This chapter is going to be really complicated, but if you know Birth by Sleep well, you'll know who's speaking or thinking. Enjoy! Don't forget to review, since reviews help me write :)

I do not own anything except for Laura, and these ideas.

Countless fist indentations lined a dank grey wall in the hooded man's path as he walked through a high-ceilinged hallway. The indents hadn't been small-natured; his fist penetrated through the ice cold marble walls inches deep as he made his way to destinations unknown. Did he have a reason to react so violently to the scene he walked through? Was it a necessary action to take towards his hallowed dream of a past? He wanted to think 'yes, it was the only way for one of his knowledge and experience to react', but somehow the emotions necessary to evoke such a thought wouldn't be evoked, themselves.

'My body... it just moves on its own. Every time I'm here, I...'

His body used to be strong, defined, shapely. It was him as a whole. It used to bring him utmost pride and satisfaction.

'I walk this path, yet I am not here.'

He used to feel confident in his abilities. He felt like he could do anything that he put his mind to. He completed every mission perfectly, every task given without any slipups or problems.

'But that's not who I am. I'm supposed to be...'

Every ideal he possessed, every idea he thought of... it was perfect. It was the perfect idea of life. Life would have been better for everyone if they would have just let him carry out his experiments, his works of art, his masterpieces. He was so close to perfection. If they would have understood -

'This is not my body, yet I am here in spirit. A poltergeist who pathetically lingers in a hallowed ruin.'

If I would have had a chance, I would have explained to them what I was trying to accomplish. I was never a part of his plans... at least in my mind I wasn't. If I even had a few extra moments aside to spend with them to tell them my thoughts, all of this would be different. But what is this? What is the situation I'm speaking of?

'Like a caged animal I unleash my anger in this prison of a body.'

This was my plan. It was my doing. It was all supposed to fit together. The pieces were intricate and unique yet each had their own specific purpose. Like my pawns on a game board I commanded them as their king. With an iron fist I commanded, ordered and plotted, yet I face this horrible end.

'I am dying. My soul is dying, yet this body still remains.'

His legs ceased their movement of murderous intent, his arms soon after hanging at each side. The opaque black cloak covering his body hung tattered, clawed, torn. His appendages still remained covered despite its sad condition. It confused them both that no matter the damage that came to him, he still remained in one piece.

'I wish I could see their faces again. I would give anything.'

A grin crept across his parched, broken lips, revealing erily white teeth for his condition. He raised his right hand to abdomen-level and crushed the air in between his fist. The tendons in his hand strained from the action.

'Your time is done. I have won our subconscious battle. Or do you not recall?'

The hand thrust back to his side, once again limp. His back moved slightly forward in a slump like a man hypnotised. His sinister grin had been replaced by a more calm disposition.

'You seem to forget whose body this once belonged to.'

The same fist clenched, once again straining the tendons. Their struggle protruded to become visible through his ebony gloved hand.

'Our problem seems to be your inate sense of perseverance. Why wouldn't you want to fade into the darkness? Doesn't that appeal to you? You sickening, depressed teenage soul.'

His legs, even visibly defined under his body-length long cloak, trembled in what seemed to be hesitation and restraint before taking a few stumbles forward. After a moment of stumbling his body regained his hypnotized stature.

'Would a depressed teenager have such will? You underestimate me.'

'...'

The man's body once again took a few hesitant, shaky stumbles forward. After a moment's pause and a grit of teeth a few more had been taken.

'Your annoying sense of pride grates at my patience so. I grow tired of your constant attempts to pry into my reality.'

Falling to his knees in what wouldv'e seemed like a weary collapse, he spread his hands wide against the off-white marble floor. It cooled his sweaty palms and caressed his sore knees. His hair, coloured with melded grey and brown, hung over his face and clinged to his cheeks. His body communicated weariness, but his face, anger. After a few moments of his held grimace, his facial muscles relaxed to an eased expression. A small smile crept upon his lips.

'Your reality, huh... Yeah, judging by how fucked up this body is by now, it really is your fault. It's all your fault.'

His body became half limp, collapsing in a sorry heap onto the floor. His arms and back twiched ever so slightly.

'Look at the mess you are making! This is a complete waste of time. It's been fifteen bloody, excruciating years trying to deal with you as well as carrying out my missions. It's been fifteen years and now you choose to fight the judgement, the priviledge that has been served to you?'

Like a marionnette an unknown forced pulled his arms upward, his shoulders and backbone soon to follow. He rolled upward to a standing position on the balls of his feet. The possessed body stood up straight but his head still lay limp.

