Silver Rose

Chapter XXVII - Homecoming

"How was your exercise last night?" Yuan asked as he walked into their room, where Lilly was the only one still sleeping. He had offered to take breakfast up for her while the rest ate in the kitchen downstairs.

Lilly yawned before looking at her teammate with sleepy eyes.

"You didn't even greet anyone," he chuckled. "I do remember you crashing into your bed with quite the noise."

"I'm pooped," she said, sprawling on her bunk. She turned over to him. He was holding a plate for her. She sat up quickly, sniffing the pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, and toast. "Oooh, sourdough!"

"I know that's your favorite," he chuckled, handing the plate to her. "Just a smidgen of butter, exactly the way you like it."

She bit into the crunchy toast, catching the crumbs with the plate. "I'll never get tired of breakfast in bed."

He chuckled. "So. How was your training?"

She didn't answer for a bit, trying the over-easy eggs and approving before hopping off her bunk and dashing to the doorway to look down both ends of the hall. She shut the door behind her before taking a seat at their tiny table with Yuan.

"Did you eat already?" she asked him.

He nodded. There was silence for a bit while Lilly ate. She took a sip of the milk before setting everything down and looking straight ahead at nothing in particular.

"My target this time was a mom of four," she began her story, "and her husband. It was...I don't know how to describe it. These worlds, whatever they are, always reflect the hearts of whoever is at the core of it all. This was the first time I've ever gone into one of those worlds where everything was altered so drastically. I was literally walking through a gigantic dungeon, complete with torture chambers and everything."

"Torture chambers?" Yuan said.

Lilly nodded. "All replicas of the father, torturing replicas of the mother and their children in...I can't even describe the ways they were being tortured."

"It's okay. You don't have to relive it."

"I can't forget it either. This was the worst one I've ever been through."

"How did you solve it?"

"I don't think I have. Normally, there's only one copy of the person in question. I would cut them loose from their self-imposed prison, and they'd disappear, and the real-life counterpart of that person would be okay, completely freed from whatever it was that brought them despair. And then the world would collapse and I'd have to get out before it all came crashing down on me. But this time, none of that happened. It wasn't just the dad that kept attacking me. The mom and children would, too. And they'd all turn into monsters and stuff and I'd have to kill them, but the world never collapsed."

"So, it's still there."

She nodded. "I'm going back tonight. I need to save them."

"Lilly, you don't have to do this alone."

"I'm the only one who can cross over."

"How do you explain Ami, then?"

She didn't answer.

"She was in there with you, wasn't she?"

"I don't know. I can't explain that."

"I can go in with you, you know. I stand a better chance than an eight-year old girl."

"No, Yuan, just...just stay here with everyone else."

"Aside from the possible dangers, is there any other reason you absolutely have to do this alone? I do acknowledge that there's a possibility I won't be able to escape with you, which I don't think is true since you were able to get Ami out of there, however she got in to begin with."