What a Wonderful World

Chapter 19

".... So wait, I'm confused. Who the heck is Dio?" Peach asked after Luigi had run off. 

Daisy huffed shot her a glare, but slowly softened her gaze and shrugged, realizing that each really was only trying to look out for Luigi too. Peach was only doing what she thought was best.

"I honestly don't know," Daisy admitted after a moment. "But I'm not telling you nothing!"

"Daisy... we're not trying to be mean to him. You know that, right? You do realize we're trying to protect Luigi from the-"

Suddenly Mario walked through the door, cutting Peach off mid-sentence, with a big smile on his face.  "The psycho clown has been caught! I sent him to Flipside and made sure he'd be in the proper hands. His execution will be tonight!" Mario chimed, all too happily.

Peach let go of Daisy and quickly stood up. "On Christmas Eve?" She asked. "Wouldn't that... kill the mood? Shouldn't they wait until after the holidays?"

"The sooner he's dead, the better," Mario shrugged, plopping down on the couch. "Nastasia said that it would be better if it was just taken care of tonight in case he gets any ideas and tries escaping."

Daisy raised an eyebrow and sat up. "Wait, so all you were doing was catching the psycho clown?" She clarified.

"Yep!" Mario chimed.

"Oh." Daisy breathed, letting out a sigh of relief. Of course, he had no idea that Dio and the psycho clown were one in the same, so this news was relieving to her. "Well, phew! I guess I did kinda overreact then. I thought you were gonna find... er, never mind. I'm sorry for being so difficult." She apologized. 

"It's alright," Mario chuckled. "Everything's taken care of. But I'd go home and get ready. I told Nastasia that we'd all come to the execution. Ya know, to make sure he's gone for good this time."

"Ah... pleasant...." Daisy muttered with a slightly sarcastic tone. "Do I have to go? I mean, as much fun as attending an execution sounds, I'd... rather not."

"Well, Nastasia wants me, Peach, and Luigi there at least. Since we've all had to fight Dimentio personally. So unless you want to be alone all night, I'd suggest you come too," Mario stated.

"Well... alright. I guess we'll meet back up here and all use a return pipe to get there later then?" Daisy muttered.

"Yep!!" Mario beamed. "Let's say we meet at 7 tonight. The execution isn't until later, so that'll give us plenty of time!"

"You know... you seem awfully excited about killing someone..." Daisy mumbled.

"Well, I usually wouldn't be... but this guy is different. He did so much wrong. And it's finally time for justice to be served, in Nastasia's words." Mario chimed. 

"Well said," Peach nodded, grabbing Daisy's arm. "We'll be seeing you tonight then."

With that, the two princesses left, leaving the man in red to himself. He spent a few moments in the kitchen cleaning up when he suddenly heard the door slowly open.

"Hello?" He called, turning to see Luigi standing there, his hat in one hand and the scarf in the other. He looked exhausted, his eyes somewhat red and filled with sorrow.

"Luigi?" Mario asked, stepping towards him. "Oh, thank goodness you're back-"

"What..." Luigi started, trembling. He slowly looked up from the ground, looking his brother in the eyes as fresh tears spilled. His eyes were slightly red, his hands were shaking.

"What did you do, Mario. What did you do?!" He cried, a helpless, heartbroken tone to his voice which Mario had never heard.

He sounded devastated and terrified, but not in the way Mario was used to. It was hard to explain, but Mario could never recall him sounding quite like this.