Shadow whimpered. Nightmare's grip on her shoulder was tight, making sure she couldn't pull away from the much stronger demon. He looked down at her sternly, red eyes narrowed in the early morning sunlight.
"You should not have run from me last night little one."
Shadow shivered and tried to pull away futilely.
"You were going to attack me, of course I ran."
Nightmare frowned and pulled Shadow through a portal, ending up in her living room. Shadow shivered as she felt the hand on her shoulder get bigger and claws dig in.
"I was not going to attack you little one. I went to grab you because I knew you were going to run. You do not seem to understand the consequences of what you have done to yourself."
Shadow's eyes brightened slightly as defiance found its way back and she hissed out her answer.
"What I did to myself? I learned the truth you refused to teach me. Our kind do not survive long after encountering each other. As soon as my uncles decide I'm enough of a power boost, I'm dead."
Nightmare snarled, dragging Shadow closer to him.
"You are a disrespectful little child that understands nothing. You never asked why hybrids rarely survive. It is because of exactly what you have done. The human and demonic halves of their souls merge too early, and the demonic half overpowers the human half. You've sentenced yourself to death unless you listen to Fredbear and I."
He gripped Shadow tighter, making her cry out in pain.
"We graciously took you under our tutelage to help you survive, to make you stronger so you could JOIN us and solidify our group's power among our kind. Yet here you are, with typical mortal hubris thinking you know better than ancient beings who have been around for millennia. Perhaps we should just consume you and the power that you seem to think you have. You may be one of the most powerful hybrids that we have seen, but that still makes you weaker than most of the full-blooded members of our kind."
Nightmare pushed her chin up to look at him with one sharp claw.
"Now...are you going to obey now, or shall I continue to treat you like the child you are?"
Shadow closed her eyes tightly, tears running down her face, and nodded.
"I...I'll listen...please, let me go, it hurts..."
Nightmare scoffed.
"I am not that stupid little one. The second I let you go, you will go running right back to that nasty little pizzeria to hide from me. You are not being released from my grip until we are safely in our realm and your teleportation is blocked. You do not see it yet, but this is for your own good."
With a wave of his free paw, living shadows went racing down the hallway, wrapping around her animatronic and bringing it to them in the living room. With another wave, a portal opened and then the living room was empty.
When she was released, Shadow stumbled and fell forward onto her knees, tears still streaming down her face. Dry heaving at the sick feeling in her stomach, she shook her head violently when she was dragged upwards onto her feet again. A rough tug sent her stumbling forward, refusing to look at the demon holding on to her. She could sense the disapproving gaze but felt nothing except the fear they all seemed to thrive on. Finally she was dragged into a familiar courtyard, and pushed forward, stumbling into the edge of the fountain. Looking up through a sheet of hair (It was black, why was her hair black now?) she could see the pair of demon bears staring at her disapprovingly. Beside Nightmare, her animatronic stood slumped over. She could hear a conversation, and she focused on that instead of her fear and pain.
"I did tell you she would be trouble brother, long before we had taught her too much. Consume her and be done with it."
Nightmare let out a scoff.
"You know as well as I do the unrest among our kind. We needed her, and we still do. We will just have to move our plans up. I expected defiance, she would be useless to us without that fire."
The demon bears turned to look at Shadow, curled up by the fountain with her back to them. It spoke volumes about how much she still trusted them, that she would be in such a vulnerable position. Nightmare's glare softened slightly as he spoke up slightly.
"Little one, come here. We have much to teach you yet not much time to do so if you still expect to be back in time for your night shift."
Shadow looked surprised, and Fredbear snarled.
"You cannot trust her to go to that damned pizzeria and come back to us again!"
Nightmare just smirked.
"I can, and I do. She said she would obey, and I hold her to that. Not to mention she knows she only has two choices. Obey, or be consumed. She cannot stay at the pizzeria forever, and the minute she leaves it, we can get to her."
Nightmare stepped closer to Shadow, tilting her head up again.
"It will be a very, very long time before she is powerful enough to stand up to us, and by then she will be dead, or truly a part of our twisted little family."
Shadow looked down, hair falling around her face in a curtain. Voice low, she answered.
"I won't run away or hide again...I will always come back."
