Morai recoiled and roared in pain. Pollie backed away, expecting her to retaliate, but she nearly tried to claw the serum out of her own veins before she stopped her. Morai looked down at her arm and saw the true serum clearly overtake the fake, coloring her veins an even deeper black.

"N-no," she whispered. Pollie let go knowing that her prisoner wouldn't—couldn't—escape in the moment. Forced to take a knee in the dark sand, Morai gritted her teeth until she couldn't anymore, letting out a terrible scream of pain that echoed through the empty town. Her eyes were unnervingly wide, as if she had witnessed something horrific.

"My insides...it's ripping through my insides!" she screamed, holding her head in her hands. She was completely on her knees now, hunched forward and pitiful looking. The red faded from her eyes, replacing them with a sullen grey, and her face was drained of the little color it usually had. If this serum was supposed to keep her conscious, Morai was surprised at how close it was pushing her toward the edge. The edges of the world around her faded away like burning paper, and she found herself in the Dream Realm in front of Past Morai.

Meanwhile, Pollie pushed her to her stomach in the sand and handcuffed her. She didn't put up any fight aside from random twinges of her muscles as she stared into the distance with an open mouth, a look of blank horror frozen on her face.

"Morai?" Pollie asked, sitting on top of her and nudging her head. There was no answer. "Morai? Did...I kill her?"

"Things didn't turn out the way you planned," Past Morai said calmly. Morai stumbled towards her before falling to her knees and assuming the same position she had before falling unconscious.

"It...it hurts..." she stammered, digging her own nails into the skin of her face. Past Morai sat down with her.

"This is your brain fighting the serum for the last of its pyschic power. In a few moments, I'll be gone as it loses that fight."

Neither of them said anything else. Past Morai sat with her real-world counterpart and put a comforting hand on her knee, both unsurprised at the turn of events and relieved that the one who now carried her name wasn't going to wreak anymore havoc outside of the prison. Still, she pitied Morai. They were both still so young, after all, and Morai had gotten herself into quite the predicament, but age didn't make her immune to the consequences of her terrible actions.

"I don't want to go back..." Morai whispered, head hung low. Past Morai didn't offer any words of comfort. She had tried it time and time again, trying to steer her in a different direction, but she had failed. As she sat beside her counterpart she, too, took on a solemn expression. She was supposed to fix what Morai had broken and continued to break. She was the one that was given life after death to mend her own broken soul...but she couldn't. She had only failed, taking comfort in the memories of the one that could beside her statue. There was no one to teach her, no one to tell her what to do, and she watched as her namesake wreaked havoc upon herself and everyone around her.

When Morai awoke, she found herself lying completely flat, her body being pressed into the sand by the whole of Pollie's weight resting on top of her. She moved her hands to find that they had been handcuffed behind her. Whereas before she was trying to keep her muscles from moving without her, she couldn't will her muscles to do anything now. She let out a deep sigh.

"Watch out for Palossand," she said. Her voice was hoarse and subdued. "They're a nightmare. I nearly died trying to catch a shiny one on this beach."

"Noted," Pollie replied tersely.

"I guess...you're going to be promoted to a guard," the prisoner said with a slight grin, which surprised Pollie.

"I guess so," the future guard replied. She pulled her radio out and announced that she had captured the fugitive, but no one answered. She tried again, and silence still hung on the other side.

"That's...strange," she said. "Where is everyone?"

"Maybe we should look for them," Morai suggested.

"We're not going anywhere," Pollie insisted. "I've got you right here and I'm not risking your escape again. I'm sure everything is...fine. Your stupid avalanche probably messed with everyone's communication," she scolded, flicking Morai in the head. "Still..."

A few minutes of silence passed, Morai gritting her teeth every so often as a new wave of pain hit her. She mentally applauded Colress's design while cursing him at the same time. It wasn't just supposed to take her powers away, it was made to keep her in some degree of pain for the entirety of its life in her system. Had this serum been administered the first time, she wasn't sure she would have been able to escape.

