Mario hopped out of the indigo portal and nearly fell off a sheer cliff not three feet from it. Peach stepped through the portal next, and Mario put out a hand to stop her from moving too close to the edge. She nodded, gently pushed his hand down, and stepped up next to him, gazing down from her vantage point on the scenery below. A vast glistening glacier spread out before her eyes, stretching into the distance until it reached its limit and gave way to towering pine forests.
Luigi, Leika, and Toadsworth exited the portal just before it closed. The green-capped plumber nearly went over the cliff despite Mario's warning. "Whoa!" He backed away from the cliff, shivering as the wind bit ferociously at him and the others.
Peach seemed deep in thought. Mario studied her face for a moment. "Peach, what is it?"
She furrowed her brow. "I know this place," she answered. "I've seen this view before. What escapes me is the name of the place. I just can't remember it..."
"Don't worry about it," Mario consoled her. "We'll find out later, more than likely. Come on." He turned away from the cliff to see an icy granite peak stabbing into the overcast sky behind them. "Hey, wait a minute! Isn't that─"
"It's Star Mountain!" exclaimed Peach, gazing at the lofty summit far above them. "I knew I'd been here before!"
"Man, how are we supposed to find a Rainbow Ring on that huge thing?" Luigi asked.
"I've got an idea of where it might be already, now that I know where we are," Leika informed them. "There is a hidden rainbow shrine on this mountain. The first and most logical place to look would be there."
"And you know where this shrine is?" Mario asked.
Leika nodded.
"Good. We'll let you lead out, since you know where you're going. Are you coming or staying, Peach?"
Peach smiled at him. "You couldn't talk me into staying behind, not in a thousand years, Mario. It's been forever since I last went mountain climbing, and I want to see this secret shrine anyhow!"
"It's a long climb, Princess," warned Leika.
"I'm up to it."
"Never!" spluttered Toadsworth. "A princess going mountain climbing? Preposterous! Absurd! Absolutely unladylike!"
"You're not going to stop me, Toadsworth," retorted Peach. "I'm going, so you may as well live with it!"
"OUTRAGEOUS!!!" Toadsworth would have grabbed Princess Peach if Luigi hadn't grabbed him first.
"Looks like I'm gonna have to stay here and keep this animal under control," Luigi grunted as he clutched Toadsworth in his arms to prevent the struggling steward from escaping.
"Master Luigi, take your hands off me THIS INSTANT! I DEMAND that you let me go!" shouted Toadsworth.
"That might be a good idea, Luigi," agreed Mario, referring to Luigi's offer. He smiled at Peach. "Looks like we get to climb together."
She smiled back. "I can't wait!"
"Looks like I get the role of chaperone," Leika said with a playful shake of her finger. "I see that smile!"
Mario pretended to ignore the fairy's scolding. "Lead out, Leika. We've got a mountain to climb!"
The black-eyed Empress stepped into the dim, dungeon-like mind-control room. Her sinister gaze fell on the legions of machinery along the wall, then on the helpless figure pinned to the steel table before her.
"Well, if it isn't the little resistor in my electric circuit," Cyanara said aloud while seating herself at the main computer. A bizarre steel helmet with countless wires protruding from it lay atop the massive computer tower to her right. An identical helmet was fastened to the skull of the victim on the table.
"I resist because I must," was Athos's grim reply. "Amethyst does the same."
"Hmph," Cyanara scoffed as she began entering endless commands into the system at her fingertips. "Once I overwrite your brain, traitor, I'll have you perform the overwrite on Amethyst. It will serve you right for your blatant betrayal of me!"
"I will not permit that to happen," retorted Athos. "Your scientists and machines have worked for over two days to overcome me with no success. Do you truly think you will have any more chance than they?"
She turned and fixed him with her icy stare. "I do."
"I will not allow it," Athos repeated emphatically.
"Your will won't last long against mine," answered Cyanara, fitting the second steel helmet over her own head. "This time no mere machine is going to do the fighting."
Athos looked shocked. "You...y-you...!"
"That's right," said the Empress with a smile. "My incompetent assistants used computers to attempt the overwrite. I've reworked the system to route the mental signal directly from my mind to yours.
Athos steeled himself. "A mental tug-of-war? So be it."
Cyanara shook her head in mock sympathy. "You always wanted to tussle with me, didn't you, Athos? Always wanted to show me just what you thought of my great plan...the plan you helped create." She looked back at the control panel, and her hand moved to the on switch.
"Do your worst," Athos spat.
