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)

11. All Quiet on The Eastern Front

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

A/N: Looking back on what is written, I would give this chapter a rating of M or MA for what suggestions it contains. Please proceed with caution if you're sensitive to explicit writing.

March 14, Early Hours

Somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom

(In The Narrator's Perspective):

It was a long ride across the lands through the night. While most of it was on the highways, the last hour or so felt very restless for Enrique. The road ahead felt bumpy, with the knocking and bashing of the van keeping him awake. He wasn't a hundred percent healthy, but the few hours of sleep he did get during the rest of the journey did make him feel a little better. He endured another few more minutes of bumpy road until the ground became soft again. All he could hear now was the inaudible muttering between the drivers in the front and the radio they had playing. It was almost like he could doze off again to get more sleep. He wasn't exactly sure where he was but flat road again felt like he still had a lot of distance to cover before his destination...

"Come on, wake up. Get out." It felt like no time at all but his brain must have gone for quite a bit of time as the vehicle had fully come to a close and nobody was speaking but the Toad guard behind the open doors of the back of the van. Enrique tried to widen his eyelids, still in mostly darkness.

"Why... don't you just kill me already?" He could barely whisper back to the Toads, for his voice had also gone during the night. Enrique coughed a little more, but the Toads were patient with his slowness of getting out of the van all on his own. He couldn't guess where he was exactly upon stepping outside, but he knew this was the Mushroom Kingdom. He was met with a few other Toad guards outside the van, all surrounding him and making sure he was still cuffed and restrained.

"Where is he? I want to see him." He heard a familiar voice coming from the front of the van. He had to squeeze through a few cars parked right next to the van just to be escorted back around to the front. It was Luigi, and Enrique was surprised to see him up this early. "He's looking worse... that's a good sign." Luigi continued. "Bring him up, bring him up!" He smiled, letting him through and past the other Toad guards with him.

"Hey, I asked you a question, Paisano." Enrique coughed in front of Luigi while being escorted behind him up some steps.

"You're not here to talk with me." Luigi grinned. "You're coming back into town the secret way. You don't even need to be awake at all now. I just wanted to see how you were-a doing."

"Well... If you're not here to kill me, then Peach better act fast, this cold is only getting worse for me." The Toads nearby felt a little sceptical. Luigi stopped while walking up the steps, halting the Toads. He turned around and examined Enrique a little more closely. The human was still cuffed and restrained as well as being held on the spot by some of the Toad guards.

"His clothes are damp. What was he doing?" Luigi asked those below him.

"It's raining in southern Wuhu, Sir." One of the Toads replied.

"I see... Wuhu, that's where you found him-?"

"...Well he was over the news there. Lots of people knew."

"A-a." Luigi spoke over the Toad. "No need to make comments like that now. We're here to bring him secretly in to the castle. I don't want anybody else knowing about this. I certainly don't want him on the television like you just said he was." The Toad was annoyed on the inside, but shrugged off Luigi's response with ease. The Toads carried on taking Enrique up the steps in the woodland yard that seemed to be where they all were. Enrique wasn't sure how far they were from Mushroom City or the castle, but this place didn't seem to be suitable for driving. In fact, after a few more minutes of walking through the woods, he began to realise where exactly he was. The sky was dark and cloudy, and there wasn't much light, but the fact that there was an empty unused road further ahead told him that this was the edges of Toad Town. Empty housing, clean streets, a well designed road... it seemed Luigi sought to take him across Mario Circuit to get back to the castle. Off-limits to the public, nobody would be able to see them.

"Don't take him any further than the edge of the near woods." Luigi ordered the Toads before parting directions with them. "If anybody else needs to know about his presence back in the castle, give them the oath warning. Daisy is not meant to know about this while she is recovering."

Enrique watched Luigi head leftwards off the circuit road and head beyond a ridge through the woods. "Hey, where's he going?" He asked the Toads as he was taken rightwards through more trees. None of the Toads replied. Instead, they carried him further than they were originally told to seeing that the main doors to the castle were currently unoccupied by different guards. "You lot are very useless if you can't even do what Luigi asked you to do." He tried to search for Luigi across the lake, realising where he was for a second. "Water. Help... Bucket." The Toads were confused, but remained doing their new job of letting him through the doors. "Move out of the way." He felt uneasy, feeling imbalance in his legs. The Toads tried to hold him up as his body began to feel heavier. "Move!" The Toads at the front turned around to witness Enrique vomit out some sick on to the floor in front of them. They all freaked out, with some letting go of him and backing away. While there were only a couple still holding on to him, Enrique's dizziness and weakness made him not bother attempting to break free from their grasp. He lowered his knees and leaned over to one side, lying down on the floor a few feet away from the sick puddle.

"...I suppose you managed to get through the main doors all right." Luigi reappeared from behind the entrance doors, walking into the main hall of the castle. "Mama-mia, get him up. He's a threat to our lands. Don't give him the time of rest!" He yelled at the Toads, forcing them to reach for Enrique again. "Here, I'll help." Luigi sighed, rushing over to help pick him up. As he faced Enrique round, he was met with a spit to the face by him, to which Luigi smacked him back in the face. He wiped the spit off of his face with his gloves, still in disgust.

"Che cazzo fai!?" He shouted at Enrique, deliberately not telling the Toads what he said. "Brucia all'inferno brutto pezzo di merda!" He looked at him on the floor, facing away from him. The Toads picked him up again, but this time they faced him away from anyone else.

"What the fuck do you want me alive for?" He stared straight into the distance in the hall. Nobody could see his current facial expression. "You've been able to kill me countless times and you've put wanted bounties on me for both dead and alive. Why am I still alive even now?" The Toads kept him in place and they were all silent as Luigi slowly walked around the area to face Enrique's front, well distant from him so he couldn't spit on him a second time.

"Killing you does not bring you to justice. If anything, it's not me to be the one to kill you." He tried to remain calm and collected after slapping Enrique in the face. Not a common gesture and one he was a bit anxious about doing.

"Then where is everyone? Where's Mario, where's Peach? Why aren't they here to deal with me?" Luigi could only smile devilishly.

"Bottom floor." He eventually responded. "You all know what to do." He watched the Toads restrain Enrique again, taking him to the left hallway corridor and towards the corresponding elevator. "Not a word to him boys and girls... and watch his mouth. Chance is he's going to spit of get sick on you." He called out to them just before they turned out of his sight. As soon as they were gone, his fierce pose of superiority cracked and fell apart. His disgust was openly visible and his anxiety skyrocketed. He rushed through the opposite corridor and headed to the staircases on the right side of the castle, heading straight for the kitchens. He found a sink where he could wash his face from any remaining spit still on it and the germs of Enrique. "Come on Peach... I could really use your assistance now." He whispered to himself, hoping she would return soon.

...

He returned to his dormitory on the Upper Guesthouse floor, meeting with Mario in his room.

"Hey, brother. We've got him." He woke up Mario from his sleep, desperate to let him know. Mario opened his eyes easily, looking straight back at him.

"He's here?" He asked, receiving a nod back from Luigi. "Good. Peach is going to be so happy about this when she returns. At least there's something good we can do while she's gone."

"I want you to be the one to present him to her. It will be the best thing for you two." Mario smiled.

"But first..." He said with a pause. "...I want to see him first in the morning, just to assess him."

"Very well." Luigi smiled also. "He's in the bottom floor cells. It's good for you to understand his behaviour before presenting him too... I'll not disturb your sleep and peace any longer, brother. We'll discuss more in the morning."

"Goodnight, Luigi." Mario waved him a goodbye.

AT THE SAME TIME...

There was rampant havoc down in the cells of the castle. As the Toads arrived to the bottom floor in attempt to send Enrique into one of the rooms, his memory of the halls sparked a focus in his conscience. All of the Toads were looking away from him as they didn't want to have any vomit aimed for their faces. With that, their weapons were exposed. Enrique was subtly looking in all directions around him, ready to forcefully swing to reach hold of a weapon.

"Huuu... huhhh..." He pretended like he was going to throw up any second now, causing the Toads to stop in the hallway.

"Look away." One of the Toads commanded to the others. "He's going to make a mess!"

Unfortunately, willpower alone wasn't enough. In his attempt to snatch a weapon from the pockets of the nearby Toads, he collapsed to the floor. There was no strength left in him, and the Toads looked at him in disgust, seeing no vomit come out from his mouth.

"Tase him." Another Toad ordered. Enrique was shocked and sent back into near sleep. He didn't even have the strength to react to the zap and move about on the floor. "That should do."

He was taken into one of the cells on the floor and shoved in there, with his cuffs still on. He could barely move his body now, and while he was locked inside the prison cell, he didn't move an inch from where he landed...

An unknown amount of time passed. He was barely functioning, barely keeping track of time and barely aware of any concept of either time or consciousness. Nobody knew what he was thinking about, not even him...

...

"Thank you, I will take it from here." He woke up in the same position to the sound of a familiar feminine voice and the cell door opening. In came two people judging by the frequent sound of footsteps. "Try not to freak out; he is alive. He's just very unhealthy right now from what I've learned. We should really nourish him if we're going to keep him alive for this." That was the sound of Queen Peach, and his limited conscious was already frustrated about yet another prospect of having to work for them just to live a little while longer. He couldn't feel his limbs, being unable to roll over and have a look at her and whoever she brought in with her.

