Dark.

A strange type of dark.

Not a slow and subtle one, nor a dark that allowed Cter's eyes to get gradually used to it.

Almost like it was a dark that warned her to not take in what had happened.

As Cter had connected her magic with Dr. Sallus to let it take him over so that she could change it, it felt warm and inviting. She did not expect a royal palace due to his magical inertness, but he treated her like a royal guest into his most inner palace. His sparse soul was opened wide for her, letting her shape it in whatever image she wanted.

That image wasn't what was burned into her eyes though. The diligent molding she had done on Bonny's soul to change his magic from the inside out after having understood it from the outside in had occupied her mind and aura wholly, giving it all the attention the difficult task called for. Once done, Bonny was still Bonny, yet the tickle of his weak soul had changed. The accentuating properties of his soul was different, which meant that Cter had succeeded. His colors were different.

However, with the burned image of Sund's soul disappearing into Bonny's body lit like a purple fire among the sudden dark in Cter's eyes, the realization that she had succeeded too much began to plant itself like a choking ache in her throat. She heard Bonny take strain, his voice changing with each sharp breath to become more and more accented with a hollow-like presence.

While she did not see him in the collapsing dark that sucked away the bright yellow from the walls and ceiling like a violent tug, Cter knew exactly how Bonny was standing. His left hand was braced on the surgery table right next to Sund's head, and his right hand clenched at his chest. The same pose he had when Cter had finished changing his magic. The same pained huffs and the same distorted aura trying to make sense of itself whipping like thorny bushes in the wind.

Cter railed as Bonny's aura whipped at her again in the dark. She startled a blink, but it did nothing to help her see. Bonny's aura was more...powerful? More powerful than when he had whipped at her in his confusion after Cter had changed his magic? It sure felt that way. A magical pat compared to a magical slap. The more Cter felt at it the more she felt that it hurt, reverberating out her aura slowly like a watery wave. Although it was slow there was still force in it. A familiar force.

A familiar force made unfamiliar.

"Sund?"

No.

"Bonny?"

No.

"Both..."

On weak knees Cter forced herself upright. The aura that had struck her still had her shook, and the dark still had her blind. Despite that she still saw what had happened. What had transpired as she blinked her eyes to help shake off the change she had done to Bonny's soul. The relieved crying followed by a gentle hand reaching out for Sund's soul with a promise to save him spoken with such care from the monster doctor's lips.

And then came the dark.

A strange type of dark that heralded that Cter had succeeded.

But that she had succeeded too well.

"Stay!" the hollow-like presence called out across the large, dark room as Cter took a step forward. A panicked, fearful, and desperate cry which crashed against Cter's ears and soul with a quake that had her retreating the step she took. The rolling shelf behind her shook as she backed into it, resulting in a rustling of the metallic instrument inside of it.

For a moment the dark was calm between Cter and Bonny. For a moment there was a quiet unlike any other Cter had experienced before. A quiet of frightening unknown which seemed to creep into Cter's presence like two converging hands twisted and oppressing. A moment which, despite its oppressive decay, Cter hoped wouldn't end.

For when it did…

She wished she hadn't seen anything in her life.

"S..c...a...l...p...e...l?" dripped from the dark in front of her according to her ears. "S...c...a...l...p...e...l?" dripped from the dark everywhere around her according to her soul. Both however agreed in the frightening turbulence that stirred within Cter like a simmering stew of something sinister and malformed. Something that shouldn't be. Something wrong!

"C...t...e...r…?"

Her...name?

No, Cter's name didn't sound or feel as hers from the hollow voice surrounding her like slick, cold tar weighing heavy against her aura. It didn't feel right though for Cter to fight against the overbearing weight as it began to push down on her sleepily. It felt to her wrong to even think that. Why? Why did it feel wrong for her to think that her aura being compressed and taken over was wrong? Why was it wrong to be wronged? Why was wrong...wrong?

