Here we are, guys! After lengthy amounts of brainstorming I finally come up with this!

Thanks for all the new views and reviews, guys! They help me write better :D Well, hope I did write better in this new chapter!

And as per publication standards…

DISCLAIMER! I do not own Dark souls, Smash Bros., or the Super Mario Galaxy series; that goes to FromSoftware, Nintendo, and their associated companies. Peace!

CHAPTER THE FOURTH

Rosalina awoke amid piles of rubble. Disconcerted, she slowly sat up, her head ringing.

She was in the Fountain… but not the Fountain she knew and built. It was quite defiled, chunks of its' walls and roofing missing; the waters, now just a trickle, were quite muddy and filthy. She felt a surge of revulsion and fear course through her shaken mind. Oh, dear… what are we going to drink now? The cruel – She suddenly heard a titanic CRASH outside, and pitiful squeals following it. Oh, you will NOT kill my children! Not this time!

She rushed outside filled with an overpowering, protective rage, when suddenly something flashed by and buried itself into her chest. Shocked and in pain, she couldn't resist but be flung around by the chain of light. She was mercilessly smashed into several hard fixtures, and finally was untangled in a heap on the Bedroom's threshold.

For a few minutes, she saw nothing but stars. When the haze cleared she shakily got up – surprised she still could - and sized up the situation around her. The Beacon was now a plain ruin, the star in its center now gone, and its tall spire broken. Most of the buildings and Domes were just piles of rubble, some of them being licked by large tongue of flame. Worse were her children, the Lumas, who were everywhere, badly bruised and bleeding, lying motionless on the floor. This… this has never happened before! Never on my watch! The bleeding seems… strange, though…

She cried out in rage and grief. All her work… her family… gone. All thanks to some stupid subspace Neanderthal who was currently gloating over her apparent demise. "You fool! You could not even resist! Now all of the cosmos will be mine!" he chortled, holding up the Grand Stars she had sworn to protect. She steeled herself, clutching her wand. "Soon, all your puny little friends will perish! And there will be no one to stop my power!"

This was the last straw. Not that she had plenty friends anyway. She had only few… but still, they were her friends, and now that her family was gone… she had nothing but them. Peach. Daisy. Palutena. Shulk. Samus. Kirby. Mario. And Luigi…

She mustered whatever power remained in her, managed to conjure a halo, and threw determinedly it at the nightmare. I might be bleeding out… dying… but I won't go out without hurting him.

Apparently, she couldn't. The inhuman thing simply shrugged it off, literally. "Don't you think that, after getting my power, I wouldn't put it to good use yet? Especially when there are ants like you to smash – hey, where'd she go?"

The woman in question had vanished into the Library. She fell to her knees, grunting in pain, as the world swirled around her and as she tried to stay awake desperately. Blood was pouring out of her chest, her mouth, her wounds, but she managed to stay up. She could not fail.

Suddenly, a Dragon Laser tore through the wall, missing her by a hair. A Chain of Light followed, skewering her again and embedding itself into the wall, prompting a hearty shriek. A rain of bullets then followed, but she managed to cast even the weakest of shields, which deflected some of them.

When the dust cleared she was battered, bruised and bloody… but now this time the strain was too great, and she had given up. But somehow, somewhat… she could not fall into unconsciousness. She was trapped in this pain now. End this, coward! At least give me this mercy…

Tabuu entered, and seemingly hearing her thoughts, suddenly reached out and began siphoning her essence. "It's a shame, but now you'll have to die."

As she grew weaker still, and as the pain grew immense and the dark void of death finally began creeping up on her, she heard the thing laugh at its' success.

All I can hope for… is someone or something to be able to put up a fight against this thing.

Oliver had found his mama. At long last. But something was wrong with her. Blood was pouring out of her nose in an even stream, and she was asleep. She wouldn't wake up despite his best efforts.

She was very sick, as he could see. No, not dead. Not the D-word, now. That was too much.

"Mama! Mama! Stay with me! Mamaaaa…!" he shouted. But after a few minutes more of poking, shouting and jostling Rosalina, Mama still didn't wake up. That did it for the poor Luma. Now he was all alone.

"Mama… mama's dead!" he exclaimed. Then did the tears spring uncontrollably to his eyes. "NO!" He began to sob, the shudders of grief wracking his body. Polari, who had since woken up, had floated to the doorjamb and wept, albeit more quietly.

