Bowsette: A New Life

Chapter 61
Flying through the air

"…never see me again." Mario listened quietly as Bowsette spoke without comment. She had not only completely forgiven him, Bowsette blamed herself for what happened. Mario couldn't understand it. Mario knew anyone else in the same situation wouldn't want to be in the same room as the person who had tried to kill them if they could help it. If they had to for some reason they'd as stay away as they could and flinch and such when their attacker was nearby.

The worst thing was that it wasn't some vague dream. Mario could remember everything that happened. Mario still could feel every sensation as his fist struck her multiple times, the feeling of his hands around her throat, the accusations he was throwing as they left his lips. At the time it was like this hate had taken him over and moved Mario's body, but it wasn't like he was fighting against the feeling the whole time. It was more like the feeling came from within Mario and then got turned up until it completely removed all reason. Mario had always hated Bowsette before, for a variety of reasons, but never to that extreme. They had even been cordial enough that Mario invited Bowsette to kart races and sporting events several times.

Mario recalled the look of desperation in Bowsette's eyes. He had never seen the Koopa Queen so terrified, so… hurt. 'Mario stop! Please! I don't want to fight you!' Mario shivered as he recalled her words, remembering how sad and afraid she sounded. Mario felt his heartstrings being pulled with every word Bowsette said trying to get him to stop. Mario had the feeling that Bowsette would have let him kill her rather than raise a hand against him.

'never see me again… never see me again…' The words disturbed the plumber. Even more so because Mario was so disturbed by the thought of never seeing Bowsette again. 'You won't have to worry about me anymore…' It was amazing, if anything after what happened it's Bowsette that should be worrying about seeing Mario! Mario himself was worried about what he might do.

A hand waving in front of his face snapped him to attention. "Yoo hooooooo! Pasta Freak! Meatball! Mushroom Muncher!" Bowsette waved her hand in front of his face. "On a guilt trip I'm guessing?" There must have been something on Mario's face. "Oh yeah, I know what that's like." Bowsette stood up and stretched. "Let me guess… 'Woe is me, I did bad things. How can I live with myself?' That about sum it up?" Bowsette smirked. "Save it for another time Plunger Boy. The Copter is ready."

Bowsette took one last look around and hopped in. "Get Green Stache in here and let's go." Luigi had long since passed out, he was still very weak. Mario picked Luigi up and hopped in behind her. Bowsette took the controls. "Oh. And one more thing…" Bowsette turned around and looked at Mario dead serious. "I hope I don't have to remind you what happened last time you took the wheel. Hands OFF." Mario nodded.

***

Yet another crystal ball was smashed against the brick wall by the infected Peach. "Incompetent idiots!" Peach looked at the two Remnants of Mario and Bowser. "What does it take to take out one plumber and a Koopa?" Peach raged impotently. Slowly, Peach calmed down as much as her perpetually furious self could and turned to the Remnants. "Soon they're going to find us. Are the defenses ready?" Peach grumbled irritably. A nod from the Remnants gave her the confirmation she needed. "Good. It won't stop them, but it will slow them down."

The Mario and Bowser Remnant stand there looking at Peach. "What're you standing around for? Get ready to fight them off you idiots!" Peach growled. Remnant Bowser obeyed immediately, but the Mario Remnant stayed. "Humph. What do YOU want?" The infected princess thundered irritably.

The expression of the Mario Remnant's face was furious as always, but he oddly managed to look forlorn. 'Princess, even if we-a win, will the world go back to-a how it was before?' The Remnant asked. 'What if we-a can't fix it?'

Peach scoffed. "And this is from the one who showed me the truth. Of course we can! We just have to remove all the fakes or show them the truth and then everything will go back to normal. The truth… we need the truth! EVERYONE NEEDS THE TRUTH!" Peach screeched and then cackled maniacally.

