Tried to post this last night but complications arose; my bad (^_^);

Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario or its franchise; it belongs to

Nintendo and their affiliates. I just am really grateful to its creators for giving

me such a wonderful game and media series to write about!

I also don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all that belongs to J.K. Rowling,

but thanks go to her as well because, using her wonderful work, I can expand this

story to make it more interesting :)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Back. Forth. To the left and then to the right. Junior woke up to a loose tooth and couldn't stop moving it around in his mouth. The pain was minimal but every now and again he'd wince and swallow to get the taste of copper off his tongue. He sat against the wall, right up next to his father's side, with his legs crossed and his head tilted backwards. The boy was content to spend however long it took for his father to wake up.

There was a sound from the other side of the room. Junior glanced up, startled, and saw that the door was being pushed slowly but surely past the carpeted floor. When it was opened just a crack, a slim body squeezed through the space with a worried glance at Junior.

"Lemmy!" Junior spoke in surprise. "What you doing down here?"

Lemmy liked the smile that lit up his friend's face and smiled in turn. He came over to sit next to Junior and crossed his legs as well.

"I came to see where you was." Lemmy answered, "I couldn't find you this morning."

"I was down here." Junior stated. "Your brother had made me come down here and he was grabbing me and then I went to sleep. Now I have to wait for my Daddy to wake up."

Lemmy was about to tell Junior all about the fruitlessness of his actions. He'd known that Junior was spending more and more time down in the dungeon of a room ever since they discovered the king and not once did they ever see the king awake; Lemmy couldn't see why his friend thought this time would be different. The king would always just lay there with his head bowed and his arms pulled back.

But something different happened this morning. The old king did wake, and he turned to them both. Cracking open his fierce jade eyes, Bowser regarded the children. He faced his son in particularly.

"This is your little friend?" Bowser asked. "The one you're always with?"

Junior beamed and nodded. "His name is Lemmy, Daddy!"

"What?" Bowser croaked, gazing now at the other boy.

Lemmy sat still with his hands in his lap and his eyes on the king's. Bowser looked over him, from the crown of his multi-color haired head to the tips of his bare toes. He noted the child's small stature and a flash of recognition passed over his eyes.

"Ah, yes. I remember you." The Dark King claimed. "You were the littlest one; the runt of the litter."

Lemmy glanced at Junior but the redhead was too busy beaming at his father in adoration.

Hesitantly Lemmy asked, "How come you remember me but I don't remember you?"

"You were a baby." Bowser explained. "But you were a good help to me."

"I was?" Lemmy frowned. "What did I do?"

"Delivered messages for me." The king replied. "And right now I have a very important message I need you to get back to your brother."

"Which one?"

"There are more of you here?" Bowser frowned, then said. "Ludwig. Tell Ludwig that I've had a change of heart. Tell him that I want to talk to him. That I want to reason with him. You got that?"

Lemmy nodded.

"Then go. Tell him now." Bowser commanded.

As Lemmy hurried off, Junior stood before his father, pouting plaintively.

"Daddy how come you didn't let me do that?" He wanted to know.

"Because, my son, I have a very special task for you."

Talk about deja vu.

There was a sick familiarity in what he woke up to today: roiling stomach, stinging burning eyes, weak muscles. He remembered the dull throbbing ache in his head and didn't appreciate the return of these symptoms.

I thought I'd taken care of this already, he frowned. He knew that, since the Dark King was awake, he was now suffering even more. There just had to be some kind of correlation. It'd only been about two weeks but the pain had returned with a vengeance and it didn't seem like the old king was going to waste away any time soon. He'd only gone back down there a couple of times to reason with the royal and both times Bowser had remained stalwart and mocked him. None of the magicians his scouts had rounded up could do anything about it.

But I should have known as much, Ludwig thought, They weren't even on my level.

He was trying to hold himself together as best he could, even though the anxiety, the nerves, the constant twitching and the nausea were really driving him insane.

Ludwig rose from the bed he'd hardly got any sleep in and clenched his teeth against the vertigo sensation. He stumbled over towards his wooden dresser and clung to it, steadying himself. He then ran his hands over his face and took a shuddering breath. With a wave of his hand his clothes were gone. He strode over to the bathroom and tried to get his eyes to focus. His vision was blurry so he had to use a bit of magic to correct this temporarily in order to see where the shower was.

