~ "I think it's obvious who's side we're talking about after a transition at this point"~

Mike went for the souls D was holding until mike felt a hand on the arm that was reaching for the souls. It wasn't manitoba but….bue. Even with the flap covering her eye you could still tell it was tightly closed as if it had been hit while the other was squinting like she was struggling to keep it open. "Bue?" Bue began to crawl towards D who didn't change his expression but stayed calm instead. Manitoba was holding mal's head up then saw bue's leg moving and he jumped. She slowly got up, shocking mike and manitoba. She started to walk to D and he didn't hesitate to give back the souls but right after she touched them...her's disappeared as manitoba and mike crawled away from bue while holding each other. "Y-you d-don't have a-" "soul. Yes that's right...the orb that I was holdin' was another o' HIS illusions." Bue stated, pointing at D who just blew his hair up and out of his face, bored. "Care to explain?!" Mike asked getting over his fear...slightly, still shaking his legs. "I was created from the darkness, just as mal, an' the darkness doesn't have a soul...now does it?" D began to get up and walked over to bue but not before kicking mike in the stomach. He grabbed his leg and swung him back into the darkness where he couldn't be seen. Bue was still holding mal's 'soul' until he started to get suspicious. When bue picked up both of their souls….her's disappeared because it was D's illusion so why hasn't mal's vanished? Mike looked down at an unconscious mal then back up at bue and noticed her eyes hadn't turned crimson….they were brown but still showed no expression. Mike had a look of awe on his face with shock, bue knelt down next to mal and flipped him over so he was facing up and gave him his soul back. Mike was even more confused now. Mal's eyes opened slowly and he shot up making bue fall on her butt, "OW!" He was surprised at what he saw, not much he remembered but then noticed mike. The expression on his face wasn't what he was expecting….disgust and pity. Mal just looked uneasy and upset and looked at bue to see if SHE had any answers, she just told him through his thoughts. Mike saw the memory of you stabbing his father, he's lost his trust in you. I'm sorry… Mal just looked away and felt sorry for himself and mike. Footsteps were approaching, bue slapped her forehead… "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!" Then slowly dragged it down her face while looking back up at D, mal was looking down with his eyes closed and more of his hair came over his face. D helped bue up as well as mal, he had reached out his hand but mal wouldn't reach out his so D just yanked him up by his upper arm. Bue was surprised but when D looked into her eyes again, she was starting to get annoyed and now looked at him with just disgust as she slapped away the hand that was holding her's. It left a mark and mal quietly chuckled under his breath, mike and manitoba just stood and watched awkwardly as the three quarreled. Then D started reaching for her head and she cringed until she noticed what he was doing, pulling something out of her hair. A big red bow, she turned and glared at manitoba then D dropped the bow on the ground and it turned into sand as a wind current blew it away. She sighed in relief that she no longer looked all 'frilly', she took her hair out of the rubber band and started flicking it around like some wet dog. Everyone put their arms over their heads for cover of her spiky long hair. D saw her stop shaking her hair and lowered his arms just to get a fist to the face once more. "BUE! WHAT THE HELL?!" She stomped her foot in his direction with an angry look in her eyes, "YOU GOT ME ALL BLOODY TO BEGIN WITH!" Bue yelled at him, they both looked back at D's wound wrapped in the gauze but there was still a big blood stain where he was stabbed, her hair was still dripping with water and her back was soaked but still in her army uniform that had been cleaned. He snapped his fingers and all of a sudden she was dry and turned her back to her normal clothes, in an attempt to slightly calm her down so she wouldn't go ballistic. It worked but then, while bue was distracted, D stared at manitoba and mike with a tight glare as his crimson eyes started to glow and within a few seconds, mike and manitoba were transported back to the board room where everyone else was at and were looking around frantically trying to figure out what just happened. Ignoring everybody's shocked looks, the two ran out of the board room and hallway in an attempt to get back to mal and bue, worried for their safety. They both were equally concerned seeing that the darkness was...shrinking.

