Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

by geddiknight

As it feels like the worst is behind her, Now-Queen Peach resumes rule of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sadly, due to the costs of having upheld the Ultimate DoubleDash Tournament, everything seems to only be getting worse. With Rates of Violence reaching new highs and rates of approval dropping by the day, can Queen Peach handle her self-inflicted destruction? (Now rated M)

4. The Morning After: The Westfellers' Day

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

The Morning After: The Westfellers' Day

A/N: This chapter started being written while the second chapter was still in the process. It gives a sort of sense of realism that the times the chapters are taking place in the story are around the same time, just different with the people involved. It is still March 11th.

(In the Narrator's Perspective):

This start follows directly from the end of the battle of Aypyidaw. We've heard a little about the current situation here from the eyes of the Mushroom Kingdom, but while the cleanup of the massacre is happening there, the aftermath of the battle now plays here...

March 11, Early Hours

Aypyidaw, Southwest Résethal

The beacon of light that shined brightly in the night sky had disappeared after having lingered from being channelled for so long after the final claim to the city. Those that noticed it from the courtyards below were frightened by the energy created from an unknown structure at the top. For most, all they had seen was a Koopa, just like any other, raising a wooden bar which would eventually shatter into the light, but beyond everyone's field of vision was a sacrificed body, now converted into pure energy, left physically into nothingness. Almost everyone was silent down below; frightened and with their hands on their drawn guns. Anything like this was usually suspicious to them.

"Fergus?" A voice was heard from behind the Koopa, calling out his name. There was a female, reaching up from the hatched ladder coming from the floor below. She was just as anxious as everyone else beneath her, and she was desperate to call for his attention. "That-that's enough." She stuttered, shaking in position. She had no idea what to expect from this Koopa, seeing what had just happened to him. He hadn't realised that the body he used, alive at the time, had vanished before him. Gone, never to be seen again, for the strength and soul of two belonged to and became part of the one inside his own body, unlocking him godlike powers seen by only few in this world. It was known by more than just a few in these lands, and those wise and smart enough to understand more of the exorcism performed in order to achieve this would see it banned and not allowed to be created by anybody they foresee. Unfortunately, in the north, there is no authority over anybody.

"Y-yes..." After taking a few seconds to turn his head around to notice Hisha reaching for him, frozen in position, he finally spoke back to her, stuttering just as much as she did. "It's done." He added.

Everyone was silent in the courtyard beneath him. Now that he was able to spy down on them all, he could see people from all parts of the lands, finally united together. Moroq was nowhere to be seen. Either he was inside, or amongst the crowd. There were so many of them that Fergus couldn't tell.

"Come down here with the rest of us now." Hisha felt more confident in thinking that he would join her. While this process he just underwent was something he would often talk about in the past, the powers he mentioned sounded impossible and unrealistic to her, but now seeing that he might just have them now, she felt like Fergus was a new force not to be reckoned with.

"I'm fine... why is nobody celebrating. Haven't we established our victory on this town tonight?" It seemed like he was completely unaware of the effects of what he did had on everyone else. Down the ladder to the room below, he was met with a few Koopas, only his best friends from the hometown, along with a few old faces that he used to be great friends with until they lost their contact to the Red Martyrs at the time.

(In Moroq's Perspective):

This is the best that I could ever ask for. Lynne reunited with her sister Adeline, Curley and Rufus are back with us. Dave's back. Even Hurka's here, but he doesn't seem so enthusiastic about his rescue. I wonder what he's currently thinking. Fergus on the other hand... the little bitch, let me at him.

"Let me through please." Can all these random Koopas get out of the way already? "Nobody is celebrating because you've just frightened everybody with your black magic and sorcery!"

"Technically it wasn't black magic it was-."

"I don't care!" I love this guy, but he really needs to shut up and hear me out. "Yes, we have indeed 'won' the battle tonight, but you've sparked even more fear into everyone by corrupting yourself with an ancient dark spell that is supposedly illegal. When magic is illegal, everyone gets frightened about it. The words of Toadsworth and Rosalina and those others have spread all across the lands over the years, and none of them have done it because of how heartless it is to do so!"

"The guy was dying. I made sure that his death would be swift by telling him about it in advance." Fergus doesn't understand this, but I guess I'll just have to let him get away with it. Besides, he's harmless to us at least. Hopefully he will be using this new ability for good, our good.

"Alright, I'll deal with you later. I've got to deal with everyone else outside. You literally made Josibi shit himself, that's how scared some people were." Fergus can wait. I already don't like the look of his thickened hands. I need everyone else out with me. Perhaps Dave can deal with Fergus while I announce to everyone else that this place is safe now.

...

"Forgive me for the delay, everyone. You now have nothing to worry about, and with the Red Martyrs driven out from these lands, it is safe to say that we have finally taken back what was rightfully ours from the start!" Please, can people cheer for me now? You can't possibly still be afraid of Fergus, surely? It had taken a few seconds of anxiety but thankfully I had single-handedly calmed down the situation. Koopas were cheering everywhere around me. It really felt like the first feeling of success we had as a unified group of northerners in a very long time. I sure hope this lasts though. I don't want any arguing going on the next day... (*)

THE NEXT MORNING...

Aypyidaw became almost empty. The whole city was left entirely deserted. Not only the headquarters were empty, but the surrounding roads were lifeless. Everywhere in the town was also robbed. The hallways of the headquarters had everything taken away by hostile Koopas overnight, and the rooms and dormitories that were accessible to the average Koopa became looking a bombsite. The glass windows were shattered, the furniture was knocked down and smashed, and everything stored in a shelf of kept in a chest had been looted, scavenged, taken back to a different town further north or east. All that did prominently remain was dust, ash, and rotting corpses of fallen soldiers. It was amazing how much the Koopas took away in a single night cycle.

In one room however, was a wardrobe that was facing down, already collapsed onto the floor well into the night. The interior was pitch-black, but because the doors were slightly damaged, there were tiny holes allowing air to go in and out of it. It was also very heavy, and felt movement from both the outside and inside over the night.

"...Take everything of value in this room. This is one of those special offices..."

"...I can't open this damn wardrobe. It's somehow locked from the inside..."

"...Stop fucking about and just break the damn thing..."

"...BANG! BANG! BANG! ..."

"...Fuck the wardrobe, take everything else and let's go..."

Trauma. He couldn't even tell how long he had spent inside the right side of the wardrobe, but now that there was a small ray of light shining through a tiny hole, it was probably a good indication that it was the next day. This Koopa stuck inside the wardrobe couldn't hear anything for hours. Did he sleep at all in the night? We don't know, but what we do know is that he was capable of lifting himself up inside the wardrobe and kicking down onto the doors, opening it from the inside and getting himself out.

There was a loud thud upon pushing the wardrobe back onto the floor after he had gotten out of it. Now, all he could see was the true disaster that was the massacre of this fortress. The Koopas had destroyed the place, and he had spent the whole time hiding inside this very room. Was he right to do so? Was it bad that he didn't fight for the south and risked his life for it? He could just peek out of where the glass window used to be and see all of the bodies of fallen soldiers on the floor. They're dead now and he isn't. Maybe martyrdom was never worth it, for now Neodjan felt like the only person to realise what it is like for an oath-bound society to come to a collapse. Defend the city and the south from the north until you die, they say, but the city is clearly no more based on what he could see.

There are still people out there. He could just about hear some voices far down below now. Were they here this whole time? Or did they come back in the morning? Neodjan looked at the shadows in the room given the sunlight angle and the time of the year, giving him an estimate on the time to be around eight in the morning. Everywhere outside looked deserted to him, but there were still hostile Koopas here.

Their eyes turned towards the window...

Neodjan quickly hid against the wall beside the window and froze his breath in a gasp. He sidestepped to the side and tried listening in on the conversation down below. He wasn't able to hear anything. Neodjan had to get rid of his clothes. He was still dressed as a council member of the Red Martyrs. Now that they're all gone from here, and by gone, on the floor, dead, he'd have to blend in somehow. Hopefully the Koopas wouldn't be able to determine exactly who is who. There were thousands of them here last night. Now, there are only two.

"Hey! Did you find anything up there?" One of the Koopas shouted from down below. Neodjan hesitated to reply to him. He spent a few seconds thinking of something to say back. He checked the room and saw nothing of interest, but what he did feel was the loaded gun he still had in his pockets. The pockets of the clothing that he was taking off. Genius, he thought that he could tell them he found a gun.

"As good as what you get down here." He heard another voice down below. "Everyone's already been looted by now. I told you we shouldn't have slept the night. The fucking Westfellers and Marukhians took everything." He hoped that he wasn't noticed by the hostile Koopas in the courtyard. Giving another peek around the edge of the wall, he saw another Koopa approach the two that were sitting down. He had a lot of things in his hands, including weapons. These Koopas must be friends with each other, or at least newly acquainted. They seemed to be rather clean with their space usage down below, as all the bodies were moved. Neodjan only just paid attention to this now, instead of them being scattered along the courtyard floor, they were piled up and rotting together. The floors were stained with blood however, and just looking at it disgusted him.

"I don't care if the Toki wants us back in our lands. He abandoned us here so I'm declaring myself the ruler of Aypyidaw."

