Author Notes - I vaguely remember trying to complete this floor in just two chapters. As you can tell by how the Hellen Gravely fight barely even begins at the end of this chapter, both in this remake and the original, that obviously isn't what happened. Even in this remake, it's still way too long to work into two chapters. And a major part of this project was trying to make the chapters less stupidly long.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - TO HELL'N BACK

The walk down the hallway to the next two rooms made every nerve in Luigi's body twitch. Not because it was loaded with horrifying ghosts and traps, or even because of the horrific obsession with King Boo that covered every single inch. It was that nothing was happening. No ghost ambushes. No sudden traps of death. No screams of agony. Just pure nothing. The statues didn't even move.

'I hate this…' Daisy muttered. 'I need something to move. Anything.'

Luigi's attention fell on the only thing not shaped like King Boo or his face - a golden statue located far off in a corner, one modelled after Polterkitty. It clearly had been neglected for years, as it was covered in so much grime the golden sheen was barely visible, in stark contrast to the shiny and polished King Boo merchandise.

'GAH! I'm getting sick of all this nothing!' Daisy yelled. 'Let's just hurry up and get to Ms Gravely already. So I can do a little aft kicking.'

'I-I can't argue with that,' Luigi said.

They rushed to the next room, the one on the right of this next set. A sign hung on the door, depicting King Boo in the bathtub. Daisy couldn't tell if she should laugh or scream. On the other side was a bathroom. However, it was more like a sauna, and had glass surrounding both the bathtub and the toilet.

Most of the flooring consisted of wooden planks. Both the bathtub and toilet areas were blocked off by glass surrounding them on almost all sides, with the only access being a door that Daisy found, to her annoyance, had been locked from the inside. The key they needed rested in a King Boo-shaped floaty in the middle of the bathtub that was already full of water.

'She has to bathe with him too?!' She exclaimed. 'What is wrong with that woman?! … What am I saying? We already know what's wrong with her.'

'Too much water.' Gooigi said, trembling a little. 'Way too much water...'

Polterpup snorted at such a set-up. He hopped through the locked door like it wasn't even there, and used his hindlegs to scatter that Gheistpaint into the air. It revealed lasers surrounding the bathtub, even the sides covered by glass.

'Talk about overkill.'

'Be careful, boy.' Luigi said. 'Those lasers hurt.'

'I learnt that the hard way, remember?'

He looked around the little room he had entered, and licked out the nearby toilet bowl. It was far from the best toilet water he had tasted.

Polterkitty winced. 'Why do dogs have to drink out of the toilet?'

He gave her a look. 'Why do cats have to lick their crotches in front of people?'

'... … … Touché.'

Polterpup looked around the room for another switch. He quickly found it just above the toilet, near identical to the last one but glowing blue instead of orange.

'Oh miss Gravely... you simple, simple soul.'

He grabbed it and pulled it. The lasers disappeared just like the ones before it. He snickered to himself as he dove into the bathtub.

'Okay, these puzzles are a little too easy to solve.' Daisy remarked, leaning up against the glass door. 'I'm sure as hell not complaining, but it really makes ya wonder... you think Ms Gravely's made these puzzles easy on purpose?'

Luigi shrugged. 'Maybe. Gloria did tell us she got the final button because Ms Gravely thought that she would be quickly defeated. If she's half as clever as King Boo, it wouldn't surprise me.'

For just a moment, Polterpup worried how he was going to get that big key through the wall. He only had to think for a moment, as he simply swallowed it in one bite.

'Polterpup!' Daisy cried, slammed her palms into the glass. 'Why did you do that?!'

'R-Relax, Daisy.' Luigi said. 'He swallowed all those keys in Evershade Valley too, but he was able to cough them up. It'll be fine.'

Though it didn't make her happy about it, she begrudgingly accepted it. Polterpup jumped through the wall with the key in his stomach, kneeling at his owner's feet. Luigi did not delay the cuddles and pats.

'That's right, boy!' The plumber said, hugging him quite tightly. 'You're doing good, boy!'

Each display of unconditional love made Polterkitty more and more envious.

'WOO!' Daisy cheered. 'Seventy-five percent of the way through already! We'll be punching that Siren in the face no time flat.'

'We'll teach that witch a lesson.' Luigi muttered. 'And save my brother once and for all.'

