"After you became the Champion of Kalos, they held a ceremony for all five of us and gave us badges! I've got the picture right here!" Shauna said, taking a small framed picture from her bag and sliding it across the table to Morai.

"No!" a guard yelled, diving forward and using his entire arm to send the picture flying off the table.

"Nice going," Morai said as she rubbed her temples. "Do you want a medal too? We're at the end of the story, so I had no reason to do anything, genius."

"It's hard to tell with you," the guard said with crossed arms. He turned to Shauna. "What'd I say about reflective surfaces?"

"Oh, come off it!" Morai said. A surprising number of the guards, including Arthur, were from Galar, and the prisoner had heard the phrase so many times she had started to repeat it.

"Oh yeah?" The guard asked, brandishing his gun. Morai growled and stood up, which he responded to by pointing it at her leg with his finger on the trigger.

"Alright, fine," Morai sighed, shaking her head as she sat down. "If we're not going to fight, it means nothing to me."

"I guess that's it for today?" Trevor asked. Everyone looked at the guards and they shrugged.

"We didn't get the run-down on how this was actually supposed to work," one of them said. "We just had to keep her in line."

"So, does any of that...ring a bell?" Tierno asked.

"No," Morai answered flatly, standing up and dusting herself off with her handcuffed hands. "It's all a faded dream. I think it's best that you four turn away and forget me. I'm no longer the friend you knew, and you certainly don't want anything to do with me now."

"Oh, that's not true!" Shauna said, stepping around the table to embrace the prisoner. It was just like what Lillie had done.

What's wrong with all of them? Morai wondered. It's idiotic! They see the blood on my hands and the crimes I've committed and the terrible things I've done, yet they choose to believe that she, their old friend, is still here.

The Mask Maker nonviolently shook herself free, eyeing the guards as they both took a step toward her.

"Look at me and understand," she said. "I'm not who I was before. I'm different. Everything about me is different. I'm not who I was before, and I never will be. I suppose you're here because you simply can't accept the death of a friend while she's technically still living, but believe me when I say that she's dead. Her soul is gone and my dark, terrible soul has replaced it. Grieve as though she's dead and move on. Forget the monster she's been replaced with, for your own sake and mine as well."

The four trainers only gave Morai silent looks of sorrow. Calem walked over to the shattered frame and took the picture from amongst the glass. He walked up to her and placed it into her bloodied hands, looking up into her eyes. Her eyes—when they weren't red—were perhaps the only thing that had stayed exactly the same throughout the years.

"If she's still in there somewhere, if the tiniest sliver of her soul is still there, please tell her that she'll never be forgotten, and that we miss her very much."

Morai could see the glistening of tears in everyone's eyes, and for a moment she almost began to share in their sorrow the tiniest amount. It was her very own soul, after all, that had been randomly shattered in an instant nearly three years ago. What had Morai done to deserve such a fate? She had been a hero. What warranted the burning away of her pure and good soul, only for it to be replaced by an unbalanced and tumultuous one—one that had eventually created the terrible thing that is locked away in this prison today?

"I'm sure she would say the same," she said. Morai gave a small bow in an occasional but still surprising show of courtesy and politeness.

The prisoner turned to the door, hoping the guards would understand her silent request for them to open it and let her out. As they opened the thick door and motioned her through, she turned to look at the group for what she assumed to be the very last time.

This is how it should be, she thought.

"Yikes," one of the guards said with a chuckle. "You broke their hearts!"

"I'd like to go to sleep," Morai said, ignoring his comment. She wasn't sure how long the day had lasted or how many had passed since she had met her former friends the first time. She had planned to clean up before getting in bed, but the trainer collapsed on top of the sheets and couldn't bring herself to get back up. Sitting and listening after hard fighting had taken its toll, and her body ached.

Morai awoke to a familiar sight and it put a slight smile on her face to know that she and Shadow Morai would be relishing in her successful attack on Sheridan.

"Morai!" she called, leisurely walking toward the middle of the garden. "I did it!"

