As Honest and Shadow were leaving school on March 5th, 2019 and heading to the cafe, Shadow noticed Honest's glum mood instantly after observing how she was hanging her head as she walked beside him.

"What's wrong, Honest?"

She blew out a large puff of air. "I didn't accomplish anything yesterday."

He was confused. "What do you mean? You produced forty or so illustrations for a full-length PV yesterday."

"Alright, I'll rephrase this: I didn't accomplish anything yesterday as the result of Mephiles's going berserk at the cafe." Shadow nodded approvingly at her rephrasing. "All that resulted from it was a Mephilver moment and a construction montage."

Shadow was still nodding in approval, but he then suddenly ceased.

"Wait... a 'construction montage'?"

"Yeah," Honest exclaimed, looking up at him. "I didn't write about it, but after yesterday's chapter, the people working down the road saw the whole thing go down and offered to repair the cafe when they were finished."

When they pushed open the two front doors, the cafe looked pretty much the same as it did before the attack. Cosmo was on a ladder and painting the wall that had been torn completely away yesterday its previous shade of brilliant white (or is it tint?).

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The window she had broken yesterday was fixed as well, Honest noted.

"Who do you think is more destructive: Rosy or Mephiles?" Shadow asked.

Honest laughed. "I don't want to choose because I might cause a competition to see who is," she told him. "And that might just spell out the end of the world as we know it."

"Ooh, yeah, we don't want to do that," he said, laughing as well.

"I don't know what I expected to accomplish. Maybe I just wanted him to reveal why he's acting the way he is," Honest said in a downcast manner, tracing some invisible thing on the floor with the end of her foot. "Somehow I feel that he doesn't know why himself. Or, I would have felt that way if it wasn't for what he told me afterwards."

The dark pineapple pushed the door to the back room open with his right hand as they entered. "Huh? What did he tell you?"

Honest sighed and flipped the light switch on the wall to their left. "Well, at first he told Silver that he had a purpose for me. So, I asked him what he wanted, but he didn't tell me."

"Not everything is the basis for a deal to be made. Maybe he can tell you now," Shadow said. "He comes here pretty much every day. You can ask him whenever he shows up."

"But do I even want to ask him?" Honest asked. Shadow had opened one of the closets and was sorting through the uniforms hanging within.

"It's a matter of your personal safety. You should want to ask him," he said intently. "I don't know what this 'purpose' is, but it's guaranteed to be sinister seeing as though it comes from him."

"Leave it up to a fictional character to be the realistic one," Honest mumbled, although, since it was an empty room, she was easily understood by the only other person there.

"Well, I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm telling you, but it's the truth. Everyone knows, especially you, that Mephiles is an unsavory character. Whatever purpose he has for you is surely an evil plot."

They were now about an hour into their shifts, and still the personification of the absence of light was not there.

At one point Sonic had arrived, and Manic volunteered to take his order, standing beside the blue speedster's chosen table and wielding a white notepad and black pen. Poised to begin transposing whatever words he said, Manic immediately put his pen to the lined paper and scribbled away as soon as his brother had begun to speak.

"I can't help but think there's something wrong with me."

Manic squinted at what he had written. "Uh..." He turned the notepad around and showed Sonic. "I don't think you can eat that."

When Sonic didn't do anything but sigh and press his head farther down towards the table and his folded arms, Manic became worried. "Are you okay, dude?"

He sighed again and this time the whole world seemed to sigh with him. Whenever the world's hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, was feeling down in the dumps, the whole world always seemed to pause for a moment. The green hedgehog with doofy hair gasped.

"It's not Dark Gaia again, is it? Are you possessed or something?"

"No, no, it's not that," the blue blue pineapple assured him. "It's all in my head."

Manic turned his head as if in deep thought. "In your head? You are possessed, aren't you?"

Honest was dreading being forced to have a serious conversation with her arch nemesis. They definitely didn't have a normal relationship for arch enemies, and this only made the whole process even more dreadful. She was stood by the front door, staring out into the afternoon sun and pretending to be confidently waiting for a friendly co-worker or business partner to arrive for a calm and pleasant meeting.

However, inside she just wanted to go and hide in the back of a closet somewhere.

You might not know this, but the feeling whenever the whole world sighs is very, very weird. It makes you want to shake all over, so this is what Honest did. Then she rushed to Sonic's table since she knew only someone like him could cause such a disturbance.

"What's going on?" Honest asked Manic.

"I have no idea," he replied, looking solemnly at his brother who looked to be suffering from some horrible, thought-prohibiting headache. "Have you ever seen him like this?"

Honest thought for a moment. "Uh... when Elise died aboard the Doctor's battleship? Oh! And those two moments in {Forces Edition} where Shadow turned him down by choosing to spend his time in the back of the classroom with the others while Sonic sat at a desk alone sulking in Chapter 10, and choosing to punch Sonic instead of fist bump him and leaving him with his face pressed against a glass door sulking in Chapter 14."

Manic thought about what things those two situations from {Forces Edition} had in common.

"His bouts of sulking in those two examples were both caused by Shadow. Do you think he's who to blame for this, too?" he gestured towards Sonic, who was now covering his eyes.

