OF: Chapter 14

Mr. L ran as hard and as fast as he could through the never-ending tunnels. He didn't have a clue where he was going. He didn't even care if it was out. He just wanted to get away from Bonechill.

He had to get far, far away from that Prison. He tightened his grip on Livi. The unconscious figure slung over his shoulder was the only thing keeping Mr. L's thoughts on track. His thoughts were drifting away to Dimentio again, and reminding himself over and over that Livi needed him to live was the only thing that kept him from thinking about that horribly demented jester.

He deserves to die. Mr. L thought bitterly, growling under his breath. He deserved much, much worse than death. Dimentio deserved to be forced to endure every tiny fragment of pain he'd ever caused to anyone. Then, he'd have to live through the agony he'd put Luigi and Mr. L both through. One thousand fold. For the rest of eternity. And possibly even longer than that.

No. Definitely longer. Until even Bonechill wouldn't be able to see the Master of Dimensions in so much agony. And then he'd still have to continue enduring it.

As Dimentio's demise played over and over in Mr. L's mind, an eager grin spreading across his face, he suddenly felt Livi shift. A low moan of discomfort came from over his shoulder. Mr. L slowed to a stop, gently taking Livi off of his shoulder. He carefully set her down on the cold floor, leaning her against the wall as she swayed back and forth, struggling to regain consciousness.

Groaning still, Livi slowly managed to open her eyes, though it didn't do her much good in the darkness. Mr. L saw the fangirl stare up at him for a very long time, not saying anything. Finally, her small, feeble voice came through the darkness. "…Weegee?"

Livi weakly lifted a hand towards Mr. L's face. He took her slender hand in his, feeling her icy touch through his thick gloves, and started to soothingly rub it. "I don't think we've met yet." He whispered with a smirk. "I'm Mr. L."

Through the darkness, he heard Livi inhale sharply. "Mr.… Mr. L?"

Mr. L nodded. He reached out and stroked her face. "It's alright… I'm gonna take good care of ya, okay?"

Livi didn't seem to hear him. He could barely make out that her head was moving slightly—she was looking around the cave. "Where… are the… others? Have you… seen them?"

"Yeah, I have. Don't worry 'bout them, okay? They're fine… They distracted Bonechill so I could get you out. Are you alright? You ain't hurt, are ya?"

"No… I'm fine…" Livi mumbled, shaking her head slowly but stubbornly. "Just… really… really… cold…"

Mr. L smiled, scooping her up into his arms. "Alright, then… what do you say we get outta here, huh?"

"Fine by me." Livi said, winding her fingers in his shirt and burying her cold face in his chest. "I'm really… glad I… found you…"

Mr. L tried to keep his pace slow, knowing she must be light-headed. "Well, technically, I found you…" He childishly argued, trying to keep her talking.

"Yeah, yeah…" Livi sighed. He felt her hand lightly tap on his chest—he assumed she was waving him off. Mr. L froze in surprise as Livi's head jerked up, like she had just realized something. "Dimentio." She stated clearly.

Mr. L stared at her a moment, utterly stunned. "…what?"

"Dimentio." She repeated. "Did you guys find him?"

Mr. L looked away, continuing down the tunnels. "Oh yeah… we found him alright…"

"Is he okay?" Livi asked desperately, the fingers in Mr. L's shirt clenching into tight fists.

Mr. L took a long time to answer, part of him wishing he could lie about the jester's well-being and make it so. "Yeah…" He finally sighed. "He's a'right…"

Livi sighed deeply, as though incredibly relieved, then slowly nestled back into her previous position. "Didja meet him?"

"Oh, I met him alright…"

"Were you… ya know… mad at him?"

"Yeah… mad as freakin' hell…" Mr. L could hear the growl in his own voice.

"Are you over it yet?"

Mr. L glanced down at the half-asleep fangirl. "…huh?"

"Being mad…" Livi clarified. "Are you through being mad yet?"

