Author's Note

So here we are! the remastered version of this chapter.

I wasn't happy with it as I re read it, so I felt that it deserved a rewrite.

Ps. I really wish there was a tag for the Evil Within.

Remastered: Broken but alive.

______*Beacon Mental Hospital, Krimson City.*______

Anger, Frustration, Pride, Joy.......Satisfaction, these emotions ran through my mind as I claimed the body of Leslie Withers and fought the detective known as Sebastian, I had planned for it all, I didn't care that he burned me, it was all irrelevant at this point.

I didn't care that he survived my assault and 'defeated' me, I had already won, no one could stop me now, not Sebastian, not Kidman, and not Mobius.

So as my 'body' inside Stem died, i had expected to wake up in the body of Leslie, instead, I found myself incapable of movement, sight, hearing, smell, all that I could sense was the feeling of the cold hard ground.

Soon, I felt fear build up inside of me, as well as anger, I had calculated everything perfectly, I was absolutely certain that I would have woken up in the body of Leslie Withers, there was no error, no flaw in my plan, and then all I felt was a sudden pain.......and then blackness.

______*?*______
My mind floated in what I remember as a black void for a long time, years might have passed for all I know, and for a time I believed that I was still in Stem, just a caged puppet of those bastard at Mobius, I was capable of movement, but without a destination, there was no point.

I soon discarded the theory of being in Stem however, my brain had been crushed and even as powerful as Mobius was, I knew that Stem's core, me, would be capable of manipulating the environment to its will, but I could not do this.

I had almost given up, resigned myself to my fate trapped in an empty void left alone with my thoughts, but at that moment, I saw a light, as if at the end of a tunnel calling me, seeing no better option I started walking to it, my pace was steady as I was in no rush.

The closer I got to this mysterious light a strange warmth grew within me, it was welcoming me, I had reasonable doubts of course, that this was just an illusion and that my mind was still trapped in the prison of my creation, but I felt that even if that was the case, it would have been better than nothing.

I continued walking for what felt left hours, yet the light seemed to be always just out of reach, as if I were running on a treadmill to get away from something, I stopped walking and simply stared at the light for a time before sighing out of frustration.

I shook my head and sat down, I took the time to look over my 'body' for a moment, my skin was still burned and pale, the burn scars still evident on my legs and arms, my white cloak fell off the sides of my legs, the rest still covering my upper body, I simply shook my head and looked over at where the light was.

It was of course, a surprise to find out that it was close now, and not far off in the distance, seeing nothing better to do with my time, I stood up and walked towards it once again, my mind raced with thoughts and theories on what this light was, but the most prominent was that it was Stem, and that I was just walking back into my prison.

So as I walked towards the light, I felt the warm sensation fill me again, I paused and it stopped, fading away quickly, I began to walk again and this time, I felt it again but it was more......pleasant, it wasn't intrusive but it wasn't entirely welcome.

This time I noticed the light getting closer as I walked towards it, I was curious to see what it was, but I wasn't going to run, no......running at it would be a sign of desperation, and I was not going to give Mobius that kind of power, even if I was dead.

After seven minutes of walking, I finally reached the light which was coming from something on the ground, I shielded my eyes briefly and looked at what was emitting the light.

It was a mirror, it was not small but appeared light enough to carry easily, it was around eight inches wide and six inches long with two silver handles on the sides and silver around the mirror in the shape of the sun, I walked up to the mirror and knelt down.

Upon closer examination I noticed that the glass on the mirror had multiple layers of dust on it, preventing a reflection from being seen.

I pondered picking it up for a while, weighing the outcomes, and considering if it would do anything at all, and after some internal debate, I decided to not pick it up and just and down next to it.

I was silent for what felt like days, the isolation and silence were welcome after so long hearing nothing but the tortured screams of my victims, I would occasionally glance at the mirror and consider picking it up or even looking into it, but I always decided against it.

The isolation wasn't without its downsides however, for without anything to occupy my thoughts, my mind drifted into places I thought long buried.

I thought of my family, of Laura in particular, the one person on Earth I didn't hate, the one person I cared about, I thought about the fire that those bastards set, burning us alive in the barn, killing her and leaving me scarred and alone.

My mind drifted to my experiments, and though I regretted nothing about any of them, I did feel dissatisfied, for all of my work and all of MY research, were useless and in the hands of Mobius, the fools who dreamt too high and were unwilling to do the work themselves, sending others to do it instead.

