A Sunless Dream

The dimly lit walls of a room were made up of strong stone which surrounded the cohort in a regular manner with the only exit also acting as an entrance to ensure that there was no escape for any would be intruders.

Although Nephis was quite sure nobody would be spying on them, she had allowed Sunny's shadows to stand guard while he got some much-needed rest before the perilous mission he was about to go on.

Kai stared at Nephis with a concerned expression and asked "Why did you let him go to that thing on his own so easily? He might die!" although he had not personally encountered the lord of shadows. Rumours of blocking an attack from a sovereign with a single hand were not ones to be taken lightly, and his cautious nature allowed him to be more willing to die than leave his questions unanswered.

"Sunny is strong, he also has Cassie with him so it should be fine" Nephis replied, at the mention of Cassie's name the entire room became more tense. Although some time had passed, Jet still found it hard to stomach the actions Cassie had done however before she could comment Effie beat her to it.

"We all agree what she did to Sunny is horrible and even I struggle to forgive it. But don't you guys think that going with Sunny is a perfect opportunity for them to reconcile their broken bonds?" Although Effie's suggestion was reasonable, Nephis surprisingly was the one who began shaking her head at her reasoning.

"Sunny never lies, he has already said that he will never trust Cassie again, so honestly, I doubt he will. However, I do think that going with Cassie will open up Sunny to becoming more talkative allowing us to fill some of the gaps in our memory" her reasoning was solid, however, it left one big question lingering which filled the minds of everyone present.

How did Nephis know Sunny never lied?

"Is that his flaw?" asked Kai, a flaw as detrimental as that would also explain the fact that every time he heard Sunny speak not a single word of it was a lie no matter how outrageous it seemed but still such a thing was unheard of among awakened.

Nephis merely nodded in reply to his question before breaking the silence in the room once more "Sunny's here," the room began to swirl with shadows as Sunny appeared in the room, clad in his onyx armour with a mask akin to the lord of shadows yet slightly different donning his face.

His hair was white and slightly longer than before and the pressure he gave off seemed similar to the lord of shadows yet quite different. 'So, this is what it feels like when I augment myself with six shadows' Sunny thought to himself. Sunny was quite proud of the strength boost that the shadows gave him. At this rate, all that would be left differentiating he and his malevolent clone would be something simple.

Skill.

"I've decided against going tomorrow, I want to get there as fast as possible and fight the bastard" his tone tripped of impatience and slight annoyance. Nephis raised an eyebrow at how deep his voice had gotten compared to prior to the mask but made no comment as she watched Sunny scan around the room.

"Where is Song of The Fallen?" he asked, everyone internally winced at his lack of usage of a first name however made no comment. As he continued to extend his shadow senses throughout the continent, he finally zoned in on a presence that could only belong to that woman.

"Never mind, I've found her. Nephis, I'll be moving by shadow so you might have to communicate with me through Cassia" he said before returning to the form of a shadow and quickly gliding out the room. Effie coughed to break the tension before asking "Is it just me or does he really not like Cassie?" and to that she received an array of nods.

"I'd be quite pissed if someone stole my freedom, offered me a lifeline only for me to be forgotten and still not have my freedom" Jet remarked snidely, the topic of Cassie still left her bitter however she was beyond petty grudges.

Sunny's shadow swiftly moved through the ivory castle before making his way to Cassie's room. It was a gamble if she was changing or not but quite frankly, he just wanted her to finish quickly so he could be on his way. Extended interaction with her was always unpleasant.

Materialising in front of her door, Sunny knocked it three times before being greeted by Cassie's voice "Sunny? I thought we were going tomorrow?" how she knew it was him would always be a mystery he never cared to solve and so he kept his reply curt "Change of plans, are you ready?" he was met with a silent reply of "Yes" before he opened the door.

Cassie sat with her back faced to him staring into the distance of Bastion, Sunny gritted his teeth slightly noticing how calm and tranquil she was and closed the distance between them quickly. Grabbing her shoulder he said "Don your armour and let's leave" he commanded.

He noticed Cassie's head shakingly turn back to him before he loosened his grip on her shoulder slightly, she was on the verge of tears again. Sunny's face contorted into one of rage as he simply pulled her into the shadows and began making his way to God Grave.

About three minutes into his travel there, he jumped out of the shadows and began riding nightmare instead. She held firmly onto him as the wind whistled past both of their ears. Although the wind seemed to drown out all other noise, Sunny could still hear Cassie shakingly ask "Why can't I protect anything?"

For a reason unknown to himself, Sunny ordered Nightmare to slow down as he heard her repeat the question once more. Not taking his eyes off the horizon Sunny replied, "You know I hate you right?" his voice was calm, not betraying any of the emotions he desperately wanted to let out at Cassie.

"You can't remember but I treated you like a sister, defended you with my life. And you decided to sacrifice me because you asked me at my lowest point if I would defend Nephis" he paused for a second, his back was as stable as ever and his face betrayed none of his anger.

"I was weak, too weak for my opinion to matter and yet you thrusted such a duty on to me without even considering that maybe just maybe, when I get stronger my answer would change" he paused once more then continued his reply "And you couldn't even look me in the eyes and be strong enough to apologise. Instead, what did you do? You treated me like a weapon, your weapon, to break fate while offering me freedom probably knowing I'd still be a slave."

"You're despicable, I'll never forgive you and I'll never trust you. But despite that..." he paused again, his back began to shake this time. Restraining his emotions became impossible as he continued his sentence "I'll always protect you; I treated you like family and you are my family. Family don't need to like each other to put their lives on the line for one another"

Cassie had already began crying into his back, muttering apologies constantly as he continued his sentence. "You don't know what it's like to not have a family then gain one, only to lose it once more. You'll never know, and you'll never understand how much you hurt me. Yet I'll protect you anyway."

Thankfully, the fast-moving winds allowed Sunny's tears to be thrown away as quickly as they had formed. "I know you don't deserve one, I know I haven't done anything to make me want to say this but...I'm sorry Cassie."

At this statement he received light punches on his back as Cassie found the strength to form a sentence "Don't apologise to me," she said between sobs "I'll never deserve it, what I did to you was despicable. I'm sorry, I'll never be able to make it up to you as long as I live but I just need to let you know I'm sorry."

Sunny dismissed Nightmare as he stood facing Cassie for a brief second, before enveloping her in a firm hug as she cried into his shoulders.

'No matter how much family hurt you, you still love them' Sunny thought to himself as he held Cassie. A part of him wanted to snap her neck right now, a part of him wanted to calm her down and tell her everything would be ok.

But it wasn't ok. And that was fine.