She slapped Lina across the face. Lina gritted her teeth in anger and was about to retaliate when she kneed Lina in the stomach. The fiery haired sorceress fell backwards to the ground and felt like she was about to throw up.

"You're so inconsiderate," the woman with the right-eye covered by her scarf told Lina scoldingly, "I know you were trying to forget about me all day."

"Damn hypocrite," Lina choked in response, "After what you just did you're calling me inconsiderate?"

The room she was in was completely black, just like before, yet oddly enough Lina felt as though she had been here for hours and only now noticed the scenery (or lack thereof). The darkness of everything around didn't prevent the two women from seeing each other perfectly. The urge to vomit again rose in Lina's stomach. She turned away from the other woman and threw up.

"How can you act so worthless?" the woman asked as though she pitied Lina, "Why do you put up this charade? Don't you know anything?"

"I know that I want to go about my life as normal," Lina growled back, "And I know that you're insane."

"How can a being like you go about a 'normal' life?" the woman laughed, "Do you really think such a thing is possible for someone like you?"

Lina stood back up. Her face was painted with fury, but it was only a mask used to hide the fear and weariness that she felt. She grabbed the woman by the collar of her cloak and moved their faces right next to each other.

"Why don't you leave me alone?" Lina stated in an even voice that was dripping with venom, "How many times do I have to tell you that I have nothing to do with you and I want to live my normal life?"

"Sinner," the woman scoffed as she broke from Lina's grasp and backed off a few steps, "We are all going to Hell, don't you see? Pretending to be a normal human isn't going to fool Judgment. You and I are the only worthy beings in this world. That alone guarantees our damnation."

"You make no sense," Lina shook her head.

"I am forced to kill, don't you see?" the woman grinned maliciously, "It is my desire. It hurts me. My own desire hurts me. Do you think such a being as myself deserves to live?"

"What are you getting at?"

"It will release me!" a slight ray of hope glinted in the woman's left eye.

"What will release you?" Lina furrowed her brow attempting to decipher the cryptic statements.

As if to answer Lina's question a scratching noise emanated from behind her. Lina turned around to see what it was, but there was nothing there. She moved her gaze back and forth, but still there was nothing. Even the scratching noise had stopped.

"I was right. . ." Lina whispered to herself, "When I awoke I knew there had been a third person here. This must be the third person. . ."

She turned around to face the woman who was smiling broadly like a child playfully hiding something from her parents. It was almost as if she expected Lina to play a game with her. Lina opened her mouth to speak when she heard the scratching noise again and saw something move in her peripheral vision.

Lina turned her head quickly to follow what she had seen, but it's pace matched hers and whoever or whatever it was always managed to remain moving at a speed such that Lina could only get faint glimpses of it out of the corners of her eyes.

"What is it?" Lina asked both bewildered and afraid.

"Damnation," the woman replied simply, still smiling broadly.

Lina was silent, she kept turning around rapidly, trying to get a look at whatever it was, but it always managed to stay one step ahead of her.

"It made me what I am," the woman told Lina unexpectedly, "It commands my will. I hate it so much, but I am thankful to it. Its commands sate my desires for blood and violence."

Lina looked the woman straight in the face.

"Who are you?" she asked straightforwardly.

"My. . .name?" the woman replied as if in response to something she hadn't thought about in many, many years.

The woman scratched an ungloved hand lightly against her check while contemplating. The light scratches grew more forceful until she actually drew blood on her own face. However, if she noticed the harm she was causing herself, she didn't show any sign of it. Lina watched the demented woman, feeling rather chilled.

"I think. . ." the woman said after a few moments more, ". . .that someone once called me Yume."

"Who?"

"A woman. . ." Yume contemplated while drawing more blood from her cheek, ". . .mother? But mother doesn't matter anymore. Nor does father, nor uncle, nor any of those worthless bastards who call themselves my siblings."

"You killed your own family?" Lina scowled.

"The time has not come yet. You are still not ready," Yume changed the subject suddenly and awkwardly while tilting her head at an odd angle.

"Ready for what?" Lina asked.

