Around the world where the broadcast was supposedly coming from, a few Prideful Crusade soldiers descended down to the area.
"Huh? Weird. This was the source of the…" one of them said before they saw a transmitter sitting on top of a gift box. "Lord Superbia...Jack is not here. It's just a transmitter and a box."
"Bring the box back here." Superbia said as the soldiers returned back to the fleet and presented the box to him. "Doesn't seem like a trap. Oh...he's even left a card." he said as he opened it.
"Hey there, self proclaimed righteous angel. If you're hearing this, it means you tried to have your pals rub me out. You also noticed that I'm not there. Truth is, that broadcast you saw was recorded days ago and it only played for certain people." Jack's voice said.
"A trick? But what was the point?" one soldier asked.
"You're probably wondering what the point is? Well, I'm gonna come clean. I'm not after something like rights. No. I do plan to steal something but I don't plan to share what it is...yet." Jack's voice continued.
"Yet? Okay, he's caught my interest. May as well annihilate this world before he…" Superbia said.
"Oh...and before you even consider annihilation, you might want to hold off on that since you're about to have a few problems of your own." Jack's voice continued as screams were soon heard from a few ships in the rear of the fleet.
"Lord Superbia!" a voice called out over the Prideful Crusade's communications. "Our fleet is being wiped out in the back. We're under attack. Demon Lords Leviathan and Belphegor have gone berserk on us!"
"Ah, so Jack has brought in some assistance." Superbia said. "Hold them off. I shall deal with them." he ordered as he hefted a huge warhammer and walked away, heading to deal with the Demon Lords.
"Right now...you've likely noticed the Demon Lord attack. Yeah...sad to say, they're aren't exactly allies. See, that box has something rather interesting. You can go ahead and open it." Jack's voice said as one of the soldiers left in the control room opened the box and looked in shock. "Surprise. You have the head, or rather skull, of former demon lord Beelzebub. See, I sort of raided his grave to put this together and told them you were the ones who asked for it. Doubt they'll listen to a bunch of angels so...have fun." Jack's voice continued as the card burned up.
"...I knew I should've gone into finance." the crusader moaned as the sounds of battle were heard from the rear ships.
Meanwhile, in the Galaxy King…
"Dang...I can't believe this is happening." Hope said, watching the Demon Lords attacking the Prideful Crusade.
"Not too surprising. Though I doubt they'll hold them there for long and I also doubt it's the only surprise that's in store for them." Jexi said. "Tails, is it set?"
"Yeah but...you should know that this thing only has a one shot chance of working and it'll only work for this one time." Tails said.
"Wait...is this?" Hope asked.
"Mark may be unconscious but his mind is still intact. Going in there is the best shot at bringing them back to the surface." Jexi said.
"So we're using that thing you used on Luffy in the past?" Eddy asked.
"Yeah. We swore never to do this again after someone kept harping on it. But this is an urgent matter." Jexi said.
"Wait, was that someone Hope?" Glimmer asked.
"Uh...you know, I'm not sure who it was." Jexi said looking away.
"So this will be like a Spiria Dive in a way." Ace said.
"Spiria Dive? What's that?" ZS asked.
"Well back on Kor's world, people have a core that represents their emotions, their Spiria if you will."
"No, it's nothing like that at all." Jexi said. "What you're talking about is the heart. This is going into the mind."
"So… it's more like that old Playstation game, Psychonauts?" Eddy asked.
"I...suppose so I guess?" Jexi said. "Either way, if this works, we'll be able to get both Mark and Ira back."
"Okay...just enter the room and we'll begin." Tails said as they entered the room. "Dive in 5...4...3...2...now." he said, pressing a button as the group vanished.
The group found themselves in a dark void, standing on a circular platform that branched out into several pathways, each leading to a door; in total, there were ten in all.
"Huh? This is just like…" Al said.
"Well, didn't expect to see you guys in here." a familiar voice called out as a boy who looked similar to Mark appeared. Unlike the boy, however, his hair was black and his eyes were red, and his clothes were pure black, unlike Mark's cross-emblazoned sweatshirt.
"Are you...Mark's other self?" Papelne asked.
"...Well, you ain't wrong." Ira said, shrugging his shoulders.
"So, this is what you really looked like, Ira?" Hope asked.
"Yeah, that's right." Ira said. "Welcome to the mind of Mark Anarchy."
"Huh...thought there would be a lot more stuff in here." Kaminari said.
"There would be." Ira said. "But the mind is pretty much a bunch of pieces at this point. Using all that power didn't just stress the body; it broke the mind as well. These doors you see here? Pretty much all that's still not a jumbled mess at this point."
"You knew this would happen and you still went through with using all that power?!" Bardock asked in outrage.
"It was the kid's choice." Ira said. "I asked if he wanted to do it… he said yes."
