Everything was grey as Mario got off the floor. Where was he? Yes, his office... back in New York City. Leaning against a shelf was... Daisy. In front of his door were... Iggy and Wendy. "Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt" - they were all saying it, Iggy, Wendy and Daisy, all in unison. They weren't letting him out, they weren't budging. He didn't feel as if he had the strength to move them, to push them… but he had to get out. There was a shuffling noise in the background, in his backroom. Groggily walking there instead, Mario pushed the door open as he began to regain his strength and a flash of white engulfed him. The last thing he heard was himself, whispering "Peach".
As he came to, Mario noticed the chandelier above him waving, swinging precariously and shoving dust from the ceiling down to the floor. He was in some kind of ticketing station or something of the sort it seemed, he didn't really have time to make note of his surroundings. Then it dropped, glass and lightning flashing everywhere. With a sickening pound, was a giant crack in the glass circular roof, and that whole came crashing down as well as the dragon peered in looking for him. Then it jumped in. Damn, it was massive thought Mario as he tried, and failed, to think of a way to win. It raised its claw to strike him down... but Luvbi ran in between them and put her arms up in surrender.
"Stop! Stop it!" she begged. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just don't hurt him!" The dragon just calmly brushed her aside, readied its claws and made the strike... but stopped just short of Mario's face. A blast of harmless wind did hit him though, with its cold feeling sobering. Was this a show of power? No. It was compassion. Luvbi was touching its hand, as if keeping it away from the plumber's skull with her soft touch. "I never should have left... I never should have left. Take me back... take me back..." Then she hugged it, with a grimace on her face... but it hugged her back. No, thought Mario, no. "Take me home, please?" Holding her in its hand, the dragon started to fly away... but she extended her arm out to him, and Mario tried to grab it... but he was too late, and she was gone.
"Luvbi!" screamed Mario. He had to catch up to her. Every inch of him hurt and it hurt exponentially more to even move a little, but he would consider what parts of him were broken later. Jumping out of the hole in the wall, Mario landed back on the bridge. All of the bridge's other segments were raised horizontally. The lever was broken, but he was strong enough. Mario punched the first segment, and it fell into place. So, did the other one, and lightning struck, raising white steamy fog from its sparks. It could have hit him, but he wouldn't stop. It kept striking, but the closer he got, the louder the dragon's roars got and the more the sparks singed him and the more the fog grew over him. More lightning, louder roars. Yet Mario kept running. More and more segments fell. "Come after me if you want!" Mario screamed at the dragon. "I'm not letting you take her! You hear me you flying motherfucker? I'm not going to!" Then the fog engulfed him and it all went white.
Mario just kept running though, he would not let the dragon stop him! Even as the fog cleared, and his shoes were engulfed in the snow below him, he kept running. He didn't mind the snow leaking into his boots. He didn't mind the lack of sight. From the left, snow poured in and blistered his face. Every step he took forth it seemed like the blizzard was getting worse right behind him. It was catching up to him and if he moved to slowly, it would ensconce and end him.
Snow… he couldn't think clearly… but it wasn't that time of year. Yet his feet were getting damp and the sky was a beautiful white. It was just… everything was covered in it; the rest of the bridge was padded in it. The sky from up here, it was beautiful to look at, just endless. He paid little mind to the statues that he passed, after all, he didn't have time to pay them attention. The entrance to Bowser's Castle was illuminated with yellow welcoming light. "Luvbi? Can you hear me?" he shouted, not caring who else could have heard him.
As he ascended up the first flight of stairs to enter Bowser's Castle, right below the statue of Kamek's head, there was a wavy portal in front of him. Was it a warning? Was it a way to Luvbi? Had she left something behind for him?
"Get your hands off of me! Just take me back to the tower! Please!" came Luvbi's pleading voice from the portal. He had to get to it! He had to get to her! Then the portal got smaller, then just as he reached for her, it closed short of his fingers.
Up the next flight of stairs, no snow reached, and the support beams were lined with candles. Mario took off his shoes and poured out all of the melted snow that had watered in and drained his socks. Putting them back on and pushing the wooden door down, Mario entered Bowser's Castle. There was a polished marble flow but the only light and warmth was from candles... everything seemed dim but not dull. The carpet in front of him was blue and lined with white stripes. There was another portal inside, in the middle of the carpet. "Please! Please!" came her voice from the portal. What was happening?
