A/N - if none of these images stay up, imma throw hands...

_________________

In the amber glow of candlelight, shadows played on all of three of their faces, but the most striking feature of all was the determined glint of the flame in the Entity's dark orbs. It pinched the strand of Marcus's hair it had snatched prior to the other disappearing before performing the location spell.

Tee, look after them.

The Entity would certainly try.

The Cloak of Levitation hovered near Strange, promptly settling on Stephen's shoulders once the Entity began to form a portal into what appeared to be nothingness. Varvara had found a leather carrier for Gargorra's Box and adjusted the straps as she gazed into the black hole, tightening the grip of the carrier to her back. With a calm breath, the Entity peered into the portal it had created gently sniffing the damp air and acknowledged the gentle sound of dripping.

"It is a cave system." The Entity elaborated, "Keep an eye on the ground; it will be uneven."

Stephen motioned the action of forming a ball with his hands and produced a little, crackling globe of light, sending it through the portal first. It lit up part of the way, hovering a couple of meters away from their entrance, illuminating fang-like stalagmites and stalactites that created monstrous shadows on the rocky walls, floors and ceiling. The light made some puddles of cave water glisten and yet also look ominous with how cloudy the water could be. It made you wonder how deep the pools could be, made you wonder if anything could lurk beneath the rippling surface.

"Come. Let us go." Tee said, resolved.

Good luck. Don't let any of us die.

Stephen and Varvara shared an uncomfortable look, their eyes speaking of their uncertainty, yet their faces and bodies betrayed no sense of fear. They followed after the Entity, nerves faltering.

The amber ring shrunk until it dissipated entirely.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

How long they had been walking for, they were unsure of, but the sinister tunnels didn't become any brighter. The three surmised they must be deep in the crust of the earth. A fitting place for a hellish creature - close to the devil. At points, the walls closed in on them, and Varvara would have to remove the carrier from her back, getting Stephen to assist her with carrying it through a narrow gap.

"They really could have made the box smaller." He muttered, delicately passing the box to her.

Varvara scoffed as she pulled it through carefully, "You're telling me."

And as they continued they came across a wider section, one that could be considered a small cave and it was at that point that the Entity paused. Their following light had drawn attention to a human-like limb sticking out from behind a stalagmite. Tee silently contributed its half-hearted condolences to Tessa.

"What is it?" Stephen queried, his cloak floating behind him, curiously trying to peek at the scene too.

"It is Master Kent." It responded, moving closer to the stalagmite.

It crouched in front of the body, tilting its head as it analysed the wound it had made with its shard on his leg before comparing it to the state of his head. The back of his head was bloody mush - a chilling imprint of it was on the stone behind him. His hands lay limp by his patchy head, tufts of his own hair lingering between his sticky, crimson fingers, but the most disturbing sight of all was his lack of eyes. He had gouged and/or crushed them himself with the pain he had felt moments before his death. That was what the Entity presumed anyway.

It felt the sickness that washed through its host.

Is that what could have happened to me? If the Ancient One didn't...

The Entity didn't know the answer.

"My God, what happened to him?" Varvara asked, disgusted by the corpse that lay before her.

It stood, "The other Entity."

Varvara stared at the body a moment longer, chilled by what fate could befall herself and the sorcerer for she was sure that this Entity would be fine in their fight against the other regardless.

Stephen shook his head, muttering, "I'm not saying what happened to him was right but...Marcus dug his own grave."

I just can't believe he's really dead.

The Entity moved past them, heading for the tunnel opposite the one they came from and dropped its voice, "I asked this before but I thought you wanted him dead?"

Yes but again...not like this.

An odd sense of sorrow was shared between them but both felt it differently. The Entity was somewhat upset that they didn't get the chance to teach Marcus a lesson whereas Tessa now felt the absence of justice for her father's death. Neither judged the other's thoughts.

As they departed the small cave, Marcus's cold corpse was once more consumed by darkness.

But a faint red glow began to creep out from the tunnel they had just left...

*  *  *  *  *  *

They finally came across a vast cavern, flooded with shadow save from the small area their bright orb lit up. Trickling somewhere in the dark, water sounded close by. A bitter breeze blew through the enormous space, chilling all to their bones.

Stephen motioned with his hands, sending the orb as high as possible and altering the spell to make the light bigger and brighter so that they could see all there was to see in this massive area.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Varvara questioned impatiently, fearfully, and eager to get back to her family.

