Chapter Text
It was right. It had been all along. It had warned her, and she had chosen not to listen.
Sayeon clutched her head, still reeling at the memory of what she had witnessed earlier.
A portal slowly sewing itself back together, a darkness spiraling within.
And a woman. A woman in a severely tattered cloak with a purple relic. The gleam of her earring and her tear-stained face were the only bright things under that bridge.
Fuck. She wanted to throw up. How could Min have been so stupid? She had told him to run, if anything got to be too much, told him to take Iseul and run. So then, it wasn’t really her fault, was it? It wasn’t her fault. Cell 4 down to two. And the leader of Cell 3. And all those innocent people… It wasn’t her fault. It was the woman in the coat’s fault. She had opened a rip in space and time and used it’s power to annihilate all those people. All those innocent lives in that town. Two of her teammates. Her friends. Her pawns.
It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault.
It wasn’t her fault.
It wasn’t her f a u l t.
She twisted her hands in her hair and yanked, tears welling up in her eyes, pushing them back like the words she could never utter aloud.
You’re a failure, Sayeon Lee.
It wasn’t her fault. Thank god she was alone right now.
If you cry, you lose.
Shut up. It wasn’t her fault. It couldn’t be.
“Oh, but it is.”
Sayeon froze. Slowly, she lifted her head to the mirror in front of her, her hands cautiously releasing her grip on her hair.
There it was. Her, but not. Those glowing, spiral white eyes stared back at her, as her reflection sighed, “You never do listen, do you? I gave you a warning, I offered you my help, and yet, you walked away. You could have prevented this whole thing. You didn’t have to fail.”
Fail. She had failed.
She can’t fail.
She can’t fail.
She knew it was right. She could have prevented it. She tried to. She rewound until almost all of her essence was gone, ran harder every time, but no amount of rewinds could fix this. Not anymore. Her plan had failed. She had put her teammates and innocent people in mortal danger. She had gotten them killed because she wasn’t powerful enough to stop the hand that held the gun. Again. She had sworn, after she had discovered her gift, that she would never let that happen again. Not in this timeline, at least. 60 seconds just wasn’t enough. She needed more time.
“Well, I ask you this once more, daughter of Sara, will you, or will you not accept my offer?” The reflection held out its palm to her as if to shake on the deal, and she jolted back as the hand melted through the glass, turning blindingly white as it reached out over the sink. It radiated essence and heat, a miniature sun in the dorm bathroom.
Sayeon stared at it. She must be going crazy. Had these recent events not proven it? Now she knew, however, almost certainly, that this being was not from this world. It was something else entirely. Something above her, or it thought it was. But it had been right. It had seen what she had not, or just blatantly, stupidly, chose to ignore. Something she could not face alone had come her way, and she had failed.
She had failed. She was never supposed to fail.
She was going to bring them all to red ties. Not just three, or two, or one. All of them.
Taeho, she didn’t exactly care for, but she knew if she didn’t save him as well, there would be a fracture of trust. Trust she needed to keep intact. Isuel was valuable. He trusted her, almost blindly. Maybe even more so after today, if she could pull this off correctly. He knew that she had good intentions. And Min. Even though Min was working with Samin, he was still a valuable asset. A knight to be played as she pleased. He would listen to her. He would follow in absolute blindness. That was his job, was it not? Today was just a… little hiccup. A bump in the road. Nothing she couldn’t fix. She needed him in this game.
Maybe… Her fingers twitched. Maybe she needed the power it offered too.
She blew out a breath. “Okay… I accept.”
The shadow of her grinned. “Excellent.”
Sayeon reached out to grasp the godling’s hand. As soon as their palms made contact, Sayeon felt a surge of essence rush through her body like nothing she had felt before. It burned and twisted throughout her, making its way from her hand to her core and stretching out to reach the tips of her being. It felt as if she had been set on fire, then dunked into a bucket of ice, and been slammed right back into the oven. As it reached her left eye, her vision started to spin and erode at the edges, then grew brighter and brighter, flashing violently as-
BAM!
The door flew open, and Sayeon dropped to the floor.