A pair of lights flickered in a deep hungry void. Striped from their body and mind, confused and alone, and lost without a sense of connection to one reality.
"It shouldn't have been your time," a feminine voice called from beyond, somewhere outside of the void they were trapped in, "I can't return your old lives, if I could, you wouldn't be in this situation... But... Once you are free, you can start again."
The two souls weren't truly awake enough to understand, but the voice soothed them... And yet they still felt a need to cling onto life, even with it ripped from them.
---
The black kitsune paused, it didn't have the presence of mind to understand why, just an instinctual reaction to something happening it didn't understand. The sources of life were all getting further away from it, and something within her was stirring... And then there was the wind that was slowing it down no matter which way it went.
It suddenly jumped out of the way as a metal food cart flew towards it, which barely nicked its feet, putting it off balance as a sudden strike of lightning flooded its senses, and she felt something splitting her in half even as it filled her with energy.
It suddenly looked around, sensing her sudden loss of a tail, and seeing the severed limb still moving as if alive as it snaked away from the kitsune.
With its senses dulled, it dived after the tail, only to be slammed into the side of a building by something that burned its fur, her sight and smell suddenly overwhelmed by bluish-green flames.
Myra stood, watching. The animated corpse crumbling in on itself as sparks of light were released from its body, its face suddenly froze as it cracked open like stone, leaving a skeleton turning to dust in the wind beneath it.
In the end, the false life it was granted wasn't enough for it to put up a fight, and its body didn't even retain the same power it had in life as its own soul had left it when it died, as had that of all the souls it had tried to gather when it was alive.
Thoughts like those would be going through Myra's head, if not for her regrets. That she didn't keep her body with her at all times, that she couldn't crush it the moment it awakened, even if its rampage was short as it was. She closed her eyes, not sure if she was willing herself to cry in mourning, or willing herself not to.
"Need someone to share your regrets with?" a voice near her said. Myra looked around, and saw a transparent golden glowing figure, shaped like a dragon and looking rather sad. "I'm as much to blame for this as you are Myra... Maybe more so, since this wouldn't have happened if my regrets didn't send me back here."
Myra looked at the seeming projection and sighed. "Its no use trying to cheer me up... Regrets you say... I've been regretting that I couldn't save her from herself for longer than most can remember. Even if I let you take responsibility for this, I'll always be haunted by the last time this happened," she put on a false smile, "and I certainly wouldn't want someone else to burden themselves with my own regrets, especially if they have enough of their own."
"Would you like to make up for some of your mistakes then?" the dragon spirit said, "I can't return lost souls to their old lives, I think a stronger god would be needed for that... but its not like the dead are afraid to start again, they tend to prefer rebirth over the alternatives."
Myra blinked. "Are you..." She shook her head, "that should be impo-"
"You keep saying that lately," the dragon said, somewhat exasperated, "are you sceptical of reincarnation or something? I would have thought you'd be used to the idea Myra, given your origin."
Myra found herself taken aback, and somewhat frightened of the figure before her, only now beginning to sense a brief flash of the power she was hiding. "I... I just have too many years without seeing any sign of such things... But you're right... Already so much has happened that seemed impossible, I should stop being surprised."
The ghostly looking dragon sighed. "I'd like to be more composed about this as well, I shouldn't be snapping at you," she said. She looked down at the severed tail that was splitting open, releasing a pair of small glimmering lights that rose to her hand, as well as a small spark of energy that materialized from the air to join them. "They'll need a mother to carry them into their new lives, but I can set the spark of life in motion if nothing else."
Myra sighed. "Seems as good a way as any to make amends... Thank you," she said, "if only I could have met you back then... Maybe we could have done the same for her last victims as well."
The dragoness shrugged pressing the two souls and the spark against Myra's belly. "I'm certain they've been born again as well. Maybe one day you'll recognize one," she said, her form disappearing into the winds, "just as I'm sure we'll meet again as well."
"Who are you by the way? I didn't catch your name," Myra said.
"I have a longer title, but just think of me as Simone's future..." she said, only her head remaining, "oh... Before I forget, I'm not sure how the kids will look once they're born... I'm not sure if they'll take after you, me, their last body, or a mix... Not even sure if they'll have their own bodies or have to share one... Maybe even share it with the soul of the child you would have had." Her head finally disappeared, though her sudden fit of chuckles continued to sound out in the wind even with nothing visible for Myra to see her speaking from.
Myra felt a smile cross her face. "Cheeky… And likes the sound of her own voice... Almost reminds me of myself when I was..." She shook her head and turned, looking for the two corpse statues that had been left behind.
