Well, hello again everyone. I know, I know, it's been a long, long, time. 5 Months, I know. Writing has taken me a while, and I am very sorry about this. I mean, I barely managed to get anything done in the last 5 months. I think I got one chapter of Neverfall uploaded, and that was about it. Hopefully I'll finish Neverfall this summer, but we'll see.
Speaking of which, it is summer break now! Finally! Hopefully, without school constantly pilling up, I might have time to give you guys a half decent amount of updates.
Speaking of which, that's actually why you're getting this chapter now. See, about two weeks ago, I came to the sudden, terrible realization that, if I didn't update this story within those next couple of weeks, that I would have failed to finish a single chapter on this story for the entirety of second semester. Weirdly enough, I think it was that sudden pressure that caused me to finally figure out how to do this chapter, and finally gave me the inspiration to finish writing it. My goal was simple: I needed to finish writing this chapter before school was done. And I... technically succeeded. I mean, sure, I school ended three days ago, and I'm only uploading the chapter now, but I did actually manage to finish writing the chapter before school ended. I finished it on the last day of finals actually, early in the morning, I was just too tired by the time evening came to proofread it. So, that's why it's coming out today. Again, sorry for the long wait everyone, but I hope this chapter is worth it.
Another reason why this chapter took so long - besides school taking up most of my time - was because it was honestly just really hard to write this chapter. I'll talk more about that in the closing authors note.
Anyway, thank you to Worldnotesongs88 for following and favouriting this story, and thank you very much for following and favouriting me! Also thank you very much to Tiana Koopa for following and favouriting me!
Now, at long last, on with the chapter!
Chapter 10: Star Children
Somewhere in the middle of a grassy plain, the four tired heroes came running over a hill, before stopping at last at its base. They had been running since they had gotten out of Larry's tower, and all that anyone could assume was that it had been at least an hour. The sun was rising higher in the sky, and it seemed from its angle that it was about mid morning. Standing in the middle of the field, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Rosalina all bent over, trying to catch their breaths.
"Alright" Mario spoke after a few moments of panting, straightening up. "We need to figure out what to do next."
"Well, what do you think we should do?" Luigi asked.
"Well, we killed this guy before - or we thought we did - but that was because Fawful had drained half of his power" Mario said.
"Yeah, how did he get that power back?" Luigi frowned. "Would it have just gone back into him when Fawful died?"
"But that wouldn't make sense," Mario said. "The Dark Star blew up before Fawful died. If he had gotten power back immediately, he should have reformed right then and there."
"He isn't even fully reformed yet, though" Peach said, as she sat down gently in the grass. "We all saw him in the tower. He's using Larry as a vessel."
"I don't think he did get the power back" Rosalina said. Although she looked tired too, she did not look nearly as exhausted or out of breath as the rest of them. That might have had something to do with the fact that Rosalina was not even standing on the ground, but rather was floating several feet in the air above it(1).
"What do you mean?" Mario asked. "You don't think he has his power back? Like the half that Fawful took?"
"No, I don't believe that he did get that power back" Rosalina said.
"But - but how can he be alive then" Luigi spluttered. "He was hurt when we beat Fawful. That's how Bowser was able to land the finishing blow."
Rosalina nodded, gravely. "Yes, he was hurt, part of him died that day. But life can survive through injury and loss. He was terribly hurt, a part of him was gone, but he wasn't dead."
Despite Mario and Luigi's large surprise, Princess Peach was actually not too shocked by this news. She nodded along as Rosalina spoke.
"That actually makes sense" she said. "The Dark star is a life form of a great power, like the Star Spirits(2), but with opposite purpose. It makes sense, sadly, that he managed to survive even without all of his power."
"Alright, fine" Mario said, his face twisted into an extremely irritated expression that looked out of place on someone usually so enthusiastic. "So, the Dark Star was hurt when he lost half of his power to Fawful. And you're pretty sure that he didn't regain that power in anyway. It died with Fawful like we thought, right?"
"I must admit" Rosalina started, "I really don't know much about who this 'Fawful' is, so I can't tell you anything of his fate. However, I do recognize star power, and I could sense it in the Dark Star that he was missing a large portion of it. I'm almost certain that, whatever became of your friend Fawful, the power that he stole from the Dark Star was completely destroyed, and the Dark Star is now without that portion of his power."
"Hold up" Luigi said. "Are you saying that Fawful might still be alive?!"
"Yes, he might be. I don't know anything about him, so it's hard to say(3)" Rosalina said. Recognizing the disturbed moods of the other three, she added "I'm guessing that that wouldn't be a good thing?"
