Whoo! Second to last chapter, folks! Thanks for all the reviews, faves, and other forms of support :3

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 Sixty-Four

This morning Daisy and I had breakfast with her cousins and when I say not a thing had changed since I last saw them, I was dead serious. It was like the station all over again; the two country boys had stood out with their wild dark hair and sun-stained skin. They wore the same garb; worn pants and long sleeved button down shirts that were littered with hay. Those trademark hooded eyes of theirs seemed tired this morning, and that was the same impression their slow gait gave off as well. They'd met me and Daisy in the dining room.

"Yo," She greeted them fondly before wrapping them both in her arms in turn.

Meech was even taller now. The top of his head reached his brother's ear. He grinned widely and hugged his cousin with abandon.

"Hey Luigi," He greeted enthusiastically from Daisy's embrace.

I spoke to him and got a slight wave of acknowledgement from his older brother. Danny, looking more like a young man than an adolescent, held Daisy with a little less excitement but with no less love. Daisy kissed their heads and laid a hand on both their shoulders.

"You've both grown." She observed, her eyes soft and affectionate.

Meech nodded and Danny just shrugged. He let his eyes rove over to me when I pulled my chair out at the left side of the dining room table. Daisy came over and sat next to me with her cousins taking their seats across from us. I noticed that Danny's hooded dark eyes still gazed at me with a measure of wariness, but compared to where we started, it was an improvement.

"So how have you been?" Daisy asked them.

Meech smiled and said, "Good, but we missed you!"

"You've been alright?" Danny asked her but looked at me.

I guess some things don't change, I sighed inside.

"Of course." Daisy answered. "I stopped by the house. You guys been staying somewhere else?"

"Here at the palace." Meech replied. "We have jobs here, tending the stables. His Majesty lets us live here during the week."

Danny was still quietly glancing between me and Daisy. He wasn't as aggressively suspicious as he used to be, but there were worry lines marring his young forehead. He blinked and I noticed his eyes looked a bit tired. He and his brother seemed sleepy. I could especially see it when Meech rubbed at his freckled nose and tried to stifle a yawn.

"Have you two been sleeping alright?" Daisy asked them with a concerned frown.

"Yes." Meech answered quickly, sitting upright in his chair.

Danny cast him a sharp glance and the boys appeared to be hiding something. Daisy noticed this and cocked a brow.

"Is there something you two want to tell me?" She sort of demanded more than asked.

Meech looked to his brother and lowered his head, suddenly finding the white tablecloth more interesting than his cousin's interrogative eyes. Danny was smoother with his reaction, opting to gaze at Daisy coolly and run a hand through his tousled hair.

"We just had a late night." He told her quietly.

Daisy gave him a flat stare and echoed, "A late night? Doing what?"

To the boys' salvation came the servants from the kitchen with our breakfast. The smell of fresh eggs and fruit and oatmeal and pastries filled the air and made my stomach rumble. With this distraction the boys practically sagged in relief. Daisy was hardly waylaid, and looked as if to push the subject further.

That's when Danny blurted, "You didn't answer our last letter."

Daisy blinked, thoroughly thrown for a loop. She frowned and I nudged her, and briefly explained how I saw that she had a letter from her cousins the last time I checked the warehouse for mail.

"Oh," She spoke to me, then told her cousins, "You see, I wasn't there. Luigi and I were on our way here by that time."

Danny only nodded, probably glad the subject had been dropped for the time being. He and his brother made sure to keep themselves in a perpetual state of full mouths so as not to become the topic of interest anymore. That left Daisy and I to talk a little bit as we finished our food. Once done with breakfast, we moved from the throne room to the upstairs guest room to collect our suitcases. Meech and Danny were waiting at the bottom of the steps and they took our luggage from us. To the stables we all went, and during this walk Danny spoke in a low voice to me.

He murmured evenly, "You're still here?"

I glanced at him and shrugged because I didn't know what to say to that. Where did he expect me to go?

"Of course Luigi's still here," Daisy spoke, surprising me with her keen hearing.

Danny didn't look surprised, just chagrined as he bore the weight of her sharp glance and carried our luggage over to a pair of healthy brown horses. He didn't say anything more but Daisy wasn't finished.

She told him, "We'll be engaged soon so you'd better work on being nicer."

Again, that wasn't a request and Danny seemed to get that. The sigh he released was slow in coming as he saddled the horses with his brother's help. Danny stared at me a long time and then shook his head and bowed it, then glanced back up at me and muttered an apology. He muttered it not because he didn't want to say sorry, but because he was embarrassed that he had to in the first place.

I just shrugged and told him, "No harm, no foul."

Meech came over and hugged me and said, "Bye, Luigi."

Danny gave me another lackadaisical wave and turned to bade his cousin farewell. She got a much warmer parting embrace, one that involved kisses on her part and tight hugs on her cousins'. I watched on from near the horses. It was I who carried the bag of supplies my brother left in our room for us, a bag loaded with a few maps and some food and a blanket and water and other things I hadn't had the time to skim over.

"We'll be back," Daisy promised.

