Bowsette: A New Life

Chapter 51
Bowsette's Cure

"So uh…" After the two were done messing around, Mario piped up. "Why did you-a try to act like Peach anyway?" Mario asked. "I should add that-a you're really bad at it. Peach doesn't talk-a like that." Mario noted. "I uh…" Bowsette was too flustered to respond for a moment. 'I can't tell him why. He'd think I'm weird.' Bowsette noted. "Humph!" Bowsette turned away and crossed her arms to hide her blushing. "Don't you have to get that stuff to Kamek? He's set up in the sewers." Bowsette deflected.

"Right. Change the-a subject why don't you?" Mario smirked. The two started walking to the sewer entrance. "Anyway, you're right. How's the-a town been faring while I've been gone?" Mario asked. "Woo… it's been crazy here! There were those things attacking all the time and I was still having transformation issues and then I…" Bowsette spilled out everything… almost. She left out the part about apologizing to the townspeople and the boy. Bowsette was the great Koopa Queen! 'I can't let Mario think I've gone soft.' She thought.

"So… uh… Your castle is doing okay. Bowser Junior and Kammy kept things safe until-a I showed up…" Mario's explanation followed. "Wait…" Bowsette thought back. "They shot you out of a cannon?" Bowsette asked and Mario nodded. "Well…"

Mario expected Bowsette to burst out laughing, but the look of irritation on her face instead took him completely by surprise. 'Note to self: punish Junior when I get back home.' Bowsette thought. "Um… yeah… let's go." Bowsette and Mario quickly reached the pipe to take them down to the sewers.

Bowsette only hesitated for a moment as they stopped at the sewer entrance. As soon as she went down into the sewers there was a good chance that she'd start having transforming fits again. There were a couple Toad guards standing there and Bowsette asked for one of them to lead the two to Kamek.

As she went down to the sewers Bowsette began changing again as predicted. "….egh!" Bowsette screamed in pain as she transformed a few times over the next few minutes until the changes settled. "I'm okay… I'm okay…" Bowsette did everything she could to stay conscious and on her feet while the changes occurred. "Let's get this over with." She growled.

Mario and Bowsette followed the Toad a few rooms down the sewers to the laboratory Kamek had set up. Kamek was still in his wheelchair, but he was moving around a lot easier thanks to the Toad healers, not that Kamek would admit it. He was busy monitoring the subjects Bowsette had captured over the last few days but perked up when Bowsette.

"My Queen! You shouldn't be… oh." Kamek noticed Mario was there. "Finally got back huh? What took you so long? I expected you back a long time ago." Kamek grumbled.

Bowsette scoffed. "Pasta Freak here was busy saving the butts of my son and my useless troops back home." Bowsette turned to Mario and grinned, her pointy and sharp teeth made her look menacing, but instead Mario saw a look of genuine gratitude. "Thank you for that by the way." Suddenly Bowsette swept Mario up and hugged him gently. "Nothing is more important to me than my people. Well, maybe my son." Bowsette put Mario down and turned to Kamek. "Now what?"

***

'What is she doing?' Kamek lamented. As much as Kamek was proud to hear how much Bowsette valued her kingdom she shouldn't act so appreciative. Whatever was happening was getting worse, and that only cemented Kamek's resolve to do what he needed to do. Hopefully the Plumber got the Super Crown remains back or both his plan and his Queen's health were in jeopardy.

"Well, if you could stop blushing for a moment Plumber and get me those supplies?" Kamek grunted. Mario simply handed the bag over without comment. Inside were the Super Crown pieces and some other less essential alchemy parts.

The crown pieces still had some slight magic residue left in them. The residue would have eventually faded, but with this Kamek would be able to make more of the original magic without issue. The first thing he needed to do was stop his Majesty's transforming issue, and developing the spell to stabilize it wouldn't take more than an hour. "Your Majesty, if you have a moment?" Kamek gestured her to come forward and whispered in her ear. "My Queen, I must inform you. Once I stabilize the magic, it will be as permanent as though this was your original form. Even being hit by another of those pink lightning bolts won't cause a change and in fact you will be vulnerable to infection. It's very unlikely there will be another method to induce a change after this. This will be the last chance you have to go back to your other self."

***

Bowsette nodded. "I am Bowsette. I don't want to be anything else anymore. Let's do this." Bowsette decided and Kamek nodded back. "Pasta Fr… Mario, could you go topside and keep an eye on things? This might take a while." Bowsette noted. "Don't worry, I won't take 3 hours after telling you it'll take 10 minutes." Bowsette smirked. "I… and I… arg!" Bowsette doubled over in pain as she started shifting again.

"Is she…" Mario rushed over to Bowsette's side.

"My Queen will be fine. We will have to allow the erratic magic to run rampant for a time so I can develop the cure." Kamek lamented. It wasn't going to be a fun hour for Bowsette. "Didn't she give you an order Plumber? Get to it!" Kamek scowled.

"Don't… don't be like that Kamek, he's done so much for us, he… he… agh… deserves respect…" Bowsette growled despite the pain as she shifted back and forth. Mario stopping to help her kingdom and especially her son gave Bowsette even more reason to like the plumber. She'd be blushing if she wasn't in agony right now. "But yeah…. Ugh… you should get going before more of those things show up."

Mario nodded. "Take care-a yourself Bowsette." With that, Mario left the room and returned to the surface.

***

As Mario made his way back up to the surface, his thoughts kept turning back to Bowsette lying there in pain yet praising him. Bowsette had stopped the Peach act, but she still was different, that much Mario could tell. Normally Bowsette would struggle just to give a thank you, but she hugged him without a second thought. Bowsette still casually insulted him, and her voice was as gruff as ever, but there was a tenderness to it too that he wasn't used to hearing from her. What had triggered this drastic change?

