You should have killed me when you had the chance. (Invite)

Lucius sat in his chair unphased by what would cause most to run screaming or at least some kind of feeling of dread. The male was right, Lucius didn't entirely believe him. However, he had seen enough to know that things like that weren't completely out of the realm of possibility. Alas he got no real answers to his question, but that matter could be addressed later. Lucius was curious about the males comment about killing Silus, but exactly what he had meant was still very much unclear.

The male then left on that mysterious note, telling Lucius he had three hours. Lucius said nothing to the mysterious man, but his acceptance of his job would be known. So Lucius would get up from his chair, gulping down the last bit liquid in his glass to assess the situation. Silus probably had people with him, powerful people. Lucius needed to set up the basement to maximize his chances of success. He would play this as he always did, as if he had no allies.

He wished he had brought more equipment, equipment specifically for someone like Silus. Just at that moment, as if answering this wish droves of tech appeared in the room. Hologram projectors, High explosives, Force field generators and all manner of turrets. All probably very resistant to Silus' tricks considering they were made by Sin. Lucius smiled at the pile of traps, knowing he was about to turn this basement into a deathtrap.

"Dooooon't get too ahead of yourself there laddie. Just because you're SIN'S APPRENTICE doesn't mean you know everything." Samhain said with a smile, rather quick to tell Alex to calm his horses. "I'm actually going to give ya this one for free actually." Samhain said with a smile, a crooked eyebrow and a rather satisfied look on his face. Silus' eyes lit up and Samhain chuckled as he reached out and placed a hand on the little guy's head. Shifting his hand to the side, he took a gentle hold of Silus' head and placed his forefinger to the center of the boy's forehead sending a strange orangish ripple of energy pulsing over Silus before there being a huge smile on Silus' face as he looked to Samhain.

  "I-I know where they are! But we can't just teleport in there. We need to teleport a decent distance away. Alex, can you think of a way to get pas Sin's power negation by chance?" Silus turned to ask Alex, that seemed to be their biggest concern at the moment. He turned back to Samhain but when he looked back...the man was gone? Odd. Silus giggled a little, he loved dealing with the Eldritch Horrors, they were all so playful and unique. "THANK YOOOU!!!" He called out at the top of his lungs before he looked to Alex and smiled. Then he looked back to Alexander.

 "So what do you think?" Silus asked attempting to prompt a response from Alex, to pry into the mind of another intellectual without having to full blown mind-rape him.

*Time skip 2:30 hours. *

  Hellshrike returned, smiling as he looked over the place and then looked for Red Tide to comment to him. "Well now... your little sandbox has turned into quite the hazardous haven. Good to know this place will be the little bugger's grave." He said with a chuckle before tilting his head and cracking his neck. Then with a yawn he looked over the area and his eyes narrowed before falling back to Lucius. "Our guests of honor are nearing. Is everything as you'd like it?" He asked, doing the final check before all Hellshrike broke loose.

It was him stating that this was for free that made him question it more than anything else, because with these guys nothing was free. One way or another a price would be paid, no way an eldritch horror would do something out of the kindness of their hearts. Another headache for sure, but it seemed Silus was the only one so willing to accept their help, much to his annoyance. Still, if they knew where Sin was, that meant they had one problem down and likely many more to go. Power negation was not something he really wanted to deal with, but then again it was Sin, so he had no choice in the matter. He could think of a way to get around the negation, but it would take a small while, still he knew he needed to think something up quickly before Sin had the time to prepare himself as well.

”Yeah, I can think of something.” He said with a nod, sighing and adjusting his glasses. Whether his plan would do anything, well he would only know when they got there wouldn't he? He had tuned out the younger male screaming thank you to no one, now more focused upon thinking of various ways his plan could work. So many variables to consider, they may as well be walking into a deathtrap regardless of what he did to prepare, which was not the most pleasant thought. What he thought was that they were likely very dead, but that was not the response anyone would want to hear, so he avoided saying it. A few minute rocks dotted the span of beach they were standing on, Alexander picking up a few as small runes covered them, dropping the pebbles into his pockets. One part of his plan, hopefully something that would help them.

