Shadowheart stepped forward, her fingers trembling slightly as she summoned the fractured mirror. The dark surface shimmered with an eerie light, the sharp lines of the cracks forming an intricate web that seemed to pulse with latent energy. Tav’s feral eyes locked onto the mirror, a deep growl reverberating from his throat as he reached through the bone grates toward it, claws scraping against the bars.
Before he could lash out, Alex lifted his helmet, his face obscured as he exhaled a cloud of spores that drifted toward Tav. The spores clung to Tav’s form, seeping into his skin, and almost immediately the effect was palpable. The beast within him stilled, though his glare remained murderous, his chest rising and falling with ragged breaths.
"Now," Alex said calmly, "use the mirror."
Shadowheart nodded, gripping the object made from her psionic energy tightly as she positioned it in front of Tav. She could feel Alex’s presence behind her, his hand resting on her shoulder.
'Two minds are better than one,' Alex's voice echoed softly in her mind, a strange comfort amid the tension.
With a deep breath, she allowed the mirror’s surface to glow, its purple hue reflecting off Tav’s bloodied face. Tendrils of psionic energy unfurled from the mirror, moving slowly, cautiously, until they wrapped around Tav's head like delicate, sentient vines. Shadowheart winced as the tendrils dug deeper, not into Tav’s flesh, but into the chaos of his mind.
'His mind is a mess,' she thought, gritting her teeth as she poured her strength into the mirror. The fractured pieces drank heavily from her psionic reserves, their thirst endless as they tried to stitch together the broken fragments of Tav's sanity.
A sudden chill washed over her, almost paralyzing, until she realized it was Alex lending his psionic energy. His presence was vast, and though it was a relief to have his strength, it also frightened her—there was something in his power that felt…alien . But there was no time to dwell on that. Shadowheart tightened her grip, focusing all her will into the mirror as more tendrils reached out, wrapping tighter around Tav’s mind.
Suddenly, a violent crash echoed through the chamber as a horde of thralls burst in.
"Focus on Tav!" Karlach roared as she hurled herself into the fray, her battle axe gleaming with the heat of her rage. She descended like a meteor, cutting through the first wave of thralls in a fiery arc. Astarion leapt into the chaos, his shield flashing, while Gale, Wyll, and Lae'zel followed suit, each casting spells and cutting down the abominations that flooded the chamber.
Jaheira's command rang out as the Harpers rallied, joining Halsin and the rest of the allies in battle. Zevlor and his tieflings charged, their weapons clashing against the overwhelming force of illithid's abominations and thralls.
Lump, Glut, and Bullet formed a protective circle around Shadowheart and Alex, keeping the swarm at bay. Shadow, now nothing but a puff of smoke, reappeared in the midst of the enemy, as he started to wreak havoc.
Shadowheart’s concentration wavered for just a moment as she watched her friends fight, her heart pounding in her chest. But Alex’s voice cut through the noise, steady and commanding.
"Focus on the mirror."
With a sharp nod, she steeled herself, pouring the last of her strength into the mirror.
Tav started convulsing . His eyes, wild and bloodshot, darted frantically around the room. The tendrils of psionic energy faintly wrapped around his head, pulsing with a soft glow. He muttered under his breath, at first quiet and incoherent, but the words quickly became frantic shouts, laced with desperation.
"N-no… they’re not my friends… they’re meat… prey! I’ll tear them apart! They need to die! No… NO! Save me! They cannot stop me! Please, someone, save me!"
Tav's voice shifted from pleading to violent, his words splintered by the jagged edges of his mind stat slowly mended together. His claws scraped furiously against the bone bars, the sound sharp and agonizing. It was as if he was two beings trapped in one body—one crying for mercy, the other thirsting for blood.
For a few minutes they stood like frozen statues .
The psionic tendrils pulsed one final time before the mirror vanished, dissolving into the ether as the task was completed. Shadowheart collapsed to her knees, her hands cradling her throbbing head.
