You've read about them for 35 chapters, but in this chapter, the unthinkable someone…

(Shows picture of Ero)

Will…

(Shows another picture of Ero)

DIE!

(Shows yet another picture of Ero)

Shikyo: (Hopeful) I sure hope its Ero. (Starts plotting death)

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Darkest Before Dawn

Chapter 36

Kage's POV

It's your fault I picked him, Shikyo told me in a matter-of-fact, but mocking voice, I gave you warnings, but you would not heed them, but now that I have him maybe you will LISTEN.

I stepped back, almost knocking into French Girl and Ass-Cat, and Ero took a step towards me with a rabid grin placed upon his bloody face. He gripped the handle of his axe tensely so that in one simple stroke he could behead anything or anybody.

Though the idea was false, I liked the rabbit's thought that if you killed the leader then the chameleons would abandon the raid, Shikyo told me, chuckling softly. So I put it into play. But here's the catch, Kage… he's the leader, and to make the chameleons go away you have to kill him.

I tried to stay calm though I could feel myself shaking inside and out. I turned to Ass-Cat and French Girl, who were both looking at me for guidance. "Leave," I ordered them, "I'll take care of this."

"Leave?!" Ass-Cat cried, anger building in his voice. "I'm not going to leave you to deal with this! You'll kill him! He told me you kill Swap-deck, so I know you'll just kill him too!"

I took in a deep breath so I would not start screaming at the gray cat. Does he think I really want to do this? Bastard. Why would I want to kill my best friend? And he thinks I killed Swap-deck mercilessly and enjoyed it?

The captain's death was amusing, Shikyo remarked with a chuckle.

'Shut it,' I told her, finally getting sick of this. I gave Ass-Cat a hard glare as my answer back to him and repeated myself. "Leave," I commanded to them bleakly while turning back to face my mad friend, who was not ceasing his approach at us despite our bickering. "Go find the runt and his girlfriend. Now."

"If I come back and he's dead…" Ass-Cat threatened.

I sighed. "I can't guarantee anything. Now go."

I closed my eyes as I heard their footsteps fade into the distance. I need to concentrate, though it seemed impossible thanks to the fact my friend was about to fight me in hopes of delivering me straight to Shikyo – and that I might even have to kill him.

What are you going to do, she asked, kill him? Even I wouldn't kill a friend.

I gripped my sickle with both hands as I took a step forward. I forced myself to push all thoughts of us being best friends since day one out of my head. He was now my enemy… now my enemy… and all my enemies had to die.

Entrance of Mori Mura

Tails' POV

My throat cringed in pain as I coughed up some water from my lungs. I struggled as a lack of oxygen came to my chest, but after a few breaths I was back to inhaling and exhaling air normally.

I was about to open my eyes, but pain exploded from my head that made me want to scream. Though I was used to headaches, even migraines, by now, this one made my brain feel like it was being crushed over and over again.

"Tails… Tails, wake up… please wake up!" A voice called from beyond the darkness. I slowly opened my eyes. She was first in fours, then in twos, but finally I got a solid picture of Amy, who was leaning over me with sadness and worry racing through her green eyes. When she saw I was awake, the fret and grief left her and she tears sprang to her as though she had just witnessed a miracle. "Tails, thank God you're okay!" She immediately pulled me into a rocking embrace.

"What… happened," I asked, my memory hazy. All I knew was we were both soaked by water. I took a look around her shoulder to find bits and pieces of spiritualist and bomb trees everywhere around us. I glanced at the dirt path leading into the forest to find fifty or sixty trees were no long surrounding it, but were instead uplifted to help in Shikyo's raid. I took a deep breath and my chest rattled in pain.

"We were fighting those tree bombs and when we ignited one that would set off the rest we jumped into the river," she answered, stroking my hair lightly, "and when I looked over to see if you were alright you were passed out. I thought you had drowned, I thought you were dead, and I thought I lost you!" She burst into more tears and buried her face into my shoulder.

Without thinking I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me. I whispered in her ear softly, "Don't worry… I'm here… and I'm never leaving…"

Temple of Mori Mura

Kage's POV

I blocked his attacks to the best of my ability as we fought in front of the smoldering Temple. Ero was not as easy as the other possessed victims I had fought before, especially since he trained under the same master I did and knew my tactics like the back of his hand. I knew most of his strategies also, but this time all he would do was try to distract me and then grab me from behind. I hate blind attacks. They suck.

