- We had a shared past -

Dr. Iplier carried Mark all the way up to their medical treatment room and began to treat his injuries.

"Jesus Christ, what have you done that he did this to you?" the doctor mumbled as he wrapped the last bandage around Mark's arm and put a plaster on another small cut on his cheek.

When he was done, he quickly phoned Bim and called him into the medical room.

"Hey, Bim? Remember when you said that you owe me a favour? I would like to redeem that now. Come to the treatment room immediately, emergency level Mathias."

In no time, Bim busted into the room, breathing heavily and ready to kick everyone's ass if necessary.

"What's going on? Who can I help? Is Mathias here?!" Bim asked in his rush, gripping the front of the doc's lab coat and pulling him close. There was a burning fire in Bim's eyes as he starred into the hazel-brown ones of the medic.

"Calm your horses! I need to do a blood transfusion and since all of us have the same blood as Mark, I choose you as the donator. Now sit down so we can begin."

Dr. Iplier pushed Bim towards Mark's body and sat him down on a chair beside the bed their creator laid on.

"Jesus, what happened to him? Looks like he was thrown into a pit full of cats which scratched at his skin to gain possession of his body," Bim commented Mark's physical looks.

"Well, apparently Dark was the one who did this to him. He had him down in the separated basement section. He sliced him up like a brother would do to his younger sibling on a lightsaber fight," Iplier commented on Bim's question and prepared the blood transfusion.

"Will he get better soon?"

"We can only hope."

****

Hours passed. It was completely black around him. Only the sound of music clung in the distance. It was all so weird. He stood in a pitch-black void, yet could still see his own body through the darkness. Mark followed the soft music. Suddenly, the music stopped and a soft ringing sound replaced it.

"Hello?" Mark asked into the void, his voice slightly echoing through the room.

"Is there somebody?"

"Haven't you done enough to me, Dark?"

Mark heard his own voice speak up from behind him.

He spun around to see himself in a spotlight, sitting on the ground while Dark loomed over him.

"I haven't even started, Mark," he spat out, "It will worsen from now on."

"But why? Why are you doing this to me?!" this Dream-Mark screamed out, head still hanging low, eyes not daring to look up.

"You have done so many things to me! You created a story where I am the antagonist, the broken man who seeks revenge... You made me to the person I am today and I'm not okay with that," Dark growled and straightened his posture.

"You'll pay for everything you've done to me. And not only me. Also to... the family I have. You created every single one of them with major flaws they can't control. And Wilford... He may act like everything is fine, but deep inside of him he's not. He has to live on a regular basis through his past live as William again. He has PTSD, tries his best to ignore all the voices and images inside his twisted head. And who is to blame for all of this? Tell me, Mark, who is the one to blame?!"

Mark watched the scene that played before him in shock. He can't remember that this conversation has ever happened between him and Dark, nor can he remember that he ever wrote this part in a script.

"I didn't know you guys were real back then! How could I've known that you live through that hell of a life when I never knew that you existed in the first place?!" Dream-Mark protested and snapped his head up, looking with anger filled eyes into the cold ones of the dark entity.

"I know that the fans loved you from the very beginning! From the very moment I created you, as the person you are! They love all of you guys! Almost every single ego! Hell, they would even sacrifice themselves just for you! They would give all they have, just for the knowledge that you're fine... They love and support you with all their hearts for the very person you are, Dark. I don't want to take the people from them they love so much. You guys are perfect the way you are, even with all your flaws. But if you really want, I can see if I can fix some stuff."

"That would be really appreciated, Mark... Thanks."

With that, Dream-Mark faded away and Dark faced the real Markiplier now, his facial expression a little less emotionless than it used to be.

"I guess you are surprised that this conversation ever happened between us, are you?" the demon asked as he walked over to him.

"You see, before our first encounter that you can remember, we met before. Several times even. We knew each other pretty well, but things started to get out of hand.
The other egos started to act off, so I reached out to you. You said, you had no idea what was going on, but would look into it. Days passed, weeks, months. Every time I asked you how your search was going, you said 'just fine' and tried to avoid the topic. When nothing changed on the situation, I deduced that I had to find another way to bring things back to normal. I held you captive for a few days and tried to bend you to my will. It was hard to stay on track, because apparently, some egos started to fade. I tried to speak to you about this, but you didn't care anymore. The only thing you said was: 'They start to forget about you.'." Dark took a deep breath.

"You said, that there was no escape out of it, that we could do nothing against our fading. But you. You could do something. I managed to break through that protective wall that surrounded your will and made you help us by creating a few sketches. It was enough to bring some of us back, but not all.

The small scene you just witnessed was part of a prior argument we had before it all went downhill.

Back then, I thought it would be the best for all of us, if you didn't know about our existence. So, I erased your memories. Or rather, locked them deep down in your mind. Since then, everything seemed to go well, but after a few months, the community started to go nuts on us and all the angst began. All the pain, the trauma, the fear. We were lucky that Host could manage to readjust the line between the fans and us. Otherwise, we would've been in a loop of emotional distress. When the readjustment was done, the bond between us and the fans, we only took the most necessary power from them to keep us alive. Our characteristics collapsed back to your script versions and it started to calm down. There was a short period of time where we lived in a peaceful coexistence. But when I was completely back to myself, I started to feel this immense hatred against you. And so, it happened; we met again, after many years."

Mark listened carefully to his words. It was so much information for him to take in, he wasn't even sure if he understood half of the things Dark explained to him.

"So, to sum all of this up: I knew you back then and we were pretty much in touch with each other. But then, the egos started to act weird and stuff and you searched help by me. When I kinda refused to help you guys, you held me captive and tried to manipulate me, without success. Then egos started to vanish and you managed to make me do sketches in the end, so some of them returned, because the community had some kind of interest back in you guys, right? And after a few were back, you locked parts of my memory deep inside my head and things seemed to be back to normal, but the fans did something to you, so you... made the line between you and them thinner? Because of that everything was finally good and you started to hate me," Mark summed all the information up and Dark nodded.

"Phew, that... that was a lot."

"I know, but I think it was time for you to know." Dark smiled a little.

"I'm not the real Darkiplier, by the way. I added this part of memory, in case we would ever meet again. In the form you see me now, we were good friends. And I hope that with the memories you will gain back after some time, you will retrieve the memory of the Darkiplier in the real world, so we can be friends once again," he told Mark softly.

"It's time to wake up now," was the last thing he said, as Mark felt how his vision got blurry and all faded to black.

****