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Bowser grunted as his claw grabbed onto one of the many stalagmites surrounding the water. He was unable to see from the water flushing his eyes as he forced himself upward, wanting nothing more than to leave the water. The stone easily supported his weight as he pulled himself out of the body of water.
With one swift motion, he easily lifted himself out of the pool and onto the surrounding cave's surface, damping the dry stone. He stood still for a few moments, trying to grasp what had just happened, and what could have happened.
Water ran down his claws, shell, and body as it dripped into a large puddle beneath him. He shuddered as the air chilled his soaking body.
Bowser leaned against the wall as he crashed with a wave of fatigue and discomfort. He grunted before coughing as he pressed his weight against the stone. He held his claw against his chest, gently holding the girl against him.
He had run so fast and dove after her without hesitation; he hadn't paused for a second guess, let alone a single breath. Without thinking, he turned around and ran after her, only after realizing what she was doing.
He had assumed she was trying to run away or escape, but seeing her clothing torn on the jagged spikes of rock around the pool, he knew she had, instead, been an idiot, and found herself in harm's way once again.
How could he have been so stupid? Of course she was getting herself in trouble. What else would have set him off? Who else could have been so careless?
The phantom pushed his wet hair out of his eyes as he leaned back, trying to catch his breath. He stared at her with uncertain worry, afraid of how her eyes refused to open or acknowledge that she was out of the water. She shifted in his arms, occasionally coughing and gasping for air, as if she had no idea she was on dry land.
Peach rested in his arms, completely soaked from head to toe. Her hair stuck to her face and her clothes seemed to melt onto her with the liquid weighing them down. While, in the water, she looked ethereal as she laid still, in his arms, she looked dangerously similar to a corpse dragged out of a river.
He had seen his fair share of those.
He sighed as he realized the lack of life in her was not caused by the water.
Her skin was empty of any warmth due to the lack of sunlight and her body was beyond frail; She was not meant for life beneath the opera house. He grinded his teeth as a pang of guilt ran through him, but he quickly shook it off as it was her fault.
As much as it bothered him, he seemed to still cling onto the need to keep her safe. It frustrated him, realizing she was pulling out past emotions that he had desperately tried to null through the years. With her company, it was impossible to ignore how he used to feel about her, and he couldn't deny similar thoughts creeping in the back of his mind and fueling his intentions.
It was painful as each moment he saw her, felt her, or spoke to her, he remembered everything.
He tried so hard to fight any fondness for the past but it continued to creep into his actions.
Bowser cursed to himself as he forced himself to stand. It was not the time to regret the past.
She was unmoving, pale, and limp as she rested. Why were humans so fragile? It was pathetic of her to jump into water without knowing if she would be able to make it out, but that was the exact carelessness that had gotten her under the opera house in the first place.
A human's fragileness was surely their biggest downfall, following right behind their stupidity.
Bowser turned towards the narrow cave's opening. He had barely managed to fit when rushing after the girl, and the scrapes from his shell against the stone wall were clear evidence of his desperation to catch up to her.
His heart dropped as he remembered the pure despair and panic that drove his need to find her. The idea of her falling under harm's way was enough for him to leap into the water without thinking, no matter how much he hated getting wet.
The idea of losing her, even though he despised her, was a tormenting fear that still haunted him from years prior. His past self had passed on the necessities of protecting her without so much as a choice.
Bowser growled as he dragged his free claw along the walls, trying to fit through and pull himself through the opening. The stone cried out as his sharp nails dragged along the surface. His shell, too, cut into the walls as he squeezed through.
It was a tight fit and took much longer thanks to his company taking priority of his left claw. He held her close to his chest as he made sure to keep her away from bumping into anything.
After a few moments, he was able to pull himself through. Thankfully, Peach continued resting in his arms without any signs of disturbance. She continued laying unmoving and unflinching.
The koopa groaned as his wet hair fell in his face once again. He pushed it out of his eyes with an annoyed grunt before turning to his left. He picked up his pace as he made his way towards his destination.
After a long day of looking for leads, neither of the two humans were able to pinpoint anything to send them in the right direction. Besides the claim of seeing the phantom with Peach, there was nothing else to guide them.
Instead, they carried along with their day-to-day lives: going to rehearsal, sleeping, and repeating, waiting for something to jump out and tell them what to do in regards to Peach. It was in their hands, after all.
Mario and Pauline silently walked down the main hall of the opera house, eager to get some rest and try again tomorrow.
"You two!" A nasally voice called out from behind them.
The two humans turned around, finding a small koopa with armor adorning his head, shell, and body. He stood with a metal spear, half the size of Pauline. He held onto the weapon with great authority, glaring at the two.
"Any information?" He asked with a demanding frown.
Pauline held back a snicker at how uncharacteristic his voice was to his confidence.
"Information?" Mario asked as he mimicked Pauline's amusement.
The koopa nodded as he seemed oblivious to their judgment.
"Typical humans," he muttered under his breath. He cleared his throat, continuing in his utmost professional, condescending tone. "Queen Koopa has ordered an investigation on this disappearance of...Peach Toadstool," he trailed off, barely remembering the woman's name. He continued with a frown. "You are required to hand over all evidence you may stumble on. Do you have any information?" He repeated with a frustrated huff.
The two froze as they realized the queen had finally become interested in the scandal.
