The song for Sonja's time in Amniosis is "Nightmare" by NateWantsToBattle.

Warnings: 1 3/4 Mind games, a pinch of despair, and a cup of insanity

*Sonja's POV*

The voices had started up as Boris plunged into the lava. They kept arguing amongst themselves and bemoaning the loss of a beloved snowman as I left the lever puzzle room and moved higher into the crypt. I could barely hear myself think over them now. The tunnels seemed to alternate between mazes and parkour. And this place seemed to have a thing for killing creatures and people I loved. I saw Sir Thaumsworth, my cats, even something that looked like Tucker as I ran through the crypt. All of them appeared badly hurt, but they dissolved into sand before I could reach them. Part of me began to wonder if this was some new side effect of my forbidden knowledge rather then the crypt.

Halfway up one of the parkour sections, another snowman appeared on a ledge above me. The voices became frantic at the sight of another Boris melting. Boris, no!

No, I can save you!

Hold on!

I couldn't even tell which I actually yelled and which were in my head. I rushed my way through the next couple of jumps, nearly falling once. By the time I'd reached Boris, I had a golden lasso in hand, but I was too late. He was a sizzling moisture stain on the wood. I held back tears of frustration and growled as I shoved my lasso into my pocket and kept going.

When I reached the top on that parkour section, I found another maze awaiting me, but this one was different from the ones lower in the crypt. There were floor length mirrors hanging at random intervals on the dreamwood walls. I didn't realize Mianite was this vain. I cautiously walked into the maze

I'd been walking maybe ten minutes when several of the voices in my head started agreeing that there was something weird about the mirrors. Okay, okay. I hear you. I'll check out the next couple. Just be quiet. If they kept talking this fast, I was going to have a migraine by the time I got out of here. I studied the next two mirrors I walked past. I was a mess. A film of dried blood coated my skin and armor, and I didn't want to know what shape my clothing was in underneath that. My hair had dried in stiffly tangled ropes that would surely take a whole bottle of conditioner to work out. I wouldn't be surprised if Tom or Tucker screamed when they saw me next, though I was sure they wouldn't look much better.

I almost dismissed my worry and passed the third mirror without looking, but I caught a flash of color in the surface. "Hm?" I walked closer and could make out faint images playing on it, as if they were reflecting off the glass rather than the silver backing of the mirror. As I watched, the image came into sharper focus and the corridor and I became the faint reflection. It was Mianite and Tucker at Origin Ranch when I spied on them, before I suspected Mianite had done anything to my boyfriend. If I'd only known...I quickly ripped my eyes away from that reminder and focused on the ground as I walked. I looked up when I heard the next memory.

"Noooo!"

Sparklez! I looked up to see the mirror on the wall in front of me playing a montage of Sparklez losing Capsize (twice), Sparklez standing next to Ianite's memorial that he had built, and lastly him watching with tears in his eyes as Tucker slew the Ianitas. Played in sequence like that, I could appreciate how dead his eyes looked now compared to how I remembered them when he first moved into Casa de Sparklez in Mianite. Poor guy... Once I get out of here, I'll bake him something. I wonder how he's holding up? I haven't talked to him lately. I felt a little bad when I realized how long it had been since we'd hung out. The voices in my head wondered what seeing all this meant. I had no idea and declined chiming in.

A few mirrors later, I saw another memory: Wag lying unconscious in a bed. Tucker, Jordan, Mot, Kay, and Echo were huddled around him. I remembered this. It had been right after the wizards saved him. Wag had banished Tom to the Nether and collapsed back on his bed; he'd been unresponsive when we tried to wake him. We'd been so worried we might have lost him again. Martha and the wizards had all crashed out of exhaustion before that, and there had been nothing we could do to help him. It made me anxious just seeing the memory again. I'd never felt so powerless before.

I walked away from the mirror as Tom ran back into the room, freshly returned from the Nether. He'd been mad until he saw Wag. Then his expression had changed to one I rarely saw on the proud Dianitee—fear.

What do you think you're doing? You're not good enough to save anyone, A voice that definitely didn't belong to me asked.

I whirled around, bringing the goggles of revealing on my helmet down over my eyes. I couldn't see anyone around me, but I felt like I was being watched. I didn't like it. I wiped some blood from my goggles that I'd missed earlier and kept walking. With the goggles on, I didn't see or hear any more memories in the mirrors. What felt like an hour later, I'd decided this maze was bigger than the other ones I'd already passed. That, or I had gotten extremely lucky on the first few.

