He was in a studio.

Keith had no idea how he had ended up here. One moment he had been surrounded by complete darkness and in the next he simply had been here. The recording studio looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't really place it. He had seen a few in his life and in the essence they all looked the same. Keith doubted it mattered much at which studio he had ended up anyway. This knowledge wouldn't help him with whatever test this was now.

Contrary to the two before, no one was here and Keith wandered helplessly around. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. They hardly could want him to record a song, especially not when there wasn't even an instrument laying around to start with. The studio only held furniture and Keith had found a box which held a few records, but he hadn't paid them any mind. Even if he now wondered if he should have had a closer look at them. There was nothing else here that could be in the least important and it was worth a try. Keith doubted he would fail this test only because he snooped around a bit. Curiosity was as far as he knew not a sin. It might get you in trouble, but even that didn't seem highly probable. It were just a couple of records after all. Keith kneed down to be on the same level as them to get a closer look.

It were 5 if he counted correctly.

The first Keith picked up, was a Beatles one. Rubber Soul, which looked like it always had. The distorted photograph of the fellow band looked up at Keith and his stomach started to turn anew, even if he had no idea why. He shook his head and snorted, this was ridiculous, he thought and threw the record away. There was nothing dangerous about a Beatles album for sure.

The second one was Their Satanic Majesties Request and Keith nearly had to laugh at that. The irony of finding that here just seemed too much, but that was probably Hell trying to be funny. He put that down on the floor, not wasting a second look for it. He never had liked that album much, a few songs were good, but the rest was just crap in his opinion.

All Things Must Pass read the cover and Keith nearly had to laugh again. Hell definitely had some strange sense of humour or his mind did. He wasn't really sure who came up with these things. As far as he understood they were projecting things out of his memories/ thoughts or whatever and according to them Hell adjusted, but of course he could be totally wrong again. It wasn't like somebody had bothered to explain it to him in detail and to be honest Keith didn't really want to know every little thing. He had heard enough about myths, religion or other shit for a lifetime no matter how long or short it was going to be.

He put the record next to Their Satanic Majesties Request and surprisingly found a single next.

Summertime Blues and Heaven and Hell by the Who, which made Keith's feeling that they were only trying to mess with him increase. He threw it next to the Beatles album and wondered what the next one could be, considering they wanted to keep this stupid act up.

Black Sabbath.

Keith snorted, but he had to admit it was somehow fitting to find that here at least more than the Rubber Soul album. He put it away too and had a look at the last one.

Again it was a Stones Record, Sticky Fingers to be precise and he wondered how that fitted in. Every album had something to do with Hell, the devil or something similar, beside this one and maybe the Beatles one, but that had at least soul in the title, which probably made it fit in too. Curiously Keith turned the record around, but the record looked like it always had, beside one minor detail, which made him pick up Their Satanic Majesties Request again and Keith perceived something he hadn't seen before. How he hadn't remarked that earlier however was beyond his understanding.

"Fuck..." he mumbled.

"It's not nice having your name not on the album for things you did, isn't it?" Keith turned around and again came face to face with someone he surely didn't expect in Hell and well he wasn't really here, at least that much had Keith learned, even if he couldn't picture Mick Taylor as one of the sins.

"Micky, what are you doing here?" Keith asked.

"The question should rather be what are you doing here, Keith? We don't need your input or anything to record songs, you're just Brian's replacement. You do what we tell you to and that's it," Mick exclaimed in a tone that made it sound like Keith had asked the most stupid question ever.

Keith frowned confused. This didn't sound like Mick Taylor at all. Wasn't Hell supposed to represent them as good as they could? Brian and Charlie had been believable, but Micky? No, this was all wrong nor did his words make very much sense to Keith. It was true, he couldn't see his name on the credits for the songs, nor was he on the artwork of Their Satanic Majesties Request, but this could only be some stupid trick.

"What are you talking about? Brian's replacement, if it's one of us it's surely you and not me..."

Micky only smiled and the younger man looked more and more wrong to Keith. This wasn't Mick, this was some strange messed up version of him. "You wish. You saw the records, didn't you? There's no Keith Richards on it. It's Jagger/Taylor."

"You didn't write those songs I did!" Keith exclaimed.

Micky snorted. "At the most you helped with them, so why give you credit? It's mine and Mick's work, not yours."

