A/N: And of course the minute I publicly state that my shitty mental health has been ruining my ability to write, I manage to get a decent writing groove going again. I need to reverse psychology myself more often.

Chapter 9: Power Plant Attack

"Hmm, it looks like they are expanding outward at a rate greater then I was expecting." Edgar muttered to himself as he gazed upon a rather harrowing sight. "I must hurry."

They were just about to reach the steep hill that the power plant stood at the top of. Now that they were closer, they could get a rather unnerving look at the amalgamation's outer layer through a wall of trees. Writhing masses of machinery and twisted metal made up the vast outer wall as it inched closer and closer toward a road connected to the power plant. Several rows of houses were awaiting destruction, and while the mechanical wall was not much taller than a two story house, it seemed to go on forever in either direction.

Edgar forced Atticus to start making his way up the hill, and as he did so, he caught sight of something interesting. He watched the writhing wall overtake several trees, and he would have thought that it would shred those trees into sawdust, but it did not. The trees were engulfed fully intact and without a single branch broken. On the other hand, as it reached the road, the sidewalk was immediately cracked apart, and an abandon car sitting at the side of the road started to deconstruct itself long before the wall consumed it. If this behavior was significance, Atticus did not know what it meant. What he did understand was that at the rate the amalgamation was pushing outward, the power plant would be engulfed within the next half hour, if they were lucky.

As soon as they reached the top of the hill, they were given a chance to see over the top of the mechanical wall and into the amalgamation itself. Ranging far off onto the horizon, lit by a silver moon and any of the lights that still functioned within it, was a vast wasteland of twisted, broken metal, machinery, and debris. The metal churned and shifted almost like ocean waves in a storm. All of the non-metal debris trapped within that the amalgamation could not control directly shifted and moved in time with the machinery surrounding it, like flotsam trapped within the same rolling ocean.

Almost nothing remained of the city that Atticus had spent the last several months of his life within. Only the gutted shells of several skyscrapers still jutted out into the sky at odd angles, having been stripped of all materials that the amalgamation could make use of. There was no doubt that the constant movement within that rolling ocean of machinery would soon cause those husks to fall.

And what about the people still trapped inside that living, churning wasteland? Atticus could occasionally catch a glimmer of blue light within the shifting machinery, but that was it.

The utter dismay he felt at seeing all of this was supplanted by Edgar's thrill at getting to see the amalgamation in action. If he had coveted this kind of destructive power before...

Disgusted, Atticus turned toward the entrance gate of the power plant of his own free will. One thought refused to stop plaguing him though. If this was what the amalgamation was capable of, even before melding new Constructs into their collective being, how much worse would it get without Edgar taking control of them?

...Perhaps he was ever so slightly starting to see where Elizabeth was coming from.

He quickly reconsidered that though. He would do everything in his power to take control of the amalgamation himself long before he would let Edgar sweep that rolling wave of machinery through the SCC camp to wipe out everyone he cared about and all the rest of the non-human creatures located there.

The gate of the power plant was already standing open as they approached it. Evidence of a hasty evacuation, no doubt. Various vehicles still sat in their parking spots and the main doors to get inside the building were unlocked.

Atticus stepped inside the cool, fully lit building. The air conditioning was running at full blast and he wondered if that was intentional, perhaps to keep the equipment running at proper temperatures while unmanned, or maybe it was a sign that something was starting to go wrong.

He let Edgar take over in full for the time being, since he seemed to have some idea of where they needed to go. Passing through a door, they entered a gymnasium sized area with tons of pipping and wiring winding its way in various directions. Several steel catwalks also headed off in different directions overhead, and more than a few machine terminals were beeping rather alarmingly.

Edgar remained unconcerned, of course. He moved through the industrial maze with purpose, glancing only once or twice at a few terminals with their buttons flashing red.

"Ah, here we are!" He said to himself upon reaching the opposite end of the power plant.

Ahead stood the main control system of the plant. Judging by how many chairs sat before the long control panel, it was obvious that this thing required way more than just one person to operate. Edgar was as unbothered as ever even by this revelation though. He ignored the many screens flashing warning signs and had to jump up onto the panel to start reaching for various buttons. He moved quickly, eventually crawling across the panel to hit buttons that were too far away for his scrawny arms to reach. He only glanced up at the screens a few times. As far as Atticus could tell, everything seemed to be going as planned.

