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Fireworks.

'Merry Christmas, Miresa.'

'Merry Christmas, Nira.'

I looked at my mentor, watching the sudden flashes of the fireworks illuminate her porcelain skin. They were more beautiful that way. Because it was a picture of something I both loved and respected.

Fire, and her.

'Resa?'

'Yes, Lady Nira?'

I watched her twitch her lips in annoyance at the title. Yet another thing I had come to know after so long with her. The way her dark eyes would flash angrily for a moment when she was annoyed, and then descend into tranquility. The way she contrasted with herself- her raven hair colliding with her snowy skin, and her skin with her coal-black eyes. How she was so carefree and funny, but suddenly asking me to slow down and discuss some important matter with me or another.

'Do you regret this? Regret him?'

She cocked her head to one side curiously, searching my face for a reaction. Yes, Nira was my mentor. And I was her student. But at times, I couldn't tell who was who.

'No. I'm happy.' I replied curtly.

She looked at me in annoyance.

Then she raised her hand and cut herself with the sharp end of her dimon wand. I watched, fascinated as the dark blood dripped out of her, the hackinium which had invaded our blood and destroyed our mortality dripping out onto the grass.

'Nira, what're you doing?'

She shrugged, and healed herself quickly. The normal green magick of healing wiped out by the dark particles playing around her palm. She held her hand out to me, as if offering something to me.

'Was he worth this?'

I remained silent.

'Falling in love with a hacker is a dangerous thing. Everyone knows that.' Her lips pressed tightly together to create a thin line. 'Yet you ignored me, ignored the world, and did it anyway.'

The darkness around her hand faded away, and she huffed in impatience at my reluctance to answer. She laid back into the grass plains of Henesys, watching the fireworks.

We never spoke of it again.

Another year passed.

Still, Nira turned down all the numerous offers of love that the people of our kind had extended to her. I told her not to, that I wasn't worth it. And she had turned to me, her hair swirling dangerously with hackinium particles of anger, and told me not to flatter myself.

Once, she had told me to listen in to a conversation she had with a foolish love-stricken human boy. It was three days before the new year, and fireworks were disturbing the peace of Korean Folk Town.

'Why do you chase after me, a hacker, when your parents, your friends, and everyone else dear to you warn you not to? Don't you know we're wanderers? Aren't you afraid of becoming one of us, despised and hated by people you once adored?'

The boy replied, choosing his words carefully.

'Love can conquer all.'

I remembered a genuine look of surprise register on her face, but then it darkened.

'That is what fools say. The world we live in is no fairytale. Love cannot conquer the distaste on people's faces as we roam the earth for a save haven from persecution. Love cannot erase the looks of disappointment from my mother's face.'

Then she had teleported both of us away in a swirl of hackinium.

On new year's day, both of us had wished each other a happy new year, like all of the three hundred and seventy nine times we had done.

But she did not question me on why I had chosen the path of the hacker. Instead, she pointed to the sky of bright lights, fiery missiles carving the clouds in festive destruction.

'Life is like a firework.'

Her voice grew sad.

'See, it slowly rises and catapults into such a brilliant explosion! But now, look at the smoldering remains of it as it descends to the ground. It dims, and it's brief display of power is forgotten by all. Just like love.'

Nira looked at me directly as she whispered the last part, and a tear rolled down my cheek.

'It's such a waste.'

And so that became my motto, of sorts. But not in the way that Nira intended. Soon after, I left her, and started my own journey. Life was like a firework, and I knew sooner or later, the god-masters would start tailing rogue hackers. I was determined to give the world the best show before I started smoldering.

I would be like a firework.

'Three hundred crimson balrogs attacked the town of El Nath, confirmed to be the activity of the hacker known as Miresa. The entire population of 7000 was massacred. Many god-masters are now…'

I tuned out the drone of the news reporter and smiled to myself. I was still rising up into the sky. I straightened up and headed off to find shelter in the deep dungeon of Ludibrium, hoping to find solace amongst the soul-monsters. My next attack would be on the town of toys. The only toys people would find here later were mauled carcasses.

Nira.

I had to find Resa. God knows what was fuelling her downward spiral into insanity, but I had to stop her before the god-masters did, permanently.

Which meant I had to use my hacks.

Closing my eyes, I focused on her name.

Miresa, Miresa, Miresa, Miresa.

Ludibrium, Warped path of time 1.

I teleported to her, blazing inside a swirl of hackinium.

I held onto Resa, moments after the god-masters had gone. She was slowly dissolving into a black pool of hackinium, but now it was dripping on me, seeping through my skin to join it's counterparts.

'Heheh… I guess part of me will always be with you.'

She cracked a smile at me, hackinium-blood seeping from the corner of her lips. The iron-vice grip on me was weakening as her muscles collapsed, fingers falling apart to become steady drops of the dark liquid, which I absorbed.

'Where did I go wrong, Nira?' She said brokenly, clinging onto my purple enigma. Then she said the words that broke my unbeating heart.

'All I wanted to be was a firework. I wanted to go out with a bang. What else could I do with my god-forsaken life?'

If only she had waited a few years. If only she could have seen how the world had improved since her attacks. Our kind had banded together after her… death, and created a separate dimension for ourselves.

We called it our Haven.

It was where we belonged, where we took a break from the mortal world when it all became too much. Many of us chose not to venture from it, instead raising families like mortals, and finally understanding happiness.

'Daydreaming again, Nira?'

My feet were swiftly swept off the ground, and I poked the chest of my husband, Ethan.

'I was wondering if Resa would approve of you.' I said teasingly. I always thought that Resa would be a younger sister to Ethan, threatening to smash a frying pan on his head in her fiery, passionate way.

'Well, I hope so. She is our daughter after all.' He caught my poking finger and brought it to his face, kissing it. I sighed in mock-annoyance.

'Have I married an idiot or a genius?'

Our daughter rushed into the room and promptly made a face at out intimate position. I laughed at her antics, because…

Because Resa would have been right beside her, making faces right along with her at us.