"I think I remember this guy... I've seen him before as well." This was also a voice he recognised, but he couldn't tell where from. It made him want to take a look around and see, but all he could do was move his eyes, still seeing the floor and the side of the bed on the other side of the room. "I thought he would be your friend." The second voice said again.

"A lot has happened in the past months."

"Don't you think you're treating him a little too harshly after what he did for you back in that hospital?" That was the key word to make him remember who this voice was. He immediately couldn't believe that this teenager was in this world now, and interacting with all possible humans, Peach was definitely a surprise to him.

She got up and turned to the Toads guarding the door, while the teenager squatted his way round to Enrique, finally seeing his face, Peach ordered the Toads to fetch him some water and some food to nourish him for the time being. The blonde-haired boy waved at Enrique's eyes, giving him a smile. Enrique tried to get up to attack the boy with a small bit of movement, but it seemed he was well aware of his behaviour. He must have been told everything by Peach somehow. The teenager backed away a little, sitting on the bed and watching Enrique on the floor. Peach returned to the room and moved around to sit beside him.

"I think he remembers me." The teenager looked unusually happy to be in such a place without a long time to adjust to it. Enrique couldn't even speak whilst staring at the two. They noticed his eye movements and that was all he could do, but in his mind, all he thought was... how did it come to this?

Through the words and mind of the teenager, he recalled it all to Enrique, all in a brief moment before the Toads arrived with the nourishment.

It was eight in the evening, on the fourteenth of March, at the park outside the school that he, his female friend, and the twins went to. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to keep this a secret to his female friend for the time being, as she was his only friend at the school now. He told his parents that he was having a sleepover at her house for the night and then going on a trip with her for the day after, keeping him occupied for most of Saturday and the Sunday too. Though she showed no open intention of showing up to the park with him that evening... or doing anything with him over the weekend anyway, he still had his hopes for any girl to show up to comfort him. The sky was dark as the sun had already set, so what he saw on the other side of the school fence was quite a fog to his eyes. If anyone was watching, they would see a lone teenager standing and facing the fence, staring straight at to what must have looked like nothing. Every few seconds, he would look another way in case anyone was walking past. Every minute that passed filled his heart with adrenaline, but luckily, the Queen had stuck to her word and in the distance across the school field, the recognisable figure that was Peach emerged and approached him. The teenager's stomach became filled with butterflies, excited to see the inspirational figure from possible fiction return to him once again. He grabbed onto the fence and stretched his arm out, gesturing intent to touch or hold hands together briefly. After Peach gave him an initial wave and a smile, she saw the hand and held it firmly, warming the boy's heart and possibly giving him an erection.

"Hey... Would you like to meet me at the front? I don't think I can climb over this one." He first asked Peach, trying to contain his excitement and remain appearing casual and relaxed.

"Do what you always do. I'll see you at the office room, okay?" She gave him another smiled and waited for his acknowledgement nod. "We've got a lot to discuss." He spent ten minutes trying to get into the school, and then finding the open window from an unlocked classroom that Peach used to get outside to begin with. Eventually he arrived to the room, and the only light that was on was from Peach. The electricity of the school was shut off at night over the weekend. She had opened the secret sliding door to the portal to the Mushroom Kingdom, allowing him and herself through before sliding it firmly shut again.

Now, the two were back in the small cave that was the only place he was familiar with in this world.

"I think we can speak freely now, right?" He whispered back to Peach.

"Yes... Rin? Rin something, right? I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

"Rynmar."

"That was it, thank you." Peach realised something after letting him into this world a second time. He was young, obedient, and the only human recruited from Earth that she seemed to have full authority over. Everyone else that was brought over was either recruited in united association or as a result of the formers and with connections to them.

...

"Whatever." Peach interrupted Rynmar's story to Enrique. "It doesn't matter about him. He doesn't need to know everything." At least Enrique was now able to recognise him fully. He was that child from the hospital on earth that speculated who he was in connection to Duncan and Tobias. Through Enrique's mind, this must be why he's here. It still surprised him that he would be siding with Peach. Perhaps he had no choice on the matter.

The food and water arrived for Enrique to somewhat improve his health in all aspects. Despite Peach's newfound hatred towards him over the past few weeks, the last thing she wanted to see was him slowly transforming into a corpse. It looked even worse than torture. He wasn't entirely sure about what Peach or any of her close friends had been up to over these past few days. The only encounters he had with them was with Luigi for a few minutes when he was last properly awake. He had no idea where he Mario or Daisy were now.

"Hey, can you speak now?" Peach snapped her fingers watching him having the water poured into his mouth gently by Rynmar. He couldn't believe all what he saw in front of him, but he was barely able to move his body, so he just had to accept the water and food being given to him.

"I think he's paralysed." Rynmar felt a little uneasy when delivering all of this nourishment to him. "I... don't think it's just starvation. It seems like a mixture of that, sleep deprivation, thirst, and... illness." Both Peach and Enrique noticed something about this teenager; he seemed to be very careful with assisting him with the food and water. He even tried to move Enrique around so that he was at least sitting upright. Peach didn't want to get anywhere close to him. She didn't want to take any chances. "What is it you want out of this guy anyway? How did he end up like this?"

"We haven't seen him for nearly a week. He and all of his friends disappeared, and we haven't been able to find any of them except for him, and this is how we found him."

"Tom's one of his friends, right?" He looked back at Peach.

She nodded. "Your two friends are his friends too. We haven't been able to find them either." Rynmar looked straight down, now realising one of the main reasons he was allowed to come to this land on behalf of Peach's invitation. This was his chance to finally uncover the mysteries behind the disappearance of two of his best school friends, and the reasons as to why they kept disappearing often even during school time.

"Well... I can do my best to help, but I wouldn't know where to start. All I know about this world so far is this town that we're in... and it's huge. They're not somewhere here, right?"

"No." Peach shook her head.

"Then that makes it harder." It was an ultimate privilege for him to be here, and he felt that at any bad moment he could be exiled back. While he wanted to do everything for this beautiful woman he saw in Peach, he knew that there could be possible dangers up ahead. Everything came at a risk.

"I want you to stay here with Enrique, and make sure he recovers as quickly as possible. The guards will be here to help you, and afterwards when I return, you will be greatly rewarded. I must go for a few hours, for I need to speak with my council on some plans, of which I will get back to you on, along with your reward. Can you do this for me?" Peach got up and moved over to the door, with her security guards on the floor coming inside the room to assist the teenager. He gave her a brief nod and a smile. "Good boy." Peach departed from the floor, leaving Rynmar with the Toad castle prison guards and Enrique in the prison cell.

"Let's get him on to the bed." He asked the prison guards to help him while they were at his disposal. Enrique was even weaker than when he made an attempt to snatch a weapon from the guards, though it seemed like he didn't want to bother with an escape attempt this time seeing an improvement in hospitality on behalf of Rynmar.

"Remember to be extra careful with him. Not only due to your own personal safety, but on the Queen's orders." One of a few more Toad castle guards showed up to the cell for gentle assistance. It was Toadlynn, still operating as the prison guard leader of this floor. "Human, if you have any important things to tell the Queen, you can report them to me." Rynmar nodded back to him as Enrique was placed on the bed. His eyes were focused on the teenager and his mouth was half open, allowing some more small bits of food to go inside him. At least it seemed he was able to swallow the food. It made Rynmar's job a whole lot easier. He was now against the bed, with the Toads a few metres behind him.

"Anyways, since I remember you from before as actually quite a very honourable guy, I should probably tell you more about what I know, because it's sad to see you in this state." Rynmar started whispering to Enrique, moving his head slightly to track his eye focus. Enrique's eyes were moving, staring directly back into Rynmar, but no sounds were coming from him.

(In Rynmar's Perspective):

"See the thing is, Peach probably doesn't want me to tell you what I think of it all. But I'll try and tell you what I know while she's not here."

After going through the portal which you funnily enough told me I was mistaken about, I ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom for the second time ever. The funny thing is, just a few days prior, a friend of mine and I noticed Peach hiding somewhere in our school. I don't know why she was there to begin with but I seemed to learn that she wanted to visit here just for some time to herself. You know... to get away from the stress of being the Queen of the Kingdom I suppose. I still don't know that much about the agenda here, but I'm guessing it's a lot of effort for her. Maybe there has been some really stressful times recently, hence her search for our missing friends.

"It's so... peaceful and rural. It's like heaven to me." I was looking around the meadows near the cave to the portal because that's where I ended up at first with Peach. She told me that this place shares a similar time zone to that of the East Coast USA. I too heard about the myth-turned-truth of the Brooklyn pipe, but I wasn't able to find near where we first ventured.

"This is only the beginning, my boy." Peach said back to me, putting me in awe. What's not to like about such a powerful pretty Queen? Well... I don't know exactly what you've been through with her, but she really labelled you as a bad person on our walk back to the capital city. Maybe it's some history between you and Mario. Besides, where is Mario anyway? Peach never wanted to talk about that with me when I brought it up.

