Chapter 9: A Night's Reprieve

After a few more, rather rigorous, hours training us in magic, Dark suggested we rest, get some food, and try and prepare ourselves, although not necessarily in that order. The next day we would have to leave Tails' Workshop and begin our fight against the beings of the Void. He also, almost offhandedly, noted to us that the Guardians of the Void themselves would be running the war efforts for the other side. He mentioned a cat named Callie - one of the Guardians, he claimed, and among the elite of them as well. According to him her powers were like much stronger, much less inhibited version of Silver's mixed with ancient magical energies. He described her to us so we could attempt to avoid her at all costs.

I felt my blood run cold - remember back when I had that vision of a brown cat and then got a headache? Yeah... This "Callie" matched her description to a T. As you can probably predict, this greatly unnerved me. I guess I got kind of pale, or something, because everyone in the room looked to me worriedly. I waved them off and slunk back to the corner I'd been in before. I suddenly wasn't in the mood to socialize. At all. I just wanted to be alone.

Under normal circumstances I would have gone out for a run, but leaving the Workshop by myself would have been suicide.

Not for the first time, I found myself wishing that there were treadmills out there that could keep up with my pace. It would have made the whole situation just a bit more bearable for me, though I still would have felt incredibly stir crazy. I didn't want to be around people, but for now the corner was the best I was going to be able to do in terms of getting away. And, to be honest, that irritated me, and not just a little bit. If I want to be alone, I want to be alone. Completely alone. At least for a little while. Most of the time even Dark would leave me alone.

Thankfully, it seemed that no one else was feeling particularly social either, with perhaps the exception of Shadow, much to my surprise. He seemed to be quite fond of Dark, I noticed, and the two were deep in conversation yet again. Whatever they were talking about seemed to have ignited a spark in both of them... It wasn't likely that either one of them would be speaking to me any time soon.

Tails and Silver seemed quite fond of each other, as well. They were having a much less involved discussion on the other side of the room, keeping about a foot of space between them as they spoke, while Dark and Shadow were quite literally head to head. And Knuckles was merely gazing silently out the window, probably wondering about the state of his beloved Master Emerald. I supposed we'd have to make a stop to check on it at some point to ease his nerves. It'd just be cruel to make him wait to see if Rouge had stolen it from him.

A few hours later, when I had calmed and Dark and Shadow had (finally) finished speaking to each other, I approached the two darker hedgehogs. Night had fallen outside and Tails had decided that keeping as few lights on in his Workshop as possible would be best. He directed a rather exhausted Silver to one of the spare bedrooms upstairs before retiring to his own room, shutting off the majority of the main lab's lights as he went. Knuckles made his way to the living room instead of the other spare bedroom upstairs, possibly leaving it for Shadow or Dark to take, as I had my own room and wouldn't need it.

This left the three of us alone next to the window, shrouded in darkness.

"Did you need something, faker?" Shadow lifted an eye ridge. Before the Void, it would have been impossible for me to see the movement in such a dim room, but all of our eyes had changed while we were there. The fog had strengthened them and made them capable of seeing in almost pitch darkness.

"Not really," I admitted. "Just wanted company after spending a while on my own."

He nodded and leaned against the wall. Dark was watching me closely - I didn't need the improved eyesight to notice that. His red/orange irises glowed in the dark, which proved to be incredibly disturbing at times later on. We all stood in silence for a moment before Dark spoke up.

"You know, Blue, I lied to you."

"When?" I wasn't exactly surprised at the admission; he was a demon, after all.

"Every time I asked your permission to come out and said it was up to you whether I came out or not." He shifted. "I could have easily taken control of you. If I had wanted, I'd have killed everyone you know by now... With perhaps the exception of the Ultimate Lifeform, of course."

Shadow gave a soft chuckle at that.