"What do you mean?" Cter spoke into the dark that closed in around her vision and aura. "I'm...sorry."

She was...sorry?

Did she do wrong to the wrong that did her wrong? Was it wrong of her? Was it right to do wrong?

Cter's eyes narrowed at a subdued flash of teal that only reached a small distance before being absorbed by dark again. In the flash she saw the teal cut long, hazy stripes between long and slender tendrils of fur bent at strange angles before clasping together to grab the teal before it could illuminate more.

The subdued flash was snuffed out, replaced again by the oppressive dark that had begun to also fill the air that Cter breathed. A sharp taste, almost burnt. Pungent in a way, but not that of rotten. Not miasma, but sharp enough to deter it. The smell burned behind Cter's eyes, causing them to water. The dark around her became even harder to discern through the moisture that filled more and more with each blink to try and remove it.

Before she could wipe her eyes there was motion in the dark. A small gust of wind from something large moving. Muffled cracks, like large twigs broken inside dough, bounced against the cold walls and floor of the large room the Monster Mage found herself lost in despite not moving an inch. It neared Cter, who could do nothing but await it. Her soul told her so. There was nothing to be afraid of. It would not hurt her. It would…

"S...c...a...l...p...e...l..."

It?

"C...t...e...r..."

No.

"H...e...r...e..."

They.

Cter angled her head up to them in the dark. They were touching at her aura, which gave her enough to know where she could look them in their eyes which were behind the impenetrable dark between them. She extended her left–

No! Don't!

She extended her right hand.

It's not them!

Opening up her fingers so that she could be given the magical scalpel.

It is! Yet it is not! It's not right! It's wrong!

Another flash of teal blinded Cter, yet also granting her a split of a moment to see the unnatural way the elongated, fluffy fingers opened up like branches cracked over the knee. The teal licked against the contorted arm bending as if it had half an elbow, brushing past viscous drops clinging on like cold syrup against the tortuous jutting of the hovering shoulder blade pushing against the wild-grown fur from inside. A shrug.

An innocent shrug.

As the teal magic fell below the half-conscious grip of the vicious claw it painted its cold light on an awry canvas of both fur and skin which had shifted their place. Flat, stretched fur wrinkled into a ghastly smile, pushing together swaying strands of loose skin as if a multitude of tiny flags waving in the wind. The form of both the smile and the face that wielded it was illuminated too strongly, its resulting shadows too astray and deep for any details of its shape to be discerned. Perhaps even if Cter could have, it would have been impossible, as even with the short amount of time the teal light had to bring to light the oppressive dark the ghastly smile had shifted into something else. A different angle, a different row of teeth, a different pair of lips.

A different being entirely.

Breaths as heavy as the weighted aura lumbering down on Cter's filled the returning dark as she caught the teal magic in her right hand. The touch of it both tickled, cut, and comforted warmly against her palm, all at the same time. It did not go through the sensations one at a time, but instead it flooded simultaneously into Cter's palm, making her both grasp it tighter to feel it closer and releasing it to drop it and never pick it up again. While it might had done nothing to change how hard or loose she was grasping at the magic it did not do so out of a lack of effort.

No, it was the complete opposite. It was overwhelming to the point that it all added up to a resulting net zero. The adding up was too much for Cter though, who stood frozen as the simultaneous sensations flooded through her like she was stood in front of a shattered dam.

Both physically.

And magically.

It all washed over her, both from outside and inside, until all she could do was to blink into the dark while she heard the muffled cracking turn into wet and sloppy crushing that were punctuated with two voices of labored breaths from deep in the dark. Among the breaths came more and more of the oppressive aura upon hers, like a clamp being turned tighter and tighter.

Yet as it all darkened for Cter despite the smoothly conjured magical scalpel in her hand shining weak beams through the slivers between her clenched fingers, Cter did not feel that pushing against the oppressive magic was the right thing to do. That it still was wrong to push away Bonny asserting himself around her in the dark. She had changed his magic, and succeeded beyond what was asked for her. Inside her soul she sensed how much Bonny was Bonny. He was more Bonny than Cter had been Bonny when she had copied his magic prior to changing it. Was it with the help of Sund that he was so much Bonny? Were the two communicating well between each other?

