yay another rewrite

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OG

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(BLAZA POV)

Vizor.

His voice.

It rings in my head like a clock tower striking 12.

I can't bear it.

The sounds of battle clashed around me.

My ears.

They're ringing.

When will it stop?

Time to join the fight.

I will not!

You will do as I say, human.

I can't fight back.

I don't have the strength.

"Blaza, stay near me!"

Akik?

His voice was distant.

It echoed around me.

"Blaza! Are you okay?"

I... I don't think I'm okay.

I fell to my knees.

The darkness was trying to consume me.

Yet somehow...

It can't.

—————————

"Why won't you just give in already?!"

Vizor growled at me. I was on the ground, in the Void where all the nightmares brought me. Tentacles wrapped around me and held fast. I felt one of them creep across my nose, and I held my breath as to not inhale the liquid.

Vizor lashed his tail angrily. "What are you doing to stop me from taking control?!"

"I-I swear," I manage to sputter through the tentacle across my face, "I'm not doing a thing!"

Vizor summoned a sphere of shadow in his hands, and thrust it towards me. It encircled me, and I screamed in pain. It was as if it was ripping my insides to shreds, it hurt so bad.

"Give. Me. Control."

"Even... if it was me... preventing you... from taking control," I said, taking a painful inhale between some words, "I still... wouldn't give... it to... you."

I screamed again as the pain intensified. Vizor growled, and turned back to look through my living eyes.

Suddenly, a blurry orange figure appeared next to Vizor. The figure seemed to focus in, and formed the shape of Dawn.

"What's wrong, my love?" She asked.

Vizor growled. "Something's preventing me from taking control. I don't know what yet."

"Do you feel any presence?" Dawn questioned.

As the two talked, I felt a cold hand touch my shoulder. The tentacle that had crept over my nose retracted, and I took a deep breath of air in relief. I looked behind me, and I saw Fake Akik standing there, glowing ominously on the dark.

"I cannot help more that this," he whispered, his voice echoing through my mind even as he had no mouth to speak through, "But this should help. At least a little."

Fake Akik then summoned a ball of light in one hand. It glowed like a tiny sun, and I saw flecks of blackened shadow dancing within its rays. He lightly pressed it against my chest, and it dissipated into dust.

A warm sensation seemed to spread through me as water flows through a hose. It randomly sent small chills down my spine as well, which made me shiver. I turned to ask Fake Akik what was happening, but the light-shadow guardian had vanished.

I turned back to listen to Vizor and Dawn.

"I will meet you in the living world, once I get this crindni to cooperate," Vizor said, referring to me.

Dawn nodded, and slipped her arms around him in a gentle hug. "Good luck, my love."

Vizor lightly kissed the top of her head. "You too."

At Vizor's final goodbye, Dawn once again retreated to shadow.

I... couldn't believe that was Vizor standing there for a second. It was hard to believe the one to cause us all this torture without a single regret could be so... caring.

But, now the old Vizor was back. He calmly walked over to me, grabbed my chin, and pulled my head upwards to look at him. I winced as his claws dug into the soft tissue under my jawline. His eyes flashed with annoyance.

"Even if you do make it out of this alive," he growled, "You will tell no one what you saw."

Vizor threw my head backwards, and I screamed in pain as a flaming spike of agony overtook my senses. The tentacles retracted so I could hit the ground with a painful thud.

He had just snapped my neck in half.

But... how am I alive?

——————————
(AKIK POV)

Blaza was sitting there, on his knees. I had leaned him against the wall, and I noticed one of his eyes was his normal human eye, yet the other belonged to his possessed self, Blizor. Different emotions seemed to flicker through each one.

Blaza's eye was switching between fear, confusion, anger, pain.

While Blizor's was hatred, anger, confusion, a little bit of compassion (woah, that's new), and back to utter rage.

It looked pretty confusing.

But at one point, his human eye flashed a bright white, then turned back to blue.

That was... odd.

"Is he okay?"

Dusk stood behind me, his tails swishing from side to side with worry. The others were near, only a few feet away. We were in a large chamber, underneath the complex. Nyau had told the humans to stay down there while the battle commenced, so Dusk, Moon, Luci and I all stayed with them. Moon and Luci were guarding the entrance to the chamber.

