CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Disaster Never Sleeps

It turned out that Mario wasn't completely insane, for every single member of the group had survived the crash. That said, every one of them had some form of bruise or scar on their bodies and were shaken beyond belief, but they were most certainly still intact. Nevertheless, the airship was beyond repair, and the only option now was to scour across the barren demonic landscape in hopes that there was a rift nearby (Saya being quick to explain what that was and Lucas concluding that he may be able to open a gateway back to the real world if they could find one).

Thus, they started walking with Bowser leading the pack and remaining silent while Mario and Yoshi checked to make sure Peach was okay. Saya and Lucas walked in silence side-by-side for a brief moment until the former suddenly felt a chill up her spine and started to shiver.

"Something wrong, Saya?" asked Lucas.

"Just a little chill. God, I hate Limbo."

"Well…if you want, you can come a little closer."

Saya bit her lip but wordlessly leaned up against him and let him drape an arm around her shoulder. Just feeling him against her warmed her up more than a blanket could, but it wasn't just the below average temperature that was chilling her. There were still the things that Jedah had said. She had no doubt in her mind that Lucas was searching for any possible answer to who she was and where she really came from. He wouldn't ask her outright since he wasn't one to break a promise, but she knew not to underestimate his thinking ability. He could figure out for himself just by listening to things people said to her and about her. He'd already learned a great deal just from listening in on her and Takamaru. Speaking of which…

"Maru-kun…why did you keep waiting for me?"

Lucas was indeed searching through the bits of information he'd heard to try and piece together a conclusion. Saya had claimed that she was thirteen years old going on fourteen, but she had known Takamaru for a long time and he had time-traveled from the seventeenth century. No one could justify that by saying that Lucas himself had travelled back a millennium. He hadn't done so and recognized a girl from a time where he wasn't even conceived yet. He couldn't be mad at her for hiding things from her. After all, he had done the same until recently.

"You-a two okay over here?" Luigi asked suddenly.

Saya and Lucas snapped to attention, Saya removing herself from Lucas' shoulder as the two wheeled around toward her.

"Yeah, yeah." Lucas sputtered. "We're…we're fine."
"Okay. You just-a looked like you were-a both drifting away there."

"We're fine. Thanks for asking, though."

They continued to walk in silence, Saya separating from Lucas and Luigi and walking forward a little ways, finding herself just behind Bowser. Bowser continued on wordlessly until he felt Saya staring at him and looked over his shoulder. Saya let out a quiet but still audible yelp and looked away while Bowser simply smirked.

"You get scared a bit too easy if you ask me."

Saya said nothing out of nervousness as well as frankly having nothing to say to him.

"You know," he spoke again. "Staying quiet isn't going to help you. What's up?"

"…you're just being way nicer than I thought you'd be."

"What? You think because I'm a ten-foot tall reptilian monster that I can't be altruistic once in a while?"

"I didn't say that!"

To her surprise and annoyance, he simply laughed and patted her on the head.

"Kidding. We'll just leave it at me wanting to do something nice for folks every now and again."

"…but Peach is with us, so it can't be just a coincidence."

"Huh? …well, I, uh…okay, seriously, how did you know that?"
"That you have a huge crush on Peach? What did you think Jedah was talking about when he mentioned me having godlike power?"

"What, you can read minds?"

"See memories…not all of them good."

Bowser slowed down so he could stand side-by-side with Saya and stroked his chin, genuinely intrigued now that she had mentioned that.

"Hm…so what did you see?"

"You two were married at one point."

"Yeah, but it was a forgery, really."

"And it brought forth something called the Chaos Heart."

"That's right…that wasn't my doing, by the way. Had I known that would have happened, I never would've married Peach…oh, who am I kidding? Of course I would."

"So that's what the whole scuffle between you and Mario is about? You're both lusting over Peach?"

"I wouldn't call it lusting. He really does love her. I think they've known each other since they were kids, and if that's true, he's probably been protecting her for all that time"

Saya smiled, images of Link, Takamaru, Dante, and all other types of great people that had saved her coming to mind.

"Her knight in shining armour. I guess you want to be that?"
"In a way. But Peach also knows that she can't always let Mario do all the fighting because who knows? There might come a day when she needs to save him."