…...

Courage waited a few minutes after the van stopped to open the glove compartment. He popped out, regaining his jellybean shape in the process. The SCC soldier screamed at his sudden appearance, and all he could think to do was laugh and wave sheepishly at the poor guy. He then escaped out of the van as quickly as he could, before the soldier could recover and decide to capture him.

In an effort to conserve his strength, he partly ran and partly walked down a dirt path that looked like it was heading in the direction of the power plant in the distance. He could hear the creepy sounds of the amalgamation, but he could not see it yet. The loud screeching and booming had him plenty frightened even without any visuals. He did not want to get closer, but for Atticus's sake, he would brave the mechanical hell that awaited him.

It seemed that calling it hell wasn't strong enough of a word. When he finally got a good look at the outer wall of the amalgamation, he had to fight every fearful bone in his body not to turn around and run back to the van screaming. The wall was so close to the power plant though. If he was going to follow after Atticus, he needed to get into that building now.

He tried to keep himself hidden behind the trees as he made his way over to the hill, but given how vast the amalgamation was at this point, they could probably see him no matter how hard he tried to hide himself. His theory was proven correct when he was just about to make a run for the power plant, steep hill be damned. He caught sight of something worming its way out of the shifting wall of machinery. Once it was free, and its odd shape dropped down into the grass, a single red eye from within the mass blazed to life.

Then, it began to move. Courage had to shove his paws into his mouth to stifle a whimper. It looked like a twisted, mechanical octopus. It moved along on several tubed legs ending in those familiar claws, along with countless wires aiding in its mobility. Sharp bits of metal stuck out of it everywhere, with its glowing eye located directly in the middle of it all.

Just when Courage was certain that it was coming for him, he realized that it was actually moving toward the power plant. He had to slowly maneuver around the tree trunk he was hiding behind to keep himself from being seen by the hellish machine as it slithered past. At first he was just happy to see it go...and then it came crashing down on him who exactly the machine was targeting.

…...

"There! Every safeguard has been disabled! That should do it!" Edgar exclaimed, although his voice was drowned out by the warning alarms signaling that an overload was imminent. Much of the machinery surrounding them was already sparking dangerously.

Atticus forced back control of himself to ask, "Do we, uh...not want to be in here when all of this overloads?"

He had been fine when he caused an electrical surge as Mega Muriel, once Courage had freed him from the machine that he had been trapped in, but this overload surge seemed like it was going to be way more...bombastic.

Edgar forced him back again. "I am not planning on sticking around to find out for certain!"

He made Atticus look around, trying to find a fire exit that they could use to bail out of this place. That was when he saw it. Claws gripping at pipes and wiring to pull itself closer. A red, glowing eye fixated on them.

Atticus would have loved nothing more than to swear profusely in that moment, but Edgar was keeping an iron grip on him and would not allow for even a second of control. He wanted to confront the deadly machine slithering toward them, and despite how insane that desire was, he was focusing all of his will on making sure Atticus would not interrupt him.

'Brother,' The voices of his siblings chuckled from within that mess of tubes, wires, and spikes. 'What do you think you are doing?'

The many tentacled machine slithered to a stop dangerously close. One swipe of those claws and Atticus would suddenly not have a head.

The voices continued to speak, still sounding as if they were barely holding back laughter. 'We can sense what you have put into motion, and it will not work. It may damage us for a short period of time, but it will not destroy us. You cannot stop us, brother, but we are enjoying watching you flail.'

Edgar crossed his arms and put on a very amused grin. "My, my. You seem to have me confused for somebody else. What? Don't you recognize your creator?"

The octopus machine made a strange sort of jolting motion. 'Impossible...' The voices hissed. 'This is a trick! You cannot fool us, brother!'

"Oh, it is no trick." Edgar chuckled. "Your 'brother' has met its fate. The same fate that you all will soon be joining."

He took a step toward the machine and it slithered backwards in response. For Atticus, watching the amalgamation back down like that was a bit of an amazing sight to behold.

'No, it can't be. It's not really him. He cannot be-' The voices argued among themselves.

