When Dr. Mendel revealed he had experimented on the children, and that the failures had been returned to the men to be disposed of, Faris's mind began to slip into rage and despair as he began to flit through the memories of the men he killed, stopping on each child who was brutalized then murdered.

You mean they died… because of this? This ridiculous nonsense? Godhood?!

Damien, deep within Faris's mind tried to calm the boy, but his rage was growing too much for the child to handle coherently. That was why Anya revealed herself after an age of silence. And that was why she entreated the spirit.

The fifteen spirits summoned immediately understood what happened when the shade they became died, they had heard stories of mortals who hunted shades, and collected the spirits within, they struggled to escape, but to no avail. Suddenly a voice called out to them, a human woman, entreating sanctuary if they would but cooperate. They all ignored her, no use trusting a human, all except one.

He was a young but powerful spirit, or at least, young comparatively to the others, though at the same time the concept of age was lost to them, their identities, and their true nature was lost to all but the most powerful, who seldom answered man or spirit alike, the only time they were roused was when news reached that Durza had been slain, Durza had been the longest living Shade in centuries, perhaps the first and only shade to live that long, and his existence was a matter of curiosity and fear to most spirits. A few spirits disliked the concept of shades, not because of the evil shades brought, but because of the nature of tying down any spirit. A few of these spirits were amongst the unfortunate here now. But the spirit in question, the one who answered Anya, could only laugh as he heard her proposal.

"You wish, to combine forces?"

"Yes, you will be forced to fuse with us anyway, and before that happens, they will kill you and merely give us the magic."

"That seems to be a complete positive for you."

"It would be, but we also lose our free will, but if even one of your kind survive and combine with us, we will be free, and you can attempt revenge, I will use magic to keep the spell from killing you, and to trick them into thinking it works, all I ask is that you meld seamlessly, fighting for dominance shall do neither of us any good."

"Deal." The spirit took the deal quickly, life came first. It observed as its 14 other brethren died, leaving only it as it rushed into the body. "Hmm, I believed I heard the voice of a female, but this is a boy."

As the spirit entered Faris the room exploded into a cloud of dust. Dr. Mendel screamed as the debris merely struck him, turning he scowled at Alpha. "Why didn't you block faster!?" She rolled her eyes, turning to look at the dust.

"Doctor, I believe it's best you leave the room." Beta began, "I sense the being has great power."

"Oh? That's wonderful! That means my experiment was a succe- ahh!" Dr. Mendel rolled as a blade stabbed the area between his legs, barely missing. He looked up as the dust began to clear. Faris stood before them, but his hair was red, red like a slightly dark scarlet, hinting at the brown it originally was. His eyes glowed like shining rubies, bathing the doctor and the enhanced children in a sinister red light. After the first attack Faris stood, he inspected his arms and legs and hand, and began to feel his face and hair.

"…Epsilon?" Faris ignored them as he continued to feel around himself, as if making sure everything was there. He looked around at Dr. Mendel and the enhanced children, then at the terrified looking guards behind them. Then he began to laugh. At first it was simple chuckling, and soon it devolved into a fit of giggling. Followed by hysterical laughter that echoed across the halls.

"Damn, he's lost his mind." Alpha approached Faris. "Sorry doctor, it seems Epsilon's a bust, he was simply too weak and has lost his mind, luckily this dopey idiot's not doing anything so I ca-"

She was cut off as the shade's hand swung quickly, striking her in the solar plexus and knocking her into a wall. Beta without dropping a beat launched himself at the shade who dodged his charge in time to grab Theta, the middle child and only boy amongst the triplets. He smiled at Theta, who choked in his clutches, Theta and the other triplets were all a little younger than Faris, and were the weakest of the enhanced children, the shade proving to be stronger than them. Zeta and Eta screamed, charging at the shade, Eta, with her superior speed reached him first, kicking him with all her might, the shade had risen his arm to block it preemptively, watching as it snapped and he was knocked into a wall, Eta prepared to continue her attack until she was stopped by her sister, just in time as a ball of fire exploded in front of where she would have been. Dr. Mendel backed away in fear, turning he looked for his guards, but saw nothing, he turned back to the shade, who had now a bunch of particles surrounding him, like several rings orbiting around a planet.

