The image that formed in the reflection made Robin's heart stop.

Holly's limp form had fallen over a bloodied Robin duplicate. Her eyes glazed over with a strange silver color. Standing over her was a tall, lanky man whom Robin didn't recognize. The man had a small mustache and balding, reddish-brown hair. He wore a dark tweed suit with a dark brown crossbody bag slung around his chest. In his hands were the crumbled remains of Robin's necklace, carefully breaking it further apart between his fingers.

Robin felt his stomach lurch, bile rising to his throat as he saw who stood beside him.

 Robin's brother, Otto, stood with his arms across his chest, reaching into his coat pocket as he discussed something with the man.

"-too, Hank, with her apprentice's earrings," Otto was saying, pulling out two small earrings from his pocket, which crumbled at his touch.

"Perfect. Well done, Otto," Hank snorted approvingly, pulling out a small sack from the satchel across his chest and pouring the remains of the necklace into it. Lazily passing over the sack for Otto to do the same.

Otto grunted in response as he dumped the powdered earrings into the bag, tearing a strip of cloth from his suit vest to tend to the bloodied claw marks that littered his arms.

"It's too bad the earrings weren't enough to control her. But I admit, it was a good idea. It would have made this whole thing a lot easier. The little girl handed them over so willingly to her dear aunt. I almost thought, there is no way it's gonna be this easy, right?" Hank laughed, tossing the bag of crumbled metal at Otto's feet.

Robin's heart dropped. They weren't talking about Jo... were they?

"But nope," Hank continued with a sigh. "It's never that easy for us magicians," he growled, spitting on the ground next to him. "Good thing you had your backup plan, huh?" 

Hank snorted, bending down to get a closer look at the fake Robin's dead body. "You're just as much of a genius as they say," he mused, analyzing Robin's marred flesh. "When you said you could get your brother to break her heart, I wasn't expecting all this." 

Otto only responded with an uncomfortable smile, anxiously pulling his makeshift bandages tighter against his arms. 

Hank slowly stood back up to gently pat Otto on the shoulder, misreading his guilt. "I didn't expect you to kill him for our cause. You continuously impress me with your loyalty, Otto."

"It was my only option. My brother was in love with her when I arrived." Otto grumbled, glancing at his brother's body. "Robin never gave any woman attention in London. He was always too focused on his work...  I planned on Holly falling for him, and then Robin would break her heart when we left, but... he wouldn't leave her, so—"

Hank placed a hand on Otto's shoulder, giving him a reassuring shake. "A sign of a great man is how easily he can adapt to his circumstances. He makes the best of each situation to achieve his goals, regardless of the sacrifices he has to make." Hank emphasized, lightly poking Otto in the chest. "You did the right thing, Otto. It's for the greater good," 

Hank turned, walking over to lightly kick the unconscious Holly as his face twisted into a scowl. "Besides, your brother was a fool to fall for this woman. It was only a matter of time before destruction fell upon a weak man like him. Weak men with no true direction for themselves beyond the whims of emotion. Only those with a true purpose survive. It's just how the world is."

Otto nodded in agreement, but there was a flash of hesitation in his eyes.

"Now, go ahead and use what you learned from Holly. Here are the other stones you have already collected. Begin building the armor," Hank instructed, nodding to the bag at Otto's feet before tossing Otto his satchel.

Otto looked at Hank warily as he snatched the bag from the air and picked up the small bag at his feet.

"Now that we have the metal for the base, we have all the components we need to fuse the stones and make the ultimate heart stone. We now have all the players needed for our game."

"But, what ab—" Otto began, his dark brows knit in uncertainty as he placed the small bag in the satchel.

"Listen to me, Otto," Hank interrupted, quickly picking up on Otto's reluctance. "If you climbed the ranks and had seen what I've seen, you would understand. There are evil, selfish people in the world who want to take control. Suppress those weaker than them. And these people have the unfair power to do so. We have to stand in the way and not let that happen, "

 Hank grabbed Otto's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze as his eyes searched Otto's. "If I run for president, and people see I can control some of the strongest beings alive, they'll assume I'm even more powerful. And if they elect me, I can use my power to protect the people of the Great Plains, and we can be one of the strongest nations that has ever been-"

"But what if they don't elect you?" Otto mumbled.

Hank snickered, dropping his arm as he shook his head.

"That won't happen, Otto. See, what I lack in power can easily be made up for with fear," Hank replied, softening his voice. "We're doing hard things, and there will be sacrifices, but this is a necessary evil."

Otto gave him a skeptical glance. "Is it truly necessary?"

"Listen," Hank growled, his tone growing frustrated. "We've been over this, Otto. Maybe you don't fully understand what's going on, or why I  do what I am doing, but I need you to put trust in that gap."

Hank drew close to Otto once more, his lanky build towering over Otto. "For example, when you wanted to send your brother to Sunshine Acres, and have him involved instead of you, did I understand it? No! But did I trust you? Yes. And look how well that worked out," the tall man leaned down so he was eye level with Otto. "Otto, I need you to do the same for me, okay? If you want to be my Aide of Magic and Sorcery, becoming rich beyond your wildest dreams, then you have to prove you trust me. You've done well so far. Significantly better than I expected....Don't start backsliding now."

Otto sighed, dropping his gaze. "Of course, sir. Forgive me. The loss of my brother has clouded my judgment."

"Yes, well, " Hank scoffed, stiffening as he cast Otto an annoyed glance. "That's an easy fix." 

Reaching into his top vest pocket, he grabbed a large bronze stone. As soon as Hank had pulled it from his pocket, Otto's eyes glazed over in a gray silver color, and Otto robotically sat on the ground, pulling back out the bag full of Holly's heart stone to fuse the metal together.

After a few minutes of work, Otto's eyes returned to normal, and in his hands sat a large, muddled, chunk of dark blue-black metal.

"Hmm, spectacular. We didn't manage to get all of it, but it's still an impressive piece of stone," Hank mused with a grunt, taking the chunk from Otto's hands and rotating it in his own, watching as the silver-blue metal caught the light of the dimly lit barn. I can't believe I ever threw this out. How wasteful I once was." Hank said with a chuckle, "But, in the end, I couldn't stand her," he muttered, spitting at the motionless Holly on the ground. "She was so weird and clingy. I almost commanded her to die back in Utah; I was so fed up with her. Good thing I didn't, huh?"

Otto stared at Holly for a moment, glancing at Hank with a small smile before dropping his gaze again.

"While you try to make a breastplate with all the stones. I'm going to command her to go home and wait for further orders from me. That should keep her in my grasp until you finish. Can't have her waking up and fighting back when we are already so close."

"I'll transport her back to the farm before getting started on the breastplate," Otto replied, taking Holly's heart stone from Hank to put it into the sack with the others.

"No need, Otto. She can walk," Hank said, as he watched Holly stand, emotionlessly pushing herself off the Robin duplicate. "Might as well get her steps in. She's done enough sitting around doing nothing over these last couple of years, after all."