A large group of people met at the top of Flipside Tower to see the two villains off. The situation almost felt like a prisoner being publicly executed. 

Blumiere had been quiet since the realization that Marc was from the Tribe of Darkness hit him. His mind kept whirling, pummeling him with question after question.

Did I kill Marc? Did I really kill the author of this book, and never even bother learning his name?!  

It made him think of that night. That horrible night when he finally snapped and took the Dark Prognosticus. On that night, nothing even mattered to him anymore. He didn't care who he hurt. It was horrible and heartless, and it made him feel sick even thinking about it. Not everyone in the Tribe of Darkness were evil. In fact, there were countless people who were genuinely kind. The tribe was filled with people who were simply that, people. Blumiere just killed them that night because it was their rules that took Timpani from him. But most of those people didn't even make those rules. They were innocent people, and Blumiere killed them anyway. 

And Marc was probably one of them. 

Did Merlon even know? Surely Merlon must have heard about what he did to his former tribe. Was that why Merlon always seemed somewhat nervous whenever the topic of Marc was brought up?! Was it because he knew that Blumiere had killed him all along?!

No, that couldn't be right. It was clear from the way that Merlon spoke to him that he didn't hold the same kind of resentment one should hold when being faced with the person who murdered a friend. Maybe Marc somehow escaped the Tribe of Darkness and left long before Blumiere's time. 

The silent debate continued in Blumiere's mind over whether or not he killed Marc that night. He wished he could remember. He wished he knew the names of all the people he killed. That night, he didn't bother looking at anyone because he didn't see them as people. They were people, of course, but he convinced himself that they were nothing more than machines trained by the tribe to be obedient to its unfair rules. He wished he bothered to learn their names so he could somehow find and apologize to them, even though he knew he could never deserve any of their forgiveness. He deserved nothing after all the wrong Count Bleck had done-- after all the wrong Blumiere had done.

He decided to keep a tight hold on the lantern, despite Merlon clearly being desperate to get his hands on it. He still had some stuff he wanted to figure out about the mysterious object. It glowed brightly, as it always did whenever he held it. In comparison, it made his own staff look rather dim and boring. 

Mario and Luigi stood in front of the group of people who had gathered. Both wore unreadable expressions. Dimentio had given the book to Luigi instead of Merlon. He just felt more comfortable with the book being in somewhat of a normal person's hands instead of an ancient who was quite literally obsessed with big books. Plus, he wasn't sure what Merlon would have planned to do with the journal. Yes, he knew that the ancient probably just wanted it to remember his old friend, but there was a part of Dimentio that still didn't completely trust Merlon, most likely because the ancient was the one to gather the legendary heroes and guide them to their victory in the past.

Merlon hadn't really said anything in response to not being able to get his hands on either of the objects, but it was clear that he was disappointed. 

"I... suppose this is it," Dimentio breathed, looking at the dimensional door in front of them. There were seven total doors on top of the tower. When lined up, they looked like the colors of the rainbow. The first door was red, then orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, then indigo, then purple.

The door before them was purple, which seemed fitting because purple had always seemed like one of the darker, eerier colors. That was one of the reasons Dimentio primarily wore it. He would take purple, a color often associated with mystery, and mix it with yellow, a color that would represent fun. 

The doors each had ancient designs engraved onto them. Dimentio hadn't noticed beforehand, but the doors really were rather beautiful, as was most of the architecture in Flipside. There were countless details that made the town seem more than ordinary. 

Dimentio wished he started noticing the small details like that sooner. Perhaps it would have made life just a little more meaningful.

"Yeah..." Blumiere muttered, briefly turning to face Dimentio. "You can still back out, you know? I don't want-"

"I'm not going to," Dimentio interrupted, cutting Blumiere off. It was clear that the last thing the jester wanted was to go back to the Underwhere, but he seemed determined to follow behind Blumiere. It made the former count wonder where this sudden loyalty came from and why it wasn't present back when he really was Count Bleck. 

Perhaps that was the reason. Dimentio wasn't loyal to Count Bleck because he was, well, Count Bleck. Perhaps he was only loyal to Blumiere because he was starting to realize that Blumiere was different. He wasn't the same person who lied to all his friends and manipulated everyone into helping him destroy the world.

Both Dimentio and Blumiere let out a sigh, then stepped towards the large door. The door was at least twice as tall as them. Why was the door so incredibly large? It would be just as functional if it was normal-sized. 

This was it. All that hope of seeing Timpani again, all those dreams of finally getting a happy ending, everything was about to end. It was all about to be over. 

Dimentio reached for the large doors, pressing his hands to them so he could push them open.

"Wait, stop!" Luigi suddenly blurted out.

Both Blumiere and Dimentio froze, then turned to face the man in green, who had taken a step forward. His eyes were pressed shut and his fists were both clenched by his sides. 

"Just... stop. Please," Luigi repeated, bowing his head. His voice was slightly strained, to the point where it was clear that the outburst was unplanned. He looked anxious, as if speaking up in front of that many people was somewhat frightening to him, which it very well may have been. Mr. L never had any problems with speaking up in front of a crowd, but that may have been because most of his fears and anxiety had been practically numbed. 

Practically everyone's eyes shifted from Dimentio and Blumiere to the man in green. The jester couldn't help but look at him with confusion, while Blumiere felt a sense of relief. Relief that he could spend an extra few seconds breathing normal air. Relief that he was getting an extra few seconds to live.

"Don't go," Luigi repeated, keeping his eyes on the ground, clearly too afraid to look up. Speaking up was a common occurrence for Mr. L, but again, it appeared to be a greatly stressful task for Luigi. "You can't go yet. I still... I need more time to forgive you."

