(If you asked me what the moral of this story is, well... it's a lot of things. And I invite you to come out of it with whatever interpretation makes sense to you. It's about coming to grips with the past, when it begins to drag you down in the present. It's about overcoming the sadness that tears its head when life feels beyond your control. It's about reaching out to the people out there who have nothing. No one. But regardless of what you take from it, I hope you've been able to identify and/or sympathize with at least one of the characters in it. And maybe, that you learned something useful about yourself from their inclusion.)
(The music "Midnight Moonlight" from Kirby Triple Deluxe plays)
The doors opened. A single open hallway laid sprawled out before them. The carpets were indigo, and the curtains, gently floating at the mercy of the breeze, were blue. The pale moonlight dancing across the floor, to the empty tune of these empty corridors. The walls were black, and the floor was decorated with dark gray tiles, with a glossy shine. "At last, it comes to this." E. Gadd whispered to himself, as Vinny and Luigi stepped off the elevator... and towards their final confrontation. The ceiling held up silver chandeliers, and in the center of the hallway stood a roman fountain. If Luigi didn't know any better, he'd have thought he was in an old and abandoned, yet somehow pristine castle. "Yes. I can feel him in the air... He's here. Up ahead." Though not constructed for that purpose, this hallway seemed to put Maxill at ease. For it was just as empty, and lonely as him. As they walked, Vinny and Luigi could see transparent illusions of Maxill and Elline slow dancing. Perhaps, it was a physical representation of his daydreams of what used to be. What should have been, but wasn't.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so... depressing, as this." Peach commented. Keeping a respectful tone, so as not to show rudeness towards this serious event. And as they approached the door to Maxill's office, the illusions faded away. Just like that, gone. They hadn't even entered his office yet, and Vinny already felt the long-dormant strings of their relationship pulling and tugging on her heart. They were at the door. No more second guesses. No last minute hesitation. Here they were. Ready to enter this room, at the top of the hotel. Vinny shakily clutched the door handle, and looked at Luigi. "I want to have the chance to talk to him. Don't use the poltergust unless we're all out of options, okay?" Luigi nodded. She didn't even need to tell him that. Taking a moment to steady herself, Vinny opened the door. And there he was.
In his chair. Facing the window, and watching the moon set. "You're here." He spoke, in a solemn voice. Luigi closed the door behind them. "Before anything else, I need to know... Why'd you do it? Peach, Daisy, and the others. They had nothing to do with this." Maxill spun around in his chair. His head slumped over like a zombie, drained of any energy. "Yes... You've gone through much to get here, it's only fair that you know." He pushed his chair in, and rested his head on his hand. On his desk was a piece of paper. The aged appearance of which, gave away exactly what it was. "Long ago, I stumbled across my own diary entries. And as a result, I regained my memories. Ever since, I've looked over this contract hundreds of times. I know every sentence. Every syllable. Every letter. And though it is a somber avenue left for us out of this mess, it is my duty to tread it."
He took out a magnifying glass, and held it over the passage he was referring to. "If the second party, is removed of all troublesome individuals to their future endeavors, the terms affecting the first party shall be lifted." Now it all made sense. He was doing this to free them from the contract. "Thanks to Luigi's past endeavors, King Boo is imprisoned. But even so, his hold on us still remains. Imprisoning the lot of you in paintings was my solution to this problem. Cruel as it may seem, you and your friends would have lived on to be liberated another day. And fortunately, this statement in the contract doesn't pin down a specific timeframe for you to be out of commission." He looked up at them. "But thanks to you Luigi, my hopes were once again crumpled underfoot. I really only have myself to blame for underestimating you." E. Gadd then spoke up. "Why didn't you try to contact me? I would've been happy to help."
Maxill's expression, his eyelids permanently sagging, didn't change. "I tried. So many times. But you didn't respond to any of my letters, or calls. I eventually accepted you had moved on from us." He stated, glumly. "My old lab was destroyed when the volcano erupted, and so I moved to a different location. Maybe that's why." Maxill shifted which hand would hold his head up. Probably wondering what kind of idiot builds a lab right next to an active volcano. "Well... it doesn't matter now. We're all here to support you, father." Maxill's frown sank even further. "Don't call me that. I'm not your father. I'm the man who ruined your life. And I haven't come close to redeeming myself yet, if that's even a possibility." Vinny walked over to his desk. "You've suffered enough. Relationships aren't just some debt to be repayed. And you don't have to force yourself to make up for something that wasn't your fault." Maxill's eyes wandered away from her gaze, as he lazily got up out of his chair, and paced over to the wall, looking down at his feet.
