Knight of the Moon:Chapter 39

Chapter 39
Temptation

(Sonic's POV)
(The next day after the arena event. Almost nightfall.)

Pain. Never in my life have I ached in so many places and even some places I didn't even know I had! I was barely conscious at the moment as two soldiers drug me through the dungeon corridors to my "special" cell. The claws on my feet, if you could call them that anymore, scraped along the rock floor making a dull scratching sound. My eyelids flickered a little as one of the humans opened the cell door; I wasn't even in it yet and already I could feel the burning sensation beginning to kick in. Without warning, I was hurled headlong into the cell, grunting as my head knocked into the cold stone. I felt like my whole body had become feverish as the proximity to the silver began to affect me. Perhaps I should mention that the bars of my cell were made entirely of silver. There was one wall made of heavy stone and it had a small window in it, but the other three sides were solid silver bars that ran from ceiling to floor.  The front side had a heavy silver barred gate that the guards had just shut.

Both soldiers were laughing as they watched my broken body try and rise from the ground. "Only first class accommodations for royalty!" teased one of them, I was too tired to find out who.

My top lip had been split from the impact and I spat out a gob of blood that had pooled in my mouth. The cut quickly healed over. Wiping a hand over my face to clean off the blood, I rolled around to get a better look at the two rebels. "Hey…plenty of room in here for the three of us! Why don't you…aggh…come on in. You all belong in cages anyways." The rebels scowled at me and I allowed a small grin to touch my face…then regretted it as pain spiked through my brain. I was so sore that I couldn't even get off one of my taunting smiles!

I saw one of the soldiers move towards the wall and seize a spear I'd come to know very well during the course of the day. I tried to back away against the stonewall, but that burned even worse. Apparently the blocks of stone had silver or something hidden inside of it. This only made the human smile, just before he jabbed me with the spear. Its silver tip bit into my left side drawing more of that grey blood, which spilled out onto the stone. "Gaaahh!" I cried out clutching at my side.

"Not so smart mouthed now are we," snapped the human.

"Aren't you just the big tough guy," grunted Sonic as the wound continued to bleed. "Poking a small little hedgehog that can't defend himself. HA! Some soldier you are."

My prodding earned me another stab with the spear this time I dodged the blow aimed for my arm…and instead ended up with it grazing across my forehead. "Yeeooww! Okay that one hurt a little bit."

"You want another one hedgehog?" threatened the human.

The other human tapped the spear-wielder, "Ease up Brenden. The Doctor wants him in one piece." Reluctantly this Brenden pulled the spear back through the bars and leaned it up against the wall.

I let out tiny sigh of relief but I didn't let them see it because I was still trying to keep up the tough guy routine. Before they left though, Brenden moved over to a large sack that had been sitting near the doorway. A wonderful scent passed into my nose and I found myself being drawn towards the bag, or at least until I got to close to the silver bars. There was no way I could mistake the smell of meat. Sure enough, Brenden pulled a large slab of beef from the bag and waved it teasingly in the air even blowing on it to waft more of its scent in my direction.

"Smells good don't it?" coaxed Brenden.

My tongue ran out over my lips and hung there in the open while a thin stream of drool trailed down from my mouth. "Uhh-huh," I whined softly. I'm sure I must have looked and sounded like some kinda idiot but give me a break, I was starving!

"Here ya go beasty!" The man under-hand tossed it in my direction.

Not even caring about the silver, I rushed to the bars and reached out for the flying meat. It fell just inches away from my hands. Falling to my knees, I reached out through the bars trying to snag a corner of it. The fur along my arms started to burn from being to close to the silver.  At last I couldn't ignore the pain any longer and I pulled back still eyeing the steak hungrily.

Brenden adopted a totally fake sympathetic smile. "Oh my, I seem to have thrown it a little short…oh well!' His tone suddenly became much more happy as a sinister smile split his pale face.

I growled. "Oh you were throwing it? I'm a little surprised you could toss it more than a meter." It was a weak comeback I'll admit but right now all I could think about was that meat sitting just out of my reach. This was all part of Eggman's little torture plan.

