James having been rendered unconscious by L'sara did not find a peaceful slumber, instead, a familiar inky black void greeted him again. This time he was not the only object floating in space, as there was another. It easily towered over his own frame, looking similar to a minotaur from myth, covered in deep brown fur missing in a few places from scarring. When it spoke its voice was deep and graveled, "Back so soon host." The words came as James felt his body lurching towards the ground slowly, settling onto a solid surface, confusion forced across his face. Host? The thought immediately led him to the staff he had in his possession.
"Mondura? Why do you look like that?" The tall broad figure chuckled, its laughter booming before its form changed. The creatures body blurred and began to shrink until it was only about chest height to the teen, round in shape, face more cherub like. There were two sets of ears pointed, and eyes far larger than anything he'd seen save for cartoons, nose was non-existent. It tilted its head and smiled at James, letting him take in its new state for a few moments.
Once more a mist engulfed its form and this time it thinned out becoming wiry, growing taller as it did so. This form held a set of two limbs on either side, each tinted green and looking more like a bunch of vines entwined with one another. Its body was made up of the same vines, twisting and wrapping about one another to make a roughly humanoid shape with no defining facial features. A set of deep green fires floated in front of where eye sockets should be, leaves and white flowers sprouting out at various points on its body.
Its voice this time was almost like wind rustling through the leaves, a whisper he could make out clearly but could not detect the source of, "I am many things host. I told you this." Mondura said as it changed a final time, the mist clumping into a shape roughly the size of James. When it cleared away James felt as if a mirror had been set in front of him, save for the eyes. They were black, close to the tint of the metal the staff was made of. James, looking more shocked than calmed caused the staff-made-human to shake its head before continuing, "When you bond with me, I take a piece of you, your mana signature, as I have all hosts. It is part of our contract, not that you would know anything about that."
There was another soft chuckle before James watched his own body slump down into a cross legged seated position on the floor a few feet away. "Your mind is surprisingly vulnerable when pushed to the edge. The connection this time is far easier to maintain." James, still considering what he had been told before was taken out of his thoughts at that, "Pushed to the edge?"
There was another chuckle from staff-turned-man, "You don't remember how you were rendered unconscious? Your 'sensei' squeezed all of the air out of your lungs while you threw a tantrum like a petulant child. Quite disgusting actually, glad that since I am locked away in your personal dimension I can only see what is going on when your conscious, at least for now."
There was no laughter this time, it just stared at James shaking its head, "To think I have fallen so low as to be placed with you. I was contracted to kings, queens, warriors, and now I get to be the wet-nurse to a child that will let his whims control him. Pitiful." Despite the content of its words, there was no malice aimed at James in the voice, it sounded almost bored.
"Fuck you!" The teen got to his feet, sneering at the mirror image of his own face, hands clenched tightly like he were getting ready to strike, only to once more be mocked by Mondura, "And that is my point. Someone says something you do not like and you get into a huff, even if it is true. You act like a spoiled child, inconsistent. You let that shop keep and L'sara walk all over you, and yet a few thieves not able to fight against your current abilities attempt to take food and its suddenly like you are a blood crazed idiot. Rabid animals like that have no use, they should just be put down. If you are not going to control yourself I will do it for you or see to it you get killed. Your choice host."
"No! Fuck you! You don't control me!" James lashed out, trying to strike at the still sitting figure, which did not react as James went right through the copied body and landed on the ground with a thud. "You can not harm me here, it would only be akin to harming yourself. As for controlling you, I am merely going to encourage you by triggering a nerve storm in your body when you misbehave. I will not be able to do it often, but I doubt you will want a repeat after the initial shock."
Mondura rose to his feet, and looked down on the sprawled James whom was glaring from the ground at it, "Why do you care anyhow? If you've had other hosts, why not just kill me and get a new one." This got another shake of its head, "Part of the contract states I can not personally kill you. It says nothing of locking your body and then allowing a beast to kill you for me, but that is the last resort. I get you killed then I get to sit around for however long it takes for the system to send me out again. Apart from guiding you, I still have no free will to exert on existence, so I would rather deal with your outbursts if I can correct them than the void."
