What happened to Peach? After she... he fell into Pauline's arms. Pauline, who had aged a few years more just out of pure worry when he was in the Koopahari... it was always out of worry for him. Pauline, the woman he thought he loved... the woman he had grown to love. Had he made the wrong choice? He should never have gone back.

It wasn't what he wanted to be thinking about as Shy Guys poured into the chamber from all side, forcing Mario and Luvbi to defend themselves. He didn't want to kill any of them, so in the heat of the battle, he went for the heads. He knocked them out. Hopefully he didn't fracture their skulls or anything. He hoped he didn't do anything. When Luvbi called him out as a killer… it felt like he'd crossed the line. He knew he had. He just hoped he could step back.

When they were done, a door opened to the left of them. They were playing Morton Jr's game now. The only way to get the Amp was just to play through it all. The room that they entered was an oval shaped room with two exhibits, one on the right and the other on the left. In the center was a cylindrical shaped object that displayed what it called a timeline of Sarasaland, with a large focus on Bowser's life.

The exhibit to the left was dubbed 'The Mekanos Rebellion' and showed a young man carrying sacks of water across the Koopahari Desert as bombs went off all around him. It was likely an exaggeration, but Mario knew that Bowser had served in King Murphy's military. In the center of the exhibit was a tunnel, which kind acted as a hallway to the next room. To the right was the smaller exhibit, this one was dubbed 'The Kremling Krew' and showed off those loyal to King K. Rool in near regal uniforms that Mario had never seen them in. They were wearing red body armour with coats and masks and goggles covering their faces like they fought in a blizzard. Perhaps the desert was close enough.

As Mario and Luvbi passed down the little hallway, cardboard exaggerations of the X-Nauts popped up at them. "What is this?" asked Luvbi as they passed by them.

"It's the Mekanos Rebellion," came Morton Jr's voice through the intercom. "In Mekanos? It was my hand that put the city to the torch. Of course, that's not how father tells it. Not how Princess Shroob tells it."

"Oh, I read about this," said Luvbi as they entered a much larger part of the exhibition. On one side were several cardboard X-Nauts and on the other, green skinned kremlings. "Bowser led the Pianta Syndicate into –."

"Father wasn't there!" interrupted Morton Jr over the intercom. "The X-Nauts took thirty of my best men! Is there even a stone to mark that sacrifice?" Four of Morton Jr's men entered the room to ambush Mario. He threw one at two others and the final threw the cardboard displays. "You see, my paradoxical Kumo? You see the man my father wishes he was? A real soldier!"

"I don't want to do this, boy!" shouted Mario. "Just give the Amp!"

"I will," came the voice. "After you do what I need. Come and look for me among the Ghost Islanders!"

"Who are the Ghost Islanders?"

"King K. Rool," answered Mario. "He means us to head to the other display."

"Can you hear father's false soldiers coming to silence us?" raved Morton Jr. "We are the true patriots! The history that does not fit in their books!" Heading back the way they came, Mario turned to the exhibit called 'The Kremling Krew' and sure enough, there was a door at the back of that one. Like the last one had exaggerated kremlings, this one added one racist caricatures of Toads and seemed to depict the time before and leading up to when Bowser made his deal with Rool. "The false soldier has taken credit for the deeds of the real one. Now, your companion, young lady… he wrapped himself in glory."

"What does that mean?" Luvbi asked him as they advanced on through.

"You don't want to know," said Mario, even though a version of her already did.

"You… you were there," said Luvbi as they entered a chamber aping the Flying Krock. "In war with Rool. I can see it in your face."

"Tell her, Mario!" chimed in Morton Jr. "Tell her how you strode that nautical battlefield! I still hear the screams." Unless he was on some ship that had been ransacked by the X-Nauts or attacked them, Mario didn't remember Morton Jr there either. It was possible that he had been active in battles the weeks that Mario was trapped in Ghost Island, though. "Does Bowser still hear them?" Six men stood in front of Mario's way. "Here's the soldier I spoke of! The kind of soldier that father pretends to be!" At that, the eight men charged at Mario. "See if I told you true!"

Launching fireballs into the chests of two and jumping on a third. Mario punched the fourth into the fifth, speared the sixth and knocked out the seventh. The eighth? He had been knocked out by a sneak attack from Luvbi.

"You did them a favour, Mario," said Morton Jr. "You let them die as men!" Did Morton Jr know that the men were only knocked out? Did he care or was he buying into the illusion from wherever he was watching.

"I didn't ask for this!" retorted Mario. "I have no quarrel with these men!"

"Heroes never ask!"

"I never claimed to be no hero!"

"Then what are you?" asked Morton Jr. "If you take away all the parts of Mario Segale you tried to erase, what's left. Come back to the rotunda, it's almost over."

The rotunda? Oh right, the room with the timeline cylinder. "What did he mean?" asked Luvbi as they turned back once more. "What did you try to erase?"

"Now that you're out of yours," sighed Mario, "you might realize that cages have their advantages."

"A choice is better than none, Mario," protested Luvbi. "No matter what the outcome."

"Yeah?" asked Mario. "What if you woke up one day and realized you didn't like what you chose?" She didn't seem to have an answer for that and as they entered the rotunda room, Mario wondered if she even cared to think of it.