"Yeah. Probably no better than Meme, but he's not dead," I replied.

Meme's been banging his head against the wall the past thirty minutes. I think Dawn's trying to take control, and he doesn't know any other way to prevent it. I tried telling him to stop, for I don't want him to get brain damage, but he didn't listen. I just let him continue.

Although I was definitely getting nervous about it. Bits of crystal had fallen on the ground, which meant the infection was spreading upwards to his forehead. He won't allow me to try and heal him, for I tried earlier with him refusing.

I was watching Blaza to make sure nothing changed when I suddenly heard a screech from the archway we entered through, on the other side of the chamber. I stood up and peered across the room. Everyone else (okay, everyone that was conscious) did the same.

From the archway, Luci flew in. She stumbled in her flight, and I noticed some black feathers drifting astray from her wings as she fell to the ground next to us. Dusk immediately rushed over to make sure she was okay.

But that was possibly one of the least of our worries.

A dark figure walked through the archway. He had two sets of horns, one set on his forehead and the other on the sides of his head, and his wings floated maybe an inch from his back. Shadows swirled angrily around him, his tail specifically. He was lifting his hand up, where he was holding Moon by the neck. Moon's crystalline tails lashed back and forth as she struggled to escape.

She let out a small gasp as a crack was heard across the room.

And Moon fell limp.

The figure tossed the lifeless corpse aside. He held his hand out to his side, and a long, thin katana made from phantom iron appeared from shadows. He opened his eyes, and their purple glow pierced through my skull.

"Hello... Akik."

"Dayan...?" I said, "You..."

"What?" Dayan said, "I killed her? Yeah. I did. And I'm proud of it."

"Dayan, she was your friend," I said, anger boiling my blood, "And you just tossed that aside as you did her body."

"Exactly," Dayan said, brushing some blood off of his hand. "You gotta put friendships aside in the midst of war."

"We are on the same side here!" I said.

"We WERE on the same side," he growled, "But you chose those little fleshy things over your own kind, all because you fell for one of them."

"We'll, those "little fleshy things" are my friends! Just like you are!"

"Even if I still wanted to be friends," Dayan scoffed, "I wouldn't waste my time with a traitor like you."

"Wait, this is Dayan?"

Demonkik asked me in my head.

I scoffed. "Guess so. Not the one you remember."

"Would you make an exception? Just this once?"

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I thought for a second before replying with a sigh,

"Fine."

Demonkik's excitement and rage filled my body as I slipped into my subconscious and he took over control.

———————
(DAYAN POV)

Akik remained silent for moment, kind of staring off into space. What's his problem, xentonial got his tongue?

Akik scoffed, and muttered something to himself.

Could he be...

Are they back? How?

My thoughts were confirmed when the dark side of Akik's face overtook the lighter side, and his yellow eye faded to black and red.

Demonkik smirked.

"This," he said, summoning two daggers in his hands, "is going to be fun."

I gripped onto my katana. "You bet your life it will be."

————————
(BLAZA POV)

Vizor glared at me.

"How the zait...?" He growled. I could feel his anger rising to a boil.

I tried to get up, but Vizor sent another shadow force that thrusted me back to the ground and across the empty space slightly. Still, my life held fast.

Vizor just growled, and tentacles once more wrapped around me.

"Maybe I'll just have to force my way to power."

I screamed as agonizing waves of pain surged over me. I could feel myself ebbing away from my own control, and I struggled to keep afloat while sinking in this pool of insanity.

Vizor had vanished in front of me.

But was replaced with two glowing red slits staring through the dark at me.

"Don't worry," Vizor chuckled, finally in his wanted position of leverage, "You'll join your friends soon enough."

All I felt was a painful sensation in my back before all went dark.

—————————
(MEME POV)

Pain.

Agony.

The slow progression of the crystals was a torture of its own. And with Dawn to add to it...

I'm not entirely sure if I should carry on any longer.

Dawn's voice echoed through my head, which without a doubt was half mineralized at this point.

"It's okay... allow me to carry the pain. You will be relieved when you are out of control."

Oh, how I longed to heed her call. To bring an end to this suffering.