"Yeah, uh, I guess you wouldn't have known, but Fawful wasn't really our 'friend'" Mario said awkwardly. "We were actually the ones fighting him when he died, so… yeah."
Rosalina nodded, thinking that traveling around space all the time really made her miss out on some adventures the others took. She knew of the Dark Star only because of its heritage of Star Power, and the massive cosmic importance it held on the universe. It was for this same reason of cosmic importance that she even knew anything about the Mario Brothers's meeting with it. She did not, however, know anything else about the adventure they had taken in which they had met the star. She would have to ask one of them to explain the whole thing to her later.
"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about this 'Fawful' anyway" Rosalina said calmly. "The Dark Star did not regain any power from him, and so I doubt, if he is alive somewhere, that he is playing any role in all this."
"Shouldn't we be a little concerned about the possibility of him being alive?" Luigi asked.
"Eh, I agree with Rosalina, bro, one problem at a time" Mario said.
"Very well" Peach said. She too looked rather uneasy about the whole Fawful thing, but tried her best to take Mario's advice to ignore the dilemma for the time being.
"So" she said, "in that case, we're back on the previous subject. How did the Dark Star return now, and what happened to him when he was defeated the first time?"
"And better yet" Luigi cut in, "I'd like to know how he suddenly has the power to possess people!"
Rosalina was silent for moment, her head been gently towards the ground as she tried to decide where the best place to begin was. Then, she looked back up at the nervously awaiting heroes and began to speak.
"When you defeated the Dark Star the first time, you destroyed one half of his power" she spoke. "The remaining half of it, that still rested in him, I am correct in thinking that Bowser destroyed it?"
The others nodded.
"Very good then. That half of his power, the part that was still physically with him, that part was nearly crippled when the second half was destroyed with you enemy Fawful." Rosalina made an extra effort to remember to call Fawful an enemy. "When the half of his power was destroyed, the remaining part he still had was terribly damaged, and this is what would have given Bowser the power to destroy the Star's physical form, breaking whatever shape the Dark one had currently taken."
"It was of Bowser" Mario said.
"Pardon?" Rosalina stopped, looking curiously at Mario.
"The Dark Star" Mario said. "When we beat him last time, he had stolen some of Bowser's DNA, and was shaped like him; had all of his abilities too."
"Oh yeah, that was really something strange when we saw the Dark Star absorb Bowser's DNA" Luigi shuddered. "That was unnatural."
For the first time that day, Rosalina felt truly lost as to what the others were talking about. How had Luigi watched the Dark Star absorb someone's DNA? Wasn't DNA too small for humans to see? She quickly tired to steer the conversation back on course.
"Anyway" she began again. "Although Bowser would have destroyed the Dark Star's physical shell, the Dark one wouldn't have been killed. Nothing, it seems, can really kill a star like this."
"What do you mean 'a star like this'?" Mario asked.
"Your princess said it best already, Mario" Rosalina said.
"He's the same as the Star Spirits" Peach explained. "A counter to them. The Star Spirits and all the Power Stars they protect represent light and good and hope and generosity, While the Dark Star represents darkness and evil and despair and cruelty. Just like the Star Spirits can never be destroyed, only weakened, it makes sense that the Dark Star works in the same way."
"Why can these evil entities never just go away" Mario muttered, shaking his head irritably. "Why are they always immortal?"
"How do you know so much about this, princess?" Luigi asked.
"I am the one with the power to release the Dark Star(4), Luigi" Peach said, smiling gently. "The knowledge of the Stars was kept with my family for generation before me. Although", she turned towards Rosalina, addressing her, "with all that you've told us about the Dark Star that I didn't know, I think we must have lost some knowledge along the way."
"Perhaps" Rosalina agreed. "Now then" - she turned back to again continue her story - "What the princess said is correct. The Star Spirits and the Dark Star are counters to each other, keeping a constant struggle of light and dark throughout the stars. And they are the same, in that neither side can ever truly be killed until time itself comes to an end."
Mario huffed in annoyance.
"There is a similar way in which the universe is kept balanced, but I will get to that in a moment" Rosalina continued. "As I said, the Dark Star's physical shell would have been destroyed by Bowser, and the Dark one would have been reduced to simple cosmic energy, drifting aimlessly through the universe. Half of his power was gone, and without that full extent, he wouldn't have been able to do much; he would have been trapped in his aimless state until he found a way to regain some of the power that was lost to him."
"How would he do that?" Mario asked.
"It is as I said earlier: there is another way that the universe is kept balanced" Rosalina said. "He needs to use the opposite of the power of the stars to regain his strength; he wishes to use the power of the ztars(5)."
"Wait a minute, ztars? Like the one's we use in Mario Party" Luigi asked.
