Chapter 8: Lúmes the Good
The darkness closed in. It was like a giant, looming monster, an all-consuming power, eating everything in its path. A giant mouth, inhaling every morsel of light around it, spreading like a virus until everything was controlled by it and it reigned superior, stomach rumbling for more. At the appearance of everything or anything else it jumped at a chance to consume the next sight of light, only to find that light is superior and back down, being consumed by the mouth of light in a shining instance.
***
Ella stands, wand held high, lighting up the surrounding darkness, the beam consuming every drop in the immediate area. She holds her head up high, looking into the darkness with a look of sadness in her face. Lúmes joins her in the center of the icy prison cell, knowing why Ella looks sad.
"Look," Lúmes says, "We did all we could. Klúmes played an unfair game, and there is nothing that we-"
"Yes there was," Ella interrupts. "There was plenty I could have done..."
"There was nothing to do! It was not your fault! It was my sister’s fault, nothing more and you know it!"
"No. That's not true! It was all my fault!"
"Was not! Listen. We tried to save your mother. We did, and you know it. She out-did us, and we didn't expect it. She cheated!"
Ella just sits there and nods, shaking her head. Lúmes puts her hand on Ella's shoulder. "What's done is done. We have to move on now. Don't you see? If we don't stop her now, the same thing will happen elsewhere."
"I guess you're right..."
"How did you and your mother get here anyway?"
"Well... my uncle was a Penguin on a planet far, far away. One day he met my mother, who was what is known as a Magikoopa. They married, while my mother was working for the great Koopa King Morton. They had developed a new spaceship technology, and eventually decided to test it out. My mom and dad volunteered to go. So they went into space in a great launch, and traveled to other planets, until they eventually found this one.
“There was an attack by the Dark Lord, who pulled them into the planet's atmosphere, and their spaceship plummeted towards Iceria, so they ejected the escape pod and lived a normal life and had me as a child. Eventually the threat of the Dark Lord was noticed and he took over this area as supreme dictator. My mother found a cave and each night snuck off to plot of ways to overthrow his rule. She eventually developed a weapon that could destroy his darkness. She won back our village from his hands and snuck into enemy lines, where she found him battled him. She fought him to the end, and destroyed him with her weapon, and he fell out onto the battlefield against the newly formed Penguin Republic. Lights lit up the night as the Penguins retaliated against his forces and he began to melt away. His form dissipated and he was reborn into a dead carcass and snuck off, harmed. His forces dwindled and peace was restored.
“My mother took me to her cave and taught me about him, just in case he should return. Eventually his icy palace showed life and we knew he would return. My mother had a vision and shared it with me, a prophecy of two icons of Good and Evil to battle for the survival of Iceria as we know it. Your name was mentioned and we waited for your arrival. My mother trained me to aid you, as she was growing old.
“One night the Dark Lord attacked a whole ring of villages in the Penguin Republic and my father was attacked by a night creature and injured on the way home, and he contacted us. We were inside my mom's cave, protecting others from the attack, and it was last reported the Dark Lord had made his way towards the location of my father after his status report. I don't know what happened, but he probably ran into the Dark Lord, and I never saw him again."
Ella begins to cry again while Lúmes ponders the information. Her head begins to spin, and she sees colors flashing. At once they all form into a tunnel and she is blasted forward into a bright light and falls to the ground.
"Lúmes!" Ella exclaims. "ARE YOU OKAY?!"
***
Lúmes drifts down and down into a bright light until she becomes immersed in it. Then she wakes up somewhere in a glowing palace. It is crystal ice, and shimmers like diamonds. It is a light room, decorated with a red carpet and a portrait on the wall of.... Lúmes? But why would she be on the wall?
The room also has two chairs in the center, made out of an icy diamond that sparkles in the sunlight. Lúmes has a sudden urge to sit in the chair, and in a split second she does just that. Before her she can see magnificent ice pillars that support an upper balcony of ice that circles the whole room, ending on the wall of the giant portrait. From the top of the detailed overhang, a voice is heard.
"Lúmes," a soothing voice sounds through the room." The great and powerful Lúmes of legend? I am pleasured to meet you."
A Magikoopa floats down from the wrap-around balcony, surrounded by a glowing aura. She lands on the chair directly across from Lúmes. "I am Ella's mother. I trust that you have met her by now. It is destiny, child."
"I've met her... but I've also seen you and you look different. Where am I?" Lúmes asks.
"That's because I'm younger now... You see... I set up this whole deal after I had a vision of you triumphing over evil. I set this for you the moment you were ready to transform. You are... in your sub-conscious."
"Transform?"
"Yes. In order to defeat evil you have to be reborn... like a renaissance. I am here to guide you, into your future."
"How do I do that?"
"You must look into your future..."
The Magikoopa waves her wand in a circle and Lúmes is immersed in a flash of light once more.
***
She awakens in a chamber of ice. It is the same room that Klúmes now inhabits, and she sits there with a glowing ball of flame and a Squid. Her sister looks at the Squid. "CirCrisen," she says. "Have you set up the devices on all three of Iceria's moons?"
CirCrisen stares at her with creepy, squid-like eyes. "Yes, my Lady."
"Excellent. And you? Have you made the final preparations?" she asks the glowing ball of flame.
The flame vibrates and seems to glow red when speaking. "I have," it answers.
Klúmes cackles. "Wonderful!" She holds up the Ice Stone greedily in one hand, and in the other the remnants of the Dark Lord's Emerald.