Yet something pushed me away from that. Some being that kept me from caving in. Who it was, I haven't a clue.

But I knew I wouldn't be protected for long.

The calling...

I wished for this pain to end...

It's a really bad idea. Most obviously a trick.

But I caved in anyways.

I retreated to the back of my mind as the Pureblood took full control. Tentacles held me in place.

Dawn peered at me, her two tails dancing near my windpipe as if they wanted to crush it as much as Dawn did.

"Thank you, Meme," she said, "You have just made my job so much easier."

I took a shaky breath in before falling limp, still entangled in a jungle of tentacles.

——————
(BLIZOR POV)

I looked from Blaza's eyes and smiled as I felt tentacles sprout from my back. Dark liquid rolled down my cheek. I tried to rub it off, for it was kind of irritating, but only managed to smear some from my hand onto my face.

There's gotta be a way to fix that part.

I stood up and looked at Meme, who was now looking at me with the eyes of my lover, Dawn. Crystals crept along their arm, shoulder and up their leg. It was also on the tips of their tentacles.

Dawn smiled. "I see you've finally gotten out."

"He was pretty stubborn, but I got it eventually," I chuckled. I turned and saw Akik fighting some other, purple hybrid in the air. He'd be occupied for a bit, I'd imagine. I turned to the small collection of creatures in front of me against the wall. Two humans, some kind of animal-human hybrid, and a dark Angel.

And then my son. Dusk.

I scowled at the demon-hanger. "You're really still helping these excuses?"

Dusk growled. "Well, unlike you two, I was born with a heart. Of course, you wouldn't know what that was. Because you don't have one."

I laughed. "You're funny. Now back to the part where we kill you."

Dawn stepped by my side, and our tentacles intertwined behind us. I looked at them.

"Ready?" I said.

"As always," She replied with a chuckle.

But as we stepped forward, they suddenly gave a shriek of pain.

————————
(MEOW POV)

What's happening to me?

I shrieked as I fell to the ground. Crystal was spreading up my arm at a fast yet creeping pace. I felt it crawling up my leg and more slowly across my face.

But it wasn't just in Meme's body that I felt it.

As I peered back into my own body, I could still feel it.

It was spreading through my soul.

I had to get out.

"Dawn, are you okay?!" Vizor called.

I growled. "I... will be- Ah! Fine!"

I simply slipped from control and prepared to jump back into my own body when I felt someone hold me back. I turned to see MemeGod, pulling me back from freedom.

"No!" I screeched, "What, are you trying to kill us both?!"

"That..." Meme said shakily, "Is exactly what I'm trying to do."

I growled, and swiped my claws across his face. Meme yelped, and let go of me. I once more prepared for the jump.

But another force stepped into the equation.

An orange poltergeist now stood beside me, gripping my arms as he froze himself into the ground. A glowing red hole showed through his chest.

Not gonna lie, but his spacesuit looked nearly identical to Akik's.

Meme looked up from his place in the ground.

"Nick?"

The ghost, Nick apparently, smiled at him.

"Hey, Meme!"

Why is this guy so strong? I can hardly move!

"How are you here?!" Meme questioned.

"Been here the whole time. Wanted to make sure you guys were safe," Nick said.

I snarled. "Let go of me, you imbecile!"

Nick chuckled. "Sorry, that won't be necessary."

I felt my own presence fading. I looked down, through my living eyes, and saw crystals crawling swiftly up my arms and legs. I screeched as the agony coursed through me.

"No! No, you can't do this to me!"

"I believe that I can," Nick said. I noticed crystals spreading across his own face as Meme quietly succumbed.

That's when I know for a fact.

This would be the end of me.

————————
(BLIZOR POV)

Crystals spread across Meme's body. I rushed over to them and attempted to chase the infection away with my powers, only to make it worse.

"Dawn, get out of there!" I said.

Dawn choked. "I... I can't..."

She can't?

I attempted to reach into their mind, only to find a hard crystalline crust blocking me from entering.

Dawn looked up at me.

I looked at her, my eyes wide with panic.

"I love you, Vizor..."

"No! No, don't leave me, Dawn!"

Dawn drew a shaky, final breath.

"I'll miss you..."

And those were her final words before the crystals spread over their mouth.

