The 2026 of Yesterday

Luigi stood alone in the field, in his stance, feet in the water, ready to draw. Yet nothing happened. Luigi checked his rolex in confusion. Then, a man appeared before him in black overalls, a purple shirt but with a hood over his head. Luigi raised the Poltergust without hesitation and shot, the Nanbi's chest exploded… but it didn't. The man's chest seemed to bear almost no indication it had been shot and as Luigi hesitantly approached the body, he realized that he had not taken out a Nanbi come back from the future or a restless spirit, he had killed a man. He approached the body and slowed. This wasn't supposed to happen. He sensed something and pulled off the sack. It was the twisted face of himself from the future. It was the face of his older self. It was practically drug addled with faded power, but it was still recognizable just off of the signature and the lack of a heart.

Luigi flipped his older self's body over and pounds of Gold Flowers clinked out. What had he done? He picked up the Gold Flowers and headed back to celebrate. So, he never became a Nanbi. He knew that, but it seemed that he couldn't exist twice in the same time. The heart didn't belong to the future self and so the future self could die. It was his heart. Only his. It was his power. Whatever reason Luigi would have for sacrificing himself, well… he'd just have to find that out in the future.

That night, the members of the Bob-Omb Mafia bought Luigi drinks and cheered him on, celebrating the death of his 'Nanbi'. If they knew what he really was, if they knew what kind of power he truly had… well, Luigi thought that night, perhaps using his powers wasn't that bad. That was the first night that he gave in to the voice in his head. The first night that the prospect of what would happen if she didn't come didn't seem so unimaginable.

The 2027 of Yesterday

Luigi angrily packed up everything he had owned in Buoy Base in boxes, carrying them with him telekinetically. He crushed a lot of Gold Flowers and inhaled them. If this was the power that Rool held, then for the past ten years, Luigi had indeed missed out just waiting. Waiting for her and… she never came. He walked out of his apartment. It was the only pace in Buoy Base that wasn't on fire or being destroyed by the Kremling Krew.

The 2028 of Yesterday

Out at sea with the open sky above him, Luigi bundled himself against the cold while staring off the Flying Krock into the depths below. This was all his kingdom. It was his. He was the sea. He leaned on a railing as the Flying Krock approached the Emerald Passage, his eyes eagerly watching the horizon.

The 2029 of Yesterday

Luigi eagerly smoked the crushed Gold Flowers as a kremling sailed him through the flooded Emerald Passage. He looked up past an abandoned building, a window was covered with a white sign with a clear warning: 'BEWARE WALUIGI AND THE SEA OF GREED'.

Waluigi stepped out of the boat, fully embracing his new name. He walked through the damp streets, the water ensuring that he would step on no ground.

He walked into a struggling bodega without his bodyguard. The shop was struggling mostly due to the displacement of most of the citizens. These pirates were supposed to be tough? He scoffed as he picked up a bottle of beer, noticing a green tint on his hands. Several gangsters of the Pianta Syndicate, roaches that picked off of his conquests for Delfino Isle, came in with their suits all tidied to shake down the shop owner. Wherever Luigi went, tons of loot and plunder remained behind. One held a Poltergust in the owner's face, Luigi just ignored them and walked out.

The 2030 of Yesterday

Deep in his cabin within the Flying Krock, Luigi thought he heard something loud in the dark. His eyes danced around like a madman as he pointed the Poltergust everywhere around him. When he was sure there was nobody, he took out another batch of Gold Flower powder and smoked the souls of the damned.

The 2031 of Yesterday

Cloudy and cold. Luigi wandered through the ruins of Kitchen Island. He was buffed by strangers. He didn't destroy this island, but he wished he had. The water rose above slowly. The people wouldn't make it to Rogueport in time.

The 2032 of Yesterday

Music pumping, Luigi deadened at a table. Beside him, a young kremling made a glass float using his telekinesis. He then shattered the glass. Red liquid would have gone everywhere had Luigi not caught the drink with his own telekinesis and poured it back down into his own glass.

The 2033 of Yesterday

Luigi took Gold Flowers from one of his boxes, noting that his supply, stored up over time had grown drastically low. Nevertheless, he crushed it and relished his power. He could worry about his supply later.

The 2034 of Yesterday

Luigi held the Poltergust in the face of the shop owner, demanding Gold Flowers, as the water in Rogueport rose to their knees. Dressed in black overalls and a violet shirt, Luigi was followed by several fresh-faced men. All of those men feared Kamek and so, they were the newest recruits to the Kremling Krew. None of them called him Luigi. To them, he was and would forever be, Waluigi.

