The world reset.

It was as though the air, earth, water, time and life began to spasm; with a splutter, a choke, a twitch, a click, time began to rewound, twisting itself anew.

Ava watched as her body walked backwards, sang Apple on a Stick backwards, saw the dead come back to life, watched the sun set in the east, watched blood come off the walls in a blur of speed and distorted time.

Back to the beginning.

Ava woke up in her dining room, with her steak and flower.

A bloody, rare steak,  juicy and tender, so rare it was raw. 

A red sauce drizzled on top. 

Rosemary and spices.

Charred potatoes and herbs.

A snake-like dress, dripping with venom.

She stood up.

She must find Rayna. Now.

Perhaps her abrupt movements had startled the watching, waiting butler, for he quickly approached and robotically inquired, “Your Majesty?”

[Ding!]

Resoutly ignoring the system’s alert—Ava was quite surprised to note that this system seemed to have a rather childish voice in comparison to the New System—she stomped her way down the ghastly, dark corridor, the butler following in surprise, trying to catch up.

That was when Ava noticed. 

Last time, in the last cycle, the butler had walked in front of her.

What kind of master walked behind their servant?

Just as a dog should follow behind their owners, what dutiful, respectful servant would walk in front of her, the Queen?

How impudent!

[Ava— Ava— bitch, stop and listen—!]

As the man stepped forward, Ava’s mouth suddenly curdled, her claw-like hands tearing forward to seize the taller man’s throat. Her sharp, black-painted nails pierced the artery on his neck, the red blood dripping down to the carpet below. As her grip tightened, the man finally began to show an emotion other than indifference on his face.

His emotionless eyes finally began to panic, though his body stayed still as a statue.

This man, the butler, was a devout follower of the rebels, and a spy. He had taken up post under the personal beseechment of the Duke himself, as one of the grand man’s trusted confidants.

Just like how one would study the behavoirs of a wild dog to avoid a bite, he had studied the behavorial patterns of the Tyrant enough so to know that those who lived like as though they were the dead were the ones most likely to survive.

Though he had been rather impudent, daring to walk in front of her, she had never called it out before, nor did he believe himself to have otherwise made a mistake in his tasks, so he could only guess as to where her fury stemmed from.

Did she not like the dish?

No, she had eaten it before, and there were no issues.

Did he dress up incorrectly?

No, he was very practised and disciplined, dressed impeccably; it was impossible.

Was he found out?

Couldn’t be. He’d been observing her, and she hadn’t made any moves out of the ordinary, nor had she contacted any other felons or henchmen.

As he panickedly tore through his mind for an answer, his face began to turn a cranberry purplish-red, the twitching of his arms unable to be stopped. As his hands finally made their way up to his neck to claw away the suffocating grip, the world spun as he was painfully thrown to the floor.

It was crazy how much strength was in that slender, lithe body.

Tumbling face-down, pain exploding all over his body, he heaved great, shaking breaths, only for a rupturing pain to burst out his lungs with a mouthful of blood when a high-heeled shoe stomped on his back.

“Y-Y-Your Majesty…?” Trembling, he slowly raised his head to look at this Tyrant, only to catch a glimpse of her insane, bloodthirsty eyes of vengeance and wrath before being violently kicked in the head. “Argh! Your Maj—”

Her frigid voice said cooly, “Did I permit you to gaze upon me?”

The butler’s heart jumped up into his mouth.

Ava continued, “Did I permit you to walk before me?”

Foot grinding into his back, the pointed heel stabbed through his black suit and into his pale skin, dribbling blood splattering onto the carpet. “Did I permit you to approach me? Did I permit you to speak to me? Did I permit you to stop me? Did I permit you to follow me?” With each question, she stabbed another hole into his back. “Did I permit you to be so insolent towards me? Did I permit you to look down on me?”

Such a mighty, powerful person didn’t need to lower herself down to his head on the floor; instead, she picked him up by the neck and whispered in his ear with a terrifying, deadly cold.

“Tell me,” she whispered airily, voice so soft it was sharp, “Did I?”

The butler shuddered. He whispered, his words so quiet they were not more than a mosquito’s buzz, “No, Your Majesty.”

Dropping him, Ava stepped on him as she walked, tracking specks of blood on the carpet. She said, “Good.”

Looking back at the crumpled figure on the floor, she ordered him, “Now, follow.”

