New chapter! Yay!

When Shadow and Rouge arrived home the next morning, they were very surprised to find the house a total mess from Mephiles' frantic searching of Dark.

His head popped up from behind the couch, and the poor hedgehog looked as if he did not sleep at all. The Chao each emerged from various piles of items as Tape's tail was seen waving from a particularly large one, his cry muffled beneath them.

"Oh, thank God, you're home!" Mephiles exclaimed, tripping over the pile of cushions, then scrambling back up to make his way over to his shocked friends. "Dark disappeared last night, and I haven't heard from him since. He's not in the house, or in the neighborhood. I can't hear him anywhere!"

He could have sworn he saw Shadow's eyes light up, and he felt the strong urge to punch him for that.

"Well, that would explain the mess..." The hybrid hedgehog commented lowly then spoke more clearly. "So... you think he ran away, or something..?"

"I don't know what's wrong with him!" Mephiles groaned then started to explain in rapid succession. "He got sick earlier this week, like, real sick, and Dr. Thizon fixed him, and then he was sleepwalking... no wait, he also did that earlier, but anyway, we had to take a trip to the hospital and have him checked out and they said it was just because he was depressed and then when we walked home, I tried to talk with him and he got really hostile and he ran off and I haven't seen him since!"

"What happened to your arm?" Shadow gestured to the wrapped appendage in question as he and Rouge set their things down among the mess.

"Before you get all mad at him..." Mephiles wanted to make sure the circumstances where understood. "He's not feeling right, and he seemed to have a panic attack when we suggested that he might have to get an MRI scan..." Mephiles gripped his arm. "It's not his fault... he seemed really upset when he realized he did that..." He himself seemed really upset. "What are we going to to? He's not well, and he's out there all by himself... And people... I heard that people have been acting strangely at night... and I think Dark might be one of those poor people..."

"How did you hear about that?" Shadow looked at him oddly. "I didn't think it went to the media yet..."

"Wait... you know?" Mephiles looked back at him. "What do you mean, 'went to the media'?"

"That's what we were investigating..." Rouge finally spoke up, having not said anything as the two hedgehog boys exchanged words. "It's not just Westopolis... everywhere seems to be affected."

"Just what is this? Is it a virus or not?" Mephiles looked at them with great interest.

"Our findings have narrowed it down to..." Rouge paused, trying to word it right.

Shadow huffed and just went ahead.

"It's nocturnal possessions, simply put." Rouge gave him a sharp look. "What? No reason to lie to the boy... he already figured out most of it, to begin with." Shadow waved his arms in the air, looking quite ridiculous. "Now..." He looked back at Mephiles, letting his arms drop to his side. "You said he got 'real sick'... explain."

Mephiles told them about how Dark had been sleepwalking, and had seemed otherwise fine until he had experienced a sudden headache and fainted after running a high fever shortly after waking up. Then how for the rest of the night, he was babbling and giggling about some oncoming doom thing or whatever that just really unnerved Mephiles.

"He didn't remember any of that after he woke up..." Mephiles said, eyes giving away how anxious he was as he sat on the dismantled couch. "When I told him about it, he went really pale..."

He then explained the next night, how he had found Dark asleep outside under the tree, and thought Dark had woke up, how he freaked out, and as it turned out, he was really still asleep and mumbled again about what he has told him the night before.

"But he didn't remember that either..." Mephiles' ears were in danger of disappearing under his quills. "And he just seemed to get more and more irritable... so I had Dr. Thizon look at him, just to make sure he didn't have another infection or something, like the one we found earlier in the week that we thought caused the problem."

"Why do you think he ran off, then..."

"I dunno what I said... but I was trying to get him to calm down, and I must have upset him terribly... He disappeared, literally, and I hoped he came home... but he wasn't... I don't know what to do..."

"Did you try reporting it?"

"What?"

"Let the police know that he's missing." Rouge elaborated.

Mephiles looked horrified.

"With that Shela lady working with them? That's a horrible idea!"

"It's the best one you can try..." Rouge tried to assure him. "If he's only been gone since last night, it's still early enough to call in. They say that the chances to finding a lost person are better if it's in the first forty eight hours. And he's under the age of eighteen, so they should be able to start on it right away..."

Mephiles stared at the clock and counted quickly on his fingers, stopping in shock before bursting into tears, and lunging forward to wrap his arms around the bat and bawl at the top of his voice.

"I've already wasted eleven hours j-just waiting here! That means we only got th-thirty seven left!"

"I'm sure we'll find him..."