The boys nodded and Daisy and I mounted our steeds. I noticed that a look of discontent reigned on her features and touched her shoulder without falling off my own horse.

"You okay?" I asked her.

She nodded and said, "Yeah, let's go."

We set off for Sarasaland.

Their growth made him happy. No longer were they as vapid and naive as when he first met them. Throughout the course of the subsequent year, he'd watched them mature from two bickering, love struck little girls to what they were now.

"Did you get the-"

"-Quart of iodine? Got it. You have that penicillin for me?"

"Right here, sis."

The two worked together better than any of the other rookie nurses forced into practice due to recent events. Having been part of those traumatic events themselves must have had a hand in their accelerated progress. As soon as they were well again after Cackletta's assault,

They were already so bright, the prince noted from afar, it was all a matter of getting them to let their intelligence show.

The girls had come from a household where good looks and high fashion and marriage were most important. It was no wonder they'd been right in the midst of his 'fangirls' before he got to know them. He'd convinced them to take up nursing after he, himself, declared his intentions for becoming a physician and now he could see it was a brilliant career choice for them. He watched from the doorway of the infirmary room in the hospital as the girls worked on an injured soldier. They were a good team.

Prince Peasley was careful not to make any noise, though, seeing as they still had a ways to go before totally maturing and he could only wonder what his presence would do to their concentration levels.

Though I might not be giving them enough credit, he then mused, scratching his hair from under the hood of his heavy cloak.

Both girls wore not only identical white uniforms and gloves, but also had twin expressions of acute focus and seriousness. They moved about the small room tending to their patient, grabbing this and that from the cabinets and not once bumping into each other or getting in the other's way. Peasley was quite proud. But something prevented him from being completely pleased today. He'd been doing a lot of thinking lately.

"Those two have come a long way."

Peasley didn't have to turn to see who'd spoken. The old general, a good friend of his, had made no sound when he'd come to stand behind the prince. He laid a hand on Peasley's cloaked shoulder and smiled warmly. The older man was no longer in bandages but was still on the last leg of recovering from Cackletta's onslaught. He'd honestly thought he was a goner but there were skilled medics in Bean Kingdom.

And even more skilled ones coming, the General thought in reference to three certain young people.

"You should be happy about that," The General spoke again, "You had a hand in their improvement."

Peasley turned and quirked a brow. "I wasn't even here."

"It doesn't matter." The General spoke gently, "They look up to you. We all do."

"...hm..." Peasley murmured thoughtfully, and not in a good way.

The General frowned and tilted his head, trying in vain to read the prince's body language and demeanor to make sense of his apathetic response.

"What's the matter?" The older man asked, "What's this all about?"

Peasley shrugged lightly and was silent a short while. The General granted him this peace, figuring the young royal would speak in time. He did, but it was with no increase in tone or enthusiasm.

"Do you think they would be proud of me?" He asked vaguely. "...Of the things I've done? Of the choices I've made?"

In a more hollow voice, Peasley added, "...Of what I've become?"

His struggle had begun when he first decided to study dark magic in the first place and had continued to nag and peeve at his mind, making him doubt he was truly the same person after all that he'd exposed himself to and dabbled in. Peasley thought about it almost every day, about whether or not the dark magic was changing him into someone he was not, someone colder and crueler.

The General was pensive as well after that string of inquiries. He knew exactly who 'they' were; Peasley's parents. The topic was always a tricky one, not because he feared whetting the prince's ire or grief, but because Peasley rarely spoke of his parents and when he did, no one could be sure what kind of answer he was looking for.

Best to just be honest then, the old militant thought. He scratched at his head and cleared his throat so as not to choke or stumble in his speech, and faced the young man shrouded in darkness, in both a physical and mental sense.

"Peasley," He began carefully, "I must say you've certainly taken an...unorthodox way of dealing with the issues that have been plaguing yourself and this country, but overall, I'm sure you've had nothing but the interests of your people in mind and at heart."

Peasley didn't move, didn't speak at all. The General swallowed before continuing.

"I think they would understand that." He stated. "I think they would be more than proud of who not what you've become; a diligent, brave, and resilient ruler and young man."

From his hand on the young ruler's shoulder the General could feel Peasley's shoulder tense. Peasley felt his own throat constrict with those words. They helped clear up a bit of the turmoil inside him and, predictably, incited the makings of sadness and longing for his mom and dad to well up inside him. Peasley was stock still for several seconds on end, so the General gave his shoulder a good squeeze and a pat and left the prince to ponder what he'd said.

Would they really be proud?

He could only hope so.

Peasley was still standing in the doorway when the twins finished in their work. They weren't accustomed to seeing the prince all covered up in a robe, so with a polite pair of 'excuse me's, the girls brushed by and left him alone in the hall.

They didn't recognize me, he thought somberly. Ordinarily he'd find it rather funny that the girls who adored him most had just walked by, unknowingly passing up the object of their fancy. But right now his mind would have him believe their reaction was the same thing his parents would do were they here now.

Would they even recognize me?

"Your Majesty!

Peasley was yet still there when a guard came heading his way. He shifted his head so that he could see the young ensign approach him.