Polterkitty's eyes widened. The moment was arriving already? Oh no... what could she say? What could she do? How was she going to get out of this one? Why was she so damn conflicted over something so meaningless?!


Just one room remained, if one excluded the office itself - the master bedroom. To say the least, it was quite possibly the most concerning of all the rooms on that floor.

'Oh... what the hell?'

The most notable thing in the room was, of course, the bed. For something supposedly only used to occupy one ghost, it was shockingly big. It was round too, rounder and bigger than King Boo himself. Half of the pillows were the usual King-Boo-face, while the other half were love hearts. The bed cover had rose petals scattered over the whole thing, which also dotted the floor. A massive painting hung above it - King Boo and Hellen Gravely sleeping in that very same bed. Hellen Gravely's make-up station rested in the corner, and the mirror was shattered to pieces.

'Well, we know what Hellen Gravely wants from King Boo.' Daisy muttered. 'Now how do we un-know it?'

Polterkitty walked up to the bed and stared at it. She could still pick up very trace amounts of her own scent on the top cover, which was nigh-undetectable through that cursed King Boo detergent. The day when Master punished her greatly for jumping into that bed was one she remembered far more well than those cuddly nights.

'Tell me what the puzzle of this one is,' Daisy said. 'So we can get the hell out of here as soon as possible!'

Above that painting were two more, separated from each other, with the left one depicting King Boo and the other Hellen Gravely. They were looking into each others' eyes lovingly, which made Polterkitty gag. Daisy picked up some of the powder on the floor and tossed it into the air. It revealed a grid of lasers right above them.

'I got this.' Polterkitty said, looking up towards the Hellen Gravely picture.

She climbed onto the bed, hopped through the grid, balanced on the top of that creepy painting, and leapt for the Hellen Gravely one. The little kitty made the jump just fine, but everything past her neck struggled to push its way through the wall.

'How much do you wanna bet that she's setting up some sort of awful trap for us?' Daisy asked, crossing her arms.

'Daisy, why do you have to doubt her so much?' Luigi questioned. 'Surely if she wanted to trap us, she would've done so floors ago. She would've taken us while we were sleeping. Heck, she would've killed you by now!'

'I know, but... I still can't trust her completely, especially now that we're this close to Ms Gravely. I... I just can't let my guard down in front of her.'

'I trust her.' Gooigi said. 'I will play bait if she does turn evil, though.'

Polterkitty heard their words, and it only confused her inner conflicts further. No matter what she chose, she needed that key. After much struggling, she managed to squeeze her whole little body through the painting. It was holding a little cage behind it, where the next switch lay.

Daisy's eyes widened. The lasers vanished right before her eyes.

'Oh.' She said. 'She really was just trying to help.'

'See?' Luigi said. 'Don't mistrust her so much. She just wants to help us out!'

Polterkitty cringed upon hearing the innocence in his voice. With the switch flipped, she jumped out through the painting and ran across the golden frame once again. When her eyes fell upon that picture of King Boo, she hissed at it like she was hissing at the real thing.

Ignoring the being in the picture, she leapt through it after suffering her usual struggles of slipping through walls. The final key was just like all the others, except this one was topped with a pink gem.

It was then she realised a problem - she was too small in this state to simply swallow the key, and it wouldn't go through a solid wall on its own.

Luigi gasped. 'Daisy, she's stuck! She can't go through walls normally like the other ghosts.'

'Why doesn't she just remove that stupid pendant then?!' Daisy yelled. 'If that's the one thing making it hard for her, she should just get rid of it. I mean, if she's not going to betray us like we're hoping, you'd think she wouldn't care what her quote-unquote Master thought.'

'Daisy, please. She's making her own choices. If she doesn't want to remove it, then she doesn't have to.'

'Does Polterkitty want to remove pendant though?' Gooigi asked. 'I'm not an expert, but she does not seem happy with it.'

Polterkitty agreed with Daisy on one thing - she was going to ignore Master's orders for just a moment, just not the ones about the pendant. With a mighty roar, she transformed into her beloved panther form while still inside that little box. It was a tight squeeze, but just for a bit. Her massive size pressed her into the King Boo painting and smashed it to bits.

'GATTINA!'

