[Consolation]

Lightning blinked.

'Where am I...?'

Slowly getting up, an observation of the area reveals that she is, in fact, in the Order's Sanctuary. The previous encounter with Garland, however, sprung her mind into action as she pulled out her Blazefire Saber.

She stopped halfway through when she caught the sight of the Warrior of Light, lying down on the flat protrusion (that 'throne' Cosmos used to sit on, Lightning recalled) and looking worse for wear.

He was armorless, only a black bodysuit covering his upper body, while everything else remained the same. Parts of his leg armor were blackened and scratched here and there, and one of the leg guards was visibly cracked. His waist robe did not fare well either, with tears and black marks lining up the entirety of the fabric.

Next to the makeshift bed, his helmet was lying on the ground. Dents are visible even from quite a distance away, and when Lightning stepped closer, she noticed that even the horns were in bad shape as well. The horns, usually glowing with a dim white light of the ivory, were now ashen and dull. The left horn was badly damaged, cracks lining up almost half of the structure. The right fared worse; the sharp end of the horn was gone, as if it was forcefully chipped and then snapped off. Next to it, an extremely broken armor leaned on the side, its chest area bent so badly it could not be classified as a wear-worthy item.

Holding back a sigh, Lightning can only stare at the now fallen Hero, who was breathing very softly. Disbelief and anger slowly bubbled up to the surface of Lightning's heart; she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to relax - but to no avail.

'Damn it, so we lost?' Putting down the helmet back on the ground, the pinkette slowly balled her fingers into fists and gritted her teeth.

'And we were supposed to win this shitty war... the hell are we going to do? Can we even win?'

Her hateful reverie was disrupted by the sound of the Warrior's grunt. Looking back to the Warrior, Lightning noticed that he was having a rough time. He was sweating quite profusely, hands half-balled into fists accompanied by slight sighs and grunts.

'Has he not recovered yet?'

'Who am I?'

Black. Everything is black.

Who spoke?

'Who am I?'

I can't see. Where is this? Am I…dead?

A vision?

The lab.

The female assistant.

The test tube.

The experimental project.

The red eyes.

'Who am I?'

What do these visions mean?

The visions were gone, replaced by a chuckle. Followed by a laugh. Everything is so dark; the disturbing laugh resounds from everywhere. I try to turn, but I found myself paralyzed.

"Show yourself!"

Nothing. The laughter is gone.

Silence.

I can't move. Am I bound by magic? I can't feel my body.

Am I really...dead?

"How silly. Of course you're not."

Who…

"Not yet, anyway."

That voice again!

"You coward! Show yourself!"

"Gladly."

Everything went white, and everything disappeared.

It was an entirely white room, devoid of anything but the Warrior of Light, lying down on the floor. The Warrior slowly stood up and observed the surroundings, only to realize that his sword and shield are not with him. Narrowing his eyes, the Warrior then shouted to the empty space.

"Where are you?! Show yourself!"

A voice from behind him rang out.

"Here."

The Warrior of Light quickly turned backwards;

Only to find himself.

Or rather, a dark shadow whose appearance is just like him.

"Surprised? I thought you'd be more...calm,"

"Especially when you're meeting yourself."

Wicked red eyes shone dangerously underneath the night-colored helmet, ash gray horns adorning its top. Pale white skin is covered by full armor of the blackest color, complemented by streaks of gray, exuding a very menacing aura in the seemingly pure white environment. Sensing the pure, untouched malice, hero tried to suppress a shiver on his spine, to no avail.

"You...myself? How foolish. This is merely an illusion, then."

The 'Warrior' grinned. "Bluffing out of this? I never knew you-I was such a coward. You're simply blocking the truth out. You're rejecting the reality."

Aquamarine blue eyes narrowed dangerously, glaring daggers at bloody red pupils. "You need to...relax." Shrugging his shoulders in an overly exaggerated motion, the dark hero sighed. "It's not like I'm going to,"

The Warrior didn't blink, and yet now he was face to face with his dark duplicate.

"Kill you, or something."

The Hero instinctively leapt back.

"Come on, now. Do you think you could just make do with that?"

The voice - so lax, yet so malevolent, appeared right behind him.

Turning around, the Warrior of Light once again glared at the 'illusion'.

"If that is so, then I just have to force you out of my mind!" Charging forward in a shoulder tackle towards the evil 'hero' the Warrior was not prepared for the backflip that comes with the tackle.

