A/N: I'm back! Finally! Once again I apologize for not updating sooner, (it would seem I'm apologizing a lot lately) but I've been getting ready for exams, which start tomorrow. Not to mention my closest friend, one of them anyway, is moving up to Yellowknife in two weeks time, so I've been spending most of my free time with her. So here it is, the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario...blah blah blah, you get the point.

Chapter 6: Wandering the Maze to find Cassandra the Catastrophic

It was dark inside the temple. There were patches of sunlight that streamed in through the windows, but it was dim because of the layers of dust caking the glass. Actually, there was dust everywhere. Clouds of it rose from the floor with every step Mario, Wario, and Waluigi took. And underneath the dust was a thin layer of sparkling sand.

"What a dirty place! You'd think that someone would come around to clean every so often..." muttered Wario darkly, after sneezing a few times. "And they should fix the lighting! I can't see an inch in front of my nose!"

"I think the darkness makes a few good things stand out, wouldn't you say?" chuckled Waluigi, pointing to various artifacts just lying around. Wario smiled, and grabbed a few of them, putting them in a sack he had brought along.

"I don't think it's a good idea to take things from here," said Mario. "This is a temple of a dark sorceress. The items are probably cursed."

"Nonsense!" said Wario, greed taking over his senses. "The temples were built after the sorceresses were sealed away. They couldn't have cursed them."

"Still, I don't think you should take anymore," said Mario firmly.

Wario just stuck out his tongue and reached for another artifact. It was a shining amethyst phoenix, carved to the tiniest detail. He picked it up, and they all fell a trap door that had opened beneath them.

"WARIO YOU FOOL! NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" yelled Mario as they fell deeper into the dark temple.

It seemed like they were falling forever. It was pitch black around them as they fell. 'We'll probably never land' thought Mario, a hopeless feeling taking over him.

But they did land. In fact, they landed in a clean room, on a huge purple cushion. The men stood up and brushed themselves off, and then looked around at their new surroundings.

It was spotless and well lit. There were torches everywhere, and it was very warm. There was also glittering treasure everywhere, which Wario and Waluigi were about to run for, had Mario not been holding them back.

"You've caused enough trouble. Who knows what might happen if you steal any more treasure in this temple," said Mario sternly.

Muttering, the Wicked Brothers agreed not to steal any more treasure, and Mario released them.

"Where are we?" wondered Wario.

"I don't know, but at least it's not dirty and dark in here," commented Waluigi.

"I wonder where we can find Cassandra?" Mario said thoughtfully.

"Well, one things for sure. We're not going to find her by standing here. Come on!" said Wario, who dashed towards a door in the corner, followed by Waluigi and Mario. Wario opened the door and went through the door and vanished.

"Wario?" called Waluigi quietly. He stepped through the door too and vanished as well.

"Wario? Waluigi? Are you there?" called Mario, stepping through the door. All of a sudden, he felt a whooshing sensation, and the next minute he found himself on the ground of an eerie room. There were corpses on the ground of this room, which were rotting with fetor and decay. A creepy purple light shone dimly to light the room, which only made the corpses look like they were still alive. Wario and Waluigi were nowhere in sight.

"Wario! Waluigi! Where are you! Where am I?" yelled Mario. He looked around desperately, but found no one. The only thing he saw was a black door in front of him. After going through the last door, he wasn't crazy about the idea of going through this door, but there didn't seem to be any other alternative.

However, as his hand touched the doorknob, he heard a sound behind him. He turned around, saw nothing unusual, and went to open the door again. This time he heard a choked moan, he had been sure of it. Trembling all over, he turned around and saw to his horror that the corpses were reaching for him.

They were moaning, and the sound of them was rising and rising. One of the corpse's decayed eyeballs fell out, while a few maggots came out the mouth of another. They struggled to stand on legs that would not support them.

Mario was frozen, transfixed at the grotesque sight in front of him. The moans turned into a wailing cacophony, threatening to claim his very sanity. 'I'm next,' he thought in horror, looking at what appeared to be a child's body trying to crawl towards him. 'I'm going to share their fate!'

He felt a sudden warmth and the corpses started to quiet down. He heard a voice that was not his own say to him, "You will make it out…turn around and open the door."

Getting his senses back, Mario turned around, opened the door and fled through it, slamming it behind him, cutting off the moans entirely. He caught his breath and looked around the hallway he was in. It was made of stone, surprisingly warm, and was lit with the usual purple flamed torches.

"I wonder what's at the end of the hall?" He murmured, before racing down the corridor.

"Where am I?" groaned Wario, sitting up. He jumped at what he saw. In the room was a huge puddle of blood...fresh blood so it seemed. And the room was glowing with a strange aura that made his hair stand on end.

"I gotta get outta here," mumbled Wario, quickly getting to his feet. He walked over to a black door, and reached for the handle. He heard a loud hissing noise all of a sudden, and he turned around.

