"Why didn't you just tell her sooner?" Kamek asked again, worry drowning his eyes.

Luigi said nothing for some time, watching as the Magikoopa gently tended to his wounds. "…I didn't want to hurt her." He said again.

Kamek let out a sharp breath, lifting his eyes to Luigi for a brief moment. "She didn't seem to have much trouble hurting you." He snapped.

"It isn't her fault." Luigi said tiredly. It had always been a quick reflex to defend the Fangirl. "She doesn't understand—she treats everything like a game. To her, it's just a matter of how many super 'shrooms it'll take me to be back on my feet."

"That's no excuse." Kamek said irritably, Luigi's exhausted rant reminding him to offer the hero another mushroom, which he gladly accepted. "I have no idea why she thinks she can treat us like this, just because she's a stupid Fangirl…"

Luigi laughed shortly, smiling as he watched Kamek's magic work. "You're such a good nanny." He said.

Kamek immediately glanced up at the comment, his eyes slightly wide in shock. As soon as he saw the sarcastic humor in Luigi's eyes, his gaze flew back down, snarling slightly as a deep blush flooded his cheeks. "…shut up." He mumbled.

"No, it's cute." Luigi continued, now just poking fun at the Magikoopa. "Do you do these things for Bowser? And the Koopalings?"

"Watch it, Luigi." Kamek warned, his eyes glowing dangerously.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed." Luigi said with a shrug, finishing off the mushroom. At least he was starting to feel better. "I pretty much play maid for my bro—cooking, cleaning, care-taking… all me."

Kamek glanced up again. Not entirely surprised, but baffled, at least. "…is that so?" he said at length.

Luigi nodded, standing from his bed. "True story." He assured. He then jerked his head towards the bedroom door. "C'mon, we best go check on Livi… we've left Dimentio and Fawful alone with her for too long."

Kamek sighed tiredly, giving Luigi a very distressed look. "Must we?" He whined. Luigi only laughed, grabbing Kamek's hand and hauling him off the bed so they could venture back down the hall to the fangirl's bedroom.

When they got there, Livi had thankfully stopped sobbing her eyes out and screaming hysterically some time ago (though Fawful insisted that she had done so for hours). Luigi wasn't too happy to find the others all nestled under the covers of Livi's bed, the Fangirl curled up tightly in Dimentio's arms, sound asleep.

"You got her to sleep?" Kamek whispered in disbelief. Though it was already growing very dark outside, with the fit she was throwing earlier, everyone had been certain that she would never calm down.

"Ah, not entirely on purpose…" Dimentio said nervously, tossing a glance towards Luigi one could only describe as apologetic. "We turned on one of her movies for her—this is the only one she would calm down enough to say 'yes' to—and before I knew it, she was asleep…"

Luigi stepped around the bed, eyeing Dimentio somewhat scornfully. "…and she just happened to wind up like that?"

Dimentio's features twisted slightly, but he seemed too exhausted to look honestly offended, and Kamek seriously doubted he even was. "Well, I don't particularly favor the position, if that's what you're implying."

Luigi frowned at the jester, then immediately pulled back the covers slightly and began to slowly unwind Livi's arms from his waist. Dimentio seemed more offended now that he would do such a thing, though he didn't protest being rid of the fangirl. "What movie calmed her down?" He wondered, hoping to store away the information for future reference.

"…ah, The Lion King, I believe it was called…" Dimentio said, shifting his gaze away from Luigi. "Fawful and I haven't been paying much attention, though I don't see what peaked her interest… She did say one of the lions reminded her of me—"

"Scar." Luigi supplied without hesitation, not even glancing to Dimentio.

The jester seemed stunned that he so readily knew the villain's name—as if he had long-ago made the connection himself. "…yes…" Dimentio said slowly as Livi was scooped out of his lap and carried over to be set down on the other side of the bed. Luigi tucked her into the covers, and Fawful must have strayed too close, because Livi's fist was immediately tangled in his cloak, and no amount of whining or pulling managed to free him.

