In those moments, all that she could see was her outstretched hand reaching towards the clear, pale blue sky and a ghost trail of breath that led from her lips.

"Will you meet me there?"
"Yeah, of course."

Memories rushed through her mind of what had guided her to that moment. Bits and pieces flickering in a jumbled order as if her head was trying to figure out, 'why?'

"Hello, are you okay?"
"Hm."

With the group split up, she took refuge to the nearest town, 'Flanoir'. The winter city. The city that is always covered with a layer of white snow and where everyone wears coats and scarves all year round.

"Don't you have any friends?"
"…People...they don't like me."
"I like you."

One sleepless night, worried about the others (and her own situation), Reimi took her coat and decided to circle the town in its lit-up state. At night, the city was so quiet except from the blurry noise of the strong, steady, winter winds. All the houses were dark with the inhabitants most likely asleep and Reimi smiled at the feeling. To walk in a beautiful, dark town alone made her sigh a giddy breath.

"It's my favourite place. I've never taken anyone up there before."
"You mean a friend?"
"…Yeah. A friend."

On the way back to the inn, Reimi saw a small, chunky figure seated on a nearby bench who had not been there when she walked by before. After approaching the form, she realised it was a child. A boy. He was alone too, with sadness in his strange, sunken eyes and distance in his low, hollow voice. His face was mostly hidden as the hood of his coat hung heavily over his head and his scarf tightly wound around the bottom half of his face, covering his mouth.

"Wow, it's so pretty! Thank you so much Meikai."
"…You're welcome."

Although she could never be sure, Reimi was sure she could hear him smile sometimes when they spoke. She imagined it to be a small cute smile as she made that promise with him.

She sometimes wondered if Meikai (the boy's name) had some sort of illness that limited his mobility. He walked very stiffly and his movements where quite jagged. Maybe it's from being brought up in such a cold environment she thought.

"Are you leaving?"
"…Tomorrow."

"But once I've met up with my friends and we've got our bearings, I'll come back for you."
"Your friends. Your other friends."
"Yeah! You'll meet all of them. They'll love you."
"…no one…"

She met him at the cliff-side on the outskirts of the city, facing towards the sunrise. They had waited there together early to catch it.

"What's wrong Meikai?"
"…You came."
"Haha, why wouldn't I?"
"…"

It was quick. So quick. Just a swift forceful pressure.

"No one loves me."

Beatrix! Raine! Lloyd!

But they didn't hear her and the pale-blue was left to watch an unanswered prayer.

Grey. That pale-blue turned to grey as Reimi found herself staring at a concrete wall.

"What's wrong with her?"

Meikai?

A small thin shadow spread across the floor in front of her, shortly followed by a taller, broader one.

"Sometimes they can't take control and they're left as just a consciousness. She's only a defect now."

….who?

"What..? Why? Can't you fix her?"

Suddenly a rattling crash filled the room, a body now sprawled out where the small shadow had been.

Meikai…?

"Don't you DARE order me boy! Or I'll make it so you're the same!"

"But you said-"

Loud footsteps hiked their way closer to Reimi and an arm lifted up her right wrist. And with a cruel twist of his hand, hers fell to the ground rimmed with spiked up splinters where the wood had been forced apart.

"NO! Stop! Please stop! I won't say anymore!"

And with that the man grumbled loud words of anger as he pulled a sheet over Reimi, though she was still able to make out shapes from the light.

Eventually the two left.

Then slowly, she felt herself falling against the wall she leaned on until gravity dragged her to the ground, now forced to stare at her 'amputated' limb.

The hand that begged the sky to save her.

A/N: Doll/Puppet based idea. Meikai is another ToS OC of my friend's. He's not originally a puppet, that was just for this story. Basically, if you didn't get it, Reimi met the kid and they became friends. Meikai takes her to his special place, a beautiful cliff side North of Flanoir. Not having many friends (or rather none) he becomes possessive of Reimi and doesn't want her to leave. They make a promise to meet on the cliff he took her to before on the day she leaves. He ends up pushing her off said cliff. She wakes up as a puppet herself.

The puppet creator, the man you meet at the end, has an ability to build puppets around the basis of a dying life source (don't sweat the small stuff). He's not a kind man despite the power of rebirth. Anyway, something goes wrong and Reimi is left as just a consciousness in the shell of a doll.