"Oxygen, 65%" The shade began, looking almost bored as he played with the particles.

"What?" Dr. Mendel began.

"Oxygen, though, you people call it the ether, it's the part of the ether we take in to breath, it provides the catalyst for respiration. Though a simpler term would be the breathable air. Anyways." The shade put his finger to his forehead in an elegant fashion. "Oxygen, 65%, Carbon, 18.5%, Hydrogen, 9.5%, Calcium, 1.5%, Phosphorus, 1%, Sulfur, 0.3%, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium, 0.2% each, with trace elements taking the other space. Of course, this is based on mass and not number of atoms. And it varies on human per human, this is of course only if I broke a human down to its most basic elements. I could go deeper, but I don't believe I can analyze quarks." He chuckled again, "This boy, he knew…soo much. In fact," He lifted his other hand and Dr. Mendel looked in fascination as a little over one half of the particles began to form together, his eyes widened as a mass of water began to swirl around the shade.

"…Did you turn those particles into water?"

The shade smiled, "More along the lines of putting it back into water. Oxygen and Hydrogen, both extremely flammable substances, use heat to turn into water. Hilarious right?" He began dancing with his fingers, up and down the water danced along, mesmerizing everyone, he took a partition of it, sipping. "Delicious… would you like some?" He smiled, allowed the water to bunch up and absorb the fire ball launched at it. "I guess not."

Alpha charged the shade, who with his enhanced strength and speed easily dodged her attacks. "You are truly sloppy with your attacks you know…" He kicked her sharply in the butt, causing her to yelp and leap forward, she growled turning to him. He laughed at her red face as he launched his water forward, launching it at her, just as she struck him with red lightning. He groaned as he collapsed, but the water continued to wrap around her. The shade got up slowly, electricity still arcing through his body. "That hurt…so this is pain…" He smiled, "It's unpleasant." He arced the lightning into the water, which seemed to disappear into thin air almost instantly. As Alpha looked around in shock the shade launched a tiny flame towards her, when it reached only a few feet it released an explosion rocking the cavern. Beta, Zeta, Theta, and Eta rushed to the doctor's aid, blocking it from hitting and killing him, eventually the flames ceased, leaving a burnt, slowly healing, collapsed Alpha.

"Heal her!" Dr. Mendel yelled at Theta, who rushed to Alpha, aiding the healing process. Theta's face was in shock at Alpha's position, most of her skin was blackened, even bones showed signs of burning, several organs had ruptured and failed and her heart and brain had stopped several times before her magic kicked in. Mendel removed his cracked glasses, gripping them tightly. "Dammit! How did this happen?!"

The shade ran, he used the explosion to leave the room, he tried to teleport but discovered that the rooms seemed to resist magic that would interact with the outside, he'd have to find his way out of this maze to get out. He took the time to kill any guards he came across, absorbing their life energy, and following the habit of taking their memories for storage. He added an extra measure, expending some energy to speed the decomposition of the body, after a bit he broke apart the dead corpse into its base elements, which circled around him much like the ones had before. He found a storage room and rested there, consuming food in order to help restore his sanity.

"This wasn't our deal." Anya's voice sounded indignant

"Deals change, and I have no need to follow your commands human, you should just surrender to me." The sprit's presence was oppressive as it attempted to fill every bit of Faris's mind, the conciousness of Anya and the others slain by Faris fought a slow losing battle as they turtle-shelled their part of Faris's mind, blocking their inner thoughts from the shade. "Besides, you are hiding something from me, who is the boy that he knows all this? What is earth? And why do I know what a nuclear bomb is, what it does, but not how to make it?"

