Author's note: This chapter gets pretty dark, as Piper dies very brutally. If you're sensitive to reading about blood, then I suggest skipping this chapter.

(PS: I totally wasn't making the end sadder by listening to Francis Forever by Mitski. Totally not.)

(PPS: How the heck did Handshake win the Splatfest? Go Handshake, I guess? (I wouldn't have cared if Fistbump won since Draco70 was on that team, but the win still took me by surprise.)

Aaaaanyways...

Stay Fresh!

Izuku was pulled into the previous room, which was covered in a pitch-black emptiness. A clawed hand emerged from it, another following.

"Didi...Let's play a game..."

"Piper, what happened to you?"

She crawled from the room, busting the door frame so she could get through. Her mask had become her face, it floating in a fixed position. The mask now had horns. Her dress had become her body, her legs and feet looking more animal-like. Her hands were disconnected from her body, like her face and body were disconnected, and she no longer had arms.

"This is what happens when an Oni uses the Chaos Heart...Pretty cool, right? Now I actually look like an Oni...And you're going to get mauled to death...Say your prayers, Dimentio..." She roared, the shelf of puppets rattling. She stood to her full height, raising her hand. "Bye-bye, little birdie."

She attempted to puppetize him, but he moved out of the way.

"You just used me? Why couldn't I see it before? After all, I used plenty of people. Yet I was still so blind to what kind of a puppet I was being." He fired a beam at her.

It hit her face, it not doing much besides creating a small amount of purple smoke. She shook the smoke away. "Is that really all you have? Wow, you're even weaker than I thought!"

He avoided everything she threw at him. "You're nothing but a liar. You turned me into this freak. It's your fault I broke your heart. It's your fault our world was destroyed. You left Em behind on purpose. You wanted to kill everyone who was different."

"Your dad died because my father killed him! He was trying to protect your mother! My mother sent NightSlasher the Oni Eater after you because she knew you would be too weak to protect yourself! But your mother killed him! And the only thing he was able to get was your eye! She cared too much to be a real Oni Sprite, and for that, she needed to die! I made her sick! I poisoned her! She died because of you!"

Dimentio fired a more powerful beam at her, stunning her for a second. "No. She died because of you. Stop blaming everything on me; trust me, I've been doing that for years. I can't believe it took me this long to realize just how evil you were. Izuku's right, I'm not alone. Olive, Olly, and Izuku were all willing to risk their lives for me. Inko helped me see the truth about you. Olly was willing to risk everything just to give me a second chance. Izuku comforted me despite hating me for what I did. Olive saved my life after I had abused and manipulated him. Those a true friends, not you! You showed up right after she died. I should have known. You knew everything about me, and I had never seen you before in my life! I can't believe it took me thirty years-thirty years!-to realize you were just playing me the whole time."

"Shut up!" She tried to puppetize him again.

"Not this time. I'm through falling for your tricks. You tricked me into thinking you were my friend. You always played mean tricks on me because you knew I would misinterpret your 'love letter.' You wanted a free excuse to wipe out both me and Em in one go. You knew what you were doing, you clever b&^*%. So I'm done. No more Didinoloch. No more Didi. My name is Dimentio, and you messed with the wrong Power Sprite!"

The strings attached to her from behind. She slowly turned her head to look, seeing that Dimentio had opened a portal right behind her and in front of him to intercept the path of her strings and lead them back to her. "Didi...I only did it because my parents wanted me to. You have to believe me. I was only attacking you because I was mad. I was blinded by rage for my parents and you leaving me behind. Please, Didi. You have to believe me. Please..."

"I said I was done."

"Didi...!"

"No more lies."

"Didi..." Tears streamed down her face as wood engulfed her.

"It's Dimentio now."

Her wooden body clacked to the ground, Dimentio gently scooping her into his hands and pressing her against his chest.

"Piper, I know you were lying about your motivations, but I was still friends with you. That was real. Why couldn't you have seen that and changed?" He entered the room and freed Izuku.

Izuku rubbed his head. "Uhg...thanks to Shi for finding all those Holy Water vials, huh?" He looked around. "Where's Piper?"

Dimentio rubbed his wrist. "She's fine, for now. I don't think I'll be able to build up the guts to kill her, but she's stuck for now." He held out the puppet of her. His hand begun shaking. "I...I..."

"Dimentio? Are you okay?"

"I-I don't want to be the bad guy anymore. I saw what happened to Piper, and even to me. I've been living with a false guilt for thirty years, and it was driving me crazy. I-I don't want a repeat of what happened to Piper." He wiped the tears from his eyes. "C-can you show me how to redeem myself? If it's not too late for me already?"

"Of course I can. But we need to free everyone from Piper's magic first. We don't have enough vials for everyone, I don't think." He held out Olive. "I also found Olive. I almost crushed him."

"Put him with the others. We're flooding this place."

"What?! Are you crazy?"

"Maybe a little, but it'll be the best way to free everyone all at once." Dimentio slipped Piper into his pocket. "Plus, it's a sewer anyways. Who'll complain?"