'Polterkitty has transformed again. I think she just wants to be like that.'

Before she plummeted to the floor now that she could not longer fit in that tiny alcove, she grabbed onto the key. With the object of desire in her teeth, she allowed herself to drop to the ground. Her natural cat instincts spun her around and allowed her to land on her feet before she crashed into the floor.

Luigi smiled wide. 'You did it, Gattina!'

She dropped the pink-tipped key to the floor as Luigi rushed over and gave her a massive hug around the neck. She could feel the love emanating from his very being, and he poured every single little bit of it into that cuddle, and she had to assume he was doing this on purpose. But why would he do something like that?

'You know what this means, Luigi?' Daisy asked. 'Now that we have all four keys, we can confront that witch and save your brother!'

In an instant, Luigi's expression changed from happy to angry. 'And we're not stopping until we've captured King Boo too.'

'Alright!' Polterpup said. 'I think a little bit of vengeance and justice will really turn this whole awful vacation around.'

'I am excited to help big bro! I will help any way I can.'

Polterkitty was the only one who didn't celebrate such an event.


After leaving the bedroom, they saw the King Boo lock at the very end of the hallway. Two Goobs stood by it, but they didn't faze our heroes in the slightest. Each member of the quintet, except for Luigi, held a key - the one matching their own colours.

'It's right there!' Daisy yelled. 'We're almost there!'

She ran for that gate with the orange-tipped key in hand as Luigi's warning fell upon deaf ears. Not that it mattered; she skidded a stop as paranormal gates appeared from thin air and blocked off the way to the lock.

'Oh lovely.' She muttered.

The only ghosts in the room were the two Goobs, who hadn't even noticed their arrival. The quintet stepped up to the paranormal fence, and listened to the Goobs at the gate. Neither seemed especially happy to be there.

'Why did we even bother with a trap like that?' Charles asked. 'Polterkitty can just break the dang thing down! What's the point?'

'Because, honey,' Sam replied. 'If we don't stop that green kid, we're gonna pay the price. You know how Ms Gravely works.'

'I don't care about that anymore! Any second now, I'm gonna get that stupid collar put onto my neck. If that means our son is okay, then nothing matters anymore.'

Luigi gulped. That was Sam again all right, and her husband too. With how determined they were to catch him when they first met, it made him wonder what happened.

'Oh my gosh...' Daisy said. 'That Goob was right. She must really not like her boss. And I take it that guy doesn't either. Okay, this is what we're gonna do. First, we-'

'ROOOOARRR!'

Polterkitty roared and reduced that paranormal gate barrier to shards. The chaos caught the attention of the ghost couple, who turned their heads to our heroes and gasped.

'Sam, look! It's-'

'It's that green kid!'

The only thing between Luigi and that King Boo lock were those Goobs. His knees quaked, but not because he was scared of their battle. He did not want to fight them at all.

Daisy took a fighting stance and stared them down. 'Don't even try it, ghosties! There's five of us and just two of you.'

Polterkitty backed away. Polterpup snarled and growled, and Gooigi picked up the Strobulb on his Poltergoo. The Goobs just stood there. Daisy played fair and waited for them to make the first move.

'What are you waiting for?' She asked. 'You should just get this match over with.'

'You don't wanna deal with us!' Sam declared. 'We've been working here longer than any other ghost. ... Except maybe Steward, but you get my point! Ms Gravely respects us more than you could ever imagine for a reason, you know! Isn't that right, Charles?'

Charles did not reply, or add anything to her discussion. His angry glare faded away, replaced with an empty expression that Luigi could not identify.

'Uh, honey? You okay?'

He gritted his equivalent of teeth. 'Gah, I can't TAKE IT ANYMORE!'

The Goob buried his face in his hands and unleashed incomprehensible screaming sounds. Everyone else in the room stepped back, but none more so than Sam. She ignored the targets sitting right in front of her and went to console her husband.

'Charlie, sweetie, it's okay.' She said. 'We can handle these guys no problem.'

'Why are we even pretending at this point?!' He shouted back. 'We don't wanna do this crap anymore!'

Luigi gulped down his nerves. While the others were too shocked by such a reaction to do anything, the green-clad plumber approached the couple. His Poltergust was not in his hand, and neither was his Strobulb.