Honest looked around and spotted said striped culprit... as well as the crime scene.

Apparently they were all very blind and deaf because what was happening in the back half of the seating area was not an everyday occurrence and definitely should've been easy to identify as being potentially dangerous to the cafe's employees, specifically Shadow.

The poor, black edgy hedgy was currently suspended upside down five feet in the air. He seemed to be suffocating due to the many layers of dense fabric hanging in his face just then. Shadow's face was red, his eyes completely obscured by the skirt but his scarlet ears clearly visible as the Ultimate Lifeform desperately attempted to wrestle the black tentacles wrapping his legs away from him.

"Help... Honest?" he struggled out. Although he couldn't see Honest standing there, he had heard her voice and knew she would come to his rescue.

However, that was the lord of darkness who had captured him. Not much of her friend's form still remained in this mass of black sludge and tentacles that stood like the large towers and battlements of hell's castles beside the body of her paling ally as all his blood rushed to his head, and Honest was frozen in fear, resembling a quaking chicken nugget in the refrigerated section of Eggmart.

"Why don't you go help him!?" Manic was screaming at his still sulking twin brother. Sonic merely made a nauseated expression and pressed his hands to his temples, his cheeks now the same color as his fur.

The half-mangled upper half of the form of Mephiles we all know and are frequently creeped out by was protruding out of the top of the tower of liquid darkness. It twisted and trained it's two slitted yellow-green eyes on the cat as it seemed to speak to her. "WhY dOn'T yOu CoMe HeLp HiM, HOnEsT?"

Honest blinked hard and shook her head, forming a confident grin out of her previously-useless lips. "Are you really using EXE-speak? Are you trying to unnerve me or just make me laugh?"

However, Honest didn't actually laugh as a response to the way he spoke. She wasn't Sonic whom could be frequently found laughing in the face of death. Death was a serious thing, and Honest didn't want Mephiles to think she was immature right now.

Manic felt of the slick surface of the drum set-shaped amulet hanging about his neck. "I know my brother's a grade A jerk at least 20 out of 24, but his attitude right now just doesn't make sense."

Suddenly a bout of laughter erupted from the demon holding Shadow hostage. "That's because I'm controlling him. His ego and lust makes for an extremely easily manipulated concoction."

Honest's fabricated smile was torn away by that one cleverly assembled statement.

"I'm sorry, Shadow. I have failed you." Honest fell to her knees and traced some unseen apology into the floor tiles with her index finger.

"What could you possibly be apologizing for?" he asked. The way he asked that made Honest feel that he might've thought whatever it was would make him mad.

"Just as I suspected, Mephiles," Shadow said next after realizing he wouldn't be getting answers out of Honest in her current condition. He swung like a pendulum, that is to say swinging side to side, as he spoke. "You're too much of a wimp to play fairly."

The personification of the absence of light jerked the dark hedgehog closer suddenly, making Shadow grunt. "You can easily increase your own chance at life. You know how?"

Two tentacles began to wind themselves around the striped pineapple's middle. "H-" The tentacles pulled tight all of a sudden, knocking the breath out of him. "...How?" he struggled out.

"You can tap into chaos energy at a whim, can't you? Why not use it now? Or are you too much of a fan of keeping it fair for everyone?"

"Rouge... just had the place repaired..."

At this response, Mephiles suddenly had all the tendrils of pure darkness restraining the Ultimate Lifeform fling him at the ground and press him firmly into the cold, tile flooring beneath them. Honest sat inches from him, her hair hanging in front of her face as she continued to drag her finger along the ground.

"Tell me why you protect this weakling!" Mephiles roared at her.

"Because I... care for him?" was her simple answer.

"You're lying," The embodiment of darkness picked Shadow up and slammed him into the ground, earning a pained "argh!" from the poor hedgehog.

"Hey!" Manic exclaimed as he stood up from where he had been crouching beside his brother. "Let Shadow go. Didn't you hear what the girl said? She said she loves him. Now quit hurting him before you incite violence from someone else who does!"

Mephiles made an amused face. "Who? Sonic? That blue idiot's love for Shadow is purely for self-benefit. Trust me, hedgehog. I have seen within his heart."

"Me, too," Shadow said. Well, he hadn't literally "seen inside his heart", but in a figurative sense. "Notice I never asked him to save me." Shadow turned his head. "Honest?"

Honest didn't look up. She slowly reached into her apron and pulled out a flashlight, aiming it at some point above Shadow's head.

A loud hiss was heard and then the tentacles holding Shadow in place snapped like frayed ropes, their owner, whom had been six some odd feet tall previous to this, shrinking until they could appropriately combat him. Despite claiming to be all for fairness earlier, once Mephiles found himself at an equal stature to his opponents, he chose to flee the scene instead in his liquid state.

Manic ran after him a ways before finding himself unable to keep up with him in that form, choosing instead to just yell "Coward!" and wave his fist. Honest watched him a while before becoming bored and turning around.

That's when she became aware that Sonic had broken free from the embodiment of darkness's wicked spell and was now fighting his way out of the booth he had been sitting at to run to Shadow, whom was still lying on the ground where Mephiles had dropped him.

