Lyn paced and forth, furiously tapping away on her phone. She bit down on her nails and swatted away loose strands of hair falling in front of her eyes. Her room was a mess, clothes torn and tossed all over the place. A lamp lay shattered by her bed and a coffee spill covered her desk.

As Lyn focused on her phone, she jumped when someone knocked on her door.

"W-Who is it?! Answer!"

She glared towards the door, her hand clenching into a fist.

A man on the other side responded.

"One of your agents. Mr-"

"Okay okay, I don't care. What do you want? Stop... playing stupid fucking games with me."

Lyn picked at the scabs lining her fingers.

"Of course. Your new cosmetologist has arrived."

Lyn looks around at her tattered room.

"Finally... finally. Okay. Bring them in."

Her door opens and Meda walks in.

"Good evening Miss Jin. My name is Reia. I hope to be of use to you."

Meda bows.

Lyn looks at Meda.

"Hope? Just hurry up. Show me what you can do."

Meda ignores the mess and sets her bags down.

"Before that, I do run on a certain schedule. I have various other clients and events I have to attend so I think we should go-"

Lyn gets up close to Meda.

"What the fuck are you talking about. Do what I'm paying you for. I don't care about anyone else. Don't think. Do. Now hurry up."

Lyn sits down and shakes her head.

"Why is it so hard to find people who can do their job? I mean I heard you're supposed to be one of the best in Empire Trova but five seconds in and you're already insufferable."

Meda doesn't comment. She begins to moisturize Lyn's face. Lyn bounces her leg and stares into her cracked mirror.

As the process continues, Meda applies a primer and foundation. Lyn's eyes narrowed as she looked out of her window. Skyscrapers cover most of the view as they ascend into the clouds.

"Barely made a dent. Harvey's still showing his dick off to everyone."

Lyn picks at the skin around her nails.

"Do you have any idea how much I've had to put into my tower? It's ridiculous. Bodies and bodies have been shovelled into it but it just doesn't want to work with me."

Meda slowly nods.

"Your tower still is in the top ten per cent. That feat is impressive alone. Most crash because it takes too much to manage."

Lyn scoffs.

"Did I tell you to speak to me?"

Meda keeps her head down.

"Apologises."

"Firing agents. Hiring agents. God, it's so annoying. No one can do ANYTHING around here. I don't know how the top one per cent do it. Sometimes I think I should just hire a private military or one of the mafia's to invade another tower. At this rate, I need to. The market for Strand is slowing. Dumbasses keep buying it out before I can get to it."

Lyn looks at her phone.

"You agree right? Some of these towers need to go. Maybe I can even steal their Necrosites... that would be..."

Lyn giggles mischievously.

"Fuck me... I might just do that."

Meda continues the makeup process, adding contour, blush and shadow.

"As long as I'm getting paid, do whatever you can."

Lyn begins to relax.

"Yeah... You get it."

Lyn looks at her phone, notifications rapidly popping up.

"Shut up..."

The notifications piled up, her gaze fixated on it, she didn't even blink.

"Stop it..."

Her nails dug into her thighs.

"Be quiet..."

Lyn's hand began to twitch and jerk.

"WHY AREN'T YOU SHUTTING UP!"

Lyn goes to grab her phone when Meda quickly turns it off.

Meda put Lyn's phone out of sight.

"I know that reaction all too well."

Lyn gave Meda a nasty scowl in the reflection.

"What do you mean by that?"

Meda got stuck on her words for a second, she tried to think of a response that didn't end in Lyn killing her right now.

"This city is so noisy. Never a moment to think. Never a moment to myself. It's suffocating. I can barely be myself or strive to do my best. Sometimes, I leave the city limits and go to the southern coast. I throw one of my shoes off the cliff, towards the ocean. I watch to fall, waiting for it to hit the sea but... it never does. It always hits the rocks below... before stopping just inches away."

Lyn's expression softens.

"You... do understand."

Lyn looks away from the mirror up at Meda, her eyes soft and watery.

"I want to see a place like that. Will you show me one day?"

Meda smiles.

"For you... of course."

Meda gently swipes a loose strand of hair out of Lyn's face.

Lyn looks back towards the cracked mirror and sees that Meda finished with her makeup. She gently touches her face.

"That's... me."

Lyn's lips twitch in the direction of a smile, but she never fully smiles; she only gives split-second grins.

"I'm so pretty. I'm pretty! I'm pretty! Me! I'm pretty!"