'L-Listen Charles,' Sam said. 'I'm not happy about this either. But you're usually-'

'I KNOW I'm normally the 'calm one' out of the two of us! I can only play the straight man for so long, and my patience has been pushed to its absolute limit. Ms Gravely is pushing me so far that I'm certain that it's been her plan this whole time. After all, the more desperate you are the more easy you are to control.'

'And that's why we gotta keep pushing, honey! It's for our son. If Ms Gravely catches us like this-'

'Does it even matter anymore?! Who's to say that she hasn't already taken our son away from us? For all we know, that Mini Hammer in there could be an impostor, or an illusion, or something like that. Would you really put it past her to do that?'

He began to weep. Sam did not like seeing her husband cry; it made her cry too.

'I-It's okay.' She stammered. 'All we gotta do is hand over that green kid, and then we-'

'You really think we can take him on? He defeated Amadeus. Amadeus. And Serpci too. He defeated all of them. We're just a couple of Goobs. We don't even have any weapons or anything like that. He is going to destroy us.'

Sam sighed. 'Well, that's for the best, isn't it? The quicker he gets through us, the quicker he gets to our monster of a boss.'

As Luigi stepped closer, the rest of our heroes stayed in silence. He glanced back at the rest of his team, and pointed at the lock. They understood his instructions, and made their way over to the gate as quietly as they could. While they got to work on the keys, Luigi spoke up.

'It doesn't have to be this way.' He said.

Both Goobs shot glares his way, though that of the male ghost was far more laden with fury.

'It's all your fault!' Charles shouted. 'You're captured all of our friends, you've ruined all our plans... if you just jumped into that stupid portrait, our son wouldn't be danger right now!'

'Charles, STOP!'

Both Luigi and Charles flinched.

'We are not doing this!' She yelled. 'We said, ourselves, that we are letting this kid capture us! Like I said, the quicker he defeats us the quicker we and our remaining friends can be free. For Jaydes's sake, why else did you think I left a little while ago? It was so I could warn this kid that the door would be locked!'

Charles sighed. 'I-I know, b-but... I'm just so angry! I need to take it out on someone, but it sure as hell can't be Ms Gravely. I can't have my son taken away from me. He's all we have left...'

As the ghosts and plumber argued, Daisy lifted the orange-tipped key out of her pocket and placed it into one of the four slots carved into the statue's tongue. It locked into place perfectly. Polterpup puked out the blue-tipped key, making Daisy feel a little squicked out, but still she lifted up the key and slotted it into place. Gooigi pulled out the green-tipped key from his body and slotted it in himself. All there was left was Polterkitty's pink-tipped key.

'Okay Kitty,' Daisy said. 'Hand me the final key. Polterkitty?'

The Panthergeist stared at Charles and Sam, paying most of her attention to the green-clad man trying to talk with them.

'Kitty!'

Polterkitty flinched and dropped the final key onto the floor. Daisy picked it up, but didn't quite put it in yet - she was waiting for Luigi.

'I don't want to hurt you.' Luigi said. 'I never wanted to hurt anyone. I didn't defeat Amadeus. He surrendered to me, and not because he couldn't beat me. He absolutely could've if he wanted to. He only surrendered to me because he didn't want to deal with Hellen Gravely anymore.'

'What's your point here, kid?' Charles asked.

'The point is, I'm not going to fight you unless I have to. I don't even need to capture you. I'm not sure what's going on with your son, but I'm sure we can help.'

Sam nodded. 'Oh, see, Ms Gravely is only punishing our son to get us to do stuff. Unfortunately, it works. Luckily for us, while she's willing to do just about anything else she won't torture kids. I mean, she'll kill 'em, but quickly. So I don't think she'll bother keeping our sweet Lou around if he won't do anything for her.'

Charles gasped, and smiled. 'Oh, of course! Sweet Jaydes, I am so blind.'

Luigi unhooked the Poltergust nozzle, and aimed it directly at the two ghosts. They shuddered at first, but quickly seemed to accept their fate.

'Listen kid,' Charles said. 'I am so sorry for the yelling. I just-'

Luigi waved him off. 'It's fine. I understand. It's scary. It's difficult, especially when a family member is involved.' He grunted. 'From what I've seen, Hellen seems intent on separating and destroying families.'