"There's someone here in the throne room," The guard relayed.

"Who?" Peasley spoke quietly.

The guard seemed at a loss and replied, "We don't know, Majesty. He just sort of appeared out of nowhere! I apologize for the...Majesty?"

"I know who it is," was all Peasley said as he left in the middle of the guard's account.

The young prince entered his throne room and opted to take a seat in his father's chair, completely ignoring the figure in the center of the room. His guards were all poised around the intruder but, with a wave, Peasley called off his men. They had confused and worried expression but they did the ruling prince's bidding and returned to their posts. The intruder wasn't alone, as he held another person by the hair. Or horns.

"Good morning." The prince greeted in an airy, vacant tone.

The intruder answered that by shoving the person in his grip to the floor with no small amount of disgust. In her true form, Cackletta snarled but couldn't so much as writhe around for the magical restraints that bound her hand and foot. She was forced to remain prostrate in front of Peasley's throne with her ankles and wrists screaming bloody murder. Behind her, the sorcerer folded his arms. At this sight, Peasley only lifted a blonde brow as if disinterested. His cloak swept the floor as he sat a bit higher in his father's seat.

So he actually delivered, The prince mused.

As if on cue, Ludwig spoke evenly. "I've done what you asked, and a little extra; her magic's been drained. Consider it a show of good faith."

Cackletta's eerie eyes narrowed at that and Peasley just made a soft humming noise.

"Well?!" Ludwig prompted tersely.

"Well?" Peasley echoed softly.

"Where is it?" Ludwig demanded.

Peasley told him, "If you're referring to the clone, it's closer than you think."

Ludwig's emerald eye twitched and he clenched his jaw angrily.

"Don't throw riddles at me." He warned. "Just tell me where it is."

"Just think for a moment," Peasley encouraged, "It'll come to you."

Ludwig narrowed his eyes and Peasley felt the sorcerer's magic vectors probe at the edges of his mind.

Or you could do that, Peasley thought with a slight frown.

Before Ludwig even made contact with any of Peasley's thoughts or memories, a thought occurred to himself. He froze, having been enlightened all of a sudden, and locked eyes with Peasley. The prince could see he'd figured it out, and in a fraction of a second there was smoke and shimmering blue dust where Ludwig once was.

Now rid of his 'guest', Peasley stepped down from his father's throne and stood in front of the bound beast. Cackletta was violently trembling with anger and rage from her lowly position. Peasley just stared hard at her for a moment. He wanted to ask her so many things, like why would she curse him in the first place if she was so obsessed with him, or why would she want to sell out her own homeland to the Dark King, or why she'd killed and injured countless other innocent people, but he kept his mouth shut on that. He didn't want to know. Didn't need to know, really.

He threw back the hood of his cloak in the throne room; its gaping windows had the tapestries of his ancestors drawn in front of them, giving the entire room much less light. He crouched to Cackletta's height and looked her right in her evil eyes.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't end you once and for all?" He spoke tonelessly.

Cackletta cackled and claimed, "Oh, but if you do, you'll be dead before the month is up! The curse would kill you!"

She really thinks she's got a fail-safe, the prince noted with muted amusement.

She was still laughing when the Prince took her scaly jaw roughly between his thumb and index finger and did the one thing she hadn't expected him to. He shut his eyes and his nostrils, for that matter, and bent his head down towards the other creatures and laid the most gentle and platonic and chivalrous kiss on her foul mouth. It nearly killed him to hold back all his feelings of repulsion and loathing, but he would not change his nature for his enemy. He would show mercy, even in this.

Before he could even stand up to full height again, Peasley could feel the red blotchy stains fall off his skin like tiles that had been chipped away from an old building. Cackletta was the picture of astonishment as she regarded the now-restored young prince. Peasley gazed down at her and neither one of them could be certain of how he was feeling at the moment. A tense silence passed over the room before he spoke again.

"Now are you going to give me a reason," He asked, "Or should I start planning your execution?"

A/N: There's only one chapter left, folks. This is the end! There's a lot of things that need to be tied up, but hey; that's what the next story will be for! It's been a fun ride and I hope you guys are still interested enough for another installment.

I would hate to put it up and no one reads, haha. But I must warn you, in the next story things will be a bit darker. I think I said that about this one but disregard that ^_^. The next one will go places that might get me kicked off of FFN, but I take that risk to entertain you, my lovely readers! 3

For real, though, the next one will deserve the M rating because I'll have to get into Munson and Alicia's back stories, which means I'll be introducing a couple new characters {who you will probably hate}and overall, it ain't gonna be pretty. Don't worry, it won't be centered on OC's. There's gonna be plenty of Lu/Daisy, and all these OC's tie into the regular cast of characters and the plot. You'll see: it's allllll connected!

You'll get to journey with Iggy as he seeks info on his siblings' past and see how each of the Koopalings are faring where Ludwig last left them. We'll also see Munson and Wendy adjusting to the real world and Daisy and Luigi adjusting to life in Sarasaland. If you still want this sequel, just let me know so I can get on it!

~DymondGold~