Chapter 6

Doubt and Punishment

"You couldn't just wait," her voice was unlike he'd ever heard before. It wasn't disappointment, per se. It was more like… she lost all of her respect for him in three seconds or less.

"Kammy—"

"Don't utter any excuse, you disgrace!"

Yep, he definitely lost her respect.

"It's not an excuse!" Bowser roared. "I was never into it more than an avenging mission… but even that was shallow-caused. Pop was defeated by the boy he was trying to kill! Self-defense means something here! And as for Princess Peach… I've realized something… She cares! She actually cares about me even though I always took her away from her home. They're nice people and there's really no reason to—"

"Do you hear yourself right now? Do you hear what you're saying? What kind of villain are you?!"

"The kind that realizes when he's beat."

"You could've won."

"That's not what I'm talking about." He hung his head. "My motives are beat… my ambitions are beat… And I'm accepting defeat."

"That is not the Koopa King I know."

"The Koopa King you know is dead."

"Not… anymore…"

The way she said that… sounded ominous.

"What?"

"The one I serve will live again…" Then, she added in almost a whisper, "Too bad you couldn't just wait…"

.

Mario had never been so angry in his life, but he had to hide it for now. Luigi needed comfort. If Mario let any anger out, Luigi would feel like the target. But Luigi wasn't the target… and Mario wished his target wasn't currently out of the kingdom. Though she had come back for Bowser's party, she was gone again for awhile. Diplomacy stuff of her own. In his opinion, the princess of Sarasaland was too hard-headed to be diplomatic. Clearly Luigi's state of absolute inconsolability was evidence to that.

"Luigi, it wasn't you… I mean, not really… You were hypnotized, brainwashed… Weeg… We know it wasn't you…"

"If what Daisy said was true… I-I-I could've…"

"But you didn't."

"But I hurt you! I made your journey that much more difficult… I-I… I hurt you…"

"Luigi look at me! I'm fine! Peach is fine. Heck, even Bowser is okay!" He lifted up his brother's face to look at him. "We're all fine. Think nothing of it. Nothing went wrong!"

Luigi shook his head. "But I…"

"It wasn't you, okay? It wasn't!"

He desperately needed a more effective way to calm his brother down. He was shaking more violently than when Bowser attacked before. He was scared of himself now, and Mario couldn't protect him from himself.

"Luigi… you were hypnotized. It wasn't your fault…"

He shook his head, breathing brokenly.

Mario lifted him to stand and walked with him through the castle, to a guest room. He knocked on the door, and Toad answered. "Yikes! What's going on?" he asked upon seeing Luigi's state.

"Luigi needs… to get his mind off some stuff… Can you guys help distract him?"

Toad grinned. "Our specialty! Come on, Toadette!"

Toadette appeared in the background with a concerned frown toward Luigi. Mario snapped her a look, and her frown quickly turned upside-down. "Come on, Master Luigi! Have you seen the flowers I planted yet?" She took him by the hand and dragged him out to the gardens. Toad followed behind. He looked back at Mario with a question on his face, but Mario shook his head. He would tell Toad and Toadette about it later, if Luigi didn't.

.

Mario sent a mail koopa to Sarasaland within three minutes of sending Luigi off. Then, he went up to interrupt Peach, much to Toadsworth's dismay and Peach's relief, until she found out why.

"He knows?" she summed up.

"Oh, he knows… and I'll tell you why he knows…" Mario growled.

"Mario, calm down. Secrets can't be kept… it's the curse of a secret."

"Secrets are supposed to be kept… it's the point of a secret."

"You can't really blame Daisy for—"

"Yes, I can! The dream would've never entered his head if she hadn't tried to bring Mr. L out of him! The secret would stay buried forever. No one had to know! No one had to mention it! But Daisy just had to mess with his head and bring up all his doubts… and his biggest fear! That's no good for him. I don't care what Daisy says. She messed up!"

