Hello folks! Here we are with chapter 4! Enjoy! ^^

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The woods felt rather dark and windy, as Darwin was running through, desperately searching for his brother. He couldn't bear the thought of him hurt somewhere, much less because of whatever he had done earlier. However, it was getting harder to keep going, as his stamina was slowly dying down, leaving him struggling to breathe.

Darwin finally paused, leaning against a tree as he tried to collect himself. It was okay, everything was going to be fine. He could only keep his hope that he would find Gumball safe and sound somewhere, and apologize immensely to him. He still had yet to figure out why his memory was so fuzzy currently, but there was no time to focus on it, not right now.

Just when he was about to start moving again, he spotted a figure shuffling through the area, seemingly having noticed him as well. Relief washed over him, as the goldfish approached. "G-Gumball? Is that you?.."

"Gumball?" The figure came closer, and it was then that Darwin realized who it was. Penny appeared into view, her expression that of concern as she had her attention on him. Her form carried a dim, yet warm glow to it, though was noticeably somber to match her mood. "You haven't found him yet then?"

"How do you know he's missing?" The goldfish raised an eyebrow. Admittedly he was rather confused at this point, questioning to himself why the fairy was even here. Yet, fear was quick to return.

"Your sister told me about what was going on, and I figured it was a good idea to come help you look," Penny replied, as she now stood next to him. "If anything, it's better not to go out here alone. You know how many monsters there are in here don't you?"

"Oh.. Right.." Darwin sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. He didn't really think too much about this search, did he? He sighed. "I've been looking everywhere but there's no sign of him.. What if something grabbed him?.."

Penny placed a hand on his sort of shoulder. "I know it's scary, but we'll find him, I'm sure of it. As much as Gumball can be kind of reckless and stubborn, he wouldn't get knocked down that easily.."

The fish nodded solemnly, feeling in no mood to respond. He calmly began walking, the fairy close behind him, as they ventured out farther into the greenery, observing their surroundings as much as they could. It was only a matter of time before Gumball could pop up somewhere, possibly hiding or in the middle of some hijinks going on.

Before he knew it, they had arrived at a cliff, or at least what was left of it. A good chunk of the rock was gone, leaving large cracks behind. Darwin soon spotted a knife sticking out from the ground. Upon picking it up, he screamed in pain, as sudden memories began flooding in violently, as if someone had slammed bricks into his head.

He remembered now. The necklace he had picked up, how his mood had changed so drastically. The way he had snapped at those around him, including Gumball, who received a slap to the face. The horrific memory of being in this exact spot, how his brother had found him, and how.. He stabbed the weapon into the cliff, how he said those cruel words to his face.

The way Gumball looked at him in horror as he fell into the watery depths, the fact the fish had been smiling at him. He smiled at his friend possibly falling to his death. He could be dead.

Darwin began to sob, falling to his knees as he chucked the knife over the cliff, not wanting to see the wretched thing, much less hold it. He couldn't stop crying, as all sorts of thoughts were clouding his head, making it impossible to even comprehend any of them. Was this why he couldn't remember? Was his head forcefully blocking out this horrid truth?

"Darwin are you okay?! What's wrong?!" Penny quickly bent down beside him, eyes wide with alarm as she tried to comfort him. She flinched as he suddenly hugged her. "Darwin?.."

"This is all my fault!" He cried, burying his face into her torso. "I never should have grabbed that stupid necklace! It made me do horrible things and now Gumball's hurt because of me! It's all my fault!"

"No, no it's okay.. Take it easy.. Deep breaths.." The fairy hugged back, trying to calm him down. Admittedly it felt slightly awkward for her, but she tried to ignore it, not wanting to focus on such a trivial matter at the moment. "It's not your fault.. You said the necklace did it?.. It must've messed with your head.. We're going to solve this together, okay?.."

Darwin slowly nodded, as his sobs slowly became quieter. He didn't let go of her just yet however, feeling almost afraid to do so. "I-I'm sorry.. You shouldn't be dragged into this, you aren't involved.."