You'll never find how to keep going...There was that voice again.

I growled. "Show yourself!" I yelled, spinning to look around me. Still no one. A thought occurred to me that made me stop in my tracks. What if this place was like the Outer Lands? What if the crypt itself were alive? None of the other crypts had been like this. What was that Mianite had said about this place? He'd said that it wanted to keep him out; he'd called it "living". A shiver traveled up my spine, and I put new energy into trying to find my way out of the maze. Whatever this place was, it didn't seem friendly.

I rounded yet another turn in the maze to find myself at a dead end comprised entirely of mirrors. Even with my goggles on, I could tell something was off. The mirrors on the sides didn't show me at all. The reflection right in front of me looked normal, until I saw "my" eyes. The reflection had dark grey irises. That's not creepy at all, one of my voices commented as I stared at "me."

"Ah!" I screamed when the reflection blinked. I didn't do that! The reflection didn't mimic my shocked face or jump backward either. It smirked instead. That unnerved me more than I thought possible. I lifted my goggles and rubbed my eyes. Nope, my creepy reflection is still there.

"Well, that's not very nice," My voice said, but it was my reflection talking.

"Uhhhhhh." The voices in my head went silent. "Did you just...?" I asked my reflection. Honestly, I'd never felt so ridiculous.

The reflection crossed her arms and nodded. Then she took a step forward and out of the mirror as if it weren't even there. Now that she was closer, I could see a purple tinge to her scleras that almost seemed to glow; Tucker had told me that I'd had that once when I was crazy for two days straight. I didn't remember any of it. "So glad you noticed," my alternate said sarcastically. "I'm you if you keep up your research." She paused to laugh hysterically at nothing in particular, then continued as if she hadn't just done that, "It's not going to get you anything except a one-way ticket on the Insanity Express, you know."

You can't do this. You can't save them.

I clenched my fists and glared at this version of me that I didn't believe for a second was real. "Hmmm. I'm not buying it."

The corner of my reflection's mouth turned up in amusement. "I was hoping you'd say that. Here, let me show you," She said, putting one hand on my shoulder as if I were her friend. The voices in my head buzzed angrily as I pulled away from her. In apprehension, I realized that my reflection had slowly been circling me as we talked. She now stood between me and the only way out of this dead end, and the witch had somehow taken my golden bag of holding and my weapons belt. She looked quite smug holding them by her side. I stood there dumbstruck trying to figure out how she'd pulled that off. My eyes widened in horror as a mirror along the hall behind her swung soundlessly from the wall, sealing the narrow passage. We were trapped.

My reflection shook her head and stepped back through one of the mirrors, disappearing with my gear. "Not me," She said from wherever she'd gone. It sounded like she was everywhere at once. I touched the mirror closest to me and found it cold and solid. I was trapped.

The images in the mirrors along with the floor and ceiling melted and started turning into the padded walls of a familiar room. I fought a wave of vertigo at the shifting scenery. Once things had settled, I recognized where I was. This was the room Steve and I had locked Wag in that time we'd helped him break his meth addiction. What? Why am I here? I hesitantly walked up to the door; it was locked. Oh no! "Guys?" I called and squinted through the barred window in the door. It was really bright out there. Maybe I'm sun scorched. "Anyone there?"

"Sonja?"

I sighed in relief. Tucker. "Over here! Hey, can you let me out? I don't have my key or matter transporter on me," I said as Tucker trotted up to the bars.

Tucker frowned and leaned in to look at my eyes through the bars. "Your insanity finally broke!" He said, surprised.

Wait, what? "What are you talking about?" My eyes finally adjusted to the light, and my breath caught as I saw Tucker's eyes. His irises were more pale than I had ever seen them. They had been back to normal when we first entered the crypt, and he had been himself again, though disoriented. Mianite! No! How did this happen?

"You'd completely lost it by the time we found you in Amniosis. You nearly strangled Tom after one of his snide remarks. Wag had to knock you out with a spell. You've been insane for a week," He informed me coolly. No sympathy or joy stirred in his features.

I stared at him blankly for a moment. A whole week? We aren't in Amniosis anymore? I pressed the tips of my fingers to the softly padded wall. It felt real. "Well, I'm fine now. Could you let me out?"