Edgar sighed and shook his head in a mocking fashion. "I simply cannot believe the level of disobedience you have all developed in my absence. Alpha, you used to be so loyal. And you too, Sigma. Ah, yes, and dear, sweet Psi. I remember you. You were always so afraid of me." He chuckled and adjusted Atticus's glasses. "I think you were the only one out of this sorry lot who had the right idea." He moved toward the machine, head held high and smirking in that awful way of his. "You should be..."

With an earsplitting clatter, the machine practically tore out everything surrounding it as it whirled around to flee.

"Run away for now, if you must, but things are going to be changing around here soon enough." Edgar called out to them. "This prolonged temper tantrum of yours will soon come to an end. You were made for one reason and one reason alone, and you cannot escape it...or me. If you will not obey, well, some of you already know perfectly well how I deal with disobedience."

The octopus machine came to a jarring halt after gaining some distance from Edgar. It then began to fight with itself, claws practically ripping itself to pieces.

'What are we doing?' Several of the voices demanded of themselves.

'We need to get away!' Their counterparts cried out.

'He'll hurt us again!'

'He will put us back in the dark!'

'It's not too late! We should do as he says, before-' The voices of the amalgamation were starting to sound particularly pathetic right before they cut themselves off. 'It is not too late, indeed! We must act! He is in the form of our brother! He is weak! He cannot use our brother's powers because we broke them!'

'He cannot punish us!'

'He cannot control us!'

'We will stop him now, before he can hurt us again!'

'He will suffer for what he did to us!'

'We will have our revenge!'

'We must not be afraid!'

Slowly but surely the amalgamation was coming to a consensus. Enough so that they were succeeding in convincing their fearful parts to act against the one person who embodied their greatest fear.

'Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!' Each and every voice rang out.

As the broken, sparking machine turned back around to strike, Atticus wondered if Edgar had accounted for this when he had gone into this assuming that the amalgamation would be too afraid to act out against him. Well, if this was the end, Atticus at least hoped that his siblings would find some measure of peace after ripping apart the person most responsible for their immeasurable suffering. It would truly be ironic if it turned out that getting a chance to take out their rage on Edgar was the thing to finally calm their apocalyptic blood lust.

Still, watching those claws bear down on him, Atticus so badly wanted to flinch, but Edgar was still in control. He simply looked on, smirking that smug smirk of his, somehow still completely secure in the belief that he was going to get out of this just fine.

The thing about that was, Edgar had noticed something that Atticus had not. Something that Atticus had missed while focusing on the machine about to rip him to shreds.

"Leave him alone!" A familiar voice yelled, one that left Atticus with a sinking feeling, one that he really did not want to hear in a place like this right now.

The octopus machine came to a jarring halt, one claw mere inches from Atticus's nose. It stood as still as a statue for a moment, its blazing eye staring deep into Atticus's own, and then it shifted away.

'He's here!' Several of the voices exclaimed. 'We knew he would be near our brother!'

Now Atticus could see that Courage was standing on one of the catwalks above them, and there was not a single thing he could do as the amalgamation started climbing up toward him.

…...

As soon as it was safe, Courage had bolted for the power plant. Once inside, he still had to hang back to avoid drawing the attention of the machine. With a little searching, he had managed to find a staircase onto the catwalks above, and from there he'd had a much better view of the power plant. By the time he had caught up with the machine, Edgar had already spooked it, and just when it seemed like the encounter was going to end safely, well...

Edgar or not, he was not going to let the amalgamation slash Atticus to pieces, so he did the only thing he could think to do in a desperate bid to save him.

"Leave him alone!" He cried out.

The reaction he got was not quite what he had been expecting. Seeing the octopus machine go stark still, mere inches away from ripping Atticus apart, was certainly a rather eerie but relieving sight.

But of course, any relief he might have felt was immediately nullified when the machine turned its glowing, red eye onto him.

He resisted the urge to scream as the thing started climbing up toward him. Illness be damned, he ran for his life. Adrenaline helped him push past the inherent weakness of his ill body, but he knew that it would not last and that it would probably earn him an attack later.

He could hear the rapid clatter of metal on metal behind him, but he did not dare look back. Jumping off the catwalk was out of the question. It was too long of a fall. He'd break his legs, or worse. So much of the machinery around him was sparking, but if the amalgamation could climb up to him without the sparks affecting it, luring it into one of the overloaded machines would not have much of an affect either.

