Remember the note I had at the beginning of 4-4? Well, I was wrong! Yay! And I didn't even do this on purpose! It just worked out that way!

EPISODE 8-8

Now, this all happened in the span of a couple of seconds. Half a minute, tops.

Count Bleck spread his arms out, and a large purple cloud filled the air around them. All of a sudden, it was like everybody's thoughts were everyone else's, and they were all the same mind.

That is, suddenly, everyone knew how everyone else felt.

The minions felt what K. Man had felt this entire time. Anger. Frustration. And, just under that, fear. Fear that his life might be taken away suddenly again, fear that he would be separated from Pearly.

They relived the moment in which the void swallowed his world. He and Pearly stood together, facing it, holding hands.

"Whatever happens, I'll stay with you," he'd said.

She'd squeezed his hands, and they closed their eyes…

They felt the joy that K. Man and Pearly felt when they opened their eyes, and saw that the void was closing in the sky. They felt the purity of happiness and love at that moment.

They felt the anger, when they heard that the one who did this was living a happy little life, in his old castle, with the old dark book. They felt the hurt and betrayal, that this so-called hero hadn't vanquished him entirely.

K. Man, too, felt the emotions and saw the past of the minions. They saw the admiration they had for their Count, how each one of them (with the exception of Dimentio) would lay down their very lives for him. They felt the love he had for Timpani, the pain he felt when he lost her, and the anger that turned him into Count Bleck.

They saw Dimentio's evil intentions, masking his own present uncertainty that kept him from doing anything. They felt it even through the confident and casual appearance he always put up for everybody else.

They felt Mimi, happy and silly, without a care in the world outside of serving her Count.

They felt O'Chunks, who would waste the first person who spoke ill of his beloved leader.

They felt Nastasia, who still now was devoted to the Count out of love and responsibility. That one day, maybe he might love her the way he loved his wife. Or that one day she could forget him and move on.

They felt Mr. L, not a monster at all but a man who was constantly in the shadow of his brother and whose deepest desire was to break away and be something of his own. That he put the mask on because Mr. L was everything Luigi was not.

The Count's memories burst out of the amulet to join in, and for the first time his minions saw what he had gone through. He'd received the letter. Elmer had written it and K. Man had signed it. He'd gone out and been captured in the forest on his way to the mansion.

They'd told him that if he didn't bring them the Prognisticus, they would get rid of him and then tear the castle apart looking for it. Count Bleck wanted to tell Timpani, he almost did, but found he couldn't worry her. He wrote that excerpt in the Beige Prognosticus out of desperation. He took the book to K. Man and hoped that was it. But at the last second, they took his memories, and tricked him into being their servant.

With rage the minions felt K. Man's glee at watching the monster that destroyed their world nothing more than a servant boy, cleaning up their camp. But they felt beyond the glee, to the satisfaction that they had done right and brought justice to the world.

K. Man felt the rage the minions felt at his glee, and there was total empathy. Now, each one understood exactly where the other one was coming from. A complete, total understanding. Each side understood it exactly the same way as the other side.

The X-Nauts were in on it, too, although they weren't quite as important to the story. Gary understood the world like he never had before, and all the others felt his daily struggle to understand and to be understood. The love Sherwood had for his friends and home. How Mindy really loved Daniel even though she acted like she didn't. That even though Morris was a bully, he did it because he didn't think people would like him anyway. That Erik had always secretly loved to play with dolls, and had a fine collection at home. And Erik felt that nobody had a problem with that.

It ended as suddenly as it had started, and remember; only a few seconds had passed. The Count, exhausted from the effort of combining the consciousness of so many people, fell to the ground. His minions rushed to him. K. Man, too, moved to go to him until he remembered which one he was.

"I'm fine, Count Bleck said breathlessly. Just a bit winded."

"You've got your memories back," said Tippi happily.

Count Bleck shook his head. "No," he said. "But I did see them."

K. Man approached the group now. He took his shades off, and they saw his eyes were rimmed and tired. He rubbed them with his fist and said, "Look, uh… I'm sorry for what I done. I mean… I think I am. I ain't sorry for how I felt, but… I guess you knew what you was talkin' 'bout."

"I understand," said Nastasia. "I assure you, we are all deeply sorry for what we did in the past, and want nothing more than to make up for it."

