When Ecolo offers to take Arle & Carbuncle back to their home world, they find that it's in much worse shape than they left it in. Maybe they can save it? Reuploaded from Archive Of Our Own.
"Well, this is ittttttttt... wow, your world sucks! No wonder Satan hated it here~"
"... Ecolo, where are we?"
"Gugu?"
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Arle and Carbuncle had been promised by Ecolo to be taken to their old world, the Madou World, but the trio were instead met with a dead looking world. All the grass was gray, the sky was gray, and a black mist was everywhere in the air, not that it seemed to do anything. Arle was convinced this was some sort of prank.
"... very funny, Ecolo," Arle said, unamused. "Let me guess, you took me here so you can possess me again with no witnesses and now you're gonna use me to prank Ringo. Is that it?"
"No... this is your world," Ecolo said. "Gramps said it was right here."
"My world had grass, and trees, and a blue sky," Arle responded. "This isn't my world."
"Did I get the wrong coordinates?" Ecolo said, genuinely concerned. "Maybe I went to the wrong world? No, that's impossible..."
"Gu?" Carbuncle said.
"Sorry, Carby," Arle reassured him. "Looks like we won't get to see our world today after all. Ecolo just tricked us."
"I'm not tricking you!" Ecolo said. "This is the place Gramps told me to go!"
"You're lying!" Arle said, frustrated and refusing to believe this was her world.
"He isn't," Satan said, suddenly appearing behind them. "Perhaps it's hard to believe, but this is... our world."
"You got Satan in on it too?!" Arle yelled at Ecolo.
"Arle, I'm not lying! This is-"
"NO!" Arle screamed! It's not! If it was, down this hill, there should be my mother's home! I'll show you it's not there!"
Suddenly, Arle ran down the hill, still in denial that this was her world, with Carbuncle close behind. Satan couldn't stop them, and just turned towards Ecolo.
"THIS is why I didn't want you taking her here, moron!" Satan yelled to Ecolo.
"They're lying, Carby! They have to be!" Arle kept denying to herself. Deep in her heart, though, she was starting to believe this was her world.
"This has to be a horrible prank from both of them! It HAS to be!" Arle was saying to herself and Carbuncle as they reached an abandoned town.
Walking in, Arle realised something. "This looks like... my old childhood town."
She stopped at an inn that she'd seen so many times in her childhood, or even went to herself when she was visiting her mother. She saw her old magic school, the tower she'd passed her kindergarten exam with still intact. And, on a street with more homes...
"Mom's house?" Arle weakly said. It was the exact same as the one she'd been in so many times before. She gently opened the door.
"Mom?" Arle said, hoping she would see either nothing or her mother still alive. She didn't get that luxury. She saw a skeleton, presumably her mother. At this point, this was far too sadistic for a prank from Satan, and not even Ecolo would go this far. Maybe if everything was drowned in Puyo, but...
"I'm so sorry, Arle," Satan said as he and Ecolo walked in. "I tried to tell it to you slowly, but..."
"You didn't try to tell me at all!" Arle snapped back, tears in her eyes. "You never told me everyone in my family was dead! So many people I met were dead! You just wanted to hide this from me! When did all of this happen?!"
Satan sighed. "About 6 months ago, I traveled to this world and found... what you see in front of you. Nothing but a desolate wasteland. I investigated, and it turns out that 9 months ago, this world was destroyed by a meteor carrying some kind of dark energy that suffocated everyone who survived the initial blast. The entire planet was covered... and all life on it went extinct within a month."
"Well, then why aren't we suffocating?!" Arle said.
"The dark energy dissipated over the months. It's somewhat breathable now," Satan said.
Arle realised she couldn't deny it any longer. This was her world. Everyone she knew and loved was dead.
"I'm sorry..." Satan said, as both of them began to cry. Ecolo had no idea what to think in this situation, but he decided to stay for both of them.
Suddenly, Arle got up. "Wait, Ecolo, you can time travel, can't you?"
"What? I can?" Ecolo said, confused.
"Didn't you take us to the past once?" Arle said, remembering when Ecolo took her and Ringo across time. "That wasn't fun at all... but it means you can time travel!"
"Ohhhhh right! I can time travel!" Ecolo said, surprised that he could.
"Ecolo..." Satan asked, "did you forget you could do that?"
"... maybe," Ecolo sheepishly replied.
"Well, whatever! That means we can time travel!" Arle excitedly said. "We can save our world!"
"Arle..." Satan said, "the meteor destroyed the planet. How could we possibly destroy it?"
"I don't know..." Arle admitted, "but you two are some of the most powerful people I know. And if Ecolo thought I was the strongest person to possess that one time, I must be pretty decent myself! We should be able to do it!"
"You make a good point!" Ecolo said, on board with the idea.
"Even so... are we overestimating our power?" Satan said, still concerned.
"We HAVE to stop it. We HAVE to save our world! We HAVE to!" Arle said, determined.
"We just have to bury the meteor in Puyo~" Ecolo suggested. "Problem solved!"
"Maybe..." Arle sarcastically said. "But either way, we should be able to stop it! Ecolo, can you time travel us to 9 months ago?"
"Weeeell..." Ecolo admitted, "I don't have the power to time travel unless Gramps lends some of his power... and I can only take one of you~"
"WHAT?" they both said.
"You time travelled Ringo and I fine before," Arle said. "What changed?"
"I did??" Ecolo replied. "Huh, ehehehehehe..." Arle suddenly suspected Ecolo didn't want to go with Satan, for some reason.
"Uhhhhh... Satan? Can you... lend us some of your power?" Arle asked.
"Uhhhhh... sure," Satan replied. "But you have to promise me you'll be careful when time tra-"
"Ecolo told me you were gonna enlarge the sun again today for another tan," Arle replied. "Who are you to tell me to be careful?"
Satan tried to rebuttal, but had nothing.
Arle, Satan, Ecolo and Carbuncle were all in a circle together, as Ecolo had said this was how they got power to time travel. Suddenly, a portal appeared below them.
"This is it, Gramps," Ecolo said. "Next time you see us, your world will be fixed!"
"Thank you for this, Ecolo," Arle said.
After saying their goodbyes, Arle, Carbuncle and Ecolo went into the portal, despite Ecolo's claims only two could go in.
"You better be safe," Satan said after the portal closed.
