Long ago, when I first started growing flight feathers, I used to practice moving my wings on top of a building that overlook the sky. It was one of the tallest buildings and sometimes I'd see patches of the world below between the thick golden clouds. I wondered what might be down there.

The soldiers used this building to observe the earth because it was simply a good view, and the wind course there was always towards the building so there weren't any precautions to be taken of anyone falling off.

On that day, I made the brief trip to the usual place, only to see gray clouds tumbling low and covering the roof of the building in a somber embrace. I remember dropping my shoulders in disappointment, and then shivering from the breeze that started to pace through the fields. Feeling the first signs of rain tapping at my head, I turned around to come back after the shower had ended.

A growl made me stop in my tracks. The noise was hollow, inanimate, as if a wooden instrument was playing on its own. Whatever it was, it didn't seem hostile so I wasn't scared. I called out into the cold wind several times, each time more difficult to express my voice from the intensifying gales.

The hollow sounds grew thicker and closer, a series of conflicting noises joining the ensemble. I pressed my ears into my head from the first crack. Sparks soared across the sky with startling speed. One of them shattered against the corner of the building. My eyes fluttered. When they finally adjusted from the flash, a portion of the building had evaporated, leaving behind dark burns and smoke. That was the first time I'd ever saw lightning.

From that day forward, the building was off limits. More guards stood watch and any who came to visit was pushed back without reason. Still, some managed to sneak through watchful eyes to see why we weren't allowed to go there anymore. Some say the golden clouds were gone and a great view of the earth is visible from the roof. Others say the building became cursed from the lightning strike.

I did know one thing. The wind course had changed permanently. The togas the guards wore wafted in the opposite direction of what it used to. I solicited the great goddess about this and she could not answer. I've held onto this thought for many years until it was time for me to leave.

The thought haunted me as I grew older and more conscious. I never had the chance to share it with anyone else and I tried to forget about it and instead dedicated on meeting new friends. But it was slowly coming back to me, now that we were in the exact situation: something that was bigger beyond our comprehension, beyond immortality, was out there waiting for the opportune moment.


My arms quivered. I had no idea where I was aiming. The creature was already hard to focus with its sporadically flashing lights and horrific screaming. I didn't need another reason for me to miss this shot, the first being I was a little frightened. Water poured down from the broken fire sprinklers, soaking the rubble and bits of glass.

I could hear myself breathing shorter.

Ticking. And my breathing. I couldn't hear anything else. The mannequin trapped in the metal cage—the Oscillator—turned to me with each tick. The skirt made of cords and cables was flowing but even that slowed down to individual ticks. What confused me the most was that I was moving in tick-intervals also. Every movement I tried to make was only as fast as the ticks the Oscillator was producing. The water from the sprinklers spewed, descended, slapped at the floor, and then shimmered in those recesses.

The flames that licked at my arrowhead flickered and disappeared. My concentration was cut off. Four ticks, and I lowered my bow. A soft touch covered my eyes and the last I heard was Dr. Mario screaming at me, his voice skipping at the breaks, his cries cut off from the ticks.

My fingertips twitched. I sat down in ten ticks. Nothing processed in my head, no anger, no panic, and no shame. It was just the soft, almost soothing touch that was still above my eyes and it felt wholesome. And when I touched my holy bow, a hollow, crackling sensation nipped at my fingers and travelled up my arm. Everything was white. Numbness reached my ears, then something heavy deposited on my lap.

I woke up to the smell of blood and gunpowder.

"Wh-White Bird… I'm so, sorry."

In my hands was a bloodied soldier. I was placed into the situation where tears rolled down my aching face and I choked out a wheeze from the sight. A wide circle of blood surrounded us, continuing to spread from my dying friend. His face was distorted in agony but I was able to identify him.

"Cosby…?" I murmured.

Someone pulled the soldier out of my hands carefully to lay him down. He gently removed the chainmail to reveal the dangling arm where he's been shot. His collarbone was exposed.