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A hand was extended down, mimic James to real James, as it continued, "Besides, you are young, you definitely have control issues, but you are not a complete waste. Thinking to use the dimension in the middle of combat was good, you even figured out it could be used on independent body parts to get out of holds. That is not discounting previous efforts to stay calm and figure things out with your powers. If you could apply that consistently and not go off into a blind rage you might become decent." the real James looked at the hand extended, then back up to the mirror image of himself before sighing.
The more rational part of his brain knew that Mondura was right, it was why he took the extended hand, a deeper seated part of his emotions told him that Mondura was lying through it's nonexistent teeth. Part of his mind told him that he did no wrong, that everyone was out to get him and any attempt at camaraderie and kinship were just thinly veiled attempts to take something from him. He had to quash that part forcefully by biting down on his tongue, drawing a bit of blood. "James. I can hear your surface thoughts. Even if I could not your face is not that hard to read, your emotions are all over it. I do not know what has caused you to lash out at everyone like this, but I am tied to you, you thriving means I thrive, there is no ulterior motive, so if you trust nothing else, trust that."
An unnatural sense of calm washed over him, as if those thoughts were being forced away by an outside influence, this caused the grip he had on his copies hand to tighten a little as his body was lifted to his feet. "I see everything you see, I feel everything you feel. I know you tell yourself you hate your kind, that they are greedy, worthless beings that are not worth saving, yet when you were told that they were facing extinction what was your first instinct? Anger. You were angry James. I felt it. You wanted to stop it but could not, you wanted someone to help you. Let me help you. Let your companion help you. Let others help you. I know its fear that consumes you."
The voices were muted, but there, telling him this was a lie, it was a trap, and then that influence washed them away again, leaving James staring into his copies eyes, his lips parting, "I..." He was getting ready to try and refute it when the hand tugged him forwards, forcing him to stop, his mimics voice following it, "I can hear your thoughts James, do not lie to me. You were going to say it was your other self right? There is no other self James. It is you. I have watched you 'flick' the switch. You are still there. It is you doing those things James. You killed those people. Sure, you did it out of a twisted sense of justice, a group striking Alison and planning on other things, a group robbing and shooting others, but you still killed them. Own it."
James stared at Mondura, unable to find the words, his brain racing, Mondura did not interrupt his thoughts this time, allowing him to come to the conclusion on his own. James pulled at his hand, trying to get it out of his doppelgangers grasp, but finding himself unable to. "So what! They were pieces of shit anyways!", the mirror shook its head, "Yes. And you were judge, jury, and executioner, now own it."
Another attempt made at getting free before he stared his double down, grimace on his features. "Fine okay! FINE! I did it. I killed them. Not some facet of my mind or anything else... I had the power.. and I felt like the world would be better off without them so I killed them!", James slumped to the ground, his arm still held aloft by his twin, who spoke, "Good. That is step one. Step two is understanding that does not make it right. Do you think the ones that put your planet up for material gains are righteous? No. They are strong. You are weak. Your opinion does not matter to them. So what should you do?"
"I dont know!", the mimic grinned down at the distraught boy he was copying, "The ones responsible for doing this to your planet are just going to do it to others, do you think they should be allowed to do that?", James, looking up from his spot at Mondura just growled, "No. Fuck no."
The grasp Mondura had was released, letting James have his hand back, smiling now at the teen with his own face, "Good. That is the spirit you need. A focus. You need a code of ethics to live by. Do you really think someone making fun of you deserves death? Stealing to feed ones self? Other 'crimes'? Ask yourself these things James. You do not need to be a beacon of all that is good but that does not mean you can just do whatever you want, I will stop you if I have to."
The void around them was slowly being turned into a blinding light, Monduras duplicate of James was beginning to fade away as well, "The connection is growing weak. Remember this conversation James, I will not let you continue on your path of self destruction."