Okay... just as I promised... here's the start of "Teaching Darkness: Visions"
This has got to be the longest chapter I have ever written... and it get's longer with each word...
Enjoy...
Mephiles was gazing out the window of Rouge's house, amusing himself by trying count how many birds hung around on the telephone wires. Every time he got to what he thought would be the last number… more birds would come, and several would leave in a flurry of feathers, causing him to lose track of his number, and have to restart again.
It had been several months since Mephiles had tried to gain possession of a Chaos Emerald to further help his plans to cast this world in to a land of fire and darkness, hoping that the silver hedgehog he had convinced to try to kill the blue hedgehog known as Sonic the Hedgehog, to cause his own human "sister", Princess Elise of Soleanna, to shed a tear or two, and release the seal that kept his fiery "brother", Iblis, locked away from the world, and inside the Princess.
After he did get his hands on an Emerald, he was promptly beaten into submission by Shadow the Hedgehog, who was not related to the blue hedgehog, but bore a vague resemblance (very vague…) to him.
Fearing that he had lost, Mephiles took a last ditch effort to keep his plans going… and melded himself to Shadow, and resided in his mind for two days. Unfortunately, Mephiles had not looked further into the possible consequences of having forced two minds to reside in the same brain, and after several initial brain takeovers… Mephiles had accidentally caused the two hedgehogs' minds, personalities, and emotions to criss and cross so that once the two were forced apart… neither were the same as they were before.
Mephiles was able to control his change of heart relatively well… But Shadow could not control the lustful hunger for revenge that Mephiles had harbored, and he gave in completely, promptly attacking Rouge and Mephiles. Mephiles had taken a good number of the thrashing to keep Rouge as less injured as possible, and even had received a bleeding chest wound close to where his heart was, but despite the blood loss, still kept fighting until he could no longer keep his head up, but managed to freeze Shadow with an Emerald's energy.
He gave Rouge the Emerald to wish upon it and fix everything. He immediately passed out once the correction was made; not knowing that another wish was made on the Emerald, which had been for him, until he woke up to find himself slightly changed in his appearance; with a mouth, nose and feet that were not masses of mist. Rouge had wished that he would be able to start over with his life and live it out the way he wanted to. He had chosen to take residence with them, mainly because he had grown a little fond of them… and partly because he nowhere else to go.
He ran his tongue over his nice set of teeth, tongue brushing against his fangs as he gave up on trying to count the birds, and turned away from the window to cross the room and sit down on the couch. He picked up the remote to the television and switched it on, skipping through a few local channels to tune in to "Scrubs", his favorite comedy show, next to "Futurama" and "Family Guy", which usually came on later.
The doorbell rang and he ducked behind the couch due to his dislike of answering doors, mainly because it would either be door-to-door fundraiser kids, or those nice people with ties that handed out pamphlets and rode bikes to each house they visited.
The doorbell rang again, and Mephiles sank lower to the floor, hoping he could disappear from sight. Shadow called out, exasperatedly: "I'll get it…", as he passed Mephiles, and sent an annoyed stare his way.
Mephiles peered around the side of the couch to see who it was, and nearly choked on his breath when he saw who was standing on the other side of the door.
A cobalt blue hedgehog with streamlined quills, green eyes and a pair of red running shoes was grinning at Shadow.
"Hey, Shad…" He said. "… You still up for that rematch?"
Shadow sighed, as if they go through this occurrence a lot.
"Are you still going on about that? I beat you fair and square…"
"It was a close call, remember?" The hedgehog smirked. "Too close to declare a winner…"
Mephiles watched the hedgehog fixedly, feeling something old rekindle inside of him as he tilted his head. This was the "Iblis Trigger" he had told Silver to kill. He almost scoffed at himself for trusting that kid to do the job… Sonic was still alive and standing before him.
Mephiles realized suddenly where his mind had drifted, and forced the old goal to the back of his mind. He had no reason to kill him anymore… his window of opportunity had passed much too long ago, and he didn't really want to do it anymore, considering the whole mess almost resulted in his own death. Still… he couldn't help but stare at him. Sonic seemed like he took great pride in being the Fastest Thing Alive, as he kept pressuring Shadow to do the race rematch.