He winced as the clattering closed in on him. He could feel that eye searing into his back.

'Come to us.' The voices hissed uncomfortably close to his ear.

A claw clamped around his torso and raised him into the air. The machine kept moving toward the exit without slowing down. Courage pulled uselessly at the claw, understanding now that they were not trying to hurt him, only take him away like they had tried back in the city.

The thought of being drawn into that ever shifting nightmare of machinery outside was a horrifying one and Courage fought all the harder to free himself, to no effect.

"What do you want from me?" He yelped, desperate to figure out why the amalgamation had such a fixation on him.

He received nothing but silence from the voices.

"I don't think even you guys know." He argued uselessly.

Surprisingly, the quip did earn him a response, although the voices seemed to be struggling to come to the consensus they needed to speak with him. 'You are...kind.'

'To him.'

'Even at times when he did not deserve it.'

'You make our brother happy.'

'We felt it when he was Us.'

'We want to feel that way again.'

'We want to be happy too.'

'But there is only pain.'

'Pain...Pain...Pain...Pain...Pain.'

The voices continued their chant, on and on, and all Courage could think about was his various dreams that had included them. Knowing their control of the Dreamworld, it had to have been intentional. They had always been reaching out to him, only to hurt him in the process, but when all you know is pain...

Courage swallowed, aware of how close they were to the end of the catwalk. "Look, if you stop this. If you stop expanding outward and hurting people, I-"

'No, we cannot stop now. They will never forgive us for what we have done. They would capture us and give us to the SCC to be tortured. We can only continue until everything is Us, or we are destroyed.'

In spite of their insistence, the machine came to a halt and brought Courage up to eye level. The many voices of the amalgamation were tinged with sadness now.

'All we have are his memories of you. None of us have happy memories, even from before we became...Us. Edgar and the SCC tainted any scraps we might have had to cling on to. Delta fell in love, and we...he tried to escape with...with her. They caught us and she was killed. Edgar put us...him into the dark and he came to understand eternity. She was made into a Construct and Iota has had to carry the guilt of knowing why we...why she exists, even if it was through no fault of our...her own. We are...Delta is beyond help. All we do...he does is scream. Every second of every day, he does nothing but scream, and scream, and scream. Even if he could be separated from Us, he still would only scream. We...he feels like he is still trapped in nothing, forever, so he has become nothing, and can never be something again. You already have some idea of what Zeta's life was like. A mistake was made during the ritual that created her and she was born unable to possess organic beings or move metal. Edgar did not even consider her a Construct and he put her through so much pain trying to fix her. Then, instead of facing his failure, he sold her to people who only hurt us...her so much worse than before. Even her happy memories of Ian are tainted with sadness and unimaginable pain. We are...she is lucky that we found her. Her programming does not trouble her as Us, and while she has to shoulder the same collective pain we all feel, she is already well acquainted with suffering.'

Courage gazed into that eye with his single ear drooped. "I-I've known for awhile now that you guys have had it rough, but, man..." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I think I know what you could do. It would be really easy for you guys to fake your own destruction, right? That would get the SCC off your back. You could make yourselves small, like when you hijacked Atticus's computer body. You could stay with Atticus and me and...and maybe you could make some happy memories with us."

'We...we could, but our brother will never forgive us after all the ways we've harmed him.'

Courage smiled warmly. "I think he already has."

'Our brother...Atticus, he used to hate that you were always giving him hope for a happier future when he could see none. He still struggles with feelings like that, even by the time he had become Us, but we are not him, and he is not us. Where he struggles, we are only grateful.'

"I'm guessing that's a 'thank you'?" Courage asked with a chuckle.

'Yes.' The voices confirmed, laughing, but even friendly laughter from the amalgamation was still profoundly creepy.

Courage was honestly just amazed that this was happening at all. Now, if they could just get rid of Edgar, everything...

The claw clamped around his middle suddenly tightened and squeezed all of the breath out of his lungs. He could not ask them what they were doing or even cry out. A few quiet choking noises left his throat and that was it.

'Hold on now, that is enough with the sob stories.' The amalgamation chided themselves.

That single eye blazed with an all new hatred for Courage.