There were white double doors in front of him, pushing them open, Mario nearly fell back by what he saw. He was in a giant chamber, fully illuminated but snow was still falling in through an open roof. It was beginning to pile up by the support beams and the small steps at the back of the room. There was a frozen pool of water but right behind it: a statue of Luvbi hoisting her crystal up in the sky in a position of power. There was no mistaking it for Luvbi, it even had her short hair... yet Mario could not help but ask aloud, "Is that?" But that wasn't what scared him, no, it was the recording that began to loop on the PA system. "What the Hell?" was all he could say while listening to it, enchanted by Luvbi's voice. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that he was feeling fear.
"Some men dream of money. Some dream of love. Bowser dreamed of a flood of fire. We were given Delfino Isle and we turned it into Dinohattan. Why do we deserve salvation? Kamek gave Bower a dragon in the form of Gloomtail, but he was not so easy on me... he said: Prophet, I want you to train a nation of dragons."
What was happening? Above the statue was the caption, in neon letters: 'The Kumo – Queen Jaydes' Luvbi, Our Lady Daisy - Kamek Speed Thy Judgment'. What kind of trick was this? What did Bowser hope to achieve? What did he do? As he walked up the stairs and behind the statue, Mario heard Luvbi's voice again... but from the distance. "What is this place? What are you planning on doing to me?" she asked... someone. Running, Mario pushed open another set of white double doors. "Please! I don't understand!" she wailed and started to scream. Mario was stopped in his tracks as the portal yet again faded in front of him.
Looking curiously at him from behind where the portal was stood a man in white robes, with a pointy white hat extending to his back. This man's eyes were covered with giant shiny glasses and the rest of his face with white makeup. Luvbi continued to scream from another portal, and Mario ran on past that jester looking... Magikoopa… somehow the name felt familiar and right to him. "Please! Please! No, no, no, no! Just tell me what I did! Please!" They were torturing her! Mario ran past another Magikoopa who was struggling on a wheelchair. What kind of a place was this? Another Magikoopa was on the ground, holding its head and then there was one more looking around, a light coming out of its glasses. Suddenly, it set its sights on Mario and screamed out loud and for a second, Mario thought he heard a loud explosion and it was as if all the light in the room got sucked out.
One of the other Magikoopas screamed out, another yelled for the girl to stop screaming, but they all charged at Mario. Letting out a circular wave of fire around him, Mario quickly incapacitated them all. "Please! Please! Just tell me what I did! Please... please! No! No!" Luvbi kept on screaming and it was all because of him, because he couldn't grab on when she told him to. "Please! Please, just let me go! I'll be your weapon! I'll be... I'll be your weapon. Please." The screams were coming from the rehabilitation center, but it was locked.
"Dammit!" Mario yelled, he needed to find a way in. Right next to it was an intercom, for the warden! He hit and quickly said out, "Listen, I want to see the girl!" In response he got a maddening howl from the intercom. He had to get to the warden's office, get the keys to the cell, find Luvbi and leave this madhouse! The sign on the door told him the warden's office was on the third floor, right behind him was an elevator. As he got in it and rode up, he heard Luvbi talking to someone.
"Please, just let me go back to my tower."
"It's too late for that, child," said the man. "Bowser gave you a lovely home and you chose to destroy it."
"He is a murderer!"
Getting in the elevator, Mario found… a Catch Card SP? This would give him answers, but there was no label on it. Who was it from? He turned it on and it was from... Luvbi?
"I suppose the Ztar is some sort of leash. Yes, Bowser put it on me, but when the time came neither did I remove it myself. What would happen if I took off the leash and found I was as obedient as ever?"
That gave no answers. Feeling angry, Mario threw it to the ground and the power broke of the toss broke it. Upon ascending, when Mario got out he crossed a small bridge and found another maddened Magikoopa at the door. Then Luvbi's voice came on the PA system again:
"Like Bowser, I could see all the timelines that would be, might be and cannot be."
There were more maddened Magikoopas in the room, dazed and confused - lunatics. Then that one... special one noticed him, and all went to Hell as they all tried to attack him. As they all tried to overwhelm him or dissipate him with their spells. These men were clearly not right in the head and Mario did not want to hurt them, but they would not stop him. As much as he felt for them, he didn't feel enough. There was another portal nearby, Mario looked into it and heard Bowser with Luvbi, but saw nothing.
"Would you like to pray with me?"
"They're hurting me! Just let me go!"
"We're going to cure you."
"I'm not sick!"
"Your spirit is. All I want is for you to live up to your potential."