My breathing became fast and shaky.

No.

No.

Not her.

No.

She can't be gone. She was the only one I ever truly cared for. She can't be dead.

"...Dawn?" I whispered.

Nothing.

All that sat in front of me was the Meme's husk. And I knew that, back at Whonj-Hame...

Lay Dawn's.

More liquid dripped from my tentacles.

I felt my blood boil with rage. My black claws curled into shaking fists. I felt a sudden, short-lived pain in my skull, and I felt two horns curve outwards from my head.

I smiled. My teeth felt sharper.

"All of you," I growled, referring to the few behind me,

"Will pay for what happened here."

-

Rewrite

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Vizor.

His voice.

It rings in my head like a clock tower striking 12.

I can't bear it.

The sounds of battle clashed around me.

My ears.

They're ringing.

When will it stop?

Time to join the fight.

I will not!

You will do as I say, human.

I can't fight back.

I don't have the strength.

"Blaza, stay near me!"

Akik?

His voice was distant.

It echoed around me.

"Blaza! Are you okay?"

I... I don't think I'm okay.

I fell to my knees.

The darkness was trying to consume me.

Yet somehow...

It can't.

——

Vizor's deep, booming voice echoed throughout my subconscious, and black, spiny tentacles brought me to my knees. The point of one of them wrapped around me, crawling like a snake over my nose to restrict my breathing. When I inhaled, it felt as though I was sucking in water, and I coughed black sludge from my mouth.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST GIVE IN ALREADY?!"

His angered snarls made me flinch, and I couldn't stop a small whimper from escaping my throat. The worst part about this? I couldn't even give him what he wanted to save my life - I have no idea why he can't gain control of me.

The demon lashed his tail, his claws curled into shaking fists. Fury burned in his gaze. "What are you doing to stop me?!"

A flick of his wrist, and the tentacle covering my mouth slipped to the side. I immediately opened my mouth, allowing air to flow into my lungs.

"I-I swear," I managed to sputter, "I'm doing nothing."

In his palm, Vizor summoned an orb of pure, dark shadow, and immediately he thrust it at me. The shadows seemed to explode in a blaze of darkness around me, and I screamed as a blinding agony flooded my veins. It felt as though my insides were being shredded and torn apart.

"Give. Me. Control," Vizor commanded, teeth clenched. He was shaking with an anger I never thought possible.

I took a painful, shuddering inhale. "Even if... I was stopping you... I wouldn't let you... use me..."

The tentacle covered my lips again, getting some black slime in my mouth as I coughed. My muffled screams still didn't seem to satisfy the psychopathic demon as the pain inside of me worsened.

In the corner of my spinning vision, an out-of-focus, burnt orange figure slowly came into existence. Vizor noticed as well. His eyes flickered to the figure, which soon took the shape of Dawn. The hanger Pureblood, unlike when I previously saw her, was wearing some sort of black uniform, with a bright red X stitched onto the chest and left shoulder. A cloth of the same color was tied around her other arm.

One of Dawn's whiplike tails flicked. Her voice was soft, but not timid. An attempt at a comforting tone. "Is something wrong, love?"

Vizor shot me a venomous glare before turning to his partner. "Something's preventing me from taking control. What that is, I've yet to discover."

"Do you sense any presence besides your own and the human's?" Dawn tilted her head.

The two chatted and plotted off to the side while I struggled to fulfill my need to breathe. I was suffocating under the grip of the tentacle. And then suddenly I wasn't. I immediately gasped for air when a softly glowing hand covered my mouth. Understanding the gesture, I quieted my breaths and turned to face the newcomer. It was the strange, shadow-light version of Akik that apparently resided in my mind.

"Hello," he greeted softly. "Don't speak, they could hear you."

I nodded my understanding.

Fake-Akik continued. "I wish I could help more, but when it comes to demons it's my surprising weak point. This is as much as I can do."

In his hand, the spirit summoned a sphere of light. Tendrils of shadow danced in the small orb of illumination. Quickly glancing at the couple a few feet away, he slowly pressed the orb to my chest, where I apparently absorbed it as it melted into my skin. Immediately I was filled with a feeling of warmth, like the sun on a summer day. I turned to ask him what it was, but all that was left was the empty air of before. The guardian had vanished.