Merlon remained silent while the crowd slowly began to murmur, whispering meaningless things to one another when Mario stepped forward, taking his place by his brother's side. 

"What kind of heroes would we be if we refused to give them a second chance?" Mario asked. He looked much more confident than his brother, but his hands were shaking, showing that he too was at least somewhat nervous about speaking out.

Funny, for the longest time, Blumiere and Dimentio both thought Mario to be fearless. They didn't expect something as simple as speaking up to rattle him. Then again, they never really took notice of when Mario's hands were and were not shaking. Perhaps he never was fearless, but he was simply better at hiding whenever he was feeling scared. 

"Maybe they don't deserve forgiveness yet," Luigi admitted. "Heck, I still can't bring myself to forgive them, but they're trying! I can see they're trying! Isn't that enough? Forgiveness doesn't happen overnight. It's not fast. It takes time, right? I just... it's not fair for people who don't even know them to decide their fate like this. Not without giving them enough time to show you that they can change."

Dimentio simply stared at the man in green, silent. He wasn't sure what to say or do. A part of him wanted to reject the hope that Luigi was giving him by speaking up. He wanted to run through those doors and just be done with this. Another part of him wanted to run up and hug Luigi as tight as possible.

The majority of the crowd fell silent. Some people appeared slightly ticked off, however, most looked deep in thought.

"...Give them more time!" One kid shouted.

Blumiere looked up, his expression softening slightly.

"Yeah!" Someone else added. "Give them more time!"

More time, more time, more time.

One after another, people began joining in, begging for more time. More time for Blumiere to earn the forgiveness he needed. More time for him to prove that he wasn't the man he was.

The former count brought his eyes from the door to Dimentio, who was beginning to smile a soft, genuine smile. He then looked at Mario and Luigi, who were both starting to relax slightly. Who knew that something as simple as stepping forward and speaking up could spread such hope?

Blumiere then brought his eyes over to Merlon.

The ancient was still. He didn't speak or move. He was simply silent.

"Merlon..." Mario breathed, walking away from his brother and over to the ancient. "Please just... give us some more time, okay? You trust stories, right? Well, the best stories end with redemption, not imprisonment, right?"

Merlon slowly nodded. He didn't mean to appear as if he wasn't agreeing. He knew that being still and silent was probably making him look bad. He was just buried in his own thoughts, to the point where he was practically disconnected from the world around him.

"You can't just undo what has been decided," some random citizen pointed out.

"That's not what we're asking," Luigi breathed. "We just... we're asking for a little more time. That's all."

Everyone turned to Merlon, waiting for an answer. Yes, the people were the ones who initially made the decision, but in times like that, they would still all look to the ancient. 

Merlon paused, then softly smiled through his eyes. 

"Alright."

Dimentio shook his head, hardly believing what he was hearing. Before even realizing what he was doing, he ran up to Luigi and threw his arms around the man in green. Luigi, clearly surprised, remained frozen for a moment before eventually hugging back. He honestly had never seen Dimentio hug anyone before. He didn't take Dimentio to be the type of person who enjoyed physical contact. 

"You spoke up," Dimentio breathed. 

"I know," Luigi awkwardly chuckled. "Scary, right?"

"Why'd you do it?" Dimentio asked.

 Luigi let out a breath and pulled back, looking down at the jester. "I... still can't forgive you yet," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck and looking away. "However... I want to try. I really want to try. I... just don't want you to leave yet if that makes sense. I don't know why, but... I just don't think it's time for the story to end. Not when it's hardly even begun."

Dimentio nodded, then looked down at the book in Luigi's hands.

"There's a new chapter," Luigi admitted, holding the book out to the jester. "It appeared right before everyone gathered around here. I... thought you should know. I don't know if you or Blumiere really care anymore, but I just wanted to tell you. It felt like the right thing to do."

Dimentio nodded, looking down at the book. The simple, small journal. It wasn't fancy and decorated like the Light Prognosticus. It looked like nothing more than a simple book. If someone were to just judge it by its cover, it would surely be left to collect dust for all eternity. 

"Do you want to show Blumiere?" Luigi asked.

Dimentio paused, then softly smiled at Luigi, shaking his head no.

"...I'll show him later," Dimentio breathed. "We've got time."

Luigi smiled. 

That was all they needed. More time. More time to learn and grow. More time to figure the present and the future out, all while moving on from the past. Time was always a funny thing. It kept going and going, sometimes too fast for people to stay caught up. Perhaps that was why people would get stuck dwelling in the past so often. Sometimes, it's hard to stay caught up with all that's changing and going on. However, if people keep their minds on the past, they'll never be able to completely take advantage of the present and look to the future. People who dwell in the past are the ones who truly become trapped.

Some people cheered, and others grumbled. There was a large variety of different reactions to the decision to give Blumiere and Dimentio more time.

Blumiere stayed silent but smiled to himself. He didn't want to get his hopes up... but just the idea of still having a small chance to keep trying to get back to Timpani put a smile on his face. The idea of having a chance to keep trying on her behalf made him feel that much closer to her. Even if he couldn't be with her, the thought of trying made him feel closer. The fact that he was still fighting for her made him feel more worthy of her love. 

Blumiere looked to Merlon, who looked up at him. The former count then bowed his head slightly, as if silently saying thank you. 

Not thanking him for forgiveness, but instead for giving him the chance to keep trying to earn it. 

Merlon briefly smiled through his two glowing, golden eyes, then bowed his head as well. 

The future became just a little brighter.

Holding the glowing lantern up, Blumiere looked over at Mario, who was grinning and talking to some cheering citizens. The former count then looked over at Luigi and Dimentio, who were both smiling. 

It was a small victory, yes, but to Blumiere, the gift of time was more than he could ever ask for. He felt as if he had just won a war.