The Mario Remnant turned to follow his orders. Still, he couldn't help but find this all too familiar… 'I thought showing her-a the truth would make her whole again but… she's… she's not-a acting like Peach, in-a fact she's acting a lot like… HIM.' The Remnant shook his head. 'She's-a right. We need to-a show everyone the truth. Yes… the-a truth…'

***

Bowsette expertly maneuvered out of the pipe to the underground castle and took to the air. The sky was clear, and the ride was smooth. Mario checked on Luigi every so often but otherwise just enjoyed the ride. "We'll head back and drop Greenie off and then get back to checking." Bowsette said. "I wish we had some real idea where Peach is."

Mario scratched his head, he felt like he had missed something important. He thought back to everything that had happened since Peach was taken. Mario's trip out to Koopa Keep, sneaking into Bowsette's Castle, infiltrating the docks, getting a airship going, clearing the Remnants from around the castle, and then walking ba… "4-2." Mario recalled. "When I was-a coming back from your castle there were a bunch of the-a Remnants were all heading to the north somewhere." He hadn't thought much about it at the time, but now it clicked.

Bowsette considered. "To the north? But there's no cas…tle…" Bowsette trailed off for a moment. "Actually, there was. Morton had a castle north of 4-2, but you kicked it down if I recall. It's funny, you were wrecking castles left and right during that rescue for some reason." Bowsette chuckled. "Brilliant! Other me is smarter than I… um… thought. Wait, does that mean I was smarter than I thought?" Bowsette wondered. "Eh. Whatever!"

Bowsette looked back at Mario and noticed he still had that depressed look on his face. Bowsette tried to think of something to cheer up the plumber. "So, Pasta Freak." Bowsette started. "Whatcha gonna do then this is all over?" Bowsette asked. "I know the first thing I'll do when I get home is hug Junior and then grab a nice, huge dino steak."

"You-a care about him a lot." Mario said. "It's always been one-a of the only good things about you… or it was."

Bowsette makes a slight adjustment to their course. "Whaddya mean 'only?' I'm a fire breathing terror of the lands! My minions love me, and so do my niece and nephews." Bowsette looked away, the bravado she was putting up only a front for Mario's benefit. Her mind was somewhere else entirely. 'What did I do to make Kamek turn against me like that? I'm a lot better than a lot of other villains. In fact, from what I hear my father was far worse than me. So why?' Far more than what Mario did as a result, Bowsette's thoughts kept turning back to Kamek's betrayal.

Bowsette had trusted Kamek completely for so long that she was still having trouble believing he would betray her. She didn't know what Kamek was after, but Bowsette guessed having Mario try to kill her was unintended. If Kamek had wanted Bowsette dead, he would have had plenty of opportunities to kill them over the years. Bowser had been a toddler when Kamek was assigned to him, and it would've been trivial to kill Bowser at any point in his childhood. Even now, Kamek could easily catch Bowsette by surprise and kill her if he wanted to. Bowsette was mystified by Kamek's behavior.

"Yeah, there's-a that too." Mario's words took back her attention. "Though… why did-a you apologize to everybody?" Mario tried to focus on something else, and that question was a long time coming anyway. "Toadsworth told me you-a gathered everybody up and apologized, and it didn't look like a lie or trick even to-a them."

Bowsette sighed. "I needed help from the Toads at the time and I couldn't have them running around like Koopa Troopas with their heads cut off." Bowsette grunted. "Those Toads would've just stood around shivering in fear while I did all the work otherwise." Bowsette said. "Someone had to do your job while you were away. It's not like those Toads could've handled themselves. They just stand around when I'm invading. Cowards."

Mario sighed. "I-a guess so. Still, thank you so much for-a protecting the town." That Mario was grateful for, whatever Bowsette's motives. "Bowsette. I gotta ask, you never why-a didn't you fight back?" That had confused Mario above all about what had happened. "You-a never hesitated to fight me before."

Bowsette froze, she didn't even take a moment to steer not that she needed to. "Uh… I knew you weren't responsible for what you were doing." The excuse sounded lame even to her own ears despite actually being part of the reason. "and…" Bowsette stood there silent for a couple minutes. Mario was about to speak up when "…my own life was the only thing on the line. It wasn't worth hurting…" Bowsette went silent.

