One (A SPM AU BASED ON LN2)

The Factory: Part 1

"One?" I asked, following behind him and cocking my head to the side, gently poking him to get his attention. But instead of responding, all the emotion seemed to disappear from his eyes. 

"Y-You okay?" I asked, panic lining my voice. It was like he just... suddenly hollowed out, leaving nothing but an empty body. He didn't respond to or even acknowledge me.

He just cocked his head to the side, seeming to take a deeper look at his mirrored reflection.

"One...?" I asked again, grabbing his arm this time. "A-are you there? One?!"

He didn't reply yet again. He just gently stepped forward, brushing me off his arm and approaching the mirror, just as before

I couldn't see much, other than One approaching the mirror, placing his hands onto it, then suddenly stepping inside as if there was no glass stopping him. 

But through his eyes, he said that just like before, he was hearing static. It was at a high-pitched frequency which almost hurt. 

As he touched the mirror, he saw that hallway once again. The mirror hallway, with a shut door at the end. Then, as he stepped inside the mirror, he was brought to it. He was brought back to that hallway.

The hallway felt more real this time, he said. It felt more true. Less like a mirror illusion and more like reality. The walls were slightly less tall and more proportional to his body. 

He didn't shout this time. He didn't call for help. He just ran. Ran towards the door at the end of the hall. 

As he ran past the mirrors, he was his reflection, but it wasn't quite him. It was him but slightly distorted in a different way as he passed each mirror. Some mirrors showed him with a different skin tone. Others with different eye colors. But always, it showed his face. Even though he was wearing a paper bag, the mirrors showed his face.

He didn't know why, but something inside him told him to open that door at the end of the hall. So, he continued running towards it.

He nearly made it this time too. He reached out to it, hands inches from the handle, when-

I suddenly reached in again and pulled him out, just like last time, falling backward onto my back, hugging him tightly.

"ONE, Q-QUIT DOING THAT!" I cried, hugging him tighter as he blinked, slowly regaining his thoughts and focus. The emotion slowly came back to his eyes and he slowly became himself again.

"H...Huh?" He asked, as I finally let him go, allowing him to stand up and look around. The mirror was shattered now, leaving pieces of sharp glass all around us.

"You did the thing again!" I exclaimed. "The-the thing where you stand inside the mirror!"

"Oh..." He hummed, calmly looking down and shrugging. "Oops..."

"OOPS?! W-What was that?! Why does that keep happening?!" I cried, standing up and grabbing his shoulders, shaking them slightly. "Y-You scared me!! What if you got stuck in there?! What if I wasn't there to pull you out?!"

"I won't, I won't," He laughed, calmly patting my shoulder in response. "You need to calm down, Six."

"Why does that keep happening though?! Is it some weird 'one' thing that I should know about?" I asked, trying to calm myself. It sadly wasn't working.

"I dunno," He shrugged. 

"W-Well is there a way we can find out...?" I asked. "Is that your power? Maybe it's your power!"

"If it is, then that's a really SAD power," One giggled. 

"Quit laughing. Th-this isn't funny! You scared me! Is there a way to find out what's going on or why that keeps happening?!" I cried.

"Well, maybe if you let me get to the end of the hall and open the door, we can see!" He shrugged, turning and looking at the shattered mirror, seeing his reflection in the broken glass shards now.

"... But not here, because I kinda broke it," He laughed, smiling through his eyes again. 

He then grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. "Come on, let's go." He seemed to just brush the whole situation off as if it was nothing to worry about, but I didn't feel quite the same. It was really... weird. And all the shattered mirrors we saw earlier... were those all him? Was that his power? Some sort of mirror thing? It seemed like a weird power for someone to have. Especially a one. 

That was the second time I ever encountered him with his powers, but definitely not the last.

He took me through a door and into another room, with one big door in front of it. He smiled and pointed up at it like it was a treasure chest or something. "There's our exit," He chimed. "See, this was WAY easier than the lab."

I let out a relieved sigh, then reach up for it, only to find there were a set of three locks on it.

"Uhhh, One? It's kinda locked," I pointed out, causing the boy to walk up next to me, seeming to raise an eyebrow from under the paper bag.

"Hmm... that's new..." He hummed, looking closer at the locks. "They're each a different shape... so that means there are three keys to find."

Oh great.

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing was ever that easy. Life always loved making things more complicated than they needed to be.

But when I complained about this to One, he simply smiled and said that life would be boring if it wasn't ever complicated.

"Hey, chin up. We'll find them," One assured, gently elbowing me and pointing his flashlight forward to one of the nearby open rooms. "I promise, I can find us a way out of here."

There were three open doors connected to this new room, not including the one we came in through, so three different areas to search. When I asked One what each place was, he explained that one was the prep area where the doctor would find parts like hands and legs for his creations. It was the 'pre-assembly area,' in One's words. 

He said the other area was where the doctor actually assembled the parts together to make beings. It used to be where the pixls were made back in the day, but had been re-purposed for making other projects and creations.  

And the last area was where the doctor worked on the already made machines, gathering data and testing on them.  He also said that there was an incinerator for failed creations so they wouldn't cause trouble. One told me that the doctor was going to put him in there before he escaped, but hesitated to because he didn't want all his 'parts,' to go to waste, which had given One his chance to escape the first time.

How messed up can this world get?!

Each area sounded horrible, and I was most definitely NOT excited about going in and looking for keys. But it didn't look like we had much of another choice, so One shined the flashlight forward, and started in the first room. The prep area.