Shadow was steadily losing his patience, and decided to slowly close the door, hoping Sonic would take the hint and just leave him alone.
The door was almost shut as Sonic kept on hassling the Ultimate Lifeform, before the Blue Blur pushed the door open once he spotted Mephiles hiding behind the couch. Had Mephiles not looked so different, Sonic might have recognized him from his brief glimpse of the shade when Team Sonic had been sent into the far future by means of Eggman's time machine, and might have demanded a few questions to be asked. But that was not the case…
Sonic sped into the room in a blink of an eye, and was now crouching down to be eye level with Mephiles, who inched back nervously. Sonic was gave him a friendly smile and stuck out his hand, to which Mephiles flinched at.
"Hi! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, the Fastest Thing on Two Legs…" He declared proudly. "… I don't think we've met before…"
Shadow watched the two with a worried look on his face that no one saw. He wasn't sure what would happen, but immediately assumed the worst as Mephiles still had the tendency to switch back to his old self when presented with something that triggered an old habit or memory.
Mephiles' lime green eyes briefly flashed a look of fanatically malevolent thought, which Sonic had not caught, because his eyes were closed. Mephiles quickly caught himself and forced himself to remain calm and timidly return Sonic's gesture, loosely shaking hands with him.
"… I'm Mephiles… Mephiles the Dark…"
"'Dark'? What kind of animal is that?"
Mephiles quickly looked up at Shadow for help answering that question, and only got a shrug.
"… I-I-I'm not sure…" He stammered out, looking away awkwardly as he pulled his hand from Sonic's light grip.
"Maybe it's related to a hedgehog…" Sonic mused as he stood up. "… You look like a bright sharply quilled hedgehog and you…"
"Okay!" Said Shadow, clapping his hands together as a gesture that the conversation should probably end now. "I think that's enough introductions for today!" Shadow stepped behind Sonic, and began to push him toward the door. "Thank you for your visit… but, we have a very busy day planned for us ahead! Good day to you!"
He pushed him out and slammed the door shut, turning the deadbolt and drawing the blinds shut in one swift movement, before turning around and leaning against the door with a sigh, sliding down some as he facepalmed himself softly. He then lowered his gaze to Mephiles, who found himself to be shivering slightly for some inexplicable reason.
Mephiles' heart was beating painfully fast and causing him to pant heavily. It had taken all of his will power to keep himself composed, but his dark side had almost slipped through. He was really working hard to suppress that side, which he often referred to as "Dark" to Rouge and Shadow, but sometimes it was just too hard, and it was advised that he take a break from everything and have some meditation time.
He forced Dark back into the farthest corner his mind and took a deep breath, then pulled himself onto the couch, sinking into the cushions with a sigh. Shadow left his place at the door and stepped across the room to stand by Mephiles, who now had his hand over his eyes to block out any sight at all, and had his head tilted back and resting on the top edge of the back of the couch.
"… I didn't like that at all…" He mumbled under his breath, which had begun to slow down once he had regained his equanimity. "… Dark almost had a field day back there…"
Shadow leaned forward and rested his arms on the arm of the couch, staring at Mephiles with concern… a not so usual occurrence, as Shadow was still bitter towards him for trying to control his mind.
But he couldn't help but notice that Mephiles was looking rather worn out and weary lately, like maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep during the night. His shard like quills had begun to droop and dull around the edges, his naturally pale muzzle had paled a couple of shades, and the shading around his eyes seemed to have darkened.
It also seemed like his train of thought derailed at the station a great deal of the time now, as he would habitually trail off in mid sentence and gaze vacantly at nothing in particular for up to ten seconds enough times of the day to be a worrying factor, before shaking his head lightly and returning to his previous activity, a great majority of the time totally unaware of most of his absence seizures.
Shadow had "Googled" it online about a month ago, and found that it was possible for someone to develop absence seizures as a result of a blow to the head. Feeling guilty for slamming his own head into Mephiles' when he had gone homicidal a few months previous, Shadow read on, and matched up a couple of Mephiles' symptoms to the ones listed, and was a little relieved when he read that it was usually nothing to cause for alarm, and that it had no lasting effect on brain functions and could be grown out of in a matter of time.
