Norman Whitesmith here to bring you chapter 1 of "If He Failed". This story is going to be continued after I finish Kitsune Curse (unless things change between now and then), but for now I'm going to give you the first chapter of this idea I had that was somewhat based off of chapter two of a Mario fanfic called "Bad Game Over's", I believe it was. This is also my first T rated fanfiction, as it is a few steps up on the darkness scale from the other stories I have written before. To start off, I absolutely love the character of Mr. L, but Nintendo doesn't really seem to feel the same way as he only appeared once. And unfortunately, with his one appearance, Nintendo didn't capitalize on his inner most thoughts or anything of the sorts that would give us a better idea of this character, but rather just gave us the surface of the guy. Unfortunately, this story isn't going to be focused on Mr. L, but rather Mario and Luigi. Mr. L is going to be part of this, but unfortunately, not as huge of a part. But if I have another half asleep idea with Mr. L in it, I'll be sure to write it! I tried to draw up my own cover here, but unfortunately all cameras I own are trash and don't do the picture any justice. But then again, I'm not the best artist in the world either, especially with my chronically shaky hand that twitches at the worst possible moments, causing me to have to compensate with thickening lines. I'm also drawing up cover art for "King L" and "Kitsune Curse". Let's just leave this art as "I was trying". But either way, this is a story based on the idea of "what if Mario failed to fight Super Dimentio?" This is really just the first chapter to see how much interest is in the story before the full one starts to get written. And I've never played Super Paper Mario, so the dialogue won't be word for word where it's relevant, but I do know the story well enough to not make a giant mess of everything. But without further ado, here's chapter 1.

Chapter 1: Traitor

Dull and worn out light shone through a tiny window of Castle Bleck, barely giving off enough light to guide two heroes upon their path. Mario trudged through the decaying halls that screamed of death, alongside his little brother, Luigi. Mario was five years the senior of Luigi and couldn't help but rush to his little brother's side when he collapsed onto the tile moaning and clasping his head, tears flowing freely from his tightly shut eyes. Mario couldn't help but hold his brother's head in his lap and run his fingers through his hair. A sudden tremor that shook the large castle's very foundations increased Mario's concern. Ever since he found Luigi half dead in the Underwhere and managed to make it to the regular world, Luigi started having mind breaking migraines. They had already lost three of their other friends and the butterfly pixl named Tippi was nowhere to be seen after she ran off ahead in an excited hurry. Mario sighed before putting on his best smile and trying to get Luigi's attention, who was lost in his own world of pain and didn't seem to be responding until he finally opened his clouded blue eyes that were lost in a different reality as he began to gasp for breath.

"C'mon, Luigi," said Mario in the most positive voice he could muster, "Just a little bit further! I know you can do it!"

Mario knew he was lying through his teeth, but the world needed to be saved and there was no possible way that he was just going to leave his little brother sitting alone in this Godforsaken castle. If they could just stop Count Bleck, the void would close and everything would be right again, right? Mario had to hold onto this hope and trust that Luigi could make it to the end without his game ending.

"M-M-Mario," gasped out Luigi, his eyes focusing on nothing in particular, "Please, make them stop. Make the voices stop!"

'Screw it, he isn't going to last that long. I can't force him to do this any longer. Minions inhabit this castle, so there needs to be a bed somewhere. Heck, even villains like Bowser aren't cruel enough to force their minions to sleep on the cold floor.'

Mario hoisted up Luigi in his arms bridal style and started to look in various rooms, hoping he could find a bedroom with enough time to spare before the end of all worlds. Luigi didn't react to being picked up and continued to mutter nonsense as his concerned brother carried him. Finally he found a bedroom that was oddly decorated with posters of hot men and other colorful girly things. This would have to do, so Mario lay Luigi down on the bed and tucked him in gently, while praying to Grambi that the owner of said room wouldn't return anytime soon. As Mario was leaving the room, he saw a diary sitting on the brightly embellished bed stand and felt like reading it, but unfortunately saving the world from a seemingly unstoppable void in a limited amount of time made reading it an impossibility. Mario gave one last backwards glance at Luigi, who had luckily drifted off into a fitful sleep when he was put down. He had to protect him. He was the one who made waking up every morning worth it and Mario had protected him ever since they came to this strange land, and there was no way that he was going to let him get any more hurt than he already was. Mario had no idea how wrong he was.

