Treachery

"Lead me to you?" The words barely escaped Emirie's lips before Mind lunges
forward and makes a jabbing motion towards Emirie. There is a brief glint of
light reflected from metal, and a flash of blue and white, before I see Trickle
in a warding pose between Emirie and Mind. In Mind's grasp is the dull, brown
handle of a throwing knife. I cringe slightly as I notice that the tip of the
metal has been pierced into Trickle's shoulder, and a deep crimson is already
starting to leak out and mingle with the blue and white of his fur. His face is
contorted in pain, but he still maintains a fierce glare. Mind herself seems
unaffected by the fact that she just stabbed a man in the shoulder, but Emirie's
face shows fear and worry.

With a deft manoeuvre, Mind withdraws her knife, leaving a gaping wound that
bleeds heavily. Small droplets slide down the blade to the hilt, trailing
streaks of crimson that seem to glow in the faint light. "How wasteful. You
could just leave you know. You've served your purpose, now do not interfere."
She strokes a finger against the blade, her voice as cold and calculating as
before.

"Heh. I'm not... leaving." I notice the pain in his voice. He is clearly
putting up a show to protect Emirie, and so should I. I lower my head slightly
and begin to whisper as soft western winds swirl around the area. The others
seem to busy to notice the magic at work, but I smile softly to myself as I
notice that the wound seems to stop it's bleeding. "I promised her that I would
protect her. I'm not going to back down on that promise."

"Loyalty and trustworthiness. I believe they are called virtues." Mind stares
coldly at her blade. "They apparently give comfort. I appreciate that. The
desire to do things positive. But that alone will not stop me. You will move, or
you will perish."

"Ya take on him, ya take on all of us." I found myself saying, as I stepped up
besides Trickle. "Yer strong, but ya got what it takes to go against all of us?"

"Yes. I do." Mind gives an almost cruel smirk as she glances across everyone
else. "First of all, I'm far stronger than you could possibly imagine. Secondly,
I would not have to fight you, when you are busy fighting among yourselves."

"What do ya mean?"

"Fear and knowledge. I achieved perfection by discarding my emotions. No matter
how much I know, fear will not distract me. Fear will not stop me. It will not
control me. Unlike with you. That is why I know you cannot practice what you
preach, because you fear."

"Do keep quiet." Trickle interrupts with a snarl. "You're a careless killer. Do
not try to paint yourself as anything else."

"I am something else." Mind responds flatly. "I am what you and your kin fears.
I am that which these two." She gestures towards Emirie and Toi. "Tried to kill.
Yet I still live."

"You seem to be the one who only has words. Words and a knife."

"Says the traitor defending a traitor." A frown spreads across my face.
Something was awfully wrong with all of this.

"Pah. For being an apparent genius, you are quite the fool. Emirie is no
traitor. I was there, and I saw you turn yourself away from all that is right in
this world, in an attempt to destroy everyone around you. You had to be stopped,
and you were. There was no treachery. And I will not betray the hero who
banished you a second time."

"You fear death." Mind turns her gaze directly towards Trickle. "You fear it
because you've experienced it. The true nothingness. The end of existence. You
know it, that after Death, there is nothing." Trickle's body twitches, and a
sense of unease washes over me. "You saw your family and friends die, and you
know that in this instance, their dreams, hopes and wishes. They are nothing.
They never were. They have no legacy left behind." I notice that Trickle's fist
clenches. "Dead. And so were you. You sacrificed yourself, hoping that you would
die, because you could not bear the burden of loneliness. You thought that you
would meet them again. You hoped for an afterlife of sorts. And what did you
find? Nothing. You died, and were nothing until you returned to life. And when
you die this time, it will be the end for you. Nothing more. You will cease to
exist."

"Y.you." Trickle mutters, his voice heavy and forced.

