Kaetha watched with impatience as Kait spoke with the necromancer. The Consciousness had granted her access to its omniscient vision to watch Kait do the task she’d been given. From the looks of it, there’d be a long negotiation.

How annoying. She was tempted to end it by ridding them of the spirit’s jar of mercury on her own since Kait wasn’t aware it was the vessel for the reimagined soul...somehow. That would have been overkill, though, because the threat to her son’s life was gone, for the most part, so she could rest easy, for now.

She glanced at Hailey, who hadn’t moved from her place. It wasn’t likely she would move for at least an hour, she figured. She tended to sit still and think for long, tedious periods. Clearly, she hadn’t heeded her advice and used the realm creatively. That was fine, more pay for her.

Logica suddenly appeared beside her. “Grandma, I fear there are plots against you.”

Kaetha sighed. “That’s not what I want to hear in the final stretch. And please don’t call me that in front of mortals.”

“Oh, sorry. The spirit of luminmancy has been seen conspiring with Elementekk again.”

“EVEN WORSE! Did Insecaba tell you this?”

“Yes. She sent her ants across the nooks and crannies of the consciousness and saw the two speaking in the bridge room. Just one moment...” Logica disappeared, then returned to Kaetha, “She tells me they seem skeptical about this operation. They may cut our founding because it was us who allowed the soul to be released.”

“They found out, huh?”

“Indeed. I suggest we find a way to regain The Consciousness’s favor before they can maliciously hamper you. There is a 76% chance that immediately cleaning this up will result in their concerns being sidestepped.”

“Why do you say that? Either way, we were the ones who set it free.”

“I say this because it is likely they are only in the conspiring stage. Either way, Necro will be punished. The question is if this mess is blown out of proportion. 74% now.”

Kaetha scoffed, “Timing me now? That’s my Logica, gimmie a hug!”

As Kaetha did that, Logica said “72%”

“Fine, fine.” Kaetha let go of Logica. “I’ve only got one way to end this right now.”

“Possession?”

“Yes, but before I do...” Kaetha walked to Hailey then flicked her head. She disappeared immediately afterward.

“Four hundred years in The Consciousness... let’s see the sun again!” Kaetha woke up in a body quite similar to the one she’d just left.

In front of her was a drowsy mother, who was very surprised to see Hailey wake. “H-Hailey? You’re awake!”

“No, I’m not Hailey.” Kaetha stood up, checking out her bedtime clothes. Their fluffiness was quaint.

“W-what? Are you another-”

“No, who I am is none of your concern.” Kaetha opened the window.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Clera said, unsure of her own eyes.

“Flying.” Kaetha jumped out of the window, then soared.

Clera felt like she was on the butt end of a cruel joke.

Kait leaned against the wall as Jaine and his mom caught up, mainly through praise on his independence at the mere age of 17. Kait wasn’t too impressed, but that was culture’s change over time.

Kait waited until their banter calmed down. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt a need to take things slow...painfully slow. Still, she thought it wouldn’t be right to waste everyone’s time talking. “So what are we going to do about this?”

“Oh, right. I forgot we were bargaining for her life. So why are ya so determined to stop me from reviving her?”

Memories coming out of the Consciousness were difficult to recall without purposefully remembering important details, similar to dreams. “If I recall...it was because you’re trying to create new life.”

“I don’t think I’m making any sort of ‘new life’ this girl was already revived when I found her.”

“Right, but try telling the Consciousness that. From its perspective, you stole a soul, then tried to revive it against the natural order. Oh, and that soul, it’s Alchemia, right?”

“So you’re saying that Alchemia needs to die because the Consciousness said so.”

“Yes.”

“Well, shred the Consciousness like paper is what I say! I’m not letting my uhh...friend get killed.”

“Yeah.” Kait agreed.

“But-Oh, you agree with me. That makes this easier.”

“Yep. I think we should find a compromise. What were you doing with her anyway?”

“When she possessed Hailey for some reason, she called me up, asking for me to save her butt from being wiped by the Consciousness.”

Kait cringed at the humor, “So as you said, she wants to live...”

“So, as I said, this is just a favor for a friend.” He shrugged, then opened the door to his balcony, feeling hot. “I requested a body from the necromancy foundation, and I’ve been waiting for it. It should be here in five days.”

“What do necromancers do these days? Last time I checked, they were second-rate witches that zombified people for power.”

“How mean could you be to my dignified kind!” He raised his hand in mock dramaticism. “We transplant souls to save people from death.”

