Teaching Darkness: Visions C6

Mephiles snarled under breath, and shook his head.

“I see...” Eggman said like he was having to explain this to a child, his hand touching the dial, lightly. “But, you really aren’t in a position to negotiate… you see…” He gave a dial a slight turn, Mephiles twitched at the buzzing sting he received. “… I have control right now, and if you want the shocking to stop…” He gave the dial a quarter turn, Mephiles now fighting the urge to grab the collar and rip it off as the buzz changed to a shock. “… I suggest you do what I say… okay?”

Mephiles clenched his hands together into fists, and narrowed his eyes, no nod or shake of the head. Eggman turned the dial a bit more, and Mephiles jolted and started to nod his head up and down to get him to stop. Eggman grinned.

“Good boy…”
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Rae pocketed her chips in her chips in her tail, having been sure to pick up some snacks for Jak, as well. She licked at the grooves of her teeth, searching for any traces of the chips and their flavor in between them

“I can’t fly…” She told Shadow, who had asked that a minute ago. “What makes you think I can?”

“You have twin tails… can’t you spin them to fly?”

RL shook her head.

“Naw… It requires too much energy and my body mass isn’t small enough to even allow me to hover… even if the tails spin fast enough… with my body, it’s just scientifically impossible…”

“Then what can those tails do? Besides twitch?”

Rae looked behind her, and waved her tails randomly for a moment before looking back.

“They help me speed up a bit, granted I get slowed down some before it works. They also help me float. They can catch enough air between the fur to let me stay at the surface. Can’t sink though…”

Shadow heaved a sigh.

“Guess we keep walking, then…”
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“I’m going to drain the tank and let you out… if you do as I say…”

Mephiles waited for the water to drain, his legs giving out some once his feet touched the platform. He braced his hand on the bottom of the tank as the glass was lifted off by a hovering machine. Once he had a clear shot, he wrenched the oxygen mask from his mouth and threw it down in rage.

“Try keeping me underwater, will you?!” He barked furiously and leapt at Eggman, claws out, teeth gleaming and bared. The Human casually turned the dial with a yawn, and Mephiles dropped to the ground, screaming as surges of sparks and volts jumped off his body and quills, the crystal tips glowing brightly. He forced himself to keep his hands away from the collar, the dull sting in them reminding him good.

“Let’s try this again…” Eggman turned it down just a notch, still enough to burn at Mephiles’ neck. “Get up… and stay…”

“… I’m not…” The jolt caused him to change his mind swiftly. “Okay! Okay! I’m up!”

Mephiles glared at him icily as he pushed off the ground. He bared his teeth in a weak growl, his chest heaving up and down through his deep and heavy pants of breath.

“… But don’t think I’m… gonna do what you say so easily… I will fight back…”

“I figured that much… That why I’m not after you, per se…”

Mephiles’ narrowed eyes widened in surprise.

“What?”

Eggman balanced the Emerald carefully in his hand; Mephiles’ eyes began to wander on their own as the power gem shifted from side to side. Mephiles blinked and forced his eyes to the ground.

“I’m more after… the other you…”

“Dark?”

“What ever you call him… I need him…”

Mephiles shifted his eyes up quickly to stare him in the face.

“… You’re not going to make me do-” He stopped once Eggman’s hand hovered over the dial again. He gritted his teeth, growled heatedly, flattened his ears, and crouched down submissively, knowing he would have been zapped again if he had finished that sentence.

“It’s seems like I already can make you do anything…” Eggman grinned darkly. “… I wonder what else you’ll do…” He added as an afterthought. His hand turned the dial slightly again, and Mephiles howled in pain.
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“So… how do we find the base?” Rae asked, thoroughly confused. “I mean… if it’s hidden…”

“He’s not really as smart as he plays it off as…” Shadow said. “He always loses, and he always gets found…”

“Well… if that always happens…” Rae used the emphasis the same way to help prove her point. “Isn’t that a reason for him to be better next time?”

“I suppose… but, I don’t think that matters…”

“So, how do we find the base?”

“Find a trail… track it down…”

“Ah… Okay…”
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“Just stop it…” Dark hissed viciously with Mephiles’ tongue, Mephiles’ eyes widening at the action. “I’ll have you know that hurts…”

“I can’t really help it if ‘Mephy’ wants to fight against it…” Eggman answered the “demon” coolly. “If you want it to stop… you’ll have to make him give in…”

“Fair…”

Mephiles choked on his breath as his hands twitched on their own. His ears lifted without his say so, and without his control… he stood up.

“He fights against me pretty well… He’s fought me with his sorry excuse for ‘free will’… but, I’ve forced him to the back of our… I mean my mind…” The mouth twisted into a sharply fanged grin, his eyes glinting madly and the teal striped, crystal quilled head tilted down as lime green eyes rose upward. “… It’s good to be back…” Dark purred deeply, the sound rolling of his tongue effortlessly.

Had Mephiles had any control right now… he would have liked to scream.
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“Are we there yet?”

“No…”

“Are we there yet?”

“No…”

“Are we there yet?”

“No…”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“NO!” Shadow wheeled around eyes wide and furious. Rae and Jak’s ears flattened against their heads.

Rae backed off a bit, tails twitching nervously.

“Geez… Sorry… I’m just a little bored…” She said as her ears lifted a little.

