The dark walls of Castle Bleck stood tall and proud as they always did, sheltering all within and keeping trespassers out with pure intimidation. The white flames light the castle with their heat and majesty, adding to the eerie yet noble atmosphere.

Within, Nastasia, the Counts ever faithful assistant, rushed about from task to task. For her, work never seemed to end, but that was fine with her, as long as the Count was happy. Usually.

Today was different. She needed Dimentio to go out and stop the two heroes from getting the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone, but she hated talking to Dimentio more than most people. The way he managed to twist conversations to his own agenda was confusing and irritating. Plus, the guy gave her bad vibes. She wished she could just ask someone else to do it...

Just as she thought that, she passed Mr. L in the hallway. He was carrying several rolled up pieces of blueprint paper under his arm. He was new, but he followed orders well- brainwashing definitely helps with that.

'Well, maybe I could get him to do it,' she thought.

"Mr. L," she called to him, before he could pass her.

He stopped and turned his head. "Oh, hey Nastasia. What's up?"

"I need you to get Dimentio to try and stop the heroes at the Whoa Zone." she said, trying not to display her glee from giving the task to someone else.

Mr. L's lips tightened. Nastasia felt a tad guilty for forcing someone else to do her dirty work, but everyone needs a break now and then, right?

"Yeah, sure," he said with a hesitant nod. "Not like I got anything else to do..."

"Really, now?" Nastasia asked.

"Mmhmm. I just finished something I was working on." he pulled one of the blueprints out and unrolled it. Nastasia looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"I call it Brobot!" he declared with pride. "It's a fighting robot that's controlled manually from the inside."

Nastasia nodded. "Very nice."

She was actually impressed with it. It seemed very complex to have been finished in the short time he had been able to work on it. Not only that, but it was well thought out and efficient. This was good: the guy was smart enough to do his own work, but not too smart as to question her orders.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I have other tasks to attend to." Nastasia said, pushing up her glasses.

"Yeah, of course," Mr. L muttered.

Mr. L watched Nastasia walk off into the perpetual darkness of the castle. When she was out of sight, he leaned against a wall and sighed. He wasn't all together sure he knew who Dimentio was, nonetheless where he would be. (The reason he was walking around in the first place was that he was lost). He thought he had passed him once or twice, but no formal introduction. Was he that mask wearing freak? Or the guy with the weird accent? He decided to go with the former.

Where to look, though...?

Dimentio, in fact, was in his room. His room, like nearly every other in the castle, was black and only lit by fire. He had a small, dusty bed with no sheets and a desk with a chair. The desk was littered with various objects: a small burner, several beakers and vials, labeled ingredients organized in such a way that it seemed to be careless, and a stack of books.

When he had joined Count Bleck's cause, he had specifically told Nastasia he didn't need a room, he had his own place to stay, but she hadn't listened. It wasn't a reason to get angry, so he just used it for his more... Questionable magical experiments. The kind he wouldn't want in his own home.

Such an experiment was precisely what he was working on. Or, rather, had just completed.

"Ahahaha! Finally, I've perfected it!" He said triumphantly, holding a beaker of opaque pink fluid in his hands.

"A potion to give me infinite strength," He continued to himself. He smirked at his own cleverness.

He had decided that the heroes were taking too long, and that he needed to take matters into his own hands.

"Maybe with this, I can over power the Count and... Dare I say it?" he paused dramatically, even though he knew no one was listening to him. "The legendary heroes!"

"'Ey, Dimentio!" Mr. L said called, opening the door.

Dimentio jumped and nearly dropped the potion. He slowly turned and saw who it was a breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Mr. L, you startled me," he laughed softly. "Please, knock next time." he said with gritted teeth.

Mr. L stared at him. 'Okay, this guy's hiding something. That's obvious.'

"Yeah, sure, sorry." Mr. L said, nodding.

"So, what did you need?" Dimentio said putting his usual, smug smile on.

"Nastasia needs you to stop those heroes in this place called the 'Whoa Zone'," Mr. L said. He saw Dimentio glance at something in his hands. "What's that?"

Dimentio held the potion up. "Ah, well..."

He considered telling him. On one hand, he did whatever Nastasia or the Count told him to. If one of them asked him, 'Hey, has Dimentio been doing anything weird lately?', he would answer truthfully, without a doubt. Having that big of a liability would definitely be an issue.