Shadow had fallen a good three feet, more or less his own height standing up. Was he alright?

"Shadow, you alright?" the cobalt speedster asked. Shadow took a few seconds to prop himself up on his hands.

"I guess," he answered. Slowly raising his head, Shadow saw Honest standing there. "How come he always gets away?"

Honest shrugged. It was a pointless thing to do- she really should've said something to him, something relatively eloquent at the least- but she really didn't know.

"Also-" After rising to his feet, the striped rodent glared at Sonic. "You don't care about me at all, do you?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"

His shadow turned his back on him, huffing loudly. Sonic just turned to Honest with the same confused expression.

I have to do something now, Honest thought. She waved her hands real fast. "Uh... I was the one who saved you from Mephiles's dark spell. You should be thanking me." She pointed to herself and beamed, feigning self-absorption. She prayed that he couldn't tell she was actually sweating bullets.

When his worried, serious face started to twist back to his usual, carefree expression, Honest breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, so I wasn't saved by this magnificent angel," he said.

"I'm not an angel," Shadow said, still turned the opposite way. "I'm a demon-"

"-Alien."

He turned around. "What?"

"A demon-alien. It's different from a demon," Sonic explained.

He just looked at him dis-interestingly as if he were utterly worthless.

Upon seeing his reaction, the cerulean hero added, "And don't forget you're also one whole half hedgehog. So... you're mostly angelic. Three-fourths actually."

Honest stepped up beside Shadow with a wacked-out expression. "You do know you literally just said you appreciate him."

He looked back and forth between the two of them. "But I do!"

They both turned around at once.

"Mephiles lied to us?" Honest asked.

"Did he not actually see inside Sonic's mind?" Shadow asked next.

"Is he lying?"

"Why are you guys whispering?"

They both looked up and, upon seeing that Sonic was sticking his head in their circle, darted to the other side of the room. He zipped after them, so they broke up.

Something was going on here. It could be because of the fact that Honest was an author versus an official character. Maybe she just couldn't get a direct yes-or-no answer to questions about other characters' innermost thoughts. She shouldn't have expected it to be that easy. Honest sighed and hung her head.

"Mephiles lied to us. He said he saw 'within your heart'. He obviously didn't."

The confusion was back. "Uh, well, what did he say?"

"Nothing!" "Something!"

He tapped his foot as if impatient.

"Well, is it nothing or something? Come on now, guys. It can't be both."

Thanks to this less than perfect situation, her only ally in the room was currently doing his "I am now going to become a silent, brooding vegetable for the rest of the day" routine, so Honest guessed her "something" had won. Still, she wasn't going to say what that "something" was.

"I haven't witnessed many accurate representations of your guys' dynamic yet in the comics, so I'll make sure to get back to you on that once I have," was what she said.

"Why is it always 'research, research, research' with you, huh? Why can't you just ask me how it is between us?" he inquired, upset.

"Because," Honest said, crossing her arms and watching as the gigantic specimen of produce behind him sat down at a table and laid his head down. "I can't trust that you won't lie to me. You don't have a very good track record after all." It pained Honest how disHonest she was being.

After staring at each other coldly for a good ten seconds, the hedgehog turned and trudged towards the entrance.

"Well, do your research then. I'm leaving. Thanks for saving me I guess."

It must've been hard for him to say that seeing as though it was supposed to be him who saves everybody. He had been saved in the past, though- namely the incident in Eggmart where he almost nearly fell into a bottomless pit chewed away by a severe acid spill but was saved just in time by Shadow, who then attempted to push him back in (copy and pasted below for your convenience)- so maybe he was getting used to it. Still, it wasn't good for him to become so used to it that he became too reckless... like he wasn't already reckless enough.

The door swung close behind him, the bell attached to the door jingling as it did so.

I can Honestly say that {Cafe Edition} is becoming one of my most scary stories. Like, I am literally terrified as I'm typing it. Uh, thank you for reading, I guess. Let me know who you would like to see at the cafe in a future chapter. (Also, this chapter is freakishly long, wow)

The incident in Eggmart:

Somehow, at one point, they had managed to stumble into the wrong aisle. All the shelves were full of clearly toxic chemicals. When he wasn't looking, Sonic felt himself falling. Merely on instinct, Shadow reached for him and was able to catch him. On the shelf nearby sat a row of cans of nitric acid. The acid had melted through the bottoms of the cans, through the shelf, and through the floor, creating some sort of bottomless pit in the middle of the store.

Honest gasped. "How come the cans aren't lined with something that the acid can't melt through?" she asked, peering down into the abyss.

"Oh, thank you, Shadow! You're my hero!" Sonic exclaimed.

"You're not welcome and I'm an anti-hero," Shadow said, dropping Sonic. He almost fell into the pit again if Honest hadn't of pulled him backwards just then.

"Sonic, you're the hero here, remember?"

Sonic laughed. "Oh, yeah."

(With how much extra information is included in this, I'm having trouble finding something to make note on. Most of the parentheses used in this chapter and the past three aren't mine.)