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“Do you ever hear the voices?”
Dark laughed. “Why do you ask that?” his smile faded when he noticed Chosen’s staring. Shrugging, he answered. “Yes. But it isn’t a big deal.” Sensing a chance to lighten the mood, he teased “Does it bother you?”
“No,” Chosen replied. Dark could tell he was lying. His eyes always dimmed when he was lying. It reminded Dark of a dying flame, and always a strong desire to lighten it again followed. “They’re just…loud. That’s all.”
“Screams always are,” Dark waved his hand, dismissing the blood-screeching cries running over and over again in his mind. It was part of the process, part of the fun. What is destruction without a reaction? Why did it matter if he had fire, if it didn’t blaze and burn until all disintegrated into ashes? “You just have to get used to it.”
Chosen frowned, and the red stick didn’t fail to realize how he stretched their distance further. “I am. I just can’t unhear it, that’s all.”
Must be a blessing, Dark wanted to say, but no words exited his mouth. He knew it would upset Chosen, and destruction was only half the fun when he doesn’t have a companion. What good is it, when he looks at the cities burning alone? Once the flame burns out, only freezing cold would remain, and no one would light a fire for him.
Dark stood up, admiring the greenery below not for its comforting colors but for the vision of it ablaze. The sky would turn blood red, and there the blissful sound would join him again. Screams. Screams of the common, and any that dare mistreat him.
“Do you ever feel…” Chosen trailed off. Feel..? Feel what? Dark wanted to ask, but he knew Chosen feared his answer. Feel pity to the screaming, to the ruins, to the animator they left? Or just feel…in general? Ridiculous, but he couldn’t tell Chosen that. Not yet. “Nevermind.”
Until he found a replacement, someone who wouldn’t feel, someone who would enjoy the screams with him, Dark wouldn’t tell Chosen anything. Not the red spider awaiting him, not the virus crawling in the animator’s computer, not the carved portals to the internet.
Of course, after he did…
Dark relished the look of pain on the person he once called a friend. Now, the black stick was nothing but a hollow shell with memories of a time where he was actually useful. Worthless, easy to push away, and a waste of time. Giving the stick one last mocking smile, Dark followed his new companion, a dark void already prepared in his hand. To alter the hope in H4ck3r’s eyes, and to have the girl in his mind be nothing but a body in the shape of his memory.
He would watch as the gray stick worried over the empty shape, his hands shaking as he held up merely fragments of his memory. She wouldn’t reply, and he would be devastated. It would take only a little comforting to keep his companion, all before the irritating weakness in his brain is erased. Before he finally understands the beauty in the screams, the appeal of burning fire, and the fun in endless bloodshed.
Or before he realizes the truth he always thought he knew clearly, Dark thinks as blue-lined swords stab towards him. The movements were too slow, each attack coming from someone who hadn't spilled enough blood. Whose grip was weak from emotions, so easy to conquer. But of course Dark played with his opponent, just as he did with Chosen. Appreciate the fury in their eyes, all before he tears all consciousness to shreds. And make them truly strong, and loyal to him.
Do you ever feel…
Dark didn’t need to, because the plain joy of destroying once vivid lives was enough to fulfill the void his idiotic creator set for him. Feeling otherwise was only dumb, leading him to becoming like Chosen or Victim. Weak, and scared of the screams rather than indulging in them.
Black swallowed the blue light, until only the gray outer shell remained, crawling desperately to a memory he cannot have, a paradise he long lost. Then Dark ended him, cutting the body of his victim to halves, watching his body perish.
Seconds later, the orange annoyance had produced the perfect replica, the loyal friend he wanted. As a meaningless blockhead vanished in front of his eyes, Dark smiled again, and summoned the black blade.
* * * * * * *
The Dark Lord looked down at the burning apocalypse he had created, at the screams of the common. He wanted to smile, as he always did, but he couldn’t. Because voices echoed in his mind, and they weren’t pleasant as they used to be. Tears dripped from them, and regret seeped into his mind. He looked to the gray stick for…what? He remembers nothing, he feels nothing, he is nothing. Nothing but the loyal killing machine Dark had wanted. There lays no comfort, only a locked storage of fragile memories.
“H4ck3r.”
“What?” so strict and direct. Dark used to laugh at that, at H4ck3r being so uptight, at Chosen’s harsh judgement of him. Now, it was nothing but a solid wall that blocked him from feeling anything. A solid wall he himself built to shield from the voices, only for them to still plague him.
“Do you…ever feel?”
“Ridiculous.”
“Yeah, I thought so too.”
Dark turned away, but he can feel blue eyes still on him. Analyzing, maybe to think of replacements. Like…nevermind.
“Do you ever hear the voices?”
“Which ones?”
“The screaming. Don’t you hear it now?”
‘H4ck3r’ scowled, the turns of his eyes telling Dark he was thinking. He looked down at the ashes that were just on fire minutes ago. “No.”
Dark chuckled humorlessly. “Really?” Because it won’t stop. And it is all I could hear.
‘H4ck3r’ paused again, but this time there was no reply.
Dark missed Chosen. He would have answered, and it would have been easier to read. But H4ck3r’s eyes never dim, and Dark didn’t want to ask him again. He wanted to ask his friend, but now that was nothing but a faint memory he cannot recall.
* * * * * * * * *
“Wait Dark-”
But he didn’t wait. The fireball left his hand, exploding on the girl below. Buildings shook, and instinctively another flame was in his hand, ready to be thrown just like the ones before. Flames captured all his attention, so much so it was impossible to see the melancholy reflected in Chosen’s dim eyes.
“Did you see that, Cho?” Dark laughed. The other stick wasn’t laughing, but Dark couldn’t notice over all the screams. “That’s another platform down! Hey, high five!”
He didn’t notice how Chosen hesitated. Dark smiled as he took off, letting fire take him into the cool air. He didn’t look back to see if Chosen was following.