Okay. Bowser's dead, the rescue group gets to the mansion, and they make contact with Fox.

I think we know where this is going to go within the next few chapters. Let's go on, shall we?

Chapter 22

The smashers all gathered around a small table in the match lounge, Albrecht and Isolde standing by the side. There were so few smashers left that they no longer had any need for the large meeting room. Heads were shaking all across the board as they all wondered what was going to happen next.

Finally, Albrecht nodded grimly.

"I guess I should tell you who the next match is with," he said.

"I guess you should," replied Fox, glancing at Albrecht suspiciously. Whatever else he had wanted to say he kept to himself, however, and this did not escape Mario's eyes. The plumber simply looked at Albrecht nervously, hoping that the line-up for the next match would not be as harrowing as the previous one.

"The next match..." said the German softly. "... is Mario versus Peach."

A dumbfounded silence took a hold of the room that everybody was in. The remaining smashers all glanced at each other nervously, Mario and Peach both looking at each other. It had been a commonly known fact that Peach had been rescued by Mario many times in the past.

"But... You mean... The man who's saved me...?" asked Peach nervously.

"I'm afraid so," replied Albrecht. "Your life is in his hands."

Peach simply stared at the plumber, the plumber staring back with an expression of shock that was just as strong as hers.

"But... But that makes no sense!" cried Mario. "That can't be!"

Albrecht shook his head, his hands behind him. "I'm sorry, but I did not make these final brackets," he said. "You all just wished to live..."

Peach shook her head, standing up and pointing at Mario. "I... I don't know..." she said. "I think you should live, Mario..."

At this, Mario almost jumped out of his seat in shock. "What?" he asked, wildly.

"You heard what I said," replied Peach. "I don't want to cause your death."

Mario shook his head, crossing his arms in front of him. "I don't want to kill you either!" he replied. "Besides, you've got a kingdom to rule!"

"I know I do," she said. "But what's worse; losing an heir to the throne that can be renamed, or a hero that can't be replaced?"

The plumber frowned. "Peach, you've shown you can defend yourself," he said. "You don't have to have other people save you, you know!"

Peach shook her head, getting more and more determined. "Then who's going to save the civilians if you die?" she asked. "My people love their peace! I'm not about to violate their want for peace just because the kingdom has no other way of defending itself!"

"Oh, you can form a truce with the koopas now that you're not technically enemies anymore!" cried Mario, his words more and more impassioned as he got progressively angrier.

"You think the populace of the koopa empire is going to spare resources to help out someone they hate so much? No!"

"They'll try harder if Bowser Jr. tries to do something and if you let them know you didn't kill their king!"

"How do you know they'll take my word for it?"

"Why do you want to die so much, anyway?"

"I don't know, why don't you answer your own question?"

"That is enough!"

Albrecht slammed his fist down on the table, a loud boom echoing in the small room as both the plumber and the princess fell silent. He glared at both of them as they shrank back in fear of what the German would do. Coughing slightly, Albrecht looked to Peach and Mario.

"If you two want to debate about this further, I shall ask that you do it in a much calmer manner than what is being heard now," he said. "Settle down, and let us talk this through."

With this, the room fell silent, Peach and Mario both staring at each other in apprehension of the decision they both knew they would have to make.

For quite some time after that, there had been much arguing. Thus, when all was said and done, Peach had gone on a walk to clear her head.

When all was said and done, neither of them were very happy with the circumstances. The stakes were far too high for either to die, but in he end they both knew that the murderer would force them to make a choice. And it had been a very difficult choice to make, seeing as how both people were equally valuable to their people in the Mushroom Kingdm and how they both wanted to live really badly.

All of the thoughts swirling in her head were overwhelming her. She had made the same decision she had made before Zelda's match. But here, something felt much more wrong about the set-up, and Peach had taken a walk to sort her feelings in her head. It was probably a bad idea to do so ten minutes before her match, but she felt a little differently about it.

As she walked, she came to a stop, leaning against the wall as tears escaped from her eyes. She shook her head, knowing that the situation was very grim. She refused to shout, however, for she held on to the hope that the murderer could be brought to justice, even if he managed to kill every last smasher. There were very few ways that they could tell who the murderer was. But Peach knew-- she just knew-- that somewhere, the killer had to have been careless. There had to have been a trace left behind.

As she thought about this, she suddenly felt herself fall into the wall. Gasping in shock as she did, the princess landed on her butt on the other side, looking around when she landed. She was very confused, mostly about why there was no white screen where she was standing and how she was in the room she had been put in anyway.