Still, Shadow couldn't disregard the fact that Mephiles was a little unstable emotionally, and with the battling against his dark side, he was bound to have a hard time until his blanking out episodes subsided.
Mephiles suddenly became aware of his concern, and lifted his hand from his eyes to stare at him.
"… What?"
Shadow looked away briefly before turning his attention back to the shade, one ear perked higher than the other.
"… Have you… been sleeping alright lately?" Shadow asked slowly, trying to word it right.
"… Why do you ask?"
"… You look like you've had insomnia recently… and you look like you're becoming a little ill…"
Mephiles flopped onto his side and curled up a little before responding: "… I haven't…"
"How come?"
Mephiles gazed at him intently before looking down and saying, unnerved: "… Nightmares…"
Only a very small portion of Shadow found this only slightly amusing. Mephiles the Dark, self-proclaimed former "demon" of darkness… had nightmares?
However… nightmares were no laughing matter. Shadow can personally account for that.
"About what?"
Mephiles jumped. He had hoped Shadow wasn't going to ask him that. He folded his arms, deciding to put up his tough-guy act and said testily: "…Why?"
"Nightmares can cause harm in one way or another after a long period of time…" Shadow explained, not fazed at all by Mephiles' sudden attitude change. "… If nothing is done to fix the problem… you can get sick in more ways than one…"
"… Like you would know…" Mephiles snapped at him, before catching himself with a soft gasp. "… Sorry…" He said and rolled over and turned his back to him.
Some time passed before Mephiles murmured: "… You're still there… aren't you?"
"Yep…"
"… I'm sorry… but can you please go away? I really don't feel like talking right now…"
Shadow sighed and stood up to leave, stopping at the hallway for a moment, and looking back behind him.
"… I… hope you feel better soon…"
"… I'm not sick…"
"… I know…"
And with that, he left, leaving Mephiles to wonder the full meaning of his words.
Nearing close to six in the evening, the sun had already begun to set, its warm orange glow held back behind the blinds. Mephiles contemplated if he should try falling asleep again or not, and decided that he should. His teeth glinting as his tongue rolled in a wide yawn; he pulled his pillow, which he kept on the couch when not using it, closer and half hugged it, too tired to pull his blanket over himself, as his eyes drifted shut and his mind blacked out.
He awoke with a start, gasping harshly as his chest heaved up and down in tune to his whines of distress. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, and he found that he was on the floor with Rouge holding him up slightly as she sat on her knees, and Shadow leaned over him, dabbing his sweat dripped face gently with a hand towel.
Mephiles' watery eyes wandered the room as he whimpered hysterically, unable to calm himself down on his own. He tried to ask what had happened, but could only babble incoherently as his tongue refused to work properly. He started to cry, out of the unexplainable terror he had felt the moment he had woken up.
He felt Rouge scratch him behind the ears, and was dumbfounded by how much of a lulling effect such a simple action, like itself, had on him, and his tears and cries began to ebb away, and were reduced to short moan like whimpers.
Shadow continued to dab at Mephiles' face, wiping a few of the tears away as well, whispering in his best attempt at a soft, comforting voice: "… Shhh… It's okay now… it's over… we're here… don't cry, Mephy… don't cry…"
Mephiles brought his hand up slowly and wrapped his fingers around Shadow's wrist, then gave it a weak tug, gesturing to Shadow that he wanted to say something. Shadow stared at him fixedly, showing him he was all ears.
Mephiles regained some control over his tongue, and struggled to whisper heavily: "… S-shadow?"
"… Yes?"
Mephiles' stomach lurched before he stammered: "… I… I'm ready… to t-talk about it, now…"
His stomach turned again, and he wrapped his arms around it, and gave Shadow a pleading look. Shadow caught on, and grabbed the trashcan nearby, dumping the scraps of paper onto the floor, and then thrust the waste bucket into the shade's outstretched hand. Mephiles nodded gratefully before he pitched forward and threw up right into it, feeling increasingly embarrassed as he was painfully aware of his two friends witnessing him barfing up right in front of them.
It was going to be a long night for him…
End of Chapter One... How was it?