Chapter Text
Peach stood tall in the face of Bowser’s castle looming over the Mushroom Kingdom.
Her kingdom.
Her subjects had all evacuated save for her friend by her side. Just the two of them alone. They were all that was left to stand against that monster.
Peach took in a shaky breath, willing her stoic mask to remain. She couldn’t allow herself to grieve. She had to be in peak form to face Bowser.
She hadn’t been able to save Mario, but by the Stars, she would avenge him.
With unflinching royal decorum, Peach held her head high as the maw of Bowser’s Flying Fortress. Standing firm as a group of Koopas funneled out and surrounded her and Toad.
“Princess Peach!” Bowser greeted. “Brave as ever…”
Peach’s frown deepened.
What was his game here?
“As you can see, I have the Super Star.” Bowser continued, flaunting the mighty power-up.
“If you’re going to use it, use it now.” Peach declared, brandishing her halberd his direction. Holding her position even as the surrounding troops drew their weapons on her.
The princess internally took satisfaction in the way her enemy’s shocked expression to her threat.
However, Bowser merely moved the blade aside after a pause, clearing his throat. “No, Princess… I stole this Star for us.”
Peach made a face.
What?
“I guess, love really makes a guy come out of his shell.” Bowser then smirked with an awfully attempted swagger as if making a pass at her.
Peach merely deepened her glower, baffled at the display and the potential implications. All of which made her stomach turn.
“I told you that line wouldn’t work!” Bowser hissed at his advisor.
Kamek merely gave him a thumb’s up. “You’re doing great!”
Seriously, what was happening here?
“Peaches, with this Star, we will be invincible. We can rule the world together, forever.” Bowser said with utmost vehemence. “Will you marry me?”
WHAT?!
If Princess Peach had been baffled before, now she was thoroughly dumbstruck.
King Bowser, King of the Koopas and Ruler of the Darklands. Her sworn enemy for countless years and ruthless tyrant responsible for so much pain, so many atrocities…
…all of it culminating into a marriage proposal?! To HER?!
“Marry you? Are you insane!? I would NEVER marry you!” Peach spat with all the disgust she could muster as she pointed her halberd back at the fiend.
Bowser’s expression quickly furled into a scowl. “Maybe you should reconsider…”
With a single glance, Kamek cast his magic onto Toad. Her friend cried out in pain as the blue aura engulfed him.
“No!” Peach cried out, reaching out to help him only to jerk her hand back from the ensuing shock.
“Stop! Please, stop! I–”
“No! Princess!” Toad strained. “I… I can take it! Don’t…give in!”
Peach's eyes darted back and forth, panic rising as she fought the urge to scream. She couldn't let this happen. Not to Toad, not to any of her subjects.
"I'll–"
"Princess!" Toad squirmed in Kamek's magical grasp. "I'm not worth it! Don't give in. Please!"
Bowser’s scowl deepened. “Perhaps another incentive is in order. Kamek!”
The magikoopa waved his wand once more, momentarily releasing Toad as he summoned another to the scene.
Peach couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her.
Before her eyes was another human.
A human dressed in green with a painfully familiar pair of overalls, cap and mustache.
“Luigi?” she whispered under her breath.
It clearly wasn’t quiet enough as the man lifted his blue-eyed gaze towards her. Peach wanted to sob.
Even his eyes were just like Mario’s.
There was no mistaking the two were brothers.
Peach's heart stopped, memories of Mario's first meeting with her came flooding back. He had stayed put, determined to rescue his brother at any cost. Going as far as to threaten her into letting him accompany her for the sake of his sibling.
"Make fun of me all you like, but you’re gonna help me save my brother!"
She had even promised him in the fire flower fields that she would help bring Luigi back. How could she give up on them now?
Luigi yelped as Bowser picked him up like a doll. Arms stuck to his sides in the tyrant’s claws.
“Oh! So you do know him?” Bowser chuckled, playing with Luigi’s mustache. “I’d imagine so, having spent so much time with his stupid brother.”
“Don’t you–” Luigi’s sentence was cut short by a squeeze from the Koopa King.
“I’d watch your tongue, human,” he warned before turning his gaze back to Peach. “Now then, what will it be, princess? Do you still refuse my generous offer?”
Bowser then proceeded to crush Luigi in his hold. Calculated and callously focusing his strength on different fingers to maximize the pain distribution. All while Kamek resumed his inflicting his magic torture upon Toad.
The two both screamed from the agony they were subjected to.
Princess Peach felt her breathing palpitate along with her heart.
Toad, the bravest subject she’d ever met, and Luigi, Mario’s beloved little brother, both suffering because of her.
Had Luigi been subjected to this torture the entire time in Bowser’s capture?
