Chapter 31

Cold Down Here

Tokoyami had never seen her like this before, he had never seen the darkling behave this way. Sophie fought this man as if she herself was a wild animal, her movements were fluid as if a large bird of prey was fighting a shark in the ocean. She took swings at him, diving in and cutting his body wherever he left himself open and then flitting out of range of his attack. Tokoyami watched her circle him, her hair streaming behind her and clawed hands at the ready. This was not Sophie as he knew her, this was something else, someone else.

"You must stop her, she is has plunged into the darkness of her past." Shii limped over to him, her throat bruised and raspy.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tokoyami and San rushed to help her, they relocated away from the battle and thick fog of darkness that surrounded the two fighters.

"I'm fine, you must go to her and pull her out."

"I don't understand." Tokoyami frowned.

"Her rage was trig-triggered by Shark." San explained.

"This part of his plan, to make her angrier and out of control, the further into her mind she becomes the more out of control the beast inside her becomes. He is hoping to control that rage for his benefit." Shii explained.

"This man does not know Sophie very well." He chuckled lightly.

"Indeed, however that dark fog is a problem, the longer she says in there the deeper in her own memories she will go until she is stuck in the memories and the anger will be all that is left."

"And rage with no reason is easy to control." Tokoyami nodded. "Alright, I'll get her." He started forward towards the dark fog around the two, he could no longer see them fighting it was so thick but he could hear them.

"Be careful of her memories, you do not exist in the ones before she met you. If you step off the path you will disappear too." Shii explained to him.

"What do you mean?" He turned to frown at the girl.

"S-sorry. I...tou-touched So-Sophie." San ducked his head shyly.

"Okay..." He was confused now, these kids were masters of suspense obviously.

"This is San's quirk. His abilities revolve around the mind, especially memories. He manifests the Memory Fog, but it only triggers when the person he touches expresses extreme negative emotions. Anger, sadness, loneliness, and envy. You must stay on the path."

"Take...take the lamp and do-don't leave it any-any-anywhere." San pointed and Tokoyami found a lantern at his feet glowing brightly. "Dreams are par-part of memory, you must-must be careful of w-whats real or not."

"Now hurry up, Sophie cannot stay in this state, Shark may be breaking the rules but he didn't smart enough to do it with a bit of angry rebellion, he probably told master he was coming to find her and if he doesn't report back soon Master will be coming."

"No pressure." He mumbled picking it up and walking into the fog.

"Be careful," Shii called out.

Tokoyami looked back, a smile on his face. "I revel in the darkness." He told her as the fog surrounded him completely. "Now, path?" He looked down.

The path at his feet was neat and clean unlike everything else around it, just wide enough for him to walk along. It was the only thing he could see for miles when he looked up, the rest around him was darkness.

"Isn't this like that movie? A girl follows a path in the woods after chasing a rabbit down a hole?" He sighed. "Does that make me the girl?"

He began to walk, he could still hear Sophie fighting in the distance, her voice was going to be gone by tomorrow with all the feral roaring and screaming she was doing. He didn't see any memories, wasn't there supposed to be images floating around the void of darkness around him? He kept walking until he saw in the pathway was a door, a simple door with no marking or others, but it was a red and pink gradient. He reached out to unlock it, Dark Shadow moved forward to protect him.

"Odd, you are usually out of control in the darkness, this bit of light would not be enough." He commented.

"Sophie is in danger, but I can feel her light on me. This darkness is strange." It spoke to him, looking through the door and pushing past to make sure it was safe.

"Strange." Tokoyami stepped through the door and right into Sophie's living room, in the living room she sat snuggled up against Todoroki, he looked unsure of himself and hot. "A little shame would be good here." He mumbled seeing how she was dressed.

It was strange that he was seeing her memories from outside of her as if he watched unseen as she went about her life. He shook his head and kept going, the path lead through her house to the bedrooms and there was another door, it was a match of the door he first walked through. He reached for the door until he realized that Todoroki was behind him and he turned to see what was going on. He carried Sophie into her room, Tokoyami watched from the door as he attempted to rearrange her body but she refused, she was always a reckless sleeper. He was surprised to see his serious classmate kissing a sleeping Sophie, that was unusual for him and a bit wrong...but the expression on Sophie's face told him she didn't mind at all. Tokoyami walked through the door and left this memory, he wasn't surprised the two of them liked each other. There were a lot of signs that the two were going to get together, but no one seems to have noticed them yet.

"That woman is more complicated than a map of the labyrinth in Greece." He sighed.

