Consumption

Everyone was shocked by this. The Mushroom Kingdom going to war? This hadn't happened since the era of Peach's great grandfather centuries ago. Not to mention, Peach's soldiers were little in number. Enough to protect the kingdom, but to actually go to war? She would need twice as many.

But there was something else wrong here. Princess Peach was a pacifist, and voted against war on more than one occasion. So why did she decide to go to war now? Mario and Luigi just got there, and they were shocked by what they were hearing.

"I am aware that we don't have enough soldiers for this," she continued, "so that's why I must ask anyone here who can bear arms to join me in this battle for not only my freedom, but our freedom, as a kingdom!" there was dead silence. Did she just call a free drafting? "I shall not discriminate, men, women, even children who wish to fight, I ask that you meet me in the plains outside of the village!" and with that, she turned and went inside to prepare.

"What is going on here?" Luigi asked.

"I knew something was wrong," Mario said to himself as he ran into the castle to confront Peach.

Peach's mind was in overdrive. She was thinking about everything that happened to her over the last month. The dreams were making her reevaluate the way she thought, the thought of being the one meant to bring the apocalypse had her confused, but the darkness in her heart made her both happy and miserable at the same time. She was still afraid of Bowser, so why did she decide to go to war all of a sudden? Truth was it was because she was afraid that she was doing this. Bowser had backed her into the corner, and she had reached her breaking point. She was tired of everything, and just wanted to be at peace.

Mario ran into the castle up to Peach, who was in the armory choosing a sword. She doesn't even look right holding one, Mario thought. "Peach, what are you doing?!" he asked in horror.

"I'm fighting back!" she said to Mario without even turning to him. She then settled on a rapier sword with a golden hilt, and turned to Mario with a cold stare.

"Then let Luigi and I go fight Bowser," Mario tried to reason, but Peach had clearly made up her mind.

"What, and wait here in the 'safety' of my castle?! I'm tired of living in fear of him! I want him to see that I'm not going to take it anymore!" Peach's heart was racing, and it was clear that she wasn't thinking straight.

"Peach, what brought this on all of a sudden?!" Mario asked as he put his hands on her shoulders.

"All of a sudden?! I've felt this way for a long time!" that shocked Mario. Peach looked down crying tears of anger actually, and continued, "You don't know what I go through everyday! I'm tired of being weak! I'm tired of being afraid! I just want it to end!" she started crying even harder, and Mario felt her pain.

"Oh, Peach, I'm sorry," He tried to embrace her to comfort her, but she pushed him away, into a wall actually.

"I don't need your pity if all your going to say is 'it's going to be alright Peach'! It's going to be alright because I'm going to make it alright, and you can either fight along with me, or get the HELL OUT OF MY WAY!!!" she shouted, and then stormed off.

Mario was frozen with fear. "What happened to you...?"

Peach ran to the plains, but was saddened to see no one was there to fight with her. "So, in the end I'm alone..." she said to herself in sadness.

"Just how I like you, alone," a big, gruff voice said behind Peach. She looked up in fear.

"Bowser..." was all she could say. She felt she could be brave if she had an army behind her, but being alone like this made her feel really scared. She ran away from him a bit and turned to face him.

"I heard what you did to my soldiers, and personally I don't like it!" the koopa/dragon shouted at Peach, making her cringe. She was so scared she couldn't move, she couldn't scream. Just to intimidate her more he let out a large roar that made her fall to the ground. He loved doing this to her, after all, she never fought back. He even saw the sword at her side and wasn't afraid. Even if she used it, it wouldn't pierce his shell.

"Now, I'm going to ask you nicely, come here!" he more so demanded.

Peach hated him. All he did was bully her around and try to use her to take control of her kingdom. She remembered the first time he kidnapped her. She was locked up in the deepest part of the castle, and all he did was tell her that no one would save her, and since she hadn't met Mario yet, she believed him. He liked seeing her weak and helpless, he thrived on that sight. It made her sick, and she really wanted to kill him. So much she was consumed by the desire. She looked down, heart pounding with sadness, frustration, anger, and hate.

