Suicide, Genocide

The story of Moonbeam and Copper.

Warning: there will probably be brutal murder/death scenes.

## Prologue

*Blackness.*

*That was my first memory.*

*I sensed minds around...*

*But none of them were similar to mine. I asked where I was. They tried to punish me.*

*All of them, except for one.*

*Two similar minds, stuck in the same place.*

*Now one.*

## Chapter 1 - First Glimpse

The alarms started flashing and wailing again. Copper jumped up.

*Oh no,* she thought as she realized she was one of the ones on Suicide duty today. She closed her eyes.

"Come on, Copper," said Needle. "We've got no time to waste!" The hybrid ran forward, spear at the ready. Copper followed the general.

*[REDACTED],* she thought. *Needle's gonna send me in first.*

Needle and Copper did not have the greatest relationship. The dark green LeafWing-IceWing had initially seemed charming, but the deaths of five guards seemed to have changed him.

Or perhaps he was always like that. Be nice to the new dragons, get them to listen to him, then tell them what to do. Copper wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

"Gold! Copper!" he yelled. "Take the exit! Tumbleweed, Charcoal, you're in!"

*Wait,* thought Copper. *You're not sending me in?* She watched the SandWing and the Night-Sky hybrid hover outside the door, before Needle smacked Charcoal in the back of the head with his spear, knocking him in. Tumbleweed ran forward, and Needle slammed the glass door shut. Charcoal's eyes suddenly switched to pure black, with silvery-purple pupils. Charcoal - no, *Suicide* - looked at his claws with interest. He stood up and grabbed his spear, then approached Tumbleweed. She hammered on the door desperately, but Needle looked away.

Charcoal stabbed Tumbleweed's tail, smashing through her barb. SandWing venom and blood leaked out. Tumbleweed shrieked. Charcoal grabbed her wings and broke them with more brutality than the *real* Charcoal ever had. The real Charcoal was a paranoid dragon who preferred to stay unnoticed. He'd never do this. Copper dug her claws into her spear.

*Come one, Tumbleweed. Hit him with the tranquilizer,* Copper thought.

But Tumbleweed seemed to have lost all sense of reason. She got up, screaming as her barb was ripped off, and ran to the other corner of the room. Charcoal advanced with an eerie grin. He stabbed through her stomach. Blood spurted out of the wound, covering Charcoal and Tumbleweed. Charcoal ignored it, but Tumbleweed shrank away.

"Come on, Tumbleweed!" roared Needle. Gold looked away, covering her ears. Charcoal placed his talons around Tumbleweed's throat and squeezed. Tumbleweed was cut off mid-scream as blood poured out of the cuts in her throat. She choked, coughing out blood, and slid to the floor. Charcoal smiled.

Copper felt *furious.* She flung open the door and picked up Tumbleweed's dropped spear. Charcoal turned, a faint expression of surprise on his face. Copper stabbed Charcoal in the arm before he could attack her. Charcoal's expression switched to amusement, then his eyes started flickering. Copper heard a faint whisper at the corner of her mind as Charcoal grinned, slumping to the floor.

***"We'll meet again..."***

Copper ran out of the room, feeling sick as Charcoal fainted, still grinning. She ran to the trashcan in the corner and threw up. Meanwhile, Gold darted into the room and tried pulling out Tumbleweed's body. Needle went over to help her. Gold slammed the door shut and broke down, sobbing over her mother's body. Copper felt sick. How could anyone do this? She glared back at the room.

*It's going to end, Suicide. You won't go on killing dragons like this forever.*

Her grip tightened on Tumbleweed's spear.

*I'll make sure of it.*

## Chapter 2 - Overwhelmed

Copper stared at her food - a dead fish. Just as dead as Tumbleweed. She stabbed it with her fork.

It had been two days since they buried Tumbleweed. Needle had appeared to grieve for about thirty seconds, before criticizing Tumbleweed for not taking action, and how that would have saved her. Gold had bolted away after punching him in the snout. Copper hadn't seen her since. She glared at Needle. He seemed unworried as he ate his lunch and yawned. Copper left, disgusted. She decided to go search for Gold.

*Where would she go?* wondered Copper. *The graveyard?* But Gold wasn't there. Copper frowned, then a horrible thought came to her. She dashed off, tightening her grip on her spear, praying that Gold wasn't *there.*

But when she flung open the door to the hallway, she saw the golden SandWing outside Suicide's room. She was staring blankly into the room, facing Charcoal. At first, nothing seemed wrong. Then Gold looked up at Copper, and Copper noticed purple-silver pupils. Gold smiled at Copper, who froze.