After he'd bathed, he stood bare in front of the mirror and scowled at the red marks littering his alabaster body; little red lines indicative of the many times he'd scratched himself in sleep. Ludwig reached out a hand towards the open bathroom door and summoned his clothes from his closet. He barely had the energy to pull them onto his tired body but he managed. Once he was finished, he headed from his room upstairs to round up his siblings.

Wendy came with minimal delay, Larry rolled out of bed scratching his shortened blue hair, and MJ and Roy were already dressed. The four of them lined up near the balcony at the top of the stairs that overlooked the lower floor.

"Someone's missing."

"Lemmy's always running off with B-Jun-"

"I'm not talking about Lemmy." Ludwig said tersely. "Ignatius. Where is he?"

Ludwig looked first at Larry, who fidgeted nervously under his gaze.

"Larry?" He spoke expectantly. "You share a room with him, don't you?"

Larry just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yeah, but I don't know where he is."

Ludwig probed his brother's face for any sign of deceit and, after a long moment, found none. With his attention diverted, Larry exhaled a bit but Roy and Wendy began looking uncomfortable. MJ looked the least fazed.

"Morton," Ludwig spoke next. "Where is your brother?"

"Which one?"

"Don't be clever," Ludwig snapped irritably. "Where is Ignatius?"

MJ sighed and said, "How should I know? I haven't even seen the brat since the other night when he-"

Roy had given himself away when he nudged his brother meaningfully. Ludwig caught onto this and narrowed his eyes. It was then that Wendy spoke up.

"What does it matter where he is?" She asked. "Why don't you just leave him be?"

Ludwig closed in on her, saying in a low voice, "Do you know where he is, little sister?"

Wendy worried her bottom lip. Like Roy's nudging MJ and Larry's fidgeting, these little signs gave the siblings away. Ludwig knew by now that they were covering for the missing child and was not impressed. He knew that the boy was out of the confines of the palace and so that meant he'd found a way to undo the bind over his magic.

There's only one person, besides myself, that would do that for him, Ludwig thought with a frown. I'll have to deal with that a little later.

Right now he had bigger things to worry about. Bowser was making him lose control over the situation and Ludwig had to take the reigns up again and proceed with his goals that much faster. The Dark King was never supposed to wake up but now that he was, Ludwig had to maneuver around this setback.

"Roy, come with me." He demanded.

The seventeen year old looked a bit confused at first, then reluctantly headed around the corner with his brother and king. As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Ludwig conjured a simple chair and pushed his brother down into it. Roy, indignant, moved to get up but Ludwig closed in on him.

"Sit down." Ludwig hissed, shoving him back down.

Roy slouched in his seat but didn't rise anymore; Ludwig's agitated body language and cold eyes intimidated him, truth be told.

"What's your problem, yo?"

Ludwig glared at his brother and said sharply, "My problem is that I expressly instructed you not to let anyone leave and yet somehow Ignatius is gone."

"That ain't my fault." Roy scowled. "I ain't know he was gonna' leave."

Ludwig stared harshly at his brother for a minute, gauging something. Then his frown deepened and he folded his arms.

"What did you tell him?" Ludwig clipped.

"Why do you think I told him somethin'?" Roy asked defensively.

"What did you say to him?"

"Nothing."

"Roy don't lie to me."

"I ain't tell him nothin, yo." Roy claimed.

But Roy had turned his head to the left and wouldn't meet his brother's eyes. Ludwig sighed and tried to quell his frustration. He leveled Roy with a long, hard look that made the boy want to squirm and then sighed again.

"Roy, do you know why I put you in charge?" Ludwig asked.

"Cause I'm the next oldest?" Roy tried.

"That wasn't the only reason." Ludwig told him flatly. "I put you in charge to give you a taste of responsibility. You're right, you are the next oldest and as such you need to work on being a strong role model for your brothers and sister."

Roy rolled his eyes.

"I told you if anything were to be out of order, I'd come down on you." Ludwig reminded him. "Therefore, you'll be punished as I see fit."

"Punished?" Roy cried, "That's fucking whack! It wasn't my fault Brainiac just decided to bust out."

"It is your fault." Ludwig told him tightly. "You had charge over your siblings, you were supposed to run things while I was gone. You were supposed to make sure order was maintained by any means necessary and you failed."

"Man, that's not-"

"Enough." Ludwig interjected. "The matter's settled. Come on."