I felt anger as I remembered the betrayal, Jimenez had led Mobius agents to me that tore my body apart, leaving only my brain alive in a container just to keep Stem running, I sighed to myself as I calmed down, Jimenez was gone, killed by one of my minions and rotting away.

I eventually looked over at the mirror again after another few days and shook my head, the mirror had been illuminating me ever since I got here, and I still had no idea why it was here.

Sighing to myself, I reached and grabbed the mirror in one hand, I stared into the dusty mirror for a moment before I wiped the dust off of it.

I then took hold of the other handle and looked into the mirror, at first I saw only my reflection, but then it shifted to something else, something pale on the ground, perplexed, I looked back and saw a small pale gray form huddled on the ground, I set the mirror down and walked over to the form.

As I got closer, everything seemed to blur, as if the world didn't want me to see it, I pushed past the feeling of dread I had in my gut and walked closer.

By the time I got close and knelt down, I could hardly see and the feeling of dread had built up to a fever pitch, I reached my hand out and touched the gray form and immediately pulled my hand back, I was surprised to learn that it had fur, I blinked and touched it again, I was unsure of what it was, but I didn't think it was dangerous, at least not on its own.

I stood up and looked back at where the mirror was, only to discover it was gone, leaving me in the dark once more, I squinted and looked down at the gray form, but it too was gone, I looked around but saw nothing, I looked at my hand, my vision was no longer blurred but I felt uneasy, as though something was going to happen.

I was about to sit down when I felt something strange, it felt as though something was crawling on my back, I looked back and saw nothing.

Thinking my mind must have been playing tricks on me, I brushed it off as nothing, but was unable to ignore the newfound itching on both my arms and legs.

I grumbled but did nothing to stop it, I sat down and closed my eyes, deciding to try and sleep for once, but the itching kept me from properly trying, i was just about to pull up the sleeve of my cloak when I felt my body being pulled from behind, I immediately looked back and saw a light, but unlike the last one, this one was dragging me along.

I didn't bother trying to fight it, there was nothing grab onto and I doubted I could outrun it even if I tried, I simply felt that it would be best to just see where this leads.

As I was flung into the light, I could only hope that I was free of Mobius, but with the weird occurrences I saw in my brief time in this blackness, I wasn't optimistic about it.

Wherever I was going however, I wasn't going to see it, as I blacked out the second i reached the light.

______*?*_______

I awoke to the sounds of crying, it sounded like an infant crying, I was unable to look around however, as my vision was black, probably from a blindfold.

I could not feel anything however, and I could not speak, all I could hear was the aggravating crying of an infant, and muffled speech from others around me.

This continued for a while, the crying eventually stopped and my vision was flooded by many colors, but most of all I was intrigued and confused as I saw something odd.

I watched as a horse like creature walked by, it's eyes were weirdly humanoid and were far too big, it had brown fur and a slightly darker shade of brown for its mane and tail, it had some strange mark on its flank and its irises were dark blue.

I was in disbelief as it spoke, I could hear it talking in English, it's voice was rough and authoritative. "I came as quick as I could.....how is my foal?" The.......stallion? asked.

"I'm glad to say you have a healthy young colt, your wife should be awake now if you want to go see her." A feminine voice said from elsewhere.

I was still unable to look around, this was aggravating as I felt like my head was strapped in place.

I had to watch as the hours passed, eventually I was in a large room, I was in a crib by the looks of it, still unable to move but now finally able to look around, even it it was mostly just my head I could control, it was better than nothing.

I tilted my head and saw several other cribs in the room with me, I saw small figures, similar to the stallion from before, that lay asleep in the cribs, I did manage to tilt my head and saw my body.....well my new one that was.

I recognized the color, it was the same pale gray from that form in the black void, I realized immediately that I was in the body of an infant.....and if my theory was correct, I was a foal, and I was the one crying before.

Eventually, the lights were turned off and I suddenly had control of my body, I tried to stand up but with the unfamiliar limbs and undeveloped muscles, I soon stopped.

I managed to spot a few odd foals, one had a horn protruding from its head, and another had wings......whereas I had neither, so as I lay down, staring up at the ceiling, I had only two thoughts on my mind.

'Where am i? am I in Stem? if so, who came up with this crazy world? or am I alive in some strange bizarre hallucination?'

But as he considered that, his other thought was far more impossible.

'Am I alive?'