Chapter 2

The Tim in the middle seemed ready to collapse, his eyes half-closed, but none of them said a word. Tony took a step toward them and then the other two noticed his presence. There was something...very off about them. In his head Tony laughed at himself for thinking that there was something off about the fact that Tim had suddenly been cloned. Of course something was off. It was a lot more than off. Then, he remembered what Tim had said. The one with the gun. Not for nothing had he been trained as an investigator. Immediately, he noticed that there was a strange black tattoo on the palms of two of the Tims and that the one who was dazed had a gun. He ran, grabbed the armed Tim by the arm and started to drag him down the hall. The faces of the other two Tims twisted and became almost bestial.

"McGee, come on...whatever is going on...snap out of it!"

The armed Tim stumbled after Tony and then his eyes finally opened all the way. He looked at Tony, back over his shoulder and then began to run, dragging Tony in his wake. He didn't say a word. He took deep gasping breaths that echoed in Tony's ears, fueling his own fear. Then, without warning, someone grabbed him from behind, yanking him away from Tim. Tony was thrown to the floor and as he raised his hands to defend against his attacker, he saw that he was being attacked by...Tim. Only this Tim had no kindness, no uncertainty in his face. This Tim was full of animal-like ferocity...and there was a strange black tattoo on his palm. Tony noticed all this but only for a moment because he had to defend himself against the attacks of...whatever this was. The blows rained down fast and furious...too fast. Tim wasn't this good at fighting. But then, he stopped and instead of hitting Tony again, brought the palm with the tattoo down toward his face, toward his forehead.

It never got there. As Tony watched, slightly dazed himself, the Tim attacking him was pulled away by the armed Tim. Then, he was treated to a vision of the two Tims struggling with each other. There was a sizzling sound as the animal Tim closed his hand around the armed Tim's arm. Still, neither of them spoke. They didn't scream, curse, make any sound at all. Tony didn't know what to do, what to say. He just got to his feet with the vague idea of helping...somehow. Then, the attacking Tim was thrown against the wall...hard. He sagged and the armed Tim brought his own hand to the forehead of the slumping Tim. There was a whoosh of air and then the world rippled and the two Tims merged into one with an explosion of energy that threw the resulting Tim across the hallway to the other wall where he slumped to the floor, his eyes closed, blood staining the collar of his shirt.

Tony ran to him.

"Hey, Probie...Probie, you okay? Wake up!"

With a moan, Tim's eyes flickered open and he stared up at Tony.

"What happened?"

Tony had to laugh at the question. "I have no idea. You mind explaining to me what is going on?"

"Is he gone?"

"Who? The other you?"

"Yeah."

"I guess. You seemed to...suck him up."

Tim nodded and winced at the motion.

"Yeah. That's what I thought would happen."

"What's going on?"

"Where's the other one?"

"I...don't know. He didn't come after us."

"He will," Tim said and tried to sit up...failing miserably. "He will. He has to. He's me."

"You...I...don't get it. McGee, you want to explain to me why we've suddenly stepped into the mind of Stephen King?"

"Not here. Not now. Not while there's still the other me running around. It's not safe." He tried to get up again.

"Whoa! Slow down, there, McGee."

"We can't. We can't, Tony. There's no time to slow down!"

Seeing that it was futile to make Tim stay down, Tony helped him stand...and then, let Tim lean on him while he got his bearings again.

"We need to go through the door."

"Back outside?" Tony asked hopefully.

"No. Further in. We can't leave now that it's started. I tried to do this once before but it didn't work..because I was alone."

"I thought you said you'd never been here before."

"I haven't. The last time I tried...I was in Ohio, not Virginia. The first time I was here was in...California...at a carnival."

"What?"

"Help me find the door. There should be one on each side of the room." Tim stopped leaning and stumbled forward. "And watch for the other me."

"Okay." What else could he say, really.

It took a few minutes. The door seemed camouflaged to the walls. Finally, there it was and Tim reached out to open the door.

"Wait, McGee...you're not going to split into three again, are you?"

Tim smiled tiredly. "No. Not this time...but he'll follow. He'll be there...and..." He swallowed nervously. "And I'm sure we'll run into the Proprietor soon enough."

Tony could have sworn he heard the capital P on Proprietor. "I take it that's a bad thing?"

"Yeah. Pretty bad."

"Okay."

Tim opened the door, and again, Tony was surprised. He wasn't sure what he had expected this time, but not what he saw. This room was bright! The walls were white and the lights were bright making it almost impossible to see any details at all. Tim reeled back against Tony as if he'd been hit but then he straightened and stepped inside.

"Have to keep going."

"To beat the other you?"

"No. He can't do it without all of us."

"Um...okay."

"Just don't let me turn back, Tony. I can't turn back."

"Why not? You'll turn into a pillar of salt?"

Tim laughed. "No."

Far away...or close by. It was hard to tell. A large black...box? It wasn't just black. It was a shiny surface, like obsidian...or maybe onyx. Whatever it was, it stood out in the bright white lights, but it could be five feet away or a hundred and it would be impossible to tell. Tim took another step and then another. The box began to grow larger as they approached.