She told me loads on our walk though. She told me about the north being a dangerous area, the secrecy of this place and a sort of oath that for any human who ends up here and knows about this place, they must not expose it to the people back on Earth. It is not to be shared. But the important, unbiased and objective things she told me about were the disappearance of all of your friends, the intent to unite me back with them, and attempts to make me work for her in exchange for some really nice rewards, which she obviously mentioned again when she was here with us. She also told me about the demographics here, about how there's populations of Toads and Koopas and Piantas, and that there are also some humans too that are believe to be naturally from these lands. I don't know all about that, but if I'm to go into history of this world, I'd probably have to educate myself on that or ask Duncan and Tobias whenever I get to see them again. The thing is... I'm not the only one from Earth who misses them. There's this other person from our school, this girl... for a minute I thought she was going to be Duncan's girlfriend, but then a couple of days ago, he and Tobias just stopped showing up to school. For years there was always something peculiar about those two, especially with our religious studies teacher, who obviously you'd recognise as Tom. Our school calls it FBCS, but for a few years he worked there, and he'd frequently disappear as much as the two kids. Then one day a few months ago, he resigned without proper notice, and obviously it was a shock to us all but it didn't stop Duncan and Tobias from frequently disappearing every lunch break. The last thing I'd want to stress about to you on my journey back to the city was the feel of the city. It didn't seem very pro-her. I quickly learned that these lands were about to undergo some difficult times because she told me that not everywhere was the same and places more urban appeared more dangerous. She told me about the racing tournament, the final race, and the terrible accident that happened that night which obviously lead to the passing of one of her close Toad friends. This is the part where she started to make everything about you look bad. It was like she blamed you for it... I don't know, maybe you did it, maybe you didn't, but regardless, she wants all of your friends to come back to the city because of you guys being a threat to the peace of the lands, which I believe are more than just the Mushroom Kingdom. (*)

Rynmar noticed Enrique's eyes flick from looking to the left and then to the right quickly and repeatedly, like he was shaking his head but instead with his eyes.

"You're not a threat to the Mushroom Kingdom, is that what you're saying? Nod with your eyes if yes, or if that hurts too much, just look down or something." Rynmar now whispered to Enrique, That's exactly what he did. His eyes lowered and Rynmar grinned, looking back at the Toads while he poured some more water into his half-open mouth. "Obviously, the talk lasted until we got to Toad Town. It looked almost like how it did in that Super Mario Galaxy game... that's quite freaky though if you ask me. It's like Shigeru Miyamoto told those web designers and game makers to do it like this, like he knew this place. Hah, who am I kidding?" He whispered again. "And then, she took me straight down here when we got to the castle. I wasn't able to have a look around myself. Maybe one day if I complete my own introduction to this land like you and Tom did five years ago."

That last part really scared Enrique on the inside. It was almost frightening, knowing that this teenager could end up living the same life here as he did... He feared that he would follow the same path and end up being another major problem for Peach in a matter of time, leading to... this current state. For someone his age, he definitely wouldn't be able to handle the violence, the deaths, and the danger he has endured in his time here. It's nothing like the happy feel that the games had, and Enrique could tell that this teenager used to play them.

At the same time, Peach had ventured up the floors of the castle to the first floor where the council chambers were situated. There, she could hear the voices of the members of her council along with Mario and Daisy, all from the outside. With some Toad castle guards escorting her there, she led first to the doors, busting them wide open with her arms.

Everyone inside turned and stared at her. It had been three days, and she had finally returned to the upper floors of the castle. She had officially made herself public again. Her secret journey back to the castle with Rynmar, although done during the day, was discreet, and without any citizen outside the castle workers in the basement floor knowing.

"Queen Peach..." Daisy stood up first, bowing to her. "You've returned." She received many salutes and bows from Mario and the other Toads on the council, all excited to see her return and looking better.

"I'm back, and I'm fit to rule again." While she wasn't in her usual long pink dress that she would actively wear while 'governing', she was still treated with full authority. "Please work together to brief me on everything that's happened over the past few days."

"Err... you'd be surprised to hear that we've actually done a pretty good job so far, right boys and girls?" Toadasha spoke first, clumping some papers on the table in front of her together.

"I mean, besides the record levels of counter-urbanisation, then sure. Less people seem to be worried." Tranko who sat on a different end of the council table added on afterwards.

"We've got very good security in the western borders to the north thanks to the Red Martyrs that remain and New Donk City's government. Besides a small unrelated incident in the northeast near Ulontis, everything on the eastern seems to be pretty quiet and fine. There are still some boats going from towns like Koopa City and Diamond City to Urscan, but they seem to be well checked and the Koopas there are well-aware of the situation." Toadasha added again.

"Good." Peach acknowledged quickly. "What's the sitch in the Wuhu south coast? Has everything been cleaned up there, any sign of Rosalina?"

"No sign of her. As for the towns, well, that's really up to the Wuhu government. We've not heard about any incidents from there since the Cheep Cheep Beach incident." Toadasha and Tranko worked together with their assistants to deliver a full report over the past few days to Peach while Toad, Toadheim, Mario and Daisy remained silent. Daisy eventually got up and approached Peach slowly.

"I need to speak to you in private soon by the way." Peach whispered as she got closer. "Wait your turn." Daisy nodded back.

"...and that has led to our approval ratings... sadly worsening by the week."

"Well that's expected in these times." Peach spoke over Tranko. "Times like these are what tests us to prove to our people that we are their protectors, and that we cater for them and all their needs, and protect them from the threats of the north and beyond."

"At least they're grateful that Bowser poses no threat on us anymore." Toadheim decided to speak up and add a point. "I'm glad that's behind us."

"Very good indeed. Whether we've heard from him or not since Rainbow Road doesn't matter. We can offer him an eternity of bliss and that would help us since he'll leave us alone for it." She looked back at Mario and seeing him smile at her, knowing her leadership was shining once again. "Now, I need to borrow Daisy now, but I seriously appreciate your efforts. You're all doing great, and please stick to staying away from any radical laws without proper jurisdiction. I'm so proud of you all and I look forward to holding another meeting with you all in the morning. You are all dismissed." Mario watched Peach take Daisy out of the council chambers and towards the nearest elevator.

"Should I be quiet?" Daisy whispered to Peach while they were out of sight and into the elevator. Peach took it all the way to the top floor.

"I've got some private news to tell you about, and you're the only person who is to know about this..." Daisy nodded. "...I've... brought more people from Earth, but... it's quite different this time." She wasn't happy to see the unhappy look on Daisy's face as she was told about this.

"No... no, no, no no no. Peach this isn't good have you not seen the problem we're dealing with already?"

"They're different. I promise you. One of them is currently in Enrique's cell tending to him, thanks to Toadlynn I was able to know about that before anything else. The other is not actually here yet, and I need you for something first. These two people, they're much younger, and not like Tom and the others." Daisy still wasn't entirely convinced, but there was still much information left out on her knowing about this. The current experiences she has with Tom and Enrique and their friends have been nothing but hassle and stress, and to now know that there are even more humans from Earth here who potentially pose a risk of spreading the secret to the people there only made it more stressful for her.

"How old are they?" Daisy asked bluntly.

"They're... the same age as the twins, so about fifteen. One's a boy and one's a girl."

"An Earth girl?" Her eyes widened.

"Yes." Peach grinned as the elevator doors opened. "The boy's in the cells with Toadlynn and co, and the girl's expecting us very soon at a special meeting point that I'm inviting you to..."

Fifteen minutes before Peach was supposed to see Rynmar at the school field fence separating the school field and the nearby park, she actually bumped into Ellis first. To her surprise, Ellis showed up earlier than Rynmar. She wanted to see them both at the same time, but Ellis wasn't entirely up for that.

"Is that who I think it is taking a nap behind that tree?" Peach was resting against the same tree she slept against the first night she was here, overhearing a voice from the other side of the fence. It was Ellis. Peach got up and peeked around the corner, surprised and also excited to see the tall teenage girl actually show up.

"You're... early. Very early, but I'm honoured to see you. Truly, it means a lot to me." Peach walked up to the fence and tried to reach out for Ellis' hand, to which she just looked at Peach's and did nothing in response to it.

"Yeah... right, brilliant. Anyways, what do you want me to do, are you expecting me to climb over or what? Why are you on that side?" Ellis was still very sceptical about the whole situation, but Peach felt that she could explain some things to change her opinion on it all.

"Well, in order for me to show you everything about where I come from, you're going to have to come onto this side and back in to the school. It's the only way you're able to travel across the worlds with me... unless you want to go to the Brooklyn pipe, this is the only way." She spoke across the fence.

"Right and how am I supposed to climb over? Do you expect me to trespass into the school? Is this what Duncan and Tobias would do during the night or something?" Peach was shocked and surprised at that last part.

"Uhh, maybe? Good point, and yes, I would need you to... but first I need you to wait a bit until eight exactly because Rynmar's supposed to be showing up as well."

Ellis backed away from the fence. "Oh, no chance. I'm not going with him at the same time."

"Why not?" Peach seemed slightly upset about her lack of immediate cooperation.

"I've... just told him so much about this that it makes me look anti-this idea to him. It would be too much stress to have you deal with both of us at the same time." Ellis started looking around everywhere nearby in case Rynmar was near. She didn't want to be seen by him with Peach before he showed up, especially seeing how much of an obsession he had with Peach. "I'll tell you what, I'm going to go for a walk and I'll see you in two hours, okay? That should give you plenty of time to settle him in to your utopia. Okay?" While Peach didn't quite understand what the word utopia meant, she wasn't able to ask about it since Ellis already started walking away from the fence. "Go and make it look like he's here before you." Peach liked Ellis' metaphorical backbone and her attitude, even if it was quite rude and disrespectful to her sometimes. This was the kind of girl she needed just by her side as much as Daisy, though if asked she'd most likely refuse. It was all a matter of how much she would like the look of the Mushroom Kingdom. It's a shame for these two people to soon be brought to these lands at such a bad time. Even as close as a few months earlier, they would have had the best of times. Then again, there'd be little to no reason for the two to be allowed into the other world anyway.