"I'll meet you in the living world once I get this crindni to cooperate," I heard Vizor finish his sentence with a motion towards me.

Dawn nodded. "Good luck, my love."

She hugged him, wrapping her arms around his torso. Vizor placed a hand on her cheek, gentle and caring. "You too," he said softly. He planted a light kiss on the top of her head before the two separated, Dawn dissipating back to whatever she was doing.

What the hell? Was all I could think. This was the same demon that wished for the destruction of all of humankind, and all of angelkind, if Akik is correct. I never knew he had a soft side like this.

But the moment didn't last. His cold gaze flickered to me, back to the black-hearted demon we all know and love. His pace quickened as he approached me, hands behind his back in an almost formal intimidation tactic. He knelt down, pulling my chin up so that my eyes met his. I winced as his claws dug into the soft tissue under my jaw.

"Even if you do make it out of here with your life," Vizor said with a blank expression. "You will tell no one what you saw."

A flick of his wrist and a snarl, and suddenly my head snapped backwards, my eyes now facing the sky (or ceiling... not sure if there's a difference here) until I landed on my back on the ground behind me. I knew from the pain in my neck that my spine was broken. But then suddenly it wasn't.

I was perfectly fine.

How the hell am I alive-?

—-

(Akik PoV)

A flash of white in Blaza's glazed, unconscious eyes, and then they were back to normal.

I hadn't missed it. How could I, when I'd been watching him the past twenty minutes? My tail was lashing with nervous energy, my heart pounding in my chest as I hoped for him to awake as himself.

When I saw the flash I stopped my pacing, and knelt down next to him. His left eye was the black-sclera and cyan slit of Blizor, black sludge like tears very slowly dripping down his cheek. The other was his normal eye, the one that had flashed. His face was still blank and unresponsive. I huffed slightly, unable to hide my worry.

"How's he doing?"

Dusk stood behind me, the hybrid's worried gaze flickering to Blaza. I sighed.

"No better than Meme is, most likely," I replied, "But he's alive, and that counts for something."

Meme was currently banging his head against the wall, not hard but enough for me to wish he would stop. I've tried pulling him away, for I don't want him getting brain damage, but he simply returned right to it. My theory was that it must be the only way he's able to keep Dawn from gaining control of him. But still. Minuscule crystals sprinkled the ground by his feet, which meant the infection was spreading quickly upward and, if I remember correctly, downward to his heart. He refuses to let me heal him, giving him no protection against the living crystal from overtaking him.

I turned back to Blaza, squeezing his hand merely out of comfort - I'm not sure if he could feel it, but it kept my slight panic at bay. But a feminine voice to my right made me turn away once again.

Luci. The angel had called my name, she was standing at the doorway of the large chamber we hid in while the battle raged above ground. Luci glanced behind her before starting at a sprint towards us, spreading her wings and taking a stumbling flight before crashing near us. A few ashy feathers fluttered from her wings as she landed with a grunt. Immediately Dusk ran to her side, helping her as she pulled herself to sit up.

"Luci, what's wrong?" I asked, instantly concerned for how Moon was doing if Luci was struggling.

Her breathing was heavy, and it took a moment for her to regain her bearings enough to answer me. But once she did, her reply made my blood run cold.

"D-Dayan..."

That's when I noticed her wound. A bloody slash across her chest. How she was still conscious, even with her being a Dark Angel, I had no idea, but it was bleeding heavily. I offered to heal it, but she held her hand up in denial.

"I can heal," she reasoned between breaths, "Don't waste... your energy."

As if on cue, a snarl sounded from behind us, where Luci had come from. I whipped around, standing up and staring at the scene unfolding before me.

What seemed to be a large, foxlike creature made of shifting, milky blue and purple crystals stood snarling over a newcomer I couldn't make out from here. The fox had two twin tails of the same material as the rest of it. It's translucent teeth were bared in an angry snarl. It's been a while since I'd seen Moon in this form, so I was frightened for a moment before I realized her identity.

Her adversary, on the ground, thrashed, yelling something inaudible at her. Moon replied, something along the lines of "It doesn't have to be this way."

The opponent didn't give her a reply.