It was a simple word of advice but ti struck up more emotion in Saya's heart than anyone else had. With seemingly everyone spewing out those kinds of pretentious things when she was around, this one actually meant something to her. True, she was making efforts to learn to fight off her adversaries on her own and the skills Link had taught her had served her well in the fights she'd had so far, but it was nothing compared to what she was actually capable of. The issue was that what she was actually capable of wouldn't save anything. Rather, it would devastate anything because of one simple fact: despite what Jedah and Juri and everyone else thought, she had no control over it.

…but if she ever did had to use it…it would be to protect Lucas.

"Yeah…I guess I feel the same way about Lucas. I owe him that much…in fact, I owe a debt to Yukimura Sanada that I can never repay."

"But aren't those the best kinds of debts?"

Lucas grew a disappointed look on his face when Saya left his side. It seemed like they had made a promise to each other that she just wasn't willing to keep. She just kept hiding things from him, and it wouldn't be so bad if everyone would stop beating her (and, to an extent, him) over the head with it. In any case, the upset look on his face was one that Luigi quickly took notice of.

"Is she your girl-a friend?"
"Huh?! N-no, of course not!"

Luigi laughed.

"Really? You were really cuddling up with her back-a there."

"She was cold!"

"You know there's-a nothing wrong with feeling that-a way about her, right?"

"Yeah, I know…but…she won't tell me anything about her past. It feels like she wants a close bond but at the same time doesn't. It's really annoying."

"I guess all lovers have that one part about-a them that's annoying."

"Huh?"

Luigi smiled and fixed his cap.

"I'm in a relationship with a princess named Daisy. Don't-a get-a me wrong, she's-a pretty and all and she's-a really sweet, but…man, I'm-a really glad she wasn't-a there when we were finding off-a Jedah."

"Why's that?"

"When she speaks-a normally, her voice is fine, but when she's-a shouting like when she's-a playing a sport or something, mamma mia. It's almost as bad as nails on a chalk-a board."

Even though it was unspeakably mean of him to do so, Lucas snickered. He needed a good laugh right now and oddly, Luigi had brought it to him.

"That does sound bad. And you put up with her anyway?"

"Yeah. For the same-a reason Mario puts up with-a Peach getting kidnapped all the time. I love her that-a much."

"So much that…you're willing to run to the ends of the earth and back to save her."

"Yep…though that-a figure of-a speech makes-a no sense because Earth is-a round and therefore doesn't have an end, but I digress."

The two shared a laugh, only to bump into Mario and Yoshi in front of them. Looking forward, they saw that Bowser had held out his arm to block the group from going any further. They had arrived at a cliff side with a single path splitting two separate pits apart. Within the pits were some of the most disturbing creatures any of them had ever seen. They were tall and very skeletal-looking with the skin drawn so tightly one could see the bones protruding from underneath. They had very pointy ears with large looping earrings, blank black eyes, lips drawn back so far that their teeth and gums could be seen, and an unnerving pale-blue tint to their skin. Scariest of all was that they weren't moving or making any sort of sound. Just standing there, slouched over as though they were completely lifeless.

"Good God…" Saya muttered. "What are those things? Zombies?"

"Worse." Bowser answered. "ReDeads."

"What?"

Bowser growled to himself and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This whole situation just got a whole lot worse."

He sighed before turning to the group.

"Okay. Listen very carefully. There's no way around this. We have to go through them."
"Are you serious?!" Mario half-shouted.

"Shh!"

Bowser turned his head back to the ReDeads and shivered when he saw that one of them had twitched, but otherwise didn't move. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Mario with a furious glare.

"You wanna maybe listen to what I have to say before you go spouting yourself off like that?!"

Mario remained silent as Bowser continued speaking in a hushed tone.

"A couple of those things got aboard the airship while we were flying and…well, they wreck things like nobody's business, though not in the way you're thinking."

"So what do we do?" asked Lucas.

"As I said before Mario decided to do something stupid again, we have to go down that path to get to the other side. Whatever you do, don't make any sudden movements or sounds, and most importantly, if one of them looks up, do NOT under any circumstances make eye contact with them. Unless you have a thing for banshees."

No one had any idea what that was supposed to mean, but they remained silent as Bowser led the way. Saya had to bite her lip to keep herself from breathing too loudly, surprised that even the light tapping of their footsteps had set the undead freaks off.

