He gazes out the window at the end of his patience.

When will he come? When? Stefano's been waiting. Waiting long and hard for Sebastian to arrive. To show him the art he has made.

Where is he?!

He has last been here hours ago. He must be holed up in a safe-house somewhere... but it was so unlikely. In all his godly omniscient power, he hasn't found any vital signs of Sebastian. A silent flatline. 

The only pulses that have resonated are that of the three Mobius operatives and his masterpieces scattered about. But they mean nothing. He knows the only audience to ever watch would be Sebastian, and Sebastian only.

Stefano glances back up at the giant camera being in the sky, its black tentacles driving into the broken land like roots. He self-consciously brushes the eye under his black bang, the same one he had given up to create the all-seeing camera lense. The flesh still throbbed under his fingertips, but wow, had it been worth it!

He senses something at last, a faint heartbeat in the distance. The singular, distinct heartbeat. At once his focus goes back to the cracked land just outside the Theatre, the barbed wire protecting it long gone, destroyed just before Sebastian went into hiding.

But now he is on his way at last. Stefano smiles as the tiny figure comes closer, holding a weapon in his hand as always.

The smile dulls. Sebastian is the only one with a heartbeat in all of Union. Nothing resonates from any of the Mobius operatives, nor his own creations. All have dropped out from the frequencies. Not even Obscura's constant sounds of curious marvelling don't come through. They have just suddenly cut out.

The man jumps over fences effortlessly and slashes every oncoming monster down with ease, as if controlled by a higher force. A clean, crisp bandage covers his forehead.

Sebastian walks boldly through where the fence had been and, taking his leisurely time, crosses the empty space between the border and the theatre doors. The artist leaves his post to prepare for the show.

Although he knows everything is in order, the performance will be even better if he tops it off with an appearance to his own gorey 'art.'

The red curtains flap in the hallways as if there's a breeze, surrounded by the discarded movie previews that hang on the walls. Half-way to the stage. He hasn't heard the theatre doors open just yet. The audience must be taking his time. Stefano doesn't waste it on the double-doors into the actual theatre; he simply teleports to the other side.

Sebastian still does not come through, and it sends a pang of worry through the artist. He assures himself- why would he come this far if he refuses to attend the show?

He walks proudly down the aisle, Union citizens squirming to his left and right with bags on their heads. Whatever sound they are making, it's muffled by the explosives he has attached to their faces under the bags.

Stefano is only halfway to the stage when he stops at the sensation of stepping in something wet. He looks down. A small puddle of some liquid pools at his feet. In an instant, he's thrown to the ground. His camera skitters a few feet away, just out of reach. He rolls over and sees his attacker.

Sebastian.

All his firearms are discarded, leaving only a single knife in his belt. His skin is oddly pale for a man like him, and the bandage has been torn off to reveal what looks like the scars of a lobotomy. It is difficult to tell the color of his eyes- a fiery red, or an icy blue.

This could not have been the man who Stefano had last seen only an hour before.

"Where is she?" comes the first obvious question. His voice is distorted.

The artist puts his hands up and smiles shakily. "Now, now, the show is barely close to starting-"

"I SAID," he repeats, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up, "WHERE IS SHE?!"

He anxiously avoids eye contact. He doesn't like the look in them- and at this point, he knows this isn't the real Sebastian. Even a man like him couldn't catch him like this...

"LOOK AT ME!" He grabs Stefano's shoulders, forcing him to meet his glare. "WHERE IS THE GIRL?!"

Sebastian lets go and the artist falls to the ground, then disappears in a red haze of smoke. Teleporting always looks strange. He smiles with satisfaction, knowing his first and foremost problem is now probably running for his life in what used to be Ruvik's Hell.

Then, he walks up and quietly destroys Stefano's camera under his heel, breaking with a satisfying ccrruunncchh.

Two questions remain: Where is Lily?

And whose Hell is it now?

"Lily? Lily, where are you?" He strains to hide the distortion in his voice. "It's me. It's Dad."

The curtains behind the stage move erratically. In an instant, Sebastian behind them. Somebody hastily ducks under the crates in the far corner.

"I know you're there, Lily. Come out," he lures, the tendons in his neck sticking out with extreme tension. "It's Dad... Please don't make this hard."

Desperately, she runs out from behind the box and onto the stage. She glances back, her father suddenly two feet away. She isn't paying attention. She almost falls straight off the stage in surprise. For a moment, she thinks the burns on his arms are just from the house fire she 'died' in, but they're growing.

Lily runs down the aisle, trying hard not to acknowledge all the squirming hostages, and doesn't want to look back. There's something terribly wrong with Dad, with his soundless footsteps and calm movements. It's like he doesn't even breathe anymore. All her logical thinking repeats what Mobius has told her: he is long gone.

And it may be just muddled memories, but didn't his eyes used to be brown?

"Lily! Come back!" he calls, the distortion in his voice coming out again. She looks back; he's standing in the aisle in front of the stage. "C'mon... It's me, it's Dad!"

"Dad is DEAD!" she yells, too exhausted to keep running.

His lips curl into a sinister smile. His voice is no longer his own. "Clever girl."

The ground gives away behind Lily, making her fall over. Everybody in the 'audience' falls out of their seats. Something white and goopy flies out of the abyss. But her 'father' stares on, undaunted.

