The fire crackles as I allow its flames to curl up around the roasting rat that is skewered on my stick. Kagura had caught a few of these rodents. He originally wanted to eat them raw, but I refused, and I forced him to have us at least cook them. I'll admit, I'm not excited about trying a rat, but I guess since there's no other food around...

The moon slowly rises in the sky. It's already nighttime. Kagura and I are sitting on a giant vine underneath a makeshift overhang, created from when one of the buildings that was destroyed. He is already eating his own rat, devouring it like a wild animal, and he's still completely shirtless. As I roast my rat, I hold his black top he gave me tightly over myself, attempting to keep warm. How does he not get cold?

"I think you've cooked that thing enough," he mutters with food in his mouth.

Reluctantly, I pull the stick out of the fire and bring it near my face, allowing the smell of the freshly cooked meat to meet my nostrils. It actually smells pretty good! I cautiously take a bite and chew.

"Well? How is it?" Kagura presses.

I swallow. "Not bad! Better than I thought it was gonna be!"

He gives a small smile. "See? I told you it would be good."

"You wanted to eat it raw! Ew! I'm not a wild animal like you!" I clasp a hand over my mouth once I realize what I've said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."

Kagura's eyes stare, fixated on me for several moments, before he turns away and mutters, "It's okay."

I take another bite as I notice something behind the vine we are sitting on. "What's that?" I point it out.

Kagura freezes and growls, "It's nothing."

"Are you sure about that?"

Silence.

"Is it that important to you?"

He puts his rat down next to him. "Fine. You really wanna know?"

I nod.

He reaches behind him and pulls out a small picture frame. The glass is cracked, but the photo inside is still visible. "I found it in the ruins of a building nearby while I was out hunting. I didn't wanna believe it at first, but unfortunately, I remember now."

Remember? Remember what? I hold the picture frame in my hands, observing it carefully. In the photograph, a woman is sitting in a chair, smiling. Standing beside her, is a child.

But this isn't just any woman. Her distinctive, beautiful features stand out. Her silvery hair rests against her shoulders elegantly. The woman is Alicia.

"Alicia?" I look up at Kagura. "Why do you care about Alicia?"

"Look at the child," he says.

I look back down at the photo. The child seems happy. He's smiling, and he has short, orange hair and sparkling violet eyes.

Orange hair? Violet eyes?

I look at his facial features. I know this child.

"Amata...?" I look to Kagura again. "Is this Amata?"

He looks away. "Yeah. It is."

"What does Amata have to do with something you remembered?"

He takes a deep breath. "When I found that picture, I started remembering things that I didn't even know had happened. Does Amata ever talk about a time when he was in a graveyard and Alicia left him there?"

"Yeah. His mother abandoned him that night. It tears him up inside."

"Well, I was there. I was there when she left us."

My eyes widen. Us? "So, wait. Are you Amata's brother or something?!"

He shakes his head. "Not exactly. Technically, we're the same person. We're one soul divided into two."

"I don't understand."

"I never existed before that night. It was only Amata. When Alicia was leaving, Mykage decided to split his soul into two. One half stayed Amata, while the other followed Alicia. That other half was me. I went with her."

My mind starts to piece everything together. Amata had a dream not that long ago about his mom leaving, but in the dream, he had mentioned that there was another boy who went with her. That wasn't a dream. It was a memory. Amata remembered what really happened that night.

"That's why we're both Apollon," Kagura continues. "He was the original reincarnation. I just took part of Apollon's soul when we were split."

I slide closer to Kagura on the vine. "Wait. You said you went with Alicia? Do you know where she is? Amata's never heard from her since!"

He looks at me carefully. "Well, I went with her to Altair. But when we got there, she didn't handle the travel so well, and the curse was already getting to her. So she was put into an eternal sleep, and now she resides in the 'Alicia Room'. I had my memories wiped by Mykage after that. He's the one who raised me, if you can even call it that."

"Huh?"

"It was more like torture." He shakes his head, as if to clear it. "I don't wanna get into it. It was terrible though. Then one day, about nine years ago, there was an incident with Mykage and one of your mechs. After that, Mykage was put into sleep. I'll admit, I was a little relieved. I didn't have to go through any more of his crap for a while. But he's the only one I had to look up to, and I believed he did his things for my benefit."

Nine years ago. The staff had mentioned an incident with Donar from nine years ago, saying how "love" was to blame for it. But it wasn't. It was Mykage. He was the one responsible for it.

"So, why did Alicia go to Altair in the first place? She abandoned her own son, for what?!"

"Well, Izumo really believed that she was the one True Eve that would save us. I have no idea why he thought of her so strongly, though."

Izumo? Izumo wanted Amata's mother?

I-I think I just met my father. Amata's words from our last battle. Our battle with Izumo. Mykage must've showed him something, because there was a petal on his shoulder. If Izumo is Amata's father, then that would explain why he had such strong feelings for Alicia. He fell in love with her, had a child with her, and then brought her back to Altair to save everyone thinking that she was the True Eve, leaving Amata by himself on Vega.

"When he realized that Alicia wasn't the True Eve, he began his quest again, kidnapping women from Vega, including you." He exhales. "I don't know why it happened now, but I got my memories back. And honestly, I'm pissed that I share a soul with that jackass, Amata."

I bite my lip. "He's not a bad guy. Look, I'm sorry about your life. I'm sorry that you've had to deal with that, but I love someone else." I put my hand on his. "If you hate it that much on Altair, why don't you just come join us? I told you that earlier." I look away and mutter, "Besides, our union would end in death."

"What did you say?"

I look at him from the corner of my eye. "My brother had a premonition of the wedding you and I would've had. It would have been bad and ended with people dying."

Kagura's eyes widen, but he tries to hide his surprise. "Oh."

"By the way, I'm sorry about my brother, for shooting you. I mean, he's protective of me, and if someone kidnapped one of my family members, I would probably be pretty mad, too."

"It's okay."

He handled that better than I expected.

"I'll come back with you."

I bolt up off the vine. "What?! Really?!"

"Tomorrow, we'll head back to the academy, and we can figure out how to put an end to this."

"Oh thank you!" I wrap my arms around him joyously, but pull away when I realize what I've just done. "Oops. I'm sorry."

"I still hate you, you know."

I laugh.