[Edit] Only one chapter left to edit. Still cringing at my old artist's comments. I was a little shit.

Disclaimer: Y'know the drill by now

Within These Walls

Chapter 4

I'm going insane. That's the only I conclusion I can come to no matter how I look at my situation. Trust me I considered a lot of different explanations: alien abduction, mind control, alternate dimension but none seemed likely.

I must have just stared at my reflection in the mirror for what seemed like hours. Who can blame me? Glowing blue eyes and sharp teeth are NOT normal, and this is coming from the person who builds machines from his body on a day to day basis. So I did the most normal thing I've done in a while: I freaked. No, not the normal freak in which I usually scream and fall on my butt. No, this slight mental break down consisted of me running from the restaurant like the dogs of hell were at my heels. I ran past the concerned glances the still scared customers and ignored the scream of fear the employee I had attacked as best as I could. Of course Noah, the concerned friend he is, chased after me; but he eventually realized I wasn't about to stop anytime soon after about a block.

When I finally had enough sense to stop, my body sort of went on autopilot and I did the only thing I could; I called an annoyed Six, who berated me for sneaking out. All the while I continued to nervously check my appearance in a nearby shop window for anymore new developments to my transformation. Lucky for me while I was fleeing the restaurant my eyes and teeth had returned to normal making me question my already shaky mental stability. I think my mind was in denial, because I remained silent until Six noticed my uncharacteristic submission and ended his slight rant. I flatly told him to come pick me up and he gratefully did not ask any questions.

Cold dread curled around my heart like barbed wire and left me with a strange, prickling sense of unease. This can't be nightmare I realized, because I know what those feel like and reality isn't something you can wake up from; but I didn't want this to be reality. Wanted to wake up in my bed with Bobo threatening to throw a Bobo bomb at me if I didn't go back to sleep, but I couldn't delude myself anymore. I couldn't keep thinking this was some morbid nightmare.

As I saw the Providence jet in the distant running a shaky hand through my hair in an attempt to regain my bearings. I tried to form a sheepish smile as I got on the jet with a fuming Six waiting for me. Suddenly listening to creepy voices in my head didn't sound so bad compared to an angry Six. I tried to put up my usual smiling front but I knew I failed miserably under Six's analyzing stare

He's going to find out

My mind kept repeating over and again like a mantra and my palms began to sweat into my gloves. What is he going to find out? That I'm hearing voices? That I have some sick addiction to meat? That I about nearly ripped out somebody's throat?

"What's wrong Rex?" Six's monotone voice called in front of me as I look up. I plastered on a smile that I wondered if it looked as fake as it felt. He guessed something was up that fast? He knows me all too well, but I can't. I'm scared to voice my fears because that would be admitting I have them. Six always taught me I couldn't show fear; I had to be impenetrable. He taught me I had to be strong no matter what, but I'm afraid that if I keep them to myself, I'll start losing what pieces of my sanity I still had left. I'm so torn on the inside that I merely continue to curl in on myself instead of facing my problems.

I can't meet Six's gaze as I spin a half assed lie, "Nothing's wrong Six. Just Providence's greatest hero needs a little more beauty sleep that's all," Just keep smiling. Keep acting all smug and untouchable and eventually you won't be lying anymore. I can handle this.

"No you can't…" the shadow's voice came creeping back dripping with malice. It was smooth and icy as it slivered through the mental barriers I had built to keep it out. Its voice was mockingly reassuring like a parent talking to a child, but I knew better. I automatically stiffened once hearing the voice and my shoulder began to ignite with pain once more. I only ground my teeth behind my smile while trying to hide the panic that swept through my being.

"Rex, don't lie to me," Six said sternly and glared at me behind his shades to get the point across. The underlying concern was muffled out be the shadow's all too familiar cackle.

"Six I'm fine really-," I weakly reply but he cuts me off.

"I said don't lie to me,"

"Yes, just keep lying to them. After all, that's all you're good at. Lying and acting. You can't save them when you can't even save yourself," the shadow's laugh echoed through the crumbling walls in my mind. The same chilling sensation from earlier was soaking into my bones and I subconsciously moved my hand to clutch at my burning shoulder.

