The Miasma

Foreword by That Guy: On this page, you will find my Solo EEA project, The Miasma''. It is set shortly after the events of Moonlight Museum, and ties up a certain loose end that goes unexplained in the main part of the series (that is to say; the parts that I collaborated with Alex64 on). As the three main characters are Midnight, El and Nega Midnight (none of whom are portrayed by Alex at all throughout the The Element Emeralds series), Alex (or 'm'colleague') had no hand in writing this. Thank you for reading this brief introduction.''

The Miasma
Midnight sat in the house that used to be Misty's but was now shared between them, brooding. Several weeks had passed since the police had re-opened the case regarding the incident in Gothenburg, and he had been cleared of all charges, on the grounds that there had been insufficient evidence to make any convictions. He supposed that he had Manic to thank for that; after all, it had been he that had destroyed what evidence he and the other five thieves had given in their statements...

Still, had it been his own carelessness that had allowed him to be tied up with the incident, to be placed in the Universeum at that time all those years ago, locked in a 6-way war for the world's most precious rock? Perhaps so, he thought...or perhaps he could blame it entirely on the incompetance of his partner.

He had been reluctant to even let anybody know that the case had been reopened (never mind that he had played a part in the initial failed robbery), but El had found out. The Prince had a way of poking his imperial nose where it wasn't welcome, as both Midnight and El himself knew. Fortunately, the Prince was the only one of his friends that had discovered that he had been involved in a failed museum heist. Of this, Midnight was certain.

He got to his feet and went upstairs, to check on his infant son, Rex, who was currently barely a month old. Even now, he could not help but feel staggered at how it could be possible that he had created such a life form- he himself being only 17, going on 18, at the moment. He was painfully aware of how clichéd the whole feeling was, but he didn't care. He was a young, proud father, and as far as he was concerned, the cliché was true.

Rex emitted a snore-like noise and rolled over in his sleep, bringing a smile to his father's face. Midnight had to wonder; what kind of person would Rex grow up to be? What kind of impact would his son have on the world? Only time, he reminded himself, would tell.

With a proud shake of his head, Midnight left the room. Aside from the baby, he was alone in the house. He had nothing to do, currently; aside from his pseudo-job as the guitarist in 'that weird little band of his' (as El, Misty and many others had described them), he was jobless. ...Not that that particularly mattered, he told himself. He was best-friends with the Prince Royal of Blazia; if the worst came to the worst, he could just borrow some money from El- as long as the Princess permitted it, of course.

~

Thinking along these lines, he decided to head out to look for the Prince, just, perhaps, to test how much money he could get in that scenario. It might prove to be worthwhile practice, he decided. Misty returned home just as he headed out, and as he walked along the adobe street, paved with a kind of sunset-coloured stone that lent the Palace Town a constant and eerily calm sense of twilit ethereality, he allowed his mind to cast itself back over the past three years- or, more exactly, the one year he had been conscious for.

''Being in a coma was the worst- no, wait, no...SECOND-worst thing that ever happened to me! he thought. I missed so much! Two years of life right down the drain! ...At least Wes was there for me. I do kinda owe my continued life to him...It's a shame I'll never see him again. I mean, there was so much we never got the opportunity to do, as friends! At the very least, I want to be able to talk to him again...''

At this point, he realised that he had stopped walking; he had literally bumped into the Prince. As a matter of fact, they had both walked into each other. "Midnight! Found you!" El said, appearing to be somehow relieved. "Your turn to hide?" Midnight asked, joking, yet retaining a serious countenance. "Don't," he was chastised. "This is serious business. I was just about to come and look for you. I need some help- Team Neptune-style." "And you came to me first because..?" "Because I have no idea where Jamie is. I think he's gone off somewhere out of town." "Typical man." Again, El shot him a displeased look; his humour would best be saved for another day. "Stop it. Jamie's absence isn't the problem, anyway." "Alright, then. Where's the chase, and how are we going to cut to it?"

