Of Glitz and Fury, Ch. 20, P.1

Chapter 20: Final of the Final
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Mimi

On the ouside, Glitzville was a happier place than ever.

Everyone was proud of their role in stopping what would have been nothing short of the apocalypse. Jolene, in celebration of this momentous occasion, cancelled all the fights for a free party, everybody in the city invited. The fighters had been enlisted to help set up the decorations, food, and other bits of the celebration where they would receive a medal of bravery, delivered from Toad Town, and to be presented by Princess Peach herself. The city was abuzz with excitement. Even Bowser decided to stay for the food.

Beneath the celebration, however, there was a core of sadness. Like any battle, there were sacrifices on both sides. King K's shell had been found tossed aside during the dark construct battle, his flesh dissolved by pure Dark energy. The Minor Leaguers in particular felt his loss: To Bandy Andy, Master Crash, and Cleftor, the golden Koopa had been something of a leader, and a true friend.

And of course, Fawful, the one who had gave himself up for them, for the entire universe. Not everybody could say they liked him, but nobody had a single thought against the sheer bravery of his deed. He had proven himself to be more hero than anybody could ever have imagined.

These two where each held in the fighter's hearts, a shadow cast upon the festivities that were to take place.

And nobody felt the sadness more than Mimi.

The day before the funeral was to take place, she flipped in the Glitz Pit. Though it was off-limits for the funeral that was to come, she felt that she needed to do something.

Standing in the middle of the arena were two large caskets, one of gold, the other bright crimson. Each was symbolic for the two who had died, though only King K's shell had been found, and there had been nothing left of Fawful

Mimi gave a saddened sigh, and summoned a single glistening Rubee into existence. It was more slender than her normal jewels, and was different as it shone with a bright golden color. She propped it against King K's casket, a sign of her respect..

Then, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and concentrated on creating a single, unique Rubee, one unlike any other that she had ever created before.

And it did. She opened her eyes and examined at the jewel that hovered before her. The bottom half of its slender body was a bright crimson, flecked with dashes of gold, while the top half was a bright shade of green.

She gently plucked this Rubbee out of the air. Walking over to Fawful's casket, she placed the Rubbee in the center, a single dot of bright color amidst the grey iron.

"Goodbye, Fawfie." She thought, whispering her final farewells in her heart, as she had done once before when Blumiere left.

"Ahem."

Startled, Mimi whipped around and gasped.

Standing on the edge of the stage, tired, weak, but with a welcoming smile, was Nastasia.

In a moment, they met in the middle, caught in a warm embrace, and Mimi finally let the tears flow.

"N-N-Nassy…" She sobbed. "Thank Grambi your alive! I'm so sorry for being so rude to you before, I really am! A-A-And it wasn't Fawfie's fault what happened to you, it was-"

"Its okay, Mimi." She said, lightly stroking her green hair. "I know everything."

And for many minutes they stood there in that embrace, silently expressing their joy at seeing each other and lamenting their loss.
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Mario

The two famous brothers sat on the edge of the city, their legs dangling over the orange-tinged ethereal sea of clouds. It had been three days since the Dark Prognosticus collapsed on itself. The whole city had been a flying bag of mixed emotions: The local Juice Bar and hot dog stands had been giving out free concessions to celebrate the liberation of the universe from a world-ending force, while all matches had been cancelled in honor of the souls that had been lost in the process.

Mario too was experiencing a confusing array of feelings. Part of him was glad that most of his friends had been saved. But dominating over the happiness were the negative emotions: Sad that he was unable to fight here anymore, anger at being unable to save everybody, the grief that accompanied this, loss, and confusion.

He dangled his legs over the edge, when suddenly his brother spoke for the first time since the incident.

"Bro, why'd he do it?"

Mario glanced at Luigi. "What do you mean?"

"Fawful. Why'd he, y'know, save us like he did?" Luigi asked. "He could have let Grubba kill us, get his vengeance after all these years. Yet he didn't let it happen. Why?"

Mario sighed and turned his gaze back to the sunset. It was a question that he himself had tried to rationalize, remembering that cold feeling of defeat at the hands of the monstrous Chaos Grubba, ironically saved by the person they had come to destroy. He thought of several flimsy theories, but only one seemed to work at all for the old plumber.

"Loyalty." He said. "We were-a his allies then, so maybe he didn't want to-a betray us. Or maybe it was-a loyalty to Glitzville or the Universe, and he-a didn't want to betray that either. Either way, I-a think that it was that unwavering inability to betray his allies that-a saved us."