The next door was not too far off. This one was not normal, it was prey and leaked dark water from beneath, there were words written on the door: Nightmare.

"Well, that is helpful, leave it to Sophie to have her memories and her dreams labeled separately." He mused.

He stepped through and regretted it instantly. The nightmare surrounded him and filled his head with her agony and fears, it was horrible to see the way her mind twisted itself and pushed these images on her. He followed the path but he had to rely on Dark Shadow to keep him stable, every time he heard her screaming he wanted to go to her. Shadow would stop him by holding his feet down until he remembered this was not real. The door leading out was closing in, he couldn't be happier. Until she stepped into his path, Sophie's mother. He frowned, this was not the image he knew, she was wrapped head to toe in bandages that were bloody and black with oozing darkness. Her eyes were pits of despair and hatred. Before her Sophie was curled into a ball, her hands holding her head and body shaking.

"You did this to me, why do you get to live happily while I am trapped in this body? You should die! Die! DIE! DIE!"

The words kept echoing around him, his hands fisted, the lantern cutting into his skin. Dark Shadow growled deeply in his chest. Todoroki stepped into the light next, his eyes were empty of emotion.

"You are a monster, I don't want to be with someone like you. Killer. Murderer!" His voice joined Namid's, echoing together in harmony.

Tokoyami stepped forward, angry that Sophie had to hear these things. They were not true! He watched himself step into the light next, he didn't want to hear the nonsense her nightmare was about to make him spout.

"I could never be friends will a villain. You are a monster."

He had enough! He grasped Sophie and pulled her towards him, enraged that her mind would do this to her, with no good reason.

"Sophie none of this is true! You cannot listen to this nonsense!" He looked into her face and quickly let her go, stepping away in horror.

In place of her face was a void of darkness, this was not her, it was another apparition. He carefully stepped around her, he needed to get out of this nightmare, it was starting to mess with his head. The figure turned to watch him and as he touched the door handle a deep gravelly voice came from the faceless Sophie.

"You won't find her, I have waited a long, long time. Her heart, soul, and body will belong to me soon. I won't let you bring her back."

Tokoyami turned around to stare at the body, his chest tight and his mind screaming danger. "Who are you?"

It laughed. "Endless Darkness; shattered, the broken heart cries; feeding the beast."

Tokoyami was yanked backward out of the nightmare, the door slammed shut by Dark Shadow.

"That thing is evil."

"Thank you Shadow, I don't know what that was but...it felt real, more real than that nightmare."

More real than it should have felt. Sophie had always had a problem with her quirk, it always leaked out in strange and sometimes scary ways. He never thought about it until now. Did she simply not have control of her quirk, or did her quirk have a mind of its own? The Darkling was nothing scary, it was protective of Sophie and anyone she cared about but it was not evil, so was this something else? OR just a part of her mind that always reared its ugly head? The tiny voice that people had that told them things they feared most? He moved on, confused and concerned that this was the kind of thing she told herself all the time. The memories were more frequent than her dreams, many of them simply part of the path and others disjointed inside of each other. The further he went, however, the more disjointed these memories became, piling on top of each other or fragmented he hurried along until he began to run into the memories where he did not exist yet, these were painful to see.

"How could such a small child hold onto so much anger and self-hatred?" He didn't like seeing her like this. "Why is it so cold?" He rubbed his arm and frowned.

The door he saw next was frozen solid, the handle was stiff and wouldn't move much.

"Three guesses which one Sophie is behind." He mumbled as he shoved his way through the ice, it coated his feathers with little beasts of snow and ice causing him to shiver.

Inside the room everything was frozen, the floor and even the ceiling was iced over. Pictures sat so thick with frost they were unseen. Tokoyami walked carefully through the hall and down the path that was still so neat and clean. He looked into the first room, a living room, it was empty. The next was a kitchen, and that was where he found Sophie. She stood off the path, her eyes fixed on the scene before her. A tiny Sophie was standing on a chair at the counter beside Namid, her tiny face brightly smiling at her mother who was telling her how to make maple cookies.

"Sophie!" He called out to her, his feet were planted firmly by Dark Shadow who refused to let him leave the path. "That's her! We need to grab her."

"You cannot leave this path, the little boy said so."

Desperately Tokoyami called for Sophie, her legs were already frozen in place and the ice slowly climbed up her waist crackling frostily. She didn't hear him, or couldn't?

"Sophie! Please you need to come with me! You can't stay here in the past!"

"Oh but she can, she can stay as long as she wants, here in the most cherished part of her past." The voice was back.

