Odyssey of the Skies

## **Plot**

Mario heads into the library to find Rosalina but is puzzled to not find her there. Instead, he sees a letter sitting on the table that is addressed for him personally. He reads the letter aloud, Rosalina saying that she has felt so guilty for what she has done back on Mondator, so much so that she is now embarking on a journey towards Clouds' Rest, the same area where Mario and Luigi first learned how to channel their inner strength. Mario suddenly has a flashback of the last time they were there, when that hideous beast attacked them out of nowhere. Mario bolts out of the Observatory and tells the others that they need to leave immediately. Bowser and Squirt offer to guard the Light Prognosticus while the rest of the team go to save Rosalina.

Rosalina makes her way up to the tall mountain peak, with a few lumas aiding her. She tells one luma that they won't need to do much, as this is a journey of "self-reflection and meditation", but says she appreciates their support in coming along. She continues down her path completely unaware that the beast that attacked Mario and Luigi is silently stalking her. She eventually makes it to the spot where the bros first channeled their inner strength and she does the same immediately. While inside her mindscape, she flows past memories and the Mondator one shows up. She starts to feel extreme guilt and sorrow once more. Suddenly Dimentio appears behind her. She demands to know how he was able to enter her mind, with him replying that he has always been able to enter their minds, only choosing not to in order to continue his little "gameplay" with them. He begins to tell her that she deep down knows that it is in her nature to be cruel and ruthless, much like how her own family was. Rosalina tells him he doesn't know what he is talking about but he insists he knows something she doesn't, reminding her of the fact that everyone keeps saying she is destined to be something far more greater than she could ever imagine. Rosalina retaliates by saying he is only trying to manipulate her much like how he tried with Mario and Luigi and failed, adding to the fact that she already knows what the secret is: the ability to restart the entire universe so he can't rule it. Dimentio persists, saying that is only part of the secret, deciding to spill it all out on her. He tells her that her parents were apart of a cult who called themselves, "Cosmoseekers". Further explaining that their main goal was to take over and invade whatever land they saw fit around the universe, adding that once they came to Earth, they setup camp in modern-day London. He then adds more information saying that is why there was a war going on in the first place about the other colonies trying to colonize each other, saying those weren't normal colonies, those were the Cosmoseekers. He then drops a bigger bomb saying both Walter and Lucille were apart of the cult but kept it a secret from her as they wanted her to find out for herself. Rosalina refuses to believe this, saying this wasn't what she saw in the time pools when she visited their past. Dimentio explains that the time pools can be tampered with, and can only show what is allowed to be shown, showing her an alternate vision showing both Walter and Lucille tampering with the pools in the chance Rosalina may want to see them. Rosalina begins to go somber, realizing the severity of the situation. Dimentio tells her she was always meant to be a maniacal tyrant, destined to be an evil overlord. She exclaims she never wants to be that, saying she is better than that. Dimentio teases her more, saying she herself doesn't know for sure, as she has already shown that she is capable of causing harm regardless of knowing what the secret was or not. He leaves her, pondering on what she just saw.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, and Leroy all make their way towards Clouds' Rest as fast as they can. Along the way there, Peach and Daisy discuss on the matter of Rosalina's invasion. Daisy sides with her, saying she sees revenge nothing more than an act of love retaliation for the ones you care about the most. Peach agrees but says there are other ways of showing revenge that don't involve direct violence, but does admit she herself wouldn't know what to do if she was in Rosalina's shoes. Leroy asks Mario if he thinks she can ever forgive herself like they have forgiven her. He replies that he certainly hopes she can because he feels she is way too hard on herself. Luigi wonders about the situation, saying that what if they find out something about their parent's past, suggesting the possibility of a villain that killed them and if he/she was still alive, asking what would they do if they had the chance to get revenge. Mario ponders on the matter, saying it all depends. If they were alone then he would go for the kill, but if they had a whole home full of innocent bystanders, it would be a different story.

The lumas try to comfort Rosalina as much as they could but to no avail. Rosalina becomes too overwhelmed by the new information and almost falls off the cliff. Suddenly, the beast reveals itself and attacks her. Rosalina uses her wand but a strong wind blows it off her hand. She scurries towards it as fast as she can all the while trying her best to avoid the beast's attacks.

Mario and the others look up and quickly realize what is unfolding. Mario yells for Luigi to give him a boost and he manages to jump extremely high and reaches onto the beast, teasingly asking it if he remembers him. While attacking the beast, Mario apologizes to Rosalina, saying he should've warned her about what is on Clouds' Rest. Rosalina tells him it isn't his fault as she didn't even tell anyone where she was going, surprised they even found her. Mario and Luigi battle the beast once again but this time, leave a mark and decide to not cower. The mighty fight ends in the beast falling once more and the bros saying they should just leave. Rosalina agrees to the idea but says that she learned something about her parents that she doesn't know if she can take in at the moment. When asked what, she explains everything briefly, with everyone saying that would make sense as to why nobody wants to tell her what her true destiny is. Nonetheless, they all go back down the mountain but not without Mario realizing something poking out of the ground. Mario asks Luigi if this is the same route they took the last time they were there but he says he doesn't recognize anything about the path. Mario sweeps off snow and discovers that it is an antenna. The group wonders how they can uncover what the rest of the object is and Mario comes up with an idea.

After getting Bowser to come over, he fire breathes all over the snow, melting around the antenna and revealing that it is a part of something much larger than at first glance. Peach ponders on what it could be but then excitedly tells everyone that it looks a lot like something from an old history book containing the past of the Mushroom Kingdom. She says she always carries the book with her on cases like this whenever they would go exploring. She opens the book to a certain page containing a giant hat-shaped ship called, "The Odyssey". She puts the book side by side the antenna and it is a direct match. Bowser melts more of the snow and sure enough, the Odyssey is shown to everyone, albeit it is in a broken state and decayed condition. Peach dives into the history of the Mushroom Kingdom, saying that during the great Fungi war, the kingdom created giant machines called Mush Guardians to protect them, the technology was far more advanced at the time. Mario wonders how this could be but suddenly has a flashback to when Starlow showed him the vision of the kingdom burying the machines beneath the island, he realizes this is what she was referring to when she called it "secret". Mario also realizes that the reason the Mushroom Kingdom in particular was able to find much more advanced technology than the rest of the island was because when the Klauxes invaded Rosalina's cabin, they ended up leaving behind most of their equipment from the blastoff into space. Mario then hatches an idea and asks that why don't they just use the guardians against Dimentio should he be successful in his invasion. The others look at each other and decide that is a pretty good alternative to what they were initially going for. Peach then asks how they are going to power up the machines, as they don't have access nor the technology to do so. Mario says they will just have to return to Mondator and ask if they could retrieve some technology. Rosalina however, is against the idea, paranoid that they may think she is plotting a secret scheme to get revenge. Mario then tells her that if anything, this is a chance for her to prove to them just how remorseful and how guilty she really feels. She ponders on the thought, seeing as it's a good point.

Over the next few days, they begin to excavate the Odyssey. Peach makes an order to scout all over the kingdom to find where the other three guardians are. She then says that there are clues as to where they are located thanks to clues found inside the book, Mario and the gang agree to find them.