Fredbear growled deeply, only for Nightmare to snarl back at him and the two demons were suddenly at each other's throats. Angry roars and the sound of metal screeching. Shadow switched bodies faster than she ever had before, grabbing her living one and running for the bedroom that was her retreat in the dark realm. The sounds were muted, but she could still hear the fight. Leaving her animatronic body in the closet, she went back to her human one and curled up on the bed, falling into an exhausted sleep. When she woke up, the realm was silent, and Plushtrap was back from wherever he had disappeared to the day before, curled up against her back. Rolling over, she hugged the little rabbit who chirped worriedly at her.
"Good, you are awake."
Shadow jumped up and looked to the doorway, where Fredbear was standing watching her. Biting her lip to stop the sarcastic comment that wanted to tumble out she just looked at the floor. Fredbear snorted.
"I am sure you know now what we have been making you do each day. Today, you will go willingly on your own."
Shadow flinched.
"Who's stabbing me today then?"
Fredbear growled angrily.
"I do not need to pretend to like you anymore little mortal so you would do well to watch your tongue when speaking to me. I am your better, and I expect respect. Now, get in your animatronic body and come with me."
With a sigh, Shadow lay down in the bed and switched bodies again, staggering slightly as she came out of the bedroom closet. With ears down, she followed Fredbear back towards the crumbling castle, through hallways and back into the throne room where Nightmare waited. Sneering at his brother, Fredbear left the room. Shadow continued looking at the floor, not wanting to see Nightmare when his claws would pierce her chest plate. When it didn't happen, she looked warily up at him. He just stared passively back before speaking.
"Having finished the process of your soul merging, there are new things you must know. Your human half of your soul was not yet ready to take on the burden of supporting both halves of your soul. While the...outings...we sent you on strengthened the demonic half of your soul, they also kept the pressure from your human half. Now there is nothing to separate them, and you MUST feed on fear daily to keep your demonic half satiated, otherwise it will start to slowly consume the human half."
Shadow just continued to stare dully at Nightmare. He narrowed his eyes.
"I may not be as vocal as Fredbear about it, but I do expect you to respect me as both your elder and your teacher."
Shadow sighed and tried to look more attentive.
"Yes Nightmare."
Nightmare let out a frustrated growl.
"This is important Shadow. You may not believe me after all that has happened, but I do care for you. Fredbear wanted to consume you from the very beginning. It is my intervention that prevented that, and I expect you to show more interest in keeping yourself alive. That means listening to what I am telling you right now.
Now, since your soul is now fused, you should have 'met' your demonic half. Focus on what you looked like, force your body to conform to that form. It will be easier with this animatronic body, but eventually, I want you to be able to do this in either body."
Concentrating hard, Shadow could feel her body changing, and whimpered in pain. She fell to her knees and screamed, insides twisting. Finally, it was over, and she shakily stood up. Nightmare was nodding approvingly, looking over her closely.
Gone were any hints of grey or red, save for her top hat and bowtie. Her suit was tattered and torn, and most of the suit on her left hand was gone, leaving just the sharp endoskeleton and claws. Her left ear was gone, and the suit on her right foot was gone, once again just leaving sharp endoskeleton to support her weight. Her fangs were sharp, and glowed brightly in the dim light, while the glowing tear tracks down her face were dim. Her eyes were black holes, with a white pinpricked glow giving away where she was looking.
Her gaze flew up to look at Nightmare before flitting back to the ground where she stared at herself in a puddle. Shivering, she could feel the hunger screaming at her mind, telling her to leave and feed until she was satiated. She shifted from foot to foot before looking up at Nightmare, who looked amused.
"I know that look little one. It is the hunger that all our kind feel. Lucky for you, I already found you a victim whom I feel you will be quite pleased with. He did harm your little pet human after all."
Her head jerked around to look at Nightmare from the corner she had wandered into and her jaws parted into a wicked grin. Nightmare chuckled darkly.
"It is not time yet little Shadow. There is one thing you must do first. You must learn to take your human form while in your animatronic body before you leave tonight little Shadow. You made a mistake leaving it in the bedroom. It is our...insurance...that you return to us."
Shadow frowned at the new development but sighed. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, she focused on her human self, and shrieked in pain once again as her body twisted and snapped, getting smaller. Finally, she stood before Nightmare panting, human looking once again. Her golden eyes glowed as brightly as her animatronic eyes. At the approving nod from Nightmare, followed by a hand gesture, she changed back to her demonic form again, falling to her knees.
Shadow let out a whiny growl.
"I'm hungry!"
Nightmare snorted.
"Patience little Shadow. Get used to your new body, and as soon as it gets dark, we shall unleash you upon your unsuspecting victim."