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)

16. Interlude A: The Old Martyrs

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

Interlude A: The Old Martyrs

With his last outing on the shores of Zeltarc West proving to be unsuccessful, Duncan resorted to stay in hiding as the situation he assessed from his time there showed that every human relatively new to the lands were wanted by the Mushroom Kingdom. His last encounter with Peach also proved this, so now all he felt like doing was killing more time down underneath the deepest of caves to learn more about the past. It was something he always wanted answers to, and now we see this unfold in his perspective…

I want to go back and have another look.

"You're not ready for that yet."

To hell with you and your shitty rules. I don't want to waste more time dealing with the matters of the people up above. Their politics with the northerners in the modern day BORE me. I want to know what it was really like back in the day. I wish I was around back then to live a life in that period, right in the midst of true chaos, a place where I could stir everything.

"You really think I would just let you use it again? I saw you up there. All you did was get into an argument, smite somebody away and then get kicked out of the house. You went on to do nothing for the next few days."

You're not the boss of me.

...

1996

The warped waves of millions of millions of memories brush through my conscience. My mind is reshaped, phased and then reshaped again as I finally get the chance to bear witness of the best times in the past. The best period, the period of war. It has felt like millennia since I was last able to use this Pensieve though for everyone else it may only feel like a few days, but now, finally, finally I feel like I could take on the watcher in the darkness in a one-on-one dance in the dark. Magic and sorcery, to win the right to use it over. He wouldn't dare cross my magical powers now; he could not dare comprehend how much I have learned if I have... infinite... infinity...

...

An unknown amount of time was felt, seeing the same flashes of light and clouds revolving around his vision. His head dunked into the waters of the Pensieve on the pedestal in the cave of darkness. A trip back in time. Back to his favourite time. This time without careful planning and consideration, back to where he was last left off, but with thousands of years felt to him, he had difficulty remembering exactly what happened the last time he was here. As his vision cleared up upon awakening in the past, he started to slowly recollect his memories of this place. The courtroom entrance was to his left, and the spectre of darkness taking a human form again was to his right. Everyone else in the vicinity phased through him as they walked past, noting to him that this was a memory, and not necessarily real time.

"The truth is all around me again." He got so excited, standing up and looking around and smiling at all he could see. The Red Martyrs, the workers, the defenders of the north and the royalty of the south all working together and wearing their old uniforms. "Where is Koopak? Koopak senior, where did they take him after this? Do you remember?" He asked the human assisting him; the only human in this memory to be able to interact with him. "Actually..." He realised the more important person to look for in this time. "Where at this point in time is 'Tony Barron'?"

"He who knows everything knows everything from his perspective. You didn't think about anything that I would do on this altercation you asked for. But fear not, I only made this better for you." The human stood up as well, walking slightly forward to look into the distance. "You see, as you wanted to be brought back, I did the best thing you could have without being able to think about it. I've sent us back even further, only a matter of minutes."

"What do you mean?" Duncan faced the human that was with him, now able to remember what this human was to him in this period of time.

"The trial has not even happened yet. It is only a few minutes away. You can see me, right over there in the crowds." Duncan turned to face forward, seeing two versions of the same human.

"You're... you're Tony Barron. You're the spectre that takes Tony Barron, and you killed Koopak Asquia. I remember now. Where is Koopak at this point in time then?" He watched the spectre taking the appearance of a human named Tony Barron think for a few seconds. While he was waiting for an answer, he began to question whether or not Tony Barron was actually a real person, and whether it might just be an alias to take whilst shaped into human form. Duncan didn't actually know the proper name of this spectral figure, so it would have to be what he would refer to him as for now. "I'm going to call you Tony for now."

"Koopak the first..." Tony wondered. "He would then be just below us." He snapped his fingers and both he and Duncan phased through the floor, falling only a few metres and landing perfectly in the dark halls below. The two floors were separated by thick concrete, blocking out almost all of the noise from above. Now the two were in a more confined space, with a lot less to hear and see. There were far less people on this floor as well; it was perhaps a basement floor. What the two could see now was a loading area in the distance. There were a few beings all the way at the end of the hall in the direction of the court room. Here, they could see Koopak being detained by workers in Aypyidaw, evidently siding for the southerners. There were workers wearing uniform with emblems symbolising allegiance to the royal families of the south which included Peach's bloodline. In 1996, the war was almost at it's true end, and the Kings and Queens had long since perished, only the princesses who were nothing more than orphaned children remained, and taken into care back down in the south. The workers had brought Koopak down to this floor and locked him into a cage where he could barely move around in it. It looked like it would then be raised upwards to go into the floor above where he would end up getting presented to all those in the court room. This memory was what Duncan remembered from the last time he was here and could now see why he was treated this way. Besides Duncan and the human going by Tony Barron, everyone's actions began to slow down, eventually going to a full stop. Duncan turned around and noticed the spectre had frozen time going by in this memory.

"I'm getting the feeling that there's something special down here." Duncan smiled. "Why have you frozen time?" Duncan walked forward and approached the cage, phasing past one of the bodies to see Koopak Asquia the First up close, surrounded by the workers.

"Have a look at the people you see around him. What do you see?" Tony Barron remained distant away, observing Duncan looking at all of the workers. Most of them were humans, and one of them caught his full attention.

"Ha." Duncan smiled again. "More lies. I always wondered what they were actually doing at this time." He saw the eyes of a familiar face, none other than that of Rosalina's brother, fully clothed in robes of a lesser rank, but not so affiliated with the Red Martyrs. One thing Duncan knew about Zane is that he would never swear on an oath, given his extremely long lifespan. "Why is he here? Is he another one in disguise?"

"You could spend another thousand years educating yourself about what really happened here between 1993 and 1997, and you'll come back to these memories and still be surprised." The shock actually drove extreme levels of enthusiasm into Duncan's mind. All the surprises... all the twists and turns, it was what made him love this Era so much. Everything documented to him about the Great Mushroom War seems to be made up or retold differently just upon hearing about how different everything really was. "You'll be astonished to find out how many of these thousands of people in this city in this... Era... are not who you think they are. Just watch." Tony Barron resumed time.

Duncan refaced what he believed to be Zane, Rosalina's brother, working with many others in uniform associated with what he learned to be a 'Great Alliance'; the side of those who fought alongside the royal families against Bowser's ancestors and the other evils that waged war in the north. Again something never spoken about by Peach, the Red Martyrs or the governments in the south in the modern day. The Koopa in charge of locking Koopak Asquia the First in the cage sealed it closed, leaving him in there. He looked depleted, seemingly spending ages shouting at the workers claiming that he did nothing wrong. Duncan decided to pay most attention to Zane, seeing a different version of him never seen before. This man was nervous, only following orders. The Koopa in charge told them all to leave the room now and wait for the control room nearby to hoist up the cage in a few minutes.

"He's afraid. Zane's afraid. Koopak's afraid. Everyone is scared." Duncan turned around to Tony Barron, hoping he would come over. Time froze again and all sound came to a stop.

"As they should be. Everyone was afraid of us, and we were afraid of what happened to us too." Tony Barron resumed time again after sending him and Duncan back up to the floor above. This time, the two were inside the court room, standing in the very centre. Everyone was making their way into the room, including the figure of Tony Barron from the past, acting as a member of the audience. The trial of Koopak Asquia the First was about to unfold again. He couldn't hear anything distinguishable over the background chatter, but what mattered was that he could get a better view of what Tony Barron was doing here. He stood with a group of others, presumably also working with the Great Alliance. What Duncan didn't know is whether or not the people Tony Barron sat with were genuinely part of it, or if they were undercover operators or more people in hiding. There were hundreds of people in this room, all seemingly on the same side, but seeing Zane's presence eventually appear in the room as well made him immediately believe that there were a lot of fake faces lurking about.

"This room reeks of espionage." Duncan looked at Tony Barron, walking around the circular court room examining all the faces as well. "Not just you. It seems like the only people the Red Martyrs could truly trust at this time were the seven about to make an appearance: The Appointed Seven." Tony Barron grinned.

"You'd be wrong to think that as well. In my opinion, at least." Tony Barron watched them enter the room, slowing down time to see them walk slowly. "You know the big three. Archbarn, Muji and Eoréc. Fair enough those three are irreplaceable. Then you've got the next three, Ledro, John and Shigeru. They could not be trusted, I could tell from miles away. They all have their own aspirations and secretly they're hiding their own passion for total control over the situation. Then you've got Phoelix..."

"I heard Phoelix was a bit of a strange case. Am I right to believe this?" Duncan asked watching the Appointed Seven slowly sit down in the room, with time still flowing at a much slower rate. This time Duncan wanted to pay full attention to the court session; seeing how it began, seeing how it truly ended, and hearing everything mentioned and spoken during it. The noise of members of the council and court speaking in the background began to lower as the session was about to begin. Once again, Tony Barron moved time back to normal speed. He and Duncan sat on the corners of rows of seats, trying not to phase into anybody from the past.

"When does the cage get raised?" He whispered to Tony Barron.

"A bit later." He replied back. "Listen carefully. You weren't here for most of this last time. He comes up multiple times too." The crowds fell silent and now Duncan was in full focus, his eyes fixed on Archbarn as he stood up to get the attention of all those standing in the court room.

"My friends, acquaintances, former enemies. Toads, Koopas, Humans. We're all united here today to commemorate our best progression towards true world peace, so that the shadows of Bowser's Castle could be wiped away from these lands... forever. Hold your celebrations just briefly however, for the numbers we have lost over the past few years have been so great, that is considered almost unfair by what we have been dealing with. For too long has Bowser the Second and his heir Bowser the Third tormented us with his assaults on the innocent, free-folk of the northern lands." The crowds cheered briefly in agreement with the Koopa. He stood forward in his seat and cleared his throat. "On the afternoon of November the Eleventh, 1996, Bowser the Second was pronounced dead in his castle. Victory is almost here!" His loud chant sparked a wave of cheer and celebration in the room. Most of those sitting around screamed and shouted, rejoicing for the death of Bowser the Second. Duncan kept his focus on Archbarn however, as he did not appear as excited about it as everyone else in the room. "While his two children are of age to take power of the throne of his castle, our operatives on the inside see no threat from them so far. There is also rumour that his son, Bowser the Third is soon expecting his firstborn. There will be no surprise that this boy will be called Bowser the Fourth." Duncan assumed which of those two represented Bowser of the current era and Bowser Junior. Still remaining focused, he looked around the room, searching for whether or not Zane was also in the crowds. While he was able to easily see Tony Barron sitting directly opposite and several rows higher, Zane was nowhere to be seen, even amongst nearby seats that were difficult to see from where he was sitting.

"This now marks three of three head-enemies of the state that have been put aside or dealt with, with the leader of the Galaxyë rebels and summoner of the darkness below, Tarren, slain in battle, and the last of the three, Koopak Asquia, captured and taken prisoner by our ranks." Archbarn sat back down, allowing Eoréc to stand up and present himself to the court.

"We stand by this Great Alliance, hoping to secure a new country for the free citizens of the north, hoping that it can live in peace with the Kingdoms of the south given how damaged they have now become. May the stars bless our fallen Kings and Queens, and may these young princesses be kept safe, so that nothing, nothing like this could ever happen again. While we must discuss the future of our lands, being dependent on these young royal princesses, we must first bring this perpetrator of such devilish crimes to face judgement. You may raise the cage." Everyone in the room stared to the centre, hearing the cogs and mechanisms sound as a body in a cage was starting to be raised up through a hole in the very centre. Inside it resided Koopak Asquia the First.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you all know why you are here tonight. Koopak will adhere to his trial and receive your sentence immediately after." Archbarn stood up, staring down on Koopak as he was being raised up. He looked nervous and afraid and most certainly in a wreck. The crowds couldn't stop shaming and shouting at Koopak, and it only took until John ordered silence in the room for people to be seated again.

