Darkness. That was all she could see, all she could feel.

Strange. She had thought it would be cold. She had embraced her fate when she knew what had happened.

She had been defeated. Her body was no more, torn to ribbons by the combined power of her host and that ghost girl.

What were their names again? She struggled to remember, but whenever she tried to bring up a thought, all that came up was that same darkness.

Darkness. That was all that she could sense, weighing down on her body as it wrapped her mind in its embrace.

Strange. She'd thought death would be quiet, a simple void, where nothing could be seen and nothing could be heard.

But it was loud here. Voices and screams and static. It pounded into her skull like a bullet trying to break through. But while she knew a bullet would never be able to break her skin, this sound did. It ripped through skin and rended bone as it forced its way through her body, pounding vibrations making every cell in her body light up with...

Nothing. She felt no pain, no pleasure, no sensations at all from the sounds. It was deafening and yet silent at the same time. What was this? She had never experienced it before.

The darkness was overwhelming, and she found herself unable to block it from engulfing her.

She had always been strong. Why was she so powerless here? Why, when in life, she was so strong, was she unable to fight it? She could do nothing but stare into the darkness, waiting for it to end.

And yet, she knew it would never end. This darkness had become a part of her, had become her mind, and the sounds had become her body. And as she accepted her weakness, she remembered.

She remembered everything. Coming to that world, creating her ultimate plan, her failure at the most crucial moment to execute it.

That boy.

That boy was the most vivid thing she could remember. She didn't know why. She hated that boy. He had resisted every attempt she made to break him, resisted his fear, resisted her words, even rendered her seductions null. She hated him, for he was the only being she could not control.

So why was he all she could think of now? Why was he, in this world of darkness, the only light she could see?

She reached out for him, though she could not see her arm and though she knew she could never reach him, though she was a being of many forms and he was just a lowly human.

She was always commanding events, always the one at the head. He was always at the bottom, the one who got stepped on to let others pass.

She had so many faces. He kept just one.

She had so many secrets. He knew nothing of the word's meaning.

That, she decided, was why he was stronger than she was. He was treated like a dog by those he was close to, but he never let himself loose. He never once raised a hand against them, though he could have. His kindness knew no bounds, no matter who it was directed towards. He would treat her, his enemy, the same as he treated his sister. Even when he knew of the threat she was, he still acted the same. He still would buy her what she wanted, would show her to the placed she asked to see. His world was interesting, and he was completely willing to share it with her.

Now, in this world of darkness, she realized all of this. She had thought he had some hidden motive, some reason for trying to make her feel special in the same way that he had done to the others, but she now understood.

He had no motive. He had no reason. He was simply too nice for his own good.

And she had tried to wipe him, and everyone on his world, away, without so much as a thank you for all the things he did for her. She hadn't even given him a second thought before, as anything but a plaything. She had seen him as nothing but another rotten human.

She couldn't feel her body, but she had a strange feeling that she was smiling.

"So that's it." she said, her voice ringing loud and clear, piercing the sound and making it fall silent.

So that was why she was in this world. That was why she was being punished in this way.

That was why she was named Nemesis.