Vinny walked over, and held his hand. "I don't hate you for what happened, father. Please come back to us." Maxill looked back at her. His face rife with shame. "But I do..." As they talked, Luigi spotted something propped up against Maxill's desk: Mario's painting. Not wanting to disturb this heartfelt exchange, he slowly began creeping over to the painting. "If I could only turn back the clock, and treasure those days just a while longer... No... Even if it were possible, I couldn't cope with living through all this again." Vinny politely stood there, choosing her words very carefully in her head. "Every time I look at the walls of this office, at you, even at myself... I am constantly reminded of my transactions." Luigi was in the process of using the dark light on the painting to revive Mario, but before he could finish, Maxill noticed what he was doing. "Father-" the instant his eyes locked with Luigi's, the Italian plumber was lifted into the ceiling!
Vinny then watched helplessly as his body was ragdolled into every available surface by some unseen psychic force. His face getting violently peeled against the walls like a tire grinding against the road. "What's happening!?" Vinny shouted, Maxill's eyes following Luigi wherever he went. His dead stare seeming to be the cause of the violence. "I did not want to do this, but you forced my hand." With the sheer force of his mind, he psychically ripped the poltergust, gear from gear. Luigi panicked, as he desperately tried to get down. Vinny rushed over to her father, shaking him. "Please, stop!" But Maxill didn't even react, as Luigi and what remained of the poltergust were blown out the window! Smashing through the glass, as Luigi was sent tumbling to his doom. Screaming all the way down. "Luigi!" She looked down from the window as Luigi became just a dot on the horizon. She tried to jump out the window after him, but some sort of invisible wall stopped her.
It was the contract. They weren't able to exit the building with it still in effect. She stifled back her agonizing futility, as she lowered her head in defeat. All the while, Maxill looked at her with his head still sunken, and a self-deprecating look on his face. "I know apologies are meaningless in the face of such actions. But my promise is the only thing I have left keeping me going... and so I must press on." Vinny slowly turned around. Even in the face of all of this, she still believed in him. It must be difficult to accept her kindness. It scares him, because it's so foreign and unfamiliar. Maxill slipped his hands into his pockets, standing in a slightly hunched over state. "I know it sounds evil, but all I want is for you and your mother to be happy. So I must recapture them... It's the only way to set you free." Vinny took out the drawing she had from before, making sure Maxill could see it. "All I need to be happy, is to have you back with us."
But the drawing didn't seem to inspire the reaction Vinny was hoping for. Maxill just closed his eyes, tilting his head to the right. "That is the one thing, Vinny... the one thing I cannot do." A cloud of darkness filled the room, until everything was smothered by its expanse. When Vinny could see again, she saw herself standing on top of a huge tower. It looked like a thin variant of the Tower of Babel, made out of prison cells. All of it spanning high above an endless field of clouds, with the moon and stars casting their light blue glow down on them. "This is the natural outcome of learning the truth. It would appear that hiding those diary pages was merely delaying the inevitable." Vinny looked up to see Maxill, floating above her in a standing position. "My only request is that you make this quick. The more this drags on, the more painful it becomes for both of us."
(The music "Secret Boss Theme" from Kingdom Hearts 3: ReMind plays)
Vinny looked down, dejected. "I guess the time for talking is over. Hopefully I can reach you through my actions." Maxill then started charging up an orb of purple energy in his palm. "Mine is a path of rot and decay. Following it simply to reach me will leave you in ruin as well." He then shot out a purple laser towards her. Something Vinny gracefully dodged. She knew he was just trying to spur her on into attacking him. "Sorry about the silence there. Was heating up some popcorn for the final battle... Where's Luigi?" The professor asked. Vinny buried her face in her palm as she ducked under another of her father's lasers. "Wait a minute... I think I may have an idea, just crazy enough to work! Keep him busy as long as you can, youngster!" He said, before hanging up. Maxill dawned a sad smirk. "I guess he failed to recall that I can hear him." He joked, in an attempt to remove some tension from the situation.
