"Well, I can see that you've gained your memory back," my father clears his throat as he meets my gaze, "which is a good thing, but I don't know what all you'd have questions about. I guess, I'll explain what I think is right. Once you and your mother were in the human realm and I was cursed to stay here for the rest of my life, I trained and spent the rest of my time trying to make a difference. There wasn't a day where I haven't thought about you and Mia. Tien and Sion proved to be good friends of mine and I trusted them with looking after you and your mother."

"The thing I don't understand though is what about Vivian?" I furrow my eyebrows.

"Vivian?" my father frowns, his hazel eyes confused, "who are you talking about?"

"You're...kidding me...right?" I trail off, "Vivian, my sister."

"Gabriel...you don't have a sister," Alex says slowly and my chest sinks into my stomach.

"But how..." I search for the right words to say as my mind reels, "how is that possible?"

"You don't have a sister because Vivian isn't real," Alex says cautiously as realization dawns on him, "Gabriel, do you know another reason why Tien and Sion had to so closely watch over you and your mother? It's because the Primordial Relic was hidden with you. Vivian is the Primordial Relic. Vivian was an illusion that the relic created to keep itself in hiding— she's not an entity that's connected to the relic."

"What?" I breathe out, my eyes wide.

That must be what Tien was going to tell me and why it made it impossible for Coralyinn to have the relic. This entire time...I was living with a sibling who never even existed? Is that why everyone else could see her in the human realm just like me but why I had no memory of her in this realm once I got my memories back?

"I'm sorry..." my father frowns and his eyes hold sadness.

"Yeah..." I clear my throat, "it's not your fault. None of it is. I'm...just glad that I got to see you again."

"I'll always be here if you need me," my father says, smiling sadly, "and I missed having you around. We have a lot to catch up on, but you should probably go. You don't want to keep the others waiting."

"Right," I sigh, unsure of how to say goodbye and if I should hug him or not, "well...I'll see you around."

"Of course," he gives me a small smile, his expression fond as I make my way out of the tent.

I breathe out in relief now that I'm out of the awkward atmosphere and the cold wind hits me in the face, making me shudder. I spot the others standing over by a more secluded area of the campsite and I hastily jog over. Reine eyes me worriedly, but I try to assure her that I'm fine with a small smile.

"So, how are you so easily able to summon the garden?" Nathan raises a brow as he crosses his arms against his chest, looking at Tien curiously.

"That's...simple yet not at the same time..." Tien smiles sadly as he tilts his head to the side.

"Everyone, link hands," Reine instructs.

The six of us link hands with each other, forming a circle in the snow as Tien closes his eyes and breathes in deeply.

"Medea," Tien breathes out, his eyes fluttering back open, "please give me back what I have lost."

Tien's hazel eyes glint emerald for a moment before suddenly the scenery around us melts away and we're transported into the middle of a temple.

"What?" Mikasa breathes out, her eyes wide as she looks around.

All around us, bronze mossy bricks line the ground and hedges and plants are on either side of us, multiple vines hanging in the air from treetop canopies and large flowers blooming here and there. In front of us, a stone archway that leads to a garden of stone figures stands, a maze pathway of ten foot tall hedges cut out that seems to go on for miles.

"Welcome, child of the forsaken," a woman's voice calls out clearly and firmly, drifting through the air, "your selfish desire has awoken my garden. If you wish to seek council with me, you must first pass through my garden."

"What happened to you?" Mikasa breathes out, her eyes meeting Tien's.

"I died. That's what happened," Tien says firmly, making the area around us fall silent, the only sound being his footsteps as he walks forwards.

"Child of the forsaken..." Reine trails off, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Wait a minute," Mikasa gasps and covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide as they follow Tien's figure.

"I don't get it," Nathan leans over to Ayette and whispers, who simply shrugs in return.

"I don't either," Ayette says with a shake of her head.

"That makes three of us," I sigh as Reine and Mikasa follow after Tien.

"Guess we'd better follow them," Nathan says with a sigh, drawing out his pistol as he follows after them.

Ayette and I share a glance and I know that she's going to want to talk to me about my father later, but for now we both press on. The six of us walk through the maze together, figuring it's best to stay together due to the risks.

"Were these statues once people?" Ayette asks as she looks at the statues as we walk by.

"I believe so," Mikasa shudders.