"My head... feels like it was hit by a club," she groaned, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Thanks for the help, Alex. Without you, I don’t think I could’ve done it."
But Alex didn’t respond. His body stood still, his gaze distant. He was already deep inside Tav’s mind, navigating the broken remnants of the half-dragon's shattered psyche, seeking whatever remained of the person they had once known.
Alex’s form materialized in the fractured expanse of Tav’s mind, a place that felt eerily similar to the mental chaos he had once encountered in Minthara. But here, there was something far more insidious—a slow unraveling, like threads being pulled from a tapestry. The vast mental landscape was a shifting, broken world, as if Tav's very thoughts were fighting against each other. In the distance, memories floated like fragile bubbles, popping and fading into oblivion.
The sky above was dim, tinged with the bruised colors of a storm on the horizon. As Alex moved, he felt an oppressive weight in the air, a sense that the mindspace was collapsing in on itself, piece by piece. The floor beneath him shifted and cracked, resembling the parched earth of the cursed lands Tav had wandered. The landscape was like a barren battlefield where thoughts were torn apart and lost forever, each shattered memory a casualty of an inner war.
As Alex drifted further, his gaze settled on a chilling sight: a recent memory unfolded before him, Tav running desperately through the cursed lands. The memory played on repeat, unraveling and reforming as if stuck in a loop. But with each loop, it deteriorated, becoming more distorted. It was clear—the mind was at war with itself, eating away at the very essence of Tav’s sanity. The scene flickered like a dying flame, and it wouldn't be long before everything dissolved into nothingness.
Alex’s eyes narrowed as he looked deeper into the chaos, seeing the core of the battle. Far ahead, Tav was sprinting, his breath ragged and his face contorted in terror. Chasing him was a monstrous version of himself, twisted and grotesque. This dark version of Tav was larger, draped in a cloak of torn flesh and bloodied body parts, a nightmarish amalgamation of violence and rage. The sinister form moved with a terrifying hunger, eyes glowing with the sickly yellow light of madness. As it ran, it reached out with clawed hands and snatched at the floating memories that Tav tried to escape with.
With a guttural snarl, the dark Tav seized a memory—Alex could see himself and Tav standing before a fireplace—and tore into it. His draconic maw opened wide, revealing rows of jagged teeth as he bit into the memory. The moment it touched his jaws, the memory shattered into a million pieces, dissipating into nothing. Tav let out a strangled cry as the dark figure devoured yet another piece of him, and with every bite, Tav grew smaller, weaker, more vulnerable.
The dark version swelled with every consumed memory, growing more monstrous, more menacing. Blood dripped from its maw as it devoured Tav’s past, erasing everything that made him who he was. It was a horrifying cycle—the more memories the dark Tav consumed, the less of the real Tav remained. His form shrank, his steps faltered.
Alex's expression darkened as he watched this brutal scene unfold. He knew that if this continued, Tav’s mind would be nothing more than a wasteland—a place where broken fragments of a life once lived would drift aimlessly, forgotten and fading into the void.
No more.
With a surge of power, Alex pushed off the crumbling ground, moving swiftly toward the chase. The distorted world around him warped as his presence grew more defined, more resolute. The ground cracked under the weight of his steps, and the sky above seemed to ripple with his arrival, the faint glow of his psionic energy seeping into the broken landscape. He had one goal now: save Tav from being consumed by his own darkness.
Tav stumbled ahead, his breaths ragged and desperate. His form was shrinking, his strength rapidly fading. The monstrous version of him was only inches away now, its claws outstretched, ready to tear into him. Tav looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide with terror, knowing that if he fell now, it would all be over.
Alex's voice boomed across the mindscape, carrying both authority and reassurance, “Tav! Don’t let it take any more of you. You’re stronger than this!” His words cut through the madness like a blade, and Tav's eyes flickered with a brief moment of recognition. But he was too exhausted, too weak to respond, as his knees buckled, sending him tumbling to the ground.
The dark Tav let out a guttural roar of triumph, its claws ready to tear into Tav.
