Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 33
It gets worse…
Mario finished the unfortunate work and nodded. "Okie dokie. I don't know how long-a this'll hold. We should get her-a back to the castle and quickly." Mario noted. Bowsette kept her mouth shut and helped Mario carry Peach to the entrance. However, as they reached the pipe to exit Bowsette started spasming again and dropped Peach. "No…. not again!" Bowsette grabbed her shoulders in pain and collapsed as the spasms got worse. She started to shift back to Bowser and screamed… but as she did she mercifully blacked out, she still writhed and cried out in pain even while unconscious.
Mario looked back, looked at Princess Peach, and thought. Bowsette was changing again, and it looked extremely painful. Mario was going to need help, especially if Bowsette changed to that turtle dragon and stayed that way. Mario couldn't possibly lug Bowsette back to the castle when she's like that even if it was just her. Making a decision, "I'll be-a back. Don't worry." Mario said, despite the fact that Bowsette couldn't hear him. He grabbed Peach and Mario and the Princess went up the pipe to the surface.
"Mario!" A Toad noticed Mario exiting the pipe. "You got the Princess back! We all knew you would!" Soon several more Toads rushed up to Mario, carrying the unconscious Princess over his shoulder. "Huh? Why is she all tied up?" A Toad child asked. Mario hopped off the pipe and put Peach down. "Guards! I need help over-a here!" Mario yelled. Toad guards quickly made their way to the front of the crowd.
Mario sighed. He hadn't been looking forward to trying to explain this. "Take Peach back to the-a castle and lock her in-a the strongest cell you've got. We'll probably need strong chains to hold her too." Mario said. The Toad Guards looked at each other with confusion. "Quickly, before she gets-a loose. Peach isn't herself and is-a very dangerous." Mario looked at the guards as they just stood there. "Did you-a not hear me?"
The guards managed to shake their surprise off and approach… when Peach's eyes suddenly shot open. "RAAAGH!" Peach tried to throw herself at the guards. Mario quickly grabbed her, and she struggled to escape his grasp. "KILL YOU! KILL ALL OF YOU!" Peach yelled and tried to bite anyone around her like an insane animal. "LET ME GO! KILL!" The once gentle and delicate woman kept yelling to get free.
"Help-a me!" Mario could barely hold Peach despite her being tied up, and she was already managing to stretch the ropes. "R-right!" The Toad guards surrounded the two and grabbed Peach's feet and arms. Peach strained against the ropes as best she could. "The ropes aren't gonna hold her long!" One of the guards yelled. "I'll take-a care of it." Mario said and stepped back. Pulling out his hammer, he struck Peach as hard as he could in the back of the head. Mario knew from experience that wasn't enough to kill her as she was now.
Once again, Peach fell unconscious. Mario looked at the woman now, resting peacefully at least for the moment. Mario hoped that the damage he and Bowsette had been doing wasn't permanent. "Guards, get-a Peach to the castle and fast. Don't believe a word she-a says either when she wakes up. Peach will do anything to-a escape, including pretending to be normal. And bring-a a lot more guards over here, I'm going to need the help down in the-a sewers." Mario ordered. The guards picked Peach up and carried her to the castle as quickly as they can.
"You." Mario pointed to a guard that stayed behind. "I'm going to be down there." Mario wasn't looking forward to trying to convince the guards to help Bowsette, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Mario jumped back into the pipe and went back down to the sewers. She had shifted back to herself, but Bowsette was still lying there on the ground unconscious, the pain seemed to have stopped for the moment.
Mario lifted Bowsette up and held her in his arms, looking down at her with a look of pity he knew she would hate to see if she were conscious. Mario had never seen her like this, or anyone for that matter. Even the various villains that had kidnapped her had never put Peach into this kind of agony. Mario put a hand on Bowsette's cheek, her scales were so hot it was just shy of her breathing fire, she was drenched in sweat, her breath was ragged and struggling. Mario felt pity for the She-Koopa, she was completely helpless and what Mario hated the most was that he himself was helpless to do anything to help her for the time being. He didn't even have an ice flower on hand to cool her down with.
For a brief moment, Bowsette's eyes opened just a bit, but she didn't think Mario noticed. She looked up at her most hated enemy as he held her tenderly, her heart skipped several beats as he put a hand on her cheek. Bowsette couldn't help but slightly smile at the look in of concern in Mario's eyes, before the darkness came over her again.
