Nikon opened his eyes and immediately knew something was wrong.

The room was far too cold, for one, and he could no longer hear the hum of the whale oil furnace. The sound of steps above him were absent as well, and the gusts of wind normally expected from outside were gone.

Put simply, it was far too quiet.

He stood up, noting how his leg no longer ached. He pulled down his trousers, glancing at where the bandages should be. However, much like the noises expected from a busy inn, this too was absent. He saw what appeared to be an old scar there in the exact same shape from the wound, but nothing else.

"Okay, something is off. What is going on?"

He moved over to the door, pausing as he noticed how cold it was as well. It seemed to prickle the hairs on his fingers even as it hovered over the metal, but something else was scratching at the back of his mind. Even as he stood there, he could sense something was beyond the door, something he did not want to see but would be forced to.

"Alright, flip a coin," he said reaching into his pocket. He paused. "Wait, I'm broke. Flip a…shoe."

He removed his right shoe, quickly noting that the floor was very cold on his skin.

"Okay…so if it lands…oh this is idiotic, the shoe will usually land bottom side first because that's the heavier portion. It's basic physics."

He placed his shoe back on, deciding the two choices were either sit there like a big lemon or actually go through the door. So, not liking the idea of being a citrus plant, he made a decision.

He opened the door.

Nikon gasped in shock as he saw what lay before him, his eyes and mind trying to desperately deny it but failing to come up with a reasonable counterargument. It was simply too insane to believe.

The hallway was still there at least partially, but it seemed to disappear into a black abyss before him. Chunks of scenery floated around this new hole in the hallway as if it had been ripped right out of the sensible world and into this bizarre chasm.

"…okay, it would appear they have slipped some hallucinogenic compounds in my dinner."

Nikon walked out into the hallway, noticing chunks of black stone began to appear at the end of it. They seemed to float with no apparent means of maintaining this condition, and didn't appear to be made of any material he had ever seen before.

"I wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes," spoke the doctor rolling his eyes.

He stepped on one of the black stones experimentally, noting how it held his weight easily. He shifted his other foot as well, noting that the stepping stones appeared to be acting as some sort of walkway. Obviously, someone wanted him to continue.

"You know, this was not what I was expecting out of meeting otherworldly powers. I was expecting fluffy clouds, singing babies, maybe even a few winged guys in robes. This is…decidedly morbid."

He kept walking up the stone path, noting how the hallway behind him seemed to get smaller and smaller and a large island of the black stone was getting larger and larger. It seemed more like a falling asteroid over a natural shape, though the path led up to it regardless.

He reached the island, the rock path immediately destroying itself behind him. He glanced back, eyebrows raised.

"No way back…well, that figures."

He turned back around.

A man stood right in front of him, bearing into him with dark black eyes.

Nikon let out an exclamation of astonishment, stepping backwards reflexively and hitting open air. He spun his arms to maintain balance, though he could feel himself slowly tumbling.

The stranger grabbed his arm, stopping him. Nikon noticed the man's arm was ice cold, and had a grip like iron.

"T-thanks," whispered the doctor.

The man's face was impassive, black rings around his eyes seemingly expanding and contracting much like the iris in a human eye. When he spoke, his voice rang in echoes around him, as if a legion of other voices joined in to form a cacophonous symphony. "Do not be afraid, doctor. The Void will not kill you, even if you fall."

"The…Void?"

Suddenly Nikon deduced where he was, and in turn, who stood before him.

"You're the Outsider."

The Outsider smirked, yanking him up to the same footing as him. "Perceptive of you, though I did give you a hint. Yes, I am the Outsider."

The doctor blinked and he was gone, looking around confused before noticing the black-eyed man standing on a nearby boulder.

"I am that strange little man you hear so much about," stated the Outsider nonchalantly, checking his nails. "I watch, I observe, and sometimes, I push."

He teleported again, walking upside down on a stone arch as if it were right-side-up. "I cannot intervene directly, you understand, being from the Void, but I can manipulate what I wish. It's amazing what small details can do to the overall picture. Did you know what caused the late Empress Kaldwin's assassination?"

The Outsider appeared right beside him then, smiling as if he had heard the most tantalizing bit of gossip. "If you want to be short-sighed, it was two years before, when her group of associates decided they didn't much like working under her. If you want to be technical, it started the day I gave the assassin Daud his powers, nearly two decades before that assassination. If you want to be honest, it started nearly two centuries ago, when the Kaldwin family line originated. Everything has a link to something. All the choices we make affect our future."

