Authors Note: This chapter is by far the most important one, it will feature some...surprises that will surely shock you
As night time falls, so did the inventor retreats, slowly trudges towards his lab hidden between the great trunks of the trees. Evershade Valley proves time and time again to be a well-concealed place for questionable experiments to be performed and a great place to study and contain dangerous ghosts.
That was until now.
When he entered, everything seemed to be normal, no machines gone haywire, no escaped ghosts fiddling with his gadgets, and no alarms. Nothing, so he suspects nothing.
However the further he moved in, the more suspicious condensed in his mind,
Why is the storage room so quiet? It's always noisy, with unstable ghosts attempting to bust out of their transparent cells along with the voice of the ever-bellowing King that loudly comments on every action he takes.
Which is now missing .
He hurried towards the room in dreaded haste, fearing King Boo had escaped again.
But when he entered, it was something vastly different.
The fearsome ghosts that once sneered at the sight of the professor now looked at him for reassurance, they all pressed themselves against the glass wall as if clinging to it for dear life. And in the center-back of his lab, his most prized experiment which he has required the assistance of the Mario Brothers multiple times to capture, is now gone.
Gadd immediately searched the room for any clues of his whereabouts, judging from the reaction of the ghosts within. They all looked completely terrified of whatever had happened to him, even Helen Gravely. His prized possession's admirer wears partial grief and horrific shock on her face. E. Gadd wanted to question them. but soon needed no more explanation when he came across a dark unknown substance that just hides shyly from the stool of the table. He could have missed it if he wasn't explicitly looking for it.
And by taking one look, he had an idea of what took him.
He has to warn Luigi before it's too late.
Luigi is discharged in the evening, a day after the incident to be exact. The hospital marveled at his fast recovery speed and he was soon on his way home.
As he approached his bed, something tinkled in his chest. It's a familiar tinkle, one that he has felt through his journeys into the Dream World with his brother. However, this tinkle felt as if it was reaching into his soul, and merging with it. Similar to his fusion with the Chaos Heart. but instead of invading, it's energizing. As if he gains a soulmate, a partner, an ally.
Luigi isn't sure why but it gave him some reassurance that he will be somewhat ok through the night.
With that resolution, he climbed into bed and slipped back into the nightmare.
Antasma panted, he couldn't believe how difficult it was to even leave Luigi a notecard undetected. Nightmare almost found out, but he managed to pose as seemingly about to attack Luigi before he shuts his door in his face. Better to be rejected than be killed, but soon enough he found the plushy that keeps him bonded with Nightmare.
He doesn't know how did Nightmare manage to get his hands on the Chaos Heart, or at least the remains of it. What he did know is that this new body is made out of it, which thus requires him to be bonded with something to bring out his true powers.
Nightmare foolishly believed that he can just easily control one of his kind with a fabric doll, but it is still incredibly difficult to navigate through his crafted Dream World without feeling Nightmare's influence clouding his own judgment.
However, he soon found a way to partially bond with Luigi instead of being fully bonded with the toy, this way Nightmare's influence will lessen on him, as well as keep him hidden from Nightmare knowing his traitorous actions. But nevertheless, he has to admit, the plushy is pretty adorable, he might keep it as a souvenir after his done with this mess.
He watches as his small counterpart float into the bedroom with a handwritten note, his body is too big to hold a normal-sized pen, much less have the ability to write anything in this condition. He was partially grateful to have a small part of him be separated and transformed into a helper that can perform tasks he can't as well as bursting with a seething anger that it has the appearance of his greatest enemy. Nightmare reasoned that Luigi will be lured into a false sense of security with its appearance, which can lead him to become a very easy target for him.
Despite the benefits, he does not appreciate the fact that he was forced to keep a reminder of his past failures as a part of him. He does not appreciate the fact that he needs a caretaker for him to perform actions other than kill, and he absolutely does not appreciate the fact that his been reduced to nothing but a giant-dangling nutsack that can occasionally pick up a kill or two.
He will have his rightful vengeance.
Luigi wakes up in the same bedroom as he did in his last nightmare, the childish bedroom that hosts the most disturbing secrets. He found the flashlight that kept him safe from the previous night with a familiar notecard next to it.
This time it said,
When the clock strikes three, go to the right door and flash your light.