"I've got what you need, Mario," said Morton Jr. "You can find me past Lena's memorial." Turning back into the big chamber room, Mario noted that there was a door open opposite them. This one had a pink hue lighting it up. Clearly it was the way Morton Jr meant for them to go. Entering it, they found a room decorated with statues of angels, one of Lena and candles and water spilling all over the floor. It was like a miniaturized version of the chamber Mario entered when he first came to Delfino Isle. "You've seen what father has done to my history. Now see how he's rewritten his own."

They passed through the room to a small garden with the statue of a pony in the middle. There were some stairs down into the garden from where they were and when they made it through, they had to go up some stairs once more. Just past the small pony statue, however, was the statue of Lena holding an egg. "The seed of the Avatar lay in the womb of Lady Lena but for a single week," said Daisy as she read the mural. "Bowser had an eighth child… my books never mentioned anything about an eighth child."

"That's quite an omission," said Mario. He remembered Toad telling him something about Lena and Bowser having a kid all those years ago. That kid would be what, thirteen years old by now? Twelve? "Can't imagine that was by accident. But it is true. Bowser Jr."

They passed into the next room, which had a ginormous sculpture of Bowser on the bridge holding a baby boy in front of the Statue of Kamek. "The child took ill and our city prayed for the Avatar's heir day and night," Luvbi said, reading the caption. Then she noticed the miniature version of the Statue of Kamek. "That's my tower…"

"While Ms. Mowz has murdered my son, she will not have and corrupt the Kumo!" roared an animatronic voice impersonating Bowser within the sculpture. "She shall not come betwixt her and prophecy! The return of the king will sit down the throne and return the glory of the old world, drown in flames the glory of the human!"

"Am I… I?" mumbled Luvbi, trying to take stock of the situation.

"Same as you've always been," said Mario. "Your Bowser's weapon."

"No," she said. "I can't be. I can't!"

"He wants you to make sure his son fulfills Kamek's Prophecy."

"Well, I want a Yoshi but that doesn't mean I'm going to get one!"

There was orchestral music playing in the next room they entered. It was a funeral march if Mario had to guess. There were more statues of Lena and articles of her clothing. Dear God… there was even the chandelier… the one that had killed her last time Bowser tried to fulfill the prophecy.

There was one more room past that depicting some dramatic scene with lava and all before the two entered a courtyard. Morton Jr wasn't there, but about fifteen of his men were. Mario wasn't sure if he could handle them at first, but his enhanced strength and their fortunate lack of firearms allowed him to take control of the situation.

Passing into the Astral Hall gift shop, they needed to find a way back into the main complex. Specifically an area that was not meant for tourists, that was where Morton Jr would be lurking with the Amp. Thankfully, there appeared to be a way into a warehouse area through an employee only hallway. Everything seemed to be burglarized though. "The whole place is ransacked," Mario said with a sobering realization. "There's no Amp here."

"Morton Jr must've taken them," said Luvbi and they entered an employee only recreation room. There were sparks flying all across the room emanating from shattered circles all around the floor.

"Morton Jr," realized Mario. "He's here."

There was only one way forth and Mario kicked down the path forth, revealing a giant empty warehouse chamber with smashed crates sprawled all around. There were raving messages from the madman Morton Jr had become painted in blood all around. The smell of the rot of death stunk hard in this whole place. The roof was shattered, and Mario could see gunships above them. The Pianta Syndicate would be here soon.

He heard Morton Jr raving, yelling out his thoughts like a madman so harshly that Mario couldn't even tell what he was saying. It wasn't like the mostly calm Koopaling that had spoken to him in the intercom. No, this was the real enraged betrayed son who had just seen his father's gunships. There was a platform straight ahead, but the way to it appeared to be a hallway that Mario could enter to his left.

Morton Jr must have seen the two enter for he soon appeared at the end of the hallway, Amp in hand. Channeling electricity from it, he launched it at Mario, as if half-heartedly hoping to catch the Plumber in the head with it. When Mario neared, he ran backwards, but not away in fear. Yet when they finally found him, he was laying down, back against the edge of a fountain.

Reaching for the Amp, Mario's hand was caught by his delusional nephew. "You're not done here, Plumber!" cried Morton Jr. "Eat everything that's on your plate! Finish it!" He handed Mario a gun, looking at him earnestly. Mario knew he had to. This was… this would make him even more of a kinslayer… but he had to. He took the gun and he recognized it… it was a devolution gun. No. He couldn't do it. "You're no hero, Mario. You're no hero!" cried Morton Jr as he collapsed. But Mario paid him no heed and he picked up the Amp.

As he and Luvbi made their way out of Astral Hall, he wondered of the life he could have had. He, Bowser and Luigi, three brothers sitting at the head of a table with their father at the opposite end. Bowser's children in the middle. Perhaps they were a tight knit family in an alternate universe. Mario had already killed Bowser once. Ludwig was dead because of him. He would not kill his nephew. Hopefully Morton Jr would understand.

"You spared him," said Luvbi.

"It was no mercy," remarked Mario. "Don Pianta's men will surely take him."

"Did you ever get used to it?" she asked. "The killing?"

"Faster than you can imagine."