Tokoyami looked for it, a misshapen lump of the darkness stepped from the shadows around them, it wiggled around the room and caressed Sophie's head, whispering quietly to her.

"Stop! Don't touch her you evil thing! Leave Sophie alone!" He shouted angrily.

"Don't worry Fumikage, everything will be alright." Sophie's voice came from the darkness that now headed for him.

"Stop! You can't take her! I will stop you, Shadow!" He called out.

Nothing happened. He looked down to find that Shadow had begun to freeze over, the path was disappearing in the ice.

"Ssssssssooo cccccccoooooold." Shadow shivered, unable to move.

"Relax Kage, you won't feel it soon, you can both stay here, watching over and over the same memory play. This was the only day that mommy was at peace with Sophie, while they made maple cookies." The darkness slid over him and wrapped him up. "Don't worry, you will be here with her always, the supporting best friend." It laughed mockingly.

"Sophie is stronger than you!" He struggled as the ice crawled up his body quicker. "Sophie! You need to come back! Sophie!"

xXx

Mom

Mama

Mommy

The prickling points eased away, replaced by the soft numbness of warmth.

I miss you

I love you

I'm. Sorry.

That everything turned out the way it had, that I couldn't stop the pain you were feeling, or ease your heart.

Forgive me

FoRgIvE Me!

FORGIVE ME PLEASE!

For causing all your worst nightmares and leaving you alone for so long!

I'm cold

It's so cold

So cold

Why am I so cold when you are so warm? Why can't I touch you? Hold you?

Love me

Please

Love me

Ache swelled up, tightly pressing against bone and flesh.

Mom

Mama

Mommy

Sophie!

Huh?

Fight it! You need to come back!

I don't want to.

Sophie, Please come back!

But, mom is right here.

You can't live in the past! Sophie, you have to come back! You will die here.

"Toko...yami?" Her voice far away echoed in her head.

"No, stay here, stay with mama. Here, in your memories." A sly voice, cajoling, and enticing.

"Please...Sophie." Faint, disappearing.

"Stay here, no one needs you out there."

She watched her mother for a long time, her chest swelling with sadness. Overwhelmed, hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Todoroki."

XxX

Tokoyami heard her whisper Todoroki's name before the flames lit up the ice around her and burned away the cold as if it was nothing. The perfect memory of family bliss blistered and burned away like a photograph on fire.

"What is happening? You can't escape! You cannot leave your memories!" The evil exclaimed enraged.

Sophie turned towards Tokoyami and walked towards him, her foot stepped onto the path and the whole world around them fizzled into the darkness. He was released and Dark Shadow sprung up to envelop them both protectively. Sophie gently laid a hand on his cheek, his whole body relaxed.

"Finally, you snapped out of it." He sighed relieved.

"Sorry, it took me a minute."

"You can't leave the memories! You have to stay! How did you escape!" The disjointed voice surrounded them now.

"This is my mind, my body, and my memories to control." She glared into the darkness. "Get out." She commanded.

Holes ripped into the darkness, light pouring into the void and filling it with a warmth that was missing before. The evil roared in anger but ended with a laugh.

"You can't get rid of me! In the dark, I will stay, waiting for the light to fade away, you can't escape the beast." It faded away.

"Is that supposed to be a curse? First a Haiku and now a curse. Your mind is weird, can we leave now?" Tokoyami chuckled.

"Only you would find something funny about being locked in my head. Come on, I know where the door is." She took his hand and lead the way out.

"Sophie, I saw a lot of things on the way to you." He watched her.

"It's better if you forget those things, but I won't have Peryton remove them from you."

"I would never turn on you, even if you were to become a villain. I would do everything in my power to get the real you back." He told her.

"Who is the real me?" She asked with an air of aloofness.

"You are Sophie."

She smiled, her chest felt light and giddy, the light glowed brighter and they reached the door leading out of this fog-induced memory den.

"Let's go kick that Shark's ass and have Shii tell me everything I need to know about Doctor Necrose."

They stepped through the door together. The fog cleared and Sophie was thrust back into awareness, her body stopped moving in that split second and she only saw the flash of the attack that came for her, unable to evade as it neared. A tiny body was there between her so quickly there was no time. Shark drove his fist through Shii's tiny frame and out the other side, her bot blood sprayed all over Sophie's face and chest. Shii turned her little head to look at Sophie, blood spilling from her mouth, even still she smiled.

"Forgot...to mention...this part."

I'm so sorry for the late update.