The encounter did not even last for ten seconds and the warrior was lying down once again on the ground.

"How pitiful." Crimson eyes looked at the fallen knight with disdain, head held up high accentuating the venomous undertone the copy exuded. The pressure disabled the Warrior of Light's ability to move, as if shackles and chains were tightly bound to him to pin him on the ground. He resorted to gritting his teeth instead.

"Really?" Tilting his head to the side, the dark warrior blinked before closing his eyes in mock frustration.

"Come on. After all that rambling that you were a," the visage scoffed, "'Warrior of Light' that protects what, everything precious to you?"

The Warrior found it nigh impossible to force out words, as if his throat was locked and no sound was allowed to come out.

"You can't even protect that Lightning from getting knocked down by that delusional tin can. How do you expect yourself to be able to protect Cosmos?"

Images flashed in the Warrior's mind as he hung on to every word this 'evil' knight said. 'I failed to...protect Lightning.'

'How am I going to protect Cosmos?'

"If you can't even overcome something as trivial as this,"

With a flash of darkness, a pale, silver blade and a jet-black shield lined with silver materialized on the 'Warrior''s hands. The silver glinted as the evil knight lifted his sword up high.

"I suggest...no, it would be best if you just vanish. Cosmos does not need a burden sticking around."

Then the evil warrior grinned.

"Who knows? I could just take over, and everything would end. I'll do everything you couldn't and some more, so relax and just,"

Silver flashed as the sword was swung down.

"Die."

The Warrior of Light barely suppressed a scream.

The Warrior's eyes - and body, for that matter - shot up, hand trying to push off an imaginary visage, unleashing a savage roar while doing so.

Lightning was caught off-guard, and an inevitable impact incoming was not making Lightning's thoughts any better as both fell downwards to the floor of the Sanctuary.

As the soldier opened her eyes, the warrior did the same. Aqua blue met aquamarine orbs, and for a moment, Lightning was caught staring at the man before her. Little does she know, he was doing the same.

After a few moments of excruciating silence, Lightning's stare turned blank, and with a deadpan voice spoke, while glaring at the Warrior.

"You're heavy. Move."

The Warrior uncomfortably shifted, and quickly stood up, giving a hand towards Lightning as he does. Lightning did not take it, and instead opted to stand on her own.

"Forgive me. I…do not know what has come over me. I suppose I require some more rest." Quickly apologizing to Lightning, the hero was met with an indifferent expression as the pinkette simply rose an eyebrow while looking at him.

"…Right." Pausing for a moment, "You look horrible."

"Garland overpowered me. That is all."

"Really. You look distracted."

"Is that so?"

A pause.

"You still do."

The Warrior glanced sideways. "I have dreamt of other people's memories and living through them several times, now."

Lightning perked up at that comment. 'Did he found some clues to what or whoever he is?'

"But, for some reason…" turning back to face Lightning, he continued. "…I feel familiar with it."

'So much for that.' Lightning inwardly scoffed. "Probably your past memories. You're not an empty shell anymore, then."

The Warrior blinked. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that," raising a finger towards the hero, "You have a past. It's not like you have nothing, you do have something. It's just…hidden even more compared to the others. So stop whining and keep moving on. Keep trying to find it. Wallowing over it won't bring more memories back, anyway."

Silence once again descended as the Warrior stood still, comprehending what the Guardian Corps sergeant said.

'You do have something. Stop whining and keep moving on. Keep trying to find it.'

The leader of the Cosmos Warriors took a deep breath, and sighed softly. "I am quite lost, and quite unfit for battle for the time being, am I not?"

"You sure do. With all the screaming and panic attacks, yes, you better stay here. Those who can't fight will drag everyone down, anyway."

In spite of the harsh undertone, the Warrior felt that Lightning's words were genuinely expressing her underlying worry towards him. Allowing himself a small twitch of his lips, the Warrior looked at Lightning, both wearing an expressionless mask.

"Thank you, Lightning."

She turned back and grunted.

Welcome back, me.

I terribly apologize to everyone if I have not posted a chapter in quite a long time. Real life matters overcame my time for writing and I found myself increasingly in need of more free time to compose a chapter and pour out my ideas as well as brainstorming over them.

In any case, I hope to once again stick to my original plan of posting a chapter every two or three weeks. Hopefully I can effectively time-manage my schedule.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Reviews and comments are always welcome and appreciated, and thank you for reading. I shall see you all at Chapter 8!