El gave a slight sigh. "Some kind of weird gas has been detected in January Forest," he reported, and added, "and don't make any kind of unsavoury joke, because A) that's Jamie's job, and B) it wouldn't be even slightly appropriate." Midnight shrugged. "I didn't say a word." "...Anyway...So, the gas in the forest- its source is unclear. It's like it popped out of nowhere. In any case, while the royal scientists don't think it's deadly or particularly harmful, they still suspect it may be some kind of threat." "Courtesy of our good friend, the doctor, perhaps? Regardless; it sounds pretty benign. I mean, it's not like this gas has killed anyone. If it had, you'd be in a right state!" "True," El admitted. "Nevertheless, I'm going to head into the forest to collect a sample for the scientists to have a look at." To prove his point, he produced a high-tech-looking sampling jar. Before Midnight had chance to say anything, he said, "Hammerspace." "I wasn't going to ask. But anyway, you're the Prince Royal of Blazia, and you're running on a supposedly risky yet mundane errand for a bunch of scientists? You're just brimming with sanity, aren't you?" "Damn right I'm sane! Nobody else in this country is a Neptune-grade pyrokinetic." "Fine," Midnight conceded, but still grinned. "Then why do you need my help?" "I'm going out into a forest, alone, to collect a sample of gas that could do absolutely anything, and you think I'm not just a little bit scared?" "Oh, I get it. You want moral support- just like that time this world collided with Wes', and that demon made your clothes disappear--" El's face soured as he remembered, and tried to interrupt, "Shut up..." Midnight did not. "-- and Jamie and I had to--" "Shut up." "-- sneak your naked backside into your own palace--" "Shut up!" "-- without being seen?" "Shut it!"

At last, having realised he had pushed the limit as far as he could, Midnight did shut up, but not for long. "Anyway, I'm not scared of a little random gas. I've had to deal with worse before, and so have you." El's mood had been dampened, but he still couldn't stifle a grin at the knowledge that Jamie would have undoubtedly made some kind of innuendo out of that statement, if not some other form of joke. "Fine; come on, then." With that, he led Midnight to and through the town's north-west exit, christened the 'forest gate', as that was what it was; a gate that had little beyond it but several miles of dense forest (although following the road would ultimately lead one to January City, Crimston or Bistra Voda, depending on the direction). Having entered the forest, El was eager to lead.

~

"So, how far in is...um...the gas. How deep...in the forest?" Midnight asked, picking his way delicately through a minefield of innuendo that Jamie would have probably taken full advantage of. "Not far enough to warrant a vehicle," El replied, dashing Midnight's quiet hope of getting a car, or something. "In fact, it shouldn't be too far from here." "Alright; how're we going to know when we get there?" "It's in a glade, okay? Stop asking me questions when you're meant to be the smart one...and psychic, too!" "That's psychokinetic," Midnight corrected. "There's a very clear difference...and I'm just making conversation." El gave a defeated grunt. After a few more minutes of walking, he stopped to kneel down, and put a hand to the ground, his attention being grabbed by a strange white powder cloaking the forest floor.

"Snow..?" he wondered aloud. "No, it can't be; it's not cold." He let the thick dust run through his hands. "Some sort of ash, maybe?" Midnight had also stopped, and nudged the Prince. "Uh, El? Is this the glade we're after?" "Hmmwhah?" El dusted his hands off and stood to look where his friend was indicating. The glade in question was covered in this white, ashy substance, and the plants had taken on a ghastly white hue- even the trees had paled into monochrome. There was a low mist in the air, with which the Prince quickly filled the sampling jar. He also produced a small pouch, which he proceeded to fill with the white ash.

"Well, we've got what we came for," he said, pleased. "But what is it? It seems to have mutated the plantlife around here... And where'd it come from?" "Not the doctor, I'm guessing," Midnight said, and coughed. "Seems too advanced for him..." He coughed again, as did El. As one, they keeled forwards, rapidly running out of air and the strength to keep themselves upright as they were gripped by violent coughing fits. They were gasping for air, and almost seemed to be choking. Midnight's vision doubled, blurred and began to fade as he and his royal companion succumbed to their sudden affliction, and fell unconscious, lying nearly motionless on the ashy, white ground.