He thought back on the other families he had seen attacked. Amadeus and his daughter, the hillbilly twins, Lindsey and her older sisters… And, of course, kidnapping and imprisoning his own brother.

After a moment of thought, Charles sighed. 'Okay. We'll do it.'

'Awesome!' Sam cried, slightly inappropriately. 'Here we go!'

Luigi appreciated her enthusiasm, as unfitting as it was.

'Just promise us one thing.' Charles said. 'I'm sure you already know what it is.'

Luigi nodded. 'Keep your son safe. Will do.'

The plumber made sure to make it quick. Charles was the first one in, and he disappeared without making a sound. When it was Sam's turn to go, she cheered like a sports fan.

It left the already empty hallway feeling that much more empty. And he hated it.

'Now with that taken care of,' Daisy said, catching his attention. 'We got a door to open.'

She handed him that final key, and he took it with a nod. Taking in a deep breath, he inserted the key into the final slot. Once all four keys were in place, the gems on their tips glowed. The eyes of the King Boo lock illuminated with a blinding purple light, and our heroes backed away from it slowly.

'I like the lights.' Gooigi said. 'The lights are pretty.'

'Well, if you insist.' Daisy remarked.

The vault behind the statue unlocked, and the giant golden door swung open towards them. Polterpup had to jump back as the door swept across the floor. Hellen's office lay just behind the now-open door. Luigi gulped. He couldn't believe it.

The Siren sat in her chair, facing away from them as if the very sight of them disgusted her. King Boo didn't even matter anymore. It was that portrait of Mario that he focused on. He could practically hear his brother begging for help from the other side.

Help me, Weegee!

'Alright Hellen!' He yelled, taking one step into her office. 'Give me my brother back, and I might spare you!'

Hellen didn't even spin her chair around and just chuckled. 'Well well well... I honestly didn't think you had it in you. A bunch of scaredy-cats like you, making it this far... you are just FULL of surprises.'

'I surprise myself sometimes too. It's amazing what you'll do when someone has taken your brother away from you. I thought I had finally defeated King Boo for good... then you freed him just for the sake of your own fantasies!'

The Siren just laughed again. 'They are not mere fantasies. Once I hand you over to King Boo, he will shower me with love and admiration.'

Luigi scoffed. 'You sure about that? It's five against one. If you'll forgive the cheesiness, friendship and love will always prevail over your brute voice and mind control.'

'And if you'll forgive the second-grader retort... are you sure about that?'

Luigi opened his mouth to talk back to her again, with all the rage he had ever felt dripping from his breath, until...

'ROOOARRR!'

Polterkitty spun around and smacked Daisy across the chest with her massive paw. The Panthergeist bashed her with enough force to launch her across the room.

'GAH!' Daisy cried as she fell backwards.

'DAISY!' Luigi yelled.

The princess slammed into the back wall of the office, hard enough to knock all the breath out of her. Though every muscle in her face twitched with pain, she still managed to direct a glare at Polterkitty. The Panthergeist responded with a hiss.

'G-Gattina?' Luigi stammered. 'W-What are you doing?'

Polterpup jumped to his owner's defence and snarled at the hulking panther beast. 'What did you do that for? Don't you dare tell me that after all this you're still on your owner's side!'

Polterkitty roared at him, a roar that translated to nothing but angry gibberish. She pounced forward too quickly for him to react, and grabbed him by the collar. Once she was certain she had him, she tossed him against the same wall as Daisy.

'Oh no...' Gooigi said. 'Big bro!'

Gooigi stepped forward to flash her with his Strobulb, but she ripped him into shreds before he could even start charging the light. She spat on his remains just to ensure that he would return to the Poltergust. With the other members of the party taken care of, she glared at Luigi.

'Luigi...!' Daisy yelled between pained groans. 'Do something!'

The plumber couldn't do anything but stare.

'No...' He muttered. 'No...!'

Tears trickled down his cheeks.

'You... you couldn't have.'

His heart was about to give up.

'Gattina, why?!' He gasped. 'You... you were just helping me so you could present me to your boss?!'

Polterkitty scoffed. 'It was about time you figured that out. As if I would ever like a lowly plumber like you.'

'I...' He choked. 'I trusted you! I was helping you! I just wanted you to have a happy life. Why, Polterkitty?'

