Abandoned Together

The Darkrai had found Thomas and Lucy. It hovered menacingly in the sky, causing Thomas to lower himself in anticipation, his tail puffing up slightly and the ribbons swaying in preparation for immediate action. Thomas let out a warning growl, and the darkrai stopped approaching reaching one hand out towards Thomas.

Thomas was prepared for anything the thing wanted to throw at him and despite the dire situation he was calm. He has faced both pain and fear before and he was ready to protect his friends even if it was to cost him his life.

What followed though caught him completely by surprise however. From behind the foliage he felt another creature approach. Seeing it made his eyes widen in terror.

Clover stood beside the Darkrai Letting out a deep menacing growl at anything and everything in sight. The Darkrai even seemed nervous about it, but that didn't stop it from giving clover commands.

" Kill them." The shrill voice of the Darkrai echoed

Clover without a second thought shot towards Thomas. Thomas barely had the time to react before a pair of claws buried their way into the ground where he had just been standing.

"Clover stop!" Thomas called to clover. Thomas's voice seemed to make her body relax slightly, but it immediately tensed again preparing another strike.

Dodging another strike from Clover by a hairs length, Clover wrapped his ribbon around Clovers leg and threw her into an attack from the Darkrai. Clovers body was launched from the hit and she crashed into a tree. Thomas flinched at the impact.

" I'm so sorry, Clover." Thomas said through gritted teeth, but was forced to deal with the onslaught of the Darkrai's attacks.

The Darkrai shot an orb of shadows towards Thomas and Thomas erected a barrier around him that mitigated the effects, allowing him to dodge the attacks relatively unscathed. The deadly dance between the trio continued. Thomas tried his best but couldn't hold them off. While majority of the attacks had been dodged he had still been clipped a few times, and he was running out of steam.

" Hurry up Lucy." Thomas called out to his friend but no response was returned, causing him to grumble in annoyance.

" Wake up Clover!" Thomas then dodged a strike from Clover Smacking her in the face with his paw and causing her to crash straight into the ground, leaving a paw print on her face. One could even see an exclamation point hover above her head

Clover shakily stood up, Looking at Thomas with confused eyes. Thomas carefully approached sensing the change in self, or rather the fact that Clover hasn't tried to kill him again.

" Oh my god, did that actually work?! Clover are you alright?" Thomas asked cautiously in a tone of excitement, and confusion.

" Mmh, ouch, I'm fine just ... God why am I so sore. Thomas what happened to the big black guy Thomas? Thomas? Wait ... Your not Thomas, who are you?" Clover seemed rather droopy and confused.

" Clover it's me Thomas, are you alright. I need your help with the big guy." Thomas immediately turned to face the Darkrai, but he was gone. This made Tomas very nervous.

" Thomas what happened to you?" Clover asked following Thomas's lead and attempting to search for the Darkrai " What's going on."

" Long story short, you tried to kill me and Lucy, Lucy's in the corner not responding and- Duck!!!" Pouncing Clover to the ground a shadow ball whooshed over their heads another attack being prepared by the Darkrai.

" That was a close one ... where did he go?" Thomas sighed and started to creep around with Clover, both watching each other's back. From the tone of Thomas's voice one could tell he was getting sick of the disappearing act.

There were shadows all around them that the Darkrai could be hiding in, and it never showed it's face too long. The longer the Darkrai went unfound the more anxious Clover and Thomas became. The anticipation was grueling as they had no clue where it was or what it would try next. Suddenly a childish giggle resounded in the ears of both Clover and Thomas. It was a voice they both found very familiar.

Avril entered the clearing with both Clover and Thomas shocking them.

" Avril, your ok!" Thomas was immediately giddy and ran over to Avril without a second thought.

"Wait. Thomas!" Clover noticed the shadow of Avril move in an unusual way. Immediately piecing it together, Clover tackled Thomas in an attempt to save him as Darkrai appeared from the shadows. It's claws raked down into Clover, landing a serious blow that sent her flying into the shrubbery. Following it up with a shadow claw to Thomas, who was still reeling from the fact that his friend was used as a diversion.

"Haha you fools, to think something like this could lower your guard so much." The Darkrai jeered

"I'm sick of your games, come and fight me!" Clover ran over to the imposter Avril and impaled it with her horn, hoping to dispel the illusion.

Both Thomas and Dakari's hearts dropped when they saw this.

"Clover, No!"

"You fool."

Avril let out a ear piercing shriek as her body fell to the floor.

~Rumble~

Suddenly, the ground quaked and groaned as lines spread thorough the ground erupting into fissures, as the sky fell and shattered tearing open and twisting.

The Darkrai swooped down to Clover and began screaming " Do you have any Idea what you have done! You killed the one thing keeping this realm in existence! Because of you were all going to die now!"

" Well, I'm not the one who used her as a diversion and shield!" Clover immediately yelled back. She was crying, since she realized too late that this was the real Avril.