”I think we don't have any time to waste.” He said after a few minutes, and so the annoying part of this whole thing was upon them. If the power negation affected runes that were already placed, well he would find out when that time came. Silus did most of the work, teleporting them to Chicago of all places while Alexander did the rest of it. They had sat on the street side for a small while, Alexander thinking up a few ways he could get through Sin's defenses.

It involved a car and him hot-wiring it. Which was not that hard actually, and after a few minutes of tinkering the car roared to life, Alexander slipping into the drivers seat and starting it up. They had a place to be and so they would have to be there, Silus leading the way while he did all of the driving. Technically every piece of clothing on him had some kind of rune on it, as well as a few extra ones in case the priors did not work. He was prepared, so the hard part would come next.

Indeed it  was a hazardous haven, there were all manner of deadly things scattered throughout the maze of a basement. Though it would be nice if the traps killed Silus, they were mostly meant to tire and confuse. Weather Sins power negation worked completely on Silus was unknown, but if it didn't Lucius was prepared. One would think that simple teleportation would make the trapped basement useless, but in actuality teleporting would only cause more problems for the targets. Lucius honesty expected the clever boy to evade most of his little death traps, but that was all part of the plan.

First of all, the lights were replaced with ones that were bright orange. They burned whatever they shined on except for things Lucius had specified such as himself and the actual room. The lights were quite durable as well, so breaking them wasn't really an option. These lights would prove to be quite useful in keeping Silus in a constant state of pain as he traversed the underground 'fun' house. Force field generators and energy cannons were placed throughout to help funnel Silus into certain parts of the building where Lucius wanted him. They seemed like rather petty pieces of tech put up against someone like Silus, but there function was not to be lethal but to serve as a set up for the real stuff.

'Holograms' of Lucius that looked totally real, and even had some of Lucius' 'aura' were all around the basement. These were there to provide basic misdirection, Silus wouldn't know exactly which was the real Lucius. Explosives and wall traps that shot bursts of fire were of course all over, but Lucius assumed they would be the easiest to evade so he wasn't putting to much stock into them. Along with all of this Sin and himself would of course be trying to kill Silus straight up, so the little buggers chances of survival looked slim.

"Yes, i don't need anything else from you." Lucius said making the final touches on a little something special. When Silus came in, he would see a knit doil of himself on puppet strings. This was obviously a reference to a comment Silus made in there last encounter. Lucius truly felt that in this basement Silus would be fully under his control, like a puppet. Without another word Lucius got into position in his make shift 'control room' and awaited the boys arrival.

So Alex had a plan? Good, because at this rate all he had was a loose idea. Of course he was nw thinking, but there was nothing he could do about power negation. Well, nothing YET. He was sort of just letting it go as he could. It'd be a while before they got there. Silus couldn't help but wonder if things were going to work out this time. His heart clenched up and his breathing became a little shallow. His anxiety was working against him now. Sin wouldn't come at him alone...not with Archon's blessing on him. Sin tried this before...to draw the evil from Silus. All it resulted in was a mouth Silus that hated himself enough to try and kill the real him. Silus, unlike the remainder of "Mankind" was inherently good, and he had no evil inside him that reached beyond the battered psyche of his traumatic childhood. The silence was welcomed to him as he looked up at the full moon.

"Gaia shivers..." He said, saying simply what he felt, saying simply what he knew. The words seemed incosequencial, though the very gravity of what he was proclaiming was unnerving. Many would not even hear him out, thinking it was childish ranting. But to think of it as true... somethng was making the spirit, the essence of the earth itself quake. It was a grave thought. Silus pulled an am from his deep pockets and reached up through the hoodie collar before fishing out a small ring attached to a gold chain. Thumbing the ring around in a circle he would stare at it intensely, though his features were all so relaxed.

They arrived and Silus was the first out, Void walking himself to the entrance door, waiting for Alex. Closing his eyes, Silus began to imagine what lie on the other side. What medium would stay between him an Sin? What would be he instrument of his intened demise? Knowing Sin...it could be anything. Silus looked to Alex and nodded before stepping back, a doppleganger opening the door in case it were a trap. Once the doppleganger entered, it looked about and whistled. Silus and Alex would walk in and the trap was sprung. The first thing he saw was a small, doll like version of himself on strings. Silus smiled a little before looking around.

"Keep playin' little jester...the delusion of power only make you more entertaining." He said before he kept walking forward.

