Dreamcrash

Thirty Four: The Guardian of Emotions

I slowly open my eyes. I'm lying on my back. My memories feel foggy, but clear up. I was fighting Blackout, there was a flash of light, and now I'm... here. Wherever here is.

I get up and take in my surroundings. It looks endless, like the Art Dome and Antivoid do, but it's a light purple color. Streaks of pale yellow appear now and then. There doesn't seem to be a floor beneath me, because I feel like I'm floating, although I don't think I am. I look down to check and catch a glimpse of my outfit. The colors are much more prominent. I see something behind me and turn my head. Coming out of my back were the outline of wings. Wings! The outline was a dark purple, and the feathers were pointed. I flap them a few times, grinning. How had I gotten them? Was it from my powers mixing like they did? Or did I get the other half of my Soul back?

My other Soul half. Blackout.

Now slightly panicked, I look around. A few feet away, I see a figure, collapsed on the ground. I walk over and see it is Blackout. Like me, his clothing's colors are brighter. After a moment, he opens his eyes and gets up, facing away from me. He looks around, eventually turning towards my direction. I see his right eyelight is more of a soft yellow-orange now. He seems more toned down, and I sense an odd feeling from him. Wonder. Blackout's eyes land on me, and narrow for a moment, but he doesn't move to attack. We just stand there.

"Did you know you could do this?" He asks, voice quiet. "Or did you just figure it out?"

"Just figured it out. I'm not even sure what I did." 

"Of course you don't. We're in a Dreamscape. Like the one I normally beat your-" He said a word I'm not repeating- "in. Only this time it's yours."

"Huh." Come to think of it, that does make sense. If Blackout holds the other half of my Soul, we should have the same powers. 

"You know, I'm... I'm almost impressed. You managed to do something decent for once." His right eyelight started flickering between the yellow-orange and a dark orange. Blackout frowned. "Sadly, I still need to kill you. So if you'd be so kind as to let me do that."

I feel a sharp stab in my chest and see Blackout's impaled me. I teleport away, but Blackout follows me, landing behind me and lashing out with a bone. I summon my bow to block the hit, but he summons a bone in his other hand and jabs at me. I quickly move out of the way and sent a few arrows flying at him. One hits his shoulder, but he dodges the rest. He catches the arrows that missed in his teal strings and threw them at me, all of which I dodged. He summons a bone and tries to attack me, but I parry with my bow. Blackout glares at me, and I see his right eyelight is now scarlet.

"You are really trying my patience."

"Yeah, and you're really starting to annoy me!" I hit him in the kneecap with an arrow and he jumps back. I don't waste time and hit him on the head with my bow. He drops to the ground, but spin kicks me. We both get back up and attack, me sending arrows and him strings. I hit him a few times, he hits me a few times. I teleport behind him and send an arrow at his head. He ducks and stabs my leg, then pushes me on to the ground and sends another bone through my arm. I'm pinned. Blackout aims a bone at my head. 

"That was easy."

I use my free hand to make an aura marble and throw it at him. It hits him in the chest and he pauses. The bones disappear, allowing me to roll out of the way. My arm hurts like heck, but I push through it. Blackout turns around and glares at me.

"You were saying?"

Blackout lunges at me and I quickly dodge, but he throws a bone at me that hits me right in my chest. I buckle over in pain, but have to move before he can hit me again. I summon my bow and shoot an arrow at him, which he dodges. By now, my leg and chest are both burning. I spread my wings and flap them a few times before taking off. My leg feels slightly better without the pressure on it. I look down to see Blackout staring at me with... is that jealousy? It is. I nearly laugh. I nock some arrows and take aim. A few hit him this time. I can sense he's in pain, but doesn't want to show it. He send his strings after me, which I try to outfly, but some catch me and wrap around my legs. They pull me down to the ground, where Blackout is waiting. He swings at me with a sharp bone, and I hold up my legs. He cuts right through the strings and I get back on my feet. 

We stand there a moment. My leg, arm, and chest hurts, he's holding his shoulder and hunched over. We're both breathing hard.

"You bastard... why won't you just die already?"

"Because that's my Soul you have. And I want it back."

"Heh... I feel the same. I get your Soul, I get to be whole, and then maybe..." His right eyelight fades to a soft orange, but only for a moment. Hardening back into scarlet, Blackout glared at me. "So the only one handing their Soul over today will be you."

"We'll see about that."

I spread my wings and fly up again. Blackout sends a barrage of bones at me. I dodge them all, but one knocks my bow out of my hands. He grins. Strings leap at me, and without really thinking, I wrap my wings around me and then quickly spread them back out. Purple arrows, same color as the winds, shoot out, slicing up the strings. I send more of these arrows at Blackout. He narrowly misses one and gives me a condescending look. The arrows then explode, sending out small blasts of energy. Blackout is thrown backwards and collapses.

"...Wow... You've become even more of an annoyance." He pulled himself up to his feet. A ball of dark energy appeared in his hands. It radiated negativity, and I knew in an instant it was hate, the same thing Three had used on half of my Soul while making Blackout. "Fine. So what if I don't get your Soul. Right now, then only thing I want is YOUR DUST ON THE FLOOR!"

Blackout shot a blast of hate at me. I just barely dodged, then got hit by another. The searing pain was instant. I felt like I was being ripped apart. I hit the ground hard. I felt the positivity in my Soul working to counter the hate, and I slowly felt the pain go away. I pushed myself back onto my feet and into the air. It hurt less than standing did. Blackout looked furious. 

"JUST DIE ALREADY, GODAMMIT!"

He shot another blast at me, this one huge. I channeled my power, my positivity and negativity, into one. My bow appeared in one hand, a giant arrow in the other. The arrow was a mix of gold, purple, and silver. Positivity, negativity, and a balance between the two. I nocked the arrow, aimed, and shot it. It cut right through the blast, went straight for Blackout, and hit him right in the chest. He froze, then slowly looked down, then back up at me. His right eyelight is back to a soft yellow. He collapsed. I landed on the ground. A warm sensation spread through me and the pain receded. I looked at my arm and saw the cracks were gone. I had healed myself.

I looked down at Blackout. He was still alive, just barely. I closed my eyes and exhaled, allowing myself to exit the Dreamscape.

I opened my eyes. I was standing in the remains of the AU. Behind me, Blackout is there. Like Pen was in Crashtale, he's suspended in the air. The only difference is the other half of my Soul is there, floating in front of him, with a purple and yellow stripe wrapped around it. His eyes are closed, and he looks peaceful. I reach to grab my Soul, but my hand goes right through. 

Blackout's hand grabs my wrist.

He drops to the ground, eyes open, still holding my wrist. The right eyelight is red, and there's a dangerous glint in his eyes. He flips me on to the ground. I pull my wrist out of his hand and get up. I summon some arrows and pin him to the ground. Blackout struggles, but can't get up. I nock an arrow and aim it at his head. If I release the string, I'll dust him and get my other half of my Soul back.

But I don't. 

I hesitate. Because I can see the fear in Blackout's eyes. He doesn't want die. He's scared to. 

My moment of hesitation was all it took. Someone teleported in and kicked me in the face, knocking me off Blackout. All I caught was the glimpse of a red jacket before a portal opened underneath me and I fell through it. I landed on grass, somewhere I didn't recognize. I take a moment to heal, a moment to decompress, then close my eyes and teleport to the Art Dome.