The crumbled wall Halvor had been hurled through buried him under its weight. His stone arm breached through the debris as he cast the rubble aside. Pushing himself to his feet, Halvor found himself in one of the theater’s many identical hallways but was surprised to see no hole in any of the walls.

Before Halvor could try to contact the other Hangmen, a sudden blow rocked the back of his head. He stumbled forward and spun around just in time to see a fist flying toward him. Halvor braced for impact, then an inch before the fist collided with Halvor’s arms, it crystallized into diamond.

The diamond fist fractured Halvor’s stone skin. As blood poured down the rivets in Halvor’s cracked skin, he looked up at Gideon. Gideon wiped his hand on his pristine white robe, streaking it with Halvor’s blood.

“Gideon, is that you?” Halvor said

“Yeah.”

“Is there any chance we can talk this out?”

“To be honest, I just want to hurt you, because I’ve tried everything else to make the pain go away, except this.”

“That’s fair. You deserve that.” Halvor started wrapping his hands with hand wraps he bought with Drax;. “But there are people that need me. So I can’t atone. Not now. [Petrify].” Halvor petrified the wraps, transforming them into stone gauntlets.

Gideon pulled his robe down to his waist exposing his scar-ridden chest. His whole body crystallized into diamond; his skin shimmered as light refracted off his body.

Gideon and Halvor raised their fists.

“Kneel, [Quake].” Halvor slammed his foot into the ground.

The hallway trembled, sending Gideon to one knee. Halvor dashed forward, then uppercut Gideon’s exposed chin. Gideon glanced up at Halvor and grinned as blood trickled down Halvor’s hand—his stone skin having cracked against Gideon’s diamond exterior.

Gideon grasped Halvor’s wrist. “Return to earth, [Catapult].” Gideon swung Halvor over his shoulder. Halvor felt the air escape his lungs as his back slammed into the ground.

“Stomp out, [Quake] X [Enlarge].” Halvor looked up at Gideon who had grown to twice his size. Gideon plunged his foot in Halvor’s sternum sending a shockwave through Halvor.

Pinned to the floor, Halvor grasped Gideon’s ankle. “[Fracture].” Shards of diamond poured onto Halvor’s face as cracks raced up Gideon’s leg.

Suddenly, Halvor felt the leg he had a vice grip on vanish. Gideon’s leg transformed into sand that slipped through Halvor’s fingers. Halvor rolled over and stood to his feet brushing the sand from his chest. The sand coursed toward Gideon, reforming into a leg that swiftly shifted back to diamond.

Gideon reverted to his normal size. Blood oozed down his leg.

At the center of Halvor’s shirt, a spot of red continued to expand; bits of stone poured out from underneath his shirt onto the ground.

The two rushed toward each other, planted their feet on the ground, and swung at the other’s head.

“Pummel to dust, [Fracture]!” Halvor shouted. The moment before Halvor’s fist impacted Gideon’s face, Gideon’s entire head transformed into sand. The sand blasted out all over the hallway.

At the same time, Halvor brought up his other arm to intercept Gideon’s strike. However, Gideon’s fist shifted to sand that coursed straight through Halvor’s defense, then reformed into diamond as it impacted Halvor’s jaw, shattering the stone that covered it.

Halvor stumbled backward, looking at the headless Gideon, horrified. Halvor’s fear that he had killed Gideon quickly faded, as the sand that had splattered all over the hallway coursed up Gideon’s back, and reformed into a head.

Gideon cracked his neck. “Almost had me there.”

Halvor wiped the blood pooling in the cracks around his jaw. “We don’t have to do this.”

“I thought I made myself clear. I want to do this.”

Halvor sighed. “Fine. Split open, [Quake] X [Fracture].” Halvor slammed his fists into the floor and fissured the ground beneath Gideon’s feet.

Halvor hunched over, and rushed forward, as Gideon fell into the fissure. Halvor lunged toward Gideon’s chest, but Gideon transformed the entirety of his body into sand. Halvor stumbled forward as his hands passed through the sand as Gideon sunk into the crack.

