"You're perfect"

The voice echoed through the vast depths.

"The perfect villain for my story"

Sounds of laughter hung around him like always.

It always pierced through him like a knife or spear and he didn't know how to make the pain stop.

The high-pitched ringing returned, stabbing inside his ears.

He tried to dig inside to stop the ringing but it was no use.

"Why fight it?"

He panicked and held his head in his hands, trying to stop everything from collapsing down on him.

The pressure grew more and more intense.

"You'll see it eventually. I'm the hero and sooner or later I will take you down. . . . And you'll let me, . . . ."

He was on his knees but he felt like he was drifting out into space. If only he'd drift off into the sun to burn. Maybe then it'd get rid of all of this pain.

" . . . won't you?"

He tried to scream but no sound came out. He couldn't take it. He just couldn't make it stop!

"See you soon, my dear friend"

"Huuuh!" Dark gasped and flinched violently, waking up from his nightmare.

His breathing was heavy and his heartbeat was frantic.

He had his eyes closed to try and calm himself but he still felt that same feeling that he was being watched.

Usually the feeling stopped when he woke up.

When Dark's breathing went back to normal, he finally opened his eyes.

He jumped, seeing a familiar face in front of him.

"Christ, Wilford . . . . what do you want?" he sighed heavily.

The craziest ego with the pink mustache stared at him from the other side of his desk with a confused smile on his face.

"Well hey there, Darkipoo! I was WONDERING when you'd wake up! Ya know it's not too good to sleep at yer desk, ya know!?"

Dark swallowed and licked at his dry lips, sitting up straighter in in his office chair. He felt the cracking of his back and groaned.

"Don't worry about it, Wil. I'm fine. I must have just dozed off"

"You've been sleeping there all NIGHT, Darky!" Wilford scoffed at him. The man stood up, leaning over the desk to scold him further, pointing his finger at him sternly, "Now ya know ol' Warfstache don't take no shit from nobody! Ya better not do this again, ya hear?"

Dark snorted but nodded, "Sure . . what time is- wait a second . . . .  did you say I've been sleeping here all night? And just HOW did you know that, Wil?"

Wilford looked cornered and looked away.

"You haven't been watching me sleep again, have you?"

"NO!" the man denied, "Uh . . . I'm gonna go get ya some coffee! Black like yer soul, right?! I'll be right back!" he vanished from the room immediately.

Dark rolled his eyes, 'He's been doing that more often lately. I know it's because Damien and Celine's birthday is coming up soon but I wish he'd . . ..'

He stopped himself from thinking it. He couldn't imagine the pain Wil had gone through. He'd be the last person to tell Wilford he had to 'get over it'.

Rolling his eyes, Dark finally stood up tiredly sludged his way to his bathroom to get ready for the day.

When he had finished, he was in his black suit and fixed his hair best he could. He tightened his tie and grabbed his- no, Damien's cane. 

It was his to look after for Celine and Wilford won't dare touch it. He didn't understand the significance  since there was really no one to tell him but it didn't matter. He felt a strange connection to it. 

He had even tried asking Mark about it but the YouTuber would just ignore his questions.

No, Markiplier was not the same man as Mark. Mark was the Actor that Damien and Wilford knew back in the day and was Celine's ex-husband. Dark knew of the events from 'Who Killed Markiplier but that was all mostly for show, really. Based on true events, though.

There was never a District Attorney and Markiplier played the part of the 'Actor Mark'. It was very surreal and Wilford was barely able to pull through it all, not that Markiplier really seemed to care.

It didn't seem like he actually cared about any of his egos.

'No, that's not true' Dark shook it off, 'He's been kind and respectful. And his friends are all nice, too'

The only people in Mark's life that know of the egos were Amy and Ethan, of course. Bob, Wade and Tyler knew as well from knowing Mark for so long. 

And then there was Sean along with his own egos (of which he had barely met). He had met Antisepticeye only once before and it wasn't too pleasant. The video, 'Darkiplier vs Antisepticeye' was just for fun as he played the role with Sean, not Anti. And Dark Chica was posed by Mark's Chica. They couldn't let Dark Chica get involved in a video. She was too dangerous to unleash and had to be kept outside the house in the darkness of Mark's mind.