Speaking of going off, what would that mean? Would they act like regular zombies and just start lurching toward them with the intention of eating their brains or whatever sick thing zombies did? She'd seen Dawn of the Dead and knew how gruesome being killed by a zombie could be. With that in mind, what was the difference between zombies and ReDeads?

She didn't want to find out, but she very nearly did when she tripped over her own feet. She squeezed her eyes shut and prepared to ruin the whole escape when she was suddenly caught in mid-air. One hand was holding her up while another hand was keeping her eyelids closed, hinting that one of the Redeads had looked up.

Once (she assumed) it had gone back to its lifeless state, her eyes opened and Bowser gently placed her back on her feet and made a hand signal asking if she was alright. She nodded, and Bowser nodded in turn before the group kept moving. In that moment, Saya had seen in the reptilian creature what Peach had seen. He did malicious things every once in a while, but deep down, he had a good heart. If he was good enough to keep a young girl from possibly being murdered by undead creatures, then perhaps he wasn't as bad as she initially made him out to be.

They were already two-thirds of the way through, their minds wracked with paranoia and practically praying that nothing would hinder their progress, when Saya got one of the most ominous feelings she had ever felt. In this space full of cannibal corpses that were prepared to kill if the group so much as looked at them, she felt like they were being watched.

Sure enough, as they finally approached the end of the path, they were. There stood Jedah, and before anyone had anytime to question how he had caught up with them so fast, he smiled evilly and raised his hand with his thumb pressed hard against his index and middle fingers. Bowser stepped forward to stop him, but it was too late. Jedah snapped his fingers and disappeared instantly.

"You son of a…" Bowser started.

The echo of the snap awoke every single of the ReDeads, all of whom looked at the group who didn't have enough time to avert their eyes. Then they saw what Bowser had been talking about: the second the group made eye contact with the ReDeads, their eyes lit up red and they opened their mouths frighteningly wide before every single one let out a loud and earth-shattering scream.

And the group just stood there. They wanted to run, but couldn't. The creatures had literally frozen them with fear, not so much with the volume and pitch of their shrieks but with their soul-piercing eyes that seemed like the eyes of Death itself…and those eyes grew even more frightening as the creatures began lurching toward them.

"Oh…no…you don't!" Lucas growled. "PK HEALING!"

A blast emitted from his hands and washed over this comrades, freeing up their bodies save for Saya, who collapsed onto the ground with her eyes and mouth still wide open in terror and her body quivering like it was starting to freeze.

"What's happened to her?!" Peach cried.

"No, no, no, not now!" Lucas muttered, rushing to Saya and planting his hands against her forehead. "PK Lifeup!"

The blast did nothing, but that didn't stop Lucas from doing it over and over again. The whole time, Saya seemed to be trying to speak, but all that came out were unintelligible stutters.

"It's no use, Lucas!" Bowser shouted. "She's in shock!"

"We can't just leave her like this!"

"Didn't say anything about leaving her."

Bowser picked Saya up, cradling her like a newborn infant and taking care to keep her face down.

"RUN!" the Koopa King hollered.

The Redeads kept shrieking, though thankfully no longer in unison, as their prey began dashing across the landscape in an attempt to escape. While the "prey" paid no attention to it since they'd already seen what looking a ReDead in the face accomplished, the undead fiends started running at an unnervingly fast speed, flailing their arms about as though the group was just inches within their grasp.

As they ran, the group tried everything they could to slow their pursuers down while simultaneously refraining from looking at them. As they passed a large boulder, Bowser gave it a sharp kick and sent it rolling backward. Yoshi picked up several pebbles, spooned them into his mouth, and started firing them as fast as he could while keeping his eyes shut. Mario was the last to make an attempt at impeding the ReDeads, clenching his fists and spinning around.

"MARIO FINALE!" he hollered.

He thrust his arms forward, launching two massive and twisting streams of flames from his hands that incinerated everything they touched, but suddenly didn't stop the ReDeads from continuing forward. Even the large amount that had actually been lit ablaze kept moving as though nothing had happened. As they ascended a hill, Lucas heard a soft droning sound in his ears. He'd heard this same droning sound when Kat had laid down a gateway after the fight with Hades and Ghirahim, so that could mean…

"The rift!" he cheered. "We made it!"

"Alright!" Bowser exclaimed. "Get that sucker open and get us outta here!"