Brenden and the other guard keeled over with hearty laughter as they took a sick pleasure in watching me suffer. If only these blasted bars were made of steel I'm sure I could use one to tie around both of their skimpy little necks. I  shuffled my butt over until I was huddled up in the center of the cage. Even this wasn't a perfect spot though, the bars were still close enough to cause me some discomfort but not close enough to damage me. Another one of Eggman's ideas I'm sure. Having nothing else to do, I closed my eyes and tried to avoid thinking about how my first day as Eggman's prisoner had been.

I'd woken up in this same cell staring up at the moldy ceiling. Glancing down at my body told me two things; it was day already and I'd slept through the transformation, second thing was that I'd mutated even more. My feet didn't quite look normal anymore; they still resembled the paws of a wolf. Added to that, when I stood up I noticed I was now around four feet tall and my muscles had bulged out even more. I started to wonder If I'd keep changing until I was stuck in my werehog form 24/7 but I remembered that Caliburn had said the mutations would eventually stop…but when? I really missed my old body. Well, the next things I spotted were the arrow shafts still stuck in my chest and the silver barbs stuck in my arms and legs. The wounds had tried healing around the arrows so those were a little painful to pull out, but the barbs…now those things hurt like hell! Trying to get a grip on them was painful because they were silver. Also, when I removed them, those things tore out chunks of flesh and hide with them leaving gaping holes in my body where blood oozed out. Silver wounds don't heal as fast as if those barbs had been made of regular metal. Once the arrows were out of me, those injuries healed right up leaving me feeling at least somewhat better. When I trusted my strength enough to try and move around, I immediately set to work on finding a weakness in my cell. I made one attempt at trying to bend the silver bars and quickly discovered that it was stupid to even try. So I ended up sitting in the middle of the cell just waiting to find out what the Egghead had in store for me. Knowing him like I did I knew I wouldn't be waiting long. Sure enough, not ten minutes later four soldiers showed up and opened my cell door. I briefly considered making a run for it then scratched that idea once I saw that they were all armed with silver short swords. Two of the men cuffed my legs and my wrists. One of them shoved me forwards; the chains on my ankles didn't let me move my feet to stop the fall so I ended up on my face.

I pushed myself off the stone floor but couldn't get back on my feet because of those shackles. "Hey, buddy…you put these on a little tight. Do you mind loosening them a bit so I can walk?" I didn't quite get the answer I was looking for. He spat on me.

Another guard moved up and kicked me in the side. Those defensive instincts took over before I could stop them. I lashed out with my hands trying to cut his leg clean off with those claws I was now stuck with. I did manage to bring myself back under control but it took a lota effort on my part. That little reaction earned me another kick in my ribs. I knew it was coming so this time I was able to keep my instincts under wraps although if I didn't have these chains on, I would've happily shredded all of them. My stomach gurgled. God I'm hungry! Maybe these fellas are taking me to breakfast, I hoped. Since I couldn't walk, one of the guards had to carry me cradled in his arms. Being the smart aleck I was I couldn't resist the opportunity to give him some hell. I whistled in amazement. "Wow, usually when I go on a date, I carry the girl…not the other way around." The human didn't say anything but judging by the look on his face I knew I'd scored a hit.
They took me through the tunnels of the dungeon until we reached a really gloomy section of the tunnel. I really didn't like the looks of this place and it got worse when we stopped at a heavy steel door. A guard knocked four times on the metal and the door swung open as if on its own accord. The man carrying me walked in and chills ran along my spine as I got a better look at the room and immediately wished I hadn't. Various torture machines lined the walls; I saw one of those Iron Maiden things, a stretcher table, and other things that looked just plain evil. Yet the man took me into the center of the dimly lit room and dropped me there. All four men then grabbed chains that were lying attached to the floor. Once again I found myself chained up except unlike Tails, these guys weren't really worried about how tight the cuffs on me were. They'd clamped them on my limbs and made sure that the steel bit into my skin. Satisfied with my obvious pain, the four men moved over to a shelf. From my little spot on the floor, I couldn't see what they were getting. They turned around to show me exactly what they had in store for this hedgehog. Each one of them bore a long whip. My jaw just about fell off, making one of the men laugh. For added measure, he cracked the leather whip taking a twisted pleasure out of watching me squirm in my chains. The rebels circled around me…and then it began.