"Yeah, have fun ruling over nobody. Everyone's deserted this place. They stole everything in the night."

He overheard the hostile Koopas natter amongst themselves about petty little things. What concerned him now was that he was feeling rather hungry, and if the hostiles took everything, maybe the kitchens will be empty as well. He didn't want to go and check either, as even though he had the belief that there were only the three Koopas down below here with him, if he left, then he couldn't guarantee that those same Koopas would stay there. After a few seconds though, Neodjan came to his senses. He's a fucking Red Martyr, potentially the last active one remaining. He shouldn't be afraid of three hostiles. Just one more peek down below and he could see the three still chatting away. One of them was holding a large crowbar, waving it around in the air while the other two sat down and munched on some stolen rations from the kitchen.

"Fuck Toki then, I'll make my own tribe, and here will be where we reside. We own these lands now."

"Who's we? You and the little bystander over here aren't going to rule sh-." The Koopa with the crowbar collapsed to the ground after taking a bullet to the head from the right.

"Oh fuck!" The other Koopa jumped up from the ground and turned to see the only other living one get shot in the chest, falling down to the floor as well. The remaining Koopa passionate about ruling this town looked towards the building where Neodjan was in and tried looking for him. Neodjan was already hidden, and he wasn't able to figure out where he was hiding. "Show yourself! Moroq said there would be no backstabbing in this ground!" He turned back to his fallen friends, seeing them bleed to death, and began to cry quietly. His legs froze on the spot, and he was too nervous to act.

"The wise move would be to run, flee." Neodjan called from one of the many floors of the headquarters building. The hostile Koopa down below quickly drew forth his pistol and started shooting some of the windows he could see ahead.

"I'm not fleeing." The Koopa shouted back up to him. "This is... this is my town now. I run this place." He was shaking, trying not to look at the dead friends of his to his side, as well as the massive body piles in various corners of the courtyard. "Y-you flee." He didn't know if the person up above was still listening to him. His gun was pointing to the building but changing where to shoot every few seconds. He still couldn't hear where the other voice came from, until eventually Neodjan revealed himself. Unfortunately for the Koopa down below, his reaction to the Koopa's presence wasn't quick enough, and he received a bullet to the chest by Neodjan. The Koopa fell to his knees, and Neodjan watched for a few seconds before rushing all the way down to the ground floor. Now he had the confidence to leave the Koopa out of sight, now heading out of the front doors and walking down the steps to the courtyard floor. The Koopa tried to reach out for his gun that he dropped from being shot, but his shaky, nervous hands couldn't grab it up from the floor.

"Y-you're... not hostile..." The Koopa coughed. "Moroq kept his promise." He then said to himself.

"Aypyidaw belongs to the Red Martyrs." Neodjan showed up the courtyard back in some of his old robes.

"Your doom is inevitable." The Koopa was bleeding, and knew he wasn't going to last much longer. "Të gjithë ju urrejnë."

"Unë jam shumë i vetëdijshëm." Neodjan replied back promptly and without any hesitation.

"Shit, you speak it too." The Koopa sighed, trying to ignore all the pain. "Alright, do your duty then." He slid to the floor but kept his eyes open. Neodjan nodded and slowly approached the Koopa from the side, turning his arm and pointing his gun directly to the Koopa's head.

"May you make better choices in the next life."

"Aye."

"Ready?"

The Koopa nodded. "On with it."

BANG!

Neodjan closed his eyes, noticing some blood get on his clothes.

On the bright side of things, the Koopas still had a lot of leftovers from the food that they hadn't finished in the courtyard. Luckily it was enough to become Neodjan's breakfast. While eating, he began to believe that he was now the only remaining living soul in Aypyidaw, and that those three Koopa bodies surrounding him used to be the other three. What could he make of these three? They were all somewhat scared, and apparently abandoned by their friends. Some Toki chief had abandoned them here and headed back to their hometown. Along with that, he heard the words, Westfellers and Marukhians. Were these hostile Koopas from those towns? He knew that there were hostiles there just weeks ago. Koover was there.

Neodjan began to wonder where all of his other high council members were in the town. Aside the three that deserted the place to wine and dine with Princess Peach in her castle, the others must have died here. Kroop was bound to go quickly here, he thought. As for Koover and Lumpy, well, he already spotted Lumpy's rotting corpse in one of the nearby piles, but Koover could be anywhere here. There's nothing beneficial that he could do in terms of disposing all of these bodies, where would they go? The entire town has been deserted, and not only that, the surrounding lands will also be completely empty of people. There was actually no use for Neodjan to still try and hold this place. He felt like he couldn't do it alone, and if he did, he would go down inevitably and for nought. There was no purpose for him to still be here, but he still had his phone. Maybe now if he called Eoréc or Archbarn would they understand his situation.

Flat battery... Now Neodjan only had one possibility, to flee the deserted town and try to make his way to the tunnels. The nearest towns on the other side of the mountains were New Donk City and Mozortavo. It would probably be safer for him to go all the way to New Donk City. If trains still ran here, then that would be a miracle for him. Unfortunately, he had no means of contact with the south, so the only way would be by travelling, and if the trains were no longer operational, then it would have to be a walk through the tunnels to New Donk City... which would take hours...

MEANWHILE...

The Westfells, West Résethal

It was very concerning for the average citizen to notice nearly a hundred people all living in the same road to show up on the streets returning home during the middle of the night. Nowadays, the average citizen in Résethal would be considered a hostile sympathiser. None of them knew what happened last night, but seeing everybody possibly considered hostile return during the night meant nothing but trouble... trouble for someone at least, they wouldn't think they're the culprits.

Moroq had it great; united with all of his old friends again. Not only did he have all of his friends from the assault come back unscathed, but all his captured friends came back in good condition. Along with that, they gained a new representative. Curley Morgins. Apparently, this Koopa was indeed a citizen of Blockfort, but because he showed enough signs of being a defect to the north, the Delfino Police force separated him from Kylie Koopa and brought him up north, in a massive mix-up with Kooble Nester, who was nowhere to be seen now and even at Aypyidaw the night before. While he was happy that mostly everyone was back in safe hands, everyone else in his group was feeling rather anxious. A certain friend of his seemed to be posing danger 24-7, despite having a reputation for being harmless against other hostiles.

"I'm telling you, I don't want to be anywhere near him." It was a few minutes past nine, and Moroq entered one of the chambers of the main building, seeing Adeline sitting alone and eating breakfast. Most of his friends were still asleep, so he had the room entirely to her and himself.

"Adeline, he's going to be fine. Fergus is harmless." Moroq replied, trying to comfort her before getting ready to make his own breakfast. There was plenty of food stashed into the cupboards and the fridges in this house after taking so much from Aypyidaw last night, impressing him greatly.

"I checked the roof later that night, I knew what he did. He can create lasers with his hands now, it's like the young kid or Rosalina's brother, but worse." Adeline was still very anxious about Fergus, even though he's been asleep the entire time he's returned.

"Adeline, listen to me." Moroq leaned forward and tilted her head to face his own. "Fergus is a good man. All the magic he's mastered with his totem pole of a bar has been for our benefit. I'm sure he will stay the same way." It didn't look like he was able to convince her. Ever since last night, he noticed that everybody grew afraid of the Koopa's possible actions. It could be related to why every hostile in the north hates Rosalina.

"What're you doing here?" Another female Koopa walked into the room behind Moroq, holding her breakfast. It was Adeline's sister, Lynne Fisadi, previously captured from the Rovin Residence last month.

"Nothing... I'm just... I don't want everyone to turn away from Fergus." Lynne looked a little confused. She went over towards Adeline. She put down her breakfast and gave her sister a hug before looking back at Moroq.

"Fergus? He's a weakling, what's the problem? No offence..."

"Lynne, he doesn't need that wooden bar anymore." Adeline tried to convince her about it, but she didn't buy the worry at all.

"So? Good for him. He's not going to hurt any of us. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to cast anything at me if he's got a bullet to his head. I don't care. If the kid strikes at me, he dies first."

"Hey!" Moroq felt disheartened, but understood her. "I mean... yes, but he's not going to do that anyway."

"Well I'm just saying that." Lynne grinned, brushing past him out of the room with a bit of force in her shove. "I don't care. If he's a threat to the Westfellers then he's gotta go." Moroq followed her out of the room, not quite sure what she was thinking. He walked behind her as she travelled down a corridor and up the stairs. Most were asleep, so the two were quiet and didn't speak to each other at all until Lynne stopped moving. She had walked down another corridor and checked through the slightly open door of Fergus' bedroom. She nudged the door open slightly, trying not to cause a creaking sound. Some light went into the room, and the two were able to look inside, seeing a fast-asleep Koopa on the bed on the other side of the room. His room was entirely filled with books, and that it was almost impossible to get towards the bed without treading over book piles.

"See? He's fine." Moroq whispered back to Lynne.

"Is this what my sister's worrying about?" She peeked her head through the gap a little more to see that the Koopa was still asleep. "This juvenile is why she can't be comfortable... my sister was with you last night while you were fighting out on the courtyard, right? She's witnessed hundreds die, but this guy is what she's afraid of? I don't get it..." She growled and left the room, quietly enough so that Fergus wasn't woken up. Moroq closed the door quietly and followed her out, trying not to wake anyone else up.

