Things were going splendidly.
This land was fully under Maleficent's control. It didn't take long for her to find allies who wished to join with the powers of darkness, and soon she would find even more members for her league of villainy, if what the Shadow Sirens said was correct.
She didn't quite trust them however. With a name like "Shadow Queen," it was likely she might refuse to work for the greater evil, but Maleficent was none too worried.
All she had to do was keep them in line, which wouldn't be too difficult. One was cowardly and incompetent, the other was too dumb for her own good, and the third was well aware of Maleficent's power. Why else would she prepare such flowery words and praises?
She had defeated their previous master, after all.
And now, his base belonged to her.
There still remained some threats to her power. The princess she held captive mentioned something about a man named "Mario," to whom she sent a map detailing the secret locations of the crystal stars required to open the way to the Shadow Palace.
Perhaps a Keyblade would suffice, not that she was in any position to acquire one.
It was rather fortunate that she had found a means to travel to this world, likely through the help of unspoken allies, though she would need to find a way to remedy that.
Speaking of which…
A pair of doors slid open some distance behind her, and in walked one of her more recent recruits, a black-and-red coated beast about a quarter to half her height.
Maleficent wasn't quite sure where he came from, but Shadow certainly had proved his usefulness. He wasn't quite that trustworthy, and Maleficent was half-expecting him to turn against her at some point, but for now, their interests aligned. Shadow wanted power, and Maleficent would help him reach that power, so long as she remained in control.
Shadow also seemed to know something about the invaders, so that was convenient.
"You have something to report?" Maleficent asked her lackey.
"Yeah," said Shadow, "we had a couple of goons in Poshley Heights."
Maleficent wasn't quite sure what type of goons Shadow was talking about, though she chose to ignore the thought.
"And why haven't you taken care of them?"
Come to think of it, there were supposed to be a few synthetics and machines stationed in the area, and the Heartless should have been able to take care of anything else, as notoriously fragile as they were.
Shadow's reply was prompt, "Already did. Seems they went through a rift nearby."
A rift, like the one they went through to reach whatever this world was?
Shadow continued, "They fight a lot like the folks from where I'm from. Soldier types."
Well, that certainly raised a few questions, though it didn't quite explain how they broke through, or how they were able to defeat the Heartless. They couldn't have come from Agrabah, as the people there were far too ill-prepared to handle anything Maleficent and her cohorts had assembled here, and Shadow would have mentioned if these folks looked like the invaders.
"They were wearing some sort of armor," Shadow added.
Maleficent had no idea why Shadow mentioned this, though perhaps he attached some importance to this fact.
"Did you see whether they had Keyblades?" Maleficent asked.
Although Shadow had not seen a Keyblade looked like, Maleficent had explained to him what they were, in the event they happened to run into Sora and his friends.
"Didn't look like Keyblades," said Shadow, "but they didn't have any problems cleaning up the Heartless."
"So what were they using?"
"Some type of gun it looks like. Not the kind I've seen before, but I've brought in a few for analysis."
Ah yes, Shadow seemed unusually fond of those things, even though their power paled in comparison to magic.
Shadow then said, "We should do something about this."
"Whatever do you mean?" Maleficent asked.
It was pretty clear that Shadow had this situation under control, and if things got out of hand, Maleficent could always step in and exert her might.
"I get the feeling we'll be seeing more of them soon. Except this time, they're going to be bringing in bigger guns.
"That squad was probably their scouting party, and if we faced their army in a straight up fight, well, who knows what sort of firepower they might be packing?"
"You question the power of darkness, the very power that you wield with your own two hands?"
"The same darkness that got cleaned up by a handful of grunts?"
"Do not forget who you are speaking to. If you are incapable of dealing with these adversaries, then they shall reckon with me."
"So you are, 'The Mistress of All Evil' as you put it. I don't remember you having the cleanest of records when it comes to dealing with your adversaries."
"Keep your tongue!" Maleficent hissed.
"Well…" said Shadow as he began to turn around, "Remember, I'm only working with you so long as it's convenient for me. If it turns out this power of Darkness is not worth pursuing, then maybe you should find a new henchman."
Maleficent watched as Shadow walked out of the command chamber.
To think that anyone would dare to question her power.
Though perhaps she was no longer the menace she once was. For a while, she had to rely on that bumbling Pete of all people, and perhaps her plan to infiltrate the journal's database had not been the most ambitious of objectives.
