Chapter Thirty Six: Internal Affairs.

"these things tear up my soul... ripping it to shreds..."

-Beta.

Sillias and Kori sprinted after the royal-looking wolf and his knights within the castle.
"Get back here!!" Kori yelled and haphazardly shot at his target with a pistol, only to have the bricks in the walls launch out to intecept.
Sillias growled and smashed each one as it flew at them, making Kori realise his errors and aimed properly, the fennec succeeded in grazing Beta's shoulders with a bullet each.
Beta yowled in pain and kept running, conjouring up walls and traps behind himself, Cobalt, and Silver.
Sillias and Kori avoided them easily and kept on his trail.
Cobalt stopped and turned, raising his longsword "go! I'll buy you time!"
Kori clashed with Cobalt while Sillias followed Beta and Silver.

meanwhile, Uron/USM was outside controlling his faceless soldiers.
the mongoose laughed evilly as his monsters decimated his creator's Astral Projections, reducing them to smoke as they were destroyed.
"these toys are no fun to play with."

suddenly, he heard an angry yell from the gate
"it's USM!! he's there!!"
he turned to see the three who'd followed him back from the future charging toward him.
Uron cursed and ran for the castle, destroying many Astral knights in the proccess.

---

Alpha saw the bleach-white mongoose run into the castle "leave him to me," he growled "I'll save myself from him."
Alpha's eyes narrowed and he took off, bulleting after the mongoose, Lightningblazer right behind him.

at the sight of the angry lupine, the Astral knights fought harder, starting to destroy some of the faceless.
Benson caught a scent and snarled "Kori-!"

as the others fought back alongside the Astral knights, Syrus and Carl made their way inside the castle with Kevin and Oriado. they'd been given the task of finding Beta himself, but the trail of destruction Alpha had left made finding which way to go quite easy.

they found Alpha's ally, Lightningblazer, fighting alongside a projection of himself against Benson's stepbrother, just as the fox came in behind them.
"he went on ahead!" Lightningblazer told them as he clashed with the fennec "go, hurry!"
everyone but Benson continued on, the fox stayed to fight the fennec.
Lightningblazer and Cobalt stepped back, the two vulpines staring eachother down.
Benson's dark augment activated, his eyes changing; yellow irises, purple sclerae, red pupils.
Kori closed his eyes, three copies of himself emerging from his body. one looked psychotic, with a huge grin and superwide eyes and tiny irises and pupils, one wore a monocle and carried a large book, looking quite scholarly, and the third one wore an innocent smile and was just a cub.
Kori's other personalities; Psycho, Wise, and Fun.

Psycho and Kori rushed the other fox while Fun and Wise engaged Lightningblazer and Cobalt.
the latter was mostly a grappling, while the former was a full-on brawl.
the three of them were fighting brutally; biting, clawing and punching at each other like animals.
Benson's eyes flashed, and a fireball engulfed Psycho, leaving the fox grappling with his stepbrother alone.
the two vulpines fought savagely, bringing the fighting between the other group to a standstill as they leapt out of the foxes' way.
Kori's maw snapped shut on Benson's shoulder, while he in return dug his claws into the flesh behind the fennec's left ear.
Kori's white eyes glared into Benson's dark ones, both of them snarling.
suddenly, Kori looked to be in pain.
behind them, Lightningblazer and Cobalt had impaled the other two personalities of the fennec.
Kori's jaw trembled and gave, his body lost strength and the fennec dropped to the floor in pain.
Benson's eyes normalised "Kori?" he asked warily.

the fennec muttered something and lost consiousness, a device on his belt activated and then Kori was gone.

---

up ahead, Beta was still fleeing from Sillias.
he looked frightenedly at Silver, wishing desperately that the Astral projection could have been tre wolf he shared the visage of... that person would surely know what to do at this moment.
"Silver," Beta said as he looked away "try and stop him!"
the knight turned to face the red canine as Beta ran away (I can't watch this, I have to get away!!) Beta thought as he wrenched his eyes closed and shut out the sound of Silver crying out in pain (he's not real, it's not actually him, I have to remember that!).