The 2035 of Yesterday

Waluigi's Poltergust blazed in the shootout with Tatanga's forces through the flooded streets of Mekanos. A remorseless killer, Waluigi blasted away, cold and skillful. As each alien fell, he pulled out their Boo and extracted the Gold Flower from the ghost. The power that it gave him, the spells that they taught him… and Tatanga's legions were practically infinite. He could do this forever. He grinned as his nose briefly grew pink over his toothbrush moustache for his truly was a life of Godly greed.

The 2040 of Yesterday

It was a dingy, damp and wet hallway. Distant thumping bass indicated to Waluigi that he was maybe behind a club. The world had broken and he'd done his fair part in breaking it apart. Places like this had become far and few. He'd let this one stay. The hall was lined with members of the Kremling Krew, they stood up when they recognized their captain had started to walk among them.

The 2044 of Yesterday

High as a kite off of Gold Flowers, Waluigi, who at this point had practically mastered overdosing, enjoyed himself in an all-out brawl with the Pianta Syndicate. As he was punched hard down to the ground, he laughed his ass off.

The fight blossomed in slow motion all around. Waluigi had finally begun experimenting with the timeline. Seeing just how far he could manipulate every second to serve his whim. When Waluigi looked up, he saw Shokora for the first time. Her hair was beautiful and then there was her green dress. She fled the fighting, toward the exit. She had survived Tatanga's massacre of Kitchen Island and then also his massacre of Dinohattan but she'd lost everything. She'd been from town to town, village to village. Whenever she saw members of the Pianta Syndicate, the Bob-Omb Mafia, or especially the Kremling Krew, she fled. They were the ones that destroyed the world she'd loved.

Transfixed and high, Waligi followed her. He put his hand on her shoulder. She turned, looked him over, flipped him off and left. Waluigi watched her go. She reminded him of… oh God. No, he was the only God here, he told himself.

The next day, Waluigi met her at a café in the ruins of Toad Town. She told him to screw off. What an attitude, telling a deity to screw off.

Three weeks after, Waluigi and Shokora embraced each other in bed.

The day after, Waluigi shot up a repurposed WarioWare with the Kremling Krew. That night, Shokora yelled at him, holding his Poltergust's holsters accusingly before throwing them across the room. That night, he held her in bed, finally troubled when he realized everything that he'd done since she never came.

A month after, Waluigi sailed the Flying Krock, deep in thought with the entire Kremling Krew stuck in their quarters. They knew never to interrupt him when he was with Shokora. He screeched the ship to a halt off of the side of an old sunken golden pyramid. Waluigi ran to the side of the ship, pulled his Poltergust out of its holster, fired it out into the ocean until it was overheated and then finally threw it overboard. He ran back to Shokora and the two embraced.

The 2045 of Yesterday

In a cottage in Buoy Base, which had finally begun to rebuild itself, Waluigi shuddered out his addiction to the Gold Flowers as Shokora tended to him. He could finally see clearly again. It wasn't the withdrawal that hurt. It was the pain that he had caused the world that finally reflected back on him.

The 2046 of Yesterday

Shokora cut some vegetables while headlines on the television speculated as to the identity of Fawful, the mysterious protégé of Cackletta. Shokora shook her head and shut it off as Waluigi eyed it nervously. He wasn't as strong as he was years ago, and he knew it. That was the price of neglecting his duties.

The 2053 of Yesterday

Lazy dust motes hung in the sunlight of Waluigi's cottage through the windows while Waluigi lay lazily in his bed. Shokora walked through, said something inconsequential and her hand on his foot. She drew her hand away, her fingers sliding off gently before she was gone. Waluigi took a deep breath as the sun warmed his sheets, he could hear water running from the sink. It had been so long since the Flying Krock had set sail. Whatever. He hadn't ferried the souls in years anyway.

He focused his eyes on his hand and read the number quietly, 07153902935. It was a long moment that was shattered with all the violence in the world as the cottage's front door was kicked down. Waluigi ran out of the bedroom half-dressed but the mobsters grabbed him, taking him down with a Poltergust butt to the head.

Shokora was dragged into the kitchen screaming.