"This room seems bigger than the one we were in before."

"Could be."

"What happened to the laws of physics, Probie? I thought you were all about empirical evidence."

Tim stopped and turned around. His face was strained with the effort of walking through the light. It bothered Tony but it wasn't enervating him as it seemed to be enervating Tim.

"Tony, don't you understand yet? This is empirical evidence! This is something I've been dreading for most of my life. What I have to do is...I hope...a good thing, but I don't know. All I know is that I've been...literally branded for this since I was five years old. Branded with this." He held up his palm and now Tony could see that the same black tattoo was on his hand. It looked vaguely like a three-headed dragon...all tangled and entwined into one body.

"Three into one," Tim said with the air of an incantation. "Right now, I'm incomplete. I'm missing part of myself, but that self doesn't want to be part again. Doesn't want to face what I know we have to face. He will fight me and kill me if he can...just as he will kill you if he can. If he wins...I don't know what will happen."

"Then, we'll make sure he doesn't win."

"You can't help, Tony. You can't fight him...not unless he's fighting you...because he doesn't really exist that way. You can't kill him because he's me."

"I don't get it."

"Would it make you feel any better if I told you that I don't exactly get it either?"

"No, not particularly."

"I didn't think so."

Then, across the white room, a door opened. It seemed as black as the building did at first, but then, standing in stark contrast to the white walls...Tim was there.

"Run, Tony! To the door!"

"Why? Don't you need him?"

"I can't fight him in here. This place...it's...it's wrong, somehow. I need to get through the next door!" He started pushing at Tony to get him to run. Gone was any thought of arguing. The urgency in Tim's tone forced him to move along.

"Okay!"

They ran toward the black box...which was now more the size of a small building rather than a box...but still that solid black.

"Go, go, go, go..." Tim was whispering behind him. Tony reached back and yanked Tim along. Whatever was wrong it seemed to be getting worse. Then, without warning, they both ran full-out into the side of the...building. It knocked them backwards onto their rear ends and Tony had time to notice that the same image Tim had on his palm was also etched into the glimmering black walls.

"Find the door!" Tim said and climbed to his feet. "There should be..."

"One on each side."

"Yes."

Tim found it this time...but he was fast losing whatever energy he had left. Tony pushed him out of the way and pulled at the heavy door. Just as it opened, the other Tim reached them. He ignored Tony completely and launched himself at Tim who was sagging against the wall.

"McGee!" Tony called, just in time. Tim looked up and managed to move out of the way so that the other Tim hit the wall and not him. Tony grabbed Tim's arm and dragged him into the next room. ...which again, took him completely by surprise. If it weren't for the fact that it was still the size of a large warehouse (or maybe ten large warehouses), it would look like an old-fashioned study. The walls...which were no longer square...were lined with bookshelves and filled with antique-looking books. The floor was carpeted, a thick shag carpet that muffled all the sound they'd been making.

"What?" Tony asked in shock...but there was no time to stare, Tim flew in past him, the other Tim on his back, knocking him to the floor. He reached out to help but was held back...not by any actual force but by the realization that anything he did to this...other Tim would also affect his friend...because it was his friend. He didn't know where the epiphany came from but he knew somehow that if he took a look at Tim's current injuries, they would be a combination of his own and that first Tim.

The other Tim seemed to get the upper hand and he flung Tim back against the wall of books. The shelves broke sending the tomes cascading down on top of him. Tim seemed buried beneath the books.

"McGee!" Tony called and began to run forward, but then, as the other Tim knelt down to...do whatever that forehead-touching thing actually did, Tim's hand reached up and clapped onto his clone's forehead. Surging upward from the pile of books, Tim reached his other hand around to the back of the attacking Tim's head and held him in place. There was that same rippling motion of the world as Tim finally retrieved his other self. This time, however, the rippling didn't stop with the disappearance of the other Tim. The black shadows returned and swarmed around Tim, seeming to multiply as they attacked. They had no definite shape and they moved so fast that they were blurred anyway. There were so many of them that it was hard to see Tim at all. It was a frightening sight... but it was nothing to the sound of Tim suddenly screaming.

Forget it, Probie. I'm not going to stand here and watch you die in front of me. Tony flung himself into the mass of shadows and was surprised that he didn't actually touch anything but Tim, knocking him flat on his back. His eyes were open...and solid black. Black like the outer walls of this room. Tony could see himself reflected in those black eyes.

Then, Tim sat up and stared at Tony. The black eyes wide open, so wide that it was like looking into two mirrors.

"What have you done?" The voice was not Tim's voice. It was the voice of...of something else, something foreign, alien...and Tony was fairly certain that this was also something evil.

"Who are you?" he asked, pleased that he'd managed to keep his voice from shaking.

"I am the Master. The Possessor. The Proprietor...as he called me."

"What's going on?"

"Three into one." The Proprietor held up Tim's hand and smiled and Tony wasn't sure he could think of anything he'd seen before that frightened him more.