Hex begrudgingly went alone to the warehouse Macabre Hearse was at. He didn’t believe there was anything important, even though the note made of newspaper clippings said there was. He was led in by Elaine’s subordinates, and was taken to an empty room with a single chair with what looked to be a dummy covered in a black cloth, but he couldn’t really tell because the chair had a high back.

“What’s this about?” he asked, his arms folded, feeling very displeased that she got him to come out of his own curiosity.

“I know you wouldn’t believe a word I say, so I’m here to show you your future if you don’t listen,” she said, and walked up to the chair.

“Are you just going to show me visions, or a puppet that looks like my future self? That’s kinda creepy actually, please don’t,” he said.

“No, it’s best if you saw your future… In the flesh.” She grabbed the black cloth and yanked it off.

The future Hex was on the chair, the adhesive to keep his face from bleeding was nowhere to be seen. His shirt was off, revealing the Y incision on his chest.

Hex threw up as soon as the cloth came off.

“What… What the fuck happened to me?!” he shouted.

“I can explain,” the future Hex said.

“Wait, is that, is that coming from him?” The present Hex pointed at his future self.

“Yes, that’s his voice, he’s using telepathy, I used a spell on him that could make him do that.” She patted the future Hex on the shoulder.

“I don’t have much time, do not go outside again today, for any reason.” The future Hex shook his head, blood dripping from the sides of his face where his lower jaw should have been.

“Is that why I ended up like that?” he asked.

“I’d rather you locked yourself in your room for today, you’re going to be possessed sometime today, by Pestilence, and I don’t want you attacking Din, because that’s how I came to be,” the future Hex said.

“Is there any way to stop it?” he questioned further.

“I’m not sure, Elaine?” The future Hex looked to her.

“I think so, I may have something for that.” She walked out of the room, then came back with a key chain made of red string, knotted and tied in an odd manner.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“If you put this in your pocket, whatever demon you have can’t possess you. You can also put it on a necklace.” She handed him the key chain.

“Is there any way to exorcise it?” he asked

“You’ll have to ask Dr. Gage for that. I think he said something about putting the evil spirit in an android body, but the first successful instance of that escaped.” She frowned.

“Thank you… Also, what’s going to happen to my future self?” He turned to future Hex.

“Unfortunately, I had to get someone to erase the timeline he was in, he can’t go back. And you two can’t merge either, so he’s stuck here, but I’ll take care of him, I promise.” She walked back to the future Hex and patted his shoulder again.

“Can I have the adhesive on my face back please? Being without it really hurts,” the future Hex said.

“We’ll go back to Dr. Gage and get that squared away. Anyways, what do you want to be called? We can’t have two Hexes,” she said.

“I don’t know, you name me, you were the one who brought me back,” the future Hex said.

“I don’t know, I’m bad at naming things, at least that’s what people tell me,” she said.

“It should be fine,” the future Hex said.

“Hmm… What about Pain?” she asked.

“That seems good, Pain it is.” He held still as Elaine put the adhesive strips on his exposed flesh.

“It’s going to be messy until we get you your new lower jaw.” She wiped some of the blood coming off his jaw onto a tissue.

“So he’s just stuck in this reality? That’s terrible, what’s he going to do without Din?” he asked.

“She broke up with me before I died, I was going to have to get used to life without her anyways, she also said she was going to leave the band and move away.” Pain shook his head.

“Stay still, I need to put these on.” Elaine’s hands shook a little as she placed the adhesive strip on his upper jaw.

“What happened exactly?” Hex questioned further.

“I made a deep scratch on her belly when I got possessed, and she didn’t believe that I was possessed. That’s how it all went down.” Pain said.

“Oh shit, that’s fucked. Where… Where did you go when you died?” he asked.

“Heaven. Surprisingly, I was able to get in. I believe I have proof of it,” Pain brought out his wings and turned to the side. His wings were dark purple and almost completely torn off, some feathers poking out from behind his back. The center of the end part of both wings had exposed flesh with stitches on it.

“Did it just turn out that way or did they have to tear them off?” he asked.

“They had to tear them off, they left a little bit though, because they liked me,” Pain said.

“I don’t believe that, if I were to get to heaven, they’d fucking hate me.” he said.

“They do a cleansing of the soul when you are allowed in,” Pain said.

“I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t affect me,” he said.

“You’d be wrong, it did,” Pain retorted.

“Well shit, you were the one who was there, not me, I can’t really argue with you too much about it.” Hex shrugged.

“That’s fine, just heed my warning and you won’t end up like me.” Pain pointed to the empty space where his lower jaw should have been.

“One last thing, is there anything you want to change to make it easier to tell you two apart?” she asked.

“I have just one thing that I can think of for now.” Pain reached for his hair, and forced some of it down to the left side of his forehead, making bangs only for the left side of his hair.

“That looks good on you,” she said.

“It was all I could do, at least right now. Anyways Hex, you should be getting home, let’s hope the protective charm does enough,” Pain said.

“Yeah, goodbye.” Hex turned and walked away.

Hex left the warehouse very disturbed, seeing the ghost of his future in the flesh scared and excited him. It sent adrenaline through his veins just thinking of how close to death he was, possibly hours away.