I sure hope Dimentio knew what he was talking about.

Oh, who am I kidding, he's Dimentio. His memory is spotty and his mind is broken. Of course, he didn't know what he was talking about.

Even so, his plan was the best one we had.

"You know we're desperate once we ACTUALLY go along with Dimentio's plans," Mr. L huffed from behind me. 

"I think it'll work!" Timpani chimed next to him. 

The rest of the group had separated to go and fulfill their parts in the plan. Apparently, for this to work, it had to be me and Mr. L that did this. Timpani decided to come along with us since she thought that we would need backup. At least, that's what she told the group. Everyone else went off on their own to meet up with us later to get ready for their part of the plan.

I was both happy and afraid of the fact that Timpani decided to join my group. On one hand, every moment I spent with her made me feel less afraid and more at ease. However, I knew very well that once my father saw her, he'd surely try to do something terrible. 

I wasn't going to let him lay a finger on her. 

"I don't," Mr. L huffed. "Dimentio is CRAZY! Especially when it comes to the Ink Demon. This plan is basically just an elaborate ritual, now complete with multiple sacrifices."

"It's not an elaborate ritual," Timpani corrected.

Actually... it kinda was an elaborate ritual.

I'd give us a fair 30% chance of succeeding. 

"Oh, there you are! Thank goodness," Nastiasia breathed once we returned to my father's sectioned-off area of the castle. She was waiting by the entrance with a clearly worried expression on her face. She probably knew she'd be in big trouble for losing Mr. L and me. I was honestly surprised that we managed to avoid all the lost ones when making our way back. After all, it's much harder to sneak around with three people. 

"And who would you be?" She asked, looking at Timpani.

"Timp!" Timpani chimed while smiling and holding her hand out to Nastasia. 

Nastasia seemed to squint at her, then reluctantly shook her hand. 

"Well, are you going to see him?" She asked.

I nodded.

She looked down, then let go of Timpani's hand so she could brush herself off.

"Well... best of luck, then," she breathed.

"Why do you sound so gloomy when you say that?" Mr. L asked while crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. 

"I don't know..." Nastasia trailed off. "He's going to be down a few floors. No one else is allowed down there. I know he'd let you and the creator in, but I don't know about Angel-"

"It's not Angel, actually" Timpani corrected with a smile. "And I'm going with them, whether your boss likes it or not!"

Nastasia winced slightly as if she was being scolded, which was odd because Timpani said that in the kindest way possible. 

I surely hoped that my father didn't scold her often enough to make her flinch whenever anyone spoke to her. I couldn't even stand the thought of him being cruel to one of my closest friends. 

"Right. Well... then you three best be off..." she muttered, bowing her head.

Mr. L nodded, then took the lead, allowing me to walk next to Timpani. 

As we walked past Nastasia, I couldn't help but look back at her.

I found myself wishing I could say thank you to her. For caring about me. For everything she ever did to help me. Yes, once upon a time I did save her, but she had done so much more for me. 

If I get my words back, I'll be sure to thank her.

Not if. When. 

We started down some stairs. There was a door with large bold letters written on it that said DO NOT ENTER, but Nastasia made it seem like this was the place my father would be, so we went in anyway. 

Once we were inside, the walls looked similar to the rest of the castle, except for one major detail. Instead of black ink dripping from walls, there were small splatters of a variety of different colors. 

"Pretty..." Timpani quietly whispered under her breath as we passed them. Mr. L didn't say a word, but I could tell that he was thrown off by them. After all, there were almost no colors left in this world. The only time before this I had seen color was when the world seemed to glitch around me.

The further in we walked, the more color we saw. The color wasn't the only thing that was different, however. It seemed like the brightness around us was being turned up. Eventually, it got to the point where my eyes started to burn and I had to squint. 

We continued to walk until we finally spotted my father, standing in the center of a large room while leaning over a table, which had countless posters of Inky, Brooks, and Angel. Though, the posters weren't the same as before. He had scribbled over them in color as if he was trying to remake them into something new.

"I see you've finally found the courage to come see me," he chucked without even turning to face us. He sounded as if he expected us to come, which he probably did now that I thought about it. It was probably why he brought us here in the first place. So we could help him with whatever he was planning to do. "Come closer. We have much to discuss."

The three of us took one step, when he suddenly cleared his throat, making me flinch.

"Not her."

I tensed up slightly as he slowly turned to face us. His eyes immediately went to Timpani, and my heart started to race. 

I grit my teeth, then grabbed her hand.