"And why am I here?" asked Nikon bluntly, though not without a tinge of fear. "I am just a doctor."

"Hmm? Just a doctor? Well yes, and Anton Sokolov is just a philosopher, but that didn't stop him from curing the plague, did it not? You humans don't seem very adept at seeing the webs you weave, the things you can accomplish if you just pull the strings."

The Outsider blinked to further into the island, beckoning him forward.

The doctor followed him, the Outsider pointing to just past a nearby wall. Nikon glanced over it, stopping dead.

The scene before him was of a small concrete cell, a total of three occupants inside. They were motionless there, and Nikon could see they were clearly in the middle of an interrogation. The one being interrogated was a young woman, her face covered in cuts and bruises from what likely was fists. He also recognized her, a fact that quickly distressed him.

"Diana…" he whispered, walking over the her and putting a hand on her arm. He could feel her body heat, but she did not react at all to him, nor did the other two men at the table. He then realized two things. First, one of the two interrogators were actually a woman, and the man was Secretary Kalin.

"So, you must be his captain of the guard," noted Nikon glaring at the woman, noting the blood on her hands. "Charming one, aren't you?"

He poked Secretary Kalin's face then, the stern-faced man glaring intensely at Diana. "Wow, you're a lot uglier when you've tried to have me killed."

The Outsider appeared suddenly beside him, glancing at Kalin emotionlessly. "I believe the woman they are interrogating is your assistant, yes? These notes, they are yours."

"How am I seeing this?" asked Nikon curiously. "How can you see this?"

"My job is to see, and observe. That's all I like to do, really. Divine intervention holds no appeal to me."

He traced his finger along the table, smirking as he did so. "This man right in front of you is Secretary Kalin, the man who betrayed you. He killed your sponsor, kidnapped your assistant, and are trying to use your notes as their own. So, there are two options in front of you. Either you curl up and die…"

He grinned, placing a thumb right over Kalin's throat. "Or you take back what is yours."

Nikon recoiled. "I don't want him dead. You may not understand this, but humans do not like killing each other."

The Outsider raised an eyebrow, pointing at Diana's bruised and battered face. "Ah, so I take it those were self-inflicted?"

Nikon gritted his teeth. "Some humans are crueler than others, but I like to think humans as a whole are good natured."

"Well good for you, doctor, but I doubt your assistant holds the same belief now. Anyway, let's continue."

The scene disappeared into a flurry of shadows, the Outsider reappearing in a new one several feet away. This one was of the doctor at the desk with Prince Kallisar, though now he noticed an extraordinary detail. Kallisar had his right hand behind his back for most of their meeting, but he could see something on it now that he could view the scene from every angle. On the back of the Prince's hand was the Outsider's mark, the symbol for those who contacted him and gained powers from the Void.

"Oh my God," whispered Nikon astonished. A theory popped into his head, immediately panicking. "Wait, he didn't…bewitch me, did he?"

"What?" asked the Outsider confused. "He's not a witch, you know. I gave him powers at the beginning of his journey, and I must say it has made him very interesting to watch. There's more to him than just some warm skin, as you so kindly remembered from that little play they wrote about him."

Nikon blushed, chuckling. "Well…uh…a noblewoman I was trying to court wanted to see it and…I thought it was pretty bland, truthfully, but…"

"Doctor, you are marking polite excuses to a creature millennium old. I've seen far worse than a subpar pornographic theatre production."

He smirked, draping his arms around Kallisar's frozen features and sliding his chin into the crook of his neck, as if nuzzling him. "Quite a charismatic man, isn't he? Eyes full of fire, voice full of conviction…he certainly seemed to inspire you."

"I don't care about his revolution," snapped Nikon harshly. "I don't concern myself in politics. I just want Diana back."

"Is that all?" asked the Outsider pointedly. He teleported right in front of him, eyes burrowing into the doctor's. "Is that really all you desire? Truthfully? If I could give you Diana back now, you could die content?"

"Well no, I…"

"So, you want more? Like what?"

"Well I…uh…I want to…"

The Outsider groaned, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, this went so much better when I didn't let them talk to me…damn humans always have trouble speaking their mind."

He tapped the doctor on the chest, and Nikon could swear his heart stopped when he touched him. "It is time for you to grasp the strings given to you, doctor, and pull as hard as you can. Tell me the truth. What do you want?"

"I…uh…I want my assistant back."

