The heat...That awful tepid heat...Why is it so hot?

He opened his eyes. He was looking up at a misty dark purple sky lit by strange blue-green structures while floating on his back in that murky river he knew as the Twygz.

How had he ended up back here! Where was everyone?

He kicked upright and trod water, looking around at the featureless misty expanse.

Dammit! Not again! What now? Wait for fatigue and the Twygz to claim him once for all.

He noticed movement nearby of a pale shape, but not that of an Underhand. It was a face, just under the surface -

"Mario!"

Luigi splashed towards the vision and dived. Instead of grabbing Mario, he passed through it as it dissolved into a mass of pixels. The vision reformed after he passed through it. Mario's face simply shook his head then faded.

He surfaced, gasping. There where other pale shapes in the water around him. Now he could recognise Peaches' face, and Daisy. And Bowser's. All looking at him, somewhat disappointed.

What were these? Ghosts! What was he supposed to do? He felt his pulse in his ears, and his erratic breathing. He threw his hands up in the air and screamed. He waited for the water to snap over his face and for the inevitable.

What happened next was a short, sharp sensation of falling and he awoke with a jolt. He was back in his suite, on his bed.

Luigi sat up with a start. He had lain on his bed fully clothed and had fallen asleep, he noted with irritation. The heater had come on during this period, and he had no idea what the time was now as it was dark outside.

A sharp knock at the door brought him back.

"Luigi, are you awake? The Deliberation has reconvened!"

"What!? Fleur is that you?"

"Yes. I'll wait for you. I'm sorry about this. Are you decent?" Her voice muffled by the door.

Luigi felt his anger mounting. He felt hot and itchy. He went to the bathroom to freshen up. Sleeping in one's clothes was never a good look.

Luigi emerged from his room. Fleur looked harrased. She took in his irritated look and started to explain.

"I have just got back from a discussion with the judges. This location is not safe anymore and we will need to move to a new location prior to the main trial. It has been decided that we need to finish up here ASAP. Sorry about how late it is."

Luigi said nothing. It was almost a relief. If he had to go into detail about what happened after Dimentio's imprisonment, then it was best to do so quickly, like tearing a dressing from a wound. Recalling his last dream it was not as if he was going to sleep that night anyway.

They were the last to enter the interview room. The judges were sat in their usual assembly on the other side of the table, Professor Mycroft at the left and Dr Mamek on the right. Mycroft spoke.

"Events have moved on and this location has been compromised. However, we must proceed and ensure that we have the complete set of testimonies up until the persona referred to as Mr L was created."

Luigi stiffened in his seat. It was no less pleasant even though he suspected that was what they wanted from him. He looked at Fleur and have her a curt nod. She nodded in return.

"Judges of the Deliberation we are ready to start."

Professor Mycroft was the first to start.

"Now, from what we heard at the last interview, it was Dimentio not Nastasia who interrogated you?"

"He wanted me to eat that seed. He was furious that i'd caught him out, I guess. He summoned these ropes. He looked me in the eyes and I couldn't move. Then he bound my hands and tied me to a beam so I was dangling. And he left me in the cold dark-"

He sighed. Almost inaudibly he whispered. "The pain as I hung there. But somehow Dimentio sounded almost apologetic, like I was too stupid to understand. That he had to leave me there. There was no way I was going to betray my brother! Or my friends! So he'd leave me, then come back and untie me and see if I'd changed my mind-."

He clutched his head. The judges sat in an uncomfortable silence shooting glances at each other.

"That wasn't all. I...I thought that if anyone would find me, Mario would. But he never came-" Luigi's voice cracked but he kept on.

"How..how could he have come? I'd last seen him on the floor of Bowser Castle, knocked out."

A savage look appeared in his eyes. It was as if the panel of judges did not exist for now.

"Dimentio taunted me on this! HE KNEW! I kicked him! HOW DARE HE INSULT MY BROTHER! Then he bought out the whip. Even then I held out, as he rained each blow down on me. Then he left me again. But it was so dark and cold. I knew I couldn't hold out much longer. Dimentio came back and bound me hand and foot, offered me the seed again..."

His voice trailed off. The world resumed. He looked the judges. Still silence.

"Yeah. I did give up. That's why I'm here. He came back to taunt me. 'You're so stupid. How much time can you last tied up here in my prison with no light, food or water uh? I bought you here two days ago and you look half dead. Do you want to extend your suffering?"

For once, Professor Mycroft spoke:

"You say it was two days that Dimentio held you captive? But is was three weeks until you saw Mario again?"

"I was coming to that, please let me finish! " Luigi snapped.

"I told Dimentio no! But he couldn't leave me to die and he knew that the cold would get me soon. But he couldn't wait. He had to twist the ropes one more time. ..."

He felt the hot heavy, itchy felling behind his eyelids. He wasn't going to give those damn judges the satisfaction of seeing his tears. He sighed.

"I felt the blood on my hands and the ropes bite again. The pain as he grabbed my hair to haul me upright. I knew, I knew that if I was going to live through this I would have to take that FUCKING seed! I failed. I had failed my brother! Now I'd have to fight it too!"

Hot tears squeezed out behind his eyelids. So much for the judges but he hadn't given Dimentio the satisfaction of his tears until the end.

"I took that fucking thing! I admit it. There! Happy now! You got your answers? Huh? Then he cut the ropes. No fucking use that was I couldn't move!"

Luigi stood up, his face contorted by anger and grief as he gasped. Fleur touched his arm. He shrugged it off.

"There! That's it! How I turned traitor! That's all you are getting, cause that's all I've got!" Hr sagged back into his seat, weeping quietly."

The other four judges exchanged glances, not sure what to do. Mycroft gathered up his notes.

"That will be all for now. I think we have sufficient information to be going on with. Please return to your quarters."

Luigi and Fleur walked up the steps back to their respective suits. Fleur spoke first.

"I..I'm sorry. I thought you needed some help."

"Oh that, yeah. I'm sorry it was just having to live through that again!"

"That's OK. I don't know what i'dve done. Ah yes, tomorrow there will be some more instructions about where we are going next."

"G'night"

"G'night"

Luigi paused once he had got back into his room. He felt drained, but there was no way he was going to sleep now, despite how late it was. Why not the gym? It could get rid of the nervous energy that was eating him up. He changed into shorts and tshirt, the a sweater on top and mode his way down.

He was not alone in the gym. Various members of staff where there too, including some Toads he saw from the household staff and a couple of burly Piantas. He spied free treadmill and started on it. Slowly at first, as he had not been fit for running for a long time, but he soon got into a rhythm. He kept on accelerating, welcoming the fatigue in his legs, the rasping of his breath as he panted with exertion. He didn't even notice his face streaming with tears. Wherever you run to. There you are.