There was an ache in the space where his heartbeat should have been. His eyes were open, but he couldn't see much. Just the stars falling around him, collapsing in ways that defied everything he had ever learned about astronomy. 

Luigi had been afraid of the dark for as long as he could remember. When he was younger, his brother would turn on a flashlight and keep it lit throughout the night just to help him feel safe. 

Mario wasn't there, though. 

Chills were blowing through the air like colored wind. He could see them, which was strange because the wind had always been invisible. The stars continued to fall around him, landing on the ground like gentle snowflakes. They weren't gentle, though. With each crash, they'd burst and shatter like glass before being swallowed by the darkness that surrounded him.

He knew this place, though he couldn't tell how. He had certainly never been there before. Or maybe he had. His mind felt foggy, like windows on cold days when you breathe too close to them. 

His heart didn't race like it usually did when afraid, though. 

He couldn't feel his heart at all.

He reached out into the darkness and felt a thin material gather in his gloved hands. He gripped it and pulled it to himself, a deep melancholic feeling swelling within him as if he was being reunited with an old friend. It was an old friend he had never seen before, though. 

"A blanket?" Luigi asked, gazing through the material. It was old and worn down, thin enough for him to see through the loosely knit threads. 

"Luigi!" a distant voice called, though it sounded as if it was miles away, shouting from the mountaintops. Luigi looked around himself, but could not see another person. He couldn't recognize the voice. He couldn't recognize anything. 

He was stuck in a land of missing memories. The place where the lost things go. 

He hugged the blanket to himself, then sat down. He trembled slightly, but his heart didn't race with fear. He couldn't feel that frantic pulse coursing through him like it always did. Perhaps that was the problem. He missed that frantic feeling. It always reminded him that he was still alive.

"Mario," he whispered, hoping his older brother would swoop in and save him like the hero he was. 

It wasn't fair to always rely on his brother to get him out of these situations, but Mario wasn't the kind to give up on him. Luigi knew that better than anyone. Mario wasn't a quitter. 

He started searching through the darkness for the things he used to know - for the things he missed. For his racing pulse, for his brother, for the memories of how he got there. Surely they were all somewhere, nothing truly can disappear forever, right? They weren't gone, just misplaced.

"Spring, it's spring," he whispered, trying to gather his thoughts. He loved spring. It was so colorful, so inconsistent, so wild. Yet the dark cold air made it feel as if he had been pushed back to winter. He could practically hear snow crunching beneath his footsteps. 

"Dimentio?" 

He turned around himself, looking for where that voice came from before realizing there were no others who could have spoken. It was just him. 

"Dimentio," he repeated. 

He remembered Dimentio now. 

Dimentio wasn't like him. Dimentio wasn't scared of the dark or the end. He wasn't scared of anything. 

Or was he? 

His entire existence felt like a mystery. Luigi had once convinced himself that he knew him, but he never did. 

No one did. 

"Dimentio!" Luigi cried out. "Where are-"

"Shh, it's okay," the distant voice hushed. "He's gone."

Gone?

Where did he go? Was he where Luigi was? If Luigi searched the darkness hard enough, would he find him?

"Luigi, you need to wake up," Mario said, shaking his shoulder.

. . . 

Suddenly, Luigi was no longer trapped in the darkness surrounded by stars falling to the ground. He was on the ground, looking up at his brother. 

Mario's eyes were red and slightly swollen. His eyebrows lifted the second the man in green opened his eyes. With drops of water falling from his friendly face, he leaned down and hugged his brother tightly. 

"Mario..." Luigi said, his voice groggier and more hoarse than it had been a moment ago. It was as if someone took sandpaper and rubbed it down his throat. He could feel dust and rubble burning at the cuts covering his face. Where had those come from?

"Shh, it's okay," his older brother told him, cradling his head as he pulled Luigi up to a sitting position. All the man in green's bones and muscles ached. There was a stinging sensation surrounding him like bubble wrap as a piercing ringing sang loudly in his mind.

His chest hurt the most, though. It wasn't the same as the burning on his skin. This was a different pain, one similar to feeling too cold. It hurt, but not in an obvious kind of way. 

"Mario," Luigi repeated. 

"We're getting you out of here," Mario said, slinging Luigi's arm over his shoulder. Someone appeared on the man in green's other side, slinging his other arm over theirs. The height difference was evident, with the taller person bearing the most weight. Something about their shoulder felt wrong. Spiky, maybe?  

