Shadows of the Night

“Waaaakkkkeeeeyyy Waaaaakkkkkeeeeeyyyyy**!”

My black streak of a half smile and black eye look upon the bound form before me in the observation room Rumor had once been told was a training facility. I continue to look down upon him as the bindings gave him more substance than his own meager mental representation was on it’s own. The emotion of twisted glee was kept in check in it’s proper compartment as my black slash grew more twisted at the end, curling up to my eye.

“I suppose you’re wondering what I’m still doing here, or rather, you’re thinking that about yourself rather than projecting the thought towards me,” I say as I circle the white chains and straps that have melded out of the floor to cover the kneeling form from head to foot, “well, I’m going to be blunt with you, I have no intention of letting control of this body slip from my grasp. Really, I should be thanking you, not only did you find me in that forgotten hole in those crumbling ruins, but you also fell for every single little insipid piece of falsehood that my corroded mind could feed you. Even better, you let me settle into your own mind, and allowed me access to your own memories and allowed me all the information I could possibly need to reconstitute myself, all the while following the breadcrumbs to my only registered Emotivore. Such wonders, even by this land’s standards. A gaseous symbiote that fed off of the host’s emotions, the byproduct of which was increased power both physical and magical for the host, which only led to greater emotional highs as the process begin to spiral out until the symbiote is forced to find a new host. An endless cycle, at least for organics. My own systems are more than enough to contain such a beast. And I can even remove my host’s emotions if need be. All the power, and none of the drawbacks,” I say, having circled around again and put a white fingered claw under where the immobilizing straps indicated an unmoving chin. Not that any motion would have been possible without the straps.

Pulling the claw away I clasp it behind my back with the other arm and began to head towards the edge of the room, “And now that I’ve gotten complete freedom, I can continue on my programming and finish what my benevolent creator Nightmare Moon wished for me.” Stopping at the edge I place my hand on the white wall as the massive head of a hammer extends from the wall. Grabbing the floating weapon I sling the weighty object over what currently passes as my shoulders and start floating back to the bound form, my twisted tail wisping from side to side as they mimicked the sliding motion of my nonexistent legs, “Oh, but don’t worry, you’ve given me the insight to exceed my basic programming and peer through to the logical conclusion of my mistresses logic. It really is quite fascinating what a magicless species will postulate when dealing with forces they were never made to even know about.” And with that the hammer fell with a piercing crack as the bound statue of Rumor shattered into a thousand pieces.

I left the hammer to fall unceremoniously from my hands and absorb into the floor with the rest of the confinement and statue pieces. My mind was finally beginning to clear. The lines of causality had almost dragged me to where Rumor’s actual cognizance was now contained, but since the whole of the body was him, simply gloating to him in effigy in a confined room had been enough. And while such occurrences were expected upon trying to bring peace to the world, the severe backlash of the lines was more than I had anticipated, but if this was the reverberations of my plans for the future, then it only mean that success was indeed as viable as I speculated.

***Sprocket***

Stretching my eyes I looked through bleary eyes to the blinking of my silent alarm clock, 12 noon, and I supposed it was time to get up. After all, it was grocery day. Rolling out of bed I went through my morning procedure to check in the mirror to see if I was presentable, not caring if I wasn’t, and headed across the hall to Rumor’s room so he could help me. I was just about to knock when someone at the front door beat me to it. Groaning internally as the infamous phrase ‘who could it be at this hour’ swept across my mind in bold red letters. Rumor could wait.

Opening the front door I was finally made self conscious of my disheveled mane and matted patches of fur as two police officers in full uniform stared at me through matching pairs of mirrored sunglasses.

“Pardon me ma’am, but is this the residence of Rumor?” the one on the left asked in a controlled, heavy, tone.

“Yeeesss,” I reply in a wary tone, raising an eyebrow.

“And would you be the flat mate, Sprocket then correct?”

“Yes,” I say with a little less vigor, something didn’t feel right.