Dark hated it, of course, but it was what was best for everyone so she didn't eat them all. Not that she'd hurt Dark. She was the only good thing Mark had ever made for him.

Suddenly, Wilford appeared in front of him with a cup of coffee, knocking him out of his busy thoughts.

"Got yer coffee, buddy! Drink up! We got a big day today!"

"Every day's a big day for you, Wil" Dark snickered.

"WELL IT IS~!" he whined, "Yan wants to practice with their katana, King wants to build a tree-fort, Dr. Iplier needs help with cleaning his special little clinic downstairs, Mark wants us to read his new script, Bim has more ideas for the TV show, Google needs re-wiring again to subdue his murderous tendencies-"

"Wait, wait! Hold up" Dark stopped him, "What did you just say?"

"Oh yeah! Google's been trying to kill Bing again!"

"No, no, not that part." he feared the worst, "Mark has a script?"

"Oh! YUP!" Wilford was stupidly happy about that.

'Of course he would be. His character is always perfect for him. Sometimes, I feel so conflicted with how Mark portrays me. Is that really how I'm supposed to be?'

"Right  . . ." he sighed, "We'll check it out later, then. Any idea when he'll call for us to come out?"

"No idea!"

"Okay then. Thanks for the coffee, Wil. Why don't you head on downstairs and keep the peace for me?"

Without a word, he popped out of existence, a wide smile on his face.

Dark groaned to himself but sipped on the hot coffee, 'Needs sugar. He always forgets. I can't bring it in myself to tell him, though'

He took his time going downstairs, not privy to the chaos that ensued every day. Mark was lucky he didn't have to deal with it. 

The egos were trapped inside his head but it didn't seem to affect him all that much. Mark could call them out as he wished but he only ever did so for videos. And even then that wasn't very often.

In Mark's head, they stayed all together in a rather large house the YouTuber thought up himself. His imagination was so bloomed, after all, he had thought up everything for his egos.

'He's kind and respectful' Dark kept thinking to himself, 'He didn't have to make us feel at home. He could have us all trapped in darkness if he wanted .  . '

"LOOK OUT!!"

Dark hopped out of the way as Bing rolled down the hall too fast on his skateboard. And it seemed as if he was out of control of where and how fast he was going.

Quickly, Dark stuck his cane out in front of Bing, effectively making him fall off and onto the floor, "OOF!. . . GuUuUHhh"

The skateboard slowly rolled down the hallway harmlessly as Bing laid on the floor. He looked like he'd throw up, "Duuuuudde"

Dark wasn't phased though, "How many times do I have to tell you not to skateboard in the house?"

"Uuuhhh . . . but dude . .. there's nowhere else to roll, bro!" Bing hobbled back up on his feet and fixed his shades, "Where am I supposed to ride, dude? Gets boring in his f*cking house"

"First off, stop trying to cuss. It's not going to work. Second, next time you see Mark, just tell him. I'm sure he'd understand"

"Yeah, whatever" Bing rolled his shoulders and wen tot pick his board back up, "See ya later, dude!"

He walked off, leaving Dark alone as he was to go the rest of the way downstairs by himself.

With a heavy sigh, he did so, 'Wil was right. Seems like it's a big day already'

It took all day to go around to everyone in the 'house'. He even went out of the protected walls to visit his favorite creature, Dark Chica, to see how she was doing. Mark never did anything else with her for videos so she would get pretty lonely but she was also too dangerous to be let in the house. It's not that she was too big, either. She was actually fairly normal sized. She was just feral if looked at the wrong way. Except towards Dark and a few select other Iplier egos.

After fiddling with everyone else's problems and helping with anything they needed, it was finally time to face the music. 

Time to find Wilford.

It didn't take long. As per usual, he was in their large rec room in the conference area with Bim, the Jims and Google. And as usual during these little meetings, Google looked like he wanted to shut himself down.

"And we'll have TONS of lights, and new sounds! I got a GREAT new idea for the disco and- OH HI DARK!"