Though I had focused all of my willpower, all of my strength, to forget him, lingering memories hung around the back of my mind. I just couldn't forget. I couldn't forget the bastard… Ero… crazy guy…

FLASHBACK

"Hey, Kage, there you are!"

I looked up my book and glanced over my shoulder to find Ero walking towards me. He didn't seem as happy as I would have expected him to be and I groaned when I saw him angrily carrying a pouting Meep under his arm. I looked back to my book, not even wanting to know what had happened.

Of course, I had to hear anyway.

"Your stupid Chao here tried to kill me!" The rabbit informed me angrily, glaring at the Chao. "Or at least threatened to!"

I chuckled, deciding to look up at him since his shadow was now blocking the light on my book, "He threatened you. A Chao who can only say 'meep' threatened you. Care to elaborate, Ero?"

He pointed to Meep, "Oh, no Kage, this Chao can say much more than just 'meep'. He told me that I better sleep with my eyes open because if I don't one night he will behead me and give my head to you as a birthday present."

I stared at both of them awkwardly for a moment, then finally stated, "Listen, first off, you two don't have to compete for a spot of my best friend, because neither of you will ever be my best friend because you both are idiots. Secondly, Meep cannot speak, so you must have thought this up."

"You saying that I'm lying or I'm crazy or something?" Ero questioned.

A sly smirk evolved on my face as I nodded slightly, "I sure do… crazy guy."

END OF FLASHBACK

I felt a shock of pain scurry up my spinal cord when Ero jammed the butt of his axe into my back. I flew towards the ground, but quickly recovered from the fault on my behalf before he could lay a finger on me.

Perfect.

While he was still delayed from trying to grab me, I raised my sickle high to bring it down on the back of his neck to do a quick beheading. With all of my force, my eyes shut tightly, I brought my blade down to kill him off. But I never heard a scream, or a slice, or never felt blood fling into my face. I peeked to see what had happened.

The blade of my scythe was barely touching the hair of his neck. I told my body to bring the weapon through, to end it here, but I simply couldn't. Not to Ero…. Not to my friend…

Kill him. Kill him and save the town. Kill him and save yourself.

FLASHBACK

"Ha, I win!" I cried, smacking my training stick onto the back of Ero's neck playfully. I kneeled down and remarked smug, "If this was a real fight, I would have killed you."

Ero, who was on the ground at my mercy, groaned. "Yeah right, you couldn't kill a freakin soul. Especially not me." He pushed himself up and sat down in front of me.

"I could kill you," I said, flipping around my weapon.

The rabbit reflected over my words longer than I wanted him to, and then said confidently, but thoughtfully, "I could never kill you."

I caught the stick in my hand and stared into his eyes for a moment. "Nah," I chuckled softly, "I was kidding. I could never kill you either."

END OF FLASHBACK

I jumped away from Ero and to a safe distance away from him. Though we had only been fighting for a few minutes, I was as tired as hell. The detail that I was in a match where I would have to end up killing my friend to save myself had taken a major toll on me. I quickly dodged his next attack though and soon found myself back in the mists of battle trying my hardest to avoid him from sneaking up behind me unexpectedly.

Hm, finally I have tapped on your fear, finally found a weak spot… Shikyo mustered. But, my dear, it doesn't have to be this way… if you would just give up and give yourself to me then maybe I will let the rabbit live.

'No you wouldn't!' I snapped. 'I know the way you work, Shikyo. Once you have something you want you kill whatever you don't need that is connected to it.'

So you really do pay attention to detail sometimes… Very good, dear, but obviously you can't multitask. He's right behind you!

My eyes widened when an arm tightly rapped around my neck and made me gag. My scythe was knocked out of my hand and tumbled to the ground with a clonk. I struggled to get free from the rabbit's tight hold, but the more I resisted, the harder it was to breathe. Finally my body went limp and numb from a lack of oxygen and the only thing I could here was Shikyo's evil laughter booming in my head.

"Ah shit…" I muttered hoarse. This just wasn't my day.

Face it, it's over. You're mine. All mine.

I took a deep breath and told her confidently, 'I'm not going down without a fight…' I took a look up at Ero, whose eyes were bloodshot and was panting at a rapid pace. I waited until he stared at me with a wicked-like satisfaction before I began to even get a word out to him. "Ero… do you remember me at all?"

