A/N: Wow, it was so cool to wake up today and see three more reviews for last chapter! Thanks a million to Reyairia and AlterJericho for your awesome reviews - and your compliments on characterization, because that's the most nerve-wracking part of fanfiction. It means the world to me that you guys think I am doing a satisfactory job (P.S. I love King Boo too - I think he's adorable, lol). Also thanks to dragon19kyoshi for the review!

This chapter is pretty short - but it is Bowser/Peach centric and where I cut it short was a good 'stopping' point, I guess. I have the next chapter over halfway written, so expect to see Chapter 7 up later tonight or early tomorrow.

EDIT: Also, Ch. 9-10+ will have a little more Mario Kart-relatedness in it, if you've been missing it (if not, no worries because the chapters won't be entirely focused on that!).

Thanks again for the reviews, I hope that this chapter is okay (I'm a little nervous about it!). Please leave me a note if you have the time! :)

Peach wished more than anything there was a way for her to contact Mario. She wondered where he was, whether or not he was safe - and Daisy, too, Luigi, Toad. She also knew that Bowser could very well have imprisoned her (and the rest of the castle's inhabitants) in the squalor of the cellar; she could not afford to upset him any more than was necessary. Even if he did not punish her directly, the Mushrooms whose safety she had bargained (was that the right word?) for meant nothing to him. Peach knew that she needed to protect those in her care, and this meant indulging Bowser - as much as she could stand to, anyway. She could think of no alternative as she escorted him into the Main Hall.

She was so nervous. "What would you like to see first?"

Good question. Bowser couldn't care less about a castle tour - he'd always figured that once he took over, he'd bulldoze this place anyway, build something more his style. "Your defenses." Who said he didn't have a sense of humor? What a joke.

Peach didn't think it was funny, in part because his 'suggestion' sounded so...hostile. There were beautiful things to be seen in the castle, but she supposed Bowser couldn't appreciate that. He'd changed everything when he'd taken the Power Stars - emptied her home of its inviting warmth and replaced it with awful paintings in empty rooms. The only things he left were portraits of her, but he'd even tampered with some of those. No, she shouldn't have been surprised that he only cared for her castle's more destructive elements.

"I believe you've met my guards," she said, subdued so she would not disrespect him through tone alone. When Bowser ordered his Koopa Troopas to round up every Mushroom in the castle, those assigned to patrol the halls and grounds were among them.

"Yeah?" Bowser had never looked at the stumpy fungi that way - and for good reason. His laughter was low, graveled, and derisive, "Looked more like target practice to me." They barely came up to his knees - less like target practice, more like bouncing, screaming soccer balls just ripe for the stomping.

"They're not." She couldn't bear to make eye contact with him, for fear that her anger would show. She changed the subject. "Shall we tour the grounds first?"

"Why?" Bowser was instantly suspicious. Maybe she still hoped she could escape from him, maybe she thought there was a way to get a message out to Mario - and maybe he was paranoid because he had never once been successful in keeping that mustached butterball from blundering in (no matter how extensive his precautions and traps).

But Peach had no such schemes down her gloves. She couldn't try to reach Mario unless she knew she had a chance - because if Bowser caught her, he would never give her an opportunity to try again. She could not risk her people for anything less.

Is he really going to question my every word? "We have no armory, no dungeon - as you know - no defenses inside the castle." Apart from her guards, who had been easily subdued. To anyone else, she would've been proud to say: 'look at my kingdom, we have no need of political prisons or stores of weapons or horrid traps to ensnare the unwary, we are peaceful.' But to Bowser? It made her feel foolish. Was it any wonder that he so easily abducted her time and time again, if she made no effort to fortify her castle? On the other hand, would doing so only provoke the Koopa King more?

He did not see the Mushroom Kingdom as a challenge. It was, perhaps, the only reason he had not yet razed it to the ground with his army.

"You're just asking for it, huh?" Those were Bowser's first words - the contemptuous sounds he'd made in response to Peach needed no explanation - as they stepped out into the fading sunlight of late afternoon.

"Excuse me?"

Bowser stepped in front of her, catching that blue gaze for the first time - really - since the race. Was she deliberately playing dumb? He knew she was a princess, but she had to know something about combat tactics. "Invasion. C'mon, Princess, you got no spikes, no thwomps, no fireballs, no traps, no curses, no army, no counterattack - at all - and no natural defenses except this puddle you call a moat." He leaned against the ledge of the bridge just long enough to glance at the water. It didn't even look that deep. Might as well call it an outdoor swimming pool. "I could conquer your kingdom with one claw in one hour, you know that?" And he'd still have time leftover to get some kebabs.

