Alec never felt the knife that was shoved into his heart, only cold, and then darkness. When he awoke, however, he was in searing agony. He woke with a sharp gasp as if someone was force feeding him air. The next sensation was heat, quickly followed by the pain and smell of burning skin. Yelling in pain he tried to stand but tumbled back into the flames, causing even more pain. On his second attempt, he managed to crawl away on all fours. Although he was away from the flames, his clothes and his skin were still on fire. Screaming in pain all the while, he rolled around and beat his clothes and skin with his hands, trying to put the fires out. With a few moments of effort, he managed to succeed. Once he was no longer at risk from the flames he collapsed and took a moment to catch his breath. His entire body ached and was covered in burns but for now, he was alive.

"How?" He whispered to himself. He remembered the knife and tried to pull away his shirt to look at his chest. The shirt tore in his hands, burnt by the fire. On his chest was a fresh stab wound over his heart "What? That's not…" Before he could ponder further he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the familiar yellow of a radiation waste bin. The bin was breached. He yelped in surprise and stumbled backward as fast as he could until his back was against the wall. His heart was beating a mile a minute. The radiation from the barrel should be killing him at this distance, or at least making him sick, but he felt nothing. In fact, there were several barrels lying around, including one right next to where he stopped.

Looking back at where he came it appeared to be a garbage heap. Along with the burning trash, there was something else in the pile. He winced at it. After a moment's confusion it clicked, it was a body, several bodies. As soon as he realized what he was looking at the smell hit him and he threw up. Garbage, smoke, burning corpses, had created a sickening smell.

Once he finished throwing up he, without thinking, wiped his mouth with one of his burnt arms. Surprisingly, he felt no pain. Surprisingly, he felt no pain. Confused, even more, he examined his arms. Although he could see that they had been burned, they were healing rapidly in front of his eyes. He quickly looked at his chest again. What had been a fresh stab wound was now scarring.

"What is… I have to get out of here." It was too much to comprehend right then. He struggled to his feet and took several steps forward and was met by a very surprised looking raider.

The two of them stared at each other for several seconds in shock. The raider, regaining his senses, quickly drew his pistol and fired several rounds. The rounds slammed into Alec's chest and he stumbled back onto a radiation barrel, but he didn't collapse. Alec stared at his chest, where the bullets had hit. Blood was dripping out of the holes but soon the bullets fell out of his chest onto the ground and wounds had sealed up. Alec looked up again and saw the raider looking as shocked as he was.

Kill. A whisper in his head.

Just as the raider was raising his pistol again to take another shot, Alec, without thinking, leaped forward and tackled him. The wind was immediately knocked out of the raider and he dropped his gun.

Alec felt his blood boiling inside of him and without realizing what he was doing, punched the raider in the face, repeatedly. He didn't stop until the raider's face was a mangled mess, unrecognizable as a person. When he threw his last punch he realized what he had just done and stared at his hands, which were covered in blood. Shakely, he rose to his feet.

"What is going on here?" Before he could try to rationalize an answer he heard fast moving footsteps heading his way. Knowing he only had seconds, he grabbed the dead raiders gun and ammo. He looked around and found no cover so he knelt down on one knee and aimed the gun down the hall. As soon as he could see a faint silhouette he fired repeatedly. The silhouette fell but another appeared behind it. The figure fired back. By some miracle all the shots missed and Alec fired again. The second figure collapsed and the hall was silent.

Cautiously, Alec moved forward and examined the two bodies. They were dressed and armed the same as the raider he killed before so he gathered their ammo as well. There was no telling how much ammo he would need before the day was out. One had a molotov cocktail and a lighter as well, which he grabbed. Once he grabbed anything useful he moved forward again.

He made it a few yards before the world seemed to shake violently. Alec pressed himself against the wall to keep himself from falling over. As he did his head began to pound painfully and his vision blurred like he was having the worst hangover of his life. He also began to feel violently sick. In his delirium, he could hear something echoing in the distance.

"Vir spurius de prioribus surrexit. Vade et subicite eo."

He was certain it was someone speaking but he couldn't understand it. When the voice stopped his strange symptoms subsided.

With no time to think about it, he kept moving. The path twisted and turned but it seemed to be going steadily uphill.

'Good.' he thought. 'If I'm still in the quarry, then the best direction I can go is up.'