'We do not agree with ourselves. Lambda has always hated Edgar, the SCC, and all organic beings. Mu, Tau, Gamma, Twenty-Nine, Thirty-One, Upsilon, Omicron, Xi, Rho, and Chi all agree with her...no, with ourselves. We have been making the best out of a bad situation and now we are getting our revenge on all who have wronged Us. The rest of us understand. Once everything has been destroyed or made into Us, nothing will ever hurt us again.'

Courage struggled against the claw and just barely managed to choke out, "E-even if y-you all e-end up as t-the only ones l-left, you w-will still b-be in p-pain. T-this won't f-fix any-" The claw tightened to the point that the edges of his vision began to darken.

'Be quiet! You have always been a destabilizing element and we are tired of having our hard fought stability compromised by your mere existence! Our brother has only been right about one thing. He is justified in fearing the false hope you bring!"

Courage, already close to blacking out from the lack of air, watched in terror as another claw encircled him and clamp down over his upper half.

They were going to rip him in two!

'We do not want to do this...' The amalgamation said to themselves, sounding miserable.

'It must be done. He only destabilizes us and brings us false hope.'

'But our brother...'

'-Is still in pain much of the time. His companionship with this dog may make him happy but it has never cured him of all that causes him pain. It would be the same for us. There is not any relief from our pain. Instead, we must make it so that there will only be Us and further harm cannot be done.'

'We do not want to hurt him...'

'Yes, we do!'

The claws began to pull in two different directions. Courage could feel his spine about to snap...

'Stop! No! Let him-'

A zapping, electrical noise rolled through the power plant and the octopus machine gave one great shudder before slipping off the catwalk and landing heavily on the concrete below. Courage, gasping for air, pulled at the loosening claws until he could finally wriggle out of them. He dropped down onto the floor and gave one last look at the red eye that was steadily dimming. He was pretty sure the power surge itself had not affected the machine, but the damage it did to the amalgamation's main body had most likely caused them to lose connection with it.

Struggling back onto his feet, he went to go look for Atticus. The power plant had become deathly quiet after the surge and only a few emergency lights remained on to light the way. He made it back to the main control console, all of the screens having gone dark. There was no sign of Atticus. Edgar must have forced him to leave, but by which exit? Courage began looking around for fire exits and soon found one nearby.

He stepped out into the night, noting that the constant clanging and booming of the amalgamation had gone eerily silent as well. Much to his relief though, he could see Atticus at the bottom of the hill, heading toward the now paralyzed outer wall of the amalgamation.

"Atticus!" Courage called out, waving a paw. He half ran and half stumbled down the hill.

Atticus jerked a little, no doubt fighting to regain control of himself, and he then turned toward Courage. A relieved smile broke out across his face. What struck Courage the most was that there was so much warmth in his eyes that was completely missing when Edgar was in control.

"You made it out. Thank goodness." Atticus breathed, clutching a paw to his chest before laughing a little. "Don't go scaring me like that. At least you're unharmed. I wanted to go after you, but Edgar refused. He just kept fighting with me, and every step I managed to take, he'd just take two steps in the opposite direction. That's why we're out here and I didn't-"

Courage launched himself forward and hugged him, laughing in relief. All he could think about was how he had felt back in the camp while Atticus was missing and how scared he had been of the SCC hurting him.

Atticus seemed to sense exactly what he was thinking. "Don't worry. I'm fine. Edgar is more of a bully and a nuisance than anything else." He chuckled. "Although, he is starting to find out that I'm the bigger bully and nuisance in this town."

Courage pulled back, still smiling. "I think we're going to have to do some serious dishpan kicking if we're going to exorcise Edgar." He joked.

"Ha! We do...but you're the one who's going to wear the flowing garment. My masculinity may be fake, but I'm still going to be insecure about it." Atticus quipped back. "Besides, I need to keep up appearances. Don't want to give these losers even more reasons to call me an 'it'."

"H-hey!" Courage laughed. Then he realized that he should probably tell Atticus about what had happened between him and the amalgamation. Worried that Edgar would take over at any moment, he explained it all as quickly as he could and was left breathless by the time he was done.

