"The two shades of green."

Chapter 19

"He's a hero... right?"

"You can't."

"I should. I really really should."

"No, Mario. It would destroy you."

"If it brings Luigi back, even if for just a second, it's worth it. All of it."

"This wouldn't solve anything! He'd be gone the minute you stopped, and you'd be left to live with the consequences for the rest of your life!"

"I already do, Peach. A few more mental scars here or there won't make much of a difference..."

"This is different! Mario, the fall wasn't your fault! Your brother was willing to s-sacrifice himself to save me, it was a conscious decision on this part. This... madness will be you directly causing your little brother pain!"

"It's a small price to pay to see him alive again."

"Is it? Is it really? To get Luigi back only to have him fear you? Is that what you want? Because that's exactly what's going to happen. You'll hurt him and he'll hate you, and you won't be able to live with yourself."

"Oh, Peach… I already hate myself. I already can't stand to look at the man in the mirror. I already wish our places could be reversed. But those are things I can't change. Luigi's living status, on the other hand? I can. I have been given a way to restore him back to the way he was, and I'm afraid nothing you say will change my mind about using it."

"Mario, please… you don't want to do this, you know this is wrong."

"And yet… and yet nothing feels more right."


"I know why you're here." E. Gadd's voice stated, from behind a giant screen, as Mario and Peach entered his dark room.

"Do you?" The plumber didn't even pretend to be doubtful.

The professor swallowed, the simple motion shaking his small frame.

"You want me to find a way to hurt Lui-Sonny, without actually harming his body."

"Quite the perceptive little man, aren't you?" The line was supposed to come out joyful and teasing.

But it ended up sounding like an echo of a time long since past.

Like salt to blistering wounds.

The small inventor shrugged.

"One can learn many things when listening to the sound of the wind."

No one pointed out that it's impossible for there to be wind inside a building.

"Are you sure about this, Mario?" The small man whispered, his fingers hovering over the shiny keyboard. "This might not end up the way you think it will."

Silence answered him.

"You've researched this before... haven't you?"

"Researched what?"

"A way that could bring him back."

"..." Silence once again graced the small room, feeling suffocating accompanied by the heavy darkness that surrounded them. "I've searched for a way ever since I got the news of his death."

"Did you find anything?"

"Even if I did, it wouldn't work. Not on him."

"Why?"

"How can I bring back something that was never lost?"

"I don't understand."

"I work with spirits, Mario." E. Gadd answered. "I could find Luigi's ghost, and help him find his way back into the body but... considering the previous revelations..."

"Luigi technically didn't die." Peach continued, with a soft voice. "So there never was a ghost for you to recover..."

Again, the suffocating silence grew around them.

"...Would you think differently of me if I wished Sonny passed away the usual way, Mario?"

The usual way...

With a ghost they could work with, be it his own or a Boo form.

Things would be so much easier...

Unfortunately for them, life rarely is that accommodating.

And so they were stuck with this confusing mess of a situation.

"No." The red Plumber responded quietly, shaking his head. "...Ideally, none of this would be happening." His hand curled into a fist. "The only thing we can do now is try to fix it."

"..." The Professor thought for a second. "I… might have found exactly what you need."

Mario's dead eyes brightened with an unhealthy light.

"You… have?" Peach's voice quivered, fearing what this could mean for all of them.

Instead of answering, the Professor pressed a few buttons which released a platform in the middle of the room.

A grey-ish heart rested upon it, gently spinning in the unfelt wind.

"It's… a corrupted Pure Heart."

"No..." E. Gadd shook his head. "It's a broken one." He swallowed. "I… I wanted to create a Pure one artificially since… all the real ones are… gone, to… purge the Chaos Heart from Sonny's chest. But..." His small form shook in the flickering light of the screen. "I… I wasn't able to. The best I could do was this..." He pointed at the result of his research. "With not nearly enough power, cracked in the middle and just..." He sighed. "Weak."

Mario's eyes fell.

"So it won't be of much help then."

"On the contrary..." E. Gadd finally turned to them. "It might not be able to get rid of the abomination in Sonny's chest..."

He looked at the spinning heart.

"But it's magic still causes it immense physical pain just by being near it."

He paused for a second.

"It might be just what you need to bring Sonny back."


L's eyes opened at the sound of his cell doors opening.

He lifted his head to greet whoever decided to visit him, as his heart made a painful thud and increased it's speed.

The man dressed in green frowned.

Something's wrong.

Mario entered his room and, as he drew closer, L's heart started to shiver in his ribcage, urging him to move away now.

He blinked, not understanding what was happening, but still listening to the prompting of his heart, and trying to move back as much as his chain allowed him to.

The red Plumber must have noticed his growing discomfort, as he raised an eyebrow and stepped even closer.

L let out a strangled yelp at a particularly painful thud of his panicking heart, as it responded to the closer proximity.

"S-Stop!" The vigilante gasped out, his breath quickened to supply his heart with the air it so desperately wanted to spread around his body. "D-Don't come any closer!"

He expected Mario to disregard his plea, just like he did before.

But, to his astonishment, the ex-hero actually stopped.

"You can sense it, don't you?" Despite being said as a question, it sounded more like a statement.

L shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He wasn't lying. He couldn't see nor sense, anything different about the red Plumber.

He looked the same way he did during their fight that led to this situation.

But something about him had changed.

Otherwise L wouldn't be on the verge of having a heart attack right now.

"You may not." Mario countered. "But your heart clearly does."

That didn't exactly help, as the only other thing L knew little to nothing about, aside from himself, was the magical organ panicking between his ribs.

Sweat began going down his forehead and he was already hyperventilating for a good number of minutes.

If this continues, he's going to faint.

"W-What's… happening to me?" L managed to gasp out between the quick breaths.

"Your heart is responding to this." Mario reached to his pocket and pulled out a… heart?

The second it was out L's chest exploded with magic, covering his body from head to toe with it's dark energy, desperately trying to protect itself.

"W-Why is it..." He tried to ask over the loud thuds of his heart.

"Because, wounds from this little thing?" The plumber's hand curled around the cracked heart, taking control over its powers.

"Oh you don't heal from those."

The room suddenly went dark.

"They'll just keep on bleeding..."

Everything went quiet.

The only sound heard… was the scared beats coming from L's chest.

Suddenly the villain could feel someone's breath hit the back of his neck, and he tensed.

"Until I let them stop."