"Something feels a bit off this time around." Duncan said back to the future Tony Barron.

"Thank you, John." Archbarn said. "Koopak Asquia, you have been brought to trial to confess your crimes against the united groups of the Mushroom, Delfino, Résethal and Wuhu lands. You have been held accountable for the deaths of members of high-authority, the many Kings and Queens of the south and the use of dark magic and poison for their deaths. I will ask you once again. Do you plead guilty for these crimes against the peoples of Muhu Delfethal?"

"A lot was skipped out last time." Tony Barron said back to Duncan, briefly pausing time. This is not just what I remembered. This... this is everything that happened. It will play out very different." Duncan gave him back a brief nod and remained focused on Koopak's confession in the middle.

"I plead not guilty." He replied quickly, chattering his teeth subconsciously. "I come to you all instead to present to you information, knowledge, truth about what really happened in the blistering forests. Hear me! For I speak for the cosmos!" A lot of the crowd were shocked at his last sentence. It was a do or die situation for Koopak now.

"You may continue, but choose your words lightly." Eoréc glared at him.

"The current declaration of the council of the Appointed Seven states that Koopak Asquia the first will be sentenced for execution unless he is able to provide concrete evidence against these accusations held against him." John read from a sheet of paper laid down on the table in front of him.

"I do not believe any of these treacherous allegations!" Koopak the First roared in his cage.

"Do you deny any of them, all of them?" Eoréc confronted him with aggression.

"I deny any involvement or partaking in these murders!" He silenced the crowd as well as Eoréc. "None of you were there. None of you saw it." He paused for a few seconds, trying to speak but something seemed to withhold his speech.

"You must understand, Mr Asquia, that none of what you have said so far is benefitting your case." Archbarn addressed his anxious and awkward silence. "If you have nothing to say or nothing you can say that would help your case then we will declare this testimony to be complete with insufficient evidence." He began to stand up, frightening Koopak. Whatever held his speech back was not strong enough anymore.

"No!" He shouted, shaking about in the cage. "I'm not finished. I feel silenced, but... I have... I have names! The true culprits! The true murderers!" His shouting soon turned into a sulk, but it managed to convince Archbarn and many others of the Appointed Seven to remain listening. Duncan took a brief look across the room to see most of the council members in the room watching silently. He could sense nervousness among most of them. "There... there was a Koopa. He went by the name Inuki Misoko! Check your records!" Archbarn looked at Muji, who in turn looked at Shigeru, who had a large pile of papers before him. The Japanese man in his forties at this time scanned the list, searching for the name mentioned. He looked back at Muji after his search and shook his head, swiping his hand against his own neck and making another sign gesture straight after. Muji acknowledged and shook his head back to Archbarn.

"Mister Misoko has been dead for nearly three years. I'm afraid this name is useless to you." He stated to the council, rendering the name useless to Koopak.

"Exactly! That's why it's so strange! How could somebody be present during the war if he had died three years ago! Dark sorcery!"

"Not this excuse again..." Ledro shook his head next to John.

"Insufficient evidence." Archbarn said back to Koopak. The crowds became more nervous at the same time.

"I have more names!" Koopak was panting. "A Pianta! Saber Puki!" Archbarn and Muji looked once again to Shigeru, who shook his head again.

"Again, dead. 1994." Archbarn once again looked like he was finished, scaring and provoking Koopak.

"Another name!" He shrieked. "Schaeffer! Ioreth Schaeffer!" Shigeru looked through his papers once again, taking more time than usual. The crowds were shocked, anticipating in wait for the outcome of Shigeru's verdict. After another ten seconds, he shrugged, unable to find the name in the records.

"What is the species of this name?" Archbarn asked Koopak.

"A human... a girl... human, she's a female. She used to work with the sorcerers' society in Asterno, able to interfere with communications going straight to as dangerous places as Dargo in the west!" It seemed that after a few thoughts of consideration, Archbarn couldn't help but agree with the others about this name needing to be identified with other records.

"And you claim that this woman has at least some responsibility in the murders of the royal families and the Galaxyë families?"

"Yes." Koopak nodded several times. "Yes, of course."

"Very well. The council of the Appointed Seven will act upon this name and request evidence from the sorcerers' society in Asterno. Whether or not this turns out to be true and valid, this does not save you from the allegations against you. Execution still remains a pending outcome."

"NO! WAIT! WAIT! PLEASE! I have one more name!" The cage started to rattle, making Koopak believe that it was ready to be lowered down again. "This name is the worst of them all!" It was at this point, Duncan paid most attention to those sitting around in the room, as it wasn't only the Tony Barron from the past behaving differently now. "You won't like to hear this name."

"Spit it out then!" Eoréc threatened Koopak."

"BARRON!" The council room gasped, with most eyes turning towards Phoelix.

"The Appointed Seven are well aware of the evidence ongoing against Phoelix Barron, and fully understand the condition he was been given as a result of fighting in the wars." Ledro stood up and defended his fellow high-ranking councilman. "We are well aware that Phoelix Barron had ties with Tarren Galaxyë and the rebels, yet since the war he has turned to our side to fight for righteousness and peace for all of the lands, regardless of his background." To his side, Phoelix looked petrified, almost fainting in his seat. Few in the room rushed towards him to see if he was ok, but the crowds were more so furious at Koopak's own accusation.

"Not Phoelix Barron... No." He said. "Tony Barron." At this point he was already standing up in his seat, trying to squeeze past the people sitting near him to leave quickly before he would be exposed, but the eyes of the room turned to him now. "I'm not wrong here, am I?" Koopak shouted. "He's full of dark magic. It's what he used to kill them all, yes? You saw blood on the floor but did you forget to check for any stab wounds?" The room cowered and backed away as he jumped from his high row, fuelled with rage and heading for the centre of the room. Some tried to grab hold of him, but his arms were lit with fire and he managed to reach the very centre, falling down the seats before him. "Stop the man! Grab his hands! Don't let him escape this room!" Archbarn called out, before being immediately shielded by Muji. Once again, he, John, Shigeru and many others inside the room armed themselves with their weapons and pointed them towards Tony Barron from the past, this time he was restrained eventually by other sorcerers in the room, an event not properly recalled by him in the previous memory. Duncan watched him trying to melt the cage with dark magic coming from his hands, but other sorcerers in the room, including both Zane and Marrec who were now present in the room from somewhere Duncan couldn't see before.

"Now I want to see what really happened." He turned to briefly check on Tony Barron from the present day, but he was looking away in shame and embarrassment.

"We cannot have a demonic being in our ranks. If what Koopak is saying is true then you are to be executed immediately. We all saw the flames in your hands... you cannot deny it!" Archbarn glared down at the so-called Tony Barron, noticing him beginning to shiver and shake up quietly in response. The other council members grabbing on to him started to find difficulty in restraining him, but thanks to the magical bonds tied to him through Zane, Marrec and a few others, he was able to remain restrained. Tony Barron from the past could only look at Zane and Marrec, seeing them hold him in place with magic from directly opposite in the room.

"Be careful Archbarn. I count dozens of spies amongst your ranks." Tony Barron from the past whispered to him. "Father! The Ancient One is coming for you!" He called out across the room to Phoelix.

"I would rather... die... than join you. You're no son of mine." Whilst still petrified, the injured Phoelix could still communicate with Tony.

"You can kill me, torture me all you want." Tony glared at Archbarn after being held up to stand, still confined to magical bonds restraining him. "The darkness underground shall bring me back to life." He taunted Archbarn and the other Red Martyrs. "You will never escape the darkness. The north will fall to despair and disarray. Aypyidaw will fall, and The Ancient One will scorch these lands to cinder! Twenty years... The Demon God demands a soul..." The council members started to escort him out of the room, but as he could turn his head around for a few seconds, he shouted once more. "Your soul!" He looked at Koopak."

"Prepare the spirit lance!" Archbarn ordered the council. "I want this one out of here tonight."

Duncan watched as Tony Barron was taken out of the room. The members of the council chamber cleaned themselves up and collected up pieces of paper that were thrown on the floor due to the altercation. The rest of the Appointed Seven followed suit and left the room with Archbarn, leaving the room to be empty in a matter of a few minutes. He looked back at Tony Barron from the present, no longer taking form of the human from before and now appearing as a dark, spectral figure again.

"That's what really happened that night, and from now on, you will always see what really happened." He spoke calmly back to Duncan as the surroundings began to look distorted again. Through a quick change of setting, the two reappeared back in the dark cave underground again. Duncan felt wiped and tired after the warp, but at least he wasn't banished up above ground to Zeltarc West again.

...

"Is this... all that you remember from that night?" Duncan whispered to the spectral figure.

"That was most of what happened. At the end, the bright lance they spoke of. They stabbed it into me, and I woke up underground again. Every death brings back a new life, but every new life brings a new level of humbleness. I begin to forget why I was so... demented... so much to the point that I have lost my purpose. I've lost my memory of the reason I am this way... I am... undead, truly." Duncan went silent. His eyes were closed but he was still awake lying on the hard surface of the ground inside the cave, his legs partly in the waters near the Pensieve. He had nowhere else that he wanted to go, only to recharge energy and remain nutritious so that he could expend his time-flowing days learning about the past so that one day in the future he would be able to act upon it. Time barely went past being inside the memory too, so he had no real worry on how long he spent inside these memories. All he wanted was to be able to channel energy into himself so that he could spend as much time as he wanted reflecting on the true past. To learn who the true enemy is, to learn what has caused all the strife between all factions in recent times, and to be able to act upon it in present day, to be the man to truly reform all the lands.

"How would I be able to see what happened next?" He asked the spectral shadows, hoping that it was still there in the cave with him. He just imagined himself still in the court room with the council, wishing he could follow them out of the room to see either the execution of Tony Barron from the past or what happened next with Koopak Asquia the First. To his knowledge, he still believes that he was either executed by the Red Martyrs or had his soul swept away by the darkness, but the latter now seemed far less believable.

Duncan acted fast, opening his eyes and running back to the Pensieve. He stuck his head inside it, transforming his body to flow inside of it again, hoping to still use some of the spectral shadow's shadowy essence to access his memory. Conscious thinking and magical manipulation managed to send Duncan straight back to the court room, just as everyone was leaving. He rushed over to try and get past everyone to see what where Tony Barron was being taken, but to his surprise, he brushed past someone, almost tripping.

"Hey!" The Toad he pushed by accident fell forward a little then turned around to see Duncan.

"I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"What's wrong?" Another Toad in the crowds at the back asked him.

"I thought... I thought something ran in to me." He said back to the other Toad. Duncan's heart rate went up briefly for a few seconds but started to go down again after realising what his state of matter was in this memory now. Phasing through people was no longer a thing, perhaps due to the fact that the spectral figure was no longer with him. "Oh well." The Toad went to follow the crowd out of the room. Duncan could only pray that his collision with him did not influence anything in this memory. Something was very different this time around and it annoyed Duncan, because now he wasn't able to move past everyone. He turned around and looked at a pencil that was left on the table where the Appointed Seven sat at during the court session. Anxious, he walked over to it and gave it a bit of a nudge, seeing it move. Now he knew his true state.