Mr. L paused for a while. "…maybe…" He answered at last.

Livi moved slightly, and Mr. L suddenly felt her cold arms winding around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder. "I guess that's good enough…"

Mr. L didn't answer, looking away from her. He felt Livi take a deep breath, then sigh, "He won't hurt you, ya know…"

Mr. L said nothing.

Livi looked up at him again. "I won't let him. You know that… right?"

Mr. L slowly shook his head. "It's gonna take more than a spazzy, trouble-making fangirl to stop Dimentio…"

Livi smirked sleepily, shrugging her shoulders as she laid back down. "I dunno… you'd be surprised what a stupid little fangirl can do…"

That was about when Mr. L saw it. Up ahead. It wasn't light, or anything close, but it might as well have been the sun compared to the darkness they were currently trapped in.

The Underwhere. He realized with a jolt. They had made it—they were finally out. Livi yelped with surprise when he took off running full-speed towards the exit. Mr. L didn't even notice.

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Luigi crashed into the wall of ice as he was thrown sideways from the impact of the explosion. "Can't you aim any better than that?!" He called out into the chaos.

"Sorry! My bad!" Dimentio's melodic voice called back as the jester teleported in and out at random. He suddenly appeared next to Luigi and started to help him up. "It's a bit tricky while trying to dodge. I think this monstrosity is convinced that we are the newest additions to his collection!"

Luigi shoved Dimentio off of him, ignoring the ramblings completely. "Just, try to be more careful, alright?"

Dimentio bowed low. "As you wish!" With that, he teleported into the confusion once again. Luigi sighed as he left, shaking his head. Sometimes that annoying little jester had more sides than a rubix cube.

Trying not to think about that, Luigi knelt low to the ground, powering up for a high-jump. Suddenly, he launched off the ground and in half a second he had collided with Bonechill's skull, scattering the pixilated fragments everywhere. Luigi somehow managed to land on a small cliff of ice jutting out from the wall. From his new perch, he surveyed the confusion below him.

Fawful was on the ground, running from and cleverly dodging Bonechill's icicles as he shot the fireballs Kamek had conjured up for him at the beast. Living with Cackletta so long had taught him well. Kamek circled overhead on his broomstick, using some sort of levitation spell to stop the icicles before they hit the ground and swing them back to hit Bonechill. Dimentio teleported in and out, appearing all around the monster, trying to confuse him while hitting him left and right with all the bombs and explosions he could manage.

Luigi felt a smile playing at his lips. Bonechill's getting weaker by the second… he realized as he charged up a small ball of electricity, and he hasn't touched one of us yet! We'll be out of here in no time!

Luigi released the lightning with much more force than he'd expected. As the shock momentarily stunned the beast, the other fandoms started to hit full-force, nearly doubling the strength of their attacks. Bonechill let loose an earsplitting shriek, flailing his arms wildly around. The fandoms each let out a cheer, realizing how quickly Bonechill was falling, and continued their attacks.

Suddenly, they all stopped as Dimentio's scream pierced the room. Luigi quickly scanned the room, searching for the jester, but came up empty. Dimentio had teleported out of this dimension. Then, he found him. Dimentio materialized, still screaming, trapped in the monster's bone-crushing grip, his claws digging in harshly. With sickening horror, Luigi realized what had happened—Dimentio wasn't teleporting, he had been invisible, and Bonechill had finally managed to locate and grab him.

Bonechill didn't waste a split second, recognizing his escaped prisoner with a shriek of rage. The monster slammed Dimentio up against the ice, earning him another scream, the ice cracking all around him. "You thought you could escape ME, jester?!" Bonechill roared. He then released a flurry of the deadly freezing mists, still pinning Dimentio up to the wall.

Luigi was hardly thinking when he reacted, in total shock at what he was seeing. He knelt down, powering up, then released himself into a high-jump. At the last second, however, he kicked powerfully off the wall behind him, so instead of shooting upwards, he went straight for Bonechill's head.