*****

"Good work. No wonder he's taken a liking to you." Zakaken stated simply as he stood there, leaning on his cane a little bit as he watched Red Tide's trap coexist with his own. Between two layers of traps, one in the grand-mastery of th4 occult and the other in science...one of them should strike.

Twenty seven, that's how many counter measures he had thought up in his time, but if any of them would work he would have to wait for that. How useful Silus would be once they were under the influence of the power negation, well that would be something that he also had to find out once they got there. Tapping a foot casually against the ground, he created a single rune there, a little insurance should things get too heavy for them, or rather for the little guy. It was semi-obvious that the little guy was nervous, but then again so was he, this was not something that would be easy. However all was silence as he looked to the full moon, turning to Silus he formed a small rune, almost unnoticeable in one of the folds within his jacket. Something was said about Gaia shivering, meaningless words to most but something about it felt ominous to him.

”The things we do for love.” He thought to himself, followed by an audible sigh. So many variables to consider and so little time, all of it was an annoying prospect really. With a final sigh he would push himself to his feet, looking up to the sky one last time before shaking his head. Arriving there, Silus was the first with that void walking of his, or whatever it was called by him. Once they stepped through the door, after being checked for a trap by one of the little guys doppelgangers they would step through to the first trap. What they had found was a doll bound by thread, something that seemed to make more sense to Silus than himself, until the male said to himself before he kept going on.

It was someone likely that they knew. His eyes darted about trying to get a grasp of the place, lips pursing as he considered what they had walked into. The first thing that he noticed was that a burning sensation was spreading across his skin, along with the fact that the lights were letting off an orange color rather than the usual dull yellow florescent color. By burning sensation,he meant it hurt like hell but he couldn't quite let that bother him right now, they had more pressing matters right now. Likely there were traps, because there had to be traps. Reaching for a hood and pulling it over his head, he covered most of the irritated flesh revealed, not that he was completely safe from the pain. Something told him thought, that wasn't even the half of it.

The first thing that really caught his eyes were..force-fields and energy cannons, without powers he was basically screwed at this point. So first, he made sure he was out of their range of view and then he would do the next step. Which was where thinking and ingenuity came into play, because knowing Sin he would not do all of this himself. Reaching into his pocket he removed a single rock, one of twenty and tossed it onto the floor, hoping that he was right in his assumption. This was the fruit of his hours of planning, a counter to almost anything that might or could have jumped up. Muttering something under his breath, a pulse of energy rippled outwards from the rock. If they were dealing with tech, anyone could guess that a simple EMP pulse would do something to them.

”The game is on.” He muttered softly, at least the lights went out.

EMPs, Lucius had expected such things. Not everything was prepared though, for the time being the lights, cannons, and force fields in the area of the EMP were shut down. They would reset themselves in a few minutes, but even if they wouldn't it didn't matter. The EMP would only serve to give Silus and his friend a false sense of security. Lucius had prepared a few things that would be entirely immune to the boys little trick.

As the two 'heroes' walked forward they would be greeted with a low hissing sound followed by a rather startling trap. Two jets of fire blew the rock from the walls as they shot out, anything caught in that part of the hallway would surely be incinerated. As if that weren't enough, the ceiling above their most likely escape point crumbled, failing down with bone crushing force. Unfortunately for Silus and Alex, this was only the tip of the ice berg.

If they managed to evade the two simple traps and continued down the hall, a hologram of Lucius would be staring at them from behind a force field. At this point the halls split, they had two points to continue on from there. Though they would probably wait to see what Lucius had to say.

"Hello Silus. Pick a path, either will lead to your death. Though i would recommend right, its far less painful." The hologram said taunting the two boys. They wouldn't have any way of knowing it wasn't the real Lucius, but that didn't exactly matter at the moment. It was true though, right was far less painful. Though, being the person Silus was he would probably go left just to see what Lucius had in store for him there. If they fired off another EMP to get the shield down and move forward, well, that would result in that entire section being blown to bits.