Lyn reaches out and caresses her own face in the reflection.

Meda packs her things away.

"You are. Very much so. I'm glad I could make you feel that way."

Lyn stares deep into the mirror, her smile slowly fading.

"Why... is my mirror cracked?"

Meda freezes and turns to Lyn. Her eyes were wide and she was looking at Meda in the reflection. Meda's body wouldn't move.

"It... was like that when I got here?"

Lyn turns to Meda.

"What the hell..."

Lyn looks around her room, clothes are thrown about. A couple of her favourite dresses were torn and her nightlight was shattered.

"What did you do?!"

Meda backs away.

"I-I didn't do this. I walked in and it was already like this."

Lyn bites her lip and picks at her fingers.

"You trashed my room?! Are you fucking insane?!"

Lyn lunged at Meda and grabbed her by the throat.

"You bitch! You dare disrespect me?! I'm Lyn Jin. I was a fucking overseer in Nuclear City! I'm one of the top towers in Empire Trova! I'm a celebrity."

Lyn's nails dig into Meda's neck.

"You fuck with me... and I'll feed your body to my tower."

Lyn lets go and walks away. Meda touches her bruised neck, wincing as blood trickles from where Lyn's nails dug in.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to offend you, Miss Jin."

Lyn doesn't look at Meda, instead she stares at herself in the mirror.

"You're lucky you did a good job."

Lyn grabs one of her coats.

"Clean my room. You're hired."

Meda watches Lyn leave before leaning against the wall. She gently closed her eyes.

Present day...

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Will paced around as Meda lay on the floor unconscious.

"Okay. The memory went well. No disruptions. She looks okay in that! Will she wake up then?! Prin!?"

Prin inspected Meda.

"No, stop walking in circles and lower your voice. I had to manually puppet Meda in that memory or else she would have gone off script due to her invisible injuries."

Prin knelt and used her flowers to check on Meda's health. The flower began to wilt rapidly once connected to Meda.

"Her mind is still feeling the effects of the injury."

Will lifted his mask so that he could breathe properly for a second.

"Not to mention her memories are non-linear. Great..."

Prin scooped up Meda in her arms.

"The best course of action is to keep moving forward. Eventually, we will find the part of her memories where she overcomes her injuries."

Will turns and sighs.

"And what if there isn't?"

"Then she wouldn't be here would she?"

"I know I know but... it's not totally out there that she might have died and come back. I mean look at us."

Prin's face softens as she looks down at Meda.

"I get what you're saying. We won't know until we get to that point. For now, let's-"

Suddenly, someone dropped from the sky. A person covered in strange wooden armour landed before Will and Prin.

Will fell back.

"What the?!"

Prin gently placed Meda down and readied herself.

"One of the invaders. Will, guard up."

Will pulled out his wooden steering wheel.

"On it."

The invader stood up and held out their staff, a pulsing heart in the centre of it. The invader dashed toward Will.

"Target spotted."

Will tossed his wheel at the invader. The wheel glowed red as it neared the invader. In a split second, the invader fired a bolt of green energy at the wheel. When the green bolt of energy hit the wheel it changed colours, going from red to blue, and was now flying back to Will. As the wheel approached Will, he threw a punch at it causing it to change back to red and fly toward the invader.

The invader wasn't expecting the wheel to come straight back so it slammed right into them. They were thrown across the jungle, skidding across the dirt. The wheel had turned blue after smacking into the invader and as it flew back to Will he punched it again. The Invader swiftly got up and saw the red wheel flying through the air. Not wanting to be knocked down again, the Invader launched a small barrage of green energy bolts toward Will and the wheel.

The red wheel was struck and changed back to blue. As multiple green energy bolts closed in on Will he dashed away. He weaved in and out of the trees as the Invader cast more green energy bolts toward him. Trees were blown apart by the energy bolts, and small craters formed where they landed. Will kept up the evasive maneuvers, the blue wheel still following him closely.

The Invader didn't let up and kept firing at the trees, hoping to eventually hit Will. To their surprise, however, the Invaders noticed that the trees they were blowing apart kept on coming back. Will ran in circles around the Invader, no matter how many trees were shot down it seemed they would sprout up again. The Invader looked around before spotting Prin hiding in the forest.

