"I wish I remembered her..."
Shi jolted awake, quickly sitting up and worriedly looking around. They spotted a child sitting in the far corner. They came over to check on them.
The child's pale skin and white curls seemed vaguely familiar, the high-collared, Renaissance-style shirt throwing off any guesses. They had an earring on their left ear, a small raven feather coming almost to their shoulder. Shi crouched down to their level. The child had their arms resting on their knees, their head tucked into their folded arms.
"Are you okay? Why are you alone?"
"My mommy just died. Why wouldn't I be alone?"
Their heart skipped a beat. "She...did? From what, may we ask?"
"How am I supposed to know? All I know is that she's gone, and nobody will accept me." The child turned away from them.
"What's...your name?"
"Why would I tell you that? You're a stranger."
"This seems all too familiar..."
"What was that?"
"It was nothing."
"Then leave me alone!"
Shi stood, backing away a bit. "No, this isn't right. That can't be us. We don't look or sound like that."
"Admit it, Shi." Piper appeared next to the child. "You're not real."
"N-no! We're real! We have feelings, and we are a person just like you!"
Piper laughed, a dark mist appearing by her chest. "I'll say this nicely. Fusion is just a cheap trick to make two weak people think they're stronger than they were. But you're not. You're just as weak and fragile as before."
"Stop it, Piper! We're done with the joking!"
"Sounds like someone's funny bone's broken!" She held a knife against the child. "You never saw it coming. I played you from the start. I'm an Oni Sprite, not a Power Sprite. It was a sacrifice, having to sand down my horns and chop off my tail, but it would have been so worth it when I got to kill you stupid Halflings!" The child vanished. "You were nothing but a puppet for a bigger plan, Didi."
"N-no! We're Shi! Stop it! Get out of our head!"
"No. You're just pathetic little Didinoloch and feeble little andriod Olive Oni-Kami. Seriously, I'm surprised you didn't notice something was off about your memories. Let me fix those for you." She rested a hand on their forehead.
The true memories returned all at once. The overwhelming memories and falseness of their existence was too much for them, and they pushed her off.
"Get away from us! Get out of our head!" They forced off their mask and started tearing at the cords within their head, attempting to make the nightmare end. "St-stop it! This is just a nightmare! We can wake up anytime...!"
"Some dreams are too real to wake up from, Didi."
"It's Shi...! It's...Shi..."
"Caio, Didi. I hope you accept the truth. Shi."
They slowly opened their eyes to find Izuku shaking them awake. They sat on their knees, rubbing their eyes.
"Izuku...?"
"We've been found. We need to get out of here with everybody! Kachaan and the others already left." Strings attached to Izuku, him letting out a scream. "Run! She wants you!" He fell still and silent, his wooden mouth dropping open slightly.
"Izuku!" They felt strings attach to them as well.
"I'm going to have a talk with your little friend. Wait here, okay? Toodles!"
"Izuku!"
Izuku stirred after a few minutes of the strings being removed. Piper forced his head up so he could make eye contact with her.
"I kept your little friend quiet by giving them a little nightmare crisis. What do you think? Clever, huh?"
"Stop your plan, Piper!" Izuku snapped. "You've hurt too many people already! What more do you need?!"
"Let's just say that I'm going to sand everyone of my puppets down to nothing and make him watch. I'll show him firsthand how badly he hurt everyone. And I'll start with this one." She held out a puppet of Mimi. "He really likes this one, and she likes him too. Then I'll go after you, you seems to like you too."
"He likes you, why don't you sand yourself down?" Izuku threatened.
"Then I won't be able to kill him afterwards."
Shi staggered into the room, the strings burnt but still attached. "Piper! Stop this, please!"
"Hey, Izuku. Do you want to see how powerful my strings are?"
"Piper, we-" The burnt strings revived themselves and new ones attached to the front of them. "No, no! Please! Stop!"
"Why don't you show me what you really look like, Didi?!"
"No!" Izuku tried. "You'll kill them!"
"Nice try, Izuku. Unfortunately for you, I know how to separate a fusion." She forcefully pulled her hands apart, her left going up and her right being pulled closer to herself.
The fusion snapped in half, Olive being pulled towards the ceiling and Dimentio being forced onto his face. Dimentio rolled over as Olive tried to reach for him.
"Dimentio-!" He was trapped in a wood shell before he could finish calling for help. He vanished and reappeared in Piper's hand.
"How sad. You have so much corruption in you from the Chaos Heart that my magic has no effect..."
Izuku wriggled on the ground, bound in ropes. "Stop this, Piper!"
She kicked him in the head. "That's Puppetino to you, b^&%$!" She faced back to Dimentio. "So, the Chaos Heart increases Dark Magic, hm?"
"Piper, what are you talking about? The Chaos Heart was left in Otherworld. You can't get there without me."
"Otherworld?" Izuku wondered.
