POV: Henry.

  "Ok. Let's go through the plan one more time." I began. Feeling the weight of another ten years on my shoulders as I let out a sigh.

  "First, the Tall Man will keep attacking Fake Sully."

  "Correct my dear master Henry." Serpent Tongue confirmed with a satisfied gurgle. "If the Master's shadow wasn't currently engaged in battle with the imposter, he would have enslaved you all by this point. That, or perhaps he would have simply sent over the sad, poor, mutated humans the fake has corrupted."

  "Right." I snapped. "Then, you want me, Mr. Lincoln, Vince, Thunder Fist and Puffin here to attack the fake Sully together, so that Randall gets an opening to destroy fake Sully."

  I paused.

  "Did I get that correctly?"

  To my surprise, the thing shook his fat bloated head from side to side.

  "I am afraid not, master Henry. You were not truly listening to what I was saying."

  "Well that's a relief." I said out loud. "Because that plan sucked. Sully's always been good at multitasking and I get the feeling that this fake one could take a second or two out of the fight to enslave us all permanently."

  Serpent Tongue nodded.

  "Oh most definitely. Loathe as I am to admit it, this fake is nearly as potent as my own sweet Master. The System does know its stuff when it comes to these things I'm afraid. However, you should not place any real trust on matters like distance. You have not become a big enough nuisance to justify it yet, but the fake is more than powerful enough to enslave you right here and now. Distance is meaningless to him, you see. Just as it is meaningless to my Master. The Great One would have seen and heard everything that happened in your world. From the first waking hours you experienced every morning, to the sighs of your sister when she did the same. All the way to the same expressions children across the world or across the universe were making. As long as you share a dimension, the Master cannot be kept away. Neither can the fake. My own powers, even as grandiose as the Master has made them, simply cannot protect you all. Why, I could barely be able to protect myself in such an occasion. And even then, not for very long."

  "Okay. Then why did you say that the whole plan rested on us? What do we have to do that's so important?" I asked. "You just said we were the key to victory or whatever. Sounds to me like you're contradicting yourself right off the bat."

  Serpent Tongue extended an apologetic look.

  "My dear Master's shadow does not need additional help, master Henry. It is quite capable of holding the fake at bay, at least for the moment."

  It paused to lick its lips and I could see a hint of malice shining from within those beady little eyes.

  "No. You role is quite, hum. Different. I'm afraid. It is something only you can accomplish, as I do not have the necessary power and the Master's shadow is currently combating the imposter."

  The Intruder looked towards Randall.

  "You must convince this pile of breathing dung to act against the fake."

  I blinked in confusion.

  Looking back to stare at the withered little man as he cradled his head between his arms and moved his upper torso back and forth. Whispering breathlessly to himself all the while.

  "It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault, It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean to do it. I never said anything to her. My name isn't Sully. I didn't ask to be put in there. I'm not a product. Please don't sell me. Please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me anymore. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I didn't want to hurt those people. I didn't want to. I'm not like that. Please don't hurt me. It's so dark. Somebody make her stop. Stop her from pressing the buttons. I don't breathe when she presses the buttons. I fall down and down and down and down and down and I can't see the bottom or the end and it hurts and I'm all alone with the pain and pain and pain and..."

  Mr. Lincoln brought Randall in to a conservative, almost apprehensive embrace. Telling him that it would all be better in a steady voice.

  Then my eyes turned to Stellio's cooling corpse and I wondered if maybe he'd had the right idea after all.

  "That's it? How is this Randall guy going to help if none of us could help?"

  Vince snorted.

  "Vince could have answered that with his eyes closed."

  I narrowed my eyes.

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "It means that this Randall fellow is very strong, young man." Thunder Fist offered.

  "Much stronger than anyone else in this room.

  "Yeah." I bit back. Trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "I keep hearing that from people lately. I'm a bit sick and tired of it to be honest. I'd like some more concrete examples."

  The old hero shrugged his ghoulish features.

  "I don't know how to describe it exactly. I'm feeling it from several different abilities at once. Aside from my own professional intuition."

  Thunder Fist paused.

  "Do you know Smite? or Shatter Storm?"

  "Yeah. Of course I know them. They're S-Rankers. A single one could kill millions of monsters without batting an eye."

  Thunder Fist nodded.

  "So you do understand. Good. Now, think of it like this. I am far stronger now than I was at my previous peak. If I happened to be put in a position where I had to fight those two at once, I would win."

  He paused to look abashed. The expression looking rather queer on his hollow cheeks.

  "This isn't me bragging or anything either. I don't like bragging in general. I was always taught that humility is the mark of a powerful man growing up. That the truly strong don't need to let other people know. I am simply stating a fact that, because of the combined abilities I have, as well as the total amount of Psy, those two would not stand a chance against the current me. Barring some unforeseen complication, I would win ten fights out of ten. Does that make sense."

  "Yeah. I can see that."

  "Good. Now, Randall here is to the current me what I am to the old me. The difference is overwhelming. No matter what you look like. Raw power, maximum output, range, control, natural talent. All the factors that might make a difference in a fight, aside from personal mental fortitude are things in which this Randall is superior to me."