Rosalina nodded.
"I think I'll have to start at the beginning… again" Rosalina smiled patiently.
The Brothers joined Peach in sitting on the grass, and all unconsciously leaned closer towards Rosalina to listen to what she had to say.
"Now then… let's begin. As I am sure you all know, there are many types of stars that fill our galaxies, our universe. Many stars are the fiery balls that give our galaxies light; stars like those fill a different role than the ones we think of as "Power Stars". Power Stars are like the golden ones; they provide power and strength to those who hold them. They are even the type of stars that power my observatory. However, as with any form of power, there must be a balance kept to it. The stars of our universe do this, and keep a contrast of good and evil, light and dark, in our world, balancing each other."
She paused here, considering her next words carefully.
"To understand this, you must know what the different types of stars are. Within the realm of what can be called a "power star", there are three distinct areas: there are the intelligent, living stars, there are pure power stars, and there are power ups. I am sure you are all familiar with this?"
When the other three nodded, she continued.
"Of course. First, there are the life forms. From them is where we find the Dark Star, as well as the Star Spirits. There are others, of course; there are the star sprites(6), who serve the Star Spirits, but the two of most contrasting purpose and powers are the Star Sprits and the Dark Star. These… yes Luigi?"
Luigi was raising his hand, as if he was in school and asking a question to the teacher.
"I was just wondering" he began. "Are Lumas power star life forms like them, or are they something else?"
"They are… something else" Rosalina replied, almost wistfully.
Luigi nodded.
"Anyway" Rosalina said, getting herself back on focus. "The Star Spirits and The Dark Star are the two biggest balances of good and evil, light and darkness, that are among the stars, and most other living stars are aligned with one side or another. But there is another way in which the stars are balanced. These are in the Pure Power Stars. These are the types of stars that you are usually collecting on your journeys, Mario. You once collected them for me(7).
Among these types of stars there are two major groups, reflecting the opposite energies of the universe: the stars and the ztars. The stars hold the power of strength and light, and they provide healing, energy, and power to those who hold them. Ztars are the opposite, and hold the power of pain and dark, and they provide suffering, loss, and weakness to those who hold them. There are many different forms of these. There are of course the normal stars and ztars, but there are also the mini stars and mini ztars we use in Mario Party, smaller forms of each. And there are even larger versions of each: grand stars, and yes, sadly, grand ztars too(8)."
The other three heroes grimaced at the thought of that.
"Grand ztars, really?" Peach asked, wincing at the thought of that much dark energy.
"Yes" Rosalina said. "However, I will tell you that they are incredibly rare, even rarer than grand stars are, so I wouldn't worry about them too much"
The others looked slightly relieved, though only slightly.
"Now, to continue, there are ways to… modify a stars power, so to speak. The stars and ztars that you - we - use in Mario Party, for example, have their powers toned down from that of a regular star."
Mario nodded. "Yeah, we didn't want anyone getting to overpowered when we played. Especially because Bowser crashes nearly every game…"
"Well then, that is most of what you need to know about the stars. The Dark Star is using ztars to regain his strength. While floating aimlessly in space, he was bound to have encountered a few ztars also lost in the cosmos, and was able to use them to regain something of his strength. That is - yes Mario?"
Mario, following his brother's example, was now raising his hand as well.
"I was just wondering, you said that ztars have the power of destruction. How would the Dark Star regain his strength through that? Wouldn't it hurt him?"
"The Dark one is different than most" Rosalina answered. "For most life forms, yes, it doesn't matter if you do good or evil, a star will give you strength, and a ztar will harm you. However, the Dark Star is a being completely made out of the Dark energy of the ztars. He is the living embodiment of their power. For him, a regular star will hurt, because it is opposite of what he is, but a ztar will actually give him strength, because it is of the same dark power that he is. Makes sense?"
Mario nodded.
"To that end, that is how he regained some of his strength. However, ztars in the cosmos are scattered far and wide, and he would not have been able to find enough of them out there to regain his full original strength. I believe that is the reason why he has chosen to come again to this planet, where you keep both stars and ztars, even if they are just for the Party games. They may be weaker, but the amount of them you store for the Parties would still provide enough power to give him what he wants. Yes Peach?"
This time, it was Peach who was raising her hand.
"You said he regained some of his power through the ztars already" Peach began. "Is that why he was able to possess Larry?"
Rosalina hesitated. "I think so, yes. Most likely the same reason why he had the power to harness the comet."
"Although, he was telling the truth when he said he wasn't truly 'possessing' Larry, wasn't he?" said Luigi. "That wasn't at all how the Dark Star acted when we met him last time."
