Author's Note: It's not my habit to write author's notes, but this bears saying to all you readers out there. There's a bit of backstory to Cyanara which I've never revealed to anyone and which is not going to appear in any of the series' stories. It is found only on the series website, which I plan to unveil at the conclusion of this story -- Chapter 20. Currently there are still a few bugs with the site, such as the story links page refusing to load properly (possibly a server-sided problem and may never be remedied, but then you guys shouldn't need links should you?).

Late that Sunday night Mario finally collapsed into his temporary bed in one of the castle's many guest rooms. "Man, I had no idea cleaning a castle was so much work!" he sighed in exhaustion. "I think I'm gonna be sore in the morning."

"I warned you not to push yourself so hard," Rachel admonished him with a smile as she stuck her head into the room, "but noooooo—you had to go and work yourself half to death anyway."

"Point taken," Mario chuckled. "Next time I think I'll pay attention when you give me advice."

"Good," Rachel answered emphatically. "Even the best of heroes isn't perfect." Her eyes twinkled merrily. "Good night, Mario. Same to you, Luigi."

"Good night," the brothers called from their respective bunks. Rachel switched the lights off and shut the door tightly behind her.

The two brothers lay in the darkness in silence for a few minutes. Mario turned over restlessly. "I hope Peach is all right."

"Same here," Luigi responded with a yawn.

Mario lay on his back and stared at the darkened ceiling. "This waiting just gets to me. It's hard to know she's in danger of her life but not be able to do anything about it. It's...really hard." He sighed heavily.

"Tomorrow we can do something, bro," Luigi reminded him, "so get some sleep. I think we're gonna have our hands full tomorrow." Taking his own advice, Luigi rolled over and was soon snoring away in his usual loud manner.

Mario, lost in his own thoughts, did not even notice the noise. In his mind he kept seeing the cruel face of the Empress leering at him. He could nearly feel Peach's fright. I know she's scared, he thought, his expression troubled. Cyanara has no conscience. She'd do anything to Peach.

Suddenly he remembered Peach's birthday present, still tucked away in his overalls pocket. He hadn't thought of it for two weeks, and thinking of it now brought tears, not pleasure. Will I ever get a chance to give it to her? he wondered, pained at the thought. Will I ever even see her again?

That haunting question plagued his mind relentlessly all that night, stealing his much-needed rest from him. Exhaustion eventually took its toll, and he finally dropped off to sleep near morning, only to dream of Peach.

Despite his lack of rest, Mario was the first to rise the next morning. The digital clock on the nightstand between his and Luigi's beds proclaimed the time in glowing red numbers—it was seven o'clock. Already faint rays of sunlight filtered between the curtains over the single window. Mario slipped out of bed quietly so as not to wake Luigi (who could be rather cantankerous in the mornings) and silently left the room. Throughout the long night he'd debated with himself over whether or not to act on his gut feeling. He knew that detection by anyone spelled the ruin of his spur-of-the-moment plan. Stealthily he crept down the red-carpeted hallways, at last making his way outside the building entirely.

Stepping out the door, Mario shut it as quietly as possible and squinted into the golden rays of the early morning sun as he crossed the drawbridge. A warm, comfortable breeze blew gently around him. In the forest far in the distance he could see the green leaves showing the first signs of the autumn color change. The day seemed quite peaceful. But all of this tranquility could not calm the storm in Mario's mind and heart. He was torn between two opinions.

"Should I, or shouldn't I?" He voiced his question to the breeze, which caught his words and carried them away, scattering them to the four corners of the wind.

At last he clenched a fist and turned his face to the sky again. "I have to," he said aloud. "No one else can help me do this. I have to do it alone." He reached down and pulled Peach's present from his pocket. Opening the tiny red velvet case, he gazed a moment at its shimmering contents, then snapped it shut and replaced it in his pocket. Then, decisively, he withdrew the DTD from the other pocket and held it silently for a moment.

"Mario?" queried DT in his male drone.

"The temporary lockdown, DT. Is it off yet?"

DT's CPU whirred rhythmically. "Lockdown going offline in thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine—"

Rachel opened the castle door to admit the breeze and spotted Mario standing on the opposite side of the drawbridge. "Mario? What are you doing?"

"—Six, five, four, three, two, one, lockdown is offline."