Then suddenly a warm steel gauntlet patted the poor thing on the back, and when he turned around he saw Stranger holding a strange yellow bottle. "Oh, stranger, help! Help mama! Let her live!" Stranger might not have understood him, but had helped him before, with the huge concrete chunks... Now maybe he could make a miracle work this time. Oliver leapt into his chest (to the mild astonishment of Polari), and he hugged back, then gently set him down beside mama.

"Well, Knightess, what can you say about this?"

You're smitten over her.

"Nope. Wrong assumption, lady - "

I can feel it within you~

"Shut up, knightess – "

See, you're in denial~ Ahuhuhuhu~

"When could you ever read me so well? And adapt to how I talk?! And be obnoxious?!"

Ever since you turned me into a sword, I guess. But I'll guess you're seeing one of the prettiest ladies in your life, eh?

"I have no idea how being smithed into a sword actually made you become all those, but that guess… Now that guess is right."

And indeed it was. What the Knight saw through the visor was a woman of exquisite beauty. (Apart from the blood pooling through her nose, that is.) As far as he could make out, she had quite a slender, yet unusually large build, a face with sharp, pretty features and small lips, and sandy hair which swept down from her head. She was dressed in quite a simple blue evening gown and shoes – which only helped accentuate the entire look. To top it all off, a silver crown lay beside her delicate head. A sure sign of royalty, that.

After a few moments of staring at unadulterated beauty, Knightess brought him back to reality. Uh, hey, sir, um, couldn't you snap out of your trance and help the poor woman? Startled, the Warrior mumbled an apology. "Eh, sure, sure! Wait, where was it again…?"

He began pulling out the various things which made up his inventory, all the while looking for that bottle of Divine Blessing he'd bought from Patches. "Quite expensive, yes, but it's the best at healing any sort of malady you get while traveling – and when you run out of flask charges! Now for only 20,000 souls, friend!" he'd proudly described it. Now the Warrior nearly regretted buying the thing, which he'd almost never used – up till now, he'd been depending on his Estus Flask and Humanities – the latter being of great quantity. Also, let's not forget, Rhea sold the same item at only a thousand souls apiece, and Alvina gave it to you for free. And that more were scattered across various places in Lordran.

When he'd finally found it he'd taken it out, and walked over to the little blue thing, which was cuddling up to her and squealing desperately, and placated it. "Looks like she's the kid's mother… or guardian… if she was the mother I can't imagine what happened." he thought. He then uncapped the bottle, opened the lady's mouth, and poured in the contents. The thing took effect immediately. A warmth spread as the holy water entered into the woman's mouth, into her throat and the rest of her body, completely healing her.

Suddenly, the scales tipped. She felt something immensely soothing and empowering course through her… like the warm sun on a bright afternoon. Power. Sweet, sweet power... She suddenly felt her whole body ease up, the bruises fading, the wounds closing. Got to end this. She quickly channeled this newfound power through the nearest outlet – the chain. Surprising to find so much of it! Without warning a blast of jagged lightning surged through the chain and into Tabuu, breaking it. The beast, meanwhile, was flung into a wall with a sickening crunch.

She took the opportunity to charge a ball of cosmos – but this time it was now a strangely familiar spear of sunlight. I swear I've seen this before… just don't know right now. Nor do I need to. She quickly chucked the Sunlight Spear at the vile beast, sending it to kingdom come. The only traces of it left were a smattering of blue dust.

She panted for a while, expecting the effects of strain to come upon her in moments… but no. This was disconcerting for her. She shook her head vigorously, attempting to at least feel something normal, when she suddenly remembered. The Lumas! She rushed outside, fearing for the Lumas when she noticed everything was in pristine condition. And so were her starchildren. They noticed their mama, and rushed over, embracing her. No words were said… but only one thought was on poor mama's mind.

How? That all felt so real! Most especially the pain!

Suddenly the Comet Observatory faded out of view, and then she was under a tree on a bright meadowed hill. What in the-

"It is a mere dream, daughter."

She heard the spectral voice speak out from beside her. She turned, and saw the Cosmic Spirit shimmer into view. It, as we all know, a spectral blue version of Rosalina… yet much more ancient.

"Are-are you really – "The spectre nodded. "M-mother? You – here – but how?" she exclaimed. "And why only now, instead of – of long ago? You could've warned me about now!"

