"Hello, Mimi. It's about time you showed up."

Mimi turned back to herself. "Who's this jerk?"

She tapped a hand to her chest. "My name is Black Rose, and I'm here to finish what I had started back in the Mushroom Kingdom."

Everyone else was trapped to the walls, floor, and a few of them were on the roof. "What did you do?"

"I'm going to end them all, and you will join them. Won't that be fun?" She walked down the steps leading to the throne, towards Mimi. "You may be a demon, but us magic users are stronger. We can control our limits, unlike you demons. You put a strain on yourself whenever you transform, you know that? Eventually, you're going to tear yourself apart if you keep changing between them like that."

She grabbed Mimi and slammed her into the ground. Black strings trapped Mimi to the ground without giving her time to react. No matter how much she fought it, she couldn't break the bondage.

Black Rose went over to Olly. "And look at you. Look at your strength..."

She put her hand on his face and slowly pulled it away. Olly returned to normal, and a purple mist sat in her hand. She absorbed it into her hand, her eyes faintly glowing black for a second.

"Don't please..." Olly said softly. "You have no idea what you're doing..."

"Oh, but I think I do." She pressed a small button on the throne.

The wall behind it shifted and moved away to reveal a door. Black Rose opened the door.

"Villains of the Mushroom Kingdom! Your time has come for-WHAT?!" She ran inside the room.

Olly's bonding was no longer tight, and he wriggled his way free. Mimi could tell he was weak, but he rose from the floor despite it.

"Black Rose, please. That curse is dangerous; that's why it's a curse..."

"Oh, would you shut up?! I just found out that two of my most important villains are gone! How are we going to activate that portal now?!"

"Black Rose, calm down. The curse reacts to-"

"I told you to shut up! I don't care about your stupid curse! I just took it away so you wouldn't be able to fight anymore!"

Olly flinched. "No, you listen to me! I had to deal with that thing for nearly a year! If you feed into its negative energy, it could kill you! It's almost killed me a few times, Black Rose!"

The villains in the other room began laughing at her.

"You haff no idea how hard it's been, SCREECH!" Antasma stated.

"Shut up!" Black Rose covered her ears. "Stop mocking me! You can all die with the push of a button!"

"Good luck with that!" Captain Syrup joined. "Ya don't even have the button! Dimentio took it when he left!"

Olly gently touched her shoulder. "Ignore them. Listen, I know what's best for both of us, and I think you should just give it back."

"NO!"

Everybody was pushed back by a wave of magic. The binding on everyone came undone, and the lights inside the other room flickered dead. Glass shattering could be heard. In place of Black Rose stood a black dragon, with messy scales and mismatched horns. Blood dripped from her mouth, and an echoing scream could be heard.

"Black Rose, no! I tried to warn you, and now look what-"

She swatted him aside with her tail, the screaming growing louder. She was scared, and Olly could tell. She flew through the roof. Her eyes fixed on Fawful, who was helping Peter to his feet. She charged at him. He moved away in time, but she still managed to slice his leg. She swooped back around and grabbed him by the ankle.

"Fawful doesn't like! Fawful hates the flying!" He waved his arms around.

"Black Rose!" Olly called. "You need to calm down! You can't control it through fear! You need to be braver than it! Please, just try and listen to me!"

Blood began dripping from her eyes, and she threw Fawful towards the ground. She dived after him, hoping to crush him. Peter grabbed Fawful and pulled him aside. Black Rose crashed into the ground. She shook off the dust and ceramic tiles.

She spun in a large circle, hitting everyone who wasn't prepared for the attack. Antasma teleported away from it, and King Boo fazed through her tail.

"SCRACK!" Antasma reappeared next to King Boo.

Princess Shroob got back to her feet. "Where is that Magica girl who trapped us, hm? I just want to have a little 'talk' with her..."

Olly faced Antasma and King Boo. "You need to help me! I know you're still a bit reluctant in joining my kingdom, but I know you two aren't inherently evil and you haven't attacked anyone so..."

"Get to your point," King Boo said. "She's biting Fawful's head."

"Just help me take her down! She's way too strong like this, but I can tell the physical form is weaker than mine because of the distortion in its style. You two are the strongest ones I know. Please, help me! You'll be in my debt if you do!"

Antasma and King Boo shared a look.

"Vell, vat are ve vating for?" Antasma shrugged. "Ve vill end vis nonsense!" He summoned orbs in each hand.

King Boo summoned a few Boos by him, and he and Antasma charged for her. She tossed Fawful into Princess Shroob.

She shoved Fawful off. "Alright, that is enough. Now I will have to stop you myself." She summoned an energy ball.

Fawful smiled at her. "Fawful likes your boots. Those are the custom leather boots of baby seals, right?"

She looked at him. "Wh...what?"

