HC: Pacifist | Ch. 270 - Captured? (Patreon)

[Find Mario’s Mom] has been updated.

After traveling around the world, you’ve finally found Mario’s mother. She grants you a bottle of memory tears and asks you to take it to Mario.

Quest objectives: Bring [Memory Tears] back to Mario. It should restore his memories.

“I don’t understand. I need to restore Mario’s memory?”

“Roar, growl. Captured. Roar, child. Growl, slave.”

Roth gulped hard. He wasn’t sure if he got what Mario’s mom was saying, but she made it sound as if Mario had been taken away from her as a child and turned into a slave. Was that why Mario said that his memory was wiped frequently? Roth had just assumed that Mario had been a victim of some horrible accident, and in order to save him, they had replaced his missing arm and eye with a cybernetic prosthetic.

The implications were terrible. Could this be yet another form of slavery? First was that dreadful message from that camel in Hilsford, then everything he’d seen in Sapphira, and now even the swamps were reporting kidnapping and slave trade. The possibility of everything being connected dizzied Roth. There was something about the slavers' storyline that made his blood boil. He looked at the lake toward where the Crow Emperor waited for him. Should he still go? 

No. This couldn't wait.

“I’ll take these to Mario right now. Don’t worry.”

He marched toward the coasted boat, where the ferryman had waited for the last few hours. “Change of plans. Please take me back to the Eight Spires.”

“We aren’t crossing the lake?” the ferryman confirmed.

“Not today.”

“Very well. That will be one gold.”

“Fine. Here's two if you go a little bit faster.”

*

Roth looked around under the dirty water for the secret lever. To avoid waiting for the [Swamp Orb] to recharge, Roth returned to the Eight Spires, bought a few more mother scales in the reputation store, and purchased the [Tree Orb], allowing him to teleport to any Tree Lizard Lair. From there, it was a simple horse ride to Hilsford. 

It had been a while since he'd visited the sewers, and strangely, it felt like coming back home. How many hours had he spent down here in the smelly tunnels, hiding away from his old teammates? 

At the thought of Wilson, Brian, Gary, Xana, and Shirley, he felt no fear, just regret. For some reason, telling his whole story to the alligators had helped him deal with the traumas caused by his old teammates. It hadn't been easy to be tortured and chased by the IronIre squad or hear them begging for his help from the Palatial Clearing. Retelling his story from start to finish to the alligators had helped him reinforce just how poorly they had acted and gain some closure on their relationship. 

Reasoning that they were out of the picture now and that he had just pinged his presence all over AstroTerra, he felt comfortable enough to return to Hilsford and Mario’s lab. He kept the [Witness Protection Mask] and [Camouflage] on just as a precaution. He was confident, not stupid. He finally found the lever, and the secret elevator platform activated, beginning its descent into Mario’s lab. 

The lights were on. He’d been lucky enough to catch the alligator at the right time of the cycle when he was down here working on his gatorbots. 

“Hi, Mario!” Roth greeted.

“Look at what the cat dragged in,” Mario joked, seeing Lin had already emerged from Roth’s robes and went around sniffing and exploring. 

“How have you been?”

“Busy,” the alligator answered drily. “What brings you here, Martyr?”

Roth tossed him the quest item. “Here. Drink this.” 

“What is it?” Mario asked as he stared at the bottle. The way he carefully held it with an expression of longing told Roth that part of him already knew what it was. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, but he held the bottle with his real hand rather than the cybernetic one.

“It's a gift from your mother, Mario. I’ve just been to the swamps.”

“You found my mother?” Mario said in an uncharacteristically human voice. “And she sent this to me? She still remembers me?”

“Yes, please drink it.” 

Mario eyed Roth suspiciously. “You're not trying to drug me, are you, martyr?” 

“Why would I? Drink it. Don't drink it. It's up to you. But it was your mom who sent it.”

Mario brought the bottle up to his nostrils and sniffed. “It smells familiar,” he said sadly. After a few moments of hesitation, he popped open the vial and drank the bottle. For a few moments, nothing happened. Roth frowned. Had he done something wrong? Why wasn’t the quest marked as completed? Just as he was about to go through all the notifications and dialogues related to the quest, Mario suddenly tensed. Screens all over the lab, which were previously filled with diagrams and charts, blurred and became filled with static.

“What's happening?” Mario asked. “You drugged me! It’s poison!”

“No! It can’t be. It was your mother who gave it to me.”

Mario tried to reach toward Roth but stumbled as if he were drunk. He tried standing back up, but his tail and arms jerked erratically, making several things around him fall and break. Even a few of the screens were smashed.

“Mario, are you okay?!” Roth asked, worried.

“What is all of this information?” Mario shrieked. 

“What are you talking about?”

“Argh!” Mario roared, screaming while digging his claws into the floor’s cement. His cybernetic parts twisted in impossible angles. 

“Mario. What's going on?”

“No! Mom! Nooo!” The screens that had been filled with static started playing a series of flashing images. Roth could only make parts of it. 

He recognized the mangrove beach in the swamps. A little alligator frolicked with his siblings as they played next to their mother, many times their size. They are Mario’s memories, Roth concluded.