But just as it was about to strike, Alex appeared between them in a flash, his body solid and brimming with energy. He caught the dark Tav’s hand mid-swipe, the force of the impact sending shockwaves through the ground. The monstrous version of Tav snarled in rage, its red eyes burning with malevolence. It swiped again with its other hand, but Alex blocked it with ease, his psionic power holding firm against the twisted version of Tav.
"You're not taking him," Alex growled, his voice low and dangerous.
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The dark Tav screeched in frustration, its voice distorted, a twisted echo of Tav’s own. "You can't stop me! He is mine—he is me!" The creature lunged forward, trying to sink its fangs into Alex, but Alex was faster. With a burst of raw energy, he shoved the dark Tav back, sending it skidding across the mindscape.
Alex turned to Tav, who lay on the ground, trembling and disoriented. His body flickered like a dying flame, barely holding on. Alex knelt beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Tav, listen to me. You’re stronger than this thing. You don’t have to fight it alone.”
Tav’s eyes were wide, unfocused, his voice barely above a whisper. “I—I can’t. It’s me, A...Al...lex. It’s everything I’ve done. All the blood, all the death. I deserve this…”
Alex’s grip on Tav’s shoulder tightened, his voice filled with conviction. “No, you don’t. You’re not defined by what you’ve done—you’re defined by the choices you make now.” His words rang with a deep truth, one that resonated in the depths of Tav’s shattered mind.
The dark Tav rose again, its form towering, now even more monstrous as it fed on Tav’s despair. Its voice was a low, guttural rumble. “He belongs to me. I am his true self, the one that knows the taste of blood, the feel of flesh tearing beneath his claws. You can't change that.”
Alex stood tall, his presence like a beacon of light in the corrupted mindscape. “He’s not yours anymore. He belongs to himself.”
The dark Tav roared and charged again, but this time, Alex didn’t wait. He raised his hands, and a surge of psionic energy erupted from his palm, wrapping around the dark Tav like chains. The creature screamed, thrashing violently, but Alex’s hold was ironclad. The ground beneath them cracked, splitting the mindspace as Alex’s power dug deeper into the dark Tav’s essence.
“Now, Tav!” Alex shouted, his voice echoing through the mindscape. “Fight it! You have to reject this thing—it’s not who you are!”
Tav, still on the ground, looked up at the monstrous version of himself, now held at bay by Alex’s power. His eyes filled with a flicker of determination, a small but growing flame of defiance. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, his body trembling but resolute. “I’m… not you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse but filled with certainty. “You’re not who I am. You’re just the worst of me.”
The dark Tav shrieked, its voice filled with rage . “I am you! You can’t escape me! You can’t outrun me!”
Tav shook his head, his eyes hardening. “I don’t need to outrun you. You just need to stop chasing me.”
With a final burst of will, Tav stepped forward.
But his entire body froze as Dark Tav’s chuckle began, soft at first but quickly spiraling into a maniacal laughter that seemed to reverberate through every corner of the mindscape. The sound wasn’t just noise—it was invasive, cutting through the fragile barriers of Tav’s will like a blade slicing through silk. It echoed inside his skull, sending shivers down his spine, as if the very fabric of his sanity was being pulled apart.
Alex’s eyes narrowed as they watched Dark Tav’s form twist and shift, becoming something far worse. What stood before them now wasn’t a mirror of Tav, but a grotesque corpse-like figure, a perversion of life itself. Its face was gaunt and feral, the skin pale and cracked, like porcelain shattered in places where black ichor oozed from deep, festering lacerations. The sight of it was a nightmare made flesh—something born of death and destruction, radiating malevolence.
“Bhaal…” Alex’s voice broke the stillness, his tone cold and steady. It wasn’t just a memory or an idea—it was Bhaal himself, the god of murder, manifesting through Tav’s essence that flowed trough his body.