Then the portal closed. Taking a turn right, Mario found himself going down another hallway. Everything about this castle was horrible. It was ruined, in disarray, beyond repair. Was Bowser's castle supposed to be a hospital for the mentally ill? If it was, it had failed... spectacularly. There was another portal there. There was that voice he heard with Luvbi before in this one.
"I'm Dr. Crygor, Luvbi, I'll be taking care of you."
"Get away."
"Defiant, even after all this time. Mario left you here. You need to give up on him."
"He will come."
Walking into what he thought was probably a psychiatric care ward, Mario noticed part of the wall was just ripped off and snow was billowing in. The beds were damaged, and the sheets were so wet they seemed like they could spill apart. There were more Magikoopas in there, and two that were looking around. As soon as one noticed him, Mario hid behind a crumbling support beam. He had no desire to fight them. The Magikoopa looked at the beam for a second, and then looked away. It did not scream. Sneaking past it, Mario found himself at the feet of yet another portal. It was a conversation between that Dr. Crygor and Doopliss it seemed.
"The specimen needs to be destroyed Doopliss! We couldn't even hold her in the tower and now Bowser..."
"Destroy her? Destroy the Kumo? He needs her to ensure the future of his heir."
"If we modify the Ztar procedure, we could. It would be safer for everyone; it would seem an accident."
Walking past it, Mario noticed in front of him a set of twin stairs heading up somewhere. Another open ceiling and snow kept falling in, it was cold here. Were the ceilings always open? Snow likely could have played a part to the ruination of this place. Bad design choice? There were two hallways blocked by rubble, but Mario noticed a portal at the end of one. He knew he would not like what he heard, but he went anyways and found a conversation between Doopliss and Luvbi.
"You're not eating, Luvbi? Is something the matter?"
"I'm not hungry."
"You have to eat sooner or later, if you hold out for Mario you will starve to death. Come now..."
What were these portals implying? Were the messages Luvbi was opening for him, telling him what would happen in the future? A timeline where he didn't save her? What was happening? Mario ran up the set of stairs and another Luvbi message played on the PA.
"What did Kamek receive in return for his gifts? Mario and his wrench? Luigi and Rool? Humanity wrote a bad cheque, and I was the only way to settle all accounts. For what is Delfino Isle, if not a different warship for a different time?"
As he proceeded down his path, there was once more another portal. This time a conversation between Doopliss and Bowser.
"The child is ready, Doopliss. It's time."
"King Koopa, even if the Ztar can cure her. What makes you think she'll do what you ask?"
"She has two problems, Doopliss. One is the condition that you and your scientists will have Wart's Ztar cure her of, the other affliction is of a spiritual nature."
"What affliction is that?"
"Hope."
In the next room, there were several busts, wigs and mannequins all strewn around. There were Shy Guy masks, Bowser masks and the Magikoopa glasses. As Mario thought, there was another portal, this one detailing a conversation between Crygor and Luvbi.
"Your surgery is tomorrow, Luvbi. You better eat. You still expect Mario to burst in and rescue you? Don't you see? It's been six months!"
Six months? What? No. That was impossible. These had to be messages from a timeline that Luvbi was using to warn him. How long would he have been on that damn bridge for? There was another Catch Card SP by his feet. Would this one make him angry as well? It didn't matter. He played it and it was Luvbi again.
"Our minds are festering with sin. Some are so blighted they will never find redemption. The mind will be pulled up from the roots. Bowser Secondus is without fault, without blame - and without choice. For what is the value of will when the spirit is found wanting?"
Bowser Secondus? Sin? The Luvbi he knew would never give up on redemption. She would never start to value the ideals of Bowser over free will! Never! This Catch Card SP he did not smash on the ground, no, he crushed it in his hands. He moved on a little bit, but there, by a bust of Bowser was one more Catch Card SP. He knew this one would make him angry too, but he had to hear it. He had to. He hit play and stepped back, he didn't need to break this one too.
"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt. But in the end, he is the one who will have to pay down all our accounts, won't he? Where does his guilt start... and mine end?"
What was she talking about, did he not rescue her? When was he? How long did it take him to cross the bridge? He looked at his hands, he was the same age. Why was she talking as if years or months or whatever had passed? Was time moving faster than he was? Walking, slowly, into the next room, Mario saw more and more busts but in this one a projector was playing against a screen. The PA started to play again, Luvbi's voice was so haunting.
