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KOOPALINGS: THE TEENAGE YEARS

by Eightane / Foxy Boy

CHAPTER XXIV: FURIES, THE FIVE AND THE FALLOW

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_ To understand a monster, you must recognize immunity. They can't exist apart from it, overarching, conditional, whichever. It's no emotion, or no bodily flaw, or no stronger foe... If it could fall then fate finds a way. But if this occurs not, it is not in check. It is not of control._

Intangible fear filled their hearts; those accustomed to battle, struggle, were no less herded towards panic.

Before them rose another quintet. The roars and unrestful screams loudened; though pitch-black at first, no more human in shape than a hill, they narrowed near their apex and hues came to be seen. Red, Green, Pink, Yellow, Blue, on the jagged lower portions. The tapering meant necks were forming... Kamek waved his hands but once, and dazzling light poured from their eyes.

The mouths opened. All allies against sorcery despaired; opposing them were giants with jagged teeth like diamonds, fifty sickles pointing random in the monsters' jaws. The life of these demonic things held no soul nor hope nor capacity for love. Lights within were as death, reaching out to seek heroes.

Peach's dress turned darker in the front; no one blamed her for wetting herself. Mario's powers dimmed, and in such fright the wattage only part-returned. As if the beasts' very presence sucked vitals from surroundings. They existed only to do so.

And Kamek laughed. Held arms high with triumph unlike any before. "Witness what once was normal, doomed clay!! Centuries past had these figures as mundane... But ALWAYS perfect, made to have dominion! Call them as they are, THE OBLITERATI!!!... My brothers, how I was blessed to bring you once more imperial..." This made the only time in Wendy's life - or indeed, any of the targets here - she'd seen Kamek show hints of true respect. They all, Mario, Peach, she, Larry, Iggy, caught onto the cause. These leviathans carried his own blood. Long-gone, yet back by evil unrepentant. Planes above, Peach's loyal fungal army, peppered the beasts with turretguns, aimed for the chest. Wisps of black were all to come forth. Bullets sailed right through.

They, the foul minions of Kamek, never once turned to view their resurrector... Instead their looming edged in to the five who lived and lamented, witless when faced with these. Fangs gnashed and the sound of their scrubbing sickened. Light in abominable eyes shifted blood-red to purple and back; limbs rose up from sharp pointed carapace, two for each; their hands appeared like a scarecrow's, tipped with four deadly knives, every one. Ten hands, forty blades, and the troupe slithered from the hole that so resembled a grave. Mario took Peach's hand and pulled her backward, ran with her. Larry picked Iggy up and carried him. Wendy shot straight to their faces with flame; not only was no reaction gained but the stares shone through fire like thin air. Their forms poured over the edge of sandy ground; didn't walk but oozed. A chase commenced, fast friends helping one another to outrun these. The blue one gained on Larry; right away it came apparent, they targeted he and his sibling-scientist.

Kamek drooled he so desired and delighted to watch this. Wendy switched weapons on the fly; back to armour-piercing bullets, aiming for the hands this time. She managed to shoot off one talon on the green figure; instantly it regrew, but with triple spikes, worse than before. She muttered but kept savvy, leaping clear of the pink beast as it went to join others tailing Iggy and the youngest. She heard bombers circling above; Peach's Toads had no directive for this, not one clue where to begin fighting these. She had little time to think; why might they want to focus on those two?... Vindictive against male heirs, sensing two in such close quarters where they might be picked off, or just convenient to gang up on them so to better kill and erase?

While she ran tactically, wondered over these bulletproof ancients, Kamek went to questions. "Is it unique, this turn of fate which locks you into frantic sprints? Did you ever believe you'd be destined to learn the legends that precede your kind!? Or Mario's, and his figurehead wench? You ALL evolved slovenly and lesser to THESE nobles!!" He breathed hard, almost aroused by thoughts of what he'd soon see, his foes ripped asunder with ease. Or far worse, what he knew his ancestors did with purpose and instinct.

Larry undercut Kamek's glee with truth. "YOU did too, I don't see you sportin' claws or fifteen feet tall!!" The vile one, nude and nakedly relishing fear, did not anger. Too much to celebrate, far too secure.

In fact, the prince's mind was positively cute to him. "Here he is, towing conflated self-worth. It's clear as the bones of his mother's face."

"SHITSUCKIN' BASTARD!!!" Larry screamed back, but the ultimate freaks were louder.

The figures never quit screeching, only changed pitch. Peach groused as it shot pain through her brain, and Iggy didn't fare too well either, sweating as he jumped from Larry's arms, ran even faster to get away from ear torture.

Close to pissing his own self, Larry blurted what hit his mind. "Whaddya think our chances are, tiring 'em out?"

It might have been the only way right now to get a laugh from Wendy; this, while Larry grabbed his pistol and tried winging their teeth. These didn't grow back, thankfully, but the beasts moved on them faster. Like he'd cut down wind resistance. Another tactic not to be retried. The youngest faced Iggy and phrased the query similar. "Is there any good odds for us, any-damn-how!?"

Iggy shook his head, clammy, ahead of Larry by a foot. "Frankly, if I told you our chances... *pantpant* The morale reduction *pant* worsens them." He did grandly to speak in such dread... Inner strength existed in the nerd prince, tricky to retrieve. Wendy took a modified rifle, shot at the low hooplike skirt of slime where the beings moved, glided along sand that bubbled behind them. Even Iggy's acid hadn't protonated dirt the way those ancients destroyed it, by mere touch.