"Pit, can you help me tie this cloth?" Link turned to me. He had a long piece of cloth in his hand that was mostly brown from the blood that was around us.

"Link? How did—you know my name?" I stuttered.

Link scrunched his eyebrows together in suspicion, but he collected himself with a short sigh. "Just calm down. Everything will be okay. We just need to get him to a doctor."

"There are no doctors in Polis 1," Cosby shook his head, "Except for that monster and… Dr. Blackwood."

"Good good. We'll take you to Dr. Blackwood. Lucas, can you lead me?"

Polis 1.

Dr. Blackwood?

"What?" I grabbed Link's shoulder. "What's going on here? Why are you taking him to Blackwood? He's the one that shot Cosby in the first place!"

Link's mouth hung open. There was shock in Cosby's eyes too as if he couldn't believe what I said.

"Pit… is everything alright?"

I looked up. I wasn't at the factory anymore. I was in the Polis 1 plaza. Noise. Townspeople, screaming and scattering everywhere in panicked fervor. Behind me, Captain Falcon and Snake held someone down on the ground. He resisted but the two men pressing back proved his struggles were fruitless. The man raised his head, met my eyes and cackled.

Dr. Sutherland.

The retired doctor that liked to take walks in the city. The doctor that saved Dr. Mario when he was injured. He wore a soldier's attire and had bandages on his head. He had the murderous eyes that made my insides boil with rage. He had the musket that shot Cosby still curling smoke from the fresh shot.

Someone grabbed my arms. I found my best friend's silhouette, but shrouded in a fluorescent white light that made me squint. His eyes were an even more piercing red that emphasized the blood that drenched my toga.

"Pit." Roy hissed. "You're panicking. I want you to breathe, okay buddy?"

"I'm not panicking!" I gasped. "What in the world is going on here! Why did Dr. Sutherland shoot Cosby, how did you know my name, and why are you so bright?"

Roy's hands lost their grip and dragged back to his sides. The light that shrouded him faded away. Fear filled his eyes. A ball of white weaved through my legs and it took me a while to register what it was.

Pichu scrambled up my toga and hugged my neck. He was a ball of white that blinded me from the confused looks on my friends' faces. I grabbed the small phantom off of me. He had the same red light that Roy had shining from his eyes. His attention was at my wings.

A shudder went down my spine and several of my feathers shook off. My knees buckled. The sensation started warm, but quickly became scalding hot and my blood simmered where I was emitting this, white light. It definitely wasn't my 'hope light'. It was too painful to be that.

Roy caught me before I could fall face flat on the concrete floor. He squinted from all the light I was releasing; nonetheless he still locked eyes with me. He said something. It didn't make sense but somehow an awareness of realization pumped into my heart. It was true; I just didn't understand it quite yet.

"You're from the other side."

I jerked and hit my head on something hard. The scene changed.


First, I noticed Falco, who was shooting his firearm at the cage surrounding me. He saw that I opened my eyes and he grinned as if to reassure me that everything will be okay. The lights were on, flickering every once in a while but I was able to see without epileptic flashes dancing at my eyes.

"Falco, did you see that—" I lurched upwards, only to be choked and held back down again from a series of cables.

I quickly noticed I was inside the cage that housed the Oscillator. And I only noticed that quickly because the said creature pinned me down with its spindly arms and hovered its featureless face over mine, 'staring' at me intently. Small cables wrapped around every one of my limbs and secured me against the cage. The cables that dangled off the cage were connected to the Oscillator at its hip; hundreds of circuits, all plugged in by cables like a scalp, or a really weird skirt.

The metal apparatus itself was a tight fit with two and the intervals between the bars were so insignificant only Mr. Game and Watch could possibly slip through them. As if to make myself feel any better, we were floating in midair with no physical wires. Whatever was keeping us afloat probably has to do with the monster itself.