"Alright, fine. I'm going to walk across the field and wait for him to show up." She called out to Ellis, assuming she could hear her and assuming that Rynmar wasn't here yet...

"...We're to meet her at ten o'clock at night at there time, which is about five o'clock here." Peach finished telling Daisy all the information about meeting the new Earth girl.

"Well, I guess she'll be more interested and more likely to believe everything to be real if I show up and assist you as well." Daisy seemed a lot more convinced now.

"Great, now, I don't want us to be late at all. We need to be there before she gets back to the fence. I need you to be wearing casual clothes. I can't have us in our dresses on Earth. It just makes no sense to be in that attire." Daisy rushed to her dormitory on the top floor and got changed within a matter of minutes. Next stop was the elevator again where the two rushed down to sneak outside the castle again, leaving Mario and the others to spend the rest of their day without the company of Peach or Daisy until later in the evening if they choose to return publicly.

"Quickly now, out through here." Peach took Daisy to the back entrance and into one of her cars parked at the private drive outside the hidden edges of Toad Town. They went straight onto the outer roads and en route to secret cave, which was situated in a quiet field a few hundred metres northeast of Mushroomheath.

"Not going through the Brooklyn pipe?" Daisy wondered while on the drive to the cave.

"We're going to England for this meeting." Peach replied, her eyes focused on the road.

"Wait, we're actually taking the portal?"

"Yep. Trust me; it's going to be okay." She grabbed Daisy by her arm and moved her gently over to the England portal inside the cave. Peach retrieved the necklace from her pockets and placed the gem inside the port, opening up the portal once again.

"I've... never really done this properly." Daisy gulped, looking at the bright light that appeared in front of her.

"Hold my hand and we'll go together." Peach assured her; there was nothing to worry about. The two entered together, with Daisy shocked at the sight that was before when she could finally see in front of her: a luminous wall full of smooth metal walls, with the slider on the right. Peach walked towards it and opened it up, unveiling the school office on the other side. She reminded Daisy that the room was enchanted with magic, and almost invisible to anyone else from the outside. As the two left the portal room and closed the slider door, they were united with only the light from the moon reflected from the sun and going down on them thanks to the windows.

"Follow me now. We've got to be quick." Peach rushed on ahead, expecting Daisy to be right behind her. "Try not to make a noise too." She whispered, going down the flights of stairs in the hall outside the office room. Down a couple of corridors all the way to the other side of the school's interior where was a gap inside the locked facilities that they could climb out of; a window in one of the sports halls this time around.

"This place is so creepy and dark. This is a school right? It looks so ominous."

"It's because it's late. It's much later here than it is in the Mushroom Kingdom." Peach checked back on Daisy who was just behind her as they were ready to head outside. Still in the school grounds, Peach and Daisy hurried over to the school field, hoping they didn't keep the girl for long.

"Ellis! Ellis Harper?" Peach called out as she reached the fence. "Where is she? She's got to be here." The two stopped, seeing a very dark path in the park across the fence filled with literally nobody in sight.

"This place scares me, Peach. I don't know what to do out here. It's awfully cold as well!" Daisy started to shiver on the spot, moving towards the nearest tree and leaning against it. "This place looks nothing like home. There's no colour and brightness and happiness. No wonder we keep it a secret to the Toads and Koopas; they'd hate to ever move or even be here!" She watched Peach have her eyes fixed to the other side of the fence. "How long do you want us to wait out here, what if she never comes?"

Peach kept checking for any side of the park where the girl could possibly come from, walking along the edge of the fence and stepping over the grass... until she stepped on something that felt nothing like grass. She looked down to see a folded piece of paper lying on the floor just beside her left foot. She leaned down on the floor and picked it up, unfolding it to see a letter that appeared to be written for her.

Assuming this goes to the person in question. I won't be able to meet you here tonight. I'm too concerned for my safety so far and will have to do this another time. It's also very late and my mother will be worried for me if I disappear for an unknown amount of time. However, if you do wish to contact me while you are around town, then please call me on Registered UK Phone Number.

I hope your search for Duncan and Tobias is brief, and please take good care of Rynmar.

See you another day, from Ellis.

"Well... that's a shame." Peach muttered to herself after finishing reading the note.

"What's that you've got there?" Daisy called out from over at the tree.

"She left us a note. She's not going to show up tonight."

"So this was a complete waste of time?"

"Not exactly." Peach returned back to Daisy, keeping hold of the folded sheet of paper. "We've got some credentials here to contact her, but we need a phone from these lands to be able to call it I'm going to assume." She let Daisy have a brief read of the note while they started walking back to the school buildings.

"We must not lose this note! Your friend's help for us depends on it!" Daisy reminded Peach. "This goes straight into the headquarters private drawers when we get back." Peach nodded in agreement as they reached the window hatch.

...

Time passed as Peach and Daisy returned back to the cave outside Mushroomheath. They drove all the way back to the secret entrance to the castle and rushed back inside to check up with the situation going on down in the prison floors. As she and Daisy returned to the bottom floor, she saw Rynmar sitting on a chair outside of Enrique's prison cell, which was locked. Toadlynn and the other prison guards on the floor were either still patrolling the floor or on a dinner break. It seemed that Rynmar had been looked after well by the Toads and had finished dealing with Enrique.

"Oh, wow." Rynmar quickly shot up and stood firmly and straight, excited to see the Princess next to Peach for the first time ever. "You must be Princess Daisy." She was looking just as shocked to see another teenager before her. He approached her gently and reached out for her hand to give it a kiss.

"Oh, I say!" She blushed. "And you must be... Rynmar. I was told by the Queen over here... So, either you or Peach, could you please tell me what you're doing down here then?"

"We've got something for you." Peach led Daisy quietly towards the cell door. "Take a look through the slider." She gave way for Daisy to have a look through the cell door. There, she saw the blonde human incapacitated on the bed. Initially she was shocked, surprised to see him in his current state, though this was what she was shocked by, not by the fact that he was captured to begin with.

"You know, Luigi told me about him this morning. Obviously you weren't there and neither was he at the council chambers when you first showed yourself to us today since your small getaway." She kept looking through the cell door. "Still, one down, seven or eight to go, if I can count correctly. How is he doing anyway? He looks... terminal."

"He's been worse." Toadlynn spoke from just a few metres behind the three of them. "At first, he was vomiting everywhere on the floors. What this kid did to him must have been a healthy thing. That's for sure." Daisy peered down to Rynmar sitting on the chair again. He was now staring straight ahead, trying to occupy his mind and hesitating from staring back at the Princess or Queen.

"Come." Peach beckoned and poked Daisy, telling her to walk all the way down the corridor to speak in private. Rynmar was ordered to stay in the seat under watch by Toadlynn as the two girls distanced themselves from him.

"What now?" Daisy whispered to Peach first.

"Rynmar and Enrique... maybe we working together inside the castle. I've got to see Toadsworth as soon as he's been discharged from hospital. I could probably get Toadrin to assist him on some of the things he's got up his sleeve as well. We've also got Gadd and Crygor in support for this too." Daisy seemed initially confused, but after a few seconds of thinking, she was starting to get a gist of what Peach's trying to explain to her.

"We've got to get all of the other boys back here... at least not missing. Our inability to track them down reflects back on the trust our people have in us to defend them from what's coming from the north. If we're not able to dispatch some rogue boys, then who knows how badly we'll be unable to stop the north. But... why this boy in particular again?" She whispered back to Peach.

"He goes to the same school as Duncan and Tobias. They all know each other. It's the same with the girl we tried to bring back, but obviously she gave us this note. It's a dangerous task for both of them... but I know how to reward them for it, easily." She gave a brief look back at Rynmar and noticed he was looking away and reached for her biggest pocket where she had kept the gold coin. It weighed her down a bit but she was able to carry it all this way in secret. "These are worth a fortune on Earth." Peach explained to Daisy. "If we're able to somehow convert the gold from this coin into the money they use on Earth... it will be a reward so great that they could never say no or even work slightly less than perfectly at this."

"So... you're thinking bribery for these kids?" Daisy asked back quietly.

"Bribe- Daisy, like... how much does a coin weigh do you think? A gold coin, in the kilograms? Anyways, one of these, is really, really valuable on Earth. You'd make either of the two kids rich and rich and rich." She moved her head slightly to tell Daisy to head back to Rynmar, putting the coin back into her pocket. As they approached Rynmar, he leaned up and sat with a straight back on the chair, hoping to hear any new orders.

"I can't lie to you. I could hear you from over there." He grinned.

"Oh... Well, we're going to reward you for your time here regardless of how long it takes." Peach waited a few seconds before thinking about taking the coin out of her pockets again. "I've done a bit of research on how the Earth economy works, and was thinking of giving you and your loved ones some of these in exchange for your time spent here." She unveiled the gold coin to Rynmar and allowed him to hold it.

"This... is actual gold?" He had initial difficulty in being able to hold it as the weight of it surprised him. "It's... very familiar but I think it's real. This must weigh several kilograms at best." He was amazed, soon to realise that there were millions of these in the castle reserve. That's not even counting the entire economy of the land and all the gold coins still not yet discovered in underground blocks or blocks in desolate areas.