The theater doors fly open and a woman walks through. The glue pools around her feet with each step and her only clothes are ragged shorts, a small shirt, and a white cloak. She looks up. Her eyes are the kind to trigger trypophobia and glow orange.

"Hey," Sebastian calls out, crossing his arms. "Did you have to copy me?"

She opens her mouth to say something different, but out comes something else. "You thought our daughter was dead... yet here we are."

He wipes his eyes. "House fire, correct? I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"You aren't my husband." Their eyes meet across the gap as strand of goop fly out, among them the snakey glue monster from earlier.

"You're right... And you aren't my wife." He frowns, despite the joy that resonates from knowing that closely reading Sebastian's memories has finally paid off. "You copied me... How did you do that? He went into Beacon long after you left him."

The glue monster lunges at him. To her surprise, a giant fleshy hand springs out of the ground to counter it, snatching the snake by the neck. He smiles as the whites of his eyes turn red. "You have no power here, Myra Castellanos. Not compared to me. I have more experience than you..."

She snarls. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HUSBAND?!"

"He's dead," comes the final reply. "I made him deteriorate. He turned to alcohol, thinking it'd kill me, but it only increased my grip on him. He's gone."

In the middle of all this, Lily whimpers as he continues. "And now, the Core will be mine. I will be more powerful than anybody who has ever existed. I will avenge everybody who fell victim to Mobius... Everybody..."

Myra becomes ever more enraged, glue beginning to drip from her fists. "Then I'd like to know the name of the man I'm about to kill. I'd like to know if you're Sebastian or not."

The ground becomes stained with blood around his feet. "I'm definitely not Sebastian."

The pause seems like an eternity for Lily, caught between blood and glue. "I am Ruvik."

The men working at the control boards are desperately trying to patch into the system, connect with anybody, anything. But as hard as they try, the phone always goes unanswered.

Juli Kidman is anxiously trying to dispatch somebody. She's been trying to hack into some of the Mobius Operative's communicators with illegal codes, but all that comes through is static. And through it all, Sebastian won't pick up.

The news of emergency still plays in her mind from hours ago. Their only lifeline goes into a safehouse, disappears into his Room, but walked back out... different. It still sends chills down Kidman's spine. Joseph was the same when she left Beacon and Mobius tested him. His pulse was still going and his brain still working, yet his mind was dead.

She can't bear to think the same thing is happening to Sebastian. Nothing is working. All connections are dead. She groans, stepping back from the control panel.

Kidman glances at the Administrator, overseeing her work from an intimidating three feet away. "I'm sorry, but... this is a bit much. Would you mind if I take a quick bathroom break?"

He nods grimly. "Of course. I can tell this whole affair has taken its toll on you. You deserve a couple breaks every so often."

Her lips curl into a small, sad smile as she turns to leave. Her head is pounding.

The hallways are bleak and foreboding. Her footsteps click against the floor in the overwhelming silence. She'd make a run for it right now if she could, but she couldn't leave her friends behind. Not Sebastian or Myra or any of the others conspiring to take down the corporation...

...and most of all, Lily. The little girl whose disappearance has dragged Juli into this.

The bathroom isn't far. Grimy little plaques declare which ones were for which genders, although they are so worn down it was somewhat difficult to tell. Mobius had invested literally all of their money into the first STEM project. They thought that because the man invented it, he wouldn't be the psychopath he turned out to be. His Hell still haunts Kidman.

He had torn it all down three years ago, but the costs- both in reputation and finance- still affected Mobius.

She enters the restroom. Thankfully, she is relatively alone, the only company being a security camera that guarded the door to make sure nobody snuck calls into the STEM from there. At least they couldn't look into the stalls. That would be just plain creepy.

The faucet handles squeak as they turn. Mobius's budget is cut short, but at least they have running water. She rolls up her sleeves, wets her hands, and rubs the hot water on her face, all the while looking back at herself in the mirror. Her mascara stains, but it's alright. The Administrator is more understanding of Kidman than of anybody else; she's the backbone of the company now, after all.

A thought strikes her, a memory she had subdued long ago. When they were scanning Joseph's body after they pulled him out, they had found something odd growing in his brain, other memories and personalities pushing themselves into the empty cavities. If they hadn't pulled the plug on him, they might have performed an accidental body switch.

Now a single question fills Kidman's mind.

If they hadn't let him die... who would've inhabited his body?

The only possible answer that strikes up in her mind is far-fetched, but an answer nonetheless. Ruvik? No, no, it is impossible, wasn't it? Their minds have made up some of that world; how would he push himself in?

She stops washing her face. The mascara runs down her cheeks like black tears. For a moment, something flickers in the mirror behind her. She turns around in an attempt to see it, but there's nothing. The memories are really getting to her, although she knows she is safe in reality. Kidman splashes more water and holds her face in her hands. A massive headache is just a massive headache, right? It doesn't mean anything...

She looks up at the mirror.

Ruvik glares back with a sadistic smile.

Kidman screams, falling backwards. No, no, no. Not him. Her head still throbs, but now the pain is sinister. But that can't be right. She hasn't connected into the STEM since Beacon. He has no effect on her, no way to grow...

She gets back on her feet. Her hands shake profusely. Looking back into the mirror, nearly everything is normal.

Except she can't tell if her eyes are a fiery red, or an icy blue.