Water slapped at the cage, still spewing liberally from the broken sprinklers on the ceiling. My toga soaked and stuck on me better than the cables. Uncomfortable was an understatement.

Dr. Mario, still with his phantom-like features, was just below me hanging off from the cage, attempting to rip off the cables that held me down. Mr. Game and Watch was there also, swinging his 'Judgment' hammer and throwing random number cards. I hoped he reached his powerful #9 card soon.

"You-you guys, be careful." I coughed.

"Oh, there's no need for that!" Falco chuckled.

"What he means is," Dr. Mario spoke through gritted teeth, "once the Oscillator got a hold of you, it was infatuated. Nothing we do is phasing it. So then it kind of shimmied its dangly cords around you, hoisted your limp body inside the cage and here we are now. We are trying our best efforts to getting you out of there!"

The Oscillator dipped its head low and brushed against my cheek. I could have sworn I heard a pleased "coo" out of it.

"Why does it like me?" I cringed.

"Maybe it's attracted to you." Dr. Mario muttered. "But the real reason I don't know yet. Our main concern is just getting you out of here."

Dr. Mario gripped some cords that held my arms down. As soon as he tried to vibrate and wear the wires with his phantom abilities, the Oscillator snapped, not with a mouth (since it didn't have one anyway) but with its entire body, like a lawn mower sputtering, struggling to start.

"Doc, remember, it likes technology… things." I hissed.

"No, it's protecting you." Dr. Mario explained. "See, Mr. Game and Watch is here too, he's fundamentally made of technology but the Oscillator no longer pays attention to him."

I stole a look at my two-dimensional friend. He was still swinging at the cage with his hammer. The Oscillator overrode him for a short period of time in order to split me from my friends earlier. Why not do it again?

"It doesn't need us anymore because it has what it wants now." Dr. Mario hinted.

I understood what he meant instantly. "Me? Why me? Why is it always me?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to find out!"

Dr. Mario shouted, not noticing that made him shoot out bursts of vibrations down to the cables he held. The cords shredded into bits of wire and plastic, freeing my right arm, but also grabbing the undivided attention from the Oscillator. Snapping cords wound around Dr. Mario's arms, swinging him off.

The entire cage shook aggressively to the right following a satisfying crack of wood. Two bars broke clean off of the welding of the cage, slicing into the Oscillator's milky white figure. It wasn't enough to make an exit, but good thing the creature was hovering over me, or else I would have been the one with two extra metal bars inside my body. Mr. Game and Watch jubilantly waved his number '9' card. Falco lost his footing but managed to grasp onto the cage.

My other friend was less fortunate. During the shake, Dr. Mario's body dropped thirty feet, the cords coiling around his arms yanking him in upright position in a human pendulum, crunching his shoulder joints. He howled in pain below me.

"Doctor!" I screamed.

I fumbled with my free arm to get a glimpse of my friend below. He wasn't unconscious, since I heard him groaning. Mr. Game and Watched beeped alarmingly, immediately scrambling down the cables, materializing his entire two-dimensional inventory for anything to cut Dr. Mario free.

Falco locked eyes with me above the cage. He carefully asked: "Do want me to stay, or go?"

"Go." I nodded.

Without a moment to spare, he used another cable to lower himself down to Dr. Mario and Mr. Game and Watch's level. I couldn't hear much of their conversation but I was relieved to know Dr. Mario had some assistance.


The Oscillator moaned, arching its torso where the metal bars protruded from its back. No bodily fluids spilled from the wound but its reaction to pain was much animalistic. My stomach lifted. The cage plunged two feet and stopped abruptly. All that was suspending the cage in the air was the Oscillator's telekinetic powers. If it died here, we would all fall into the canal.

The monster threw its head around in circles. The black crown adorned on its head threatened to slash at me. My eyes wetted and it became more and more difficult to keep them open from the sprinkles of water when the monster shook around. I dodged, turning my head right and left, sometimes backwards and hitting my head on the metal and cursing.

"Fal—hey Falco!" I gasped.