Meanwhile back in the darkness… "D! Bring them back!" D just looked down along with bue "no, mal...I think it's time you accept your true nature. C'mon...come with us...back into the darkness." Mal stepped back in fear. "It's not like it's a prison there's gonna be games like soldier or sailor...and we can play whenever we want! Doesn't it sound fun?" Bue told him with a smile but when mal shook his head telling her "no", her eyes turned black and her smile faded. "Mal….you were born here. Don't you want to stay in the place that suits you best?" D asked with his glowing evil eyes, he stepped back once more but then stood his ground when he looked at bue. "Bue, c'mon...don't you remember having friends with mike and I, you protected them with all your strength and it worked. You were happy with them just as I was...I saw you smile." Bue's black eyes went back to brown and her face looked ill and she began to sweat as she stepped back like something had hit her. D noticed this and tried to grab hold of bue but she was frozen. When he saw her eyes turn brown, he knew that bue was beginning to snap out of the influence she was under by the darkness. "Bue, you held up the forcefield that saved mike's side AND his personalities...you called them your friends!" Mal told her, bue looked at him in fear and with that last word...she immediately snapped out of it all, she shook her head trying to get over her daze then turned to D with a menacing look. Mal's eyes shimmered with hope and surprise that bue got over the spell. She went over to D and kneed him in the stomach. He toppled to the ground and began to grow more and more frustrated. The darkness was beginning to close in on them, bue walked nervously closer to mal and clutched his arm. They both looked down after they heard a chuckle and saw D fading away, they both sighed in relief under their breath until they realized that he was chuckling for a reason and they both started to get scared when he stood up. His eyes were glowing fiercely and that devilish smile crept up on to his face, frightening bue and mal but both were still in confusion as to why D was the one laughing if he's…., they looked down at themselves and saw each other fade. "If I'm goin' down...I'M TAKING YOU BOTH WITH ME!" D yelled at them. He had such cold eyes and his grin was so malicious it made their blood run cold. Bue and mal's faces started to change and were completely horrified, the dark circles, the sharp teeth, black bottomless eyes all began to return but neither of them were angry, just scared. The darkness moved in closer and there was nowhere to run, bue held on to mal and started to sob. "I DON'T WANNA DIE!" She screamed then fell to her knees and mal just kept looking around but then bue and mal had remembered that they could just focus and an exit would appear. They tried and D just laughed some more when he heard their thoughts, bue and mal looked at D with a vicious glare, he laughed harder. Then mal saw a mirror show up...it was mike's and he was standing there waiting for a response until he noticed that none of them could talk at all anymore and were all almost entirely invisible, mal slowly walked up to the mirror and put his hand on it where mike's was and a single tear fell from him. Both were silent until mike finally spoke "...I forgive you…", then he saw mal mouth the words "I'm sorry". D grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him away from the mirror and bue by her arm, he concentrated on the mirror and it slowly disappeared as mike began to bang on the glass, crying. Mal tried to hold his nails to the ground but just left claw marks….and they were carried away into the darkness along with D. And just like that…, they were gone. On mike's side, mike had fallen to his knees with manitoba beside him he got down with him and patted his back, trying to calm him down. The others had come out of the hallway and ran to mike who was balling. Before they could even get to him, he disappeared with a flash of light.