The Bob-Omb Mafia members carried Waluigi to their destination, surprised that they had managed to capture the leader of the Kremling Krew, the most frightening of all the Gods that ravaged Sarasaland. He never fought back. It was almost as if he'd resigned himself to his fate. They had him hog tied and carried him with a sack over his head. They carefully led him towards a machine, an iron monstrosity with a hatch.

He heard one of the Mafioso tap the top of their watch, indicating for his partners to hurry up. Someone pulled a large lever and the machine began to hum as it started warming up. His face covered by the sack, Waluigi started breathing heavy. A part of him thought, of course, this is why he would go. After all of the sins he committed, this is how he would die. Somebody else would take the Flying Krock and hopefully they would do a better job than him. Somebody else would take the Flying Krock and he would die in the past, barely a God and without a heart. Then he remembered the screams of his wife.

With a swift spell, Waluigi tore his hands free the titanium cuffs. He punched through the head of one gangster, ripping the man's Boo and crushing the spirit into a Gold Flower. He took off the sack and then punched through another gangster, ripping their Boo out of their spine and pulling out a second Gold Flower. Blood on his hands, Waluigi crushed the flowers in his hand and put the powder to his face, inhaling it as he felt his power surge. He didn't even feel the blows of the devolution guns and Poltergusts from everyone else in the room. In a flurry of rage, Waluigi supercharged himself. He breathed heavily and lustily. He wanted more. So, he took more.

With everyone dead and their spirits crushed, Waluigi finally breathed in deep and took stock of the situation around him. He looked at the exit and saw that was the way to Fawful. Then, he looked at the time machine. That was the way. He was originally supposed to accept his fate. He was originally supposed to let himself be killed. No. That was the way to saving Shokora. A million things ran through his mind. What would happen to his heart if he was in another time when it already existed? Who would lead the Kremling Krew? What would become of the battle between Kamek and Culex? A million things ran between his mind, but there was only one choice. Professor Frankly's time machine hummed angrily and Waluigi was ready.

Like an iron coffin, Waluigi climbed in. He braced himself. He closed the hatch behind him. His Godly abilities had kept him from being subsumed and becoming a Nanbi. Now, it would take him exactly where he needed to be. Not 2020 as had originally been set, but when he knew he was supposed to appear. He remembered when he killed himself. With a flash and crack, he was sent, using his powers to guide himself through the timeline as gently as possible.

2026 – Buoy Base

It had all been an incredible rush for Waluigi. He was supercharged when he entered the time machine, but most of that charge had worn off in the stress of guiding himself to 2026 instead of 2020. Yet it was still a rush, knocking his younger self out. He gathered his bearings while briefly looking at Luigi before getting in the truck. He didn't have time to admire the world, after all, he was the one who would destroy this place. He wondered for a second, could he step on land? After all, it was still his heart in the Dead Krock's Chest of this time, but it was keyed to his younger self. Yes, his heart in his future held power over him, but that power couldn't pass through time. It just couldn't.

He drove the truck into Buoy Base, fondly remembering all of the buildings that he had destroyed, even spotting some people that he personally had killed. He stopped at the first bodega he spotted, quickly walking in and grabbing aspirin, wrapped sandwiches, bandages and bottles of water. He dumped his bloody rags to the ground, pulled out the Poltergust and turned to the clerk. He shot it and picked up the man's worn purple hat.

As he put on the purple cap, Waluigi swallowed down four aspirin, holding his head for a minute after, rocking it gently. With that done, he walked down to where he remembered Luigi's apartment was and approached it, watching the window that was high above. Waluigi briefly weighed his options. He took notice of an armoured van in the alleyway and behind it, he could see Slim Bankshot loading Luigi's Gold Flowers into it with two piantas.

Waluigi turned to go, but stopped when his eye caught movement between the parked cars. It was Luigi, hiding between the cars, looking up at his apartment, considering his options. After a moment, Luigi dashed across the street and into the building. Waluigi stayed still a moment, watching Luigi go. He ducked into the shadows as Slim Bankshot and his two pianta comrades stepped into the alleyway wiping their hands before entering the building.

Waluigi took a breath and then casually walked down the sidewalk, past the alleyway, scoping the armoured van. There was a single pianta in the driver's seat. Waluigi walked up to the armoured van's window and raised his Poltergust. A second later, the window had shattered and the pianta driver inside had been practically shattered by the impact of the blast.

