It was chilly, and the sun was only just beginning to rise when Kooky arrived at Buckingham Palace the next morning. It was quiet and lonely without the usual swarm of tourists. Just how Kooky liked it. 

"Halt!" One of the Fruitish guards in the courtyard shouted. Soon he was surrounded by guards in fuzzy hats, assault rifles pointed at him. 

Behind him, he heard the click-clack of heels on the pavement. It made him think of Lili, who he only just realized he was beginning to miss. But she couldn't protect him anymore. 

"Well, well, well, look who's here." Rose Quartz said, clapping slowly while Matera Shariee hid behind her. "I knew that news story would make you crawl out of your cave." 

Ah, so it was a lure, Kooky thought. And a successful one at that. "Yeah, about that 'news story', I'd like the chance to explain myself. After all, you're over here throwing around slander when this whole thing is Matera's words against ours, with no concrete evidence and no witnesses." 

He couldn't see it, but behind her dark sunglasses she was narrowing her eyes at him. "Stand down." She ordered with the wave of a hand. The guards' assault rifles remained unsheathed, but at least they weren't pointing at him.

Kooky cleared his throat. "I have brought the perpetrator, and it's not me. I know this is going to sound crazy, but there are 4 people sharing this body, and it's not fair to send everyone to jail because of the actions of 1."

Rose Quartz sighed, looking around at the guards as if to say, Can you believe this bullshit? Kooky didn't blame her. He wouldn't believe him either if he was in her position. 

"How do I know you're speaking the truth and nothing but the truth?" Rose asked. 

"You could talk to my therapist. We've been doing trauma work for C-PTSD, but he may have caught on. I haven't told him explicitly about it though, it's supposed to remain discreet when possible. I'll gladly go through any psych evaluations you may want to conduct to prove this." Kooky agreed. Surprisingly, Rose sensed sincerity in him.

"So you're not the one who raped her?" 

"I didn't even know a rape had taken place until I saw it on the news yesterday. I certainly wouldn't be able to testify or corroborate any events. No one us--other than the perpetrator-- were there. Now that I think about it, I was actually attending your father's memorial service." 

"That makes so much more sense now." Rose mumbled. 

"Why?" Matera whispered.

"He behaved like a madman. He was crawling under tables, throwing rocks…he was nothing like the Uncle Ludwig I remembered." Rose explained. 

Matera Shariee shuddered. She couldn't imagine Ludwig doing anything like that. He was always getting on her about crawling under tables as a kid. 

"Is everyone inside of you…very different?" Matera questioned meekly. 

"Yeah. We act differently, talk differently, look differently when we're all separated….Hey! We could have an identity parade, so Matera can identify the perpetrator for herself." Kooky suggested. 

Rose Quartz was skeptical. Kooky seemed too confident, but that could also mean that he truly didn't do anything, so he wasn't afraid of any punishment. Or, that could be what he wanted her to think. 

Rose nodded affirmatively. "Okay. We'll have an identity parade."

***

"Keep in mind there's a possibility that the perpetrator is not currently present." 

Matera Shariee nodded. 

"Keep in mind you don't have to choose any of the people present." 

Matera Shariee nodded. 

She looked through the one-way mirror at the suspects. They all looked similar: freckles, blue hair, and brown skin. All things that she herself possessed. It was a little difficult at first to distinguish between the four of them, for none of them were wearing clothing similar to what the perpetrator wore.

But as she looked, she was drawn to #2. He had the same strange hairstyle the perpetrator had, where his hair was gathered at the front and it looked as if it was folding in on itself. He looked young, younger than #1 and #4--probably about her age. She remembered that about him. She remembered his face. She had thought it would be the last thing she would ever see as she hung above the ground, his grip on her arm the only difference between life and death. He hadn't looked like Ludwig, but at the time, Ludwig was the only one she thought it could be. 

"Number 2. That's him." Matera Shariee said firmly. 

Even though Matera had identified the perpetrator correctly, the other alters were interrogated under the control of veritas loquentis spells, cast by certified, court-employed magic users to ensure defendants as well as plaintiffs told the truth and nothing but the truth in court. However, as Kooky had promised, none of them were really able to give any information on the crime because they weren't there. 

Matera Shariee watched the whole process through computer monitors, stunned by the sight of the Emperor after so many years. 

"Is it....wrong that I want to talk to him? I feel like I shouldn't even want to see him after all this time…after all the pain he caused me….Am I crazy for missing him so much?" She asked Rose, eyes glued to Ludwig as he answered one of the police's questions. 