Mario jammed the Kunzite Ring's violet gem into DT's socket, and a black portal opened before him. Rachel gasped and started running after him.

"Mario, don't! STOP!!"

Mario whirled around to see Rachel dashing toward him. Indecision flickered across his face for a moment; then he suddenly turned and leaped through the portal, which closed immediately.

Rachel slowed to a stop, staring at the spot where Mario had disappeared. She shook her head. "No, no, Mario, what were you thinking?! Going after Peach by yourself?! Cyanara—what chance does he stand alone against Cyanara?!"

Mario hopped out of the portal and landed silently in the dirt on the other side as it closed behind him. Replacing DT in his overalls pocket, he glanced around to determine his location. His roving eye, passing along the trees all around him, caught something between the towering trunks, far in the distance, sitting atop a low, shallowly sloped mountain. He examined it as closely as possible.

"That's Cyanara's fortress," he said with finality. "I'd know that place anywhere—how could I possibly forget it?" Pushing back a flood of painful memories associated with that imposing structure looming in the distance, he began making his way through the trees toward it. The sun climbed higher and higher as the fortress once on the horizon came closer and closer. He reached the unnamed mountain and began trudging up its rocky face. When at last he stood before the great iron gates, it was nearly ten o'clock.

Mario reached up and grasped the giant handle on the massive right-hand gate, tugging at it with all his might. The gate wouldn't budge. He tried the left door with the same degree of success. After yanking at both handles with all his might for several minutes he gave up and started around the side of the building to seek an alternate entrance.

Suddenly the huge gates groaned ponderously and swung slowly outward. Mario immediately dashed behind the opening gates to conceal himself and plastered his back against the fortress's outer wall, hoping against hope that whoever was coming out would not spot him.

The gates finished their ponderous outswing, and a troop of nearly fifty Paroidian Guards marched out through the open gates, apparently going on a routine patrol. Mario waited until they had all passed, then quickly darted around the door he had hidden behind and through the open gateway before the doors closed behind the guards.

The closing of the iron gates echoed hollowly through the fortress's cathedral-esque main hallway. The high ceiling and sweeping Gothic arches were distinctly medieval in style. Doors unending lined both sides of this massive hall. Mario looked cautiously about. Apparently he was alone for now.

Mario started off down the corridor at a run, his rapid footfalls echoing loudly as he raced along. He knew exactly where he was going.

"Cyanara always keeps Peach in that one little room," he recalled as he turned aside and pulled open one of the countless doors, entering a normally sized hall branching off from the main. "That tiny holding room. She's always in there." He picked up his pace a bit more. The sooner he got Peach out, the better.

Within ten minutes he was creeping down the hall toward the holding room, watching warily for guards or other unfriendlies. Coming up to the steel door barring entrance to the room, he tentatively tried the knob. Strangely enough, it was unlocked. A pang of fear galvanized him to action, and he threw the door open.

"Peach!"

Mario scanned the room hastily. There was the wooden table with its two chairs; the miniature kitchen area with sink and refrigerator; and the small cot on the left. The cot had a depression in its center, as if someone had recently occupied it. Feeling it, Mario found that it was still warm.

A lump settled in his stomach. Peach had obviously been here just minutes or perhaps even seconds before he had arrived. What if Cyanara had -

"No!" Mario told himself. "She's not dead yet! I've got to find her—she must still be in the fortress somewhere!" He turned and rushed out of the room.

Peach cowered behind an open door as a squad of Paroidian Guards rushed down the hall. They ran past without spotting her.

"They must have found the empty holding room by now," she whispered to herself, sighing in relief that she was yet undiscovered. Her breathing was heavy from running. "I've got to get away. I've got to get out of here!"

She shrank back into her hiding place as another troop of guards sped past. After they were gone she cautiously peeked around the door. No one else was in sight. Quickly she dashed off in the very direction her pursuers had taken. They'll never expect me to follow them, she thought hopefully as she sped off.

Wrong. Without warning the guards ahead turned and doubled back, heading right for her. Peach screamed and fled, only to find another contingent of the dreaded Paroidians coming at her from the other direction. Terrified, she ducked down a side corridor and ran with all her might. There was a door at the end of the hall, and she hoped beyond hope that it was unlocked. Otherwise—she cast a fleeting glance behind her and gulped—those guards were going to catch her. She didn't even want to think about what would happen to her if she were caught.