"It is. I spent a day on... a place to try and exchange them." She remembered that Toadlynn was still in the room and did her best to stay quiet on matters regarding Earth. "Anyways, let's have another look at Enrique, shall we? What did you do with him while I was gone?" She saw to Toadlynn to open the cell door again for her, Rynmar and Daisy, letting them inside to see Enrique.

"I'm no doctor, but I could confidently tell you that he needs a couple of days to rest and be nourished. He's really underweight and needs to be well-fed if he's going to function well." Rynmar walked in first, getting up close to Enrique on the bed. The human lay flat on the bed with his eyes closed. He was either unconscious or sleeping, and nobody could tell since they hadn't checked up on him for quite some time now. Rynmar gave Enrique a bit of a nudge to confirm the latter by seeing his eyes open for a few seconds. He still didn't say any words.

"Everything seems fine for now." Peach felt a slight bit of relief. "He'll soon be at our disposal. I'm going to need Toadrin and Toadsworth to report to the castle tonight."

"Do you want me to get an order on them?" Daisy happily suggested, staying by the door and frankly not wanting to get anywhere near Enrique despite his weak state.

"Yes, please. Hopefully they're still around town. I know Toadrin's still at hospital, but Toadsworth... well, home? That's my best guess."

Daisy smiled back at Peach. "Sure. I'll let the Brigade know... what about Gadd and co?"

"Toadsworth will get them. Just let him know about them as well." Peach felt happy to see Daisy off down the hallway. She turned her head back round to answer back to Rynmar with the current situation of Enrique.

"Oh, hello Toadheim... and Mosko, right?" She overheard Daisy in the distance again.

"Hello Princess Daisy." Peach felt too interrupted to speak as she wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation around the corridor. "Is the Queen on this floor?"

"Yes, she's just around the corner." This is certainly news to her, but she was unsure on what it could be.

"One second, Ryn." She held him in the cell and walked outside, seeing the two Toads in different working sectors of the castle walking together towards her.

"My Queen, we come bearing some news for you." Toadheim spoke first.

"You may want to have a look at this." Mosko and Toadheim got close up to Peach and showed her a tablet they had in Mosko's hands. "Press play at the bottom."

What she saw in front of her was a video on the tablet screen, looking like a breaking news story that was aired on various news channels either just recently or on a different night. Being shown it now made her think it was fairly recent.

"Here are the pictures of the site that we were lucky to get a hold of from other sources. Reports say that at least ten Northeastern Toad Patrol soldiers were killed and another five Toad Brigade officers. The rogue hostile sorcerer claimed another appeared to have claimed at least three more innocent Toad lives before being found dead at the edge of the battlefield scene supposedly hours later. The council of Urquaia says that the incident here was an act of hostile terrorism and potentially the first of many. The governing boards of Ulontis and surrounding towns look to the capital for aid, saying they need far more support for northern defence at the borders and call for action immediately." Peach listened to the video that was narrated by a news reporter as the tablet showed footage of the site. It was a field in the far north somewhere near Urquaia, and there were patrol and police cars toppled over and lit up in flames. More footage showed distressing scenes of dead bodies as well as the body of the hostile sorcerer who claimed all of these lives. "Traces of the hostile go back to Urquaia's town centre as well as the Tunnel Pass, where he was first seen taking a wounded associate with him off of a coach coming from Castelia. Intelligence from Urquaia found that the sorcerer's name was not fully found, but only that his first name was Fergus. His body has been returned to Urquaian authorities to be used for testing and forensics, perhaps with the ability to trace back to where this hostile Koopa really came from."

"This is... worrying..." Peach looked back at the two Toads, warning Rynmar of her time being occupied at the same. "Are we unable to send aid? I can't be doing everything nowadays. This is why I have people like you and Toad operating in these sectors to do the job for me. Don't be so shy to take some action." Toadheim gulped, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, about Toad..." He looked at Mosko, who handed over a slip of paper to Peach. "You might want to look at this."

"What is it?" Peach took it from the Toad.

"It's... it's his resignation form. He's stepping out of government and leaving the capital with Toadette." She had a brief read of it but got the idea of it from what she was told. She looked back at Rynmar who was sitting on the chair and asked him to move aside so that she could sit down and take all of this in a little slower. She even felt worried for him right now, watching him be overwhelmed with a lot of random surprises that made everything look a lot worse.

"I..." She was speechless, also getting quite emotional on the outside as well as on the inside. One of her best friends and highest of associates is leaving, with true intentions this time since this isn't the first time she's seen this type of behaviour from him. "Do you know where he's moving to?" She looked back at Toadheim and Mosko standing awkwardly in the doorway, noticing a few tears developing from her eyes.

"He didn't say it to us, and he refused to when we asked him about it, but I think it's in his best interests to not tell anyone... and I think it's one of the reasons why he wants to leave in the first place. He probably wants to go quiet, off-grid may I suggest." Toadheim replied eventually.

"Uhh..." Peach sighed. "If that's all, then thank you and... I don't know, finish early. Get some rest or something. I'll see you in the morning. Thanks for escorting him here Mosko, how are you anyways? Is the figure thing alright?"

"I'm..." It took Mosko a bit of time to open up as well. "I'm scared, Queen Peach. I don't know if it will ever come again. Look what happened to Jutu. It could happen to anyone of us, and it could be dangerous!" The stress began building up for Peach, and it was passively being distributed over towards Rynmar as well, for he was only looking at Peach get more and more worried about it. She didn't know what to do for Mosko, for Rynmar, for anybody else on this floor and for any of her guards. What Mosko had just said really frightened her, knowing that this spectral figure could return at any time and trick people into danger. It was the worst thing to deal with right now; even worse than dealing with the hostiles from the north, because while Hostile Koopas could blend in with the public, she could truly be unaware of a spectral figure residing within her ranks.

"Okay, take as many days off as you'd like. Go to see your families and loved ones. I'll think of something to do in the morning." The worries and woes of her people hit her hard upon returning to the Mushroom Kingdom. The day was going by, and Rynmar was still feeling somewhat useless at the moment, only a kid to bear witness to Peach's sadness. "You're dismissed. All of you, you included Toadlynn." She sent the Toads away, leaving herself with Rynmar on this floor, as well as the barely conscious Enrique resting inside the nearby cell. "Walk with me, boy." She took him to the main part of the prison floor. It was the office where the castle guards on the floor would go to on their meetings and breaks. Here, they were able to see cameras of each cell on the floor, with almost all of them currently empty. The reason she took Rynmar here though was just for privacy and more chairs for the two to sit on. "How old are you, Rynmar?" She asked him.

"Fifteen." He replied solemnly.

"My goodness." She thought. Obviously, she was used to such dangers and perils at that age, but she was unique, she was raised here and she had seen it all. When a human from Earth shows up here at such an age, it would be so different to him that it would almost always be so frightening. "Anyways... I guess I should really tell you... this is a really bad part in time right now. You would have loved it here even last year, but then again we'd have no reason to bring you here."

"What were Duncan and Tobias like to you?" Rynmar asked Peach, with memories of her experience with the two over the years flashing before her eyes.

"That's great Peach, but we're just going to do our own thing like usual, alright?"

...

"You should get me on one of those Mach Bikes; I could give you a run for your money."

...

"Behold, Duncan, the greatest racer of all!"

...

"Hey that's great and all. Get a load of this magic wand I've got though!"

...

"There's no way you're going to privatise electricity in the north. These passcodes are a secret."

Those were some interesting memories she had with those two boys over the several years she had seen them here. Their ownership of the Powerhouse and the Spire was still a mystery to her.

"They certainly were very odd characters." Peach eventually replied. "They basically could do anything they wanted to, and nobody could really do anything about it, but ninety-nine percent of the time they weren't really interfering with the Kingdom."

"So they're not like good guys but not quite bad guys either." Rynmar presumed from Peach's reply.

"I saw them only a couple months ago actually. We had a law passed over here after our final capture of Bowser, and they didn't really want to be involved. They just wanted to be left alone, but I really need them now actually, for many reasons." She sighed. "I need a lot of things to go in my favour."

"What's this thing you made Daisy do?" He asked again after a few seconds of an awkward silence. Peach knew he was still acting very nervous around her being alone in the room together.

"I got her to alert some of our scientists and magicians to help work on what we're going to with the guy in the cells over there." She didn't want to elaborate further on the situation as she felt too discomforted to do so. Everything became a bit too complex to explain to the teenager despite using him in the process as well. Things weren't going well for Peach anyway since she wasn't able to use both of the people she wanted to recruit from Earth for this new process. "There is something I do need you to do for me tomorrow though. You've still got your phone, right? The one for Earth obviously." She asked, seeing him take it out from his pocket. He even offered it to her assuming she was going to need it, showing that he would do anything for her already. Peach instead took the folded note from her pocket and showed it to Rynmar. "No, I don't need it now. I want you to have a look at this." He took the paper from her and unfolded it, having a quick look at the note.

"Is this..." He skimmed through it. "Ellis?"

"I bumped into her in your town a few days after when I was finding ways to look up what I can do about the gold coins. She ended up telling me that she wanted to help out with the search for your friends... but she also said that she didn't want to do it with you." As he heard that part, he felt a little upset with himself. "It's not to do with you though. Don't think that she hates you. It's just that she said to me that she felt guilty in not caring about it enough in front of you. She does care about you. She does care about them too, but I think she just wanted to do it in private because she didn't want to be patronised on her original opinions if you know what I mean." He was almost tearing up after reading the letter in full again.