Roy had no choice but to listen because in the next second the chair beneath his bottom vanished back into thin air. Roy stumbled but caught himself and trailed behind his brother with the scowl still on his face.

Ludwig gathered the remaining four of his siblings close and began to pace at the top of the staircase. He warred with himself, debating if they were truly ready for what he was about to task them with.

Of course they aren't, but I'm running out of time, he acknowledged.

"Listen very closely." Ludwig spoke. "From this day forward, I won't be training you anymore-"

"Yes!"

"Thank God."

"Why?"

"Listen!" Ludwig cut in icily. "I've decided it's time you see why I was training you in the first place: I've made arrangements for you to spend the next four to six months in four different countries-"

"Wait, what?"

"Different country?"

"By ourselves?"

"Stop interrupting me!" Ludwig frowned, irked. "You'll spend those months in different countries that I've acquired control over, countries that may just be passed down to you all."

Ludwig lifted a brow sharply when he saw his siblings attempt to speak up at that moment. They wisely held their tongues because the sorcerer was losing his patience fast.

Ludwig continued with, "You will be accompanied by a squad of Koopa guards for your own protection. I expect you all to use your time most efficiently; that means immersing yourselves in the culture and customs of the local territory, familiarizing yourselves with the language and laws of the area, and doing whatever else is necessary for you all to become adequate leaders of your designated kingdoms."

Roy had already forgotten about his sour encounter in the side corridor and was donning a huge grin. He only heard the part about him potentially ruling a country and got very excited. Wendy scoffed at him but inside she was terribly worried.

If I get shipped off to who knows where, Munson won't be able to find me, She feared, and then I'll never get to make a new life for myself with him.

"So you're just gonna' separate us and cart us off to who knows where all alone?" She challenged, "What if something happens to us?"

"You won't be alone." Ludwig told her. "I said very clearly that you'd be joined by a squad of Koopa guards."

"Oh, that's a real comfort." The girl remarked. "What makes you think I'd want to rule some poor country you probably terrorized-"

"Stop it, Wendy." Ludwig ordered authoritatively. "Don't think I don't know why you're protesting this. Trust me, if you knew what that little bastard was hiding you might not be so eager to run off with him."

Wendy narrowed her eyes and balled her fists, saying, "Don't you-"

"This isn't up for discussion." Ludwig then stated. "You're going to do this, just like your brothers are. That's final."

Wendy clenched her fists so hard that her nails dug into her hot palms. She felt the makings of angry, frustrated tears and, with none of her brothers backing her up, she lost most of her courage and just settled for glaring balefully at Ludwig. Though a part of her did wonder what he was referring to about Munson.

"I don't see why you're so upset, Wen." Roy ventured. "All our training is finally 'bout to pay off."

"What does ruling a country have to do with our training?" Wendy snapped.

Ludwig responded with, "Since you're all so very talented with your abilities and general combat skills, none will be able to challenge your authority."

Then Ludwig looked at Wendy and said, "Some of you still have work to do, but that's why your training will resume under tutors who I'll hand-select once you arrive at your respective kingdoms."

Wendy rolled her eyes again and muttered bitterly, "Of course."

MJ became nervous. He scratched at the back of his head and then held onto his arm behind his back. A million thoughts were running through his mind, but for the moment he only opened his mouth and voiced one single concern.

"I don't know if I could be the ruler over a ton of people." He stated honestly.

Larry chimed in with, "Yeah, I'm just a kid!"

"That's why you won't be ruling until you're of age." Ludwig told them. "At least my age. In the meantime, you'll shadow the council members I've appointed until you're ready to lead on your own."

"Wonderful." Wendy mumbled, unenthused.

"Any more questions?" Ludwig asked.

No one had anything more to say. They were all just trying to process what was going on. Larry was excited; he had no reason to fear his oldest brother anymore thanks to Ludwig's careful machinations concerning dispelling the boy's moral dissonance. Roy was also grinning in anticipation of what was to come. MJ was just glad at the prospect of getting out and doing something new for a change but Wendy. Oh Wendy. She was expressing several emotions at once in her facial features alone and not a single one of them were positive.

"Good." Ludwig spoke of their silence. "Start packing. We're leaving tonight."

A/N: That does it for this chapter. I hope you guys liked it. I'll try once more to update again soon.

Until next chapter!

~DymondGold~