Brian had accused him of stealing the band and Taylor was now telling him it wasn't his band. Hell definitely had a strange sense of humour, Keith decided, but there probably was more behind this than another try to mess with him. He needed to figure out what this was all about or at least which test it was, if he wanted to have a real chance. He had passed Wrath and Gluttony and this was obviously not the Lust test, which meant he had four other choices still left. Envy, Greed and the other two which Keith couldn't remember. His best option was Envy again, even if he didn't really like to admit it that he might have said similar things to Mick Taylor in the past. Micky was maybe a good guitarist, but he was really only a replacement for Brian. He was still very young and they perhaps hadn't given him the full credit he might have deserved, but it was their band and not little Mick's.

"Okay I get it. It's not nice to leave someone out if he deserves credit and Mick and me are assholes. This is getting old you know."

Mick shook his head. "It's not enough to see the wrong in your actions, how will you undo them?"

Keith shrugged. "I don't know. Give people credit for the work they've done and stop telling I did it all alone?"

"You're just telling me this to pass the test, but you need to mean it as well or this will be in vain."

"And how should I prove to you that I mean it? I really get that I'm not the best person around and not because everyone here tells me this. I did some stuff I'm not too proud off, that's true, but everyone did and well I don't think I'm better than everybody else and yes I probably threated some people really shit. However isn't everything in religion about giving people second chances, especially if they see they've done bad?" Keith asked tiredly.

"You're really not so bad, even if you were wrong again about the test this was Pride and not Envy. You really have a thing for that, it seems. Do you want a drink?" exclaimed a voice from behind Keith, making him turn around, only to come face to face with a scene that again looked rather bizarre. Keith had known who he had to expect, because he had easily recognised the voice and still he hadn't really been prepared for it. Right before his eyes was a recreation of his own living room. It was identical down to the last detail, but that wasn't what unnerved Keith, instead it was the man that sat in his chair holding two glasses filled with a liquor that looked like whisky.

"Surely not and who the fuck are you even? Where is Persy?" Keith asked annoyed. It had been disturbing enough to deal with his band mates, but seeing himself just made this appear even more fucked up.

"Pity then I'll drink it on my own," said the man and drowned his glass and then Keith's right after it. "You really missed something. This whisky is just the best, but I suppose you already know this, considering Persephone gave you a taste or should I call her Persy?"

"I don't care. Tell me where Persy is or at least answer my stupid question!"

He chuckled. "My oh my, it seems like you have no patience at all. I'm surprised you managed this far, but well that's not important and you don't really need to know who I am exactly. I'm where I am needed. I visited a lot of different places over the years. I helped Julius Caesar raise to power, only to tear the Roman empire down in the end. I made sure Napoleon Bonaparte met his defeat at Waterloo. I stuck around St. Petersburg, when I saw it was time for a change and now I'm in charge of these tests. As for Persephone, I can't have her dabbling in my tests, so I send her away. You already passed three and I can't have you pass any more, you know, that's not good for my name."

"Congratulations on your job, but can I just go on with this shit? I need to get back home," Keith replied rolling his eyes at his copy.

His alter ego chuckled. "And you will, but how would you like the sound of going home and still getting your part of the deal without having to pass the rest of tests?"

"I trust you even less than Persy, no matter if you maybe look like myself. Screw this trust no one but yourself bullshit. I'm surely not accepting that offer nor any other one."

The man raised his eyebrows at Keith. "Are you sure? It would be really stupid of you to turn my offer down. You could have everything Persephone offered you without doing anything, beside agreeing. You could go home without doing any tests or anything else. You can wake up in your hotel room with no memory of this, like nothing ever happened."

The offer did sound good, but there had to be an enormous catch and if Charlie was to be believed Persephone would suffer for his mistakes. Not that Keith held any warm feeling for the devil, but screwing her over just like that seemed wrong, especially when he had no idea if he could trust this proposition completely. Persephone had at least not given him the impression that she wouldn't keep her word, so she was probably the safer option than this guy.

"And what about Persy? She'll get erased or some other strange shit."

His lookalike sighed. "Do you really care for a devil, who has only used and lied to you? Think about it what has she ever done for you?"

"Maybe, but I would be real bastard just to sacrifice her. Wow I think this trip is really enlightening."

"Don't expect her to threat you any nicer than she did before or any further help in these tests. You will fail, I'm sure of it. This is your last chance, do you accept my offer or you don't?"

"Fuck off."

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