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)

26. Reunion

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

Reunion

No note of any importance for this chapter, other than there may be some references to other things.

March 18, 2015 – Evening

Did you think there was more to their connection? Those two were involved a lot, yes, but they rarely crossed paths. It begs the question do they even know each other's names? You didn't have to see through his memories, you know. Why couldn't you have just asked him yourself? He's not biased like the Red Martyrs would have been.

Duncan's head lifted itself up after being finished with the recollection of one of Choban's memories. He stood in the waters and looked across to see the shadowy figure of Tony Barron re-morph back into its human form. He looked to his left and saw Choban starting to wake up. Perhaps this was the reason why the memory simulation ended unusually. Yes, the scenario involving Koopak's capture was finished, but it lingered for another minute, even with Choban in the vision already disappearing for several minutes beforehand.

"Toiling and playing about with the Pensieve is very dangerous you know." Choban woke up and leaned his head up to look back at Duncan and the shadowy figure. "I suppose Brogadan has taught you enough to be able to use it wisely… how was it that you took that memory from me so easily? Are you another wand-less sorcerer like myself?"

"I want to know everything." Duncan replied sharply, lighting his hands up to answer Choban's question at the same time.

"What was it about Koopak that made you so curious?"

"The Red Martyrs told a different story." He replied, narrating his experience to the Koopa. "All the books, tomes and transcripts that used to be inside that Aypyidaw library told different accounts of what happened in the war. They told the Kingdoms of the south that their Kings and Queens and Princes perished in fighting to restore order to the northern lands. They spoke nothing of these shadowy figures and what they did. They spoke nothing of who leads them and they spoke nothing of those who tampered with them. They labelled Koopak as a former associate of Bowser who betrayed them, yet they said almost nothing about your existence. You think the Mushroom Kingdom sees you as a threat? Brother, almost the entirety of the populace doesn't even know about your existence. As for Koopak? Well… The Kingdoms and the Red Martyrs labelled him as such an evil threat and a dangerous man that the entire family is a threat. His sons, even his grandson are wanted by the Kingdoms to this day, though… I think to them… they are dead. Little do you know that Koopak and Joharnés are so close you wouldn't even believe it if I told you where they were." Choban's face shielded his fright. He looked strong and firm but what was told to him filled him with worry. Worry not for danger of anything to happen in the future, but worry that even he felt completely lied to. Did the Dargovi have to remain with closed borders for this entire time? "Did you ever hear about what happened in Nivurbia?" Duncan spoke again, interrupting Choban's train of thought, but as Choban was listening, the notion of an event in Nivurbia brought his attention back to the kid.

"N-Nivurbia?" He tilted his head. "What happened in Nivurbia?"

"Ask this guy." Duncan pointed with his thumb to the shadowy figure, which turned slowly to face Choban. He said nothing back and preferred not to, leaving Choban with confusion but also a desire to learn what he was on about.

"I know you tampered with my memories, child." Choban slandered Duncan. "That tome. That magically enchanted transcript… it was…"

"An agreement." Duncan sniggered. "It took me a while to realise. There's a reason that Koopak the Second was able to easily… engage with people like… Brogadan? Except it wasn't him that time."

"Where is he? Where is Koopak?" Choban shouted, echoing through the cave and interrupting the shadowy figure before it could speak to explain. "Whatever. You're a being of great imbued power, yet you spend your time here prancing about with delicate things with this… child, or you're out there dealing with the matters of a criminal's son. The Red Martyrs were right to label Koopak as a dangerous figure, and they were right to hide me out of it all."

"You dare confront the shadows, Choban?" The shadowy figure took its form of darkness and flew over to the Koopa, feeling threatened by not only his words but now his presence in the cave.

"You're no fiend, just a façade." The shadows tried to play with Choban's mind, but Duncan now witnessed his use of magic against the shadows. Choban pushed his hands forward and shined magical luminous energy at the shadows, wrapping it around him and trapping him. "Weak dark beings. My daughter is in control of one of you. You're a fraud, Brogadan." The shadowy figure then screamed a deep enchantment to try and fear Choban, but the Koopa hurled the shadows far into the cave and then beneath the surface. "Back to the underworld with you shadows."

The darkness and the screams disappeared, leaving only echoes of a trace.

Like most times, Duncan deliberately stayed neutral. It was his intentions the whole time. He knew of some of Choban's aspirations, so this was nothing to him. The thing is he wouldn't consider the shadowy figures to be on a 'side' either. He looked back at Choban taking heavy breaths, seeing his eyes link with his own.

"You. You're coming with me." Choban demanded. "Leave this Pensieve alone. It's not a toy." He then casted another magical spell between himself and Duncan, creating a binding line of light that linked the two together, essentially keeping the two from being separated. Duncan sighed with immense frustration, as while he knew of what this enchantment was, he didn't know enough magical knowledge to deal with these things. He wasn't necessarily proficient enough to undo this yet.

"Oh, fucking hell." He groaned. "Why did you have to do this?"

"Because I said so." Choban half-smiled.

Late Evening

Back in the Dargovi getaway estate, all the humans that were now residing there were given enough facilities to entertain themselves while they were there, especially within areas strictly indoors. Thanks to Rumiko's hospitality, they were all given nice meals for dinner, prepared to standards nowhere near that of Peach's castle in Mushroom City, but still in a friendly manner so that everyone was happy eating together. The main dining area which was temporarily redesigned to be like a canteen was where everyone ate together. The people eating here were Tom, Toby, Will, Jaapayo, and Tobias. While there were some strong friendship bonds between some of them, some of these people didn't know eachother at all. Some connections between these five people involved people who had barely spoken at all to eachother and this was the first day where Jaapayo had ever seen Tobias. There was extreme reliance on the friendship between Tom, Toby and Will to keep everything from becoming rather awkward between anybody.

"So…" While this was quite far into the dinner-time, Jaapayo had never instigated a conversation between Tobias and himself. They had never addressed one another at the table yet and only spoke when speaking to the other three about topics in general, but Jaapayo spoke up now, getting Tobias' attention. "…how comes you haven't taken into magic as much as your friend has?" Referring to Duncan, Jaapayo knew that Tobias was like him in the sense that they both used almost paradoxical loopholes in the variant of the portal devices they used to essentially get free time to learn new things, but he never saw Tobias ever do anything supernatural.

"Well… I can't say that I've prevented myself from getting into it. I mean, it's not for everybody right? Evidently, if it was I'm sure we'd all learn a few things for our own benefit. Sadly, unlike him, no matter how much I can try, I can't adapt to it. Whether it's an ability I just can't seem to master or I just simply as me am not to be able to, I haven't been able to practice it well." During Tobias' response to Jaapayo, Toby eyed at Tom, surprised to see their first interaction between eachother. It didn't seem like a good one either, as they could tell that Tobias was rather embarrassed to talk about it. "I will say that I've made good use of learning things. I mean, look at these…" He then flexed his muscles. The people still forget sometimes that Tobias is only fifteen but looks tall enough and bulked out to be an adult man in the peak of his appearance. He was very tall, taller than some of the others too, definitely six-foot-something. Technically, he was still growing too.

"I'm still a bit out of the loop with some other things too if you don't mind asking." Jaapayo scratched his scalp. "How was it exactly that you two came to this world? I know that you two were here well before Tom and the others were, that was a given, but… was it 2008?"

"It was." Tobias nodded. "I think Duncan and I both agreed to eachother to believe that how we entered this world wasn't something we just stumbled upon, well… it could have been by sheer coincidence, but the portal we found in Spain… I don't think it was meant to be there… and we still don't know who opened it. It was nobody here, that's for sure, and we still can't figure out if we were… 'destined' to cross this portal?" As most people were still eating, they received nods of acknowledgement back from them.

"So it still remains a mystery to you then?" Jaapayo assumed, speaking with his mouth half-full from food.

"Yeah…" Tobias replied, sipping from his glass of water. "What about you? Are you also from Earth or are you a native… A.K.A somebody descended from people who came here many hundreds of years ago?"

Jaapayo laughed. "I'm of the latter, just like the Mario brothers. I've lived here my entire life but I will admit I have been to Earth a couple times. I do know about a few things there. Obviously I know about the… America and the Brooklyn and the New York City etcetera, but that's about it really... besides the Spain and the England previously aforementioned. It's a place I wouldn't want to live in myself. There's hardly any freedom even though that place is supposed to be a land of the free. I wonder what it's like on other places. It must be so horrible."

"Whereabouts in these lands do you originally come from then? As someone who's worked on both sides of the mountains and at both ends of the mountains you're quite a nomadic person, but where did you grow up?" While Tobias and Jaapayo were conversing, Tom could only listen and be happy that all the human friends he knew around here – regardless of their age and whether they were native to Earth or not – were getting along well with eachother.

Jaapayo coughed to clear his throat and let his remaining food go down before speaking clearly, addressing the question. "I actually come from this island off of the Mushroom Kingdom, a small island called Mar. I don't know if you've heard of it before, you might have. It's famous for the Shy Guy Falls racetrack, though none of the inhabitants really cared for it. I don't think anyone there actually likes it to be honest with you, wait, there was a race there, wasn't there? Then you're definitely going to know about it." He looked over to Tom, knowing that he was part of one of the races there in the Bowser's Trial of a Double Dash tournament, seeing him nod in agreement. "After all, it's hardly got anything to do with Shy Guys anyway. They don't live there. The racing production companies just saw some very nice waterfalls on our island and thought 'why don't we just ruin it by putting a new anti-gravity race track along it?' While it's not in proper use anymore, it won't ever look as good as it used to. It's a mess now."