The poor princess began shaking, realizing where she was. The first thought on her mind was to get out of there. Standing up, she ran forward. However, the white screen had been replaced with a typical wall, for then Peach slammed into it head-first, and she fell to the ground from this.

"No... No!"

Peach stood up and began banging against the wall, hoping that she could get out of there. Her hands only hit a hard stone wall, however, and eventually she was beating so bad she began to bleed through her gloves. Discarding these as she felt the blood stick, she continued pounding the wall, letting out a harsh scream as she did.

Unfortunately, it was all for naught, and after a particularly harsh bang against the wall, she sank to her knees, crying as she shook her head.

Glancing around tepidly with her eyes running out of tears to cry, she saw no lights that were on in the small room, so then she ended up groping her way across the room. She began to cry out, frightened beyond her mind. The room was dark, it was a little dank, and she had absolutely no idea where she was or how she had gotten there.

However, her hands suddenly fell upon something different than the stone she had been feeling. Stock still in her paranoia, she felt what her hand had touched again. After a few seconds, she realized it was a pant leg.

"H... hello?" asked Peach. "Are you o--?"

And then the lights in the room abruptly came on, shedding light on the darkness. Peach suddenly saw a body staring at her ominously. It belonged to somebody that had obviously died a long time before she had seen the body, as the skin looked brown and crusty from the sheer amount of decomposition involved. The air also smelled horrible, and the figure's skeleton showed prominently through its attire.

She gazed at it for a few seconds, shock filling her eyes as she shook in fright at the sight before her.

This was the breaking point. Peach screamed as loud as she could, the scream piercing the dead silence that had accompanied the lights coming on.

All of the remaining smashers were at the teleport station, standing there waiting for Peach to arrive. However, the princess was unusually late to her match, which disturbed everybody. It especially disturbed Mario, who was concerned about the princess not being where everybody else was. Albrecht had gone to see if he could find her, but everybody else was more or less stuck waiting for the two of them to return.

The plumber shook his head.

"I tell you, it's not normal for her to be this late to something!" he said. "This is really wierd!"

Isolde looked at the door, checking the time on her watch for the seventh time. "It's been fifteen minutes," she said. "Maybe we should go look for her?"

"Sure," said Fox, shrugging.

"I don't know..." said Roy softly. "I've got a bad feeling about this disappearance..."

Popo glared at the swordsman. "What, you too?" he asked bitterly. "You people are all non-believers!"

Marth shrugged at this, however, his gaze slightly skeptical. "Well, you do have to admit, this absence is rather... worrisome..." he said. "You never know if the murderer is waiting for an opportunity like this..."

"Killing the late-comers..." said Fox, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Because they forfeit the match... Even if it's unintentional..."

Mario looked around. "We've gotta go find her," he said. "If she dies, I don't want her to die without her chance to live..."

The rest of the group relented, Roy nodding hesitantly as he looked around him. "Okay then," said Fox. "Let's split up and see if we have any luck finding her..."

"Come on, Isolde," said Marth, taking a hold of Isolde's arm. "Let's go find Peach."

The group nodded silently, everybody moving out of the teleportation room as their confusion died down. They all went more or less in different directions to look for Peach.

Fox decided to walk over to Peach's room, keeping his eyes on the hallways around him. He thought back to the beginning of the tournament, when he remembered that Master Hand had promised to paint over the walls. Blood red was no color for a mansion, he had said. There had been much repainting to be done. And yet, the tournament had come so quickly that it was neglected, and then by the time the murders had begun to pick up steam there was no room left to think about those things. It was ironic, to be honest, how everything had turned sour so quickly.

"Looking for someone?"

Fox turned suddenly, looking straight at Sergio. Fox put a hand on his heart, exhaling softly.

"Oh, man, you scared me there... Sergio, was it?" said the vulpine.

"You have that correct, yes," replied the caretaker with a nod.

Fox nodded. "Yeah, I'm looking for someone, actually," said the fox. "Have you seen Peach anywhere?"

Sergio looked at the vulpine, crossing his arms in front of him. "I don't think I have, though..." said the caretaker. "And I've scoured the grounds..."

Fox glanced to the side. "So..." he asked. "Are you suggesting she ran off?"

The caretaker nodded. "Possibly..." he said. Upon a small silence, however, Fox thought he noticed Sergio glance to the side nervously before biting his lower lip. "But I don't think that's possible, really, what with... well... the whole illusion thing and all..." he added quickly.