Elmer stepped forward, too, and held out the amulet. Count Bleck twitched, the amulet glowed, and his memories were finally back in the right place.

"Thank you," said Count Bleck. "I did feel a bit vulnerable without them."

"Look," said K. Man. "I don't wanna make a thing outta this. Just give me back Pearly and we'll make like this never happened."

Nastasia called Pearly over, and restored her to her normal state.

Pearly ran to K. Man and threw her arms around him. "Oh, K., that was messed up! I wanna get outta here!"

"In a minute, baby," said K. Man. "I wanna make sure this all evens out."

Count Bleck straightened up. Even dressed in his drab peasants clothes, there was something formal about him. His presence was that of a leader, now that he had his memories back.

"If you agree to drop your desire for revenge, than this will be the end of it right here," said Count Bleck. "We will wipe the slate clean. No hard feelings either way."

"Yeah," said K. Man. "Me and Pearly gotta realign our lives, you know?"

Count Bleck extended his hand. "May we part as comrades," he said.

K. Man frowned and shook his head. "Nah, man," he said. "I ain't never gonna feel no different 'bout you. I just can't stay mad, know what I'm sayin'?"

Count Bleck withdrew his hand. "I understand," he said. "Fare well, then, K. Man Koopa."

And with that, it was finally over.

Count Bleck insisted on sending each and every X-Naut that helped out a gift basket of muffins and mushrooms. Nastasia put the minions to work assembling that.

"The world is always better when we thank each other properly for their assistance," said Count Bleck. "People should do good out of their hearts, but it never hurts to express deep gratitude. And what better way to thank someone for saving your skin than with blueberry muffins?"

Typical Blumiere, Tippi had thought.

And so life was restored to the way it had been before. In other words, everything was back to normal. I do hate that phrase, because it seems so unnatural. In television everything has to be "back to normal" at the end of the episode so it can be shown easily in syndication. But real life is a series of transitions, with no real normalcy to return to, only a bright and changing future ahead. Of course, since this is based on television, well, you can see my dilemma.

Ah, wait. There is one change that I do think should be shared. It took place soon after the minions returned to the castle, when they were still working on the gift baskets. You see, everybody's thoughts had become everyone else's so briefly that they'd only had time to focus on the strongest ones, or the ones closest to them. And there was one very special thought that had been shared.

Nastasia played superviser while the minions worked in an assembly line- Mimi arranging the homemade muffins in the basket, Mr. L wrapping it in cellophane, Dimentio tying it shut with a ribbon, and O'Chunks stamping the card to the front (stamping was the closest thing to chunking, so that was the only way he would allow himself to be associated with this activity. And if you ever tell anyone, Heaven help you.)

Nastasia watched them work like a well-oiled machine, like a factory line. She was happy, purely happy.

You see, she'd seen what she had been waiting for all this time. In the Count's memories, she had seen one simple interaction from his point of view. The interaction wasn't important- she didn't even remember what it was about. She'd only seen that, at that one moment in time, he had loved her the way he'd loved Timpani.

That wasn't what made her feel happy. She had longed for Count Bleck's love since the day he had rescued her, and once she felt it, she knew it was wrong. She felt his love for Timpani at the same time, and the futility of her longing weighed on her heart like a ton.

A split second later, she felt another love directed to her. A love as pure as the one she longed for. It lifted her spirits in the air, and showed her that there was more for her than an unrequited desire.

That love, of course, came from O'Chunks.

She didn't know if he knew she felt it. She watched him now, affixing the cards to the gift baskets. He sensed he was being watched and glanced up. But Nastasia had already looked away.

"Hey, O'Chunks," said Mimi, as soon as Nastasia was out of earshot. "Nassy was lookin' at you." She giggled, and emphasized the word "looking" to imply a certain kind of looking.

"Ah, yehr full o' wet cabbage," said O'Chunks. He glanced at Nastasia and wondered, did she know? Had she felt it when they were all mixed together?

Nastasia smiled as she left the room. She wasn't yet sure if she loved him or not, but it felt wonderful to be loved. Finally, she had a future.

THE END

Not forever- I just decided I liked how 'the end' looked at the end of an episode. Don't worry- when it is forever, you'll know way in advance.