Mario and Peach ran with palms locked; he'd not dare leave his princess to fend for herself, war general or no. She said only "M-Mario... Why!?", breathless and squeaking in a pitch that broke and crackled. Asking in vain how life conjured such horrors. The reality differed; Kamek's force was not life in any sense. She could dash well in the silver dress, but had finite energy like all of them... Mario stumbled, almost destabilizing them both, but adrenaline had her stronger; like a ballast she yanked him up from falling, kept them footborne. Had she failed, the beasts would be upon them.

Kamek brought his fingers together; fitted them around the wand, brough its orb to his head, touched the two together. A shockwave resounded, shaking all fronds of surviving trees. Above the hopeless scene, engines sputtered, stopped. The airborne force of Peach's took a grave effect from this spell... Planes power-dived, pilots struggled to restart the jets or yank back on the sticks. Most were highly-trained, and ignition happened soon enough to pull the planes up, out from summary execution. Three were not so lucky... The wings and all between them sped at steep angles to the dirt, and Peach shut her eyes, wet while the fireballs flashed to her face. Good men and women, all of them, now mangled corpses inside wrecks of the worst degree. It was grueling to hear Kamek celebrate; he hadn't even meant for this extra carnage. What he had planned still came to pass... As he chuckled, the ancients transformed.

Teeth, of the same sickle- or scythe-shaped nightmare as within their mouths started out from their wrists... Growing a hoop of fangs like a devil's bracelet. Their faces lit up with horrific spinning colours, glowing from inside, though the rest of them stood black as coal. Their hoods towered higher; behind this change were white flames, burning from their very scalps, never snuffing. They oozed closer, joined at the base of their flowing movement... Five became four, then three, while closing in on the brothers. But when Larry and Iggy sprinted, rampant in different directions, the three became four again... They could easily combine and separate at will. Screams like the very pits of the inferno shook the brains inside the allies' heads. Balls of yellow fire whizzed past Wendy's hair; this was from Kamek, who still owned his own power. He said nothing, busied with laughing, mocking the poor scrambling foes and their plight.

Larry ran 'til his lungs ached. Iggy brayed out notes like a sick donkey, the only way he could stand such pain or exercise. Wendy leapt up by a palm tree in the shifting sands, kicked off it and parkour'ed to a sharp left... As she came down, a brilliant light lit and heated up her rearward side from collar to shoes. The tree was toast, hit by Kamek's assisting. Burnt to a crisp, cinders floating high.

She pulled the biggest gun she had - one that would blow a building to Kingdom Come - and shot it straight to the throat of one who followed her. It went through, leaving only swirls of black like antimatter clouds disturbed. No change in the speed of her pursuer. No less shrieking or drive. And she heard a sizzle... Her eyes chanced to go where she'd just kicked off from, the tree. It had been hit, that was the light in the prior moment. What happened was unthinkable; a force invaded it, the bark and leaves started bulging, bubbling. Solid plant matter started just broiling... It seemed to sear into ruin, every leaf and inch of trunk, destroyed from inside. Soon it had collapsed, a pile of slurry so indistinct none could say where the green nor brown had been, it all changed to dark brown and fumed to nothingness.

Wendy could no longer feel her heart beating. It did, but simply so fast it could not be sensed.

"Princess-a!!" Mario cried out, as Peach tripped over her dress. She got up inordinately fast, but one beast which had been hot on their tail had all the chance it needed. Pure dark closed in on Mario as he dove down to pick up the love of his life... Cold like a blizzard, inside its shadow, the fiery giant cackling above; it scooped down with toothy hands, tipped by spines in the thousands...

... Iggy distracted it by lobbing a flask he'd had tucked in his shirt. Instantly real fire, though boring to Kamek and far from hurting the Ancient, ignited its fog. Light got it to turn around; the other four took heed, and were still for two sweet seconds. Mario and Peach got out with their lives; now the Princess carried the plumber, adrenalized by such a close call. Iggy smirked.

Kamek swore and stomped his feet. "Blasted chemist!! They won't be killed by the likes of YOU!!!" He lowered his arm, pointing towards Iggy. No need for a wand now; simply being near such unspeakable things as his forebears redoubled him, poured power into his every form. A new set of clothes - a coat bejewled, a hood ruffled and unwrinkled, regal and grim uniform - simply appeared on him. He felt it happen and rejoiced. "And neither will your parlour tricks take from me my station! I AM RISEN, pests!! BOW DOWN TO YOUR GOD-KING!!"

He fanned fingers out from one another; lightning filled the sky. Straight through another plane it fingered down... Another stalled engine, another drop from the sky to annhilation. But another fighting jet had aimed its cannon; particles collected in the barrel, gained charge, and fired straight to the vile magician. A shield shaped like an egg domed Kamek just nanoseconds before it would have worked; the Toad pilot's beam was absorbed, useless.

All signs pointed to this: it appeared that those soldiers in cockpits, armed with the finest of Mushroom Kingdom's munitions, were as useful as a sixth toe.