It worked. By some amazing, miraculous stroke of fate, it worked. Luigi crashed into the great beast's skull, shattering the very last of the pixilated fragments that clung to his skull. Bonechill's head slammed up against the wall from the impact, cracking the ice. Luigi jumped down from his head, watching Dimentio's limp form slide out of Bonechill's claws.

Kamek swooped in on his broomstick, snatching the unconscious jester out of thin air and carrying him well away from the Prison-keeper. Luigi, meanwhile, landed roughly on the ground, skating off and jerking Fawful out of the way just before the unconscious Bonechill hit the ground with a heavy thud, knocking a large dent in the floor.

Luigi skidded to a stop on the ice, pausing a moment to catch his breath and watch Bonechill carefully, making sure he wasn't about to get up. "Uh… Luigi?" He heard Fawful say, still being firmly gripped in his arms. The hero turned his gaze down to the child, and noticed him point towards the ground where Bonechill had hit.

Luigi didn't even have to ask—it was pretty hard to miss. Radiating from the spot Bonechill had hit, the ice had begun to crack. It wasn't small splits in the ice, it was more like huge tunnels being carved out, being large enough for a human to jump into at some spots. Luigi took off skating towards the exit, calling out to the other two. Fawful was still tight in his arms, and Kamek was just a ways behind them, carrying Dimentio on his broomstick.

Miraculously, they made it. Just as large chunks of ice began to shoot up from the ground as the floor started to cave in on itself, all four fandoms stumbled into the dark cave passages. None dared to stop, or even look back. They kept running into the darkness until they were all too sore to even try anymore…

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As Luigi stopped running, setting Fawful down on the ground, Kamek vanished his broomstick, dropping down to the cold cave floor to join them. Everyone suddenly perked up as the usually-soundless spell produced a loud thud behind the Magikoopa.

Uncertainly, Kamek held up his wand, murmuring the indications for a light spell. As the dim glow from the wand lit up the room, all the fandoms audibly gasped. Dimentio lay on the ground, completely unmoving, right where the broomstick had dropped him.

Kamek instantly rushed to his side, turning the jester onto his back and feeling along his head and chest. Luigi and Fawful came over to peer over the Magikoopa's shoulder. "Is he having alrightness?" Fawful wondered aloud.

"Does it look like it?" Luigi asked, his voice sounding cold.

"Now, Luigi… it doesn't look that bad…" Kamek lied, feeling the icy cold of Dimentio's skin and the painful bruises that lined his chest.

Kamek didn't even have to look up to know Luigi had raised an eyebrow, giving him a skeptic look. "I said it wasn't that bad…" Kamek clarified. "I never said it wasn't bad."

"But… his is only possessing the unconsciousness…" Fawful asked, walking around Kamek for a better view. "Just like the fangirl… yessing?"

"I sure hope so… we can simply wait that off…" Kamek ran his hand over Dimentio's chest. "He's lucky… Bonechill was very careful not to damage him. There's no blood, no broken bones, just a few bruises here and there… It's almost as though he were trying to preserve the body…"

As Kamek said it, Dimentio shifted slightly, giving a low, barely audible groan.

"…Dimentio?" Kamek asked as he recovered from the slight shock. "Are you alright?"

"Can he even hear us?" Luigi whispered to Kamek. Kamek said nothing, simply waving him off as he pulled Dimentio into a semi-sitting position.

Dimentio seemed to slowly regain himself, leaning slightly on Kamek to push himself up. Finally, rubbing his head with one hand, he managed to open his glowing eyes and glance around warily. "Ugh… if you're all still here…" He slowly mumbled. "Am I to presume… he's locked me away in hell?"

Kamek smiled slightly, relieved Dimentio was getting back to his old self. "Nope. Still alive and well."

Dimentio groaned much louder than necessary and released Kamek, flopping back down with his hands over his face.