If so then Cter was happy.

She could not express it since all of her emotions were screaming inside of her louder than they ever had. The magical scalpel that both cut and healed her clenched hand was only one part of it though. Like heavy fog creating drops of dew on wheat, so did the heavy aura from Bonny collect on Cter's sleeve and coalesce into drops of magic that in turn rode up her spiraling line into her soul. From her right, human hand she felt from outside while on her left, monster hand she felt from inside. It had her hard of breathing, but not as hard as the strained inhales that slithered from a hoarse throat filled with gravel somewhere in the dark.

A bit further away than before, she wondered?

Was Bonny walking back to Sund's body? How so? To try and heal it? How so? "Bonny?" she questioned into the dark, expecting an answer. All she was granted in return was a slowing of the hazy, lumbering steps that had turned more and more liquid with each one. "Bonny, where are you going?" Her second question had the walking stop dead, with nothing but the labored breathing filling the silence with spouts of drown-like gurgling.

"To...me...?"

To him?

What did he mean by that?

"Don't you mean to Sund?" Cter replied towards where she had heard the tortured voice speak with viscous liquid clogging between each syllable.

"To...Sund...?"

Heavy drops crashed against the tile floor.

"To...me...?"

Each heavy drop piled on top of each other, turning the hard, viscous splats into soft ones. The sharp smell returned stronger, wrinkling Cter's nose as the smell whiffed at her. She blinked hard, shaking her head to try and get the sharp away and from getting behind her eyes again.

"To...us...?"

What did he mean?

To us?

"To...us..."

To them.

"To...Sund...!"

To Bonny.

"To...me...!"

To Sund.

"To...us...!"

To us.

Cter's sleeve seemed to clasp harder around her left arm as if it was trying to squeeze itself into her skin. To get closer to her?

Or to try and escape?

Escape the next wave of crashing aura that poured over Cter, forcing her down on one knee with her left hand clutching hard at it for support. The magic that filled the air was different from Bonny's. A similar different to how he felt before and after Cter had changed his magic, but not as she had done it. She had changed the way his primary colors were mixed together to form his new magic.

In comparison, the wave of aura that forced her to succumb underneath its magical weight was other colors with enough vibrancy to again overwhelm with everything. With every color, and every hue to each. Every detail that could be gleaned and mixed flowing together simultaneously just like how the magical scalpel in Cter's right hand was doing with her emotions.

Bonny's primary colors were there, but so were every other color to boot! His distinct mix of details were there, but everything else was too! Cter could feel Bonny inside the aura, but it also felt like every monster too!

No singular monster she could make distinct from the subjugating flow of aura pushing harder yet harder against her own. No one monster she could connect to and perhaps fight against the crushing aura that–

"Why...fight...?"

Why...fight?

"It's...me..."

But...who?

Who...was...it?

"It's...me...Bonny..."

No.

"It's...me...Sund..."

No, it wasn't neither!

It was both! It was both Bonny and Sund that Cter felt in the overbearing aura!

That was why she thought herself that she was doing wrong in wanting to instinctively retort against and–

"C...t...e...r..."

The soft splats turned hard again as the hazy, lumbering footsteps began their hazy shuffle once more. There was a slight hurry to them, yet they couldn't move faster. They moved more irritably though, with each step sounding less and less secure, and each hard splat gliding further on the cold floor.

Cter pushed up on her knee, but was instantly forced down on it again as if she was pulled down by her very soul.

It felt...heavy?

Her magical presence felt heavy. Heavy from the outside aura pushing her down, and also additionally from within. Almost as if…

As if…

A crescent of dark-blue light crept out her collar as Cter gasped in horror. So heavy she had become that her hair didn't even move from her gasping. She knew what was happening, but could not believe it. Her breathing wasn't changed, nor did her arms or legs feel different. If anything that only confirmed her suspicion.