They worked together to remove the strings from everyone first before leaving. Izuku and Dimentio headed above ground. Izuku watched as Dimentio slid his pointer and middle fingers in a long line in the air above the manhole. A dark purple portal opened afterwards. He snapped and water gushed from it into the sewers. Dimentio backed away a bit and closed it after a certain point.

Dimentio reached into his pocket and froze, his eyes widening.

"What's wrong?"

He franticly pat himself up and down. "Izuku," he said after stopping.

"Yeah?"

"Piper's still in there."

"What? Didn't you put her somewhere?"

"I must have missed or something, because I don't have her!"

"Dimentio!" She screamed.

Izuku flinched and Dimentio grabbed Izuku's arm. She crawled from the manhole, soaking wet and more infuriated than ever.

"Again, with leaving me behind? Really?! Do you have no decency?!" Her wooden limbs creaked against each other.

"She's still puppet-like," Izuku mentioned.

"That must be what happens when you don't remove the strings," Dimentio responded. "She never told me why."

"Look what you did to me! You left me behind as-as...Pinocchio?!"

Izuku snickered.

"Oh, so you think this is funny? I'll show you! You'll see who's laughing now when I tear you limb from limb!" She staggered. "I feel nauseous for some reason...What did you do?!"

"Don't yell at me!" Dimentio exclaimed. "I did nothing except drop you down there!"

She began panting. "Dimentio, what did you do?" She coughed, blood coming from her mouth.

"Oh, oh no. Piper! You need to reject the Chaos Heart! I know it sounds stupid, but this is the only way to save yourself!"

"What are you talking about, Didi?!"

"Dark Magic increases its effects when it exits a hiatus! The Chaos Heart not only does the same, but it also increases in power! You can't handle that much power by yourself, Piper! You'll die!"

"And you expect me to believe you? You're just calling me weak!" She vomited out more blood, it staining her wooden hand red. She began to shake lightly, wood clacking.

"Piper, I promised myself that I would never leave you behind again! I don't care you just tried to kill me, okay? That's in the past! If you want to live, you need to get the Chaos Heart out of you!"

"And you were just fine?! How?!"

"I had it in me for sixteen years, Peppi! Just listen to me, please! I don't want to lose anyone else I care about!"

"I'll kill you! I'll kill both of you!"

Izuku flinched when blood began spilling from the bends in her fingers. It treated her wooden body as a strainer, blood pouring from every bend, gap, and crack in her damaged wood. It began flowing from her mouth and eyes as well.

"Piper, please!"

"Dimentio...! What have you done?!" She screamed, as her wood began to decay. "Look what you did to me! Look what you did to everyone!" She coughed again, stumbling. "I hope you're happy, Didi! I hope you're happy!"

"Peppi!"

As the wood decayed, only her skeleton remained, blood coming from every gap in her bones. Izuku covered his mouth and tried to pull his eyes away.

"Didinoloch!" She collapsed, her skeleton falling apart on the ground in a pool of blood. The Chaos Heart lie beating in the center of the ruins.

"Peppi..."

"I need to bleach my eyes," Izuku said. "That was brutal."

"The Chaos Heart is the most powerful Dark Magic there is. It's going to be brutal." He grabbed the vials of Holy Water and went to the Chaos Heart. "Goodbye, Peppi. It was nice knowing you." He removed the lids of them all. "Izuku, help me out."

Izuku hesitantly came closer. The skeleton had decomposed into a pile of ash and the pool of blood was gone.

"Grab as many vials as you can carry."

"She's gone for good."

Dimentio sadly stared at the pile of ash. "Yeah, I guess she decided her own fate."

Izuku picked up as many vials as he could. "Okay, what now."

"Pour them all at once onto the Chaos Heart on three."

"Will this work?"

"It might. Ready?"

Izuku nodded.

Dimentio counted to three, and they both drowned the Chaos Heart in Holy Water. It vanished in black mist and Dimentio sighed.

"It'll never truly die. Where ever corruption is, it'll follow. It just takes a complete idiot to actually form it."

"And it takes an even bigger idiot to use it," Izuku joked.

Dimentio broke into a coughing fit.

"Aah! Are you okay?!"

Black mist rose from Dimentio. He stopped coughing when it vanished. "I think...I think that was the leftover corruption...It must have left since the Chaos Heart's been temporarily destroyed."

"That makes sense."

"I just guessed since I feel so weak now..."

"Ah. We should let everyone know Piper's been stopped."

"Yeah." He sat on his knees. "Just give me a minute alone with her remains. I need to finish processing this."

"Okay." Izuku climbed down the ladder.

Dimentio waited until he was gone and began bawling. He lost everybody close tyo him, and Izuku promised to help him. He was wondering why. Why did Izuku treat him so kindly?

"At least you can see your family again, Peppi...I miss you more than anything. If only you were willing to change. I guess I acted like that at first too. I guess you showed me how I was acting before. Thank you. Rest in peace, friend." He picked up her mask and headed down the manhole.