Kait shook her head and sighed. “That’s actually reputable. So what do you think we do to-”

Taylor’s cell phone rang. “Err, sorry about that...it’s mom.” He walked into the corner to take the call.

Before the conversation could continue, Taylor turned back, “KAIT! Why is my sister able to fly? Why is she possessed?!”

“What?!” Kait exclaimed.

“My mom just said she saw Hailey fall out of the window then...then....”

All eyes were focused on the apartment’s balcony, where Kaetha had floated down.

“I guess we don’t need to find her if she comes to us...”

It blinked, admiring the convenience of the open balcony door, before walking through. “I must apologize for this.” Kaetha pointed towards the jar of mercury-

Taylor slugged his sister in the face out of pure instinct, throwing her into the glass like a ragdoll. “H-Hailey!?” he realized what he’d done afterward, stunned at his own aggression. Seeing his sister crumpled on the floor made his fist hurt all the more.

“Unexpected and annoying.” it sighed, then her hand moved to the glass-

“Vergo!” Kait’s chest shined yellow, then the two vanished.

Hailey had been pestered by some dopey-looking spirit that wouldn’t stop laughing for about three minutes before she cracked. “Ok, I don’t know who or what you are, but you’re pissing me off.” She added politely, “I’d like it if you could stop.”

“Ha! Sorry, not a compelling argument.”

Hailey walked close enough that the spirit could feel her palpable disdain, “I’m in the middle of thinking, and I don’t want a laughing jack of farts to interrupt my thoughts.”

“Maaake me. You ain’t gonna do-”

“Power word kill.” the spirit fell to the ground, then respawned a few feet away.

“That wasn’t very n-”

“Power word kill.”

“Come now, that r-”

“Power word kill.”

“Please don’t-”

“HA! Power word kill!”

“It’s funny you think killing me is enough to kill me, but-”

“Power word kill.

“Woah, you have the smil-”

“Power word kill.”

“e of a devil.”

“Power word kill!”

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you.”

“Heh, I am, but mostly I’m just testing something out.”

“Oh! So you didn’t actually want me to-”

“Power word kill.”

“Ha! How dreadfully spiteful you are!”

“Spiteful, huh?!” Hailey smiled like she’d achieved something. “Tell me, spirit, how does time work here?”

“Gran said it was dependent on your psyche.”

“My psyche?”

“She said it’d take longer the less you wanted to face reality.”

“The less...I wanted to face reality...”

“Yes, mam!”

“So...” Hailey’s smile turned mischievous. “You’re saying that if I throw myself at the problem with raw determination, a want to face reality so great I’d look like a madman, that I could brute force my way through here in a flash.”

“Heh, I like that smile, it reminds me of me.”

“Power word kill.”

“How many bodies do you want to pile up?” It motioned to the many green-haired corpses on the ground.

“Don’t compare me to a joke like you. This hellish abomination that spirit designed for me...I’ll just crush it.”

“Hahahahahaha! You think you can get past that traumatic memory of yours right after failing it?!”

“I didn’t fail it.”

“Oh?”

“I just got a little too rebellious a little too late.”

“Sounds like an excuse.”

“Call it what you want, joker, but I’ll throw myself at this problem and break it under my grip!” Hailey raised a clenched fist into the air. “Just watch me, you lunatic spirit!”

Hailey dashed across the crater. She had one thing in mind, one determination. She wouldn’t accept mediocrity. Sitting down and watching as her friend was killed in the memory...she could do that, but that wasn’t a memory, it was a play. And the annoying climb to that memory? It was a joke. She had done most of it twice before, so none of it was even worth a thought. Failing that memory’s ‘trial’ wasn’t an accident. She thought it’d be fun to walk back in there and crash the party. Seeing that damned Jason fly to the ground by her feet would be fun, so she didn’t waste the opportunity to.

She rushed forward, knowing every factor in play. Single-minded determination was what made her and her brother shine. She’d made her cherished friend with it, and she would never reject the past she entrusted to her memory.

Appenne smiled and laughed, happy to see a great joke unfold. He could try to stop the human from fulfilling her determined goal because she might interfere with his grandmother’s plan, but...this ‘Hailey’ girl was just a little nice to him, and he was happy to sit back and laugh at that. Why not let the mortal do what mortals do best and annoy his grandmother? Ha! A lot of reasons, but none he cared about!

Kait and Kaetha appeared almost a mile in the sky.