Waluigi dashed out onto the street as gunfire cracked from the high apartment window. Waluigi dashed towards the apartment door, gun I nhand, but stopped when the window five stories above shattered with gunfire. Waluigi backed up to see Luigi scrambing down the fire escape as a tall pianta fired down at him. Waluigi took expert aim with the devolution gun taken from the driver and fired three blasts upwards. The tall pianta's blasts stopped as Luigi slipped on the fire escape, falling two stories until the hood of a parked car broke his fall. Behind Luigi, the ooze that used to be the tall pianta hit the sidewalk with a splat.

Waluigi walked to Luigi and checked if was still conscious before picking out another devolution gun from within the ooze. Walking back to Luigi's inert body, Waluigi sighed and lifted his younger self up in his arms.

He had never bothered learning why she never came. Perhaps he could… no, he realized. Though the young man in his arms still cared, he did not. He would have to suffer through it all just like he did.

Luigi woke up slowly and painfully. He had been lying alone in an abandoned lot on the outskirts of town. It took him a little while to take stock of himself. Nothing was broken, but there was a tight bandage on his ear.

A mournful train whistle interrupted his thoughts and he turned. Through a chain link fence, he oculd note the train yard. He had been put here for a reason. Take the train to the Flying Krock and leave Buoy Base. He watched how in the distance, a man and a young boy in rags hopped onto an empty cargo car heading out of town. Luigi watched the boy, the voice in the back of his heads telling him to be angry and nothing more.

Luigi stood shakily and walked away from the train ayrd. He could hear a helicopter overhead, its spotlight zigzagging the area. Ducking into the shadows, Luigi slowly made his way back to the city.

There was a swarm of activity at Chauncey's nightclub, Mafioso and mobsters were running in and out on possible updates on Luigi and Waluigi. "He ain't dumb like the last one, we've got to get lucky now," Popple told all those who congregated around him. "Cover the roads out of town. Sweep the streets, pull in his social circle, pound the pavement." Popple spread a map around the table and everyone, even Cackletta's whores, gathered around him.

"He'll hop on a train," suggested a pianta. "Fast and predictable."

"Maybe," nodded Popple. "Sweep the trainyard. Every second that passes is bad, go." Popple walked back into his office where Slim Blankshot slumped into a chair with a rag to his head. Popple didn't notice how Bankshot's eyes were wet from crying.

"You stupid idiot," gruffed Popple.

"I can't hear you," cried Slim Banskhot and so Popple moved over to his ear.

"Well that's what happens when you fire a Poltergust into a metal box!" roared Popple.

"I can fix this," cried Bankshot. "I can find him."

"Go home and let the grown ups do their job," said Popple.

All through Buoy Base, more helicopter swept the streets and their searchlights were blazing. Cars with mobsters and piantas circled slowly, shining spotlights themselves. Luigi leapt from the shadows and ducked behind a dumpster, barely avoiding the light. He wouldn't last long out here.

It wasn't long before Luigi found himself in front of a bright red garage, noting a dim near dead light from Harhall's apartment above. Luigi looked of it, hesitant but not desperate.

A window shattered at the back of the Buoy Base Military Library, a little used building that was practically a congenital defect from the time this place had been a police state. The wrapped hands that shattered it were the first parts of Waluigi that entered the library. He weaved his way through a big reading hall, past tables before stopping at a desk with a thin sheet of plastic on it. The sheet was an old computer used by the forces of the Birabuto Kingdom to keep track of data going in Buoy Base. It was an impractical model that had long since been abandoned. So of course it was at a library.

Checking his hand, Waluigi input the number that he had scrawled on there into an advanced query he had generated in the future. He navigated menus and windows and very soon information was flashing and he was searching.

When he'd found everything that he'd needed to find, Waluigi printed out several large documents. They were maps and he couldn't have even a single one cut off. He folded them up and pocketed them. Yet, as he began to leave out of the window from which he came, he noted a smooth aged scar on his wrist. It was an arrow.

Waluigi's breath caught and he pulled down his sleeve. First, a 'G' appeared right up by his shoulder and then an 'o', another 'o' and an 'm'. It didn't take him long to register what was happening, but he still read the entire message.

For a small while, Slim Bankshot had sat on the curb, smoking and seething in thought at his bandaged hand. Yet, he was also deep in thought. Eventually, his eyes lifted as an idea came to his drug addled brain and within fifteen minutes, he too was at the red garage before Harhall's apartment. This time, however, the light in the window was fully lit.

