Well, let's continue shall we? ^^

"Dark. Get over here. Now."

"Dark, no... you don't have to listen to him..." Mephiles caught him by the arm as soon as Dark reacted automatically, having not realized what he was doing. He blinked and looked at Mephiles, mentally grateful that Mephiles caught him. "He can't tell you what to do..."

"But..." Dark started to protest feebly.

"Oh, c'mon... you're Dark." Mephiles tried reminding him with an encouraging tone. "You used to never let anyone tell you what to do. You could do whatever you wanted. Don't tell me you forgot about that, did you?"

"Key words being 'used to'..." Dark shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. "... I'm not even sure what I am now... much less who..."

"You're Dark. That's all you need to know, right? You are you. No one will tell you otherwise..."

"Dark, I am losing my patience..." Iblis said edgily, folding his arms, and baring his teeth. "Who are you going to listen to? Him, or me?"

Dark looked at them both, taking a good amount of time before answering, raising a hand to point at Mephiles slowly, shaking a bit from knowing that he wasn't going to like the reaction.

"... Brother..."

"You ungrateful little pest."

Dark froze. That tone sounded venomous. His eyes went wide slowly and he stepped back a couple of steps to behind Mephiles, keeping his hands in front of him, shielding his face.

Mephiles watched this and glared at the fire demon as Dark shuddered.

"Haven't you hurt him enough? He just wants to ge-"

"You stupid rodent. You're the reason he's being so defiant."

Mephiles' eyes got wider for a moment as he sputtered, before clearing his throat and asking with a confused look: "W-what?"

"You put these stupid ideas in his head about how he can be my equal, and now he dares to ignore me."

"Well, he should, after what you did to him!" Mephiles shouted, tears forming very slightly in his eyes as he held his arms out to the side to shield Dark, who groaned quietly, shaking his head, knowing no good would come of that. "You threw him down the stairs, almost breaking his skull! You slashed him and left him to bleed! You pulled his arm out of place and bit and clawed him up! You took control of him! You br-" Mephiles choked a moment on the word, letting his arms drop as he peered over his shoulder with a sad look, sighing loudly as he swallowed and continued in a softer voice: "... You broke him... more than once... but you broke him..." He blinked and frowned, speaking more loudly. "Do you care at all that what you are doing might kill him? He's your twin! Exact same point of origin! Why don't you feel anything!? He's not even my brother, and I do!"

"You're a rodent who couldn't keep his nose out of someone else's business." Iblis' eyes brightened with a light orange glow and he smirked lightly as his body started to burn the air around him. "It would please me so much to be able to smite you and your flea right now... you have been nothing but a thorn in my side for the past decade, having escaped me by mere luck. Dumb luck, really..."

"How is that, exactly!?" Mephiles snapped, having long grown tired of the constant assault against him for the past year, with several never explaining the exact reason why. "How come no one ever wants to tell me just why they want me dead?! What did I ever do?! I'm the one who should be mad! You hurt Dark, and my-" He stopped for a moment to inhale sharply and try again. "You kil-" He stopped again, then frowned. "... I hate you..." He finally managed in a furious whisper. He stole a glance under the tree, and to his anger, he saw that Iblis had his foot right on top of a large rock he had placed there, having etched into it with his claws the names, and had spent some time absentmindedly scratching a few spiky shapes with feet and ears, not sure of what else to do with it. His eyes narrowed, and he said softly: "... Get off of that..."

Iblis casually looked down and twisted his mouth into a smirk before taking his foot off and sliding it under the rock, then kicking it over.

No one had time to even see the seconds in between what happened next.

One second, Mephiles was standing where he was, and the next second... Mephiles screamed in fury and attacked Iblis, scoring two swipes on him, one on his face, and the other across his chest. On the second slash, Iblis growled in annoyance and raised a hand, then buffeted him with a closed fist in the back of the head when Mephiles left an opening, forcing the hedgehog to the ground with a cry of pain.

"Impudent whelp..." Iblis growled, catching Mephiles by the arm and forcing him up so that the hedgehog could stare at him fearfully, Mephiles flinching at his tone. "I should just tear out your heart right now... let you bleed... it's too big from caring anyway..." Iblis leaned forward, his nose just inches from Mephiles', who was ready to burst into tears as Iblis caused the hand holding Mephiles' arm to heat up, making the hedgehog whimper in pain. "... Or would you prefer a better method? It's less messy to simply strangle the life out of you... and easily more satisfying for me... or how about if we see if those crystals of yours makes you float or sink..?"

Mephiles' eyes rounded and he reached his free arm up to pry at Iblis' hand, whimpering and shaking his head slowly as he lowered his head and hid it from sight. Iblis' smirk returned, and the low chuckle that accompanied it made Mephiles' blood run cold in his veins, making him feel ready to pass out as a reaction.

"... Why... wh-why d-do you... hate him..?" Mephiles looked up just a little, but still kept his head down.

There was a pause, then Iblis snorted, which was then followed by a loud and mad cackle that was so startling itself, that Mephiles was sure he lost a few quills right there from fright.