"Huh," said the vulpine, keeping this in mind. "That's... really wierd..."

"Although..." said Sergio. "I think this'll help... I thought I heard a woman screaming as I was walking down one of the corridors... It couldn't have been Isolde, though... I mean--"

"Which floor?" asked Fox quickly.

Sergio brought a hand to his lip nervously, nodding softly. "I think it was the floor below us..." he said. "I'm not sure, but--"

That was all the vulpine needed to hear. He took off down the hallway, running to the nearest staircase knowing that Peach was likely in danger for more than just the fact that she was uncharacteristically late to a match.

As soon as he was on the floor below where Sergio had been, the fox looked around him.

"Peach?" he called out. "Where are you? Peach?"

He got his reply much sooner than he thought. "Fox!" he heard Peach's voice shout.

The voice came from his right. He paused abruptly, looking at the source of the sound in disbelief.

"Peach..." he said. "Are you in... the wall...?"

"I phased through it!" she said, her voice sounding desperate as Fox ran over to the red paint. "I don't know what happened! I was just walking and then I fell through this white screen! Fox, I'm scared!"

"Peach, it's gonna be all right," Fox tried to reassure the princess. "I'm gonna find a way to get you out of here, you're going to have your match, and you'll have the chance to fight for your--"

"That's not why I'm scared!" cried the princess. "I'm scared because there's a dead body in here! And it's not anybody that's been killed in the tournament!"

At this, Fox's fur stood on end, his ears and tail both erect as he heard this.

"Peach, did you just say... it's not anybody that's been killed?" he asked slowly.

"Damn it, Fox, I'm telling you the truth!" screeched the princess loudly. "His skin looks like a brown paper bag!"

"Decomposition..." muttered the vulpine under his breath as his fingers rapped against the wall he was screaming into.

Pondering on this for a second, and making a mental note to see if anybody was acting suspiciously, he looked into the wall in which Peach was trapped. Nodding and taking a gulp, the fox looked into the wall intently.

"Peach," he said. "I'm gonna try to get you out of there, all right? Just sit tight and I'll get some help."

"Okay, Fox, just..." Peach began, but then she paused mid-sentence as footsteps were heard on the other side. "Oh my God..." The princess was hyperventhilating at this point, and the clatter of heels was heard. "Oh my God... It's him..."

"Peach, if you can still move right now, RUN!" cried Fox. "And don't let him catch you!"

The princess did not hesitate to do so. The clatter of heels was heard, and then he heard the sound retreating from the wall. At some point, he heard the heels clatter a little irregularly, and then silence. Fox was not sure what to make of this, and so he leaned his ears against the doorway. He wasn't able to make out any signs of a struggle, and his heart beat with a strange kind of adrenaline rush that he had never felt, even in the cockpit.

The fox thought he could hear the clatter of the murderer's... boots, apparently... as he chased Peach. They came back and forth into the foreground, and Fox assumed that Peach was still running away. He sighed in relief, but he knew the murderer could catch up to her at any point, and so he tried to knock on the wall on various spots to see if he could work his way in.

It was as he knocked against the wall that suddenly it lost its solidity. Leaning forward, he fell into the red screen, landing face first on the ground with his feet still in the space where the wall was. Realizing this to be an opportunity to get the princess out, he lifted his head with his eyes closed.

"Peach, if you can hear me, run towards the sound of my voice!" he cried.

After a few seconds, the vulpine heard the sound of footsteps running towards him. No sooner had he opened his eyes than he saw the princess tackle him out of the room, the murderer hot on her trail as they both careened out of the room and back into the corridor at a ridiculously fast speed. As soon as the two of them had collided against the far wall, they both looked back. An all-mighty thud sounded as what Fox surmised to be the murderer ran face-first into the wall. A curse was launched at the two of them, and then suddenly, the only sound that could be heard was the panting of Peach as she and Fox both sat against the wall in shock over what had just happened.

"So you got trapped in the wall?"

"Oh, it was horrible... It was absolutely horrible..."

"Well, we're just glad you're all right."

The smashers had crowded into the match lounge again, Peach sitting on a table and recounting everything that had happened to her. Marth and Isolde were the first to find Fox and Peach in a heap against the wall of the first floor corridor, and upon helping to bring the two back to their senses, Marth and Isolde had found Albrecht running around trying to find the princess. He had promptly called everybody back to the meeting room, and Fox looked around the room to see that all the smashers were in the room.