"...Does it still hurt?" Pollie asked.

"No, no, it feels great...can I at least turn my head towards the ocean?" Morai asked in turn. Pollie looked to the sky as she relieved some of the weight on her arm, which was pushing the base of Morai's neck into the ground.

"That's better," The Mask Maker groaned. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, coloring the ocean a nice orange. Had Pollie called her out a little later, Noivern probably would've had an advantage in the complete darkness.

"You could've used a regular tranquilizer and I would've been completely out," Morai said. "But you didn't."

"I...wanted to see you suffer," Pollie finally admitted with a sigh. "To make you pay for what you did."

"There it is," Morai weakly smiled. "I like when people are honest about their intentions. I don't blame you, either. It was a pretty good fight."

The sound of the waves filled the long gaps in between words from either trainer. Morai thought it was the last time she might see a view like this, so she didn't mind the uncomfortable and almost pitiful position she was in. She had been on the verge of living again, of seeing views like this every day. She might've actually paid attention to what the days were, but then again, Christmas had passed her by in her pre-prison days before Ingo reminded her of it.

I wonder what Ingo and Emmet are up to...not that I care anymore...Still, it's a shame I may not finish my Battle Subway trophy collection before my life is over.

"Do you...regret anything?" Pollie asked. Morai was surprised at the question, given her train of thought up until then.

"I don't remember enough to regret," Morai answered earnestly. She sounded sleepy. "Once something happens, once a decision is made, that memory begins to fade as soon as it's over. They don't die completely, but they...fade. The sting of my defeat won't sting in a couple of days...but I suppose I'll have you to remind me."

"So every terrible thing you do...it only matters to those you hurt," Pollie noted. "I see your new mask. I understand what you were trying to do. It's...almost clever. Four—no, five—eyes, so that people get confused as to where not to look. It makes it easier for you to hypnotize them...and hurt them."

"Yeah, I'm pretty terrible. We've covered that," Morai groaned. "...Hey, when is the next Waffle Day?"

"I don't think you're getting another Waffle Day...at least not for a while," Pollie frowned.

"Sounds like I'm in for it."

"You usually don't worry about the future."

"That's true," Morai admitted. "Unless it happens to contain my favorite breakfast in an otherwise boring prison."

Pollie actually laughed a little before catching herself. Her prisoner saw that she was still bleeding from her face and neck, and she caught herself looking at the blood longingly as it dripped and blended with the sand.

"Stop it!" Pollie scorned. "Geez. Even now you can't help it. You really are cursed."

Another minute of silence passed as Morai shifted her gaze to the waves.

"Hey..." she finally asked. "Would you mind loosening my tie? It's gotten tighter, and I'm struggling to breathe with it, you, and the serum."

Pollie sighed as she reached down and pulled the tie a little looser, internally chuckling at Morai's fashion choices. But as she began to pull her hand away, Morai bit just above her wrist, trying to crush it with all of the strength she could muster.

"Let go of me!" Pollie screamed, pulling out her gun with her other hand. Morai held on with all of her strength, trying to yank her captor forward and off of her. "M-Morai, you stupid—ouch!"

Even for Morai, what she was doing was a new level of animalistic, but it was her only shot at escape. She kept biting and tearing, her teeth sinking through layers of skin and muscle. Pollie let out horrified shrieks, hitting her with the barrel of her gun and trying to shoot her again, but Morai refused to stop. From the pain and blood loss combined with her previous injuries, Pollie soon fell unconscious, and Morai shook her off of her back. She stood up, which made her dizzy, and began to search out some way to either take shelter or escape. But she paused.

"If I leave you, Pollie, you might bleed out...just like I said you would," she sighed. Her tie had become loose enough to shake off of her head, and tightened it around Pollie's wrist the best she could without the use of her hands.

"I still want to fight you again one day. I want to see what your need for revenge makes you. Then it'll be a fight worth having."