Her eyes were closed as she focussed on providing cover for Will. The Invader stopped firing at Will and turned his attention to Prin. Will smirked and used the opening to dart out from the trees and punch the blue wheel. The wheel turned red and smacked into the back of the Invader, knocking them over. The wheel changed back to blue but Will kept smacking it over and over again. The Invader couldn't block the attacks so the wheel continued to fly back and forth between Will and the Invader. Strobing blue and red.

"Had enough?"

After hitting the Invader with the wheel over a dozen times, Will grabbed the wheel, stopping its rampage.

The Invader lay still on the ground, their wooden mask hiding if they were still alive.

Prin walked over, carrying Meda.

"Seems the battle has finally started."

Will put his wheel away.

"So these are the guys from the sky then? The whole mask thing kinda makes it look like they could be one of us."

Will leans down and reaches for their mask.

The Invaders hand twitches and reaches for their staff. Will was too slow to react and as the Invader prepared to cast a green energy bolt at him a tree then sprouted from the invader's body. The Invader's screams were muffled by the roots of the tree. Soon the Invader and the tree had become one, their body providing the tree with a plethora of nutrients.

Will back away.

"Crap."

He looked to Prin—who was slowly calming down.

"That was close. Thanks."

Prin caught her breath.

"Don't mention it."

Will and Prin gather themselves. Dark clouds begin to grow above them. The darkness of the forest has grown even more frightening with each step. They continue through the forest. Will polishes his wheel as Prin keeps Meda securely in her arms.

"Never thought I'd be using this wheel as a weapon."

Will admires the wheel, a string of tally marks adorn a small part of it.

"I only ever used this for games back at the pond. Nice to know I'm not totally defenceless."

Prin kept an eye on Meda every time she groaned.

"I also have your back if things get dire."

Will slowly nodded, smiling beneath his mask.

"I know."

Will fidgeted with the hem of his cloak.

"Y'know... you should play with us sometime. I think you'll enjoy it. It's pretty simple so I'm sure you'd get the hang of it fast."

"Games aren't my thing."

"Then you can just watch. Not everyone plays, a couple just watch and it's still a ton of fun!"

"Sorry. I get busy looking after the island. I wouldn't be paying much attention if I were to watch."

"What if we helped you then? With taking care of the island. Jasmine's started caring for this really pretty flower. It's taken her a few tries with a couple of other flowers but it's been thriving in her care. I'm sure she and some others would love to help you."

"Things would be faster if I did it myself."

Will runs in front of Prin.

"What can I do then?"

Prin stops and looks surprised.

"None of you need to do anything."

"But we never see you! Linny misses you. Ronan, Wyatt, Jaxton, Aubrie, Kabir, Estella. They all want to hang out with you."

Prin looks away, her expression remaining neutral.

"Tell them I'm sorry but I have a duty."

"No! Tell them yourself. Prin... if you really are so busy why did you come along with me then?"

Prin doesn't answer. She looks off into the forest.

"That's it? You really... don't want to be around us?"

"Father resurrected me for a reason. He tasked me to care for the island while he does more important things."

"But aren't you tired? You've never taken a break since you became... part of the island. You didn't even show up to your own birthday party! We spent the rest of that day reassuring Amara that you didn't hate her for making a surprise party behind your back!"

"And I'm the reason you get the luxury of setting up a party. I keep everything on this island in check. I protect everyone. I'm perfectly fine not being involved. What you need to understand is that Father is the target of many people. Why do you think we're being invaded?"

Will stops and looks down.

"Protect... wait. The pond! If the Invaders found us they'll most certainly find the pond!"

Prin thinks for a second. She slowly realizes how vulnerable everyone is because she's out here.

"I..."

Will grabs Meda. He almost drops her but manages to hold her.

"I'll keep Meda moving forward. You check on the pond."

Prin sighs, her gaze betraying her true feelings.

"Yeah. I got it... I'll handle it."

Prin goes to leave when Will calls out to her.

"Prin! When you find the others... tell them everything will be okay. Please."

Prin reluctantly nods before disappearing into the jungle. Will keeps Meda secure in his arms as he jogs forward.

"Just you and me again Meda. Hang in there."

Meda groans in his arms.

"I'm not Prin but... even I can tell how bad it's getting. Not just with you... but with the entire island."

As Will continues to push forward, not paying attention to anything else, he passes by a couple of the Invaders hiding amongst the trees.

"One of Father's flock with another from the Initiate airship. The other one has left."

The Invaders stay hidden as they receive their new orders.

"Alright. We will follow her. Faith in ye, Messiah."

The Invaders quickly dispersed in the jungle.

The war rages on...