The corpse twisted its lips into a smile that was both grotesque and predatory. The teeth were jagged, yellowed, far too long for a human mouth. “Prey.” Bhaal rasped, his voice dripping with malice, a low growl that seemed to vibrate through the ground beneath them. His eyes, black and void-like, flicked between Alex and Tav, as if sizing them up, as if they were nothing but insects beneath his gaze.
Bhaal’s smile widened, turning savage as his gaze locked on Tav. “It’s useless to try and fight me,” he proclaimed, his words digging into Tav like claws. “You were made from my own essence, born of my blood. To deny me is to deny yourself. To defy me means death.”
Tav felt the ground beneath him shift, the weight of Bhaal’s words pressing down on his chest like an anvil. His heart pounded in his ears as a wave of doubt crashed over him, threatening to pull him under. Bhaal’s presence was overwhelming, suffocating, as if Tav was drowning in darkness. His gaze flickered to Alex, searching for something—anything—that could anchor him in this moment.
But Bhaal wasn’t done. “So let’s end this charade,” he snarled, his voice low and venomous. Without warning, his body dissolved, his form melting into the shadows, sinking deep into the recesses of the mindscape like ink spreading through water.
Tav gasped as the air around them seemed to pulse, his mind reeling as Bhaal’s essence stirred within him, awakening something dark and primal inside his soul. He could feel it—Bhaal’s presence, no longer just a threat, but a living, breathing force inside him, twisting and writhing, clawing its way to the surface. The Urge surged like a beast that had been unchained, hungry and wild, ready to consume everything.
Alex could see it and feel it . He knew they had only moments before Tav would be lost forever. His time was running out.
“Tav,” Alex called out, his voice firm but gentle, cutting through the rising tension. He stepped forward, positioning himself in front of Tav, his presence steady and unyielding. “There’s something inside you—something that can fight Bhaal's influence. But you need to believe in it. You have the power to control your own mind, to fight back against this darkness, once and for all.”
Tav’s chest heaved with each breath, his heart racing, his mind a whirlwind of fear and confusion. His gaze snapped to Alex, desperate and unsure. “But… Bhaal... the Urge... It’s always been there. It’s a part of me. How can I… How can I break free from something that’s in my blood?”
Alex’s expression softened, but his eyes remained resolute, glowing faintly with the psionic energy building within him. He took another step closer, his voice quiet but filled with conviction. “You’ve already proven you can. The fact that you’re standing here, now, after everything—the battles, the darkness, everything Bhaal’s put you through—that’s proof of your strength. You haven’t been consumed, Tav. You’re still you. I can help you unlock the part of you that’s been hidden, buried beneath all the pain and chaos.”
Tav’s breath hitched, a flicker of hope, fragile but undeniable, stirring in his chest. “What are you saying…?”
Alex reached out, his hand steady, placing it over Tav’s heart. The touch was warm, grounding, a lifeline amidst the storm. “Your deepest desire—the one thing you’ve clung to all this time, even when it felt impossible—is your sanity. You want to be free of the Urge, free of the chaos. That desire is where your true strength lies, Tav. It’s psionic in nature, and it’s been there all along, waiting for you to claim it. You can reshape your own mind. You can fight back.”
Tav’s eyes filled with uncertainty, but something else too—something deeper. He looked down at Alex’s hand on his chest, then back into Alex’s eyes, his voice barely a whisper. “Can you really help me…?”
Alex nodded, his voice unwavering, filled with a quiet certainty that cut through the doubt. “I can. But you have to be ready, Tav. Psionic power isn’t just about fighting external forces—it’s tied to your mind, to your will, to your emotions. If you unlock it, it means facing everything—the darkness, the pain, the guilt. But with it, you’ll have the tools to reshape your mind, to keep the Urge in check. You can resist it.”
Tav hesitated, the weight of the decision heavy on his shoulders. His brow furrowed, his breath shallow. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough…”
“You are,” Alex said softly, his gaze unwavering. “You’ve always been. Even when you didn’t believe it.”
