The biting cold of the Underwhere winds seemed more like a pleasant summer breeze after being frozen in a solid block of ice for who-knows-how-long. The previously eerie darkness now seemed warm and inviting, and wasn't quite so dark anymore. With such a traumatic experience in Bonechill's Prison, what was there to fear in the Underwhere?

Livi was now on her feet again, following slowly and wobbly after Mr. L, making herself slightly dizzy from jerking her head in all directions to absorb the sights all around her. Mr. L was letting her walk around on her own now that she was more awake, but he still held onto her hand tightly, for fear Livi was going to topple over any second.

The two were currently headed off to Jaydes' Palace, to report everything that had happened in Bonechill's Prison, and to hopefully find a safe-haven of peace and sanity. Livi was hoping with all her heart that Jaydes would be able to tell them what had happened to the rest of her collection, and that the Queen could bring them all out safely. Mr. L, meanwhile, was secretly hoping that they'd come out minus one jester.

"Are we there yet?" Livi asked absentmindedly.

Mr. L winced slightly as the words met his ears. "If you say that one more time, I swear I'll freaking beat you…"

"Sorry…" Livi mumbled, hanging her head. "I'm just… anxious…"

Mr. L sighed, regretting his harshness. "I know… don't worry, okay? I'm sure they're fine… Weegee can handle it…"

"Really? How do you know?" Livi wondered, cocking her head to the side.

Mr. L laughed and flashed the fangirl an arrogant smirk. "Duh! He's me!"

Livi laughed in agreement. "Oh, yeah, you've got a point there! The incredible Mr. L can do anything, right?"

"Damn straight!" Mr. L said, smiling a bit wider. His smile fell, however, when he noticed Livi had fallen silent again, looking down at the ground. "Look… cheer up, okay?" Mr. L gently encouraged her. "We're almost to the Palace, and then Jaydes'll fix anything Weegee can't, a'right?"

Livi nodded slowly. "Alright…"

Mr. L thumped her arm a bit, telling her to look up. The two had come to a beaten path in the forest. Over in the distance, nearly hidden by trees, was the Palace. "See?" Mr. L said gently. "Jaydes is just at the end of the path."

Livi nodded in understanding, but looking around again, her eyes rested on a long range of mountains and valleys off in the distance. She had never seen them before, as they hadn't been featured in Super Paper Mario. They were beautiful, though; black as onyx, with the peaks shrouded in a deep gray mist. The dark violet sky could be seen behind them, throwing eerie shadows over the land.

Livi turned to Mr. L with an eager grin on her face. He already had a sinking feeling in his stomach, but couldn't stop her before she asked, "Mind if we take the scenic route?"

Mr. L rolled his eyes. "I thought ya might say that…" He looked warily off into the mountains. "You sure you're up for it?"

Livi nodded vigorously, bouncing in excitement.

Mr. L considered for a moment rejecting her request. However, his thoughts trailed off to the Palace, and Mr. L quickly realized that as soon as he brought the fangirl back, Jaydes would just lock him back up in his room, and who knew the next time she'd let him out? So, with the words of approval barely out of his mouth, Livi took off full-speed through the forest towards the enchanting mountains. Mr. L hurried after her, already getting a sinking feeling that that probably wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever said…

Dimentio floated up into the Underwhere, gratefully taking in a deep breath of the icy winds. Never in his life did he think it'd feel good to be back up here. Fawful emerged from the cave just behind him, glancing around in disbelief. "Are we finally being out?"

Dimentio laughed to himself. "It would seem so…"

Fawful sighed in relief, walking out into the clearing. "Thanking the evilness…"

Kamek came up soon after, with Luigi just behind him. The Magikoopa anxiously glanced around as he put out the light in his wand. "Now, where did Livi and Mr. L get to?"

Luigi groaned heavily. "I swear, if I have to go run off and find her again…"

"Luigi, calm down…" Kamek said gently. "Livi was unconscious last we saw her, right?"

"Yessing, so at least she cannot be doing anything possessing stupidness…" Fawful threw in.

Kamek waved him off. "Shut up, Fawful…" He turned back to Luigi. "Mr. L promised he'd bring her back to Jaydes as soon as he found her."

Luigi seemed to relax a bit at hearing that. "Oh yeah, that's right… Back to the Palace then…"

Without waiting for any of the others to respond or agree, Luigi raced off in the general direction of Jaydes' Palace. Kamek and Fawful followed close behind him, but Dimentio was lagging far behind, slowly floating along as his panicked thoughts raced in his mind.