"So they just built tracks that just appealed to people's interests. Flavour-themed tracks should we say?" Tom now took part in the conversation, trying to get a few of his wondered thoughts answered to.

"Exactly!" Jaapayo agreed. "I mean… was your one Airship Fortress, right? Did you ever see the outskirts of that place? It's a wasteland. Nobody's there. These tracks, most of the time, have hardly to do with anything related to the area. I mean, there's no real fortress is there, just flavour content." The two were going to go into a deep conversation about the complexities and conspiracies behind the race tracks that were created and implemented into the Grand Prix series that used to be a major sporting event in these lands, but everyone's attention was caught and diverted elsewhere as a familiar face emerged from the doorway at the end of the dining room. To some of the people here it had been only a week since they last saw this person, but to Tom it had been months and to Jaapayo… this was also his first time meeting him. Duncan had finally arrived to Résethal, and everyone was in shock, despite some of them knowing that he would be venturing here. Some got out of their chairs, and Tobias went all the way to rush over to him, exchanging a big hug with him. A few of them said hello over Tobias' words while hugging him.

"It's dangerous out there man. Was it easy to get here?" He asked after the hug, going back to his seat at the table. Duncan walked over to the chair at the near end of the table, sitting directly opposite Toby now with Jaapayo on his right and Tobias on his left.

"Not really, but Choban helped me out. He's gone back to his place now. He said that this was some sort of… hostel for us?"

"Yeah." Tom agreed.

"Anyway." Duncan looked back to Tobias with a sigh of frustration. Everyone else was surprised to see him in such a low mood considering he was usually a very upbeat young boy. "I've got some bad news. Rynmar's here. Not with me, just… in general."

"What do you mean, like lost?" Tobias replied back in a worrisome high-pitched tone.

"Who's Rynmar?" Tom also asked, expressing his concern. "Is he-?"

"He's a friend of ours from school. He may have been in one of your old classes. I can't remember."

"He's… blonde? With the long last name, right? Y-something." Duncan and Tom nodded to eachother, getting on the same page. It turns out that Tom had some vague familiarity to the name, though he doesn't remember much about him.

"It's a bit complicated his case. I bumped into him by sheer coincidence in Mushroom City suburb. He told me that Peach brought him into the world and she's using him as a sort of agent to try and find us… well he managed to do that, but he was there for another thing, something to do with a brothel." Duncan felt very disappointed in himself, explaining to Tobias and the others speaking very quickly. "I had a feeling they were going to get into the world but… he'd had already been in it before I saw him. Peach gave him a portal device man. Oh and…" He then looked to Tom as he took something out of his pocket. It was a glowing amber socket gem that only Tom recognised immediately. His eyes widened upon seeing it and he quickly got out of his chair and rushed over to it. "I closed the portal." He said as Tom snatched the gem from him. "It needs to be closed for now."

"So Peach let another student into this world… is he here now, what did you say to him?" Tom asked as he went back to his seat at the table.

"Did you even talk to him?" Toby added, because it wasn't known to them that Duncan actually talked him but instead just seeing him one time perhaps passing by.

"I did yes, and he saw me. As I said, he was working for the princesses. I remember him mentioning Daisy more than Peach actually, despite Peach being the one to bring him over." He put his feet up on the table, trying his best not to touch anyone else's plates with his big shoes and also trying to make himself comfortable in this new residence he would supposedly be staying at now with the others. "We couldn't stay together for long, but he told me that he was kept in the castle and under their protection. I don't know if he's here right now but he can be with the portal device. That's all I know of him being here so far; that and him being in Mushroom City."

"So is he an enemy or-?" Will wondered, wanting answers.

"No. You couldn't imagine how both happy and upset he was to see me. I mean…" Duncan started to get emotional again recalling the time spent with Rynmar in the bathrooms underneath the restaurant and next to the brothel. "…I threatened him and he was still super smiling to me. I told him we'd meet eachother again."

"I feel so bad now as well." Tobias added to the discomforting feel in the room. "He always used to keep questioning it in those final days. At least he knows it's real."

"That's not all of it though. I think Ellis knows about it too. Again as I said before, she was just… there in the middle of the night outside the school. There's no other reason why she'd be there if Rynmar's also here."

"So what you're telling me is…" Toby spoke over Duncan. "…there are two other people just like you lot, and they're coming over? We need them." Everyone looked at Toby with looks of either confusion or sincerity. Some thought he may be out of pocket or out of touch with reality in the sense that these were still children after all, but maybe he had a point. "They're coming to this land with fresh mindsets. They need to be told the truth. They need to know from early on who the real threats are. If this Rynmar kid is under Peach's jurisdiction, then she'll plague his mind with ill-gotten statements about us, labelling us as the bad guys. Am I not wrong? Just because Nintendo made it this way, doesn't mean it's the truth."

"He's out of line, but he's right." Will added. "These are kids after all, but if they're here out of their own free will, then they may as well be here where it may be safer, right? I mean… Choban said it would be safe? Actually, come to think about it."

"We will be safe here." Jaapayo interrupted, reassuring Will. "I never brought this up earlier, but I know Choban, even from before this year."

LATER THAT NIGHT…

After the dinner shared by everyone at the table, most people parted ways to do their own things. It was now around midnight, and Tom left his bedroom in the getaway villa to go outside near one of the balconies where he saw Duncan, presumably unable to sleep. He thought it was strange to see him alone out here looking up at the night sky, especially when it wasn't as warm as it used to be a few weeks ago. Tom could feel the coldish winds coming from the western shores and Duncan was staring out to them.

"Can't get to sleep?" Tom opened up with an assumption. "Or is it just getting used to this place. Trust me, it's… it doesn't get better than this really."

"No I err… I just can't sleep. I'd prefer to sleep in my own room anyways. That's how I've usually preferred it. Don't let the Isle Port place fool you I didn't like the way the beds were." Duncan said back anxiously, still looking out to sea. Tom stood next to him and rested his arms over the edge with him, taking in the breeze despite it being slightly too cold for comfort. It was likely the silence that made him enjoy being out here. There weren't any big waves so they couldn't hear anything nearby.

"I forgot to ask earlier, did you happen to figure out where any of the other boys were after that night? It's been a week and I still haven't heard back from any of George, Jack, Luke, Ronald or Enrique." Duncan turned his head slightly away at the end of Tom's speech, again anxious to hear some of those names.

"Well, I was with some of them at the beginning of the separation. Ronald for all we know is still at that home in Zeltarc, and Enrique… no idea. One minute he was on the news next minute he's disappeared again. I hate to break it to you but I've still heard nothing from the others. Maybe that's a good thing though, maybe them being unknown means they're less likely to be caught by the authorities. My real concern is Rynmar and Ellis. I never wanted them to know about this. I don't know how they found out either but what I do know is that Peach was involved somehow."

"Tell me what really happened." Tom turned sideways, asking him bluntly. He even nudged Duncan to make him turn his way. "I know those kids too, not as much as you, but I do know them. Anybody with the state of this world now should not be allowed in this land, for their own safety.

"I wish I could tell you his side of this, but all I can really tell you is what I saw. He was in these restaurant toilets with me, he told me he was wired to Daisy, he was helping them with some operation irrelevant to what I was doing but also wanted me to go with him back to the castle, and…" He paused for a few seconds, trying to remember everything. "…He had a portal device. I pray that thing runs out of battery while he's on Earth because I don't want him walking through the Mushroom Kingdom alone."

"What about Ellis?" Tom then asked. "Do you think she's in the Mushroom Kingdom as well?"

"Ellis, I hope not." Duncan recalled his brief encounter with her outside his old school. "I only saw her once and I saw her back. She was facing the fence while I was back at the park near the school. The only way she would be here is if she somehow beat me to the portal, which requires knowing where it is. So I don't think she's across-world." He acknowledged the possibility. The two ruled it out, establishing that only Rynmar has a device. With the portal at the school currently closed, it was certain that there would be no way she could cross the worlds.

"What are we going to do about Rynmar then?"

Duncan wasn't sure at first when Tom asked him, so much so that he couldn't figure something out immediately or even with a few seconds of thought.

"Excuse me for a few seconds." Duncan turned around and walked a few metres away from Tom. He looked to his wrist and used the other device on it, the black hole time watch. Tom watched as Duncan created another portal the exact size of his body shape and vanished within less than a second… only to reappear a few seconds later. "I've figured it out." Tom nodded, wanting him to elaborate. "I'm going to go back to Earth… now, actually. I'll be… less than an hour I'd say. I'm going to go to Rynmar's house and wake him up if he's at his house, that is. If not, then I'll do it some other time or way, maybe in the morning while he's at school. I'll have to be very quiet and discreet about it too. Nobody must be able to see me." Duncan was relying that the other option was the way to go. "If he is sleeping in his room at his house at this moment in time though, I'll wake him up… and we'll have a little talk about it all. I'll tell you everything in the morning or when I get back if you're still awake."