~On the outside~

Mike shot up from his bed and looked around frantically until he saw his mother sitting beside him holding his hand. A sad look spread across his face as he leapt into her arms and sobbed, her smile from her son waking up quickly faded when she was all of a sudden holding a crying child in her arms. "Honey, what's wrong, what happened?" Mike was coughing and trying to catch his breath over his crying but couldn't, he just wasn't able to speak. Hs mom understood how sad he was and so she picked him up and brought him to the bathroom to have a drink of water. He choked it down then splashed a little in his face to wake him up a some more. She didn't want to force her son to speak so the two just remained silent as she began to walk him towards the kitchen, mike stopped just before they were at the door, it brought up bad memories. His mother decided to take him over to the couch and she went into the kitchen and got him a small bowl of ice cream in hope of calming his nerves. At this point mike was shaking, when he finished his ice cream he told his mother very softly that he'd like to stay up, it was around 3am ish and his mom had bags under her eyes so she just decided to meet his demands. "But when you're ready to fall asleep, don't sleep on the couch...I want you to come to me in my bedroom, I'll leave my door open and you can just crawl into the bed with me...ok?" He nodded with an emotionless expression. So she left for her room knowing there was nothing more for her to do now but give him some space. In his mind his personalities were watching this through the mirror, worried.

In bed, his mother started thinking when she looked at the calendar above her desk. She got nervous when she saw a date coming up soon that she had forgotten, her husbands judgment day in court. The pillow behind her back was beginning to get wet at this point from her sweat, she took the pillow off of the bed and put it in the closet. Mike was just sitting on the couch watching tv on low volume and trying to successfully piece everything together from the start. He got a writing pad and began to put it all down, it took about an hour for it all to get jotted down on paper. When he reviewed his writing, his face stayed emotionless. This lasted until morning when his mom walked into the living room where the couch and mike was, she had expected to see mike sleeping assuming he forgot the small promise he had made but when she went over to the couch, mike wasn't sleeping. He was still wide awake, at this time it was 9am which shocked his mom greatly who was starting to get anxious. Then the phone rang making her jump as she ran into the kitchen to get the call. When she picked up it was the principal, there had been multiple calls about what 'mal' had done so this wasn't new but she was beginning to get annoyed by these. The caller ID said the number of the principal's but there was a girl's voice on the other end, "Are you...zoey?" "Yeah." The girl answered so bluntly she didn't know how to respond. "I wanted to talk to you about mike…". She made a nasty face and grr'd quietly, the girl had a feeling she'd get this and tried to fix the conversation before it got worse. "L-look, it's not about what happened earlier between us...I called because I was worried, I noticed my dad was calling you a lot lately but I don't know why though. He already told you how mad he was at mike's behaviour...but...yesterday at school, I was wondering why mike was bullied so much…". She almost dropped the phone since her hand was shaking that mike might lose another friend. "I heard over a few kids shoulders and they were talking about how mike has multiple personalities...is it true?" His mother was reluctant to answer but if she wanted to keep being mike's friend then lying would get her nowhere. "Y-yes...it's true, he does." Growing a tad impatient with this slow call she decided to cut right to the chase, "Is there any other reason to why you called?" There was a small pause before she answered. "When I was getting beat up by the bus with all those kids on top of me and I saw mike...The look in his eyes weren't his usual ones. I've heard of having mean people in your head...I saw a few shows about it…does he have one?" "Unfortunately...yes and no…". The girl was confused and went to dig deeper, "Whaddaya mean?" "Long story.." "I got time!" She said excitedly, on both sides they pulled up chairs. Mike heard this and quietly walked up to the door to listen in. The whole story took about an hour though zoey didn't yawn or anything on the other end indicating that she was bored or tired. When she finished her story there was a small pause until zoey spoke, "That's ALL true? All of it truly, honestly, truthfully true?" "...Y-yes…". "Well?! How's he doing?! Is he okay, I'm dressed, can I come over?!" "Oh, uh, I-I d-don't think that's such a good ide-" "Let her come over, it's fine with me…". Mike stood in the doorway with his more normal happy look on his face, his mother was surprised and hesitantly agreed. His mom hung up on the phone, "I want to be able to apologize in person...for what HE did!" She was in shock, I thought they made up. "All right...go take a shower and get dressed, I'll make lunch since it's a little late for breakfast-" "-no gumbo." Mike told her as he ran off to get a towel and his mom giggled.