She could barely stand the thought, seeing it firsthand like this. After all her far-too-blasé assurances to Mario that they’d save him. That it’d be fine.
Another reminder of how much she failed.
Peach couldn’t take anymore.
“Enough! Stop it, please! I’ll marry you! Just stop hurting them! Don’t hurt him or my toads!”
All at once, Kamek dropped his magic around Toad and Bowser released Luigi. Letting the poor man fall into a heap on the ground next to the magikoopa, who seized him as the Koopa Troops surrounded Toad.
“You have my word…”
It was nearly time.
In a few moments, Princess Peach would become the wife of Bowser, and there was nothing she could do about it. She fussed with her white gown, impatiently waiting for Toad to arrive at any second. If luck was on her side, perhaps the wedding plans would be canceled.
"Princess!" Toad scampered into the room, huffing and puffing. "I got it!" He presented a delicate array of flowers, and winked. "Can't go down the aisle without your bouquet!"
"It’s perfect. You're the best, thank you." She gratefully accepted the bouquet.
"Are you ready?"
Peach sighed, firmly staring at the double doors. "As I'll ever be. Stay out of sight, okay?"
The bells chimed and music sounded as soon as the doors opened. Toad darted down the next corridor and hid behind a pillar.
The wedding march melody played, but it might as well have been a funeral song.
Peach was surrounded by Bowser's minions, all seated in the audience. Some were jeering, some were even wiping tears away. She took a deep breath and walked down the rose scattered aisle.
Every step she took felt heavy and stress inducing, especially as she caught a glimpse of Luigi, who was trapped in a bird cage by the altar, wrists bound in front of him.
Peach focused her attention to the heart-shaped altar, where Bowser stood with his chest puffed with pride decked in his gaudy tux. She felt a rush of queasiness in her stomach, and nearly gagged when Bowser shot her a flirtatious wink. The princess then cast her gaze to the lava below them with a muted gasp, where hundreds of people hung over the molten pit in cages from above. She recognized Cranky Kong immediately, and a sense of dread overwhelmed her.
"I’ll be sacrificing them in your honor." Bowser explained brightly. “Lower the prisoners!”
At his order, the cages all began slowly sinking towards the lava.
"As for him," Bowser gestured to the cowering Luigi, who jumped slightly as the king patted the edges of his cage. The unspoken threat was clear. "I've decided to let him watch. Since Mario isn't here to see me marry the love of my life, I suppose he's the next best thing."
"Dearly beloved," Kamek preached as their unholy officiant, looking even more excited than Bowser himself. "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union between King Bowser Koopa of the Darklands and Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Don't forget to smile, sweetheart." Bowser said behind gritted teeth, red eyes flicking between his prisoner of honor and his bride-to-be.
Peach reluctantly obliged.
"Does anyone object?"
Kamek received his answer as he was struck unconscious by the force of Peach's fist.
This immediately followed by her reaching for the ice flower wedged in her bouquet, claiming the power-up as it switched her gown to a light blue.
"I object." she growled. "Did you really think I would marry you?"
Bowser looked stunned. "I mean, kinda?"
“I’d NEVER marry a monster!”
“Then we are BREAKING UP!” Bowser shouted, unleashing a torrent of his fire breath.
Peach launched herself into the air with a twirling leap. As she caught her landing in the aisle, she fired multiple ice blasts towards Bowser. Freezing him in place at his feet, then his hands, his mouth, until the Koopa King was frozen over completely in a solid block of ice.
With one additional burst to the chained pulley, the prisoners’ descent was also halted in its tracks. The ice from her fingertips locking the gears in place and preventing the cages from sinking further.
“Princess! Watch out!” Luigi called out to her.
Shifting her gaze behind her, Peach was greeted by a crowd of very upset wedding guests.
Well, if they wanted to party, then who was she to disappoint?
Using her newfound ability, she dazzled the crowd with more ice balls freezing into various guests. Some attempted to run, but their efforts were futile at best. With some luck, she managed to knock out the right front row into a full on ice sculpture garden.
“Hang tight there. I’ll break you out once I deal with these guys!” Peach said between blasts, casting a quick glance at Luigi.
The man in green gave a shaky nod and continued cheering her on from the sidelines.
There was a blood curdling cry from the back. Toad had entered the battle, swinging his mighty frying pan as though it was a sword. He smacked a few runaway Koopas, and even managed to knock out a Paragoomba or two with the aforementioned Koopa shells.
"Taste my vengeance!" he shrieked. "Come get some!"
“Princess! Above you!”
Peach turned her eyes towards the Koopa Paratroopas tossing their spears her way.
