May 7, 8:25 am, Queanbeyan, Australia

Gadiel wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to talk, to move, to breathe.

But he couldn't.

His body was no longer his. He felt like a puppet, his movements controlled completely by an outside force. He had no choice but to follow his reflection, walking up to Tarik.

"The paintings?" asked Tarik, frowning. He looked up at the paintings of the portraits; one of Gadiel, one of Medina, and another of him.

"Okay, that's weird," he said. "These aren't like the paintings in the labyrinth before, are they?"

"Paintings in the labyrinth?" Medina asked, confused. "There were paintings in the labyrinth? I don't remember any paintings last time..."

"Yeah, you said that," said Tarik dryly. "So what about these ones?"

Medina blinked, and seemed to notice the paintings for the first time. She frowned, and looked at the reflection of the paintings.

"Wait, the reflection of the paintings are different..." she said slowly.

'Don't look at them!' Gadiel wanted to scream, panic rising. 'Don't do it!'

Suddenly, his reflections looked straight at him, murder in his eyes. Gadiel felt a chill run down his spine, even if he couldn't move his body. That look seemed to say "know you place. I'm in control now."

But was he really? Gadiel thought it was strange; all his internal sensations and emotions were still there. He could still think clearly, he could still feel the wind on his face, the sense of dread welling up in his stomach.

He just couldn't move his body the way he wanted to.

Did that mean that he could still influence his own body with his emotions?

Was that why his reflection had looked angrily at him?

Gadiel was desperate; he had no control right now. If there was even the smallest chance for him to gain control of his body back, he would take it.

He started screaming in his own mind, trying to see if it would affect his reflection. There was no reaction from them, but Gadiel didn't let up. Maybe it would just take a while.

"Can't we just go through the doors already?" said Tarik. "Or is it locked?"

"I don't know," said Medina. "Last time, we were only able to get to the door. We never actually tried it."

"I think it's got something to do with the paintings," insisted Not-Gadiel. "Like...the reflections are different, aren't they?"

Tarik walked up to the portrait of himself, then looked over at the reflection of his portrait. Not-Gadiel sidled up beside him casually.

Fury welled up inside Gadiel's chest. How dare he?! How dare!

He wanted to freeze everything, to freeze everyone then and there. No one was going to take Tarik away from him.

Tarik looked over at Not-Gadiel.

"You doing okay?" he asked, looking at him up and down.

"I'm fine," said Not-Gadiel. "Why do you ask?"

"Cause you're releasing cold," Tarik replied. "Just a little, but I can feel it."

Not-Gadiel raised an arm, and looked at it curiously.

"Am I?" he wondered. "Huh. My bad."

He gripped his fist, and Gadiel felt as if something had kicked him in the stomach.

While he was mentally reeling, Tarik narrowed his eyes at Not-Gadiel.

"What?" said Not-Gadiel.

Tarik shook his head, then looked back at the painting. Then the reflection of the painting.

All of a sudden, he reach out to grab the painting off it's frame.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa what are you doing?!" Not-Gadiel grabbed Tarik by the shoulder. In the same way, Gadiel grabbed Tarik's reflection.

A lot of things happened at once.

As soon as Gadiel touched Tarik's reflection, he...felt the reflection's emotions explode outwards. Hatred, thick and black, seemed to ooze out of the reflection, grabbing at Gadiel. A simmering, bubbling loathing that choked Gadiel, forcing him to stagger back.

Gadiel looked at the Not-Tarik, who was staring at him with cold eyes. He knew that it was just Tarik's reflection, looking at Not-Gadiel, but he couldn't help but feel a s.h.i.+ver of fear from seeing those eyes.

"You're not Gadiel," he said, and raised a hand.

But Not-Gadiel was faster.

He threw a couple ice-daggers at Tarik, accurately piercing his hands.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!" Tarik screamed, pinned to the wall in a fas.h.i.+on similar to Jesus on the cross. Immediately, Not-Gadiel leaped forward, ice dagger in hand.