“You IDIOT! Kait!” Kaetha yelled before flying down with gravity.

Kait unclipped and climbed onto her broom as she fell, stabilizing herself. Seeing the patron of her powers soar downward, she tried to match the greater spirit’s speed. “Kaetha, I will not allow you to kill an innocent in this way!”

“This is why I’m in ruins, Kait! You were a soldier, but you couldn’t harness the malice it took to kill, let alone protect those you love!”

Kait yelled the name of her fallen comrade, “Kevain!” activating a spell to negate her air resistance. It gave her the boost of speed needed to slug Hailey’s body, sending Kaetha sprawling through the air from a loss of balance. However, Kait felt a surge of lethargy as she touched the spirit.

Kaetha didn’t pause, accelerating towards the ground as fast as she could. “If I don’t do this, all my children will suffer!”

“We can still think of a way to get out of this situation, Kaetha! We don’t need to kill her!” Kait yelled through the wind.

“Alchemia is not a person, Kait. She is the property of the Consciousness and shouldn’t be alive!”

“This is why we can’t see eye to eye! I am your lifeline!”

“We never have...” Kaetha scoffed, then pointed to Kait, “You cannot stop me, Kait!”

Kait’s lethargy, caused by a spell Kaetha had cast, left her tired. She pulled a lighter from her pocket and smiled, channeling what excitement she could before the flame launched from the lighter and enveloped her, increasing her heartbeat.

The spirit was right, it was the spirit of witchcraft, and Kait was nothing more than a witch with her dead friends’ souls. Yet, she would stall as long as she could in hopes her friends could find a way to save the soul.

“But you can’t kill me, Kaetha. If I die, that’s it for both of us!” Kait took a deep breath to channel calm, then used the clear air around her to activate a spell to let her see through the clouds. Just as she did, they burst into one.

Kait saw Kaetha activate a spell, condensing some of the clouds into a chunk of ice, hurling it at Kait to slow her down. Kait could see through the mist and yelled, “Tererais!” casting his signature spell, vaporizing herself into a cloud to phase through the attack, then solidifying. Before Kait left the cloud, she smiled mischievously, channeling giddiness before tapping Kaetha’s shoe with a spell to lighten the spirit, causing it to hit its terminal velocity, falling much slower than before, despite her flight.

Kaetha and Kait pressed forward through the almost deafening wind, but Kait was out of ideas. Both she and the spirit had almost no foci to use for spells, and while she was running out of emotions, the spirit didn’t need any to cast spells. Still, Kait’s lightening spell had placed her in a good position.

“No doubt you’re growing annoyed with me.” She said, trying to distract the spirit.

“I am quite cross with you. You’re determined to ruin everything I plan. None of this would matter if you just accepted my offer. You could rule the world, but instead, you’re human.”

Kait smiled with cockiness, packaging her satisfaction for a later spell. “Give it up, granny, just give my friends some time to find a loophole through the law, and we can save Alchemia!”

“So what, Kait? Must you always forgo the greater good?”

“Is it not that attitude that killed everyone I know, Kaetha?! Is the Consciousness that you so dearly despise not a force that acts for the greater good and only the greater good!?

“That-that’s different, Kait! IT KILLED EVERYONE! Just accept that-”

“I have, Kaetha, but you’re too stuck to returning to the world we both abandoned for our lives that I’m stuck fighting you!”

Hailey’s teeth gritted together in stifled anger.

“All your disciples are emotional freaks, accept that! If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be in history books!”

“D-don’t act like you understand what it’s like to see everything you worked for the crumble in front...”

Kait just frowned.

“In front of..our...eyes...”

They were approaching the ground.

Hailey ran, ran, and ran. She wasn’t sure-no, she didn’t care how long it took to traverse the while wasteland of forgotten nick-nacks. She just ran. Without hesitation, Hailey stepped on the cracked earth of her memories.

She appeared in her school’s computer lab, where she was laughing with Abbie. Linne sat down beside her fake self, but she ignored Linne, instead looking at Abbie like her other friend didn’t exist.

The real Hailey tapped Linne’s shoulder, causing her to turn around in surprise. “Love you, Linne!” Hailey dashed out of the lab

The world shattered.

She appear-she took a step forward instantly.

Hailey swung on a swing, listening to music before she accidentally hit a kid with her f-

Hailey saved the kid from her fake’s guilty foot before dashing off with giddy and determined laughter, treating the memory like a joke.