The princess weaved and dodged backwards, taking out a few of them with her ice as she moved. One spear barely missed her face as she turned and caught it in her hand, right as her hip bumped up against a lava fountain.
Perfect.
She dipped the wooden end of it into the lave, leapt high in the air and then with practiced aim, Peach threw it at the spectating King Bob-omb’s fuse. It instantly ignited, much to the mustachioed king and remaining minions’ dismay.
“Yeah! You better run!” she heard Toad shout.
Once back on the ground, a sickening crack got her attention.
The pulley!
BOOM!
The explosion did its job, taking out what remained of the enemy wedding guests. Unfortunately, the force of the blast knocked her back into the altar steps, promptly depleting her of the ice power-up.
Dazed, Peach held herself up, surveying her surroundings.
“Princess!”
Peach whipped her head around, gasping as she spotted Luigi’s cage rolling precariously towards the edge.
“Luigi!”
She scrambled to her feet and dashed for him, only to get knocked over again by– ice?
Her jaw fell open as her attention flicked to the pulley. Having now fully broken free from her ice and now resuming its death sentence to the other prisoners.
No…
A scream then brought her attention back to the other most pressing matter.
To then bear witness to Luigi’s cage rattling over the edge.
“NO!”
It really was just his luck.
Everything.
The pipe, his kidnapping, the torture and imprisonment. Then he dared to ask “how could it get worse?”, and the universe a bit too gleefully took it on as a challenge.
Here he was used as a pawn for a tyrant to coerce a princess into marriage, helpless as always and his brother lost? Missing?
Last he heard, he was supposed to be with the princess so what happened?
The monkey king guy was maybe about to tell him before he got zapped by Bowser and used against the princess.
Mario, where are you?
He had to be okay.
He wanted his twin back more than anything.
Then just to beat him more while he was down, of course he had to be caught in the crosshairs of Princess Peach’s brawl against the wedding guest list. The force of explosion from the giant bomb guy toppled his cage over. Sending it rolling for the edge.
He called out to the princess, a desperate but futile plea as his metal prison forced him at the mercy of gravity.
This is how I die, huh?
Crashing into a molten pit of lava.
Burned alive leaving nothing left to bury.
He didn’t blame her, the princess. She tried to help him and clearly never meant for this to happen. The hurt and guilt in her eyes twisted Luigi’s guts, haunting him for what would likely be the last minutes if not seconds of his life.
So much flashed through his eyes during his descent. So many regrets, so many unfulfilled wishes and milestones.
He should’ve held on tighter to Mario in the pipe.
He should’ve been faster running from the skele-turtle things.
He NEVER should’ve been caught or gave in to Bowser’s torture, putting a bigger target on Mario’s back.
Maybe staged a break out with the other prisoners, if only to get them out and spared from their current fate now.
Anything instead of doing nothing that only led him to this.
If only he’d been braver.
Mi dispiace, Mario. Ma, Dad, everyone…
All he could do now was wait for ‘sweet release of death’ or whatever as that star thing put it as he kept falling.
Falling. Falling.
Until suddenly he wasn’t.
His free fall abruptly interrupted and his cage now accelerated upwards as opposed to downward.
“Lu!”
Luigi was about to burst into tears then and there.
He knew that voice by heart.
“Mario?!”
His big brother was here! His amazing fratellone rescued him!
Mario dropped his cage carefully back on solid ground, then tore the door open after breaking the lock with his bare hands.
Mario was the coolest.
The instant the ropes were off his hands, Mario then yanked Luigi into the hug to end all hugs.
“I told ya, see?” Mario practically sobbed in his ears, pulling away to cup Luigi’s face and then press his forehead into his and oh! Here comes a second wind hug. His feet are off the ground! “As long as we’re together, everything’s gonna be okay!”
Luigi squeezed Mario back just as fervently, basking in the comforting safety of his big bro’s embrace as he gasped in relief. How he missed this. And to think he nearly lost this.
He was okay. They were both okay now that they were reunited.
No one was dying.
Which meant he could now ask–
“Mario, why do you look like a bear? What is this?” Luigi joshed him, tugging at the ‘hood’ of Mario’s getup.
“Heh, well, it’s thanks to this flying bear suit that I was able to save ya, didn’t it!” Mario replied back, swishing his tail. He had a tail. Mamma Mia, this world is so weird.
“It’s CALLED the Tanooki suit!”
The brothers turned to the fungi owner of the voice – Princess Peach called him a Toad? – who tripped over his feet running over to them.
“The brown striped Tanooki Leaf power-up grants the wearer the power to–” Toad cut himself off with a loud gasp as he stared directly at Mario. “MARIO!?”
His brother laughed. “It’s-a me.”
