A/N: Damn, I am just so impatient to get more of this story up. Mostly I just wanna get to Chapter 2, NEW PARTNER TIEM *flails*. Sadly I can pretty much guarantee I won't always be able to update so quickly, so enjoy this while you can.

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The Temple of the Sun

00:00

Peach had no idea what was going on.

Quite a while ago – she didn't know how long anymore – she, Luigi and Toadsworth had woken up to find themselves in a huge, circular room with windows covering the walls. Light was spilling in, although it didn't seem to have any particular source. On the floor was some sort of huge, ornate clock, with a pattern identical to the one they had seen on the mosaic.

But more importantly, there wasn't a door. They had no way out of here.

None of them had any idea where they were, nor did they have the slightest idea how they had gotten there. In fact, as they conversed among themselves, they found that all three of them had the same final memory – collapsing to the ground outside the Soluna Temple as some horrible pain devoured up their consciousness.

And to make matters worse, Mario was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, what if something terrible has happened to him?" Peach cried for at least the tenth time. The three of them had been here alone for some time now, possibly an entire day. "Didn't that Rodolfo man say how nobody was allowed in that temple?"

"You really think just going in there could've caused all this to happen?" Luigi asked skeptically. "I mean, I know it wasn't allowed, but you really think he could have incurred some unholy wrath just by doing that?"

"If you ask me, we should stop worrying about Master Mario and start worrying about ourselves!" Toadsworth fumed. "We haven't the slightest idea where we are, nor does there seem to be any way out of here!"

Peach sighed, sinking into a sitting position on top of the giant clock. "Oh, you may be right, Toadsworth," she moaned. "If only we knew where we were, that would at least be something."

"Well, allow me to oblige, Princess," came a sudden voice. Luigi shrieked and hid behind Peach, and all three of them nervously faced what sounded like the source of the disembodied voice.

Suddenly, a billow of choking black smoke rose up from the floor as the space around it seemed to twist and warp. Peach's eyes widened as a tall, dark figure came stepping out from the smoke, causing it to disperse. As he did so, three more smaller puffs of smoke suddenly appeared behind him, and out came skittering three dark blue, imp-like creatures.

Though Peach and the others had no way of knowing, they were currently in the presence of King Shroude, as well as Jaff, Pell, and Nobb.

"I haven't had any actual prisoners in a long time, you know. Consider it an honor," Shroude chuckled. "And in the Temple of the Sun, no less! Yes, you three are much more fortunate than most of the others in this pathetic world!"

"Wait a minute – " Peach stammered. "Did you just say – we're in the Temple of the Sun?! But – how is that even possible?"

"Did you bring us here?" Luigi asked timidly.

"Of course I did. And to answer your question, Princess, anything at all is possible when you are the supreme Master of Night."

Peach glowered at their captor, as well as the Darkstriders who were silently flanking him.

"If we're really in the Temple of the Sun," she said suspiciously, "then where are the Twelve Guardians? Shouldn't they be here somewhere?"

"Oh, I already took care of them, trust me," Shroude replied smugly. "The Guardians of Night are safely under my control. And the Guardians of Day… well, they won't plague this world any longer."

He drew his finger across his throat with a meaning smile. Peach gasped, and her hands flew to her mouth.

"Why, you foul boor!" Toadsworth raged, barging forward and shaking his cane. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?!"

"I had a feeling you wouldn't understand," Shroude sighed theatrically. He snapped his fingers, and the three Darkstriders leapt at Toadsworth, claws bared. The Toad cried out in shock and ran back to where he had been standing.

"Yes, I did indeed destroy the Guardians of Day – and if you were smart, you'd be thanking me," the Master of Night said sternly. "I just don't understand what the appeal of Day is. A world of eternal Night would be so much better, don't you think?

"Unfortunately," he sighed, folding his arms over his chest, "my loyal servants here had just finished telling me that my master plan didn't go quite as flawlessly as I had expected. It would seem that rather than eliminating Day once and for all, I've merely separated it from Night completely. A good start, of course, but I'm sure I can improve on it even more."

Peach had heard enough. She leapt to her feet, absolutely fuming, as intimidating as a princess in a pink dress could possibly be.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!!" she shouted. "How can you upset the order of the world like this?! You really think you'll get away with it? And what's the point of keeping us three captive?! And where's Mario?! What have you done with him?"

King Shroude laughed heartily, which did nothing but upset Peach even more. Suddenly, without warning, he swept across the room, covering the distance between himself and Peach in less than a second. He was now standing directly over her.

"You ask too many questions, Princess," he said with a smirk. "But since I'm so kind, I'll humor you. Yes, of course I'm getting away with it. And trust me, Princess, I have a reason of my own for keeping you here.

"Believe it or not, I've heard of you before, Peach. A princess of your purity, legend, and stature comes along once in a great while. I believe you're the person I'm looking for in order to make my plans complete."

