It was a dream, and she knew it was a dream. Part of it was the perfect jewel-tones of the water she stood in, the fact that she couldn't feel the waves washing over her feet. Then there was the comforting weight of the rock in her hand--it wasn't a rock like any she'd seen, too bright and sparkly. It came back to her hand every time she threw it, like a boomerang of glittering stone.

And behind her was a familiar presence: Herself.

"I can't help a girl who lies to herself," said the voice of the ancient Soldier.

There was a technique called lucid dreaming, and once Maman had been very fascinated by it. She'd read Elke book after book after book, piles of literature on how to control your dreams. Though, she'd never been able to do it--Elke, that is, Maman had seemed quite gifted. The blonde girl tried it again now, as she flung the stone into the perfectly amethyst ocean. Nothing changed, and she curled her fingers around the rock again. "Maybe I don't want help," she said, and this time she just dropped the rock. It sank, drifted to a stop atop her left foot. Elke wiggled her toes and stared down, lips pursed. "Maybe I just want to be miserable."

A faint susurration of water behind her let her know her past self--another part of her soul, arguably the largest part of her soul--was moving closer. Then, a hand on her shoulder, a scarred hand, wearing a ring with the curled M of Virgo on it. "What do I call you, anyway, since we're pretending to have multiple personality disorder?"

A shrug. "Arista will do. It's been a long time."

The Virgo of old had red hair worn long and loose, delicate features with the same olive green eyes Elke shared. Her face was unscarred, though there was a nasty, rippled scar along the curve of her jaw. Elke remembered getting that wound--a chaos monster had gotten too close to Leo, and Virgo hadn't thought to use her more advanced attack. Maybe she hadn't had it. She--they--had almost died, and it was only by luck they hadn't. "What are we doing, anyway," asked Elke, "I'm going back. I'm going to be Virgo and look out for the Princess. What more do I want from myself?"

Arista lifted her hand, took Elke's wrist. Her fingers easily looped the distance, overlapping to the first joint of her thumb. Their skin was the same tone, but hers was rougher--a lifetime of weapons, of magic, would do that. Elke had two years to Arista's decades upon decades. "Your body," said Arista, "is not your enemy."

"What?" It was not what she had expected to have a self-referential dream about. Her body as an enemy? Of course it wasn't. Of course not.

The older Virgo's green eyes were frank, the expression on her face honest and direct. "You're abusing what the Prince paid for in dear coin. You're going to run yourself into the ground and then you'll be no good to anyone."

This, thought Elke, would be an excellent time to wake up. It would, in fact, be a perfect time to wake up: the best in the world. "It's training," she said, "my endurance--"

"Six miles a day? Every day--and you don't even eat that much--your body isn't your enemy! Chaos is. Virgo, you serve. You served the Prince, and he's gone--for you, for the Princess, for the rest of the Guard, he's gone and he won't come back. And there are no second chances, not anymore."

She was shaking her head, trying to pull her too-skinny wrist away. "He's dead, the Captain's dead, even the Cavaliers died stillborn. The Guard is what's left. You're what's left--you need to stop this."

Then there was silence. The shining rock rolled off her toes, back into her hand, and she realized after a moment it was a starseed. Whose, she didn't know--someone's. She looked up to Arista, opening her mouth to ask, and was confronted by the gaping hole in the redheaded Virgo's chest. On instinct, she turned her gaze to the water, to see the dark chasm between her breasts, the mark of Virgo between her eyes burned on like a scar. In the water, Soldier Virgo was reflected back at her--alone, the ghosts of the past gone.

Elke woke up to the sun shining brightly through the window, and alone. In her hand was her henshin pen.