"One second, buddy!" He shouted from below.

Every time the cage dipped another two to three feet, my wings strained against the metal. I hate lying on my back to start with and now I'm strapped to the cage in this position. I was just about contemplating how I would've preferred being strapped face down when the monster swung its head wildly in pain, the black crown lodging into one of the intervals on the ceiling of the cage.

It moaned, rattling its head hysterically, scratching with its thin fingers, but the crown was stuck in there good. Now was probably my only chance.

I grabbed the edge of the cage with my free arm. The water from the sprinklers provided to be somewhat of a lubricant and I started to wriggle my left arm out of the cables. I had to stop every once in a while when the sentient cables pulsed and squeezed around my arm but once it slacked, I could start wriggling again.

The cage dropped significantly. I lurched upwards. My insides tossed around like a quick stir fry meal. Below me, a portion of the cables and the crane the monster wrenched off earlier dipped into the canal.

"Whoa—!"

Dr. Mario's surprised voice came short as he fell into the canal. I looked down. Falco gave me a thumb up while holding Dr. Mario on his other arm. Mr. Game and Watch was swinging from the cables holding onto a two-dimensional snapping turtle. I assumed that was what cut Dr. Mario free and grinned.

The monster above me whined raucously. The cables gripping on my left arm tightened, and we plunged another ten feet. My wings dug into the metal bars. But the most damage I felt was in my disheveled, tossed and ready-to-reverse stomach.

"I'm …not feeling well."

"You don't sound so scared, buddy!" Falco shouted from below, some ways to the docks to help Dr. Mario out of the water.

"I really don't want to throw up facing this way." I coughed, already feeling the reversal happening in my throat. "All of the barf is going to come back down on me like a fountain."

"That's pretty gross." Falco snorted. "I'm not cleaning up after you."

I rolled my eyes. Then Mr. Game and Watch tapped at me and waved from outside the cage. He refrained from slipping through the metal bars in case the Oscillator became unstuck. My stomach lifted again as we fell and stopped, and before I knew it, most of the cables were dipped into the canal. I raised my head in horror to see we were only some few feet above the canal. I was still trapped.

The fear and realization that spread across my face was enough to unease Mr. Game and Watch. Seeing him panic and fumble through the cables that strapped me didn't necessarily help me calm down.

"Falco, please, grab my bow and bag." I requested. I wasn't sure if I heard a reply from him or not. I wasn't even sure if my voice actually was a voice, and not just my mind saying it.

If I didn't escape, I would sink. With the monster and all the cables. I wouldn't come back up. I would drown. I tried to take a deep breath. When I reached my peak and my lungs filled with air, black spots pranced in my eyes. I exhaled and my hearing went a little numb. I was panicking. At a time like this? I've fought monsters that shoot lava from their mouth, a gargantuan bird made out of water, a man so wicked that I could personally call a monster, and I panic now because I was afraid of drowning. I had to make a nervous laugh at myself.

The metal groaned as the apparatus tilted to the right instead of plummeting. My torso slid in the direction of the tilt, providing enough leverage and finally pulling my left arm free. The monster above me didn't share my luck as its crown was still stuck in a crevice.

I grabbed the cage with both of my arms to try and shake my legs loose. At the same time I had to keep my breathing steady to not black out. I didn't feel panicky but I guessed my body felt differently. Sometimes my vision would turn off and come on as if I wasn't aware that I was blinking. With some help of Mr. Game and Watch's snapping 2D turtle, some cables cut loose and I was able to bend my knees little by little to slack the cables.


The Oscillator, probably noticing my effort to escape, suddenly decided to make a grab at me. Its bony white arms grasped onto my toga and tried to pull me closer. Another pair of arms, this time pitch black, wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me back out of the Oscillator's reach. I turned to see Dr. Mario in his phantom form still, clutching onto me, with his arms in a form of a gaseous mist.