The outsider poked him in the heart, and the doctor screamed in pain as he clutched at his chest. He could not move back though, invisible hands keeping him rooted to the spot.

"I'll ask again until you answer truthfully. What do you want?"

"I…I! I want…no one else to suffer because of me!"

The Outsider held up his hand, but did not touch him. "That is an interesting answer. Please continue. What else do you want?"

"I want to…I want to help everyone as much as I can. I want to make the world a better place for everyone. And most of all…I want to get rid of those who would do harm to the people I care about and to others. I want to see them be removed from their seats of power and never rise again to them."

The Outsider grinned, lowering his hand. "Excellent. That is exactly what I wanted to hear from you."

He waved his fingers, Nikon suddenly feeling a burning in his left hand. He glanced at it in horror as he saw flames erupt from underneath the skin, etching a familiar symbol onto the flesh.

"My Mark, just for you," stated the Outsider. "I will give you great powers beyond your imagination, and you shall do as you see fit. There are no strings attached to this gift doctor, save those you pull with it."

He teleported a short distance away, snapping his fingers. Immediately, the stone island cleaved itself in half, the two halves floating away from each other until they were several meters apart.

"Try it out," encouraged the Outsider smiling. "It will allow you to pass."

Nikon glanced at his hand, feeling something in his palm. He clutched it, though no object was there, noticing it appeared to be smooth and spherical, like a rubber ball. He tossed it into the air and caught it, the invisible object acting much like a visible one would.

"…well, I think I know what this does," he decided shrugging. "Just an infinite story fall if I mess this up."

He took a few steps back, wheeling up his arm and taking aim. Then he tossed it underhand, sending it sailing through the air.

Then he reappeared right next to the Outsider, clutching the ball with an outstretched hand. He gasped, holding it in astonishment as he saw where he had been just a second ago across the abyss. "Wow…that's incredible."

"Yes, I hear Fling is quite exhilarating," stated the Outsider. "You can use it to get into places you normally could not. Do be warned though, it cannot go through objects you could not go through, so no tossing it down ventilation shafts."

Nikon smirked, glancing to his side and noticing something. The rock next to him was massive, towering above him by several stories, and seemed to be reflective unlike all the other ones. He saw an image of the Outsider and himself there, but something was different. The Nikon in that reflection was wearing a white plague doctor mask, and seemed to have a colder look in his eyes.

He looked down shocked, suddenly feeling that he was wearing his gas mask from earlier. "Outsider! What is this?! Who is that?!"

The Outsider glanced at the reflection curiously, before raising his eyebrows. "Oh? Now that is very interesting…well, I think you need to ask him yourself."

He snapped his fingers, the scene before Nikon rippling like water, and then in an instant resettling. Now he was standing before the plague doctor, both of them barely a meter apart.

The plague doctor looked at him curiously, his dull brown eyes studying him. Nikon felt nervous with how cold the man's gaze was, and felt like a rat being dissected.

"Uh…hi?" asked the doctor nervously.

"Hello," stated the plague doctor evenly. "Tell me, your voice…you sound…similar to someone I know…"

Nikon nodded, agreeing with him. "Yes, as do you. I…"

He stopped, an idea springing into his head. Clearly the other man had the same thought, as they both locked eyes for a second.

Without a word they removed their masks, unveiling the familiar dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. Their skin was pale from years in the snow, their beards growing more as rough stubble along their sides and a split running down the left side of their lips from a fight with their father on their twenty-second birthday.

"My God," they both whispered at the same time, practically staring into a mirror.

The plague doctor Nikon rubbed his face, trying to process what was going on. "Wow…this is…are you…real?"

The gas mask Nikon recoiled like he had been slapped in the face "Of course I am real! How do I know you are not?!"

"Hmm, fair enough. Fine then. I think there's a simple way for us to figure this out."

The plague doctor Nikon sat on the ground, crossing his arms. "One of us asks a question relating to our past, and the other responds with their version. Then we switch. Assuming we both give similar answers, that should determine if we really are Doctor Nikon Luca."

"But…how can there we two of us?"

The plague doctor Nikon shrugged. "Does it matter right now? We can figure that out later. Right now, we need to trust each other. So, I will start first. How did you split your lip?"

The gas mask Nikon didn't much like this facsimile of himself, but decided that aggravating him was a bad idea. "Got in a fight with my dad, twenty-second birthday. Son of a bitch decided to go on a drunken bender and start hitting mom again. I stepped in, he busted my lip, I broke his hand."