Just then, series of images flashed in her mind.
A time when she had been called to serve The Fairy Godmother for a purpose she could no longer remember.
Spellcraft and fire erupted all around her.
Powers she could barely understand.
Chaos. Destruction.
Why do I… remember this?
Thousands of burning spears rushed towards her dragon form.
In an instant, she had been reduced to nothingness.
A sacrificed pawn.
No, these are nothing more than dreams and fairy tales.
And behind all that, jealousy stirred.
There was a figure, a face she could barely remember, that she despised almost by instinct.
Maleficent was perhaps the greatest of all fairies, and yet The Fairy Godmother, the precursor to all fairies, favored her over Maleficent.
Why?
Yet despite her immense power, Maleficent had perished in mere seconds.
I must not dwell on these insignificant thoughts.
None of that had ever happened. It was all just a dream. The Fairy Godmother was only a legend, and the one who took that name was nothing more than a petty nuisance.
Maleficent returned her attention to the console before her. She still hadn't quite figured out the technology behind it, but she was slowly learning. It didn't quite have the same effectiveness as raw magic, but it had its uses, however minor they were.
The AI probably would have sped up the learning process, but it had too much awareness to be left alive.
As for the subject of Shadow's findings, perhaps she could attempt to establish dominion over that world. If their common soldiers were strong enough to defeat her Heartless and those robots Shadow and the natives cooked up, then perhaps they would better serve her interests.
The only question was how do go about doing that. A forward approach would obviously be ineffective, but perhaps she could try seeing whether they had any weaknesses she could exploit.
A signal then flared up on the console.
"That's odd…"
Connie's phone alarm woke her up.
It wasn't the same alarm that Connie normally used to wake herself up, but Connie nevertheless flipped over in much the same manner as she used to shut off her normal alarm, even though her phone was much smaller.
She slowly adjusted herself.
Then she remembered. This wasn't her house.
The room had basic furnishings, but it wasn't quite the same as her own room. It felt lonely.
Connie wouldn't have agreed to this under normal circumstances, but things hadn't been normal lately.
On the bright side, though, the room seemed clean, despite the motel's rustic outward appearance.
The government guys seemed intent on everyone getting up early, so sleepiness still had its hold.
Connie got out of bed and did whatever she needed to do before heading down for breakfast.
With the room keys in her pocket and her duffel bag in hand, Connie left the room. A pair of government agents flanked the entrance.
"Downstairs," one of the agents reminded her.
Connie briefly looked back at the door. She wasn't sure whether she was coming back here after their incursion into the next world over, though Connie had only brought the basic necessities with her anyway.
Hopefully, she wasn't falling too far behind in school, though she tried to keep up with the workload as best she could.
She took a left down the hall, and then went down the stairs to the "lobby" area. It was much less extravagant than the entrances to most hotels, though there was a small "dining" area off to the side where breakfast was served. It looked more like the kitchen that used to be in Steven's house than anything else, minus the stoves and ovens.
"Hey Connie!" Steven said as he waved to her, before taking a bit out of some sort of egg sandwich.
"Steven? You already got up?"
"Yeah, why?"
"What's the big surprise?"
Connie turned to Lea, who was also sitting at the table Steven was sitting at, alongside Riku, who was mostly minding his own business.
A voice then spoke from behind Connie, "Your father left you something."
Connie turned around, retrieving a brown paper bag from Agent Henderson.
"Oh! Well, tell him I say thanks."
Looking around her, it was unlikely her parents would allow her to eat the stuff the hotel was offering, though it didn't look like the stuff the others were eating had been made here.
Connie quickly checked the contents of her bag, and then sat beside Steven, eying his sandwich and the hash browns resting in the container before him.
"Where did you guys get that?"
"The government guys got it for us," Steven said.
"It's not half bad," said Lea. "Want some?"
"No thanks. I think I should be fine."
Connie pulled out the plastic container inside her back and began eating the contents inside.
Once everyone finished eating, one of the agents approached the table and said, "Alright, looks like everyone's finished. Gather up your things and do whatever business you need to do. You'll be briefed when you get into the van."
Riku and Lea simply looked at each other, seeing as they didn't really bring anything with them.
Connie was already prepared, so she didn't really need to do anything beforehand.
"I think we're all ready," Connie said, once she was done with her examination.