"We were looking for Marcus." Stephen answered, "But, as you saw, we found him - just not this other Entity."

"It is red. You would not miss it." Tee said but an uncomfortable pit began to grow in its stomach.

What is it? What's wrong?

"It is close," It walked to stand between Stephen and Varvara and the tunnel they had just left, "Get ready. It will not welcome us warmly."

Varvara removed the carrier from her back, setting the chest down and enacted the spell to open Gargorra's Box. Once the relic opened, all that one could see inside was shadow, but the kind that looked as though it went on forever, without end. Meanwhile, Stephen prepared his tao mandalas shields, then followed by Varvara. Tee and Stephen both rose from the ground, hoping some height would aid them in their attacks.

And then they waited.

A gentle, menacing glow came from down the tunnel.

Varvara gulped, intensely focused on the darkness ahead.

The glow neared.

As it neared, Tee began to hear the shuffling of steps. Who had it claimed as their victim now?

"Varvara, are you ready?" Stephen asked the sole member on the ground.

"Yes. Let's get this over with quick."

The glow got brighter and finally, a red orb, similar to their light, levitated out of the tunnel first, with a sight behind it that made their jaws drop. Marcus's corpse pitifully limped behind it, puppeted by the other.

"Three against one is hardly fair, no?" The other hissed eerily.

"I am willing to show you mercy." Tee said quickly, "But you must come with us peacefully."

A sick disturbing laugh sounded, but not from Marcus's mouth, neither had the first line it had said. Tee frowned. When it spoke through Tessa, her mouth moved for its words. Before, Marcus's mouth had moved in sync with the other's speech. Why not now? His jaw wasn't broken, no...unless...

"Where's the fun in peace?"

Varvara shrieked suddenly from behind them as she was roughly thrown into the ragged wall Stephen and Tee were facing with a sickening crunch. Both magicians hovered there for a moment, stunned, as they looked at Varvara's lifeless, bloody body that had fallen in a heap in front of Marcus's reanimated corpse.

Oh my God...Tee get out. Get him out.

Tee and Stephen turned in the air to see that a larger red orb floated in the place where Varvara stood, besides Gargorra's box and beside a deep pool of water. While their backs were turned and the other's distraction sufficed, this Entity had crept out from the black pool, catching Varvara unawares with its display.

It chuckled again, "Humans...they're so fun to play with but they never last long." On cue, Marcus's corpse fell to the floor once more.

"Why? Why would you do that?" Stephen growled.

"Oh look, I upset it." Came the other Entity's nonchalant response.

"Tee offered you peace!"

"That's nice. I came here to have fun." It levitated to the height at which they were, "Do you want to know what else I can do?"

It darted toward Stephen who barely had a second to register its speed and thankfully had no need to register its attack as Tee promptly shoved the sorcerer out of the way, instead allowing itself to be pounded into the rocky wall.

"Strange! Leave here now!" Tee yelled huskily, recoiling from the other's glow, concerned that the only other mortal being might not see it through this fight.

He yelled, "I'm not leaving you and Tessa!"

"But I don't want to play with you yet, brother," The other said lowly, "I want to play with him."

And again it zoomed towards the doctor. This time Stephen had mere seconds to successfully conjure a shield but even with a protective field, he was still knocked back and, had it not been for his trusty cloak, he may have likely found himself incapacitated too, being so near to the rock. As the wicked creature sent relentless bursts of power intended to exhaust him, he responded with determined grunts while Tee lasso-ed the crimson orb with a dark, ethereal whip.

You have a plan, right?

Yes, and that was to get it into the box.

But how?

How was another question entirely.

It spun, swinging the orb away form Stephen and releasing it into another rock race. The whole cavern shook at the impact and some rocks and stalactites were set loose, cascading down from the ceiling and landing with loud crackling crashes and sharp splashes on the wet floor and into deep pools below.

Stephen's cloak effectively dodged the falling debris, but Stephen himself was more concerned with the idea that the whole cave could come crashing down on them any second if Tee and the other Entity continued like this. They had to end this soon and the only way to do so was with Gargorra's Box. He zipped over to the relic, landing by it carefully, rapidly analysing the complex runes and ancient sanskrit on the sides once again. The box was opened, that was good, now he just needed the evil creature within its vicinity and he would be able to perform the trapping spell.