An unclear amount of time passed as they lay there. Small piles of ash had begun to build up on the backs of their heads when Midnight stirred and regained consciousness. He got to his feet, looking around, alarmed, alert and still somewhat tired. He hesitated, wondering if the gas had been toxic and he and El had died, then shook El awake, opting for the rational conclusion that no, they were still very much alive; they had merely been taken by surprise. "What happened?" the Prince mumbled. "I don't know...I think the gas knocked us out." "Then how come we managed to wake up?" "I think the densest of the gas must have moved on, or..." He yawned. "...spread out." El got to his feet. "Well, we have a sample of the stuff, so we can go, I guess." "Right...so...Lead the way, then." "...Huh?" "Which way do we go? You were leading just now." "...But it all looks the same to me. And that is a problem...Up for wandering about aimlessly?" "Haha...No." "Well, bang goes the 'trial-and-error' method." "Doing that could just get us even more lost!"

Suddenly, both of them became aware that they were not as alone as they had previously thought. "Uhhm...Excuse me, sirs?" A white-furred figure, dressed in a white hooded cloak, shuffled towards them through the ash, not lifting his feet properly. "Can I be of help to you? You look lost." Midnight was instantly defensive; he recognised that figure, and his presence sickened him. It was his demonic doppelganger, the so-called Nega Midnight. Apparently, he had somehow escaped from his former prison. "We don't want your help! You'll just try to kill us- you know, just like you try to do to everyone!" "I-I do?!" Nega Midnight flinched, and seemed genuinely shocked and a little scared at both this revelation and the hostility of this blue traveller. "...Th-then I'm really, truly sorry...but I honestly don't remember a thing about it." "You're an evil piece of Underworld scum! You're the epitome of evil!!" He lashed out, but El restrained him. "I swear it: I'll kill you good and proper this time!" "Midnight..." El said, in a soothing voice, "calm down. I believe him. I think he's gone amnesiac from the last battle we had with him." Midnight was aghast at El's apparent traitory. "Demons can't get amnesia!" he protested. "I-I'm a demon..?" Nega Midnight pulled his hood off to get a better look at himself. Thus far, he had thought that he was a simple, white-coloured, twin-tailed fox, not a demon. "Yes! Yes, you are a demon!" Midnight continued to rant. "You're scum! And I hate you!" "Midnight, you sound like a kid," El told him. He was trying to be reasonable. "Give him a chance. If he turns on us, we can just beat the cr*p outta him, like last time."

This still irritated Midnight and made the demon look even more scared, and continued to flinch as his counterpart refused to calm down. "P-please!" Nega Midnight held his hands up in a feeble form of defense. "Don't hurt me! I haven't done anything wrong!" "Yes, you have, you despicable amalgamation of otherwordly scat! Forgetting something doesn't make it un-happen! Why shouldn't I just tear you to pieces right now?!" "Midnight, seriously, stop. You're getting too close to transforming into that beast-form of yours, and that hasn't happened for years. Who knows how unstable you'd be like that now? ...And you're unstable enough as you are! Give the guy a chance!" Midnight gave a semi-feral growl and still tried to attack his Nega namesake. "Aah!!" The demon cowered. "I...I can get you out of the forest!" he offered, shaking. He seemed honest enough, and was definitely afraid of this mad, blue stranger intent on killing him. At the very least, he was trying to bargain with them to spare his life.