Toad made a high pitch squeal and hugged Mario's leg. "I can't believe you're here! We thought you totally died!"
Mario stared at the mushroom man incredulously. "You thought I died?"
"Yeah, you and Donkey Kong definitely looked like you kicked the bucket. You were all like 'woaaaah!' and the Princess and I were like 'nooo!' as you both heroically plunged to your inevitable deaths!" Toad hugged him tighter. "Promise you won't scare us like that?"
"Hey, I'm never going down without a fight," Mario smirked. "And uh, it was a close call for sure. But we made it out, and that's the important part!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA! Back up!" Luigi waved his hands about, eyes wide and frantic. "Excuse me!? WHAT happened that made him think you 'DIED'!?"
Mario grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, uh it's actually a really funny story. It was right after we recruited the Kong army–"
"We went racing on karts on rainbows!" Toad chimed in, as if that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say. "But then we were ambushed! Both Mario and Donkey Kong fell into the ocean! We thought for sure they drowned."
Luigi stared at his brother, eyes wet again.
His brother did all that? How many other times had he almost–
He noticed Luigi's anxious expression and quickly spoke over Toad. "I'm fine, Lu! It wasn't that a big deal!"
"Wasn't that big a deal!? You dying ISN'T THAT BIG A DEAL!? Are you KIDDING me!!? I could have–"
Mario cringed a little at his tactless comment. "No! No, no, no! Hey! It all ended up okay! See? I'm perfectly alive." He wagged his tanooki tail for emphasis. Seeing Luigi still upset, he pulled back into another reassuring embrace.
"I'm here, Lu. I'm here, you're here, we're both okay, fratellino…"
Luigi sniffed as he hugged back, finding respite for a moment from the weight of everything crashing down on him. The touch was a reminder that this was real. That they were both okay and would finally be getting out of this mess soon.
Just like his big bro said.
"Mario! Oh my stars!"
This time it was Princess Peach running up to the brothers. "You're here! You're actually here, how did you–?"
"Princess!" His grin grew wider. "It’s a long story I promise to explain later, I swear. The short of it? Let's just say it turns out Donkey Kong and I have a lot more in common than we thought.”
Peach mock gasped. “No!”
“It’s true! But are you okay? Is everybody here okay–?”
"Mamma Mia! The other prisoners!" Luigi suddenly yelled, gripping his hat. “What about them? Are they–?!”
“All taken care of!” shouted another newcomer, revealing themselves to be…a rather ripped gorilla guy. In a red tie. “Dad and the Kongs are gettin’ it done! You’re welcome!”
Luigi tried not to gape. “I–”
Mario patted his back. “You get used to it.”
Nevertheless, true to his word, many of the former prisoners had been released and were helping out the others still stuck in cages.
The confirmation allowed Luigi to breathe easier.
"Look at you go, Mustache!" Peach praised, messing with Mario's tanooki hood just as Luigi did prior. "Mastering the Tanooki Leaf already and surviving yet another thing that almost certainly would have killed anyone else."
Mario's cheeks reddened, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Y-You really think so? It was a bit of a fluke, honestly, but er, thank you."
Oh, Luigi was so teasing Mario more about this when they got out of nightmare lava land.
A roar of flames fired in their direction, forcing them back to not be burned.
Luigi yelped, begging and pleading it not be what he feared.
Bowser had broken his face free of his icy prison, murder in his ruby eyes as he freed the rest of himself with raw strength alone.
“You…” he snarled, fists clenched. “You RUINED my WEDDING! You’re going to PAY!”
Mario stood his ground, protectively in front of his friends. His frown deepened, his chin raised to show his defiance towards the king.
"Do your worst." he challenged, already in a fighting stance. He had his power up, he had some practice. He was ready for anything.
Luigi trembled as Bowser’s gaze flicked to him briefly and back to Mario. A sinister grin forming on his maw.
“Gladly.”
He unleashed his fire again, Luigi scrambling to dodge it. By the time he realized he’d been cut off from the others, it was too late.
Bowser had charged and Luigi was trapped again in his claws.
“No! MARIO!!”
It was his brother’s turn to attempt homicide with his eyes alone. “Let. Him. Go!”
Laughter. Sadistic, rumbling laughter was his response. “You took away what mattered to me. Consider this even. Now LAUNCH THE BOMBER BILL AND DESTROY THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM!!”
Everyone whirled around to witness the gigantic weapon fire from the volcano of Bowser’s Castle. Target: the Mushroom Kingdom.
Luigi’s struggles were wordlessly silenced with a warning squeeze as Bowser boarded his personal clown hover car. Basking in his self-assured victory as he took to the air with him in hand.
“So what will it be, Mario?” the towering tyrant taunted from above. “You can’t save both!”