Royce opened his eyes and saw he was in the, all too familiar, black void. 'Oh fantastic...' he thought as he waited for one of his dead friends to show up and start reprimanding him for his latest failure, what ever that might be. He looked around but found no one. He began to grow impatient as he waited. He didn't want to spend any more time in this place than was necessary. Soon a figure emerged from the surrounding gloom and approached him. He strained his eyes, but the figure remained hard to see until he was very close. Royce could only gasp at what he saw. It was him. An exact copy of him, only there was something very unsettling about his doppelganger. His face was even paler than Royce's and his eyes were much darker. A cruel and mocking smile was stretched across his face as he stared directly at Royce.
"Who..." Royce started to ask, but was cut off. "Shut it! I don't have time for a lot of explaining, so listen good." the apparition said in a harsh tone. "I'm the thing that's going to help you stay alive in the battles to come. So I don't wanna have any trouble from you, got it? You struggle and your a dead man. I'm giving you fair warning." Royce started to protest, but the apparition frowned and slapped him with surprising force. After struggling to stay on his feet for a moment his vision cleared and he saw the other walking away. "By the way, I don't like being associated with you, so tell your friends to call me Roy. Now WAKE UP!" Roy called over his shoulder.
