The heroes returned from their journey to find the last Chaos Heart shard, partially successful but partially feeling like failures. The next dimensional doorway led them back to the Underwhere and their journey brought them up through the Overthere, but there was no Chaos Heart shard waiting at the end of the road, so they were forced to return empty-handed.

Well, almost empty-handed. Peach and Daisy were lucky enough to find King Boo locked away in the Underwhere and Prince Mario stranded in the Overthere. Daisy liked to joke around about the fact that Prince Mario was somehow able to get into the Overthere, but not her or Peach. Honestly, the prince felt confused about it too, but in the end, they were all just glad that everyone was okay, even King Boo. Even the ghost king was a little worried that he'd never see any of these people again, even though most of the time they were nothing more than pains to him.

Once they returned to Flopside, Bleck urged the heroes to talk to Pierre about what to do next. Perhaps they got the location wrong and had to search elsewhere for the heart. He was determined that their adventure wasn't done

The blonde hero led everyone down to the elevator and toward Pierre's house. She used the back of her fist to knock three times.

"You're back!" Pierre chimed, pulling the door open before Peach could even fully finish her third knock. She almost stumbled inside, not having expected such a fast response.

He looked at all the heroes, his shoulders relaxing slightly in relief.

"And you've found everyone," he added joyfully. "I knew we could count on you! This is fantastic! Once again, you've gone above and beyond!"

"Yeah, but there's a problem..." Bleck trailed off.

"Oh, the sky?" Pierre asked. "I know, the gash has gotten a lot bigger. A lot of people are panicking, so I've been working on calming them down and getting them to safer spaces. But, now we have everything we need to stop the countess now!" Pierre chimed. "Soon all their minds will be put at ease and everything will be okay!"

The heroes all looked at each other, unsure how to break the news and explain the situation. Bleck's gaze lowered just slightly as if he was zoning out and becoming lost in his own thoughts.

"Bleck?" Pierre asked with a quiet laugh. "What's wrong? You look unhappy..."

His voice shifted to something soft and gentle. It was lacking the energy it usually held.

"Um... well, a number of things... but the prophecy..." Bleck quietly trailed off. He floated slightly higher and looked up at Pierre. "Do...do we really have to destroy Countess Tippi to stop it from happening?"

Pierre's eyes showed that his smile had slowly faded, giving him a more concerned appearance as he drew backward, falling silent.

"Hey, it'll be alright," Peach breathed. "Fighting villains is hard... but heroes always figure out the right way to do it. Sometimes, we have to do hard things, but it's for the greater good. It'll be okay."

There was a heartbroken expression in Bleck's good eye. 

Pierre felt a wave of unease wash over him.

"Yes... I suppose you're right..." the pixl murmured with a heavy tone. "I guess we always knew that, didn't we...?"

Peach nodded, but everyone was quiet. They could tell there was something more happening. But was it something they had time to discuss and figure out? The gash in the sky was continuing to grow. If they waited much longer, soon every world would look the way the one they fought Ms. D in did. Flopside, Flipside, the Mushroom Kingdom, Sarasaland, Evershade Valley, everything would be gone.

"...Very well, then," Pierre breathed. "The door to her castle... it's on the top of Flipside Tower."

"It is? How?" Bleck asked. "We didn't find the Chaos Heart fragment in the Overthere, Pierre. I think... we may have messed up."

"Hmm? Oh, no, no, no, I didn't send you there to get the heart," Pierre assured them. "I sent you there to find the heroes. I already had the heart shard. Oops, looks like I forgot to tell you, heh..."

"You already had the heart?!" Daisy exclaimed. "Well, you should have told us earlier! Bro, I felt like a failure!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But all is well," Pierre awkwardly chuckled. "All is well. You all should head to Flipside Tower. I'll be close behind to see you off. I just need to check something real quick."

The heroes all shrugged it off and left the house, most of them just relieved to know that they didn't need to search every dimension in existence for that final shard. Peach had almost feared that somehow one of Countess Tippi's little minions got their hands on it before they could.

They were ready to move onward to the final part of their adventure when Daisy paused, looking at the now-closed door to Pierre's house.

"Daisy? You good?" Peach questioned, cocking her head to the side and looking at her friend with a confused expression on her face as the prince and the ghost king looked back as well.