The crowds would pass and an easy way out of the court room became possible. Trying not to make contact with anyone, Duncan quickly followed the group of councilmen taking Tony Barron through corridors and chambers to an execution room. They ended up going downstairs to the floor below, being not too far away from where Koopak was taken to after being released from the cage. While Koopak was still being detained in a different room, Eoréc and a few others led Tony Barron from the past into a small room with a padlock on the inside. Duncan resorted to having to watch from the outside as he wasn't able to squeeze through the others as they shut the door. Inside this small room that Tony Barron was taken to, was where the Spirit Lance was. It was a very sharp pike imbued with magical power, glowing white and placed on the ceiling of the room. The councilmen kept Tony Barron restrained and held him on his back, lying on the small table beneath the lance.

"No exceptions." Eoréc said to Ledro standing next to him. Before they were ready to lower down the Spirit Lance, they all looked at Phoelix, who was anxious to see what everyone thought was once his son about to be executed.

"You are no longer what I used to see in you." He shed tears looking at Tony, but shook his head to signal that he was ready to have the pike lowered. Tony said nothing, and didn't seem able to. Whether or not he wanted to speak was completely unknown. "You may lower it." Phoelix said to Eoréc.

"I'm sorry for what you're about to see." Ledro tried to comfort Phoelix as he closed his eyes. "The corruption has taken him to the point of no return."

"I understand." His eyes remained closed as Eoréc controlled the mechanism. He looked to a Toad that was with the others in the room and asked for magical assistance, and within a few seconds, the Spirit Lance greatly accelerated downwards, sliding straight through Tony's body, including his heart.

Right as that happened, Duncan felt shoved a little, as a girl appeared on his left, running scared down the hall and around the corridor. Tony Barron's body decayed very quickly, soon turning into dark shadows. The gooey essence of what was left of his body leaked down the table and disappearing from everyone's sight. Phoelix fainted, falling down the side of the room, with Eoréc, Ledro and a few others in the room quickly coming to his aid.

"Phoelix, he's fainted!" Ledro called. "Get us out of here! Get us help!" He commanded Eoréc, who opened up the door and helped get Phoelix's body out of the room. Everyone was talking, worried and rushing with urgency down the hall to find the other councilmen with Koopak. Duncan followed and found himself in a room with the other members of the Appointed Seven, as well as Koopak Asquia the First, detained in the room.

"What in the blazing madness is going on here?" Archbarn shouted whilst dealing with Koopak, standing up and confronting the few councilmen that arrived at the door.

"Call forth the doctors. Phoelix is unconscious." Duncan overheard Ledro whisper back to Archbarn in the room. He sighed and looked back at Koopak.

"Not a movement from you." He warned him. "Or else." Duncan looked at Koopak as he backed away slightly and said nothing back to him. When he turned back to see Archbarn leave, he immediately locked the door behind him, trapping Koopak in the room alone with Duncan. The voices of everyone else's woes faded away as they left the area to deal with Phoelix. Koopak remained seated on his own in the room with nobody to talk to. Duncan, now being trapped inside the room had nowhere else to go. He had to make sure that any crazy movements by Koopak wouldn't get in his way. Duncan kept himself to the corner, watching Koopak's every move.

Nothing happened for just over a minute, but anxiety hit both Duncan and Koopak upon seeing the dark essence of Tony Barron's former body emerge from underneath the door in what looked like liquid form. The darkness collected itself up to create a black figure resembling Tony Barron, a black morphed version of him.

"No... No no no no no! Help! Anyone? HELP!" Koopak screamed and shrieked, begging for attention. He tried to back away from the middle of the room but was still cuffed to the table. The dark figure created a large but piercing blade out of itself and moved closer to Koopak. He kept screaming until the figure lunged with the blade, sending it straight through Koopak's heart.

"The demon God demands a soul..." The shadows echoed into his ears as the last thing he would hear. The last thing Koopak did was cough up blood a few times before losing control of himself.

"He was right." Duncan said to himself in the corner as Koopak's body collapsed to the ground. His arms remained in the air being held by the cuffs against the table, and on a closer inspection, there were no stab wounds at his chest. The shadows disappeared, spreading out so much in the room so that it became no longer visible to him. Precisely ten seconds later, he could start hearing voices of the Red Martyrs again. Archbarn's voice was most prominent, and he could hear him coming back to the room.

"I cannot stress this enough. Phoelix is going to be a problem if he keeps reacting to things like this!" Eoréc's voice was heard arguing with Archbarn just before they arrived.

"You can't put any of this on me." Phoelix was also heard arguing. "Have I not demonstrated my allegiance to you?"

"He may be a problem but he is our best chance at figuring out what's happening to all these people. Thank goodness he didn't turn out like his son." Archbarn opened up the door. "Get up. We're not finished with you tonight." He entered the small room, provoking Duncan to move to the other side to be surely out of the way of everyone else. Along with Archbarn came all others in the Appointed Seven.

"Is he asleep?" Muji wondered, standing next to Shigeru. He looked closely and observed the surrounding area.

"Ah, Chi!" Shigeru panicked. "Uh, blood-u."

"Oh, look at the floor." Muji nudged Archbarn.

"Check the body." Archbarn ordered. "A Koopa has been slain here." As Muji and Eoréc walked around the table to reach Koopak's body, Duncan manoeuvred around the other side of the room to stand in the doorway.

"No wounds." Eoréc looked back at Archbarn. "He was right." He stood up and walked towards the door, making Duncan move out of the way again. He gave one last look at Phoelix. "And they say I'm the problem." He said before walking out and leaving.

"Eoréc, come now. We can resolve this." Archbarn felt saddened of his actions and seeing the strife between his fellow councilmen. He decided to walk out of the room as well, following Eoréc down the corridor and out of Duncan's sight.

"This... is a major problem." John walked out of the room next but stayed in the corridor. Duncan moved well out of the way and watched the rest of them leave the room. He tried to stay well-hidden and out of any possible reach of them whilst being able to hear what they were saying. At the same time, Duncan noticed somebody else in his peripheral vision. It was a girl, most likely the same one as before, but now he could see her face.

His eyes widened. He looked at her more closely to find out that this was the exact face of Rosalina.

"He was right all along." Archbarn interrupted the Red Martyrs' few seconds of silence mourning the loss of Koopak to what they agreed upon to be the dark shadows again. "So it is the darkness that plays a part in this war, and all these murders. It's why somehow all the royals suffered the same fate."

"This isn't something we're happy with letting the public know. If the young boys and girls found out what really happened to their parents then everyone everywhere will be living out of fear for their entire lives. The south and the north will go extinct!" While Duncan was looking at Rosalina, he heard Muji speaking next. He tried moving his arm around in case Rosalina was also pondering back on this memory, if it was even possible, but she did not look back at him. Perhaps she was genuinely here at this point in the past.

"We'll have to make the public know of something else. Have both sides take the lives of each other, and then bring out a new rising hero to save them all." Phoelix looked the most worried, trying desperately to find an excuse for this incident as well as the entirety of the past few years in this northern land. "We can't have women take power. It needs to be a boy. What about the plumber's boy in the Mushroom Kingdom? I've heard he's got brilliant potential, and he's only a teenager!"

Shigeru nudged Muji. "Plumber no shōnen ga sairyō no sentakudesu. Sūpāmario ni kanshite wa zutto watashi no aideadeshita." Whatever was said didn't bode well with him.

"I don't care about your stupid game ideas, Shigeru. This is a crisis!" He argued back.

"Sore wa gēmu no hanashide wa arimasen. Kare ga anata no yuiitsu no sentakushidesu." Shigeru shook his head and started to leave next. Frustrated, he turned the other way and walked past both Duncan and Rosalina, giving her an awkward look but not alerting the others of her presence there.

"Whatever we do, we do not tell the girls about this. Understand?" Muji spoke to the other three quietly. All four of them looked to the ground in severe guilt of letting another incident like this happen.

"So... The eyes in the south will know that the Kings and Queens and Princes... all met their fate in battle in the north, they were unable to be saved, and we call Koopak as guilty for our improvised war-crimes we say that he did. Noted." Duncan was now seeing the excuses unfold, and perhaps the moment where all the lies came from. Everything now said here was a reflection of what everyone in the southern lands would believe about the Great Mushroom Wars when asked about them. It was John who spoke, devising a plan of the first excuses. "We will see to it in our next vote what we will do with Shigeru. I'm afraid with how things are playing out with his ever-spiralling interest to monetise this world even further with the games he is already making at Nintendo, that this might have to be his last days in service to us." He continued, at least speaking the truth about some matters.

"You know he's been doing this for years. Remember what happened to when he found out about Donkey Kong?" Muji seemed to grow sick of Shigeru clinging on to his shoulder whilst taking such a high-value role in the council.

"Now it sounds like you're having second thoughts on keeping that man in our ranks for so long. He cannot be trusted with how he doesn't feel detached from your home land. Hopping back and forth and back and forth to this land; just wait until Nerigan hears about this!" Ledro argued with Muji, questioning Duncan's beliefs about both of them. "Maybe Tony Barron was right. Maybe there ARE spies among us." Ledro's voice got closer and closer to Duncan and Rosalina. With Muji walking off in anger away from them, Ledro went the other way, and noticed Rosalina trying to hide in the corner, looking away like she was minding her own business. "…Do I have my point proven already? What's this? Another girl? Who do we even let in on this floor?" As Muji had already stormed off, Ledro could only get the attention of John and Phoelix.

"A spy?" John ran over to her as well, seeing Rosalina exposed.

"I'm not a spy!" She cried. "I'm sorry, I was-."

"SILENCE!" Rosalina's speech was muted as the sight of a wand held by Phoelix pointed straight at her was seen by both her and Duncan.

"Bring her upstairs. We can't deal with this down here." Ledro ordered.

Rosalina couldn't speak at all. Any sound she could make was completely muted. It looked like she was screaming while being cuffed with magical bonds by Phoelix. John and Ledro took her away down the corridor, leaving only Phoelix left in the area with Duncan for a few seconds. His head tilted with concern. Duncan remained put to see where he would go next, but instead of moving his body, he turned his head quickly to the right, facing Duncan with a look of confusion. The shock went straight to Duncan's heart, increasing his pulse rapidly. His fright from the surprise look was too much for him and as a result his vision became quickly distorted. His surroundings became a blur and in a few seconds he found himself flying out of the Pensieve and back into the waters of the cave. He landed on the surface beneath, making a bit of a splash, but he was no longer met with the familiar shadowy figure from before.

The caves were empty. Everywhere was dark except for the centre of the cave where the glow of the Pensieve lit up the waters surrounding it. Duncan wasn't finished here. While still tired, he wanted to go straight back in to the past memory, being able to recall it now from his own mind. The Pensieve was adaptive, meaning he could use his own conscious acts combined with a magical charm placed onto it to bring him back to not only the past, but to any point that he remembered, creating the timeline for him to observe. Though he was more cautious this time; he knew not to interfere with any movements, like he was invisible.

But… Rosalina and Phoelix. Two humans astoundingly present in his mind. One who he thought would never have been here at this point in time, and the other perhaps aware that he was now there at that point in time. Before going back in, Duncan stopped to think: what was Rosalina doing here? Did Phoelix see him? He sensed something strange in Phoelix, and he knew that he isn't around today which made his concerns only greater. He knew that sometime between then and now, something fatal must have happened to him. Not once in Duncan's many visits to Aypyidaw in the present day were there any mention of him, though the name Nerigan did ring a bell. He had heard that one before.

It was time to go once more into the past. Duncan readied up his conscience, recalling the past. He placed his hands on the Pensieve and stuck his head in. The warp appeared in his vision. Distortions were everywhere and eventually the foggy darkness sent him right to where he was just before the last trip ended.

…

"Maybe Tony Barron was right. Maybe there ARE spies among us." Just under a minute before the end. He watched Ledro and Muji storm away in opposite directions, but this time he got straight up and started following him, keeping a good distance away from him at the same time. "…Do I have my point proven already? What's this? Another girl? Who do we even let in on this floor?"