El cast him a trusting smile. "Don't you worry about ol' Midnight here. I'll have a word with him, and then we'll let you lead the way." The Prince turned away, forcing his friend to copy. He looked and sounded stern, and spoke in a low voice, so that the demon might not hear. "Can you just calm down for one second? If this guy's being genuine, he could be a powerful ally. Just think- a hellspawn like him working for the side of good!" "I don't like it," was Midnight's flat response. "I don't trust him. Try not to forget what that b*stard did. Just because he can't remember doing anything doesn't mean it didn't happen at all." "True as that is, we might be able to make him set it right." He sighed with frustration. "What will it take to make you go along with this?" The fox took a moment to gain some composure and calm down somewhat, and cast his mind back to his earlier meanderings. "Let's talk cash..."

After a few minutes of quiet discussion and agreement, El and Midnight returned their attention to the amnesiac demon. "Alright, we have a deal," Midnight announced. "Get us out of this forest, and I won't hurt you. I trust you." Nega Midnight looked beyond relieved. He had feared that his life was at risk... "Buuuut- one step out of line, and it's curtains for you!" He snapped his fingers, for emphasis. The demon flinched again. And he think's I'm the monster here? El gave a disapproving look in response to how Midnight had worded their arrangement, but acknowledged that that was essentially what their agreement had boiled down to. The Prince gestured in a direction at random. "Lead the way, then." "Oh, uh...okay." Nega Midnight began to shuffle off on the way opposite to the direction El had indicated. To take his mind off the irritatingly unfavourable situation, Midnight observed the mutant flora of this new version of January Forest. Plants that formerly had flowers now had, in their blooms' stead, horrid, pulsating bulbs and glowed a dim purple. Parts of the trees' foliage were behaving similarly. Whatever the hell that gas was, it was certainly potent...

~

"We're here!" Nega Midnight declared proudly. They were not. They were, in fact, in a small settlement that consisted of nothing more than four meagre huts. The hamlet sat on a cliff top that was at the base of another cliff; apparently, the geology lay in a staircase-like formation. The cliff face was on the right, and the drop to the next level was on the left. That way, more forest, clearly covered by the ash that the gas seemed to produce, lay at the bottom of the sheer drop. The rock that made up the cliffs were just as grey and dim as the rest of the blanketed forest. Midnight grew wary rapidly; his trust was fading with great speed. "Is this your idea of a joke? I thought we made it perfectly clear: get us out of the forest, or get your head smashed in."

This puzzled the demon. "But this IS 'out'- or, rather, as out as you can get. No matter which way you go through the woods, you'll always wind up here. I call it the Miasma Village!" Simply being in a familiar place seemed to cheer Nega Midnight out of his fearful humility, even though Midnight's threats were still very much present and real. El tried to sound friendly without being patronising. "But that isn't possible. We came in from the outside world, for example, so there has to be a way back to it." "'Outside...world'?" "Yes- you know, where there's no ash, and the plants are green, and there are other people-" "Haha!" The demon's laughter interrupted him. "Green plants? No ash? Now who's trying to be funny?" The demon clearly had no recollection of the world outside the forest. "And don't talk to me about 'other people'! I think you know, I'm the only person in the world!"

"What about us, then?" Midnight asked, having to make an especial effort not to use an expletive insult in his query. "What a stupid thing to ask!" Nega Midnight laughed. "You're not people- you're just figments of my imagination!" He put an arm around El's shoulders. "You're my imaginary friends!" El gave a pitying smile, but his eyes betrayed what he was really thinking- 'Help me! He's a nutjob after all!' Midnight raised a quizzical eyebrow at the scene. "So we're just your dreams, personified, hm?" "Oh, yes. I mean, you turned out a little more hostile than I'd hoped, but you're here now, and you're here to stay! I wouldn't send you back if I could!" He released El and offered his open arms to his blue double, who declined him coldly. "Anyway, I've stood around chatting with you enough for now. I'll let you two settle in. You can have any of these houses! And if you need me, I'll be somewhere in the neverending forest!" Cheerily, he shuffled off the way they had come.

