"One thing I've always wondered is if you chop off a limb does the limb come back as a new Jessie or does it disappear?" Kazimir said as he scratched the top of his head.

"I think the worst part of tonight has been this conversation." Lily said as she massaged the bridge of her nose.

"I disagree." Toby said solemnly.

Jessie turned to Lily to see her wincing at her words. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze feeling the tension in the group grow.

"We could test it using that sword of yours." Kazimir said pointing down at Jessie's side.

"We are not cutting off one of my arms, now could you shut up and just show us the damn way." Jessie said resting his uneasy hand on the blade's hilt.

"Easy there kid I was just joking, sort of. Plague won't let me test it on him so I just thought I'd ask you." Kazimir said almost pouting.

A heavy silence fell over the group only broken by the soft footsteps of Jessie and the others. Standing so close to Kazimir made it hard for Jessie to relax. He could feel his muscles tense at every one of his movements, the smile on his leaving him uneasy as they walked through the dark halls.

"Does anyone else smell that?" Lily said as she pinched her nose.

As if on cue an invasive horrid smell violated Jessie's senses and he was overcome with an intense wave of nausea. He held his breath desperate to keep the smell from assaulting him.

This smell is familiar, proceed with caution. At the risk of infection do not breathe in this air.

"L says to be careful, this air can make us sick." Jessie said as he struggled in the haze.

"What is that smell!" Lily cried out as her eyes began to water.

"It's bodies, dead bodies, and by how strong it is I'd guess a lot." Toby said covering his face with his shirt.

In between teary-eyed blinks Jessie could see the end of the hallway, a grey metal door loomed. The closer the group became the more intense the smell grew. Jessie could hear Lily gagging as they reached the door feeling his own gag reflex struggling. Kazimir laid a large clothed hand on the doorknob before turning to face the others.

"This is one of Plague's private play rooms, sorry about the mess we haven't really had time to clean up after him lately." He said with a smile.

He turned the knob bathing the group in a smell so intensely putrid it left Jessie reeling. The sudden assault made the previous smell seem like roses in comparison. He held back from vomiting as he doubled over trying his best not to show weakness.

Jessie raised his eyes to see an absolute bloodbath. A mess of viscera and carnage left bodies hung around the room almost as if on display. A mix of fresh and decayed corpses laid bare across the room all in different states of mutilation.

This is an abomination, the absolute gore is inhuman. Jessie, you must not become another body on the pile ahead.

"This is-so many-God you're all monsters." Jessie said under his breath.

"The smell isn't that bad guys, stop overreacting." Kazimir said mockingly.

Jessie could hear someone behind him vomiting and turned to see Lily keeled over. As she heaved her insides out her eyes were wide with fear as she struggled to comprehend the room ahead.

"What kind of sick game are you playing clown!" Toby said as he suddenly slammed Kazimir into the wall adjacent to him. "Why take us here? Why show us this damn room!"

The soft chime of Kazimir's bells sent Jessie into action as he pulled Toby off immediately covering his eyes.

"Be careful Toby, he can take you out with just one look." Jessie said to the struggling Toby in his arms.

"I don't care! This circus freak needs to be taken down now!" Toby said pulling away from Jessie's arms.

As soon as he turned to face Kazimir, Toby was hit with the full force of his petrifying gaze. Without making a sound Toby collapsed on the ground unconscious and in tremendous pain.

"Now that 80's rock is down why don't we continue." Kazimir said as he let his hair return the folds of his skin back to his bone-white skull.

"Y-you're a monster.."Lily whispered quietly.

"Me? A monster? Don't fool yourself, this was all Plague little lady. Besides if you want to see a real monster all you had to do was ask." Kazimir said as he brought his fingers to his mouth.

A sharp whistle echoed into the room and hall sending a shiver down Jessie's spine.

"We not only use this room for Plague's outings, we also use this to make some real nasty friends."

A sudden chime filled the air, seeming almost musical it left Jessie confused as it grew louder.

This sound..is it what I think it is?