"Oh, hey Lucius. What a coincidence, are you still trying to find yourself?" Silus giggled a little and shrugged. "Sorry, when you can see the future there's irony, like...everywhere." He blew off the next portion, not even bothering to attack Lucius or anything. To be honest it was kinda obvious it wasn't the real Lucius. The real Lucius was a pride-driven dick , this was true, but standing out in the open against two opponents, one of which he knew nothing about, was just flat out stupid. Lucius wasn't stupid...mostly.

"How about...both." Silus said as suddenly two doppelgangers appeared from the middle of nothingess. Each one took a different path, one to the left and one to the right. His Doppelgangers seemed to be scoping out the trouble, though this was an annoyance to Hellshrike in particular. His power negation should have entirely sealed Silus from the ability to access his powers. There was no reasonable explanation that this power was able to work. Once again, Silus found a way to play by the game rules through the loopholes.

"How can he do that with-..." Zakaken asked his eyes fixated on Silus as one eye twitched, his mouth slightly agape a moment before he turned his head and smiled, as if he had just figured out a piece to the puzzle. "Because it's not a power...is it?" He scoffed, but the smile showed that it was amusing to say the least.

"Well now... this has gotten quite a bit interesting. How will you choose to die Silus?" He asked himself as he watched with intrigue, though he was simply watching Lucius work at this point. His true traps lay farther in this little labyrinth.

”Looks like that actually worked.” Alexander thought to himself pleasantly surprised, if only because he was expecting the death traps to have some fail safe against sudden EMP. Granted, perhaps he hadn’t thought it through as well as Alexander had, or perhaps he was expecting them to not have any powers at all. Which would have been a fair assumption considering Sin, but then again over half of his counter measures were working on assumptions more than anything else. Still, with most of the pains out of the way he could get to the more important part of the matter and that was what Sin had planned further in this macabre funhouse. Because, if he had just let this masked guy do all the work, that just wouldn’t feel like the devious bastard that taught him. The fact that Silus knew this guy, well was only cemented by the fact that the kid referred to him by name.

”You know this guy?” He asked with a sigh, massaging the bridge of his nose while looking to the hologram that had spoken to the kid. So a grown man wanted to kill a child, this was just….too much even for him. Regardless, it seemed that he was now in the middle of a rivalry, rather than some convoluted plan to kill them both. Unless that was also it. Honestly, he had already prepared himself for the whole death thing, so there wasn’t any backing out of it now, as much as he wanted to. Then within a matter of moments Silus demonstrated what looked like a power, as he had created doppelgangers of himself but powers should not work in the field. This was an interesting change within the game, one that he could not quite….understand. Had Sin’s little trick gone out or was this something else?

These copies would be able to scout ahead for the traps without doing any harm to them, but Alexander had a feeling either way they would need to go through them. Unless once set off they were worthless, which would have made this so much easier. Not that luck was ever on his side like that, because he was fighting against the damn primordial of evil, underhanded tactics were his specialty.  Sifting fingers through his pockets, he felt over the few objects in his pockets, imbued with the only powers he would have access to in this building. Loopholes, they were a sort of blessing when it came to things like this, but taking away the whole on the fly workings of his powers made this annoying. ”So, what’s the big plan with dealing with this masked guy?” Afterall, it seemed Silus had more of one at the moment than he did.

Interesting, according to Silus he could also see the future. It must have been a limited ability though, the boy didn't seem to be able look into what had not happened yet on the fly. Purely speculation on Lucius' part really, for that matter the boy could be lying. What he had said may not have got to someone who wasn't Lucius, it most definitely interested the masked man. His thoughts on that matter were cut off though, instead of picking Silus copped out and went both ways...somehow.

it wasn't like it mattered, Lucius had built the place as if he didn't have Sins help. In the instant Silus released his clones or whatever they were the paths were blocked. Lasers running not on technology but on Lucius' own energy had been placed in each in a waffle like grid to stop the unverified passage. As soon as the doppelgangers walked down the paths these lasers would block their path, disallowing any further progress through the maze unless it was the real Silus.

"Ah......this is why i can't rely on others to do anything. Unfortunately for you Silus, i made a few counter measures just in case Sin's negation had some blank spots. Put the duplicates away and you can see what else i have in store, test my patience and you get blown to hell right here." The hologram said with a bit of irritation. Regardless of what Silus did it seemed he would die, if he was like any normal person he would choose the option that allowed him to live a bit longer.

