Outside the hotel, the Karzian city nightlife was bustling and lively. Chatters and laughters filled the air, embellished with the sporadic tinkling sounds of cutleries from the restaurants. The moon hung bright on the night sky, but its light was drowned out by the even brighter city lights on the ground.

The inside of the hotel room, however, was eerily dark and quiet; it was as if all the sounds and lights from the streets were sucked into a vacuum the moment they travelled through the hotel window. Lara was lying on her bed, face buried into her tear-soaked pillow. The cheer and happiness of the streets seemed to be mocking her, making her curl up even more under the blanket.

Today was the day. Ryan was going to die today.

Occasionally, she could hear murmurs of the sentencing outside. The Operative of Elena. The infamous traitor of the Bernuian raid fifteen years ago. The murderer responsible for Elena's continued reign of terror. The more she heard, the more she pressed her head into her pillow. Shut up, shut up, shut up!

Why did he let himself get sentenced to death just like that? Why did he look like he was so ready to leave? Why would he do that? Why would he leave her like that? She knew they had fought all the time and that they had always been mean to each other... but they still grew up together. Why would he just leave her alone like that? Why, why, why?

Arianna.

Lara's heart clenched as she thought of her auburn-haired friend. How she wished she could cry into Arianna's arms and listen to her calm, soothing voice. She wanted nothing more than to go back home, back to her simpler life, before she received a Gift, before her eighteenth birthday, before this all went downhill. But right now, home had never felt more unfamiliar and frightening.

There was a knock on the door. It was probably Jun.

"Come in," she croaked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

The sudden sting on her eyeballs told her that the lights were turned on. She felt Jun sit down next to her on the bed, placing something on the bedside table. Slowly, she lifted her head to greet her visitor.

"I got you a smoothie," Jun mumbled, his face averted slightly. "Since you don't seem to be eating normal foods, I thought maybe you'd like liquid food instead."

Lara nodded appreciatively. Jun and Arthur had been checking up on her for the past few hours, but she had been too distraught to be comforted. Feeling apologetic, she forced a smile and took a sip of the smoothie. Her tongue had lost the ability to taste anything, while her throat was clogged, but she managed to push a few gulps down —just enough to bring a bit of relief to Jun.

The Bernuian boy glanced at Lara. "Anyway, he, erm..." He paused, taking out a phone from his pocket. "He left this for you."

Lara blinked. Ryan... actually left her something? Her trembling hands reached out for the device. The moment it touched her skin, the rectangular block shrunk in size and molded its shape to fit her palms. Then, the phone unlocked by itself, adjusting its brightness to the exact level of intensity her eyes needed.

This was the latest model Android Axis 8.21. She still remembered how the tall man had gloated about this phone when he had first gotten it. A lump grew inside her throat, but she swallowed back her tears.

"Why did he leave you his phone?" Jun asked, shifting closer to Lara for a peek at the device. "Did he leave some kind of message in there or something?"

"I... I don't know..." Lara admitted. She never knew what was going on inside that guy's head. Even to his last days, he still insisted on being as annoyingly mysterious as ever, it seemed.

She swiped around the phone. There were a lot of different maps and encyclopedia-like apps that she was unfamiliar with. The only app she knew was the photos app, and so she decided to select it.

Instantly, the two teenagers screamed out in terror.

"Ew!" Lara shrieked as her grip on the phone loosened. Thankfully, the device remained glued to her palm.

"Oh my God, what is wrong with him?" Jun cried out as well. Their eyes met for a while, but they quickly turned back to the phone, faces flushed, before screaming in horror yet again.

Lara tossed the device to Jun. "I can't do this," she said exasperatedly, "help me look through the photos until you find something useful!"

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Jun let out a reluctant groan, but accepted the phone anyway. As he scrolled through the photos, his grimace deepened. "Argh... God, what is wrong with him... Argh, gross... Ew, what the heck... What is this... Why would he have this on here... T- There's so many women... He's such a pervert, honestly..."

"Is there... is there even anything worthwhile on there? I'm sorry, Jun, we can stop looking through it." Lara lowered her gaze. "I don't think he's the type that will leave me messages anyway."

"It's... it's okay," the dark-haired boy mumbled, "I'll... I'll keep looking for you."

Lara slumped on the bed again. Why would Ryan leave her a phone filled with these... these corrupted photos? How was he still able to irritate her even without being here?

She buried her head into her pillow again; the wet fabric felt icy cold against her cheeks. How she wished that the man was here, so she could yell at him about how much she hated him, so she could see his usual smirk and hear his usual laughter and snarky remark, so she could feel him patting her on the head and going, "My God, you're such a stupid crybaby."

