It was quiet in the cold stone room. Not unusual, but given the circumstances, entirely unnerving.
Despite the group's eardrums being at peace again there was little gladness when the Dream Machine exploded. There might have been some cause for gladness if it had exploded in any normal way. But there were no fragments, no pieces blasted across the room. Instead the machine simply faded into non-existence…vanishing into thin air.
Wart's robe, draped over his face, acted as a shield. He lowered it and suddenly said:
"We have to go."
Just as soon as he gave the command, Luigi followed Wart's orders and in a flash of movement he, Nancy and the guard had gathered at the entrance.
Where the entrance had been. A brick wall appeared in the space he walked through.
"He's locked us in," Nancy said, pacing on the spot, unable to still her nerves.
"No need to worry, young lady. I have us covered."
Thrusting his palms out in front of him, Wart fired a series of magical blasts. This had no effect beyond a rippling barrier pulling the blasts in, their power dissipating upon contact.
"Damnit," Luigi whispered, then began pounding the wall. "God damnit!"
It did nothing for the others. But it helped him, boiling frustration allowed to spill out through his fists, and that had to mean he had some power in them. However insignificant. Luigi only stopped when his knuckles started turning red.
Wart's entire body from head to toe went stiff.
"Does anyone else hear that?"
The guard listened. He hummed in agreement.
"Hear what?" Nancy chewed on her bottom lip.
Luigi uncurled his fists and ignored his own shallow breathing in the hopes of recognising the frequency. Nancy placed an arm on his shoulder. He appreciated her leaving it at that.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
There was a constant, insistent drip from between the tiles on the ceiling.
Plink.
The guard opened his palm and caught an ant-sized droplet in his giant hand.
He expected rain. He hoped for it to be rain, even though that made even less sense than what it really was. Even though the guard, Wart, and Nancy were all regarding each other with grave looks.
His eyes flickered over.
"Blood," Wart said, beating him to the observation.
A bad case of gooseflesh settled along Luigi's arms and tiny bristles of hair stood to attention. The guard's hand was perfectly still, palm flat and even, yet the droplet slid away and wriggled down a crevice between his fingers.
The lone droplet plinked again as it hit the ground. Rather than fade into a stain, it joined the small puddle formed from the ceiling's leakage. More droplets followed and were absorbed by the larger whole to a point where they had life on their own. To some degree, the puddle must have been sentient, for it resisted nature, not able to be sucked through gaps in the tiles.
By this point, any rational explanation had been defined. The safe thing to do was get far back, hope for the best. Luigi did not do this, however, knowing who would soon appear, and studied the shifting puddle. It was only faintly perceptible, and even then only under the most scrupulous eye, but he saw the ripples on the surface. He saw the puddle, the thing, move.
Nancy edged backwards. Wart was next and then the guard followed after, but positioned himself in front of them with the spear thrust outwards. Luigi got behind the guard also, surprised his legs did not buckle in the process.
The scent of metal, of rusting iron, permeated and filled his nose. Blood poured through cracks in the now red ceiling, splatting in lines from rifts, oozing out of gaps. Luigi and the others, however, remained untouched. Not so much as a kitten's lick of red came dripping down, or pushed up through the floor tiling.
"How does he keep doin' it?" Luigi asked.
"Doing what?" Nancy responded in a hissing whisper.
"Y'know, followin' us."
"Subcon is perfect for him. The land of dreams." She sucked air through her teeth. "Or so I've been told. He had enough power before. Now he's just consolidating it."
Wart's presence reared in and his head appeared as if sticking out from their shoulders.
"Hello. Who are we talking about?"
His question went unanswered, because of the developments that had taken place at their feet and up on the ceiling.
The leakage had stopped, just like that, without any of them realising. Luigi especially, too focused on blocking out images of Freddy and imagery relating to the glove. If the guard noticed then he lacked the grace or language to tell the others.
All that remained, unfortunately, was the puddle. Instead of the room vividly smelling of metal it was localised to the puddle as its mass popped and crackled like a fried egg. Nancy shivered in her pink sweater.
Luigi thought this was it. This was his big chance to prove himself. He could step on the puddle while it still was such, and stomp the strength out of Freddy until he had to surrender.
Any hope of that happening quickly died when the puddle began vibrating and emanating white noise. The droplets crawled upwards, slid over each other, the mass of the puddle drawing in to create one solid object. The guard adjusted his stance so that his left foot and the spear were positioned parallel.
First he was a pair of red boots, attached to legs with the consistency and colour of jelly. Those legs soon gained a torso, and then that torso had a chest. A stump, less than halfway to completion, made Luigi's heart race. He understood now why Freddy survived even after death, why the fear of him registered so deeply. He was always there. Especially when he wasn't.
The ripples gathered to form his hands, the gloves built into them. Wart had no idea and nor did his subordinate, but Nancy expected it. He should've expected it. Hoping otherwise, he realised now, too late, was foolish and downright dangerous.