"So... make my doppelgangers go away and die even though I did what you said... or do what you say and die anyway? You see how it's not appealing at all? If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die doing everything I can to stop Sin." Silus said, rather adamant. There was not beloved, innocent twinkle in his eye as there normally was. The childlike nature was gone and only sheer stoicism remained. "What did Sin promise you? I can tell you whatever it is it's not worth it... it never is." Silus said, his doppelgangers had still yet to go anywhere, but they did stop in place...out of respect if nothing else.

    "Viva la vida... that's a good song for you to listen to right now..." Silus said, the song was genuinely something Silus hoped Lucius would think over. The one line, if he knew Lucius at all, that would stick with him was the same line that reinforced what Silus called him earlier. "Just a puppet on a lonely string. Oh who would ever want to be king?" Silus thought it fit his daddy more, but it fit Lucius just fine as it did Zell in some respect. Silus called Lucius a puppet for a reason. Lucius probably didn't get it. No one would ever really get it unless they knew Zell, or if they knew what Zell had taught him.

  "You won't kill me. Not yet... you're having too much fun, you're learning too much." Silus said, the dopplegangers disappeared into nothingness, leaving not even a trace of ever having been. "We don't deal with him. We deal with Sin... Sin's the problem and if we don't stop Sin then Lucius is in danger. We gotta save him...You go right, I'll go left." Silus said in a rather hushed tone to Alex as he started walking to the left with his hands behind his head, arms up and lazily glancing about as he collected his thoughts.

  "Looks like they've divided themselves... the boy on the right will be a handful. He's one of the most brilliant minds to ever grace this mudball. It would behoove you to keep him "relatively" intact." Zakaken offered as he then looked to Silus on the monitor, stepping over and a scowl on his face as he looked to the young boy. "Welcome to the curtain call..." He said, the scowl becoming a rather satisfied grin.

So it seemed they were dealing with a dilemma where they would die either way, not exactly something Alexander would have wanted in a day, but he did walk into this willingly. He could agree with Silus on doing anything to stop Sin, if they had any way to do so at least. He was the primordial of evil after all, not exactly something that was easy to stop. However, he had his own reason for wanting to stop Sin, but in the end personal motives mattered little. Whatever Sin had promised the poor guy wasn’t really his concern, because the guy was trying to kill them so that sort of ruined any desire to help them. Apparently he was supposed to help this guy, not that Alexander would ever consider something like that. ”Help him? I’ll pass on that.” Alexander responded on the same hushed tone, no he would deal with the guy in his own way.

Working with a super good guy had its road blocks, but not as if was caught within those trappings. He let his fingers tighten around the retracted staff the unknown eldritch had been so kind to give him, wondering if he would need to use it against this Lucius that Silus knew so well, Either way he was going to go right, because Silus had decided upon left. A feeling in his gut basically screamed that he was going to be in for a large amount of hell. ”Pick your death, well this will be fun.” Alexander thought to himself with a frown, feeling over the few rocks in his right pocket for what he was considering. Different plans plotted out for different ways to deal with whatever this meta-human could throw at him. If of course he could even harm him.

If they had some manner of superhuman durability, well he would likely be massively screwed. ”Okay, right it is.” With that near silent utterance he would take the right path now separated from the younger male and already thinking of the many ways he could deal with whatever was ahead. Maybe it would be some flame throwers or something else. A medium sized rock was clutched within his hand, a single glowing rune hidden from sight but glowing a soft blue within the darkness of his clenched hand. Insurance more than anything, and luckily this allowed him a certain flexibility when dealing with something as specific as power negation.

Now he had to deal with whatever traps the villain had in store for him around the bend.

So now the kid was sharing music with him? The boy really was odd, like, really odd. Your staring death in the face and you tell the person about to kill you to listen to coldplay... Sure the song had meaning, the puppet thing again presumably, but what a time to start bringing up parallels of Lucius' life in music.

"What i do here is not because i was promised something, I'm not some gangland criminal, I'm doing it because just like Sin i want you out of the way." The hologram said before finally disappearing. There was nothing more to talk about, at least not at that moment. They would walk themselves to certain death, no matter how much they denied it with pure arrogance.