Her soul was being influenced by magic. Dark-blue magic that weighed her down and influencing how she felt weight on her body. Was it...them that did it to her? Bonny? Bonny and Sund? Did they cast magic on her? On her soul?

Why?

"Heal...Sund..."

The faint, dark-blue light made visible a finger descending from within the dark towards Cter's chest.

"Heal...Cter..."

She leaned back, but–

"Heal...everyone..."

She could lean!

If she could lean it meant that the dark-blue magic wasn't fully wrapped around her soul. It was affecting Cter's soul just as a layer around and not inside it too! A rookie mistake, yet still with enough magical prowess to influence her body. Not all of her body though. Her hair it had managed, and her legs and arms too. However, if she was able to lean she was able to position herself so that she could fall onto her left arm!

The air inside of Cter escaped her as she crashed hard onto the floor, her mantle folding over the back of her head with a slowed fall due to the dark-blue magic's influence. An influence Cter had to make disappear!

As she summoned her emotions to remove the dark-blue magic inside of her though there was nothing. She could not excite any emotion to prompt her magic since they were all already excited. She could not strike the match since the match was harder than what it was striking against.

"Heal...Cter..."

With the labored breath cascading against her folded-over mantle Cter realized that she had no time for anything fancy. If she could not strike the match she would have to do something even more primitive. Something more brutish!

If not striking a match, then a flint striking a flint!

Cter succumbed to the many screaming emotions inside of her, using her last sense of lucidity to guide them into her sleeve. As she cried, laughed, screamed, scoffed, huffed, murmured, and gagged at the same time, she formed all the emotions through her sleeve into a confused mess of magic which she projected as deeply inwards as she could.

The feeling was...indescribable. Everything and nothing, too loud and too quiet. A gamble of the highest order, but it paid off. Among the confusion was the dark-blue magic that held at her soul and body which was swept away inside the mess of magic.

A hurricane to snuff out a house fire.

But it worked.

The magical scalpel bounced to a shatter on the floor after Cter scrambled up on her heavy legs frozen in fear from the hollow scream that shattered her eardrums. It did not stop her charging at the door though since the pain couldn't reach her through the busy crowd of her other emotions screaming for her attention.

Each step she had to alternate between lifting her leg with her body and then allowing back some of the dark-blue magic to have her leg and foot plant securely for her next step. Her body and soul, alternating together to escape from the malignant roar behind her.

Something in the roar got through her shattered deafness though.

A curiosity.

Bonny and Sund did not chase her. They stood still. They were roaring, but not in anger. Not with frustration that Cter had escaped, but with curiosity.

A curiosity that Cter knew far too well.

A curiosity as to how powerful one's magic really was.

And that, after all the screaming inside of her, made one emotion's voice louder than all the others. The one emotion that finally gave her full control of her body and soul again. The one emotion that had her burst through the double doors and seal them shut with thick crystal magic spiking violently.

Fear.

"Cter?"

A choked scream followed after a startled jump with Cter brandishing a sliced arc of fire in front of her towards the curious voice calling her from her side.

"Woah!" yelled Sarbor as he stepped away from the puff of fire that was all Cter managed to summon. "What are you doing!" His angered brow over the sealed rim of the large glass container he carried quickly faded to a concerned look as his eyes met the panicked forest-green ones staring back at him for a second before returning to the crystal wall shimmering in the light from the setting sun through the entrance doors.

"What's the matter?" Sarbor pried after readjusting his grip on the underside of the cleaned miasmatic jar. "Where's Bonny?" He extended a perplexed finger from out his adjusted grip. "Did you lock him inside? Why?" From having seen the panic in Cter's eyes Sarbor was more concerned with his question rather than accusing.