He was thinking, and he had to think fast. There was no way he could face Jaydes again. Not now. Dimentio felt the painful jolt of his curse again, forcing him to pause momentarily and collect himself. The curse didn't seem to have a trigger anymore, like violence or anger, as Jaydes had set it to. Now, it simply… happened.

Dimentio had first noticed this as he, Fawful, and Livi had been searching for Mr. L. After he had knocked them both into the river, he had fled into the forest, little to no concern where the others had gone. After the pain had calmed to a bearable degree (and Dimentio recalled it had taken hours to do so), the nimbi child, Luvbi, had appeared. She told him what had become of Livi, and again, he felt the painful jabs. (however, that may have had a trigger… was it not his fault she had run off into the forest like that?)

There was something else that Luvbi had told him, however, which was far more upsetting. She had delivered a message from the Queen herself, saying that Dimentio was almost finished. But, what had she meant by that? Finished with what? His curse? His mission? His life?

Dimentio gulped nervously, shuddering at the thought. For the first time in a very, very long time, he was afraid. Without Livi by his side, he was as good as dead. No, he was worse than dead. He had suffered for so long in Bonechill's Prison, and somehow he had persuaded Jaydes to allow him to suffer in the mortal's realm. Should he fall back into her clutches yet again, she wouldn't be quite as merciful as previous times…

Dimentio's thoughts were interrupted by someone calling his name. Confused, the jester stopped and turned around to find none other than Mr. L running towards him. He came to a stop a few feet from Dimentio, stooped over as he panted for breath. Dimentio raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Mr.…L? Is something wrong? Where… where is Livi?"

Mr. L shook his head tiredly, refusing to look up at Dimentio. "I don't… I dunno…"

"You don't know?" Dimentio gasped in horror. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I… I lost her…" Mr. L waved off towards the outskirts of the forest. "In the mountains… She wandered off… I didn't see…"

"What's going on?" Luigi asked, having come back after realizing Dimentio wasn't following him anymore. "Mr. L? I thought you where with Livi…"

"I was… but…" Mr. L trailed off, shifting his gaze to the side.

"Oh, Grambi… please tell me we haven't lost her again…" Kamek moaned.

Mr. L looked down at the ground. "'Fraid so… sorry, guys…"

Luigi groaned dramatically, slumping against a tree. "Crap! What is wrong with that girl?"

Fawful stepped up to Mr. L. "Did you have the seeing of where she had going?"

"Nu-uh…" Mr. L miserably shook his head. "She asked if we could go walk through the mountains—"

"And you let her?" Dimentio snapped, growing enraged—how dare Mr. L run off with his last shot at freedom and lose her!

"I thought I could keep track of her!" Mr. L retorted, glaring daggers at the hated jester—as if the little liar even cared about her.

"Guys, stop!" Kamek cut in, stepping between Mr. L and Dimentio's glaring contest. "Now, look… we can yell and fight about this all day, but it's not going to get us anywhere! Livi's out there right now getting herself into more trouble, and we're standing around arguing about nonsense."

No one said anything for a very long time.

Dimentio was the first to relax, turning his head towards Kamek, though his eyes never left Mr. L's. "Alright then… what do you propose we do next?"

"We're going to go after her again." Kamek said firmly. "That's the only thing we can do."

"We've got to find Livi fast." Luigi suddenly said, looking sick to his stomach.

"Oh, c'mon, she'll be fine!" Mr. L said, waving him off. "It ain't like she can do much more than we've already seen…"

"Are you crazy?" Dimentio snapped. "Have you not seen what she's gotten herself into so far? Her silly little tricks are getting closer and closer to fatal!"

The fandoms each fell silent as the sickening realization dawned on them. Dimentio was right, of course. After all, what guarantee did they have that Livi was still alive right now?

Suddenly, Fawful perked up as a thought dawned on him, and he shattered the horrified silence with a blunt, "Why do we have caring?"

"Fawful!" Luigi gasped, somewhat shocked at his cold-heartedness.

"I am possessing seriousness!" Fawful snapped. "When we each first had the meeting of her, we all had very much that which is the hating of this 'Fangirl of Obsessivness'… and now we are all being willing to have risking of our lives for her? Why? Why do we have the carings?"

Each of the four villainous fandoms considered that statement carefully. Luigi had reason to worry, of course. He had sworn to protect Livi since the day she first entered their world. But, why should any of the other fandoms care? If anything, like Fawful, they should want her death and destruction.