The Mask Maker stopped to look around for a sign of an ambush from her counterpart, but there was none. Light Morai didn't seem to be nearby, either.

"Morai? Either of you?" she called again, walking more slowly toward's the garden's center.

"...Morai?"

When the courtyard came into view, Morai saw the silhouettes of her counterparts. She sighed in relief with a smile back on her face and ran up to who was now her twin, only to freeze when her foot touched the reflective stone. A terrible and sickening feeling crawled down her spine and dispersed throughout her entire body. The figures standing in the courtyard were not Light and Shadow Morai. Not in the flesh, anyway. Instead, statues of the polar twins captured an unfamiliar moment frozen in time.

"Morai?" the true Morai whispered. With shaking hands and breaths, the trainer ran her hand over what should have been the rough, battle-worn hand wraps that covered Shadow Morai's hands and forearms. She reached a hand up to caress her face, and it was smooth and cool to the touch, like stone. Light Morai was the same. Both statues were seemingly made from a sort of translucent marble, Light Morai's being white while Shadow Morai's was black, separated by the fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

"I don't understand," Morai muttered.

This isn't them, she thought.

But something about them conveyed the truth. Something in Shadow Morai's eyes and Light Morai's marble expression told her that her friends were gone.

"How?" Morai called. The more she looked at the statues, the more frustrated and concerned she grew, until she was practically hanging off of Shadow Morai's stone shoulders as she tried to talk her back to life.

"I don't understand!" the trainer yelled. "This can't be you! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't..."

Morai gradually slid to the ground, eyes closed to the horrors that stood before her. She lied there in silence, trying to make sense of it all. The ground was still stained with blood from fights fought in what was supposed to be the area of peace between the two sides. As always, Morai didn't know how much time had passed since she had first touched the stone. She simply lied there, as if trying to sleep. It seemed as though, in that moment, whatever soul she had had drained out into the cool stone beneath her.

"Do you want to know what happened?" a calm voice asked. Morai shot to her feet and assumed a fighting stance, only to find a somewhat familiar face looking back at her.

"...Morai?" she asked, looking up at the figure before her through blurry vision. It nodded.

"But you're not Light or Shadow Morai," she continued, blinking to clear her vision. "You're...me..."

"I'm the you from the past. The one that chose to take the serum," the other Morai explained. It seemed that her words were true. This Morai still had her long hair that was divided into two large fishtail braids, and she wore the same outfit she had worn from her time in Galar up until her final sacrifice at the Battle Subway. A small breeze moved some of her hair enough to reveal a marking on her neck where she had first taken the serum. It was a faded red and resembled the cracks of broken glass.

"I don't understand," Morai said with a growl of frustration. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here! You're dead!"

"I'm gone in the waking world, but my soul was taken to the Dream Realm, and yours took its place. We're both still Morai, but in different times."

Past Morai gestured to a single white rose on Light Morai's side of the garden. As Morai knelt down and saw it up close, she realized it was barely clinging to life. She reached out with both hands to help it stand up again, but as soon as she did it gave up the last bit of life it had, its now brown petals falling to the ground and getting scattered across the garden's center by the breeze. Morai sharply recoiled her hands, feeling as though she had just killed Light Morai herself. The trainer looked up to her statue, nodding to something far beyond with closed eyes and a contented smile.

"Light and Shadow Morai are gone because this world became too inhabitable for them both," Past Morai explained with a solemn expression. "The serum had nearly done it, but your attack on Sheridan tipped the scales in a way they couldn't recover from. Light Morai was already struggling, but that event marked the card."

Morai of the Past held a hand out to Shadow Morai, who was still kneeling on the ground with a bowed head.

"I can show you their final moments, if you wish," she said.

"...How?"

"After taking form in the Dream Realm I was blessed with a different power. I believe it will help you," Past Morai said. "Take my hand, and I'll take you to the past."

Morai frowned, looking at her past self's clawless but callused hand. Finally, she took it, eager to see her other counterparts again.

