Karma Koopa stood alone on the balcony of Koopa Castle watching the clouds as they thickened and swifty rolled across the white, cloudy sky and the scent of the summer rain filled the air. Karma began to reminisce about the times when she was all alone in the Forrest of Illusion and the clouds rolled, and the sky darkened, and she had no home, no roof over her head, no parents to hold her as the lightning flashed, and thunder roared across the sky. Karma began to cry as the summer raindrops fell like Karma's tears on the ground. Karma went back inside her room and sat down at the small wooden desk by the window. She watched the raindrops as they hit the clear window and then slowly began to drip down to the bottom and hit the soggy ground below. Karma let out a slight sigh as she lay her head on the small wooden desk before closing her eyes, letting her mind begin to wander off.
"It's been so long since I lost my parents and wound up at Koopa Castle, I wonder if they even know that I'm still alive and still wish that I could see them again," Karma said under her breath. "I wonder if they're still out there somewhere just waiting on me to come home," Karma said as teardrops began to roll from her eyes and down her cheek, hitting the desk with a small splat. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud explosion coming from Ludwig's room. Karma clenched her fist and grit her teeth as she suddenly stood up from the desk and walked out the door on her way down the corridor to Ludwig's room.
"Can't he ever do anything right?" Karma said bitterly as she opened the door to Ludwig's room.
"Hello Karma, wha-" Ludwig was suddenly cut off.
"Can I ever get any peace and quiet without you blowing something up?" Karma yelled as she folded her arms and began to tap her foot vigorously on the hard castle floor.
"I was trying to work on my newest invention." Ludwig pointed to the black, crumpled pile of metal sitting in the corner. "I can't help if it suddenly exploded!" Ludwig retorted. Karma still had her arms folded as she looked at her Met, who was nearly pitch black from head to toe with soot and still holding on to the wrench he had been adjusting his latest invention with.
"Well, could you knock it off for a while, poofball? It's not like you’re actually making any progress with this invention anyway," Karma said sarcastically as she pointed a claw very close to Ludwig's nose, making him take a few steps back and wince a little.
"I thought I told you a long time ago, no giving me grief about spending all day in my lab." Ludwig snorted angrily at Karma.
"Well, maybe if you actually invented something once in a while that didn't blow up and scare everyone in the castle half to death I wouldn't," Karma yelled in a sarcastic tone.
"Well, maybe if you didn't interrupt me, I could fix my invention." Ludwig snorted
"It's not my fault if everything you invent blows up in your face, creampuff," Karma said as she turned her head away from Ludwig.
"What is your problem today? You come in here and complain just because one of my inventions just suddenly blew up?" Ludwig asked in a demanding voice.
"I don't have a problem," Karma replied in a low voice as she turned to face the castle wall.
"I know you’re lying, Karma. Just tell me the truth, what's going on?" Ludwig said in a subtle voice.
"All right," Karma said, turning to face Ludwig in a swift motion. "You really want to know what's wrong? I miss my parents, and it's all your fault because with this stupid Metbond I can't go find them!" Karma felt the warm tears start to trickle down her face as she suddenly bolted out of Ludwig's room.
"Karma, wait!" Ludwig said as he dropped the wrench on the floor and rushed out the door. Karma walked back through the corridor and to the door to her bedroom. She turned the knob and barged through the door and then suddenly, she violently slammed it behind her, making a loud thud.
"It's all Kooky's fault! If we had never met, I could have found my parents a long time ago," Karma muttered to herself, taking the pillow from her bed and throwing it violently against the castle wall, making it land with a soft, low thud. Karma took out her old backpack from under her bed and began to pack up a few of her things.
"Karma! Let me in!" Kooky said as he pounded on Karma's bedroom door.
"GO AWAY!" Karma screamed as she took the other pillow that was on her bed and violently threw it at the door as it hit with a low thud and landed on the floor.
"But Kar," Ludwig almost said before he was suddenly cut off.
"I wish I had never met you!" Karma said as she began to cry.
"Karma, let's talk about this, let me in," Ludwig said softly
"There's nothing to talk about! You will never love me like my parents loved me!" Karma said through the teardrops that were falling down her cheek. Karma's bedroom door opened and Karma stepped out into the hallway with the backpack on her back.