"You can tell me in the morning." Tom yawned. "I'm probably going to head to bed now."

"Alright." As he watched Tom go back inside the building, Duncan briefly looked up to the sky for a few second before using his portal device to switch back to Earth.

…

With this one, he appeared back where he last stood on this world; right beside the small lake in the park next to his old school. The weather was completely different here than back in Dargo. With the temperature being significantly cooler and there also being some light rain, Duncan hurried through the trees along the boating lake and headed to the edge of the park. Once he reached the gates, he saw a view of the road and the surroundings showed him how quiet it was at this time of night. It was just gone five in the morning, and without the sound of fine rain he would be hearing complete silence. A nautical twilight. The sky was very dark and gloomy but not pitch-black, and the only lights were that of the street lamps. Even though he was near a road, there were no signs of people awake anywhere around him. No cars were driving down the street and no people were walking down the roads. Lacking a bit of confidence, this was when Duncan decided to use a second black hole watch portal, going in it and coming out again a few seconds later, having learned new things and spending an unknown but considerably longer time doing so.

Channelling magic, he shot up into the air at rapid speed, reaching a height of about two hundred metres before immediately pushing himself at rapid speed in an eastward direction, heading towards Rynmar's house in a matter of less than a minute, clocking at a speed of about two hundred metres per second. He greatly decelerated upon reaching above the road of his friend and fell down the sky, landing ever so graciously on the roof of Rynmar's house. Trying to make as little noise as possible, Duncan now crawled along the brick tiling of the roof and tried to remember which window would correspond to Rynmar's bedroom. He managed to figure out the right one, and here he lowered his body down the roof and gave a quiet knock on the window, waking the boy up. Duncan acrobatically lowered his body from the roof and clinged on to the side of the window using both his strength and channelled magical force. Rynmar was shocked to see him more so than to see him being able to cling on to the thin window while keeping balance. Amazed to see him, Rynmar opened up the window and allowed Duncan to crawl through. He moved almost like a spider to gently reach the floor without making much noise.

"Have you been sleeping?" Duncan whispered to him first, Rynmar still shocked that he was here in his bedroom.

"No-no. I mean yes, yes. Sorry, yes." Rynmar was still not fully focused, overwhelmed by his friend's presence. He couldn't even recall if he had ever invited Duncan round to his house when they were younger. "Yes I have been sleeping."

"Good. Remember when I said we were going to meet again? Well, I need to borrow your watch for just a moment. Do you have it on you?" He spoke quietly, noticing that his door was closed. There was no other sound to be heard, just the rain from the outside. Everyone else in the house was still asleep.

"I do, are you going back?" He wondered. "Don't go back." He then said out of anxiety. "I can hardly get a minute with you before you disappear again. Do you know how frustrating this has been for me?"

"Ryn, we're both going back." Duncan tried to calm him down as he noticed the boy raising his whispering volume to a rather alarming level of noise. "I just… I need to figure things out." He sighed and at on Rynmar's bed, feeling the warmth of the mattress from a body using it for hours. He found it very comfy and fitting, almost making him start to feel sleepy as well. He was tired enough; not only from staying up late in Muhu Delfethal but also using a lot of energy in quickly reaching here from the school park.

"What's the problem? Are you trying to meet up with me in the other world? Why don't we just go back to the school? Didn't you close it, you can just reopen it?" Duncan shushed him. He knew that Rynmar wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of these situations and wanted him to stay silent while he thought in his mind.

"Where are you?" He whispered to him. "In the other world, where is your location?" After a few seconds of thinking, Duncan realised that his original plan that he spent an unknown but considerably long amount of time thinking about wouldn't actually work out. Waiting for Rynmar's response, Duncan noticed that the portal device watch he saw Rynmar using was fully charged. "Fully charged?" He whispered and wondered out loud.

"I'm in a town… a Toad town but not Toad Town. The one where Toadsworth lives, do you know that one?" Duncan shook his head, and to Rynmar's disappointment he wasn't looking very happy either. "What's wrong?"

"It's just… these are really bad times for you to be here for the first proper time. My location with my current watch is so far away right now, and it's where Tom and Tobias are. With everything going on right now, it's safest for you to be there but I don't really know how I can get you there. I mean, if I used my location last used from the watch you have, then yeah I'd be right back in that bathroom, but in order to help you… it's gonna take a lot more time than what we have available." Duncan was wholeheartedly confused now and just sat on Rynmar's bed in silence. Rynmar couldn't even comprehend what to do now. His missing friend for months shows up to his bedroom window at five in the morning and is now sitting on his bed looking more defeated than ever. "I'd need to…" He began waffling, half in his mind and half out loud. "…to maybe check Isle Port…" Half of what he was saying was mouthing and the other half was quiet whispers. "…but that's been burned down… I need another portal device, preferably one that I have already used. Well, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to help you tonight." Duncan looked out of the window and started to notice the sky getting slightly brighter. It was foredawn and people could be starting to wake up if they had early starts to their day. Whatever he could do with Rynmar would take too much time now, and he knew that he couldn't help Rynmar at this point in time.

"What are you going to do then?" Rynmar pleaded. "You've got to help me at least. I don't think the Toads like me. The Toadette girl doesn't; it sounded that way at least when I encountered her."

"I need you to give me back the portal device." His emotions sunk into sadness. After hearing what Duncan asked from him he immediately hesitated and refused.

"I'm not going to let you do that. I'm sorry." Rynmar slowly walked towards his door, almost threatening Duncan with other actions that he insinuated could be exposing him. "You're one of my best friends man… you come in to my house and tell me this after all the suffering I've endured being taken for a fool into thinking you weren't gone. I was right all along. Duncan, you can trust me, please let me keep it!" He raised his voice slightly but didn't touch the door just yet.

"Fine." He had a slight feeling that he could trust Rynmar. He could tell from his voice getting higher pitched and his body looking more anxious. He deeply missed him, but he also noticed that Duncan may have lost his sense of emotion with everything else he has sacrificed to live the life he lives. "Don't go back yet, though." He said again, struggling to give a concrete plan to Rynmar. "I do have one idea, actually."

"What's that?"

"You see, I can probably get to you whilst storing my location on my current wristwatch. In order to do that though, I'd need a different watch. The one you have, when assigned to me, would send me back to Webcapstow, but my current one would send me to where I was last. I can't help you if I did this because then you'd not have your portal device watch to travel between the worlds, unless I overwrite my location on my current device, but I can't do that, not with what's going on."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take Tobias' watch. I'm going to borrow it… and I'll assign myself on that watch to a location close to you by borrowing your watch to get me there. It's complicated I know… so many loopholes and reciprocity, but I'm sure it's going to work." He didn't care that much if Rynmar understood everything or not; what mattered to him is that Rynmar forgets about this for now. "Anyways, I'm going to disappear now, but I'll come back again… probably tomorrow as previously mentioned. Did I mention that? I think I did."

"Wait, what time tomorrow anyway?" Rynmar walked back to his bed as he watched Duncan reach up to the window again. "Are you talking tomorrow as in tonight or tomorrow around this time or tomorrow night?"

"I'll be back, most likely around this time tomorrow. I'm sorry I'm having to climb in to your bedroom like this, but I'll have to do it again anyway. You get yourself a little more sleep now and don't think about any of this until around this time tomorrow." Duncan opened up the window and felt bliss from hearing the fine rain still pouring down and the breeze from outside. "Just don't think about it, okay?"

"I mean… it's gonna be hard, right? Fine. I trust you." Rynmar joked to Duncan as he closed the window on him outside. He watched as Duncan crawled around the side of the house and jumped onto the road in front of his drive. Duncan hoped that Rynmar would act normal and go to sleep again.

…

Conveniently, Rynmar lived very close to an open field with surrounding trees. There was definitely a place Duncan was able to go in order to travel between the worlds without being seen. Back in Dargo now, he returned to exactly where he was before. The weather was warmer and the sky was darker. It was nearly one in the morning in this world, and Tom was surely asleep by now.

The major problem Duncan now faced was the issue of sleep. Usually, he could technically stay awake forever by recharging in his own hub created from the black hole time watch, but in a case like this with everyone residing in this sort of hostel area, it would be expected of him to go to sleep. Even Tobias was sleeping here, as he must have realised that it wasn't worth staying up for this period of time. Nothing local was happening.

Duncan couldn't sleep now even if he tried however. There was always a thought bothering him in his mind, with a certain one in particular being a possible grudge Choban has over him, which could be the explanation as to why he didn't want him at the Pensieve underground anymore, and why he linked himself with him together just so that they could get out and go back to this place. Duncan wasn't tired and he didn't want to sleep, so he decided to stay awake, walking around the compound whilst avoiding any of the night-watch patrol Koopas around the edges of the area. After some investigations, he learned that Tom was wrong about Choban after all. He hadn't left… yet. What Duncan saw through one of the front windows of the compound was Choban walking and talking with some Koopas Duncan had never seen before. Additionally, there were several large trucks filled with crates all parked outside. Trying to get a closer look at the crates, he noticed everything that was inside them. Guns, ammunition, all types of rifles. Unfortunately, if Duncan were to try and get a closer look or even step outside to see what was going on, Choban would notice, and the trust between them could deteriorate. He wouldn't be able to scout this one out and instead decided to stay put at the window.