Rustling in the room to his right snatched Jessie's attention, he gasped as he watched piles of bodies begin to rise. The slow melody played between the jaws of the beasts as they slowly rose from their bed of corpses. The many eyes that stared back at Jessie showed a deep hunger, he took a step back almost tripping over Toby.

"What the hell are those things?" Lily asked as she stared slackjawed at the growing number of rising monsters.

"They have some scientific name that some scientist who discovered them picked but we just call them the Undead Lullaby." Kazimir said taking his own step back. "We don't have the best control over them but they'll listen to us so long as we give them something to chew on."

"There can't be more, we killed the cat that made these things." Jessie said confused.

"Yeah, I heard about that, poor kitty. Well, that doesn't matter considering we have like ten more of those cats." Kazimir said as he picked at his ear. "Even if you kill them all as long as one undead lives we can make more."

"Well I'm officially bored, why don't we wrap this up already?" he said as he slammed his fist against Lily's stomach.

"Lily!" Jessie cried out.

She gasped as crashed into the floor, heaving she looked up at Jessie desperate to speak but unable to catch her breath.

"You bastard!" Jessie screamed as he forced a tendril of smoke out of the palm of his hand towards Kazimir.

Kazimir easily sidestepped the smoke ducking underneath the limb as crashed into the wall behind him. He closed the gap between them with a single stride grabbing hold of Jessie's arm and forcing it upward, it dragged the tendril along with it leaving a deep gash in the wall. Jessie struggled against his grip as Kazimir reared back his fist before slamming it into his side. A sharp pain and audible crack let Jessie know one of his ribs had snapped.

"I wanted to have a little fun with you all before the big game and I won't lie I'm pretty disappointed." Kazimir jeered as he squeezed Jessie's wrist snapping it completely.

Jessie cried out in pain as he dropped to the ground, the tendril now disappeared as his focus waned. Looking up Jessie saw the smile plainly on Kazimir's face, it was almost nice to see it fade as Lily wrapped her elongated arm around his throat. 

"I knew this was a bad idea." Lily said as she struggled to bring down the clown.

Kazimir gasped as he turned to face the girl, his bells jingled as he prepared to rip his face apart.

"Not a chance I'm letting you use that again." Jessie said as he grabbed hold of Kazimir's red locks.

Jessie pulled against Lily trying to force the writhing strands of hair into submission all the while Lily pulled down the giant of a man to his knees.

"This is starting to get annoying.' Kazimir croaked in between gasping breathes.

Wrapping his arm around Lily's Kazimir pulled her closer with so much force she lifted off the ground. Just as she got within range he reared back his fist and struck her across the face knocking her to the ground and out of the fight. Before Jessie had time to react he was grabbed by his own hair and slammed against the wall beside them. Dazed from the pain and the repeated blows to the head left Jessie on the brink of conciseness. He stared up at the ceiling unable to feel the world around him, a sudden jerk let him know he was being dragged by his leg.

His head was knocked into a fallen piece of debris and he was gone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jessie's head pounded as he came to, a wave of pain hit him as he took a shaky breath. A cloth bag covered his head and the world around him.

God this bag smells horrible, where did they fish this thing out of.

He felt restraints cutting into the skin of his wrists, he felt his right arm hang limply and winced as he tried to move it.

Broken rib and I think a broken arm to match, I better fix that.

"Wake him up, I'm tired of waiting." A familiar icy voice said in front of Jessie.

Plague...hurry smoke! Fix me up fast!

A familiar cold washed over his body as he poured smoke into his injured body. The twisting and snap of bones popping back in place left him gasping. Suddenly the bag over his head was torn off and a bright light blinded him just as his wrist snapped back into place.

He blinked a few times trying to adjust his eyes to the light as a hand struck his jaw. He fell to the ground and coughed, spitting blood onto the carpet.

Carpet? Where am I?

He took a look at the room around him to see a well-furnished office littered with walls upon walls of books and awards. In the center of the room stood two men both studying him closely. A large desk sat behind them taking up a good portion of the room, the wall behind it was a large window peering into the underground complex they resided in.

