Mr. L looked up at me. The flash of relief in his eyes showed me that he at least recognized me, which was expected. With each cycle, his memories seemed to be getting more and more precise. What wasn't clear was what he knew. He was still trying to figure everything out when he was stuck in the cycle. 

"Blu?" He asked.

I nodded.

He looked back and forth from me to Inky, who was holding his hand now instead of my own. The little demon stood up and carefully tried pulling Mr. L towards me.

Mr. L didn't move, however. Instead, he looked down and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Something's wrong, Blu. I know you know. I know you're important, even if I don't know who you are," he whimpered. "Why are they looking for you? Why is everything so different? I don't know what to do anymore. Th-they took Mario, Blu. They mistook Mario for you and took him; I was too afraid to stop them. I stayed hidden and just watched."

He began to speak faster and faster. It was clear that he had been holding everything in and just needed to say everything so it wouldn't stack up inside his mind.

"Why am I important down here? I didn't ask to be the creator. They say the Ink Demon is dead, right? But he's not dead. I HEAR him, Blumiere! I've SEEN him! I know I thought Dimentio was crazy before when he said he could hear the Demon, but I really hear it now. Have I lost it too? Am I insane?"

I shook my head no. I wished I could tell him I saw and heard the Ink Demon too. I wish I could comfort him with words so he wouldn't feel like he was completely losing it.

He sniffled, then looked at Inky.

"D-Do you know who this is?" Mr. L asked me, keeping his eyes on the little Demon.

Again, I shook my head no.

"Darn. I keep hoping I'll find answers down here," he breathed, smiling a sad smile while shaking his head. "Instead, all I find are more questions. That's all I ever find in this place..."

He shook his head and looked down. I could understand how the constant repeating of cycles would push him to the limit, but I didn't really consider how the sudden change in everything would have affected him. He had probably grown so accustomed to how things were that he didn't even know how to proceed into new terrain anymore. 

"Still silent?" He asked me, slowly looking up once again. 

I nodded.

He let out a sigh. "How unfortunate. Seems like that's one of the only things that's still the same about this place."

That, and the fact that we're still trapped in here. 

I offered him a shrug, then looked out the window. I forgot to keep track of time. Dang it, I use to be so good at keeping track. It was getting harder and harder to count the passing seconds with all of this new stuff happening to me.

I gestured for Mr. L to follow, then quickly made my way to the exit of the building and back towards where Peach and Dimentio agreed to meet. Mr. L was clearly hesitant to follow since he stayed at least twenty feet behind me. I was actually worried that I was going too fast and that I'd lose him. I assumed that Inky stayed with him since the little demon seemed to form an attachment to the man in green as well. It was actually rather odd. The little guy was terrified of me at first, and he was STILL terrified of everyone else. Why did it take a liking to Mr. L so quickly?

Of course, when I made my way back to where we were supposed to meet, Peach was already there. She appeared to have been waiting for quite a while. 

Mr. L didn't look up or introduce himself. Within the last few cycles, he had pretty much given up on trying to become close with anyone, since most of them would forget every interaction he had with them as soon as the cycle restarted. 

I never forgot though.

"Who's that?" Peach questioned, pointing at the man in green.

She waited for Mr. L to give her an answer, but he instead opted to stay silent. 

Peach seemed to frown. She looked at him with a puzzled expression. She was honestly probably wondering why he looked so "normal." So much more human than the rest of us.

"Speak," she said. "Use your words while you still can."

Mr. L looked up at her, then let out what was either an exhausted or an annoyed sigh.

"You're different."

"I'm Peach," she answered while walking up to him and holding her hand out. "This is the part where you tell me your name."

"Honestly... I've almost forgotten." 

He paused as if deep in thought, then shook his head and pushed her hand away.

"I'm the creator."

She flinched slightly. It was a small flinch, but clearly visible.

I wonder how much she'd flinch if she found out who I really was.

I wish I could tell her that Mr. L wasn't the only creator. If she was going to be afraid of him, then she deserved to be afraid of me too. It wasn't fair to him that he had to take that burden all on his own just because nobody knew who I was anymore. 

"O-Oh. Well, nice to meet you..." she trailed off.

Mr. L and I could both tell she didn't mean that. I didn't know what was going on in her mind, but she was probably secretly angry with him. After all, we were stuck in this horrible place and she lost Mario. She needed someone to blame, and who was the person everyone blamed down here? Not the Ink Demon. It was the creator. 