"He's alone out there... I don't think he's ever been alone like that before... and he hardly knows how to look after himself..." Mephiles looked up at her, biting down on his lip. "I just wanted to know what was wrong... and he... left..."

"Oh, c'mon..." Shadow shrugged. "The guy hates sunlight and people, so how far could he have gotten? In the city? Hmm?"

At first, Mephiles wanted to hit him, but after thinking about it, Shadow had a point.

This hardly made his feel any better, though.

Dark was all alone out there, and he felt like this was his fault, having pressured him so much that Dark simply wanted to get away from him...

Dark growled, shielding his eyes from the light. He should have thought to bring those sunglasses, but he had been in such a hurry to leave that he was now going to pay for that mistake.

I'm going to go blind from all this light... He frowned, looking quite disgruntled. I hate mornings too...

And the fact that the sun was reflected off the windows of nearby buildings did nothing to help him calm down.

He had not a clue where he was headed, other than that he simply had to move forward to get there. Where "there" was... well... he figured he knew when he got "there".

Never been much into metaphors... let's just agree that I'm simply "going". He shot back at his mind. Some days, he felt as if he'd be willing to strangle his mind... if only it had a neck so he could do so...

To his displeasure, he caught sight of himself in the reflection of a window. Again... it didn't seem right...

On top of that, he could see darkness forming under his eyes, adding to his tired and ill appearance.

Probably partly due to having to sleep on bricks and cardboard... He sighed deeply, tearing his eyes away from the troubling sight.

He stopped in mid step as he realized he was about to trod upon a cat. A full grown, white cat with blue eyes, it seemed, which stared at him with such annoyance, he couldn't help but flinch. Forcing a short, nervous laugh out of himself, he knelt down and attempted to befriend the creature.

"... I have one of you things back at... well... I wouldn't call it home... Only been there for a short while..." He gave a small smile with his eyes closed, reaching for the cat carefully. "He's small, and pretty cute..."

The cat hissed at him, raising up on it's toes to puff out it's fur before taking off, leaving Dark in a state of confusion. Finally he glared and shouted after it, ignoring the people staring: "AND HE'S A LOT NICER THAN YOU, STUPID STRAY! HE L-!" He stopped short, cheeks puffed as if his mouth had spontaneously decided to hold it back. That word again. Why is it so hard to force from his mouth? He exhaled loudly and slowly, letting his posture sink. He wondered if anyone cared to notice his absence by now.

Mephiles, no doubt, was probably in tears looking for him...

Tape was possibly crying out his cat calls, trying to get his attention...

That's two he could think of...

Shadow would no doubt celebrate in the form of brightening his mood considerably, perhaps to the point that Mephiles would be forced to hit him for being such a heartless jerk...

And that bat...?

He hardly had a clue what she thought of him, since they hardly interacted. But he doubted she would be as bad as Shadow. He ought to take the time to remember her name someday...

And...

He hadn't heard much about Logic since he disappeared nearly a month ago.

Even Logic seems to have abandoned you...

Dark's eyes went wide.

Where in Chaos did that come from?

He spun around, half expecting to come face to face with the speaker, refusing to think that game form the depths of his mind.

Logic did not abandon him... Logic left to return to where he belonged so that Dark could be right again. He did that so that Dark would get better. He didn't just...

He clenched his teeth. He just realized that he was trying to argue with what his mind had come up with.

He was arguing with himself...

He needed to calm down. He was starting to get too worked up over this. T was he worried about anyway? He had already accepted that he was insane, right? Surely, voices and speaking to himself was nothing new, correct? Same old, same old, was it not?

But this was the first time that realization dawned on him so painfully.

The small, crystal hedgehog form reached up to his bespectacled counterpart, standing on his toes.

"Up! Up! Up!" He chattered excitedly, keeping one arm around a stuffed rabbit that was missing an ear and could do with a bit of a patch job. "Euphie want up!" He giggled.

Logic couldn't help but smile back. Euphoria was finally starting to develop and grow. Unlike the rest of Dark's emotions, Euphoria was seemingly stuck at a small age, not used enough to grow and become like the rest. Logic had been a favorite, and was therefore overly developed, nearly more intelligent than Dark was aware of.

In the past month, the near mute and shy Euphoria, or "Euphie" as he wanted to be called, started to brighten, immediately taking to Logic, much like Dark had. In fact, it seemed that Euphie only wanted to be around Logic.

Envy looked over his shoulder carefully, trying not to be seen as he stared at them. How mean! He had known the little guy for just as long, and had been one of the many to try and coax him out of his shy shell, and Logic gets all the attention? Hmph!