"I understand." He sobbed. "I won't do that to her if I ever saw her here. She's... missing out on such a beautiful place, even though it may be going through a rough time. I'm sure it can't be worse than how fucked up our lives are at home at the moment. I don't blame her either..." He took note of Ellis' phone number that was written at the bottom of the paper. "That girl's... she's been through a lot. In January apparently she lost her siblings to a house fire so she's been very different these days. Her parents are split and her life had been ruined. If she does anything rude or dangerous or out of anger she has full reason to. She's also hot and tall as fuck. She could beat me up if she wanted to... hah." He was trying to stop the tears from going down his face, swiping them away. After he was done registering the phone number in his contacts, he handed the piece of paper back to Peach.

"We'll try to give her a call in the morning. Maybe she can come over here and help us out. I think you two would be great working together with me to help find your friends... and at the same time we can find Tom and all of his friends, too." Peach tried to cheer him up. "Your school teacher needs your help." Eventually his face brightened up, and she was happy to see him feeling less guilty about his friends, especially Ellis.

"I need to turn off my phone. It's no use here, and I need to keep the battery for tomorrow then." Rynmar smiled, looking into Peach's eyes for the first time tonight.

"Speaking of tonight." She replied and looked back at his. "Your family, your parents, what did you tell them?" One thing she didn't want to be responsible for was another human's disappearance on Earth. She knew from history and experience that there are worrying police investigations for whenever people go missing, and it would frighten anyone's family if they vanished.

"I told them at I was at Ellis' house. I'll have to be back home by tomorrow some time, and we've got to account for the five hours of time difference too." Peach was immediately thinking of a solution to the occupancy of both Ellis and Rynmar here while he was speaking.

"Alright. Come with me." She shot up from her chair and demanded him to follow. Rynmar hopped up from his seat and followed Peach out of the cell halls to the nearest elevator. "There's something I need to assign you two with for something like this... because the last thing I want is to be responsible for your families woes if you two happen to go missing for an unprecedented amount of time." The two entered the elevator and Peach pressed a button on the side for the lift to go to floor seventeen. It was a short and smooth journey up the floors for them as the elevator's doors had closed. Rynmar remained silent, waiting for Peach to escort him further in the castle. "We've had, so many of these throughout the years and several of them confiscated. They've been tacky, they've been delicate, they've been mind-blowing and almost frightening, but I'm sure the latest versions work still."

"What is it? Peach?" Rynmar asked as the two exited the elevator, now on the Upper Storehouses floor.

"Call me Queen Peach when with me." She smiled at him while still showing an imposing presence.

"I apologise, Queen Peach... What are you going to show me?" Peach took the teenager through the hallways to a secure room full of confiscated belongings, here she led him over to a set of drawers that contained various bracelets and it was the first time Rynmar was to witness proper magic here.

"These, my companion, are portal devices. We have so many kept here because we've had to take them away from people who couldn't end up being trusted with them. These are... so powerful and yet so easily abused. I need you to promise me that you will not mess around with these because as soon as we find out that you have, then you will never be allowed back into this world." She took one of the most recently developed ones and showed it to Rynmar.

"I... I promise, my Queen." He nodded with full obedience.

"These things, they can help you travel between my world and yours without having to use one of the portals. You can use it from anywhere, and the devices track your relative location so when you teleport from one world to another, and then teleport back, it will take you back to a safe location very close to where you were last in this world. You will have to bind it when you're actually back there though, because otherwise you won't be able to use them yet. You need to have a set destination for both ends if you get me." She offered to place one on Rynmar's left hand, allowing him to comfortably place it up his sleeve so it was kept hidden. "It's like a watch. You'd put it in the same spot."

"Wow... that's so cool!" He was speechless but still amazed to be able to use one of these. "Are they all the same then? All of these confiscated ones you've got in this drawer?"

"This one I've given to you is the latest version that we've got at our disposal. They've all got some differences to them. The first ones were made a few years ago and while they worked, the time taken to get from one world to another would end up taking a couple of hours. The one you have right now should only take a few minutes. Just remember, do not use these in any public places in either world, and do NOT use them when you're on a plane or in a car, for obvious reasons. Make sure you're in a safe place where you will know that when you return, you will be in privacy and safety." Rynmar had a closer look at the portal device while Peach was explaining it to him. "It's charged, but it doesn't last forever. It will need to be recharged here by somebody like Toadsworth who's able to work with these things when you've exhausted it. Each use of it does contribute to its exhaustion." He was amazed at the item he was wearing. He started to see now that this whole new world to him was no joke and that everything was serious. He was initially hooked in to the idea of it all, but this confirmed everything. He just hoped that Ellis would someday see all of this.

"I don't even want to question it. I'm sure somebody like you telling me all about it proves to me that this isn't a lie." Rynmar made Peach smile.

"We just need you to go back through the original portal to make sure it works, because obviously it does nothing at the moment. Just remember, don't be scared when you use the device, it does take some lag time, but I'm sure you don't feel it. It will be a swift teleportation. We'll test it out for you in the morning." Everything Peach explained to him was followed by an obedient nod, like he was her pet, ready for more orders.

"This should solve everything. I'll be able to save time not having to go all the way back to the school to help you, and then I'll save time on not having to go all the way from that cave back to here or wherever I was last. It's amazing!" She admired his excitement and dedication to this process, making her want to reward him.

"You better not lose that as well. I trust you with it." She smiled. "Now, I think it's time we get ourselves some dinner. Come with me now, my companion." She offered out her hand to him. "I have some more things to show you." Peach closed the drawers and started walking out of the Upper Storehouses. She led Rynmar over to the same elevator as before, ready to get back inside. "This is floor seventeen, just below, floor sixteen, is the Upper Guesthouses floor. There will be a room for you to sleep in tonight if you would like to sleep in this world than back home. I highly suggest you get a good rest here since I bet you're already tired since it's really late back where you live on Earth." She waited until she received a nod from him. "Above us, floor eighteen, is the Royal Kitchens, it's where all my personal chefs reside when it's time for mine and my council's meals. Special guests are also served per my demands. What would you like, a traditional Italian spaghetti tonight? With meatballs?"

"Yes!" Rynmar smiled. "That sounds delicious!"

...

ABOUT AN HOUR LATER...

Rynmar was later dismissed, but not permitted to leave the castle. He was allowed to explore and visit any floor but made sure to stay inside as per order for the castle guards to watch over. It was after dinner did Peach part ways with him, for she went to see Daisy and the others after most of them were finished for the day. As for Rynmar, after exploring most of the floors, he returned back down to the bottom basement floor where Enrique was being kept. There was nobody else on the floor, not even Toadlynn or any other castle guard. The keys to each cell were kept secure at the office desk, to which Rynmar took the one corresponding to Enrique's cell and went to visit him. He was still looking very weak and wounded. Rynmar had a glass of water in his hand, taken from another floor. He opened up the cell floor, taking a huge risk since there was nobody else to defend him, and walked over to see Enrique.

"Hey, big guy. I brought you some water if you needed any." He called over to Enrique as he entered the room. Rynmar kept the keys in his pocket and left the door ajar as he walked over to the cell bed. Enrique was lying on the other side, but Rynmar shuffled his body a little so that he could see his face. He was looking very pale and lifeless, but his eyes were open at least. The tall blonde human remained very dormant, only able to take in the water carefully after having his mouth opened slightly.

"How are you feeling, any better?" Rynmar placed the water back down and asked Enrique, hoping to get some eye movement for a response for a yes or a no.

"E."

He finally heard a sound coming from Enrique, giving him a happy sigh of relief. It seemed like he was recovering very fast, but still had a lot to go. The mouth didn't move at all, only sound came from it, so his body was still very much in pain and difficult to move.

"Was... was that an attempt to say yes?" He watched him closely and noticed him blink once. It was enthralling to him seeing Enrique actively communicate with him more than once. "What would a no be then?"

"...O." It was more of a groan than an actual phonetic letter coming from his voice, but it was enough for Rynmar to understand.

"Well, I'm not going to be here all the time, but I've been told that you're going to be looked after well when you recover by the castle. I think Peach's having a change of heart and I think she just wants you and your friends to be fine. We'll try and get you some more food in the morning but I will have to go back to Earth for some time after. Don't worry though. You're going to get better." He sat with him for a bit, hoping to see some new movements from Enrique's barely functioning body. He decided to think of some more things to say that might make him feel better about being here. "I've... heard that they're going to start looking for Tom and the others, hoping to bring them home. Then you'll be with all of your friends again, then everything's going to be alright." He smiled once more, hoping it made Enrique happy.

...

"O."

The smile was short-lived, but it was all he could do to help the man.

"Well, I'm going back up now. Have a good night. The guards will probably give you some food in the morning, but not too much, remember what they say about force-feeding a skinny person." He chuckled as he got up and headed back to the door. Rynmar locked the cell door and placed the key back exactly where he left it. As he got to the elevator, he went inside and pressed the sixteenth floor button, ready to go up to the floor and be escorted by a working castle guard to his new chambers for the night. Hopefully he would be able to see Peach or Daisy there before he was to go to sleep, then at least he'd be able to know what exactly he would have to be doing in the morning. It was very late in the UK at the moment, so while it seemed still early in the evening in the Mushroom Kingdom, it made perfect sense for him to think about getting an early night.