"Why did you do that Kazimir?" Plague asked as he sighed.

"You told me to wake him up." Kazimir said

"Pick him up before I lose my temper." Plague said calmly.

Grumbling Kazimir lifted and placed Jessie back down on the chair. Jessie turned to see two others restrained in chairs on either side of him, a familiar pink cast on one let him know all he needed to.

"What did you two do to my friends?" Jessie asked staring deep into the deep green lenses of Plague's mask.

"Nothing that would leave any permanent damage, nothing physically permanent at least." Plague said never breaking his gaze from Jessie.

Taking a look at the other chair Jessie could see the familiar red hair of his friend beneath the cloth bag on her head.

"Where are the others?" Jessie asked.

"Unimportant to the story and so were disposed of properly. You three are the ones we want, the rest don't matter."

"You killed them?" Jessie asked angrily.

"No, but they will be dead soon."

He tells the truth, I can still sense them in the building.

You can do that? How?

Another time, for now, focus on survival at all costs. I can't have you dying before saying my name.

Don't worry, even if I die I'll just be brought back.

Not if he kills you, he is an Icon. Your equal.

Plague stepped closer to Jessie grabbing hold of his chin and turning it up towards the ceiling. From the corner of his eye, Jessie spied a chair behind the desk with its back towards him.

"The resemblance is undeniable, you really are Seth's brother." Plague said letting go of Jessie.

"Why is there a bag on my head and why does it smell like complete ass." The cloth bag to Jessie's right spoke.

Marching over Plague ripped off the bag from Travis' head. Blinking Travis stared up at the beaked man.

"Much better now it just smells like smoke and leather. How's it going gimpy?" Travis said as he angrily stared straight into Plague's lenses.

"I like this one, he is so much funnier than the whole lot of 'em." Kazimir said as he chuckled softly.

"Don't feed into his ego, it's bigger than he is." The red-haired bag to Jessie's left said.

"Don't worry I got this one." Travis said as he phased through his restraints.

As they clattered to the floor he walked gingerly past Jessie and gently removed the bag from Rose's head. Another round of blinking and stares brought her up to speed as Travis phased her hands through her restraints.

"Why are they just letting you walk around freely?" Rose whispered to Travis as she massaged her wrists.

"It doesn't matter if you're bound or not. Just one of us could take all three of you, you'd be idiots to try anything." Kazimir said smugly.

Travis phased the restraints off of Jessie's wrists before sitting back down in his seat. A strange animosity exuded from Travis, one that was directed straight at Plague

"Before we start with what is so obviously your villain monologue about how you're actually the victim in all of this, we're gonna talk about what you said to me." Travis said pointing a finger directly at Plague.

"What are you talking about Travis." Jessie asked confused at his sudden change in mood.

"When this guy nabbed us right after he knocked Rose and Sarah out, he said he killed Damian."

Dumbstruck Jessie turned to Plague almost expecting him to deny the accusation. Plague stood tall his gaze fixed on Travis.

"Travis, Damian hung himself." Rose said gingerly.

"Admit it you beaked freak! Tell them what you told me." Travis cried out. He stood up knocking over his chair to the ground.

The tension in the air was thick enough to choke on, Jessie turned from Travis to Plague waiting for his reaction. When there was none Travis huffed as he strode closer to Plague, his fists balled at his sides.

"I killed him." Plague said stopping Travis in his tracks.

Jessie seethed in anger, confusion taking hold over his thoughts.

How could he have possibly killed him? The timeline doesn't match, nor does the cause of death.

"Why? How?" Travis asked his bravado now fading as the weight of the truth beared down on him.

"I broke into your family home while everyone was gone, and from there I wandered through the halls searching for you." Plague said as he took a seat on the desk.

"You were nowhere to be found so I had to improvise. I could hear noises coming from your brother's room and decided if I couldn't take your life I'd have his."

The nonchalant confession sent a shiver down Jessie's back, the way Plague so casually spoke scared him.

