"....L. ...ey. Mr. L!" A distant voice called.

The man in green felt something forced down his throat. It stung, but he couldn't find the will to fight against it.

"Come on, please get up," the same voice begged.

The voice was somewhat familiar, though Mr. L wasn't sure how. It sounded young. Like it belonged to a teenager. Did he know any teenagers?

Did he know ANYONE? 

He felt confused.

Who was he? Did that even matter?

No, who he was never mattered. It was where he was going that was important. Where was he going, though? Why couldn't he remember?

He was heading somewhere important. 

"I think he's dead," a different voice observed, sounding far too happy. 

"Shhh..." the first voice hushed. "He's not dead. Those are the mushrooms that the queen gives the dark souls for memory loss. Not poison. I'm still surprised you know nothing about them. Now help me sit him up."

A few seconds later, whoever was in front of him stopped pouring the mysterious liquid down Mr. L's throat. The man and green felt a strong arm grasp his back and push him to a sitting position. 

Mr. L wanted to protest, but all he could seem to manage was a groan.

However, whatever had been forced into his system had somewhat of a calming effect. It felt somewhat like burn cream. Yes, it did deliver a stinging sensation, but it was also cool and almost soothing. 

His head felt fuzzy. His memories, fuzzier. But colors in his mind were slowly starting to return. He couldn't make out the images, but he could tell that there was at least something there.

"Mr. L? Can you tell me who I am?" The first voice asked, sounding a little nervous for the man in green's answer.

Mr. L groaned, still refusing to open his eyes. A part of him still felt trapped in his own mind.

"Tell yourself who you are," he muttered, his speech slow and slurred. 

"What did you even give him?" The second voice asked, sounding less peppy and almost curious. 

"Antidote. All D-Men keep some on us just in case one of us accidentally consumes a memory mushroom. I'm HOPING that I'm not too late. It may take a few moments for his mind to clear too-"

"Dimentio..." Mr. L breathed groggily. He let out a groan, leaning into whoever was holding him up n a sitting position. "Where... where'd he go?"

Alex let out an incredibly relieved sigh while Blumiere brought his free hand to his eyebrow, looking around for a moment. 

"It seems our good friend has disappeared," Blumiere said. "But fear not! I will not rest until he is found!"

Mr. L nodded, his head still fuzzy. The only memories that were clear were the most recent ones. The memory involving Dimentio handing him that mushroom. Everything else was still blurred, though getting clearer and clearer by the second. 

"What... happened?" Mr. L questioned, still leaning into Blumiere.

"Don't know," Alex admitted, pulling out his notebook and writing a few things down. "Mr. Blumiere and I were walking ahead when we heard you collapse. Once we looked back, Dimentio was gone and you were... well... like this. Don't worry about the mushroom. I have it with me so nobody can find it and use it against you or something. Why would you even eat such a thing?? Don't you know not to eat food unless you're sure it's safe??"

Mr. L shook his head no, finally opening his eyes. He remembered that feeling. The feeling he knew all too well. 

The feeling of betrayal.

"Dimentio," Mr. L breathed. "He- it was him. He gave it to me."

Blumiere gasped, letting go of Mr. L, which in turn made the man in green fall onto his back. 

"Say it isn't true!!" Blumiere exclaimed, kneeling down and grasping Mr. L's forearm so he could hoist the man in green to his feet.

"Why would I lie about this?" Mr. L murmured, feeling rather annoyed now. His memories were all becoming more and more clear, and with each memory that came back, the man in green grew more frustrated. 

Of COURSE, Dimentio would do something like this. Even if he lost his memory, at the end of the day he was still the same person who snapped his fingers and set off that execution box. He didn't care. He'd NEVER care. 

He was the same person he had always been. A villain. 

Mr. L was an idiot for thinking he could be anything else. 

Alex pressed his pen to his notebook, about to write down the new information when he paused, then put the pen and paper away, giving the man in green an empathetic expression. 

"I... I don't even know what to say," Alex admitted. "I'm not good at comforting people who've been betrayed. But... w-well, try to look on the bright side. We're almost there. We're REALLY close to getting you out of here. And when we do, you'll never have to worry about being betrayed by him again."

Mr. L nodded but he didn't feel any better. He couldn't help but wonder if he would always find himself surrounded by people like Dimentio. Surrounded by people who only wanted to manipulate and betray him. What if when he made it out, he was only met with more people like that?

"There are good people out there," Alex breathed, seeming to read Mr. L's mind. "I promise. It hurts now, but all the pain is going to be worth it once you get out of here, alright? We just have to keep pushing forward. We can't let him make you give up. Alright?"