Daisy froze for a moment. She heard talking on the other side of the door, but she was unable to understand what was being said.

"Umm... yeah!" Daisy lied, turning and smiling a reassuring smile at Peach. "I just... I'm gonna ask the ancient guy something real quick. I'll meet you all at the door! You go ahead!"

The other three heroes and Bleck seemed to exchange confused glances, but then shrugged it off and went onward, leaving her alone. Once they were all gone Daisy pressed her ear to the door.

On the other side of it, Pierre was scrambling through his scrolls until he found a singular torn page, the same one he used to help Bleck when he fainted before.

"What do I do, Merlon?" he seemed to quietly ask, his voice shaking slightly. Just a few moments ago he sounded so positive and sure of himself, now he hardly sounded like the same person. Usually, Daisy could tell a lot about a person from the way they used their voice and spoke. This voice sounded like Pierre's but didn't feel like his.

"Merlon?" she whispered under her breath. Who was that supposed to be?

There was a shuffling of papers and a few footsteps. He was pacing now.

On the other side, Pierre's mind was spinning. Something bad could happen to Bleck, something bad was going to happen to Bleck. He had a bad feeling. It was getting harder by the minute to keep pretending everything was okay. It was getting harder to keep ignoring who he was, running from what he was. Everywhere he looked, those memories seemed follow. 

"Can you please just... please tell me what to do? I'm scared... I know I have no right to be afraid anymore, but I am... I can't lose him. Not again. Please, not while he still doesn't know. It's hard enough living without being able to tell him... but losing him? I-I can't do that." he whispered.

He fell silent after that as Daisy tried putting the pieces together in her mind. Bleck... he had to have been talking about Bleck. When he looked at the pixl, there was always something else in his eyes. Daisy might not have been part of the group for as long as everyone else, but she knew that something more was going on. Something she and Peach weren't being told about. Something even Bleck wasn't being told.

She took a deep breath, summoning every ounce of courage within her. Facing villains was easy, confronting good guys was what took strength.

Pierre flinched slightly as the girl in orange pushed the door opening, barging in and crossing her arms.

"D-Daisy!" he stuttered, forcing a happy tone to return in less than an instant. Was he always good at masking his emotions so quickly? "I-I thought you were all heading towards the tower!"

"I heard everything," Daisy interrupted.

Pierre stilled, then quietly laughed to himself, looking away. He hid the torn sheet of paper behind his back and stood up, clearing his throat.

"Heard–heard what?" he asked, playing the oblivious card.

"Like I said, everything," Daisy repeated. "Your conversation with yourself. Or, was it a conversation with Merlon? Who is Merlon, Pierre?"

"O-Oh..." Pierre whispered, nervously laughing more and more. "That! W-Well, I was, you see, Merlon is the name of... this star! Right here!"

He pointed up at one of the stars painted on the wall, still laughing to himself.

"Sometimes, I talk to my stars about... made-up stories in my head. Don't tell people, though. They'll think I lost it. Maybe I have lost it. Oh well, bye now!"

"Save it. So you're closer to Bleck than you're letting on?" Daisy asked, though it was less of a question and more of a statement.

Pierre flinched again, his blue eyes widening. He started to tremble just slightly

No... he didn't say something like that out loud. Even when he was certain he was all alone, he never said things like that.

"Why would you think something as silly as that?" he asked. "Bleck is a pixl."

"Not always," Daisy stated. "He told me what he knew about himself when we were in the Overthere. Of course, he didn't know much. Because... you're keeping him in the dark, aren't you? You don't want him to know. Are you related?"

Pierre remained still. His breathing quickened just slightly. It felt too loud. He wanted to run and hide, but if he teleported and ran, then he would risk Daisy running and telling everyone else.

"What are you hiding? " the girl in orange asked. "Where did you get that heart? Why don't you want Bleck to know who he was? He's curious, you know."

"Because!" Pierre cried, resuming his frantic pacing. His hands trembled as he took his gloves off. "I... I was a horrible person. Think of the worst person you've ever met and double that. I was worse. I... I didn't want... I wanted to be someone else. And... to be someone else, I just... if I told Bleck, I was scared he'd... he'd want to leave, like he did before. And... I thought... he'd be happier if he didn't know."