"Just stay with her, Fawful—you sleep in here anyway." Luigi whispered, waving the Bean off. He stepped back towards the door then, almost as if forgetting the fangirl entirely. "Watch her while we're gone—Kamek, Dimentio, I wanna talk to you two."

Dimentio was incredibly stunned to be included in the group, knowing already the closeness of the two and their tendencies to remove themselves from the others. However, again, he failed to protest, and rather agreeably floated outside to join them—a gentle closing of the door leaving Fawful and the sleeping Livi alone in the darkness.

Fawful glared at the fangirl, as if blaming her for the entirety of his current troubles (which, granted, she was largely the source of). His glaring, however intense, never seemed to faze her, and she only yawned softly and curled up a bit tighter. Fawful considered briefly slipping out of his cloak and at least moving across the room, but the mere thought of leaving his cloak behind with her made him shudder. So, realizing he would not be getting away any time soon, and feeling an odd wave of tiredness slowly begin to creep over him, Fawful hesitantly curled up beside the fangirl, only growling slightly when her arms slid around him.

Other than that small gesture, the fangirl remained still, and it was the most peaceful that any fandom had seen her so far—even with dried streaks of tears running down her face. Finding an odd sense of comfort in the pair's position, and rationalizing that the others surely would not be returning anytime soon, Fawful allowed the sleepiness to take him over and slowly fell asleep.

Livi jolted awake in blind panic, her hand immediately flying to grab whatever was clamped over her mouth. She found it to be a yellow hand, consisting of long, thin talons, and she sighed in relief, realizing it was Kamek. "What?" She groggily whispered as she shoved his arm aside.

"Shhh…" Kamek hissed softly, helping her up out of bed. "We don't have time to explain—just get up and follow us."

Livi was a bit baffled at 'us' for a moment, before noticing Dimentio gently waking Fawful. The Bean still seemed to be swaying slightly, obviously far from awake. Briefly noting their presence, the fangirl checked the clock by her bed as she slowly pulled herself out from beneath heavy covers. It was precisely 1:47 a.m., though it took her several moments to realize this.

"C'mon, Livi…" Kamek said gently, pulling her along as he opened the bedroom door to the quiet, dark halls. Livi paused suddenly, giving the Magikoopa a very odd, very sleep-deprived look before glancing down at herself. "…'m still in p'jamas…" she mumbled tiredly, noting her black t-shirt and blue pants with the shimmery stars, and recognizing them as attire entirely unfit for midnight adventuring.

Kamek sighed, fighting the incredible urge to roll his eyes. "You look fine, Livi. Let's go." He insisted, and Livi suddenly didn't have much of a choice in being dragged down the halls of Mushroom castle.

"Whe—" Livi tried, pausing to yawn loudly before managing to slur out her question. "Where's Weegee?"

"I'll explain when we get there." Kamek said, and Livi didn't appear to notice that he hadn't exactly answered her. It only took a matter of minutes to get 'there'—and the group arrived in a small storeroom in the castle. In the center of the room stood a bright red door with rainbow trim. Livi immediately recognized it as a dimensional door from Super Paper Mario, even with her mind in the delirious state it was.

She smiled goofily as Kamek went to open the door, snorting out a short laugh. "…my fandoms are kidnapping me." She stated, laughing a bit more. Suddenly, the fangirl sucked in a deep breath, her eyes flying wide—very quickly snapping very awake. "My fandoms are kidnapping me!" She repeated at a much higher volume.

Dimentio quickly clapped his hands over her mouth, pulling her inside the door, which promptly sealed shut behind them and evaporated into thin air. Livi immediately flipped over to spaz-mode, kicking and flailing around, screaming madly into Dimentio's hands as the jester struggled to keep a grip on her. They were, indeed, standing on Flipside tower before the dimensional doors, and she was, indeed, being held there against her will.

The fangirl only paused in her spazzing when she noticed the white elevator reaching the top of Flipside tower. It was all but impossible to describe the relief that washed over her when Luigi stepped off, and she immediately squirmed out of Dimentio's arms and bolted over to him. "Weegee! Omigosh I thought they were trying to kidnap me!"

