A single light source hung above him. That was the only thing besides his stiff body in the room. Not the reflection, not the humans, no one as far as he could sense. His body light grew in response to the limited lighting in the room, which woke him up.

Dark, who was waiting at the far end of the room so the light wouldn't touch him, shielded his eyes from the new light source. He grinned. This meant that Light Side was waking up, which was good. He didn't just wanna bind him without having a little fun first. That wouldn't be fair to either of them!

Astral opened his eyes, blinking a few times to adjust them to the darkness and light battling for their share of the space. He sat up, surveying everything his eyes could see and sensing out what his eyes could not. He couldn't really sense much, and what he could see was even less. It was just a single light source with nothing else. Darkness occupied what his light could not.

Where am I...? he wondered. He felt a  sharp pain in his head; his hands immediately went to his temples and massaged them. His head was pounding like crazy, but he wasn't really worried about that, but rather what may be hiding in the darkness.

His eyes rested on a familiar black and white figure, who was leaning against the wall. Dark grinned when he saw Light Side looking right at him.

"You're up, Light Side," he purred, pushing himself off of the wall with fluent movements. "I've been waiting for such a long time."

Astral didn't show any emotion toward the reflection and his smug face. Dark didn't seem to mind too much, though. He just kept on grinning and made his way to Astral.

"Where am I?" Astral demanded with a stoic expression.

"You don't recognize this place?" Dark gave him a cheeky grin. "This is one of the rooms inside of the wardrobe. Don't tell me you don't recognize this place!"

In all honesty, Astral didn't recognize it at all. He had only been there on a few occasions, and during those occasions, he had never had the urge to explore the forsaken place! Besides, Dark easily knew these halls and rooms; he would have probably been inside one of them, just waiting patiently for Astral to come wandering by and attack him.

Suddenly, Dark pinned Astral to the ground, increasing his body weight to ensure that he didn't escape. "Now, I don't wanna do this the hard way, so if you'd just give up right about now, that'd be just fantastic, okay?" Dark purred. "I don't want you to get hurt, now do I?"

Astral still gazed upon his evil reflection with the same stoic eyes as before. "Why should I? I will not allow you to wreak havoc on the towns any more than you have already. Just leave them in peace!"

Dark giggled. "Leave them in peace, you say? Well, no can do. See, you like seeing them suffer like this! You don't want them to live in peace; you love hearing their cries of pain and anguish! You want them to die because of the way they secretly looked down on you all this time."

Astral didn't believe him. "Liar."

Dark's grin faded into a frown. "Liar?" he hissed almost ominously. "Liar." He bared his fangs and snarled, "You're the liar, Light Side! You're lying to yourself! I'm only telling you what you want deep inside!"

"Liar."

Dark slapped Astral across the face with all his force. "I'm simply telling you all the truths that you've kept locked in you all your life! You've been lying to yourself from day one, and I'm shedding light to that!"

Still, Astral persisted. "Liar."

The reflection growled, fed up with Astral's behavior. "Fine! I won't tell you anything from now on! I'll just leave you in the dark and let you lie to yourself for some more time!" He grinned. "But first, let me take what I want."

Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed at his mind,as if dozens upon dozens of knives were stabbing and jabbing his brain all at once with as much force as Hercules! A dark presence was also there, forcefully taking something, which was causing the immense pain. Astral tried to fight back, but he didn't even know how!

Lightning struck inside; Astral screamed out his agony with wide eyes. The reflection cackled, enjoying this spectacle of pain that was clearly etched on Light Side's face.

More pain! More! He couldn't get enough of it! He enthusiastically increased the pain and the pressure and the knives with more, more, and more!! Lightning sliced through harshly, and that was the breaking point for poor Astral. Unable to take any more, he passed out.

Dark chuckled. He had done it! He took what made Light Side dominant and beat him to submission. Now, the only thing left to do was to bind him to the mirror, and he would be set!

Dark tossed Light Side over his shoulder and carried him to the mirror. This was going to be fun! He no longer had to do whatever Light Side told him! He smirked and touched Light Side's shoulder along with the mirror. He closed his eyes in concentration.

Nearby, Asi's spirit watched the events, unable to do anything since she was dead already. She wondered why Astral even uncovered the mirror in the first place after her dire warnings. She shook her head and faded away.

The reflection opened his mismatched eyes with a wide, mischievous, and twisted grin. It was done! Light Side was bound to that wretched mirror for good! He chuckled a chuckle that soon turned into a laugh, and then that one morphed into a wild cackle, which didn't stop for a good three minutes!

He soon had to stop for air, and when he did, he chuckled darkly with a malevolent grin. He got up and flew through the hall that led to the wardrobe door! The reflection threw them wide open, zipped out, and zoomed out the front door, laughing out his joy of newfound freedom!

Dark looped in the air, whooping and howling with excitement! He didn't even care that the humans below him heard him; let them hear! Let them hear the voice of their new ruler!

The people gathered at the house and the few who were working at fixing the town looked up at the crazy reflection. Thinking it was Astral, they just shook their heads and ignored him for now. He would have to wait until they figured out how to beat him without getting killed.

~.~.~

Astral awoke in the darkness of the wardrobe with only the mirror reflecting his light back at him and around the room. He sat up slowly so as not to cause more pain in his head.

Then, memories of what happened before he blacked out flooded his brain in a painful tsunami. Dark pinning him down, the mental assault, then nothing.

How did I get here, and what happened while I was asleep?

Astral looked at the mirror suspiciously. Could he have done something with the mirror involved? It was a possibility, for Dark used this thing for pretty much everything.

Oh, well. I had better be getting back out there to make sure Dark doesn't do anything stupid.

So, with that thought set, he got up to his feet and into a hovering position. He flew to the wardrobe door and pushed the doors open.

It wouldn't budge.

He didn't really think much of it. After all, it was an old wardrobe that hasn't been used until now. Maybe the hinges were finally starting to strain. Still, he tried again.

Nothing.

He pushed harder.

Nothing.

He pushed those double doors with all his might!

Nothing.

He was not practically shoving his entire body on the doors in the vain hope of getting them to open, but no matter how hard he threw himself onto those seemingly steel doors, not so much as a sliver of white light peeked through.

Astral didn't know what was going on! Why wouldn't the door open!? There was never any trouble getting them to open before, so why now!?

He sank to the wooden floor, feeling utterly defeated and hopeless.