Cyanara, her hand still resting on the switch, looked again at her erstwhile servant, and her red lips parted in a cruel, condemning smile.
"You don't need to tell me that, Athos," she said quietly, and her expression turned ugly. "I plan to."
The next instant she snapped the switch on, plunging the two into a vicious mental battle, a battle for Athos's very consciousness. Athos's face went taut, and sweat broke out on his forehead.
Cyanara smiled.
"M...Mario?" wheezed Peach as she scaled the last rock between her and the plumber. The wind whipped around the two, voraciously tearing at their clothes and skin. The overcast sky looked gray and threatening.
"What?" he shouted over the wind.
"It's nearly dark," she called back loudly, although Mario was scarcely two feet away.
Mario nodded. "Are you OK?"
"Just tired," she responded. "Shouldn't we head back? We've been scouring this mountain all day and haven't found a thing?"
Leika, beating her fairy's wings with a fury to keep from being blown away, yelled back in her musical voice, "I told you it was hard to find! Even I get lost up here sometimes!"
"Leika, we have to go back," Mario shouted. "We can't stay up here all night!"
Suddenly the rock beneath them lurched sickeningly, sending Mario's heart into his throat and knocking both him and Peach to their knees. He snatched at Peach's hand and caught it as she started slipping. "Hang on tight!" he yelled above the howling wind.
"I-I'm slipping!" cried Peach. Her pink dress, not particularly suited for mountaineering, was causing her to slide on her knees down the now-tipped rock slab toward a long drop down the side of the mountain. Despite her grip on Mario's hand, her knees continued to slide out from under her.
Within moments Peach's knees gave way completely, sending her onto her stomach and letting her feet dangle over the edge of the chasm. Her face registered a desperate terror. "Mario! Help!" she screamed over the rushing wind.
Mario's grip on her hand began to slip. "I can't─hang on! Peach!"
"Princess!" screamed Leika.
Mario's hand gave out, and he involuntarily let go his hold. Peach screamed and dropped into the abyss below.
"PEACH!!!"
Peach fell twenty feet and suddenly jerked to a stop. A strong hand grasped her flailing one, and she hung suspended in mid-air for a moment, stunned by her fall.
An unfamiliar face appeared over her head, apparently from a hidden ledge. The stranger's golden locks tumbled out from under her gray hood. "Are you all right?"
"I think so," Peach shouted back.
"Hang on; I'll pull you up!" The stranger reached down her other hand, seized Peach's arm, and slowly heaved her up onto the ledge. The Princess sat down heavily, gulping in tremendous lungfuls of the rare mountain air. In a moment she looked up into the face of her savior.
The stranger was clad in a thick, white, long-sleeved top and a blue multi-layered skirt. Over it all was a soft gray cloak which she clutched about her. The cloak's hood served to keep her head warm in the chill wind but allowed her blond hair to spill out a little. Her fair cheeks were red and windburned.
"Thank you," Peach said gratefully.
Her rescuer was silent, looking down at the lady she'd saved. She possessed almost a dignity about her petite frame, yet a fear seemed to overshadow her. She fingered the folds of her cloak nervously, never taking her eyes off Peach.
Peach rose to her feet. "What's your name?" she asked kindly, sensing her benefactor's nervousness.
The stranger hesitated, avoiding Peach's eyes, and remained silent. For a grown woman she certainly seemed unsure of herself. Turning, she fled from Peach into what appeared to be a small torch-lit cave carved into the mountainside. Peach followed, curious about her new acquaintance.
No sooner had Peach entered the little cave than Mario rushed up to her from within and grabbed her in a bear hug. "Peach! You're alive!" he exclaimed joyously.
"M-Mario?" Peach stammered in surprise, allowing herself to be hugged. "H-How did you get here?"
"That would be the fault of the mysterious girl in gray," replied Mario, releasing the Princess from his arms. He turned to see the girl timidly approaching them through the torchlight. Leika was with her.
The mysterious girl looked at Peach with vacillating eyes. "Y-You are all welcome to stay the night here, with─with me," she hesitantly invited, gesturing around her at the sparsely-furnished cave. "In the morning─I will take you to the Sanctum."
"You know where we're going?" Mario inquired.
"The fairy Leika has told me everything." The girl waited nervously for an answer.
"I don't see why not," Peach replied. "We really don't have much choice now. We'll never make it back down the mountain by nightfall."
Their hostess pointed out the single bed against the cave wall. "P-Please, Princess Peach, take it. I will─I will sleep on the ground."