Albrecht nodded from where he stood. "It seems we'll have to postpone this match then," he said. "I'll delay it for two hours, and we'll reconvene at the room. I trust you'll be on time this time, Peach?"

"If I'm not, then don't wait to start looking for me," she said plainly. "It wasn't my fault I was late..."

Everybody in the room nodded. "Right," he said. "We'll reconvene in the teleport room in two hours, then."

The group nodded and dispersed shortly afterwards. Peach had come up right behind Fox, following the vulpine as he walked down the corridor. The two of them said nothing as Mario stayed in the match lounge, talking with Popo briefly. Marth and Isolde went their own separate way.

When Fox and Peach had gotten to the second floor corridor, the fox turned to Peach.

"Are you okay now?" he asked.

"I still can't believe I saw that dead body in there..." she said. "Why'd you tell me not to tell them about it?"

"The murderer already knows you know too much," he said. "If you try to tell, he'll try to kill you, regardless of whether someone's with you or not. And also, he'll erase my memory, and all this will be for naught."

The vulpine then stood at the door to his room, standing in the door way briefly after he had opened the door. Peach nodded before wordlessly walking in there. Fox stepped in the room after her, closing the door behind him and locking it. Peach looked at Fox a little warily, but remembering Bowser's oath she stood there and took it in stride. Fox simply sat on the bed and patted a space next to him.

"Here," he said. "Take a seat."

The princess sighed and sat next to the fox.

"What's the point of this?" she asked.

"I don't think the murderer would think to check in my room for you," replied Fox. "So we can talk for two hours about what you saw. I didn't see the body, so do you know who it belonged to?"

Peach looked down at the ground, holding a hand to her heart as she thought. "I don't know," she said. "But... his clothes... They looked really familiar."

Fox held a finger up. "Hold that thought," he said, leaning over to the bed-side table. He grabbed his radio from where it sat on the night-table and held it in his hands.

"Peach, you have to promise me that whatever happens in this room, stays in this room, okay?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked. "They'd really want to know something."

Fox shook his head. "I'll explain it later," he said. "Just know that if we do tell someone, we might unwittingly tell the murderer. And we can't say anything about it until we know for sure who the murderer is, or what we have to do to make sure everybody that's left survives. Promise me you won't tell a soul, Peach."

The princess digested what Fox had told her, and realizing the gravity of the situation, she nodded apprehensively.

"Okay," she said, nodding. "I promise."

"Good," he said. "Remember, what we say here is confidential until we know who is behind all this."

With this, Fox pressed a button on the radio. "Hey, you guys there?"

A brief silence came on, and then static from the other side.

"Yeah, we copy," replied the voice of Bowser Jr. from the other end.

At this, Peach gasped, looking at the vulpine as he pressed the button. "Bowser Jr.?" she asked. "What's he doing here?"

"Someone we can trust?" asked the voice of Soren.

"She almost got killed by the murderer a few minutes ago," replied Fox. "She was late to her match, so the murderer decided to try to kill her..."

A mirthless chuckle was heard on the other end. "I figured he'd do something like that," said the voice of Wolf. "Fucking ruthless murderer..."

"Wait... so... who are you guys?" asked the princess softly.

"We're the ones who might have answers," said Soren's voice from the radio. "And we're here to help you..."

Peach nodded, thinking about this briefly as she clutched her dress. "Okay," she said. "I'll tell you what happened..."

Two hours later, Mario and Peach convened in the teleport room, the two of them looking at each other. The rest of the smashers were already in the match lounge, Roy poised to find either one of the competitors once one of them had lost. The two of them nodded, Mario looking at Peach. Neither of them said anything to each other, the silence saying everything that needed to be said.

The male smasher held his hand out to the one he had always protected, nodding at her. Hesitantly, the woman took Mario's hand and shook it softly.

"May the best fighter win," said the plumber.

Peach said nothing, keeping silent as she walked to the teleporter. Mario raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman. Mario could have sworn she had gulped nervously.

Tilting his head to the side, he could have sworn something was not quite right with the princess. But he kept it to himself, walking to his own teleport pad silently. The contraption whirred to life noiselessly, and then the two competitors were in the arena, fighting for their lives.

In the match lounge, the smashers and Sergio sat there watching Peach and Mario trading blows. Something that everybody seemed to notice was that Peach was holding back on all of her attacks. Marth looked at the match, not amused in the slightest.

