Well, I've been feeling extremely depressed lately. So, naturally, I wrote something angsty-ish. Meh. (This story takes place somewhere between Superstar Saga and Inside Story.)

Darkness.

That was all Fawful could see as he stood on shaky feet.

"H-hello?" the little bean called out as he looked around him, only to see nothingness. "Is someone have the being of here?" Fawful tried to swallow the lump growing in his throat, fiddling with the collar of his cloak.

Suddenly, a small white light appeared in front of him. "Fawful…." the light called out softly. Something about that voice seemed… familiar.

"Great Cackletta?" Fawful called out hopefully, stumbling towards the light, seeing it slowly grow bigger as he got closer. "O' Great Cackletta, is that being you?"

"...Fawful," the light replied, slightly louder now.

"Great Cackletta! It is the being of you!" Fawful yelled overjoyed, breaking out into a weak run towards his mistress' voice. "It is I, your loyal pupil! The one who is Fawful! I have the coming to you!" he yelled, a smile stretching across his face.

Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed his cloak, holding him back. Another pair was wrapped around his foot, firmly holding it in place. The bean whipped his head around to see two shadowy figures at his heels. Identical except that one had glowing red eyes, while the other had green. Their mouths of matching colours were twisted into a grin, looking at the frightened bean.

"Have the letting go of the one who is Fawful, who is me, Fink-rats!" Fawful screeched, trying to rid himself of the two shadows. The shadow's smiles only grew larger, their eyes bore into the frightened bean.

"Fawful!" Cackletta yelled, sounding desperate.

"The great Cackletta is having the troubles," Fawful thought frantically, removing the hands of the red-eyed shadow from his cloak, only to be seized by the other foot. "I have the comings, Great Cackletta!" Fawful called out.

The shadows laughed. A twisted, warped laugh as the light began to rise higher. He realized that he was being dragged down, and began thrashing wildly. It did him no good. The shadows weren't granting him mercy that easily.

"Fawf-!" he heard his mistress call out weakly as the light disappeared.

"Great Cackletta!" Fawful cried out, helplessness in his small voice.

Suddenly, he was plunged into water.

Fawful thrashed about, trying to keep from sinking, but the water stung his eyes and his lungs were already aching after only a few seconds. Light from the surface warped the shadows now above him, making them shimmer.

Fawful clawed at the water around him desperately, trying to rise up to the surface, and air, but to no avail. A Blooper drifted past his frantic figure, paying him no attention. His lungs felt as if they were on fire and every part of his body was screaming for air as the shadows opened their grinning mouths, and let out a sinister laugh.

Suddenly, he was sitting atop a large piece of splintered wood drifting in the ocean. Steam and smoke from the fire and lava of a ruined castle filled the air. Huge pieces of twisted and partially melted stone and metal jutted out of the ocean like fingers trying to reach for the open sky.

Tears streamed down Fawful's face, causing the numerous cuts and scratches on his face to burn and sting. His red cloak has wrapped around his hands, the cloak even more tattered than before.

"Great C-Cackletta?" He called out in a whimper, hugging his knees towards his chest. No answer… He started to cough violently from the smoke, his frail body shaking like a leaf. When his fit was finally over, he buried his face in the remnants of his beloved cloak.

Once again he heard the chortles of the nightmarish shadows, but he didn't lift his head from the red fabric of his cloak. That didn't matter.

Slowly, the redness faded away to a new image. Cackletta was sprawled out on the ground of an empty room. In front of her, stood the red and green shadows, the Mario brothers. Fawful tried to rush towards Cackletta, tried to call out, but he was unable to do anything as he saw her coughing harshly, hardly able to move.

The young bean tried to look away, tried to close his eyes, tried to do anything, as he witnessed the Red and Green come down upon his mistress. He, of course, would not be granted mercy.

Tears skidded down his face as he saw her, unmoving. The Red and Green disappeared as she slowly started to fade away from him. The only person to show him any kindness, leaving him all by himself.

Fawful shot up in his bed, breathing heavily and covered in a cold sweat. His eyes darted around his makeshift bedroom hidden in the sewers under the Princess of Peach's castle. The warming orange glow of the night light besides his head allowed him to see that no plumbers were lying in wait. Fawful fell onto the pillow with a whimper and dragged the scraps of his cloak from under his pillow, hugging them tightly like a child might hug a stuffed animal.

"Why does the Great Cackletta haunt her greatest pupil from the nap of dirt?" Fawful cried, tears welling up in his eyes once more, clutching the cloak tighter. She had given the cloak to him when he first became her pupil. It was all he had left of her.

Fawful didn't fall back asleep.