White Desert

Opening his tightly shut eyes, Cain felt the heat of the burning moons crashing down on him. His pale skin blistered, and the blood covering his body dried under the scalding sun-like orbs hanging in the sky.

'Where... am I?'

Disoriented, Cain sat up, and the dry earth beneath him crumbled under his weight. He soon found himself in a little divot, about the size of a kiddie pool.

(The better question would be, why aren't we dead?)

Hearing the voice, Cain's face paled.

'Why... am I in control? I thought you were.'

(You woke up first or something. I had to take the brunt of that...step. Anyway, we seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Now that I think of it, where's the core?)

Moving his hand around, Cain felt a round object. Feeling it, his head sank.

"You mean this?"

Lifting the object into eyesight, they could see a broken, cracked glass orb.

(Well, that doesn't make this any better. I bet the damn system used it as an energy source in the 'evacuation'.)

"You're probably right..." Cain's voice turned bleak as he choked on his words. "So...it was... we did all that for nothing... all those deaths... all those people..."

(Hey now, at least I got some good puppets. Plus the mist is now better than ever. I mean it seems alive these days, oh how I wish it was just a virus like before! Now we have to feed the thing!)

"We? There is no 'we'! You're a monster!"

The voice chuckled, (Oh? Yet you let such a monster take over? I thought your silence was confirmation, or was your mind just short-circuiting? Remember, we are stuck together!)

His words came like a crashing wave, and Cain knew all too well. Their mind and soul were like a jumble of strings; it was impossible to be separated from one another. They created each other, or more accurately, Cain created them.

(We're both Cain, remember. We took on separate conflicting attributes of him and here we are. Confusing, I know, but things connected to the soul usually are. Take it as this, you are all the nice things of Cain, and I'm all the bad ones? Happy now?)

Cain threw the cracked core into the distance, watching it roll against the cracked dry earth.

"Do you know where we are?"

(Oh, and now I'm the one who knows everything? You know you really like taking things from me, and you're supposed to be the goody-two-shoes!)

"You made that up, not me. Starting now is me; everything before was just you. Now, do you have any idea where this is? Any at all?"

(Well first, I will say you are acting like a child. Disregarding our past and throwing it away! Well.... I would do the same if I were you. As for where we are, well, obviously a desert and a strange one at that!)

From the looks of it, the two of them were in a vast, empty white desert. The ground was so dry that it was safe to say it never got a single drop of water.

Even the sky was a blank white; if it weren't for the three illuminating moons burning ever bright, the Cains would have thought they weren't in the Landfill.

Apart from that, there wasn't much noise other than the earth crunching under Cain's feet, and the smell of... sulfur?

(Hey, look more closely at those cracks; I swear I see something coming from them!)

Taking the advice of his other self, Cain crouched down and studied one of the cracks in the earth.

He could see a colorful but clear gas? It was like a myriad of colors were escaping from the ground.

(Let's just keep going. Without the core, our body hasn't been enhanced. We'll probably die of thirst in a day or two.)

"Why are you acting so nonchalant about it?"

(Well... for one, I thought we were already dead after seeing an actual Ruler. Next, I don't have to go through what you're feeling since I'm the one trapped in our mind right now. And thirdly, I only say we'll die, meaning this body. We can turn into mist, but then we would probably clash for dominance and split apart, losing the chance to ever get a body again.)

"Oh? So if I destroy this body, I can just separate from you?"

Cain kicked a few rocks, his thoughts turning mischievous. They were in an empty space; might as well go out fighting.

Or at least, those were his thoughts.

(Don't be so quick to act. If you choose to kill our body, I will easily be able to stop you. After all, we both have equal authority over it. And even if we separate, we are still connected through our soul. There's no escaping me.)

"Those weren't my exact thoughts, but fine... first we'll see if survival is possible, but then I will destroy you with every ounce of my being!"

(Haha! Is that because we are so different? Opposite from one another, I mean.)

"No, you're just a curse on the world, that's it."

...

It was around 8 hours of just walking. Cain's footprints were deeply dented into the earth, creating tracks stretching for miles. The moons had already turned soft, their cool light basking the land in their grace.

Cain was exhausted; he couldn't even muster the energy to speak.

'I... can't... walk anymore.'

(Ah? Is it time? Well... I didn't think we'd die like this. I wish I could've lived long enough to fight a ruler toe to toe... I guess this isn't so bad considering.)

As his other self went on with his internal monologue, Cain fell to one knee. He tried to keep himself up, but he buckled under the dehydration.

Only with his remaining strength did he finally call out for help, help from anyone.

"Water... need... water...."

"Water, you say? I have some here, part of my lunch my brother gave me."

(Haha! We're imagining things now! Haha! Wait... why can I hear your hallucinations... I'm not crazy, am I?)

Cain jolted his head; standing beside him was a tall man. He was blocking out the light of the moons and held a water bottle in his hand.

"For... me?"

"Sure, you should always give to the needy. I feel bad for you guys."

Cain took the water bottle and greedily drank from it, emptying the bottle in seconds.

With newfound energy, he stood up and bowed to the mysterious man.

"Thank you for saving me."

The man laughed, shaking his head, "Oh no, it's my pleasure. I have to give it to you guys, traveling through the desert just to get here is a truly amazing feat. Not many make it this far."

"This... far?"

Cain leaned and peered past the man; behind him was a kiosk?

"What the hell?"

"Oh, my kiosk? Yeah, I installed it recently; the heat has been getting bad. My brother had all the night shifts so I had to do something for when I stand here in the day."

"Just who are you?"

The man chuckled, "Me? I'm Davis, the doorman for the City Of Dreams! Well, I guess it's kind of like a door, maybe more of a pharmacist maybe?"

"What?!"

(What?)