XxX

"GREEEEEEEN," screeched the abomination in front of the reunited party.

Mario stared and a single tear came out of his eye as he looked upon the monster his little brother had become. All those times he never let him on an adventure was to protect him from something like this happening. Luigi had involuntarily revealed that he was Mr. L (which Mario felt strong guilt that he had beat up his little brother multiple times and almost killed him when he caused the brobot to self destruct.) after he finally woke up from his nap somewhat refreshed and against his will, Luigi ran over to Dimentio's side, parts of his body twitching as he fruitlessly tried to fight the floro sprout that protruded from his skull and controlled his motions. It was only a matter of seconds before Luigi was fused with the heart of pure chaos and started to grow into the monster that was before them now. Luigi's skin turned pitch black as his hair turned white and his limbs began to stretch themselves into unholy terrors. After his transformation was complete, Super Dimentio (dubbed by none other than Dimentio), completed itself by fusing with Dimentio.

The entire party of heroes shuddered in fear of the freak in front of them and watched in horror as it began to laugh and walk towards them. Peach and Bowser both knew they were no match for this beast and knew that Mario alone could stop it. But little did they know that the famed hero of their world was fighting his own inner demons and couldn't spare any more strength.

Mario sighed. His little brother, only twenty years old, was almost killed by him. Flashes of scenes where Mr. L's bloodied face twisted in pain after a fight haunted Mario. He was a horrible brother. Mario looked at the slowly advancing "monster" that he had to fight. Or did he? If he just gave up then, perhaps Dimentio would let Luigi go and the two brothers could be together. After all, maybe Dimentio wouldn't be too bad of a ruler. Sometimes the best way to win is not to play, right?

"Dimentio," said Mario as he stepped forward, hands up in the air showing surrender, "I give up. Please make me your servant in the new world."

Super Dimentio stopped in its tracks as it looked down with pure confusion on its face. Suddenly a giant mangled grin contorted on its face and it reached out a hand and snatched up Mario, who made no attempts to stop it.

"NOOO!" cried out Peach, "Mario, what are you doing? The worlds are at stake!"

Another tremor from the approaching end shook the building and caused rubble to fall from the ceiling. Mario just stared blankly from his position in the palm of Super Dimentio's hand as his former friends tried to avoid the falling. Mario gave Peach a small and sad smile as she continued to stare at him in utter shock betrayal and disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Peach," replied Mario with a small sheepish chuckle, "My world is at stake."

Everything suddenly went black as the end consumed everything, Mario only feeling as if he was being pulled apart for a second before a barrier of darkness formed around him and Super Dimentio, keeping them safe. However safe inside the barrier was, that didn't stop Mario from seeing what was going on outside as all of his friends got ripped limb from limb, their blood and innards spraying the barrier as the world disappeared. Faces of people he tried to protect for the longest time were frozen in horror as they watched their bodies get destroyed. Mario didn't care. He was sitting in the palm of what was supposed to be his brother, so nothing could be wrong. Peach. Bowser. Tippi. Bleck. Names that held no meaning anymore as the world lapsed into darkness, their blood even disappearing off the barrier as the end finally completed its destruction. The worlds were blissfully black and void. Then Super Dimentio waved one of its hands and existence solidified once again.

And that's chapter one. Once again, the next chapters aren't going to be written for awhile and this is more to see how much interest is going to be in my future stories. Man, guilt can make people monsters. Please criticize my work and tell me what you think and where I need to improve it, if you could find mistakes (which there are probably loads of them). I'll be honest here and say that this wasn't my best writing, but I was trying. The writing isn't as strong here as it will be in the rest of the story and that is because I had plot points for everywhere but the beginning other than "Mario gives up". The cover is actually based on a later on part in the story. So I pretty much made everything up as I wrote this. The next chapters in the future will be better. I have nothing else to say other than review, so until next time, Norm out. And don't forget that people are monsters. Not all people, but most of them.