" Both of you shut up, were figuring out a way to fix this. Shadow man, you seem to know what's going on. Explain." Thomas growled

"Since were all going to die anyways I guess I can. We're in the dream world, this is the place were the soul is sent when the body rests, what your stupid friend just impaled was the soul keeping this place together."

"That doesn't explain how we fix this." Thomas interrupted

" How to fix a broken soul? Good question ... well, True loves kiss can mend a broken heart." Darkrai said

" And how does that help us?" Thomas asked

" It doesn't." Darkrai laughed. The darkrai had lowered itself to taunt Thomas a bit, and clover took full advantage. Jumping up she grabbed him, and slammed him against the ground and put her claws around its head ready to kill him.

"Listen here you little prick! Your going to tell us how to fix this, then your going to help us fix it." Clover growled.

" There's no point! The only thing that could possibly save her is if we all died and even then she'll probably die too. Don't you see it's pointless!" The Darkrai screamed out, but then started to panic realizing what he had just said.

" Thank you~" Clover tore the head off of the Darkrai before it could escape using every ounce of strength she had. Clover then turned to look at Thomas, as if asking what to do now. She knew what she needed to do now, but how could she ask that of Thomas and Lucy.

"Don't worry Clover, we won't hold it against you too much." Thomas tried to joke. He was trembling because he knew he was going to die. Clover may have liked Thomas and Lucy, but Avril was her pup just like Noah. For someone like Clover, there was nothing she wouldn't do to save her.

" Forgive me. I truly am sorry for this." Clover hesitated before killing Thomas. She hadn't noticed before, but the corpses of both Thomas and Darkrai turned into a golden dust that dispersed and seemed to be patching the holes in the earth and sky.

Clover ran off to find Lucy. Clover searched for a short time until she spotted Lucy in a bush focusing. She felt bad for doing this and she knew Avril would never forgive her for what she had done, but that didn't matter. A moment later, finishing the last step was all she had left to do. Walking over to Avril's body she whispered an apology into her ear before her vision faded to light, the last thing going through her mind was the hatred towards the people who put her here. Then, just like the others, she disappeared whisked away by the wind of a passing dream.

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Avril awoke to a field of pain and quiet. It was a unnatural quiet as if all forms of life had been forced away. However the first thing she noticed is that she hurt. Finding herself in a sea of pain Avril choked on a cough, as tears started to stream down her eyes, fortunately for her, the pain was steadily fading. Once her vision stabilized, she realized she was back in the labs, the medical ward, or rather what used to be the medical ward. There was blood everywhere, A body hung limply, hung on a piece of bent rebar by the hole starting from the eye socket moving through the back of the skull, accompanied by a few others nailing the body to the crumbled wall. Another was crushed under the ceiling, an arm outstretched as if attempting to grab hold of freedom from it's unfortunate coffin of fallen rocks. The destruction seemed to have stemmed from a peculiar pile of rocks expressly covering a hole in the ground that had a trail of blood leading out from it to the crushed corpse.

The scene caused Avril to fall to her knees and want to vomit. She could barely make out the identities of the two people. The one on the wall was Timmy, He had a very distinguishable face even after being completely mangled she could still tell it was him. The one under the rock was Jennifer. She was newer having been hired around a year or two ago, but the ring on her hand was unmistakable, she had been bragging about getting engaged for a few weeks.

Avril tried to crawl away from the scene but the blood followed her. That's when she realized she was covered in blood. Her dress which looks different now than it did before, was covered in blood, along with her sharp, black claw like hands. Avril paused looking back over her hands. Blood along her sharp claws. Claws, the blood had distracted her, but as she wiggled her fingers she realized her fingers were now black sharp tipped claws.

Confusion took over, as the unusual appearance of her hands caught her attention. She was curious, why were they like that, and for a moment she forgot about the circumstance she found herself in.

The claws looked familiar, and a memory of merely moment before passed through her head, as the pain that had all but faded, from before started to return.

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It was black before Avril awoke to being thrown to the side by Clover, as she screamed about having enough games. The pain in her. chest prevented Avril from moving so she laid on the ground spectating. She watched as Clover, Thomas, and another black creature argued. A smile spanned her face when she saw that Thomas had evolved. It made her happy to see him grow to the level where he could argue with clover. Avril couldn't tell what they were saying exactly, but from the tone and feeling she got from their voices she could tell Thomas was worried about her. It made her feel warm inside.

Her happiness was torn away as she witnessed Clover kill the Darkrai then Thomas, without him even fighting back, before disappearing. Clover returned to the clearing with tears in her eyes and blood that wasn't there before. The last thing Avril saw was Clover get close before whispering ' I'm Sorry' and killing herself.

Clutching her head as the dream replayed itself in increasing definition, accompanied by another wave of pain. Avril let out a cry before running off with blurry eyes. Her eyes burned and vision shifted as she aimlessly stumbled out of the building. Her surroundings seemed to bend, contort, shift and crumble around her as she unconciously made her way back to the path to Clover's den.

Making it to the wall Avril collapsed. She felt weak, and more exhausted than ever before. Clover, Thomas they were both dead, and though she didn't want to admit it she knew that Lucy was too.