"I'm here to help Darwin, it's no problem.. I'm just as worried as you are for Gumball right now, it's not right to sit by and do nothing.." She helped him up, as the reassurances were very much starting to help by now, the fish calmer and his crying ceased.

"Oh that's cute, you're trying to mess with my girlfriend too?"

The two turned their heads immediately to the source of the voice, shock filling them as they felt utter relief and joy.

Darwin especially felt this, as he let go of Penny, walking towards the figure as he had his fins outstretched for an embrace. He couldn't help but feel a smile start to form on his face, the fears that were in his mind washing away immediately. "Gumball you're okay! I-I'm so sorry I didn't mean to hurt you I-I just-"

"Oh, so you didn't mean to hurl me off a cliff that could've killed me?"

The goldfish started to sense that something was wrong, as his joy was disappearing, confusion left in its wake. His fins lowered, as he tried coming closer. "..Gumball?.."

Before he could react, a sudden blue light hit him, knocking him over onto the ground. Penny rushed over soon after, helping him back onto his feet, panic in her expression. "Darwin! Are you okay?"

He didn't answer her, confusion filling him heavily as he tried to comprehend what had happened. As Gumball stepped into view however, the fish's pupils shrunk, eyes wide with horror. Everything inside him felt like it turned to a disgusting mushy ooze. "N-No.. Gumball no.. Y-You can't.."

The cat stood there with his new appearance, purple gem gleaming in the moonlight as he cackled. A blue fireball soon appeared in one of his paws, him enjoying the two's terror, though it was very obvious he was angry. "I won't let you hurt me again.. You're gonna suffer just like I did!"

Gumball began firing the blue energy at them, Darwin and Penny screaming as they tried to run from him. With a grin, he was sure to follow, flying right after them. The two meanwhile quickly hid in a bush, trying to calm down their heavy breathing. It grew quiet.

"Whew, I think we're safe now.." Darwin uttered. He and the fairy soon formed a poker face as their hiding spot was burnt to a crisp, prompting them to scream again as they went back to running, the darker blue cat laughing as he hovered in the air.

It was unfortunately only a matter of time before Gumball caught them. He finally managed to corner them in an area of trees too thick to go through, the feline's smile unsettling to look at. As another fireball appeared in his paw, he kept his dark slitted eyes right on them. "Great job trying to outrun me. You knew this was coming."

As Darwin braced for what was to occur, his eyes widened as Penny suddenly got in front of him, the energy hitting her directly in the head. "Penny!"

He began to panic, as the fairy went unconscious, slumping over into his arms. For a moment out of the corner of his eye he could see a look of fear on Gumball's face, but he could hardly tell if it was real at this point. Having no other choice, the goldfish took Penny and dragged her with him through the forest, running as fast as he could to get away from the feline.

It hurt to have to abandon his brother yet again, but what choice did he have this time?

Darwin managed to find an exit leading back out, and desperately searched to find help once he was away from the dark woods. After a while however, he found himself lost, realizing the way he left wasn't where he originally entered. Thankfully, fate had plans. He ended up walking inside a familiar spooky cemetery, and spotted Carrie's old house up ahead. "Oh maybe she'll know about this spooky cursed jewelry stuff!"

He soon felt the weight of Penny draped over his head. "..Maybe we should rest too.."

With no time at all, he was at the door, giving it a swift knock. He didn't even have to say a word when the ghost girl answered, as the moment she saw their tattered damaged state, and the fact Penny was knocked out, she quickly led him inside, slamming the heavy door behind them with her ghostly powers.

"What on Earth happened to you?" Carrie questioned, as she looked at him with worry. "You two look like you were dragged in the ground by a bear!"

"Well..." Darwin exhaled, glancing to the side. "It's a long story.. But Gumball kinda tried to kill us.. But it wasn't really him! I think? It was that evil necklace controlling him.. Maybe. I'm not too sure yet.."

He noticed the ghost had fallen silent, her staring at him blankly. "..Carrie?"

She blinked, refocusing as she took one of Penny's arms. "Here, there's a couch she can rest on in the living room."

Once they carefully set the fairy down in an old Victorian-like sofa, Carrie took Darwin upstairs into an odd-looking library, which reeked of years' worth of disease and smells, dust piled everywhere. A serious expression on the ghost's face, she searched through the area, taking out a rather old musty book and beginning to flip through it.