"Not at all." Rose assured her. "I believe that just means you've forgiven him. I think you're longing to give him a second chance. After all, everyone deserves a second chance. That's what Dad used to say anyway, though I personally believe he might've given Mum too many chances." 

"There's a chance your dad misses you too. Even if he doesn't, at least you'll know the truth about how he feels about you, once and for all." 

"Would you give your mother a second chance, if she wanted one?" Matera Shariee asked. 

Rose paused. "I…don't really know." She admitted uncomfortably.

Matera silently scanned the monitors looking into the different interrogation rooms. "How the heck could this even happen to somebody?" She questioned under her breath. "How could multiple people live inside one person? Is the Emperor cursed? Possessed?"

Rose rubbed the nape of her neck. "No, not exactly. It may be hard to believe but it can happen. A while back, I did some research on various mental health disorders. I was intrigued by them, and I wanted to 'diagnose' my folks after my dad died, and my therapist made me realize my parents' actions weren't exactly…normal. I'd stumbled across websites about dissociative identity disorder, YouTube channels run by people who suffer from it, and Reddit spaces for people with DID. I stuck around because it was just all so fascinating to me. I hate to admit it, but it also made me feel a little better about my own situation. You know, 'cause there's always someone out there who's got it worse than you…it can really put things into perspective. Of course, that's not to say anyone's problems or suffering is any less valid…." She trailed off. 

"Anyways, your father is not possessed. But in a way, you could say he's cursed. Dissociative disorders like his are the cause of severe childhood trauma. They're good in that they develop to help the child cope and survive in their inescapable environment, but bad in that they can make it hard to live a normal life once the child grows up and leaves the situation where they no longer have to survive and brace for everything."

"Honestly, it doesn't really surprise me." Rose added solemnly. "Considering all the trauma our dads have been through already. Uncle Ludwig is the oldest of the bunch, so in theory, he experienced Bowser's fury much longer than the others. While the younger siblings had older siblings they could lean on for support, he…didn't. For at least some amount of time he may have also been put under a lot more pressure to be the perfect son and take care of everyone else. Uncle Ludwig isn't the only one with this disorder, either. There are others too, though it's very rare--"

"λοιπόν, that's just dangerous!" Matera exclaimed, taking a break from nervously biting her fingernails before continuing, "Why does the government allow them to go around being violent and hurting people?" 

"What? That's not even true!" Rose gasped, "The vast majority of people with DID are not dangerous or violent, in fact, they're actually more likely to be the victims of such atrocities. This just happens to be the case for your father's system, which, again, doesn't surprise me very much. From the very beginning Bowser raised our dads, and aunt, and uncles to be violent soldiers. Mindless aggression was encouraged and rewarded, while vulnerability was frowned upon. No kid should have to go through that. No, your father is the violent one, or at least the alter who did this to you is…" 

Rose paused, considering her words. "...I heard he's going to plead guilty." 

Matera looked at her, her eyes widened in surprise. "What? Why?" 

"Well, he did do it, didn't he?" Rose asked. "I'm honestly relieved. We went into this with zero evidence to back up our claims. We have no footage, no rape kit…it's essentially he said--she said. You were unconscious during the encounter, making Lodewijk the only actual witness. If he'd simply denied everything, I doubt any conviction could've been made. Of course, we have things going for us: you're a teenage girl; your father is a Black man, while you're light-skinned, making you much more likely to be believed."

Matera Shariee furrowed her brow. "Why do any of those silly things matter? If it happened, it happened, no matter who was involved or what they looked like." 

Rose shrugged. "That's just how it works sometimes. We'd tried my own mum for the repeated rape of my dad, but the charges never stuck because he was a large, strong man and she was anything but. The justice system just isn't always fair." 

Matera shook her head, loose curls slapping her in the face. "None of this makes any sense! Why me? What have I ever done to that alter? Why would he commit the crime and then admit to doing it later? No one's ever done that on the crime shows we watched!" 

Rose placed a strong hand on her cousin's shoulder. "I understand your confusion, Matera. I'm confused too, but with my telempathy, I sense remorse in him--" 

Matera abruptly shrugged her off. "I don't care what he feels. He didn't care how I felt, how I would feel! He took advantage of me, and that's nobody's fault but his!" 

She sniffed as her heterochromic eyes began to water. "Rosie, I want to go home now."

"S-sure. I'll tell the chauffeur to bring the car around front."