Disinterest couldn't care less what the kid did.

Unease was unusually restless today, but no one seemed to pay him much mind.

The rest of the emotions, you ask? Oh, they were elsewhere at the moment...

Logic picked up the kid, who seemed no more than two years old, maybe less. Euphie giggled and reached for Logic's glasses, pulling them off and holding them up to his eyes, looking through them in confusion.

"They only work for my eyes..." Logic tried to reach for them, unable to really see to clearly, having to squint. "I can imagine things looking a bit fuzzy for you through them..."

Euphie pulled them off and held them up in both hands, not realizing that he dropped his stuffed rabbit as he did. Once Logic got his glasses back on his face, Euphie looked around until he found his toy on the dark ground and started to whine, trying to reach for it. Logic looked down and waved his hand, picking the toy up with a bit of his, or rather, Dark's, Chaos Aura. Euphie immediately hugged it once it was close enough.

"Y'know... you should let me fix this ratty thing up for you..." Logic comment.

Euphie didn't look pleased, and just held onto his toy tighter, shaking his head as he frowned.

Unease's ears twitched and he looked up, appearing quite startled. Granted, he always looked startled, but everyone could feel that something was wrong.

There was someone else here...

He looked just like most of them did... except for one main difference...

His irises were pinkish purple instead of bright green.

Logic instinctively tightened his hold on the child, who looked at this new entity with a mix of curiosity and anxiety, hiding most of his face into the white fur in his older counterpart's chest.

This new person's dark smile deepened.

"Who are you?" Logic demanded, narrowing his eyes. "You should not be here... this is a restricted area meant only for the emotions of Dark the Shade... State your name and business, now!"

"My... kind of a bossy one, aren't you..?"

They had never heard this voice before. This fact caused quite a quiet murmur of anxiety as more and more of the emotions arrived, having sensed the disturbance.

Logic flinched slightly but quickly regained his composure.

"I'm the one in charge, and it's my job to keep order and protect everyone who lives here..."

"Who decided that!" One of the emotions, most likely Tactless, shouted, who was then treated to a good knock on the head several of the other emotions.

The newcomer chuckled lowly.

"Very well... if you would like to know..." He smirked. "I really haven't a name... but I belong to Dark Gaia... I suppose you can call me 'Dire'... I really do like that..."

Logic's eyes went wide.

Dark Gaia?

Not that creature that was fabled to be sealed in the Earth's center for eons and eons? This had to be a lie... that creature was nowhere near ready to be awakened, anyway.

Logic declared just that, and Dire just laughed raucously.

"Haven't you heard? Things are under new management... Old Dee Gee is up and about now, and attacking all the sad and darkened souls he can find to strengthen his power." Dire had trouble holding back his giggling, which was unsettling the other emotions. "And your... 'Dark', did you call him? Well, he's just the kind of poor soul that's as sweet as candy to the boss... just my luck that I get to bring his attention to such a depressed and hopeless individual..."

Rage growled angrily, looking just about ready to charge forward and attack Dire. Logic held his arm out to hold him back.

"Hey! What gives!" The angry emotion barked, glaring at his glasses wearing twin. "This guy is just insulting Dark... no... all of us! Are you really going to let him do that?"

"Patience... We have no idea what he can do... and if you end up getting hurt... not only do we lose one of our best assets..." Logic reasoned, bringing his hand back to place on Euphie's head. "But it'll be under my watch... and I can't allow that..."

"Forget the rules! I'll tear him apart!" Rage growled, clenching a fist. "Nothing ensures a win more than sheer force!"

"Other than a well thought out plan..." Logic said casually.

Rage groaned in frustration. He really hated it when he had to team up with Logic, that uppity know-it-all...

"Besides... think of Euphie..." Logic added needlessly. "We all need to set a good example for him... do you really want him copying such a reckless act?"

"Who cares? Let's just get rid of that guy!"

Logic sighed quickly.

What was the point of trying to explain to anyone? The only one who saw on his level was Dark, anyway...

Kinda a bit shorter than usual, but the groove ended here. ^^;

Euphie was the one I kinda intended more so to have in here, and yay! Logic makes his encore! Logic is planned to have some good moments, btw, for all you Logic fans. ^^

As for Dire... I couldn't think up any other way to name or display it. It was supposed to resemble Iblis to a degree... but the eye color is more like Dark Gaia's. Taking on the form of Dark's emotions to try to get them to give in! Oh no!

Sooooo... yeah... I hoped this was okay...