Wendy had exhausted all weapons but one; from inside her jeans pocket she pulled a mid-sized ball, tipped by a ring; she pulled it, ticking started, she discarded the pin. Its timer went off splendidly under one Ancient... The being disarranged, became a smoglike miasma. She stopped running as it swirled at random, seeming unable to find its form again. But she yelped, and restarted a sprint when it still moved her way... In a matter of twenty seconds, maybe less, its head floated up to the top, its arms found their 'sockets'. All was back to hellish prime.

Larry coughed but ran like the dickens. "Throw another Molotov!! " He yelled to Iggy.

"I would if I had one!! " Came the panting reply.

"Do you boys not know how to plan for CRAP!!? " Wendy complained.

"I dunno, do you girls know how not to get us killed!!?... " Iggy retorted, air giving out.

"SILENCE!!!" Kamek had zero patience to dispense. From his chest a pale blue cylinder came forth, ghostly; it coiled and corkscrewed, headed by a snakelike mouth. Mario peeked back and thought the worst, that it would seek them out and bite or squeeze them fatally... However this was not plotted. Instead it sought the Obliterati; one by one it wound around them, and their cloudlike matter thickened. Moved faster. It enhanced them, a second time for their deadliness to grow.

Once this happened, it moved to a new mission; up through the skies, meeting the planes head-on. It would open its hinged jaws, and the last thing many Toads saw were four venomous tips and a throat; explosions, two-hundred feet aloft, and the spiritsnake suffered not so much as a chipped scale.

"I-I'm sorry," Wendy managed to say, all the pitch gone in her voice. She didn't name Iggy, but hearing her, he knew what she intended.

He wouldn't have it. "Don't be... *pantpant*... I wanted to help..." Two beasts followed him, switching places, opening jaw to blast frigid hate that put frost on his ass. "I knew... *pantpant* You shouldn't have combat... Alone..."

He was faltering. Dizzy, hyperventilated. Peach found another tree... Still carrying her man, she grabbed it with one gloved hand, and rather than turn 90 to the left as Wendy had, she doubled back. It might be the worst thing she could do... An Ancient was now slithering straight for her, and reversed in travel she ran straight into it. She screamed. Larry saw and bellowed a "NO!!!"

... She came out the backside, still running. Mario still lay in her arms; all the impact seemed to be a glaze of black fog that evaporated like a comet's tail with her running. The beast hadn't the time to react before; it hadn't dove down, opened its mouth, anything before she simply passed through it. It stopped, looked around... And Peach didn't need to speak arcane magic dialects to know it called her every name in the book as it turned around and sped for her.

Kamek held both hands straight; now two more snake-apparitions poured forth. They would soon join and envigor these murderers again. Then afterwards, likely kill off what few fighter planes and henchmen of Peach still braved the odds enough not to turn their wings and ditch the feeding frenzy. Larry thought most of the first part; he knew this would spell the end, if the enemies gained speed, more power, further smarts. Iggy knew this also; but he knew one other thing.

In fact, he knew so much beyond one added factor.

There was something he'd neglected. A trinket he'd carried out here, more as an afterthought than anything. Inside a false seam in his vest, double-insulated, protecting him from itself. He had one component... But his family had the other.

While Wendy ran, hair flowing behind her, he had enough strength to holler one last sentence. "S-ssssis... *pantpant*... *huff*... *pant* Toss me... A pistol..."

She heard him; and it was so much against his nature that she asked, confused, "You want a sidearm!?" Her clothes were caked with sand... His fared no cleaner. She saw through the dust they'd all kicked up. She saw his face, and the hint of a nod, so hard to do while running himself to death.

Wendy trusted her instincts. She trusted him. And with one swift motion, she unhooked a Desert Eagle she'd kept on her belt. They ran alongside each other; behind both were Kamek's family of imps, towering, and the energy-serpents caught up with those demons. Soon they would be unstoppable. Coils wrapped the sum of the Ancients... Kamek stood with chest pronounced, sneer sublime. He knew he had won. Anytime now, the interlopers would be torn limb from limb, then dissolve into themselves... Imploding in the worst pain imaginable...

Wendy found the right speed, the right angle, and lobbed it to Iggy.

.......... He caught it.

He all-but ripped the pocket of his vest to get to that item. In one hand, a gun that almost slowed him down, so heavy for him. But the vial... The unassuming plastic, same size as the screw-and-driver kits he used to mend his glasses for years... It fit inside the chamber. Miracle of miracles, it fit like a glove.

He turned. He had a fraction of a fraction of a second to aim. Two of the beasts were going to sweep him, grind his life to a halt. He cocked the back end, chambered the vial. And he fired.

It didn't hit the Ancients. Any of them. But, he hadn't failed in his task, as they were not the one chosen.

Kamek had been laughing incessantly. So happy for the ferocious friends he'd conjured, for the purity of power, his magnificent new duds, he couldn't quiet himself. And the vial, which blew through the air at the speed of a bullet, tumbling end-over-end, found its mark in his throat.

Down the hatch. After splintering to shards on impact. He doubled over; the bastard still felt pain. And Iggy didn't doubt it was plenty of that, having thousands of plastic shards slice through your tongue. But this was accessory to plan, a lesser part of it. Something more important had happened.

