"Ow."

          Seto's head snapped around to Adam so fast that he almost gave himself whiplash which, when you consider that he had short hair, was quite a feat. Adam was stirring, raising his head from his chest and shaking it. Seto had taken off his sunglasses and he blinked his brown eyes a few times in a dazed fashion.

          Seto watched him as Adam tensed his arms, noticing the cuffs for the first time. "Are you okay?" Seto asked carefully.

          Adam jerked a little in surprise. "What- What happened? Why..."

          "Wait, you... You don't remember?" the sorcerer asked in confusion.

          "Remember what? Why- Why am I cuffed, what..." his voice died off.

          With a sigh, Seto undid the cuffs and Adam grunted as he rubbed his wrists, looking accusingly at Seto. "You want to tell me what the deal is?"

          "You attacked Mitch, Quentin and Ty," Seto said, turning his back to pick up Adam's sunglasses rather than meeting his eyes.

          "Wh- What?" Adam frowned at Seto. "I attacked them?"

          "What do you remember last?" Seto asked, handing over the glasses and sitting down in front of Adam with his legs crossed.

          Adam shrugged a little. "I came into the kitchen to grab a drink and everyone else was there and then... I don't know, I just felt really sick and... I blanked out." He looked up. "Seto, what... did I hurt them?"

          "Mitch is still unconscious but he'll be fine. Ty's been checked out and his vocal chords and windpipe are undamaged and I came in before you could do anything to Quentin."

          Adam put his head in his hands, breathing out something so softly that Seto couldn't hear it. Seto looked away, pulling up his knee. "You had magic," he said quietly. "And you were good at using it too."

          There was horror in Adam's eyes when he looked up. "You mean," he asked with a swallow. "Do you mean that it... might be controlling me?"

          "It might have just been a freak accident," Seto hesitated. "Just a once off, you know? We'll keep an eye on it, but it might not happen again."

          On that happy note, the two left the kitchen. Adam felt that constant, simmering panic creep back again, the fear that something horrible could happen at any moment. It wore him out faster than anything else. He also noticed that Seto was hanging around him a lot more, often going out of his way to just walk with him. The two didn't say anything about his... episode, and taking their cue from them, neither did Ty, Mitch or Quentin. Far from finding Seto's constant presence suffocating or irritating, Adam found it comforting.

          As such, he was rather relaxed (although feeling quite sick) when he, Seto and Ian were leaving a meeting with Senior Commanders Red and Barney a week later and were walking down the corridors. Ian and Adam were talking animatedly about something. Seto had lost track of the conversation a few corners back and was lost in his own thoughts. That was, until Adam suddenly stumbled, his hand snatching at Seto's ever-present cloak as he dropped to the ground, other hand falling from his head.

          "Ian, don't!" Seto said sharply, holding out his hand as Ian instantly went to check Adam. Ian frowned at Seto, half-crouching, asking him silently what the big deal was but he didn't sense what Seto did; the sudden, powerful magical aura radiating from Adam.

          "Ian, back off-"

          Too late. Adam had already stood up and with a backwards swing, sent Ian flying back down the hallway. With a flick, two see-through purple discs formed on Seto's hands and he backtracked a few steps, eyes on an Adam who was already in a fighting position, a yellow-bladed dagger in his right and a glowing yellow fireball in his left. His expression was blank and he almost seemed to not blink but he watched Seto with eagle-like intensity. Seto didn't dare to take his eyes off him.

          Faster than a wolf, Adam leapt forward, fire roaring from his left hand. Seto put up his crossed hands and his discs expanded, the fire washing over them and going out. He brought them down and barely managed to side-step the yellow dagger that came whistling past him, snagging at his cloak. He deflected a second dagger with his discs and flicked his hand towards Adam. One of his discs spat towards him, expanding until it covered him like a net. Adam slashed his hands down and the net split apart along a bright yellow line down the middle and dissolved.

