In Memoriam - An Unus Annus Fanfiction

12.01 -01.12 - We take a Lie Detector Test to Uncover our Darkest Sins

The green haired mage shut the door behind them. There was a moment of silence, before Annus spoke up.
  »What are we gonna do now?«
»Find a way to get rid of him.« There was a coldness in Marvin's voice.
»Actually, could we push that back for some time? I want to try something out first. Wait here.«

He dissapeared downstairs. Marvin and Annus looked at each other, both shrugging.
Their friend soon returned with a small, metal box. »I found this among Mark's stuff. It's a lie detector.«
  »That's a children's toy.«
»No, this might actually work,« Marvin agreed. »But I must ask, what are you trying to achieve?«

Unus shrugged. »I don't know. I'm acting on a hunch, really.«
   »Can't hurt to try, right?« Annus agreed.
»Fine,« was Marvin's curt answer. He obviously didn't like the idea, but he knew that arguing with both of them wouldn't make any sense.

Dark tilted his head sideways when he saw them come back through the door. Unus kneeled on from of him, touching the black bracelet. »You can talk again,« he whispered.
   »Thank you,« Dark instantly blurted out, not even trying to hide the sarcasm. »Next time you silence me, please just use a gag like every normal person. Way more enjoyable for everyone involved.«
He greeted Marvin with a nod of his head. »What's up Marcus, back already? Did you guys miss me that much?«

Unus grabbed him by the arm rests. »One more word, and I'll silence you again,« he threatened, raising a finger.  Dark made a zipping motion in front of his face.
»Good.« The man in the black suit put the metal box down, taking the attached arm strap and wrapping it around Darks upper arm.

Dark looked at the strap with faked interest, before leaning over and examining the metal box. A disparaging smile crossed his face. Unus flipped a switch on the device, and it came to life with a beep. He got back up, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
»Why are you here?«
    »I barely escaped a dead world, Blank betrayed me and now I really want to rip his throat out. He'll come for you sooner or later, so I figured sticking close to you would be the best approach.« He looked over to the box. »Holy shit this thing works well.«

»How'd you get into the safe room?«
    »It's current occupants trusted me enough to let me in. Thus it didn't register me as a threat.«
His arm twitched. »You are aware that this isn't how lie detectors are supposed to work, right?«

»Let me ask something.« Annus stepped forward. »Why are you hunting us?«
Dark shrugged. »I'm after Mark, really. Getting rid of you would surely hit him where it hurt.« He looked over to Unus. »And you... well, you're simply in the way.«
»Do you know a way out of here?«
    »No.«

Marvin let out a sigh. »Look, guys, I get the idea. But how do we know that he isn't just tricking us.«
Unus shrugged. »Easy.« He took the arm strap off Dark, and held it out for Annus to take.
   »What's your favorite movie.«
»The Grinch.« The answer came shooting out like a bullet. »I could watch it every single day, but for the sake of others, I try to keep it to the time around Christmas.«
»What do you hate about me?«
    Annus scrunched up his face, but he couldn't help it. »The fact that you're so talented in manipulating the Machine. I'm super jealous of your abilities, and it's really nagging me.«

Unus tried not to smile. After all, Annus's words were kind of a compliment. He turned to Marvin. »Now you.«
Marvin pulled his arm back. »No thanks. I'm convinced. Can we get on with this?«

»I'm afraid not.« Annus pointed over to the chair. Darks head had slumped over, and he had stopped moving. Unus checked his pulse. »He's alive. Just out cold.«
»I assume he didn't need any sleep while he had his powers.« Marvin thought out loud. »A fact that's now catching up to him.«

»Let's continue this another time.« Unus picked up the lie detector, and headed towards the door. »You coming?«
Marvin smiled, telling him that he'd be there in a second. After the door closed and he was sure they were out of earshot, the Mage looked over at the sleeping Dark. He walked over, a quiet blue flame flaring up in his palm.
»Whatever this flame touches, will be fully consumed by it. Matter. Energy. Life.« He explained to the sleeping demon. »It's one of the most powerful spells I know, so I won't be able to use any other magic for one, maybe two weeks.« It would be so easy. All he'd need to do is place it down somewhere on him. Annus and Unus would never know, and Dark would finally be gone.

The flame hovered mere inches away from the seam of Darks shoulder. Marvin closed his eyes.

Unus looked up when Marvin came downstairs. He looked somewhat absent, his right hand clenched to a fist.
»Are you alright?«
   »Hm? Oh yeah, everything's fine.« He put on his best smile. »I'll head back to my lab for a few hours, do some testing with the blood sample.«

»I'll be back in a bit,« he said, one foot through the portal. »Don't confront Dark without me.«