Some tragic memories followed. What before Roth would have guessed were snakes, but now knew were abyssal eels, invaded the alligator’s nests, taking away a few of Mario's siblings. There were also bloody battles between his mother and other abyssal creatures. 

There was another shift to more happy memories of Mario playing with his surviving siblings and growing stronger until he was half the size of his mom. There were also scenes of alligators sharing stories or hunting in the swamps.

“Mom!” Lights turned on and off, and machines sparked around them. Mario was drooling, eyes rolled over, and shaking uncontrollably. The awakening of his dormant memories was causing Mario to have a seizure. Roth tried to stabilize Mario while keeping an eye on the monitor, seeing the memory to which he was reacting so violently. 

Most alligators were out hunting, but only one was back in the nest, protecting the young. There was a bang and a swoosh, and the alligator nanny was killed. A few men with covered faces stormed the nest, collecting some of the alligators and locking them into cages. What followed was a long journey, starvation, thirst, homesickness, and fear of where these bad men would take him. 

Finally, scenes of a mountain with purple skies and lightning. “The Thunder Mountains,” Roth whispered, recognizing the scenery. He’d been there a few days ago. 

Mario was in a cage together with other animals. Scenes of torture and pain as Mario underwent experiments. And finally, once he had fully developed and they finished making him into a fully functional cyborg, the memory wipe that had deleted it all.

“Mario, you’re now a member of the Cyborg Union.” The slaver’s face was cloaked in shadow. The only distinguishable thing on the screens was the red light from an eye implant.

“Yes, master.”

“You will work under the city's sewers, ensuring everything is in working order. In return, we'll issue you a modest salary. Do you accept?” 

“Yes, master.”

“Aren’t you happy to be a union member and grateful for this job opportunity?”

“Yes, master.”

The screens finally went black. Mario was sweating, breathing in desperate gulps of air. “Those monsters,” he said in an uncharacteristic emotional voice. 

“Mario, are you okay?”

“The tears. The tears of my mother and the others. I've got my memories back.” He didn't sound like a robot anymore. He sat down in silence, trying to make sense of all the new memories, trying to reconcile everything he thought he knew and see it through the eyes of his recovered mind. 

Roth gave him some space. Finally, after a few moments, Mario spoke more calmly. “Thank you, martyr. You've helped me restore my memories. I remember it now. I was kidnapped. Experimented on. They took me away from my family.”

Just as Roth had feared. Slavers.

“I'm indebted to you.”

“You’re welcome, friend.”

“You've saved me from my prison,” Mario said, pointing at the implant in his head. “I finally remember who I am. I now know where I come from.” 

“So what will you do now?”

“I'm going to leave this place,” Mario declared, looking around, terrified at the lab where he had seemed so comfortable. “Otherwise, they will get to me and wipe my memory again. I need to go somewhere.”

“Will you go to the swamps?” Roth asked. 

“Yes, I can swim up the river. That will work. That way, I can be reunited with my family.”

“Wait, what about the Cyborg Union? What about the people who did this to you?”

“They're far too powerful for me to do anything about it, martyr. I will just run and hope they don't come after me. If they do, I'd rather die at the bottom of the Striped Lake buried in tar and then be controlled by their devilish implants. No, it’s not my fight.”

“Can you tell me what you know about the Cyborg Union?” Roth pressed. 

“It's all a sham! Can't you see? Slavers had to find a way to get their claws into markets where they were banned. That's why they created the Cyborg Union. They call it a union, but it’s just another slave association. They capture animals, and those that survive the procedures become their mindless slaves.”

“What about the salaries?”

“It's all just for show. They keep most of the money for themselves.”

“And where can I find them?” Roth asked. If they were based in the city, perhaps he could have the Peace Corps shut them down. 

“I don’t know. I have to go. Thank you for setting me free, martyr.”

“Wait! Mario!”

The alligator ran toward one of the platforms and activated the lever. As soon as he disappeared, there was a notification.

You've completed [Find Mario's Mom]. 

Completion rate: B

Rewards: +100,000xp, +10 gold, +100 reputation with the crocodilians, and [Key to Mario’s Office].

Bonus rewards: +50,000xp; +5 gold; +700 reputation with the crocodilians; 100x[Alligator Scales].

Roth was more than a little disappointed with this outcome. The rewards were pitiful, barely enough to move his XP bar. Honestly, the bottle Mario’s mom had given him, which could unlock the darkness affinity, was the only reward from this quest worth mentioning.

Additionally, this cutscene, in which Mario recovered his memories and leaked several bits of information about the Cyborg Union seemed to hint at a new storyline. What was he supposed to do now? Go to the Thunder Mountains? Or should he talk to Drake and see what the Raviolis knew about this? What would happen now? Would the Cyborg Union send another cyborg down here? Would he lose access to his cool hangout spot? 

This quest raised more questions than it answered. Roth grabbed the only meaningful reward he’d received from freeing Mario. It was a simple key. Roth had seen Mario disappear into his office multiple times, but the alligator had never let him in. It was the only thing in the entire sewers that Roth hadn’t seen. Roth headed toward the door, inserted the key, and turned the knob.

Ch. 269 - Memory Tears

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