"How long have you been here? You look tired," Peach pressed. I could tell that she was just trying to get answers out of him. Especially since he looked so different compared to everyone else. 

"A long time..." he admitted. I knew right away that he wasn't really referring to the city, since it didn't even exist for that long. He was referring to how long he has been forced to remember being trapped in this vicious cycle. 

"It's given me a lot of time to think," he continued. "About things like... if you haven't eaten in years, are you even human?"

There was a disturbing tension in the air, and I tried thinking back to the last time I ate. It was bacon soup, quite some time ago. However, the only ones who ate bacon soup were the people like me. The people who became Brooks. I never even noticed how no one else ever ate anything. 

"Um... well, here's Inky?" She asked, turning her attention to me. 

I frowned, then looked back at Mr. L. I thought that the Ink Demon was with him, holding his hand and such. However, the little guy was nowhere to be seen. It was like he just disappeared all of the sudden.

I looked back at Peach and offered a shrug. It felt like an underwhelming reaction, and I wanted to do more because if I'm being truthful, I was worried about the little guy. However, I couldn't really say or do anything. 

Maybe he just went to explore on his own. He wasn't someone I was familiar with, so it wasn't a huge deal, but... well, he was Inky, so he HAD to be someone important, right? Plus, he seemed afraid. 

I just wanted to make sure he was alright. 

"Well, Dimentio's gonna be ticked," Peach giggled while crossing her arms.

"Dimentio?" Mr. L asked.

"You called?"

The man in green literally jumped, then whirled around to see Dimentio standing behind him with his mask situated on top of his head instead of over his face. I couldn't see the look on the man in green's face, but I could tell he was completely surprised by Dimentio's new appearance. To be fair, I was too at first.

"You- wait, what happened?!" Mr. L asked, taking a few steps back. "Who are you?"

"I don't know," Dimentio answered with a shrug. There was a brief pause, then the ex-jester smiled and let out a quiet chuckle. "Oh, wait. I'm Dimentio! Aha ha ha, somehow I keep forgetting the unimportant things like that."

Dimentio walked past him and over to me. As he did, I noticed Mr. L staring at him out of the corner of my eye. It was a look of utter shock and confusion.

"You... is this what you look like?!" Mr. L demanded. His quiet, tired attitude had suddenly disappeared. It was replaced with the curious attitude he had when this world first came to be. "Is this what you've always looked like? Like, before all this happened. Behind the mask, was that your face?"

"Before all of what happened?" 

"THIS!" Mr. L exclaimed, gesturing to the world around us. "Before ALL OF THIS INKY MESS! I just- what's going on?!"

At this point, Mr. L seemed to be making a bigger deal out of it than it was. He was acting like the idea of Dimentio having a face at all was some grand discovery. Although, it probably was shocking to him since he had only seen Dimentio while he was either wearing a mask, a cardboard cutout of Inky, or while his face was nothing but a black circle with two glowing eyes.

"I think we're trying to kill the one who killed our savior," Dimentio said.

"We're actually trying to save my Brooks," Peach corrected.

Mr. L looked at me.

I couldn't tell him what I believed we were really doing.

"So... we've all got different goals then." Mr. L breathed, looking down and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Great."

"Do we?" Peach asked. "What would your goal be then, creator?"

Mr. L looked down at his hands. The grey gloves had been completely stained black. Most of his outfit was already black, so it was hard to notice the stains, but they definitely stood out on his hat, bandana, and skin. 

He shook his head and looked over at Dimentio.

"My goal is to make good on all the promises my brother and I made," he said. 

"Oh? You have a brother down here?" Peach asked.

He nodded.

"He promised to save everyone. He promised everything would be okay eventually."

"And what did YOU promise, Mr. L?" Dimentio asked.

The man in green looked up at the former jester. I couldn't quite read the expression on his face, but it was slightly different from his usual tired expression. It wasn't his curious or thoughtful expression either, however. I'm not good with words, so I don't know how to accurately describe it. 

"To help you escape so you could make music again." 

Dimentio's eyes widened slightly. He stayed still for a moment. I could tell that he was scanning his fractured memories for when that promise was made to him.

"Huh... I suppose you did..." he trailed off.