He watched the sequence of events unfold already, including Rosalina's silencing. Duncan made sure to be ahead of Ledro and John when they took Rosalina away, trying his best not to make any eye contact with Phoelix. He wanted to stay as far away from him as he could under this circumstance, making sure he wasn't ever alone with him. He followed the two taking Rosalina by her arms back up the stairs and in to an entirely different part of the headquarters. Phoelix was following them, keeping his wand pointed to Rosalina. His spell placed on her was ongoing. Duncan could tell that she was in agony as her mouth was always open like she was screaming and begging for help, but nobody could hear anything.

Eventually, Phoelix took matters into his own hands and controlled Rosalina all the way up to a special room in the Red Martyrs headquarters.

"Warn the others!" He yelled at John and Ledro. "I want everyone that matters to speak about this girl." The two other humans rushed away, quickly closing the door behind them and leaving Duncan in a very large and open room with only Phoelix and Rosalina. He kept her down on the floor in the very centre, always pointing his wand at her whilst waiting for the others to return. "Taunt me with your heinous tricks again and I'll stab another one of your servants with our Bright Lance. Are the shadows perhaps in this room? You'll not fool me twice, that's for sure!" He kept his eyes on Rosalina, too occupied to possibly turn around to see Duncan. As the room fell silent, Duncan did start to feel a bit worried about what could happen, but after a few more seconds, voices could be heard from outside, most of them familiar voices from before.

"This whole establishment will be built upon lies!"
"Shut up!"

"How can I tell if somebody's actually with us?"

"Is everything about you scare and worry?"

Many of the Red Martyrs showed up to the room. Duncan stood on the other side to be well out of the way.

"Free her from your curse, right now!" An aggravated Koopa stormed into the room first, pushing Phoelix aside.

"There are too many humans here. Anyone we don't know can't be trusted!"

"Perhaps you were behind the Galaxyë rebels in the end, weren't you, Phoelix?"

He heard the cries and frustration of an unfamiliar Koopa, Eoréc and a somewhat familiar Koopa respectively. All were showing aggression towards the humans of the council, despite presumably having very formidable relationships with them.

"Girl, stand up!" The unfamiliar Koopa shouted at Rosalina, getting right in her face. "Are you Ioreth Schaeffer? ARE YOU IORETH SCHAEFFER!?"

"No! I'm not whoever that name is!" Rosalina could finally speak, almost crying as she spoke back to him.

"This is madness I tell you!" The other Koopa shouted.

"Will you all be quiet? I cannot think properly with you all bitching about!" This was the most frustrated Duncan had ever seen Archbarn be. He stepped forward, getting up close to Rosalina right next to Phoelix and the other Koopa.

"I bet you could trust this woman as much as you could trust Shigeru these days. I want both of them out of here tonight!"

"Quiet, Nerigan!" Archbarn shoved the Koopa out of the way. "You're not a Galaxyë rebel, are you?" He confronted Rosalina.

"No." She replied anxiously, still looking frightened. "Could you tell that man to put his wand away?"

"How dare you talk to me like that? Do you know who I am?" Phoelix got up to Rosalina, with all of them confronting her now. "Wait… I know you. You're… you're Rosalina! Direct relative of Tarren Galaxyë himself! No wonder you're here. A true spy to us!" Phoelix took out his wand again after having it moved aside by Archbarn briefly. Instinctively, Rosalina pulled out hers from her clothe pockets and the two cast spells at each other at the same time, creating an electrical beam linking the two together.

"ENOUGH!" Nerigan, also proficient with magic, took out his wand and interfered with the magical electric beam, disrupting it and sending the energy to the ceiling, damaging it slightly. "We now know who she is so there is no need for any magic in this room!"

"Forward with the facts, Nerigan, is she a spy or is she part of us?" Ledro asked.

"She's a spy!" Eoréc shouted.

"ORDER!" John raised his voice, speaking louder than everyone else arguing about her. "This is not how we are supposed to behave in situations like this. Give each other some space and let the presumably innocent war-torn woman some time to speak." He made everyone else silent, and now they all looked at Rosalina.

"Phoelix…" She said quietly whilst backing away from the others. She found steps behind her and lowered herself to sit down on them. Her body was shivering "I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Bah." He swept it away like it was nothing.

"I'm afraid…" She was nervous. Tears were running down her cheeks, and couldn't stop shaking. "They can't keep killing us. Tarren will murder us all." Phoelix tried to comfort her, but she hesitated letting him reach out to her. The others were still bickering about her being on the basement floor without permission. Whether or not she was part of their council did not matter to them. Phoelix's view on her completely changed seeing her scared. She too had witnessed the discussion from earlier, so Duncan knew that it was one of many things she was afraid of during this war. He didn't know what else she had suffered; she never mentioned to him whenever they actually met.

"You're not like him." He said softly. "He's gone now. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"The darkness. It took him. It took Koopak." She whispered.

"The girl is traumatised. Any Galaxyë would be traumatised if they were still alive." Nerigan left Phoelix and Archbarn alone with her. The other doubters moved away, muttering amongst themselves. "It's hard to get a nomad traveller a new home. I suppose they don't have any functioning spaceships left, do they?"

Rosalina went silent, looking only back at Phoelix. He wasn't speaking as he was trying to listen in to the conversation the others were having, but it seemed that they were diverting away from Rosalina and focusing more on what to do with the royal princesses. Duncan went closer towards her, thinking that she was whispering to Phoelix and Archbarn.

"You won't have to worry about Princess Daisy." Phoelix spoke over the others, apparently eavesdropping on them whilst looking away at Rosalina. Actually there was no conversation going on between him and Rosalina. The two were just silent as he was trying to listen to the others.

"What's that Phoelix?" Nerigan asked.

"We've already been informed… that Lord Canchos was willing to raise Princess Daisy at his palace north of Sarasaland. When she comes of age she can return to her parents' castle where she can take power there… It's at best a convenience for us…" He turned around and spoke with them, leaving her alone with Archbarn.

"I'm… sorry what's happened to you." He said to her quietly. "I'm… trying to make things right for everyone in these lands. It's what this place is all about. I hope I can make this place a safe haven for you… for now…" He tried comforting her, but the noise of shouting going on by Nerigan and Eoréc getting back into arguing with John and Ledro only frightened her more and made her wish that she wasn't here.

"No… I hate it here!" She backed from the steps, getting up. "I want to get out of here!" She turned around and started running, straight into Duncan. He panicked and tried to move but tripped up on the steps as she was running around them. Duncan shrieked, and the reaction to stay balanced caused his hand to swing right into Rosalina's face, making contact and completely changing his vision. Thousands of instances of her memories with him spewed all across what he could see, almost blinding him and changing about a hundred times a second. The sounds were warped and distorted, and Duncan could no longer feel anything. Each swap to a new memory that unfolded caused the surroundings to brighten. Getting lighter and lighter, his vision eventually turned white, and all sound stopped…

…

The last vision seen just before everything was completely white was the luminosity of an exploding star…

…

Baby stars or baby Lumas. He couldn't exactly remember what made the sounds in that mystical place he remembered once being, playing that game from 2007, but it was where he was now, and it was what he could hear all around himself. All he could see was the bright lights and a light blue atmosphere of tiny white particles flowing through what looked like a magical portal. It was an aurora of lights with a luminous white star in the centre of where he was facing. He was hovering in this portal, and still couldn't feel anything. Within this brightness from the very centre, he started to see Rosalina emerging from the horizon, looking like her old self and how everyone would remember her. She looked huge compared to him, and huge compared to herself usually, a good ten times the size, and she kept her eyes closed and her wand close.

"Do you hear the baby stars? These newborns will grow up to become galaxies someday." She looked straight ahead, but the sheer size comparison meant she wasn't looking at him at the moment. Duncan knew something was off, and he knew from hopefully the guidance of a game dictating the truth of the scenario, that he wasn't supposed to be here. Mario was, and he was nowhere to be seen for Duncan was exactly where he was in this memory.

Regardless, Rosalina continued. "When stars die, they turn to stardust and scatter across the cosmos." Duncan tried to control his body, but only his mind was of use. His arms remained floating with the rest of his body, unable to be moved. He could only stare up at her while she looked straight ahead, narrowly missing him in her peripheral vision. "Eventually, that stardust reforms to create a new star... And so the cycle of life continues." Rosalina finally looked down at Duncan, showing a subtle look of surprise. "But… the… the cycle never repeats itself in quite the same way…" She said, stuttering more times than before. Duncan had no other options but to use any magical force from his surroundings to regain control of his body. "I've never seen this before…"

"No." Duncan's body grew in size, and he was just about able to control his body through the channelling of magic from the aurora lights surrounding him. The energy from this cosmic ambient memory was so rich that everything felt easy to him now when applying the magical channelling to himself. This Rosalina had a slight look of confusion, but her composure was immaculate, as if she was still talking to Mario.

"The cosmos has perhaps affected you… so that maybe you too could be reborn." The two were now the same size, looking directly straight into each other's eyes. Rosalina smiled, impressed by seeing such an adaptive figure in front of her. "You have learned so well, Mario."

"What you see before you goes beyond the cosmos… beyond reality… beyond whatever you can imagine." Duncan whispered back to Rosalina. "I'm not Mario." She smiled.

"As I said, the cycle never repeats itself in quite the same way… The universe has blessed me with a most beautiful creation." Now Duncan was confused. "So… you'll see."

"Wait." He reached for her attention. The two remained hovering in the space for a few seconds, seeing nothing affect them. "My surroundings… they're supposed to be fading into light. That's what is supposed to happen."

"Rest, dear boy." She tried to calm him, seeing a sense of worry in his mind. "Watch the stars shine before you…" She began to float away from him, and the brightness of the lights became more intense to the point where all Duncan could see was white. The lingering noise of baby stars remained for a little while longer until he was back with only a white void to see…

…

Duncan woke up to a navy blue skyline. Almost darkness. Behind him however, was light, matter, a familiar place. The ground he was lying on was made of a glowing material unknown to him, but it seemed to hold its own in space.

It was the Comet Observatory. Active, powered, and travelling rapidly through space, yet it looked lifeless. Nobody was here. Nothing was here, not even Lumas were present. Duncan wasn't so sure now if he was in a memory, a vision, or maybe perhaps awake again. Whatever happened in all of his white-vision periods must have led him straight to here somehow. A brief recall of his recent memories made him realise something: he wasn't able to use magic when with Tony Barron, nor was he able to use magic when going back to that time alone, but he was able to use magic in his encounter with Rosalina in the aurora, and now, upon creating a small flame in the palm of his hand, he proved that he could use magic here. This was not a memory, but he wasn't so sure if this was a vision or real life yet.

He stood up, not realising how dangerously close to the edge he was on that foundation platform. He saw a view of space from where he stood, with the lights of the observatory perhaps fogging the luminosity of the stars in space. He saw almost none. Everywhere outside the observatory was space, and looking in all directions, Earth didn't seem to be anywhere either. Looking around everywhere, Duncan realised it was the Comet Observatory's atmospheric protective shield that caused the view of space to look fogged. Just before him on the edge of the platform was the rotating glass pad, looking rather inactive. This place was almost exactly the same as what he remembered from memory. He began to look for any other signs of life from what he could see looking around. The core of the ship was white, all the lights were on, but no Mushroom ship on the western dock, no value marked on the floor near the projector board, and still no sign of life. Walking towards the projector, he could hear the noise of the rocket engines in full effect. It made Duncan realise something now. This ship was eight years into its course, and eight years since it was last on Earth.