Mr. L paused, then nodded, pushing himself away from Blumiere and walking onward.

"Okay," he breathed. 

. . .

Dimentio continued to run, running away from the guilt. Away from the only person who really knew him. Away from the only people who could ever make him feel like maybe he had a little life left in him. 

He ran away from Dimentio, and back to D-4913. D-4913 may have had no memories, but he also had been purified. All his sins had been washed away along with his memories. By running away from who he used to be, he was running away from all the suffering he had caused.

It was Dimentio who gave Mr. L the mushroom. Not D-4913. Dimentio was a villain. Dimentio was a bad guy. D-4913 was nothing more than a dark soul. Someone who was meant to spend the rest of his afterlife looking down and doing as he was told while being watched over by a being more powerful.

Dimentio may have been a criminal, but D-4913 was a soul who had done no wrong. He was a soul who not only had forgotten himself but had also been forgotten by the world. A soul who didn't matter. He was just one soul. 

Dimentio wanted to be D-4913 again. He wanted to be oblivious. He wanted that ignorance of not knowing what he had done in the past back. He wanted to go back to looking down at his feet while working on building the walls of the maze. He wanted to go back to the time when all he had to worry about was working. He wanted to throw all the guilt away and burn it. He wanted to go back to being nothing. 

It was better to be nothing than it was to be something horrible, right?

"Ah, D-4913," The queen's voice breathed behind the dark soul once he finally grew tired of running. He placed a hand on the wall to support himself, then turned his head so he could see her majesty out of the corner of his good eye. 

She finally called him the correct number. 

"Your highness," Dimentio breathed, bowing his head slightly.

The queen nodded at him, grinning. Her smile sent chills down his spine, as it always did. Jaydes had always been a rather intimidating figure.

Then again, Dimentio must have been too, if everything Mr. L had told him was indeed the truth. He wondered how the queen had managed to face every single criminal and turn them into nobodies. All these people who were once the worst of the worst turned into people who don't even have a name. 

"You gave it to him," Jaydes said, clearly stating the obvious. "Do you know what that means?"

"I gave it to him..." Dimentio breathed, remembering why he gave the mushroom to the man in green in the first place. "Which means... I'm free."

The queen smiled, then clicked her tongue and shook her head while tossing the former jester a small golden key.

"No, it means you can become neutral," Jaydes corrected.

Dimentio paused. He previously thought of being a neutral soul as the equivalent of being free.

Then again, Mr. L clearly didn't see it that way, since he had been so desperate to escape.

"Once the timer is up, if Mr. L is still down, which he will be, you will become neutral, but you will be marked so everyone knows what you've done, that way they know you're dangerous," the queen explained.

"What?" Dimentio asked, frowning up at her. "But I'm only dangerous because of something I don't even remember doing. I'm not that person anymore!" 

"Rules are rules," Jaydes shrugged. "Don't defy me. You know your place. You should be grateful that you're getting this opportunity in the first place. One small slip, and you'll be right back here where you belong. Is that clear, D-4913?"

Dimentio swallowed, looking down so he didn't have to meet her icy gaze.

"My name is Dimentio."

Jaydes raised an eyebrow.

Dimentio was slightly worried that she'd get angry or force a memory wipe again. She did nothing of the sort, however. She didn't seem afraid in the slightest. She instead smiled.

"Not anymore."

A reminder that he'd always belong to her. A reminder that he'd always have a foot in his grave. He was dead, and his soul was hers. She held total power over him, even if he was about to become neutral. She would have the power to take everything from him in an instant.

She turned away from him.

"Wait, where are you going?" Dimentio asked, feeling smaller than before. 

The queen paused. She tilted her head to the side slightly without turning to face him, then offered a small shrug.

"There's something I must take care of. A certain D-Man directly defied me, which I cannot have." Jaydes shrugged.

Dimentio's eyes went slightly wide. He bit his lip beneath the mask, trying to hold back the forming fear. She wasn't talking about Alex, was she?

Now that he thought about it, it was rather odd that the D-Man was helping Mr. L. That HAD to be against Jaydes' rules.

"What?" He asked. "Wait, what do you mean?"

He was just a kid. She wouldn't hurt him, right? Even though she was the queen of the Underwhere, she wouldn't harm a living kid, right? He was still alive, so she technically didn't own him. She didn't have as much power over him as she did over the dark souls.

So she COULDN'T do anything aside from possibly firing him.

Right?

Jaydes chuckled, then began to walk off.

"It's not your place to know."