Wart, with his four fingers, clutched the pendant with a death grip.
He stood there now. A full-fledged flesh being in the same dirty sweater, with the same rotting face shadowed by the same brown fedora.
"Freddy's home," he said in a revolting croon.
No longer holding it, Wart glanced at the shiny pendant. Freddy did not appear to notice.
The cold numbed Luigi down to his bones. A cold spurred on not by the underground lacking central heating, but him. Freddy Krueger, a bladed glove gleaming under the pale cave light while he stood in the shadows with the rest of them.
He averted his gaze, only to find a trembling hand when he looked down.
"What's the matter?" Freddy's lips spread out in a crooked smile as he gestured with open arms. "Don't wanna say hello to Uncle Freddy?"
Nancy shoved the guard and his spear to one side. She ran at Freddy, almost hurtling her entire body at him. And she would have succeeded, if not for Wart and the guard yanking her back on either arm.
"NO! LET GO! LET GO OF ME!"
Freddy's laugh, deriving perverse pleasure from her failure, was a bubbling sound from the deepest, darkest part of his throat. It sounded like evil.
Wart's nostrils flared as he huffed and shot a glare of harsh suspicion at Freddy.
"You must be the Krueger character I've heard so much about."
Freddy nodded with a muted expression, holding back joy.
"How exactly did you find us?"
"Does it matter?!" Nancy spoke up as she continued to push forward, only for Wart and his subordinate to pull her arms back and keep her in limbo. "Get him! Kill him now!"
It was ironic. Funny, almost in a way that could be laughed at. Not too long ago Wart would've jumped at the chance to work with someone with as prolific a track record as Freddy's.
"Got eyes everywhere, your highness." Freddy performed a bow.
"That still doesn't explain- there wasn't a-"
Wart ceased trying to talk with a deranged lunatic. He looked at the wall behind him, that wall which before had been the entrance and exit. That, along with the blood from the ceiling, were the puzzle pieces that clicked together to tell him his information about Freddy was out of date. Extremely out of date.
"It matters not," he said decisively. "These lands will no longer stomach evil such as yours. I will not allow it."
Often suffering from the condition himself, Luigi's ability to sense misplaced bravery was akin to a sixth sense. Amulet or no amulet, Freddy was not in fact going to be defeated by one very prideful man. The hundreds of Shy Guys working for him, together, had the same chance as Wart individually.
"I've heard it all before." Freddy grinned, down on an unflinching Wart. "And I always come back."
Wart loosened Nancy from around his arm, both of them now free. Nancy did not move. But Wart did. Fast.
She gasped. The guard made a noise in the universal language of disapproval.
"I'm ending this today, monster! Here and now!"
Luigi expected Wart to do something. Perhaps he hoped for him to act, knowing he himself was not the type to run into danger all gung-ho. Not if he could help it, anyway. What caught Luigi by surprise was him running straight at Freddy.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Going through the opposite motions was Nancy, eyes glued to the scene and unable to be pulled away.
He tried to say something. To warn Wart, but the words clotted in his throat.
Freddy willed his arm to be at least ten times as long as it stretched across the room. The fingers on one hand were outstretched, claws ready to clean out Wart's guts. Luigi heard it, like the stretching of an elastic band, and that was horrifying enough.
Wart jumped to the left, but the out of harm's way, but the hand changed direction with him and clenched around his throat. Freddy retracted the arm so that it was at a normal length again, though his hold was not any less tight.
Luigi still could not bring himself to open his eyes. He knew Wart deserved that much, to have a witness to his sacrifice, but he just couldn't.
"Get away from him, bastard!"
"No can do, Nancy!" He burst into darkly cloying laughter. "This is all your fault!"
Wart tried, squirming and writhing while heavily restricted in air supply, to escape. To no avail.
Slicing the air into ribbons was a clean strike from one set of metal blades, fast approaching where Wart's neck connected to his head.
The guard flinched and averted his gaze.
Nancy's mouth gaped open in wordless horror.
Luigi's eyes were still squinched shut as he shook.
When it was all over, or it sounded like it was all over, then and only then did Luigi dare to look. He opened one eye, thought his heart would stop at the sight of a Wart with a giant gash where his head should've been—only to find that wasn't what he saw at all.
Wart had disappeared.
He looked everywhere, scanning the darker corners of the room especially, but there was no sign of Wart and Freddy looked just as confused.
He read newfound confidence in the guard's appearance. Next to him, though not restricted, was Nancy, and he followed her line of sight to the ceiling.
It turned out Wart had disappeared because he lifted himself off the ground and propelled himself into the air, floating far away from Freddy's normal reach.
