Something leapt out from the bushes, and Thora dived into action. A wall of ice shot up from the ground, protecting herself and Arjaan, but it was quickly shattered. Thora found herself deflecting a stasis blast from her cloaked enemy. She rolled over to dodge an icy projectile, aiming a freeze bomb at her opponent. A hundred rocks rose from the ground together and pelted the strange figure as Arjaan went into action. Thora felt the power of the light coursing through her veins, and somehow she channeled into her stasis, making a blast of light and darkness together. The figure gasped, stumbling backwards. Arjaan brought a boulder down on the attacker's head. "They're dead," Thora said, inspecting the figure carefully. "Who is it?" Thora lifted back their hood and mask and screamed. "What? What is it??? Oh my- what the!" "I-I-I-I It's [i]me,[/i]" Thora said, shaking. Arjaan put an arm around her. "It can't actually be you. This is something the darkness made to freak you out." But the words were pounding through her head again. [i]You will become your own worst enemy.[/i] "What if it's me from a different time line where I go evil???" "You're not gonna-" "No, no, I've seen things, where I hurt people, I thought they betrayed me, but what if I betrayed them?!?" "Thora!" Arjaan clapped a hand over her mouth. "You're NOT going to go evil. Even if that's a different timeline, it doesn't have to be YOUR timeline. No, listen," he put his arms around her. "You're not allowed to go evil. You hear me? I won't let you hurt anyone." "You think you can stop me?" "You're not invincible! I could totally get lucky if I played my surroundings and defenses right." "Punch me, then." "What? I'm not going to-" "Do it. As hard as you can." "I...." he half-heartedly punched her shoulder. Thora barely even felt it. "You care about me too much," she murmured, a tear falling down her cheek. "I'd kill you before you could even get a hit in." "But you care about me, too, don't you?" "I do, but I might not, eventually! I wouldn't if I went evil!!" "I'm telling you, you won't go evil! The darkness is trying to make you panic. Remember, we came here to talk to the Shard?" "R-right." Thora knelt before the looming, paracausal entity, and heard a voice in her head. [i]Learn the best lesson from another's mistakes.[/i] "It's... it's talking to me," Thora whispered. [i]The Traveler cast me out of itself because I went against it. I believed that The Gardener was bringing terrible evil by sending the Traveler your system, since the Witness was determined to chase us. I was wrong. The Winnower and the Witness would not stop at Riis. If good does not stand against evil, evil will have no one to fight. This does not mean they will not act- it means they will triumph. Cast out the part of yourself that turns you toward evil that the rest of you may pursue good. Here I have learned from my mistakes. Learn the easy way, from me, before you make yours[/i] "I... I think I understand!" Thora breathed. She pulled out her splinter of darkness, the one that gave her access to the pyramids' power and pressed it into the ground. "I've been so paranoid about bad things happening I've let the darkness creep in and get a hold on me. I'm not going to control it, it's going to control me. I have to stop it while I still can." The ground pulsed with light, and the shard burst into pieces. Thora felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Arjaan knelt next to her, grinning. "I'm so proud of you," he said. "See? You're not going evil!" Thora laughed, then frowned, softly saying,"I just want to do one more thing before I go." "Oh, yeah?" "I want to bury Lola here," Thora said. "This is where I want her to rest."