Chapter 37

Insanity

Ivy's P.O.V.

"Where could he have gone?" I wondered, stepping into the Chao Garden. And I got my answer, of course. Maroon had plopped himself down by the lake's edge, and was staring at his watery reflection, sadly. One hand was clutched onto the sheet music, the other holding a Power Ring. I decided not to question how he found one of the Rings, but instead watched him silently stare at himself. I knew that the sorrows he experienced knew no bounds, and that we could've tried to be a bit gentler on re-exposing the wounds he had kept hidden since he was born. It must've been gnawing at his gut for years now. Not to mention the fact that Maroon's sanity was very fragile to begin with.

Wendell tightened my right hand, and flicked his leathery wings over my back, protecting me. A smile crept onto my face, but soon faded once I took a step forward and he noticed. The Chao were hidden in the surrounding bushes, murmuring quietly, but soon backed deeper into the shrubs once his head turned around. His orange eyes were a spiraling whirlpool of emotion: anger, sorrow, and despair. He slapped the lake with his hand, causing a ripple in the clear glass-like water. Shakily, he heaved a breath and began to travel away from us.

"Don't touch me," he whispered, swaying dizzily in the light breeze.

"Maroon, wait! All we want to do is help you!"

I soon regretted my outburst once he stopped walking and turned to stare at me. My heart froze. He had absorbed the Ring, and his form was starting to change. His quills were pointing up and his entire body began to turn into a familiar, bone-chilling shade of black-red.

"Help me?" he asked in a monotonous tone. He began to laugh softly, and it suddenly began to grow into a cackle. "You can't help me! Neither of you can!" We stepped back as the Chao began to flee. He grinned, his straight teeth beginning to grow jagged. "You can do nothing to save me. I'm beyond any of your repair or control."

"Stop it, Maroon! Don't lose yourself again, man!" Wendell yelled as his aura began to swim with dark energy.

"Shut up! My parents are dead, and I'm a fugitive from an entire kingdom! My mother was a whore! My father never knew who she really was!" His voice pierced us like daggers. "What the hell do I have to lose?!"

You can never stop fighting, Maroon! That's what makes you who you are! I argued telepathically, holding my fingertips to my temples so I could communicate with him. You have us, and the Freedom Fighters, and a whole world, two if you count the world I come from, to defend! You can't give up! I swear on my life, Wendell and I will help you get through this!

He grabbed his head, and I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my skull. He had built mental blocks so I couldn't communicate with him, and he forced me out. I fell onto my tail, nearly toppling Wendell down. Maroon rubbed his forehead.

"N-nice try, bitch!" he teased shakily. I gritted my teeth as Wendell helped me up.

"What's the plan?" Wendell whispered, watching Maroon become more and more possessed by his insanity.

"We have to try and stop him, or else he makes a big explosion that destroys everything, including Freedom HQ, the Mobians in it, and the eastern side of New Mobotropolis."

"And seeing us dead isn't exactly gonna help, is it?"

"Nope."

"Now-" he cackled, raising his right hand. A sphere of dark Power Ring energy formed in his hands. "-might as well make it so I really don't have anything to lose."

He blasted the sphere at us. The energy ball crackled with power as it soared toward us. Wendell drew his tomahawks from his belt and used one to chop it in half, so it divided into two lesser effective projectiles and smoked the grass on either side of us. His eyes narrowed as his pupils began to dissolve. There was nothing but the whites I his eyes left. We had to do something fast, before his sanity completely dissolved and he would self-destruct.

I summoned my power over the greenery, and concentrated on the leaves hanging on the trees behind Maroon. I mentally pictured them morphing into a thick vine and tying itself around his arms and body to keep him steady and from attacking. I channeled my energy into making the molecular structures shift and saw my thoughts become a reality. The red hedgehog looked surprised as the vine clenched like a fist around him. It wasn't so bad that it was suffocating him, but it kept him from moving.

"OK, I got him!" I managed to confirm, tightening the plant around him like a rope.

"Maybe I can try to talk him down-"

"Chao!"

Wendell was interrupted by a loud outburst from a small Chao. He looked up at us, and a small army of Chao stood behind him. The leader looked brave and stout, puffing out his fuzzy chest. The two of us looked at each other as the Chao began to speak its language in protest.

"What's he saying?" I asked, struggling to keep my grip on the dark form of our friend.

"He says that he and his buddies want to use their Chao kindness to try and heal him," Wendell translated, glancing over at me. I grimaced in confusion before the bat knelt down to the blue-and-yellow fairy-things and asked, "So, you mean you have magic that you can heal him with?"

After a few more sentences of Chao, Wendell said, "He says that after spending so much time with us, he wants to use the kindness that we rubbed off on all of them to attempt to return him back to normal."

I stared at the army. I bit my lip, tightening my muscles to keep the thrashing Maroon from loosening. The Chao were capable of doing such things; this was well within their capability. Those little guys were strong, and there wasn't any book that needed to confirm that. "It's a good offer, and we're taking it. Do your stuff, little guys, and make it quick, please!"

The Chao nodded and pointed his tiny arm towards the hedgehog, and yelled out a command. Every one of the furry creatures nodded, and flew toward Maroon.

"What the-?! Stay away, you damn freaks of nature, or I'll-!" He never finished his threat as the Chao began to, literally, cocoon themselves around his entire body. I let the vine unravel and gasped for air. My palms felt sweaty as I put the vine back in its original state as leaves, and watched, awestruck, as the Chao began to glow. After four seconds of dim glowing, the cocoon broke off and they cheered happily as normal Maroon floated gently onto his hands and knees. He gagged and coughed, his eyes fluttering open. We raced to his side.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're alright!" I exclaimed, falling to his side. Wendell grinned, until we actually saw his face. For one of the few times we had seen, he was crying. It was silent, of course, but that didn't deny the presence of his tears, which were slowly dripping down his cheeks. He quaked like a pebble during an earthquake. Guilt and sorrow washed over his face and his fingers curled into the dirt.

"I'm so sorry…" he gasped. Then, he collapsed.

"Maroon!" Wendell yelled in shock.

"It's alright. He's just drained from all the Power Ring energy he absorbed and when he turned into…that."

Wendell nodded in understanding and bit his upper lip. He lifted Maroon up onto his left shoulder, and I grabbed his right.

"You sure you can do this, Ives? You did quite a load of elemental work with that vine," Wendell asked.

"I'm sure I can, Wend." I glanced at the celebrating Chao, and grinned at them. "Thanks!"

They cheered in unison, bringing a smile to both of our faces. Maroon shook his head, his eyes rolling. "Wha-? Wha' happ'n'd…?"

"C'mon Maroon, we're taking you back to base so you can rest," I explained, as we began to step out of the protected forest and away from the bad memory.

"N-no…C-can not…face Amy or her family…C'mon, Mom, j-just five more minutes…"

"Yeah, Maroon, you'll surely need time to rest and regenerate. No mumbled protest is gonna get you out of it."

Eventually, he accepted it, and soon we were dragging a sleeping Maroon back to Freedom HQ.

"You think he'll be alright?" Wendell wondered. He looked scared for his brotherly-friend.

"I bet he will," I assured him. I just hoped that my words were convincing enough for either of us to believe. Hopefully, he would mentally sane when he awoke…to somewhat of an extent.