As Kita walks towards the centre of the Myst, dazed and entranced by the swirling winds- she feels no pain. No suffering amongst the storm that she once thought would kill her… Or had killed her once before.

According to Raya’s words.

Did she lie? To protect Kita or out of fear of what might happen if she learned of this.

Is this how I acquired souls in the past?

The Myst feels familiar to her. In a comforting way that almost makes her feel safe from any external threats. No one can reach her here.

Well, except for me, a voice arises in her mind. She can sense it inching nearer with each step she takes towards the eye of the storm. That’s where she’s going, to the centre. Unsure of why but knowing it feels right she marches forward.

Two hundred and thirty souls.

Inhabitants from all floors and all walks of life- she can feel each one as it enters her body, almost unwillingly. She can sense their pain and suffering, having barely faded away since the Myst tore them apart.

It hurt. It was designed to hurt until the very last moment. The detail in the design of this harvesting system causes a teardrop to fall down Kita’s cheek. She isn't entirely sure why but it must be because she can feel the overbearing emotions of each soul that passes into her.

This is different to how she consumes them. She knows now that she hasn't hurt anyone in taking their souls… Not physically at least. Not when she didn't mean to.

None of that makes her any better. All the souls accumulating within her make the myst a powerful tool with a monstrous effect.

I'm not a monster.

With a sudden realization, almost as if she is waking up from being awake, she realizes she is stepping into the eye of the storm when the raging Myst surrounding her suddenly ceases. There is nothing but a cool breeze gently pressing against her cheeks.

“Took you long enough,” A voice says from amongst the Myst.

As the shadowy figure approaches through the wafting fog, the depths of its shadow remain pitch black as it steps into the eye, facing Kita.

“I thought you weren't going to show up,” The grin of the shadow spreads across its abyssal cheeks as Kita’s eyes widen, and her breathing increases tempo.

“Ooh, you don't seem so happy to see me,” It chuckles.

Kita raises her finger, pointing at the creature as a boiling rage overcomes her, and she grits her teeth with immense force.

“That’s my soul,” She grunts with flame-filled eyes as she stares at a shadowed, dark incarnation of herself glaring back at her with her own smug smile.

“Surprise!” The dark one jests, “I thought I should remind you-”

Before it finishes its sentence, Kita uses twenty souls to burst in the dark one’s direction, summoning a flaming fist with another fifty.

“Oh-” The dark one stammers, taking a step back and raising a hand at Kita’s attack.

The moment she’s up close, she can feel a shiver trickle through her body as if the soul is calling to reconnect with her- sharing a deep sadness and anger that Kita forgot she had.

Her fist launches at the dark one’s head and right as it is about to connect, a massive crack appears in the air- completely stopping the motion of Kita’s attack.

“Fire fist?” Her soul shrugs and tilts its head, “That’s the best you could think of?”

Kita’s shadow flicks its wrist and another splits between Kita's eyes before she feels the force of what must be a thousand elephants pressing against her skull. And in that same pain, her body freezes in place, unable to move or subside the immense pain in her head.

She lets out a belting scream and in response, the dark one starts chuckling.

“Three thousand, eight hundred and fourteen,” Says the dark one, “That’s how many souls I currently have… in this vessel,”

With a sudden shift, the winds of the myst suddenly and briefly swirl around the both of them before Kita finds herself falling to the ground- the pain subsiding and she quickly stands to her feet to find their both in a chapel.

An ancient one.

Far from River City or anything Kita recognizes, beyond the rubble of the collapsed walls is the infinite nothingness of their world.

“You’re a coward hiding behind the vessels of others!” Kita yells in her delirious frustration, “Show yourself,”

“Oh, Kita,” The dark one chuckles, “You’re looking at me,”

Kita scoffs in disgust, irritated by the dark one's games when she notices the dark one has completely stopped paying her any attention and is staring at the still standing cross at the front of the chapel.

“Do you know why I come here?” The dark one says, with a sombre tone of voice, “To repent,”

“For what?” Kita sneers.

“Our sins,”

“Give my soul back to me,” Kita stomps her foot down, opening her hand and summoning a flaming ball of fire.

“Interesting,” The dark one says, turning back to look at Kita and tilting its head, “You still don't know who I am?”

Kita glances uncertainty before stammering, “No,”

“Kita, dear… This vessel. This is my primary form,” It responds turning to face her, “I am your soul,”

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Kita huffs at the shadow’s words, “Liar,”

“Ugh, so emotional,” The dark one seemingly rolls its unseen eyes, “You weren't always this stupid,” it shrugs before mumbling to itself, "Did I hit you too hard last time or what?”

"Why?" Kita yells across the chapel. "Why do all of this?"

"Why?" Her soul reiterates, sending the echoes of her chuckling through the atmosphere. "To escape,"

"Wh-what…" Kita feels her skin going pale as she feels the ghosted pains of her memory. The searing pain of being split from her soul becomes more familiar than her body is comfortable with.

Her soul sighs, glaring at Kita with impatience. "You put us here!" Her voice blares in Kita's mind as it steps forward.

Kita steps back in retreat as her soul encroaches. Closer than ever before and yet she's much too afraid to let this distance close.

"Remember!?" Her soul screams, still approaching.

Kita slowly shakes her head, struggling to process what's being said with the flight of her body urging her to keep at a distance.

"You've had visions of our family. Yes?"

“Our?" Kita stutters to herself.

"Do you remember what happened to them?"