The Ancients did slow, and look behind. They sensed their master, or reincarnator, had been dinged. He shuddered, leaned this way and that, but stood back up with fire in his eyes like nothing he'd shot so far. "YOU IGNORANT WORM!!! " His words rasped by blood pouring down his gullet. "PRETENDER TO THE WILES OF SCIENCE!!! I HAVE NO GRACE TO GRANT YOUR SKINNY, ANEMIC FLESH!!! GRRRRRAHHHHHHH!!!" His eye twitched. He looked to the sky, and instantly burst into flames, volt sparks, scorching plasma, at the same time. He looked down to Iggy, and twitching again, he unleashed a beam so wide and insane it scrambled two of the Ancients... They disspelled into puffs of smoke.

Larry saw that five had become three, and pumped his fist, still escaping the others. "Ha-HAAAH, the cur giveth and the cur taketh AWAY!!" Making light of Kamek's mistake, though careful to note that his brother ducked and rolled. Kamek was truly enraged... His face could not stop twitching. Iggy had the fortune of losing both killers what pursued him; this hadn't even been foresought, but to this, he could stand there. Breathing hard, vision white with stress and near-blackout. But resting.

Wendy instantly yelled, and Larry with her. "Iggy RUN!! What are you doing!?" Wendy tacked on, "He'll turn you to bones!!!"

But Iggy stood. And stared, straight in the eyes of the angry god dressed to the nines. Motionless, emotionless. His breath started to level out; his heart recovered. Kamek could only twitch... Only now, not just his eye, or his face. His left arm. Then his neck. The three living Ancients stumbled... They could not give chase as they had right up to now. They, too, swung to face their re-maker. Either they knew something was amiss, or their life, their force, tied intrinsically to his.

Kamek spoke... The rasp only got worse. "YOU WHN'T... STOP ME... FIRSHT I WIPE YOUU FRHM THIS WRRRLD... THEN YRRR BLUHDLHNE... Y'RR FHTHRR IS NH'XT... T-T-Ttt-t..." His neck craned. Tilting to the right, as if a tic. But then to the rear, unnaturally far. His arms moved random. By this point, he was no longer still, every breath had five jerky spasms. Then ten. In fact, the only thing unmoved were those Ancients. They had frozen in place.

Larry knew this was new. Very different. He no longer panic-ran, or even went speedily at all. Only walked brisk, and not away from the vile towers... Instead, to Wendy, whose hands lowered, her weapons sheathed. They shared a look on Iggy, who pierced the air with focus, like he'd never miss what now happened. Then to each other, two of the same blood. Larry even looked up to one Ancient... Fanged, oozing black dust and droplets, and in its eyes, a sorrow. Like it had heart to lament.

Kamek seized, leaned down to steady himself on the ground. Iggy stated something in the strongest voice his siblings had ever heard from him. "Dark World was never meant for this kind of shade. It's our privelege to bring the sun."

Kamek was his own earthquake... The hand he now leaned on the dirt before him, could no longer hold him. He collapsed, still shaking, arching his spine, unable to stop. The seizure rolled him this way and that; at last he stabilized on his back, but never stopped quivering. They could see his eyes, but no pupils... Those had rolled back in his head. They would never return.

Iggy calmly, coolly set a foot down towards Kamek. Then another; he walked towards the man who'd so callously killed and brought ruin. Wendy gasped, pensive that it might be a trap. But something told her to follow; she headed toward Iggy, Larry headed for her from just a yard behind. Peach and Mario were flabberghasted; she set her plumber down, and he looked up at her. She, so strong in a warrior's dress, beautiful in the face he'd always loved and respected. He held up his hand; Peach took it. They strolled together to join the progeny of Bowser.

The man of mighty magic poured sweat; the sickly type, borne of an unquenched illness. He could no more move of his own volition than speak; words would not escape the froth of his tongue's coating. Iggy darkened the skin of his rollicking neck, which twisted unnatural. Wendy set a hand on her brother's shoulder, gazing down at a violent end for Kamek. Larry reached them, leaned his elbow softly on Iggy's other armroot. They heard Mario's boots tread lightly behind, then next to Larry; Peach's skirt brushed Wendy's jeans. Transfixed, all of them, and not simply for want of assurance the Magikoopa tried nothing from here on... This, watching him in such a state, had been earned in every sense imaginable.

Iggy put it to words. "Suffer, you wretched waste. For all you've taken from us. From our countrymen. Feel every soul's catharsis end you."

Wendy welled with tears. "I should have been able to go home and tell Haley what we've done. You took everything she had when you took her."

Larry flushed, taking on an anger sudden. "We'll be burying Lemmy thanks to you. Die slow you fucked-up fanatic."

The youngest prince would get his wish. Kamek hadn't one still muscle in his body now; foam poured out his lower lip, three trails down his collar. The clothes so patterned and festooned with colour might as well have been Kamek's body bag. His chest heaved harsher now, far-outdoing the frenzy of his limbs' dance. It was his heart; driven to exhaustion, attack, and failure. Above his paled face Iggy spoke on what had murdered the murderer. "You likely knew but never cared, how science is its own magic. While you read thousand-year-old myths, and studied the eons, I learned how to mix every compote known to man. Including that Strychnine, in your veins now." Peach, a few heads down the line, put her gloved hand to her mouth on hearing that poison's name.