The blood puddle was spreading, and it had touched a small rock, which had hissed and started to melt away. With shock Wario realized that the puddle was acidic, and it was only getting larger. He quickly turned the knob, pushed, and with dismay noticed that it wasn't opening.

The acidic liquid was quickly covering the floor, and it was coming closer to him. It seemed to be rising in level too, and Wario realized that he was trapped. He started to bang on the door, hoping to open it. With desperation, he yanked on the door, ready to give it a mighty push, when it swung open, smacking him in the nose. Cursing once again, Wario rushed out of the room, making sure to smash the door shut behind him.

He soon noticed he was in a stone corridor lit with purple flamed torches. Wario noticed a door at either end of the corridor. He decided to go through to his left, his lucky direction. There was a fancy purple sigil above the door and he wondered briefly what it meant as he stepped through the door.

"What the-?" roared Waluigi, cursing loudly. He looked around at his new surroundings. He couldn't make out the room clearly, as it was filled with a purple haze. The haze was choking him, and he realized that it was probably a poison.

Immediately, he started to feel dizzy, the noxious gas making it hard to breathe. He started to search for a door, but realized that with the smog in the air that he could not see if there were traps, and in a room like this, there most likely was.

'I'm dying,' he thought feebly. He tried to think of a plan, but his mind was shutting down. 'This is the end of me…'

Yet at the moment, he noticed that the gas was swirling around, yet it was a rising gas. It was warm it had to be rising. With this thought in his mind, he immediately dropped onto the floor in a lying down position. Almost instantly his mind clear, as well as his lungs.

"Phew," he said, and took a look around. He had been right about not moving senselessly as there were many trap panels on the floor. He saw a door and started to crawl to it, taking care to avoid the panels. He reached the door and bracing himself, stood up, reached for the door, opened it up, and ran out, slamming the door behind him.

Waluigi noticed he was in a long corridor. And now he was mad.

"Arg! I hate this place!" he screamed in frustration. He started to run through the corridor.

Mario ran and ran through the corridor. He at last found a door on the side of it and entered a room. The room was very hot, sweltering hot. He started to sweat immediately.

Mario quickly found the heat source. And he didn't like what he saw.

A purple flamed phoenix was resting on a perch above him. It was a large phoenix, and it was asleep...for the moment. Mario went to turn around and leave, only to find the door had disappeared.

"Oh no," he muttered quietly.

But the tiny noise had roused the light-sleeping phoenix, which let out a screech and stretched its long wings.

"OH NO!" yelled Mario.

The phoenix focused its attention on him and started to fly around, a majestic and deadly sight. It dived at him, claws outstretched. Mario dove out of the way of the angry bird. The phoenix screeched its displeasure and shot a purple jet of flame at him, which Mario dodged, barely.

'How am I going to defeat this thing?' he thought desperately. He tried to think of a plan but before anything could come to mind the phoenix slashed at him. He rolled out of the way of the claws, as it flew up and dive bombed him again. This time it hit him dead on. Mario yelled in pain as the claws sank into him, drawing blood. The phoenix screeched triumphantly, and went to finish him off.

'I'm done for. Only a miracle can save me now.' As this thought struck him, he felt something cold. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the magical stone. It was glowing a blue aura.

Just then, the phoenix shot another jet flame at him. With no possible way of dodging it, Mario held out the stone, hoping against hope that his plan would work. It did, for the flame bounced of the stone, reflected back at the phoenix, the flames turned green.

The flame hit the phoenix, and it let out an agonized scream, as the flames consumed it. When the smoke had cleared, there was nothing but a pile of dust where the phoenix had been.

His heart pounding, Mario stepped through the door that had appeared, which had a fancy purple sigil above it.

Waluigi ran through the corridor a dozen times before he realized he had been running in circles. Growling, he saw a door when he turned. It had a purple symbol above it. He stepped through the door.

Mario stepped through a door in the center. Wario came out of a door from the left and Waluigi came from a door from the right.

It was a sparkling room, lit in a breath taking shade of purple. In the center of the room, was the source of the light. It was a purple stone, shaped like a phoenix.

"I'm definitely taking that!" said Wario, running out to it.

"Wario! NO!" yelled Mario.

Before Wario could reach the stone however, a voice filled the room. It was a deep throaty voice of a woman.

"Set me free..." it whispered. "Please set me free..."

"It must be Cassandra," whispered Waluigi in awe.

"That must be the stone which she is sealed in," said Mario. "Then you can take it after all Wario."

"With pleasure," said Wario, snatching it up. All of a sudden, the room glowed a crimson blood colour, and then darkness. When the darkness cleared, Mario and the Wicked Brothers found themselves outside the temple, the purple stone in Wario's hand, glowing malevolently.

"Well, we got the first one," said Mario. "Let's go back to the hotel...for now."

Wario and Waluigi agreed, and started following Mario, each vowing to come back and steal the rest of the treasure.

There you go! A nice long chapter...well long coming from me. Hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review, flamers will be murdered at Belladonna's hands...or hair, which ever is more grisly.