"Relatively..." Lucius said in response to Sin with a smirk. It seemed Sin felt this other boy should be kept alive, no matter. He wasn't the target, and was pretty much an extra wheel that just showed up. Regardless, the comment Sin made definitely changed Lucius' plans for that path. Before it would have been a quick and easy death, but since death wasn't involved the traps would just seriously injure and brutalize.

Left Path:
___________

Silus would be the first to arrive in Lucius' main room because there was pretty much no traps in his way, granted he would have to dodge a few laser turrets but those were really only there because Lucius had extra. After the hallway full of wall mounted guns Silus would make it to a large and open corridor mostly dark but with a few lamps hanging around. Coming into the light Lucius could be seen with two fencing swords, and from the look on his face one could tell this wasn't going to be pretty. Lucius was going to kill Silus the old fashioned way, that was why the right path would have been quicker and less painful. Few had it in them to straight up murder a child, Lucius was one of those few.

"Sin tells me you know your way around a blade, thought i would see for myself." Lucius said tossing the boy a rapier.

Right Path:
___________

Alex's path would be much more drawn out and hindered, but he as well would arrive in the main room, likely after the deed was done. If all the traps on that path worked though, the kid probably wouldn't be in any state to deal with what Lucius was going to throw at him last. The first thing that Alex would encounter was a simple dart trap. Steel darts would start to fire out of the walls. First one, then two more, then a heavy rain. They weren't going fast enough to kill, but damn would they hurt. The new purpose of Alex's path was not to give Silus the choice of a clean death but to distract and whittle down the boy he brought with him.

The second trap was quite fun, it had been placed there to really test the brains of whoever walked down it. The darts that had previously been fired at Alex did so in a pattern, morse code. Alex would reach a hi tech password protected door, a password he could only know if he listened to the morse code while running from darts that were trying to impale him. As a bit of incentive to get it open, the hallways ceiling exploded section by section. Each concrete demolishing explosion brought death closer to Alex from the far end of the hallway to the door. Lucius imagined the kid would get out right before the last explosion went off, Indiana Jones style. He truly enjoyed making up fun ways to kill people, probably not the most socially acceptable hobby.

The next hallway was meant to annoy in contrast to what was previously thrown at Alex. The hall looked innocent enough, but in reality it would deliver a beating to whoever walked down it. Concrete clubs that were perfectly blended into the wall would swing out unexpectedly at Alex's legs, face, and torso as he made his way down it. They struck fast then simply swung back and locked back into the wall like it never happened. Again these were intended to injure not kill, but it was hard to see a normal kid walking out of that unknocked cold.

Finally there was a classic at the end to really put the fear into the person walking down the path. Simple yet terrifying and effective lethality wise. The walls started moving toward each other, threatening to crush anything currently in the halls. Alex would have to run really really fast if he wanted to, ya know, not die. At the end of it was the door to the main room where Lucius and Silus would be doing there sword fighting thing, whether Alex would arrived before it was over or not wasn't known though.

"Well yeah before Sin almost stole my soul. I'm kind just okay now..." Silus said casually as he lifted the rapier and held the blade out in good form. Despite having lost his soul, Silus had an advantage over Lucius here. His reflexes and fighting skill were peak human and he had the knowledge of fighting styles in the back of his mind. This was like reflex to him. Lucius wouldn't be a push over either though. Still this would likely be in Silus favor.

  "I know you. Maybe even better than you know yourself. But you need to ask yourself. Why are you coming after me? I stopped you from murdering innocent people. I had a bad day and said one thing to you...and now you're siding with someone that's going to stab you in the back just because you want me out of the way?" Silus asked with a cocked eyebrow. He apparently was to make the first move here. Stepping forward he gave a casual whip of the blade, he was obviously aiming for Lucius' sword, and not for the man himself. Typical heroic bravado there. "I'm not getting in your way. I'm not killing you. You're doing that to yourself!" He said giving another skillful whip of the blade before a phaux-pas and then diving out of the way before Lucius could have the chance to strike at him. He was a mover, a little trickster. Fitting for his title and his classification.

  This battle probably would take it's toll, and while Silus hated to admit it he didn't have the stamina he once had prior to the whole soul event. He didn't show signs of waning though. Red likely wouldn't either (assumption based upon Dur/Regen). Silus likely managed to get a couple minor cuts, but the battle probably raged on longer than Red would have liked. Silus put distance between himself and Lucius before shaking his head.