I don't know how long or how many times I felt the red-hot sting of their whips. All I remember is blacking out around twenty or so. Of course as soon as the first strike hit my back, I lost all control over myself and I went animal again. I was lunging at each man in turn as they struck at me. To be honest, I had no intention of stopping myself if I got loose. I wanted to kill all four of them. But the chains held and I was forced to endure what seemed like and endless session of torture. Every strike parted the flesh from my back. Those wounds then healed right before the next whip split open another spot on me, then that one would heal and so went the never-ending cycle. After the whips came the "interrogation." But I swiftly figured out that they weren't much interested in what I was saying and were more interested in beating the tar outa me. I sorta lost track of what happened after that. My growing hunger coupled with all of this abuse had brought me into an uncontrollable rage that woke up the little beasty side of me. All I remember is transforming into my half werewolf form…again and trying with every fiber of my being to devour the rebels that were tormenting me. My memory picks up again once they started stabbing me with the big fricking spear that I mentioned earlier. I'd spent most of the day in an instinct driven rage. Like Caliburn had told me a few days ago, the longer I use my werewolf abilities, the faster it burns me out. Soon I'd become to tired to do much more than growl at my torturers. I needed food to restore that lost energy, but by the time the soldiers had become bored with watching me suffer breakfast and lunch had come…and gone. They had no intention of feeding me. Now I'll admit I'm not a thinker, more of a doer; still it didn't take an idiot to figure out what Eggman had in store for me. He's going to starve me out so that the next time he puts Merlina and I in that arena…I'll eat her without a second thought. This torture is probably just another way of bringing out my animal side. Well the beast was acting up more and more now so he was doing a good job of it. The soldiers let me sit tight for awhile as they ate at a bench just out of reach; some of them would wave food at me. At first I could ignore it, but then I just couldn't hold off my cravings any longer. They had me lunging for the small table scraps. Every time I jumped, the chains would catch and I'd land hard on my head…or my butt….my shoulder…yada yada yada. In other words, by the end of their lunch, I was hurtin bad, and the humans' sides were aching from laughing so much. Lucky for me they weren't sore enough to give up on the torture. Here's where I blacked out for a while as my werewolf side took over. By the time I woke up again, the early pains of my transformation were starting to kick in as the soldier dragged my limp body back to that cell. So that was my day.

Just thinking about it all was making me hurt all over again even though most of the wounds had closed up. Except for the ones dealt by that damned silver spear. I wasn't going to bother with comforting myself; there weren't any delusions in my mind about it being better tomorrow. This torture and starvation were going to continue until I either killed Merlina or the werewolf finally took me over. Unfortunately, that second part was coming faster now. Already I could feel it hanging over my head like a shadow just waiting for an opportunity to sneak into my brain. Knock it off, I told myself, I'm not giving up yet. I closed my eyes as exhaustion swept over my battered form. Personally, I didn't think a stone floor could be this comfortable, but I was beyond caring about anything at this point. I just needed to rest.


"You're in sad shape, little anthro," chuckled a deep voice.

My eyelids snapped open as a cold tingle ran along the length of my back. I know that voice. And it wasn't someone I was to happy to see back. It didn't take me long to realize that I was stuck in another one of my dreams. Darkness surrounded my while thin wispy shadows drifted around me. Two emerald eyes burned through the shadows, and a trace of humor flickered behind them; all though that flicker was nearly drowned out by the pure rage I saw there. "I've already told you once, get outa my head!"

Out of the black stepped the opposite me. He'd changed more since the last time I'd seen him. His fur was nearly dark grey now and was thicker throughout his body. Sharp claws extended from the were-Sonic's fingers. His back legs resembled a wolf's; the feet were paws and the ankles were stretched back while his knees were locked forward. Lean muscle rippled across his body. My double smiled through the shadows, displaying four long fangs. "Like it or not, anthro…I'm here to stay." He stepped casually closer to me as I lay prone on the misty ground. "Kinda like how you're going to stay in that cell for the rest of your life."

"I'll find a way out," I grunted shortly. The last thing I wanted to do right now was listen to this thing.

