Return to the Archives

Cuphead, Mugman, and the rest of the group plopped into the library that was the Inkwell Archives. Everyone took a sigh of relief to be away from the crazed demon that was harming everyone he met. They all collapsed and rested on the carpeted red floor. As they regained their bearings, they began to look about. Everyone was taking in the library's vastness. The smell of paper hit them as they sat there. It was all quiet except for their panting.

Dice gently put the mug child down on the ground. He held onto the boy's porcelain arm until he had his balance. Mug took a few deep breaths before nodding to the king that he was okay to stand on his own. The group asked one another if they were okay. Ms. Chalice was the only one that could not give a verbal yes at this point. For she was still unconscious from the struggle. Cuphead tried to urge her awake, but none of his efforts seemed to have any effect. This greatly worried him.

"Mugman, she won't wake up. What can we do?" The young cup turned to his brother. Mug took a quick look around and spotted the soft red couch that he had found himself on earlier that day.

"Let's go put her on that couch so she can at least be comfortable." He pointed to it. Cup nodded and wiped away the tears welling up in his eyes. His brown shoes slowly made it over to the piece of furniture. Cuphead laid her down ever so gently. He kept a gentle hand over hers.

"Okay, Mugs. Now what?"

But the young mug was way ahead of him. He went to turn over the hourglass that was still situated on the coffee table next to the couch. And just like before, the librarian's voice came as the hourglass was flipped.

"Oh ho, you're back, Mugman!" The old dragon-worm sounded overjoyed to see his little friend again so soon. He slowly slithered his way down one of the many spiral staircases. Everyone stared at him in bewilderment. Never had they seen this kind of creature before. "And you've brought your friends this time. How delightful!" The green creature cooed and gleefully clapped his dragon paws twice.

"Who's this old bag of bones?" David questioned. Dice tried to motion to his master with a hand sliding in front of his throat.

"How amusing!" The dragon-worm chuckled.

"And what's so funny about that?" The Devil snapped back.

"Well, the last time I checked, you've been around for far longer than me, alpha demon. My predecessor chronicled some of your earliest forms." The hybrid explained. David began to shake with rage. The alpha demon did not take kindly to being called old. Or in this case, the dragon-worm was essentially labeling him as ancient.

"I'll teach you a lesson for calling me old!" The King of Hell growled before pouncing at the hybrid. Mug gasped at what was happening.

"David, don't!" He called to him. But the Devil didn't listen and kept on going at full speed. The dragon-worm, however, did not look worried in the least bit. It merely raised its wings as if bracing for impact. David got stopped abruptly right in front of the hybrid. It was as if an invisible wall had been put up in front of the librarian. The Devil smacked his face into this wall and rebounded backwards, collapsing on the ground.

"Sorry, David. But there will be no violence in this library. This is a sanctuary as well as it is the archives." The hybrid calmly said. The black creature growled in annoyance as it rubbed its throbbing head.

Ms. Chalice seemed to finally be stirring from all the noise that David was making.

"Chalice!" Cup excitedly said as her eyes began to open. The girl groaned and rubbed her head as she slowly began to sit up.

"Oooh, my head hurts." She drawled out. "What happened? And where am I?"

"You're okay now, Chalice. Tanuki's out of your soul and we're safe in this library." Cuphead explained to her.

"Speaking of Tanuki," Mugman started and turned towards the Devil. "Why did you run away from him? I thought you were supposed to end him right then and there?" David merely drooped his ears and looked away from the mug child. "You know that demon, don't you? What happened and why is he all the way out here?" Mug kept prodding. David kept quiet, knowing that it was his fault that the demon ended up so vengeful.

"Are you going to tell them? Or do I have to get your book out?" The dragon-worm teased the Devil. He then looked to Mugman and gave a wink.

"No, no! That won't be necessary!" For there were many things in David's life book that he did not want to relive. And many more things that he regretted. His life in general was something he was not proud of. He had made so many mistakes and done so many bad things. David didn't know how the cup brothers could be giving him another chance.

"Please do enlighten us on the situation, boss." King Dice urged. "It had to have been before my time with you because I don't recall that red demon."