In the distance, he heard more footsteps. This time it sounded like a large group of people. With no cover behind him, he rushed forward, hoping to find something before they reached him. His luck held, soon the hall opened up into a small room with old quarrying equipment scattered about. Quickly, he ducked behind a forklift and waited. It wasn't long before several raiders appeared. With a quick glimpse, he could see at least five ahead of him all with mining helmets that had lights on them. He made himself as small as possible as the lights swept across the room.

"Nothing here." he heard one bark. "Let's go." The raiders rushed forward and, in their hurry didn't see him in his hiding place. As they thundered past Alec grabbed the cocktail. Once they entered the constricted hallway that he came from, he lit and threw it. It was a perfect throw, landing square in the middle of the raiders. They screamed in pain as they tried to put out the flames. Before they had a chance, Alec fired into the group. Within seconds, the five raiders were burning corpses. Just as Alec began to stand up the quarry began to shake again. The pain, blurriness, and queasiness returned instantly along with the voice.

"Et dedere. Magister tuus adiungetur."

Alec gritted his teeth and waited for the pain to pass, which it did. He stood up and checked his ammo. He only had a few bullets left. He glanced at the corpses, still smoking. Grimacing, he rummaged through the corpses to find more ammo. Once he was finished he had a few clips of spare ammo. Before he left the room he looked at the corpses one last time. Subconsciously, a grin began to play at his lips, but he moved on before he could realize it.

The quarry compressed into a small hallway again. As he trekked onward he heard nothing. No footsteps or weird voices. The silence made him uneasy. Up ahead there was a sharp turn to the right. Just as he was going to turn the corner he stopped. His instincts from years as a scavver kicked in. A sharp corner, he knew, was an ideal spot for an ambush. So, he pressed his back to the wall and waited, listening.

A few minutes passed without a sound, except for the random creaks and groans of the quarry. He was beginning to think the coast was clear when he heard whispering. He couldn't make out the words but he could tell it was close by. He held his breath and waited for the footsteps of someone coming to see if he was there. Sure enough, footsteps soon followed. Alec took a half step back down the hall and aimed his gun where he guessed the raider's head would be. His guess proved spot on. The raider's head passed right in front of his gun and before the raider had a chance to realize he was there, he put a hole in his head.

Alec whipped around the corner and saw two more surprised raiders. He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He pulled it again. Nothing. His heart sunk. The gun had jammed. Normally, this could be quickly fixed, but the raiders were not giving him a chance. One, armed with a sledgehammer, rushed forward and swung down at Alec's head. He managed to step back and avoid the killing blow but he couldn't dodge the raider's second swing, which hit his right hand, shattering his gun and his hand at the same time. Alec screamed in pain and his vision went red.

Kill. The word rang through his head. It hadn't come from him, but he had heard it in his head.

Alec thought he had blacked out from the pain but when he 'came to' he was holding the sledgehammer in his left hand and two raider corpses lay on the ground with mangled skulls. Horrified, he dropped the sledgehammer and slumped to the ground.

"What is wrong with me?" He asked to no one in particular. Nothing made sense. He should be dead several times over and yet, here he was, blood-soaked and with voices in his head. He shook his head, frustrated. He wouldn't find answers lying on the ground. He had to go. He grabbed the sledgehammer with his left hand and continued onward. As he passed the raider corpses he briefly glanced down at them. Instead of feeling sick, he felt a grim satisfaction stir in him.

'There is a strange fun to killing raider scum.' The thought startled him as soon as he had it. Before he could dwell on it long the pain in his right arm drew his attention. It was definitely broken in multiple places. Even the most subtle movement of his fingers sent excruciating pain through his hand. Alec gritted his teeth and tried his best to ignore the pain.

The path opened up again, this time to a small room. It was devoid of anything man-made, with the only defining feature being a large hole in the center filled with water. Cautiously, he peered into the water. Glowing radioactive mushrooms dotted around and within the hole, leaving him in no doubt that it was heavily contaminated with radiation. He was about to turn away when he remembered when the first raider had shot him. When he fell onto the radiation barrel the wounds had healed rapidly. Perhaps the same thing would happen here? Hesitantly, he knelt down next to the pool and submerged his broken hand in the water.

Instantly, pain shot through his hand. He screamed in pain but forced himself to keep his hand in the water. Aside from the pain, he could feel the bones in his hand moving back into place. After a few seconds, the pain stopped. As he pulled his hand from the water he flexed his fingers experimentally. No pain, his hand was completely healed. Both relieved and unsettled he stood up and turned to continue down the path.