"Because I'm not a psychopath." Damien muttered, the concept of nukes was something he knew of, but he never took the time to ever research how it was made in depth. He thanked whoever could listen that he never did even glance at a page talking about how to make a nuke. His memories would allow the shade to learn that. Of course, it's not like he had access to the necessary ingredients anyway. "I hope…"

"Hurry the fuck up!" Anya hissed. Damien turned to the nagging voice.

"Yeah yeah Anya, it's your fault anyway…" The plan had been that Anya meld with the spirit, since Anya wasn't entirely alive, the resulting combination would be weakened, and easy enough for Faris and Damien to subdue. Unfortunately, Faris had been affected by the revelation of what happened to all the children, and in that moment the spirit sensed him and had attempted to possess him, the combined efforts of everyone barely held it back from completely subsuming Faris, but Faris was somewhere in the folds of Damien's memories. And he had to navigate to find them before the spirit overwhelmed them. "I hate my life…"

The shade opened its eyes, it's attempts at subjugating the odd fractured mind of its host was slow going, its most powerful aspect had succumbed, but split egos resisted long enough to drag the core of the boy's mind into its recesses. The shade only had so much access to information, there were patches here and there that were missing. One such was the boy's original name, which he at least knew wasn't epsilon. "Alright…" The shade had to marvel at the boy's life experience, the boy seemed to live by a motto of everything being a possible learning experience. "Though it feels like he's lived longer than he is old, and like his life is split, whatever those experiences are, they feel more like dreams than anything else." He smiled, "Now…" He sat in contemplation, hiding himself with magic when a pair of guards entered the storeroom. He looked on with bemusement as the woman turned to the man and locked lips with him, pushing him into a wall. Turning around he continued to think. He was outnumbered, and two of the enemies were his betters in terms of raw power, while another three weren't so much weaker than him that they'd go down easy, the fast girl would especially prove troublesome, he was lucky he had the foresight to activate the boy's layer upon layer of hypothetical wards, the way the children attempted to kill him with wordless magic was astounding, as he had fought his magical stamina drained away like the wick of a match, the children all together simply had too much magical stamina combined for him to take care of. "I need power… no, I need allies." His thoughts were distracted by a loud scraping sound, the couple's wild throes moved a table, knocking supplies down and ruining his train of thought. Materializing the shade glared at the couple imperiously. "Do… you MIND!?" They screamed at the surprise then stood stock still in shock at the shade. The man began to rise, trying to sprint out, the shade merely flicked his finger, the man slumped dead, a few vital nerves and arteries to his brain severed. Before the woman could start screaming the shade muted her. "I said quiet." The shade thought to himself.
I need allies… wait
He turned to the woman, smiling, her tearful eyes flitted with fear as 10 spirits circled around her, the shade smiled. "If you survive this, find me." The spirits entered the woman's body as the room exploded into a purple and red light.

Anya struggled as best she could, but 3 of the false egos had already succumbed to the shade. It was getting harder and harder to resist, like swimming in syrup in an attempt to swim for air, air was running out and it was getting harder to pump her tired arms.

"Analogies to keep your mind busy? Interesting, did you learn this tactic from the boy you are hiding? What's his name? The three I just absorbed did not know, perhaps only you know…"

Anya didn't answer, she kept thinking about random normal things even as the spirit pressed down on their defenses. "Any day now Damien…" She muttered.

Damien flitted through corridors of his memory, he could ignore any memory the shade had access to, as if Faris was hiding there, he would have discovered it. He also ignored any fully happy or joyous memories, as Faris's emotions that he felt weren't joyous, he felt simply guilt, the guilt of the inability to act when the moment demanded. Damien thought back to what the shade had said to Faris before trying to absorb him.

"You don't have to be responsible anymore…" Damien paused, then turned towards a particularly painful memory, "Fuck…"

"That makes 23…" The shade hid himself as the twenty-third shade successfully formed, it was a man, maniacally laughing as he decapitated the soldier near him.

"We are Hruk!"

"That's a ridiculous sounding name." The young shade laughed at the older one's theatrics. "Hm… it reminds me of Varaug, the shade Eragon, Saphira, and Arya took out…" As he observed Hruk's path of destruction he saw one soldier screaming.