          Adam sprinted towards Seto, daggers in both of his hands, ducking under the bolt of purple Seto sent at him. He slashed with his dagger and Seto sidestepped, narrowly missing the second dagger which ripped his shirt at the stomach. His second disc shot forward and slammed against Adam's chest with an explosion which sent him skidding backwards several metres. Seto also stumbled back from the force and quickly summoned wisps of magic to his palms. He was breathing heavily with exertion and adrenaline but Adam didn't seem to even be a little short of breath. His sunglasses had been knocked off and were lying on the ground near the wall, leaving his glowing yellow eyes bare.

          He started slowly walking back towards Seto. With a wave, Seto shot long purple bolts of magic at him, the hallway practically glowing with the light. Adam ran faster, ducking under the first, dodging the second, sliding past the third and running up the wall to flip over the fourth and fifth with an agility that he didn't normally possess. The sixth curved in its path to bend around him, fading out of existence and he jumped and did a sideways roll in midair over the seventh.

          Something hot wrapped around Seto's ankle and before he could glance down to see what it was, he was thrown down the hallway, landing painfully on his shoulder. He quickly pushed himself up but his cloak was tangled around his legs and he fell back down. As it turned out, the tangled cloak saved his life as Adam's dagger cut through the air just above where his head had been a split second earlier. Seto hastily threw up a purple shield to protect himself while he dealt with the situation and fire roared against it, licking at the edges of the shield and at the stone of the hallway.

          Now tangle-free, Seto pushed his hand forward and the shield raced towards Adam who slashed it apart again with a dagger. His left hand was raised towards Seto and he fired multiple yellow bolts at him. Seto put up another shield and the bolts slammed into it repeatedly, the force of it almost forcing him back several steps and each hit sent reverberating pains through his skull. Something hit something else with a dull thud and there was the distinct sound of someone falling to the ground. The bolts stopped and Seto hesitantly put down his shield, magic ready to fire.

          Ian was standing above an unconscious Adam, right hand raised in a fist just in case he needed to bring down another blow. But his first had been more than enough to knock the man out. Seto let out a pent-up breath of relief and rubbed his throbbing shoulder. He had probably damaged the tissue or something.

          "Thanks," he said to Ian, walking up to the two.

          "Sorry for not jumping in earlier," Ian apologised. "I just couldn't see a good opportunity."

          "It's okay." Seto knelt down and carefully lifted Adam's eyelid, ready to jump if he suddenly started attacking again. But he remained motionless and his eyes were back to normal.

          "So... When Herobrine said that his body might attack the magic..." Ian started.

          "Yeah," Seto mumbled in answer to the unspoken question.

          Ian let out a long huff. "So... What should we do about it?"

          Seto felt Adam's pulse. It was regular, albeit slightly faster than normal. "Herobrine... said to call him if anything went wrong."

          "So we'll call him?"

          "What do you think Herobrine could do to fix this?" Seto asked quietly, looking up at Ian.

          Ian frowned but then his eyes widened in understanding. "You mean..."

          "I don't know. But just in case..."

          "Can you handle him by yourself though?" Ian asked. "I mean, he looks like he's really good at magic."

          "Probably. We'll see."

          "You're not filling me with confidence here Seto."

          Seto gave a grin. "Well, I'll just make sure you're here to knock him out."

          Ian could only reply with a raised eyebrow as Adam groaned and his eyes flickered open. "Ow, headache."

          "Are you okay?" Seto asked, half-laughing.

          "Yeah, I just didn't realise I hit the ground that hard."

          "Actually, it was me," Ian hesitated, glancing at Seto for advice.

          "What do you-" Adam cut himself off and looked at Seto who was now very grave, noting the rips in his cloak and shirt. He gave a tiny nod and Adam groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

          "It's fine," Seto told him, giving him a pat on the back.

          "Wait, this has happened before?" Ian asked.

          Seto nodded but it was Adam who answered in a mumble. "I attacked Mitch, Ty and Quentin a few days ago. I... I don't know what happened, I just felt really sick and..." He stopped for a moment. "I felt sick this time too, like I was about to throw up."

          "So when you feel like you're about to throw up," Ian said, tracing his finger through the air as if he was connecting dots, "it means you're about to lose it, right?"

          "It's not the most reliable of signals," Seto said.

          "I'll take anything at this point," Adam said truthfully. "Wait, has anyone seen my sunglasses?"