AN: Hey everyone! It's been a while with this one, huh? Well, I hope you all enjoy getting to read this again.

Chapter 14 My Other Brothers

Wendy kept glancing down at Judy, noticing her twitching nose and jittery body. She tried not to let this bother her; this was a good thing, after all. This was what she wanted, this was something that could lead to bigger and better things. And even if it wasn't…well, she was doing this because Bowser suggested it! It was her Dad's idea; she had nothing to do with developing this idea all on her own. All the blame could rest at Bowser's feet. He could be the one to be pointed at and berated, not her. Not the girl who prided herself for being sweet, not the girl who tried to do the right thing more often than not.

They continued walking down the hallway. The corridor of Bowser's Caste weaved in and out, creating a sort of maze-like experience. This was hardly a problem to the princess though; she knew these corridors backwards and forwards, inside and out. She reached for Judy's hand and grabbed a hold of it, not wanting her cute new friend to get lost and confused in the winding hallways. Judy's hand felt noticeably cold when she initially grabbed hold of it, and her expression perfectly mirrored that terror. After a minute though, her hand grew warm. Sweaty too; it actually became hard for Wendy to hold onto the furry hand. Regardless, she didn't let go. Again, the thought of the rabbit officer getting lost in the castle was not an idea that appealed to her at all.

Eventually, the two girls got to the portrait hall, right after they passed through the throne room. Ad they traversed that particular corridor, only lit up by a couple of torches hanging from the wall, Judy gawked at the paintings. She even shuddered when she made spotted the one painted for King Monger.

"Who…who are these guys supposed to be?" Judy asked, practically squeaking as she would do if she were just a regular rabbit.

"These are the Kings of the Koopa Kingdom," Wendy said.

Judy studied the pictures again. While her nose still twitched, she also had the spark of incredulity brewing in her eyes. "Why do they all look the same?"

Wendy actually chuckled at that. "They're all clones of each other."

Judy blinked, her eyes growing wide. "You can clone people in this universe? HOW?"

"Um…it's complicated," Wendy said. "I don't really know the ins and outs of how to do that particular spell. All I know that there is some magic involved, and powerful magic at that."

Judy looked like she was going to faint. "Magic exists in this universe…" she shook her head, blinking her eyes out as she did. "Talk about crazy!"

Wendy actually giggled at that. Man, going to new universes seemed to leave a lot of things to be discovered. She could relate to Judy's confusion, as the other universes that she traveled to during the Mario Kart race had been fantastical, jaw dropping in numerous ways and so other worldy that she had trouble wrapping her head around all the sights. She could easily and readily put herself in Judy's shoes.

At least, somewhat. She didn't want to think about that too much, because…

Wendy shook her head. Stupid brain, CUT IT OUT! She tried to push all the thoughts and inclinations of guilt far away from the recesses of her mind. It was a hard task to be sure. This was especially true when she passed by the portrait of King Cosmo III. His red eyes seared into her, making her already guilty conscience go off like a fire alarm. Her arms tingled with goosebumps, her whole form quaked as she looked up at those glaring, heated, judgemental red eyes. She turned her head away from them for the sake of her own sanity, but even then, the after image lingered in her soul.

Needless to say, mighty bouts of relief flooded her when they left the portrait hall.

The two girls continued on their walk. Wendy pondered where her other brothers might be. Knowing them, they were probably all outside playing a ball game or something like that. The boys always did appreciate a little bit of fresh air. With this thought in mind, Wendy led Judy to the entrance hall. The bunny gawked at the humongous doors, painted so red that they looked more intimidating than even the lava that volcanoes regurgitated when they were in a cranky mood (not that Judy necessarily knew about that at this point in time). Wendy exerted all of her effort to get the mighty doors open. When she did, she had to admit that she felt rather proud of herself. She always felt this way after opening the doors; it was a small victory that spoke of the Koopa princess's strength.

Anyway, once Wendy said hello to the hammer brother guards posted outside the doors, she guided Judy to the west side of the castle. She didn't even need to see her brothers to know that they were out here; their voices carried so far that Wendy guessed she'd be able to hear them from Peach's Castle. Despite not usually appreciating their volume, Wendy smiled upon hearing them. She increased the intensity of her grip on Judy's hand, causing the little rabbit to gasp. Wendy immediately loosened up; again, she ddn't want to deal with any lingering guilt. And right now, her mind flung guilt at her like rotten tomatoes.

She actually managed to smile when she spotted her brothers. All of them who hadn't been introduced to Judy were all out here. Larry and Roy pushed and shoved each other as they tried to kick at a soccer ball that no doubt belonged to the youngest. Iggy and Morton sat in lawn chairs, with the former taking notes on a clipboard he brought with him and the latter keeping his eyes on the soccer brawl between the other two.

Wendy and Judy approached them. Wendy turned a listening ear toward the sounds Roy and Larry made toward each other. Larry's breaths sounded like the snarls and grunts of a hungry wolf. Roy still fought against him despite looking mightily concerned about the emotional state of the youngest. Both of them sweat and were covered in the ashy black dirt that their little grudge match happened to take place on.