Only drove a thin katana through her neck.

Moon stood still, pallid eyes wide with surprise and agony. She coughed, and the opponent tossed her to the side, pulling the blade from her throat. Moon shifted back to her normal form, limp on the ground as I stood watching in shock.

The newcomer stood up, brushing dirt off his royal purple spacesuit. Magenta eyes cut the darkness like a knife to a curtain.

"Hello, Akik," Dayan sneered, lashing his tail. His face was unreadable.

"Dayan!" I called out, my voice choking with my shock. "What are you-"

"What am I doing?" He said. He grinned, and I barely registered that my best friend was standing there. How could he change like this in the few weeks I'd been here? "I'm setting things right. You betrayed your own kind because you fell for one of those- those humans!"

"Leave Blaza and the others out of this!" I snarled, "If it's me your angry at, then here I am."

"Oh, but it's not just you I'm angry with," Dayan said, "If the human never met you, you would want to stay here on Xero with your own kind. He's blinded you, Akik. He must go, too."

I clenched my jaw. His harsh words for Blaza made my blood boil. But I needed to stay calm. Stay out of a fight unless it's necessary. "Leave. Him. Out. Of. This. Just talk to me, Dayan. We can work this out, I promise."

"Don't make empty promises to me," he growled, "And the time for talking has passed."

"Why hasn't Dayan always been like this?"

Demonkik's voice rang in my head, accompanied by a chuckle.

I scoffed. "Well, I liked him better the way he used to be."

The spirit-demon remained silent for a moment. I couldn't see him, but I almost sensed his smile. "Could you... make an exception? Just this once?"

I huffed. I recalled what he was referring to, an old promise I made with him as a child. Do I allow him to break his word?

"Fine."

Excited rage and adrenaline filled my bloodstream as I felt my demonic self gain control of my limbs. He gave me his words of assurance before I was driven into my own subconscious.

—-

(Demonkik PoV)

I opened my eyes, breathing in the outside world air and allowing my eyes to scan the room and land on Dayan. He's grown since I'd last seen him - I'm still taller than him, but he's not the short guy I used to know.

Dayan tilted his head. "Demonkik? You're still in there, I see."

I cracked my neck. "Yeah. Missed ya, old pal."

The demon-phantom scoffed, spinning his bloodied katana. "Why am I wasting my time with you?"

"I agree," I nodded, grinning. I summoned two daggers in my hands, shifting one to a shanking position.

"Let's get this over with."

—-

(Blaza PoV)

Vizor's shocked, furious glare sent ice through my bones.

"What the zait?!" He swore with a snarl. Even from here, I could sense his anger swiftly rising to a boil.

I attempted to push myself to my feet, but Vizor sent another wave of shadow to knock me back. The tentacles' pressure crushed me, restricted my breathing and movement until I was gasping for air that didn't come. Vizor's furied growl sent shivers down my spine.

"Maybe I'll just have to force my way to power."

I screamed as agonizing waves of pain suddenly surged over me in a blinding deluge. I could feel myself ebbing away from my own control, and I struggled to keep afloat while sinking in this pool of insanity. Biting my lip to keep the screams inside of me, I forced my head up to look and find the demon that inhabited my mind.

But Vizor had vanished.

And was replaced with two glowing red slits slicing through the darkness.

No.

"Don't worry," the demon chuckled, finally in his desired position of leverage, "You'll join your friends soon enough."

All went dark as I felt a shock of pain in my back.

---

(Meme PoV)

Pain.

Agony.

The slow progression of the living crystal was a torture of its own. I could feel myself being eaten away, my blood and bone transforming to the organic, crystalline structure that was slowly taking over my body. But not only was that degrading my mind - Dawn's words of machiavellianism was driving me to the brink of insanity.

I'm not sure if I can carry on with this too much longer.

I heard Dawn's voice echoing in my head. Her words were of comfort, of politeness, but I heard the indifference in her tone. She was tempting me with the plastic promises of ending the pain I felt.

And oh, how I wanted to heed her calling.

"Don't fret," I heard her say from within my mind, "Give me control, and the burden will be mine to carry."