"He was strangely excited to see me as I walked through the door to his room, the way his face lit up really made extinguishing that light all the more satisfying." Plague said as he mimed strangling something with his hands.

"We found out later that night that you were at Rose's house spending the night, we couldn't risk Plague being caught too early so we decided that your brother would have to be enough for now." Kazimir said suddenly chiming in.

The silence that gripped the room following the confession left the three teenagers speechless. Jessie's blood boiled as he stared at the two men. A sick smile came across Kazimir's face, it was contrasted by Plague's emotionless mask.

"W-why did you want me dead? Why did Damian have to die instead of me?" Travis asked shakily. He was holding back tears and Jessie could see his white-knuckled fists shaking in anger.

"It wasn't anything personal, you just happened to be the son of some very evil people." Kazimir said chuckling softly. "They were the ones we wanted to hurt and well, we did just that."

"What do you mean? What do Travis' parents have to do with this?" Rose asked confused.

Kazimir smiled before taking a step past Plague.

"They were the ones to help fund this whole thing. If it wasn't for them and United Together's money this whole facility wouldn't exist." He said as he bent down to Rose's eye level.

Holy shit.

That is quite the revelation.

"You see this whole building deep underground was built for one purpose." Kazimir said turning towards Jessie. "To bring Jessie Cruz back from the dead. Of course, the head scientist told the company different."

"What the hell are you talking about? Before you guys started attacking the town I've never even had a broken bone let alone died." Jessie said confused.

"You are right but we weren't talking about you." Plague said somberly.

"Someone better start making sense or we're gonna have a problem." Jessie said. His frustration grew at the cryptic answers he was given.

"Why are you the one telling all of this, aren't you just one of Plague's goons? I wanna hear it from his beaked face!"

"You can show him now Plague, I think I'm done playing this guess who crap now." Kazimir said excitedly.

Jessie turned to face Plague now noticing a sudden change come over him. His demeanor changed, his arms now hung limply at his side before reaching up to the straps of his mask. As he undid the buckles holding the mask in place anticipation built in Jessie. Every notch undone, every strap pulled free built fear in Jessie's heart, it grew as Plague pulled off his mask revealing Jessie's own face staring back at him.

Confusion, hatred, and fear racked Jessie's mind as he stared at his own image.

"That's not Seth..." Rose said just as dumbfounded as Jessie.

"What the hell is going on, that's Jessie. Why the hell is that Jessie!" Travis yelled pointing at Plague.

Speechless Jessie watched as Plague lowered his hood exposing more of his features.

That's me, why is he me?!

"The look on your face is priceless Jessie. You don't mind if I take a picture do you." Kazimir said as he pulled out a phone before snapping a picture.

"I know you guys watched that video on Seth's laptop, so with the info that video gave you why don't you guys take a wild guess." Plague said quietly. "That is why I left it there for you."

That video had nothing to do with this?! It just had that damn cat and...wait.

You realize now the depths of the plot you're involved with, do not lose focus.

"You guys didn't just clone a cat did you?" Travis asked.

"No t-this can't be right." Rose said quietly.

"That's right, both Plague and Jessie are the same person. They even shared the same incubation vat, now isn't that cute." Kazimir said smugly.

I'm a clone?

You are an exact copy of the original Jessie Cruz.

Wait you knew this! Why didn't you tell me?!

I didn't believe it was relevant, nor did I believe the knowledge would benefit you.

"Whos the original?" Travis asked.

"Neither of us." Plague said quietly.

"The original died twenty five years ago in California, he was murdered as a boy by his father in their family home. Jessie and I are nothing more than copies of a boy who died a long time ago." He said somberly.

"You two are nothing more than chemicals grown in a vat, the reason you're any special was because the first Jessie was." Kazimir said as he trailed to the back of the room.

He stared out the windows into the dark expanse his attention now transfixed towards the facility ahead.

"You two are the reason all of this is happening, you and your damn brother. You have him to thanks for all the death and pain I've caused." He said as he rested his hand on the chair beside him.