And that's exactly what he told her when she arrived, frantic and frazzled, at the entrance hall of the castle. She growled and grumbled while Peach tried to stop Mario's attack on her sense. Soon, Peach brought Daisy up to her room and sent Mario to the kitchen to calm down.

"He's right, Peach…" Daisy said.

"Daisy, it's okay… it would've happened—"

"No. It happened because I was stubborn! It happened because I was so intent on making Luigi see what he was capable of! It happened because… I messed up."

To Peach's shock, her friend was starting to cry. Daisy hardly ever cried. Peach couldn't even think of a time that she did before.

"I shouldn't have tried to make Luigi what he isn't. Mr. L is the complete opposite of the man I love… Why did I try to bring that out in him?"

Her head fell into her hands and the princesses sat there in silence for a long time.

.

When he came, they all knew.

The princesses heard the crash. Luigi and the mushroom kids saw the destruction. Mario saw him.

It was someone he never expected to see again, but the black arcane energy radiating from him made him certain it wasn't natural. That didn't give him any relief. If anything, it made the monster's presence worse. He was bigger than Mario remembered. He looked doubly as angry. And for all Mario knew, he had the magic of Kammy Koopa at his fingertips. This would not go well.

"Back for a rematch, I presume?" Mario asked the giant koopa, all the appearance of confidence about him.

"After what I've seen you've done to my son, let's call this revenge," Powser replied, voice deep and earth-shaking.

"You've seen Bowser then?" Mario prepped a fire flower.

"I didn't take much time to chat when I saw he was a traitor… I don't chat with my enemies, and I won't chat with you!" With a huge inhale, he spat a large cone of fire at the red hero. Mario barely got away.

Luigi came running and gasped. "P-Powser?!"

Toad and Toadette screeched to a halt then stepped backwards. Daisy and Peach ran downstairs.

"Oh good! You're all in one place. How convenient!" Powser blasted another cone of fire. Mario pulled Peach out of the range. Luigi jumped backwards, and Daisy pinned herself against a wall to avoid the blast radius.

Powser continued to blow fire. He was annoyed at their dodging.

"You're not even going to fight back? What pathetic heroes you turned out to be!"

"M-Mario… Wh-What do we—?"

"Master Mario! Master Luigi!" Toadette called from behind them and tossed them something. It was from the royal power-up reserves. Two blue shells and two bracelets, the charms the Mario Brothers stored their special abilities in for future use. Luigi's was green and bursting with electricity. Mario's was red and dancing with flames.

The bros looked at each other, then gave a wink and a peace sign back toward the mushroom kids. "Just what we needed!" Mario declared. He formed a large fireball in his hands. Fire flowers can't compare.

"Here we go…" Luigi's hands crackled with electricity.

Together, they blasted their foe, causing an explosion that knocked him backwards… an inch or so.

"Wh-What?!" Mario groaned.

Powser laughed. "Weak!" Fire came from him again. But just then, the wall came tumbling down next to them, blocking the flames. "WHAT?!"

Bowser was behind the wall. His shell was cracked in several places, his hair was singed, and he had a claw mark across his snout. "You've got to take out Kammy's magic first, dummies," he snorted at the brothers.

"Bowser…" Mario started, "Are you o—" He stopped upon seeing Bowser's glare. Right, no pity. "Of course you are." He turned to Luigi. "Kammy's magic… what's the weak point?"

Luigi closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Why are you asking Greenie?" Bowser questioned.

"He's got an extreme eye for detail. He can spot a weak point on an enemy from a mile away."

Bowser frowned. "My tail…"

"Yep."

Bowser looked at Luigi with a whole new light.

"Of course!" Luigi opened his eyes. "Just like Bowser when he was a baby… same spell to make him bigger and all…"

"You mean back on Yoshi's Island?" Mario tilted his head.

"Powser's snout…"

Bowser rubbed his own snout when the memory sunk in. "Those Yoshi eggs hurt."

Just then, a claw came through their temporary shield. And Powser wasted no time in blasting them with a tornado of fire breath, hitting each target easily.