“Where are you?”

Ben looked around but the room was empty, the door closed. He frowned and tried to look away from the blood, but the smell was already in his nose and he could almost taste it in the air. He was trying to spot the transparent figure whose voice was speaking to him. He couldn’t see anyone else in the room but he knew he’d left them in here when he left.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t been able to see when they entered the room either.

“Still in the hallway, well,” transparent Ben paused, “It's not like that's actually my body you know. It's just how I show myself to you, I'm actually here all the time. Inside our head. So I can appear wherever you are but only you can see and hear me. I'm not actually talking out loud like you are, I'm just sending whatever I want to say directly to your brain.”

Ben looked around uncomfortably as though expecting the transparent Ben to appear at any moment.

“It works both ways idiot. Think about talking to me in your head and whatever you say should probably be sent to me. Just don't go crazy on the messages or else I'll brain slap you again.” The voice paused for a few seconds, “Think really hard Ben. I know it's not something you're used to but in this world you're not going to be used to anything. For both our sakes it's better that you learn this now or else you'll find yourself in a situation where you'll wish you had.”

'So... like this?' Ben thought.

He looked around as though looking for some sort of visual confirmation. He was trying his hardest to imaging talking to himself in his head but he felt like an idiot trying to do something he knew was impossible. It was easier for him to believe that he was going crazy than it was to believe that another person was now inside his mind. But then again a lot of things that should be impossible seemed to have happened in the last few minutes.

“Exactly like that. So easy even you could do it.”

'That insult was weak. Why aren't mine in italics?'

“Enough with the questions. It's blood cleaning time.”

Ben lifted his hands towards the blood and stood there stupidly for a few seconds.

He gestured hopelessly to the air, ‘I don’t know what to do.’

“Oh for- It's not like you have to say a magic word. Just tell it you want it to clean up the blood.”

“Right...” Ben stared down at the blood, “Suit- no- Shroud Uniform, clean the blood.”

As soon as he spoke the Shroud Uniform began to contort and pulsate, sections of it disintegrating into a black gas that wafted through the air. The Shroud Uniform was still sticking to his skin, that was for sure. But it was also wafting in the air as though it was in two states at once, a solid and a gas. It wasn't that it came off of him and broke off into the air, it was more like it was creating more tendrils of darkness out of nothing and sending it flying towards the blood. Ben's vision became black as the darkness permeated through the air and all across his vision but he could still see through it. It wasn't like night vision, it was more like he could feel everything that the darkness felt, as though he was touching everything it touched. It was sending information into his brain about everything in the area and his brain was taking it all in stride.

The blood didn't feel like anything other than liquid, and the smell had already disappeared from the air. In less than a minute the Shroud Uniform surprised him by telling him that there was no more blood on the floor or in the air. It had wiped the room clean.

It had also spoken into his mind.

“You're pretty quiet,” The transparent Ben's voice came out of the darkness, startling Ben who looked around before remembering that the other Ben was talking into his head, “I was awed the first time as well.”

Ben stared at the darkness as it began to swirl and dissipate, parts of it returning and merging into his Shroud Uniform, “That's the first humane thing you've said to me.”

“Don't get used to it blue balls.”

“You're me,” Ben said, pointing at the suit, at his heart, “You've just had one hell of a messed up life. Well whether you like it or not I'm here now. I don't know what happened to you to make you so jaded but it wasn't just the death of our parents, I saw those too through your memories and I know it didn't affect you this way. I'm going to try and help you.”

Ben patiently waited and eventually a monotone voice floated into his mind, “You're talking out loud again Ben. It makes you look crazy. It'll probably be a while until we're separated but if you take one piece of advice from me in the entire time we know each other then take this one, stay out of my life and my memories. Don't try to find out anything about me. We may have been born the same person but you had the chances in life I never had, a life of comfort I never had. And no matter how much of an ass I am, I refuse to let the only version of me that went alright in life get corrupted like I was.”

“So you do care about me.” Ben teased out loud, then fell silent.

He walked towards the stone slab as the darkness gathered back into his black suit, disappearing from the air as though it had never existed. Even the stone slab felt comfortable underneath the Shroud Uniform. It was as though the darkness contorted around everything he touched to make sure he wasn’t harmed or put into a bad position. This probably explained why the other Ben had been sleeping on a stone slab, it wasn’t as though an actual bed would have been any different.

'I wonder... How long will it take? To get me back to my normal life.'

Transparent Ben fell quiet. The remaining bits of darkness had all been absorbed into the Shroud Uniform and since it had even cleaned the blood from the air and his nostrils he could breath normally again. Ben touched his nose again, it wasn't actually that uncomfortable but he got the feeling it wasn't because of his body so much as the uniform he was wearing.

“I'm Shroud by the way. Ben's not my name, and I can hear you calling me transparent Ben in my mind. Shrouds my name now, I prefer it.”

'Okay.'

Ben laid back on the slab. It was a simple response, but he had no idea what else he could say. Shroud had appeared in the room again, looking into the mirror but not seeing a reflection.