"She's got to have some convincing if she can be comfortable in the same room as him."

"My sister has always been a bit of a coward. Did you check her weapons? I bet she didn't fire once and stayed in the back and let the machos and the real girls get in on the action. There was what, a hundred of them in that town? I saw thousands of us." Lynne went back downstairs and to the room where she left her breakfast. Adeline was still there, watching television.

"What happened?" She asked as Lynne and Moroq arrived.

"Nothing, grow up."

"Hey, I'm being serious. He could go crazy and start hurting all of us and we wouldn't even know." Moroq witnessed the two going straight into an argument as Lynne started on her breakfast. He rolled his eyes and couldn't bear to listen in. This morning was going off to a terrible start for him. What he thought would be calamity amongst seeing all of his friends in his town unite with each other turned into a morning of worry and strife already, and half of them were still asleep. Moroq worried about Fergus, almost to the point where he was beginning to lose trust in a few others. While walking outside of the building, he stood on the steps, and recalled a few moments from the night before.

...

The aftermath of the invasion on Aypyidaw was rather too grim to be worth a celebration. While everyone was happy in the short term that they had routed the Red Martyrs from the north and claimed the town as their own, it quickly led to a rather short time spent inhabiting there. The Karzonians led by Sasha Shellex left almost immediately. They weren't able to trust anybody afterwards and decided not to take anything back home except for their allies freed from being captured here. The kitchens and chambers of the headquarters were filled with weapons, armaments, rations and knowledge in the form of battle-plans, notes and books from a small library the town had. Shellex and the Karzonians abandoned the scene and left within minutes. Moroq at the time was just getting back down to the courtyard after bringing Fergus down from the rooftop. He wasn't sure why they left so quickly, perhaps they lost a great deal of numbers and were not happy enough to celebrate. As it turned out, the tribes there tonight did not seem to have that many relationships amended. The only group of Koopas that seemed to be appearing more friendly were the Takharim, who didn't really have anything against any other tribe to begin with. They only used to have conflicts amongst themselves in the past. On the bright side, Ata Endymion and some of his friends became friends with Moroq, Hisha and Sasha. They spent the first few moments of the after-battle collecting the bodies and piling them up in the corners of the courtyard, most of them being Red Martyr corpses.

"Hej." Moroq snapped out of his trance and noticed a voice talking to him. He turned to his left and noticed Josibi the Pale, holding a spear full of blood stains and guts stuck along it. "Këtë nuk do ta harrojmë. Ne kemi lënë disa për ju." Moroq felt a little too anxious at the bodies being piled up, and hesitated to Josibi. All he gave back was a nod, to which Josibi exchanged one back. He soon rallied all of his allies including those he rescued and ventured out through the broken wall. As they left, Moroq noticed that each Koopa following Josibi were carrying lots of weapons, rations, and other boxes. There were loads of Marukhians here tonight, and most of them were bulkier, stronger and bigger than the average Koopa. He saw a few Koopas from other tribes try to take some of the things the Marukhians were stealing but were shoved aside and given threats of violence back. With the Karzonians and the Marukhians gone in a matter of a few more minutes, the rest of the tribes were scurrying through the hallways of the interiors searching for any more things to steal. Glass windows were shattered, people were being pushed aside, and a lot of Koopas were taking things from each other. He was also hearing a lot of them down on the courtyard being prejudiced to other tribes that weren't their own.

"Small Moroq, our threat is gone." He saw a very lanky Koopa come out of the main building behind him. "Now the only threat will be the one we put on ourselves..." The Koopa didn't bother looking back at Moroq for long, not even giving him any time to reply to him. He watched the tall Koopa wearing a Toki mask head towards the front entrance of the headquarters, rallying up the remaining soldiers of his own and taking them back. Not many showed up to him, but after a minute, the Toki-masked Koopa led all that he had out; with that, departed the Karbûti. Tall Toki was right though. Moroq started to wonder whether this was worth much for him in the long run. What he thought would come out of this was a larger unification of most of the hostile tribes in the north. Maybe with them all together could they try to put up a contest with the Dargovi seeming to be the most threatening at the moment.

"Hey." Another Koopa showed up from behind him. This time, the Koopa stayed. He went and sat down on a chair that was there since the very start at the entrance of the main building. The Koopa put his crossbow aside and put his feet up against the wooden fence surrounding the main entrance. "Are you happy with how tonight went?" Moroq looked and noticed that it was Ata, his newest friend.

"It was great right up until five or so minutes ago. It's like they haven't learned anything of the accomplishments we have just made." He kept watching the courtyard. All he could hear were arguments and fights over rations, and just... bodies. Yes, people had to die in order for them to achieve this, but it felt like a bit too much in his face. He also noticed a lot of scared Koopas, particularly a few of his own near the corners. There were many sitting around at the giant wall's destroyed remains, looking around from above the broken pieces. Adeline was seen up there with Hurka and Harriet and it looked like Harriet couldn't stop crying. There were a few other Koopas up there, some completely unrecognisable, but as Ata had his eyes up there as well, he noticed that a few of them there were of his own too.

"Well, at least our own seem to be friends with each other." The two watched the group of over ten talking to each other in a friendly sort of way from what they could tell. "There's a town near mine. It's got a few of my people in it, but the guy that's in charge of them refused to show up today sadly, I know that there are a few up there who live in that town, so I've got to make it known to them that I'm there to take them home. Gosh, I feel like such an old parent."

"Haha." Moroq laughed with him. "They'll catch on. At least you don't have to handle the four cry-babies on the right there."

"Yeah, you're right. I've got those five... but, I don't know about that other guy on the left. Is he not one of yours?" Moroq had another look.

"Nope." He said.

"Well, I guess that's one more we're taking home." Ata smiled.

"Boss, is everything alright? Ratharmas has got a lot of books that he wants to take with him, is that alright?" A large, bulky Koopa tried to fit through the doorway. Moroq turned around and recognised this Koopa. It was definitely one of Ata's. There were two other Koopas behind him, just trying to get through the doorway. Both were holding food rations. Behind them, was Ratharmas, with a giant pile of books in his arms.

"Yeah, sure. He should be able to fit them in the back of a car." Ata smiled, making the bulky Koopa happy as well.

"Nice!" The Koopa turned round to Ratharmas and gave him a thumbs-up. The other two Koopas managed to squeeze past him and now notice Ata and Moroq.

"Bursk, Basher. Happy? This is... Moroq, you must have heard of him before." Moroq felt slightly worried on the inside as he noticed that Bursk had a very upset look on his face.

"Yeah, nice to meet you." He quickly ignored Moroq. "We are leaving now. I don't care if you're coming with us or not, but the Unhalvalorians are taking four trucks and we're going home. Fucking Amur of all people killed one of my own over a petty fight for a weapon. This is stupid." Bursk pushed past the two, allowing Basher to squeeze past and then a few other henchmen of theirs, carrying a body, travelled out of the building and onto the courtyard.

"I'm so sorry..." Ata watched the Koopas get ready to depart from the courtyard. "Yeah, we should go... It was nice talking to you." Ata started to rush with Mac and Ratharmas to catch up with the other Koopas. "Boys and girls, do you not want me to have a word with Amur?"

"Ata, don't." Moroq grabbed his attention. "Please, just take what you've got. I can't bear to witness another fight break out here." From this, Moroq learned that the Takharim were now going to be enemies with the Amuruni and their self-proclaimed King. What's even worse is that both the Amuruni and the Takharim resided in the eastern side of the Résethal lands, far away enough to not be intervened quickly.

Over some more time through the night, the amount of Koopas in the courtyard started to decrease. With over half of the tribes gone by now, all that remained were Moroq and the Westfellers, Rugai and the Zarkans, and a few remaining Koopas from other unknown tribes. Most of his own were ready to leave, now residing outside the grounds of the Red Martyr headquarters and staying on the grass fields where the vehicles were. Thankfully, Moroq had already talked to Rugai Koopiv of the Zarkans before. Hopefully he could end the night on a high note. Even though there were still many Koopas looting and patrolling the buildings of the town, he began to get very tired and hearing more of his friends ask to leave, he finally came to the decision that it was time to head back to the Westfells. He had to remember that some of the hostiles that were part of his tribe didn't even live in the same town. Some lived in Uchast, some in Bluchest, and some much further to the southeast in Koron. Only the important ones to him would go on to spend the night in his road. While Moroq was walking through the courtyard, he met up with two of his friends, both ready to go. There was Rufus, who had spent most of the recent time behind bars here, and Revan, who was the one to help start it all up for him. Judging by the present smile on Rufus' face, Moroq felt relieved that Revan might just be able to fit in with the other Westfellers. He wondered what his reaction would be when he finally meets Koopak Asquia...

...

