"Where do you think he could be?" Peach asked. Both she and Mario sat on either side of the bed, Luigi sitting up in the middle of it.

"Well, I did have this dream where I saw him on his way to Sarasaland. Maybe he's there," Luigi responded.

"Sarasaland? Daisy's place? Why would he go there? I thought he hated us, not her," Mario thought aloud.

Luigi shrugged, "I don't know. Power maybe? Sarasaland is made up of four kingdoms after all. But whatever he's doing there, I know it's not good."

~~~~~

Mario climbed out of the warp pipe, carefully stepping to the ground. Luigi followed right after, tripping over the rim of the pipe and to the ground with a quiet, but audible, "Owie." Hearing his quiet exclamation, Mario turned to face him, rushing to help him off the ground.

The two wound up in Sarasaland's warp room. It was vaguely similar to the Mushroom Kingdoms' except for the four green-colored pipes labeled to the adjacent kingdoms.

"Alright, you know this place better than I, so you can search the castle and I'll check the kingdom's center for any hints to where he could be, okay?" Mario said as he and Luigi began to walk through the castle's corridor.

"Just be safe, okay?" Luigi asked in a worried tone. Mario nodded before he reached the castle entrance, being careful as to not draw attention to himself.

~~~~~

Luigi began throughout the many rooms. For the most part, it was empty. There was the occasional toad from here and there, but most didn't notice Luigi was there. The ones that did, however, their reactions were... unwelcoming to say the least.

They all feared him. They either ran or hid from. They didn't want anything to do with him. He found it weird but he understood how they were feeling but he didn't like it.

The first floor of the castle was Mr. L free. Luigi made it to the staircase that connected the first and second floors. He carefully made his way up the stairs. He was only ever let up the stairs once or twice, but he still knew his way around, even if the hall was just a straight line. He poked his head in and out of each room, looking back and forth throughout each one. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, that wasn't until he reached the last door in the hall.

Luigi lightly pushed open the door with a flower in the middle of it. It was Daisy's room. Luigi looked back and forth throughout the room. It was fairly normal. He backed out of the room before realizing something caught his attention. He looked back in the room and there lied Daisy. Asleep. At least, that's what it looked like at first glance.

She lied on her bed, hands to her side, Lightly breathing. The way she lay, facing to the ceiling, rather than her side, implied that someone placed her there. A large gash visible on her forehead and her nose was slightly bloodied. Someone had hurt her.

Luigi ran over to the side of the bed. He had to help her. He reached into his overall pocket and pulled out a super mushroom. It was his last one. He gently placed it in her mouth and started to back out of the room. He didn't want her to be confused if she happened to wake up.

He was only a few steps from the door when he heard a rustle, followed by a groan of discomfort. Luigi quickened his pace and had only placed a foot in the doorway when he heard her voice.

"Luigi?" Daisy asked in her dazed state.

Luigi stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face her, a nervous look on his face. Daisy has sat up. He marveled at the fact her injuries were already healed.

"What are you doing here?"

"I-" He stopped. He couldn't tell her about Mr. L. "You looked like you needed help..."

"Help? You're here to help? After what you did to me?" Daisy's tone was rather harsh.

Luigi was simultaneously confused and afraid. "...After what I did?" He quietly asked himself.

"Don't play dumb with me. You know what you did!" She leaned forward and pointed a finger to him. "Please just- just go..." she leaned back into her pillows. Her tone shifted from slightly angered to a tad hurt. "I don't know what you did out there, but I don't want any more of it..."

Luigi's eyes widened. It was just like the dream he had the previous week. He knew he couldn't defend himself, no matter how hard he tried. He continued out of the room and down the steps, blinking back the tears that started to form in his eyes.

Mr. L was nowhere to be found. That was both a good and a bad thing. It was good because he wasn't terrorizing anyone in the castle, but it was bad because he was probably off terrorizing someone or someplace else.

~~~~~

Mario walked throughout the center town of Sarasasland. He was shocked at the sight of it all. Bowser's minions like parakoopas and goombas roamed the streets, toads hiding in alleys, making secretive trades of trivial things like food and water, others hiding out in the central town's ruins.

He did his best to lay low and not draw too much attention to himself. That was short-lived, however, as a toad bystander gasped at the sound of him. A couple of others turned in the direction of the sound. They ran towards him, surrounding him. They look like they've been through a lot. Cuts, bruises, ragged clothing. What happened here?

They begin talking over one another. Concerns and relieved comments. Mario couldn't understand. "Please- please. One at a time," He cut them off from their overlapping comments.

One toad, in blue color, spoke up first. "Oh man, are we glad to see you," he said in a relieved tone.

Another toad, this one green with small brown pigtails sticking from under her hat butted in. "That brother of yours. Something is really wrong with him," she voiced her concern.

"Yeah, look what he's done to this place!" An angry yellow toad gestured to the chaos that surrounded them.

Mario shook his head at the thought of Luigi, his younger and much more innocent brother, doing such a thing. "You're saying... Luigi did this?" he asked. The group collectively nodded, muttering variations of 'yes'.

"We would have asked for your help sooner, but he won't let us out of this place," a quiet purple toad spoke up.

Mario was about to ask more questions when a blue cloud of smoke appeared before them. Mario was pushed out of the way behind a pile of rubble by the blue toad. From the cloud, appeared the temporary leader of the Kingdom, Kamek. He floated on his broomstick, staring daggers to the group of the remaining toads. They began sweating nervously as the Magikoopa carefully examined them before shrugging and flying off to terrorize some other toads.

Mario, along with the blue toad, poked his head from behind the pile. He looked to the group with a confused look, his head tilted to the side a bit.

"If Kamek catches you breaking the rules, who knows what happens to you?" the blue toad exclaimed. "And you're breaking the first one!"

"No entering or exiting the kingdom without permission," the green toad finished for him. "Your brother is not going to be too happy when he finds out about this."

A question popped up in Mario is mind. "Do you guys by any chance know where he went? He asked.

The purple toad shook his head. "No, he had more 'important things' to do, whatever that means," he shuddered.

Mr. L wasn't around. Mario needed to find Luigi so they could report back to Peach. "Don't worry guys, I'll put a stop to this. I'll help free your kingdom as soon as I can." He said with a nod, starting to walk back to Daisy's castle to find Luigi.

~~~~~

Luigi clumsily stumbled down the castle, clearly in distress. He needed to find Mario and fast. Sure he didn't exactly like being ignored in the past, but this was no better. He didn't like the looks. He didn't like the fear he caused. He didn't like not being able to simply say hi to someone. He wanted to go back. Back to being ignored. Back to being just a shadow.

He tried his hardest to block them out but he knew they were there. He felt like a monster and he didn't even do anything. His breathing quickens as he held back tears. Everything felt like it was spiraling out of control. He couldn't take it.

Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He didn't need to look to know whose it was. Almost instantly, most of his stress evaporated. He turned around to see Mario giving him a light smile.

It was going to be okay.