"Yeah, it was. Not too long before you came along. Back before I had any right-hand man. In a sense, that demon was trying to be my right-hand man. He used to talk to me every day, give me ideas, and beg to do tasks for me. It was starting to get annoying, really. So I often gave it things to do to get it out of my hair. Most of the time they were mundane or not really even that important of a thing to do. I guess it finally caught on and made its true intentions known.

'I wish to challenge you and become the alpha demon.' It had said. And me, sitting on my throne with my feet up, a smoking cigar in my mouth, tried to tell it off.

'You wouldn't last a minute against me.' I scoffed. 'Go back to your chores.'

'There must be something I can do to prove myself worthy of a match against you.' It pressed on. 'I'll do anything, just name it.'

So I came up with a brilliant idea – or so I had thought at the time.

'Tell ya what, if you can catch an angel and absorb its light, we can have a battle.' It was extremely rare to find an angel wandering in either the astral plane or the mortal realm, both places the demons can travel, as you know. So I never imagined he would actually ever find one.

'That's it? That's all I have to do? I'll do it! I'll find one and we can have that match!' The ignorant parasite thought this was an easy task. I had not mentioned how hard it would be to accomplish. Let the boy try and fail, I had thought. Might teach him not to bother me so much. So off the red demon went. It traveled off anytime it wasn't doing its daily chores for me. Searching for that slim chance of finding an angel. Days passed and he came back empty-handed every time.

You can imagine my surprise when he came back one day with a yellow glow about him. I promptly spit out my cigar and sat up straight at the sight. 'How on earth did you actually find one?' I was very impressed with this demon's efforts, but my own parasite was not having any of it.

'Couldn't believe it myself, but it was attached to a mortal, so it was easy pickins. Didn't put up much of a fight at all.' Tanuki had said in a cocky manner. 'Now, how about that match you promised me?'

I got up and went to inspect the glow coming from the demon. That was when I realized it was merely an angel's essence, not an actual angel. "It's a fake.' I told it.

'What? What do you mean? How could that be?' The tentacled creature said aghast.

'What you have there is a mortal's soul with a little angel's essence latched onto it. Nothing more. It's not the real thing.' I turned and started to walk back to my throne.

'But I tried so hard! I did all this so we could finally have a match!'

And that's when my parasite snapped.

'It's off.' I said and waved my paw like I was shooing him away.

'Wha? What do you mean?'

'It means I'm not fighting you….AND I LIED! I would never actually indulge such a request from an omega level demon like yourself. Not even if the angel was real. I'm not stepping down and won't ever step down….especially to an annoying little brat like yourself.'

'Why…why you….I'm going to make you pay for that!' Its tentacles trembled with rage. The light coming from it intensified. That was just before it pounced on me and tightly wrapped its tentacles around my head. I tried in vain to get it off, but it began to suck energy from me. When I was finally able to pry him off, he had absorbed enough of my DNA to create a new form for himself. And then that red doppelganger was ready to have its real battle. Having both that angel essence and a portion of my powers made him a formidable foe.

As our battle raged on, I became worried that he might just actually win. So in order to keep him from actually defeating me, I conjured up a curse that sent him away. I had sealed him under the ground in an unmarked grave. Openable only by use of a broken relic and some dumb luck."

Chalice looked down to her chest where the cursed relic was still attached to her.

"So if that's the relic, what's the dumb luck part?" Mugman asked.

"I had put in a sort of code only unlockable by touching the other gravestones in a particular order. Never had I imagined it would ever be opened. I mean…who touches random gravestones?" David asked in an exasperated manner. Ms. Chalice merely chuckled nervously. She had somehow managed to touch them in the exact order that was needed to open Tanuki's prison.

"Well, with all that aside, how do we defeat him now?" Mug urged.

"Er, well…" The Devil murmured and scratched his head.

"You mean you never had a plan B for this?" The young mug's voice raised a little.

"How was I supposed to know that someone would be stupid enough to open the prison?" The black creature put much emphasis on the stupid word.

Chalice couldn't help but look away in shame.

"Hey, that's not a very nice thing to say!" Cuphead argued with him, having seen her reaction.