Yume fingered a lock of her hair. Her grin couldn't be wider and the malice in her eye couldn't be deadlier. She curled the lock of hair around her gloved finger then let it fall back to its original position.

"You see?" Yume prompted, "You're starting to realize."

"W-what are you doing to me?" Lina gasped as she suddenly started shivering uncontrollably.

"My presence is a plague," Yume informed her, "Those around me whom I don't immediately kill are influenced by my damnation."

Lina bit her tongue forcefully to try to steady herself.

"Stop. Leave me alone!" Lina begged, "Return me to my normal self!"

Yume smiled and stared blankly off into the distance. Lina felt the incredible urge to cut something. Her shoulders heaved as her body wanted to sob in pain, but her mouth biting her tongue stopped her from doing so.

"Stop it, please!" Lina screamed. She bit her tongue again and this time tasted a warm, salty liquid in her mouth. She collapsed to her knees and stared at the black ground.

"Why are you resisting?" a voice asked curiously.

Lina looked up. Yume stood next to her, but it was apparent that she was not the one who spoke.

"Shut up," Lina commanded. It didn't matter whom she commanded, just as long as it was someone.

"You know you want this. It will feel so good," the voice nagged again.

"Shut up!" Lina stated more forcefully this time. She was shivering now. Her entire body felt deathly cold.

"Don't deny yourself the pleasure," the voice hoarsely told Lina.

"SHUT UP!" Lina screamed, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"Poor creature," Yume offered as she kneeled next to Lina and wrapped her arms around the shaking and confused sorceress and held her close, "I know what it feels like. It happened to me once as well. It hurts, doesn't it? But it's all right. Soon it will be over, and then you will know that it was worth every last drop of pain you shed. Your Apocalypse draws near, the time is almost neigh. . ."

"SHUT UP!" Lina screamed one last time as she drew a dagger from her belt and slashed blindly at Yume.

Then everything seemed blank for a moment. After sometime had passed, Lina looked down at the dagger in her hand. The entire blade was streaked with blood and her gloved hands were spattered.

"I-I. . ." Lina stuttered as she shivered. Yume's body was lying on the black ground next to Lina, covered in blood yet smiling sorrowfully.

"I-I. . ." Lina choked again, "k-killed. . .her. . ."

"It's all right," a child's voice, the voice from her mind, told Lina.

Lina looked over to where the voice came from. A cute little girl with long black hair wearing a nightgown and a red silk scarf in place of a ribbon in her hair walked over to Yume's body. The child smiled knowingly and smiled at Lina comfortingly.

"Are you. . ." Lina whispered, "Yume?"

Indeed, the child looked a lot like how the demented woman might have when she was around six to eight years of age. Everything about her was alike except the hair length and the fact that the child's eyes were both open to plain view, and both seemed quite healthy. No reason to cover either one.

"It is impossible for her to die here," the child stated sagely, "That is why you must do that again later, Lina."

"Leave me alone, please!" Lina begged in confusion.

"Once begun, it must be followed to the conclusion," the child told her, "I need you, Lina Inverse. You're the only one who can save me."

Lina sat up abruptly and gasped for air in the tent. Her hair felt uncomfortably greasy from sweat and her entire body was cold and shivering. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she noticed the two marks on her arm again. She looked around the tent briefly. Gourry was still sleeping under a blanket in another corner of the tent. Akira and Renima were off in another corner, Renima sleeping with her head on Akira's chest. They did look somewhat cute like that, but Lina wasn't in the mood to think about such things.

"Mmm. . .Akira-kun. . ." Renima mumbled in her sleep. Lina would've rolled her eyes had she been in the mood. Meanwhile, Akira was perfectly silent and still but for the slow rise and fall of his chest. Gourry snored softly.

It hadn't been noticed before under the black veil of night, but now in the dimly lit tent, Lina understood why she and Gourry could not see Akira's face before. He wore a pitch-black metal mask and a hood, the same color as the ragged robes he wore. The mask was a simple covering with two holes for eyes and two smaller holes for air intake, no mouth. Well, whatever. It didn't matter to Lina right now. She got up from underneath her blanket and walked outside the tent.