Luigi almost smiled as he realized the answer. "You guys care about her… don't you?"

Surprisingly enough, there was no response.

Luigi couldn't help the smile spreading across his face. "Oh my Grambi… you guys actually care about her…"

Dimentio sighed heavily. "It would appear the troublesome child had grown on us…"

"She's done more than just that…" Kamek pointed out, casting a glance in Luigi's direction. "Under what other circumstances would the five of us be standing together without killing each other?"

"True that… Especially me and Dimentio." Mr. L put in, casting a cold glare at the jester.

"How can one who is possessing so much annoyance be having so much of this… this…" Fawful gestured with his hands, scrunching his face up as he searched for the right words.

"Charm?" Dimentio offered. "Hypnotic qualities? Lovability, perhaps?"

Fawful snapped his fingers in the jester's direction. "That is being it! Why is she being so lovable?"

"Well, she is a fangirl…" Dimentio mused, tapping on his chin. "Perhaps, as her fandoms, we are naturally inclined to love her in return."

"No, no, no…" Luigi argued, shaking his head. "If anything, fandoms should fear their fangirls… They're one of the most evil, sadistic, heartless monsters I've ever seen…"

"Ah…" Dimentio sighed. "In that case, I haven't a clue…"

"Well… we can talk about this crap later…" Kamek said, calmly setting everyone back on track. "Right now, Livi needs our help, and whether or not we know why, we have to help her. We need to figure out where she is, and get her out of the mess she's guaranteed to have gotten herself into."

"I propose we split up." Dimentio said cheerily. "Surely between the five of us we can locate her quickly."

"Are you not recalling the last time we had the splitting of upness?" Fawful asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Dimentio suppressed a shudder as he recalled shoving Livi and Fawful into the river, silently praying that that wasn't what Fawful was referring to. His smile, however, never faltered as he went on. "I mean that this time we should each go individually. Besides, it isn't as though any of us can work well together without Livi here…"

Kamek sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, Dimentio's right… If any of us tried to team up in any sort of way, we'd only end up slowing ourselves down and covering much less ground…"

"Or having the killing of each other." Fawful said, glancing between Dimentio and Mr. L.

"Shut up, Fawful." Kamek hissed, waving him off.

"No, no! He's right!" Mr. L snapped. "Look, there's only one of us that's out to kill anybody, and that's him." He spat, jabbing a finger in Dimentio's masked face.

"But, you are being the one who tri—" Fawful was cut off by Kamek's hands clamping over his mouth before he could accuse Mr. L of attempting to end Dimentio's game.

Mr. L went on, apparently not hearing Fawful. "I dare any one of you to give me just one good reason why Dimentio..." Mr. L spat the name in disgust, glaring at the jester. "…should be allowed to wander the Underwhere ALONE!"

Luigi stared at Mr. L for a very long time, slowly approaching him as though he were thinking. Finally, as Luigi stood just before the two rivals, his gaze shifted to Dimentio's glowing eyes, and he asked calmly, "Can we trust you, Dimentio?"

Dimentio bowed slightly. "You have my word, Luigi…" He stated, his voice as smooth as honey. "I shall be on my very best behavior. I care for the silly little pest just as much as any of you."

"Oh, really…" Mr. L said sarcastically.

"Ah, yes…" Dimentio mused with an airy grin. "Like a blemish on the face one despises so, but when it is gone, the complexion seems incomplete."

As the two went on arguing about one thing or another, Luigi was carefully watching Dimentio's glowing eyes and painted smile, trying very hard to tell if he was lying or not. If that mask was good for one thing alone, it was covering the truth.

"Alright… I trust you…" Luigi said firmly, turning to walk off towards the mountains.

Mr. L's jaw dropped in stunned silence as he watched Luigi go. Dimentio, meanwhile, couldn't have been happier. He seemed a tad surprised that Luigi would trust him, but a warm smile spread across his mask anyways.

"What?" Mr. L finally shrieked, snapping out of his shock. "You're going to trust him? Just like that?"

"Yup. Just like that." Luigi called over his shoulder, not even turning to glance at Mr. L.

"What? This is crazy! You're crazy! He's going to get us all killed!" Mr. L's voice rose to a scream as he tried in vain to grab Luigi's attention, watching in horror as his alter ego walked off, completely ignoring him.

Passing by Kamek, Luigi paused slightly, casting him a slight glare. "Happy now?" He faintly whispered. Kamek seemed stunned at first, but was quickly over it. He smiled slightly and nodded before Luigi took off into the mountains. When he had gone, Kamek summoned and mounted his broomstick, giving no-killing orders to the other three before he flew off.