The guards, seeing Peach fleeing toward the door at the hall's end, gave a shout and picked up speed. Desperately Peach grasped at the doorknob and pulled. The door opened. Frantically she dashed inside and slammed it shut, locking it behind her. She leaned back against the door, eyes closed, catching her breath. From behind the door she could hear the frustrated voices of her pursuers. Then, strangely enough, they simply walked away, their footfalls growing ever fainter until Peach could no longer hear them.

That's funny, she thought. Why don't they just break down the door?

Then she opened her eyes—and caught her breath.

"Oh, my—" Her mouth dropped open.

Spread out before her was an immense garden, filled to overflowing with exotic plants, trailing creepers, towering palms, and gorgeous flowers. Intertwined with the array of foliage was a complex network of stone-paved paths, turning the breathtaking panorama into a pleasure garden where one might enjoy a quiet stroll. Peach's ears, growing accustomed to the near silence, now began to hear the chirping of birds in the treetops and the rushing of water somewhere nearby. Her senses were lulled by the utter tranquility.

Slowly Peach relaxed, letting herself unwind from her breathless run. After a few minutes she hesitantly stepped onto one of the wending pathways.

Peach moved as a rainbow-cloaked angel through the vast indoor garden, stopping here and there to smell the flowers, gaze on the laughing, burbling creek that bubbled musically through the midst of the garden, or just breathe a sigh of happiness. Of all the places she had never expected to find peace, she had found it here. A quiet beauty attended her as she strolled through the garden. She was seemingly oblivious to potential danger. So absorbed was she in the peaceful stillness that she forgot even the possibility of peril.

Two round yellow eyes stared hungrily out of the dense foliage, following the rainbow-clad Princess's every move. The eyes narrowed to contemptuous slits, and a low growl issued from the undergrowth.

Peach did not notice the sound.

The eyes vanished, and a shadowy form slunk away into the greenery, only to creep to the very edge of its leafy camouflage, mere inches from a pathway that crossed Peach's path. Still Peach failed to notice the presence of her mysterious watcher. She seemed not even to know that she was not alone. She bent down to smell a particularly beautiful rose, then plucked the flowering stem and softly walked onward, crossing the path on which her hungry watcher lurked.

A strong body hurled itself across the intersecting path behind Peach and vanished into the adjacent garden terrace with a loud rustle. Peach started and turned; she saw no one. Unnerved, she hesitantly started forward again.

Imperceptible footfalls padded through the leafy growth on Peach's right. They stopped a few yards ahead of her. Peach warily moved on, not knowing that she was walking into the very jaws of -

With a vicious roar the beast sprang from her hiding place and pounced on the terrified Peach, knocking her to the stone path beneath her feet. Her claws dug into Peach's shoulders as the weight of her powerful orange body pinned Peach to the ground.

"EEEEEK!!" screamed Peach.

The tigress snarled into Peach's face, choking her with the hot stench of her breath. Her wickedly sharp teeth prepared to devour her prey. Peach shut her eyes tight and turned her head away, not wanting to see those horrible fangs rip into her flesh.

A sharp whistle pierced the air of the garden.

The tigress's ears perked up. Giving Peach one last snarl, the big cat jumped off her potential victim and loped off down the pathway.

Peach lay stunned on the stone path, trying to collect herself. Frightened almost into shock by the sudden attack, she lay still, catching her breath and recovering from her rude shock. Suddenly she heard a voice coming closer, growing louder...

"...yes, you're such a good girl, Sanya."

There was a loud purr.

"Yes, my beauty—" The voice stopped. "Well, if it isn't Peach!" exclaimed the voice with an overly smooth overtone.

"Cyanara," Peach whispered, all hope draining from her face.

Cyanara, the tigress at her side, strolled up to Peach. "Just look what the cat dragged in," she remarked casually. "Sanya, don't you eat Peach. I'm saving her for later."

The tigress again purred loudly and rubbed her neck against Cyanara's sheer black skirt. Cyanara stroked Sanya's massive head fearlessly.

"I'd heard you'd escaped from your room, Peach," Cyanara informed her sibling. "The only reason my guards didn't catch you was that this room is off-limits. I am the only one allowed inside—which obviously means you are trespassing."