-A
Luigi is puzzled about this request, what do they mean by that? And why three o'clock exactly? He is hesitant about doing what the note asks of him but decides to follow through. However before he can get to that, he needs to survive past the first two hours.
Repeating what he did last night, he approaches the left door and slowly peeps out. He doesn't see any glowing eyes. So he flashed his light.
What he saw standing in front of him was something that never should have existed.
At first, he thought he was staring at a living skeleton, the long boney-like limbs that carefully insert themselves between the joints with the difference that it was completely pitch-black, void-black, like the dark hatred that the Chaos Heart contains. However, as he slowly traces his flashlight upward. He realized what he was looking at, or rather, who is he looking at.
The black and white colored mask that once adorn the omnicidal jester with deceitful beauty now stretches unnaturally long that mimics one's skeletal face. The once intriguing curved eyes now widen with a malicious stare, with the left eye completely gone, replaced with oozing dark pulsing tendrils that seemed to latch on like a parasite, the right eye now mimics the same color of the tendrils, but with a slit golden iris that seems to stare into Luigi's soul, filling him with slow-building panic. And just a few inches down from those eyes and past the sharp nose, sits a wide maniacal toothy smile with the teeth all fitted together perfectly and flawlessly white.
His jester hat now stretches in a similar manner to accompany the new proportions, but now missing the diamond-shaped bells that make it so charming. The neck is concealed with a boney-white ruff shape like the one that Super Dimentio has, connected by a yellow and purple vest with the same colored diamond-shaped buttons.
The creature with the twisted appearance of Dimentio slowly reaches toward Luigi with its boney clawed hands, it's demented grin widens as it gets closer and closer.
Luigi snaps out of his shock just in time to slam the door on the monster before it can grab him. His heart pounds at an unmeasurable speed, he couldn't believe what he just saw. That thing looks like it came straight out of a Lovecraftian book, he presses his back on the door and curls down into a fetal position.
Is this what he has to deal with for the next three nights? Facing horrific monsters that he couldn't ever imagine in his wildest dreams? Is this what Nightmare has prepared to break his mind?
Luigi started to feel hopeless, he can still feel the icy stares of the entity. He doesn't know if he can overcome such a horrifying challenge, he looked at his shaking hands. Can he do this? He has to, there isn't much of a choice for him. It's either do it or die.
Why had he been chosen for this? Or did the fates pick him for what he can do?
Either way, he decided. He's going to survive and bear whatever Nightmare throw at him.
Slowly he stood up, his legs still shaking a bit from the encounter but he was determined to push on.
He quietly step away from the door and went towards the closet, he knew what to expect from last time. The twitchy eyes that seemed bloodthirsty but scattered and mindless, unaware of its own existence and those around it.
However this time it's different, when Luigi first checked the closet, he saw nothing. No sign of the twitching eyes. He was puzzled at the sudden change but doesn't question it.
But right as he shut his flashlight and began to close the doors, a pair of white-clawed hands suddenly shot out from the darkness and grab ahold of the sides of the closet, holding it open.
Luigi immediately turned on his flashlight again, but this time it illuminate a far more different being.
The twitchy purple eyes with the slit iris are back, but along with a far more familiar face. It's a very familiar face, but a face that is also different.
The multi-purple eyes now reside inside the skull-like eye sockets of the spherical creature. Luigi feels his skin crawl just by looking at it, perhaps because of the Trypophobia vibe that it gives off. And below the sockets resides a wide grinning maw, filled to the brim with huge jagged teeth that varies in size, some as short as Luigi's hand, others as long as his entire body.
Luigi can feel his heart skip a beat, he stood paralyzed staring at the creature.
Slowly its large violet tongue creeped out, dripping with pulverizing ghostly saliva that seems to desire on digesting him as a whole.
Simultaneously Luigi snapped out of his stupor and immediately attempted to shut the closet door with all of his might, but the monster is determined to keep it open.
Luigi's breathing began to speed up along with the desire of the creature attempting to squirm its way out of the closet and eat him.
Thinking quickly, he let go of the closet doors and began flashing his light repeatedly at the creature, attempting to blind it with his rapidly blinking lights.
It seemed to have worked as it soon stopped trying to pry open the closet doors and focuses its effort on covering its many eyes with its huge claw hands before disappearing, leaving the plushy of King Boo in its place.