"Close your eyes," Past Morai instructed. Again, it took a moment for the real Morai to do as she was told, but she eventually closed her eyes with a frown.

Morai felt a hand touch her forehead and she immediately opened her eyes, only to find that she and her past self were in what she assumed to be a memory. Light Morai was sitting in the courtyard, polishing her mask, feeling for each part that needed to be touched up. Morai began to get up and run to her, but her past self caught her hand and shook her head.

"Neither of them will see you. This is a memory already passed that cannot be changed. Just watch."

Suddenly, a cloud of black fog appeared before Light Morai, and she looked up.

"...I can see you," she said with a frown. "But only you. Has my time here come to an end?"

A tall and slender figure took shape in the fog. It didn't appear to be malicious or good-natured. It had two white holes for eyes, and that was the extent of its expression. It nodded in response to Light Morai's question.

Shadow Morai, who had been training in her side of the garden, saw the cloud of fog in the distance. She immediately stopped and began to run with full speed at the foggy figure with an animalistic ferocity in her eyes. She violently clawed through it, but the fog simply moved around her fingers as if she was clawing through air. She stared at it with wild red eyes and bared teeth, standing between it and Light Morai.

"It's alright, Morai," Light Morai said softly. "You don't have to protect me. There's nothing you or I can do."

Shadow Morai looked at her counterpart with furrowed brows before continuing to try and fight the foggy figure in vain. It made no effort to dodge or counter her attacks, but eventually wrapped its foggy limbs around her and dragged her to the side. She yelled and fought with severe frustration, but it was as if the fog had ten times the strength she did. Foggy tendrils wrapped around her wrists and held them back. Light Morai got up, nodded to the fog and faced her struggling polar twin, putting her hands to her face that was twisted in anger.

"I don't know where we're going, but I hope we all see each other again, in this dream or another," she said with a soft smile. "It has been an honor to fight both with you and alongside you. Thank you for caring for me while I was weakened and sick, and for rebuilding what you could of my broken half of the garden. You're a sister connected to me by our shared soul, bound by the same psychic blood...I love you as such, Morai."

Light Morai sat down in the lotus position, and she didn't see the tear rolling down Shadow Morai's cheek.

"I have a feeling that our real world counterpart will see this. May I have a moment to give my last words?"

The figure nodded. Light Morai looked to where the real Morai was standing, as if she was aware of her presence, or what would be in the future.

"I know continuing on without us might be difficult, but we always be here with you in spirit. In your current days you're not as keen to be kind and gentle, but I promise that it's an important part of a strong and virtuous life. Water is soft and malleable, but it is capable of carving rivers out of rock. You must have both. I wish that I could have showed you the true value of what I represent, but my time has passed for now. Goodbye, Morai. I love you, too, as a sister of the soul."

Morai stared at her counterpart with a frozen wide-eyed expression, mouth hanging open, trying to suppress the urge to run forward and save her. Past Morai only stood with a solemn expression as she witnessed the passing of what were her counterparts, too. She had seen this memory once before, but it didn't hurt any less the second time. She was wise enough to know that she could only observe.

Light Morai, put her hands together in front of her chest and bowed her head, a soft smile still resting on her face. The figure reached a shadowy hand forward and touched her head, and her expression was slowly cast into stone. Shadow Morai screamed and struggled in a horrifying show of anger and sorrow, but there was nothing she could do. She had tired herself out, fighting against something that would not move.

The fog let the struggling trainer go for a moment, as if giving her a chance to go calmly as Light Morai had, but she still tried to fight. Her chest was heaving and her tie had come out from beneath her vest. She tried to run to her opposite, but the fog wouldn't let her leave her own side. It took hold of her feet and wrapped around her neck. Her feet became stuck in place, and it was then she realized that there was truly nothing she could do.

"Morai," she said with more urgency than her opposite had, looking in the same place as if she knew Morai would be standing there. The stone, which had crawled up to her ankles, stopped to give her time to speak.