"That's where you're wrong. Remember after you rejected it? When you coughed it out and thought you were going to die? Remember when it suddenly vanished?"
"No...you didn't. You couldn't have." Dimentio attempted to break the strings attached to him.
"That won't work, Didi. Those got a lot stronger since last time when you killed our home!"
"That was an accident, Puppetino. You should know that I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand!"
Izuku noticed the hurt in his eyes.
"And after all these years, you're still wearing that dumb mask I gave you. My father made that. He was a Metal Oni. He could form any metal, despite how tough it was."
"Your father was in on the act...?"
"You had the two nicest Sprites as parents. I had the meanest. To get to you, I had to befriend you. I had to change you. I made you like me. So you can say I'm more unstable than you!"
"She seems pretty stable on the outside," Izuku muttered. "She's a good actor. Which means she has a weak point somewhere, since she's acting like she's invincible."
The Chaos Heart, attached to puppet strings, formed in her hand. "You like this thing so much, right? I wonder how it'll increase my power..."
"Puppetino, don't. You don't want to use it, please. It'll be the worst mistake of your life! I know it was mine, right after leaving our burning world behind..."
She slapped him, grabbing his mask off his face in the process. Removing the mask made his hat fall off, as the strap was hidden under it. "Heh, you really hated being a Halfling that much, huh? You made yourself look like a Powerless Sprite. Too bad your roots are showing! Looks like you need to redo your hair dye!" She ruffled his hair. "Too bad you can't fix that eye. I can chop off your tail, if you want to." She examined the jester mask. "You fixed this pretty well. It's almost impossible to tell that it snapped right in half." She dropped it on the ground and stomped on it, crushing it to pieces. "Oops. Butterfingers."
Izuku wriggled in his bonds.
She snatched something else from Dimentio. "Oh? This earring...The feather says Em, but the metalworking says my father. Did Em give this to you after his first Raven Hunt?"
Izuku spotted the earring as Piper held it up to Dimentio. It was gold, the jewelry being made of two small balls. The Raven feather surprised him, it was far too small to belong to a Raven! It was roughly the length of Izuku's pinky. Piper tore the second ball and Raven feather off, burning them to a crisp.
"Too bad Em's dead now. That feather was his last living memory."
"You're lying, I know he's still alive if you are!"
She flicked his forehead. "Well maybe I grew up and left him to fend for himself. He was soft anyways. He couldn't even hurt a stupid bird, so how could he protect himself?"
"You piece of-!"
"I'd watch your mouth if I were you, Didi. After all, one wrong move and the Chaos Heart is mine." She smiled.
"Take off that stupid mask!" He charged for her, actually managing to grab her mask as she backed away.
Her skin was a pale red, her bangs a pitch black and holding a slight curl.
"There's your wrong move, Didi."
"Piper...That dream was true? You're an Oni?"
"Of course I am! And I was supposed to get of you Halflings, but you and Em made that so hard! But now that I have this thing," she held out the Chaos Heart, "it'll be a piece of cake! SAy your prayers, Didinoloch, because you'll never see the light of day again!"
Dimentio attempted to break free from the strings again. Izuku took his chance and used his Quirk to snap the ropes and went to free Dimentio.
"She's crazy!" Izuku cried.
Piper turned the small Chaos Heart around in her hands. "Um...How did you do it? How do I fuse with this thing like you did?"
"You can't unless you have two people, Piper. It's too strong for one person."
"Blah blah blah. You know what? F*^$ your opinion. I'm still using it. I just need to figure out how..."
Izuku tore the strings from Dimentio. "You were friends with her?!"
"Yeah...I was an idiot back then. I just didn't want to be lonely." He brushed dust off his pants
She shrugged. "Oh well. Time to run a test then."
"What? That doesn't sound good," Izuku worried.
He looked up to find Piper bringing it closer to her face. She opened her mouth.
"Piper, no!" Dimentio tried a final time. "It'll kill you!"
She ignored him and pressed her hands against her face. She swallowed hard and shuddered. She twitched and started shaking. She grabbed both sides of her head and screamed.
"Piper!"
"We need to get out of here!" Izuku grabbed Dimentio by the wrist and dragged him out of the room.
"Stop! That's my friend! I won't leave her behind again!"
"It's too late for her, Dimentio."
He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Why wouldn't she listen? Why is she so stubborn? Why couldn't I have stopped her...? I don't want to be alone again..." He rested his head in his hands and began sobbing.
"Dimentio, you're not alone. I saved you, right? Olly saved you too. So did Olive, and Mimi really likes you." He rested a hand on DImentio's head. "Piper was a bad friend, and you need to admit that. She never liked you, and she never will. I'm sorry." Izuku's hand fell stiff on DImentio's head, and he jolted around to check on him.
Izuku was a wooden puppet again.
That meant Piper was still alive.