*No no no no no no no no no...*

Gold slowly approached Copper. Copper stumbled away and raised her spear. Gold calmly reached over and broke the spearhead. Copper felt shadows at the back of her mind.

"Get out of my head!" she yelled. Gold chuckled. She set her claws to her own throat. Copper reached forward. She wasn't sure what she was planning to do - knock her out, maybe?

**"She asked for it,"** said Gold in a voice that definitely wasn't Gold's. **"I saw what Needle said. It wasn't true."**

"You *monster!"* yelled Copper. "You killed her mother!" Gold was silent for a moment, then raked her talons across her throat. Copper shrieked and jumped forward, but Gold knocked her down with a wing as blood bubbled up from the gash.

***"My last casualty,"*** Suicide said to Copper mentally in a sibilant voice. ***"I won't kill after this."*** Copper pressed her talons to her eyes as Gold fell to the ground with a thud.

"...Copper?" asked Gold hoarsely. "Why... why are you here?" Copper blinked at Gold, crouching down beside her.

"I wanted to find you," she whispered.

"You... you shouldn't have. I just wanted it to end."

Copper sighed. She reached out to Gold. Gold rested her talon on Copper's.

Copper felt something at the back of her mind. She couldn't place her talon on what it was, but it was there, and getting stronger.

*No no no no no GET OUT OF MY HEAD-* she thought, before feeling her something jabbing her in the spine. The last thing she saw before blacking out was Needle, with the bloody spear in his talons.

## Chapter 3 - Mind Games

Copper started to wake up. There was a throbbing pain in her head and back, and her scales felt sticky. She opened her eyes, then immediately regretted it as white light stabbed her in the brain. She tried remembering what had happened.

Tumbleweed - killed by Charcoal.

Charcoal - probably dead.

Gold - killed herself. She'd gone missing... then Copper had found her...

Everything came back in an instant.

"[REDACTED]," hissed Copper. She struggled to sit up, and opened her eyes again, shielding them from the light. She looked around the room. Blood stained her scales, making her look more like a SkyWing than usual. She looked around at the bare metal cot, the small sink, and the various grisly adornments of dried blood and Charcoal's dead body in the corner. She turned away and folded her wings around her face, suddenly realizing that three of her friends were dead.

And she was sitting in the room that was supposed to contain the thing that killed them...

She whirled around.

*If I'm in here, then I must be the host. But the hosts aren't in control. Maybe it* seems *like I'm in control when I'm really not? Do I have any sudden murderous urges?* she thought. *Well. I do want to stab Needle right now. But I think that's because he stabbed me first. I don't really want to kill anyone else- **Ah, you're awake.***

Copper nearly screamed. She clutched her temples.

*OUTOUTOUTOUTOUTOUT**- Geez, calm down.***

*Calm DOWN?!?! YOU KILLED THREE OF MY FRIENDS, YOU MOONS-CURSED TOADSPAWN!*

***Whoa, language.***

Copper shrieked angrily and shook her head furiously, as if this would help. She heard a yawn.

***Stop, you're gonna make yourself dizzy. You know what, you're not listening, so I'm just gonna...***

Copper shook her head harder, before feeling a shiver through her bones, and an odd feeling in her eyes, like they *twitched* somehow. She suddenly stopped moving completely, unable to even blink. She watched her talon flex its claws and reach up to her face.

*Ow!* she yelped mentally as she slapped herself.

Her talon proceeded to wag a claw at her in an *exceedingly annoying* way. She felt a different kind of shudder - this one felt like hot water trickling through her scales - and her eyes twitched again. She shook herself and flexed her claws.

*What the hell was that?* she questioned, stomping to the cot angrily.

***Possession.***

*Well, IT'S VERY RUDE.* She flopped down on the bed and regretted it as the solid metal knocked the breath out of her.

***Well, YOU'RE VERY STUPID.***

*Could you just leave me be for a second? I need to think WITHOUT ANNOYING VOICES BUTTING IN TO RESPOND TO EVERY LITTLE THING I SAY.*

Oddly enough, she felt something slide away to a different corner of her mind. She proceeded to try to set up mental walls, like the ones against NightWing mindreaders.

*Alright, so this is weird. One - three dragons I know are dead. Two - I'm* not *dead. Three - Needle doesn't seem to care, but I don't really know anything for sure. I should find some way to figure that out. But honestly, the most pressing mystery here is that this demon, this spoiled lizard esophagus, who's killed countless dragons without a care in the world, is keeping me around and actually chatting with me rather than having me mutilate myself in various horrifying ways.*

She groaned and rubbed her temples again.