"What would you like me to call it? Ignorant? Oblivious? Inconsiderate?" David argued back. Soon enough both sides were arguing back and forth with each other, their voices growing louder and louder. The librarian looked to each one of the people who had begun to open their mouths. He sighed and slowly shook his dragon head. His claw reached up and spun the hourglass on his necklace.

"Enough!" The librarian bellowed and raised his dusty wings. A pulse of energy flowed over the room. Everyone froze on the spot, unable to move anything but their eyes. "Arguing is pointless. There is no need to dwell on the past or whose fault it might be for what has happened. To keep your stories going, you must work together to decide how to defeat this threat that is Tanuki." He turned to the mug child. "Mugman and Cuphead, you've been exposed to a few different demons over your experience." Mug felt something touch his head. He shifted his gaze up and back as far as it could go. Standing on the couch cushion was Kiki. Her little paws batted at the straw in his head.

Wait – why isn't she frozen? He wondered.

"You know by now that they are not invincible and tend to weaken when they don't have a source of energy. This one has laid dormant in a hibernation state for a while now, so it still has a lot of energy to use." The hybrid then turned to the Devil. "And you should know how to kill a demon as well as ways to revert it back to its origin form…. do you not?" But David could not answer in his frozen state. Kiki took this opportunity to run over and tackle his skinny tail. When would she ever get this chance again? That spade tail was such a good toy for her. She gently gnawed on it and held it between her paws. The Devil wanted nothing more than to swat her away. He attempted to say something. Unable to move his lips and jaw, only muffled sounds came out.

"What's that, David? You know how to deal with this demon? That's great!" The librarian chuckled and let the cat have her fun. After letting the feline play for a few more seconds, the hybrid called her over. "Kiki, it's time to stop playing with your toy now." She trotted over to the dragon-worm with a trill growing in her throat. Her tail held high, she rubbed up against the librarian's torso.

The hybrid gave a flick of his wings and everyone became unfrozen. David looked like he wanted to go after the cat. But a stern look from her protector told him not to.

"Yeah, I know how to kill him." The Devil responded. "First we'll need to revert him back to his origin form. To do that we'll need something to melt his façade down….but where would we find something that potent?" He tapped his trident on the ground as he thought.

"Would some acidic materials do the trick?" Saltbaker offered.

"In theory, yes. But they would have to be pretty acidic."

"I think I've got just the thing we're looking for." The chef said with confidence.

"But didn't your shop burn down?" Forkington pointed out.

"It did." The salt shaker admitted. "But that wasn't my only place to stash things." Everyone looked at him with a confused look. "You see, I've been under investigation from the cops for some time now. So I had to get creative for where I stored my…illegal stuff….from the shadow market."

"Oh-ho, what a sinner we have here!" The Devil said, overjoyed. He feverishly clapped his paws together hearing this man's confessions. "That would make a one way trip to Hell for you, my friend."

"David, please. Now's not the time for that." Elder Kettle scolded him. "So where is this stuff of yours, chef?"

"It's hidden in a small cavern in the side of the mountain. I'll need some help to get it open quickly." Saltbaker explained.

"I can do that." Forkington volunteered. This seemed safer than being part of the team that confronted the demon.

"Me too." Spoonfred said.

"Then that part is settled." The librarian said with a nod.

"Once we revert it back to its origin form, all we have to do is crush its core." David explained.

"That's easier said than done." Mugman confessed, knowing how hard it was to get close to the last demon they had fought.

"What we need is some bait to lure Tanuki close." Cuphead offered. "Let's see…what does he want?" Chalice sat behind him feverishly shaking her head. She definitely did not want to be the bait after having been possessed by the demon. "Gee, I think I remember him saying he wanted a battle with you." Cup's gloved finger pointed to the Devil.

"You want to make me the bait?" The black creature roared, the fur on his back catching on fire.

"Sure, why not?" The red cup shrugged his shoulders. "Gotta find something for your big contribution to the plan." Mugman and Elder Kettle laughed at the young cup's teasing of the powerful deity.

"I can be more than just bait, ya know!" The Devil still roared.

"Oh, I know. Once we revert him back to his origin form, you take that pitchfork of yours and stab its core." Cup explained.