He moved to put down the miasmatic jar in his hands, pausing briefly as Cter snapped her head over towards the movement. "Calm down," he urged professionally. "Take some breaths, Cter. What happened in there? You're pale as the moonlight, and your sleeve has more spikes on it than anything I've seen." His finger moved from Cter's sleeve to her head. "Your ears are bleeding as well. Can you even hear me?"

Cter looked down at her sleeve, breathing heavily onto the many, many crystal spikes standing viciously from her spiraling line. Her crystal magic sealing the surgery room looked vicious as well. Even more so than the deliberately vicious crystal barrier she had summoned to deter any traveling humans heading to Clinic Village.

"Where's Bonny, Cter?" Sarbor pressed the issue, holding eye contact with Cter to both get her to focus and to get her to catch her breath. "Is he still inside? Did you change his magic?"

As soon as Cter regained focus she tore her eyes away from Sarbor. "Bonny and Sund." She looked back at the human as just saying their names was enough to have her lose her regained focus. "They're..." The loose side of her hair was matted against the sweat pouring coldly down her face. "They're together! They're..." Whether Sarbor said something in surprise or if his mouth just widened Cter could not tell through her bleeding ears. "We need to..."

She needed to…

"We need to..."

W-What did she need to? What did Cter need to do?

She could not just run away, could she? She could not just leave Bonny and Sund like they were. Leaving them like they were for Sarbor and the others to take care of…

No, no that she could not do!

If not for Bonny and Sund's sake, then for Sarbor and the other's sake!

Cter was under the influence of Bonny and Sund's aura for a while in there. If their magic was potent enough to influence a Monster Mage then there was no telling how much they would be able to influence a monster soul. Hell, they even managed to cast magic on Cter's soul! If that was the case then even Sarbor would be in danger!

Even–

"C...t...e...r."

Oh no.

"S...a...r...b...o...r."

Oh God no!

"T...o...g...e...t...h...e...r."

Before Cter could realize that she was hearing again she was again laid burdened with a massive aura onto her soul. It wasn't dark-blue magic that pushed her down though. It was something else. Something strange. As if it was...healing magic? A heavy blanket comforting Cter, promising her that everything would be better.

If only she succumbed to it.

"Run!" she shouted to Sarbor before the warm, calming sensation took her over. "Don't feel anything! Just run!"

The mustached human took a step back. Away from Cter.

But closer to the wall of the surgery room.

"Get away!" Cter ordered again as her body was gently cocooned into a comfortable lull that had her feeling sleepy. "Warn everyone else! Help...them!"

Just as Cter's eyes were about to close however, the pleasant feeling was sucked away from her soul, leaving her cold and alert like a splash of icy water. The heavy aura too was sucked away inside the large crystal seal covering the surgery room door like a powerful draft. Like a heavy exhale.

"H...e...a...l..."

No, not an exhale.

"H...e...a...l."

An inhale.

"H...e...a...l!"

With an exhale closely behind.

Cter lunged her sleeve against Sarbor, showing her sleeved hand into his pocket where the chain of his necklace poked out, shattering the standing crystals on her sleeve as they scraped against the felt of his jacket. Sarbor instinctively moved to swat her hand away, but when he saw the mix of fear and terror in Cter's eyes, he stopped.

"Think about your sister!" the Monster Mage urged as she slammed the necklace into the doctor's hand, inscribing a Cooperative Connection up Sarbor's arm similar to the one she had done down at Clinic Hill. "Think about Idyll!" A shell to protect him. "Think about her!" An even stronger shell. "Idyll! Think about–"

That would hopefully had been enough to save him.

"E...v...e...r...y...o...n...e!"

From the exploding shards of crystal that sliced against his contorted body.

His body that Cter lost in the tumultuous force that threw her through the entrance door and down the laid path, her body scraping against flat stone and gravel alike, until a sickening crack from the back of her head caused everything to become...

Dark.

A strange type of dark.

That she wished she'd never seen.