Luigi came close to cheering out loud. Awe and relief filled him to such a degree that they appropriated his body. Making the moment all the sweeter was the utter confusion, bordering on rage, that framed Freddy's features. He controlled every move the duo of him and Nancy made, and now he stood to lose a smidge, an iota, of that power.
Wart's pendant, and by extension Wart himself, glowed a neon shade of red. It flailed in a wind of its own design and the air billowed through his robe.
"He was no wizard back in my day," Nancy said in a deeper register, imitating Luigi's New Yorker accent. Luigi gave a playful eye roll.
In contrast to the pendant and robe's flapping about, Wart's lowering himself was a very delicate and gentle movement. It was as if an invisible person was pulling him down by half an inch each second.
Freddy gnashed his teeth together; a great risk for the few he still had left.
When he landed, Freddy wasted no time and reached forward, slashing at him again.
Luigi's heart leapt to the front seat of his chest.
It was fortunate for him and Nancy, in a way that Freddy was so riled up. He overestimated his range and sliced the air when he meant to slice Wart. He growled as he made another attempt. Wart ducked the blow and with a limber agility that only further surprised Luigi, distanced himself in a succession of backflips.
Freddy wasted no time with understanding or reasoning and with Wart in his line of sight, ran at him. This was a first for Luigi, seeing the demon run as opposed to teleporting from place to place.
Wart made no effort to run. With Freddy mere inches away, he brought his palm out in front of him just as Freddy pulled a clawed arm back.
The shock on his face, and the blast of power from Wart's pendant, were simultaneous.
To say Freddy went flying was an understatement. Freddy was hurled through the air as if weightless, as if he were nothing more than a ragdoll.
Luigi and Nancy blinked at each other to confirm they both witnessed the same occurrence.
"And he definitely never did anythin' like that," he said, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
At the end of his flight he clattered into a wall. He was a trash heap of a man, and never before did his raggedy old clothes look so unsightly. He was also bald as the impact of slamming into a wall separated him from his hat.
"There was a point where I was scared of you. Up until, say, five minutes ago."
Freddy made no response to Wart, scrabbling about for the fedora that abandoned his skull in the updraft on his hands and knees.
"But you know, when you're not hunting the defenseless, you don't seem very scary at all.
Nancy was watching from the sidelines, with the sort of excitement not formed fully from anticipation or fear but rather a heady mix of the two. Much more difficult for Luigi to read was the guard, though perhaps his silence was one of trust. Of letting Wart's success speak for itself.
Wart allowed Freddy to pick up the fedora and return it to its rightful place. He gave Freddy further opportunity by allowing him to his feet. He ran in almost leaping strides, far faster than any real old man would be able to. Once within range he reverted to his usual tricks. Slicing, swinging the blades around like well-oiled machines, generally aiming for as much injury as possible.
Weaving, ducking, Wart defied the blades, making sure the only thing they cut open was the air. Wart, who moved with liquid fluidity, dodging life-ending blow after life-ending blow with a trancelike serenity.
"He's fast." Luigi's eyes batted back and forth.
Wart moved to position himself behind Freddy, while Freddy remained clueless as to why his opponent had disappeared.
"He's like a," a constricting sound in Nancy's throat, "like one of the kids from Westin Hills. Like a Dream Warrior. He might actually do it."
The guard decided to emote, humming in agreement with the pair.
Snarling, Freddy put himself on the offensive again. He aimed low for his target, and the area was fairly large; Wart's chest. Even still, the anger made him sloppy and Wart only had to stand there. It was a long shot of a miss.
Wart, sensing an opportunity, grabbed Freddy's arm and forced his left hand through the nearest wall. He laughed, even when Freddy turned his sights on him, yellow eyes gleaming.
"Getting geriatric in your old age, are you?"
Freddy yanked and pulled with his other arm to no avail.
"I know the wall is a far easier target, but come on."
Another few attempts and to the tune of popping bones and falling debris, he pulled back, the blades emerging.
"You're nothing!" Freddy snarled. "I've got the power of hundreds of souls! And what do you have? Some keychain?"
He swiped at Wart, the blades clawing the air in a circular arc. Wart only had to lean back to avoid any harm to his midsection. His follow-up was equally as fast. In quick succession he grabbed Freddy's arm, squeezing, just as he was pulling back.
The sight boggled Luigi's mind. The look in Freddy's eyes made him recall a petulant child, a little boy who only now was learning that his actions had consequences. That he could be punished.
Wart, on the strength and support of his back foot, threw him over his shoulder. Added insult came as another magical blast, making sure that when Freddy went flying, it was a journey from one side of the room to the other.
Freddy landed on his stomach, face down. Unmoving.
Luigi imagined this was a freeing experience for Nancy, and that certainly showed in the unfettered joy lighting up her face in the pale darkness. The guard no longer had his spear in an offensive position, instead bringing it to his side.
So, that was it. The nightmare was over.
That's it?
Freddy, still lifeless and without movement.
It's just over?