"I mean it Six, I'm fine," I don't even believe myself.

"Did Noah say something to you?" you didn't have to be a genius to hear the threat in the question. My head immediately snapped up in surprise at the idea that Six would think Noah did something. Noah didn't do anything wrong, 'it's me who's screwed up' I want to scream.

"Tell him Rex, he's just going to abandon you. He can't help you, none of them can! He's going to leave you to rot just like all the rest of them," an image of Six turned away from me and shooting me a glare of disgust, flashed through my mind. They wouldn't abandon me. They can't abandon me. They're all I have left. Pure desperation and abandonment burned through my veins like acid. Loneliness wasn't something I could handle. I held onto them with everything I have, because they're ALL I have. They're all I remember. Losing them would be worse than forgetting. The world was beginning to tilting at an odd angle. I lowered my head in an effort to block out their voices. The voice was lying. It had to be.

"…No…." I mumble more to the shadow than to answer Six. Denial formed a cold block in my throat.

"They can't save you! You're a monster! You almost killed your best friend! Not much longer until you kill the only family you have left,"

"Shut up….." I mumble through gritted teeth as the pain in my shoulder increased. I don't want listen. It's lying!

"Rex?" Six laid a comforting hand on my shoulder but the contact felt as if he had shocked me. I jerked back painfully and pressed myself against the cold metal of the back of the jet.

"Nononononon," I begin mumble shaking my head deliriously. The blinding pain in my shoulder was unbearable. My stomach was twitching and spazzing, while I feel sweet drip down the back of my neck. It's lying.

"You're going to kill them all tonight! Paint the walls with their blood and enjoy it," last night's nightmare came back full force.

"Shut up!" I yell as my eyes became distant and unfocused. The images whirled through my mind like some sick slideshow, getting faster and faster until they were but blurs. I won't! It's lying!

"Rex!" Six shook my shoulders but my world was spinning with the vivid images.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed in desperation and clutched my splitting skull. I fell to the ground writhing in pain. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"I screamed. My world just kept spinning while the shadow just kept laughing. God I hate that laugh with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. I pressed my skull to my knees hoping to relieve the headache and stop the horrid images. I heard Six call my name and the shadow cackle before all-consuming darkness enveloped me its' comforting grasp…again.

Running, Running, Running. At least I thought I was. Indescribable shapes blurred past me as ran, but nothing felt right. Then again nothing really feels RIGHT with me anymore. I kept running through the endless white corridors. The walls whispered words of restraints and stale. Every wall I destroyed there was only more blocking my path to freedom. Black claws clicked against the white tile and echoed with the footsteps behind me, or were those still mine? The footsteps irritated me for some reason, and even after the resonating screams and the splashes of red across my vision stopped, they still persisted.

Everything was white. White white white. I felt the need to tear apart everyone off the blank walls until I reached the sunlight. I was running to escape. My legs-paws moved faster to the scattered memories of sunshine and the smell of earth.

Desperate voices behind me screaming a name I barely recognized as my own caused my pace to stutter. There was a blinding light but faces I almost remembered blocked my path to freedom. My muscles twitched with pent up energy and begged to run without interruption. A growl that surprised even me, ripped from my throat with my fangs bared menacingly. I lunged forward breaking a barrier I didn't know was there. The shards reflected the fear in their eyes and a beast I did not recognize. The walls were no longer white. They were dripping red along with the floor and the ceiling and their bodies. So many bodies. A feeling of disconnection washed over me like a blanket and an endless void opened in my heart.

The white suddenly seemed so much more comforting. Like faces I had forgotten. Then there was nothing.

I woke up with a start choking back a scream building in my throat. Bits and pieces of a fleeting dream had my hands shaking and a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. The last pieces began to fade away, but the hold they had on me would not leave. With the adrenaline from a flight still running through my veins I could only ball my fists in the sheets of an unfamiliar bed as I tried to control my ragged breathing. My skin twitched and itched while my shoulder burned, sending a warm sensation down my back as my feet connected with cold tile.