"But it wasn't how Larry would normally act either!" Peach said.
"Yeah, I know, that's what I'm getting at" Luigi said. "It was like some sort of creepy combination of the two's personalities." He shuddered.
"Maybe it's more like basic mind control" Peach suggested. "Like, the Dark Star is controlling Larry's mind, and is influencing his thoughts, but in some ways Larry is still… well, Larry."
"That might make sense" Mario agreed. "But why did the Dark Star choose Larry Koopa of all people."
"Alright, everyone, back ton topic" Rosalina interjected suddenly. "We have more important things to talk about."
Between Mario, Luigi, and Peach's repeated hand raising when they had a question, the way they were all seated on the grass and staring up at her, and how she kept having to get them focused when they got distracted, Rosalina felt rather like a school teacher teaching a class of young students. A job which, because of her Lumas, she actually had some experience with.
"Alright, what do we still have to talk about?" Luigi asked.
"How to beat him" said Rosalina.
The other three looked at each other in sudden excitement, feeling their hopes rise for the first time that day.
"How do we do that, do we collect Power Stars to counter his power?" Mario asked.
"Well, we could do that" Rosalina said, by this point unsurprised by how quick Mario was at coming up with solutions to their problems. "But there is one thing more important than that. To explain though, I'm going to have to tell you about the last type of Power Stars: the power ups:
The power ups come in many different forms. There are of course, the basic super stars, then there are the rainbow stars, mega stars, and more(9). However these stars are unlike the other star types in one important way. As you know, the other types, both the life forms and the pure stars, have light and dark, or positive and negative versions, contrasting ends that are in a constant state of balance and opposition. Power up stars, on the other hand, are inherently neutral."
"Wait, really" Luigi asked, surprised. "But they give you power, wouldn't that be opposite of what ztars do?"
"It is different with power ups" Rosalina explained. "Although they do give us power, they have similar effects for the star life forms - the Dark Star as well. Unlike a power star, which would give most life forms energy but would hurt the Dark Star, power ups can actually be used by the Dark Star for his purposes. He corrupts them, so to speak, so they give him their energy for his use. It is different from the energy a power up would give us, but in this way, he can corrupt them to use them in the same way that we would.
There is one other major thing similar to the power up stars though. The thing that will give us a chance at beating him. A similarly neutral power, that could be used for light or for darkness, all depending on who chooses to wield it. A force that the Dark Star would want to exploit for himself, and yet one that we could use against him."
"What is it" Peach asked, completely enraptured by what Rosalina was saying.
"It is a power that rests inside you. It is the power of the Star Children(10)."
Mario, Luigi, and Peach all started in surprise. The Star Children, they were some of the Star Children. Them, along with Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser. The Star Children were said to be seven blessed children each possessing an extraordinary amount of power. This power was said to have come from seven stars that had apparently fallen to Earth when they were babies, and found a place of rest in the hearts of the seven newly born children.
Apparently, although they were all too young to truly remember any of this, when they were babies, Bowser had travelled back in time and teamed up with Kamek in order to find and steal the Star Children, to use their power to take over the world. Unfortunately for him, he never figured out who they were… even though he himself was a Star Child. At that time - the present time, that is - upon learning of Bowser's time traveling plots, Mario had set out back in time as well. But they ended up in a different time then - earlier, Mario thought(11). So Mario had never seen the events of the Star Children battle first hand, having to rely on the information that came out of the Yoshi's Island DS video game, and Bowser had never even learned who the Star Children were. To this day, Mario had no idea if Bowser even knew if he was one. Yoshi's Island didn't really seem like Bowser's type of game, after all.
So, in the end, none of them really understood much of what had happened those days except for the elder yoshis. They had asked the yoshis for information about the events when they were older, but the Yoshis were not able to share much, knowing little about the secrets of the stars themselves. The Mario Brothers and the Princess had never really looked too deeply into it after that - mostly because, there really was no where else to look. The only other places to get information on what the Star Children actually were was in an old book in Peach's Castle -a book that contained a legend about the Star Children from hundreds of years ago - and then of course, just playing the Yoshi's Island DS game, but that didn't hep much either.
"So what you're saying is, the Stars inside of us… are the power we could use to beat the Dark Star?" Luigi finally asked.
"I know this might seem like a lot to take in" Rosalina said. "But the short answer is yes. You are all familiar with the legend of the Seven Star Children, right?" When the others nodded, Rosalina continued. "Well then, it is true, that those Seven Stars fell down to the world below, and they found places of rest in the hearts of you and the others. These stars… well, we don't have time to go into detail right now - perhaps there will be time later - but the short of it is this: in nature these stars act something like a pure power star, but have neutral alignments like a power up. They give their hosts immense abilities and power - sometimes deep and hidden powers, sometimes surface powers - but it is up to the host to choose how they are going to use this strength."