I wasn't expecting an answer to escape from his lips, but paused for a moment anyway to see if there was any fault in his eyes or any sign of sanity that would come from his shaking body. When I got no reaction, I continued chokingly, "If you're anywhere in there… at all… then…." I paused to find words and catch my breath. Ero arm was tucked underneath my chin and pushing up against my neck forcefully enough to make sputtering a word quite difficult. "…. then… maybe you'd remember this…"

FLASHBACK

"Ero!" I cried, stumbling about as I chased the rabbit through the forest. I was not very fast then, being the fact that I was around four, so even the rabbit's walk was quicker than my fullest sprint.

He did not look back when I called his name though. He just continued to walk without me, ignoring my pleads completely.

"Ero! Ero, wait for me!" I told him, quickening my pace. My eyes began to tear up when he still disregarded my voice and did not slow down, but only walked faster to keep his distance from me. "ERO!"

He glanced over his shoulder and I could see the smirk on his face as he snickered at my efforts of reaching him.

"Hey, wait!" I sped up to the fullest sprint I could, but did not take notice of my surroundings. I tripped over a rock the height of my ankle and fell face first into the ground. I gave out a yelp from the pain that sprang to my ankle from the fall. "ERO!" I cried, bursting out into tears. My eyes were hazy from the water flowing from them, so I could see nothing in front of me.

For some reason though, I thought Ero had left me, just left me in the dust like he had been for the last ten to fifteen minutes. I felt something lift me up onto my knees and wipe away my tears. I blinked to find Ero. "…"

"Stupid, I wasn't really going to leave you. It's called a joke!" he told me in an annoyed tone. When he noticed that at my age a joke like that wasn't all too funny, he said, "I'm sorry. I won't leave you again. Promise."

END OF FLASHBACK

I chuckled. Shows how much I've changed. I was forced into the reality of talking to Ero when I gasped desperately for air. I never knew laughing could take so much air. I glanced back over to him. "And you haven't left me yet," I informed him happily. Tears began to form around my eyes when he only gave me an insane grin and the notion that he wasn't listening. "But right now…" I told softly, reserving my air, "I feel like… you're… leaving me in that dark, scary… forest for… good…"

The grin that the psychotic rabbit once held was gone. This was the sanest he had looked in the past twenty minutes. I just had to pray…. pray that it was possible for him to overcome Shikyo like I had.

"KAGE!"

Ero snapped back into the mad mode as he glared over his shoulder at the figure standing behind us. He stepped to his right so he that his axe was facing it. I squinted to see who had called my name and yelled when I found out, "I told you to go find the runt, Ass-Cat!"

Ass-Cat stood determined with his Bo gripped tightly in his hand. "I know, but I came to make sure you both don't kill each other."

"Ass-Cat, leave!" I warned him. "This is between Ero and I. Don't get involved."

The cat began to approach us despite my caveat, "I don't need you to tell me what to do, Kage…"

Perfect.

At this moment I realized what Shikyo was planning to do. She had set me up the entire time! It wasn't Ero I should have been worried about, but --- "NEKOSA!!!!!!!!"

((((((Attention: I suggest that people with weak stomachs don't read this until it turns to Tails POV again, because I don't want anyone to review me and tell me they threw up, though I'm not sure book gore can do that… it will tell you what happened when you go to Tails POV so this part isn't necessary to read though I've been planning this since chapter like 26… Enjoy, I guess.

He stopped walking when he gagged. He put his hand on his neck to suppress the feeling, but retched again. His eyes began to turn a pearl white as his weapon landed onto the ground.

I struggled to get out of Ero's grasp, but the rabbit had me in a tight lock. The only thing I could do now was watch…

By now the gray cat was gripping his neck frantically as he began to quiver tremendously. Trickles of blood dripped of his chin, but with his next choke heaps of it flooded out of his mouth and spilled upon the ground like a cascading waterfall. He stumbled backwards when an oval object got suck in his throat. He wheezed in alarm as more gathered in his neck until he could not breathe. He continued to try to cough up the load stuck in him as his red body fluids still rushed out of his mouth and dribbled out of his eye sockets. Something plopped out of his mouth and fell into the pool of blood. The roundest blob drifted over with the blood that seeped to my feet. I gagged when I recognized the object. His pancreas. I wanted to close my eyes, but I could not take my sight off of the body organ and the dying gray cat.

Blood was pouring from his ears also now as his large intestate began to slither from his mouth to the ground. His wheezing was becoming terrifying to hear as he dropped to his knees in a puddle of his own fluids. He shook like he was about to burst.

This is for taking you away from me!