A shower of sparks blew out the screen door leading to Harhall's apartment and once the door swung open, Slim Bankshot stormed in, his devolution gun drawn. He swept through the apartment with overeager purpose but once he found it empty, he deflated and was consumed by his thoughts once more. Going to a video screen by the peephole at the door, Bankshot touched it and a menu came it, it was only a few options to bring him to the security feed of the apartment.

He didn't rewind for too long before Luigi showed up on the screen. Bankshot watched how Luigi entered the apartment, how he rifled in a bit before sitting at the table with his head in his hands. Luigi stared at an empty space in the wall for a few minutes before retrieving something from a kitchen drawer and pulling up his sleeve. The security feed cut out there and Slim huffed his cigarette, trying to put the pieces together.

Waluigi emerged from the fields bordering Goombella's roadside diner. He fumbled in his jacket for aspirin, pulling four out and swallowing them down. He noted Harhall's bike parked alongside a dumpster and walked around the diner cautiously to regain his footing.

Luigi sat at a booth, put the Poltergust between his legs under the table and only seconds later, Waluigi entered, stepped up slowly and sat down. There was a moment of silence between them. Along with his ear, Luigi had wrapped up his arm in bloodied bandages. Luigi's eyes went to Waluigi's arm and he pulled up his sleeve, the word 'GOOMBELLA' was still scarred onto it. As if on cue, Goombella stepped up to them breezily. "Coffee?" she asked.

"Please," nodded Waluigi. "Black. And water."

"Anything else?"

"Are we eating?" Waluigi asked Luigi.

"She knows what I'll get."

"Steak and eggs, rare and scrambled," Waluigi told Goombella and she nodded.

"Two steaks and eggs coming right up," she told them and as she left, a single heartbeat passed between Luigi and Waluigi, both men without hearts.

"We're not going to talk about time travel," said Waluigi.

"Okay," nodded Luigi.

"Must hurt," Waluigi pointed to Luigi.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Didn't know if you'd remember."

"I put it together. Clever," he sighed. "Do I get the scar when you're cut or when the knife is on its way down and it's inevitable that you'll be cut?"

"I'm not cutting myself again."

"I'm not asking you to."

"It's an interesting question, I've just lost enough blood to kill me if it could."

"You know there's another girl who works here on weekends."

"Flo," muttered Luigi.

"Well, I'd say have fun explaining who Goombella is the next bunch of years, but I'd rather not have this on my arm anymore," said Waluigi and he muttered a spell. In an instant, the scar faded on boht of their arms. "We learn these things to avoid looking like Rool. You know, after we say screw it to ferrying souls for Kalypso." Goombella set Waluigi's black coffee next to Luigi's white. "How's the French coming along?"

"Good."

"Je sais que tu as une arme entre tes jambes," whistled Waluigi as Luigi's face registered obvious incomprehension. "No? Don't worry, you'll learn the spell to get you there soon."

"I don't care what you think you're here for," said Luigi, "whatever you think you're going to get from me. More time or whatever you want. I can't let you leave this diner alive, your heart is still mine. Because the next years of my life are mine, they're not yours anymore. You can say anything you want, but the Flying Krock can only have one captain. That heart is mine. It answers to me, so I do have a theory, your heart is in the future and so, I can kill you."

"I'm sorry to cut off," started Waluigi, "sorry to cut off this spiel you've been practicing all night but I need you to listen. Listen. You know what the voice of Culex sounds like? See you're confused now but you're listening. I hope the voice of Culex sounds like an old man speaking French. Old men speaking French sounds like primeval trees in a strong wind, just irrefutable. Wise, strong, gentle, all these things in harmony, complimentary. At once. Old men speaking French. Young men speaking French sound, without exception, like Goombas. Fact. You ever hear a Frenchman under forty try to sound threatening? It's hilarious. English is a tight t-shirt, flatters the young. Rat a tat tat. French is a double-breasted suit. Young man can put it on, but it always feels like his putting something on. Some things, you need the years. It's my favourite languge."

"I've got a life ahead of me that's mine and I'm only giving it up for one person," said Luigi, ignoring everything nonsensical that Waluigi just said.

"Well, you know what you have to do then why don't you take your little gun out from beneath your knees and do it," suggested Waluigi. "One in the head. Two in the heart. Boy. It's all 'anybody' and 'never' and then you show up here and think you can talk me into dying. Well, we both know you're not going to kill me. For Kamek's sake you ordered eggs." Waluigi downed two aspirin and took a breath. "I know why you couldn't pull that trigger. When you're tasked to do the unthinkable, your mind, it'll do anything it can to stop you. Only way is you got to know why you're doing it, in your bones, so you can say it out loud to someone without apologizing. Or you got to cut yourself off, go numb. That'll kill you, down the line." Waluigi stopped rambling for a heartbeat. "It's hard to make eye contact with you. It's too strange."