My father seemed to raise his eyebrows at that, but I didn't care. How he felt about her didn't matter. 

"Blu, she's not like the rest of us. Send her away. She'll slow us down-"

"You're not like the rest of us, either," Mr. L interrupted. "In fact, who even are you? I've never even heard of you. So why don't you shut down your judgemental thoughts and tell us why you need us here? Cool? Cool."

My father paused, then rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Whatever," he huffed. "We're here to put an end to the Ink Demon once and for all so I can establish order and peace in this world. Do any of you see a problem with that?"

No one spoke up.

"Great. I'm glad you've finally come to your senses and decided to cooperate," he breathed. "For months now, I've been working on something that will end the creature once and for all. Something that will cast out the monster, and put a new entity in its place. Something stronger. Something more powerful, yet controllable. Follow me, and I'll show you my creation..."

He waves us forward, then walked into a small room connected to the one we were in. Inside, there were eight pillars with eight different pure hearts. Most of them were slightly dulled, but they still held some color. 

"Okay, hold up sir, your plan is to use these to make something to replace the Ink Demon?" Mr. L asked.

"Do you even know how these work?" Timpani added.

"Yes. I am working on creating something that will be able to step into the Ink Demon's place, only instead of causing chaos, it will bring peace," my father explained while completely ignoring Timpani's question. 

"And how will you control it?!" Mr. L snapped. "How do you know that it won't turn out exactly like the Ink Demon?!"

"Because this will have a soul," my father explained. A grin slowly started to spread across his face.

I did NOT like that grin.

"A soul?" Mr. L questioned. "Who's soul?!"

"Yours." 

My father grinned at both me and Mr. L, sending chills down my spine. Which one of us was he talking to?! 

"Mine?" Mr. L asked.

"Yes. And yours," he smiled while gesturing to me. "You see, the Ink Demon's problem wasn't that fact that it was gifted with a mix of both your worst characteristics. The problem was that it was both of you, yet neither of you at the same time-"

"Hold up, hold up, BOTH of us?!" Mr. L asked. "What do you mean?! The Ink Demon is just a manifestation of Count Bleck's anger-"

"And the man in green's fear and jealousy," my father added with a smirk. 

Mr. L fell silent. 

I was shocked.

Timpani seemed confused. She was probably trying to catch herself up since she probably didn't know that I was involved with creating this world. She has always been very good at reading situations, though, so I was sure that she was slowly but surely realizing what was going on. 

"So... we were both the Ink Demon?" Mr. L murmured.

"Correct," my father beamed. "And yet, the Ink Demon was uncontrollable because it didn't have a real soul inside of it. It didn't have a host."

I grasped Timpani's hand, hoping that the physical touch would transfer me the courage I needed. 

"Now, shall we begin?" My father asked.

Before we knew it, my father had used one hand to firmly grasp Mr. L's arm. He used his other to grab me and rip me away from Timpani. 

"Hey- wait!!" She exclaimed, quickly trying to run up in front of my father and stop him from taking us away.

He continued pulling us closer and closer to the pure hearts until finally, our savior arrived. 

Well, Dimentio's savior. 

The Ink Demon, looking just as monstrous as before, quickly attacked him, tackling him to the side and making him let us go. My father stumbled back into one of the pure heart pillars, hitting it hard enough to make fractures run up the marble. 

My father was clearly thrown off by the sudden attack. He had basically Ink-Demon proofed this whole area with the power of the pure hearts, so he was probably confused as to how the Ink-Demon got in.

Dimentio's theory was that since the Ink Demon was composed of, well, me, it would never let me die. 

Now that we know the Ink Demon is also made of parts of Mr. L, it sorta makes sense how nothing else could ever kill him. In past cycles, the Ink Demon didn't let Dimentio sacrifice him and it didn't let Nastasia hurt him. 

That had to be why Inky seemed less afraid of the two of us. 

Timpani gasped and covered her mouth while the Ink Demon snarled like a wild animal, then started dragging my father away from the pure hearts. I squeezed my eyes shut while my father screamed. Yes, I hated him with all I was, but I still didn't want to watch what was about to happen.

Mr. L quickly grabbed my arm, then ran up to the Ink Demon and my father. 

Just before we reached them, I briefly looked back at Timpani. She looked nervous. I wanted to tell her not to worry. I wanted to reassure her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

I softly smiled at her and waved.

She smiled and waved back.

Then, Mr. L and I both grabbed ahold of the Ink Demon.