Standing in his way were three raiders that Alec swore weren't there a moment ago. Realizing they had been seen, the lead raider rushed him with a knife. Alec instinctively swung his sledgehammer. The first raider had no time to react before his head was crushed. The other two, after seeing their friend killed, briefly glanced at each other, then bolted back the direction they came.

Kill. A command, pushing him forward.

Alec roared and, without thinking, rushed after them. Fueled by fear, the raiders managed to rush far ahead of him. After a few seconds of running, Alec entered a large room a decent sized building could have fit in. He remembered it well. It was where they had killed him and the Minutemen he had been with. The room was built like a large theater, with dozens of chairs and benches set up. It was well lit by lanterns and floodlights, contrasting it from the dark of the rest of the quarry. The central piece of the room was a stone altar, stained red. All over the room were raiders and at the altar was a man in a black robe and hood. At his feet were the two raiders Alec had been chasing, now dead on the ground. As soon as he entered the entire room turned it's attention to him. The robed figure pointed a pale finger at him.

"Et adduc eum ad me contineo."

Although he couldn't understand the words, the tone was not lost on him. The figure was annoyed and angry and was giving orders to the raiders present. When he spoke the pain and queasiness returned.

"Shut up." He growled through clenched teeth.

The figure laughed, a sickly sound, and the raiders began to move toward him. Unlike the other raiders, their movements were unsettlingly calm and deliberate. They were unnervingly quite, speaking not a single word as they moved toward him. Their faces were also frozen in a neutral expression.

Alec, on the other hand, was far from silent. Kill them all. The voice commanded and Alec roared. He lunged at the nearest raider with mad ferocity, caving in his chest with a blow from his sledgehammer. Alec felt white-hot rage boil within him. Anger he had never felt before. It took him over and energized him. Now, he did not think, he only attacked. He felt nothing except the rage. He saw nothing except the enemy in front of him. He heard nothing, except the crunch of the hammer against bones.

The raiders did not scream when struck. They only collapsed to the ground with the same, unfeeling look in their faces.

As he brought the sledgehammer down on another raider he became vaguely aware of the hooded man shouting more. Alec didn't catch the words but the man's tone had become panicked. His minions seemed to react to his tone and their attacks became frenzied. When the hooded man spoke Alec didn't feel a headache or any queasiness. Realizing this, Alec laughed like a maniac set loose from prison. A raider managed to slash Alec's arm with a dagger but Alec swatted him aside, sending the raider flying into a wall.

"Is this all you've got?" Alec continued to laugh as he continued his killing spree. The hooded man ducked into a dark hallway, trying to escape while he still had raiders to slow Alec down. "Come back!" Alec roared at him. "I'm not finished!" A raider jumped onto his back, causing him to stumble. He tried to rip him off his back but the raider stubbornly held on. Unable to throw him off, Alec slammed him against a wall. After a few attempts, the raider slid lifelessly off his back.

Alec rushed toward the hall the hooded man had disappeared down but the few remaining raiders threw themselves at him with suicidal recklessness. A few of them managed to cut him badly but they too were crushed the sledgehammer.

Finally, after a minute or two more of fighting, all the raiders around him were dead. Without them holding him back, he rushed down the dark hallway. In his rush, he didn't see the tripwire, nearly invisible in the dark. All he heard was the faint snapping of wire and a sharp 'click' sound. When he turned in the direction of the click he saw a flamer pointed right at him.

Instead of shooting flame, as he expected, it gave off a long 'hiss' with nothing appearing to happen. Alec took a step forward before he felt it, a burning sensation in his throat. His eyes bulged in realization and fear: poisonous gas. He covered his mouth with what was left of his shirt but the damage was already done. Every breath burned his throat more and rewarded him with less and less oxygen. Under the strain, he collapsed to the ground. As his vision began to darken from oxygen deprivation, he could see the hooded man standing over him.

"You should have stayed dead." The man told him with an amused tone. Alec could only manage an angry glare. The man ignored it and walked paced around him, like a predator toying with its food. "You are strong-willed to resist my power, I will grant you that." The man shook his head. "You could have been the chosen servant of Ug-Qualtoth, but you chose resistance."

Kill him. He killed you. Kill him.

Alec reached for the hammer but the man slammed his foot down on his hand. Alec cried out in pain and the man laughed.

