her thoughts rested at the foot of the bed, right in sight. Had Luigi not been so tired, he probably would have questioned this but Daisy couldn't stop staring at it. She'd put it there when she made it to the tower at the end of her day, and left it there as she showered. Then she'd sat here at the head of the bed, just staring at it, for the better part of an hour.

This has been bothering me all freaking day, she thought grimly. She couldn't stop thinking about the ingenious device and, almost by default, the fallen king. Her mouth twisted in a scowl and she glanced to the side. Luigi was there, passed out on his stomach with one arm under him and the other stretched out to the left. Her scowl melted away and she smiled down at him.

"Luigi," She whispered, putting her hand on the back of his head.

She stroked his damp hair and rubbed his back. She loved him so much. But even her wonderful fiancé only held her attention for so long; the map caught it once more. It was like a third presence in the room and it felt like her light eyes were glued to its spot. She didn't surprise herself when she started crawling across the bed to retrieve it.

With it in her hands, she sat back on her heels and ran her fingers along its leathery surface. Opening it, she blinked at the flashing red light and traced over the fading black lines of the different provinces in the Mushroom World. Careful not to let her index finger linger, she expanded the area around the red dot and saw that, if the device did not lie, the viper was somewhere in the vicinity of his former palace. She snorted.

Talk about creature of habit; why does that not surprise me?

She stared at the map and her mind began to drift: What was he doing right now? Was he sleeping? Vulnerable in his old bed? The same bed he'd tormented her in, the bed that became her prison and his playground? Her heart rate sped up.

If he's sleeping, it'll be easy to just drop in and…

It wouldn't do to finish that thought, seeing as how Luigi's words were coming back to mind. She recalled the points he brought up. Bowser could be surrounded by allies, powerful ones. Not that he wasn't a menace on his own. It would be stupid to try and confront him tonight.

Of course it would be, she noted obviously, looking down at herself. Going there alone, dressed like this…

Her shorts and t-shirt were fine for the palace in the company of the man she loved, but it'd no doubt incite the old enemy's lust for her, making him doubly dangerous. She shuddered and closed the map. She put it aside on the floor near the bed and laid down near her fiancé. He'd turned on his back now.

"Oh, Luigi." She murmured, spreading her hand over his chest.

She draped her leg in between his and leaned over to kiss his cheek, then his mouth. Even in sleep he looked tired.

"Stop worrying so much, Commander," She playfully chided, cupping his cheek and kissing him lightly again.

She kissed his chin and tugged his collar down a small bit, exposing the scar on his chest. She kissed that, too and felt the scar on her own body start to tingle and burn subtly. One last kiss she gave the young man before dropping down next to him, intent on getting some sleep.

Discomfort made him stir. He didn't know when he'd fallen asleep but he was awake now, and there was a weight on his head. He drew his eyes upwards and saw two more peering down at him. A wide smile broke out on the older girl's face, the one on the left who was resting her chin on top of his head. She, like the other children, snickered when Iggy flinched violently away from her.

"You're cute when you're sleeping." The girl remarked, making Iggy flush red.

He was aggravated, not embarrassed. He hated it when people had no respect for his personal space. But he reminded himself that he was in these people's debt. Besides, the wagon had stopped moving. That was enough to make him forget about his rude awakening for a second.

"Come on, chickens. We're here." The woman called from the front.

All the children piled out of the wagon, hopping down from the back. Iggy did the same, albeit a lot more cautiously. He glanced around him and saw there was a giant white brick building that interrupted the expanse of trees and rocks and grass to the left. It had a sign that was no longer legible and shrubs in dire need of trimming. They framed both sides of a stone path up to the front doors of the building. Iggy trailed in behind his hosts and their many children.

"You never said," One of the boys pointed out, "Who did you come to see?"

"Yeah, who's in here that you know?" One of the younger girls squeaked.

Iggy didn't answer. He strode past the children over to where the front desk was. There was a nurse behind it dressed in a white uniform with a small hat and a small frown. Everything looked small next to the corpulent woman.