Dimentio turned around to locate Fawful, only to find that the child had already disappeared. Dimentio smiled, noting how quick he was, and instead looked around for Mr. L. The Green Thunder was walking quickly (but slower than the others) in the direction of the mountains.

Dimentio snapped his fingers, appearing beside Mr. L in a distortion of the air. However long the two had been separated, Mr. L still didn't even flinch at Dimentio's sudden appearance. Dimentio's smile twitched into a disappointed frown for a moment, remembering fondly the days he could scare the living daylights out of Mr. L by simply teleporting into the room.

Dimentio shook it off, smiling sweetly at his old friend. "What do you say the two of us look together, hm?"

Mr. L cast him a cold glare. "I don't think so."

"Why ever not?" Dimentio pretended to wonder, though he already knew the answer. "I'll ask once again—we made quite the team back then, didn't we?"

"I'll remind you again…" Mr. L retorted, a growl in his voice. "That was before you stabbed me in the back…"

Dimentio paused mid-air, his smile falling into a heartbroken frown as Mr. L continued on, leaving him there. He wished so deeply that there was something, anything he could say. He wished he was back at Castle Bleck, and he could blame one of the other minions, and Nastasia would pretend to believe him so she didn't have to talk to him anymore. He wished he could sweetly lie to the Count like the little snake he was, and he could weasel his way out of anything he got stuck in.

But, there was no getting out of this mess. He had allowed Mr. L much too close to him. And now, when he needed to lie the most, it would do him no good. Mr. L had seen through his mask—and now he could see through anything.

"That was why… I had to kill you…" Dimentio whispered to himself, somewhat ashamed of the tears he felt welling up in his eyes.

Mr. L stopped dead a ways ahead, growling under his breath. "Are you still talking to me?" He called back to the jester.

Dimentio wiped the tears away, taking a shaky breath to steady himself. "I ju… just said…" It's too late… he bitterly thought. Too late to fix anything… "You know I'm not going to kill you all… correct?"

Dimentio heard Mr. L scoff at the lie as the jester floated towards him again. "Yeah, right…" He heard Mr. L mutter under his breath.

To late to fix it… Dimentio thought again, a devious smile playing at his lips. So why not mess it up more?

Suddenly, Dimentio's icy hands grabbed Mr. L's shoulders, yanking him backwards into the jester's arms. Before Mr. L had time to react, Dimentio leaned down and hissed in his ear, keeping his voice melodic yet sinister. "After all… you can't kill a ghost… I suppose I'll simply have to settle for the other three, won't I?"

Mr. L's hand clenched into a fist. With a shriek of rage, he spun around to let it collide with Dimentio's mask. He was a split-second too late, however, because Dimentio snapped his fingers and vanished.

Mr. L, missing his target, and suddenly not being held in place by Dimentio anymore, fell forward and slammed into the cold dirt face-first. Dimentio then re-appeared right behind him, trembling with the laughter muffled by one gloved hand over his mouth, and the other arm around his waist. As Mr. L groaned and started to pick himself up, Dimentio snapped his fingers again and teleported off to the mountains, laughing his head off the whole way.

The jester did so love toying with his victims, and Mr. L had always been his favorite—if nothing else, the most amusing, by far. Of course, with such a hot-headed personality and a close friendship to the jester, Dimentio would always have to pay dearly for messing with him, but it always seemed well worth it…

LoL, "thanking the evilness"… villains are so silly… And, yeah, Dimentio's defiantly gonna be paying up soon…

"'She's done more than just that…' Kamek pointed out, casting a glance in Luigi's direction. 'Under what other circumstances would the five of us be standing together without killing each other?'"—An excellent point, Kamek! I think that pretty much sums up the theme of Obsessive Fangirl in one quote, doncha think? Man, I love this fanfic!

And I do have to wonder what happened to Livi? Who knows what on earth that poor, crazed fangirl has gotten herself into this time?

…

Well, I do, of course… but, I'm not telling any of you!

Oh, and one more thing I've noticed. "'Too late to fix it…' Dimentio thought again, a devious smile playing at his lips. 'So, why not mess it up more?'" When I first wrote that, I considered re-writing it, because it didn't make any sense. Then, after thinking about it a while, it did. That's just how warped Dimentio's mind has become. Somewhere in all that insane, dark, twisted mess his mind has become, that idea makes perfect sense to him, and it was probably that same logic that ultimately lead to his betrayal.