Darkness surrounded him in a never-ending void of confusion. He squinted to get a better view of…what? There was nothing here to see. He was all alone.
As Ed took a small step forward, completely absent-minded, no thoughts ran through his head at all. He felt no current emotions—not pain, not evil nor good, not peace, and definitely not confusion; even though he had no idea how or why or where he was. But, for some reason, he didn't care.
All he cared about now was that object faintly glowing a light shade of blue throughout the darkness.
As the boy came up to it—his original features finally shown—he lightly touched it. One emotion overcame him: peace. He felt completely calm and peaceful and…happy?
But that would be two emotions, right? What are emotions anyway?
Then it all came flooding back to him.
Ed's thoughts swirled and jumped at him all at once. His emotions overtook him for an agonizing moment, before finally settling on its original peaceful and happy ones. He liked those. Why didn't he feel them more often?
Memories appeared in front of him. Happy-looking ones that made him smile and feel…well, happy!
"I did used to feel happy. With my...," He cocked his head, "friends. They made me happy too. Fizz, Loogie, Burn, Ol' Skool—" His smile widened at his last thought and the image in front of him made him blush and touch his cheek, "—Deets."
You should feel happy, Ed.
Ed looked up and squinted, only to see the same black abyss. He didn't like the looks of that, so he turned back to the now brightly glowing blue sphere of a non-solid in front of him. It wasn't a solid, but you could feel it; and it definitely wasn't a liquid, but not exactly a gas either. It was just…there.
"Caretaker? How come I can't see you?" Ed asked aloud.
Because this is your own dream, Ed. You can make it whatever you want—good or bad. I can't appear here because I am linked to the Machine. But I needed to warn you.
"Warn me? About what?" Curiosity replaced peace.
You're corrupted. This may be a dream, but this state of mind will only last a short while. But it's not only you who's corrupted—it's destiny itself.
"What—who's—destiny?" Frustration replaced happiness.
The world's destiny. And it all has to do with you, Ed. The world—including Progress City—was destined to be a happy place with minor evils, like Bedlam, with you there as the grand Protector over it all. But Bedlam's stepped over the line this time. He corrupted you and your DNA. Very unique, one-of-a-kind, pure genes—and it's changing you and our destiny for the worse.
"What do you mean—for the worse?" Annoyance replaced curiosity.
By him over-stepping destiny's lines, he opened a whole new outcome for the future. The world may now very well end up a wasteland of evil—and you will be the one to cause it.
Ed growled. His deep blue eyes shot back to the equally blue form in front of him. He put his hand through it like he did earlier, but felt a huge decrease in the pleasure. It was almost gone. He frowned, no longer happy.
"Show me,"
As you wish. And he could almost swear he heard the Caretaker sigh.
The images in front of him—which had been swirling a nonchalant aurora of colors—flickered and changed into what looked to be Progress City.
The future.
Ed felt no emotions as he continued to watch over the disgraceful wasteland before him.
In the vision of the wasted futuristic city, bodies were seen in random areas and present Ed could tell—this was his home. And those were not only random bodies—but the bodies of his best friends. Ed still felt no emotions—no remorse, no pleasure—as he continued to watch the horrid scene continue in front of him.
The bodies of all his friends and co-workers were sliced to bits except one—Deets. Her body seemed perfectly fine, as if she was merely sleeping, but he and the Caretaker both knew she was as gone as the rest of them.
There was a muffled yell as the vision switched over to another familiar figure just falling to his knees, but not yet defeated. Ol' Skool.
"Ed…y-you need to fight this! You know you can! I know you can! We've all seen it happen before!" The old sensei was gasping for breath as he was visibly shaken and beaten. "Y-you can make-up for your mistakes…and start a n-new life with me. Make new friends and—"
"Will you shut up already? Man, you never did know when enough was enough," The figure standing in the shadows before Ol' Skool seemed almost refusing to show himself just yet. A small snicker. "But I'm making the rules now. Guess I really was ready after all, huh, old friend?"
"E-ed…Please, don't do this."
"I'm tired of following your rules. See ya later…" As the figure stepped out of the shadows, showing half his form, the present Ed grimaced on the inside and a shiver went down his spine. He knew what was coming and he knew he was the one who was going to—
The future Ed brought down his slammer for the final blow. There was a mild grunt of pain before it was all truly over.
Ed looked away.
"Turn it off, Caretaker," He demanded. Fear replaced frustration; disgust replaced annoyance.