"Odd," murmured the plague doctor Nikon. "I stabbed him in the chest with a broken bottle."

Gas mask Nikon gasped in horror. "You murdered your father?"

Plague doctor Nikon waved the thought away. "No, it wasn't lethal, and I was able to sew it shut anyway. Son of a bitch never touched mom again, though. Now ask me a question."

"Okay…I have never drunk a drop of alcohol in my life."

"Same. Ever since I saw what it did to my old man, never liked the thought of it. Same for you?"

"Yeah. What's your favorite food?"

"Fried mushrooms and onions, and really, that's all you can think of?"

Gas mask Nikon shrugged. "I'm hungry."

Plague doctor Nikon rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm not, by the way, in case you wondered. Now, what was your major at the university?"

"General practices."

"Now that is interesting. Mine was surgery, with a minor in biology."

"My minor was surgery."

The two stopped for a moment, before gas mask laughed.

"So, is that it then? We're different people because we took different classes? What a sad joke, Outsider. You really could've done better."

"This isn't a joke," snapped plague doctor Nikon harshly, glaring at him. "I am real. I am Doctor Nikon Luca, chief physician to council member Kuznetsov. My research assistant is Diana Khil, a charming and intelligent woman who was taken from me by Secretary Kalin's private guard. I am conspiring with Prince Kallisar to retrieve her from Kalin's guard barracks. Sound about right, gas mask?"

Gas mask Nikon gazed at him astonished, hands beginning to tremble. "…yes. That's exactly right."

The plague doctor Nikon scratched at his chin, his lips moving as he internally debated. "Maybe…I can think of one major event that may have influenced us. Something I would never forget as long as I lived. The first time I killed."

Gas mask Nikon nodded sadly. "451 Red Crow Street, the watchmaker. He was fifty-three years old and a master of his craft. He had just made a watch for his nephew before I decided to rob his safe. I hadn't eaten in three days, and the hunger was beginning to torment my mind. As I was unlocking his safe, he found me. We got in a skirmish, and then I…I…"

"…slit his throat and watched him bleed out across the floor," finished plague doctor Nikon mournfully. "I proceeded to vomit on the floor in disgust, and spent the night at my hovel sobbing in shame. I had killed an innocent man, and for what?"

"Thirty-seven coins," whispered the gas mask Nikon. "That's all he had saved up. I killed a human being for thirty-seven coins."

He stopped, realizing something in one of his opposite's sentences. A small detail, so inconsequential he had initially dismissed it, but it had grown into a tree of doubt from the tiny seed it had originated from.

"Before, you said the first time you killed…" said the gas mask Nikon.

Plague doctor Nikon nodded. "Yes. That was factual. It was the first time I killed a person."

"…I remember it as the only time I've killed a person."

They both remained silent for a few moments, both realizing what the implications of that meant.

"You…you kill people?" asked the gas mask Nikon with a quiet voice, like a child.

"…I had no other choice," argued the plague doctor harshly. "I do not enjoy it."

"There is always another choice. How many men did you kill escaping Kuznetsov's manor?"

"Two, technically. Diana shot the other one."

The gas mask Nikon widened his eyes. "You got Diana to kill too? What sort of…who…what are you? You can't be me."

"Oh, so you are not Dr. Nikon Luca?"

"I am proposing you are not."

Plague doctor Nikon stood up, glaring at him intensely. "How dare you propose that? We are both the same man, just in different circumstances. I think that at one point in time, you may very well have been like me."

Gas mask Nikon shook his head. "Never. Not in a million years would I kill another person. Even if it meant I must die."

"What if it meant Diana would die?"

"…what?"

Plague doctor Nikon got closer, the other shrinking in fear at the look in his eyes. He looked ready to murder right there, his eyes flaying the skin off of him and exposing the vulnerable organs beneath.

"If it came down to it, would you kill a person to rescue Diana?"

"There has to be another…"

"What if there isn't?!" screamed the plague doctor, stunning gas mask with the sheer ferocity with which he spoke. "If it came down to it, who would you rather see die?!"

Gas mask Nikon decided enough was enough, and stood straight. "Myself. If it came down to it, I would give my life so Diana may live. Can you say the same?"

Plague doctor took a step back, cheeks red with anger. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"That silence is all I needed to hear," spoke gas mask, feeling his stomach twist in disgust at this cowardly parody before him. "I am leaving now."

When he looked back, the other Nikon had disappeared, leaving him alone on the black stone.