Peach glowered up at him. "Let me guess – you're trying to resurrect an ancient demon, and you need my body for it to possess?" she said accusingly. "Or maybe you're trying to destroy the universe, and you need me to marry someone in order to create an interdimensional rift that will swallow everything up?"

Shroude stared at her for a long time before he burst out laughing again.

"You have a very active imagination, Princess," he remarked.

"You villains and your ridiculous plans," Peach fumed. "You can't surprise me anymore. And no matter what you are planning, I refuse to go along with it."

"Well, there I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Shroude replied. "As for your two friends here, I have no real use for them other than I couldn't have them sniffing around my new world and looking for a way to rescue you. Better to keep them here, and out of trouble. I would have done the same thing to that Mario person, but he eluded me somehow."

"Mario?!" Luigi cried. "So you do know what happened to him?"

Shroude glared at Luigi, who immediately shrank back.

"I don't see what business that is of yours, but yes, my minions have been keeping an eye on him. Trust me, he'll be out of the picture soon enough."

"Uh, well, actually, my lord," Jaff spoke up nervously. "We just found out that Mario, uh… well, he found the first Sun Soul. And he found the first new Guardian as well."

Shroude's eyes suddenly bulged.

"AND WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO GET AROUND TO TELLING ME THAT?!?" he bellowed, rounding on Jaff. "How on earth did he find out where the Sun Soul was?! And he defeated those birds as well?!"

"Apparently, my lord," Jaff said timidly.

Shroude muttered something to himself, straightening out his robes and attempting to collect himself.

Peach smiled in vicious triumph. "Ha! You hear that? I don't know what you're planning, but Mario's working to undo it even as we're talking! He's going to bring those Guardians back!"

"Oh, just shut up, would you?" Shroude sighed, massaging his temple. "All right, so Mario got lucky this time. But his luck is about to run out! A teleporting forest and angry birds are nothing compared to what lies ahead. If Mario wants to find the second Sun Soul, he'll have to journey to the summit of Mt. Tourmaline, the tallest mountain in Chronoside!"

"He'll do it. I know he will," Peach said firmly.

Shroude rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately, you may be right. It seems he's a bigger threat than I thought."

He turned to his minions. "Jaff! Pell! Nobb! You three have already had the dishonor of losing to Mario once. This may be your chance to redeem yourselves."

"What do you ask of us, my lord?" asked Pell.

"What do you think I ask of you?! You're going to Mt. Tourmaline right now, and you're going to guard that Sun Soul! Prevent Mario from reaching it at any cost!"

"As you wish, my lord!" Jaff declared. "Darkstriders, let's go!"

All three of them suddenly raised up their arms, sending up plumes of black smoke that surrounded them. When the air cleared, they had vanished.

"I hate to tell you this, Princess, but Mario's not getting any farther. Not if I have something to say about it," Shroude said with a malicious grin. "Now I'm afraid I must take my leave… but we'll meet again."

He stepped backwards, and like the Darkstriders, was surrounded in black smoke as he waved his scepter above his head. Before long, he too was gone.

For a moment, Peach, Luigi and Toadsworth were all silent.

"Well, at least we know where we are now," Luigi finally spoke up.

"Well, if that isn't the most unpleasant brute I've ever met," Toadsworth mumbled. "But I knew we could count on Master Mario. He'll get us out of this mess, I'm quite certain of it."

Peach didn't look so confident.

"Toadsworth, didn't you hear what he said? Mario is looking for those Sun Soul things, whatever they are, but he doesn't even know where the next one is! Only we know that!"

"Well, we gotta tell him somehow!" Luigi decided. "Princess Peach, all those other times you were kidnapped, how did you talk to Mario and tell him what to do?"

"I… I always had someone," Peach recalled miserably. "But there's nobody this time. Nobody to send information to Mario for us. And escape is out of the question. If we're really in the Temple of the Sun, then we're in an entirely different dimension."

Luigi and Toadsworth watched in concern as Peach slowly sat down, looking utterly hopeless. No matter what, even in the middle of a kidnapping, she'd always been able to help Mario before. She'd always been able to do something.

She'd never been this helpless before.

"I'm sorry, Mario," she said softly, "but I think this time, you're just going to have to get by without me."

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Meanwhile, far, far away…

Peach's castle was unusually peaceful without the princess around. All the Mushroom Retainers who ran the place were casually going about their business, cleaning, cooking, and keeping the place looking nice for Peach's return.

Whenever she left on an adventure (or more often, got kidnapped) there was a certain lull in the action around the castle. Peach certainly knew how to liven up the place with her constant itching for excitement. She would be gone for several weeks, though, and the servants were starting to think that there wouldn't be any excitement for them until she came back.

That was about when the front wall of the castle came bursting in.

"GRAW HAW HAW HAW!!" laughed the intruder who had just torn through the wall like the paper it was. It was none other than Bowser, the Koopa King.

"Man, I can't believe I never thought of doing that before!" he chuckled to himself as he stomped into the castle foyer. "Forget lifting the castle up into space – next time, I'm going for the direct approach!"