"Doc," I breathed in, "how did you—"

"I'm alright, my friend. I needed some stretch in my arms anyway." He smiled.

I was relieved he sounded okay, but it still didn't explain how he made the trip from the docks to the cage, roughly forty feet and across water with snapping cables, in seconds. Plus there was the other mystery of how his arms were in a form of gas at the cage where he passed through, but felt pretty solid wrapping around me. I pointed that out to him but he just made a fascinated "hmm".

"Perhaps another of my 'phantom powers'." Dr. Mario muttered. "But, let's quit the chitchat and get you out of here before our lovely lady gets upset for whisking you away, hmm?"

"Uh… what, a 'lovely lady'? Does this thing even have a—"

Slick fingers traced my navel. The Oscillator crawled up to me with nimble but clumsy movements, tapping at every spot of my torso as if it were searching for something. I slapped at its arms to stop it, somehow, but its examining continued, tapping and sometimes dragging the bony digits.

"Doc, this is freaking me out! It's weird!" I cried and jerked when the fingers brushed one of my ticklish spots.

"Y-Ye—yes, I understand!" Dr. Mario's intonation dipped awkwardly as we plunged another five feet.

Water slapped at my face from every angle. Warm, murky, sour green water crept through my toga. I was half submerged in the canal. Mr. Game and Watch scrambled up to the surface after cutting through enough of the cables around my legs, so I can shake them off.

"Alright, now I need to get out but," I paused. "How did the monster get me in here in the first place?"

Dr. Mario frowned thoughtfully. "The cage just um, corresponded to the monster, I suppose. A side opened up like a door to let you in, and that was how we initially tried to break you free, but by then, every side was welded shut."

I turned back to the Oscillator. The investigating fingers were still looking for something on me, which I didn't know what it was that it wanted. All efforts on getting the crown out to where it was stuck to were given up, and so its head was still suspended to the top of the cage.

"You have an idea?"

"Not really." I admitted.

I had to make the Oscillator open the cage for me. If I could maybe control the monster how it could regulate the cables and whatnot, but what could I do? Technology isn't my expertise and I really didn't have any time.

"Then perhaps I should vibrate the cage?" Dr. Mario gripped some bars.

"...Wait! No, don't do that!"

I could have sworn I heard wires snapping before the cage plunged into the canal. Water filled my mouth. The slightest vibration Dr. Mario produced was enough to cut the Oscillator's suspension and drop the cage.

A bitter taste stung the back of my throat. I didn't have time to suck in air. Frail fingers clawed at my arms. The Oscillator was a blur of white and somehow I felt it lock eyes with me. My throat stung. I gagged. Hundreds of bubbles escaped from my mouth. Muffled screams of my friends from the surface were drifting farther and farther away from me. Hands grabbed me from outside the cage. But they weren't my friends.

I saw Roy. He was covered in ink.

"Ro—" I gurgled.

And then he was shrouded in light. I squinted. What I thought were Dr. Mario and Mr. Game and Watch's screams were all from Roy. His cries were becoming clearer and clearer. My eyesight was falling darker and darker. The cage and the monster weighed me down. We continued to plunge deeper and all I could really do was stare at Roy's cape whipping through the water as we sank.

"Get rid of the clock." He said. The first clear sentence I heard.

My insides felt cold. My head throbbed. I couldn't feel my heart; it was all in my head. Roy gripped my arms tighter until it was painful.

"Get rid of the clock and you'll live!"

The pain subsided in my arms. Roy was gone and the next thing I knew, I was holding the pocket watch Priscilla gave me in Polis 3. Roy's white luminescence left black spots dancing in my eyes. I could have sworn I kept my belongings at a safe place, but there it was, the watch, in my hands. I didn't know what I was thinking, I couldn't think, so I pushed the locket through the metal bars.

Down it went, the chain gently wafting side to side like a tail. I watched it descend and noticed I wasn't sinking anymore. There were no metal bars around me. The mannequin monster and its cables were nowhere to be found.