Why the hell would you just leave me alone like that?

"Oh..." Jun's voice snapped Lara back from her thoughts.

"What is it?"

Jun's expression was inscrutable, but his hands were quivering. "I... I don't..."

"What is it?" Lara repeated, promptly sitting up. "Did you find something?"

"I think so..." Jun muttered, as though he was not sure if he should be showing Lara what he found. "I think it's from a really long time ago..."

Lara snatched the phone and glared at the screen. Her eyes widened, and then glazed over, as if a murky-brown fog had enwrapped her irises and clouded her vision. Once again, her grip on the phone loosened, but this time, it slipped out of her hand and crashed onto the ground.

"L- Lara?"

Slowly, she stood up, her fists clenched and her legs shivering. Her expression remained blank and eerily calm, however. She began to walk forward, ignoring the pleading stares from Jun.

"Lara..." The boy's voice had turned into a meek whisper. "M- Maybe we should talk to someone about this..."

He trailed off as the air around them started to whir. The chairs in the living room toppled over, with the adjacent cupboards crashing right on top of them. The blanket and the pillows had abandoned the bed and circled them, while the cup of smoothie spun on its axis, the liquids sloshing around violently.

"Lara, c- calm down. Let's... let's tell Arthur and figure this out together..." Jun stood up and tried to approach Lara, but the air currents were working against him.

But the young brunette was not listening anymore. In fact, there was nothing that she could see nor hear anymore; her world had been completely enshrouded with the dark fog, and was now a desolate, barren void. There was nothing there except for rage —pure, blind, unadulterated rage.

"Lara!!!" Jun shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice faded into the loud roaring winds; it disappeared forever, along with the cries from outside the building, never reaching Lara, never reaching the source of the destruction.

"Why would he hide this from me..." Lara droned to herself. "Why is everyone hiding everything from me..."

As she continued her march forward, she had no idea how the walls of her room crumbled into pieces, how Jun was swept out of the window, how the hotel, the buildings next to the hotel, and the buildings next to those buildings, all collapsed and shattered under the force of the winds.

She did not notice any of the carnage around her, but what she did know was that: her life was a lie. Everything she had known, everything she had worked for, everyone she had trusted, they were all lies, all a bunch of liars. Something inside her grew, something she could not explain, a feeling she had never experienced before. It was like a flower inside her heart —dormant, hidden, its petals tucked in— was finally opening, revealing its blazing red core.

The world turned dark.

When Lara's vision cleared, she found herself inside a dimly-lit bedroom. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined two corners of the spacious room; the ceiling lights were turned off, so the area was illuminated only by the dazzling moonlight and the faraway city lights. In the middle of a cushioned wall laid a queen-sized bed. A woman was sitting up on the bed, blending into the shadows. Her auburn hair sprawled over the silky, maroon bedsheet, like trails of fresh blood dripping down a backdrop of old, rusty blood.

She was back on Earth. Back to the realm she grew up in, back to Elena's headquarters, and back to the room she was very familiar with: Arianna's quarters.

"Lara!" Arianna gasped. "How did you..."

Despite her visible exhaustion, Arianna quickly pulled off her blanket and shuffled to the side of the bed. The moment she saw the way the air moved around her, however, she froze.

"Lara, calm down," she warned, "you don't know how to control your Gift yet. This is a very powerful Gift, you need to start small or you'll-"

"You killed my parents."

The redhead looked as though she was struck by lightning. "W- What?" she stammered, her pale face losing even more color as Lara strolled towards her. "I- I didn't... L- Lara, I was ordered... I-"

"You betrayed them." Lara's voice was unfamiliarly calm and deep.

Arianna was trembling uncontrollably. Her hands grasped backwards as she tried to move away from the advancing brunette. "Lara, please..."

Lara, on the other hand, had never felt more serene in her life. Step by step, she neared her friend, her mentor, her confidante.

"Lara," Arianna sobbed, "please forgive me, I- I didn't mean to do it. I just wanted a Gift, I only wanted a Gift, I didn't know this was the price, I really didn't think it was going to turn out like this..." Her voice turned into frantic shriek when she realized that Lara was still coming towards her, steadfast and unwavering. "Lara, please, I took care of you, remember? I raised you up, I was nice to you! You said I'm like your mother, right? You loved me, right? L- Lara, you won't kill me, r-"

And that was all Arianna managed to say before Lara grabbed her neck.