The thing laughed. "Not without my help."
I sat up sharply glaring daggers at him. "I've gotten outa stuff like this before…and that was without being a werewolf. I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"

He clucked his tongue in disappointment and his face adopted a fake stricken expression as if I'd actually hurt his feelings. "A little aggressive are we?"

Okay maybe yelling at him had been a little over the top, but I couldn't stop myself. I wanted this guy and this curse gone.

"We are more alike than you know, Sonic. Even more so now," he whispered while leaning over me.

Standing up, I locked my eyes on him and stepped in close so that my face was inches from his. "We are nothing alike! You've tried killing my friends and others just for the fun of it!"

"HA! That's all you Sonic. I don't really exist so you can't pin your guilt on me," he said. Were-Sonic paced around in front of me slowly, never breaking eye contact. "I don't really exist. You still think of this curse as a separate being living inside so your mind has created me to be the animal side of you. I'm the little devil on your shoulder whispering things into your mind….or at least that's what you've made me into. Like it or not Sonic, this curse is part of you. All those things that happened at night were done by you and no else."

I scowled at him. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. But still…"I didn't mean to hurt anyone."

"You gave into your desires, Sonic. This curse has granted you power beyond anything you've ever had at your disposal. You've tasted this and…you've liked it," he cooed.

"NO!" I stepped back from him. "I didn't…I…."

"It feels good doesn't it? All that strength…the raw power that you can channel. You like it, Sonic," said the double.

I didn't say anything. Something inside of me still wanted to argue his point, but the other part of me knew it was true. I'd already given into my instincts before and I would do it again. That rush of energy I felt was like some kind of drug. I couldn't get enough of it! Ashamed of my own thoughts, I tried to shut them out.

The Were-Sonic broke into a wicked laughter, knowing that I couldn't counter him. Suddenly, he doubled over groaning in pain. Disturbingly enough though, he was still laughing as his spine snapped arching upwards. Now I've seen myself transform to an extent, but it really is something entirely different now that I could watch it without having to go through it. I have to admit, it was kinda disgusting. His bones were poking against his skin as they grew accompanied by all manner of horrible sounds including some I didn't know a body could physically make. Within a minute or so, a massive werehog stood before me his barrel like chest shaking as his gruff laughter continued. I tried to get away from the beast, but my legs were moving in slow motion. His hand reached out and seized me by the throat.

"Weakling," he snorted before slamming me into the cloud-like ground. I quickly found that although it looked soft, it wasn't. Something cracked in my leg, but nothing was broken…he wasn't trying to kill me; the werehog was just screwing with me. "This is what you're missing out on, Sonic." He kicked me in the side and I felt the air being driven from my body.

Anger took over and I spun on the spot aiming a return kick for his shin hoping to topple him. The werehog didn't even try to avoid it. I caught him just below the knee with my foot, putting all of my momentum and strength into it…he didn't even wince.

"Ah! I struck a nerve. Nice try by the way, but if you were attempting to hurt me, you've failed miserably. Now it's my turn," he growled happily. The werehog swung his right arm down at an angle directing his curved claws right at my face. There wasn't' anytime for me to react. At the last millisecond, he adjusted his slash and instead of cleaving off half of my face, only one of his claws raked me across my scalp. I know this is a dream but that hurt! Crying out in pain, I fell rolled to my side cupping one hand over the wound. "You sicken me, anthro," it snarled. "You've been blessed and yet you fight against the power I can offer you!"

I propped myself up on one arm fixing the werehog with another glare. "Like what? There's nothing you can offer that I want."

The werehog said nothing for a little while and I thought that maybe I'd gotten him to give up. Then he changed the subject. "If you would've just killed that girl we wouldn't be stuck in this damned cell slowly starving to death. We would be free!"

"Killing Merlina wouldn't have solved anything. If you're so much a part of me as you say, you'd know that Eggman wouldn't have let us go," I retorted. The werehog smiled at my response. At first I didn't get what he was so happy about…until I though about what I'd said. Us? I realized that I'd just referred to him an me as the same. I hurried to correct myself. "He wouldn't have let ME go!"

He didn't say anything, but the look on his face told me that he'd heard it, too. "You may be right. In that case it's more of your so-called friends fault that we are wasting away in here."