Arms grabbed me. And as soon as they made contact, I remembered I was drowning.


I broke the surface but I couldn't breathe at all. I swallowed more water than I thought. Falco pushed me up to the docks but before I could even get a hold of myself, he hoisted himself up, then pulling the rest of me out of the green canal. My vision was almost completely dark and I was frightened I've gone blind for a second.

Another set of arms wrapped around my chest and thrust brisk pumps. After the third pump, water burst from my throat and out my mouth like a waterfall. I heard muffled voices then Falco stated a 'holy shit' and I chuckled. I sounded like a dying horse.

Dr. Mario laid me down and examined my eyes. He had a small flashlight in his hands but I couldn't focus on them for more than two seconds. Mr. Game and Watch paced back and forth, his footsteps making beeping noises where he followed. I decided to concentrate on that to keep myself awake.

"Pit. Can you hear me? Make a noise."

"Uh." I croaked.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Dr. Mario put his hand up to my eyes. He had three fingers up but I wasn't able to orient myself into saying 'three'. So I just curled my fingers to mimic his.

"Good, good." He nodded. A cold piece of metal pushed up against my chest. After a while of checking my heartbeat, Dr. Mario removed the earpieces with a satisfied smile.

"One last question," He paused. "…Um, well, can you forgive me?"

By the time he asked me this, my vision came back to relatively normal. Normal enough to recognize my friends, drenched, exhausted, peering over me. I gave him a thumb up. That was all I could do before my vision went black again.


My eyes fluttered open for what seemed like two seconds since I've last closed them. I was wrapped in two blankets that smelled pretty fresh. But the best part was I was sleeping on a mattress and a nice pillow, which is always a blessing in a cave life.

The vending machine whirred softly. It was the lounge where I first found Falco, but several beds filled the room in one giant mattress. I remembered the last time I slept in a wonderful bed like this at the tree house where I fought Young Link's phantom; we slept in a conjoined giant bed, under the kid's request.

I found R.O.B. plugged up to the wall from a circuit, but also sleeping in a bunk at the opposite corner of the room. He was silent but the gently blinking charge light seemed like he was resting well. Mr. Game and Watch was sleeping by him and I had to take a moment to actually see him, since he was two-dimensional and there was no 'bump' in the sheets, so to speak.

Room lights peered from the closed door. Dr. Mario shuffled his feet down the hallway, mumbling 'more blankets' and I couldn't help but smile a bit, before I slumped down and coiled up, listening to the whir of the vending machine and my friends close to their slumber for the night. For that moment, I forgot I was confined in a cave. It felt like home, for that moment, anyway.


As my body started to fall heavier into deep sleep, the bedding underneath me turned cold. Thick layers of mist rippled and curled in the warm breeze.

I knew it was a dream but when I reached out, I felt the cold black rock sting my fingertips. A fuzzy feature of Roy sat next to me. I had a feeling a lot more people shared my surroundings but they were even more distorted and it was difficult to tell if they were spirits or just my eyes playing tricks.

"Thanks for saving me, I guess." I shrugged.

My voice reverberated as if I was in a large room. The room was indeed large, but somehow I felt confined. Roy didn't reply. He just hugged his knees and rested his head on top of them like a rag doll. Rather creepy, but this probably wasn't Roy anyway, so I didn't mind. Also I was pretty sure my best friend didn't sort of glow like how he was now.

I decided to talk on. "I saw you as a… what do you call, a 'light ink'-esque being? It was very beautiful, by the way. I think the light suits you more than the ink."

His body, although he didn't move a single bit, gleamed a bit brighter. I took it as he accepted the compliment. I had a smile on my face.

"This place," he started, "is called the Mirror."

"The 'Heaven's Door'?" I immediately responded. I forgot about that phrase but it just escaped my mouth like I already knew what it meant.

"It is all a matter of perspective. There are many names to I and there are many names to you. But we have always been here, since the beginning of time, and before then. Every being has their own version of their departure." The being that resembled Roy spoke through his tightly knitted knees, but I heard every word as if he was talking right in front of me.