Vinny frowned. "You're right about one thing: this encounter isn't pleasant in the slightest." She then flew towards him, hoping to knock some sense into him. Maxill then summoned a cane out of thin air. Not just any cane, though. A cane that belonged to a certain fictional super-villain Vinny knows of. "Such is the reality we live in." Using his new weapon, he conjured up a boa constrictor made out of rope! Vinny was weirded out by the odd creature, but quickly realized how deadly it was as it wrapped around her neck and started strangling her! Even as her windpipe was being smothered by the man-made animal, this action struck an off chord with her. Even in this state, her father would never take such extreme measures. Something wasn't right here... "If you cannot bring yourself to destroy me, or refuse to back down, my only remaining option is to place you in a painting as well, until my work is done." For a minute, Vinny thought she was finished. But just as she was about to give out, something cut her free.
After taking a moment to breath, she looked in her hand to see a familiar looking parasol, sharp blades of wind emanating from it. "That's right! Nivyn's still a part of me." Having a means of defending herself, Vinny took a battle stance. Maxill seemed unfazed by this, using his cane to summon some strange wooden robots teeming to the brim with electricity. "Heh. I guess I inherited my imagination from you. But I'm not giving up that easily." The fleet of mindless drones charged at her, blasting beams of electricity in her direction. Vinny however, had other plans. She created a wall of ice to shield herself, before launching it at her assailants, like a car attempting to do a cartwheel. It absolutely flattened her foes down the center, and as the remaining robots swarmed her from all directions, she leapt up above them and jolted them with a bit of lightning of her own. It easily overloaded their circuits, causing them to explode on the spot in a heap of wood and fire. Seeing that Maxill was now wide open, Vinny flew in to try and destroy his cane.
But Maxill had quick reflexes, raising his cane upwards, to form a barricade made of prison bars. Vinny stopped herself before she crashed into them, and watched her father carefully as he once again created an obstacle out of his own energy. This time, he recreated the toy soldiers from the first Luigi's Mansion! Only they were now dressed in prison guard uniforms. Their cork guns pointed square at her, Vinny got behind one of them to shield herself from the attack. She then froze its body solid, and smashed it into a thousand pieces with a kick. "Please just go back to your room, Vinny. I promise when the dust settles, it'll be just like it used to be." Vinny dodged the gunfire from the remaining soldiers, using a vortex of wind to sweep up the attacks and hurling it back at them. One of them ducked, while the other was riddled with holes. "Father, it CAN'T be like old times. The past is long gone, don't you see?" Maxill sadly looked away, and used his cane to create a giant Goliath of a monster with a pyramid for a head!
"I'm calling your name, father... but only you can choose to hear it." She said to herself, as she flew under the ogre's legs, blasting a beam of ice at the floor he was standing on. The beast swung its colossal arms at her as she sped along, freezing the floor beneath him, but she weaved through his fingers, and before long, he was literally standing on ice. Before she could get to a safe distance, the monster grabbed her and raised her up to where its face would be, if it had one. What the monster didn't know was that it was already too late. She blew his beefy hand off of her, and summoned the strongest gust of wind she could muster. The monster realized what she was doing, but he was helpless to do anything about it as his feet slid at the mercy of the wind, leaving him teetering over the edge of the building, and plunging through the clouds. Both Vinny and her father were floating there, panting. The fight having greatly exhausted them both. Fortunately for Vinny, the professor's plan had finally come to her aid.
"Maxill!" Both ghosts turned down to the building the monster was just knocked off of, to see Elline. And one by one, every ghost in the hotel appeared along with her, with obvious exceptions like Anubyss, and Corrosive. Vinny giggled at the sight of Mordread, who appeared to have his mouth taped shut by the other ghosts in the containment grid. Maxill stared in disbelief and confusion at the sight. Also amongst the crowd was Peach, Daisy, the professor himself, and... Luigi!? "Luigi? You're still alive!?" Luigi gave a thumbs up. His silence indicating now probably wasn't the best time to explain, a notion Vinny agreed with. "Elline...? Why did you come?" Maxill asked, in a barely audible tone. Elline and the other ghosts flew up to him. "I came to say I was sorry. Blaming you for King Boo's curse was... selfish of me. I felt so helpless to our situation that I didn't know what else to do, but that's no reasonable excuse. So... What I'm trying to say is..." she took up his hands on hers. "I forgive you."
