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The horns, the red-eyed warmask, shattered by the TITAN strongest bullets, all those arms that rested behind her… Kanae had clearly surpassed her own limits, left behind her humanity. Only for that. Only for her. Lee promised Kanae they would be together, they would cheat the system and exit that god-awful place they had been raised in. Kanae didn’t know if Lee had plans beyond getting out of the schooling facilities, but it didn’t matter. If she were to be with her, it would be enough, she would be enough. That thing inside her seemed almost bearable. But, then, it had all been so sudden. Lee disappeared inside a spaceship, with no known destiny, and Kanae was left alone for that annoying thing to fester. And it did. And it did. “You will be alone one more time”, he had promised. “Do as I say, and you will get the girl and have the happy ending they took from you, the one you deserve”.
She believed the creature, how could she not? The power was felt inside her, all those arms, all those blades. There was nobody that could stop her. She would get her happy ending, no matter what. But this wasn’t a happy ending. It wasn’t anymore. Kanae had tried everything in her power, had investigated, searched in TITAN’s archives, leaving a blood trail wherever she landed in. Merchant ships, smuggler jets, all kind of transports had a chance of letting a little demonic surprise when getting to a planet. From the most luxurious of the residential planets to the saddest slave colonies, she had probably been all around the place except in Paradise. And Lee wasn’t there. Lee wasn’t there. Lee wasn’t there. Kanae suffered with each letdown, and the demon, Muqi, festered more inside her heart. His brambles extended all around her thoughts, thorned branches surrounding her feelings. And thus, his wish was being made true: “I am miserable”, Muqi thought. “So let’s make everyone as miserable as me”. She knew she only had to find Lee and then she would be free. She would be healed.
But it was too late. The slashes in the ground surrounded her still child-like body, traces of the brutal fight (more like carnage) that the TITAN School for problematic children had gone through. The TITAN Troops stationed outside the facility in case of a riot had utterly failed to stop her, unsurprisingly, and the many-armed monster had tore down the place, even going as far as caving in part of the ceiling of the building.
Then, Kanae had become to her senses again. Then, Kanae has recognized the body under the fallen girder. The many-armed monster and the storm of blades had become again the little child, only to see how it was too late to do anything, too late to unmake things. She tried to touch the body, but she knew before hand it was too late to do anything. Her eyes filled with tears, her heart seemed to shrink. Why, why had it all come to this? She only wanted to be with her, to take her hand again. But now Kanae’s hands were stained with the blood of many innocents, and it had all been for nothing. How could have that gone so bad? “Don’t you see?” The little annoying voice looked amused. “Don’t you understand now? How does it feel to be unable to change anything, to be miserable like me”. The pact… The pact?? What had happened with the pact, all those promises? “Oh, do you really she would be with you? After all you’ve done?” Muqi whispered in her mind. “All the fools you killed, all the places blood-stained. She would never be with you, Kanae”. That wasn’t true. The tears ran through her cheeks, unable to change anything, with the only thing inside her, despair. “We had to do it to her, so now the only Lee that exists, lives here, just like me, just inside your mind. Don’t you see? The only Lee you need is the one you idolized”
It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like that, and they both knew it. It was ruined. Lee was dead and the pact was all ruined. All her work for nothing. All her sacrifices, for nothing. Hugging gently the lifeless body of Lee after taking out the girder that smashed her, Kanae felt something open in her arm, the zipper along her forearm that kept the vial before. It opened again, now on its own. One last time. And the brambles started coming out of it. The thorned branched, spiked demonic arms, extended all around Kanae and Lee, but it didn’t matter, it didn’t matter anymore, because Lee was dead and there was nothing they could do about it. Because she had lost, and now, the only thing left to do, was to let the world see her failure.
There is this planet, abandoned long time ago. An old TITAN facility, the entry is forbidden even for the followers of the highest level. For there’s nothing down there worth landing for, only the ruins and the brambles, an enormous jungle of black brambles that spread for miles to no end. Always growing, always searching. They say the brambles are alive, and even from orbit, one can sense their bloodlust, their murder instinct. Nobody, not even the silent scavengers, go down there, for approaching the surface means you will be engulfed by their vines, by their thorns. By her despair.