"…And what are you?"

"You already recognize me. We've met many times and you've called me by different names but all of them are correct. And whatever you do from hereon, there are no right or wrong. White nor black, hope nor despair. …We cannot judge everything with what we see in front of us, what we believe to see. "

"So are you saying that what I see from my eyes, is a different view from yours?"

The being raised his hand, reaching out to touch me. I somehow mimicked his move perfectly and when our fingertips met, it was a flat surface. A Mirror, just like he said. He had that knowing half-smile on his face, but as my fingers twitched and fell out of line, a ground-shaking split separated us. I stepped back in surprise, breaking our bond. The crack in the glass was a flawless circle just large enough to encompass my hand.

As I was marveling at the shape I made, the being was already nowhere in sight. However I did have the feeling he wasn't too happy that I was the one that broke our bond across the Mirror. Or the Heaven's Door. Although I didn't expect the rumored door to not actually be a door.


My eyes cracked wide open to the familiar sound of ticking. I rolled to the side and watched my fingers but they moved fine, not in tick intervals. Gloom still hung over the ceiling and I couldn't tell how many hours had passed. What was different from when I fell asleep, were the dense ticks that shook my feathers.

Warily, I stepped out of bed. As I tied on my sandals and straightened my clothes, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. I checked my belongings and left the room.

The ticking was a lot louder now. The way it vibrated to my insides reminded me of the Oscillator too much, and I started to walk faster to the exit. Words floated above my head: the Heaven's Door, the Mother, the Mirror, phantoms, remembering, forgetting, hope, despair, light, ink, the necropolis, Priscilla, Cosby, Blackwood, Dr. Sutherland…

"You're from the other side." Roy's voice repeated in my head. "Get rid of the clock and you'll live!"

I couldn't get any closer to the doors. I turn to my right and my messy bed is still there. I haven't moved a single step.

The air around me appeared distorted, somehow fake. I stretched my hand out for good measure, finding my fingertips hit an invisible, solid surface. The glass cracked in the middle, separating my world into two planes. It bent inwards, revealing two reflections of me. One was my ink-smothered self. My phantom reflection smiled as the barbwire and chains knocked against the glass. The other reflection revealed myself, shrouded in white light. Similar white wires and chains knocked at the glass invitingly.

Words recited in my head again: remembering, forgetting, hope, despair, light, and ink. I looked down at my hands to find they were in gray. Mixed between the two planes. This whole situation made sense, and made no sense at the same time. And yet I was strangely calm to find myself in the middle of it.

That is, until someone came behind me and pulled me out of the glass.


I woke up sitting against something solid. Warmness filled me as I breathed in. The tree rustled in the breeze, sparkling from the sunlight spilling between the leaves. I've been here before when I became a phantom in Polis 1, when the child deity visited me for the second time, or the third. I can't remember exactly.

The bouquet of carnations I placed near the tombstone at the base of the tree was still there. I still didn't know whom this tombstone housed but I felt as if I was close to the person.

"Pit," Someone called from behind the tree.

I jumped. It didn't sound like the deity. He (or she?) always referred to me as the "white phantom", I remembered. And I've never met anyone else other than strange deity beings in these equally strange dream settings. So when Falco gripped my shoulder and sighed in relief, I was frozen in surprise.

"Falco?"

"You did it! You came back!" He exclaimed.

I had no idea what he meant. But then I did at the same time. I understood what I did but didn't know what the significance was.

"I passed through the Mirror," I said in a monotone, "…The Heaven's Door."

Falco squinted. I could tell he was being very careful with his words. He still met my eyes but regarded me with a carefulness of handling a bomb. The sunlight pouring on us was sweetly warm against my skin, except for my cold fingertips.

"You mean, the Hell's Gate?"


Author's Note: It's been a while! If there's anything confusing or needs clarification, let me know.