"A man once promised me he would free me of my chains but in the end, he abandoned me to serve his own selfish needs. In some ways, I thank him. He showed me exactly how much faith our species deserved. Kamek put his faith in Koopas once, too. It seemed that we have something in common: disappointment. I did not always love Bowser. In truth, I ran from his embrace. I even denied the right to train Bowser Secondus. I followed a man who seemed to be everything Bowser was not. That man was the Plumber and when Gloomtail came for me, he was nowhere to be found."
As he looked around the room, Mario realized that this was some sort of indoctrination room. Bowser must have prepared this room to try and indoctrinate Luvbi. Bowser's Castle was made for Luvbi. What the hell kind of experiments did he run in this building? There was another Catch Card SP, Mario hit play.
"As days pass, I believe less in God and more in Iggy and Wendy. My powers shrivel as my regrets blossom. All of this because Bowser failed me. By the time I realized how far I'd gone, it was too late to stop it. There is still one chance at redemption - for both of us."
He… he was at least six months into the future. He had to accept that as a possibility, even if he really didn't want to. Something with Luvbi's powers must have sent him at least six months in the future, or maybe even more. The portals were telling him how Luvbi became the way she had... Bowser's pawn. The PA, who she was now, her new public personality as Bowser's weapon. The Catch Card SPs held her true feelings. He had failed her. He could still save her, he had to.
There was another hole in the wall, jumping through it Mario saw the sign for the Warden's office. Things started to look much cleaner and kept up around here, this area was well furbished it seemed. There were more twin stairs, likely the ones that led to the office. Some lights still flickered, but there was not even a scratch on some walls. The benches were all neat and the lockers all ordered. Were the Magikoopas too scared to come up here? Walking up the staircase, Mario made his way to a set of security cameras. There was no guard here, just a bunch of black and white live video feeds keeping eyes on the Magikoopas. Maybe if they had actual guards... there was the switch though, to open the room to where that Dr. Crygor and Doopliss appeared to have held Luvbi. On the chair in front of the feeds was another Catch Card SP.
"What I've done... cannot be undone... I cannot stop... what I've put in motion. Perhaps... I can keep it from ever starting. He was my first hope, and now he is my last."
Mario pulled the switch and all the feeds turned to static, but the one feed showed the door opening. Yet he was sure that the door opened. He had to get there and stop Crygor and Doopliss! There was another elevator back at the end of this level, that would have to take him down. Turning around, Mario was face to face with a Magikoopa. Had it followed him there? It screamed, it felt dark and Mario was paralyzed like a bomb was about to go off in his stomach if he moved. The others would come soon, but Mario could not move, so he listened to the PA announcement. It would make him angry. He didn't want to listen. But he had to. It was fuel.
"I am here to finish Bowser's work! As he baptized me with the Ztar I will baptize the mammal world below with fire! Prepare for the coming of Kamek. Are we worth saving if we will not save ourselves? There will be no salvation for me until fire floods the cities and covers the plains that Culex desires. Once this world has been born again, a million others await their turn. Baptisim is the rebirth of the spirit, but sometimes the mind gets in the way. If the mind will not yield, then you must subject the mind to every version of itself. Either the mind will yield or be reduced to a blank."
Slowly regaining his courage by way of anger, Mario punched the Magikoopa in the face before the others could swarm him. Looking down at the balcony, though, they were coming. They knew he was there and so they… they no longer feared this place. Heading for the elevator, Mario barely made it before they could overwhelm him and hit the switch as they banged on the walls after him, some trying to hold on and follow him up. Crumpling to the side, he noticed a Catch Card SP by him and hit play.
"Tomorrow, the Ztar comes off because all this has to end. Even if I destroy the Siphon, will I be strong enough to see all those portals and open whichever I choose? If I bring him here, who is to say he will be any match for any of the monsters I have created?"
Mario sobbed and for the first time in a long time he had cried. He was crying. How long? How long did Luvbi wait before finally giving in to become Bowser's bullet? As the elevator came to a stop outside the open door, Mario wiped away his tears and got up. He had to do this fast now, he had already delayed long enough. Mario ran, he ran like he had never run before. It was time to rescue Luvbi. Running through the hospital wards, the cots, the indoctrination rooms and everything - he ran. It seemed like a second, even the Magikoopas marveled at his speed.
As soon as he was back on the ground floor, the screaming of Luvbi came back to his ears. Maybe, maybe everything above was ripped from different points in time? Maybe their torture was causing her to distort the time of the castle? It seemed possible. After all, maybe everything above was from a time where he did not rescue here. Maybe that was all from a future where turned back! Running through the room, Mario nearly dropped to his feet. No. All of that screaming... all of that, was just coming from another portal? Another tear in space. Behind it... were Iggy and Wendy. "What?" he asked them.