Again, I wasn't all that surprised. He was God-like, really, and to hear him admit that he could have done that if he wanted to was actually somewhat comforting, mostly because it meant that he didn't want to. It had always been me who wanted to hurt those I knew, and honestly I could live with that. I could live with knowing I had violent urges and that he didn't let me give into them. Of course, I was well aware of the fact that one day he wouldn't be able to stop me... Or wouldn't want to... And I was pretty sure that day would be coming very soon. After all, we were about to start fighting in a war - one that was on a much larger scale than any "war" we'd ever had with Robotnik or Eggman - and there were bound to be more casualties. Maybe even casualties I would cause.

If anything would get me to snap, it would be accidentally killing someone or watching someone I cared about die, and if there was any time where either thing was more likely than now I couldn't think of one.

"I figured as much." I shrugged, eventually. "It wouldn't really make sense for me to have a whole lot of power over you. I'm kind of... You know... Mortal."

He fidgeted. "Yes, well... That said, as long as I was in your head you did have some power over me. If I got too out of control, you'd be the only one who could stop me because you're my host."

It seemed like he had wanted to say something else, but chose not to. I wondered, briefly, what it could be before something occurred to me. "Now that we're separate..." I trailed off, not sure how to continue the question. Do I still have that power over you? Can I still stop you if you get out of hand? Or is that impossible as long as we're separate?

He knew what I was trying to ask, regardless of whether I finished speaking. He nodded. "You can still stop me. I doubt the need should ever arise, but you can if it ever does."

His ear twitched as he spoke, a habit he probably picked up from me. And a habit that told me right then that he was probably lying to me.

My left ear always twitches when I'm telling a lie, unless its absolutely necessary for me to do it. Seems my body has some sort of moral objection to me lying just for the sake of doing it, but its been a little easier to control the twitching recently. And of course it does twitch at other times, so it isn't an exact science for telling when one of us is probably lying, but still. He was a demon and prone to deception when he felt it necessary - he knew I was worried about him getting out of control, so he wanted to give me some peace of mind, even if it was false.

He could have been telling the truth, but, again... He's God-like. How could a mortal like me stop a God from wreaking all the havoc he wanted? There was an off-chance that I really could, of course, but being as pessimistic as I was at the time I highly doubted it.

Sorry, I'm incredibly off track.

"Alright." I nodded. "I'll take your word for it... But know that if you do get out of control I'm not going to be nice about stopping you. I don't have to worry about accidentally killing you if I don't hold back."

"As long as you stick to physical attacks, yes." He nodded as well, far more solemnly. "You should sleep soon, Sonic. We have a long day ahead of us."

"You need to sleep too," I warned. "Demon or not, a physical body requires sleep. Unless you're Shadow." I glanced at the hedgehog in question. "Then it's just an advisable option."

He cracked a grin. "A highly advisable option."

It was weird seeing him grinning like that, but it wasn't as unsettling as I had imagined it would be. He just looked like any ordinary person... I'd been expecting him to look like a psychotic mass-murdering lunatic, which, you know, he technically is.

"Alright," Dark conceded. "I will sleep. Where are the bedrooms?"

"Upstairs. You can share mine with me if the Faker happens to want the other one."

"I do believe I will be taking that one." Shadow chuckled as he headed up the stairs.

Dark seemed ever so slightly put out by that, though it was impossible to tell why. He moved his gaze from Shadow and back to me. "Are you sure you want to share a bed with a demon? It's not exactly your smartest idea."

"You've been in my head for like... What? 12 plus years now? And you're saying me sleeping in a bed with you is less smart." I raised an eye ridge.

He raised his arms in surrender. "True enough, true enough." He sighed. "I suppose I'm just..." He seemed to struggle for the words.

"Not used to anyone being nice to you?" I suggested.

He nodded. Again, he looked like he wanted to say something, but again he apparently chose not to. "Let's get to bed, then." He was obviously trying to cut off any chance of more conversation. I chose not to argue, and we headed up the stairs together.

I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow, which I somewhat suspect Dark might have had something to do with.

A/N: Right. Sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this chapter - really, a year and a month is a lot of time to wait. Enjoy, and don't forget to tell me what you think.