"Oh, no, I wouldn't take your bed," protested Peach.
The girl, for all her timidity, remained unmovable. She lay down against the wall and covered herself with her cloak.
Peach sighed. "If you insist. Thank you." She lay down on the bed and pulled the single blanket over her. Leika settled on top of the blanket, and both princess and fairy were soon fast asleep. Mario shrugged and lay down against the wall opposite the girl in gray. He watched her from beneath half-closed lids as she drifted off to sleep.
Strange girl, Mario thought to himself. For some reason I get the feeling she's got something to hide. I wonder... He yawned and dropped off to sleep.
Peach awoke the following morning feeling rested. She sat up and looked over at the mysterious girl in gray. The girl, rather than being asleep still, was sitting against the wall, gazing down at something in her hands. Peach, trying to see the object of her hostess's gaze, caught a gleam of silver.
Suddenly the girl looked up, started when she saw Peach, and quickly closed her hands over the object. The uncanny fear of yesterday flowed back into her face.
"What is that?" inquired Peach curiously.
The girl shoved the item under her cloak and remained silent, shivering nervously.
Peach rose from the bed and went over to the timid girl, seating herself next to her. The girl's breathing became rapid and shuddering, and she stared straight ahead at the opposite wall, unwilling to look at Peach. Peach put a hand on her arm, surprised at her behavior.
"It's all right," she assured her. "You don't have to hide. Just tell me the truth. I'd really like to know what that was."
"I-It's nothing," managed the girl with a shiver. Quickly she got to her feet and disappeared outside the cave.
Peach's heart groaned. "I feel sorry for that poor girl," she said softly. "It seems to me that she thinks she can't trust anyone. I wish she'd open up and let me help her." She sighed. "She's so...timid, and yet she has a grace about her that makes me wonder..." The Princess pushed back her thoughts and rose to awaken Mario.
"Grrrr...agh!" grunted Athos, straining against the mental barrage coming from Cyanara's mind. "Ungh!"
"We've been going at this all night, traitor Athos," stated the completely unfatigued Empress. "You're stronger than I expected. But you're giving in to me─ever so slowly, you're giving in."
"I...am...not!" Athos managed. "I will fight still!"
"I might have guessed that the genius who helped formulate my master plan would be of strong mind and strong will," continued Cyanara.
"I am no longer yours to use!" cried Athos. "I will fight the plan to the death! It threatens the lives of innocent millions!" He glared at Cyanara as he heaved and struggled against the onslaught. "And you are nothing but a cruel dictator wishing to enslave the world under your tyrannical rule!"
"Tyrannical?" The Empress's eyes blazed. "Perhaps so." Her hand moved to the signal amplifier dial on the mind-control server. "But let's see if you won't take back those words of yours once I'm through with you!"
Cyanara spun the dial to the right, multiplying the signal strength tenfold. Athos's face went taut under the strain of fighting it.
"Let's see how long you last against that, traitor," spat Cyanara. "And when I'm through with you...Amethyst will suffer the same fate."
The girl in gray timidly reentered the cave. "Are─Are you all ready to leave?"
"Ready as we'll ever be," Mario replied.
Without a word the girl turned and led the little group out onto the rock ledge outside the cave. The wind was no less fierce on this day as it had been on the last, for it still stung their exposed faces. The girl pointed up a nearly-vertical fifty-foot wall of granite on their left.
"It is a difficult climb," she admitted, "but it is the only way to the Sanctum."
"Then let's have at it!" Mario answered eagerly.
Their timid guide moved to the rock wall and turned briefly. "The Princess should come after me, with Mario behind her." So saying, she fitted her delicate hands into the crevices in the rock and began the long upward climb.
"Do exactly as I do," she called down. "It is the only safe way."
Peach gulped a little and started up after the girl in gray, Leika flying along beside her. Mario began his climb shortly after Peach did hers.
For nearly an hour they climbed slowly toward the top. The girl in gray was forced to stop and wait for her followers to catch up several times. Obviously she was a far more experienced climber than they. The bitter wind threatened to catch the climbers and fling them from the rock to a crashing death at the foot of the mountain, and their exposed hands nearly froze to the rock face in the cold of the heights. But they struggled on through it all and at last gained the top of the cliff.
Reaching down, the girl in gray pulled Peach up the last foot or so onto a wide ledge at the cliff top. Mario managed to get up without assistance, and Leika simply flew up over the edge. She hadn't climbed an inch. Mario eyed her wings jealously.