"Bowser, maybe we should have Peach help him since we're closer in height," Mario explained. 

Bowser, Luigi thought to himself, fearing the worst for a brief moment before allowing himself to relax. Oh, that's right, Bowser was helping us.

"Shut up," the Koopa King hissed as he and Mario began to help Luigi walk, though the man in green had no idea where they were going or what they were walking from. Luigi hardly even noticed all the rubble and destruction beneath his weak ankles. 

How had the once beautiful and elegant Castle Bleck been reduced to ruin so quickly?

Castle Bleck... he remembered now. Castle Bleck. That's where they were.

"Yeesh, this is a nightmare," Mario whispered. "Dimentio really made a mess out of this place."

Dimentio...

"Mario..." Luigi whispered.

"Don't worry," the princess's voice said from behind him, smooth and kind, though slightly shaky. Was she afraid? "We're getting you to a hospital. You'll be okay, Luigi."

Hospital? For the burns?

What about everyone else? Where was Count Bleck? Mimi, O'Chunks, Nastasia?

Dimentio...

The corners of his vision began to turn black once again as if a force had wrapped around him and started pulling him back to that darkness. The cold feeling in his chest seemed to swell. 

No, cold was no longer how he'd describe it. It felt as if something was stolen from him. There was an empty space. Like an arm had been cut off. His arm didn't hurt, though. 

Tears peaked in his eyes as his head fell forward, weighed down by his exhaustion. 

"D..." he started to say when his legs gave out and the darkness claimed him once again. 

. . .

He was thinking of those final moments before the darkness initially swallowed him. Not when Mario and Bowser were carrying him, but the first time. His memories felt fuzzy and distant, as if they weren't completely his own. Everything was hard to place, but he could recall feeling as though there was no escape. He remembered confusion. How could hope and love possibly endure amidst all the loss and sorrow? 

When he awoke, he was in a bright room surrounded by a cluster of familiar faces, yet the way they looked at him made them look like strangers.

"Luigi," Mario said. 

Aside from the sound of Mario's voice and the ticking of the clock on the wall, the room was silent. Luigi blinked a few times to allow his vision to focus, then glanced around himself. There were wires attached to him, running through a variety of different machines he might have been able to identify had he been more alert. He could feel a heart monitor connected to his chest, though he couldn't hear his own heartbeat in his ears like usual. The monitor didn't make a beeping sound like it always had in the movies. Was that normal? Why wasn't the line going up and down?

"It hurts," Luigi whispered, closing his eyes once again. "My chest-"

"We know," Count Bleck said, though he wasn't Count Bleck anymore. 

"Blumiere, right?" Luigi whispered, his voice coming out more hushed than he intended. 

"Yes," the count, or Blumiere, said. Luigi liked this voice more. It was gentler. Much easier to listen to. There wasn't devastation and rage hiding behind each and every word he spoke. 

"What's happening to me?" Luigi asked. 

Perhaps the monitor was turned off. Yes, that had to be it.

"Well, how do I put this..." Blumiere trailed off. He averted his gaze and started to fiddle with his cloak. A habit that Luigi hadn't noticed before, which was odd because he usually noticed those little things all the time. Maybe Mr. L was simply not as observant when it came to these things. Or perhaps this was a new habit. 

"We thought you were dead," Nastasia stated. "After the Ultimate Show, you've been in and out of consciousness. The heart monitor can't collect a heartbeat."

"Maria planned ye a funeral!" O'Chunks explained.

"Shhh," Mario hushed. "I-ignore them. I'm just... I-I so glad you're awake..."

Luigi frowned. Mario almost never stuttered, no matter how terrifying the circumstance. He always somehow found a way to put on a brave face. 

The man in green slowly placed his hand over his chest. With the slight movement, his nerves and burns stung. The empty feeling seemed to somehow surge throughout him the second his hand contacted the exposed skin just below his neck, like a line of frost spreading throughout him. 

"What day is it?"

"April 16th," Mario answered. "This all happened on April 9th, though. You've been out for a while. D-Do you need anything?"

"I feel sick."

"I know," Mario said. "We're... working out a solution for that."

Luigi's brows furrowed together. What was that supposed to mean? Couldn't they have just given him medicine or something? They were in a hospital, right? Hospitals always fix things. That's what they were there for.

"What's wrong with me...?" Luigi whispered. His fingers clutched the thin hospital blankets, though they felt wrong. He wanted the one he felt earlier. The one that had come to him in that dark place. 