Tarik quickly glanced over to Medina, who seemed entranced in her own portrait. It looked like no help was coming from there any time soon.

"DIE!" Not-Gadiel yelled.

At the same time, Gadiel growled at Not-Tarik, saying the same thing. Not-Tarik responded by setting his hands on fire, melting the ice daggers that held him there, and grabbing Gadiel by the throat and pus.h.i.+ng him down to the ground.

Once again, Gadiel felt thousands of years of loathing seep into him. His throat burned, the combination of Not-Tarik's flaming hand and the oozing hatred bringing tears to his eyes.

"Where's Gadiel?" Tarik growled.

Not-Gadiel grinned, forcing Gadiel to copy him.

"Do you want to be with him?" he gasped.

Tarik squeezed Not-Gadiel's throat tighter, and slammed Not-Gadiel's head into the ground once more. Gadiel was seeing stars.

"Where. Is. Gadiel?" Tarik growled.

Instead of answering, Not-Gadiel simply raised his palm and grabbed Tarik's face.

'NO!' Gadiel screamed in his mind.

Luckily, Tarik knew about Gadiel's powers. He let go of Not-Gadiel's throat and leaped away just as Not-Gadiel formed an ice dagger.

Since Tarik was not on Not-Gadiel, Not-Tarik was also away from Gadiel. With Not-Tarik away, Gadiel could breathe again, his mind cleared from all the negative thoughts. He looked up at Not-Tarik, curious.

"How did you know I wasn't him?" Not-Gadiel asked Tarik, curious.

"I could sense it when you touched me," replied Tarik. "I know he's still alive, somewhere. I can feel it."

"Is that so?" said Not-Gadiel.

Without warning, he suddenly flung an ice dagger at the mirror door. Tarik didn't have time to react. Gadiel felt panic rise in his chest.

If the mirror broke, what would happen to him?

BANG!

But before the ice dagger could hit the mirror, it suddenly shattered into a million pieces.

"Really?" said Medina, turning around, the barrel of her gun smoking. "You'd sacrifice your comrades in there just to spite someone?"

Not-Gadiel narrowed his eyes.

"How did you...?" he started, then stopped.

"What are you?" he ended up asking Medina.

Medina didn't say anything, and instead, walked over to Tarik. She grabbed his hands, and closed her eyes. Her and Tarik's hands began to glow.

"No you don't!" Not-Gadiel screamed. He created an ice spear, and threw it at Medina.

Tarik had no time to react. He did the first thing he could think of. He couldn't use his hands, they were being healed. Instead, he gathered all this energy, and yelled it out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Orange flames blew out of his mouth, melting the spear before it could reach the two of them. But as the flames dissipated, they realized Not-Gadiel wasn't there.

"Above!"

Tarik pulled Medina closer, falling over backwards as Not-Gadiel fell from the air, slicing downwards, right where their hands had been a few moments before.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Not-Gadiel yelled as he walked forwards, brandis.h.i.+ng the ice dagger in his hand.

All according to plan.

Tarik simply breathed fire again, forcing Not-Gadiel to stay back.

"Done!" said Medina, getting off of Tarik. The two of them stood up once more, and Medina took out her gun once more.

"You never answered my question," Not-Gadiel snarled.

Medina simply smiled.

"You really think you can trick me with the whole painting thing?" she scoffed. "I was the brains behind our team. You won't be able to fool me with that."

"Trick?" Tarik asked.

"They're trying to lure-," Medina began, but at that moment, Not-Gadiel struck. He threw an ice dagger at her, which she shot out of the air. Before Gadiel or Tarik could be impressed by her shooting, Not-Gadiel was already on her.

He tackled her to the ground, which meant Gadiel tackled Not-Medina at the same time. He mentally braced himself for the sticky hatred that he felt from Not-Tarik.

But instead he felt nothing.

Nothing.

A blank, dizzying emptiness that seemed to stretch out forever. A gray, buzzing void, completely lacking in empathy towards the idea of ideas. An utter lack of any emotion, any thought, any life; extending beyond humanity, beyond years, beyond time itself.