He could be billions of miles away from home at this point and there seemed to be no sign of an easy way back. Despite the fear of feeling alone and confined to such a small space, the sight of deep space before him gave him a chilling sensation. A sight to him never seen in such detail before.

"This can't be real." He whispered to himself, finally moving from the spot at the landing zone and walking around. The coloured pipes on the ground indicated the paths towards all of the powered rooms of the ship, scattered across all parts of it. The Terrace was to his near left, and the Library to his near right. He could remember all of the hubs, and they were exactly in the spots he thought they would be in. Whether or not they were actually called those names was still unknown to him.

Duncan's stomach rumbled and he was feeling very thirsty, quite a small distance away was the Fountain hub atop a small platform hovering just outside the observatory's main grounds. Connected with a magical link, he was able to fly up to it without having to use any of his own magic. The exterior of the hub dome had water spouting out from the sides as well as some flowing on the inside. He hoped that this was his easiest chance to get a drink around here. Duncan went through the dark tunnel entrance and entered the fountain room, looking almost perfectly identical to what he remembered seeing on the game he played several years ago. The walls were tiled with light blue mosaic patterns with arched pillars going around it all. The middle had a platform surrounded by flowing water and two of the walls had water flowing from them to go into the pool. The water had a drainage system on the left which went to an unknown location outside the room, but it was exactly how he remembered it. The only things that were missing in this room were the presence of a Luma and the connecting blue star that he forgot the name of in the middle. The room looked completely abandoned of life, but still seemed to function. Even though there was no sign of life, Duncan felt paranoid and checked the outside again just to make sure there wasn't anyone watching him. Afterwards, he lowered his body all the way down to the floor and got a taste of the water. It was pure and refreshing but at first it hit him heavily. It first tasted like an obscene mixture of acid and ambrosia, but seconds passed and it tasted like fresh water again. Ignoring his thought of confusion as to how the water ended up here to begin with, Duncan kept drinking and drinking from the pool. He sat down on the platform, wiping the water from his mouth after having several mouthfuls. Now he felt really tired and didn't feel like moving. His eyes began to feel heavy and he felt like just letting his eyes close, drifting off to sleep. The sound of the waters hitting and splashing into the pool soothed his mind…

…

Duncan's eyes began to open again after another unknown amount of time. Everything seemed the same in the fountain room. The water was flowing, the life was empty, and the walls looked the same as before. He couldn't tell how long he was asleep for, but he wasn't feeling as tired as before now. After having more water from the fountain pool, he walked out of the room and had a look around the greater Observatory complex, seeing no changes to before. He took the magical link back down to the main area, unsure what to do next. There was nobody he could see to talk to about why he was here and couldn't think of any way yet to get back. What made things worse now was he was starting to feel very hungry. Luckily, he knew that there was another hub area called the Kitchen. He could see the entrance to the hub to the far left, but the only safe way to get there was by going all the way round the observatory ship in the anticlockwise direction, passing the Terrace, the central control screen and Rosalina's library. Walking towards the kitchen, the dark entrance to the library sparked his interest. The old story he remembered reading about Rosalina's past came across his mind. What he really wondered about was whether that story was real or not. Given everything he has learned about Rosalina and her past, it's almost impossible for the game's story about her to be real.

The interior of the library did look very similar to that in the game. It had the two tree plants beside the doorway, her rocking chair, the fireplace, and some cushion seats in the middle. However, there were no framed pictures above the fireplace and there was no sign of that giant book Rosalina would be reading from. As a matter of fact, there were hardly any books on the shelves, and of the books on the shelves, there were none that anything to do with the game at all. Most of the ones Duncan picked out were either fictional stories about things in the past of this world, or books with most of the pages ripped out. None seemed to show any importance to him. The place did seem very abandoned and ruined without the presence of Rosalina or any sort of life here.

Still hungry, Duncan travelled to the Kitchen hub next, and it didn't seem to be any better than the library. While both the exterior and interior bared resemblance to what he remembered from the game, it didn't seem like a place where he could actually get some food. The plates were missing, the fireplace wasn't lit up, and the sink didn't operate. Duncan did however notice some cupboards on the other side of the room that were where the camera would have been in the game and therefore wouldn't be rendered in the game. If there was to be any food, Duncan thought, it wouldn't be edible given how abandoned the place was.

He was wrong, though it didn't help him that much either. There was food, but it did not bring a smile to his face. It was honey. The only edible substance with no expiration.

"Oh fuck…" Duncan said to himself. "I hate honey so much." He took out a jar of honey and placed it on the table in the middle of the room, spending a few minutes hesitating to open it. "I can't do this…" He put his hands against his face, covering his eyes, and then he realised something that he had on his right arm. It was his Mark Ten portal device, capable of channelling and manipulating so much magic that he could enter a new world, the same world of before without following the path of time in the real world. He hadn't used it for a while and remembered Rosalina briefly stealing it one time a few months ago and remembered her saying that she spent weeks in it without time going on. He also learned that use of it didn't impact their ageing, as going back to the time in the normal world didn't seem to cater to their time spent in a timeless warp. He was confused how it didn't affect his conscience though. Regardless, he resorted to using this.

"Well if it's going to take me ages to try honey, I may as well do it without wasting time." He spoke one more time before activating the Mark Ten portal device on his right arm.

Duncan reappeared in the room. Nothing changed physically but the portal device had a permanent yellow light glowing, meaning that it was channelling the new reality. He looked down at the honey jar that he placed on the middle table in the real reality and opened it up. He looked at it for a few minutes, continuously hesitating to take some out. He was feeling his body slowly react against the idea of consuming it. He kept saying no to himself, and backing away every time he smelled some of the honey. It took even more time for him to finally put a slither of it on his hand and raise it up close to his mouth… and it was at this point did he cause his first case of vomiting. He began to feel worse, but he knew that if he warped back to reality, he would feel the same way as before he warped into this one. Duncan took a few deep breaths and tried again, slowly raising his hand up to his mouth to try and taste the honey. His inner psyche caused an extreme amount of stubbornness to taste the honey and he still had difficulty in trying to move his hand up to taste it. He knew that his body was rejecting it and he hated this. Eventually, he swung his hand straight for his mouth, and before he could reach his tongue out to touch the drop of honey with it, he vomited a second time. Duncan shook his head again and decided to warp back to reality. He reappeared in the room with the same full jar of honey that was yet unopened, feeling just exactly how he did before he warped the first time and only ageing less than a second. He reconfigured his portal device and reactivated it, heading in to a new reality to have a second try at this. He knew that this would take several attempts, but what he didn't know was exactly how many it would take and how long it would feel for him. Every new warp into a temporary reality reset his ageing and the room he was in, so every time he warped he would have to reopen the jar of honey and try to take a small amount onto his hand. Every warp was also met with the same level of hunger and the same level of disgust for honey, but he hoped that he would eventually build a tolerance to resisting honey.

Ten warps, about a minute in real time, and about an hour in warped time later, Duncan saw no progress. To him, it seemed that the warps would also reset his body's disgust for honey to an extreme level of hesitation. He decided to give up on this attempt temporarily whilst in the frozen time warp and instead left the Kitchen hub. Wanting to explore more of the Comet Observatory, Duncan found his way to the next magic link which acted as a flying path from the bridge between the library and the Kitchen hub all the way up to the Engine Room hub. The Engine Room hub was nothing special. It looked exactly the same as what he saw on the game. What was special about being this high on the Comet Observatory was he could see a small flying island just on the edge of the spaceship's protective shield. The island had two magical links to it, one to the Engine Room floor, and one going all the way to the top of the spaceship, where the Garden hub was situated. What interested Duncan the most was the small hut that was on the island. The memory came back to him; this must be the doorway to the Gateway Galaxy.

…

Duncan walked through the door atop the flying island and appeared out of one of the two huts on the small rock in space. The view of space was so much clearer now, seeing millions of tiny dots when looking up, ahead, and to each side. There might be food here, but he would have to warp back to reality to feed his hunger. Duncan decided to press the button on his right hand portal device to head back to the normal timeline, reappearing in the Kitchen hub. He placed the jar of honey back into the cupboard and rushed out of the room, following the same process to get to the Gateway Galaxy this time around. Once he arrived, he could hear noise. There might have been life this time around. To his right, he could see the other house and behind that was the castle structure that he remembered very fondly of. Following the steps up that, Duncan reached the top. Nobody was here, he felt like he was further away from anything in his life, ever. His mind was filled with pure amazement looking above at the cosmic horizon. The many shades of blue, the far distant stars, and the navy blue void beneath this small rock in space all gave him extremes of mixed emotions. However, looking back down on the grass on one of the sides of the castle structure, he caught a glimpse of something jumping up and down around a patch of flowers. A Star Bunny. While it was going around in circles, it eventually stopped upon noticing Duncan standing atop the castle structure. It hopped closer to him and suddenly turned into a cream-coloured Luma right before his eyes.

"A stranger?" The Luma buzzed, letting out speech without having a mouth to do so.

"A hungry stranger." Duncan coughed. "Food. Do you know where I can get food around here?" He leaned on top of the castle structure to look at the Luma more closely as it was flying right beside him.

"No food here." The Luma buzzed again. "No food for humans. The Observatory is on its voyage." It hovered over to Duncan's side, confused as to why he ended up here. "How did a stranger come here?"

Duncan paused, frowned and shook his head. "I don't know." He whispered back quietly. He turned around and walked back to the centre of the castle structure, knowing he had only one choice left. The honey seemed impossible to consume and there was nothing he could find in these parts to eat. The Luma watched him look down over to his left arm, where he was wearing another portal device. It was a mark twelve device, the latest and most likely last of the instalments, capable of easily traversing across both worlds without having any error cases like the older versions. The device was adaptive and would factor in errors such as the return waypoint location becoming occupied. He knew that he could use it to safely travel back to Earth. The problem was whether or not anyone else would be there.

"What will you do now?" The Luma asked him, floating over to look at him in the eyes again.

"Vanish…" He looked straight ahead plainly. "…I was clearly not meant to be here, so I must leave now. Look away now." He told the Luma, who said nothing and hopped away, turning back into the Star Bunny. Once it reached the grass, it turned back and noticed that Duncan was no longer visible atop the castle structure.

March 15, 2015 – Late Evening

Duncan wasn't sure what time it was when he finally arrived back on Earth, but seeing the dark sky above made him feel a little bit of relief. His last time on Earth had him warp from one world to the other at a hidden point right next to the large boating lake in the town park next to his old school. The view from across the lake was spectacular and luckily lacking people walking on the paths. The last time he was here was almost a week ago giving him the memory of warping back to the Mushroom Kingdom to confront Peach after finding out that she was going to ransack his rarely-used house on Isle Port. There was also sheet of paper half inside the dirt where Duncan was sitting down close to the lake. He picked it up from the soil and looked at the paper again. It was a missing people paper that had been around the town for several months and on it had a picture of both him and Tobias, reported missing since January and unheard of from people on Earth since. This was the life Duncan had to live now given their full-time commitment to the other world. Duncan gave it a crooked half-smile and tossed the paper into the lake, looking ahead to the other side. He felt a lot of sadness in him knowing there were people who cried for missing him. Maybe one day he would return in an attempt to go back to normal life with all of his regained powers, but the explanation was too much to think about right now.

He remained seated on the soil just before the lake, still looking across it. On the other side however, he spotted a figure of a tall girl that he deemed familiar.

"Shit." Duncan stood up, recognising the figure and triggering another memory in his mind. He started turning around and rushing through the park in attempt to head back to the school fence before the figure would end up getting there.