He shook his head, phasing back to reality. Koopak Asquia... that was who he intended to see and he'll be with his girl and his brother, and apparently his son too. He was a few blocks down, in that separate house that he gave to them. The entire street was empty, despite it being mid-morning now. It only made him wonder if any of them were awake by now. As the effective landlord, Moroq had a key to their house, and used it to open the front door. The ground floor was super quiet, and it looked like nobody was down here. Neither of the Koopaks was present at Aypyidaw last night, and as far as he remembered, Joharnés and Jeanette... left early?

...

He went back into his thoughts again, despite possibly being seen as an intruder to the Asquias' new home. He tried to remember any time that he saw either of the two Koopas last night besides the very beginning, for he can't even remember departing with them too.

"Is this everyone? We need to start bringing everyone home." Moroq remembered addressing everyone at the broken part of the wall that was knocked down by Fergus that night. He had met with Rufus and Revan, and stood atop the rubble before the other Westfellers. There was Khibel, Dave, Lynne, Adeline, Harriet, Hurka, Curley-who-he-thought-was-Kooble, Hisha and Sasha. There were a few other Koopas there that were supposedly Westfellers from Bluchest and Uchast, but he didn't really know much about them or their names.

"Can we please go home now?" Hurka called out from down below, sitting next to Harriet. He was looking overtired, and Harriet had cried so much that she worn herself out and fell asleep on the nearby grass. Many of the others were catering for her, as even though she showed obvious signs of wanting to return back to the south, all of them refused to let her do so given the recent events taking place. The only people missing at the wall's breach were Jeanette and Joharnés, and Fergus.

"Yes, one second." Moroq replied. "Where are the others? Where's my boy Fergus?" He turned around and looked back to the courtyard. All he could see were remaining miscellaneous tribesmen and other Zarkans. It looked like Rugai was here to stay a little while longer, packing up everything left behind by others in the town. A lot of the residential houses surrounding the headquarters were not yet emptied, but all deserted of their inhabitants. Some of the Zarkans started heading over there from the main entrance to begin more looting.

"What do you mean others?" Rufus asked quietly next to him.

"Screw Fergus, I'm getting in the truck." Khibel shook his head and got up from the grass, reaching out for Adeline's hand to take her with him. "Harriet, wake up. It's time to go. Lynne, you coming with?" He got a nod back from both of them, and the two polar-opposite personalities walked together behind Khibel and Adeline to head back to the remaining vehicles parked beyond the nearest trees. Hurka debated following them, but hesitated. He felt more needed still being here, so he turned back to Moroq, awaiting a plan.

"What should we do?" Revan asked Moroq, noticing that he remained silent as he let the four Koopas depart without his order. At this point in time, he started to know that everyone else wanted to go, despite not giving him an answer as to where the missing ones were.

"I don't know where Joharnés and Jeanette are. I can only assume they left early." Hisha called up to Moroq.

"Joharnés? You mean, the Joharnés Asquia? I don't know of a Jeanette though." Rufus looked confused, awkwardly checking back at the courtyard whilst trying to balance on the rubble behind Moroq. There was no convenient place to stand directly behind him. "I don't know what they look like; I don't think I have much use here." Moroq sighed.

"Alright, everyone else here can leave, but leave one last truck for me. Rufus, take Dave, Curley and the sisters back to the street with one truck. Make sure everyone at home knows that Curley gets his own room and is left alone until the morning. You know him the most out of anyone else here, so make sure he's safe." Moroq sent most people away before looking back to Revan, who didn't move at all.

"I'll help Curley with that." Hurka got up and started climbing up the rubble, ready to help Rufus descend back down to the grass.

"Right, yes, you. You. You're coming with us now." Rufus beckoned Curley over, taking him with many of the other Koopa Westfellers back to the trucks.

"Am I going to see what it's really like to be in the north?" Curley followed.

"As well as we can." Rufus replied.

Moroq still watched Revan not move at all. In fact, the only movements he made were turning his head to get another look at the courtyard. It had massively quietened down now, at least from what they could see. There were at most five outside, and everyone else must have been either inside or out on the streets looting other buildings.

"I'm not leaving until everyone's out; everyone that matters." Revan told Moroq. He finally moved, but it was only back over the rubble and back inside the bounds of the headquarters. "I know what Fergus looks like. It should be easy for us to get him. Also, he should be unarmed, right?"

"Oh fuck, I know where he is..."

...

For a few seconds, Moroq remembered him finding Fergus in the library. He had several books piled up with one in his hands, and he couldn't stop reading. It took him several minutes to convince him to leave and get some sleep, but Fergus, though eventually giving in to leaving, put up quite a mental fight to him. Moroq had witnessed some of his newly-performed magical arts for the first time there as well. The Koopa was able to levitate the books as well as himself out of the room, and he took them all with him. Every single book in the library that wasn't taken by either Ratharmas or some other Koopa from a different tribe was in his possession.

...

From what he was able to recall from the night before, he went under the assumption that the Asquias left the night early, as they were not there when they left, or anywhere near the rubble from when Moroq was first there after the battle had ended and onwards. He was also too tired to check their place when he arrived. Not only did he have to deal with the two others he was driving home with, he also had to make the doorways clear for Fergus to fly all the books back and in to his bedroom.

"Hey." Moroq jumped. Jeanette appeared out of nowhere from the nearby corridor and unintentionally startled him.

"Oh goodness." He took a deep breath. "The house was feeling so quiet and eerie for the while I was here. I almost thought you all deserted here and went off again."

"Ha." Jeanette smiled. "No, it would not be in Koopak's best interests. This is a great place for now, and for the fact that he's got me, his son, and his brother... it's almost like there's no need to pursue anything else right now. We need to all heal, mentally. We've lost a lot, but we have each other, and that's what matters." Moroq had a quick look around the room, noticing that almost nothing was touched since he first arrived here to settle them in. Trusting Jeanette, he believed that the others were also in the house but elsewhere, probably asleep. Her appearance looked very well-cleaned. After the night, she was looking very refreshed and her skin looked taken care of. It made him wonder whether she actually did anything last night.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Of course. Same here, actually. We've got everyone back except for one, but that's because we got someone else instead."

"What do you mean? Does it not move you that someone has just been replaced in your ranks?"

"No." Moroq grinned back at Jeanette. "That wasn't what I meant. The thing is, a few of my friends were caught in the south a while ago, and one of them got mixed up with just a regular southerner partaking in the same things we were doing. So what really happened is we ended up freeing a random southerner from the prison chambers back in Aypyidaw, and Kooble, who was originally one of our own, is chilling in perhaps a much safer environment down in Delfino somewhere."

"Do you have any intentions to bring Kooble back home?"

"When we can, yes." Jeanette smiled, and walked over towards the dining room table in the house, a few metres away from where Moroq was awkwardly standing.

"You know, that town you pillaged last night used to be called Asquia, after Koopak's lineage. They went back hundreds of years. Sadly due to the Great Mushroom Wars, it was destroyed and rebuilt under a new name, after the Red Martyr Archbarn. Now he lies six feet under, and Koopak does not." She said back to him

"You're talking to me like I don't know any of this." Moroq sat down with her. "I've lived in these bounds my entire life; I witnessed it all when I was much younger. I even know about where they all fled to: Uldersal. I heard that place took a beating over the past few months. They arrested almost everybody part of the family there because of the violence they imposed on the Toad Brigade. Apparently that's how Captain Toad went. We've been caught in a mess with you lot already, don't you remember? They found out about another dead Koopa on the same day as him in the same residence of Nivurbia."

"Stop right there." Jeanette silenced him and quickly turned her head around the corner, hoping to hear silence. "Koopak doesn't know about that part. The news is not as informative as I hoped up here, but I know about one of his cousins. It is a very tragic circumstance."

"I'm sorry. I guess it makes sense that you've spent most of the time since then here." Moroq replied, nodding with a slight feel of regret. A few seconds later, after the two of them said nothing, they started to hear soft footsteps coming down the stairs. Jeanette and Moroq turned towards the corridor leading towards it and noticed the young Koopak get to the bottom and start heading their way, giving them both a wave.

"Here's the little champion himself!" Jeanette opened up her arms to allow the small Koopa to jump on to her lap at the table. Moroq was in awe, seeing the two give big hugs to each other.

"Uncle's room really smells." Moroq watched Koopak II sitting on Jeanette, looking rather disgusted at something. While he stood silently, he was examining the relationship between the two. Koopak III looked eight... nine? He couldn't tell exactly, just that it was a young child, which isn't commonly found up here. Some towns, especially those housing hostile Koopas, had a sort of generational gap, where there are age groups with almost nobody in it. At the moment, there are lots of Koopas in their late teens and twenties, but very few in childhood. Moroq wondered why the room might smell, all he could think of is if Joharnés spent some time last night moving bodies.

"You need some food in you. How's your father?" Jeanette asked the little Koopak pointing him over to the kitchen.

"He's still asleep, but we had lots of fun last night. He took me out on a walk too." Jeanette's eyes widened. She didn't react too much on the outside as she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Moroq. He just sat awkwardly and listened in still.

"That's nice. Now prepare your food like you did yesterday. Remember what I taught you." She sent him off and then turned back to Moroq. "Maybe he's a little shy to you right now."

"I haven't actually seen him yet. It only makes sense. He probably knows about me know."