Kamek's body shook lighter now; his lips went blue. Movement, straining, grew weak as his blood quit pumping. The victor in glasses and tall hair wanted to cry, but with happiness; Iggy soliloquied. "I'm glad I shan't ever comprehend what drove you to wipe out whole cities in the name of glory. It's in my favour that our minds never crossed. What I lament, you monster, is how much you might have done with soulful ambition... But you didn't, and that remains your truth. Those drones you tried bringing back, they held a chapter in time, but eras end with finality. So you also have, and we will remember you one way: lost. Lost to your intentions, to all empathy. And to us."

He couldn't stop a tear falling, from his right cheek to the warm greying flesh that cooled on Kamek's hand. The emperor moved no more. Bubbles popped, falling into his open lifeless maw as if a bad soufflè. Wendy closed her grip, her chipped nails over his shirtcollar, comforting with a sister's squeeze. Iggy didn't break down. And Peach, though she saw this ran deeper for them than anyone, added with demure respect. "He lost because he trusted himself. He put everything he had into rule by fear... Never serving." At that moment, she looked down to herself; the clothes of a wartime royal felt heavier than anything.

Mario stepped forward from them; knelt down, and focused on the one thing unchanged about Kamek. Gold-covered, tapered, tingling his arm and hand when it reached down; the wand that had channeled what the vile one coveted, all his late-power expressed. It glowed when the plumber's hand closed in, reacting to the faded 'shroom injection, or a new owner, no one could say.

"Mario, don't-" Peach began to stop him, but he turned. In her hero's eyes wasn't greed, nor opportunity, nor malice... She eased off, and let him gently slip his fingers on that rod.

The ball at its end beamed once, and settled. No huge winds stirred, no change quick or slow befell the human. It had no will without Kamek, and the sorceror lay dead. Colour drained summarily from him... He would never commit deeds unclean, never even breathe again.

Iggy turned to Larry; devoid of another word, he launched himself onto the prince's chest, hugging strong. With adrenaline he almost made it hard for Larry's lungs, no matter his untoned form. And Larry - who only months before would have pushed this away, channeled Roy's brash attitude, even swung on a man who shared affection - wrapped his forearms on Iggy and swayed. Weeping. All appearances meant nothing to him; he held his brother tight, shared the first wailing sobs he'd done since leaving childhood.

It was definitely gone, now. His youth, and that of Iggy, Wendy, Roy, Morton, Ludwig... It would never come back from today. Like the fallen Kamek, or the age of giants in centuries forgotten, its presence lay behind and closed. Wendy wiped her own eyes, no mascara to run when she came to fight. Her talents saved Iggy's life, and he'd saved them all. She didn't fully lose it, until Peach took her hand, turned her slowly to face the blonde beauty... And laid something in her palm, then folded the knuckles in herself. "You will make more use of this than I would." Wendy looked down, opened her hand so gradual... A bracelet, the style and weight of what she would have worn as a little girl. Whether it be coincidence, or Peach recalling part of what defined the only daughter of Bowser, in times before... Wendy still wailed. The tears would not stop now.

Many feet away, unable to share the relief, the unburdening, the saddest of facts remained. Lemmy lay cold as Kamek. No words of gratitude or love for his line; they stood and leaned on one another's strength apart from him. Mario held the wand, knowing not what to do with it. He had wet patches in a moustache; tasted salt when they made it through the maze to his lips. Empathy drove home what Wendy and her kind must have felt, without the skater-prince. He looked high to Peach's face, her eyes closed as she muttered "Your strength resonates... I'll be here for you, we all will" to Wendy's ear, an anchor for the girl whose chest convulsed in pathos.

Mario looked out across the blowing sands. The limp form of a man in fatigues... Lemmy's body, he saw with hair blowing as breezes picked up. No cloud floated in the sky, but it was like he braved a developing storm, walking out, leaving the side of those grieving. His wand - as it now would be - took on a faint glow, red and blue, like the hat and overalls of its new master. Winds nearby ceased at his short stature, even veered around him while he stepped towards the fallen noble. The earth went to quake, even more than Kamek had from toxin's deathrattles. He stopped, just as Wendy braced herself on Peach, and Iggy on Larry AND Wendy, trying not to fall. The land was moving... It rose, up from the valley it had been. Curing itself of what Kamek had done to it in his accursed life. Sand seemed to shift underneath, but didn't even start to suck the living in, nor the dead... In its place came topsoil. Then grasses, weeds, small sprouts of leaves and woody-stemmed saplings. No more shining uncanny palms in sterile show of a shallow paradise... Life returned and claimed what it always had a right to. Almost like what Mario had seen on Isle Delfino, years prior, when scrubbing evil from a true place of loveliness. The Earth mended itself with a roar and a bloom.

He continued on, now within a person-length of Lemmy's coldness. The land's motion slowed, and Wendy ran after the short and stocky man; all the others were hot on her heels, toward what Mario may make as his first magicked act. It didn't take the I.Q. of Iggy to figure the idea... They all stood by, watched as Mario came up to Lemmy. In reverence he put a single knee to the dirt - moist, rich, beautiful loam - and held the wand to where its orb filled with colour, light, a massive force that lit the face of a deceased balance-prodigy.

Flickers, then bursts, hurt the eyes of Wendy and Iggy, looking down to that interaction. Larry looked to the north; a firefly at the eve's first dusky minute shined in his left eye's tear. Mario concentrated. Peach bowed her head, hoping a prayer to the cosmos could lend energy to the try that a plumber took on; the appeal against the Reaper, for votive hope. Iggy took Wendy's arm and held it; she stepped close, held him gentle by the neck. The Italian put all he had, with wand or with 'shroom infusion, coarsing through the stick whose old master expired. Whose new master touched the cusp of an orb to poor Lemmy, his cheek, the cold flesh what paled in the sandy blast of the last fleeting grains from Kamek's bastardized geology.