"I know what buttons to push yes. I know how emotions work, and I know how to
use them to my advantage. Yes, I am admitting to speaking words for the sole
purpose of manipulating your emotions. You know this. Logically, you should
discard my words, but you can not do so. Because you are not a logical being.
You are a being of emotion. You cannot choose how to act. Your emotions decide
that for you. You cannot choose not to betray Emirie. I make you that traitor,
and there will not be a thing that you can do about it." A chill goes down my
spine and I look around at the others. Mind clearly knows how to choose her
words. Every thought in my head tells me to act. My heart yells at me to ignore
her words, and yet my whole body is numb. Doubts and fears plague my being, and
I can do nothing because of these two fiends. "Now, you will move. Because you
fear death, and know that defying me is in vain."

Trickle growls audibly as he slowly steps away from his position between Mind
and Emirie. Emirie looks at Trickle with tearful, frightened eyes, and I find
myself wanting to yell at Trickle to stop. Yet my throat locks, and I can't
articulate anything. That is when it dawns upon me just to what extent we have
been tricked. Mind is strong yes, but not nearly as strong as we think. We have
all been deceived by a grand illusion. If Mind was truly strong, she would not
spend her time with this speech. Her callous attitude towards life would make it
so that she would have killed us all if given the chance. That chance cannot
have presented itself. Oh how I want to shout it out, to warn Trickle and
Emirie, but I cannot even move my arms. Yet slowly, oh so slowly I feel the grip
on my arms diminish. I try to raise it, to signalize something. "Mind..." I am
brought out by my concentration as I hear Trickle's voice, and I see that his
paw brushes against Mind's left hand. "I am the legacy of my mother." Having
spoken those words, Trickle quickly grabs Mind's hand and drives it into her own
throat. I gasp as the lock on me release, and I see the sparkling red and black
tip of Mind's throwing knife poke out from her neck. Blobs of black, viscous
liquid drip from the tip of the knife, in some horrid version of blood.

Mind staggers backwards, one hand stuck to her throat, the other limply hanging
by her side. With a sickening squelch, she pulls the knife out of her throat,
allowing black blood to gush forth. Shock, wonder and rage shines in her eyes as
she tries to clench her limp hand, yet fails. I look towards Toi, and notice
that he has fallen out of his stasis. Emirie and Trickle swiftly run past Mind
to pick him up, leaving the bleeding monster to glare cruelly. Suddenly, a shock
of blue shoots out from Mind and lashes out towards Emirie, barely missing her.
"Be careful." Trickle exclaims as he lifts up Toi and tosses the weakened
Loboshigaru over his shoulder. "Let's get out of here."

"No. I will not allow for flaws in my plan." A rusty, thrumming voice resounds
from all around as the very laboratory itself seems to come alive. Gears start
flying all around, and beams of light flare out from the various screens.

"Trickle, be careful." Emirie calls out as she pushes Trickle out of the way
from one of the deadly beams. Mind seems less intent to focus on the rest of us,
but the beams and gears make it quite clear that this is no place to linger. I
weave between the beams and blasts as we make our way back to the area where we
came from, when a bleak thought hits me.

"Where's the exit?" I look around, my eyes scanning the changing area for
anything distinguishing. "I don't... everything looks so similar. How do we know
where to go?"

"Here." I call out in response, pointing to a strange pump-like device. Too
busy to explain, I set of towards it and hope that the others trail after me. I
finally reach the pump and look behind me. "No!" I yell as I notice my dearest
friend, bleeding on the ground with a large, bloody gear beside her. I rush
forward, dodging every gear shot at me until I am by her side. "Are ya."

"I'm... ok." She moans, struggling to get up on her feet. "It hit me straight
in the back. I can't... get up."

"Ye'll be fine." I stroke her back, and notice that the wound seems to be
patching itself up. I then remember that I've already summoned winds to heal
wounds in this area. "Wait, dat means..." I turn and look at Mind, and indeed
the bleeding from her throat is steadily slowing. I look from my friend, to
Mind, and back to my friend. If I dampen the winds, Mind will remain weakened,
increasing our chances for success, but if I do that. "Ye might..." I find
myself unable to finish the sentence. I look down at my paws and clench them,
trying to come to a conclusion. But before I can reach it, a deafening sound
explodes in my ears. My back burns with incredible pain... and then I feel
nothing.