Meanwhile, down at the front gates of the compound, Choban remained standing in front of the trucks, seeing the crates of guns and ammunition get checked and put back into the vehicles, ready to be sent off back to the Dargo city centre. All Duncan could do was open the window slightly so he may be able to hear what was being said.

"How many new units did we receive in total then?" Choban stood by some of the remaining crates and asked one of his advisors with his usual low-pitched husk of a voice.

"Three thousand extra." The advisor replied, watching the crates get shipped back into the trucks.

"What about the others?"

"One thousand to Zarkan, three hundred to Zerkhen, and five hundred to the Takharim."

"And you wonder why I am doing what I am doing to my children. What is really should be is four-thousand eight hundred to us. We need it all if we want to lay waste to the south. It's still not enough. I may need to have a few words with our 'dealer' when he is next in the land."

"I'm afraid that might be another week at least, boss." The advisor said with a worrisome tone. Choban sighed, and it was at this point where another of his advisors came rushing from further to the left.

"You've been summoned to the beachfront." The second advisor spoke to him loudly and firmly. "All of us are. It's Taelin, and he said he's received other news from the dealer." Choban's eyes widened with surprised. Quickly, all of his henchmen and advisors followed him as he rushed down the side of the compound and round to the beachfront. Overlooking from the edge, he saw another boat docked up against the shores, not too far away from the submarine's docking area. There were several other people down by the beach, all standing and waiting for him to venture down and meet with them. Everyone down there was a Koopa, and one he immediately recognised was his own son Bertram. Choban hurried quickly down the steps to the beach front and rushed through the wet sands to where they were all standing. It was only when he was down at the beachfront did he catch everyone distinctly down here, for behind the Koopas were two other humans, not what he saw earlier. There was Bertram on the left, remaining silent, and Taelin on the right with a few Koopas standing behind him, but in front of them all was Tarren, standing and looking somewhat healthier than what others told about him previously. The reason for this was soon explained visually as he was holding on to the corpse of Princess Éclair, only it was looking severely dark and rotting and even partially magically vaporised. Everyone speaking from here on was speaking in old Koopish.

"Mister Tarren, I'm delighted to see the ritual worked for you successfully." While it looked evident that Tarren was looking somewhat healthier, the Galaxyë human soon made it clear that something was not right in him and that it wasn't as to how Choban expected it. The human threw the rotting corpse – now pretty much just clothes and bones – and groaned back at the Koopa.

"You make me sick." Tarren snapped back at Choban, who quickly tried to disregard the remark made at him.

"Taelin claims that he has news regarding the weapons dealer, which is why I was summoned here tonight. What I wasn't told about was the grief I was going to get by you, who refused to come back with my children initially… and you… son… what do you have to say about this?"

"I'll do the talking from here." Taelin spoke over anyone else and stood forward. "The dealer says that he will suspend business if there cannot be peace kept in the north after what recently happened in Aypyidaw. He says that it is up to you to keep the north in order, otherwise he will suspend the deal with the weapons."

"What did you say?" Tarren snapped at Taelin in new Koopish, before proceeding to speak back in Old Koopish. "You told me it was other shit! You tell me that I take command now I am here! I am in charge of the weapons!" His voice was nasally and croaky and high-pitched, but it was a surprise to everyone to know that he was now able to formulate sentences, and rather quickly too. Tarren then looked back at Choban with a look of disgust on his face. "You… you take me for some kind of fool? You think this ritual go well? That outcast put an axe to her head and made it all worse! And worse now, you welcome him in to Dargo like a royal guest!" Choban turned his head slightly and looked over to Taelin and Bertram.

"Is this what really happened?" He asked Bertram, who gave a brief nod.

"And now they say we are supposed to share the weapons?" Tarren screeched again, coughing a few times. As he spoke this time in New Koopish, everyone's language changed to this as well.

"Believe me Tarren! I didn't want this to happen either!"

"You want this for yourself! You want to be in charge! No! I should be in charge! Even in a small house half a world away I'm still able to organise everything. The Dargovi strong because of ME! Because of the Galaxyë family! The weapons deal with Earth, I did that! Now after the Red Martyrs are gone you take all my work and claim it as your own! No-no! You were my pawns and I controlled this operation! Galaxyë money, Galaxyë contacts, Galaxyë portals!"

Taelin turned around and stood in front of Tarren for a second while he was talking, but feeling intimidated by him he backed away a few steps. "That's not how it is Tarren, you need to calm down and be happy you are finally here with all of us."

"Happy? You think I should be happy? You should all be at my feet sucking on my toes for what I've done for you! Instead, you laugh with all my deals while you leave me unattended to in my house like a dog! Your other son torments me when he's there; you all have something against me because of what I can do!"

"Tarren, you need to calm down!" Choban raised his voice.

"Don't tell me to calm down!"

"Tarren, what we did was right, this isn't personal!" The two were speaking over each other.

"It is personal! You're all jealous!" He coughed a few more times. "Deep down you're all… a-a-a-afraid! A-!" By now he was choking. It was clear that whatever he did in terms of a ritual sacrifice to Éclair's body was not evidently successful, and more of a brief lifeline to keep him going for a short while longer until his body would continue to deteriorate even more under this current curse inflicted upon him.

"Get him back to the cars. Make sure nobody else in the group knows about this." Choban ordered, with him and Taelin quickly rushing over to the body collapsed onto the floor. Some of the advisors cleared the area and escorted Bertram out of the beachfront while others attended to Tarren's body. "We need to take him to the upper hill-fronts. The dealer must not know about this either." He said to Taelin as they carried Tarren through the sand and up the steps to the road outside the compound.

"The way these next few weeks will go a whole lot differently now." Taelin dreaded, reaching the nearest car. They both threw his body into the back and got in to the same car together, quickly driving off along with a few other cars driven by advisors.

And still, now back at the same window as before, Duncan watched the cars drive away from the compound.

"More stuff we don't know about?" Tobias was with him too, seemingly unable to sleep as well since he too could easily do so using a black hole time watch.

"All the more to investigate." Duncan replied.

March 19 – Morning

Peach's Castle, Mushroom City

Yesterday for Peach was very slow and rather depressing. Most of it was spent in the castle after hearing the news about Éclair's disappearance. Quick updates ruled the disappearance to be a dangerous one and likely that she had been killed in the process of the disappearance. It was confirmed in the evening when a report came out from Asterno that she 'fell from the Stadium'. Peach suffered another night from very little sleep, for within the span of just over a week, she had lost Toadbert, then Mario, and now Princess Éclair, all likely with the same root cause.

On a brighter note, Daisy and Toadasha were able to return to her today regarding the new additions to her high-sector government council. Peach returned to a much emptier great hall this morning with only five people in the centre. She looked down at them all from atop the stairs, with two of them being Daisy and Toadasha, and walked slowly and softly to meet up with them, announcing her presence. With Tranko's unauthorised disappearance a few days ago, confirmed by Daisy as even she wasn't able to track him since she last saw him, she and Toadasha brought in three new members.

The first, directly promoted from the Toad Brigade elite squad, was Captain T. Toad, or just Captain T, another broad, large Toad with distinguishable physical characteristics to that of both Tranko and the former Captain Toad before him. Peach knew little about this Toad other than that he served loyally for the Toad Brigade for most of his career. This Toad would take Tranko's role as the master of defence, hopefully working alongside Toadheim and building a better relationship between the Toad Brigade and the government workers.

The second newly recruited individual would be replacing the role of master of Royal Affairs; a role previously held by Toad until a few days ago and has been vacant since. This role would be going to a female Toad who goes by the name Tamira. Peach didn't know much about this person other than that she was already working in the castle under a previous role, but if Daisy selected her for this then she surely would have the capabilities to uphold this role.

The last recruit was one that caught Peach's eye as she was descending the stairs, and it was quite a shock to her as well, for this third person wasn't a Toad, but a human. She could tell from the human's physical appearance that he was a human native to the lands. His name was Wallace Skips, and he looked more like a businessman than a government sector worker. Intrigued by his presence here, Peach went over with the intention of greeting him last, though all three saluted or bowed down to her as she arrived.

"Before you even introduce yourselves to me, I must say it is a pleasure in meeting you all here today. I can already tell you three are very loyal and very adequate for these roles enlisted, and as you know times are changing and we can only settle for the best to take up these positions." Peach smiled to them all, shaking their hands, as they all said their opening hellos. With it only being a day since Daisy and Toadasha were tasked in finding the vacancies for these roles, she knew that when they were selected, they took up the role in a heartbeat.

"It's a pleasure to be able to work with you so closely, Queen Peach. I'll do my best to educate myself on the endeavours that you and Princess Daisy take up and assist you as best as I can in the process." Tamira spoke first, in the middle of the three, showing her uttermost loyalty to the two girls that stood before her. "I suppose after this I will be starting right away!" She seemed very eager but also calm, sensing the atmosphere of how the castle might be over the next few days. With all the current workers seemingly resuming their normal working hours, Peach made a clear intention to them all that she wanted to make the castle stay in good condition in attempt to lift the spirits of anyone who might be feeling down from recent events.

