Father & Son 5: Shards Of A Color Drained World

Crowns Of Hope

"Shit! Everyone get down!" Dark screamed as the boat was sent flying by the shockwave brought by Orchid.

Dark couldn't even remember screaming before he was plunged into dark, cold water.

God, it was so dark and cold.

His body feels light against the water surrounding him, almost as if he's falling.

It feels so much like he's falling, it's hard to contrast the feeling of sinking to the bottom of the ocean and the feeling of falling.

Either way, he fights to keep himself from having to feel it any longer.

Eventually, he gives up on trying to resurface, and his body grows weak.

Suddenly, the world goes dark, but he still feels conscious.

Almost as if everything's been vacuumed into a black void.

Now, the falling feeling takes over his body before he hits the ground.

A jolt of pain shoots through his body, worse than the injuries sustained during the recent battle.

"Ow..."

His whole body ached from the battle, and the subsequent fall only Alan knows who put him through.

He stared at the black abyss he hated, despite him not being in it all that often.

He knows Purple's seen the black void that he's grown to hate, because he never can expect what's in it.

But Purple's been in the void enough to know that it usually brings out whatever they fear the most.

Dark hates to think about whatever the hell he fears the most, but all he can really decide is it involves Chosen.

God, seeing Chosen in danger already hurts to think about, but seeing Chosen in the void where he'll be forced to confront the parts of his life he fears the most about resurfacing, if they even involve Chosen, hurts more.

Hurting Chosen because of the ViraBands.

Almost losing Chosen to Navy.

Abandoning Chosen and letting him die.

For all he knew, Chosen was in this mess because of him.

"God damn it, Dark! Your best friend is out there dying because of you!" Dark snapped at himself.

Something in the back of his head told him it wasn't his fault, as if he cared.

He blamed himself for Chosen's situation, whether it was his fault or not.

Everything that put Chosen in a dangerous situation, he was blaming himself because for all he knew, he could've prevented it.

"God damn it, Dark. It's all your fault that Chosen's in this mess! If you had just-"

Dark stops himself from saying anything else to himself before trying to think positive. Maybe he could rescue Chosen. Maybe he could apologize for putting him in these stupid situations because he can't fix things like this on his own.

Hell, this isn't even his problem! It wasn't his problem, but he just had to get involved, and doing so nearly killed Chosen more times he can count!

And then he had to be stupid and go self-sacrificial on him, and almost got himself killed right afterward!

God, he was lucky to have survived.

"I'm so sorry, Chosen..."

It's all his fault, isn't it.