"Anyways." Jeanette half-looked at him and half-looked at Koopak III. Moroq still didn't know what the connection between the two of them was. All he knew was that they were not directly related. "What can I do for you? I still haven't accounted for the fact that you came in without us knowing." She smiled, indicating to him that she wasn't annoyed about it.

"I just came round... to have a look at how things are going. I know that Koopak and Koopak didn't show up which makes sense they were not obliged to and neither were you and Joharnés. I just wanted to know if you and he were affected by anything that you saw yesterday. I obviously heard about... you know, what you used to be before taking on such a job, so... I hope that you're still comfortable with being here?" While Moroq was talking, Jeanette was trying to be as observant and as attentive as possible, listening in to every word coming out of the Koopa's mouth. At the same time, little Koopak was preparing his breakfast in an orderly manner. He had changed a lot recently, going from having everything prepared to him either by the servants back in Uldersal or by any of the caring Koopas in the past few months. He had been in Sasha Shellex's company for weeks, and every time she would make his meals.

"I have to admit... I didn't like being there. You could probably tell." Jeanette replied anxiously. "I do wanna say something though; we do like it here. The first day we started living here we did kind of feel like prisoners. Call it falling in love with the idea of being captured if you wish, but it is certainly better than how things would have been if Koopak never left Uldersal. He no longer has a home and... to jokingly put it, I no longer have a home if you call whatever mess you left there my home either. Here is our home I suppose. I just hope that Koopak has gotten used to not living in wealth, allies and riches anymore."

"About that..." Moroq quickly spoke again, coming up with an idea. "I bet Koopak has a lot of friends down south that are behind bars because of what's happened there. I mean... think of his other cousin! She's probably crying every day due to being captured and to her loss. They're all-."

"What did you say about my cousin?" The two were interrupted, and Moroq noticed the appearance of another Koopa. It was Koopak Asquia II, alive in the flesh. Even someone such as Moroq felt a little change in his mind when seeing the presence of this Koopa. It may not be perfectly accurate but the things he has heard about this Koopa still get reminded to him when seeing him in sight. What a dangerous family he is part of, and how unfortunate it is to see it become so much weaker over the past few decades. Moroq already felt anxious and worried. Did Koopak find out about this already?

"Koopak, please." Jeanette got out of her chair and rushed over to him, trying to hold him back from walking into the dining room. "It's nothing."

"One of your cousins was killed the night you escaped Nivurbia." Moroq stood up and spoke directly to Koopak's face. He forgot to account for the fact that his son was still in the room, and that Koopak may or may not already know about it. "I'm sorry. Earlier we were talking about the past and what happened with Uldersal. That was how Captain Toad came to pass, and while we were on the topic of that, it came to my mind that while you escaped, some of your family did not."

"Koopak, Moroq wants to help us." Jeanette stood back as Koopak stopped moving. She noticed that he was breathing very heavily and that his expression and gestures made him look angered and enraged.

"Did you invite him in?" Koopak looked at Jeanette. "Do you not remember what I told you?"

"Koopak, I swear it was nothing like this!" Before Koopak started to burst with anger at Jeanette and Moroq in the room, he noticed that his son was sitting anxiously around the table with his breakfast, unintentionally acting like an antidote to cure his anger.

"I'm sorry you had to see this, my son. This is the truth." He then turned to Moroq. "I heard about it already. Cousin Cyra was killed in Nivurbia. Jenna is also in prison. My brother knows too, but he certainly took it worse on the day than I did." He sighed, seemingly out of breath already.

"I'll make you breakfast." Jeanette comforted his shoulders by standing behind him for a few seconds. "It's going to be fine. Boy, eat up!" She then looked at his son, watchful over him.

"Forgive me for entering." Moroq resumed his conversation now with Koopak. "I wanted to check up on how things are with you all."

"We're doing fine, thank you very much." Koopak said with a rather loud tone, preventing Moroq from speaking any further. "We're aware of what has happened, so I think it is in your best interest to leave us alone. We are going to be having breakfast. I will come outside and speak to you later." Koopak addressed him, and Moroq disappeared out of the house faster than a Torpedo wheelying on a boost panel. All he gave back in response was a nod before doing so. Koopak let out a loud sigh of relief as the front door closed.

(In Moroq's Perspective...)

From what I learned whilst in there, Jeanette was very friendly and honest, and also very strict with Koopak III. The kid seemed very shy, but happy to be here, and Koopak II on the other hand, was not happy. Very dismissing. Now, it's time to head back to the main house-building now on the assumption that all of my friends are awake. There's Dave walking down the street, to which I gave a nod of acknowledgement of presence to. It looked like he was heading to town, possibly to shop. If there's one thing he's known for, he's one hell of a cook.

Everywhere else on the streets is usually quiet. It's only on the other side of town and near the football grounds where you get other people on the streets. There, you get the normal type of people; the 'innocents' as the south like to call it, for you get people here with no affiliation with us whatsoever, and they only see us as the good guys too. What I really want right now, is for Fergus to be awake, as I need to make it known to everyone else that he's going to be just fine around us. I'm not going to have him do any sort of random attack to our minds, and I don't want any houses collapsing either. The last thing I want is for him to lose his temper in an argument, which I know shouldn't ever happen. Who knows?

"Curley... I hope you find your stay good here." This was one of the people I really needed to speak to today. It's not the best case scenario to have someone join your ranks by accident, but it should be a good one nonetheless.

"Hi. Are you the man in charge around here?"

"I suppose you can call me that, yes. Why?"

"I don't want to be rude but I kind of want to go home. You're not going to jail me here, are you?" Sigh...

"Well that depends on what you're going to do to us. You came here to the north purely by accident and we brought you here, saving your life in doing so."

"You also killed the people that brought me here."

"I'm sorry you had to witness such a terrible scene back there, but what we did was for the good of the people in these lands."

"That's nice, but I'm not of these lands. I don't hate you guys, but I would much prefer to be with my family. I only ended up here because I took too much that I could get away with in the Rovin residence. You had people there too, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Besides, you'd want your other guy back."

"You'll probably end up in prison just like him when they find out you're there."

"Why? I'll be rehabilitated, not imprisoned. I'll be a deserter from the north."

"While you're here, I'm not having you escape these bounds." I can't have this. We've not got Kooble up here and we're stuck with this stubborn little shit who thinks he can just go back to his normal life. Does he not think that there would be a bit of difficulty trying to return? Does he think that the people in New Donk City would just let him in given what's just happened?

"You literally have nothing to lose if you release me. I'm not a hostile, and I'm not from the Mushroom Kingdom. What do you have to gain from keeping me here?"

"The fact that you're a temporary replacement for a friend that I've lost because the people back there were so incompetent to manage their prisoners. You look no different to an average looking Koopa." This guy's not going anywhere... unless? "There's nothing you can do to us if you snitch on us. We have this land. We won't have anyone coming for us that we cannot put up a fight against."

"What's going on here?" Someone's behind us. Both Curley and I turned around to see Rufus standing at the end of the corridor.

"He wants to leave." I said back to him.

"I don't doubt that." Rufus started walking towards us. "I told him that you are a just, honest, and fair leader here, so it probably made him think it was easy to leave. We can't just let him go like that though, he's ours now."

"I have an idea." Hopefully Rufus and Curley will like this. "If we do send him back, we can keep contact of him. That way, we can gather any useful information about the whereabouts of Kooble. The problem is... I say he's going to get put in prison for what he did earlier with you lot back in Rovin Manor."

"I'm not going to get arrested." Curley kept reminding me.

"I say we should have him given safe passage to Castelia where he could take a train down south to get home."

"That might be the way to do it. You never know. Maybe it would be better to just hedge our bet with the west tunnels." Rufus added his opinion.

"I am not going to get arrested." I'm getting sick of this Koopa.

"Alright." The two stopped talking before me. "Fine. We'll take him to the border. Give me your number." Curley passed me his phone.

"Call your number." He let me have access to his keypad. All I needed to do was dial up my number so that he would be able to log his number on my phone and my number on his. That at least showed his interest in pursuing this possible aid he can give us and that he is at least cooperative. Maybe he isn't annoying and just genuinely wants to be at home. He doesn't live here after all. The Koopa behaves very differently to how we do up here. He's also a lot skinnier. I called the number and now have it saved on my phone.

"We'll take you to the tunnels, and there, you can walk all the way down the train rails to get back."

THIRTY MINUTES LATER...

Here I stood beneath the foothills of the mountains from the northern side. Here, with Rufus and Curley. The fields before the mountain slopes are as empty as usual, and all that was before them were the train rails. As expected, there were no trains running along here. It would be silly for the south to keep trains running here. They'd probably think that they'd be bombed or something.

"So you're going to just run down here. It might take you an hour, but you'll update us when you get to the other side, right?" Rufus spoke to Curley.

"Yes. I guess that's what I can do. Is it not better if I go by the road tunnels?" He looked back at me as if I knew the answer. Don't look at me. If it were up to me, you'd be on the first train out of Castelia. I'd hope that they'd still run trains to there. It's known to a lot of places that there is home to many northerners that are actually considered neutral to them, so it wouldn't hurt. Maybe they'd be running trains from there only for evacuations.