The others turned to him, seemingly almost grateful for his arrival except for the Jims who were hanging on his every word.

"Wil." he nodded to him, "You have the script? I would like to go over it now if you don't mind"

Wilford looked confused.

"You know . . ." Dark tried to jog his memory, "The one you told me about this morning? The one Mark wants us to go over?"

Still nothing.

"Dammit, Wil, Mark has a project for us, obviously! Where is the script!?"

"Oh THAT script!" Wilford's brain lit up, "I don't have it!"

"WH-what?"

Google sensed the situation and intervened, "Mark sent a call for us this morning about a script. He said he wants us to come out to go over it with HIM"

"Ah!" Dark calmed himself, "I see. Alright then. Sorry, Wil. That makes more sense. When do we go, Google?"

"Tomorrow"

"Tomorrow. Got it. I'll let everyone know we'll be gone tomorrow and-"

"Actually!" Bim stopped him, "Interesting turn of events, here! Uh . ..  Mark wants us ALL to come out tomorrow. Meaning. . . EVERYONE"

Dark crossed his arm, "I see . . It'll be difficult but we shouldn't have too much trouble getting everyone to cooperate. We've never left his head all at once before but as long as we're back by the next day, then"

"Another thing" Bim stopped him again.

Dark waited anxiously for him to continue. Bim had never looked so nervous to tell him something. He was always one to shout news with grandeur.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Mark wants us all out but . . it's gonna be for a few MONTHS"

Honestly, Dark didn't know what to make of this news.

Not only was  all of this new to him but also, Mark hadn't let HIM in on it. He had only seemed to tell Wilford, Bim and Google along with the Jims. But why just them?

Didn't Mark trust him anymore?

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Mark?"

Mark just shrugged, "Yeah, why not? I don't see the big deal"

"It's just" Amy was more anxious than usual, "We don't know how they'll react. More so, how they'll react OUTSIDE the protection in your head. I mean, what if they accidentally kill or hurt someone? We can't just hide it away like it never happened."

"It's alright, Amy" Mark smiled, trying to reassure her, "I'm confident the more responsible egos can help keep the peace."

"Okay but what if Wilford kills someone randomly, thinking they'll just come back to life? What if Dark loses his temper and hurts someone? What IF Google's wiring messes up? If any of them messes up, you can't just fix it, Mark. They look like you and even if you hide them away again, you'll be the one convicted of the crime."

"Amy" Mark took her shoulders seriously, "You worry too much. And usually, I'd follow your advice. You're the one who keeps me grounded and tells me whenever I go too far and I LOVE you for it. But sometimes, you also just have to trust me. Remember Unus Annus? Right? Just trust me. Everything will work out just fine"

Amy snorted, "Famous last words"

Mark couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah . . . Probably right. But I also really wanna do this. You do trust me, right?"

Amy groaned and whined, "Of course I do! Most of the time-"

"Wait, what?!" he whined back, "But Amy~!"

Seeking back-up, Mark spotted Chica and ran over to her, picking her up with a loud groan.

"Mark, no!"

But he didn't listen and carried Chica over to her, his head behind hers to mock her talking, "Oh please trust Markimoo! Daddy would never let anything bad happen! Look at my tootsies! Aren't they adorable! Trust the tootsies!"

"Mark!"

He popped his head around from behind Chica's, "Do I need to go get Henry, too and show off his tootsies?"

"No!" she couldn't stop laughing, "Mark, no! Fine! Fine, fine! Geez" she giggled, "But you better make extra double sure nothing will happen, alright?!" she pointed at him sternly.

"Yeah, yeah." he set poor Chica down on the floor.

He already had a plan in mind.

First, he had to make some calls.

Watching the scene unfold, he made plans of his own. He had been listening in on Mark's conversations and peering in on his life every so often.

He had read the script and his blood boiled.

Now it was time.

It was finally time to take down the villain and rise up as the hero he was always meant to be.

So? Any thoughts so far? What's everyone think of the story? Any theories or criticism? Hope everyone likes it so far and keeps reading! I can't wait to keep writing :D