Midnight led El into one of the doorless, windowless huts. "Do you still think he's harmless?" "Actually," the Prince said, with an air of defiance, "I do. Yes, he does seem a little bit crazy, but he clearly doesn't remember anything. From his position, all of the conclusions he's been jumping to are logical and valid." "Oh, yeah, and this obviously can't be some kind of elaborate scheme to lull us into a false sense of security so he can come and kill us while we sleep, or anything like that. He is a demon, remember." "Why do you find it so hard to just trust him? Seriously?"

Midnight seized up and said nothing in reply. He was, in truth, dying to admit to his attempt to kill almost all of this planet during Wes' first visit to this world (prior to the inter-universal collision), and the fight that the Mal Emeralds had caused, and Nega Midnight's resultant birth...but he couldn't bring himself to talk about it. Even now, he felt an immense amount of guilt, simply blaming himself for the course of action the Mal Emeralds had coaxed him into performing. At the expense of his moods (and, to a mild extent, his mental health), he had learned to bottle up and hide his ashamed feelings. Not once had he let the true course of events slip from his own secrecy unto the ears of others. Whether Wes had had the same consideracy, however, he could not account for.

At last, he replied, "Because he's naturally evil. A leopard can't change its spots." El gave a sigh. "I don't think he knows that anymore." "Alright." Midnight switched to thinking tactically. "Let us entertain the supposition that you're right. So why don't we just run away (and away and away) until we reach the edge of the forest, and navigate home from there? The furthest away we could possibly be is halfway between home and Bistra Voda." El responded equally tactically. "What about if we assume you're right? Then we'd be leaving a demonic time-bomb in the forest- because amnesia isn't always permanent." "Okay; so what do you propose we do? Assassinate him and run like the wind? Best of both worlds?" "...I don't like the implications of doing that, but yes, it seems like our only option." "Then let's go!" Midnight was feeling the opposite of his friend; he was enthusiastic. "He has it coming, whether he knows it or not!"

~

With that resolution, Midnight and the Prince abandoned the hut and headed back into the pale forest. They had the element of surprise, yes- as Nega Midnight would certainly not expect his so-called 'imaginary friends' to make an attempt to take his life- but the demon's white cloak and fur rendered him well-camouflaged against the backdrop of monochrome trees and plants. As they proceeded through the ailing wood, Midnight formed his trusted sword out of psychokinetic energy. He would be the one to end this madness, once and for all...

El was concerned that Midnight was treading the fine line between vengeance and psychopathy...but, he supposed, his friend had a good (...well, at least semi-good) reason for doing it. At the very bare minimum, he was confident that Midnight would be able to justify and explain away his actions. He told himself that he was quite sure of this. He was. He really and truly was. Everything would be just fine. No, not 'just fine'. Good. Better. Okay. Not a problem in sight. Everything would be--

The Prince's train of thought was abruptly halted as Midnight stuck his arm out to get him to stop, as he had spotted the demon just ahead. Nega Midnight was bent over, checking something in the ash on the ground. Was he...trying to pick one of the ghastly flowers? That was what he seemed to be doing, at least. El nodded reluctantly, and Midnight made a silent, levitated charge at his counterpart. In an instant, he had his demon impaled through the throat by his blade.

...But the demon did not die. Instead, he gave a wailing moan (like that of a young child, having scraped their knee for the first time in their life), and cried out, "What are you doing?!" This startled Midnight- more so because the cry sounded more upset than angry or pained. The demon continued, "You're not playing fair!" He twisted his head around to make eye contact with his would-be killer. To Midnight, he looked almost as if he were crying. Almost. "Why are you cheating?! This isn't how you're meant to play!"

To Midnight, the situation was nightmarish in quality; it was mildly unsettling, made no sense whatsoever, and was vastly, vastly surreal. For this reason, he responded as he would in any nightmare: by rebelling, and taking a stand for himself. Having had enough of Nega Midnight's insanity and past antagonism (as well as his existence preying on his mind ever since the demon's 'birth'), he began to beat at him with psychokinetically-enhanced fists; the demon was rendered helpless, but his blue counterpart had no intention of showing any mercy. Oh, no- not after everything he had been put through...