"Where are you going?" Ludwig asked as he followed Karma down the hallway.
"I'm going to find my parents," Karma answered calmly.
"You can't leave! What about the Metbond? We'll both get sick and could possibly die!" Ludwig said as he started to feel a slight pain in his chest.
"Life means nothing if I don't have my parents, so what kind of a life do I have now? Everyone in the castle hates my guts. They don't care if I live or die. Even your father tried to kill me, so what kind of life do you call this? At least if I die trying to find my mom and dad I can say I loved them enough to try to find them," Karma said softly.
"What about us?" Ludwig asked as he reached out and grabbed Karma's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Kooky, goodbye," Karma sadly said as she walked out the door of Koopa Castle.
"What's going on, Kooky?" Bowser bellowed from his throne room.
"It's Karma, she just, left," Ludwig replied sadly.
"Good, it's about time that hybrid got out of my castle anyway," Bowser chuckled. Kooky said nothing as he turned and walked back to his lab.
"Karma, I miss you already," Ludwig
said sadly as he opened the door.
It was getting to be late in the evening as Karma began walking though the Forrest of Illusion. The rain had finally stopped and blue skies began to peek out through the puffy, leftover clouds. The birds began to chirp a song as it echoed throughout the lush forest trees. As Karma walked further into the forest she could hear the sound of Buzzy Beatles chewing on the nearby logs and Wigglers crawling on the saturated ground nearby.
"I have to get back to Cookie Mountain and find my mom and dad," Karma thought as she continued walking though the thick underbrush of the forest. Suddenly, Karma felt a sharp pain go through her chest and down to her stomach. She dropped down to her hands and knees on the wet forest floor.
"Stupid Metbond!" she screamed, pounding her fist on the ground. Her mind rushed back to Ludwig and how they had met and how he risked his own life just to save her from the impending fate of certain death.
"Don't you care about Ludwig?" Karma's mind softly spoke, somewhat stunning Karma at first before she had the chance to answer.
"No, I'd like to punch the creampuff right in the nose," she assured herself, grinning evilly.
"Come now, surely that's not the way you really feel, is it?" her conscience said.
"All right, all right, what do you want me to say, that I love him?" Karma asked her conscience sarcastically.
"You do, don't you?" Karma's conscience asked.
"There's no way I could love him like I do my parents," Karma retorted back.
"Maybe not, but answer me this, if he didn't love you why did he say that about us?" her conscience asked. Karma had no answer at first but then, she could only think of one possible answer for the question.
"I guess Ludwig really does care for me," Karma said, picking herself up off the ground and dusting herself off.
"But, do I go to find my lost parents or do I go back to Koopa Castle?" Karma asked herself. Her mind thought for a minute, searching for the answer she wanted. It didn't take but a few seconds for the answer to suddenly pop in her head.
"What you needed was what you had all along," Karma's conscience said so loud and clear it felt like even the birds and the Wigglers around her could hear it. Karma finally understood exactly what she needed to do. She grabbed her backpack and began to run as fast as she could back to Koopa Castle.
Meanwhile, back at Koopa Castle, Ludwig was back in his lab trying to fix his invention that had blown up earlier. Ludwig set up the invention on the small workbench and picked up his wrench he had dropped, and began working on the piece of scrap metal that sat before him. Ludwig began to take off the bolts of his invention, when his eyes were drawn to a familiar-looking object sitting underneath one of his inventions. He reached under the invention and pulled the object out. Ludwig immediately recognized the object as one of Karma's pink ribbons she kept in her hair. Ludwig felt a pain go through his heart that made him lean over his workbench in pain.
"Karma…Ludwig spoke softly.
"Why do I feel this way for her?" he asked himself.
"You know why," his mind said.
"Stop it, Ludwig! You're talking to yourself!" he quickly said, picking up a socket and putting it on the wrench, trying to resume his work. Ludwig began to take the metal casing off of his invention but his eyes kept glancing back to Karma's ribbon.
"You know you miss her," Ludwig's conscience said. "She's out there by herself just like she was before she met you."
"So? It was her choice to leave to find her parents," Ludwig said out loud.