  I stared at Thunder Fist. Then back at Randall as he started crying again.

  "The Coffin. The Coffin. I don't want to go back. Anezka. She'll hurt me. She'll make me do things. Kill me. Kill me please. The Tall Man. The Bad Man. He won't let me die. He'll drag me back to the bad place if I die. I have to get killed by the Coffin. Or the bad man will do bad things to me. Please. I don't want to go back to the dark. I spent so much time in the dark. Pleas don't make me do it. He said he'd hurt me. He'll know. He always knows."

  "Riiiight." I said aloud. “This guy is totally on the level. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”

  I watched him for a few more seconds after that.

  Noting how his mind was the only one whose thoughts I could more or less make out.

  I said more or less, because it was all a jumbled mess of sharp emotions and endless darkness. Occasionally interjected by phantom pain.

  It reminded me of the surgery I’d had to get my wisdom teeth removed a few years back.

  One of the guys there had fumbled the anesthesia and I’d woken up halfway through. Feeling like I was floating in a fever dream while staring up at these blurry images taking metal rods to my mouth.

  It had been a confused, nonsensical sort of terror. One where I couldn’t tell if I’d been in a fever dream or not.

  Part of me caught a few glimpses of Sully. The new Sully, with three cold blue eyes. Staring down at Randall in the depths of some cave and telling him to not hurt any of his friends.

  Now, to me, that sounded exactly like something Sully would say, so I was of a mind to believe it had been real. But then I caught other things. Such as memories of the man burning down a city.

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  Of him watching men, women and children running around below him. Burning like candles in the night.

  And the screams.

  Oh the screams.

  I snapped out of it a second later. Feeling my hands reflexively reach for the blade Stellio had used to off himself.

  “The only thing this guy is, is a sick (Sully)!” I yelled. Turning to the other.

  “You all saw that right!? That wasn’t no System event! This guy is an arsonist and a killer! He’s burned people alive!”

  I took a deep breath while reaching out for a nearby pillar to steady myself.

  “He got off on it too! You’re telling me we’re supposed to trust in this guy to do anything? I just saw a few of his thoughts and even then, I wouldn’t (Sully) on this guy if he were on fire!”

  I turned to stare at Vince.

  “You’re telling me he’s strong enough that we should all ignore that? Really? Is this the only way? Don’t get me wrong, the guy looked strong, but I’ll bet you or Thunder Fist could take him.”

  "Vince can confirm it." Vince spoke up. "Vince has said it many times. Randall knows only one way to do things, but the way he does it leaves Vince stunned. Vince has not had the time to meet good Sully again, but Vince has seen the fake and the fake holds his Psy just like that. It breathes by itself and comes and goes along with their own personal rhythm. The Psy is them, in a way I can't make any sense of."

  "Funny, I can't make any sense of it either. Or of you.”

  "You only say that because you're weak." Puffin interrupted. "He's been like that this whole time but my instincts keep screaming at me that he's dangerous."

  "Of course he's dangerous." I countered. "Sully told me he wanted to burn a bunch of people alive before he stopped him. AND, I just saw into his mind! He’s been lighting people up even before he came to the Tutorial! This guy makes Reinhart Heidrich look like a care bear!"

  “Who?” Mr. Lincoln asked.

  “World War 2 fellow. High up in the SS during the invasion of Poland. He… never mind. You wouldn’t know. Just… trust me. He was a bad mother(Sully).”

  Randall wailed and descended even further into hysteria.

  I ignored him.

  "People who go around setting fires aren't usually the most stable kinds of folks out there you know. Doubly so when people get burned alive too."

  Puffin looked at me angrily, but didn't dispute the point.

  "Even if this guy is supposed to be that much stronger than all of us, I don't see how he could do any better against Sully. The more I think back to all the things I've seen these past few days, the more I'm starting to realize that mind-control is a (Sully) to deal with. I mean, with Cass, I'd at least know when I'm outside her range, but this is ridiculous."

  "All the more reason to enlist the help of this scum, master Henry." Serpent Tongue butt in again. "All he needs do is engulf this whole dimension in fire, and it will be over. Just like that."

  The Intruder snapped his fingers.

  "Here one moment, gone the next."

  I turned to face the Intruder again. Not bothering to hide my confusion.

  "And, how would this work?"

  "Precisely how I've explained it, master Henry."

  I gave him a flat look.

  "You're telling me that this guy is strong enough to blow up an entire dimension? What, like the big bang?"

  "Oh good heavens no master Henry. More like a high-yield nuclear warhead or perhaps, one of the Sunfire batteries from my old ship. This dimension is not too large, considering the incoming population of human students that stayed here for a time. Randall Haroway might be a morally bankrupt snake lying in the grass. He might be a murderer of the most vile sort and a coward who runs away from the consequences of his actions. But he is not weak by any means."

  The Intruder gestured to one of the walls where a small crack let in the sizzling ambiance of the outside, where reality was busy unraveling itself and turning upside down and inside out all at the same time.