Then that feeling came back, that darkness in her heart consumed her again. This time though, it calmed her. The sadness, the anger, it was all going away. Her heart was still racing, but this time she was enjoying the feeling. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling. She then looked in a puddle near her, and she saw her eyes. Crimson red. She smiled actually looking at that.

Bowser had done it, he killed the last bit of light within her, and all that was left was the darkness.

"Did you not hear me?" Bowser asked after a minute, "I said come here!"

Now Peach thought about Bowser, and she wasn't afraid. In fact, she felt so brave that she actually laughed when he said that. Did he just order her to go with him? How dare he.

"No," Peach said calmly, Bowser was enraged.

"What did you say to me!" he shouted. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Peach got up and looked at him with those red eyes of hers. "I said no, I won't go with you," she repeated. Bowser was getting really angry, not because she said no, she always said no. It was how she said it. It wasn't her usual helpless "no" that was also a cry for help, this was an actual "no" that said she was sure she wasn't going with him.

"You dare to defy me?!" he shouted hoping she would fall back to her usual helpless self, but she didn't.

"I'm not afraid of you. In fact, I think you're afraid of me," she said with an evil smile.

Truth was he was afraid of her, now. But he wasn't about to let let her know that. "Afraid of you! You must be joking Princess!" He then went into his shell and was spinning rapidly like a tornado. He then rushed at her, but she didn't even move. With a wave of her hand she pushed Bowser away back to where he was standing before. Where did that come from, was what he was thinking now. She then rose her hand and these claws of darkness came out of nowhere and slashed Bowser, doing heavy damage. Peach was having too much fun now. She had Bowser on the ropes, and all she did was raise her hand.

Bowser realized he was in trouble now, he had to get out of there. "Kamek!" he shouted, the name of his right hand and wizard.

Kamek appeared next to Bowser in a puff of smoke, "You called sire?" he asked in a cool and cunning tone.

"Get me out of here now!" Bowser ordered, still looking at what he now wasn't so sure was Princess Peach.

"As you wish sire," he said as he raised his wand teleporting Bowser and himself away.

Princess Peach was ecstatic. She had actually sent Bowser packing, by herself. She thought that this would be a curse, but whatever was happening to her she liked it now. Bowser pushing her to her breaking point was just enough to bring out her dark self, and now she had no intention of going back.

"Peach!" Mario called. He had seen her fight with Bowser from a distance, and was horrified. He wanted to know where she got all of that power from.

When Peach saw Mario she was really happy. Maybe he saw what she did. He's going to be so proud of me, she thought. "Mario, did you see?" she asked with a smile. She looked really proud of herself.

"Yeah, I saw. Peach, are you okay?" he asked carefully, noting her now red eyes.

"Oh, Mario, I feel wonderful! I've never felt so alive!" she said spinning around in happiness. Mario could feel it though, something just wasn't right. Her voice had lost it's innocence.

"Peach, what's going on here? Why have you changed so much?" he asked, now afraid of the answer.

"I just decided to be stronger, that's all," she said trying to play it off. Mario wasn't going to be fooled.

"But this isn't just strength! I saw that attack you did on Bowser, it looked like dark magic!" he said, partially scared, and partially angry. Was she messing with dark magic? Is that why she was changing?

Peach was shocked. Did he not like the new her? But how could he not? This version was stronger, better than that weak person she was before. "You don't like me?" she asked really hurt.

"Not like this. I want the old Peach back." he said hoping to reach out to the real Peach since to him it didn't seem like she was fully under the darkness' control.

"The old Peach is dead!" she said suddenly, scaring Mario, "I've evolved, and I have no intentions of going back now!" with that she stormed off back to her castle.

Mario fell to his knees, not knowing what to do. "Who are you?" he asked, not even recognizing her anymore.