Beams made Mario look away as it tried heartily to breathe life back. They all looked away, as it worked its way through koopa capillaries, white magic for the skateboarder and his stoic ways.

He didn't rouse. No change nor motion bumped his flesh.

Absolutely empty of words, they accepted the outcome.

...... The road home was silent. Long. Arduous, as night fell on the bounty of nature. Wendy barely looked up, making bootprints in the mudded fields. She and Larry held one end; Iggy and the plumber had the other. Peach held a position behind them, her gloved hands clasped, dress moving over weeds and brush. Crossing miles of nothing, then the smouldering remains of an ex-village. Cinders endured after all these days... Iggy took to heart the analogy one could draw therein. He brushed hair from his face, and wanted so badly to speak comforting blurbs. But nothing came to mind that sufficed; Mario looked off at purple clouds under the moon, bare and massive forms in the sky so far from cities. Their shapes could only be ghoulish, oppressing his mind.

The scarred victors approached the rural train trestle, walked with the tracks. Their weight seemed lighter the further they went with it... With him. In only physical terms, while inner pain kept silence strong.

The top of a stone arch peeked out. This exitway for a tunnel was one and the same with where Wendy and Iggy had left urban rubble, before it all played out. When they'd still had no idea what they'd find. Larry groaned as a sharp rock on the tracks punched through his shoe... He looked in Wendy's face as she glanced his way. She saw he'd be alright, only since he made sure to wear this such expression, when seeing trails down her cheeks. She hadn't made a sound... Mario entered sheer darkness in the unlit tunnel. They made their way by following the steel of the rails. No fear owned them in spite of this blind advancing; there simply wasn't room in the confines of their mind's eye.

A splash of light came to announce the tunnel's other end... Automatic bulbs on a pole, solar-powered, as to why they persisted when lines were down and dead. So much of the city lay gone and would decay. They stepped gently from the gravelled walk, down to dirt and concrete. Stumbles happened more than on the rough wooden beams, now that fractured cement and fallen signs were their environs. But they walked on. Through the streets Wendy knew, past the businesses Larry had ducked behind to buy dust or shrooms, along the neighbourhoods Iggy never sought out while deep in his lab's tasking.

The two humans among them witnessed this city, before now just a stronghold for darkness as they saw it... The razed blocks between buildings left whole, the stark realness of every gap and pit in the urban fabric... They once sheltered life. Mario felt bleak, as imprints of black on the ground were in fact blood under nightfall, in shapes of koopas, where survivors had moved bodies away. He'd never been a welcome visitor in better times; there was no room now for bitterness. Empathy was full-bore... No less when looking in the face of Larry, or Iggy, morose and quiet as if someone punched them in the gut and left them winded. It was their land, their normal, which would never be the same.

Larry broke their silence with "Oh God..." when he turned his head and saw a lifeless Hammer Bro, propped on the base of a ruined store. A single bullet hole lay in his neck; bricks above his head were gone and made the shape of a rolling sea for how their missing were patterned. He knew the man; he'd obtained blow from the poor bastard. It may even be the one which Roy might confirm had penchant to threaten, were the bigger bro there. If Roy had heard his voice, which no one ever would again.

Turning one last curve in the pavers of a stone street, Wendy yelped. It was happiness; the turrets were still there. Their palace lived not in the past, but the present. She tried not to outrun her brothers, and Mario and Peach... She couldn't anyway, as they still held their heavy load, but they were forced to speed it up too. Almost hopping along the boulevard, past decay of splintered rocks, every step brought them closer. No screams were heard. Nor did fires burn here. Sounds of war were absent. Sound in general was kept to crickets, low strums of a bullfrog's throat here and there. Though the city seemed empty, above it were a multitude, at her very home, gathered where it towered. Lights shined in the lowest floor... This upped their pace even more. They ran as a group, like a discplined unit, past the edge of town curbs. Up a knoll of dark green plants. To the edge of a crowd, parked near to what she knew was their moat. Sure the walls were chipped, and the gate littered with holes and splinters... But priorities went elsewise. Drawn to this landmark, the beacon and center, they were the people.

Before catching on to the arrival, they were talking. Socializing. Even laughing, crazy as it seemed to the four-plus-one startled by this scene. There were baskets passed around... Kids and adults taking bread from them. It lasted like this until Larry's face hit the glow from out the portholes of the castle. Wendy's followed instantly, frontwards as they were. People pointed their way, and soon the noise lessened, bit by bit. Once they hit the edge of the party it parted, people made space for them. Eyes of the goombas, the koopa races, snifits, ninji, all watched the procession of five sad souls. And between the two in front and the two in back, the planklike shape of someone dear to them. Of course many exclaimed "They're back!! " or "That's Peach! Whoa! " and one even daftily blurted "Wow, Mario's a good guy now!?"... But more than that number saw the body they brought. There were words spoken glum like 'no' and 'oh shit' and 'god, why?' inside the rabble. Sniffles and small wails from children's lips. Too many understood.