"First off, it's a trident, not a pitchfork. And secondly…why do I have to do everything?" David said in an exasperated manner.

"Well, we're not exactly in the best shape to be fighting Tanuki again. Not unless you've got some more Miracle Heals, Elder Kettle." He turned to his guardian.

"Sorry, lads. Don't have any more of those." His spout turned to the side as he thought for a moment. He then snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "But I might have something even better."

"Something better? What is it?" Cuphead asked excitedly.

"David's magic." Kettle stated. Everyone stayed quiet for a second.

"You're kidding, right?" The young cup started to shrug.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." The black creature muttered.

"No, I'm serious. David can heal people. I've seen him do it for you, Cuphead. And it's pretty much instantaneous."

"Then let's go through with it." Mugman answered.

"Let's not!" The Devil pouted and turned his back to the group. His hairy arms crossed in front of his chest. King Dice shuffled over to nudge him in the right direction.

"Uh, boss, ya know it might be a good idea to heal the k-i-d-s."

"Hmph!" His round head turned away from his lackey.

"Unless of course you want to fight that Tanuki fellow by yourself again." The casino manager kept nagging.

"Ugh, fine." The Devil's body slumped over at the thought of doing something nice. He then turned back to the group. "All right, anybody who's hurt come line up. And make it snappy, we haven't got all day."

Cuphead helped Ms. Chalice get up and over to the line. Even Elder Kettle stepped into the line.

"You're not hurt, move along." The Devil tried to shoo his old friend away.

"Oh, come on. Can't you give me some extra energy for old time's sake? You never know when you might need me to leap into action." The old kettle pretended like he was wielding his sword. David dragged a paw down his face.

"Ugh, fine. Just…stand still, won't you?" A beam of energy came from his black trident that made the guardian shine a bright brown, almost like a bronze medal.

"Thanks, David. I feel great. We should do this more often." He stretched his arms, legs, and back.

"Hell, no." The Devil muttered. Once he was done healing everybody of their wounds, the creature's body convulsed. A black webbing tugged underneath his skin.

"Boss!" King Dice gasped as David collapsed to the ground.

"You okay? What happened?" Mug voiced his worry.

"Uuuhhh…." The Devil moaned before slowly picking himself up. "That was you-know-who being not so happy about what we just did." His gray paws proceeded to dust himself off.

"The alpha demon really doesn't like doing that, does he?" Elder Kettle asked.

"Not in the slightest." David wobbled on the spot as if he were dizzy. Luckily for him, Dice was there to keep him upright.

Everyone divided up: Saltbaker's group went off to retrieve his illegal items from the cave and the others began to discuss how, when, and where they would lure the demon to enact their plan. David made sure to tell the other group that he would send a fiery signal with his trident when it was time to toss those acidic materials at Tanuki. Thanks to a map that the librarian had, they marked a spot near the middle of the island to set up their bait location. Mugman made sure that Saltbaker and the utensils knew where it was and that they could get there quickly. Elder Kettle, King Dice, and the Devil began to head out when they realized the kids were staying behind for a moment.

"You three coming along?" The kettle asked them.

"We'll catch up with you in a minute. There's a couple questions I want to ask the librarian." Mug explained. With a nod of his spout, Elder Kettle went off with the other adults. The young mug then turned and walked up to the dragon-worm. Cup and Chalice edged closer to hear what he was going to ask. A big smile came across the hybrid's face. For he loved the child's questions and company.

"You have more questions, yes?" The librarian chuckled.

"Yeah, I'd like to know about-" He began to point at the cat that was perched on the dragon's green shoulder.

"Why Kiki is not effected by my abilities?" He finished for the child. "Well, you see, Kiki here was brought to life from my sands of time. A long time ago – in my younger years – I used to wander outside of the archives. And every few years I was permitted to grant a miracle to someone whom I deemed deserved it. I met Kiki when I was visiting Egypt."

"Where's Egypt?" Mug asked.

"Oh, very far away from here. It's a land that has lots of sand and heat." The hybrid explained.

"Blegh, not for me." Chalice said.