"Creepy," Nathan breathes out, his brown eyes flickering between statues and hedges.

"You know what's creepier than statues of those who once were?" Tien says cautiously as he holds on to his black sword with emerald energy running down the side, "The one who made them into statues in the first place."

We come to a wooden plank bridge that lies over a ravine and Tien holds out an arm for us to stop by the edge.

"Hang on..." Tien trails off as he looks over the edge.

Tien gently puts his right foot forwards over thin air and a sudden cracking sound can be heard. He quickly moves backwards and we back up a few feet as cracks spread all throughout the area above the ravine, similarly to a mirror breaking. Suddenly, everything shatters and falls to pieces to the ravine below and Tien breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Looks like we'll have to go another way," Nathan says as he looks out over the edge to the roaring river below in the ravine where the fabricated bridge now lays.

"Come on," Reine says and directs us back the way we came and this time we turn to the right instead of going straight.

A thick fog settles over the maze and a few of us begin to cough upon entering the fog. Ayette spreads her wings and flies up above the maze, flapping her wings back and forth in order to send the fog away from us. She continues to fly above us and direct us on which direction to go as we progress around the maze, the fog parting for us. Suddenly, Reine grabs on to my shoulder and stops me from going any further.

"Stop," Reine commands and everyone turns to look at her.

Reine slashes her katana through the air and a nearly invisible glass wire breaks, setting off spikes to appear where we were about to walk.

"That was a close one," Nathan laughs and rubs the back of his neck.

Just then, something reaches through the hedges and grabs ahold of Nathan, yanking him through the shrubs as he yells out.

"Nathan!" Mikasa gasps.

Seconds later, Mikasa gets grabbed from the other side and we all become alert, holding out our weapons as we form into a small circle, standing back to back. One of the ghostly pale figures attempts to grab Reine, who fights back before another one appears and grabs her. Tien and I help to fend them off, but then Tien gets dragged away. Ayette cries out from above us and as I glance up, I realize in a panic that she's gone now too. Just as I lower my gaze back down to Reine, I get grabbed from behind.

"Reine!" I shout and she runs to reach for me, but she gets grabbed as well.

The figure holding on to me flies above the maze and drops me from a few stories high after I thrash around in an attempt to get free. I land harshly, the front of my body colliding with concrete and I wheeze out in the process. I climb back up to my feet to see a giant tree sitting in the middle of the hedge maze, its branches stretching out beyond the circle I'm in. All along the tree, multiple seven foot tall mirrors stand embeded in its bark. With hedges surrounding me on all sides and no way out, I decide to approach the tree cautiously, holding out my weapon. As I approach the mirror, I notice my reflection in the other side, but it's black and white. My eyebrows raise in surprise whenever my reflection smirks and reaches out, pulling me inside of the mirror roughly.

"What is this?" I wonder aloud as I look around to find myself standing on a bridge made of bronze bricks, the setting sun by mountains in the background casting a glow on the bridge as I find myself staring at my black and white reflection, an archway made of bronze bricks about fifty feet behind him with nothing beyond that.

My reflection tilts its head to the side and raises a brow while he places a hand on his hip, his lips curving up in a smirk as his katana pulsates black energy in his other hand.

"You don't get it, do you?" his voice rings out in the form of an echo, "I'm you and you're me, only I'm everything that you'll never be."

"What are you talking about?" I narrow my eyes and clench my fists.

"Don't you see?" he laughs out and throws his arms open wide and his head back, "this place is your living hell and you're never getting out of it. I'm everything you aren't, everything you can't be, everything you wish you could be. I'm the expert swordsman you can only hope to ever become. You can't even unlock your full potential. You neglect your gift by not knowing how to properly use it, but I have mastered it. You are nothing. I'm all your selfish and greedy desires. Tell me, do you think you satisfy Reine, or do you think she'd rather scream my name instead?"

"Don't drag her into this," I grit my teeth and take a step forwards, "you may think you're the embodiment of everything I can only hope to be, but you're lacking the parts of me that I already have, the parts of me that'll never change. I don't care if you insult me. I don't care if you drag me through the mud until I'm spitting up my own blood. But don't you fucking dare drag her into this."

"Ooh, is that a touchy subject?" he chuckles, "what's the matter, afraid you aren't good enough? Hold your princess to high above yourself? Aren't able to provide for her like you should? Aren't able to give her what she needs, what she craves? Don't worry, once I kill you here, I'll be sure to give her everything."