It was an odd turn of events that neither had expected, as the queen was never one to take murders or kidnappings into her own hands. She often ignored events in the hope of avoiding tainting her image, or that's what the general public assumed.
For the most part, it worked, as these cases did not get as much attention as they had under the king. The two always seemed to have conflicting views when it came to ruling a kingdom and many of the queen's preferences became a reality when she took control.
Investigations were almost never brought forth under royal order, now that she had the grand authority. No one understood the motives but assumed it was simply a shift of focus; she did not deem them as important as the past king had.
The two looked around them, noticing several guards patrolling the halls. Goombas and koopas strolled past the group, eyeing them suspiciously, before leaving and continuing on their guarding duties.
Mario and Pauline exchanged silent looks of concern before she finally found herself speaking up.
"No," Pauline answered. "We're just dumb humans, aren't we, Mario?" She asked with a vicious side eye in his direction.
Mario gave a quick, fearful nod towards the guard, earning a roll of his eyes due to the wasted time. The koopa instantly turned around and continued his way down the hall, surely to investigate any other employees wandering the halls at such an hour.
Pauline quickly grabbed the collar of Mario's shirt as she pulled him to the side of the hallway and into a corner.
"What are you doing?!" Mario whispered. "You said that we needed to get the queen involved and now you're not going to tell them-"
"I know what I said!" Pauline interrupted. "This just doesn't feel right."
Mario sighed as he pulled away from Pauline's grip on his shirt.
"Are you suggesting we don't tell the guards?"
Surely, the queen had very little information about this case besides the general information: a human woman had disappeared. With the only information being from a drunk, it was unlikely that it had been taken seriously. But, Pauline and Mario had the information to believe that what he had seen was not that far off from the truth.
She shook her head.
"Not yet. She hasn't...she hasn't ever cared. Why is she caring? Why does she care about her?" Pauline crossed her arms as she thought out loud. "I thought we would spend months trying to convince any higher ups to care, but...she's already interested. This is just...not right."
Mario stared at her in pure bewilderment.
"Because things are going better than we thought, that's a bad thing?" Mario slowly asked with dripping sarcasm. "Pauline, that's ridiculous-"
"I know it's ridiculous," she muttered. "I just...don't think this is right. Since when has there been an investigation under her? Since when has she gone out of her way to acknowledge anything like this? Mario, something just isn't right!"
Pauline's body seemed to tremble with a fearful frustration Mario couldn't identify, all coming from the queen's sudden interest. He furrowed his brow, confused as to why such a thing was making her panic. He had expected scepticism from her, but not a look of terror.
Mario sighed as Pauline's sense of horror continued to build with each word. He was a docile man, often following under what others wanted and rarely speaking out of line, but something urged him to go against Pauline's sudden change of heart.
Whatever fueled her sudden lack of trust and spike of fear with queen koopa was beyond him, but it was not enough to change his mind. He stood with confident defiance to her pleas, knowing that, in the bigger picture, they had to trust the queen.
"No," he muttered in defeat.
Pauline eyed Mario in shock as he refused her worries. He clenched his fists, holding his ground.
"Pauline, I'm telling the guards. I'm telling them everything we know. This isn't about trusting the queen, this is about getting Peach back." He took a step away from the actress. "Why can't you see that?"
He turned away from the woman, emerging from the hidden corner and back into the hallway. Four guards stood idly among the corridor, surely waiting for any information to be dropped off. Pauline's face paled as he turned away.
She reached out and grabbed Mario's arm before he could be seen, pulling him back into the corner, away from the guards. Mario yelped as he was forced backwards and was forcibly turned around to face the woman.
She stared at him with a sense of desperation as she held onto his shoulders.
"Please, Mario, give me a chance. You don't understand," Pauline whispered. She turned her head towards the guards and then back to her friend. "I know...I know how you feel about her. I get it. I'm just worried that… we might not know the big picture here. There...there has to be more to this. There has to be."
Pauline understood the grave severity of the Peach going missing; this was not a problem that could be put to the side. Peach's life was on the line every second the two hesitated, and she completely understood the circumstances.
Mario, too, understood her words. He understood her mistrust, but not the fear in her eyes. She was convinced that there were motives that were unexplained and shrouded the disappearance in even more concern. To care about a missing case involving a human was not one even king koopa himself would have cared about, that was sure, and it made sense to question the motives.
But why assume there was a hidden motive? What if the queen suddenly had a change of heart? Was that so hard to believe? Why be so desperate for there to be a reason?
He frowned as he couldn't understand the way she looked at him.
"Why should I-"
"Give me a few weeks. I have an idea," Pauline pleaded. "Please, just trust me. I- We need to figure this out," she corrected.
Mario crossed his arms. Both were well aware that Peach could not have minutes, days, let alone weeks to live. They were not in a position to be careless with time, but even so, the look in Pauline's eyes made Mario itch with worry.
Mario groaned as Pauline was a convincing woman. The fear, doubt, and sadness that fell from her words were enough to drag him down with her.
"Fine! Fine," he answered in pure defeat. He continued with accusatory, subtle anger. "If I feel like we're wasting time, even for a second, I'm telling them. Got it?" He asked. He knew he was holding this above her as a means for Peach's safety, which only further boosted his confidence in his words.
The fear in Pauline's eyes flashed with shock at his sudden wave of authority. However, she couldn't help but smile in thankfulness at his agreement, no matter how she had forced him.
This was what she needed to do.
"Fine," she agreed half heartedly. "It's a deal."