New chapter... uploading quickly... overwhelmed with homework.

I have a speech to give tomorrow, ughhh I'm gonna diiieee...

Oh, but what's this? We're talking about Midbus now.

...

Chapter eight.

Mimi didn't stick around much longer after they had gotten in. She made Fawful go find her an umbrella and walked down to the exit pipe.

"By the way," she said, turning back to face them before she left. "Fawful, whatever happened to that Midbus guy?"

Not recognizing the name, Cackletta looked to her toady. Fawful looked away and didn't answer Mimi's question.

Mimi shrugged. "I guess it's not important. It was just kind of fun to boss him around. Say 'hi' to him for me if you see him."

Fawful nodded, still not looking Mimi in the eye. "Y-yes."

"Thanks. See you later," Mimi turned and left.

Cackletta waited until Mimi was a safe distance away before she asked, "Who's Midbus?"

Fawful scratched his head, clearly uncomfortable. He paused, as though thinking something over, then said, "Come."

He led Cackletta into a side room. At the back of the room was a giant test tube, its glass walls all fogged over and opaque. Fawful approached a nearby computer console and typed something. "This... this is Midbus," he said.

He pressed a button. Something was pumped into the tube, and the fog on the glass cleared up. Inside the glass was a pig-like creature, turned blue by cold and encased in ice. Frosty air seemed to be shooting out of his snout, and it was quickly fogging up the newly-cleared glass. Fawful approached the tube and put a hand on it, looking despondent.

"Midbus was the loyal toady of Fawful," Fawful said. "Fawful never would have come so close to conquering the Kingdom of Mushroom without the assistance of Midbus."

"Since when have you had minions?" Cackletta asked, crossing her arms.

"Fawful had many, so very many minions," he said. "But Midbus had specialness. Fawful did not need to brainwash Midbus. There were no bribings. Midbus served Fawful willingly."

Just like Fawful did for her. She nodded. "What happened to him?"

Fawful's face took a pained expression. "Bowser would not stop interfering. Midbus had desire to fight him, but already he had been defeated by the Koopa King... I could not allow him to fight again and be beaten, but Midbus has pride and would not want Fawful to be interfering. So I tried to be helping, I tried...," Fawful looked away. "The beatings from Bowser destabilzed what I had done for making him stronger... what you are seeing here is the resulting."

"So I guess you're trying to fix him," Cackletta said. "How's it been going?"

"Progress has been made," Fawful said, "But it has such difficulty. I cannot be just defrosting him without harming him. Fawful must find a way to be reversing the icyfication."

"You'll figure it out," Cackletta said. "You always manage to do these sorts of things."

"Yes, I am sure that soon I will have success, it is just...," Fawful looked up at Cackletta, "I am not knowing if he will have forgivenness for me."

"He's your minion, of course he will," she said. "After all, how many times did I accidentally zap you or something? You never held it against me. Heck, most of the time it wasn't even accidental."

"Fawful would never hold grudges against the Great Cackletta!" Fawful said.

"So I'm sure Midbus won't hold grudges against you," Cackletta said, "If he's as good a minion as you say he is."

Fawful nodded. "He is the best! Very best! No minions have more greatness!"

Part of Cackletta wanted to say Except maybe for you, Fawful, but she didn't voice that thought. She had a villainous image to keep up and all. "How close do you think you are to curing him?"

Fawful looked off to the side, twiddling his fingers. "It is being hard to say... much progress has been made, but with the Great Cackletta's return, I have been so otherwise preoccupied, and..."

"Are you saying I'm distracting you?"

Fawful shuddered at the cold tone of her voice and looked up at her with terror in his eyes. "N-n-n-no! Your l-l-loyal toady w-would never be thinking of the Great Cackletta as a d-d-d-d-distraction!"

"Good," Cackletta looked up at the tube, almost completely fogged over again, and examined what little she could see of her toady's toady. "I think I'd like you to cure him soon. I want to meet him. Properly, I mean-- without him being frozen in a tube."

Fawful nodded. "Fawful will work extra hard! I will give it one hundred eighty percents!"

"Good to hear," she circled around the tube, still looking Midbus over. "I'm impressed that you've been able to get yourself a loyal follower so early in your career. He looks strong, too. Smart, getting a henchman who makes up for your shortcomings. Do you two make a good team?"

Fawful nodded, smiling. "We are a team to be fearing!"

"I wouldn't expect anything less," she ruffled his hair-- what little he had-- and that one act of affection made Fawful look so happy he might burst. Then she faked a yawn. "I think I'm going to go lie down for a while. Why don't you work on helping your toady, hmm?"

Fawful nodded. "Fawful will do this!" Cackletta turned and began walking to her room. Fawful called after her, "Be having a nap of peacefulness, O Great Cackletta!"

Cackletta entered her room, closing the door with a sigh. She sat down on her bed, putting her head in her hands.

He had a minion. A real one, not just brainwashed followers. He was enacting all sorts of evil schemes, he'd survived something as horrible as the Darkness at the Center of the World, he had his own base of operations, he had a minion.

He really didn't need her anymore, did he?

Well, of course he didn't. She'd trained him not to need her. She wanted him to be able to take care of himself and continue their work when she died. It'd all been part of the plan. She knew that. She should've expected this much when she came back.

But she didn't.

In all her misery in the Underwhere, she'd comforted herself with the image of her young, loyal little toady. In her desperation to leave, she'd forgotten that he wasn't her toady anymore. He stopped being her toady the moment she died. He was a villain now-- perhaps a better villain than she.

What made it all the worse was his willingness to give that up. If she let him, he would give up all of his greatness just to serve her again.

"Maybe I really shouldn't have come back," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Maybe I should just..."

She shook her head and slapped herself. What was she doing, despairing so easily? So what if Fawful had a minion? He still needed her.

She couldn't give up yet.