"Now." She said next. "T Toad. I've heard quite a bit about you." This Toad Brigade soldier now-turned new Captain had experience working with many high-ranking officials in the government, including both Captain Toad and Captain Tranko. The appearance of this Toad was more so like Toad and Captain Toad than Tranko or other big and intimidating Toads, but on this inside it was clear from Daisy when scouting him that his leadership and loyalty was well respected amongst his peers. Seeing him in front of her properly reminded Peach of the previous times he worked with him, with the most recent time being with the dark attack in Toad Town on the night of Rainbow Road. Having firsthand experience in frightful, dreadful moments like that, he was already prepared to endure these dark times.

"I think the first thing I will do as I take charge of the Toad Brigade and the department of defence is find out the whereabouts of Tranko, and ultimately find out what led to this change in behaviour. I know we are only briefly greeting here but what would you say we should do if we do find Tranko?" Captain T asked Peach back, showing immediate concern for things only a Captain would think about.

"Well I definitely wouldn't reinstate him. It ultimately depends on his business of disappearing."

"Well we will find him… and we will find him quickly." Peach nodded back to him after giving him her opinion. Lastly now, she turned her eyes to the selectee that surprised her the most: the human that was Wallace Skips.

"Peach, this is Wallace Skips. Mushroom Kingdom tycoon." Toadasha introduced him to her as the new Master of The People. He would be taking on a role concerning the people's values and the people's opinions, hoping to allocate whatever is necessary to keep the people safe, secure, and most importantly, happy to live in the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach watched on his introduction him bowing before her again, giving her a nice smile before she spoke first.

"Remarkably, I don't think we've ever met before?" Peach raised an eyebrow but still expressed gratification towards him taking up this role.

"My businesses are not usually within the royal affairs, but I feel it is the time to showcase my work to the people and reflect it on the current agenda." He nodded. The shock hit Peach from his very deep voice, almost resonating in her ears. She felt a blush perhaps unintended, and it made her feel a little confused inside.

"Wallace here is a benefactor of many charitable works, and has many businesses that help with the people's needs. It seemed he was most suited for this work from his portfolio alone, but there is more to him than that, that's for sure!" Toadasha might be glorifying him since Peach had no recollection of this person's existence. Peach also didn't know how Toadasha found out about him let alone able to recruit him, but here they were, with things set in stone now. The only thought she had in mind was taking this situation into her own hands. She knew enough about Captain T and Tamira, but Wallace was and always has been a complete blur to her mind. Maybe she had seen him before somewhere and couldn't remember.

"Right then. As said before it's a pleasure to see you all. I think it is time I allocate you all to one of ourselves for further briefings." She wanted to give herself some time in private with this Wallace Skips, so she turned to Daisy first with her association with Tranko in recent days in mind. "Daisy, I would like you to take Captain T to Toadheim and explain everything in the briefing and get him suited for his new role. Toadasha, I would like you to do the same with Tamira. Take her up to the top floors and get her comfortable. Wallace, you'll be with me." Peach reached over to assess everyone's documents associated with their new positions. Here, she could also identify Wallace's portfolio, likely compiled last night before he was officially selected for the role. Everything belonging to Tamira was taken by Toadasha and everything belonging to Captain T was also taken by Daisy. Within seconds, everyone went with their corresponding partner off in their own direction. Peach made Wallace carry his documents and portfolio for her, taking her up the steps. She watched silently by his side as he carried all of the papers. To her surprise, Wallace also didn't say anything to her as they moved up to the second floor. Peach wanted to take him up another set of stairs to the third floor, where she would be conversing with him in the castle's library. Another place of silence, but mainly the privacy was what mattered to her. Usually, she would be the only person to enter the library besides those who clean and keep all the books dust-free. To her, the library felt like a nice quiet place to discuss lots of papers on a matter that for once wasn't necessarily royalty or government related. Walking with Wallace however made her a little intimidated. She wasn't sure what to make of him considering he was apparently a native human just like her and Daisy, but not knowing anything about him or existence terrified her deep down.

As they arrived to the library, again in silence, she looked over to one of the tables in the centre, with some chairs around it.

"Put the papers and documents over there and take a seat." She ordered, speaking normally and without commanding authority in her voice. Wallace walked rather jollily to the table and planted the papers down before pulling up one of the chairs. He still had a smile on his face but to Peach it was giving her slight discomfort. The smile was almost eerie and iffy, like something about him was missing. "Now, forgive me for not appearing the most welcoming to you. I'm just trying to get over your unfamiliarity. Surely I have seen you before, right?" She kept thinking she was embarrassing herself speaking to him in this way, always wondering how he would judge her.

"Maybe." He shrugged. "Maybe not. Perhaps a brief read of my details might make you a bit more familiar with me. I'm not surprised, really. Someone like you, especially in this day would usually be too busy with other important affairs to be pondering about… private sector businesses and organisations."

"Let me have a look at what I'm dealing with then. No hard feelings; I just want to… familiarise myself as you said." She pondered over Wallace's portfolio, noticing that he was an owner or co-owner in a lot of companies based mainly north of the capital. Still, nothing suspicious. "Ah, interesting. Yes…" She said to herself softly as she went from page to page, until one particular thing caught her eye. "Wait a minute. You're the owner of Mushville Football Club?" Here was the part of the portfolio that confused her. While Toadasha described him as a benefactor, she only recalled Mushville FC to be a club associated with rich and wealthy culture. It was only after another scan down the page did she notice that the portfolio states the club hosts a lot of charity events and has become very citizen-friendly under his recent tenure there. "Maybe there might have been where I saw you once." Though looking at the portfolio again, he had only purchased the club just under a year ago, after she had stepped down from footballer duties. "Wait, no. I stopped playing at the beginning of last year. I doubt I would have seen you then. Then again, I never thought I'd take a benefactor such as you to also be the owner of such a club as Mushville."

"A glorious club indeed, one I had always followed since I was a child. However, it was difficult to get in sometimes growing up. Expensive tickets and hospitality prices, a poor stereotype the fans had from it… I always wanted to be a player for there, but football was never my strength, so I decided to buy it instead with everything I had earned through my other companies. I have watched many Mushville games this year. It feels amazing to have a part in it all."

"That's amazing." Peach started to feel confident in him now. This could be a true ambassador of the people while at the same time having a very proficient expertise in handling the business side of things. "Very good for you! I guess it could be quite interesting to see how Mushville is one day. It was definitely giving me a rich and wealthy ambience, almost rather posh, when I was there. I guess it's different now." This gave Wallace a perfect opportunity.

"Why don't you join me there on Saturday, or if not Saturday, then on Tuesday?" She was surprised and shocked again. Wallace just willingly invited her to a date, and she had no idea how to take it. "We actually have three home games in a row. We've got the Saturday evening fixture this weekend at home to Super Bell FC in the MDC2, then we play them again in the domestic league on Tuesday, and then next weekend we've got the champions Mushroomheath in the domestic league again on I believe it is… Saturday the 28th? It's a very busy time for the club." Despite not playing football, Wallace sounded just like Salma, another possible good friend who was avidly interested in football. This was another way for her to have her heart still belonging to this beautiful game, only second to karting. Peach's mind was now completely full of conflict. She wasn't sure whether to remind Wallace that this is a serious position he had been selected for and for times like these, going to a football match might be too distracting from the real matters at hand. On the other side of this argument however, Peach saw this as an opportunity to connect with the many charitable groups involved in Wallace's beneficiary, including the football club of Mushville, which is supposedly a lot different now according to him. It may also show the human side of her, being a normal person besides being the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. If she wanted to stick with having the approval of the communities, the football community may be one to start off at, as in this world, football was a working person's sport and leisure.

"Saturday evening… Eight o'clock kickoff?" She asked for verification from Wallace.

"Nine, I think."

"You know what… sure. Saturday evening it is!" Peach smiled back at Wallace, accepting his proposal. She knew now to clear the evening of the twenty-first as it will mark a special occasion with links both to football and a charitable spirit with some of the people of the Mushroom Kingdom. "I'll make sure to arrive two hours in advance as well. I'm sure there will be things going on beforehand."

"Oh, there will be!" Wallace agreed. "I know that there will be plenty of things running at the club prior to the match, but additionally we could do a few things which may help this role of mine. I will most likely have it announced to the people at the match as well. One more thing I can do with you on that evening is gather any current needs the people have from this week and relay them back to the castle. We'll be able to work together on fulfilling their needs."

"That's exactly what I was going to get on to next!" Peach smiled, feeling a lot more confident in both him and herself. "I almost thought we were immediately going to divert off-topic." The two laughed together. "Anyways, about this role that concerns you now." Peach felt like it was more her that was going off-topic than Wallace, when she watched him in the chair he seemed very attentive and was clear that the only additional thing he wanted to add on his own behalf was the invitation to the football match. Peach willingly agreed and now it was up to her to make sure things got back on track. "As you may have already been told, the main department you will be working in is on the ninth floor but I do not expect you to be there all the time given the benefactor you are with so many things to deal with. When you do have reports, bring them to that floor. Workers chambers are on floor eleven and twelve, and later today you will be introduced to the department and be able to cooperate with them to the best of your ability. All reports you do compile with your department will be forwarded for all meetings we have and ideally I would appreciate it if you do return to the castle whenever the council is urgently summoned." Peach then handed over one of the papers at the bottom of the pile, presumably knowing it was already there. This was a printed out copy of the guidelines for this new role. It had been created long in advance as this role was vacant for quite some time. It was a relatively new role but she was hoping that Mario would have taken it up after some time for considering, unfortunately, she realised that this wouldn't come to happen.