Her eyes fell on the rose in Peach's hand and narrowed. "I see you managed to pick my favorite rose, too." She bent down and took the blossoming stem from Peach, who did not resist. "It's rather impolite to walk into someone else's garden without permission and begin picking the flowers at leisure." She twirled the rose stem in her fingers.

Peach shakily got to her feet beneath Cyanara's cutting gaze. Sanya growled, the hair on her back standing on end as it does on angry cats. Her tail lashed back and forth with hypnotizing rhythm. The silence was almost deafening.

"You know, Peach," Cyanara said at last with that sweet, cunning smile of hers, "I'm glad I found you here. You've saved me the trouble of having to get you from your room." She took Peach's arm, her eyes sweet as sugar, her grip like iron. "It's that time, little sister."

Peach could say nothing, so terrified was she. Death she feared not, but...Cyanara's methods were less than merciful.

The Empress shoved her sister roughly forward, making Peach gasp and stumble. "Get moving," she ordered, a smoldering hatred filling her face. "Go!"

Tremblingly Peach obeyed, Cyanara's hand still gripping her arm like a vise. Her mind was almost incapable of sensible thought, so numbed was it, but she managed one silent cry.

Mario, where ARE you?!

Frantically Mario dashed through the deserted halls of Cyanara's fortress, growing more and more desperate with each passing moment. Peach could be anywhere in this vast place, and he was without a map or other directions to guide him through the maze of hallways. Although feeling utterly lost and helpless, he refused to give up.

"I know she's here somewhere!"

Suddenly, quite by accident, he stumbled on a steel door equipped with keypad entry. Acting on impulse, he stepped over to the silvery keypad and considered a moment. A thought struck him.

"Cyanara always did seem to like the number thirteen," he mused, recalling the many occurrences of that number over the past weeks. There were too many to mention—plus the thirteens in everyday life, such as Peach's own birthday, August thirteenth. Hesitantly he entered 1313—double thirteen—into the keypad. The lock clicked open, and Mario pulled open the door, amazed that he'd been correct.

Mario cast a swift glance around the hall beyond the door. It seemed perfectly ordinary. Not a single person was in sight, not even the usual guard or two who would require avoiding. His ears strained to catch even the slightest sound.

From the far end of the hall rang out a bloodcurdling scream. The horrifying sound sent cold chills down Mario's spine, and he started. He knew that voice.

"Peach!!" Instantly he was flying down the hall at breakneck speed. He skidded to a stop at the hall's end. There was no door. Frantically he looked for an outlet. He heard that horrible scream again, sending the adrenaline pounding through his arteries, driving him to act faster. What to do? The tension made his emotions boil over, and in frustration he smashed his fist into the wall. Surprisingly, instead of hurting his knuckles, he punched a hole right through the wall.

Instantly Mario threw himself against the fake wall, easily ripping through the flimsy barrier. Another hallway lay beyond it. He barreled down it, turned right at the corner, and found his path blocked by an impenetrable steel door with security lasers guarding the path to the door.

Cautiously Mario scooted along the floor on his stomach, edging under the red beams stretched across the hallway. He barely made it through undetected. Having got safely past the security system, he scrambled to his feet and tried the door. Locked, as he had suspected. Now he put his elemental powers to good use, heating the door red-hot with fireballs then supercooling it with ice. The sudden temperature change strained the steel until it buckled and sheared apart. One punch smashed the ruined door wide open, and Mario stood aghast at the sight before him.

The room beyond the door was made completely of steel. Lining the walls was a super-complex array of computers. And in the center, sealed inside an airtight glass tube, was Princess Peach herself, a look of horror on her face as the shadowy ether filling the tube flowed into her. She seemed paralyzed, unable to respond to Mario's cries.

"PEACH!!!"

Without thinking Mario rushed forward and dealt the tube a stunning blow. A tremendous jolt of electricity seared up his arm into the base of his neck and hurled him backward, smashing him against the wall. He rebounded from the impact and landed flat on his face on the floor, stunned. The nearly fatal shock caused his brain to almost instantly lapse into unconsciousness, but just before he blacked out he heard footsteps approaching him...

Mario groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. Suddenly he remembered Peach, still trapped in that glass prison. He bounded to his feet, ready to break her out—then froze.

He wasn't in the room with Peach anymore.