Rising from the fissure, Gideon shifted his skin back from sand to diamond. Halvor turned his head around, just as Gideon grasped the back of his head.

“Return to earth, [Catapult].”

“[Quake].”

Gideon dragged Halvor down to the ground. At the same time, the ground quaked beneath his feet. His knees buckled, giving Halvor the opportunity to grasp his forearm.

Quickly deciding between holding on, or letting go, Gideon transformed his arm to sand, then slipped through Halvor’s hand, and stepped back.

Halvor didn’t have time to stand on his feet before Gideon struck again. He spun around onto his back, then kicked both his feet straight into Gideon’s chest. However, rather than try to dodge, Gideon barreled toward Halvor, shifting his lower half to sand to absorb Halvor’s kick.

“[Crush].” Gideon dove down at Halvor. His diamond hand plummeted into Halvor’s face, fracturing the stone, and reverting it to cut skin. Halvor’s head slammed into the ground, cracking the floor and rattling the chandeliers overhead.

The skin on Halvor’s face tore as Gideon lifted his head by his face. Blood dripped from the back of Halvor’s head, and seeped into the cracks on the ground his impact had left.

Crack!

Gideon slammed Halvor’s head into the ground. The cracks on the ground multiplied in size and quantity as blood splattered across the floor.

Crack!

“You know why I hate you, Halvor.”

Crack!

“You probably think it’s because you picked me.”

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Crack!

“Because you trusted me to be your backup. To replace you.”

Crack!

“I was young and stupid. You knew that.”

Crack!

“But it was still my choice. They probably got you when you were young too. Picking me isn’t why I hate you.”

Crack!

“The lab was rough, yeah. Put us through hell even though we were still alive.

Crack!

“But that’s the keyword. Us. That was the one thing we had. Each other. And then you took that away!”

Crack!

“You ran away! Why?! Because you couldn’t take it anymore? You ever think what that did to us?!”

Crack!

“You slipped through their fingers, and so they tightened their grip on me. All the pain we split, we bonded over, all of it got focused on me.”

Crack!

“They all always said that I needed to be stronger than you. Well, I'm not just stronger than you. I’m BETTER than you!”

Crack!

“I stayed! I endured! All the pain YOU put me through! ”

Crack!

“The pain you couldn’t take! I took it, and I didn’t run away, because no matter how bad I wanted to, I never forgot the people who needed me!”

Crack!

“That's why it pisses me off that you’re fighting me now. You said you’re doing it because people needed you. What about us?!”

Crack!

“We needed you! I needed you!”

Crack!

“Why couldn’t you be strong?!”

Crack!

“Why?!”

Crack!

“Did!”

Crack!

“You!”

Crack!

“Leave!”

Crack!

“Us!”

Crack!

“All!”

Crack!

“ALONE!”

CRACK!

Cracks spiraled up the walls of the hallway and all along the ground. The hallway dimmed as chandeliers crashed onto the ground. Blood dripped from Gideon’s fingertips as they shifted back to skin.

Gideon gasped for air as he pulled his hand off Halvor's face.

“You’re wrong about the pain.”

Gideon’s heart filled with fear as he heard Halvor’s voice call out to him. Halvor grabbed Gideon’s wrist, which immediately turned to sand, as Gideon jumped back.

“How am I wrong?!” Gideon shouted. “How would you even know?!”

Halvor pulled himself to his feet. He touched the back of his, and shifted his skin to stone, stopping the flow of blood. “Because I went through it too.”

“BULLSHIT! I went through everything you did! You don’t ANYTHING about what I went through after you were gone!” Gideon’s whole body crystallized into diamond.

“You’re right. You’re right,” Halvor said. “I don’t know about that pain. But I do know about all the nights you stay awake, because the bed just feels like it’s digging needles into your back. How every time you breathe it feels like your heart is being crushed by your ribcage.