On the other hand, the guy didn't seem like the suspicious type, and Dimentio wanted the man in green to trust him anyways. If the Prognosticus spoke true, then having him on his side wouldn't be a bad thing.

"I'll be honest with you- it's a potion that's supposed to make the drinker stronger." Dimentio said with a sly grin.

Mr. L raised his eyebrows. "You're joking."

"Oh, you'd think I am, but I am completely serious! I'm always serious about magic." Dimentio made a mental note to remember that phrase. It sounded cool.

He looked at the beaker again. "Actually, upon closer inspection, I think I made a tad too much..." he put the potion down and opened the book he had been using to make it. "Hmm. Yes, that seems to so. Odd..."

"Hey, maybe once you've tried it- make sure it's not poison -you could give the rest to me!" Mr. L said, then burst into laughter.

"Sure." Dimentio said sincerely.

Mr. L stopped laughing abruptly. "Hey, dude, I was only joking."

"Well, why not? I don't think I've seen you fight, but who doesn't want a little extra power?" Dimentio spread his palms. "Personally, I think that if we work together- with some magical help, -we could certainly take down the legendary heroes!"

Mr. L stared at him, trying to judge whether or not he was serious. Then, slowly, he smiled. "Hey, man... You're alright in my book."

Dimentio thought to himself, 'Good, he's gullible.'

"Well," Dimentio raised the beaker to his lips. "Bottoms up!"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Dimentio felt intensely dizzy and his stomach burned. He gripped the desk and started coughing.

"Whoa, are you okay?!" Mr. L exclaimed.

"Y- Yes! I'm fine," Dimentio said, flipping through the pages of the book he was using again. "I read through the side effects so many times, and these weren't-" he paused. "Oh, good god." he groaned.

"What?" Mr. L asked, concerned.

"I made... something different than I intended." Dimentio said.

"Is it poison?!"

"No! No, it's not that." Dimentio fell into a coughing fit, this time dropping the book. Mr L saw a flash of words: 'Side effects of ingestion: coughing, dizziness, stomach-' before the book landed upside down on the ground.

"Well, what is it?" Mr. L asked anxiously.

"It's... nothing." his tone of voice changed to one calmer, as if he hadn't just had a coughing fit and almost thrown up.

Dimentio lifted his face to make eye contact with Mr. L. His eyes had a strange pink tint and had an odd look to them.

"I'm just fine." he said.

Mr. L should have been relieved. But something about the way that Dimentio looked at him made him uneasy.

"I... Should get going." Mr. L said. "Gotta... Do more tests with my robot. Make sure he's in tip-top shape, you know?" he laughed nervously and backed away towards the open door.

With a flick of his wrist, Dimentio closed the door magically. "Oh, are you sure? I'm certain it's fine."

Mr. L's stomach tied itself in a knot. "H- hey, didn't I tell you that Nastasia wanted you to do something?!"

"Ah, yes, you did..." Dimentio said in a far away voice. He waved his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter." he teleported so that he was right next to Mr. L.

Mr. L quickly side-stepped away. "Yes, it does matter!"

He felt his foot nudge something. It was the book Dimentio had been looking at. He quickly grabbed it off the ground. The page it was on read at the top, "LOVE POTION".

It had the side effects that he had read as the book fell to the ground, along with one that directly stood out: 'Pink tinted eyes'.

'Oh, this is just great.' Mr. L thought. For some reason, he got the feeling that this was just his luck.

"Hey, Dimentio, maybe you should sit down." Mr. L said gently. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Oh, just perfect," Dimentio purred. "As long as I'm with you."

Mr. L's eyes narrowed. "Do you even know what you just drank? You know that wasn't a strength potion, right?"

Dimentio's smile widened. "Yes, I do. And you know what?"

"What?"

Suddenly, Dimentio's hands were on the wall on either side of Mr. L. He leaned in close and whispered, "I'm just fine with that."

Mr. L smacked Dimentio over the head with the book. Dimentio crumpled to the ground and groaned. Mr. L didn't even check to see if that had fixed the problem, he ran out of there.

'I'm pretty quick, so I'm sure if I run fast enough, I can get to my room, lock the door, and be safe!' He thought to himself. '...If I don't get lost.'

