Mimi quickly tried to teleport again, but once more the box around her shattered. The jester's grin grew even wider, and she suddenly felt anger in place of fear.
That smug little jerk!
She decided to do what she always wanted; she tore her diary from his hands and slammed it right in his face.
Instead of crying out or even flinching, the jester laughed. "Hard feelings?"
"Dimentio!" Mimi snapped. "You're alive?!"
"Alive and well," Dimentio said, gesturing to himself. He picked up the book from the ground and opened to a page towards the back.
"Dear Diary," He began, mocking her voice, "Today is the last day we're gonna have to deal with these dumb heroes. They should be arriving soon. I'm ready to deal with these stupid heads once and for all! Then maybe the count will be happy. I talked to Dimentio and he seems even more excited and ready to go than me! Like, he was really happy. I saw him whistling and he gave me a hug. I shouldn't say this because that dumbo is probably gonna find this, but that hug-"
"SHUT UP!" Mimi shouted, her face turning red. Dimentio laughed.
"I didn't know you harbored such feelings, dear Mimi!"
"Not anymore!" She yelled, running to punch him. He ducked out of the way of her swinging fist and laughed. "Go back to the Underwhere, they're looking for you!"
"I'm sure they are looking for me," Dimentio grinned, "But they won't find me."
"Well I found you," Mimi snarled, "And when I get out of here-"
"Get out?" Dimentio stopped floating and came to stand in front of her. "I'm afraid you're not leaving here."
Mimi looked up at him, fear creeping back in. "N..not leaving?"
"I never expected anyone to be here," Dimentio said. "I'm not quite ready for the 'family' reunion. But if I let you go, you'd immediately run off and tell everyone. That would be quite a problem."
"What do you plan to do with me?" Mimi mumbled.
"Nothing at all," Dimentio said. Mimi glared. "Honest."
"Uh-huh."
"Truthfully, I have no use for you. I could kill you on the spot if I wanted." Mimi's face paled, and he laughed. "But I don't think I will. Wouldn't it be funner to keep you here alone with me as company?" Mimi looked disgusted at the thought.
"What are you planning?" She said, her voice cracking slightly. "What did you even come back here for?"
He gave her an are-you-kidding look. "I think it's obvious why I'm here, dear Mimi.." He smiled. "Vengeance!"
"You're gonna have a toughb time, then," Mimi said, crossing her arms, "Because there is no Chaos Heart for you to take anymore."
"Of course not," Dimentio said. "If there were, we wouldn't be able to have this lovely conversation." He turned to leave, tossing the book over his shoulder at her. She caught it and watched him go, slightly shaking in both fear and fury.
"But the Dark Prognosticus is still out there somewhere."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dimentio teleported into his old room and locked the door behind him. He leaned against it and sighed.
This already wasn't going as he anticipated it would.
He looked about his room; unlike Mimi's, his room was a bit more simply decorated; bed, desk, chair, closet. His closet doors were purple and yellow, the bedspread purple, yellow, and green diamonds. Other than the walls, the rest of the room was the black of everything else in the castle.
The wall above his desk was covered in papers; most of them notes written in a different language or a garbled code he had made up that only he would be able to understand. Most of them were various magic spells, others were instructions for performing certain magic rituals, others were simply notes. The only thing on the desk was a small stack of papers torn from a notebook; only the Count would recognize what was written on them, and the Count never entered his room. It wouldn't matter anymore, anyway, he thought; Count Bleck was dead, along with that wife and secretary of his.
He smiled slightly. At least he could off one of them.
On the papers he had written passages from the Prognosticus. The book never left the Count's side, but as he would sleep, Dimentio would take the book from his bedside and read through it. He only copied down a few noteworthy things; the passages about the man in green, ones about the destroyer of worlds. All of these were meaningless; they had come to be, but in the end, the prophecy had been undone. Dimentio had failed.
He crumpled up the papers and snapped his fingers; they disappeared in a puff of smoke. While the prophecy in the book had not come to be, the book itself was still an immense source of dark power, much more than Count Bleck could have known.
Count Bleck. What a truly pathetic man, Dimentio thought, using the Dark Prognosticus for the most selfish of reasons. Love. Disgusting.
He caught wind of the Count's plans, and decided to feign loyalty to him, offer his magical services. The Count may have been lovesick and heartbroken, but he wasn't clueless; he suspected Dimentio was up to no good. Eventually, he decided to accept the jester as his last minion, and Dimentio began planning.
He planned to aid the heroes in defeating Count Bleck, and once the Count was out of the way, he would take the Chaos Heart and destroy the worlds himself, and from the ruins create his perfect new world. He had thought of everything that could go wrong, had a solution for everything. Even the smallest changes he had a backup plan for. Even if he died, he still had a plan.
He never thought those two lovers would sacrifice themselves to destroy the Chaos Heart. He underestimated the bond between Count Bleck and his minions. That was what ultimately lead to his failure; love.
How humiliating.
It didn't matter now; he had drifted about the Underwhere, thinking desperately for another plan, while avoiding Queen Jaydes at all costs. Once he spoke to her, she would surely immediately banish him to the darkest depths of the Underwhere and all chance of escape was lost.
He saw an opportunity, though, and grasped it.
He awoke in the last place he had been; Castle Bleck. Completely untouched from the last time he had been there. The Void still swirled around it; it made up a dimension all by itself. He settled on it as a place to stay hidden until he had found the Prognosticus again. He never expected Mimi to find it.
He could work around her being here. She would hopefully find something to occupy herself. He couldn't let her go; the minute he did, he would be done for.
He sat on the edge of his bed. He had a plan, but it required the Dark Prognosticus. The book's current location was unknown.
First, he needed to find that book.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Queen Jaydes was livid. How could this happen?! How could one of the most damnable beings to ever exist manage to escape the Underwhere on his own? He had been avoiding her, and she let him go for the time being; she would come for him eventually, but for now he would have no chance of escape without meeting her first.
And he got out!
"Um...your Highness?"
The queen of the Underwhere turned to face one of her D-Men. "Have you figured it out?"
He looked extremely uncomfortable. "Um...yes we did, actually. Er...um..."
"Well?"
"You see, we just...well...huuuh...um..."
"Come on, out with it!"
"He walked out."
"..."
Was she hearing him correctly?
"Pardon?"
"Uh...he just walked out. Eer...someone...kinda...left the gate open..."
...The gate was open.
Someone left the gates to hell open and he walked out.
Jaydes' scream could he heard throughout all of the Underwhere;
"WHO FORGOT TO LOCK THE GATE?!"