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[Ingo looks at him for a moment, thinking. Is this because Emmet is always giving in to the monster? Leaning into manticore instincts, biting and pouncing and scratching? That seems likely. But pointing that out won't change anything; it feels cruel. Ingo hasn't got any right to point fingers at anyone else for killing, anyway.

He puts an arm around Emmet, one wing flapping open to try and drape over him as well.]

I know.

[The thing that always makes Ingo angriest is when people try to tell him that the horrible things he's done are somehow completely fine. So he won't do that to Emmet.]

We are monsters. We are bad by nature - that is the entire point of the Fog doing this to us at all. It is good that you can still recognize that it is bad. Many people here do not.

I wish I could lock myself away, but you two made me promise not to.

[He said weakly.]

But I am bad, I am verrry bad.

[...ah. The Fortress again.

Ingo goes still, mind whirling. Does he really have any right to ask Emmet not to do that when he himself wants to so badly? Emmet's trying to do the right thing, just like him. But...while he doesn't care if he gets tortured by some demon in the name of justice, his stomach turns at the thought of the same happening to Emmet.]

...I did not know what the Fortress was, then. Gladion was the one who said not to. I don't know where he heard about it. But Beat told me that it is operated by a demon who tortures the prisoners.

At least the prisoners don't kill anyone else. Just because they were mad they were a stupid Zoroark.

[It feels like a dream come true. It feels like a nightmare. If they both went together, Emmet couldn't be upset at him for going - but if they both go together, then Emmet -

Ingo pulls his brother into a tight hug, suddenly terrified.]

I - I understand. I didn't before, but I do now. When I think about finally being able to ensure that everyone is safe from me...I want that so very badly. Sometimes it is difficult to think of anything else.

[Emmet lets himself be pulled into the hug.]

I am Emmet, I hate myself so much.

[And Emmet is too lost in his own self-disgust to see anything else right now. He is the bad one here. He didn't kill because he was forced, but because he was mad.]

[Ingo isn't rubbing Emmet's back or stroking his hair the way he usually might. He's just clinging to him, claws digging in strongly enough to border on painful.]

I know. But I still love you.

[Is he wrong to keep Emmet from doing what he knows is right? They're both evil monsters, risks to the people around them. Is he wrong to lead his brother into such a thing, like an Ekans in the grass? He's supposed to take care of him. At the expense of the entirety of humanity, though?]

Do you - really want to go?

I can't break my promise though.

[His voice is cracking.]

I promised Gladion and you.

I should not have asked that of you when I did not understand. I was thinking of myself, and how I want you around - not of your peace of mind, or of anyone else. Though - I suppose there is still Gladion. At least one of us ought to be around for him...

[And obviously it ought to be Emmet. Gladion wants Ingo around out of obligation, but he thinks that Emmet is actually good company to him. It's not fair to propose that Ingo alone gets to go to the prison, though.]

You're right, I should go.

[Emmet says that with a finality. Ingo must think he deserves it.]

Because you would not have let your anger let you kill a person like that. You're still kind.

Absolutely not! If you go, then we are both going! I am not any good for Gladion, and I am certainly no less of a murderer than you are! My victims and their families do not care why I killed them - and in any case, if I have not killed someone out of anger yet, it is only a matter of time.

[He's been so angry lately. The only reason all of his arguments have been with other monsters is because Ingo avoids humans whenever possible. But he's a monster. Monsters can't be kind.]

You've only killed because you've had to. Ingo, we both know I am the worse between the two of us. You're kind, I am selfish. You care about other people, I really only care about you. You want to be helpful to people, I look at most people about how much fun I can have with them and that's it, yup.

It is an actual loss if you go.

[Ingo draws back, pressing his forehead to Emmet's.]

If you were selfish, I do not think you would be proposing any of this. And if I were all that good, I would have gone far sooner, rather than kill all the people I have. I knew there was some sort of prison since Gladion mentioned it, since before I had killed anyone at all, but I took this long to even seek out more information about it.

[And he still hasn't actually gone. He'd have waited a few months more, at the very least, and maybe he never would have found a way to do it without hurting Emmet too much at all.]

I thought if you made me promise, you were promising also.

Perhaps that is part of why I did not.

[Ingo doesn't consider himself to have made any kind of promise...but he also knows that Emmet would have asked him to, if it had ever come up. He could have tried harder long before now. He had not forgotten the ominous name Gladion mentioned.]

But it still would have been better for humankind, and this world.

It would be better if the Fog and E+L wasn't here at all. I don't want to be here, I don't want you to be here. I want you to go home and be safe and happy even if you will forget me again, even if I do not want to forget Ingo ever.

[Welp, there it is.]

[Him forgetting Emmet again is probably on the table, given Ingo's many issues. It's Emmet forgetting him that draws him back.]

What do you mean?

On the network, someone told me we forget we were here if we go back home. I don't want to forget you. Even if I am bad, I would want to remember this place if I could remember you.

Emmet...

[Ingo's eyes well with tears. He'd want to remember everything awful here just to keep him? Even when he'd be going back to the other Ingo? He butts their heads together, then runs his tongue once over Emmet's hair. The idea is alarming, but right now he's just weirdly touched.]

I - I do not know if anyone can say that for certain. I have not heard much about it myself, but...some of the people who returned in May still remembered this place, didn't they? I spoke to Triffany and she had not forgotten anything! Though, she did not seem to realize just how long she had been gone from here...

What about the us that was here before? Same monster and everything?

Gladion -

[Ingo abruptly realizes that this isn't a great argument at all. What more does Gladion know about it than any of them? Still, he goes on.]

Gladion thought that they were from different worlds than you and I. Similar, but not exactly the same.

Different worlds?

[WHAT? Emmet is still getting used to different worlds that are similar but different]

I did not entirely understand it. This was very shortly after we arrived in Bavan.

[Not that he's become an expert on different worlds since then, but at that time Ingo was still getting used to things like electricity. He'd pretty much taken anything Gladion told him as gospel.]

But he...seemed confident?

I hope they are happy then.

[He said gently.]

And one day they can meet again.

I hope so too. I never learned a great deal about them...though I did not try. I find the topic a little unnerving. But I know that they were together while they were here.

[People who knew the previous Ingo have also known that Emmet is his brother. So if they had already found each other, then they must have some idea of how to do it again in their worlds, right?]

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