Lucas nodded and crossed his arms, levitating into the air slightly as he let out an incantation even louder than a ReDead could ever hope to scream.

"PK FAREWELL!"

A comet-like projectile emerged from above Lucas and shot forward toward the area where the rift was located, striking it and forming a small column of light. On the other side of it, the group could see a grassy plain and the night sky shining.

"That's-a got it!" Mario cheered. "Let's-a go!"

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Lucas came within jumping distance of the portal, but as Bowser approached it with Saya still in his arms, it felt as though he had gone running straight into a brick wall.

"What the…?!" he growled.

"What's going on?!" Peach cried. "Come on, Bowser!"

"Damn...I can't. That bastard Jedah must have set up a barrier to keep Saya in…"

He smirked and laughed under his breath.
"This is what I get for trying to be a good guy for once."

With a grit of his teeth and a loud roar, Bowser slammed his fists against the barrier, succeeding in only rattling his bones. Nevertheless, he struck it again, this time even harder. The recoil sent even more pain through his body, but he struck again and again until a small crack formed in the barrier.

"You're not taking this kid, you demon freak…" Bowser grumbled as though Jedah could hear him. "She more than anyone else has to put you in your place."

Bowser let out one more roar and struck the barrier again, this time with his head. A fair-sized hole formed in the barrier which he shoved Saya through. Lucas promptly pulled her up onto his shoulder and held her close,

"Alright!" Luigi called. "Now you-a, too!"

Bowser smiled.

"Sorry…I'm not gonna make it."

"What?!"

"No way is my big fat ass gonna fit through there."

Peach's eyes started to tear up as she started banging on the barrier as though that would help Bowser in any form. She didn't understand why, but she felt so inclined to help him even if he was a nuisance to her. It felt against her moral code to just leave him to die.

"You can't give up, you idiot!" she shouted. "You're Bowser! King of the Koopas! You've kidnapped me more times than you can count and yet you keep getting schooled! You never give up!"

Bowser smiled and placed his hand on the barrier, wishing he could reach out and touch the princess' cheek.

"Don't call it giving up, then. Call it the ultimate sacrifice."

The ReDeads drew closer, but the group still refused to leave their reptilian companion behind. Saya in particular knew that she could very well break down this barrier and get him out, but all thanks to Jedah, she was too frightened to move.

"Mario…you take good care of that princess, you got me?" said Bowser. "I'll never forgive you if you go and lose her."

"You're-a coming with us, ya big palooka!" Mario cried. "Enemy or not, I ain't leavin'-a you behind!"

"You don't have a choice. Just go…and tell Junior that his old man went down fighting, okay?"

Mario could say nothing more as Bowser turned away from them and began walking toward the horde. He couldn't believe that this was happening. He couldn't believe he was fearing for his enemy, but there it was, and here he was without any way to stop it. The group cursed themselves and Jedah as they ran through the portal, leaving Bowser to crack his knuckles and flex his claws. He stood before the undead army without fear and spat a quick puff of fire from the corner of his mouth.

"Alright, you freaks!" he bellowed. "COME GET SOME!"

The second they passed through the gate, Saya and her comrades slumped over and collapsed onto the ground, none of them having the strength to get up. Passing through the gate had caused far more turbulence than they had hoped, and now it was taking its toll on them. Even worse was that Saya was still in shock with seemingly no way to get her out of it.

"I have to try, though." Lucas groaned in his head as he tried to pull himself over to her. "I've got enough strength in me for this."

But not the time, for he became aware that there was something standing over Saya, and that something was the violet-skinned Pokémon that he had seen holding the train back when Juri bombed the bridge. Without looking at Lucas, Mewtwo raised his hands and telekinetically levitated Saya into the crook of his arm.

"No…" Lucas whined, raising his hand. "Don't take her…not again."

Mewtwo paid no attention to Lucas, who gritted his teeth and summoned what little strength he had left.

"PK THUNDER!" he called weakly.

Mewtwo swatted at the projectile and sent it flying away, leaving Lucas to collapse in defeat while he continued to examine Saya. She continued to stare up at him with the shocked expression the ReDeads had burned onto her face. The longer he looked at her, the more he thought about another young girl that he had known a long time ago. Saya too could see something as she stared at him. Within his memories, he was calling out to someone. Amber…all she heard in his mind was him calling out that name like this girl was dying…like he would never see her again.