It was the evening of March 3…

He remembered being in Isle Port briefly whilst knowing that the Mushroom Accords made him wanted by the Toad Government and all towns in the Mushroom Kingdom were on a search for him. However, one of his close friends that lived there, Wynonna, would always keep his location a secret and supply him with everything he needed while he was in hiding. It was that same day when Zane visited the town. A discussion with him made him learn why as Enrique too was in hiding, using their special house escape as a place to stay for the time being. Duncan also learned that it was Luke participating in some of the last few races instead of Enrique due to this reason. However, it was the last thing that Zane said to him that day that appeared in his mind.

"Oh and umm… if there is something I should leave you with, it is this." Zane and he were hanging out around the back of Wynonna's shop when this was happening. "The other day, Enrique mentioned to me that the one time he went back to Earth to cure Peach from her shadowy mark on her back, that he spoke of a boy who spoke to him when he was leaving the hospital. It was a kid who seemed like he knew all about this and that you specifically would speak about Enrique and that he would be overhearing you… at school." Duncan remained against the back wall as Zane started walking over to his modified Aero Glider.

"The kid… a teenager… he'd be a friend of mine from school?" Duncan assumed.

"Correct. He would speak in riddles to him, as if both of them were trying to hide the information between them. He also said, and I quote: That room in the school, it's a portal isn't it?"

"Rynmar…" Duncan gasped.

"The boy knows." Zane put all of his shopping into the back of the car and revved the engine. "One day he's going to figure out how to get here." He watched Zane drive off after giving him a final wave goodbye.

…

"That explains Ellis…" He said to himself, coming up to a bridge in the park that would lead to the path the figure would be coming from. Thinking about that memory in his head made him forget how close he could be to her right now. Duncan quickly reversed his steps as he noticed her appearing faintly behind the trees on the other side. It was Ellis after all, walking through the park alone. She kept walking straight going past the bridge, walking down along the fence next to the school field. Duncan remained quiet and hidden across the small stream that separated the path and his side. He lost distance on her but managed to keep looking at her while proceeding through the woodland area of the park. Ellis hadn't noticed anything and proceeded on, eventually stopping near to the end of the field fence. He managed to catch up to her on the other side, now monitoring her every move. She kept looking through the fence, expecting to see something on the other side. This confirmed Duncan's original thought that Ellis and perhaps his friend Rynmar were also trying to get to the portal. A horrible thought for Duncan's mind, as he couldn't trust the two to keep this to themselves, especially when he thought the two weren't mentally prepared to either balance a life in visiting both worlds at such a young age or giving up on their life here to move full-time into the other world. Duncan wanted to get a closer look at Ellis, because if she was talking to herself, he wasn't hearing of it. He decided to descend to the stream and leap across, being able to hide beneath the ridge and watch her from lower down. She wasn't saying anything, but from her posture she was looking very paranoid. Duncan remained put against the ridge and behind a tree for a few more minutes, monitoring her activity. There couldn't be any other reason that this girl was standing by this fence besides anything to do with the portal. He couldn't keep this up any longer and would have to temporarily shut down the portal after going through it tonight. Any prospect of these two friends believing in such a thing had to go. The portal never existed, Duncan pretended to believe. It was a tale that he made up… and… delusion of this imaginary world led him to go missing. That's a good explanation. The same could go to Tobias, since Duncan knew that he's been in the other world without coming back here for even longer.

Ellis started speaking quietly to herself and Duncan wasn't able to hear her quite well. He raised his legs to try and get closer to her, but the way he was leaning against the ridge wasn't very stable. He slipped on the ground and started to fall, but he held on to the nearby tree to keep himself from falling. He regained his footing and managed to stay atop the ridge but with that he made noise in doing so, which in turn alerted Ellis. She turned around as he was holding on to the tree after regaining footing and the two made eye contact. Duncan's heart rate soared and so did Ellis's. She gasped and started to shake and shiver. Duncan felt frozen at first against the tree, unable to do anything, but as Ellis started to walk over to him he had to make a run for it. He climbed up the ridge and onto the path near Ellis and started running… really… really fast. Ellis didn't say anything and started sprinting behind him, trying to catch up but the distance grew larger every second. His speed was unrealistic and it confused her as he chased her around the corner at the end of the fence. Before Ellis was able to reach the corner, she slowed down in shock from hearing a loud bang come from the other side. The banging sound happened two more times but both of the other times it came from up above. She reached the corner and noticed he wasn't there but in fact over the fence.

"Wait, Duncan!" She screamed. "Come back!" She could only watch him dash nearly two hundred metres in less than ten seconds where he eventually disappeared from her sight. Duncan couldn't think straight. His mind was filled with self-hatred after openly using magic to his benefit in the presence of someone who was completely unaware of its existence, especially on Earth. He reached the school buildings and forced open locked doors to get inside locking them again once he had went through the doorways. With Ellis across the fence, he thought Rynmar was probably the more desperate one between the two and would therefore be closer to the portal. On his way up the staircases he slowed down, expecting Rynmar to be on the other side. There was no way he thought he could get through, but he didn't want to alert his presence and only confront Rynmar if he was already through the portal. Duncan decided to slowly creep away from office room and instead resume walking up the staircase to the floor above. He sat down on the floor, hearing footsteps coming from the office room. Somebody was there, but whoever it was, was coming out of the office and now descending the stairs from the floor below downwards. To not give anything away, he decided to take his shoes off and carry them with him in hand, making no footstep noise now. After another minute, Duncan descended the staircase for the last time and snuck his way back into the office room, opening up the slider door and heading into the portal inside the metal room.

If only Tom wasn't completely missing, as Duncan was now wishing that he could beg Tom to deactivate the portal that went to England for good, leaving only the Brooklyn portal activated. Times were changing and to prevent any more possible exposure to the Mushroom Kingdom, he wanted that metal room deleted from its magical plane for good. Duncan sighed, looking at the gem powering the England portal in its special socket. There was no way Tom would be walking these parts any time soon, so Duncan decided to make the hesitant decision to remove the gem, shutting down the portal. He took the glowing yellow piece and placed it back into the necklace locket, taking the whole thing and putting it back into his pocket.

Now it was time to get out of here. With the state of the Mushroom Kingdom right now, this area would likely be heavily under surveillance soon. Being someone still on the wanted list from the Mushroom Accords despite probably being lower down in priority, Duncan knew that he would have to head into proper hiding again. Thinking about scenarios like this did make him question whether or not he should keep going living here full-time. The magic he spent so much extra time in life learning wouldn't be usable freely on Earth however. For now, he climbed out of the cave and rushed back onto the nearby hill, starving now. There was nowhere he could go to get an easy access to food without being spotted by the Toad Brigade. Northern Mushroom City and Mushroomheath filled his surroundings, and both were danger zones for him. It was too late to warp back now, even though he had charge on his mark twelve portal device. He didn't have a bound location to return to on Earth as that reset when he took the portal in the metal room. This gave him only one choice and it wasn't that bad of a choice either: call Tobias. Muhu Delfethal shares the same time zone as Brooklyn, meaning it was a lot earlier in the evening than in England. It was still quite bright out too, but very cloudy.

He got out his Muhu Delfethal grade phone and searched for Tobias in the contacts, sitting on the grassy hill and awaiting a response from the other end.

"Hey T." He heard noise to indicate that the phone was picked up.

"Wassup bro."

"I got some bad news. A lot of bad news too." Duncan spoke quickly. "First things first. Where do you think I could go near Mushroom City that isn't too much under surveillance? I just ported and I'm starving."

"Uhh, you'll have to look at one of the suburbs probably. You know, one of those run-down places. You could probably cloak yourself and get away with a three course meal in a place around there." Tobias, being his best friend here, was also his best source of insider information. Where Duncan was proficient in magic and studied the many, many ways to use it, Tobias used the frozen-time portal devices to educate himself on the lay of the land and the customs and culture of everywhere in the lands. He would know what type of people live in each town and what they would do to other people. He was definitely the people person out of him and Duncan.

"Thanks. I'll have a look around. Won't be the first time today I've had to go incognito. Whereabouts are you anyway?" Duncan turned to the southwest, seeing the relatively lower skyscrapers in the distance, beginning his leisurely stroll in the early evening, heading in the direction towards the north-western suburbs of Mushroom City.

"I'm in Jort right now. They treat me very well here." Tobias replied. Duncan didn't know that much about Jort specifically, other than that it was like Aypyidaw in the southwest. Whether it had anything to do with Hostiles, particularly the Dargovi was completely unknown to him, but he took Tobias' word for it. "It's probably safer for people like you and me here than most places in the Mushroom Kingdom." He added.

"Right. I guess I'll have to start heading your way in the coming days if that's where we're going to be staying in the long term. Maybe it is safer to be amongst the hostiles if they share the same attributes as we do."

"No such thing as hostility here. Seeing a Koopa as a hostile is purely something that you choose to believe in nowadays. There's nothing hostile about any of these guys. Besides, I feel like with the state the Mushroom Kingdom is in right now, the hot spot to be will end up being here as the weeks go by. Here, they'll be taking over."

"Yeah, well, with what I heard that happened in Aypyidaw, I don't doubt that life up there's going to feel better. I guess I could just spend a day heading up there tomorrow. All this shit that's happening over the past few days has done too much to my head though. I need a rest, a proper rest. I've been warping too much."

"Oh, you'll be fine." Tobias chuckled. "Go find a place in a Red Light. You'll have the coins to pay for a night's stay and a good meal. Set off in the morning. If you don't feel like flying then steal a car or kart; whatever's the best for you."

Duncan nodded. "Agreed. Anyways, worse news." He paused for a few seconds. "I… I closed the home portal."

"You what?"

"I had to. I can explain." He kept cutting Tobias off as he jumped to woes and conclusions. "Rynmar's trying to crack the code. I even saw Ellis today when I was trying to head back. I had such a mind-fuck of an experience over the past twenty-four hours that I literally had to warp back to Earth and then head to the portal at the school just to get back here. Ellis was just… there at the fence to the field when I was in the park. I can't fucking believe it, and she was acting so strange too, sadly she noticed me but I had to escape her."

"Fucking… Duncan, fucking… let me just speak please." Tobias shouted loud enough for Duncan to stop talking. "Stay calm. They're not going to find out. You're a fucking idiot for exposing yourself to Ellis because now you're not going to stop thinking about her, but at least you're back here and they're not. What matters is that anyone we know from school or anything in that part of life shouldn't be here. Nobody is meant to know. Nobody needs to know. Nobody must know. You get me?"

"Yes." Duncan still felt anxious. "It just feels way worse than that. What the fuck was Rynmar doing literally breaking into the school at night for? Even though I shut down the portal, it takes Tom to deactivate that fucking metallic room. What happens if he somehow slides the door and notices that the fucking spacing is all messed up? We need to find Tom to fix this. He's the only one who can un-fuck this situation he most likely fucked up. I don't know if it was him or Enrique but those two are the ones who always hop worlds. Hell, Enrique still has one of our watches."

"It's probably out of charge though. We all know where he is, he's been on the news… and if it was charged, he wouldn't be in the state he's in right now. Last I heard from him, he was actually arrested. I think he was taken back to Mushroom City actually."

"Oh really? I've been underground so I didn't actually know about this. It was only earlier this week did I actually see him last. Maybe I should pay a visit to him. He could be in the castle somewhere. There's so many ways into that place. It's probably in a shitty state right now as well."

"Err, are you retarded? Why the fuck do you think that's a good idea? Look, stay out of trouble for now. Find a quiet suburb, feed yourself, sleep, and then act on your next move in the morning. You should really start heading up… Wait…" The phone was still going, but he heard a knocking sound on the other end. "…Is that… Tom here?"

"T?" Duncan couldn't hear anyone from the other end. Only background noise from the room Tobias was calling from. The phone call was still going, but he couldn't hear any distinguishable speech on the other end.