"Your face looks backwards," said Luigi and it was true. The venomous violet cap and that wirey looking toothbrush moustache, it was like he transformed into the general of the French army.

"Yeah, that helps actually. That little twist of the unfamiliar," nodded Waluigi. "You're not winning some pissing contest looking me in the eye, you didn't know what I looked like until yesterday, and it makes sense that it's easier for you. Just be glad you don't end up looking like Rool, even if you do end up just as bad."

"I wasn't trying to win… do you know what's going to happen?" asked Luigi. "Have you already done all this, right now, as me?"

"No not – exactly – I don't want to talk about time travel because then we'll start talking about it and then we'll be here all days making diagrams with straws," groaned Waluigi. "It doesn't matter."

"When I hurt myself now, it changes your body," said Luigi, pointing to his arm. "Do my actions change your memories?'

"It doesn't matter because I don't know how it works," said Waluigi. "Nobody knows how it works. Us Gods aren't supposed to go through time, that's why Culex was considered to be this huge threat that the portal keepers had to take that power from him. On my own power, I can go back a few minutes maybe. Time travel as it was created by Professor Frankly was a mistake and years from now, he is the smartest man in the world and he knows exactly one thing about it that you don't: he knows to be scared to death of it." He paused and touched his chest where their hearts were supposed to have been. "My memory is cloudy, there's a cloud. It's a… it starts clear and then gets cloudy as it goes back. Hand me those!" He pointed to two straws and Luigi reticiently passed him them. "And the salt, no the pepper. The pepper." Waluigi poured the two straws apart and poured the pepper between them, heavily one side, lightly in between and nothing on the other side. "Okay, the span between the straws is our timeline. This straw, with all the pepper by it, is the present day, right now and this straw, with nothing by it is the moment years from now from when I was sent back. The machine was tuned to a fixed time years from now, I used our powers to subvert that and instead guide myself here."

"What's the pepper?"

"The pepper is a sort of fog," he elaborated. "See my memories are clear, no pepper by that straw but as they go back they get cloudier, until they're obscured. It's like a fog. Because memories aren't really memories, they're one possible eventuality now and they grow clearer or cloudier as they become more or less likely. But then they get to the present moment and they're instantly clear again. Like a wall of fog moving forward with the present moment. I suppose it is best to say… I can remember what you do after you do it."

"So, you can."

"And it hurts."

"So when we're apart, you can remember what I do," said Luigi as Goombella brought them their food in two separate plates. "After I do it."

"This is a precise description of a fuzzy mechanism," said Waluigi. "Time travel messes with everything, my brain and body try to catch up. Even at the timeline's worst I was only ever able to travel into my body from five minutes ago at best. We're Gods not portal keepers. The machine helped with length of time, although our abilities are still the only reason I was able to guide myself as accurately as I could. Time travel is messy. That's why it's dangerous. It hurts. All I know… I know two things for sure. I know what's happening in my head and I know you're still going to meet her."

"Who?"

Waluigi took a worn double of Luigi's rolex from his pocket and flicked it open. He stared at it intently and Luigi felt taken aback, as if he should have been offended.

"This is a woman, what?" asked Luigi, his eyes incredulous. "I'm going to fall in love with? I'm already in love and I've been waiting nine freaking years for her."

"She's going to save your life," whispered Waluigi. "We don't end up with her." The way that Waluigi said 'her', Luigi could practically feel the venom dripping off of his older self's tongue. He shook his head at that. No. There was no way that after nine years of playing caretaker to the damned he'd be abandoned like that. He felt rage rise in himself at even considering the notion. Waluigi made eye contact with Luigi. He had the same rage in his eyes and for the first time, they held eye contact. Unexpectedly naked on Waluigi's face was the deepest kind of grief. It was deep and unrelenting. It was everything that voice in the back of Luigi's head talked about. Luigi broke their gaze. "For a long time at the beginning, she thought we'd have a baby. She would have been a good mother. She wanted that so much and now I'm saying sorry to a picture."

"She's… how is she… you said save my life?" stammered Luigi, unable to even form his words.