"Dear boy, you must be mistaken..." Iblis snickered, earning a collective confused look from everyone present. "It's not hatred I hold for my brother..."

Everyones' eyes went wide. Shadow was unable to help Mephiles get free from Iblis' grip because he didn't have a clear shot, and didn't want to risk hurting him. Dark simply stared in mute fear, stealing a glance at Tape, who was still being held by Rouge.

"... It's the knowledge that he simply won't survive without a suitable host..." Iblis bared his teeth a little in a sneer. "Dark should have bonded to me when the accident happened... instead, he chose to bond to a weak little hedgehog, and let himself deteriorate over the years..."

"... Th-that's insane!" Mephiles squeaked, realizing that Iblis was indeed full blown mad. "You're mad! You're out of your mind!"

"Oh, no..." Iblis shook his head lightly, keeping his crazed little smile on his face. "Mad is what Dark did to himself. Did you know that he used to be able to use one hundred percent of his brain? He used to be the kind of genius this world could only dream of. After tampering with it to erase unpleasant memories... he dumbed it down by half, erasing most of his positive qualities by accident when he made an error in his theory and forgot to remember that he was working with the wrong hemisphere, since the sides control the opposite of where it's placed..."

"So what!? Dark's still smart! And he's a lot better than you!"

"Oh, really..? How much trauma has he caused you alone? He's broken your ankle, hasn't he..?"

"You threw him down the stairs!"

"But don't you understand? Dark is a danger to himself and the world around him." Iblis seemingly ignored him. "Sure... he seems alright now... but given past experiences... how long until you think he snaps again, hmm? How long until you pester him one too many times and he reaches his hands around your throat, and presses? How long until lashes out at something innocent... like maybe that cat he's so fond of..? You already know he's smacked your Chao against a wall..."

"If you never did what you did to him, then the events wouldn't have led to that!" Mephiles snapped, tugging his arm more forcefully. "He was so scared of what you might do to him that he panicked and that happened because of that!"

"And he panicked because he's weak. He's unstable and a failed copy. He's a ticking time bomb."

"What about you?! You're worse than him!"

"I know... and I accepted that."

"But you still haven't said why you wanted me dead!"

There was a pause as everyone waited. Iblis thought about it for a moment before shrugging, much to Mephiles' great surprise.

"... Dunno... perhaps you were the only one besides that girl who managed to escape my fiery rampage before I was contained. Not only that, you became a wedge between Dark and I, and you're memories mixing with his in that Scepter caused him to become unstable even more, to the point that he couldn't even remember what really happened... Attempting to erase it did all but fix it..."

"I don't believe this!" Mephiles exclaimed what was on everyones' minds at the moment. "You mean to tell me that you have made the past couple months of my life purgatory because you're thoroughly convinced that eliminating me and Dark will-" He paused and frowned. "You haven't really said the main goal there. Is it to justify something for you... or are you trying to kill all of us... or... what?"

"I honestly have no real idea past getting these Emeralds... I figured I'd just wing it like I've been doing the whole time."

"Wait... none of this has been planned at all..?" Shadow was the first of the others to speak, all of them having been silent for the past ten minutes. "There's no real structure to this..?"

"Precisely. Dark's not the only who could execute a clever trick or two on the spot, y'know. In fact... he gets it from me... Like brother like... brother... am I right..?"

"You're not my brother!" Dark barked, having broken his muteness and was now pointing at his twin. "You're not him! The real him was replaced with you during the experiments! It warped him into a monster!"

"I'm getting tired of all this talking... now, where are the Emeralds?" Iblis brush the statement away as if it was dust, causing Dark to growl lowly.

"What are you going to do with them?" Mephiles asked, shuddering a little from all the hostility in the air. "You won't be Solaris. You can never turn back into that now that Dark doesn't want to..."

"Then I guess we'll see..." Iblis snickered, shifting his grip on Mephiles' arm a little, then shook him just enough to dislodge something in his quills.

Mephiles watched in horror as the purple and yellow Emeralds hit each other and the ground in two almost musical chimes, glowing dimly as Iblis swiped those two off the ground. Mephiles' previous bravery that had occupied him for the past ten minutes faded quickly and he screamed and tried to pull away frantically, almost in tears now as his instincts told him to run.

"How long did you think you were going to get away with that before I caught on?" Iblis crammed those into his quills and smirked again. "I could almost hear them hit each other in those crystal quills of yours, stupid little rat. That, and you were being too calm for being the paranoid child that you are... These Emeralds together eliminate that... it almost worked... but like I said... Dark isn't the only clever one..."

Mephiles' Aura started to come into view and spark as the hedgehog panicked, some of it branching off and starting to crawl up Iblis' arm. Iblis let go quickly, not wanting to find out what that might do, and Mephiles looked up from the ground for a moment before running back to the group.

"How exactly did you lose twice to this?" Iblis looked over at Dark with a bit of a laugh under his tone as Mephiles sank to the ground and gripped behind his ears, shaking as he curled up and whimpered in between gasping breaths. It didn't take an expert to see that Mephiles was having a panic attack. Dark watched anxiously as the hedgehog was consoled by Rouge, who was closer at the moment, before Dark looked up again, narrowing his eyes.