Lina paced back and forth for a while, constantly pondering about the dream and worrying. Worrying that she was becoming something she didn't want to be. All she wanted was to continue with her life as normal, but now this arose. How would it end?

The sun was slowly rising in the east and it gave faint illumination to the terrain around them. They had camped in a shallow glen a bit off the course of the road. Everything seemed so calm and peaceful in nature. Nothing was out of its harmonious balance. A caterpillar slowly crawled across the ground where Lina stood watching the sunrise through the trees. She looked down at the small creature and smiled at its simple beauty, but a footstep interrupted her silent contemplation. She looked to her right to see Akira standing next to her. Akira nodded to her as if in greeting, then sat down and fingered some grass blades in a bored manner.

Lina sat down too. She looked her unusual companion from head to toe. Except his face, hands, and feet, he was completely covered in the ragged black robes. He wore black greaves and black clawed gauntlets. On his right wrist, however, Lina noticed an odd contraption composed of springs, wires, and short metal tubes. The whole of the device wrapped around Akira's wrist like a rather large bracelet, or maybe some form of a shackle. Wires connected the thing to his fingers.

"What is that?" Lina asked, nodding to the contraption.

Akira lifted his right hand and pointed to the bracelet with his left hand.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about," Lina specified.

Akira stood up and looked left and right. Lina watched patiently, confident that he was going to demonstrate something. After a few seconds, Akira seemed to have found what he was looking for: a young sapling that stood a few meters away from where the two stood. The cloaked man lifted his right hand and pointed it straight at the tree. He twitched the fingers and thumb of his right hand, making clicking noises and shuffling around the various miniscule springs and wires composing the device.

Lina lifted her eyebrows in astonishment as a metal dart apparently attached to a wire which in turn was attached to the device shot out from one of the small metal tubes and pierced cleanly all the way through the sapling. Akira fidgeted his fingers again and the dart retracted, catching on the scarred bark of the tree on the way back with enough force to rip the tree from the ground. He took a moment to tear the young tree off of the dart and toss it to the side, then completely retracted the device.

"Now there's something you don't see every day. . ." Lina mused, still quite impressed by the odd weapon. Akira just shrugged nonchalantly.

"What tinkerer made that for you?" Lina pestered the silent mercenary, somewhat interested in trying to find one for herself, she always had an eye out for unusual weapons as was the case back when Gourry used to have the Sword of Light. Akira just turned his head to look at her for a moment as if to remind her of something she shouldn't have forgotten.

"Right, right. You can't talk. I forgot for a minute," Lina waved a hand to try to shake off his scorn, "I'll just have to ask Renima when she wakes up. I'd ask you why she can understand you when you can't speak, but that would just be a waste of breath, wouldn't it?"

Akira nodded, then turned around and walked back into the tent. He came out a moment later holding a burlap sack. Lina lifted an eye to watch him walk off into the forest nearby.

"Where are you going?" Lina asked casually.

Akira stood for a moment in contemplation, and then decided to try his hands at charades. He lifted one arm and rubbed it with the other arm, then reversed the process. Lina looked at him curiously. The silent mercenary stood a moment in further contemplation, then repeated the last gesture and added afterwards arm strokes as to imply swimming.

"Going to bathe?" Lina stabbed at it.

Akira nodded once.

"Not a bad idea. I think I'll follow suit after he's done. My hair feels like shit," Lina ran a hand through her sweaty hair. She hated when it felt like that. Akira apparently didn't care anything about Lina's plans for bathing as evidenced by the fact that he simply walked off in the direction where there he suspected a river.

The reference to her hair being sweaty reminded her of why it was that way in the first place. It was that nightmare. That cursed nightmare. This stream of manipulated subconscious was driving her off the deep end. The young sorceress thought about it for a moment, and the more she thought about it, the more she seemed to understand something which couldn't be understood.

Her lips creased into a scowl.

The caterpillar that the she had noticed earlier was still slowly moving along right in front of her. Lina crushed it under her foot while not even stopping to look down at the poor creature's demise.