Midnight continued to take his anger out on the demon, treating him as a sponge for his aggression, for several minutes, which El found just as unsettling as the fact that Nega Midnight had been stabbed through the jugular, and yet was still very much alive. Eventually, Nega Midnight submitted; the rage he had been subjected to was almost palpable. He struggled free and keeled over by a tree, breathing hard. Midnight was also breathing hard, but this was from adrenaline. El remained astounded; Midnight was never this violent- not even in his 'beast form'. The Prince tried to console himself with the fact that his friend had very good (if personal) reasons for carrying such a vendetta against the demon, leading to this kind of revenge. For a moment, his mind relapsed into the loop of desperate, cathartic reassurances he had begun thinking before this encounter. As before, his thoughts were interrupted.

"Ohh, dear..." Nega Midnight whimpered. "You've really done it now...He's...He's coming back: my memories. They're taking over again...Ohh..." With alarming speed, he stood up and discarded his cloak. "Ohh...YES! I remember everything now! Every minute and miniscule detail ever since that little scrap with the Sol Emeralds and their overdressed host. And that reminds me..." He rounded on Midnight. "Someone's been a naughty boy!"

Midnight was not stupid; he backed up- Nega Midnight was back to being highly dangerous. He commanded El to flee, and began to do so himself, as Nega Midnight assumed his own version of the 'beast form'. However, he did not chase them. Instead, he stood and taunted them with childish, sing-song mockery, which made little sense to Midnight and El. Then again, they were fleeing for their lives; there was no time for poetic analysis!

The forest itself seemed to have become more hostile, now; the leafless branches of the trees swung wildly about, attempting to use their sharp edges to claw at anything they happened to slap; the bulbous flowers began to emit purple hazes and ooze lilac, glowing liquids better left undescribed. Clearly, though, neither product would be safe to so much as touch.

Midnight suddenly stopped running; the demon, who had not moved since transforming, was directly ahead...But they had just been running away from him! El silently suggested the best idea available: turn and flee in a different direction, his logic dictating that the demon would only chase them if he thought that there was a risk of them getting away; for this reason, he was not moving at the moment- all of the paths through the woods were warped, and led back to him.

~

Except for one. Except for this one. Except for the one El and Midnight had found. Of course, knowing that was of little benefit, as it was the only path that diverted by way of the Miasma Village on its way back to the waiting demon. "Whose idea was it to try and attack him, again?" Midnight, breathless, asked. "Yours, I believe," El replied, then saw the irritation in Midnight's eyes and continued, "--but that's not important! We need to find a way of escaping!" "How can we do that, though? Where can we go? The woods don't like obeying the laws of physics, in case you haven't noticed."

El looked about in desperation, and his eyes alighted on the cliff looming above them. He turned directly around from it so that he was looking down, towards the next 'step' in the series of cliffs. "This is our only viable option," he said. "Suicide?!" El was unimpressed. "Basejump." "Ah...Okay. Gotcha."

After taking a moment to ready themselves, they took a run-up and launched themselves from the cliff, aiming for the next level down. Midnight used his psychokinesis to prevent the fall from hurting them. On the next 'step' down, they found...an identical Miasma Village, complete with the footprints in the ash that they had just left from running up to the cliff edge in order to dive off.

"I should have known...But just to be sure..." Midnight instructed El to stay put, and jumped off the next cliff, aiming for the next level down from this one, and managed to land perfectly, right next to El. The village, clearly, was enchanted in the same way that the rest of the forest was. "We're trapped!" El realised. "There's no way out!" "Looks like Nega-me wasn't kidding when he said that this is as 'out' as you can get..." "What are we going to do?!" The Prince was beginning to panic. It really did seem as though they were stuck in an endless game of cat-and-mouse...

"We'll have to try and confront him again," Midnight said. "There's no way around it. Besides, there's no physical way to escape, so that demon must hold the key to the only way out of here." "Have you taken leave of your senses?! He'll kill both of us!" "Correction:..." Midnight gave a slightly-twisted, daredevillish smile. "He'll kill both of us...or die trying!"