The world shattered.

She took another step.

Her younger self refused to drink water as she toiled in her backyard garden. She was supposed to fall unconscious of exhaustion, but Hailey picked up her younger self with one hand, much to the acting spirit’s annoyance, and dropped her at the indoor sink before dashing out.

Hailey wasn’t ‘fixing’ the past because she thought it would change anything. She did it because she felt like it. If she saw a situation, she’d fix it. Simple as that.

She dashed through the front door, and the world shattered.

Hailey took a fourth step.

Taylor threw a punch at his crude friend for going too far with the teasing of his younger sister but was intercepted by a dramatic dropkick from Hailey, who made off like a bandit. The world shattered.

A fifth step.

A younger Hailey moved the pointer in a computer, not knowing she was about to trash a year’s worth of pictures before the real Hailey hit the power button and dashed off. The world shattered

A sixth step!

Taylor swore he could fall from the roof without being injured, much to the fake Hailey’s entertainment, before falling and breaking his-Hailey caught him midair, then placed him back on the ground. The world shattered.

Seven!

Some silly bully teased a younger Hailey in an event that shaped Hailey’s attitude. Hailey didn’t bother fixing anything there, it was a badass memory where she spat fire like no one’s business. She went elsewhere, ignoring the ultimately meaningless, though entertaining memory. The world shattered.

Eight birds and a total of one minute elapsed!

Hailey saw a beautiful scene of her and her family watching the scenery from the top of Tarraka Falls. Hailey decided to abuse her immortality to leap off the waterfall, feeling the spray and wind as she did. She heard a dumb voice from above, “Ha! I’m cheering for you now, Hail girl!” The world shattered.

There were nine foolish fakes of herself, but always just one Hailey. She took a step forward.

She sat in her messy bedroom, crying.

“HEY, ME!”

Her fake raised her head.

“GET UP, AND FEEL THE THING!”

“The...thing? What in cloverborn fields is the thing?

“YOUR FACE!” Hailey punched herself in the face, then leaped out her window with a smile.

Ten.

She stood over Abbie’s body, holding her hand and praying to the Consciousness her friend would survive.

The voice of someone losing everything at once, “H-Haily...I...I don’t s-s-s-save...I want...please.”

The past Hailey could barely squeak out a response to her dying friend’s incoherent pleads, “Abbie please, you can’t die here...I-I...why...”

“Oh, you think this is gonna stop me in my tracks, huh?” Hailey calmly said to the spirits in front of her, trying not to lurch at the blood pooling on the ground beneath her friend’s doppel.

Her fake turned around, “You’re really damn annoying.”

She smiled in a wide, aggravating manner. “Good, it means I’ve got one up on the world itself. Smell you later, actors.” Hailey walked out of the room.

And eleven-

Hailey dashed through an alchemy lab, then platformed up a set of icy platforms. Alchemia had been nice enough to give her a shortcut. She was a nice girl, whether or not she truly was part of Hailey. She slid into a cloud of mist.

Hailey appeared in a mountain, but she wasn’t intimidated. If she overcame it once, she’d make mincemeat of it when she did it again!

Faster than mk3 had been the first time she’d climbed the mountain, she left a trail of dust in her path, making her way up the cliffs and trails with superhuman speed and strength. Everyone was waiting for her outside. If her friends hated her, she’d fix that. If she’d never graduate because she’d been gone from school, she’d do it anyway. If anything stood in her way, she wanted to take it down. Right now, what stood in her way was a Mountain, and she was determined to make it a joke.

In no time, Hailey sundered the mountain with her psyche. To her eyes, it was nothing more than a blip, a small, insignificant hill. As she ran onto the peak, she leaped off the cliff into an approaching cloud...

Taylor addressed the whole room before anyone else could recover from their shock. “I think Kait needs us to find a loophole through whatever law makes Alchemia need to be killed. Jaine, why does she need to die?”

Jaine stared at Taylor, then nodded. “She was meant to go to the Consciousness, but I took her away. I think that counted as ‘stealing’ her.”

“So either we return her by releasing her from that container of mercury, or we do something to ease the Consciousness’s concern...” Taylor placed his hand to his face in thought.

Mrs.Kukui, who was quite informed on the Consciousness, proposed a solution, “The Consciousness might accept a different soul instead.”

“How nice of you to offer yourself as a sacrifice.” He joked.

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Jasmine, I’m not a very self-sacrificing person.”

“Then what conclusions should I jump to?”