Tucker shook his head. "Sorry, Mianite said that when someone reaches this stage of Thaumcraft-induced insanity, they're past the point of no return. You could relapse at any moment. It wouldn't be safe to let you out." His eyes flashed briefly, like they had after he'd killed the Ianitas, and he turned to walk away. Mianite had summoned him.

"Tucker, no! Fight him! Let me out; I'm still me!" I yelled and banged on the rowan wood door as he disappeared using one of his sigils. "No..." I let myself slide down the wall into the corner next to the door as despair threatened me. The voices returned, and I didn't bother trying to rein them in.

What did I do wrong?

Is this it?

Well fam, this is sad...

I want to go home. The other voices seemed to latch onto that one. A wave of homesickness for the Realm washed over me. I could practically see my old house with my Boris, happy and alive. Wait, I could see it. Was that a window or...? I reached out to touch the spot on the wall to my left and felt cold, hard glass. A mirror? This one was smaller than the ones in the maze, only the size of a picture frame. At the thought, more small mirrors appeared around my cell. There was Dine At Nite, the castle Tucker and I shared, the Forest of the Abyss, and the Mianite temple—before Dianite blew it into oblivion.

Then I saw my friends, beaten up and worn out, stumble into view of a mirror showing the Priest's house. They looked around, confused. Then I heard Tom's excited scream and saw him jumping up and down. "We're home!"

They wouldn't really leave without me, would they?

I noticed that Martha, Andor, and Mianite—the one from Ruxomar—had arrived with them. Mianite had a hungry look on his face as he took in everything around them.

"No!" He was going to win! I hit my palm on the mirror, hoping to get their attention, though I suspected this was a one-way thing. To my surprise, Mianite seemed to hear or sense me, because he turned to look right at me. I stopped banging on the glass as he stared at me. Then he grinned and winked with his good eye before turning back to the others, ignoring me.

"Leave my friends alone! Mianite, you're not getting away with this!" Frustration, hopelessness, and anger fueled the punch I aimed at the mirror—at Mianite's head to be specific. The mirror cracked, much to my surprise. "Ooooh. Ah," I hissed, shaking my hand. The cracks in the mirror spread further when I stood and kicked the weakened glass. Fractures spread out of frame to crack the cushioned walls of my prison, and I realized I was still in the maze. One final kick sent the whole wall crashing down in a cascade of fragmented memories and fears.

I carefully stepped through the shards of glass, hoping their solid crunch beneath my feet was real. I came out halfway up a vertical parkour section of tunnel. That's odd. How did I skip... "Tucker!" I shouted as I spotted my boyfriend on a ledge below me. He was lying facedown on a pile of sand.

I tried not to let myself think as I worked my way down to him. When I reached him, he didn't dissolve into sand like the other apparitions I'd seen here. I turned him over with his head in my lap. I was immensely relieved to find him still breathing, but he was unconscious. That was a problem. I looked up at the long stretch of parkour still ahead of us. I must have broken into his part of the crypt.

"Come on; wake up..." I quietly urged, patting his cheek. I reached for the bottle of water I had in my bag of holding, only to realize I was still missing my stuff. I swore not so quietly, and I gently set Tucker's head back on the sand. I made sure he was far enough from the edge that he wouldn't fall if he rolled over. Then I climbed back up to where I'd entered. The shattered glass was still there, but the wall had sealed shut as if nothing had ever happened. My things lay haphazardly amid the glass. Were those there before or...?

I picked my stuff up with one hand as if I expected them to bite me and turned them around. Yep, definitely mine. I shook the glass dust off and strapped on my weapons belt with my sword, pick, and wand. Then I tied my bag of holding back in place. I unscrewed the lid to my water bottle, looking down at Tucker from my vantage point. I grinned deviously and leaped to a ledge directly above him. I took a big drink, and then I poured the rest of the bottle so it would fall over Tucker's face.

"Ahhhhhh!" He yelled as he jerked upright, flailing in a panic.

"Ahahahaha!" I laughed, doubling over. The water had already evaporated, and sure, I didn't have anything left to drink now. But so worth it. I started gasping for air as he finally looked up and saw me with his dark brown eyes. Oh, I'll never get tired of seeing those eyes.

"Sonja?" Tucker asked, sounding like he wanted to believe I was there but didn't trust what he saw.

"Yep," I finally managed to get out. "That's my name." I paused as I heard voices echoing down from the top of the parkour section. That sounded like the others. I smiled as I called back to Tucker, "How about we get out of this freaky place? Our friends are waiting for us."