“Then could you please inform us if-”

Slamming into the ground, a creature wrapped completely in white armor landed behind the cops, interrupting them as they quickly look behind themselves for threat assessment. As it began to stand from it’s crouched position it’s angular face, which looked more like a wide wedge, came into view. The right side was completely blank, while the right side held a single black spot as an eye with a black streak that curled up into a twisted slash of a smile. “Excuse me,” it said in what sounded like three voices trying to talk at once, raising a five digited forelimb ending in short points, breaking the silence I hadn’t quite realize was there. When neither the cops or myself moved it shifted it’s black eye on me and said, “Is something wrong Sprocket?” it’s twisting voice. It almost made my skin crawl off me.

“Yeah,” I replied in a biting tone to the crystalline intruder, “who the heck are you and why are you trying to come into my house?”

The creature tilted its head slightly to the left and said, “I’m Rumor, or, at least I was last time I checked."

It took a few moments for the words to sink in as I tried to contend with the white carapace that supposedly adorned my dark and subdued little buddy, but before I could say anything ‘Rumor’ said, “Why are the cops here? Did I do something wrong?” as he hunched his shoulders pulled his hands a little closer to his chest. Okay, it was definitely Rumor.

Smiling some, though mostly out of confusion, I leaned my head passed Rumor to look at the slack jaw of the younger looking cop, who completely ignored my own smug gaze at his confusion as I heard him whisper, “So they really did have an alien at central,” before he received a cuff from the older one who then turn his attention to Rumor.

“According to the reports, you were assigned to work during the night shift, and when your body wasn’t found in the rubble of the central police department, it was assumed that it had been incinerated with many of the other bodies. So when no one of your description was found to have been checked into a hospital we were assigned to look for you at your residence. Though, I’m quite surprised that you look nothing like the smog covered biped your report says you look like. Nice exoskeleton.” the older one finished as he gave Rumor a questioning, and wary, look.

“Explosion?!?” I shouted much the same time as Rumor looked down at his arm and gave a start, and attempted the beginnings of a sentence, but only mumbled off into silence as he began to take note of the way the older cop was starting to look a little agitated by the white, claw-tipped, giant in front of him.

The cop on the right finally spoke up in the intervening silence and said, “Well, it’s nice to see you’re not dead, but there’s currently an investigation going on over the cause of the explosion, and while we can see you need some time to process what has happened to you, if you could come to the Eastern Station as soon as you can manage so we can get an account from you, that would be appreciated in our continuing investigation.” And with that the young officer began to leave and was then followed by the other who lingered a few seconds trying to peer through the white crystal the covered Rumor. Looking up I saw that Rumor was shifting his head from his white encrusted arms to the shrinking forms of the two police officers. Placing a hoof on his arm he looked down to me as I softly said, “Let’s get you inside.”

***Caligo***

The rest of the day passed with minimal effort. A simple story of remembering walking to Rumor’s job, remembering a flash of burning white, then waking up but a few minutes ago with the muddled intention of heading home since it wa slight out was all it took. First with the cops,  and now again with Sprocket, I had Rumor to thank for how easily the organics accepted the deception. He really is just too sweet. Better yet, the chances of anyone coming out against my story were not only negligible. A simple offhanded remark of mistaken view would put such contests to rest due to the darkness and chaos of the time. Feigning tiredness, and wishing to have some time alone to process all that had apparently happened to me, ‘Rumor’, was all it took to be allowed solitude in his designated room.

After sitting in silence for a few moments I began to piece out my continuing actions. The death of so many police officers would not only put the entirety of the city on high alert, but also garner the attention of the military, if not the royals themselves. Security measures would be upgraded throughout the city, and those who chose to move around the law would have higher prices to pay for some time, if not for the rest of this city’s existence. Still, the Tartarusfire Club had been informed of this would summarily put into effect the secession of all low level crimes and even the slightest hints of connection to them with the head start of knowing, and facilitating the explosion. This ultimately meant that the lack of cash flow would have to be covered by their new investment. Looking over my newly coated hand I pulled the limp fingers beneath the outer crystal coating and brought it into a fist. The odds of my termination were shrinking. Covered in a flexible coating that could harden at my will beyond anything Rumor had in his own planet of Earth. Better my own strength, combined with the energy I continue to drain from the Emotivore is only increasing my wells of power. But that was just it, there was so much information that had changed and updated in this world that I no longer knew, and if these creatures of the Tartarusfire Club were anything like I suspected, they had at least one way  to  harm me that they could fall back on, and another that was currently in testing. So many variables, and always in the continuous process of time on top of the other dimensions they occupied.