The plumber now stood in a huge semicircular room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all washed a foul gray. A black stone altar sat in the center of the room with four tiny flames flickering from its four corners. But that which brought to Mario's mind the name of this room was the massive door, a door at least thirty feet tall, set into the far wall, engraved with crescent moons, flaming meteors, curling smoke, and a ribbon of fire licking up its center. Mario caught his breath. He knew where he was now, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Well, well," remarked Cyanara with her cunning smile as she entered the room from behind Mario, "it would seem the indomitable hero has fallen right into my trap. I knew Peach would serve as an irresistible lure to draw you to me."

Mario spun around and faced her. "What are you doing to her?!"

"Peach?" The Empress's smile grew still more crafty. "Just running a little self-destruct program. Once she's saturated with darkness she will be under my entire control. All I'll have to do is say the word, and poor little sister will immediately disintegrate."

"You can't do that to her!" cried Mario, stepping toward the Empress, fists upraised.

"Oh, can't I?" asked the Empress smoothly, circling around Mario to stand before the black altar. "Look at your hands, Mario, and tell me what's missing."

Mario glanced at his fists and stared at them in shock. The Rainbow Rings were gone. His head shot up, and he fixed his eyes on Cyanara's hands. Sure enough, there they were—all eight Rings, one Ring on each of her fingers. She laughed softly at his dumbfounded expression.

"I can do with Peach whatever I very well please," she informed Mario suavely, "because I have the power to do so. No one can stop me." Reaching behind her, she lifted the eight Rainbow Discs from the altar and held them up. The Discs floated out of her hands and began to circle her slowly, each emitting its own rainbow hue and bathing the Empress in a kaleidoscope of color. The Rings on her hands and the Rainbow Pendant hanging from her neck began to glow as well.

Cyanara reveled in her impending climax. "I repeat, Mario—no one can stop me now!!"

With a brilliant burst of light the full energy of the rainbow was released from the seventeen sacred objects. Cyanara's body absorbed the energy immediately. The glowing ceased, and the floating Discs settled themselves back on the altar behind her.

"What...was that?" Mario asked slowly.

Cyanara laughed. "Don't you understand? With all of the rainbow objects in my possession, I can unlock their full potential. All of the power of the rainbow is now at my command. Now I am not only immortal—I AM INVINCIBLE!!"

Mario went into his battle stance. "We'll see about that!"

Cyanara smiled and held up her left hand, indicating the black eighth Rainbow Ring on her index finger. "I'm sure you've wondered what the power of this last Ring is," she said smoothly. "I've saved it just for the pleasure of using it on you myself." She pointed her finger at Mario, and the Ring began to gleam.

"Now, Shadow Ring," intoned Cyanara, "let's see how he fares against his own mind when it's turned against him. Mario," she cried in challenge, "feel the power of memory!"

With that the Shadow Ring emitted a light beam that caught Mario directly in the face. He cried out and tried to shield his eyes. To his dismay he found himself completely paralyzed. The light's intensity increased, and suddenly it shut off, leaving Mario to pitch onto his face, unconscious. Cyanara smiled again.

"Let's see how you resist your own memories, Mario. They will fight for me."

"......ungh...no......NO!"

Mario felt himself floating, tumbling slowly through empty space. He could see nothing, hear nothing. He was completely isolated, cut off from the outside world, and was now trapped in the confines of his own mind.

Suddenly, like lightning, an image seared through his consciousness. He saw the edge of the forest surrounding Peach's castle. Running away from him was a huge spiny-shelled dinosaur with horns and a crop of fiery red hair. Slung helplessly over his shoulder was a hysterical Princess Peach, reaching out to him. Instantly the scream he'd heard that day came back to haunt him.

"Eeeeeek! Mario! HEEEEEEELP!!!"

"Peach!" Mario knew what that scene was from. That had been the first time Peach had ever been kidnapped by Bowser. Oh, how he hated that memory. He started to reach out, to save the Princess, but no sooner did he try to interact with the vision than it vanished completely.

In another instant another scene flashed before him. He saw a circular room with a stone coffin lying in its center and hundreds of black candles lining the walls. Sir Grodus was there, before the coffin. Peach lay weak and exhausted at the foot of the stone casket. Then the horrifying Shadow Queen demon rose from the casket in all her haunting blackish-purple majesty of evil, enveloped Peach in a torrent of blackness, and possessed her.