Luigi kept his flashlight trained on the plushy, expecting it to turn back into the monster that it was before and attack him again.
But it didn't, so he closed the closet door and quietly walked back to the bed.
He doesn't want to open the right door, he doesn't want to see what horrors await him through the final door.
His imagination started to play tricks on him, the right one is probably Antasma isn't it? Would he look like a skinless ghost similar to the first two along with a demented toothy grin? Or would he have black tendrils that ooze from his mask like the twisted appearance of Dimentio, or the many teeth that King Boo has?
He curl into himself and began to rock back and forth like a scared child, he doesn't know, and he doesn't want to know. He took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to relieve stress, he isn't sure if this will change as the nights go on. But if it were, then he has to prepare himself mentally so that these creatures will not always be blocked by the frail doors of the childish bedroom, and he actually has to survive their lifeless gaze.
Slowly but surely, the digital display showed three, during that time Luigi constantly checked the closet and the left door. Occasionally he peeked at the right door, but the supposed monster that occupied the section never appeared.
When the clock struck three, Luigi slowly crept towards the right door in the same manner that he did with the other two and open the door with just a crack.
He peered into the darkness, he couldn't see anything nor sense any movement in the void. He was hesitant in turning on his flashlight, debating again if he should listen to the note from earlier or just simply ignore the request and keep the door closed.
After a long pause, he decides to turn on his flashlight. If whatever horror awaited him there, then he would quickly shut the door as he did to the other two. It'll just be that simple, right?
Apparently not.
Before he can see it clearly, it suddenly lunged at him and grab a hold of his waist, and pulled him into the dark hallway.
Luigi was stunned for a moment before he registered what was going on and immediately started fighting the steel grip the creature has on him, he couldn't believe how quickly it took hold of him. He thought it was the same as the other two, but apparently his wrong.
He started to feel hysteria build up in his chest while he feel the wind whoosh past him as the creature took him farther and farther away from the bedroom. He can't die here, can he? He is halfway through the night he can't lose now!
He wanted to scream, but something inside of him restricts that. As if it's concealing itself from a bigger threat.
However, the being soon came to a slow stop and it gently unhanded Luigi, carefully settling him on the floor.
Luigi, still a bit stunned by the trip, stood there with his mouth agape and his flashlight in hand. The entity waited patiently for him to recover himself, knowing that he probably just thought that he died and was still in shock.
After a while, Luigi blinked and looked around in the dark hallway. He never went out of the bedroom during the night so he was surprised at how large this place is, or at least it from what he sees is quite large since all there is just a hallway with red wallpapering.
Slowly he focuses on the entity in front of him, the being seemed to be dangling upside down from the ceiling, but the ceiling is either too high that the flashlight couldn't fully illuminate the source or it's covered by something that prevents others to see where it came from. The creature seems to be covered in purple-ish fur that sticks out by three on each side of its head, which is wrapped around in a blanket-like coat, but by observing it more closely. The "coat" doesn't seem to be a coat at all, Luigi can see thin boney appendages that snake through the blanket similar to that of a bat wing. And below the wings (or above it?) sits a metallic mask with a black colored front that shifts in response to the entity's face. And by face, he means its eyes. As the bottom part of its appearance is hidden between the folds of the leathery wings, its eyes stare at Luigi with all of its golden glory, unblinking and awaiting. As if it's waiting for him to make the first move.
And the first move he makes is through a question.
"...Is that you Antasma?"
The entity finally blinked and responded, with the familiar Slavic-accented albeit muffled voice.
"Yes..it is I, but dis is not the time for introductions."
He cleared his throat and continued.
"I..haff been able to retain some control from dat stopid bear, how foolish of it…tinking it can control me dat easily…"
He muttered curses under his breath before returning to the conversation.
"The notecards you vere reading from…are all written by me."
Luigi's eyes widen in realization,
"oh oh OH! The signed "A", THAT'S YOUR NAM-."
Before Luigi can finish his sentence, Antasma unexpectedly covered his mouth with his wing, shutting him up quickly. He had a look of brief fear in his eyes before it was replaced with seething anger.
"Are you trying to get us KILLED?" He whispered angrily, "Dat bear doesn't know dat I'm not fully under his control, if he finds out, both of us vill be DED! I am not yet powerful enough to take him on so I need you to help me!"