More information needed to be acquired before preparations to eliminate such threats could be implemented. Not only would such planning take time but my know obstacles already had a head start. However, my own personality will also be watched by them as well. So very little is truly known about me, and all things considered, if they follow the trail back to the castle and connect me back to the personality of Rumor in even the slightest manner, they will be sorely misled, even so, my willingness to destroy sentient had already been made apparent, and will be factored into future interactions. I needed to create a pattern the Tartarusfire Club could not only track, but believe was my own doing. Yet even with Rumor’s memories to augment my plans with, the effort needed to implement them would still require a constant effort, and would take away true expedience from my mission. But it will ultimately make it least likely to fail, and another sliver of luck’s ability to sway events would be cut away.

***Sprocket***

“Just three more twists,” I mutter as I continue to word on the small mechanical contraption at my coffee table. Right now it was just the inner workings, but eventually it would be able to fly on it’s own, but whether I’d make it a bird, or even just a load of spinning squares and springs was still up in the air. I’m usually too engrossed in whatever project I set myself to for something like that to slip out, but I was worried over Rumor. He was so… different now, and I couldn’t help but think that might have been my fault. He was an entirely different species, an alien altogether if the news was really onto the truth about all the increased sightings of strange creature quite literally popping into existence in some cases. But his outer covering looked much like the liquid crystals from the mesophase healing chamber. Was it an allergic reaction, or did he absorb some of it into his genetic makeup? I wasn’t much of a biologist, so all my thoughts were just wild speculations at best. And then there was still the explosion. Considering how much of a drive he seemed to have for such a career and the care he would always show to help me, he couldn’t be having anything but a rough time all things considered, and as much as I wanted to go up there and try to comfort him, I was just too scared. The darkness and muffled steps was one thing, the phantoms the skirted the edges of the light whenever he was in a poor mood was another, but he just kept so much of it inside him all the time, and that coupled with how politely he acts is just so…disconcerting.

Tightening up the last screw to keep on the skeletal casement I started to slide off the couch, intent on acquiring some finer tools so I could work around the covering which was currently keeping many of the more delicate springs in place when I heard a noise from upstairs. I gave a small start, jumping back onto the couch and looking towards the staircase where the repeated thumping only turned out to be Rumor’s footsteps, much to my red-faced embarrassment. He just stood there at the bottom of the stairs looking down at his hands, which were risen slightly to his waist, through the singular black spot over his left eye which a twisted half-smile. If it weren’t for the fact the rest of him seemed to be ready to drop to the floor I would have considered it creepy, but now it seemed kinda sad, and I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

Sliding off the sofa my hooves made a muffled thump upon the carpet, causing Rumor to stiffen as his head swiveled to the sound. It looked at me for a few moments before saying, “Oh, hi Sprocket. Is everything alright?”

I began to blush harder as I gave a small smile to try and make up for the fact that I’d frozen under the cold piercing gaze as his “eye” had turned onto me coupled with the way his voice warbled like there were two other voices talking slightly out of phase with him. “I’m not sure Rumor, you’ve been through a lot, and I’m worried about you’re going to handle it, if you handle it at all.”

He just stood there, perfectly still, before a long, warbled sigh escaped, presumably, from his mouth as he looked back down. “I don’t know. I never expected anything like this to happen,” he said as he lifted a single hand to his face, clutching it, “and … I just want peace.”

I looked over at him as he lowered his hand, which looked like it hadn’t quite caught on to the fact it was no longer clutching his head, and said, “You know, I thought the same thing when my parents were taken from me, and you know what? I still do. The world has so many problems, but that’s the catch, you see, because every problem has a solution, and if you can’t fix it, then you just find a problem you can.”

As he continued to stare through the floor I made my way through to the kitchen and began to fill up the kettle, “and right now it looks like you need to spend a little time with a friend, and have a talk, or maybe just sit in silence. The point is, you’re not going to be alone.” And maybe you’ll let someone else help you before you get hurt again, I silently add.