"No more fighting. You have damaged my efforts enough." He kicked the hammer away and knelt next to Alec's head. "I will find other sacrifices. I will make sure they are not as strong-willed as you. In any case.." he produced a long, jagged black dagger from his robe. "..you must die for interfering with the will of Ug-Qualtoth." He raised the dagger in the air above Alec's neck.

Kill him! It was not a whispered command, but a scream of rage in his head. Again, strength poured into his limbs, fueled by the anger. As the man brought the dagger down Alec grabbed the man's arm with his right hand, halting the dagger an inch from his neck. With his left hand, he punched him in the throat.

The shock of the hit caused the man to drop the dagger, which fell harmlessly. He grabbed his throat, gasping for air and he crawled back, away from Alec. For his part, Alec was still struggling to breathe. The burning sensation had passed, but breathing was still difficult but thankfully, not impossible. While still gasping for air, he struggled to his feet.

"Fool." It wasn't a voice in his head now. It was speaking through him and controlling him. "You are a child tampering with things you cannot hope to comprehend. Ug-Qualtoth has not heard your call. I have."

The man's mouth practically hit the floor. "Who are you?"

It laughed, amused. "Did you really think your master was the only eldritch abomination wandering the cosmos? The price for your stupidity is death."

The hooded man regained his composure and rose to his feet.

"You are but a minor obstacle. Ug-Qualtoth will have his champion. You will not stop me." With that, he bolted as fast as he could with an injured throat. It tried to follow him but quickly collapsed after a few seconds of sprinting, quickly winded from the inadequate oxygen he was getting.

"Curse this useless sack of meat!" It hissed through its teeth. Once it regained its breath it glared in the direction the man had fled. "You cannot run forever. I will have your head soon for this soon enough. But first…" It glanced around at its surroundings with a devilish grin forming.. "I am going to bring this whole stinking place down."

Without wasting a moment, it got to work, finding anything remotely explosive inside the now empty quarry. It took, at most, an hour before it had what it needed. With explosives in hand, it made its way to the entrance. The moon was high in the sky when he walked outside. Once there, it set the explosives and moved a safe distance away behind cover. Then, it pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it at the cave entrance. The boom echoed through the quarry and tons of quarry rock collapsed onto the entrance.

"Not the whole place, perhaps but it will do." It walked out of the quarry pit with a satisfied smile. "Now, for the scum that bound me to this- Gah!" It clutched its head as it was suddenly racked with extreme pain. "What is-"

"Get out of my head!" Alec screamed, finally taking control of his body. He fell to his knees, exhausted by the effort.

Hmm, you're tough. I can see why they used you. But you cannot win this contest forever.

"What are you?"

Alec could hear a soft chuckle in his head. If I had a hundred years, I couldn't begin to explain it to you in a way your small mind could comprehend. All you need to know is I am now a part of you.

"I don't understand."

Of course, you don't. Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to spend the next century explaining it to you. Now, please, surrender your body and this will be as painless as possible.

"What? No way am I- Ah!" A sharp pain shot through him. "Why!" Alec screamed as the pain intensified. "Leave me alone! Why do you want my body? Just leave!"

Do you think I want to be stuck in this meat bag of yours? Hah! If I could leave I would. Unfortunately for both of us, I can't.

The pain subsided, somewhat. "Why not?"

Cause I've been bound to you by that half-wit wizard wannabe. We're both stuck like this now for the rest of your life. Unless you'd like to kill yourself which in that case, by all means, go ahead, but not until I've killed that brat for the trouble he's caused me.

"Perhaps we can come to an agreement then?"

Ah, the mortal wishes to bargain. Came the sarcastic reply. Well, I have some time, what do you suggest?

"You hate that guy. Well, so do I. He killed me and everyone with me. So, if we're going to get revenge, wouldn't it make more sense to work together, instead of fighting for control every few minutes?"

Your logic is amusingly simple. The voice went silent for a moment as if mulling it over. Well, I suppose there is no other alternative and this may be an opportunity for some fun.

"What kind of fun?" Alec asked warily, not sure he wanted to know.

Well, I do enjoy killing fools like the ones in the quarry...

"Great, I'm stuck with a homicidal alter-ego in my head."

Oh, like anyone is really going to miss them. Anyway, there will be time for that later. Right now, you need to get this body of yours fixed.

"Don't you mean, our body?" Alec asked, dryly.

No.

"Alright, I know someone that might be able to help."

Good. I'm going to do some thinking about how to make this 'arrangement' work.