Gadiel's mind was immediately overcome with terrifying fear, fear seeping down into his very soul. If he kept ahold of this Not-Medina, he felt like he would fall into her, disappearing in the blank forever.

Instinctively, he let her go, but not before sealing her mouth with ice.

...Huh?

Gadiel blinked. He moved his arm, flexing his fingers. Was he-

"NO!"

Suddenly, he felt himself get slammed back into the mirror, body freezing up. Not-Gadiel glared hatefully at him before throwing an ice dagger at Tarik.

But for a moment, Gadiel had been back in his body.

As Not-Gadiel and Tarik began to fight, Gadiel began thinking about what it had been that had allowed him to temporarily gain control over his body once more. Was it touching Not-Medina? Was his brief synchronization with his own body due to that...emptiness?

"Where is he?!" Tarik yelled as he threw fireb.a.l.l.s at Not-Gadiel. He had tried to get closer to Medina, to help melt the ice off her face, but every time he tried, Not-Gadiel kept getting in his way. Medina herself was a little occupied, trying to get the ice off her face. Tears were streaming down her face, it seemed quite painful.

If the switch had something to do with the emptiness though, Gadiel wasn't sure that he wanted to go through that again. Not to mention, he wasn't sure of Not-Gadiel would want to do it either; Gadiel could tell that his reflection had been just as spooked by what he felt when he touched Medina.

Hold on...

Tarik used a burst of fire to propel him towards Medina, but Not-Gadiel was starting to get better at using his powers. He threw an ice spear to skewer Tarik, forcing him to blast himself back.

"You're fighting me!" yelled Not-Gadiel, running towards Tarik. As he ran, he raise one hand above his head, and created an ice sword, bringing it down as he got close. Tarik was able to dodge, and the ice sword shattered into pieces as it hit the wall.

As Not-Gadiel re-formed his sword and swung at Tarik again, Gadiel's mind was working overtime. He knew that both he and Not-Gadiel felt something when they touched their respective versions of Medina. They had both felt that void, that nothingness that felt like it would eat them both up.

And both of them had fervently wanted nothing to do with that.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Not-Gadiel yelled as he swung his sword downwards at Tarik's head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Tarik yelled back, grabbing the blade with his flaming hand.

Not to mention, when Gadiel got trapped in here, he had fervently wished that he was on the other side of the mirror, looking at the other painting. And when Tarik had tried to touch the painting, Not-Gadiel had gotten very upset and worried...

If Gadiel could narrow his eyes in suspicion, he would've. Instead, he started to try and think from Not-Gadiel's point of view.

The ice-sword broke once more, and Not-Gadiel resorted to a roundhouse kick. Tarik leaned back, then stepped in with a palm full of fire, grabbing Not-Gadiel's face and slamming him into the ground once again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!" Gadiel and Not-Gadiel screamed simultaneously.

Once again, Gadiel felt the tar-like hatred flow into him from Not-Tarik. At that moment, all his inhibitions fell away, and he became a creature of pure instinct. He wanted this to stop, he wanted this to end, he wanted the other being dead already, he wanted to be free...

He wanted to be free!

For a moment, Gadiel felt himself thras.h.i.+ng about in Tarik's grip.

"TARIK THE PAINTING!" he screamed. "THE PAINTING I-"

"-IT'S MY BODY NOW!" Not-Gadiel screamed. "NOT YOURS, MINE!"

But the damage was already done. Not-Gadiel blinked, his vision suddenly clear.

That was all Tarik needed. He raised a hand, and sent a fireball at the portrait of Gadiel. Not-Gadiel didn't even have time to react.

FWWOOOOOM!

"IIIYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The painting burst into flame, and Gadiel's body suddenly convulsed. Black tar seeped out of his eyes and ears, hot and sticky. By the time the painting had burned and shriveled into ash, Gadiel was on the floor, convulsing, throwing up more globs of black tar.

But it was him doing it. He could move his body, he could feel the tears running down his own face.

"Gadiel!"

The last thing he heard was Tarik calling out to him as he pa.s.sed out.