Kamek laughed, pushing himself off the ground. "Sorry to disappoint…"

Dimentio, rather begrudgingly, managed to sit up with Kamek's help, then pulled himself into a standing position. After quite a while of trying to find his balance, Dimentio tested his magic a bit and started to levitate a few inches off the ground. This went on for some time, each of the fandoms trying to regain themselves. Finally, Dimentio being positively repulsed by the fact that he was still alive and the other three fandoms ready to be on their way, the group continued their search for the exit.

After a few moments of wandering through the tunnels, everyone lightened up a bit. Dimentio and Fawful were a ways ahead of the other two, chattering about something stupid Kamek wasn't listening to. Making sure that both of them were well distracted, Kamek turned to Luigi and quietly caught his attention. "Um… Luigi?"

Luigi snapped out of the daze he appeared in, keeping his voice as low as Kamek's. "Yeah?"

"You really bailed Dimentio out back there…" Kamek quietly noted, his gaze returning to the jester. "If you hadn't finished off Bonechill… there's no telling what would have happened."

Luigi shifted his eyes to the ground, looking grim. "…I'm a hero." He said after a long pause. "It was just a reflex…"

"Luigi…" Kamek said gently, as if to say Oh, come on.

Luigi didn't say anything. He just kept staring at the ground. Kamek turned fully to look Luigi in the face. "Look… even if it was just a reflex—"

"It was nothing, okay?" Luigi hissed, glaring at Kamek.

"You saved Dimentio's life." Kamek snapped, raising his voice ever so slightly.

Each of them suddenly stopped talking, noticing Dimentio and Fawful fall completely silent. Kamek noticed Dimentio turn slightly to glance over his shoulder at the other two, silently praying the jester hadn't heard them.

If he had heard them, he chose to ignore it, because he whispered something to Fawful, sending the child into high-pitched giggles. Kamek felt a slight twinge of happiness when Dimentio smiled at Fawful's laughter, and the two were quickly chattering again.

After making sure they had forgotten the interruption completely, Kamek turned to face Luigi again, only to find that he had stopped a few feet back. The hero was simply standing there, stunned, staring at the ground, breathing rather shakily.

"Luigi?" Kamek whispered, checking to make sure Dimentio and Fawful were still occupied. "You coming?"

Luigi took a few more deep breaths, then slowly nodded his head, following after Kamek as though he were in a trance.

His thoughts kept drifting away to Dimentio. He kept seeing him, over and over, just as Luigi remembered. He saw that evil grin on his mask as he held the Chaos Heart. He could see that vicious monster, the eerie darkness. He remembered the feeling of helplessness as Dimentio's control washed over him, numbing his mind to subject him to the jester's will.

Then, Luigi saw this Dimentio. He saw the perfect jester make a clumsy mistake, landing him in Bonechill's claws. He saw the happy-painted mask twisted in agony. Never had damage been done to Dimentio, then suddenly, that incredible pain had been too much for him.

Finally… Luigi saw the one thing that made him sick to his stomach. He saw Bonechill slowly ending the jester's game, ready to re-capture his prisoner. He saw Dimentio screaming in pain, his life slipping away from him. Then, Luigi saw himself coming to the rescue, to save the life of the one who least deserved it.

That repulsive little demon… Luigi thought bitterly. He tried over and over to kill me—used me as a pawn in this sick little game of his… all the hell he put me and Mr. L through… he tried to destroy my friends, my home, everything I held close to my heart… to take over and enslave all worlds…

After he destroyed my life… how could I save his?

Luigi shook his head in a vain attempt to clear his thoughts, but even as he trudged gloomily on after the others, he couldn't escape the truth. 'Reflexes' was a flat lie, and he knew it. Kamek was right. Luigi had saved Dimentio's life.

In spite of the events, Luigi found himself smiling. Maybe… he thought to himself. Some part of me couldn't let him die just yet. Luigi's grin widened a bit. Then I wouldn't get to kill him myself…