~"He who makes a beast of himself removes himself from the pain of being human." Dr. Samuel Johnson. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs ~
After Hawk left, Mark stayed where he was for many hours. He waited for anything to happen. His phone buzzed with a text. He looked at it. It was Wade. He didn't want to talk to his best friend about any of this and put his phone down.
"The best part of being me," Dark said really close to Mark's ear, making him jump. Mark looked around for him and Dark was levitating above him. "Is that I can appear whenever you do something that doesn't benefit Light."
Mark looked at Dark and reached for his phone.
"I'm already here so talking to your little friend isn't going to send me away." Dark taunted, rolling over in the air and floating away.
Mark told Wade everything and at first Wade didn't reply. A few minutes passed and Dark floated over again.
"There are some things you can't tell to even your closest of friends," Dark said with a horrible smile that faded into disgust when the phone signaled for a reply.
Wade told Mark that he could kick their asses. That he could do the right thing and be strong enough to win the battle.
Another reply said that Wade would fly out as soon as he could. The earliest would be tomorrow afternoon. All the flights to LA were booked until then but he would keep checking if something opened up.
Mark replied with a thank you and put his phone down.
"Okay, so you have one good friend." Dark remarked snidely before disappearing. "This will be over before he gets here." His voice echoed.
Mark closed his eyes and tried to sleep in the middle of the day as Light had told him to.
In this dream, he glided through a very stylized type of tunnel. When he reached the end, the room he was lead to showed four glass enclosed structures with different objects inside.
"This must be Scale," he smiled as he remembered playing it a long time ago. He walked right into the first one on his right and the darkness engulfed him. A moment later he was standing at the beginning of a path that was lined with tall walls. He glided forward and came to the platform he'd seen before and picked up the gun that was floating there. The words 'can scale' showed up on the display that faced him.
He aimed it at a tree and shrunk it down until it was tiny, "Ah! It's so cute!" he said as he glided over to the wall that blocked him in. His fascination with it was interrupted by laughter coming from the other side and then he nearly fell over as thundering footsteps shook the ground.
He heard his name and looked up to see Tim on top of the wall waving at him. Mark glided over to the flower by the base of the wall and stood on it. He scaled it up so he could stand on the top of the wall. Tim met him there and Mark saw Light's hair rise over the wall to reveal his smiling face.
Light put his hands on the wall, laughed and then kicked a hole in the base.
"That wasn't really necessary." Tim said to the top half of Light's face.
Mark smiled and couldn't form words to his excitement so he let out a squeal of happiness and pointed to Light's hand as it turned over on the wall. Mark jumped on and tried to balance as Tim got on.
Light stood up and held them out carefully. He walked towards the edge of this platform and had Mark look out across the landscape. There were platforms like this one all over the place, suspended in mid air and out into the horizon.
A rush of black and pink flew in front of Mark's face and slowed so he could see that it was Hero.
Hero stopped long enough to laugh, hold up the same gun Mark was holding with his right hand and call out, "I wish I had this power!" before diving back down towards the platform. He pulled up to barely fly over the grass on that platform and landed softly on the other side. He propped the gun onto his right shoulder and watched them.
Light got down on one knee and leaned over to put Mark and Tim on the platform Hero landed on. Hero greeted them and when Light stood back up, Hero used the gun to shrink Light back down to his normal size.
Mark watched Light open his wings and drop from the platform, face first in to the bright void below them. He looked over the edge as a blur of white rushed in front of him and into the air. Light spun and opened his wings. He looked down at them and landed calmly.
"Show off," Hero mumbled.
Mark smiled a bit, remembering something from a while ago. "She offered wings as part of the deal of joining her."
"And you accepted remember?" Light recalled.
"Yeah, but..." Mark continued.
"But you are a dormant agent. So? That doesn't stop you from using your powers in your dreams," Light pointed out as he hung his wings partially out so he could roll his shoulders. "That doesn't mean you can't use them, it's just something you can't do in the waking world."
Mark shrugged off the top part of the flannel shirt. Only the top of the faded zigzag shaped wing scars could be seen. Each scar was placed on his skin in the space between his spine and his sides, under his shoulder blades and was about eight inches long.
"Oh come on," Light sighed, reaching over to pull it off. "It works better like this."
"But you're wearing a shirt," Mark protested, wrapping his arms around himself.
"We all look like you. Literally," Hero said, looking Mark straight in the eye and flexed his biceps, showing them off as Mark had done a few times into his webcam. "It's okay."
Mark thought about it for a moment and straightened up, also flexing his biceps. His toned torso was awkwardly exposed but Mark shook away the feeling, "That was dumb wasn't it?"
"Yeah," said Light as he walked behind Mark. He used his fingers to put pressure on both sides of his back, between his spine and his side, right on the scars.
Mark rolled his shoulders and flexed his back a little as he leaned over slightly.
"Haven't had your wings out since she showed you, huh?" Light asked.
"No I haven't," Mark replied as everyone else watched.
"It shouldn't hurt too much then," Light said as he pressed into his back muscles and jumped back.
A pair of wings rushed out of Mark's skin and held themselves up in the air, as if enjoying the freedom.
Mark moved them almost instinctively. They moved in front of him and Tim petted the feathers first. The pattern was red and black with a slight resemblance to his logo.
Light sat down, "I can show you how to fly later. Right now we need to discuss what's most likely going to happen once you wake up, Mark."
"Obviously fighting," Hero said as he joined Light. Tim sat next to him and Mark joined the circle. Letting his wings relax behind him. "But what's the strategy?"
"Dark already said who he wants to fight, but someone needs to protect Mark at all times." Light said. "Which any of us can do."
"He wants to fight us all." Hero stated.
"And he can't sit by the barrier thing, it won't help." Light processed. "I really don't like the idea of it, but we might have to ask him."
Hero let out a very exasperated sigh and got up. "Do you know how helpful he's gonna be? Not very. He can't concentrate on anything for more than a second. I swear he has the attention span of a squirrel." He crossed his arms over his chest and paced impatiently.
"I don't like the idea either. But what other option do we have?" Light continued, watching Hero pace.
Tim looked at Hero then Light, "Not once did Dark mention King Dark. Did you notice that?" He piped up.
"Probably because King Ego is too much competition for Dark," Light replied with a hint of sass in his voice.
"King Dark?" Mark asked as his mind went through all the alter egos of himself he'd seen on Tumblr.
"A slight alteration to Dark, King Dark represents your ego." Light explained in technicality then looked at Hero who had paused in his pacing, "The better option would be King Dark, he's powerful at least."
Light looked passed Mark and Hero joined in when a light flashed and someone in a dark red robe with intricate gold designs lining every edge of it stepped out onto the platform. His gold staff hit the platform pretty hard. His hand relaxed on it below the crystal orb embedded in the top.