I whimpered as Nekosa threw up every last of his body organs as blood and other body fluids spewed everywhere. I closed my eyes when liquid and a slimy sack hit my face. Though everything was black to me I could hear body parts plop onto the ground and smell stench fill the smoky air. I ajared my left eye slightly to see that his stomach had smacked me and was lying on top of his pancreas.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I stared at the remains of my friend. All that was there now was a dirty rag of gray fur, a sickening pond of blood, and discarded organs.

Ero's hold around my neck became loose and I had to quickly grab onto it so I would not plunge into the ankle-high pool of red fluid and smash the stomach and pancreas. I knew Shikyo had given up Ero, but I couldn't look over to him because Ass - Nekosa's waste was distracting me all too much…

"What happened?" The rabbit asked, his voice completely normal as he glanced around at his surroundings. "Kage… what's wrong?" He questioned softly when I felt his gaze upon me.

I tried to answer him, but I could only let out a choked gasp.

His surprised yelp filled my ears along with Shikyo's snickering and mocking.

I win.

Depths of Mori Mura

Tails' POV

I was relieved when I saw that the town was ridded of Shikyo's Raid Armada and there were some survivors walking amongst the wreckage. Maybe Ero's leader theory was correct – Shikyo's chosen leader of that particular raid was the heart of it. I wasn't sure though. Maybe the bitch had accomplished what she had wanted to do before the town was completely annihilated.

I grasped my machete in one hand and Amy's hand in the other while I searched the masses of dead bodies and survivors for any sign of Kage, Ero, and the others. I had a feeling if they were anywhere they would most likely be hanging around the Temple, which was sending up black smoke of defeat into the sky.

We passed by the hundreds of dead bodies that were being stacked and identified, though most were too mauled up to ever be recognized. Most of the surviving spiritualists of the town that were able to still move and help kept their composer despite carrying off their dead friends and family to their graves. Others mourned over their loved ones bodies and children stared terrified as they saw their relatives amongst the dead. Cries and the feeling of grief and sorrow filled the murky air.

We stepped over puddles of discarded blood, organs, fur, and flesh that laid across the ruins of the forest town. Broken weapons and pottery stuck in the ground and the town standing for these people's memories was crushed.

When we arrived at the Temple I stopped. Amy ran into me. In front of the Temple was Ero with a bag. He was standing in a pond of blood and was picking up particular round objects and shakily put them into the sack without a word. I took note of the gray mob of fur that was lying limb in the center that Ero seemed to be disregarding at the time. I sighed and muttered, "Nekosa."

I lead Amy over to Ero slowly and waited until we got his attention. He looked up at us with down beaten eyes. "Hey," he said softly, trying to smile. He failed miserably. There was a moment of silence and then he asked, "Amy, could you do something for me?"

The pink hedgehog nodded immediately, "Of course."

The rabbit glanced over his shoulder at a figure sitting on the Temple steps, which were not destroyed, "Kage is a little freaked out right now. You think you could… you know… start up a conversation or something with him?"

"Yes!" She instantly rushed passed us and towards Kage, who was sitting slump on the middle of the staircase with Meep next to him. I could see the guilt in his eyes as I heard the muttered the Chao was spewing as he rubbed his master's hand in comfort.

I glanced at the remains of Nekosa and then to Ero, "Need some help…?"

He nodded in appreciation, "Please."

I bent down timidly and carefully picked up the deceased cat's brains. I quickly flung it into the bag and picked up another organ. And this was done in silence.

Uh, hey, everybody. What's shakin bacon? You know what's fun? We have flash flood warnings right now and I live bya river. Yeah, fun all around.

I need to tell you guys something… I got a review from this guy last chapter about "having fun insulting people" and a bunch of other things and I just needed to tell you guys I'm always kidding with you guys. Like yelling at Tantrum last chapter was a joke (last two reviews (s)he said the chapters were on the short side, so yah) Yah, so I'm always kidding with you guys because in the end y'all make my world go round and you all rock.

Speaking of the world, I need a favour from each of you. As you all have probably heard by now there was a record-breaking tsunami that hit coastal Asia about a week – and week and a half ago. Over 12,000 have been reported dead and millions have been left homeless with no food or clothes. This is one of the most awful, devastating disasters that have ever happened in Asia, which is already having some problems as it is. So I'm asking that if you have any spare change, any clothes, any toys, or any canned food available that you can give, please contact your local Red Cross or charity and send it towards places like India and Sir Lanka that have been hit hard. Though they live on the other side of the world they are our family too and need our help. So anything you can give, give. Thanks.