'Come on. Let's go for a walk, you wrinkly old bastard.'

His head seemed to lead his body's way as it walked limp like a zombie down the hall to a marble balcony that matched the rest of the castle. Intricate mechanical-esque markings decorated tiles of white, grey and blue and divided them unequally. The divisions ran all the way up to the bland, squared off railings, granting them a ghost of design personality even in the destruction the establishment lay in. His hooded head drew upward, slowly, revealing his eyes: stern, hardened eyes, one cat-eye yellow, and one ice blue.

'Do you see this, you leech? Look at this abomination of a world you've created. All of this is entitled to you. It's your creation! The fruits of your hard-worked effort. And now, look at its condition. Everything lay in ruins... Do you not see my connection? Look,'

The man strained to shift his body towards an untouched section of the marble walls, finding it suitable to use as a reflective surface. He turned towards the wall and drew back his black hood, at the price of his arms once again becoming limp. The left half of his face, wretched, stressed, sinister, possessed the yellow eye. It grinned proudly towards its reflection through silvery strands of fallen hair once carelessly thrown back. The other half that possessed the blue eye showed a stern, determined, but pained expression. Mid-length brown bangs overhung his face and framed his pained look.

'I see a body who I chose specifically to use as my next vessel. That's what I could be using it for, as well, so if you would-'

'Wrong. Look again. You know what I see? I see what used to be mine. I was supposed to be a messenger of the greater good. I used to radiate a positive aura... Look at how you've tainted me. This is when it's going to change.'

Sitting in this null void seems to have given me a lot of time to think and to reflect on myself and of this life. My life... It once had a purpose. I was put into this world to contribute to the pleasant, joyful and willful existence of all living things. I trained hard to become who I was then, long ago, following every command and taking every pointer and suggestion into mind. I was so loyal to my cause, never once straying to the other side. Sometimes I try not to think of it even existing, but ignorance is never bliss. Would I even have been so priviledged to have saved them both from this void if I had been ignorant? Most likely not.

I've spent these lonely years in this prison to meditate. This prison was my price to pay, I hadn't caught soon enough onto the treachery that had been looming around us for as long as I could remember. It could have been nipped in the bud so, so easily, yet he stayed under the radar so skillfully that not even my dear master had truly known.

I had never really felt safe in the castle each time that he came to visit my dear master. It was as if he brought a cloud of tension and negativity into our home. It brought an ill wind to our world. As a child I would follow him through the castle once he was alone. I knew very well that he could sense my presence. He also knew that I had never once trusted him, not once. He was never welcome to me.

The second visit he paid to us, he brought him. Both of us had been so shocked to see someone like him in such a state of shock. Really, he was just like us. We were stricken with confusion and compassion for the poor boy. It angered my friend to see someone the likes of that man to have brought a boy, broken, to us. I could feel that he knew of my uncertainty; I read in his journal that he suspected that that man had put that poor boy in such a state. It was wrong of me to have pried into his mind, I realize, but for some reason I could not bring up the subject in our small talk.

Everything fell apart afterward and I knew right away who I was searching for. Him, and his wretched experiment. That shadow, full of anger, hate, envy, wrath, and all other things negative. The blame was all on them. As soon as I saw that abomination's face, I knew that he did not belong. He was not supposed to be... at least not in that form.

Once someone is separated into their two sides, it's never the same. Never. There are never again two opinions in one's mind, two little people on one's shoulders. Decisions are then one-sided and ignorant. Ignorance... It ruined us all. It destroys trust, breaks connected ties, destroys lives. It destroyed the trust between us, broke our unbreakable connection, and caused me to trigger the transformation of our world into a maze of oblivion.

Was this really what he wanted to happen? I find the idea sickening. So much grief from the action of one man. One sickened, lost man.
But I smile. Their salvation may not be too far off.

'I've been waiting for someone who could be able to help me.'

'Who are you?'

'We're connected somehow, I can feel it. Can you?'

'I don't understand. Please, tell me your name.'

'I wish I could tell you. I would like to tell you. Can you lend me a hand?'

'Please, I want to know.'

'I know you have what it takes. You have it in you. The light to show us the way. Can you save them?'

'Save them? Save who?'

'You can save my friends, can't you? If you can do that, then maybe our worlds have a chance to change.'

'I feel like I have a duty in myself to help. Maybe that's what you're talking about, but please, let me know your name.'

'Ask them to tell you everything, so that you can tell me the answer to which you desire.'

'What... I -'

'Ask them, my friend, and you shall know.'