"They did what I told them to do. The prisoners are free, I'm sure they cut apart a ton of Eggie's soldiers, and they all got away in one piece," I responded. A drop of blood ran down my face and into the corner of my eye. It stung briefly before I could wipe it away.

"And they also left us here to rot."

"There's no way they could've rescued me without getting caught in the process."

The werehog dropped to one knee and looked me straight in the eye. I could almost feel those emerald orbs digging into my soul. "That's what you're telling yourself, Sonic. Think about it. Your knights boast about being the best of the best. Shouldn't they have been able to tear apart any guards that stood between them and saving you? Hell, they could've brought Eggman to you tied and bound while they were at it!"

A small worm of doubt began to squirm in my brain. "I'm sure they tried too…" my voice trailed off. In fact I had been thinking about that. Lancelot could've easily cut down a hundred soldiers before he even broke a sweat. Not many of Egghead's rebels could've held off Percival either. I shook off those feelings knowing that the werehog was just trying to make me resentful towards them. "They were probably just trying to get the slaves out."

"So the slaves are more important then their king?" he inquired.

"I…"

"They left you behind Sonic."

"No! There had to have been some reason behind it!" I yelled back. But even to my ears it sounded as if I were trying to come up with that reason myself. I wanted to believe that they hadn't left me here on purpose.

"You're too dangerous now Sonic. They don't trust you anymore." The werehog was circling me now gently whispering every word to make sure I could hear him.

"Shut up…" I said quietly trying to ignore him. A part of me though had begun to listen to his words…even agreeing with him.

The werehog pressed on. "You heard what Caliburn said…" The darkness in front of me formed into a solid shape that materialized into the talking sword.

"We'd have to kill him," said the sword. "Sonic can not be allowed to spread his curse!"

Doubt now had a solid foothold in my head. I didn't process the fact that the werehog was purposely manipulating my memories.

Percival appeared next to me suddenly, I jumped a little.

The shadowy Percival spoke, "There is no cure for this…disease."

Lancelot's face leered out of the darkness filled with contempt. "I will never bow to a monster."

Gawain's shadow formed behind me practically yelling into my ears. "He's out of control!"

I swiped at Gawain's shadow. "Shut up!" The figure vanished and I took of running to get away from those things. A rumbling laughter filled my ears as I made a break for it. As I was running, Tails appeared next to me floating along just as fast I as could run.


"You aren't Sonic anymore. Sonic is dead," hissed Tails. The word dead echoed several times. I swatted at and the shape exploded into trails of smoke. Yet even with him gone, his words along with all of the others continued to whisper into my ears. If I wasn't already crazy this was gonna do it. I ran faster, trying to get away from everything…there had to be an end to this darkness! But, the blackness of this nightmare was never-ending. A swarm of smoke figures surrounded me, keeping pace with my super speed. They were the villagers of that town I'd destroyed. Pitchforks, torches, and other nasty looking tools were wielded by the angry anthros.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" chanted the shadow villagers.

It didn't matter how fast I ran, they never left my side and neither did the voices, which were screaming in my ears at an unbearable level. Over all the hissing, whispering, and yelling, I could hear the now insane laughter of the werehog coming from all around me. "Leave me alone!" I screamed into the darkness.  The shadows continued their taunts and the figures of all my knights, Tails, and even Caliburn had joined in with the group.

"KILL HIM!" "There is no cure…" "Out of control!" "I will never bow to a monster." "Sonic is dead…dead…dead…" "We'd have to kill him." "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" "Can't be allowed to spread his plague." "KILL HIM!"

"SHUT UP!" Distracted by all of the sounds and my own anger, I missed my footing. I tripped and skidded for a long ways on my face before coming to a stop. Slowly, I lifted myself off the ground to find a set of immense paws standing right in front of me. Raising my gaze, I found myself staring into the emerald eyes of the werehog. All of the voices and figures were gone; without all that racket, the silence was overwhelming…until he spoke.

"Face it Sonic, you're friends abandoned you," he said.

I shook my head trying to deny it. But part of me was already wondering if the werehog was right. Those shadows…is that really what my friends and everyone else thought of me?