The spirit merely gazed at Rosalina nostalgically. "Ah, you look so much like me, indeed… but it is in height where your father shines in you. Oh, forget about melancholy for a while. I am here because my consciousness managed to fuse with stardust. The only problem with that is that I can only manifest myself for about fifteen minutes at a time. Now I just watch over the cosmos, just like you, but on a less grand scale. Many a time have I guided your intrepid friends when they were at a loss on finding routes to stars they needed. But for now, I came back to you in order to guide you on what will soon happen, dear. And I don't exactly have all the time in the world."

Rosalina stood dumbfounded at what her mother had said. She'd been around before now? Helping her friends? And not visit her at all? She felt a wave of annoyance rush into her. "Why not go to your daughter first?!"

"Common sense will tell you that the universe is immense, if not infinite. And after two years' worth of flitting about in space I find you in the grasp of the cretinous Bowser. Which is why I had to aid your friends first. Forgive me for that, will you?"

"I-I see, mother. I forgive you." Rosalina replied quite sheepishly. That time she had let her guard down and decided to let the Lumas pilot the Observatory, since they'd asked for it plenty. They ended up crashing into an asteroid, where the Grand Stars had been flung forth by the impact, only to be scooped up by the good ol' King Koopa. "But what exactly would you aid me with, mother? Is it about the anomaly? Or is it about my own life?"

Rosalina felt an intense disapproval radiate from her mother. "Tut-tut-tut. Do not deride the poor being you label an anomaly. Call him something which gives him dignity. He has his own life to live as well, and he has power beyond measure. If you do treat him well you will have a very powerful asset in your arsenal. But if you don't… do know that he has slain gods. And he will not hesitate to slay anyone in his path."

"You mean the blue subspace Neanderthal?"

"No, I mean the anomaly you came for, in the land of ancient lords, the land you are in now." The spirit suddenly sighed quite sadly. "There is also something you must know about your children… but-"

"The Lumas?! A-are they dead?!" Rosalina's eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"Worse."

That was quite horrible on poor Rosalina. What could be worse than death? And to think this all happened on her watch. After all the pain, the hardships, and - let's not forget - the resets that she and her children endured… all her tender loving care had been put to waste.

She couldn't take it anymore. She sank to her knees, put her hands on her head and began to weep bitterly. The Cosmic Spirit did what a mother should – console her, and put her in her warm embrace. "My daughter, forgive me if I give you this bad piece of news, but – "

"I'm a failure, mother! I've failed my children and the universe!" The poor daughter wailed in between sobs. It was rare to see her break down like this, but when it happened... oh, it was terrible. "I let them be condemned to a fate worse than death! And now the Grand Stars –"

"– are safe, thanks to the timely intervention of the so-called anomaly, and one of his cohorts."

Rosalina suddenly looked up in aplomb. "You mean-"

"He is on your side. But as for the Lumas… Your remaining children also seem to have taken a liking to him. The rest of them, however, were disillusioned by your care, and within them grew the seed of rebellion which sprouted today. Now, they've left on your other spaceship."

That took a while to sink in. The Lumas… losing trust in her? There could only be one reason.

"So I am a horrible mother after all! Those people who hated me… they were right. I could never live up to you… or them…" railed Rosalina.

Now she could remember all the times she had been ridiculed for being the worst character in Nintendo. All the snide and the insults thrown at her appearance, her personality, her everything. Most especially for being "a dirty Peach clone", overrated, overpowered, having a terrible, convoluted personality and in taking care of the Lumas. They told her she was too strict, that she was ungrateful, that she never gave any credit to her children, and that Samus was a better mother than she was. She'd done to prove the ridicule wrong… but now all of it was true.

"Those accusations might be in a way true now, dear daughter," said the Spirit, holding her daughter closer, "but there's always the future to look toward. Use the experience to strengthen yourself. And if you can remember, the blue subspace Neanderthal started it all. There, there, let it all out…"

After a few minutes the wailing had diminished into sobs, then sniffles, and in a few minutes more she had regained composure, although the look on her face was still quite morose. "Thanks a lot, Mother. But… why did they rebel?"

"That I do not know, dear daughter. But as for now, you will have to regain what you have lost. Do not fret, dear daughter of mine… I did not come to break your spirit, but I am now here to guide you as well. You're right in saying you've made mistakes, but making blunders like these still does not mean that the tiniest of your errors cannot be given remedy to. Understood?"

"Yes, mother." Rosalina sighed and gave herself a tiny smile. Seeing her mother supporting for the first time in years, millennia, eons… it gave her the will to keep on moving forward for the good of all.