---
The eyes of one of the recently deceased statues suddenly flickered open, her mind started to think again, but she couldn't feel anything. No fear, no joy... Just... Existence, not quite like that of a machine, her mind was her own... But she was missing the spark of life, vitality, identity... She was... Empty?
This didn't disturb her, she just sat up, feeling a drive to serve her master, even in death. A few words came to mind for her new state, and for some reason she settled on 'zombie'. It was a fitting descriptor, though if it wasn't for her lack of soul, she might have argued that it sounded a bit more gross than she looked. She didn't care though, so long as master Curt approved.
… It wasn't long though before some stray fragment of memory reminded her of things... That Curt would rather she get a soul of her own, though she didn't know how to get one... And that everyone in the city needed to evacuate, and that Curt might even still care for her own safety as well, even if she wasn't alive.
She suddenly realized she was staring at a couple of cat girls... one was while, and covered in glowing blue runes that looked like they were carved into her body, and who's tail was beginning to split at the end. The other looked more like a childlike Russian blue, her body held together with tape, and her eyes looked just as empty as she felt.
"Do you remember who you are?" the runed cat-girl said, "I was a guardian statue up until a moment ago, and she says she got her soul sucked out by some monster... I'm guessing you're like her?"
She nodded. "My name... Might have been Mack, it might have been Mindy... And now I'm nobody, just their memories."
"You don't sound as lifeless as you look," the guardian cat said.
"Loosing a soul didn't make me forget how to act like a normal person," Mindy said, "logically speaking, its less unnerving that way... But that's besides the current situation, we should help with the evacuation, we do live to serve after all."
The guardian cat sighed. "I suppose serving in death isn't out of the question either... Anyways, I'm sure lady Myra has some work for us with everything going on."
"Oh, good of you to volunteer," Myra's voice called from behind them, "but I'd be more relieved if I knew these two weren't going to go on a rampage like... The last one did."
"I do not hunger like she did," Mindy said, "I don't feel any emotions or drives."
The zombie cat girl nodded in agreement, silent. Which made Myra raise an eyebrow. "Can you speak?"
The little girl just shook her head slowly, and pointed at a bit of duct tape that was holding her head to her body.
"Um, lady Myra," the guardian cat said, "I feel I should apologize for abandoning my post... I should have stayed and protected the area, but its clear that this is an emergency."
Myra rubbed her head. "Its fine, and there's not much time for apologies… And before I forget, I should get back to my collection, who knows what else has awakened there."
Just then, there was a call on her phone.
---
The Amazonian Puma stood indoors, where the wards the young dragoness had put up after Myra ran after the corpse of her daughter were strongest. Her own tail was beginning to split, and the cobra woman had grown a jewel in her head, but those seemed like trivial changes.
"Lady Myra, all the statues seem to have finished animating," the puma lady said, "A few are living stone or metal, and a few more are full flesh... But a few of the others... They seem... Empty. They're just as helpful as the others though."
She pulled her ear away as she heard Myra making an audible cry of mixed feelings between relief and frustration.
"... The good news is they're not regressing while exposed to the elements like some of the messages have been saying has been happening to everyone else," she continued, "so, we told them they should help pack up and prepare for us to leave."
"Of course they're not aging backwards," Myra said, "they're dead."
"... That's... Raising the dead doesn't sound like something Curt would do if he could help it," the Puma said, "you think they'll grow out of it?"
Myra sighed over the other end. "Given how many impossible things happened today, I wouldn't say no, but they're certainly not going to be the same people they were before they died. They don't have a soul, so they're going to have to grow a new one... Just make sure none of them try to take one from someone else."
"I'll do that," the Puma said, watching as a medium sized zombie dragoness walked on all fours towards a van they'd found, carrying the last of the supplies they couldn't leave behind. "I'll talk to you later, we're just about done here."
---
Far away, in a distant land, a small Kitsune child in a maid's dress twirls around. She suddenly stops, as if sensing something. A wave of shame and regret suddenly overtakes her, and she doesn't know why; tears streaking down her face.
An unfamiliar name comes to her lips unbidden, "Myra," she said, "I'm sorry".
She wipes her tears from her eyes with a handkerchief, and soon the unfamiliar phrase she said is pushed from her mind and forgotten as soon as it arose. Dismissed as a flight of fancy, right before she begins to tend to the garden.
Her parents had taught her she needed to protect life, even if it was as short lived as a flower... A far cry from a power hungry girl lost to time, in another life.