I can't give in. I want to give in, to put an end to what I felt. But some nagging entity kept me grounded, kept me from being swept away by the swift current of Dawn's temptations. Whatever that was, I wasn't sure if I should be grateful or angry at them.

But I wouldn't be guarded for long.

I could already feel my strength in a state of decadence, ebbing away like my own living tissue to the crystal. My will to fight ws dying. I couldn't keep her at bay.

So I didn't.

I was in the dark space within my mind, my subconscious. Dawn's knowing smirk was burned into my mind as she knelt down in front of me. She wore some kind of uniform, but my brain felt like it was melting, I couldn't focus enough to process it. Dawn's twin tails danced near my throat, snakelike tendrils willing to suffocate me, to snap my neck on command.

"Thank you," Dawn smiled. Her soft tone sent a frigid shiver down my spine. "You've just made this so much easier on yourself."

Her dark cackle faded into echoes as she disappeared to control my physical body.

---

(Blizor PoV)

I opened my eyes and the real world unfolded in front of me. The sounds were audible to me now, the clang of metal against metal and the grunts of people fighting. Between the two were the strings of muttering conversations, threaded like a needle through the small din. From the humans' group, I assumed.

Blaza had been sitting against the wall. I easily pushed myself up with my tentacles, flexing my fingers just to ensure my control over Blaza's body. I felt cold liquid on my cheek, and, just out of pure habit, I rubbed the back of my black-coated hand against it to wipe it away. Most likely all I did was smudge it, it was the same matter as was on my hand.

Annoying. I huffed, and looked in the direction of where the sounds of battle came from. It was Akik and his ex-friend, Dayan. From what I've picked up on from Blaza's mind, Dayan isn't happy with Akik's decision to return to Earth. He should be preoccupied with that conflict for a while. At least he's out of the way. If I'm lucky, maybe Dayan will take care of him for me.

I turned my head to the human group. I recognized most by face, but a few were newer and I didn't care enough to keep track of their names. The human child I knew, along with Meme, who I knew Dawn was currently attempting to take control over not far out of my vision. A human with purple skin and a hat I recalled was named TBVG quietly paced near the wall. His four small eyes where his left eye would be flickered in my direction, and immediately he let out a surprised and fearful gasp at my sudden presence. The others looked up, and most backed up. All except one.

My own son, Dusk.

The hybrid's gaze burned with hatred as he stared at me, unmoving. If he was trying to look intimidating, he was failing. I wasn't daunted by his silent admonishment.

"You're really still helping these imbeciles?" I said, my voice an echoing mix between Blaza's and my own. "You were always pathetic, Dusk. I guess that's why you seem attracted to these creatures."

Dusk replied with an angry snarl. "Well, at least it means I have a heart, unlike you two. Mom's the only person you've ever cared about. Unless that's fake, too.

A low blow. Poorly aimed, however. "Enough. Let's settle this."

Another figure stepped up next to me. Crystals covered the half of their face that was towards me, but I knew it was Dawn in Meme's body. Black tentacles snaked from their back, crystalline diamonds pointed from the tip. A single frigid slit of a pupil flickered to me as they turned, the other frozen in crystal and covered with cloth. One of my tentacles wrapped around theirs.

"Ready? I said with a smile.

"As always," they chuckled.

But as we both stepped forwards, tentacles poised to strike...

Dawn folded in and collapsed with a screech.

--

(Dawn PoV)

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!

I couldn't move. I heard screaming. It was me, I was screaming. The pain came all at once, a blinding agony that even in my years I had never experienced close to. I heard Blizor's voice, calling my name, but it was faint and echoed. My heartbeat was all I could focus on.

The infection. The crystals.

The living crystal was creeping up my arm, encasing my side. Not only here, no, but also in my own body.

I was succumbing to this cocoon.

I need to escape, I need to leave!

I retracted myself back into the human's subconscious, focusing back on my own body. But I couldn't return. I was stuck. Someone grasped my arm, a tight weight holding me mere feet from freedom.

I turned my head. Meme. The human's one-eyed gaze burned with fury and determination as he held me back with all his strength.

I snarled. "You crindni! You're going to kill us both!"

He grit his teeth, grunting as he managed to breathe out, "That... is exactly what I'm trying to do."