'Did you really think I would actually go home with you? Look at where I live now. It's so much better than whatever mess of a house you live in.'

Luigi pointed his Strobulb at the Panthergeist, who didn't even flinch. His arms shook like crazy, and his grip on the nozzle was slipping. He couldn't even bring himself to start charging the light.

'I... I thought you loved me...'

He collapsed onto his hands and knees, unable to do anything else but cry.

'I KNEW IT!' Daisy screamed. 'I knew you were just trying to present Luigi to your despicable owner. You weren't helping us out. You just needed to keep us alive so you could make your owner happy! I should've done something about it... I can't believe I didn't.'

Luigi looked up to Polterkitty, unable to differentiate anything else through his tears.

'How... how could you?' He choked out.

Hellen giggled. 'It was the perfect plan, you see. Why not throw in a little heartbreak and betrayal before you join your brother on my wall for all of eternity?'

Luigi was in no position to fight back, and Polterkitty didn't waste a second to take advantage of it. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and slammed him onto Hellen Gravely's desk.

'Your princess was right about you.' The ghostly panther said, looking him right in the eye. 'You really are too innocent for your own good to think that I would actually help you out. If you somehow manage to break out of that portrait, let this be a lesson for you to never trust anyone.'

Hellen Gravely looked down at the heartbroken man and laughed. 'I thought you were quite the strong man to have made it all the way up here. Now I see you are just as pathetic as your big bwother there.'

Luigi glared at her. 'Fine. You can take me. Just let my brother and friends go.'

'Oh, you really are too innocent for your own good!'

Hellen picked him up by the neck of his shirt and flung him against the wall with the Poltergust still attached. With a snap of her fingers, a cage of paranormal gates appeared around him and trapped him before he could recover.

'Daisy!' He cried, pressing his face up against the bars

The titular princess got to her feet, and laughed. 'Looks like you made a mistake here, Helly. He's still got the Poltergust!'

Hellen rolled her eyes. 'Oh, you really are as small-brained as I thought. What good is it if he's behind bars? And with that blasted vacuum cleaner locked away with him, how are you supposed to use it?'

Daisy screamed out an incoherent cry of anger. 'Alright, that's it! I'm ready to punch your face in. So come at me, bitch!'

For a split second, a flash of anger appeared on Hellen's face, most likely thanks to such crude language that Daisy very rarely, if ever, used. It disappeared just as quickly.

'Eh, I think I'm okay with that.' She said. 'After all, I have to kill you first before I can safely present your boyfriend to King Boo. If I feel generous, I'll do the killing myself. If I don't, I'm sure Polterkitty here will gladly do it for me.'

Polterkitty confirmed her order with a growl. Daisy rolled her eyes and laughed.

'Didn't you see what I did to her down in the Great Stage?' She asked. 'When I can punch a ghost in the face, I'm hard to fight against.'

'Uh huh.' Hellen said. 'Is that why you have such ghastly scars on your chest? Even your haphazard bandage is soaked with blood.'

'I only got these scars trying to save my Luigi from that... that savage beast!'

'Yes, I'm sure. Oh, and just to make sure that you won't try to get out of here...'

Hellen snapped her fingers again, and this time the vault door slammed shut behind Daisy, locking her inside. She yelped as the heavy thud echoed in the tiny room.

'But hey, I'm no monster.' She insisted, lying through her teeth. 'I'll give you a chance to surrender. I'll even be nice and let you go back home. Everyone's going to call you crazy if you try to convince them anyway. I'll make sure of that.'

'Gattina!' Luigi cried from behind bars. 'It's gotta be Hellen's mind tricks! You can fight against them. I know you can!'

Hellen grinned at him. 'Oh, if only that was the case. My mind tricks unfortunately don't work so well on animal ghosts. If they did, I wouldn't need to have Fishook run a seafood restaurant to keep him constantly riled up, and I would've had your dirty mutt rip your girlfriend apart days ago.'

Polterkitty nodded. Stuck in such a state of helplessness, all the determination Luigi had to save his brother and his friends vanished. He buried his head in his knees and cried. It brought almost as much pleasure to Hellen as King Boo himself did. She put that green man aside for a moment, and turned to her precious darling. Polterkitty puffed her chest out and mewed.