"Gotta go." Tobias hung up abruptly a few seconds later, leaving Duncan confused. Even if Tom was where Tobias was calling from, that was in Jort, thousands of miles away from the portal cave. He'd have to get access to a portal device if he still used one and use that to warp back to delete the magical metallic room from existence.

Eventually, Duncan's trek reached him to more life and more buildings. He arrived to Webcapstow, one of the northwest suburbs of Mushroom City, known for its rowdiness and lack of law regulation. It would be easy for him to find a place to eat here, but worry of government surveillance might not be his only problem to worry about tonight. He kept his hood up and snuck into the city suburb, noticing this area looking different to the most parts of the capital. Here, everywhere was lit with red lights and most of the people out on the streets were dwelling in alleyways. He immediately realised why this place seemed to be lacking any sort of Toad Brigade regulation. A lot of the roads smelled horribly and a lot of people were walking around the streets in less than average clothing. At least, without any security patrolling the places, he would be able to find a place to eat. Inside the alleyways however, were where most of the people were. Neon lights and drug consumers littered each side, but one place stood out with different colour lights down one of the alleyways, a restaurant, convenient for him. He spoke to the Toad at the front desk asking for a single table, but instead of being escorted over, the Toad allowed him to choose which table he wanted to sit at, saying that he would eventually be seen to and be served.

For a restaurant in the middle of the red light district of Webcapstow, the atmosphere felt very comforting. The place had air conditioning so it didn't smell, and women weren't approaching him every minute. He did get a few faces looking his way, but nobody seemed to care who he was, only that he was a human.

About thirty minutes elapsed including the ordering of his food and having it delivered to him. Soon ready to set off, Duncan wanted to go to the toilet just before leaving. The sign for the toilets was in a very unusual place. After seeing the sign, he followed instructions that involved going along a corridor then down a long spiral staircase. Eventually he got to the bottom, seeing a Koopa walk out as he arrived. Inside the men's bathroom was complete calamity. The lights looked very nice, nobody else was here, and all the noise from above was blocked. It was the perfect time for Duncan to use a cubicle and relax just for a few minutes before embarking on his journey out of the city.

That was… until someone else walked into the men's bathroom wanting privacy, just as Duncan was pulling his trousers back up. He refrained from flushing the toilet.

"I'm just going to temporarily disable this." The person said.

Duncan immediately recognised the voice, and after carefully and quietly unlocking his cubicle door, he opened it slightly and looked around it. It was another human, and he was turning off a camera and a microphone that he had attached to his clothes and chest. He was also wearing an earpiece, which added to the enormous level of confusion that Duncan was facing right now. How on Earth is Rynmar here? Duncan levitated himself quietly, hiding behind the door and making sure his feet were off the ground. He didn't want to be seen at all by Rynmar if he looked his way. Not yet, at least. He watched Rynmar use a urinal and then afterwards he moved over towards one of the sinks on the opposite end of the room. Duncan decided to lower his body and quickly run up to Rynmar seeing as he seemed distracted by the sink. Duncan grabbed onto Rynmar and quickly got him into a headlock, leaning him against the sink in front of him while the taps were flowing rapidly. He noticed the speed of the water and decided to put the plug into the sink as well, leading the water to fill up the sink. He felt Rynmar trying to break away, and normally, knowing the times the two used to shove and push each other in school, Rynmar would more likely be able to get out of his grasp. This time however, magic was on Duncan's side and the extra strength from channelling magic through his body allowed him to firmly hold Rynmar in place.

"The face of a human that does not belong here. There's no way you could possibly have entered these lands by accident!" Duncan shouted at Rynmar before he could even tell who was grabbing him. His voice revealed him immediately to him though. "How did you end up here? Who brought you here?"

"I'm wired!" Rynmar tried to talk, knowing it was to Duncan. "I'm wired."

"What?" Duncan didn't realise it at first, so he kept Rynmar's neck tucked around his left arm and used his right hand to rip the wiring from underneath his shirt. "Why the fuck are you wired?" He questioned. "What are you doing here!?"

"Duncan, please!" Rynmar shrieked. "It's me. It's your friend. Rynmar, from school! We're friends…" Duncan waited two seconds before leaning Rynmar over the sink and dipping his head through the flooded pool created from the fast spraying taps. After another five seconds, he raised Rynmar's head out from the sink and asked him again.

"Answer the fucking question! Who brought you here?" The water splashed everywhere and often kept flowing out of the sink and onto the floor. Duncan refused to stop the taps to keep the water high in the sink. Rynmar's hair and face were soaking wet and he was trying to catch breaths after being under the water.

"Duncan, please!" He pleaded, coughing frequently. "I can't tell you that, she's not here right now. If you could just let me go, I don't know why you're doing this to me we can talk about it back at the castle." Duncan put Rynmar's face under the sink again for a few seconds, shaking his head about and making another big splash on the floor.

"WHO BROUGHT YOU HERE?" Duncan shouted at Rynmar for the third and final time after just lifting his head back up from the sink.

"Princess Peach!" Rynmar shouted back, trying to wipe away all the water flowing down his hair and face. He was panting, but eventually replying back to Duncan with a proper answer made him stop trying to drown him in the water. "She wanted to spend a day or two on Earth to get away from all the stress she was dealing with here and she kind of bumped into me and Ellis while she was escaping the school through the nature reserve." Duncan let Rynmar out of the headlock and shoved him over to the corner near a toilet cubicle. Paranoid if anyone else was going to enter the bathrooms on either side, he placed magical enchantments onto both doors, locking them tight. "I was able to realise that she was Peach and she ended up admitting it to me. Ellis didn't believe it at first but I did. I spent a day helping her about her time here and then eventually she would go on to let me and Ellis enter this world because she thinks we're the two best people suited in finding and rescuing you… here we are today I suppose." Duncan went silent for a few seconds, recalling what happened earlier today when he arrived from England, but only his perspective of it.

"In school… was that you or Ellis trying to sneak into the portal then?" Duncan recalled. "Is that how you found me? You came to track me down because Princess Peach asked you to? You shouldn't trust a princess!"

"Hey, Rynmar, are you in there?" The two overheard a Koopa's voice and started to hear nudges on the door to the brothel court room. Duncan knew to be quiet in here in case anyone on the outside would be able to recognise his voice, but he wasn't sure if Rynmar would react the same way.

"It wasn't me in the school at night there. It may have been her or Ellis, but not me." Rynmar had his hands up in the air but briefly lowered them to roll up his sleeve, showing Duncan the portal device attached to his wrist.

"Ah!" Duncan's face turned angry. "That's mine! Peach stole that from me!" Duncan hurled out a beam of bright magic to strike Rynmar's arm, shackling it to the wall behind him and freezing that part of his body in place. "You scream for help and I kill you."

"Kill you?" Rynmar reacted. "Are you fucking mad? It's me, Duncan. I'm your friend. You knew all along that I was aware of all this. You could have trusted me. I wouldn't have told anyone because nobody would have believed me! Why didn't you and Tobias give me a chance to come here with you? I've missed you guys and this is what I get?"

"We couldn't let you come because this world is too dangerous for you!"

"No kidding! You're literally threatening to kill me of course it's dangerous if I'm your enemy! I don't want to be your enemy though. I want to be your friend."

"Not just the danger. Tobias and I live here now. We've given up everything from Earth. You are in no way prepared to do what we've done." The two heard an attempt to get through to the toilets from inside the underground establishment. It was Manes' attempt of getting in. "Is that the Toad Brigade out there coming for me? The people you're wired in with?" Rynmar used his free moving arm and took out the earpiece from his ear, throwing it onto the floor.

"That's Daisy speaking through that. Her and Tranko." Duncan looked at the earpiece now on the floor. He then turned his head to see the microphone and camera not functioning on a different part of the floor. "You wanna know where Peach really is now? Back in England. Apparently when you took the portal earlier you closed it down. She and Ellis are trapped on the other side without a way to come in. Only I was able to through the device you've just frozen on my hand." Duncan took out something from his pocket and presented it to Rynmar. It was a necklace, with the glowing yellow gemstone inside the locket of it.

"This one?" He presented it to his eyes.

"Mmm." Rynmar nodded.

Duncan decided to freeze Rynmar's other arm, trapping him bound to the wall at the back of the bathroom. He walked over to Rynmar, picking up the earpiece in the process and hearing through to the other side.

"This doesn't have a microphone, does it?" Duncan whispered to Rynmar, hearing Daisy's voice on the other end.

Rynmar shook his head. "There's me and two other Koopas: Manes and Mirano. We've all got earpieces."

"And you came here to find me?" Duncan asked, listening to Daisy's voice. She was shouting through her communications and also ordering an operation for Mario, Luigi and the Toad Brigade to make their way to the inner alleys of Webcapstow.

"Not exactly." Rynmar replied. "They might be coming after you but you weren't the priority. The main priority was that there's a clue to finding out about the easy ways in to inner city because there's links to a Hostile Koopa that comes to the brothel. Apparently there were some sort of terrorist attacks that happened here and they say it happened because some Hostile Koopa we're looking for was able to sneak a few others into the city.

"A brothel? Here?" Duncan laughed but on the inside he was confused. "I know there are brothels all over these streets but I went here to eat. Above me is a restaurant."

"I know, I know." Rynmar panicked. "That door that says private? It's the brothel's entrance to the toilets. You remember at the front desk of the restaurant there was that Toad behind the counter? Well the Mirano guy is a regular to the brothel and he got us in here because the Toad gave us a secret entrance down a lot of steps. I can prove to you I'm not bullshitting you if you just open that door." They both heard more knocks, looking towards it. Duncan decided to unfreeze part of Rynmar's left hand – the hand part of the arm wearing the portal device – and allowed it to move. He started trying to take it off but Rynmar kept waving his hand about. "No, please!" He begged. "I need this. It's the only way I can get back home to my family on Earth! I need to be back by 5AM there so my parents won't find out I've been gone!" He made Duncan question his decision. The last thing he'd want to do is cause another family to collapse after the disappearance of another teenage boy. He knew how his own disappearance affected his family and the same for Tobias's. He wouldn't let that happen again. Not on his actions.

"How am I supposed to get out of here then?" Rynmar wasn't able to offer anything plausible for him. He suggested surrendering himself up to the Toad Brigade, fighting those on the outside, leaving through the restaurant which could lead to a long escalating chase, and none of these were good enough for him. He stopped in the middle of the room and went silent, thinking about it…

"Rynmar are you in there?" The two heard a Koopa shouting from the other side. "We're trying to get you out but the door seems to be enchanted."

"Enchanted door." Another Koopa with a different voice said.

"The door is enchanted with a magical lock?" Duncan overheard Daisy scream loudly through the earpiece. "That's probably Duncan in there. The Brigade are on their way to bust him out!"

"Hang in there boy!" The same Koopas started talking to each other.

"Is that an earpiece?" A third Koopa spoke.

"It might be."

"Is that really why you're here then?"
"Are you guys undercover cops or something?"

"It's not why we're here. Duncan's in there, damn it!"

"Duncan?"

"One of the twin humans in the north. The spire-boy!"

"We didn't even know he was here. He's got nothing to do with us!"

"The Toad Brigade are gonna be coming in here thinking they're in the restaurant."

"Go out and round then. The toilets are shared. Leave us out of this mess and don't come back until later."

Duncan and Rynmar were still overhearing a mix of several Koopa voices coming from the brothel side entrance to the toilets, but at the end they started to hear movement. Knowing there could be people on both sides of the toilets now, Duncan moved back to Rynmar to take his portal device again.

"I told you I can't go out the other way." He said to Rynmar after taking off the portal device.