"... You're... hurting him..." Dark wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a statement, or simply a feeble argument attempt, or anything else for that matter.

"You've done worse, need I remind you?" Iblis failed quite miserably at holding back the teeth bared grin, as if he found that be quite humorous now. Dark flinched and frowned, holding his ears back. "If anything, you're the one who caused him to have that condition in the first place. In fact, nearly everything wrong with him can be considered your fault..."

Even Shadow could feel a bit of a sting from that comment. Mentally biting his lip, he contemplated that for a moment and realized that to an extent, that was his fault as well. If he hadn't sealed Dark in that Scepter, then Mephiles might have not gone through what caused his anxiety disorder in the first place. Incredibly, Shadow wasn't sure if it was fair for Dark to be receiving the full brunt of that verbal assault.

I see what Meph means now... Iblis is just like Dark... actually... Iblis probably made Dark like that... and if things didn't go the way they did... Meph might have been like that... and then there's that paradox... man... I really hate paradoxes, now.

"Y'know what... just left the guy alone..." Shadow spoke up, shaking his head a little as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head. "You say he's worse than you, but you seem to overlook that he's just like you because you're worse than him." Shadow opened an eye to stare at him. "At least he had the decency to give Meph a chance, and gave him a few breaks to be ready. You, on the other hand, are relentless. You have hardly left us alone in the past couple of months. Dark never poisoned any of us. He never went after anything that was unable to fight him off. And you know what else? He most certainly never took a cat from someone who was recovering from a skull fracture."

Dark suddenly glared at Shadow.

"... Stop defending me... I don't need it from you..." He growled, baring his teeth.

"Seriously... what's it going to take to get you to stop holding a grudge?" Shadow rolled his eyes. "In case you're too absorbed in it to realize, I'm trying to help you here..."

"I don't need your help..." Dark huffed, folding his arms and looking back at Mephiles, who was no longer curled up and was now sitting on his knees, leaning forward against one of his hands, which was on the ground, as he wore a rather dazed and glassy eyed expression as he breathed in an almost automatic rhythm to try and calm down as he clutched his chest as he waited for the tightness in it to go away.

"Well, who else is going to help you, Dark?" Iblis couldn't help but get into the conversation. "It seems like your hedgehog is incapacitated right now."

"Stay out of this..."

"You stay out of this!" Dark snapped at Shadow again."I said I don't need your help! Not from you!"

Iblis snickered at this.

"Oh, how precious! Dark's still torn up about losing an entire decade of time!"

Shadow shifted his eyes a the fire demon then back at it's brother, who looked like he was going to go off into another rage fit.

Oh, I see now... Iblis is trying to prove his point about Dark being unstable... so he's provoking him...

"Bad to be you, isn't it?" Iblis grinned slyly. "I have three Emeralds now, you're hedgehog is out of action, and the one offering you help... well... you're just to stubborn to take it. You're nothing more than a spoiled brat who never got anything his wa-"

Dark snapped and tackled Iblis to the ground with a furious roar. His hand curled into a fist, and he swung it as he pinned his brother down with one hand on his chest, the hand making contact with Iblis' cheek, and caused the flame's head to turn as the fist was brought down.

Dark then simply stayed as he was, panting between his tightly clenched teeth as he occasionally swallowed, his eyes livid with rage as he stared intently at Iblis, body shaking from the adrenaline rush.

Iblis took a moment to register what happened and how to make his next move. He spat out a bloody tooth that had been knocked loose, and twisted his mouth into a rather startling smirk, showing slightly that it had been one of the canine teeth that had been punched out, making him short a fang.

"Oh, dear... and those are my favorite kind of teeth..." He tilted his head to stare at Dark again, who didn't change his expression. Iblis chuckled a little. "Seriously, though... you had so much potential... You could have been so promising... I mean... it's almost like looking in a mirror right now..."

Dark's eyes narrowed, and he raised a hand to punch him again, only for Iblis to reach his hands up and catch the fist before it was merely a hair away.

"Too slow, little brother..." Iblis shook his head with a grin and then shoved Dark off, who scooted back quickly, trying to put a good distance between them.

"You're not my brother!" Dark had almost a half crazed look in his eyes when he shouted that. He sounded a little higher pitch in his voice as well, as if he had to force such words out of his mouth.

"Well, then... if that's the case... then I guess I have no reason to hold back now..."

During all this, Rouge sighed to herself as she tended to both Tape and Mephiles, thinking almost moodily: Why is it that I'm practically invisible to everyone during these things? I'm quite capable of fighting too...

The Rouge thing is basically because I couldn't really think of a way to fit her in well enough, and someone needs to be on the sidelines to take care of those out of action. That... and because Rouge hardly got noticed in Next Gen anyway as far as the fights go. I mean, Mephiles is right where he can see her, and his eyes are on Omega and Shadow all the time. It's like she could have just walked right up to him and take the Emerald out of his hands, and he wouldn't see it. XD

anyway, hope you liked this...