"I… don't want to,"

"Of course you don't. Because that would mean facing the past… We've never been very good at that, have we?" Her soul sighs, stopping right in front of Kita. So close that Kita's breath subtly wafts the smoky figure before her.

“You're… my soul,” Kita says, feeling the ever-rising fear of her memories at the back of her mind as the words escape her lips.

“Ding ding ding, the dummy figured it out,”

"Why are we doing all of this? Let's just merge and get our life back," Kita asks, feeling exposed and far too uncomfortable to accept what her mind… what her soul is suggesting.

"Get our life back," The dark one chuckles. "I'm going to answer your question. But only because I can see that you've conjured up a way to stop hating yourself…"

Kita's body jolts in a momentary panic when she feels the hand of her soul pass into her chest. She feels a warmth like that of the myst wrap around her heart as the hand extends deeper. But, with it, she feels no pain. Only a sense of incomplete belonging as she feels this portion of her soul reconnecting with her.

"Who do you think turned this world into the barren wasteland it is?" Her soul asks.

Kita stammers, knowing she doesn't have the answer to such an ancient question. "I don't kn-"

"We did this, Kita," Her soul whispers with Kita's soft voice. "We killed them,"

"Killed w-who?" Kita stutters, now frozen in place as her back presses up against one of the few standing walls that she didn't realise was behind her.

The heat in her chest grows hotter.

Her soul grins as it leans forward to whisper, almost seductively into her ear, “Everyone,"

The image of flames scorching the world and the Myst taking the lives of screaming civilians as they run through the city streets of an ancient metropolis flashes in her mind's eye.

"I didn't," Kita stutters. With her voice too shaky to continue.

"We were taken from that peaceful life. Remember?" Her soul asks, prying into Kita's insecurities. Taunting her with the memories she knows Kita's entire being desires but rejects. "We are an ancient weapon, Kita. One the old humans created to obliterate nations,"

Kita looks deep into the abyssal eyes resembling her own. She can feel a well of tears as a deep sadness grows amongst the swell of the warmth around her heart. The image of the testing facility and Dr Monroe flicker before her, and the feeling of being taken away from her Mother and Brother brings up the eternal well of despair she’s been avoiding.

"They took us from our family when we came of age," The dark one says, with a sudden vulnerability in her voice. "The children in our village had a genetic affinity towards their enhancements,"

Kita can see it more clearly as the words meet her lips. The first day they arrived in their trucks mounted with weapons. Regardless of our people's attempts at solace, we were beholden to the government that controlled our continent.

"Damn it," Kita mumbles as she feels the sorrow bubble past her breaking point.

"I know it's hard… But you must remember," Her soul whispers.

Those men in their barren uniforms and masks stormed into every tipi in the village. Dragging out the children in any family that had one under the age of seventeen. Many of the kids scrambled and ran for the forest, but they wouldn't get far before the gunfire.

They were resilient people and many were trained to fight. But, they chose not to fight back when the soldiers started killing the young.

"Why?" Kita asks as her mind shuffles between the vivid memories of that day, and her soul before her.

"What happened in our tipi?"

"No!" Kita screams in horror as she tries to move her body away.

But she can't.

She’s paralyzed, and stuck having to replay what she knows is a nightmare.

"What happened in our tipi, Kita?"

Kita shakes her head, trying to rationalize the words she's hearing. It can't be true!

"Stop it!" Kita yells, bursting a swell of energy through the room that momentarily blows away portions of her soul before its shadowy figure reassembles, with its hands still around Kita’s heart.

Why would I do any of this?

"Because we were grieving. We regretted everything we had done. What they had trained us to do. All the souls we took would scream in the night,” Even her soul whines at the memory, “So loudly that we stopped sleeping altogether- and would use our magic to keep our brain operational,” The heat continues rising, to a point Kita is certain it is scorching but she cannot move, no does she feel the motivation to. “But, this strategy of ours only made things worse when it brought us to the brink of madness. We lost our mind, and killed everyone on Earth,”

“No,” Kita shakes her head as a stream of tears fall from her eyes. Her mind trying its best to reject all of the information but the memories are clearer than ever, and despite all rationalizations, she knows it's the truth.

All of it.

“In the depths of our regret, we separated our soul from our body. So that we may never feel this pain again,"

Kita doesn't know what to say. She can only keep shaking her head.

"You are the monster, Kita."

“No,” She denies.

"Tsk tsk tsk… Oh, Kita,” Her soul sighs. "Do you really believe that changing how you think absolves you of the past?"

Kita doesn’t know what to say, nor does she know what to think about the feelings surging inside of her- Is it all true? She knows it is but she doesn’t want to believe it. She can’t.

As the pain of a blazing fire rages inside of her, she is completely unconcerned with the pain. One that hurts more than anything she remembers experiencing, but with the weight of the memories her soul is showing her she knows it isn’t the worst pain she’s experienced.

Kita slowly starts to lose the sensation of her body when she looks down at the arm of the dark one extending into her- and the black ash floating from the scorching heat in her chest.

“Don’t worry,” Her soul whispers, “You’ll remember it all when you wake up,”

Kita's vision slowly starts to fade, and she can feel her back sliding against the wall and she falls to the floor- guided by her soul before it gently rests Kita on the ground, and slowly removes its arm from her chest.

“Goodnight, Me,” Her soul grins one last time before Kita’s eyes encase her in darkness, “I’ll see you when you’re ready to try again,”