Shroud turned towards Ben with that permanent lopsided scowl, “You talked more when I was threatening to kill you.”

'Well... what do you want to talk about?'

“Ha.” the single sound reverberated through Ben's mind, “Don't worry about me Ben. Also since you can't use the Shroud Uniform in your mind yet it's easier to just call it the SU. It's the thought rather than the name that counts, the Shroud Uniform will work all the same.” Shroud walked towards him and Ben moved to the side, making room for Shroud on the stone slab, Shroud gave him a funny look but sat down anyway, his body not actually touching the slab but looking like it was, “You're overwhelmed right now. Me too. So I'm just going to explain things slowly to you, I've seen the differences between us, and the differences between our worlds, our two realities. Stop me If you need to ask anything.”

'Sounds good.'

“You and I are connected,” Shroud spoke slowly, “Not our bodies, but our minds. Biologically you're me, I know that because the SU would have torn your body to shreds if you weren't. Not everyone has alien blood coursing through their veins you know. But for some reason only you can control our body and the SU. It's not that common in this reality, but I've heard of this sort of thing happening. Its like my entire mind is here, but not here. But that's the key point. This is my reality.” Shroud paused a moment to let it sink in, “I've seen your reality in your memories, no powers, no aliens and no magic. Everybody is normal. I suppose to some that seems like a bad thing, but to me it sounds like heaven. How do I know you’re even real though? Maybe somebody just created you… maybe someone created me? No, no. It’s easier for me to believe someone has clearly dragged you from your world somehow and put you into my body. I don't know why and I don't know who but they did. There are some advantages that come with that, I'm certainly a lot saner now that our memories have merged. You had a damn good life. But that's negated by the fact that I can't control the body. That means any old average Joe could probably walk by us and kill us. We need to find out who merged our bodies and why, but I don't have any enemies like that. And for some reason... I feel like something is wrong here, like this isn't just my reality. Like it's yours at the same time. Which could mean that we’re cray, or which means that we didn't merge as two different people, it means we merged because we are exactly the same person, in the same reality. But mine is completely different from yours. I can see that. So does that mean everybody outside is experiencing the same thing?” Shroud sighed, “Is everyone running around like headless chickens as they try to get a grip on which reality was never the real one, yours or theirs? But then something happened to your reality, or mine, somebody warped and changed it until it became mine, and for some reason instead of changing alongside that reality you merged with its version of you, me.” he looked towards the door and frowned, “Which means we need to find out if you're the only one that remembers, or if right now every person in the world is remembering their real lives and noticing that reality isn't as it's meant to be.”

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Ben blinked, 'That's a lot to take in.'

“You’re right, and you're taking this awfully calmly.”

Shroud tapped the side of Ben's head to see if he was still listening. Ben could feel every single tap as though it was an anvil slapping his head, even though Shroud wasn't technically there.

'Well... it just seems like such a big leap to take. I'm not sure how you got to this answer.'

“It has to do with my memories,” Shroud stopped tapping Ben's head and knocked at his own instead, “I cut off the memories that were flowing into you, but even with the ones you saw you noticed that they were completely different from your own. We're the same person but we've lived completely different lives. And I've seen stuff you'd consider impossible. I may inhabit your brain now but you've seen for yourself what kind of body I have, you haven't even scratched the surface of the SU's abilities and our own. But this world around us, this is the real world. No world changes this drastically without somebody or something manipulating it. So if you really are from the same world I am, it means someone is behind this. But did they change it to this from what you had? Or did something else happen. And looking through your memories I think your comment about this being like a comic book is pretty realistic. This is exactly like that world, nothing makes sense in this reality and for some reason we've all accepted it because that's how its always been.” Shroud paused again and Ben wondered if he had to catch his breath when he wasn't actually breathing, “But it's not as simple as it sounds. Think about it Ben, your world wasn't as complicated as ours, it had its natural laws and everybody had no powers. In this world people are born with powers all the time, there are even some who would be born with the power to warp reality or obtain that power later in life somehow. But what if someone like that appeared in your reality, a person who looked at the world around them and decided that it was too boring. Nobody can control all the aspects and changes made to your reality to this extent, but they didn't need to. They would have had the basic concepts down pat already, in your literature, in your movies and in your comic books. They just needed to wish it was all real and poof. Here we are, everybody non-the-wiser that their entire lives and history have been changed by one selfish mind that got bored.”

Ben tried to say something but realised that he couldn't find the words to say it. So he just stared at Shroud with a raised eyebrow as he tried to process everything that was being said.

Shroud tilted his head to the side, “Did that make sense to you?”

Ben nodded his head, but inside he was wondering if Shroud really was as sane as he claimed to have become.

He had no knowledge of how Shroud had been before a few minutes ago.

“Good. Luckily we have an advantage, an that's the fact that we know that reality was changed thanks to you.”

Ben shrugged, 'Let’s say you’re right, and the entire world was changed, and maybe we’re the only ones that remember too. How does that help us against somebody that can change an entire world?'