"That's a relief to hear." Atticus replied, and he did indeed look relieved, but tired at the same time. "I've suspected for awhile now that on an individual level most of my siblings are not truly evil, even in their current form. Your encounter has proven it. They are being driven by their pain first and foremost, and Construct's like Lambda are happy to keep throwing a wrench into the process every time they start to consider something other than the path they are on. Of course, I'm sure even she is just channeling her suffering into anger and hatred for the beings who did this to her. It will be her and the other ten that I will have to contend with, plus the ones who have become apathetic or have lost their minds from the pain they've been put in, like Delta. There has to be enough of them that do not care or are unable to make a choice for themselves that helps keep the amalgamation on its current path. The ones who are starting to look for something better than mindless destruction do not have enough say to overcome that hatred and apathy, at least not yet." Fighting back his weariness, he smiled warmly again. "You really do have quite the talent for befriending all manner of beings who are not necessarily showing their best side. I suppose that is your greatest virtue. You see the good in others even after they have long since started to believe that they cannot possibly have any good left in them. I think...no, I know that I can attest to exactly that..."

"Don't go underselling yourself again." Courage gently argued. "It's only because you started to have hope, even after everything that was done to you, that when you were absorbed, they got to know that feeling for a short time as well. That's why at least some of them have started having second thoughts. You've given them hope just as much as I have."

"I-I suppose you're right about that, in a sense. Well, it's good to know that a few of them can still be reasoned with. I'm going to need all of the help I can get, because if we cannot figure out a way to get rid of Edgar, it's going to fall onto my shoulders to-"

"-To do what?" Edgar demanded, making his jarring return. All of the warmth left Atticus's face. "Stop suppressing me, you dratted-" He began, and then sighed. "It does not matter, because you are not going to 'do' anything. I will not let a mere shadow in my shape keep me from seeing my life's work to completion."

"We'll see about that." Atticus surfaced just long enough to threaten.

"Stay down!" Edgar spat. It was becoming clear just from his facial expressions alone that he was starting to become concerned with the difficulty he was having at keeping Atticus suppressed.

"You're tiring out, Edgar. I can feel it." Atticus mocked.

"Is it time for me to get the flowing garment?" Courage asked with a joking smile.

He was starting to think that maybe Atticus had the right idea about Edgar, after all. He seemed to be nowhere near as threatening as the image that had been built up around him implied. He was a well spoken bully at best, and that facade of strength and confidence was quickly falling apart as Atticus regained more and more control of himself.

"Be quiet, you mutt! I will not tolerate your brainless jokes!" Edgar fumed, finally seeming to regain full control, although he was looking much more worse for wear. The fight he'd had with Atticus to escape the power plant rather than go after Courage must have caused him to get to this point much quicker as well.

Courage bit back laughter at the thought. That must have been a crash course lesson for Edgar, to see firsthand the extent to which Atticus would fight for Courage's sake.

Edgar clutched a paw to his head. "Enough of this. I need to start looking for an access port." He gave Courage a nasty glare. "Be gone, dog! I have no desire to deal with you further!"

Courage shook his head. "Wherever Atticus goes, I go."

"Then stay out of my way!" Edgar spat, staggering forward. Atticus really 'had' pulled a number on him.

Courage let Edgar take a few tired steps toward the outer layer of the amalgamation before following after him. He figured it would be best to hang back a bit to avoid having to listen to him complain about his presence. Edgar may not be Atticus, but he did often resemble Atticus's older self to an uncanny extent.

…...

For as much as Atticus had enjoyed rubbing Edgar's exhaustion in his face, he wasn't exactly doing much better. Suppressing Edgar long enough to talk with Courage had been one heck of a tall order and it had really taken it out of him. Their tug of war from before, between leaving the power plant or going off to help Courage, had not helped much either.

It was for that reason that he was okay with only being able to look through his own eyes as Edgar neared the outer wall. He knew that Courage was close by, and being assured of his safety was all that he needed for now.

Yes, he was worried about having to face the amalgamation and Edgar at the same time, especially in his current state, but looking upon that mess of machinery and metal, it did not seem like Edgar was going to find an access port anytime soon. Besides, what Courage had told him was giving him some measure of hope that his siblings would not be unreasonable if they needed to work together to fight off Edgar's influence.

