[[ Takes place during this specific post ]]

[[ TW: Implied torture and drowning ]]

The darkness crashed down around him, sinking him like a stone. He floated in the oil, in the madness, as though it was water -was water-was water -was water -was-- There was a shift and the oil exploded, and he was no longer floating in liquid. He came to, laying on a board. Restrained, really. His head was foggy, the world spinning as he looked around. The warehouse ceiling appeared above him. He groaned, saying something he couldn't understand.

A sound like rain bubbled through his impaired mind, but it was muted and muffled.

Someone grabbed his face and shouted at him. "Where's the money?!" What money… he had no money… He was just---

"I said, where's my money?!" Something heavy slammed into his skull, rattling his brain around and breaking his nose. He almost didn't feel it, his mind was so fuzzy. He tried to tell them, tried to tell them but they didn't understand, they'd never understand--

The board shifted suddenly, and with it came the sudden roar of water. He begged, he screamed, he struggled, he---

Water flooded his nose, his mouth, his ears. The roar was too loud, too much, it consumed him it cut off his air, something snapped and he tried to get out, to get out, to ge---

Darkness.

Something slithered inside of him, and he snapped his eyes open. His face - his face - stared back at him from a thousand different mirrors. The reflected into oblivion and distorted him, contorted him.

Hydrus~

His attention whipped to a girl in the room. Had there always been a girl there? Why hadn't he noticed her sooner? White hair like Mintaka's -- Mintaka, Mintaka where were you? - and a box. Her fingers curled around the lid of the box, ghosting along the lock, lingering on the sides. No, leave it shut, he tried to say, don't open it, leave it alone!

Aw…. Doncha want to know… what it is? The girl teased, grinning him with a sly smirk. No, no he didn't want to know. It was safe in that box, it was protected, it was ---

She flipped the lid open and something spilled out, oozing over her fingers.

Oops! She giggled, hiding one black stained hand over her grinning face. I guess it's all out in the open now~ She giggled again, from behind his ear.

Hydrus screamed, the mirrors reflecting not himself, nor the white haired girl cackling in his ear, but his world, his homeworld, that water covered world he never discovered because he couldn't move two steps from his spot. He couldn't do it. His entire past, his entire legacy lay below the waves and he'd chosen to run from it, to abandon it, because his fear kept him from it.

The mirrors shattered, and the madness within him took hold, splitting his face into a hungry, feral grin.

But he didn't need his homeworld anymore, did he now? He could give it to Chaos and be better for it…. In fact all worlds should be given to Chaos, all of them, including Earth. The Dark Mirror didn't need it! They had mirrorspace, great and wonderful mirrorspace!

Why yes…. That was a lovely, lovely idea. Now to just deal with the pesky, pesky senshi and their knights!

Hydrus chuckled, ever so softly.

[[ WC: 555 ]]