"No! Peach!" Again Mario tried to act; again the scene was lost in blackness.

Now yet another memory burst into life before his eyes. He was looking out over the Koopaseum's vast amphitheater. The numberless Shroob hordes packed the colosseum bowl to overflowing. The younger Shroob princess was on the central platform, shouting some guttural command into the microphone. Then, to Mario's horror, Peach came flying into the colosseum, bound and dangling from a Shroob UFO. Petey Piranha stuck his ugly maw out of a blue pipe in front of the platform, opened wide, and the screaming Peach was dropped right into his toothy jaws.

Mario did not try to react, to save her. He was too far away. But the tears blurred his eyes as the cheering Shroobs faded from his mental theater.

A fourth "memory film" began to play. In it he saw Bowser himself standing in the Princess's castle, wielding the mystic Star Rod. He was fighting against Mario, who in his memory could feel the blows and burns being dealt him by the fiend. At last he could fight no longer and collapsed. From behind him he could hear Peach gasping, calling for him to get up, to fight, to protect her. He tried. He threw all his strength into the effort, but all his remaining strength was not enough. A pang shot through him as he realized he had failed. The mental screen went blank again.

Suddenly Cyanara's voice cut through his consciousness like a knife, slicing through the stillness. "Remember the pain you felt, Mario. Remember how helpless you were each time to do anything for your princess. You failed her miserably."

"I did not!" Mario shouted back inside his mind. "Every time I rescued her!"

"And every time you failed to prevent the evil occurrence from happening," returned the Empress's icy voice. "Think of all the terror and suffering she's gone through because her 'hero' wasn't there to protect her from the start—or else was too weak to do anything."

"Stop it!" cried Mario. He was confused, bewildered by Cyanara's logic.

"Not only that, but after every episode you walked away from her and went back to your own house, leaving her to whatever might choose to attack next. You would think that after a few of your 'adventures' you would have learned your lesson and stayed at the castle to guard her. But you didn't, of course. You don't care about her anymore than I do."

"STOP IT!!" screamed Mario. "I DO care!!"

"Then why didn't you do anything to protect her?" came the cold, calculating question.

"I did!" Mario was angry now. "Stop trying to make this whole thing my fault, Cyanara! You know good and well that you're the one behind this whole scheme to get Peach! I tried to stop you and failed because of your trickery! ...I care about Peach! But just because I can't do anything to stop you doesn't mean it's my fault that she suffers! You are the one in the wrong!"

Cyanara's voice was silent for a moment. "Hmmmm... It appears that you are stronger in mind than I had anticipated. Perhaps I'll have to deal with you physically after all."

Suddenly Mario found himself back in his body again, inside Penumbra's Tomb. Cyanara was still standing in front of the black altar, smiling at him. He scrambled to his feet.

"Now it's your turn to feel the pain, Cyanara!"

"I wouldn't get so cocky if I were you," remarked the Empress casually. "Take a look behind you."

Mario turned and gasped. Amber, Citrine, Emerald, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Corundum, and even Athos lay sprawled across the gray stone floor near the door, completely unconscious. Their bodies showed countless bruises and a few serious gashes.

"While you were busy with your own little memories, Mario," Cyanara informed him, "these fools escaped and came after me. They were no match for me—not with my ultimate weapon."

Mario whirled around to face his enemy again. "Weapon? What weapon?"

Cyanara smiled as she slipped a pair of white gloves over her hands. Something about those gloves stirred a faint recollection in Mario's mind, but he didn't know why. He scrutinized them but found nothing unusual. Still, those gloves...

"Curious?" Cyanara's voice broke into his reverie. "I'm surprised you don't recognize them right away. Don't worry—you will." Her black eyes danced in glee. "Oh, you will."

Suddenly a wide black portal opened overhead, covering the lofty ceiling of Penumbra's Tomb. Flashes of lightning from within the portal illuminated the dimness of Penumbra's Tomb for brief instants. Cyanara lifted her face to the portal and smiled evilly, eyes gleaming in anticipation.

"Only in the realm between dimensions can my weapon be unleashed. So, Mario—care for a lift?"

Mario felt his feet leave the floor. He looked up and saw the portal seemingly rushing toward him, growing larger by the second. Cyanara, too, was shooting up through the air toward the portal, and her wicked laugh was the last thing Mario heard before he passed through the portal into the darkness beyond.