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Wallace added. "Deal with anything sent to me and send back anything you wish, and make use of what we have together to organise anything to help everyone get back to the good times." She watched him get up from his seat, eager to start right away. "Floor nine you said, right?" She nodded and got up with him.

"I can take you there." He smiled at her generosity. To her, he was still a bit of a mystery. If someone such as him was so successful, then surely he'd be busy with everything else he owns. She didn't know much about what he did own and what he would regularly organise, but it would take time to learn and see that for herself. Sadly, she didn't have all the time in the world to do that… or did she?

Peach took Wallace's notes and went with him back to the elevator. She insisted to him that she carry them this time, and that would be for the walk to the elevator, the time in the elevator as it went up to floor nine, and the walk to the Department of Mushroom Accords, now being rebranded to the People's Department. "Someone like you surely doesn't need someone else to introduce you to the department right? You seem very open about yourself." Peach whispered to Wallace just before the doors to the People's Department.

"Why do you ask? Do you take me for something?" He smiled with curiosity.

"I take you for a people's person." She winked as the doors opened.

Behind these doors was a surprisingly small department in number to Wallace. There were only a few workers and most of them were quiet faces. All Toads transferred from other departments to fill in the vacancies. At least with the small population in the department, the space was still very open with plenty of room to spare. In a room down at the very end of the chamber was Wallace's new office, behind some doors, though it was the design of the castle floor interior that overwhelmed him with awe. Nothing could ever beat the intricate decorations of Peach's castle, not even his own buildings.

"Excuse me everyone, may I have your attention?" Peach's surprise appearance to the department caught everyone's eyes. The ten or so Toad castle-workers operating here all turned to her and Wallace. "I would like to introduce you all to the new department's head-leader, Wallace Skips: intricate businessman and well-known benefactor to the Mushroom Kingdom." He was met with immediate applause and with some cheering to him in recognition, maybe he was known among the normal-folk.

"Thank you so much, Queen Peach Toadstool. I'd like to thank you all for joining me as we create this new department which will see a new side to the changing government, definitely in hopes to connect the lands together again through goodwill and good hardship. I will do my best to work with you all to ensure that better days are ahead of us!" He briefly turned his head back to Peach, getting her nod of approval. "Now, shall we get started?" He posed rather proactively, ready to begin immediately. "Let's all meet in my office in five minutes!" As he walked on ahead, Peach declared it in her mind that the business with him was now done and not needing to be dealt with again until at earliest Saturday evening. Still with all of his documents, she made sure to leave behind his instructions but kept his portfolio in hand. This was something she now wanted to examine herself in detail.

FLOOR 20 – PEACH'S QUARTERS

With only a few minutes going by on her journey back up here, Peach cleared the main table in the room of all of the old papers that had been remaining there for weeks. Old race course notes, old plans regarding assaults and policies, and old Mushroom Accords drafts. These all made way for the notes on Wallace that she now laid down in an orderly fashion. On her way up to her headquarters, she requested a government laptop to be delivered to her room, allowing her to research everything about Wallace on the Mushroom Kingdom's interface. Everything she now had at her disposal was able to be identified online and hopefully verified for legitimacy. The first thing she notably came across was the biggest and most known aspect of Wallace to her, and that was his ownership of Mushville FC. From what she could gather after looking at Mushville FC's official website was that this ownership was in fact genuine. There were pages on the site about Wallace Skips and the new takeover, including a page about him and his past as well as a posted thread regarding the takeover. Everything about this seemed very positive, including a lot of approval from the many others who worked with Mushville, including their manager and the club's team captain. There were even photos of Wallace taken with the new signings that were made under the period he had owned the club. All of this seemed to be fine, so what really bothered Peach now is how did such a person get to this level of wealth? Especially if most of the things he had ownership of were things associated with charity.

Upon reading thoroughly through his portfolio, she was able to find what looked like his breakout to financial success. He was the founder and former owner of the company named 'Oil Skips', which was sold… conveniently… to the Koopa family, taken over from a company now partially defunct called 'Bowser Oil'. It was also documented that the valuation of the company Oil Skips was sold for an astronomically large 1.2 million gold coins in the year 2004. It specifically states in his portfolio that the name change to Bowser Oil happened much later, but the company name remained the same for the years prior, despite him not having ownership of it.

Peach then read on to learn that within the years afterward, Wallace started many smaller companies which later turned into non-profit organisations and charities, leading her to assume that this human had been living off of the payment for the main company for all the years since. Whether he invested the coins into other things or simply did nothing with it is not stated in the portfolio; there were only mentions of what the other companies did as they were all still in his name. These companies offered services that included: clothes shops, loans on property purchases, food markets, and as expected, football event hosting.

Something didn't seem to add up though, as looking back on his acquisition of Mushville FC, this purchase was for just under four million gold coins. The question now pondered into her mind: where did Wallace get a hold of nearly three million gold coins?

Three million gold coins – whether it was an electronic transfer or literally three million coins – was something only dealt with on government and distribution levels, but for a single individual to have a hold of that much, that was something that definitely needed to be inspected. Peach wanted to investigate this further and tried logging on to the department of Coin, typically Toadasha's sector. With this though, Peach was able to log in to an account above the levels of administrator, under the username 'Queen'. This, with the password that only she and Toadasha knew, allowed her to bypass any level of security and restriction, allowing her access to literally anything and everything stored in the Mushroom Kingdom government's financial database. She was able to access and track every single major transaction involved in government, public, and private sector affairs. This part of the database was hardly ever used; it would usually only be used by specific roles within the department of finance and coin, but obviously Peach had access to everything. There was a reason it was only those people who oversaw this, as there was… everything there. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands of transactions made through the government every month. Only when necessary would transactions involving taking coins out the Mushroom Kingdom vault be needed. Things didn't become fully electronic just yet, but there would always be a corresponding value of money used on the database to represent what was available in all shares and the vault. It was obvious that over the past few months there had been a decrease in the money available in the vault. It was still in the multi-millions, but it had dipped slightly due to investments going out to the people to make everything safer and renovate the lands. What did surprise her though, was how much actually went out, because looking at all of these transactions, she'd have thought that all the money that came in from tickets, broadcasting, and anything else related to the Double-Dash tournament that it would cater to the reduction, but she was now able to see the sheer monetary value of all of these sales… yet still it didn't equate or prove to be greater than financial outgoings. The Double Dash tournament brought in millions upon millions, so much that it was a significant percentage of the castle vault, but somehow the government had returned millions upon millions to the people, at least, Peach thought it was going back to the people.

Further looking at all transactions going out, she saw the usual things. Payments to public sector companies to accommodate to worker wages, payments to various departments such as the Toad Brigade, Toad Police, health services, payments towards investments, and payments to the Toad management crew to fund the many events that happened during the tournament. Even going back to last year, there showed no signs of abnormal amounts of money going in or out of the government sector. When she eventually found the category concerning business takeovers after a few minutes of thorough searching, she was able to find the transaction logged that represented the acquisition of Mushville FC by – ironically – the defunct company 'Oil Skips'. 3,892,250 Gold Coins. Peach thought that this company was already taken over by Bowser Oil, which now led her to believe that Wallace could be some sort of associate of Bowser. Her sceptical feelings towards the human emerged again and her confidence began to plummet. Perhaps this was something she would like to bring up to him when she sees him on Saturday; either then or any time sooner. Now, Peach was able to luckily see a button on her screen that allowed her to access the government-side webpage of Oil Skips. It even showed several statistics and a thorough description of the company. Even without reading, just looking at the screen gave her doubts about him. The company name was exactly as it showed but the company type was where Peach became more concerned. The company type was listed as an 'Unlisted - Pass-Through' company and written on the screen in red font. Beside it however, lied a circle with an exclamation inside it. Peach hovered over the exclamation mark and a text box appeared next to it.

'Unlisted companies do not offer any services but remain in existence for declaration purposes. Pass-Through indicates that this company lacks ineligibility to:
Re-open to offer normal or previous services

Undergo purchases, acquisitions, mergers or takeovers

Establish accounts with government banks

These companies still hold the ability to preserve shares and collect dividends until they are sold, but cannot purchase new shares.'

Peach was getting into financial territory that was now beyond her understanding, and for her own sanity she stopped here. She felt very confident that something was off about the company that Wallace owns, even after now noticing that there was a section of the company that showed it was also a parent company of all of the other organisations owned by him, but she couldn't piece exactly what it was about this company that was so illegitimate-feeling to her. At least the description she read made her realise why this company still exists. She sat at the table pondering over possible ideas on what to do next. A safe bet that came into mind was calling up Bowser again, asking him about the acquisition of the company. Maybe he knew more about it than she did.

Bowser wasn't getting up to much nowadays. Everything he did was still partially monitored by the Toad Patrol surrounding the castle. This was set to continue for at least the next year, but it may need to change due to possible changes in future circumstances regarding the situation in the north. At the moment, things were unreliable and unknown, but it still led to Bowser being easily reachable. Peach reached for her special phone again in her bedroom drawer, accessing the special contacts she used to rarely ever use. Funnily enough, she was using this phone more times in this past week than she usually would in the previous year. She now waited a few seconds after calling…

…

"King Koopa, on the line."

