Rein limped; he was putting all of his weight on Lee, and Lee wasn't in peak condition at this point. The two of them hobbled through the ruins of some random square in Manhattan, trying to make their way back to the office of Akeem. They hadn't had reason to still trust Akeem, but he seems to know more than they did, and that was important.

As they got to the office, Rein knocked on the door with his good arm. The arm that he had used to grab the pieces of the ape had a slight black tinge to it. The shadow seems to have never really dissipated, but neither he nor Lee knew what it was.

The door opened. "Welcome back, my hero's hope that was as interesting for you as it was for me," Akeem laughed a bit. The two boys grimaced; never in their lives had they seen or done anything that dangerous, and the aftermath of it still hadn't washed over them yet. They were in no mood to joke with the man who set them up.

Lee was just glaring at Akeem, while Rein had balled his fists, ready to yell, "What the hell was that, and how could you just knowingly release it into the world? And, And-". Rein was in the middle of continuing his rant when he collapsed to the ground. Lee had stopped holding him when they entered, but he ran to his side. Lee noticed the black shadow on Reins arm completely enveloped his forearm, not touching his hand but almost thirsting at the prospect of getting there.

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Rein awoke, looking around. He had a fury boiling inside of him, a deep anger that had festered for years. Something irreplaceable yet not unfamiliar. Around him were tall, dark stone walls made of some disgustingly formed brick.

'Back here, and these must be thoughts of the white ape, oddly similar to the last one.' Rein had noted that their emotions weren't just similar; their thought processes were too; maybe they were similar creatures. After separating his thoughts from the apes, his mind went into a spiral, and thousands of years passed again in the blink of an eye. He hadn't experienced all of the years; otherwise, he might have gone insane. But he did experience a lot of the emotional buildup that came with it. As the moment passed, his vision blurred and went fuzzy. Suddenly, he felt nauseous, but the ape he was inhabiting hadn't, so he couldn't act on this emotion. The ape simply sat in its cage, just as it had for years. Rein noted that small fuzzy shapes approached the tower and disappeared. Some had resisted and even walked away; some had come as close as the door; and some had even done what he called slipping. Slipping was the act of touching the door to the tower. You didn't open it, but you did end up joining the inhabitants. Rein knew this as he saw fuzzy shapes pass by his set of stairs; it seemed newcomers needed to go to the top of the tower.

He hadn't understood any of this, but occasionally he did see humanoid forms walking up the stairs. Their steps were more uniform than those of the other biped creatures. One in particular seemed less fuzzy; he could almost make out a face, red hair, and very distinct silhouette features with his sharp jaw and pronounced cheekbones. But his face was never blurred.

'This is my world; this is what I saw for millennia.' Rein suddenly heard another voice, and he recognized the feeling that it was the same as when the red ape had talked to him. The white ape had chosen to first share its thousands of years of pain before communicating.

'I got that, but why show me this? I killed you?' Rein had questioned back.

'First of all, you didn't; the skryer did; you merely incapacitated me.'

Rein put aside the thoughts of the string wielder now known as the skryer. He questioned back, 'Why are you so calm, unlike the red one I killed earlier? Also, what did you mean free? I absorbed you.'

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'My red brethren were imprisoned for much less time; I've been in here for long enough to gain some control and acceptance of my imprisonment. They on the other hand were some of us to get taken. Running all the way to the far southern plains of Androma,' the ape said the last part with some fondness Rein had picked up. "But to answer your question, I've been dead for years; no mortal soul can live for that long. But that tower kept my soul in a state of purgatory, making me and all of us attest for our sin of freedom.' Rein could feel the ape wanting to spit and flare out just speaking of it. "But, after you kill me, you absorb my soul with your shadow, and I feel the soul of my brethren being let go. I'm not sure where we go, but what I know is that I can suddenly feel this freedom. But, just looking at your friend, I know if he killed me, I would be sent right back to that tower.'

'Is that why you attacked us?' Rein questioned him; he thought that if he was the key to freedom, why would they want to kill him?

'No, only after gaining clarity could I notice it, but when we leave the tower, those thousands of years of rage just seem to spill out... It's almost like I just need to let it out.'

Rein mentally nodded, hoping the ape could feel his acknowledgment.

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Rein woke up with a blistering headache. It looked like only a few minutes had passed, but to him, years of emotions had taken their toll on his soul.

"Rein you okay? If that's going to happen every time we fight, I'm going to need some warning." Lee had a wry smile, but Rein could see his concern for him on his face.

"Yeah, it's alright." As Rein was getting up, a burning pain went through his skill. The image of the man he saw from the white apes vision, his distinct red hair, made Rein feel uneasy. His own red hair had always made him feel uncomfortable; they weren't the same shade, as his was much lighter in color. The shaded man's hair was more of a sickly red, almost tinted by the nasty color of the tower. The headache passed almost as quickly as it came, with Rein trying not to show the pain the vision had caused him.

Then he looked up and remembered, "I have vision of the person who manipulated those strings earlier!" Rein was excited; he had even managed to get some useful information while he was out.

Lee grimaced, to Rein's confusion. He looked up and saw where Lee had turned his head—a girl had been standing there. The girl wasn't very tall nor large, but just her presence made Rein feel uncomfortable; her face wasn't pretty average, with slightly lifted cheekbones, but besides that, nothing of too much note. But her outfit was a beautiful silken shawl; every thread in it was distinct but still woven tightly. The piece of fabric seemed like it elevated the person who wore it to a higher plane. Rein could tell that without it she wouldn't be standing nearly as tall and proud, but with it she seemed to be able to look down on anyone.

Rein had only noticed he was staring after a slight drop hit his palm; he had drooled a bit. The shawl was breathtaking, and even the girl wasn't bad-looking, he had to admit. He quickly turned away, hoping she wouldn't notice his drool, but saw from the corner of his eye that she had given him a strange look and taken off the shawl. It looked like his theory was correct. She shrank down a bit, and he could now see her body. She was very slim, almost like a dancer, or maybe she was; he had no idea.

After a few moments of silence, Rein decided to pipe up. As it seemed the girl and Lee were already acquainted, he decided to get his answers himself. "So you're the one that stole my kill!" Rein wanted to lighten the mood with a joke; he knew he was toast against that thing.

"You mean, save your life!" The girl didn't seem to like his joke, which rebuked him. After shouting, she noticed she wasn't wearing the shawl and shrank down again.

"Sorry, sorry, I just tried to joke around. I know you saved Lee and me. Thank you."

The girl let out an audible harrumph and just blew out an exhausted puff of air.

Lee decided to break the tension a bit by saying, "Her name is Samira; she's a"

"Skryer, yeah, I got that already, sorry, but could you let me know about that cloth she wore?"

Some confusion spread across Lee's face before letting out his own small puff of air. "That is some traditional clothing of the skryers; it helps channel into the veil or something. I heard he talk to Akeem about the veil getting weaker. Apparently she's Akeem's partner, but just in terms of fighting, don't you worry." Lee gave a small wink; he saw that look in his friend's eye earlier.

"Hey, I don't! Fuck it, I'm not arguing with you, but I would like to know. What is the veil?"

"I'm glad you asked." Akeem finally took his turn in the conversation.