"Why do you ask what?" asked Iggy.
"When the delicious question is when?" asked Wendy.
"Lives. Lived. Will live."
"Dies. Died. Will die."
The lights kept flickering and in the flickering of the lights, the ghosts disappeared. Entering the next room, Mario noticed howling and screaming, from the Magikoopas, coming from a door adjacent to him. Next to him though was a staircase, and at the top of it... a woman. There was ice on the stairs, and Mario nearly slipped getting up, but he was finally there. There to rescue her.
"As you can see, Mario," she said, her voice hoarse and ragged. No, this wasn't Luvbi… the voice was wrong. This was Daisy. "The lunatics are running the asylum. They don't even listen to me anymore." She was standing on a balcony, the light causing her to look like a silhouette in the far distance. What was wrong with her voice? "All I can do is watch as what I set into motion slides into its terminal stage. It took all I had left in me, just to bring you here, just before the awakening of both Culex and Kamek." What was she talking about?
"Daisy! I don't understand," Mario told the darkened figure he knew to be the princess. "I heard Luvbi screaming, I was... I was coming to get her! Are we…?" He had no idea what to say, but she did.
"Here," she said, calmly. "Take my hand." Reaching forward, she bent over and grabbed his hand and helped pull him up to the balcony. When he saw what she was watching though, he nearly fell back down. New York City, under attack from Delfino Isle. The city was burning, volleys of flame and power being shunted to Manhattan and Brooklyn. Zeppelins raining fire, gunships drowning bullets. It was destroying perhaps one of the most recognizable cities in the world and with relative ease. "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," she sighed. "Say what you will about Bowser, but he predicted your return to New York accurately." That hit Mario like a hammer, he had returned to New York and now it was burning, because of him? He was the king? Then Mario looked at Daisy and for the second time, he nearly fell over again. She was old. She was around eighty years old? How far into the future had he come? What had happened? He felt his eyes well up in tears. "It wasn't the torture that broke me," she explained. "It wasn't the indoctrination. It was time. Time rots everything, Mario. Even hope."
"I was coming," Mario barely managed to get out.
"Gloomtail," she explained. "He always stops you. Eventually, time is overwritten, and from the point in my timeline when Tatanga picks me up for Bowser… everything we were supposed to go through never happens. I never get back to New York City in time to break the dishes in front of Luigi and so, I don't exist to greet him when he is finally allowed to come to land. I don't ever get to be your Daisy but I become this one."
"Yes," Mario agreed, hardly listening to a word she was saying. Just hearing that he had failed. "But I would find a way."
"No," she shook her head. "It's too late for me. I brought you here for your sake. Yours and hers. Here." She handed him a card; the tears flowed freely from his eyes as he took it. As he saw the destruction of New York City behind her, all because he came back. He finally understood who she was. A Daisy plucked from an alternate past in a process made by Iggy and Wendy and given to Bowser; she was a temporal paradox. Someone who could not exist at the same time the Daisy that Luigi loved, but someone who did and someone who needed to go back before her very presence shattered a hole in the universe. Thus, she was fit to take the name of Luvbi – the avatar of Queen Jaydes.
"What is this?"
"It's for her," she told him. "She'll know how to read it."
"What does it say?"
"It's advice."
"Advice on what?"
"How not to become me and how to become one you knew."
The elder Daisy waved her arms and white light surrounded Mario, but he saw glimpses. Glimpses of what occurred, what would occur if he did not rescue Daisy. Every glimpse he saw etched into his brain as a memory, his synapses accommodating for them by rationalizing them as if they were segments of a documentary.
Every time he would get close, Gloomtail would swoop in and stop him. Even after Bowser died to the cancers within him, Gloomtail always stopped him. Within a year, the timeline corrected itself and the Daisy ruling Dinohattan – a city then broken by a warlord named Wario – would disappear, allowing a conqueror by the name of Wart to emerge and claim the city as his own. A heartbroken Luigi, spared from the changes to time by his Godly powers, would become Waluigi, shutting the afterlife off and letting Boos pollute the Earth. When the time came, Daisy pushed a young boy who looked like his uncle into fulfilling Kamek's prophecy all for Jaydes. Pushed him into burning New York City as the universes merged and Culex awoke for his battle with Kamek.
Yet at the very end of all of it, Mario got a glimpse of… Peach.