Work Text:
"Mirror Image"
They pushed.
Every day Thomas promised himself he wouldn’t give in to his tormenters.
Every day he failed.
Like a mouse in a maze, they poked and prodded him, testing his limits. Forced him to exceed them with the aid of drugs and coercion. They wanted to know what made him tick.
He ended up doing things with his powers he had thought were impossible.
Before, Thomas only used them to help spirits pass on to the other side. Now, he dived into people's minds and broke them, unwillingly making them complicit with organizations that would be better off not existing whatsoever.
At first, it was the Nazis that held him prisoner, then the Red Party. The names changed, but their intentions remained the same. Abuse and exploit. Nothing else mattered.
As the years went on, Thomas started to notice his reflection in the mirror was slowly changing.
It was slightly out of tune with his movements, its expressions different from his own. Even the clothes that should have been identical to Thomas' were frayed at the edges. He heard discordant whispers from it, offering to help him if only Thomas just listened.
The abuse he’d sustained from his captors was taking its toll on his soul.
They were monsters in human skin, and before too long, he'd be one too.
He needed to stop.
They had to stop.
He was 18 years old, yet he had never gotten a chance to actually live. Thomas had finally had enough. It was either him or them.
He didn’t fight them in the morning when they came for him, nor when they sat him across from a new victim, a young, frightened blonde girl. No doubt someone they suspected of hiding information.
Thomas reached for her hand, watched her eyes go wide, and smiled.
“It's okay,” he said, his voice soft as he tried to be reassuring. “This won't hurt a bit.”
They were always so careful not to touch him, to avoid putting themselves in danger by activating his powers, but what they failed to realize was he’d grown beyond that limitation.
Rather than plunge into the girl’s mind underneath his fingers, Thomas expanded his consciousness outward, deliberately seeking out every single soul inside the building with one sole exception.
It was a considerably high amount of people to influence at once, but Thomas wasn’t worried about being gentle. No, the next move would be brutal and fast and would very likely kill him in the process.
But if he did it right and lived…well, no one would ever know.
He could see them all with his mind's eye, weaving his psychic tendrils around them. Ironically, it was thanks to their torment of Thomas for years that he was powerful enough to manage the massive task at all.
“Close your eyes,” he told the young girl, who complied after a moment. “You don’t want to see this.”
Thomas pulled on the metaphorical strings he had attached to their spirits. With a single move, he yanked upward, ripping away the connection to their physical bodies, casting them off into the spirit world with no warning.
He had butchered all, started and finished a massacre without ever laying a single hand upon them.
A wave of dark satisfaction surged through Thomas, and he knew he'd done the right thing. None of them would ever hurt a living soul again.
Seconds later, pure agony lanced through his mind and body, and Thomas prepared himself for death. He had accomplished what he wanted, which meant there was nothing more to do.
He panted, pressure building in his head. Blood dripped from his nose, his vision gone fuzzy, his stomach in knots. It was all he could do to keep breathing as Thomas leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.
Something broke deep inside him, the pain that ravaged his body gradually ebbing away.
Surprised he was still alive, Thomas wiped at his nose with the back of his arm, the air thick with spiritual energy. He let out a sigh, feeling burnt out and numb.
The souls Thomas had manipulated were beginning to disperse, lost and confused at their new state of being. Unlike people who had lived a full life and made their peace, his captors were nothing but prey to any dark thing that happened to stumble across them. It was a fate worse than death.
“It's what they deserve.”
It was his voice, but Thomas wasn’t speaking.
He looked to the mirror standing in the far corner and felt a chill go down his spine.
Moving freely behind the glass pane, his reflection, his spirit self that used to move in concert with him, peered out at him knowingly. His literal id ran rampant.
Oh, god.
The cost of what he had done was high, having put so much strain on his abilities that he had split his soul right down the middle. The light and the dark, the physical and the mystical.
“C-Can I leave?”
Thomas tiredly raised his head, reminded that he wasn’t completely alone. He pointed towards the open door at the end of the room. “Get out of here, and don’t look back.”
The young girl gingerly stood up, her breath trembling when she took in the bodies that lay on the floor of the room. They were breathing but would never awaken again.
Experimentally, Thomas reached out for her mind and felt nothing. He was stunted in his abilities once again. Perhaps it was just as well he couldn’t manipulate people without touching them. Like it used to be.
Still, she seemed to notice something off, shooting him a silent panicked look. She ran, quickly disappearing from his view.
Too right, Thomas thought as he walked over to stand in front of the mirror. No one should’ve been as powerful as he used to be.
“Our work isn’t done yet, Thomas.”
Thomas was well aware. Before he left the building, he’d have to wipe out every record of his existence and hope no one tied him to it in the future.
He’d never allow anyone to capture him again, vowing he’d kill anyone who ever tried.
“Don’t worry, I'll never leave you,” his spirit replied with a smile.
That's what Thomas was afraid of.
After the clean-up was done, he'd have to do something drastic so he was never tempted to indulge his dark side again. Suppressing half of his soul would be hard, but it was the best thing for everyone concerned. Him especially.
For right now, though, Thomas needed the help and company.
He started to laugh as he left the room, able to traverse the building freely for the first time.
After a very long time, Thomas had finally secured what had eluded him for so long.
A future.