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Indra felt the darkness around him, and he hated it, because he didn't understand it. Or rather, he didn't understand why it didn't seem to affect the others as much as it affected him. They were trudging through the forest, and Indra's vision blurred a little as darkness covered the sunny day. Everything looked twisted and distorted and wrong. Indra jumped, shrinking away from the trees that twisted and shrunk. They looked dead. The rain from earlier dripped off of them slowly morphed to blood, and Indra's mind whirled as he tried to make sense of the darkness. A bird screeched at him, and Indra's hand flew to the blaster at his waist. He stared at the bird as it shifted shapes. His heart pounded, and he was breathing fast.
"Captain?" Bucket's voice cut through the darkness, and Indra blinked. It was gone. The trees looked normal. The sun was out again. And the bird was gone. His hand still hovered his blaster, and his heart still raged in his chest. He glanced around at the others, who were staring at him like he had lost his mind. "Are you okay?"
"Did you not see...?" Indra asked, and he didn't know why he tried. They hadn't seen. They never saw, and it was driving Indra insane. He knew there was something wrong with the darkness. He knew it was coming for him, and whatever it was... it was really bad. But nobody believed him, because they didn't see the darkness. They didn't see the twisted trees or the shapeshifting bird. They only saw their Captain panicking at nothing. It was enough to make him doubt himself. That wasn't hard these days. With the Admiral's abuse and neglect. With the lack of contact from his brothers, including his ori'vod, Wolffe. He didn't know who to talk to. Rex stopped answering his calls. Wolffe never had time. Cody didn't like him. Onyx tried, but he didn't understand. Nobody understood what was going on with Indra.
He wanted it to stop. The nightmares. The visions. The darkness. Everything.
Maybe if he gave in to the darkness, let it take over... maybe that would make it stop. Or maybe he just wouldn't care anymore and that would be fine too. As he looked around at his brother's faces, the ones who were here, he saw a range of emotions: worry to confusion to annoyance. All there, but none of them understood. Tears pricked Indra's eyes as he desperately looked for any reason to keep fighting this curse. Something he didn't understand and didn't know how to fight. It wanted to take over his mind, corrupt him. And he was starting to forget why it was a bad idea to let it. The darkness crept into the edges of his visions, filling his peripherals with smoky monsters and streaks of blood, warning him of things to come. He didn't understand. He couldn't understand. And he had no one to ask.
"No, Indy," Onyx said, stepping closer to the smaller clone, and his form shifted to one with blood covering his body, gashes in his armor. Indra shrieked as he lunged for Onyx, trying to cover the open wounds. He couldn't let his commander, his other ori'vod die. Onyx stumbled back away from the redheaded clone, and Indra's vision returned to normal. He could see that Onyx was fine, that he was uninjured and watching him with wide concerned eyes. Indra stared at him as tears streaked down his face.
"Oni, I don't know what's going on... I don't understand."
Onyx pulled Indra into a tight hug. "We'll figure it out, Indy. We will. I promise."
Indra returned the hug, and the darkness retreated for a little while. Indra wanted desperately to believe Onyx. He just wasn't sure he could. After all, the darkness started creeping back in as soon as Onyx let go.