"How do you fit into all of this then and why is Plague helping you if you hate him so much?" Rose asked.

"You've seen what my gaze does to people, what it did to Michael." Kazimir said tapping the side of his head.

Jessie recalled the man spider, his death at the hands of Kazimir's gaze wasn't something easily forgotten.

Plague must have been hit twice with it, that would explain the sudden attitude change.

"As for me, I'm nothing more than a lowly scientist. One that your brother ruined." Kazimirs grip on the chair tightened as he recounted his story.

"He ruined everything! His selfish endeavors led to my life falling apart. His obsession with bringing you back to life took priority over everything! Even other peoples lives." He cried out.

"What did he do Kazimir?" Jessie asked.

"Your brother slept with my wife, Jessie. He had a child with her and she passed it off as mine." Kazimir said slamming his fist against the glass sending cracks across its surface.

"When I found out the truth he had me infected with your all-consuming smoke. His attempt to get rid of me, he had no idea that I would survive and be granted this god-like power over others."

Mia...is my niece? Wait if Lucas was her uncle than that would make Kazimir his brother.

"Left to rot in this godforsaken place and forced to fight other chosen made by your clone brothers will do things to a man Jessie."

"There were more clones than Jessie and Plague?" Travis asked.

"We were hardly the first, Seth only stopped making us when he made him." Plague said pointing at Jessie.

"He was the perfect clone, the perfect human. One who's potential outshined any previous model, he made us obsolete leaving the rest of us to fend and fight in gladiatorial combat against the chosen we were forced to create."

"Why would you guys even need to make chosen in the first place?" Rose asked.

Kazimir chuckled before answering, it was a hollow laugh devoid of all joy it had before.

"Money, it's always about money. Make the best super soldiers and ship them off to fight for the highest bidder. United together commissioned Seth to make these toys and the clones were their trainers."

"There's no greater threat than an Icon after all, and we make excellent teachers." Plague said his eyes glossy as he stared past the teenagers.

"It was there in the ring that I vowed to take revenge on not just Seth but the whole damn world!" Kazimir said triumphantly. "I took control of my teacher and forced him to kill each and every person in this building, those who survived fell under my gaze and I soon had the strongest army in the world."

"How does Mia fit into all of this? Why take her?" Travis asked.

"You've seen her power for yourself, you know that she's the only one capable of ending this world sooner rather than later. She turned an entire block into a war zone in a moment, just think what she could do on a global scale." Kazimir said coldly.

Kazimir's words weighed heavily on Jessie, so much so that the world around him dimmed as he spiraled through the emotional turmoil. Moments seemed to stretch forever as Jessie's breathing became ragged.

"My brother cucked you so you decided to kill everyone? You insane fuck!" Jessie screamed as he stood up from his chair.

"Your brother did more than that you little shit. He not only ruined my life, he made yours. He fabricated every event in your life in an attempt to play family. In doing so he ruined mine." Kazimir Lowered his head.

"What are you saying?" Jessie asked confused.

"The only reason you met and befriended those two beside you is because of Seth. All your lives were micromanaged by that arrogant prick! Every person in his life was just a pawn to further his own sick twisted view." Kazimir said as he spun the around.

"And look where that got him."

Jessie fell to his knees as he stared at what sat in the chair before him. He watched the body fall apart as the chair stopped spinning. His brothers jaw clattered onto the desk. The corpse stared back with empty eyes, any hint of his brother gone leaving only rotting bones.

"Y-you lied to me..." Jessie said as he began to hyperventilate. "You said he was alive!"

"Add it to the list, one more lie isn't gonna hurt." Kazimir said before turning to Plague.

"I've had my fun, he's all yours."

"Finally." Plague said angrily.

Plague conjured a black tendril from his palm wrapping it around Jessie. The searing cold washed over Jessie as he was flung into the window. He crashed through cutting himself on the shards of broken glass. He watched as he fell, staring up at the office and a smiling Kazimir.