  "It's difficult isn't it? To understand someone? Because when you understand someone, when you finally know who they are. You have to love them as they love themselves...and it's in the moment you love them....that you destroy them." Silus said, though it was almost skeptic enough to be thought provoking. "I understand you...and I feel no love. Which is why I'm going to give you a way out." Silus said before putting his rapier down, sticking it in the floor. Things got heavy here for Silus at the moment. Because there was a reason he called Red Tide a "puppet". Now was the time for the explanation.

 "I called you a puppet. It's true. But let me tell you why. You've got strings on you, and they're pulling at you from every which way. You haven't made a choice yet today, you know that? Let me show you." Silus before shaking his hand out. Trying to focus he tried to wapr reality around them. Sin's negation made it impossible however. Dopplegangers and void walking were simply parts of his unique physiology. Glmaours and warping was not. He grunted before sighing. With a growl he grapples his head and in a flahs the area around them changed. Lucius would note that he no longer had a rapier, and neither did Silus. The room around them had changed as well. There were now two hallways each with an arrow pointing to the them.

  "I know you wanna kill me...just...wait a sec." Silus said, holding his hands up. As they approached the door an arrow lit up pointing to the right hallway. The hallway to the right led to the next area. The hallway to the left literally looped them back to where they began. The likelihood of Lucius choosing left was important. "Watch.... you choose to go to the left..." Silus motioned, taking point to ensure nothing happened. As they followed through Lucius would see the looping effect.

  "You chose to go left, but in the end it bringsw you right back to the point where you have to choose right. C'mon." Silus said, as he ran ahead a little. Following the pathway was a similar design, though the arroe pointed to the left. On the right side this time was a dead-end.  "You go right, and it's a dead end. You'll have to come back and you'll have to choose left... One more now." Silus took off before meeting Lucius in the final room. Both arrows lit up and a voice bellowed.

 "CHOOSE!"

   "This is where you are. No matter what choice you make...you'll end up at the exact same point. You don't have a choice. You have no say. Your choice is an illusion. You're a puppet. Sin is pulling your strings. I said we would meet again. Because this is what I do... I break the strings off. That's why Sin hates me. I free them, I give them true choice and not just the illusion." Silus explained. Red could try it out for himself even if he'd like and he'd see it was true. Both paths went to the exact same location. Silus closed his eyes and tried one last trick. One he hadn't done for a long time. He was going to try and enlighten Red to the situation he was in. The facts and the truth. He hoped it was successful but before long he energy was shut off, likely interrupted by Sin. The area returned to normal. Silus stood by the rapier, Red still had his own.

  "You're a puppet, and if you kill me you're still nothing but a puppet... You don't even have to help me stop Sin. But I'm giving you a choice, a TRUE CHOICE. Stop being a puppet, stop being a pawn. Walk off the chessboard." Silus said, in truth he had nothing to gain from this. "You don't trust it. That's fine. But when can you ever trust change? When are we ever not afraid of change or loathing change? It's always more tempting to be a puppet. But you weren't meant to have stings on you. We both know it. You're better than this and you know." Silus said. Arround now Alexander would probably be arriving, Sin also to bear witness to the exchange. Sin displayed no inkling one way or the other of what he thought.

Alexander took the right path, likely one where he would have to deal with a metric shitton of deathtraps. Whoever he was dealing with, well he would have to deal with in a more permanent manner. The first trap was what looked like darts, moving slowly almost to his heightened perception, as he removed a single pebble from his pocket and letting the run on it activate. Rapidly it would seem to grow, becoming a wall of earth around him that took all of the dart, which sunk into the barrier. So he saved himself from what would have been a painful experience. When he was sure that he was safe, the front portion would crumble away to allow him to step through.

Tapping on the side of his glasses, the lenses would glow softly to initiate one of the runes that had been priorly been placed on it. What he reached next was what looked like a high tech door, as far as the password, well he would have a problem with that. Normally he would have took the time to figure out the password, but with an exploding roof, well he had no time to figure it out. ”You have got to be kidding me.” Alexander grumbled, thinking over the various runes he had prepped up but nothing came to mind. This meant he was…well not in a good position. ”I am not even doing this.” Alexander sighed, reaching into his pocket and producing another plot device rock and activated the rune on it, though this was more flexible than the others.