"No one's blaming you or Mark for anything. What matters is we save both of you right now." Hope said. "And I might know how we can fix Mark's mind. We just have to go through each of the ten doors and repair his mind one room at a time. That's how it worked with Luffy in a nutshell."
"Really?" Ace asked. "But wouldn't it be best to form smaller groups and go through each door at the same time?"
"I wouldn't if I were you." Ira spoke up. "You know what's behind these doors? Trauma. Each of these doors contain a moment in Mark's life where he experienced pain, despair, rage, or a combination of all three. Besides, one's locked." the angel said, pointing to the gray, disrepaired door. "You probably have to go through all the other ones first."
"Yeah, this is not a place to split up in. It's the mind. One wrong turn and you could end up lost forever." Twilight said.
"Okay, no problem. Then we just tackle this one door at a time." Hope said opening the first door wide open as a bright light filled the room.
When the light faded, the group was standing in a cold, snowy area, a huge temple in front of them.
"Hey, I know this place!" Eddy realized. "It's the Antarctica of Cross-World! This is where we found the final Dragon Ball on our first adventure!"
"You guys were looking for the Dragon Balls?" Hope asked.
"Yes. You see, this was our start as heroes. Eddy's older brother returned with a vengeance, mind you with Moltar, Scarlet Fist and the late Darth Darklord in his employment. He attempted to kill Eddy, but killed a pig belonging to our friend Rolf instead." Double D explained.
"So, let me get this straight." Piccolo said. "You boys traveled the world to find the Dragon Balls, and Summoned Shenron… just so you could bring back...a pig?"
"Come on guys...pigs are good meat." Luffy said.
"Hey, Wilfred means a lot to Rolf, give us a break!" Eddy said. "Plus, I also went to avoid my brother, but it turns out he was looking for them too so he could wipe Peach Creek off the map, and all the people in it too! When we got all seven, he stabbed Mark in the back and- wait a second." the boy realized.
"So...this is like when we helped Luffy. We gotta beat down the stuff that caused Mark's trauma." Natsu said.
Sure enough, black smoke appeared in the rolling wind, converging together and taking form into Eddy's older brother.
Giv͡e ̛m͢e t̛he ͢Drąg̛o͏n͟ ̴B́a͘l̨l̸s͜.̛.͡.I͘'̴m ͞g̡on̡n͜a͟ de͢st̸r͟oy̧ ͏tha͠t̵ ͞s̸t͞upi͠d ̛to̵wn̛!́
"Jeez….he really does look like some jerk. Now I'm all fired up." Natsu said.
"I'm going too, Natsu." Eddy said. "This is my bro, and he's hurting Mark. I'll take him down, just like I did back then!"
"Okay...but I'm gonna kick his ass before you do!" Natsu said lunging at him. "Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" he said striking the projection with two flaming punches.
The trauma monster yelled in pain, but shook its head and powered up with a black aura, dashing towards Natsu with a punch at the ready. The attack connected, but didn't seem to cause the Dragon Slayer much trouble.
"My bro always did have a lot more bark than bite…" Eddy said before he powered up with Kaio-ken x5, then sent the monster reeling back with a punch to the face. "Not so tough now, are ya?"
The trauma form of Eddy's brother growled as darkness radiated around it.
D̵̵i͏̴e̵ ̷͢͟p͝i҉̶͘p̶sq̷͟͝u̵͠҉e̵̕a̡͝k̷̡!
The darkness then erupted as Eddy's brother suddenly transformed into a giant black eastern dragon.
"Okay, that didn't happen the first time around…" Eddy said.
"It's the trauma. It's causing the monster to become more powerful." Piccolo said. "We need to end this now."
"Right. Persona!" Al said, summoning Chronos as he used Cross Fortune, dealing wind and light damage.
"As far as older brothers go, you're the worst!" Gemini said, cutting through the dragon's body.
"On that we can both agree on!" Spade said, stabbing Tyrfing straight through the dragon.
"This is over!" Natsu said entering Lightning Flame Dragon mode. "Lightning Flame Dragon's Hammer!" Natsu said landing one final strike on the dragon as it faded away into nothing.
It was then that a fragment of Mark appeared from the smoke, looking sad.
"I should have known what he was up to. I knew he was no good… but I let him get close anyway. The Eds almost lost everything because of me...I'm worthless."
The projection then vanished, and the team reappeared in the dark void, the door they had gone through having disappeared.
"Mark...you know that's not true." Ace said.
"Ace, those are just his past thoughts. They have no effect on him now. That was a memory of what he thought during that time." Aelita said.
"I know." Ace said. "It's just sad seeing what he's gone through back then."
"But we are helping by taking care of his past trauma." Hope said. "And you better strap on...cause we got nine more doors to go through."