Threads of Fate (Part 2)

Grief

*Note to reader*

This story is a follow up to my previous story "Threads of Fate". It assumes you have read it's predecessor. Please visit my page to read part 1 of this story.

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"Please... You can't go!"

Daisy was on the brink of tears as she once again attempted to pull Luigi back from the brink. He was in his bedroom in Daisy's castle preparing a bag. The room was dark, lit only by a small lamp and moonlight shining through the balcony doors.

It had been just over a year since Mario was killed... a year since Peach was found in her bed the morning after the funeral... and during that time, something inside Luigi snapped. So, while his response was calm, there was also unmistakable darkness behind his words.

"You're not stopping me this time. I can't allow him another day to breath freely. Not after what he did."

Daisy response was desperate.

"Please... this will not help them."

"NOTHING CAN HELP THEM NOW! I can't keep pretending that him staying in his own land is enough! He killed my brother! He killed Peach!!!"

Daisy's voice became smaller with each word.

"He didn't kill Peach..."

Luigi's blood began to boil. If it had been anyone but Daisy making such a claim, Luigi would have struck them at that moment. Instead, he turned away and continued his preparations. Daisy approach timidly.

"Look... I'm sorry. Your right, obviously Mario's death was why Peach's heart gave out... And I hate Bowser with every ounce of my soul for it... but revenge will help nothing."

"So, he gets away with it then!?"

"Luigi, we need to think about others. The Mushroom Kingdom is incredibly vulnerable without Peach. Bowser could flatten it any day now. But for whatever reason he has chosen to respect Peach's final words and has left the Mushroom Kingdom alone. Don't you see? The Toads have been incredibly lucky in the past year that none of their enemies have exploited the loss of Peach. I don't know how much longer their good fortune will last, but if you attack Bowser directly, he will respond in kind, and it is the Toads who will suffer!"

Luigi recognized the wisdom in Daisy's words. But his anger had reached a point beyond recklessness. For him, none of it mattered, he simply didn't care anymore.

"No one will suffer if I kill him."

Daisy was beginning to realize that she may not be able to stop Luigi this time and began to cry openly as she spoke.

"And if he kills you?! What about me? Are you going to leave me to die like Peach, sobbing into a pillow?!"

"I have defeated him before."

"Mario had defeated him before! And you have never fought him like this. You have defeated him when he was steeling things... things he never had a right too in the first place. But this... you will be turning him into a cornered animal who will be fighting for his very survival! You have NEVER fought him like that before!"

There was validity to everything Daisy was saying, but rather than soothing Luigi, it only infuriated him.

"You don't understand I have to do this."

"Why? Why risk so much just for revenge!?"

Luigi began to give a stumbling response about having no choice, he could feel his excuses running out. Daisy did as well, and she pressed her advantage by cutting him off.

"You DO have a choice! Just as Peach did! She resisted her desire for revenge when she had a chance. Why not respect her memory by doing the same!?"

Luigi slammed his fist on the wall.

"BECAUSE IT'S MY FAULT PEACH DIED!!!"

Whatever Daisy was expecting, it was not this. She stood in stunned silence for a time unsure of how to respond to such a declaration, so Luigi continued.

"It's my fault... mine. I saw it. The moment Peach pressed her letter in my hands. I could see the torment in her eyes... I recognized it, a reflection of my own agony. A pain that only I could have fully understood. And I did nothing about it!"

Luigi collapsed onto the bed and began sobbing into his hands. Daisy sat next to him and threw an arm around him.

"Luigi... you couldn't have expected..."

Luigi stifled his sobs and cut her off, now that his confession had begun, he couldn't allow himself to stop. Like bursting a dam, the only thing left to do was to let everything pour out.

"But I did! ... Daisy, you were the only thing that kept me going after Mario died. You were my pillar, I put everything on you, and even then, I barely made it... Peach, she had no pillar... Mario was her pillar... I knew it. I knew her pain. And I knew she was not getting the support she needed. How could she? When the Toads kept allowing her to shut herself off from everything and everyone!? I should have spoken out the moment I saw the situation she was in. But I sat there, in silence, in my own selfish grief as she continued to spiral downward. I told myself that she was such a strong person, so much stronger than me... surely, she was managing. It was a convenient little lie that allowed me to focus on my own pain, leaving her, once again, to bear her pain alone."

Luigi pulled away and looked into Daisy's eyes.

"Only when it became too late, when she rushed off from the burial and locked herself away again did I begin to realize what I had done. But even then, when you went to be with her, when you went to give her what I should have been giving her... What I had known she needed since the beginning... I continued to wallow in my own self-pity. I told myself another lie, I told myself that your words would be enough, and we could give Peach the proper support she needed the next day..."

Daisy squeezed Luigi's hands and spoke as softly as he had ever heard her speak.

"But it's like you said... you were in such grief... You were barely making it yourself. You were the last person in the world who should have been burdened with supporting her. It was our fault more than yours; WE should have seen the warning signs. WE should have acted to support her. We were the ones with strength left to give..."

Luigi simply shook his head.

"I was the only one who understood."

The fight had ended there. Not as Luigi or Daisy had hoped. But there were simply no more words left in either of them. The two laid down with Luigi's arms around Daisy and they cried silent tears until they both drifted off to sleep.

When Luigi woke, he took care not to wake Daisy. The truth was that even though Luigi had failed to argue his point, that no longer mattered to him. He needed this, he needed revenge because without it, he was sure that he would never be able to let go of his pain over Mario and his guilt over Peach. If he destroyed Bowser, then perhaps, it would destroy his pain and guilt as well. Let Bowser die with all of his misery, only then could Luigi have any hope of moving on.

There was no point in putting any of this in the letter for Daisy. He was sure his arguments were flawed, and she would have no difficulty thinking of countless reasons why he was wrong... so instead, his note was incredibly simple and to the point.

I'm Sorry

I love you