Castle Dareth's face rebuilt his body. He grabbed the gun and twisted into a staff instead.
"Grape?" Peach gasped lightly. "Isn't this the form you used on me before? But, you have more of a body this time."
Shi crawled back to the group. "We might have a broken bone. Or...a few. Or maybe a whole skeleton of what bones we have..."
Olly helped them to their feet, and they unfused. Both Olive and Dimentio were badly injured, and Olive was sparking from the neck. Dimentio coughed out a bit of blood.
Grape silently held out her hands, then moved them away from each other. Small pink orbs came from the small purple clouds her hand movements made, and she flicked her fingers forwards to make them move towards Castle Dareth.
Castle Dareth used his staff to destroy the orbs, then fired a beam at Grape's mask.
"You're nothing against me!"
Her form broke into the version Peach had recognized from Sparkle Theater, and Grape shook it off. Grape took it as a personal insult and her hands floated away from her body a bit.
Castle Dareth scoffed. "What are you doing now? Going to shoot more balls at me?"
Peach recognized the move and warned the group to duck. Grape pointed towards the floor, and glowing orbs appeared, long thick beams firing from them. She pointed upwards, the beams following her hand movements.
Castle Dareth blocked them with his staff, then fired a beam at her again. That one shattered her mask, her letting out a scream of agony.
"Grape, no!" Peach cried.
Grape shook it off again. Castle Dareth charged up one more shot.
"This is what you get for fighting against me! Rest in peace, Gwendolyn."
A light blue glow came from the group, and a figure charged towards Castle Dareth. Peach charged a fire, and shot him in the back of the head. He turned around.
"What the-" Olivia fired a beam at him from the other side, and he faced her too. "Stop that!"
Olive shot him in the knee, and Fawful used an ice gun to freeze the leg. The leg crushed under the pressure and he fell. Olly sliced off the arm holding the staff, and Magic broke the staff with her demon form. Rosalina flew up to Peach and held out her wand.
"I won't let you hurt her anymore! You've gone too far, Dareth!" She charged up another beam.
Peter protected the two princesses when Castle Dareth tried to attack them. Princess Shroob fired another shot from her altered gun at his other leg, making him immobile. Antasma and King Boo both shot his body from the left and right sides, slicing it in a near half.
"You can't do this to me!" Castle Dareth screamed. "I am your king!"
"You are nobody's king!" Peach responded.
Bowser breathed fire on his arm, which Daisy punched off shortly afterwards, as Bowser's fire had weakened it enough. David smiled.
Peach and Rosalina finished charging up their finishing blow together. "This is our world, and you'll never take that from us!"
The beam hit Castle Dareth on the nose, his face glowing blue for a second before breaking apart from the impact point. His remaining body crumbled to the floor.
"Peach?" Olly asked, examining her Super Radiant form. "You can use magic?"
Peach looked down at her dress. "Oh! I didn't even notice! I was too focused on protecting Grape that I guess I just wasn't paying attention. But do you want to see what this power can also do?"
Olly and Olivia nodded excitedly.
Peach flew around the most damaged areas, pushing Sparkle into them. Her castle and toad Town, Origami Kingdom, Bowser's Castle, and Shangri Spa were a few of the most damaged, along with the Shroob Mothership and the area of the battle. She did one final spin, and they were all engulfed in light. When the light faded away, everything was repaired, except for Castle Dareth, which was still in pieces. Peach floated to Grape.
"Grape? Are you okay? C-can you hear me?"
"Grape!"
Travis ran over from Peach's Castle, along with most of the Sour Bunch. He slowed to a stop when he saw Grape.
"Grape the Great...?" He muttered.
Her core tilted downwards slightly, then she held up a single finger. Her body fell apart, and Grape's core vanished. Her body was hanging limply in the air until purple lines with small orbs on the ends of them retreated to her mask. She twitched her body back straight, her brooch glowing purple, and then floated up a bit when the glow coming from her brooch stopped. She grabbed her head, clearly exhausted.
"Hello, my Bunchlings..."
"Madame Grape!" Robbie cried, and tackled her. He hugged her waist. "I thought you were done for!"
"I'm fine, Robbie." She moved his hat slightly and pat his head.
"Madame Grape!"
The rest of the Sour Bunch, including Travis, tackled her to the floor. She let out a short scream as she fell, and they all started talking at the same time about how worried they were for her. Grape looked at Peach.
"See?" Peach said with a smile. "They really like you. No matter what the Elder Bunch says, you're a great leader."
"We did it!" Daisy yelled.
"Yeah! Take that, invader!" Bowser pumped his fist.
"You were great out there," Rosalina told Bowser.
"Huh? Me?"
"Of course. You were the one who shut down the castle in the first place, right? And you helped stop him when Peach and I needed time to prepare." She kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Bowsie."
His face turned bright red. "I-I uh b-boboba..." He giggled weirdly, rubbing the cheek she kissed.