"They're afraid of you and what you could become," he continued, "you've heard what they've said and what they planned to do…to kill us."

"No! That's a lie!" I argued.

"Oh really? Caliburn let that Garen kill himself because he didn't want another werewolf infestation. And what are you now?"

"Garen did it himself!"

"And Caliburn didn't stop him…did he."

I couldn't answer that. No. Caliburn didn't try and stop him. He let Garen die…

The werehog had begun circling me again slowly. "Maybe your friends can't bring themselves to kill us. Instead we get left behind for Eggman to finish off. Convenient, don't' you think?" The werehog paused for a moment. "Hell, Caliburn may have even told them to leave us behind."

Again I shook my head, but not as confidently this time. "I was the one that came up with the plan for the rescue…Caliburn stayed behind."

"Yes he did, but who's to say that he didn't give your knights his own little plan before they left?"

There came that doubt again; even stronger now.

"Why do you continue to trust your friends when they obviously don't trust you?" asked the werehog. "Personally I find no use for friends other than entertainment."

"I don't blame them for that. I've nearly killed Tails on several occasions, Percival twice, and Lancelot as well because I can't control my…urges… my needs." I had nearly whispered that last word ashamed to even admit that I absolutely needed to kill now, it wasn't just an urge now.

"If it's control you want…I can give it too you."

Immediately, my attention was caught. "How?" I asked quickly not really caring any longer that I was listening to him.

"All you have to do is give into your instincts. Let them guide you," he instructed.

"Whoa hold on a second…It's those instincts that have gotten me into trouble! Giving into them isn't going to give me control; if anything, it'll take away what little control I have!"

"The reason you lack control is because you're afraid to delve to far into your new abilities. By fighting against your instincts, you're only making it worse," he said. "Quit fighting it and you'll find that you've barely tapped into the many benefits of your gift."

I gotta admit, he made a good point. Fighting against this curse was so hard, and It was burning me out. Now here this thing was telling me that there was a way to get a better handle on myself…but what if giving in allows the werewolf side to take over?

The werehog ceased his circling and frowned at me. "Why do you hesitate, this is what you want isn't it?"

"Yeah but…"

He snarled in frustration. "You're still worried about your friends that left you behind…the ones that want you dead because of what you are now!"

"I…" My comebacks were getting weaker.  Why am I trying to defend them? I'll have to endure hell for the foreseeable future because they abandoned me. You know what; I'll bet anything that Lancelot got the others to leave. Tails didn't even try to help! My expression changed from defiance, to anger. He's right. True friends would have done whatever they could have to rescue me and I'd have done the same for them. Instead I get stabbed in the back and left to take the fall!

The werehog's muzzle opened into wicked smile, displaying his rows of sharpened teeth. "That's it! Let your instincts drive your strength…allow them to guide you. We'll get out of this damned cell and feast on that arrogant human's corpse. Then we'll show Camelot why we're king here!" he roared triumphantly. "No one can stand in our way once we show them what true power is. The knights will serve…or die as payment for betraying us to the rebels."

My blood was pumping fast and hard throughout my body. I could feel a new sense of energy coursing to every square inch of me as if I'd just downed several cans of soda. Yes! I'll show Caliburn what happens when you backstab a werewolf. I'll show all of them! Glancing upwards from my position of the ground. I saw the werehog holding out his hand in a gesture of truce.

"Give into your instincts…and become one with me. You've only sampled your strength…stop fighting it and you'll have access to more power than you could ever imagine. Is it better to be loved…or to be feared? Love will only get you so far. Fear on the other hand is eternal! Just take my hand," he coaxed.

A vicious smile spread across my face. I've been the good little hero for so long now and for what? I save some people who then turn on me because of what I am now. Still, a small warning light flickered in my head. This is what Nimue had warned me about. The curse was getting stronger as it continued to corrupt my soul. If I give into it…this thing might just take over the rest of me leaving behind only a monster. It would destroy any chance I still had of being cured. But do I want to be cured?  People fear and respect my space now. There's so much that this gift can offer me! A steely determination settled into my eyes as I made up my mind. Bracing myself with one arm, I reached up for the werehog's hand.