Tav closed his eyes, his mind swirling with doubt and fear, but also with the flicker of hope that Alex had ignited. He took a deep breath, feeling the warmth of Alex’s hand over his heart, and exhaled slowly, a tremor of resolve building inside him. His hands, trembling moments before, clenched into fists as his breath steadied.
“I want this,” Tav said, his voice stronger now, more certain. He opened his eyes, meeting Alex’s gaze with a newfound determination. “I want to fight. I want to be free. I want to be me again.”
With that final declaration, Alex closed his eyes and focused, letting his psionic energy flow freely into Tav, a surge of power that filled the space around them with a tangible, pulsing force. The mindscape trembled, the air humming with raw potential as Alex guided the energy to the very core of Tav’s being, where that hidden strength lay dormant.
Tav gasped as the psionic energy coursed through him, his body stiffening as the power began to awaken something deep within him. His eyes flew open, glowing with a radiant violet light, the psionic force unfurling inside him like a coiled spring finally set free.
His mind expanded, touching every corner of his own psyche—his memories, his pain, the Urge itself. But instead of cowering, instead of letting it devour him, Tav stood tall, his will hardening with every passing moment. He wasn’t running anymore. He wasn’t afraid.
The mindscape around them shifted, bright psionic flowers blooming across the once barren, chaotic landscape. A shriek echoed in the distance, the sound of Bhaal recoiling from the surge of power Tav now wielded.
“I can feel it,” Tav whispered, awe and determination lacing his voice. “The Urge is still there… but it’s not controlling me. I can push it back.”
Alex watched with quiet pride, a small smile tugging at his lips. “That’s right. This power is yours now, Tav. You’re in control.”
Tav’s eyes gleamed, his body radiating with psionic energy as the mindscape began to stabilize, the darkness retreating. He was still fractured, still scarred—but now, he had the strength to fight back.
As the psionic energy settled, the mindscape around them began to stabilize, the once fractured and chaotic world now starting to rebuild itself. Tav stood at the center of it, his newfound power pulsing within him. He wasn’t whole yet—he still had battles to fight, both inside and out—but now, he had the strength to face them.
Alex nodded. “Then let’s finish this.”
The world around Alex warped and blurred , as he left Tav mindscape. Time slowed, and the air thickened with the weight of the moment.
His eyes locked onto the beast before him it's grotesque form, its razor-sharp claws locked in a deadly struggle against his blade.
The creature was like something pulled from a nightmare. Towering above Alex, its four muscular arms rippled with terrifying power, each betraying the raw strength contained within its sinewy frame. Its mottled, reddish-orange skin was not just flesh but a deadly armor, covered in spikes that jutted out at odd angles, as if its entire body was built for violence. Cracks and jagged scars marred its surface, giving the impression that this beast had been through endless battles—always emerging victorious. The air around it stank of blood and decay.
Its segmented tail thrashed like a whip, carving deep gouges into the ground made of bone and flesh beneath it. The tip, gleaming with razor-sharp ridges, swayed in deadly arcs, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It was like a living weapon, coiled and ready, always on the hunt for fresh blood.
But the creature’s face—that was the worst part. Its gaping maw was lined with rows of jagged, needle-like teeth, each one stained with the blood. The mouth stretched impossibly wide, wide enough to consume a human in a single bite. Every breath it took was a rasping snarl, a guttural sound that seemed to vibrate the very air, filled with malice and an insatiable hunger for destruction. Its eyes, deep-set and hollow. There was no intelligence, no glimmer of humanity in them—just a savage thirst for violence, a hunger for flesh.
The creature was a walking embodiment of death, a twisted predator born for nothing but to kill. Its massive, clawed hands—each finger tipped with talons sharp enough to carve through steel—gripped Alex's sword, trying to push back with relentless force.
Then, suddenly, with a sickening shudder, the creature's form began to dissolve. Its claws, still locked against Alex’s blade, started to melt away, the grotesque body unraveling into blood.
In its place, standing in the swirling haze of its remains, was Tav.