As he ran, he flipped through the book to try and find the love potion page again. Even if he got away from Dimentio, having that guy desperately in love with him wouldn't exactly be great. Once he found it, he began reading aloud under his breath,

"Love potion: a potion that makes the drinker fall in love with the first person they see after consumption- well, duh, figured that out already – warning, this recipe makes over one hundred and twenty doses, don't use more than a drop at a time- are you kidding me?!" He slammed into something hard and fell.

He looked up. He had assumed it was a wall, but what he saw was- 'Crap, who's this guy?' He thought. 'The guy with the accent. What's his name?'

"Eh, what are yeh doin' runnin' around like that?" He demanded.

"Uh, I'm really sorry! I..." He had no idea how to explain the situation without it sounding odd.

"Mr. L, where are you?" Dimentio called from far behind.

"Ah, forget it," The guy said. "If Dimentio's after yeh... I'll send flowers to yeh funeral!" Mr. L had already sprinted off.

"Okay, okay, cures, what are the cures?!" Mr. L demanded as he skimmed through the recipe.

He skimmed through the entire page and couldn't find anything. The next page at the top read, "INFINITE STRENGTH POTION".

"Oh. So that's what he meant to make." Mr. L shook his head. "Idiot."

He turned the page over again and re-read it. Then again. And again. Nothing about a cure. Did the author just assume that the user wouldn't want to reverse the effects? Did they not even know in the first place?

He closed the book and picked up his pace. Now that he couldn't find a cure, he just wanted to get away. He quickly glanced behind him. He only saw the black expanse of the hall. 'Oh, thank Go-'

In a sudden blur of purple and yellow, he was tumbling backwards. His back hit a door which swung open and Mr. L promptly hit another wall, back of the head first. He closed his eyes and groaned in pain.

Mr. L felt something pressing against his body. He opened his eyes and saw Dimentio leaned against him, pinning his hands above his head. They were in an empty closet.

"Gah, get off of me!" Mr. L cried. He tried to get his hands free, but his assailant had an iron grip.

Dimentio put a finger to his lips. "Shhhh, darling..." a drunken smile spread across his face. "You look so perfect, almost godly..."

"Listen, Dimentio! You're under some kind of spell, you need to snap out of it!" Mr. L insisted. "J- just try and fight it for me, okay?!"

"Oh, I tried, but I just couldn't help it!" Dimentio said, pressing his body against Mr. L's. "So handsome, so beautiful..." he murmured.

Mr. L's face turned red. "H- hey! I said get off of me..."

"You know, if you guys are gonna make out in a closet, at least close the door."

Dimentio turned his head and Mr. L leaned to see who was speaking. It was Mimi, the little green girl.

"Oh, what the-" She muttered.

"Mimi, a little help here?! This um, isn't what it looks like!" Mr. L pleaded.

Without hesitation, Mimi grabbed Dimentio by the collar and dragged him off of Mr. L. She summoned a large red gem and hit him in the head with it. Like before, Dimentio hit the ground and stopped moving.

"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" Mr. L said, breathing heavily.

"No problem," Mimi said with a shrug. "Hey, how'd a guy like you get your hands on a love potion?"

"What?" Mr. L said. "How did you-"

"It's obvious! The pink tinted eyes, the posture." her eyes narrowed. "But why Dimentio? He's kinda gross."

"Listen, I didn't do on purpose! He was trying to make some potion to make himself stronger and he made the wrong thing, I just happened to be in the room." Mr. L explained.

Mimi stared at him. "Actually... That's pretty believable, considering Dimentio."

"So, um, do you know any cure for it?" Mr. L asked, trying to be casual.

Mimi shrugged. "Eh, slimy mushroom extract works great for lots of things. So does the forbidden fruit of the Overthere, but that's hard to get."

Mr. L suddenly put his palm to his face. "Gah, I just remembered! Nastasia wanted me to get Dimentio to do something, but then this happened..."

"It's alright!" Mimi assured. "You do that thing that she wanted him to do, I'll get the cure, and Nastasia won't know a thing!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mr. L asked. "I mean, that's disobeying orders..."

"Hey, what Nas doesn't know won't hurt her, you know?" Mimi said with a wink.

Mr. L considered the options. Mimi seemed pretty trustworthy.

"Alright, sounds like a deal!" Mr. L said.

They shook on it.