Back in her room, Asuka sat on the floor with her legs crossed and eyes closed. Currently inside in inner world, she stood behind a shadowy visage sitting at the edge of a rocky cliff with what seemed to be its feet dangling off the edge into the dark abyss of nothing below. Asuka walked up to the visage quietly and sat down beside it. They both stayed silent for several minutes for Asuka began to speak.
"I'm sorr-"
"Don't Asuka. I understand your distrust of me."
"No Annie. You have been nothing but helpful to me. You may be harsh and cold at times. But I knew your intentions. I could feel them. And I still let my hate towards demons cloud my thoughts and judgement of you. That was not fair. I'm so sorry for that."
Annie didn't reply for a good minute, but ever since the seal on Asuka began weakening, the trinity was able to feel her emotions. The warmth that invaded her cold soul.
Noticing, Annie began scratching the back of her head.
"Yup. All those things are correct. You were being quite an ass."
Asuka snapped her head towards Annie hearing what she said. But knowing she was write, she slowly looked back down into the abyss.
"But still, I didn't do anything quell that hate."
The visage straightened her back and looked at the girl. It was still difficult to see, but Asuka could just about make out two deep crimson eyes behind the shadow. But looking closer, she noticed a third pair of eye lids closed in the center of her forehead.
"I'd been telling to you about terrible things demons had done thinking I was giving you useful information without considering what it would do to you mentally."
Annie then looked away towards the darkness before speaking again. Her voice softer than before.
"And after watching you speak to your family, I realize that I have been too harsh with you. I forget sometimes that your only twelve years old. No matter what you might be, you are still a child. While being firm is necessary, forcing you to change and be something you're not will only push you away."
She swung her legs up fully facing the girl and now sat with her crossed. And then to Asuka's surprise, she closed her eyes and lowered her head.
"I am very sorry for how I've been treating you Asuka. I promise to be better in the future."
Lost for words, Asuka couldn't even form a coherent thought from the sight. That was until Annie heard sounds of choking from the girl. Quickly looking up, she thought the girl was in trouble until she saw her puffed, reddened cheeks and her hands covering her mouth trying to hold in her laughter.
Asuka couldn't see it, but a vein popped on Annie's forehead.
"I-I'm sorry Annie. It's just...seeing you like..."
Unable to hold it any longer, Asuka let out a hysterical laugh making Annie groan in annoyance.
"Oh shut it. And here I was trying to be nice for once. Hope you got a good look cause it's never happening again."
Suddenly she felt a force tackle her from the side. At first, Annie almost instinctively threw the girl off of her, but feeling how tight Asuka was holding onto her she decided instead to rub the top of her head in act to try and comfort the girl.
"Oh Annie. I didn't know you could be adorable."
It was meant to be a funny remark, but Annie heard the hint of regret in it.
"Can you ever forgive me Annie?"
"Don't ask stupid questions."
"Sorry."
"..."
"..."
"Can...can you forgive me?"
Asuka looked up at the face of the visage perplexed at the contradictory nature of Annie's previous words. She was going to reply with a similarly sarcastic remark the visage had before but noticing her trembling shoulders decided against.
"Of course I do."
~
"Okay, so you've been having visions and you never told me about it?"
"Yeah," Asuka admitted embarrassed, "Not my best call. But I've had only three so far. The first was after I had started training in contra for a couple weeks. The second was during my fight with the demon and the third was just last night."
"And seeing as it was your contra that caused it, I'm guessing the visions you saw were nothing good."
Asuka slowly nodded remembering every horrifying vision she had seen. She then described to Annie what each dream was about. The fake version of herself killing Amelia, showing the demon how it would die and seeing Amelia dead in the cave, and the burnt down church with the woman with the beautiful voice.
"I see. While I can see why such an ability is terrifying, especially for you, there is a good side. It seems the visions do not show definite future. After all, you weren't the one who murdered Amelia. And the way the demon perished was different as well. So there's no need to get so stressed about your last vision."
"Are you sure? Even though it wasn't me who killed Amelia, in the end she still died. Not to mention the fact that it may not only show future events, but it might even show something more symbolic of what's to happen. Like how I may have not directly killed Amelia, but it was my choices that lead to her death"
Annie pondered Asuka theory for a moment before nodding and scratching her head in frustration.
"Yeah. That is be a possibility. The only way to find out for sure is to try it out and try to use it on command to see the results."
"I agree. but let's do that later. I want to know more about this entity you say you heard while I was fighting the demon."
"Of course. Actually, that's the reason why I'm seated here."
Annie then stood and quietly looked out into the abyss.
"I tried to walk into the direction I heard the voice and it took here."
Hearing this, Asuka also stood and then looked into abyss. A sweat rolled down her face.
"You can't be serious?"
"Wish I were. But even without using your contra, you should be able to feel the malice coming from that place."
With shivers running up her spine Getting closer to the edge, Asuka looked over to see if there was any bottom for her to land on. But all she saw was black.
"Oh this is gonna hurt," said the trinity.
"Only if you-"
Without letting Annie finish, Asuka let contra flow through her body growing only two horns and jumped from the edge of the cliff into the abyss of malice.