"Luigi's Dream Adventures: Antasma's grand return."
Chapter 13
"This body is too small for the both of us."
Doctor Luigi could only stare at the chaos spreading before him, heart pounding and hands pressing on one of the more seriously bleeding wounds on Dreamy's body.
Dear Grambi…they were losing control faster than any of them could take it back.
He hoped, Jades how he hoped, that L wouldn't have to resort to using such drastic measured. That a small demonstration of the Heart's power would be enough to drive back the invading villain, long enough for them to retreat and lick their wounds.
They should have known that wouldn't happen.
They should have known this was too big a risk.
They should have known the demonstration of the Heart's true power will do a lot more than just intimidate Antasma.
It will also awake a demon everyone thought was long put to rest.
"Mmmm…" The foreign voice hummed with Luigi's mouth, as he hovered calmly over their heads like a visible ghoul. "Such an interesting predicament this is, I'd say." Mismatched eyes twinkled as they stared down the villain before them. "I leave for five minutes and already our dear little Weegee has another remarkably strong evil-doer fighting over his body, like a young actress finding a juicy contract laying on another's chair, while the rightful owner is in her shower."
One the sentence was uttered, the ever-present smile fell from the ginning face, the white-yellow set of eyes delivering its fiercest glare to its opponent.
"Like a child who just received a long awaited action figure, I do not respond nicely to people touching my toys without permission, Antasma."
Just like that the king of Shadows, faced with as common an emotion among fellow villains as anger, regained a bit of his earlier bravado and managed to respond to the frightening force of raw power that was hovering before him.
"Laws of ownership don't apply to dead men, Dimentio." He snarled back, though the attempt sounded weak even to him.
Dr. Luigi wanted to leash out at him, at his words. To scream that the younger Mario brother is not a possession to be tossed around between super-villains.
But that would only make the situation they're in, worse.
He couldn't possibly take on both supervillains at once, he's not that strong, not that powerful…
Not that brave.
He's just a doctor.
A man of healing, not destruction.
He wasn't taught to use his craft against people, to make them suffer instead of healing them.
Even when his friends needed it the most…
He's just a doctor.
He may be able to rid people of deadly diseases and bleeding wounds…
…but he can't protect them from being hurt in the first place.
He's just a doctor.
None of the two villains noticed how the third embodiment of Luigi's subconscious bit his lip and wordlessly continued with his efforts to keep Dreamy breathing.
They were far to engaged with their little squabble.
"My dear, 'Tasma." Dimentio giggled hysterically. "I thought you knew that 'Death' is just a point of view." He then floated a bit closer to the other villain, a few more steps and he'll be entering the Bat King's personal space. "I might have been thought as 'un-alived' by those that seemingly saw me perish that one faithful day, but I never really died per-se. I was still here…festering on little Weegee's secrets and doubts, even though you couldn't see nor feel me. Luigi did, though. He knew I was with him all along, the smart boy." He then laughed again, his sharp teeth gleaming in the shadows. "I was just…gone for a moment, on sick leave, if you must. Until you did the stupidest thing you could have done and brought. Me. Back!"
"This changes nothing." The Shadow King hissed, levitating himself upwards by commanding the gravity of the palace to lessen, as only he now could. "Your return, however surprising, will not hinder my return to glory! I will not allow it!" Antasma then fixed his opponent with his most challenging glare. "If I must stand against you and your dark powers to achieve my ultimate goal, then so be it. But I will not cover before you like a dog with its tail between its legs!"
Hearing this surprising speech most would look upon his/her challenger with adoration and respect, for his bravery.
But Dimentio was not your typical enemy.
He just looked at Antasma with a hungry grin that suggested he's been waiting for this opportunity for years.
"Silly, 'Tasma." Dimentio shook his finger at the Bat King like a teacher does to a naughty brat in their class. "You really think you're the Top Dog here?" Still grinning like the insane jester that he is, the man in Mr.L's skin slowly advanced on the dark King of Bats. "Why do you think Luigi never asked those manifestations of his, Doc over there and Mr.L, to help him fight you, even though he had all those months to do so?" His grin widened with every word he spoke, his voice sounding more like that of a genius psychopath than of a crazed jester. "Why do you think he only used Dreamy Luigi, even though L was much more powerful and experienced in combat?" The bat king took an instinctive step back, wanting to make more room between himself and the lunatic before him. "Why do you think he allowed himself to be your punching bag, even though in reality all he had to do is call upon a bit of the Chaos Heart's power, to get rid of you?"
In a blink of an eye the possessed Mr.L launched at the King of Bats and grabbed him by the throat, taking the ruler of Nightmares by surprise as he could do nothing against such speed.
"That's because, if he ever did that, the power of the cursed organ would consume him and I would return as the rightful bringer of the world's destruction." The jester's smile widened to an impossible length, getting creepier by the minute, as Antasma's fear grew at just as steady a rate.
"So you see, Fool." Dimentio whispered to the other man's ear. "Luigi wasn't fighting you. He was trying to protect you."
"For he knew, I will have no such mercy."
Mario dreamt about being a plumber and repeating Peach's leaking pipe in the castle's kitchen.
In the dream, no matter what he did, the darn pipe wouldn't stop leaking water.
Just as he was going to assault the unlucky sink with his shoe, Mario realized that…the dripping sound didn't really come from inside the dream at all.
It came from the outside of his mind.
From the real world.
When the red clad plumber opened his eyes he also discovered another surprising thing.
The thing that was leaking wasn't a sink.
It was Luigi.
And the thing dripping wasn't water.
It was blood.
AN: Hi, guys! Sorry for the wait! I had a busy time with all the other fics I started and the plot bunny for this one kinda ran away…but its back now so, enjoy! :D