Teaching Darkness: Relapse C19

Nothing could seem to halt Mephiles’ shrieks of terror. He shook his head and screamed out, howling in anguish and desolate fear. Shadow grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly to snap him out of it.

“Mephiles! Now is not the time!”

“You let him win! You let him win!” He screamed, not at all fazed by the shaking. “We’re doomed! We’re gonna die! It’s over! He won!”

Deciding that Mephiles was too far distraught to allow him to try to partly fend for himself, Shadow pulled him onto his back and hurried out of the museum just as Dark send a Dark Spike their way, Mephiles screeching as it grazed his crystal quill tips. He was now clawing at Shadow frantically, obvious out of his head with fright.

“MEPHILES! Calm down!” Shadow yelled as the crystal claws dug into his quills.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen! He lied to me! He lied to me! And I fell for it! This is all my fault! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?”

Shadow caught him by the hands and pulled them together to hold them by the wrists.

“It’s a little hard to run with you freaking out like this…”

“Why don’t you Chaos Control then?!”

“I already did… to find you… I can’t keep doing them, or else I’ll exhaust myself… do you want that to happen?”

“No! No!” Mephiles shook his head hysterically.

Both hedgehogs yelped when two Dark Spikes tried to hit Shadow’s feet. The hybrid hedgehog tried to sidestep, but tripped, sending both him and Mephiles rolling down the museum’s outside steps. Mephiles had enough sense to let go and roll into a ball, Shadow following suit.

Mephiles recovered quickly, grabbing Shadow’s wrist and pulling him up, not pausing between that and unrolling.

“Hurry! Get up! If he catches either of us, it’s over!”

“He can-?”

“He’s free, so he can kill me too now! Run!”

“So-”

“Do you wanna find out for yourself?! RUN!” Mephiles screamed. Several Dark Spikes just missed him, burying themselves in the ground at his feet as he jumped back. “He’s just toying with us right now!” he added quickly.

“Where do we run?!”

“Anywhere! Preferably away from everyone, so no one gets hurt!” Mephiles turned tail and just ran, Shadow taking off after him. He was a little surprised at what Mephiles had said, but then again, he had to agree with him… it was better if no one else was needlessly hurt from this.

When Mephiles looked behind him, Shadow glimpsed the absolute fear in his expression, though Mephiles only let it stay for a brief moment before shaking his head roughly and setting some form of determination in it instead as he looked ahead again.

It wasn’t long before Shadow realized that they were heading for the bridge.

“How is this going to help?”

“I was hoping we could at least try to trick him or something, and maybe get him to drown… he can’t swim and it worked last time…”

“Stuff doesn’t always work the same way, y’know…”

“Got a better idea?”

“Not really…”

“It’s my plan then…” Mephiles halted under the very tree they had Chaos Controlled under when Mephiles tried to drown himself, and leaned against it to catch his breath.

“Why did I choose to be a hedgehog?” He mused to himself offhandishly, taking a deep breath. “I just can’t see how you stand all this running…”

“It’s a gift…”

Mephiles was about to respond to that, before something round collided with him and send him a ways down, cratering into the ground. Dark unrolled from his Spin Dash and stood up, snickering under his breath.

“Oh, this is just a field day! I get to choose who to take out first. But the million dollar question is: Which one? Shadow, the one I ultimately despise? Or Mephy Boy, my weaker half?”

He was laughing so hard, that Shadow was surprised that he wasn’t gasping for air.

“Or, I could challenge myself, and do both at once!” He turned his slit-pupil poison green eyes on the hybrid hedgehog, his grin growing wider.

Shadow took as step back, taking no effort to keep his expression stoic, something he was very much used to. He risked a glance behind Dark and say that Mephiles was struggling to his feet, the impact obviously having winded him greatly.

Almost collapsing again, he steadied himself and charged at Dark, claws out and purple Chaos energy radiating from his hands.

Dark didn’t bother to look behind him, and simply scoffed, sidestepping so that Mephiles stepped in front of him. The crystalline hedgehog’s lime eyes widened as an identical crystal hand scruffed him, Mephiles immediately curling up like a kitten as he was yanked back from him run forward, Dark bringing him to where they were eye-to-eye.

Mephiles’ ear flipped down and his tail tucked against his body, but he bared his teeth in a display of hostility.

“Put. Me. Down.”

“I suppose I could… but that’s letting you off easy…” Dark raised a claw to Mephiles’ cheek, curling it when it touched the fur and flesh. Mephiles clench his teeth to together, knowing what was going to happen next. “I see your injuries you got in our mind have disappeared… no matter… we’ll start over, but this time… I can use those eight I couldn’t hit… Oh, don’t worry…” Dark cooed in a mock comforting voice when Mephiles’ muzzle paled, an ill expression gracing his face as Dark dragged his claw down it slowly, a trail of blood draining from the cut slowly as Dark pulled his hand back and licked the blood off. “We can go slowly if you’d like…”

A Chaos Spear burnt Dark’s hand, causing him to drop Mephiles, who landed on his back. Staring up, he slowly regained himself, and rolled over to pull himself away. He brought his hand up to his face, wincing as he pressed it to the cut. He pulled his hand back, and his eyes widened at the sight of the line of blood on his palm. He groaned and closed his eyes to block it from his vision… the sight of blood always made him dizzy, especially if it was his own.

Dark growled as he held his hand, glaring and baring his teeth at the thrower. Shadow.

“Why do you keep saving him, when he brings you nothing but trouble? You’re about as stupid as he is!”

Shadow curled his fingers and formed another Chaos Spear in his hand, taking a deep breath and sighing.

