The Trial of Dreams and Memories (TMM 2)

A Train on Fire

"No, Morai, don't do it," Past Morai pleaded from the Dream Realm. She knew her counterpart couldn't hear her but it hurt her good soul to watch. Watching the past, which she had nearly mastered, was different. Those events had already occurred, but watching present horrors unfold and seeing terrible actions carried out in her name made her restless and almost broke her heart. Her friends—whom she dearly missed—were watching a shell of herself, unaware that she was also watching from a different place.

"Don't do it, Morai," the doctor said softly. "I can give you something much better."

"And why should I trust you?" Morai asked, her eyes wild with adrenaline and thirst. "I know why you put me through all of this in the first place. It's all a part of your little study to turn me good again. Well, write this in your journal, doctor."

Morai opened her mouth and bared her teeth, but she didn't move another inch before getting hit with a dart. She still tried to carry out her task, but her jaw became too weak. The prisoner looked around and saw that Ingo was holding the offending gun in his outstretched hand, his face the same as the day he pulled the trigger in the streets of Castelia. 

"You, again," she muttered before falling unconscious. 

Morai woke up in the Realm of Dreams. She didn't even bother to groan or complain about being sent there before she found her past self and lunged at her, grabbing her shoulders and digging her sharp nails into her skin. Before she did any real damage, Past Morai put a finger to her forehead. Morai involuntarily relaxed and she groggily slumped to the ground. 

"I just crave one thing. Is it too much to ask?" she groaned. 

"It is when you have to take it from someone else who doesn't want to give it," Past Morai answered, stooping down to sit cross-legged beside her. They had both ended up in front of Shadow Morai's statue. "But enough of that. It's all you've thought about for the past thirty-six hours. What about Maria?"

"What about her?" 

"Don't play ignorant. You were so close to getting that which you wanted most of all but you didn't! You held back! That's great," Past Morai cheerfully said. 

"No, it's not!" Morai snarled, posting up on her elbows. "I was genuinely conflicted. If I continue that, the conflict that tore your soul apart will return to do the same to me. I don't want to end up like miserable you, trying so hard to be good when you felt so evil and deceitful on the inside. It's why you created the whole mask motif!"

"It doesn't have to be that way," Past Morai said softly. "You have someone who cares for you despite your nature, and you just proved that you care about her, too. That alone is very valuable. Worth the internal conflict, even."

Morai reacted as if her counterpart had just slapped her in the face. 

"Me, caring? Absolutely not! That's not me, that's you! And that's weak!" she growled. Past Morai prepared to try and calm her down again with the move Light Morai often used on Shadow Morai. 

"Then what was that in the garden?" she asked.

"It was...it was...oh, I don't know what it was!" Morai said, crossing her arms and falling back to the ground. Her past counterpart looked at her and smiled, knowing that she knew the truth. 

"It's alright to care about someone, you know," she said. "It's alright to have a little warmth in that desolate ice-cold heart of yours. Even if you tear everyone else to shreds—which is ill-advised—I beg of you to please at least keep this one person."

"I see no benefit to it," Morai answered flatly, her arms crossed and her eyes closed. 

"I think you will. I know you don't like me all that much, but could you at least try to keep your claws off of Maria? Try to spark a friendship."