  "Especially not now, when the veil is the thinnest it has ever been in his presence. If you gaze over at the descriptions of your new abilities, you will see what I mean. Each new level and each new trickle of Psy into that particular power increases the potency of all psionic abilities. A Telekinetic that might have been strong enough to lift a book, will now be strong enough to lift a bus. And a bomb powerful enough to bathe a city in fire, will be strong enough to sunder all life within the confines of a small dimension."

  I looked through the descriptions. Just to double check.

  “Okay.” I admitted. “If he were that strong, then I can see how a boost in power could let him kill everyone here. Or, at least everyone who isn’t Sully.”

  The Intruder offered a cruel, sardonic smile.

  "Moreover, who better to lay waste to a city full of people in need of mercy killing, than the one person here who has had plenty of experience burning innocent people alive in their own homes? The one person here who knows what it is like to be hunted for one's blackest deeds?"

  Randall sobbed harder.

  "Besides that, the fool has a power that allows him to stop time, if only for a short while. So the fake would not be able to interfere in the fateful detonation. Normally, my Master would be able to intercept any such attempts by peering into the future, but this System events must disrupt such processes in favor of keeping the imposter blindfolded and doing the System's bidding. All so that my Master looks bad."

  "Sully doesn't need any help looking bad." I countered. "At this point, what he needs is a bunch of PR representatives with decades of experience so they can photograph him cuddling with puppies all day every day. This whole thing was unnecessary."

  "I agree, master Henry, but alas, the current administrator for the System does seem to come across as needlessly petty in my eyes."

  “You can say that again.”

  “No.” Puffin interrupted us again. “You’re wrong. This Randall might be bad. As bad as Halkon and his men. But he doesn’t hold a candle to Sully. He’s evil incarnate.”

  I scoffed. Even as Serpent Tongue’s approximation of a human face lit up with barely-supressed fury.

  “Lady, Sully might have his issues. Now more than ever. But you’re not going to convince me he’s worse than someone who literally gets a sick sense of power by burning people alive. That seems a bit far-fetched.”

  “Vince agrees.” Vince piped up again. “Randall’s torture might have been horrific, but Sully found it necessary. Mind-control would have been enough to turn Randall good, but he needed to suffer in order to keep progressing. So that Sully could bathe the gnomes… all the gnomes in fire. Like they deserve.”

  I stopped and turned to Vince.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Vince blinked.

  “Henry did not know? Sully is very adept at torture. Vince thought he was skilled with the gnomes, but Sully is leagues above Vince. There is no contest.”

  “Sully wouldn’t torture someone for no reason.” I argued. “He told me that he’d used his powers to change Randall. That Randall would have killed a bunch of people if it weren’t for him. Why would he torture someone when he could just mind-control them to be good?”

  Puffin snorted.

  “You have the ability too. Fool. [High Amnesia III]. Our first plan was to force Randall to forget his torture. So that he got well enough to help us. Even with all of us combined, we didn’t have the power to make him forget all of it. That was the real reason we’ve been waiting for you. So that you can join us in making him better for a few minutes. Your friend did something to make sure he’d never forget. If you don’t believe me, use the power yourself.”

  I frowned. Thinking to myself that she had to be lying.

  ‘Although… I don’t suppose I lose anything by trying it out.’

  I searched for the right thread inside of me. Steadfying m,yself against the pillar again so as to avoid falling.

  I felt the world turning on its axis as I searched. The exercise seeming foregin and strange to my senses.

  When I found what I thought was the right cord, I pulled on it and filled it with Psy. Aiming it at Randall’s crying figure.

  The agony hit me like a brick to the face. The despair threatening to drown me.

  I fell forwards, my elbows hitting the floor hard.

  I gasped.

  Trying to breathe. But feeling my throat clenching as my lungs fought to draw in a breath.

  My heart was exploding in my chest. So fiercely that I could feel it and all my other organs squirming like eels. Trying to escape my body.

  ‘Help!’

  I tried to call out.

  ‘Help me! Make it stop!’

  But the nightmare did not stop.

  I saw seconds and felt as if I were suffering for hours. My connection seeing that agony stretching on for what must have been millions of years. Eternities bathed in darkness where nothing could break free. Where dying to escape was as distant a dream as freedom.

  When I came to next, Vince was standing by me. His hand letting Psy flow into me.

  “It’s okay. Henry. Vince is here.” He said. With a calm and understanding voice.

  “Vince is sorry he did not warn you. Vince did not see how he could put it into words.”

  “No.” I sputtered. “You’re right. You’re all right. (Sully). I’m sorry.”

  I turned to Randall.

  “I’m so, so sorry. He should have killed you. He should have made it quick. This… this is beyond evil.”

  Randall continued to weep.

  It took me another half hour to be able to stand.

  After which I surrounded Randall with the others.

  Ready to block out the memories for a moment.

  “I’ll stop it. I’ll make it stop.” I spoke once more. “I promise. I’ll make sure this never happens again.”

  Randall’s eyes met mine. His pupils quivering in terror and… something else.

  Hope.

  “Please.” He begged. “Please let me die.”