"You're all she has," his mind said. The more Ludwig began to think about that statement and the more he thought about it, the more he found it to be true.
"Then why does she hate my guts?" Ludwig asked himself, trying to rack his brain for a answer.
"If she does, then explain why she spent the quiet, summer nights out on the balcony talking to you when nobody else was around," his mind replied. Ludwig sighed as he lay the wrench he had in his hand on his small workbench.
"How can I show her that I do care for
her?" Ludwig said to himself. Ludwig looked outside his window at the stars
shining in the warm, summer sky. Then it hit him- the balcony! The place
were they had talked and shared so many different memories and things between
them. Ludwig started rushing around his lab to plan the surprise he had
for Karma.
Karma rushed closer and closer to the entrance of Koopa Castle, nearly tripping on the grass, still wet from the afternoon rain. She knew she didn't have very long to get there as it was getting nearly pitch black except for the bright lights coming from the castle. She rushed to the big door of the castle and quickly opened it. She started to head for Ludwig's room before hearing Bowser clear his throat, making her suddenly stop in her tracks.
"Where do you think your going, hybrid?" Bowser said, staring directly into Karma's eyes.
"Up to Kooky's room," she replied playfully.
"Oh no you don't!" Bowser growled. "You left here, so what right do you have to go up to my son's room?"
"I live here," Karma replied simply as she ran up the stairs to Ludwig's room. Bowser just snorted and walked off in defeat, still mumbling something under his breath. Karma walked down the hallway to Ludwig's room and knocked on the door.
"Kooky, are you in there? Can I come in?" Karma asked as she slowly opened the door to his room. Karma stepped into Ludwig's room, where the four walls were surrounded by total darkness.
"Kooky, where are you?" Karma said in a worried tone. "It's not like him to leave the light off while he's not here," Karma said, reaching for the light switch and turning it on. Karma gazed upon Kooky's room full of inventions past and present and the various parts of who knows what he had scattered about his workbench along with the invention he’d worked on today.
"Kooooky?" Karma called as she sat down on his bed. "What's this?" Karma said, picking up a note laying on the bed. It read:
"Meet me out on the balcony tonight, I have a surprise for you, Karma." It was signed by Ludwig.
"I wonder what he's up to now?" Karma asked herself as she got up off the bed and walked over to the door of the balcony and opened it. Karma's eyes gazed on a lone table that stood in the middle of the balcony and had a white tablecloth draped across it and a single red candle that was lit and placed in the center of the table. The rest of the balcony had been decorated with white and red streamers that had been decorated with lights that ran alongside of the streamers. Karma stood there is amazement as the radio played a soft song that echoed though the night air.
"Hello Karma, I'm glad you came," a voice said from the shadows. Karma instantly recognized the voice as Kooky's and walked over to the table where he was.
"What is this supposed to be about anyway?" Karma asked.
"I thought I would show you that I really do care for you, Karma," Ludwig said as he emerged from the shadows of the night.
"How did you know I would be back?" Karma asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"My home is your home, Karma," Ludwig said as he smiled and pulled out a chair and sat down. "I knew the Metbond wouldn't let you go far before you felt a pain in your heart like I did." Ludwig took Karma's hands as he looked her in the eyes.
"I'm sorry about everything that has happened in your life, Karma," Ludwig said softly. "I know that I'll probably never be able to compare to your parents, but you will always have me to care for you no matter what. I'd give you the moon if I could, Karma. I love you," Ludwig said. He leaned over and passionately kissed Karma, who didn't resist it. The music on the radio started to play Shadows in the Moonlight as Ludwig stood up from his chair and gently took Karma by the hand.
"Can I have this dance?" Ludwig asked.
"Sure, poofball," Karma said jokingly as she stood up from her chair and followed Kooky out to the middle of the balcony floor as they danced hand in hand only in the presence of the light of the stars and the moonlight, the two swaying to the beat of the music. After the song had stopped, Ludwig looked Karma gently in her eyes.
"I love you, Karma," Ludwig said.
"Likewise, poofball, I love you too," Karma said. And Ludwig and Karma danced the night away together, as shadows in the moonlight.
The End
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