*Rrrrrrrrrrrgh.*

The shadowy thing at the corner of her mind seemed to be waving at her as if it wanted her attention. She closed her eyes, and suddenly, she was standing in an empty black abyss. She looked around as beads and branches and strings of colored light started appearing around her. A glowing orangeish-lilac orb floated over to her, waving little tendrils of light around as if it was confused. A shower of mint-green sparks rained down from above.

*I think that* is *confusion,* she thought. Her voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once. The odd purply orb was joined by a faint shimmer of indigo which flickered in the air.

She spotted a figure sitting next to roiling black clouds and flickers of something that looked like fire crossed with lightning, colored bloody red with hints of scarlet and magenta. Copper walked over cautiously, ready to blast fire at them.

As she got closer, she realized the shape was somewhat dragon-like. Their scales were black, and they had large, blade-like spikes down their back, reminiscent of large feathers. The figure's wings were different from a dragons - they almost appeared feathery, made out of the same blade-like shapes. It had shadowy black eyes, too, with purple-silver pupils...

## Chapter Four - Anger and Acceptance

Copper snarled, and the fire-lightning arched around Suicide. The thunderheads in the corner flashed with bright red, and swirled around him. The orb exploded into strands of red and black and looped towards him.

Suicide raised his talons nonthreateningly.

**"Chill. I can't *leave* your mind, so I just went to the furthest corner without being invasive."**

"What do you mean, you can't leave my mind? You can hop from mind to mind! That's your thing!"

**"No, I'm anchored to whichever mind I'm in until the host dies. Then I hop to the next one. If I could just jump from mind to mind, then I'd be outta here, and there wouldn't be as many dead dragons. Well. Probably."**

"Rrrrrrrgh," growled Copper. "I cannot *believe* this. Three of my friends are dead, and I'm stuck with the killer in my brain?"

Suicide side-eyed the nearest arch of lightning, which was twisting itself into a knot.

**"Well, I had to in order to continue moving. Let's see - I possessed Charcoal because he was the closest mind, and I wouldn't have killed Gold, except that she legitimately *asked* to be killed."**

"And what about her mother? Tumbleweed? You killed her, just because she was the only other dragon in the cell! You killed her for fun!"

**"I DON'T KILL FOR FUN!"** he roared suddenly, out of nowhere. Copper flattened her ears as the lightning twisted around him. He shot a plume of purple-silver fire, and Copper felt a shudder of blankness, of a sudden yawning emptiness inside of her as the lightning-fire and the clouds melted away from the blast. He snarled. **"Killing for fun - that's what *they* do. That's what *he* does. I kill because I have to!"**

"No," spat Copper. "You didn't *have* to kill Tumbleweed. You just *wanted* to. She wouldn't have bothered you. If I could see her fear, then you certainly could. You *knew* she wasn't a threat!"

Suicide hissed. A few lilac sparks shot out of his nose and burned away the anger near him, and for a moment Copper was concerned that he was going to attack her.

**"I can and I should,"** snarled Suicide as her thought echoed around her mind.

"For what, telling the truth?" asked Copper, lashing her tail. "Go ahead. Prove my point." Suicide hissed again. He shot another blast of fire at the anger near him and started to walk out through the gap in the clouds. Copper watched him coldly.

*It's true,* she thought. *He didn't have a reason. She wasn't a threat. He killed her for the sake of it.*

The faintest growl was the only warning Copper had, before a shadowy black figure lunged towards her from behind the clouds. She tried to bite him, but he dodged and wrapped a talon around her snout, his claws digging into her scales. His other talon reached for her throat, and she kicked out with her hind legs. Her claws struck cold scales, and she saw silvery blood pour out of the wound. Suicide snarled and tightened his grip on her snout, and she felt his claws stab into the bottom of her jaw. A metallic taste filled her mouth. She tried to spin, to throw him off, and she felt his grip loosen. Copper flung out one wing, catching him in the stomach. He was knocked away from her, and she spat out some blood. Suicide dug his claws into her outstretched wing, and a small flicker of white flashed across the floor. She felt a sudden sense of foreboding. *Wait-*

Suicide gave her a small, grim smile, tightened his grip around the bone at the very edge of her wing, and snapped it. She didn't scream out loud, but a piercing shriek echoed through her thoughts, and white washed through the black, outlining Suicide. She tried to push away the pain and focused on the laughing figure beside her. A flash of deep purple determination appeared beneath Copper's talons, and she jumped towards him. His grin faded as her outstretched claws dug into his shoulders and wings. She pinned him down, holding down his wings and arms, and opening her mouth to rip his throat out if he moved. He opened his mouth, presumably to blast fire at her, and she grabbed his snout.