"Is it me, or is she acting like she doesn't know how to use her moveset?" asked Marth.

"That's kind of wierd," said the caretaker as he crossed his arms in front of him. "I could have sworn Peach was one of the more confident competitors."

Popo shrugged. "Maybe she just wants Mario to live..." he suggested.

"I suppose," said Sergio. "The human heart is a little wierd like that..."

The group simply shrugged, Fox staying silent as he watched the match go on.

Suddenly, however, a wave of static overtook the TV. Everybody jumped at this, surprised at what they were seeing. The picture went back into focus ever so briefly, but then it only rescinded into a detached grey static. Once the static had taken over, only the sound of static was heard. The room was tense as they sat there, all of them looking up at the TV screen as they all wondered. Marth sent a fist flying onto the table, a frustrated expression having taken over his system.

"What the fuck?" he cried.

"Marth!" exclaimed Sergio, surprise showing in his voice.

"Where the fuck is this murderer?" asked Marth loudly. "Why the fuck is he toying with us like this?"

"Wait," said Popo, putting a hand on Marth's leg as he spoke. "I don't think the murderer would have any reason to do something like this."

"He's figured out what we're trying to do!" cried Marth suddenly. "And he doesn't want us to see who wins the match so that we can save them!"

Fox shook his head. "Damn it," he said. "I'm going to go see if Roy's down there. We need to tell him to get his move on."

"Why can't we use the radio?" asked Popo.

"If the TV signal is jammed, the radios are likely jammed too," replied the vulpine. "Trust me, I know how signals work, I would know something like that.

With this, the vulpine bounded out of the room, rushing for the basement. The door closed behind him, leaving everybody to glance at each other. Marth shook his head.

"Come on," he said, gesturing towards Sergio and Popo. "We're useless standing around here."

With this, the three of them left the room, following the vulpine into the basement. When they caught up with him, he was just running down the stairs. Marth, Popo, and Sergio fell into step behind the fox, the four of them running into the basement.

"Roy? Roy?" cried out Fox as they rushed towards the infamous wall that Isolde had discovered.

But the lord of Pherae was nowhere to be found then. Looking around nervously, there was no trace of the lord.

"Shit!" cried Marth. "Everybody! Check the basement!"

The entire group ran around the basement, checking every nook and cranny of the floor in search of the lord. Popo and Marth even entered some of the white screens that led into the basement, but there was nothing that could be seen with the lord. A conclusion seemed to hit the fox as he looked, however, and he saw the wall Isolde had seen.

"Damn it, the wall!" cried Fox.

The vulpine rushed at the wall, and was greatly surprised to find that he could pass through it. Everybody that was there at the time saw this, and then they all ran towards that wall as well. The four of them then ran down a corridor similar to that which they ran down when Pichu and Samus had been killed, the four of them running as fast as they could.

And then, they came to a door.

"There it is!" cried the vulpine. "There's the room!"

And then, Fox rushed at the door, working it open quickly. The group then opened the door, looking at the room quietly.

Roy was kneeling by a body, trying to get a pulse on it. That somebody wore a pink dress with blonde hair, and as soon as they saw this everybody knew that they were too late. Roy turned to the group, shaking his head sadly.

"We're too late," he said sadly. "Peach is dead."

With this, all of the people left in the mansion bowed their heads somberly. The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom was dead. And there was not much they could do about it, either.

Some time later, Albrecht had gathered the remaining smashers around in the match lounge. Mario was heartbroken upon the news that Peach had died, and so he had taken his hat off and now held it in front of his chest, staring at the ground in sadness. The other smashers were quite somber as well. The room was silent, and Albrecht shook his head.

"So that's it," said Popo. "All the girls are dead..."

"Unfortunately," said Albrecht. "Every woman has now passed away... You five are all that remains of the smash brothers. And unfortunately, you're all male."

"This sucks," said Mario. "Nobody deserved this..."

Heads nodded in agreement as the group looked around the small table in the match lounge. There was nothing more that was said for a few minutes. Nothing more needed to be said, after all. The last female smasher had died, and there was nothing that could be done about it. The group was silent, thinking about all of the women in the tournament and how strong they had been in the face of certain doom.

Finally, Albrecht coughed. "There is nothing to say about that," he said. "Which leaves me to ask one last thing."

"Oh?" asked Roy. "What might that be?"

Albrecht cleared his throat then, his face forming into a frown.

"Have any of you seen Isolde?"