"I prepared for this before for so long until you took the serum. I was blindsided by the happiness of having a friend like me who understood my nature. It was my job to tear anything in our path to shreds, yet here I am. I have failed, Morai. I'm sorry. I had the best of times with you, both in trying to kill you and in our friendly sparring matches. I enjoyed our hours of laughing together over things that weren't that funny. Remember what I said. Keep your head up and never bow down to the challenges that face you. You must keep your fierce fighting spirit and carry on with a smile through whatever lies ahead of you, like a true fighter. I hope you feel my presence with you long after I'm gone. I, too, love you as a sister of the soul."

Shadow Morai was frozen in time in the traditional fighting stance of the art she practiced. Her gaze was set at the same place Light Morai's would've been, looking far beyond at something unknown. Her head was unbowed and instead looked forward with determination. Her counterpart's natures were well represented in their final moments.

Morai and Past Morai returned to her current dream. Morai felt as if she was suffocating. She took a knee and grabbed her chest, her eyes squinted shut as if it would help what she just witnessed be any less true. Her past self put a hand on her shoulder. Morai violently jerked it away, standing up and wheeling around to face her with wild red eyes.

"You..." she muttered. "Are you the reason they're gone?"

"This world—your soul—became too imbalanced for their habitation here. It's not anyone's fault. You weren't aware of these specific consequences of your actions when you attacked Sheridan. I arrived in the Dream Realm as soon as I took the serum and became you in the real world but I was somewhere far away, mastering this ability. This is the hand fate has dealt, and it provides a vital opportunity to—"

Morai lunged forward and grabbed her new counterpart's shoulders.

"You're supposed to be dead," she whispered through gritted teeth. "Gone with the rest of my past. I'm already being subjected to the past in the real world. Do you think I really want to go back and relive it with you of all people?"

Past Morai simply stood there, refusing to respond to violence and anger with violence and anger. She had a flat expression on her face, as if she had expected this very thing to happen. She was the same age as Morai, but in a spiritual sense she had aged considerably, and it showed on her face. She knew her purpose, and it was to serve as the counterbalance to Morai's extreme evil. For that purpose, she had been given a very important ability—the ability to revisit dreams and memories.

"I understand your anger," she said. "They were my friends, too, in the past. But all we can do is look ahead. Whether you decide to face your past and who you were before is up to you, but I will do what I can to save your broken soul. If you continue down this path, I only imagine that you'll find yourself completely alone in the midst of everything you've burned to the ground, and those that offered a hand to you before despite your shortcomings will have been destroyed by you. I'm not your enemy, Morai."

The dream counterpart could see Morai fighting back tears, not at what she had just said, but at the loss of her dearest friends and sisters, and the two people who had understood her the most. Morai clenched her eyes shut and violently shook her head.

"It's okay to grieve, Morai. You can c—"

Morai raised hand with her claws poised to strike, but she had forgotten that Past Morai possessed the same level of martial arts skill she did. It seemed that her dream counterpart had become proficient in grappling again, taking Light Morai's place as a counterbalance to Morai's forceful striking. Her attack deflected, Morai backed away, and she got an idea. She was going to put herself through enough pain to make herself wake up. It was all just a nightmare, after all.

Past Morai put a finger to Morai's forehead before she clawed herself. Her hand fell to her side, and her muscles began to relax one by one. Her eyelids began to droop a little, and Past Morai removed her finger. She had done enough to calm her down, but not put her to sleep. Morai stumbled forward, resting her head on her counterpart's shoulder, her arms hanging limply at her sides as the pair lowered to the ground.

For the first time in months, since she had taken the serum, Morai began to cry. Her dream counterpart held her and consoled her like a mother consoles a child—or more accurately, how a sister consoles a sister.

"Is there any chance they'll come back?" Morai asked through choppy breaths.

"Perhaps," her counterpart answered softly. "If enough balance is restored for them both to live here comfortably. To do that, however, it will take time and work. You'll have to incorporate good and everything Light Morai represented back into your soul so that it is more balanced. It will be difficult for you, and as Olympia said, you'll have to overcome every obstacle you face in this trial of dreams and memories."