"They'll probably close the roads. You'll be able to sneak through the train tracks though." Rufus answered. "You probably won't get any signal while under the mountains either, so as soon as you cross to the other side, you immediately text or call Moroq or me." Rufus probably gave his number to Curley on the way.

"Alright. I'll try my best." I'm probably going to give him Rufus' attention when he gets to the other side. If he's going to just small-talk me when he gets back to New Donk City or Mozortavo, then he's going to be wasting my time. This was fine though. Finally he's going to head through the tunnels and we won't have to deal with him. I really don't want to be the one to kill him if he stayed, because knowing him that's probably what would happen. Now, one last look at everywhere and... Oh my goodness. (*)

"Curley, hide!" The three started hearing gunfire, with Moroq noticing it first. He spotted at least one top-profile of a Koopa with his gun pointing towards them. Moroq and Fergus hid behind a nearby rock. Curley was able to be seen by the two, hiding behind a smaller rock. The bullets from the other Koopas' guns were ricocheting off of the rocks and causing dents in them, frightening all three of them. Moroq wasn't sure if they were going to press forward, but thanks to Rufus, he got out his gun and started shooting up in the air, scaring the other Koopas away.

"HEY! HEY! TRUCE!" Moroq yelled at the other Koopas, hoping the gunfire would stop. Rufus stopped shooting, and with that, the other Koopas stopped as well.

"Jeni nga jugu?" They all overheard one of the Koopas speak to them.

"Uh... New Koopish, please?" Moroq called.

"You are... southerners, spies?"

"No, no. We are Westfellers." Moroq stood up from the rock and had his arms in the air.

"You are the one called Moroq? The peace-bringer?" He didn't know the names of any of the Koopas beyond the grass on the other side, but from the accents, he could tell that they were from somewhere further west. Not quite domestic Dargovi, but perhaps from somewhere like Anann.

"Yes, that's me! Where are you guys from, if I may ask? I come with no mean to harm." Moroq stepped over the rock, risking his life for a negotiation with the Koopas from the eyes of Rufus and Curley.

"We are from... Jort."

"Jort, okay. That's good. What brings you here?" Moroq knew roughly where both Jort and Anann were. What he wasn't sure about was whether those towns belonged to the area that the Dargovi hostiles consider their own.

"We want to barricade the mountain-pass. Err, Ne duam të ndalojmë aksesin. Sorry, I do not speak much of the new language." Moroq figured that and managed to understand most of what the Koopa tried to say.

"That's fine. We were just sending someone back. They were captured by the Red Martyrs and they will be disguised. You know about what happened in Aypyidaw last night?" He wanted to know more about these people. If they were supposedly members of the Dargovi tribe, then this would help him so much. Moroq could think of the many ways he could learn from them in perhaps attempts to make them come to any sort of friendship or agreement with the Westfellers. It was all he could want from them as they haven't imposed any sort of threats in recent days.

"Yes." The Koopa replied. "We would not be able to walk here otherwise." They were all so close to the edge of the mountains. A few more metres ahead and the ground in front of them reaches a sharp incline that would be impossible to walk up; almost like a tectonic plate border pushing up. It went on beyond the horizon to the northwest, and curved around to the east going slightly northward.

"Our friend will now head through the train tunnels. After that, we will allow you to take up a campsite at the northern end. It will be all yours." Moroq watched the Koopas reveal themselves from the bushes in the distance. There were four of them; all pale and likely Jort-based Dargovi.

"Thank you, my friend." The same Koopa talking to them earlier spoke back to them again, leading the other three behind Curley to the train tracks. "If you were anyone else, we probably would have shot you right there." He was lightly freaked out, but what worried him more was the fact that Curley still hadn't left.

"Wait a second here." Moroq tried to stop them. "Please, let my friend depart first." He looked into the distance and signalled Curley to leave while none of the Jorters were looking. Curley quickly turned around and started heading towards the tracks and through the dark, lengthy tunnel.

"I will text you the information I will gather." Curley called out before he eventually disappeared through the tunnel. He walked on the side of the tracks paranoid that there might be a train coming out of nowhere despite being assured that there wouldn't be any running through here.

"We will be leaving now. Thank you for ceasing the fire." Moroq comforted the four Jorters. They got back a polite nod from both him and Rufus. "Might I ask-?"

"No." The main Jorter Koopa replied immediately.

"Very well. Goodbye." Moroq and Rufus started to leave, repeatedly looking behind their backs just to assure themselves that the Jorters wouldn't randomly shoot them. Moroq could never trust a Dargovi at this point in time, so things like that would be expected of them to him.

...

More time passed throughout the day, and the two didn't get anything back from Curley. When they got back to the Westfells, Moroq got reminded by his thoughts to finally see Fergus. It had been hours since he probably woke up, and judging on the fact that no houses were burned down and that nobody seemed to be in pain and crying in the streets, maybe Fergus was doing just as he hoped...

...He was still asleep. Most people in the main building were ignoring him, but Lynne heard mumbling to herself inside Fergus' room. As Moroq arrived and opened the door slightly, he found her sitting on top of a pile of books, watching Fergus appear fully in deep sleep still.

"Before you ask, I've tried a lot of things." He initially seemed confused, but after judging how she didn't whisper to him, he knew that Lynne had attempted ways to wake him up. "I've nudged him, shouted at him, thrown books at him." She said.

"He's... alive, right?"

"Oh of course. I checked his pulse, and you can faintly hear him breathing and sleeping." She pointed over to him while Moroq tried treading across the room to get a closer look at him.

"Maybe he's put himself under a sleeping spell by accident. Is that how magic works?" Moroq looked back at Lynne by the time he arrived at Fergus' bed.

"Well, he's done us a favour doing that if what you say is true." Lynne grinned, slowly making her way across the room as well.

"Curley's gone by the way. We took him to the train tracks and allowed him to take the tunnels." Moroq said as he examined Fergus closely. "While we were there, we encountered a small band of what I believe were Dargovi hostiles from Jort. Their land expansion in the west is growing massive. On top of that, they were there because they're trying to secure the border for themselves. Who knows if they're having any unknown conflicts with the far northern tribes."

"What happened?" Lynne asked, sitting on the bed beside Fergus.

"We initially attacked each other, but I managed to break a truce. They said to me 'we would have killed you if you were anyone else' or something among those lines, so I'm glad my reputation is reaching out to further lands." Lynne nodded back to him. "Anyways, we'll give him a few hours. Maybe he'll wake himself up."

"...Well I'm glad Curley's gone. He sure was annoying last night and this morning." The two got up from the bed area and started tiptoeing their way out of the room, avoiding all of the book piles and towers.

"I've got some important news to tell you, Lynne." She could sense something from him. The way he spoke to her just then sounded different, but different enough to be categorised in such a way that it was common and for the same upcoming reason. It was a type of tone she would hear often from him whenever he would ask a big favour from her.

"Spit it out then." She smiled.

"I may have to ask you and a few others to help me survey the surrounding areas. I ask you specifically as you're probably the most skilled out of all of us here. I'd be asking you mainly, Rufus, Fergus if he's got it in him, and Dave. After the encounter today, I thought that maybe it wouldn't be impossible to bring some sort of peace between us and the Dargovi. We managed to do it with everyone else." He didn't seem very happy with her given that she just shook her head as a response. "What's the matter?" He asked a few seconds later.

"You said that the Dargovi were at the mountain border to occupy it. That will only lead to more danger in the future. What I can take from this is that they're going to go on their own to the south. They've got the weapons, they've got the numbers. Call our populations big but theirs is probably entirely composed of people like us. Imagine a thousand aggressive fighters but with bigger and better weapons. We still don't even know how they get them or who finances them. All I can say is... we might be caught in the crossfire if they use the border the way I think they will." Lynne actually provided Moroq with a very good point; something he would have to consider for most of today.

"Lynne, we're in the Westfells, not Aypyidaw, remember? There's almost twenty miles between us standing right here and the border. We're fine as we are here." Although she put up a good point to him, he tried his best to make sure she wouldn't worry too much about the increasing presence of Dargovi close to the borders. "You see this as an accidental shot at collateral damage. I see this as an opportunity to get a sort of alliance with the Dargovi. Once the others see us as friends with them, we can surely unite everybody. That way, we won't have to worry about of any differences we have between each other." Lynne looked cross. She left him and didn't bother saying anything back to him. All she let out was a growl of frustration before turning the corner to the next room.

Bzzzzzt!

Moroq's phone started ringing. He got it out of his pockets and checked it. The caller had the name 'Ata' saved on his phone.

"Hey, did you have a good sleep?"

"Yeah. I got something kind of useful to tell you."

"What is it?"

"You know that rogue Koopa we took with us back to our area? It's the same Koopa that tried to blow up the Princesses at Koopa Cape back in January. He's a direct descendant of Bowser's lineage, and he knows a lot about explosives and a lot of secrets, including secret ways into Bowser's Fortress." Moroq stopped for a few seconds and went silent. The thought of having this new person in the ranks of another tribe meant that it could either go greatly or terribly for the Westfellers.

"That's nice, but as far as I know, I don't have any current plans. We got what I wanted. All I ask is that we keep our newfound alliances."