"Mmmm." Luigi sighed, thoughtfully.

Mario looked back out into the clouds, stroking his mustache. Then, he stood up.

"I think its about time we-a got to the ceremony, bro."

"Oki doki." Luigi said, and stood up with his brother.

And together, the two brothers walked away from the ethereal edge of the city, their heads filled with heavy thoughts.
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The bleachers were filled to the brim with people of all species, employees and residents of the city, every fighter in the Glitz Pit tournament, some high-ranking officials from around the Kingdom, and some close relatives to King K. Cameras hung from the ceiling, broadcasting the event to those unable to attend themselves.

Mario sat amongst his friends in the middle row. His brother sat to his right, while Princess Peach was at his left. Lord Crump, Goombella, and Mimi all sat directly in the row behind him, while Starlow used Luigi's hat as a seat (unknown to the green-garbed plumber himself), all staring down at the three boxes and the podium where people were asked to speak.

Soon, the ceremony began. Ms. Jolene started it off with a short speech of the courage and valor the brave men had displayed in their sacrifice, and how they were they "pride of Glitzville." Then she began calling up names to come up and speak.

And so they did. Many of the fighters of the Glitz Pit came up to talk about their fond memories of their battles and praised their courage. Some family and friends of King K, sharing their heartfelt words to the late Koopa.

Even Rawk Hawk went up at one point, saying that what their part during the Battle of Glitzville was "one of the few things that's even cooler than me;" before sitting back down.

And Mario sat through this, and barely managed to keep a tear in. Even his steely adventuring nature had its soft core touched the sadness that was in the air.

Finally, Jolene called out the last person who volunteered for a speech.

"And now, we have one last speaker today…" She said, adjusting her glasses as she read from her list. "…the Great Gonzales."

The old plumber felt a hundred pair of eyes staring at him. Getting up, he walked down to the stairs, climbed up to the stage and onto the podium.

"Thank-a you, Jolene." He said with a nod before turning back to the crowd. "Hello everyone." He said, surprised to hear his voice projected so loudly over the Glitz Pit's speaker system.

"These past few weeks, I've been a bit…obsessed." He admitted. It felt odd to admit he was wrong, almost as if the words tasted foreign. "I've-a been a bit obsessed with fighting, battling as-a many of all you fighters as I could, to get to a certain someone, someone who I-a thought was a menace. Fawful."

There were some confused muttering coming from the crowd, before Mario remembered something. "You might a-know him as the Furious Garbanzo."

The old plumber sensed that the crowd had suddenly turned against them. After all, the Furious Garbanzo sacrificed himself for them, for the universe! Mario had anticipated this, however, and continued forward.

"We-a had some…bad blood between us." He said. "I-a thought he was going to do something horrible, take something precious from me." He eyed his group of friends, centering on Peach's smile. "So I-a returned here to stop him. And that's the only-a thing that had been on my mind for a long, long time."

He sighed. This next part would be hard for him to admit.

"I still don't-a like him, and I never will. But…I have a new respect for the-a crazy little kid that I never had before." He said. "He might have been a total whack job, but he had one powerful, redeeming quality…loyalty."

He let the word hang in the Pit, letting it soak into his audience's brains.

"Its-a because of his loyalty that he came here in the first place. Its-a because of that sense of attachment that he kept on-a fighting, even when the odds where grim, and its-a because of that loyalty that we are still here today…and he isn't."

The plumber's eyes drifted through the cornucopia of  creatures, and spotted Mimi out of the crowd. Even from this distance, he could clearly see that the girl was struggling to hold back the tears.

"That loyalty a-gave him the courage to dive into the heart of the monster and destroy it, a-taking his own life with him. King K too. His own attachment here is-a what kept him going all these years, even as he was-a stuck in the Minor Leagues. Now he's finally-a reached his goal of being a Champion…a champion who helped save the Universe." That single tear that he had withheld finally dropped as he remembered his friend who helped him during his first run in the tournament.

He sighed. It was time to wrap this up.

"If I could just-a tell them one last thing, it would be thanks. Thanks to King K for the good times, thanks to Fawful for-a showing me that there is good in everyone, and to both of them for-a what they've done for us."

He thanked everyone, then began walking back to his seat.

Jolene walked back up to the podium. "Well, now that we have all the speaking done, I'd like to-"

Then, all Underwhere broke loose.