"And that's why the Dark Star would be interested in the Star Children, isn't it" Peach asked. "If they have neutral powers, then he could somehow… use them to do what he wanted."
"Or, they could be the one thing standing in his way, yes" Rosalina nodded. She turned towards Mario. "Mario, I wasn't entirely truthful when we spoke in the prison. I do have a thought on why the cosmic clones might be of you. I still don't know why he wants the clones to begin with, nor do I know how he made them look like you, but I have a feeling that the reason he selected them to look like you is because of your Star Child heritage."
Mario frowned, pondering this.
"So, you're saying he wants the Star Children for something?" Mario said.
"I believe so, yes."
"Is he going to go after the other four."
"Yes." There was no hesitance is Rosalina's voice that time.
"Alright" Mario nodded. "Then we should go find the others before he does."
"You mean we're just going to go travel to find them all?" Peach asked.
"I think we should" Mario nodded. "What do you think, Rosalina? You're the expert on this."
"I think that if we don't go find the other Star Children, then the Dark One will" Rosalina said. "Yes, I think we should go find them."
"Alright!" Mario nodded at the others, who nodded back much less enthusiastically.
Then, Mario turned to the face the horizon. "Let's-a-go!" He cheered, and with that, he set out at a jog down the plains. Luigi, Peach, and Rosalina set off a pace behind him.
Luigi jogged to catch up with his brother.
"Hey, Mario?" He asked. "Do you know where we're going?"
"I think there's a port town somewhere in this direction" Mario said, gesturing in front of them.
"A port town? What do we need there?"
"Well, I think I know which of the Star Children we should head to first" Mario said. "And we're going to need a boat."
(1): Yes, in pretty much every game that she's in, Rosalina never actually touches the ground when she walks. She hovers above the ground and floats over it.
(2): The Star Spirits are a group of seven powerful Stars who first appeared in Paper Mario (64). Something like deities of the Mushroom World, they reside in Star Haven and protect the Star Rod, and grant wishes of the citizens of the Mushroom World. They also appear in Mario Party 5, where they are known as Star Guards and guard the Dream Depot, where dreams are kept. The seven Star Spirits are named Eldstar, Mamar, Skolar, Muskular, Misstar, Klevar, and Kalmar.
(3): Kind of a random easter egg, but there is a theory that Fawful did survive the ending of Bowser's Inside Story. Some people actually think that he is in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, disguised as a Zeekeeper mascot. Because this has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story, I'm not going to go into anymore detail, but look it up if you're curious.
(4): In Bowser's Inside Story, Princess Peach is the only person who holds the power to release the Dark Star from its prison, which is why Fawful kidnappes her.
(5): Ztars, also known as Shadow Stars and Dark Stars, are anti-stars found in the Mario Party series. They are black, frowning, opposites of the Stars.
(6): Star Sprites are another type of Stars, that first appear in Bowser's Inside Story. Starlow is a Star Sprite, basically.
(7): Mario collected Power Stars for Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy. The Stars were used to power Rosalina's Comet Observatory.
(8): Mini stars and mini ztars appear in the Mario Party series. Grand stars appear in Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. Grand ztars were created for this story.
(9): Super Stars are of course the normal invincibility power ups. Rainbow Stars are the equivalents of Super Stars in Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, only different in how they look. Mega Stars are in Super Paper Mario, and cause the player to grow huge.
(10) The Star Children are seven children - Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Yoshi - who are said to possess extraordinary powers. They were apparently given this power because seven stars fell to their world around the time that they were born. This is all from Yoshi's Island DS. Because I explained most of it in the actual chapter, I don't have much more to say here, but look it up if you need more information.
(11) This is a reference to Yoshi's New Island. Basically, not to spoil the whole game, there's something that happens where present day Bowser time travels back to try to capture the babies, and then there is one other thing where we find out that present day Mario has come back as well to stop him.
And it is done! I as said, this chapter was rather hard for me to write. This was mostly because this chapter was pretty much all lore exposition, so it took me a while to figure out how to lay out the information in a way that was (hopefully) not too confusing.
Also, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lore I'm planning on diving into! I'm not going to say too much on anything right now, but because I already sort of teased these ideas in this chapter, I will say this: both Star Sprites (like Starlow) and Lumas will be discussed in more detail later on. Whether you'll find out more about them in this particular story, or in one of the sequels, I'm not going to say.
Anyway, thank you to everybody who has read this far, thank you all for having patience, and I'll see you next time!