"Where did you find this necklace?" She inquired, not looking up as she continued observing the material.

"Oh um.. It was on the ground by the arcade today.."

"Wait, really?" The ghost finally glanced up at him, puzzlement in her eyes. "Wow, I thought it would've been somewhere less lame."

"Yeah.." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, not exactly wanting to remember the moment right now. It was painful enough knowing what had happened at the cliff.

"Well regardless, you shouldn't have." She narrowed her eyes, finally landing on the page she wanted. Cautiously, she lifted it up towards his direction. It detailed a sketchy image of two gems, one the titular purple, while another was a mysterious white one, similar in size to the other. "This gem is dangerous."

"It belonged to a man named Henry Mansford." Carrie continued. "Yeah, terrible name I know. He created jewelry of light, and jewelry of darkness, thinking that he could just combine them and make some sort of ultra cool power he could give to everyone. Obviously, he was nuts and it didn't work. Instead, he created a monster, giving the darkness gem a mind of its own."

Darwin listened to the girl, concern very much on his face. "..What can we do to stop the powers?.."

She squinted, flipping the book around so she could read. "It says here, in order to stop the darkness of the purple gem, you have to combat it with the light of the white gem."

"Great! We can go get it and save Gumball!"

Carrie was quick to cut in, interrupting the fish's moment of joy. "But the problem is, the white gem needs someone to wear it, in order for the power to work per say."

"..Oh."

She hesitantly dug through a couple piles of junk in the room, eventually stumbling upon the gem itself. It was encased in a thick glass, gleaming as the object was revealed. "Luckily, I'm perfect for the job. If things go sour, the power can't corrupt ghosts."

Darwin soon froze, the realization dawning on him. " ..Wait.. Is this going to.. Hurt him?"

Carrie looked up, startled by the question. "Oh uh.. I guess it depends how Gumball responds. I can't guarantee it'll be safe, but.. I don't think it'll kill him, if that's what you mean."

"..No, I can't.. I hurt him already before and look how that turned out! He doesn't deserve any more of it.." His gaze fixed on the floor, him not willing to look at the necklace in front of him. Already it felt like it had done unspeakable damage.

The ghost girl placed a hand on his arm, frowning as she held the book to the side. "Darwin, I know this is really tough right now, but that darkness is doing way worse on him than what we'll be doing. It literally darkens the hearts of its users and keeps them trapped to feel nothing but hatred. There's no telling what it might do if we don't get it off him.."

He sighed, feeling awful. "..Okay.."

"I'm going to go quickly set up a protection spell, so nothing can effect Elmore. Stay put, okay?"

She soon left, leaving Darwin to stand alone in the creepy old room, the encased gem neatly placed on the ground a couple feet away. Admittedly, he had utmost dread and fear on his mind. There must be another way to keep the white gem from hurting him. What if it did worse? The thought of it horrified him. No, he has to do this. This was his mess, and he couldn't drag anyone else into it. He would make sure not to hurt his brother.

He focused his attention to the gem. Carefully, he walked over and began to slowly open the glass it was trapped behind. He was going to fix all of this.

At horrible timing however, Penny slightly stumbles into the room, a hand on her head. "Darwin?.. What happened?.. Wait what are you doing?!"

She came over quickly and tried to pull it away from him, unsure of its contents, but by then it was too late. Both of them were touching the necklace. A bright light suddenly enveloped the room, practically blinding had someone else been in the room with them.

Carrie floated back inside; eyebrow raised as she noticed the bright light that had been streaming out of the doorway. She wasn't aware the gem would do this. However, she soon noticed a figure on the ground. "Darwin?.. What happened? I was gone for like 3 minutes-"

She cut off, realizing that it wasn't just Darwin there. The figure took his shape, but was more of a bright orange yellow, with lighter colored fairy wings and antlers on them. That, and there was a lack of the familiar green shoes. Kneeling on the ground, the figure turns to look at her with a pair of orange pupils, a blank expression on their face.

It was then that Carrie and the figure discovered what had happened.