"You can't do nothing about it now, Moroq." Ata said over the line in quite an intimidating tone. "One of us is bound to come up with something bigger and better, and whatever it is, it's not going to be as easy and as merciful as any of your past plans. There were a lot of more evil people out there last night, and who knows what they could be up to now."

"Fine." Moroq hesitated. "If you do plan anything, you will have current support of the Westfellers. Be careful with your intentions though, as like what you said to me, you'll have to be doing a lot more if you want to keep this up too." Ata didn't say anything for a few seconds, and then hanged up on his end. Already, he was beginning to question this supposed alliance. He saw the Takharim as their easiest ally, but given what their possible plans could be with this newly-recruited Koopa, a well-desired period of peace in the lands wasn't looking promising to him anymore. Now, nothing seemed guaranteed.

...

Fergus was finally awake. Moroq didn't exactly know how he had woken up, but after another inspection of his bedroom, he saw lights on. Moroq slowly entered through the doorway and noticed something supernatural to him. Fergus was sitting down, but he was not on the ground. His eyes widened as he noticed that the Koopa was levitating off of his bed. Some of the books that composed of the massive book-piles in his room began floating around him in a circle, with the one directly in front of him being opened up and the pages flickering through rapidly. To Moroq, it was like the Koopa was educating himself with knowledge at unrealistic speeds, going through books quicker than a Toad bookworm. What he was unsure of was whether Fergus was thoroughly reading them or just sifting through them, looking for something in particular. Fergus' gestures also didn't look right either; his head would turn and tilt to face one book to another very quickly.

"Fergus, is everything okay?" The Koopa said nothing back. Moroq closed the door and sat down outside it, letting out a loud sigh of distress. All he wanted was for the Koopa to not act strange around anyone else. Now if anyone else came into the room, they'd be more scared than ever.

Moroq had a new idea.

He went back into the room, slowly and quietly, but once he was fully inside, he closed the door tight and locked it, letting nobody else inside. Fergus still didn't appear alert of Moroq's presence in the room, but he was still fully focused on the books. More of them started to channel upwards into the air, connected by dim, purple rays of light, connecting them into some sort of force field. The books were shifting quickly in the air, revolving around Fergus, as they span around, they started to travel faster, and while that happened, the room started to glow a lavender colour. The lights above the room went out, and the light emitting around the room was fully this colour. Even Moroq started to freak out, despite trapping himself inside with Fergus.

"Fergus. You can stop now!" He actually got a response back from Fergus about two seconds later, but what the Koopa said was completely gibberish and thus undecipherable. The inside of the room now started to shake as the books began flying everywhere around the room. Moroq tried to get out of the room but the lock felt jammed to him. He wasn't able to break it at all or get out. The words coming out of Fergus' mouth were still gibberish, but they were getting louder and almost like they were whispering into Moroq's ears. He started hearing multiple voices and began to feel insane. With Fergus levitating and the books flying everywhere, he couldn't help but let out a scream.

"AAAAAA"

...

"Moroq, are you okay? Why are you screaming?" Moroq blinked and noticed Fergus standing right in front of him, appearing normal. All the books in the room were piled up and the lights were back on as normal. "You've just been ignoring me for the past minute."

"What?" The door started to bang from the outside. Somebody must be trying to get in.

"Move out of the way. Let me open the door... Did you lock it? What is wrong with you today?" Fergus tried to shove Moroq out of the way. He was completely frozen and his head was shaking slightly, too afraid to speak. Fergus managed to unlock the door and open it up, letting Rufus, Lynne, Adeline and Hisha inside.

"What the fuck is going on here?" A frustrated Lynne Fisadi shouted at the two first. She tried to squeeze past Rufus who was awkwardly standing in the doorway.

"Nothing. It's-."

"No, don't tell me nothing. Tell me the truth." The others stood confused, but Lynne seemed very suspicious of Fergus. She noticed Moroq still sitting on the floor by the corner of the room. "Did you do this?"

"No!" Fergus replied sharply. "He came in and locked the door out of paranoia of the others. Then, he said nothing for about a minute then randomly screamed! Now he won't say anything!" Fergus pointed at him and saw him now trying to get up.

"It's... nothing. Don't worry Lynne." Moroq apologised to her, now being able to talk properly.

"Don't worry? Moroq Kruboe just screamed like a child. I can't not worry. You've never screamed since you were a child." Lynne had a crossed look on her face, angered at both Moroq and Fergus. "I don't believe this."

"Lynne, chill out." Adeline tried to calm her sister down, but she refused any sort of help.

"I don't trust either of you now. Screw that request you said to me earlier. I knew something happened to you. You're being manipulated by him!" She stormed off again, shouting back on her way out of the corridor. "If I see any more weakness from either of you then I'll challenge you for leadership of the Westfellers, and don't make me do that, because you sure as hell won't keep it!" A distant door slammed, and everyone else fell silent.

"Are you okay, Moroq? If you are afraid about something, just tell us. There's no shame in opening up if you're scared about anything." Adeline tried to comfort him now, giving Fergus a bad look at the same time. Hisha stood by her too, trying to cater Moroq.

"Yes, thank you, but I'm fine." Moroq replied, putting their hands off of his shoulder. "You two better head outside. You don't want to miss Khibel and the team's big game today. Go now." He looked back at Rufus and gave him a nod.

"Come on girls, let's go. For all we know, he might need a substitute."

"Don't be silly." Hisha laughed off any anxiety at Rufus as they left the room. Moroq gave them back a half-smile and watched them walk down the corridor anxiously, waiting for them to be far enough away from him. He held on to the door as he watched, and as they were gone, he closed it and left Fergus back inside the room with him.

"What did you just do to me?"

"Do what?" Fergus almost laughed. "Moroq, I only just woke up as you came back into the room. I know; it's quite late in the morning."

Moroq frowned. "Don't bullshit with me boy. I've been saving your ass ever since last night. Everyone's worried about you, and don't tell me you were sleeping. Lynne tried many ways of waking you up not long ago. What was that all about? I witnessed some of it too."

"Heh..." Fergus laughed again, saying nothing back to him. He watched the Koopa look around at the books, and the appearance of the room started to distort again. The lighting turned purple again, and the books started to float upwards. Moroq tried to scream again, because it would only make his case more believable to the others if they checked. While he was still in control of his mind, he knew that he convinced the others that he was fine the first time to defend Fergus from anything he may have done out of the ordinary, but now that it is happening to him a second time, he knew this was not safe even for himself anymore. As he tried to scream, a book was sent flying straight for his mouth, trapping him from being able to let out a screaming sound. Fergus levitated from the ground again, giving off a feel like he was a dark magician mixed with the powers of that of Rosalina. Moroq turned around and tried to open the door, knowing that the door wasn't locked this time. It felt jammed to him again. He tried to remove the book from his mouth and threw it to the side. As he tried again and again to open up the door, he felt something catch his left leg. He looked around and saw Fergus conjure a magical tentacle that wrapped around his leg. He screamed as the tentacle pulled him forwards and up into the air. The dark roof of the purple room looked invisible as Moroq was sent flying upwards. His surroundings turned dark as he flew upwards, screaming as he travelled. When his flung flight reached a top, his surroundings turned into several tiny dots, resembling stars. To him, it felt like he was in space, but as he started to fall, he landed on a patch of grass. He stopped screaming, and checked his surroundings, his hallucinations. The ground curved very quickly, like he was on a planetary sphere the size of a football pitch. There were rocks, and flower patches, and a giant green-spotted egg in the distance, half buried in the near horizon. The egg started to roll towards him, and with a quick reaction, Moroq panicked and started to run away from it, but the egg kept following him no matter how he changed his direction. He sprinted around in circles, avoiding the egg and the rocky-grassy mixture of terrain in front of him. The egg got closer and closer, until it caught up to him, catching his legs. Moroq screamed again as his body fell down to the ground, but instead of hitting the ground as he thought, his face fell into grass, and the rest of his body floated through a grassy feel everywhere across him.

...

"What the fuck is he doing?" Fergus rushed towards Hisha and Rufus, all staring at the same thing.

...

The grass kept brushing past Moroq's body, turning from green to dark green... to purple. They all eventually disappeared and Moroq fell down onto the ground again. This time, his surroundings were different. The atmosphere was hazy, and the ground was a warm violet. All he saw in the distance were more purple, leafless trees, and darkness beyond them. Everywhere he tried to walk led to the trees trapping his path. He began to feel surrounded, wherever he was.

"No, please. Let me go! I promise!" The purple trees started to enclose on him, trapping him where he was. He tried to break away any time he could, but was held in place. Some of the trees' branches began to curve and wrap around his limbs, causing him to panic, cry and scream once more. Finally, he saw one more tree's branch swing down directly to his forehead. As soon as it made contact with his head at heavy force, the tree vanished and his vision snapped. It was a pole being held by Lynne, and in less than a second, Moroq closed his eyes.

...

"So... it wasn't you?" Rufus turned back to Fergus; all of them holding on to Moroq's body trying to lower him down onto the floor.

"Why would it be me?" Fergus snapped back, annoyed at everyone. "The guy's gone crazy!"