"HOLY ELDSTAR!! IT'S BOWSER!!" cried one of the Toad servants.

"MOMMYYYYYYYY!!!" shrieked another one, hurling the vase he'd been cleaning into the air and running for his life.

"Hey, what's with the cold reception?" Bowser grumbled as the castle flew into a panic at the sight of him. "It's Bowser, baby! I'm just here to kidnap the princess! It's Monday, remember?"

"They should learn to show you a little respect, your nastiness! Perhaps we should teach them a lesson!" croaked a voice from behind him. Up next to him came shuffling his equally unpleasant right-hand woman, Kammy Koopa.

"Hey, you!" Bowser snapped, grabbing a Toad who had been running by him. "Where's Princess Peach? She's been expecting me, you know!"

"P-P-P-Princess Peach?" the Toad stammered. He was shaking so hard it looked like he was having a seizure. "S-s-she's not here right now!"

"What's this nonsense?" Kammy demanded, prodding the Toad in the side with her staff. "The princess isn't here? Then where is she, you fool?"

"Uh… s-s-she, Mario and Luigi all went on vacation," he replied weakly. "They're off to some country called Chronoside."

Bowser did not look at all pleased about that.

"WHAT?!?" he roared. "You mean Mario, Luigi and Peach all went on vacation together?! AND THEY DIDN'T INVITE ME?!?"

He started stomping on the floor in fury.

"Oh, my… your awfulness! Please contain yourself! You'll lose your mystique!" Kammy reminded him urgently.

Bowser grumbled something that sounded like an agreement, eventually calming down.

"All right, Mushroom Cap. Thanks for the heads-up," he grunted, shoving the Toad away. He scrambled back to join the other servants, who were crowded together at the opposite end of the room and warily pointing their spears.

"Kammy! Change of plans!" Bowser declared, turning to face her. "We're going to this Chronoside place right now! I won't stand for Peach brushing me off like this!"

"Uh… is that really such a good idea, Lord Bowser?" Kammy wondered. "It'll take all day to fly there from here! Maybe we should just wait until the princess returns!"

"What? Whaddaya mean, wait until she returns?!" growled the Koopa King. "You mean I should act like her little vacation is more important than me kidnapping her? And I should let those Mario Brothers get away with disrespecting me like this? That's not how I roll, haggy!!"

"Oh, dear me…" Kammy grumbled as Bowser turned around and barged back out of the castle, ripping another hole in the wall in the process. The elderly Magikoopa hurriedly tottered out after him.

"COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST GONE THROUGH THE FIRST HOLE?!" shouted one of the Toads.

Within minutes, Bowser had taken off in his Clown Copter and was soaring through the sky. Kammy was flying behind him on her broom, struggling to keep up.

"Urgh… I might be getting too old for this…" she grumbled.

"Cram it, you old bag!" Bowser growled, always peering far ahead at the horizon. "I don't have time for any nonsense this time! This is a matter of personal honor!"

Just as Kammy had said, the flight ended up lasting all day long. They flew over stretching land and endless ocean, and the sky had already begun to darken by the time Bowser announced that they were finally approaching Chronoside.

But there was something else about the sky.

"My word, Lord Bowser! Have a look at those clouds, would you?"

As they got closer, it became more and more clear that the sky ahead of them was covered with massive, pitch black clouds.

"So they're having a little bad weather. Big deal!" Bowser scoffed.

Kammy, however, knew better. Being a Magikoopa of her skill and experience, she had a sense for anything magical and supernatural. Although, you didn't need to be the least bit magic to know there was something wrong about those clouds.

"Lord Bowser, maybe we should turn back…" she said nervously.

"Pssh… if you're scared, be my guest!"

She was about to do exactly that… when she realized to her horror that she couldn't turn her broom around. She couldn't stop. She couldn't even slow down.

In fact, she was going faster. It felt like those clouds were pulling her in.

"Lord Bowser… there's something very wrong going on!!" she cried, clinging onto the handle as her broom flew faster and faster on its own accord.

"What the? Kammy, what are you – "

And then Bowser felt it too. The propeller on his Clown Copter was starting to spin out of control, and the Copter itself was beginning to lurch violently forward, threatening to throw the Koopa King out.

"What the heck is going on here?!" he demanded.

"I KNEW THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!!" Kammy shrieked. The clouds were so huge now that they were looming up and obscuring the duo's vision entirely, and they were getting closer by the second. They could see flashes of black lightning racing between the clouds, accompanied by crashes of thunder.

"INCOMING!!!" Bowser bellowed.

Both of them screamed in panic, unable to stop themselves as some invisible force pulled them in faster and faster –

Until they finally vanished into the darkness.

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A/N: Yeah, I had to add in Bowser and Kammy. It just wouldn't be a Paper Mario adventure without them.

But what will happen to them now? And to Peach and the others? Only time will tell…

Okay, that pun was awful.