"Enough!" I shout and swing my katana viciously through the air as my reflection simply continues to smirk.

"If you insist," my reflection says, holding his katana out at me, "then I suppose I'll stop the teasing and end you now, but that's ever so boring. Oh well."

He swings his katana through the air and a white surge of energy races towards me, which I whirl to the side to avoid. The energy crashes into an invisible barrier behind me and makes a flickering sound upon hitting it, the barrier flashing bright blue before turning back to clear. I run up to my reflection and slide as I slash at him, to which he leaps over. My reflection scowls in annoyance and turns to the side, his katana pointing towards the ground before he turns to completely face me and he leaps up in the air. My eyebrows raise as I watch him leap at least twenty feet up and fly towards me, his katana raised. I brace myself to fend against him and just before he connects his blade to mine, he vanishes in a flash of white. He reappears behind me just in time for me to turn and block his hit. He appears and reappears constantly, attacking from all different directions, the sound of clashing metal ringing out in the air as we match each other.

My reflection lands a slash on my right bicep and I falter for a moment, my footing off by one pace, which allows him to form white flames of energy that ignite up his right arm as he swings his arm at me, sending me flying back several feet. My katana clatters to the ground as I fly through the air due to my surprise and I narrow my eyes as I land on my knees. He appears in front of me almost instantly, his form flickering and skipping space almost impossibly. The only thing I can think to do is tackle him due to my position, so I spring up and leap towards him, tackling him to the ground. We roll several feet and throw punches at each other as we continue to fight for dominance over the other. Eventually, he wraps a hand around my throat and slams the back of my head into the bridge, cracking some of the bricks and I wince in pain. He rises to his feet and picks me up, to which I kick my feet and thrash around violently. I claw at his arms and manage to land a kick to his stomach, forcing him to drop me.

I make a run for my katana as he stands there and narrows his eyes at me.

"How troublesome," he seethes out, "you insist on fighting when you have nothing to fight for. Don't you get it yet? You have no chance!"

He swiftly swings his right arm out and white energy that envelops the entire area comes rushing towards me like a wall, blocking out everything else from sight. I gasp and cross my arms in front of my face as I brace myself for the hit. The energy rushes through me and seems to want to burn my skin away, forming multiple cuts that litter across my body and bloodying my now tattered clothes.

"Don't you get it?" I rasp out as I lower my arms, slowly walking forwards through the energy until it fully passes, "I have everything to fight for."

White energy wraps around my arms like ribbons and glows vibrantly as glowing white runes form on my arms and run from my biceps to my wrists almost like sleeves of tattoos as I continue walking towards my reflection. My reflection throws flaming energy towards me in random bursts as his annoyance grows and I cross my arms as I close my eyes and breathe out, instincts taking over. I quickly force my arms down and apart, sending all of the energy that was around me flying back at him. Without thinking, I take off in a sprint towards him and jump up in the air, mimicking his actions from earlier. As he braces against the energy, I raise my arms above my head and a katana begins to form piece by piece in my hands, made of black and white flames that swirl together to turn into an obsidian blade that radiates black and white energy with a golden handle.

"All I have to do..." I say as I land, my closed eyes flying open as I lunge forwards and drive my blade up and into his chest, "is let go..."

"I--Impossible..." my reflection chokes out and wraps his hands around the katana buried in his chest, black flames burning around his hands as he attempts to get rid of the blade.

"Actually, on the contrary, quite possible," I smirk as I twist the blade and his image flickers and he cries out, throwing his head back.

My reflection shatters into glass pieces and I breathe out in relief, dropping to my knees. A humming sound fills the air as the barrier lowers with a brief blue flash and I look behind me with a start to the archway. I pick up my katanas and jog over to the archway, slowing as I get closer to it. Hesitantly, I press my hand up to the open space through the archway and close my eyes as I walk through, seeing as there's nowhere else to go. The feeling of cool night air hits me and as I open my eyes I find myself standing back by the tree, but the mirror I entered is now glowing red and my reflection matches my own.

"Gabriel..." Reine breathes out from behind me.

I turn around to find Reine, Mikasa, and Tien standing behind me and I immediately feel relieved. Reine runs up to me and pulls me into a tight hug, which I gladly return.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she says softly.

"Me too," I smile and breathe out as I hold her closer, "me too..."