"Bathroom!" Steven exclaimed as he jumped out of his seat. One of the agents pointed him in the right direction, and so he went off.
After several more minutes of waiting, Steven finally returned.
"Okay, I'm done!"
"Well that took a while," Lea remarked.
"Let's not wait any more than we have to," said one of the agents, who then motioned the group to follow him.
They all walked out of the motel and stepped into a van stationed in the parking lot just outside.
Inside, Agents Thompson and Peterson were waiting for them.
Once the doors were closed, and once the van was in motion, Agent Peterson spoke up, "We've got bad news, kids."
"What happened?" asked Steven.
"Remember Alpha Squadron?" Agent Thompson asked.
"They went missing?" Riku guessed.
"They're dead."
"Wha…!" Steven uttered, "How did this even happen?"
Connie's reaction to the news had been a bit slower, though she still felt a sense of panic and dread.
"What happened anyway?" said Connie.
She knew how dangerous the Shrekpire soldiers could be, having faced them first-hand, but she didn't expect a trained squad of marines or special forces to go down so quickly. She didn't even know if it was the Shrekpire forces the soldiers had faced, since the pursuit force seemed to be the main ones going after Riku, and it had been a while since the rift was apparently opened.
"One thing at a time," Agent Thompson began. "I know this might have come a bit suddenly, but luckily we have some information."
Agent Thompson then gestured to Agent Peterson, who then played a video clip on a computer sitting diagonally across from Connie.
The video footage, presumably from one of the soldiers from Alpha Squad, displayed a town in ruins. It was clear from what was left of the wreckage that it used to be a fairly developed place, with scorched hedges and fragmented golden gates bordering the edges of each sub-district. The remains of columns of Classical Greek architecture could be seen rising in the distance.
It was clear that this had been the site of a major battle. The shattered remains of combat robots lie scattered throughout the town square, along with several corpses and glob-like things that struck Connie as familiar.
The poof of a disintegrating Heartless could be heard nearby.
"Area secure," said some soldier, likely off-camera.
"Did we… cause this?" Steven asked.
"No," said Agent Thompson, "It was like this when our soldiers got there."
"We don't have time to show you everything, so we just skipped to the important stuff," said Agent Peterson.
A few small creatures began to peek out from behind the wreckage. Some of them looked like blue penguins, but a few others had heads that looked like round, spotted mushrooms.
"They're… Toads!" Connie remarked.
"Well, they don't look like any toads I've seen," said Lea.
Agent Peterson then told the two of them to "Shh!" and the two of them then went quiet.
One of the Toads went forth and said, "You…"
-PEW!-
The sound was slightly subdued, but the moment the gunshot was heard, the camera began swinging this way and that, until it finally focused on a soldier lying on the ground, his armor punctured straight through the skull.
"Up there!" a voice called.
The camera then spun around to the top of one of the wrecked buildings further into town, where a black, spiky-haired creature stood on top, holding some sort of sniper rifle in its arms.
Its head was significantly larger than its body, and it had large eyes akin to a cartoon character. Streaks of red also seemed to line its fur, and it also wore white gloves and shoes.
The figure looked strangely familiar, and somehow, despite features that might suggest otherwise, Connie instinctively knew it was a hedgehog.
"Who is that?" Lea asked.
Riku simply eyed the screen, his arms crossed. Something about the way the boy looked at the creature suggested he too had seen it somewhere before, so perhaps he knew where it came from.
No, that can't be right.
Just like the Toads and the other Mario-esque creatures, Connie knew this figure by sight.
Shadow.
Before Connie could say anything, however, Shadow leaped high up into the air, and spun until nothing could be seen but a whirling, black sphere.
"Take cover!"
The camera instantly spun around, and the loud ring of gunfire spat out from the computer's speakers.
The camera then went behind one of the ruins lying about. Not much was visible from this point on, though occasionally the camera spun a bit whenever the soldier holding it turned to shoot.
The harsh crunch of metal and broken bones could also be heard, and during a few of the instances where the camera peeked from behind the soldier's cover, glimpses of Heartless could be seen nearby, along with the mangled, trashed, and bloody corpses of the soldiers who died.
For an instant, one shot rang slightly louder than others, but then the audio feed suddenly cut off. The camera tipped to the ground, and the battle could thus be seen more clearly.
There was unearthly silence. Almost everyone was dead.
