Duality Doesn't Exist [Set It Off] [[DISCONTINUED]]

chapter titles are still shit but this is important

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Right Side Up

Omniscient
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Cody held a tight grip on the demon's shoulder as he lead him into the living room. "You're gonna answer our questions truthfully, right?"

"R-Right," Mirror Maxx stammered, nodding and swallowing a lump in his throat.

"Okay." Cody sat him on the torn couch and stood in front of him, with Dan and Zach on either side of him.

"Ask anything, I swear I'll answer right," the blue eyed boy said.

"What was that thing?" Dan asked. "And why did it look like Pistol?"

"That was... My world's... Version of Pistol. There's an alternate form of everyone. Even the pets. Except, ah... They aren't pets in my world."

"That much is obvious," Zach scoffed. "Where did it go?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"It disappeared after it killed Pistol," Cody explained, remembering he wasn't in the room for that. "Where did it go?"

"It died," Mirror Maxx replied with a soft shrug. "This Pistol's dead, that one is too."

"Hold up, what?" Cody cocked his eyebrow. "What-what's that mean?"

"Oh, right." mirror Maxx sunk his head. "I guess we never got to tell you, but we're like... Connected. Whatever happens to us, happens to you. So..." he shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "If I die, Maxx dies. I got scratched on the face," he reached up to emphasize his point. "He gets scratched."

"He lost his eye, though," Zach commented. "Why didn't you lose yours?"

"I probably will soon. It can happen anytime with either of us. It could be a few minutes later, tomorrow, even a year. I'm-I'm sorry."

"Why do you come here?" Cody demanded, rolling his tongue inside his mouth. "Don't you have plenty of space in your dimension?"

"It's five miles wide. At least," Mirror Maxx huffed. "Plus, with our Pistol out there, we were kinda stuck in our house. We were going crazy because you guys were going places, and we were stuck." He gingerly reached his leg up and hugged his knee. "That's why we started... Using you guys. Just to see your world. It was so colorful and big..."

"Just to see," Dan echoed. "So, how did that equate to kidnapping and killing people, huh?"

"That was Cody." he looked up and bit his cheek. "He says it was an accident, but..."

"You can't accidentally do something like that," the other finished, crossing his arms

"I know, I know. I don't know why he did it."

"Why'd you do it?" Zach asked immediately after Mirror Maxx finished talking. "We know you can't tell us how your Cody felt, but why did you do it?"

"I-" the brunette shoo his head. "I-I don't know. I can't remember. I swear." a waver crept into his voice as he started to tremble slightly. Blood rolled down the right side of his face, which was stained and smeared with the red liquid.

"Bullshit," Zach claimed, curling his hands into fists as he stepped back. "You said you'd answer truthfully."

"I am!" Mirror Maxx protested, flinching at Zach's harsh tone. "I swear, I don't know why I started! All I know is that I couldn't stop."

"Why the fuck not?!" Cody hissed.

"You think a smoker can just drop cigarettes?" he replied immediately, this time angry. "Or a heroin addict can-"

"You're putting murder with smoking?"

"It was an addiction, is what I was trying to get at!" he shouted. "And I just couldn't stop."

A door opened from the kitchen, and it was accompanied by footsteps. Maxx emerged into the living room, eyes red and puffy. He wrapped a rag lazily around his right missing eye, and was holding Pistol gently, like a child, in one hand; a dirty shovel in the other. He was still crying, and his thin frame was shaking.

"Hey, man," Dan nodded at him. "You doing okay?"

Maxx said nothing, only looking at Pistol's limp body in his arm, then to the back door, which he opened and shut behind him.

The three men looked to the door, then collectively back to the mirrored counterpart sitting on the couch.

In turn, he stared back at them with fear crackling through his bright eyes.

And he spoke, a thick wobbly tone. "You have... Every reason to be mad at me... I-I deserve it, I know. I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen."

"What was supposed to happen?" Dan inquired. "What-What little picture did you have in your mind, huh?"

"I... I was supposed to stay here for a week... Then go back home. Pistol wasn't supposed to come here, I swear."

There was a tense, uneasy silence for a while before the back door opened, and in came Maxx. "Hey," he croaked, walking into the living room area. "What's going on?"

"Just asking a few questions," Zach answered.

"Good." he looked somewhat calm now, able to talk at least. "I have one."

"Go ahead," his bright eyed twin said.

"Earlier, when we were talking. You said you were stuck with four."

"Yeah?"

"Not counting me, there's only three of us." he pressed the rag into his face with a hiss. "Who's the fourth?"

"Austin, of course," Mirror Maxx replied, raising his eyebrow as if they should know this.

Everyone froze, eyes wide, like a gun went off.

"Yeah, I've been wondering," Mirror Maxx continued, not noticing everyone's angry, shocked look. "Where's your Austin? Wasn't that his room back..." Realization dawned upon him. "Oh..."

"Yeah. Oh," Cody mocked. "He's gone, alright? Any more questions? "

"N-No, I'm sorry."

"Okay, question." Maxx shook off his unease and huffed. "How do we get rid of you guys?"

"Um... Like, can you be more specific?"

"How do we get away? Like, is there a way to get rid of you?"

"Move away," Mirror Maxx simply answered. "It's only five miles wide, but it can grow if you're away too long."

"What do you mean, grow? Like, it gets bigger?"

"Yeah. We found like, two new miles the first day y'all went on tour. But we couldn't really reach you then."

"So, we just get away. That's it?"

"Essentially." he hung his head.

Cody looked around the room, baffled. "It's that easy?"

"Yeah." the other Maxx looked back up. "I thought you would've figured it out. "

"So, road trip?" Dan ventured.

"I guess," Cody agreed.

From the hallway, a door opened. Rayne stepped out, slowly and calmly. They muttered under their breath a little before looking up.

Bright blue eyes stared at the five in the room. She grinned.

"This is fun!"

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