Larry's boots made hollow sound on the wood logs over water. There had been time to clear the moat; now moonlight shimmered on the still ring around Bowser's abode. The walk stopped, after so many miles, at the damaged gate. Wendy met her eyes to Larry's... Finally, she talked. "A-are you ready?"

He had never been so honest as what he said next. "No. But let's get this over and done."

He lifted a shaky hand - it had helped carry a weight so far to here - and rapped on the gate.

Wendy and he could see inside the holes in that same drawbridge, but no one had been looking outside until the knock compelled it. Two koopa soldiers saw a prince and princess, and beamed with happiness. They rushed to the gate; around them were other denizens, families, Roy and his clique, the king himself, all rubbing elbows as equals. These others followed the action, saw out the doorway's holes and rejoiced. Only for a moment, then the faces Larry and Wendy wore told them this was hardly a good time. Bowser had been sitting, speaking with cooks... He stood, just as soldiers opened the gate, and two doors swung out to expose the six, four of which had come home.

Mario felt Peach place her glove on his shoulder; she needed strength to stand in this place, a zip code so long an enemy's lair. She found it in his warmth, and in how he himself shivered at touch, showing he was just as pensive. But they thought little of themselves; instead they followed Bowser's stare. On his only daughter, his youngest son, his smartest son, three of the four which carried in another. Larry said the only thing he could. "Dad. I'm sorry. I'm so... So sorry... We won, but......" And no more would come out his throat, as its lump became dominant.

He leaned down, and Wendy knelt also; They laid Lemmy's arms on the cold floor. Mario and Iggy closed their eyes, and together placed Lemmy's legs down. People filled in space behind Bowser as he looked down, like he stared a million miles away. A glaze formed over the white of his orbs; mist, rememberance, things he'd now have to comprehend. His feet stepped heavy. A circle formed around the dear, sweet prince... Pale by time and temperature. Hair still as vivid as the last minute he'd lived. In fatigues with mud and blood and sweat. Truly a warrior.

Bowser fell to his knees; the room shook. He reached out, ran his fingers through Lemmy's locks. He didn't need to think, to hesitate... He spoke.

"How different you are now, my son. The fight you've had. I see in you the stead of a proud man. I know what you've done, but what they've done to you... Those hands have wrangled our demons, and the price... Was t-too steep..." He won over his own trembling tone, and kept on. "Each time I told you to leave the board, and take up nobler hobbies... Every judging word I told for the carefree ways you held to... They will remain with me. And if they fail to break this spirit, which lives and is left behind... It's only that your voice also sticks by. My memories fill with your happiness. As much as I saw it in you, harming no one. Out there inside your truth, even if it be four wheels and a handrail or a curved ramp... Or how I'd hear vibrant music passing by your room... When these things you sampled, never were you more alive. And knowing them... Now, learning what evils left for me... I realize you were part of how I could feel at home. It will no longer be this. You've passed to the better lands." He leaned in; touched his forehead to his son's cold brow. "Take my utmost debt of love and respect. Someday we'll meet once more."

There was not a dry eye in the grand lobby. Roy removed his shades, to wipe both lids. Mothers had to hold their children back, the tykes unable to cope with how the coolest of koopa native sons was no more; many had seen him coast by and were fans and never imagined they'd be facing this. Ludwig had staggered over to the group, his siblings, the plumber and his best girl, while his father came to terms. Glass shattered on the ground as he dropped the plate he'd held to serve. Larry caught up to him and wrapped one arm on his eldest bro's back, and placed his other palm on Ludwig's chest; steadying a man who would be king. "I know... God as my witness, I know..."

He held on to Ludwig but spoke to Bowser, whose face showed utter misery and loss. Esmerelda tearfully came up to hug her spouse. All three were white as sheets. "It was... Honourable..." Larry talked as if he borrowed the strength of his only parent. Still the frantic grief was unhidden, as he struggled and strove to explain who lay before them. "He kept up A-... Strong showing, got in a ton of good blows... And with his help, we damned that warlock... But some things we just couldn't see coming..." Ludwig barely moved, frozen as they watched Bowser lean grievingly low, kiss goodbye his fallen son. "He went peaceful, much as he could... He told me, he knew who he'd be seeing on the other side. And he always knew how much she misses us."

Ludwig lost his composure, sobbing deep as memories compelled. Those of dear Lemmy, and of the mother of 7; that face he held onto as the oldest when she'd left this world. Everything came back to him like the snap of a rubber band. Esmerelda came close, gliding in that lovely dress to be with her man, offer him comfort. Her gloved hands she slipped over his back, and Larry let her take this for her own, departing from his brother. He intended to turn and address the people, craft some manner of words by which to aid them sharing this pain...

... But instead, Roy all-but-dived in, gave him the strongest hug. It both owned strength, and needed the same from the other prince who'd been there. Roy shivered; bad at communicating inner storms, but Larry read him just fine. He whispered something in his youngest bro's ear; it was rich with thanks and apologies within, for years. The role modeling. The bad blood when things weren't followed to-the-letter. And even what felt good but harmed, the sour fun and foibles. Larry reassured him; somehow the wrongheaded days, self-destruction, none of it mattered anymore. Through the course of reckoning with Kamek, their bodies had started forgiving them too. No more guidance through substance. Forever.