Shadow approached with one of the other soldier's rifles in hand.
When he got close, he seemed to stop, but then he raised his foot up and out of sight of the camera.
The footage then cut there.
"That's… horrible," Steven uttered.
Lea also seemed shocked, even though he probably had more combat experience than Steven or Connie combined.
Connie, however, was utterly speechless.
Maybe Shadow didn't have the same powers that Steven, the Gems, or the Keyblade wielders had, but something about this encounter seemed unnervingly real. It was easy to forget that she had likely fought foes stronger than this in the past few weeks, just seeing how easily Shadow had taken down Alpha Squadron.
And unlike Steven, Connie was still human.
Agent Thompson broke the silence, "You all look like you've seen ghosts. Can't really blame you. You're all still young, and it can take a while to get used to this stuff.
"Connie, you had something you wanted to say?"
Connie then woke from her state of horror, "Oh, I was just thinking… he looks really familiar."
"Yeah," said Agent Thompson. "Our folks were thinking the same thing.
"His appearance matches that of Shadow the Hedgehog."
"Shadow?" Riku muttered.
"Don't know how many of you have heard of him, but then again it doesn't look like the Sonic series has been doing that well these days.
"Of course, that's not the only thing we picked up."
Agent Peterson went over to the computer, and then brought up the images of the penguin-things and the Toads.
"A lot of these things look like they came straight out of Mario," said Agent Thompson. "You folks might not recognize them, but Mario's pretty popular in these parts," he said to Lea and Riku.
"And who's he?" Lea asked.
"He's from a video game, I think," said Steven.
Connie had an odd feeling that she'd have to explain a lot of things about this world before this adventure was finally over.
"The kids can probably explain these things better than I can," said Agent Thompson. "The area Alpha Squad scouted also matches some of the geography in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. We've prepared maps for you kids just in case, though keep in mind that not everything matches up."
One of the other agents standing around in the van went to pick up a small stack of pamphlets and handed it out to the four of them. When Connie unfolded hers, it looked like someone had just printed on an unusually large sheet of paper and then folded it up, but the map printed on there was surprisingly detailed.
"Uh," said Lea as he struggled to comprehend the information in front of him, "you guys keep track of this." After folding back up his map, Lea then said, "So what are we supposed to do about this Shadow guy?"
"We're not entirely sure," Agent Thompson responded. "Ideally we'd like to capture him, but I suspect that won't be easy.
"Whatever the case is, Shadow doesn't appear to be native to this dimension."
"Can't say I've seen him before," said Lea.
"We didn't really see anything like him while traveling, and I don't think he's from our world," said Riku.
"Yeah, I had a feeling of that," said Agent Thompson. "Plus, those robots don't look like anything from the games that we could find. I suspect they may be related to the Shrekpire, though we can't say for sure until we've got evidence.
"Either way, he is a threat, and it will be difficult to rescue the other gems or capture that runaway soldier while he's around.
"Steven, Connie, Riku, Lea, your mission is to find and subdue Shadow by whatever means necessary. We feel that your powers and abilities are better suited for dealing with Shadow's firepower and mobility. I know this might be asking a bit much, but there's not much else we can do if we wish to move forward.
"It's not going to be easy, but hopefully Steven's defensive capabilities will help keep the four of you alive."
There was the dreaded word. Alive.
Although there was some peace with the minor missions to clear out the Heartless, once again Connie felt that same sense of urgency from back when she fought against those Shrekpire soldiers and back from when she helped to hunt down those corrupted gems.
"You can count on me, sir!" Steven said with enthusiasm.
Strangely enough, the other two boys didn't seem all that worried.
"You might find some allies in the area who may be willing to work with you," Agent Thompson continued.
The third agent then brought out a set of folders and distributed them. Inside appeared to be a list of people who presumably existed in the Paper Mario dimension, including Mario himself, and a few others Connie recognized.
"Dude!" said Lea in mild disgust, "Why does she look like that?"
Lea was obviously talking about Flurrie.
"Blame the game developers," Agent Thompson uttered.
"Who are you talking about?" Steven asked.
Riku leaned over to see Lea's page, and then pointed to the image Lea was viewing in Steven's folder.
"I don't see anything wrong with how she looks," said Steven.
"You'll understand when you're older," said Agent Thompson.
Steven was in fact older than Connie, though the fact he wasn't instinctively put off by Flurrie's character design was likely due to his sheltered upbringing.