It seemed that the maddeningly endless nature of the forest had steeled his resolve- or driven him insane. No matter how much he feared Nega Midnight and all he represented, there would have to come a time when he would need bringing down. And that time, ready or not, was now. El's heart sank as Midnight raced back into the forest; he had no choice but to put himself in danger and follow him. "Come on out, you big b*stard!" Midnight shouted out. "Where have you gone?! Scared?!"

~

Of course, the demon was not afraid, but simply choosing his moment. Alas, the two heroes were not to know that. El grew increasingly uneasy, and began to feel somewhat sick; Midnight, on the other hand, was only growing more bold and daring. The adrenaline, clearly, was rushing to his head. At last- and suddenly- Nega Midnight burst from the trees, landing on top of his counterpart, his large, beast-form foot easily pinning Midnight in place. El froze in fear- mostly for the fate of his friend, rather than his own. He wanted to help, but dared not.

"Oh, come on! That was far too easy!" the monstrous demon gloated. "You call that an attempt to attack? You really were a weak host! Just like the Sol Emeralds' host was!" "Shut up," Midnight said, but he sounded defeated. He had been taken from a position of power to a position of utter helplessness in a matter of seconds. "Very well- I will. Why don't YOU do the talking? I'm sure our friend here wants to hear the whole story behind your attempted mundicide. Go on-" He dug his lupine foot a little more into Midnight's back. "-enlighten him." Nega Midnight had struck a raw nerve. His origins, as far as Midnight was concerned, were private and confidential. ...Yet he had no choice. "Well? I'm waiting. Tell us; what caused me to split from you?" There was no way around it, so he tried telling an incomplete truth. "...The Eclipse Cannon." Nega Midnight had been expecting this approach, and continued to dig deeper with both his foot and his questioning. "Mm-hm. And why were you sodding around where the cannon- the massive, space-colony-ARK-sized Eclipse Cannon, which, if I may remind you, is suspended in space- could possibly hurt you?" "...I was fighting Wes." "Oh? Wes, your best and closest friend from another dimension? That Wes?" "Ugh...Yes, that Wes." "The same Wes that, as I would enjoy believing, you have lustful thoughts after? That, given the chance, you'd sooner marry than the mother of your own child?" He lifted his foot and grabbed Midnight, holding him in such a way that allowed him to kill him instantly, if he so chose. "And think carefully before answering."

The simple idea of him 'lusting after Wes' was enough to turn him crimson. What kind of a question was that?! El paid it no mind; it was just the demon trying to humiliate his counterpart- and it seemed to be working. To preserve himself, Midnight said, "Y-yes, that Wes." The demon gave a delighted grin, and El frowned sympathetically, although he was still too afraid to move against Nega Midnight. He was, just as much as Midnight, a pawn in this situation.

The torture continued. "But why would you possibly start a fight with the very same Wes that you want to share a bed with?" Midnight winced, both at the memory and at the implications of that image. "Because..." His mind began to rebel. He had been pushed enough. "Because you were trying to destroy this world! You were using me to do that!" The demon dug his claws a little way into Midnight's body. "Try again..." "Agh!! ...B-because I wanted to kill the planet's population!" "Oho? And how did you plan to go about doing that?" He glared at his victim. "Be honest." "I...I used Wes...t-to gather the Mal Emeralds...and I-I used their power...to become you...and realise this world's demise."

El's frown became worriedly pensive. This was serious stuff. The Mal Emeralds were, as their name suggested, badly dangerous artefacts...Had Midnight really been trying to use them? If so, how much of it had been of his own accord, and how much of this was lies to keep Nega Midnight from killing them both? So many questions... And was Nega Midnight's birth as an independent entity only happened because Midnight had been too weak to resist the power of the Mal Emeralds...in his quest to end the world?! No, El told himself; that was too far-fetched. Then again, Midnight was being tortured...Was this the truth, or the 'truth' that the demon wanted to hear, and have heard by an audience?