The mysterious girl pointed across the ledge. There, carved from the very rock of Star Mountain, was a mammoth temple, nearly invisible due to the huge rocky projections on either side of the path leading to it.
"Rainbow Sanctum," she called over the wind.
"It's huge," breathed Peach, momentarily stunned by the size of the temple.
"Come on," called Leika as she darted forward toward the entrance, maneuvering skillfully between the rocky outcrops that walled in the narrow passage leading to the temple. Mario and Peach followed.
Peach was the last to enter the Sanctum. Turning, she began to ask their guide a question─then noticed with a start that there was no one there. Peach stared.
"Hello?"
No answer. Only the empty howl of the wind across the mountain answered her.
"She...she just...disappeared..." Peach frowned. "Another mystery from the girl in gray..." She looked about again for the girl, and, not finding her, gave up and entered the Sanctum.
The shutting of the door echoed through Rainbow Sanctum's vast empty space as Mario, Peach, and Leika looked around the huge room in awe. The towering wall were washed with the hues of the rainbow, with red at the top progressing to black at the bottom. The floor was pure crystal, so clean and transparent it seemed almost liquid. In each of the mammoth room's four corners stood a giant pillar, each polished to a mirror sheen. And in the very center, dwarfed by the gigantean proportions of the rest of the room, was a single crystal pedestal, sparkling in the ambient light. Atop this crystalline pedestal sat a plush red velvet cushion, and in the center of this cushion, floating motionless an inch above it as if magically suspended there, was the sixth Rainbow Ring, its rich indigo gem gleaming brightly. The Turquoise Ring on Mario's left fifth finger glowed brilliant blue in response to its proximity to the new Ring.
"It's the sixth Ring!" exclaimed Mario, dashing forward. Suddenly he screeched to a halt a few feet from the pedestal. A thought had struck him.
"Wait a minute..." Mario scrutinized the Ring. "This is just too easy. No way would Cyanara just leave this Ring lying out here for me unless there was a catch here..."
Again Mario stepped toward the pedestal, more cautiously this time. Again he examined that sixth Rainbow Ring with keen eyes. Everything seemed normal; so he reached out his hand and took it.
Tried to, anyway.
It wouldn't budge.
A look of disbelief crossed Mario's face, and he tugged at the hovering Ring. Still it remained unmovable.
The next thing Mario knew he'd been smacked backward by what felt like an invisible hand slapping his face. He stumbled, off-balance, then recovered himself, and, staring at the Ring, saw that there was no one there.
A voice came from the Ring's immediate left─a familiar, derisive female voice. "Things like the Rainbow Rings aren't nearly as easy to just pick up and walk away with as you might like Mario. They require a certain...dominance to acquire."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a woman appeared on the Ring's left. Her hair was coal black, and an expression of crafty amusement was written on her face. She wore the rainbow robe of the Rainbow Guardians, but with one major difference. Across her waist, interrupting the pattern of rainbow colors, was a bold black stripe. And on her left fourth finger she wore that mysteriously "floating" sixth Ring.
"Diamond!" rang out Mario's voice in accusation.
Diamond lifted her hand delicately from the velvet cushion and examined the Ring on her finger as if curious, eyeing Mario seductively as she did. "Some people just never learn when enough is enough," she said smoothly. "You and Princess Peach have resisted the Great One far too long, Mario. Isn't it time you faced reality and submitted to her plan for this world?" Her hand fell to her side, and her black eyes turned evil.
"Mom!" cried Peach. "Mom, snap out of it! You're not acting like your old self!" She was crying by this time. She'd thought her mother was dead─killed in the collapse of the Great One's fortress nearly two weeks ago. "Please, Mom, whatever evil has a hold on your heart, fight it! Come back! Come back to me!"
Diamond's eyes pierced Peach through with hatred. "Mother? I am not your mother, Princess Peach," she answered, spitting the last two words out in disgust, "and I don't plan to treat you as my daughter, either." Instantly a long, slightly curved sword─a katana─appeared out of thin air in Diamond's hand. "You'll feel the same pain that Mario will."
"MOM!" screamed Peach desperately. "You never were truly evil! You have to fight yourself! Don't give in to the evil inside you!"
"Enough of this nonsense," spat Diamond. "I am NOT your mother! Now DIE!!"
Diamond instantly vanished from sight as she ended her battle cry. Mario turned and ran for the sanctum wall, pressing his back into the corner. Having fought Diamond before, he knew exactly what she was capable of when using her powers of invisibility.