***
"Son, I know you're looking forward to having a Dad, but Mario and I…" Bowsette considered what to tell Junior. Junior was sitting across the tiny table in Junior's room they had for tea parties. Bowsette had to admit it was fun to spend time with Junior like this. His Bowser Junior wasn't interested in this sort of stuff, but if he had been as Bowser he would've been less accommodating of this particular activity. However, even if his Junior had been interested in things like tea parties Bowser was too much of a softie when it came to his son not to ultimately accept it, that much Bowsette knew. She herself had taken to the tea parties begrudgingly at first, but she adapted quickly and grew to enjoy them before long. Spending time with Junior was worth any price.
"Mario and I…" Bowsette continued. "we have a… unique relationship." Bowsette finished. "You mean how you're always trying to kill each other?" Bowser Junior said. "Well, yeah son, that doesn't leave much room for romance." Junior recoiled. "Ugh… kissing and stuff! Yuck!" Bowsette chuckled. "Yeah that's how romance works my boy. When you meet your own girl… or guy, if you are into that… someday, you'll find out how wonderful a thing being in love is." Bowsette smiled.
"Don't you ever tell anyone else I said that." Bowsette said half jokingly, knowing Junior would keep his mouth shut. Bowsette thought back to the years she, as Bowser, would spend fruitlessly trying to get Peach to marry him. In large part it was because he loved her refinement, her beauty, her grace, but once the little tyke came along he also wanted Junior to have a mother. The one night stand he'd had with Junior's mother ('who shall remain nameless' Bowsette cringed at the thought of her, she had been quite the monster) hadn't led to anything but her showing up one day, dropping her son at the front door of Bowser's castle, and booking it never to be seen again.
What little respect Bowser had for the woman had evaporated that day, and he hoped never to see her again. Bowser would probably have killed her on the spot if she ever did show her face again anyway. Bowsette wondered briefly who this Bowser Junior's father was, no doubt it was in the records somewhere but she put the thought out of her mind. Whoever he was, it didn't really matter, Junior was here in front of her and she still loved him, even though he technically wasn't the son she knew.
Deciding she didn't want to miss a single moment with her son and so leaving her musing behind for the time being, Bowsette grabbed the teapot and smiled at Junior. "Hey son you…"
***
"…want more tea?" Bowsette mimed pouring something that Mario couldn't see as she sat in her cell in the castle dungeon. It was horrible seeing Bowsette like this, and Mario thought back to how it had started. Figuring Bowsette's pride was too big to want anyone to see her in such a state Mario had requested a blanket to cover Bowsette up as he and the guards carried her out of the sewers. She had started transforming again just as they were reaching the door to Peach's Castle, so Mario got even more guards to help bring her in as she quickly got really heavy.
The healers rushed to her side as Bowsette started rapidly shifting again, crying in pain even while unconscious. The screams haunted Mario as everybody helped carry Bowsette to the infirmary. Mario left the infirmary to head to Peach's cell to find she wasn't faring any better, perhaps even worse. "MARIO! DIE!" Peach screeched the moment she saw him. The guards had made a makeshift cell in Peach's room in the hopes familiar surroundings would help her come back to herself, but it was no use. Upon waking Peach had easily broke the ropes she was tied in, then rushed at the bars. She nearly pried the bars of her cell off with her bare hands before one of the guards brought in a Sleepy Sheep to knock her out once more. The Toad mages had to enchant some chains in order for them to be strong enough to be able to keep her from both getting free and from hurting herself. Mario helped reinforce the cell as best he could.
A few hours later, Mario came back to check on Bowsette. The healers had hooked her up to an IV to keep her from dehydrating from the massive amount of sweat and hurling Bowsette had been doing and chained to the bed to keep her spasms from preventing treatment. "Some sort of magical malady we believe, but it's not like any magic we've seen before." One of the doctors said. This was far far out of Dr. Mario's wheelhouse. "Not like whatever has-a happened to Peach?" Mario asked. "We're still analyzing it, but the magics in Peach are different but… somehow similar, they definitely have the same source. It's some sort of corrupted magic which makes it harder to identify it. Without the original and uncorrupted source it would be near impossible to work out a cure I'm afraid."
Mario had never been completely helpless to help someone before, and it gnawed at him. Normally in a situation like this someone would tell Mario of some sort of rare ingredient or ancient device to fix the problem and he'd run off to some Star Spirit forsaken place in the middle of nowhere to grab it. However, the healers told him, repeatedly, that there was nothing he could do. That wasn't what Mario wanted to hear but he understood. Mario spent his time checking in on the two just in case someone needed to subdue them, though Peach was the real threat he wasn't going to underestimate Bowsette in her current state.