Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 7: Inner Darkness

(Artwork is done by AI. It is Reed. Also Reed has red eyes and the AI got the eyes wrong. Lastlt he has a short pony tail.)

Narration: After our heros opened the door,
they found themselves in the actual garden part,
and while it was beautiful to see every plant, flower,
and tree type known to man,
a dense fog soon swept its way in.
Little did they know this would be the one and only trial of the garden. 
The twins immediately noticed something was off and returned inside of Selena as per their contract.
They have no physical body anymore and are tethered to Selena's body,
so if she dies,
then all three of them die.
Everyone's body began to wobble and stumble,
and eventually,
they all collapsed to the ground and passed out as if the fog was a type of knock-out gas.

Inside their own mental scape,
the very darkness in their hearts manifests as and they are forced to confront their inner darkness.
For Azura,
she had to meet a part of herself that viewed Demons as equals and their own person in a none prejudice,
racial way,
which is funny considering that's her dark side.
For Ventus,
he was put to sleep as his soul was fractured,
he has no darkness,
no evil bone in his body.

Alexander and his squad were forced to confront their own insecurities,
Seth was exposed to the influence of Brandon Yeets and Valla as their souls, though absorbed,
haven't fully merged into Seth yet. Therefore,
they are always clawing and taunting him in the back of his mind.
Then, he had to confront his insecurities of not being able to save Penny and Leon.
Yuzuhara confronted the side that resent Amaterasu and just wanted to use Seth to get back at her.

After all,
Amaterasu took her first husband away even though it was indirectly,
so why shouldn't she take away Amaterasu's supposedly future husband?
For Selena,
she was forced to relive the worst day of her life as an all too familiar face with half black hair,
half white hair,
and an expensive white suit,
standing over the bodies of her dead parents and everything around them on fire.
Brandon Yeets gives her an evil smile and fades into the smoke.
For the twins inside of her,
Chase and Sora were swimming underwater in an ocean mental scape where Selena was sinking further and further down into the depths of the abyss.

The twins grab her,
and for a second, they relived the memory with her before being able to escape from her memories.
The twins swim back up from the mental scape,
and things return to normal for her, though she'll be out cold for a while.

Chase takes possession of Selena while everyone else is left to either be a sleep or battling their insecurities and inner darkness,
meanwhile with Male Terra.
Male Terra was in ankle deep crystal clear water with a small patch of land and a tiny tree.
Just him, by himself, and no backup. "Hello again...... partner."

Terra's inner darkness manifests as himself with pitch black hair and red eyes. "It's been a few months since we're able to talk like this again. Did you miss me?" He says in a dark sinister sadistic voice.

(Male Terra's POV:)

"No." I said as I walked by him.
The best way to handle my own darkness is to ignore him and not give him what he wants.
"Well, too bad! You're stuck with me until further notice!"
A giant broadsword comes into vision by my neck.
"You know, I was always curious what would happen if you just gave into me. So if I beat you, does that mean I get to control our body?"
I turned round,
manifesting my sword,
and swat his sword down,
which is an inverted color of my own broadsword.

My sword has a blue knight handel and a damascus brown color on the blade, whereas my dark half's sword is damascus brown handel and a blue blade.
We begin to sword fight and sense this was myself.
He knew all of my techniques just as I knew his.
I slam my sword,
attempting to cleave him in half,
but my dark half jumps over the blade and lands on the blade,
taunting me even though he could kill me.