As Tee and the Entity fought, more stone fell from above, at one point knocking Tee's shoulder which gave the sinister one a chance to knock back its opponent. Given the force the cruel one used, Tee barely registered it was sailing through the air quicker than a swooping hawk when it hit the craggy face and fell several meters, luckily, into a pool of water below.

The splash drew Stephen's attention and his gaze flashed up, seeing Tessa's body face down in the water.

"Tessa!" He yelled, grabbing his clever cloak from off his shoulders and throwing it in her direction.

But as his cloak rushed over, the ruby sphere above laughed and turned its attention to the relic-less sorcerer and the box. This time, it didn't rush but slowly stalked toward the sorcerer from above, as though it enjoyed the look of a frightened hare realising it was cornered by a fox. The red glow crept up onto Stephen's face as it got nearer and he pressed himself up against a large stalagmite that blocked the way behind him. Just a little closer, he thought, a little closer and then he would be able to trap it.

"Will you be more fun than the lying man?" The evil one questioned, creeping closer and closer.

"I guess you'll have to find out." Stephen said, ready to perform the spell.

Just a little bit clo - but before he could finish his thought, a red, tongue-like whip lashed out from the orb, snatching his left arm, then another grabbed his right, two more grabbed his legs and a final two grabbed his torso and neck. Agonising, primal yells left the sorcerer's lips as it felt as though the evil Entity seared his flesh through his robes.

"Tessa! Entity!" Stephen cried out.

Tee, come on, wake up!

The cloak had brought Tee to the driest part of the cavern they were in, doing its best to perform CPR on the body before it. But as a cloak, of course, it struggled to properly put the oomph in its chest compressions.

Stephen's screams drew the cloak's attention and it peaked over the stalagmite it was behind with the body.

Tee, please, Stephen's in trouble! Tee!

At seeing the sight, if the Cloak had eyes, they would have widened in cartoonish horror before turning around and performing CPR double-time - not that it helped.

And thankfully it didn't need to, for when the sorcerer yowled in pain, Tessa fought to regain control, her eyes shooting open and, spluttering first, she pushed herself up and rushed over, golden whip in hand, lasso-ing the other once more, while the Cloak promptly wrapped itself around Stephen's shoulders, desperately trying to tear its Master out of the evil Entity's grasp.

"Let him go!" Tessa shrieked, heartbroken by her sorcerer's cries as she and the Cloak tried to yank them apart.

Tee, please, come on, she begged in her head, unsure of how long she would be able to hold on for.

When it heard Tessa's voice, the sinister Entity was persuaded to let go of the sorcerer and did so in a way that meant the Cloak pulled him back into a rocky face, incapacitating him.

"Stephen!"

The orb spun to face her (she presumed for the intelligent sphere looked the same all around) and began to move towards her instead. However, this was not before one of its tongue-like limbs grabbed Gargorra's Box and smashed it.

"No!" She cried, stumbling backwards out of exhaustion, as her hope evaporated with the relic.

"Come, little child, come to me..." It sang its song to her again, it's ethereal limbs floating closer and closer to her as she fought to keep conscious, to keep getting away.

She pleaded quietly once more, "Tee, please..."

Somewhere within her mind, the Entity stirred, groggily coming to. As it became aware of the impending arrival of an extra flatmate in their mind, just before Tessa's eyes flickered shut, it rushed to gain control. Black eyes stared up at the other Entity and Tee hurriedly formed a portal right as it was about to latch onto Tessa. The other Entity disappeared into it and Tee shut it again, dropping its arms to rest against the cool stone floor while it got its breath back.

"The box..." Tee sat up when it didn't hear Tessa respond now and saw the splintered wood and bent metal pieces strewn across the place it had once sat whole, "No..."

Tee shut its eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of its nose as it realised they would have to follow through with its 'Plan B'. The Entity didn't want it to come to this but now they faced no choice.

With a heavy sigh, it stood, approaching the injured sorcerer who was being apologetically petted by his cloak. The sentient material slapped his face a few times, rubbed his hair and gently dabbed the cut on the side of his head. Soon, the doctor awoke too, groaning softly at the soreness of his back and limbs. He batted the motherly material away as Tee offered him a hand up.

"Where is it?" He questioned, "Where's the other Entity? Where did it go?"

Tee thought for a moment, a little weary as it tried to recall the first place it had thought of. Only once it remembered did its eyes widen with regret, apology and urgency.

"We have to get back to Kamar-Taj."