"That's better. Chin up, dear daughter. My time's up. I'll have to go. Don't worry, I'll be seeing you as often as I can. And remember, you now have a valuable ally in the Undead who helped you."

"Undead? You mean a zombie's my best friend now?" Rosalina exclaimed – but her mother had vanished from view, leaving her alone in the tree on the hill. "Gee, mom, thanks. Though I do need some more of that parenting counseling." She sighed.

Then suddenly everything took on a strange, underwater-like quality, then she felt her lungs grow heavy, and then her vision suddenly blacked out several times… and when her exposed eye finally refocused, she was awake.

She blinked the haze out of her eyes, and when she finally saw things clearly, she saw the strangest anomaly she'd seen in millennia.

A knight. A real-life knight in quite grimy, bloodstained armor. A slender sword in its sheath hung from his side, an elaborately decorated shield on his back, and a greatsword as well, which seemed to be of German make. He was holding a strange yellow flask, and another, more lucent flask was stuffed into a pouch on his belt. Presently he was placing the other bottle back into his pocket when he noticed she was awake. He then backed off a bit and rested on a wall, merely watching them. Like a predator eyeing his prey. She shuddered.

So this was the anomaly. The undead, as her mother had called it. Guess I'll have to talk to you later, sir.

Then Oliver and Polari noticed her too, though, and soon she was mobbed by her two remaining children. One weak with both age and injury, and one strong with youth. "Mama!" "Mi-milady! You live!" "Stranger brought you back to life!"

Oh. Guess that's what the flask was for. She got up, and only then did she notice the blood pooling on the floor from her nostrils. Looks like he's did a real good job too! She wiped the blood away with her sleeve – undignified, maybe, but she had no handkerchiefs on her person right now. "That's good to hear. Thank you for remaining loyal to me… both of you… I know what happened." She let out a deep, sad sigh. "But we will have to get out of this place for now. We have found what we are searching for – and yet so easily as well."

"You mean – you know what happened to Zachary?" screamed little Oliver. "He started it! He started everything! He told us you were bad, and you didn't help us, and you made us do your work, and you didn't take us anywhere fun! But I didn't believe him, and I stayed, and they left us!" Oliver was now close to tears.

That seemed to hit Rosalina hard. All the things Zachary had said… they were true, at least in the Lumas' perspective. Now she knew where she'd screwed up, she'd be able to take care of them better… or so she'd thought, anyways. If only they'd told her!

"I see. We will have to find him too, and have a reckoning with him and the other Lumas…" Rosalina gathered Oliver up in her arms and let him cry for a bit, stroking his back until he stopped. "There, there, it's all right. Now, where's - Polari, what's wrong?"

The erstwhile Luma advisor was on the ground, clearly weak, starting to fade. "Milady… the infernal thing has struck me mortally, but I have enough power to transform, just yet." Then did they notice the scar on him caused by the Shark Blade. It was long and jagged, and had a malevolent blue tint to it.

"Oh, no… the beast… are you sure about this decision of yours, Polari?" Rosalina returned, the morose expression on her face once more. Another one of her children down, leaving just her and Oliver. And in a single day.

"It is the only way, milady."

"Then so be it."

Quite weary, Rosalina held out her hand, and directed some energy towards Polari. He would need this last bit of energy to make up for what he'd lost in his injuries. Strangely, she felt as rejuvenated as she was in the dream. Thanks a lot, sir Stranger, she thought, smiling to herself.

A brilliant flash of light and warmth ensued for a full fifty seconds.. When their eyes had cleared, before them lay a Grand Star in all of its glory and power. After a long minute passed, Rosalina broke the profound still.

"A fitting final act from Polari." She said, the tears springing to her eyes, but repressed quite easily.. "Thank you, dearly. You will live on forever in our hearts."

Oliver leapt up to Mama's slender arms. "Does that mean we're alone now?" He started to cry again, but then Rosalina quickly kissed him on the forehead, hushed him and and smiled at him, calming him down.

"Not quite. We always have each other." She smiled and pointed to the knight leaning against the wall. "We also have your friend over there."

And that's it for now, folks! As usual, stay tuned for newer chapters, and don't for get to rate and review!

P.S.! Don't be afraid to point out mistakes in my work, if any. It's good enough to recieve constructive criticism. Everyone makes mistakes, and, I quote the Cosmic Spirit, making grave errors doesn't mean the smallest of mistakes cannot be given remedy to. Peace out!

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