Light Hair, Dark Heart (Sequel to Dark Hair, Light Heart)

Revelations

"You said that you might know a way to get rid of them, so how do we?" Sean asked Matt.

"I....there's something I need to tell you guys first. Follow me." Matt instructed reluctantly.

As MatPat went home, Mark, Amy, Sean, Signe, Nate, and Felix followed him to his house where Amanda and Luna were waiting for him.

"I'm so glad you're back honey, I've missed you." Amanda admitted as she enveloped Matt in a hug while Luna tottered around her parents and babbled incoherently.

"I have to show them something, I'll be back." Matt told Amanda.

"Is everything okay?" She frowned.

"Yes babe, everything's fine." Matt promised her as he bent down and gave Luna a quick kiss on the forehead before guiding the group down to his cellar.

Inside was a table in the back corner of the room with shelves above it lined with various herbs and other healing equipment, as well as a table in the center of the room stained with blood.

"Okay, this will be hard to explain." Matt stated as he ran a hand through his snow white hair in exasperation.

"What didn't you tell us?" Amy spoke up nervously.

"A long time ago when I first started learning healing abilities, I had this experiment in mind that could change people's lives. I told Felix's father my idea since he was the ruler at the time, and he agreed that it would be a good idea. But I had no willing subjects." Matt paused as he closed his eyes, the flashbacks of the past that he had fought so hard to forget flooding back to him.

"So Felix's father let me use the black haired people as my subjects since at the time, none of them had powers for reasons even to this day I still don't understand." Matt whispered shamefully, keeping his gaze fixated onto the floor.

"My experiment had worked for me when I tested it out on myself first, and it worked for Felix, but when I tried it on the black haired people...they developed dark powers." Matt explained as he looked up over at Felix.

"So Felix's father sent every failed subject away into the forest to avoid his own guilt. To keep our failure a secret, he labeled them as dangerous so the people wouldn't question him." Matt finished.

The room fell tensely silent, no one sure how to respond to the information.

"What was the experiment?" Signe spoke up softly.

"Watch." Matt instructed.

The six watched as he closed his eyes before his hair gradually started changing from snow white to light caramel brown, the color starting from his roots before spreading to the tips of his hair.

"I can change my powers at will between earth, electricity, and ice." Matt stated.

"Why did you keep secrets from us Felix?!" Mark demanded angrily, grabbing Felix by the collar of his shirt.

"It's not my fault my father threatened to disown me if I told anyone!" Felix yelped fearfully as Mark lifted him up in the air with one hand.

"Why?" Mark growled in a dangerously low tone.

Felix sighed as he closed his eyes in concentration, tuning out the world around him temporarily.

When he opened his eyes again, his hair was the same color as Matt's.

"I was his second test subject." Felix confessed.

"I...I don't understand." Nate shook his head.

"I wanted to be different from everyone else since I was going to be leader, so when I caught word of the experiment, I volunteered." Felix choked out.

"So you're both the ones to blame for the secrets." Mark deadpanned.

"Mark-"

"You did this to me!" Mark yelled at Matt furiously, his chocolate brown eyes cold as he threw Felix away from him like a discarded toy.

Felix landed on the wood floor, his head smacking against the ground with enough force to knock him out.

No one moved to help him as Mark advanced towards Matt with fury blazing in his eyes.

"I know, and I'm sorry. He threatened to kill me and my family if I didn't follow through with my experiment." Matt protested meekly.

"You should've let him." Nate interjected.

Matt opened his mouth to argue before he abruptly closed it again, struck speechless.

"I'm sorry-"

"Sorry doesn't make my hair change color, sorry doesn't make everyone stop coming over to my house just to beat me for being evil and different no matter how hard I try to prove that I'm not, and sorry sure as hell doesn't change the fact that my friends and I were and still are treated like animals!" Mark snapped, storming over to Matt so he was standing in his face.

Even though he was slightly shorter than him, he looked intimidating all the same.

"Who else was experimented on that didn't have dark hair?" Signe chimed in.

"You were." Matt stated as he looked at Sean.

"Have you never noticed that you're the only green haired person in the entire village?" Matt prompted.

"I..." Sean trailed off, realizing that Matt was right.

"And you." Matt pointed at Amy.

"Me?" Amy replied in disbelief.

"You can change your hair to light pink so you can control emotions, the easiest  one to control being love due to the color." Matt informed her.

"When did you experiment on us?" Sean frowned in confusion.

"For Sean, it was around four years ago, and for Amy it was three." Matt admitted.

"I wiped your memories after the procedure so neither of you would remember." Matt added.

"How could you do this to us you sick bastard!" Mark snarled.

"I had to!" Matt shouted back defensively.

"You may have light hair, but you have a dark heart." Mark huffed as he stormed towards the stairs.

"Mark-"

"You're not any better Felix." Mark cut off Felix as he woke up, feeling a twinge of satisfaction when he noticed the bruise on his forehead from the impact.

"What are you doing?" Matt called out after him.

"I'm telling everyone about your little experiment!" Mark yelled back as he ran up the stairs.

"Wait!" Matt cried desperately as he ran after him.

The others moved to follow, but were stopped when Matt created a thick wall of ice between them and the stairs.

"I'm sorry." Matt hastily apologized sincerely to the six before he darted up the stairs and out of view to stop Mark.

"God damn Mark is strong." Felix remarked with a pained groan as he pushed himself up off of the floor while clutching his head as it throbbed in pain.

"So," Sean ignored Felix as he turned to look at his friends.

"Anyone understand anything that's going on?"