Olivia hugged Olly. "We did it! This is finally over! We found out all we could about Sandi and Mani on our own, we trained our powers, we stopped Magic and Magica, helped Olive, and finished off Darethend once and for all."
Olly was crying. "Y-yeah...! But I never felt like myself in a while and I thought I would feel better after all of this...Waaa! Don't scare me like that again, Livi!"
"Ols, I wouldn't dream of scaring you! Just next time, include me in your adventures, okay?"
Dimentio went over to David, who was laying against a rock while waiting for some medical help for his leg. "I guess this is goodbye."
"Goodbye?" David asked. "Why?"
"You need to go back home, father. We can't keep the Rift open, because what if something like this happens again?"
"Dimentio, you're my son. I would never leave you, not again. I feel so bad about what Sandrahara did, and I want to make it up to you. Leave the Rift open. It's about time that our two worlds finally met. Because of you, we were able to create unity between our worlds. I know you're from mine, but this place was your home, and I'll never take that away from you." He sat up a bit. "Can you help me stand?"
Fawful came over, carrying a crutch he had been making for a while. "Here. Fawful made this for you." He handed it to David.
David tucked it under his arm and used the stability of it to push himself to his feet. Dimentio rubbed his wrist.
"Father, can I tell you something?"
"Yes? What's been bothering you?"
"I knew Grape was my half sister from Darethend, but I don't know if it's true. Can you tell me the story?"
"Grape's name...Gwendolyn...That was the name we were to give you if you were female. When I married Tinala, she was a powerless human. She was like me and you, but she was born without powers. In order to make us even, I separated my power from me. I was going to split it in half to give half to her. But Darethend's guards burst in and stole her, and my magic. I found out later they'd lost the magic, but killed Tinala. It was like I was cursed to never have a loving family. But if Grape is my lost magic from long ago...how is she alive? Magic is only a thing, and she moves, and breathes. Well, I'm not sure about the 'breathing' part, but I know for certain that she's alive."
Dimentio snickered. "You're so funny!"
David dropped his crutch, wrapping his arms around Dimentio. "I'm so glad that both of my children are safe. But if you don't want to be a Midnite, what would your last name be?"
Dimentio started crying. "Y-you know what? I-I've actually changed m-my mind. If you're m-my father...then I wouldn't mind being a Midnite after all."
Dimentio returned the hug, Fawful smiling wider at them. Princess Shroob came to Fawful, handing him the altered blaster.
"Fawful can have it?"
She nodded.
"Fawful can keep it? For the eternity?"
She nodded again.
Fawful handed her a new brooch. "Fawful was working on this too. It has the translator inside. So your voice of beauty won't be silenced anymore."
She snatched it from him and put it on, turning it on. She hugged him, then got off quickly.
"That never happened, got it?"
Fawful nodded.
Peach gave Mario a hug and a kiss.
"You-a kicked butt!" Mario cheered.
"Where were you?" Peach asked.
"Me and-a Weegee were inside of his cell the whole time. It was on his-a arm."
King Boo held up his small hand to Antasma. "High five? Come on, you know you want to!"
Antasma sighed and clapped his hand against King Boo's.
King Boo beamed, but said nothing.
Peach held out a hand to Grape. "We can still be rivals, if you want."
Grape accepted her hand, and peach pulled her to her feet. "I'll...think about it. You really are a sweet fruit, Peach, but I am still upset at you for nearly killing me."
"Understandable."
David and Dimentio went to Grape.
"Oh, it's you again."
David nodded. "Can I just do something real quick?"
"Sure? Do you need me to move or-"
He hugged her, her hat falling off. He stayed there for about five seconds before he shoved him off, shaking.
"Don't touch me, ever again." She accepted her had from a Sour Bunch member. "I apologize, it's just that...I don't like people touching me and..."
"I get it. I'm sorry. Grape, my dear, if you want to continue the way you are, that's completely fine. But I'll always be here if you ever want to join the Midnite family."
"Call me Madame Grape; and we're leaving." She summoned a portal. "Come, we'll go home now."
"We can't go empty handed!" Attila said.
Grape looked towards the rubble, and she went over and picked up Darethend's crown. "We'll take this. He's not around anymore to stop us from taking this as a little souvenir, now is he?"
The Sour Bunch left through the portal as Grape returned to it. She looked into it, then to Peach with a smile.
"I hope to see you again soon, Princess Peach."
Peach curtsied. "Me too."
Grape left, and the portal shut.
"Let's keep the action down to a minimum this time," Olly joked.
"What should we do about the castle?"
Olly looked at it. "It's in your kingdom territory. You decide."
Peach tapped her cheek. "Hm...I think I have an idea, but it'll take lots of work."
"We can help you with it!" Olivia said, finally finding how to return to normal. "But we should probably let this blow over first. It'll give people time to heal, and for the fear to melt away."
"I can't wait to see what you do with the rubble," Mario said.
"Oh no, Mr. Construction Man! You're helping me with it."
Bowser smiled. "Thanks for fixing my castle! Once things have calmed down though, expect the monthly kidnappings to start again!"
They all laughed.