Larry growled when Roy got the ball. "Dude! Come on; let me have this!"

"No way bro!" Roy grinned and brought the ball over to his side of the field, toward the miniature soccer goal that only had a tiny black stone acting as the goalie. With a grin large enough to be spotted from space, Roy kicked the ball. It sailed into the goal, actually knocking the tiny thing backwards with the velocity.

"WOOHOO!" Roy shouted as he held his hands up to the sky. "That's two for me!" He smirked down at Larry. "And zero for you."

Larry grit his teeth and stamped his foot. "No fair, no fair, NO FAIR! I'm supposed to be the one to win this! I'm the best soccer player in the world." The other three Koopalings laughed, causing Larry's face to grow pink. "IT'S TRUE!"

"On a subjective level, possibly," Iggy said from his spot from the chair. "But right now, it resembles an attempt to stroke your bruised ego more than anything else."

Morton sniffed. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he's still bitter over losing the interdimensional Mario Kart race."

Now Larry's face looked beet red. "I AM NOT!"

Iggy laughed. "The volume of your shout is inversely proportional to your statement's validity." He smirked as he leaned back in his lawn chair. "I would indeed say you are envious of me."

Roy laughed and grabbed hold of his blue haired brother. "It's okay, bro." He gave him a noogie. "You can't win all of them!"

Wendy smirked and shook her head. Boys. Boys boys boys; annoying to live with, impossible to tolerate, yet easy to love. Wendy walked up to the rambunctious gang with Judy's hand still in her's. She smiled at the boys.

"Hey guys."

Roy pulled away from teasing Larry and gave his sister a grin. "Hey! Wendy!" He walked up to her. "Here to observe the most bloody and awesome grudge match of all time?"

Wendy snickered. "No. Although, I love seeing Larry lose as much as the next Koopa."

"Hey!" the youngest shouted, now having his face at a level of red that no one could properly identify.

Wendy laughed again, along with Roy and Iggy. "No," she said once she calmed herself down. "I actually wanted to introduce you guys to someone." She let go of Judy's hand and gave the shaking rabbit a gentle push toward her brothers.

Larry raised an eyebrow as he got a look at her. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

Judy actually glared at him. "I, good sir, just so happen to be a person!" She crossed her arms. "Judy Hopps, officer of the ZPD."

Roy looked deathly confused. "What's a ZPD?"

Iggy stood up from his chair. "Wendy, where in the world did you manage to come across such a creature? An anthropomorphic rabbit is not something you…" he cut himself off with a gasp. "Wait! You…is she from one of those universes that we traveled to?"

"Yep!" Wendy beamed, shutting off her conscience so that it didn't impact how the expression looked. "She's my new best friend, and by jove is she cute!" She turned toward Judy with a grin. "These are Larry.." she pointed to the bitter little koopa, practically burying his head into the ground in shame. "Roy…" Roy, despite his confusion from before, still gave Judy a charming smile and a happy wave. "Iggy…" Iggy adjusted his glasses as his studying eyes still remained on the rabbit. "And Morton." Morton just gave them the flat look he was known for, at most nodding to acknowledge that he was who Wendy spoke of.

Judy nodded slowly. "O…okay." The boys still looked at the rabbit officer in befuddlement (except Larry; he still had a pout on his face from all the times his ego took a beating).

"A new best friend, eh?" Morton finally asked.

"Yep!" Wendy responded.

Iggy's eyebrow was higher than the peak of Mount Mushmore. "It's pretty odd for a creature from another dimension to forsake what is comfortable to them and come to another dimension solely for the purpose of making friends." He looked right at Wendy, his bespectacled eyes boring into her like the painted eyes of King Cosmo III had done. "Unless… she isn't here willingly…"

Judy opened her mouth. Before so much as a whisper could come out, Wendy placed her hand on her shoulder and squeezed. This silenced the rabbit (thank the developer), allowing Wendy to object to Iggy's claim.

"She is here of her own free will.' Man, lying about the circumstances behind Judy's stay felt just as horrible as the other bout of guilt her conscience put upon her. In fact, it piled up onto her preexisting guilt. Man, she felt as if she was deserving of an execution via being dunked in lava.

Thankfully, Iggy didn't question her any further. Instead, he nodded and took a seat back in his chair. "Well. Alright then."

Wendy smiled. "Thank you. Now, if you four will excuse us…" She turned around, taking hold of Judy's hand once again so that she could lead her back to the castle. "Me and my friend have more pressing matters to deal with. Enjoy your game!"

The boys nodded and resumed with what they were doing. Once they were out of sight (but definitely not out of earshot; seriously, Wendy did NOT want them to get hold of megaphones ever), Wendy smiled down at Judy. "Well. Those are my brothers."

"F…fantastic." Just gulped as she looked up into Wendy's eyes. "So…so what's next?"

Wendy beamed. "Oh, I've got a lot of fun stuff planned."