“Mephiles isn’t the problem… he tries to get away from you, but you won’t leave him alone. You are the one who brings trouble, not him…”

“But that doesn’t tell me why you keep coming to his rescue!”

“I could tell you…” Shadow couldn’t help but smirk at him. “But I don’t think you’ll get it… at all…”

“Don’t underestimate me, hedgehog!” Dark’s already low patience was beginning to wear even thinner.

“Naw, I don’t think you can get it all…” Shadow grinned and flung the Chaos Spear at him, only to see it get slapped aside. “Ah, I see now… you’re one of those tough ones… ah-kay… this is gonna be tough…”

Mephiles took a deep breath, telling himself that now was not the time to be getting dizzy over a little cut. He got to his feet again, stumbling over them a few times before he was steady. A few more deep breaths and he frowned before he charged at Dark again, trying the same tactics.

Shadow saw the demon’s ear twitch before he turned around swiftly, catching Mephiles by the wrist, and bringing his knee up to hit the crystal hedgehog in the stomach.

Mephiles eyes widened, and he collapsed with only a sharp gasp of pain.

As he shook at the demon’s feet, Dark turned his attention to Shadow, who seemed very concerned for Mephiles.

“A little slow this time, eh, Shadow?” Dark lifted his foot and kicked Mephiles aside. “I think I’ll just get rid of you first, then take care of the little weakling you seem to keep saving…”

Shadow paused for a moment, and frowned before saying: “Meph’s not weak…”

“What?”

“He’s not… he’s fought you off for a very long time… if he’s as weak as you say… he shouldn’t have been able to do that… he’s not weak…”

“But he failed… he gave in and grabbed the Emerald…”

“Only because you made him…” Shadow countered. “I saw him trying to fight back… if he lasted for this long… he’s not weak… You are because you’re scared of what’ll happen if he wins…”

There was a pause, Dark obviously at a loss for words. There was another pause for him to blink before he growled, alighting his hands with blood red Chaos energy.

“I’ll have your tongue for that!” He hissed, bright eyes fixed on Shadow.

“If you can catch me!”

Shadow, what are you doing!? Mephiles thought, a little too winded to say it out loud. You’re just going to make him madder!

With a soft moan, Mephiles pulled himself to his feet, only to stumble back, his fall broken by a tree’s trunk.

Great… he hit me so hard I can barely stand… this is gonna be a while…

If Mephiles was ever proud of one thing about his genetics, it was that he was able to recover at least twice as fast from getting hit… however, sometimes, it just didn’t seem fast enough… and this was one of those times.

While he tried to catch his breath, he watched with worry as Shadow continued to taunt Dark, the demon steadily getting more ticked off as the time passed. It would seem Shadow was taking a leaf out of Sonic’s book and boasting about how he couldn’t get hit.

A Dark Spike that singed his quills made him switch tactics quickly.

“Do you have any other attacks other than that Dark Spike? I mean, honestly… after a while… it gets old…”

“Mephy Boy knows first hand that these claws can sting… and that’s only one… you want to find out how all five feel?” Dark purred dangerously, a shadow of a smirk coming into view.

“No!”

That had been Mephiles. Dark turned around swiftly, frowning when he saw that Mephiles had used the tree to steady himself, having to lean against it. Breathing a little quickly, Mephiles narrowed his eyes, looking about as angry as the time he had to face Shadow head on when the two had been personality switched, if not more.

“You leave… him alone… right now…” Mephiles said between pants, still obviously having not completely caught his breath.

“And what are you going to do about it? I see you can barely stand at all...”

“I dunno… but I’m willing to try anything…”

“I see…” Dark was smirking fully now. In one quick movement, he melted into a puddle of shadows and shot off after Mephiles, who could only widen his eyes in shock. Unable to move well, he could only moan in fear as the puddle shifted into something ropelike, wrapping its way up and around him.

Suddenly, Mephiles felt it tighten, constricting like a long snake, trying to suffocate him.

Seeing the problem, Shadow shouted: “Meph! Melt in to a puddle too!”

Mephiles shook his head slowly, holding back a scream of pain as both Dark squeezed tighter, and Shadow looked at him bewildered.

“… I… can’t…” The crystal hedgehog tried to keep from exhaling. “… If I do… he’ll just… mix us both up… and we’ll be… right back… where we started… Sh-shadow… h-help…” He added pleadingly as he fell over, having lost the strength to stand.

Unable to charge up on Chaos power, having already Chaos Controlled not too long ago, Shadow had to rely on his other method of attack: good old fashioned, hand-to-hand, brute force.

A skates’ length away, he made his way over and brought the side of his hand down on the end of the snakelike shadow. He had obviously hit the “head”, because Dark let go, and slowly shifted back to his normal form, giving Shadow time to check on Mephiles, who was moving very little.

“Mephiles! Are you okay?” He said, a little worried at how slow of a reaction he was getting.

Mephiles lifted his head, taking a deep, slow breath as he did, eyes drooping a little. “Did we win..?”

“Not yet…”

“Then, no… I’m not okay…” Mephiles tried to pull himself up again, but fell back, blinking blankly before frowning at himself.

“You’re gonna keep at it?” Shadow offered him a hand.

“… Till that monster’s gone… yes…” Mephiles took a hold and with Shadow help, made it to his feet. Taking another deep breath, he crossed his arms and said: “He’s here because of me… so I’m going to get rid of him… even if it takes all night…”

“Sounds like a plan…” Shadow smirked at him.

“I get it from you…” Mephiles returned the grin.

Both hedgehogs nodded and braced themselves for Dark’s next move.