Flipped (Super Paper Mario SWAP AU)

Inspiration (28)

The heroes returned from their journey to find the last Chaos Heart shard, partially successful but partially feeling like failures. The next dimensional doorway led them back to the Underwhere and their journey brought them up through the Overthere, but there was no Chaos Heart shard waiting at the end of the road, so they were forced to return empty-handed.

Well, almost empty-handed. Peach and Daisy were lucky enough to find King Boo locked away in the Underwhere and Prince Mario stranded in the Overthere. Daisy liked to joke around about the fact that Prince Mario was somehow able to get into the Overthere, but not her or Peach. Honestly, the prince felt confused about it too, but in the end, they were all just glad that everyone was okay, even King Boo. Even the ghost king was a little worried that he'd never see any of these people again, even though most of the time they were nothing more than pains to him.

Once they returned to Flopside, Bleck urged the heroes to talk to Pierre about what to do next. Perhaps they got the location wrong and had to search elsewhere for the heart. He was determined that their adventure wasn't done

The blonde hero led everyone down to the elevator and toward Pierre's house. She used the back of her fist to knock three times.

"You're back!" Pierre chimed, pulling the door open before Peach could even fully finish her third knock. She almost stumbled inside, not having expected such a fast response.

He looked at all the heroes, his shoulders relaxing slightly in relief.

"And you've found everyone," he added joyfully. "I knew we could count on you! This is fantastic! Once again, you've gone above and beyond!"

"Yeah, but there's a problem..." Bleck trailed off.

"Oh, the sky?" Pierre asked. "I know, the gash has gotten a lot bigger. A lot of people are panicking, so I've been working on calming them down and getting them to safer spaces. But, now we have everything we need to stop the countess now!" Pierre chimed. "Soon all their minds will be put at ease and everything will be okay!"

The heroes all looked at each other, unsure how to break the news and explain the situation. Bleck's gaze lowered just slightly as if he was zoning out and becoming lost in his own thoughts.

"Bleck?" Pierre asked with a quiet laugh. "What's wrong? You look unhappy..."

His voice shifted to something soft and gentle. It was lacking the energy it usually held.

"Um... well, a number of things... but the prophecy..." Bleck quietly trailed off. He floated slightly higher and looked up at Pierre. "Do...do we really have to destroy Countess Tippi to stop it from happening?"

Pierre's eyes showed that his smile had slowly faded, giving him a more concerned appearance as he drew backward, falling silent.

"Hey, it'll be alright," Peach breathed. "Fighting villains is hard... but heroes always figure out the right way to do it. Sometimes, we have to do hard things, but it's for the greater good. It'll be okay."

There was a heartbroken expression in Bleck's good eye. 

Pierre felt a wave of unease wash over him.

"Yes... I suppose you're right..." the pixl murmured with a heavy tone. "I guess we always knew that, didn't we...?"

Peach nodded, but everyone was quiet. They could tell there was something more happening. But was it something they had time to discuss and figure out? The gash in the sky was continuing to grow. If they waited much longer, soon every world would look the way the one they fought Ms. D in did. Flopside, Flipside, the Mushroom Kingdom, Sarasaland, Evershade Valley, everything would be gone.