#*insert evil laughter*

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Breathing hard, my hand suddenly goes loose, and Loinnir clatters to the ground at my side.

More of his broken laughter rings in my ears.

"That's right, Seán," he whispers to me, and his haunting voice shakes me to my core. "All of the legends that you've heard so much about? How the greatest evil in the land was to be born with you? That… was… me."

With a snap of his ghostly fingers in the glass, sickly green smoke starts seeping into the room from inside the mirror, passing through the solid barrier like it's nothing. It swirls around my legs as it floods onto the floor…

A gust of wind snaps through all of the drapes as my own distorted voice begins to laugh at me. The smoke flares up into plumes all around me, forming grotesque images of scenes I've seen before…

A crowd of innumerable people, standing and facing a great, dark castle in the distance.

"All of those nights on your birthday… all of those people, when you'd run helpless to each one of them and they wouldn't respond to you… they were all listening to me. I could wipe all of their memories in a single night… the only one I could never control was you. But you always felt something, didn't you, Jack? You were always such a strange little boy, weren't you?"

The smoke swirls around me again, this time forming the shape of… Marvin?

"Ah, yes, the sorcerer's meddling apprentice. He proved quite useful for my purposes. He always knew a way to help you… I must say, bravo. It was as if he let me assist you every step of the way!"

Collapsing, Marvin's shape quickly morphs into that of a hunter wielding a crossbow… Chase.

"The huntsman. You know he never misses his mark. So why did he miss you…? I couldn't have you dying on me before you got here. I guided his arrow that day, Jack. I guess this means you owe me thanks for your life."

As he finishes, Chase's image becomes that of an apothecary, digging his hands through his hair as if he's going insane. It's Henrik.

The entity in the mirror chuckles as he begins again.

"The poor, crazed apothecary! All of those innocent lives he stole… all of his murders were me, controlling him like a puppet. I got rather bored waiting for you to turn up, and he proved to be the perfect plaything. He didn't know what he was dealing with when he tried to resist me… I shifted my tactic, made him believe he was insane. Made him believe that all the blood was on his hands. It only made perfect sense for you to meet him on your journey."

Henrik's shape falls away, and next up is a swordsman– I recognize it as Sam.

"The hooded hero. To be quite honest, he wasn't useful to me for much– but he did happen to unite you with that blade. Thanks to him, we can finally use it for what it was meant for– to make us whole again."

Before I can ask what he means, Sam dissipates, and the green clouds take a final form in Jameson.

"And last but certainly not least… the silent gentleman. Without him, you wouldn't have reached me now– so I needed to leave him alive on that fateful night I stole his voice. I've always been planning for this to happen, Jack. I've been waiting our entire life for this moment."

With more of the voice's laughter, the smoke spirals around my feet again.

"I've been watching you from behind every pair of eyes in every person you've ever met. Every last one of them… mere puppets for my playing with. It was laughable, how quickly and easily you came to trust all of them, when they only ever served me in the end."

I find myself breathing hard, refusing to believe what he's telling me.

No… that can't be true. Not all of it.

"Why would you go to such lengths to bring me here?" I ask angrily, clenching my fists. "Why go through all that trouble?"

His sinister smile grows once more.

"Because…" he says in a low voice, his eyes going pitch black. "I need you, Jack."

I narrow my gaze. "You need me? For what?"

For once, he sighs.

"You see, I cannot leave this mirror," he tells me, tapping on the glass from his side. "When I entered it, I was sealed in here indefinitely, because I'm merely half of a human soul with no body to inhabit. The only one I ever had… was yours."

My eyebrows furrow. "What… what are you saying?"

"I can't inhabit a body that already has a soul inside of it. But you… you're only half of a soul, Jack. I am your other half."

His grin spreads wickedly across his face again as he continues.

"You can free me from this mirror. You can let me in and accept me as a part of you. And once you do… everyone down in the kingdom will be free from me, once and for all."

My heart pounds in my chest.

"You and I have the same perspective on this world, Jack," he continues, repeating my name. "We both know that time doesn't quite work correctly anymore, that everyone is living the same day over and over and bearing their same pains again and again when they don't need to anymore. If you do this, all of that will be fixed for them. All it'll take is you releasing me from this mirror and accepting me as a part of you."