Right outside the forest Avril curled up into a ball hugging herself. She sat for a moment letting out all of the tears and screams she could. She wept until here eyes became numb to the burning and her throat was torn to shreds.

Eventually she ran out of tears and her voice couldn't make noise anymore so she sat in silence. Avril thought she lost everything but thinking back she remembered Noah, and how she didn't remember seeing him anywhere. Sitting up Avril began her trek through the woods to the mountainside where clover once resided. On her way she noticed it was easier to find her way, and detect the Bugs that would otherwise be hard to spot.

With each waypoint to the cave Avril winced, thinking about the times she traveled here with Thomas, Lucy, and Clover, until she finally made it to Noah.

" Noah?" Avril called out, looking around the room for Noah.

" Who are you?" a childish voice echoed throughout the room. Avril recognized the voice as Noah.

" It's me Avril." She said, eventually narrowing down the places Noah could be to one. Noah was good at illusions but Avril was trained to see through them.

" Avril? You can't be her. Go away." Noah sounded both sad and desperately making Avril's heart ache, a feeling she was becoming very familiar with.

" Clover always said if she were to get in trouble for us to stick together." Avril reminded, and she saw Noah's illusion ripple.

" Where is Clover?" Noah asked. Avril bit her lip to the point of bleeding, she didn't want to tell Noah, he was closer to Clover than she was, but it would be cruel to hide the truth.

" Clover is ..." Avril hesitated, she couldn't get the words to leave her mouth. She didn't want to believe it, she didn't want to admit it. She still didn't understand what happened, so there is the chance, the dream was wrong. No, it was a dream so there was no way it was correct.

" Clover ..." Avril took a deep breath before continuing. " Clover is dead."

Noah's illusion broke and what was left behind was two wide red eyes, tears building in their corners.

" Your lying right?" Noah begged

Avril just shook her head she wanted to cry but she couldn't any longer.

" No, Clover, Thomas, Lucy. They're all gone." Avril then pulled Noah into a hug. " I don't know what happened, I ... I don't understand, why did this have to happen."

Noah didn't answer he just clutched onto Avril and they sat together in pain until they both fell asleep.

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Waking up Avril stretched letting out a little yawn. She was feeling better than the night before, but it still hurt thinking about her friends so she tried to distract herself. She was too preoccupied with everything yesterday to understand what all changed with her. She knew she had claws and a tail but she didn't know what he looked like.

Noah stirred awake moments after Avril and crawled into her lap trying to maintain the warmth he felt previously.

" Good morning Noah." Avril whispered while gently caressing the little fox's head. Noah's head leaned into her hand.

" Morning Avril." Noah yawned. Stretching and hopping out of Avril's lap before shaking to wake himself up completely.

"How did you sleep?" Avril asked, she was happy Noah seemed to be doing ok. She was worried he would be scared like when Clover first disappeared.

" It wasn't the best, but it was better because your here."

" Hey, Avril?" Noah asked

" Hmm?"

" Why do you look so different?" Noah asked.

" How so?" Avril asked. She too was curious about her appearance but she couldn't really look at herself. " Oh, Noah think you can turn into me, so I can see what your talking about?"

" Sure!" Noah jumped back to get a good look at Avril before a plume of smoke shrouded him before dissipating revealing a clone of Avril.

Avril looked at herself in disbelief. She about the same height, and the facial structure was the same, indicating that she was indeed looking at herself, however a black horn stuck out of the right side of her head, and two smaller red horns were located just above her eyebrows. Her hair had become white with a faint pink tint, and she was wearing an unfamiliar dress. Instinctively pulling at her own clothes, she realized those too were apart of her, and she didn't know how to take it off.

The dress was purely black reaching about to her mid thigh, and had long sleeves that were covered by what appeared to be white gloves with spiked and tattered ends that reached to her biceps, and ended in black fingered Claws. Her legs also looked like there were covered completely by black stockings and high socks covering her legs entirely. Her feet were similar to her hands, having morphed into a more sleek claw like shape. The Dress was complemented with small black and white bows decorating the bottom, as a larger scarf like bow that was half red and half blue was wrapped around her neck complementing her eyes that had been split in much the same way. Her left was a red eye that was covered by her bangs, and her right was a blue eye.

Avril stared as she carefully traced over each area she looked at with her hand to ensure Noah wasn't playing with her. Avril found the person in front of her stunning. She was beautiful, but she was also undeniably a monster.

" See, what I mean?" Noah turned back after a while, but Avril just stood dumbfounded at what she had just saw.

" Is that really me? No that's not possible, I know what I look like and that's not it." Avril denied. shaking her head.

"No, way!" Noah gasped in amazement. "Since when could you transform?"

" What?" Avril asked seeing her hands out of the corner of her eye, they were back to normal. This startled her causing them to fade back.

" And it's gone." Noah said disappointedly.

" What just happened?" Avril voiced aloud.

" You made an illusion!" Noah happily yipped

Suddenly a distant scream interrupted the two. Noah Jumped into Avril's arms as a shiver climbed up her spine. The scream sounded awfully human.