"Don't even think about it," Copper snarled. His eyes flashed with fury, and she could feel him trying to get free, but he was surprisingly weak when pinned down.

*Not used to your playthings fighting back, are you?* she thought at him. His pupils narrowed.

**"Mm dmmn hmmv lmmmfnnmgs!"** he growled through her talon. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Sure, and you tortured Tumbleweed why, exactly?"

Suicide looked at her talon pointedly. Copper reluctantly loosened her grip, but kept her talon hovering by his throat.

**"I don't have playthings,"** he hissed. Copper let her claws inch closer.

"You were grinning when you killed her!" she cried.

**"Yes, I won't deny it was satisfying. But I had other reasons!"**

"Such as?"

He growled again.

**"What would you know? You're just a dragon, just another lab worker, just another one who sits and watches while we're mistreated and abused."**

*Oh, so it's anger,* she thought. *Anger and revenge.*

**"What- no! No, it's not anger! I wouldn't let something so petty and dragon-like control my actions!"**

Copper blinked at him, unamused. "And you attacked me because...?"

**"You were being insolent!"**

"So, anger," said Copper. She pressed her claws to his throat. "Just admit it."

He snarled, clearly furious, and she suddenly felt something wrapping around her back ankle. She looked back, startled, and realized he'd manage to get his tail free. Now, the sharp black blades were pressing into her leg. Suicide yanked his tail forward, pulling her leg out from under her, and bit her ear while she was looking away. He slipped out from under her and pressed his talon to her throat. She winced as his claws dug into her scales, but kept herself from flinching.

"Thanks for proving my point," she said, staring up at him. He growled again, his pupils narrowing, and he raised his talon to land the final blow. Copper, however, was more interested in the strange shade of calm grey-blue marching across the inky blackness.

*I wonder what that is. Maybe acceptance? That's how I feel right now. I was right. I know that for sure. Now I can go see my friends.* She closed her eyes and waited for Suicide to land the blow.

But it never came. She opened her eyes, and noticed he was staring at the color, too, with an oddly blank face. His claws and tail relaxed.

*What the...* she thought, then winced as it echoed through her brain. Suicide glanced at her, several emotions flitting over his face. He stepped back, looking down at her as though she were some sort of cyclops cat, before turning and bounding away, disappearing into the black. She stood up slowly, squinting after him.

*What's going on? Is he going to attack me again? Is this a trick?*

She looked around, listening for any sort of growl and searching for a hint of purple. But she didn't find anything. He was gone.

## Chapter Five - Decisions, Decisions

Copper searched through her mind, but she couldn't find Suicide. Eventually, she felt the odd dreamscape of her mind fading, and she had that weird falling feeling. Her eyes opened - not in her mind, but in her cell. She got off her cot and promptly slipped and fell in a pool of fresh blood.

*What... whose blood is this?* she thought.

She suddenly became painfully aware of the puncture wounds on her snout, the slashes on her back leg, the bloody bite on her ear, and the crooked bone jutting out of her right wing. She glared at her wing.

*Rrrrrrrgh*. Copper limped over to the glass and hammered on it with her tail.

"Medic!" she yelled. "I need a medic!"

Naturally, nobody came. A camera swivelled towards her, though, which was hopeful.

“Hey!” she yelled. She gestured to her wing. “Could I get something for this?”

The camera blinked a light, and a white mist filled the room. Copper inhaled, and felt dizzy and sleepy. She lay down quickly, so she wouldn’t damage her wing even more when she fell unconscious. She felt her eyelids drooping, and she swiftly fell asleep.

<><><>

Copper woke up some time later. She wasn’t sure what time it was - the lights were always the same in the cell. She stretched her stiff legs, and noticed that a white bandage was wrapped around her snout. She looked back at her wing, which was in a thick cast, her leg, which was in a splint, and her ear, which was wrapped heavily as well. Unfortunately, the wrappings on her snout and ear were wrapped in a way that she couldn’t talk.

*Although, that’s probably on purpose. I guess I annoyed them too much.* Oddly enough, a flicker of pride flashed through her. She looked around the room.

*Right. Well, this is going to be boring. If I can’t even talk to myself, and there’s absolutely nothing for me to do.*

Copper limped over to her cot and lay down on the uncomfortable metal bed. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep, or think to herself, or anything, really.

