"Terra, you still mean a lot to me." I declared, reaching out but stopping just short of grabbing her massive arm.

"My purpose was the be a guardian," Terra continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I wanted to protect those that I loved, but everyone that I loved ended up dying. I might have eventually taken down that clockwork dragon with your help, but it didn't change the fact that I had woken up in a world that had passed me by. I was a guardian without anything to guard."

"Everything doesn't fall on you." I defended. "You don't need to hold the weight of the world."

"Shouldn't I?" She turned around and gave me a blatant look. "I'm Gaia's avatar, remember? Maybe I need to hold the world on my shoulders."

I reached to grab her this time, but she stepped away, lowering her head. "Terra… what is this really about?"

"I'm not like the other girls," she said. "I'm not bisexual, and I don't like the idea of a harem. I… get jealous when I see you with the other girls, and I want you all to myself."

I opened my mouth, but then closed it again, biting my lip. What was I supposed to say? I knew that it wasn't fair to expect everyone to share. Jealousy was always an inevitability of such a relationship. I had always taken it for granted that the girls were so amendable. I had wanted to spend time getting to understand the girls and their individual needs more, but it always felt like one thing after another came up and I never had the time to do it.

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"I'm sorry." I finally responded. "I love you, and I want to give you the time you deserve."

"You're not the problem!" She cried out. "I am!"

"How can that be?"

"Look at me!" She stomped her foot, causing the ground to rumble slightly. "I failed to be the guardian I was supposed to be. However, you didn't need me to be a guardian. All you wanted was my love, and so I gave you my heart and my body because it was the only thing that gave me purpose. Now, I've even failed at that! Not only can we not be intimate with each other, but my jealousy has kept you from being intimate with the other girls."

"They're fine with it. They don't blame you." I tried to cut in.

"I blame me!" She yelled. "I should have just died down there in the deep. My body was yours, and I gave it up for you, and that should have been the end of me."

"Don't say that…"

"It's true… this body isn't me!" She hit her arms. "I'm not me anymore! If I'm no longer myself, then what am I?"

"Terra… you're still you."

"I'm not… I'm this… freakish golem…"

"Your soul can't be so easily changed. Your lore can't be so easily reproduced." I declared, stepping toward her. "You're my Terra, and no one else can be you."

"Y-you're wrong…" She took another step back. "Just look at me!"

"I am!" I declared, gesturing down next to her. "I see you, and this is how I see you."

She had backed up until she was right next to the pond. When she looked down, she looked like the same small girl she had always looked like. She looked like my Terra.

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