Everything seemed fine for him when it came to thinking about Earth matters. It was a Sunday night, and Rynmar knew that there were no school classes on the Monday after at their school because of a teacher training day was planned for that day. Now coming to think about it, that still meant that there would be people at the school on that day, so when he would be expected to head back to Earth, he'll be entering the cave portal and showing up to the school office while there are teachers most likely in there. This was something he had no idea how to evade. Rynmar left the elevator on the sixteenth floor and headed over to the guest chambers that were marked for him. It was a simple guest bedroom, complete with a cupboard, drawers, sink and bathroom, and... a Queen sitting on the bed.

"Hello, my companion." Peach smiled and gave him a gentle wave. "I noticed you paid a visit to Enrique's cells again." His face turned red very quickly, while hoping to see Peach, he was still very surprised and also rather embarrassed seeing her sitting on the bed as if she was trying to be seductive.

"Queen Peach! Yes, I gave him some water. It looks like he's recovering, but he's still looking very bad."

"Yes, very bad." She quickly interrupted him.

"I also have something to tell you. The school, its occupied tomorrow morning, so... I don't know how I'm going to get back home unless I go in the middle of the night there." He quickly spoke over her again, wishing not to get anywhere provocative with her and to rather discuss the important matters first. "What should I do?"

It took a few seconds for her to reply. "Well... Remember what we discussed about in terms of configuring how to operate the portal device?" She got up and walked over to his hand that he had the device on. "I would like you to bind your home location, I mean... Mushroom Kingdom location now, so that when you do teleport first, it will track here as a default. So, let's do that now." She pressed a button on his device, marking a temporary bind location for the initial teleport test. "Now, when you go back to Earth, you can begin your first teleport and it will bring you there. After that, the rest should work normally." Rynmar looked at the device, hearing some bind words play out in his conscience, like the device was talking to his mind.

"Freaky, but cool." He giggled at the device.

"Now, let's play it safe shall we?" She stepped away and went back onto the bed. "Do you remember where the cave is? Don't make me have to summon Toadlynn or someone else to escort you all the way to the cave."

"I..." Rynmar wanted to say that he knew where it was so he could do it all alone and impress her, but he genuinely had no idea.

"Don't worry." Peach calmed his anxiety down before he could say anything more. "I'm going to drive you there myself. We'll take the secret car." She beckoned him over as she walked over to the other side of the room where the door out was. "And please sort your bulge out." She smiled.

"What bulge? Oh." He didn't even notice.

"Come on now, my companion." She patronised him. "We'll get it working for you."

...

The next thirty minutes were spent descending the castle, heading out of Toad Town via the secret secluded entrance and driving all the way out of Mushroom City and back on the outer roads to beyond Mushroomheath, where Peach still had the necklace gem on her to put into the socket to work the cave portal. Hopefully this was the last time she would have to wear this outfit and squeeze into this cave again. Before she reached the entrance and powered up the portal, she held Rynmar to the side, grabbing him by the shoulder and just beside his thigh.

"Listen, boy." She spoke with a husk. "I'm going to head back to the castle, and go straight back to your bedroom, and I want to see you there before I get there. I want to see you inside those bed sheets and heading off to sleep. Take the portal, I'll probably go in and help slide the door for you to check that it is closed, but after that, I want you to get out of the school, find a place that you'd think nobody would ever go to or see, and I want you to activate the portal device." She held up his hand once again. "You press this small button to verify the configuration, so that it's marked two waypoints, and then this big button here's to actually teleport. Obviously it doesn't work because you don't have a registered Earth waypoint yet, but please, try not to screw anything up. Do you understand?" She let go of his thigh as she started to feel the bulge push onto her glove again.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it, and you're only making it harder for me." He referenced the problem. "Please stop it. I'm only fifteen." Peach sighed and shoved him through the portal, feeling immense guilt in her actions as she walked in afterwards. The two were now inside the small mirrored room, and Peach opened up the slider for him, all while doing so silently.

"I don't know what the fuss is about." She muttered under her breath, being just about loud enough for him to hear her as he walked out of the slider door. "I thought you thought I was beautiful."

"No, it's not that." Before he could say any more, the slider doors had closed. He was now all alone inside the dark school office. At least he was able to get back without having to use the portal in the cave now. All he needed to do was get out of this place now.

This took about fifteen minutes. He descended the floors, climbed out of the school, rushed back into the nearby park and headed into the woods. Everywhere around him was dark, and the cold wind made it rather creepy, but he knew that at past one in the morning, surely there was nobody walking in these parts. Just as he was on his way to find a very empty place where he could establish the teleporting, he remembered about something now that he was back on Earth again. His phone was off, but it still had lots of charge. He had Ellis' number saved onto the phone. While it was very late, there was a chance that she would still be awake. Maybe it was his chance to call her and tell her about everything now that she's presumably going to cooperate with him and Peach. He smiled, sitting down in a dense part of the woods in the park, waiting for his phone to start up, ready to use.

"Nice." He said quietly to himself as he was configuring it, ready to attempt to call Ellis.

...

"Hello?" She picked up, to his relief.

"H-hey."

"Who's speaking?"

"It's Rynmar." He hesitated a bit, but was able to get his name across. He was also shivering out in the freezing cold of a March night in England.

"...I'm guessing you're in with this thing too, since that's the only way you'd be able to get my number." She was speaking very quietly, which meant Rynmar would have to put her on speaker phone, but that was probably because she was back at home in her bedroom and didn't want to wake up her mum.

"You really need to see her, fast. I can help communicate with Peach so you can get one of these things she gave to me too."

"So, you're at the school right? You must be because you've got the signal to call me. You can't be too far."

"I've been given this special device by Peach, it allows me to teleport between our world and theirs, but I need to test it out, that's why I'm back here. I'm all alone in the park woods." Rynmar's teeth were chatting, and he couldn't afford to talk with Ellis for long.

"This is ridiculous. Look, talk to me tomorrow, I'm going to go to bed, and you should too. Get out of there. Go home, before the teachers see you or something. You know an inset day doesn't mean nobody's at the school."

"Wait, I just need to tell you one thing." Rynmar tried to keep Ellis' attention for a little while longer, despite her seeming completely uninterested since it was so late.

"...What."

"I think what you're going to be doing is very honourable, and you don't have to feel bad about working together with me on this. We're friends in the end, right?"

"I'm guessing Peach told you everything, I mean, of course she did; it's how you got my number in the end." She felt a bit embarrassed but was somewhat happy to go along with it. "But, thank you, Ryn. I'm sure you have a plan to get yourself out of this mess. Just, call me tomorrow or something. I've got to sleep, and you've got to take care of yourself. This crazy woman can wait a little while longer."

"Goodnight Ellis." Rynmar smiled as he heard a goodnight back from her, ending the call two seconds later. He needed to conserve the charge on his phone, so he immediately turned it off again. Now it was finally time to establish this portal device and make it work. He was recalling what he was told in order to make this thing work. It was the small button there to bind the home location, and then the big button to actually teleport. Upon pressing the small button he heard the sound of the device activate in order to function and felt a whisper in his mind. It was now ready to be used.

"Alright. Here goes." He whispered to himself as he counted down from three in his mind before pressing the big button on the device.

He vanished.

...

He was now exactly where he thought he would be: his bedroom in the castle. Nobody else was in the room, but at least he was now here and that the device worked. It was even getting late in this world now, so he did what he originally intended to do and get undressed ready to sleep. He made sure the door was closed and was ready for sleep. Hopefully due to not fully adapting to the different time zone he would naturally wake up really early to prepare himself for returning back home. He was now in nothing but his pants, with all of his other clothes folded up neatly and placed at the end of the very long bed, much further than the farthest his feet could reach under the bed covers. He leaned over to the side and turned off the bedroom lamp, leaving the room in darkness and ready for sleeping, also just as what Peach asked from him.

He was very excited to be here, hopefully being able to adapt to spending lots of time here in secret to help search for his missing friends. As well, the hospitality he was given seemed to be immaculate, well-maintained and perfect in his eyes. It was like sleeping in a mansion or a five-star hotel. The duvet was also very soft and comfortable. He knew that he would get a very good night's sleep and that he would soon drift off into deep sleep very quickly...

All seemed very fine for him until a few minutes into his attempt of sleep. He heard a gentle knock on his room's door. His tired eyes tried to open up widely as he tried to get up to open the door, but it was opened from the outside anyway. Rynmar instead leaned over to the bedside table to turn on the lamp, seeing Peach return, now wearing her dress that she was most recognisable in: the professional, high-standard, long pink dress, which could be described with much naughtier words in Rynmar's perspective.

"My Queen, I'm doing as you ordered, right?" He was initially shocked, trying to balance being in love with staring at her and refraining from having such deep feelings for someone looking much, much older than him.

"Yes you are." She smiled, going down to the bed before him and smiling. "I'm just checking up on you to see how everything was. Did you feel anything when teleporting?" Rynmar needed a few seconds to calm himself down from the shock of seeing her enter the room while beneath the sheets he was half-naked.

"I felt nothing." He tried to relax himself more now.

"Good boy." She leaned up to his forehead and gave him a kiss. "You're doing great. I'll see you in the morning and we'll figure out what to do with you then." She got up and started to turn round, making Rynmar almost speechless for a few seconds.

"Peach, wait... I have something to ask you." He tried to get her attention as she was heading to the door. She stopped walking and turned around, giving him that sweet smile that made him blush every time.

"What is it, my companion?" Peach walked back to the bedside table, getting very close to him while he was in the duvet covers. She peered further down the bed to check if there was a familiar bulge sticking out in the sheets, disappointed to see nothing.