"And Wes had to try to...to k-kill me...to stop me and save the world..." Midnight was crying (just a little) by now; both the memories and the physical torture were too painful for him. He was recounting something traumatic. So it was true... "And he did just that...by getting you- me- us into the cannon's firing line." "And how did it feel?!" Nega Midnight was getting a high out of his counterpart's traumatic experience. "How did it feel to burn for your sins?!"

"Stop it!" The fox was beginning to break. "Stop doing this to me! You're just a body of the Mal Emeralds! You're not me- you just infected me in Param Labs so you could copy my body! And you controlled me, right up to the fight with Wes! You took an ideal- just an idea that I had- and blew it out of context, and out of proportion! And you tried to frame me for the whole thing! Why did the Great Djinn even create you b*stard gems in the first place?!" Nega Midnight was mildly interested. "Stop ranting- and you just admitted it: you had a plan to destroy the planet of your own accord. I just put your plan into action."

"You missed the point of it entirely! All I wanted to do was get all of the world's evildoers, and put them together somewhere in the middle of the ocean- ocean, not space!- and blow them all up so they can't hurt anyone else! All you did was make me save my closest friends so we could watch the world burn, and after have them kill me for playing God and destroying their world!" "Now you're just being rude. I was making your dreams come true." "You were doing it badly, then!" El interjected. "I don't know who or what to believe right now, but what I do know is this: you're one f*cked-up creature!" Nega Midnight lost his cool. "Rrgh...SILENCE! Or I'll kill you both right here and now!"

Midnight, however, was far beyond collected. "NO!!" he effectively screamed at the demon, surprising him into dropping his victim. "You know as well as I do what happened to the actual Mal Emeralds after you stole my form. Your old form was destroyed!" In a heartbeat, Midnight had evolved into his beast form, holding a familiar crystal in his hand- the gem that, El noticed, they had been scouring Tudor Island for on the day that this world collided with Wes'.

Beast Midnight leaped at the demon. "You don't scare me!" he roared. "You're nothing but space dust!" With that dramatic movement, he plunged the crystal into the demon's head. At this, the whole forest moved in a whirlwind of motion, and there was a bright flash of light...

~

A few moments later, Midnight (now reverted to his normal form) and El sat up in a glade in January Forest. Everything seemed normal; no mutated plants, and no sickly ash. They had escaped, it appeared. "Was all that weirdness just a dream?" El asked, getting to his feet. Midnight picked up the crystal from Tudor Island, which was lying next to him, as he stood up. "I don't think so."

Indeed, the crystal, which had once been clear and prismatic, was now cloudy and looked almost as though it was full of the ash from the miasma-afflicted forest that had been, Midnight strongly suspected, the decaying remains of his long-dead Nega counterpart's mind. El still had the sample of gas in the jar, and the pouch full of ash, but both of these substances were rapidly fading into nothing. These, Midnight suspected, had been the precious little remainder of the demon's physical form; a kind of gaseous spirit, discorporated from the world of the dead. This idea gladdened him; Nega Midnight's form was no more, and his mind was safely trapped in this crystal.

Midnight nodded at the path on the forest floor that was present in the real version of January Forest. "Let's go home." "...Yeah, let's." El joined his friend as he strode homeward. "Hey, Midnight? Can I just ask you one thing?" "Go on." "Just from what Nega Midnight was saying...Do you REALLY want to tap Wes?" He laughed, pretending to be offended. "No! ...You know I'd rather have Knuckles!" There was an awkward delay, before he added, "You know...if I were gay."

El assumed that this was just banter, and he added that attempting to date Knuckles would most likely result in him receiving a broken nose, courtesy of the echidna, and said nothing more on the subject. Midnight also said nothing further. He began to wonder, though, how El would go about explaining that there wasn't any gas in the forest, after all, to the palace scientists...The Prince would find a way, he assured himself.

After all, everything was just fine right now.

THE END.