"Bowser, it's me again." Peach spoke quickly.

"Again?" Bowser most likely didn't have Peach's number saved as he wasn't able to tell who it was prior to picking up the phone.

"Yeah I've got a question, nothing too big this time though." Peach still spoke quickly, wanting to get through this issue as quickly as possible and spending as little time with Bowser as possible. "Do you happen to know someone by the name of Wallace Skips, or at least know about a company called Oil Skips?"

"Oil Skips… Wallace Skips, yes! I do know about him, why do you ask? The Koopa Kingdom acquired Oil Skips a few years ago."

"Ok that's fine. It's more that I'm calling up regarding the Wallace guy." Peach immediately realised that she was about to talk to Bowser regarding government information and decided to play it down slightly and slow down. "Do you remember much about him?"

"Not really. He never really stood out for anything if that's what you're asking for. I used to see people every day. He was just another businessman that allowed us to purchase his reserves. There's been nothing about it since, as we've had no need to talk about it, ever."

"Right." Not much information to gather from him here. "Well… thanks anyway. It's just… he wants to help the government, but I'm just a little confused as to how he got all of his wealth. He's a very rich person… almost on a level of royalty."

"Sorry, but I don't really care about random people, especially now. I know nothing about him, other than he owned a company that was worth millions."

"Alright, fine. Thanks." Peach hanged up the phone, knowing that there wouldn't be anything more to get out of him. Wallace still remained a mystery to her, and she felt the guilt in asking him about this herself. The fact that she resorted to Bowser yet again to inquire about this shady business embarrassed her anyway. It led to Peach shaking her head several times, wanting to get the doubtful thoughts about it out of her mind. She wanted to let it go, but it kept bothering her. Instead of dwelling on it now, she decided to have the mindset that he was a wealthy individual who built a lot of wealth from the other companies and used that wealth to buy the football club and run the other charities.

…

She now decided to call Muji about it.

…

The situation was very different with him though, as once the phone picked up she heard more noise than just his voice.

"Queen Peach, I'm sorry to say this but you've called at the worst time." He spoke quickly before she was able to say anything to him first.

"Oh, Muji. Is this a bad time, are you busy?" She asked with anxiety, hearing the noise of shouting from other people nearby.

"I… can try and work this out for you, one sec... – Don't proceed any further yet!"

"What's going on?"

"I'm over the mountains at the moment, just outside Aypyidaw. It's a complete ruin at the moment but mostly abandoned… and I say mostly because Neodjan's still there, but he's barricaded himself inside what remains in the headquarters and refusing to come out. He also claims that he's buried himself inside with explosives." She noticed that Muji switched his phone to loud speaker output. "Don't threaten him with anything. He's done nothing wrong!" She heard him shout to the others he was with.

"What are you doing in Aypyidaw? The north is not safe for you! What else is happening there?"

"Aypyidaw is completely empty. There's no sign of Hostile Koopas and no sign of any danger for the entire week up here. Our scouts were able to reach Aypyidaw in its former self. Everywhere around it is in ruin but nobody but Neodjan's there. It's just dead bodies, plundered houses, and him still in the headquarters." He paused a few more times in his speech trying to hear the others making orders to each other on how to press inward from the courtyard to the destroyed buildings.

We will now swap from Peach's perspective over the phone to Muji's, as the setting has now been moved from Peach's Castle to the Red Martyrs Courtyard. The distant italicised phone output will now be what Peach says.

"Was he there when it all happened? What was he doing at the time?" Peach asked Muji but heard nothing back from him for the first few seconds, raising her concerns as to what was happening. Muji stepped forward, leaving his phone on the top of the roof of a car in the middle of the courtyard.

"Neodjan, come out of the building. We're not going to blame you for anything you've done." It seemed that the few that were up here – Archbarn, Muji, and Eoréc and a few others provided by New Donk City – had been here for a while, perhaps at least a night and were so used to the ruined place and all the lingering death, so they were not disturbed or afraid of it. It clearly wasn't Neodjan's fault for any of this, and his reluctance to come out and join with them was purely out of fear or trauma induced by what happened here.

"I'm oath-bound. I cannot leave here now!" The few that were hear overheard Neodjan shouting from the building, at least a few floors up.

"Neodjan. The Red Martyrs are no more. There is no longer any oath to be held by. By one way or another, those that remain have been released. It's… the best way to go about it." Muji slowly walked back to his phone and noticed that Peach had hanged up. However, he did receive a text from her asking to call back later. Muji closed his phone and looked back at the front entrance to the main building. There was no movement from the inside for at least a minute now, but afterwards, those that were there with him finally saw the front doors opening up. It was to his own but not shared expectation that there were in fact no bombs inside the building. Neodjan was extremely scared, mortified, petrified, of what he had endured over these past few days. He first put his hands up, but Archbarn, who was there with him, signalled to the other New Donk guards to lower their weapons. He walked slowly down the steps and approached Muji first, rushing over to give him a hug.

"The humans were here… I lost them." He whispered into Muji's ear. "Then it got so much worse… Rogue hostiles… two dead. Shots fired." He then quickly pushed himself away from Muji and looked back at Archbarn. "What did you hide from us?" He shouted.

"Neodjan, you're not well. You're not thinking straight. Just sit down and take some deep breaths." He watched as the Koopa went crazy and hyperactive, breathing quickly and loudly. Archbarn reached to him to hold him in place as he tried to turn around in circles but he quickly fell to the floor. His pulse was racing and fear was still in his eyes despite being surrounded by people he knew the most. It was as if he was living in the same moment over a week ago. The thought that none of those he was with now were there with him on that night as well. Muji was in shock; something had gotten to his only remaining friend from the Red Martyrs that remained in Aypyidaw that night. Now that he was here though, he was able to press onward into the building, hopefully able to assess everything there now.

Just from being outside, the remaining Red Martyrs were able to see the courtyard looking like something out of a nightmare. Littered around the edges were piles of bones that remained from bodies being burned by those who were the last to leave here on the doomed night. Everywhere Muji looked he saw ruin and death from one side of the courtyard, to the destroyed gap in the wall, to the other side where the main entrance remained heavily damaged. Going inside now and things looked even worse. Here, the bodies were not dealt with in the same way. Nothing was burned, just the stains of dried-up blood and rotting corpses that stunk the lower floors. Archbarn arrived inside with him, but he found it even more difficult to look at the mess and all of his fallen soldiers; fallen martyrs.

"Sweet galactic cosmos…" He gulped.

Muji still said nothing, but tears were developing from his eyelids. Walking down the halls he began to notice some of the bodies despite them remaining here for over a week. Further down one hallway he recognised Koover, lying on the floor with a large bloodied hole created through his chest, piercing the shell. He recognised almost all of these bodies, many of them high ranking, many of them new recruits, but they were all treated the same rank in death. Going up to the next floor he saw another easily distinguishable corpse: Kroop's. This one rotted quicker than the rest due to his age, but it still saddened Muji and the others coming up the stairs with him. Tears were now leaking down his face and he quickly tried to wipe them off.

Muji now arrived to perhaps the only room in the main buildings that wasn't filled with bodies or blood. This was Neodjan's quarters, and it was likely here he remained for at least one of the nine days in between. Whether Neodjan stayed here every night was not known to him yet. What Muji could conclude about this place is that it appeared irreparable. Not only did the place look beyond saving but the thought of trying to restore it would weigh too heavily on his emotions. This was no place to house anyone anymore, and the best course of action he knew to take was to bring Neodjan down south. This place wasn't safe for anyone siding with the south, and to reduce any possible immediate conflict, leaving here as soon as possible was his best bet.

"Well?" Muji had almost forgotten that Neodjan was still here following him all the way to the room that he hid in. "Are you going to answer me?" He watched Muji turn around, still dumbfounded from everything he had seen.

"What?"

Neodjan walked across the hall to stand directly in front of him, his face fuelled with both worry from trauma and rage from being deceived unknowingly. "The unknown deaths… Attilo's death… all of those shadowy figures… Why did you hide it from the rest of us?" Muji's face was first showing signs of confusion, as if he had no idea what Neodjan was talking about, but the Koopa only shook his head, thinking he was still being deceived to this day, but that would go on no longer. "Cut the shit and the lies. I've been in the basement, I've seen the books. Why did you hide it from all of us?" Muji was still speechless, perhaps even he knew very little about this too, but Neodjan refused to believe that.

"I'll answer that for you." The two heard another voice from the other end of the hallway. Neodjan turned around and both he and Muji looked across to Archbarn. "I'm more frightened of what you're looking for than anyone else could be. I saw it all when I first made the decision to build this fortress… there's a reason I tried to hide it from everyone else." Immediately, the two felt an uneasy feeling of intimidation arisen from Archbarn's presence in the ruined hallways. He walked through the relatively clean corridor all the way up to Neodjan with a look of ferocity on his face. "Were there any here on the tenth?"

"Maybe… I don't know. There could have been. I wouldn't know." Neodjan's cowardly tone in his response didn't impress Archbarn or give him the satisfaction.