"Fawful loves the boots. Fawful wants to do a helping to you!"

She gave him a weird look. "What even are you?"

"Fawful is of the Beanbean!" He pulled out his blaster in a showy fashion. "Fawful can help!"

"Okay..." She faced Black Rose again. "Alright then, Fawful. We take her down together."

"Fawful thinks you're of the breathtaking beauty."

"Sh-shut it!" Her face turned red. "Weirdo..."

Olly tried his hardest to convince some of the other villains and villainesses, but most of them just wanted to leave. Phantasmagloria offered to help, and Cackletta did too. Olly also questioned how she wasn't dead, and she yelled at him about spirit nonsense. Olly just giggled nervously and hoped she wouldn't get even more mad at him.

The minor addition of help was enough to overwhelm Black Rose, and she started to calm down a bit. Olly sliced off the hand that she used to absorb his power. She turned back to herself a bit, but was still stuck between the forms. Olly knelt down to her level.

"Black Rose, I tried to warn you. Darethend is doing some awful things, and you can help us stop him."

"I will...never...I owe him...my life..." She panted.

"Then so be it. Leave her, she's worthless to us now." Olly dropped the clawed hand on the ground. "I'm truly sorry, Black Rose, but you brought yourself to this. You need to pay for your actions."

She touched her cut arm to the other half, and it fixed back to her arm. She fully transformed again and roared. Something hit her in the side of the head, and she whipped around to face Princess Shroob. Fawful fired off his gun between her eyes, and she fell to the ground dead.

Olly gasped lightly. "Oh my gosh, Fawful. You're on a winning streak going against these villains. That's like...the third one you took down."

Fawful blew off his gun, twirled it, and placed it back on his belt. He smiled at Princess Shroob. "Fawful helped you."

"I suppose you did..." She dusted off her dress. "Usually, I do not offer my help, but I want to take revenge on that Magica woman. I will stay with your faction for now, but as soon as I find Magica it is over."

Olly bowed to her. "Well, either way, I thank you for helping. Sorry we got off on the wrong foot before. I hope that we can become allies, if you want to."

She opened her mouth, a smile spreading across her face for a moment, but it vanished as she said, "No."

"I thought as much which is why I asked. I wasn't going to force it or anything." Olly faced his original party. "But anyways, any villains that turned down the offer to help are now sealed away in the Underwhere with Shadow Queen. I hope they learn their lesson! Also, father, thanks for saving Fawful."

He nodded. "Of course. You like him, so I do to. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

"But the Chaos Heart Entity wasn't in there. So where could it be?"

Princess Shroob sighed. "I know where it is. I heard Magica mention it when I was unconscious. It's on the roof. They are going to use it for some sort of ritual, I believe? Something about a...rift?"

"Oh no...Darethend must have found out how we got here!" Olly faced Reighlah. "We need to get to the roof! But first, I need to stop at the kitchen! I need to make some spicy noodles!"

Olivia blinked. "A serious situation and you're thinking about food?"

"The food is important. I mean, it will be. If it works. Just take me to the kitchen!"

Magic led them to the kitchen just as Darethend was leaving. Olly searched for the spices and started cooking it.

"Thankfully he had everything we needed."

"Are you going to tell us what's important about the noodles, or are you just going to leave us in the dark?" Mimi asked, semi-sarcastically.

"Okay, so I spoke to two demons. They had apparently known the Chaos Heart from when it was alive. Let me finish. It's name is Zeth, and Laina said these noodles might help restart its memory. I want to see if that will help free it from Olive. We're running out of time."

Dimentio stopped in the doorway. "Olly. There you are. Fawfie!"

"Dimentio!" Fawful jumped him.

Olivia giggled. "Their friendship is so cute. Look at them!"

Dimentio twirled. "And here I arrive-"

"Now's not the time," Olly interrupted. "We need to-" Olly covered his mouth with his hands. "Uh...Dimentio? Did you notice anything different about you?"

"Hm? Well, I have a lot of energy I've never had before. And it was after stealing the king's food...He looks like he could use a diet, so I suppose I was helping him in a way." He chuckled. "But enough with me insulting his weight. You all look like you've gotten into quite the battle! What have I missed?"

Olivia smiled. "Antasma, King Boo, Cackletta, and Princess Shroomy all offered to help us take down Darethend! But Princess Shroomy is more focused on stopping Magica right now rather than actually helping us."

"It's just Shroob," she corrected, shooting Olivia a slightly murderous look.

"Every little bit counts," Peter said.

Mimi was staying silent as well, sharing a similar look Olly had. Dimentio glanced at them and rubbed his wrist.

"Alright, tell me what I've done wrong now. It's never good when Mimi gives me that look."

"Wrong?" Olly asked. "What? You didn't do anything wrong...to say."

Dimentio folded his arms.