With that, he lets go of Luigi's mouth, now permitting him to speak.
Luigi paused for a second and replied nervously,
"...you need my help? For what? At most I can do is just flash and run in here! My dreamy powers don't seem to work!"
Antasma grunted in annoyance,
"If it doesn't vork, den ve haff to tink of a vay around it." he explained, "I cannot directly interfere vith dat stopid bear's magic, I can influence it but dats vhere my current limit is at."
Luigi scratches his head…how can he do that? After thinking a while, during which he looked at Antasma's vastly different appearance, a question popped up in his mind.
"Antasma…why do you look like that?"
Antasma seemed to be thrown off by that question, before quickly replying.
"..Dat bear created a new vessel for us instead of just bringing back our old body, I assume he did it for de sake of controlling us better since he has a deeper influence vith our actions along vith attempting to give you a fright." he explained. "He also gived me dis as an 'assistance'."
As if on cue, the figure of Dreambert appeared out from behind Antasma and stared intently at Luigi, its eyes having the same golden glow as Antasma's as if it were a part of him.
Luigi thought for a while, staring at the creepy version of Dreambert as it responded with a cold stare of its own.
"...So you don't actually want to kill me?" he asked, his attention turning back to Antasma.
Antasma snarled, "Ve all vanted to kill you Loogie, after vhat you've done to us."
"Right, right, but like, not by your own free will right?" he asked.
"...no" Antasma muttered.
Then Luigi paused for a second, "Did you just call me 'Loogie'?"
Antasma sputtered, "Dat is the vay on how I speak, you can't possibly tink dat I-"
Before he can finish his sentence, Luigi burst out laughing. He couldn't help it, after days of worrying about Nightmare and traversing through these anxiety-inducing trials. Hearing something as simple as his name being mispronounced by one of the deadliest beings in the world was enough to make him lose it. It's a relief he desperately needed, and he wasn't expecting to find it here, and by Antasma of all people.
He continued laughing even when Antasma is desperately trying to cover his mouth, attempting to quiet down his cackles from the ever-so-threatening animatronic.
"Stop laughing!" he whispered loudly, "or else dat stopid bear vill hear us!"
Eventually, Luigi's laughter was reduced to quiet giggling as he slowly comes down from his high, still muttering "Loogie, Loogie" under his breath as Antasma mentally facepalmed himself for pronouncing Luigi's name like that, maybe next time he'll get it right.
Antasma's ears twitched, "I sense our time is almost up, I vill keep in touch in the next night. Until then, I vill attempt to figure out a vay to free us from dis predicament."
Luigi nodded, preparing himself to leave the nightmare before stopping with a puzzled expression.
"One last thing," He said, turning back at Antasma.
"Why do you refer to yourself as 'us'?" He asked, "I assumed you were talking about the two of us, but I realized you were using that pronoun when you were explaining to me on how your body was formed"
Luigi leaned closer toward Antasma, but he stayed unflinching.
"Are there more of you in here?" He asked the weighted question,
Antasma squinted his eyes, Luigi isn't sure if that meant his scowling from the displeasure of the question, or if his smiling underneath his wings.
After a moment, which seemed like an eternity from just the pure anxiety of the answer.
Antasma, sounding reluctant to reply. "...yes, there are more of us."
Luigi lets out a shaky breath and asked.
"Then I'm assuming it's King Boo and Dimentio right?"
Antasma seemed to really struggle with not answering that question,
"Yes…" he replied, sounding more reluctant than ever.
Luigi now felt like he was back at square one, sure he is teamed up with Antasma, who was someone that has well-versed knowledge of the Dream World along with his great strength in it, but however, they were up against another nightmarish creature that is much stronger than Antasma as well as two gigantic beasts who possibly are equal or stronger than him in strength. Luigi wasn't sure what to do in this situation, they must figure out a way to defeat the beasts before facing Nightmare, or else it would be a 3 against 2 with not-so-great looking odds.
Before he knows it, six am rolled around and he woke up with start. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, he now felt a lot calmer than he was initially before. Knowing that he isn't completely alone through the nights and that there's someone looking out for him. Even if it's from an unprecedented source, he felt something in his lap that he swear wasn't there before when he went to sleep.
And when he looked down, he was surprised at what he saw.
Antasma's plushy was in his lap.