My thoughts swarm my mind.

"Don't you want to bear the burden for them, Jack?" he tempts, leaning on the glass and staring right into me. "I know you do."

If I do this, then… everyone will be free of this… this puppetmaster?

But then, what would happen to me…?

… does it matter? It'd be one tortured existence in the place of the many… is that a price I'm willing to pay?

"Use Loinnir to break the glass, Jack." My flickering reflection presses his hands against the barrier separating us. "Do it, and we'll be whole again…!"

My gaze falls to where Loinnir sits on the floor where I dropped it.

I close my eyes for a moment, one more question coming to me.

"The king and queen," I say, looking at my darker half and stepping closer. "What happened to them?"

At this, he scowls, his narrow eyes going pitch black.

"Ah, yes, dear old mother and father," he mocks, clearly holding contempt after all these years. "The ones who clearly cared so much for us. I was afraid you'd ask about them."

He lets out a breath through angrily gritted teeth and waves his arm, revealing two hazy figures behind him that appear to be sleeping side by side.

His eyes fade from black back to vibrant green, and he sighs.

"They've stayed dormant like this since just after the day you were born. They're sealed in here, just like I am," he explains, looking in their direction with disgust. "It's been so long that I think I'm the only thing keeping them alive. Once I leave this mirror, there won't be any life force left, and they'll finally die for good."

I shake my head.

"N-no," I stammer. "There has to be a way to save them, too!"

"What?" he asks, shocked. "You care about them? Why? It's not like they ever cared for you! They didn't even care enough about you to tell your adoptive parents your real name or who you really were!"

"That doesn't mean they deserve to die like this!" I shout back, my fists clenching even harder.

"They haven't been able to wake up for years now, Jack!" As his tone raises, the emerald clouds start whirling around my feet again, billowing with his voice. "They're already as good as dead!"

"Because of you!" I feel determination rising in my chest with every breath I take. "You must be able to wake them up. You just choose not to because they're a threat to your power!"

"ENOUGH!"

His voice resonates through my whole body, and I'm forced to stop.

He sighs in frustration.

"Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be, Jack," he finishes, staring me dead in the eyes. "I can hear the reasoning in your mind. You think the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few. If you don't do this, everyone down there will continue to suffer, and it will be all your fault, because you didn't have what it takes to do what you needed to do to save them. Is that really what you want, just to make sure that your birth parents aren't dead?"

My gaze falls again as his point is made.

For a few moments, I'm at war with myself. I'd accept this if it meant that the king and queen would survive… but then, if I don't do this, everyone I've ever known would continue to be subjected to this torture and not even realize it. It'd haunt me for the rest of my life, knowing that I could've done something to stop it…

I let out a short breath and reach down to where Loinnir sits on the floor, tightly gripping the hilt this time.

The demon in the mirror grins his sinister grin again.

"Excellent," he says softly, chuckling. "You're ready to accept our fate then, are you?"

I meet his eyes and lock onto them. He thinks he's already won…

I smile a little as I give him my final answer.

"Nope."

Rushing up to the glass, I pull my sword arm back, and then, with a mighty swipe, Loinnir swings in and out of the barrier as if it isn't even there, slicing clean across his neck.

He shrieks in surprise and in pain, and as he falls to his knees in the mirror, the billowing green smoke instantly begins to dissipate.

"Wh… what have you done?!" he shouts at me, his voice even more broken as he struggles to hold the wound closed.

I step closer to him, sheathing Loinnir again.

"You've held control for far too long," I tell him, and I can't help but grin. "It's my turn now."

"Wh… you mean…" he stutters, coughing between his words. "You'd abandon… everyone you've ever known… just for power!?"

My feet fall with a certainty as I step even closer. "I'm not abandoning them. I'll always be there, for all of them. It's time to use this power for good."

The last of the green light leaking from the mirror to the floor, he looks up at me one last time.

"This isn't over, Jack," he whispers, his words fading from the back of my mind. "I'll find a way to return. And when I do…"

Before he can finish, his form vanishes, and the mirror begins to glow bright white.

I close my eyes, then open them again.

"And when you do, we'll be ready."

I take one more deep breath and step forward into the glass before it can shatter, and as I do, I feel its barrier seal itself behind me as my body falls away…

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