"But enough of that," Agent Thompson continued. "On that sheet, you'll also find some information on where those folks might be located."
Looking at the sheet, each character either had one or two locations where they would have been recruited by Mario in-game, or where they could most commonly be sighted. Mario's location, however, remained blank, most likely because his location would vary depending on circumstances in the world they were going to.
Though, considering how strong on-average characters from the Mario-verse tended to be, Connie wasn't sure they would be much help for taking on Shadow.
"So Mario's the main guy we're looking for," said Riku.
"Seems that way," said Agent Thompson. "He's the main hero of that world, much like how the Gems are usually the ones who protect us when things go down."
"Okay, find Mario, got it!" said Steven.
"One more thing before we arrive at the rift," said Agent Thompson, "The town you saw in that footage is about two miles east of where you'll be heading out from. The maps say there should be a pipe you'll be able to access somewhere in town. Otherwise, you might have to take a train to get to the main hub area in this world."
That sounded like one heck of a walk.
"I know," said Agent Thompson, "it sounds like quite a distance. I wish we could make the rift big enough so we could haul some of our heavier equipment through, but we have to make do with what we've got."
"You know," said Steven, "why don't we ask Peridot if she's willing to come along?"
"Huh?" Lea uttered.
"Who's that?" asked Agent Peterson.
"Why on earth didn't I think of that sooner?" Agent Thompson said as he held his hand to his forehead.
"She could make something out of those scraps so it would be easier for us to move around," Steven said.
"Steven, that's brilliant!" said Connie.
"I just thought it might be a good idea."
"Hold on," said Agent Thompson as he fished out his phone, "let me do a couple quick calls."
He then began to call what were presumably agents located near Beach City.
Once he was done, he said, "We may need to put this mission on hold for a moment."
There was blackness.
She did not know how long she had been suspended like this. A year? A day? A millennium?
She did not know.
She could occasionally hear whispers through the void, though oftentimes she would forget what they were.
Such was the nature of things.
Was this a prison meant to contain her, or merely stasis?
She had borne witness to a vision, so powerful it almost blinded her.
A vision of love in its purest form.
It was the same love that gave birth to her form, the same love from which all life was created, and yet it was different somehow.
Her eye allowed her to foresee many possibilities, but what she had seen was perhaps beyond comprehension.
She had seen things as they once had been, and she had seen things as they would come to be.
A billion images compressed into a single whole. In all of them, there was one central form.
Shrek.
All it took was a single glimpse to understand why people gave such praise to the Ogrelord's name.
Shrek was love. Shrek was life.
And yet, from the whispers she heard, she knew that the figure the people worshiped was but a faint, fleeting image of what the Ogrelord once had been. Their devotion was genuine, but the faith itself had been corrupted by some malign influence, determined to use the power of the faithful to fulfill its own ends.
She had felt that influence, stretching its sinister claw out from deep within the blackness.
She had been able to keep at bay for some time, but she knew she could not hold it off forever.
Immense power burned deep within that thing, and if it ever decided to unleash the full extent of its power, it would shatter her in an instant.
Whatever it was, it was beyond natural.
She knew she must work to keep this thing from growing ever stronger, but already it had swallowed two of her friends. Who knows how many other countless souls it had consumed to grow to its current form.
She could not feel it now, but she knew it was lurking somewhere deep within.
The universe had granted her these visions, tasking her with this holy quest. Even from within the void, she had been able to work, but now she was needed in realm of the living.
Once again, Shrek would return to bring the worlds their salvation, and once again, the people would bear witness to Shrek's divine ogre love.
A faint light began to peep from deep within the darkness.
Shrek is love. Shrek is life.
A/N: Kinda felt this was an odd point to stop at, as I kinda originally planned to go further into the story before stopping. Not sure if/where I might have made inaccuracies or whatnot.
Also, I originally intended for the SU/Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door rift to end up at Riverside station, but then I realized that the U.S. soldiers/special forces squad would not have been able to make it to Poshley Heights before Steven and friends woke up (based on how long it takes the train to get to that place), so I adjusted things a bit there.
Not sure why, but I had a few hiccups early on while writing this chapter (though my fic writing pace has been slow, due to a bunch of other stuff). Figured now would be a good time to put out a chapter, as it's sorta been a while since my last chapter, though some parts may a bit unpolished.