"Indeed, it is not for everyone." The librarian's green muzzle nodded. "Kiki was nothing more than a spirit at the time. She watched over generations of royalty in their graves. Over in Egypt, people believe that cats are protectors of the underworld. And indeed her spirit could travel to and from the mortal realm. I was merely there to collect the last bit of data from their lives. But while I visited inside their pyramid, some bad spirits invaded and tried to steal their goods that were stored next to the coffins. Without any hesitation, Kiki's spirit emerged from her own sarcophagus – for she had lived as real cat and was buried alongside her masters – and valiantly battled the dark spirits away. The battle had left her spirit weakened. As she went to return to her bronze coffin, I spoke to her. Told her that I wanted to give her a special gift. When I shared my sands of time with her, she became a real cat again. But she now had special powers and, thus, became a true guardian of the dead. Unable to age due to my sands, she eventually went exploring the world after the last of her people died off and safely made it to the afterlife. As you know, she had met Djimmi the genie and has stuck with him ever since. A fitting pair since neither of them technically age."

"Wow, I never knew any of that about her. Sounds like she's seen a lot over the years." Mug pointed out. The librarian heard a purr grow in the feline's throat. He gave a quick glance down at her as she gave a slow blink the young mug's way.

"Indeed. And she's taken quite a liking to you children as well. Kiki definitely has a sense for who the good people in the world are." The hybrid then cleared his throat. "Is there something else you wish to ask?" Even though he already knew where this was going.

"Er, yes. Would it be possible to see my book again?"

"Of course, it's all yours." With the gesture of a dusty wing, Mugman's book came floating down in front of him. It magically opened and began to flip through the pages. Mug caught a page to see where it was in the timeline. From there, he navigated to his desired destination. Tsundere saw he was going just back before they had been bonded together.

What's this about, Mugman? How come you're going back to that moment? I thought you didn't like to talk about it. The parasite said.

I don't. Mug confessed. But it looked like someone was talking to me from within the Devil's pit. I couldn't read it myself, so I thought maybe you could help me read it. Like you did with that book on the astral plane.

Someone talking to you? I can't fathom who that could be in the pit. I honestly don't even know how you got out of there. Most souls that are thrown in are smothered by the intense flames and unable to get out.

I think we're about to find out… Mugman trailed off as he finally found the right page. This new language of the dead explained how his soul traveled deep down into the pit. It had nearly reached the bottom when some lingering souls had found it. They had grabbed on and didn't let Mugman's soul slip to the forgotten depths. The text described that a pair of figures studied him.

"Poor little fellow. So young to be down here." Said the male shadow.

"He's got a pure heart. Definitely doesn't belong down here." The other added, which was a female. "He was suffering before getting tossed into the flames. I can feel that pain rooted deep in his being." This shadow looked to the other. "Isn't there something we can do for him?"

"We could use our last blessing to send him back up." It offered.

"Yes, that could work. And then we can finally rest in peace."

"But what's the chance our message will actually reach our boy?"

"If anyone can reach him, it's this kid here. I can feel it. Our message will be delivered, I fully believe that. Now, what exactly do we want to say?" This shadow held Mugman's soul close. Almost as if treating it like her own kid.

"Gosh, I don't know. There's so much I need to say to him."

"We must keep it brief, or this boy will never be able to deliver it." The two shadows stayed quiet, thinking of how to sum up.

"I think I've got it." The female shadow said and started her last spell. "Young mug, we send you back up for a second chance at life. Our favor that we ask of you….is that you find and reach our dear little David. I know we got separated so early on, but we want to let you know that you've never been alone. We've been watching from every flicker of flame, watching you grow into a strong young man. Our connection has grown weak. All we can see is darkness. David, I hope everything's okay. We fear that you may have fallen down a dark road. But don't let a few bad decisions get you down. We just want you to know that we love you. We always have."

"Um, dear. Now you're making this long." The male shadow reminded her. She sobbed a bit and finished her message.

"To you and this young mug, let love fill your heart and guide your actions."

"We give this mug safe passage back to the land of the living to regain his strength." Both the shadows said as their hands hovered over the pink heart shape visible on Mug's soul. A bright yellow light absorbed into his being as they gave him a gentle push back up. And the shadows faded into the abyss. Faint sobs came from both the shadows and Mugman's own soul. For he could feel their long-harbored sorrow even in his non-physical state.