With one of my tails, I angrily pulled his leg from underneath him. He yelped, and collapsed on his back to the floor. As he struggled to recover, I bolted away, trying to gain enough distance to leave. But then suddenly, I was tackled from the side. I cried out in surprise, trying to throw the figure off of me. But their grip was tight, and they kept me on the ground.

Meme's voice sounded from outside of my vision. "N-Nick?!"

The figure above me spoke. "Hey, Meme!"

I snarled at him, trying to get a grip on his arm to throw him to the side, but he always stayed enough distance away for me to miss. I managed to look up at the figure, apparently an orange humanoid. A ghost. There was a glowing red hole in his chest - he was stabbed. I couldn't help but notice the obvious congruence of the orange spacesuit and rainbow socks he wore to Akik's.

"Who the hell are you?!" I roared at him furiously.

"Someone who doesn't want someone like you to hurt more people than you already have!" the ghost apparently named "Nick" replied with determination.

"How did you get here?" I heard Meme ask from the side.

"Stop bombarding me with questions, she's strong and I'm already struggling!" Nick snapped. "But to answer that question, I've been here the whole time. Wanted to make sure you guys stayed safe while you were on another planet, y'know?"

Foolish of him to admit he was struggling to keep me down. While he was speaking with Meme, I pulled my arm back, my hand curled into a fist. As soon as my hand made contact with the ghost's face, he fell backwards with a yelp of pain. I shot to my feet and began to run.

And then I was on the ground. Again.

Frustrated, I got up and tried to run again. An invisible wall barricaded me in the space I was currently in.

And that's when I knew it for sure. I was too late.

There was no escaping now.

---

(Blizor PoV)

"Dawn!"

I suddenly forgot about Dusk and the humans as I saw the crystals creeping and slowly encasing their body. I raced to their side, on my knees in front of them. With what little power I could control in my possessing state, I attempted to chase the infection away. But my specialty was taking life, not sustaining it. All I managed to do was make the crystal progression quicker. Dawn screamed again, black claws digging into the solid ground in agony.

"Dawn, get out of there!" I urged. Panic surged through my veins, overflowing in my mind. Not even when my life was being taken from me by Akik have I felt anything close to this level of pure trepidation.

Their breathing was heavy and ragged as Dawn managed to cry out, "I-I... I can't!"

"You can't? What do you mean you can't?!" I said, desperation clinging to my tone.

I closed my eyes and tried to bring myself into Meme's mind or her's, to pull her out to safety, but a solid translucent wall of crystal blocked my spirit from entering.

It can't be too late. No.

No.

I looked into their visible eye. Within them was the same panic that I felt growing within me. But after a moment... it turned to acceptance and sadness as they drew another shuddering inhale.

"I... I love you, Vizor."

"No, no!" I can't let this happen. Not to her, of all people, not her! "I won't let you go!"

"I have no choice. I'm sorry. It's too late for me."

The black liquid that dripped from my eyes was now spilling like heavy tears. I don't cry. I don't allow myself to show any weakness I felt. But there I did. I pressed my forehead against theirs and could only watch helplessly as the only person I had ever loved was slowly cocooned in crystal forever.

They were silent. I heard no voice, not Dawn's, not Meme's. The only noises I heard were the fighting hybrids on the other side of the room.

The only thing I wrapped my arms around now was the empty, crystalline husk that was the vessel Dawn had controlled.

And back at Whonj-Hame...

The realization was almost too much to take.

She's dead.

She's dead.

No.

No.

No.

"Dawn..." I choked out her name. I longed for her reply. But she would never answer. Even as a spirit, she was trapped in this human's crystallized subconscious.

And before I knew it, the despair began to swirl and boil, rising as I slowly brought myself to my feet. My jaw was clenched, my claws digging into my palms hard enough to break skin. Blood mixed with the black slime that coated my forearms, dripping to the ground in a dark crimson color.

I exhaled. What I wanted to do was scream, scream at the world. So I turned around to face Dusk, who was warily backing away as he met my gaze. I swept my eyes over the small group.

"All of you," My volume was moderate at first. But as the next statement came out, I found the full force of my fury exploding in a giant nuclear massacre. "Will PAY FOR WHAT HAPPENED HERE!"

-

:)