Maxill's expression morphed into that of fear, as he retracted his hands and backed away. "No... No, no, you don't have to say that. I've already made peace with your dislike of me. And I fully understand! I was an idealistic fool, too naive for my own good. This is my punishment." Elline furrowed her brow in concern. "The reason it took me so long to say that is because you never let me. My memory was erased, remember? So even though the feeling persisted, I still couldn't make amends for something I had forgotten. So please... I know you don't want to be this way anymore." Kruller then approached them. "Yeah, boss. I know I'm the worst security guard in the world. No one else was willing to give me a chance. But you did." And then the magician trio did the same. "That's right! And you still let us work for you, even when we failed to break the contract. I mean, you didn't murder us, so you're already better than our former employer." Lindsey pointed out.
Even Clem decided to come out. For once, not smelling like he came back from a pig farm. "Ai'll finally admit it aftur all dese years: the reason me n' the boys made funuh ya back in the day wus because you were jus' more successful den us. There! I said it! Ya happy!?" Elline nodded approvingly. A single tear streamed down his face. A black tear. "I want to believe you... but I... can't." It was at this moment that Vinny noticed something strange: something seemed to be attached to Maxill's back. Were those... chains? They trailed a few inches behind him, and seemed to go invisible past that distance. Now Vinny figured out the last piece of this puzzle: something was forcing Maxill into this state. "Mother. Stand back." Elline was confused by the sudden request, but did as her daughter asked. Vinny blasted lightning out of her parasol at the chains. Time seemed to slow down for a minute, before the electricity exploded to life, and crawled up the chains, exposing all of them were trailing from a single point behind Maxill, and exposing some sort of humanoid figure holding them in place.
The immense force shattered the chains, breaking Maxill free from their grip and rendering him unconscious, prompting Captain Vincent to catch him, having somehow miraculously survived his encounter with the kraken. The assembled crowd watched as the figure fizzled in and out of view from their shocking exposure. Only their silhouette visible against the light of the electricity. Ethereal, like a reflection in a lake. Vinny gripped her parasol tightly. "There's no point in trying to hide anymore, we can all see you." The figure did not say anything. But appearing to agree with its accuser, it allowed itself to be seen. And what an ungodly sight it was: it was some horrible mish-mash of a creature. Half of its body made of white cloth and stray threads, and the other made of cold hard metal. One of its eyes was a button, and the other was robotic, with a red reticle in it. It wore a black sleeveless V-neck shirt that exposed most of its muscular, but skinny chest. Its hair was black, shoulder length, and poorly combed. Its shorts matched its shirt's color scheme, and it wore no shoes. It also had a cape made out of black chains. Its height was equal to Vinny's and its physique indicated this freak of nature was male, even though it likely didn't have a gender.
"depacsE stcivnoc tsum eb deudbus..." It had no vocal chords, and as such, could not speak. And yet, hard as it was to explain, everyone could somehow... feel what it was saying. "Who... WHAT are you!?" Vinny asked, the creature looking down at them without a shred of humanity in its eyes. "tnavellerI. A eman I od ton ssessop. fI uoy eriuqer a drow ot sseddra em yb, uoy yam llac em... 'reliaJ'." Jailer... That was his name. The only name he'd ever be given. Because he never asked for one. It was not important to his job to have a name. But whatever he was, he clearly couldn't be left standing. So long as he lives, so too will the contract. Because... He IS the contract. And there was no doubt in anyone's mind, that he needed to be destroyed...
(This final chapter ended up being so long that I had to split it into two parts. Thank you all for understanding. And don't worry, I fully intend to explain how Luigi survived, and who Jailer is. I know how frustrating it is when important plot points like that don't get explained, so I have no intention of leaving you hanging. Also, I cranked my music selection for part two into overdrive, so feel free to give the chosen soundtrack a little listen when you can. Helps give that extra bit of immersion that a finale needs.)