Mugman finished reading the passage and put a gloved hand over his chest where that blessing still resided.

"So…it was David's parents that saved me from sinking too far into the pit. Why I even had a second chance to begin with." Mug stayed silent for a second, hanging his head. He then picked it up and turned around. "I have to go tell him what they said." The young mug looked over his shoulder to the librarian. "Thanks for everything. You've been very helpful."

"Anytime, Mugman. Come visit as often as you'd like. The same goes for you two as well." He told Cup and Chalice. "Is there anything you'd like to ask before setting out on your journey again?"

"No thanks. I prefer to experience things as they happen. Don't want to spoil my own future now, do I?" Cuphead answered.

"Always a wise choice, young cup." The dragon head nodded.

"What about you, Chalice? Is there anything you wanted to-" The red cup turned around to find the female was studying a necklace she was wearing. Chalice immediately tried to tuck it back into her shirt when she realized the nosy cup was watching.

"I didn't know you had a necklace. Can I see it?" Cuphead probed. Even his brother inched a little closer to see it. The golden chalice sighed, knowing that there was no point in trying to hide it now. Her gloved fingers plucked it back out and let a diamond rest in her hand. It was attached to a red cloth loop around her neck.

"Wow! It's so pretty! How come you didn't tell us about this before now?" Cup asked.

"Er….well, I…didn't feel there was a need to." The girl nervously said.

"Who gave it to you? Your mom?" Cuphead probed.

"Uh…" Chalice stuttered, her face flushing a red color.

"No one gave it to you, did they? Where did you find it?" Mugman stepped a little closer. The librarian's bushy eyebrows rose in surprise at the blue mug's perceptiveness.

"Mugman, why would you make that assumption?" Cup spat at his sibling.

"No, he's right. I did find it." The gold chalice sighed again. "It was a remnant of someone who had visited the astral plane….but didn't make it back out."

"Do you know who it was?" Mugman asked.

"I….have a guess. But if my suspicion is correct, I don't think someone will be too happy. Tanuki won't be the only one that will want my soul." She nervously fingered at the small diamond, knowing that it was not truly hers.

"I take it that means you have not told the chef yet?" The librarian inquired and cocked his head to the side. Chalice slowly shook her head in shame.

"Wait – are you telling me that was Sue's necklace?" Mug realized what the dragon was hinting at. "That we've had proof that she's truly gone this whole time?"

"I'm sorry, okay? But how do you think Saltbaker's going to react when I tell him that I have his dead wife's necklace?" She spat back.

"It's better that you tell him sooner rather than later. The reaction will only be worse the longer you wait." The librarian advised her.

"Ooohh," The girl sighed, letting her shoulders sag. "Then I guess that's where I'll be going."

"Why don't I go with you? We can tell him together." Cup suggested, placing a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

"No, Cuphead." Chalice said and gently brushed his hand away. "This is something I have to do by myself. It isn't anyone's fault but mine about the necklace and keeping that secret from Chef Saltbaker."

"But-" The young cup began to argue. Mug gently grabbed his brother's shoulder.

"This is something she wants to do by herself, Cup." The two boys met each other's gaze for a couple seconds. "Besides, we believe in you, Chalice. We know you can do the right thing. Don't we, Cup?" They both looked back to the girl as his sibling nodded.

"Thanks, fellas. That means a lot." She replied.

"And if you feel you're in danger, just holler and we'll come running to your side." The red cup reminded her. "No matter what."

The trio of cups began to make their exit from the archives. Kiki jumped down from the librarian's shoulder and trotted alongside Mugman's stride. They took the long ladder back down to the island. The cat hitched a ride on the young mug's shoulders, holding on with her sharp little claws. Definitely made it harder for him to climb down for sure.

Upon reaching solid ground, Chalice parted ways with the boys. For she was ever so nervous about how Chef Saltbaker was going to react to this truth. Would he be understanding? Would he want to kill her? The gold chalice was almost shaking as she got closer and closer to the mountain where he said he would be.