A razor-sharp shuriken came out of nowhere and sang past Mario's left ear, missing it by millimeters. He jerked his head away from the deadly projectile and readied his fists.
"Next time I won't be so merciful as to miss purposely." Diamond's voice was cold and calculating. "You would be far better of if you would simply surrender."
"Never!" Mario retorted.
"Remember what happened last time we fought, in Rainbow Temple, Mario?" questioned Diamond relentlessly, her voice moving as if she were pacing back and forth before her prey like a hungry cat. "It took your entire party of thirteen to barely defeat me. How in the world do you expect to do the same─alone?"
"I'll do it─somehow!"
"Think again." Diamond suddenly reappeared directly in front of Mario, her katana less than an inch from his throat. Mario froze. Peach gasped, and her hands flew to her mouth.
"Mario!"
"Boasts are only empty words unless you back them up," Diamond informed her opponent haughtily, keeping her weapon at his throat. "Let's see you prove your boldness now, hm?"
Slowly, imperceptibly, Mario raised his foot over Diamond's while keeping his eyes locked with hers. "Listen, Diamond. I don't care how powerful you think you are." Diamond's eyes raged, and Mario grinned mentally. He had her full attention now. "You're nothing but a stooge to Cyanara. She could care less about you. She's just using you!"
"I'll teach you to disrespect me!" exploded Diamond. Nothing but an insult to her status and abilities could have evoked such a violent response from the evil eighth Guardian, normally the epitome of self-controlled deliberation. Up went the katana as Diamond prepared to brain Mario with her blade.
STOMP
Diamond yelled in pain. Her katana clanged to the floor, and she clutched at her left foot, which Mario had nearly crushed with his powerful stomp. Instantly Mario sped past her, snatching up the katana and swinging it at its owner.
Again Diamond disappeared and dodged the blade just in time. Mario, watching carefully for his powerful foe, suddenly saw two kunai blades appear out of thin air, held by the invisible Guardian. Diamond was going to use her deadly twin knives on him.
The kunais whizzed through the air, one at a time, directly at Mario. He deflected the first with Diamond's katana, but the second ripped a long cut along his left arm. He clutched the wound and grimaced.
Now Leika came alive, firing colorful beams of rainbow energy randomly about the Sanctum. Though invisible, Diamond was still vulnerable to attack, and she was kept busy dodging the ricocheting beams for a while, giving Mario a chance to recover.
"Show your face, Diamond!" Mario challenged at length, having recovered from the wound he had received earlier.
Diamond's almost-haunting voice echoed through the Sanctum's empty space. "Very well─but you may not like what you see, Mario."
Suddenly Mario could see the sixth Rainbow Ring in mid-air on Diamond's invisible finger, glowing with an indigo radiance. Then the Ring seemed to duplicate itself and become two, the copy floating to a spot about three feet from the original. Then Diamond again became visible.
"No way!" spluttered Mario. "The Ring─"
"It gets better," Diamond said with an evil smile. She motioned to the copy Ring, and suddenly another Diamond appeared, exactly identical to the real Diamond, Rainbow Ring and all!
"The Tanzanite Ring's power of mirror imaging is most useful," added Diamond in explanation. "If you don't care for one of me, I'm sure you'll enjoy two!"
Both Diamond and her copy rushed the stunned Mario, pinning him to the wall. The real Diamond gave the copy a brief command, and the copy turned toward Peach with a glimmer of hatred in her eyes.
Mario gasped. "No! Don't touch her!"
The copy Diamond's hand flicked, and a single shuriken sliced into Peach's right arm. She screamed in pain; then an expression of desperation crossed her face. She choked and fell to her knees, then collapsed onto her face.
"What did you do to her?!" demanded Leika.
"Just my special sleeping shuriken," Diamond informed the fairy while holding Mario against the wall. "It will keep her unconscious until you defeat me─and if you don't do it soon, the poor Princess will bleed to death," she added with mock sympathy.
"Let me go!" cried Mario, struggling against Diamond's overwhelming strength.
Diamond wrenched her katana from Mario's hand and pushed its tip against his Adam's apple, choking him. "Let's see you get out of this the way you did the last time," she spat through clenched teeth. "You can't do it."
Leika darted down and zapped Diamond with a beam of rainbow light. The eighth Guardian only looked up and swatted Leika as she might a pesky fly, sending the fairy crashing to the crystalline floor, stunned.
"No way out this time, Mario," hissed Diamond, preparing to drive her katana through his throat. Her eyes blazed with hatred. "This victory is MINE!!"