Daisy paused, then grasped his arm, refusing to let him continue pacing. "Why...?" she asked, her voice gentle and kind now, which was almost strange to hear coming from her. Gentle and kind was more of Peach's thing.

Pierre looked down at her, one voice in his mind desperate to speak, another voice desperate for him to keep quiet. He had never been allowed to speak to anybody about his past, he spent centuries trying to leave it all behind. He changed his ways, changed his story, changed everything so he'd never have to go back to the way things were.

"... Bleck... was not always Bleck," the red-cloaked ancient explained. "He... was my son. Blumiere. He was kind... loving... and so full of life. Everything I ever wished I was, and everything I strive to be now. It was just me and him. His mother left us when he was very young, so he was all I had. The tribe never let me show it... but he was my everything. He was my reason for getting up in the morning. My reason for living. But... I didn't know how to love correctly. I was always so afraid of being hurt, so used to being hated that I... didn't know how to be a good father. I... didn't know how to give him the love he deserved. Then... the tribe... they couldn't deal with who he chose to love. So... they tried to make me... make me kill him. Twice, actually. The first time they tried making me do it, I got on my knees and begged them for another solution, thus leading to the monocle placed over his eye. It covers a bad scar. But... the second time... they wouldn't make any more deals. I had to kill him. A-and when I couldn't... they did it for me."

He pressed his eyes shut. He didn't like to think of that day, it hurt too bad. Each time he thought of the moment his son's fate was sealed, he would feel a deep pit in his stomach. He felt sick and afraid all over again.

"I... I played with magic that wasn't my own. I did anything I could to save him." Pierre explained, wiping tears and forcing a soft smile. "Merlon... an old friend... it's because of him I was able to do that. I'm grateful every single day for the second chance he gave me. The chance to be the person I always wanted to be."

Daisy's eyes seemed to soften as she leaned forward. "But... I still don't understand why you didn't remind him. If... If you've known all this time,"

Pierre closed his eyes and seemed to bow his head in shame, shaking slightly, voice squeaking as if he was going to break down any moment now.

"I... didn't want him to remember me," Pierre admitted, his voice small. "I was going to tell him... but when I first saw his pixl form... when I first saw that monocle over the eye I ruined... I was reminded of what I had done to him. I could save his soul, but even that was still scarred because of what I had done. That me... the one who gave him that scar... that wasn't the me I wanted him to know. I wanted to be... a kind and loving soul. J-just like Blumiere was. I was inspired by him. So... I left every part of the man I used to be behind. That way Bleck would never have to feel weighed down by what I had done. I did everything I could to be like the people I cared about most, Blumiere and Merlon."

"But... doesn't Bleck deserve to know where he came from?" Daisy asked. "I'm sure he's curious. If you knew this all along, why wouldn't you tell him? Don't you think he deserves to know?"

"... Of course I do," Pierre admitted. "And sometimes... I want to tell him. I want to tell him and try to search for forgiveness. But... I'm afraid. I was lucky enough to be given this second chance, and there was no way I was just going to throw that away. And b-besides... if he were to find out, he could change his mind about helping us take down Countess Tippi. The... hardest part about this job is knowing the sacrifices that will need to be made in order to succeed. So please... please don't tell him."

"But—"

"Please!" Pierre begged, grasping both of her shoulders with shaking hands.

"Fine! Fine! I won't tell him!" Daisy breathed, holding her hands up. "But only because YOU should."

Pierre's eyes seemed to soften as he let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you... hero. Thank you."

Daisy paused, then smiled and nodded, pulling back and looking away.

"My friends need me," she stated.

She was about to walk out and leave him, when Pierre let out a small, "Wait."

She paused in the doorway and looked back down at him, raising an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Pierre's big blue eyes were still wide and glassy, but she could tell that he was lightly smiling again through them.

"Just... protect him," Pierre whispered.

Daisy slowly smiled, then nodded. "I will," she promised. "Will you tell him?"

Pierre seemed to freeze, not answering her question. She decided to leave once it was clear she wasn't getting an answer, finding her friends and leaving him all alone.

"We'll see..." he whispered after she was long gone.