"Here to see Luna?"

"Yep, you know it." The man answered the nurse wearily. "Go ahead and let her know we're coming back there. Don't want her flipping out again."

The nurse nodded and headed beyond two more wooden doors, then came back shortly after and held the door open for the large family. The woman waved at Iggy and he gave her a tiny smile and that was the last he saw of them.

Iggy stood on his toes, unseen for the long hem of his cloak, and waited for the nurse to come back to the desk. When she did, she pulled out a paper folder.

"Who are you here to see, hun?"

Iggy pulled out the paper his father gave him and slid it over the desk. The nurse took it, glanced at Iggy, and read over it. Twice. She gazed at Iggy more seriously and tilted her head.

"You must be her son." She assessed. "You've got her eyes."

Iggy's heart raced as he asked. "She's really here?"

The nurse nodded, then frowned and said, "Well she was here. She was here for years. But she's gone now."

"Where?" Iggy asked, crestfallen and with disappointment painted all over his face.

The nurse jerked her head to the right where a large window was, and outside there was a cemetery. Iggy paled.

"No, not there." The nurse shook her head. "There"

She pointed again to the right, but this time Iggy saw a dot in the distance, something resting on a hill. He squinted and pooled magic behind his eyes, enhancing his sight. Still he only saw an old grey building whose whole left side was reduced to rubble. He sighed.

"I don't understand." He said quietly.

The nurse started rummaging under the desk and pulled out a folded piece of paper, or stack of paper, and dusted it off. It was crumpled and tainted.

"She left this behind," The nurse explained, chuckling. "She said you'd come but I honestly didn't believe her. Mad as a mud-fly, that one was. This might shed some light on the situation."

Iggy took the papers and unfolded them. When he'd glossed over all three pages, he looked up at the nurse, at a complete loss. She merely shrugged and shook her head again.

"I told you she was mad."

Daisy was gone and so was the map; why wouldn't I panic? I leapt from the bed and was about to call out for her, then I saw the balcony doors open and relaxed. She wasn't gone. She was standing out there, leaning on the railing with her hair over her shoulder and a pensive look in her eyes. She was already dressed in a tight white t-shirt tucked into those jeans-that-weren't-really-jeans type pants with that big Texas belt she'd gotten from a novelty shop in the mall, along with a pair of wedge sandals. Was she feeling festive today? Not by the way she was staring out at the early morning sky all solemnly.

"Morning." I greeted, scratching my chest and going over to her.

She turned to me and smiled beautifully, saying, "Good morning, baby."

"What's on your mind?"

"Seriously?"

"Oh, yeah." I recalled the events of the prior day after a moment.

I was just out of it in the mornings. I leaned on the balcony and was glad for the sweatpants; it was chilly today.

"Luigi, you're free this morning, right?" Daisy asked. "That is, you don't train your troops until noon, right?"

"Yeah." I answered, not bothering to guess what she had in mind.

She said, "I was thinking we'd meet with the Council this morning, let them know what's going on and stuff. Get things settled before we leave."

"Is this gonna' be before or after breakfast?"

"Neither." Daisy replied. "We'll do it over breakfast."

"That's a terrible idea." I smirked. "But you're the Princess."

Daisy came over to me and put her arms around my neck. "I'll round up the Council. You go hunt down Zair."

"What?" I frowned. "Why?"

"He's got to be at the meeting, too, sweetie."

"I know but why do I have to get him?" I grimaced. "He's gonna' wanna' know why I haven't talked to him."

"Talked to him about what?" Daisy tilted her head cutely.

I shook my head and asked, "Where do I find him?"

"He should be around here somewhere." Daisy surmised. "He's probably trying to figure out what went down yesterday. He's so nosy."

A/N: More is on the way, hope you liked this bit. Please, if you're reading this, can you review? I just want to hear what you guys think (Thanks for the reviews I've gotten thus far!)

Until next chapter...

~DymondGold~