Slowly, the harsh light of the cell faded away behind her eyelids. She tried to relax.

Just sleep. Forget the blood, forget the pain, forget today, she told herself. Eventually, her exhaustion set in - not her physical exhaustion, but her mental tiredness - and she drifted off to sleep.

<><><>

Copper opened her eyes. Blackness greeted her, blackness and bright lights.

*So I’m back here,* she muttered to herself. A few sparks of that same grey-blue color from before drifted over her. The hybrid walked across the blackness, searching her mind.

*Is this a dream, or is it actually my brain?* echoed through the dark. Copper reached up and caught a small orb of purple-orange.

*Confusion*, she thought-said out loud. She pointed to a thread of grey-blue. *Acceptance*. She touched a streak of teal. *Understanding*. She poked a shimmer of deep, royal purple. *...Pride?*

“Correct,” said a voice in her mind. She whirled around. There - two spots of purple-silver in a cluster of shadows. She inhaled sharply and dug her claws into the nonexistent floor. Suicide stepped out of the darkness and walked towards her with slow, deliberate steps. Copper tensed, ready to fight. Suicide stopped a few steps away from her and watched her with an unreadable expression.

“Whvt dv yv vvnt?” she growled through the bandage keeping her snout shut. Suicide paced around her, seeming curious.

“Why did you come back?” he asked. Copper tried to answer, but the bandage made it impossible. Exasperated, she thought-spoke at him.

*Well, what else am I supposed to do? I’m stuck in a room with almost nothing to do but mutilate my friend’s dead body, think, and sleep. I didn’t even purposefully come back.*

Suicide wrinkled his snout at her.

“Welllll, you could always talk to me.”

*Right. I’m so thrilled about talking to the killer of my friends who also nearly killed me.* She paused, watching him. *Why didn’t you?*

Suicide curled his tail around his talons.

“Because… because you were right,” he blurted.

Copper tilted her head at him, and a wave of confusion rippled through her mind.

“About it being anger,” he forced out, looking reluctant. “About my motives. Oh, great, you’re proud of yourself now,” he added as purple sparkles drifted out of nowhere. Copper smirked at him. He groaned.

*But, on the other talon, you did admit it. Nice*, added Copper.

Suicide blinked at her.

“Hmph. Well. Anyways,” he said. “Sorry.”

*Wow, I didn’t know you were capable of apologies.*

Suicide flicked his tail.

“It’s one of my many abilities.”

*Not skills, though. Anyways, I’m surprised you apologized after just a few hours.*

Suicide blinked at her.

“A few hours? What do you mean? It was three days before the doctors decided you wouldn’t be at risk of infection.”

*Impossible. At the very least, the scratches on my leg would have healed by then.*

“Not with mental/physical wounds. They last longer.”

Copper touched her snout gently.

*How long?*

“Well-”

*HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?*

Suicide hesitated.

“I’m not sure. It could be for years, if you don’t take care of yourself.”

Copper pressed her talons to her head and screamed internally. Suicide winced at the noise and sidled over.

“This won’t help!” said Suicide. “You have to *heal* mentally, not get worse!”

Copper managed to stop screaming.

*What else am I supposed to do? I don’t know how to get better! My friends are dead and my brain might be permanently scarred!*

Suicide shook his head.

“No. You will get better. It’s just because you were already on the point of getting actual mental wounds, then we fought. And if you focus on your mental health, it’ll take less time.”

Copper looked up at him, confused.

“What I mean is that you were already unhealthy mentally before we fought. If you were perfectly fine, then the wounds would have healed. It’s like how sleep and rest heals physical wounds.”

Copper blinked. Twisting loops of teal appeared under her claws.

Suicide sat back.

“Sorry, I probably can’t help with this. I’ll only make it worse,” he apologized. He started sidling away, and Copper leaped forward and pinned down his tail.

*Wait, I have a question. Why do you want me to heal? Why aren’t you finishing me off now?*

Suicide hesitated.

“Because you were right, and I was wrong. I was in the wrong when I attacked you, and you didn’t deserve it.”

Copper kept her claws on his tail.

*It is VERY SUSPICIOUS how you’re suddenly so repentant.*

“Despite my earlier behaviour, I’m not childish. I won’t hold a grudge because I was wrong.”

Copper sat back, looking at him suspiciously.

Do I trust him or not trust him? She had a sense that her next decision would be impactful, very impactful, but she wasn’t sure how.

*...Fine.*