“This is a rescue mission…”Shadow said testily. “It’s not supposed to be entertaining…”

“Didn’t say I wanted it to be…”

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, closed it and shook his head, then turned back around. Rae scurried behind him, Jak in her arms.

“Are we there yet?”

Shadow heaved a sigh through his teeth.

“No…”
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Dark took a slow step forward, head kept low as his eyes stayed fixed on the Emerald in longing gaze of lustful hunger, his arms hanging limply, a wicked little smirk painted across his pale muzzle.

“So… you say you need me for something?” He brought his head up slowly, tilting it side to side as he did. “What are we talking about in terms of what I get?” He rasped.

“That depends… what do you have in mind?”

Dark brought his hand up to his face, and bit down on a nail in thought.

“For starters…” He frowned, and growled venomously. “You can get this stupid collar off of me…”

Eggman stared for a moment before breaking out into laughter, Dark glaring at him dead seriously.

“You’re joking right?” The Human snorted. “I’m sorry, but for my own safety, the collar stays…”

“Then don’t zap me…”

“Only if you don’t give me a reason to…”

“Fair… Then, second… I’d like that Emerald…” Dark reached a clawed hand out and closed his fingers around air, clawing at nothing in particular. “I want to use it, abuse its power, and twist time itself…”

Eggman raised an eyebrow, which twitched.

“We’ll see…”

“Again… Fair… Thirdly… I’d like Shadow dead…” Dark ignored Mephiles’ cries of protest in his mind. “Yes… dead… He’s been too much of a nuisance to me for the past half a year…”

That’s not true! Mephiles said in his mind, at least glad he still could do something. Shadow is my friend! I won’t let you! I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!

“Quiet, you…” Dark whispered under his breath, ignoring Eggman bewildered stare.

I won’t let you! I won’t let you hurt him!

‘Mephy… It’s not a matter if you’ll let me or not…’ Dark spoke to his good side inwardly. ‘In fact… you have no control now… It’s all me now…’

Mephiles’ frantic cry of protest echoed throughout Dark’s head, the “demon” having to place a clawed hand to his forehead as it bounced inside his skull.

“Little beast won’t shut up!” He hissed headedly, digging his claws into his quills, and pulling a few out. He examined a crystal shard in his hand, before dropping it to the ground, and stepping on it, the shard cracking and shattering under his foot.

“Do we have a deal?”

Eggman hesitated, half tempted to crank the dial up to the highest setting out of his uneasiness of what he might have gotten himself into. He really should think these things out more; this was probably going to be the fourth time in a row a plan might blow up in his face.

True, he often found himself at ends with Shadow as well… but he never really wanted him dead.

“I said… Do we have a deal?”

If Eggman had ears like hedgehogs, foxes, bats, or cats… he would have flattened them.
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“Are we-”

“NO!” Shadow yelled, grabbing his ears roughly, and yanking them down. “No! No! No! NO! We are not there yet!”

Rae Logan scratched her head and waited for him to calm down, his ears springing back into place as she extracted her container of chips from her tails.

“I was going to ask…” She said through a bite of Honey Mustard Pringle. “… If we were able to hold our own against this Egg-guy…” She swallowed as she picked Jak a treated out of the plastic baggie in her other tail, and handed it to him, Jak biting it in half with one bite. “I mean, besides you being tough… I’m just a kid, and Jak’s an old dog…”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen, Eighteen in June…”

“So you’re almost an adult…”

“I wish…”

Jak chomped on his treat with his back teeth

“…”

“I won’t get to really live by myself… I need parental guidance…”

“Ever try to leave the nest?”

Jak finished and looked up, begging for another treat.

“You’re… weird…”

“Thank you!”

Jak frowned at being ignored.

Shadow raised an eyebrow, and turned away. Rae replaced her chip canister and treat bag in her tails, and sighed.

“Are we there yet?”

One could hear the scream a mile away.
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“I really only want the Emerald, and for Shadow to be dead…” Dark whispered, eyes glued to the gem as he made another unconscious step for it.

Eggman looked worried now. What have I done? He half groaned to himself, mentally shaking his head.

“I could do it easily, too…” Dark murmured contentedly. “He would not see it coming, nor feel it… but, then… where’s the fun in that?” Dark chuckled to himself, completely amused at the thought of it. “I’d prefer to let him suffer… wouldn’t you agree, Mephy?”

Mephiles didn’t answer. He was scared in his own mind, trapped by an inner demon, who now wanted to kill his best friend.

Dark knew what Mephiles was thinking, though.

‘He’s not your best friend…’ Dark whispered. ‘He doesn’t even like you…’

That’s not true… he helped me today…

‘Helped you, huh? Then why are you here? Captured? Trapped in our own head?’

……………

‘Thought so…’

You’re not me…

‘What?’

Y-you’re not me…

‘Hate to break it to you, but I am…’

You’re not… You’re not… You’re not…

Eggman watched anxiously as the crystalline hedgehog had fallen silent, as if caught in a trance of some kind. His lime colored eyes half closed, his head tilted, and arms hanging limply in front of him. He suddenly blinked, and smirked wickedly as expression became more insane.

“I take it back… keep the Emerald… I just want Shadow dead…”

Only Dark heard the howl of misery echo so chillingly in his mind… and all he could say… was that he liked it…