"How did the shade escape! We shackled it tight!" Before the man was decapitated, he disappeared in a flurry of light and sound, Hruk looked around angrily before running off to find someone or something else to slaughter. The man looked around in fear, seeing himself face to face with a shade child.

"Hello sir, could you help a boy scout out? I'm looking for my 10th badge! Once I do, I get to graduate the cub scouts! I just need my find the shade badge, I need to know where the shade you captured is being held! Then I promise I'll let you go!" The man did not answer, causing the shade to sigh. "Didn't think so." He tore into the man's mind, finding the information. "Oh…." He smiled. He slew the man, taking his sword and armor, and breaking his body into base elements, that large explosion would be needed again, and he had collected a large number of base elements. The trip to the guards was quick and painless, for the shade. For the guards at least it was quick. After taking any gear he considered good he broke open the door. Peering inside he saw a shade, the shade was in bad shape, muscles and ligament torn, several fractures, and his blood nearly drained. He looked gaunt as he slumped up. Eyes still glowing he radiated ancient power despite his condition. The shadeling grinned as he approached, hand extended the shade smirked back.

"Hmmm… kill me."

"What?" The young shade was taken aback, no shade simply gave up, even if the spirit eventually longed to be free, shade's craved life and living, if only they could continue to take more, that was his goal, that was why he wanted to escape, there were so many human sheep to sheer and slaughter outside. For this shade to have given into despair. He was an oddity. The shadeling gathered his energy, eyes glowing their red light, but instead of fire or lightning, healing came. The older shade's eyes opened in shock as his body began filling with energy and vitality, and the fog covering his mind began to lift. He looked at the young shade in confusion as his bonds broke and his natural magical abilities began to resurge. The young shade turned to leave before the older shade regained his senses and attacked.

"Wait!" He turned to see the older shade bow.

"This… this is new." The young shade used magic to inspect the shade's body as he spoke.

"You saved my life; I will serve you until one of us dies." The young shade observed that the older one's mind, while recovering, had been severely damaged by oxygen deprivation.

It's not that he's merely misplaced his memories, too much of his old mind was destroyed to ever hope to be recovered. Unless…

The young shade gathered some matter surrounding the shade, he weaved magic with it. "I'll need you to swear in the ancient language, and surrender your mind to me for a short bit." The shade opened its mind, allowed the shadeling to delve into it, discovering whatever scraps of information it had left, the identity now within was surprising child or animal like, though still fiercely intelligent. He smiled, speaking a few words in the ancient language. The shade before him shuddered as he uttered his true name, but nothing else happened.

I would have sworn at least the spirit would have recalled, perhaps spirits simply don't have true names, though since it tied itself to a flesh body a malady of the flesh like memory loss could perhaps be a natural occurrence

"Alright then…" After uttering the words in the ancient language to the older shade he knelt before the boy, announcing that the younger shade was his master. "So, what is your name?"

"It has slipped my mind."

"Oh, well make one up." Just as he said that a shade came into the room. Faris flinched as the shade charged him, only to watch in awe as the shade who had just sworn fealty to him grabbed the attacking shade and ripped his chest out, crushing the heart instantly. The shade's hand had been destroyed in the process but it quickly healed itself. The younger shade turned to the escaping spirits, taking two, he destroyed them, giving one to the shade and one to himself to destroy. "Idiot…" If a shade attacked another shade instantly it wasn't a shade he could work with, they'd merely be more obstacles. He turned to his new guardian, "Well, you are useful, come up with a name yet?"

"No master…"

"Hmm… alright, then Atlas, because you are a fucking unit. An undeniable beefcake. Might as well name you Hulk." The shade laughed at his joke, then looked at the older shade, "It… it means you are strong, Atlas is the name of a mythological being known as a titan, he is famous for his sheer strength, which he used to lift the weight of the world since time immemorial. According to the myth."

The older shade smiled, "Atlas… I like it…"

"Good." The younger shade began walking forward. "Come along then."

"What is your name master?"

"…Shit."