Peach, who'd stood close to Mario, hemmed on every side by those who just weeks ago would kill as soon as see them, broke off from him; she saw Bowser bent down, pouring trails from his tight-shut eyes, against the noble boy who breathed no more. She, against all logic of the past or proclivities, pressed her lips on his temple; offered him the slightest affection, a nudge closer to healing. It was all she might do, but with care and dignity she found it right.

Mario - though sweating a mite under the collar - didn't protest. He had other things pressing him to act... The greatest lay in the back of his overalls, tucked barely out of sight. He reached back to it; several koopas were alarmed, those in soldiers' clothes reached for their weapons. A swift escalation soon defused, though, as what Mario produced was readily clear to all. Kamek's old wand. Smaller now, it seemed, as it shone in the light of the foyer, still tapered and polished, tipped with a sphere holding untold forces and ability. Kamek's being lost to the world may just have shrunken it, or trashed the connection it had to ancients... No one could say, and it was better that way. The plumber made one good choice: The fact he didn't hold it like he meant to use it might have saved his life... The soldiers kept vigilant, though didn't fire on him. They watched in full caution-mode the diminutive human who held a wellspring of spells, just footsteps from their king.

But Mario held it loose, near stone-patterned ground, while stepping towards Bowser. No hate in his eyes, void of malice. He stopped just under the king's shadow; with humble moves he handed it to their monarch. Dark World's master lifted his brows. Felt pangs in his heart, echoes of days gone by, how this one gesture both mirrored and refuted them. He reached out. His clawed giant hand took gently the wand.

Minions cheered, families sighed and pulled one another close. Another fear of chaos put gladly to rest. Bowser smiled, wistful as he turned the rod over in his hand, felt its contours. Thought on all that had been done in repugnance by the one who once wielded. "We all carry with us what it never more will be made to do." One statement sufficed to fill the gamut of his intent. Death would not return to its list of effects.

He looked half-forlorn towards Mario. "My thanks to you, equal to my sons. You have sacrificed by showing fealty here and now... I lead by example today."

The human friend - as he now existed - kicked the dirt on the stone floor, bashful. Kids giggled as he blushed, embarrassed. "I-a wish for prosperity, your-a countrymen will see." Not the finest turn of phrase, but nervous as he was, he was happy with it. Cheers in his name peppered through the crowd would support.

Bowser held the wand tight, and with his other hand, took Mario's. Shook it. "Since you want it, it will come to pass. The years have shown." Mario turned quickly, reminiscent of his taller brother now, yet red as a Fryguy. The compliment was deep; his hope for abundance, deeper.

And some things didn't wait to prove this yearn; down the main stairway, brushing his jacket, hoping the smell of cigarettes didn't linger to offend, was Morie. Two others trailed him, jostling, free of panic or nerves. They all froze, seeing the number here now, no less containing faces human in kind. Bret and Todd's eyes went over Mario and Peach, Larry, the families and soldiers, townsfolk, then to each other.

"Dang, either we're missin' a party or a business meetin'." spoke Todd.

"I... Whoa." Was all Bret could manage in return.

Wendy dropped her guns, her cares, everything as she began a run to Morie. No one stood in their way as she reached him, and all could see how sweet he hugged her, spinning her as she left the floor in happiness. Bittersweet tears as they reunited on the lush carpets, under chandelier, among only friends and allies. Everything seemed to fade around them. Morie's heart leapt as their lips met, and her head could've spun. He gazed upon his love's gorgeous features and babbled. "Guess what? I helped save the castle!"

She giggled, and gave his handsome chin a feel with her palm. "Guess what? I helped save the world!"

A laugh or two were had by observers. They were not to last, though, due to more than the mood. Enough people had moved to show the three who'd trounced the castle-killer Toadies the state in which Lemmy came home. There were screams, there was defiance. Ludwig lost composure once more, though regaining it, knowing he would one day wear the crown. Two young skaters who'd been dealt the blow of losing a friend found in Larry, Roy and many else, the strength that had been paid Ludwig and the patriarch both. Hugs. Kind reassurance. Consolation from prince and pauper equal. And the plumber and princess, who didn't shrink from sharing their hearts.

And even in this time oppressive, glimmers of better days remained. Children still eating. Lights still on and over them. Things that would soon go back to the houses, and stores, and schools, Grand Koopa City would possess once again.

The king breathed heavier. He looked up, away from Mario, from Lemmy, from all who stood by; many floors of stone lay over their heads. Things still standing, unspoiled, not alone. So much that the dastardly killer didn't take. Many townsfolk and guards saw the change; the reflecting; that he wouldn't be a broken man, no matter the pangs of loss.

They saw determination. A man, still king, with duty now calling him to shepherd. Wrap his peoples tight against bleak truths and steep losses.

A tickle hit Bowser's foot. He twitched, and looked behind as he stood back up. A tiny PomPom girl, couldn't have been more than six in age, looked to his eyes and curtsied. "What d' we do now, your Kingness?"

Bowser witnessed her fearless. Heard in her tones the concern for him more than herself. And he heard her father, a stocky BoomBoom, gently correct "Highness" from across the room.

He almost smiled.

So he stooped down, hands on his haggard knees, and told the little girl with honesty. "Many, many things. Each of us."

Bowser made it so everyone heard. "We have much to see to." Then, a look cast straight to Mario. "... Our guests would agree."

Most indelibly they did.

To be concluded...