"Were there any shadowy figures here on that night?" He raised his voice and asked Neodjan a second time.

"I told you, I don't know."

"No you do know. Of course you know. You would know if you were there! I know that you know!" Neodjan panicked.

"…No?"

"Exactly. There weren't any." Archbarn's presence changed, giving the other two a sigh of relief. "I made it so they would never return… until… this unprecedented event. My heart aches and breaks for all of those who fell to the hands of the Koopas who invaded here on that night, but I am at least relieved to know that none of this was due to of what you claim to exist." Archbarn walked back into the room that Neodjan had hidden in during the invasion, closing the door behind him and looking out to the window.

"Did you know about this?" Neodjan whispered to Muji as they watched Archbarn look down on the courtyard, still seeing the others that came with them outside.

"I…"

"DID YOU KNOW?"

"I did." He never thought he would see Muji this anxious and defensive. Archbarn would usually show authority but he thought that Muji had the confidence to always be seen as equals to him at the highest level. "There aren't many of them, and I haven't seen any in almost two decades… except there was a reporting of one of them only about a month ago. What we know is that if they are around, then they may be as near as Dargo."

"I cannot be more thankful for what Phoelix did regarding them. He's one of our unsung heroes. He was a true Red Martyr… and he'd be rolling in his grave right now if he saw what happened to this place." Archbarn still looked out of the window, reminiscing on the past concerning the shadowy figures.

…

It was some time in 1998, so the Great Mushroom War was pretty much over at this point, with all sides unsure of whom the true winners were. What they all knew is that most of them had lost. All the Kings and Queens were dead, the major Koopa bloodline was in disarray, the northern lands went into quiet anarchy at first but anarchy regardless, and the Red Martyrs were facing terrible difficulties knowing they were now the only line of defence for the south, let alone the biggest line of defence. At least at this point things were starting to look better due to a surprising breakthrough in dealing with one of the biggest issues that arose near towards the end of the Great Mushroom War. Archbarn travelled only with Attilo and Phoelix this night as they were being taken from Aypyidaw all the way to the south-western outskirts of Dargo, particularly Choban's getaway villa complex. Koopak Asquia I had been killed, though it was at the hands of what he assumed to be Phoelix's own brother, and justice was not served. Archbarn remembered on this particular night that Phoelix not only wanted to resolve the strife between the Dargovi and the Red Martyrs with regards to handling these shadowy figures, but to put an end to the disagreement between him and his 'brother' Tony Barron. What Archbarn didn't know was how violent it would escalate to. It was a shame that Archbarn still had this night somewhere deep in his memory. January 24th, 1998 was perhaps one of the worst days ever.

It was early hours, still pitch black in the sky. Choban had been identified by the Red Martyrs after all the months and months that had gone by being wanted by them due to his affiliation with Koopak on the night of the exchange of crucial information witnessed by Attilo and Phoelix. They were betrayed and they felt that everything bad about the end of the war was all their fault. Here they wanted to undo as much as they could and put an end to the everlasting disturbance in their minds. Instead of sending the Red Martyrs to battle again, they were able to negotiate a deal with Choban. To restrict the shadowy figures of their unfair freedoms they have terrorising these lands in exchange for something which Phoelix left undisclosed to everyone else that was with him. To Choban, he saw this completely differently. He was told that while his location was identified to the Red Martyrs, that the Red Martyrs were going to offer him immunity from them in exchange for providing them answers and information regarding the night Koopak Asquia betrayed them.

Phoelix was the driver of this car that had only he Attilo and Archbarn in it. Archbarn came as he wanted to be the one to orchestrate this negotiation, even though he knew he was missing some key parts from it with Phoelix hiding some of that information from him. They parked the car outside the villa complex and saw Choban standing outside the front gates with someone else by his side. Archbarn didn't know who this was initially, but he learned eventually that it was Choban's firstborn Raiyon, a young adult at this point in time.

"The deal starts and gets completed now." After the three got out of the car and walked over to Choban, he started speaking to them. "I'll not have this delay over several days unnecessarily."

"Where is he?" Phoelix demanded, stepping in front of the other two. Choban's eyes initially weren't on him though. They were on Archbarn as he was surprised and even worried that such a high position would travel here given what could possibly happen to him. "You told me that he would be here tonight, at this time!" He said afterward.

"He'll be h-." As Choban was talking, the shadowy figures started to emerge. Black shadows raced down from the night sky and magically morphed into people by his sides. It wasn't just Tony Barron that was here tonight though, but three others. All of them taking human form. Attilo and Phoelix recognised two of them. Tony Barron for obvious reasons, but one other that took the human name of Gunther Tobin. It had been nearly eighteen months since Attilo last encountered this shadowy figure, remembering the magical blast he took from him. It was at this point did Archbarn become the only person living today to believe that these two were in fact father and son. Phoelix was the father of Tony, which is why it mattered so dearly to him.

"I take it you all know the terms. Choban must have communicated this to you knowing that you're all here tonight. Do you agree to them? To never pose a threat on the free Koopas of the north and the good citizens of the south?" Three of them looked at Archbarn; the three that weren't Tony, as he had his eyes locked on Phoelix.

"Nobody asked you to speak, mortal. We're not here for you." The human that resembled Gunther Tobin, the same one from that night, taunted Archbarn, silencing him passively at the same time. Before Archbarn questioned his hesitance towards speaking up for himself, he noticed Phoelix's eyes and Tony's eyes locked in staring at each other.

"Why could you do this to us, Tony?" One thing Archbarn noticed was that all three of the other shadowy figures taking human forms looked far more intimidating than the one resembling Tony Barron. It was as if looking back at his brother Phoelix made him feel feeble.

"There is no Tony. The Demon God has named me Brogadan." Tony Barron's voice wasn't as deep and as devilish as the other that spoke, it was like there was still a bit of humanity left in him.

"Koopak is dead."

"I know. I killed him."

"It wasn't you though. It was whatever's inside you. This Demon God nonsense. Is this the case with you all? You make me sick. Why couldn't you just be like me and resisted it? He tried to fuck with me and look at me. I'm still whole. I'm still human. You're all a bunch of fakes, but your life isn't gone yet. There's a way we can bring you all back." Phoelix stepped forward and only addressed the four shadowy figures. Archbarn was still unsure at this point what was wrong with them, but he knew now what happened. These were ordinary Galaxyë human or human settlers, just like the others he knew, but something deep underground or within several layers of magical dimensions took away their humanity and turned them into its own personal slaves… to wreak havoc in the lands and play a part in some sort of waged war against the magical cosmos.

"The Demon God has blessed us with immortality. We do whatever we want now." Gunther laughed at Phoelix. "We are super humans of the shadows. This is the way. All will soon worship the Demon God and the Ancient One."

"Don't give in to this." Attilo warned them, even though he was unarmed and any of these shadowy figures could lunge out and kill him with a magical shadowy stab to the heart. He showed no fear and complete resilience, always what Archbarn wanted in an ideal Red Martyr.

"There's no stopping it. I cannot be killed!" Gunther taunted Attilo again. "Don't make me make it lethal this time." At the same time, Tony Barron eyed over to Gunther, shocked at his words, as he knew something that Gunther didn't, and it was at this exact point did he see the effects of what happened to himself one time in the past. Everyone was able to witness the real reason why Phoelix was here and why he withheld information from the others. He had his own version of it, a modified version of the magical Spirit Lance, and he pulled it out from his coat and quickly buried it through Gunther's body. His body screamed, and the scream came from the inside as it didn't sound human at all. The shadowy figure dissipated into the darkness and frightened the other three, causing the two unknown named shadowy figures to also morph back into their dark shadows and sink beneath the floor. Tony Barron looked back at Phoelix in despair, knowing that the Red Martyrs had replicated a weapon usable in destroying this darkness. Archbarn remained there amazed, but Choban and his son were furious about this escalation.

"We finish this tonight!" Choban shouted back at them.

"So be it!" Archbarn agreed. "Keep watch over these possessed people and we shall see the Dargovi immune to our surveillance. Keep them at bay or Phoelix here will not hesitate to use it again."

"I'm not finished here." Phoelix interrupted Archbarn after whispering to Tony. "Go back to Aypyidaw. Let the council know that the war is officially over." He grabbed on to Tony Barron firmly, putting him under stress and agony. "Go. Go back now!" He shouted back at Archbarn and Attilo. "Let's finish this here." Sparks of energy started to flash around the grip between the Barrons, causing dark smoke to spread throughout the air. Choban and his son saw their business done and rushed away through the gates. Archbarn and Attilo also fled the scene seeing how dangerous it was looking to them.

"You said I was no son of yours." Tony whispered back to Phoelix, one of the last things he ever heard from both of them.

"Brogadan is no son of mine." That was the last that Archbarn ever heard from Phoelix as the dark energy now surrounded them. Both of their bodies turned into black smoke as if Phoelix too took the form of a shadowy figure. Within seconds the darkness followed that of the other shadowy figures and disappeared through the ground outside the villa complex gates, and the two were never seen again by Archbarn.

That was the last time he ever saw Phoelix, and to this day he wondered if he was still alive. The answer to that still remains unknown.

EOC: Unfortunately there was a long pause between this chapter being created and then finished. So much happened in the time period, but hopefully I can resume progress now.

See you in the next chapter!