Sillias was easily defeating the grey wolf-knight, it wasn't that skilled with its blade, but every so often that blade nicked his arms and body... so this adversary had some skill, just not a few centuries worth like Sillias himself.

the kinght straightened up and put a metre between them "you're good. I doubt I will win."
Sillias raised an eyebrow "you givin' up?"
the wolf shook his head "no, my master didn't know the person he based me off as well as he did for Cobalt... ergo; I'm not too strong."
a black shape flew past, making Silver grin as Alpha stood beside him with a surprised look.
"it... it can't be...?" Alpha gawked.
"it isn't," Silver said to Alpha but looked at Sillias "I'm just an astral projection that looks like him".
the brown wolf nodded in understanding "where's Beta?"
"up ahead, frightened. the white one is very close to him."
Alpha cursed and ran.

Sillias rolled his eyes "won't get far seein' as you're doing this badly."

Silver chuckled "maybe, but I differ from regular projections."
"how?"
Silver's smile turned vicious.

"because..." he practically growled "I was made as a decoy for the REAL Silver kinght!"
as he said it, a silver sword thrust out of Sillias' chest from behind.
where the real Silver was.
the decoy evaporated, it's purpose served.
"Damn you!!" Sillias snarled.

Silver gave a small grin "now our real fight begins."

---

Uron had cornered Beta in the tower; his bedchambers.
"no escape now, my creator, I shall kill you and take your physical shell for myself!"
Beta cowered "no, get the hell away from me!" he thrust out his paws and a volley of bricks shot out of the wall at the mongoose, who simply touched them and absorbed them.
"your death is inevitable, creator. accept it and we can do without a drawn-out futility."

"Beta!"

the wolf went wide-eyed as Alpha burst in and leapt between his counterpart and Uron.
he was followed almost immediately by Syrus, Carl, Kevin, and Oriado.
Beta blinked quickly "you... you're all...?"
Alpha nodded "we're here to save you."
the two wolves exhanged looks and then both stepped forward to face Uron together.
"Alpha, he's strong... I'm not sure we can beat him."
the other wolf raised an eyebrow "not 'we', but perhaps 'I'?"
"or 'I', either way."
everyone was confused as the two lupines grabbed eachother and glowed brightly.
they spoke some kind of incantation.
"you are me and I am you, we are two halves, this much is true..."
"I will give the body," said Beta.
"and I bequeath my soul to you." Alpha added.
"and to the third, not me or you, I bestow our power... power from both me and you!"

black and gold energy whipped around them, a bolt of silver light erupting from them into the sky and vanishing.
the energy coccooned them, and then the crysalis opened...

and there stood only one wolf; wearing a black jacket and black jeans and carrying what appeared to be a handgun in his paws.
"B...Beta?" Carl asked.
"Alpha?" Oriado wondered.
the wolf shook his head "Bastion."
the wolf quickly fired off a few shots at Uron before Sillias showed up.
"of course, Beta's projections will vanish now that he's gone." the wolf commented, and the castle began to collapse.
Bastion formed a slide down from he window and the others escaped, but he took a look at Sillias before he left.
"Sillias."
"yeah?"
"destruction doesn't bring happiness to the departed."

and then he used the slide.

---

the group all reassembled in what had been the courtyard.
congratulations were going around, and 'Bastion' was talking with Lightningblazer.
but Carl couldn't shake an odd feeling nagging at him.
Syrus seemed carefree, but the feeling persisted.
"Carl? you okay?"
the leopard stayed alert "i've got this... feeling..."
Bastion's ears perked "anyone else hear that?"
everyone listened, but heard nothing.
until...

in a flash, the sound of steel on bone, the noise of meat tearing... a pained scream.
it was Uron, sword in his graps, and the blade of his weapon imbedded in an unintended target.
the mongoose growled "I was aiming for the otter."
Carl choked, coughing up blood.
it was him that the blade had pierced.

Bastion shot at Uron, who abandonned the sword and escaped.
the wolf told everyone to link up, and a light flashed.

everyone came to in the real world, but Carl was struggling to breathe; the astral attack had damaged his physical body.
Syrus held him to his chest, holding him protectively "Carl!!! C'mon stay awake, don't close your eyes! stay with me!"
everyone rushed over, especially Radin.
'Bastion', now in the body of Beta, recapped what had happened.
all eyes went to Ian and both Velians.
they shook their heads sadly.
"I can't use that power on somebody more than once." Ian admitted.
Carl wheezed with difficulty.
Syrus hugged him close "Carl, why'd you do that?" he sobbed "I didn't ask you to!"
the leopard struggled to speak "I... already told... you... y-you're more.... important... to me... than anything... in the world. just like... the first time... this happened..."
everyone hung their heads, painfully aware of the truth presenting itself to them.

Carl was dying.

(Next Chapter: Agonofinis)