In the next scene of the vision, evil, warped, red-and-black Ed stood over Progress City. His fierce red eyes burning through the present Ed's very soul as it seemed like he was looking straight at him, smirking that deathly familiar smirk through the padding rain.
"Please…" Ed felts warm tears rush to his still-blue eyes. "Please, turn it off," Fear remained. His eyes slowly opened.
And future Ed laughed that anti-climatic laugh that trademarks every purely evil soul in a villain.
"I said turn it off!!" Ed yelled. The vision disappeared completely but the young boy could still hear the laughter in his head. The pain of his sensei. The screams of his friends. And the evil of himself.
The blue spherical object disappeared. The blackness of the abyss of his mind flickered and warped. It looked as though the entire world was coming down around—or upon—him. Caretaker was gone.
And he was truly alone.
But Ed didn't care. His eyes closed after that last outburst and tears dripped freely down his chin and onto the still-stable never-ending ground. He wiped his face and stood. His eyes once again slowly began to open.
The tears stopped.
The frown was replaced with the ever-malicious grin that would send a chill down any entity's spine.
And the evil replaced fear.
--
"That's it! I just figured it out!" Ol' Skool leapt from his seat in shock. He ran forward to check the slightly tinted red pallet that contained the complete recipe to make Ed. Once he did, he opened the container that once held the boy. It was empty, of course, and made a small fizzling sound when opened.
A single vile full of a purplish liquid sat inside, newly created.
"I…I can't believe I finally did it!" Ol' Skool hurriedly picked up the fragile vile and started to turn around…only to come face-to-face with an overly-curious Loogie.
"What cha doin' Ol' Skool?" Dr. Pinch asked loudly at that moment. Ol' Skool, definitely not expecting any company, yelled and tossed the vile up into the air.
The Dojo Couriers—and Crouch—all watched in horror as the vile fell to the ground, all too shocked to make any move to retrieve it.
At the last possible moment, the vile was swept out of mid-air by come mysterious creatures and dropped into the hands of a familiar face.
"Dr. Hong?"
Ol' Skool sighed thankfully and pushed past the crowd of people. Dr. Hong carefully handed him the vile—his nano bots buzzing back into his scientist jacket—and nodded.
That's when Ol' Skool spun around and glared at his courier team. "Don't surprise me like that!"
"Well how were we supposed to know you were carrying some sort of fragile vile?" Burn mumbled.
"Well, yeah, that; but also the fact that I'm old! You could've given me a heart-attack!"
"Sorry, Ol' Skool…" They all chimed in boredly, besides Crouch who was a second away from bursting into laughter.
Dr. Hong's attention went to the short robot. "What are you doing here?"
"He's here to tell Ol' Skool a message from Bedlam," Deets explained.
Ol' Skool nodded. "What is it?"
Crouch shifted, feeling slightly awkward from the attention. "Mr. Bedlam told me to tell you…about Ed. He's, well…"
"He's what?" Deets demanded.
"He's going to die from the corrupted DNA inside of him."
Following that sentence was a long, shocked silence. Ol' Skool was the first to recover and sighed, shaking his head. "Well, now I guess I can't just hope I over-looked something…I know I didn't. I knew this would happen…"
Dr. Hong was second to recover—barely showing any signs that he was shocked at all. "What, may I ask, is in the vile, Ol' Skool?"
Ol' Skool lifted it up in the light for all to admire. "This is Ed's cure." He looked to his prize team of Dojo couriers. "And I need you four to make a drop for me. Deliver this directly to Ed," He said this as he picked up and transferred the liquid into a shot—extremely careful not to spill a single drop. "Once you inject him with it, he will be cured within a matter of minutes,"
"If it's not too late." Dr. Hong added darkly and Ol' Skool merely nodded. Burn took the shot and smiled.
"We'll make the drop Ol' Skool. We'll cure Ed for sure!" he enthused.
"Yeah, it's not too late yet—it can't be!" Fizz added.
"There's always hope for Team Dojo!" Loogie laughed.
Deets smiled. "Ed'll be better in no time!"
"Great! Now go save Ed!" Ol' Skool smiled as he watched the rest of his courier team make their way out the door of the lab to go save Ed.
--
In Bedlam's tower, a pair of blood red eyes opened. They stood up, silent, and ran out the door. He ran past Bedlam's room, the main room (where Bedlam and Cora still are), then the door. He powered-up, then hopped on his new-ish hover board.
Ed growled deeply to himself as he continued on his way to Sector 9.
And a smirk settled on his features as he thought back to his vision.