Don't Wake Me, I'm Not Dreaming

41

" Hold up your end, or the deal's off. "

"Pearson's talking to some woman in a fancy car." Luigi tells Mario in the dreamscape. "Very strict librarian type. Salt and pepper hair."

" All of your medical bills will be taken care of. "

"She's who paid Pearson's medical bills." Luigi repeats.

"The one who bribed Pearson to attack Irene?" Mario asks. "Tell me you can see a plate."

"Hang on." Luigi says. "Pearson's next to the car. She probably didn't get a good look."

The dreamscape glitches, making Luigi wince. "Uh oh. Pearson's head injury is messing up the dreamwalk."

" Luigi's detaching from Pearson. " Pauline warns.

" Your diabetes will be gone, and you'll live the rest of your life without a care in the world. " The woman promises her. " Take care of Masterson, it's all yours. "

"Okay, she's speeding away." Luigi tells Mario.

"Get the plates." Mario urges, and though Luigi tries, it's no use.

"Sorry, I couldn't catch it." Luigi apologizes. "Dreamscape changed again." He squints. "Can't tell, but I think we're in the prison? Pearson's on the phone."

"Magnus just came to visit Masterson." Pearson says into the phone. " You want me to shoo him away? "

Then she nods, hangs up, then radios someone. "Hey, guys, I'm smelling a gas leak. Get everyone out of here."

" Luigi and Pearson are seconds away from detaching! " Pauline says.

"Found her. Go wake me up." Luigi orders Mario, who makes a run for the dream portal as Luigi smashes the nightmare chunk, then waits for the pinch.

"That was too weird for words." Luigi says as he sits up on the bed.

"I know. You almost didn't wake her up in time." Mario tells him.

"No," Luigi shakes his head. "Magnus tried to go see Irene in prison, but Irene refused. And to make Magnus go away, Pearson called an alarm about a gas leak."

"Irene, what did you do?" Mario begs her, but she won't even look at him.

The cop who made the arrest looks at Mario, noticing his t-shirt. "You like Kid Icarus, huh? You're pretty tough, you remind me of Magnus in Uprising. That's my new nickname for you. Hello, Magnus."

"It's me." Mario gasps, making the whole team stare at him. "I'm Magnus."

"Then that means..." Luigi connects the dots slowly. "That means the caller that asked Pearson to watch out for Mario has to be the woman from the SEC."

"Dagny Weiss." Spike says, coming up with his tablet. "Responsible for arresting a nice number of those found guilty in the admissions scandal, then retired shortly after Irene was arrested."

"That's her." Mario confirms when he sees her picture.

"And with her hair starting to turn gray, it's the same woman in the dreamwalk." Luigi says.

"But what's it to her if I suddenly decide to visit my mentor?" Mario doesn't understand.

"Off the top of my head? $10 million." Snoozemore replies. "Weiss was the true mastermind behind the admissions scandal, and threatened to put your name on the list and ruin your career if Irene didn't take the fall."

"Ain't that convenient." Clark says. "Weiss isn't due to return from a vacation until tomorrow morning."

"We'll arrest her first thing." Snoozemore says.

"Irene?" Mario asks immediately.

"Bring her to the lab." Snoozemore orders. "She'll be safe here."

Marilyn comes home to a quiet apartment.

She goes to the fridge, craving a snack, then closes it.

And nearly has a heart attack when she sees her dad standing behind it like he'd been waiting for her to notice.

"Looking good, kid." Arthur chuckles.

"I told you," Marilyn seethes. "To stop calling, texting, and outright stalking me."

"Hey now." Arthur says. "That any way to talk to your dear old dad? It's you and me against everybody, you know that."

"No, I don't." Marilyn denies. "Turns out I have a cousin. Two cousins, actually, and a real friend I even can't talk to because if she knew you were here, she'd never trust me again."

"Please." Arthur rolls his eyes. "Snoozemore's so predictable. Pauline's only friends with you under his orders, so she can get closer to finding me. But I'm way ahead of him."

He grins, but it's anything but comforting as he continues, "Keep hanging out with our new mayor. Get her to let her guard down, so she'll help us find Tony."

"No fucking way." Marilyn snaps, disgusted.

"Oh yeah?" Arthur says, crossing his arms. "How quickly would they turn on you if they knew who really kidnapped Eldream's cloud bunny and told it everything it needed to know to trap Luigi in Dream's Deep?"

At that, Marilyn gets angry, then yells, "Get the fuck away from me."

To his credit, Arthur starts to go, even has the door open, but he stops to look at her one more time.

For a split second, Marilyn sees how much pain Arthur is really in, from all of this.

But it's gone another second later, and he just nods, then closes the door behind him.