Everyone surrounding him seemed to exchange a few glances as if they were having a silent conversation with one another. Luigi felt left out. Not that he wasn't used to the feeling. If anything, them glancing at one another gave him more time to mentally prepare himself. 

However, his body used that mental preparation time to fill him with anxiety and discomfort.

He felt dizzy and started to wonder if it was possible to fall through the hospital bed when Daisy suddenly cleared her throat. Luigi hadn't even noticed she was there until he heard her voice. She looked beautiful as ever, even with that fragile look in her eyes. 

"Dimentio has your heart," she said. 

"You're accusing me of cheating on you?" Luigi asked.

"Luigi, we're not together," Daisy said with a small eye-roll. He missed her sass. "And this isn't the time for jokes."

He knew this, but it was something they'd regularly joke about. It used to always tick Daisy off when people assumed they were together. He still loved her but in a different kind of way. Besides, they tried being together. It didn't work. It wasn't messy, but being friends was easier for both of them. 

"But you made a statue of us at your castle," he pointed out, teasing.

"I didn't approve that!" she cried out, starting to get fired up. This was good. He wanted her usual tone back. This sad, fragile one wasn't something he was used to.

"But-" Luigi continued when he was interrupted by his own coughing. It felt rough and squeaky as if someone was taking nails and running them up his chalkboard-like throat. 

Her expression shifted from annoyance to concern as she leaned down by him and took his hand, begging him to breathe. He nodded, though it took a few seconds for him to actually catch his breath. 

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make you cough. I just... I'm so worried. Please don't make jokes about this. We thought we lost you..."

He didn't want her looking at him like that. Daisy was his best friend. She was usually a ray of light who could turn any situation into something positive. Seeing her so afraid felt wrong. 

"We're all looking for Dimentio," Daisy said. "Apparently, something happened during the Ultimate Show. I don't really get it, but it has to do with the Chaos Heart."

Did that mean Dimentio was alive?

"The Chaos Heart is gone," Luigi whispered. That was one of the few things he did remember. He had seen the pure hearts purge it of darkness before his very eyes. He could practically feel it happen. 

"We know," Nastasia stated. Luigi was glad that she still sounded and acted the same as normal. It was a nice breath of fresh air. "We think two hearts were destroyed during that... incident."

Luigi stilled, then shifted his gaze to Mario. He didn't have to speak for his brother to understand what he was thinking. 

"Not yours," Mario told him. "Don't worry. You weren't the one in control. Your heart is safe."

"But it's lost," Luigi said, turning his eyes to Blumiere. "Right?"

The former count quickly shifted his eyes away from Luigi, as if afraid of looking the man in green in the eyes. 

"Right..." Blumiere trailed off. 

Luigi nodded, unsure what this meant for him. It was impossible to live without a heart, right? Was that the intense empty feeling within him? Was that why everything felt so dark and cold? How was he still alive?

"Am I still me?" the man in green whispered. 

"You're always still you," Daisy said, giving his hand a soft squeeze. "The tall guy with the top hat says you've got about a year if you're careful. It's a delicate situation because of everything that happened with the big scary fusion thing. Sorry, I'm not really helping, am I? The point is, we're going to all look for this Dimentio guy so we can get your heart back, but you have to take things easy."

Take things easy? 

They might as well have asked Luigi to jump off a cliff. He never took things easy. It just wasn't like him. He was an adventurer, a hero! He couldn't sit still! Even on vacations, he was always out and about.

"I know you want to argue," Mario said. "But she's right. We have to be careful. We can't lose you."

"Mario-"

"Shh, please just rest," Mario hushed. 

The man in green wanted to continue arguing, but the darkness was starting to eat away at his vision. It settled upon him like a weighted blanket, pushing him down until he found himself starting up at a perfectly tiled ceiling. 

The entire hospital room was far too bland for his taste. He wondered where he was. Flipside, Sarasaland, the Mushroom Kingdom? Merlon wasn't there, but Luigi didn't expect him to be. They were never close. Daisy could very easily make her way to the Mushroom Kingdom, so he doubted they were in Sarasaland, especially since she was the only one from there and it was a bit out of the way. 

"We're in Flipside," Mario explained as if reading his younger brother's mind. "It was the closest option. Don't worry, we'll get you home as soon as we can."

Luigi nodded, biting at his lip slightly. He could still feel the burns and cuts covering his face, though they were less overwhelming. They felt very minor compared to the swelling feeling in his chest.

"What'll happen to Dimentio?" Luigi asked. "When you find him?"