"Crazy enough to defend you, that's for sure." Lynne groaned at him, putting Moroq down on the floor. He lied there unconscious, with all of his friends confused about how this happened to him.

"For Koopa's sake Lynne, why can't you just trust me?" Fergus was now furious with her, fighting beside Moroq's body on the floor.

"You can't be trusted at all! Now that you don't have that wooden bar dictating your powers, we can never know if you would deceptively use your powers on us! Look at all those books in your room!" She shouted back at him, pushing him forward. Adeline and Hisha tried to stop Lynne from bullying him more.

"You think I'll use my powers on you? Want to see what I can do so you can be sure?" Fergus asked her back, following up with a heavy swing of his fist, with extra magic-induced strength to her face.

"Ah, fuck!" Lynne slipped aside, covering up her cheek where she was punched. "You little shit!" Rufus, Adeline, and Hisha all tried to stop the two from fighting each other more. Fergus, though now with tears going down his face and expressing deep emotion, remained resilient, and decided not to be any more aggressive with Lynne. She, on the other hand, wanted to keep on attacking him. After a few more seconds, she stopped.

"That's it!" She exclaimed again. "I'm going with what I said before! When that boy over there wakes up, he's got to accept the challenge!" The others watched her clench her fists as she walked around frustrated in circles, trying to vent out her stress at Moroq.

"Fergus, let's get him back inside." Rufus offered one of the other arms out to him and helped him pick up Moroq. The two acquired the rest of his body from Adeline and Hisha and started to move him back to the road where his house was on.

"She's not going to stop, Fergus!" Hisha turned around and called out to the pair of them as they distanced away. Lynne was furious, and the two were unsure what to do about her. They were both worried and unsure how to handle the body as they got to the door. Luckily for them, Dave was sitting outside. As he saw Moroq being carried by the two, he quickly came to their aid without saying a word. He was sitting with two of his other friends that the others didn't know very well, but seeing as the Koopa unconscious was Moroq, it became instinctive of them to help out as well.

"Get him on to the table." Rufus ordered the way into the house to be cleared. As they got inside, they turned him through the corridors and put him down on the floor in the front room instead of the table. It was too inconvenient to move his big body around the place.

"Big boss is asleep." Dave looked worried for the first time in a while. For someone that always appeared so macho and intimidating to the other Westfellers, seeing Moroq unconscious brought out anxiety in him. He was a Koopa of few words, but his emotions were conveyed very openly to the others.

"He's... I don't know. It's very new." Rufus was worried. He hadn't seen anything like this before happen to anyone he knew, so he wasn't sure what to do.

"He needs help. Proper, psychiatric help." Fergus looked back at Rufus, Dave and the other Westfeller hostiles in the room. All of them were unsure what to do.

"Are you sure you didn't do any of this?" As soon as Rufus even thought to accuse Fergus, Dave and the others reacted and glared back at him. All three of them were siding with Rufus, leaving Fergus alone on the other side of the room.

"I swear it wasn't me. I would never do such a thing. Power to rule over you has never been something I would want. You know me for that, surely?" Fergus cowered, trying to think of a solution to this. He didn't want to witness another traumatic episode of Moroq running around the hallways and fighting off invisible visions.

"Lynne will be after him as soon as he wakes up, and I have a feeling she isn't going to be merciful. When Lynne behaves the way she did earlier, she is serious with her words." Rufus went over to the window to have a look outside. The streets were empty with anyone he knew. Lynne wasn't back, which was good for them. They needed all the time they could get before she would return.

"Boss is unconscious?" Dave questioned.

"Boss was knocked out by Lynne." Rufus responded to him while Fergus was still assessing Moroq. He felt too anxious to use any magic that could possibly help with Moroq. With Dave and the others in the room, it would only lead to another fight. He knew that Dave was actually good friends with Lynne. If there ever would be a duel between her and Moroq, he knew he would side for her.

"Lynne take over." Dave uttered.

"I don't want her to kill him. That's her desire."

"Lynne crush him."

Fergus panicked on the inside. "I have an idea." He said out loud, getting everyone else's attention.

"What is it?" Rufus spoke rather loudly. He kept looking back at the window, peering at an angle down the road. As Lynne showed no signs of returning any time soon, he assumed that she went with the other girls to Khibel's football match. The problem he had in his mind now was whether Dave and his associates would still be willing to help them and not quickly side with Lynne despite her not being here.

"Moroq's only going to get help if he's sent to the south." Fergus looked directly back at Rufus. Dave and the others were angered by the end of his sentence. "Maybe we could get him to Castelia and have him sent down to the south where he can be looked at."

"Boss no go to the south. Boss is not crazy."

"No, Dave. He might have a point here." Rufus wasn't too sure, but it might be the best thing for him. He didn't witness much about Moroq, but whatever he was doing posed a massive threat of danger on Fergus. He didn't know what to think, but if he stayed here longer and potentially had another episode, it would only lead to a collapse inside the Westfellers. He thought about how Lynne did not like his behaviour at all, and how she would always associate and blame Fergus for it. The pair of them needed to go; they can't stop her convincing everyone else that they are the problem here.

"It is the only way. Lynne's going to kill him when she gets back, and then she'll banish me." Fergus said back to Rufus.

"You take the boss away. You traitor!" Dave became easily angered at both Fergus and Rufus, so angered to the point where he wanted to defend Moroq's body on the floor. "Mbaje shefin këtu." He told his associates. The other two circled the body with Dave's help, preventing Rufus and Fergus from accessing Moroq. Fergus finally started to use his hands for magic. Rufus gasped as he watched the Koopa's hands conjure a spell that pushed Dave and his associates away from Moroq's body in the room. They were sent away and towards the walls. Rufus reached out for Moroq's body and tried dragging him across the floor. Fergus forced him out of the way and took Moroq's body up into the air and took him out of the room himself.

"Get him out of here!" Rufus ordered Fergus. "I'll catch up!"

"Ju jeni duke e rrëmbyer atë! I will crush you!" Dave got up and chased Rufus. Fergus carried Moroq with his magic out of the building. As he got past the doorway, he turned around and watched Rufus try to run out towards him. He was caught by Dave before he could get outside, grabbed by the neck and punched in the face by Dave's gigantic fist. Fergus saw blood and squealed. His nose was heavily bruised, and he was later thrown on to the floor. Rufus screamed in pain as his mouth and nose continued to bleed. Fergus dropped Moroq's body onto the street and quickly returned to the front door of the house. Before Dave got a grip onto the injured Rufus a second time, Fergus sent out a magical wave to push him away. Rufus was able to get up and run out of the house. The two rushed towards the nearest parked car and carried Moroq's body into the back. Rufus was shivering too much and couldn't start the car. Fergus moved him out of the way and put him with Moroq's body. Dave ran outside with his associates and grabbed onto the back of the car as Fergus was about to drive off. The car engine was revving loudly, but the muscular, large Koopas tried to stop it from driving off.

"For fuck sake!" Fergus looked around and couldn't see Dave at the back. Only his associates. A second later, he saw a large figure smash the glass window of the passenger seat of the car. The shattered glass spilled over Rufus and Moroq, damaging him even more. Dave tried to pull him out of the car again, but managed to grab Moroq instead. Fergus revved the vehicle even more, yet only now was it starting to actually move. Rufus was useless to him, as he was groaning and moaning in agonising pain in the passenger seat. Now that they had Moroq's body, Fergus accelerated away quickly as the associates were no longer holding on to the back of the small car. Fergus quickly put his foot on the brakes and swerved the vehicle around. He drove over towards Dave and tried to ram him over. Dave made collision with the small car, but was only pushed lightly. He threw Moroq aside and grabbed Rufus out of the car next.

"Dave, stop! It's me! I'm not trying to break up the team!" Rufus tried to negotiate with the Koopa. He had his fist ready to strike him with a brutal blow a second time, perhaps enough to kill him right then and there. All of a sudden, Dave stopped his swing. His angered expression disappeared from his face after noticing the bleeding wounds on Rufus.

"Rufus... Westfells..." Dave let go of his body and lowered his fist. Rufus bled slowly on the floor, coughing up some blood. He was unsure what he and his associates should do to him, now that Fergus was able to levitate Moroq back into the car.

"Ai është armiku i vërtetë." One of Dave's associates pointed over to the car, seeing Fergus take Moroq and drive off again. This time, he was able to get away with him.

"Help Rufus." Dave ordered his friends back inside. "I'm... sorry." He reached out for Rufus, hoping that he would hold out his arm and be lifted up by him. Dave's mind was full of guilt and regret, but still with a side of anger and rage towards Fergus. He saw him as the true enemy of the Westfellers now. With Moroq also gone, they were without a leader. It would only be right for Lynne to take over.

"I need bandages... This hurts." Rufus tried to walk with Dave back to the main building of the Westfellers. As Rufus reached the front entrance, he was welcomed in by Hurka. He looked at both of them with an upset look, for he too witnessed what happened from a few floors up. None of them would have thought that the day after a massive victory for them would lead to ultimate disaster. Rufus could only dread the reaction the others would have once they came back from the football match.

EOC: The morning after is over! After this comes the events post 'Fighting in the Streets' period. Stay tuned for more!