Bowsette and Peach and the Knights of the Toadstool had ran through seemingly endless hallways of this Brighton-forsaken castle. Bowsette had no CLUE why it was so big, let alone how she had lived here for decades and still had no idea where anything was.

The Throne Room was clearly where Morton laid in wait. That one was obvious. But for now, she was merely looking for anything else in the castle that might prove useful. A laboratory or something.

“I could have sworn this floor had something useful...” she muttered.

“That’s what you said on the last floor,” Peach said. “We don’t have a lot of time, you know...”

There was one odd-looking door that suddenly triggered a memory for Bowsette; that was the door she had once gone in when they were trying to figure out what to do about Dry Bowser. Man, that was a long time ago. It was locked, but clearly that had no bearing on whether or not she was going to bust the door down; she would have done that if it were unlocked, too.

Okay, door busted. What was in this--

Laboratory... Kamek’s own... laboratory...

What didn’t surprise Bowsette was the fact this existed. Kamek had seven, maybe even eight personal facilities in the castle, and this was exactly what she was looking for anyway.

What surprised her was the fact that inside some sort of testing tube, hooking up to various machines, was Kamek, very much alive and in very poor condition.

Bowsette bashed the machine until it stopped working, and broke the glass to the tube to retrieve him. He was barely conscious, but smiled as he looked up at her.

“Are you an... angel?” he asked.

“Dad, it’s me,” Bowsette said. “Your only... child.”

Kamek weakly smiled. His vision was nonexistent. “That’s not..--” Cough. “--true. I raised Clawdia for most of her teenage years, no?”

“Well, don’t try to make it all creepy all of a sudden...” she mumbled to herself. “Dad, I’m... I thought you were dead.”

“I certainly feel it...”

“What were they doing to you? Why were you in that machine?”

“They were extracting my magic... for their experiment. I... couldn’t stop them.”

“You mean Morton?” Bowsette asked.

“Morton and that... Mad Scienstein.”

So he wasn’t dead at all. He was in on it. Not that that really changed much.

“And they needed your magic for that?”

“Two years I was in that thing... You don’t understand, my... child...” Kamek was seriously injured after being absolutely sucked dry in his very soul. “I’m so sorry for bringing Morton back. I’m so sorry for not being there for you... I was such a bad father...” He passed out.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Take him to a medic, you two,” Bowsette said to Koopie Koo and Lakilulu. They took Kamek and went off. “Now... is there anything else in here that might... well, you know, HELP us?”

“Hey! You guys! Back off the merchandise or else!”

Bowsette turned to see several Koopatrols, along with two figures holding Magikoopa wands pointed directly towards them. It was Roy and Larry.

“My... babies... My babies!”

The motherhood instinct inside her overrode any sense of self preservation and she flew over to them, hugging them both and tackling them to the ground simultaneously. At the same time, the Koopatrols took off running away.

When they both got back up she then slapped them both back to the ground. “Why are you dumbasses siding with the bad guy?” she asked.

Larry, smarter than he looked, made the connection immediately. “Pops? That you?”

“It’s Mom now! And I ain’t taking your shit about ambition or whatever. Your siblings were fighting to save this kingdom, and here you were siding with the enemy! Why?”

Roy sniffled. “Ludwig said... I could never be king...”

“You can’t,” Bowsette said. “After this stunt, you two and all your descendants for the rest of time are removed from the line of succession. Bam. Done. Gone.”

“Awwww....” they moaned simultaneously.

“Shoulda thought about it before you let friggin’ LEMMY get ahead of you.”

“You always preferred Bowser Jr. anyway...” Larry complained.

She ignored that remark and then hugged them both again. “All of your brothers are outside in the middle of the battle. Do you.. know where Wendy might be?”

They looked at each other with mournful expressions. “She got... cursed.”

“Take me there.”

They led the group to another room on a floor closer to the Throne Room, where dozens of statues of prominent dissident figures were on display, from General Guy to Tough Wiggler to some weird-looking Spiky Koopa. And then the big two: Bowsette’s grandmother Kammy and her daughter Wendy.

“Is there any way to fix this?” Peach asked.

“What’s Princess Peach doing here?” Roy asked.

“We got married, long story, already explained it to the non-traitor Koopalings. No time now.” She stared at the stone statues and thought deeply. Surely, with her magical prowess, and the Koopa-based magic of this curse...

Bowsette touched both of the statues with her hands and focused, pouring as much of herself into them as she could.

She felt a surge of energy, She felt her blood. Every bit of celestial blood in her veins vibrated and sparkled within her... and all that energy moved forward into her fingertips.

With one blast of magic, the curse was lifted. The two of them were revived... And then Bowsette fell to the ground, gasping for air.

That was NOT a good idea to do right before facing down the toughest enemy of her life. She was really going to regret that, she thought.

Just kidding. Because the two most important women in her life were back. Uh, besides Peach, kind of. She hugged them both, and Larry and Roy joined in.

Once again, she explained the Bowsette situation, and the Bowsette Toadstool situation, for what felt like the eightieth time in recent days. The two women were immediately understanding of it, even if Bowsette had no clue Kammy would be able to withstand such a big change in her life. She really underestimated her.

“So,” Kammy said. “You’ve truly graduated, Bowsette my dear. You have become a dragon witch, just like I always wanted. Kakakakaka...”

“Oh, Grandma.” Bowsette turned to Wendy. “I’m so proud of you for trying to do the right thing, even if it almost got you killed. You are a real hero, unlike these two jerks right here.”

“Geez...” Roy said.

“Oh, it was nothin’,” Wendy said. “Do I get to become Queen now?”

“We’ll talk about that later.” That was her way of avoiding the fact that right now Iggy was really looking like the one who could rule Dark Land in the future, which was an unexpected turn and actually really cool. Succession didn’t matter though until they defeated the current ruler.

“So if there’s nothing left in this castle to find,” Bowsette said. “We’re going to meet up with the other Koopalings. And we’re going to bash that stupid Morton’s skull in.”