Mario waited for Bowsette to continue, but she didn't. "Go on." Mario nudged. "You were-a gonna say something."

"I…I misspoke. Forget about it." Bowsette deflected.

"Ah, come on Bowsette! Don't leave me-a hanging here!" Mario teased. "I think you were-a gonna say something nice." Mario teased. Mario didn't want to bug Bowsette too much though.

The two stayed quiet for a few minutes. "I… I don't want to hurt you. Ever again. I want to…" Bowsette shut up again, but this time Mario didn't push. The quiet was less awkward now, and the two just enjoyed the ride.

Eventually Bowsette sighed. "As soon as we get Peach back, we'll go our separate ways." Bowsette puts her hands on the controls again. "You won't have to put up with me anymore. I know I'm nothing but an annoyance to you at best." Bowsette said matter of factually. "You don't trust me, you don't like me, and I know you hate me, no matter what you say." Bowsette turned and smiled at the plumber. "Which is fine, I've earned that."

"Hey Bro." Luigi was riding in the copter and kept quiet, just watching as the two idiots had the saddest conversation he had ever seen, in more than one sense of the word. Luigi weakly waved Mario over and whispered. "That's your-a cue Bro."

"What do you-a mean Luigi?" Mario asked. Luigi still couldn't pick himself up off the floor.

"…Are you-a really that dense brother? If I could move my-a limbs enough I'd smack you." Luigi smirked. "Which one of-a us already had a girlfriend before all this started?" Luigi pointed out. "She-a needs encouragement Mario. Ladies need someone to-a tell them everything will be alright when times are tough." Luigi whispered.

Mario looked over at Bowsette who was paying an inordinate amount of attention to her flying. "Well, Bowsette isn't really a lady, in more than-a one way." Mario said.

"I know Bro, but the-a same applies. Let-a her know you're there for her. Go for it Mario." Luigi laid his head back and watched.

Slowly Mario moved over and stood next to Bowsette. "What nefarious schemes were you planning with that brother of yours?" Bowsette said. Of course, she heard the two whispering to each other in the small space of the Copter. "Come on, out with it." Bowsette grumbled.

Mario had stood there considering what he was going to say, but he decided to play along. "Oh, we-a have the most cunning plan." Mario smirked wickedly. "Step 1, I be-a nice to you…" Mario paused and waited.

"Yeah, then what Pasta Freak?" Bowsette asked impatiently.

"That's-a it." Mario shrugged. "That's-a all we need to do. Be nice-a to each other, and everything else will-a take care of itself." Mario said. "I'll always-a be around if you need me."

Bowsette huffed. "I don't need a friend Mario. I've got plenty of those at home."

"No, you-a don't." Mario noted. "You're got-a your family, then you've got servants, minions, and-a few generals to keep the rest in line. You-a don't have any equals, do you?"

"No." Bowsette had to admit Mario had a point. Being the undisputed ruler of the Koopa Kingdom meant there wasn't anyone in her kingdom on her level, and she wouldn't let anyone be on her level either, aside from Junior eventually. The only people who could be Bowsette's equals were the monarchs of other kingdoms, and none of them would trust her for a second much less be friendly with her reputation anyway.

"Well… uh…" Mario scratched his head in embarrassment. "You've got-a me. A friend I-a mean." Mario coughed awkwardly. "Yeah, a friend. We can-a work on that right?" Mario asked hopefully.

Bowsette laughed. "You and me? Friends? It's a nice thought Pasta Freak but you're getting ahead of yourself huh?"

Luigi chuckled. "Yeah Mario. 'Friends' huh? With or without benefits?" The two stared at Luigi with their mouths hanging open. Luigi started laughing but stopped as he started coughing and hacking hard for a minute. "Oooh… Well you-a two lovebirds enjoy yourself, I think-a I'm going to… pass out right…" Luigi did just that, losing consciousness on the spot.

Mario went to check on Luigi while Bowsette continued to fly. The two would occasionally glance awkwardly at each other, but it wouldn't be long before they'd reach Toad Town.