Mimi twirled her pigtail around her finger. "Remember how you said you weren't a demon? Well...that's not really true. Remember how Reighlah said you were a half demon?"

"And? Could you perhaps get to your point? We don't have all day."

Dimentio jolted suddenly and cried in pain. Magica shoved him down and kicked him aside.

"Magica!" Olly gasped. "How did you-"

"Easy. I heard the sounds of complete and utter betrayal and followed that." She motioned a hand towards Magic. "Fyre, why side with these fools? What have they ever done for you?"

"More than Darethend ever has." Her tail fur fluffed out. "And I only came to Darethend because I wanted to save you."

Magica snickered, then laughed. "Aha! You think I needed to be saved? Fyre, I joined him because he said he could give us everything we wanted." She kicked Dimentio in the head. "And your demon friend really needs to control his tail. I could see it in the hall and knew exactly where you guys were at. The reason he's on the floor is because I just stepped on his tail. He's just weak."

"Ow...My spine...Why...How could that even happen...?" Dimentio moaned.

Magic shot her a look.

"What? I have a job to do! And since you're all in here, busy making food for some reason, I can just take you all out in a jiffy." Magica smiled. "Bye, you all."

Fawful kicked her in the shin, in which he was joined by Princess Shroob. They both started kicking her as she lie on the ground.

"Do you have steel toed boots or something?! Ow, ow! Your stupid seal boots-ow-hurt so much-ow!"

"You're not even worth using powers on!" She kicked Magica again. "Come on, where's your strength from before? Too weak now?!"

"Take that!" Fawful yelled. "Hooray! Down with the Magica!"

"Yeah!"

Olly started stirring the noodles whilst humming to himself.

Olivia came to him. "Can I help?"

"Yeah. Can you put some of the spices in?"

"Yup!"

"Magic, can you keep lookout? We don't want anyone else getting any bright ideas."

She nodded and went over to the door.

"Father, can you check on Dimentio? I hope Magica didn't hurt him that badly."

"Of course." He helped Dimentio stand. "You alright?"

Dimentio stretched, a pop sounding from his back. "That feels better. I don't know what she did but-"

He started screaming at his tail, and scampered away from it, hiding behind a counter.

"Wh-what was that? Was that a snake? I don't like snakes..."

Mimi giggled. "Nope. You have a demon tail. Like your...uh...puppet did."

"At least it's not a snake."

Olly and Olivia finished putting the food together, and Olly sealed it in a Tupperware to keep it warm. "Okay, we can leave now. Wait." He opened it and dumped the juice into the container, then closed it again. "Okay, now we can go."

"You don't even care?" Magica asked.

"You earned it. You were bad, so now you have to pay for your actions. Magic only cared for you, and you mock her? How heartless could you even be?"

Princess Shroob dusted off her hands. "Finally get the child's point? Or do you need more punishment?"

Magica sighed. "I get it, just stop kicking me. That really hurt."

Dimentio was holding his tail by the very tip of it, and dropping on the floor only to grab it again. He then started rubbing his hands down the length of his hair, which was a lot longer than it used to be, and near white; the pale yellow also now being a deep blue.

Olly gently nudged Antasma, who had dozed off. "I know you're a vampire or something, but we need to head out. It'll be dark soon, so don't worry."

Antasma huffed. "Ve vill leave now, und ve take Magica vith us."

Magica rubbed her arm. "I'm sorry. I just did it because he told me we could get great things from it. And I should have cared that I was hurting people."

"You were working with him for a bit, right?" Peter asked. "Why does he want the Chaos Hea-I mean...Zeth? And what does he hope to do to our home?"

"Zeth? The Heartless Centaur? You know about him?"

Olly nodded. "That's why we need this. It's likely he lost his memories and identity when he was reduced to the Chaos Heart, so his mothers suggested I give him this as a way to possibly restart his memory. He has a physical body now, after all. He's not just an artifact anymore."

Dimentio grabbed a purple ribbon and slid two bells onto it. He tied it onto his tail and finally came from behind the counter.

"Alright, that should prevent it from getting stuck in my hair. I'll need to figure out how to use this and everything, but that shouldn't be too hard. I mean, I did control the tail of my puppet so..."

King Boo smacked Antasma. "Wakey wakey, sleepy head."

Antasma angrily screeched at him.

"So, we're going up to the roof?" Magic asked.

Princess Shroob nodded. "And Magica can take us there."

Fawful stared up at her. "You're not leaving? You're staying with the fighting peoples?"

"If she wasn't truly vile, then I wouldn't count it. I still need my revenge, but now it's turned to her ruler."

Olly smiled but said nothing else on the subject. "We need to hurry. Antasma, please stay awake for a few minutes longer? You can sleep once we get to the roof."

He shook it off and sighed.

"No more dillydallying," Peter said. "Let's stop Darethend!"