Luigi hugged her tight and gave Kamek and Dimentio a look over her shoulder. "I'm sure they didn't mean anything…"

Kamek pointed at Dimentio. Dimentio smiled and laughed nervously.

"Luigi, what's going on?" Livi asked, burying her face in his shirt.

Luigi pulled her off and held her by the shoulders, bending slightly so he could look her in the eyes. "Livi, look… I lied to you, okay?"

Livi still had tears welling up in her eyes as her expression shifted from fear to confusion. "… wha-what?..."

"Mario was getting really worried about you, and so was Peach; so, they told me to lie to you about Mr. L."

"What?"

"Liv, I'm sorry, okay? I really thought you would listen to me and make Mario tell you!"

"Wait, wait, wait… so, what you said about Mr. L… that he doesn't exist-"

"Mr. L's in the Underwhere. He isn't a shayde, but he is down there."

"He is?"

It was then that Livi noticed she had been marched down the row of doors through the conversation, and now stood in front of one colored in a deep, sinister violet. "Why do you think we're down here?" was Luigi's only response.

It took roughly two seconds for the impact to hit, then Livi's face cracked into a wide smile. "We're going to the Underwhere." She declared. At Luigi's nod, she let out a triumphant shriek, throwing her fists in the air. "YES! This is freakin' awesome! We're gonna go save Mr. L!"

"Well, we need to find him first." Luigi reminded, throwing open the door. The inside was composed of some blackness 'dark' and 'scary' would fail to describe, but that didn't stop Livi from gleefully charging head-first into it. She stopped dead as soon as she had, though—breaking right through the dimensional rift and stepping into the icy, gloomy setting of the Underwhere.

Livi shivered violently as chill and fright overtook her, stumbling backwards to be caught in Luigi's arms. "M-mr. L's… d-do-down here?" she stammered out.

"You got it." Luigi confirmed, hugging her tighter as she let out a moan of despair. "Don't worry—we'll all be right here with you."

"Alright, so what do we do now?" Kamek asked, scoping out their immediate surroundings. They appeared to be in a small clearing in the dense, eerie woods.

Dimentio set Fawful on the ground to join the conversation. He seemed very stunned at the sudden change in surroundings (the jester needing to carry the half-asleep child the whole time) but he was obviously alert enough to scare Livi out of her wits and prompt her to chase him around the clearing, because that's exactly what happened. "I do believe we're to be finding our dear Mr. L, are we not?" Dimentio chimed musically.

Kamek gave him a pointed look. "Alright. And how do you propose we do that, E. Gadd?" he snapped—not in the hurtful way Luigi would have, but in the no-nonsense way typical of Kamek.

"Maybe we could start at the Palace?" Luigi offered. "I'll bet Jaydes would help us out if we asked her."

Dimentio's breath hitched in his throat when Luigi made the suggestion. It didn't go unmissed, and the hero had nearly turned to confront him when Livi had bounded over to the group (dragging Fawful behind her) and loudly proclaimed "I vote we split up!"

Luigi sighed, Dimentio—thankfully—forgotten. "Hey, Livi, I have an idea. How about we try something the easy way for once?"

Livi stared at him for a moment, blinked once, then pointed to herself. "Fangirl." she reminded him.

"Actually, that isn't a bad idea at all…" Dimentio sang, drifting over to place his hands on the fangirl's shoulders. "We could split into two teams and be able to find Mr. L twice as fast."

Livi beamed with pride at the comment, quickly throwing her hand that wasn't leashing Fawful in the air. "I call Dimentio and Fawful for my team!" She cried, winking suggestively at Luigi. "You and Kamek can have some alone time."

Kamek rolled his eyes at the statement, and Luigi may have had a similar reaction had he not been eyeing Dimentio somewhat nervously. "Uh, Livi… I don't think that's—"

"SAY, Weegee, can I talk to you for a minute?" Livi interrupted loudly, tossing Fawful aside and dragging Luigi off to a more secluded corner. There, her face instantly melted to a pout as she whispered, "C'mon, I thought you said you were gonna be cool with Dimentio!"

"I know, I know… but…" Luigi cut himself off with a sigh, rubbing his arm nervously.