'Well done, my little sweetie!' Hellen said, clapping her hands together. 'You have done what my own staff couldn't even hope to accomplish, and I did promise that whoever brought Luigi to me alive would be rewarded. Allow me to reward you, darling!'

Polterkitty held her head up and closed her eyes.

*SLAP*

'MROW!'

'YOU TRAITOR!'

The room fell silent. Luigi's attention snapped to the scene behind the bars. Daisy and Polterpup's jaws dropped. Polterkitty backed away. Did... did Master just slap her? That pain on her cheek was unmistakable. She emitted a confused sound not unlike a dog's whimper.

'Did you really think that bringing Luigi to me would forgive you for what you've done?!' Hellen screamed. 'I've been watching you since the very beginning of your little scheme. Why did you save the princess when she was drowning? I didn't need her alive, did I? You had so many opportunities to kill her and bring Luigi to me, but you took none of them! And do you know why?'

Polterkitty whimpered out a pathetic response, slinking away into a ball.

'Because you're just as pathetic as Luigi himself! Did you think I couldn't see through to your intentions? You helped this mortal scum capture my staff, and kept that princess alive far longer than you needed to! If you think I'm going to reward you for your cowardly behaviour, you can get out!'

Polterkitty stared up at her owner like she had a whip.

'What are you waiting for? For me to one-eighty and suddenly take you in again? With how much you've been bonding with that mortal scum, you should be thanking the stars that I'm not electrocuting you right now! Shame that little Lou appears to have escaped. Oh well.'

The Panthergeist emitted one last mew, hoping that she could win her owner over again.

'I SAID GET OUT!' Hellen screamed as she delivered another slap across Polterkitty's face. 'I don't know why I ever adopted a hideous monster like you... this isn't how this was supposed to happen! You weren't supposed to just betray us and your own friends!'

Daisy gasped. That wasn't angry in Polterkitty's eyes - she seemed to feel just as betrayed as Luigi did.

'GET OUT!'

Polterkitty obeyed her 'owner' one last time, and ran out the vault door. She cried out as she struggled to get her body through, like always. Daisy ran over to the stuck kitty, her anger now completely gone.

'Kitty, please!' She pleaded. 'You don't have to-'

But Polterkitty disappeared through the wall before Daisy could finish. The princess could hear her distressed cries get quieter and quieter as Polterkitty ran as far away from that office as she possibly could.

'This isn't how ANY of this was supposed to happen!' Hellen screamed again as she turned to Luigi, still locked in his cage. 'You weren't supposed to run away like the filthy coward you are! If you had just jumped into that portrait like your sweet wittle pwincess did, King Boo would be showering me with love at this very moment! But instead... instead...' She breathed in deeply. 'I'VE LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!'

She slammed her hands into her own desk and destroyed it in seconds. The resulting dust cloud consumed Hellen, and once it dissipated...

'OH MY GRAMBI!' Daisy screamed as she fell over backwards.

Like all Sirens, now that she was as angry as she could possibly be, her beautiful façade faded away. And those red eyes stared into Daisy's soul. Hellen was not the lovely seductive enchantress anymore. She looked much more like the witch she truly was, with her crooked face, collapsed hair, and tattered dress.

'You took away my staff.' She continued to rant. 'You ransacked my hotel. You even took my precious darling Polterkitty away from me! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, LUIGI!' It was only then did she realise her transformation, and she gasped in horror. 'And now... and now you've made me reveal my horrible, disgusting, repulsive form! NOW YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT!'

She lathered herself up with some of the Gheistpaint powder on the floor, reverting herself to her 'normal' 'beautiful' self. She aimed her icy glare at Daisy, who shuddered under her gaze.

'You want a battle, princess?' She asked. 'I'LL GIVE YOU ONE HELL OF A BATTLE! Have fun fighting me without that Poltergust of yours!'

Author Notes - Oh boy, the DOUBLE betrayal! Like I said before, a big thing I wanted to do with Polterkitty was her conflicting loyalties. Yes, Ms Gravely has mistreated her, but Ms Gravely was also the first person Polterkitty ever knew who was even remotely nice to her. So, well, double betrayal. See, I subverted your expectations and then subverted AGAIN! ... Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully.

...

I am such a freaking dork...