"I…I…" Saya gasped, unable to get the words out.

Without a word, Mewtwo gently raised his free hand to her and pressed inward. At that moment, Saya felt pressure on her vital points that finally relieved her of the shock, but before she could scramble out of Mewtwo's grasp, his eyes glowed bright blue. She stared into them mesmerized before she started to feel her consciousness slip away. Before he vanished and took the sleeping Saya along with him, Mewtwo took one somber look at Lucas and said, "Forgive me…"

Lucas had failed. He'd lost her again. The weight of defeat steadily washing over him, he rolled onto his back and stared up at the starry sky, tears starting to leak from his eyes.

"Saya…I'm sorry."

"LUCAS!"

"Wait…is that…Ness?!"

Relief swept over him, though not enough to wash away the guilt. Ness, Link, Dante, and the rest of the group left behind at the hotel had crowded around Lucas, with Dante kneeling down to help him.

"You alright, buddy?" he asked. "You look like you've been through hell."

"Which he has, stupid." scoffed Morrigan.

"Don't make me hit you again."

Lucas stood with help from Dante, the others helping with Mario and his allies, but as he gazed at all the hopeful faces, he blurted out his anguish.

"They got Saya!" he cried.

"What?!" Ness sputtered.

"Ness…that thing we saw on the bridge! That Pokémon that was working with Juri! It took Saya and disappeared!"

No one dared to say anything, clearly seeing that Lucas was at his breaking point for having failed to protect Saya like he had promised. Everyone except Amaterasu.

"We must hurry, then. There is no doubt that they will be headed toward the Aokigahara, and we must…"

"Shut up!" Lucas shouted.

"Pardon me?!"

"You don't know that they're gonna be there! And tell me something! If you're a goddess, why won't you use your oh-so-mighty powers and just pick these bastards off of the earth one by one?! Riddle me that, 'goddess'!"

"Lucas, calm down!"

"No, you wise up! I'm not dodging the bullet anymore! If I have to go straight into the lion's den to save Saya, I'm gonna do it and there's nothing some piece of crap wolf goddess is gonna do to stop me!"

"LUCAS, THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Amaterasu's sudden bellow frightened him after he had gotten so used to her speaking calmly and calculating. But what really got to him was that in that moment, she sounded almost exactly like his mother when she called out to him…him and Claus right before Claus…had done the unthinkable.

He shuddered and let the tears fall, Amaterasu immediately regretting shouting at him and scaring him half to death.

"Forgive me, dear one." she said softly. "But you must not let your emotions get the better of you. That is merely what they want. To have you at your weakest before they strike you where it will hurt more than ever."

"…tell me one thing."

He didn't want to break the promise he had made to Saya, but he ahd no choice. If he was going to be any help to her now, he needed to know.

"What's Saya's secret?"

No one answered him right away.

"Staying quiet isn't going to do anything." he said, his voice growing stern again. "I know that Link, Pit, and Takamaru know it, and Takamaru knows Saya from a long time ago despite the fact that she's only thirteen and he's from the seventeenth century."

"Lucas…" Takamaru sighed.

"Tell me, or I'm going to save Saya myself."

Amaterasu sighed.

"Very well. Saya would not want me to tell you this, but I suppose there is no avoiding it. Lucas, what I am about to tell you is not only the secret that Saya has been keeping from you, but also the reason that these fiends are after her. As it turns out, and as you may have guessed, Saya is not thirteen years old. Not even close."

Thus, she wove her tale, and understanding finally came to Lucas, as did mesmerisation, pity…and at the mention of Ganondorf, fear.

Now Lucas knows Saya's secret. Do you?

Yeah. ReDeads. Scarred me and gave me nightmares the first time I played Wind Waker. Even now that I played Wind Waker HD in college, I STILL think they're scary! So thank you, Nintendo. Causing kids to soil their pants since 1998.

And did I just kill off Bowser?! Well, I hate to spoil anything, but...no. That would be like killing off Spider-Man...oh, wait! They did that! More than once, actually!

I still love Spider-Man, though. Even if the death and resurrection crap is completely phoned in. Then again, it did look like Nintendo themselves killed off Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy right before (I think) Rosalina and the Lumas caused another Big Bang and brought everything back to life.

Hmm...speaking of Rosalina. She's a fan favourite, so...maybe. We'll see.