“You mentioned that Kait had thousands of souls with her, is that true?”

“Ohhhhh, I like what you’re thinking!” Ja(sm)ine smirked, and raised his hand, which his mom tiredly hi-fived in victory. “But how do we get a soul out?”

His mom answered his question with an instructional tone, “Souls need to be stored in something solid. In the case of the Consciousness, it’s made of mercury, so it can store as much as it needs to.”

“So she must be storing them in some super-potent item!”

“Exactly.”

Jaine turned to Taila. “Taila, do you know anything about runes?”

Taila nodded, “I’m acquainted with the concepts.”

“In that case, I need six runes made, right here, right now, from both of you! We don’t have much time before evil Hailey returns, so snap to it! We need to put Alchemia’s soul into the item, and replace her soul with another that’s from the item. That means one rune to extract a soul, one to transport it, and one to seal it in the other item for both the souls. I’ll handle the extraction runes, you two choose between yourselves. Let’s get cracking!”

Taylor smiled, accepting his uselessness. If he couldn’t help, he’d be at the standby.

Kaetha finally thought of a spell to slow Kait...if she could just touch Kait...Kaetha cast a spell with Hailey’s clothes as a focus, creating a tiny string between her clothes and Kait’s broom, using the line to pull herself just close enough to grasp one of the broom’s needles. She used it as leverage, trying to touch Kait.

“Wha-what are you doing!” Kait reactively swatted her hand away, but that was enough to activate Kaetha’s spell, causing Kait to fall as slow as a thread of a broom.

“I’ll protect the future of magic!” Kaetha abused her unrestricted magic to repeatedly blast wind behind herself, outspeeding Kait.

Closer, closer, closer! Kaetha arrived on the balcony just seconds before Kait could, terrifying the four inhabitants. “It’s time to end this!”

Hailey was in the final stretch. She leaped from platform to platform, ready to end her odyssey. When she came to the black mist, the symbol of her pain, regret, suffering, and inadequacies, she didn’t pause, nor did she grimace or grit her teeth. Well, no, she did the latter, but that was just a smile.

When she arrived in the library, she hit the ground running. She slugged the damned murderer in the face, ran out of the room, hearing cries of encouragement from an acting Appenne in the background, then dashed out of the school, ending the traumatic memory’s reenactment without a single sentence. The world shattered.

She appeared in another white void, where ‘Abbie’, if that was even her real name, stood in wait, sitting on the ground boredly. Her mouth dropped, and her eyes widened in surprise upon seeing Hailey.

“H-Hailey!? Is that y-”

“How do I get out,” Hailey said with a frown.

“I don’t know.”

“Then I guess I need to tell you that I love you, and you were a great friend and all.”

“Heyheyhey! Last I checked, we were the best of buds! If I didn’t bite the dust, I’d have lived to make your other friends feel insignificant in comparison to our friendship!”

“Yeah, too bad, right? Anyway, ‘Abbie’, I need to get going.”

“W-wait, you don’t want to talk!?”

“No, and I think my ticket out is slugging you.”

“I don’t see any slug-” Hailey punched her friend in the chest, just like how they’d first met. “I eat those kinds of slugs for breakfast,” her friend wheezed out with misplaced pride.

“How about lunch and dinner?” Hailey smiled, happy to talk to her friend, fake or not. Or, in this case, slug her friend for having the nerve to die!

“Maybe not for all three meals. I think that’s unhealthy-”

“OOF!”

“That’s lunch!”

“PFFFAAARRG!” Hailey’s friend kneeled on the ground.

“You’re immortal, I’m sure, so you can suck it up!”

“That doesn’t make it alright to punch your friend, you fracker...”

“I don’t see you coughing up any oil, though.”

Her friend shook her head nostalgically, “Never change, Hailey...”

Hailey motioned to her chest with her thumb, “Heh, like this current me would throw in the towel and change for no good reason! See you never again, sista!”

Hailey walked off, and the world broke, shattered, crashed, and ended for good.

“It’s time to end this!” Kaetha placed a hand on the apartment’s glass, scowling with hate, just about to cast a spell to weaponize the wind-

Suddenly, Kaetha was forcefully ejected from her body and sent back to the Consciousness. She placed her hands on her head, trying to fight against the invader. “IMPOSSIBLE! HOW IS SHE ALREADY-Ahhh, what’s going on?”

Hailey had returned.

For all of about two seconds before she was knocked down by a falling Kait’s punch.