There is a flash as the vision skips ahead to a dark, icy room. There is a huge dome overhead, and in the center is an awkward device. There is a long, metal shaft covered in ice crystals. In the center of it is an orb-shaped hole, and the shaft leads down to a wheel lying on the ground that connects into a metal plate on the floor. At the top of the shaft it diverges off into three arms that curve upward to diamond spheres, pointing upwards. In the rear of the room is a small, metal box with three buttons, a dial, and a lever. CirCrisen stands at the metal controls, his tentacles ready for action. Klúmes stands before the machine holding the Ice Stone and the remnants. Behind her is the glowing orb of fire, who speaks into a microphone hooked into a complex machine in the wall of wiring and radio frequencies.
"We shall begin," she commands. She proceeds to place the Ice Stone in the orb-like hole and then opens up a panel above it. Inside is a complex wiring system, with gaps or holes in the wires. Klúmes plugs the shards of the Emerald in and closes the panel. "All systems go."
CirCrisen pulls the lever and the dome opens up to reveal the outside a twilight, between day and night. He then presses the first button and the panel shines with a green light. The second button releases the electric into the machine, both the diamonds and the Ice Stone glow with a green light and distorted images of spirits and phantoms. The Squid pushes the third button and the metal plate in the floor rises, Klúmes on it as it elevates high above the room and dome. She flies up to the diamonds, checks the machine, and flies down to the floor, where she gives the okay. "Commence the procedure." She laughs evilly as the orb speaks into the microphone and tells each of the lunar bases to begin. CirCrisen pushes in the dial and turns it counterclockwise all the way up to the "High" setting.
The vision flashes ahead to a view of Iceria. A huge, gaping hole takes up the whole head-on view, as the planet shakes and rumbles. There is a flash, as the entire planet implodes in a green light, shards of rock and ice caving in. Then, with a blue glow it explodes outwards, sending a shockwave across the entire neighboring area of space. The scream of a Luma shrieks through the giant vacuum and as the light fades, nothing but a few rocks remain. The vision ends.
***
Lúmes awakens in the past. She can tell immediately it is the past because she is in a room that has changed up to present times. She can also tell it is the past due to the people in the room. It is the Dark Lord's lair, and she and Klúmes have just entered. She watches her past, and all the dialogue up to the moment of her escape, as she falls backwards out the window and the wall closes up. She then sees the Dark Lord invade Klúmes and moments later she wakes up after a strong seizure where her body color flashed between blue and purple. It remains a dark purple and she stands up, declaring herself to be reborn as Lady Klúmes. Lúmes is shocked at the display and realizes the power her sister now has, a dark aura surrounding her as well as her cape. The vision flashes to an end.
***
She wakes up in the icy room with the Magikoopa. The light is shining brighter, and it looks like the room itself is outside. The detailed carvings of stars and comets encircle the pillars as well as the railing on the overhang made of a clear, sparkling diamond. She takes in the serene beauty of the palace, and finds a new ice carving in the center of the room, replacing the table and chairs. It is an ice carving with a round statue bottom with an engraving on it. It says "Lúmes the Good" in an eccentric, cursive handwriting, with the accentuation being a shooting star-shaped mark. The statue progresses upward to a diamond pedestal that sits in the center of the base, and above it floats, somehow, an icy figure. It is a Luma, wearing a diamond crown with a blue outline and a gold star in the center that sparkles in the sunlight. The figure smiles. It is... like Lúmes, but it doesn't look like the current one.
A voice rings through the room. "Now that you have seen the hidden past and the disastrous future, it is clear that you must go through an equal transformation, a similar metamorphosis to your sister. Armed with your knowledge, smarts, and strength you shall go on to great things... It is now up to you to stop your sister. Her brain is clouded by the evil and corruption of the Dark Lord, but not controlled by it. She is a separate being, having the same past, and really the same but with different motives... As shall you be..."
There is a flash, and the room spins, becoming a blur. The statue shatters and spins around in the circle, glinting in the sunlight. The light and the blur combine to make a blinding white light that envelopes her body in a heatwave. The world around her fades and goes black. Lúmes awakens, different. She is in the same room, and it is empty. The only thing in the room is the portrait, which shines. The picture in it flashes and the image disappears into a mirror. Lúmes looks into it and sees herself, changed. Her body is a purer blue, surrounded by a whitish, light glow. On her head is the crown from the statue, and the look in her eyes has changed. She is also a little bigger, and feels stronger and more courageous. The reflection in the mirror captures the current image, and flashes. The old painting, with a royal red background, reappears but the old Lúmes is gone, replaced by the new.
"I will strive to prevent the destruction of worlds and the dominance of evil," the Magikooa's voice rings through the room. Lúmes repeats, taking the oath. "I swear to conquer death, and get over what has happened. I will protect every citizen, no matter how big and small, and no matter what, I will defeat the evil known as Lady Klúmes."
Lúmes struggles on the last few words, knowing now what she will have to do, knowing that things have changed and her sister is not the fun-loving, nice Luma of yore. Everything she's ever known, ever done is different. The world feels alien with the concept of this new task; the comprehension of what has to be done sinks in and Lúmes starts to cry.
"Do not cry," the Magikoopa comforts, invisible, but her voice echoing the image of a calming countenance with those beautiful eyes and welcoming smile. "Be strong. Hold your head high, and know that your fate is in the balance, along with the millions of other citizens. Know now, that things depend on you. Do not be afraid! Rejoice, Lúmes. Rejoice, for now you are-"
Lúmes cuts off the Magkoopa. "Lúmes the Good."