Peach stared at him with those big eyes (every time she did, it felt like a spiny shell to the gut), and he figured it was just 'cause she didn't have any real military men around. Was this the first time anybody ever sat her down and showed her everything he could do to fix this kingdom? How easy it'd be to wipe out if he felt like it? "You oughta fill this thing with lava." A jerk of his horns down at the moat. "And get some real guards. Ones that aren't so short. And fleshy."

Didn't she get it? Bowser brought the koopapower, the magic, the genius - he turned it into a fortress. The things he could do to this worthless lump of stones - she had no idea. "Princess, this castle's only safe when I'm here."

Peach stood there and she listened to his insults, his self-importance, his nerve to claim what he did. The Koopa King was heavy but muscular, aggression in a shell from the razor-sharp tips of his claws, to the thick spikes on his carapace and tail, the angry curve of pointed horns. How could she see him as anything but devastating? There was nothing 'safe' about him, and she was furious that he would claim otherwise.

"This castle," she said, her voice nearly trembling, "is only under attack when you're here. You are the worst threat we've ever had!"

The princess lost her temper - but instead of goading the Koopa King, as she feared she might, he seemed perfectly aware of the danger he posed. "Yeah, that's what I'm saying," he agreed, bemused at her accusations and all the more swaggering because of them, "Nobody's gonna try to cross me. They don't mess with you because they know I'm the biggest, baddest thing around." And the Mushroom Kingdom was his - unofficially. He'd invaded it the most already. Anyone who tried to take it from him? Had to be a moron.

"That doesn't even make sense," Peach argued, frustrated with his twisted logic, "You- ooh, Bowser Koopa! You are a menace!" She turned abruptly on her heel, so angry she could scarcely find the words between clenched teeth (and that was hardly a regal reaction). She just had to get away from him, but she could not even storm off properly - such was the effect he had on her. She could no longer ignore him.

"And another thing!" Peach stopped just short of stepping off the bridge, onto the ground - and spun around to glare at Bowser, "Do you know what makes me feel safe? It isn't lava, or trapdoors or spiked shells," and it certainly wasn't him, "Mario. Mario makes me feel safe - and he doesn't need those things!" Why? Because her hero didn't go looking for violence, or perpetrating it through attacks on peaceful kingdoms. He fought fairly and from the heart, and it was what she most admired about him.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that riled Bowser up so much as mention of that chubby, hairy Italian loser. He hated that guy. And Peach had all but said that Mario was the better man to his face! By the time she'd said his name a second time, Bowser's mood had more than soured. The Koopa King barreled after her at an astonishing speed - considering his size - with a bellowed, "HE CAN'T AFFORD THOSE THINGS! DO YOU KNOW WHY?" Peach didn't answer, terror robbing her of her well-deserved anger. She ran off the bridge as it trembled violently under her feet - she thought he would destroy it by his stomps alone! - but she wasn't fast enough. Bowser's strides were much longer than hers, and he grabbed her by the shoulders - forcibly twisting her around with a grip so hard that she was sure he'd torn holes in the fabric of her sleeves, perhaps even pierced skin.

"Do you know why?" he repeated in a ferocious growl, thick with rage. He'd backed her up against the short, picket fencing that ran along the edge of the moat, preventing any pedestrians (particularly curious children!) from slipping into the water below. She felt the wood press against her legs through her gown, and she shook so hard, her teeth rattled. She feared that - had she not pinned it to her hair - her crown would've toppled off her head. "BECAUSE HE'S A PLUMBER!" Bowser released her with a shove, slinging his massive skull to the side with a roar of smoldering flames so close to her, the fencing caught fire.

That wasn't the worst of it - because the Koopa King's push, combined with her already unsteady footing, sent the princess careening over the fence. She screamed in free fall as she tumbled down into the stone ditch - cut off only when she smashed into the water with a very loud splash.

It was that splash that caught Bowser's attention - though he almost mistook it for the blood rushing through his ears. He leaned over the fencing, glaring down into the deeply carved, broad moat to see nothing but white froth and agitated ripples where Peach must have landed. It would serve her right if she did drown, he huffed to himself, his nostrils flaring with his still seething mood. Maybe she ought to call Mario to save her.

But of course, there was no Mario here - he knew that. So with a wrathful snarl that shook his entire frame, Bowser jumped into the water after the princess. She owes me big for this.