"And I said you can't take that from me!" He cried, unable to do anything about it while being frozen stuck to the wall.

"Don't worry my friend. I'll be back, and I won't be long." He set a new location and then took off his own mark twelve portal device and re-equipped the old version that was temporarily in Rynmar's use. This one detected the user and had a previous binding location set on Earth. "I'm just going to configure some things." He said, eventually disappearing in seconds. Rynmar was now left alone in the room able to hear the outside clearly, except nobody was speaking on the outside anymore, he looked across the room to see his camera and microphone still disabled and far out of his reach. Duncan took the earpiece with him when he warped, instantly making it lose signal and become useless to both of them. He was trapped in here and unable to communicate with everyone as the time went by.

As for Duncan, he reappeared in the large park outside his old school in the middle of the night in England. It was where he last was on Earth when he used the mark ten device for the last time. He was in a spot that was so reliable to him that there were never at any point other people who would come anywhere near this place. It was underneath several trees condensed with each other. Duncan didn't plan on leaving either as all he wanted to do while he was out here was to switch watches. He was now able to rebind a location in this world with his mark twelve device, allowing it to properly teleport him again. That was all. It was time to go back using the mark ten device now given to Rynmar.

After waiting for just over two minutes, Rynmar watched as the bathroom started to glow again. Duncan had reappeared in the room after another successful warp. Upon landing in the Muhu Delfethal plane, he waited until it was convenient enough for him to take off the portal device used by Rynmar. Duncan unfroze his left arm and handed the device back to him. Rynmar was only able to look back at him confused whilst feeling the relief of having it returned back to him.

"What did you do?" Rynmar asked, feeling a bit of excitement. The two were still hearing banging sounds from the Koopas outside, but this time they were from the restaurant's entrance door. The banging noises were larger than usual.

"I went back after the device recognised me as it had a binding spot on Earth and while I was on Earth I was able to rebind a location for my device because it had previously reset when I took the classroom office portal." He returned Rynmar the mark ten portal device freeing him from the wall and allowing him to re-equip it.

"So…" Rynmar wasn't able to contain his excitement well even though his previous encounter with Duncan felt life-threatening to him. "…Are we still friends?" He said back to him while they both equipped their portal devices. While what Rynmar said hit Duncan emotionally, he didn't want it to distract him in his attempt to get out of here.

"We've both gotta get out of here. I can't just have us both warp back to Earth because if you found out I was here after taking the portal from the school, then these are our only way across worlds." Duncan realised. "If I come back through here using the device then I'll end up here and I'll be found. If I come back through via the school then I'll be back in the cave which is probably being looked at, so I'll be found. I have to get out of here." He noticed that the noise from outside was coming towards where he came from. The restaurant toilets were down a staircase which led to here, conveniently sharing with the brothel toilets. The soon-coming arrival of the Toad Brigade caused the other Koopas outside to switch from the brothel entrance to the restaurant entrance, hoping to be with the Brigade when they arrive.

"This is tough for me, Duncan." Rynmar was anxious hearing the noise from outside. "You're my friend from day one, and I don't want to end up making things worse between us, but I don't want to immediately become an enemy of the Toad Brigade either. They'll banish me back home somehow." Duncan walked over to the door leading out to the brothel and removed the magical lock bounded on the door.

"I've got an idea. I'll explain everything to you when we have more time alone together but you've got to play it along with me." He whispered over to Rynmar. "The only way you can stay loyal to the Princesses and help me get out of here… is for you to pretend to have been knocked out by me. I'm going to have to head out this way and you'll just have to stay here. Make up a story or excuse or something." Rynmar slowly walked over to the cubicles, nodding back to him.

"Magic. Yeah, I'll say something about your magic." Before Duncan decided to open the door out to the brothel court-room, he walked back over to Rynmar and offered him a handshake.

"It's good to see you again, friend." The two shook hands. "We'll see each other soon. I will make it so." Rynmar slowly approached him and returned the handshake.

"Good to see you too." He smiled, trying to contain his excitement. "Now… Ugh!" He pretended to be knocked out, walking backwards and falling onto the nearest toilet seat. He made Duncan laugh and smile back at him with emotion. "Now go. Get out of here."

Duncan slowly walked back to the door out to the court-room. Slowly, he opened up the other door to see a very empty brothel hall that he had never seen before or thought existed beneath the restaurant. He was originally only here for food which he was served, but after going to the bathroom and seeing Rynmar, everything changed for him here. He had no idea where to go from here, but after a few seconds, he saw a Koopa just a bit larger than average size walk through some curtains that led to a private booth.

"Spire-boy!" The Koopa pointed out. It was Raiyon. "Apparently you're the one that the Toad Brigade are after tonight." Duncan didn't feel intimidated by the Koopa's appearance, though this Koopa already showed some form of respect towards him and didn't intend to come off as menacing anyway.

"Apparently?" Duncan sounded surprised. "Do we know each other?" He spoke quickly, having no idea who this Koopa is or where he comes from, only that the Koopa's size might correlate with the likelihood of him being wanted by the government or Toad Brigade.

"No." He smiled. "I know all about you though."

"Well if you called me Spire-boy. I don't doubt that, and I'm sure we are already on good terms then?" He quickly interrupted the Koopa to stress a point of good intentions between each other, just in case something would break out between. Soon after, his bodyguards came out from behind the curtains, all armed but not pointing any of their guns towards him.

"Oh of course!" He spoke delinquently. "I should introduce myself to you. I'm Raiyon, first son of Choban and heir to Dargo and to my delight… I see one of the Spire-boys for the first time ever. You must have disagreed to some terms with the Mushroom Kingdom if they are after you!" He chuckled chaotically. Duncan wasn't sure if this person wanted to be a threat or a friend. He started to hear noise coming from inside the bathrooms, the Brigade are likely to have arrived by now.

"Yeah. I've kind of got to get out of here. The Brigade are apparently up above. How do you plan on getting out of here? Considering you're from Dargo, you must be just as wanted as I am." Duncan moved away from the door, siding around the room to get closer to Raiyon and his bodyguards.

"I'm not leaving any time soon." Raiyon laughed. "I'm not leaving until you and I could catch up and have a nice little chat." Hearing noise coming from the men's toilets, Duncan now stood on the other side of the court-room, only a few metres away from Raiyon and his bodyguards. He didn't like the sudden expression change Raiyon went through over the past few seconds, now looking almost demented and insane.

"We may have to do this somewhere else." Duncan suggested. "I don't think we're going to have the time." The bodyguards acted accordingly with Raiyon's thoughts and wishes, approaching Duncan and surrounding him at his spot in the room. All of the bodyguards started to point their guns towards him, pinning him down to where he stood. Raiyon turned and looked at him from up high, getting out his gun.

"We're going to talk right here, right now." He glared.

The noises from upstairs and outside were louder. As Raiyon pointed his gun down to Duncan, they all reacted to hear the sound of a door activating from atop the stairs. Raiyon and his bodyguards lowered the guns pointed towards Duncan and instead faced them to the staircase. While they were looking away and distracted, Duncan moved his right hand slightly, pointed towards the toilets door. The locks on the second door were now disabled.

"Everybody freeze!" Hearing noise coming from upstairs, Duncan lowered his head and hid underneath one of the tables in the room. "Drop your guns and put your hands in the air where we can see them!" Shortly after, the door to the toilets opened as well, and several more Toad Brigade soldiers appeared in the court-room. Looking across, he could see not only Toad Brigade soldiers coming down the steps, but also the Mario Brothers, people he was not expecting.

"You! Under the table, stand up!" He overheard a Toad's voice shout in his direction. With the guns pointing at all people in this room, Duncan had no choice but to stand up and reveal himself to the crowd of people. Upon revealing himself, all the Toads in the room gasped, pointing guns towards him. Many were whispering his name.

"I was wrong to doubt the Queen in bringing the new kid over to here. Who would have thought that he would so easily have been able to lead us straight to you?" Mario taunted Duncan, pointing his gun straight at his eyes. The reaction everyone had towards him even surprised the likes of Raiyon and his bodyguards. While they were also being held at gunpoint, they couldn't help but turn their attention towards Duncan. Before Duncan could speak uninterrupted, Mario continued. "Then there's you. Raiyon is it? That's what others have said. All the way from Dargo. Are you the reason behind the security catastrophe? Are you the person who's been funnelling all these hostile Koopas into our great city allowing them to spread their violence?" He threatened the large Koopa, redirecting the attention back to him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Raiyon replied, avoiding what could genuinely be the truth, but Duncan wasn't a hundred percent sure yet. "I'm actually doing the city a favour. I come here with all my coins and I give it back to your people, and what do I get for it in return? I get held at gunpoint by a bunch of elitist Toads and two measly men with a saint complex. There's a reason so many people turn away from you."

"Ha! That's rich." Mario argued. "Look at you, big and cocky on the outside but tiny and frail on the inside. Besides, I've fought Koopas bigger and tougher than you!"

While Mario and Raiyon were having their showdown in the middle of the court-room, Duncan noticed a door slightly open behind a bar on the left side of the room. Just on the other side of that he could see a Koopa trying to hide and stare through to see the court-room at the same time. Duncan subtly looked back to the centre and then up, noticing a candle-lit chandelier up high. While Mario and Raiyon were still talking to each other, they seemed to have got to a point where they were no longer pointing guns and instead threatening each other over a fight. The Brigade and the bodyguards of Raiyon were still unsure what to do, slightly lowering their guns. After a quick check to see if anyone was looking at Duncan, he decided to act immediately. Duncan raised his hand and quickly hurled a projectile of magical light-spark straight to the top of the chandelier, breaking the chain it was hanging from. As it was falling, he ran backwards and dived over the bar on the left hand side, landing in the doorway as the chandelier smashed into flames right in front of both Raiyon and Mario from either side. While some Toad Brigade soldiers started to fire at Duncan's direction, he managed to make it through the doorway unscathed, pushing the Koopa on the other side in the process. Gunfire broke loose between Raiyon's bodyguards and the Toad Brigade, but Duncan was able to close the door and put another magical lock bound to it, leaving him inside this behind-the-bar area with only himself and another Koopa that presumably worked here. He couldn't hear any more from outside and the Koopa was waffling random words of worry, but Duncan had too much else on his mind. He turned to the Koopa and lit up a flame in his hand, holding the Koopa by the neck and presenting the flame to his face.

"Where are the exits?" He interrogated the Koopa.

"Let me go and I'll lead you out." He let go of the Koopa and extinguished the magical flame in his palm. The Koopa rushed down another hallway which bended round to the right. Following him through the outer halls of this underground brothel, he was eventually led to a secret-looking door behind some red curtains, leading to a long cave system.

"Is it all the way down here?" The cave seemed to go on for miles, but there was a minimal flicker of light in the far distance. The two were running down the passage together, but after the Koopa nodded to Duncan, indicating that a way out was all the way at the end of the passage, he channelled his magic, greatly increasing the speed. He began to create increasing distance between himself and the Koopa, abandoning him in the process. Duncan needed only to get out of here now; he didn't care to make any more connections with anyone from Mushroom City. Enduring all of this just for some food in the end was a big mistake, but he did not regret it at all. Knowing that Rynmar was now here completely changed everything here for him, and he knew that someday he would have to find him again so that the two could speak with each other and that Rynmar could be able to learn his side, the true side of what it's like to be in this world.

The passage ended up leading Duncan all the way out to the woods northwest of Mushroom City, on the edge of what the citizens call The Open Green.

EOC: From now on, all of Duncan's journey will be interlinked without needing an interlude due to his increasing presence in the story. After this chapter, the story will resume through others' journeys that are happening at this time as the next quarter begins afterwards.