"Could you please leave aside the sexual tension you're projecting on me?" He took a few seconds to slowly speak back to her, trying to overcome the nerves. Peach felt a little offended and chuckled a bit in response, only patronising the teenager back.

"But you think I'm beautiful, right? The fairest in the land, as you said?" She jokingly teased him, quoting him from a few days ago.

"Yes, but... there's a few reasons. Aren't you like, dating Mario or something?" He made her laugh again.

"I'm the Queen of The Mushroom Kingdom. Don't you know what that means? It means I'm powerful, and I can do as I please." She held his chin, getting him to stare right into her eyes. While he was almost hitched under her spell of love, he looked away for a brief second to release himself from the staring.

"Right, but the main reason is, as I've said before, I'm fifteen. If you were doing these things to me on Earth, you'd be put in prison. It's called being a paedophile." Peach's loving act immediately disappeared and she broke from her sort of character.

"A paedophile?"

"It's when an adult is sexually attracted to children." Now she was very put-off the idea of teasing the teenager.

"Rynmar, I'm not sexually attracted to you, I'm just teasing you. I love people loving me. I try to make myself loved and respected by everyone. Also, it flatters me to see your body react to seeing me whenever I think I'm looking very pretty. Isn't that love?" She tried to negotiate her reasoning, but even thinking about it as she was saying it did she believe it was a bit inappropriate nevertheless.

"Yes, I do have an obvious crush on you, but I'm trying to pursue anything sexual. When you're feeling my thigh, that is very sexual, and I would like you never to do that for me. If I was eighteen or older, then it would feel... not so inappropriate. It's a sexual nature that I would only prefer to partake in if the person I was doing it with was my age as well." Rynmar started shuffling in the bed to be slightly further away than Peach.

"So, you do love me." She smiled regardless of how openly against the tendencies he was.

"I do think you are very beautiful, yes. It's without question." He started raising his voice at her, unintentionally, but only Peach was beginning to realise this. "But I just think it's really inappropriate to try and give me sexual innuendos all the time. While it is very nice of you to do, I'm too young for it. If I was eighteen, nineteen, then brilliant, I would love it, but it just feels wrong." He confessed, eventually lowering his voice towards the end.

"Right..." Peach began to feel sorry for her actions, trying to openly ask for forgiveness. "I'm sorry. I just... haven't really interacted with a human much younger than me before. I've not really been around any kids or teenagers in my life. Every other human in these lands I've met or interacted with have been adults, with the exception of your friends of course... but... they've obviously shown a disliking to me."

"They don't like you?" He wondered.

"They don't dislike me." Peach tried to clarify. "They just... don't like me either. It's like neutral... So, with regards to you, I'll try not to do anything intimate with you. What kind of things on Earth would people like us do to each other?"

"I mean..." Rynmar was a bit startled as well, unsure what to say. "There's love and then there's like, sexual love, horniness, so I guess a hug would be nice." He made Peach smile again, immediately inviting her onto the bed to give him a very warm and heartfelt hug.

"I hope this makes you feel better about me." Peach held his hand with both of hers after hugging him. "What you're doing is very dangerous and very risky, especially with you basically disappearing from Earth for the times you're not there. I just want to make this time spent here worth it for you, and to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Please, in the future, pinpoint or let me know if I'm doing anything wrong for you. I've got all the authority here, so if you want me to do anything for you, then I'll be able to do it. Remember, there's a lot for you to see yet, and some of it can be quite frightening, so I'm doing my best to make you feel good." She started walking backwards back to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Thank you, Queen Peach." Rynmar smiled in awe. "Goodnight." Now it was time for him to rest. He turned the lamp off as Peach closed the door, leaving the room dark for him to sleep now. As Peach began walking back down the hallway, she let out a big sigh, stopping a few footsteps from the door. She looked over to her left where she could get a view of the city from outside the window. It still shined and looked prosperous and the lights of the capital lit up the night sky, but it didn't tell her the true image of what was going on. She felt some short term relief in knowing that Rynmar was fully dealt with now and that he could safely head back home whenever he needed to. Ellis would soon be next, but she would have to get Ellis across the worlds first. Finding a convenient time to do so would be quite difficult with her, as she was proven to be less reliable than Rynmar.

Peach returned up to the twentieth floor, heading towards the headquarters first. There, she checked for any updates or letters delivered here. Any updates or important information that would be given to her would be sent here if she wasn't available.

"Toadsworth's been alerted." She heard Daisy's voice coming from just over the other side of the large map table. "He and the other scientists will be coming here tomorrow afternoon. Then you'll be able to fast track that plan of yours."

"Will they be bringing the arm along with them?" Peach asked leaning against the map table, thinking about how tomorrow was going to play out. It seemed that even though she was back to govern the Mushroom Kingdom and now with many people on her council to help distribute the load of being in charge, her days ahead still seemed very busy and hard to balance out. She had so many things to deal with at the same time, especially since her rushed plan to bring the two teenagers across safely didn't go quite as planned.

"I don't know if they were able to use any of that big arm in their experiments, but who knows. I'm the last person who knows what those three get up to when we leave them alone to themselves. Professor Gadd's always the one behind all the freakish stuff. Toadsworth's usually fine but only with us. I bet his induced shock has made him come up with some scary things, and Doctor Crygor... well, he's just there to power it all up." Daisy picked up some sheets of paper she had on her side of the table and moved over to Peach, presenting them to her. "I can always send Luigi to him in the morning to see if there's anything important we should know before trying this out."

"I don't think it's enough, personally." Peach flicked through the sheets of paper, each containing images and photographs of some of the experiments done by the three magical scientists. "I think Rosalina would be a better judge of me at this, but... beside the shards that we collected from Will, there's nothing else here that shows and signs of... forced actions, if you know what I mean." Daisy felt uneasy hearing about Peach's responses as she watched her look at all of the images. Most of the pictures were photographs of the scientists in their lab creating and mixing chemicals together, both through acts of science and magic. What Daisy inferred from Peach was quite dangerous and rather grim.

"I don't think we're at all ready to test anything yet. You wouldn't want to give anything to him if it's not ready." She warned Peach. "We should think about this when we see them. Let's not have it on our minds for now." Daisy was already in her night clothes, ready to go to sleep whenever Peach was done in this room. What she didn't want was for her to dwell on the matter while she went to sleep. She wanted to leave this room at the same time as Peach.

"You're right." Peach shook her head after being in a state of deep thought for a few seconds. "We're not ready. It seems like the magic paintbrush was unable to anything to this either. I'll give the final verdict on it tomorrow."

"Let's go to bed." Daisy insisted, wanting nothing more out of anything in this room tonight. "Don't do anything reckless, please. We've got a kid to look after now a few floors down." Daisy eventually left the headquarters, hoping to bring Peach with her. As she left, she was the only one between the two to actually head back to their respective bedrooms. Peach instead remained in the corridor, standing alone on the floor. She had taken some of the papers with her, looking at the photographs again. One of them showed the scientists at work, operating on the giant arm that used to belong to Boom Boom. It had now been completely dissected and broken down into tiny parts that they used in their experiments. Seeing Toadsworth operating on the pieces in one of the other pictures brought back a memory from her mind.

It was about two weeks ago, just in the early days of March. Peach and all of the others were still in the midst of intense competition with Bowser's Double Dash trial and most people who were participating didn't have much spare time on them. During a day without a race, Peach was inside her castle trying to relax herself and rest between the races, and one time during the day she came across Toadsworth having a phone call on one of the outside balconies on the second floor. She decided to pay him a visit and noticed that Toadbert was also standing on the balcony with him trying to overhear the phone call.

"I feel like what you've found in the blood, despite it being so decayed, might have something to do with his unusual levels of anger." She opened up the balcony door and briefly heard Toadsworth speaking on the phone. Both he and Toadbert noticed, and reacted with surprise. "We'll share the data another day. Bye now." The two Toads looked straight back at Peach after Toadsworth hanged up on the phone and bowed deeply down before her.

"My Queen." They both said.

"My friends. You don't need to bow or kneel while we're inside the castle. It's okay." She smiled back at them, trying to keep a calm environment despite intruding on their suspected privacy. "May I ask what the call was about?"

"We're speaking with E. Gadd. He believes that he and Crygor were able to get something out of that severed arm in the end. Boom's blood is actually quite different to the average Koopa, hence his big stature and his arms. The DNA's different, it's like a mutation." Toadsworth responded first, knowingly with the most information to share since he was the Toad on the phone.

"I think it means these mad scientists have more knowledge to create new things." Toadbert jokingly added while nudging Toadsworth's shoulder.

"We look not into danger. This man was simply joking." They both chuckled. "I could perhaps place some incantations on some samples and maybe we could find some fresh results."

"Ooh." Peach remembered being very interested in it. "Tell me more..."

And through that, Peach was reminded of a terrible arc of knowledge that she wished she was ignorant about. There was clearly something mischievous and secret going on between those three scientists. A mixture of science and magic, theory and experimentation could lead to anything, including chaos. Toadsworth was obviously the least crazed of the three, but the other two... Peach couldn't dare to think about what those two could get up to behind closed curtains...

A lot had to be done tomorrow...

EOC: I'm going to be changing the rating of this fanfic to M from now on due to the course it is taking.

I had a sort of hiatus period between this chapter and the last, but that was mainly due to being really busy. Hopefully we'll see an influx in writing progression from now on.

See you next chapter.