Livi looked heartbroken. "…but you don't trust him." she knowingly finished.

"No, okay?" Luigi snapped, fighting to keep his voice low. "I don't trust you alone in the Underwhere with a demented jester and some insane little kid that's trying to kill you."

"…does it really bother you that bad?" Livi asked suddenly. Luigi only nodded, relieved she finally seemed to understand. The fangirl didn't appear happy about it, but she sighed heavily, kicking the dust as she wandered back to the group. "Alright, I'll knock it off…" she whispered to Luigi.

She managed to 'knock it off' for all of four seconds, which was about the time it took the two to rejoin the group. It was precisely then that Livi grabbed Fawful's cloak in one hand, Dimentio's arm in the other, and bolted off into the woods as she screamed over her shoulder "Last one to Mr. L has to deal with Peachy!"

"Livi!" Luigi called after her. "Livi, come back!" If the fangirl even heard him, she made no sign of doing so, already being long-gone in the thick gray mist. Luigi sighed in defeat. "…perfect."

"Are you sure this is being an idea of goodness?"

"Uh… heh heh… yeah! I totally know where I'm goin'! …I think…"

"Oh, come on you two, lighten up! Things won't get any better if you continue to think like that!"

Livi stopped and stared at the jester for a moment. Finally, her gaze shifted to Fawful. "Am I loopy or did Dimentio just say to 'think positive'?"

"Hm… you're starting to rub off on me, I suppose…" Dimentio said with a sarcastic grin.

Livi giggled. Fawful rolled his eyes. "You two are being such idiots of foolishness… How can we possibly have the finding of him? This place is being infinite!"

"You know… he does have a point…" Dimentio tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Like the jailbird's many years in his ratty cage seem to, the Underwhere goes on forever! How are we going to get Mr. L out before the darkness sucks us in?"

Livi thought about that for a while, then suddenly, she gasped in surprise as though a thought had just occurred to her. "You just made a simile!"

Dimentio blinked. "…what?"

"A simile! You just made a simile! That's the first time you've done that since you came back, right?"

Dimentio had to think a while. She had a point, it had been a while since he had said something like that. He casually shrugged it off. "Yes, so?"

"SO EVERYTHING!" Livi screamed, running up and hugging him tight. "You're getting back to your old self! You're talking in cute little similes and you're smiling again and give funny-but-mean-and-not-helpful advice!" Livi turned her face up to the jester. "You're myDimentio again…"

Dimentio smiled nervously, laughing a bit. "I… I didn't realize… such things were so… important…"

"Of course it's important!" Livi said, throwing her hands up in the air. "That's what makes you Dimentio! That's what all the fangirls have come to know and love!"

Dimentio smiled. "Alright, then… I'll try to be a tad more… ah, Me-ish…"

"YAY!" Livi yelled, glomping Dimentio again.

"If you two are being done acting like the idiots…" Fawful snapped, stepping between them and pushing them apart. "This is possessing seriousness! We are going to be getting lost if we are not thinking of something!"

"Hm… he is right, you know…" Dimentio said, thinking again. "How arewe going to find Mr. L? Such a task would be nearly impossible… I can't think of a single method we could use for locating him… without getting us lost or killed, that is…"

Livi just smiled and continued walking, catching his gloved hand as she passed and pulling him along. As usual, the gesture did its job in quieting his restless curse. "Eh, Hakuna Matata."

The jester tilted his head slightly to the side. "…Haku… what are you saying?"

Livi blinked at him, her expression clearly stating that he was a complete and utter idiot for not understanding something so simple. "Hakuna Matata." She repeated. "The Lion King? It means 'no worries'!"

Something in the jester's hollow chest caught his attention at that, though he couldn't determine quite what it was. "…no worries?" he stupidly echoed.

"There ya go!" Livi chirped, smiling brightly. She then went on to sing the song she had taken the phrase from, earning a loud groan of protest from Fawful. Neither seemed to notice the gears beginning to spin in Dimentio's mind. He recalled dimly Jaydes' promise to send a savior to right his path.

Allowing a soft smile to cross his mask, Dimentio silently reminded himself to never doubt the Queen again.