Ramming it into the keypad, a fee sparks were let off and the door opened, Alexander walking through before he was buried under rubble. Once he was in the next hallway, which looked far less dangerous than the last but something told him there was no reason to relax just yet. ”Why am I always the one to deal with the psychopaths?” The first one got him, striking Alexander in the gut and sending him doubling over, but the next ones he had learned to see coming before they did. So that became less annoying, and then the final death trap, if not somewhat cliché. All it took was some running, a lot fo running actually and by the end he was just far too tired to deal with any of this.

”Okay…..i’m…here.” Alexander breathed, still tired from the run.

So they would begin their little sword fight. It was all just to play around a little, Lucius could kill the boy at anytime with a simple gesture but for his own reasons he chose not to. Again the mention of something mystical occurred, which Lucius just smirked at under his mask. Lucius didn't believe in souls or primordial evils, what kind of joke were these guys playing? Regardless, Lucius got into a fighting stance. Silus may have had an advantage, but Lucius was no pushover when it came to swordplay. And of course, once he had his fun he could simply kill Silus with his energy.

"I spent not even a day with you and you think you understand me? Please. As personal as this may feel ultimately its just business. I can't have someone like you running around because i know later on you will present a problem i cannot outmaneuver." Lucius said in response just before Silus whipped his sword at Lucius'. It hit it, but really didn't do much. Was that even a serious attack? Silus then said something about how Lucius was killing himself and getting in his own way, which Lucius didn't even care to respond to. What he did respond to though was another whip of Silus' blade, this one more skillful and aimed at the body. Indeed the boy had some skill, Lucius was struck directly in the chest but it did nothing due to his durability. This fight could go on forever it seemed, Lucius' stamina was always at its peak level due to his regen so he wouldn't tire and it looked as if the boy wouldn't either. They exchanged clash after clash, Lucius quite impressed by the boys prowess. Finally Silus took some distance, not to catch his breath or anything but to continue his babbling. At this point Lucius had been hit with the blade three or four times, but the steal sword was nothing to him.

What Silus said next struck a bit of a cord with Lucius, enough for him to lower his hostility. It made him think of things he had made a point to forget. The boy was messing with his head, saying all the right things to calm the violence in the metahuman. Perhaps Silus did understand him, not that Lucius would ever admit it. The boy had stuck his sword in the floor, and in return Lucius lowered his. He had all the time he needed to kill the kid, why rush? Besides, what he did next seemed interesting. The room warped around them, not at all to Lucius' surprise. Sin's negation had failed once, it wasn't really a shocker that it would do it again. At first Lucius thought Silus was trying to mock the choice he had given Silus earlier, but as the boy spoke he realized he was just trying to make a point. Lucius then watched Silus walk down the left path, which looped around and took him back to the main area. Next he slowly followed Silus down the right, seeing it was a dead end. For some reason he heard Sins voice, whether that was apart of Silus' illusion though wasn't known at that moment.

Lucius understood what the boy was trying to say, but what did it matter? Lucius already knew not to trust Sin, and he didn't. The boy was telling him something he had already gathered from spending two minutes with the 'primordial evil'. Still though, the choice he was given held some weight. He knew Sin was not to be trusted and probably would back stab him. Was killing Silus worth that? After all, the boy was someone he should have liked. He was beyond humans, he was intelligent, good hearted, and to an extent reminded Lucius of himself when he was a boy. If he would kill Silus, he wasn't going to be played into doing it. He wasn't meant to be a pawn, he was meant to be the one moving the pieces.

".......Perhaps you're right, this isn't my dispute. I can see Sin and you go back much further then you and i, i won't be used to solve anothers problems any longer." Lucius said sticking his sword into the ground. He had not decided to make a move on Silus today, he was dragged into it. That he could now see was against his very nature. Lucius could see his traps didn't harm Alex to much, that was good if they were going to stand a chance against Sin.

"I won't continue to try and harm you, but i won't help you get out of this. As long as you stay out of my way.....we won't meet again." Lucius said starting to walk away. He hoped this choice wouldn't come back to bite him, but staying and killing Silus probably would have sooner.