“That's the thing Ben, it's common sense to me that the only time a person lets their guard down is when they think they've won. Our history may have been completely changed and everybody's lives also changed as a result, but you only merged with me just now. That means that whoever changed the worlds only did it just then and that was when your reality ceased to exist and mine was created. So whoever did it is probably celebrating. Of course they screwed up, we remember the original reality. But if nobody else remembers when we check then that means that our reality warping foe has no idea that a bug slipped through his net. It's not a big advantage, hell, its tiny. but it's the only one we've got.”

Shroud smirked and Ben couldn't help but admire how much his face changed when he wasn't scowling.

“Though, most of this is just my assumption.” Shroud continued, “But if I were a reality warper that's selfish enough to change his entire reality in order to make it into what he wanted then I think it's obvious where he is.” Shroud pointed up, “The only place they'd feel comfortable is at the top, where they can look down on everybody and be praised as a godlike being. I'd say he probably joined a superhero team, probably created one just for himself so that he could be considered the best and look good. He could also be a super-villain but I find that less likely because right now the heroes need help. Hell, maybe he’s just hidden himself until he wants to have the spotlight on him. I know the hero situation right now, they're losing the fight against evil and they need someone to help them urgently. It sounds like the perfect debut for our foe to show himself and become adored by the world with his shiny new powers he's been showing off. Understood?”

'... Yeah.' Ben nodded again.

“So the thing is. Now that we know this we can't exactly do anything about it. My entire life I've been fighting for my survival and now all of those skills are locked away in my memories, which means that we can't find the reality warper even if we wanted to. And even if we did he would probably kick our asses and then blink us out of existence before we could lift a finger. But I don't want to give you my memories, because with the stuff I've seen and done you'd probably go crazy. It's better not to have that sort of baggage.”

'Alright,” Ben raised his knee on top of the slab and propped his chin on it, “But how do you know I'll go crazy if I see your memories? I mean, It's not like you seem all that bad and you lived them. Though I am still doubting if you’re sane.'

“That's nice of you to say Ben. I lived the memories, but my mental fortitude grew stronger because I was exposed to them since I was young and slowly built up worse and worse memories and so I also built a tolerance to them. But you'd get them all in one go and after seeing your life I can almost guarantee you haven't built up the mental strength to handle it like I have. I think that even if you had I wouldn't let you see all those memories at once. You've only seen the first few years and I can tell you that after our parents die it only gets worse.”

'Our parents... what if... no, never mind. This is all so surreal.'

“I was just giving an example Ben. Trust me when I say its the best I can give.”

'Do you kill people for a living? You mentioned it before... I saw it too. You're a villain?'

“Not a massive one. I think according to your memories I would be what you call a vigilante. Though to heroes I suppose I am also considered a villain. Pricks. But I don't kill people that don't deserve to be killed, only criminals, like the person that killed our parents.”

'Right...' Ben's gaze drifted to the roof and he tugged at the SU that clung to his body, 'I do have a question... a pretty important one...'

“What is it?”

'No... don't worry about it.' Ben went silent.

He would never say it out loud to Shroud, and he didn't even know if he should be thinking it. This all seemed like such a convenient answer, Ben was the real person and Shroud was just a different version of him that had never truly existed. Or some version that had been created just at this moment or something. Maybe he could even justify that everything that had every happened to him had never truly happened. But that's the thing, it was too convenient. Ben couldn't deny that this wasn't his reality, but that didn't mean it was his own reality that had been changed. Shroud had come to that conclusion too easily. He was a version of Ben that hadn't had a good life, he had seen his parents murdered and it sounds like since then he had seen and done enough to make him go crazy. What if this was just his way of escaping reality? Another Ben appears and he's willing to believe that somebody changed his life into the horror it was, instead of accepting that that's how his life always had been. It didn't sound like he was trying to solve anything, it sounded like he was trying to run and hide from the life he'd lived. He hadn't even asked for control of the body or tried to take it back. He was content to take a back seat and let Ben take control of his life, it just seemed too strange. Ben couldn't be sure if Shroud was stable, or if he was just insane and didn't want to admit it to himself. But then again maybe he was the insane one.

After all he was actually taking all this seriously.

“Going silent on me Ben?” Shroud shrugged, “Stop pausing when somebodies talking to you. It makes me feel like an ass.”

'Urgh...' Ben broke out of his contemplation, 'So you're some sort of super powered version of me. Then why don't you just become a hero? It seems like the easy way to do things to me. If the person you think warped reality is a hero-'

“We think warped realities.”

'Right... we.' Ben paused and collected his thoughts, 'Then it makes sense to get near him as somebody he trusts. He probably wont trust anyone completely, but he'd most likely trust a hero over a villain. Like you said, he probably created the heroes to adore him. He’d want them as close to him as they could be so they could hear his praise.'

“You know Ben, that's the damn smartest thing I've ever heard you say. And I'm including everything you've ever said in your memories.”