"Your life," scoffed Waluigi. "Let's look. At your life. You're a killer of diamonds and a junkie on souls. What a freaking child's mentality, 'my life', 'what's mine'. Save your life, you're asking how? The question is why. Why would anyone waste their lives on you? She sure didn't, give up the good life she has. Why would she sacrifice a good life to love you?" It was the way he said she or her in reference to… Luigi shook his head, all of that had to be a lie.

"My life is my own, I don't need it saved," scoffed Luigi.

"Shut your child mouth," spat Waluigi. "She's going to clean you up and you're going to take her love like a sponge and you're both going to pretend that she's saved you, you're so self-absorbed and stupid. Yesterday. So many years form now is yesterday. I can remember it, its going to happen. Let me show you whats going to happen to this woman who saved your worthless life. Oh, and I'll obscure her face for me."

Waluigi touched Luigi's hand and gave him a little glimpse into the future. The wife he would have spinned away from him so that her face wasn't entirely visible as gangsters burst into the entryway of their French cottage. Waluigi was in bed when it played out. He leapt to his feet but was tackled down by the gangsters and they dragged him out of his bedroom. Through the hall, Luigi saw through the yes of his future self as his wife struggled against two gangsters, her dress torn and bloody. One approached her with the knife. Luigi felt Waluigi scream and fail to stop what the gangsters did to the wife he would have. Luigi pulled his hand away from Waluigi. He didn't know they had a power like that.

"Have you heard of Fawful?" asked Waluigi.

"Harhall said, that night. A new boss in the future," answered Luigi. He noticed Waluigi whisper Harhall's name in fond remembrance.

"Fawful came out of nowhere and in six months he took control of the Pianta Syndicate and the Bob-Omb Mafia, he has stakes in Delfino Isle, can use the Dream Machine and works with Tatanga's army," explained Waluigi.

"Doing all of that would take an army," said Luigi.

"But he didn't have an army," said Waluigi. "Legend is he did it alone. Alone alone. Don't know I believe the leend but he didn't have an army."

"How did he do it?" asked Luigi.

"That's the question and no one knows," said Waluigi. "Not only that, there's no pictures of him. It's insane. There's stories of him, he has a synthetic jaw. Things like that. But word spread quick about him through the grapevine, even before his mass executions and vagrant purges and reign of terror, because the first thing he did was start sending diamonds back in time. All of them. Exterminating the whole program. Cleaning house." Waluigi pulled out the folded papers he printed out at the library from his jacket, putting them on the table. "You know what this is? This number. This number." On the back of the papers, he scrawled the number sequence '07153902935' and touched Luigi's hand again.

This time, Luigi witnessed an eighth story office under siege. Gangsters down at the street fired up at the windows with Poltergusts and devolution guns. Helicopters passed by but the office door was blocked shut with a filing cabinet. On the phone, a terrified older Harhall, battered and terrified, was reading that same sequence of numbers on the phone with Waluigi. As the door held back exploded inward, the line went dead and Luigi's line of sight was once more in his older body's as Waluigi hung up the phone. Waluigi looked at his hand, with the number written on it. Through the window, his wife, her face obscured by flowers, was working in the garden. Waluigi closed his hand.

"This is a piece of identifying information on Fawful," said Waluigi. "I can use it to find him, now, and stop him from killing my wife."

"None of this concerns me," said Luigi. "We're done. We're going to walk outside now."

"This is going to happen," insisted Waluigi.

"It happened to you," said Luigi, "it doesn't have to happen to me. I end up with Daisy. Not your wife." He pointed to the golden pocket watch hanging out of Waluigi's overalls. "You got her picture in there? Show it to me. Show me her picture. And when I see her for the first time I'll walk away, and she won't be with me." Waluigi cocked his head sideways with a sneer. "I guarantee the instant I look at her picture that fog in your brain will swallow up the memories of her and she'll be gone."

"Gone,' whispered Waluigi.

"She'll be safe," insisted Luigi, "and then we can all do what we have to do."

In a heartbeat, Waluigi went from holding the pocket watch and gazing t it. Then he snapped it closed in his fist, drawing it back.