The butler didn’t hesitate to get up and meekly follow behind.

---

Thud, thud, thud.

Her footsteps rhythmically clopped their way down the dungeon stairs, occasionally interrupted by the dripping of blood from the continuously paling butler behind her.

As she neared the all-too-familiar cells, her footsteps began to stagger, to speed, to waver, but she continued on with a mindless, passionate rhythm.

The butler behind her wondered why the steelish Tyrant looked so…

So vulnerable, so nervous.

He shook his head. No, that couldn’t be right. The Tyrant was barely human. Such emotions were foreign to her.

Ava’s eyes held nothing but dark blackness. She was consumed by a fire, a dark, hungry fire of Rayna, Rayna, Rayna RaynaRaynaRaynaRaynaRayna

I need you.

She skiddeded to a less-than-elegant stop in front of steel, grey bars, only to be pinned to the spot by a pair of just as steely, furious eyes of anger, wrath and fury.

Of hate.

Yes, she found Rayna.

In the dungeons

Rayna

is

there.

Rayna’s…

angry.

Jiejie¹Meaning ‘Big Sister’, Jiejie, what did I do wrong?

Why are you looking at me like that?

What did I do?

What do I need to fix?

Her eyes are filled with hate.

It hurts, it really, really hurts, to look at those eyes.

Her face was so familiar, her expression so strange, her eyes so terrifying and cruel.

Rayna, in her rags of grey moonlight and dust of stars, roared with the vengeance of those wronged souls, “Tyrant, you will die! Every one of your crimes, you will one day pay for!” Her hands, chained behind her, rattle as she lunges forward, consumed in her fury and hate. “Die, die! I curse you—do you think that you’ll survive this war? We, the rebels, will win, and trample your ashes beneath our feet!” 

Her voice is so hoarse.

She must be thirsty.

Will my blood quench your thirst?

Ava ignored everything, ignored the anger, ignored the hate, ignored the pain, and pulled her into a warm, bloody embrace. She mumbled , “This is what you meant. I understand. Don’t worry. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I can do this. Yes, yes, I got it…” Her ravings become distorted, warped with panic, fear, terror, pain. “You forgot. That’s okay. That’s okay. I didn’t forget. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.”

Rayna, wrapped in loving arms, was suddenly paralysed without a poison.

…What? 

Why was the Tyrant, the Killer, the Monster, hugging her?

Something wet dripped onto her shoulder.

…What was that?

Rayna didn’t quite understand. She was rather confused, but only for a moment, before tearing herself out of the other’s grip. She spat viciously, “Get the hell away from me, bitch!”

Ava paused, and instead pulled her back into her warm, too warm, too kind embrace, gently stroking down her back. She cooed softly, warmly, lovingly, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, none will be sorry. I’ll do my task, I’ll drain the flask, and all will shatter their masks.”

Rayna, her face squashed into Ava’s exquisite assets, blanched.

No way, did the Tyrant actually go insane?

As Rayna brooded, Ava was musing over the meagre information she gleaned from when time had frozen.

When the New System had announced their missions, Ava noticed that her mission conflicted with Rayna’s. 

[AVA, New System Alert: Opened new side mission, ‘STAIN MY NAME’.]

[RAYNA, New System Alert: Opened new side mission, ‘CLEAR HER NAME’.]

Ava’s mission was to ‘STAIN MY NAME’. The word here was ‘MY’; this meaning, Ava’s name. She needed to stain herself.

But Rayna’s mission was ‘HER’. The only other female in the group — consisting of Ava, Rayna and Ian — was Ava. Meaning, Rayna had to clear Ava’s name, despite not possessing any memories of her task, of her identity as a Character, or of her and Ava’s love.

But Ava trusted Rayna.

Since Rayna hadn’t described what she needed her to do, she must have been under some restriction. But, Rayna knew Ava inside and out, and so did Ava.

Rayna, the one who’d contacted and signed with the New System, must have signed under a condition, probably one to fulfil her task. However, this unknown system—who could clearly save them from the grips of the current one—had left them alone all these years, and was probably less than benevolent.

So, Rayna probably signed a contract that leaned far out of her favour.

So, Rayna probably had a prerequisite, a handicap.

So, Rayna did actually hate her.

So, so, so…

Since Rayna couldn’t complete her task, there was only one way.

Ava had to fulfil it for her.