As he exited the pipe Mario looked around at the clear skies. The creatures would probably be milling around the barricades but until another storm happened the guards could easily deal with them. Mario would have to patrol around unt… "Excuse me." Mario was just leaping off the pipe when a little Toad boy asked him something. He recognized the Toad child from the barricade after he got back.

Mario nodded. "Yes?" Mario crouched down to the boy's level. The child was looking at Mario with a wary expression that made Mario uncomfortable. "Um… is something-a wrong?" Mario asked.

The boy stepped away from Mario warily. "Are you here to hurt the Queen?" The Toad child asked. "If you are I'll have to try to beat you up." The boy put up his dukes… and clearly had no idea what he was doing.

Mario was confused. "Huh? You mean-a Bowsette right?" The boy nodded. Mario was getting a bit stiff crouching like this, so he stood up. "No. Why would you-a think I would?" Mario was disturbed by how the boy could come to that conclusion. Had Bowsette been telling the Toad some unflattering stuff while he was gone?

The boy lowered his fists and sighed. "Well, you fight the Queen all the time, right? That's what Peach and Bowsette said." The boy noted. "So… if she's here and you're here, you're going to fight each other, right?"

A fair deduction from what this boy knew Mario had to admit. "We uh… we've made a peace-a agreement. We're not going to-a fight each other anymore, hopefully." Mario was getting along with her and even enjoying Bowsette's presence lately, but he was under no illusions that she couldn't turn on him at any time. "I think eventually we will though. We're fighting off those things and then, sooner or later Bowsette is-a going to turn on the Mushroom Kingdom. It's her-a nature to oppress and conquer." It's not something Mario liked admitting to, but he knew this would be only a temporary alliance.

The boy shook his head. "No, you're wrong. Queen Bowsette is a nice lady." The boy took a seat on a step near the pipe. "She's so kind and strong and really cool." The child said resolutely. "I'm going to be as tough as her someday!"

'Wow. Bowsette has a fan?' Mario sat next to the kid and sighed. "So, what happened while I was-a gone?" Mario asked. He had only been gone a few days and yet… thinking back, when he got back to Toad Town the Toads Mario and Bowsette passed didn't seem wary of her. Some looked at her with anger but that was to be expected, but no fear.

The boy thought for a moment. "Lots of stuff! First the Queen got everybody together and apologized and then got them all to do stuff to protect the castle then later the town too. Queen Bowsette has been fighting off those things for days." The boy looked away. "Those things did something to my Mom and now she's sick. She bit me." The boy held his arm which had a large scar on it.

'Apologized? Protected the town?' Mario's mind went from one to the next, not entirely able to believe it, but the boy didn't seem to be lying. He was sad for the boy, having figured out that his Mom was infected. He needed to get updated on what's been happening and what Bowsette had been doing the last few days.

"Well, Bowsette isn't doing too-a well so she's getting treatment. She'll be out-a soon and we can have a long talk." Mario hopped up to his feet. "I should-a go to the castle. Bowsette will be out in an hour or so, you-a can wait for her here." Mario left the boy to his own devices and made his way to Peach's Castle to talk to the Chancellor and Toadsworth about what's been going on. His heart was warring with his mind from what he was hearing. His mind knowing Bowsette wouldn't help others without something to gain and yet… deep down Mario wanted it to be true.

***

"Kamek what's taking so… ugh!" Bowser grunted as he shifted to Bowsette again… and then back to Bowser. "You better not get me stuck in the wrong form!" He grumbled. Kamek had been working with the Super Crown pieces for almost an hour now. Kamek had first placed down an analysis magic circle and had Bowsette stay inside it while Kamek made adjustments.

"Now now Your Majesty, I can't afford to rush this. Who knows what would happen if there was another accident?" Kamek pointed out. All of this started in the first place because Bowser had worn the crown before Kamek was confident it would function properly. The Koopa Ruler conceded Kamek's point but it was hard with the pain they were experiencing.

Kamek sighed as he looked at the results of the analysis. "As suspected, the corrupted Super Crown magic is the source. It is interfering with the pure Super Crown magic and causing the shifting as a result." Kamek took his wand and with a wave made some of the Super Crown pieces from the supplies float into the air. Kamek placed them in an octagonal shape around the analysis circle, made some final adjustments to each piece, and stood back.

Kamek waited until the analysis circle showed that His Majesty would remain as Bowsette for at least an hour before he began casting the stabilization spell. "It is time My Queen." Pink lightning arched from one piece of the Super Crown to the next, and then the next, until the energy was strung around the whole octagon. The pieces of the Super Crown began to float in the air and spin faster and faster. "Restituere in statera!" Simultaneously all the pieces jolted Bowsette from all directions. Bowsette screamed in agony, then all the Super Crown pieces stopped in the air. The pieces continued to jolt Bowsette and began to shake more and more violently… until they shattered in midair and exploded outwards.

The air in the room was filled with dust from the shattered pieces of the Super Crown. Bowsette laid on the ground for a few minutes both because she was exhausted and to wait if any changes happened. Kamek sighed. "The circle shows your form is now stable Your Majesty, as well as permanent I believe."

Slowly, Bowsette got to her feet. Bowsette looked down at herself, sweaty from the agony she had experienced, but she would be fine. Her clothes were still intact after the ordeal. 'I REALLY need to hire that tailor!' Bowsette thought. She took a moment to stretch her limbs, lash her tail around, and finally Bowsette breathed a plume of fire into the air. A moment of maniacal bliss came over Bowsette as a realization of finality and more importantly comfort came over her. The now familiar wicked cackle echoed far through the sewer. "I'M BOWSETTE BITCHES!" The Koopa Queen roared.