"No you don't understand," he gruffed. "We don't have to give her up. I'm going to tell you why I'm here now." He put his hand on the folded papers. "I'm going to save her." In another heartbeat, Waluigi went for the Poltergust. Yet, Waluigi was fast, he jammed his foot into Luigi's groin, crushing the Poltergust into him. Luigi cried out in pain as Waluigi grabbed his hair and planted his face into the table. When Luigi's hands went to his face, Waluigi grabbed them and pulled. "Fawful is alive right now. Living here, somewhere in Buoy Base and I can find him with this. I need you to lay low, stay out of my way and not get caught. I know how to fix this, I won't stop until I finish it. I'm going to find him and kill him." Luigi's face loosened, his eyes on their coffee cups.

"It's been a while since we've gotten a warm-up," said Luigi. Waluigi looked around and realized that Goombella and the staff had all left. No, they had fled. Waluigi swung out of the booth, still holding Luigi by the hair, dragging him like a doll. Luigi's Poltergust clattered to the ground as Waluigi dragged him to the window. They looked out. There was nothing in the parking lot. They both knew that it was far too quiet.

"It's been years for me, so it's hard to remember," gritted Waluigi. "When you stole Harhall's bike you stripped out the security tracker. Right?" One look at Luigi's concerned face told Waluigi no. Waluigi drew out his Poltergust. "Make it to the field, run by it. Get on it, that's land, we die. Run around and hop on a train to the Flying Krock. Leave."

Luigi punched Waluigi square in the jaw, sending his older self sprawling down to the ground, with the papers and Poltergust hitting the floor. The diner door went flying with an explosion. "I've got him!" yelled Luigi. "He's here!" A Mafioso barrelled in, his devolution gun blazing. Luigi scrambled, but it was Waluigi who got the Poltergust. With an expert shot, Waluigi put down the Mafioso, but two more mobsters came charging in to the diner behind him.

Luigi grabbed at the papers, but Waluigi also got to those first, leaving Luigi with only the torn off top portion of the sheet. Luigi scrambled away, down the length of the diner behind the booths back to his table. He grabbed his Poltergust and fired at Waluigi, but missed. He launched another shot, but Waluigi ducked and he hit the window behind the aberration. Yet it was all the opportunity Waluigi required and the old man made a break for the window, running and jumping out of it. Waluigi hit the dusty parking lot running for the field, for he knew that there, Luigi could not catch him.

Slim Bankshot squatted on his haunches with four more Mafioso, all with their Poltergusts trained on the diner door. Three Mafioso burst out, followed by Luigi. "The back, he's running!" yelled a mobster at Bankshot.

"Around back!" Luigi ordered the mobsters, as if still he had any authority anywhere outside of the Flying Krock.

All nine of them ran around back, with Waluigi halfway to the field, but not all the way there yet. All nine of them fired their Poltergusts, but they were too early and Waluigi was too far away. Nothing hit. Luigi fired at the old man blindly, sprinting with all his might. His eyes streamed in the dust and he wondered, if he'd embraced the voice, could he have caught Waluigi by now?

When Waluigi hit the field, it was as if he had vanished. Four of the mobsters followed him in while the remaining pursuers slowed to a stop, doubling over, panting. Defeated. It took Slim Bankshot a few seconds to recognize that Luigi was there with them. It took another second for Luigi to realize that the dynamic had changed. He turned and ran back toward the diner, Slim Bankshot and the mobsters in hot pursuit. One of the mobster's fired at him and was slapped by Bankshot. "Alive!" cried the wannabe thug. "Alive!"

Luigi jumped onto Harhall's bike and clicked on the ignition. There was just another click in response. "No, no, no!" muttered Luigi. He wasn't scared that Popple would kill him or disfigure him. None of that would hold, but whatever Waluigi was doing here. Somehow, being in such close proximity to him, Luigi felt it. Waluigi was rotting away at the timeline itself. He was a malignant infection that was only spreading his disastrous effects. He was destroying the future. He clicked two more times as Bankshot and his mobsters began to close in.

The moment that Bankshot lay his hands on the back of the bike was the moment that it roared to life. The back of the bike kicked up, heat and air blasted from beneath and Bankshot was blasted down to the ground. Luigi blasted away into the waterway as Bankshot ran back to the mobsters. "The tracker!" panted Bankshot. "Get the tracker!"

Luigi rode at full speed through the waterway, but he bailed as he began snapping through overgrown coral, eventually rolling to a quick stop. Breathing hard, he pulled the small scrap of paper he'd managed to save from his pocket. On the flip side was the number sequence that Waluigi had scribbled on it, '1027363259' and on the other side was a map. It was mostly empty farmland bisected by a bold waterway and scattered farm houses.

One farm house was circled in black.