“Everything’s stiff. You start to check if your skin is stone, even when you know it isn’t. The trick is to put rocks in your shoes to distract you from feeling like shards of glass are swimming around in your body everytime you move. Sure they hurt, but at least it's a pain you choose.

“Sometimes you stretch a little too far, and you feel like if you move another inch your bones will snap. But you’re happy, because that tension in your body makes the pain go away, even if it’s just that one spot. Then you pull away, and all of a sudden all that pain you thought escaped comes rushing back twice as bad. Even still, you’d do it again no matter how bad the pain after, just for that fleeting moment where you feel nothing.”

“So how was I wrong?” Gideon asked.

“Because hitting me won’t make it go away. Nothing does.”

Gideon’s face contorted with a wicked smile of disbelief. “The person who ran off to look for a cure, not knowing where to go, just aimlessly wandering with only hope to guide them, now wants to talk about how nothing will make the pain better. Maybe once I bring you in, they’ll focus all their golem experiments on you, just like they did to me.”

Gideon rushed toward Halvor, but before he could take a single step, a voice echoed through the hall.

“Thorns of ice, chill and constrict, [Awaken] X [Awaken].”

Vines wrapped around Gideon from behind, binding him in place. He tried to shift his body to sand to slip through their grasp, but white dragon scales all across the vines burst into an icy wind, completely trapping him in a block of ice.

“Halvor!” Cili shouted, sprinting toward him.

“Cili! Where are the others?”

“I don’t know. We came to find you first.”

Osiris’ eyes met Halvors as he walked out from behind the frozen Gideon. “Been a while.”

A crack sprouted on the ice that encased Gideon.

“No time,” Osiris said. “The whole plane got destabilized, but I know where we are. The lobby is that way.”

“How do you know?” Halvor asked.

“Have I ever led you astray?” Osiris asked.

“Obviously not,” Cili said.

Another crack appeared on the ice.

“You guys go. I’ll hold him off,” Osiris said.

“Are you sure?” Cili asked.

Osiris smirked. “Arthur took a lot out of me, but even after our fight, I’m still way stronger than this idiot.”

“Thank you,” Halvor said.

“Wait!” Osiris leaned toward Halvor to whisper in his ear. “Are you still not using your mutant ability?” Osiris asked.

Halvor’s eyes were pulled to the floor.

“Gods damn it!” Osiris exclaimed. “You need to get over yourself. Being a mutant doesn’t make you the same as the people who turned you into one. It makes you the same as me, Vivyan, Gideon, and everyone else. Even if they hate you now, we both know they’re good people who are hurting. Being the same as them isn’t something to run away from. It’s something to take pride in.”

“I know,” Halvor said dismissively.

Osiris grabbed Halvor’s arm. “I’m trusting you with my sister, Halvor. If you aren’t strong enough to protect her, because you can’t get over your fucking insecurities, and accept who you are, then I’m gonna drag your ass back to the lab myself.”

“Okay. I understand.”

“And if you die, I’m going to find you, and I’m going to kill you.”

Halvor smiled. “Got it.”

Cracks spiderwebbed all along the ice.

Osiris let go of Halvor’s arm. “Good. Now go.”

“Fuck him up, bro!” Cili shouted as she and Halvor took off further down the hall.

The ice shattered into pieces as Gideon pried himself free. “What are you doing, Osiris?”

“You’re deviating from the mission. I can’t allow that,” Osiris said.

“Oh really, I think the lab will be much angrier with your actions than mine.”

Osiris shrugged. “What actions? Right now it’s your word against mine. The only other person here is Vivyan, who we both know likes me much more than you.”

“Just because you two fuck from time to time doesn’t mean she’ll lie for you. Besides, the lab can force the truth out of all of us. So I’m only going to say this once.” Gideon’s body crystallized. “Stand down.”

“Sorry, but frankly I don’t give a damn what the lab does to me. My sister asked me to save Halvor. She looked like she would burst into tears if anything happened to one of her friends.” Osiris brandished his dual repeating crossbows. “What kind of big brother would I be if I let my little sister cry?”