The walls seemed to close in on me from every angle. I desperately sucked in air to my deprived lungs, was I having a panic attack? No…I just need some fresh air. Yeah, that's it fresh air. I stumbled to the door resting my sweating forehead against the cool metal, while my nanites did their thing. My body knew the path as my mind slipped in and out of awareness. I was like a burning ghost wandering the hallways of my prison. The hospital gown I barely registered I was wearing fluttered around my knees.

When the last door slide open I found myself in the petting zoo, not exactly FRESH air but it would have to do. I stared up at the skylights allowing me to have a view of the overcast sky. Around me I could hear the roars and screeches of incurable EVOs and the still sensible part of me wondered if this was really the best place to go to for only fresh air. I couldn't find the will to move; however, as I held in a trance staring at the clearing sky. The prickling under my skin increased tenfold as if ants were crawling beneath my skin. My unfocused eyes began to see the glowing outline of the moon beneath the clouds. Everything around me was drowned out when the clouds completely cleared the sky, revealing a full moon. Then….everything turned to hell. Complete. And. Utter. Hell.

Agony exploded in my shoulder like someone had stabbed me with a dull knife and twisted. I was forced to my hands and knees as I felt my shoulder pulse with unnatural pain. My shaking arms could not support me as the buckled under this onslaught of agony. I feel face first into the ground gasping for breath, to the point where I was almost hyperventilating. My heart started to beat faster as if it wanted to escape my chest. Then, as I stared at the moon, I felt as if my trance was solidifying me somewhere beyond my control and smothering me in my own thoughts. The moon's rays somehow made my flesh sting in the weirdest way. My eyes fixated on the moon and I couldn't look away. My body started to burn all over, my skin stung and my veins felt as if fire were running rampant inside them. I clenched my teeth together until I was sure they would shatter, breathing in sharply as the burning intensified.

I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from screaming. I thank whatever god is up there that I didn't have my gloves on right now, because they would have surely been ripped to shreds as I watched the horrifying transformation. My fingernails sharpened into black metal claws and molded together making three pointed claw like hands. While my hands turned into something gruesome I could feel a similar sensation course through my feet. My hands now looked like some twisted version of my smack hands but with black claws. My feet also resembled normal wolves paws put with orange metal. A cold feeling rushed through my chest that I could only explain it as my organs were liquefying and being assorted in a way that couldn't possibly be human. I was forced to listen to my bones crack and reshape themselves into a more animalistic frame. I couldn't hold back the screams of pain any longer, and I prayed for someone to find me and end my suffering.

I could hear my back snap and extend growing a blade tail from the base and my shoulders begin to expand. I gritted my teeth, and tried to breathe, as my hospital gown was torn to shreds from my growing body. Pain coursed up my arms, into my shoulders, chest, back, up my neck, everywhere. I tried to close my eyes and yell at the ground, trying to find some verbal sanctuary from the pain.

My mouth opened more as I tried to form a silent scream, but the pain was incredible. I tasted blood in my mouth as my teeth felt as if they are being stretched and sharpened, filling my mouth uncomfortably. At this point my entire face hurt. I groaned and grunted as a muzzle stretched from my face and my ears stretched back, curving slightly.

The pores on my skin open and black hair started to sprout from them. In some places blue circuit patterns, similar to the ones that appear when I use my powers or cure EVOs, snaked across my body before metal ripped from my skin. Blood splashed across the ground and coated the orange metal giving it a red glow in the moon light. Orange armor seemed to sprout from my shoulders and face before overlapping down my spine. Silver spikes ran down my spine making me look like some demented robot wolf. Tears of pain slide down my metal face as the transformation began to slowly ebb away until it is but a dull throb shaking me to my core. I tried to stand on my hind legs only for me to fall forward once more; realization dawning on my struggling mind, while looking down onto my canine appendages.

I look up to the moon once more and felt something building in my gut. I tried to force it back but it would not be denied. I raised my lupine face towards the sky, letting out a spine chilling howl. The EVO in zoo sunk back deeper into the shadows fearing an EVO more dangerous than them all.

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