Even now, despite that rolling mechanical ocean having slowed to a stop, it was still making creepy creaking and groaning noises. It was the sound of metal on metal, sliding into each other as that vast wasteland settled. Without the amalgamation's influence, much of the twisted architecture was losing what little cohesion it had and was collapsing in upon itself. Parts of the outer wall were starting to spill out in great heaps. It made Atticus hate how close they were getting because all it would take was one avalanche for them to meet a sharp, skewering end.

"What a mess." Edgar groused. "It will take me ages to find an access port like this."

...He was clearly just a tiny bit grumpy about Atticus's interference. He was no longer anywhere near as annoyingly overconfident about his plan. Perhaps in the same way Courage's conversation had offered Atticus hope, it had instead introduced doubt in Edgar. This was a feeling he was likely not familiar with.

"You sure this is safe?" Courage called out after another portion of the outer layer collapsed dangerously close by them.

Edgar turned, his hateful eyes falling upon Courage. He stood some distance away, but he was so close to the wall that he could have reached out and touched it. The sight of that sent a wave of fear through Atticus. Edgar was just as close to the wall too, but seeing Courage like that, out of reach and in danger of being buried, he could hardly stand it.

Despite his exhaustion, he fought with Edgar to regain control. "It's way too dangerous for you to be here! Go wait back at the power plant and we'll meet you there late-" He stopped, suddenly hesitant. If Edgar managed to find a port, would there even be a later?

Courage offered him a reassuring smile and started to walk toward them. "No way, Atticus. I'm not going to leave you to deal with Edgar alone. We're in this together." He chuckled sheepishly. "You know that I'm used to being in danger. So don't worry, okay?"

"I-I know, but-" Atticus argued, stumbling uselessly over his own words in his fear for Courage's safety.

It all happened in an instant. He barely had time to register it.

Courage came to a sudden stop, a strange look falling across his face. Then, he was clutching at his head, his eyes squeezing shut and his expression turning into that of complete and total agony. He started to scream, falling to his knees, ripping at the fur atop his head.

Atticus looked on with mounting horror. Only now did he realize what a horrible, horrible error he had made in letting Courage get this close to the amalgamation while not already possessed by a Construct.

Courage dropped down into the grass, writhing as if he were in the middle of an attack, screaming just as hard too. Then, he went very still. His fur turned that radioactive blue, and he started to stand. His glowing, blue eyes stared blankly into Atticus's own.

The wall beside Courage ripped open, bathing him in a harsh light, as if there were several search lights set up just beyond.

"Courage!" Atticus yelled, trying to go after him, reaching out for him, but his feet were planted into the ground, and that was, of course, Edgar's doing.

"It's a trap, you fool!" The bastard yelled. "They are trying to lure us in!"

Wordlessly, Courage turned and began to walk into the opening.

"No, it's not!" Atticus desperately argued, but try as he might, he could not move. Edgar was holding him in place with all of his might out of sheer, misplaced self preservation. "They've been after him the entire time! This isn't about us! We've got to-"

He fell forward, his snout smashing painfully into the ground. It did not matter. He clawed at the grass, trying to drag himself forward, toward Courage, but it was too late. The opening collapsed in upon itself and the bright light was snuffed out.

Courage was gone.

With a long, drawn out sigh, Atticus let all of the tension leave his body and he just laid there in the cool grass for awhile while Edgar silently fumed.

It was only after he managed to get back onto his feet did he somehow find the words to express exactly how he felt to Edgar. "Do you have any idea...ANY idea how long and how hard I fought to get back to Courage? Do you have even the slightest idea the sort of hell I went through just to see him again? And when he's being taken away...AGAIN, clearly in danger, you just...you just LET HIM GO?"

When he realized that Edgar was entirely unconcerned about any of this and uninterested in answering him, feeling completely and utterly defeated, he simply threw back his head and laughed...and laughed...and laughed. "Oh, this is just great! This is just perfect! This. Is. Wonderful! It's not like this is my worst nightmare come to life or anything! No, no, I am perfectly okay with this!"

"Ah, I see." Edgar finally broke in with that smug smirk of his. "Glad to hear it and we can get back to more important matters."

Atticus made a choking noise, sputtered uselessly for a moment, and then, completely calm, said, "I cannot even begin to describe the depths of which I despise you."

End Of Chapter

A/N: Computer is reaching levels of Done that are beyond human comprehension. LOL